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Chapter Text

Prologue

Rise verse

It was a nice relaxing evening for the four turtles living in the sewers of New York City. Granted, hundredth of oozesquitoes had spread throughout the city and were biting and infecting more or less innocent humans, but Raph, Donnie, Leo and Mikey needed a break from chasing them.

And what better way than a skateboarding night to do that?

Each turtle in turn slid down the ramp at full speed, displaying the extent of their amazing talent. Donnie was leading the score as the fastest of them all, and dismissed all accusations of cheating with a wave of his hand. Of course he hadn't hidden tech inside his skateboard's wheels. He would never.

"If Donnie's cheating, I'm going to cheat too," Leo announced, and he took his mystic sword from nowhere with a grin too big to be unplanned for.

Raph cleared his throat with a concerned expression. "Are you sure it's a good idea, Leo? It's not that I don't like the tundra or the ice floe or even the moon…"

"Although breathing wasn't easy on the moon," Mikey said, raising a finger to emphasize his words of wisdom.

"Relax, Raph, it's going to work!" Leo shook his bandana tail in a fair imitation of a top model on the beach.

"The odds are against it," Donnie pointed out without even bothering to raise his painted eyebrows. "Considering the 892 previous times it didn't work, your probability of success is…"

"Prepare to eat your words, my dear brother." Leo jumped to the start of the ramp. "Wait for it! Waiiit for it!"

Donnie yawned and Raph facepalmed. Mikey, however, leaned forward in curiosity. Maybe this time his brother would get it right?

"Now!" Leo rushed forward and raised his sword. He waved it as fast as he could, but the wretched thing didn't make the slightest portal.

And as his twirls had unbalanced him, he landed against the hard, cold wall.

"Told you so," Donnie said, unfazed.

But Leo wasn't going to admit defeat. Not now, not ever.

"I'll try again! It requires some minor adjustments, and…"

"Leo, it's my turn!" Mikey protested, jumping to his feet.

"Just another try!"

Mikey took his most compassionate expression as he jumped to the top floor. "Leo, you had your moment and if you only wait a little while, you'll have another one. Now it's my turn."

"We can do it together," Leo offered.

Mikey considered it. "Deal."

"Mikey, you're way too nice," Donnie commented from below.

This time, when both Leo and Mikey rushed forward on their skateboards, Leo felt the familiar tingling of mystical energy ready to be unleashed.

"Oh yeah, baby!" he shouted to the beautiful portal that was opening in front of Mikey and him. Now to direct its end on the other side of the ramp and teach his brothers a lesson…

Raph and Donnie watched with interest as Leo and Mikey disappeared through the portal.

A portal which closed and never reappeared.

They waited for thirty excruciating seconds before exchanging a glance.

"Do you think we should panic?" Raph asked.

Donnie shook his head. "Nah. They'll come back in a minute and Mikey will be all happy he hugged a penguin."

"I hope you're right." Raph wrung his hands. If Donnie wasn't, he might have to come up with a plan to rescue his brothers - a daunting perspective.

2003 verse

Hidden in the shadows of a warehouse's ceiling, four turtles were watching the Purple Dragons moving boxes below.

"Remember, guys, we want to know what they're up to," said the leader in blue. "Stealth only."

"We know, Leo," his red-masked brother answered. "Although I keep thinking that my plan was better. Punching these guys in the face until they tell us everything."

"And that's why you're not the plan guy," the amused voice of a turtle carrying a bō staff said.

"Uh, guys, what's that?" the fourth one asked suddenly, pointing at a blue light in front of them.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" the blue light shouted, and two shapes came out of it, one waving something that looked very much like a sword.

Donatello leaned forward, extremely interested. "It looks like a portal of some sort," he said. "That's fascinating."

The mysterious sword drew a blue oval in the air, and for a second it looked like the shape attached to it and the shape attached to the shape attached to it - that one was screaming the loudest - would go through it.

But they missed the portal and it vanished as they landed amongst the baffled Purple Dragons. In the confusion that ensued, the sword was thrown in the air - and it drew a new oval, just next to Leonardo and Michelangelo.

Both of them disappeared from their brothers' view.

"What the shell?" Raphael shouted as he ran to the place where the portal had stood - but from Leonardo and Michelangelo there was no trace.

"Heeeeeeelp!" someone shouted right back from down below. "Heeeeeeeeelp!"

Donatello unsheathed his bō staff. "First things first," he whispered. "Raph? Are you with me?"

"You bet I am," Raphael said through gritted teeth. "First we beat the Purple Dragons, and next I'll have a nice little explanation with those new guys."

He cracked his knuckles and jumped right into the fight.

Rise verse

Raph watched with relief the familiar light of a transdimensional portal coming to life. "See?" he said to Donnie happily, as if Donnie had asked him anything. "They're back!"

Two shapes landed on the ground in a cloud of dust. When they picked themselves up, Raph's bright smile vanished.

The two individuals in front of them were admittedly turtles, but they were not his brothers.

"Wow," Donnie said, showing interest for the first time. "Leo really messed up this time."

Chapter Text

2003 universe

Raphael kicked and punched with gusto. If anything, the two strangers had brought a nice fight with them.

It didn't mean that they were forgiven for the disappearance of his brothers, of course.

But if Donatello was right - and he usually was - and this blue thing had acted like a portal, Leonardo and Michelangelo must be in one piece in another place. And they knew how to fend for themselves.

Still. It was very rude of these strangers to burst like that in the middle of a stealth mission, especially when Leonardo couldn't witness how unstealthy it had become. Raphael would have been only too pleased to point it out to him.

Little by little the melee was becoming less dense; the Purple Dragons were either unconscious or running away with the boxes. Raphael kept watch in case they came back with reinforcements - or Hun - but the leader must have been busy elsewhere.

Soon there was only one Purple Dragon left. To Raphael's dismay, Donatello knocked him out first - an advantage of having a long-range weapon.

Now that they were both the last ones standing, it became very obvious that they were… the last ones standing.

"Where are they?" Raphael's eyes scanned the room, but the two strangers were nowhere in sight.

Until the pile of bodies moved, and a green head emerged.

"Hello," it said. "Thanks for the help." Its eyes widened as it took in Raphael and Donatello's appearance. "Mikey, you have to see that!"

As the body which the head belonged to emerged from the pile, Raphael saw that it was a turtle.

With a blue mask.

Carrying a shell in his arms.

Limbs and a head stuck out from said shell, and soon a second turtle was watching them.

It had an orange mask, and looked very different from the first: smaller, and body painted.

Raphael had a nasty feeling he knew what it meant.

"Oh no, not again." He rubbed his temples in a long-suffering gesture. "I hate dimensional travel."

"This is so fascinating!" Donatello exclaimed. "Are you a red-eared slider turtle? And you an ornate box turtle?"

Raphael nudged him. If his brother kept grinning like a brainiac at these new turtles, they were going to believe that they were welcome.

"Dimensional travel, uh? I bet we're in a different dimension!" the blue-masked turtle said with a bright smile.

"No kidding, Sherlock." Raphael crossed his arms. "So, how did you arrive there?"

"How about introductions first?" the smaller turtle asked, straightening up with distinction as if he hadn't been hiding in his shell a moment before. "That would be the polite way to go."

Raphael shrugged. "You're a Mikey, he's a Leo, you're far from home. Let's get you back there, the sooner the better."

"Oh my gosh, you're a mind-reader!" Mikey shouted.

Raphael rolled his eyes.

Donatello put a hand on his arm. "Please excuse my brother. I'm Donatello, and he's Raphael. With our brothers Leonardo and Michelangelo, we're the teenage mutant ninja turtles of this dimension. But they've just disappeared through one of your portals."

"Ooooooh," Leo and Mikey said in unison.

"So exciting!" Mikey began circling around Donatello and Raphael. "Please don't move. I'm trying to memorize your best angle."

"What for?" Raphael said, baffled.

"For art, of course. You look so similar, a less experienced eye would say that you're the same. But I know better."

Raphael wasn't sure how to react, so he reported his attention to the Leo in front of him.

His question took him by surprise.

"So you're the leader? What was all this?" He waved at the Purple Dragons.

His tone didn't sound ironic at all. Could it be that such a situation was familiar to him?

Raphael decided to take advantage of it. Who said he couldn't have a little fun?

"Oh? Oh, yes. I'm the leader." He completely ignored Donatello's sharp nudge. "And they're Purple Dragons. We were trying to find out what they were up to when you arrived." He made a pause and narrowed his eyes to slits. "So, what have you done to my brothers?"

To his credit, Leo didn't even blink.

"Oh, they're probably in our world right now. It's my sword, it has mystic powers. Wielded by the right hand, it can create interdimensional portals!"

"I would love to examine it," Donatello asked excitedly. "I'm studying mystic energies myself."

Raphael spoke before Leo could answer.

"Don, let the nice turtle work his magic so he and his brother can get the shell out of here. We don't want to make them late, now do we?"

Donatello looked sheepish. "No, I guess not."

"So all you have to do is to create a portal, right?" Raphael went on.

Leo nodded.

"And we'll have our brothers back."

Again, Leo nodded.

"Except if it doesn't work, in which case we could land anywhere," his brother pointed out while sketching in a notebook he had taken from who knew where.

"Shut up, Mikey," Leo whispered. "Don't listen to him!" he said louder, adding a little laugh for more convincing power. "It'll work, satisfied or refunded."

"Okay. Let's do it."

Leo took a few steps to the side and searched for his weapon amongst the unconscious bodies, first calmly, then less calmly, then frantically.

In the end, he stood awkwardly in front of Raphael and Donatello.

"Uhh... You wouldn't happen to have seen my sword, would you?"

Rise universe

Raph took a deep breath. Despite his concern for his brothers, it was likely that these strangers had nothing to do with… this whole situation. On the contrary, Leo was the one responsible.

He hoped they wouldn't mind.

"Uh, hello. I'm Raph."

"Hello," the two turtles answered.

One wore a blue mask and the other an orange one. It was a good thing as far as Raph was concerned. Without these masks, he wasn't sure that he would have managed to differentiate them. They looked completely alike, except maybe the skin color. It was hard to tell under the dust.

He and his brothers really needed to clean the lair before Splinter noticed.

"My name is Leonardo," the blue-masked turtle said. "And this is Michelangelo."

The orange-masked turtle winked. "Just call me Mike."

Raph blinked. Had he heard correctly? "Wow! Donnie, do your hear that? They have the same names as our brothers!"

The blue one - Leonardo - nodded, as if he had been expecting this. "And you are?"

"My name is Raphael, but everybody calls me Raph. And here is Donatello, but everybody calls him Donnie."

"Or the Ultimate Genius in the Known Universe," Donnie added. "Whatever you may prefer."

The other Michelangelo looked at him in surprise and amusement.

Or Bootyyyshaker9000, Raph thought with an inner grin. But he wasn't going to embarrass his brother in front of strangers by saying it aloud.

"Have you any idea why we are here?" Leonardo asked.

Raph cleared his throat. This was the question he had feared. He cleared his throat again to give himself more time to think about his answer. And once more.

In the meantime, Michelangelo took in his surroundings.

"Wow!" He grinned. "A skate ramp? Within your lair?"

"Of course," Donnie replied with just enough disdain to hide his deep satisfaction.

He had been the one to draw up the plans.

"That's awesome!"

Raph smiled at Michelangelo, happy about the diversion. Maybe he wouldn't have to give an explanation after all?

But apparently, Leonardo was still waiting for an answer.

"Now that's funny, because you see, we have a brother like you and he... uh..." Raph fidgeted. "He has this mystic sword of sorts, and he still needs a little practice, could we say. His portals are... hit or miss."

"I'd say miss or miss," Donnie added without mercy.

The two foreign turtles exchanged a glance.

"This Leo sounds... interesting," Michelangelo said with definite glee.

"I apologize for the inconvenience caused." Raph bowed solemnly.

"If he had kept a more conventional weapon like me, it wouldn't have happened," Donnie commented.

"So if I understand correctly, all your brother has to do is to create a new portal so we can go home, right?" Leonardo asked.

"Yeah, we're missing out on the fun," Michelangelo said, although he eyed the skate ramp with some sadness.

"It looks like you'll be our guests in the meantime!" Raph exclaimed, happy that they were taking the situation so well. "Don't worry, it shouldn't be long."

Michelangelo rubbed his hands. "I know how I'm going to keep busy! Do you have a spare skateboard?"

"Of course." Donnie indicated Mikey's one. "I'm sure Mikey won't mind. And then we can show you the Arcade." Donnie was also very proud of this part of the lair, which he had largely contributed to create - with a substantial help from Mikey for the design.

At the mention of an arcade, Michelangelo's eyes lit up like a Christmas tree.

Chapter Text

2003 universe

Leo gave the two foreign turtles a big toothy smile in the hope that they wouldn't linger too much over the meaning of his last words.

His hope didn't last for long.

"YOU LOST YOUR SWORD?" the turtle named Raphael shouted right into his sensitive ears.

Leo shrank a little under the furious yell. That Raphael wasn't helping. Obviously he had a different leadership style from his own brother Raph, who would rather have soothed him by saying it was no problem.

Not that it would have helped, either - because it was a problem, and Leo knew it - but it was way nicer.

"Excuse me if I was a little busy," he said with great dignity, stifling the urge to rub his abused ears. "You know, busy surviving the warm welcome of your world."

Raphael rolled his eyes. "You know, a really easy way to avoid that would have been not to come in the first pl-"

He was pushed aside by Mikey, who had put his sketchbook away in order to better grab Leo's shoulders.

"You mean we're lost here forever? We'll never see Raph and Donnie again? I'll never eat the best pizza in the world again? We have to find your sword!"

The panic in Mikey's voice almost contaminated Leo. But he felt responsible for both of them - who knew how much they could count on these two other turtles, especially the rude Raphael? - and he refused to yield to it.

"Of course we will find it, Mikey." Leo patted his brother's shell. "It couldn't have gone far. It can't walk, right?"

"Hmm, I'm not so sure about that," Donatello began. "Maybe one of the Purple Dragons stole it. Can its mystical magic be triggered by somebody else than you?"

Leo grimaced. He would rather have let these other turtles believe that he was the only being in all the worlds who could unleash the portal powers of this sword.

However, lying was only a good idea when the chances of getting caught were slim.

"Yeah, it's a possibility," he admitted.

Donatello and Raphael exchanged a glance that could only be called concerned, as if they knew something Leo didn't.

Leo hated that.

"Can you imagine what Hun would do with such ability?" Donatello whispered.

"All too well." Raphael clenched his fists. "Let's hope the thief has no intention of bringing that sword back to his leader."

Leo was listening to their every word. So that Hun was the Purple Dragons' leader, uh? And these Purple Dragons themselves - who were they? Representatives of organized crime in the city?

"Who's Hun?" Mikey asked.

Raphael gave him a spooky smile. "A big, big man that likes nothing more than punching turtles."

Leo wasn't impressed. No matter how big the man was, he probably couldn't compete with Big Mama the madwoman - or mad-yokai-spider.

"Raph would love him," Mikey commented, also unimpressed. "He's always complaining that we don't put all our heart in punching him."

Raphael blinked.

"He's pulling his punches too, and I'm not complaining about it." Leo shrugged. "But yeah, I guess we were too obvious."

"Uh." Something about the concept seemed to unsettle Raphael.

Too bad that Leo was in no mood to expand.

"So." He stretched his arms. "It's not that I don't like a good conversation, but I need to get my sword back. Where does this Hun lives?"

"We can lead you to the Purple Dragons' current lair," Donatello said. "But maybe we should go to our own lair first. I need to take a few things that could help us, and you might want another weapon."

"Oooh," Leo said, doing his best to keep his sense of irony in check. This Donatello had been nothing but nice and helpful so far, unlike his brother. "You mean you would help us?"

Some sarcasm must have escaped his notice, because Raphael frowned.

Donatello put an insistent hand on his brother's forearm. "Of course. You can count on our assistance. Right, Raph?"

"Right," Raphael grumbled.

Probably more to please his brother than because he meant it, if his tone was any indication.

"In that case, we'll be happy to have you by," Leo said graciously, secretly pleased that he didn't have to ask.

He didn't know this world, after all, and some reinforcements were always nice.

Donatello smiled at him. "Come. The Battle Shell is that way."

Rise universe

Michelangelo was having the time of his life. The Arcade had everything he could have asked for: video games, video games, and pizza to go with the video games.

It was paradise. Michelangelo hoped that whatever this other Leo was up to, it would last long enough that he would have the time to try all the games.

Icing on the cake, he had found in Donnie an opponent on his own level.

As in, he was a great cheater.

"Didn't you just use your last life?" Michelangelo said matter-of-factly.

"No," Donnie said, just as matter-of-factly. "You were mistaken."

Michelangelo couldn't help admiring the ease Donnie had lied with. He wasn't used to that from a Donatello.

"It was your last life."

"Ah, Mike." Donnie's tone was the most patronizing Michelangelo had ever heard. "It's okay. I'm a genius, you can't keep up with me and it irritates you. No hard feelings."

Michelangelo glanced at his opponent. Donnie looked dead serious.

He decided to dig and see how far he could go.

"Of course you're a genius, who else would design such a perfect place?"

He waved at the Arcade and took advantage of the gesture to put his arm around Donnie's shoulders.

Donnie stiffened a little under the gesture, but didn't protest.

"Yes, I know," he puffed up.

"And of course a mere mortal such as me can't compete with you," Michelangelo added.

The complacent smile on Donnie's face proved enough that the turtle was drinking Michelangelo's words.

With Donnie's attention focused on Michelangelo's face and not on the hand that was hanging close to his gamepad, it was child's play for the orange-masked turtle to press a special combination of buttons.

The screen immediately displayed "Purple Boss left the game", and Michelangelo pulled out his arm with a grin.

"What?" Donnie yelled. "You cheated!"

Michelangelo gave him his most innocent smile. "Nah. You're mistaken."

In the kitchen of this same lair, and while Donnie and Michelangelo restarted another round, Leonardo did his best to answer the questions of this huge and friendly Raph.

"So you are four brothers, just like us?"

"Yes."

"And you live in New York City?"

"Yes."

"In the sewers?"

"Yes."

"Do you have yokai?"

"… No. What are yokai?"

Raph began to tell him about the Hidden City in a dimension underneath New York, and about the people who lived there. Leonardo listened intently to him.

This universe was decidedly very different from theirs.

He was given another proof of that when Raph suddenly interrupted his talk.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't even ask you if you wanted to drink something. What kind of host am I?" He rubbed his hands. "Do you want something to drink? Hot chocolate maybe? We've marshmallows."

Leonardo inwardly grimaced at the mention of that much sugar. "Do you have tea?"

"Oh, sure! Just wait a minute." Raph went to one of the kitchen's cupboards and began making the tea.

Leonardo watched him with relief. "Thank you."

"It's amazing," Raph said. "That you exist, I mean. Wait until I tell April! She'll be baffled!" He chuckled and took his phone. "You know what, I'm texting her right now. Maybe she can come and say hi before you leave! Not that I think Leo'll take long to fix things, don't worry," he added in haste.

Leonardo decided it would be wiser not to comment on the bead of sweat which was treacherously sliding down his host's temple.

"And maybe I should tell Master Splinter too," Raph added with much less enthusiasm. "Yeah."

He let the water boil and led Leonardo to a living room where the TV was on. Raph came closer to a giant armchair and bent over its armrest.

"Hey Pops! We have guests."

Leonardo raised his eye ridges at the title. He took a step forwards and watched, dumbfounded, the fat rat sprawled on the cushions.

Said rat groaned something that Leonardo didn't hear. The turtle wondered whether he should say something and introduce himself, but Raph shrugged and left Pops alone.

"It's his favorite commercial ads," he said to Leonardo. "He'll be more receptive later."

Leonardo silently nodded.

Yes, this universe was definitely very different from his own.

He really hoped that everything was going fine at home.

2003 universe

"Not bad," Mikey said upon discovering the decoration of these other turtles' lair.

He liked his own home better, like he liked the Turtle Tank more than the Battle Shell that was these turtles' vehicle, but it was still a very nice place.

It was audacious, with neither rectangular nor rounded shapes for the doorframes and symbols everywhere. And it had a pond.

"We found this place after our first lair was destroyed by Mousers," Donatello explained. "It's been built by an ancient…"

A splash interrupted him. "It's good!" Leo shouted.

Mikey grinned and joined him inside the pond. It was good.

Donatello watched them both in surprise and amusement before heading for a desk covered in spare parts and weird scientific machines. "Raph will show you the armory," he said as he began searching through his stuff.

"If you're still interested," Raphael added, watching the two turtles playing in the water with a nonplussed expression.

Mikey assumed the pond had long ago lost its novelty to him. He was wondering whether he could try to push him into the water - Raphael definitely sounded grumpy and it was a case for Doctor Delicate Touch Mikey - when a new voice echoed in the vast room.

"My sons?"

Mikey turned to see the newcomer. It was a short rat leaning on a cane.

Now if Mikey had to guess, a short rat in a lair full of teenage mutant ninja turtles could only mean one thing.

"You're their Splinter!" he said, delighted.

The rat tilted his head. "Indeed." He took in the occupants of the room and his smile disappeared. "My sons, where are your brothers?"

Raphael huffed and pointed at Leo, who was almost completely immersed in the water with only his eyes showing.

Mikey couldn't blame him for feeling a little apprehensive. After all, he was 100% responsible for the vanishing of two of this Splinter's sons.

"Why don't you ask him?"

Chapter Text

2003 verse

Raphael watched with deep satisfaction as Leo slowly emerged from the water to face Splinter.

The rat waited calmly for his unexpected guest to explain what he had to do with Leonardo and Michelangelo's absence.

"So, you see," Leo began, "I have this sword which can create portals, and it so happens that apparently, maybe, possibly your sons jumped through one of them. By accident. Or so I've been told, I couldn't witness it as we were fighting dozens of these Purple Dragons guys on our own."

He waited for that new Splinter's reaction, and felt relieved when the rat didn't give any indication that he was going to jump down Leo's throat or yell at him or anything inconvenient like this.

Raphael huffed. "And here I thought that you were hiding under the Purple Dragons."

Leo spared him a disdainful look.

"Hmm," Splinter said to Leo, his tone absolutely neutral. "Then maybe you could bring them back with your sword?"

"Ha! Of course, that's exactly what I'm going to do, and I told them so!" Leo pointed at Raphael and Donatello. "So if you'll please excuse me, duty's calling." He walked nonchalantly to Raphael. "Where is your armory, already?"

Splinter raised an eyebrow at Raphael, clearly asking for more.

"He lost his sword," Raphael said matter-of-factly. "We think the Purple Dragons have it."

"It's a temporary situation," Leo added in haste. "Very temporary." He glanced at Mikey in case his brother wanted to help, but the orange-masked turtle merely gave him a you're-on-your-own shrug.

"Hmm," Splinter said again.

He looked so serious, it was unnerving to Leo.

"We're going to the Purple Dragons' hideout right now," Donatello added as he joined them with a bag filled with everything he thought might help.

Leo felt grateful for his interference, intentional or not.

Splinter sighed. "Be careful, my sons."

"Of course!" Raphael grinned. "When are we not?"

Splinter was spared a long-suffering answer by an insistent meow.

Mikey turned to the source of the sound with delight. "You have a cat?"

It was tiny and orange, and it meowed again, looking insistently at the turtles.

"Sorry Klunk, Mike isn't home," Raphael said.

"Hey Klunk," Mikey said, beaming. "Nice to meet you." He knelt and extended his hand so the cat could sniff it. "Leo, don't you think it would be great if we had a cat?"

"We already have Shelldon," Leo said. "I say one moody and unpredictable being is enough." He paused. "Two if we count Donnie."

"Who's Shelldon?" Donatello asked.

"One of Donnie's inventions. He almost killed him when we messed with his circuitry because he was playing favorites, but now he's cool."

"Oooh." Donatello went silent and gazed into the distance.

"What kind of invention tries to kill you anyways?" Raphael watched his brother in concern. Did he get any ideas? The last thing they needed in this lair was a killer invention like that Shelldon.

