Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

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"Splinter portaled us out after you got knocked out, we're back at the lair now"

The smallest one tried to explain as if he was answering anything, but in full honesty he just raised more questions.

"Who's splinter?" 

The three interrogators stared at him in shock, eyes all equally wide.

Okay apparently Leo was supposed to know who splinter was.

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The first thing that registered in Leo's mind was the intense pain pounding against his skull.

The second was the blinding lights that swarmed his vision once his eyes finally flickered open. Which he promptly squeezed shut again.

He heard gasps of relief followed by panicked crowding, nothing they were saying made much sense for the first few moments. Two hands landed on his shoulders but were batted away but someone else.

"Mikey! He's suffered severe head trauma! Don't shake him!" 

"He's waking up though!" 

"Leo! Leo, can you hear me?" 

"Stop crowding him guys!" 

The three voices kept bickering as he hesitantly opened his eyes again, squinting until he could make out the figures who were talking. They were either mutants or yokai, all of varying sizes. As soon as they noticed him they screamed in unison.

"LEO!" 

The middle one's back erupted with mechanical arms he used to shove the other two out of the way- which was kind of freaky. He was dressed in different purple accessories and looked to be a turtle, similar to Leo himself, although his shell was an unnatural shade of purple. He sported an eye mask similar to the ones the other two turtles shared, although he had eyebrows drawn onto his- for some reason.

"Leo! Are you dizzy? Do you have a headache? I need to know your symptoms so I can diagnose your condition-"

Leo just blinked at his interrogator, dumbfounded to what the hell was happening.

"Splinter portaled us away after you got knocked out, we're back at the lair now"

The smallest one- assumably Mikey- explained as if it helped answer anything, but in full honesty it just raised more questions.

"Who's splinter?" 

The three stared at him in shock, eyes all equally wide and afraid. The two in the back tried to scoot closer but the middle one pushed them away again. 

Okay apparently Leo was supposed to know who splinter was.

"I-I need you to tell me your name, can you do that? The purple turtle hesitantly asked the question as if Leo was some rabid do..

He blinked.

"Uh, Leonardo? Hey how do-" 

"Do you remember the first thing I said to you when you first opened your eyes?" 

"Well my ears were ringing so it wasn't really paying attention" He tried to roll his eyes but it only worsened his headache.

The purple turtle paused for a moment. 

"Do you know what you are?" 

"A turtle mutant?- Why haven't you answered-" 

"Do you know where you are?" The mutant cut him off again, which was rude, but it did make Leo stop to think. 

"No, I don't? Can I ask questions now or are you going to keep interrupting me?" 

No one answered him, they all just stared at the purple one in question, he seemed to be good at not answering people. 

"Leo, listen to me very carefully.” He hesitated, “I'm Donnie, this is Raph, and that's Mikey, we're- we’re your brothers,"

The dubbed Raph and Mikey's eyes widened, flicking from Leo to Donnie in panic. 

He stared back at them.

"You're what ?" 

____________________________________

To be fair, his 'brothers' didn't seem like they were trying to be the absolute worst. 

But they were the absolute worst.

Donnie had been asking about his symptoms non-stop for the past two weeks, Mikey kept coming into his room and playing music with him while he'd do- whatever Mikey does- and Raph was constantly hovering over him like a worried mother. And that wasn’t even mentioning Splinter and whoever April was, who they keep saying is their sister but she’s a human and doesn’t live with them? He hadn’t had a moment of quiet since he’d woken up. 

Again, weren't trying to be annoying.

In fact he'd normally love the attention, if it weren't for his excruciating migraine.

"And you're sure you can't remember anything from before the incident?" Donnie triple checked yet another question on his list before finally marking it off.

" Donnie , I'd say I've never been more sure about something in my life but I don't know because I. Cannot. REMEMBER." He clapped his hands between each word to put emphasis on his point, added with a glare the other was promptly ignoring.

Donnie scribbled something down, just nodding to himself in that weird scientist way he did. 

"Alright well, tell me if you need anything or remember something, ok?” 

He just grumbled to himself in response, holding his gaze on the other until he finally nodded and left the room. 

Leo wasn’t completely lying when he answered- he was just fabricating the truth a little. He hadn’t remembered anything new, but there was one blurry memory from before the accident. 

Though it’s not like it was useful. Just the image of- a mother-like figure? There wasn’t much of a better way to describe her. Well there probably was- she was a giant spider for starters, yet something about her seemed all too maternal. Which from what the other’s had told him didn’t make any sense whatsoever. They had mentioned a spider mutant, but they’d said she’d been the reason for his concussion. Which left Leo wondering- 

What else were they lying about? 

He brought his feet up to his chest so he was sitting butterfly-style. He hated this whole thing. It would be so much easier to figure things out if he could remember anything useful. Unfortunately it didn’t look like that was happening any time soon, so for the time being he’d try to figure out as much as he could about the situation.

Luckily his concussion was healing just fine, and he managed to stand up without much trouble. In fact at this point he was itching to just walk around, maybe get out of the cramped sewer systems the other’s called a home. He took the katanas he’d been given from their place leaning against his dresser, both swords had been idle long enough there’d formed a thin layer of dust on the hilts. He slung the scabbard that went along with the weapons around his chest and shell, figuring he might as well be prepared for anything that might happen in his search. 

Leo silently made his way into the main area, he was supposed to be on bed rest still but with as suspicious as these turtles were he wasn’t going to pass up a chance to get some info. He slipped through the open room towards Mikey’s room, he’d noticed the youngest was often the first to go to sleep. The cold concrete mixed with the night chill from the open roof was refreshing, and for the first time in- ever Leo felt like he could breath . 

Getting to Mikey’s room was slightly disappointing however, there wasn’t much evidence for any evil plot on the surface, and after some light inspecting of the walls and under the furniture it was much the same result. Not that Leo was hoping he’d been kidnapped and was being manipulated- but the circumstances just didn’t sit right. 

Peaking out into the main room again, he found Donnie’s lab from the obnoxiously loud machinery sounds, he checked it for signs of occupation, which it was, leaving his room empty.

Leo just needed to find said room first. Which wasn’t too difficult, it was the only room that didn’t lead to a hall or have a light on, and after closer inspection he found it was decorated with tech diagrams, various blueprints and a few drawings that looked to be done by a child hanging on the walls.

He wasn’t entirely sure what he was looking for, again he just checked for secret compartments- which he surprisingly did find- although it only held some candy probably hidden from the gremlin that is their box turtle friend. After another minute or two of searching he sighed in defeat. He let his eyes linger on Raph’s room, but the light was on and the mutant was intimidating enough as it was. 

If they really were all brothers they were definitely adopted, Splinter probably just really liked turtles or something. Speaking of the rat, Leo would have to search his room as well sooner or later, for now he just wanted to do something that involved more movement. Mikey told him he’d enjoyed basketball in the past, so he could check it out, maybe find a court somewhere in the city. 

Without thinking about it too much, he decided his best bet was through the open roof in the main room. The climb up there was easy, he only almost fell once, surprising himself with his balancing ability when he caught himself on lower scaffolding. He managed to make it out, pulling himself up to an idle, doc-adjacent, trash zone. This probably wasn’t an exit used by the others very often. 

The courtyard was illuminated by the entrance gate’s street light several meters away. All in all the area itself was strangely quiet and looked to be abandoned, although the sounds of car horns and rushing highways in the distance took away any creeping loneliness this place exerted. 

Leo wandered around for a bit before hopping the fence onto the main road, which he followed downtown. Once the buildings were close enough he decided staying on the roofs was the best bet, so he took a fire escape up and continued through the bustling city. 

It was almost relaxing how well he fell into the leap between the rooftops. The constant chattering and vehicles noises were comforting, a reminder life had continued on without him. The city lights were as blinding as ever and the fuel in his benched body only burned brighter at the sight of them. Everything about it should've felt so right if he didn't feel so alone. 

He wasn't sure why, there were so many people lining the streets below him, the feeling shouldn't have been as present as it was. Regardless, he pushed it back down as he landed on a skylight of an empty office building. Letting himself perch for a moment or two as he took in the sight of the city, though something in the skyline caught his attention first. 

“The Nexus Hotel?”

Nexus.

Why did that sound so familiar? The turtles definitely made no mention of it in his time with them, but the name wasn't foreign.

“Necs-us? Nec-sus, Ne-cssusss,” Saying it out loud just confused him on the pronunciation more.

“It's just Nexus,” A feminine voice suddenly appeared just a mere few feet behind him. He spun around instantly to spot the newcomer, although the sudden movement dizzied him and he slipped off the skylight onto the roof below with a thunk. 

“One word, no gap” The figure leaned over the perch Leo had tumbled off of to study him, who promptly scrambled to his feet. Once his vision stopped swirling he managed to make out the character. 

“Ok first of all- it's rude to sneak up on people. Second, who are you?” He demanded with one of his katanas now drawn into a fighting stance, one that the other didn’t react to at all.

They were fairly tall, although a bit shorter than Leo himself- with a similar build to him. Their hands were clasped behind their back and they overall stood very calmly. They wore a white mask with red markings where the eyes and mouth should’ve been, and a hood that transitioned into a cape tied into their armor. They seemed to have a plastron, although with different markings than Leo’s. The green shoulder piece that mimicked a turtle shell made him think they were a turtle mutant or some sort of turtle, normal-mutant that he totally didn’t forget the actual name of, although it was hard to tell with as much covered as they had.

“I’m here on Big Mama’s behalf,” They put simply.

 “Whose Big Mama ?” 

The turtle probably looked slightly surprised under the mask, though he couldn’t really tell.

“Well would you like to meet her?” They tilted their head slightly while speaking, but Leo doubted it was an actual question.

“Do I get a choice here or are you just gonna kidnap me?”

“If I’m given the order, yeah” They shrugged like it made perfect sense.

“Wow, forward much?” He rolled his eyes. 

“We'll just be headed to the Nexus Hotel, nothing far, you’ll be welcome to leave after we’ve had a…chat,” They gestured to the building behind the slider, but he didn’t bother to let his gaze leave the other, after sensing his hesitance they continued, “It’ll be quick, but it’s not like that’ll matter much considering you already snuck out”

“Ok that is creepy as-”

“Please don’t”

“Shit”

“You’re already getting on my nerves”

“Yeah I get that a lot”

“I can imagine,” They replied bluntly.

He shrugged and was about to respond.

“Look-” They very rudely cut him off, why did people keep doing that?

“I wanted to keep this short but if you’re going to keep asking questions I’d love to tell the big lady herself you declined an offer to the most powerful yokai in the city”

“OH- Yokai , that’s the word I was blanking on! HA!” He smirked to himself when the assistant made a small grunt of annoyance. 

They pulled something from their pocket and threw it in his direction, it would’ve hit him in the face had it not stopped several feet in front of him before exploding into a flat swirl of purple bright enough he had to blink to adjust his eyes to the light. 

“Simple choice, step through the portal, or I’ll drag you through” He heard them say from behind the wall of color. He thought about it for a moment, to be fair, he didn’t exactly have a reason to not trust them. Disregarding the vague threat they just made.

“Nah I’m good” He shrugged, he didn't even get a fraction of a second to look for their response before their voice was inches behind him.

“Wrong move” 

His feet were suddenly no longer underneath him and he was falling, he reached his hands back to catch himself but the opponent grabbed his sword scabbard before he could reach the floor. He swung his katana at them but it was probably the least effective thing he could’ve done as they just dropped him the rest of the way. They stepped on his plastron to keep him down while they grabbed his mask tails and used them to pull him towards the portal.

Even despite them quite literally having the upper hand he continued to yell curses and struggle though they seemed unaffected as they dragged him away.

The buzzing sounds of the city were muffled before they were gone and he was laying in a carpeted office overlooking the streets, lined with photo after photo of various different yokai men. 

“Ok, first of all, rude,” He climbed to his feet as he portal closed behind him, “Second of all- Oy Veyyy- ” 

His jaw dropped as he saw who exactly who Big Mama was, a spider lady- no no no, not just any spider lady- but the spider lady Leo had remembered. This was her! She was the only memory that remained of his past life! Maybe that’s why the Hotel had looked so familiar, it was almost meant to be.

“So sorry about that turtley-boo,” She seemed to be trying to smile, although she didn’t exactly have lips or even a full row of teeth, so she just kinda closed her eyes. 

“My assistant, she isn't exactly the most patient, although you should already know that shouldn't you?” 

For once in his life Leo was speechless- that might be a lie but for sake of drama it’s the only time. So he just stared as Big Mama continued.

“You seem to be suffering a sort of amnesia, I’m not a doctor but it is most likely from that  concussion those turtle-tots had given you” 

“Wait, they gave me the concussion? They said you did!” He wasn’t entirely surprised, but it’s not like he was going to believe either immediately until he got the full story.

