This Has Not Been the Field Trip He Signed Up For ((X-Adult First, Maybe More Later))

[fourshelled]

After Athos had been released from Murderworld, the ninja stealthily and silently went farther into New York City. Eventually the turtle found a nice park with some well-used benches. He sat down on one and tried to achieve utter stillness.

What Athos achieved instead was a transformation into a redheaded teenager sitting on a park bench. Pete looked around nervously. He wasn't sure where he was. Or where his chaperone was. He rubbed his hands together and watched life go by.

This place wasn't filled with mutants, but he still felt very alone. He wondered if there were even pay phones around any more. Though he wasn't sure who he would call.

So, he decided to sit there until someone found him or he got a better idea.

Comments

[firstbornrichards]

"Hey." Franklin replied with a faint, reassuring smile. "Sorry about the lightshow. But you know, I hate the traffic in New York."

"Are you ready to go back now?" Franklin asked, in the calmest voice he could. "Don't worry, I'm not Kurt. The teleportation isn't physically disorienting in the slightest."

[fourshelled]

He slowly uncurled himself from his almost fetal position in the corner of the bench. He went a little paler at the thought of teleportation.

He wondered if he could find a wise rat and go live in the sewer. "Does... Does it stink like Mr. Wagners?"

Being naked in a shower near other mutants was never a comfortable experience. He usually turned into a turtle even approaching a shower room. He assumed the turtles bathed because he never really stank.

[firstbornrichards]

"Nope. No smell at all." Franklin replied. "Unless of course, you'd like a burst of refreshing orange scent or something. Maybe I could do something there."

It wouldn't have been surprising to Franklin that Pete would be shy like that- he certainly didn't have much love for communal showers either. Thankfully, being a teacher, he had the incredible privilege of an ensuite bathroom.

"I'm ready to go when you are, Pete." Franklin said with a smile.

[fourshelled]

"Uh, no thanks. I don't like smelling edible." He swallowed a bit before getting up from the bench.

He was upright for all of five seconds before he started nervously toeing the ground. "Ready whenever."

He had nowhere else to go.

[firstbornrichards]

Franklin put his hand reassuringly on Pete's shoulder and the next thing they knew, they were back at the Mansion, as if they'd just walked in the front door. True to what he'd said, there'd be no physical side effects, though it might have been disorienting to so suddenly find oneself in a completely different physical location.

"Home sweet home." He looked over at Pete. "If you want to talk about what happened, you can. But if you'd rather have a rest or something first ..."

[fourshelled]

"Guess it is now," he mumbled more to himself. He wasn't awed by the big mansion surrounded by buildings going up at a quick pace for the school's fall semester. He just looked at it all like he was going to prison.

"Athos handled most of it. I closed my eyes and hummed when I woke up while he was attacked by devil robots."

[firstbornrichards]

"If there's anything I can do to make this feel more like somewhere you want to be, Pete, you just ask, okay?" Franklin replied, sincerely. "Even if I have to get Hana to bake a special, specific kind of cupcake every day." His expression turned to a smile for a moment before becoming a little more serious when Pete told him about what had happened.

"I'm very, very glad he did. We'll find out more about what happened, I promise you.

Is there anything you need right now?"

[fourshelled]

"I don't know if I'll ever get used to being a..." he gestured in the air to try to find the right unoffensive word to use. He came up with nothing, so he finished lamely with "... mutant. A weird mutant."

The kind that gets dropped out of things like a family because he's so freaky.

"I-I was out shopping with Dani. So, uhm, make sure she knows? ... and maybe a cupcake."

[firstbornrichards]

"We're all weird here." Franklin replied warmly. "I know what it's like to want to be normal. And how easy it is to say that 'normal is boring'." Franklin was the last person to criticize someone for feeling weird or freakish. For him, it'd been less his mutation and more to do with his struggles with depression.

"We'll let her know. As for the cupcake, let's get into the kitchen and see what's around. Maybe we can even dragoon one of the cooking people into whipping something up for you."