TMNT 2012 Space Arc Rewrite: Fugitoid

TMNT 2012 Space Arc Rewrite: Fugitoid

First in-depth character post for our rewrite is about Honeycutt because this rewrite was made by me and my friend @unscapedgoat what else were you expecting

All of the art featured here is a year and a half old at this point because we’ve been working on this rewrite for a long time and just didn’t post anything…the perfectionist in me says that I can do better but I won’t because the designs themselves are still relevant (though I recommend checking out this post for the characters designs). Speaking of…

Appearance

Zayton is a d’hoonib - a humanoid alien with big cat and eagle like features. He’s 6’1 feet and hundreds if not thousands of years old at this point - he’s old even for a long-living race. For his clothes I went for a mix of sad beige (because HAVE YOU SEEN HIS SHIP DECOR) and pirate (because he’s an outlaw who has a ship you know…some of you might even remember my "ship in the bottle" doodles) vibes

Fusiontoid is a modified 6 feet SAL model (both the original robot and the modificated version were created by Honeycutt). Compared to a regular SAL model, this one’s pearly-white instead of silver, has slim claw-like fingers, built-in weaponry and wires going from his brain to his main engine that function as neurons. When he’s not on Ulixes he carries an oxygen ballon because…human(oid) brains need that you know! He also has a spacesuit that he uses both as an oxygen ballon alternative and a disguise.

Story

Just like in IDW, SAL was one of Rewrite!2012 Honeycutt’s first inventions…which he later started mass-producing and selling because from what it seems like in OG and our AU 2012 Zayton is a freelancer from a rich family who earns money by selling various inventions of his. They did keep one SAL model for himself though, and later added a bunch of adjustments and renovations to it. Soon after his parents death Zayton started adding other renovations for his robot as well as rewriting the code and adding in a certain protocol, experimenting with the idea of making SAL his future body - after all, the man is old and dying is scary…The project however was scrapped when it was almost finished, after the scientist realised how risky this whole thing is and how easily it can go wrong. One of Honeycutt’s most recent inventions was the Black Hole generator. Something that can be used for good (it could’ve been a great power source for example) but all the potential buyers wanted to use to for mass murder - something the scientist didn’t want to happen. But because Zayton refused to sell their invention to anyone, he started to run out of money, making it hard for him to even pay for his home/ship Ulixes. The rumours of a brilliant scientist being this desperate for money started spreading near and far. This is when the Krang decided to show up and offered such a huge payment, that at this point Honeycutt just couldn’t refuse.

But hours after that Zayton realised that what he did was truly horrible and by this time the Krang could’ve killed millions of innocent people. And, just how Honeycutt thought - days later triceratons broke into Ulixes, asking the scientist to build them the same invention Krang used to destroy their home planet. Zayton refused, and before the triceratons killed him, Honeycutt gave one last order to his robot: destroy the heart of darkness

Hours later, Honeycutt wakes up in SAL’s body, only now realising that even though the brain transferring project was scrapped it was still a part of his robot’s new program - and, by following that program, it revived its creator in its own body. And, if it wasn’t already bad enough - Honeycutt’s new body will follow Honeycutt’s latest order of destroying the black hole generator no matter what. Horrified at the thought of being forever stuck in a robot’s body and having to eventually sacrifice himself to right his wrongs, the scientist just sits there for a good minute, trying to get their new body to move while thinking about what the hell is he gonna do now

Meanwhile Nathan Bishop (this rewrite’s OC inspired by 2012 Bishop because let’s be real 2012 Bishop isn’t much like Bishop and should’ve just been a new character with the same surname or something) finds out about what his old pal Zayton did and he’s pissed. He doesn’t tell about this to other utroms and just storms off to Ulixes to tell Honeycutt that he has less than an hour to explain himself, run as far as he can, and pray to god that they will die sooner than the Utrom Council finds and executes him. But Bishop quickly changes his mind once he sees what once was his friend - a brutally disfigured humanoid body and a scared robot covered in blood. Honeycutt quickly explains this whole situation and Nathan decides to stay at Ulixes for longer and help him. Because cutting off their ties now would just be cruel - clearly, Honeycutt already got consequences for his actions and regrets what they did.

