Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was a simple night in New York city, a quiet gentle breeze drowned out by the loud bustling noises of cars and pedestrians. After all, this was the city that never slept. However, nothing was quite simple in New York, not at all.

In a world where things like mutants and yokai exist, Michelangelo Hamato knew better than to expect ‘normal’.

So what happens when they stumble across an interdimensional portal, a masked superhero and a vigilante with dry sarcasm? They certainly weren’t expecting romance, that’s for sure.

{Michelangelo Hamato - The Sun}

There were too many things happening. Just a few months, Mikey couldn’t almost believe that they’d been so close to dying, so close to the point where if they extended their hand, they might as well be pressing on a transparent pane of magic that separated the living and dead. Just a few months ago, Mikey and their siblings were successful in defeating the Kraang, albeit with terrible consequences.

Mikey was worried their consequences were permanent. Their hands kept shaking, kept racking because the magic that flowed through them - when they attempted and had succeeded in saving Leo - was just too much. Draxum was finding a cure, but it all seemed hopeless.

Of course, Leo felt terrible that his little sibling had almost sacrificed themself trying to save him. That he was the reason Mikey’s hands were cracking and glowing with uncontrollable power. Mikey always assured him it was never Leo’s fault and if given the chance, they’d do it again.

While Mikey hated having to put off from doing their favourite hobbies, such as drawing in their sketchbooks and cooking, they’d found another new hobby. One that was more carefree and more accessible for their shaking hands. 

Mikey found a new hobby in spray-painting.

Now, it started off a little small, nothing much. Mikey had found some spray cans lying around and curiously tried it out. They realized with happiness that it didn’t require any precision nor practice.

So they started doing it more, painting more alleyways, putting up their artwork for any passerby who happened to see. Mikey found that if they ever felt like combusting from overstimulation, they’d simply put on their disguise (A black jacket with no sleeves, their protective mask and a dark beanie) and leave the lair with a bag of spray cans (They’d gotten more with Leo’s permission). Obviously, it’d send Raph into a panic because Mikey always leaves without a note.

Today was no exception.

Mikey had left the lair around 8PM that night, because they’d woken up in a sweat. It was the same horrific dream. The dream where Mikey wasn’t quick enough, wasn’t powerful enough to open that portal. The dream where Mikey had failed to save Leo and had left their older brother at the mercy of the Kraang. They knew Leo would never blame them if he ever died sacrificing himself, but Mikey’s brain was cruel enough to make them imagine Leo being dead, resentful and blaming Mikey for not being strong enough to save him. That it was their fault.

Mikey had gotten out of their bed, kicked into auto-pilot mode as they pulled on a black jacket and grabbed their duffle bag. They leave their room, silent as the night and pass by the vacant rooms of their siblings. Mikey makes sure to be extra quiet when they pass Aminah and Donnie’s room, because both siblings had heightened senses so if Mikey were to make a sound, it’d set off an alarm in their brain.

When Mikey makes it out of the lair, they breathe in the fresh, but cold night air of the city. It’s relieving for Mikey to be able to stretch their legs out for a bit.

Mikey shoulders their duffle bag and climbs up the sides of the building. They were going to have to get a headstart on their run if they wanted to finish a mural early.

{Raine Wilson - The Moon}

Owls were considered one of the wisest and oldest of all birds. Raine was just offended that xe didn’t mutate into one when xe did.

Now, Raine didn’t really consider xirself to be wise or old at that. No, xe was only 16 years old. Xe wouldn’t consider that to be old or wise at all. But Raine knew more than the average New Yorker. Oh how oblivious the New York pedestrians were to the wackiness that truly was New York city, Raine would think. Although it wasn’t their fault they were oblivious. Raine’s seen how the people had reacted when that whole invasion thing (Seriously, aliens? Xe had not seen that coming) happened just a few months ago. 

Xe dreaded to think how they’d truly react once they realized that a whole other species lived among them. It wasn’t a pretty thought, overall.

Before Raine got mutated (It was a painful process, to be frank, 0 out of 10, no stars for rating), xe had xir life planned out, even if xe was the young age of 14. Do good in school, get a scholarship, go into an Ivy League college, graduate with honors and continue on Mother’s legacy. A simple, but thought-out plan, of course. That was before Raine was mutated. 

After that happened, xe didn’t know what to do with xir life. Not until Ryder (Their caretaker) offered up a suggestion. While xe will never admit this, Raine was absolutely grateful Ryder had suggested spray-painting.

It was messy on Raine’s first try and xe’d gotten xir favourite sweater ruined for nothing. Eventually though, xe got the hang of it and soon poured xir thoughts and heart into the art.

It became one mural, then two murals, then three. Raine kept vomiting mural after mural in all of New York’s alleyways. And xe beamed with absolute pride when people started noticing xir artwork.

It became a routine for xir after that.

Get ready at 5 or 6PM, tell Ryder that xe’s going out, pack up necessities (Which include spray cans, headphones, phone, phone charger, powerbank and xir wallet) and leave the apartment for a good 4 hours to vomit whatever artwork Raine was going to do.

Raine rushes to get ready, hitting the snooze button for the alarm that signals xir that it was the time to go out. Xe tugs on xir binder, making sure to fasten it correctly (If xe didn’t, Raine was going to get an earful from Ryder and Usagi about not binding safely) before throwing on an undershirt over it. Then xe slips into a sleeveless turtleneck before slipping on a simple black jacket and ties the hood strings together so the jacket could slip off xir shoulders and let xir wings get comfortable.

Raine packs a small bag with the things xe needed, swiping it all into xir bag. Then xe zips it up and snatches xir phone and xir duffle bag before hopping out of the bedroom.

“Ryder, Usagi, I’m going out!” Xe yells into the apartment.

“M’kay, stay safe!” Ryder yells in reply.

“Don’t let the cops get you this time!” Usagi shouts.

Raine suppresses an eye roll, instead settling for a scoff. Biting xir phone between xir teeth, Raine slips xir feet into xir shoes and steps out onto the fire escape. 

With a deep breath, Raine jumps and flies away into the cold night of New York.

{Miles Morales - The Eclipse}

The song played through his earbuds as Miles sketched away on his notebook. Quite frankly, he was supposed to be doing his essay for his English class, but one thing led to another and he’d gotten distracted overall. Now his page was covered in doodles that had no real meaning to them. He’d draw a flower, then he’d draw a skull. Then he’d draw a bee, then he’d draw a dog. There was no flow or rhythm to his sketching, he let his mind flow.

It’s been doing that lot recently, he notes quietly.

It’d been almost a year since he’d defeated King Pin and had helped send his interdimensional friends back to their home dimensions. Almost a year since he became Spider-Man and a year since… well, since Uncle Aaron died.

Miles grips his pencil at the thought.

Very little times did he find himself thinking about his now-dead uncle and whenever he did, there were always mixed feelings. But eventually, those mixed feelings were easily drowned out with the feeling of grief and mourning because at the end of the day, Uncle Aaron was Uncle Aaron whether or not he’d been revealed to be a bad guy (Could Miles really label him as a bad guy? He couldn’t, could he?).

Miles’ phone pings with a notification and he lets his mind slip away from Uncle Aaron as he pushes his roller chair over to the bedside table where his phone was charging.

He smiles when he sees it’s a text from Gwen.

‘U doing schoolwork??’ is her text.

A long time ago, Miles had liked Gwen, romantically. It’d grown over the duration of their time spent together, but eventually, Gwen had made it clear that she wasn’t interested and as much as Miles was crushed at the rejection, he was glad she was able to set her opinion straight. Maybe it was all of the highschool rom-com getting to his head, but he didn’t enjoy the concept of girls toying with his feelings. Yeah, now that he thought of it, maybe it was the highschool rom-com getting to his head.

‘Nahh, started drawing :p’ He types in reply.

‘Damn, wonder how u even got in2 that skl’ Gwen sends a chain of laughing emojis to which Miles rolls his eyes at.

‘I got in bc I’m smart, u had 2 literally scam ur way in >:/’ Miles cheekily texts back.

‘Ohh, ur gonna pay 4 that’ Gwen replies.

Then his alarm goes off and Miles turns it off with a swipe of his thumb. He’d set an alarm earlier to notify him when it was time for his night patrol, which was set to be at 7 that night.

‘Gtg now, I have patrol’ Miles shoots the text to Gwen and waits for her reply.

‘K, stay safe, Miles’ She sends a couple of thumbs-up emojis. He smiles softly and switches his phone off.

Miles gets ready for his night shift, taking off his clothes and leaving only his underwear on. He took off his binder and tossed it into the laundry bin before slipping into his suit. He grimaces a bit at how cold the suit feels when it touches his skin. Remind him to build a heater into this goddamn ice sweater.

Quietly, Miles switches off all of the lights and leaves his lamp off. Then he quickly scribbles a note to his roommate that he sticks onto the lamp, saying he’s out on patrol and asks if Ganke could make him some instant noodles if he came back.

Miles tugs on a coat and grabs his mask and his packed bag before sliding the window open. Shivering, he steps out into the cold crisp air of the New York night and clings onto the wall before gently easing the window shut with his foot. He climbs up the wall and onto the roof where he tosses his bag over and crouches down to unzip it and rummage through its contents.

Obviously, he’d packed his phone, his charger and his power bank. There were the occasional spray cans he kept in there as well. Miles might feel like vomiting his art up on some alleyway whenever he was out on patrol. He’ll just have to keep it simple though, anything too elaborate and obviously the cops will be on his case, not to mention the rants his dad will go on about.

Miles chuckles at the thought. Quietly, he accounts everything in its rightful spot before zipping the bag back up and shouldering it.

Then, with a running start, he leaps off the roof and thwips his way through the bustling city that is New York.

Chapter Text

Mikey

Mikey should’ve known something would go wrong. Nothing ever goes not wrong.

It started off odd. Now, when Mikey had first acquired the glowing cracks in their hands, they’d experienced sudden bursts of power at the most randomest of times. It spooked Mikey because they never knew when it’d happen and whenever it did, they couldn’t control it.

Aminah tried to heal their predicament, using her Hamato ninpo to try and magically heal them, but it never worked. Mikey never liked how Aminah always looked frustrated and disappointed whenever her powers failed to work.

Mikey is spray-painting an alleyway that’s already been spray-painted before. It’s obvious though it’d been graffitied a long time ago, judging from how the previous drawing was beginning to fade a bit, so they painted over it. They’re sure the original artist wouldn’t mind. If they did, they would’ve come back to retouch the old mural.

Mikey shakes a spray can they’d plucked from their duffle bag, stepping back to study the mural. They eye which spot could be improved, which place could use a bit more colour and which swirl of colour needed to be touched up. 

Mikey works like a tornado.

Their arms move at a fast pace as they swap spray can after spray can, painting spot after spot and once Mikey stops moving around so much, they smile because the mural is now perfect to their eyes. They don’t really know the meaning behind this new mural. Mikey just painted what was on their mind and they know for a fact that their mind and their thoughts were a jumble of colours and swirls that made no sense, but were appealing to look at.

Mikey tosses the spray can they’re holding into the duffle bag as they step back even further, smile growing as they study the mural.

“Well I’ve certainly outdone myself.” They declare, putting their hands on their hips as Mikey beams proudly.

Mikey spies a glance at their phone for a quick moment. It was currently only 9, almost 10PM, which meant Mikey needed to get a headstart back to the lair. While their siblings did mostly sleep like absolute babies during the night, they also had the tendency to wake up at random times and Mikey doesn’t know who’s gonna potentially wake up and go to their room in search for the second-youngest Hamato.

Mikey begins to pack up when it happens.

At first, it started off small, almost unnoticeable or dismissable. 

Their fingers begin to twitch and Mikey suppresses the pain that begins to build up on each muscle. Mikey easily dismisses it however. This happened on a daily basis and while it worried their other siblings (Especially Raph), the pain was almost comfortable. But then, the twitching eventually evolves into erratic spasming and Mikey grunts in pain as their palms begin to ache and their fingers feel as if they were on fire.

‘It’s never done that before…’ Mikey frowns and curls and uncurls their hands, only to regret it when pain strikes through.

“Stop it…” They hiss, trying to stop the spasming but it’s futile because the spasming turns into shaking and now, Mikey feels tears beginning to build up. They refuse to cry though, Mikey could definitely fix this. They definitely could, they had to!

The pain increases and maybe at that point, Mikey should’ve known they couldn’t fix this before it all blew up.

The cracks glow and there’s the tingling sensation. Mikey almost cries out in pain, had they not bit down on their tongue and they suppress their yells and whimpers.

What was happening? Why were their hands hurting so badly? Why was their ninpo acting up?!

All of a sudden (And against their very own will), Mikey’s arms force them to thrust outward and Mikey watches in pain, in fear and in shock as their hands grip invisible edges that push in opposite directions. Suddenly, a portal is ripped open but it’s an odd one. It glitches and there are multiple voices that make Mikey’s head hurt. This wasn’t their portal. What was it then?

Mikey realizes too late and when they do, their screams fade into the bustling noise of the New York night as Mikey gets sucked into the portal and away from everything they knew.

// ( ~----~ ) \\

It’s not a pleasant trip down the portal, Mikey finds. 

It was awfully bumpy and nothing like Leo’s portals. Mikey felt as if they were rocketing inside of a hurricane, except this was probably ten times worse than a hurricane.

Leo’s portals are smooth and straight to the point, with only the occasional seasickness (Portal-sickness?) they’d get. Leo’s portals are the comforting soft electric blue and often took little to no time at all to get from one destination to another.

This portal was terrible. It was nothing short of the smoothness Leo’s portals had, it wasn’t straight to the point and Mikey might as well hurl from how many times they’re spinning around uncontrollably. This portal wasn’t the comforting colour of their brother’s portals, no, it was a jumble of bright colours and big black spots that has Mikey’s brain thrumming with aching pain. And finally, this portal was absolutely taking its time to churn Mikey from one place to another.

The voices Mikey heard when they ripped open the portal are louder now that they’re inside of the portal and it’s overwhelming.

They plummet through the portal, bumping into things Mikey couldn’t see and the pain just keeps coming and coming. Then, Mikey finally breaks through something and they’re sure they’re falling into oblivion… Until Mikey comes in solid contact with concrete.

“AGH SHIT!” They all but screamed. If Raph were here, he’d pamper Mikey while also scolding them for the use of improper language.

The pain shoots through their nervous system and Mikey can’t stop the tears that begin to roll down their eyes. It hurt so much, way too much. This was more pain than they could bear, it was an absolute miracle Mikey was still alive. 

They wouldn’t be surprised if they saw blood, to be honest.

Mikey attempts to roll off their back, pain doubling as they did so, and they struggle to stand to their feet. Mikey blinks the black dots out of their vision and forces themselves not to hurl when bile begins to build up in their throat. 

The flashing lights around them did not help ease the dull pain that pools into Mikey’s brain and it aches a lot. New York’s flashy buildings tend to never help ease pain, especially headaches. Mikey really needed to get their shit together, go home and-.

Wait a minute. Where were they exactly?

Mikey stops thinking for a moment and they basically force their eyes to open fully as they look around in a panic. 

Obviously, they’re still in New York. No other city was as bustling as New York itself. 

The lights were bright, there was the loud conversation of pedestrians down at the streets and there were the sounds of engines and horns from vehicles alike driving down the roads.

But, at the same time, they weren’t in New York. This wasn’t New York, no it couldn’t be. Mikey didn’t like the feeling as if they were misplaced.

Oh god, what’d they done? Where the hell had that portal spat them out!?

Mikey couldn’t help but vomit.

Raine

Raine never knew what to expect whenever xe went out on their daily routine of graffiting the alleyways of New York. Falling into a portal, however, was not one of them.

“Purple, please.” Raine instructs a small league of paper cranes, eyes not leaving the mural xe was currently finishing up. Raine had started the mural yesterday night, so xe’s putting on the final touches.

“Thank you.” Xe says as the league of cranes dutifully bring xir a spray can of purple paint.

There’s the rattling sound of the can as Raine shakes it up and down before using it. Spreading xir wings, Raine slowly hovers up and off the ground, wings beating softly as xe precisely sprays a straight line.

“There, that should do it.” Raine decides and flies backwards a bit to admire the now-finished mural.

A smile twitches at xir lips as Raine jokingly says, “Shame my gender and sexuality ain’t that straight.”

The paper cranes quiver, an equivalent to giggling, Raine found out. Raine can’t help but giggle too. The pun was a bit funny, albeit a half-assed one.

Raine tosses the can carelessly into xir bag, zipping it up as xe does so. Spying a look at xir phone, Raine sees that it’s 10PM, stating that it’d been 4 hours already. Time really did fly by when you were having fun, xe supposed.

“Alright, time to go home, ya lil’ pests.” Raine says, although there is no bite behind the nickname. Xe holds out xir hands and the paper cranes obediently unfold themselves until they are just sheets of origami paper once more, like they’d never been used at all.

Raine lets the papers fly into xir hands before xe carefully slides them into a folder. As Raine is about to put the folder away, however, xir senses picked up on an odd sound. It’s a humming sound, like an engine, albeit Raine doesn’t know where it’s coming from.

Xe stands up, frowning a bit and looks around. Nothing near Raine seemed to pinpoint exactly what seemed to be the source of the sound and the humming got louder, which is concerning for Raine.

The half-mutant gets thrown back, all of a sudden, and collides almost painfully against the mural xe’d just finished.

“Fuck!” Xe curses and collapses onto xir knees, clutching xir stomach.

There’s a painful flash of bright light and some unknown force pulls Raine forward. With a cut-off scream, Raine unknowingly is pulled into a portal and nothing is left of xir once xe does.

// ( ~----~ ) \\

Raine’s been portal-travelling before. On multiple occasions, at least, like through the portal to Run of The Mill because Ryder had forgotten his keys, or through the portal down to the Hidden City because Usagi needed to take a quick trip to check on his aunt and his little sister. However, those portal travels were far more mild than what Raine was experiencing now.

There was no rhythm to where Raine was going and the only thing xe knew was that xe was plummeting downward, like someone had shoved xir off an edge and xir wings weren’t able to beat fast enough to let xir fly.

Another thing was that Raine was completely all over the place as xe plummets. One moment, xe’d be upside down. The next moment, xe’d be upright before twisting to be on xir side.

Raine’s screams of pure terror are drowned out against the multiple voices that boom in xir eardrums and if Raine wasn’t already used to loud noises (Mainly music), xe’s sure xir eardrums would’ve positively burst.

There were also so many bursts of colour that it hurt Raine’s eyes to say the least. At one point, Raine had to squeeze xir eyes shut because the colours that danced around xir were becoming way too overwhelming at that rate.

For what felt like an eternity of falling through the portal, Raine comes in solid contact with something that shatters under xir weight. Raine didn’t have time to be offended as such because the random bursts of colour that is the damned portal xe fell into, soon faded into a dark night sky and flashes of more neon colours pop up from below Raine.

There wasn’t time to register the busy noises below Raine before xe’s colliding with a more sturdy material and everything went black.

Miles

Miles frowns when the subway he was taking suddenly churns to a stop and the lights flicker out. Pedestrians stand and begin to panic, some mourning that they needed to be where they needed to be.

Miles looks up from his sketchbook and opens his phone’s flashlight, a gesture that the other New Yorkers copied.

It wasn’t really odd, per se, a power cut in New York wasn’t something to be labeled as such. But what was odd was the timing of it all. It was only 10PM, 3 hours after Miles’s patrol, and normally a power cut like this wasn’t as likely.

Miles doesn’t have time to ponder on it for long because the lights flicker back on. The passengers both cheer and sigh out of relief once the subway gets moving again, so Miles shrugs and opens his sketchbook again.

Nothing much of interest had happened during his patrol, just a few petty fights and maybe a robbery or two, but it was nothing intense of the sort. Miles did end up vomiting his artwork on an alley though, so that was a bonus. Next time he goes on patrol, he’ll bring just a little more than 4 spray cans with him for his next mural.

