Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

New York. The City that Never Sleeps.

It has been now four months since our half-shelled heroes, the Hamato Brothers: Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo, with a great help from their retro counterparts and the ex-evil henchmen-now street heroes, Anton “Bebop” Zeck and Ivan “Rocksteady” Steranko, stopped Shredder and Kraang from the 1987 universe from destroying this world. However, the city wasn’t 100% safe yet, as there are still a few important threats to take care of. Street gangs like the Purple Dragons, rampaging mutants like Spiderbites, Pizza Face and the Squirrelnoids, just to name a few.

The TCRI building has gone through a lot of crap since the Kraang was kicked out of earth. But now it was under the control of the EPF (Earth Protection Force). Most of its rooms in the upper levels were filled with Kraang technology leftovers: Kraangdroids, Stealth Ships, Biotroids, etc. Right in the uppermost part of the building, two EPA soldiers were in charge of being security guards in a room completely filled with Kraang Interdimensional-Traveling tech.

However, they were more focusing in something else that was not their job…

“Hey” A guard spoke up. “What do you think of the end of Crognard the Barbarian?”

His co-worker glanced at him for a few seconds before sighing. “…totally sucked balls”

“It totally did…”

Suddenly, a strange noise was heard inside the room. “W-what the hell!?” Alarmed, the two soldiers rushed inside, only to find that all the interdimensional-traveling equipment has completely disappeared! The security cameras had no clue about the thieves, nor there wasn’t evidence of any damage in the place, it’s like if all the contents in the room… disappeared, just like that.

“We’re so getting fired for this, aren’t we?” The first soldier asked.

“Yes. Yes we are…”

Both soldiers started sobbing.

*@* A few days later… *@*

Hamato Leonardo was training in the dojo of their hidden lair in the New York sewer system. Today, he was trying to become one with the universe through meditation. Also to help him cope a little with a few distasteful experiences. Ever since Master Splinter met his demise at the hands of the Super Shredder, Leo has had to become the new head of the Hamato Clan. It wasn’t easy for him to lead his family in the right path, but whatever obstacle he found, he made it through thanks to his skills, his strong spirit and, his family.

…and not that Space Heroes bullshit as he thinks sometimes.

Instead of finding enlightenment, however, Leo clutched his head as a migraine invaded his head. Along with the pain, he also started to have some weird foggy visions.

A portal-creating device…

A similar yet different world…

A blue butterfly…

A group of teenagers in extravagant costumes with some sort of cat-creature…

A small army of powerful monsters led by none other than Master Splinter and a muscular six-winged demon with some sort of military suit and a revolver with a very large cannon…

…and giant red winged demon with a lizard tail, a golden trident and a headband with two horns ready to reduce all of Chinatown to mere ashes…

“Gah!” The turtle leader gasped as his meditation was now completely interrupted. “This again…? What the hell is happening now…?” He asked himself, scratching his head in exasperation. This was like the sixth time he got those visions in this week.

He decided that it was enough meditation for today and walked out of the dojo. Casey Jones and April O’Neil were coming tonight for a dinner to celebrate the fact that they had finished with exams and Summer Break was just two weeks away, and they planned to make it big (well, Casey planned to make it big). Leo walked to the living room, sat down in the couch and turned on the T.V. hoping to relax after those unpleasant visions. In fact, he could relax a little as he watched his favorite show: Space Heroes. Even after all these years and his growth as a ninja, Leo still adored that show despite Captain Ryan was quite a prick.

Michelangelo, who was returning from skating around the sewers, finds his brother watching T.V. He dashes at the couch and sits with quite some force, startling Leo a little.

“Jesus Christ, Mikey!” Leo scolds. 

“Wassup, Leo?” Mikey asked, ignoring the fact that his brother was upset. “Finally choosing to get out of the dojo, huh” He asked with a huge child grin.

Leo sighs. “Yes, Mikey. I did” He responded, still a bit surprised from earlier.

“Are you ok, bro…?” Mikey asked, his expression suddenly turning concerned. “Don’t tell me I actually freaked you out, dude”

“No, is not that” Leo assured as he stands up. “Look. Casey and April are arriving soon; let’s just go to the kitchen already”

“Oh, yeah!” Mikey throws both arms high in the air. “Summer Party!”

Leo chuckled at Mikey’s enthusiasm as both headed to the kitchen where their other two brothers, Donatello and Raphael were waiting for them. Donnie was checking a few things on his laptop, wearing some crazy high-tech googles he created not too long ago while Raph was across the table with Chompy Picasso on his shoulder. The baby turtle was eager to eat right now.

Once Mikey got Ice Cream Kitty out of the fridge, the four turtles were now on the table.

“Well, well, well” Raph greeted his brother with a sarcastic tone and a teasing grin. “Look who finally decided to leave the dojo and come back to his life”

“Yeah, screw you too, Raph” Leo greeted back.

The three younger brothers snicker as Raph decided to get to the point. “Seriously, though. All that meditation is not gonna help ya with those visions, Leo”

Leo’s face turned into one of sincere surprise at what Raph just said. “Visions?” He asked. “You mean…?”

“Yes, we did” Donnie answered before Leo could finish the question. “Just as you, we all have been having strange visions this last week. A weird machine creating a portal… A blue butterfly…”

“A bunch of dorks with weird-ass costumes…” Raph continues. “Splinter returning from the dead to lead a bunch of monsters….”

“…and a giant red demon ready to burn all of NY! RRRAAAAAAGGGGHHH!!!” Mikey exclaims with an unnecessary dramatic pose and a roar. Which caused Raph to slap him in the head. …again.

Seeing this, Leo hums. “Well, considering past experiences, it is obvious that this is not a coincidence”

“Leo’s right” Donnie adds. “We all have enough experience with the supernatural to be sure about this: If we’ve been seeing the same visions at the same time for all this long, they are not visions” The turtle genius scratches his head. “Perhaps they are---”   

“…premonitory dreams?”

The four brothers turn around just to see that Casey and April just arrived by surprise, joining the conversation while carrying a few too many snacks bags and frozen pizzas.

“April!” Donnie perks up considerably as he rushed to hug his girlfriend shared a quick kiss.

“Ugh, for the love of…!” Raph groaned as he covered Mikey’s eyes. “There’s children here, dammit! Get a room!”

The couple, instead, just lifted eyebrows at Raph’s remark.  

“Jealous, Raph?” Donnie teases.

“I’m sure he is, D” April teased next as she wrapped an arm around Donnie’s shell. “He is because Mona Lisa is not here”

The others laughed as Raph just scoffed at the counter and decided to just keep petting Chompy. After the laughter died down enough, April, still embracing Donnie’s back with her left arm, changes the topic. “Anyway, sorry for appearing out of the blue guys, but we wanted to come earlier to start the dinner”

“This ain’t a diner, Red. It’s a celebration” Casey clarifies. “Today we can officially declare that exams have gone to hell and summer break it’s finally here my reptilian-duded. And tonight, we’re going to bring the house down!”  

“I hope not literally” Donnie remarks dryly.

In just a matter of seconds, the six New Yorkers started the preparations for this diner. Leo prepared some smoothies. Mikey and Casey cooked the pizzas in the microwave. Raph and Donnie helped with some instant ramen while April prepared the snacks and the silverware in no time with her psychokinetic powers. All of them more than ready for a family party dinner to celebrate the impending beginning of summer break. It was just four mutant ninja turtles, a half-human-half-alien mutant hybrid and a single human eating pizza and noodles in a secret lair in the sewers. For a normal person this sight would be pretty freaky, but for them, it was a peaceful family dinner like they always have done.

Once the smoothie glasses were emptied, the noodles and pizzas were annihilated and Mikey was dangerously close to puke a lot after all the food he practically inhaled, they resumed the conversation about the visions.

“So, you guys may think these premonitions and not just visions…” April reminisced once she and Casey were heard everything the turtles said. “…any idea of what could be this time?”

“Nope” Raph answer bluntly. “I mean, the Utrom are no longer Kraang, Shredder is rotting in hell where he belongs and even Tiger Claw got out of NY when he made that truce with us”

“Still, we better find out soon” Leo says. “Given past experiences, something like this usually announces big trouble”

April scratched her head a little in thought, then she had an idea. “Do you think this may be related to the strange robberies?”

“Strange robberies?” Leo asked, to which in answer, Casey unsheathes his T-Phone and puts a video for the turtles to watch.

“These last few days, New York has been invaded by some especial kind of criminal scum, dudes. Banks, Supermarkets, and even TCRI, were completely ransacked recently. One moment all the stuff is right there and at the second… POOF! All their shit is gone, as if it was never there in first place”

“The police managed to find out who did it?” Donnie asks, to which Raph scoffs at.

“As if those corrupt bastards would even bother”    

“I’m afraid not” April explains. “And according to the news, there wasn’t evidence of forced entry or damage in the security system. And according to the security cameras, there wasn’t signal of the thieves, just the goods disappearing like nothing”  

“HA!” Mikey scoffs. “I’m pretty sure what really happened. But before anyone could tell him that they didn’0t want to hear his opinion, the youngest ninja continued. “They used a giant magic pencil to erase all the stuff as if this was nothing but a cartoon or a drawing!”

Once again, Raph smacked him. “Dude, what the shell was that for!?” Mikey complained.

“And you still need to ask you shell-brain!” Raph said while Leo continued with the matter at hand.

“Anyway… This clearly is NOT the work of a normal criminal, and as ninjas, we’re honor-bound to find who’s behind this and stop them. But just like April said, if this is related to those premonitions, it seems that once again, we’re going up against something real big”

There was a silence that remained for a few seconds before the rest of the clan grinned and nodded to Leo.

“Not to sound overconfident, but pretty sure this won’t be worse than an alien invasion” Donnie said.

“Or having to go back in time to save the earth” Raph said next.

“Or seeing a sinister ninja turning himself into a deranged mutant” April said next.

“Don’t forget having to fight Dracula or a Demodragon” Casey added.

“And definitely couldn’t be worse than Dream Beavers or Squirrelnoids” Mikey said last. 

Seeing everyone was ready to follow, the leader grins back and nods. “Alright, everyone. Let’s go”

The all shared a high-five with the signature “BOOYAKASHAA” Shout.

And just as they were walking to the Shellraiser, Leo’s T-Phone buzzes. He checks it and gasps as he finds out who was calling him. “It’s Karai” He smiled while Mikey was right behind him.

“Oh, yeah! Maybe Sis and Shinigami can join us!" Mikey exclaimed as Leo answers the call.

“Moshi-Moshi” Leo says. "You're on speakerphone, by the way"

“Hope I’m not interrupting anything, guys” Karai’s voice came out of the phone.

“Not really, we were actually going to your place” Leo says.

“It’s related to the strange robberies from the slats days, isn’t?” Karai asked, this time more serious.

“As a matter of fact, yes” Leo said, already having an idea of what Karai was going to say next.

“Then better get in here quick. Shini and I have some very interesting info for you guys”

*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*

After a few minutes of traveling, the Shellraiser stops right in front of their destination: The hideout of the New Foot Clan.

Even now under Karai’s control, the ninjas couldn’t help but to still fell the sinister atmosphere from the building. Understandable since the place used to belong to Shredder and many sinister moments happened in there. However, it was absolutely nothing compared to when Shredder was in charge. After all, Karai said she and Shinigami were going to restore the clan’s honor and she wasn’t joking about it.

The crew walks inside the lair, finding the place was much quieter than it usually was…

A familiar chill runs down Leo’s spine as he quickly prepares himself into a fighting stance. The rest just smiled amused as the turtle leader walked carefully around the many pillars that decorated the entrance of the Foot lair.

A near silent whistle alerts Leo, whom quickly turns around and intercept an arrow with a suction cup at the point. A distraction, he realized as two reptilian blue eyes shine through the darkness of a hall. And before he could react, a snake-like creature pounces on him and wraps its long tail around his body, knocking him on the floor. Leo struggled in vain as he was making eye contact with the snake. The creature lets out a ferocious screech before its head shaped into something more familiar. It was Karai, changing back from her snake-form as she unwrapped herself of him.

“Looks I win” Karai said with a cocky smile as she offered Leo her hand.

“Yes. This time. You won a breath-mint, by the way” Leo snarks as he took her hand and got back on his feet.

The rest of the clan just laughed and clapped at the moment. “Nice way to trick him there, Sis" Raph said.

“Thanks” Karai said as she turned around. “Hey, Shini. How’s the score?”

Tamako “Shinigami” Hiraoka, blood-sister of Karai and second-in-command of the New Foot, appeared from another dark hall while she was checking her smartphone. “19 to 18 in your favor; this was the tie-breaker” She said.

“Well, enjoy it while it lasts” Leo smirked at Karai. “I’m going to go ahead of you soon enough”

“Alright, guys” Donnie cuts off the moment. “We all know how much you two enjoy your little friendly clan-leader/sibling-rivalry, but right now we have bigger fish to fry”

Karai sighs as her face turns into an exasperated one. “You have a point, Donnie. We have some good info about the strange robberies that hit the city during these last days”

“What did you two find out?” April asks, to which Karai and Shingami share a concerned look.

“Well, it turns out the supermarkets, the banks and TCRI weren’t the only ones affected” Shinigami said matter-of-factly. “…we were affected as well”

“WHAT!?” The Hamato Clan exclaimed at unison. “You guys were ransacked, too!?” Casey asked in disbelief.

“Damn right we did” Shini continued. “Before we could even try to do something, they took everything right under our noses. From US. Ninjas of all people!"

Everyone was now pretty surprised after that. The New Foot Clan has had been robbed under their own noses! This definitely was either the work of a super criminal, or an extremely-lucky asshat with a very obvious death-wish. Either way, robbing the Foot clan was not an easy-to-achieve task.

“Still” April continued. “Did they took anything important?”

“Actually, yes they did” Karai continued. “Whoever is behind this, I’m pretty sure they knew what they were after. All the equipment we confiscated from Stockman’s old lab in here just disappeared like nothing”

"We managed to see how it happened by seeing the cameras, though” Through her phone, Shinigami showed the Hamato Clan a little security video from yesterday. And just as she said, all of Stockman’s gadgets were suddenly covered in a strange pink glow before disappearing. “First the goods started to be covered by a strange pink glow, and then, they just disappeared. And to make it worse, we don’t have any clue of the thief”

“A pink glow, huh…” Donnie asked with a curious look while putting his right hand on his chin. “Although I don’t have any evidence to prove it, I think I’ve seen something like that before”

“Where did you see it?” Raph asked.

“With some Kraang teleporting devices”

“Wait! So, you think the Kraang is responsible for this?” Raph asked again, this time in disbelief.

“It can’t be” Karai said next. “Agent Bishop assured us that most of the Utroms were free from Kraang Prime’s control and that the few remaining are still in treatment back at TCRI”

“Dudes, if you ask me, I’m still thinking there’s an invisible magic pencil behind this” Mikey said, earning a glare from Donnie.

“Luckily, nobody asked you, Mikey” The turtle genius said before returning to the matter at hand. “Still. It could be that, or that someone else is using their tech”

“Karai, you said that you had a good lead about who might behind these robberies, right?” Leo said, to which Karai nods to.

“Yes. The good news is, we got that info from quite a reliable source”

“…and the bad news?” Leo asked before his eyes widened in horror and exasperation as a horrible realization hit him. “Don’t tell me…”

“Yes” Shingami sighed. “…It was from them”

Then another horrible realization hits Leo. “April…?”

The half-Kraang Kunoichi used her psychic sensors and after a few seconds, she groans. “They’re here…”

“Hee-heeeeeee! Hoo- Hoooooooo!”

“He he he… AH HA HA HA HA!”

A high-pitched cackle and a ruff laugh echoed through the entrance of the hideout. It would have scared most people given the circumstances. But the ninjas just deadpanned as they already knew whom those voices belonged to…

“…them” Raph complained as he facepalmed. “Of all people and mutants in all of fucking Manhattan that are on our side… it had to be those two morons!”  

Karai’s source of info for this mission turned out to be none other than Anton “Bebop” Zeck and Ivan “Rocksteady” Steranko. Revealing themselves from Bebop’s invisivility device, wearing their retro counter-parts’ outfits, the mutant morons made a dramatic appearance in front of the ninjas after they find out they were the source. The Pig and the Rhino greeted the rest of our heroes, happy to know they had to work with the ninjas again.

“Yo, how’s it goin’?”

“Happy to see you all, comrades of Hamato Clan” The Pig and the Rhino greeted the ninjas. All of the members of the Hamato clan (except for Mikey, who was actually happy to see them), looked at them a bit annoyed after their attempt for a dramatic entrance.

Bebop and Rocksteady are quite uneasy allies, and not because they’re not good team players or they had ulterior moves. It’s because they’re quite… well… annoying. However, the mutants proved that they are much, much better than being evil henchmen. The last four months, the Pig and the Rhino were responsible for stopping quite a lot of important crimes in both Jersey and the Big Apple. And as much as they hated to admit it, the ninjas found them to be pretty cool despite their moments of silliness. They even found out that the former thief and the former arms dealer wanted to come in terms with their criminal pasts and start a new chapter in their lives. Even while they bragged about wanted to be acknowledged as heroes, they had no trouble using the same methods as the Ninjas: hitting the bad guys hard while staying in the shadows. They’ve also helped the Hamato Clan with quite a few important cases as well.

“B and R!” Mikey shared a high-five (or in his case, a high-three) to the mutant duo while cheerfully greeting them. “Our favorite Warthog and Rhino dynamic duo! How’s been going the hidden super-hero business!?”

“Our man! M to the I, to the K, to the E, and finally the Y!” Bebop answers as he returned the high-five. “You know the deal, yo! A couple of things aren’t exactly what we expected at all. But it’s totally cool. Ain’t that right, Rock?” He asked to Steranko.

“Da, G! Still much better than working with Shredder or Squishy Kraang thingie”

Rocksteady returned the high-five right before Raph interrupted them by pushing Mikey away. “Alright, enough of this crap! Karai said that you two idiots have info about the robberies. You actually have it or not?”

“Well believe it or not, Raph, we actually do. Check this out dawgs” Bebop said as he showed to the ninjas a video from his smartphone. “This is from one of affected places; a Mom n’ Pop store”

“We was checking places affected by weird robberies, and we find clue of true culprit’s identity” Rocksteady adds as the ninjas continued watching. The video didn’t had a very good image quality, but it was still clear enough to show how strange little creatures appearing inside a storage full of merchandise and groceries via teleport. They carefully approached the crates, covering them with the strange pink glow, then disappearing with them. Everyone was pretty concerned now.

“Wait!” Donnie suddenly says. “Bebop, can you stop the record there? I think I’ve seen those small creatures before”

“Sure thing, D!” Zeck stopped the video in the indicated part, and after a few seconds of properly seeing the detail, everyone gasped in surprise as they saw that the strange creatures turned out to be familiar two-legged little robotic pests.

“And there it is” Donnie concluded. “I’m sure I don’t need to ask you if you recognize those little pests”

“M.O.U.S.E.R.S.” Leo said with eyes narrowed at the video.

“Which mean there’s only one person behind this…” Karai said before everyone nodded with her and together, they all said the exact answer. Everyone nodded in agreement with Karai while getting the same conclusion.

“Baxter Stockman!”

It had to be. Baxter Stockman, the scientist must have somehow escaped from Shredder’s hideout in the woods while it was on fire. But the questions in everyone’s lips were…

Why is Stockman stealing stuff from almost all of New York?

How did he create those teleporting Mousers?

And how are they going to track his location?

“I think I have an idea of how to find out where Stockman is hiding” Donnie said. “But we need to return to the lair”

*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*

In no time, everyone was back at the lair in the sewers. Bebop and Rocksteady took a nice look at the place with a rather surprised look. The reason was that this was the first time they visited their lair in the sewers, and it was much more comfortable than they expected to be.

“Wowza!” Bebop gasped. “Look baby Ivan; It’s the turtles’ secret lair!”

“For place hidden in stinky sewers, it is much cooler than I thought” Rocksteady admitted before Bebop gasped in awe.

“Look, dawg! A pinball machine!”

“Oh! I got first game!”

B and R were totally eager to play with the pinball machine, until they got suddenly interrupted by Leonardo. “Guys, you can play pinball as much as you want after we finish the job” He said with a firm tone. The mutants apologized to the turtle leader then the three of them walked to Donnie’s lab in order to listen to the turtle genius’ idea.

“Alright Donnie, everyone is here” Leo said as they all were now gathered in the lab. “What’s your plan to find Stockman?” As answer, Donnie made a few adjustments to one of his energy scanners.

“Thanks to some tricks I learned from our counterparts from the 87 timeline and from Professor Honeycutt, I can now modify a few of my scanners to track the residual energy from the teleporting devices”

“Which means, what in English?” Casey asked a bit confused (nobody could blame him, though; everyone else was. It wasn’t easy to understand Donnie’s Techno-babble).

“It means, that when the mousers teleport themselves, we can pin down their location, which makes a lot easier for us to find Stockman”

“Excellent” Leo smiled. “Once Donnie finds Stockman’s hideout, we should prepare to go and stop him once and for… ngh… Gaaaahhh!” Leo’s speech was cut off by the familiar migraine of the visions once again However, before they could help him, everyone else were now affected by it.

Everyone, not just the turtles, was now seeing the strange visions. 

The butterfly and strange teenagers were still pretty foggy. However, the rest were considerably clearer now. Stockman was indeed alive and seemed to be behind the strange portal to another world, being actually one of his inventions. Splinter was covered in a blue aura with fiery chains as well as the monster army he was leading, which turned out to be much bigger now.

The monster army was totally clear as well consisted of:

-- An Ape-man with chains on his torso, a red helmet with yellow spiked hair in Mohawk style, riding a grey cloud with eyes and teeth, while wielding a giant staff that read ‘’8000 K’’.

-- A woman with four small eyes, two horns with giant eyes, totally covered in a black suit with metallic spikes in her bra and shoulders and a red cape, and two chains with a savage dog head in both hands.

-- A man wielding a golden staff, with his body covered in a blue jumpsuit with golden round shoulder guards, golden shoes with giant blue wings, long golden wristbands, and it had little red wings instead of eyes.

-- A man with blue skin and some tribal-looking tattoos, wearing a demon-looking yellow mask big white hair, metallic skirt-like cloth with metallic pants, a tiger-themed cape, a belt of golden flames, golden shoes with a long platform under them and wielding a crossed double-sword.

-- A robotic woman with a read head, golden horns, golden gloves, golden shoes and a little red skull in her chest, who is also capable of transforming into a motorcycle.

-- A giant spaceship-looking black creature with a shiny neon rainbow grin, covered in some strange flame-like red aura.

-- A three-faced, flower-themed pink skull with smaller skulls under it, showing a dark woman on the top. The woman had long black hair, she was wearing long golden bracelets, golden earrings, golden bra, and a giant crescent moon on her head covering her eyes.

-- A little snowman with a black harlequin hat, a bathroom towel as cape, black boots, an ‘’S’’ symbol on his chest (apparently drawn with crayons…) pretty muscular arms and a giant ice hammer as its weapon.

-- A small robotic, floating pumpkin-headed creature with a light-brown charro hat, a bathroom curtain covering his body, with only his right hand showing, wearing a rusty-looking metallic glove, holding an old lattern, and… an incredible lot of weapons inside the curtain!

---There was also a strange blue creature with four arms and a belt of fire. A snowman made of black snow with a purple hat. An Egyptian Goddess. A one-eyed man with purple skin, a golden helmet with horns and a spear. A golden Dragon. A human-sized Fairy. A robotic Archangel. A skeleton wearing a white robe and holding some sort of trumpet. A woman with blue skin, horns and rings hovering around her body, and a small blond girl with a dark powerful aura around her.

All accompanied by the muscular grey demon helping Master Splinter, was wearing a general suit, he had six bat wings with feathers in the base, a golden mask with two horns and a third horn on the back of his head. He also was wielding a gun with a pretty large cannon.

And of course, the giant red demon was coming out of one of Stockman’s portals. Ready to incinerate all of New York.

The heroes woke up from the trance, still feeling the headache. “You guys all saw that too, right?” Leo asked, still affected by the migraine.

“Let me guess” April said. “Those were the visions”

“Damn right they were” Raph answers. “And the migraine that comes with them” 

“Leo, what the hell was all of that?” Karai asked, upset. “What were those creatures we saw? And most importantly, why and how our father is involved in all of this?”

“And why that butterfly talked, yo!?” The rest of the team turned to Bebop right after he made the question.

“Now that you mention it, it seemed that the blue butterfly tried to talk to us” Donnie admitted. “But we couldn’t understand anything”

“Did you guys could actually hear it?”

“Da!” Rocksteady said. “We clearly hear little butterfly! It sounded with the despair”

“Despair…?” Shingami asked with a lifted eyebrow. “What the hell did it say?”

“It said ‘Help…’” Bebop answered.

“…help?” Leo asked. “Why would it say something like that?” He shook his head. “I guess it doesn’t matter. If those visions are true and Stockman is involved, we must find him quickly and stop him before he unleashes a total catastrophe in New York, or maybe even the whole world”

With that said, the New York heroes moved on quickly to the Shellraiser, the Party Wagon and Bebop and Rocksteady’s van. In no time, Donnie found multiple energy readings from the teleporting mousers. However, he took more interest in a certain location where it had a massive reading. “This reading is much bigger than the rest; it’s highly likely Stockman is hiding in there” With the location in sight, our heroes put the pedal into metal and rolled to that place.

*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*

The team reached their destination. It was a large abandoned warehouse in the outskirts of the city. It had a few broken windows and a few holes in the sealing. Not exactly a good place to live, but it was indeed a pretty useful hideout given the fact that no one with enough common sense to approach the place thanks to the creepy atmosphere.

The ninjas and the mutant morons approached carefully to a few windows to try and spy over the inside and everyone’s theory turned out to be correct: Baxter Stockman is indeed the mastermind of the robberies.

With a few mousers that suddenly appeared as enough proof, the heroes saw that Stockman was using some sort of Kraaang technology to modify his mousers in order to steal many good, including technology from TCRI, He was apparently using them to create a strange machine. Seein that it could be the mysterious portal machine, Leo gave the signal and everyone entered the place being as stealthy as possible.

