Chapter Text
Leo really hated this section of the sewers. Someone, way back when the original pipes were being laid, had decided a nice, neat grid shape was too much effort, so the tunnels were an impossible maze. Sure, that’d come in handy if the brothers ever had to leave the lair in an emergency, but that wasn’t an issue. Casey knew better than to spill the location, and April wasn’t easy to follow.
The big mutant was hard to track from just footsteps. If he hadn’t been splashing every few steps, Leo would have had to turn around to see what was going on. The blue leader was halfway convinced the giant was doing it on purpose, given how regularly the splashes happened.
Mikey was humming some kind of pop song quietly as they walked. The one time Leo turned around to check on his brothers, he saw a large grin on the biggest guy’s face. The expression dropped as soon as he knew he was being watched. Just before they entered the lair, Leonardo stopped, turning to face the newcomers.
“Some ground rules,” he announced. “Number one: don’t break our stuff. Number two: don’t wander off. Number three: you’ll be in the main area until I say so. Any questions?” He inwardly grimaced as the big guy raised an eye ridge. Great, the newcomer doesn’t like rules.
“Got any blankets or something so I can set everyone down?” the giant asked. Leo felt his mind relax. Not an issue.
“Yes, we do. We’ll have them right out,” he replied. The giant nodded calmly.
“Cool, then we’re good. I’d rather not tell you my name right now, but you can call me Red,” he offered, walking in behind Leo and placing the human boy down on their only couch. After a beat, the girl placed down the rodent mutant. Red turned back to face Leo with the two turtle mutants still in his grasp. Donnie and Mikey vanished into the lab to set down the injured turtle mutant. Mikey reappeared after a moment.
“Do NOT go in there,” he said loudly, a little jittery from being chased out by the medic. After a beat, the orange ninja registered Red properly. Apparently Mikey hadn’t been paying attention earlier while helping carry the injured one in. Leo watched as his youngest brother screeched like a banshee and leapt behind Raph. Red tilted his head.
“Blankets?” Red prompted gently. For a fleeting moment, Leo had the thought that Red sounded like he was talking to kids. Or so used to talking to kids that he was running on autopilot. Leo nodded stiffly.
“Blankets. Mikey, Raph, do you guys wanna go get him some?” Leo almost missed Red blinking in surprise before schooling his expression. Once again, the giant mutant tilted his head to the side while watching Mikey. The orange and red ninjas weren’t gone long. They returned with an armful of blankets each. Mikey had apparently gotten over his temporary fear in record time.
He jogged right to Red’s side, splaying out one of the blankets and waiting for Red to set one of the unconscious mutants down. Strangely, Red used one of his broad feet to touch the material first. He seemed to weigh something in his mind before setting down a dark green mutant with purple stripes and a purple mask. Red grabbed another blanket with his now empty hand. The massive mutant gently used the blanket and two more after to create a slight wall around the mutant. For the finishing touch, Red set the last blanket Mikey had grabbed over the mutant, cocooning it. He repeated the process with Raph’s armload of blankets for the final mutant. The human girl watched patiently for Red to be finished.
“Hey, you guys got anything to drink? I’m parched.” Mikey turned and grinned widely at her.
“Well, hello,” he greeted. “We got plenty to drink. Hope you like water!” The orange ninja moved into the kitchen to grab the human a cup and some filtered water to drink. With a loud clack of scales on cement, Red sat down with none of the grace he’d been carrying himself with.
Mikey returned, handing the girl the cup with some kind of fancy gesture. She grinned widely before gulping down the water faster than Leo had ever thought possible for a human. Red raised an eye ridge. “Thirsty?” He received only a cheeky grin from the girl. Leo pulled a chair closer, sitting down to wait with their guests.
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Raphael didn’t know what to think about these strange new mutants. He didn’t want to give them the slightest chance to attack, but the giant guy was just sitting next to the couch. Every so often, Red’s long tail would swish across the floor before the mutant would curl it back around himself. He could hear Donnie’s keyboard clacking from the lab, Mikey shuffling around in the kitchen, and even Leo’s thoughts. Well, not really.