Miles gets off at his station and walks most of the way back to his school. He takes a turn into a nearby alleyway and looks around before deeming it safe and climbs up the wall of one of the buildings. Once he gets to the roof, his phone rings and he sees that it’s Ganke.

“Hey dude, what’s up?” Miles greets his roommate as he answers the phone.

“Hey, nothing much, you coming back?” Ganke asks in return.

“Yeah, just a couple blocks away. Mind leaving the window open for me?” Miles begins to walk across the roof towards the dorm buildings.

Ganke’s humming vibrates Miles’s phone, “Hmm, after that stunt you pulled on me last week? I think I might let you just freeze out there.”

Miles lets out an offended gasp, but both of them knew that there was no real bite behind the remark.

“Oh, how you wound me, Ganke! After all we’ve been through, betrayal!” Miles dramatically swoons, although no one is around to see it. He’s sure that Ganke can most definitely hear his theatrics, on the other hand.

Ganke scoffs and Miles can somehow hear the roll of the other’s eyes, “If you wanna get back in, it’s either promise me you won’t give me another heart-attack or you go through the main entrance.”

Miles pouts, “You’re so mean to me.”

“Only to you, Miles.” Ganke replies.

“Fine, I’m sorry I jumpscared you last week, even if it was pretty funny (“Was not.” was Ganke’s biting reply) and I promise I won’t give you another heart attack for as long as I can.” Miles dutifully promises and to add emphasis (Although, again, no one could see it), he salutes to the cold night.

“Deal.” Ganke says and there’s some background noise before eventually, Miles hears the click of the window opening and a breeze flies in. Ganke shivers.

“Hurry your ass back here, I’m gonna freeze my legs off.” His roommate grumbles and Miles laughs.

“Thanks man, you’re the best!” Miles grins and hangs up on the call.

He begins to run towards the dorm building, jumping over the ledges and practically flying as he leaped. Once he reaches the dorm building, he thwips a web towards an open window and practically jumps into the dorm. Ganke’s sitting on his bunk, wrapped in a blanket and working on something on his laptop. His roommate gives Miles a pointed look when he senses the other’s presence.

“Jerk.” Ganke says.

“Love ya too, bro.” Miles smiles and finger-guns the other.

Ganke rolls his eyes, but there's the tell-tale smile that tugs at the other’s lips. Miles throws open his closet and quickly takes his suit off, tossing it back into the closet with little to almost no care for it. Already slipped into a pair of sweatpants, he’s fixing another binder he kept in the closet back on when Ganke speaks up.

“Hey, did you experience a power cut on your way back?” His roommate asks.

“Yeah, it happened when I was on the subway.” Miles hums in reply, “Why?”

“Says here that the entire city went black and it was short, but people are panicking over it.”

Miles frowns and stops fixing his binder. He leans back to look at Ganke with a questioning look.

“That’s… weird. NY’s never gone through a blackout all at once before.” Maybe it had before, but right now, it seemed too odd to think of.

“Yeah. Your lamp almost fizzed out too, but I just thought it was overheating.” Ganke points to the lamp on Miles’s desk, the soft glow of the light bulb illuminating little of the dorm room.

“Do they know what caused the black-out?” Miles asks and he grabs a random shirt to tug over his head.

“No, not as of now. They wanna say it’s a terrorist attack, but that’s just bullshit.” Ganke scoffs at the theory and rolls his eyes.

“Damn.” Miles hums, “What do you think caused it?”

“With everything that’s happened so far right here in New York? Too many possibilities.” Ganke shrugs, although he eyes Miles like he was implying Miles was something that happened to New York. Of course, he wasn’t wrong, Miles was technically something that happened to New York, being the new Spider-Man and all.

“Alright, well, Imma sleep tonight. But, tell me if you find anything.” Miles eventually says and he jumps to the top bunk, laying down on the covers.

“Night Miles.” Ganke says.

“Night Ganke.” Miles replies in return.

That night , as he’s falling asleep, Miles makes a mental note to go visit Aunt May tomorrow.

Chapter Text

Miles

That morning, Miles finishes his classes and rushes out of the school building to catch the next subway towards Aunt May’s house.

Last night, the whole blackout thing kept plaguing his mind and his dreams, much to his dismay, had been extremely odd. He's had weird dreams before and Miles supposes it connects with his spider powers, but that alone didn't explain the dreams he had last night. If it already wasn't that odd enough, it was the fact that it kept replaying that singular moment when the blackout happened, only it kept taking him to different places, different points of view. 

The first time it did that, he was falling through what might be a portal? He’s sure he’s seen it before, but Miles can’t quite put a pin on it. But anyway, the vibrant colours of said-portal fade into the midnight sky and pain shoots up and across his spine when he feels something collide on his back.

Miles did not like that first one, safe to say. Although, he can’t say he enjoyed the second one either.

The second time, it took him to an almost familiar surrounding, but nowhere close to where the first one took place in. He doesn't know how he knows it, but he does. He’s plummeting through the same portal as the first one, but there’s a weird feeling on his back, like something was physically attached to him and he wasn’t sure if he was weirded out at the feeling. Anyway, the blinding colours of the portal soon switch to the same midnight sky. But when Miles hits what he thinks is a flat and hard surface, he blacks out.

So, it’s odd to say the least and if Miles didn’t have the answers he needed, maybe Aunt May knew something about it.

Miles has half a mind to knock on the door once he’s at Aunt May’s house. He’s been coming a lot since the past year, to the point where Aunt May just gave him a spare set of keys for whenever he needed to drop in. But Miles found out the hard way to always let Aunt May know that you’re coming beforehand, lest you want a faceful of broom. So he knocks on the door before using his own set of keys.

“Aunt May!” He calls out into the seemingly empty house, “Hey, you home?”

“I’m in the kitchen, Miles!” Aunt May yells in return. Miles spares a glance at the clock and sees that it’s almost 5PM already. Usually the time when Aunt May starts preparing dinner and maybe some scones if she was expecting Miles to come over.

“Mmh, those smell good.” Miles hums as he walks into the kitchen, sniffing the food-smelling air. While Aunt May’s food did smell amazing, it could never top his Mami’s cooking.

Miles reaches for a freshly-baked scone, sitting on a porcelain plate when his hand gets slapped away by Aunt May.

“Don’t touch those unless you’ve washed your hands, young man.” Aunt May says, giving the younger a pointed look when Miles yelps and pouts at Aunt May.

Miles grumbles, but reluctantly shoves off his bag to hang it on a chair before he walks over to the sink to begin washing his hands. He’s grateful though, for Aunt May basically forcing him to be hygienic, because the icky stickiness of the web fluid washes away with ease. He dries his hand with a tea towel and snags a scone from the plate before Aunt May has a chance to swat his hand again. He cheekily sticks out his tongue at the older woman when she turns to give the younger a rather glaring look. He doesn’t take the glare to heart though, he knows Aunt May adores him like he was her own grandchild.

“So, what’s the occasion, kiddo? You texted me at 5 in the morning, asking if you could come to ask me something.” Aunt May asks as Miles sits down on a chair.

“I was gonna ask you if-” Miles narrowly avoids a spatula to the head.

“Swallow then speak.” Aunt May says with a stern look.

Miles swallows his bite and wipes at his mouth. He tries again.

“I was gonna ask you if you had any info on the blackout last night.” He says and takes another bite out of the scone.

“The blackout? Why would you wanna know about that?” Aunt May asks with a frown.

“Just do,” He says with a shrug.

Aunt May hums and stirs the pan, “Well, I suppose I can try to pull up something. But don't be disappointed if I find nothing.”

Miles gives a smile, “Thanks Aunt May.”

“You're welcome, kiddo.” Aunt May smiles in return.

It wasn't until a few hours later did Miles truly found out the situation he’d find himself in.

Mikey

It’s cold and everything hurts. That’s how Mikey’s feeling.

It’s not a good feeling for them, the poor turtle. Every bone in their body is aching badly and Mikey’s head is throbbing painfully. If Mikey hadn’t experienced pain before, the pain they’re feeling right now probably would’ve felt worse, all in all. 

The sun is about to set, sinking into the far horizon and Mikey grimaces because the cold New York night is about to begin. They need to find somewhere to sleep for the night, else they’ll wind up like a turtle-popsicle.

Mikey jumps from roof to roof, painfully, they might add. They’re sure that their shell is cracked because the pain has not faded despite Mikey trying their best to patch themselves up. It was useless, Mikey wasn’t that trained in medicinal stuff. Leo was more talented when it came to medicine and Aminah had her Hamato healing ninpo.

Mikey had neither of those things, unfortunately.

Mikey grunts as they sloppily land on a roof, colliding with the ground. At the rate they’re going, Mikey’s not going to find any suitable place to crash for the night. They groan at the thought.

Mikey’s never loved the cold, to be frank. Except for winter, winter was an exception, especially when it was snowing. But anyway, Mikey’s never been a big fan of the cold. Mainly because the cold was… well, cold. And also because of hibernation, which Donnie tells them is a perfectly normal thing with turtles like them. There was a reason why the lair was crowded with heaters and fans of all sorts.

A gush of wind passes Mikey and they shiver at the cold that breezes past their body. Yep, definitely need to find shelter as fast as they can.

Mikey gets ready to start running again, having to sit down for a bit because the nausea was catching up to them. Mikey starts running and leaps off the roof with a start, making a perfect landing to which they smile with triumph. They do it again and again, repeating the process until Mikey feels pretty winded and by now, the sun’s already gone down and buildings are beginning to light up with bright neon colours.

Mikey’s distracted by the bright colours dancing in their eyes when suddenly, they hear someone shout at them but by then it’s too late and Mikey’s colliding harshly into someone they hadn’t seen.

// ( ~----~) \\

Raine

The first thing Raine thinks when xe wakes up was ‘Fuck this entirely’. The second thing Raine thinks when xe wakes up is ‘Oh god, are my wings broken?’. And finally, the third thing Raine registers when xe wakes up is the coherent thought to yell just as someone runs into them.

“AH!” Xe screams, someone colliding painfully into Raine and they both go tumbling backwards.

By the time they stop and the person that’d collided into Raine goes rolling away, Raine jumps to xir feet to which xe instantly regrets because spots begin to dance in xir eyes and nausea whacks xir in the head like a bat. Raine holds xir head in xir hands as xe groans loudly.

“Ohh fuck, my head!” Xe groaned out, stumbling on xir feet.

“Ohmigosh, ohmigosh, I am so sorry!” A squeaky voice apologizes profusely and Raine can only coherently tell it’s the person who oh-so rudely collided into xir.

Raine scowls as xe lifts xir head from xir hands, “Oi, look where you’re going, piss-hat!”

“I’m so sorry, I-I didn’t see you!!” The squeaky voice apologizes again and when Raine’s vision fully clears, xe had to do a double-take because the person that’d collided into xir was a mutant. Or a yokai, Raine could never tell the difference between the two species.

Still, didn’t matter if the person (Could Raine really call them a person?) was yokai or mutant, they still collided into Raine like some sort of clumsy bull. Raine grumbles.

“Look better next time. Could’a given me a concussion.” Xe grumbles bitterly.

The turtle (Raine’s never met a turtle mutant/yokai before) nervously wrings their hands (Claws??) together. They eye Raine apologetically and Raine just scowls a bit more.

“Genuinely though, so sorry.” They apologize again and Raine resists the urge to roll xir eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, whatevs.” Xe sighs and Raine cracks xir fingers and arms. Xir entire body felt absolutely stiff. Raine looks around as the turtle does too.

Where was xe? This looked like New York, but certainly didn’t at the same time. There were the same streaks of vibrant neon colours, the same noises of pedestrians and vehicles alike, but none of it seemed familiar to Raine. If anything, all of it felt… odd. Misplaced, even. It was either that or Raine was tripping. Xe reckons it’s the first one.

“Hey, y’know where we are?” Raine decides to ask, turning to look at the turtle.

The turtle shakes their head, “No. It looks like New York, but I can’t be sure.”

Raine hums, “Right. You reckon we’re in Jersey?”

The turtle pulls a look, “Oh god, I hope not.”

“Same.”

An uncomfortable silence washes over them and Raine’s starting to feel a bit awkward now, which wasn’t unusual for xir. Xe’s never met this mutant before, so xe’s not sure how to start up a conversation, especially after just snapping at them because they’d run into Raine. Not a good first impression, all in all. Ryder reckons that Raine should make a better first impression when xe meets new people. He lost a tooth that day.

Raine’s eyes wander and xe spots xir bag which was skidded off to the side. So xe walks over and picks it up, shouldering it.

“Welp, uh, it’s been nice meeting ya. Look where you’re going next time, ‘kay?” Raine tells the turtle, looking at them. Xe attempts to give them a smile, but discards the idea. It seemed a little too awkward now to offer a smile, xe literally was just scowling at them just mere minutes ago.

The turtle startles for a moment before eventually smiling a little bit in return, “Uh, yeah. Nice meeting you too. And, yeah, I’ll look where I’m going in the future.”

Raine nods. The turtle nods in return. Raine spins on xir heels and begins to walk away, trying to shake off a feeling of awkwardness. However, halfway through walking away from this strange mutant, Raine slows xir pace. Now that xe really thought about it, where could xe go? This obviously wasn’t the New York Raine knew, so xe had absolutely no way of navigating xir way around here. Even worse, if this wasn’t the New York Raine knew and lived in, did that mean that there was no Hidden City here? Wow, xe had really gotten xirself into a bit of a pickle.

Raine stops in xir tracks and sighs heavily. Xe turns around, spotting the turtle beginning to walk over and Raine flies over to them.

“Hey!” Xe says loudly and the turtle turns around with a start.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare ya,” Raine apologizes, “Look, I know we just met and this may be entirely inappropriate to ask you, but since we’re both lost and this obviously isn’t the New York we’re both used to, might as well help each other out. I’m Raine, by the way.”

The turtle looks skeptical all in all and Raine can’t blame them. I mean, who would trust a random stranger who just so happened to be in the same situation as you were? Eventually though, the turtle smiles.

“Cool. I’m Mikey.”

Donnie

Donnie has an odd habit of waking up. Because of his fucked-up sleep schedule, he finds that he either wakes up at the most ungodliest hours of time or he wakes up and finds out that half of the day is already gone. Either way, weird sleep schedule.

Today seemed to be the latter half of his fucked-up sleep schedule. By the time he wakes up and squints at his clock, the bold purple numbers of 11:32 AM glare back at him and Donnie decides to get up for the day.

He kicks off his covers and sits up with a groan, rubbing his eyes. He grabs his mask and messily ties it on before leaving his bedroom. Stumbling and walking with sleepiness, Donnie sees that the door to Mikey’s bedroom is closed, which means that his younger sibling was most likely asleep still. So he decides to wake Mikey up before Leo has a chance to and knowing his twin, Leo’s methods of waking someone up was not fun at all.

“Mikey?” Donnie drawls as he knocks on the door, “Miguel, wake up, it’s 11 in the morning already.”

No one answers. Donnie knocks on the door again.

“Mikey, get up or else Leo’s gonna steal all of your food again.” He tries again. No response.

Donnie frowns and knocks again, louder this time.

“Hey, Mikey?? Mikey, are you awake?” He says a little bit louder.

“Michelangelo is not awake.” Donnie hears and he turns around to face Aminah, a mug in her hands. Donnie frowns even more.

“It’s 11 though. Normally she’d be awake by now.”

Aminah shrugs, “I attempted to awaken Michelangelo just a few hours before you did, but to no avail did Michelangelo answer the door. I left them there because I did not wish to disturb their sleep.”

Donnie’s frowning a lot now. If Aminah had already attempted to wake Mikey a few hours ago, why wasn’t she up? Donnie turns back to the door and curiously shuffles it. To his and Aminah’s surprise, the door opens quite easily. Normally, the door would be locked or at the very least wide open. Why would Mikey close it and not lock it?

“Mikester?” Donnie calls out and pokes his head. The lights are off, but the fairy lights in the very back of the trailer glow dimly in the dark. Donnie flips the switch and steps inside.

“Hey, Mikey? Are you up?” Donnie says and steps farther into the trailer. Aminah enters as well, setting her mug on the bookshelf Mikey had in their room.

Donnie and Aminah look around, but it’s clear to both of them that Mikey isn’t here. Both of the siblings begin to panic.

“Mikey?! Mikey, where are you?!” Donnie yells as he rips the covers off the bed. No Mikey.

“Michelangelo? Michelangelo!” Aminah panickedly calls out as she searches behind any space that might be big enough for Mikey to fit in.

Eventually, the two siblings burst out of the trailer where they ran into Leo and Raph. Both of them are frowning.

“Why are you guys screaming? It’s 11 in the afternoon, for Pete’s sake.” Leo rolls his eyes at them.

“Yeah, and why were you in Mikey’s room? Is he okay-?” Raph gets cut off by Donnie.

“Mikey’s missing! She’s not in his room, the bed is empty!” He yells agitatedly.

Raph’s eyes go wide.

“MIKEY’S MISSING?!”

Chapter Text

Mikey

Mikey doesn’t know how long it’s been, probably a few hours most likely, but it’s past a long time because the sun is beginning to rise out of the horizon. They see Raine grimace out of the corner of their eyes.

“Sun’s coming up. We should crash somewhere.” Raine says. There’s the unsaid sentence of ‘Unless we wanna cause a panic’ or somewhere along those lines. Mikey nods in agreement.

Both turn on their heels and begin to walk idly across the roofs. Mikey eyes the bird wings on Raine. When Mikey had crashed into Raine, they’d internally panicked and had almost reflexively popped into their shell because they had first thought Raine was a human, until they caught sight of the small but noticeable black-red wings on the other’s back. Obviously Raine wasn’t human, they were most likely some sort of yokai or mutant (Mikey reckons it’s the latter half) and since Raine hadn’t freaked out at the sight of Mikey, it was safe to say that Raine’s probably already met or seen some yokai/mutants as well.

They’d walked three or four roofs when Raine stops.

“There.” They state and point to what looks like the roof of a warehouse.

Without question, Raine begins to change courses and walks towards said-warehouse. Mikey rushes to catch up, just as Raine jumps to another roof. The teen lands flawlessly and looks back over their shoulder. Raine raises an eyebrow.

Mikey hurriedly jumps down too, wincing as some pain flashes across their spine as they land. Raine frowns at this.

“Yo, you good?” They ask with a frown.

Mikey just shakes their head, putting on a smile, “I’m fine! Just a little hurt is all.”

“You sure? Your shell seems pretty mangled.” Raine obviously is not so easily convinced, but Mikey’s lived with 3 overbearing brothers and one overprotective sister (Which they should be babying over, not the other way around). Add a very much overprotective older sister who’d bash in the heads of anyone who attempted to harm them and two loving but also overbearing parental figures. They’ve learned how to dodge questions and avoid worrying others unnecessarily. Mikey shakes their head again.

“I’m fine, really. We should hurry up, sun’s getting higher.” Mikey is quick to change the subject and Raine is suddenly aware of the potential time they’re wasting to get to the warehouse.

“M’kay, but you need serious medical attention. That shit looks fucked up.” Raine frowns, but nonetheless turns on their heel to continue the rest of the journey back to the warehouse.

Mikey lets out a small sigh of relief. That’s one bullet they’d dodged, but it certainly won’t be the last one either.

Without further ado, Mikey rushes to catch up with Raine.

Miles

It’s the next day when Miles gets a text on his phone. He’s just gotten out of class, engaging in a conversation with Ganke when his phone pings with notification.

“Who is it?” Ganke asks when Miles pulls out his phone.

“It’s Aunt May.” Miles replies, unlocking his phone and opens the notification, “She says she has some info on the blackout last night.”

“Awesome, so we’ll definitely know that it’s not a terrorist attack?” Ganke says with a smile.

“Definitely, bro.” Miles smiles in return, “I gotta run, but catch you later at the dorms?”