Meanwhile, the evil-scientist was enthusiastically laughing about his incoming success while speaking to himself.

“Excellent! Keep bringing more Krang technology to me, my dear M.O.U.S.E.R.S.! Once my Portal-Tron is finally complete, nobody will be able to stop me. And the whole world will finally tremble before the might of---”

“Dunster Blockhead!”

Stockman instinctively winced at the wrong attempt to pronounce his name and turned around in anger. “IT’S BAXTER STOCK-! What the hell!?” He made a double-take as he found all of the New York heroes standing right in front of him. All of them were cracking their knuckles and preparing their weapons, ready to kick his sorry ass!

“The turtles, their friends, Karai, Shinigami, and even Zeck and Steranko!? What do you all want!?”

“Isn’t that obvious?” Leo said. “We know you’re behind these robberies and that you’re trying to build a portal creator. We are going to stop you right here, right now!”

Stockman gasps in sincere shock. “I don’t know how you found out about my secret plan, but what I do know is that you won’t stop me!” Stockman unsheathes a remote from his pocket and presses a button. Before the New Yorkers could react, they were suddenly surrounded by an army of M.O.U.S.E.R.S and Biotroids. All of them modified with Kraang technology.

“Holy Shaloopa!” Mikey gasped in shock at the sight of the upgraded Biotroids. They had claws, small missile launchers on their shoulders and the butt cannons were replaced by small Gatling guns!   

“So, what do you think about my improved toys?” Stockman asked smugly. “Thanks to the Kraang teleporting technology I managed to use on my mousers, I stole these babies from TCRI, and made a few other… modifications in order to help me with my newest plan. Do you want to know what I’m planning? I’m listening some of you saying yes…”

…

…

“No”

“Not really”

“Nope”

“Hell no”

“Do you really think we wanna hear a dumb-ass speech about a stupid plan we’re about to destroy anyway, Stinkman!?”

“It’s Stockman! STOCKMAN! Why is it too hard for you to remember that!? I mean, seriously! I have been at war with you all for like, three years!” He complained. “And I’m going to tell you anyway, so shut up and listen!” He calmed down considerably and continued. “I think some of you wonder what I’m exactly planning with the technology my mousers stole from TCRI…” He continued as he unsheathed a strange laser gun and showed them to the ninjas, still careful enough not to let them destroy it. “This, is my Stockman Portal-Tron 8000. Patent pending. It’s a little special device created to generate portals that allow me to travel around this and/or other dimensions. I also created small remote-beacons for my mousers so I could teleport them at distance with my Portal-Tron, along with whatever objects were in contact with them”

“That’s how you stole all the Kraang tech from TCRI” Leo concludes.

“Scientifically speaking, I must admit it’s impressive” Donnie said as he prepared his Naginata Bo. “But we’re still stopping you, Stockman”

“Ok, that explains the stolen Kraang tech” Bebop said next. “But what about the banks and the supermarkets?”

“The supermarkets were just a test run, of course. And the banks? I was broke and I needed money. Evil science isn’t free, you know” Stockman continued. “Anyway, with all the tech I got, now I’m finally able to show you my latest creation. Behold!” Quickly, Stockman unveiled a giant structure covered in a white sheet, revealing a big technological device. The heroes quickly gasped in shock as this machine was exactly the one in the visions; the one creating the portal.

Of course, Baxter took it as flattery. “Impressive, right? I know!” He continued with his speech. “This is The Giant-sized Stockman Portal-Tron 12000! Its patent is in process too. With this baby, not only I can create bigger portals, I can bring powerful creatures from other dimensions and use them to take over this city!”

After that annoying speech, Stockman turned the machine on, ready to bring his monster army to this dimension and try to take over the world (quite the cliché, right?). Knowing this could cause a total disaster, Leo shared a nod with the rest of the team and a large barrage of smoke-bombs slammed against the floor, covering the entire robot squad to be trapped in the thick smoke. Using the smoke as cover, the heroes needed no time to turn most of Stockman’s robot army into useless scrap. Stockman yelped in fear as he quickly finished activating the Portal-Tron and ran to hide behind a backup generator.  

“Leo!” Raph yells as he stabbed another Biotroid with his Sai. “You and Donnie take care of that pile of scrap! We’ve got this robo-freaks!”

With their teammates taking care of that, the two turtles quickly reached the control panel. With Leo covering him, Donnie quickly started tinkering with the keyboard hoping to turn it off, however, the complexity of this machine was quite different from the rest of Stockman’s inventions.

“Donnie, you may want to hurry!” Leo said as he saw the Portal-Tron gaining more power.

“I’m working as fast as I can!” Donnie said before a force field manifested, protecting the keyboard. “Dammit!” Donnie slams both fists on the field.

“It’s too late turtles!” Stockman gloated from his hiding spot. “My machine is already bringing something from a different dimension! Now, prepare to face the wrath of my super monster army… OF DOOOOOOOMMM!”

Stockman was laughing like the mad scientist he was as our street heroes watched in a mixture of worry and anger at how the Portal-Tron was about to bring who knows what kind of monster. Rocksteady hugged Mikey, Casey, Bebop, April and Shinigami. Karai, Raph, Donnie and Leo just watched in shock, already preparing themselves for the worst as something finally came out of the portal.

Another of the visions finally came true…  

…the little blue butterfly.

“What the!?” Stockman was frozen in shock with eyes as wide as plates. Hi8s glasses even almost fell off his face. “A butterfly…? THAT is the first thing to come out of the Portal-Tron!?” He rubbed his temples in frustration. “Seriously, talk about anti-climactic… Honestly, I think I’m gonna – UNGH!” Stockman’s complaint was cut off by Leo kicking him in the face.

Meanwhile, while Donnie managed to deactivate the force field and turn the portal off, the butterfly gracefully fluttered around the battlefield, nimbly dodging the lasers and sharp blades, then it gently landed in an unexpected place.

…on top of Rocksteady’s left knuckleduster.

With an awkward expression, Bebbop and Rocksteady glanced at the little bug whom was apparently resting in Rock’s hand when suddenly, it released a small blue flash blinding the two mutants for a few seconds. After the light dissipated, the mutant morons found that everyone else froze in their spots, as if time itself has stopped.

“What the bacon!?” Bebop asked alarmed. Rock, what happened to everyone!?”

“I-I don’t know, comrade!” Steranko said as he suddenly gasps. “You think it’s because of little butterfly?”

“How in God’s name a butterfly would---!?”

“Help…!”

Bebop and Rocksteady froze in shock at the sudden voice.

“Please… help!”

“Ok” Bebop admitted as he points to the butterfly. “Now we’re sure that thing can talk, yo…”

The ninjas, in the meantime, were dealing with the rest of Baxter’s robot army. Then Raph noticed that the Pig and the Rhino were standing there, looking at the butterfly as if they were hypnotized or something. “Hey. Hey!” The turtle in the red bandanna tried to snap them out of their trance with no avail. Once they finished with the rest of the Biotroids, the others joined Raph in his concern.

“Dude, what the shell happened to them?” Mikey asked. “Yo! Earth to B and R!”

“This doesn’t looks good” Karai admitted she was worried now. “April, you think you can check if they’re still alive?”

“I’ll try” Right after she answers, April used her psychic powers to try and check what was happening with the mutant morons, she found that they’re fine, but even though she couldn’t fully understand it, she managed to intercept a conversation.

“Guys, I think the butterfly is talking to them” The others quickly gathered around her so they could hear what she had to say.

“April, can you check what the butterfly is saying?” Leo asked. And after a few more seconds of focus, April answers.

“I can’t get all of it, but it seems the butterfly is asking them for help… Hold on… Trickster… Avoid death… a Holy Grail…”

“Trickster, avoid death and a Holy Grail?” Casey was fully confused now. “The hell does that mean?”

Suddenly, April’s mind-searching was interrupted by a really loud noise. The Giant Portal-Tron suddenly started to create another portal. But this time, it’s seems it was starting to overload as this one had the portal had now the shape of a shining dome that started to cover the gadget.

Recovering from Leo’s kick, Stockman noticed it and quickly panicked. “Oh no! You shell-brains! What have you done!? The portal-Tron is having an energy overload! We have to turn it down or the portal-dome will keep growing until it devours all the city”!

“What do you mean an energy overload!?” Donnie angrily yells at Stockman. “The machine is supposed to have energy inhibiting circuits to avoid that! It’s supposed to have them! It’s basic engineering!”

“Of course I made the inhibitors, you ignorant reptile!” Stockman yells back “They’re right over – the hell…!?” Stockman did another double-take as he found that the energy-inhibiting generators got damaged in the fight.

…by Mikey’s Kusarigama.

Everyone turned to him totally upset for.

“Um…” Mikey fidgeted with his thumbs with an embarrassed smile. “…I was wondering where it was”

Suddenly, the portal started to grow even bigger. Big enough to fully swallow the Portal-Tron! The New Yorkers knew they had to do something to stop it. Otherwise, all of New York and everyone in it would be consumed by it!

“Donnie!” Leo says, already running out of ideas. “If you have any plans to stop that machine, I’m glad to hear them out!”

“We must reach the controls and do it manually! But we must do it quickly once we get inside the dome, otherwise, we’d just be teleported!”

Stockman tried to go to the control panel. Unfortunately, he wasn’t fast enough as he got swallowed by the portal after in a matter of seconds. While everyone else was starting to panic, Bebop and Rocksteady hear the butterfly’s voice once again.

“Anton Zeck, Ivan Steranko… this is your only chance… you must enter… find the trickster and his allies… and please… please help them save our world as well as yours…”

The mutant duo shared a confused glance then they nodded together with a large amount of determination suddenly burning in their eyes. Everyone quickly leaved the place in order to think of a way to turn the machine off.

…only to see that Bebop and Rocksteady got in their van and planned to drive back in!

“What the…!?” Leo’s eyes widened as he realized it. “What the hell do you think you’re doing!?”

“I’ll tell ya what we’re doin’, Leo” Bebop answers with an unexpected determination to save earth. “We’re turning that portal thingie off!”

“Zeck are you two idiots!?” Raph asked in shock. “No, wait. Let me rephrase that… YOU TWO ARE IDIOTS!”

“If you try to go there you’re gonna get sucked up by the portal in a matter of seconds just like how happened with Stockman!” Donnie said as he and the rest of the Ninjas tried to reason with them out doing something stupid. After all, as much as the ninjas (except for Mikey) hated to admit it, Bebop and Rocksteady were not exactly their best friends but they acknowledged they were formidable allies (and haging with them was actually much better than fighting them when they were Shredder’s forced-to-be-thugs).

“I’m going with you then!” Leo tried to go with them and stop the Portal-Tron, but Bebop quickly glued him to the ground. “What are you doing!?”

“Sorry, comrade Leo” Rocksteady sincerely apologize despite his determination. “But it seems this world needs you ninjas more than it needs the Bebop and the Rocksteady”

“We’re outtie 5000!!” With that last chant, Bebop, Rocksteady and the Butterfly set the van at full throttle, going back to the warehouse as the portal was growing big enough to swallow the place. They got inside the dome and barely had enough time to ram at the control panel, making the portal-dome start to wildly wiggle, as it gave a blinding shine, and then it disappeared in a blinding light…

Once the light finally dissipated, the ninjas could only watch in both shock and horror as there was nothing but a big crater in the ground where the big warehouse used to be. However, there was no sign of Stockman, the Mutants or the Butterfly.

“Dude…” That’s what Casey could say due to his shock.

“Holy Shit…!” Shinigami gasped. “Did… that just happened?”

“They did it…” Donnie said, fully realizing what happened. “They stopped the portal… Had they not, maybe we all would be dead by now”

“B and R…” Mikey said with watery eyes.

“I can’t believe it…” Raph was pretty shocked as well. “Those two morons saved us all again…”

“No… No!” Out of all the ninjas, Leo was the most shocked and horrified by this. He just couldn’t believe what just happened, nobody could. They just saw how the two mutant idiots Bebop and Rocksteady, out of the blue sacrificed themselves in order to save not only their allies, but also all of New York.

“April, can you---?”

“No…” April cut off Leo’s question. “I can’t sense anything, Leo. They’re gone…”

The ninjas had no choice but to kneel in front of the crater for a few seconds. It was the least they could do to honor the sudden yet noble sacrifice Bebop and Rocksteady just made to save all of NY.

They at least just hoped that the Warthog and the Rhino were at a much better place right now…

*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*

In an unknown location, a portal suddenly opnes and spits the van out, revealing that Bebop and Rocksteady are indeed still alive! They got out of their vehicle, recovering from a headache provoked by the trip.

“Aaaaawwwww, my head’s killing me! Rocksteady, where… where the bacon are we?”

Steranko looked to his surroundings to try and figure out where they were now. “I thinks we are into kind of the… museum”

“A museum?” Bebop asks, starting to get terrified. “But what kind of museum would have some waving photos like those, yo!? It’s givin’ me the hebbie jebbies!”

They decided to take a look around and explore a few of the halls. Despite the terrifying and distorted atmosphere, it was just as Rocksteady said; the place was indeed filled with strange, portraits of people. They looked quite distorted. The faces, were waving almost if like if they were alive.

“Yo, yo, yo! Check this out Rocksteady! Check it out!” Bebop said as they stopped to see a painting that caught his attention. The mutants checked that the portrait was of a young man, he was around 16 or 17 years old, with dark-blue hair, wearing a white gakuran-style shirt.

“Comrade Bebop, look! There’s a name on distorted painting-thingie!” Rocksteady said as he took a better look at the information of the portrait. “Yusuke Kitagawa? …quite an interesting name”

“Yeah, sure it is” Bebop admitted. “What is it, Chinese?”

“Actually, it’s Japanese”

Bebop and Rocksteady turned around at the sudden voice that answered to them.

…and they suddenly froze in absolute terror.

“N-no, way…!” Bebop stammered in fear. “Nonononononononononono!”

“If I was being honest, I never expect to meet you two again after our past feud. Especially not under this circumstances”

The voice was calm yet amused. However, it didn’t help the great terror Bebop and Rocksteady were feeling at the moment.

“Nyet…!” Steranko gasped terrified. “It can’t be! Y-you is…!” That’s the only thing Rocksteady could say before he and Bebop embraced each other and screamed in complete terror…   

"YOU ARE DEEEEAAAADD!!!" 

Chapter Text

Two weeks later…

In one of the many dark alleys of Manhattan, three mobsters -- who pretty sure were still working for Don Vizioso -- were running as fast as their legs could allow them to. Even with those ski masks covering their faces, anyone smart enough that could see them in the moment would instantly see that they had the word “Fear” written all over their faces. One of the mobsters tripped, and just before even thinking about getting up, he got suddenly dragged by some kind of creature inside the darkness of the alley.

As they kept running, the last two mobsters found themselves cornered in a dead-end. They turn around only to find a bunch of people, about 10 or 12 of them, and they were wearing strange purple tunics with hoods covering their faces. Once they reached the scared mobsters, they spoke in a pretty creepy tone. 

You should not have tried to trick us…

You will face the consequences of crossing us…

The mobsters tried to convince them to talk about this, that it was just a misunderstanding (although, they actually tried to trick the cultists into killing them and take all of their stuff), but their pleas fell on deaf ears. One of the mysterious cultists takes some sort technological device from inside their tunic and created a small portal, summoning a monster. A monster big enough to take care of them. The thugs screamed in fear as they fell victims of the creature in the alleyway, while the cultists were chanting some strange motto…

*@* A few hours later…*@*

Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo were in a routine night-patrol, each one of them watching over a specific zone of Chinatown. It has been now two weeks since the turtles and their friends saw how Bebop and Rocksteady, without any explanation, joined a little blue butterfly and entered a strange portal created by Stockman, sacrificing themselves in order to save their allies and the city. They were taking a look around trying to find any suspicious criminal activity, or any clues about if Bebop and Rocksteady were still alive and where could the morons be at the moment. After seeing everything was calm enough, they reunited in a rooftop close to April’s apartment to take a break and to share any gathered intel.

“Alright, guys” Leo spoke up first. “Did you find anything suspicious?”

“Not for the moment, Leo” Donnie answers first.

“The streets look too boring today” Raph grunted, clearly disappointed for not finding anything worth beating up.

“All clear, bro” Mikey said. “The pizza-delivery guys are safe and sound” That made Raph facepalm.

“Well...” Leo concludes. “Looks like we can call it a night and go back home”

“Oh yeah, baby!” Mikey was the first one to cheer at the idea. “Tomorrow will be time for Pizza and cartoons!”

“Hey, turtles! Over here!”

The sudden shout cut Mikey’s plans for tomorrow as the four turtles turned around, finding the source in another rooftop nearby.

“Slash and Leatherhead?” Donnie points out as the four turtles quickly went to where the giant mutant turtle and the mutant crocodile were located.

“Man, we’re glad we found you” Slash sighs in relief. Then the turtle brothers find out that the Mutanimals were a little bruised.

“Yo, what happened to you two!? Are you hurt!?” Mikey asked, quickly concerned. But Leatherhead replies.

“We are ok, Michelangelo” He quickly turns behind him with concern in his eyes. “But our benefactor needs help immediately”   

The turtles fix their attention to where Leatherhead is gazing at and find someone sitting on the floor, leaning on an AC unit. Jack Kurtzman: journalist, main benefactor of the Mighty Mutanimals and a valuable ally of the Hamato Clan. The half-shelled heroes were totally surprised, as they found that Jack was badly beaten and THIS close to fall unconscious.

“Turtles…” Jack sighs, still in pain. “…glad we… found you…” That’s what he managed to say before falling unconscious.

*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*

“Guys, he’s awake!”

April O’Neil exclaims as Kurtzman stirs and regains consciousness. The journalist turns around and finds himself lying on the couch in the turtles’ lair. The turtles, along with April, Casey, Leatherhead and Slash were already gathered.   

“April, turtles… thank God” Jack sighs in relief. “I thought we were never going find you”

“Kurtzman, what the hell happened to you?” Raph asked. “Who did this to you guys and where we can find them so we can return the favor!?”   

“It’ll be a lot easier if you just check the content of this USB drive” Kurtzman says as he carefully checks his pockets, only to find nothing. “The drive…!” Jack was starting to get worried. “Where---!?”

“No need to worry, Jack” Leatherhead reassures him. “We gave it to Donatello when we got in here. He is already checking its contents in his laptop”

As if on cue, Donnie returned from his lab with laptop in his hands. “Alright, everyone” He says as he opens the computer. “I checked Kurtzman’s drive and I found a lot of interesting info in it”

“What did you find?” April asked as everyone leans closer to have a better view of the screen. And the first thing they find, along with many photos of people covered in strange purple tunics is a symbol: a globe being held by two hands and watched by a giant red eye.

“The hell is with all those weirdoes, yo?” Casey asked, to which Slash replies.   

“Those Casey, are members of some new weird cheap-movie-like-cult that recently appeared in NY’s underworld. They call themselves The Elite”

“The Elite?” Leo asks with a tilt of his head.

Slowly sitting up on the couch, Kurtzman explains. “A few days after the sudden sacrifice of Bebop and Rocksteady, those strange cultists started to appear in the criminal underworld. Nobody took them seriously at first. However, in just a week, they started to quickly gain a lot of power and notoriety”

“Jack instantly knew that he had to investigate about The Elite. And in just a couple of days, he found out that they were quite more troublesome than he expected” Leatherhead continues. “We found out that the cult possess the capability to summon mysterious creatures and use them to attack or intimidate their enemies”

“Creatures!?” Mikey asks, shocked. “You mean like in Pokémon!?”

“More or less, Michelangelo. But those were much uglier and far more aggressive than Pokémon” Jack continued. “Thanks to a leak from one of my sources, Slash, Leatherhead and I found a meeting between the Elite cultists and some Italian mobsters that still worked for Viziozo”

“The cultists were planning to exchange a lot of cash to gain some special weapons for their strange organization” Slash adds. “But as with almost every deal in the criminal underworld, this one went awry. The mobsters tried to kill the cultists so they could have both the weapons and the cash, but it was a huge mistake”  

“The cultists were actually expecting their betrayal and in return, they summoned some monsters” Leatherhead continued. “Piles of green goo with red eyes and big mouths, all of them slightly bigger than a human adult. The cultists called them ‘Slime’. The mobsters attempted to escape, but in the end, it was all worthless, as they were attacked by the cultists”

“They also managed to find the three of us while spying on them” Slash continued as he rubbed his arm. “Leatherhead and I managed to give those freaks a one-way ticket to Hell, but Jack got attacked by them and got pretty hurt. So, we fled the area with him in hands so we could find you”

“The Elite…” Leo reminisces,. growing pretty concerned about the whole situation.

“You think those weirdoes are related to what happened two weeks ago?” Raph asked.

Leo hummed in thought for a few seconds. “Maybe. But we better figure it out after we drop Mr. Kurtzman in a nearby hospital”

“And I think I know where we can start” Everyone turned to Donnie as he exclaimed that. “According to the drive, there’s an old warehouse near the docks that is marked as an important meeting spot”

“Good” April exclaims as she prepared her Tessen. “We can go in there and see what we can find”

“And avenge our friends for what they did to them” Casey grinned as he unsheathes his best Hockey Sticks.

“Hey, mind if Leatherhead and I tag along, too?” Slash asked. “We want some payback for what those weirdoes did to Kurtzman”

“Sure thing, bro” Raph playfully punches the arm of his former turtle pet. “You two deserve a chance for some good revenge ass-kicking”

“Alright, we better contact Karai and Shinigami and tell them to meet us in the coordinates” Leo concludes. “Let’s get to it, team!”

*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*

The Shellraiser, the Party Wagon and Karai’s motorbike were parked in some abandoned garages nearby the coordinates. The entire team climb to the rooftop of one of the buildings near the place to investigate.

“Guys, look! It must be them!” Mikey points at a group of people after a few minutes of watching the area.

“There is no doubt” Leatherhead confirms. “It is The Elite”

“Look at those bastards” Casey seethes. “Walking like they own the streets. They make me fucking sick...”

The New Yorkers continued watching at the cultists, whom were singing some kind of motto.

“What are they mumbling about?” Shinigami asked.

“April, can you check?” Leo asks. To which the half-Kraang girl nods to and checks.  

“I’m getting some kind of interference, but… I think I got it” She takes a few more seconds to check. “I think they’re saying: We are powerful! We are the chosen ones! We are The Elite!”

Confused eyebrows lift at that. What could that mean? What power could they be talking about? Chosen for what? Maybe it was just a bunch of douchebags with more money than brains, but there were still a lot of questions. The team decided to keep watching the cultists and see them entering a warehouse.

“They got in” Donnie exclaims. “That must be their hideout”

“I know that place” Karai pipes in. “That warehouse used to be a hideout where either Shredder or Tiger Claw held important deal meetings and kept tons of illegal weapons inside. But it was completely cleaned up by the cops and abandoned once Leo killed Shredder”

“Well, it’s clear that those weirdoes are now using the place” Raph adds. “We better check it out to find out why" 

The New Yorkers carefully approached the rooftop of the warehouse, and through a skylight, they checked the place and they were surprised for what they found. The storage was old and abandoned from the outside, but from the inside, it was the complete opposite.

The interior was full of elegant tables with candlesticks on top, all around a huge round coffee-colored carpet in the center, dark-red velvet curtains in every corner, and several paintings of the strange symbol of their organization. Simply lit with candles around, the place had a rather gloomy appearance, it looked like if the Elite was taking some serious effort to make themselves look like some kind of sinister group. The ninjas seemed quite surprised by all of this.

“Dude…” Casey breathes in awe. “This shit Is totally wicked…”

“You said it, Jones” Raph answers. “It reminds me of when Tiger Claw got his own cult and tried to revive Shredder”

“Well with more reason we have to stop them” Leo adds. “But first, we must see what they are planning”

The New Yorkers remained quiet for a few more seconds in order to wait for something to happen. Right away, they see a bunch of cultists gathering around the carpet in the center. And once all of them were in place, they raised their hands as high as they could before singing their creepy motto.

  “We are powerful…!”

“We are the chosen ones…!”

“We are The Elite!”

“WE ARE THE ELITE!”

“Dudes, those weirdoes have too much free time if you ask me” Mikey said. This time being one of the very rare times where everyone agreed with him.

“I think we’ve seen enough” Raph says as he prepared his Sai. “We should get down there and beat them up. My fists are dying for some action!”

“Hold on, Raph” Leo commands. “Let’s see what happens first” Just at the moment Leo said that, the cultists started singing even louder. All of them chanting as loud as they could as a mysterious figure appeared from the shadows. It was a human wearing a strange clear-grey armor with an angel wing at the left and a demon wing at the right. The armor had the Elite symbol in the chest and a simple helmet, allowing his face to be seen: a bespectacled middle-aged man, around 50-55 years old.

"Holy shit, dudes!” Casey exclaims. "That Old fart looks like a low-budget Gold Saint!" 

“Ok. It’s clear that guy is really crying for attention right now” Slash concluded with a deadpan. 

“I think this is already pretty obvious” Leo says. “But that must be their leader”  

Leo was right. That man in that weird armor was the leader of the cult. Even though they were looking at him from a skylight, the heroes could tell by looking at his face that this guy was a smug asshole with more money than brains. He calmly yet smugly walked to the center of the carpet and silenced his followers with just a single hand.

“My fellow chosen ones!” He spoke up with a very arrogant voice. “I am pleased indeed that all of you managed to get here in order to behold the progress of our current mission! I understand that we have been facing a few setbacks in our other base of operations. However, we are much closer than ever before of making our goal come true!”

Despite being full of arrogance, the leaders’ voice had quite some power as the cultists were cheering him as their “Mighty Leader” He kept talking while showing some kind of strange amulet, which he used to summon one of those Slime monsters under his control. It seemed that whatever he was talking about something huge. Leo stared at them, wondering what kind of goal was he talking about, and even more if all of this nonsense along with that gadget were indeed related with the teenagers, the monster army leaded by Splinter, the giant red demon and/or whatever happened with Bebop and Rocksteady. The other ninjas were totally in agreement with this. Arrogant prick or not, they were not just to sit on their shells and asses and watch whatever plan they have going on.

“Alright guys” Leo comes up with a plan. “Karai, Casey, Raph, Slash and I will deal with the leader and his monster, the rest of you will deal with the cultists”

Everyone nodded to Leo’s plan without any hesitation.

