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Chapter Text

[Shellraiser: code Sunrise report to Bay 07, level C-12]

[Kaiju. Code name: Tiger Claw]

[Category 1. 3500 metric tons]

Mikey grinned as he leapt away from the punching bag he was working on and pointedly ignored how his immediate older brother, Donatello, frowned as he took off his boxing gloves. With a hand reaching over, Mikey grabbed his orange bomber jacket and threw it over his shoulders. Donnie reached out to try and grab his brother’s shoulder but missed as Mikey sprinted out of the room. From the room he was exiting, Mikey could hear the low groan from Donnie as he ran away.

He was being called for battle against the kaiju.

That was the official term but Mikey just called them mutants.

People moved out of the way when they saw Mikey tearing his way down the hallway. They would usually admonish him but seeing as he was one of the two pilots summoned to fight, they all let it go. They all watched the back of the freshly turned fifteen-year-old boy pilot, the youngest in the jaeger program, as his jacket flapped in the air behind him. The symbol for Shellraiser was proudly displayed for all to see which giant robot this boy helped control.

Mikey skidded into the gear-up room where his oldest brother, Leonardo, was already waiting for him. Leo turned towards his baby brother and gave a hesitant smile to him as Mikey gently took his jacket off. Clothes were taken off and replaced with the tight underlayer of the suit before orange armor was drilled into place on each other on top of him.

“Ready, Leo?” Mikey grinned as he felt the mechanical moving spine of the suit attach to the center of his back. He let out a small shiver as it connected to him, something he was never able to get used to.

Leo’s matching blue suit shined in the corner of his eye as he also reached for his own helmet. Both of them placed them on at the same time and let the yellow filmy layer on the front of it melt away to the bottom to give them clear view.

“As I’ll ever be,” Leo huffed with the weight a 19-year-old young adult shouldn’t have to bear. “I’m sorry that you had to step in.”

“I’m not!” Mikey chirped as the finishing touches to their suits were done and they started going down the long pathway to their jaeger. “You guys never want to let me fight so I gotta take them when I can!”

See, Mikey and his three older brothers were special in the jaeger program. There were many other people that saw a problem with four brothers, all under 20 years old, being in charge of a giant robot that fought monsters with the chance of dying every time they went out. There were many who thought that they shouldn’t be allowed to go until they were older. But there was something special about all four of them…

…they were all drift compatible with each other.

All other jaeger pilots had one partner that they would fight with. They would go into life-or-death battles with each other and sometimes, those battles would end with one dead and one alive. The surviving pilot almost always left the program as they could never bring themselves to try and drift with someone else ever again.

Some had their minds destroyed from the feeling the death of their co-pilot in their own mind.

Or, if one member of the duo was injured, then that jaeger was benched until they were cleared again. With the war with the kaijus going as it was, they could not afford to have a number of their jaegers down while waiting for them to recover.

Which brought the boys into the equation.

They could switch out members of the duo of pilots when one was down for the count at the time and still have the same fighting capabilities. At this current moment, Mikey’s second oldest brother, Raphael, was healing from a neural overload that had him laid up in bed for the last week. They usually didn’t like to let Mikey pilot since he was so young; but they would allow it when fighting smaller class kaijus to keep him from getting rusty.

Most of the time, Leo and Raph were sent out together as they had the deepest drift bond with each other. The twins would butt heads like nobody’s business outside the jaeger, but once they were inside, they became the pilots to a well-oiled machine.

With how well the four brothers worked together and were interchangeable, there were rumors from the jaeger mechanics that told Mikey that another jaeger was in the works to get all four brothers out fighting at the same time. For now, Mikey was going to let rumors be rumors and focus on the upcoming battle.

Watching the harness drop down from the ceiling after entering the door at the back of Shellraiser’s head, Mikey stepped up on the feet consoles. Leo did the same in time with Mikey, letting their feet get locked in and the harness attack to their backs. A small team of workers secured the boys in the harness. A hand control flew up from the ground and Mikey grasped it in his right hand, Leo’s own controller on his other side. Mikey was on the right side of the giant robotic head they were in while Leo was on the left side.

“How we doing in there, boys?” April asked with a cheery voice echoing out of the control pad speaker to their sides.

“All good on my side,” Mikey happily told his longtime friend and practically sister at this point.

“Same for me,” Leo answered as he pressed some keys on his side.

“You ready for another fight?”

“Always!” Mikey cackled.

“Calm down, little brother,” Leo sighed.

“You two better be careful out there,” Donnie’s stern voice echoed out of the speaker.

“Careful is my middle name,” Mikey giggled.

“Your middle name is Kiken, which literally means danger in Japanese,” Karai’s dry voice said through the speaker. Mikey could just feel his blood sister roll her eyes and cross her arms as she watched the display deliver information about Shellraiser’s startup.

“Who the heck gave you that name?” Casey laughed, alerting Leo and Mikey to the fact that Casey was at his station of monitoring their jaeger. April was in charge of their health and the neural load both of them would be under.

“That would be my dearly departed wife,” Yoshi’s airy voice answered. “She had insisted that be his middle name if we were picking my choice for his given name.”

Mikey and Leo snicker at each other at the sound of Casey stuttering over an apology to their father.

[Major Hamato on deck] someone announced belatedly.

“Hi dad!” Mikey exclaimed.

“Hello sensei,” Leo greeted. “Mikey and I are ready to drop.”

“Very well,” Yoshi hummed. “Engage drop,” he commanded to someone in the control room.

There were people that thought the four Hamato brothers piloting a jaeger was some type of sick nepotism. The truth was in fact the opposite, and the renowned ex-jaeger pilot and leader of the program was horrified when he found out that all of his children were drift compatible. Karai was less compatible than all of them but she made a good backup when only one brother was available to fight.

So far, that has never happened.

It was only after years of training and understanding everything from the neural link to fighting in a heavy mecha would the boys be allowed to fight. He made sure to personally train them, putting them through the grinder to make sure that they were ready to be let out into the field. Even then, Yoshi made sure he was relayed everything from Raph’s neural overload to Mikey’s papercut from his origami to make sure his boys were alright. Many wouldn’t believe that Major Yoshi, who got his nickname of Master Splinter from how he splintered a mountain while fighting a class 3 kaiju with his late co-pilot wife, was a true overprotective helicopter parent.

Mikey and Leo jolted as Shellraiser’s head was dropped down and caught up the main body. It twisted in its spot before securing itself.

“Time for the neural handshake,” Donnie told his two brothers. Mikey heard April start the countdown and he looked over at his brother with a smirk.

“Ready to dive in my mind, big bro?” Mikey asked Leo with a wiggle of his eyebrows.

“I wonder what horrors await me this time,” Leo teased.

“Rude.”

“Neural handshake…engaged,” April said.

A blur of memories ran through Mikey’s head as he drifted with his oldest brother. He had learned long ago to just let them pass through, to not reach for the memories of his beloved mother or of simpler times before kaijus decided to wreak havoc on their lives.

/A four-year-old Leo pouting in a hospital room as he holds his chubby hands out, wanting to hold a newborn baby Mikey./

/Little Leo peering into the crib as his mother holds him, telling him to make sure he looked out for his baby brother./

/Playing pirates with Leo while Donnie and Raph played a video game behind them; Karai texting a friend on the couch./

/Running around as his oldest brother chases after him for stealing the last blue razzberry ice pop./

/Watching the tv as a monster sprung from the depths of the ocean and destroyed San Francisco./

/Mikey hiding behind Leo as government officials brought them over to their uncle Saki’s house while his parents were taken to their jaeger to fight against the newest kaiju./

/Cheering in front of the tv with all of his siblings as his parents defeated another strong kaiju./

/Sobbing in his brother’s chest as the news showed the wreckage of Ninja Speed; rescuers pulling out a distraught Hamato Yoshi who wailed out his wife’s name./

/Practicing with his three older brothers and sister to prove to their father that they were ready to pilot a jaeger./

/Mikey holding tightly to his older sister as Leo and Raph are the first pair chosen to be sent out and fight against a kaiju./

/Leo catching a flying Mikey as he launches himself at his older brother after he and Raph declared they had completed their mission./

/Jumping around in excitement as he was finally allowed to pilot for the first time with Leo at his side./

Mikey and Leo inhaled sharply at the same time as they exited the drift.

“Neural handshake: strong and holding,” April’s voice drifted in. All other special lingo and start-up confirmations were barely registered in Mikey’s mind. He’s heard them many times before to the point that he could allow him to drift away and focus on aligning himself to Leo’s moves.

“Right hemisphere: calibrating,” Mikey listed off like protocol dictated. Moving in tandem, they both raised their right hand.

“Left hemisphere: calibrating,” Leo continued. Their left hands were lifted up and they punched their rights into their lefts.

Outside, Shellraiser copied her pilot’s motions.

On the holographic display in front of the oldest and youngest brothers, the words [Calibration Complete] shined at them.

Mikey heard his father one night talking to his uncle in the dark of the night when he went to get some water from the kitchen. He heard how he had the most raw talent out of all his brother combined. How he could drift with almost anyone because his personality was just so accepting. How he could easily force his partner to bend to his will but instead chose to work equally with them.

Mikey had snuck away before his father noticed but he’s pretty sure that his uncle Saki had noticed him there. After that talk, Mikey had thought long and hard about his fighting style with his brothers. While Mikey’s was wilder and more unpredictable, his brothers’ fighting were not like that at all.

So, with great focus, Mikey locked away the memory where he decided that he would go with the flow and copy his brothers’ fighting to make everything much more fluid. And so far…no one had found that memory yet.

Not like Mikey was going to let them with how deep he pushed it down.

“You are clear to go,” Donnie’s voice trailed in.

Mikey blinked to himself and saw that the bay doors were wide open and inviting to let them out. Turning his head towards Leo, Mikey let himself grin brightly. “You ready to kick some mutant ass?”

“Kaiju, Mikey,” Leo corrected but it lacked any heat. “And yeah,” Leo looked up with a glimmer in his eyes, “let’s roll.”

[Shellraiser, good luck] the overhead speakers told the boys.

“Remember your mission, my sons,” Yoshi’s stern voice said to them.

“Defeat the kaiju!” Leo answered.

“And come home alive!” Mikey finished with a light tone to it. “The mission isn’t over until we have made it back and reported the end of it to you.”

“Good,” Yoshi praised. “Be careful, my sunrise duo.”

“Just make sure Raph isn’t beating himself up too much,” Leo grinned. He and Mikey raised a heavy left foot in the air and stepped off the platform that rolled them outside. Heavy rain pelted Shellraiser to accompany the roaring sea outside. It didn’t matter how rough the water was as to the two brothers piloting the giant jaeger, it felt like nothing as they stepped in and submerged themselves. “Even though he was the dumbass to try and drift by himself.”

“I heard that,” Raph’s grumpy voice rasped out.

“I was hoping you would,” Leo teased.

For a while, Mike and Leo moved through the water in silence as they focused on the task at hand. When they approached land, Mikey got a notification on his side.

“Movement on our right side,” Mikey told Leo. Immediately, Leo sobered up and let his determination wash over both of them.

“Let’s show these kaijus why they shouldn’t mess with humankind,” Leo told Mikey.

“Hell yeah!” Mikey cheered as he and Leo picked up speed.

A tiger-looking kaiju raced towards them from the land. Shellraiser raised a fist in the air to meet the kaiju that pounced towards them.

Mikey skipped down the long walkway as he and Leo left Shellraiser.

The fight had been simple and the two of them were returning home more quickly compared to other missions. Leo rolled his eyes at his youngest brother’s energy after co-piloting such a large jaeger. He himself felt like he was going to sleep like a baby for 10 hours straight once his head hits his pillow.

Yoshi waited at the end of the with his hands resting on top of his walking cane. He looked at his sons with a careful eye to scan them for visible injuries as they came to stop in front of them. Donnie’s tall form waited to the left of their father, a soft smile on his face and arms crossed over his chest. Mikey straightened himself up with leftover energy practically bursting from his seams. Leo rushed the last few steps to place himself next to his brother in front of their father.

At the same time, they raised their right hand to salute their father and the boss of the jaeger pilots.

“The kaiju has been defeated and we have returned home alive!” Leo and Mikey announce in tandem.

“Excellent,” Yoshi nodded in relief. “Mission over. Get some rest.”

Mikey kicked his feet in the air behind him while laying on his stomach as he read through the newest comic book of his favorite story. The fight from earlier was hours behind him but he still felt a certain kind of wired from the connection to Shellraiser. It was another way he was different from his three brothers as they all felt exhausted after a fight.

A knock at his doorframe had Mikey looking up to see Raph smiling softly at his baby brother. “Hey there, Mike,” Raph greeted as he shuffled into the room.

“Raphie!” Mikey cheered as he pushed himself up on his hands. A swift but light slap to the back of the head had Mikey yelping and holding a hand to the site of attack.

“I told you to stop calling me that,” Raph growled lightly before dropping onto Mikey’s bed. It wasn’t like the cushy bed he had at home but there was only so much you could do with military assigned beds when you had to live at the jaeger base of operations.

“You good?” Mikey asked as he put his comic away and scooted closer to his brother.

“I’ll be fine,” Raph waved away the concern. “It’s my own dumbass fault that I have to deal with this killer headache for a while.”

“Not that I’m complaining, but why are you here and not in your own room?” Mikey tilted his head to the side, letting his tight curly blond hair drift to the side. An orange headband held back the front of it. He honestly wish he could grow it back out like he was younger to have the large mane but then it would be in the way of the jaeger helmets.

“Just wanted to check up on you,” Raph mumbled as he squinted bright green eyes up at the ceiling. “You went out to fight and I wasn’t able to watch when you guys returned.”

“Not like you missed much,” Mikey shrugged as he carefully maneuvered Raph to lay on one of his two pillows. If he played his card rights, he would convince Raph to stay and then he would have a cuddle buddy for the night.

Raph would never admit it but he was an extremely cuddly and affectionate dude.

“I still wanted to watch,” Raph sighed, his whole-body slumping as it lost tension. “I wanted to see for myself that you two made it back safely.”

“Who are you kidding?” Mikey laughed to himself as he pulled his queen-sized cushy orange blanket up on the two of them. It was one of the items that he brought from home to make his new room feel homier. “Sunrise duo is not going to let a little category 1 mutant bring us down.”

“Kaiju, Mikey,” Raph mumbled as his eyelids grew heavier.

“Whatever,” Mikey shook his head and reached over to turn off his light. “Next time, though, the sunset crew is going to show everyone who’s the real bosses.”

“Damn straight,” Raph yawned as his eyes finally closed. “Gonna show everyone why we are the best.”

“Well said, big bro,” Mikey grinned to himself as he snuggled into Raph’s side. Raph threw an arm out to pillow Mikey’s head and quickly fell into slumberland with a loud snore. “Well said.”

Mikey felt the energy from piloting earlier finally leave him and his own mind followed after Raph’s to sleep.

Chapter Text

[Shellraiser: code Sunset report to Bay 07, level C-12]

[Kaiju. Code name: Mozar]

[Category 2. 5200 metric tons]

The dumpling Mikey was about to put in his mouth dropped as he threw his head back and groaned. Because, of course, a kaiju would attack when it was pizza dumpling night.

“Looks like you’re up again, little brother,” Karai, Mikey’s 21-year-old sister, hummed as she ate one of her own pizza dumplings. “And it’s a big one.”

“I just wish they could have chosen another time for this,” Mikey grumbled as he got out of his seat and threw his jacket on. “Or better yet, never shown up to begin with that.”

“I’m with you on that one,” Karai nodded as she lifted her soda and took a sip. “Go ahead, I’ll be in the command room soon.”

Mikey nodded before he turned to leave. He paused for a moment and turned back to his food, Karai raising an eyebrow at him. Reaching down quickly, Mikey grabbed a handful of his pizza dumplings and rushed out of the room with them. Karai shook her head in exasperation at her youngest brother taking a snack for the road.

Mikey stuffed pizza dumpling after pizza dumpling in his mouth as he sprinted towards the suit up room. He was just swallowing his last dumpling when he skidded into the room and spotted Casey helping Raph suit up. Raph looked up at the movement and sent a smirk at his youngest brother. “Looks like its finally our turn again.”

“Hell yeah!” Mikey cheered as he stripped off his clothes and climbed into the underlayer. He went through the process of getting suited up like usual, letting himself zone out as Raph chatted with Casey. Once they were all ready to go, Casey clapped his brother on the shoulder before jogging towards the exit. “Stay safe, you two!” he called as he dipped out of the room.

“Safe is my middle name,” Mikey rolled his eyes.

“It’s literally the opposite,” Raph laughed as he slung an arm over Mikey’s shoulder, his red suit contrasting nicely against his own orange suit. “But don’t worry, you got me here to protect you.”

“Who said I was worried?” Mikey snickered. “Though, I might have to be with your piloting.”

“Why you little shit,” Raph grumbled as he pushed Mikey towards Shellraiser’s head. Mikey took a second to really look at his jaeger for the first time in a while to marvel at the design of it. When it was being designed, their father had asked for turtle motifs to be added to it in hopes that it would bring them protection.

Mikey thought it was mostly because his mother loved the animal and used to call the boys her little turtles.

Mikey and Raph stepped into the console with the older brother on the right and the younger on the left. Donnie and Mikey were able to switch which sides they piloted on but the twins always were rigid on what side they had to be on.

“I think we should switch Mikey out for me still,” Leo’s nasally voice echoed out of the console’s speaker.

“Bro, you literally have the flu,” Mikey rolled his eyes as he spoke into the coms. “You’re lucky that dad even let you have access to Shellraiser coms instead of making you sleep.”

“I do not recall letting him have access,” Yoshi’s voice filtered in.

Leo sputtered from his end of the line and Mikey could hear the laughter of Donnie, April, Casey, and Karai in the background of his father’s line.

“Busted,” Raph laughed as the hand controller lifted out of the ground.

“Sorry, sensei,” Leo apologized. “I kind of guilt-tripped someone so they would let me watch and listen. I couldn’t rest when I knew that you two were being deployed.”

“You’re such a worrywart,” Karai said. “That’s supposed to be my job.”

“It’s his mother hen instincts,” Mikey quips.

“Is not!” Leo argued.

“It sure is,” Donnie dryly added.

“I would like to remind everyone that a class 2 kaiju is on its way to the coastline,” April cut in.

“Yes, let’s prepare,” Yoshi agreed, cutting off all the joking from continuing on the line.

“Yeah, let’s drop already,” Raph said.

“Very well,” Yoshi hummed. “Engage drop,” he commanded to someone in the control room.

Mikey and Raph jolted as Shellraiser’s head dropped numerous stories to be brought to the main body. The two of them felt themselves get spun around as the head turned itself to connect. Once the head was in place, Mikey could hear various click sounds as locked secured both parts of the jaeger together.

Mikey let the usual wave of start up wash over him and prepared for the neural handshake. Despite not having as deep of a bond with Raph as he would with Leo, the sunset duo could go deep.

“Initiate neural handshake,” April said, her tinny voice echoing out of the speaker.

“Time to hit the crazy train again,” Raph joked.

“Neural handshake…engaged,” April said.

“Rude,” Mikey rolled his eyes as memories with his red loving brother ran through his mind.

/Raph letting Mikey climb into his bed when he had a nightmare as a child./

/Kicking a soccer ball around a large grass covered backyard with Raph as Leo and Donnie stayed in the shade with their mother; Karai and their father watering the garden at the edge of the property./

/Raph chasing after some kids that tried to bully Mikey on the playground./

/Learning how to skateboard with Raph holding his arms out ready to catch Mikey if he fell./

/Raph trying to pull Mikey back from the tv as the first kaiju destroyed San Francisco, killing thousands and thousands in a single day./

/Silly faces shining on Raph’s face to try and make Mikey laugh, distracting him from the thought of their parents out there fighting the monsters./

/Both warm-tone loving brothers cheering in front of the tv as their parents defeated another kaiju that wanted to destroy their world./

/Hearing Raph wail in grief as Mikey tucked himself into Leo’s chest, the new report blaring from the tv as they show their father being pulled away from Ninja Speed’s wreckage with an arm reaching towards it./

/Raph sparring with him to help him get in extra practice to catch up to his older siblings’ level./

/Raph slapping his back in congratulations when he is finally allowed to pilot Shellraiser./

/Being pulled into a tight hug the second he reported the end of the mission to be welcomed home by his second oldest brother./

Mikey and Raph inhaled sharply at the same time as they exited the drift.

“Neural handshake: strong and holding,” April’s voice drifted in.

“Right hemisphere: calibrating,” Raph listed off. Moving in time with each other, they both raised their right hand.

“Left hemisphere: calibrating,” Mikey continued. Their left hands being lifted up. Moving in tandem, they both raised their both of their hands to curl into fists and straighten their middle fingers.

Outside, Shellraiser copied her pilot’s motions.

On the holographic display in front of the second oldest and the youngest brothers, the words [Calibration Complete] shined at them.

“Did you have to do such a crude gesture?” April sighed from her end of the line.

“We know worse ones,” Raph grinned savagely.

“Oh really?” Yoshi hummed, making Raph stutter as he forgot his father was still on the line. Oh, the joys of having your father being the one in charge. “Do tell me more.”

“Oh—uh,” Raph sputtered, looking over to Mikey for help. With the neural connection between them, it wasn’t hard for Mikey to figure out that his brother was fearing extra katas in the dojo.

Ahead of them, the doors to Shellraiser’s bay opened up. “Oh, look, it’s time to go,” Mikey cut in. He made Raph follow along with his lead to exit the giant room to step out into the sunlight. At their back, a rocket pack was being attached to send them to their location. Usually, a team of helicopters would fly them but they were too far away to make it in time if they didn’t use the rockets.

“You two better be safe out there,” Leo wheezed. “I’ll kick your butts if you come home injured.”

“Safe is my middle name,” Mikey quipped.

“It’s really not,” Casey laughed.

“Damn, oh-for-two,” Mikey tsked.

“Maybe you should focus more on where you are going and less on trying to convince people you have a different middle name,” Donnie sighed. In the background, he could hear rapid type to alert them that his technology-inclined brother was at the helm in the control room. “I have the rockets set to bring you to the city but try to minimize damage, please.”

“We’ll try our best.” Mikey and Raph raised their right hands to make Shellraiser salute.

“Remember your mission, my sons,” Yoshi said to them.

“Kick that kaiju’s ass!” Raph snarled in demented glee.

“And come home alive!” Mikey finished as he grinned. Behind them, the countdown for takeoff started, letting them know that it was almost time to leave.

“Very good,” Yoshi hummed in praise. “Be careful, my sunset duo.”

“Careful is my middle name!” Mikey cackled as the timer approached closer and closer to zero.

“It’s really not,” Donnie groaned from his end.

A shockwave ran through the city as Shellraiser landed a heavy punch on Mozar.

It reminded Mikey of a triceratops but much eviler with a touch of the devil on it. Though, that was a fair comparison to most kaiju that have ever exited the breach to bring horror upon mankind.

With a loud thump, Mozar fell to the ground in a large heap, the ground rumbling underneath it.

“Take that!” Raph goaded as the two of them commanded Shellraiser to back up from the corpse. Mikey breathed out a sigh of relief as the battle finally ended. It was a fight to the death since the moment they touched down in the waters of San Francisco. “You okay, little brother?” Raph called over.

“You’re in my head,” Mikey teased. “You should know the answer to that already.”

“Just making sure,” Raph rolled his eyes. Working together, the two of them turned Shellraiser to head back to the shore to wait for their pick up. Mozar had moved them inland quite a bit but there were able to keep the fight contained to a shipyard. “We got communications back yet?”

“Let me check,” Mikey hummed as he used his right hand to reach forward and press a few buttons on the center console. Sometime near the beginning of the fight, Shellraiser was thrown backwards and hit its head hard on the ground. It knocked out communication to the command center. “Shellraiser to command, come in.”

“Shel—iser, co—in She—ser,” Donnie voice came out all warbly through the speaker. Static accompanied, making both Raph and Mikey wince at the noise.

“Hang on,” Mikey said as he stuck his tongue out between his lips in concentration. With a few more button presses, the static from the speaker disappeared completely. “Okay, Don Don, try now.”

“Mike?! Raph?! Do you hear me?!” Donnie’s increasingly panicked voice demanded. “Are you two okay?!”

“We hear you,” Raph rolled his eyes. With a shared thought between them, they moved to cocked their hip out and place a hand on it. “We’re fine. The kaiju is down and we are ready for a pick-up.”

“Thank god,” Donnie breathed in body-sagging relief. “Leo was over here freaking out the whole time when we lost communications with you guys.”

“I wasn’t that bad,” Leo huffed which turned into a cough.

“You were,” Karai shot at him.

“You really were, my son,” Yoshi chuckled.

“Not you, too,” Leo groaned.

Mikey let himself smile at the banter coming out of the speaker. It was the usual mark that the fight was over and that he could relax.

But then he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. With their minds connected, Raph straightened when he saw what Mikey saw. The two of them glanced at each and paled with a single, “fuck,” shared between them.

“What’s wro—” Casey had started to ask.

Screams were ripped out of Mikey and Raph’s throats as they were bulldozed in the back from the very much alive kaiju they thought was a corpse.

“Boys!” Yoshi’s scared voice rang out in the head of Shellraiser.

“Guns! Now!” Raph yelled over the sound of metal distorting behind them. “Let ‘em eat plasma!”

Moving together, the guns built into the left arm that Mikey controlled came to life, the hand peeling back in a mechanical move. With a quick turn against the kaiju pushing against them, they waited for Mozar to open his mouth before stuffing the gun arm in.

At that same moment, Mozar’s sharp triceratops horn tore into Shellraiser’s head on Raph’s side. It thrashed around and the spine harness attached to Raph fell victim to it. Half of Mikey wanted to scream at the sudden disconnect from his brother’s head.

The other half of him realized that if he didn’t continue fighting, then they were both going to die.

With a guttural roar, Mikey took control over Shellraiser. He pushed on the control to stuff the gun arm deeper into Mozar’s throat and fired.

He shot round after round into the kaiji’s body, blowing it apart from the inside-out and didn’t stop until he had emptied the clip. Mikey didn’t know how much time had passed for to happen. All he knows, it could have been hours that he was fighting for his and Raph’s life (it had only actually been seconds).

A ringing resounded in his ear as his vision grew fuzzy around the edges. It finally registered to him that he had finished off Mozar, with only the head attached to a shoulder and arm hanging off the gun arm with the blue kaiju blood dripping off. Moving his arm to the side, he threw Mozar off to the side and the movement sent a wave of stars into his vision.

Shellraiser fell to its knees, both of its arms falling to the side as Mikey lost his feeble control over the jaeger. With a stroke of luck, Shellraiser fell into a position where it would stay upright and Mikey wouldn’t have to worry about it crashing headfirst into the ground.

Something red came into Mikey’s view as he tried to blink away the fuzziness from his eyes. It pulled at the constraints holding him in his half of the controls. Something disconnected from his helmet and it was wretched away from his head, leaving a cool breeze to brush against his hot and sweaty face. Two armor covered hands grabbed at his face, making him look at someone’s worried and scared face.

Ah, it was Raph.

Mikey could see Raph moving his mouth but he couldn’t hear anything from it over the ringing in his ears. His eyes drifted over to the gaping hole on Raph’s side of Shellraiser’s head. Raph gently pulled Mikey’s head back to have his vision focused on his red clothed brother. Taking stock of his brother, he could see his brother had luckily walked away with no injuries besides some blooming bruises.

It made Mikey feel better.

Feeling something wet dripping down his face, he pulled a heavy arm up to touch at it. He pulled away to see bright red blood on the fingers of his orange suit. It dripped down out of his nose and out of the corner of his eyes to splatter against the gray-green flooring of his shared jaeger.

Ah, it was probably a neural overload.

Makes sense since he controlled a jaeger all by himself.

Mikey felt his head get shaken lightly as his arm dropped back down at his side. Tired eyes dragged themselves to his second oldest brother’s face as he screamed wordlessly in his face. Mikey could tell that Raph was scared, terror shining in his eyes through his own helmet.

It wouldn’t do anyone good if his big brother was freaking out.

With the last bit of energy Mikey had, he drew his lips up in a small smile. “Sunset duo for win, am I right?” he croaked.

Mikey isn’t sure if his words got through to Raph the way he intended when his brother’s face morphed into something painful.

He couldn’t think on it too much more as darkness claimed him, pulling him under.

Mikey would be told later that when the two of them arrived back at jaeger headquarters, he had woken up to the worried face of his father. He was laid out on a gurney that was being rushed to the med bay with Raph and his father rushing along on the same side. Donnie and Karai had been holding a coughing Leo back at the end of hallway as the eldest brother refused to return to his room after seeing the state of the youngest brother, trying to rush to his side.

He had raised his shaky right hand to a salute at his father, the major’s eyes wide with fear.

“The kaiju has been defeated and we have returned home alive,” Mikey mumbled as whatever energy he had to wake up was rapidly depleting.

“Excellent,” Yoshi whispered in relief and reached a hand up to rub a thumb over his youngest son’s cheek. “Mission over. Get some rest.”

Without another second of waiting, Mikey’s eyes slid back shut and his hand dropped down onto the gurney right next to his head.

A steady beeping was what Mikey woke up to.

Peeling open sleep crusted eyes, Mikey peered up at the bland roof of the jaeger base’s med bay. He winced as a headache pounded itself into his head and he reached a hand up to block the light from hitting his eyes.

“Mikey?!” a soft voice made its presence known. “Are you awake?!”

Mikey turned his head to see Donnie slumping in pure unadulterated relief. Large dark eyebags made residence under his directly older brother’s eyes as he blinked away the watery shine in them.

“Dee?” Mikey whispered; his throat dry as a dessert.

“Don’t talk yet,” Donnie commanded as he reached backwards to grab a cup. Bending the straw, he lowered it to Mikey’s lips. He pursed his lips around the straw and sucked in blissful cool gulps of water to soothe his parched throat. Before he knows, Donnie is pulling away the empty cup to throw on the bedside table next to him. “How are you feeling?”

“Like my head is splitting open,” Mikey whined as he reached up to rub his forehead. “What happened?”

Donnie pressed his lips together in a hard line. It caught Mikey’s attention, making him try and push himself up on unsteady arms. With a yelp, Donnie shot forward to push his younger brother back gently onto the medical bay bed. “Don’t get up yet. You underwent a lot of mental strain.”

“Mental strain?” Mikey echoed with narrowed eyes. “What are yo—oh. Oh.”

The last few moments where he fought against Mozar all by himself came rushing back at him.

“Yeah, oh,” Donnie rolled his eyes. He pinned down his brother with hard look that told him how much trouble he was in. “What were you thinking?!”

“That both of us were going to die if I didn’t do anything,” Mikey shot back with an iron seriousness.

“You almost killed yourself!”

“Better to have one dead brother instead of two.”

Donnie’s mouth opened and closed like a fish as his brother’s words washed over him. The shine of tears from earlier came back in full force before collecting in the corner of his eyes. “You…you don’t get to say that,” Donnie whispered. “You never get to say that about yourself.”

“It’s true though,” Mikey insisted as he looked away and crossed his arms even when it made his head pound harder at the movement. “I’m the stand-in when one of you guys aren’t available. The spare tire when one of you fall flat. The extra person—”

“SHUT UP!” Donnie yelled as he slammed both hands on the bed at both sides of Mikey’s head. Mikey stared up at the hurt expression on his genius brother’s face as tears dripped out of his eyes down on to Mikey’s cheeks. Donnie’s loud yell caused multiple people to shuffle around the doorframe and peek in at the brothers. “JUST SHUT UP! NONE OF US THINK OF YOU LIKE THAT!”

Instead of going along with the positive affirmation that Donnie was yelling at him, Mikey felt something hard twist in his gut. Instead of relief, he felt anger.

“Oh yeah?” Mikey hissed. “Then how come I’m only ever deployed when it’s supposed to be an easy battle or one of you are down? None of you want to send me into a real battle!”

“That’s because you are 15-years-old!” Donnie hissed back. “A child!”

“Says the 17-year-old child!” Mikey shot back. At this point, Mikey was yelling too, drawing a crowd at the doorway. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see his father, sister and two oldest brothers watching in muted horror. “Why does it matter how old I am?! Didn’t I prove myself to be enough when I killed that mutant by myself?!”

“Kaiju and dammit, Mikey! You shouldn’t have had to!” Donnie yelled back as he pulled himself away and glare down at Mikey.

Not wanting to seem weak, Mikey ignored the pain in his head and pushed himself up to sit up. “But I want to! I want to help protect the world like you guys do! Why is it so hard for you guys to accept that?!”

“Because you are our baby brother!” Donnie roared and stomped a foot. “We want you to be safe!”

“And you think I don’t want the same thing for you guys?!” Mikey roared back, a hand slapping down on his bed. “Do you guys not realize how worried I am every time you guys are sent out there and I am forced to stay back and watch?!”

“That doesn’t matter!”

“It does matter to me! You’re my big brothers! What am I supposed to do if something happens to you guys?!”

“Live!”

“Well, maybe I don’t want to if it means I have to be by myself!”

It felt like all the air was sucked out of the room at Mikey’s last statement. Donnie’s mouth opened to retort but nothing came out of it. A trickle of guilt slid down Mikey’s spine but he ignored it, feeling all heated from the fight.

“None of you understand,” Mikey whispered, looking down at his blanket as he clenched it in his hands. “I’m not a baby anymore. I outgrew the training wheels long ago.”

“Mikey…” Leo breathed as he stepped into the room. Mikey knows that Leo is just trying to be supportive and help but the tone of his voice just aggravated him more.

“Screw this,” Mikey sneered as he swung his body around to place his feet on the floor. He ignored the cries of alarm and pushed himself up to his feet.

Which was a bad idea as his vision immediately flipped itself and he went tumbling to the ground. It was only thanks to Donnie’s quick reflexes that Mikey didn’t bash his already pain filled head on the floor.

The last thing Mikey sees before he blacks out is his entire family swarming into the room with hands reached out towards him.

Chapter Text

[Shellraiser: code Blood Moon report to Bay 07, level C-12]

[Kaiju. Code name: Caligula]

[Category 3. 6700 metric tons]

Mikey’s eyes grew large at the size of the kaiju being announced over the speakers. It was one of the largest to date which made sense that they would be sending Leo and Raph to handle it.

Drying off the last bit of water clinging to his curly hair, Mikey threw his towel over a hook and grabbed his orange bomber jacket. Slinking it on, he strolled out of his bathroom and made his way to the command center. It was usual for the two brothers not going out to the battlefield to watch from the command center.

But something acidic settled in Mikey’s gut as he remembered how Donnie had avoided him for the past week. The thought of being in the same room with the amount of tension between the two of them made Mikey pause in his steps. He weighed his options, he could either go somewhere else or he could go watch from the command room.

And he’s seen plenty of battles where his brothers were sent out instead of him.

Frowning to himself, Mikey turned in his spot and headed away from the control center. He stopped by his room to grab his spare comm that he kept for emergencies. Plugging the aux in, he slipped his orange headphones over his head to rest over his ears.

Mikey stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked at the ground as he shuffled out of his room. Without the usual drive to head to the control center, Mikey took his time to saunter over to the elevator. The doors closed around him and he looked at all the options on where he could go. Humming to himself, Mikey pressed the button to bring him to the roof of jaeger bays.

Even if he wasn’t going to be in the command center, he could still be there for the send-off of his oldest brothers.

“It’s a big one out there today,” April’s voice said through the headphones, making Mikey jump in surprise. It meant that his brothers had finally arrived in Shellraiser’s head and was hooking up to the controls.

“Nothing we can’t beat,” Raph laughed.

“Don’t get ahead of ourselves,” Leo sighed. Somewhere in the coms, Mikey can hear Leo pressing some buttons. “The two of us have never fought one as big as this yet.”

“And you said that same thing for the last giant we took down,” Raph shot back.

“He has a point,” Casey said.