"I mean, it makes him a good weapon too." Leo grinned. "We could say it's a weapet. Get it? A weapon and a pet."

Mikey gave the others apologetic glances, hoping they would understand that his brother had his issues.

"Oh come on!" Leo protested. "It was a good one!"

"Sure, Leo," Mikey said, patting his shoulder. "Sure. Now let's get you a nice weapon, right?"

"Do you have katana?" Leo asked hopefully. After all, these were his preferred weapons when he wasn't going all mystical.

Donatello shook his head. "Sorry, our Leo has the only pair. But we might have a longsword."

Leo shrugged. "It'll do. Alright, let's go!"

When the four turtles finally left the lair, Splinter let out the sigh he had been holding in.

He hated it when his boys left their universe without warning.

Rise verse

Donnie was in the middle of his thirteenth game with Michelangelo - that turtle was a good challenger, no doubt - when he became thirsty.

"Shelldon! Refreshments, please!" he shouted without leaving the screen out of his sight.

"Shelldon? Who's that?" Michelangelo asked, also not leaving the screen out of his sight.

"Oh, I made him a while ago. To be precise, it's S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N., but everybody calls him Shelldon."

Michelangelo snickered. "Shell-Don, uh? A neat name."

Donnie nodded. "It's the perfect name for my creation."

"Refreshments incoming," a robotic voice said.

Michelangelo gave the robotic turtle an awed glance, and Donnie took this opportunity to win, for once fair and square.

Raph was out of ideas to entertain his guest. Leonardo had shown no inkling that he wanted to play video games, and watching TV was out of the question as long as the remote remained in Splinter's possession.

To be fair, Leonardo hadn't shown any indication that he was tired of Raph's conversation either. It was just that Raph himself was quickly falling out of topics to talk about, especially as he didn't want to insist upon the fact he and Michelangelo were in the wrong universe.

Leo better hurry to fix that.

"So, is there anything you would like to do?" he finally resolved to ask.

Leonardo considered the question. "Is there any place where I could train?" he asked politely.

Raph's eyes widened in delighted surprise. "You want to train? Oh, then I can show you how we train! With Lou Jitsu videos!"

He enthusiastically led his guest to the room dedicated to that purpose. "How about 1 Fish, 2 Fish, Red Fish, Dead Fish? It has fish and ladders!"

If Leonardo was surprised by that introduction, he didn't show it.

"So this is Lou Jitsu, the best martial artist ever!" Raph rubbed his hands in glee. "And you know, he's related to us! He gave us his DNA!" He took a more serious expression. "Albeit unwillingly. Oh, I really hope he's doing fine, wherever he is!"

Raph started the movie and began mimicking Lou Jitsu's moves.

It became quickly obvious to Leonardo that Raph knew said moves by heart. After a moment of surprise, he started to imitate Raph's postures. After all, his own father had learned ninjitsu by mimicking his beloved master Hamato Yoshi's moves, so why not?

It was interesting and rather fun, and he didn't see time fly.

When the movie came to an end, Leonardo noticed that they weren't alone in the room. Raph's father had sneaked inside at some point and was watching them with a smile.

"So what do you think of the movie?" he asked from Leonardo. "Lou Jitsu is impressive, isn't he?"

Leonardo, who couldn't have known that said Lou Jitsu was standing in front of him right now, although he could and did make a note of not underestimating the short and fat and stealthy rat, nodded.

"He was the best of the best," Splinter muttered, suddenly lost in thought. "Everybody loved him." He shook himself. "So, Blue, what are you doing here?"

Leonardo blinked. So apparently he was Blue now?

"We fell through a portal," he replied politely. "We're grateful for your hospitality while we wait until we can come home."

"I see." Splinter smoothed his beard. "Blue strikes again."

Leonardo glanced at Raph. Was Splinter talking about his son this time?

"You said we," Splinter added. "Who is with you?"

"My brother Michelangelo. He's with Donnie, I think."

"Purple loves his Arcade." Splinter nodded. "Well, I hope it won't last for long. I'm sure your family will worry. Because there is more of you, right?"

Leonardo decided to let the nicknames' matter go, although he made a mental note to give Michelangelo a heads-up. The last thing he wanted was his brother calling the rat Grey in the heat of the discovery moment. "I have two other brothers and a father, yes."

Splinter's eyes lit up. "And that father, he's a mutated rat too?"

"Yes."

"It can be hard to adapt to that life when you have been human," Splinter said, glancing at the Lou Jitsu movie with something like longing in his eyes.

Leonardo cleared his throat. "In fact, my father has always been a rat. He began his life as a pet rat and was mutated to a humanoid form along with us."

Splinter's whiskers bristled in surprise.

"Oh."

Chapter Text

Rise verse

It was very late when Donnie and Michelangelo had to call it a tie.

Michelangelo was offered Mikey's room, but he didn't go to sleep before sneaking inside Leo's - where Leonardo was meditating.

Michelangelo collapsed on the bed and waited for his brother to acknowledge his presence.

When Leonardo remained cross-legged on the floor with his eyes closed for the following two seconds, Michelangelo decided that he had waited long enough.

"How was your night?"

"Interesting," Leonardo answered without moving. "This world is very different from ours, no doubt. How about yours?"

Michelangelo straightened up. "I'm so glad you asked! They have two hundred and seventy-six different video games that I've never heard of in the Arcade. I'm going to spend my whole time in there, fair warning."

Leonardo sighed and finally opened his eyes to watch his brother. "Let's hope it won't last too long, or the others will worry. Besides, we didn't learn what the Purple Dragons were up to. I wonder if Raph and Don managed to get some information about it."

Michelangelo grinned. "Relax, Leo. I'm sure they're doing fine."

2003 verse

The Purple Dragon's lair didn't seem very impressive to Leo and Mikey. It looked like a normal building outside and was a normal building inside, according to Donatello. Nothing mystical about it. Leo had asked if the Purple Dragons guarding it were, in fact, yokai in disguise, but Raphael's dumbfounded look and Donatello's curious one had told him that it wasn't the case.

Still, Donatello and Raphael carefully checked their gear one last time before sneaking inside.

Mikey decided it was the right time to ask the question he had been dying to ask since the beginning. He crossed his arms behind his back and tilted his head.

"So, Don? What does you staff do? Disco ball? Drill? Nuclear weapon?"

Donatello watched him in surprise. "Hmm, none of that. It's a bō staff. A reliable weapon, even when tech can't be used."

"Oh," Mikey said, disappointed.

Next to them, Leo was waiting for Raphael's instructions.

"So what's the plan, o great leader?"

Raphael bumped his fists together. "We come in, look for your sword, bust Purple Dragons heads if they disagree and come out."

Leo smirked. Apparently, this Raphael's plans were as well-devised as Raph's. "Good, good. Where do we begin?"

"Don?" Raphael asked, hoping that he sounded like he was merely giving the floor to his brother because Donatello was the best placed to answer the question, and not like he, Raphael, had no idea whatsoever.

Donatello took some device with a screen and beeping lights from his bag and began tapping away at it. A drone the size of a bee took off and flew to the building.

A few moments later, a three dimensional map appeared in front of the turtles, showing rooms and moving red dots.

"Neat," Raphael commented.

Donatello studied it. "It looks like the Purple Dragons are mostly gathered in this room." He pointed at the map. "Maybe we could begin with the more deserted areas? We can sneak in from the rooftop."

"And what if they're all gathered where my sword is?" Leo asked, a bit worried.

"Then we bust some heads," Raphael said with great determination. "Let's go!"

It turned out that the Purple Dragons didn't have Leo's sword after all - but Hun was way more impressive than Mikey would have thought when you looked at him from really, really close, and the wall was crumbling behind you right where his punches hit.

Good thing that Mikey was fast and nimble, and that the fire demon inside his weapon had agreed to cooperate for once.

Now that they had all escaped safely, it was time to settle comfortably on this rooftop and watch Raphael and Leo express their different opinions about said escape.

Which was exactly what Mikey did, as well as taking his sketchbook and writing Leo's and Raphael's names on a new page.

Raphael was busy repeating the same sentence for the third time, as if he had a hard time grasping the concept.

"You ran away?"

Leo threw up his arms, keeping a careful eye on Raphael's clenched fists.

"Of course I ran away! Have you seen that guy?"

"I can't believe it!"

"They didn't have my sword, what was the point in fighting?"

"If you were scared, you should have told us!"

"I wasn't scared, I was staying alive!"

Mikey nodded gravely and marked a cross under Leo's name in his sketchbook.

"You didn't even warn us! We just looked back and you weren't there anymore!"

Mikey rubbed his chin in his intense reflection and marked a cross under Raphael's name.

"And that way, I was free to rescue you if needed!"

"We didn't need rescuing!"

"How could you know that?"

Mikey hadn't decided who should score this point when Raphael turned away from Leo and kicked a brick from the rooftop, sending it crashing in the deserted alleyway below.

Both Mikey and Leo gaped at him.

"I'm out of there," Raphael spat.

Silence reigned over the rooftop after his sudden departure.

"Okay, I didn't see that one coming," Leo finally admitted.

Which was saying a lot.

Donatello took in the foreign turtles' upset expressions and shrugged. "He'll come around. It's better to let him cool down on his own terms. How about we come back to the lair? We need to rethink this."

Leo nodded. "If these Purple Dragons don't have my sword, then who does?"

Mikey stayed slightly behind as his brother and Donatello exchanged theories, muttering to himself in the shadows of this New York City.

"This is definitely a case for Doctor Delicate Touch Mikey. Unless Doctor Feelings would handle it better? Hmm…"

Rise verse

Michelangelo and Donnie's plans to break the videogame tie were postponed by the arrival of a green and yellow storm.

"Guys!"

Michelangelo blinked at the teenage girl who excitedly waved her arms.

"Hi, April!" Raph beamed.

"Nice to meet you. You look great!" April said to Michelangelo and Leonardo. "Guys, I need your help," she added without catching her breath, looking at Donnie and Raph.

"How was your new job?" Donnie inquired with one painted eyebrow raised.

April grimaced. "It's going to be my ex-new job real soon if you don't help me. Meat Sweats crashed the party, and kinda kidnapped my boss."

"Meat Sweats? What sort of villain's name is that?" Michelangelo wondered.

Raph frowned. "What? Why didn't you call us?"

"I tried," April said, her hands on her hips, "but nobody answered?"

Raph cleared his throat and checked his phone. It had indeed run out of battery, and he offered April a very wide and very sheepish smile.

"I switched mine off not to be disturbed in the most important competition of all times," Donnie said matter-of-factly.

April blinked at him.

"The competition that will prove that I'm the best at videogames in every known universe!"

Michelangelo looked at him with narrowed eyes. "Not on my watch."

Donnie glared right back at him, and April clapped her hands.

"Guys, guys, a little focus here?"

"Of course, April!" Raph raised a determined finger. "We'll take down that dangerous enemy and save your job! And your boss, I guess."

"Thanks!"

"We would like to help you, too," Leonardo offered.

"We would?" Michelangelo grinned sheepishly at his brother's glare. "Of course we would. Fine. Who doesn't want to know what a Meat Sweats looks like anyways?"

Chapter Text

2003 verse

Raphael raced across the rooftops of his beloved city.

The wind in his face and the effort in his muscles helped him to release his considerable anger at the last events.

Nothing had gone according to plan. Not that he really had a plan, but still.

And now they were back to the beginning, without magical sword and without knowing what the Purple Dragons were up to.

They were up to something, though. When the turtles had entered the meeting room, Hun had been talking about completing the boarding of Raphael didn't know what - because then Mikey had taken a picture of him and a Purple Dragon as a souvenir, and lo and behold! the Purple Dragon had noticed that the face pressing against his own wasn't human.

Which had marked the beginning of the fight. A nice fight, all things considered, until Raphael had noticed Leo's absence and worried that he had been captured or worse - but no. And while it was a good thing in hindsight, it also infuriated Raphael that Leo hadn't wanted to stay with them.

The red-masked turtle finally came to a stop on the top of one of his favorite skyscrapers.

If only Leonardo was there, he would have made up a new plan in seconds; but Leonardo wasn't here. Instead they had a Leo who lost swords and ran away from fights.

Maybe Donatello would have an idea. Maybe he could invent something to bring Leonardo and Michelangelo back. Raphael certainly trusted him more than these Mikey and Leo combined.

And he was beginning to feel slightly guilty that he had left his brother alone with the two other-dimensional turtles.

Raphael took one last cleansing breath and made for the lair.

Mikey was sitting on the couch of that foreign lair, fingers intertwined, waiting for Raphael's return. From the corner of his eye, he could see Donatello examining his mystical weapon - the purple-masked turtle had sounded so enthusiastic after seeing it used in combat that Mikey had wholeheartedly agreed to let him borrow it for a few experiments.

Leo had disappeared somewhere upstairs. Mikey didn't remember him asking Donatello whether he could borrow one of the rooms, but Leo rarely asked for permission anyways.

Mikey was tired too, of course, but he wasn't going to go to bed without completing his mission. Therefore, he stubbornly waited.

After what felt like hours, Raphael finally came home. Mikey stood up with an inner sigh of relief.

"Raph! I'm so glad you're here. I have something important to tell you."

Raphael barely spared him a glance. "Can't it wait until tomorrow?"

Mikey shook his head vigorously. "No, no, no!"

Raphael sighed. "Fine. Be quick."

"Of course." Mikey stepped closer to him. He had decided that Doctor Delicate Touch would do the best job here, and Doctor Delicate Touch needed to be close to his victi- patient's ears.

"GET A GRIP ON YOUR ANGER, MAN!"

Next thing Mikey knew, he was flying across the room at high speed and crashing against the many TV screens.

"Raph!" Donatello said indignantly.

"He started it!" Raphael protested.

"Okay," Mikey whispered to himself, lifting a finger. "Maybe Doctor Delicate Touch was a bad choice." He watched as Raphael left the room, probably in order to go to bed. "But Doctor Feelings hasn't given up on you yet," he added with great determination.

Leo opened several doors before he found a room that looked like it could have been his counterpart's - at least the comforter was blue.

It was a little pared-down, but it was still better than the mess of a room with its pizza boxes everywhere, including under the orange sheets.

Leo had some standards.

He lay on the bed and crossed his arms behind his head. Where could his sword be? He had thoroughly searched the warehouse and the Purple Dragons' lair, no matter what Raphael said. It just wasn't there.

Someone cleared his throat from the doorstep. Leo lifted his head lazily to see who it was.

It was these turtles' Splinter. What did he want with him?

"You're in my room," the rat stated.

Leo blinked. "Oh." He stood up, trying not to look too ridiculous. "My most sincere apologies. I didn't know."

Splinter tilted his head. "Why didn't you ask?"

"Of course I should have! It just eluded me. Probably because I was too busy thinking about this great plan to find my sword and…" Leo realized too late that maybe he shouldn't have mentioned to Splinter the mission was a failure.

It was a beginner's mistake, he really needed some sleep.

Splinter sighed and leaned heavier on his cane. Leo would gladly have left him alone, but the rat was still on the doorstep and thus, blocking the exit.

"The whole plan was terrible," Leo defended himself, just in case.

"Ah."

Splinter stood there like an unsettling authority figure. Didn't he have some TV to watch?

The rat's voice was perfectly neutral as he spoke. "Why didn't you tell them so, then?"

Leo shrugged. "Like they would have listened to me. Besides, Raph is the leader. It's his job to make plans."

Splinter raised an eyebrow. He seemed surprised for some reason. "Hmm."

A yell followed by a loud crash were heard from the living room. It didn't sound like a life-threatening crash, though, and neither Splinter nor Leo moved.

"But you're working on a plan now," Splinter went on. "Isn't it what you just said?"

Leo felt a bead of sweat go down his forehead. "Did I? I mean, yes, I said that, of course. And if I said that, it's true. Everything I say is the pure, unaltered truth."

Splinter's eyes were piercing him.

"Uh, which room could I take? To sleep in?" Leo said in a desperate attempt to change the topic.

"That way." Splinter pointed at the other half of the corridor with his cane. "The room on the left."

The rat finally cleared a path to the door, and Leo hurried to leave.

"Maybe you should consider sharing your plan with my sons," Splinter said softly when Leo passed next to him. "Sometimes, they do listen."

Rise verse

April didn't lose time in leading the turtles to the last place where her new boss had been seen, aka his very own restaurant. She was curious to know where the heck Leo and Mikey had disappeared, but it would have to wait until the poor man was rescued. There weren't that many people willing to hire her for decent wages.

Plus it was the right thing to do.

"It's there. We were preparing for the evening rush when Meat Sweats crashed into the place."

"Quite literally, it seems." Michelangelo watched the hole in the wall of the restaurant with some concern. "If I believe this hole's shape, that poor mutant had way less luck than we did."

"Not everybody can be a first-class mutant," Donnie pointed out.

"This poor mutant kidnapped Pops once," Raph said with unabated indignation.

Donnie tilted his head. "Unless Dad kidnapped him. That part was never quite clarified."

"And," Raph went on, "he also tried to eat us."

Michelangelo gulped.

"So, where do you think he left?" April asked Donnie.

"Hmm…" Donnie took a remote control and pressed a button.

Under Michelangelo's and Leonardo's baffled gazes, his shell took off while another one rushed from nowhere to replace it.

"My tracking shell will find him for us." Donnie puffed himself up, savoring the other turtles' surprise.

"Excellent!" Raph said.

The tracking shell led them to a grim-looking trailer in a waste ground.

"Apparently his living conditions have only gotten worse." Donnie shook his head. "Good thing Mikey isn't there to see that. He's a huge fan of the guy."

"You mean, the guy who tried to eat you? Just asking," Michelangelo said in a detached tone.

"Yes."

"Uh-huh, uh-huh." Michelangelo put an arm around Leonardo's shoulders. "Can we go home now?" he whispered in his brother's ear.

"What's the plan?" an unfazed Leonardo asked Raphael.

"We come in, save April's boss and come out!" Raph beamed.

Leonardo watched him with some concern. "That's… quite straightforward."

"So, are you sure you still want to come? No hard feelings if you don't," Raph said delicately. He wasn't too keen on risking these two turtles' lives on a mission. What if they got hurt?

"Okay," Michelangelo immediately answered.

"We're coming," Leonardo said at the same time. He grabbed Michelangelo's arm right before his brother could sneak away.

Raph straightened up and raised a giant fist. "Then let's go, team!"

They came closer to the trailer and looked through one window.

A gagged puny man was tied up on a chair in front of a giant mutant pacing back and forth.

"What do you think he's doing?" April whispered.

"It looks like he's lecturing him," said Michelangelo, who knew about such things.

Leonardo considered the new situation. "Then we have an opportunity to surprise him and -"

"LET HIM GO!" April shouted as she kicked the door open.

Raph and Donnie followed her inside.

"What she said," Donnie added way more nonchalantly.

Leonardo raised an eye ridge and signaled to Michelangelo that both of them should stay outside and remain unnoticed.

"This man is the worst cook I've ever seen," Meat Sweats spat with a thick accent. "He doesn't deserve to have a restaurant!"

Some of Meat Sweats' acid saliva reached the chair where he had tied up his guest. One of its legs began to melt.

"Mmmmmm!" the gagged human expressed.

"Raaaaaaaaaaaah!" April and her baseball bat threw themselves down Meat Sweats' throat.

Meat Sweats punched her into Donnie, which infuriated Raph. Chaos ensued inside the trailer, and April's boss fell on the floor.

"Let's get this man out of here before anything bad happens to him," Leonardo whispered to Michelangelo.

His brother nodded and they proceeded to bring the human safely out. He ran away as soon as they cut his bindings.

"And thank you," Michelangelo muttered. He liked a little gratitude.

A sudden flash of red light threw Meat Sweats outside. April came after him and trampled him with gusto.

It looked like the fight was already over.

Then the trash in the waste ground came to life.

Donnie, who had followed April and Raph outside, grimaced. "People really should stop wasting so much organic matter."

"Uh?" Raph and Michelangelo said.

Donnie rolled his eyes. "Food. Oozesquitoes and their mutagen can reorganize the molecular structure of-"

"Maybe another time, Donnie?" April panted as she tried to take down a ten-foot high mess of… something.

"I wish you had told us sooner about these Oozesquitoes," Michelangelo complained.

"Think about how you will tell the others about this epic fight," Leonardo suggested as he sliced a garbage can in two.

"Point taken. Raph is going to be so mad he missed this!" Michelangelo knocked off another of the… things. "Let's just avoid mentioning the trash part."

Donnie watched Leonardo and Michelangelo's efficient fighting with interest.

"I love when people on my side know what they're doing," he commented.

"Hey!" April said from below the ten-foot high mess of something who was now trying to crush her. "Stop bad-mouthing your friends and help us, will you?"

"Your wish is my command," Donnie said.

And he unleashed the Drill.

Chapter Text

Rise verse

"Your fighting skills are impressive." Michelangelo grinned at April. "And that battle cry! What was it already? Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah?"

"I find it quite catchy," April said.

The four turtles and their human companion were nonchalantly walking on the rooftops. The fight against the trash of the waste ground - people should really stop using illegal dump sites - had gone rather well, in a chaotic sort of way.

At least nobody on their side was injured.

"And we saved your boss!" Raph bumped his fists with happiness. "I say this calls for pizza!"

Michelangelo's eyes lit up. "Now you're talking my language."

April was way less enthusiastic, both because her boss had ran away she didn't know where - she had already checked his restaurant - and because it would be her seventh pizza in six days. She was one of these humans who needed some food variety.

On the other hand, you didn't get to meet other-dimensional turtles every day.

"I'm coming. As long as it's really about pizza. I'm not eating anything that still moves."

"Don't worry. This is going to be great!" Raph grinned at Michelangelo and Leonardo. "We'll show you our favorite place. Mutants like us are welcome there!"

"Really?" Michelangelo looked like he had just been given an amazing gift.

"Really," Donnie said. "We're the regulars in there. I must say, it's a nice change from people hating us."

They jumped into an alleyway. Raph stood in front of a wall and plunged his fists into it.

"More mystical magic?" Leonardo asked, very interested.

"Yes," Raph answered proudly. "Come in!"

A large hole appeared inside the wall, and all five went through.

Inside was indeed a restaurant filled with customers looking like anything but humans. April stood tall under their suspicious gazes. No matter how many times she accompanied her friends, her presence was still frowned upon.

"Let's go to our table." Raph led them through the restaurant.

Leonardo waited until everybody had sat down to ask the question that had been nagging at him ever since the fight.

"You mentioned… oozesquitoes earlier," he told Donnie. "You said they were responsible for the trash coming to life. Can you tell us more about them?"

"Of course." Donnie intertwined his fingers. "They're mutant mosquitoes carrying mutagen that can mutate things." He gazed at Leonardo to make sure he was following.

"I got the mutating part," Leonardo answered wryly.

Donnie nodded with satisfaction. It wasn't easy for him to guess how much he had to dumb down, but maybe this turtle's brain could handle a little more complexity. "Most of the time they mutate people. This time they blended microorganisms and trash together."

Leonardo frowned. "But where do they come from?"

"Oh, that," Donnie said detachedly. "We freed them in a lab explosion. Not my lab," he added hurriedly when he saw Leonardo's expression.

Raph cleared his throat. He didn't want their guests to think that he had no sense of responsibility. "We've been trying to capture them. I'm just having a hard time getting volunteers for the missions."

He glared at Donnie.

"Why am I taking the fall for this?" Donnie retorted with great indignation. "Leo is the laziest."

"Oh, really?" Michelangelo said with a grin.

Raph fidgeted. He didn't like speaking ill of people, especially of his brothers, especially behind their backs. "Well, if we look at the stats…"

Donnie had no such qualms. "He definitely is."

Michelangelo glanced at Leonardo. "I would love to meet him," he cooed. "This is such an interesting world."

Leonardo rolled his eyes.

"What is your world like?" April leaned forwards. "Do I have a counterpart?"

Leonardo smiled. "Yes. She's courageous like you, although maybe a little more… cautious."

"It's weird to think about," April mused. "I mean, I was already amazed to discover the Hidden City below New York, but a whole different universe?"