Thanks to Karai, the street heroes knew about a secret entrance in the backside of the storage. Like true ninjas, they sneak inside, using stealth to take some of their guards down. They finally approached the meeting place and as they got close enough, they heard the cult leader talk again while clearly bragging about his amulet. “Thanks to the technology that was bestowed to us by the Gods themselves, we will carry the torch for our fallen hero Masayoshi Shido! And then, we will finally create a place worthy of our kind. A place perfect for us! AN ULTIMATE PARADISE FOR THE ELITE!”

“You may wanna think again, you cheap Gold Saint!”

The leader turned around saw the Ninjas appearing from the shadows. “Of course something like this was going to happen…” He sighed in frustration before he turned to his followers. “We don’t have time for this! Kill them!”

Right away, the cultists were already unsheathing swords, daggers, naginatas, and many other sharp close-combat weapons, ready to kill our heroes without any kind of regret.

“And we’re going to fight” Leo said as he prepared his Katanas. “Honestly, I’m not surprised”

“Better for me” Slash grinned as he prepared his mace. “Time for some good old payback!”

“This is for Jack Kurtzman!” Leatherhead roars as with battle cries, the cultists dashed at them, ready to kill.  

The resulting fight between the Elite cultists and the New York heroes turned out to be, to say the least, both anti-climactic and very disappointing. The cultists knew shit about combat, and about using correctly those weapons even less. Even an amateur in martial arts could wipe the floor with all of these weirdos with little effort as long as they didn't let their guards down. And the NY heroes handled this with absolutely no problem.

The ninjas didn’t even need to use their weapons, just a few basic hand-to-hand combat techniques and self-defense moves and those weirdos were kissing the floor. With just one punch, Casey knocked out a cultist who was rushing to him with a sword. Slash and Leatherhead didn’t even need their weapons, fangs, claws, etc. Hell, they didn't even need to move from where they stood! All they did was just slap a few of the cultists with very little effort and they were already knocked out cold.

Before they even knew it, the street heroes already defeated all of the cultists without breaking a sweat. In fact, this was just barely an excuse for a warm up for them. The leader was actually facepalming at the sight.

“I told these morons they needed to learn how to properly use those weapons…” He groaned. “Whatever...” He just shrugs as he turned to the Hamato Clan. “As much as I’d like to kill you all myself, I’m kind of busy right now” Using his amulet, the cult leader summoned fifteen more of those Slime monsters to deal with the ninjas. “I hope this is a good compensation prize for you, freaks! Hahahahahahahaha!" He laughed manically as he summoned a portal and walked inside it.

“Slash, what can you guys tell us about these slimes?” Donnie asked, to which the leader of the Mutanimals replies.

“They’re punching bags. Punching bags that can fight back”

“I like how that sounds!” Raph grins as he prepares to fight. “Let’s show these slimeballs how we do things here in New York!”

With a signature Booyahkasha! courtesy of Mikey, the NY heroes rushed to fight the Slimes.

Just as Slash warned, the Slimes were pretty sturdy despite their gooey appearance. Their attacks barely had any visible effect on the monsters and they managed to fight back either with headbutts or by shooting small blasts of dark energy, which the heroes managed to quickly dodge.

With a nice boost from Leatherhead, Mikey and Shinigami leap high in the air then land on two slimes. They bounce off the monsters with a perfect landing, with a few tables between them and the slimes. The furious monsters destroyed the tables in order to try and kill the young turtle and the ninja witch. However, they also dropped the candles that were on the tables and quickly caught fire as if they were made of a very flammable material.

The other Slimes flashed uneasy expressions as they saw two of their kin being incinerated like giant, ugly, green candles. Once the fire quickly was extinguished itself from their bodies, the Slimes monsters melt a little into the ground. Seeing the opportunity, Slash gave them a good dosage of his morning star mace. The slimes quickly turned into black ashes upon impact while the other Slimes could do nothing but watch in horror.

“Well, look at that” Leo exclaims. “They have a weakness after all -- Fire!”

With that new discovery, the rest of the street heroes knew what to do. They grabbed some of the curtains and covered the rest of the Slimes with them before using the remaining candles to set them on fire, burning the monsters to knock them down. Then they quickly finished them off.

Seeing the fire was starting to spread over the place, the ninjas grabbed the unconscious cultists and dashed out of the warehouse.

“That was Bogus, man!” Casey whined as he carefully lied a cultist on the rooftop they were watching from, next to the rest of the enemies. “I thought this was going to be like usual, but this shit was a total rip-off!”

“I know what you mean” Shinigami complained next. “Compared to Tiger Claw and the Elite Foot-bots, this was barely a warm-up for us!"

“Still. Something tells me we’re going to find answers soon enough” April said as she carefully removed the hood of one of the knocked-out cultists and checked their head.

“What are you doing?” Karai asked, to which April replies right before her eyes widened in surprise.

“Remember when I said there was interference when I read the minds of these people?”

“Yes. Why?” Donnie asks.

“Well…” She said as she carefully pulled something out of the cultist’s nape and shows them to her friends. “Here’s the reason why” And everyone gasped.

“A Kraang mind-controlling device!?” Leo asks in sincere shock.

“It cannot be!” Leatherhead exclaimed. “We all saw when Kraang-Prime and Sub-Prime were killed during the Triceraton Invasion!”

“Not to mention Bishop assured us that the remaining Kraang are in treatment to break them free from the mind-control!” Slash adds.

“Um, guys?” Mikey’s question cut off the conversation.

“What is it, Mikey?” At Leo’s question, the young turtle points at the cultists and see that they were suddenly enveloped by a strange bright blue light and disappeared.

“What the hell!?” Raph asked in both shock and frustration. “This again!?”

While the rest of the New Yorkers were wondering what happened to the cultists, April’s eyes suddenly widen in shock as she slowly turned around. “Um, guys?”

“What is it now?” Already starting to get frustrated, Leo asked as everyone else turned around, and found something right behind them.

…well, someone.

A small young girl was standing right in front of the New Yorkers. The girl had long platinum-blond hair and yellow eyes. She was wearing a blue dress that seems akin to a French or Victorian maid with a matching headband that had yellow roses and platinum butterflies. An interesting detail was that she was carrying an abnormally large book.

“Good evening” The girl bowed in greetings.

The NY heroes stared at the young girl, blinking a few times in confusion before Leo decided to speak to her. “Um, good evening” The turtle leader replied. “Are you lost, little girl?”

“No. I’m not lost” The girl replied casually. “I was assigned to find you and that’s what I did”

The NY heroes blinked again in surprise. “Wait, find us?” Leo asked again.

“Yes, to find you all” The girl in question bows once again. “My name is Lavenza and I’m pleased to have find you all…” She then points at each hero as she says their name. “Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, Michelangelo, April O’Neil, Miwa Hamato, Tamako Hiraoka, and Casey Jones” Lavenza rests a finger on her chin as she gazed at the Mutanimals. “I was not expecting to meet Slash, the leader of the Mighty Mutanimals and Leatherhead, the second in command of said organization, right now. Although it is a nice surprise”

An awkward silence remained in the place. The New Yorkers gazed at Lavenza with eyes wide as plates while the aforementioned girl just gazed back rather calmly.

Shaking her head to snap back to her senses, Karai spoke to the young girl. “Alright, we get it -- you actually know who we are. Mind telling us what do you need and if you’re related to what happened to those cultists right now?”

“And if you’re related to this, did you use a magic pencil to erase them?” Leaning too close to the snake-girl, Mikey asked. Something Karai deadpanned at as she pushed him away from her.

“If you’re referring to the people wearing those odd robes, there’s no need to worry. I just sent them back to where they came from” Lavenza clarifies. “As for the reason I was looking for you, is because my associates and I are affected by this strange organization as well and we require your help in order to stop them”

The New Yorkers remain in thoughtful silence for a couple of moments. Even considering all the stuff they have been through these last years, the fact that a young girl appeared out of nowhere saying that she both knew who they were and needed their help was quite a bit odd.

After a few more seconds, Leo decided to accept. “Alright. First, we meet the rest of your associates and then we’ll see how we move from there”

“Understandable enough” Lavenza smiles. “Please, follow me” The girl says as she walks to the edge of the rooftop and suddenly hops off it as if nothing. The NY heroes dash at the edge and gazed in surprise at how Lavenza quickly used some sort of power to break her fall immediately a few inches from the ground and gently lands as she didn’t just hop off a building.

Just as the New Yorkers followed her, they find a new vehicle next to the Shellraiser, the Party Wagon and Karai’s Bike: a black van. And next to it they find an aggressive-looking young man with blond spiky hair leaning on the driver’s door while eating a slice of pizza. He was wearing matching black jacket and pants, a red ascot, combat boots, yellow gloves, and a skull mask from where his brown eyes could be seen. He also had a morning star mace on his left hand and a shotgun sheathed on his back.

Said young man perked up at the sight of the heroes as he quickly swallowed his bite of pizza. “Yo, Lavenza!” His easy-going and friendly voice was quite a surprise despite his looks. “So, they agreed to help us with this shit?”

“First, they would like to meet the rest of the team, then we will discuss matters from there” Lavenza replied, to which the blond young man scratched his nape.

“Alright. Fair enough, I guess” He said before he grinned. “But seriously, it’s pretty awesome we finally get to meet the Hamato Clan!”

“You know about us?” Mikey asks then he grins. “Dudes, we’re famous!”

“That’s bad, Mikey” Donnie scolds his brother before turning to the stranger. “Ok, first things first: who are you exactly?”

“Oh, right” Blondie says. “Look, I can’t really tell ya my name right now because security reasons and shit, but right now you can call me Skull” He said as he extended a hand to Leonardo.

The turtle leader lifts an eyebrow as he took the handshake. “Alright, Skull. As we told Lavenza here, we shall meet with the rest of your associates and see how things go from there. You guys say you need our help with the Elite, right?”

“Yep” Skull replied casually. “Cultists from a cheap-ass movie that can summon shadows and try to I dunno, take all over the world and all that cliché”

“Shadows?” Shinigami asks with a tilt of her head.

“Yeah. Those Slime bastards you guys just fought are called Shadows” Skull continued as he walked back to the black van. “Look, there’s a lot to talk about that shit; we can explain you all back at the meeting spot”

“Dudes, you may wanna check this out!” Casey’s exclamation cuts Skull off. Everyone turned to the Hockey Player, who was now eyeing the van.

“What is it, Casey?” Raph asked as the rest of the New Yorkers walked to the aforementioned vehicle.

“I wanted to take a look at this car and…” He gestures at the van. “Doesn’t it look familiar to y’all?”

After taking a good look around the van, their eyes widened in both confusion and realization. The Black van had many different masks on the left as well as what seemed to be a gentleman thief’s mask with fire emanating from the left eye accompanied by a top hat and the motto “Take Your Heart” right below it. But what caused the confused realization on the New Yorkers was what they saw on the right side. Along with what seemed to be the head of a snowman wearing a blue hat and a Jack O’ Lantern with a green hat, they found the words “Bebop and Rocksteady” written with white letters on a red background.

“This…” Leo said, still confused. “This is the van that Bebop and Rocksteady used!”

“Hold on, let me check” Donnie says as he activates his goggles and takes a better look. “Heavy armor… plasma lasers… hidden sickles below… all-terrain bullet-proof tires… bullet-proof glass… There’s no doubt-- this is their van!” The turtle genius concludes as he took off his goggles with a surprised expression.

“No way” Mikey exclaims. “They gave it one heck of a makeover! This paint job is amazing! But I think some Neon-Orange stripes would’ve look much cooler with the red”

“Forget the stupid paint job, you avocado-brain!” Raph smacked Mikey again and glared at Skull and Lavenza. “Alright, blondie. How exactly did you and your friend over there got their hands on this car?”

While Lavenza still remained rather calm, Skull sighed as if he knew this was going to happen. “Look, we know you have a shit-ton of questions, but---” He was cut off by April resting a hand on his forehead.

“Um, what are you doing?” The blond boy asked confused.

“Just stand still for a moment” April said as she focused. After breaking free from the corrupted Aeon Crystal, April got considerably better at controlling her psychic powers. And with some effort, she could link her mind with others and learn more about their memories and thoughts. After a few seconds of checking inside Skull’s head, her eyes shot open in shock. She took a few steps back from Skull, who was now embarrassingly scratching his head with an apologetic expression.

“April…?” Donnie asked as along with everyone else, was getting pretty concerned for her right now. The kunoichi turned around and revealed tears running down her face.

“We must go” She said firmly yet emotionally shocked. “You have no idea who is waiting for us in their meeting spot”

*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*

According to what April found out, Ryuji Sakamoto – Skull’s name – turned out to be much friendlier than what his delinquent appearance may suggest. Out of respect and per Ryuji’s request, April did not tell any important details of his life, but he was the kind of person who wears his heart on his sleeve and is always loyal to both his crew and his beliefs despite his vulgar vocabulary and his poor academic performance. It was easy to say he was much like Mikey but with a more ill-mannered language and a bit of a bad temper that Ryuji admitted he’s not proud of.

“Alright, dudes. This is it” Skull said as the four vehicles parked at their destination. The entrance of an abandoned subway station. Right next to the entrance was a young woman already waiting for them. The lady in question had platinum blonde hair styled in bushy pigtails, bright-blue eyes, and was wearing a skin-tight red latex cat-suit with a cleavage cutout and zippers, pink gloves, a panther mask, dark red thigh-high boots and a tail on the back of her suit.

“Hey” The girl in question smiled at the arriving heroes. “Glad you could find them” She told to Ryuji and Lavenza.

“It wasn’t such a difficult task since they were fighting the brainwashed cultists we’re dealing with” Lavenza said as she walked through the entrance.

“Alright, you’re a friend of Skull and Lavenza, correct?” Leo greeted the lady.

“Yes. You can call me Panther” The girl greeted back. “And before anyone asks… No. I did NOT choose to wear this damn outfit!”

“If that’s the case, why the hell are you wearing it in the first place?” Karai asked with a confused eyebrow.

“Long story…” Panther groaned.

With Lavenza, Skull and Panther leading, the New Yorkers walked through the abandoned train rails that lead to the meeting spot. April walked along Skull and Panther at a respectable distance from the rest of the team in order to avoid any accidental eavesdropping.

“Ann Takamaki, right? One of the founding members of the Phantom Thieves and Skull's girlfriend, am I right?” April asked, to which Panther turned to her with a very surprised look.

“How do you know all of that?!” She asked in a hushed yet surprised tone before a realization hit her. “Oh… you read Ryuji’s mind, didn’t you?”

“My bad” Skull apologized, but Panther shook her head with a reassuring tone.

“Don’t worry about it. It was kinda obvious she would do that”

“What would HAVE been a surprise is if she didn’t use her powers to check if we were worthy of their trust” Lavenza added.

“Sorry. And, yes-- I had to do that to see if we could trust you” April admitted as she smiled at the blond couple. “And I can assure you that we totally can trust you"

“Thanks, April” Panther smiled back. “I was kinda worried because the whole thing with strangers that happen to know the turtles and ask for your help out of the blue is kinda weird”

“I can’t blame you... You can’t ever be overcautious” April sighed. “I… I still can’t believe it you know…” She said with clear melancholy in her voice. “Not only they are alive, but him?”

“We know” Panther answers. “Crazy… Given their past lives, it is odd that they would end up joining us. But they meant it when they said they were going to become better mutants without forgetting the past. As for him…” She sniffled a little. “He sure was blessing to our lives”

“Understatement” Skull added, with just as much melancholy. “Sure his discipline crap is a pain, but…” He needed a few seconds to regain composure. He even removed his mask to rub his eyes. “It’s thanks to him that I finally know what it feels like to have a dad who actually gives a shit about you, you know”

“No wonder you bawled your eyes out when he said goodbye” Panther teased.

“Aw, come on…” Skull whined. “You bawled your eyes too when the Old Rat said goodbye”

“Yeah, but at least I admit it”

Despite the emotional moment, April couldn’t help but to giggle at their chemistry. “You guys are dorks, you know that? Especially your leader”

Skull and Panther shared a look and both sighed at unison. “Honestly, can’t even argue with you; we are a bunch of dorks” Skull admitted.

“What do you think they’re talking about?” Slash asked while they were at a considerably distance from April and the blondies.

“Who knows, but if April said we could trust them, I don’t see why not” Donnie said.

“You’re just saying that ‘cause you’re dating Red” Casey remarked.

“That AND because it’s almost impossible to trick her because of her Psychic abilities”

“Well, whatever they’re planning, I just hope they can give us a few more answers about the Elite” As Leo finished that sentence, they see April dashing as quick as she could once they were close to a large dome-like section of the subway. They couldn’t see it, but Skull and Panther shared a knowing glance and followed her.

“We have arrived” Lavenza says as she turned to the New Yorkers. “You must follow her. There is someone who is very eager to see you once again”

The ninjas were quick to follow April and after a few seconds, Leo, Raph, Donnie, Mikey, Karai, Casey, Shinigami, Leatherhead and Slash froze at the sight.

At first, they thought they were hallucinating. The tall figure April was hugging was not supposed to be there right now. Yet Karai and the turtles couldn’t feel their limbs right now. And before they knew it, they were all hugging the tall figure.

“No way…” Slash said, his voice trembling as he, Casey, Shinigami and Leatherhead could only watch in disbelief. “I-it can’t be…”

“It is, big guy” Skull said. Just as the rest of the New Yorkers, he and Panther had their eyes red and puffy, ready to cry. “It’s him…”

“…Master Splinter” Leatherhead finished for him.

“It… can’t be…” Leo said as everyone broke the hug, on the verge of tears. “You are dead… I saw it happening”

“We all saw it happen” Donnie added, just as Leo, he couldn’t believe it. “Hell, we buried him!”

“I know, my sons” Splinter reassured them. “It all really happened”

“Then how the Hell are you here!?” Raph asked, gritting his teeth resisting the urge to cry.

“We must make sure you’re the real Splinter” Mikey added with an attempt for a suspicious expression. “What’s the secret Hamato Clan Password?”     

Splinter sighs and gently pokes his forehead with his walking stick. “We do not have time for your tomfoolery right now, Michelangelo”

Mikey’s lip quivered for a few seconds before couldn’t contain it anymore and buried his face on Splinter’s robe. “Dad! It’s really you!”

“Hold on…” Karai just noticed something as she wiped the tears off her eyes. “Father… what are those chains around your legs?” April and the turtles look at Splinter’s feet and indeed, he possessed the bright blue flames and the chains they saw in their visions a few weeks ago.

But before the turtles could ask a few footsteps echoed around the area.

“Is someone coming?” Leo asked, to which April replied.

“…the other half of the surprise”

That’s what the Kunoichi said before two very familiar figures appeared out of the darkness in the area.

“Bebop and Rocksteady…?!” Mikey gasped, his eyes still in tears. “You’re alive!”

“Sup, y’all” Zeck greeted the ninjas.

“It has been quite a while, comrade ninjas” Steranko added, the tone of their voices made it clear they were emotionally affected by the family reunion as well.

As if on cue, another two figures appeared next to the mutant morons. The first one was a young woman with reddish-brown eyes, brown hair in a bob cut with blunt bangs and a French-braid headband of the same color. Her outfit consisted of a dark-blue and black skintight suit with a black scarf, a dark-grey corset-style leather breastplate, shoulder and knee pads with spikes, boots with metal heels and toes, white gloves and an iron mask.

And right next to her was a young man with dark-gray eyes and unkempt black hair. He is wearing a black angle-length tailcoat, a high-necked waistcoat, black jogger-styled pants, brown-black winkle pickers, red gloves, and a black and white, bird-like, domino mask.

Through their masks, the ninjas could noticed their eyes were as red and puffy as their own.

“Hello” The young lady greeted in a polite manner. “You’re Splinter-Sensei's family, I presume. The Hamato Clan”

“Yes, we are” Leo answers as he could calm down a little. “Who are you guys and how do you know these morons and our father?”

As answer, the young man in black turned to April. “You already checked, right?”

“Yes” That was her reply.

“My bad, bro” Skull apologized.

“No need to apologize, Skull. We all know it wasn’t your fault” With a shake of his head and a smile, the young raven-haired young man extended a hand to Leo. “My name is Akira Amamiya-Kurusu, but in this outfit you can call me Joker and this wonderful woman right next to me is Makoto Niijima. You can call her Queen”

Leo smiled as he accepted the handshake. “A pleasure to meet you, Joker and Queen. But I believe you own us some answers right now” 

Joker nods. “You guys may want to sit down; this going to be one hell of an explanation”

“It can’t be crazier than a bunch of dorks dressed for a cosplaying con along with our dead father” Despite the emotional moment, Raph couldn’t help but retort.

“Don't try us...” Joker retorted back.

Chapter Text

For the next few minutes, Leo, Raph, Donnie, Mikey, April, Karai, Shinigami, Casey, Slash and Leatherhead were listening closely to Joker, Queen and Splinter. Personae, the Phantom Thieves, the Metaverse, Shadows, Palaces and Treasures. The part of alternate timelines was not really a surprise for them given their past experiences with Dimension X and the 1987 Dimension. That didn’t mean it wasn’t interesting, though.

A very interesting detail was when Yaldabaoth, the God of Control fused Mementos with their real world, he unknowingly provoked severe damage in the Time-Space continuity among many adjacent timelines. Which provoked the considerably surprising fact that in the two weeks in here that Bebop and Rocksteady went missing, they spent more than a whole year in the thieves' universe.   

Joker also clarified that thanks to Bebop, Rocksteady and Splinter, the thieves learnt about the insane adventures the New Yorkers went through these past few years: going to space, stopping alien invasions, fighting a demon, traveling through time. Hell, even facing Dracula himself. It was clear that they went through hell and back in their own way just as the Phantom Thieves did.  

“And that is pretty much everything” Splinter concluded, then flashes a tired smile at his first family. “Does that make any sense to you, my family?”

“It sure did, Dad" Mikey admitted with a Mimd Blown expression. "And even I can't believe it"

“We’re back, everyone!”

Everyone turned to another tunnel entrance and see two more people walking in. 

The first one is a young woman with fluffy light auburn hair and brown eyes. She was wearing an elegant outfit consisting of a dark purple cavalier hat with a plume, a long-sleeved pale pink blouse with a black corset vest with gold buttons, black pantyhose, bloomers that matched her hat, a holster belt with ammo and lace-up pumps, a black mask and violet gloves. She had a grenade-launcher and a large battle axe on her back. 

And next to her was a young man with gray eyes and dark blue hair. His outfit consists of a black high-collared, puff sleeved jumpsuit with a striped sash across his hips, white motorcycle boots, a white fox tail attached to his suit, and a traditional kitsune-style half mask. He also had an assault rifle and a katana.

Both of them were carrying shopping bags with food.  

Both people gasp in surprise. “Oh, my” The young lady says. “It seems we’re just in time for the meeting!"

“You got that right” Panther cheerfully answers to her as she stands up and gestures at the New Yorkers. "Guys, this is Haru ‘Noir’ Okumura and this young man is Yusuke ‘Fox’ Kitagawa”

But before Noir could properly greet them, Fox was right in front of the turtles and unsheathed a sketchbook from who knows where. “I knew it would be wise to bring a sketchbook to our mission!” Fox declared with a dramatic pose as he put himself to work.

The turtles blinked in confusion for a few seconds. “Uh… dude? What exactly are you doing?” Donnie asked.

“Why, capturing your unique aesthetics in my artwork, of course” Fox replied without deviating from his work. “Even with our recent experiences, never in my entire life I would’ve ever imagine four mutant turtles named after the renaissance…” He let out a soft snicker as he continued.  

Still confused, Leo turned to the other thieves. “…what’s wrong with him?”

“That’s just how he rolls” Joker waved a hand.

While Leo, Raph and Donnie were still confused, Mikey turned back to Fox with a smile. “Seriously, though. Are you a fan of Jojo’s?”

“Ah, great! Everyone made it here!”

Everyone turned and from the same tunnel where Fox and Noir appeared from, an interesting creature appeared. It was a small bipedal anthropomorphically cat with an oversized head, big blue eyes, a yellow scarf around his neck, and wearing a little utility belt.

“…and this one here, is Morgana” Joker made the presentations. “Or just Mona”

“It’s good to finally meet the famous Hamato Clan” Mona says as he licks a front paw to groom himself. “Now we can----yack!” Mona was cut off by Mikey who suddenly was in front of him and picked him up. Both he and Shinigami were a little too close to his face, giving him their undivided attention.

“C-can I help you?!” Mona stuttered, clearly uncomfortable.

“Dude...” Mikey speaks up as huge grins grew on both his face and Shinigami’s. “You must be the cutest, most awesome cat I’ve ever seen!!”

“C-cute!?” Mona whines.

“Understatement!! Shinigami protested as she took Mona from Mikey’s hands. “You must be the most gorgeous kitty in the entire damn universe!!” Shini squeals as she hugs Mona with a bit too much force.

“Stop it!” Mona protested. “Let me go!!”

Everyone else just watched at the silly moment.

“I wouldn’t blame you if you got surprised to see Mona-Chan for the first time” Noir said to the New Yorkers. 

“I'm sorry, but... Seriously?” Slash replies with a quirked eyebrow. “You’re asking us if we’re surprised to see a talking cat?”

“That’s a good point”

Karai sighs as she turns her arms into the snake ones and takes the poor Mona from Mikey and Shinigami. “Alright. You two have tortured him enough for like, the rest of the month. Knock it off, already” She said while the aforementioned ninjas whined.

“Thanks…” Mona sighed as he re-accommodates his mask and his belt.

“No problem”   

“The silly moment aside” Leatherhead pipes in. “Are you a mutant as well, Morgana?”

“No. I’m not a mutant” Mona replied. “And neither a cat. I just happen to look like one”

“Yes. Keep telling yourself that, Morgana” Lavenza snickered, much to Mona’s chagrin.

“Not you too, Lady Lavenza!”

Everyone chuckled. Going back to business, Splinter clears his throat to call everyone’s attention. “If the time for tomfoolery is finally over, let us head back to the lair. I believe we have some information for my family. But first…” He deadpanned as he glanced at an abandoned trashcan at the other side of the dome-area. “Oracle. We have told you not to hide in there! Get out of there this instant!” He spoke firmly, causing the trashcan to shake and hop a few times, then it drops.