“Oh heavens , no! I’m much too fond of our prior history for that! Even if you did ruin some of my things in the fight. I don’t know your full history together, but I do know them, and don’t doubt they said that. Oh but I’m getting a-hizzy ahead of myself, you probably have some questions for me”

He hesitated, someone was actually telling him things for once, so he had to be careful.

“Ok- what things did I ruin exactly?”

“Well from what I know you had a bit of a brawl with the turtles that somehow wound up here,  your little bittley-bash caused enough damage that’ll take me several months to repair. Situations like these are terrible for Big Mama’s business, which is why you’ll be helping repay what you’ve done”

“I don’t- have any money? from what I know of” 

“Oh don’t worry, I’ve just been needing another assistant and you’ll be the perfect candidate. I’ve worked with you in the past y’know? You were a bounty hunter and were one of the more pleasant ones at that- in fact I’m looking forward to working with you again. As long as you haven’t changed too much!” She laughed at herself like she’d make a joke.

“So- I just gotta- What? Body guard you for a few months or something?” 

“Oh you’ll be doing much more than that my little turtley-boo, Venus will show you the ropes, I’m sure you’ll find it’ll be natural for you, having done this before and everything. All I ask is you become my assistant for the next few months and I’ll see all your debt to me be repaid, you’ll be provided with a room, food and clean water at all times. So what do you say? Do we have a deal?” She held out one of her massive claws for Leo to take, he hesitated. He wasn’t one to go back on instinct, but thinking logically the turtles had given him pretty much the exact same deal, just without saying it directly. It was a gamble of sorts.

And god did Leo apparently love the gamble. 

Without a second thought he held out his own hand and shook Big Mama’s. This was a terrible idea and he couldn’t wait to see where it went.

Chapter Text

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Alright blue boy,”  Vee cracked her knuckles, which was only vaguely concerning, and spun around to point at the doorway. In which a newcomer stepped out of, “Show me what you got! Go get Gus’s tennis ball”

Leo’s jaw dropped once he laid eyes on the supposed Gus, the painted turtle grinned.

“I HAVE TO FIGHT THAT!?”

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The room wasn't anywhere near the size of Big Mama's, not that he was expecting it to be. It was surprisingly cozy, maybe around the same size as his in the Lair’s. Although this one was squarish with carpet lining the floor. There was a single door parallel to the bed, probably leading to a bathroom. There wasn't much furniture though, just a twin sized bed in the back corner, a stand alone mirror next to that, and table around waist height in the front. Strangely enough, the only two things on the table were an alarm clock and a single bell-?

“That’s for the room service, it’s mystic” 

He jumped and flipped around when he heard Big Mama’s assistant speak directly behind him.

“Jesus christ stop sneaking up on me!” He could see her now without the mask on. She was definitely a turtle, with yellow markings leading down her face that transitioned into red around the neck. Although she was still wearing most of her armor which covered any other patterns she may have.

“I’m Venus De Milo, but you can call me Vee, it’ll be shorter to call for in a fight” She held out her hand, which no longer had the rough gloves with claws that she’d used to drag him through the portal just a mere hour ago. He hesitantly shook it before she returned her hand behind her back.

“I’m, uh Leonardo, but you can call me Leo”

“I’m sorry for threatening you before, I had a time limit and you were talking too much” She gave an apologetic smile. He could see now she was a good few inches shorter than him, yet something about the situation made him feel like she was above him here.

“You’re not going to apologize for, I don’t know? Dragging me here against my will?” 

She blinked, her smile never faltering as she answered.

“Nope! Big Mama’s orders.” 

He just gave a small hum of acknowledgement, not entirely sure how to respond to that.

“Speaking of which- What did she mean by you ‘showing me the ropes’?” 

She gave a small frown and tilted her head to the side.

“Well, I’m most likely supposed to show you around, we’re a higher rank then a lot of the staff, so we have access to more things as well, we could start now if you’d like?” 

He hesitated before agreeing, he was already planning on wandering around for a bit before going to bed, so if they were offering, might as well.

“Alright Vee, lead the way”

The trip down the corridor was quiet, not that there wasn’t much to say, Leo was buzzing with questions, it just didn’t feel like the place for a lot of them. So he instead made peace with silence and they continued on.

The pair eventually found themselves in an elevator headed down, where they stopped at what looked to be a staff-only floor. They entered a hall that was filled with room attendants and worker managers, all scrambling over each other to do as told, past that was a room that seemed to be the lounge. Vee’s voice brought him back out of his thoughts.

“This is the staff lounge, although we have rooms so I don’t know why you’d come here much. However this does lead to a gym, a food court, and a training arena. Where we actually start training tomorrow at six. Big Mama has us work irregular shifts so be prepared to sleep at any given chance” 

“Do any of the other staff live here?” 

“Nope! Just us” Vee smiled like that was comforting to think about, and Leo was always for special treatment, so he wasn't entirely disagreeing. All he could do now was wait and see if that was a good thing or not.

“Before I forget,” She stopped an off duty Chef in their tracks, ordering him to bring her a package from her room. They looked vaguely annoyed at being told what to do but didn't disobey as they left down the route Leo and Vee had just taken.

“So what kind of turtle are you?” She turned back to the mutant with a smile, seeming genuinely interested.

“A Red-eared Slider I believe” He rubbed the back of his neck, “Though I don't remember how I know that- What about you?” 

“I'm a Painted turtle, specifically Midland, hence why my chest isn't red, but I've never seen a turtle with your markings before! It's like we match!” 

Leo let himself smile. 

“Yeah I guess we do” 

Vee was strangely friendly outside of her missions, and generally nice to talk to. That might even make her a friend in the future, who knows.

The chef returned looking upset he’d just been forced to work off duty- and by being a bellboy of all things. They had a flat box in hand decorated with gold lining, they presented it to the painted turtle and she took the top off in turn. Leo leaned over in curiosity but she took the item out of the container and held it out to him. 

“Your uniform!” 

On the top was resting a mask similar to the one he saw Vee in earlier, although this one had red stripes going through the eyes and an upturned mouth, it was a pinker shade of red as well mimicking his own markings. Underneath were folded clothes that he assumed were like that of Vee’s as well.

“And I have to wear this? I don't think I've ever fought with armor before- at least from what I've been told”

“You'll get used to it! Besides, now’s probably the best time to change your fighting style a little. Have it on tomorrow during training and if you need I'm sure someone can adjust it for you” 

He just nodded and accepted the box once Vee put the clothes back in. She waved the chef off with one hand who grumbled to themself as he walked away. 

“Shall we return to the suite?”

“Yeah,” He glanced at the box, “Let's” 

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Leo fell to the floor with a clunk, his alarm screaming way too early in the morning to be acceptable.

For a moment he figured Donnie might've blown something up in his lab and it was a fire alarm, but he registered his surroundings fast enough to disable the alarm clock.

He groaned before forcing himself to his feet, using the bed frame as support. The clock read 5:30, leaving him barely enough time to get ready for whatever Big Mama had planned for him.

Luckily he still had enough energy from two weeks of sitting idle he managed to shower and get his uniform on in a bit past 20 minutes. It probably helped he was almost excited for this. He’d finally get to see what he could really do with his katanas.

He paused when he passed the bathroom mirror. The outfit he’d been given looked almost exactly like Vee’s, although there were noticeable differences. For one his cloak had more blue tones then brown, and his gloves didn't go over his fingers, similar to his old outfit. There was also no belt or shoulder pad, which was most likely a rank thing. And although he didn’t have it on yet his mask was a slightly pinker in its red markings, and the pattern for the mouth was angled higher than from what he could remember.

With only a few minutes to spare he left his room and headed to the training hall, almost getting lost on the way to the elevator. But after that he had no trouble scouting the rest of the way, and managed to find the lounge and thus the sparring arena. 

Walking into it made Leo realize where all the budget for his personal suite went. The room was massively impressive, walls lined to seemingly no end with weapon after weapon of differing variety. Lanterns and curtains hung across the walls and ceiling, the architecture alone felt like it should belong in a museum, along with the oil fires on either side of the door. Vee stood in the middle speaking to a staff member, who held two sheathed swords in hand.

“Good Morning Leo! Big Mama has your new swords for you” Vee gestured to the item, Dual dao’s, they were much shorter than his katanas, but unsheathing the new weapons felt like second nature. He spun the blades around in his hand, striking behind him to test the weight and power before returning to stationary. 

“Yeah these could work” He grinned to himself as he spun them around a few more times. The staff member held out a hand and after a few moments he realized it was for his katanas. He shrugged and handed it to them, it's not like he’d need it now. 

“The portalling feature should still work with these new ones, in fact, they might even have a new ability to test out”

He was handed the belt for his new weapons, which was in a similar fashion to Vee’s, but flipped to the other side. He thought for a second he’d put it on wrong but the other‘s confirmed it looked correct, so he returned his dual blades to their scabbard in an X formation on his back.

“What’s with the fanny packs?” Leo held up one of the two pouches attached to his belt.

“One is for gear, such as the portalling seeds, contacters, or mission specific items. The other’s just medical supplies”

There was nothing in his pouches but he assumed he’d get supplies soon, so he just nodded.

“Alright blue boy,”  Vee cracked her knuckles, which was only vaguely concerning, and spun around to point at the doorway. In which a newcomer stepped out of, “Show me what you got! Go get Gus’s tennis ball”

Leo’s jaw dropped once he laid eyes on the supposed Gus, the painted turtle grinned.

“I HAVE TO FIGHT THAT !?”

There, at the back of the room was the yokai dubbed ‘Gus’ he stood towering over Leo at atleast 7 feet in height. He held matted brown fur with massive spikes protruding from his body mainly around his back, and hanging ears and a black and pink nose curled up into a snarl that displayed his sharp buck teeth. And for some god forsaken reason if his muscular figure and giant spikes weren’t enough he had a green sclerae that’s glow covered up any pupil he might have had, and probably any mercy as well. Leo’s apparent target, the tennis ball, was lying behind the beast unceremoniously on the floor.

“MOTHER-” His curse was cut short when the dog pounced from its spot across the room and began hurtling towards him. He rolled to the side to dodge the charge, for once he wasn’t going to complain about being cut off, just grateful he survived. 

He spun around with swords now drawn, keeping his distance for the time being.

“Alright, time to see if these babies can portal or if this is just a really elaborate prank” He sliced his dao through the air.

Nothing happened.

He sliced both the swords in an X position.

Nothing happened.

“OH C’MON” He frantically sliced the swords with no avail, but his attempts were stopped when Gus started charging again. 

“Guess I gotta do this the old fashioned way” 

He spun his blades once just for fun before returning the rush towards his enemy. Neither hesitated for a moment despite how close they got, and once the impact was inevitably near Leo slid to his side, right under his enemy. Gus made a noise of surprise as Leo quickly climbed to his feet and spun around to see him attempting to stop his momentum before he hit the wall. Leo took the moment of recalculation to run after the yokai, holding his swords in front of him to be prepared for any unwanted surprise attack. Once he felt he was close enough he put the swords down to make the jump onto Gus’s back smoother, but the moment the weapons slid to his side there was a flash of blue as the scenery shifted and he was suddenly falling. After just a second he landed on his target’s back, much further ahead than he'd planned. He let out a cry as the dog began to buck him off

“WHOA NOT COOL BRUH!” 

Oh he could talk.

Great .

He struggled to find a grip to keep himself steady, but the fur seemed to shift out of his hands the moment he held it. So instead he chose what any caring and compassionate person would do and stabbed Gus to use his swords as his anchor. The dog yelped in surprise. Once the blade pierced his skin a similar flash of blue lit both of them up as they glitched 10 feet into the air.

“OH SHIT”

“WHOA BRO-”

Leo pulled his blade out in panic and his vision lit up again as he suddenly found ground under his feet and was watching this giant beast fall from where he’d been moments ago. 

Could he always do that? 

Focus, tennis ball.

He managed to tear his attention away long enough to remember his mission, and took off towards where he’d last seen it, which it thankfully still laid. The ground shook as his enemy hit the floor, but he didn’t have the time to look back as he continued his sprint.

“Just one more time, give me a 3 out of 4“

He slashed his sword one final time and lit up in blue before appearing next to the tennis ball, which he promptly slipped past before steadying himself and picking it up. 

“I GOT IT I GOT IT I GOT IT-” 

He didn’t know where he was yelling, Vee had seemingly disappeared when the fight started, but hopefully it was enough to get her attention. 

An ear bleeding whistle sounded that made everyone stop in their tracks. Gus’s spikes sunk back into his skin until it was all smooth fur again, which apparently he could do. A portal appeared in the room that Vee stepped out of.  

“Well done Ace, you did better than I expected in all honesty”

Leo chose to take that as a compliment.