Mikey ignored the start-up procedure lingo as the elevator stopped and opened up to the world outside. He squinted his eyes against the sudden brightness, holding his hand up to block enough of it to let his light blue eyes adjust. The weather was beautiful with the air being pleasantly warmed up and a soft spattering of fluffy white clouds in the sky. A gentle breeze brushed against Mikey’s skin as he stepped out of the elevator and onto the roof. It made his short curly hair float gently as he made his way to the edge of the building. Making sure to stay back far enough that if anyone came up to find him, they wouldn’t think he was about to jump, Mikey sat down on the roof and watched to where Shellraiser’s bay doors were.

“You ready to get in my head, Fearless?” Mikey heard Raph tease his older twin.

“I hope you’ve cleaned it up since I’ve been in there,” Leo teased back, making Mikey laugh as he imagined Leo shivering in disgust.

“Neural handshake…engaged,” April said.

The line went quiet as Leo and Raph entered the drift with each other. Mikey always wondered what core memories stood out for each other when the two drifted with each other. The memories were always different between each of the pairs but they never talked about it. There was something intimate with the sharing of memories with each other that made it an unspoken taboo to discuss with others.

Two gasps echoed out of Mikey’s headphones as the twins exited the drift. The doors to the bay doors opened and Mikey straightened as he leaned forward to get a better look.

“Neural handshake: strong and holding,” April’s voice announced.

“Right hemisphere: calibrating,” Raph listed off like protocol dictated. Shellraiser raised its right hand in the air and clenched it.

“Left hemisphere: calibrating,” Leo continued. The left hand followed to copy its other hand’s movements. The two fists were brought together to punch each other at the middle of Shellraiser’s chest, right in front of the glowing core. No matter how many times Mikey watched or piloted that very same jaeger, it was always so cool to see the giant robot come to life.

“If you get your ass beat, can I have your comic book collection?” Casey asked.

“No fucking way,” Raph growled. “Especially since there is no way we’re losing.”

“Language Raphael,” Yoshi admonished gently. “You know my rule.”

“Only allowed during battles,” Leo recited dutifully.

“Sorry sensei,” Raph sighed and Mikey see the way he slumped his shoulders as it was imitated by Shellraiser. “Hey, how come I don’t hear Mikey? He usually talks up a storm before we go out.”

“Now that you mention it,” Leo hummed. “Is he there with you guys?”

“I don’t see him around,” Donnie commented and Mikey’s heart clenched a fraction more. “That’s strange. He always watches the deployment.”

“Who said I wasn’t?” Mikey said into the mic of his headphones. He figured it was time to make his presence known to soothe his big brothers’ nerves before they went into a life-or-death battle.

“Where the hell are ya, you squirt?” Raph demanded, making Mikey roll his eyes.

“Look up and to the right. You can’t miss the orange highlighter I decided to cosplay as.” Mikey giggled as Shellraiser raised her head and looked over to the right like Mikey dictated. Seeing he had his brothers’ attention, he raised a hand in the air and made big movements to get his wave across.

“What are you doing up there, you numbskull?” Raph laughed.

“It’s dangerous up there!” Leo fretted in his mother-hen way of speaking.

“Like you don’t go up there,” Karai pointed out.

“Chillax bros,” Mikey told them with a chuckle. “I just wanted a different view of the deployment today.”

“But you always go to the control room with us,” April said.

“The weather is nice,” Mikey shrugged, trying to deflect the concern. “A growing boy like me needs his sun vitamins. Now, don’t worry about me. Go out there and kick some mutant ass!”

“Kaiju, Mikey,” Donnie sighed with his correction.

“You heard him, Fearless,” Raph said over the com and Mikey could just imagine the savage smile on his brother’s face. “Let’s go kick some kaiju ass!”

“Remember your mission, my sons,” Yoshi’s calm voice washed out of the headphones to bathe Mikey in a sea of calm.

“Defeat the kaiju,” Raph started.

“And come alive,” Leo finished.

“Good,” Yoshi praised. “Be careful, my blood moon duo.”

Mikey watched as Shellraiser was attached to numerous cables that were used by helicopters to lift the jaeger into the air. The destination was close enough that they could afford to use this means of transportation as Shellraiser walking itself over there would be slower.

He watched until it was speck in the sky and then some more time after that. The light blue of the sky matched his own eyes that were a few shades lighter than Leo’s. The breeze kissed his face as he watched the sky and zoned out.

Ever since the neural overload last week, his brain has been a bit…fuzzy. He was finally released two days ago from his bed and cleared for normal activity but his father wanted him to take it easy. Certain things were hard to remember but his uncle Saki said that would be normal after he went through.

His uncle Saki had started hanging around Mikey more during his time laid up and he had no clue why. It wasn’t like his uncle was distant but he was usually busy with his duties as the head of the engineering department in charge of the jaegers.

Mikey’s father and uncle were the power brothers. One was in charge of the jaegers and the other in charge of the pilots themselves. Uncle Saki had been given the nickname Shredder as he could shred through any metal needed to make the jaegers the best they could be.

Being in charge of the jaegers, uncle Saki also had a hand in the neural technology that allowed the pilots to control the giant robots. Ever since Mikey showed that he was able to control Shellraiser by himself for a short time with minor side effects compared to other pilots, Saki had been asking Mikey question after question about his experience. He tried his best to answer all of them but certain things went empty as Mikey just could not remember certain things.

Leo said it was because he went through a traumatic experience. Mikey thought he was wrong because he didn’t think of it as traumatic.

He thought of it as heroic.

He saved his older brother from Mozar’s horn and the city had the kaiju managed to defeat them.

Mikey lost himself in his mind again, losing track of time. He had the comms still open on his headphones but the words didn’t really register in his mind.

Until the twin screams of the twins.

Mikey jolted to himself as his blood ran cold. The two of them never screamed unless something was really bad.

Curse his mind wandering away from him and not listening to what had been going on.

[Shellraiser: code Dusk Break report to level C-12 for emergency deployment]

If Mikey’s blood was cold before, it was frozen now. Without a moment of hesitance, Mikey pushed off the ground and ran towards the elevator. He tripped twice, earning bruises on his knees but he could care less about that right now.

Things were lethally bad if there had to be an emergency switch of pilots.

Mikey smashed his hands on the button for the floor he wanted and tapped his foot on the elevator floor while he waited. He knows the elevator runs fast but in that moment, it felt too slow.

The elevator arrived with a ding but Mikey didn’t allow the doors to open fully before he was sprinting out. People made room for him as he tore through the hallway. He skidded into the gear-up room. Donnie was there and the way he looked up when Mikey entered showed that the same fears were running through his directly older brother’s head.

In record time, Mikey tore off his clothes and slipped into his suit underlayer. His headphones were thrown in the pile of clothes on the ground and he could honestly care less at that moment if they broke or not. Twice the amount of people helped gear the boys up in their armor before they were led down a long pathway to a waiting helicopter. The sound of the rotors were loud but it was muffled behind the blood rushing in Mikey’s ears.

Mikey climbed into the helicopter and was led to his seat. April and Casey sat across from him, looking at the laptop on April’s lap with matching expression of fear and worry. Yoshi and Saki stood next to them as they looked over at the screen. They all wore tight harness on their bodies to be prepared for when they have to jump out of the helicopter. Mikey looked back down and clenched his hands on his knees. His right foot bobbed up and down in fear on what they were about to fly into.

Someone shouted near him and the doors to the helicopter closed with a loud clasp. The helicopter lifted up into the air, making everyone jolt at the movement. Fear clouded Mikey’s mind as he imagined situation after situation where they were going to walk in to find his two oldest brother already dead and gone.

Maybe this is how his brothers felt when he passed out in his last mission.

The sounds around him muffled as his orange helmet was placed on his head. Mikey looked up in time to watch the milky yellow film covering the front of it slide down to clear his view. In front of him was Donnie, kneeling down, with a grim look on his face. “You with us?” Donnie asked.

Mikey could only manage a shaky nod.

“Good,” Donnie nodded back. “The kaiju, Caligula, has an ability none of us predicted. It can apparently send massive shockwaves from its body which disrupted Leo’s and Raph’s neural connection.” Donnie looked back at April when a loud beep came from her laptop. “We were able to get another jaeger to come out and provide backup while we extract the twins but this kaiju is proving to be a challenge with just one jaeger.”

“So, what are we going to do?” Mikey asked with wide eyes.

“Dad and Casey are going to take Leo and Raph out of the controls while Uncle Saki and April are going to connect us to them. We’ve never done a mid-battle pilot change but in theory, it will work just fine.”

“In theory,” April muttered.

“Looks like we are going to have to trust the gods on this one,” Saki voiced while his body stayed tense.

“Listen to me, my sons,” Yoshi as he kneeled next to Donnie. He laid a hand on Donnie’s shoulder and Mikey’s knee. “I would not be doing this unless it was absolutely necessary, which it unfortunately is. We have never tested a mid-battle switch with all of you but according to the simulations, it should be possible.”

“We got this, dad,” Mikey smiled at him, trying to appear brave for his father. “We gotta go save our big brothers before they land themselves in deep water.”

Two staticky screams rang out of April’s laptop, making everyone flinch at the pain radiating out of them.

“Approaching drop point,” Casey announced as he stood up from his spot. The 21-year-old mechanical genius assistant to Saki had pushed his way up the ladder to prove that he was ready to serve team Hamato long ago. There were many talks about letting someone so young be in charge of so much but Casey had proved them wrong with his prowess.

Same for April, the 22-year-old prodigy that shined when working with the jaeger program. Yoshi and Saki had hand selected them from the hiring pool when no one else wanted them. They wanted competent people that the boys would feel safe with and make sure to keep them alive.

Mikey stood up from his spot and brushed off invisible dirt of his legs. His hands grew clammy in his gloves as he reached up to grab the handholds to prevent him from falling over. Donnie reached up to grab the same hold, trying to convey some sort of comfort to his younger brother.

At that moment, all hard feeling Mikey had for Donnie washed away.

He now knew what it felt like now to have to head in to a situation and fear that they would be bringing home one or both of the twin brothers home in a body bag.

Mikey looked out the window to see Shellraiser kneeling down on one knee with its head bowed. The large rat looking kaiju fought against another jaeger, Hack-n-Slash, in the distance. From the looks of it, Hack-n-Slash wasn’t going to be able to keep the fight up for much longer if someone else didn’t step in.

The helicopter hovered in the air as the doors were thrown open. Everyone clipped their harness to the line that would lower them down and jumped. Donnie and Mikey reached up to grab the line with armored hands and jumped out, sliding down the line to land on Shellraiser’s shoulder. Saki was already rushing to the back of the robot’s head with Casey hot on his heels. The two of them pulled certain switches and turned a heavy locking clasp to open the emergency back door into Shellraiser.

The group piled in and Mikey was welcomed to the sight of Raph slumped in his harness with Leo struggling to maintain consciousness. His eyes lifted when he saw who entered and he immediately tried to stand back up.

“Leonardo, we are switching you and Raphael out,” Yoshi said as he reached over to disconnect his oldest son from his spine harness.

“No, father,” Leo grunted, his eyes blinking rapidly. “I can still handle it. Don’t make Mikey fight it. He just got better.”

“No,” Yoshi shook his head as pressed the final button to release Leo. On the other side of Shellraiser’s head, Raph dropped like a sack of stones into Casey’s arms as he was released from his control harness. Casey pulled Raph out of the way to let Donnie step in, Saki rushing to hook his third nephew up to the controls. “You are not fit to pilot and fight against this kaiju any longer.”

“But—!” Leo tried to argue.

“Bro, we got this,” Mikey smiled as he pushed himself into Leo’s eyesight. He watched as Leo’s mouth soft words of regret to himself as Mikey stepped into his side of control and was connected by April. “You two need to let the B-team have some time to shine, too, you know.”

“You know how I feel about that name,” Donnie grumbled as the spine harness was secured to him.

“But – Mikey – this one is dangerous,” Leo panted, reaching a shaky hand out towards his baby brother. Yoshi maneuvered Leo around to carry him on his back, his son’s body getting heavy as he lost more of his energy. “You’ll die if you’re not being vigilant.”

“Vigilant is my middle name,” Mikey grinned.

“It’s literally not,” Donnie groaned as he pressed some buttons on the center console. Out of the viewport, Mikey could see Hack-n-Slash losing steam in their fight against Caligula.

“Agree to disagree,” Mikey hummed as April finished connecting him to the control; he turned his attention back to his brother as his eyes drooped lower. “Let us handle and go get some rest. We’ll show you how the real dream team gets things done.”

“I second that,” Donnie chirped as he looked over. Casey helped Saki get Raph on his back to rush out of the backdoor of Shellraiser’s head.

“Mikey…Donnie…” Leo breathed as he reached a weak hand out. Mikey lifted his hand to brush against his brother’s, trying to console his eldest brother some.

“We got this, aniki,” Mikey smiled a soft smile.

Without another word, Yoshi rushed out of the jaeger’s head with April following close behind him. Leo's head finally fell onto his father's shoulder as they left, losing the fight with unconsciousness. The back emergency door closed with a loud noise and the two youngest brothers could hear the grinding of metal as the locks were reattached. They waited for the confirmation that everyone was back on the helicopter, watching it flying away into the air, before pressing the buttons to bring Shellraiser back online.

"Ready to show them why the B-team is the best?" Mikey smirked as he and Donnie bent down into the same position of Shellraiser.

"Like I said, you know how I feel about that name," Donnie frowned.

“Neural handshake…engaged,” April shouted into the headset in a rush.

Mikey and Donnie gasped as they dove into the drift to flow through their memories together.

/Donnie reading Mikey one of his toddler books as their mother made them lunch in the background./

/Mikey tossing a water balloon at Donnie when his brother refused to leave the coolness of the shade during a beautiful summer of their youth./

/Donnie chasing after Mikey with Leo and Raph as he went rolling down a large hill the first time they tried teaching him to skateboard; Karai recording it on her phone from the top of the hill./

/Applying brightly colored band aids to Mikey's knees as they patched him up from falling off his skateboard after hitting a bump at the bottom of the hill./

/Listening to Donnie infodump about the strange monster that attacked San Francisco./

/Donnie telling Mikey that their parents were going to be the best jaeger pilots ever since their parents were the strongest people in the world./

/Hugging Donnie tightly as they cheered in delight when their parents defeated another kaiju/.

/Donnie hugging a distraught Mikey after his sleep made him relive the moment they watched their father get loaded into an ambulance to be taken away from the jaeger wreckage their mother would never walk out of./

/Mikey’s form getting corrected by Donnie in a late-night training session where they both stayed to practice./

/Donnie making sure everything was absolutely perfect and running at 100% capacity the first time Mikey was sent out to fight against a kaiju./

/The face of pure relief on Donnie’s face the first time Mikey returned from a kaiju fight with Leo./

Mikey and Donnie inhaled sharply at the same time as they exited the drift.

“Neural handshake: strong and holding,” April’s voice drifted in.

“Right hemisphere: calibrating,” Donnie listed off. Moving in tandem, they both raised their right hand and pushed up on their kneeling leg to stand up.

“Left hemisphere: calibrating,” Mikey continued. Their left hands pushing against the ground to get them off the ground completely.

The two of them clenched their right fist to bring to their side and pushed their left hand out; they settled their legs apart with their knees bent to situate themselves into a kihon stance.

Outside, Shellraiser copied her pilot’s motions.

On the holographic display in front of the two youngest Hamato brothers, the words [Calibration Complete] shined at them.

“Remember your mission boys,” Yoshi’s worried voice echoed out of their helmets. In front of them, Caligula finally turned its eyes back to the jaeger that it thought it defeated earlier.

“Defeat the kaiju!” Donnie answered as the two of them reached to their side. A circular tube popped out of Shellraiser’s right hip and was grabbed by the robot’s right hand. They commanded Shellraiser to bring the tube in front of them and pressed something on the side of it with their thumb.

“And come home alive!” Mikey finished as their collapsible jaeger sized bo staff pulled itself out to its full length. They spun the bo staff in the air to tuck under their arm and lowered themselves in a battle stance.

“Good,” Yoshi praised. “Be careful, my dusk break duo.”

Caligula roared at them as it stomped off of Hack-n-Slash, picking up speed as it rushed towards them.

“You ready, big bro?” Mikey grinned, asking the question even though the two of them were already in each other’s head.

“Always,” Donnie answered as they thrusted their jaeger bo staff out to stab Caligula in the face.

With a loud thud, Shellraiser landed back on its bay’s loading platform.

Donnie and Mikey were released from their connection to the jaeger, the link between them fading until it had closed back up until the next time they would have to go out together. The control restraints were released and they stepped out. The back door to Shellraiser’s head opened up to let the two pilots out and the clean crew to fix anything that got knocked loose during the fight.

Mikey’s legs turned to jello as he walked and stumbled over his own two feet. A purple armored hand reached out to grab him by the bicep to stop his fall before raising it to lift over his own shoulder. Grabbing onto Mikey’s hand to make sure he was secured, Donnie helped Mikey walk down the long walkway that allowed them to disembark from their shared jaeger.

Yoshi waited at the end of the with his hands resting on top of his walking cane. He looked at his sons with a careful eye to scan them for visible injuries as they came to stop in front of them. Mikey raised his right hand up in a salute while Donnie copied to the best of his abilities while supporting Mikey.

“The kaiju has been defeated and we have returned home alive!” Donnie and Mikey announce in tandem.

“Excellent,” Yoshi nodded in relief. “Mission over. Get some rest.”

“They’re awake if you want to see them,” Donnie’s quiet voice broke Mikey’s daydreaming as he sat beside him on the roof.

Mikey looked away from the stars and moon he was staring at to drag his eyes to his immediate older brother. He had new bumps and bruises to match with Donnie after fighting with that kaiju from earlier. It was a hard and long battle but in the end, they won. Hack-n-Slash was able to pull itself back together long enough to help a two-man pincer attach that bisected the rat kaiju in two, ending the battle.

Leo and Raph were flown back to the jaeger headquarters before Shellraiser and its pilots were returned. The doctors told them that their brothers would be fine after some rest. Raph was knocked out by the electrical waves sent through them but Leo had held on through sheer determination and stubbornness alone.

Donnie and Mikey were checked over and cleared to be released out of the med bay. Mikey had immediately hightailed it back to the roof to work through some thoughts in his mind. With Leo and Raph still passed out from their fight, he was able to slip away pretty easily with only Donnie looking longingly as his retreating back.

The two brothers sat together in silence before Mikey tilted to drop his head on Donnie’s shoulder. “I’m sorry,” Mikey whispered.

Donnie blinked in surprise as he threw an arm over Mikey’s shoulder. “I do not know what you are apologizing for.”

“For acting like a brat with my safety,” Mikey explained as he dropped his eyes to the dark sea that surrounded the Shatterdome.

“You weren’t a brat,” Donnie sighed as he laid his head on top of Mikey’s. “I understand where you are coming from and I was just scared after watching you get pulled out Shellraiser like you were dead. I feel like I came on too strong and you were right in your actions. If you didn’t do what you did, both you and Raph and so many other people would have died.”

“I still shouldn’t have yelled at you like I did,” Mikey murmured.

“And I shouldn’t have yelled at you,” Donnie responded. “Its hard for us to stop looking at you like the little brother that chased after us to color with him. I know its hard to have to deal with the kiddie gloves from us all the time but I promise that we are going to start working on it. Please give us some time to adjust to it.”

“You guys don’t have to rush,” Mikey mumbled as he ground the heel of his shoe on the ground. “I know it’s a big adjustment, especially with mama Leo.”

“Speaking of Leo, they were asking for you when I came up here,” Donnie said as he pulled away. He stood up and brushed his bottom over of any loose rocks or dirt from the roof’s ground. Donnie’s held a hand out to his only younger brother in a peace offering. “How about we go see our big brothers together?”

Mikey looked at the hand for a moment before reaching up to grasp it. “Yeah, let’s go see the trouble magnets.”

“Are you sure that’s not you and Leo?” Donnie laughed as he pulled Mikey to stand. “You two seem to have a way of trouble finding you.”

“Pfft, no,” Mikey giggled. “And it’s their colors. They are literally the color of magnets.”

“Hmm, I guess you are right,” Donnie giggled. He threw an arm around his brother’s shoulder to lead the two of them over to the elevator. “Now let’s go see them before the two of them try to hunt us down.”

“I’m going to yell at them for worrying us so much,” Mikey grinned devilishly at Donnie.

“Do that and I’ll make sure you get extra comics for the next month.”

“Deal.”

Chapter Text

[Shellraiser: code Dawn Break report to Bay 07, level C-12]

[Kaiju. Code name: Antrax]

[Category 1. 3100 metric tons]

Mikey lifted his tapped together headphones off his ears when he heard the call for Donnie and Raph to report to Shellraiser. He swung his feet off the edge of his bed and grabbed his orange bomber jacket. There was a new patch on the elbow of it from where he tripped over his own two feet and ripped it open. Leo had fussed over him to make sure he wasn’t injured while Raph had found a scrap of fabric to have Donnie sew on.

Jogging down the hallway, Mikey made his way to the control center and waved at April when he entered. Standing at the console with his surrogate sister, he looked over the data for the new kaiju.

“An ant mutant?” Mikey asked in exasperation. “Are they running out of ideas or something?”

“Kaiju, Mikey,” April corrected absent-mindedly. “And who knows what other horrors they have waiting in the rift.”

“I know what’s there,” Mikey rolled his eyes.

“Oh yeah?” Casey challenged from his computer. “What’s that?”

“More mutants waiting to get their asses kicked,” Mikey giggled.

“Kaijus, Michelangelo,” Yoshi corrected. “And please mind your language.”

“Sorry, dad,” Mikey apologized sheepishly. On April’s screen, he could see Donnie and Raph had arrived in Shellraiser’s head and were being strapped into the controls. “Hey Raphie. Hey Dee.”

“I told you how I feel about that name, you shithead,” Raph growled.

“Language, Raphael,” Yoshi admonished.

“Sorry dad.”

“We’re ready for the big drop,” Donnie’s voice echoed out of the speaker.

“Very well,” Yoshi hummed. “Engage drop,” he commanded to a person in the corner of the room.

At that moment, Leo entered the control room and perked up when he saw Mikey standing by April. He sauntered up next to his shorter brother and threw an arm over his shoulder to get him in a headlock and ruffle his fluffy blond curls.

“Leo…,” Mikey whined as he tried pulling away.

“Is fearless bullying Mikey in there?” Raph laughed. “You know that’s my job.”

“I believe that’s all of our jobs as his older siblings,” Karai mused as she strutted in and took her seat at the console next to Casey. She was more interested in the mechanical side of the jaegers which led her to spend a lot of time with uncle Saki. When a pair of the brothers were sent out to fight, Karai would come up and watch the jaeger's stats from Casey’s computer.

“All of you are rude,” Mikey pouted as he was released from his hold and fixed his hair.

“It’s because we love you, little brother,” Leo grinned. “And we love messing with you.”

“And you guys wonder why I love to prank you guys,” Mikey teased, jumping back to avoid a swipe from his brother.

“I still owe you back for hiding all my 10mm sockets,” Donnie grumbled from inside Shellraiser.

“That’s what you get for setting my radio to only playing polka music!”

“Well maybe you shouldn’t have dumped a bucket of ice water on me in the shower!”

“That was hysterical and you know it!”

“Not to me!”

“It was to us,” Raph snickered.

“Boys, I believe there is a kaiju waiting out there for you,” Yoshi’s patient voice cut in. “Prepare for the neural handshake.”

“Yes dad,” Raph and Donnie chimed in at the same time.

“I hope you aren’t going to overwhelm me with dumb equations again,” Raph teased.

“I hope that there is actually something besides muscles in that empty head of yours,” Donnie teased back.

“Neural handshake…engaged,” April said as she pressed a button on her console.

“Why do all of you have some type of quip before the handshake?” Casey asked.

“Keeps it fun,” Mikey shrugged. “Especially when you are diving into someone’s mind and go through all their memories.”

Twin inhales of air echoed out of the speaker as Raph and Donnie exited the drift.

“Neural handshake: strong and holding,” April announced. “I wonder what it’s like to drift with someone,” she muttered to herself. “Or to be able to control a jaeger.”

“You want to give it a try?” Mikey asked and looked down at April. She looked up at him with an awestruck expression. “I’m down if you are.” At his side, he could hear the notes of confirmation that his brothers were preforming the calibrations correcting. He peered out and watched as Shellraiser stepped a foot in front and extended a fisted hand in the semblance of throwing a punch.

“You are clear to go,” Casey spoke into the mic.

“Hell yeah!” Raph cheered. “Let’s go kick some ass!”

“I have to agree with you on that, though I would use a different vocabulary,” Donnie said.

“Of course, you would, you brainiac,” Raph growled, making Mikey imagine his red loving brother rolling his eyes at his purple loving brother.

[Shellraiser, good luck] the overhead speakers told the boys.

“Remember your mission, my sons,” Yoshi said to his second and third son.

“Defeat the kaiju!” Raph yelled.

“And come home alive!” Donnie finished.

“Good,” Yoshi praised. “Be careful, my dawn break duo.”

The line went quiet on their end as Raph and Donnie worked together to get Shellraiser out of the bay and out into the ocean surrounding them. They kept walking until the water swallowed them up as they made their way to their destination.

“I can’t tell if you were being serious or not,” April said to Mikey after a few minutes.

“About the drifting?” Mikey asked which April nodded to. “Yeah, I’m all for it if you are.”

“You can’t be serious,” April breathed as she kept an eye on Raph’s and Donnie’s vitals.

“Totally am.”

“But…don’t you need a really deep connection to drift with someone?!”

“Mikey can drift with about anyone easily,” Leo cut in and he crossed his arms, keeping an eye on the display. “We think it’s because of his easy-going personality.”

“It is true,” Yoshi hummed as he stroke his beard. “As long as there is some type of connection, Michelangelo will be able to drift with anyone.”

“And you are one of us, so it’ll be easy,” Mikey grinned down at her. “How about later on, we both head into Shellraiser and give it a try?”

“Would that be allowed?” April asked as she looked over to Yoshi for permission.

“I do not see why not,” Yoshi smiled as he released his beard and placed his hand on top of the other holding his cane. “It would beneficial for our neurological lead to understand the inner mechanisms of what it takes to pilot a jaeger.”

“Oh my god,” April gasped in excitement. “I would love to do that!”

“Cool,” Mikey nodded.

“Donnie is going to be so jealous when he hears about this,” Casey snickered to Karai, holding a hand in front of his mouth to not be too loud.

“That’s what he gets for not making a move fast enough,” Karai whispered back to Casey.

Mikey looked back down at April to see that she hadn’t heard the two of them talking about Donnie’s obvious crush on the girl. It seems like she was lost in her own excitement at the moment to hear them.

A loud beeping from someone else’s computer had her coming back though.

“Antrax is approaching Shellraiser now,” the person manning the computer announced.

“Time for the brains and brawns brothers to shine,” Leo declared.

Mikey bounced on his feet at the end of the walkway with his father and Leo.

They were waiting for Donnie and Raph to exit Shellraiser after returning home from defeating Antrax. It took longer than they expected to kill it but in the end, they won.

Finally, two sets of heavy armored feet jumped onto the metal platform. Mikey wanted to run up to his brothers but he knew it was tradition that the duo returning home would make it to their father on their own two feet. Donnie and Raph took off their helmet and tucked them under their arms. Mikey could see Donnie say something to his immediate older brother which Raph responded to by reaching over and punching Donnie in the arm. Donnie grimaced and used his other hand to rub the sore spot.

Coming up to their father and brothers, Donnie and Raph straightened as they raised their right hands up in a salute.

“The kaiju has been defeated and we have returned home alive!” Raph and Donnie announced in tandem.

“Excellent,” Yoshi nodded in relief. “Mission over. Get some rest.”

With the official end to the mission, Raph and Donnie relaxed from their salute. Mikey jumped forward to grab Donnie in a strong hug around his middle while Leo clapped a hand on Raph’s shoulder.

“Hey Dee, guess what?” Mikey smirked.

“With you, it could be absolutely anything,” Donnie rolled his eyes. “Do enlighten me.”

“I’m going to be drifting with April later,” Mikey said with a shit-eating grin before letting go of his brother and turning to saunter out of the room. At the side, Raph choked on his own spit as the twins started to laugh. Mikey peeked back and saw the absolute gob-smacked look on his older brother’s face.

Even Yoshi was chuckling into his hand at the look on Donnie’s face.

“Wha—WHAT?!” Donnie screeched as he started chasing after Mikey. The youngest Hamato brother let out a loud laugh as he started running away from his brother; his orange bomber jacket fluttering in the air behind him. “WHAT THE HELL?! MIKEY?!”

“Are you sure this is going to work?” April fretted as she rung out her hands. Her yellow armor matched with Mikey’s own orange set pleasantly.

“Of course, it will,” Mikey said in comfort as his feet were secured to the controls in Shellraiser’s head. “You just have to listen to me and you’ll pick it up in no time.”

“Mikey is the best person to do your first drift with out of anyone,” Leo said over the com.

“Why not me?” Donnie whined.

“We need you on this end,” Leo answered.

“Calm your tits, brainiac,” Raph sighed. “They’re just gonna do a drift, move an arm, and then come back out.”

“Don’t forget, April,” Leo’s strong voice said to her. “Don’t cling to a memory. Let it flow over you like water.”

“What happens if I do cling to one?” she asks.

“Then you can get stuck in it,” Mikey answered, his voice turning cryptic. “And there are some memories you don’t want to get stuck in.”

“Noted,” April gulped.

“Time for the neural handshake,” Karai announced.

“Is it too late to back out?” April shivered.

“Yup,” Mikey cackled.

“Neural handshake…engaged,” Karai said.

Mikey and April gasped as they were dragged into the drift.

[Little April being lifted in the air by her father to make her giggle.]

[A tiny Mikey clinging to his mother’s leg as she made lunch.]

[April sitting on a couch with her parents as the news from San Francisco plays to the world for the first time.]

[Mikey clutching a well-loved teddy bear to his chest as he watches the same news broadcast with his siblings.]

[April screaming after her mother as she leaves to fight against the kaiju.]

[Mikey watching the tv intently as his parents fight against their first kaiju.]

[April sobbing in front of the tv as her mother’s jaeger that she piloted with her sister, Mind-Meld, is declared defeated in battle.]

[Mikey being comforted by his own crying siblings as they watch their father scream in grief for their mother.]

[April studying everything she can to rush through school and get a position working with the jaeger unit.]

[Mikey and his brothers being told that they have the rare ability to drift with all of each other.]

[April cheering with her father as she is hand-picked by Major Hamato to join the jaeger command program.]

[Mikey being introduced to the support team in the control room for the first time.]

[April spying the 12-year-old boy, the youngest in the pilot program, as he enters the control room.]

[Mikey sauntering up the red-headed girl at the control interface and extending a hand.]

[April being introduced to the boy that would later become one of her little brothers.]

[Mikey being introduced to the girl that would later become one of his big siblings.]

Mikey and April inhaled sharply as they exited the drift.

“Neural handshake: strong and holding,” Donnie’s voice drifted in.

“…wow,” April breathed.

“Yup,” Mikey nodded. No other words were needed. “Right hemisphere: calibrating,” Mikey listed off like protocol dictated. Moving in tandem, they both raised their right hand.

“Left hemisphere: calibrating,” April continued and Mikey could feel the awe rolling off of her in waves. Their left hands were lifted up.

The two of them brought their hands in front of their face and curled them loosely.

Outside, Shellraiser copied her pilot’s motions.

On the holographic display in front of the surrogate brother and sister, the words [Calibration Complete] shined at them.

“Well done, you two,” Yoshi praised them. “How does it feel, Ms. O’Neil?”

“It’s…so cool,” April whispered as Mikey loosened his grip on the controls to let April enjoy her time controlling Shellraiser. “It’s one thing to read about it but so different to experience it.”

“That is true for everything,” Yoshi hummed sagely. “Enjoy the controls for a few moments longer and then we will have you two exit.”

“Thank you, sensei!” April gushed as she experimented moving the arms around. Seeing that it was not a mission, they were treating this as an upkeep test and so they would only be allowed a few minutes in there.

April moved the arms of Shellraiser with Mikey’s help for the time she was allowed. They lifted them up and down, curled their fists, and moved each individual finger. It was nice to just let her explore the mechanisms of the controls without the threat of a kaiji out there trying to destroy mankind.

“Time’s up,” Donnie announced over the speaker. “Prepare to release the handshake.”

“What do I do?” April asked Mikey in a hurry.

“Just let go,” Mikey smiled. “Just let go of the handshake.”

Mikey sent an image into April’s mind to two hands letting go of each other to help her. With the image to show her, Mikey felt the connection drop from each other gradually. It shrunk and shrunk until to closed off completely.

“Woah,” April awed. She looked over at Mikey with a bright smile on her face. “Thank you, Mikey. That was the coolest.”

“Of course it was,” Mikey smirked. “Cool is my middle name.”

“It’s really not,” Donnie sighed from the control room.

Chapter Text

[Shellraiser: code Moon Rise report to Bay 07, level C-12]

[Kaiju. Code name: Joroguma]

[Category 2. 4400 metric tons]

Mikey cheered as his character knocked out Leo’s character on the tv screen.

“No fair,” Leo groaned. “I was distracted by the battle announcement.”

“Excuses,” Mikey teases as he reaches up to turn off the game and tv. “Time for you to go, though, aniki.”

Leo stumbled for a second at the childhood nickname. It came out only when Mikey was trying to convince Leo of something or if he was in a really good mood. He reached over to ruffle the fluffy blond curls held back by an orange headband. “You going to come watch?”

“Of course,” Mikey rolled his eyes and pulled away to save his hair from the ruffles. “I always come to watch when you guys go out.”

“What about the time when you were on the roof?” Leo raised an eyebrow as he and Mikey left the game room. Mikey had his arms crossed behind his head and took long straight strides in front of himself. The two of them weren’t rushing over since the game room was just a few doors down from the gear-up room.

“I told you that I wanted a different view,” Mikey whined. “It was a nice day and it was cool watching you guys leave from a different angle.”

“If you say so, otouto,” Leo smiled as he reached up one more time to ruffle Mikey’s hair and then peeled off to enter the gear-up room. Donnie was already in there and Mikey sent him a wave before continuing on his way. Mikey jogged the rest of the distance to the control room and was greeted by Raph’s shivering in disgust.

“Is it another bug mutant?” Mikey asked as he stepped up to the screen.

“Kaiju, my son,” Splinter correct with his hands resting on top of his cane. “And yes, it is a spider this time.”

“Raphie would have ceased to exist if it was a cockroach,” Mikey smirked.

“Stop calling me that,” Raph growled.

“Never,” Mikey smirked and jumped back to avoid the punch Raph threw at his shoulder.

“Boys, yame,” Splinter scolded.

“Hai, sensei,” Raph and Mikey said together.

“We’re ready for the big drop,” Donnie’s voice echoed out of the speaker.

“Very well,” Splinter hummed. “Engage drop,” he commanded to a person in the corner of the room.

“Hey, I was thinking…” Casey said out loud.

“Wow, the world must be coming to an end,” Karai hummed as she pressed some buttons on the console.

“I thought it already was with all mutants trying to destroy mankind,” Mikey said with a finger tapping on his chin.

“Kaiju, Mikey,” Karai corrected.

“No, we’re preventing the end of the world, you numbskull,” Raph harshly sighed. “Though, if Jones is actually using that head of his, the end must be closer than we thought.”

“Hey, I think!” Casey pouted.

“Are you sure about that?” Leo’s voice echoed out of the speaker.

“Last week we found you eating out of a jar of mayonnaise and it took you four bites before you realized it wasn’t ice cream,” Donnie pointed out.

“I was tired!” Casey countered.

“If you say so,” April smirked.

“If I may interject,” Splinter cleared his throat. “We have a kaiju waiting out there.”

“Right,” April cleared her throat and sat up straight in her chair. “Prepare for the neural handshake.”

“At least your head is much cleaner than Raph’s,” Leo joked.

“Hey!” Raph pouted.

“And I can actually hear my thoughts in yours compared to Mikey’s,” Donnie continued.

“Hey!” Mikey joined Raph in the pouting.