“Ow... Crap!” A young girl voice echoed through the trashcan as it slowly rolled to the rest of the team.

Joker sighs. “Bug, just please get out of there”

“I can’t” The girl replied from inside the trashcan. “I’m fucking stuck here!” 

“Aw, for the love of…!” Skull complained as he removes the lid of the trashcan and turned back to the crew. “Can anyone please give me a hand here?”

“Sure thing, yo” Casey replied as he took the girls hands while Skull took the trashcan. With a nice pull, the girl in question finally comes out. Once the girl stood up and dusted herself off, the New Yorkers got a better look at her. A slim red headed girl, a little smaller and younger than the rest of the Phantom Thief ladies. Her outfit was quite weirder, consisting of a skintight black bodysuit with fluorescent neon green stripes, matching boots with neon green soles, and a pair of big black glasses with orange lenses as her mask.

Joker gestured at her. “This little girl right here is Futaba ‘Oracle’ Sakura” Then turns back to the girl in question. “Oracle, we told you doing that was a bad idea”

“Why the hell were you doing hiding in a trashcan in the first place?” Leo asked next. 

“Ugh…” Oracle complained as she stretches her back. “It was part of my plan for a dramatic entrance: when you guys arrived, I would pop out of the trash can and shout Greetings Heroes from the Concrete Jungle!” She rubs her right leg. “But I guess that was better in my head…”

Skull sniffs her for a few seconds before shaking his head. “And now you smell like garbage! Face it-- that was a really stupid idea”

“Can it!” Oracle protested.

As the two suddenly started bickering, April turned back to Bebop and Rocksteady. “It’s no wonder they accepted you in their crew. They all are dorks”

“You know... we can’t even argue to that” Bebop admitted.

“Da. Sometimes, I think they is even dumber that we are…” Rocksteady added with a fond expression. "But we wouldn't change them for anything on this or any other timeline"

“Yeah. All you two need is weird costumes like they have, and you would totally fit” At Leo’s comment, the Warthog and the Rhino smirked, followed by April.

“Actually, Leo…” The kunoichi replied as she took a few steps back. Bebop and Rocksteady took a deep breath and suddenly, they were covered by bright blue flames that quickly dissipated, revealing new outfits for them.      

Bebop was now wearing a leather jacket with a Jack O’ Lantern face on the front, dark-blue jeans, two kneepads, black biker boots, a spiked wristband in each hand, dark-grey shoulder guards with spikes (the spikes were quite smaller compared to Queens’), a silver skull necklace, and his visor had a small black and purple Halloween pumpkin on each side and the front part had two lines (one for each eye of his). A remarkable detail was that all the circuits fused in his body were now neon orange instead of neon purple.

Rocksteady’s outfit consisted of a long-sleeved black dress shirt with a dark-blue tie under a Cyan half-zipped, long-sleeved plush waistcoat with the image of a golden hammer and sickle (symbols of the Russian Flag) on the back, sky blue and white camouflage pants, white combat boots, a matching Ushanka (Russian hat) and a dark-blue mask with snowflake patterns around the eyes. The remarkable detail was that his jagged horn, shoulder guards, knuckle dusters, his golden tooth, and even all the small golden nuggets in his body were turned into diamond.

“Dudes…” Mikey was sincerely surprised.

“Pretty good, right?” Bebop asked as he did a flashy pose. “We know” 

“When they are dressed like that, you can call them Pumpkin and Diamond” Oracle adds right before smelling her forearm. Her face scrunched. Just as Skull said, she now reeks of garbage.

“Ok” Leo nods. “Let’s go back to our hideout and---”

“So, you mere mortals are the heroes chosen for the protection of this timeline...?"

Just as that voice echoed through the dome area. All the New Yorkers braced their weapons on instinct in case they were going to fight. Well, everyone except April, who just turned to Splinter. “He couldn’t resist doing that, could he?” She muttered.

As answer, Splinter sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “No. He could not…”

“Who the hell are you?!” Raph shouts. “Show yourself, dammit!”

The voice chuckles.

“You think you are worthy enough to behold my visage? Very well… I suppose you all deserve the pleasure at the moment…”

A bright golden light manifested through the entire abandoned subway, blinding everyone for a few seconds. The Phantom Thieves and Splinter were clearly upset. Not for the light, but for who was speaking up.

“Listen, clan of mortal warriors chosen for the protection of this New York! Listen… and tremble in fear!”

As he recovered his sight, Leo gasped as he and the rest of his team were now gazing upon the mechanical archangel from the visions.

“I am Metatron! The voice of God!” The archangel spoke up with magnificence. “And by his divine will, you shall---” Metatron’s speech was cut off as he felt his head being hit by a small object. A rock of the size of a human head, to be exact. He rubbed the hit area with a frustrated expression as he turned to the one who hurled it: Splinter.

“What is the meaning of this!?” Metatron protested. He barely received any possible damage, but he was still clearly mad. “For what reason did you hurl a rock at my head, Hamato Yoshi!?”

“Sparing my family from listening to your nonsense!” Splinter shouts, clearly having enough of the archangel's attitude.

“Just knock it off, Metatron!” Joker snapped next. “You’re just embarrassing both us and yourself!” 

“…nonsense!? …embarrassing!?” Metatron shouts, offended. “What comes from my mouth is nothing but the will of the lord himself! Simple mortals as you two could not even---”

“Will you stop it already!?” The archangel was suddenly pushed from behind by none other than the fairy queen in green dress. “Seriously, couldn’t you just wait for Joker’s signal and let him present all of us together instead of going on with your usual crap!?”

“All of them?” Donnie asked as the New Yorkers turned to the Trickster. “What are they talking about?”

“You see, here’s the thing” Joker replied. “For some reason, I was blessed by a special skill called power of the Wild Card. It allows me to wield up to twelve different Personae at the same time while a normal person can usually have just one. Splinter and Metatron are just two of them. And the lady in green is Titania”

“Hey there. Sorry about that, by the way” The Fairy Queen greeted them as she along with Joker, Lavenza, Splinter and an annoyed Metatron walked to the center of the dome area.

Joker shared a nod with Splinter and Lavenza. Then, the young girl in blue opens her book, releasing a large wave of blue energy that covered the entire floor of the place. In a matter of seconds six large bat wings appeared from below and covered everyone in a smaller dome area of darkness.

Before anyone could say something, Splinter spoke up. “My family. You already have met Titania and Metatron. So, I would like you to meet the rest of my friends” The wings spread open, revealing the rest of the Personae that accompanied Splinter.

The former sensei made the presentations. Starting with the Golden Dragon. “This is Kohryu”

“Hi, everyone”

Then with the Egyptian Queen. “This right here is Isis”

“It is a pleasure to finally meet you all” The goddess bows to the New Yorkers.

The blue creature on fire (who was somehow eating a large bag of French fries) was next. “This one here, is Mada”

Mada wipes his mouth with a napkin before speaking. “Hello there” He greeted before biting back a belch.

The black snowman and the little young girl dashed at the New Yorkers. “Glad to mee-hee-t you all, Ho!” The snowman spoke with a child voice as he took both of Mikey’s hands in and shook them with enthusiasm.

“Dude, look at you!” Mikey beamed at the Persona. “You look pretty rad, little snow-dude!” Then turns to the little girl, still beaming. “And you look like one of those little girls that you can find in a horror movie. Sick!”

“Wouldn’t be the first time I heard that” The girl just shrugged. She was smiling nonetheless. "Hi, everyone"

“Those are Black Frost and Alice”

Mikey chuckles. “I already like these two”

“No surprise” Donnie remarks. “They look just as childish as you are”

Everyone laughed at the pouting Mikey.

“Speaking of child-hee-sh, do you know what did the drummer name his twin daughters…?” Black Frost added.

“Please, don’t” Alice remarked dryly. But the black snowman ignored her.

“Anna One, Anna Two!”

Everyone in the area cringed. Except for Mikey, who was laughing his shell off.  

“What the hell!” Shinigami complained. "That literally hurts!" 

But Black Frost continues. “And realizing you guys are Ni-heen-jas, what is a Ni-heen-ja’s favorite type of shoes, ho? Sne-hee-akers!”

Mikey just kept laughing while everyone else cringed. “Does he do that all the time?” Raph whined.

“Unfortunately, yes” Joker said as he muffled Black Frost’s mouth with his hand while Splinter sighed then gestured at the skeleton with the robe and the trumpet. “This right here is the Trumpeter”

“It is a pleasure to finally meet Yoshi’s family”

“This right here, is Odin”

“Greetings, Hamato Clan”

“And this one here, is Cybele”

“How’s it going, y’all”

“…and you are a demon lord” Leo finished as he gazed at the six winged creature, who was hovering at the middle of the summoned Personae. The way the aforementioned Persona was hovering made it look like if he was sitting on the air, with one leg crossed. The golden mask with the horns made it difficult to read his expression, but he still seemed amused.

“Everyone” The New Yorkers turned to Joker. “This one here, is my first Persona when I use my full power”

“Greetings, Hamato Clan” The demon lord spoke up with an amused voice. “I am Satanael, the first rebel, symbol of freedom against tyranny, etcetera” The aura emanating from Satanael was dark, akin to Alice. However, it was different for the New Yorkers. When they fought Kavaxxas, they felt nothing but chaos. A pure desire to reduce everything to ashes and torture all living beings for eternity. Satanael was different, though. Sure, he is powerful, but they felt no hostility from him. Which felt weirder when he bowed and offered his hand to Leo in greetings.

“Yoshi has told to us many stories about you and your family, Leonardo. And just as Joker here, we are indeed pleased to finally meet face-to-face”

Leo gazed at the demon lord, then at Joker, who was smirking at him. Leo turned back to April who gave him a nod and thumbs-up. That was enough for the turtle leader as he turned back, smirked back at them and accepted the handshake. “Likewise, Satanael. To all of you, Phantom Thieves”

“Ok, now that the presentations are officially made. Can we please go to your lair?” Queen asked while all of Joker’s Personae were re-absorbed into his mask. “There, we can fully explain you all what are we doing here and why do we need your help”

“Ok, let’s go back. We have a lot to discuss” Leo declared. But then, something alerted April, Oracle and Pumpkin.

“Yo, guys” Pumpkin warns as he sniffs. “Someone’s coming. A lotta someones”

Everyone remained silent for a few seconds before they started to hear a faint chant. The chant gradually grows loud enough for everyone to recognize it.

“The chant of the Elite” Leatherhead growls, already prepares to pounce on the enemy. After a few more seconds a group of brainwashed cultists appear from the tunnel opposite from where the New Yorkers appeared from. All of them lead by one wearing a golden robe instead of the usual purple.

The cultist with the golden robe froze in sincere shock for a second at the sight of the gathering in front of him before regaining composure as he recognized the New Yorkers. “Repulsive mutants from the sewers, you thought you were safe in this abandoned zone, but this is exactly where we expected you to be!” He declared with a sinister snicker. “You just fell into our trap!”

“No, we didn’t” Kohryu’s voice suddenly rings through the heroes’ minds. “It was just dumb luck that they found us here; hell, that loser didn’t know we were here”

Getting the information, Leo unsheathed both of his katanas at the angry cultist in golden robe. “Let me guess-- you weirdoes want revenge for what we did to your hideout, right?”

“Of course we are” The angry cultist exclaimed. “You freaks have caused a considerable amount of trouble for our organization. And the punishment for such action is nothing but death, followed by being dragged to the darkest depths of hell itself for eternity!”

“And people say I am overdramatic” Joker remarked with a chuckle, causing the angry cultist to turn to him. He froze again for a second as he gazed at the thieves, then he suddenly got nervous. Those outfits... The golden cultist thought to himself (unaware that both April and Kohryu could read his mind). Despite not seeing the full colors, he recognized the frames from a certain calling card the thieves made public during last December. They must be… The Phantom Thieves!?  

But he quickly shook his head before they could get more important info from him. “Well, it seems the famous Phantom Thieves not only have returned, they also finally reveal themselves” He spoke with a condescending manner. “But I’d never expected that you would ally yourselves with such repulsive green creatures as those”

“Dude, that’s racist!” Oracle protested. “Mutants are people, too!” 

“Oh, you don’t like green?” Raph was more than ready to kick the shit out of him. “Well how about Black-and-Blue, ass-head?”

“You want to pick a fight, freak!?” The cultist in gold growled. “You can try and pick a fight with this!” He unsheathed an amulet and opened a portal. From there a horde of shadows appeared. Dog-like shadows with white long bodies. Inugami.

“And of course he would summon shadows” Karai remarked with her Wakizashi on hand.

“We don’t give a crap!” Slash prepared his mace with determination. “We’ll take them down, just as we did with the others!” 

“Don’t think fighting these ones will be as easy as with the Slimes! These Inugami are far more powerful!” The golden cultist cackled at the heroes while the horde of Inugami howled, ready to attack and kill. 

“Oracle, you guys said shadows have different affinities against elements” Donnie told to the leader of the thieves. “What’s the best to deal with those?”

“It’s true that Inugami are far more powerful than Slimes” The hacker replied. “But you can take them down with Wind skills!”

“Sweet!” Mikey piped in as he unsheathed an old hand fan from ...somewhere in his shell. “I knew this thing would be useful one day!” He pointed it at the Inugami with an impish grin. “You will receive a refreshing breeze you’ll never forget!”

“Dude” Skull yanked the fan from Mikey’s hands while Raph smacked him again. “You’re gonna need much more than this shit if you wanna take ’em down!”    

“And what exactly do you have in mind?” Raph asked after he smacked Mikey.

“You guys just sit back and enjoy the show, alright?” Joker smirked as he turned to Mona. “Ready?”

“As always” The non-cat leaps and lands a few feet away from them, right in front of the Inugami horde. The New Yorkers wondered what Mona’s Persona was capable of as he prepared a short sword and a slingshot.

“Let’s show them what we got, Mercurius!” Just as he shouts, Mona was covered in a powerful, towering blue aura that reached the ceiling of the dome-like area and lasted for a few seconds. Once the aura disappeared, Leo and the others gazed upon another Personae from their visions. The winged man in a blue jumpsuit.

“Garudyne!”  

With a simple waving of his staff, the Greek God unleashed a green whirlwind that engulfed the whole horde and rip them apart in practically no time. While the New Yorkers were sincerely impressed by the sight, the cultists were quite scared. The one in golden robe pretended not to be scared, but it wasn’t working pretty well. 

“Y-you damn cat-freak” He seethed at Mona despite the fear. “Let’s see how you can handle this!”

Taking another amulet from one of the cultists he leads, the golden robe fused both amulets to summon more powerful shadows. This time, those were strange knights in horses named Berith. Five of them to be exact. Completely unimpressed by that, Mona leaps back to the crew. “Pretty good, right?” Mona asked smugly, causing Shinigami to hug him tight.

“You’re damn right you looked good, kitty!” She almost squealed in excitement while Mona broke free from her hug.

“A-alright, who wants to go next?” He asked while recovering from the surprisingly strong squeeze.

“I would like to take on those shadows, if you please” Fox said, as he received a high-five from the anthropomorphical cat. The New Yorkers were quick to recognize the action. During the moment Joker, Queen and Splinter explained to them about the Metaverse, they also were told about the Baton Pass. A simple action that, thanks to the Metaverse logic, increased the power of an ally and also helped them recover a little.

And now, it was Fox’s turn to show his power as he stood up in front of the Berith horde. “Listen up, fiend!” Yusuke pointed his katana at the golden robe. “Abominations as yourself and your shadows are destined to perish while we are on duty! Prepare yourself for a humiliating defeat!”  

“You cocky-ass punk!” Golden robe felt a vein on his head pop. “Kill him!”

Fox sighed in disappointment by seeing the bunch of Berith rushing to kill him instead of going for the wiser choice. With a little soft chuckle, he covered his face with his right hand as his mask was consumed by blue flames.

“If that is what you all wish, very well. Crush them, Kamu Susano-o!” And just the way Mercurius appeared, Susano-o did the same right behind Fox. The blue man with metallic pants, tiger cape and the strange double crossed sword.

“Bufudyne!” At Fox’s command, Kamu Susano-o took a deep breath then he effortlessly blew a cold breath that easily froze the entire Berith crew. Once the monsters were practically turned into ice statues, Kamu Susano-o finished all of them with a simple but mighty swing from his sword. The Berith disappeared without trace after that. Even though his moves were simple, Fox was showing quite an artistic manner. The ninjas were starting to get pretty excited for the moment.

“I hope you enjoyed the aesthetic I displayed today” Fox smirked at the New Yorkers as he returned to the crew.

Casey laughed as he gave a friendly punch to the artist. “Dude. With those poses and the way you talk? There’s no way in hell you’re not a fan of Jojo’s”

“Why does everyone keep thinking that?” Fox was sincerely confused.

“I have to admit it. You guys look so cool!” Leo couldn’t help but smile in excitement.

“Well, allow me to tell you that this was just the beginning, Leonardo” Lavenza added.

“We are the Elite! We won’t fall to a simple cat-freak and an arrogant brat!” The team turned back at the shouting golden cultist, who despite the fear, his pride won’t allow him to accept defeat against a brat and a cat-looking creature. This time, the golden one took an amulet from each one of the first half of the group and summoned a strange floating lady called Silky. Then he next summoned a strange green ghostly horse called Kelpie. Seeing the opportunity, calmly but without letting his guard down, Fox gave a double high five to his comrades Skull and Panther.

“I entrust this to you two”

“We got this, Fox!” Panther replied ready for action.

“These freaks are done for!” Skull piped up.

The two blond teenagers nodded to each other while standing back-to-back against the monsters. With their masks being consumed by the blue flames, Skull covered his face with his right fist while Panther covered hers with her right hand while doing quite a sexy pose. Both were holding hands and had beast-like grins.

“Let’s dance, Heacte!”

“Let’s give ‘em hell, Seiten Taisei!”

Hecate, the lady in black with a chained dog-head on each hand, and Seiten Taisei, the man-ape with the “8000k” staff, appeared right behind their summoners.

“Agidyne!”

“Ziodyne!”

At the command, the Personae expulsed a power full blast of fire and electricity respectively to annihilate the monsters without even let them ask what was going to happen. The New York heroes were clapping in excitement at the sight while Mikey took the chance to rush at where the Silky was floating to heat a bag of popcorn with residual heat from Hecate’s flames.

The golden cultist didn’t want to admit, but he knew he and his brainwashed group were no match for the Phantom Thieves.

“Y-you think you are defeating us, but we are just warming up! We will not fall to stupid brats!”

This time, with five of the amulets on his hands, the golden cultist summoned a creature with lion head and bird body called Anzu. Then, he summoned together a golden colossus called Kin-Ki.

“You must admire this guy’s tenacity” Donnie remarked. “But at this point and given the circumstances, he’s just making himself look like a dumbass”

“Agree” Panther replied.

“They’re right, dude. Give it up, already!” Skull yelled at the golden cultist.

“Never!” The cultist in golden robe snapped back.

The blond couple shared a glance and just shrugged before dashing back to the team. Each one of the blondies gave a Baton Pass to Queen and Noir, respectively. The angry Elite cultist and his shadows were quickly intimidated when they saw Queen launching a vicious glare through her mask as she cracked her knuckles while Noir give them an innocent but deadly smile at them as she swings her axe as if it was nothing. The ladies nod to each other and summoned their personas.

“Let them feel your rage, Anat!”

“Time to punish them, Astarte!”

And then, the motorcycle-woman and the dark lady on top of the pile of giant pink skulls appeared behind their summoners.

“Freidyne!”

“Psiodyne!”

With a perfectly coordinated combination of a large blast of Nuclear and Psychokinetic energy, Anat and Astarte destroyed Anzu and Kin-Ki without breaking a sweat. While the New Yorkers were excited by the moment, the golden cultist was starting to get more scared than pissed.

“You are not going to defeat us!” The golden cultist snaps. “YOU. WON’T DEFEAT US!”

With that enraged shout, the golden cultist summoned another two shadows: a hideous creature with a jaw covering almost its entire torso, it was called Pisaca, and a half-human, half-snake woman called Lamia.

“Seriously, that loser needs to know when to give up” Raph exclaims as Oracle calmly stands up and rolls her shoulder.

“Yo, Oracle. What are you plannin’ to do?” Casey asked to the garbage-smelling hacker.

“Unlike the others, I’m not a fighter. I’m a navigator” The hacker replied casually. “I’m just preparing the spotlight for what comes next” With a pose that could have been used in Power Rangers or something of the sort, Oracle shouts with an excited toothy grin. “I summon thee, Prometheus!”

And then, the giant spaceship-looking creature appeared just above the place to the amazement of the ninjas and cultists.

“You just shouted that just to show off, didn’t you?” April remarked.

“Maybe” Oracle replied through her Persona as it opened its mouth, releasing many mechanical tendrils that wrapped around Oracle and gently carried it inside. Prometheus then illuminated the area where Queen and Noir just stood. Both ladies were now giving a Baton Pass to Pumpkin and Diamond.

“Those two dummies are next…” Karai said thoughtfully.

“We all saw the rest of their Personae through the visions” Leo summarized. “Which means they must have---”

“Ladies and gentle-mutants!” Bebop shouts first.

“The Pumpkin and the Diamond of Phantom Thieves proudly present…!” Rocksteady shouts next.

“The men, the myths, the legends! The unique, amazing and fantabulous… Super Jack Brothers!”

“Super Frost!”

“…and Iron Lantern!”

As the towering auras behind them dissipated, the two aforementioned Personae appeared right in front of the mutant morons.

Super Frost looked like a normal Jack Frost, although with some quite remarkable differences: His hat, boots and collar were black instead of blue. His arms and pecs were slightly more muscular. The ice-fairy was wearing a cyan bathroom towel as some sort of super-hero cape as well as a Superman “S” on his chest (drawn with crayons). He was also wielding a war-hammer made of ice. Even though the hammer was quite larger than Super Frost himself, he was able to carry it on his shoulder as if nothing.

Iron Lantern was a quite different Jack O’ Lantern. His pumpkin head was completely made from pieces of junk of different colors, like some kind of metal-collage (he had a Baby Duck Xing sing on the back of his head). He was wearing a light-brown charro hat, a dark-red bathroom curtain covering his body, showing a rusty metallic glove holding an old lantern.

“Aw” April coos. “You have to admit they look so cute”

“I’m sorry, but I’m not going to lie” Slash added as he turned to the Phantom Thieves. “They look pretty dumb to be part of your crew”

“It’s alright” Queen clarifies. “It is true that their appearance made them look quite silly”

“But they’re just as strong as the rest of us; don’t underestimated them” Noir added as she turned back to the action.

In the meantime, the golden cultist was laughing at the Personae. “You freaks really think those small fairies are going to defeat Lamia and Pisaca!?”

“Just watch, sucka” Pumpkin grinned as he snapped his fingers. “Inferno!”

Before they could even think to attack, Lamia and the golden cultist watched how Iron Lantern quickly turned his rusty glove into a small cannon that launched a powerful laser at Pisaca, incinerating it into nothing at the very moment.

Lamia was pretty terrified for how her partner was so easily defeated by the small persona, to the point she couldn’t see something quickly rushing to her.

Until it was too late…

“Ice Hammer!”

At the moment Lamia heard Diamond’s shout, she turned around only to receive a simple but solid strike from Super Frost’s hammer right in her face. The impact was so strong it sent her face crashing in the ground. The blow was so powerful, it not only turned her into black ashes at the moment of hitting the floor, it also leaves a big crater in the ground as well as releasing a strong shockwave that knocked all of the cultists down.

…and pretty sure weakened the structure of the dome area.

The Warthog and the Rhino cackled as they leaped back to the team. “Pretty good, right y’all?” Pumpkin grinned.

“We went there, we saw creepy shadows and we squished them like blueberries!” Diamond added.

“You know… It’s both incredible and kinda terrifying that you morons have access to that kind of power” Leo remarked.

The team turned back to the golden cultist. The aforementioned foe was stomping on the ground in anger. Sure, he was terrified at the might of the Phantom Thieves. And that sure pissed him off. He practically roared out of his lungs as he ordered his crew of brainwashed cultists to combine all of their amulets with full power at the same time. With that action, they opened quite a large portal. However, it also caused the amulets to quickly overheat and implode, rendering them completely useless.

“Uh oh” Oracle warned. “Guys, this next shadow is going to be a strong one”  

Once the portal fully opened, a humanoid creature with a green skull and mushroom-head appeared, wearing a black robe and wielding a long sword. It responded to the name Chernobog. The angry golden cultist laughed with quite a bit of madness as his brainwashed companions loudly chanted their motto.

“Alright, guess show’s over” Leo said with a serious tone as he unsheathed his katanas. “Time to join the fight”

“Hold on” Joker raised a hand at the New Yorkers. “It’s ok, guys. I got this”

“Are you sure about that?” Leatherhead asked concerned. “That shadow looks powerful"

“Not only looks powerful. It is powerful” Joker replied. “But it won’t stand a chance. He spoke up confidently as inside his mind, his Personae were just as ready for action as he was.

“Yoshi” Satanael spoke to Splinter. “Would you like to show your family your new power?”

The former sensei of the Hamato Clan fixed a calm glance at the Chernobog through Joker’s eyes and smiled softly yet determined. “…I would love to”

The demon lord chuckles. “You heard him, Joker!” He spoke to Joker.

“Knock him dead, Splinter!” Alice cheered.

“Make sure his execution is quick and painful!” Titania added.

Joker was now standing in front of Chernobog. Splinter was right at his side, with both hands resting on the handle of his walking stick. Both of them fixing calm yet taunting glances at the golden cultist, whom didn’t get the message apparently since he just cackled like a madman.

“You stupid brat! You really think you and your monster rodent will take down Chernobog!?”

“Just you watch” Joker smirked as Splinter unsheathed the sword hidden inside his stick.  

Thinking Joker was only making fun of him, the golden cultist angrily shouted at Chernobog, ordering the shadow to kill him. As the monster quickly rushed to attack the Phantom Thief, Splinter delivered a swift slash and turned his back to the shadow as he slowly sheathed his sword back. Just at the moment the weapon made click, Chernobog dissipated into black fog with an eerie scream of agony.