He was currently farther back in the lair, closer to Splinter’s room than the pile of strangers. He wasn’t as willing as Leo apparently was to have these unknown mutants in their lair, but Leo had made a call. Or rather, Donnie had. Stupid medics and their medic’s orders. The clatter of scales was starting to become grating. There was no real rhythm. Roughly once a minute, the mutant would run his tail across the floor, and the tail would inevitably hit something. Granted, the mess wasn’t his fault. And granted, the mess shouldn’t have been allowed to get that bad. The noise was still grating. Cans and boxes would get knocked into each other as the tail moved. Raphael had just made up his mind to go kick the junk out of the way when the human boy sat up noiselessly.
Glowing green dots swept across the lair. The human was still alarmingly silent. His gaze landed briefly on Red, who was still seated and calm. Red made a low, quiet rumbling noise that made even Raphael feel calmer for a moment. This was apparently some kind of signal. With absolutely no noise, the human sat back more comfortably. Raph watched the green eye lights fade back to black, though he didn’t believe for a second the boy had fallen asleep. Leonardo had noticed as well, being considerably closer than the red warrior.
“So, does he have a name?” Leo faux whispered to Red. The massive mutant glanced upward with a firmly neutral expression.
“Yeah, CJ,” he said. Leo didn’t look impressed. Any thoughts he was having, he kept to himself.
“Let us know if CJ gets hungry. We’ve got enough to share.” A blatant lie. They barely had enough for themselves for the night, let alone seven others. Red’s tail tip flicked up and down rapidly, but Red himself stayed silent. At some point, Mikey must have gone to the surface and hunted down some spare food, because the smallest of the ninjas entered from the main tunnel, holding two large grocery bags in his hands. He vanished once more into the kitchen while Raph blinked in surprise and worry. When had he left? How had he missed seeing him go? Was it the fault of these invaders?! Yes, yes it was, he decided. If he hadn’t been so focused on the newcomers, he’d have been watching Mikey better. For sure.
Raph felt his temper rising. First, they forced him to play backup babysitter because Leo obviously needed help with them. Then they made him not pay attention to Mikey, who went topside! What if he’d been seen? Or followed! He wanted them out as soon as they’d all woken up. He wasn’t a monster; they could stay until everyone was able to walk on their own.
Raph realized he’d been caught in his thoughts for far too long. This realization came too late to be of any assistance. He had just re-focused his eyes on the happenings as the small rodent mutant woke up with the most violent response to being surrounded by strangers anyone could possibly have. A long, thin, strong tail whipped him across the face, and he hit the floor with a thud. Leo was already downed. Yet another reason to loathe these intruders, Raph snarled to himself.
With a fluid motion, he surged to his feet. “That’s enough!” he bellowed. He pulled his sai off his belt. In the same breath, he lunged forward, intent on tackling the rodent and teaching it a lesson. He didn’t expect Red to collide head-first with his side, throwing him off course violently. Red hissed, beak wide open and his one sharp fang gleaming in the dim light. Raph snarled back, turning and swiping his leg to knock the larger mutant to the ground. Red rolled, springing forward with his hand’s claws angled towards Raph’s plastron.
Raph countered by swiping with one of his sai. Red hissed again and rolled in the air to let his shell catch the sharp weapon’s blow. The two stood, circling each other for a few precious seconds. Red was standing in a manner that accentuated his height and width, tail swiping violently across the floor as he kept the steady hiss going. Raph twirled his sai to add a bit of an intimidation factor to himself, leaning forward and bracing himself for the next attack.
The attack never came. Raph stumbled as something collided with the back of one of his knees. Red similarly was forced to back off when Leo threw himself towards the fray, sword drawn. The large mutant was hesitant to try to force his way past. He had no beef with the blue ninja. Raph looked to see what had forced him down. The human girl was holding her baseball bat, a firm scowl on her face.
“You’re done,” she said. Her tone left no room for argument. Raph snorted as he rose to his feet. Whatever, he was wanting to go check on Mikey anyways. He didn’t need to be here anymore. (He was lying to himself, he didn’t want to leave Leo alone as more of them woke up, but he really wanted to make sure Mikey was okay.) Besides, Red was once again swishing his tail next to the couch, and enough junk had slid back into place that the awful noises had started up again, so this was a good enough excuse to take off.
He left rapidly, slamming the door behind himself. Raph’s exit led to him missing several things. The introduction of “Lou”, Donnie thundering out of his lab to threaten everyone still present with a full checkup, and the smallest mutant starting to wake up.