POV: Youve Been Busted Doing Science Way Past Your Bedtime

POV: you’ve been busted doing science way past your bedtime

When you have friends but they judge silently

Kid Leo Au Spinoff Comic Collab 2/2

here's part 2!!! and here's all the wonderful artists that made this part:

@chaos-potat (2 panels) , @idiot-mushroom, @winkwonkblog,@smol-bean-boi13, @purple-the-turtle,@thatghoostguy,@cj-can-art,@koolaidashley,@hey-u-1233,@theartofeverything,@sad-leon,@dianagj-art,@pasteilian,@danksy-ns,@bluesgras,@heckitall,@karonkar,@teainthesnow,@bilerthetired,@allyheart707, @delicatechildwitch & @zeawesomeness collab, @delicatechildwitch

Again thank you everyone for putting up with me being bad at organizing this, I had fun meeting everyone and I hope everyone else had fun as well <333\

Also here's a link to a google slides with all the panels in their 100% glory since tumblr ate the quality on some of the gifs:

Google Docs

comic collab wip

Kid Leo Masterpost | First

Okay so, I have a lot of sketches/art in my stock and am still making more sooo

Please reblog for a larger sample size! I do genuinely want to know what to do I am in conundrum :/

Pls and thank you oka I tried u sleepy yep deb bead bed time for me my guy fn

Edit: also If you don't follow me I would greatly appreciate it if you voted nonetheless 🥺

Throw It All Away

Read it on Ao3

Description:

It’s Tails who finds it. An old owl legend that says the Master Emerald has the power to alter its guardians. Granting them unnatural long life, slowly mutating their bodies and altering their minds. Is it really true? Tom, Maddie, and Sonic all try to brush it off, but multiple sources confirm the Master Emerald’s power to corrupt. They talk among themselves and decide an intervention may be in order.

They bring their concerns to Knuckles and find that not only did he already know of all this, but he’s wholly unconcerned. Just because the Master can change his body and mortality doesn’t mean it’s corrupting him. Do not be so quick to fear what you don’t understand!

That’s when Sonic ‘if I throw the bomb out the window, that’s problem solved’ Wachowski makes a snap decision that will change their family forever.

tw angst, miscommunication, panic attacks, hurt no comfort, betrayal, bad decision making skills all around

The Master Emerald hit the water and sank immediately.  Knuckles watched as the last thing left to him of his family, his tribe, his entire species vanished into the depths of the ocean.  The warp ring closed and his world narrowed with it.  The Wachowskis and the back deck faded out.  Knuckles could see nothing but that little ring of ocean growing smaller and smaller before it vanished all together.

Reforming the Emerald all those months ago had kindled a small nest of warm energy inside of him.  When the ring vanished he felt that energy gutter.  It wasn’t a physical pain, but his mind knew of no other way to process it.  He squeezed his eyes shut tight, trying to ride it out.  He had withstood horrible pain in his life and shown no weakness, but he had no barriers against this agony.

He felt as he did after a nightmare.  Ears ringing, breathing fast and wrong.  Usually he would rise from his bed and sit before the Master and allow the soft flutter of its power to soothe him.  But it was gone.  Only a faint echo remained, a distant voice he couldn’t hear.  He couldn’t stop shaking.  Why couldn’t he breathe?  Why wouldn’t the pain fade?

There were many voices around him, but he struggled to pick them apart.

“I thought we agreed…”

“Knuckles?”

“... better to ask forgiveness than permission!”

“This wasn’t the plan!”

The plan?

“Uh, pretty sure we talked at length …”

“Knuckles!”

“...the best idea!”

“I mean, at least this way…”

“Honey, can you hear…”

“...it’s too late now!”

“Tom!”

“... really freaking out…”

“Sonic!”

“...deep breaths.  Like when we do yoga?”

What was ‘the plan’?

“Knux?  … You okay?”

Knuckles’ focus was slow to return.  He became aware of his family around him.  They’d been talking about something.  Before.  Called him out to his favorite spot on the back deck to sit and talk about…  The Emerald.  And Him.  He hadn’t liked what they’d said.  They’d argued.  And then Sonic…

He turned to Sonic beside him, feeling as though he were half-asleep.  His brother watched him with soft concern.  It took a moment for Knuckles to remember how to speak:

“You are playing a joke on me?”  His voice sounded strange.

Sonic’s ears flattened, answering before his mouth could.  “No, Knuckles.  I uh… I really threw it away.”

The plan.