"Several different universes, in fact." Michelangelo took the menu. "I always say it's easier to think on a full stomach. Let's order!"

"Great idea!" Raph took his own menu. "Let's see what kind of regular pizza I'll eat tonight."

"Regular pizza?" Michelangelo raised his eye ridges.

"It's a joke," Raph explained. "Here, you could have the World's Greatest Pizza - and it is delicious - but you would need to solve the Maze of Death first. Let's just say it lives up to its name."

But Michelangelo wasn't going to give up so easily. After all, it was a matter of the utmost importance.

"So you've solved the maze and eaten the pizza?"

"Well, we've definitely been into the maze and we got the pizza," Raph said cautiously.

"Alright, I'm in!" Michelangelo stood up. "Where is this Maze of Death?"

"Wow, wait!" Raph said in an attempt to temper his guest's enthusiasm. "It's dangerous. Deathly dangerous."

"The World's Greatest Pizza is worth it."

Before Raph could think of another objection, the restaurant's owner, a skeleton named Señor Hueso, made for their table.

"So you want to solve the Maze of Death, uh? Only a true Champion can achieve such a feat."

Leonardo, who already knew that his brother's mind was set in stone, leaned backwards.

"What else can you tell us about this Maze of Death?"

Hueso gave him a suspicious look that Leonardo didn't quite comprehend.

"It only has one rule. No mystical magic."

Michelangelo shrugged. "Believe me, if I had mystic powers, I would know. And my family would know. And all of New York City would know." He sighed. "But I'm just your regular teenage mutant ninja turtle. So, where is this maze?"

"Follow me."

Hueso led them under a Prove You're a Champion sign and into a hallway full of pictures of yokai eating pizza.

"These are all the Champions who proved their worth into the Maze of Death," Hueso said proudly.

Michelangelo stopped in front of one picture. "Why are you guys on the Wall of Cheaters?"

Donnie snorted. "Long story short. It was Leon. He tricked us into getting inside this maze because he wanted his picture on the wall of champions. And we almost died."

"No need to be so melodramatic," Raph added hastily. "He made amends, and we're not dead."

Michelangelo considered the picture with renewed attention. "You still got the pizza. I say it's a win."

Hueso crossed his bone arms. "No doubt you would think so. Ready to show us which wall your picture belongs to?"

"Of course!" Michelangelo walked towards the velvet rope marking the entrance of the maze.

"How many of you will enter?" Hueso asked right before he opened the door.

Leonardo was about to answer that he would be coming, too, but Michelangelo acted first.

"Only me," he shouted before disappearing into the maze.

Leonardo crossed his arms. "Oh, really, Mike?" he said to the now closed door.

"No!" Raph shouted. He ran to Hueso. "He can't go alone!"

"Why not? He seemed quite eager to do so." Hueso grinned.

"But he's too young!"

"Actually, we're the same age," Leonardo said, smiling.

Raph's incredulity reached new heights. "You're not worried about him?"

Leonardo shook his head. "Nothing can stand between Mike and pizza. He'll be fine."

"Oh. Okay. You know him best." Raph retreated to the other side of the hallway and began pacing back and forth.

"Yes, he's always like this," Donnie answered Leonardo's silent question. "It drives Mikey crazy."

Not even ten minutes later, Michelangelo was back, chewing something and his hands empty.

"Mikey!" Leonardo didn't entirely manage to hide his amusement. "Did you breathe the whole thing?"

"So… Good…" Michelangelo said dreamily, allowing everyone to see the content of his mouth.

"Alright, my turn." Leonardo turned to Hueso.

Hueso narrowed his orbits. "And no mystical magic?"

"I know how to play by the rules."

"That would be a first," Hueso muttered as he sent Leonardo into the Maze of Death.

"Mikey, are you okay?" Raph asked frenetically.

"Of course," Michelangelo answered as he swallowed the last remnants of his pizza. "Do you think he will leave some for me?"

Later, Donnie contemplated the new picture on the Wall of Champions with great satisfaction. It showed Michelangelo and Leonardo sharing Leonardo's pizza with ecstatic expressions.

"Leo will be soo mad."

2003 verse

When Raphael woke up next morning, he was met with a surprise in the main room of the lair.

Mikey had somehow found a paperboard and markers as much as a professor's outfit, and was standing doggedly in the middle of the room.

Donatello was still at his desk, and Raphael undertook a cautious retreat next to his brother.

"What is he up to?" he whispered, tilting his head towards Mikey.

"I think he wants to help you," Donatello answered.

Although his face would have appeared completely neutral to the ignorant bystander, Raphael knew he was amused.

Deeply amused, even.

Raphael groaned. "Did you help him find this stuff?"

"Of course. The sharing of knowledge is to be encouraged."

Raphael turned his back on Mikey, decided to ignore him for as long as possible. "What about you? Did you find something?"

Donatello chuckled. "Later. You don't want to disappoint our guest, do you? Besides, we need to wait for Leo to wake up."

"What happened to the sharing of knowledge?" Raphael asked wryly.

Donatello merely grinned.

Behind Raphael, Mikey cleared his throat.

Raphael considered going back to bed. He had a bad feeling about this.

Mikey cleared his throat again, until Raphael rolled his eyes and came to him. The sooner he would be done, the better.

"Hello, Raphael."

"Hello, Mikey. What are you up to?" he asked wryly.

"This is Doctor Feelings talking to you." The words were uttered in the most professorial tone. "I think you might need my help."

"Excuse me?"

"I'm here to help you with your feelings." Mikey began drawing diagrams on the paperboard. "They're important. Controlling your anger will help you reach enlightenment."

Raphael gaped, at a loss for words.

"Lashing out often means that you're not confident with simply sharing the source of the problem," Mikey went on.

Raphael glanced at Donatello. His brother was watching with a huge grin on his face.

"Don, if that's your idea…" he threatened.

"It's not, I promise." Donatello raised his hands in a gesture of peace.

"This is not the right way to process your feelings," Mikey said with the patience of a saint. "Threatening your family is a defense mechanism that you won't need once you'll have found your inner balance."

Klunk jumped on the paperboard and meowed. Was the cat on Mikey's side too?

Just when Raphael thought it couldn't become more awkward, Casey emerged from the elevator.

"Hey, Raph! What are you doing, man?"

"Oh, just listening to a Mikey blabbering," Raphael answered. "Nothing unusual."

Doctor Feelings Mikey shook his head with sadness. "You're not paying attention to me."

Casey took in Mikey's presence and gaped. "Who are you?"

"A visitor from another dimension," Raphael said. "Oh, and Leonardo and Michelangelo are missing. Hopefully not for long."

"Think how happy they'll be with your progress. If you progress," Mikey said. "I must say Doctor Feelings is quite disappointed right now."

Casey crossed his arms. "Man, you never warn me of the good stuff."

Leo chose this moment to jump down from the upper level. "Hi, everybody." He stopped to narrow his eyes at Casey. "A human? Are you their April?"

Casey gaped. "What? No! No way!"

"It's Casey. A good friend, most of the time," Raphael said.

"Hey!" Casey glared at him before examining Leo with curiosity. "So, how many visitors are you hiding in this lair?"

"Only these two." Raphael snorted. "And believe me, that's more than enough."

"The grumpy turtle is still grumpy, I see." Leo yawned. "Do you have cereals for breakfast?"

"In the kitchen," Donatello answered.

"Don, maybe you could tell us what you found first," Raphael interjected. "If it can help these turtles go back home…"

Mikey sighed and gave up on his paperboard. Raphael wasn't receptive at all to Doctor Feelings' teachings.

Klunk nuzzled his cheek in an attempt to comfort him, and Mikey smiled. He should really get a pet of his own.

"I did find something." Donatello took a three-foot high pile of papers and chose one. The move revealed scorched marks on his desk. "This experiment was particularly interesting."

Raphael examined the pile of papers with the greatest suspicion. Now that he thought about it, it hadn't been there the day before. "Don, did you stay awake all night?"

"Absolutely not," Donatello answered. "I took a twenty-five minutes nap two hours and a half ago."

"You're a lost cause."

Donatello blatantly ignored his brother's heartfelt remark. "I've become convinced that this weapon," he pointed at Mikey's kusari-fundo, "is somehow alive."

Mikey shook his head up and down. "I agree."

"So I've wondered, if your weapon is… inhabited, could it be the same for Leo's weapon?"

Leo yawned again. "Can we be serious here? My weapon isn't alive."

"And," Donatello went on, "I decided I should better ask it." He pointed once more at Mikey's weapon. "I came up with a communication system. Some variation of the Morse code."

He tapped his desk in rhythm, and a flame appeared around Mikey's weapon, his intensity varying in short and longer bursts.

"What did it say?" Mikey asked excitedly.

"That it hopes we'll burn forever together," Donatello said. "I think that's its way of saying 'Hello'."

Casey grimaced.

"It's… not there, most of the time," Donatello went on. "Unless the wielder of the weapon calls it."

Mikey nodded as if he already knew that.

"I also asked it where Leo's weapon was." Donatello watched Leo sheepishly. "And it said, uh… that the portal spirit inhabiting your weapon was offended by your lack of talent."

Leo blinked.

"Its words, not mine," Donatello added hastily.

But Leo had already thrown up his arms. "No! NO! My beloved weapon, betraying me like this? O rage, O despair!"

He fell to his knees, his whole body shaking.

"And I thought Mike was a drama queen," Raphael observed.

Mikey patted Leo's arm. "Don't worry, brother mine. My own weapon isn't always cooperative, but we're reached an understanding."

"What kind of understanding?" Leo whispered, his voice carrying all the despair in the world.

"I let it wreak havoc upon this world, and it doesn't direct its energy against me," Mikey said sententiously.

"So where did it go?" Raphael asked.

"Into another plane of existence, apparently." Donatello put back the paper on his desk. "Good news is, it can come back."

Leo looked up, showing his bloodshot eyes. "It can?"

"Yes. You…" Donatello hesitated. "You only need to prove it that you're worthy of wielding it by accomplishing an exploit."

Leo jumped on his feet. "Okay, that's easy. Mikey, we'll be home in no time!"

Raphael sighed heavily. "We're doomed. Don, can you work on a portal of your own?"

Chapter Text

Rise verse

Donnie didn't begin to get slightly worried before the next day. It was an unusually long time for Leo to sort things out. Had something unexpected happened? As in, more unexpected than usual?

He wanted to talk about it with Raph, and he cornered him in the kitchen while he was making one of his infamous Raph-sandwiches.

Raph watched him with suspicion, his hands grabbing his food, but Donnie wasn't after the sandwich.

"Raph? Do you think we should…"

He glanced left and right in case Michelangelo had just popped into the kitchen. He didn't want their other-dimensional guests to listen to this conversation, and this was the orange-masked turtle's third favorite place in the lair after the Arcade and the skate ramp.

Michelangelo had a stomach as big as Raph's, which was an interesting mystery because he was so much smaller. But as he had refused to be dissected, Donnie wouldn't be able to solve it to his satisfaction.

"…Do something?"

"About what?" Raph asked before taking a big gulp of his sandwich.

"Oh, I don't know. About the fact our brothers are still missing?" Donnie paused. "Not that I'm worried about them."

"Ah, that!" Raph nodded vigorously. "Yes, I'm worried about them too."

Donnie frowned. "I just said that I wasn't wor-"

"But," Raph cut him off, "what are we supposed to do? The portal-making sword is with Leo. And without the portal-making sword, we can't do portals!"

Satisfied with his reasoning, Raph went on eating his snack.

"Yes, but don't you think they should be back by now? What if Leo can't use his sword to come back? What if he and Mikey are prisoners? What if…"

Donnie realized that Raph's face was crumpling and he decided to spare him the thirteen other hypotheses he had.

"What do we do? Donnie, what do we do?" Raph panicked.

Donnie aligned his two painted eyebrows in one big thinking one. "If Leo and Mikey can't open a portal on their end, we must do it on ours. Their weapons are mystical. They must have a different energy signature."

"Really?" Raph said with confused hope. "Uh… is that good?"

"That's good." Donnie smiled at him. "It means I might be able to track them down. I have a few theories, but as you know, my weapon isn't mystical. So I thought, maybe… maybe I could borrow yours for a few experiments?"

Raph almost dropped the remnants of his sandwich as he put his hands to his weapons.

"You want my weapons?" he said threateningly.

"It would only be temporary." Donnie tapped his fingers together. "Unless you have a better idea?"

Raph had no better idea, which meant he was left with two bad choices: either he renounced to his brothers or he renounced to his amazing, wonderful, so neat mystical weapons. Because he knew there was a very high probability they would end up broken in whatever experiments Donnie had in mind.

One of these choices seemed worse than the other, though, and thus Raph handed over his tonfa to Donnie.

"I trust you, Donnie," he said in a voice that didn't quite manage to carry it. "Take good care of them."

Donnie took the precious objects with a grin way too bright.

Leonardo entered the kitchen in search of a glass of water at that precise moment. He tilted his head at seeing the two conspirators.

"Is something the matter?"

"No, no, of course not!" Donnie and Raph chorused.

Both of them all but fled the kitchen, leaving Leonardo slightly confused.

Leonardo wasn't fooled. He knew that something was off, and he had his suspicions about what it was. After all, Raph had told him that Leo would come home very soon, no problem; and now they had been there for almost 48 hours and still nothing.

However, Leonardo was not expert about mystical portals, and he couldn't do anything about it. Maybe Leo would come home soon. Maybe Donnie would find a solution in the meantime - or maybe Donatello would.

Leonardo thought about his own world. Had Leo and Mikey met Donatello and Raphael? He truly hoped so, as much as he hoped that they had been well received. He was sure Donatello would be thrilled to have other-dimensional visitors, but Raphael might be a little more difficult to convince.

Leonardo sighed. There was nothing he could do, except going with the flow. Michelangelo was sure doing that extremely well.

But maybe it was time to organize their stay here a little better. As there were no official training sessions in this lair - something that never ceased to amaze him - he would have to make his own.

He had no intention to let his brother fall out of shape, after all.

Unsurprisingly, he found Michelangelo in the Arcade.

"Mike, I think we should train," he began softly.

Michelangelo knew Leonardo wouldn't hesitate to hide the screen if he didn't answer, so he didn't try to ignore him.

"Nah, Leo, there is no hurry. We can train at home. I have so many videogames to try here!"

"And they'll still be there for you after our sparring session."

"Can I at least complete my level?" Michelangelo negotiated.

"Of course. Join me as soon as you're done."

One hour later, Leonardo was perfectly warmed up and Michelangelo hadn't shown up. Rolling his eyes, he came back to the Arcade.

"Mike?"

"Still not finished," Michelangelo said quickly. "It won't save if I don't reach the checkpoint!"

Leonardo watched the screen. He didn't know that game, but he had an inkling his brother was lying.

He was about to call him out when Donnie, who was relaxing by being massaged by Shelldon, opened mildly curious eyes.

"You know, you can save at any time in this game."

"Oh really?" Leonardo said, very softly.

Michelangelo paused his game to watch his brother with a grin looking very much like a grimace. "I might have been mistaken," he admitted.

Leonardo raised an eyebrow but didn't pick up on the obvious lie.

"So, are you coming?"

"Can I at least complete my level?" Michelangelo tried.

This time, Leonardo crossed his arms and hardened his voice just a little. "No."

"Fiiine." With a sigh, Michelangelo saved his game and stood up.

"Are you really going to train?" Donnie asked, interested.

"Of course we are. Do you want to participate?" Leonardo offered.

Donnie shook his head, enjoying every bit of the massage Shelldon was giving him. "Nope."

Michelangelo gave him a forlorn gaze, and Donnie chuckled.

For all his whining, Michelangelo actually enjoyed sparring with his brother. And he had to admit that it felt good to stretch his ninja-muscles a little.

This lair was even vaster than their home and they had no problem finding a room suitable for that purpose.

Michelangelo was wondering whether he could throw Leonardo off balance long enough for a surprise attack when Raph opened the door.

"Oh! You're sparring?"

The envy in Raph's tone sounded a little surprising to Michelangelo, but after all, Raphaels could be weird sometimes.

Michelangelo silently checked with his brother that they could pause before turning his back to Leonardo in order to invite Raph.

"Do you want to come?"

Raph's eyes sparkled. However and to Michelangelo's surprise, he shook his head.

"Uh, oh, no. Thank you."

"Then do you want to watch?" Leonardo offered.

"Oh, yes! If you don't mind. I won't bother you." Raph rushed into the room and sat down next to the wall with a big grin.

Michelangelo exchanged a look with Leonardo. Why would the turtle want to watch but not participate?

Leonardo shrugged almost imperceptibly and adopted an on guard position, indicating that training should go on.

For the following half an hour, Michelangelo didn't have time to think about Raph's reasons. When Leonardo finally called a break, he stretched and came to collapse next to Raph.

"Hey, if you've changed your mind, don't hesitate. I could use someone to take Leo's focus off me."

Leonardo smiled.

Raph fidgeted. "No, thanks."

Michelangelo frowned. It was easy to see that Raph wanted to very, very bad.

"What's the problem, dude?"

Raph watched him with impressive puppy-dog eyes. Michelangelo wasn't used to that from a Raphael.

"I don't want to hurt you. I'm… well, you see." He shrugged his massive shoulders as he pointed at his body. "Big? Heavy?"

Michelangelo's eyes widened. "That's what's bothering you?" He nudged the big turtle. "It's only going to be a problem if you catch me. And you won't."

"Your brother does," Raph muttered.

Michelangelo rolled his eyes. "That's because he's a treacherous ninja who doesn't follow the patterns he's supposed to."

Leonardo grinned. "Thanks, Mike."

"And you know what?" Michelangelo went on, a perfect plan forming in his head. "I think he has been dying to spar with you since the beginning. How about you try it while I go mind my own business? I have a level to complete."

Raph's eyes went from Michelangelo to Leonardo, then back to Michelangelo.

"Uh…"

"Perfect! Then it's settled." Michelangelo jumped back on his feet as if he wasn't tired at all. "Tell me how it goes!"

"You won't be off the hook forever, Mike," Leonardo warned.

Michelangelo rightly interpreted it as permission to leave.

"Dude, I just gave you an enthusiastic sparring partner! You know I deserve a reward."

He winked at his brother and hurried to disappear before Leonardo could change his mind.

Raph stood up hesitantly. As much as he loved sparring, he didn't want to hurt anyone, and he went easy on his brothers on the rare occasions they trained together. But these two turtles… They hadn't held back. They took training seriously.

They had seemed to enjoy it, too, no matter what Michelangelo pretended.

He cleared his throat.

"So are you often training together?"

"At home? Every day." Leonardo tilted his head. "I thought we might as well get back into the habit. It looks like we'll be there for longer than expected."

Raph grimaced. "Don't worry about that. Donnie will find something to bring you back."

Leonardo had the sensitivity not to insist.

"So, how about hand-to-hand combat?"

Raph nodded slowly, intending to hold back like he did with his brothers.

A few moments later and his face against the cold hard floor, he completely reconsidered this strategy. Leonardo's fighting style was obviously fully compatible with bigger opponents.

"Okay, let's get serious," Raph groaned as he picked himself up.

Leonardo grinned. "It's about time."

2003 verse

Raphael was unable to focus on the TV. His mind was too busy wondering what Leo was brewing.

Since he had declared that he met the challenge, Leo had spent most of his time thinking and asking for information about Hun and the Purple Dragons, but he hadn't told anyone of his plan just yet. And it had already been two days.

Donatello was spending most of his time trying to make a portal, but he said he didn't know when or if his efforts would be met with success.

As for Mikey, he had just received a big mysterious package ordered online and was nowhere to be seen.

Luckily, Raph could always count on Casey to beat villains with him, or he would already have gone crazy. They also kept an eye on Purple Dragons' business, but so far the thugs kept a low profile.

As Raphael knew they were up to something, it wasn't a good sign. Maybe he should ask Donatello to come with them next time - his brother had ways of finding information that were way beyond Raphael's understanding.

But he would rather his genius brother focused on making a portal to bring Leonardo and Michelangelo back.

Raph sighed. He hated waiting. He hated worrying.

And most of all, he hated when…

…Paint dripped from the ceiling and splattered his plastron while he was trying to watch TV?

"What the…" Raphael exclaimed as he jumped backwards and looked up.

Mikey knew he should have warned Raphael that he was painting the ceiling, but everything in the red-masked turtle had screamed that he wanted to be left alone when he had come back home to collapse on the couch. So Mikey had decided that if he was extra careful, maybe Raphael wouldn't notice.

But in his enthusiasm, one droplet of paint had escaped his notice and landed right on Raphael's plastron.

"Sorry! My mistake!" he shouted.

Raphael was looking up at him with a flabbergasted expression.

"What are you doing?"

Mikey pointed proudly at the beginnings of his artwork. It was far from finished, but it was already possible to see the shapes of four mutant turtles and a rat. Donatello had been nice enough to give him pictures of Leonardo and Michelangelo, whom Mikey had never seen; but as the four turtles looked very much alike, he could use his sketches of Donatello and Raphael for them too.

This fresco was going to be a masterpiece, he knew it. And besides, it helped him pass the time while Leo thought about his big exploit.

Both Donatello and Splinter had immediately agreed when he had asked them if he could dispose of their ceiling.

"I'm painting the ceiling. Do you like it?"

He was fully expecting Raphael to grunt and complain that he should do a better job keeping his paint to himself, but Raphael seemed to have forgotten about the incident.

"That's… nice," the red-masked turtle said.

Mikey beamed. He had heard more fleshed out compliments from his own brothers, but this one was definitely one of the most moving.

Could it be that art would succeed where Doctor Delicate Touch and Doctor Feelings had both failed?

Mikey decided to push his luck.

"I could use some help with the tins of paint. Interested?"

To his surprise, Raphael chuckled. "A payback opportunity, uh? Alright. I'll help."

Donatello contemplated the beginnings of a portal taking shape in the garage. The theory was eluding him for now, so he had decided to relax his mind with engineering.

He welded another piece of metal. He had no idea if it was going to work, but he needed to do something in case Leo's future plan didn't work.

He enjoyed having visitors, but he wanted his brothers back.

He hoped they were doing alright. Leo and Mikey had assured him that Raph and Donnie would take good care of them, and he trusted them, but he would feel better when he would see his brothers with his very own eyes.

The sound of the elevator opening told him he had a visitor.

"Donatello?"

"Yes, Master Splinter?"

His father came closer to him.

"I wish to speak with you."

"Of course, Father. What can I do for you?"

Donatello put down his welding machine and removed his safety equipment.

"What do you think of our current situation?"

Donatello hesitated. He had already told Splinter about the sword and its challenge, as much as his own decision to try building a portal. "What do you mean?"

"Has this Leonardo come to you with a plan?"

Donatello shook his head. "No, Master Splinter. He wanted to know about Hun and the Purple Dragons, and I've told him everything I could. But he has been avoiding me lately."

"Hmm," Splinter said. He looked at Donatello's work. "And do you think you'll be able to build a portal to their home world yourself?"

Donatello sighed deeply. "I'm not sure, Sensei. I'll do my best."

Splinter smiled at him. "I know you will, my son." He put a hand on Donatello's shoulder and squeezed softly. "Try not to put too much pressure on yourself. I know you haven't been sleeping a lot these past few days."

"Yes, Master Splinter," Donatello said sheepishly, making a mental note to take proper sleep tonight.

He knew his father was already worried about his two missing sons. He didn't want Splinter to worry about him, too.

Leo was hiding inside the pool with only his eyes above the surface, watching Mikey and Raphael.

Since Raphael had agreed to help, the fresco hadn't advanced one inch; however, Raphael seemed to be a gifted student in the art of bodypainting, and both of them had great fun if the laughter was any indication.

The ground below was a mess, but Leo had seen and done worse at home. And he was happy his brother was enjoying himself so much, of course.

For his part, Leo was tenser than he had ever felt. The plan he had devised had way too many flaws for his peace of mind.

You could even say it was a plan worthy of his brother Raph.

Indeed, Leo had come to the conclusion that an exploit worthy of his sword's attention could be nothing less than beating the leader of the Purple Dragons, the mighty Hun.

