Chapter 3: Too Much

Running is natural. Running is the one activity he's done most of his life without a hitch. Raph has probably ran more than most people ever will, and he may not be very fast, but he's got endurance. He's good enough to jump over rooftops or back kick an enemy in the face without missing a stride. It's one of those skills that as a ninja, they don't really think about, and sometimes really just take for granted. Running is wonderful. Running is the closest they can get to flying without some weird invention, with the wind in their faces and taking their mask tails dancing in the night behind them.

Running is also horribly difficult to re-learn once you've tripled in size, all of your limbs are too big and your body doesn't want to balance on two legs anymore.

The garage door had crumpled under his weight quite easily, and Raphael took the chance to make a break for the tunnels. He needs to get away, he needs to think and figure this out but all that's going through his head is horror and fear. It's a nightmare again, he just needs to wake up, he just needs to open his eyes and Chompy will be sitting on his chest and the day will start over and it'll all be fine! It would be fine. He'd wake up and he wouldn't be a monster anymore, right?

Heavy limbs don't really want to cooperate, and Raph stumbles over his own hands, his side slamming into the tunnel wall. Any other time he would barely have scraped off some loose rock. This time, though, the new spikes on his shell dig into the brickwork quite easily, pulling chunks of rock from the wall to tumble onto the floor beneath him. Raph's momentum stops, but his heart doesn't, pounding away in his chest like it's going to break through his plastron and run off solo. A wriggle and a jerk and he pulls his shell from the wall, watching the debris scatter over the pathway. Besides the echoes of clacking rocks, the only noises are his own ragged breaths and the growing sound of his blood rushing through his ears.

He's broken the wall as easily as he broke the vial and destroyed Donnie's lab. All of his work, all of his progress was just set back and possibly ruined for good, not to mention the state of his desk and his burner and his chair. He'd ruined it all, burned it, broken it with a flick of his hand and now look where that had gotten him. A body too big for his own good, claws that dig into the floor, a tail that lashes and dents the concrete, teeth that feel too big in his mouth, teeth that could rip into something and tear it open effortlessly, teeth of a beast.

A monster.

Like his nightmare. Like Slash. He'd done this all over again, he'd ignored Donnie's warnings, he'd let his temper get a hold of him and now Donnie might be hurt and his lab was on fire and Chompy - who knew where Chompy was, who knew what-

He's running again before he can think too much about it, pulling in tattered gasps and trying to keep his feet beneath him. The added weight pulls him forward onto his hands It's easier to run on all fours, so Raphael digs in his claws, bunches his muscles and takes off, hoping that maybe if he runs fast enough, he might be able to leave all of this fear and pain in the tunnels behind him. The darkness of the sewer offers no guidance and no help, deaf and uncaring to the panicking beast that's doing his best to outrun his problems.

Where he's going doesn't really matter, and he isn't bothering to pay any attention to the tunnel numbers. Now that somehow his limbs have decided to cooperate, Raph is running for the hell of it, his strides eating up the distance of the sewer. Speed was something that Mikey had always taken to be the best at, and it was never one of Raph's strongest abilities. But now, with all four feet on the ground, a spark of delight weaves itself through the drowning mess of his emotional state. Fast is good. Fast, and big, and strong… this feels good. He feels powerful.

"-y're weak, but we're powerful. Our anger makes us s-"

Raph slams his hands - paws - front feet into the ground and skids, the pathway crunching to rubble with the force of it. He stops a few paces away from a manhole, muscles trembling.

No, he's not - he can't be like him. This isn't right.

"-utagen warped your brain-"

"Be reasonable-"

"-don't have any way to get us back to normal-"

A wave of nausea hits him like a bus. This is crazy. This whole thing is crazy. Here he is, staring down at the floor where gigantic clawed hands are digging trenches into the concrete, and half an hour ago he was having a fun time wrestling his brothers on the floor of the dojo. A half hour and he's turned into somehow more of a freak, a horrible mess of a mutant, with claws and teeth and spikes and a fury that's rising in his chest like a flame. It was hard being a normal mutant teenager, and now he's a double mutant teenager and he's pretty sure he's gonna throw up if he keeps thinking about it. What if he can't turn back? Donnie said yesterday that he was stressing because he was trying to figure things out, he was the one that said he might not have a way!

Might not have a way to turn back to normal. Their normal. If anything, Donatello pretty much confirmed that any kind of reversal would end up with them going all the way back. If they tried to fix this, it might end up so much worse. As sickening as this all was now, Raph is much more prepared to deal with this body forever than whatever the hell had started in his nightmare. He can fight in this, at least. He can run and attack and feel. Even if he isn't able to talk. Or play games. Or read comics. Drive his bike, play drums, draw, train, plant, he wouldn't be able to do any of that, he wouldn't be able to be normal either way. There was no way out.