“I got your stupid tennisball” He threw the ball the floor towards Vee, who didn’t react. But Gus perked up at the sight of it rolling. 

They watched him struggle to keep still for a moment before Vee gave him a release command and he dove very ungracefully after it. He rolled around on the floor with it while Vee made her way up to Leo.

“Big Mama says she’s impressed, although you still have much cleaning up to do with your fighting style. Regardless, she’s given the ok on taking you on a mission tonight, so you’ll need to learn some of the commands we have here”

He raised a brow line, as much as he’d love to assume it’d be as simple as ‘stop’ and ‘go’, he’d been here long enough to know better.

“Unless told otherwise, we have rules for missions. No talking, and no taking off the mask. So our commands will consist of whistles and or hand motions” 

“Of course” He muttered “Because something has to make it boring” 

She just smiled at that.

“Hey where’d Gus go-?” He leaned to look around Vee and where Gus had just been, now there were only specks of dried blood in his previous spot. Vee glanced back to where he was looking, although she probably already knew he was gone.

“Oh he had to go to the infirmary, y’know you kind of stabbed him and all” She turned back to Leo with a smile, it was quite interesting to see how passive aggressive she could be at times.

“ Oy Vey - Sorry” He sheathed the dao blades in question, feeling guilty he didn't feel more  bad about it.

She gave a strained laugh in response.

“There’s a whiteboard in the gym, I’ll give you a run down on everything you need to know before your first assignment. Meet me there in 5”  

“ Whiteboard , what? I thought this was going to be exciting! You can't bring a whiteboard into this! Wh- hold on!” She’d already begun walking away despite his protests against a note taking system, and he had a feeling she wasn’t going to let this conversation go anywhere,so he dropped it.

Who knew being a crime boss’ assistant could be so boring.

____________________________________

For once he kinda wished he’d been wrong about something, but no he had to always be right about everything.

The class was boring as hell, and lasted much longer than it should have. 

Sure it was 'Important’ and he needed to ‘learn’ it or whatever- but like come on- 4 hours?? Was that necessary? He hadn't even had breakfast yet!

Luckily he’d grabbed some assorted fruits from the food court. Apparently they still serve breakfast around this time, maybe because normal people don't get up at 5 in god damn morning.

He continued grumbling to himself once he finally made it to his room. Luck was not in his favor however, with the key he'd been given. For some reason it was a card? How a card was supposed to unlock a door was beyond him, and it took several minutes of fidgeting with the lock before a voice appeared behind him.

“Do you need help?”

He made a small noise of surprise before spinning around to find Vee having snuck up on him yet again.

“I SAID STOP DOING THAT!” 

“Not my fault you can't hear” She laughed and tilted her head. 

He begrudgingly held out his room key for her and she took it with a nod before swiping it along the slit in the lock and handing it back to him.

“I hate you” 

She burst out laughing at that, which he responded with an eye roll and genuine smile.

“It's ok, I couldn't get it the first time either” She pat him on the back before giving her goodbye and leaving to her own room. He collapsed onto his own bed, suddenly feeling the effects of five hours of sleep and a fight with an almost rabid dog.

He would've called it a long day if it weren't for the fact it was before noon. He decided to take Vee’s advice and took a shower before letting himself take a small nap before the mission. 

The silence drifted him to sleep better than any day he'd spent in the Lair.

Chapter Text

____________________________________

In truth Raph just didn't have a better idea. If he were running off big brother instinct alone he'd have murdered Big Mama for doing this to his brother, or at least have tried to. Although that wasn't going to help anyone, if anything it'd make the situation worse, so he’d hold idle and listen to Donnie. 

He just hoped that was the right move.

____________________________________

Screaming in general was a great way to get Raph's attention.

But screaming that your brother who recently suffered a severe head injury had vanished overnight was probably the best way. 

"What do you mean he's gone!?”

Donnie was the first to react, on his feet and inches away from Mikey in a matter of seconds.

"He's gone! I went into his room and he wasn't there! He got kidnapped!" Mikey was full on panicking now, already on the verge of tears.

"Hold on, we're there signs of a struggle?" Raph found himself in the tight circle as well, placing a steadying hand on his littlest brother's shoulder for support.

Mikey's eyes widened and he shook his head.

"Is that a bad thing?" 

"Well knowing Leo it probably isn't, it's likely that he got sick of being benched and went out on his own" 

"If Leo just gave me a heart attack because he got bored I'm going to make getting kidnapped the least of his problems” Everyone’s attention snapped to April as she joined them in the living room.

"April! Have you seen Leo?" Mikey ran over to hug his sister while Donnie questioned her.

"I haven't, I came as soon as Mikey texted”

“April isn't it a weekday?” Raph found himself worrying over two siblings now.

“You think I’m gonna go to school with one of my best friends missing!? We gotta find him!”

“We need to check his room first-”

“We don’t have time for that Dee! We gotta go now!”

“How are we supposed to look for him during the day Angelo?”

“Why can’t we go with April?”

“How is April being there going to he-”

“GUYS!”

The two youngest siblings shut up at Raph’s scary voice.

“April and Pops can start looking outside, but the rest of us are staying here. I don’t like it either but we can’t risk being seen by humans”

Mikey looked down before nodding, clearly unhappy with the plan but not objecting. Donnie flipped his tech goggles down as if in preparation to search the Lair.

“If he did go on patrol, how do we know he’s just not back yet?” 

“Leo knows not to stay out this late Donnie, he’d have been back had nothing happened”

“The old Leo knew you mean” 

Raph's eyes widened and everyone went quiet. No one wanted to think what he was implying, but it was true. Leo wasn't the same anymore, and probably didn't know their rules either. God knows what went through their brother’s head now- for all they know he could’ve-

No, stop thinking like that. They just needed to focus on getting him back.

“Where do you want me and Splints to check?” 

“It's Splints and I”

“Not helping Donnie!”

“Sorry”

“Just anywhere around the exits to the Lair for now, we'll update you if-when we find something” 

April nodded and headed off with a determined look on her face. As much as Raph felt bad for making her miss school, she was right, they needed all hands on deck.

Donnie and Mikey gave a curt nod to their brother when he turned back to face them. With that they headed to their missing brother’s room.

____________________________________

Not that Raph was hoping for signs of a fight, but there weren't any clues at all .

“Well his katanas are gone, along with the scabbard. So he obviously left out of his own free will. Not much more to tell then that”

“LEEEOOOOO!” Mikey's voice echoed through the empty sewers as he called for his brother yet again. 

“Can’t you run a DNA test or something? To see if someone else was here?” 

“No I cannot ‘run a DNA test’ ” Donnie rolled his eyes like it was obvious, “I can check for fingerprints, if that's what you mean, but most of the villains we fight either wear gloves or don't have fingers. So that might be a bust.”

Raph refrained from making an unwanted comment about science to his already on edge brother.

“LEOO?” Mikey called again.

Donnie crossed his arms like he was regretting something.

“If I do find something, however unlikely that may be, it'll be undeniably useful. In the time being we should start by checking for noise in the hidden city or the news.” 

The snapper just nodded, it wasn't a super satisfying conclusion but Donnie always knew the most logical way to go about things, so he trusted him. 

In truth he just didn't have a better idea. If he were running off big brother instinct alone he'd have murdered Big Mama for doing this to his brother, or at least have tried to. Although that wasn't going to help anyone, if anything it'd make the situation worse, so he’d hold idle and listen to Donnie. 

He just hoped that was the right move.

____________________________________

Leo crept silently into the room, keeping a low crouch as he advanced on the target. He used his hands to help move himself forward without a sound, going so far as to hold his breath to keep quiet. 

The anticipation grew in his chest the closer he got, he slowly rose to his full height once behind his target.

"BOO!" 

Vee even didn't flinch.

"Oh come ooon! You can't tell me you heard me sneaking up on you!" 

She laughed and looked over at him.

"I told you, I'm impossible to sneak up on" She grinned. "And just a tip, don't hold your breath, it's bad in the long run. Instead breath through your mouth and with your chest" 

He attempted what she said for a few breaths, being noticeably quieter, until he accidentally made a whistle noise on an exhale.

"Aw damn" 

"You'll get the hang of it" She unclasped one of the hands behind her back to pat him on the shoulder. 

"You'll actually get a chance to practice on our mission today, Big Mama's given us a stealth assessment to start you out. We'll be pulling a heist on a 'Piel Suave' Who's apparently some sort of Skin Pirate attempting to go straight. He has a history of stealing from the Nexus but recently pulled a stunt during an auction that's given our security a bad name. Our job is to find his ship, and do just enough damage to teach him a lesson"

"Wow, petty much?"

"Very, actually. That's kind of Big Mama’s whole reputation" 

Leo snickered to himself.

"Will we be fighting at all?" He swung his dao's out of their holsters and spun them around like he was getting ready to attack.

"Hopefully not, it's a quick in and out deal" 

"Awe I wanted to test my cool portal magic stuff" He grumbled 

"It's mystic, and you'll have plenty of time for that during the next few days of training"

He groaned and mumbled something under his breath before resting a sword on his shoulder.

"Trust me you'll want to save your energy for the Battle Nexus, you ready to go?”

He nodded enthusiastically. Vee threw the item into the air and a gust of wind made Leo squint as the familiar purple portal opened in the air. He placed his mask on after Vee and pulled his hood up before stepping into the new scenery.

____________________________________

"Ugghhhh, this is so borrringg~ When's the fun stuff?" 

Leo watched a mother cover her child's eyes and speed walk away from the two.

"Soon enough, if you'd help me I'm sure this would go a lot faster" 

"What am I supposed to do? I've never even been here!" 

Vee glared at him through the mask.

"Oh gosh! I hadn't thought of that! I guess that gives you a free pass to do nothing while I do all the work!" She hissed. He gasped.

"Vee look!" 

"I'm not falling for-"

"No seriously," He grabbed her head and forced her to turn the direction he'd been pointing, "S.S. Queen Alexis! That's the ship we're looking for!" 

There, like he'd said, was a bag with the ship's name labeled on the front, being traded between two shady looking businessmen. 

Vee didn't hesitate to engage, she tackled one guy and held her nekote to his throat. Leo took the opportunity to take the other guy, and simply flipped around him and held his swords in an x position to his neck. 

“Tell us where you last saw the Queen Alexis, and this will be relatively painless”

“We don’ know where no ship be! I swear! The Alexis went clean ages ago! We be reusin’ the bags ‘cause they be bad for the environment!” 

Leo repressed a laugh. It was kinda hilarious to hear that thick a pirate accent talk about surprisingly eco-friendly ideals.

“You said the ship’s gone straight?” 

“Aye! If ye be lookin’ check with Hueso! That's the captn’s brother, last I heard he be runnin’ a pizza joint up top”

Vee relaxed her grip, and Leo followed the motion. He removed his swords and kicked the yokai to the floor. 

“If we find out you lied Big Mama’s gonna have some words”

The two men nodded vigorously, and Vee turned to her apprentice.

“Hueso huh? Sounds French”  

That made her laugh, which Leo glowed slightly at. 

“That better’ve been a joke” She pulled another portal device out of her pocket and the pair took it up to the surface. Entering on a relatively quiet street by New York standards.

“How do you find a magic pizza place anyway?” 

“Mystic. And it should admit cloaking broach signals I can track with this police scanner”

She turned and pointed at a wall. 

“There” 

“I hate to be the one to break this to you, but I think you need glasses”

She scoffed and headed towards the spot until she was a few feet away, she held up her hand and made a weird Italian hand motion.

Leo would've made a sarcastic comment had it not been for the wall to swirl open with an entrance to a surprisingly fancy looking diner. His jaw dropped.

“Vee, I will never doubt you again” 

“Would I be wrong if I didn't believe you?” 

They stepped into the portal. He was going to say something else but she shushed him as a skeleton yokai came up to them with a notepad.

“Can I help you mysteriously cloaked gentlemen?” 

“Don't assume our gender” 

Vee shushed him again. He rolled his eyes even if she couldn't see.

“I- apologies” Hueso’s eyes lingered on Leo for a second before Vee spoke up again.

“Are you Hueso?” 

“Yes? Why do you ask?” 

“We need to find your brother, Piel? We have to talk to him about a ship offer!”

Leo was grateful for the mask as he tried not to burst out laughing.

“You don't look like business people”

“That's rude”

Vee glared at Leo.

“We're uh, rebranding” 

“You seem vaguely familiar, tell me, what is your name?” The skeleton targeted his question specifically at Leo. Who prayed they didn't have a sour history together.

“Jeff” 

“Jeff?”

“Yes. Jeff” 

“That’s an odd name”

“It was my fathers” 

“So Jeff Jr. then?”

“No, just Jeff”

Hueso narrowed his eye sockets, he looked like he was going to say something else but Vee cut him off.