Knuckles gasped like he was coming up from drowning.  Everything snapped into stark clarity.

“You!”  He snarled, backing away.  “You liar!”   He raised his fists, ready for the turn.  The confrontation.

The soft concern shifted to something more alarmed.  “What–”

“This was all a trick to steal the Emerald!”

“Sweetie–” Healer Maddie’s hand touched his shoulder and he darted away, leaping off the deck stairs and whirling to snarl up at them.

“I should have known Longclaw’s apprentice would never leave the Emerald in the hands of an echidna !”  He yelled.  “You have been scheming this from the beginning!”

He was met with a chorus of predictable denials:

“Woah, hey!  That’s not what happened–”

“Sweetie, no .  We were just worried–”

“We would never do that to you–”

But it made perfect sense.  All the Wachowkis’ attempts to get him to ‘open up’?  They were searching for weaknesses.  Their urging to do things other than guarding the Master Emerald?  Distractions.  Trying to get him to relax, to indulge in games and desserts and ‘coziness’?  They’d just wanted him soft and weak!

“Don’t lie to me!  I know your game!”  He roared.  “You did all this–made up this lie that we were a family! – all so that one day you could take the Emerald from me and I would allow it!”

At least Robotnik had confessed his treachery as soon as he could.  Not like these traitors who professed to love him even as they stabbed him in the back.  And then they acted like they expected him to fall into their arms for comfort over the harm they caused!   If their shocked reactions were anything to go by, they certainly expected his forgiveness.

“Bro,” Sonic moved with speed to stand before him. “You are coming to all the wrong conclusions.”  He seemed more frustrated than upset by Knuckles’ accusation.  Further proof their brotherhood was a sham.  

“Sonic, dial it back,” Maddie said, hurrying down the steps.  Tom trailed after her.  “We knew he wasn’t going to like this!  Cut him some slack.”  She turned to Knuckles like she hadn’t just confirmed they’d been conspiring against him.  “Knuckles, honey, I know this is hard.  You deserve to be upset, but I promise you we haven’t been lying.  We love you.”

“If you loved me, you would not have done this!”  His anger was undermined by a crack in his voice.

She paused, having the gall to look at him with pity.  “Oh, honey, I’m so–”

“NO!”  He snapped.  “I am not your ‘honey’ and I am not your ‘bro’!  You are not understanding: I have found you out!  You can’t pretend this is some family squabble.  This is an act of war!”

That finally gave them pause.  Tails cowered by the deck chairs, looking quickly between all of them.  Tom and Maddie exchanged concerned glances.  The silence was of course broken by Sonic: “Okay, you’re being really dramatic right now!  I think we just need to simmer down–”

White hot rage filled him.  He advanced on the hedgehog, but Tom stepped between them.

The rage fled him immediately, replaced by a cold focus.  The human reached out toward him–to continue the charade of the caring paternal figure or to drop it and attack.  Knuckles didn’t know.  He didn’t wait to find out.

Humans were so pathetically fragile.  The slightest shove with an open palm sent Tom flying.  Not lethal, but he wouldn’t get up again soon.

One threat neutralized.

Sonic was the far greater concern.  Sturdier than the humans and infinitely faster.

Maddie hadn’t even finished her sharp gasp before Knuckles’ next attack.  He struck the ground hard .  Earth exploded around them.  The back windows shattered.  This was a strategic move: disrupt the terrain, blast everyone away from him and off their feet, throw up a blinding dust cloud.  Instill chaos.

One thing Knuckles had learned with the Wachowskis: In the years Sonic and Tails had lived alone, they had still lived ‘civilized’ lives as best they could.  They relied on fragile gadgets and useless trinkets, never honing their natural abilities.  Knuckles could hear their breath.  Feel the vibrations of their footsteps.  Smell their fear.

With Sonic’s speed hampered, Knuckles set his eyes on the next threat: Tails.  The fox was carrying several devices.  Knuckles could sense their electricity.  He wouldn’t kill a child, but he couldn’t let the fox get in his way.  Luckily he had one warp ring on him.

He attacked from behind.  Grabbed the fox by his tails.  Thought of that cold mountain where they’d found the compass all those months ago.  He threw the ring and flung the fox through the opening gate.  The kit’s scream was cut off as he crashed into a snow drift.

Another threat neutralized.

“Tails!”  Sonic yelled.  Giving his position away like a fool.

“Tails!”  Maddie coughed.  “Where are you?  Sonic?”

“Hang on,” Sonic cried back.  “I’m gonna clear this dust–”

Knuckles swung.