“Neural handshake…engaged,” April said. The line went quiet as Leo and Donnie entered the drift with each other. There was a brief few seconds of start-up chatter all around Mikey before his two brothers breathed in sharp inhales to indicate that they were leaving the drift. “Neural handshake: strong and holding,” she announced.

“Right hemisphere: calibrating,” Donnie said like protocol dictated. Shellraiser raised its right hand in the air.

“Left hemisphere: calibrating,” Leo continued. Shellraiser lifted its left hand. Mikey watched as Shellraiser clapped its hands together and lowered them to rest on where it’s hips would be.

“You are clear to go,” Casey spoke into the mic.

“Let’s go show that kaiju what happens when they mess with humankind,” Leo said and Mikey could imagine the smirk on his brother’s face.

“I agree,” Donnie hummed. “Let’s go them the consequences of their actions.”

The line went silent as Leo and Donnie focused on traveling to where Joroguma was waiting to be defeated. Mikey watched the display, making sure everything was okay. They had April for that but it made him feel better to watch it for himself.

“Back to what I was talking about earlier,” Casey cleared his throat. Turning his head, Mikey saw that Casey’s attention was fully on him. “I got a favor to ask.”

Mikey sat on the railing at the side of the walkway. His father stood straight at the end of it with his hands resting on his jade cane. Raph was somewhere else trying to find something but he knew it was okay if Mikey was the only one there for the welcome back.

Mikey kicked his feet in the air as he watched Shellraiser getting loaded back into its bay. He always marveled at the sheer size of it. His uncle Saki had really outdone himself when he helped create the jaeger his nephew would pilot. Shellraiser was a Mark-4 Jaeger, seeing that it was already had years of combat under its belt. Many people wondered how such a jaeger being controlled by four teenagers would last so much longer compared to other older pilots.

No one had an answer besides by the grace of the gods.

Shellraiser was a hulking beast of 300 feet tall and 2,400 tons weighing it down. It was pretty large compared to other jaegers but Saki had designed it that way. It was heavily inspired by turtles with a large carapace looking back shield attached to it. The entire machine was painted a muted metallic green with black detailing to show the turtle designs all of it. When the head was attached, Shellraiser had high neck protectors which, in Mikey’s opinion, made it look like it was sinking its head into its shell. His jaeger has thick limbs that were stored with numerous weapons to account for all the different types of weapons they each specialized in.

Mikey’s signature weapon, the nun chucks, were stored in the left leg. Saki had made sure the boys got a Mark-4 jaeger so they wouldn’t have to worry about getting radiation poisoning from the nuclear cores the older versions of jaegers used. It glowed a bright blue when activated which turned green when extra powered had to be pulled from it.

All in all, Mikey loved Shellraiser.

It was the jaeger that he and his brothers were sent out in multiple times, and it was the very same jaeger that brought them home each and every time. Mikey always wondered how his father felt about Ninja Speed but he didn’t bring it up. Though…as time went on and he got older, there were certain things he wanted to ask his ex-jaeger pilot father.

Loud stomps at the other end of the walkway had Mikey perking up. He could see Leo and Donnie laughing as they walked away from Shellraiser’s head and made their way over to their father and youngest brother. Stopping in front of Splinter, the two of them straightened their posture and raised their right hands in a salute.

“The kaiju has been defeated and we have returned home alive!” Leo and Donnie announced in tandem.

“Excellent,” Splinter nodded in relief. “Mission over. Get some rest.”

“Lee! Dee!” Mikey cheered and jumped off the railing he was sitting on to glomp onto his brothers. The two of them laughed in joy and pulled their arms around their brother in a group hug. “Welcome back!”

“Good to be back,” Leo smiled as he pulled back and ruffled Mikey’s hair.

“Hey, hey, hey, guess what?” Mikey bounced in his spot as he watched the looks on his brothers’ face.

“Are you drifting with April again?” Donnie paled. Mikey thought that Donnie was probably thinking that his baby brother was becoming a rival for the love of April.

“Nope,” Mikey shook his head and laughed as Donnie slumped in relief.

“What is it?” Leo asked and tiled his head with sweaty black hair plastered against his head.

Mikey let a smirk take over his face and clasped his hands together behind himself. “I’m going to be drifting with someone else.”

“Remember Casey, don’t chase the memory,” Mikey reminded.

“I got this, little dude,” Casey grinned his gap tooth smile behind the glass of his black and white themed helmet. Where Raph was able to find a jaeger suit that fit Casey, he would never know. The engineers that helped strap the boys to the control stepped out and closed the door to Shellraiser’s head behind them. “This is gonna be wicked.”

“Wicked is my middle name,” Mikey grinned back.

“No, it’s not,” Donnie sighed from the control room. “Why are we doing this again?”

“Because Mr. Jones felt that it was unfair for him to not a chance to experience piloting when Ms. O’Neil was able to,” Splinter answered.

“Maybe he should understand the mind instead of the metal before he jumps in,” Donnie said.

“It’s alright bro,” Casey grinned. “I got ol’ Mikey here with me and you guys said yourselves he was the best to try this with.”

“Just make sure you follow his lead,” Leo reminded. “It can be pretty overloading the first time you go in.”

“You can cause some real damage if things go south,” Raph added.

“I got it, I got it,” Casey waved the hand not connected to the hand controller. “Relax guys.”

“I think we would be more relaxed if it was anyone other than you,” Donnie muttered.

“Hey! I heard that!” Casey grumbled.

“Good,” Karai’s dry voice said. “You better be careful in there. If anything happens to my baby brother because of you, I’m kicking your ass.”

“Language Karai,” Splinter scolded.

“Not sorry,” Karai responded. “With that being said, it is time for the neural handshake.”

“Any last questions before we go in?” Mikey smirked.

“Nope,” Casey cackled. “Let’s do this!”

“Neural handshake…engaged,” April said.

Mikey and Casey gasped as they were dragged into the drift.

[A little Casey holds a baby in his hands with his parents watching with smiles on their faces in the hospital.]

[Little Mikey learning to ride a bike with Karai holding the back of his seat to keep it steady for him.]

[A bit older Casey holding the hands of his toddler sister as she learns to walk.]

[Little Mikey running around with a towel tied around his shoulders as he pretends to be a superhero.]

[Casey holding his sister close to him as they hide behind a dumpster with a kaiju wreaks havoc on his city in the distance.]

[Mikey watching the news broadcast of his parents being deployed in Los Angeles.]

[Casey reaching a hand out for his sister that pulled out his arms to grab the toy bunny she dropped.]

“Angel…” Casey mumbles.

The rushing of memories came to a stop as a certain memory was grabbed and held onto.

“Neural handshake: failing to connect,” Donnie’s worried voice drifted in. “Something is wrong.”

The world around Mikey faded away as his surroundings slowly morphed into a dark cloudy day in an alleyway. A young Casey was running after his sister that was so far away but so close. It didn’t take two seconds for Mikey to figure out what was going on.

“Casey! Let it go!” he screamed. “It’s just a memory!”

“Angel! Get back here!” the young Casey called for his sister.

“Sensei, it seems like they are pulled into a memory!” April informed the major.

“Casey, let it go!” Raph yelled into the coms.

“Angel!”

“Casey! It’s not real!” Mikey bent down to yell into young Casey’s ears. Nothing seemed to get through to him.

“Angel!” young Casey yelled again. There was a moment where Angel turned around, a stuffed bunny in her hands, and looked at her big brother with a smile.

And then a ginormous kaiju foot stomped down in the very place Angel had been.

“ANGEL!” young Casey had roared, his arm raised out in front of him.

[Weapons system engaged. Arm Cannon: powering up]

“Weapons system is online!” Donnie yelled.

“Shut it down!” Splinter yelled.

“The failsafe isn’t working!” Karai yelled back.

“Casey, I know it hurts, but you have to let it go,” Mikey pleaded with the young version of Casey. It did nothing as the boy screamed and raised a hand out to the kaiju as if he could send a blast of energy at it. “Casey!”

[Warning! Warning! Arm Cannon power up nearing completion! Please evacuate the area!]

“Pull the power line!” Leo screamed. “The main power line!”

“I’m working on it!” Raph screamed back.

“Casey! This isn’t real!” Mikey had to cover his ears as a loud roar erupted from the kaiju, threatening to burst his eardrums. Even though it was an old memory, it felt like he was really there when in the drift. Loud stomps reverberated the area, making the kaiju click in uncertainty. It looked up in time to catch a giant metal fist in the face. It fell over, destroying buildings in its wake as the jaeger kicked it away. It felt like time slowed down as Mikey looked up and saw the imposing frame of Ninja Speed in all of its glory. Mikey looked back at the kaiju his parents were fighting and his blood ran cold as he finally recognized it.

And he screamed.

[Rapid increase of distress from r-side pilot]

“Mikey! It’s okay!” April tried to tell him. “We’re going to get you out of there!”

“Cut their connection!” Splinter ordered.

“Got it!” Donnie yelled.

[Weapon system disengaged]

Mikey felt the world around him melting away and took one last look at Ninja Speed. If he imagined it just right, he could see his mother and father working in tandem to fight against the kaiju.

[Neural bridge exercise invalid]

[Drift sequence terminated]

Mikey let out an angry sob as he was ripped out of the memory and brought back to the real world. Casey was in other control, ripping off his helmet to suck in giant breathes of fresh air. Outside Shellraiser, Mikey could hear the muffled sound of the alarms ending that let everyone know about the danger Shellraiser had just placed them in.

[Would you like to try again?]

“Open the hatch!”

With a loud clang, both Mikey and Casey were released from the control restraints to fall to their kneels on the Shellraiser’s floor. Mikey lifted his arms to hug himself as he rocked himself back and forth. The doors to Shellraiser’s head opened up behind them and multiple feet stomped their way in.

Mikey tuned them out as he tried to shake off the fear of the memory he was pushed back into. His breathing hitched and it felt like he was sucking in air through a straw. There was a reason they were always told to never cling to a memory. It was dangerous when they were still connected to a jaeger and could have gotten so many people hurt.

“Mikey?” a soft whisper pushed its way into Mikey’s head. He couldn’t find it in himself to respond as his mind was still stuck.

The hand placed on his shoulder did the trick though.

Screaming, Mikey reeled back and slapped the hand away. Eyes shrinking to pinprick, Mikey looked up to who it was. Leo was still holding his hand outstretch while his face showed his concern. Raph was helping Casey to stand, the mechanic three shades paler than he usually was. Donnie was standing up from where he was picking up the thrown helmet but his eyes shown with concern for the whole situation.

“Mikey? You with us, little brother?” Leo asked.

Mikey brought his eyes back to Casey and let his fear turn to anger. He reached up to rip his helmet off and threw it off to the side. Rushing to his feet, Mikey stomped over in front of Casey and tried grabbing him by the front of the suit. Raph pulled Casey back while Leo jumped to action and stepped in front of Mikey with his arms out to block him.

“You fucker!” Mikey yelled, stabbing a finger in the air at Casey. “I told you! Don’t cling to the memory! And what’s the one thing you did?!”

“Mikey, I’m sorry,” Casey apologized, his face showing his grief. “I just saw Angel again and I—”

“That’s not excuse!”

“What do you even know?!” Casey yelled back, getting angry at the dismissal of seeing his little sister again.

“YOU THINK NONE OF US WANT TO CLING TO THE MEMORIES OF OUR MOM EVERY TIME WE GO IN THERE?!” Mikey roared, tears of rage (or sadness, who knows) flowing down his cheeks. “YOU’RE NOT THE ONLY ONE THAT’S LOST SOMEONE!”

“Michelangelo! That is enough!” Splinter sharp voice cut in. Mikey looked past at the stern face of his father and pulled his lips back in a grimace. He stopped pushing against Leo and took a step back with his arms coming up to hug himself again.

“Mikey…” Donnie breathed as he reached a hand out.

“Don’t touch me!” Mikey yelled as he jerked out of the way. He turned on his heel and rushed out of Shellraiser’s head. He didn’t look back to see if anyone was chasing after him.

Mikey did not care at all in that moment.

He ducked to the left and right whenever he got close to someone, not wanting to be touched. His arms stayed wrapped around him, only coming down to open a door. The great thing about being the fastest of his siblings was that he could run away from them in the labyrinth that was the jaeger headquarters.

Mikey kept running until he tripped over his own two feet, his body demanding rest. He looked up and realized he was in a much less busy part of the huge building. It was far from that jaeger bays so it kept the foot traffic down. Spying a closet, Mikey willed his body to pick itself up one more time. He reached a hand out to open the door and slipped himself into the empty room. There was a bucket and mop in a front corner and a pack of paper towels in the other. At the back right of the room, a small wooden table laid empty besides a dusty, off-white cloth.

Mikey closed the door and dropped to his knees to crawl under the table. He pushed himself as far as he could before curling into a ball, his knees drawn up to his chin. He reaching around to wrap his arms around his legs and pushed his face down into his knees, not caring how the orange decaled metal of his armor poked at his face.

He just wanted to be left alone right now.

Mikey didn’t know how long he sat there in the dark before the door opened and a stream of light was let in.

“Mikey?” Leo’s hesitant voice asked into the room. “You in here?”

Mikey didn’t say anything but he didn’t need to when Leo flipped the switch and the room was bathed in light. He winced at the change; his eyes completely adjusted to the dark. Catching the movement, Leo had bent down and lifted up the table cloth. His face pinched up in concern when he found the curled-up form of his baby brother under the table.

“Oh, Mikey,” Leo breathed as he lowered himself to his knees and tossed the clothe back to not fall over the edge of the table anymore. “Can I join you?”

Mikey shrugged, not caring what anyone did at the moment. Leo pressed his lips in a hardline before crawling under the table. He sat up against the wall next to Mikey, leaving a few inches of space between the two of them. Leo didn’t say anything at first; just the two of them sitting under the table in the silence. Mikey wasn’t sure if he was happy or not that they stayed in the silence.

“Are you okay?” Leo asks, being the one to break the silence.

Mikey shrugs again.

There were a few more moments of silence before Leo opened his mouth. “Karai is kicking Casey’s ass in the dojo right now.”

Mikey blinked to himself in confusion. “Why?” he mumbled, his voice slightly raspy from disuse.

“She always carries through on her threats,” Leo answered. “…you really worried us, otouto.”

“Didn’t mean to,” Mikey grumbled as turned his face to look away from Leo.

“We know,” Leo nodded. “But it was jarring to see you so angry…why were you so mad? I doubt it was just Casey making Shellraiser lose control.”

Mikey bit his lip, not wanting to answer. But, he knew, Leo was just worried about him and not talking wasn’t going to help anything. “It was the memory,” Mikey admitted.

“Of watching what happened to Casey’s little sister?” Leo asked gently.

“Kind of,” Mikey shrugged again. “It’s more about what I saw right before it ended. I don’t know if Casey even realized what he saw. I think it was more that I was scared of what I saw than I was angry at Casey.”

“What was it?” Leo prodded gently.

“…it was the mutant that killed mom,” Mikey whispered.

The silence became deafeningly loud as Leo couldn’t find the words to answer. Mikey expected that and so he said nothing. Instead, he turned his head back to face Leo and scooted closer to him. Leo was quick to throw an arm around Mikey’s shoulders and Mikey laid his head on his big brother’s shoulder.

“…kaiju, Mikey, kaiju,” Leo corrected softly. “…are you okay?”

“I don’t know,” Mikey muttered.

“That’s okay,” Leo nodded and rubbed his hand against Mikey’s armored bicep. “You can take all the time you need until you’re okay.”

Mikey let out a small huff and raised his head to stare at the underside of the table a few inches above him. “…do you think we’re ever going to be done this fight against the mutants?”

“Kaiju,” Leo corrected absent-mindedly. “And yes, at some point.”

“How can you be sure?”

“The alternative is death,” Leo shrugged. “Though,” Leo gave Mikey a side-eyed look, “it’ll be a cold day in hell when I let you go before me.”

“Aniki…” Mikey trailed off.

“You have a long life to live, Mikey,” Leo told him. “I want you to enjoy it without having to worry about when you’re going to have to fight your next kaiju.”

“Then what about you?” Mikey asked.

“I don’t mind,” Leo shrugged again. “As long as I’m making sure the rest of you are okay, I don’t care how many times I get sent out.”

“That’s not very fair, is it?” Mikey grumbled.

“Life isn’t fair,” Leo laughed cryptically. “If it was, the kaiju would never have appeared and our biggest worries would be a math test.”

“Ain’t that the truth?” Mikey huffed humorlessly. He let the statement roll around in his mind for a few minutes. Leo was right: life wasn’t fair. If it was, their mom would still be around. Casey would have his little sister and April would have her mom.

But life wasn’t fair.

And Mikey had to work with the hand he was dealt.

Mikey shuffled in his spot, Leo looking over at him. “I’m good now,” Mikey told him.

“You sure?” Leo asked. “We could stay here longer if you need it.”

“I’m sure,” Mikey nodded, stretching his legs out from where they’ve been balled up for who knows how long. “We should probably go save Casey from ane before she kills him.”

“You know…you’re not wrong about that,” Leo laughed but this time it was full of mirth. Leo released Mikey and crawled out from under the table to hold a hand out. Mikey got to his hands and knees and crawls out and took Leo’s to hand to step up. He wobbled a bit as he got up, Leo’s other hand shooting out to grab his elbow to stabilize him. “Woah, you okay, otouto?”

“Yeah,” Mikey laughed. “My legs fell asleep apparently.”

“Well, that’s what happens when you curl into a ball for hours in your suit.”

“I was under there for hours?!”

“Yup,” Leo nodded as he stepped away to open the door more. “Raph was about ready to call a headquarters wide man-hunt for you.”

“What stopped him?” Mikey tilted his head to the side as he and Leo stepped out of the room.

“Dad and me,” Leo answered as the two of them slowly made their way down the hallway. “Dad said to give you some time and I figured I would be able to find you.”

“How were you so sure?”

“Call it big brother intuition,” Leo grinned and raised a hand to ruffle Mikey’s blond curly hair. His own cropped short straight black hair reflected in the light to give him blue highlights. “No matter where you go, I’ll be able to find you.”

“Argh, Leo!” Mikey whined as he pulled back to fix his hair. “Stop messing up my hair!”

“Never,” Leo laughed. “Now, c’mon, let’s get you changed and over to the gym before we have to plan Casey’s funeral.”

“Get back up!” Karai demanded, her wrapped fists clenched in front of her.

“I can’t,” Casey panted on the ground. “I can’t move anymore.”

“You should have thought of that before,” Karai sneered. “I told you I would kick your ass if anything happened to Mikey and look what happened.”

“Casey might really die at this rate,” April mused from her spot on the gym’s small bleachers.

“Eh, it’s the consequences to his actions,” Donnie shrugged.

“Damn, cold,” Raph laughed.

“I believe I can be cold when he put Mikey through that,” Donnie said.

“Do you think Fearless found Mikey yet?” Raph asked with a hint of concern in his voice.

“Of course I did,” Leo’s voice answered with an eyeroll as he entered the gym. Mikey trailing shyly behind him.

“Mikey!” Raph exclaimed as he jumped off the bleachers and ran over to Mikey; pulling him into a strong hug. “You worried us, bud!”

“Sorry,” Mikey murmured as he hugged Raph back. “I needed some alone time.”

“Understandable,” Donnie mused as he came over and looked Mikey over. “Memory dives can be overwhelming.” Leo and Mikey shared a look between the two of them, silently promising to not tell the others what Casey showed Mikey.

Mikey pulled away from Raph and padded over to Karai as she loomed over the mechanic on the ground. She heard his steps and looked over, perking up when she saw him. “Angelo,” Karai breathed, using the endearment she used for special occasions. She immediately dropped her hard stance and approached him. She wrapped him up in a firm hug and rubbed a hand down his back. “Are you okay?”

“I am now,” Mikey nodded, not covering up how shaken he was before. “You can stop trying to kill Casey now.”

“Are you sure?” Karai asked. “I can make him go longer if you want him to suffer.”

“I’m good,” Mikey chuckled as he pulled away and looked down on the boy giving him a grateful look. “We need him around to fix Shellraiser.”

“Wow, is that all I’m good for with you?” Casey rolled his eyes.

“Yes,” Karai answered with a hard look. “And you better be grateful that Mikey is much more forgiving than I am.”

“Thank you, little dude,” Casey thanked him. “And I really am sorry about what happened.”

“It’s fine,” Mikey waved a hand. “Just…don’t expect another trial for a while.”

“I’m good, dude,” Casey sighed and looked up at the ceiling of the gym. “I realize that it’s really hard and I am not ready for it.”

“Damn straight,” Karai nodded.

“It takes a lot of training,” Mikey told him as he crouched next to the tired-out mechanic. “But, maybe after some practicing, we can try again so you can actually feel what it’s like to control a jaeger.”

“Thanks Mike,” Casey grinned as he shakily raised a fist. Mikey reached over with his own fist to bump against Casey’s.

In the back of the room near the bleachers, Mikey’s three older brothers and surrogate sister watch fondly.

“Mikey really is the best, isn’t he?” April smiled softly.

“He is,” Leo agreed.

“Which is why we have to make sure he is safe,” Raph said. “He’s too good for this cruel world.”

“We’re going to protect him if it’s the last thing we do,” Donnie declared.

Chapter Text

[Pilot Michelangelo Hamato, please report to Bay 10, E-04]

Mikey looked up at the comms unit on his bedside with a frown, lowering the cards in his hands. “What’d you do?” Raph asked as he also puts his cards down, seeing as the game they were playing was over.

“Nothing,” Mikey told him. “Though…isn’t that where uncle Saki works on his new jaegers?”

“I think you’re right,” Raph murmured as he gathered the cards up and put them back into their sleeve. “I wonder what he needs you for.”

“Me too,” Mikey mumbled as he grabbed his orange bomber jacket and swung it on. “You want to join?”

“Hell yeah,” Raph grinned. “I got nothing better to do and I want to see what you did to get in trouble with uncle Saki.”

“I swear I didn’t do anything!” Mikey whined.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say,” Raph rolled his eyes. “Let’s get the show on the road.”

“Ah, Michelangelo, you’re here,” Saki grinned when he saw Mikey and Raph enter. There was a smudge of oil across his forehead and his overalls were tied at the waist to show off his gray t-shirt that had definitely seen better days. “Good to see you as well, Raphael.”

“You called for me?” Mikey asked as he stuffed his hands in his jacket pockets, nervous energy running through him.

“Yes,” Saki nodded before turning to the covered windows of the control room they were in. He pressed a button on the console and the blinds pulled up to show the bay to them. “Come take a look.”

Mikey and Raph looked at each before approaching the control windows. Mikey’s mouth dropped open as he looked up at the jaeger displayed in front of him. It was green in color with yellow electric patterns decorated over it. It's overall shape was similar to Shellraiser but was more sleek and streamlined in its design.

“Woah,” Raph breathed.

“Fascinating, isn’t it?” Saki smirked as he looked at the boys’ reactions. Mikey was quiet in his awe but his mouth was still dropped open. “A brand-new Mark 5 Jaeger. I call it Shellshock.”

“Another turtle pun?” Raph snorted.

“Your father thinks of it as a good luck charm for you boys,” Saki shrugged, a soft smile decorating his face.

“Wait…this is for us?” Mikey squeaked as he pointed at the jaeger in front of him.

“Of course,” Saki grinned and looked over at his newest creation. “We have plans on being able to send all of you boys out at the same time.”

“Wicked,” Mikey breathed softly.

“Which brings me to my next point,” Saki said as he turned towards Mikey. “We need to do a start-up and functionality test before we can release it to the field.”

“What does that have to do with me?” Mikey tilted his head to the side; his curly blond hair shifting behind his orange headband.

“You’re going to be its test pilot,” Saki explained as he turned away to type at the console.

“WHAT?!” Raph and Mikey both exclaimed.

“Who’s going to be the other pilot?” Raph demanded, stomping heavy feet towards Saki. “You better not expect him to solo pilot.”

“Not at all,” Saki shook his head. “That would be much too dangerous.” Saki turned to regard the boys with a long look. “I am going to be piloting with him.”

“Oh my god,” Mikey whispered under his breath in excitement.

“Since when do you pilot?” Raph raised an eyebrow as crossed his arms.

“I usually test all the jaegers I build before I send them out to their pilots,” Saki shrugged. “There is no point sending one out when I haven’t tested it capabilities for myself.”

“Who do you usually test it with?” Mikey asked, forcing his excitement down so he didn’t appear as childish.

“Your father,” Saki responded. “We have a deep enough bond and he also wants to make sure all of his pilots are going to be okay in their jaegers.”

“But dad says he doesn’t drift with anyone anymore,” Raph pointed out.

“Anyone else,” Saki corrected. “I’ve been around for everything so he has no need to worry about someone else looking through his memories.”

Mikey and Raph shared a look, knowing what memories Saki could be referring to. They know their father was deeply affected by the cut in connection when their mother died. They had read in training that losing someone while drifting together felt like a piece of you was cut away that you would never get back. When Yoshi came back from the wreckage of Ninja Speed, they had to put him on suicide watch since they feared he would try to follow after his wife.

“…when do we start?” Mikey asked Saki, making his uncle smile in victory.

Mikey shivered as the metallic spine of the suit attached to him.

“You too?” Saki laughed as he also shivered as his own suit spine was attached to him. His gray with purple accents suit shone in the light of the gear up room.

“I can never get used to it no matter how many times I feel it,” Mikey admitted.

“Me neither,” Saki smiled.

Mikey and Saki placed their helmets on before entering the head of Shellshock. It was a similar set up to Shellraiser but with a sleekness to show that it was newer. Stepping up to the control harness, Mikey was surprised to see no one else enter with them. “Um…where are the guys that help us get secured in?” Mikey asks as he follows his uncle.

“We don’t need them in the Mark 5,” Saki explained as he stepped up to the left side of the controls. He got into place and Mikey watched as the control conformed to his specifications and attached themselves. The spine harness molded itself to Saki’s back before drilling itself into place.

“Woah,” Mikey marveled. He rushed over to his spot and forced himself to not vibrate in excitement at the new mechanisms. The sounds of his own spine harness being attached whirled behind him. “This is amazing.”

“Thank you,” Saki inclined his head. “Now,” Saki cleared his throat, “Shellshock, can you read me?”

[Yes sir]

[Shellshock is ready for instructions]

“Voice activations controls?!” Mikey gushed and clapped his hands together.

“I have found that they are very useful,” Saki mused.

“Trying to us fired from our jobs?” Karai laughed over the line.

“Karai, you’re here?” Mikey asked as he looked up, as if he could see her.

“She’s a great assistant to me when building the jaegers,” Saki said. “She wants to make sure that her brothers have the best jaeger to fight in.”

“Aww, ane,” Mikey gushed.

“There’s no way I would let any of you go out in a less-than-parr jaeger,” Karai said and he could practically hear the roll of her eyes.

“Shouldn’t we let the others know that you are doing this?” Raph asked, watching from the bay's control room at Karai's side.

“I already got permission of your father,” Saki hummed. “And there is no reason to tell Leonardo or Donatello at the moment. They can find out afterwards and deal with Michelangelo’s post-piloting energy rush.”

“I guess that’s fair,” Mikey shrugged.

“I don’t like this,” Raph grumbled.

“You’re just jealous that you aren’t in there,” Karai teased.

“Shut up!” Raph growled.

“Let’s get started,” Saki cleared his throat. “Shellshock, initiate neural handshake.”

[Neural handshake…engaged]

Mikey gasped as he pulled into the drift with Saki.

/A younger Saki holding a baby Michelangelo in the hospital room./

/A toddler Mikey being handed a toy robot by Saki for a birthday gift./

/Saki watching the news from his house as the first kaiju erupted from the sea to attack San Francisco./

/Opening the front door to see a team of government agents delivering Saki’s niece and nephews to him as his brother and sister-in-law were brought in to fight./

/Saki joining the jaeger engineering department to work on the machines that helped fight against the threat against humanity./

/Presenting Ninja Speed to Yoshi and Shen for the first time and watching as their eyes lit up./

/Saki watching with a proud smile as his specially built jaeger piloted by Yoshi and Shen decimated a kaiju; his little niece and nephews cheering in front of the tv./

/Saki having to hold back his own tears as he holds wailing Karai to his chest; Michelangelo being held by Leonardo while Raphael screams in grief at the sight of their distraught father being pulled away from the wreckage of Ninja Speed./

/Having to talk Yoshi through his depression, telling him that he had five children he had to live for./

/Saki looking at the readings in numb shock and horror when it is discovered that all of his brother’s children are drift compatible enough with each other to pilot a jaeger./

/Saki working himself to the bone on blueprints and designs for a jaeger that would protect his precious family when they are sent out to fight the kaiju./

/Mikey peeking at his father and uncle as they talk about him one late night when he got up for a drink./

/Mikey with his siblings as they are pushed through drill after drill, trying to prove that he can keep up with all of them despite his age./

/Saki watching in a nostalgic pride as Shellraiser is started up for battle for the first time with two of his nephews at the helm./

/Laughing at the pure childish excitement of Michelangelo as he is told it is his turn to pilot Shellraiser./

/Saki pulling out some blueprint for a new generation of jaeger that will give his nephews another machine to pilot./

/Saki looking up at a blank jaeger with no designation./

Mikey and Saki inhaled sharply as they exited the drift. Mikey was confused by the last memory he saw. He knew all of the jaegers his uncle worked on but that last one was a complete mystery.

Though…there was something very familiar about it.

[Neural handshake: strong and holding]

“Right hemisphere: calibrating,” Mikey listed off like protocol dictated. Moving in tandem, they both raised their right hand.

“Left hemisphere: calibrating,” Saki continued. Their left hands were lifted up. They clapped their hands together and bowed forward.

Outside, Shellshock copied her pilot’s motions.

On the holographic display in front of the uncle and nephew, the words [Calibration Complete] shined at them.

“Looking good from my end,” Karai stated.

“Excellent,” Saki nodded. “Let’s do some basic movement controls and a lap around the island before we finish the test.”

“Hell yeah!” Mikey cheered and aligned his mind with Saki. Like he usually did when piloting with other, he let them take more of the controls so they could do what they wanted.

Which is why he was surprised when he felt a push in his mind from his uncle to take control. Mikey peeked at Saki and was met with a blank side-eye that didn’t need words.

He knew what Saki was thinking.

Mikey lifted up Shellshock’s arms and ran them through a range of movements at Karai’s directions while he waited for the bay doors to open. There was a layer of nerves running under Mikey’s skin as he was being told by his uncle to take the controls for the first time. He’s never been able to do what he’s wanted in a jaeger…well, except for the time he had to take over when Raph was cut out and he got that neural overload.

Details.

There was a loud buzzing noise when the bay doors opened completely. From outside, Mikey could hear a headquarters wide announcement letting the staff know that there was going to be a jaeger out and about around the base as they tested it. There was a short burst of static letting them know that someone connected to the comms of Shellshock.

“What’s this I hear about a jaeger test?” Yoshi’s tired voice sighed.

“Hello brother,” Saki grinned. “Just have to test out the movement of Shellshock.”

“Why was I not informed of this?”

Mikey looked over at Saki with a scandalized face with Saki just shook his head with a smirk. “I did inform you. Remember last night during your soap opera?”

“You know I never listen during my shows,” Yoshi deadpanned.

“Your fault then,” Saki laughed.

“I knew you didn’t get permission!” Raph grumbled.

“Raphael? What are you doing there?” Splinter asked.

“I’m in the control room with Karai,” Raph explained.

“’Sup dad,” Karai said with a pop of gum.

“Then who is in the jaeger with you Saki?” Splinter asked.

Saki looked over at his and motioned for him to speak up. “Hi dad…” Mikey sheepishly greeted.

“Michelangelo?!” Yoshi exclaimed. “Saki, you know that I did not allow this!”

“Too late,” Saki shrugged. “Let’s go, Michelangelo.”

“Saki!”

“Can’t hear you~” Saki smirked before ending the communications with Yoshi. Between the link of their minds, the two of them decided to step forward and exited the jaeger’s bay. “Let’s go before your dad can stop us.”

“You’re so sly,” Mikey laughed.

“You had to get it from someone,” Saki winked. “Now, go have fun. I know you let your brothers take more control when you fight.”

“How’d you know?” Mikey blinked as Shellshock entered the sunlight of a bright late-summer day.

“I built these machines. I know how to read the mental data of their pilots,” Saki explained. “Besides…I have an ulterior motive by drifting with you.”

Mikey lets those words wash over him, confusion filling him but a calming wave sent by Saki made it better. Through their mental connection, his uncle said that he would explain later and for now to just enjoy an easy ride through Shellshock.

Mikey smiled as he moved together with Saki to control Shellshock. It moved to his command, arms swaying at their side with feet cutting through the water surrounding the island this Shatterdome was built on. Saki had him release some non-energized weapons to make sure they were working right before pulling them back into the main body.

All in all, Mikey felt so free.

The chance to actually pilot a jaeger the way he wanted with no drawbacks of a neural overload was amazing. It felt like all of Shellshock was an extension of his body, responding to all of his calls. Unfortunately, after making their lap around the island, Saki told them they had to go back in. There was only so far he could push his own brother and he didn’t want to get his youngest nephew in trouble with him. When they re-entered the jaeger’s bay, the frowning face of his father surrounded by his three brothers greeted them.

“Shellshock, prepare for disengagement,” Saki said to the jaeger.

[Pilot to pilot communication with be disrupted]

[Continue?]

“Continue,” Saki nodded.

[Affirmative]

[Initiating disengagement procedure]

“It’s so cool how you automated it for voice control,” Mikey awed.

“Thank you,” Saki beamed. “There are many more controls but I will teach them to you as you all progress in Shellshock. There are certain controls that you aren’t prepared for yet.”

Mikey was glad for that to be the moment that his and Saki’s mental connection faded away and dropped so his uncle wouldn’t know what he had been thinking at that moment. The control clips holding them in place unlatched and unscrewed, releasing the two of them. Mikey pulled themselves out and twisted around to crack his back. Saki stretched his arms over his head as the door in the back of Shellshock’s head opened.

Mikey shot out of the doorway like a bat out of hell and ran towards his family. Leo stepped forward to see if something was wrong and was rewarded with a flying tackle to the ground.

“Lee Lee! That was so cool!” Mikey gushed. He pulled himself up and started jumping place. “A voice automated jaeger that doesn’t need people to help hook us to the controls!”

“Oh great, Mikey’s got his post-piloting zoomies,” Raph rolled his eyes.

“I figured I would let help me test and then I can sic him on you with his piloting high,” Saki laughed as he approached his brother.

“Thank you for that, Uncle Saki,” Donnie grumbled, yelping when Mikey swung himself up to latch onto his tallest brother’s shoulders.

“You’re welcome,” Saki smirked. He turned to face his brother and took note of the look of agitation and anger. “You okay, brother?”

“You know that I did not give my consent to my son being a part of the testing,” Splinter said with a low voice. “And according to Raphael, you told them that you got my permission.”

“I did,” Saki rolled his eyes. “I already told you that I let you know during your show.”

“You planned this,” Yoshi hissed with narrowed eyes.

“Guilty,” Saki smiled devilishly.

“If you weren’t the chief of engineering, I would put you on leave for that stunt.”

“Then it’s a good thing that I am.”

“Dad! Dad! Dad!” Mikey exclaimed as he bounced in place and grabbed ahold of his father’s maroon robe sleeve. “It was so cool! To be able to just walk around in a jaeger without having to worry about a mutant!”

“Kaiju, my son,” Yoshi sighed. “And you riled up my son.”

“Remember that time when we were in elementary school and you ate my cookie on the class trip?” Saki smirked. “This is my revenge for that.”

“I don’t understand how you remembered and hung onto that for so long.” Yoshi reached up to pinch the space between his eyes. “That was ages ago.”

“Like I said,” Saki shrugged. “Revenge.”

“Revenge is my middle name,” Mikey chimed in, grabbing onto the word in his hyper state.

“No, it’s not,” Donnie sighed, dropping his face into his hands.

“Who’s turn is it now?” Leo groaned from the beanbag he was splayed out on.

