TMNT: Infected Chapter 2

Chapter Two: Five Digits

April stared at the now-human Leo and Raphael; Leo’s dark, straight hair hung over his forehead and stopped just below his ears. His piercing blue eyes were framed with thick, dark lashes and brows and his slim nose led down to slender pink lips. He stood an inch or so taller than Raph but was leaner than his brother.

Raphael was quite broad, muscles covering every inch of him; his own hair was a dark mousy brown and shorter than Leo’s, spiking up in various places. His jaw was strong and, although human, his expression was still unmistakably Raph. He stared at Leo, green eyes scanning the stranger’s body that his brother now possessed,

“What the heck is going on here?”

Leo mumbled a response but was too preoccupied with the floppy hair that hung in front of his now-crossed eyes. He tugged on it, trying to examine it more closely. April cleared her throat and spoke whilst frowning at the boys,

“It must have been that virus.”

From the other end of the room movement was occurring; Mikey sat up in the armchair and rubbed his eyes sleepily,

“Eurgh, what time is it guys?” he brought his hands away from his face and stared at the five foreign digits, “Um, guys am I still dreaming?”

Leo and Raph joined their brother and tried to calm him down as he slowly absorbed the situation. Mikey jumped to his feet, a good head shorter than his siblings, and slapped his hand to his head before jerking it away quickly after feeling the mop of hair atop it. He sported a rather different ‘do’ to the others, his being much lighter, almost blonde in colour, and curly. Freckles speckled his pale cheeks and button nose and his baby blue eyes darted wildly between Leo and Raph.

“Whoa, what the heck is up with you two?”

Leo tugged on a curl on Mikey’s head and laughed, “Look who’s talking!”

“This is so weird,” Casey had been in a stunned silence until now, shocked at the turtles’ sudden transformation and a little intimidated by their human forms. He turned to April, “Does this mean we’re gonna turn into turtles?! Because I don’t wanna be a freak!”

Raph slapped a hand to Casey back and grinned, “Too late.”

April’s eyes wandered to the couch, where Donatello was still snoozing, whistling now and then as he dreamed. How he’d slept through the commotion was a mystery to the redhead and, id she admitted it, April was anxious to see what Donnie’s human form looked like. She couldn’t see his face because of the blanket he was somehow tangled in but she could tell from his silhouette that he was no longer something that possessed a shell. Leo noticed her stare and spoke up,

“We should probably wake the only one of us who’ll have any idea what’s going on.”

Raph cracked his knuckles and grinned, “Allow me.”

In one swift movement he whipped the blanket off his sleeping brother, like a magician revealing his assistant, and Donnie sat bolt upright as though someone had zapped him with a jolt of electricity. He flailed for a moment, disorientated, and then jumped to his feet in what would have been an impressive fighting stance if not for the fact that he overcompensated for his shell and ended up face-first on the carpet. He quickly stood up again and looked around, dazed,

“What’s going on? Is it the Kraang?!”

Mikey looked up at his tallest sibling, eyes wide and intrigued, “Dude, chill.”

Donnie jumped back, automatically reaching for his bo staff, which was elsewhere in the house, “Who’re you?!” he looked at Raph and Leo, “Where are my brothers?!”

With outstretched arms, April moved towards Donnie, “Hey, hey its okay,” she gestured towards the three new humans, “They’re right here.”

Mikey gave Donnie a ‘thumbs up’, Raph folded his arms and Leo shrugged,

“We were hoping you’d have some answers.”

The genius relaxed a little at the sound of Leo’s voice, “Answers to why you three are human?”

“Not just us,” Raph raised an eyebrow and Donnie looked down at himself.

He was taller than the others, slimmer too, almost gangly if he admitted it. Dark brown hair hung almost to his shoulders and his matching eyes squinted as he processed his new appearance. However, when he saw the slight blush on April’s cheeks he smiled his usual gap-toothed lopsided grin.

“This is so weird,” Mikey stood on his tiptoes, examining Donnie’s hair a little closer, “We don’t even look alike.”

“Well I’m clearly the best looking,” Raph stuck out his chest like a peacock as Leo pointed at his collar bone where a thin, jagged scar marked Raph’s skin,

“You’re imperfect,” he noted.

“Whatever, at least I don’t have Emo hair!”

Leo flicked his dark locks over his eye and pouted before turning to Mikey, “Well look at his freckles! I bet if you joined them up it’d make a bunny!”

The youngest brother stuck his tongue out at Leo and tugged on Donnie’s hair, issuing a yelp from the genius, “Donnie’s the weird one! He could wear pigtails if he wanted!”