Sonic dodged.  “Woah!”

He swung again.

The hedgehog ducked.  “Knuckles!  Cut it out!  Seriously–”  He leapt back and avoided a kick to the face.  “You are not doing a good job convincing me you don’t have some Gollum-y dependence on the freakin’ Emerald of Power!”

Pointless jokes!  His brother ( not his brother!) had never had any respect for him!  Knuckles snarled as he leapt forward, again and again, swiping each time and each time missing.

“There’s gotta be something wrong with you–attacking Dad like that?  Me?  I get!  But he’s never been anything but nice to you!”

His blows slowed as the words sunk in.  Tom had always been good to him.  And he had no allegiance to Longclaw, no stakes in the war over the Emerald.  Neither had Tails.  Why had they taken Sonic’s side?  Why was no one ever on Knuckles’ side?

Sonic’s evasion slowed along with Knuckles’ blows, but his mouth kept going.  “You’re attacking your family over some stupid rock.  Don’t you see how messed up that is?”

That stopped Knuckles dead.  Sonic’s ears twitched forward in interest.  But his words certainly weren’t hitting the way he’d hoped.

Stupid rock.  Stupid rock?!  So many of Knuckles’ people had died, for centuries, for that ‘stupid rock’.  Knuckles had devoted his childhood to finding–and sworn his whole life to guarding–the Master Emerald.  He had suffered grief and violence and slavery and treachery for one purpose and Sonic took it.  Threw it away.  Called it stupid .

Sonic, who had brought him into his home.  Given him a family, a warm place to sleep and food to eat–a world of kind words and soft touches and urging to relax, to let his walls down, to share the bad memories and painful broken pieces in his heart.  

It was messed up that he had made up that colossal lie just to trick him.  To continue the work Longclaw gave her life for.  Knuckles should have known better.  But now he was going to continue the work his tribe had given their lives for.

Sonic was so confident his manipulations were successful, for once he didn’t react fast enough.  The crack of Knuckles’ fist against the hedgehogs’ jaw was satisfying.  The blow was strong enough to take Sonic off his feet, his body nearly horizontal.  Knuckles snatched his ankle before he could go flying away.  He swung him around and smashed him into the earth.  Then whipped him back the other way, over his head.

A cell phone cracked on the ground as coins and random bits of candy fell from the hedgehog’s spines.  A few high metallic pings told him he’d shaken loose Sonic’s stash of spare rings.  He bashed the hedgehog into the ground once more.  Lifted him up, let go.  Punched hard.

Sonic yelped as he was sent flying.  Knuckles launched himself after.

Sonic crashed into a tree.

Knuckles’ hand crashed into his throat.

This was familiar.  But Tails wasn’t here.  There was no one to stop him this time.

Knuckles squeezed.  Not his full strength.  He never used that against living things.  But the constant thought of how much strength to use rose within him and gave him pause.  Was this it?  Was he going to kill Sonic?  He was one of the greatest threats Knuckles had ever faced (and he had faced plenty).  But it wasn’t necessary, was it?  He would get the Master Emerald back and he didn’t need to kill Sonic to do it, did he?

“Knuckles!”  Maddie screamed.  Her voice was far too close.

He dropped the hedgehog and whirled, snarling.  His quills flared and he let the chaos energy enter his eyes so even in the lingering dust she could see them glowingand know he was not to be trifled with.  She stopped immediately.  Took a step back.  Empty hands up in front of her.  Her eyes were wide and fearful as they flit between him and where Sonic slumped, coughing and gasping for breath.  She looked as pained as if he’d attacked her instead.

A pathetic part of him shrank at the sight.  This was the only mother he’d ever known.  The one he’d grown closest to since he’d joined the Wachowski tribe.  He would have done anything to protect her, to please her, to make her proud.  He’d loved her.  He still loved her.

He tried to chase the feeling from his heart.  She’d lied to him.  They’d all lied to him.  Played on his naivety and the pathetic need for companionship that he couldn’t seem to choke out of himself.  All to steal what was most important to him–his reason for living for the past ten years.

“Oh Knuckles… Honey, this… this isn’t what you think I promise you– I promise you –” She stepped toward him, arms out, entreating.  “We love you.  That’s not a lie.”

He shook his head like he could shake the words out.  “Stay back!”  He took a step back himself.  Pitiful.

She paused, holding her empty hands higher as if to emphasize how unarmed she was.  She bent slightly, making herself smaller.  She didn’t need to, he knew she was no threat.

