Chapter 4 of No Fun in Fungus! The next chapter will be last!
@daboyau
@theawesomeninja-xd
@nights-flying-fox
@phoebepheebsphibs
Donnie can’t help but feel angry at this point.
At who, he isn’t entirely certain.
Himself? The mushrooms?
There’s just anger.
Weight is suddenly in his hand.
It’s his tech bō.
He slams it into the side of the fake Leo’s head as hard as he can.
The hallucination’s head and neck cracks sideways audibly.
It’s gaze moves back to Donnie.
“You hate me this much? Why? What….did I ever do to you? Why do you want me to be gone from your life so badly?”
Donnie’s hands steady as he hits again.
“Shut up! I don’t care if some dumb dumb mushrooms keep saying my brothers think I hate them!”
Another whack.
“They know I love them! I know I love them! Just because I made mistakes and can’t express my feelings like other people doesn’t make me a monster!”
An even harder hit.
“I would build, destroy, do anything for them! You can’t take that away from me!”
The bō suddenly gets grabbed as the image turns into Shredder.
“You think you can do anything? A pathetic little mistake, a blight on my bloodline talking so boldly. You believe you can hide your weaknesses with machinery, you forget how easily I destroyed it! How easily I can destroy you!”
Donnie is well aware what happened to his tech on multiple occasions.
Because of his failures, two people he cared a lot about were gone within the same day.
However, it was that same tech he created that gave them time to escape.
It was his invention that helped bring Leo back from somewhere that seemed impossible.
Maybe nothing he made was perfect or would always been 100% successful.
He’d make them over and over again to help his family.
Reminding himself of them also brings back the memory of Raph.
There’s a chance that the other component he had been missing was besides knowing this wasn’t real.
Raph didn’t only allow them to calm him down, he also chose to face his fear completely while thinking it was real.
He ha/ to do the same to have a chance of making sure everyone else was okay.
Donnie let’s go of the stuck tech bō and lunges at Shredder, hoping that the hallucination would just vanish.
It still surprises him that it works.
What surprises him even more is when he realizes that he’s actually going towards Raph and Leo.
The three all let out yelps as they crash into each other.
“Okay, ow.” Donnie complains, draped over Raph’s chest and part of Leo.
“That’s my line.” Leo grumbles, but not making any attempt to move.
Raph grabs and pulls the both of them into a tight hug.
“Raph’s never been so happy to get crashed into. You okay? Leo and I saw some….intense stuff.”
“Luckily I am the pinnacle of mysterious bad boy personas, I have my emotions completely under control.” Donnie says despite clinging to them just as much.
Raph can’t help but smile a little more at his reaction, despite the situation they’re in.
It’s nice to know he’s still considered a safe space after everything that’s happened.
“Don’t worry, Raph’s got ya.”
“….Thank you. There is something I want to say-“
“Hold on! I need to give you this before I forget.” Leo holds up the inhaler.
“You….still have that thing? You know I can just make one with ninpo now.”
“Maybe, but if you’re stressed and can’t breathe how are you going to focus enough to make one?…..Are you crying?”
Donnie hides his face in Leo’s shoulder.
“No. The spore cloud made my eyes burn.”
Leo pats his head.
“Sure it did.”
“I’d give you yours, but they’re in my battle shells.”
“They’re? As in more than one?”
“Obviously I have to have one in each or else it nullifies the purpose of it being handy in an emergency.”
Leo sniffles.
“The dust got in my eyes too.”
Tears fall onto them from above, making the two look up.
“There’s nothing in my eyes, I just love you guys so much.” Raph admits.
“We love you too, big guy. Let’s go get Mikey so he doesn’t get mad we’re group hugging without him.” Leo pats Raph’s face.
Raph nods.
“Let’s go make sure he’s okay.”
He lets go of Donnie and Leo before they all stand up.
Leo wobbles slightly.
Donnie nonchalantly leans closer to him, offering his shoulder.
Leo silently accepts the invitation to help him stay upright.
The three of them make their way further in.
When the spores made everything hard to see, Mikey scrambled to grab onto anyone he could.
When he felt nothing, it scared him pretty badly.
There wasn’t much to go on to find out which way they went so he went a random direction and just called out for all of them.
He felt so relieved when he heard all their voices together after some time of walking.
“Hey! You guys! I’m here! Is everyone okay?”
The relief vanishes very quickly as Mikey realizes the voices were angry ones, his brothers were arguing.
“You’re just selfish, Leo! Even after almost getting us all killed you still can’t stop and think for even a second about how we might feel!” Donnie shouts.
“Since when do you care about how people feel!? You keep building robots just so someone will want to hang out with you! I bet S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. died just so he wouldn’t have to be around you anymore!”
Mikey gasps loudly.
That was an incredibly low blow considering S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. was like their nephew and, by extension, Donnie’s son.
“Leo! How could you say that?”
Donnie slaps Leo across the face, hard enough that Mikey could tell it stung.
Leo recovers from the slap and tackles Donnie, rolling around in a fight with him on the floor.
“What are you doing!? Raph! Help me stop them!” Mikey pleads, looking up at him.
Raph crosses his arms and has a look that makes Mikey freeze.
This was completely different from how he looks when he’s disappointed.
Raph always has that shine in his eyes even at the worst moments. While the saying is that people keep their hearts on their sleeves, Raph keeps it in his eyes.
