Out of My Shell

Chapter 2: A Little Revenge

--- Chapter 2: A Little Revenge

Raph waited a while, hoping Donnie would cool off before entering the lab. Leo had just gone back to the kitchen and cleaned up the mess and brought Donnie all the components to the can opener so he could look it over. Raph knew he had to apologize. He hadn't intended to hurt Donnie. He didn't know what he had intended when he flung the can, but it certainly wasn't this. He rounded the corner to the lab and saw Donnie leaning back against the wall with an ice pack on his head, trying to study all the broken parts of the can opener. Raphael swore he could almost hear the cogs turning in his head.
God, he hoped he was less mad.
"...Hey."
Donnie's brown eyes flickered up to Raph before returning his attention to the different parts. "Can I help you with something?"
His voice was so cold.
Raph rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. He never was very good at apologies. "...How's the fixin' going?"
"...Fine."
".......Look, I'm sorry, okay? It's not like I meant to hurt ya..."
"Yeah, you're heedless, indiscriminant violence never tries to hurt anyone," he clipped.
Now Raphael glared, his patience starting to thin. "Ya know, when I apologize that's usually a sign to take it and run..."
"You know if you want me to finish this in time for your royal highness to eat, I suggest you go bother someone else."
Raph slammed his hands on the table, his blood now boiling and itching for a fight. If he was confident in anything right now, it was his ability to beat Donnie black and blue. Donatello glared right back at his brother, daring him to make the first move.
Raph gritted his teeth against his anger, forcibly giving himself a few moments to let it simmer. His hands clenched into slow dangerous fists.
"Look, I said I was sorry... whaddaya want from me?"
"I'm tired of you walking all over me!" Donnie yelled exasperated, rising to his feet. "You bully me every single day and I'm sick of it! Why should I fix anything for you in the first place?!"
"Because you broke it!"
"And you nearly split my head open!"
"Yeah well you look just fine to me!" Eyes narrowed to venomous slits.
"Cool off, guys!" Leonardo arrived on the scene, rushing between his two brothers and pushing them back.
"What is wrong with you two?!" Leo quickly sensed the tension and quickly herded Raph towards the door. He shrugged angrily out of his touch and stormed out the door on his own accord and Leonardo shut the door behind him.
"I thought you went in there to apologize!" he glared.
"I did! And then he decided to be an asshole!"
Leonardo scoffed. "Raph..."
Raphael pushed past him and Leonardo knew well enough to leave him alone.
He needed to cool off.
---
A few hours later, Donatello presented his finished masterpiece to everyone. It was amazing how different it looked. It was so sleek and strange, parts radiating with a bright pink light; now durable and completely automatic by his design.
"I made it stronger, faster, quieter and easier to use. Even Mikey should be able to navigate it without hurting himself..." he boasted.
Michelangelo wanted to give him a snarky comeback, but it was kind of true.
"Now come on," Donnie encouraged, "let's get creative and make ourselves something to eat."
"That's what I'm talkin' about," Mickey grinned brightly. "Stand aside and watch the pro at work." He cracked his knuckles, his mind already turning with ideas for what he'd make for breakfast. Donatello sat down at the counter and Raph lumbered over and plopped into the chair next to him, avoiding his eyes. A swallowing silence hung over the two of them.
"...How's your head?"
Donnie glanced up. "I'll be okay," he muttered.
".....I screwed up," Raph admitted gruffly.
Donnie thought that over. "I did too."
"...The can opener looks good," he complimented. Donnie immediately brightened up a little at that, smiling his trademark gap-toothed smile.
"Yeah it was actually quite fun to put together. Kraang tech really is fascinating. You know if they weren't trying to kill us, they'd be really great to study."
"I wouldn't touch one of those nasty gobs of brain with a fifty foot pole," Raph grimaced, "I hate it when they touch me while we're fightin'."
"Agreed, but whatever they use as a power source alone contain such strange and mysterious properties... I don't even fully understand it all! With its molecular structure it's a wonder it's even stable."
"So you gave these powers to our can-opener?"
"And the Shell-Raiser, and a bunch of other stuff of ours..."
"...Sounds promisin'."
"It's fine. I have it all under control," he shrugged, "I have up to this point haven't I?"
Raphael thought about it. He did have a point.
"Ham and vegetable omelet thing with noodles!" Mikey announced. "And I even made it shaped like a pizza." He set it down on the counter, proudly displaying it before his brothers.
"Looks gross," Raph critiqued. Leonardo reached over and smacked him hard in the arm.
"It looks great Mikey," he complimented kindly.
Donatello didn't say anything, but he wasn't about to tell his brother how unappetizing it looked. The noodles made it look like some horrible mess straight out of a sci-fi movie. Nevertheless, they each took a small portion of the strange concoction and began to eat.
"Eh, not bad... definitely not pizza though," Mikey sighed. After a few moments of silent munching, Donnie heard Raph's embarrassed grumble beside him.
"By the way Donnie, if ya want, you get a free shot at me later for... ya know... what I did." Donnie quirked a non-existent brow at that. He may be physically weaker than Raphael, but he wasn't so weak that he needed a free shot at anything... but...
There were other ways to get back at him.
"Fine. I'll take you up on that," his purple masked brother agreed coolly, slurping up some noodles with a smile. Satisfied that everything was finally settled between them, Raph gathered his plate innocently.
"Welp... I say... dibs on the T.V!" he got up and dashed over the couch and leapt into his favorite spot.
"Hey..." Mikey whined, but it was no use. Raph had already made himself comfortable on the couch, remote in hand, soon finding the program he wanted. It was some thriller movie about all the computers of the world becoming sentient and enslaving mankind with lasers... with plenty of violence, just like Raph liked it.
Donatello watched Raph hunched over his food, already completely absorbed into what he was watching and he smiled devilishly, an idea already sparking him. Donnie got up, stalking carefully behind him and pulled his bo staff from the back of his shell. He took careful aim and with a firm push, struck Raph in the back of the head, just hard enough to make him fall face first into his food.
"Now we're even," Donnie grinned cheerfully.
Egg, ham and spaghetti noodles slowly slithered their way down Raphael's shocked face.
Leo and Mikey froze for a long horrified moment and then exploded into hysterical laughter.
"He got you good, son!" Mikey roared.
"Uh Raph, you got a little somethin' right there," Leo snickered, motioning to the entirety of his face.
Raph then shot Donnie the look that was usually reserved for Mikey before he pounded his face into the floor... thinking about doing just that.
"Ah ah ah," Donnie tsked, backing up, "free pass, remember?"
Raphael froze and Donatello spun his staff proudly back onto his shell, smugly strutting his way to his room.
"I dunno man I think egg on your face is a good look for you," Mikey complimented, earning a murderous look from his short tempered brother. Raph stalked over dangerously, hooking Mikey around the neck to give him a well-deserved noogie. And as Mikey screamed, yelped and thrashed for freedom, Raph shot a secret smile in Donnie's direction.
He'd earned that free shot.

-------
That night, as the shadows of nightfall spread evenly over the lair, the strange can-opener whirred to life and suddenly began to glow a little brighter. Soon it bathed the entire kitchen in its strange eerie light and from its small, sleek body it protruded a pair of mechanical hands and then feet. Then the creation stood, an almost facial-like structure arranging itself on the top of its head, while quiet blades spun and whirred sinisterly in its hands.
It sought destruction, blood... and the screams of anyone that would listen. And so it set out into the night, past the rooms of the sleeping turtles, to go find just that.