“Not mine,” Raph grumbled as he pulled the blanket off of Mikey’s bed. “I had him earlier in the day. Don can take a shift.”

“Aww man,” Donnie groaned as he wiped his hands down his face. “We wouldn’t have to deal with this if you told us earlier that Mikey was going to be sent out on a test run.”

“Don’t try and pin the blame on me,” Raph sleepily growled.

“I guess I’ll watch Mikey,” Donnie sighed as he mourned the thought of sleep. He looked around and came up short one orange loving brother. “Wait, where is he?”

Leo and Raph looked up and realized that their energy filled little brother had given them the slip at some point.

“Dammit,” Raph groaned as his head dropped back down onto the floor.

Mikey snickered to himself as he felt the elevator moving.

His plan had worked. His brothers didn’t seem to have the same energy reserves like he did, which became supercharged after piloting a jaeger. All he had to do was run them ragged and they wouldn’t notice when he quietly slipped out of the room.

Mikey was pretty sure in another life where they didn’t have to fight giant monsters from the pacific ocean that they would have been ninjas.

His snickers quieted down as a blank look took over his face. The only sound in the elevator was the rumbling as it moved and the dings as it passed floor after floor. Before long, it slowed to a stop and opened its doors to the same control room he was in before. There was no one there, just like he wanted. It was dark and with a peek around, he didn’t see any security cameras. Mikey padded up to the console and brought it to life, finding the program with all the files for the commands. There was a password lock on it but with a few keystrokes, he was in. Everyone always thought that Donnie was the only one that could hack into computers but after years of watching and listening to him, Mikey was almost to his brother’s level.

Scrolling down the lists of commands for Shellshock, Mikey hummed as he committed them to memory. A long time ago, Mikey was diagnosed with photogenic memory which helped him out more often than not.

Especially right now.

Mikey scrolled all the way down to the bottom of the list before pressing a key on the console. A new window popped open with a blinking cursor.

[Enter new command?]

The light from the screen shined into Mikey’s face, making his light blue eyes practically glow in the darkness. With a hard expression, Mikey went to work entering a special command.

[Command added]

Mikey grinned in the darkness before shutting down the program, making it look like he was never there. Without a sound, Mikey backtracked towards the elevator to enter it. It swallowed him up and took him away from the control room.

And no one besides his uncle Saki that was hiding in a dark corner of the room where Mikey never saw him would know that he was ever in there.

Chapter Text

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR MICHELANEGLO!” multiple voices yell in a cheer around the laughing boy,

In front of Mikey sitting at the head of the table is a cake with his name and the birthday message written out in bright orange icing. Sixteen candle and two number candles that form the number 16 decorate the cake that has mini toy robots in the corners. Yoshi is to Mikey’s immediate left, his father with a hand on his son’s shoulder. Leo is on his right and is holding Raph back from reaching forward to smash Mikey’s face in his cake. Donnie is recording from the other end of the table with April looking over his shoulder. Casey is cheering to the left of Yoshi with Saki smiling next to him. Karai is rolling her eyes at Raph’s antic next to him.

Mikey’s face is hurting from how wide he is smiling. It always made him happy when they were able to get everyone together. The only thing that could make it even better was if his mom was there to but life didn’t perform miracles like that.

“Blow your candles out so we can have cake already!” April laughed, clapping her hands together.

Mikey took a moment to think of his wish, humming in thought. Perking up, he took in a deep breath and blew out the candles.

“Whoo!” Casey cheered, pumping a fist in the air. “What’d you wish for?”

“You know it won’t come true if I say it out loud,” Mikey rolled his eyes.

“That’s just some superstitious mumbo jumbo.”

“Superstitious is my middle name,” Mikey grinned, making Saki laugh.

“No, it’s really not,” Donnie sighed behind the camera.

“Shen was a superstitious one,” Saki mused as he rubbed his chin. “That’s why she gave you the name Kiken – that way danger would never come for you.”

“It’s debatable if it works,” Raph laughed.

Yoshi reached forward to cut the cake while Raph watched everyone around him. Leo handed over the plates for pieces of cake to be deposited on while Karai passed around forks. Mikey had looked over for a moment at Casey and that was Raph’s opening to smash a piece of cake into his face. Donnie groaned as he watched Mikey grab another piece of cake and threw it into Raph’s laughing face. Raph froze for a second as he wiped the cake out of his eyes.

“…you’re going to regret that, munchkin,” Raph growled.

“Says the one that only has two inches on me,” Mikey teased.

“That’s it!” Raph playfully roared as he shot forward and tackled Mikey. The chair under him tipped backwards and the two went tumbling backwards. Mikey rolled away and shot around the side to sit on top of Raph and smushed the cake more into his face and hair. “Hey!” Raph yelled.

“You started it!” Mikey cackled. He yelped as Raph flipped them around and he took revenge on his little brother.

“They are children,” Leo shook his head in amusement.

Mikey and Raph stopped their wrestling and looked over at Leo. They turned to look at each and nodded with a smirk as a truce was made. They pulled away from each other and crouched on either side of Leo.

“Oh, c’mon guys,” Leo whined, already knowing what was going to happen. There was a moment of stillness before Raph grabbed Leo from the back in a headlock as Mikey smashed a piece of cake in his face. He took an extra moment to really work it into his brother’s hair. “Noooooooo,” Leo groaned dramatically. “Not the hair! That’s going to take forever to get out!”

Leo slipped out of the hold easily and grabbed more pieces to smash in Mikey’s and Raph’s face in revenge. The three of them laughed as cake got all over them. They turned towards the remaining clean brother and Donnie felt a shiver run down his spine.

They knew to not even try and mess up Karai’s makeup and hair with cake.

“No guys,” Donnie whined as they each grabbed a piece of cake and approached him from all sides. April plucked the camera from his hands and stepped out of the way, making sure it was pointed at the four brothers to get it all recorded. “We can talk this out, can’t we?”

“There is no talking in love and war,” Mikey grinned.

“Cheers to that,” Saki laughed with his glass of juice raised (Yoshi wasn’t going to allow alcohol around his children when four of the five were still under the legal age).

“Don’t encourage them,” Yoshi sighed but it was replaced with a laugh at the end.

Mikey, Raph, and Leo leapt forward to attack Donnie from three sides. Mikey’s piece got him in the face, Leo’s in his hair and Raph’s over the front of his shirt. Donnie just sat still and let it happen as the three of them really worked the cake into him.

“I hate you guys sometimes,” Donnie grumbled.

“We know,” Raph smirked.

“I’m going to get you back for this.”

“We know,” Leo chuckled.

“You all better sleep with one eye open.”

“We know,” Mikey giggled.

“Smile for the camera, little brothers,” Karai told them as she held up her phone.

The four brothers turned and posed for her as she took numerous of his younger brothers. They kept changing poses, making Karai take more pictures as she laughed at how goofy they were covered in cake.

“Alright, boys,” Yoshi clapped his hands together, getting their attention. “Go clean up so we can do presents for Michelangelo.”

Various answers of acknowledgement rang out as the brothers pulled away from each other and left the game room they were using for Mikey’s birthday. They were plenty of other people that Mikey was close to that would have come but he wanted an intimate gathering of just his family for his big 16^th birthday. There was plans for a celebration with some of his friends and the workers he was close with later.

Yoshi waited until he figured the boys would be far enough away to hear him as he turned towards his surrogate daughter. “Did you get all of that on camera?”

“Of course, I did,” April smirked, jiggling the video camera in her hand.

“Me first!” April cheered as she handed over her present.

A freshly showered Mikey, with curly hair still damp, took the box from her and carefully tore off the blue with birthday cake wrapping paper it was in. Tendrils of blond curls hung down in his face as his usual orange headband needed to washed off of the cake smearing it. His back-up headband sat on the side of his bed where he decided to leave it in case someone decided to smear cake into his face again.

“Just rip it off,” Raph rolled his vibrant green eyes. His buzzcut black hair was already dry.

“No,” Mikey shook his head. “She took the time to wrap it so I am making sure that I can save a piece for my scrapbook.”

“Since when do you have a scrapbook?” Leo asked. His own newly cleaned black hair shone in the light. His hair was a bit longer than Raph's and it still a bit damp but more on the dry side compared to Mikey's.

“Since today,” Mikey answered with a large smile. “I want to do something with all my picture and trinkets I’ve saved over the years. Might as well do it now.” He finished taking the wrapping paper off and opened a box to reveal a stuffed animal. It was a cat with the design of it looking like it was made out of ice cream. “It’s so cute!” Mikey exclaimed as he took the stuffed cat of the box and held it to his chest. “I love it!”

“That makes me happy,” April smiled.

“I’m going to name it Ice Cream Kitty,” Mikey smiled brightly. “Ick for short.”

“Me next,” Casey cleared his throat as he handed over a flat rectangle wrapped in newspaper. Mikey took the paper off to show a set of newly released issues of a comic that he enjoyed. He hadn’t been able to get them lately with all the jaeger attacks so his eyes shown in excitement when he saw them. “I see that look,” Casey grinned. “I did good, didn’t I?”

“Way good!” Mikey squealed and kicked his feet under his chair. “I can’t wait to read them later.”

“Me and Raph are next,” Leo said as he handed over a small box wrapped in blue and red birthday balloon paper. Mikey raised an eyebrow as he tore the paper off and lifted the lid of the box, his mouth dropping when he saw the new MP3 player shining up at him in all his orange glory.

“We both pitched in to get you an updated one,” Raph said as he pointed at it. “That old one was a drop away from dying on you.”

“Thank you!” Mikey gushed as he awed over it. “I’m going to load all my songs up on it later!”

“Let me know if you need help,” Donnie offered. “And I am happy to see their gift is that.”

“How so?” April asked as a medium box was handed over to Mikey.

“You’ll see,” Donnie hummed as his purple wrapping paper was taken off. He reached up to brush a droplet of water from his shoulders that came from his brown wavy hair.

Mikey took a look at the cover of the box and squealed when he saw a new pair of orange headphones displayed for him. “New headphones?!” Mikey cheered.

“Correct,” Donnie smiled. “I noticed that you haven’t worn your old pair ever since the mission with Caligula.”

“Ugh, that kaiju still gives me the shivers,” Raph groaned.

“And I’m still sorry that you had to step in when we failed,” Leo bowed his head.

“It’s alright, dudes,” Mikey grinned as he placed the headphones to the side. “The four of us are literally all pilots of Shellraiser for that exact reason.” Mikey turned to Donnie with a shrug. “And yeah, I broke my old pair when we got called for the emergency deployment and I tossed them to the side getting geared up.”

“Again, sorry about that,” Leo winced.

“Again, not your fault,” Mikey shrugged. “It’s the mutant’s for trying to destroy mankind.”

“Kaiju, Michelangelo,” Saki corrected as he hands over a card. “Here is part of your gift. The other part is still being worked on so I will have to present it to you later.”

“Ohh, a Hamato Saki original,” Donnie awed. “That’s something not everyone can get every day.”

“It’s because of my charm,” Mikey winked as he opened the card. In it was a birthday message and a gift card to load onto his phone and buy any items he’s had his eye on. “Thank you Uncle Saki. I can’t wait to see what else you have planned.”

“Come down to my office later and I can show a sneak peek of it,” Saki told him.

“I definitely will,” Mikey nodded enthusiastically.

“Here’s my gift,” Karai said as she handed over a wrapped soft item. He tore off the silvery paper and picked up a black clothed item. It unfolded itself to show that it was a black version of his orange bomber jacket without a design on the back. Lowering it on his lap, Mikey ran a hand over the material and smiled when it felt nice below his hand.

“Thank you so much, ane!” Mikey chirped as he tugged off his orange jacket and slipped the black one on. It was slightly big but Mikey knew Karai was a planner and would get something like this a size big so he could grow into it.

“It looks good on you,” Karai winked.

“My turn now, my son,” Yoshi hummed as he placed a hand on his son’s shoulder.

Mikey’s father always did the two-part gift ever since the boys became pilots. They would first get a money transfer of a few hundred dollars to their account so they could get what they wanted.

The second part was a wish for anything reasonably in his father’s capabilities. For the twin’s 17^th birthday, Raph asked for a private work out area and Leo wanted new katanas to practice with. Within a week, both of their wishes were fulfilled with a pair of katanas laying demurely on Leo’s bed and a key presented to Raph that would unlock his private gym near his room.

For Donnie’s 16^th birthday, he asked for a workshop to work on his inventions and crafts which was given to him three days later, stocked with various tools and metal sheets to mold. Karai asked for a small vacation to Japan for her 18^th birthday. The following month, Karai, Donnie, and Mikey took a trip there with Saki as their chaperone. Yoshi stayed back as he was the head of the jaeger pilots with Leo and Raph, who volunteered in case any kaijus appeared to let their younger brothers enjoy something outside the scope of fighting monsters to save humanity.

It was an amazing trip that Mikey would never forget and with Donnie, they made sure their sister felt like a queen on her birthday trip. She didn’t mind having her two youngest brothers at all as she would point out various things their mother taught her before her untimely end. If he got the chance, he would love to go back to Japan again.

But he knew what he wanted and he wasn’t going to waste his wish on a trip.

Mikey wet his lips as he fiddled with his fingers, feeling nervous over his wish.

“What is it, my son?” Splinter asked. “You can tell me what you wish for.”

“Just say it already, Mike,” Raph said. “It must be a pretty big ask if you’re this nervous over it.”

Mikey cleared his throat before locking eyes with his father. “I want to drift with you.”

Silence hung in the air as the wish was announced. They all expected something like an extra turning fighting in the jaeger or a shopping spree in the nearest comic bookstore on the mainland.

“…oh, that is big,” Raph whispered.

“May I ask why you have chosen that for your wish?” Yoshi hummed. Mikey mumbled something under his breath, prompting his father to lean in closer. “I did not hear that.”

“I want to see mom,” Mikey admitted, head looking down at his hands. “Everyone has all these memories of her and I feel like I don’t have that many compared to them.”

“Oh, Mikey,” Leo breathed.

“I just want to see her from your point of view,” Mikey said in a rush, his face growing red. “You saw everything with how she was with us and I just…” Mikey trailed off, biting his lip. “I want to see her again.”

There was silence in the room again as everyone looked towards Yoshi for his decision. He stroked his beard as he looked down at his son that would not make eye contact with him. Yoshi pulled his hand away and placed it back on his cane.

“Are you prepared to see memories that are unpleasant?” Yoshi asked his son. “I’m afraid I will not be able to stop my last memories with her.”

“I’m ready,” Mikey nodded his head enthusiastically, finally looking up at his father.

“Very well,” Yoshi inclined his head. “Meet him in the training room at 1930.” He turned on his heel and left the room with Saki following after him.

There was a beat before Raph grabbed Mikey by the shoulders and shook him. “Why’d you ask something like that?” Raph demanded.

“Like I said, I want to see mom,” Mikey mumbled.

“You could have drifted with any of us if you wanted that,” Leo pointed out.

“I already have all your memories of her,” Mikey grumbled. “I want to see her from dad’s point of view.”

“It is true,” Donnie mused. “With his photogenic memory, he’s already practically downloaded all of our memories of her.”

“You make me sound like a robot.”

“Since when do you photogeneric memory?” Casey tilted his head to the side.

“Photogenic, you moron,” Raph corrected. “And he's always had it. Mikey can remember anything if he sees seen it at least once.”

“That sounds so cool!”

“It isn’t when you’ve seen someone do the do in the drift and your mind won’t let you forget it,” Mikey shivered.

“Wait, who did you drift with that’s already done it?” Donnie blinked.

Mikey hummed as he pressed his lips together and looked everywhere but his siblings, blood or surrogate.

“Mikey, who was it?” April demanded, her lips lifting up in a hysterical smile. “I need the tea.”

“Hmm, what do you know?” Mikey laughed as he stood up and scooped his presents plus the orange bomber jacket into his arms. “I hear someone calling for me. Got to go! Bye! See you later!” He made his grand escape with his cackles marking his route.

“Mikey!” Donnie called after his younger brother with a huff. He turned towards Leo who was frozen in his spot. Karai was bent over at the waist, clutching her stomach from how hard she was laughing. “You’re pretty quiet there, Leo.”

“I’m just processing that our baby brother has the memory of someone else having sex in his mind,” Leo said calmly.

“Give him a minute,” Raph snickered. “I bet mother-hen mode will activate in 3…2…1…”

“Mikey!” Leo exclaimed before rushing out of the room. “We have to bleach your mind!”

“There we go!” Raph cackled.

“I’m still wondering who it was,” April laughed.

“Wait, if he drifts with the Major, won’t he see how all of you were conceived?” Casey pointed out.

Karai, Raph, and Donnie froze and April could swear she could hear the dial up noises coming from their heads. Raph slammed his hands on the table to boost him up and rushed out of the room. “Leo! Grab the entire supply of bleach!”

Chapter Text

“Are you sure about this?” Yoshi asked as he and Mikey were set up in their chairs. Specialized drift headsets were placed on their heads.

“I’m sure,” Mikey nodded.

“Alright then,” Yoshi leaned back in his chair and relaxed.

“It’s ready to go when you are two are,” Saki told his brother and nephew. April was at his side as she looked over their readings on the screen in front of her. Donnie was monitoring the headsets outputs across the small room. On one wall was an observation window that let the room next door watch. In there was Karai, Leo, Raph, and Casey as they were curious how it was going to play out.

“I’m ready,” Mikey gulped.

“As I am,” Yoshi hummed.

“Very well,” Saki nodded as he pressed a button on the console. “Miss O’Neil, if you would.”

“Neural handshake test…engaged,” April said.

Mikey heard his father gasp in time with him as the two of them were pulled into the drift.

/A teenage Yoshi tripping over his own two feet when a pretty girl his age walked into his family dojo./

/A slightly older Yoshi finally pulling himself together enough to ask the girl on a date./

/Shen giggling as Yoshi regales her with funny stories of his youth with Saki./

/Yoshi beaming as Shen cheers for him after he won a karate competition./

/Saki teasing Yoshi about Shen hinting at him for marriage./

/A young adult Yoshi bending down on one knee with a ring held up in the box between his hands presented to a happily crying Shen; Saki in the background recording the whole thing and cheering for them./

/Yoshi’s face feeling like it is going to break from how hard he is smiling as he gazes upon Shen in her traditional Japanese wedding kimono./

/Shen and Yoshi crying tears of joy while Shen holds a positive pregnancy test in her hands./

/Saki clapping Yoshi on the shoulder while Shen rubs her stomach that was growing larger by the day./

/Shopping at the store together after finding out the gender of their first child./

/Yoshi’s finger being held hostage by a little baby, the name card at the end of her hospital crib displaying ‘Karai Miwa Hamato.’/

/Saki gushing over his niece as she slams two toy robots together, Shen in the background chuckling./

/Shen rushing to the bathroom with a hand held to her mouth, Yoshi watching in concern as he feeds his year and a half old daughter./

/Gasping in shock when they find out that they are going to be having twins./

/Saki helping Yoshi set up the nursey for the twin boys that would be soon welcomed into the Hamato family./

/Yoshi introducing two-year-old Karai to the newborn twins held in Shen’s tired arms./

/Saki carrying a squealing Karai on his shoulders at the park while Shen and Yoshi push Leonardo and Raphael on the baby swings./

/Shen looking over at a family with four children with a hand on her stomach; Saki and Yoshi zeroing in on the motion like hawks with their mouths dropping open./

/Saki bringing in his niece and two nephews to the hospital to meet their new baby brother./

/Donatello whimpering in Saki’s hold and immediately calming down when he was placed back in Shen’s arms./

/Karai holding the hand of a toddler Raph in a fairy costume while Leo is a ninja; Donnie is a pumpkin held in mother’s hands while Yoshi takes pictures./

/Shen handing over a small box to Karai while Yoshi watches with an inquisitive look behind them with a twin propped up on each hip, Donnie in his high chair at the kitchen table./

/Yoshi’s mouth dropping open when Karai pulls out a shirt that says she is going to be a big sister again./

/Shen laughing at Yoshi’s declaration that he was getting a vasectomy./

/Saki pushing a stroller with the three boys and Karai hanging onto his hand into the hospital room where a small baby wrapped up in an orange blanket is being cooed at by his mother./

/Leo pouting that he wants to hold the baby as Michelangelo is handed over to Saki to hold./

/Saki smirking at Yoshi as he congratulated the two parents on their fifth child./

/Shen humming a lullaby to a sleepy Mikey as Yoshi finishes putting the older children to bed./

/The family gathered around a baby Mikey as they celebrate his first birthday, cake smeared all over his and his brothers’ faces; Saki making sure to take a picture from the side./

/Karai helping Mikey learn how to walk with Shen taking pictures in the background./

/Shen and Yoshi sighing in domestic bliss as she watches her four sons cuddle together in a giant pile on the living room floor after a movie marathon; Karai passed out on the couch./

/Yoshi watching Mikey running away squealing from a peeved Leo for taking the last blueberry ice pop./

/Looking up from where he is watering the garden with Karai as Mikey and Raph kick a soccer ball between each other; Shen sitting in the shade with Leo and Donnie tucked up against her sides./

/Shen shaking her head in exasperation as she fixes the patch job on Mikey’s knees from when he fell off the skateboard his brothers tried to teach him to ride; Karai showing the video she took./

/Saki calling and screaming into the phone as the news showed the monsters come out from the sea and attack San Francisco; Shen holding a hand over her mouth as she paled./

/Getting tested and finding out that he and his wife were drift compatible but neither knowing what that exactly meant./

/Government officials showing up at their house requesting Yoshi and his wife to come with them; their children being taken by the officials to his brother’s house but not before they kissed each of their children on the forehead./

/Being placed in a generic jaeger and fighting against a category 1 kaiju by the name of Fishface./

/A celebration being thrown over the fact that Yoshi and Shen were able to pilot and defeat the kaiju with the jaeger./

/Saki showing up at the jaeger headquarters to inform his brother that he is now in charge of the engineering department and will be making the jaegers./

/Shen and Yoshi looking up in awe when they are presented with Ninja Speed for the first time./

/Yoshi looked at his wife in their matching maroon armor sets after they defeated another kaiju./

/Shen sleeping in their bed with Yoshi dozing next to her when he feels multiple little feet climb into his bed over the course of an hour./

/Opening his eyes after he counted five to see all his children splayed out on the bed around them./

/Yoshi watching as Shen kisses all their children before they have to deploy out again to fight a kaiju by the codename of Dogpound; taking the extra moment to caress a 7-year-old Mikey’s cheek./

/Landing in the battlefield with Shen at their side as they attack the kaiju./

/The kaiju imparting heavy damage on their jaeger, causing multiple systems to fail./

/Dogpound slipping a sharp claw into Ninja Speed’s head, impaling Shen in the side./

/Ninja Speed throwing Dogpound into the sea to slink away as it falls forward as the strain became too much for the pilots to handle./

/Yoshi rushing over to release Shen from her harness and dropping into his arms, cradling her close./

/Begging her to hang on as their mental connection slowly fades, showing the state of his wife./

/Shen smiling and holding a weak shaky hand up to touch Yoshi’s helmet, telling him to watch over their beloved children./

/Her final words telling him that he can always find her in the drift./

/Her hands dropping away, leaving a handprint of blood against the glass of his helmet as she breathes her last breath./

/The thin strand of their mental connection snapping as Shen dies/.

/Yoshi screaming as he clutches his dead wife close to him, not caring if the kaiju coming back to kill them or not./

/Fighting against the jaeger program agents as they pull him away from his dead wife and wrecked jaeger./

/Reaching a hand out towards the jaeger his wife would never leave again as he is loaded into an ambulance./

Mikey gasped a wet sob as he is brought out of the drift. Next to him, Yoshi blinked open his eyes with a clear film of tears on them.

“Neural handshake test: completed,” April announces softly.

Yoshi is quick to sit up and pulls the headset off. He got off his chair and approached his youngest son. Mikey sat up slowly with tears rolling down his eyes. Yoshi wasted no time in pulling his son in his arms for a strong hug. The tears evolved to sobs as Mikey cried into his father’s shoulders.

Saki reached over to pluck the headset off of Mikey and stepped back next to April as they watched. Donnie approached his father and brother, rubbing a hand up and down Mikey’s arm. There was the sound of a door opening as Karai, Leo, and Raph rushed in to surround Mikey. Casey came in much slower and stopped next to Saki and April. He handed over a tissue to April as the tears coming from Mikey was making her own eyes wet with emotion.

“Are you okay, otouto?” Leo murmured as he ruffled Mikey’s hair.

“I saw mom,” Mikey smiled wetly. “She was so beautiful and she loved us so much.”

“She did,” Karai softly smiled, her own memories with their mother running through her mind. “She was the best mom someone could have.”

April took Casey’s hand to lead themselves out of the room, giving the Hamato family member some time to themselves.

“Hi, uncle Saki,” Mikey greeted as he entered the head engineer’s office.

“Hello, Michelangelo,” Saki nodded as he put his pencil down. “Are you here to see the preview of your present?”

“Yeah, but first I have a question,” Mikey said as he pulled out a seat and sat down.

“What about?” Saki cocked his head to the side.

“Something I saw in dad’s memories that got me thinking.”

“Ohh, interesting,” Saki tapped his fingers together. “Let’s see if I know the answer to it.”

“Whatever happened to that mutant mom and dad were fighting?”

“Kaiju,” Saki corrected in a knee-jerk reaction. “And that would be Dogpound.”

“Yeah, what happened to him after he got thrown into the ocean?” Mikey pressed on. “I couldn’t seem to find any reports of our unit defeating him so I was wondering if another country’s jaeger team finished it.”

“Unfortunately, we don’t know what happened to that kaiju,” Saki sighed as he leaned back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling. “It disappeared into the sea and never appeared again. Even our scanners lost it.”

“But mutants don’t just disappear,” Mikey frowned. “Especially one of that size.”

“The kaiju,” Saki stressed the word to correct Mikey, “is theorized to have died from its wounds against Ninja Speed after disappearing back into the ocean and sunk deep into depths that we cannot access.”

“Weird.”

“That it is,” Saki sighed again, rocking his chair backwards. “Anyways!” Saki shot forwards and clapped his hands together. “I have something to show you.”

“Oh right, my birthday gift!” Mikey perked up and stood up from his chair to follow after his uncle.

Saki walked over to a door in the corner, opening it to reveal an elevator. He stepped in and motioned Mikey to follow him, the boy following with a raised eyebrow.

Saki pressed a button and the elevator shot down with a rattle, sending them floor after floor underground. “Umm…I didn’t know you had a secret elevator,” Mikey chuckled to break the silence.

“Most do not,” Saki grinned. “I do not advertise it. So please, keep it a secret.”

“Will do,” Mikey saluted.

The elevator stopped and the two exited to enter a dark room that Mikey couldn’t tell how high it went. Saki walked over to the side and pulled a switch, light the room up in bright lights.

And watched how Mikey’s mouth dropped open when he saw the surprise.

“Your reaction is just like your mother’s,” Saki mused as he approached his nephew and rested a hand on his shoulder.

“Is that what I think it is?” Mikey asked with a shaky finger pointing at it.

“It is,” Saki nodded in his head. “I have various parts to still upgrade and you have a whole three volumes of instructions to read through but here you go,” Saki gestured with his hand at the tall metallic figure. “Happy birthday, Michelangelo.”

Mikey couldn’t believe his eyes.

And something told him that he shouldn’t mention this gift to anyone else.

Chapter Text

[Shellshock: code Sun Beam report to Bay 10, level E-04]

[Timelord report to Bay 02, level A-07]

[Kaiju. Code name: Rocksteady]

[Category 4. 6400 metric tons]

[Kaiju. Code name: Bebop]

[Category 4. 6200 metric tons]

Mikey gazed up at the speaker in awe after hearing the announcement. He looked over and made eye contact with his equally surprised sister.

It was time for the new jaeger to enter a battle and for the very first time, it was with Karai.

“Don’t tell Leo or Raph yet,” Mikey demanded before bolting out of the control room, Karai hot on his heels.

“Mikey!” Donnie yelled after him but his voice just faded away as Mikey got farther.

His special black bomber jacket that he got from his sister fluttered behind him as he rushed over to Shellshock’s hanger. He really loved it and he wanted to make sure that she saw him wearing it. It also made sense since he wasn’t going to be piloting Shellraiser with it out already fighting another kaiju named Jei.

This was an unusual spike in kaiju activity but it was very rare for three to attack at the same time close enough that three jaegers were sent from the same facility. Renet and Mondo were a bit older than Mikey but newer in terms of fighting. He had made great friends with them so it was exciting to experience a fight at their side.

Though…it was slightly worrying to him to get two category 4 kaijus to be fighting at the same time. Even Jei is a category 3, a rather large one at that.

Mikey pushed it out of his mind as he entered the gear-up room and striped out of his clothes. His underlayer suit was slapped on and the workers came to secure his orange armor pieces on. He looked over to see Karai trying to push her excitement down as her own silvery gray armor pieces were put on her.

“How are you feeling, sis?” Mikey grinned as his helmet was handed to him.

“Like I can’t believe it took this long to send me out there,” Karai smirked as slipped her helmet on. Mikey followed her lead and watched as the yellow filmy layer melting away to the bottom to get him a clear view out of the front.

The oldest sister and youngest brother of the five siblings rushed over to the door in the back of Shellshock’s head. Karai took the right-side controls while Mikey positioned himself on the left. Their feet were locked into place as the automated system of the newer generation jaeger secured its pilots to the control. There was a shiver of excitement that ran through Mikey at the thought of being able to take Shellshock on its ride.

‘Maiden voyage’ he believed the term was.

“Are you two ready in there?” April said to the mic.

“Ready is my middle name,” Mikey grinned.

“No, it’s not,” Donnie groaned at the joke.

“Shellshock, are you ready to blow this pop stand?” Karai said to the center console.

[Shellshock is ready and prepped for battle]

[Awaiting instructions]

“Damn, it really is coming after my job,” April laughed.

“No can replace you,” Mikey winked though he knew that she couldn’t see it from inside the control room.

“Oh, you flatterer,” April laughed and Mikey can imagine that jealous look on Donnie’s face.

“Shellshock, initiate neural handshake,” Karai commanded.

[Neural handshake…engaged]

Mikey felt himself gasp softly as he is pulled into the drift with his sister.

/A six-year-old Karai peeking into the hospital room with uncle Saki pushing a stroller behind her./

/Her mother and father waving her over to meet her latest baby brother who was wrapped up in an orange blanket./

/Karai feeding baby Mikey a bottle as her parents try to wrangle the older three brothers into their chairs for dinner; whispering to him how good of a baby he is./

/Mikey’s first word being a mumbled ‘ane’ and Karai fighting with Leo that he was calling for her and not him with his ‘aniki’ nickname./

/Karai wrestling with Raph when he teased a young Mikey and made him cry, demanding that he apologized which he did after some fighting back./

/Karai texting someone as Leo and Mikey play pirates in the background; Raph and Donnie playing a video game together./

/Watering the garden with their father as Raph and Mikey kick a ball between each other and their other siblings rest in the shade with their mother./

/Shen and Karai going out and having a girl’s day to themselves to escape the crazy of four little boys causing chaos./

/Karai hiding her fear as they all watch the tv to see a monster attacking San Francisco./

/Opening the door to see who knocked at the door and seeing government officials asking for her parents./

/Glaring at the government workers the entire time they are driven to uncle Saki’s house, not stopping until they were safe inside with him./

/Breathing out sighs of relief when their parents emerge from the battle victorious./

/Watching the TV intently with her brothers every time their parents were sent out to fight and cheering with them when they won./

/Uncle Saki holding a wailing Karai to his chest as the tv screen shows their father being dragged out of Ninja Speed’s wreckage; Mikey crying into Leo’s chest./

/Little Mikey asking Karai for help with tying his shoes like their mom always did./

/A shiver running down Karai’s spine as they are all found to be drift compatible with each other./

/Karai arguing with Yoshi when it is decided that she will only deploy as a last option with her lower drift compatibility scores./

/Working alongside with her brothers so they can all be in top fighting form./

/Karai holding Mikey close when Leo and Raph are sent out to fight the first time./

/Letting herself relax after seeing the twins return safely from their first kaiju battle./

/Mikey bouncing around happily the first time he is told he will pilot Shellraiser in the field at the age of thirteen years old; Karai smiling ruefully in the background./

Mikey and Karai inhale sharply as they exit the drift.

[Neural handshake: strong and holding]

“Right hemisphere: calibrating,” Karai listed off like protocol dictated. Moving in tandem, they both raised their right hand.

“Left hemisphere: calibrating,” Mikey continued. Their left hands were lifted up. Both hands were interlocked together and pushed outwards like they were stretching.

Outside, Shellshock copied her pilot’s motions.

On the holographic display in front of the brother and sister, the words [Calibration Complete] shined at them.

“You hear us, Shellshock?” Renet’s voice echoes out of the comm speakers.

“Rennie!” Mikey chirps happily.

“Nice to hear you, Mikey,” Mondo laughed. “Happy belated birthday, by the way.”

“Thank you!”

“And I read that we got Karai out in the field with us,” Renet says and Mikey can hear the smile in her voice. “Welcome to the danger zone.”

“Glad to be finally out here,” Karai laughed.

“~Highway to the danger zone~,” Mikey started singing.

“Oh great, you got him started,” Casey grumbled into the mic.

“I would like to point out that we have TWO category four kaijus about to wreak havoc on Australia,” April said.

“Why Australia of all places?” Renet mused.

“It’s where all the dangerous things like to live,” Mikey chirped.

“I can testify on that being that I grew up there,” Mondo snickered.

“You four will be deployed via rocket packs as we do not have the time to fly both jaegers over,” Yoshi instructed. “This is an extremely high-tension situation and I am sorry we have to send all four of you out to fight.”

“Don’t be sorry, dad!” Mikey smiled. “High-tension is my middle name!”

“How much longer are you going to keep trying that joke?” Donnie’s voice groaned out of the mic.

“Until it sticks!” Mikey cackled.

“Prepare for rocket attachment,” Saki announces as Shellshock is rolled out of the bay on its platform and into the sunlight. A giant robot arm moves the rocket pack over to the jaeger’s back and attaches it while Shellshock is delivered to the launch site. Timelord is already there and kneeling down as its own rocket pack is attached. “T-minus one minute until launch.”

With the rockets in place, Mikey and Karai moved to make Shellshock move to kneel down next to Timelord.

“When Shellraiser is done with its fight, we will try and get it there in time to help aid in your fight,” Yoshi says.

“Don’t tell them until after they are done with their mutant fight,” Mikey pleaded.

“Kaiju, Mikey, we’ve been over this,” Donnie sighed harshly. “And how come? You know the twins are going to be mad not knowing that you were sent out to fight…no offence, nee-chan.”

“None taken,” Karai shrugged. “He doesn’t want to make them rush through their fight,” she explained as she was connected to his thoughts.

“Jei is a tough kaiju from what the battle reports are telling us,” Yoshi hummed. “…very well, I will wait until Leonardo and Raphael are done their fight.”

“Thanks, dad!” Mikey beamed.

“But!” Yoshi interjects.

“There’s always a but,” Mikey grumbled to himself.

“As soon as Jei is confirmed to be defeated, I will be telling them.”

“That’s fair,” Karai said.

“Remember your mission, my children,” Yoshi’s stern voice said to them.

“Defeat the kaiju,” Karai rolled her eyes as she answers.

“And come home alive!” Mikey finished with a laugh at his sister’s response. “We got this dad!”

“Good,” Yoshi praised. “Be careful, my sunbeam duo.”

“Ten seconds…” Casey’s voice announced.

“I’m getting excited,” Mondo snickered. “Back to my homeland.”

“We should go out to eat afterwards,” Renet added. “Since we’re already there, Mondo can show us where all the good spots are.”

“Five seconds…”

“Hell yeah!” Mikey cheered.

“I’m down,” Karai grinned.

“Look at them, making plans without us,” April giggled.

“Those jerks,” Donnie grunted but Mikey could hear the smile in his voice.

“Three…”

Mikey felt another shiver of excitement run through him.

“Two…”

He looked over at his sister who he could also feel the excitement radiating from.