Ganke’s smile drops and he gives his roommate a stern glare, “I swear to god, if I have to open the window again to let you in, I’ll let you freeze to death.”

Miles merely returns it with a bright smile, “Be home before curfew, got it. Bye dude!”

He barely catches the goodbye from Ganke as he races down the corridor and halls, practically bursting through the doors as he sprints down the subway again to take the next train to Queens. 

Luckily enough, he manages to snag a ticket to Queens and he waits for the train to come. 

Sitting idly, Miles takes out his sketchbook from his school bag and flips to a new page. He can’t draw in it for long, seeing as how the train’s only 10 minutes away and Miles never draws on the subway. It was always too crowded or too bumpy for him to draw, so he’s given up on trying. So he whips out a pencil and simply begins to draw, letting his hands roam free across the page.

By the time the train arrives, he’s just done sketching what looks like the base for a portrait, although he isn’t sure who to draw just yet. Miles snaps his book shut, slipping the pencil into his jacket as he jumps into the train and snags himself a seat. Settling himself down, Miles plugs his earphones in and slips the earbuds into his ears. 

He falls asleep on the way to Aunt May’s house.

// (~----~) \\

By the time Miles arrives at Aunt May’s, he knows that she’s not in the house but rather in the shed that is the Spider-Man Secret Lair. To this day, he still has no idea where in the hell she had the time and money to build the damn lair, much less hide it and disguise it as a goddamn shed.

“Hey, Aunt May!” Miles calls out as he gets lowered down on a platform.

Aunt May swivels in a gaming chair, smiling up at the teen as he approaches her, “Hey kiddo!”

“So what’d you call me for? Did you find anything?” Miles asks as he hops off the platform, barely waiting for it to lower him down completely.

“Sure did, Miles. Come here.” Aunt May gestures for Miles to come close.

Miles walks up behind Aunt May as she swivels back around and types something on the keyboards. Multiple screens light up and Miles finds himself attempting to stare at all of them.

“So, remember that blackout thing you told me to research on?” Aunt May starts and Miles nods in return.

“Well, there wasn’t much I could pull on, seeing as how this was a very mild blackout, but the monitors picked up on some form of energy that spread like wildfire across the city. See?” Aunt May pulls up thermal images of the city and points to each of them. Miles studies the pictures and sees what seems to be some weird ring of colour that bursts from the middle of the city and spreads to the other counterparts.

“Oh wow.” He mutters, “Is that what caused the blackout?”

“Seems like it. But that’s not what stuck out as weird to me.” Aunt May types again on the keyboard and this time brings up another set of thermal images.

“According to these pictures on the other hand, there was apparently another burst of energy that also caused the blackout, but it happened in a different place than the first one. See here?” Aunt May points to another ring of colour before dragging it to point at the first one, “They’re in range of each other, but it’s weird that two different bursts of energy happened at the same time.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Miles frowns and turns to face Aunt May, “Do you know what it might be?”

“Considering what happened last year? I’d say it might be a portal.” She replies but a frown settles on her face, “But it’s not the same portal the guys use to come through here. It’s a different one.”

“How do you know?” Miles questions.

Aunt May just shrugs, “Just a hunch. But watch out for anything weird and by weird, I mean glitchy. You know what happens when someone from another dimension enters another.”

Miles shivers, remembering how painful it looked for the others. It looked completely harmless to be frank, it looked like some sort of weird glitching effect he found on TikTok, but one look at their pained faces and their violent screams told Miles otherwise. He nods in response.

Then he gets a message from Ganke.

‘Hurry ur ass back here, curfews in 30 mins’ His roommate types.

Miles’s eyes widened.

“Oh shit, I gotta go.” He exclaims and bolts towards the platform, slamming down onto a button that begins its ascent to the exit. Miles leaps onto it and waves goodbye to Aunt May.

“Thanks for the help, bye!!” He yells out and briefly sees Aunt May wave in return, a smile on her face before he leaves.

Once out of the Spider-Lair and the shed, Miles breaks into a sprint. He’ll have to hurry home if he doesn't want to end up sleeping on the roof tonight.

Raine

Raine lands flawlessly inside of the warehouse once xe has kicked the lid of a chimney chute to the side.

Raine’s not exactly picky when it comes to hideouts, xe’s learnt to deal with it for quite some time. Besides, xe’s seen some more freaky stuff, so an abandoned (And very much in need of cleaning) old warehouse didn’t phase xir at all. Xe just didn’t like the condition of those giant wooden crates, they looked really old. And maybe the thin layer of dust that hung in the air.

“We’ll crash here, until we know more about this New York.” Xe declares, hands on hip as Raine scans the interior of the warehouse. Apparently interior decorating had just upped its position on the half-mutant’s to-do list. If Raine was going to stay here for who knows how long, the place will have to go through some serious decorating.

“Yeah, good call.” Mikey says from behind xir and a small grunt emits from the shorter that catches Raine attention. I mean, xe had already noticed the half-assed cast on the turtle’s shell and while xe hadn’t really mentioned it for a majority of their time together, it did catch xir attention. Raine turns xir head to spy Mikey holding their stomach, eyes squinting and not-so subtly gritting their teeth.

“Hey, uh, you okay? You seem to be struggling.” Raine frowns and turns a full 180 to face the turtle.

Mikey blinks at xir and immediately shakes their head.

“No, no! I’m fine! Nothing’s wrong, I swear.” They reply in an instant and attempt to stand up straight, only to double over again in obvious pain.

Raine rolls xir eyes. This turtle was worse at lying than Usagi sneaking out to watch (And/or maybe participate) the Battle Nexus matches and he’d been caught by Ryder and xir.

“Sit down.” Xe says and when Mikey gives Raine a confused look, xe repeats it again, “Sit down.”

“Why?” They had the audacity to ask.

‘Cause you’re in obvious pain and that half-assed cast on your shell ain’t gonna do shit.’ Was the immediate response Raine’s mind jumped to use, but Raine slapped that snarky reply to the back of xir mind.

“You’re not looking too good, mate, and besides, don’t think I’m gonna dismiss that obvious cast on your shell.” Raine instead opts to say, “Sit down, I’ll go look for some medic shit.”

Mikey doesn’t get to protest because Raine already spins on xir heels to head deeper into the warehouse. There are more wooden crates as Raine walks further and the dust doubles even, causing Raine to sneeze maybe one or two times.

By the time Raine sneezes for the fourth time, xe spots a wooden crate that has the medical symbol on it.

“Jackpot.” Raine smiles.

Raine doesn’t need a crowbar, xe doesn’t have the patience for it, so the half-mutant merely kicks the crate in the sides. It breaks and Raine yanks xir foot out, peering into the crate. Xe reaches in with xir hand and fiddles around until xe grabs onto a medic kit. Raine smiles again in triumph.

Xe’s quick to rush back to Mikey, finding the turtle sitting on the ground and propped against the wall. They’re still clutching their stomach, indicating that they were still in pain.

“Turn over, bud, I got the medical supplies.” Raine instructs and xe can tell that the turtle is almost half-passed out, eyes hooded and gaze foggy. Nonetheless, Mikey makes the effort to turn and now the shell is facing towards xir.

Raine sets out to heal Mikey’s shell to the best of xir abilities.

Chapter Text

Mikey

Mikey only remembers blacking out for a short period of time, a sudden wave of nausea and sleepiness washing over them like a splash of warm hot water. Well, maybe it wasn’t a short period of time because when Mikey wakes up, they see that it’s night time.

Raine’s already up and they’re pulling on a black jacket, back facing towards Mikey.

“Oh, you’re awake, cool.” Raine says, head turning slightly to face Mikey.

“What time is it?” Mikey asks with a yawn.

Raine shrugs, “If my phone’s correct, it should be around 1 AM right now. Then again, that entirely depends on whether or not this place uses the same time zone as it did back home.”

“Oh.” Mikey frowns.

It’s weird. Raine speaks exactly how Donnie would, if Donnie had a more higher-pitched voice with an added British accent to it, so it was easy for Mikey to listen to them. That and also because Raine speaks in the same odd way Donnie does structurally and oddly enough, it gives the turtle some form of comfort. Still, it was weird to think that Mikey wasn’t back home. They weren’t anywhere near home for a matter of fact and Mikey was somewhere else entirely with a stranger they barely even knew.

“Anyway, I’m just gonna hop out for a bit. If we’re staying here for the next few days, might as well raid some pillow stores while I’m at it.” Raine speaks up and Mikey realizes they’d zoned up. Welp, so much for ‘listening in’, they suppose.

“Are you fine staying here for a while?” They ask and eye Mikey for a response.

Immediately, Mikey jumps to their feet, wincing as a burning pain just spreads across their back like wildfire and it feels like some added lemon juice to a cut they didn’t know they had.

“I’ll come.” They manage to hiss out through the pain and Raine looks at them with worry.

“You sure? You don’t seem too… well?” They finish lamely and Mikey shakes their head. They’re fine, this was just some little pain. They’ve experienced much worse things before, this was nothing compared to all of them.

“I’m fine.” Mikey grits out.

Raine opens their mouth, seemingly trying to formulate sentences in their head, and Mikey mentally prepares multiple excuses they’re about to throw out, waiting for Raine to tell them that it’d be better if Mikey stayed and Raine went. Instead though, Raine sighs and shakes their head.

“Fine. But don’t expect me to drag your ass back here if you pass out.” They say and roll their eyes, but Mikey can’t tell if it’s a teasing roll or an annoyed one. Frankly, they can’t tell if Raine’s being serious as of now.

“Excuse me, what?” Mikey blurts out and Raine only raises an eyebrow at the other. Mikey realizes that Raine’s gone from one spot to the other, now in front of a seemingly locked warehouse door.

“If you’re coming, you’re coming. I ain’t stopping you, mate.” Raine says with a shrug. With a few tugs, the chain comes off pretty easily and Raine opens the door.

“Hurry up.” They say and walk out of the warehouse. Mikey hurries to follow Raine out the door.

It’s cold quite frankly and Mikey shivers. Again, not a big fan of cold weather, especially when they’re not in proper attire for such temperatures. Raine notices this with a frown and there’s a blur of movement before Mikey realizes that Raine’s dumped their jacket on their shoulders.

“Seems like you need this more than me,” Raine says, tugging the jacket over Mikey’s shaking shoulders and tying the hood strings into a bow.

Mikey eyes Raine with concern, “But aren’t you cold?”

“Don’t worry ‘bout me. I’ve got two layers and besides, I’m a bird. We’re warm-blooded creatures.” Raine says with a shrug, not bothered when a gust of wind brushes past them, “Let’s move, shop’s have probably closed about now and I gotta check to see if my cards work here.”

“Cards?” Mikey echoes.

“Debit cards, mate. If they work, I can pull out some money to use but if they don’t, I’ll just resort to pick-pocketing randos on the street.” Raine says with another shrug. Mikey frowns at Raine’s carelessness, but can’t seem to argue because Raine already sets off.

“Come on!” Raine yells over their shoulder and Mikey has half the common sense to start rushing to where Raine is.

They’ll just have to ignore the burning pain as they walk for now.

// (~----~) \\

The streets are empty and there’s barely anyone who passes by, but neither Raine nor Mikey want to take a chance of being spotted.

“Stay here.” Raine instructs, making sure Mikey’s well-hidden in the dark before pressing a badge on their turtleneck. Immediately, Mikey recognizes the spell of a cloaking brooch as it turns on and hides Raine’s wings. They look the same, but the absence of the black-orange pair of wings made it look weird to be honest.

Mikey nods and watches as Raine walks out of the alleyway and makes their way to a bank machine.

Raine looks both sides, seemingly making sure that no one is near them before whipping out a wallet and Mikey almost gapes when Raine pulls out three different cards from said-wallet. They insert only one debit card and punch in a pin code. It seemed like all was going well as Raine patiently waited for it to start loading up and from the triumphant grin that spreads across their face, Mikey knew that the cards worked.

A thick stack of dollars spouts from the machine and Raine quickly snatches it, crumbles the bill before tossing it into their pocket and grabs their card before speed-walking their way back to Mikey.

“Got it.” They say with a smile, flashing the stack of bills in their hand.

“You never told me you had three cards.” Mikey replies, almost accusingly.

Raine merely smiles back, although it looks more teasing rather than triumphant, “Never let them know your next move, mate. On the bright side, it doesn't seem like I’m gonna be pick-pocketing anyone for a good while.”

“Is that supposed to be a good thing?” Mikey quips in return.

“Not unless being chased by the cops is something you find fun, Mike.” Raine easily replies in return, “Now let’s bounce. Nearest city mall is somewhere up the road. We’re going to have a little raid for tonight.”

Raine hops the fire-escape ladder, climbing with ease whilst Mikey activates their ninpo and swings their mystic nun-chucks, flinging themselves up to the roof with ease. Raine whistles as they finally jump to the roof.

“Damn, that’s awesome.” They compliment.

“Thank you.” Mikey replies.

They begin to run across the roofs, racing against each other (Although neither verbally declares such) as they rush to the city mall.

It’s weird to Mikey because it already feels so nostalgic. Before, Mikey and their siblings would hop the roofs, banter and bad jokes thrown here and there as they ran to the mall to perhaps raid it for whatever it was the Hamato clan needed. They still did it, of course, but not as much. Now here they were, rushing across roofs with a stranger (Maybe not so stranger. Friend, maybe?) as they run to get to the city mall to raid it.

Mikey hadn’t realized that they had zoned out once more and was almost in danger of toppling off the edge of a roof if Raine hadn’t snatched them by the hood of the jacket.

“Don’t know where you’re going, Mike, but that is definitely not where the mall is.” Raine teases with a roll of their eyes.

Mikey completely zones back in and blinks profusely before their cheeks flush in embarrassment.

“Sorry, I zoned out.” They apologize.

“Don’t worry ‘bout it. I do it half the time when I’m flying.” Raine says with a shrug of their shoulders before they smile with a mischievous glint in their eyes, “Ready to raid a mall?”

Mikey smiles in return, “Hell yeah.”

Raine

The mall is quiet and it’s pretty dark, so Raine drops into the building haphazardly, not really worried about alerting anything that just happened to be nearby.

“Cost is clear.” Xe whispers and looks up at Mikey. Mikey nods and jumps down as well, Raine quickly stabilizes them when Mikey almost topples over.

“Thanks.” Mikey whispers and gives Raine a grateful smile.

“Don’t mention it.” Raine replies and pats the turtle on their shoulder.

Xe looks around, eyes adjusting to the almost pitch-blackness of the building. It seemed empty with no security night guards whatsoever. They must all be in the camera room.

“Where do you wanna raid first? I’d say grocery store, but I can just go out and buy something with the money I have.” Raine asks in a hushed voice.

Mikey thinks it over, “What type of store sells blankets?”

Raine smiles at the question, “Blanket stores. Good call, it’s freezing out there.”

Raine slips a piece of folded paper out of xir pocket and with quick precise movements, xe folds it into a paper crane which flutters to life. It flaps in place for a bit before twirling, flying around Raine’s head and nuzzling its head to xir cheek as a sign of affection.

“Keep an eye out and take out the cameras. If you see a guard, alert me.” Xe instructs and the crane gives a nod of its head before it flies off. Raine smiles before xe turns to face Mikey who seemed to have their eyes glued to the flying paper crane.

“That is so cool.” They whisper.

Raine’s smile widens with slight pride and just maybe did xir ego grow just a bit.

“Thanks. A little trick I learned a while back.” Raine replies, “I’d go on a whole rant to explain it, cause goddamn does it have a backstory of its own, but I don’t wanna bore ya.”

Mikey seems to light up with interest (Seriously, Raine could’ve sworn xe saw some sort of spark light up in their eyes).

“I’d love to hear about it! I have powers too, I’ve never met someone else who has ninpo.” They exclaim, almost a little too loudly.

Raine is taken back for a moment before xe smiles widely.

“Well, since you asked so nicely, I’ll explain it.” Raine says, “Let’s find that blanket store and I’ll tell it to ya.”

As they walk to the blanket store, they walk deliberately slow as Raine begins to talk about xir ability to bring origami to life.

// (~----~) \\

By the time they managed to find a blanket store, Raine is sure that the time they used to get there would have easily been used to watch at least 2 movies for a marathon. Much to xir surprise, Mikey was listening pretty intently, eyes shimmering with interest as Raine explains how Ryder had taught xir how to pull out the magic from within xir and Usagi had taught Raine how to instill that magic into the origami paper to give it life. Xe’s not sure if it made sense to Mikey, but judging from the way the turtle nods their head every once in a while assured Raine that Mikey somewhat understood most of the conversation.

And much to the turtle’s delight, Raine was more than happy to make a few origami friends from the paper xe had in xir pocket. As of now, two paper cranes flew freely around the duo and a little horse origami sat nestled in Raine’s hair.

“That is so awesome how you can bring your art to life. Literally!” Mikey gushes with excitement.

Raine’s jaw is beginning to hurt because xe’s been smiling a lot and also talking a lot, though somehow xe widens xir smile at Mikey’s enthusiasm.

“I think it’s awesome how you actually paid attention to that. Usually people zone out halfway through that entire conversation.” Xe says and giggles under xir breath when a paper crane decides to rest on top of Mikey’s head. The other paper crane lands and nestles in the hood of the black jacket.

“It’s just so cool to hear about! My entire family actually has super cool powers too, though we call it ninpo.” Mikey exclaims in turn.

“Ninpo?” Raine echoes with a raise of xir eyebrow.

“Yeah! Ninja power, mashed into one word. Ninpo for short!” Mikey emphasizes their words by making an explosion gesture with their hands.

“Ohh, makes sense. So, your entire fam’s got super powers? That’s kinda cool.” Raine compliments in return before xir eyes wander and land on what obviously looks like a blanket store. Xe smiles in triumph.

“Bingo, there’s our stop.” Xe halts in their path and points to the blanket store. Mikey visibly relaxes at the sight of it.

“Ohh sweet warmth, you’ve been missed.” They dramatically coo and Raine can’t help but giggle almost sweetly.

They waste no time getting to the shop and Raine easily picks the locks of the closed shop, letting the door swing open. They walk in and Raine whips out xir phone to switch on the flashlight.

“Get what you need, then let’s head out and go to a convenience store to get something to eat.” Raine instructs and xe barely finishes talking before Mikey runs through the shop, giddily grabbing blanket after blanket to bring back to the warehouse. Raine would’ve almost burst out laughing fondly if xe hadn’t caught xirself.

It takes a good few minutes, but eventually Mikey comes back around to the entrance, arms holding 3 blankets and 2 pillows stacked on top of each other.

“Wow, was expecting you to grab the whole shop with us.” Raine scoffs playfully and Mikey sticks out their tongue at xir.

“Not unless being chased by the cops is something you find fun, Raine.” Mikey quips in return.

“Touché, Mike.” Raine laughs.

Quickly, they file out of the shop and Raine closes the door, getting ready to lock the door back once more when something rams into xir head. Xe whips xir head around to face a third paper crane, the first one Raine had folded, and it was frantic. Raine’s eyes widened when xe realizes why the crane is here.

“Shit, hide!” Xe hisses and stands up, grabbing the two pillows and a blanket before yanking on Mikey’s wrist. The two of them sprint down the hallways and when Raine turns to look back, xe sees just a light shine where they were just there. They keep running until they reach a bathroom and Raine hurriedly shoves the pillows and blanket back to Mikey.

“Was that a guard?!” Mikey whispers, agitated and almost scared looking.

“Yeah, must’ve crawled out of their holes to check on the knocked out cameras.” Raine curses quietly under xir breath, “We’ll have to wait here until the coast is clear before we bolt. Little dudette is keeping an eye out, so it should come back in a few to let us know when that guard is gone.”

Mikey slightly frowns, “That’s… assuring?”

“Relax, this ain’t my first rodeo with the cops. Tangoed with those guys a ton of times back at home.” Raine gives a shrug and hoists xirself onto the sink.

“Oh. Why’d the cops chase you?” Mikey asks, setting the pile of blankets and pillows next to Raine, “If you don’t mind me asking?”