But Leo had also come to the conclusion that he couldn't use his usual cunning. If he asked Donatello to create a sleeping gas and used it in the Purple Dragons headquarters to capture Hun, he knew it wouldn't count as an exploit. It would be efficient - treachery often was - but not honorable or impressive.

Champions didn't use sleeping gas.

Champions worked solo to gain the admiration of their fans.

A true champion would come into the Purple Dragons' lair and challenge Hun to a duel, and defeat him.

So that was what Leo was going to do. He didn't want to rely on Donatello to solve the mess he had himself created, and he didn't want to renounce to his sword, either.

He was going to make it eat its words. The sooner the better.

And of course, he couldn't tell anyone about his plan. The others would insist to come with him, except maybe Raphael.

From the corner of his eye, Leo saw Splinter cross the lair with barely an eyebrow raised at the mess Raphael and Mikey were creating and use the elevator to go up. He was surely going to talk to Donatello, who was working non-stop inside the garage.

And Raphael and Mikey were too busy to pay attention to him.

This was the perfect opportunity.

Leo silently left the pool and took his borrowed sword. Without any further hesitation, he sneaked out into the sewers.

He had an appointment with glory.

Chapter Text

2003 verse

Raphael and Mikey were covered in paint when Splinter entered the living room, followed by Donatello.

"Time for training," the ninja master said.

Raphael left with regret his epic fight with Mikey to jump in front of his father.

"I could use a shower," he said matter-of-factly.

Splinter watched him with some amusement. "We could postpone our training session for that." He pointed at the floor stained with paint. "You will clean up, of course."

Raphael grinned sheepishly. "Of course, Master Splinter."

Above him, Mikey had resumed his fresco as if nothing unusual had happened. Donatello, for his part, was inspecting the room with an impressed smile.

"I might have to invent something to clean the couch from that paint."

Raphael shrugged. "It's okay, Don, don't worry."

"It's no problem. It'll be an interesting challenge." Donatello's smile grew wider. "Unless you like it better that way. Modern art, I guess we could say?"

Raphael nudged his brother, making sure to leave paint on his plastron. "Nah, do it your way. I don't want to take your fun away from you."

Splinter cleared his throat and Raphael hurried to leave for the bathroom before his father could change his mind about postponing training.

He had to admit, this had been fun. But now it was time to get back to business.

As he removed the paint from his body - a surprisingly difficult task - Raphael wondered whether Leo or Mikey would participate in their training session.

Mikey would probably not. Between two paint jets, he had told Raphael that he would like to complete his piece of art before leaving.

But maybe Leo would? Oh, how Raphael would have loved to sweep the floor with him. However, for some reason the blue-masked turtle always declined Splinter's generous invitation to train with them.

Raphael wondered where Leo was. He hadn't seen him all night.

He's probably taking a nap instead of trying to solve our problem, Raphael thought irritably.

There was nothing else to expect from this strange Leo.

Leo hesitated when he arrived in front of the Purple Dragon's lair. His inner alarm was screaming at him that it was a very bad idea to challenge the mighty Purple Dragon leader without backup.

Leo purposefully muffled it. He had a sword to get back, after all.

Surely your sword wouldn't demand something that stupid from you, would it?

Leo muffled harder.

I know you want to accomplish that exploit, but staying alive sounds nice too.

Leo focused hard. He pictured his three brothers in awe of his bravery, calling him their Champion, and how did they not see how great he was before?

The voice shut up.

Leo breathed a sigh of relief. Now where was he? Ah yes, the villains' lair.

Just when Leo was wondering how he could make sure that Hun was home, the bulky man left the building, followed by a group of Purple Dragons. Half of them carried heavy crates that they put in the back of trucks while the other half scattered to keep watch.

Leo saw Hun enter one of the trucks and speed away. He was going to lose his prey!

He sneaked closer to one of the Purple Dragons keeping watch - a big, bulky woman whose outfit might fit him - and knocked her out with one precise move of his clenched fist. Raph-style.

Some people said not to fight against women, but Leo had April as a friend and he knew better.

He caught her before she hit the ground. No need to get noticed so soon. He quickly stole her clothes and her mask - a hockey mask that would hide his features.

He had been right, her outfit fit him almost perfectly, shell and all.

It only left his sword.

Leo hurried to join the last truck of Purple Dragons before it followed the others trucks - including Hun's - and wedged his sword under it while nobody was looking. Then he climbed inside the truck with the others as if he had been born in that gang. Be it thanks to the night or his clever disguise, or both, none of the humans seemed to notice anything was amiss.

Leo grinned. Take that, inner voice.

Everything was going like clockwork.

Mikey kept a curious eye on the training session unfolding below. He couldn't remember last time he had trained that seriously with his brothers.

But then, his father wasn't too keen on training. He said life was too short not to be spent watching TV - unless it was Leo? Mikey couldn't remember.

Speaking of Leo, where was he? He had seemed a little down to Mikey lately. He should have joined Raphael and Mikey in their bodypainting fight. It would have done him a world of good.

Mikey smiled. Maybe Raphael would be up for round two later on? And this time, Mikey would make sure to invite his brother.

Leo's truck stopped and the turtle followed the Purple Dragons outside. They were at the docks, parked in front of a black ship without any distinctive sign.

The Purple Dragons began carrying the crates from the trucks to the ship, and Leo took one to keep his cover.

It was heavy. Leo discreetly checked that nobody was watching and opened it, intending to remove some of its content. Nobody would care, right? Or at least, nobody would care until Leo was far, far away.

Leo's grin vanished when he realized what was in the crate.

Weapons.

Did every crate have the same contents? If so, hundreds of weapons were loaded into that ship. Leo could only guess what evil purposes they would serve.

"Hey, you! What are you doing?"

Leo lifted his head up. One of the Purple Dragons was watching him with suspicion.

"Nothing," he hurried to say.

But the man wasn't fooled, and came closer to him. Leo gave up his crate and retreated towards the truck in order to retrieve his sword, still wedged under it.

"I don't recognize you. Password?"

"Uh… Pizza?" Leo tried.

The man frowned. Obviously it wasn't the right password.

"No, wait. Pepperoni? Four-cheese?"

Leo spotted Hun's shape in the distance and walked faster.

"Gorgonzola? Red onions? Pineapple?"

The Purple Dragon snatched Leo's mask and shouted. "Dragons! We have an intruder!"

Hun and several other dragons ran to him.

"Okay, pineapple toppings aren't for everyone," Leo conceded.

He grabbed his sword just in time to point it at the incoming giant.

"Mighty Hun!" he yelled. "Stop the loading this instant, and surrender to me!"

His sword was going to regret it wasn't participating in such a fight.

Rise verse

Raph was eating sandwich after sandwich. Maybe if he buried the concern hiding in the pit of his stomach under pounds of bread and pastrami it would stop making him sick.

What was Leo doing? Why didn't he and Mikey come home?

Donnie had said that maybe they couldn't. Were they in danger? How dare they be in danger without Raph to help them?

No. He couldn't think that way. His brothers, his sweet, delicate brothers, must have their reasons.

"Keep a cool head, Raph," he muttered to himself. "Your brothers need you to remain calm."

"That's something I wish my own Raph would say more often."

Raph started. All of a sudden Michelangelo stood under the kitchen door frame.

Raph nervously curled up around his food. "It's just that I don't know what to do," he said in a small voice. "They've never been so far away from me."

Michelangelo came closer and put a comforting arm around Raph's neck, standing on his toes to do so. "I'm sure they're doing fine," he said brightly. "My brothers won't let anything bad happen to them. Turtles take care of each other, right?"

Raph sniffed and offered him a big toothy grin.

It was good to think Leo and Mikey weren't alone in a cold, dark, foreign world.

2003 verse

Leo grimaced. He was so not doing fine.

He nonetheless stood tall on the ship, proudly bound to an air vent. Appearances had to be kept up.

Hun had captured him way too easily, but how was Leo supposed to know that the Purple Dragons' leader would refuse his challenge and just use his gun? Leo's sword had deflected the bullet, but said sword had been lost to him in the process.

And hitting Hun with his bare hands was like hitting a rock. No, harder.

This had been the worst plan ever. And he couldn't even warn the others.

Not that he really wanted to get them involved - Raphael especially would never leave it down - but there was this mountain of a man in front of him, giving him a honeyed smile, and Leo kind of hoped they would notice his absence soon.

Like, real soon.

"So where are you from?" Hun said nonchalantly. "I didn't get to ask you last time."

Raphael was relaxing in the couch after their training session. It wasn't the same without Leonardo and Michelangelo, but it still felt good to exercise.

Dawn would soon be there, and with it, their time to go to sleep.

"Raph?" Mikey's voice asked.

Raphael lazily opened his eyes. "Yes?"

Mikey seemed both worried and determined, an expression Raphael saw for the first time on his face.

"I can't find Leo," Mikey said.

"And how is that my problem?" Raphael grumbled, albeit not as harshly as he would have a few hours before. He was definitely warming up to this turtle.

Mikey grabbed his arm and shook it. "I've lost my brother! You must help me!"

Raphael sneaked his arm back. "No need to shout!"

"But I've looked everywhere and he's not there!" Now Mikey's eyes were filling with tears. "He left without me!"

Raphael cleared his throat, embarrassed. "I'm sure he'll come back," he said as soothingly as he could.

"But what if he needs help?" Mikey insisted.

Donatello, who had been sitting at his desk and relaxing with something work-related, stood up to join them.

"Do you know where he could have gone?"

Mikey looked at the purple-masked turtle with the same pleading eyes.

"No," he said miserably.

"Hmm." Donatello paused. "I could track his phone if you let me borrow yours."

Mikey handed him his phone and Donatello connected it to his laptop.

A few seconds later, he frowned. "He's at the docks."

"What is he doing at the docks?" Raphael asked, genuinely surprised.

"I don't know, but maybe we should check up on him." Donatello grabbed his bō staff. "Let's take the Battle Shell and hurry. The sun rises in less than one hour."

Raphael muttered something indistinct.

What had Leo gotten himself into?

"And there is this Hidden City under New York. It's the home of yokai. They're not mutants like us, but they're cool too. Did I tell you about Señor Hueso? He's a yokai and he adores me. I'm his favorite customer ever! Of course I'm handsome and clever and fun, and it helps. Oh, and did I tell you about the time I defeated the Minotaur from the Maze? She was begging me to let her go."

Leo had been talking non-stop for the past twenty minutes, and Hun seemed rather baffled.

The other Purple Dragons had stopped loading the crates to listen to him, too.

Good. As long as he could distract them with his mad talking skills, they wouldn't think about hitting him.

He would rather avoid blows. His delicate skin didn't like bruises.

"Everybody loves me so much," he went on. "I'm sure once you get to know me, you will too."

"I doubt that." Hun shook his head. "You're one of a kind. I'll almost regret killing you."

Beads of sweat started forming on Leo's temples. "No need to be so extreme," he protested. "Now have I told you about the time I…"

Hun showed a piece of cloth into Leo's mouth.

Leo grimaced. The taste was terrible. It was completely unhygienic, too.

"Finish the loading," Hun shouted to the other Purple Dragons. "Our silent partner won't accept another delay." He turned to Leo. "As for you…"

Three shapes jumped on the ship at that precise moment.

Leo regretted his temporary inability to talk. He would have loved smart-talking the villains during the upcoming fight.

Donatello watched the ship burn from the safety of the Battle Shell. He was impressed by the lack of careful thinking Leo's plan had been born of. Leo was lucky they had found him in time.

"Are you okay, Leo?" Mikey kept asking while his brother lay in the back of the van like an exhausted diva.

"I will be, Mikael," Leo said with a voice from beyond the grave. "I'm still happy I contributed to the defeat of these evil Purple Dragons. My life won't have been spent in vain."

Mikey pressed Leo's hand with strength while Raphael shook his head. Donatello decided it was time to go home and took the driver's seat.

"You didn't defeat them, we did," Raphael pointed out.

Leo jumped on his feet and dusted his shell. "Only because you took forever to untie me."

"In case you didn't notice, they were heavily armed."

"And now all these weapons will never be used again." Leo pointed at the fire.

It was becoming smaller and smaller as Donatello drove away from the docks.

"We're heroes!" Leo added with a grin. "All thanks to my great plan."

Raphael almost choked. "They captured you! Hun was about to kill you!"

"Please." Leo waved his hand dismissively. "I was only pretending to be defenseless to divert their attention."

"Don, please hurry to bring us home before I strangle him," Raphael said through gritted teeth.

"No strangulation," Mikey said firmly in his Doctor Feelings voice. He hugged his brother. "We're all happy you're alright, Leo."

Leo turned his back on Raphael. "Thank you, Mikey. It's good to feel appreciated by someone."

Raphael ignored him.

Leo's grin never wavered as he hugged Mikey, efficiently hiding his sadness.

He would never acknowledge it aloud, but Raphael wasn't wrong. Usually Leo was the one thinking things through. And now, to please his sword, he had let even that elude him.

He would do better next time.

Chapter Text

Rise verse

Leonardo had to say, time went faster than he would have thought. Raph proved to be a great training partner, one who loved training almost as much as Leonardo himself - that was, way more than his own brothers.

Not that he didn't miss his family. It was worrying that his counterpart hadn't found his way home. Now Leonardo was relying on Donatello and Donnie to somehow build a transdimensional portal that would fix things.

He knew it was a lot to ask for.

To keep his inner turmoil under control, he meditated even more than usual. At first it had surprised Donnie and Raph, but now they were used to it. Obviously it wasn't a common activity for them or their father.

This Splinter was still a mystery to Leonardo. Once, when Leonardo had been training by himself, he had found the rat gazing at him, an aura of sadness surrounding his round body. Leonardo's surprise must have been visible, because Splinter had shrugged.

"You remind me of my grandfather," the old rat had grumbled.

Leonardo hadn't dared to ask whether it was a good thing or not, and Splinter had left with a sigh. A few seconds later, Leonardo had heard the distinctive music of Splinter's favorite commercials.

He hadn't told anyone. Neither Raph nor Donnie spoke about their father's past and Leonardo didn't want to be intrusive.

The rest of Leonardo's time was spent reading the many comic books in the lair, or playing videogames with Mikey and Donnie, or scouting the city with their hosts and April and trying to gather as many new cheese flavors as he could for his father.

In this as in so many things in his life, patience was key.

2003 verse

Leo's attempts at glory were going to be the end of them all.

At least that was what Raphael kept repeating, and Donatello had to say his brother made a compelling point.

Raphael was at the end of his rope, it was obvious to Donatello. So far Leo had tried challenging Hun thrice, with plans going from ill-advised to completely insane, and Raphael had begged Donatello in his non-begging Raphael way to send Leo back to the universe he belonged before something truly dramatic happened, like Leo deciding to go for the Foot and Shredder.

Donatello has said no to Raphael's request about sedating Leo, and convinced Raphael to help him build the portal instead.

His brother was good at mechanics, and mechanics was good for him.

Donatello also kept communicating with Mikey's kusari-fundo. He needed to understand how mystical magic could be used to travel across the universes in order to replicate what Leonardo's weapon did. The fire demon inhabiting Mikey's weapon was remarkably unhelpful, though. Donatello suspected it had zero knowledge of science, mystical or not, and hid his ignorance behind rude statements.

So all in all, it was business as usual for Donatello.

In the meantime, Mikey had completed his fresco. It was a true masterpiece, and Donatello couldn't wait to see Leonardo and Michelangelo's faces when they would see themselves painted on the ceiling of their home.

For this purpose, he kept working as hard as he could and hoping for a breakthrough.

Leo wasn't in the best of moods as he went in circles inside this foreign lair.

His last plans had been brilliant. Especially the very last one, where he had disguised as a glorious old lady and managed to get close enough to Hun for landing a punch in his face.

What had come next was less glorious, but Leo was still alive, right?

That in itself was an exploit that his cursed sword should have appreciated more.

However, after his last attempt Mikey had very nicely but very clearly stated that although he loved his brother dearly and would support any of Leo's initiatives, he felt that this was going a bit too much out of control and maybe Leo could take a break before Mikey lost his sanity.

Pretty please.

This was the reason why Leo went in circles inside the lair instead of trying his next masterful plan.

Leo sighed. Maybe a run into the sewers would help his gloomy mood.

He was heading for the elevator when he found himself face to face with Raphael.

"Where are you going?" the red-masked turtle asked.

His whole body language screamed 'Don't mess with me.' In other circumstances Leo wouldn't have cared, but he felt really down these days.

"I'm only going for a walk," he said in a stiff tone. "Can't a turtle go for a walk once in a while?"

Raphael's eyes narrowed. "Are you sure you're just going for a walk?"

Leo rolled his eyes. "So what, now you're my babysitter or something?"

When Raphael didn't answer, Leo frowned. "Oh come on!"

"I'm just saying," Raphael said, blushing a little for some reason, "I wanted to relax today. No rescue missions."

Donatello and Mikey had stopped their respective activities and were watching them with curiosity. The only one missing was Splinter, who must be resting in his room after the day's teaching.

As if on cue, Splinter left his room to watch the scene too.

Leo cringed inside.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to find trouble in your sewers. Unless you have giant wild alligators or something." Leo chuckled at this ridiculous thought.

"Actually…" Donatello began.

But Raphael cut him off. "How about you go meditate instead? Uh?" he asked Leo with some hope.

Leo raised incredulous eye ridges. "Me? Why would I do that? It's boring."

Raphael shook his head. "Not at all! It's a very ancient and very powerful art. You should try it."

Donatello joined his fingers. "Can you repeat this? I want to record it for Leo's next birthday."

Raphael glared at his brother. "No."

Leo watched them, a bit puzzled. Then he shrugged. It was none of his business. "Okay, nice conversation. I'll see you later. Bye!"

Raphael didn't move an inch, and Leo wondered if he was supposed to challenge him to pass.

Would it count as an exploit for his sword?

Splinter intervened before Leo could make up his mind on this important matter.

"I wanted to go for a walk too. Leonardo, maybe you'll do me the kindness to go with me?"

As surprised as he was by the request - and by the fact an adult was calling him by his name - Leo didn't want to risk insulting his guest by saying no. "Uh, sure."

Raphael reluctantly got out of the way. If invisible clouds of disapproval had a name, Leo knew what it was.

The blue-masked turtle was relieved to leave the lair.

Both he and Splinter walked in silence for a while, and at first it was relaxing.

When silence stretched and stretched, though, it became awkward. Leo had no idea what he was supposed to do. Was Splinter happy to just walk beside him? Was it how adults worked?

In the end, the turtle couldn't stand it any longer and decided to start a conversation.

"So what's the weather like today?"

He almost slapped himself at the ridiculousness of his question, but everything was better than silence.

And he didn't know what else to say to that stranger.

"It must be raining outside," Splinter said calmly, pointing at the pipes above them. "They're noisier than usual."

Leo nodded and waited for Splinter to ask him a question - that was the way conversations were supposed to work - but Splinter didn't.

They were back to the start.

An idea, Leo needed an idea before he died of awkwardness.

His brain supplied one and it was in his mouth before he could think better of it.

"Alright, what about a truth and dare game?"

Splinter raised an eyebrow. "Truth and dare?"

Too late to reconsider. Leo gave Splinter his brightest grin.

"It's a game. A fun game. At least when I play it with my brothers. Not to say that you're not fun to play with. You probably are. Are you?"

Now he was rambling. Great.

"I guess we will find out," Splinter said, amused. "What are the rules?"

"Oh, they're easy. You choose truth or dare. If it's truth I'm asking you a question and you must answer trustfully. If it's dare I'm challenging you to do something and you must do it or lose the game. Then it's my turn to choose."

Splinter seemed to consider that. "Truth."

"Alright. Is Raphael always that obnoxious?"

Splinter smoothed his beard. "I wouldn't say he's obnoxious. I would say he's off-balance. Not unlike you."

Leo ignored the remark. Adults weren't supposed to notice those things anyways. "My turn. I choose truth."

"Do you think my sons play that game too? Especially the dare part."

Leo considered this. "It's likely. After all, it's half the fun! Like I would never have thrown myself off a fifty-story building without that game, right? And I would have missed so much!"

Splinter's fingers tightened on his cane just a little.

"Your turn," Leo pointed out.

"Truth," Splinter said, very calmly.

"Ha! I have a good one. Let's say someone wanted to get back at Raphael for… reasons, like him being annoying or something. What would upset him more? Hiding his food? Stealing his weapons? Putting itching powder in his bed? Theoretically speaking, that is."

"I see," Splinter muttered.

"You have to tell the truth," Leo reminded him, just in case.

"Well, I think that preventing him from being with his brothers would be the most efficient way to upset him."

Leo froze for a second as guilt overwhelmed him. "Okay, you win. I don't think I want to play anymore. Maybe we could go back to the lair?"

"I've answered two questions and you only answered one," Splinter objected. "It seems unfair."

"Right. Then I say dare, and then we call it a tie."

Leo had enough truth for the day. And besides, he knew the responsible adult who trained his sons every day wouldn't ask him to do anything dangerous.

"Ask for my sons' help next time you want to go on a mission," Splinter said softly.

Leo grimaced. "Can we say I lost the game instead?"

Splinter raised an eyebrow. Leo threw up his arms.

"Fine! I will. But only once."

"It's all I'm asking." Splinter smiled, as if he knew something Leo didn't.

But there was something Leo had learnt today: don't play truth and dare with adults.

No fun.

Rise verse

Donnie watched his hard work with great satisfaction.

The wires and tubes and flashing lights composed an artful pattern Mikey would have been proud of.

Under a glass cloche next to it, Raph's weapons awaited their impending doom.

Donnie pulled the lever.

Sparkles and loud noises filled the room. Donnie waited proudly for the portal to activate.

Smoke filled his lab, and still Donnie waited.

Now everything was silent. Ever so slowly, Donnie's shoulders sagged.

It appeared that his experiment was a failure.

Like the one before, and the one before the one before, and the one before the one before the one before.

Disturbing feelings like sadness and concern tried to invade the sanctuary of Donnie's mind.

He repelled them. Was Leo giving up in this other universe? Of course not. Donnie wasn't going to give up either.

A knock at the door provided a welcome distraction.

"Come in!"

It was Leonardo. He looked concerned, as if smoke and loud noises were a reason to be concerned.

"Everything alright, Donnie?"

"My inventions never backfire," Donnie said, straightening up automatically. "This is only a minor setback."

He waited for Leonardo to rub it in his face, but Leonardo didn't.

"Do you want to tell me about your work?" he said instead.

The offer took Donnie aback. "Tell you? About my work? My inventions? My genius?"

Leonardo smiled and sat on a miraculously spared chair. "I'm listening."

Donnie's eyes filled with tears. "Of your own volition, you come here to listen to me?" He joined his hands. "The universe has finally answered my prayers."

Leonardo pointed at Donnie's attempt at a transdimensional portal. "So what is this about?"

And Donnie told him, in long-winded sentences he usually kept for himself.

Leonardo was a great listener. He inserted 'Oh' and 'Hmm' and 'I see' and 'Amazing' into all the appropriate places.

Donnie talked and talked, explaining what he did and why in theory it should work and how it didn't, in reality, work, to such an extent that he finally realized what was wrong.

He stopped mid-sentence and turned to his machine. There. It was so obvious.

Slowly, delicately, he disconnected a wire. Slowly, delicately, he reconnected it somewhere else.

Sparkles, loud noises and finally a bright blue light filled his lab.

"I did it! I'm the best!" Donnie shouted. He glanced at Leonardo. "I mean, of course I'm the best. Of course," he added.

Leonardo smiled. "Congratulations, Donnie."

Donnie bowed gracefully, like the winner he was. "Thank you."

A few moments later, all four turtles stood in Donnie's lab. Donnie showed them proudly his great invention: the transdimensional portal.

Its design was simple. Wires framed a 144-sided polygon of bright blue light. It was wide enough that Raph could jump through.

It was also linked to the glass cloche which sheltered Raph's weapons, its compass and energy source.

"Where does it go?" Michelangelo asked, looking at the portal with some mistrust.