“…aaaaand Show’s over” Joker bowed to the New Yorkers with a hand gesture while the golden cultist was shivering in terror.

Splinter fixed a side-glare to the golden cultist. “Leave this place… now!” The firm warning from Splinter caused a tremendous chill running down the spine of the Golden cultist. Knowing that and the fact that all of the amulets were destroyed, the cultist had no choice.

“Shit… WE SHALL HAVE OUR REVENGE!” The golden cultist ran away in terror, followed by the rest of the brainwashed cultists.

“That should warn him” Joker remarked as he turned back to the team and saw the turtles hugging their father once again.

“Splinter, that was incredible!” Mikey was the first one to cheer after breaking the hug. “All of you are!”

“Gotta admit it” Raph added as he turned to Joker. “You dorks are pretty strong”

Splinter chuckled as he turned back to Joker and shared a nod. “My family, I think it is time to go back home; we have much to discuss”

The Hamato Clan nods as they prepare to go back to their lair. “Something tells me this is going to be one hell of a mission...” Leo sighed. Still, he was both excited for the power of Persona and happy for seeing Splinter once again.      

Chapter Text

After 20 minutes of uninterrupted traveling and a lot of chatting and bonding, the Phantom Van, the Party Wagon, The Shellraiser and Karai’s bike park near the entrance of the sewer hideout. The New Yorkers and the Phantom Thieves walk out of their vehicles. Although Mikey and Shinigami were quite bitter at the moment, with Mikey pouting and wearing an overdramatic frown.

“Don’t tell me you’re still mad because you two couldn’t go in the Mona-Bus?” Donnie asked to his little brother.

“How could I NOT be mad, D!?” Mikey snaps. “We could’ve travel in a Kitty-Bus. A KITTY-BUS, DUDE!”

“I heard that!” Everyone turned to the last incoming vehicle: a bus with cat ears on top and a tail. Once the car stops a massive hole opens on its side, from where Slash and Leatherhead walk out of while Joker and Queen walked out of the front seats. Once the Mighty Mutanimals are out, the bus is covered by a massive smoke-cloud, revealing that it was Mona who transformed into the vehicle.

“Well, we’re here” Slash said as he turned to Morgana. “Are you sure are ok, Morgana? Leatherhead and I aren’t exactly light as feathers”

“It’s alright” Mona responds as he stretches his back. “I’m kinda used to heavy cargo after carrying Diamond all this time”

“Carrying Rocksteady inside your vehicle form along with the rest of your crew? That sounds exhausting” Leatherhead says, concerned.

“Not only sounds. It is exhausting…” Mona said as he covered himself in a much smaller cloud of smoke and turned himself into a tuxedo cat with blue eyes that lick its front right paw to groom himself. Then he glares at the Mutanimals. “Before you ask: Just because I look like a cat doesn’t mean I am one”

Mona yelps at Shinigami suddenly picking him up in her arms and nuzzling on his face. “Cat or not, you can’t deny you’re the most adorable kitty I’ve ever seen”

Mona protested as the rest of the Phantom Thieves were enveloped by more blue flames, revealing their casual clothes. “We can finally take a break…” Akira sighs as they all walked to the hideout.

“Ladies and Gentle-dudes” Casey exclaims with arms spread open. “Welcome to our Epic Hideout. Home Sweet Sewer!

“So, you really live in the sewers…?” Haru remarked while she took a good look at the living room while Bebop, Rocksteady, Ryuji and Futaba were already playing on the Pinball Machine. The mutant rhino bemoaned softly as he lost almost instantly.

“I must admit” Ann adds. “This looks amazing for a place hidden in the sewers”

“I know, right!” Mikey piped in with a grin. “You gotta love the place once you get used to the stench of the NY sewer system!”

“Do you actually get used to it?” Makoto asked, to which Karai replies.

“You would be surprised at how quick you get used to this place”

“Alright, Phantom Dorks” Raph clasps his hands loudly to call for their attention. “If we’re gonna work together, we’re gonna make some ground rules clear first!” Then points at his youngest brother. “Rule N.1: Ignore Mikey; your lives will be much easier”

“Hey!” Mikey complains.

“Rule N.2” Donnie joins. “Never forget rule N.1”

“Seriously!?” Mikey complains again.

“And Rule N.3” Leo continues from there. “If you ever forget Rules 1 and 2, don’t hesitate to ask us about them”

“Aw, come on!”

Everyone laughed at Mikey’s pout. After a few seconds, they see Yusuke writing something on his smartphone. “Rule N.3…” He muttered. “Asking Leonardo, Raphael or Donatello about rules 1 and 2…”

“Uh, dude” Ryuji says. “You know they were joking, right?”

“Perhaps” The artist replies. “But as they say: better safe than sorry” 

“He’s right, man. It was just a joke” Leo adds. “And there’s no need to call us by full name. You can just call us Leo, Raph, Donnie and Mikey” 

“Nonsense!” Yusuke swipes an arm to the air dramatically. “You and your brothers were blessed by being named after four artists from the Renaissance! What kind of artist would I be if I don’t address you with the proper respect towards the inspirations Splinter-Sensei used for you?!”

Mikey thought for a second before answering. “Oh, I know! An artist who’s also a closeted fan of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure!”  

Yusuke looks at Mikey with sincere disbelief. “Why does everyone keep thinking that? I have never watched that Jojo’s you’re referring to”

“Don’t listen to him, guys” Right as she finished with the Pinball Machine, Futaba shoved Yusuke aside. “Inari will never admit it, but Mikey’s right-- he’s a closeted fan of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure”

“Wait, Inari…?” Mikey remains confused for a couple of seconds before a realization (and a childish grin) grew on his face. “…as in Inarizushi?”

“Bingo!” The hacker throws both arms in the air then she and Mikey laugh, all while Yusuke shook his head with an exasperated sigh.

Then, Makoto took her turn to speak up. “Anyway. Now that we’re here, we can take a breather while we share information about why we need your help” Everyone was quick to agree with Makoto as they all walked to the kitchen.

As everyone was already gathered in the kitchen, Akira and Makoto felt a slight discomfort. They turned to Akira’s left and saw Shinigami was taking a good look at them. Although, it wasn’t as she was ogling them or anything of the sort. No. It was more as she was scanning them or something, given her thoughtful expression.

“Um, can we help you?” Makoto asked.

“Knock it off, Shini. You’re making him uncomfortable” Karai spoke up, causing her second-in-command to snap out of her thoughtful trance.

“Uh, sorry” Shinigami said. “Is just that you two are very charming in your own way. Not to mention you’re smart, brave and always ready to help someone in need without hesitation. Especially you, Akira-Kun” She pointed at Akira.

Futaba was quick to join. “Nobody is blaming you. My Big Bro has everything: Brains, Guts, Kindness, Dexterity, and of course Charm. Max Rank in all of them, baby!”

“I can confirm that” April pipes in while checking her smartphone. “Not gonna give any details of his personal life, but Akira here sure is a hard worker”

The power couple shared a glance and turned back to the ninja witch. “We understand it regarding April” Akira was smiling with curiosity. “But that wasn’t wrong on your part”

“Thanks” Shinigami grinned smugly. “You could say it’s a skill of mine. I can find out most about a person with a good glance at them. Of course, April here helps me if I ask her”

Seeing the opportunity, Ryuji pipes in with Yusuke in tow. “Yo. Is it ok if you and April can check on us?”

Shinigami grins and April just shrugs as they first check on Yusuke. “Well…” April begins. “Yusuke is charming in his own way, but it is clear that his heart is in the right place despite how his passion towards art can distract him too much"

Yusuke chuckles. “I appreciate your honest explanation”

“Also” Shini pipes in with a smirk. “Seriously. You must watch Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. And you really need to learn to take a hint”

“Um… I suppose I should. Thank you” Yusuke scratched his head.

“Alright. My turn, I guess” Ryuji said.

In this case, both Kunoichis took a few more seconds before coming with an answer. Shinigami sighed before she started. “And you, Ryuji… I can tell you’re quite vulgar and you’re not very smart… Also, I can tell you still lack some tact”

“Aw, f’real?” Ryuji’s shoulders dropped. All while Futaba cackled.

“It has been just an hour since they met you and they already know everything about you, Ryuji!”

"Can it, gremlin!" 

“Hold on” April raises a hand before she continues from there. “All that is true, sure. Ryuji, you could do a bit better with your vocabulary and you school performance. But, we can tell you are a very amazing person”

“R-really?” Ryuji asked in disbelief.

“Damn right you are” Shinigami continues. “You have a heart of gold and you wear it on your sleeve all the time. You’re strong, pretty fast and you have much more street smarts that you give yourself credit for. I know we all just met, but I’m sure when I say the only guy who could compare to you is Akira here. And that’s not even a fair fight! Any girl would be a really lucky one if their feelings for you were reciprocated. I mean, Ann can totally vouch for us here!" 

“No arguments from here either" Akira said as he wrapped his arm around Ryuji’s neck. “This guy here is one of the best people I know. The first one who gave me a chance when no one else at school did”

“I must agree with them” Makoto added. “Ryuji, you’re a much greater person that most people, even yourself give you credit for”  

“Also. I know I’m overstepping here and I’m sorry, but I must tell you this” April added. “Ryuji, you are nothing like your father. And there’s no way in hell you will ever be like like that bastard”

Ryuji was frozen with eyes wide open and his face completely red as he glanced everyone in the Phantom Thieves fully agreeing with this.

“U-um…” Ryuji stuttered for a few seconds before he sat down on the table. “Thanks. Seriously, thanks”

“Anytime” Shinigami smiled as she gave a side-glance and a soft smirk to Ann, who smiled as she side-hugged Ryuji.

"See? You're a much better person than you think" She said giving Ryuji an affectionate kiss on the cheek. Something Ryuji smiled sweetly at. 

"Alright, there's only one left" Morgana said, to which Shinigami was quick to understand.

“Want me to check you too, Morgana?” Shini grinned as she picked the embodiment of hope in her arms and coos. “I don’t need to check you, you know. With how incredible you are any kitty lady would be lucky to be your partner!”

“K-kitty lady!?” Morgana asked in disbelief.

“…and Casey Jones happens to know the perfect match for ya, yo!” Casey butted in as he opened the fridge and picked something out of the fridge. “Check this out!” The Hockey Player puts a pile of ice cream on the table that suddenly moves and revealed to be a cat made of Ice cream.

“Wow” Ann was marveled at the sight. “What’s with that cat!?”

“This is Ice-Cream Kitty” Casey explains. “She’s Mikey’s Ice cream-mutated cat”

“A cat mutated into Ice cream!?” Morgana was shocked. “No offense, but how could—”

“OMG, OMG, OMG!!!” Futaba was quick to cut Morgana off as she takes Ice Cream Kitty in her arms. “This has to be the second coolest cat I’ve ever met!! She’s a total match for you, Mona!” Before Morgana could protest, Futaba took him and made him hug the mutated cat. Ice cream kitty was quick to hug morgana with sincere affection.

“Cold, cold, COLD!!” Morgana would’ve tried to break free from the kitty embrace, but he was too cold to struggle. Everyone laughed as Futaba took as many photos as she could.

“Alright, that’s enough” Makoto said firmly as she separated Morgana from Ice cream Kitty.

“T-thanks, Q-queen” Morgana said as he was still shivering from the cold.

“Alright, thief homies” Mikey cheerfully exclaims as he walked to the table. “My dudes and I offer you the perfect sign of peace and love between dimensions from our Concrete Jungle: six Pineapple, Oaxaca Cheese and Peperoni Pizzas. Fresh made from the Microwave!”

“Sweet!” Ryuji exclaimed as he quickly took a slice and eats it.

The Phantom Thieves were quickly enjoying the pizzas Mikey offered. At first, Makoto had a bit of hesitation since she prefers to watch her diet. But she knew it would be rude of her part to deny this gift so she accepted it and ate.

While enjoying her slice of Pizza, Haru noticed something interesting. Right with Raph, there was a small red baby turtle with small black spikes on its shell eating a slice of Peperoni from Raph’s slice. The baby turtle belches, releasing a surprisingly large jet of fire in the process.

“Let me guess” Ann said. “Another pet of yours?”

“Yep” Raph says as he picks the turtle and let it rest on his shoulder. “Say hello to Chompy Picasso. A baby alien-turtle I’m raising” As if on cue, Chompy cries as if trying to greet the thieves.

Haru in the meantime, was absolutely mesmerized by the baby turtle’s appearance. Chompy seemed to realize that Haru was gazing at him because he carefully crawled off Raph’s shoulder and walked to be right now in front of the Okumura heiress. Chompy stands on his hind legs as if asking Haru to pick him up.

Chompy let out a little cry of happiness as Haru picked him up and leans her nose on his. The baby turtle even takes his chance to affectionate lick at Haru’s nose. “A pleasure to meet you, Chompy-Kun” Haru giggled as he carefully gave him back to Raph. Everyone else was cooing at the sight while Yusuke was already finger-framing

“Gotta admit” The turtle in red bandana said. “He likes you, you bunch of dorks”

“Alright” Leo spoke up as he took his seat in the table and just ate another slice of pizza. “Akira, can you please explain us what do you know about this weird cult?”

Realizing this was not the time for friendly chat, the leader of the phantom thieves crosses his arms. “It all started exactly one week before summer break started in our world. When we were making preparations for a camping trip, we started to hear rumors about a secret organization hiding in Tokyo’s criminal underworld…”

“At first, we thought it was nothing but more baseless rumors like always happens” Makoto continues. “However, there was something that admittedly caught our attention…”

Bebop speaks up next, right after swallowing a bite of pizza. “We heard some punk-butt loser speaking about a monster that pretty much reminded us of a shadow we fought last year. And it was pretty much detailed, y’all”

“Detailed enough for you to investigate” Donnie concluded.

“Indeed” Yusuke answers. “As Makoto just mentioned, it could be just a baseless rumor, but we decided to investigate just in case, given our past experiences”

“We found a bunch of those weirdoes gathered in a garage. And we decided to see what we could find” Ryuji pipes in. “Even we couldn’t believe it when we saw those weirdoes actually summoning a shadow from the Metaverse. It was crazy as hell”

“Another crazy part was that thanks to Lady Lavenza here, we found out that we are capable of summoning our Personae outside of the Metaverse for perhaps the rest of the summer, which is when my master had predicted he will be able to fix the disaster that false god provoked” Morgana spoke up next.

“And the reason you guys are here is because you found out those weird low-budget cultists managed to get in our turf thanks to that mess that false god caused” Karai concludes.

“Exactly” Ann answers. “But if we’re being honest, even though we all wish the circumstances of this meeting could’ve been a lot better, we’re actually glad to finally meet the family Splinter-Sensei talked to us so much about”

“Awww” Mikey coos. “Well, any friend of Bebop, Rocksteady and our Ghost Dad is a friend of ours, too. Welcome to the family!”

“Glad to hear it. And thanks” Ann smiles.

“See?” Bebop nudges Akira’s arm with an eager grin. “Told ya they’d like you all!”

“I know, man” Akira smiles back.

“Ok, that’s good to know, actually” April continues from there. “But what happened with the cultists you found back then?”

“Ha! Weird cultist were no match for our power” Rocksteady proudly declared. “Even without Personae, we popped shadow heads like the blueberries!”

“But then…” Futaba added as she opens a backpack she was carrying. “…we found something worrying in the cultists we beaten” She says as she took something out of the bag. A bunch of small familiar devices that made the New Yorkers gasp.

“Kraang Mind-controlling devices!?” Leo asked.

“Yep” Futaba answered. “When Splinter saw these things, he instantly knew we had to come here for your guys help”

“Also, because you guys have more experience dealing with shadows” Slash added.

“Yes” Lavenza answers as she puts her large book in the table and opens it. “Since it is highly likely we will be facing more shadows through our mission, it would be best if you learn more about their strengths and weaknesses. This compendium had all the information you shall need” The New Yorkers took a very good look at the information of the compendium, starting with Akira’s Personae. Skills, Arcana, Affinity, etc. Thanks to the fact that most personas have a weakness, the thieves, especially Akira were prepared to hit them where it hurts them the most. Completely motivated by curiosity, Donnie took a look at the book (after asking Lavenza for permission, obviously), and gathered as much data as he could in his laptop. Of course, starting with Akira’s Personae.  

“Wait, what the hell…?” His excitement was interrupted by something he found.

“What’s wrong, Donnie?” April asked, to which the turtle turned back to the crew with a concerned frown.

“Guys, you may want to check this out” He said as he revealed a page with a familiar red demon.

“It’s him” Leo’s eyes widened considerably. “It’s the demon we saw”

“I don’t like him” Leatherhead seethed. “It reminds me too much of Kavaxxas!”

“Wait, you saw this Persona before??” Akira was now concerned as the rest of the crew.

“More or less” Leo answers. “A few days before all of this started, we have had weird visions about your arrival, your Personae and one of them was about this Persona incinerating all of Chinatown” Then he turns to Lavenza. “What Persona is that, anyway?”

The young assistant reveals more information about the demon in question. “This is Belial. The second most powerful Persona of the Devil Arcana, only surpassed by Beelzebub. He possesses no weaknesses, and is immune to Curse skills”

“I still have to make a few proper modifications in my scanners” Donnie adds as he was tinkering with his smartphone. “But if the readings I have here are accurate enough, we won’t stand a chance against Belial. At least not without the thieves’ help”

“Well, we all can confirm now that you guys are here to help, so we will help you with this mess” Leo declared, with many grunts and nods of agreement from the rest of his crew.

“Excellent!” Morgana said. “We should make the preparations for taking you all to the Tokyo of our timeline. That's where all this disaster is focusing the most”

A suddenly notification on his smartphone cased Donnie to take a look and frown in concern. “It would be the best. But first, seems we have something to take care of right now”

“What is it?” Mona asked, to which the turtle genius showed his phone to everyone.

“A proximity alert” Then he shows a security camera footage.

A security camera hidden in the tunnel was watching bunch of familiar individuals.  

“It’s that jackass from before!” Ryuji exclaimed.

“Yep. And he’s still with his crew of brainwashed cultists. They not only have new amulets, they’re still roaming around the underground, and now they’re not too far from here. And not only that-- take a look at this” Donnie said as the rest of the video shows him summoning a horde of what seemed to be medieval knights with wings on their backs. “What shadows are these?” 

“Those are Archangels” Futaba said. “Considerably stronger than the Slimes. But still quite weak”

“Still” Makoto adds. “Even if he happened to be there by coincidence, given our last encounter, we must take care of that cultist and his shadows if they’re too close to this place”

“You’re damn right we will” Raph spins both Sai in his hands. “We won’t let these dumbass losers find our home even if it is an accident!”

“Come on, everyone” Leo commands. “Let’s go tie up this loose end”

Swift and silently, the team carefully traveled through the nearly-abandoned underground tunnels until they approached the coordinates. Another abandoned subway station near the turtle lair. And just as Donnie said, the Golden Cultist happened to be there. Said cultist right now was pacing back and forth with his usual enraged expression.

“Stupid mutants… Stupid Phantom Thieves…” He muttered through his teeth. The Archangels seemed to pay no mind to his angry muttering while the cultists remained still, affected by the mind-controlling devices. “If the Mighty Leader finds out… No, he shouldn’t, because I’m going to fix this. Yes…! I’m killing those mutants and bring their leaders to our leader…” He snickered. “But first, I need to find them so I can---” The Golden Cultist suddenly stops in his tracks as he sniffs and his nose wrinkles. “Ugh, what’s that smell!?”

“Yo, weirdo”

The Golden cultist and his horde of Archangels turn around to find Oracle standing right behind them. The hacker who still smelled like garbage was just casually standing with both arms behind her back as if nothing was going on. “W-what the hell!? How did you find us!?”

“Eh, I was just chilling around here, and I happened to hear your whining” Oracle blatantly replied.

One of the Archangels then finally speaks up. “Even if it was due to a mere coincidence, coming here by yourself was a poor choice in your part, Phantom Thief” He says as he points his sword at her face.

But Oracle just grinned. “Who says I’m alone?”

Before either the golden cultist or any of the Archangels could reply, Slash appeared out of the shadows and sends many Archangels flying with a swift hit of his mace. Leatherhead was quick to leap on the remaining shadows and used his Death Roll attack, crushing more unfortunate Archangels under his massive weight.

“What the…!?” The golden cultist asked in disbelief.

“Missed us?”

He turned around and saw the entire crew standing right him. Oracle was quick to blow a raspberry at him while standing behind her Big Bro.

“You!!” The fear in the golden cultist was quickly replaced by anger. “I don’t know how you found us, but I assure you, this time you will pay for messing with The Elite!!” As he finished shouting, the brainwashed cultists kept summoning more and more archangels.

Leo and joker shared a glance, knowing this was a perfect opportunity for their teams to properly get to know each other better in battle. “Mona. You, Lavenza and Oracle deal with the brainwashed cultists” Leo says.

“The rest of us will deal with the horde!” Joker grinned with his dagger ready.

“Alright, y’all!” Mikey prepares his Nunchaku. “Time to show these freaks and our new friends how we do things in the NYZ!”

“Booyakashaa!!” Panther’s shout caused everyone else to turn their attention to her. The blond lady sheepishly hugged herself. “I… kinda wanted to say it for quite a while, ok?”

“Huh…” Mikey tilted his head. “Sounds weird when she says it.

“Sound weird when you say it” Raph remarked.

“KILL THEM!!” The Golden cultist commands to the Archangel horde.

(Recommended OST: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PKz19D74VM)

The entire team dispersed to properly fight the horde.

“He-Heee. You punk-butt shadows wanna get funky-fresh with us!? Then let’s get funky-fresh!” Pumpkin mocked as with a good boost from Diamond, he leaps high in the air and shoots a Mohawk energy blast that exploded upon impact, instantly destroying a few Archangels. “…and where am I?” The warthog activated his invisibility device to evade three shadows that tried to gang up on him. Pumpkin cackled as he took down two of them while still invisible, then deactivated his cloaking device, only to reveal he was carrying a chainsaw whose engine had the appearance of a terrifying skull. Before the Archangel could keep with the offensive, Pumpkin slices through it with the aforementioned weapon.

Diamond was not wasting time and decided to crush any shadow in his way with his Hammer and Sickle. Shadow that got in his reach, shadow that met its painful demise at the hands of the mutant Rhino. A few of them decided to keep their distance and use Kouga on him. The tactic would have been successful, if it was not for the fact that the bless spells actually bounced off Rocksteady and back to the shadows (they were immune to bless skills as well so they were unaffected). What did affect them, though, was the rhino impaling them with his horn via a vicious charge. Three Archangels died that way. “Just like good old times in the creepy Mementos!” Steranko cackled as he grabbed two more Archangels by their heads and slammed against each other with sheer brutality.   

“Let’s see if you freaks can resist this” April quickly hurls her Tessen and with her telekinetic powers, she steers the weapon, slicing its way through the swords of many Archangels and leave them completely defenseless as Fox took the chance to slice off the heads of a few of them with swift yet somehow magnificent precision. Donnie joined Fox by hitting many more of them by swinging his Naginata-Bo Staff in equally swift circular motions that sliced them off like fruit. Back-to-back, Donnie and Fox were now coordinating their attacks with April’s flying Tessen to kill a few more shadows. The turtle was doing great using his Bo to keep a distance from the enemy while the artist used his Katana and Assault Rifle to deal those who barely managed to survive April’s attacks.  

Noir sliced through a few more Archangels with a few vicious swings from her axe, finishing with a chop against the floor that sent a small shockwave that knocked a dew more shadows away. Raph dashes at breakneck speed and leaps forward, stabbing two Archangels through their faces with his Sai. The attack was so brutal, the turtle managed to rip their heads clean off! The turtle was sincerely impressed at how the heads remained stuck in his Sai before they slowly dissipated into black fog. “Is this a joke? These canned chicken-men have shit on us!” He said as he hurled one of his Sai at another shadow, piercing right through its head by the left eye. The shadow agonizes, unable to stop Raph from charging at it and stabbing its chest with his other Sai.  

“I can understand that” Noir wasn’t far behind in brutality as she swings her axe at another shadow in the mid-section. The force of the impact caused the Archangel to collide against a wall back-first. The Archangel groaned in agony as it evaporated. Not having enough, she unsheathed a grenade-launcher and shoots. The explosions practically obliterated a few more. “Still, it is quite a thrill when you cut them in half or rip them apart as they beg for mercy, don’t you think?” She practically beamed.

Raph remained with a neutral expression. “Noir, you are crazy, savage and seriously twisted…” Then he grins. “…I like it”

“Thank you, Raph-Kun” Noir grins back.     

Another shadow attempted to swing its sword at Queen. The advisor, however, was quick to intercept the attack with a punch that actually knocked the weapon away from the shadow. “Are you surprised?” The advisor smirked as she raised both fists, revealing she had metal knuckle-dusters with a blade on each one. The Archangel tried to attack, but the advisor was faster as she unleashed four quick but strong punches on its gut before destroying it via a swift kick in the face.

The Archangel Queen just kicked landed not too far from Karai. The leader of the New Foot Clan was taking care of a few more shadows by slashing them with her Wakizashi sword. As an Archangel tried to thrust its sword into her torso, she swiftly evaded by turning into snake form, coiled her body around the shadow and bit its head off. Another Archangel thought he saw the chance to attack Karai from behind. But what he didn’t expect was that in her snake form she had a second mouth on the back of her head. Disgusted by the sight, Karai took her change to turn around and spit venom on the shadow’s eye. Queen was quick to follow up with a few punches that obliterated the Archangel. 

Slash was dashing through the horde, crushing any shadow skull that was in the reach of his mace without breaking momentum. He stops for a moment to grab another Archangel by the head and slam it against the ground with enough force to turn it into black fog upon impact. He then swings his mace to another unfortunate Archangel that was instantly killed by the hit. Another shadow took the chance to attack Slash in the back with its sword, only for it to stare in shock as its weapon shattered in pieces against Slash’s shell. The leader of the Mighty Mutanimals turned at the Archangel with a smug grin. “Nice try, ass-head” He says as he grabs the shadow by the head and slams it against the floor then stomps on it with even greater force, killing the shadow right away. “Damn. This feels just as good as crushing Kraang-droids!” He cried in excitement as he punched another Archangel in the face.   