“One…”

Taking a deep breath, Mikey prepared himself.

“Launch!”

There was an increase of gravity as both jaegers stood up and jumped to help the rockets. They were lifted into the air, flying over the water towards their destination. Mikey and Karai could see Timelord to the side of their viewport flying alongside them.

“This is so cool,” Karai marveled.

Mikey just smiled as he watched his sister take in the sights that he’s been able to experience before. He was glad that he would be the one that would pilot alongside their sister for her first time in the control harness.

“Remember when I said everything that’s dangerous live here?!” Mikey yelled.

“Yeah?!” Mondo grunted as he and Renet blocked a running charge from Rocksteady.

“These mutants are really trying to prove me right!” Shellshock shot a fist forward to punch Bebop in the side as they dodge a pair of sharp tusks aimed right for them.

“Kaiju, Michael,” Renet corrected gently…as gently she could as the Rocksteady was thrown off to the side. “And I think you’re right about that!”

“If you think these are dangerous, wait until you meet our taipan snakes or salties!” Mondo yelled with exertion.

“What the fuck is a saltie?!” Karai yelled as they grabbed Bebop’s horns to spin it and throw it.

“Saltwater croc!” Mondo answered.

“Then why wouldn’t you just call it that?!

“I don’t know! It’s just what we fucking call ‘em!”

“How about all four of you focus more on the two kaijus in front of you and less on what the Australians call their crocodiles,” Donnie urged over the comms.

“Shut up, Don!” all four yelled at the genius at the same time.

“Someone’s touchy,” Donnie grumbled.

“I think you would be as well if you were in their shoes,” Yoshi hummed.

“I don’t think touchy so much,” Karai grunted, pausing as she and Mikey grab Bebop by the horns to avoid another running trample into themselves, being pushed back a small distance from the force, “as much as trying not to die!”

“What’s the status of Shellraiser?!” Renet asked.

“Jei is down and but their power core was damaged so they won’t be able to come join the fight,” Casey winces.

“And you’re just telling us now?!” Mondo screeches. Timelord gets their arms under Rocksteady and bodily throws the kaiju across the large clearing they were fighting in.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t want to mess up your concentration!” Casey tried to defend himself.

“Well, now I’m just pissed!”

“I said I was sorry!”

“Are Leo and Raph okay?” Mikey asks as he and Karai throw a well-placed kick at Bebop’s side. The warthog kaiju rolls through the air and lands next to Rocksteady.

“They’re fine,” April answers. “They were able to finish the fight before their power core went out.”

“And we told them that you were sent out,” Donnie said.

“Ugh, now Leo’s going to go all mother-hen mode,” Mikey groaned as both jaeger duos took a moment to breathe. Bebop and Rocksteady were trying to get up from where they were tangled next to each other. Both kaiju were snorting angrily, sending dust up in the air from the force.

“You two ready?” Renet panted and Mikey could see their exhaustion in the way Timelord held itself, mimicking its pilots.

“As much as we can be,” Karai answered, her and Mikey rolling out their shoulders.

“Let’s go then,” Mondo said with what Mikey is pretty sure was a smirk.

Bebop and Rocksteady got to their feet and pawed at the ground in anger. Horns cuts through the air as two kaiju head were thrown back to roar into the sky. Fighters were changed as Bebop charged towards Timelord and Shellshock got Rocksteady.

Mikey and Karai grunted as they caught Rocksteady’s large singular rhino horn, the force from the charge pushing them backwards some distance. Timelord had taken more of an aggressive approach and raced to meet Bebop halfway. There was a flurry of robotic hands as Timelord grappled their kaiju opponent. The two jaegers were pushed away from each other, fighting on opposite ends of the field.

Shellshock’s body was bent over Rocksteady, trying to hold the kaiju in place long enough for the pilots to deploy their wrist blades. The problem was that they needed both hands to keep Rocksteady in place and not stampeding their torso. The kaiju’s sharp horn brushed dangerously close to Shellshock’s head, scratching against the face panel of the head. They couldn't spare any of their concentration that kept the horns back from running through Shellshock.

“Sh—lsh—k, us— yo— b—des!” Donnie’s static filled instructions rang out. Mikey and Karai figured in their conjoined minds that the last hit from the kaiju must have knocked the communications to the control center loose.

“We have to throw this kaiju off so we can get our weapon out!” Karai yelled.

“On the count of three!” Mikey yelled back.

“One!”

“Two!”

“Thr—"

“Watch out!” Mondo screamed towards Shellshock.

There was a sound of ripping metal and then there was an emptiness in Mikey’s mind that wasn’t there a second before.

He could have sworn he heard the echoing sigh of his sister’s voice saying she was sorry bouncing around in his head.

Out of the corner of his eye, Mikey could see the tip of Rocksteady’s horn pulling out of Shellshock’s head on the same side Karai controlled with a large painting of red liquid decorating it. Shellshock fell forward and to the side like a puppet whose strings were cut.

“..ane?” Mikey squeaked out.

Chapter Text

“..ane?” Mikey squeaked out.

Mikey knew the truth.

He knew from the moment his connection to her mind was severed.

It felt like a piece of him was taken.

He knew.

But he still called out to his sister even has Rocksteady pushed against Shellshock, its horn making a grating noise against the metal.

“Mikey!” Renet’s voice yelled over the coms.

Mikey looked over through the view port in time to see Bebop rush forward, its horns skewering through Timelord’s core and head. There was a brief pop of static filled with twin screams of pain before it all disappeared. It felt like an out of body experience as he watched Bebop stomp on Timelord’s upper torse, destroying everything.

“—ey!”

It didn’t take a genius to know that his friends were gone.

“M—ey!”

Just like his sister.

In the matter of less than a minute, three important people to Mikey were dead.

Gone.

Mikey looked over to the still form of his older sister. Her face was slack, eyes frozen open with a mouth parted open slightly. Blood trailed out of her mouth down her chin to collect in the bottom of her helmet. The gaping hole in her chest let blood escape and if Mikey wasn’t numb at the moment, he would have thrown up at the gore.

“L-Pi— sho—ng ext— sig— of dist—ss!”

“Neu— re—ngs flu—ing!”

“—key! pl—se r—nd!”

A strong jolt through Shellraiser had the surviving pilot looking up, the large leg of Rocksteady raised over him in preparation of stomping the jaeger’s head.

In that moment, a rage that Mikey never felt before surged through him.

With a roar, Mikey pressed a button on his hand controller. It summoned Shellraiser’s left wrist blade to pop out and he thrusted is forward to stab into the kaiju rhino in the neck. His right hand reached forward to press a button on the console and Karai’s hand controller zoomed over to attach to his hand.

“MIK—Y W—T ARE YO— D—G?!”

“DIE, YOU FUCKING MUTANT!” Mikey screamed as he pushed Shellshock’s arm further into Rocksteady’s neck, blue kaiju blood spilling over the entire hull. With a press of his right-hand controller, another wrist blade popped out and it joined its twin in the kaiju’s neck. Pulling his hands out to his sides, Mikey ripped through the kaiju’s neck, severing the head from the body. It fell heavy on top of him with the head falling to the side. “Shellraiser, set controls to solo piloting!”

[Controls locked]

“Override!” Mikey screamed. “Code: Orange Sun!”

[Override code accepted]

[Control lock overridden]

[Piloting controls transitioning from dual pilots to solo]

“Mikey! What are you doing?!” Donnie screamed into the mic, speakers finally fixing themselves after the last hit. “Do you know how dangerous this is?!”

“I don’t care!” Mikey roared as the controls in Shellraiser’s head moved around to place him in the middle. Karai’s body was raised and placed in a pod at the side of the head. It closed around her, keeping her secured inside. “They killed them!”

“And you can die if you solo pilot!”

“So be it if I can kill these mutants!”

“Michelangelo!” Splinter yelled. “You are not thinking clearly after a drift sever! Pull back or I will be forced to suspend you from program!”

“I don’t care!” Mikey yelled back. “Pull me out! Fire me! I don’t care! I’m killing this other fucker before I leave!”

“Mikey!”

“Mute comms!” Mikey yelled.

[Communications muted]

[Solo pilot controls are ready]

[Good luck, Hamato Michelangelo]

With a surge of energy, Mikey grunted as the full force of Shellshock’s controls were given to him. It hurt and felt like a ton of lead was pushing down on him.

But he didn’t care.

He wanted revenge.

With a roar, Mikey pushed himself up onto his feet to make Shellshock get up. There was a loud groaning of metal as all the dented parts moved against each other and Rocksteady’s body fell off him. Across the field, Bebop looked up from where it was ripping through Timelord’s metal body. There was a distinct splash of red on one of its tusks that made Mikey’s blood simmer even more.

Bebop pawed at the ground again as it huffed, mouth dropping open to roar at Mikey. Shellshock was commanded to drop in a sprinters position, pushing off the ground to rush towards the huge kaiju. Bebop charged towards the jaeger with a roar.

And Mikey roared back just as furiously as he charged, wrist blades held up and at the ready.

There was blue kaiju blood everywhere when Yoshi arrived. He could see it painting almost everything in the surrounding area besides a clearing in the middle of the battle field. The decimated remains of Timelord lay on one side of the clearing, the top half so beaten down that it made Yoshi nauseous looking at it. A team of jaeger program workers were sectioning off the area, the site supervisor declaring the two young pilots as K.I.A. without even needing to issue a search into Timelord. The lumbering corpses of Bebop and Rocksteady were a sight to see as category 4 kaijus were, thankfully, a rare case.

It was just bad luck to get two of them at the same time.

Even worse luck to have their only back-up being out on another assignment in battle with a large class 3 kaiju.

By the time the retrieval time arrived, Mikey had already released himself from the controls of the wrecked Shellshock. From the reports he was getting, the initial team that got to the site first were unable to get Mikey to respond to them so Yoshi told them to pull back and wait for himself to arrive. Yoshi led the team into the gaping hole of the jaeger’s head, shouting at his three older sons that tagged along to stay back. Leo and Raph were still in their respective blue and red pilot armor, coming straight from Shellraiser to follow Donnie and their father to the site.

When he stepped inside, Yoshi felt his heart break all the more when he saw his youngest son holding his sister’s corpse tight in his embrace and rocked her back-and-forth. He was kneeling on the ground and the father could see the large puddle of blood drenching his legs and front.

Mikey didn’t even respond when they first came in, just continuing to rock and mumbling could be heard as the team got closer. Yoshi held up a hand to stop the team as he continued forward, believing that it would be a better idea if he went in first.

Yoshi kneeled down next to Mikey and ignored how the crimson liquid of his daughter on the floor immediately clung to his field pants. “Michelangelo…you have to let her go,” Yoshi said to his son. Mikey didn’t seem to hear him, his face hidden in Karai’s neck. “Michelangelo?”

He raised his hand to place on his son’s shoulder and felt Mikey flinch under it. Wild red-rimmed eyes that cried tears of blood at the edges whipped around at him and Mikey’s breathes changed into hyperventilating. “No, I’m not leaving her,” Mikey stated as he started scooting away from his father.

“Michelangelo…she’s gone,” Yoshi murmured. “You have to let the retrieval team take her.”

“No!” Mikey wailed and burrowed his face back into Karai’s cold neck, and Yoshi wanted to cry as his precious daughter’s head limply fell to the side to regard him with dead eyes. “You can’t take her!”

Yoshi set his lips in a hard line and turned his head towards the retrieval team. With two fingers held up and a nod, a silent plan was decided on. It wasn’t their first time separating a duo of pilots where one died during the fight. It didn’t happen all the much but it still happened enough that, unfortunately, there were multiple plans created to separate the dead pilot corpse from the living grieving pilot.

Yoshi himself had to be separated from his own dear wife.

The jaeger piloting program major put himself behind his son and waited until two retrieval team members were in front of Karai’s corpse. With a silent counting down from three, Yoshi and the other two shot forward to grab their charges. With surprise on their side, Yoshi was able to wrap his arms around Mikey’s middle and arms to pull him away. The two team members gently grabbed Karai’s body and started carrying her over to the body bag as Mikey screamed.

Mikey screeched like a wounded animal as he fought against his father’s hold but was powerless against the strength of a trained master. Yoshi avoided a thrashing head equipped with a hard helmet threatening to bash him in the nose as he carried Mikey out of the hole in Shellshock’s head. Leo’s, Raph’s and Donnie’s expressions of pain and concern shone at him as they exited.

The two of them did look concerning with all the blood staining them, especially Mikey.

“No! Give her back!” Mikey wailed, throwing his head back. “Ane! Ane!”

“Michelangelo, she is gone,” Yoshi said to his son with his own tears in his eyes.

“You have to calm down, little brother,” Raph tried to console his emotional mess of a brother. “You are going to hurt someone if you don’t.”

“He is going through a S.C.S.P.D,” Donnie tried explaining, his hands hovering in the air in front of Mikey.

“English!” Raph hissed as unsure hands hovered near Mikey thrashing in their father’s hold.

“Sudden connection severance by pilot death. He is not in the correct mental space right now to make correct decisions.”

A team of black vans belonging to the jaeger program pulled up as Mikey continued screaming and everyone that got out of the vehicles gave him a sad look. Everyone had seen what a situation like this could do to the surviving pilot and it sadden them to see the youngest pilot in the program going through it.

“Let me go!” Mikey screeched. With a sudden surge of strength, Mikey pulled himself out of Yoshi’s hold and rounded him to try and run back to Shellshock. He didn’t make it far before his three brothers tackled him to the ground, sprinting as soon as they saw him breaking the hold. “Let me go! Let me go! I need to get to Ane!”

“We can’t, otouto,” Leo grunted as he struggled to keep Mikey’s torso down with Raph at his side. “She’s gone.”

“She has to be there!” Mikey pleaded. “She left the connection so quickly! I don’t know what happened! I need to get back to her!”

Raph and Leo looked at Donnie in alarm. “He’s in denial,” Donnie explained as he held Mikey’s legs down. “His mind is mixing up the events now that the battle is over to deny the truth.”

“Mikey, you have to listen to us!” Raph demanded. “Sis is dead! She’s not here anymore!”

“No!” Mikey screamed, not wanting to believe it. At that moment, two members of the retrieval team stepped out of the gaping hole in Shellshock’s head with a black body bag held between them. “Ane!” With a second of opening at the distraction, Mikey whipped his head backwards and bashed Raph in the nose. Raph cried out as his nose was broken and he reached up to grab it as blood gushed out.

Mikey pulled himself out of the three person hold and tried to rush forward with his arms reaching out towards the body bag. He didn’t get far again before his legs were grabbed again by Donnie who leapt forward. He kept his eyes shut and held on for dear life as Mikey tried kicking his feet out; hands clawing at the dirt underneath him.

Two agents in black suits moved forward and grabbed Mikey’s hands. They threw a pair of wrist binders on him, securing his hands together in front of him and lifted him up by the shoulders. He screamed like a banshee as he was dragged away, trying to force his body towards the helicopter that Karai’s body was being loaded into.

“What are you doing with him?!” Raph growled nasally as Leo fretted over him. “Don’cha see that he’s in distress and all that shit?!”

“He has hurt someone in his freak out,” one of the agents responded. “We are following procedure.”

“He’s only sixteen and his sister was just killed while he was in her head! Can’t you cut him a break or something?!” Donnie demanded.

“To do that would set a precedent where others could get away with it,” the other agent sniffed. “And I’m sure the major wouldn’t want anyone to think he would let his son get away with special treatment?” The agent shot Yoshi a look that made all the brothers angry, like they wanted a reason to take Mikey away from them.

Yoshi was silent for a moment, watching his raging son who was pulling towards the helicopter that was taking off. Setting his shoulders, Yoshi schooled his face into a blank expression. “Do what you must,” he informed the agents.

“Father!” Leo yelled.

“Yame, Leonardo!” Yoshi snapped. “Do not make this worse.”

Raph was held back by Donnie as Mikey was thrown in the back of a van and looked back in time to see the doors closed. Through the windows, his father and three older brothers watched as Mikey slammed his wrist binding against it and screamed. The van started up and was driven away with their grieving little brother.

“We’ll get a plane prepped to take him to the rehabilitation site in a little bit,” Kirby O’Neil said to his daughter. “Poor kid.”

The father and daughter duo looked through the one-way window into the bare room Mikey was currently being held in. He was sitting up against the wall, still in his orange pilot armor with dry blood splattered all over him, with his hands resting on his thighs. The wrist binders holding his hands together had new dents from all the banging he did to them during his meltdown but they still held on strong. Across the room was Mikey’s helmet that he had thrown after being placed in there. Blank eyes stared at the wall across from him, no emotion coming from him at all.

With his helmet now gone, April was able to see the new geometric circuitry shaped lines electrically burnt into Mikey's skin. It trailed up the sides of Mikey's neck from under the suit to crawl over the edges of his jaw to stop at the splattering of freckles on his cheeks. There was no doubt that the burns continued down past the edge of Mikey's armored suit but they were going to have to wait until he was calm enough to be unlatched from his suit to examine how far the damage went.

A huge part of April was pissed at the government agents that treated her surrogate baby brother so roughly during his time of grief. They treated him like a wild feral animal, throwing and dragging him around as if he wasn’t a hero that’s saved so many people from various kaijus. Another part was mad that they let him sit there in a pilot uniform that was still covered in his own recently passed sister’s blood.

April’s dad was the head of neurological recovery of jaeger pilots for North America. Since there was only so many pilots in each continent, Kirby was placed in charge of all of them that suffered some type of neurological break while in the program. He had multiple assistants to help him and go to the sites to pick up their patients but April called in a special favor to her father. He was going to personally be in charge of Mikey’s recovery.

One small problem was that Mikey was going to have to be taken back to the East Coast.

April could just hear the arguing from the older brothers already.

“Thanks for coming all the out here, dad,” April murmured as she hugged her remaining parent.

“Anything for you, my dear,” Kirby smiled softly as he hugged her back. "It is just a stroke of luck that I was already on this side of the country to be here so fast."

April was originally introduced to the jaeger pilot’s program mental support from watching her father’s work. It amazed her how he helped the pilots with any of their issues and it inspired her to get into the field. April also found that she wanted to be there helping the pilots when they were in the battle field which brought her to her current occupation in the jaeger program.

“Where is my little brother?!” Raph’s roar echoed down the long hallway. April could hear three pairs of loud stomps rang out as doors were thrown open. She was about to go open the door to let the boys know where Mikey was when it was slammed open, a seething Donnie locking eyes with her immediately.

“Found them!” Donnie called out as he rushed towards the window and laid his hands on the glass pane, face smushing against it to get a look at Mikey.

Leo and Raph rushed in and took up a spot on either side of Donnie as they looked in. They were finally out of their pilot uniforms; both dressed in a plain pair of sweatpants and tee-shirt in their favorites colors that were probably the first things they could get their hands on.

Raph banged a fist on the glass pane, his contorted in concern. “Mikey! Don’t worry! We’re here!”

“I don’t think he can hear you right now,” April told the boys, getting Leo and Donnie to look at her.

“Michelangelo seems to have entered a dissociative state right now,” Kirby said. “Hello again boys, good to see you again but I wish it was under better circumstances.”

“Likewise, Mr. O’Neil,” Leo inclined his head in greeting. “Are you in charge of Mikey’s mental care from here on?”

“Please, call me Kirby and yes, I am going to personally oversee your brother,” Kirby told him.

“That makes me feel better,” Leo sighed as his shoulders slumped a fraction lower. “I didn’t like the idea of some stranger taking Mikey from us to try and fix him.”

“No one’s taking him from us,” Raph growled, not breaking his gaze on his despondent baby brother.

“Raph…” Donnie sighed.

“No!” Raph yelled and whirled towards the four people in the room. His nose had been reset and there was a piece of gauze taped over it, bruises starting to form under each eye. “We just lost our oldest sibling! They are not taking the youngest away now!”

“Who said that you were not going to be with Michelangelo?” Yoshi hard voice rang out as he entered the room, Saki at his side. The major and ex-jaeger pilot looked over at the red-headed family friend that he’s known for years at that point. “Did you not tell them?”

“I didn’t get a chance to,” Kirby answered.

“Dad, what’s going on?” April asked her father as he looked back and forth between her blood and surrogate fathers.

“All the Hamato brothers are going to be coming back to the East Coast with me,” Kirby answered, looking at each of the older three brothers to gauge their reactions.

“I don’t understand,” Leo shook his head. “I would love to be where Mikey is healing but what about fighting against the jaegers?”

“The four of you are being pulled out,” Saki stated as he leaned against a wall and crossed his arms. “The higher ups decided that they want to stop funneling so much funding to the program and are stopping productions of the jaegers. Shellraiser and Shellshock are far too damaged to bring them back online without a major overhaul so they are be classified as decommissioned.”

“So, that's it? We’re being pulled out?” Donnie gasped. For the last five years, all they’ve known was the jaeger program, being sent out to stop the monsters that want to destroy mankind.

“As of an hour ago, all four of you are now ex-jaeger pilots,” Yoshi nodded.

“I don’t care,” Raph grumbled. “I want to make sure Mikey is okay.”

“Which you will,” Yoshi said. “Kirby has graciously agreed to take all of you with him back to New York to help Michelangelo with his healing and relearning to be a part of regular society.”

“Can I come, too?” April interjected correctly. “If you guys aren’t going to be here anymore, then…I don’t want to be.”

“Of course, my dear,” Yoshi inclined his head. “I know the bond you have with my sons. I will put in your withdrawal from the program later today.”

“It would be good to have you around,” Kirby mused. “You will be a positive influence on him, especially with your training.”

“Enough of the chit chat,” Raph grunted. “I want to go in there and make sure Mikey is still alive.”

All the occupants in the room glanced through the window at the sole figure in the other room. Mikey still hadn’t moved and they could barely tell if he was breathing if it wasn’t for the readings still being displayed from his suit.

“I’m not sure if that’s a good idea,” Kirby winced.

“I don’t care,” Raph growled as he stepped away and towards the door.

“Raphael!” Yoshi scolded.

“Again, don’t care,” Raph said as he opened the door and entered the room. Leo looked back at his father’s disapproving face before he and Donnie slipped in after his twin.

Raph crouched down in front of Mikey and reached a hand out to grab Mikey’s ankle. It was one of the few spots where Karai’s dried blood wasn’t staining him. “Hey there, little brother. You really scared us back there.” Raph's voice was soft in a way that contradicted his usual way of speaking but there was no way he could be gruff with his baby brother that just went through hell.

Mikey didn’t respond as he continued to stare blankly in front of him, slow blinks breaking up the monotony.

“Otouto, can you please show up that you’re still there,” Leo pleaded, crouching down next to Raph. “We’re really worried about you.”

“Please, talk to us,” Donnie joined the pleading. He stood near the doorway to not crowd Mikey. There was finally a response from the baby brother of the group as his lips moved, mumbling something that no one could hear. All three of them perked up instantly and leaned in closer to hear better. “Can you repeat that? We didn’t hear you.”

“I said, I don’t want to talk,” Mikey hissed, narrowing his eyes at his brothers. His hands clenched into fists at his lap.

“Mikey…” Leo breathed softly.

“No,” Mikey growled and shook his head. “I said I don’t want to talk and we are not doing this right now.”

“You’ve been through something traumatic,” Donnie said. “It’s going to help to talk it out.”

“I’ve been through something traumatic?” Mikey laughed darkly. “Of course I have, you fucking idiot!” Donnie reeled back from the venom being spit at him. “You think I don’t know that?! I would say feeling your sister die in your head is fucking traumatic!”

“Michelangelo, yame,” Yoshi scolded as he entered the room. “Donatello is just trying to help you.”

“Who said I wanted help, father?” Mikey hissed, pulling himself up to his feet. He leaned heavily against the wall behind him, ignoring how Leo’s hands hovered in the air to catch him if he fell.

Yoshi sighed softly. “I know what you are going thr—”

“YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND AT ALL!” Mikey screeched, stomping a foot towards his father. “DO YOU FORGET THAT YOU LET ME DRIFT WITH YOU?! I SAW MOM’S DEATH! YOU WEREN’T CONNECTED IN THE DRIFT TO HER LIKE I WAS WITH ANE! YOU GOT TO SAY BYE TO MOM! ANE WAS LITERALLY KILLED INSTANTLY WHILE I WAS CONNECTED TO HER!”

“Mikey, stop,” Raph whispered, his shock at his usually peaceful brother raging throwing him off.

“NO, I WON’T STOP!” Mikey shook his head, his matted down with sweat blond curls shaking. “HE DOESN’T GET TO SAY HE UNDERSTANDS WHEN HE DOESN’T! NONE OF YOU DO! I FELT THE MOMENT SHE DIED!”

“I’m going to have to ask all of you to leave,” Kirby demanded as he entered the room, placing himself in front of Mikey. “You are upsetting him.”

“UPSET? UPSET?!” Mikey laughed hysterically, his pupils shrinking to pinpricks to make him look insane. His bound hands trembled in front of him, the binding making a soft clattering sound as they held firm. “I’M NOT UPSET! I’M IN PAIN! THERE’S A BIG FUCKING DIFFERENCE THAT NO ONE SEEMS TO BE UNDERSTANDING!”

“Leonardo, Raphael, come,” Yoshi directed as he pulled Donnie out of the room. “Let Mr. O’Neil do his work.”

There was more yelling from Mikey as Kirby closes the door when all of them leave. They watch through the window as Mikey tries to step away from the wall and immediately crumbles down to the ground. Kirby reaches forward to catch him which dissolves into loud sobs into the man’s chest as Mikey curls up in his lap.

“Leonardo,” Yoshi hard voice calls for his attention. The now oldest sibling of the five four siblings looks up to see a pinched expression on his father’s look. “Please go pack whatever Michelangelo needs and would want to take with him after you pack for yourself.” Yoshi turns to look at Raph and Donnie. “You two, as well. Go pack your bags. The plane will be ready later tonight so do not waste time.”

With a shooing on his hands, the three older brothers are pushed out of the room. Leo takes one last longing look back at Mikey sobbing on the other side of the glass before he leaves completely. April looks away from the glass when a hand is placed on her shoulder.

“I believe you should go pack as well, if you are going to be joining them,” Yoshi gently directs her.

“…yeah, I should,” April mutters as she pulls away and starts heading towards the door. She and Saki make eye contact, nodding at each other in a semblance of goodbye. As she leaves the room, she decides to hang back in the hallway for a second. April hears Saki push away from the wall and clap a hand on his brother’s back.

“Don’t take it too much to heart,” Saki murmurs just loud enough that April can hear. “He’s just lashing out from the pain and grief right now.”

“...was I that bad after Shen?” Yoshi murmurs back.

April doesn’t hear the response as she is already leaving, not wanting to eavesdrop any longer.

She had a suitcase to pack.

Chapter Text

Mikey looked out the window of the helicopter carrying all of them over the Shatterdome that was their home for almost a third of his life.

An almost 18-year-old Michelangelo was returning with his three brothers, Casey, and April back to the jaeger headquarters now that the kaiju war was over. He couldn’t believe it at first when he first saw it on the news. Over the almost two years after the Hamato brothers were pulled from the pilot program, funding had been pulled from the program to fund an anti-kaiju wall. It was proven unsuccessful as one kaiju broke through it before it was put down by a jaeger. The damage was done though with no newer jaegers made and the fleet having to rely on the surviving units they had left. Everyone tried to keep Mikey out of the loop as much as possible on their remote farm in New York state as they all feared it would impair all the progress that he had made.

Too bad Mikey could be very sneaky when he wanted to be.

He kept up to date on everything. He knew how an ex-pilot came back to fight in his old jaeger that his brother died in. He knew how that jaeger and one other went down into the depths of the Pacific Ocean to find the rift. He knew how one of the jaegers sacrificed themselves to blow up the rift, closing it forever while the other fought until they won and the jaeger gave out on itself; effectively being the last jaeger robot to ‘die’. 'Gypsy Danger' he believed that jaeger was named.

A lot of that information was top secret but Mikey had learned how to hack the system from the very best.

It had been three months since the end of the ‘kaiju war’ as the media was calling it and their father was calling them back to the Shatterdome to recover the last of their items they left behind before he leaves it for good. With the kaiju threat gone, Hamato Yoshi finally had the chance to retire and walk away from that life.

Everyone hadn’t been sure how Mikey would be returning to that place but he assured them that he was fine. He hadn’t had an episode in almost half a year and there were a couple things that he would like that Leo hadn’t packed for him. Secretly, he thought it would be good for him to return to the jaeger headquarters and give an official goodbye to that part of his life.

After finding out that the boys and April were leaving for the East Coast, Casey had quickly put in his own withdrawal and packed his bags to come along. He had told them that he only stayed around for them and if they were going, then he was going as well. Kirby had welcomed him as there were plenty of rooms in the farmhouse he was taking them to.

Kirby O’Neil’s farm house was a moderate place with lots of private land that the brothers spent lots of time exploring. It gave them a freedom that they had not felt for a very long time with being on call at all times. Kirby didn’t tell the boys but April could see that he was trying to help the older three brothers just has much as Mikey. There was a lot of underlying trauma lingering in all of them that they couldn’t see.

Mikey had made great progress compared to where he was almost two years ago when he was first taken to the farm. They had to sedate him for the plane ride over but it was for everyone’s safety. Leo refused to leave Mikey’s side even for a second during the whole move, with Raph and Donnie not that far behind. They were perfectly fine being the two to stare down the agents that tried to rough house their brother onto the plane like they did onto the van.

And if they each got a black eye courteously of a certain hot-headed angry old brother…well, no one said anything.

They had finally gotten Mikey out of the blood-stained orange armor set before boarding him on the plane. April had grabbed Ick out of Mikey’s room before leaving as tucked it against his side for some comfort even know he was sleeping. He slept the entire time and continued sleeping until they arrived at the farm. Leo had been the one that carried him to his room and they all took turns waiting for him to wake up.

Mikey was confused when he woke up in the new room and saw Casey looking at him with concerned eyes. Kirby had come up to explain what was going on to Mikey but the boy was still reeling from his sister’s death. He had lashed out, cursing everyone up and down as he paced his room. April and Casey had pulled the brothers outside to try and avoid hearing the venom Mikey was spewing.

They had unfortunately heard enough that they were all blaming themselves for a situation they could not control.

Later on, when Mikey had calmed down enough to be allowed contact with his brothers, the first thing he did was apologize. He told them how sorry he was for everything he said and that he didn’t mean it and to not leave him. Leo, Raph, and Donnie all apologized to him for not protecting him better. There was tears all around and April had wiped away her own tear watching them while Casey and Kirby watched fondly.

Mikey’s healing at the farmhouse came in waves; there would be times where he would get better with each passing day and then there would be times where it was all hands on deck to make sure Mikey didn’t do something drastic. There was one instance where Mikey was going through an episode and said something hurtful to Raph before running off into the woods.

It took them hours to find him in a hallowed trunk of a tree hiding from the rain. Casey had been the one to find him and it was only because of his growing mane of blond curls that caught the light of the flashlight he had been using. The older three brothers had rushed over and they all landed in a dogpile as Mikey apologized and cried his eyes out.

That last episode had been half a year ago and ever since then, Mikey had been on the up-and-up. He was living each day better than the last and wasn’t lashing out anymore. There were still some down days where he would cling to a brother but it wasn’t like the depressive episodes of before.

Mikey kept in contact with his father through letters. At first, Mikey hadn’t wanted to talk to Yoshi at all and ignored the letters when they arrived. Kirby didn’t push him and after some time, Mikey started opening them. He would write his own letters but it took some more time before he would allow them out of the box under his bed and to be sent out.

Yoshi had been ecstatic to hear from Mikey the first time and made sure to send him a letter weekly. Casey had thought it was weird to use such an archaic method of communication in the age of technology they were in. Kirby had to explain to him that it was a way to heal Mikey, with giving him the room to communicate at his own pace. He could write the letters and then put them away to wait until he was ready. Or if he was truly angry and didn’t want to read the letter Yoshi had sent him, he could rip it up or burn it.

(They also made sure to not point it out that Mikey wasn’t allowed access to the internet in the beginning of his healing to avoid the news about his fight in Australia and all the happenings in the jaeger world.)

Mikey had been given an old laptop that Donnie had removed access to the internet from. He could play some video games and watch movies on it. There was also the option to record video messages that he would take advantage of. Sometimes he would use it as a diary of sorts. He had it locked down under a password hidden behind another application so no one would be able to access his thoughts.

It was during a re-run of Space Heroes that Leo wanted to have a marathon of when the breaking news of the kaiju war ending interrupted. They all watched with their mouths dropped open as they watched, their father declaring the heroic actions of his fellow Major peer on the news. Saki could be seen in the background, directing various workers around as they all celebrated. The news cut off and they all sat there in silence. Kirby, April, and Casey watched the four ex-pilot brothers in trepidation at their reactions and flinched when Mikey jumped to his feet and cheered. They feared that it would be the catalyst for another episode but Mikey was excited to see the end to the kaijus.

The four brothers jumped around the room and hugged each other to see that kaijus would no longer plague their world and that peace was finally upon them. That night, they broke out the fire pit and s’mores kit. They chatted and laughed around the fire deep into the night with the stars as their nightlights.

“Landing now!” the pilot called back, making Mikey blink to himself as he came back to awareness. There was some bumps as the helicopter landed and everyone unbuckled. They all grabbed their color-coded bookbags that held their supplies for a weekend away from the farmhouse while they packed up the last of their stuff. Jumping out of the helicopter doors, Mikey let his eyes drift over to the edge of the roof and he could almost see a 15-year-old version of himself as he watched the twins get deployed in the fight against Mozar.

Mikey gripped the strap of his orange bookbag as he imagined the younger more carefree version of himself with his orange bomber jacket adorning his frame. That very jacket was hanging up in his room at the farmhouse. There were too many memories in that jacket for him to put it back on so he just let it hang on a hook on the back of his door. Right now, he was wearing the black jacket Karai had given him for his 16^th birthday. Mikey had grown a few inches in the past two years and he fit into the jacket nicely now.

A few months ago, he had this weird dream with a dark figure that was practically seared into his mind. Mikey had woken up and couldn’t the image out of his mind so much that he had begged Raph to add the design the back of his jacket. It took agreeing to do Raph’s dishes for a week before his brother created the design on his jacket. Secretly, Raph had been so honored to be allowed to work on the jacket that Mikey didn't let anyone touch since it was the last thing he received from Karai.

It was a beauty and Mikey awed over it when it was handed back to him. He got a lot of compliments of how cool it looked when he wore it out to the store. It made him feel more grown up but there was still a part of him that wondered why such a design from his dreams stood out to him so much.

“Michelangelo!” a voice called.

Mikey pulled himself out of his memories and turned his head to see his father waving him over from the rooftop elevator access. Everyone else had already gone ahead while he lost himself in his mind.

That was another thing that happened post his sudden connection severance by pilot death, or S.C.S.P.D. since the other way was such a mouthful. It left his mind a bit scrambled even after all this time. There would be moments where one of his brothers would have to physically keep a hand gripped on their baby brother’s arm or jacket as he would just wander away when they went out. Donnie had even sewn a tracker into Mikey’s black jacket after he had disappeared during a corn maze and it took them three hours to find him. He had stopped following them at one point to stare at a random stalk of corn and by the time he came back to himself, he was far away from everyone else.

“What are you doing, numbskull?” Raph smiled as he waved his arm. “Come join us already.”

“I’m coming,” Mikey rolled his eyes as he jogged over. He slowed down as he approached his father and looked down at his feet. This was the first time in almost two years that he had seen his father face-to-face. The last time they were in the same space, Mikey hadn’t been all there and he’s pretty sure he had said some nasty things.

There was a certain blankness to his memories between the moments of Karai’s death and his arrival at the farmhouse.

“Raise your head, my son,” Yoshi hummed as he reached forward to wrap his youngest in a hug. “I’ve missed you.”

Tears sprung up in Mikey’s eyes and he quickly wrapped his arms around his father to grip at his maroon robe. He only reached up to the chin of his tall father (compared to Donnie who had their father beat by a few inches with his last growth spurt) but he still felt like a child in his father’s arms. “I’ve missed you, too, dad,” Mikey sniffed.