Donnie cleared his throat. "I'd say somewhere closer to our brothers."

"You're not sure?" Michelangelo grimaced.

Donnie crossed his arms. "Your lack of confidence is offensive. It's a portal. You wanted a portal, right?"

Michelangelo muttered that no, not exactly. He would rather have a portal leading them home than any portal at all, but Donnie ignored that.

Raph wasn't admiring the portal properly either. He was looking at his weapons with a worried expression.

"Donnie, what are you doing with them?"

"Nothing! Nothing, my dear brother. Also, we have about thirty seconds left before they self-destruct and the portal closes."

"WHAT?" Raph yelled.

"Twenty-seven."

"I say it's worth a try," Leonardo said.

"Twenty-four."

"Sure, you go and tell me." Michelangelo tried to walk away, but Leonardo grabbed his arm.

"Nineteen."

"Thanks for everything, Donnie," Leonardo said, and he and Michelangelo jumped inside the portal.

"Fourteen."

Raph, who had been sweating bullets since Donnie had talked about decision-making, snapped out of his indecisiveness.

"Let's go find our brothers!"

And he jumped inside the portal, quickly followed by Donnie.

In the deserted lab, a blue 144-sided polygon was shining. A bulky arm suddenly emerged from it and snatched the nearby weapons from under their glass cloche.

The light shaping the portal went out.

In the living room, Splinter sighed. Finally some peace and quiet.

2003 verse

Donatello couldn't believe his eyes. In front of him, the portal he had been working on for days - and that he had moved from the garage to the main room of the lair once the structural work had been done - had come to life.

It was shining a bright blue.

"Guys!"

Raphael, Mikey, Leo and Splinter - who had just come back from the sewers - gathered around him.

"I think it's working! It found a mystical signal!" Donatello could barely contain his excitement.

"Don, are you sure this thing leads to Mikey and Leo?" Raphael asked.

"Well, of course not. But it's our best chance."

"So comforting," Raphael muttered.

"I'm giving it a try!" Leo exclaimed. Right before he jumped inside the light, though, he glanced at Splinter. "And I'll be happy if you decide to help me on this mission to find my brothers again," he said solemnly to Raphael and Donatello.

Then he joined hands with Mikey and both of them jumped together.

Donatello tilted his head towards Raphael.

"Fine!" His brother threw up his arms. "If that's what it takes."

Donatello grinned in excitement.

Brothers to find. A brand new universe to explore.

He wouldn't miss it for the world.

As his sons disappeared inside the blue portal Donatello had created, Splinter's shoulders sagged.

He wasn't even surprised when the light died out.

Now all four of his sons were missing, and all he could do was wait and trust them to come home safely.

Chapter Text

Unknown verse

Donnie's pride knew no bounds when his portal left all four of them on the ground of something that looked very much like a room.

It meant that they hadn't landed in space, or any other inconvenient place like that. Not that Donnie had feared such a thing - of course not - but it was good to know his portal worked.

"What is this place?" Michelangelo asked, in awe.

Donnie picked himself up - he might have landed with his face against the floor, and for the first time in days he was happy Leo wasn't there - to take a better look at the room.

As he couldn't bear leaving any question unanswered even for a second, though, he began answering Michelangelo's one at once.

"I think we're in an alternate universe born of mystical energy where - wait, I know this place!"

The room was huge and its many shelves and chests displayed weapons of all kinds. On one wall, a brightly lit area showcased a purple-glowing halberd and three empty spaces.

"It's Draxum's armory! My portal led us straight inside the Hidden City." Donnie paused for a second so his brain could choose between the myriads of explanations his creative mind was suggesting. "It's probably because I used Raph's weapons. They must have led us to the last other-dimensional place they remember."

Donnie glanced at Raph, and saw that his brother was not-so-discreetly hiding said weapons behind his back.

"Oh, so you saved them! Good one, Raph."

Raph squeezed his weapons harder, as if he expected someone to take them from him any second. "Yeah."

"Draxum?" Leonardo frowned. "Isn't he the yokai who created the Oozesquitoes?"

"The Oozesquitoes and yours truly," Donnie said nonchalantly. "Yes. He wants to kill us now, so I suggest we find another place to continue this conversation."

The others nodded and they all headed for the exit.

But Donnie quickly noticed that Raph was lagging behind, shoulders hunched.

For someone who had just survived one of Donnie's amazing experiments, he didn't look very happy.

Raph caught Donnie's look and sighed. "It looks like Leo and Mikey aren't here."

Donnie internally panicked. He had noticed the same thing, of course - which meant their quest wasn't at an end - but it sounded like Raph needed comfort now. Was Donnie supposed to hug him? He wasn't wearing his shell with pliers. Should he use his arms instead?

Hugging was hard. Where was Mikey when Donnie needed him?

Donnie decided on patting Raph's shoulder awkwardly.

"Let's have a look at Draxum's lab," he suggested. "Maybe we can destroy it once more in order to save a few humans? Then we go home and I'll build a brand new portal."

"Oh," Raph said, perking up just a little. "Okay."

"Wreaking havoc in a villain's lair? I'm in," Michelangelo said, his voice sounding cheerful.

Donnie was grateful for the reinforcements.

"Alright. The lab would be this way, right after the -"

The ground below them lighted up. Its purple color was pleasant to Donnie's eye.

Less pleasant was the fact that they all began sinking into it.

"What's happening?" Leonardo shouted.

"Oh, it wasn't there last time." Donnie tried to move his legs, but he was trapped. "It looks like Draxum strengthened the security of his lair."

Now his body was half inside the ground. A chilly breeze blew on his legs, letting him think that maybe this was a portal of some kind.

"See you on the other side," he added.

When he saw Michelangelo's expression, he realized that maybe he should have made himself clearer.

"Nooooo! I don't want to die without having seen Don again. And Master Splinter. And Klunk. Oh, and Raph too."

Donnie was about to explain that they weren't about to die, he was 98.78% sure of it, when the sinking intensified.

With an ominous pop, the four turtles disappeared into the ground.

They were in a cell. Granted, it was spacious, but it had bars and no way to leave. The only light came from a globe of light hanging on the wall of the tunnel outside the cell.

Michelangelo looked up, but the purple light had disappeared. The ceiling was now a dark gray and very much solid, as the turtle realized when he tried to hit it with his nunchucks.

Michelangelo was torn between happiness at the fact he was still alive - his gorgeous body didn't deserve to stop breathing, it was way too young for that - and the fact he was imprisoned.

He hated that. Turtles were made for the immensity of rooftops, not for prisons.

"Why does it have to be a prison?" he complained. "Don't people realize we already spend most of our time underground?"

"Yeah, villains should realize that." Raph nodded.

"Who are you calling a villain?" a new voice said. "You're the trespassers here."

Michelangelo turned around to see who had spoken.

Behind the bars, a big and proud mutant was now watching them. He had impressive horns and long hair. Michelangelo wondered if he would let him braid them.

He had always wanted to try doing that, and Splinter had always refused to lend Michelangelo his beard for such an experiment.

"Draxum!" Raph straightened up. "Free us immediately, or fear the wrath of my mighty… my mighty…"

Raph leaned towards Donnie. "What should I put after that?" he whispered.

Draxum didn't even blink. "I must say, I didn't think you turtles were stupid enough to go back to my armory. Did you really think I would take no steps to protect it from you after last time?"

"That was clever," Donnie acknowledged.

"Donnie, no need to praise the enemy," Michelangelo muttered.

Draxum was watching him intently, and he felt uneasy under his gaze.

"Incredible," their captor whispered. "Where are you two coming from?"

Michelangelo exchanged a glance with Leonardo. Maybe they could make the mutant talk long enough to find a way of leaving this place?

"How about we tell you over a cup of tea?" Michelangelo said. "Not that I care too much about tea, but I could make an exception. You seem to be the kind of well-behaved person who would enjoy the whole ceremonial."

"I have no intention of sharing any kind of beverage with you."

"Dude, no need to be rude," Michelangelo protested. "I take it back, you're not well-behaved at all."

Draxum narrowed his eyes. Before he could answer, though, a strident ringing sound echoed.

Draxum took a cell phone from one of his pockets and listened to his mysterious caller.

"I'm coming," he said ten seconds later. He waved his hand and a purple rectangle of light appeared in front of him. Without another glance for the turtles, he entered the portal, which quickly disappeared behind him.

"He could at least have said goodbye," Michelangelo complained. "He really has no manners."

Unknown verse

Donatello watched the sight with amazement. He didn't know where they were, but it wasn't on Earth - or on an Earth.

Creatures were flying around them, while others walked or slid on roads suspended mid-air. Strange buildings stood here and there. In the distance, a ship was flying peacefully.

There was no sun or sky as far as Donatello could tell. It was as if they were underground.

"Ommigosh! We're home!" Mikey shouted.

Donatello watched him in surprise. "This is your New York? I must say, I expected something more… conventional."

"New York is up there." Leo pointed above their heads with a grin. "We're in the Hidden City. Your portal worked, Don!"

"Oh, excellent!" Donatello grinned too. "Do you know how to get home from there?"

He couldn't wait to be reunited with his brothers.

Leo's grin turned into a grimace. "Well, not exactly. We need another portal to go back to our city."

Raphael snorted. "I'd have been surprised."

Leo ignored him. "But there are many such portals. Yokai go to the surface all the time! We only have to find one!"

Mikey nodded vigorously. "Let's explore!"

The two of them began walking away.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Raphael muttered.

Donatello smiled at his brother. He knew how much Raphael hated transdimensional travel.

"Let's see the bright side," he told him softly. "Leo won't run into Hun here, will he?"

Raphael sighed. "I guess you're right."

They followed Leo and Mikey, and it wasn't long until they arrived at a busy marketplace. All around them, merchants sold items Donatello had never seen.

This was exactly his sort of candy store.

"Do you think they accept US dollars?" he asked Raphael.

Raphael watched him fondly. "You can always try."

Donatello began bargaining with an old woman to acquire a bottle of a blue substance that was liquid or solid depending on the orientation of the bottle. He was amazed that she spoke the same English he did - but maybe the whole market was under a spell.

"Oooh, look!" Mikey suddenly shouted.

Donatello turned to him. As Mikey didn't seem to be in danger, though, he finished his transaction - the woman was interested in his money after all - before joining him.

Mikey stood in admiration of a pet store.

"Can we go inside? Can we?"

Leo considered the place. It was small and looked shady. "Mikey, I'm not sure it's a good idea."

"We have no time to lose," Raphael added.

Leo glanced at the red-masked turtle. "On second thought, I think we can, Mikey." He pushed the door and entered, quickly followed by his overjoyed brother.

Raphael rolled his eyes. "Seriously? Just to get to me?"

Donatello wisely decided not to reply that Raphael might be familiar with the feeling and followed Leo and Mikey inside.

Surprisingly enough, the pet store smelled like dust and old scrolls. Inside the various cages, Donatello discerned cats and dogs, crows and sphinxes, and a solitary Hydra.

They all looked unhappy.

"This is not right," Raphael whispered in Donatello's ear.

Donatello was glad his brother had decided not to pout outside.

Leo and Mikey were nowhere in sight. At the counter, the shop owner was talking to two little creatures looking like living gargoyles.

"No, I don't have what you're looking for," he was saying.

"That's not what they said," one of the gargoyles whispered.

"I think you're lying to us," the other one added.

Out of nowhere, a green hand grabbed Donatello's arm.

"Let's hide in the backroom," Leo whispered urgently.

Donatello didn't question it and used the shadows of the shop to his advantage. Soon he and Raphael were in a small room separated from the main shop by a dusty curtain.

"Do you know them?" Donatello whispered.

"They are Draxum's minions." Leo's expression was somber. "I don't know what they're doing in that shop, but we better not let them know we're here."

Mikey moodily sat on a chair next to a small cage hidden by a piece of cloth.

"We need to help these poor little guys," he said. "This shop owner doesn't feed them nearly enough. Have you seen how skinny they all are?"

As in answer, the cage next to him buzzed. Mikey frowned and carefully removed the cloth.

Inside the screened cage, tiny flying insects were throbbing.

Their color, a threatening green unlike any other, made crystal clear what they were.

"Oozesquitoes!" Mikey exclaimed. "They're selling Oozesquitoes?"

"It looks like it." Leo rubbed his chin. "What for, I wonder?"

But Mikey's yell hadn't gone unnoticed. The curtain was drawn and the entrance framed the head of a very mad shop owner as much as two flying gargoyles.

"Hey, you!" the yokai shouted. "You shouldn't be here!"

Huginn and Muninn, proud gargoyles in the service of the famous Baron Draxum, couldn't believe their luck. They had not only found proof that the shop owner was a liar and part of the Oozesquitoes traffic that made their master so mad, but they had also found the turtles.

Although two of them looked very different from last time. Had they double-mutated or something?

The two gargoyles retreated to the main room of the shop.

"Do you have the phone?" Huginn asked.

"Of course I have the phone!" Muninn answered.

"Then make the call!"

"No, you make the call! Last time I did and the boss yelled at me!"

"Because last time you mistook flies for Oozesquitoes!"

"You were the one to tell they were!"

"Just make the call!"

Muninn unhappily relented.

"Boss? Boss? We found your Oozesquitoes! And the turtles, too!"

"I'm coming," the boss said.

"He's coming," Muninn mouthed to Huginn.

"He's coooming," Huginn repeated with delight.

Both gargoyles flew to the ceiling of the pet shop to have a better view of what was about to unfold.

Mikey put his hands on his hips and glared at the shop owner.

"Dear Sir, it appears that your shop is breaking the law!"

He pointed at the Oozesquitoes.

"It is forbidden to sell these."

Something like fear flickered on the shop owner's face.

"Are you from the police?"

"Of course we are!" Leo crossed his arms. "I'm afraid you'll have to close your business."

"And free all the pets," Mikey added for good measure.

The yokai's eyes narrowed. "Really? Can I see your police card?"

"Uh…" Leo said.

He was spared an answer by the sudden appearance of a rectangle of purple light behind the shop owner.

A yokai Leo and Mikey knew all too well emerged from it.

"Who dares to steal from me?" he bellowed.

The shop owner's eyes widened. To his credit, customers must rarely use portals to barge into his store. "Who are you?"

"Who am I?" Draxum grabbed him by his collar. "I am Baron Draxum, and these Oozesquitoes are mine!"

Mikey exchanged a glance with the other turtles. By mutual agreement, they all began heading for the main room of the shop.

"I didn't know, Sir!" the shop owner whined. "It's Big Mama! She's paying in gold for those things!"

Draxum released him with a disgusted expression and took the cage containing the Oozesquitoes.

"Big Mama should know better than to step on my toes," he muttered as his gargoyles landed on his shoulders. "Maybe I should pay her another visit."

"Maybe you should, Boss," one of them said.

"Yes, so she knows who's the boss, Boss," the other added.

Meanwhile, the turtles had managed to retreat to the shop, and were on their way to the exit.

And the pleading eyes of the undernourished pets were weighing heavily on Mikey.

Surely he had the time to free them.

He began running from cage to cage and opening them. Leo gave him a hand, as did Donatello and even Raphael.

It looked like Draxum had forgotten all about them. Mikey grinned as the pets ran away, followed by the shop owner.

Followed by the shop owner?

"Don't think that I've forgotten about you, turtles," Draxum said, leaving the backroom with the Oozesquitoes' cage in one hand.

Raphael raised his sai, ready to strike.

"But I have business to attend to before I can deal with you and your new friends," Draxum added, looking at Donatello and Raphael.

"I don't think I'll accept your invitation," Raphael spat, running to Draxum.

The yokai raised his hand and threw four little brown balls.

Each ball reached a turtle and transformed into a cocoon, efficiently imprisoning them.

"What?" Raphael yelled.

As he wiggled to try and break free, his cocoon merged with Leo's, squishing him against Mikey's brother.

"Aww, why am I alone this time?" Mikey whined.

"Get me out of here!" Raphael protested.

Draxum considered him. "But of course."

He waved his hand, and a new purple portal appeared under the cocooned turtles.

Mikey yelled all he was worth as he fell inside.

"The nerve of that guy!" Raph paced back and forth in their cell.

Leonardo was probing the bars separating them from the tunnel where Draxum had stood. "My swords won't cut through them," he said, frowning.

Raph stopped abruptly. "Oh! But maybe my weapons will. Let me try!"

He went to the bars and extended his arms.

"Stand back," he said confidently.

The others complied. Raph took a deep breath and focused to use the mystical energy of his tonfa. If he could turn them into giant red fists, maybe they would be enough to crush the bars of their prison.

But it didn't work.

"Donnie, they're not working," Raph said, frowning. "Why are they not working?"

Donnie didn't look at him. "It's probably a minor inconvenience," he said, typing something on his phone.

"You broke them with your portal!" Raph accused his brother.

"Which is why non-mystical weapons will always remain superior." Donnie stroked his tech-bō lovingly. "Especially those made of titanium."

Raph sighed deeply. There was no point in arguing with his brother now. He had known the risks of surrendering his weapons to Donnie.

He was about to ask if anybody had an idea to get out of here when a portal opened in the ceiling, letting three cocoons into the cell.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH," one of the cocoons was saying.

Raph would have recognized that yell anywhere. He rushed to the cocoons, not daring to hope that his brothers were there - alive.

"Guys!"

Chapter Text

Leonardo quickly recovered from his surprise at seeing the cocoons fall from the ceiling. There were three of them, hiding the newcomers' bodies almost entirely - but their heads were sticking out, and it was more than enough.

"Guys!" he exclaimed, at the exact same time Raph did. His heart filled with happiness. After realizing that Donnie's portal hadn't led them home, he had been resigned to waiting longer before he could meet his brothers again, but obviously fate had other plans.

"Leo! Mikey!" Raphael said, his face shifting from deep annoyance to complete bafflement. He made a distinct effort to extend his head as far away from his cocoon-partner as possible. "Get me out of here!"

"Raph! Donnie! I'm so happy you're there!" Mikey said from his cocoon next to Leo and Raphael's. He wiggled in order to get closer to Raph and wrap his body the best he could around his feet. Raph picked him up and hugged him, cocoon and all. Mikey beamed like the thrilled little brother he was.

Leonardo unsheathed a katana and freed the three other turtles, his blade cutting through the cocoons without touching the skin.

"Finally." Raphael breathed out a sigh of relief and stretched his arms and legs. "It's good to see you guys," he told Leonardo and Michelangelo.

"We've been looking everywhere for you," Donatello added, taking Michelangelo's offered hand to stand up. "I'm glad to see you're alright!"

"How did you land here?" Michelangelo asked. "We used a portal Donnie made, and we got captured almost immediately, but what about you?"

Raphael grimaced. "It's a long story. But we could sum it up the same way."

Meanwhile, Leo was joining Raph and Mikey's hug, grabbing Donnie's arm along the way. His brother might be pretending to look at something on his phone, he wouldn't escape the family hug that easily.

"Let's never be split up that long ever again," he said, pressing his face against Raph's shell.

"Agreed." Mikey nuzzled against Leo, Donnie and Raph happily.

Raph squeezed his three brothers with the most ecstatic of grins, and didn't release them before a long time. He had been so worried about them. It was good to know they were alright.

When he finally let them go, Mikey, who was still in his cocoon, fell on the ground.

"Uh… Can somebody set me free?"

Leonardo obliged, and Mikey jumped on his feet with delight before placing himself in front of Michelangelo.

Now that he had welcomed his brothers, he was very curious about his counterpart.

"So you're me, uh?" He grinned. Michelangelo looked exactly like Mikey had thought he would. "It's nice to meet you."

"I've heard a lot about you." Michelangelo was watching him with the same interest. Then he glanced at Raph, who blushed a little. "You were missed."

"Yes," Raph admitted in a small voice.

"So you were with each other after all?" Leonardo asked, looking at Raphael, Donatello, Leo and Mikey. He was especially curious to learn more about Leo - the stories he had been told let him think that this Leo was very different from him indeed. "We hoped it would be the case, but we couldn't be sure."

"Yes, we were." Raphael was eying Raph with interest. Being represented in this universe by a big, muscular turtle didn't bother him in the slightest.

"How did things go?" Donatello asked, his eyes going from Raph the alligator snapping turtle to Donnie the spiny softshell turtle. Did his counterpart have a makeshift shell? He would definitely ask him about it later. "I want to know everything."

"Don, their lair is awesome," Michelangelo exclaimed. "It has a skate ramp and an Arcade! Can we do the same at home?"

Donatello considered this. "I don't think we have enough room for a skate ramp. But if you want an Arcade…"

"I do!"

Raphael watched them with interest. It looked like Michelangelo had quickly adjusted to this new universe.

"I'm glad you had fun," Leo said insidiously. "Not all of us were that lucky."

Raphael was immediately on the defensive. And as the best defense was the attack, he counter-attacked. "He was worse than Mikey! Pulling stupid stunts all the time!" he said, pointing an accusative finger at Leo.

Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donnie and Raph watched them with questioning looks.

"He was mean!" Leo protested.

"He's mean to everybody," Michelangelo whispered to Leo, smirking. "Don't take it personally."

At this point, both Raph and Leonardo had crossed their arms.

"Okay, what happened?" Raph began.

Leo averted his eyes. "Indubitably nothing that would be a problem," he muttered.

Raph frowned. "Every time you say this word, you know I know you're up to something."

"Absolutely nothing that would be a problem," Leo amended, too late.

"Leo…" Raph pressed on.

Leo threw up his arms. "Okay, I might have lost my sword," he admitted. "But I intend to get it back!"

"You lost your sword?" The news had managed to surprise Donnie. "Now that would explain why you didn't come back after your portal failed."

Leonardo immediately grasped the implications of such an event. "Have you any idea where it might be?" he asked Donatello and Raphael. "We don't want it to fall into the wrong hands."

"Don't worry about that," Donatello said. "It kinda went to a retreat."

And he undertook to explain them what he had discovered about Leo's sword. When he was done, Donnie was grinning from ear to ear.

"Sooo… What you're saying is that Leo's weapon is offended by his lack of talent?"

Leo glared daggers at Donnie, but of course it wasn't going to stop his brother.

"I'm sure you'll get it back, Leo," Raph said soothingly. "Don't listen to Donnie."

"This remains to be seen," Raphael said wryly.

"Obviously you don't know who you're dealing with," Leo said, encouraged by Raph's support.

"I don't, but apparently your weapon does," Raphael whispered with a smirk.

Leonardo observed the tension between them, frowning. Apparently Raphael hadn't adjusted to the situation as well as Michelangelo and himself. He exchanged a look with Donatello, who shrugged ever so slightly.

"See?" Leo looked at Raph. "I told you he was mean!"

Raph cleared his throat. "Now surely there is no need to get angry," he said. "We should focus on getting out of here!"

"A good point. What's your plan?" Donnie asked lightly.

Raph wrung his hands. He didn't have a plan. He had intended to crush the bars of their prison with his mystical weapons, but they were broken. And now everybody was looking at him. "I don't know!"

Raphael raised an eye ridge, surprised that his counterpart would fret so much over such a thing.

Leo, who was about to tease Raph, misinterpreted Raphael's expression and changed his mind radically. He wasn't going to accept criticism on his brother's plan-making, not by someone who didn't belong to the family. "If you have a plan, please share it with us, o fearless leader," he said with all the irony he could muster - as much as some shadenfreude. He had realized that plans weren't Raphael's forte, either.

He didn't expect, however, the delighted expression on Michelangelo's face.

"Oh, Raphie," Michelangelo cooed.

"Shut up," Raphael said, clearly embarrassed.

Which caused Mikey's face to lit up like a Christmas tree. This nickname was so cute! Why hadn't Raphael shared it with them?

"But you know," Michelangelo went on, clearly enjoying every second of this moment, "there is a misunderstanding here. Raph is not our leader. We want to stay alive, you see, and Raph's plans tend not to be very much planned for."

"Get them before they can get you, that's my motto," Raphael expanded. He felt a little sheepish for taking Leonardo's title and avoided looking at his brother.

"Wait, what?" Leo said, taken aback. "You told me you were the leader!" he said to Raphael, indignant.