“Word, dude. Word” Mikey grinned in agreement as he evaded another slash from a shadow via a twirl-leap to the side then hits it on the back with both Nunchaku. He evaded an attack from another one as he skillfully unsheathed his Kusarigama and hurls it. The chain successfully wrapped around the arm of the shadow. Before the shadow could try and struggle, a dark purple whip wrapped around its left arm. The Archangel turned around and saw Panther being the responsible.

“Ready to wrap this up, Panther?” The turtle asked.

“Hell yeah I am!” Panther replied as she leaps above the Archangel with the whip still in her hands and lands next to Mikey. The maneuver caused the Archangel to have a fist directed right to its face thanks to Mikey’s chain. And the turtle quickly pulls it, causing the shadow to punch itself repeatedly.

“Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself!” Both Mikey and Panther taunted the shadow as the turtle kept pulling the chain.

“Mikey, pull your Kusarigama back!” At Panther’s sudden exclamation, the young turtle pulled his weapon back as she tightened the grip on her whip. A dark blue aura emanated from the weapon and reached the shadow. The Archangel moaned in pain and feel on its knees as its body suddenly freezes.

“Woooow…” Mikey was very surprised at seeing the now frozen shadow.

“I know. Pretty cool right?” Panther grinned as she casually walked to the frozen shadow and suddenly kicked it on the head with so much force it actually shattered.

“Really cool, girl”

Leatherhead roars as he viciously slashes through many more shadows with his claws and bites off the head of another. He spits the head to another shadow with enough force to stun it then the mutant alligator rips it apart with his powerful jaws.

“Yo, Leatherhead!” The alligator turned to the voice and saw Skull dealing with another few shadows while Shinigami was easily killing a few more by herself. “Here’s another one!” Skull grinned as he hits a shadow so hard, it was sent flying to the mutant. Leatherhead was quick to catch the Archangel with his jaws and slam it against the floor a few times before ripping it apart.

As the horde was starting to be exterminated, another Archangel decided for a strategic retreat, only for Shinigami to wrap her own Kusarigama around its left ankle.

“Sorry, shadow…” Shinigami smirked. “…but you’re grounded!” She takes a large step forward, stepping on the chain, which causes the shadow to be suddenly pulled to the ground. Seeing the opportunity, Skull follows up with a leaping elbow drop, like the opens he saw in T.V. Wrestling matches. An attack quickly followed by Casey Jones. Right after their attack, Skull and Casey were quick to get off the Archangel as the shadow writhed in pain.

….or at least it would have, if it wasn’t for Leatherhead doing the same maneuver, instantly killing it.

Leo and Joker were dashing together, swiftly evading the bless spells the few remaining Archangels were desperately shooting at them. The shadows decided to combine their magic and shoot a powerful Bless spell at the leaders.

“Leo, behind me!” Joker said, already knowing what to do. The turtle leader slowed down a little to be behind the Trickster. “Isis!” At his shout, Joker’s mask burns, revealing the Egyptian Goddess right in front of him, successfully blocking the combined blast of bless energy. In fact, it did not even stop his momentum as she rolled under them and right as he was now behind the Archangels, both he and Isis spun around together, causing a good whirlwind to capture the shadows and lift them high in the air.

“They are all yours, Leonardo!” Isis said as she lifted the turtle with more wind magic that engulfed him into some improvised wind drill. The Archangels could not defend themselves from Leo’s assault as he pierced through them like nothing.

With the shadows defeated, Isis gently puts Leo back on the ground. The turtle leader quirked an eyebrow at Joker. “Ok. Now I can tell you were just showing off”

“What makes you think that?” Joker asked with a mock-innocent tone as he smirked, to which Leo just chuckled at.

“No one else on your team used their Personae to kill those shadows. You were obviously showing off”

“Better get used to it, Leonardo” Isis added. “Our Trickster loves to do that”

“I can’t promise I will. But I can try”

In the meantime, the Golden Cultist was just watching in sheer terror at how his shadow horde was completely obliterated. He understood it with the Phantom Thieves since they could use their Personae, but the New Yorkers turned out to be much tougher than he expected. He turned back to his group of cultists with the hopes of making them summon reinforcements. But his eyes widened even more as all of his cultists were sleeping. And worse, Oracle, Mona and Lavenza already removed the Kraang Mind-controlling devices they had.

“Why do always get the easiest jobs here?” Oracle casually asked as she removed the last mind-controlling device. The sudden realization that they were just kids and a weird cat-monster made the cultist think he had the chance to attack.

“No, you’re not” Lavenza made it clear it was a terrible idea as she instantly knocked him out cold with a Dormina spell.

“Yep. Easy as pie” Mona huffed with satisfaction as he crossed his front paws while Lavenza send them back to their world.

(Background OST ends here)

“Oh yeah, boy!” Mikey cheered as the last Archangels were evaporated into black ashes. “Who’s the best!? WE are the best!” Then he does a silly victory dance.

“I have to admit it” Skull said. “You guys are pretty cool and strong for those who don't have Persona”

“Yeah. You guys are pretty cool, too” Raph answers. “For a bunch of cosplaying dorks”

“So, what do you think?” Joker asked to Leo.

Knowing what he meant, Leo turned to both teams, noticing they all were already bonding quite quickly with their battle. Then he turned back to Joker with a knowing grin. “We all are going to get along just fine” He said as he and Joker shared a fist-bump.

*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*

Back in the sewer lair, the New Yorkers were already preparing to visit the world where the Phantom Thieves came from since the Elite originated from there and it would be the best to deal with this problem from the root. By suggestion from Makoto, they packed a few clothes and necessary objects since it would be most likely they would spend a couple of days in that world while dealing with this.

“Alright, is everything ready?” Makoto asked, to which everyone agreed to. In that moment, Akira and Leo were walking out of the rooms. “Where did you two go?” She asked.

“Akira’s Personae wanted to see Splinter’s room before we left. But we’re ready now” Leo answered.

“Alright. We have the tools and we have the talent” Raph exclaimed. “Time to put an end to this dumb cheap-ass movie cult once and for all!”

With that settled, everyone went to the vehicles while Lavenza used her book to open a large portal and Donnie activated the security system of the lair. Without any hesitation, they rolled into the portal.

*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*

In Splinter’s room, right above the desk in the Dojo, there were three portraits hanging above it.

One of Splinter himself and the turtles when they were children.

One of his entire family, including Karai, Shingami, April, Casey and the Mighty Mutanimals.

And another one of the ninjas along with Bebop and Rocksteady after they deicded to turn good.

But now, there were another two more portraits joining them on the wall…

One of Splinter with the Phantom Thieves and Lavenza right before their final battle against Yaldabaoth.

And another one of Splinter along with Makoto, Anat, Akira and all of his own Personae.  

Chapter Text

Feeling like if he just woke up from the best nap of his life, the cultist in golden robe slowly awakens and stretches his limbs. Although a bit upset since he apparently wanted to be still asleep. But then, his face loses some good amount of color as a realization dawned upon him. He recalled how the NY mutants and the Phantom Thieves defeated all of the shadows with little effort then a young girl in blue with Platinum blond hair knocked him and his brainwashed followers out cold. He takes a good look at his surroundings and finds himself inside some sort of warehouse. And for the lack of light even with windows present, he knew it was still nighttime.

A few groans and moans attract his attention. He turns around and saw the group of cultists under his command. He gulped nervously as he noticed they no longer had the Kraang Mind-controlling devices. 

“What… what happened?” A young woman asks confused as she took off her robe.

“My head… ugh…” A male cultist scratches his head. “I remember I was walking back from work and then…” He turned to the golden cultist. “…you!” And glared daggers at him. “You surrounded me with a bunch of brainwashed weirdoes and kidnapped me!”

“Wait!” The young lady from before gasped. “You, too?!”

“I can remember he messed with my head and forced me to help him kidnap other people and make them join him!” Another cultist piped up, sharing their anger.

“You, jackass!” Another former cultist pointed an accusatory finger at the golden robed one. “You’re gonna pay for this!” The cultist snapped as all of the formerly brainwashed followers ganged up on Golden Robe and tried to beat him up. But suddenly, the group froze and terror slowly dawned upon their faces. After a few seconds of being frozen in fear, the former cultist removed their robes and dashed out of the warehouse like bats out of hell. Golden Robe cracked a terrified eye open and relaxed a little at the sight that he was alone now.

“Oh, thank God…” Golden Robe sighed before he put up a brave face and cackled in arrogance. “That’s right, you bastards! Run! Fear the Elite!!”

“…what makes you think you scared them off?”

Just at the moment he heard that voice from behind him, Golden Robe felt a horrifying chill running down his spine while the bravado from right before changed into absolute terror. He slowly turned around to find that The Mighty Leader was standing right behind him. And by judging by his looks, anyone with enough common sense could say the fact that he was totally disappointed by what he was seeing… was a total understatement.

“I was wondering what took you so long with the task I gave you, so I decided to go and take a look by myself when I suddenly received the signal from your smartphone when you were still supposed to be in that other New York” The Mighty Leader spoke up, clearly starting to get frustrated. “But I not only find that pretty sure those disgusting mutants are not dead, I also find out that all of the back-up amulets I gave you are destroyed, the people broke free from the Mind-controlling devices, and I find you napping!” He said that last part with quite a considerable amount of anger in his voice, while his balled right hand was illuminated by a good amount of dark energy akin to an Eiha spell.

“M-m-mighty l-l-leader!” Golden Robe tried to plea for his life, but he was so scared right now, his speech wasn’t legible at all. “P-please!”

With a deadpan, Mighty Leader slapped Golden Robe across the face with his left hand. “What is all that blabbering!?” He asked, frustrated. “If you’re going to say something, just spill it the hell out! You sound like a stuck record!”

The pain on his face seemed to work as Golden Robe could finally speak up properly. With a lifted eyebrow, the cult leader listened carefully to what the golden robe had to say.

“…and there you have it, my lord” Golden robe was practically on his knees as he finished explaining. “The Phantom Thieves somehow managed to get to that other world as well and followed us here and now they are working together with those mutant vigilantes”

Golden Robe wondered what his leader was about to say, if his expression could be a good signal that he was about to speak. But before he could even say a word…

“So, it actually happened, right?”

Both leader and golden cultist turned around and saw someone else walking into the warehouse. It was a middle-aged African-American man with his hair akin to an afro. He was wearing round glasses, a white dress shirt under a pink sweater with the sleeves of both pieces of clothing rolled up to his elbows, blue jeans and dark gray shoes.

It was Baxter Stockman.

“M-master Scientist!” Golden Robe gasped in surprise while the leader just glanced at him calmly.

“Yes. Just as you expected” The leader continues. “Not only that pain-in-the-ass-brat Amamiya-Kurusu is back in Tokyo. Him and his repulsive Phantom Thieves are now working with those annoying mutants from your timeline” He gritted his teeth in frustration as he suddenly lets out a grim laugh. “No matter. My opportunity has come, though… I’m going to make that annoying, nosy, shit-smelling toddler bawl his eyes out and beg for mercy before I rip his head off and use his skull as my new favorite coffee mug!”  

While golden robe was pretty disturbed at the idea, Stockman just pinched the bridge of his nose. “Whatever you want to do, as long as the plan is still going” Stockman said as he turned around and walked out of the warehouse.

“Alright” the cult leader sighed in frustration as he turned to golden robe. “You. Get your ass back up and let’s go back to the HQ” His face flashed a sinister grin as he walked with a terrified Golden Robe right behind him. “Things are about to get far more interesting that I expected…”

*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*

A large blue door opened inside of what seemed to be an abandoned parking lot. Carefully, the Shellraiser, the Party Wagon, Karai’s Bike, the Mona Bus and the Phantom Van appeared from the other side, all of them parking appropriately. Most of the place was underground so there were no worries about being spotted at the moment.   

The turtles got clothes form their luggage then quickly changed into their undercover attires. In just a moment, each turtle was wearing a hoodie of different color along with black sweatpants and black tinted sunglasses. Leo’s was dark grey, Raph’s was black, Donnie picked chocolate and Mikey Velvet blue. It was part of being a ninja after all. Stay undercover and stuff.

“Are you guys still sure you’re wearing that?” Ann pointed at the trench coats with a curious expression.

“We have to do it, Ann” Leo clarified. “We’re Ninjas-- We need to stay undercover to keep humans from seeing us” Then he turned to the Mutanimals. “Slash, you and Leatherhead are going to be here in order to attract attention”

“Ninja hiding tricks will not be necessary, comrade Leo” Rocksteady adds as he gently rested a hand on Leo’s shoulder.

“What the hell do you mean with that?” Raph asked.

April clasped her hands together and cleared her throat. “Believe it or not, guys. People in this timeline will NOT freak out if they see you”

“WHAT!?” The New Yorkers asked in shock.

“We are fully aware that the circumstances as to why you should hide in the shadows in your home world are fully understandable” Lavenza clarifies. “But for some reason we don’t fully understand yet, the sight of anthropomorphical mutants don’t seem disturbing for the people of this universe”

“That’s true” Ryuji piped in. “You think B and R remained hidden during all their time here? Well, they didn’t. They could hang around the streets and people didn’t give a shit!" 

Still unconvinced, Leo made sure his glasses won’t fall off as he and the rest of the crew walked out of the parking lot. As they walked, the busy atmosphere of Tokyo was slowly replaced by a quite stretch yet very peaceful street.

“Friends from the Concrete Jungle” Futaba declared with arms spread open. “Welcome to Yongen-Jaya, Shibuya! Home-Sweet-Home”

The New Yorkers had to admit that the view of the street was very comfortable for their first time visiting it. They managed to see the clinic, a home theater and a small market. The streets were a little cramped and there were a few bicycles parked around, but nobody minded. The group continued walking while Makoto’s phone buzzed. She picked it out of her pocket and answers. “Moshi-Moshi… Yes, it’s me, Sis… Sorry for not calling earlier… Yes we’re almost there… Ok, I’ll see you there… Thanks, you too”

“Who were you talking to?” Karai asked right after the thief advisor hanged up.

“It was my sister. Don’t worry-- she’s another ally of ours. You’ll meet her soon”

“And here we are, dawgs!” Bebop announced with a hint of pride as the crew stops at their destination. “Not the flashiest, but sure the most funky-fresh-est place in this part of this Tokyo!”  

“This is the place?” Casey asked as he scratched his head. “A restaurant?”

“Not just any restaurant, Casey” Morgana clarifies. “This is Café LeBlanc a place we can call our second home without any hesitation”

“We’re aware that it may not look like it, but so many memories, both good and bad, have transpired through the walls of this humble establishment since Akira was sent here last year” Yusuke added with a satisfied smile. “Not to mention the food in here is an unmeasurable experience for your palate!”

“They have good food in here!?” Mikey beamed. “I’m convinced!” He said as he dashed through the door, much to the annoyance of his brothers.

“Mikey!” Leo, Raph and Donnie scold their youngest brother as the four were now inside the restaurant. However, a strong smell of coffee of spicy food invaded their nostrils, cutting off any desire to scold their youngest brother while Mikey had already his mouth watering. Now that April, Karai, Casey and Shinigami joined to feel the pleasant smell of the place, the ninjas took a better look at their surroundings. The first thing that caught their attention almost instantly was a painting in the wall of a mother holding her baby in a gentle embrace. Karai felt a few strings in her heart pulled as for some reason it reminded her of her mother before Shredder separated her from Splinter. The rest of the atmosphere in the café was just as interesting as well, perfectly making it clear for costumers that they could find in here a place where you can rest from the hectic life in the city.

And right behind the counter, wiping a cup with a white cloth, was a middle-aged man with slicked-back dark hair, grey eyes, a chinstrap beard with a goatee and glasses. He was wearing a pale pink dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, pale khakis with legs folded up to mid-calf and an apron with a pinstripe on it. He perked up a little by the sudden arrival.

“Welcome to LeBlanc” He greeted. “How may I help you?”

April took a step towards the counter and bowed slightly in greetings. “Goodnight, sir. Are you Sojiro ‘Boss’ Sakura?”

The older man lifted an eyebrow. “Who wants to know?”  

“It’s alright, Sojiro. They’re the guys we just told you about!” Futaba chimed in as she and the rest of the thieves walked in (Even though he was being extremely careful, it was a fucking miracle that Rocksteady can both get in and walk around in the café).

“Those guys, huh” Sojiro was sincerely impressed as he glanced at the turtle brothers. “So that means you four must be…”

With encouraging nods from Akira, Bebop, Rocksteady and even April. The turtles removed their hoodies.

“Human-sized turtles…” Sojiro was considerably impressed before he smirked. “So you are the family Splinter told us about”

“Wait. You know Master Splinter, too?” Donnie asked, to which Sojiro replied.

“Yes. He and I have had a few moments to get to know each other” The older man scratched his head. “…and I still can’t get used to all this supernatural crap”

“You will get used to that, Sakura-San” Leo remarked as he took a seat. “…someday”

“It’s alright” Sojiro replied. “And you can call me Boss, by the way. Hell, for some reason, everyone does”

In a moment, everyone managed to get a seat, despite their large numbers: Leo, Akira, Raph and Haru sat on the chairs at the counter with the baby alien-turtle sitting by his owner on the counter. Makoto, Karai, Mikey and Casey were in the closest table to the door with Mikey putting a cooler on the table where Ice Cream Kitty was in. April, Morgana, Ann, Yusuke and Donnie were in the middle table while Lavenza, Bebop and Rocksteady were in the far most table. Unfortunately, Slash and Leatherhead had to remain outside the café.

“I can’t believe Rocksteady can fit in there” Leatherhead said both in disbelief and a hint of frustration.

“Well, I guess we all have our talents” Slash added.  

Futaba in the meantime, made the presentations as she walked to behind the counter and side-hugged Sojiro. “Alright, April already knows. But I still have to tell the rest of you. This grumpy-looking old man is Sojiro; he’s basically my dad and like a second-father-figure to Akira”  

“Don’t let his tough exterior fool you” Akira added with a teasing smirk. “He’s a total sweet-hearted-softie on the inside”

“Ha! Just as Raph!” Mikey laughed, causing Raph to stand up his seat so he could bonk Mikey with his fist.

“Hey, who’re you calling a sweet-hearted softie?” Sojiro complained before he couldn’t avoid sniffing at Futaba and his face scrunched. “And why the hell do you smell like garbage!?”

“Little comrade Futaba hid inside dirty trash-can” Rocksteady’s blunt reply caused Sojiro’s eyes to snap ide-open.

“What!?” Sojiro said as he turned to his daughter. “Why the hell did you hide in a trashcan!?”

“It was supposed to be an epic dramatic entrance for when we first met them” Futaba complained, pointing at the ninjas.

“Which turned out to be a stupid idea that just made you look like a dumbass as Casey and Ryuji struggled to get you out of there” Shinigami remarked.

Sojiro pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh. “Alright” He turned to Futaba. “Go take a shower and change your clothes, will you? This is a restaurant, not a dump”

With an annoyed groan, Futaba’s shoulders dropped as she walked out of the café. The rest of the crew managed to hear saying “I’ll be back in a few minutes” to Slash and Leatherhead. As she walked away, the leader of the Mighty Mutanimals leans closer to the door. “This girl sure is one-of-a-kind, isn’t she?” Slash asked to Sojiro.

“You have no idea” Sojiro replied as he turned to Rocksteady, decided to change the subject. “Anyway. Ivan, did you guys had any trouble finding the Hamato Clan?”  

“Nyet” The Rhino replies calmly. “Bringing ninja comrades to the LeBlanc was like piece of delicious kier cake”

“We found some members of the Elite along the way as well as some of their shadows” Leatherhead leans closer to the door so he could speak up. “But they were just a waste of our time”

“I see” Sojiro smiled softly. “I’m glad you all are back here in one piece. Anyway, you all must be hungry after beating the crap out of both weird cheap-movie-like cultists and shadows, so I’ll better get diner ready; good thing we made a lot of food just in case” He turns to Akira. “You get over here and give me a hand, smartass”

“Sure thing, Boss”

“I’ll help you as well” Makoto joined as she and Akira rapidly put on some and quickly walked to the kitchen. Together, Akira and Makoto carried a massive pot filled with warm food and put it on the counter.

“Yo, turtles” Bebop said to the half-shelled heroes with an eager grin. “You better be ready, cause’ you and all of your friends here are about to taste the best of the best food you have ever tasted in here!”

“Da. Coffee and the Curry Rice in LeBlanc is best of best in all of the Jongen-Jaya!” Rocksteady added with a laugh. “Your ninja brains will explode out of skulls when tasting it!”

The New Yorkers glanced at Rocksteady in slight confusion before Leo turned to Akira. “He meant our minds are gonna blow, I take it?”

“Yeah. Pretty much” Akira replied as he and Makoto started to serve the plates of Curry. After the people inside was taken care of, each one of the Power Couple carried a considerably large plate of Curry and took them outside so Slash and Leatherhead could join the culinary experience.

The nostrils of the larger reptilian mutants were quickly invaded by the spicy scent of the meal right at the moment the plates were delivered to them. “Damn… this sure smells great!” Slash said, already feeling his mouth watering.

“And tastes even better” Makoto smiled. “We assure you that you will love this”

“I can agree with that”

Akira, Makoto, Slash and Leatherhead turned to the street towards the second-hand shop and saw that a lady was walking towards them. The lady in question seemed to be in her mid-20s, with long gray hair, asymmetrically parted on the right side, her eyes were exactly the same color as Makoto´s. Her outfit consists of a black business suit with a black turtle neck, dark grey high heels, violet fingernails, a section sign necklace and a black bag sluing over her shoulder.

“I apologize if I interrupted something important” The lady spoke up with a formal yet sincere tone while Makoto made the presentations.

“Guys, this is my sister. Sae Niijima”

“Not to mention my future sister-in-law” Everyone both inside and outside the café chuckled at Akira’s remark. Makoto blushed with both hands covering her face while Sae sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Thanks for that, Smartass” Sae replied dryly. She regained composure as she walked inside the café and properly introduced herself to the rest of the New Yorkers and accepted their invitation for diner as she admitted she was feeling quite hungry.

Right after the plates were served, Sojiro turned to the New Yorkers. “Do you guys drink coffee?”

“Yes. Quite often” Donnie was the first one to answer.

“Not too often. But, yes, I sometimes do” April answers.  

“Yeah. Sometimes” Raph said.

“Casey Jones is 100% a Coffee Person” That was Casey’s answer.

“That would explain a few things…” Raph mused dryly. 

“Tea is more my thing, but yes. I occasionally drink it” Leo said.

“Only with milk and sugar. But yes, I drink coffee quite often, too” Shinigami answered.

“Pretty often” Karai answers. “The caffeine sure helps me in night patrols”   

“I have drank coffee a few times before” Slash replied.

“I have never drank coffee before” Leatherhead adds.     

“Blegh! I hate coffee!” Mikey complained. “It’s like 1000% Ultra-bitter!”

“Well, this is your lucky day, Mikey-Kun” Haru replied cheerfully. “There’s no better place than LeBlanc to help you with your Coffee-related problems”

“NO LIES DETECTED!” Everyone turned to the door as they saw Futaba returning, free of garbage odor and wearing the clothes from last year’s summer. “If you wanna boost your coffee-love stat, this is the best place to do so!” She said as she joined Lavenza, Bebop and Rocksteady in their table. “Besides, I’m pretty sure you’re not worse than Lavenza here”

The rest of the thieves laughed as Lavenza pouts. “You will never let me live it down?”

“Nope” Futaba replied with a cheeky grin.

“Alright, now I’m curious. What happened?” Shinigami asked, eager to hear the gossip.

Before the assistant could protest, Akira replied. “A few days before going to your turf, Lavenza asked me to take her here so she could meet the place. When we served her food, she immediately thought the Curry was sludge and called Boss a Godslayer”

“Well, excuse me!” Lavenza pouted again as she slammed her compendium against the table. “Given my situation, is not odd to think Sojiro Sakura made the Curry with pieces he took after chopping a God!”  

“We already told you, Lady Lavenza” Morgana added calmly. “Fukujinzuke is not made from a God, is made in honor of Gods”

“Correct me if I’m wrong here” Karai joined the gossip. “But by Gods, you mean the Shichi Fukijin, right?”

“That’s correct” Mona nods.

“Exactly, who are the Shichi Fukujin?” Leather asked, curiously yet carefully poking his head through the door.

“The Shichin Fukijin are the Seven Gods of Good Fortune in Japanese Mythology” Splinter’s voice suddenly rings through everyone’s minds. “Ebisu, Daikokuten, Bishamonten, Benzaiten, Jurojin and Hotei. The last place is taken by either Fukurokuju or Kichijoten. All of them are said to be chosen by the priest Tenkai himself”  

Sojiro sighed as the former sensei of the Hamato spoke. “I’m seriously never gonna get used to this…”

“Trust us, Sojiro Sakura” This time, Satanael is the one who replied. “This is not more normal to us than it is for you” Then his voice was directed to Akira’s. “By the way, Akira. Mada says if you please can save some Curry for him”

“Sure thing” Akira replied.

“Thanks!” That was Mada’s excited answer.

When the whole team decided the time for picking on Lavenza was over, they finally ate their dinner. And to say that the New Yorkers loved the Curry and Coffee would be the understatement of the century. While still Pizza-lovers at heart, the turtles enjoyed every last bite of the dish. Raph had the chance to share some of it with Chompy, which the baby turtle accepted with absolute gusto.

After a nice dinner, the crew was finally outside the café. “Guys, seriously” Leo told to the thieves. “That was an amazing dinner”

“Nice food, a homely atmosphere” Donnie added with a satisfied smile. “The whole place is a beauty!”

“Still not better than Pizza, but the food here sure is awesome!” Mikey added.

“Yeah, we gotta admit it” Raph replied as well. “You dorks sure know how to help a turtle chill out away from everyday’s bullshit”

“We’re glad you liked the place” Sojiro smiled before turning to the thieves. “By the way, you guys are going to take them to your new hideout, right?”

“Yep. That’s the plan” Ryuji replied with a grin.

