Donatello comes to slowly, his head feeling as if there's a hammer smacking against it repeatedly. He blinks a few times before his gaze travels to where Michelangelo is hanging upside-down from the ceiling beside him. The orange-masked turtle is already awake, on edge, and not at all cheerful. He shakes his head slowly and Donatello's gaze flickers to the floor.
The mossy green creature that was once Raphael snarls and leaps up at the dangling turtles, snapping and pawing at them like a dog. His "paws" bat at them and send them spinning in slow circles, but he can't get any grip.
"Aah! Easy, Raph. Try and remember. We're your brothers," Donatello nearly pleads.
"Yeah!" Michelangelo says. "You can come home with us and live in the attic. I'll give you glowsticks and swamp water every single day. I swear," he whispers, still obviously disturbed by the state of his hotheaded brother. It's enough for Donatello to realize that neither of them want what he's suggested.
Despite their dislike at the plan, it seems to please the Raph-Plant. He grins, making whimpering happy-dog noises. His hind leg scratches at his leafy, internal ears.
The turtles exhale in relief. Donatello looks sideways at Michelangelo again, his faint smile disappearing again.
"Wait...where's Diaval?" he asks, craning his neck around. "Did he escape and leave us for dead? I—"
"He's right there, dude," Michelangelo responds, jerking his head and diverting the attention to the wall furthest from Donatello.
Sure enough, Diaval lays in a tied up heap, eyes closed and his white hair dirtied with sticks, mud, and leaves. He hardly moves. If it weren't for the rise and fall of his chest, he'd pass as a corpse.
"He's pretty strong, right?" Michelangelo whispers. "If he wakes up, he could snap the vines and go all superhero on the Creep!"
"The Creep?"
"That's what I named him."
Donatello nods. "Gotcha. It's a good plan...just how we wake him up is another problem. What if—"
The door to the shed is kicked inwards, earning cries of fear from the two turtles and the Raph-Plant. The Creep comes into view, its back to the captives for a brief second, but then it turns to reveal April, Casey, and Destiny draped over its shoulders.
"April, my poor sweet chinchilla," Donatello whimpers.
Raph-Plant whines as the Creep tosses April and Casey to the floor. The Creep then throws Destiny against the wall, her body slumping next to Diaval. She lets out a low groan but doesn't wake up.
The Creep shuffles towards Raph-Plant, making him whimper and shy away.
"Leave him alone!" Michelangelo demands, flailing in his bindings.
It grasps Raph-Plant's head, lifting him into the air as he kicks and whines. The Creep takes a deep breath as a strange blue glow starts flowing out of him and into its own body. The turtles gasp as Casey comes to.
"What's going..." he mumbles. His dark brown eyes take in the events happening before him and he gasps, kicking April in the side. "April, wake up!"
"Ugh," she moans, blinking a few times. "Huh?"
"Raph!" Michelangelo screams as Raph-Plant stops struggling, going limp in the Creep's grasp.
YOU ARE READING
Forest Mutation (Book Two)
Fanfiction"In Saskatchewan, when I couldn't fall asleep, I'd watch the moon and think about how across the country and over the border, you were probably out on a rooftop beneath the same moon. You were the first person I enjoyed the moon with. Every other ti...