Help.

He needs help. And to quit psyching himself out and think this through. The hysteria probably has something to do with the mutation. Donnie said that sometimes they're unstable, like when Slash went berserk, or when Kirby didn't recognize them. It was temporary, and if he just tried to breathe… Stop flipping out and calm down and focus on a plan. Get a plan.

Going back right now isn't an option. The lab is on fire, Leo and Mikey are probably swarming in to find their brothers and what the hell was making all of the noise. Rushing back into a hazy room with two, possibly three nerve-ridden ninjas was in no way going to end well. April wasn't home; she was on her way to the lair, which meant that raised the number of ninjas in the room to four, and this one has psychic abilities. Not a good combo. They'd probably attack before he got a chance to get their recognition, and that would cause a bigger mess than he's prepared to deal with.

Not to mention the possible aftermath.

So who? The Mutanimals were a possible answer, but the idea of facing Slash right now sends chills down his spine. Of course Slash has since come around after the mutation, and they're still friends, and he's a strong ally but everything about this is too close. Not ready to deal with that. Murakami wouldn't be able to see who he is, and with the gurgly rumbles that come from his throat, he wouldn't be able to tell him. The last thing the old man needs is to have some hulking monster break through his front door and roar at him.

A screech of tires comes from the street above and Raph snaps his head up, tilting it slightly to take in the light coming through the holes of the manhole cover. Rapidfire cursing follows the sound, and then fades into the distance, but it's enough to slam the obvious solution into his head. Of course. Why hadn't he thought of it before?

Casey was cool with all the monster stuff. He attacked criminals before they'd even met. Barely fazed him the first time he'd seen Raph, so a second time round should be easy. It wasn't any crazier than what they'd seen in space. Casey handled himself fine, and he might have some weird out of the box solution to this that Raph wouldn't think of. And bonus: Casey can text his brothers and explain that he's not a crazy feral beast and that everything is cool. Yeah. That sounded like a good enough plan.

Raph closes his eyes and sighs, trying to push the tension out with his breath. He has a plan. No need to keep overreacting. Shaking the gravel from his feet, Raph turns away from the manhole and heads further down the tunnel. He won't fit through that manhole now, but that's fine. Donnie's got a secret exit not far from Casey's place. Once he gets topside and gets to Casey's place, he should be able to get onto the fire escape and knock on his window. It's late enough, he shouldn't be at hockey practice.

Should be fine, right?

Wrong.

So very wrong. Really, how did he not see this coming? If a strange nasty looking mutant came up to his bedroom after dark with no greeting, he'd probably freak out too. So he can't really blame Casey for his reaction, as annoying as it is. The hope of rolling with it vanished quite fast after Raph poked his head into Casey's window. Instead of the idiot being enamored with how badass he looked with spikes and fangs and asking a bunch of stupid questions, he got screaming and a hockey stick to the face. With all of the new hardened scales, it didn't really hurt, but it did throw his foolproof plan for a loop.

Raph jerks his head back to the window with a hiss, grumbling as he reaches up with a hand to brush the splinters off. He managed to climb the side of the apartment building without much trouble (who knew gigantic claws made great shuko spikes) and pulled himself onto Casey's fire escape, where he's now seated on his haunches. His tail is getting awfully annoying. It keeps banging into things, and the poor railing on this flimsy thing was already a dented mess. Giving his head a firm shake, Raph scowls, glaring back into the dimly-lit bedroom to his best friend cowering against the wall with a baseball bat extended in front of him.

"G-Get away! Get out, mutant freak!"

Ugh. Rude. Now that all of the neurotic after effects of the mutation seem to have calmed down, he's able to think straight. Straight enough to be incredibly annoyed with the boy's reaction. Honestly, if he was here to hurt him, he would have done it by now.

Raph opens his mouth to snap a 'Calm down, dumbass' at him, but all that comes out is this growl that really sounds like it shouldn't be coming from him. A bear maybe. Or a really angry tiger. Prehistoric is a good word to describe it; if career paths were open, making dinosaur sounds for movies would be his go-to. Another try and another weird gurgle, so Raph ends up letting out a snarl filled with frustration instead. Can't run right, and still can't talk. Turtle luck at it's finest.

Fine. If he can't tell Casey Jones, then he'll just have to show him and make him figure it out.

If only he could fit in the window. Hm.

Well, there would be one way to get Casey to go with him. Probably won't like it. Worth a shot.