That was missing at the moment.
“How many times am I going to have to keep cleaning up everyone’s messes? All I ever do is take care of you three and you’ve never appreciated it. Especially not you.”
“O-Of course I appreciate it! I appreciate you! I love you and Leo and Donnie and dad-“
“No, you don’t. Maybe you love Leo and dad and Donnie, but not me. I worked so hard to keep you safe and for what!? All it did was push you away from me! I’m the bad guy because I didn’t let you do dumb and dangerous things! You never care how hard it is for me to have to be responsible! I have fun too! I’m not just a buzzkill like you guys keep saying!”
Mikey feels tears pricking at his eyes at the tone and volume that Raph has been using.
None of his lectures ever sound like this.
“I-I’m….I’m sorry….”
“You know what? I should be glad you don’t want to hang out with me anymore. You’re annoying.”
Mikey’s heart break into little pieces.
Leo and Donnie stand up.
“Finally, something we can agree on. I’m sick and tired of you coming into my lab! I hate having to pretend like your dumb ideas matter.” Donnie crosses his arms.
“N-No….D-Donnie….h-he likes my ideas! Th-This isn’t him….it can’t be….” Mikey whimpers.
“You guys are being too hard on him.” Leo interjects.
Mikey looks up at him hopefully.
“Why even bother saying what’s wrong with him? He can’t change, he won’t change. Dr. Toxic Positivity only cares if someone’s upset so he can make them feel bad about it.”
“T-Toxic….? No! Please! I just want to help! I can do better! I-I can make this better!”
“You can’t cook breakfast, you can’t draw, you can’t skateboard, you can’t do anything that would make you useful enough for us to put up with you.”
“My arms will heal! They’ll-!” Mikey looks down in horror as he sees the golden cracks on his arms.
“No no no! This isn’t happening!”
The other three turn their backs to him.
“This family is a joke. Good luck surviving without me around.” Raph starts walking off.
“No! Wait! Don’t go!”
“Try not to fall into a sewer hole chasing after a pigeon with pizza.” Donnie hisses, going another direction.
“Please! Stay!”
“You can’t keep yourself together, let alone the family. Being in the prison dimension is better than being here.” Leo comments, walking away from the rest as well.
Tears stream down Mikey’s face as he feels something else welling up.
No.
He was not just going to let them go.
If his arms have to suffer again, so be it.
The feeling flows through him, through his arms and throughout the rest of his body.
There’s a weightlessness that comes to him he isn’t fully aware of.
He’s floating.
Ninpo chains appear around him before shooting out in the directions his brothers went.
When he feels one chain gain purchase on something, he pulls it back.
There’s the sound of quite yelling that gets louder as the chain goes back to him.
It becomes loudest when Leo comes into his vision.
“Wha-, Mikey!? You can fly!?”
“Where are they?”
“You mean Raph and Donnie? They’re fine, they were right next to me, but what’s happening with you!?”
Mikey just sends out more chains.
The yelling starts up again and only ends when Raph and Donnie are brought over as well.
“Mikey!?” They question at the same time.
“How are you doing this!?” Raph pulls at the chain around him.
Mikey wraps more chains around his arms, glowing yellow pooling in his eyes and down his face in tears.
“Stop it! You’re not leaving! I don’t care if you want out of this family! W-We’re going to work out our problems and nobody is going anywhere!”
“Mikey, none of us want to leave the family! It’s the hallucinations!” Donnie insists.
“H-How do I know that!? Leo and Raph fought so much just because they couldn’t understand each other! L-Leo was just going to let himself die! None of you can promise me that you won’t leave!”
“Mikey-“
“No! W-We’re all going to apologize! I-I’m sorry for being so annoying…..I-I’m sorry I can’t use my arms a lot yet. I’m sorry you think I hate you Raphie!” He shuts his eyes, making more tears spill out.
Raph’s jaw drops.
Mikey only calls him Raphie nowadays when he wants something especially badly and his puppy dog eyes weren’t working.
When they were younger, that’s all he called him.
“No! You don’t need to apologize, Mikey! I know you don’t hate me, you don’t even hate Draxum!”
Mikey opens his eyes again, sniffling as they stop glowing.
“I was so scared when you put Leo in your escape pod. W-We had no idea what they were doing with you, i-if you’d come back. I never worried about us not surviving before Shredder! Then the Krang happened and…..I realized more we could all just die! E-Especially you.”
“What….what do you mean….?”
“Leo put himself in the prison dimension, but you made him leave you behind in your escape pod! When Shredder attacked Donnie, you put yourself between them and he was stepping on you! H-How many times are we going to have to see you like that!? It hurts! It’s scary!”
Raph desperately struggles against the chains, he wants to hug his poor baby brother so badly.
“I’m sorry! I….I always thought you guys being scared was better than you being hurt or worse. You’re not a burden or a responsibility, you’re my family. I always want to protect you, and….I can’t do that if I’m gone. I get it. I promise I do.”
Mikey hiccups and removes some chains from him, pulling him closer to hug him tightly.
Raph hugs him back just as tight, maybe even tighter.
Leo and Donnie sigh in relief slightly at Mikey calming down.
“If you’re feeling better, you can set us down now Miguel.” Leo smiles.
Mikey stares hard at him and Donnie from behind Raph’s shoulder.
“We’re not done.”
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