“I am happy to hear that,” Yoshi murmured as he reached up to rub his son’s much longer curls before pulling away. “You have grown taller. How are you doing?”

“I’m doing better now,” Mikey smiled as he wiped a stray tear away. He yelped as Raph threw an arm around his shoulders and pulled him close.

“Munchkin here is doing a lot better,” Raph smirked.

“Raph, be careful with him,” Leo fretted with his hands hovering around Mikey.

“And mother-hen Leo is out again,” Donnie laughed.

Yoshi smiled as he watched his four boys squabble with each other. He was very saddened about having to be away from them for so long, especially during Mikey’s healing, but he couldn’t leave with his position in the battle against the kaijus.

April rolled her eyes as she pulled out her phone and opened her camera. She tapped a worker on the shoulder and handed her phone over, the worker immediately knowing what she wanted. Walking back over to the group, she directed them to get ready for a picture.

Mikey was in the middle with a bright smile on his face, arms thrown over the shoulders of Leo and Raph on either side of him. Leo was Mikey’s right with his left arm thrown over his younger brother, and his other hand reaching down to give April bunny ears. April kneels in front of Mikey with her hands laying on top of her folded legs. Raph is Mikey’s left with his right arm around Mikey and his left arm leaning down against Casey’s head. The mechanic is sitting cross-legged on the ground and is holding his ankles with both hands.

Donnie, being the tallest of the brothers, stands behind Mikey and is leaning on him with his chin perched onto Mikey’s head. Both arms are draped over Mikey’s shoulders overtop the twin’s arms and they hang down the front of Mikey. Yoshi stands to the right of Donnie with a hand resting on Leo’s right shoulder. Saki, who had been on the phone when they first arrived, was standing to Donnie’s left and was laying his left hand on Raph’s shoulder.

At one point after the picture was taken, Donnie put too much weight on Mikey and they both fell forward, dragging the twins down with them. Leo reached a hand out to try and catch himself while Raph fell forward on Casey. April jumped forward to escape the pile of boys falling towards her but failed as all of their weight pushed her down at the bottom of the dog pile. Yoshi and Saki laughed at their predicament from where they stood having not being subjected to the accidental falling.

The worker taking their picture decided to take another picture, assuming that they would like the candid picture of all of them falling. One more picture was taken as all the young adults in the pile of the ground were laughing as they tried to extract themselves from each other. April finally was able to escape and was handed her phone by the worker, smiling at them in a thank you. She looked through the pictures as the boys brushed themselves off and found herself smiling softly at the pictures.

It was the first group picture in a long while (and the first one without Karai) so it was a nice memory. She especially liked the candid pictures as there was such an energy to them that described their little misfit group.

She looked up as Leo ruffled Mikey’s curly blond hair, the boy trying to bat away Leo’s hand and failing as Raph came up behind him and pinned his arms down. Donnie took out his own phone to take a picture of his brothers and ignoring Mikey’s playful cries for help.

April grinned to herself as she tapped at her phone, placing a quick order for a picture order to be delivered to the farmhouse for when they get home.

Things were finally getting better and she was so very happy to see all of them healing.

Chapter Text

Mikey gasped as he shot up in bed, a hand to his forehead.

He looked all around him as he remembered that he was in his old room at the Shatterdome. Everything was packed and they had decided to spend the night before leaving jaeger headquarters for good. His extra duffel bags in different shades of orange sat by the door, waiting to leave this place with their owner and to never return again.

There was something about his dream that sent shivers down his back. It told him something was coming and it was going to be bad.

After sitting in his bed for several silent minutes, Mikey swung his legs off the edge and pulled his blanket off to wrap around his shoulders. He rifled around in his bookbag for his laptop and pulled it out to place on the built-in desk in the room. Turning it on, Mikey hummed while he waited and sat down in the chair.

With his screensaver of him and his brothers pulling silly faces at April behind the camera, Mikey opens the video recorder app.

He felt like something bad was going to happen.

Might as well listen to his gut.

“That’s it,” Leo declared as he wiped his hands off of dirt having thrown the last bag into the private plane they were going to be using.

“It’s really over,” Donnie marveled, looking out on the roof to the sea surrounding them. “We’re leaving this place.”

“Good riddance,” Raph huffed as he stretched his back out.

“It wasn’t all that bad,” Casey pointed out.

“I’m still ready to put this place behind us,” Raph grumbled.

“I’m with you on that,” April grinned as she exited the private plane, having organized their things on the inside. “I’m ready to see the world move on from the kaijus.”

“Aint’t that the truth,” Raph laughed loudly as he looked around. “You ready to blow this popsicle stand, little brother?” Mikey didn’t respond from where he stood, his hands in his jacket pockets as he looked out towards the horizon with the afternoon sun shining on him. “Oh, not again,” Raph muttered worryingly.

“I got it,” Leo told the group as he headed over towards his youngest brother. He made his steps loud as he approached Mikey, trying to give him a warning that someone was coming up behind him. It worked when he was two feet away and Mikey’s shoulders jolted before turning around. He gave Leo a wiry smile before looking back out towards the water. “Hey there, Angelo. Got something on your mind or did you just get a little lost again?”

Mikey hummed as he shrugged his shoulders. “A little of both I think,” he answered. “I’m just thinking about all of our time here and that we are about to leave it forever.”

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Leo prompted. Kirby had always told them it was good to get Mikey to talk about his feeling out loud.

“I guess so,” Mikey shrugged again. “It’s just…we have so many memories here.” Mikey looked down as his feet and shuffled a foot to brush against the rooftop. “We spent almost half our lives here. It’s not that easy to leave now that I have to choose to do it.”

Leo hummed an answer as he tossed Mikey’s words around his head. “I feel that,” Leo nodded, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “You didn’t get to choose to leave here before. But now that you are, you’re hesitating.”

“Is that a bad thing?” Mikey grimaced to himself.

“Nah,” Leo shakes his head and swings an arm up over Mikey’s shoulders. “It’s just a part of growing up.”

“Growing up is dumb,” Mikey smirks.

“That it is,” Leo laughs in agreement.

“I’m probably going to have gray hair by the time I reach your age.”

“Oh, you little booger,” Leo scoffs and ruffles Mikey’s long curls. “I’m only four years older!”

“Old man,” Mikey stuck his tongue out and ducked the swipe Leo aimed at him. “Look at you, already losing your speed,” he teased as he skipped backwards.

“I’m going to make you regret those words,” Leo playfully growled as he chased after Mikey. His baby brother giggled loudly as he ran around various people, using them as shields from Leo. They would have been upset at a teenager interrupting their work but it was the very same teenager they watched grow up from a child. Seeing him filled with joy and childhood energy warmed their hearts and they just played along with him.

Mikey’s fun came to an end when Raph snuck up behind him and grabbed him in a hold. His begs of mercy were ignored as Leo tickled his sides, his laughter echoing across the rooftop. Donnie took a video of the whole thing even as Mikey called him a traitor, throwing him a thumbs-up and a smirk.

He was finally released when Leo got his revenge and laid on the ground as he caught his breath. Mikey blinked his eyes open to Donnie holding a hand out to him to help him off the ground. “Let’s go grab dad and then we can go home,” Donnie tells him.

Home…

Mikey wasn’t sure where that was.

Was it their childhood home where their mother rocked them to sleep and their father fed them their bottles?

Was it the farmhouse where Mikey learned to heal from his sister’s death?

Or was it the family estate that they were going to be returning to after their father left all those years ago?

It didn’t matter to Mikey and he reached up to grab his immediate brother’s hand. Home was wherever they were going to decide where it would be.

“Ah, boys, I’m almost done,” Yoshi said to his sons as they stumbled upon him in the hallway leading to their old jaeger bay control room. He was with their uncle Saki and the two of them were signing some documents.

The boys stood a small distance away with Casey and April talked to each other. Donnie was typing away at his phone doing something while Raph and Leo played the sticks game amongst the two of them. Mikey found a rusty screw on the wall in front of him and let himself get lost again.

There was a lot on his mind.

Like what was that dream last night. It shook him in ways that he hadn’t felt since the dream that led to the design on the back of his jacket. It burned against him, like it was warning him of something. Yoshi had commented on the design, a look of curiosity shining in his eyes. Mikey had told him that he saw it in a dream and how he had to beg Raph to add the design to the jacket left to him by his late sister.

But what could it be?

The kaijus are gone.

No more jaegers were going to have to be sent out to fight.

They were safe.

So why didn’t he feel like he was safe?

“Mikey?” Raph’s voice cut through his mind-wandering, a hand waving in front of his face as Mikey blinks himself back to awareness. “Do we need to get the kiddie leash out again?”

“Hell no,” Mikey snorted and pushed Raph’s hand away. “I am so not wearing that thing again.”

“It’s what you get for wandering away during a county fair,” Donnie remarked without looking up from his phone.

“You know I didn’t mean to do that,” Mikey groaned and lightly banged his head back against the wall he was leaning against.

“We know that you can’t always control it,” Leo smiled softly at him. “…but we are not afraid to break out the child leash if we have to.”

“Not you, too.” Mikey dragged his hands down his face in exasperation.

“Who do you think bought it in the first place?” Raph snorts.

“Raph, you promised to not tell him!” Leo hissed at his twin.

“It was you?!” Mikey screeched as the truth came out. “I always thought it was April!”

“Don’t blame that on me!” April called over. “That was all Leo and his mother-henning!”

“Sorry,” Leo winced. “I saw it on some parent blog and I thought it would work.”

“Yeah, for children!” Mikey exclaimed.

“I don’t know,” Donnie mused as he turned his phone around and showed the picture of a disgruntled Mikey pouting as an orange cat child bookbag leash was attached to him. Raph in the background holding his stomach in laughter on the floor. “It worked pretty well from keeping you from disappearing.”

“That freaking bookbag wouldn’t come off!” Mikey pouted like in the picture. “I don’t understand why something so dumb was so hard to get off!”

“That’s because it was doing its job,” Raph snickered and lightly punched Mikey in the arm.

“Very funny photo,” Yoshi hummed as he appeared between Mikey and Leo and bent down to peer at the picture. “I see that I have many stories waiting for me when we return home.”

“Dad, no!” Mikey whined in embarrassment. “Make them delete that picture and burn that dumb child leash.”

“Donatello, please send that picture to my own phone,” Yoshi requested with a mischievous smirk on his face.

“No! You traitor!”

“Done,” Donnie said with his own smirk. He pressed the button on the side of his phone and deposited back in his pocket. “I vote we get a blown-up version of it to display in the living room.”

“I second that,” Raph chuckled.

“I’ll place an order on our way home,” Leo smirked.

“Betrayal!” Mikey cried out as he pushed away from the wall and pointed at Mikey. “All of you are traitors!” He turned around and pointed at all of them, pausing at April who had her phone out recording. “Except you, April, you are my one ally in this house of traitors.”

“Glad to be of service!” April laughed out behind her phone.

“Hey! What’d I do?” Casey called out.

“Don’t think I forgot about the chicken coop incident,” Mikey said with narrowed eyes.

“Ahh, that’s fair,” Casey shrugged.

“What chicken coop incident?” Yoshi asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I have no clue what’re talking about,” Mikey turned his head away and tried to play off the question.

“Get this, dad,” Raph snickered, pushing Mikey away as his baby brother tried to slap a hand over his mouth to shut up. “Mikey was checking on all of the chickens on the farm and Casey decided that was a great moment to sneak up and scare him. It worked but it scared the chickens even more and they flew like crazy around the coop. There were feathers everywhere and it took us a week to stop finding feathers in his hair!” Raph finished the story with pulling out his phone to show the picture of a disgruntled Mikey covered in chicken feathers. Leo and Donnie are in the background of the picture trying to hide their laughter and failing.

“I took six showers,” Mikey pouted. “I don’t understand how I was still finding some in my hair.”

“That would be all the curls, little brother,” Donnie ruffled Mikey’s hair, getting a swipe at his hand in reward. “You’ve really let it grow out.”

“I’ve been wanting my hair long again,” Mikey muttered. “I wasn’t able to while being a pilot or else it messed with the helmet.”

“You no longer have to worry about that, my son,” Yoshi told his son as he pulled him into a hug. Saki finished talking with the person and approached the group with an easy-going expression on his face. “Those times are now past us. We can now enjoy life without fear…we can rest.”

Mikey smiled and burrowed his face in his father’s embrace.

He was right.

Things were over.

It was time for them to rest.

[Emergency!]

[Emergency!]

[Category 5 Kaiju detected!]

[En-route to make landfall in Tokyo, Japan!]

[Requesting any jaeger and pilots to deploy immediately!]

[Emergency!]

“No fucking way,” Raph breathed in fear.

Mikey’s eyes grew wide as his breath hitched.

Mikey was well in line with his older brother’s emotion. The only other case of a category 5 kaiju was the one near the rift but it had never gotten far from it. This was the only kaiju of that designation to make it out of the ocean.

“What’s the codename of this kaiju?!” Yoshi demanded as he stomped towards the control room, halfway leaving the hug with Mikey and using the arm still around him to direct the boy. Leo, Donnie, and Raph followed closely while April and Casey ran ahead.

[Kaiju codename: Rahzar]

“Edgy,” Mikey muttered, trying to perk himself back up as they entered the room where they all spent a lot of time while a part of the program.

“Sensei, you’re going to want to see this,” April yelled out. They all got in close around the girl as she pulled up in the information they were able to glean so far from the kaiju. Yoshi felt his mouth drop and his face paled, Mikey catching his father as his legs gave out under him.

“Dogpound…” Leo whispered in horror. “I thought it died after their fight.”

“Keyword, we thought it died,” Saki corrected as he looked at the screen in shock. “It disappeared off radars so we thought it died and fell deep in the ocean where our scanners couldn’t find it.” Yoshi pulled away from Mikey and stumbled towards the computer screen, both hands holding him up as he stared at the screen of the kaiju that caused his wife’s death.

“Well, it definitely was hiding!” Donnie exclaimed. “And wherever it was, it evolved or something.”

“Mutated,” Mikey supplied.

“Mutated,” Donnie reiterated, with a finger pointing at Mikey. “Thank you.”

“Always here to help.”

“Whatever it is, it’s fucking huge!” Raph exclaimed. “And headed right towards a city full of people.”

“We need to deploy someone out there to fight!” Casey stated.

“But there are no jaegers left!” Donnie argued, hands running through his hair in distress.

Mikey looked over at Saki across the room, eyes already saying everything even though his uncle mouthed the word ‘no’ at him. There was a pleading in his eyes that asked Mikey not to do what he was thinking but he had already made up his mind.

Shooting forward, Mikey wrapped Donnie in a tight hug. Before Donnie could react, he moved over to Raph. His red loving brother looked down at him the moment the two connected and rubbed a hand down his bicep. That’s all he could do before he pulled away and leapt at Leo. The oldest living sibling of the Hamato’s was quick to return the hug, holding Mikey tightly in a way that was almost instinctual.

Leo’s hug lasted a few seconds longer than Donnie’s and Raph’s as he always felt the safest in his big brother’s arms. Leo meant he was safe and nothing could hurt him…but now it was time for him to be a big boy.

Mikey left Leo’s hold and made one last stop to give his father a hug. Yoshi blinked in shock at the sudden display of affection from his son that hadn’t displayed such over the last two years. The father of four boys was quick to hug his youngest son back, happy to show his precious son the affection he undoubtedly deserved.

Though, Yoshi could have sworn he heard a whisper of his son apologizing into his robe.

But then Mikey was pulling away and running out of the control room. He heard Raph asking something along the lines of ‘what was that’ but no one knew.

Which was a lie because Saki knew exactly what Mikey was doing.

Mikey ran and ran, taking the stairs to rush down to where Saki’s workroom was. Even if it had been almost two years since the last time he saw it, he remembered the exact route to his 16^th birthday gift from uncle Saki. The hidden elevator behind the door waited for him, sending him down deeper to gaze upon the large form in front of him. Mikey stopped near the top of it, running out to strip out of his clothes.

A pilot underlayer was waiting for him. It was a bit of a tight fit but he was able to squeeze himself into it. He fingered the black bomber jacket that Karai left him, running a hand over the design he had added to the back and squeezed his eyes tight. Folding it gently, it placed it on a side bench and grabbed a piece of paper. Scrawling a quick message on it, he placed it on top of the jacket and hoped that someone would find it at some point.

A long piece of his blond curls fell in his face and Mikey felt a pit of dread form in him.

His long hair meant that he was free from the battle against the kaijus. It was one of his ways to heal – knowing that he would never have to climb back into a jaeger and be sent out to fight for humanity.

What a lie.

He had recently gotten a haircut as the summer heat was brutal on him with the thick curls. It was still longer than when he was in the program but it was short enough that he should still be able fit the helmet on. Mikey rushed down the long platform into a large metal room, a thick metal door slamming shut behind him.

“You online, old man?” Mikey called out.

[Affirmative]

[Ready to receive orders]

“Suit me up!” Mikey commanded, holding his arms out to the side. Robotic arms dropped down from the ceiling, placing parts of black jaeger pilot armor all over his body. Mikey could hear the drills screwing the pieces together as the metallic spine clamped over his back where his own spine would be. A shiver ran down him, making him remember how he could never get used to the feeling.

“What are the controls set to right now?”

[Solo piloting]

“Perfect,” Mikey grinned as he stepped up to the center of the small room and placed his feet into the feet controls, the clamps securing him into place.

[I am must recommend against this course of action]

[There is a very high chance that you are going to flay your mind if you continue]

“I know,” Mikey said softly. “But this is what I am going to do regardless. Helmet please.”

Another robotic arm dropped down to hand over an all-black helmet. Running a hand over it, Mikey let himself a moment to live through all the memories of wearing an orange helmet like the one in his hands before he smoothed his mane of blond curls and placed the helmet on. There was a mechanism in the back of it that pressed more against the back of his head to accommodate for the volume of hair pushing against the inside of the helmet.

Mikey heard the back harness drop down and felt a push against him as it was attached.

[Are you ready to drop?]

“Drop me,” Mikey smirked.

There was a shift of movement and then Mikey felt like he was on a roller coaster as the jaeger head he was in dropped multiple stories. It stopped after a few stomach dropping seconds and then he felt himself being spun around as the head secured itself to the body.

[Head and body secured together]

[Ready for next instructions]

“Bring us up,” Mikey ordered. “Alert the control room to the emergency jaeger deployment.”

[Orders received]

There was another shift of movement and Mikey felt gravity pushing down against him as the platform below his jaeger’s feet raising the large metal form into the air. The front panels of the jaeger’s face moved into place to let him look out as he moved through the chute. A holographic control panel popped up in front of Mikey as he climbed, the screen in front showing the start up process. Reaching forward, Mikey pressed a button to open the comm channels and then another button to bring the hand controllers zooming up to meet his hands.

“Who is this?!” Yoshi’s harsh voice demanded into the comms. “I do not have record of this jaeger existing!”

“Wait, no, this jaeger was on records before!” April stated. Mikey smirked as he imagined the chaos in the control room as the I.D. number of this particular jaeger was displayed.

“…Saki, what is this?” Yoshi hissed.

“Brother, please, you must listen to me,” Saki sighed.

“Why did you never tell me?! You’ve had this in your workshop the entire time?!”

Gravity stopped pushing against Mikey as much as he saw the jaeger bay coming into view. It was Bay 07 in a twist of fate that made Mikey remember all the times he saw this same view in Shellraiser.

“Why is Ninja Speed in one piece?!” Donnie marveled. “It was supposed to be scrapped after that final mission!”

“I fixed and improved it,” Saki sniffed. “I couldn’t let them dismantle this particular jaeger so I just told the higher ups that I used it for parts.”

“We still don’t know who is in there,” Raph pointed out.

“Three guess and the first two don’t count,” Mikey grinned, rolling out his shoulders.

“…Mikey?” Leo whispered in horror.

“Bingo, bongo, big bro,” Mikey laughed, trying to force humor to cover up the dreaded fact that he was about to go fight the first ever category 5 kaiju to make landfall.

“Get out of there right now, Michelangelo,” Yoshi demanded. “That is an order.”

“You kicked me out of the program, remember?” Mikey hummed as he pressed a few buttons on the holographic console in front of him. “I’m an independent agent right now.”

“Then as your father, I demand you get out of that jaeger this instant!”

“Then this is me entering my rebellious stage.”

“Mikey, this isn’t a joke,” Raph’s voice said to him in a scared tone. “Come out of the jaeger and we can figure something out.”

“No can do, Raphie.”

“Who do you have in there to co-pilot?” Donnie interjected in a tone that he had caught on a lot faster than everyone else had. “All of us are here right now, so who do have in there? Leatherhead? Slash?” There was a sound of a slam and Mikey guessed it was Donnie slamming his hands against a table. “WHO?!”

“…I think you already know the answer to that, Don,” Mikey answered.

“Oh my god,” Donnie breathed and Mikey closed his eyes as he imagined his immediate older brother’s facing losing all color. “You’re going to solo pilot.”

“Michelangelo!” Yoshi sharp voice cut through everything, “You come out of Ninja Speed right now before you kill yourself.”

“I’m not going to die, dad,” Mikey rolled his eyes as he pressed another button to open the bay doors. “I can’t finish my mission if I don’t return home alive.”

“Mikey…” Leo gasped and there was a distinct wetness to it.

“And it’s not Ninja Speed anymore,” Mikey continued. “Ninjas serve someone and if you remember, I’m no longer an official pilot of PPDF.” There were sputters as his family tried to reason with Mikey but he phased them out. Closing his eyes, he faced his head towards the ceiling of his jaeger. “Start solo drift.”

[Solo drift commencing]

“Mikey, no!” Raph’s scream was the last thing that Mikey heard as he was pulled into the drift.

Chapter Text

There were records of people using a past pilot’s memories to do something called ‘ghost drifting’. It was a risky move but it allowed the pilot to control the jaeger by themselves.

That wasn’t what Mikey was going to do though.

Over the past two years, Mikey prepared himself. He created a program with Saki over long distance encrypted messages that would allow someone to use their own memories to create a mental copy of themselves to ‘pilot’ with. There were plenty of drawbacks as the full neural load needed to control the jaeger fell onto the pilot. The concept itself need a truly mentally strong pilot to withstand the full force of the experience.

But the control the solo pilot had over the jaeger was astronomical from all the simulations Saki had Mikey go under. It had been something Saki had worked on for years ever since Mikey piloted by himself during his and Raph’s fight against Mozar. While his uncle was hesitant about ever letting Mikey try this, especially now that Mikey was no longer a part of the program, the engineer part of him couldn't let it go.

So, Mikey prepped and prepared himself for the day that something would happen to need him to pilot solo…

…just like he predicted.

Mikey felt a scream get pulled out of him as he was pulled into the drift by himself, his own memories flying past him.

/His mother and father smiling down at him as they scoop him out of his crib./

/Karai feeding him his bottle, whispering to him how good of a baby he is while his parents try to wrangle his three older brothers./

/Cake smeared all over himself and his brothers’ faces at his birthday./

/Donnie already knowing how to read and reading his baby brother one of his toddler books as Shen makes lunch in the background./

/Uncle Saki handing him a toy robot as a birthday gift./

/His hands being held by his big sister as she helps him learn to walk./

/A tiny Mikey clinging to his mother’s leg as she makes everyone some lunch./

/Karai holding Mikey’s bike steady for him as he learns to ride./

/Running around with a towel tied around his shoulders as he pretends to be a superhero./

/Raph letting Mikey climb into his bed when his sleep decided to give him a nightmare instead of sweet dreams./

/Raph apologizing for teasing him after Karai wrestled him to the ground and demanded he apologized to the crying Mikey./

/Pretending to be pirates with Leo as Donnie and Raph play a video game on the TV; Karai texting someone on the couch./

/Kicking a soccer ball around with Raph as his two other brothers hide in the shade with their mother; Yoshi and Karai watering their garden in the back of their large yard./

/Throwing a water balloon at Donnie when his brother refused to leave the shade during a particularly hot day one summer./

/Running away from Leo in laughter as his oldest brother chases him around for stealing the last razzberry ice pop./

/Cheering for Raph when his older brother chases after the bullies that decided to bully him at the playground./

/The twins deciding it was a great idea to teach a six-year-old Mikey how to skateboard, their arms held out to catch him if he fell./

/Throwing his arms up in joy when he doesn’t fall off the skateboard, his brothers cheering with him…right before his skateboard pitched forward and it went rolling down a large hill./

/His three older brothers chasing after him as he went rolling away with Karai recording from the top./

/Leo helping him out of the bush he fell into after his board rolled over a rock, and wiping away the tears and dirt lining his face.’

/Donnie applying his favorite brightly colored band-aids to his skinned knees./

/Shen shaking her head as she smiles softly, fixing the patch job by Donnie on Mikey’s with Karai showing her the video she took./

/The TV interrupting his cartoons to show a monster attacking a city on the other side of the country, a well-loved teddy bear clutched in his arms./

/Raph trying to pull Mikey away to not watch the sight that would be the opening to the war against the monsters./

/Donnie infodumping about the strange monster and trying to push down his fear as Leo hisses at Donnie to stop talking./

/A younger Mikey hiding behind Leo as all the siblings are loaded into a government van to be transported over to Saki’s house./

/Saki opening the door and immediately shooting the agents venomous looks as he ushed his brother’s children inside, not trusting any stranger near them./

/Crying when he found out that his parents were being sent out to fight and Donnie cheering him up by telling him that their parents were going to be the best since they were the strongest people in the world./

/Raph making silly face at Mikey to make him laugh, trying to distract him from the thought of their parents being sent out to fight against monsters./

/Watching the TV every time Ninja Speed was sent out to fight and cheering when they won./

/His mother taking an extra moment to caress his cheek before she and Yoshi left to fight against Dogpound./

/Sobbing into Leo’s chest when they watched the wreckage of Ninja Speed on the TV./

/Hearing Raph wail in grief while Saki holds a sobbing Karai close to him./

/Donnie hugging Mikey after he woke up from another nightmare about the moment they found out their mother was dead./

/Looking at all the faces around him at his mother’s funeral, particularly the government agents that kept flickering their eyes over to Mikey and his siblings./

/Being confused at the distraught look on his father’s face when they found out all the siblings were drift compatible with each other./

/All of his siblings practicing in the gym as their father made sure they were prepared to fight./

/Stumbling upon his father telling Saki that he has the most raw talent out of all the siblings for piloting the jaegers./

/Meeting all of the support team for the first time and trying to not get annoyed at how they all treated him like a baby./

/Being introduced to April for the first time, the only person that treated him like an equal compared to all the other support team members./

/A late night training session with Donnie as his brother corrected his form./

/Raph not teasing Mikey after finding him practicing by himself late one night in the gym and instead helping by giving him a sparring partner./

/Holding tightly to Karai as Leo and Raph are the first pair chosen to be sent out and fight./

/Launching himself at Leo the moment he and Raph declared that their mission was a success./

/His mouth dropping open when one of his codes was called to fight, Raph slapping him on the back in congratulations./

/Jumping around in excitement, ignoring the amused expressions on everyone’s faces at his child-like energy./

/Donnie barging into the control room and practically taking over Casey’s station to make sure everything was perfect for Mikey’s first deployment./

/Raph and Donnie sending the eldest and youngest brothers out to their fight, threatening Leo to bring Mikey home safe or else they were going to beat him up./

/The look of relief on Donnie’s face the moment Mikey and Leo exited Shellraiser’s head the first time he was deployed into battle./

/Mikey and Leo saluting their father and announcing that they completed both parts of their mission, a proud smile on Yoshi’s face./

/Raph immediately pulling Mikey into a tight hug the second their father declared the mission over./

/Leo insisting on having a celebration on Mikey’s first successful deployment, pigging out on junk food and passing out to a movie marathon in his room./

/Waiting everyday to see if he and his brothers were going to be sent out to fight, always somewhat on edge as he never knew when it was going to happen./

/Playing pranks on everyone during downtime to lift up the mood of the whole base./

/Being called to fight Tiger Claw with Leo and being so excited about being sent out./

/Fighting Mozar with Raph at his side and screaming when he had to take over piloting by himself./

/The anger he felt during his fight with Donnie and the shame he felt afterwards./

/The emergency deployment with his immediate older brother to replace the twins in the fight against Caligula./

/Yelling at the twins for making them worry so much and then enjoying the extra comics for the next month per the deal with Donnie./

/Drifting with April and seeing the joy on her face when she is able to control Shellraiser./

/Yelling at Casey after he pulled them into a memory during his turn to drift with Mikey./

/Leo finding Mikey is his hiding spot hours later after his freak out, patiently pulling him out of his breakdown./

/Testing Shellshock with Saki and laughing at his uncle blowing off his father’s anger./

/Forcing his post-piloting zoomies to go for longer to tire his brothers out before sneaking away to add his own override code into Shellshock’s programming./

/His 16^th birthday party and all the brothers getting messy from cake with April making sure to take pictures./

/The birthday gifts from everyone and wishing to drift with his father./

/Going into the drift with his father to see more of his mother that he got oh-so-little time with./

/Watching Leo and Raph being sent out to fight against Jei and just an hour later being called out to fight with Karai against two category 4 kaijus./

/Laughing with Mondo and Renet while they fly next to Shellshock in their own jaeger on their way to Australia./

/Struggling against Bebop and Rocksteady, waiting for news about Shellraiser coming to help the fight and feeling his stomach drop when he found out no back-up was coming./

/Getting prepared to launch an attack when Rocksteady’s horn slips into Shellshock’s head and impales Karai right in the chest./

/Dissociating after his mental connection to his sister snapped without warning, feeling like he wasn’t all there as he listens to the dying screams of Renet and Mondo./

/The rage that overcame him as he commanded Shellshock to switch to solo controls and defeating the two kaijus on his own./

/Panting in rage when Bebop finally went down and didn't get back up./

/Ripping himself out of the controls and stumbling towards the corpse of his big sister./

/Cradling her close to himself for an unknown amount of time until his father arrived and he was pulled away./

/Screaming for his sister as his brothers held him down./

/Breaking Raph’s nose and making one last effort to get Karai back before Donnie pulled his feet out from under him./

/The agents cuffing him and throwing him into a van to drive away, throwing him into an empty cell back at the base./

/Starring at the wall across from the one he was leaning against as his mind tried to hide somewhere that was not there./

/His brothers coming in to try and talk to him, only to lash out at everyone before falling into sobs in Kirby’s chest./

/Feeling a prick in his neck and falling asleep, waking up sometime later across the country on an unknown farm./

/Yelling at everyone that tried to help him, just wanting to be left alone./

/Pacing in his room with his hands carding throwing his messy curls, Kirby calmly asking Mikey to talk to him instead of internalizing everything./

/Breaking down into sobs when he finally saw his brothers again and apologizing to them about how nasty he was being, begging them to not leave him./

/Raph sitting at his bedside the entire time he stared at the ceiling, his mind wandering somewhere else./

/Leo patiently taking all the verbal abuse Mikey hurled at him and softly whispering comforts to him when his tears would return to flow down his face./

/Donnie being the one to tell Mikey what happened at the end of the battle in an almost clinical way./

/April using her dad’s teaching to help Mikey calm down from one of his episodes./

/Casey introducing Mikey to the chickens on the farm and finding himself smiling for the first time in a while./

/Gently petting the colorful fur of Ick, thankful that April made sure to pack his ice cream themed stuffed cat./

/Going through the days in a pattern of lashing out and apologizing./

/Everyone being the rocks that Mikey needs to holding him anchored to the real world./

/Finally deciding to read his fathers letters and weeks later writing a reply./

/Going to a corn maze and zoning out on a random stalk of corn, coming back to himself later to find that he was lost and alone./

/The harried expressions on everyone’s faces when he is found hours later sitting on a rock and looking at the sky./

/Waking up in the middle of night and writing secret programs into a database in case something would ever happen./

/Recording messages that he hoped no one would ever have to watch./

/Casey trying to scare him while in the chicken coop and all the chickens freaking out, feathers flying everywhere and getting stuck in his hair./

/Leo helping to pick through his curls to try and get rid of the feathers and still finding them days later./

/His 17^th birthday coming around to be a quiet affair that ended with a sleepover in the living room to watch Crognard./

/The anniversary of Karai’s death and Mikey going into his deepest episode yet./

/Screaming hurtful words at Raph and then running out into the rain to hide away in the woods surrounding the farm./

/Coming back to his own mind and realizing where he was and what he said./

/Finding a hallowed tree trunk to escape the rain and reflect on what a terrible person he was to someone trying to help him./

/Jolting in surprise when Casey shines a light on him and screaming to the others that he found Mikey./

/Crying his eyes out into Raph’s chest as his brothers rocks him softly, promising him that he could never hate him./

/The next day being a lazy day where he and the boys all watched old home movies./

/Going through the motions of everyday but learning how to breathe easier./

/Blinking to himself as he comes back to awareness at the county fair and realizing he wandered away from everyone again./

/Donnie’s eyes wide with worry when he is finally found an hour later by the pizza food stand./

/Grumbling at the child leash attached to him at the farm when they go exploring the woods./

/All of the brothers booing at the tv when the show was interrupted to immediately shutting up when the newscaster told them at the kaijus were never coming back again./

/Holding onto Donnie and jumping in place as they all cheer to the end of the war with the kaijus./

/The stars being their witness as they all throw marshmallows at each other instead of roasting them for s’mores./

/Mikey falling asleep to the sounds of his siblings playful banter accompanied with a background of crickets one late summer night at the farm./

/Waking up from a weird dream and begging Raph to paint the scene he couldn’t get out of his head on the back of his black bomber jacket./

/Looking in the mirror as everyone compliments how cool it looks while he feels a sense of unease for some reason./

Mikey gave a short pain filled gasp as he exited the drift. His head felt like it was going to split open with an ice pick digging into the back of his eyes.

[Solo drift successful]

[Pilot has full control over jaeger]

Mikey lifted both his hands in front of him, flexing them and he could see the jaeger’s hands copying him. Reaching out, he threw up the peace sign with both hands.

[Calibrations complete]

“Michelangelo, that is enough. You have proven your point,” Yoshi begged. “Come out now.”

“No can do, papa,” Mikey shook his head, the jaeger following his movement. There was another rush of sharp pain shooting through him but with a press of a button with his thumb, pain blocker meds were sent into him through the back harness. All of the pain faded away and Mikey felt his focus sharpen. “Someone has to go fight that big ass mutant and there isn’t any jaegers left besides this one.”

“Kaiju,” Donnie muttered softly in a kneejerk reaction to what Mikey calls the kaijus.

With another press of a button of his controllers, the bay doors were commanded to open and they let in the light beams of the setting sun.

“Get me a rocket pack, please,” Mike commanded.

[Yes sir]

There was movement to the side as a large robotic arm moved from its position to secure a rocket pack to the jaeger’s back.

“We still never got the answer to the name of this jaeger,” Casey pointed out softly.

“Oh, my mistake,” Mikey hummed. With the rocket pack in place, he turned the jaeger’s upper body to gaze over his shoulder at the control room. Mikey could see the distraught faces of all of his remaining family. Leo was pressed up against the control room’s window with his hands splayed out against it, his face the very expression of emotional pain.

[Last Ronin is prepped and ready to go]

“Last…ronin?” Yoshi whispered.

“I don’t serve anyone, remember?” Mikey smirked to himself. “And we are going to be the last jaeger in this damn war.”

“Mikey!” Raph called out, running forward to join Leo and the glass and banged his fist on it. “Don’t do this! Let one of us help you in there!”

“Sorry bros,” Mikey shook his head and turned his body back around. He didn’t see from behind how everyone saw Last Ronin’s dark silhouette highlighted by the blood-orange sun in front of him…just like the design on the back of his black bomber jacket. “It’s my turn to keep you guys safe.”

“Mikey!” Donnie screamed.

Mikey ignored them as he raised his foot and stepped forward, moving Last Ronin out of the bay. With the pain blockers in place, there was no strain forcing Mikey to buckle under the stress his body and mind was starting to go through.

“Let’s go Last Ronin!” Mikey commanded.