Later on the two discover just how unstable Zayton’s current state is - in our rewrite AU he’s not just "jittery and nervous" because of his fusion core - he’s a robot filled to the brim with formaldehyde. A liquid of polar molecules. Honeycutt made sure that there won’t be any leakage, but next to so many electronics short-circuiting is bound to happen. And after a while Zayton’s brain just gives up and their body goes into somewhat of an auto-pilot mode, controlled by SAL. After a good rest (which usually takes a whole day) Zayton gets control of his body back. Yes, he does sleep, that’s something human(oid) brains do. No, you can never tell because he always seems active due to the body being in control of either Honeycutt himself or SAL. The two function separately and have their own memories, the last of SAL’s being that Honeycutt is dead. That’s why the triceratons named him Fusiontoid in the first place - at this point the maul-functioning android is neither fully SAL or Honeycutt, but an uneven mix of both. There is some sort of brain rot going on which results in him forgetting some of their memories. Sometimes Honeycutt uses it to his advantage to seem innocent and unaware of what he did while he was still a humanoid…but most of the times it’s just a huge inconvenience for both Honeycutt himself and his friends, making them question if, at this point, Honeycutt is still…well, Honeycutt.

Nathan, however, trusts his cyborg friend enough to ask him to help his earthling friends. At first Zayton agrees for a selfish reason - saving Earth and destroying the black hole generator would both fulfil his only purpose (from SAL’s perspective) and fix his reputation (the triceratons deemed him a criminal and at this point things Zayton did and what happened to them is a common knowledge for many). However, during their journey Honeycutt gets attached to his new friends and gets an on-screen redemption arc that lasts throughout this rewrite’s space arc - later on they genuinely want to help the main six save their homeplanet and even becomes a father figure for Donnie, Mikey and April and even tries to find another way to destroy the Black Hole Generator without blowing himself up so that the three won’t be sad about his death. Leo is also thrilled about getting a new father but for all the wrong reasons which I’ll talk more about in the next rewrite posts, but in short - Leo sees Honeycutt as a Splinter replacement (art below by @unscapedgoat)

Trivia

• They actually introduce themselves as Fusiontoid Honeycutt to keep their status quo for those who don’t know about his full story yet. He also does his best to keep this image of a silly friendly robot that totally never did anything wrong in his life ever. The more Honeycutt begins to trust the main six, the more he acts as his true self around them, slowly revealing who he really is

• Honeycutt had persistent tic disorder and ADD while he was humanoid which only worsened after he became a cyborg. They’re also autistic

• The bleep-bloop stuff are tics half the times and built-in censorship other times…which is a great robotic body feature to have when your bestie basically asked you to babysit six angsty teens who are constantly getting on your nerves

• Honeycutt used to go by he/him/they/them/it/its but no longer uses the last one because ever since he became a cyborg people only called him that in a derogatory way as if he’s some kind of object

• He used to have great relationships with his parents…and now that they’re gone and Honeycutt himself became a cyborg outlaw they sometimes feels like a disgrace to their family (the fact that some people actually called him out like that also doesn’t help)

• They’re probably the worst father figure imaginable and they know it what they don’t know is that these mutants real dad is even worse Honeycutt’s rather immature despite his age because he had the privilege of never facing any real problems up until now. Sometimes they outright neglect their newfound kids in favour of their own needs (especially at the start of the story) but later on start taking better care of the main six and grows a lot as a person.

• Leo, Honeycutt and Nathan have a bonding experience over the fact that they’re all into cheesy sci-if films from Earth

• Speaking of Earth - that’s one of Honeycutt’s main special interests. He’s especially fascinated with the turtles and April because OMG MUTANTS? YOU CAN ACTUALLY DO THAT WITH UTROM OOZE??? awesomesauce

• Since Honeycutt has memory issues at first he couldn’t remember the main six’s names and called them like their defining traits - Freckles, Toothgap, CrackedShell, Scar, Human and…April. Because a month like that already exists that’s not hard to remember