Donnie slapped Mikey’s hand away and sighed, shoulders sagged. He was about to try and explain the situation when April’s mouth made a sudden ‘O’ shape and her face turned beetroot red,

“OH!” the five boys in the room turned to look at her as she slapped a hand over her eyes, “You’re all naked!”

“Naked?” Leo looked puzzled.

“We’re always naked, duh,” Mikey rolled his baby blues and shook his head slowly.

Donnie, however, realised their mistake and covered his crotch with a couch cushion, cheeks glowing scarlet, “But we usually have shells to maintain our dignity!”

It was like someone had lit a firework in the small room; teenage boys flailed and scrambled around wildly before Casey suddenly shouted over the chaos,

“Dudes, please!” he touched his fingers to his temples, “You can borrow some of my clothes for now.”

Mikey grinned, “Awesome, I am gonna look so sick!”

“Oh wonderful,” Donnie rolled his eyes, “I have to walk around looking like a convict until we find some other clothes.”

Casey glared at the taller teen, “Hey, if you don’t want them you can walk around naked for all I care!” That silenced Donnie.

Once dressed, the four brothers examined themselves in the built-in mirror in the wardrobe in Casey’s room; Leo was wearing a blue hoodie and some old jeans that were torn at the knees, they fit him almost perfectly. Raph had been forced to wear a sleeveless shirt as his biceps were struggling to be contained in all Casey’s other shirts but he’d managed to find some paint-stained dark jeans that were a nice fit. Being a few inches shorter than Casey, Mikey had opted for some shorts rather than having to roll up the bottoms of some jeans and he’d found an old AC/DC t-shirt in a trunk in Casey’s room. Donnie was having the most trouble; his legs were quite a good deal longer than the tooth-lacking teen’s and so every pair of pants he tried on hung just above his ankles. He’d eventually given up and decided to roll the bottoms up slightly on a pair of faded jeans and slipped on a sweatshirt with only a few holes in it.

Raphael examined a funky-looking stain on his shirt and curled his lip, “Casey, why does everything you own have some sort of weird stain or hole in it?”

Casey shrugged, “I don’t keep notes, could be anything.”

“Gross,” Leo held his hands away from the clothes he was wearing so as not to accidentally touch something that may or may not be on them.

“Guys, you live in a sewer!”

A soft knock on the door to the bedroom turned their attention to something other than identifying the weird markings of Casey’s clothes and April peeked around the door,

“Are you decent now?”

Mikey dramatically gestured to his new attire, “Indeed we are, Miss April. I have acquired this ‘Ack Dack’ shirt. Pretty cool, right?”

April just smiled at Mikey’s failed attempt at some sort of Shakespearian language and stepped towards Donnie, noting his new fully-clothed body. He squinted down at her and tugged at the bottom of the sweatshirt as he spoke,

“Sorry about the, you know, nakedness before, April.”

She smiled, “Hey, don’t worry about it! There were more important things going on! Speaking of which, any idea how this happened?”

“I have several theories,” Donnie scratched his hair-covered head, “But nothing conclusive. I’ll need to use your laptop if that’s okay?”

“Sure, anything you need.”

They gathered around the small kitchen table as Donnie booted up the laptop; he figured he’d look up the symptoms of the sudden illness they’d all contracted and cross-examine it with side effects etc. Although turning into another species probably wasn’t going to show up in a Google search. He found the search engine and began typing in the symptoms they’d shared when Leo spoke,

“Donnie, why are you searching for symptoms in a chat room?”

“What?” the genius narrowed his eyes as he tried to read the screen, “I’m googling them!”

“Nuh uh, bro,” Mikey jabbed the logo at the top of the screen, “It says ‘Cougle.com’.”

“Cougle?”

“’Meet older ladies in your area’-“ Mikey shut up when Leo quickly clicked away from the dating site.

“But I was sure I was searching…” Donnie rubbed his eyes and squinted at the screen once more.

“Donnie,” April snapped the computer shut and held up four fingers, “How many fingers am I holding up?”

“Um… Two?” he shook his head, “No, no. Three!”

Casey guffawed, holding his sides, “Dude, you’re blind as a bat!”

Donnie growled, “I am not! I just-“

“-Guys!” April leaned across the table, so close that Donnie could smell her shampoo, “You clearly need glasses, Donnie.” Another burst of laughter from Casey earned him a piercing glare from the redhead.

Raph chuckled, “You’re gonna look like even more of a nerd.”

Donnie lowered his head and sighed, dejected.