[Yes sir]

[Last Ronin taking off in T-minus 20 seconds]

Mikey smiled to himself as he remembered the last time he waited to be launched into the air inside a jaeger. Last time he had his sister at his side with two of his best friends accompanying them.

It was just him this time.

“Remember your mission!” Yoshi called out desperately. “Especially the second part! That is the most important!”

“Duh, dad,” Mikey stuck his tongue out playfully even if his father couldn’t see it. “Defeat the mutant and come home alive. The mission isn’t over until I have made it back and reported the end of it to you.”

“Good,” Yoshi praised wetly. “Be careful, my little orange.”

[Last Ronin now launching]

There was a push against Mikey as his jaeger was sent into the air to fly him to Japan. It wasn’t that far of a flight but if he didn’t use the rockets, the entire city of Tokyo would probably be decimated by the time he got there. There was still going to be a few moments of wait time and it was making Mikey more nervous the longer he waited.

“Ronin, please initiate programs WT-9, M-82, and L-14,” Mikey said to the jaeger.

[Programs initiated]

“What the hell programs are those?” Donnie demanded.

“Some things that I created for certain events,” Mikey hummed an answer cryptically.

“Since when do you know how to do that?!”

“Did you really think I wouldn’t remember from all the times I watched you?” Mikey chuckled.

“Wait…how did you…your photogenic memory,” Donnie whispered in awe and horror.

“How do you think I was able to get my override code in with the fight in Australia?” Mikey rolled his eyes.

“You did that?” Casey asked in shock. “I always thought there was some type of code that we all overlooked in the handbooks that only you caught.”

“Nope,” Mikey shook his head playfully as he got closer to Japan. “I snuck in one night to Uncle Saki’s lab and entered it in myself.”

“You sneaky little shit,” Raph growled.

“Guilty as charged,” Mikey shrugged.

[Approaching drop point]

Mikey looked up to see the coasts of Japan growing larger on his viewport. A little blur on his screen dictated that he was going to be landed in Kaneda Bay, only an hour and some change away from Tokyo. A portion of the screen zoomed in and he could see Rahzar starting to pull itself out of the ocean. He had heard that category 5 kaijus were huge but seeing one in person was different.

The mutated kaiju formally known as Dogpound was a wolf looking with three long tails instead of one. There were prehensile and looked as if they moved on their own independent thinking, moving through the air like snakes. Each tail was tipped with a razor-sharp spine that made Mikey shiver looking at it. Overgrown sharp incisors hung out of Razar’s mouth as it hung open, saliva dripping out. Each black wolf-like paw had equally sharp claws lining it that gouged the ground with every step. Backwards facing horns poked out of the back of Rahzar’s sickly thin head.

“That is one ugly mug,” Mikey whistled to himself. “Just like Raph’s.”

“Hey!”

“Teasing,” Mikey stuck his tongue out.

“Please, Mikey – please – be careful,” Leo begged.

“I got this aniki,” Mikey rolled his eyes. “Just sit back and enjoy the show.”

“I would rather not be watching you fight the only category 5 kaiju to make landfall,” Leo muttered.

“We can’t always get what we want,” Mikey retorted.

“Brat.”

“I know.”

“One minute until landfall, Mikey,” Donnie said.

“Back to Japan,” Mikey hummed. “That was a fun trip with Karai.”

“It sure was,” Donnie agreed. “We’ll just have to have another one with Leo and Raph this time too.”

“That sounds fun,” Mikey chirped. “We can show them all the fun places ane showed us!”

“Then you have to promise to come back to us alive,” Donnie said with gritted teeth. “Promise us.”

“I promise, Don Bon,” Mikey rolled his eyes, watching as he got closer and closer to the city of Tokyo where his opponent was starting to wreak havoc. “I promise to come back alive. How else am I supposed to finish the mission?”

“Just remember that,” Donnie whispered. “You promised…”

[Approaching kaiju]

“Let’s do this,” Mikey grinned to himself. Last Ronin detached from the rocket pack and fell into the water. The water only reached until Last Ronin's knees and massive waves rippled away from the giant robot. “Open external speakers.”

[External speakers online]

“Hey, mutant!” Mikey yelled, his voice echoing out of the speakers positioned outside of Last Ronin, making Rahzar looked backwards with a hiss. Moving his feet, Mikey had his jaeger run towards the kaiju with a fist raised. “You've gotten so much uglier since the last time you showed your mug!”

"Don't antagonize the kaiju," Leo muttered over the line but it was promptly ignored.

Razhar roared as it sprinted towards Last Ronin, tails raising dangerously in the air behind it. There was a whine as Last Ronin’s large metal fist made contact with its snout. Grabbing Razhar by its bony shoulders, Mikey heaved the kaiju up and threw it over his shoulder to send it back into the water.

“Haha! Get fucked!” Mikey cackled insanely. “That was for my mom and sister!”

Chapter Text

“Haha! Get fucked!” Mikey cackled insanely. “That was for my mom and sister!”

Rahzar roared angrily and launched its tails at Last Ronin to try and land an easy kill. Mikey moved to the side to avoid all of them. Moving his right hand to the side quickly, Mikey was able to grab one of the tails in his grasp. Raising his clenched left fist and flexing his wrist, a blade deployed out of his jaeger’s knuckles to slice through the tail he had captive. Rahzar screeched in rage, raising a paw to smash Last Ronin in the chest, pushing it backwards. Mikey flails his arms to regain balance and pushes his forearms together in front of his just in time to block a stab at his head from another tail.

Raising his leg in front of him, Last Ronin kneed a metal joint right into Rahzar’s side to earn a painful screech from the monster. The kaiju swipes a paw and forces Last Ronin backwards to fall on its back; Mikey lets out a sharp gasp as he is jostled. A short burst of sparks sprinkle into the air to his right as something breaks. Water splashes against the sides of Last Ronin, coming up to just below mid-way when laying in the water.

His mental connection to Last Ronin is lost for a moment as he is mentally thrown back to his last fight. He has a sense of deja-vu as he is forced onto his back with a kaiju towering above him. There is a moment where his mind tells him to just close his eyes and let this end. To just accept his fate at the hands of the monster that killed his mother.

“Get up, Mikey!”

“Show that bastard what happens when you mess with a Hamato!”

“Beat his ass!”

But then there is the other part of him that hears the cries of his family to get back up.

Rahzar lifts a foot in the air to stomp in Last Ronin’s head but it is caught by both of the robot’s hands. Mikey twists his wrists with a yell to throw the heavy kaiju to the side, the beast slamming against the ground and cracking it.

“Rocket arms, now!” Mikey yelled, sitting up and pushing Last Ronin to it's knees. “Give them some of our special juice!”

[Rocket arms online]

[Shockers online]

There was a whirring of noise from Mikey’s side and he lifted his right arm back into the air. Last Ronin’s fist is morphed into a core looking device that pulsing with bright blue light. Using the force from the rocket built into Last Ronin’s elbow, Mikey landed a super hard punch into Rahzar’s face.

There is a horrible screech as the fist sends large amounts of deadly electricity into its body. It was designed to be able to take down kaijus of a smaller category than Rahzar but the sheer size of this monster allowed it to withstand the attack.

No matter, he had another fist to slam into the kaiju.

He swung his body around to land another hit with his left hand but was stopped as Rahzar caught the metal fist in its mouth.

“Shit,” Mikey cursed as giant teeth bit down harder Last Ronin’s hand and grabbed onto the jaeger's shoulders with its paws faster than Mikey could react. Even as the electricity was released into Rahzar, didn't lose its grip. In fact, it seemed to just get angrier the more it was shocked, deep growls pouring out of its maw.

There was a harsh sound of ripping metal that assaulted Mikey’s ears as Rahzar pushed its teeth deep into Last Ronin's hand pulled against where it was keeping the robot's shoulder in place. Sparks flew at electrical lines were ripped open; shards of metal flying are it crumbled beneath Rahzar’s claws. Finally, the metal gave way and Last Ronin’s arm was ripped off its main body at the shoulder joint and thrown off to the side.

“You fucker!” Mikey yelled as electricity ran through his own left arm, his arm falling limp at his side. “I liked that arm!” He could feel his arm going numb as the skin burned for the shocks of feedback. It wouldn’t be that surprising if part of his suit and his arm were now melted together.

His brothers were going to be so pissed.

Rahzar just roared back, spittle flying from its large maw.

“You’re down an arm!” Donnie exclaimed.

“Gee, thanks Don. I didn’t notice,” Mikey rolled his eyes and then yelped as a large rumble ran through Last Ronin as Rahzar body slammed the jaeger in the torso.

“Hull integrity falling!” Casey announced. Mikey raised his sole arm above him, jamming his elbow into Rahzar's back and tried digging the jaeger's heels into the ground below him. The sand gave way and Last Ronin was pushed farther out of the water to fight on land.

“You have to either finish this battle fast or run away!” Leo yelled. With a turn, Mikey maneuvered Last Ronin out of Rahzar's grip.

“I can’t run away,” Mikey grunted as he took a step back and punched his right arm out, sucker-punching the kaiju. “There’s too many people depending on me right now.”

“Then finish the fight!” Raph demanded seriously. “Do what you did with Mozar and end this!”

“Easy for you to say,” Mikey grumbled, gulping when Rahzar raised his two remaining tails in the air with the sharp spiked tips aimed right at Last Ronin. He flicked his right fist and let the knuckle blades pop out of the metal appendage. He swiped his knuckle blade in the air and cut off another spike tipped tail that was aimed to impale Last Ronin’s core. Taking the chance, Mikey stabbed the kaiju in the side and cursed when it didn't seem to slow the monster down at all, instead just making it angrier. Mikey pulled the blade out but didn’t move in time to stop the last tail that pierced right into Last Ronin’s face. Mikey screamed as he pulled his head back, avoiding the thrashing tail before he felt a pressure in his side. “Fucking hell!”

“Mikey!” someone screamed. He couldn’t tell who it was that said his name but he didn’t care. There were more pressing matters…like the tail that was trying to cut his head off at the moment.

Ignoring the pulsing in his side, Mikey used his right arm to command Last Ronin to grab the tail and pull it out of his jaeger’s head. With a flick of his wrist, he maneuvered Last Ronin to twist its wrist and use the knuckle blade to cut off the last tail.

There was a weird smear of red on the tip of the last tail but Mikey couldn’t afford to focus on such a little detail like that right now. Rahzar roared in anger and pain as all of his tails were now gone, only stumps that leaked out its toxic blue blood. The kaiju stepped away to inspect its missing appendages and  Mikey didn’t waste time to put Last Ronin into a fighting position. Legs bending into a slight crouch and his right fist raised in front of his face, Last Ronin stood like a one-armed boxer waiting for its opponent.

“Mikey, I’ve lost the ability to see your condition,” April relayed with panic in her voice. “Are you okay?!”

“Just peachy,” Mikey grunted. “Rainbows and sunshine and all that shit.” Something wet rolled down his face and Mikey put it off as sweat from all the exertion of fighting. There was a pain building up all over Mikey’s body but it mostly was concentrated in his head right behind his eyes. A familiar feeling of something burning on his face made him bit his lip. He knew what it was…the neural load was too much for his body to handle and the pain was telling him that he was approaching his limit.

Too bad for his body because he couldn’t stop fighting just yet.

“Last Ronin, drug me up!” Mikey commanded. “All of it!”

[I highly recommend against-]

"Just do it!"

[Very well]

[Pain blockers being administered]

There was a hiss of noise before Mikey felt something akin to a cool liquid running through his body that started in his spine. It pushed all the pain away, leaving him ready and raring to go. The pain in his head that was akin to a stabbing relaxed into a gentle pulse to let Mikey know that even though he couldn't feel it, it was still there laying in wait.

“Mikey, what the hell was that?” Raph growled. Rahzar turned and roared at Last Ronin, angrier than ever after mourning its tails.

“Just a little boost,” Mikey answered as he ducked backwards from a swipe of Rahzar’s paw. The hole in Last Ronin’s head sent sparks as the wires waved through the air and let light in the otherwise dark environment. The sun was approaching the horizon, lowering in the sky as the day was coming to its end. “Nothing to worry about.”

“Saki, tell me right now what my son is doing,” he heard Yoshi demand.

“Uncle Saki, no,” Mikey growled. Mikey made Last Ronin take a big step back as Rahzar tried to snap his jaw at his remaining arm.

“Saki!”

“…he’s overloading himself on pain blockers to ignore the mental strain,” Saki sighed. “I’m sorry, Michelangelo, but I would prefer to have four alive nephews rather than three.”

“Uncle Saki!” Mikey hissed. In his moment of low attention, Rahzar threw his head into Last Ronin to make Mikey stumble back into a building. He could only hope that it had been evacuated long before the fight started.

“Mikey, you are going to seriously harm yourself!” Donnie screeched. There was a sound of a keyboard being typed on for a moment. “I’ve placed orders to have the med team flush your system when we get you back.”

“I just gotta get through this last battle and then I never have to worry about something like this again,” Mikey panted, seemingly out of breath for some reason. He was confused why his body was starting to fight against him. There was no pain thanks to the pain blockers but he could tell something was wrong. “I just need something to give me an edge.”

“Maybe you should use the special item I stored in your left leg instead of drugs,” Saki mused, his voice changing as if he was talking through a headset now. There was a weird sound of some type of flying vehicle but Mikey couldn't pay attention to that right now. In fact...thinking on anything besides the battle right in front of him was starting to get hard.

“And you’re just mentioning it now?!” Raph growled.

A notification beeped on Mikey's interface and he raised his immensely shaking and burnt left arm to press against the display. A green box appeared on the display of Last Ronin's form on his screen, showing him that a compartment was opening. Taking the singular arm of Last Ronin, he reached down and across to pull out a very special weapon from his jaeger’s left leg. There was loud clunking as a jaeger-sized pair of nun chucks are dragged out. One end is held in Last Ronin’s right hand and the other end hanging limply before being spun in quick and heavy swings through the air.

“Oh, yeah,” Mikey grinned savagely. “These will do.”

“A fitting weapon,” Yoshi murmured quietly. “It was always your specialty.”

“Let’s end this,” Mikey growled towards Rahzar, who snarled at the boy. “Yeah, right back at you,” he rolled his eyes.

For a moment, there is no movement and sounds besides the creaking of Last Ronin’s metal frame as the two opponents size each other up. There are both running out of steam thanks to their adversary and this next set of moves will declare the winner.

And then, at the same moment, the two imposing frames of hunter and monster sprang forward. Loud stomps echoed across the land as their combined weight sent small quakes to the surrounding area.

Spinning the nun chucks, Mikey slammed them into the side of Rahzar’s head. He didn’t let up for a moment and swung the weapon to strike the wolf monster under its chin. Sweeping his leg, he kicked Rahzar’s legs out from under him pressed a button on his hand controller.

A large curved blade sprung out of the side of the nun chuck handle in Last Ronin’s hand and he spun the handle to change the way it was gripped in his hand. Held in a reverse grip, Mikey lifted the jaeger-sized blade of his kusarigama high in the air and brought it down in the space right between Rahzar’s eyes.

It gave a terrible screech, trying to pull away from the blade but Mikey just gritted his teeth and pushed it in harder. “Just fucking die already!” Mikey yelled. There was a moment of stillness from the kaiju as it let out its death rattle before relaxing into the ground. Dust kicked up around Rahzar as its dead body settled into place at Last Ronin’s dented feet.

Mikey looked down at the corpse of the monster that took his mother’s life.

Breathing heavily, Mikey threw his back and screamed in victory. The sound traveled for miles as it echoed out of the jaeger’s external speakers, letting everyone know that the final and most dangerous kaiju to ever make landfall in this war had been defeated.

“I did it,” Mikey gasped to himself, his chest heaving. “I defeated the mutant.” He could feel the pain blockers that he overloaded himself with losing their effectiveness and he was privy to a pinch in his side. Looking downing, he was surprised to see a large gaping wound on the left side of his stomach that was leaking blood.

That would explain the splash of red on the tip of Rahzar’s tail.

Maybe he could take a rest…

He defeated the monster like his mission dictated so maybe it would be okay if he took a break and waited until the paramedics arrived.

That would be okay, right?

“Good job, Mikey!” Leo cheered into the mic. Other voices could be heard in the background, cheering as Rahzar was defeated. “You did it! Mission over!”

That’s wrong.

He defeated it.

But he hadn’t reported the end of it to his father yet.

The mission wasn’t over.

With limbs weighed down by lead, Mikey turned Last Ronin on its heels and started trekking towards the water lining the country. He wanted nothing more than to disconnect from his jaeger and put this entire part of his life behind him.

But he had something to do first.

“Mikey? What are you doing?” Donnie asked.

“The mission isn’t over yet,” Mikey answered weakly. His energy was depleting and it didn't make any sense to Mikey as he usually got a rush after piloting. There was a splashing sound of something liquid falling onto the ground and Mikey looked down to see a large splatter of his blood staining the floor. He looked around and noted that there was actually  a thin layer of his blood coating everything in the head of Last Ronin.

No matter…they could clean it up later.

“It’s done, you numbskull!” Raph yelled. “Give it a rest and wait for the paramedics to get to you!”

“Can’t do that,” Mikey muttered. “I have to get home myself and report the end.”

“Michelangelo…” Yoshi whimpered.

“I promised,” Mikey pushed. “I promised I would come home alive.”

Chapter Text

“My son, please, you can stop.”

“Mikey! Stop moving already!”

“It’s okay Michael! It’s over!”

“Mikey! You better stop walking before I come in there and make you!”

"I've got access to vital signs again!"

"Pilot vital signs are dropping!"

"Stop moving before you kill yourself!"

Mikey ignored them as he forced Last Ronin to keep moving. Its right leg dragged across the ground as Mikey couldn't lift his own leg higher anymore, leaving deep grooves trailing from where Mikey defeated Rahzar. The circuits and wires where Last Ronin’s left arm was ripped off were hanging down, jostling as the jaeger kept moving and sending off sparks every so often. Last Ronin copied its driver's stance as Mikey held his right hand to his limp left arm's shoulder, gritting his teeth at the tight feeling of melded skin and the under layer of his armor.

It was getting harder to see out of the front of his helmet, a layer of red liquid collecting inside. There was a particular layer of misted blood painting the inside glass from when Mikey coughed up blood. Mikey wasn’t sure what was bleeding from still but he knew there was a lot of blood coming out. He could taste in his mouth and it felt like it was leaking out of the edges of his eyes. Blaring warnings on his screen showed the hole in the left side of his stomach from when Rahzar pierced the hull of Last Ronin's head with its razor tipped tail. He didn't look down to see the large trail of blood running down his left leg from the gaping wound that the armor did nothing to stop.

“Mikey!” Leo cried out, his voice ringing in Mikey’s ears. “Please give it a rest!”

“I can’t,” Mikey panted. “I haven’t returned home yet. The mission isn’t over.”

“Mikey, it’s okay! Please stop so we can help you!” Raph demanded. His voice was distinctly watery and Mikey could imagine his hard-as-nails brother crying.

“Don’t cry, Raphie,” Mikey murmured into the com. With every step, he could see the spec of a dot of jaeger headquarters on the zoomed in view of his screen get a fraction closer. Mikey felt the resistance of the waves of the ocean lap around Last Ronin’s metallic ankles as he entered the water. In his blurry headspace, he didn’t realize that at his current route, water would flood into the jaeger’s head and drown him.

Such thoughts were not registering anymore.

There was muffled chatter in the background of the coms. Mikey tuned them out as he kept going, the water getting higher on Last Ronin legs but he still didn’t care.

In the back of his mind, Mikey realized Raph didn’t argue the nickname and actually gave a sob at it.

 Nor Mikey couldn’t figure out why it made his brother sob.

There was jolting at Mikey’s shoulders and he looked up at the notifications on his screen that helicopter wires had been attached to him. In his mind, he didn’t know why they would do that.

“We’re here to help you, my little nephew,” his uncle Saki’s voice echoed out of the speaker in his ears. “Let us take you across the deep waters.”

“Oh…thanks uncle Saki,” Mikey mumbled as he felt Last Ronin getting lifted up to avoid water rushing into its head. He still kept moving his legs, though, as he felt that if he stopped then he wouldn’t be able to start again.

“Just hang on, Mikey,” Donnie’s desperate voice rang out. “We have a med team on stand-by ready for you.”

“That’s thoughtful of you, Dee. Thank you.”

“Anything for you,” Donnie said with a sob ending it.

“Talk to us Mikey,” Casey demanded. “Tell us about how it was to command a jaeger all by yourself.”

“Yeah!” Leo agreed, forcing positivity in his voice to cover the sorrow. Mikey didn’t understand why his oldest brother was so sad. “Tell us how it was to be the most badass pilot in the entire program!”

Mikey opened his mouth and gave out short answers to whatever questions or demands his siblings threw at him. He didn’t understand why they wanted him to talk to so much but if it made them happy, then he would talk until his voice was gone.

“Oh my god,” April breathed 10 minutes into the talking. “I can see him.”

Mikey guessed that it meant he was getting close to home.

Wait…when did the Shatterdome become home?

Mikey felt Last Ronin’s feet brush against the seafloor again and took that as his sign to continue his journey. Reaching up with his right hand, he deployed his knuckle blades one last time and cut through the wires holding him up. Without the support, Last Ronin dropped the unknown amount of distance to wobble on its own on the seafloor. He dropped his right arm to hold his left shoulder again, Last Ronin copying to cover its missing limb.

“What are you doing, you numbskull?!” Raph yelled.

“I can walk now,” Mikey mumbled, eyes narrowed in concentration as he stopped them from closing like they were demanding to. “I can finish the journey myself.”

“You didn’t have to do that, my son,” Splinter whispered.

“Yeah, I did,” Mikey grinned a tiny smile to himself. “Gotta prove that I can do this all by myself.”

“That was dangerous, little brother,” Donnie whispered.

“Danger is my middle name,” Mikey mumble-snorted.

“…yes, it is,” Donnie sobbed.

Mikey didn’t understand why his joke made his immediate older brother cry so much.

“I’m going to kill you when I get my hands on you,” Raph cried.

“You love me too much to go through with it,” Mikey teased.

“…that’s right,” Raph agreed with more sobs. “I love you way too much.”

“We love you, Mikey, so please, hang on until we can get to you,” Donnie pleaded.

“We love you so much, otouto,” Leo sobbed.

“Love you, too, aniki,” Mikey mumbled. Each step up to the shore leading to Last Ronin’s bay was feeling harder and harder to complete.

Leo sobbed harder at that which Mikey didn’t understand why.

Mikey’s vision was blurring more but when he squinted, he could see enough through the red haze to see where he was going. He limped up the hill of the small island that home was built on and finally came to a stop as the loading bed moved under him. He let it drag Last Ronin up the last distance and into the bay. Lights flashed all around Mikey as alarms blared but he ignored them all…it was getting harder to hear them anyways.

He could see his father waiting at one of the walkways. Yoshi stood there straight with his cane clenched in-between both hands in front of him like he was always did when his children came home from a mission. All at once, Mikey was flooded with memories of the numerous times he came home to that very sight with one of his brothers at his side.

Without waiting for the loading bed, Mikey stepped off and stumbled the last few steps. He pulled his arms down straight at his side, with Last Ronin copying his movements with its singular arm. Using more of his rapidly declining energy, Mikey bent over at the waist to bow to his father; outside Last Ronin copied his movements.

“The mutant has been defeated and I have returned home alive, papa,” Mikey announced in the strongest voice he could manage at the moment…which wasn’t all the strong.

“Excellent,” Splinter nodded with tears flowing down his cheeks. He lowered himself down to his knees and bent over into a deep bow in the ultimate show of respect he could for his son. “Mission over. Thank you. Get some rest, Michelangelo.”

It was over.

Mikey completed the mission by himself.

Mikey let his knees fall out below him, sending him to the ground. Outside, Last Ronin's metal form groaned loudly as copied to rest on its legs and its head bowed. Mikey hung there like a puppet as the only thing keeping him up was the connections of the controls to his suit. His head dipped down to touch his chin to his chest, dark blood dripping down to splatter against the inside of his helmet.

The mission was over.

Mikey could rest now.

Mikey could see the darkness enveloping everything as the last of his energy left him.

It was over.

He could rest.

And in the darkness of Last Ronin’s broken head as the sun finally dipped beneath the horizon to extinguish its light, Mikey breathed out a weak, shaky breath.

Mikey thought he must have zoned out because the next thing he knows, he’s in an all-white room. All around him, it’s just a black canvas stretching on for forever.

“Hello?” he calls out tentatively; his Last Ronin black armor still adoring his frame. Though, there was no hole in his stomach nor was his left arm melted to the suit.

“Oh, you’re here,” a very familiar voice says from behind him, making Mikey straighten in surprise. He turns slowly around in time to his older sister snapping a book close from where she sits on the ground. “I was wondering when you would arrive. You’re earlier than I was expecting, though.”

“Ane…is that you?” Mikey asked with a sob.

“It’s me, Angelo,” Karai smiled as she held her hands out for him. Mikey rushed forward and dropped to his knees to grab his dear older sister in a tight hug, so relieved to see her again. “You did a good job fighting Rahzar.”

“Thank you,” Mikey sniffed as he buried his face in Karai shoulder. With a jolt, he pulled back and looked her in the face. “But wait, what about everyone else? Where are they?” He looked around in confusion for his brothers and father but they were nowhere to be seen.

“It’s not their time yet, my dear baby turtle,” a soft voice that Mikey hadn’t heard in a very long time said to him. Karai watched as Mikey froze and helped turn his head to the side to see their mother approaching them. She kneeled next to them and reached a hand up to caress Mikey’s tear-stained face. “Oh, look at you. You’ve grown so big and handsome.”

“Mama?” Mikey whispered.

“Hello again, Michelangelo,” Shen whispered, tears shining in her own eyes. “I have missed you very much.”

“Mama!” Mikey cried as he jumped into arms.

“Oh, my baby,” Shen soothed him. “It’s alright. We are together now.”

Mikey cried for a few minutes before pulling back and wiping his face. “What about papa, Leo, Raph, and Donnie?”

“It’s not their time,” Shen shook her head. “Karai and I were waiting here for you.”

“But why?”

“We could feel the approach of your arrival,” Shen explained, running a hand through his curls like she did when he was young.

“So, we figured we would come and wait for you,” Karai said as she stood up and brushed invisible dirt off her legs.

Mikey looked around him at all the white, finally realizing where he was. “So,” Mikey wet his lips nervously, “is this it?”

“This is it,” Karai nodded.

“You were a hero, my baby turtle,” Shen told her son as she lifted both of them up to stand. “It is time for you to rest.”

“But—what about everyone else?” Mikey asked as he shifted from foot to foot.

“They will come when it is their time to rest,” Shen said. “We will come back and wait for them when it is their time to join us.” She looked down sadly as her youngest son as rubbed her thumb over his freckled cheeks. “I am so sorry that you did not get more time.”

“Yeah, it kind of sucks but it's also kind of a good thing,” Mikey smiled sadly to himself. “I saved so many people’s lives. I feel that it was worth it in the end.”

“Like mom said,” Karai grinned as she threw an arm over Mikey’s shoulders. “A hero.”

Mikey reached over to grab Shen’s hand and the three of them started walking off to the brightest light of the white environment.

“Also, nice touch to the name of your solo jaeger,” Karai laughed. “Very edgy. Gives a sense of danger to it.”

“What can I say?” Mikey shrugged. The light enveloped around them, swallowing the three members of the Hamato family. “Danger is my middle name.”

Mikey didn’t see how his brothers rushed towards Last Ronin at speeds they’ve never achieved before.

Mikey didn’t see how Leo broke away from the pack to jump up to grab a rope and swing himself down to land in a roll on Last-Ronin’s shoulder.

Mikey didn’t see how Leo climbed in through the hole in Last Ronin’s head and gasp at the sheer amount of blood painting everything.

Mikey didn’t feel how Leo removed his helmet and throw it off to the side, grabbing at his face and shaking it to plead and demand he woke up.

Mikey didn’t hear Leo wail in grief and pain when he checked Mikey’s pulse to find nothing there.

Mikey didn’t hear Leo begging and wailing to any gods or higher beings that would listen to his pleas to take him instead.

Mikey wouldn’t know how Saki had to catch April from dropping to ground as her legs gave out underneath her when she heard Leo’s wail that echoed around the entire jaeger bay.

Mikey wouldn’t know how Saki and April clung to each other and cried.

Mikey wouldn’t know how Casey threw his head back and screamed in grief.

Mikey didn’t feel Leo press the release button and pulled him out of the control harness to be cradled in his lap, tears dropping on his neck as Leo sobbed over him.

Mikey didn’t see how Raph fell to his knees and punched the ground when he entered, tears pouring down his face as he roared with sorrow.

Mikey didn’t see how Donnie turned to cover his face with his hands and wailed at the sight of his baby brother.

Mikey didn’t see how his father entered with silent tears flowing down his face and reached down to close his eyes that stayed open.

And he wouldn’t ever know that he died with smile on his face.

Chapter Text

They called him a hero.

Raph thought idiot was a better word.

In the five years since Mikey died in the dark of Last Ronin’s broken head, Raph thought of him as a dumbass idiot because only a dumbass idiot would do what he did. To go out into a fight where he expected to die. To not bring someone out with him to help balance the neural load. To not have someone fight alongside him against the most dangerous kaiju to ever made landfall.

To leave behind your family to pick up the pieces of their shattered hearts.

Raph tried to push his thoughts aside as he walked towards the dojo’s doors and gave a swift but loud knock against them. The noise caught the attention of the dojo master, making his older twin look up from where he was instructing his pupils.

“You’re early,” Leo smirked as he left his kata stance. With a short instruction to his students, he excused them for the rest of the day and padded over to his brother. He slipped his hands into his sleeves that made the man look like a younger copy of their father. “I didn’t expect you for another two hours based on your current streak.”

“You’re late to three functions and you’re branded a chronic late-comer,” Raph rolled his eyes. His eyes softened as he looked out the doorway across the family estate to the hill with the large cherry blossom tree. Underneath of it, he could see two tall figures sitting on a bench with a cup of tea in each of their hands. “Besides, I couldn’t be late for this.”

Leo caught what his eyes were looking at and his shoulders lowered. “Yeah…I understand that.”

Raph looked away, sniffing away any misting of his eyes as he stepped out of the dojo with Leo following him. “Is Donnie around?”

“He arrived back home two days ago,” Leo answered as he walked by Raph’s side. “Should probably be in the lab.”

At the age of 25 years old, Donnie had become a leading name in the tech world. He was often going on business trips all over the place as companies begged for his help to upgrade their current technology. The most recent trip was to South Korea where he helped work on their deep-sea sensors that continuously monitored the destroyed Atlantic rift. Nothing had ever come back out of it after the mission to close it but the world government decided to was better to be safe than sorry.

The twins were nearing their 28^th birthday in a few months and had dived deep into their chosen careers. They had the option to just live off the residuals of being a jaeger pilot and the wealth of the Hamato family but they needed to do something to keep them occupied. Leo had gone into the martial art world and had risen quickly in the rank to become a karate master. He ran the family dojo and had a good number of students under his tutelage.

Raph co-owned his own mechanic shop where he and Casey worked on all types of cars. He didn’t even try to go to college as he knew it wasn’t something for him. Casey had followed him, declaring that he wasn’t going to jump ship from his best friend. Transitioning from working in the jaeger unit together to owning a mechanic shop together was as simple as breathing. They knew each other well enough that they are the best duo in the entire state.

Truth be told, Donnie could be seen as the most successful of the surviving trio but the twins didn’t mind the quieter life. They had gotten more than enough action in their formative years from being sent out the most to go fight against the kaiju. There was something about enjoying the more tranquil setting on the Hamato estate that the family took peace in.

After Mikey’s death, the family couldn’t bare returning to the farm or the simple home they grew up in on the outskirts of New York City. There were too many memories with Mikey that it sent the trio of brothers into downwards spirals so much that Yoshi feared he would lose another child. With a hard decision, he took them back to Japan to reside in the Hamato estate that he left back when he and Shen married.

There were some certain feelings about returning to the country that was the setting for the fight that would cause Mikey’s death. The good part was that they were a good enough distance away from the location that they would only come across the scene of grief if they sought it out.

…which they did.

There was a monument built at the scene in honor of Mikey, the world’s youngest and last jaeger pilot that gave his life in the line of the duty on the cusp of turning 18 years old. It took three tries before Donnie was able to get near it and two hours of trying to calm down before he could even look at it. No one tried to approach them that day, two years after that terrible day, as the family tried to process their grief a bit more.

Raph think Mikey would have loved to see a statue in his honor. It showed off his little brother in his jaeger armor set with a small version of Last Ronin’s head held in his hands like a helmet. Curly hair was chiseled into the stone to float in the breeze forever, looking out towards the setting sun as it disappeared along the horizon.

Leo made it a point to make it out to the monument every two weeks to clean it off.

They had their own little memorial dedicated to Mikey in their estate. When someone was feeling particularly melancholy, they could be found there kneeling in front of the displayed black bomber jacket. Said jacket had been found a couple days after the events of Mikey’s death, Donnie realizing that the tracker he had sewn inside of it showing it being elsewhere.

The brothers had demanded to search the base before they left, the need to recover that beloved possession of Mikey’s possessing them. The twin had followed right on Donnie’s heels as he led the charge down into Saki’s private lab. Their uncle had been there when they arrived, his faced bruised and his nose crooked, and a single sentence from Leo about what they were doing had him revealing the hidden elevator.

One fast elevator ride later, they were lowered into the jaeger pilot loading bay that they never knew about before. Donnie had been the one to notice the jacket immediately, a strangled cry escaping his throat as he rushed forward. With a shaky hand, he reached out to grab the hastily written note laying on top as Leo instantly plucked the black jacket off the bench.

[I’m so sorry. Please don’t be too mad.] – Mikey

That’s all that had been written.

Needless to say, it ended with the three brothers a crying mess huddled around the jacket and note like their lives depended on it when Yoshi found them later.

The family memorial of Mikey was located in the same room as Karai’s, just being on opposite sides of the room from each other. They both had plenty of pictures featuring the siblings and various articles of their possessions. The black bomber jacket had been placed in a shadow box, folded in a way to display the design Raph had painted on the back.

It physically made Raph sick the first time he saw it again after remembering how close it looked to the way Last Ronin had looked against the red afternoon sun before Mikey flew off to fight his final fight. A part of him, in the middle of a random night afterwards, said that Mikey was able to get his insignia for his personal jaeger without the rest of them knowing what it was. Raph would question if he knew what it was, would he have painted that design on there to begin with?

Would he have grabbed ahold of Mikey in that final hug before he ran off to suit up and board Last Ronin and refuse to let go if he knew what was going to happen?

Raph knew the answer to that second question.

The back-up orange headband that Mikey always used to push back his curls was displayed in the shadow box with the Last Ronin jacket as they had dubbed it. The one that Mikey mainly used had gone into battle with him and Yoshi had decided that they shouldn’t display the bloodied piece of fabric. His stuffed cat that April gave him for his birthday, Ick, was perched on the edge of the tabletop with Mikey’s music player and headphones around it. Various comics of Mikey’s that he enjoyed the most were put into protective sleeves and rested on angled slab to display them.

Karai’s memorial showed pictures of her in the engineering department, working with her best friend Shinigami, and Saki appearing every so often. Her tabletop held her favorite band tee and her phone with its little ninja star charm. Some souvenirs from her birthday trip to Japan with her youngest brothers and Saki were displayed with some more pictures that they had taken.

On the wall between their memorials showed two medals that they were rewarded posthumously for their part in saving the world. Yoshi had hung up a picture of his oldest and youngest in their respective silvery gray and orange pilot armors that was taken before the two of them went off into their battle against Bebop and Rocksteady. He had been conflicted about displaying the picture because of how one of his children in the picture would not come alive from said battle. April had been the one to convince him that he should put it up to honor Karai’s first and last kaiju battle.

Mikey’s orange bomber jacket would have probably also been put up on display if it hadn’t become essentially a comfort item among them.  Leo used it the most, cuddling it on his bad days and just feeling it as he looked blankly at a wall as he was lost in memories.