“We don't have time for this! Do you know where your brother is or not?” Vee shoved Leo to the side, she was a lot more patient when she wasn't on missions.

“I can get him for you” Hueso offered

“He’s here??”

“Of course!” The yokai took a few steps towards the kitchen and called his brother's name, who promptly entered the room. Vee wasn't kidding when she said he was some weird kind of skin yokai. Leo wondered if he had blood.

He could almost see Vee seething through the mask- to be fair it was a little rude Hueso had wasted their time like. Clearly to the fault of no one other than the skeleton.

“You wanted to talk to me about my ship?” The newcomer looked genuinely surprised. 

“Yes. Where is it.” She enunciated the ‘t’ slightly. A thing done by only the most frustrated of people. Leo should know, he was the frustrating one.

“Oh I have it parked near the Muron Repair service, why?”

“We’re just traffic officers and we wanted to tell you that is a reserved parking spot! As long as it gets moved-”

Leo started to tune the conversation out, she could be surprisingly boring at times. After what felt like several useless minutes of this he threw his head back and groaned to express his boredom.

“Ok come on Jeff lets go” She wrapped up her conversation and Piel thanked her but didn’t follow her out.

“Finally” He muttered to himself as she thankfully decided she was done with her pointless endeavor. They exited the restaurant and returned to the alleyway out of the  yokai’s sights.

"You need to talk less!" Vee turned to him with an accusatory finger.

" What ?"

"You're not supposed to be speaking in the first place! Only I got the ok to do that! Do you want your identity to be compromised??" 

"How was I supposed to know I had beef with the pizza guy?" 

"THAT'S WHY YOU AREN'T SUPPOSED TO BE TALKING!"

He rolled his eyes with an exaggerated head motion so she was well aware of how he felt about that. 

She took a deep breath in, and out, clasping her hands together by her face to reconvene.

While she was doing that however, he spotted a half finished pizza box in the dumpster. He grinned and dove after it.

She finished her breathing exercises and looked up.

“Ok, from what I got from Piel we- DO NOT EAT TRASH PIZZA-”

He poked his head up from the dumpster he was already half-climbing into. He raised the slice to his mask.

“Do. Not. Eat. That.”

He raised it closer. He knew she knew he was grinning under the mask.

Just as he began to lift his mask she bolted towards him and yanked his hood with a death grip rivaling that of the one she had when she first brought him to Big Mama and dragged him out of the trash can. 

She threw a portal open and shoved Leo through.

“AH! DUDE!” He stumbled and dropped his pizza.

“Awe man”  He lifted his mask slightly when the pizza fell off the side of the ship.

“Sh!” She grabbed him and forced him to his knees next to her. They'd been portalled to the higher front deck of the ship. Just overlooking the main one.

He growled at her, and she took a deep breath in.

“Ok, from what I got out of Piel the crew will be returning in five min-” 

She was cut off by the sound of the crew members returning to the ship, all laughing and chatting loudly with each other.

“Wow you got all that info from your extended warranty segment?” He smirked.

She flipped his mask back down. 

The crew headed straight for their quarters below them, luckily completely missing the intruders.

Their voices dissipated as they descended the stairs below. The two sat in silence for a moment.

“Ok they're gone, we don't want to make enemies with the crew so we're only targeting what we know to be Piel’s stuff, got it?”

Leo nodded.

"Alright Let's go!" He jumped the railing onto the deck below, followed by hushed protests by a frustrated Vee, who dropped down next to him after a few moments.

"What are you doing??" She whisper yelled

"The mission?"

"The miss- You're gonna get us caught!"

"Well with that attitude I might"

He felt her scowl at him under the mask, he was learning it was quite fun to get on peoples nerves.

She tilted her head in the direction of a locked door, making the hand motion for ‘target’.

He nodded and the pair checked the room for signs of occupation. After confirming it was empty, Leo took out his swords and held them out in front of him. He pictured the inside of the room and slashed the weapon.

A miniature portal formed and he muttered a few curses to himself, hoping it would’ve been big enough to walk through. He stuck his arm through and fidgeted for the knob, which he found and used to open the door. 

He smirked proudly at Vee who probably rolled her eyes. They entered the room and shut the door behind them, keeping the lights off to avoid suspicions.

Leo wandered around for a bit, seemingly lost on what to do. And Vee didn't look to be much better off.

So they were looking for- what? Valuables? Even that was obnoxiously vague. There had to be something there Big Mama was thinking of when she told them to ‘destroy stuff’.

“What are we looking for Vee?” He turned to look at his mentor who was fiddling through a desk.

“Valuables”

“Gee that really answers my question” 

“I don't know Leo, but I'm assuming Big Mama meant personal valuables. I don't think we want to get the police involved with the expensive stuff” 

He nodded and continued searching. 

“Ooo! Here's something!” 

Vee looked over at the stuffed animal he was now holding up. She shrugged.

“I guess that counts, we should keep looking though” 

Leo took out his dao and sliced through the air, a portal swirled to life which he dropped the toy into.

“Leo. Where did you send it?”

He grinned.

“Leo.” 

His grin widened. 

He turned to his left and found a model ship displayed proudly on a shelf.

“OoooO what’s this? A toy boat? Uh buh bye!” He dropped it into another portal, “And this?” He picked up a couple books from the shelf and opened another mini portal he dropped them into, “No reading on my watch!”

“Leo! What are you doing?? You can’t be destroying things like crazy!” 

“Why not? Those books could’ve been emotionally important- I mean if  we want to get rid of things  we might as well make his life just slightly more inconvenient in the process” He took a pack of hair ties off the nightstand and threw them into a portal, “See? Now when he wants to put up his hair he’ll have to go buy more; Pure. Evil.” 

Leo didn’t miss how she suppressed a laugh. 

“Just- Keep it low level!” She hissed and continued her cheap way of ruining someone’s life. He rolled his eyes and continued getting rid of what he pleased. A case for contact lenses, every phone charger he could find, maybe some maps that were rolled up next to the bed.

He would’ve missed the footsteps had not Vee practically tackled him and forced him under the bed. She slapped her hand over where his mouth would be under the mask and made the command for ‘quiet’. As much as he wanted to tell her off for that very rude warning, he nodded and stayed silent. 

Boots clumped over to the bed and the mattress sagged down slightly when the figure sat down. 

Vee poked him and pointed to his swords, he hesitated. He instead took a portal seed out of his pouch and handed it to her, but she shook her head and insistently pointed to his swords again. He huffed just quiet enough not to be noticeable by Piel.

The yokai was talking to someone on his phone, but Leo was focused on trying to stay unnoticed.

Vee punched him and pointed to his dao again, he grimaced and waited for Piel to start talking again to unsheath it so he was less likely to hear. Leo made a small cutting motion in the air, a tiny portal opened below them not even big enough to put an arm through. Vee glared at him. He tried again, making it slightly bigger but not nearly enough to fit either of them through. She pat his shoulder and he tried again. This time the portal spun open almost to the width of the bed, it’d be a miracle if Piel didn’t notice as they fell through. 

The portal closed behind them and they fell to the floor of the training room. Leo groaned as he rubbed his shell where he landed. 

“Mission success!” Vee was on her feet and in front of him with her hand stretched out to grab. He gratefully accepted the help up.

“Yayyyyy” He gave an unenthusiastic fist pump with his head still spinning slightly from the sudden portal jump. 

“We should notify Big Mama!” She lightly hit his arm “Your first mission and we didn’t even mess up too badly!”

Leo laughed and punched her back.

“If we did it was your fault” He lifted his mask off and the pair made their way out of the arena to the Big M’s office. Sharing laughs the whole way back.

Chapter Text

 ____________________________________

"Heads up!" Leo chucked the rubber ball towards her chest, she managed to catch it moments before it slammed into her.

"Is this the premise of the game?" She held the ball out, "Because if it is you better start saying your prayers"

"Wow- ok first, chill. Second, no it is not the premise, it was for fun”

____________________________________

“WHOOP WHOOP! LEON WINS AGAIN BABYYY” Leo pumped his fists into the air in victory, jabbing Vee with his finger to really rub it in. 

“HOW?? I thought you hadn’t played this before you liar!”

“I guess I’m just that perfect at everything!” 

“-Or you’ve played it before and you forgot”

“Oh? I’m sorry I couldn’t hear you from second place. WOO WINNING FEELS SO GOOD” 

She rolled her eyes and stepped away from the arcade machine. It was weird to see her out of uniform for once, and she wasn’t exaggerating when she said her and Leo were matching. 

She had yellow stripes on her cheeks and black-widow like red markings along her shoulders and legs and the edge of her shell, similar to where Leo’s own markings were. Except the colors were flipped.

“I didn’t even know this place had an arcade” She yanked him away from admiring his first place score on the leaderboard.

“Maybe that’s because you literally don’t do anything fun” 

“Training’s fun” She shrugged.

He shook his head in disapproval. 

“Doesn’t matter how much you love your job, that's just sad” He waved a finger in the air like he was telling off a child, she scoffed at that.

“Whatever, hey what's that thingy?” She pointed to the ball toss that was in virtually every arcade like she’d never seen it before, and Leo was beginning to realize she probably hadn’t.

“Oh! Ball toss! Wanna play?” He dashed over to the empty lane and pressed the button to start the game.

“What are the rules?”

“You just roll the ball up the ramp and try to get it in one of the holes!” He took the ball the game gave him and rolled it up the ramp, landing it straight in the 40 slot, “See it says the amount of points under the hole you land it in! Go start the other one and we’ll see who gets more points”

He pointed to the empty lane next to his and she pressed the button to start up the game. Once it released a ball down the side she took it and rolled it up and landed it right in the 100 slot.

“HA! SUCKER” She cackled and rolled a few more up, hitting the 100 slot consistently every time.

“NO! Stop being good at this” 

She just laughed at him and stuck her tongue out, continuing to be way too good at the game for having never played it.

He smirked and unsheathed his dao, making a portal directly to the 100 slot. 

“Hey! That’s cheating!” 

He only laughed at her. 

“Hey kid! Stop cheating!” A new fox yokai appeared behind them with way too angry a scowl to be in an arcade.

“Run”

“What? I wasn’t the one chea-” 

Leo sliced open a portal and shoved her through. They fell a few feet to the floor of Leo’s suite.

“Stop being a sore loser!” Vee shoved him not hard enough to be out of real anger.

“You’re just mad you didn’t get to lose !” 

“You were cheating!” 

“Cheating’s just what losers call technique, win at all costs!” She interrupted his gloating with a punch to the arm.

“Owww” 

Vee looked like she was going to say something but paused and looked around.

“Did you decorate?”

The room was very different from when Leo arrived five days ago. Leo had changed his sheets and blankets to his signature black and blue, just to make it feel a little less like a hotel. He’d also put up some Battle Nexus posters- which he’d recently learned about and had been boiling with excitement at the idea of participating in. And, of course, there was the poster of the band Digg who he’d recently discovered, along with his basketball pictures.

“Cool huh? Apparently I was a master decorator in my past life”

She rolled her eyes and frowned.

“Is that allowed?” 

“Yeah! I asked the bellboy and he said he wasn't paid enough to care, so that was basically an ok!”

She just tilted her head and made a small hum.

“Is your room not decorated?” 

“I mean I haven't really thought about it but no, I guess I have some extra weapons-” She stiffened slightly when she said that, like she’d thought of something uncomfortable.

“Ok- I’m giving your room a makeover at some point. You seriously don't have anything in there?” 

She just shrugged.

“No I do not, you can come see. Maybe it’ll get your master decorator juices flowing” She smirked at him, clearly just mocking his self appointed title.

“Oh I’m sure it will, your room is gonna look so good after this”

She rolled her eyes and the two made the short trip across the hall to Vee’s own suite. Which was pretty much the exact same as Leo’s had been when he’d first arrived. With the exception of various clutter on her desk.

Leo glanced around, for having been here for what was probably years, her room was, as mentioned, surprisingly sparse. There was some weapons, a really old pair of Nekote’s unlike the ones she wore now and some Sherikans, but even the weapons were on the lighter side.

"What do you even do around here if you don't play in the arcade?" 

"Besides train?" 

He rolled his eyes. Somebody needed to get this girl a hobby.

"Yes, besides training- and fighting- and being bossed around. What do you do?" 

Her face scrunched up as she thought about it. 

"I play cards sometimes?"

"Cards?"

"Solitaire"

"Solitaire?" 

She just nodded.

"You're kidding"

Vee tilted her head slightly and opened her desk drawer to pull out a card deck. 

“What’s with the desk lamp and notebook then?” He picked up the notebook which looked fairly in use. She noticeably panicked.

“Don’t-!” 

He raised it above his head as she dove after it. 