"By interim, sure." Raphael crossed his arms, still not looking at Leonardo.

"Then who is?" Leo went on, determined to get to the bottom of this important matter.

"That would be me," Leonardo said, his tone somewhere between amusement and annoyance.

Raphael dared to look at him. His brother didn't look mad. Good. Raphael didn't want that, not when he had just been reunited with him.

"And we're sure happy to have you back." Raphael nodded gravely as he patted Leonardo's shell.

"Wait, what? Wait, what?" Leo kept saying.

Donnie glanced at him. "If our Leo was leader, we would never get any mission done. He's way too lazy for that." He paused. "Then it would mean that I could spend all my time inventing! Raph, don't you want to…"

Raph crossed his arms. "Come on, guys, we have a duty towards the people of New York. It's our fault if the Oozesquitoes escaped!"

Donatello perked up at that new name. What were Oozesquitoes? Were they something you could experiment with? He was about to ask the question when he felt a presence in the tunnel outside the cell.

All eight turtles turned around like one.

"I hope I'm not interrupting," Baron Draxum said wryly.

Chapter Text

Baron Draxum watched the eight turtles without showing the deep curiosity consuming him. On his shoulders, Huginn and Muninn fidgeted, failing to do the same thing.

Where were these new turtles coming from? He would have known if someone else in the Hidden City had experimented with mutagen. And they carried weapons, too. Were they warriors? Were they good enough warriors to be used in his plan against humanity? Would they, unlike the turtles he had himself created, agree to help him?

But these questions would have to wait. Right now, he needed to deal with the threat posed by Big Mama.

The spider yokai had denied being the one collecting every possible Oozesquitoe, and Baron Draxum had no proof except the word of a terrified pet shop owner - who had conveniently vanished - and his own intuition.

Draxum needed more information, and he also needed his Oozesquitoes back.

The turtles were going to help him achieve that purpose.

The eight of them were looking at him with expressions going from mild curiosity to straight out anger, including one completely expressionless. They kept silent, waiting for him to say more.

He complied.

"Turtles. I'll be brief. I'm offering you a chance to redeem yourselves by helping me against our common enemy."

"What enemy?" Mikey whispered, not low enough that Draxum wouldn't hear.

"She goes by the name Big Mama," Draxum said with as much distinction as he could muster.

That name was ridiculous. Now Baron Draxum, that was something; it inspired respect to his allies and fear to his enemies.

The turtles watched one another, looking neither respectful nor afraid.

"She's not our enemy," Leo said. "More like a dangerous crazy spider woman we don't want to mess with."

Donnie nodded melancholically. "Alas, as she's also the first adult to have ever praised my amazing inventions."

"Now you," Leo went on, glaring at Draxum, "you're the one who threw me off a roof."

At these words, Raph bowed his head, as if in shame.

The four other turtles, whose names Draxum didn't know yet, were watching in silence, gathered around their blue one.

Draxum frowned. They weren't reacting as he had hoped.

It was time for Plan B.

"Then I'm offering a bargain," he said on the same calm, reasonable tone he had chosen to address them and their obviously limited minds. "One of you undertakes a small mission for me, and I don't destroy the others. How does that sound?"

The cell erupted in uproar, which Draxum couldn't have cared about less.

If they didn't want to be useful to him as allies, they would do fine hostages.

He would be a fool not to take advantage of the situation.

Leo wasn't happy with the way things were turning out, but he couldn't say he was surprised.

Of course Draxum would try to take advantage of them. It was actually a way better fate than being killed on the spot - it bought them time.

"What would be the mission?" he asked when Raph, Donnie, Mikey, Raphael and Michelangelo had calmed down, his tone as nonchalant as ever while his mind rushed to come up with a plan - any plan.

Had they any chance to break out of this cell by brute strength? The bars looked strong. And he hadn't his portal-making sword.

"Big Mama has stolen Oozesquitoes from me." Draxum's tone made clear it was a major offense done to him. "I want you to retrieve them."

"Ooh." Leo leaned against the cell wall, bowing his head a little as if Draxum wasn't interesting enough to be looked at. "And you're too afraid to go yourself, so you're asking teenagers to do it for you. Very courageous."

From the corner of his eye, Leo could see Draxum was outraged. He smirked. It felt good to know he still had what it took to enrage his opponents.

"I'm not asking for your opinion, turtle."

Raph crossed his arms. "We won't help you. You're a villain, and we're the good guys."

This time, Leo distinctly saw Draxum roll his eyes. He had to admit, Raph wasn't too bad at annoying their opponents either.

"Then you can rot in this cell for all I care. It's portal-proof, you won't be able to use the mystical sword to get out of it. You'll be trapped forever, and slowly starve." Draxum gave them a nasty smile. "Maybe you'll even eat each other, who knows?"

Leo hoped Draxum would be too happy with his threat to notice that he, Leo, wasn't carrying such a sword.

His hope was short-lived.

Donatello had so many questions. What were these Oozesquitoes? Who was Big Mama? Why was she bad news, and why would she have praised his counterpart? What did she intend to do with the aforementioned mysterious Oozesquitoes?

But he could see now wasn't the time to ask them. Leo had taken upon himself to discuss with their captor, and Donatello really hoped he had some sort of plan to get them out of there.

He really hoped, too, that Leo was faking this uncomfortable shift as he tried to get further away from the bars and Draxum, who had just stopped smiling and was narrowing his eyes.

"Where is that sword, by the way?"

"Which sword?" Leo asked innocently.

"The sword you stole from me."

"Oh, that sword."

"So where is it?"

For a while, Donatello thought Leo wasn't going to answer. In the end, though, the blue-masked turtle shrugged.

"I lost it."

For the first time, Draxum truly lost his composure.

"Fool! You lost this sword? It is priceless!"

"Yeah, well. Stuff happens."

Draxum fumed. "You will be the one to go," he spat. "Remember, if you fail me, your brothers will die."

"What? He can't go alone!" Raph rushed to the bars and pressed his head against them.

Even if the bars were too close to each other to allow the turtle to put his arm through, Draxum took a discreet step backwards.

Donatello had to admit, Raph in his worry was particularly impressive.

"He can if I want to," Draxum said, rather meanly.

"It's okay, Raph." Leo came forwards and patted his brother's arm. "I'll do it."

Donatello had an inkling Leo was still eager to accomplish an exploit, no matter how dangerous, and that it was a perfect opportunity. Next to him, Raphael shrugged slightly, as if to indicate he thought the same but it. Wasn't. His. Problem. Anymore.

"I'll need a weapon," Leo went on.

"You can have the staff I didn't want," his brother Donnie suggested. "It's still in the armory."

Leo seemed to consider that, then shook his head. "No, thank you. There can only be one mystical weapon for me. And I will have it back."

Donatello wondered what that staff was, and whether he could have it.

"I'm sure you can improvise," Draxum whispered. "Take the blue one out of here," he ordered his gargoyles before turning around and departing in grand style.

Huginn and Muninn knew what they had to do.

First, switch on the Glass Wall Button so a glass wall would fall near the bars, completely isolating the inside of the cell.

Second, switch on the Sleeping Gas Button and wait until all turtles had fallen asleep.

Third, use the Paralyzing Button because four of the turtles had sat down and were seemingly meditating instead of falling asleep.

Then and only then did they dare enter the cell with remote-controlled pliers to move the turtle selected by the Boss.

Huginn and Muninn flew above the turtles, confused.

"Which one is the Blue One?" they whispered, their heads going from one blue-masked turtle to another.

Raph woke up with a start.

He had just had the weirdest of dreams. He had been reunited with his brothers, but then Draxum had appeared and snatched Leo before running away with an evil laugh, leaving black feathers everywhere.

Raph shouldn't have eaten that fourth pizza earlier.

He blinked, letting his sight adjust - and then he remembered.

It hadn't all been a dream. He had been reunited with his brothers.

His brothers…

Raph stood up and counted the turtles asleep on the floor. One, two, three, four, five…

Plus him, it made six. They were supposed to be four and four equals eight. Eight minus six equals two. They were short of two turtles.

Raph rubbed his eyes and counted again. To his dismay, he found the same result.

Leo was missing, and so was Leonardo.

"Wake up!" he said desperately, shaking his brothers. "Donnie, Mikey! Please wake up!"

Donnie moaned and sat down. "Did Dad break the remote again?"

"Donnie, come back to me," Raph begged.

Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo were also waking up.

"Ooh, my head." Michelangelo rubbed said head. "I hate being shot."

"Where is Leo?" Raphael asked at the same time.

Raph assumed he was talking about his own brother.

"I don't know. Our Leo has disappeared too." Raph knelt next to Mikey and delicately took him in his arms. "Why is he not waking up?" he asked desperately.

Donnie and Donatello looked at each other.

"It's probably because he's smaller than us," Donatello began.

"His organism breathed comparatively more sleeping gas than we did," Donnie added.

Donatello thought for a while. "Considering his size, he should wake up in approximately fifteen seconds."

"And three tenths of a second," Donnie added for good measure.

And indeed, Mikey woke up fifteen seconds and three tenths of a second later.

"I can't believe Leo is gone," Raphael muttered while Raph hugged Mikey. "We had just found him again. Didn't this Draxum say he only wanted one turtle for that mission?"

"I don't know." Donatello stood up. "We have to find a way out. I don't think Draxum is trustworthy. He will try to double-cross us, even if Leo manages to find his Oozesquitoes. What are they, by the way?"

Donnie took it upon himself to answer his counterpart's question. "They're mutant mosquitoes carrying mutagen. Draxum wants to infect as many humans as he can. He doesn't like them very much, I have no idea why."

"Yeah, humans are great!" Mikey added.

"How do we get out?" Raph asked, focusing on the important part. "We need to find Leo and Leo." He tapped the bars with his weapons, looking sad. "If only they weren't broken…" he whispered.

So of course Donatello had to ask him what he meant, and thus he learned about the portal Donnie had created and how it had consumed the mystical energy in Raph's weapons.

"Hmm," Donatello thought aloud. "You mean that if your weapons were powered up, you could break these bars?"

"Of course!"

"Then I think I have an idea." Donatello grinned.

Donnie was excited to see if his counterpart's idea would work. This Donatello was definitely a genius too. He had used Morse code to ask Mikey's weapon if it agreed to lend Raph's a bit of its own energy, and after a heated negotiation Mikey's weapon had accepted.

Now they were doing the transfer. The hope in Raph's eyes was so huge it almost hurt Donnie to look at him.

Not that he felt guilty for draining his weapons' energy or anything.

"I think it's working," Donatello whispered, his tone making clear that he felt as excited as Donnie did.

"Let's try it," Raph said with determination, standing up and heading for the bars. "Stay back."

Donnie obeyed. The glass wall that the gargoyles had used to make sure the sleeping gas stayed inside the cell had disappeared, so there wouldn't be glass shards everywhere, but Donnie wasn't too keen on being hit by metal pieces either.

He and the others watched as Raph took a deep breath and got ready to strike. The red hue of Raph's weapons was definitely a good omen.

KABOOM!

"Yeaaaah!" Mikey shouted. "You did it!"

"Now that's what I call a job well done," an extremely satisfied Donnie said.

His happiness was not only caused by the fact they were now free, but also by the acknowledgment that with Donatello at his side, he could enter a whole new realm of exploding thi- of interacting scientifically with the world.

Raph raised his head proudly.

"Let's go find our brothers!"

Baron Draxum was in the middle of a delicious dinner when the very unpleasant feeling that something was not going according to plan disturbed his feast.

He waved his hand and an oval appeared in the air, showing him the cell where the turtles were.

Or, more exactly, where the turtles had been.

Draxum yelled. "Huginn! Muninn! What have you done?"

The two gargoyles hurried to him.

"There were two Blue Ones!" they whined, flying erratically. "We didn't know which one to choose!"

Draxum glared at them. "What are you talking about? All the turtles have escaped!"

The gargoyles calmed down at once.

"Oh, good. It isn't us," Huginn breathed.

"Yeah, Boss, you had us really worried for a while," Muninn added.

It took every inch of Draxum's considerable self-control not to splatter them against the wall.

Chapter Text

Leonardo woke up with a start. He had been in a cell with his brothers, slowing his breathing down to avoid inhaling sleeping gas, and now he was…

He was lying on a bench in the open, with Leo next to him.

Leonardo jumped on his feet, taking in his immediate surroundings. This looked like a small town square, with benches circling a fountain and several streets leading through buildings of various shapes and forms. It was nothing like his New York, but it was definitely a city.

What was he doing here? And more importantly, what if people saw him?

Leonardo's last memory was pain coursing through his body as he was shocked with some sort of wave. He must have experienced a blackout.

But why wasn't he in the cell with his brothers? Hadn't Draxum selected Leo for his mission?

Said Leo was still sleeping peacefully, like he hadn't caused any interdimensional drama at all.

Leonardo shook him softly. "Wake up!" he whispered in Leo's ear, at the same time looking for a place where they could retreat. They were way too exposed.

Leo moaned in his sleep. He looked younger than he was, curled up in a ball like this.

But Leonardo couldn't afford to let him sleep.

"Wake up!" he insisted. "We must leave!"

Leo yawned and opened his eyes. "What's the emergency?" he drawled.

At that precise moment, people entered the square. They weren't looking at them, and they…

They weren't human.

Leonardo relaxed ever so slightly.

"Are we still in the Hidden City?" he asked his counterpart.

Leo stretched before standing up and looking around. He nodded. "It looks like it." Then he frowned, his memories catching up with him. "Why are you here?"

Leonardo shrugged. "I don't know. The others are missing."

"Still in that cell, I assume." Leo's shoulders sagged a little. "And just when I had found them again."

Leonardo could relate to that feeling. He hadn't expected to be separated from his brothers so soon after their reunion. And now it looked like they were the prisoners of a maniac.

Leonardo would not forget about Draxum and what he did.

He sat down on the bench, thinking.

"What can you tell me about Big Mama? And Draxum?" he asked Leo.

Leo grimaced. "Big Mama is a dangerous spider yokai and I don't want to cross her. Or see her. Or have anything to do with her. Oh, and she's obsessed with her Battle Nexus and will try to send us there if she can."

"What's the Battle Nexus?"

"It's a place where people fight each other in front of other people. Big Mama doesn't care about obtaining the fighters' consent, I'm afraid."

"I see," Leonardo said somberly.

"And Draxum is the one who mutated us in the first place. He wanted to turn us into weapons." Leo shrugged. "Good thing Splinter took us in instead. Can you imagine training for hours every day of your life?"

Leonardo lifted an eye ridge. "Yes, I can."

Leo had the good grace to look a tiny bit sheepish and Leonardo didn't insist. They had more pressing matters to attend to.

"What do you think is the best course of action? Should we go back and try to free our brothers, or should we carry out Draxum's mission?"

Leo looked surprised for some reason, but his answer was immediate. "Draxum didn't hesitate to drop me off a building once. He won't hesitate to kill the others if we don't give him what he wants."

Leonardo's fists clenched ever so slightly. "Then it's settled. We have to bring him these Oozesquitoes. Where is Big Mama's hideout?"

Leo cleared his throat. "I… don't know. I've never been in this part of the Hidden City." He stood up before Leonardo could reply. "But we can always ask."

Leo kept a discreet eye on Leonardo as they walked inside the streets.

He had been considering trying to run out on his counterpart. This was the perfect opportunity to accomplish the exploit his sword wanted, after all. Single-handedly saving his brothers and Leonardo's brothers from Draxum…

On the other hand, his brothers' lives were at stake and maybe it wouldn't be so bad to have reinforcements.

Leo had never underestimated Big Mama and he wasn't going to begin now.

He looked around, in search of another person to ask, but they were alone for now. They must have been moving away from the city center.

Leo had already asked several inhabitants of this city and they had all refused to answer his question, however simple it was. He had changed the wording several times, to no avail. The last time, the questioned citizen had even run away.

Maybe "Where can I sell my contraband Oozesquitoes?" had been a bit too explicit.

"Maybe we should try another strategy," Leonardo suggested.

Leo wasn't going to admit it, but it sounded like a good idea.

"What do you have in mind?" he said, his tone carefully neutral.

Leonardo pointed at the rooftops. "I suggest we climb there and take a look at the city from above. In my world, alleyways are always good places for shady business. If Big Mama is in charge here, she must send subordinates to do her dirty jobs. If we find one, we can follow them back to her hiding place."

"It sounds like a plan," Leo admitted, wishing he had thought of that.

No sooner said than done, they both climbed up the closest building. Leonardo stayed near the edge and scanned the city in search of a suitable alleyway while Leo leaned against a chimney, watching him.

"Are you really the leader?" he asked, sounding like he wasn't really interested in the answer.

"Yes."

"It was never Raphael?" Leo asked again, just to be sure.

"No."

"Okay."

Raphael had really taken him for a ride, then. Leo made a mental note to find a way to get back at him.

Nobody took Leo for a fool and got away with it, not even his own brothers.

Leonardo spared him a curious glance.

"What really happened with my brother?"

"I told you, he was mean." Leo glared at Leonardo as if it had been him and not Raphael. "At the end he didn't even want me to leave your lair on my own! How ridiculous!"

Leonardo raised both his eye ridges, obviously surprised. "Raph didn't want you to leave the lair?"

"Yes." Leo shook his head. "No offense, but he sounds like a real pain in the-"

"Thank you for your opinion," Leonardo cut him off. "And I'm sorry if he wasn't completely welcoming to you. But understand that I love him as much as you love your own brothers. I'd be grateful if you didn't insult him in my presence."

Leo considered that. "Fair enough," he finally muttered.

"Look," Leonardo said.

Leo rolled his eyes. The last thing he wanted was to have an in-depth conversation with Leonardo about what had happened in the other turtle's world. "I said fair enough. You made your point. No need to add more. It's not because we have the same name and the same favorite color that we're going to become best friends forever."

Even if you do listen to my plans, he added in his head with a hint of regret.

Leonardo shook his head with something that might have been slight exasperation.

"I meant 'look at this'. I think I've found what we are looking for." Leonardo pointed at something Leo couldn't see from where he stood.

"Oh." Leo came closer to the rooftop's edge and watched the shadowy figure who was striding inside a narrow street, not very far from there.

The figure was carrying an imperfectly zipped backpack and Leo could have sworn there were green lights flickering inside it.

It was an Oozesquitoes trafficker, Leo would have bet his li- Donnie's life on it.

"I suggest we follow this guy," Leo said as if he just had the idea.

"Sounds like a plan."

Leonardo sounded amused, which Leo ignored.

After all, the one who talked first could take the credit for the plan.

Crouching on a rooftop, Leonardo watched inside the alleyway that the trafficker had just entered. For now, the yokai was alone; but he was clearly waiting for someone, pacing back and forth and muttering under his breath.

Leonardo settled more comfortably for the wait, thinking about what he had seen so far.

Walking into the crowd in the city center had been a strange experience. An ill-advised somebody had even tried to search his belt for a wallet, as if Leonardo carried one.

The turtle definitely felt more in his element on the rooftops, in this less-frequented part of the Hidden City. And it was comforting to know that shady business still happened in shady alleyways.

Still, Leonardo hoped that he would have the opportunity to come back here with his brothers. Michelangelo in particular would love to blend in with the people of that very special city.

Something shifted down below, and Leonardo focused on what was happening.

Two giant owls in purple costumes were exiting a portal. The trafficker had stopped pacing and was doing his best to stand straight.

Leonardo glanced at Leo. His counterpart's somber face left no doubt about the fact he recognized either the owls or their costumes.

Good. The sooner this mission would be done, the sooner Leonardo would see his brothers again.

"Do you have the Oozesquitoes?" one of the owls said.

"Of course I do." The trafficker put his backpack in front of him, then held out his hand, palm up. "My payment, please."

The second owl walked to the backpack and opened it. The trafficker fidgeted.

"You said you had thirty Oozesquitoes," the owl said, his voice threatening. "I'm counting only seven."

"They're hard to catch," the trafficker said in a strangled voice.

"You should have waited before calling us," the owl added. "This is a waste of our time."

"I need the money now." The trafficker hung his head. "My mother is sick and…"

The first owl took a threatening step towards him. He let out a strangled gasp before running for his life.

The second owl closed the backpack and took it. "Let's go," he said to his companion, pointing at the still-opened portal.

Leonardo looked at Leo. Leo looked at Leonardo.

They both grinned.

The owl's costume was a bit too large for Leo's size, which was especially irritating because it fitted Leonardo perfectly. Leo was still extremely satisfied with their improvised plan.

They had knocked out Big Mama's minions and taken their outfits and the Oozesquitoes before jumping inside the portal, which had closed behind them.

They had also let the owls' money clearly visible in the alleyway in case the trafficker decided to come back. Leo liked to think that a mom might be healed thanks to it.

He had only collected a few bills for his emergency fund, the one Raph didn't know about.

Now both Leo and Leonardo were standing inside a hotel room Leo knew all too well.

"Good news, we're in New York," he whispered to Leonardo.

He didn't add that he had no idea how they would go back to the Hidden City once their mission would be complete.

"How do we go back to the Hidden City with the Oozesquitoes?" Leonardo asked.

Leo ignored that very rude question and adjusted his mask of freshly sampled owl feathers. After all, he couldn't afford to be recognized by Big Mama or her staff.

In fact, a fox in the same purple uniform as them was watching them suspiciously.

"We'll put these Oozesquitoes with the others," Leo said loud and clear, going for the elevator.

Leonardo followed him, which Leo enjoyed. Leo was the one in charge here, he knew the ground and he knew their foes and -

The elevator doors opened to reveal Gus, Big Mama's dog yokai pet. Leo made a U-turn to hide behind Leonardo.

Gus left the elevator and sniffed, his eyes slightly narrowed.

Leonardo moved past him to enter the elevator. Leo made sure to always have the other turtle between his precious body and Gus.

The elevator doors closed just as Gus' spikes bristled.

"An old friend of yours?" Leonardo deadpanned.

Leo closed his eyes briefly.

"Okay, new plan. Let's use the elevator shaft to enter the air ducts. I've already done it once. Also let's hope Gus has better things to do than chase me."

"Gus?" Leonardo was already opening the haft in the elevator's ceiling.

Leo sighed. "I'm not the one in charge of names."

They fell silent until they were in the air ducts, Leo leading the way once more.

"Alright. I know where Big Mama's safe is. If we're fast, we might be able to slip in and out without being noticed."

"Haven't we already been noticed?" Leonardo asked.

It almost looked as if he was enjoying himself. Leo straightened up as much as he could in the air duct.

"It's only a minor setback."

They crawled along several hotel rooms and a restaurant full of yokais, until they reached a gigantic room Leo remembered from the tour Big mama had given them, at that time when Leo's brothers still thought she was a trustworthy lady.

"What's this place?" Leonardo whispered.

"It's the sporting lounge," Leo answered. "That's where they watch the Battle Nexus fights. Let's not linger here."

But Leonardo had frozen and was watching one of the giant glass balls that served as screens, his whole body rigid.

Leo looked more closely to see what had caught his counterpart's attention.

And he gaped.

Every screen displayed six turtles they knew all too well about to enter a fight with an eight-armed colossus.

"Oh come on," Leo protested. "How did they even get there?"

Chapter Text

Raph climbed the stairs leading out of Draxum's prison two steps at a time. He kept both his tonfa ready to smash anything that would stand in his way, but the stairs were deserted.

The others were not far behind him. They all shared the same determination; they were going to find their missing brothers and bring them home.

Even if home was going to be closer for one set of turtles than for the other.

After Raph came Raphael, who had no intention of staying in this foreign world one more second than necessary, and who certainly wasn't going to fall behind his counterpart.

If the stairs had been larger, he would have run right next to him. Things being as they were, Raph took all the available space and Raphael had to be content with the second place.

Michelangelo and Mikey came next. They glanced at each other as they climbed up the stairs, their minds filled with questions they burned to ask - what had happened with their brothers, how was life with their family, did they like the other universe's pizza? They knew it wasn't the right time, though, and kept quiet.

Donatello and Donnie came last. They had tried to linger in the room between the cell and the stairs, looking for portals, machinery, or anything interesting that Draxum might have built, but their brothers had cut their exploration short.