“I don’t mind, honestly. It’s actually funny when I get to talk to people about my mishaps with the cops in the Upper World.” Raine gives a lopsided smile to the other, “But anyway, the reason why cops chase me is because of my murals. Since I’m a half-mutant and I have a cloaking badge, I go out disguised as a human. I run into a lot of problems with the cops this way and boy does Ryder not like it.”

Mikey’s interest piqued, “You make murals?”

“Illegally, yeah. In some people’s own words, I’m ‘vandalizing’ the oh-so beautiful streets of New York, but honestly, it’s not New York without a little colour, eh?” Raine shrugs again.

“I make murals too!” Mikey exclaims, “So you’re the one who’s murals I keep seeing everywhere, I love your work!”

Raine’s eyes light up and xir ego swells once more.

“Thanks. You make murals too? That’s awesome, nice to meet another fellow artist like myself.” Xe smiles and jokingly juts out xir hand for a handshake. Much to xir surprise, Mikey giggles and shakes xir hand in turn.

“Nice to finally meet you, mystery mural painter.” Mikey smiles as they shake xir hand.

The two giggle and laugh.

Eventually, they let go of each other’s hands and there’s a comfortable silence that falls over them. Raine leans heavily against the mirror, arms crossed as Mikey leans against the sink counter, head resting on the stack of soft blankets and pillows. The two fall silent, but it’s not uncomfortable weirdly enough and neither are keen enough to break the soft silence.

Well, they don’t have to luckily as a little paper crane flutters through the door and Raine turns to face it.

“Coast is clear?” Xe asks and the crane nods its head.

“Nice.” Raine says and holds out xir hand, the crane obediently flying towards it and as it lands on Raine’s palm, xe takes the time to unfold the origami carefully.

“Does it not hurt them?” Mikey asks as they watch Raine unfold the origami and the horse is next in line.

“No, not if I do it gently. I reuse the paper a lot to avoid wasting money. And partially because I’d feel bad if I just crumpled them up, honestly.” Xe admits and the living origami shudder at the thought.

“Don’t worry, mates, I’m not gonna actually do that.” Raine chuckles and rolls xir eyes.

It takes a while but eventually all of the origami gets unfolded and the paper is safely tucked away in Raine’s pocket. The duo exit the bathroom, blankets and pillows in tow and Raine looks down both ways of the hallway before deeming it safe to start roaming.

“Hey.” Mikey speaks up as they walk.

“Yeah?” Raine says, eyes turning to look at the turtle.

“You think you could teach me how to do origami? It seems cool.” They ask and if Raine hadn’t known any better, Mikey looked a little bashful and shy asking.

Raine gives a soft grin, “Sure, Mike. I’d be happy to.”

Both are smiling as they find a way out of the mall.

Mikey

The air is chilly by the time they get out and Mikey is more than glad to be sleeping tonight with comfort and warmth. The jacket that Raine had lent to them had provided enough warmth for the raid tonight, but not nearly enough for Mikey to be sleeping comfortably tonight.

“Need help with that?” Raine asks.

“Nope, I’m good!” Mikey chirps in reply.

“Alright, if you say so.” Raine shrugs in return.

They walk in silence the rest of the way back to the warehouse, both of them quietly agreeing that scavenging for food could wait tomorrow, and once they arrive, Mikey sets out to prepare some sort of nest for them to sleep in while Raine busies themselves by barricading the door with one of the wooden crates. For security measure, according to the other when Mikey had questioned why Raien was barricading the door.

“Just in case some rando decides to bust through. It happens more than you think.” Raine says in a matter-of-factly voice that had Mikey wondering what type of scenario Raine had been in for that to happen.

Mikey lays out the large duvet they’d snagged and folded up the corners in a manner so that once they were done, it looked like the blanket had somewhat become a nest. Then they toss the two pillows into said-nest before laying out the two other blankets they grabbed.

“Whoa, we’re gonna be sleeping like babies tonight.” Raine says once they see the setup Mikey had done.

“It’s as close as I can get to my own bed back at home. Maybe we’ll snag a mattress the next time we go out.” Mikey suggests with a smile.

“You read my mind, dude.” Raine chuckles, “Oh yeah, don’t mean to seem rude, but I forgot to ask for your pronouns.”

Mikey lights up, “It’s not rude at all! I completely forgot to ask about yours. I use they/them pronouns, by the way. Although, any is fine for me.”

“Cool. I use xe/xir pronouns.” Raine smiles.

“Awesome, neopronouns!” Mikey grins in return.

“Let’s go to sleep, yeah? We’ll try to find out more info on where the heck we are.”

Mikey enthusiastically nods in return and would’ve almost flung themselves onto the mattress if they hadn’t almost forgotten about the jacket wrapped snugly around their body.

“Oh, do you want your jacket back?” Mikey asks and Raine just shakes xir head.

“Keep it for a while. I’ll just buy a new one at the shops when I can.” Raine gives a nonchalant shrug of xir shoulders and strangely enough, Mikey feels giddy when Raine told them xir reply.

They slip their arms into the sleeves and quickly wrap themselves in the blanket snugly. Mikey sighs contently at the soft warmth the jacket and the blanket both offered and quickly enough, Mikey begins to doze off.

They don’t really catch the fond smile on Raine’s face as they peacefully fell asleep.

Chapter Text

Miles

It’s been about 3 days since the initial blackout of New York and safe to say, most people have completely forgotten about it and have moved on with their lives. Though, there were a bunch who didn’t quite let go of the situation so easily. Miles was part of that bunch.

Ever since finding out that the blackout had been caused by not one, but two portals, he found his interest had been piqued. He’d texted Gwen about it, but she replied saying that no one had told her they were planning to pop by Miles’s dimension, so he ruled out all of the Spider-people he knew out. Although, that meant ruling his entire list out. He never quite looked into the concept of portals past the Spider-people he’d met last year, so his list was pretty short because of that.

It’d been about 2 days since Aunt May last contacted him about any new information about the blackout and quite frankly, Miles was beginning to get just a little antsy. He can’t help it of course, Miles was just like that. He just wanted more information on the situation at hand, even if it seemed minor to most people.

“I can see you buzzing under your skin, cut it out.” Ganke’s voice cuts through a mass block of frenzied thoughts that’d been crammed into Miles’s head and he practically snaps his head up upon hearing his roommate’s voice.

Ganke isn’t looking up from where his head is craned downward to look at his computer, typing away at the keyboard, but Miles can tell that the frown on the other’s face is specifically for Miles.

“You’re worrying too much about this, calm down.” His roommate says, giving a roll of his eyes in annoyance.

Miles huffs, “I’m not worrying.”

“Then stop bouncing your leg.” Ganke remarks.

Miles stops bouncing his leg with ease, but it’s hard to resist the urge to let it continue bouncing. Nonetheless, he forces it to stop.

“Done. I don’t see your point.” He says with a slight pout.

“You bounce your leg when you worry. That and you tend to pick your nails too.” Ganke easily replies, giving the other a rather pointed look. This causes Miles to pout even more.

He merely huffs and faces away from his roommate, crossing his arms as he begins to slightly sulk to himself. Okay, maybe he was worrying a tad bit too much over this. But who could blame him? Miles can only do so much as a 16-year old superhero, he hasn’t even gotten ahold of this entire gig just yet. It’s hard not to worry his head off when the entire world could potentially be hanging in the balance of whatever battle Miles was fighting.

Besides, his dreams may have been getting slightly worse. Or weird. Whichever fits the criteria better, honestly.

To start off, Miles dreams that he is in someone else’s body. Which is already weird to begin with, even.

The first time that happened, Miles had glanced at his arms, only to start panicking when he saw that it’s not his arms that he saw. Rather, the arms that he saw (Or rather controlled) were green and scaly, with three fingers. The palm had been wrapped in black wrappings up until the elbow and the fingers were left uncovered. What was weirder were the light green crack-like scars on the hands which had Miles frowning. Obviously, Miles had almost immediately thrown up when he woke up the next morning.

The second time it happened, Miles was more so glad to find that his arms aren’t green and scaly anymore. They’re human arms, with five fingers instead of three, much to his relief. Except, they’re not his skin colour, but rather a pasty, almost pale-like colour instead and whoever he was controlling in his dreams that time had worn fingerless biker gloves too. Much to his surprise, the nails were neatly cut and well-kept as well, with black nail polish painted on top. Miles didn’t paint his nails, he never had the skill to do so. When Miles had woken up the next morning, his back was insanely itchy.

While the first two times hadn’t really bothered him much to a certain degree, it was the third night that got him worrying.

On the third night during his third dream, Miles dreamt that he was somewhere (And he was himself, which had Miles sighing out of relief). Wherever that somewhere was, he was outside and in front of a warehouse. It gets him frowning because why on Earth would he be here of all places? It doesn’t seem like an ideal place for anyone with an evil plan to place a base here. Nonetheless, he moves forward and when he presses on the door, he’s not surprised to find that it won’t budge.

Miles pushes on the door a bit more, but it’s clear it’s not moving anytime soon, so he chooses to climb up the roof. Much to his surprise, he finds that a chute had been opened up and without hesitation, Miles jumps in.

And then he wakes up, which annoys him to no end. That didn’t seem like a random dream he usually had. No, it was something else entirely, he’s sure of it. No dream would ever be so specific in location and in his movements, half the time his dreams were that of cartoons he’s convinced are fever dreams of his.

Anyway, if the situation at hand didn’t worry Miles much, then his vision-like dreams certainly kicked that feeling into high gear, much to his annoyance unfortunately.

Miles’s phone goes off with a ping and he almost vaults himself off the bunk in an attempt to snag it. He hears Ganke sigh, but he tunes him out rather easily. Quickly, Miles switches his phone on and swipes down to the notification.

It’s Aunt May and Miles opens the message.

‘Come over, urgent’ Is Aunt May’s text and Miles suddenly finds himself hurrying to get ready.

All he remembers is changing out of the lazy clothes he’s in, shoving his superhero costume into his bag and grabbing other essentials as he throws the window open and jumps out. Maybe he heard Ganke yelling at him to be home before curfew, maybe he didn’t, Miles could never be too sure when his brain got kicked into auto-pilot honestly.

His feet are hitting the pavement once he lands on the gravel, flying down the path to get to the subway.

// (~----~) \\

It’s all a complete blur from there and Miles suddenly finds himself standing out the small house that is Aunt May’s place. He knocks and rings on the doorbell.

“Aunt May?” He calls out and barely has time to start reaching for his own set of keys when the doors unlock and fly open. Miles yelps as he’s dragged inside and the door is slammed shut once he is inside the house.

He blinks in surprise and sees a blur of pink, grey and white flit past him. Aunt May begins to speak.

“Miles, so glad you’re here, I’ve got some news about the portals last night. Scone?” She asks and Miles feels a plate get shoved into his chest. Automatically, Miles pops a scone into his mouth. While he may be slightly disoriented, he can’t say no to a scone, even if he tried to.

“Uh-huh, right yeah, uhh, what did you wanna show me?” He asks, his brain slow to catch up on the commotion around him.

“‘Kay, so, you know the energy I told you about from the portals that spread like wildfire across New York?” She asks and receives a nod in return from Miles, “Well, I’ve been looking over some footage last night cause I thought ‘Why not?’, right?”

Another nod.

“Well, much to my surprise, I actually found that same energy across the city and it’s moving, supposedly!” She concludes and Miles blinks.

“Moving? How??” He questions with a tilt of his head.

“Moving, as if it was alive! Now, as of right now, I can’t seem to pinpoint exactly where that moving source of energy had gone, but I can tell you that the energy is moving and whoever or whatever that is making the energy move is most likely the ones who got spat out of that portal.” Aunt May finally sums it up and it takes just a split second, a rather short delayed reaction for Miles to get it.

“So you can find them??” Miles excitedly asks, bouncing on his heels and abruptly stopping because he apparently forgot he was holding a plate of scones in his hands.

“I suppose if you put it that way, yeah.” She nods, “But I don’t know how long it’ll take. So far, I’m only seeing traces of the energy and it’s pretty scattered out there. I’ll update you if I get a strong signal though.”

Miles nods in understanding and soon enough, he finds himself back at the dorm, giddy and impatient for the next notification of news from Aunt May.

Raine / Mikey

It’s daylight and Raine roams the streets of New York, cloaking brooch on and hands stuffed into xir pockets. Pedestrians stroll past Raine as xe walks down the sidewalk, a few bags dangling from xir arms.

It’s the next morning of last night and Raine had made the mature decision to go out and grab supplies without letting Mikey know. Well, technically xe left a little note saying that xe’s out at the moment and then promptly left while the turtle was sleeping, but Raine didn’t want to wait until they woke up. Mikey might’ve insisted on coming and while Raine might let them, it’s broad daylight and xe doesn’t have a spare cloaking brooch on xir.

Besides, Raine’s managed to scope out some information that seemed vital as to where that portal had spat them out.

It’s still 2022, much to Raine’s relief, and it’s still very much New York, Manhattan. Although, the pedestrians are a tad bit nicer, which has Raine kind of in a loophole for a bit. But back on task anyways, Raine’s managed to find out that apparently this world had a superhero. Someone by the name of ‘Spider-Man’, supposedly. If Raine remembered correctly, there was a superhero back in xir New York who also went by the name ‘Spider-Man’, but there was also a second one who went by ‘Spider-Gal’.

‘If this place has a Spider-Man dude, could the Hidden City exist too??’ Raine thinks deeply with a frown. No, it couldn’t. Raine was much too good at picking out hidden Yokais and Mutants and so far, every pedestrian that has passed Raine all deemed to be human as far as xe could tell.

Raine walks a long distance until xe’s far enough from the crowd and the bustling inhabitants of New York. Slipping into an alleyway and hopping the fence, Raine turns off the cloaking brooch and exhales deeply through xir nose as xir wings become uncovered and bristle in the wind.

Spreading xir wings, Raine begins to fly the rest of the way back to the hideout.

// (~----~) \\

Upon arriving at the hideout and opening the door, Raine can tell that Mikey was not happy with the fact that the half-mutant had gone off without them.

“Where were you?” The turtle asks with a slight out that strangely reminded Raine of Usagi. To that, Raine chuckles quietly to xirself.

“Out. Had to pick up some groceries.” Raine replies easily, sliding the door to a close and shaking the plastic bags xe carried, “And a few spare clothes as well. Think I’ve got enough sweaters and pants to disguise you as human for the next few days if we gotta bail.”

Mikey seems to light up at the mention of clothes, the pout instead being replaced by a smile and Raine can’t seem to decide which looked cuter. Mentally, Raine slaps xirself.

“I also got some more med stuff, for your shell.” Raine adds as well, sitting down into the makeshift nest and settling the bags between the both of them. Mikey seemed to frown at that.

“My shell’s fine…” They grumble quietly under their breath. Raine rolls xir eyes.

“We both know that’s a lie. Those bandages can only support you for so long and we don’t know how old those things are.” Xe quips in return, crossing xir arms and raising an eyebrow, a silent gesture that non-verbally tells Mikey ‘We can do this all day’.

Luckily, Mikey backs down, although they seem to grumble and mutter a few colourful words that Raine is honestly surprised they know about. If Ryder had heard them say those things, he probably would’ve scolded them for the improper use of curse words and Raine might’ve collapsed from laughing.

Mikey grabs one of the plastic bags once they’re done cursing to the very sun and begins to rummage through. Raine, in turn, grabs one as well and looks through what xe had purchased as essentials.

There were pieces of clothing that were dark colours if they needed to blend in with the dark nights and while Raine isn’t all that good with brighter colours and their matching half, xe had tried to grab some more normal looking clothes if they needed to travel in daylight. Luckily for Mikey, it was beginning to become winter and so winter clothes were a must and at least beanies and earmuffs might be more than enough to hide them in plain sight.

Raine picks the clothes out one by one and folds them up before separating them into two stacks; one for Raine and one for Mikey.

Meanwhile, Mikey goes through the bag of groceries Raine had bought and was instantly grateful to see that the other had bought a generous amount of sweets and snacks for their stay, however long it may be. Grabbing a bag of gummies, Mikey tore it open and happily munched on them with a smile on their face. Raine quietly laughs at such a scene and finishes folding up the clothes.

“Here, I didn’t know your size all that well, but since you seem to be the same size as me, I went with that.” Raine spoke up, folding the last of the sweaters xe bought and handed them to Mikey. The turtle takes the stack with gentle hands and sets it down in front of them.

“Thanks.” Mikey thanks Raine with a smile and Raine barely stifles a giggle because a piece of gummy seemed to stick to the turtle’s large teeth.

When Mikey gives the other a confused look, Raine points to xir own teeth with a giggle and snort. Now knowing what Raine meant, Mikey flushes with embarrassment and licks the gummy away with their tongue. Raine giggles a bit more.

Once the giggles die down and Raine futilely wipes at xir tears, xe grabs the last and third bag of the pile and it’s the bag that’s filled with medical items for Mikey’s shell.

“This should be enough to heal your shell, although I do not know jackshit about turtles.” Raine notes, taking the items out of the bag and setting them in front of xir. Mikey obviously does not like the sight of the medic items, but knows it’s practically a useless fight to argue with Raine about healing their shell.

Besides, if Mikey was stuck with Leo in this place, then no doubt would their older brother talk their ear off (Or lack thereof) about tending to their wounds even though Mikey wasn’t a fan of it. Thinking about Leo suddenly made Mikey think about home and the glare that Mikey wore that was directed at the medic supplies, softened to a longing gaze.

What was happening at home as of now? It’d been about 3 days since they were gone, surely their siblings would now know of their disappearance. Oh god, Splinter was probably going to ground them for life because of this! What about the heart-attack Raph’s having right now? Man, Leo and Donnie must be worrying their heads off about this. And Aminah might as well be turning the entire city upside down as well as April! Oh pizza supreme above, what if they thought they were dead? What if-?!

“Hey.” Mikey flinches when Raine snaps xir fingers in front of them and Mikey gets sucked back into reality.

Looking up and ahead at Raine, they’re startled about how close the other is all of a sudden and from the look of stony concern of xir face, it’s clear to Mikey that the other had attempted to capture their attention for the past few seconds. Mikey blinks.

“You good? You zoned out for a good minute there.” Raine questions with a frown and xe backs up to give the other a bit of space.

Mikey shakes their head to get their brain back to life and working again, “Oh-uh, yeah! I’m good, I’m good.”

Raine’s concerned look shifts into one of disbelief and unconvincing. It’s clear that xe does not buy Mikey’s half-assed reply. Xe crosses xir arms again and quirks an eyebrow once more.

“Uh-huh, sure.” Xe hums, unamused at Mikey’s very obvious attempt to lie, “You do know I just watched you practically dissociate from reality, so lying ain’t really gonna work on me, mate.”

Mikey grimaces at Raine’s remark. Oh well, no hurt in being honest, right? Besides, Raine’s unconvinced look is rather scary-looking, almost as much as Donnie’s face when he gets really concentrated and focused on a task.

“Sorry… Just thinking ‘bout home.” Mikey admits quietly and Raine’s glower softens. Xe drops xir crossed arms and the scowl shifts back into a frown.

“Understandable. Who wouldn’t? I mean, we’re stuck in a New York that isn’t ours.” Raine then says with a shrug, “Besides, on top of worrying how we’re gonna get back home, I’m worried how long I’m gonna be grounded for once I do.”

Mikey looks up, intrigued by Raine’s words, “Grounded?”

“Yeah, my caretaker. Or, well, adopted older brother? I have no idea what to label him as, but he is overprotective as hell.” Raine chuckles with another shrug, “The moment I walk back through those apartment doors, he’s gonna immediately mother-hen me before grounding me for who knows how long.”

Mikey chuckles as well for how relatable that sounded, “Sounds like my dad and my older brother. I just know they’re gonna be so worried that I’ve been gone for 3 days, even though I’m practically old enough to take care of myself.”