“Lee give it!” She jumped for it but he moved out of the way each time

“Is it a diary? ‘Cause if it’s a diary I’ll leave it alone, I have more respect than that”

“No it’s-” She sighed and lowered her arm “I also draw when I get bored”

He lit up and lowered the notebook.

“Really? Can I see?” 

She shook her head vigorously and snatched it back. Leo just frowned and shrugged.

“Suit yourself” He put his dao back into its scabbard. “So do you have any band’s you’re into? I need ideas if you’re gonna have a room makeover”

“No? I don't listen to music much on my own, but I had a friend who did, he usually watched Musicals” 

“Ah, a theater kid” He grinned “Yeah that’ll work- but we need to expand your music taste. And segway , you need to pick up some more hobbies- and I think I got one for you” 

“Oh boy” She just gave an exasperated sigh in return.

____________________________________

“I can see why we’re sticking to the roofs, but were the hoodies really necessary?”

Vee hopped to the next building so she was standing next to Leo.

“We want to blend in, we can’t be running around with swords and cloaks- and before you say anything, no , humans do not wear cloaks and carry swords.”

“They do in the movies” She grumbled.

“You’ve seen movies?” 

She pretended to be offended by that, having seen the way he reacted to her not listening to music he’d probably force her to watch every movie in existence should she admit she’s only seen one.

“Of course I have!”

He rolled his eyes and hopped the gap to the next building.

“How much longer anyway? If Big Mama orders us on a surprise mission and we’re late-”

“ Relaaax , besides, Big Mama probably won’t give me any surprise missions for another week. So that’s a you problem” 

“That doesn’t answer my question”

“Oh I have no idea, I’m just wandering around until I find- Hey there’s one!” 

Leo jumped off the building onto the street below, to where Vee followed. Surely enough there was a fence in front of a park for children, although this one looked significantly more bland than the ones in the Hidden City.

The slider climbed up the fence with ease and flipped over to the other side, Vee copied him and dropped down to the concrete. It felt weird doing things like this barefoot, let alone in jeans .

“Why’d you get a teal hoodie anyway? Why not red to match your mask or something?” He continued their conversation from earlier while walking over to the court where the concrete turned gray and polls held a hoop on either side. 

“I don’t know, it’s pretty. Why didn’t you get a red one?” 

“Blue’s my color baby! I gotta brand it” He plucked an orange ball from the ground, which was around the diameter of a small shield. 

"Heads up!" Leo chucked the rubber ball towards her chest, she managed to catch it moments before it slammed into her.

"Is this the premise of the game?" She held the ball out, "Because if it is you better start saying your prayers"

"Wow- ok first, chill. Second, no it is not the premise, it was for fun”

He held his hands out for the ball, she gave it back to him in a similar motion as his throw.

“The point is to get the ball into the hoop that I’m guarding, and I’ll be doing the same with you”

“That’s simple enough”

“Nuh uh there’s rules- First of all no touching the other player, or hurting them, or shooting them, or any sort of unnecessary violence- Second rule is you can’t hold the basketball” He threw it to the floor and revealed it was surprisingly bouncy as it returned to his hand. He didn’t pick it back up and instead hit it to the ground again, continuing the cycle of it going up and down within his reach.

“You gotta dribble it, like this, and when you want to get it in the hoop,” He grabbed it and shot it to the hoop, landing it perfectly in the ring. “You do that!” 

He went to grab the ball as Vee joined him on the court, he started dribbling it again and managed to keep it in front of him while he walked towards her.

“It’s more complicated than that, but we only have two players so that’s pretty much all you need to know”

He grabbed the ball again and chucked it at her, this time when she caught it she began attempting to dribble it. She failed as the ball began to bounce lower and lower until she was crouching to keep it from stopping, which it eventually did either way.

“Aw man” 

“I'm starting to think this won't be a challenge” 

She glared at him which he responded to with a smirk.

“Here let me show you a few tricks,” 

She patiently stood there while he explained, showing her a few hand motions and different techniques until she finally managed to keep it in the air for longer than a few seconds.

“Alright ready to shoot some hoops?” He took the ball back and dribbled it around all fancy like the show off he is.

She was about to respond if she didn’t hear a slight rustle against the fence. Her head snapped towards the noise.

“Did you hear that?”

“If you’re about to start going off on some crazy conspiracy about how Big Mama found us and now we’re gonna get in trouble, I’m gonna cut it short and say it’s stupid. You’re stupid. Stop being paranoid”

She glared at him before turning back to the spot she’d heard the noise.

“No I’m serious-” 

A shadow jumped out from the bushes growing along the fence. She instinctively flicked one of the shurikens lining her pouch at the creature before she even registered what it was.

“OH MY GOD VEE! 

Leo ran over to the cat, she hesitated before following. She’d hit it square in the leg and it was trying to limp away but collapsed to the ground. It flipped around and hissed a them, teeth bared and shaking with fear.

 “YOU KILLED IT!” Leo was waving his hands around in panic already.

“It’s literally still moving, calm down!” She ripped a sleeve of fabric off her hoodie and used it to cradle the squirming cat. Using it as a sort of substitute gauze for the back leg.

“Why do you look like you know what your doing”

“I’ve had to work a lot with animals in the past”

She noticed Leo’s eyes lit up despite her attention being centered on the anxious cat.

“Oh my god are you gonna tell me your backstory??”

She scoffed and continued to try and stabilize the creature as it hissed at her.

“Check for a collar”

He squinted at the neck before shaking his head and looking back up. 

“Nothing”

She internally sighed.

“Any idea where a vet’s office might be?” 

He rose to his feet and helped her to her own.

“Well we better get looking”

She grumbled.

“So much for basketball.

Chapter Text

 ____________________________________

The muffled rumble of the arena only furthered Leo’s undying anticipation. His heart was pounding way too fast and he’d never felt more ready for something in his life.

Leo unsheathed his dao blades and spun them around his hands.

"Shall we, Ace?" 

She didn't look back at him in favor of spinning her scythe.

"Let's" 

____________________________________

Leo had been missing for five days now. And everyone was getting worried.

Donnie focused on scrolling through the Hidden City news feed. He’d been particularly obsessed with checking over the Battle Nexus news, but was beginning to lose hope it’d been Big Mama. She would’ve branded him off as Lou Jitsu’s son as soon as she was given the chance. Yet none of the other villains they’d run into had heard anything. Everything seemed to be leading him to more and more deadends, and it was taking its toll on him and the team.

“Hey Dee?” 

He jumped slightly when he heard Mikey’s voice in a surprisingly close proximity behind him. He spun around to meet his brother.

“Dad got pizza- if you wanna come down for some. You’ve been up here all day” 

“Uh huh sure,” He half-answered while already turning back to his monitor. “Sheeelldooon! Can you bring me some pizza from the kitchen?”

“Why do I have to get it?”

“Please?”

There was a pause before the robot hovered into the room, already heading out the door when Mikey sighed and followed.

Good, that should keep any more distractions occupied while Donnie continued his search. 

He’d been compiling all the information on crime rates and or major public panic events from the past week, though it was expectedly difficult to gather information on specifically the past five days alone. He needed more data, but more data meant Leo went alone for longer, which meant the team’s spirits only got more dreadful, which meant family dinners got much more unbearable.

He typed away the new information into his charts in an attempt to see some sort of pattern that just screamed it was to the fault of Leo, his most chaotic brother. There was nothing there. Nothing was working and nothing was leading him to his brother. It was infuriating , and it all felt so pointless.

He clicked back to his news feed tab and continued scrolling, even if his eyes burned in protest.

____________________________________

Big Mama wasn’t scary. She wasn’t even close to being scary.

Leo saw her as one giant eight-legged grandma who talked funny and had a passion for violence- perfectly normal. Though, the summons to her office today particularly felt more, how do you say? Rude? There was probably a better word but Leo wasn’t one for a big vocab.

He glided down the hall, painting after painting lined the walls in an almost unsettling fashion. The boss sure had a weird taste in decorations. He hesitantly knocked on the door before cracking it open. He’d decided earlier not to portal anywhere near Big Mama’s office, it just felt rude.

“Hey Boss Lady! We headed on another mission?” He entered the room with as much fake confidence as he could muster, slinging a sword over his shoulder. Vee had already arrived as per usual, she liked to be early to things. She was already in full uniform minus the mask, similar to Leo besides his lack of arm covers. He’d forgotten to put those on in the rush to get here.

“Oh turtley-boo! Glad you could make it!” 

He nodded and joined the seat next to Vee, sitting up a bit straighter than he would normally. 

“I don’t have a mission for you today, but instead new information on your little bittley Battle Nexus rumors you’ve been spreading” 

Vee tensed up slightly and glanced away out of guilt, but Big Mama only smiled

“Oh don't worry my darling, you’re not in trouble. I’m just confirming it as true!” They both perked up “For the next two weeks you will be participating in my Battle Nexus with the code names ‘Ace’ and ‘Spades’, where you'll hopefully learn to fight with each other rather than against”

Vee’s eyes widened, she was clearly just as surprised as Leo that she’d be participating as well. Vee was already an excellent fighter, and the name ‘Ace’ pretty much just backed that up. 

“Wait, why am I called Spades?” 

“Gambling and card games have become increasingly popular amongst the newer generation of Yokai, and now that they’re reaching the careless spending ages, I’m trying to appeal to them more” 

“But like all the other card symbol thingies are so cool! Like clubs! Y’know like I knock someone's head off with a club! Or a diamond like I’m so precious but I can slice you up! Or a heart like I can rip someone’s fucking heart out-”

“Leo, chill. You are way to excited to murder people” 

He grinned.

“Sorry Vee but I go by Spades now” He flipped his non-existent hair behind him and smirked at the painted turtle.

“Well I hope you’re not too upset my little turtley-boo, because the name is inflexible I’m afraid” 

He shrugged.

“It’s grown on me in the past few seconds- Spades”

Big Mama and Vee exchanged that look that only he seemed to get before Big Mama continued.

“You’ll start tomorrow, meet me in the downstairs lobby at exactly 7:45 no later”

The pair nodded practically buzzing with excitement already. 

Once they were finally dismissed they burst into the halls with loud victory noises.

“WHEW I GET TO BE IN THE BATTLE NEXUS BABY” 

Vee grinned along with his excitement.

“And I can make sure you don’t die! It’s gonna be great!” 

“YEAH!- Wait no that’s not- OHMYGOD-” 

She plucked him off the floor like he weighed nothing and threw him around in exhilaration before putting him down.

“Oh I’m gonna puke- Never do that again” He leaned over on himself and she just laughed, pumping her fists up and down.

“Sorry! I’m just glad you’re not gonna die after a week! You’re like the first person I’ve gotten to work with this much! And I don’t hate you!” 

“I’m gonna take that as a sign of friendship” He straightened back up.

“You’ve fought in the Battle Nexus before y’know? It was crazy!”

“Really?”

“Yeah! I wasn’t supposed to tell you about the Battle Nexus at all. But now you can hear all about your Rat Jitsu fight! Hold on I think there might be a fight rerun option on the big screen. C’mon!” She grabbed his arm and he obliged to following her down the hall.

He honestly would take what he could get when it came to friends in this place, and Vee was probably the luckiest he could get. So he didn’t need another second to decide whether or not to be Spades, as long as he had a friend, he was safe.

____________________________________

Leo was in his newer uniform and in the main lobby much earlier than required, but how could he not be?? After seeing his past life fight with the tentacle monster teaming with the former champion Lou Jitsu, he was hyped for these next two weeks.

Not only that but his cloak was now embroidered to have the spade suit symbol on it. And it looked cool as hell- And seeing Vee’s now her’s looked just as badass, with an ‘A’ mirrored horizontally along the tail. 

He couldn't stop his legs from kicking while he sat on the bar stool. Sure it wasn’t very Battle Nexus Champion like- God even the title sounded cool.

“Can you believe how sick this is? We’re gonna be champions!” 

Apparently Vee had fought for a month or so when she’d first joined Big Mama’s staff, which was surprisingly a little less than a year ago, although she refused to elaborate on what she did before that.

“It’ll be fun fighting for my life from the moment I wake up to when I go back to sleep every single day again!”

“Yeah! Exactly!”

“I’m pleased to hear you’re excited” 

They turned to see Big Mama standing there, although she wasn’t really Big Mama at the moment. Instead she chose to appear in her human form. Little Mama? 

It was weird seeing her with two eyes, and two legs, and shorter than Leo.

“We’ll be headed to the arena now, If you’re ready like I’d asked”

Leo lit up and jumped off the barstool, with Vee following. Leo didn’t want to ruin her good mood just yet, so he nodded instead of talking and the Boss lady led them to a curtained off room to the side of the lobby. All that was inside was a single door with an ‘M’ painted on, she walked towards it and it opened for her as she stepped inside, the turtles hurried after her.