Raph peered over at his twin as the two of them entered the main doorway to hunt down Donnie. Five years was a long time that also felt like barely any time had passed. They had all learned to live in a world where there were only three Hamato siblings instead of five and it had been a war every day.

That day, that oh so terrible day, stole something from all of them. Donnie, the now once again youngest Hamato sibling, dove straight down into a deep depression. They all did but Donnie’s was one they had to keep a close eye on, especially once they moved back to Japan. He was the only surviving sibling that went on that trip for Karai’s birthday many years ago and it would send him into episodes when he visited a place he went to with the deceased siblings. April was able to keep him from teetering too close to the line that they feared he would cross and was a major part of Donnie still being here today.

Raph’s anger outbursts rose to new extremes. Every little thing that reminded him of Mikey set him off into screaming matches with everyone and anyone. Hours later, they would find him sobbing in whatever corner he hid himself away in sorrow for how he treated everyone and how much he missed Mikey. He was still in anger management and therapy to this day but it was easier to control his temper.

Leo…

Something in Leo died that day along with Mikey. Watching when it was time to take Mikey’s corpse away from his grasp was a scene that was eerily similar to when Mikey had to be separated from Karai. Leo had screamed and wailed, demanding to have Mikey back as he fought the team pulling him back. Raph and Donnie had had their own team of members to keep them away as they wheeled Mikey away in a body bag. They were somewhat lucky in some sense as Casey and April had rushed down to cover their eyes. Leo had seen everything as he bit at his uncle’s hand that tried to cover his own vision.

In the end, Leo had to be restrained by Yoshi to stop him from running after the savior of humanity.

Even now, Raph could see something missing from his twin. There was a certain emptiness in his eyes that nothing could fill. Whenever his students did something that reminded him of Mikey, there was a certain nostalgic smile that would make its way across the karate master’s face. Even with that, Leo’s broken heart would forever miss a piece of it that was taken away with Mikey’s last breath.

Pushing the thought out of his mind, Raph looked up in time to see the open door of Donnie’s lab. Music was spilling out of the room and there was a certain flashing of light that told him that Donnie was soldering welding something in there. Peering inside, he saw Donnie crouched next to the van he was modifying with a welding mask on his face.

Not wanting to startle him, Raph padded over to the computer and paused the music coming out of its speakers to alert Donnie someone was in there. He watched as his younger brother turn off his welder and push his mask up with a frown. Spotting his older brothers looking at him, Donnie turned his head towards the clock on his wall.

“You’re early,” Donnie sighed as he stood up, groaning as his knees cracked.

“Don’t want to keep him waiting,” Raph shrugged.

“Where’s April?” Leo asked as he looked around the lab.

“Said she forgot something and had to go back to get it,” Donnie answered. The ring on his left hand shone in the light as he took off his welding mask, making his hair stick up in all directions. “She wouldn’t tell me what it is though.”

“Probably because it’s a surprise for all of you,” a feminine voice huffed. The three brothers turned towards the doorway to see April entering with a large but flat wrapped package in her hands. Her hair now reached down to her waist in a thick braid that she flicked over her shoulder with a hand that also had a ring on her left hand.

“Hey babe,” Donnie greeted as he fixed his hair. He bent down to give his wife a quick kiss, April placing the present down on one of his worktables.

“Oh, I wonder what it is,” Leo mused as he leaned in to try and get a clue what it is.

“You can wait,” April pushed him away from it. “We have to wait until Casey gets here and then we’re going to have sensei open it.”

“Must be really special then,” Raph hummed as he pulled his phone out. He sent a quick text to Casey telling him to hurry up.

“It is,” April said back to him with a soft smile, brushing her fingertips against the wrapping paper.

Raph looked up to meet Donnie’s eyes with a raised eyebrow, asking a silent question. Donnie’s answer was a simple shrug as he knew absolutely nothing about what it could be. A ding from Raph’s phone had him looking down to see Casey’s reply.

“The hothead said that he’s a few minutes out,” Raph relayed to the other as he pocketed his phone. “Said we should go to the hill already and he’ll meet us there.”

“Give me a moment to wash up and then I’ll be ready,” Donnie said as he headed over to his built-in sink. A rag hung on the edge of the sink that showed it was due for a wash a long time ago.

“You’re not getting another kiss until you get an actual shower,” April wrinkled her nose. “You’re gross.”

“Rip to me,” Donnie chuckled as he wiped away the sweat on his forehead and neck with the wet rag.

“Gross,” Leo shivered at the PDA.

“You’ll understand one day, dear big brother,” Donnie teased, patting Leo on the arm.

“No thanks,” Leo frowned. “I am quite happy as I am right now.”

“Sure, whatever you say,” Raph rolled his eyes. “We should all totally forget about that sword fighter guy you’ve been talking to.”

“Raph!” Leo screeched.

“Leo has a crush?!” April immediately got stars in her eyes and grabbed Leo’s hands. “You have to tell me everything!”

“See, look what you did,” Leo groaned.

“We all know it would have come out sooner if Mikey was still alive. He would have sniffed out a hint at your love life long before you realized,” Donnie pointed out, before he froze.

There was a moment of stillness, those words bouncing around the room. Donnie closed his mouth with a click, a pained whine coming from his throat. His words had just tumbled out without even thinking about them truly. April left Leo to go comfort her husband.

“C’mon Leo,” Raph said, patting Leo on the back to break the silence. He grabbed a bottle of sake he stored in the lab’s fridge that they would be using as an offering at the family grave. “Let’s go pay our respects.”

Leo shakily nodded, grabbing the incense they would be lighting to follow Raph out of the room. Donnie left quietly after them, waiting for April at the doorway. She grabbed the wrapped package and held it carefully in her hold.

She really hoped it helped ease their grief a fraction more.

“Five years already,” Saki sighed into his tea cup. “So long and so short.” Next to him, Yoshi drank his tea with both hands before bringing them down to admire the beautiful cherry blossoms. Mikey’s death had occurred right in the middle of the flower’s blossoming season. Every year, they were reminded of the anniversary with the heralding of the pink flowers.

“It’s been a while,” Yoshi smiled sadly in his cup. “Five years since Michelangelo and seven since Karai.”

“They went out with a warrior’s death, just like Shen,” Saki said with his eyes locked directly on the family gravestone under the tree. Three names were inscribed on it with the first being Yoshi’s wife. It had originally been in his room at the Shatterdome but Yoshi had it moved after Mikey’s death to here. He had planned on bringing it wherever they were going after leaving the jaeger headquarters with both of Shen’s and Karai’s ashes in their separate urns. He just didn’t realize that a third urn would be added to the somber collection. “Though I wish they never had to die to begin with.”

“Me too, brother,” Yoshi murmured before taking another sip of his tea. “Not that I do not like the visit but may I ask why you chose now after all this time for a proper visit?” It had been a good couple years since the last time the two brothers had been in each other’s presence.

“I know that I am still not welcomed,” Saki shrugged, sipping the tea in his cup lazily with one hand. “Raphael is still quite furious with me. I fear another one of his famous sucker punches would make a home on my face.” He tapped the edge of his crooked nose that never quite healed right.

“Your fears are not without some basis behind them,” Yoshi hummed into his tea. He remembered how after they pulled Mikey’s body away from the group, Raph had immediately turned on his rage on Saki with a punch straight to his face. He screamed and roared at his uncle for being the reason why Mikey was dead.

Yoshi had been forced to step in with Saki refused to stop his nephew’s attack, only standing there as he held his broken nose that leaked blood down his shirt. His brother told him later that he felt like he deserved the sadness turned rage against him. It was his machine that he built for his youngest nephew because of his own obsession with solo piloting that caused his death. If only he had made it only for two pilots, there was a chance that Mikey would have survived.

Saki had explained into a dark room later on after Yoshi soothed Leo through a nightmare reliving the events that Mikey wouldn’t have survived the fight even if they had gotten to him earlier. The sheer overload of the solo piloting drift on Mikey, even with his preferred disposition for it, would have killed him anyway…or put him in a vegetable state. His body’s screams for him to stop had been quieted with how Mikey had overloaded himself with pain blockers. With those blockers in effect, the young pilot had really had no clue just how far he had pushed his body and mind.

Last Ronin was always planned to be a two-pilot system that could turn into a solo driven control if push came to shove. There were times when a pilot had to take over when their co-pilot was incapacitated, as shown by the two previous times Mikey had had to do it. Saki had built Last Ronin as a way to allow the solo pilot finish the fight with less impact of the neural strain placed on them. It was supposed to be a last-ditch effort kind of thing.

It was never supposed to be something that Mikey chose to go out in alone. The main idea behind gifting Last Ronin to Mikey was so that he could have more control of the jaeger when he would go out to fight. Saki had seen and felt how much Mikey held back when fighting and he wanted to give him the freedom to pilot the giant robot like he wanted.

And, it was a part of Shen that Mikey could have. Perhaps it was some type of morbid generosity to give him the machine that his mother died in…and that he die in less than two years later.

“Before I go, I did come for a reason aside paying my respects to Shen, Miwa and Michelangelo,” Saki said, putting his empty cup down on the table in front of them. Reaching a hand into his pocket, he pulled out a bright orange flash drive with a little turtle charm dangling from it. He passed it over to his brother and Yoshi looked it over. “I found it when I went back to the Shatterdome to grab a few things and entered Michelangelo’s old room to feel nostalgic. It must have fallen to the floor during your final cleanout as I found it tucked into a corner under his desk. On there are the files that Michelangelo left behind for all of you.”

“What?” Yoshi gasped, clutching it tight to his chest.

“Remember those different protocols that Michelangelo listed off as he flew into battle?” Saki asked to which Yoshi nodded quietly. “They were various programs that he wanted unlocked for us if his demise came to be…which he was sadly correct about. WT-9 was his last will and testament which we already went over, M-82 is a program unlocks all his video diaries and L-14 is a special video.”

“A video of what?”

Saki hesitated, looking up at the cherry blossom tree. “…it was his final message from the night before he died,” Saki answered.

“What?” Yoshi breathed.

“I hope you don’t mind but I already watched it,” Saki sighed, closing his eyes. “But Michelangelo somehow had the sense that something was going to happen and that he needed to leave something behind to say sorry in case the worst came to be.”

“Oh, my son,” Yoshi whispered, stroking his thumb on the small piece of plastic and wiring that contained the final words his youngest child left behind for them.

“Michelangelo always had that sixth sense to him,” Saki hummed, opening his eyes back up. “He took after Shen so much that it is almost mind boggling.”

“Maybe if he took more after me, he would have been more selfish,” Yoshi whispered. “And he would still be alive.”

“That boy was one of the most selfless people I had the pleasure of knowing,” Saki snorted softly. He pulled out a packet of cigarettes and stuck one in his mouth. Offering one to Yoshi, he put it away when his brother declined. A purple lighter was pulled out of his pocket and he cupped a hand around the end as he lit a flame. A puff of smoke rose up as it caught fire and put his lighter away.

“Those are going to kill you one day,” Yoshi commented, motioning towards the cigarette.

“I doubt this will be the thing to cut my life any shorter with all the radiation I got working on those early jaegers,” Saki laughed, pulling his cigarette out of his mouth between two fingers to exhale.

It was true; Saki had been so close with high levels of radiation as he worked on the first few generations of jaegers. Shellraiser was one of the first jaegers to not have a nuclear core as Yoshi didn’t want his boys near that many levels of radiation. As it stood now, Saki was almost guaranteed to have some type of cancer making itself known in the next few years. It was up to fate to see if Yoshi would be cancer-free or not.

“You know,” Saki drawled, sucking in a lungful of smoke, “I always think about the effect your words had on your sons.”

“Care to explain?” Yoshi hummed, raising an eyebrow at his brother.

“The whole ‘remember your mission’ thing,” Saki answered, gesturing generically with his hand, and blew out a puff of smoke. “That they had to defeat the kaiju and come home alive, especially that second part.”

“Because if they didn’t come home to report the end of the mission to me, then the mission was still on going,” Yoshi answered stiffly, looking up at the cherry blossoms. “And in my teachings, I told them they always had to finish their mission.”

“You must have really drilled it into their heads if it made Michelangelo last as long as he did,” Saki said, flicking the end of his cigarette.

Yoshi didn’t say anything, already knowing the contents of those words from a conversation he had shortly after Mikey’s funeral. Saki and Yoshi had been sharing a quiet moment in the estate garden under the moon, strolling about. Saki had whispered to Yoshi that he had read the data about Mikey in those final moments of his life. Everything had said that the young pilot should have died long before he reached the shores of the Shatterdome.

It had been only pure willpower and the need to report the completion of the mission to his father that had pushed Mikey to live as long as he did. When Yoshi had announced the end of the mission, the boy had been released of his burden and had given in to what his failing body had been telling him. Yoshi had chuckled with tears rolling down his face that, of course, his stubborn youngest son would be capable of such a feat. Those chuckles had quickly turned into full-out ugly sobs as he fell to the ground with Saki trying to soothe him.

Saki stood up and brushed his legs off, inclining his head towards his brother. “I better get going now. Don’t forget to give me a call.”

“You’re the one that never calls,” Yoshi rolled his eyes, dabbing at his wet eyes with a corner of his sleeve.

“I call,” Saki shrugged.

“Yeah, during my shows,” Yoshi shot back and carefully placed the USB into his robe sleeve pocket.

“Your fault for not answering then,” Saki smirked, stuffing his hands in his pockets and the half-used cigarette dangling from his mouth. With that, he turned away and made his way down the hill towards the exit of the estate. “See you around, brother,” Saki said as he gave a lazy wave over his shoulder.

A chorus of footsteps from Yoshi’s other side had him looking over to see his children trekking up the hill to join him. In Leo’s hands was a set of incense and Raph had a bottle of sake in his. Donnie was making sure April didn’t fall as she carried something large but flat in her hands and Casey took up the back where he was typing something on his phone.

“Hey, dad,” Raph waved, plopping down on the ground in front of Yoshi. The hothead brother of the group reached forward and brushed a hand against the grave stone, most specially Mikey’s name. He brushed a few stray cherry blossom petals off the top to clean it off. “Hey there, little brother. We got the whole crew to see you.”

“I am sure he is happy to see all of us together,” Yoshi hummed, moving his cane to the side to let April sit next to him.

Leo set the incense up on the family gravestone, lighting it to let the smoke waft up in the air. He clapped his hands together and closed his eyes, giving a silent prayer. Donnie and Raph followed along, the three brothers paying their respects. When it was done, Leo opened his eyes and sat back. Raph leaned forward to pour three cups of sake for each of their deceased family members.

“What did Uncle Saki want?” Leo asked, his interest peaked as Saki tried to not visit when all three boys were around, especially Raph. Said brother rolled his eyes and sneered at the mention of their uncle’s name.

“He had something to give us,” Yoshi answered, pouring himself more tea.

“Oh, I do, too,” April perked up, handing the item over to Yoshi.

“What is this?” Yoshi asked as he gently held the present in his hands.

“Open it,” April urged with a soft smile. She griped Donnie’s hand tightly as if she wasn’t sure how her father-in-law would react to the item.

Yoshi turned his attention back to the large but flat wrapped present. With gentle hands, he pulled the paper back to reveal the back of a frame. He ripped all the paper away and turned it around, gasping softly at the picture in front of him.

It was the last group picture they had with Mikey, taken the day before he died. Mikey was in the middle with both of the twin’s throwing an arm over his shoulders. Donnie stood in the back with his chin perched on Mikey’s head and his arms draped over the front of the youngest brother. April was kneeling on the ground in front of the group and had a pair of bunny ears courtesy of Leo. Casey sat cross-legged on the ground next to April with a large smile on his face. Yoshi and Saki stood on either side of the twins, one having a hand placed on the twin closest to them shoulder.

Yoshi was quiet as he ghosted a hand over the expression of pure joy and happiness on Mikey’s face, frozen in time to never age past the day after that picture was taken. Raph’s and Donnie’s mouths drop open at the present as Leo leans in closer, his eyes watering up considerably.

“Woah, Red,” Casey breathed as he took in the sight of the blown-up poster sized picture. “How long have you had that?”

“Five years now,” April huffed humorlessly. She looked over at the questioning look on her husband’s face and rubbed her thumb against the back of his hand. “I had ordered right after the picture was taken and it was delivered straight to the farmhouse. I…couldn’t bring myself to look at it for a long time and even longer to work up the nerve to give it to you.”

“It’s amazing,” Donnie breathed, his eyes firmly frozen on the picture.

“It’s nothing, really,” April insisted, waving her hands in front of her. “I decided it had been long enough and you deserved to have this.”

“I…cannot thank you enough,” Yoshi smiled wetly, his hand still hovering over the picture. “I realize now I never got to see this picture.”

“We should compare pictures,” Casey offered, leaning back on his hands. “I’m sure between the six of us, there are plenty of pictures all of us haven’t seen.”

“Wow, a good idea out of you for once,” Raph teased, bumping his shoulder against his friend’s.

“Hey! I have plenty of good ideas!” Casey insisted.

“Like the time you thought it would be smart to have a nerf war at headquarters?” Leo asked with a bemused smile.

“Or the time you gave Mikey an entire of pixie sticks and then released him on the tech department?” Donnie deadpanned.

“What about that time—” Raph started.

“Alright! I get it!” Casey hissed, slapping his hands over Raph’s mouth to keep him quiet. Behind his hands, Raph was snickering.

“I do like Casey’s idea,” Yoshi nodded, putting his cane on the ground to stand up. He passed the poster over to Raph to carry in. “But first, I have something to show you.”

“What is it?” Leo questioned, gathering up what they brought.

“Is it from uncle Saki?” Donnie asked.

“He only delivered it,” Yoshi hummed, stepping away from the group. He turned back to them with a sad smile. “Once everything is cleaned up, we can go inside and watch.”

“So, who is it from?”

“Michelangelo,” Yoshi answered softly, pulling out the bright orange USB with the dangling turtle charm from his robe sleeve.

Yoshi would say that he never saw his children clean up their mess as fast as they did at that moment.

“C’mon genius,” Raph groaned, his leg bouncing in anticipation. “It can’t be that hard to hook a laptop up to the tv.”

“It would be faster if someone didn’t keep pestering me,” Donnie growled back, plugging various cords into place. “There, I’m done.”

“Play it, please,” Leo begged, his hands gripping the old orange bomber jacket that he grabbed from their memorabilia of Mikey. He brushed his fingers against the old worn patch against one of the elbows of the jacket. If he held it up to his nose and concentrated just enough, Leo could swear that he could still smell Mikey on the dusty old jacket.

“Alright, alright, hold your horses,” Donnie grumbled, dragging his mouse against the tatami mats of the room they had set up in.

Yoshi was in his spot, kneeled at the table with a steaming cup of tea in his hands. One would think he was calm but the way he was gripping his cup told his children another story. April sat next to her husband as Donnie clicked through the folders on the USB to find the most recent one.

Raph sat leaning back on his hands with his legs splayed out in front of him. Casey sat crisscrossed on a cushion, holding his ankles as he lazily rocked back-and-forth. Leo was seated at the table to Yoshi’s left, his eyes glued to the screen on the tv in the room.

With a few more clicks, a new window popped up with the play button displayed on it. “We ready?” Donnie asked the group, his finger hovering over a button.

“Play it, my son,” Yoshi smiled sadly, ready to see the message.

“Alright,” Donnie hummed, pressing the button.

The play button disappeared and there was a moment of darkness with the sound of something shifting in the background. “Oh, darn it,” a voice that made all of them inhale sharply whispered. With a click, a lamp to the side of the laptop that recorded the message turned on and illuminated the face of their deceased brother.

“Oh, Mikey,” Leo breathed, taking in the details of his youngest brother. Long curly blond hair stuck up in all angle from Mikey’s head as if he just rolled out of bed, not pushed back by an orange headband as it usually was. His freckles stood out against his skin in the darkness, his baby blue eyes brightly lit. The circuitry like scars that decorated Mikey’s cheeks since Karai’s death were barely visible in the light having lessened in intensity as they healed but never fully disappeared.

But it was the smile that made all of their hearts clench.

A smile that was too apologetic considering where this was in line with the events that would occur the next day.

“Hey, bros and papa,” Mikey waved at the camera, his crognard pajama’s showing itself. “If you’re watching this…I am most likely dead. If I’m not…then I have no idea how you’re watching,” Mikey frowned to himself as he was thinking how that second situation would come to be. He shrugged after a moment before an easy smile made its way onto his face. “Oh well.”

“That little shit,” Raph whispered to himself, shaking his head.

“Anyways!” Mikey clapped his hands, something he did to get himself back on track from meandering away from his topic. “I’m dead. That’s a big bummer.”

“That’s one way to phrase it,” Casey snorted.

“With that being said, this is my final message to all of you,” Mikey smiled sadly, reaching up to play with one of his curls. “Well, it’s better said that this is my final group message to all of you. There are going to be individual recorded messages for each of you to watch after this, even for uncle Saki, Casey and April…I really hope that Donnie has confessed his feelings by this point or else my messages are going to be hella awkward for them,” Mikey murmured the last part to himself, rubbing his chin.

Donnie groaned and dropped his face into his hands, a bright red rising to his cheeks as April laughed and patted on his back. “Like you said, he knew about our love lives before we did,” April giggled.

“It’s not like Don hid his massive crush on you all that well,” Raph muttered under his breath which made Casey and Leo on either side of him laugh.

“So, I should probably mention why I’m doing this,” Mikey hummed, leaning back in his chair to look up his ceiling. “To be honest, this could all be wrong and I am doing this for nothing but I guess it is better to be prepared than not. Donnie and Leo are always saying stuff like that.” Leo and Donnie stiffen at the mention of their names in the message. “I’ve been getting this weird dream for a while now but as I was sleeping just a bit ago, it felt stronger than usual. I…feel like something is going to happen tomorrow. Something that is going to be bad and that I will not survive past the ending of it. I bet it’s another damn mutant that snuck past the rift before it shut,” Mikey grumbled the last part to himself.

“Kaiju,” Donnie corrected in an almost kneejerk reaction that he hadn’t done in five years.

“If you look at the back of my black jacket that Karai gave me, you will see the picture I had Raph draw on there,” Mikey mentioned, his eyes shifting over to the aforementioned jacket that hung in the back of the view. It was hung in a way that the back was fully visible, showing the figure standing against the large red sun. “That image right there is something that was stuck in my head every time I got these dreams. I know uncle Saki says I got some type of super sixth sense and I wonder if this is a part of it.”

Ironically enough, that very image would be one that would stick in all their minds for a very different reason.

“That’s just superstition,” Donnie mumbled. “There’s no way he could have predicted this.”

“Don, I love you and your scientific mind but this is not the time,” April whispered back.

“So, knowing that there is a chance that I am going to go back out with the high chance of death, I am left with two decisions: dual or solo pilot mode,” Mikey explained still looking up at the ceiling. He paused for a moment, as if lost in thought, before looking back down into the camera. “I am going to choose solo mode.”

“That damn idiot,” Raph growled.

“I…can’t drift with anyone again,” Mikey confessed, looking down at his lap. “After…Karai…I just can’t put myself in the position again where I would feel someone I love be ripped away from me like that. Or, on the other hand, I can’t let any of you go through what I did.”

“Oh, Michelangelo,” Yoshi breathed, clutching the cooling cup of tea between his hands like his life depended on it. “My selfless Michelangelo.”

“Besides,” Mikey shot a smirk at them through the scene, “it’s going to be dangerous and who else are you going to send besides the person whose middle name is literally danger.” Mikey gave a loud raucous laugh at his joke.

“To be fair, his middle name means Danger,” Casey pointed out unhelpfully. “You all told me that in his fight against Tiger Claw.”

“Casey?” Raph called his name with controlled patience.

“Yes?” Casey answered.

“Shut up.”

“Noted.”

“I have no clue when any of you will be watching this video,” Mikey let his laughter die as he continued and he looked back up at the camera, his light blue eyes catching the light, “but I don’t want any of you to feel sad. This was my decision and at the end of the day, I have deal with the consequences of my actions. And if that is death by the way of solo piloting, then be it.”

There was a loud sob that broke free of Leo’s mouth as he was no longer able to hold his tears back. He clutched the old orange bomber jackets tight in his hands as he buried his face in it. Raph scooched over from his spot to pull Leo close to him.

“I…don’t want to die, just want to make that clear. There are plenty of things that I want to do.” Mikey waved his hands in front of himself before propping his chin up in them. “I am going into whatever battle that may happen tomorrow with the goal of living. But…if I happen to die…I am at peace with it.”

Another loud sob broke out of Leo, turning to bury his face in Raph’s shoulder.

“Ahh, Leo is probably crying a storm by now,” Mikey frowned to himself. “How do I make it better…ah! Aniki, remember when we went on our first deployment together? I didn’t tell anyone but I had been really scared when it came time to go but I knew that I would be safe as long as I was in the controls with you.”

If it was even possible, Leo’s sobs got louder.

“Well, that had about a 50/50 shot at cheering him up or making it worse,” Mikey murmured to himself. “Anyways,” Mikey clapped his hands together, “I think I should start wrapping up this message. It’s getting pretty late and you bros will get all worried about me again if you think I haven’t been sleeping…though to be fair, I haven’t. I am just really good at hiding it.”

“That little shit,” Raph repeated his earlier statement, rubbing Leo’s back. Leo finally pulled his face out of Raph’s shoulder, wanting to see Mikey’s face for the last part of the message.

Mikey leaned closer to the camera, flashing his million-dollar smile that everyone loved. “Even though I am gone, don’t forget to live your lives, my peeps. We’re just going to be separated for a bit and you better know that I am going to be waiting for you guys on the other side. Though, if anyone of you show up before you get all gray and wrinkly, I am going to be so mad at all of you.”

Leaning back, Mikey let his face drop into something soft and forlorn. “Again, I don’t want any of you blaming yourselves for my actions. I couldn’t go through the chance of losing one of you while piloting with me again. Also, please don’t be too mad at uncle Saki. I know he won’t want me to go through with this if something does happen and I will not listen to him.”

Mikey pushed his chair back, spinning it around as he looked up at the ceiling of his room. “I really wonder what is going to happen tomorrow. Who knows? Maybe it’s all in my messed-up head and nothing is going to happen and we get to go home and tell dad all the stories we have for him.”

Yoshi sniffled then, dabbing at his face to wipe up the tears flowing from his eyes.

“And we have my birthday to celebrate!” Mikey beamed on camera. “The big 18!” he laughed with his hands raised in the air. “No one will be able to call me the baby anymore because I will be an adult!”

“That aged so badly,” Casey winced. He yelped when April elbowed his sharply in the side with how insensitive the comment was.

“I already decided what I am going to ask dad for it,” Mikey grinned and rubbed his hands together. “I’m going to ask for a cat! I appreciate Ick from April, I really do, but I want a real cat to cuddle and play with. I already know that we are going to be the best of buds!”

“Oh, I know what he is going to say,” Leo whispered quietly.

“I’ve always a little kitty named Klunk,” Mikey beamed into the camera.

A new wave of tears were wretched out of Leo.

“Well, that’s it,” Mikey shrugged on the screen with a lazy smile and a two-fingered salute. “I love you guys. If you need me, you can always find me in the drift.”

There was a click as the video froze, reaching the end of its message. For a long few moments, no one said anything. They just tried to get their bearings as their late son and brother’s words tumbled in their head.

“MEOW!”

“Oh, Klunk, forgive me,” Yoshi cleared his throat, standing up. “I did not realize we already passed the time for your dinner.”

Klunk meowed again, his tail swishing on the bookcase underneath of him. The cat was a little orange tabby with light blue eyes that the family had found exactly a year after Michelangelo’s death. They weren’t going to keep him at first but after a comment from Leo saying that Mikey told him in passing that he always wanted an orange kitty named Klunk, Yoshi had folded.

Yoshi had assumed at first that it was a stretched truth but hearing those exact words come from his youngest’s mouth in the video, the father was proven wrong.

Pulling himself off the ground, Yoshi made his way into the kitchen. He pet their second cat that arrived a bit after Klunk, a slightly older black cat with bright yellow eyes. She usually hung out near the mantle or bathed in the sun. “Come now Harmony, it is time for dinner.”

Harmony stretched as she yawned, jumping off her napping spot to follow after Yoshi. The two cats brushed against each other, Harmony taking a second to give a swift lick to Klunk’s head.

April could see the gears turning in Leo’s head, especially after the video. Contrary to his brothers that didn’t believe in superstition and the like, Leo was a different story.

“Do you think Mikey sent him?” April whispered to Leo.

“After that video, I am sure of it,” Leo whispered back to his sister-in-law.

Raph stood up swiftly and ran out of the room. Leo was able to catch the tears that were starting to come out of his eyes and knew that his twin needed some alone time to process everything. He also knew that later on, he would need to get Donnie to make a copy of that flash drive for everyone to have. It was also in the off chance that after Mikey’s message to Raph, the middle child would have one of his anger fits and there was a good chance he would break his flash drive.

Casy left to follow after Raph to make sure his best friend didn’t anything stupid. Donnie excused himself out of the room, a hand covering his mouth and Leo could see the shine of tears waiting to be shed out of his now youngest brother’s eyes. April followed after him, sending Leo an apologetic look as she left.

In the kitchen, Leo could hear Yoshi crying softly as he prepared the cats’ food. Klunk sat in the entrance of the kitchen with his eyes locked on Leo, his tail swishing softly behind him. Harmony rubbed against Yoshi’s leg, purring and meowing at him. Klunk was usually the one that screamed for his food so it was strange how he had just been quietly watching everyone.

Leo stayed in his seat where he held Mikey’s jacket in his hands. He let his grip up when he realized how tight it was and looked down at it. He brushed a gentle hand against the faded Shellraiser symbol on the back, various emotions clogging his throat. An assault of memories of Mikey prancing around in this jacket ran through his mind.

He looked up at the frozen video still displayed. Mikey’s smile was large and bright, unaware of what was going to happen the next day.

Which…is actually a lie based on this video. Mikey had a feeling that something was going to happen and he still did it. His baby brother still went out to fight against that last kaiju and saved the world.

Leo’s bottom lip started to tremble again as a new wave of tears made their way down his cheeks.

“Oh, Mikey, we miss you so much,” Leo whispered to the still image of Mikey on the screen.

Later, in the darkness of the middle of the night, a certain eldest brother trudged out of the kitchen with silent resignation that he would not be getting sleep that night. He had Mikey’s orange jacket hanging over his arm as he couldn’t bear to put it down after watching the video.

Leo pulled out a glass bottle of soda, popping it open and taking a drink of it. Even being past the legal age of drinking by quite a few years, he’s never found the taste of alcohol for him much to the teasing of his two younger brothers. He sighed harshly as he brought the bottle down from his lips and looked into the living room.

With an appraising look, Leo smiled at the three blown-up pictures hanging over their mantle. The first on the right was the newest picture from April from the day before Mikey died. The second and middle picture was the group shot from Mikey’s 15^th birthday, with the boys still covered in cake and had the rest of the family laughing in the background. The last picture on the left, and the oldest of the trio, was a family picture from back when Leo was about 13-years-old. It was the last one they had gotten before his mother’s death and was loved dearly by all of them.

Shen sat on a two-seater couch with Karai next to her, both wearing matching kimonos with Shen’s being a light green and with pink cherry blossoms, and a 15-years-old Karai’s a silvery gray like she preferred. Yoshi stood behind them in his iconic maroon kimono with a hand on Shen’s shoulder and the other on Karai’s.

The 13-years-old twins stood on either side of Yoshi behind the couch. Leo on the left in a blue tradition outfit with white accents and Raph was on the right in a matching outfit that mirrored his twin’s with red and black coloring. A 11-years-old Donnie, in his purple kimono kneeled in front of Karai with their eldest sister resting a hand on his shoulder.

And there, kneeling in front of their mother, was a freshly 9-year-old Mikey in his orange and yellow accented kimono with one of the brightest smiles on his face. Shen had a hand resting on his back and she gave such a loving smile.

Leo remembered how they had to retry the picture four times due to people blinking or sneezing or looking away. This was the best of their attempts and his parents loved it so much. Leo did, too, as he had a smaller version of it displayed on the wall in his room.

“Maybe we should stop taking family pictures,” Raph’s voice muttered from behind him.

Leo turned with a start, surprised as he didn’t hear his twin’s approach at all. “What are you doing up?”

“Couldn’t sleep,” Raph answered with a shrug and he took a sip out of the can Leo was just noticing in his hand. “Too much going through my mind after today.”

“You guys, too?” Donnie whispered as he entered the room, catching Raph’s words. Raph turned and grabbed another drink to toss over to Donnie.

“Like we would be able to sleep after that video,” Raph grumbled and dropped down into one of the seats at their little kitchen table. “I haven’t worked up the nerve to watch my solo message yet.”

“I don’t think any of us have,” Leo sighed and sat down in his usual seat.

“Correction: I started to but I couldn’t make it more than a minute in,” Donnie said as he took up the third seat. The fourth seat remained empty as it would always when the brothers came to sit together. He placed his hands on the table and started fiddling with his fingers. “It’s…tough, I’m not going to lie.”

“That’s what I expected,” Raph said and slouched in his seat. “…is this ever going to get better?”

“I doubt it,” Donnie answered as his eyes got a faraway look. “It might lessen with time but it is always going to linger.”

“Perhaps it is a good thing,” Leo said as he ran his hand over the jacket again. “It means that Mikey meant something special to us. That his life meant something enough that its end would hurt people so deeply.”

“Don’t go getting all philosophical on us again,” Raph groaned and rubbed a hand down his face. “It’s too late for shit like that.”

The dojo master rolled his eyes at his twin’s and flicked him in the arm. At that time, Klunk decided to enter the kitchen and immediately zeroed in on the three brothers. He jumped up on Leo’s lap without hesitation and started rubbing his head on the human.

“Hey Klunk,” Leo greeted and patted the cat on the head.

Leo placed the orange jacket on the empty side of the table and laughed when Klunk jumped off his lap and dove underneath of the jacket. The little orange cat turned around and sat up to make it look like he had the jacket draped over his body. “You’re a funny little cat,” Leo laughed as he scratched Klunk underneath the chin.

“I still don’t believe that Mikey sent the cat no matter how many times April says so,” Donnie said with his arms crossing over his chest. “Superstition is not real.”

“If you say so,” Leo shrugged easily. “But I’m going to believe it.”

Raph and Donnie rolled their eyes and took a sip of their drink. Leo let his eyes stay on Klunk who watched him back closely, something dancing in the cat’s light blue eyes. “He really was a hero to the end,” Leo lamented suddenly and looked down at his drink.

“When was he anything but one?” Donnie snorted softly. “Mikey had a heart of gold.”

“I wonder what sis would say if she had still been alive when it happened,” Raph mused. “You know how she got when something happened to Mikey.”

“Like you didn’t act the same way,” Leo snorted.

“The pot says to the kettle,” Raph shot back.

“I’m not saying I don’t own up to it,” Leo rolled his eyes.

“I don’t think it would have happened then,” Donnie said as he furrowed his brow and uncrossed his arms. “Mikey’s main reason for going solo was so he didn’t have to worry about someone dying in the drift with him again.”

“So, are you saying it’s her fault?” Raph challenged with a raised eyebrow.

“Not at all,” Donnie shook his head. “If we are blaming anyone, it would be the kaiju that killed her. I’m just laying out the facts as they are.”

“They were both heroes,” Leo cut in before an argument could start. “They gave their lives in the line of duty like mom to save so many people.”

“I just wish they got more time,” Raph grumbled.

“We all do,” Leo muttered.

It got quiet for a moment as they all got lost in their thoughts. Raph broke it after a while with a clearing of his throat and stood up with his drink.

“To Karai and Mikey,” Raph raised his drink in the air.

“To Karai and Mikey,” Leo and Donnie chorused as they tapped their drinks together with Raph.

On the table, Klunk started purring. His bright blue eyes shone in the darkness of the room as he took up a spot on the opened side of the square table that was always reserved for their missing brother. He shifted underneath the orange fabric and flicked his ear.

“Meow!”