Transient | A ROTTMNT Future Story

mauled and strangulated

From then on Donnie's lab was off limits. Specifically to Leo, but it wasn't like anyone else was clamoring to get inside like how he was. Although they didn't enjoy it, Leo was allowed to keep the Donnie rock. They couldn't keep him away from it, and it was his decision to either do away with it or not. Of course Leo would make it harder on himself and not listen. He was horrendously stubborn like a mule.

Things had to change with R.A.P.H., though.

That outburst was inexcusable. No matter how much Raph previously meant to them, no matter how much everyone loved the eldest, the robotic body just wasn't cutting it. Casey could have gotten killed that night, had it not been for Leo (and Mikey for instructing his brother on how to properly log Raph's brain off). Those quirks could no longer be brushed aside and fixed with updates. Something had to give.

And so R.A.P.H. was no longer allowed to be around Casey Jr., or anyone for that matter. Though Casey was the victim of the attack, the reason why this rule was made in the first place, he was upset at the news. It was likely that he couldn't quite grasp the severity of the situation. He was only five, after all.

"Momma, why can't I see robo-Raph anymore?" He had cried to Cassandra one day. Cassandra, for once, was home for more than thirty minutes.

Her buzz cut had grown some since twelve years. Not by much. It grew in such a way that she had a permanent shaggy pixie bed head, her wild dark hair somewhat similar to her child's. Though they weren't blood-related, Casey Jr. was in fact his mother's son. Because of their striking resemblances, Casey often called her son "a gift from the gods" in a rather maniacally proud sense.

"He'll kill you." She answered bluntly. "And everyone will miss you if you're gone forever."

Junior looked down, jutting his lip out. "I'll be gone forever from Raph..." He mumbled in an upset tone.

"I get you, but it's for the best." Cassandra ran her fingers through Junior's deep midnight shaded hair. She could feel the egregious knots buried within and made a mental note to herself to find him a hairbrush when she went out for supplies again. "You'll understand one day, kid."

-

Leo was not one for the rules. He forced his family to house R.A.P.H. inside of the cave in which they slept and bled in. For this reason, arguments between them broke out every night. Leo would never back down from a fight, though. The yelling and asking for him to stop this madness had eventually died down after two weeks. It was useless to tear apart at bronze with bare hands.

The only win that the rest of the Hamato family got was that R.A.P.H. were to be powered off anytime Leo wasn't around, and that the cyborg were to be covered with a sheet when they went to bed. Taking watch had become something that they had to do now, as Krang ambushes were becoming more incessant. Leo took advantage of this and always asked for the first watch. With first watches Leo could converse and work on R.A.P.H. all he wanted.

Tonight was supposed to be for karaoke. Karaoke was founded when all of the brothers were still alive. It was their night to truly let go as the teenagers they could have been. Nowadays it was customary that every few weeks, there would be a night dedicated for the resistance to sneak off into a secluded cave (the cave location changed with each meeting, as Krang were excellent at finding these party spots) and party with song. It was a morale boost for all the glum and grim that bombarded their systems on the daily.

Fortunately, it wasn't hard for them to obtain music to sing along to. Similar to Donnie's archive of pirated movies, one of Donnie's tablets held the online drive of downloaded music. Leo dominated these nights, singing only the most popular songs with a small wired microphone. With each meetup, though, the numbers of rebels attending would dwindle drastically. Tonight, Leo was nowhere found in the newly designated karaoke cave. He was too busy tirelessly working on R.A.P.H.