The door closed again and began its descent into the Hidden City. Once it reached the bottom it rang and opened its door to reveal a massively impressive observation sweet lined with dozens of fancy curtains and hanging lanterns. There was a bar to the side and dining tables crowding the center of the room. The architecture itself reminded Leo of the designs in the training arena, although here it looked much more well kept and- sparkly. Big Mama’s heels echoed against the marble floors as she walked down the chambers to a single long couch in front of the massive window overlooking the gigantic arena below. The entire place screamed of rich people with too much time and money on their hands and Leo could never be able to express how much he loved it. He had to restrain himself from stopping and gawking at every little thing they passed. Vee slowed her pace slightly so she was walking in line with Leo.

“Does the self appointed ‘Master Decorator’ approve of the room?’

“I. Love it.” 

A roar cut off their short conversation, followed by thundering cheering that shook the floor of the room and Leo down to his core.

“This is where I’ll be watching your fights, and that is what you’ll be fighting today” 

Big Mama didn’t turn around, instead she glanced at them over her shoulder to get their attention. They shared a look before making their way to the window to see what she was referring to.

In a barred enclosure sat in the arena was a massive lion the size of a police blimp with a hawk-like head and wings . It looked to be akin to some sort of griffin. It was staining against the walls of the enclosure as some workers rolled the cage into the main part of the battle circle. 

“Whooaa, cool !” 

“Oh and Ace?” Vee hesitantly responded to the name, “As practically as your Nekote are, they weren’t flashy enough for me. So I’ve changed your weapon at the last second” 

Vee’s eyes widened, and Leo couldn’t blame her- If Big Mama did that with his swords he’d be dead. Although the painted turtle was probably more rounded when it came to weapons than Leo, so it probably wasn’t the same.

“What am I fighting with?” 

“Oh don’t worry turtley-boo, I chose something you’re more familiar with, I want you to have a fighting chance after all.”

They all turned their heads as a staff member entered the room right on cue with a- Leo could not be more serious- a scythe .

“YOO! That’s cool as shit!” 

Vee kept her expression relatively blank as she accepted the scythe, she hesitated before taking her gloves off.

“I can keep the gloves right? I won’t use them as my main weapon but it feels weird not to have them”

Big Mama pursued her lips and thought for a moment.

“You can keep them for now, but if I don’t like how your using them I won’t hesitate to confiscate them” 

Vee didn’t look up from the scythe in her hand.

“So when will we be starting?” 

“Right now actually,” 

Big Mama waved her hand behind them and the two turtles turned around to see a purple  portal swirl into the air, they shared a look and instinctively put on their masks. 

“Best of luck to the both of you, make sure to put up a good show for Big Mama” 

The turtles glanced at each other one last time before stepping through the portal. 

The muffled rumble of the arena only furthered his undying anticipation. His heart was pounding way too fast and he’d never felt more ready for something in his life .

Leo unsheathed his dao blades and spun them around his hands.

"Shall we, Ace?" 

She didn't look back at him in favor of spinning her scythe.

"Let's" 

His heart jumped into his chest once the heavy gate lifted and the roar of the crowd became much more apparent as it thundered through his whole being. He took a second to adjust to the blinding lights before laying eyes on the beast in front of them. It almost looked more intimidating when you were forced to look up at it. The anticipation was killing him, he had never been so excited for something in his life .

He dashed out of the chamber with Vee, going in opposite directions around the arena. The lion took a split second to decide before galloping after Leo in a sort of half-glide. Spades realized it was partially injured on its wings, rendering it grounded. 

“Oh birdy can’t fly? That’s convenient” He muttered to himself.

He spun around so he was facing the beast like he’d done with Doug. It pounced the moment it got close enough, the mutant chucked a dao at the creature’s paw before opening a portal and diving away. He spun around in time to see it land directly on the sword and send it deep into the flesh. It immediately teleported the lion 10 feet into the air with a flash of light. Something he’d discovered he could do over the course of training. 

“You’ve been portal chopped!” He knew Big Mama didn’t want him talking, but it was too good an opportunity to pass up. 

Spades held out his hand and appeared at the blade’s hilt, he managed to yank it out and teleport to the floor before the beast landed. Although it spread its wings and managed to glide down a bit more gentle than Spades would’ve preferred. 

It spun on its good foot and dashed after him, he didn’t have time to dodge before its leg sent him flying towards the arena wall. He hit it with a thud and had to gasp for any air to get back into his lungs. But the lion wasn’t giving him any time to do so, already charging back towards him. Until it fell to the ground in shrieking agony. 

Ace spun her scythe in a sickeningly fast cycle before plunging the end into the back of the lion’s leg, who shrieked out again.

“Thanks for the rescue!”

Spades managed to stumble to his feet and join her next to the beast. When he got close enough he noticed the limp tail that lay severed five feet away from the lion in a puddle of blood, which was probably what made it fall in pain in the first place.

“Don’t thank me yet”

The beast managed to stumble to its feet despite the pain, and whipped around so its wings slapped them both across the arena. Spades fell to the floor with a roll before spinning around back to the creature, he sliced the air open and portalled above the lion so he was falling in line with its back. He landed ungracefully onto the neck, where he began slicing in hopes something would bring it down. 

What did eventually end up bringing the beast to its rest was Ace coming to his rescue with a jab through the neck from below. God knows how she managed to do that. He fell to the floor beside her and watched the beast fall and begin choking on its own blood. It looked incredibly disgusting in all honesty.

Spades was almost grateful to put it out of its misery. 

Ace and Spades stood over the body of the dead animal as the crowd erupted in a unified cheer. Red petals rained onto them from above, Spades grinned under the mask despite his panting. Ace lightly punched him on the arm.

The pair shared the victory in mutual respect for the other. This was going to be the best two weeks of his life .

____________________________________

Leo’s body ached in protest as he rolled over in his bed. He tried to drown out the sounds of his screaming alarm clock with a pillow over his ears, but eventually he accepted defeat and reached over to turn it off. 

His hand strained against him in an unnecessary amount of pain for not even being in a fight. He hissed through his teeth and grabbed it, slowly massaging his palm and trying to flex one finger at a time to get it moving again. After dealing with the cramp he laid back down and sighed. Staring at his new Lou Jitsu poster on the ceiling, Leo wondered if Lou Jitsu ever had hand cramps or trouble moving in the mornings during the Battle Nexus days.

He stared blankly at the poster for a few more seconds before forcing himself up. He showered and dressed in his normal routine, although recently the staff gave him muscle braces and pain meds that were working wonders . 

Once he finished with his routine he practically tripped over himself on the way to the lobby. The weeks had gone surprisingly quickly, but Leo had the scars and body pain to prove each fight. Vee and him had only gotten two days off, both on Wednesdays for whatever reason. But he loved every moment of it.

“Vee! Vee!” He drew some looks as ran screaming his friend’s name down the lobby. She turned to him with a smile, already sitting at the table they’d begun meeting at for breakfast each morning.

“They deep washed my uniform for the finale! It doesn’t smell like dried blood and sweat anymore!” He spun around to show off his newly clean cloak.

“Yeah! It’s great right? I didn’t want to vomit putting it on this morning” 

The outfit’s were ‘cleaned’ at the end of each day, but not well. So it was refreshing to have them good as new again.

Vee gestured to the seat across the table, which already had some sliced fruits and a salad ready for him. He sat down and thanked her. She just smiled.

“Big Mama’s been hyping up this finale since the beginning, she says it’s a great way to draw a crowd,”

Leo nodded in agreement.

“So in other words if we don’t make it interesting she’s gonna kill us” 

“Tell me about it” He laughed and rolled his eyes.

Her eyes saddened slightly, she shook her head and continued to eat her own breakfast.

Once they finished their meals they met Big Mama in the observation sweet and helped her with whatever she needed all day until about an hour before the closing fight, ‘The Ace of Spades V.S a Rookie New Challenger’. When they were ushered to a room to have their braces tightened and bandages replaced.

Leo plopped down beside Vee on the couch with a plant protein shake, she rolled her eyes.

“Really enjoying the pampering huh?” 

“What? I can’t enjoy being treated like the star I am?” 

They grinned at each other and laughed.

“15 minutes ‘till” A staff member poked their head in to notify them of their impending fight. Vee sighed sadly.

“Well we should probably get down there,” She stood up and offered a hand to help Leo up, who took it without a second thought.

“See you on the other side Spades”

“See you on the other side Ace” He winked. The turtles made their way to the Battle entrance gate.

____________________________________

Spades raised his swords to his sides, grinning like a maniac under his mask. Ace tensed, the gate rose on the other side, revealing the challenger. Out stepped three cyclops's easily 14 feet tall at least , with the middle one the biggest, into the arena.

The middle one carried a massive armor breaker probably the size of Spades himself, but he wasn't wearing much armor. The other two had giant claymores with helmets covering their entire face. 

He spun his own weapons and didn't give any opponent a chance to attack. He rushed forward with Ace and sliced open a portal to a higher level than where one cyclops stood. They fell through the portal, Spades pushed Ace forward to boost her moment behind her attack. She pulled back her scythe to swing directly in the uncovered monster's eye, but he managed to barely dodge the blow. Instead she landed with her blade stuck directly in his shoulder. He screamed in pain but Spades was now too busy with his own fight to look over.

Spades teleported around the two remaining cyclops, looking for a weak spot on either. They swung everytime he appeared, but were much too slow in their massive size. He let himself fall to the floor and made a sharp whistle to get Ace's attention. She fell to the floor beside him with a roll. Her scythe already drenched in thick blood. 

"Go for the arms" 

He didn't need to explain himself, Ace just trusted his judgment and nodded. He grabbed her wrist and the two teleported behind the middle enemy. He left her there and teleported up to one of the smaller cyclops' eye level. The opponent swung around with his massive sword leading the attack. Spades teleported above the line of aim, slashing at his fingers as the sword swung under him. He teleported back to ground to target the legs. The cyclops screamed several curses. Spades only got in one hit before he was thrown across the arena with a single swipe of a massive hand. 

He hit the wall with a cry and fell to the ground on his side. He’d almost forgotten about the second cyclops.

Both cyclops he'd been fighting were now heading towards him with weapons at the ready. But the uninjured one specifically was charging straight for him. He winced and gasped for breath as he struggled to even sit up.

"Shit" 

Ace was holding her own easily in her fight, she hooked her scythe on the curved part of his armor breaker after a missed attack. This pulled her off the floor and into the air, flinging her above the monster below. She spun her scythe until it was nothing but a blur and readied her attack again, just using gravity to power her blow. 

The beast raised a hand instinctively to block her from his eye but she wasn't aiming there. She fell onto his raised arm and dug her scythe into his wrist. He immediately cried out and tried to throw her off with a wave of his arm. But she was firmly stuck to him, and his flailing only made the blade slide down his arm and open the wound. 

She pulled out her weapon on a well timed swing up and went flying above him. Blood sprayed everywhere and the beast clasped a hand around his wrist and screamed. She fell from above him and finally managed to directly pierce his eye.

Spades tried to scramble to his feet, he used his sword to teleport to the side so he was just barely out of the line of the enemy attack, still too dizzy to make a portal to the other side of the arena. 

A claymore hit the wall where he’d sat just seconds before with a thundering crash. The crowd roared with applause and cheers and Spades looked up to see Ace standing over a collapsed cyclops body with her scythe stuck deep into its bloodied eye. 

He stumbled to his feet and managed to create a full portal to her side across the arena. 

"Nice work" He gasped.

She pulled out her weapon and spun it around. 

 He managed to catch his breath and the two took their battle stances across from the remaining enemies. 

"The one to the right is injured, aim for the back of their knees" 

She just nodded and gripped his shoulder as he created a giant portal on the floor, dropping them both onto the opponents. 

Spades teleported Ace away as he continued falling, raising his own sword to attack a different opponent. The particular beast he was over started to swing a claymore at him, but he teleported to the side. He slashed at their helmet, which didn't really do much, but he wasn't trying to deal damage- he was just the distraction. 

Ace swung her scythe at the back of the cyclops's legs, slicing the exposed areas open and making the beast scream in pain as he fell to his knees. Spades landed on top of him and plunged his sword through the slit where the armor sheets lined up. 

They teleported a good 20 feet into the air as Ace turned her attention back to the  remaining enemy. He was gripping his bleeding hand and trying to steady his shaking hand on the massive sword. She hesitated before rushing him and swinging blade-first at the exposed slots in his leg armor. 

The beast fell to his side, clearly writhing in agony at the several wounds he'd endured. He was still crying in pain when Ace slit his throat.

The cyclops Spades had dealt with fell to the ground with a loud crash that shook the entire stadium. The entire arena roared with cheers to this. If the beast wasn't already dead from the stab to the back he definitely was on his way now. 

The referees seemed to count it as a defeatt, as the horns went off and the audience threw their rose petals down onto Ace and Spades, and the dead bodies they'd left in pools of their own blood.