Raph shifts back to the window and sticks an arm through, then his head. He can really only get this far, but he doesn't need to get fully inside anyway. Doing his best to keep his strike gentle just in case he does hit his friend by accident, Raph swipes at him, hiss coming up his throat. Come on, Case, come on…

Yes!

Casey takes the bait and yells, giving a swing at the intruder's hand. What he gets instead is Raph grabbing the bat, jerking it towards him and out of his hands, and then snagging Casey's hoodie with his claws. Raph catches a brief look of panic in Casey's eyes before he yanks him back to the window and literally drags the teen kicking and screaming from his bedroom. God, you'd think he'd never been kidnapped before-

Stars fly through his vision as Casey's hand connects with his snout, electricity slamming into his body. All grip on the kid vanishes in an instant. Jones hits the floor of the fire escape and Raph snaps his head back, furiously rubbing at his poor snout with garbled whines. The fucker tazed him! Casey's climbing back onto his feet, looking pretty pleased with himself and giving a fist pump into the air.

"Hah! Eat that! Nobody steals Casey Jones from his house - oh shit-!"

Now he's pissed. Raph shrieks and darts at him, his jaws closing around the back of Casey's sweater and swinging him into the air. How dare he shock him with his stupid homemade tazer gauntlet! He should know better than that, that thing hurts!

Without really thinking about it, Raph plants his feet and shakes Casey akin to a dog shaking a toy, just without the intent to destroy it. There's something slightly satisfying about the way Casey screams, five fingered hands scrabbling to hold onto his face so he isn't dropped off the edge of the fire escape. Payback is a bitch. Show you to be rude, hitting him with wooden things and shocking him in his poor nose. Pausing to let go of an offended huff, Raph glances back to the window. Casey's gonna take a moment to fight past the dizziness, but he'll still need something if they run into trouble-

"What the hell is going on out there-?"

A window somewhere below them slides open, and years of stealth training send him into autopilot. Raph grabs Casey's stick bag with his tail and launches himself at the wall above while the kid is still dazed. No time to wait now, he needs to get up here before he's seen. There's a bit of scrambling due to the extra weight of his friend and his weapons, but Raphael manages to heave himself up onto the rooftop and whisk out of sight just as the human leans out of the window below. He doesn't dare move for a second or two, frozen in a crouch as he listens to the confused and sleepy muttering from below, and then the slide of the window closing.

Finally. He can breathe. Well, this is as far as his plan went. Raph sets his friend down on the rooftop and plants the goalie bag beside him, glancing back over his shoulder in case someone was really following them up.

The bat hits him square in the jaw.

Oh. Right. Should have been watching Casey.

Raph stumbles back a step, head reeling from the blow. That is definitely more solid than the hockey stick, and now that he's got room to actually move, Casey's put his whole weight into the swing. It's got a significant amount of force behind it, enough to disorient the turtle for a second or two. Enough time for Casey to get a second swing in that connects with his shoulder instead. It's not powerful enough to hurt him really, but buys him the time he needs to put his mask on and swing the bag over his shoulder.

"You've messed with the wrong guy, Spikey!"

Something snaps in him when he hears that. His nose hurts, his face hurts, he's pissed off and now he's got weird feelings coming up that he didn't want to deal with. Raph shifts his weight into a better stance, lip curling back over his teeth and green eyes narrowing as soon as they lock onto Casey's. That burning sensation starts again, deep in his gut, but it's different. Nostrils flare with a breath, and then another, and Raph pulls his head back before he even realizes what he's doing.

There's a split second when realization comes over Casey's face and his mouth twists to start saying his name, but the next is covered in flame.

Fire bursts from Raph's jaws with a roar. Oh, right. Chompy's DNA. The whole fire space tortoise thing. Fire is part of that.

It's kind of cool.

A shift of his head at the last second sends the flames just past Casey instead of at him. He doesn't really want to burn his best friend into a crisp, but on top of the frustration of burning his brother's lab, being stupid enough to get into this mess in the first place and now getting smacked in the face, Raph's temper is shot. The blood rushes in his ears as he pulls in a few ragged breaths, and it barely registers anymore when Casey gives a yelp, drops his now burning bat, and bolts for the other side of the rooftop. His patience gives and he rears up to his full height, teetering there for a moment while the human flees.

Raphael slams his front feet into the grainy rooftop, feeling it crack beneath his pads, and lets a roar break the night with all of the pent up emotion. A shake of his head and another shriek and he breaks into a run in the vigilante's wake. The kid is already on the next roof, running for dear life, and takes one look over his shoulder.

The sound of his name barely reaches his ears before he launches himself after him.