“Do you mind if we accompany you as well?” Sae asked with arms crossed. “After all, this problem is involving both of out… ‘Territories’ and we can help you as much as we can from behind the battle”

“That’s true” Makoto admitted. “But, yes. You and Boss can tag along as well, Sis”

“As long as you and Boss can stay out of danger, it’s ok by us” Leo adds. “But what hideout are you guys taking us to?” He asked to the thieves, to which Futaba replied with a huge grin.

“If you loved LeBlanc, your minds are literally gonna fucking blow after checking the Phantom Lair, my friends from the Concrete Jungle. Mwehehehe…”

The New Yorkers wondered where the thieves were planning to take them. But they weren’t worried for Futaba’s giggle since it wasn’t a creepy, this one was out of excitement. In fact, April was just as excited as Futaba was. The perks of a mind-reader…

*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*

In a few minutes, the crew reaches their destination: A two-floored white house in the outskirts of Hiroo, in the southeast of Shibuya. Which is one of the most expensive residential districts in all of Tokyo. The traffic was surprisingly slow so the Shellraiser, the Party Wagon, the Phantom Van, Karai’s Bike and the Mona Bus had no trouble rolling there.

Once they reached to the place, Haru punched a code in a security panel opening the door. While going through the walkway, the ninjas were surprised by what they were seeing. More than a house, it was more a mansion of considerable size; not too big, but not too small, either. Once Haru opened the house main door while giggling a bit, the New Yorkers became speechless…

“Fellow heroes of from-the-shadows-justice! Welcome to our ‘Secret Hideout!’” Akira declared with his usual theatrical affair.

“The ultimate shelter for snacks, anime, cute Cat Pics and a crap-ton of gaming!” Futaba added in complete excitement. “The Phantom Lair!”

“Incredible…” Leo breathes in amazement.

“This ain’t incredible, dude” Casey adds. “This is FUCKING AWESOME!!”

As they took a look around the place, the New Yorkers had to admit this place was amazing. Everything was so modern yet comfortable at the same time. The kitchen, the laundry room, even the living room were huge enough for the whole team. The living room consisted of a large square space with an incredibly large red couch in front of a giant TV screen, with two brown couches on its sides. There is also a wide balcony just a few steps away at the left of the living room, giving a beautiful sight of this part of Shibuya.  

In the second floor, there is a hallway with a master suite in the end, with two Queen-size beds and a master bathroom included; at the left side of the hall there was three bedrooms with two bunk beds in the first room, one bunk bed in the second and a giant bed in the third room (the New Yorkers immediately knew who sleeps in there) and a comfortably-sized bathroom in each room. In the right side there was three single rooms with a queen-sized bed and a small bathroom in each room.

And if this wasn’t enough, Bebop and Rocksteady proudly showed the New Yorkers gym in the underground level huge enough that the whole team could train in there without any problem. Said facility possessed all kinds of both simple and advanced training equipment, including a boxing ring and even a shooting range. This of course, was good news to hear for the Hamato Clan so they could be at tip-top shape for their mission.

Makoto also clarified to them that the security system in the place was thanks to the mutant morons as well. Said system was acquired from the internet (no amount of convincing --- not even from Master Splinter himself --- could stop Haru from buying everything they needed. Hell, she even paid extra for Express Delivery) and received a few personal modifications from Zeck and Steranko. Thanks to that, the system became so efficient, if it weren’t for the fact that they have the access codes, even the Phantom Thieves themselves would have an EXTREMLY HARD time trying to break inside the Lair.

Haru explained that at the beginning of summer, she was quite worried that all of the former Phantom Thieves would not be able to see each other so often once they had to start new chapters in their lives, which was understandable. In that moment, however, President Takakura made her know that her father Kunikazu possessed this mansion in Hiroo and he planned to use it as part of their repulsive arranged marriage he wanted to put her through with that dipstick Sugimura. But when the marriage turned out to be a lie, it was revealed that the house was planned to be in possession of Haru. After checking that the place was still in optimal condition, Haru called for a meeting with the rest of the thieves for what turned out to be a wonderful idea: to keep the place so the group could live together like a special dormitory or something.

The fluffy-haired heiress beamed at the moment everyone was quick to agree with her. Right before their first meeting with the Elite, the thieves were quick to modify each one of the rooms to fit the tastes of each one and right before they departed to New York in the Turtles’ universe, the Phantom Lair was officially founded.

“I have to admit it” Karai spoke up, pretty impressed. “I have seen many mansions before, but this one’s far one of the coolest I’ve seen”

“We appreciate your honest opinion, Miwa-Chan” Haru giggled.

“Miwa?” Karai lifted an eyebrow, but she wasn’t upset. “Did my father told you that?”

“Um, yes. Sensei told us” Haru sheepishly scratched her cheek with a finger. “Don’t you like be called by your original name?”

“No, it’s ok” She replied. “To be honest, I like the name Karai more. But if you and my father want to call me Miwa, I don’t mind”

“Thank you so much” Haru beamed.

After the little tour around the lair, everyone gathered around the living room to discuss the progress of their mission. Just like in the sewer hideout, with a little help from Lavenza, Akira could temporally release Splinter as a link to the rest of his Persona roster.

“…and that’s what we know so far” Makoto explained to her sister and Boss.

The older Niijima sister was not pleased at all by this. But she knew she couldn’t help Makoto nor the thieves directly. And that thought disgusted her. It made her fell… Useless. She felt a strong nausea in her stomach at the thought of that cold-blooded word she used to insult her sister back then. But there was no time to dwell on the past. Right now, she regained her focus as Donnie kept speaking.

“It is pretty obvious already, but if the leader of the Elite is capable of traveling between timelines, it’s clear that he’s not doing it just for sightseeing”

“The leader of the Elite?” Mikey asked. “Don’t you mean, King Bizarro?”

At the question, Ryuji --- who was drinking a can of soda at the moment --- did a spit-take before laughing his ass off along with Futaba and Ann.

“Hahahahahahaha!!” King Bizarro!?” Ann barely managed to ask despite her laugh. “The hell kind of name is that!?”

“Well DUH” Mikey crossed his arms with a smug expression. “He’s the leader of a group of brainwashed cultists. It’s weird. Bizarre. King Bizarro is the perfect choice”

“I love it” Futaba admits. “Totally love it! 15 out of 10 for a perfect second-tier villain name!”

“Of course you guys would love it. I’m the best at naming stuff”

“Yeah, sure” Bebop sarcastically replied. “The best at randomly namin’ mutants based on stuff ya see around ya”

“Is not my fault Bebop and Rocksteady totally fits you” Mikey replied.

“You named us Bebop and Rocksteady after you tried to name us the Royal Weenies and Sprinkles and Hotsauce!”

“Sprinkles and Hotsauce?” Slash laughed. “Thank God Raphael didn’t let Michelangelo name me before I mutated”

“Speaking of which” Akira joins. “If you don’t mind me asking, what did Raph call you before you mutated?”  

“Spike” Slash replied. “I never really liked that name, so I changed it to Slash when I mutated”

“I thought I sounded cool, ok?” Now it was Raph who protested.  

“See what I mean?” Bebop protested again. “It’s short AND it’s pretty cool! Not like that nasty lame stuff you tried with us!”

“Do not forget he also tried the Pork Rind and the Chili Cheese Fry!” Rocskteady added.

“Don't remind me of that one, Steranko!” Bebop protested again.

After that silly moment, the sleeping arrangements were made for the New Yorkers:

---The room with the two bunk-beds belonged to Akira, Morgana and Ryuji. Leo and Raph were sharing room with them.

---Donnie would be Bebop’s roommate.

---Mikey and Casey would be with Yusuke.

---April went to Ann’s room (her danger sense quickly warned to stay the hell away from Ann's closet in order to avoid being buried alive by an avalanche of clothes).

---The master suite belonged to Haru since she technically was the owner of the house. Shinigami accepted share room with her.

---The second master suite belonged to Makoto since she needed her privacy for when she needed to study (and for when she needed to study with Akira). Karai was sent to share room with her.

---Futaba took Lavenza with her room. Using a bit of magic, the young assistant turned her usual attire into a Velvet Blue pajamas with Silver butterflies-pattern that resulted absolutely adorable.

---Rocksteady barely fit in his own room, so he slept alone.

---Leatherhead and Slash went for the couches in the living room. They were large enough for the Mutanimals and they confessed those were far more comfortable than the place they used to sleep on. The rest of the heroes totally understood that.

---Sae and Sojiro decided to go to their own homes.

But before they could finally rest for tomorrow…

“Raphael!!”

At Mona’s compliant, the aforementioned turtle groaned as he got up from his sleeping bag and glared at the non-cat. “The hell do you want now, you furball?”

“Mona, we want to sleep and be ready for tomorrow” Leo added. “What are you upset about?”

Upset, Mona pointed with his left front paw at a heart-shaped cushion on the floor. Akira, Leo, Raph and Ryuji saw little Chompy was happily sitting there, already making himself comfortable and ready to sleep.

“Is just Chompy sleeping in your stupid cushion” Ryuji groaned. “What’s the problem with that?”

“Ok, first off, the cushion is NOT stupid!” Mona protested. “And second: that is exactly the problem! You guys really expect ME to share my super soft heart-shaped cushion with an alien turtle!?

“BABY Alien turtle” Raph remarked before turning to Akira. “The hell’s is his problem, anyway?”

Akira sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “When Mona and I returned here for Summer Break, the others made a little party for our return, and Ann gave us that cushion as a gift. But I gave it to Mona since he was comfortable sleeping there” Then turned back to Morgana. “Look, Mona. We understand that cushion is important to you. But don’t be such a shell-hole and share it with Chompy, ok?” Akira turned back to Leo and Raph when he noticed both turtles were deadpanning at him.

…well, Leo was deadpanning. Raph was just disappointed.

“What?” Akira asked.

“Shell-hole? Really?” Leo asked.

Akira just shrugged, but he had a hint of a smartass smirk. “I was about to call him an asshole, but then I suddenly thought about a clever turtle-pun and I came up with shell-hole”

“Dude, even I know that sounds dumb” Ryuji remarked.

Leo just facepalms. “Seriously. I don’t know if I should congratulate your creativity, or feel greatly offended by the pun”

“I don’t know about you, but I know what I should do” Raph said right before bonking Akira on the head with a fist.

Realizing he was being such a crybaby, Mona just sighs. “Sorry. You guys are right. I’ll share my cushion with Chompy” As if he fully understood what the non-cat just said, Chompy chirped with a beaming expression.

“Huh… No wonder why Noir was so charmed by you” Mona admitted before going to sleep with the Baby turtle not too far from him.

*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*

Comfortable as expected, Mona was still sleeping in his heart-shaped cushion, probably dreaming about his feelings for Ann finally being reciprocated right after he finally found a way to become a human being. His tail was unconsciously swishing at a calm pace as he continued dreaming. Unfortunately, his tail woke Chompy up. And instead of being upset, the baby turtle pants with his eyes shining with playful innocent curiosity for the swishing tail.

And he bites…

A massively loud screech rings through the whole Phantom Lair as Mona jumps awake from his dream (if this was an American cartoon and not an attempt to remasterize an old fic, Mona would have jumped right to the ceiling and dig his claws in to stick in there).

Right as Chompy lets go of the tail, Mona wanted to be mad at Chompy, but he couldn’t. He was a baby, after all. He didn’t bite him with malicious intentions, but out of infant-like curiosity. Instead, he just sighed. “This is going to be one hell of a mission” He said as he let Chompy hop on his back. “Come on, Chompy. Let’s see how the others are doing. They must be at the gym right now” Chompy chirps as Mona carefully carries him to their destination.

And just as Morgana suspected, the whole team was gathered in the gym, already in a morning work-out before continuing with their mission. A very interesting detail was that Leo and Akira were having quite an intense boxing match and both of them were giving quite the show with how good the leaders were at fighting. And not too far from the boxing ring, Makoto had the pleasure of having a sparring session against Raph. Just as with Leo and Akira, despite being just sparring, the thief advisor and the turtle with the red bandanna were having quite an intense match. Morgana walked to a bench where Donnie, April, Lavenza and Futaba were sitting. Both ninjas were quite sweaty so the non-cat assumed they just finished training.

“Attention, everyone!” Futaba announced as with a grin, she picked both Chompy and Morgana. “Mona and Chompy returned to the party!”  

“Thanks for the declaration, Oracle” Mona replied before turning to see that Donnie working at his laptop. “What are you working on, Donnie?”

“Donatello is finishing with the adjustments for his scanners so he could properly measure the power of the shadows we’re going to confront during our mission” Lavenza replied.   

“Now, I’m just giving a few final touches to my scanners” The turtle genius replied as he smiled at his laptop. “…and it’s done!”

“You’re finally done? Cool!” Ann said as she and the rest of the crew approached the bench. Mona could barely hear Leo congratulating Akira for the match, just as Raph did for Makoto.

“Alright, Donnie” Leo spoke up. “How’s our situation here?”

“Well, here’s the thing” April says quite serious. “While not as powerful as Kavaxxas, Belial could take on the Super Shredder, Kraang Prime and Commander Mozar at the same time, and win without breaking a sweat”

“All those heavyweights at the same time?!” Casey asked. “Holy shit, man”

“We know, dude. Luckily for us, Satanael is far more powerful than Belial. Not to mention the rest of the thieves’ Personae as well as the rest of Akira’s Personae are walking powerhouses, too”

“So is just as you said earlier” Slash added. “Without the thieves’ help, we’re pretty much screwed against Belial”

“Exactly. Also, we need to be a bit more careful in case the Elite manages to summon far more powerful shadows when we encounter them. Since most of them have elemental weaknesses, we could use that to our advantage”

“I still have a ton of elemental tools I crafted last year” Akira added. “You guys can use them for when we have to deal with more shadows”

“Then that part is covered. Thank you, Akira” Leatherhead pipes in. “All we need to worry about is discover the Elite’s plans and stop them before they endanger our home-worlds”

“After we finished our morning routine, we can discuss our next course of action” Makoto added. “Just one more sparring session and we’re done for this morning”

“Sounds good” Leo agreed. “But this time... Raph, you take Akira and I take Makoto, ok?”

“Sounds good to me” Raph grinned as he cracked his knuckles. “I’ll try not to mess up his face too much, Makoto”

Makoto giggled as she managed to see Akira gulping with a hint of nervousness.

While not possessing the superhuman condition Akira had for being a Persona-User and his experience with the Metaverse, Leonardo and Raphael were far more capable and experienced fighters than even Makoto herself was. Due to their years of extensive and rigorous training in Ninjitsu the four mutant brothers went through with Master Splinter, they developed incredible fighting ability that allows them to keep up with even most fearsome human opponents. And even if they get hurt, they take considerably less time than most humans to fully recover.  

Physically speaking, Raphael is the strongest of the turtles. His strength and endurance make him a fearsome opponent, allowing him to take on powerful enemies like Rocksteady, Slash and even the Super-Shredder. Not to mention he can take a lot of punishment from his enemies and keep fighting. And while he still has his off moments, he has gotten considerably better at controlling his anger since Splinter’s unfortunate demise, which helps greatly with his fighting ability.

Leonardo, on the other hand, is the most focused and disciplined of the four. Something Makoto admires from Leo is both his skills as a leader and that the turtle leader manages to cope with the intense stress he has been going through his career as a ninja while leading his brothers. Not to mention that since he was forced to become the sensei of the Hamato Clan, his abilities as a martial artist increased considerably, allowing him to finally slay the Super-Shredder and keep up with the skills Splinter possessed before becoming a Persona.

She still needed to spar with Donatello and Michelangelo, but it was fair for Makoto to say that it was an upmost honor to meet such incredible mutant warriors just as them.

*@*One hour of shower and laundry later…*@*

“A tour around your Tokyo?” April asked after swallowing her spoonful of Curry. The whole team gathered in the kitchen as having breakfast, talking plans about how they were supposed to stop the Elite.

“I know it sounds kind of silly” Morgana answers. “But thanks to you guys, we had the chance to take a look around your Manhattan. So we thought we should return the favor”

“And what better way to do such a feat than allowing you to take a look at the marvels that our Tokyo has?” Yusuke smiled after inhaling his plate of curry.

Leo was humming in thought for a few seconds before he noticed Futaba was flashing Puppy-eyes at him. “Puppy-eyes? Really?” Leo deadpans again.

“Please, accept!” Futaba pleads. “Look, think of it this way: we can gather more info about what the Elite is planning if those assholes are spread around Tokyo!”

“Come on, bro!” Mikey joined Futaba with the Puppy-eyes. “You always say you wanted to know more about Japan! This is your chance!!”

“Please!”

“Pretty Please!”

“PleasePleasePleasePlease!!”

Their pleading was cut off by Raph muffling their mouths with his own hands. “Please, Leo. Accept already. It’s the only way to shut these two up!”  

“The pathetic pleading from those two aside” Donnie adds, ignoring the raspberry the hacker was blowing at him at the moment Raph lets go of her. “It is a good idea to take a look around the city in order to gather more info”

Seeing there was no way out of this, Leo had to relent. “Ok, fine. But only because you guys insist. But, yes: This could help us with finding out what the Elite are really up to”  

The youngsters cheer as the whole crew made preparations for this day. Leo was standing not too far from the gathering, right next to Akira and Makoto. “This is going to be a long day, isn’t it?” Leo asked.

“As we said, it is quite silly, but it’s the only hope we have to gather more info about the Elite” Makoto admitted.

“Besides” Akira added with a smirk. “Don’t tell us you’re not excited to learn more about Japan”

Akira had a point there.

“Ok, you got me there” Leo admitted with a soft smile. This could be a good chance to chill out, at least for a moment. “Let’s see what your home-world has to offer”  

Chapter Text

“I’m still thinking this was not a wise idea” Sae remarked while sitting on a chair of a round table along with her sister Makoto, Futaba, April, Karai, Shinigami, Bebop and Rocksteady. All of the girls and the mutant morons were gathered outside of a restaurant while Ann and Haru went buying some desserts for the group.

When Sae and Sojiro arrived to the Phantom Lair by Futaba’s request, both of them found out that they were going to help the thieves with giving the New Yorkers a little tour around Tokyo. Without even having the chance to ask Why?, Sojiro had to go with all of the boys, Slash and Leatherhead. All while the older Niijima sister had to go with the rest of the girls, Bebop and Rocksteady to Takenoko Street in Harajuku. The reason supposedly being to gather more information about the Elite.  

However, it seemed more like a normal get together for shopping and eating desserts than an incognito-investigation. And even though it was quite ridiculous, Sae admitted deep down that this was a bit relaxing. 

Lavenza, on the other hand, preferred to go with her guest instead. She said it was her responsibility as an attendant of the Velvet Room to accompany her guest as much as she could through this task.  

“We’re fully aware of it, Sis” Makoto explained. “But we don’t really have better ideas about how to get info about the Elite, so this is the best we could think of”

“Totally” Futaba remarked right before she swallowed a spoonful of a Gelato she bought. “We want to help Leo and his friends chill out a little too, so it’s a win-win for everyone. Well, except for those Elite ass-heads, but no one cares”

“And I have to admit things are going great so far” April added as she sip from a smoothie. “I never really got to see Japan in our home-world, so this sure is quite the experience” 

“If that’s what you wanted to do, I believe it’s acceptable" Sae nods. "But if you ask me, I’m here for the same reason as Leo: to investigate more about the Elite”

“Fair enough for us” Karai remarked as she lifted her glass of Ice Tea. In order to avoid attracting unnecessary attention, the three kunoichis changed into more subtle outfits. April wore her casual clothes. Karai choose her brown biker jacket and blue jeans (being a half-reptile mutant comes with some good perks; the extra heat from the jacket and the summer sun was actually good for her) while Shinigami picked dark blue jeans violet-tinted sunglasses, a black blouse with the symbol of the New Foot Clan on the front and a few cat paw-prints in the back and one-inch black boots.

“We’re back, everyone!” The ladies on the tale turned around and saw Haru, Ann, Bebop and Rocksteady walking right back at them. The ladies were carrying many bags with what seemed to be sweets while the Warthog and the Rhino were carrying way too many bags with clothes.

“That’s… an alarming amount of sweets you got there” Karai quirked an eyebrow.

“They were on sale, ok?” Ann pouts. “50% discount. Besides, how could I resist these delicious chocolate truffles that melt in your mouth?! They’re so delicious!”

“You know you’ll get fat if eat all of that, right?” Shinigami teased the blond lady.

“Shuddup!”

“They’re right, Ann” Bebop added. “One day that crazy-butt metabolism of your is not gonna save you, ya know?”

“Hey, my metabolism is not that crazy!” Ann protested before she turned to Makoto and Futaba. “…or is it?”

“To be frank, Ann, you do seem to have the metabolism of a hummingbird” Makoto confessed.

“What, does she eat half her own weight in sugar every day?” April asked, trying (and failing) to contain a chuckle.

Rocksteady chuckles. “Nyet, but comrade Ann is pretty close to that”

“Shuddup, Rock-head!” Ann pouted.

“It’s Rocksteady. Not Rock-head” 

After that, all of the female heroes and the mutant morons were enjoying some of the desserts they’ve got, and as Ann said, they were quite delicious. Not to mention that they brought quite a great variety of sweets: Chocolate truffles, Flan, small glasses of ice cream, etc. Both Makoto and Sae don’t really like the idea of eating too much sweets, but they could make up for it by training a little harder once they got the chance.

“Finally!” Futaba breathes in relief as she picks a large ice cooler she brought and carefully puts it on the table. “Now that the rest of the sweets are here, you can finally have a taste of the good stuff, kitty!” She exclaimed as she opened the cooler, revealing that Ice Cream Kitty was comfortably resting inside. The ice cream mutant perked up at Futaba’s exclamation as the hacker gave her a chocolate truffle that the mutant cat enjoyed. Being a mutant cat made of Ice Cream had its perks as well. One of them being that Ice Cream Kitty could detect sugar unlike other cats.

“I still can’t believe Mikey let you take his pet with you without any protest” Makoto said as she turned to Haru. “The same goes for you, Haru” She said as she glanced at Haru, who happened to have Chompy Picasso happily resting on the Okumura’s heiress shoulder, eating a small piece of a truffle.

“Perhaps, Mako-Chan” Haru said as she gently took Chompy in her hands. “Which is why it is so important for us to take care of these two while they’re with us”

“Couldn’t agree more on that” April says. “Just as Slash before he mutated and even after that, Chompy has a very especial place in Raph’s heart. But you guys are cool enough, so I’m not really surprised he and Mikey let you take their pets”   

“I apologize to interrupt ladies, but I’m afraid we are moving off topic” Sae butted in. “Did you guys found any important intel about our mission while buying all that stuff?”

“Sorry. But not really, Sae” Bebop shook his head. “Just everyday gossip: videogame sales, some cheapskates whinin’ about souvenirs here being too expensive, all that stuff”

“All I managed to hear was some gossiping girls talking about how they kinda remember the calling card we made for Shido last December. They said how cute they actually found what they could see of Skull and how much they’d love to meet him and ask him out” Ann explained as she crosses her arms and huffs. “How could they say that if they haven’t even met him yet?” She complained as she took a sip from a milkshake she bought along.

“Good point” Shinigami nods with a hint of a smirk. “After all, only you have the right to ask him out” At that statement, Ann slams a fist against the tablet.

"Damn right I do! How could I not have the right when we're already dating!?" 

While Ann huffs, Futaba chimed in. "So, ladies. What do you think about your first visit to Splinter's Dream Dojo?"

The Dream Dojo. A special room located beyond even the Velvet Room that Splinter was granted to help train the thieves through their dreams as well as getting to know them better. Since it was beyond the Velvet Room, Yaldabaoth couldn’t notice it until it was too late, which gave the thieves a huge advantage to grow stronger in power, fighting skill and bonds.

"I must say that I really enjoyed the place" Karai commented with full interest. "It makes me wish we could have something like that back home"

Then, April quirked an eyebrow. "What none of us were expecting was that you guys would share a lot of your past with us so soon" 

"I admit it's crazy, but we concluded that it would be fair" Makoto explained. "After all, it's thanks to Bebop, Rock and Splinter-Sensei that we learnt quite a lot about you. It was appropriate if you learnt about us in exchange"

That didn't sit well with Sae. She was actually a tad worried about if the ninjas learnt about how much of a bitch Sae was to Makoto...

But she knew she had no stake on this. Makoto made this choice on her own will. 

She just hoped the ninjas didn't hate her too much for how she treated Makoto...

“I’ll never forgive Shredder for all the shit he put you and your family through!” Ann seethed, glancing at Karai. "That piece of shit bastard... I really REALLY hate the idea of killing in cold-blood, but I'd be lying if I say I don't like the idea of frying Shredder alive..." 

"Same for me" Haru added, just as angry. "All the barbarities he commited... All because he couldn't let go of his grudges!" 

“Seriously. What you and Splinter went through was really fucked up! I thought Shido was a deranged prick. But Shredder!? He’s in a whole different league of evil!” Futaba added, seething as well.

“Yes. He was a real bastard…” Karai added with a grim expression. “Although… being manipulated into believing my mother’s death was my fault is not really far behind, nor the crap Haru and Ann went through” Then she turned to the aforementioned ladies. “With Haru, I actually understand the situation with her father. Sure, he was a total asshole, but still. But, you Ann? Look…” Karai needed a second to take a breath and think this through. She still is not good at emotional matters. Especially not with something as delicate as this. “I’m speaking from experience here, so I understand is much easier said than done, ok? Especially considering what happened to your friend Suzui. But you should try to stop dwelling on whatever past shit you were put through. Especially from someone who may be dead by now”

“Wait, what?” Ann asked in shock as she shot herself back up. “You think Kamo-shit-head is dead?”

“Don’t you know?” April adds. “Life in prison for sex offenders is hell with capital H. Especially for rapists and pedophiles. And that’s considering they survive long enough to tell the tale”

Shinigami adds with a grim expression of her own. “The treatment from the other inmates goes from beatings, to receiving a taste of their own medicine, and even death”

“Death??” Futaba asked in shock she shared with Ann, Makoto and Haru as Shinigami nods and continues. 

“Yes. Once the other inmates find out you are a rapist or a pedophile, it could be a matter of days, if not hours, before you end up in a body bag. And we assure you… it will not be swift nor painless”      

The Phantom ladies gaped in sincere shock as they turned to Sae.