Spades was panting hard but nothing ever felt so exhilarating . The chanting was so much louder than usual, and Leo loved it.

The cheers stuck with him for the rest of the day.

Chapter Text

____________________________________

Donnie for once ignored his villain notification system to instead continue searching through security cameras around parks and basketball courts. One notification did catch his eye however, and that was an update on the Hidden City news front page.

‘BIG MAMA’S ACE AND SPADES FINALE TAKES THE UNDERGROUND BY STORM AFTER JUST TWO WEEKS OF FIGHTING’

____________________________________

Mikey attempted to re-word his google search yet again. It was surprisingly difficult to find any information on retrograde amnesia, and anything new he did find was usually contraindicated by another article on the subject. So he was starting to have to get clever with how he got the info wanted.

He heard footsteps and looked up to see his eldest brother coming to join him on the floor of the main room. Which was really surprising, Raph had gone out in search of their brother every time the sun went down since he’d gone missing. Even Mikey had given up on trying to talk him out of it.

They sat in silence for a few moments, Mikey lowered his laptop screen to signal he was up for conversation, but Raph wasn’t looking at him.

“There was a police notification about Hypno causing some trouble up here. It doesn’t seem too important but I don’t think it’d be bad if we got our mind off things for a little while. He might even have something about Leo” He glanced up from his hands to look at his younger brother, trying to force some fake optimism into his voice that Mikey could see straight  through.

Mikey noticed the snapper rubbing his palms like he does when he’s anxious, and despite the much more important work that could be getting done, he wasn’t finding much anyway.

“Yeah that sounds like a good idea! Is Donnie coming?”

“I’m sure if I pick ‘im up and drag ‘im with us he will”

Mikey forced a small laugh, and the two returned to awkward silence for the next few moments.

“Let’s go drag Donnie out of his Lab” Raph stood up and offered a hand to his brother, who decided to climb up onto his shoulder with. Probably not was the eldest was offering but he didn’t complain he was being used as a perch.

The two peaked their heads into Donnie’s Lab upstairs. Finding him in the exact same spot as the past few weeks of his obsessive searching, Mikey was pretty sure he’d started sleeping in that chair.

“Hey Donnie, you-” Donnie flipped around and the pair made a noise of distress when they saw the newly present veins in his eyes and eyebags which had somehow gotten worse.

“Yes, Yes, I know I don’t look the best. What do you want?”

His two brothers shared a concerned look.

“Well I was going to check out the Hypno situation with Mike and we wanted you to come” 

Mikey nodded behind him in affirmation. Donnie sighed and  glanced back at his monitors

“I don’t know, I still have work to do”

“Plleeaaseeee, Dee? You’re gonna get back problems if you keep staring at your computer all day”

Donnie sighed again, rubbing his nose bridge with two fingers in annoyance.

“Again, I’m leading the city feed search and there’s still so much I haven’t gone through-”

“If you need more info, you’re just gonna have to wait for new stuff. You’re not gonna anything from the same news written by different people,” 

Donnie seemed genuinely surprised at Mikey’s vague grasp on his work. He just shrugged.

“I pay more attention than you think”

Donnie stared at him for a second longer before his expression shifted to something sadder.

“Alright Miguel, you win. Although don’t think you’re going to get away with using my own logic against me that easily” 

Mikey and Raph grinned having one the argument, Donnie stood up and stretched. Which made a concerning amount of his bones pop. The softshell excused himself and got ready while the others waited. After just a few minutes the three headed out  on patrol  where they’d last heard Hypno. It was eerily empty being on patrol without Leo’s constant puns and one liners. Especially considering Hypno was always one of his favorite villains to fight. But Mikey made sure to keep everyone preoccupied with the list of conversation topics he’d mentally prepared ahead of time. And for once in the past three weeks things felt much less tense. It was almost relaxing.

“Hypno is currently inside this museum based on my readings, while there isn’t much worthwhile to steal for a magician, he might just be trying to make a quick buck. Let’s just make sure he leaves empty handed”

“If he leaves at all that is” Raph punched his own hand with a grin.

“Look! There he is now!” Mikey pointed to the courtyard below, where Hypno was attempting to sneak away although failing in his stealth miserably.

The three jumped down and landed in front of him, weapons already drawn.

“Stop right there, Hypno !” Raph held his sai out in front of him, preparing for a fight.

“Oh it’s you lot. Wait- where’s the blue one?” He glanced around them, they all tensed, “And the other one?”

“What other one?”

“Yeaahh, there’s only four of us”

“But there was another turtle just a couple weeks ago! Them and Blue were playing basketball, they didn’t even try to stop my scheming. Which was quite rude in all honesty”

The four shared a look amongst themselves. If that was only a couple weeks ago, it meant Leo was out playing basketball after he went missing. And with potentially a new villain?

“What basketball court was the meeting?” Donnie pulled out a pen and notepad from his battle shell, looking up to Hypno expectantly. 

“I- Aren’t we supposed to be fighting?”

Donnie just raised his eyebrows and stared at him. Still waiting for an answer.

“I think it was just the one across the street” He pointed behind them and they turned around to see what he was referring to, but there was no court there.

They turned back around to see Hypno had vanished and Raph groaned.

“Why can’t villains just cooperate for once?” 

“It’s fine, now I have something to focus on- This was actually a surprisingly productive endeavor” 

“What about whatever Hypno stole?”

“Who cares what Hypno stole! We gotta get Donnie to a computer so we can find Leo!!” 

Raph sighed and picked Mikey back up so he was perched on his back, the team rushed home much faster than they rushed to the mission.

____________________________________

Donnie for once ignored his villain notification system to instead continue searching through security cameras around parks and basketball courts. One notification did catch his eye however, and that was an update on the Hidden City news front page. 

‘BIG MAMA’S ACE AND SPADES FINALE TAKES THE UNDERGROUND BY STORM AFTER JUST TWO WEEKS OF FIGHTING’

He clicked on it to quickly skim through, not expecting much but he couldn’t afford to ignore any possible info. He stopped scrolling once he saw a picture of the two Yokai in matching outfits that covered them head to toe. One looked blatantly familiar he just couldn't place where-

Big Mama’s assistant from when she took Shredder off their hands.

That was them, but why were they suddenly in the Battle Nexus? And why for only two weeks? And who was this other one’s identity?

He scrolled down far enough until he found a video of the fight. He played it. It only took a few seconds for Donnie to stop it again, eyes wide. 

There, in the video was the all-too-familiar blue portal conjured by swords.

Leo.

“Donnie!” 

He jumped in surprise and clicked to his graphing app before spinning around to see Raph. 

“Did you see the villain alert? It’s in the hidden city this time! And by someone who the thingy didn’t recognize! Do you think they’re the same guy who took Leo?”

Raph held out his villain alert screen, and Donnie was almost too terrified to take it. On the screen was blurry security footage of the same Battle Nexus fighters in an innocent-looking shop.

His eyes widened as he instantly recognized Ace and Spades.

Leo and an unknown enemy.

He stared at it for what was apparently longer than reasonable, as Raph began to lightly poke him.

“Donnie? Donnniieee? Earth to Donnie?? D-”

“Raph I-” He swatted his brother’s hand away “I don’t think those are the just people who took Leo,” He hesitated.

“I think that might be Leo”

Donnie didn’t look up from the screen to see his brother’s reaction, but he could imagine the disbelief considering he felt the exact same way.

__________________________________

"But why would Leo be doing something bad enough to get on our Villain scanner? Just because he was in the Battle Nexus doesn't mean he suddenly works for Big Mama- right?" 

Mikey asked the question posed on everyone's minds, but luckily Donnie had an answer.

"It might- actually. I decided to do some research on Ace, and apparently she was in the Battle Nexus a few months back before becoming Big Mama's main assistant. Why she's back again with a different name I have no idea" 

"We don't know that 'Spades' is Leo anyway- it could be a coincidence they have the same powers. I mean looking at it logically why would Leo ever work for her? He was the first to not trust her” Raph looked almost desperate to prove the theory wrong. And Donnie couldn't blame him.

"Looking at this logically the evidence lines up too much for it not to be. I rewatched the video several times and that's undeniably his fighting style, even disregarding the obvious factor of his portals. Not only that but he's the same height, his mask has stripes similar to his natural ones, and he wears fingerless gloves that show he has green skin underneath. That's Leo" 

"But why would Big Mama make it so obviously Leo?" Mikey chimed in with a surprisingly insightful point. 

Why was Big Mama making it so easy? What was she getting at?

“Well whatever reason, we need to follow the notif and get Leo back”

The two youngest just hesitantly nodded. They had no idea what territory they were getting into here, yet rushing in, for once, seemed like the best option. 

“I think we should bring April”

“But it's a-” 

Donnie held up a finger to shush him with a noise you'd use on a disobedient cat.

“I know it's a school night but we need all the help we can get” 

“I'm with Dee on this Raph, we’re not usually fighting with just three people” 

They stared at him for a moment before he sighed.

“Fine we'll bring April, but if anything happens we grab Leo and get out. If- he doesn't come with us, we’ll take his sword and Mikey will portal us out with it”

“Let’s take the turtle tank” Donnie slipped his tech-bo onto it’s place on his battle shell

____________________________________

The group maintained a low crouch while they watched the scene below unfold. Raph knew these guys, the mud dogs. If Leo was messing with them that could only mean trouble. Leonard went behind the shop counter and must’ve pressed something as a trap door opened in the floor. The criminals turned and headed down the staircase into the dark. Raph turned to his team and nodded, and they followed them down.

Splinter would be proud, as they stuck to the walls and actually kept quiet for once. Who knew if you had a brother on the line you’d be so motivated to follow the rules. 

When they reached the bottom, they only had a split second to take in the expanse of the room before ducking behind a few boxes as soon as the villain’s turned the light on. 

“See, told ya Dannie, nobody here” 

The mouse rolled his eyes and stuffed his hands into his pockets.

“Big Mama’s gonna find out sooner ‘er later, and it aint gonna be pretty when she does”

“Well if it makes ya feel better she woulda known by now if she thought we pulled somethin’,” Leonard waved his arms around to gesture at the expense of loot they’d presumably stolen “See? Nottin’ ”

“We should scam ‘er next time too! It’s so much fun-”

“Doon’ get ahead of yourself Malicious Mickey, Dannie here thinks she figured it out the first time”

The two snickered at the mouse, who just scoffed.

“Let’s get to that bank we passed on the way here, just for the hell of it”

Dannie begrudgingly followed them back upstairs with his tail thrashing, they shut the lights of the warehouse back off before leaving. Raph stopped April from moving before they heard the clang of the trap door being shut again. They stayed for a few more moments.

“Ok I think it’s safe to go”  

Raph kept his voice in a whisper even as the team left their hiding spot behind the crates.

A cutting whistle from across the room caught their attention.

Raph’s second youngest brother took an unconscious step back at the sight of the new enemies. The one who whistled was revealed to be Ace, with sharp claws at the ready- weirdly her signature Battle Nexus scythe was nowhere in sight. Spades drew his swords, and the two parties were forced into a standoff.

There was no way this was Leo.

Sure Donnie could list reasons all day to back up his conspiracy theory, but at the end of the day Raph knew his brother. And that wasn’t him.

There was another sharp whistle from Ace and the opponents bolted towards them without another second to spare. 

Mikey yelled out and jumped in front of the stunned team, he whipped his chains around Ace’s extended hand. Using her own momentum and his terrifyingly inhuman strength to throw her against the back wall. Donnie was forced to dodge an attack from Spades before he ran off after Mikey’s fight. Leaving the biggest siblings to deal with the chaotic sword-wielding enemy.

Spades spun around on his heel and dove back after them, he used his weapons to somehow teleport forward, inches away from Raph without even having to create a portal. Obviously not a Leo ability.

Raph blocked the strike with his tonfas, and April was behind Spades in a matter of seconds and swinging her bat. He teleported to the side so she just barely missed before he spun back towards them with swords aiming for their necks. Raph had to block again and shove his enemy back so he could get his own attack in. The cloaked enemy instead teleported a few feet back to regain his own footing. 

“APRILLLLLLL O’ NEIL” 

This time April didn’t let him and swung again, getting a hit to his stomach before he teleported back again and stumbled. Raph almost thought he’d heard Spades stifle a curse that sounded eerily similar to Leo. 

“Nice work, April!” 

“Fibonacci!” Donnie’s battle cry echoed across the room as Mikey was thrown across the floor against the far wall. The box turtle only took a second to get back on his feet and return to his fight with Ace.

Donnie flashed into a brighter purple than normal, stumbling as he was thrown backwards again, his own mystic energy dissipating unnaturally bright around him.