“I know right? I mean, I’m not 14 anymore, I’m 16, literally give me a break.” Raine scoffs, but there’s no real bite behind the remark.

“So true.”

The two of them chuckle before letting comfortable silence settle.

In that silence, Raine notices the worry line that is still present between Mikey’s non-existent eyebrows and the way that Mikey’s worrying their bottom lip between their teeth. An easy symptom of worrying and homesick-ness that Raine knows like the back of xir hand. After all, xe went through the same thing.

Standing up in the makeshift nest, Raine dances around the products in an uncoordinated dance before sitting down next to Mikey. Then throwing an arm across the other’s shoulder, Raine pulls Mikey into a side-hug, to which the turtle responds by nuzzling a bit closer. Whether it was for physical comfort or for the warmth that Raine practically radiated, either option sounded valid.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure they’re fine. As far as I know about your family, they’re probably tearing up the Hidden City tryna find you.” Raine reassures them as much as possible, “We’ll get back home, we’ve both got super cool kick-ass mystic powers, no?”

Mikey chuckles quietly, “Yeah, I suppose… You think we’ll get back home?”

“I don’t think, Michael, I know. That’s because I’m always in the right.” Raine corrects Mikey and the turtle vibrates with laughter. Raine smiles to xirself.

“Alright, enough mushy stuff. I gotta change the bandages on your shell.” Xe then declares, standing up and away from Mikey as xe leans to grab the medic supplies. Mikey lets out a groan.

“Damn it, I thought you’d forgotten about that…” They groan and Raine can’t help but laugh.

“It’s gonna take an entire apocalypse and the end of the world for me to forget about medical help and attention, don’t even try.” Raine snorts, amused at Mikey’s reaction, “Now turn around, I gotta tend to your wounds.”

Despite groaning, Mikey complies with Raine’s instructions and in relatively comfortable silence, Raine changes and fixes the bandages on Mikey’s shell.

Miles

Night has fallen and Miles leaps across the roofs of apartment buildings.

Hours earlier, Miles had gotten a text from Aunt May and it was basically a paragraph that took him 5 solid minutes to read and understand. It’d been a message telling Miles that she had finally managed to pin-point the moving energies across New York and had found out where they were. The second message had been a picture of said-location and Miles practically zipped to get changed into his suit.

Promising Ganke his snacks and his help on an English essay, Miles leaves the dorms in a rush and is now following the map as to where that location is.

“Where is it… Where is it…” Miles mutters, pulling up his mask as he slows to a stop near an abandoned spot. His breath becomes a puff in the crisp winter air and he mentally notes to install that heater soon. Slipping his phone out of his pocket, Miles unlocks it to find the image.

Okay, it said he was close, but how close? And also where?

Miles points the phone in the direction of the city, but the distance seems to lengthen. Then he points the phone in the direction of the abandoned spot and immediately, the phone pings, the automated voice telling him he was on the right track. He frowns, looking back and forth between the phone and the location in front of him. Eventually though he shrugs and pulls his mask back on, leaping off the roof building after pocketing his phone.

Landing at the abandoned site, Miles pulls his phone out once more and begins to point it in any general direction in hopes of leading him to the location of the two moving energies.

It works, much to his happiness although Miles isn’t sure whether or not his heart plummets into the depths of his gut because in front of him was the same warehouse that he saw in his dreams.

‘I’m tripping, no way this is the same warehouse.’ He tries to convince himself, but the more he stares at the building in front of him, it’s obvious that he’s not. A sense of deja vu washes over him and Miles gulps because this was definitely the warehouse he saw in his vision-like dreams.

Pocketing his phone with shaky hands, Miles walks towards the warehouse at a rather slow pace. It felt like eternity until his hand made contact with the door and praying to whoever was watching him above that the door would open, he gave it a push. Much to his dismay, the door does not open and Miles attempts to nudge it open again, ramming his shoulder into the door. Obviously it doesn’t work, so Miles resorts to using the roof, grumbling how accurate the dream was to this current moment.

Jumping onto the roof, Miles is not surprised at all to find that one of the chutes is opened. Breathing in deeply, he jumps in and lands with a thud.

The warehouse is dark, the only light source coming from the chute he just jumped in from. Miles looks around, wary and tense. His nerves are tightly bound, like a spring that’s about to go off at any moment’s notice.

Something moves in the dark.

Miles jumps in his skin, positioning himself into a fighting stance.

Something shuffles.

Miles whirls his body in the direction of the sound.

Something pounces.

Miles lets out a guttural scream as something jumps onto his back and he goes flying backwards.

“I got them!” A voice yells and it’s coming from the person that jumped onto his back.

“Hold them still, I gotta knock em out!” Another voice replied and Miles panics. Right, there were two moving energies, how could he have forgotten?! Goddamnit, he should’ve gotten Gwen to tag along, 2 against 1 was not a fair fight at all!

Miles throws the person off his back and jumps out of the way as someone else comes barreling, screaming like a banshee. He screams in return, thwipping out his webs in the general direction of the two people in the warehouse with him and it’s clear to him that he aimed in the right direction, if the protesting yells and flying curse words were anything to go by.

“Ew, what the fuck!?” The second person (A rather monotone but very much British voice) squawks.

“Ew, get it off, get it off!!” The first person (A more androgynous voice that definitely sounded like a New Yorker) shrieks as well and there’s the sound of the two people flailing about and bumping into each other.

Whipping his phone out, Miles turns on the flashlight and shines it in the direction of the voices. All of a sudden, Miles’s dreams made sense to him because in front of him was a turtle who stood on its hind legs and a human who had black-red wings on their back.

In sync, all three of them screamed.

Chapter Text

Mikey, Raine and the stranger in front of them all screamed in an oddly harmonious and synchronized orchestra.

“We’ve been compromised, scram!” Mikey shrieks and immediately, the two mutants scramble to grab their things and go because their hiding spot has now been discovered by this weird random stranger with a mask on. Raine was right, it did happen a lot more often than you think.

Raine jumps in front of the startled masked stranger as Mikey rushes to grab the plastic bags and from the sounds of war cries and muffled thuds, it’s clear to them that Raine had most likely started throwing hands with the stranger. There were some protests from the stranger, but that was quickly drowned out as Raine continuously pounced and attacked the poor guy. Boy, Mikey was glad they weren’t jumped on by Raine, from just the sounds of the fight, it’s clear that Raine can pack a good punch or two.

Mikey makes a grab for the bags, turning their head over the shoulders to yell out, “I got our stuff, we gotta go!” Just as Raine throws a left hook at the stranger’s jaw. Mikey winces and grimaces at the nasty sound the jaw seemed to have made when the fist came in contact with the body part. Raine might’ve grimaced and winced a bit as well, but they couldn’t tell.

The duo practically flew out of the warehouse in a matter of seconds, Raine kicking the wooden box that held the front doors shut (And wow, talk about strength) and ripping the door off its hinges.

As they run outside into the cold airy night, Raine grabs Mikey’s wrist and they bolt. The two collapsed behind a stack of barrels and boxes, catching their breath as their chests heaved up and down. Mikey curls into a ball as Raine presses up against the barrels and boxes to make themselves seem smaller and to help hide better in the shadows. From what they couldn’t see, they could hear and the stranger came running out of the warehouse.

The stranger obviously doesn’t spot Raine and Mikey because they can hear panicked voices, all muttering together in a frenzy.

“Shit shit, no! Great going, Miles, barge in like a complete idiot without a plan! Puta madre, I should’ve called Gwen over.” The stranger mutters rather angrily, hurried and rushed feet hitting the ground in a pattern.

Mikey looks over to Raine, shifting their head just a bit to see Raine pressed up tightly against the barrels and boxes, xir eyes blown wide open and chest heaving with heavy breaths. Raine quickly meets Mikey’s gaze, but the panic does not subside. Both of them breathe quietly, puffs of smoke-like fog forming in the cold crisp air of the night.

“Okay, okay, calm down.” They listen to the stranger beginning to berate themselves, “You let them get away. That’s fine. Aunt May can send me new coordinates, shouldn’t be that hard to track moving magic energies across New York and-.”

There’s a loud groan.

“Damn it, who am I kidding?! It’s gonna take weeks for Aunt May to pin-point their location again!” The stranger groans and Mikey hears a can being kicked away angrily. Mikey looks at Raine again and the panic in the other’s face is still present, but it was slowly being washed away with intrigue. Mikey can’t blame Raine, they’re as interested as the other was.

“Santa Maria, calm yourself, Miles…” The stranger (Who Mikey is now very confident is called Miles) mutters to themself, as if trying to give a pep talk, “Just go back to Aunt May’s, tell her I lost them. On one hand, I’ll have a lovely walk back to Aunt May’s place! On the other hand, I just lost two interdimensional people from a whole other branch of the multiverse and I’m going to get a scolding from Aunt May.”

There’s a beat of silence.

“I’ll just… look around to see if they’re still here.” ‘Miles’ mutters to themself and there’s the soft padding of footsteps as they slowly but surely walk away from the stack of barrels and boxes Mikey and Raine hid behind. Once both of the mutants were sure ‘Miles’ was far enough, they both let out a sigh of relief.

“… Shit, I think half of my life span just died right there.” Raine gives a mutter and xe clenches xir eyes shut, fisting the front of the sleeveless turtleneck.

“Same…” Mikey mumbles in reply. Their lips felt oddly dry and Mikey licks them in an attempt to moisten them before they crack.

“Did… Did that person just…?”

“Just what? Barge in on us in the middle of the night while we were sleeping? Or talked about the fact that we may have just found out the reason why we were tossed here?”

“That second one.”

“Yeah, Mike, they did.”

Silence.

Raine suddenly groans loudly, slapping a hand across xir face.

“Please tell me I didn’t just sucker punched our only way out of this mess?” Xe practically bemoans in despair.

“I think you just did.” Mikey winces empathetically.

"Great. Just fucking great! Good going me, whoop-de-fucking-doo.” Raine grumbles to xirself, dragging the hand across xir face.

Mikey uncurls themself from the ball position they were in to look over the barrels and boxes with hesitancy. There was no sign of the masked stranger, but Mikey could hear the padded footsteps that trailed here and there.

“They haven’t left yet.” Mikey mumbles.

“So? I doubt they’ll wanna help us, especially since I bruised that dude’s jaw.” Raine groans still, practically mourning the fact that xe might as well have been the reason the two of them were gonna be stuck here.

“I don’t think so.” Mikey says with a frown, looking over to Raine, “You heard the stranger, they’re still looking for us.”

“How are you sure they’re just looking for us to help us and not to get revenge on me sucker-punching their jaw?”

“… Good point.”

“Exactly, Mike.”

They sit there for a longer while, but Mikey begins to get agitated. They really want to walk up to the masked stranger (They still aren’t sure if the stranger’s name was Miles or not) and ask for their help, but at the same time, what if Raine’s assault on the poor dude totally butchered their only chance home? It didn’t seem like a pretty scenario to Mikey if Raine was right.

Still, Mikey begins to worry. Their legs itched to move and their mind raced, practically pleading with Mikey to get up and walk up to the stranger. As far as Mikey knew, that stranger was their only chance to get home.

“I’m going.” Mikey declares suddenly and they get up to their feet.

“Mike, what’re you doing, are you nuts?!” Raine exclaims in protest, unable to stop Mikey from hopping the barrier of barrels and boxes, “Mike, come back!”

Mikey ignores Raine’s quiet calls for them as they step out, looking for the stranger. They quietly hope that the stranger hasn't left just yet, Mikey wasn’t sure if they could find them in such cold and windy conditions.

Mike turns a corner, walking along the edges of the warehouse and stops completely. The stranger stops too and the mask is off, pulled up just to expose the stranger’s face.

“Uhh, hey? Really hope you don’t plan to kill me, but uhm.” Mikey takes a slightly hesitant step back. Right, maybe they were beginning to regret the decision a bit.

The stranger suddenly lets out a loud sigh of relief, making Mikey take another slight hesitant step backwards.

“Oh my fuck, thank God!” The stranger says aloud, sounding really relieved, “I was worried I’d scared you off.”

“Heh, well, you kinda did, but like, we heard you talking about… dimensions and all that.” Mikey makes some hand gestures to emphasize the ‘dimensions’.

“Shit, sorry, I really didn’t mean to spook ya. My fault for dropping in like that.” The stranger has a look of regret and grimace before they shake their head to regain their composure, “Wait, I thought there were two of you?”

“Oh, uh, yeah, Raine is uhh, hesitant to kinda be here.” Mikey rushes to explain.

Fortunately for him, the stranger seemed to understand about Raine’s absence.

“Are they the ones that uppercut my jaw?” They frown and a gloved hand reaches up to rub at the stranger’s jaw.

“Yeah, heh, uhm, xe says xe’s sorry?”

“...No hard feelings, I guess.”

Mikey lets out a sigh of relief at that. Then something slams into the back of their head and Mikey stumbles.

“If you’re gonna ditch me, at least take your stuff, Michael.” Raine huffs from behind them.

The plastic bag falls to the ground and Mikey blinks, before they grin and turn around.

“You came!!” They happily exclaimed.

Raine scoffs, rolling xir eyes, “‘Course, not gonna ditch you cause you one-upped me, Mike.”

Raine’s eyes shifted from Mikey to the masked stranger and there’s a look of hesitance on xir face.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

“Sorry for uppercutting your jaw.” Raine glances away to nervously rub at xir neck.

“No problem. Kinda deserved it for jumping you.” The stranger shrugs very vaguely.

“Hmm, cool.”

Well, at least it seemed like both of them were getting along. Mikey would take that as a win in their entirely personal opinion. Turning to face the stranger, Mikey smiles.

“We never got your name. I’m Mikey, short for Michelangelo.” They jut out their hand for the stranger to take.

“Whoa, that’s one heck of a name.” The stranger smiles in response, taking Mikey’s hand and shaking it, “I’m Miles. Miles Morales.”

“Thanks, I find that a compliment. Your name sounds cool though.” Mikey grins. Miles seems to chuckle at the compliment.

“Hey, not to break up this meet-n-greet or anything, but the sun’s coming up and we are completely exposed to both the elements and potential paparazzi.” Raine vaguely coughs behind both of them.

Still, xe steps up to Miles and nods at him, “Raine.”

“Miles.” He nods back, “Nice to meet you. Without the uppercutting my jaw thing.”

“Likewise.” Raine hums.

Mikey continues to beam brightly. It was a good thing that Miles didn’t hold a grudge against Raine for uppercutting his jaw, Mikey didn’t know what they would do if he had. Well, perhaps run away back to Raine, that was one way, but Mikey doesn’t enjoy dwelling too long for past mistakes.

“So, did you have a place in mind for us?” Mikey kindly asks Miles, his smile still ever so present.

Miles smiles in return, “Yeah, I did.”

He reaches up and pulls the mask over his face, Mikey joyfully recognizing the pattern of a Spider-Man mask in the colours of black and red. So it seemed like Isla and Peter weren’t the only Spider-Mans in the entirety of the universe, isn’t that a lovely thought!

“Catch up if you can!” Leaping, Miles jumps into the air and begins to sprint into the night. Beside the turtle, Raine huffs, exasperated as xe spreads xyr wings.

“Think you can run with that shell of yours, Mike?” Raine raises an eyebrow.

Mikey grins, “An even better question, can you catch up to me with your wicked wings?”

They laugh as they jump into the air, running down the same path Miles took as they hear Raine laugh as well.

That night, in the darkness of New York, if anyone were to look out their windows, they would’ve seen a person in a suit, a 4 foot tall turtle and what looked like a human with wings racing across the rooftops. But as the sun rose in the background and the lights of the scene began to shut off, Miles, Mikey and Raine felt nothing but the one thing they never thought to be.

They felt like the teenagers they were.

Chapter Text

If you asked Mikey about 4 weeks ago how she was doing, she might tell you that she was doing fine when in reality, she felt like she was being torn apart. If you asked Mikey how she was doing about 3 weeks ago, she would’ve continued to tell you that she was fine, even if her shell was cracked. And she would continue to give that answer approximately 3 more times if you continued to ask her per week.

But in reality, Mikey was not fine.

For one, she was in a completely different place, a different version of the New York she knew. Ultimately, that meant that she was away from everything that she knew and was comfortable with, especially her family. Mikey’s stomach simply twists in guilt and worry as she thinks about her family and how they were reacting to this situation. It’s already been 4 weeks, surely they’re worried off the top of their heads now. Mikey knows she would be if any of her brothers or her sisters or her fathers went missing.

For another, her ninpo wasn’t working as effectively as she wanted it to be. In fact, it seemed to be doing the exact opposite! Her hands ached and anytime she felt like trying to open a portal in an attempt to go home, the cracks in her hands would flare and Mikey would be left to nurse her glowing and cracked hands. She hasn’t spoken any of this to the three other people staying in the house she is, she’s already sure that she’s being a bother just by staying here.

Which actually leads to her last reason, her so-called roommates. Mikey says ‘so-called’ because Miles doesn’t necessarily stay at Aunt May’s house. He sleeps and stays in his dorm over at Visions Academy, but he comes to visit at night when he can, which is often. But it wasn’t the roommates that Mikey had a problem with, no. They were both lovely people on their own when they interacted with her on separate occasions. Her only problem was how both of her so-called roommates got along with each other.

Ever since that night 3 weeks ago when Miles generously offered them a place to stay until they figured out a way to send them home, it was obvious to Mikey that Miles and Raine did not get along. And not very well for that matter.

It started off pretty small in her opinion, so much so that even she didn’t notice until just a few days ago. At first, it seemed to Mikey that Raine and Miles would get along just fine, especially with how quick they moved on from the fact that Raine almost sent Miles to a hospital had he not been so used to getting punched in the jaw.

But then Raine’s sarcasm came into play, which shone through a lot of times whenever Miles came over to visit. It didn’t seem to bother Miles much, if not at all, at first. But then the sarcasm kicked up a notch and those sly comments became almost borderline insults to him.

This irked Miles very obviously and instead of taking that as a sign to back down, Raine merely smirked and added more onto the insults. They weren’t bad in Mikey’s opinion, but they were just enough to get under Miles’ skin and a lot of times, such a simple comment on Miles outfit could send the student into a fit, which Raine found amusing to xir liking.

And right now, Mikey could only muster a groan as she rubbed her forehead, burying her face into her hands as she sat on the bed of the guest room, leaning against the pillows. From downstairs, she could already hear the sounds of arguing and insults being tossed from one end to another. It hadn’t even been 10 minutes since Miles got here!

Mikey swears to the pizza supreme that if the two of them didn’t get along, she was going to have to intercept. And things were not pretty when Mikey felt the need to intercept stuff.

“Are they seriously arguing again? It hasn’t even been five minutes!” A voice marveled and Mikey looks up to see Aunt May leaning against the doorway of the guest bedroom she slept in as the elderly woman takes a long sip out of her mug. She looks amused to say the least, but a slight twitch of annoyance could be seen from Aunt May as she continues to listen to Miles and Raine arguing whose fashion sense was clearly better.

“I’d say they got past 5 minutes, but that’s wishful thinking.” Mikey huffs, sighing tiredly as she shakes her head. May snorts in amusement.

The two stand there, listening to the argument from down the hallway and the stairs. The yelling from downstairs travelled across the house, making it all that more easier for the two to listen to them argue.

“Please, your outfit could easily be mistaken for trash, take a walk in London and maybe a garbage truck might pull you up, tête de bite.” Raine snaps, leisurely sitting in one of the couches as xe throws another insult to Miles who simply fumes.

“As if your palate is any better! I bet you can’t even handle spicy food for the life of you.” He grumbles, fists clenched tightly at his sides as Miles glares daggers at the teenager who’s spread out against the floral couch of Aunt May’s home.

“Are you challenging me, spider-boy? The one who’s currently standing in front of me with such a horrid outfit that I could cry from how bad it looks?” Raine sneers, sitting up as xe raises an eyebrow.