Donnie had whispered something along the lines of "You never let me do anything interesting!" while Donatello had kept his regrets to himself, and they both had followed the others.

If the priority hadn't been to find Leonardo and Leo, Donatello would have gladly tried to find Draxum's armory. He would have loved to get his hands on the mystical staff Donnie had talked about.

He was breathing the dust lifted by the others instead. It was peculiar that the stairs leading to the cell would be so little used, but after all, the gargoyles could fly and Draxum used portals to move.

Donnie glanced at Donatello. "Don't you wish we could blast these stairs for a little more room?"

Donatello tilted his head. "I don't have explosives," he said pensively, as if what his counterpart had said was worth considering.

Donnie sighed. "Me neither. Raph thinks it's dangerous, so he doesn't let me sneak them on our missions. Not anymore."

"They're only dangerous in the wrong hands," Donatello added. "Which is why I never let Mike near them."

"I never let Leo near them." Donnie's smile vanished as he thought about his lost brother. But surely he was worrying over nothing. Leo would find his way out of any situation. Right?

A few steps in front of them, Michelangelo was beginning to get tired of the never-ending staircase.

"Are we almost there?" he complained.

"How are we supposed to know?" Raphael replied gruffly.

"Yes!" Raph said at the same time, coming to an abrupt halt.

Raphael didn't stop in time to avoid colliding with Raph's massive shell. He let out a string of swear words that would have gotten him in trouble with Splinter, had Splinter been here instead of waiting for them in another universe.

"There's a door," Raph said. "Everyone, get ready! We don't know what's on the other side!"

Raphael rubbed his face, hoping that whatever was on the other side would include a nice fight. It would be a relief to punch opponents in the face.

Raph smashed the door, a sure way to open it. The eight turtles burst out of the tunnel…

… and into the void.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Raph, Raphael, Mikey, Michelangelo and Donnie expressed.

"Amazing that the door would open in the middle of a cliff," Donatello mused. "It must have been a long time since people last used this exit. Maybe there was a ledge and it collapsed?"

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" the others answered.

Luckily, after the first few feet the cliff was gently sloping. The turtles' plunge, if not exactly pleasant, was in no way life-endangering.

They finally reached the bottom of the cliff, forming a big pile of turtle limbs.

"Whoever has his feet in my face had better remove them fast," Raphael said, his voice dangerously calm.

Mikey hurried to hide his legs into his shell.

"This is one of the times I'm happy I make my shells Raph-proof," Donnie said in a slightly strangled voice from his place at the bottom of the pile.

Raph immediately stood up.

"Sorry, Donnie," he said in a small voice.

"So where are we?" Michelangelo asked, dusting himself.

The turtles took in their surroundings. In the distance, they could see the buildings of the Hidden City, but the place where they stood now looked more like a meadow. Winged cow-like beasts looked at them placidly while chewing on their purple grass.

"At least Draxum chose a good place for his prison." Mikey stuck his legs out and stretched his sore muscles. "Not many people must go here."

"It's unlikely that Leo and Leonardo were sent here," Donatello thought out loud. "We should head for the city."

Raph nodded, his face showing his determination. "Let's do this."

The six turtles began to walk through the meadow in silence, glancing at the sky from time to time in case Draxum's minions had somehow been alerted, but the two gargoyles were nowhere in sight.

"Where do you think they took Leo?" Mikey finally asked. "And Leo," he added for Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo's sake.

Donnie shrugged. "Leo was supposed to steal Oozesquitoes from Big Mama. They probably left him next to Big Mama's lair. Maybe even inside of it. Maybe he has already been captured, and as we speak he's being forced to fight in the Battle Nexus while his strength slowly abandons him..."

Raph let out a strangled noise.

"And maybe they realized that they took one Leo too many, and have already disposed of the redundant Leo," Donnie added as he thought about the different possibilities.

This time, Raphael let out a strangled noise.

"Thank you, Donnie, thank you so much," Mikey said, putting a hand over his brother's mouth.

Donnie blinked, taking in the shocked looks of almost everyone else. "Was I too blunt?" he said in Mikey's hand. "Sometimes Leo says I'm too blunt. It does sound like a compliment coming from him, but maybe it's just the sarcasm."

"We're grateful for your input, Donnie," Raph hurried to say, just in case his brother needed to be reassured that his lack of social skills didn't diminish the love he had for him.

Raphael was opening his mouth to say that he was not grateful for Donnie's input when Mikey suddenly stopped, as if struck by an awesome idea.

"How about we try to call them? They have their phones, right?"

"Our phones aren't working here," Donatello immediately replied. It was the first thing he had checked once they had been out in the open.

"Leo's phone is off," Donnie said at the same time, feeling a little offended that Mikey would think such a mundane idea hadn't occurred to his superior mind.

"Why am I not surprised?" Raphael threw his arms up. "It would have been too easy."

Raph cleared his throat. "Okay. Let's stay calm and keep searching. I'm sure we will find them if we can stay focused on our goal."

Raphael glared at his counterpart, but only half-heartedly because it was something Leonardo could have said and Raphael was really missing his brother right now.

Michelangelo put an arm around Raphael's shoulders, determined to seize this perfect opportunity to tease him.

After all, he had been deprived of this pastime for far too long.

"See how reasonable other-Raph is being, Raph? Isn't it such a nice example to follow?"

Mikey nodded, fully approving of his counterpart's discourse. For his part, Raphael huffed and pulled away.

"I guess someone has to be reasonable in this family," he said. "For sure, it's not their Leo."

Michelangelo's eyes sparkled. "You never told us what happened with him."

Raphael crossed his arms. "Oh, you know, he was just trying to get in trouble with every Purple Dragon he could find. Not telling us where he went. Attacking Hun for no reason."

Raph paled at the description of such events, even though he had no idea what a Hun was, but Michelangelo remained unfazed.

"Oh, I wonder who else could fit that description," he said, grinning.

Raphael didn't like where the conversation was leading - he was nothing like Leo - and he was about to let it be known when Mikey chimed in.

"Uh, guys?"

Something in the utter bafflement of his tone made all turtles turn to him.

Mikey pointed at something in the distance.

"It looks like April is here."

One second later, April O'Neil, last of the name, was materializing in front of the turtles, a dog with fangs and colored patches of fur wagging his tail in her arms.

"Guys!" She grinned. "We found you!"

"April?" Raph said, first baffled, then thrilled. "How did you find us?"

"I went to the lair and Splinter told me you had disappeared." April stroked Mayhem's fur. "So I asked this little guy here if he could help me find you. We've been searching everywhere!" She pointed at the cliff behind them. "Then we saw the crumbling and I thought 'Hey! It looks like their kind of trouble, let's check it!' and here we are."

She tilted her head, looking at Mikey, Donatello and Raphael. "And you found each other! Nice to see you, Mikey."

"Hi April!" Mikey beamed.

"And nice to meet you."

Donatello bowed and Raphael nodded.

"But where is Leo?" April went on, frowning.

Raph sighed. "It's a long story."

As he brought her up to date, Michelangelo slowly held his fingers out to the dog yokai.

Mayhem sniffed them carefully before allowing this new turtle to pet him.

"Awww, he's so cute!" Michelangelo said.

"His name is Mayhem," April explained. "Guys, I can't believe you've been having such an adventure without me! You know I hate being left behind."

"We had thirty seconds to make our decision," Donnie pointed out, thinking about the portal he had lovingly built.

"I could still have made it. Mayhem could have teleported me inside the lair!" April pouted.

"Yes, about that." Donatello, who had been waiting for the right moment to ask his question, came closer. "Mayhem can make portals, right?"

Mayhem yapped proudly.

"But then he could take us home!" Raphael said excitedly, grinning for the first time since he had been reunited with his two missing brothers - right before one of them vanished again.

Mayhem only watched them sadly.

"I don't think he can," April translated. She hugged Mayhem tight, pressing her cheek against the top of his head. "It's okay. You're still the best!"

Mayhem wiggled his tail again, obviously loving the affection.

Raphael sighed. For one delightful second, he had almost believed that their problem was solved.

"So where do you think Leo and Leo are?" April asked.

"Hmmm." Raph thought hard. "No idea."

"I suggest we go to Big Mama's hotel," Donnie said. "If they decide to steal the Oozesquitoes like Draxum wants, it would be the most logical choice."

"Great plan, Donnie!" Raph straightened up. "Let's go there!" He looked at Mayhem, staying out of claws' reach. For some reason, Mayhem liked to test them on his face. "Uh… Could you take us there?"

Mayhem ignored him.

"Please, little dude." Michelangelo scratched Mayhem's neck. "I have a brother to get back."

Mayhem considered this new request and nodded.

One second later, the six turtles, April and Mayhem vanished from the Hidden City.

Two panicked gargoyles emerged from the cliff bordering the meadow. The creatures who were peacefully grazing watched them with interest as they followed an invisible trail before stopping right where the green creatures and the human girl had stood.

Then the gargoyles began fighting each other, providing further entertainment.

Today was definitely a good day to be a cow yokai.

Raphael watched the hotel with suspicion. Nothing in its exterior betrayed the fact it belonged to a yokai crime mastermind.

But at least he was in a New York City again. This was a definite improvement.

"Is it the place?" Michelangelo whispered.

Raph nodded. "Yes. Now how are we going to know if Leo is inside?"

"Why don't you go ask them?" Donnie said, his voice dripping with sarcasm, as he pointed his finger at the hotel.

"Do you think we could?" Raph looked at Donnie questioningly.

Donnie briefly closed his eyes. It wasn't fun to tease Raph when Raph didn't get the joke.

If Leo had been here, he would have laid it on thick and that would have been fun. But Leo wasn't here, which was the problem they were trying to solve in the first place.

"Maybe I could do it," April suggested. "They don't know me. Yet another daring adventure you had without me!"

She glared at Raph, Donnie and Mikey, who all looked away.

"I'll pretend to be looking for a hotel and ask them if they have free rooms."

"And then?" Donnie tilted his head, curious to know what April's plan was.

"Then I'll improvise." April put her hands on her hips, deeply satisfied with herself.

"Are you sure about this?" Raph said, his tone slightly dubious.

"Of course! Trust me, guys."

"Fine." Donnie detached a tiny part of his shell, which turned into a beetle. "Let's have this little guy follow you, so we can monitor your progress on this baby here." He pushed a button and a screen sprang from his shell.

Donatello watched it, fascinated. Artificial shells definitely had their advantages.

"Alright! See you later, guys!" April hid Mayhem in her jacket, right next to her trademark bat, and made for the hotel.

"Does anybody else have a bad feeling about this?" Michelangelo asked. "No? Just me? Okay."

April was marching towards the hotel with such decided steps, nobody could have guessed that she had no idea what she was doing.

Well. She knew she was going to look for information about Leo and Leonardo's disappearance, but that was about it.

But Donnie's beetle spy was flying above her head, reminding her that her friends were watching, and she wanted to look strong for them.

April pushed the hotel's door and came inside, wary of what she would find.

At first sight, the entrance was deserted.

"Hello? Anybody here?" she called.

In her jacket, Mayhem yapped and patted her chest.

"Hush, Mayhem," she whispered. "I need to focus."

Mayhem didn't stop until a man in a purple costume appeared in front of them.

The man stared at her with a professional smile. "The hotel is sold out, Madam."

April breathed a heavy sigh, as if such news was terribly disappointing. "Are you sure? A friend of mine said that he had the time of his life here. I was hoping I could get a tour. Maybe relax in the lounge? It has been a very long day."

The man shook his head, still smiling.

April was about to try again and engage a conversation about the hotel's customers when the elevator's doors opened. Another man in a purple costume - the exact replica of the man she had in front of her - joined them.

"We may have one room left," he said politely. "If you will please come with me..."

April frowned. She might have asked for that less than a minute ago, she still found the coincidence disturbing.

April O'Neil wasn't a girl that easy to fool. After all, she had been practicing the turtles for years.

"On second thought, I'll look for another hotel. Sorry for the inconvenience," she said, smiling, as she nervously adjusted her glasses on her nose.

She turned around to leave, and found out that five new men in purple costumes - clones of the first for sure - were blocking the exit.

"Alright, Mayhem. Plan B. Let's get out of here," she whispered.

Mayhem whined inside her jacket, and the dots connected in April's brain.

"Oh, you can't teleport here. That's what you were trying to say!"

April grabbed her bat just when the seven men turned to yokai.

"Aren't you supposed to stay hidden from humans?" April said tentatively, raising her weapon.

Outside the hotel, the turtles were anxiously following the events on the screen so helpfully provided by Donnie.

When April found herself surrounded, the course of action left no doubt. The six turtles burst inside the hotel with everything they had - that was, tonfa, sai, bō staff, titanium tech bō, kusari-fundo, nunchaku and determination.

"Let her go!" Raph bellowed.

"But feel free to fight us first," Raphael added, grinning, although April had already begun that last part.

Soon the hotel entrance was filled with the sounds of yokai crashing against the walls, and it looked like the turtles and April were in for an easy win.

However, more and more yokai kept coming; they were swarming out of the walls, ceiling and carpets, and seemed intend to just crush the turtles and April between their bodies.

And while the turtles were looking elsewhere, a portcullis was lowered to block the exit with thick metallic bars.

And Raph soon realized that his mystical weapons had exhausted their mystical energy for now.

"Okay, Raph," Donnie said, his back against the wall. "I want you to remember that now would be a very good time to have explosives."

The room was now filled to the brim with yokai, and punching them didn't move them an inch - there was simply no room for that.

That frustrated Raphael to no end. He realized all too well that they needed a better plan, but he was short of ideas.

"Hey!" Michelangelo shouted as magic bindings appeared around his wrists and ankles. The bindings then proceeded to join each other as if they were magnets, forcing Michelangelo to bend forward.

Soon the other turtles and April joined him in this fate, and all seven teenagers had to stop fighting.

"You could do that all along?" Donnie said, disgusted.

"Yesss," a feminine voice said from behind the swarm of yokai. "But then I wouldn't have seen you fight. What a delicacious sight!"

Within the span of a few seconds, half the yokai in the room disappeared while the others formed a guard of honor around the newcomer.

It was a petite woman in a purple dress.

"Uh-oh," Mikey said.

"And we're doomed," Donnie said, ever so practical.

"You'll do most wonderfantastically in my Battle Nexus Arena," Big Mama said, thrilled.

Big Mama was such a frail woman, Michelangelo didn't think her name was warranted. He decided it would be better not to mention it, though, not when they were basically helpless.

"I couldn't believe how lucky I was when you came inside my hotel," Big Mama told April. "I knew your friends wouldn't be far behind." She tilted her head. "Although I didn't expect them to have multiplied."

April glared at her. "How did you know about me?"

"I have my informers." Big Mama grinned. "After these charming clowns escaped me last time, I had to investigate." She waved at Raph, Mikey and Donnie.

Donnie especially wasn't too happy to face Big Mama again. After all, their last encounter hadn't exactly gone well, and he might or might not have exercised some kind of violence on her.

But she had started it.

"You spied on me?" April exclaimed. "That's creepy."

"Now, now. Big Mama won't let your compliments change her decision." Big Mama joined her hands. "I can't wait to see you fight in my Arena! It's going to be so exciterrific!"

Mayhem, who had retreated in April's jacket since the end of the fight, sprung from his hiding place to bite Big Mama's leg.

Big Mama let out a very undignified shout and shape-shifted into a spider way too big for anybody's comfort.

"Ooh, now I get the Big part," Michelangelo said. "I'm still confused about the Mama one, though."

Big Mama spat spider silk and imprisoned the brave Mayhem in a sticky cocoon.

"Take him to the cells," she ordered, and two yokai hurried to obey.

"Mayhem!" April bounced, trying to come closer to Big Mama in order to bite her herself. "You horrible spider!"

Raphael gave her an appreciative smile. He was growing very fond of that April very quickly.

She was a warrior after his own heart.

Big Mama eyed her. "On second thought, take the girl too. I wouldn't want to separate her from her little friendog here."

"No!" Raph, Donnie and Mikey yelled.

But the yokai were already obeying.

"And take the other clowns to the Battle Nexus Gateway." Big Mama sighed happily. "I can already see the audience skyrocket."

And so the turtles were dragged across the hotel until they reached a room containing a single giant portal.

The shouts of the delirious crowd they could hear through it didn't exactly bode well for their immediate future.

"Alright, Raph. What's the plan?" Donnie asked.

Raph sweated. "I…"

He wished Leo to appear out of nowhere and save them with his portal-making sword, like last time. Too bad Leo and his sword were both lost at the moment.

"How about this-is-all-a-bad-dream-and-we're-all-going-to-wake-up-real-soon?" Michelangelo suggested.

Mikey nodded vigorously. "I love that plan."

"I wonder where Leo is," Donatello mused.

"I don't know, Don. But he should better wonder where we are." Raphael straightened up as much as he could with his bindings. "Not that I mind a good old fashioned fight, but..."

Then the turtles were thrown inside the portal.

Chapter Text

For now, it didn't matter to Leonardo how his brothers had gotten themselves into this predicament. It only mattered that he reached them, fast.

Before their situation somehow got worse.

"Do you know how we can enter the Battle Nexus?" he asked, gazing at the scene inside the glass ball.

The eight-armed colossus was advancing towards his brothers and Leo's, a different weapon in each hand.

As he closed the distance between them, it became obvious that said weapons were bigger than the turtles.

"The Battle Nexus Gateway," Leo answered, his tone unusually grim. "Although I don't know where it leads, exactly. It might very well be inside the arena itself."

"Then we'll need a diversion."

Now the glass ball was showing the audience of the fight, including a giant spider applauding with six of her legs.

It must be Big Mama, Leonardo thought.

His hunch was confirmed by Leo one moment later.

"So Big Mama is not in this hotel right now." He tilted his head. "I think I have an idea."

Leonardo looked at him, his interest piqued. "I'm listening."

Leo didn't like losing eye contact with whatever was happening to his brothers - maybe they were being flattened to turtle pizza just as he and Leonardo hurried to Big Mama's office - but his idea wouldn't delay them for long, and it might very well make the difference between brilliant victory and utter defeat.

It didn't hurt that Leonardo thought it was a good idea, either. If Leo had been less worried about his brothers, he might have boasted a lot more.

Things being as they were, he kept the showing off to a bare minimum.

"It happens that I know exactly where Big Mama hides her stuff," he said, going to the decoy painting that hid Big Mama's vault. "And it also happens that I know her code." He entered the 1111111111 code that would open the vault. "Tada!"

Leonardo raised an eye ridge, which was Leo's cue that the door hadn't opened.

"Aaaand… She changed it." Leo's shoulders sagged. It was clever from Big Mama's part, of course, but it was still disappointing.

"It was a series of ones? Not exactly the best security. Hmm… Let me try something." Leonardo went to the vault and moved the wheels until they showed a whole new combination.

"2222222222?" Leo crossed his arms. "I really don't think it's gonna wor-"

The vault's door turned on its hinges.

"Never mind," Leo said, disgusted.

Although it was good news in the sense that they could now steal the Oozesquitoes Big Mama had herself stolen.

"There must be thousands of Oozesquitoes in that jar," Leo whispered. "Let's be reaaaally careful not to let it fall." He glanced at Leonardo. "How about you carry it?"

Leonardo grabbed the jar without comment.

"And now, to the Battle Nexus Gateway!"

Leo wondered whether they should use the air ducts again, or follow the corridors instead. Carrying the Oozesquitoes jar in the air ducts would be no small feat, but it wouldn't be Leo's problem.

The decision was made for him when a canine figure rushed inside Big Mama's office.

Big Mama's favorite pet frowned at Leo.

"You," Gus said, his voice heavy with threat. "I recognize you. You're that turtle!"

Leo was a little disappointed that the owl's costume had failed to cover his scent long enough. He took it off and threw it in Gus' face.

"And now, we run!" he shouted at Leonardo.

He set off, not waiting for an answer. If Gus' cry of anger and the sound of torn feathers was anything to go by, his trick wouldn't hold back the giant dog for long.

Leo ran as fast as he could, expecting to feel enormous jaws close on his delicate calf every second, but nothing like that happened.

In fact, it sounded like there was no pursuit at all. Leo dared to glance behind him, and almost started when he found out Leonardo was just one step behind. He hadn't heard his counterpart at all. He leaned further on the side to see whether Gus was following, but from the dog yokai there was no trace.

"He won't be following us," Leonardo said with quiet confidence.

Leo blinked. "What?"

"Hours of training per day can come in handy, you know." Leonardo winked at Leo.

Leo blinked several more times and almost missed the next turn.

"Did you… Did you kill him?"

There was nothing indicating that Leonardo had been in a fight at all, except that he had taken off his costume, like Leo. And the Oozesquitoes jar didn't have a scratch.

Leonardo shook his head. "No. I just knocked him out."

Leo breathed a sigh of relief.

"I sliced a worm once," he mused. "It was a traumatic experience, but luckily the worm survived."

"I beheaded a man once," Leonardo replied. "I hoped it would kill him, but we weren't that lucky."

Leo chuckled. "I like your humor."

He glanced at Leonardo, hoping to see him smile, but Leonardo looked deadly serious.

"You're not kidding," Leo said in a very small, very strangled voice.

"Never about my family's safety," Leonardo replied softly.

They were arriving inside the room sheltering the Battle Nexus Gateway, sparing Leo an awkward answer.

The wild shouting coming from the gate sounded both ominous and reassuring. It meant that the fight wasn't over yet.

"Okay, let's do this." Leo reached for his weapon, before remembering that he had no weapon.

It was, after all, how it had all begun.

"Take this," Leonardo said, giving Leo the Oozesquitoes jar and unsheathing his katana.

Then Leonardo jumped into the gate, quickly followed by Leo who hoped the landing wouldn't be too harsh.

Raph wasn't sure how much longer they would be able to take this.

Their enemy was way bigger and stronger than them. It was a miracle that they had lasted that long. His weapon and Mikey's had already exhausted their mystical energy, and Donnie's drill was out of battery. They were back to fighting with ordinary weapons, which didn't seem to bother their counterparts.

They were formidable allies and Raph was grateful for their presence, even though he would rather have been chilling in the lair with his family than fighting such a battle.

They had landed right into the arena after going through the Battle Nexus Gateway, and didn't have the time to establish a plan; not that Raph thought he would have found a good one.

It had turned out that the colossus they were fighting wasn't made of flesh and blood, like every self-respecting enemy. It was what Donatello had named a golem, a being made out of clay and brought to life thanks to Raph didn't know what evil magic.

He didn't like how Donnie looked at the golem either: like it was brilliant and the first opportunity he had, he would make one of his own.

Raph made a mental note to keep a suspicious eye on Donnie and his lab in the days to come.

Of course, for that to happen they needed to survive this fight.

By now the previously eight-armed colossus was down three arms and five weapons, but it still left him with way too many of both. And he didn't seem to feel pain, which was an obvious advantage. On the contrary, his injuries were just enraging him further.

"Look out!" Michelangelo shouted, pushing Raph out of the way just as a mace twice Raph's size hit the ground.

Raph managed to keep his balance in spite of the shockwave.

"Don, how do we defeat that thing?" Raphael asked, panting.

Donatello's tone wasn't particularly enthusiastic. "Normally, golems can be defeated by erasing the first letter written on their forehead."

"I don't see anything written on his forehead," Mikey objected.

He was constantly moving to avoid being crushed. That strategy was working so far, even if Raph had stopped counting his almost heart-attacks.

"My point exactly." Donatello swiftly avoided the giant sword coming his way.

"That's cheating," Michelangelo complained. "What fun is it if we don't stand a chance?"

The crowd gathered to watch the fight didn't seem to share that opinion, as their cries of joy and enthusiasm proved.

Raph shook his head. Why couldn't they enjoy TV like normal people?

When this would be over, Raph would stay in the lair for weeks, doing nothing but enjoying life with his brothers, and he would not complain when Leo would go all lazy on them and pretend missions didn't exist.

He had no idea where Leo was at this precise moment, but it had to be in a better place.

As soon as Raph had formulated this thought in his head, a rectangle of light opened in the sky and two figures came out of it, falling at high speed.

