Draxum's son (an ROTTMNT AU)

Chapter 2 - Ups and Downs

About a year later, Draxum's laboratory was already partially rebuild, a machine for mutation was created, a little glass cage was connected to another container full of Oozequitos ready to inject the mutating liquid into whatever it bites in, the small turtle looks at the shiny bugs flying across the giant vial with amaze in his eyes, he sits in the hand of his creator, who he sees as a father after spending his first year of life interacting and bonding with no one but the ginormous Yokai and his two henchmen who he sees as two uncles who take care of him every now and then, Draxum believes the little reptile means nothing to him, that he is nothing but a tool for an experiment, he is ready to make a warrior out of the child, ignoring any possible thoughts that go against the idea.

He approaches the machine and starts to set up the experiment, while he does so, he remembers overhearing his old friend naming the turtles he had, he had named the box turtle, Michael angelo, or Michelangelo? He can't really be sure... so he just renames him Michael, with that out of way, the machine is turned on and as it does, it lights up the room and makes a bunch of different noises which don't please little Michael, who gets a but uneasy and uncomfortable with the sudden change of mood, but doesn't make a beep about it, Draxum opens the cage made specially for his turtle and places it inside, closing the tiny door and leaving the orange baby locked up in there, of course, he gets scared, first the weird sounds the machine was making and now he's left alone in a vial like prison unable to get back to his papa, he cries and sobs.

Draxum tries to ignore the whines and move on with the procedure, he presses buttons and flip switches all while hearing the crying that grew louder and louder each second, but in the final move.... a lever, he stands his hand to pull it, but the child's cries start to get too loud to ignore and they make it's way into his brain, the overwhelm kicks in once again, the machine noises echoing through the walls, the crying sound the turtle was making, even his henchmen's voices trying to nervously calm down the little fella, sadly or gladly, to no avail, the sensation Baron Draxum feels is worst than any pain he has ever felt, like a tight grip inside his chest, a weight on his back, something was wrecking him up from inside out, and his hand couldn't reach up to the lever, it was shaking, like if it was freezing cold, the cries of the baby turtle were flooding his head, he fought the guilt the best he could and managed to grab the lever.

he is about to set things straight, fix the failures of the past and making the strongest weapon that humanity will ever see, even if it means.... to hurt a child... his own child, kind of, he looked back at the turtle that was scared and helplessly crying, pushing his hands against the glass, calling out to him, huginn and muginn watched, they back off from the machine and start to show a face of concern to eachother, they share a hug, Draxum began to have visions of the small little moments they shared the past year, the memories affect him in a way that makes him have a change of mind, he holds the lever firm and strong, just to yank it off the controller and smash the control panel with all his mighty strength, the machine responds to this by shutting down and turning it off.

Draxum runs up to the glass cage, uses his mystic vines to open it by force and be able to pick up his little turtle, still in tears, holding tightly into his fingers and basically hugging his whole hand for how small it was, overtime, after being rocked and hearing some... slightly comforting words from his father, he finally settles down and falls sleep in Baron Draxum's arm, a true heart warming scene, but Baron is left with his thoughts on the matter, what just happen? why did it happen? what is causing these feelings and meltdowns? No other experiment caused such detrought or sparkled a single bit of empathy from him, so... what's about this turtle that makes it so different from the others? that's until Huginn and Muginn approach the two and start to chat casually.

⭕- "Awww, the little one likes you, boss."

❌- "I mean, he's literally his father now, right? After all... it seems the year he spent with us sure got to you."

⭕- "Ha! Right?! The father instincts sure kicked in right at the moment."

Father instincts? What on earth is this? A disease? Perhaps not, he thought about it for a second and rushed to research on the matter, father instincts... it's apparently a stade of mind an individual can develop after getting in contact with a child and creating emotional bonds with it, it creates a feeling of responsibility and care over the small creature, and it's apparently something very common among all kinds of creatures, from Humans to Animals and to maybe even Yokai, Baron looked back at his son and pieced things together, he was a father now, whether he liked it or not, he spent too much time with the turtle and was now doomed to raise this child, despite not having any basic knowledge on parenting.

Five months later, he was finally able to fully rebuild his lab and home, the lab was extended to 2 rooms in the building while the rest was composed to be a house like environment, there was everything to attend the normal needs in a living area, a kitchen, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a small living room and that's it no big deal, the ceiling was very high (maybe a little too much), and the halls were super long and blank, the whole place was actually quite minimalist, Draxum wasn't much of a fan of decorations.

Little Michael started walking around with no issue, he'd follow Draxum around wherever he went and didn't leave his side for almost nothing, even trying to snuggle with him in his bed despite having his own, that was really bothering Draxum at first since he didn't like to share his bed with anything or anyone, but no matter how many times he tried to get the child to sleep in their own room, he would always find a way to get back at his room and try to climb his way up the bed, eventually, Baron just decided that if he really wanted THAT BADLY to sleep with him in his bed, he could, as long as he stayed tied to a rope in the corner of the bed, by doing that, he imagined the turtle would get uncomfortable with the rope around his chest and leave back to his own room, but somehow the rope didn't stop the little one from sleeping in there, so in the end, he had to share his bed anyway, and Michael really enjoyed the sleepovers.

At that time, Splinter had found a home in the sewers of New York, a part of the sewers that were taken down in order to inaugurate a new subway station far away, so it was pretty much abandoned, which meant, available for him and his three small children, that were now growing into healthy children thanks to the food he gets from stealing leftover foods from grocery stores and such, the kids were already learning how to stand up in two legs, truly adorable, he was doing his very best to take care of them every single day of his life, the kids grew to love this affection that comes from their papa, and as they time goes by, they start to develop more and more each day that passes.

(To be continued...)
(In chapter 3)