“Spider-MAN! For the last time, it’s Spider-Man, not Spider-Boy!” Miles yells out, frustrated as he’s tempted to tear out his hair from how mad Raine is driving him insane. The hybrid merely snorts, leaning back against the couch to hoot a laugh.

“A man? All I see now in front of me is a boy who’s fashion sense needs to be thrown out entirely!” Xe snorts, wiping away a tear as xe laughs.

Miles grumbles again, now clearly fed up with Raine as he says, “You are insufferable!”

“Please, you wouldn’t last a day, much less an hour with me as your roommate.” Raine scoffs, rolling xyr eyes although xe smirks almost condescendingly.

The two teenagers were in the living room, Miles standing over the floral couch that was occupied by Raine as both of them send insults and condescending comments hurtling at each other, yelling although there was literally no need due to how close their proximities were! Miles would shoot a retort, Raine would backhand it and send it flying back, Miles would take the reply and also send it flying back. The routine kept going on, neither teen willing to back off.

The yelling resumes, insults flying across the room practically and if it weren’t for the fact that Mikey and Aunt May knew that neither Raine or Miles would be dumb or brave enough to actually instigate a physical fight, they would already be downstairs. Still, the sounds of arguments makes Mikey groan loudly, dragging her hands down her face.

“I’m going to kill them. I’m actually going to kill them.” She mutters to herself, unsure if she was going to follow through with the plan to do so.

“Right behind ya, girlfriend.” Aunt May huffs, taking one big gulp of her coffee mug.

“I am… so sorry for them.” Mikey says apologetically, shooting Aunt May a grimacing look, “If I knew what was making them argue, I’d stop it.”

“Ah, don’t worry about it.” Aunt May says, shaking her head as she does so, “It ain’t easy on all of you. Can’t imagine being taken away from your original universe is good on the heart or the mind.”

At this, she gives Mikey an unreadable expression, but it’s clear what Aunt May is trying to communicate to her. Mikey straightens herself, sitting up properly on the bed.

“Oh, I’m fine, really.” She says, trying to reassure Aunt May of whatever thought lingered in her mind.

“How’s your shell?” The elderly woman then questions, pointing to Mikey’s shell. The turtle grimaces, reaching a hand to rub at the bandages that fit snugly around her shell.

Upon arriving at Aunt May’s house (In the dead of the night, which warranted a broom to all three of their arriving faces), Raine had been insistent that they checked on Mikey’s shell. Originally, she had protested, saying she didn’t need it and that the shell would heal on its own, but alas, it seemed that whatever Raine wanted, Raine got it. It took a lot of protests, compromises and a chase or two around the house before Mikey was forced to sit in an armchair as Aunt May fussed over the large and imposing crack on her shell.

“It’s fine. It’s healing, I mean, but it doesn’t hurt now.” Mikey says truthfully, scratching slightly at the bandages. May just nods, satisfied with her response as she hums.

“That’s good to hear.” Aunt May comments, “That looked like a nasty hit. What happened, by the way? I never thought to ask.”

“Oh, I just fell out of a portal in the sky and landed on a roof. It’s nothing major.” Mikey says, shrugging a bit. At Aunt May’s concerned look, she sheepishly smiles.

“It’s nothing major for me, at least. I’m used to it, don’t worry.”

“Well that sounds concerning, so I think I will worry.” Aunt May can’t help but comment, raising a slight eyebrow.

Mikey can’t help but slightly chuckle, rubbing the back of her head, “Yeah, I get that a lot.”

“How do you deal with that stuff?”

“Oh, my younger sister has this crazy cool power where she can, like, speed up the healing process! It’s like one touch of her finger and poof! You’re all ready to go.” Mikey explains, throwing her hands out as she does so, “But Leo doesn’t like it when Aminah uses her ninpo too much, because it drains her energy. That, and well, he thinks that as the ‘medic’ of the fam, only he should get to make the calls in the medbay.”

Aunt May hums, “Leo is the purple one, right?”

“No, that’s Donnie. Donnie’s purple, Raph’s red, Aminah’s yellow and Leo’s blue.” Mikey corrects, shaking her head.

Aunt May lets out a deep sigh, rubbing the side of her head as she gets her thoughts together, “I think I need more coffee. Wanna come downstairs with me?”

“Sure. I need to get Raine and Miles to shut up, my ears hurt.”

“Oh, please do.”

Mikey chuckles, watching Aunt May turn and leave the guest room to go downstairs, leaving Mikey alone in the bedroom. Once alone, her smile drops and Mikey sighs, leaning back against the pillows and the headboard with a forlorn expression. She rubs her wrists, feeling an uncomfortable prickling beginning to build up in the muscles.

“Just a few days.” She mutters, sitting back up, “Just a few days. Then we’ll go home.”

With that, Mikey gets up, turning to leave the bedroom, unknowing of the yellow sparks that danced in the air… and the faint holographic silhouette of Aminah and April that appears before glitching away.

Chapter Text

[ Michelangelo ]

Mikey was not joking when she said that she was going to sort out this mess once and for all. And she was going to sort this out the Dr. Delicate Touch way.

Upon arriving into the living room, Mikey had to stop and physically collect herself as she was confronted with what she would describe as a ‘Leo-Donnie banter’ kind of scenario. It would seem that Raine and Miles had upgraded from trading measly insults to physically chasing each other around the coffee table. And really, it was just Miles looking infuriated as he circled the table with Raine looking like xe was having the best fun in xir entire life.

“Stop moving!” Miles cries out, frustrated as he tries to take a swipe at Raine. The hybrid merely laughs, jumping the couch in favor of running away from Miles, xir wings flapping behind xir as Raine is quick to dodge and evade.

“Hah! Missed me!!” Raine taunts, sticking xir tongue out as xe dodges another swipe.

Mikey watches with unamused eyes as the both of them continue chasing each other around, yelling and dodging. After what felt like too long to be comfortable, Mikey decides to butt in.

“Okay, both of you, that’s enough!” She yells out, stilling Raine in mid-run and Miles who was just about to climb onto the floral couches. Slipping, Miles falls face-first into the couch. Raine snorts out of amusement, slapping a hand over xir mouth as xe tries to be quiet. Sternly, Mikey narrows her eyes at both of them, crossing her arms. At this, Raine shuts up and Miles scrambles to his feet.

“We need to talk.” She then adds, making both teenagers visibly shrink at the prompt. Despite having known Mikey for a few short weeks, both Raine and Miles knew that getting Mikey mad was the last thing either of them would want to do.

“Sit.”

Miles and Raine scrambled to take a seat at the couches, not wanting to anger Mikey anymore than they already have. Mikey is a bit surprised at the fast obedience, but shrugs it off nonetheless. She’s aware of how scary she can be when in Dr. Delicate Touch persona, her siblings made it a point to tell her that. Even Donnie and Aminah were just a tad bit intimidated and it was hardly an easy feat to even get them to flinch. Mikey sits down in an armchair, facing opposite towards Miles and Raine, both who sit stiffly on their own respective sides of the same couch they sat on.

Sighing, Mikey uncrosses her arms and rubs her forehead in a tired manner.

“Can you two just… not argue for more than five freaking minutes?” Mikey manages to grit out, preventing herself from snapping.

At this, Miles and Raine immediately point to each other.

“He started it!”

“It’s xir fault!”

Both of them glare at each other. Mikey groans to herself.

“Oh, that’s rich, coming from you, Mx. Makes-Everything-xir-Business!” Miles grumbles, snapping at Raine as he narrows his eyes into a glare.

“Well I wouldn’t need to make it my business, if for once I could get out of the damn house once in a while! No offence, May, the house is lovely, just super boring.” Raine quickly adds that last comment, glancing to May in the doorway of the kitchen.

“None taken.” Aunt May merely shrugs, taking a sip out of her coffee mug.

The two continue to bicker, the sounds of arguments and banter returning once more, but this time, Mikey isn’t listening. Instead, she’s trying to think of a solution. Something, an answer to this predicament. She really does not want to resort to using violence because that was not the Dr. Delicate Touch way. She only harms her patients in the psychological way because it was going to be the only other way to actually get through to them.

But she needs a way to intercept this arguing and put a stop to it, once and for all. And what Raine had just said, may have given her an idea.

“I’ve got it! Both of you, zip it.” Mikey exclaims, putting her hands onto the coffee table in front of her, shutting up Miles and Raine as both of them turn to look at her.

“I’ve got a solution to both of your problems.”

“I don’t have a problem.” Miles and Raine say in sync, frowning before giving each other a side-glare.

“Yes you do, now shut it and let me talk.” Mikey clears her throat, receiving short nods from both teens on the opposite end, “Both of you are going on patrol tonight. Together.”

A beat of silence. Miles blinks, confused. Raine looks dumbfounded.

It takes a split second too late for both of them to let Mikey’s words sync in.

“WHAT?!” They explode, Mikey expecting this and taking it in with a small grimace, but other than that, she wore a monotone and stoney expression.

Immediately, Raine and Miles began going off at about miles per hour, listing down reasons as to why this was a horrible idea and how this did not solve either of their problems.

For one (And the most obvious one yet), they couldn’t stand each other. Forcing both of them to do something together for god knows how long would not solve that hatred nor would it make it any better. If anything, it would surely just lead to more arguments, insults and snide comments being thrown back and forth like a bad and heated game of badminton.

For another, well… 

Okay, maybe neither of them had any other reason that this was a bad idea other than the obvious fact that they very obviously hated each other, but who could blame Raine and Miles? Neither of them were keen to be forced to, quote unquote, ‘hang out’ with each other out of their own wills. But Mikey wasn’t budging.

“Nope, nuh uh, you two are going on patrol together and you are going to enjoy it. No take backs, final word, me.” Mikey says firmly, crossing her arms back together as Miles and Raine fall silent.

Both of them spare a glance at each other, glaring slightly, but knowing it was futile to even try arguing.

They really hated each other, but they hated making Mikey upset even more. Begrudgingly, both teenagers agreed, not looking at each other as Mikey beams.

This was going to be a fun patrol.

[ Miles ]

“This is your fault.” Raine grumbles, furiously folding together a crane, only to realize that xe was folding it the wrong way. Grumbling even more, Raine unfolds it and begins redoing the process.

“My fault? Real nice coming from you.” Miles huffs, rolling his eyes as he forces himself to glance down at the city below him and not tackle Raine to perhaps throw a punch or two. Something hits him in the back of his head and Miles twirls around, an indignant squeak coming out of him. Raine sticks xir tongue out, glaring at Miles as xe continues to fold at the origami paper.

The patrol was already going so badly. It hadn’t even been five minutes and yet Miles already wants to call quits! The only reason why he’s not going to is because he’d rather not give Raine another thing to talk shit on him for. Grumbling, Miles quietly sulks to himself, leaving Raine in the dark (Quite literally) to continue folding xir origami.

Fortunately for the brooding spider, Miles’ phone begins to ping with a notification. Finally, a distraction!

Miles slips out his phone, relieved to find that it was Gwen who was texting.

U free rn??

wish i was :/

Ur typing in all lower-case

Bad day?

more like i’m forced to be on patrol with some1 i don’t like

Damn, who??

remember when i asked you if any of u guys were visiting?

Yea

well, turns it out it was these two people from another dimension who got sucked into a portal

kinda like you guys, but they aren’t glitching

Huh, that’s weird, man

ikr? but yea, 1 of them is a pain in my ass ಠ_ಠ

The one you’re forced to be on patrol with today?

mhm

Lol, skill issue :P

okay, fuck u too (ง'̀-'́)ง

and here i thought you were my only|

“Who you texting?” A voice hums in curiousity, making Miles shriek in fright as he turns around suddenly, being met with Raine’s nonchalant expression, xir lips pressed together thinly and one of xir eyebrows raised in a deadpanned way.

“Wha- What the hell?!” Miles yells indignantly, throwing his hands up as he shoots to his feet, “You can’t just sneak up on people like that, especially when they’re texting people! Do you have no sense of privacy?!”

Raine chuffs, standing up as xe dusts xirself off, unphased at Miles’ reaction, “Could’a just said mind your own biz, man. Are you usually this loud during patrols or am I just unlucky tonight?”

“Are you always this infuriating?” Miles fumes, grumbling as he narrows his eyes at Raine in anger.

“I asked first.” Raine nonchalantly hums in response, fixing xir hair as xe does so.

Grumbling again and sitting down onto some wooden boxes, Miles finishes off his text to Gwen, reluctant to end the conversation, but he’ll continue it in the safe sanctuary of his dorm. He doesn’t need an annoying person like Raine looking over his shoulder, trying to read his texts like somebody who had no sense of personal space or privacy.

When he turns around, pocketing his phone, he glances over to see Raine standing over the ledge of the rooftop, orange-red wings sticking out from the black jacket xe wore. Hands stuffed into the pockets, mask pulled down, the scene almost looked completely normal. Like Raine was just a fellow New Yorker who was admiring the view of the city below.

Well, if you could ignore the inhuman-like body parts (Mainly wings), random tufts of feathers on xir cheeks and the flying origami crane, you would- Wait, flying origami crane?

Miles shakes his head, blinking his eyes almost profusely as he spots a paper crane fluttering around Raine, like an actual living bird that was content with its owner. Raine doesn’t seem bothered, not taking xir eyes off the scene of cars and lights below xir as xe reaches a hand up to gently rub at the crane’s head (Presumably, Miles did not take origami lessons, so he wasn’t sure if the folded tip was the crane’s head). He forces himself to look away, although mesmerized with the flying paper-craft, just in time for Raine to glance over at him.

Xe doesn’t do much but stare for a bit before tearing xir eyes away, with not much thoughts running through xir head in xir own opinion. The view down at New York was nice, pretty even. It didn’t beat home though and it doesn’t settle the uneasy churning in Raine’s stomach at the thought of it.

‘I’m so going to get grounded when I get home.’ Raine thinks to xirself, wondering how long xe was going to be grounded for. Did unknowingly getting sucked into a portal and spat out into another universe warrant for a needed grounding? Raine wasn’t sure, but xe knows damn well that Ryder’s going to do everything in his power to keep Raine under watch for at least a week.

The atmosphere is quiet, and surprisingly, neither of the teenagers minded. Miles is content to keep the silence and Raine wasn’t bothered to say anything at the very least.

After a while though, Miles’ phone chimes again and when he slips it out of his pocket, this time, it’s a notification from Ganke.

DUDE

Robbery over on Avenue street

Think it’s two gangs

Or maybe two gang members, idk

alr, gotcha, thanks man (•̀ᴗ•́)و

No problem, get some selfies for me (●’◡’●)ﾉ

He turns off his phone and stands up, making Raine glance over at him.

“There’s a robbery nearby. Might be a crowded party.” Miles explains vaguely, pulling his mask on as he makes sure his phone is secured into his pockets.

Raine hums, xir wings spreading a bit as xe glances down at the city, “Sounds like a fun night. Last one there’s a rotten egg, Spider-Boy!”

With that, the hybrid drops from the rooftop, flashing Miles a smirk before Raine pulls up the mask and falls head-first into the air, free falling. At this, Miles can’t help but grit his teeth together, grumbling before he runs and jumps off the rooftop.

He’s falling pretty quickly, catching up with Raine who looks laid back for someone who was free falling to the ground. At the last minute, Miles shoots a web, swinging in the air just as Raine begins to put xir wings to work. Both teenagers soar throughout the air, flying and webbing side by side.

“IT'S SPIDER-MAN! FOR THE LAST TIME.” Miles can't help but yell, grumbling very loudly as he glares at Raine through his mask.

“SAME THING, SPIDEY-BOY!” Raine yells against the wind, pulling down xir mask to flash Miles a grin before ducking down to dodge a sign that was rapidly coming xir way.

Miles doesn’t say anything in response, too busy grumbling and focusing on webbing and swinging across the city. And maybe ignoring some sort of heart throb in his chest after Raine smiled at him, but that’s normal. Right?

The robbery point was not far from where the pair were, much to Miles’ relief. But, also much to Miles’ dismay, it was near the patrol area he just knows his dad is going to be. Which, meant by all means that tonight's crime busting was going to be hard, to say the least. This wasn’t good.

“This isn’t good.” Miles mutters under his breath, peering over a stack of crates he’s hidden behind as he glances around to see any sight of a police car.

“Tell me ‘bout it. What are they even smuggling? Don’t look like anything valuable to me.” Raine pipes up, frowning as xe too looks over the crates, eyes scanning for the robbery that was supposed to take place.

“They have to be taking something. Otherwise Ganke wouldn’t have told me about it.” Miles huffs in response. It seemed to him that both of their priority lists were ordered differently.

“If you say so. Hope your mate was right.” Raine hums, standing up as xe tugs the hood over xir head, pulling up the mask to cover xir face, “Let’s get a closer look.”

“Wait, what-?” Miles blinks, pausing for a quick second before there’s a blur of dark shades and hues (With a mix of hot, fiery red) flying by him and into the darkness. He stands up to his feet, eyes blown wide as he hurriedly scans the scenery to try and find Raine.

“Raine! Raine, no!” Miles hisses, glaring at a cloaked figure that had to be his unfortunate partner in crime for the night as he too jumps down to chase after xir.

Raine moves against the crowd, the hybrid already having turned on xir cloaking brooch to hide away xir wings from plain sight. Xe moves against the crowd, eyes scanning for any potential opening to slip into the scene of crime. Xe finds one very quickly and is about to take it, when Miles reaches in and grabs xir by the elbow, dragging Raine into an empty alleyway that was, unfortunately, away from the entry point.

“Ow-! Oi, what gives?! I was close to getting in, you dickhead!” Raine grunts, colliding into a wall as Miles shoves xir. Xe turns around in a fit, glaring at Miles as xe pulls down xir hood and mask to properly give the costumed hero a proper glare.

“Are you mad?! We can’t just jump in, that’s not how this works!” Miles retaliates, throwing his mask off and glaring at Raine in response with an equally pissed off and irritated expression. 

“Oh really? I didn’t see you trying to make a move! What’re ya, a spider or a deer in headlights?” Raine throws xir hands up in the air, an indignant expression on xir face, “Last time I checked, jumping in completely unannounced always worked! It’s either move it or lose it, here, Spider-Boy and I ain’t losing shit tonight.”

“Do you ever think or is your brain completely out of order? We need a plan! New York doesn’t work the way you think it does, puta!” Miles, in return, snaps at Raine, also throwing his hands up in an exaggerated fashion.

“It’s New York! What on Earth is different here?!” Xe huffs, stamping xir foot as Raine gestures to their surroundings, “Unless people suddenly love going to Jersey over here, it’s the same damn thing!”

Miles opens his mouth, then closes it. He seems stumped for a moment before he shakes his head, trying to get his thoughts in line.

“Not the damn point. Look, we're going to have to think of a plan and we're going to do it together. I don't need Mikey on my tail just because you can't sit still for two seconds.”

“And that's supposed to be a bad thing?” Raine merely deadpans, raising a nonchalant eyebrow at Miles before xe groans and stuffs xir hands into the pockets of xir jacket, “Fine, whatever, but if shit goes down, I'm beating stuff up and ain't nothing you say or do is gonna stop me.”

“Fine by me. Just don't draw attention and we'll be fine.” Miles sighs, rolling his eyes.

“Jeez, who made you so uptight? Got a stick up your arse, mate?” Raine huffs, but otherwise goes quiet, grumbling softly as xe glares at nothing in particular. Miles doesn’t so much bat an eye at the remark, instead already too deep in thinking, trying to come up with a plan to make this work. 

If they didn’t do this properly, then they risk getting caught by the gang or even worse, his Dad. Best case scenario, they stop the bad guys from stealing anything and leave without any bruises or consequences. Worst case scenario, they get caught. Terrible case scenario, his Dad gets involved.

Both teenagers are silent, one brooding, the other thinking, when suddenly, they hear noises on the other end of the alley they were in. Raine and Miles look up.

“Did you hear that?” Raine asks, already drawing up the hood of xir jacket.