Raph watched one of them, jaw dropped.

"Leo!"

Leonardo didn't need more than one glance at the situation below them to realize that it was dire. However, all six turtles he could see were still running and jumping and hitting, which meant than nobody was seriously injured.

The Battle Nexus Gateway did open directly in the arena. It was delimited by something that looked like a translucent net; Leonardo could make it out when he narrowed his eyes.

Beyond that was the audience, sitting in the bleachers. Leonardo spotted Big Mama watching them with delight from a raised platform.

He would have liked to take in his surroundings for longer, but he was falling right to the colossus and he needed to get ready for the impact. He braced himself and landed on one of the being's arms, sliding until he could jump to the ground.

Leo was doing the same not far from him, with much grace, it had to be said.

Especially as he was still holding the Oozesquitoes jar.

"Leo!" Raphael yelled happily from the other side of the arena.

Donatello and Michelangelo gave Leonardo relieved smiles, as if they expected him to find a way out of here.

Leonardo didn't have one, not yet, but he wasn't going to tell them that.

"Don, what are the odds we can win this fight?" he asked, jumping skillfully to avoid the colossus' blows.

He tried to slice one of his legs, but his swords left a mere scratch on it. Some clay splattered on Leonardo, showing him what the colossus was made of.

Donatello looked briefly at Donnie before answering.

"If we go on like this? 0.00001%. This creature doesn't tire."

"Any way we can defeat him?"

"Not that I know of," Donatello admitted. "Unless you're bringing some heavy weaponry with us."

Leo raised the Oozesquitoes jar, grinning.

"I have just what the doctor ordered."

Leo threw the jar against the magical net surrounding the arena.

The net was most certainly meant to protect the audience from the arena fights. However, it looked like the holes in it would be enough to let the Oozesquitoes go through, which was Leo's brilliant plan. The Oozesquitoes would then wreak havoc in the audience, giving them the diversion they needed to get out of here.

The exact details of how they would get out of here were still a little vague, but Leo had always been good at improvising.

The jar bounced against the net without breaking, then against the ground without breaking either.

Leo grimaced. It was just their luck that the jar was made out of unbreakable glass. And to think he had been extra careful with it during his fall.

"Leo, behind you!" Raph yelled.

Leo jumped to the side, avoiding being crushed by a giant foot. The ground trembled in response to the impact.

Leo tilted his head as the perfect idea popped in his brain.

Donnie raised an interested eyebrow as Leo began to yell at the golem, managing to attract his attention.

"Leo! Are you crazy?" Raph shouted, panicking.

"No! Leo! Don't get crushed!" Mikey shouted in both encouragement and panic.

"I think he has a plan," Leonardo said, much more calmly. He pointed at small hills of clay that must have been the colossus' arms before the turtles managed to destroy them. "I suggest we hide in there."

"Why?" Raph asked, perplexed.

Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael didn't need to be told twice and plunged inside the clay, followed by Leonardo.

"It's not that bad," Michelangelo said. His eyes and mouth were the only parts of his body still visible. "It's lukewarm inside."

"Really?" Mikey joined them. "Ah, yes! Donnie! Raph!"

Donnie sighed and followed him. "Hmm. Not bad," he admitted.

"But what about Leo?" Raph protested.

His brother was running for his life while the colossus marched upon him.

"He knows what he's doing." Leonardo pointed at the place where the jar had fallen. There was another hill of clay next to it. "He'll have his own place to hide."

"But hide from what?" Raph added, confused.

Mikey let out one arm out of the clay and grabbed Raph, trying to pull him inside. Raph humored him, still perplexed.

The colossus stomped on the Oozesquitoes jar on his way towards Leo, and the glass broke in a thousand sharp pieces. Leo plunged inside the hill of clay Leonardo had pointed out, right before an army of Oozesquitoes came buzzing out of the destroyed jar.

"Oh, I see," Raph said as he finally understood Leo's plan.

The Oozesquitoes were furious. They had been trapped for so long in this ridiculously small place, and now someone dared to stomp on them? Destroying some of their comrades in the process?

The remaining Oozesquitoes spread their crumpled wings and rose into the air, looking for people they could release their frustration on.

They did notice the anxious pair of eyes watching them from inside a pile of clay, but it wasn't interesting to them. They wanted skin. Soft, delicious skin.

Luckily for them, thousands of people had gathered in this place.

The Oozesquitoes flew to the audience of the Battle Nexus and stung all they were worth.

Leo listened to the shouts of the audience with some sadness. They were not ones of praise and admiration, like the Champion he was deserved to hear; on the contrary, they expressed a strong displeasure.

Leo refused to let it get to him. If these people couldn't recognize a true Champion when they saw one, then they weren't worth his time.

It wasn't like they were family to him.

He turned his attention back to the colossus, who had made no attempt to move since he had smashed the jar. His foot was now glowing a wild green, and Leo realized that some Oozesquitoes had been crushed, releasing their mutagen inside the creature.

Leo was wondering what monster they would have to fight next when the colossus exploded, spraying greenish clay everywhere.

Leo waited a few more seconds before leaving his hideout to join his brothers and the other turtles, all covered in clay.

"Guys!" He hugged Raph, Mikey and Donnie with a huge grin. "It's so good to see you!"

"It's good to see you too, Leo." Raph beamed.

Outside the arena, chaos was growing every second. Mutated yokai were screaming and falling on the net. Apparently it wasn't designed to withstand pressure from the outside, because it burst, causing a rain of screaming people to fall into the arena.

They had apparently lost their minds as much as their former bodies, because they began fighting each other with impressive ferocity.

Leo admired the chaos with a connoisseur's eye.

"That's some impressive chaos," Raph said, obviously sharing Leo's opinion on the subject.

His amazement stink was a delicate fragrance in Leo's nostrils.

"How about we find a way out?" Leonardo suggested, dusting himself as he retreated towards the edge of the arena.

"Lead the way," Raphael said with a grin.

Donnie was about to follow his brothers when he heard Donatello's delighted exclamation.

"Is this sulfur? And here, potassium nitrate?"

Donnie turned around at the mention of these chemical compounds he knew entered in the composition of one of his favorite things ever.

Explosives.

"The mutagen must have interfered with the clay," he said, gathering what he needed while Donatello did the same. "Do you think we could…"

"It'll be makeshift. Probably not as efficient as if we had more time, but still efficient enough."

Donatello winked at Donnie, who almost whistled in his joy.

It felt so good to be perfectly understood. It was even better than being listened at, like Leonardo had done.

"Don! Donnie!" the others shouted, and both geniuses hurried towards them.

It didn't take long for Mikey to find a hold on the front row with his kusari fundo, so that the turtles could climb out of the battle field.

"Where do we go now?" he asked, looking desperately for anything resembling a portal as they climbed the bleachers.

The front rows were deserted. Even the Oozesquitoes had disappeared. Higher, though, the spectators were still watching the fight with interest.

"These guys have no self-preservation," Mikey complained.

"Uh-oh," Raph suddenly said.

It wasn't a good Uh-oh, and Mikey didn't want to turn around and look at what had provoked it.

"Big Mama! My favorite lady spider!" Leo said, his voice a little shrill.

Mikey considered retreating in his shell, but his brothers might need his help. He slowly turned around to watch the giant spider who was looking at them with something that looked very much like sheer fury.

Mikey gulped.

"This is not fantabulous at all," Big Mama said.

"Oh, but we have fantabulous things to show you!" Leo intertwined his fingers, looking like a business man about to deliver some excellent news and not like the turtle who had wreaked havoc on the Battle Nexus with Oozesquitoes from Big Mama's personal vault.

As Big Mama stood between the turtles and the arena, Mikey had a perfect view of said havoc.

It did not bode well for the turtles' well-being.

"You better talk fast."

"Well, we want to show you… This!" Leo took something that looked like clay from Donnie's arms and dropped it off carefully in front of Big Mama.

"Hey!" Donnie protested with the voice of someone who was being deprived of his new toy.

"This is mud." Big Mama did not look impressed in the slightest.

To be fair, Mikey wasn't either. Maybe Leo had taken one hit too many and was now convinced that Big Mama liked to play in the mud?

"Oh, just wait until I add this," Leo said, taking more clay from Donatello's arms and dropping it off on the already existing pile.

As the two substances came into contact with each other, smoke rose from the pile.

Mikey was suddenly and brutally shoved to the side by Donatello and almost hit his head against a bench several meters away from Big Mama.

"Hey! I thought you liked me," he complained.

Then the world exploded.

Michelangelo watched with interest as the explosion threw Big Mama right into the giant arena fight. He and the others had all taken cover in time, including Leo who looked really, really smug.

"I don't think this will help our relationship," Donnie said, grinning.

"Nope." Leo winked at his brother.

"How did you know the mix would be explosive?" Donnie asked.

"Please." If possible, Leo looked even smugger. "What else could it have been?"

Behind them, the audience - both on site and remote - roared in delight at seeing Big Mama fight in her arena.

She was a formidable opponent, and it looked like she was going to defeat everybody else with her sheer fury. Michelangelo was all in favor of them leaving this place before she did.

Agent 64, also known as Mayhem by the human girl he had grown very fond of, was sadly cuddling in said human's lap.

He was supposed to watch Draxum and look for proof of his treachery, not be imprisoned inside one of Big Mama's cells. He was becoming less and less careful, and if his employers - the Council of Heads - learned about that, he might be forced to leave the human girl who was such a bad influence on him.

"Don't worry, Mayhem, we'll find a way out," April whispered in his ear.

Mayhem doubted it. Based on his observation of the turtles these last few weeks, if they had to count on them for a rescue, then they were doomed.

It was a mystery to him that April seemed to have such faith in her friends.

The echo of an explosion reverberated through the planes of existence. It seemed to be coming from the Battle Nexus itself, the hub of Big Mama's empire - and all of a sudden the magical net that prevented Mayhem from teleporting vanished.

Mayhem couldn't believe their luck.

He straightened up, licked April's cheek and teleported both of them to April's apartment.

"Mayhem! You did it!" April exclaimed, delighted. "You're the best!"

Mayhem enjoyed her attentions and was disappointed when she stopped stroking his fur.

"We have to come back for the others," she said, straightening up.

Mayhem bristled to show exactly what he was thinking of that plan.

"Mayhem, please," April begged. "They need us!"

Mayhem sighed. He really couldn't resist her.

One day, that would be his doom.

He teleported them both to the Battle Nexus, where chaos of epic proportions was waiting for them. Luckily the eight turtles April wanted to rescue were right next to him, and he didn't lose any time in teleporting everybody back to the turtles' lair.

Then he settled in April's arms, satisfied by a job well done. This had gone easier than he had thought.

Raphael blinked. One second he had been in the Battle Nexus, watching the utter destruction of the arena by Big Mama herself, and the next he was inside a quiet room that smelt like the sewers. Was it these other turtles' home?

"Oh, my sons, you're home!" a short-legged rat said from the couch he was lying on. As he straightened up to greet the turtles, it was made obvious that he only had shorts on. "And you've brought friends!"

Raphael watched this Splinter in disbelief while Raph, Leo, Donnie and Mikey covered their eyes. He glanced at Leonardo, who shrugged ever so slightly.

Raph hushed everyone out of the room and they gathered inside another room, a large one with a skate ramp.

Raphael could see why Michelangelo would have enjoyed that place.

"Great timing, April!" Leo put an arm around April's shoulders. "We did it, guys!"

"Yes, and apparently I missed the fight. Again." April sighed.

"Don't feel bad about that. I wish I were that lucky." Michelangelo stretched his arms. "Dibs on the shower!"

He disappeared before anyone else could react.

"Well, that was some fighting for sure," Leo said. "A remarkable achievement!"

Everybody waited for some sign that a mystical sword had taken note of that, but nothing happened.

"Oh come on!" Leo insisted. "It was an exploit worthy of a Champion amongst Champions! And it was all my plan!"

Still, nothing happened.

Leo's shoulders sagged. "Never mind, I guess." He sighed.

Raphael almost felt bad for the guy, independently from the fact that said sword was required so he, Raphael, could go home with his brothers.

"You okay, Leo?" Mikey asked with concern.

Leo plastered a smile on his face so fast, Raphael almost started.

"Sure." Leo yawned. "Well, I think I'll take a nap. See you later!"

He turned around and left without looking back.

"I don't think he's fine," Mikey pointed out the obvious.

Chapter Text

Leo tossed and turned in his bed, unable to find sleep.

He was happy to have found his brothers again, he really was. So why wasn't he feeling better?

Of course his sword was still giving him the cold shoulder, in spite of his heroic deeds, but he was way above that.

Right?

Leo kicked the bed sheets and stood up. Maybe he needed a relaxing drink. It wasn't admitting defeat; it was biding his time.

He shook his head so the pompom of his nightcap wouldn't reduce his field of vision. He would make for the kitchen as stealthily as he could, and hopefully avoid the others.

The last thing he wanted was to do small talk, especially with the other-dimensional turtles that he - no, not he, his sword - had let down so spectacularly.

"I'm a Champion," he whispered to himself, determined not to take responsibility for something that, for once, wasn't really his fault.

Then he opened his door and sneaked through his home.

"I'm sorry we still have no way to send you home, guys," Raph said.

All turtles but Leo were gathered in the Arcade, none of them wanting to sleep.

"We can try to build another portal." Donatello tilted his head towards Donnie. "I'm sure that if we combine our intellects, we'll find a way to control it better."

"Of course," Donnie said, keeping his eyes glued to the screen where he was challenging Michelangelo in an epic video game battle.

"Take your time, Don," Michelangelo emphasized. "We're in no hurry."

Leonardo cleared his throat. "And what about Splinter? Don't you think he's going to worry?"

Michelangelo had the good grace to look sheepish. "Yes, of course. I was just saying, no pressure. We did amazing tonight, guys!"

"Yes, especially considering the odds," Donnie said.

Leonardo shook his head. "I still can't believe you guys rushed headlong into Big Mama's hotel," he told his brothers.

Donatello looked embarrassed. "There is something about this world… It just makes you wild."

"I didn't feel that."

"Of course you didn't," Raphael replied lightly. It felt good to tease his brother again.

Donnie unleashed the sheer power of a cheat code on Michelangelo's car, and the words "Einstein Was My Apprentice WON!" were written on the screen.

"Oh come on!" Michelangelo protested.

"My turn," Raphael said, grabbing the gamepad from his brother.

Michelangelo yielded his place on the couch and went to Mayhem, still in April's arms, so he could vent his frustration by stroking the adorable dog yokai.

"Are you sure we shouldn't check on Leo?" April asked, looking a bit worried.

"Let him nap," Raph answered. "Then we can have a Lou Jitsu Movie Marathon! I know that'll cheer him up."

"I'm ordering the pizza!" Mikey exclaimed.

Leonardo suddenly turned his head, as if something had caught his attention.

"I'll be back," he said as he left the room.

Leo leaned against the kitchen wall while his herbal tea infused. Just breathing its perfume already made him feel better. It was stupid to focus on that stupid sword who didn't understand champions.

"You know, I really thought it would come back."

Leo turned around sharply to see Leonardo under the kitchen's door frame.

"You're not… I don't know, furious to be trapped here?" he said tentatively.

Leonardo shrugged. "I won't say I'm happy about it, but I'm with my brothers again. We'll find another way home."

Leo relaxed ever so slightly.

"That's the spirit!"

He paused. It looked like the right time to add something he had wanted to say for a while.

"And, hum…"

"Yes?"

Leo took the plunge. "I know it was my plan and all, but… thanks. For your help."

Then he stood awkwardly, looking at his mug.

"You're welcome." Leonardo's voice was warm. "Thank you for your help. You did what was right, and that's what matters."

Leo sighed. "I wish everybody could see it that way."

"The right path is rarely the most praised one." Leonardo pointed at Leo's herbal tea. "Is there some left for me?"

Leo smiled. "Sure! Be my guest."

"Guys!" Mikey whispered. "Guys, Leo isn't sleeping! Should we begin our marathon now?"

He had just come back from the corridor where he had maybe, or maybe not, overheard part of Leo and Leonardo's conversation.

With maybe, or maybe not, April and Mayhem and Michelangelo.

"Let me just win this race," Donnie replied, sticking his tongue slightly out.

"He sounded really down," April said pensively.

"Yeah, well, that sword is a jerk." Michelangelo shrugged. "I've always said nunchaku are more reliable weapons."

"You mean sai," Raphael interjected.

"Nope."

"You know what we could do?" Mikey said, straightening up as the perfect idea came to his mind.

The others watched him with curiosity.

Leo was feeling better, and he decided that maybe he wasn't going to go back to his room at once. He followed Leonardo to the Arcade, ready to relax and enjoy himself and not think at all about stupid weapons.

He found his brothers waiting for him, the three of them in a line in front of the entrance. April and the other turtles were staying in the background and watching them with knowing smiles.

"Uh, guys?" he asked, raising an eye ridge. "What's the matter?"

Raph cleared his throat. "So, Leo. We have decided that, just for once…"

"Just this one time," Donnie insisted.

"… And because Mikey pleaded for you… With his eyes, and you know I can't resist that…" Raph went on.

"Spill the beans, Raph." Leo was beginning to worry. What could his brothers possibly be up to?

Raph sighed, knowing he was going to regret this later on. "We wanted to tell you that you were…"

Mikey nudged him.

"That you are… a champion. Our champion."

Leo's eyes widened in shock.

"What?"

"You're our Champion," Raph repeated.

"Yeah, you weren't that bad," Donnie said in a bored tone. "So what he said."

"Yes, Leo!" Mikey beamed. "Group hug!"

Leo switched off the recorder he kept in his pajamas, just in case something awesome like this happened, and grinned. "I know, I know."

He was opening his arms for the hug when a blue light appeared in front of him, freezing the four brothers.

The mystical ōdachi that Leo had thought lost to him forever was levitating in front of him.

"Oh," Michelangelo said, in the tone of someone who has understood something crucial. "Apparently it likes praise."

Leonardo crossed his arms, unhappy about that. In his opinion, that sword wasn't worthy of his counterpart, not the other way around; but he wasn't going to voice that when Leo looked so thrilled.

"Oooooooh!" Raph, Donnie and Mikey said.

"Oh yeah, baby!" Leo exclaimed, taking the sword.

He sliced the air in front of him, making the most beautiful portal in the history of beautiful portals.

"Here, let me help you," he said to Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo and Raphael.

"Are you sure it's leading to our universe?" Raphael asked, suspicious.

Leo took his best offended expression. "I'm 100% sure! Are you doubting the word of a Champion?"

Raphael turned to Leonardo to let him know about his distrust, but his brother wasn't here anymore.

"Leo?" he asked, immediately concerned that Leonardo had disappeared in he didn't know which dimension while he wasn't looking.

"I'm here," Leonardo answered, running back to his brothers.

He was carrying a bag, which was Raphael's cue that his brother intended to take the offer.

"Goodbye, Raph. Goodbye, Donnie. Goodbye, other me," Michelangelo said.

"Thanks for your welcome." Leonardo bowed.

"Goodbye, Skate Ramp," Michelangelo went on. "Goodbye, Arcade. I'm going to miss you."

Mikey managed to pull everyone into an emotional group hug before Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo and Raphael jumped into the portal created by Leo.

Then the portal vanished, leaving Raph, Donnie, Mikey, Leo, April and Mayhem alone in the room.

Raph took the time to breathe a nostalgic sigh. Then he straightened up.

"Who's up for a Lou Jitsu Movie Marathon?"

The happy exclamations of his family were music to his ears.

Somewhere else

Raphael looked at the dinosaurs with shocked disbelief. The diplodocus tilted their long necks, watching him and his brothers with mild curiosity.

They soon went back to chewing their leaves.

Raphael took a deep breath.

"I'm going to kill him," he said matter-of-factly.

Chapter Text

2003 verse - either one week or 125.000.000 years later

Raphael collapsed on the couch.

"I'm never leaving this place again."

They had just come home after seven days spent time traveling. Michelangelo had loved the dinosaurs and Donatello the medieval times, but Raphael was happy to be back in his own time when TV and pizza existed.

They were lucky that they had found an abandoned time scepter inside the stomach of a tyrannosaurus. (Raphael had decided he was going to forget how they had gotten inside said stomach in the first place.)

Alas, the time scepter had been lost during their last time jump; it had slipped from Michelangelo's grasp. Raphael had sympathized with Michelangelo's and Donatello's despair in order to divert suspicion from himself.

He had, after all, greased that time scepter in the hope that something just like that would happen - once Donatello had been positive that their next destination would be their home, of course.

Raphael trusted Donatello's word much more than Leo's.

Raphael suspected that Leonardo had guessed the part he had played in the time scepter's loss, but he was positive his brother wouldn't tell on him. Leonardo was too relieved for that.

"I love this fresco. Other-me really nailed my heroism," Michelangelo said.

The orange-masked turtle was lying on the floor to better admire the ceiling Mikey had painted.

"You know, I'm kinda sad we didn't have the opportunity to stay longer with them. I barely had the time to meet Mikey and Leo," he added.

"Yes, I would have liked to get to know my counterpart more," Donatello said from his desk. He was already studying the various samples he had collected through time. "I have a feeling we would have done great things together."

"Maybe we'll meet them again, who knows?" Leonardo's voice said.

Raphael turned his head to watch his brother entering the room. "Did Splinter like his gift?"

"Yes, a lot." Leonardo jumped above the couch to land next to Raphael. "I wasn't sure the cheese would survive our trip home. I'm glad it did!"

"I'm glad we survived that trip," Raphael pointed out. "If I ever see that Leo again, I'm going to cure him of making portals."

"I wish I had a mystical weapon," Michelangelo said dreamily. "How about you?"

"I'll pass." Leonardo shook his head. "I didn't like that sword. It had no moral sense."

"I wonder what they're up to now," Donatello asked as he put away his sample of tyrannosaurus' gastric acid.

"As long as they don't pay us a visit in a long, long time, they can do anything they want." Raphael sank deeper into the couch.

"Did you choose the movie?" Leonardo asked. "Splinter will join us soon."

"Jurassic Park!" Michelangelo suggested.

"I veto that," Raphael retorted.

The two of them began arguing for fun, and Raphael completely relaxed.

He was home.

Rise verse

"Guys, can you say I'm your Champion again?"

Raph stifled a deep, deep sigh. He had known he was going to regret saying that to Leo, but he hadn't known how much.

"If you don't praise me, my sword might disappear again," Leo threatened.

His effect was somehow ruined by his huge grin.

"I say it's worth a try," Donnie said, his face hidden behind his menu.

The four turtles were having a relaxing evening at their favorite pizza place, Señor Hueso's Run of the Mill Pizza.

Raph decided to ignore Leo and turned his attention to Mikey. His little brother looked melancholic.

"Everything alright, Mikey?" Raph asked softly.

"Sure." Mikey smiled at him. "I just wish I could have shown this place to Raph and Don. I'm sure they would have loved it."

"We brought Leo and Mikey here," Raph said.

"Oh?" Leo leaned forward. "Did you tell them about the Maze of Death?"

"Yes." Donnie smiled in anticipation.

"And did they solve it?"

"Go see for yourself, my dear brother," Donnie replied, failing to sound uninterested.

Leo frowned and stood up, striding into the hallway displaying the champions' pictures. The picture of his brothers and himself eating their pizza - or more exactly, of his brothers eating pizza while he was lying on the floor, looking utterly defeated - was still on the Wall of Cheaters.

However, the Wall of Champions displayed a new picture, one of two turtles he recognized easily: Michelangelo and Leonardo.

"Oh come on!" he said, disgusted.

"Maybe you want to have another try at the Maze of Death?" Donnie, who had of course followed him, raised a painted eyebrow.

Leo grimaced. He and his brothers had almost died inside that maze last time.

And worse, mystical magic was strictly forbidden in it.

He straightened up and turned to his brother with a bright smile. "No, I'm fine. I don't need everybody to see I'm a Champion when I'm your Champion, right?"

Putting an arm around Donnie's shell, he led him back to their table and away from the pictures.

His pizza was always the best in the world when shared in good company.