“Please, baby… let’s just… let’s just take a minute, okay?  Just a minute to calm down.  I know you’re hurting, I’m so sorry.  Please–”

“I will hurt you!”  He warned, but his voice came out wrong.

Maddie shook her head gently and looked at him with that same softness that had once made him feel so warm.  “I know you Knuckles,” she said.  “I trust you’re not going to hurt me.”

Knuckles drew in a ragged breath at her words.  “I trusted you not to hurt me.”

Maddie’s eyes watered as she drew in a shaky breath.  She blinked and her tears slipped free.

The sight made him want to take it all back.  To beg her forgiveness and fall into her arms and let her soothe him and ask her please, please let’s get the Emerald and she would agree and everything would go back to how it was.  Back to those peaceful, ignorant days meditating with her on the porch, overlooking his garden while Tails tinkered in the garage and Tom played with Ozzie and Sonic flitted around doing a little of everything.

But that could never be again.  It had never been real to begin with.  

Maddie wasn’t crying because she loved him and felt his pain.  She was crying because he loved her and knew her tears would chain him into compliance.  He could not let himself be caged by their lies any longer.

A gleam caught his eye.  Sonic’s warp rings.

He leapt away from the human, snatching three rings off the ground.  He threw one and a portal opened high in the air above a field of lava, towering cliffs in the distance.  A place he knew well.  Perfect for evading potential pursuers.

“Knuckles!”  Maddie screamed.  “No!”

“Knux–” Sonic croaked as he jerked to his feet.  He stumbled. “Don’t–!”

Knuckles leapt through without a second glance.

For a moment he was weightless, his strength carrying him far through the sweltering air.  Nothing could reach him here.  His jump gradually shifted to falling and he spread his body and spines, gliding easily.  Familiar thermals caught him and he was lifted high along the cliff face.  He saw a skeletal bush and collapsed his spines, catching himself on the cliffside with his spurs.  Only then did he look back.

The portal had closed.  His former family left behind.  He didn’t know how he felt about that.  And he didn’t care.  It was the Wachowskis who had tried to get him to draw out his emotions and examine them–a useless distraction.  Look where it had led him!  He’d lost the Emerald through his own stupidity.

Knuckles climbed.

After crawling along the cliff face a few moments he found a narrow crevice.  Even the greatest warrior in the galaxy needed a place to lick his wounds.  This was one of his boltholes.  It was smaller than he remembered, but he squeezed through.  There were no foreign scents to greet him, just his own faded smell.

He meant to start planning his next move.  Instead, as the calm focus of battle fled him, the strange breathing from before started again.  Why?  Was this something the Wachowskis had done?  Had they poisoned him?  Some sort of mind control that made him panic at the thought of losing them?  Knuckles gasped for air, thoughts racing, body shaking, ears ringing, eyes blurring–no.  No, that was because he was crying.

But why?  He’d faced all manner of horrors and pain that still left him waking from sleep in a cold sweat–but he'd come away without shedding a tear.  He didn’t cry!  He hadn’t cried since he lost his tribe…  This wasn’t the same as then though.  The Wachowski’s had never truly been his tribe.  They had only been pretending!  Why should he mourn?

His eyes weren’t listening though.  He choked as the shameful tears stained his fur.

Later… Later he would pick himself back up and resume his old mission.  The ocean was far too deep for him to swim.  He would need some sort of submarine to scour the bottom.  He would either need a machine of his own and then lessons in how to use it, or he’d have to hire someone else and use theirs.  And he would need more than the few rings he had now.  Regardless, he would need money.  So the first thing he would need to do was get some… Perhaps he would need to return to the arenas.  The thought made him sick, but so did the thought of never finding the Emerald again after his own weakness lost it.

Later he would bury that weak fool ‘Knuckles Wachowski’ and return to himself: Knuckles the Greatest Warrior in the Galaxy.  The Last of the Echidna.

Later he would swear not to waste another moment on the Wachowski tribe.  If he met them again… If they got in his way again.  Then he would remove them with extreme prejudice.

But that was for later.  For now, he allowed himself one last moment of weakness.  He was safe here.  Far away from anyone and impossible to reach.  There was no one to see him cover his face with his fists.  No one to hear him scream out his pain.  No one to care if he cried.

Hello TMNT and ROTTMNT fandom!!

New fic just dropped!!!

@tangledinink and @toastybagel ty ty ty for beta reading this fic i couldn’t have finished it without you! 💛

anyways lmk what you all think!!