“Unless we’re both somehow hallucinating together, then yeah.” Miles responds, pulling his mask back over his head.

“Hallucinating with you sounds like a terrible idea.” The hybrid remarks.

“Shut up.” Says the costumed hero.

They both stand there, waiting in the darkness as they stare at the other end of the alleyway, anticipating for something to come their way. Whatever it was they were waiting for, neither of them knew. For all Raine and Miles knew, the sound could’ve been anything honestly and neither were prepared to see what was the cause of it either. A few minutes pass, and there’s nothing. Raine pulls xir hood back down but Miles keeps his mask on.

“Seems like nothin’.” Raine says, shrugging slightly as xe looks at Miles, “Must’ve been the wind.”

Miles frowns under his mask, not so easily convinced that it was simply just ‘nothing’.

“It can’t have been just the wind. The noise was too loud to just 'be the wind'." Miles says, shaking his head as he does so.

“Well, are you gonna check it?” Raine retorts, raising an eyebrow at Miles. When he doesn't reply, the hybrid merely clicks xir tongue.

“That's what I thought.” Xe says, humming in slight satisfaction as xe stuffs xir hands into xir pockets. Miles grumbles at this. 

Despite the oddness of the situation, neither of them moved to investigate what the noise might be, whether it probably was the robbers or the guards. Either way, neither scenario ended all too well. Eventually, Raine makes a move.

They march forward, brushing past Miles in favor of heading into the darkness of the alleyway and the source of the noise, even though they had previously claimed that it might’ve been ‘the wind’. Miles makes a small noise in the back of his throat before grumbling and rushing to catch up with Raine.

“So what’s your plan? Jump in and hope for the best?” He can’t help but question, breaking the silence between the two surprisingly.

Raine only musters a shrug and a glance over xir shoulder, “If it works, it works.”

Miles narrows his eyes at the other, “You’re unbelievable…”

Raine simply smirks at Miles and walks farther into the darkness. Miles, on the other hand, ignores the leaping feeling his heart has and definitely ignores the heat rushing to his cheeks. Thank God for his mask…

Chapter Text

[ Raine ]

Normally, in a scenario like this, Raine is always and usually prone to busting down doors and taking down bad guys the quick and efficient way. It was usually how heists and robberies were like for Raine, Ryder and Usagi.

Sure, they could resort to other things for money, but they were barely scraping by, especially when Raine was newly mutated, Ryder had just managed to get himself out of the Battle Nexus and Usagi had moved into the city, fresh from Japan and still barely fluent in English. It was a relief that Senor Hueso was nice enough to give both of them a job, but it didn’t necessarily mean that the heists stopped, per se.

Anyway, getting very off-topic here, but long story short, Raine was usually more flashy with their entrances, more loud and boisterous. It was xir purpose to announce xir presence as flashy and attention-catching as xe possibly could, even if, to some extent, it became highly irritating. But right now, xe’s forced into the shadows, hiding in the darkness with a barely hidden pout behind xir mask as xir unfortunate partner of the night instructs xir what to do.

“Okay, I say we go in, do a bit of scouting, regroup and figure out a plan. Simple enough.” Miles hums, looking through a window that peers into a warehouse. Inside, there are at least 4 trucks, all of which are loaded with… something, but Raine can’t be bothered to care, quite frankly.

“Scouting? Why don’t we just bust in, ninja their faces and ninja out?? By the time we group back, these twats are already gonna be halfway across the city.” Raine retorts, rolling xir eyes as xe glares at the glass, not exactly looking through it.

Miles gives xir a dirty look, but Raine is too busy glaring holes into the window.

“That literally defeats the whole purpose of a stealth mission.” He can’t help but scowl and Raine could almost laugh at how much it resembles more of an angry puppy than anything.

“Oh, it’s a stealth mission now? Thanks for informing me on that, Big M.” Raine sarcastically drawls, rolling xir eyes as xe quirks an eyebrow at Miles. The boy simply scowls even more and now it just looks like a pout at this point.

Raine stamps down the sudden urge to comment on that.

Raine doesn’t look at Miles afterwards, more focused on the gang members as they load up the truck with cases of something xe just can’t see, damn it. Still, Miles’ little text mate wasn’t wrong about the two gangs being in on this, so xe’ll give them credit. What’s more important is busting out the awesome moves to render these little shits immobile. 

Oh, and secure whatever’s in the case, of course.

After what felt like millions and billions of years of waiting and sitting, Raine pulls the hood over xir head, turns on the cloaking brooch and merely says, “I’m going in.” before diving almost head-first into the scene before them. Miles barely registers this, jumping back with a shriek before realizing that Raine had ditched him. Panicking, he pulls his mask over his face.

“Wait, hold on!” He yells after Raine, hastily jumping in after xir but much to his dismay, the hybrid was already jumping into the crime scene.

Landing onto the floor with a dull thud of xir sneakers, Raine stands upright, hands on xir hips and a smirk hidden behind xir mask. It doesn’t take long before someone realizes that they’ve been discovered, although it took a little bit longer than Raine would like to. Then again, xe is a rather lanky figure with not much build despite the training Ryder attempted to hype them into, so xe’ll cut some slack.

“Aye, lil’ lamb got lost?” A gang member sneers, cracking his knuckles and overall trying to look intimidating.

Raine raises a nonchalant eyebrow, “Actually, I prefer more bird-related terms, if you don’t mind.”

“Why? Cause you’re about to be cooked like one?” Another one laughs, causing a ripple of chuckles and agreements across the rest of the group.

Raine mocks a smile and a laugh, “Haha, oh, so original, I’m cracking up.”

The gangsters didn’t seem to like that very much.

“Mockin’ us, are ya?” One of them seemed to snarl. If it weren’t for the situation, Raine would’ve briefly wondered if said-gangster was a yokai in disguise. Raine wears a rather cocky grin, smiling from ear to ear.

“And if I was?” Xe simply questions, quirking an eyebrow as xe slides xir feet into place. The gangsters all seemed to glare at xir. Yep, definitely did not like it.

Raine cracks a grin, just barely hiding it with no effort. Xe raises xir fists.

“Ohh, this’ll be fun.” Xe says with a grin, a glint in xir eyes as the gangsters seem to get riled up by xir excitement, “Come on, what’re ya? A man? Or are ya too scared to hit a poor lil’ gal like me?”

The taunting seemed to do it and Raine laughs as xe duck xir way out of a punch that comes flying for xir head. Another one comes bounding for xir, but Raine already sees it a mile away and steps aside to let that gangster basically bowl their way into the other ones. Raine laughs again with glee, jumping and ducking as xe dodges punches and kicks left and right, nimble on xir feet.

“Do you call this a challenge? Man up, ya pussies!” Raine jeers, sticking xir tongue out as one of the gangsters as xe slides out of the way to let two of them ram into each other. Raine lets another taunting laugh.

It’s like a fun dance for Raine, twirling and zipping between the gangsters as they practically fall onto their own asses. Everytime that happens, Raine cracks another grin and laughs gleefully at their downfall. Raine doesn’t know how long it was before finally, Miles jumps into the action, body-slamming into a gangster who was coming in behind xir. Although, xe wasn’t sure if it was intentional, because Miles didn’t get up after a few good seconds.

“Next time, use something other than your entire fucking body to take someone down.” Raine comments, throwing a right hook at another gangster’s face before grabbing Miles’ wrist and pulling him up to his feet.

“Fuck you, a ‘thanks’ would’ve been nice.” Miles grumbles, quick to duck and swing his feet under the legs of an enemy barrelling towards them.

“Hah! I suppose you’ll be wanting a complimentary kiss with that?” Raine sneers.

“I’d rather die than have you kiss me, you weirdo!” He retorts.

“Short-ass.”

“Chicken wings.”

“Ass-kisser.”

“Hawks-wannabe.”

“Pain in my ass.”

“Is every insulting name you give me just another word with ‘ass’ in it?”

“Yep!”

Miles glowers at Raine, who grins at him, all teeth and fangs at the costumed hero before ducking, throwing xir legs around the neck of a gangster and twisting xir entire body to ride up on their shoulders.

“Whoo-hoo! Ride’em like a cowboy!!” Xe cheers, bucking back and forth as the gangster madly whirls around in an attempt to wring Raine off of him. The teen only merely clings on longer, whooping and cheering like this was the rodeo and xe was going for the 10 second mark on full speed.

Miles, meanwhile, rolls his eyes at the scene, obviously unamused by it as he’s too busy fighting off his own enemies one by one.

It takes a good few minutes, but soon, all of the gangsters were on the ground, passed out and bruised and beaten up. At some point, Raine hops off the gangster xe was horsing around with and Miles had done the honors of knocking him out cold. When he collapses onto the ground, Raine whistles, dusting off xir hands.

“That was fun.” Xe grins, glancing at Miles.

“You were riding a gangster’s shoulders like he was giving you a piggy-back ride.” Miles shot back, glaring slightly at Raine. The hybrid merely scoffs, leaning over to wrap an arm around Miles as xe does so.

“I can have fun while beating gangsters up. You’re so uptight, it’s almost not funny.” Xe scoffs, hands playfully ruffling Miles’ hair (Through his mask, somehow) as he groans and pushes xir away.

“I’m taking this seriously. This could’ve gone a lot worse than you think.” He grumbles, pulling off his mask to brush away his hair. Raine raises an incredulous eyebrow.

“What’s worse than having a couple of gangsters beat your ass up?” Xe questions, sounding genuine for the first time - and feeling genuinely curious as well.

Miles opens his mouth, “Well-”

Then the garage door to the building opens.

Startled, Raine and Miles both jump in fright, heads snapping towards the sound and Miles can feel the blood drain from his face as he sees who’s there - his Dad, with his gun drawn and a serious expression on his face.

“Shit.” Miles mutters, hands trembling as he tries to pull the mask back over his head, “Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!”

Raine glances over at him, still raising that eyebrow but before xe could think too hard about it, xe grabs Miles by his elbow and drags him to the sidelines, just before his Dad begins to advance into the building. He’s shoved into a corner, huddled with craters of whatever was inside and Raine snatches his mask before forcefully (And rather unpleasantly) pulling it over his head.

“Shut the fuck up and stay here.” Xe says in a low whisper before turning and leaving Miles alone in that corner. Miles stays in place, but rather out of the fact that he’s been stunned into place rather than obeying what Raine had told him to.

Swiftly moving in the darkness, Raine moves around the corner, slipping herself against walls as she blends into the shadows before peering towards the police officer that had just entered the building. He was a tall, fairly built man with broad shoulders, but nothing about him was intimidating enough to Raine. Xe had fought bigger and nastier people, so what about him made Miles so shook up? Maybe it was the gun? But that was stupid, who’d be afraid of a gun if you have literal powers??

“Whoever is in here, I command you to put your hands up and drop any weapons!” The police officer ordered, gun in front of him as he advances into the building.

Raine grins to xirself. Oh, this was gonna be fun.

“Aww, what a party-pooper! Was really hoping we could get to know each other better before you arrested me.” Xe sing-songs in a mocking tone, swiftly moving around in the dark as xe darts from one corner to another.

The officer whips around, obviously in a panic as he does so. Raine crawls against the wall, slipping like xe was a snake, ready to pounce on xir prey. Maybe a little hit to the arteries will knock him out. A little sleepy-sleepy night-night, as xe likes to call it.

However, before Raine is able to pounce and knock the officer out cold, xe catches a glimpse of Miles, far away in the corner where he’s been ordered to stay. Raine glances over and Miles is frantically shaking his head at the other, making a huge and clear X with his arms. The movement is amusing to Raine very briefly, but it’s clear what Miles was trying to communicate to him; to not do anything to the officer.

Raine frowns, obviously a little upset at the motion, but rolls xir eyes and decides to get off the wall. Xe sighs and walks casually into the light, hands slipping into xir pockets.

“I’m unarmed.” Xe says, a little bored and upset that xe couldn’t knock the officer out cold. And no, Raine wasn’t doing so because Miles was telling xir not to, that’d be absurd. Raine was only humouring Miles for a bit. Just a tiny bit.

The officer is a little alarmed at xir presence, but Raine simply raises an eyebrow. Xe slips xir hands back out, showing that xe was certainly unarmed before slipping them back in.

“I come unarmed and with no intention to harm you, whatsoever, sir.” Xe says, rather politely and if Raine could see Miles’ face right now, xe’s sure that his jaw is simply dropped in shock. The thought makes Raine smirk a little under the mask.

The officer looks distrustful, which is understandable, but he lowers his gun.

“What’s all the commotion about? I’ve gotten complaints from neighbours around here about noises.” He says, narrowing his eyes suspiciously at Raine.

“Oh, sorry, that was just the sound of me kicking ass.” Raine says, a little exaggeratingly apologetic as xe covers xir mouth with xir hands, like this was the first xe was hearing about this. At the officer’s raised eyebrow, Raine forfeits the exaggeration with a sigh.

“Honestly, officer, it was just me. There was a gang here planning to ship out whatever it was they stole and I just so happen to be nearby and stopped them. Honest.” Xe says, dropping xir hands to draw an X across xir chest, like xe was swearing an oath. The officer seemed surprised and Raine can’t blame him. Xe probably doesn’t look all that friendly to him, so xe may have given off the impression that xe was a villain.

‘That’s not too bad of a career.’ Raine thinks to xirself, possibly considering xir options.

“I can show you, if that’s not too much of a hassle.” Raine simply says, when the officer continues to eye xir with an uncertain look, almost sounding tired with the entire interaction. Honestly, why was xe even bothering? Raine could just simply knock out the guy right now and pretend nothing was happening.

One glance to the sidelines and Raine thinks, ‘Right, that’s why.’. Honestly, Miles owes xir a favour.

After a beat of silence passes, the officer finally lowers his gun and in response, Raine slips xir hands into xir pockets, trying to look as casual as possible without giving the impression that xe had a hidden weapon with xir, potentially.

“Alright then. Glad we can come to an agreement.” Raine says with a hum, bowing slightly, to which the officer looks at her with an incredulous look, “If you’d follow me, good sir, then your evidence is this way.”

Gesturing with xir head, Raine already begins to lead the way, only briefly pausing in xir tracks to hold a door open for the officer. He walks past, only sparing a glance at xir as he steps into the room that Raine actually has no idea where it led to. Oh well, hope he didn’t die or something.

Glancing away, Raine makes eye-contact with Miles, who’s staring at xir with wide eyes. Raine rolls xir own eyes, pulling down xir mask to mouth at him, ‘Get out, quickly’. Luckily, Miles gets the message quickly, albeit hesitantly. He gets up from his hiding spot and crawls through the window, sparing a small glance at Raine. Then he’s gone through the skylight, a shadow flitting across.

Raine turns and heads into the room the officer walked in.

[ Miles ]

Miles doesn’t know how long he’s sat here, on the edge of a tall building as he waits for Raine. Why was he even waiting for Raine, he doesn’t know it entirely himself, but… he felt obligated to. After all, Raine quite literally saved his identity and his ass, even if xe looked begrudging to do so. Gods, if this were any other scenario, Miles would’ve never unmasked himself in the middle of a battle like that! If anything, he’d skedaddle the fuck out of there the moment he was done, but no! A mutanth hybrid who wasn’t even from his dimension just had to ruin it!

“Ugh, what am I doing…?” Miles groans, mumbling into his hands in a bit of dismay. Fortunately, Miles was far enough away that no one could see it. Unfortunately, someone had seen it.

“I’m flattered that you decided to stay behind and wait for me, Spider-Boy.” Raine says, making Miles jump in fright and almost launch himself off the edge of the roof. Before he could, a hand pushes him back down, seating his ass down before he could possibly and accidentally plummet to his death.

“Sheesh, you really are a deer in headlights.” Raine teases and- Yep, Miles is wondering why he even bothered to wait for this asshole.

“Yeah, well, you’re not making me want to wait for you next time, asshole.” He grumbles, pulling up the mask of his suit so that Raine could see him glare. The hybrid only retaliates by pulling down xir own mask, a shit-eating grin already spreading across xir face.

“Feeling’s mutual, Bug-Boy.” Raine chuckles and, shit, had it always sounded that endearing?? Miles looks away in hopes that the flustering feeling he feels isn’t all that obvious to Raine.

The two fall into silence, but unlike before, it wasn’t awkward this time around. It was weird, like both of them understood that silence was what they needed at the moment, so they were letting it pass through. Unfortunately, when Miles was just beginning to enjoy the absence of Raine’s voice, xe decided to speak up.

“So…” Xe says, drawing out the vowel of the word, “Did you happen to recognize the cop guy back there, or are you that skittish with every officer that comes your way?”

Defensively, Miles already turns his head to glare at Raine, “How is any of that your business?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I just thought I had the privilege of knowing because I saved your arse back there, dickhead.” Raine easily refutes back with a snark, also turning to glare at Miles. The superhero turns away with a grumble.

“It’s none of your business.” He says, not wanting to take the conversation further, although he’s sure that Raine would pester him until xe eventually got it out of him.

However, Raine’s pestering never came.

“Fine, whatever. Not like I wanted to know, anyways.” He hears the hybrid say and Miles almost snaps his neck to look at Raine, who just looks away after briefly rolling xir eyes.

“What?” Miles says, absolutely dumbfounded.

“What do you mean, ‘what’?” Raine says then with a frown, raising an eyebrow in response, “If you don’t wanna talk about it, then I won’t pester ya. I’m an asshole, Miles, but I have standards.”

Miles should really be concentrating on the conversation, but when was the last time Raine had actually spoken his name? Usually it was some sort of demeaning nickname that made fun of his hero persona.

When Raine apparently had had enough of Miles’ gawking, xe rolls xir eyes and gets up, brushing off xir outfit before flicking him in the forehead.

“If you’re done gawking, let’s head back. Maybe get some snacks on our way. Mikey texted me saying that the milk’s finished.” Raine simply says, already turning to head for the building’s roof door to head down.

Whether or not Miles sat there like an idiot for god knows how long, was entirely his business and whether or not Raine had almost slammed xir face into the door when Miles called out ‘Yeah, coming, Raine.’ was entirely xir business as well.

Chapter Text

To say that Leo was worried would be an absolute understatement and a very shitty attempt to describe the panic attack he was having. Why? Because it’s been more than 2 weeks since Mikey had been declared missing. Mikey, his younger, beloved little sibling!

Yes, he knows that Mikey hates being babied and yes, he knows that maybe Leo is a tad bit overreacting to this situation, but who can blame him? He’s the leader of the team, the ‘Big man’, so to speak. (No, Donnie, it is not a stupid title, it is very mature for Leo to call himself the ‘Big Man’.)

If any one of them got hurt or worse, went missing, then it was on him, ultimately. Leo was responsible and he couldn’t afford to lose another one of his beloved siblings, even if it meant driving all of them insane to the point of exhaustion with his nightly unplanned patrols.

“Leo,” a stern voice makes him halt in his tracks, almost halfway through the front door. He grimaces, slowly pulling away to face the person who had stopped him. Or rather, the group of people who had rallied to stop him.

“Heyy guys, eheh… A bit late, innit?” Leo sheepishly chuckles, trying and failing to keep a calm face.

In front of him, Raph crosses his arms, with Donnie and Aminah at his side, both of them looking equally as concerned and pissed as Raph. Leo shrinks a bit under their scrutinizing gazes. He gives a sheepish grin, failing to mask his internal panic.

“Just where do you think you’re going?” Donnie questions, raising one of his totally fake, and drawn on eyebrow at him.

“Uhh, patrol…?” Leo admits, his reply coming off more as a question if anything.

“At 11?” Aminah frowns.

“In the night,” Raph finishes. Leo shrinks even further.

“Eheh, uhh… I went to bed at 6…?” the slider lamely argues and practically tries to sink into his shell when all of their glares hardened. Eventually, it’s Donnie (Surprisingly) who breaks the facade and rubs the space between his fake eyebrows with a groan.