“They’re not wrong” Sae admitted. “As long as they don’t brag about their crimes, a few sex offenders can make it through their imprisonment with some good custody. In fact, most of the time, that information remains confidential for the security of the inmates. However, since Kamoshida’s crimes became full well-known in the whole country, and we consider the fact of his confession… I have to agree with them. It would not be a surprise if Suguru Kamoshida has been murdered in prison by now given his crimes…”

“So Kamo-shit-head may be dead…?” Ann reminisced with a blank expression for a few seconds before she scowled and shook her head. “Well, too bad for him. As much as I’d love to know that he’s suffering for the rest his life, that bastard brought that on himself”

“Da. True that” Rocksteady nodded. “We all made our choices in life, and all of them with the nasty consequences to deal with whether we likes it or not. Just look at comrade Bebop and me”

“So, you two are no longer blaming the turtles for having Shredder mutating you?” April asked with a quirked eyebrow.

“Nah. More like, we never had the right to do that in first place, know what I’m sayin’?” Bebop admitted as he drank a good chunk of his Ice Tea. “It was crystal-clear Shredder was going to mutate us or maybe even kill us after we stole his helmet and tried to use Karai as a bargain chip to get out of NY during the Kraang invasion” Then turned back to Karai, scratching his nape. “Sorry ‘bout that, by the way”

“To be honest, I’m still kind of mad for that” Karai adds. “But after seeing what the Kraang was doing to New York back then, I really can’t blame you for being that desperate”  

“Still” Rocksteady continued. “We made choice of using you as way to escape nasty squishy Kraang thingies. And I has known Shredder for ten years. I should has known things were going to get nasty! If comrade Zeck and I was turned into the Bebop and the Rocksteady and forced to work for Shredder as sucker goons, is because we brought that to ourselves!”  

“But I think the point here is, that the past in the past” Makoto piped in. “What really matters is what you’re doing with your life in the present. And for what Splinter-sensei has told us, even though you’ll never be able to erase your past mistakes, you three have been doing much better now turning over a new leaf”

“Exactly” Futaba piped in. “It doesn’t matter where you start over as long as you do”

“That’s true. Although, there's another thing we're still curious about” Karai continued.

“About Goro Akechi, right?” Futaba asked, to which April replied.

“Yep. But, look. We totally understand. If you guys don't wanna talk about that jackass, we understand”

“Thank you for respecting our choice. But don't worry-- we will tell you about Akechi soon” Makoto nodded.

“Just hearing his name still makes me want to take his head and pop it like the blueberry!” Rocksteady slams a fist on the table, cracking it a little.

“We all still feel like that, Rock! We have no problem admitting that he was a victim. But that's still no excuse for what he did!” Ann added with deep hatred. “But we will explain that to you later”

“Yes. We can discuss that later” Shinigami added as her expression brightened considerably. “But for now, let’s do what we were meant to do here!”

“Spend time together and get to know each other better while we gather information for our mission to stop The Elite?” Haru asked.

Ann’s mood quickly improves as she piped in. “Yes! But also, to get new cool clothes for the turtles! Seriously, no offense to Leo, but his fashion sense is crap! I mean, just hoodies and sweatpants? Ugh! I get it. They’re Ninjas; they work better when they’re hidden. But if they’re gonna try to blend in our turf, they need to do it in style!”

Makoto shook her head while Sae sighed. It was a relief that they were still focused on the mission, though. 

“Good morning. The group on the table?” A sudden unknown voice called out to the ladies and the mutants. They turned around and found a woman wearing farmer’s clothes accompanied by a llama and a person who was wearing a hoodie that covered her head and a Kitsune mask, keeping the team from looking at her face.

It goes without saying that the ladies and the mutant morons lifted confused eyebrows at the sight.

“Um, can we help you, ma’am?” Makoto asked to the farmer, to which the aforementioned person smiles at.

“Oh, thank goodness! We thought nobody would listen to us!” The farmer replied with a grateful voice. “Listen, we understand this is going to sound extremely odd, but we need help with something very important”

“Sure. What is it, ma’am?” Makoto said, fully realizing these people actually were in need.

While April was subtly trying to check the women with her psychic sensors, the farmer replied. “Listen. It’s about our llama pet. For some reason we still don’t understand, some weirdoes wearing cult-like robes kidnapped her when they mugged us. And we were wondering if you, please, could help us get our pet back”

“A llama pet?” Sae asked with a tilt of her head. “Who and why would steal a llama in the first place?”

“That’s exactly what we wish to know?” The farmer scoffed. “As you can already imagine, we’re not from here. We live in the more rural parts and we’re on vacation. So perhaps stealing our llama pet was just to annoy us more than anything. Although sure the people who mugged us sure are the weird ones”

“What do you mean by that, miss?” Bebop asked.

The farmer replies. “It was mostly because they said nothing else than ‘we are the chosen ones… we are the Elite…’ or whatever nonsense that meant”

The team gasped in surprised. It seems they found something to work with, even though the circumstances were pretty weird.

“Sure thing, missy!” Rocksteady replied. “We will help you find llama pet and break bones of muggers like the toothpicks!”

“I can’t thank you all enough for that!” The farmer smiled brightly as she rummaged inside a purse she was carrying and unsheathes an old collar. “This belongs to our pet. I’m sure this will be useful for your cause?”

“Ya dang right it is, missy” Bebop piped in as he took the collar and sniffed at it a couple of times. Despite the amount of perfume and food scents in the area, Bebop was quick to track the llama’s smell. “I found it! This way. Hee-heeeee!” With that, he quickly activates the gliding devices on his shoes and slides his way to the location of the missing llama. Startling a few visitors throughout the process. 

The girls and the rhino were quick to follow the warthog. “Don’t worry, miss. You and your friend will have your pet back soon!” Haru yelled as she and the rest dashed through the crowd.

“We know you all will…” The farmer muttered to herself with a smile flashing a mixture of warmth, hope and sympathy. “…after all, the Fates said great things about all of you. And even greater things will arrive to your future”

“Hey!” April called out for the rest of her partners while following Bebop. “Did you guys noticed something odd about those women?”

“You mean, apart from the fact that the woman in the Kitsune mask didn’t say a damn thing?” Futaba asked while sitting on Rocksteady’s shoulders. “Maybe she has problem with socializing. Or maybe she’s autistic like me!”

“Maybe. But is not just that” April said. “I tried to check the ladies and I felt a strong interference that kept me from doing so”

That caused the rest of the tem to stop in their tracks. “Interference?” Makoto asked, intrigued. “Like with the Kraang Mind-controlling devices?”

“No nothing like that. This felt more natural. And much stronger”

“Really?” Haru asked. “Who are those ladies, then?”

“I think we can ask them later” Karai replied. “First we must find their llama. After all, not only they need our help, this could also help us find out more about the Elite”

As if on cue, Makoto’s phone rings. She quickly fishes it out of her pocket and answers. “Moshi-moshi”

“Yo, Boss-Queen. I found where the llama is located” Bebop’s voice replied quietly from the phone. “But better hurry up, I found more of those Elite suckas, too”

“Roger that. Send us the coordinates. We’re on our way” With that settled, the rest of the team quickly resumed their rush.

The half of the team was quick to meet with Bebop in a dark alley spacious enough for all of them to hide in. At the other side was a large building, which by judging by its looks, doesn’t seemed very abandoned if the people wearing robes walking inside was a good signal of it.

“There’s no doubt” Ann muttered low enough to avoid being heard. “Those are brainwashed cultists”

“We must find a way to sneak in without being noticed” Sae said as Makoto turned to Futaba and nods to her.

After nodding back, Futaba hides between two trash containers and transforms into Oracle, followed by Bebop and Rocksteady transforming into Pumpkin and Diamond respectively. Although a little disgusted, Ann, Haru and Makoto followed them and transformed. 

“Alright. Let’s take a look” Oracle said as she scanned the building nearby. “There’s a door on the third floor. No guards and large enough for us to sneak in. There’s also the missing llama, a lot of what seems to be Kraang tech, and… wait!” She trailed off a little as she found something. “I’m detecting a large reading in there. Just hold on… I got it!” She said as she prepared a small hologram of the object in question and showed them to the rest of the team. A large round black spider-like mutant with four spider-legs-like-appendages above its head.

“Wait, what’s that? Another mutant?” Panther asked in shock, to which Karai quickly replied.

“Leo told us about him. Spyder Bytez: one of the first mutants the turtles had to fight before Shredder and I arrived to our New York”

“Spyder Bytez??” Pumpkin asked with a frown of disbelief. “What’s that loser doin’ here!?”

“You know him?” Noir asked, to which Diamond answers.

“Yes. Sadly. It was when Fishface organized illegal street races underground for mutants and criminals to watch and make bets”

“And let us tell ya, he’s a total whiner” Pumpkin added. “All the time complainin’ about those damn Kung-Fu frogs ruining his life when he mutated. Everyone hated him!”  

“Kung-Fu Frogs?” Sae asked. “Does he mean the turtles?”

Diamond nodded. “Da. Nobody knew why nasty Spyder Bytez called them frogs. But was one of reasons everyone hated him”

“So basically, he’s a dumbass” Panther remarked dryly.

“Well, guess doesn’t matter” Oracle piped in. “We take down that spider-jerk, rescue the llama and we find more info about the Elite. We kill three birds with one stone!”  

“Alright. Let’s get to work” Queen said as she turned to Sae. “Sis. You stay here and wait for our signal to come inside and call the police, ok?”

The older Niijima Sister nodded. “Alright. But be careful, ok?”

With a shared nod, the heroes carefully sneaked inside the building. With both Ice Cream Kitty and Chompy Picasso now under her care, Sae sighed in slight frustration once she knew they were gone. She understood that she had to be outside since unlike her sister and her friends, Sae was not a Persona-user, a mutant or a trained ninja with experience supernatural stuff. But she couldn’t help but to wish that she could join the battlefield and fight side-by-side with Makoto.

And that’s considering if Makoto really wished for that if Sae ever had such a chance. After all, with how much of a bitch she was to Makoto, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the younger Niijima holds a grudge against Sae. Even though it didn’t seem like it. Still, Sae felt like she was just a one wrong step of losing Makoto for good because of her own flaws, and Sae hated herself for that. She hated herself for treating Makoto like dirt and wrongfully spiting her father because of his death when it was something completely out of his control. Sae really wanted a chance to properly reconnect with Makoto as well as a chance to try and redeem herself. That’s why she became a Defense Lawyer. To try and attone for her mistakes as a prosecutor and human being in general.

She just hoped she could see and take the opportunity before it’s too late.

Sae was focused in her own thoughts that she didn’t noticed the woman in bright armor she saw since Makoto’s birthday, standing a few feet right behind her. The aforementioned lady was glancing at her, as if hoping that she would make the right choice when the time arrived.  

With extreme caution, Queen, Panther, Noir, April, Karai, Shinigami, Oracle, Pumpkin and Diamond made their way through the third floor, leading to some sort of platform that gave a view of the main area of the building. Since most of the place was quite dark, they used the shadows to their advantage and remain as hidden as possible.

“Just as I saw…” Oracle whispered. “There’s a lot of Kraang tech in here. Mostly mind-controlling devices. Along with many brainwashed cultists and Spyder Bytez”

“And the llama is over there” April pointed out. Not too far from the mutant spider, there was a llama whose fur was white as snow. Flashing some sort of majestic aura around it. It was actually quite beautiful in its own way.

“So, remind me again why you sent our mind-controlled minions to kidnap that llama in the first place?” A cultist spoke to Spyder Bytez. For the golden robe he was wearing, he perhaps was a high-ranking member of the Elite. Although this one seemed more obese.

“I just thought it would help us, ya know?” Spyder Bytez replied. “I mean, just look at it. A llama that pretty must be worth some good cash”

The obese golden robe took a good look at the llama.

…and the llama spat at his face.

Spyder Bytez cackled at that. Even the hidden heroes laughed quietly.

The golden robe growled as he removed the hood off his head and wiped his face clean with a fancy handkerchief that was in his pocket.

“Who the hell is that?” Karai asked as they all got a better look at the golden robe’s face.

“I don’t know…” Noir trailed off. “…but I’m sure we’ve seen him somewhere”

“Wait, we know him!” Queen whispered in realization as she turned to Panther, Pumpkin, Diamond, Noir and Oracle. “I know this is going to sound unpleasant, but imagine him wearing swimming trunks and a masquerade mask!”

“Do we have to…?” Panther complained before she complied and imagined the golden robe the way Queen told them to. “Wait” Then Panther realized. “It’s him??”

“What are you talking about?” Shinigami asked, to which Pumpkin replied.

“That fatso in the robe is a former noble that supported Shido’s anti-social force. Heck, he was one of the V.I.P.s we had to fight in Shido’s palace to keep the infiltration!”

“…and now he’s involved in this cultist nonsense?” Noir wondered. “Is he brainwashed as well, April-Chan?”

April needed a few more seconds to focus. “No. Neither the noble nor Spyder Bytez are brainwashed.” She said.

“Ok. They’re working for the Elite on their own free will” Queen pondered with a finger on her chin. “But the question is why?”

“We can find answers after squishing them out of their pummeled bodies” Diamond piped in with hammer and sickle ready.

“Good point” Queen concluded as she took a good look around the area. “Alright, we need to take them by surprise so we can get an advantage” But before the advisor could make a plan, the llama suddenly started screeching. Well, more than screeching, it was neighing with joy. Right at where they were hiding! To which to the heroes’ dismay, caused the former Noble and Spyder Bytez to turn right at where they were hiding.

“What the…?” Spyder Btyez exclaimed as he leaped at where the heroes were hiding.

“Intruders!!” The former noble exclaimed.

“Aw, hell…” Panther muttered as the mutant arachnid was now right in front of them.  

“So much for stealth” April complained as she unsheathed her Tessen.

“Well, well, well. You must be the famous Phantom Thieves of this Japan” Spyder Bytez said with a smug grin. “And to make it more interesting, we have the three ladies who are friends with those infernal Kung-fu Frogs. Talk about a golden opportunity”

Pumpkin quickly prepared his chainsaw. “Alright, ugly. You’re gonna tell us what are you doin’ here and give up or this is going to get funky-fresh!”

“And ruin the surprise!? Never!” The former noble yells from below. “The Elite has something great prepared for not just one, but two completely different worlds! Something that you would never comprehend!”

“Does that something you’re preparing has to do with kidnapping llamas?” Oracle remarked as she pointed to the white llama. “Because I don’t see how that would fit in whatever crap you’re planning”     

“It was my idea, ok??” Spyder Bytez protested. “I mean, just look at it. A llama that pretty has to be worth something, am I right?”

The heroes took a moment to take a better look at the llama. “Well, da. It’s pretty” Diamond admitted as he turned back to the arachnid mutant. “But enough of pretty llama! Let us make with the crushing, already!”

“Nine of us versus an ugly-ass spider and a fatass cultist?” Shinigami grins wickedly as she unsheathed her Kusarigama. “I like those odds”

“In that case, I happen to have something to even the odds a little” The former noble declared smugly as he commanded the brainwashed cultists to unsheathe their amulets. In a combined effort with the former noble, all of the cultists summoned a shadow from the Sea of the Souls. A humanoid shadow with wings and a lion head.

“Ha! Try to surpass this kinda backup!” Spyder Bytez chuckled as the shadow hovered next to him.

“I am Pazuzu! Demon of the Southwest wind!” The shadow declared with an air of superiority.

“Wait, hold on. What the hell” April raises both hands with a confused expression. “So, you’re saying you’re not even as powerful as the South wind or the West wind? That’s kind of lame, don’t you think?”   

“I used to be very important!” Pazuzu protested. “Google it!”

“Google? Really?” Spider Bytez asked to the demon with a deadpan.

“Practically everything can be found in the internet, so why not?” Oracle shrugged, hiding behind Diamond.

The cultist just sighed as he pointed at the ladies and the mutants. “Forget about Google! Just kill them!”

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NASAoetOqQ)

At the noble’s command, Spyder Bytez prepared a nice acid spit while Pazuzu prepared to launch an Eiga. April, Karai, Queen and Panther were quick to unsheathe a few smoke-bombs and hurled them at the villains. Both Spyder Bytez and Pazuzu cried and coughed at the smoke, provoking to accidentally hit each other with their attacks. Spyder Bytez cried after receiving the Curse attack while Pazuzu groaned in pain due to being of the receiving end of the projectile made of digestive acid.  

The team was quick to leap off the platform and landed on the first floor where the former noble and the brainwashed cultist were standing.

“Ok… That was a quick reaction, I admit…” The former noble muttered nervously before he unsheathed his amulet once again. “But that won’t save you from the might of --- AGH!” The noble’s speech was cut off by the white llama spiting right in his face once again. Disgusted, the former noble was so busy with both trying not to puke and wiping the spit off his face that he couldn’t see Panther dashing at him before it was too late. He received a spinning jump kick from the blond lady that knocked him out cold.

“Sweet dreams, you perverted prick” Panther spat (both figuratively and literally) at the unconscious cultist while the rest of the team was taking care of the brainwashed cultists.

“Well, the former noble is out cold and the Kraang mind-controlling devices are removed from these people. That takes care of half of the problem at hand” Queen said as she turned around at the upper platform. “Those two over there are the other half” As the moment Queen finished saying that, the smoke cloud dissipated. Recovering, Spyder Bytez and Pazuzu glared at the heroes. They were clearly pissed for that dirty trick.

“Spyder Bytez won’t be much of a problem” Karai added in confidence. “But anything you can tell us about the shadow can help a lot, Queen”

“Pazuzu is weak to Bless, resists Wind and is immune to Curse” The advisor replied. “Nothing more. Nothing less”

“Good thing Joker and Mona gave us these before going out of the Phantom Lair” April added as she, Karai and Shinigami unsheathed a few Happy Bombs that Joker crafted last year and still kept for some reason. The kunoichis had no reason to complain since all the New Yorkers understood that they could help them fight any shadows they could encounter through this outgoing around the Shibuya of the Thieves’ world.   

“Alright, ya punks!” Spyder Bytez snapped. “We’ll send ya back to your frog friends in body bags!”

“Prepare for the most unpleasant trip to hell, Phantom Thieves and allies!” Pazuzu declared as he launched another Eiga at the heroes. Thinking quickly, Pumpkin intercepted the spell by standing in the front with arms wide-open, receiving the attack. Since his Persona Iron Lantern was immune to Curse, the mutant warthog remained intact. “Sorry, suckas. Can’t touch this piggy”

Seeing the chance, Diamond charges to try and tackle Spyder Bytez with full force. The mutant arachnid, however, was quick to react and leaps high in the air using the spider-legs on his head. “You’re gonna need more than that to crush this spider” Spyder Bytez cackled as he quickly used his spider web to hang from the ceiling, quite far from the heroes.

“Oh yeah? Then how about this?” April exclaimed as she hurled her Tessen and used her psychokinetic powers to swiftly guide it towards the web, cutting it in a swift motion. With a sudden yelp, Spyder Bytez fell on the floor face-first. But before he could get up, Diamond took the opportunity to land on him with an elbow drop like the ones he saw in those Pro Wrestling matches he loves so much.

In the meantime, Panther was keeping Pazuzu at bay with her Wild Hunt submachine gun while Karai and Shinigami hurled a few Happy Bombs at the shadow, knocking it down since Bless was its weakness. Seeing it down on the floor, Queen, Noir and Pumpkin took the opportunity to finish it off with their melee weapons.

“Remember…!” Pazuzu cried with his last breath as he was turning into black fog. “Goooooooogle iiiiiiiiiiit…” And with that, that physical embodiment of Pazuzu was sent back to the Sea of the Souls.

“Kinda weird for a demon to tell us to use Google” Oracle said with a tilt of her head.

“Given all the weird crap we’ve been dealing with for the last three years, I’m not really surprised” April shrugged.

With a few moans of pain, Spyder Bytez got up and not only he found that Pazuzu was exterminated, he also found himself surrounded by the hero team. Seeing the odds against him, Spyder Bytez scowled. “You all are gonna pay for this. You and those Kung-Fu Frogs won’t be able to stop the Elite!”

“They’re not Kung-Fu Frogs, dumbass! They’re Ninja Turtles!” Karai exclaimed.

“Either you can’t tell the difference between Frogs and Turtles” Queen piped in. “or you really are an idiot”

“Whatever! You all are gonna pay!” Spyder Bytez seethed as he took the unconscious Former Noble with him and spat a lot of acid to the ceiling, provoking it to collapse on the team. The girls and the mutants were quick to escape with all the unconscious cultists, but this was what Spyder Bytez wanted as it gave him the opportunity to escape as well through a portal opened via the Noble’s amulet.

(Background OST ends here)

“Oh, you found him!” The farmer from before was waiting outside the building along with the mysterious woman in Kitsune mask, Sae and the pets. “Thank you so much for finding our pet!” She said as she bowed to the heroes.

“It was a pleasure, ma’am” Makoto smiled. “It’s what we do. If we see someone in need, we’re honor-bound to help them in any way we can”

“Still!” The farmer beams. “I understand that you guys don’t help others in order to gain something in exchange, but you all deserve a little reward for this favor” Ignoring the constant convincing of our heroes that such gesture was unnecessary, the farmer nods to the woman in the Kitsune mask. Nodding back, the aforementioned lady handed each one of the heroes a good basket with fruits and vegetables of great quality.

Haru was quick to see that all of them were harvested naturally. “Wow! These look amazing!” The Okumura heiress said in awe as she took a bite off an apple. Then, her eyes widened in even more surprise. “And they taste even better!”

The farmer just chuckled. “All natural, young girl. No chemicals whatsoever. I’ve always been told that I have a green thumb and I’m glad I can do what I can with my gift”      

While the lady in Kitsune mask was handing a basket to the New Yorkers, she took a few moments to glance at Karai. The leader of the New Foot Clan quirked an eyebrow at her. “Um, something wrong, miss?” Karai asked.

The lady in Kitsune mask shook her head. “Nothing. My apologies” She said with a low voice, as if she was whispering. “I can tell that you and your friends are doing great despite whatever ordeals you were forced through”

The heroes shared a confused glance then turned back to the Kitsune-masked lady. “You’re not wrong” Futaba admitted.

Sae just glanced at the farmer, the Kitsune-masked lady and the llama with a quirked eyebrow while she called 119.

“One more thing, though” The farmer said to Makoto. “I think this would be a perfect gift for you”

Along with her sister and the rest of her friends, the advisor of the Phantom Thieves glanced in awe at what the farmer was handing over to her.

“Wow!” Bebop said. “Now that’s what I call a very cute flower!”

“This is a pomegranate flower” The farmer said. “Either the flower or the fruit, handing a pomegranate to someone is a symbol of good will and a wish for the best intentions. So you may want to give this to someone you really care for” The famer winked. “Perhaps… a significant other”

Everyone chuckled at how red Makoto’s face was. But she thanked the farmer, nonetheless.

After making sure that the police and the paramedics arrived to the scene, the heroes decided to return to the Phantom Lair to wait for the rest of their friends and share all the information they’ve found. Once the ladies and the mutant morons were gone, the woman in Kitsune mask, the farmer and the llama gathered in a secluded alley, away from the people of Harajuku. Once they knew they were completely safe, the llama was suddenly enveloped by a bright light that revealed his true form. A ten-feet-tall four-legged white creature with a fairly long neck and a golden cross-like wheel attached to its abdomen.

It was none other than the Alpha Pokémon.

Arceus.

“Well” Arceus said with a sigh of relief. “I’d say that our part in here was a success”

“Definitely” The farmer said as she was enveloped by a light as well, revealing her true form. A woman with short spiky blond hair. She was wearing what seemed to be a Red-and-Black Greek attire with a few skulls decorating her shoulders and the tiara on her head. “They must be closer now to resolve this Elite nonsense and stop the catastrophe the demon Belial would unleash with that fool Baxter Stockman” Then turned back to the woman with the Kitsune mask and noticed she was glancing at the floor. Fully knowing the reason of her behavior, Arceus and the Greek lady glanced at her with nothing but pure sympathy and understanding. “We deeply apologize, Shen. As a mother, I completely understand how much you wanted to properly meet your daughter after all this time” The Greek lady said.

The woman in question removed the hood of her head and took off the Kitsune mask, revealing that she was a young woman… well, more specifically, she was the ghost of a Japanese-Chinese young woman with long black hair. But her appearance was unmistakable.

She was the ghost of Tang Shen. Karai’s deceased mother.

“No need to apologize” Shen said, with clear grief on her face. “I’m just glad that Miwa is doing well since she was freed from Saki’s clutches” She turned back to the Greek lady and Arceus. “Besides, if everything goes well, Yoshi and I will be able to properly reconnect with her as well as connect with the turtles. Not as the family we could’ve been before. But as something similar yet new”

“Hopefully. You all completely deserve it after all these insane ordeals…” Arceus nodded, then sighs. “My son Giratina and I disagree with a few things. But in this one, we do agree. We find it very unpleasant to force such cruel responsibilities on mortals. Especially since most of them are still children”

“The fates can be very cruel, Arceus. But this is what these young heroes were born to do. All of them” The Greek lady admitted with a good amount of sympathy. “Besides, the reason we had to improvise with our plan at the last minute was because this is all Yaldabaoth’s fault. This happened because that self-righteous bastard toyed with the humanity of this world as well as with the Velvet Room. All while thinking he was a true God”

“You’re right” Arceus sighed, mad at the now deceased self-proclaimed God of Control. “We have no choice but to proceed with the plan this way. It’s what was meant to be for Makoto Niijima after all, according to the Fates. Her father would be proud of her right now…”

“I know I am. Of all of them” Tang Shen said with a warm smile that was mirrored by the Greek lady. “Let’s continue with the other half of the group, shall we? If they’re going to accomplish whatever the Fates had planned for them, first they must deal with this pain-in-the-neck cheap cult”

“After all the villains and monsters both teams fought so far? Even if we don’t compare him to all of that, that Mighty Leader is literally just a villain from a Saturday morning cartoon. As long as they don’t underestimate Belial and Baxter Stockman, they are going through this with no problem” Arceus said as he turned back into a llama.

“Alright. Let’s go” The Greek lady said, ready for action.

Tang Shen smiled full of hope and followed right behind them as she put the hood and the Kitsune mask back on. “Yes. Lead the way… Queen Persephone”