“Leo, this is the third time the cameras have caught you sneaking out this week. And it’s only Monday!” his twin grumbles, looking terribly exhausted from someone who already looked like he was on the verge of death. Aminah and Raph nod their heads in agreement.

“Donatello is correct. Your already vexatious behaviour is deteriorating the more you do this,” Aminah says, frowning all the while as she tells her worries and concerns for Leo, although the slider on blinks at Aminah in confusion. God, he’ll never get used to how smart Aminah sounds. Sometimes she even left Donnie speechless.

At Raph’s vaguely confused look, Donnie rolls his eyes.

“She’s saying that your behaviour is concerning, Leo. And it’s getting worse the more you decide to be a dumbass and try to find Mikey by yourself,” he says, clicking his tongue, “By pythagora’s theorem, do any of you ever read a dictionary?”

“I think I would have to eat a dictionary to understand half the things you and Aminah say, but I digress,” Leo remarks in reply, getting a glare from his twin. Donnie scowls at Leo.

“What we’re trying to say is,” Raph says, cutting in as he begins to detect a fight beginning to come on, “This isn’t healthy, Leo.”

“What is?” Leo replies, trying to deflect the obvious problem that was smack-dab in his face. Now Raph glares at him.

“This, Leo. Your constant sneaking out isn’t healthy. I know you’re worried about Mikey, we all are. But sneaking out on a daily basis, with no one knowing where you are or going, and giving Dad a heart attack when he finds your bed empty isn’t helping,” he elaborates, levelling Leo with a hard look as the slider shrinks into his shell. Right on the nail, as well.

“I just want to make sure Mike gets home safe…” Leo mutters, dejectedly. Raph softens his look.

“I know you do. We all want to make sure Mikey gets home safe. But let’s be honest, if he knew how you’re making your mental health worse by worrying so much over him, he’ll probably Doctor Delicate Touch some common sense into you.”

“Physically,” Donnie adds. Aminah nods in agreement.

At once, all four of them grimace in sync at the terrifying thought of Doctor Delicate Touch. They all feared him to varying levels, but feared him nonetheless. Leo shakes his head.

“Alright, fine, I concede. Maybe I am going a bit overboard with this,” he says, admitting his mistakes.

“Overboard? Leo, I’m pretty sure you aren’t even on board the boat at this point,” Donnie snarks in response, clearly still pissed at his twin for making dumbass mistakes. Leo sticks his tongue out at the other, who happily gives him the middle finger. Raph sighs as the twins continue their antics.

“Well, if we’re all here and none of us are going back to bed,” Leo says, cutting off Donnie who looked like he was gearing up to spit out some comments, “Then we should go somewhere. Run of the Mill anyone?”

“In the middle of the night?” Aminah says incredously, raising a non-existent eyebrow.

“I doubt Hueso’s even opened right now,” Donnie grumbles in response.

“Boo, party-poopers, the both of ya,” Leo sticks his tongue at Donnie before he looks at Raph, “Come on, Raphie. A little pizza never hurt nobody?”

Just for the extra effect and flair, Leo uses his puppy-eyes, an effective weapon to use against Raph whenever he or Mikey or Donnie wanted something from the eldest. It works, because Raph sighs pretty quickly, defeated before Leo can use the puppy eyes to their extreme power.

“Fine. But in and out, you hear me? I don’t wanna give Hueso a hard time, especially when it’s so late,” Raph says, shaking his head as Donnie and Aminah shoot him with unimpressed looks. Leo grins, triumphant.

“Don’t worry, we’ll be quick, I promise! Hueso won’t even notice that we’re there!” He chagrins, already making a grab for his odachi.

“Let’s hope not,” came Donnie’s grumble and this time, Leo opts to ignore it.

Late nights at Hueso’s wasn’t a daily occurence, but they weren’t unknown. Some mutants and yokai tended to pass by, grabbing a quick snack for the road or something before leaving. Unfortunately, late nights meant late shifts which ultimately meant that many of his workers were unwilling to take them. Fortunately for Hueso, Ryder and Usagi were part of the very few who would take them without complaint, so long as they got extra pay.

“Thank you so much again. I would do the work myself, but I promised my son I would take him to watch the Battle Nexus,” Hueso says, thanking his workers once more as he pulls on his coat.

“It’s no biggie, Senor Hueso,” Ryder reassures the man, shaking his head with a smile, “We weren’t busy either, some extra hours won’t hurt.”

“Have fun with your son, sir,” Usagi calls from the register, waving to the pair as Ryder guides the man towards the entrance.

“I cannot stress this enough, thank you both, chiquitos. I’ll make sure to give you extra pay,” Hueso nods once more before exiting the restaurant, waving goodbye to the two yokai before he leaves.

When the doorway to the restaurant closes, Ryder sighs, shoulders sagging from their upright position.

“Something wrong, Ryder?” Usagi questions, although he already knew the answer to that question.

“Just worried,” the cat yokai replies, wiping his paws on the sides of his pants. He turns and retreats back towards the counters, slipping behind with his co-worker and good friend.

“About Raine?”

“Who else?”

“I dunno. You seemed pretty bummed the other day when that purple turtle left with his younger sister,” Usagi shrugs, fiddling with the cash register as Ryder’s cheeks flush with embarrassment.

The cat yokai rolls his eyes and chuckles rather fondly, “He seemed like a nice guy. Awfully nice to his sister, but terribly mean to his brother.”

“Which one?”

“The blue one, of course. The one you keep making goo-goo eyes at?”

Ryder knows he’s hit the nail on the head with the way Usagi bashfully looks away, snowy-white fur turning just the slightest bit of pink when the skin underneath grows hot and bothered. He grins, a cheshire smile that curls up the ends of his lips.

“Tell you what, next time they come over, I’ll let you wait their table,” Ryder teases, bumping his hip against Usagi’s as the rabbit yokai seemed to blush even more, “Besides, you get to listen to his awful jokes more that way. He has a terrible sense of humor, no offence.”

“You wouldn’t know what humor is if it slapped you in the face,” Usagi shakes his head, cracking a small smile of his own.

“I hear that comment plenty of times from Raine,” he responds and the conversation dies down almost immediately once the name was mentioned. Usagi suddenly busies himself with the cash register and Ryder twiddles with his thumbs.

“... Do you think xe’s okay?” Usagi speaks up, making Ryder perk his ears, but not look away from his thumbs.

“Xe has to be. I mean, I don’t think Raine’ll ever live it down if xe somehow manages to not be okay,” Ryder says firmly.

“I know, I know, but…” Usagi trails off, “You don’t think xe was captured… Do you?”

“By that psycho of a mom?” Ryder then questions, a tad bit horrified at the implication, “For the sake of my mental health and everyone else’s, I sure hope not.”

Usagi frowns, obviously not convinced by Ryder’s choice of reassurance. Ryder isn’t convinced either, but he doesn’t want to believe anything else, better or worse. Raine was his responsibility and if xe ever came back wounded or worse for wear than xe needed to be, then Ryder would never forgive himself. Of course, him mother-henning the young teen (Ryder could hear Raine yell at him ‘For fucks’ sake, I’m 16, Ryder!’) would probably result in an exaggerated eyeroll from said-teen and a comment about xe was old enough to take of xirself.

Fortunately, Ryder and Usagi were saved from a moping session when the door chimes and in comes the turtles. They’re frequent customers, so much so that Hueso has to frequently take their pictures on and off the wall of ‘Banned Customers’ every now and so, because apparently, the blue turtle had no true meaning of what ‘banned’ meant. Ryder’s waited them before, and so have the other waiters. They’re grown a reputation for constantly coming over almost everyday for pizza, especially moreso ever since the Kraang incident. An uncomfortable shiver runs up Ryder’s spine.

“Hey there, welcome to Hueso’s. Bit late for pizza, ain’t it?” Ryder says, greeting the customers as they walk into the restaurant.

The blue turtle, the only one not dressed in sleeping clothes, grins at him, “You betcha! Just one large Hawaiian pizza.”

The purple turtle, who adorned a purple hoodie and had his usual head attire sans the tech goggles, scrunched up his nose (Or beak) in obvious disgust, “Eugh, Hawaiian? Are you trying to kill me, Leo?”

Ryder simply chuckles, reaching to grab a notepad from the stack behind him, “I take it you want the usual?”

“And whatever may be the usual, if I may ask?” the purple turtle only raises an eyebrow.

“Let me see, judging from your past orders,” Ryder muses, already scribbling down unsaid orders for the turtles, “One large Hawaiian pizza, heavy on the pineapples and cheese. One plain pizza, specifically sized with a 11 inch diameter. No additional toppings, just plain cheese and sauce. 4 sodas and one tasteless juice, although Usagi here just complains that it’s water-”

“Tasteless juice is water,” the rabbit could only mutter, resulting in a wide grin from the blue turtle. Ryder rolls his eyes.

“And a side order of galactic chicken with some fries. Extra curly for the lady,” he finishes, nodding his head towards the yellow turtle, who looks stunned and possibly awed by the order. The purple, on the other hand, simply raised an unimpressed eyebrow.

“Did you really have all that memorized?” he questions.

“Hard not to with the lot of you coming here so frequently. Hueso’s gotten into the habit of referring to you guys as the ‘customers’, so to speak,” Ryder only replies with a smile, charming and sly like the cat he was.

“You have a reputation here, even if you don’t know it,” Usagi adds, snatching the notepad from Ryder’s paws to hand it to chefs who were still here.

“That’s kind of impressive,” the red turtle, who has been quiet this entire time, says with a small smile.

“Thank you, I try hard to impress,” Ryder responds. Usagi playfully bats his shoulder.

“You’re going to kiss the floor with how low you’re bowing,” he quips and Ryder smiles and laughs. Usagi then turns to the turtle, a sweet smile on his face.

“Please take a seat, your order will be ready in a few minutes,” the rabbit says and Ryder silently mocks his friend, trying to quietly retreat to the kitchen. Although that plan ultimately fails when he trips over Usagi’s deliberately misplaced foot and goes slamming into a nearby wall.

The turtles, specifically the blue one, almost burst out into laughter, only stifled by giggles and hands hastily slapped onto their mouths. The purple turtle only looks at Ryder with an unimpressed look, but the small twitch of his mouth betrayed the amusement he was trying to hide.

When the turtles take their seat, Ryder gets his revenge by slapping Usagi’s ass with a tea-towel.

“They seem like fun,” Leo comments as they sit down, watching the two yokai waiters at the counter chase each other back and forth when they think they’re out of sight. They really aren’t and it’s only better when Leo and his siblings get a front-row seat to the display.

“They seem like unprofessionals,” Donnie says drily in response, rolling his eyes. Despite his words, Donnie continues to watch the two, barely stifling a small smile when the cat yokai almost slips on a plaster platter that the rabbit yokai tossed onto the ground.

“Though they act childish, you must admit that the cat yokai’s memory of our past orders of sustenance is quite facisnating and impressive,” Aminah muses, still wondering how in hell did the cat yokai manage to remember their order so well. Especially the small detail that Aminah enjoyed the curly fries greatly.

“Aminah’s not wrong. We must be coming here a lot more often than we think,” Raph nods, agreeing with Aminah’s statement.

“That doesn’t excuse the, quite frankly, childish and unprofessional-like behaviour,” Donnie responds with a monotone voice, looking away just as the fight behind the counter begins to get aggressive. A crash followed by a few yells from the two yokais has Donnie rolling his eyes again.

“See what I mean?” he deadpans.

“Usagi, you cheater! Tea-towels are meant to be used for attack, platters are for defense!” the cat yokai cries out, fleeing to the back of the restaurant with the rabbit yokai hot on his tail behind him.

“Rules are non-existent, I follow no one, there is no God but me!” the rabbit, Usagi, cackles, chasing behind the other with two platters in hand. A shrill scream and a string of incoherent pleas are what can be heard afterwards.

“I dunno, they seem like fun,” Leo seems to shrug, watching the exchange with wide, excited eyes. There’s a shit eating grin spreading across his face as he sees this scene unfold.

“Never thought Hueso could hire actually fun people,” he comments this time, turning to face his siblings when the pair of yokais are gone, “Maybe you should befriend them, Don. Who knows, maybe their fun personality might finally rub off on you.”

His twin in purple, glowers at him with a fire behind his eyes. Leo only smiles in response. Raph sighs, rolling his eyes as his younger brothers now begin to quarrel as Aminah sits quietly, still pondering how the cat yokai was able to remember such a specific order.

It doesn’t take long before the two waiters emerge from the back doors of the restaurant, cheeks flushed and not so subtle gestures of the two trying to mess the other up. It was like a fun act of entertainment for Leo and his siblings as they watch Usagi stick his foot out to trip the cat yokai, only for said-cat yokai to retaliate by tickling the foot with his tail.

“Your orders,” Usagi says, smiling sweetly as he kicks the cat yokai in the shin, placing down the pizza and the side dishes. The cat yokai follows through with a harsh step on Usagi’s foot as he flawlessly places down the drinks without a problem.

“Hope you enjoy. Apologies if it’s not up to standard, it’s relatively late and the chefs want to go home,” the cat yokai says, smiling softly as he nods his head in an apologetic manner.

“Don’t worry, just a late snack. I don’t think the taste will matter all that much,” Raph only responds, shaking his head as he too smiles. The rest of them nod in unison, Donnie already reaching for a slice. The two waiters bow before they leave, soft giggles between each other as they continue to kid about. Donnie rolls his eyes as the cat yokai almost slams his face into the ground, inciting a delighted laugh from Usagi as he turns and sprints back behind the doors. Leo also laughs, amused by the display.

“See? Fun,” he says, grinning as he takes a slice of the Hawaiian pizza. Donnie resists the urge to give into his violent thoughts by grabbing his drink.

Sooner than they anticipate, the food is finished and the drinks are done. All that's left to do now is just pay the check and head out for the night. Or early morning, they aren't sure what time it was at the moment. They all head towards the counter, finding Usagi behind the register as Ryder wipes down the countertop. The both of them aren't fooling around at that point, but every once in a second they'll try to mess the other up with smiles and mischievous giggles.

“Hey, paying the bill?” Usagi greets them, smiling at the turtles.

“Yeah, sorry again for coming at such a late hour,” Raph smiles apologetically at the rabbit yokai, reaching into his pocket to fish out his wallet.

“It’s no problem, really. Extra hours mean extra pay,” he shakes his head, already going to ring up the order.

“Extra pay for what?” Aminah wonders aloud. While the answer should seem obvious, the brothers knew that Aminah had grown up pretty sheltered and was probably spoiled by Big Mama. Economics and things about the human world were practically a whole other world to their little sister.

“For bills,” the cat yokai ends up replying, still wiping down the countertops, “Living in the Hidden City is expensive and taxes are a bitch.”

To this, Usagi solemnly nods.

“I’m not the one paying the bills, actually, I only pay half,” he then adds, dodging when the cat yokai attempts to hit him with the rag, “Ryder mostly pays for the apartment, if anything.”

“Huh, so you are responsible,” Donnie muses, raising an eyebrow. In response to this, Ryder looks up, frowning as he narrows his eyes at the purple-clad turtle.

“What’s that supposed to mean??” he questions, though it didn’t seem irritated, more confused than anything. Usagi laughs at his confusion, printing out the receipt as he calculates the change he needed to give Raph back.

However, it would seem that Ryder didn’t take the comment so lightly, with the way his eyebrows were knitted and his tail flicked back and forth. Before Usagi could realize this, he turned and retreated through the back doors of the kitchen, tail sliding out of sight.

“Well there goes his mood,” Usagi only sighs, eyeing the door with worried eyes before he hands Raph back his change, “There’s your change, thank you for coming to Run of the Mill.”

The sudden shift of mood in the air was apparent to everyone, though not one of the turtles was willing to make note of it verbally. Well, not at least without making it awkward.

“What was that about?” it was once again Aminah who asked, eyeing the doors as well, “Is… he alright?”

“Yeah, he seemed a little out of it,” Leo chimes in, not usually too worried about people he’s never met before, but calls it a gut feeling he supposes.

“Was it something I said?” Donnie then frowns. He’s aware that sometimes, his nonchalant words and his lack of a filter often came off wrong to people without proper context. He isn’t surprised if that were the case.

Usagi shakes his head, ears almost flopping around at the movement, “He’s fine. Ryder’s just… a little worried. Skittish, probably.”

“Worried?” Raph echoes, older sibling sensors going off.

“Our friend, Raine,” Usagi continues, “Ryder’s close with xir and xe’s been missing for a few weeks now.”

“Oh,” the turtles collectively said.

“Do you know of xir whereabouts? Or at the very least where xe went missing??” Aminah inquires once more, now curious and concerned at the same time.

“Unfortunately, no,” Usagi replies, grimacing now as he begins to close up shop, though thankfully still talking. “We’ve tried calling xir a couple of times, but xe isn’t picking up xir phone, which is weird enough.”

He heaves a sigh, stopping whatever he was doing to stare at a wall for a few seconds. Then Usagi shakes his head, ears flapping as he did so. “We just hope xe’s fine, wherever xe is.”

Then he turns to look at them and offers a sheepish smile. “Sorry, that was a bit weird, huh? Just suddenly trauma-dumping on the lot of you.”

“Oh, no, it’s fine!” Raph exclaims, shaking his head fiercely as he raises his hands. “It’s fine, really. We were curious and you answered. We asked first if anything.”

The siblings all nod at this. Usagi could only offer a smile, grabbing a cloth as he began to wipe down the counters.

“If you don’t mind me asking,” he then says, “why are you lot all up? It’s relatively late, even by normal standards.”

All of them spare glances at each other, but it eventually circles back to Leo, who shrinks just slightly into his shell. He glares at his siblings in mock betrayal, like they’d just ratted him out to their father.

“We’re here because this dumbass over here decided it’d be a good idea to pull another uncalled patrol for the fourth time this week,” Donnie eventually speaks up, sighing tiredly as he does so. Usagi can’t help but whistle.

“Fourth time? It’s only Monday.”

“Precisely my words.”

Leo glares at Donnie, feeling betrayed that his twin had just said that aloud. Usagi raises an eyebrow.

“Can I ask why he’s been sneaking out?” Usagi then questions and immediately, all of the siblings seemed to tense up. It doesn’t go unnoticed by Usagi, though he does feel a little bit concerned at the way they eye each other now. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to. Just curious.”

Raph shakes his head at this. “No, no, it’s fine, really, it’s just that…”

“Our sibling is missing,” Aminah eventually says, fiddling with her claws as she does so.

“Oh,” Usagi says slowly, scanning the turtles for a hot second. That would explain why the group felt a little smaller than usual, Usagi could’ve sworn that there were more people. “Who?”

“Mikey,” they all say at once this time.

“The orange one. About yae high?” Leo raises his hand up and down, reaching it to the approximate height Mikey would be. “Taller than Aminah.”

The youngest glares at Leo for this, partially offended at the jab at her height.

Usagi then realizes which turtle they were talking about. “Oh, them! They’re about Raine’s age. Yeah, Ryder likes them. Says that Mikey’s really sweet with the customers and the staff.”

Raph manages to crack a slight smile. “That sounds like Mikey.”

“How long have they been missing? If you don’t mind me asking, that is,” Usagi frowns slightly out of concern, stopping what he was doing to give the turtles his full attention.

“4 weeks. At least, that’s how long we think,” Raph responds. Usagi pauses, blinking as the gears in his head churn.

“That’s… long,” he comments eventually. Though, from his expression alone, Usagi seems a bit lost in thought at the moment. “And you haven’t found them?”

The turtles all shake their heads in response.

“We’re worried because Mikey never really goes out by himself. Even if he does, he’s never gone for this long,” Leo then speaks up with a soft sigh, crossing his arms as a worried look overcomes his expression. “You okay? You look a little lost.”

Usagi shakes his head, snapping himself back to sense. “Oh, no, I’m fine, it’s just that…”

Donnie raises an eyebrow, prompting Usagi to continue. “Just that…?”

“That’s how long Raine’s been missing for.”