Spades jumped towards the biggest siblings again, dodging a blow from April and spinning around with his swords directly aimed for her neck. The much larger snapper cried out and was able to tackle him to the ground before he could get a direct hit, instead the blade skimmed by her face and knocked off her glasses. 

Raph wrestled the enemy on the ground just to keep him incapacitated while April regathered herself. 

“C’mon Spades work with me here” He grumbled.

He managed to keep him down just barely long enough before Spades swung his sword in a large semi-circle and created a portal under the both of them, they fell apart as they plummeted out of the air. He teleported away leaving Raph to free fall on his own.

“POWER SMASH JITSU” He smashed his tonfas together and lit up in a giant duplicate surrounding himself.

The floor crunched beneath him as he hit the ground. He let the mystic copy of himself dissipate into the air, it was too big a form to hold in the small room and continue to fight properly.

Spades was already in a fight with April by the time Raph got back down. He was knocked to the floor, probably from his attention getting momentarily occupied by the snapper’s mystic abilities. 

April put a foot to his chest, in response her enemy raised his dao blades as if he was going to chop off her foot.

“April!” Raph pushed his sister off right before Spades could swing. The pair turned to see him already on his feet. They raised their weapons as Spades attacked again with a teleport in front of them. Raph managed to land a punch square in his face that sent him flying to the side. There was a disconcerting crunch sound on impact, one that was revealed to be made by his enemy’s mask. 

The red on white mask slid across the floor as the mutant coughed. A few drops of blood fell to the floor. Spades turned and revealed his face, grinning.

Raph’s eyes widened in terror.

There, with blood streaming from one of his nostrils, was Leo.

The face of the man Raph had grown up with, who he'd played Mario Kart with and yelled at for skipping out on missions to. With a maniacal grin plastered on his face as he rose to his feet. Trying to wipe the blood off his upper lip only to smear it further.

"Well that wasn't very nice was it?"

Raph stumbled back, he couldn't even bring himself to raise his weapons against his own brother. Not in a situation like this.

The other fight stopped but the snapper couldn’t bring himself to look away from Leo. 

"Long time no see. Raphael" 

Leo spun his swords in his hands. 

"It's funny. I thought you'd be harder a fight" 

He lowered his voice for the last part, a sadistic grin plastered on his all-too-happy face. There was that same childish mischief in his eyes they had always known in their brother, but this was off, more twisted and sinister. This was the part of his brother only hidden by his moral compass and capacity for compassion. But now that was gone, and what was left was a monster that was all too unfamiliar.

"Leo?" 

April spoke for him, staggering to her feet and joining him in watching their brother walk towards them without a hint of empathy lining his smile. 

Neither of them moved the closer Leo got, until he was standing just a few feet in front of them. Probably at the closest they'd seen of him in weeks. 

He kicked April to the floor, who for once didn't fight back. She seemed too in shock to hurt her own brother, and Raph couldn't blame her. 

Leo turned back to his eldest brother, again with the same disturbing grin. He placed a hand on Raph's shoulder. Giving him a terrifying surge of hope. 

Leo pulled the snapper a bit closer, almost like he was asking for an embrace.

“It’s ok Leo, I promise, Raph’ll get you-”

He was cut off by the blade piercing his stomach. He tried to cry out at the sudden pressure in his gut, but instead all that came out was a disgusting cough. 

His brother pulled the sword out and dropped him to the floor. Raph's vision began to blur, he could've sworn he was vomiting up blood. He gripped at his side where he'd been stabbed, hoping his hand would make him realize it was nothing but a bad thought. 

The thick red liquid pooled to the floor below. Nobody dared to move. 

Leo spun his blades between his fingertips before sheathing them on his back. 

They'd all just lost a brother.

And it wasn't Raph. 

His vision went black. 

____________________________________

"Well we did what we needed to do." Leo nodded to Ace "Hopefully that'll teach you a lesson in staying out of our missions, Adios!" 

The pair left through an unnaturally blocky purple portal that closed behind them. No one tried to follow, everyone was just staring at their unconscious brother.

Mikey eventually won his internal battle and ran over to Raph. Screaming his name. 

“Raph? Raph can you hear me!? Raph!” He shook his limp body, expecting to be pushed away by Donnie who’d yell at him not to hurt him, but the softshell was just standing there. Unmoving.

Mikey squeezed his eyes shut and wrapped his arms around his older brother. Already sobbing.

“No, no- nononono Raph please wake up”

Mikey heard his siblings finally join him, Donnie lingering back as April started nudging Raph.

“He’s still breathing! Dee, can you help?”

“I- I don’t know that’s Leo’s thing-”

“Mikey, could you move? We need to put pressure on Raph’s wound”

Mikey didn’t move. He wanted to go home, he wanted to wake up and realize it was all a dream. He didn’t want to let go of Raph. 

He just squeezed tighter the more they tried to push him off, his face was burning from the tears. He just wanted to go home.

“Micheeaall! What are you doing?” 

He forced his eyes open, revealing a bright orange glow coming from his clenched fists. His eyes widened.

“Mikey??” 

A portal not too different from one of Leo’s began to form in front of the group. The most noticeable differences being it was orange and much brighter than any he’d ever seen.

“I think I can see the Lair! Whatever you’re doing, don't stop!” 

Mikey lifted his hands to the portal, he barely even noticed how bad they burned as he forced the portal open further. His hands almost felt like they were splitting open, but he wasn’t going to stop. The picture of their home became clearer behind the blinding light of his mystic abilities. 

“Help me get Raph through the portal!” Donnie lifted a heavy arm over his shoulder and April was quick to get the other. Mikey kept as much of his focus on the portal as he could, now fully stretching his arms out to keep it wide enough for the team to get through. 

They managed to drag Raph through the portal just before the box turtle felt he’d pass out if he held it open for any longer. He ran after them right as he left it to close. 

Chapter Text

 ____________________________________

Mikey threw his red paint can against the concrete, it sprayed out across the bottom of his artwork. Only adding to the mess it was. He yanked his respirator off and threw it against the floor as well. 

The box turtle stormed off without taking his art supplies.

____________________________________

The mask skid to a stop across the floor, but Leo only grinned. He turned to face the red mutant who called himself his brother.

"Well that wasn't very nice was it?"

With hood now resting around his shoulders, he was fully revealed to the enemy team, who were now staring at him in shock. Vee stopped her own battle the moment his identity was revealed.

"Long time no see. Raphael" 

He wiped the blood off his upper lip, spinning his Dao's before returning to his battle position. 

"It's funny. I thought you'd be harder to beat" 

The snapper looked so terrified he didn’t even raise his weapons.The look of horror on the other's face was almost enough to make Leo feel- guilty? For hurting them? Despite this being his mission he’d almost have believed they’d been his family at some point.

“Leo?” 

The girl, apparently April, sounded heartbroken saying his name. Had they been looking for him? If they had it was a wonder how they didn’t find him sooner, he looked the same, even his mask looked like him. His guilt was surprisingly new and unfamiliar.

He didn’t like it.

“Leo,” 

Vee snapped him back to reality, he glanced up from his food to look at her.

“Are you ok?” 

“Yeah- I was just, thinking” He picked up his iced tea to mindlessly sip on in hope she’d leave him alone.

“Revolutionary,” She rolled her eyes. “I’m serious Lee, what’s up?” 

“The turtles we fought-”

“Of course. We stopped the Mud Dog’s scam anyway, completed our mission and Big Mama didn’t even find out about-”

“No besides the mask thing, they looked scared - it was weird”

She tilted her head.

“Every opponent we fought in the Battle Nexus was scared for their life up until we slit their throat. We didn’t even kill any of the turtles or the human straight up”

“I know I know I just-” He sighed, “They didn’t look scared for themself they looked scared for me ? That couldn’t have been acting! Big Mama knows more about my past life then she lets on. She’s hiding something from me and it’s pissing me off”

Vee’s expression darkened, and for a brief moment Leo wondered if she was going to yell at him for questioning Big Mama.

“I know damn well Big Mama’s not what’s really bothering you. Did you even care if she was right or not when you first joined? I know that face you made and it was the I’m-making-a-stupid-decision-because-it’s-fun face” 

He laughed at the fact she just cursed at him. He really was a terrible influence. 

“I’m just not used to people screaming my actual name in a fight, usually they just cry or at worst call me Spades. But something about that girl’s scream felt so- personal it was weird? It made me feel guilty ! I never feel guilty!” 

He said the last part loud enough that some other people in the cafe gave them weird looks,  but he continued.

She stared at him for a moment with a sad smile. 

“Can I tell you something?”

“Does it have to do with your tragic backstory?” He grinned and she only laughed.

“Sort of- actually, I told you this already but I was in the Battle Nexus before Ace of Spades.  Except I didn’t have a code name then, I just went by Venus. I was given a few partners to fight with me in the arena but they usually ended up dying or getting incapacitated and had to retire,” She looked away. “For the ones that did die, they usually went out screaming for me to come save them”

They sat in silence for a few moments before Leo realized she wasn’t going to go on.

“How’d you deal with that?”

She laughed to herself.

“I actually started asking to listen to other people’s problems. I’d go to the bar or something and just ask someone if they wanted to talk. Usually they’d spill their guts and it was just, I don’t know, nice to remember life would just keep going no matter what. Sometimes they even had experiences similar to mine, and I’d be able to relate to other yokai for once. It just helped with the guilt”

Leo made a small hum, he was expecting something very different from Vee. But it didn’t sound like a totally bad idea, and he was beginning to see why she enjoyed it. 

“So what’s your story?”

She laughed and gently shoved him with one arm.

“Nicy try Leon, you’re not getting it out of me that easy”

“One day you’ll reveal your mysterious past” 

“ Sure Lee”

____________________________________

Mikey’s hands wouldn’t stop shaking.

If they would, he'd probably be a little less miserable than he was now.

Art was usually his form of escapism, yet the graffiti finished was nothing but messy lines and the vague form of a silhouette stood atop all his problems. 

Stupid, stupid stupid hands.

“UGH!” Why couldn’t his hands just work again? Why did they have to be so useless ? 

He threw his red paint can against the concrete, it sprayed out across the bottom of his artwork. Only adding to the mess it was. He yanked his respirator off and threw it against the floor as well. 

The box turtle stormed off without taking his art supplies.

____________________________________

“If you’re still experiencing nerve damage symptoms you’re going to have to talk to Draxum, I’m busy with Raph”

Of course.

He just made a small hum in response. Too busy for a well thought response with trying to keep the boiling frustration contained as he walked back out of the infirmary. 

Of anyone he’d gotten the lesser end of damage dealt, probably second to April. Donnie got his leg slashed open by Ace and there was the thing with Raph. Plus everyone got their fair share of bruises, Ace was apparently not the talk-it-out type.

He sat on the edge of the upper floor, scrolling through his phone in a desperate attempt to get his mind off things.

“Hey big guy”

He yelped and turned to find April behind him.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. I guess we’re all kinda on edge after that,”

She sat down beside him and waited for a response. He did not give one.

“I told Splinter about- everything. My parents are letting me take a week off school for my injuries, even though they're really mad about it,”

She forced a laugh. Usually Mikey would appreciate the attempt to lighten the mood, but he had too many emotions to sort through at the moment. 

“You’re in your art hoodie, did you go out?” 

He just nodded without looking up.

“Whad’ya paint?” 

He didn’t respond, she furrowed her eyebrows and frowned.

“Ok Donnie not talking to me is one thing. But what’s up with you lil’ man? You’re usually all over getting to talk about your art!”

Mikey sighed, but he knew April wasn’t going to give up with that as his answer. So he finally responded.

“I’m just worried about Raph, but I haven’t tried to think about it too much”

“I think we all are- Leo too. I don’t know what could’ve possibly happened in those three weeks to make him do that. It doesn’t make sense. I hope he’s okay”

“Whatever Big Mama did she needs to pay for”

“Whoa okay , doesn’t that seem like a little much? Especially for- y’know you?”

Mikey didn’t think it was ‘a little much’.  Big Mama hurt his brother and didn’t even have the guts to show up and fight them herself. One day he’d make sure it’d come back to bite her.

April looked like she was going to start some big sister speech, but Donnie interrupted any chance she could’ve gotten.

“Raph’s awake”

____________________________________

Raph placed a comforting hand on his father’s shoulder.

“Seriously Pops, it’s ok, it wasn’t your fault”

Splinter still didn’t look convinced despite Raph’s comforts. Neither had a chance to continue the conversation as Mikey burst into the room with April and Donnie trailing.

“Raph! You’re okay!” 

Raph laughed despite his feverish headache. His littlest brother immediately bounced into his arms.

“You know Raph’s always coming back kicking little man” 

As Mikey pulled away Raph could see the newly formed eyebags from the past couple days he’d been out. And the kid was wearing his art hoodie- Big brother instincts were going haywire.

“You okay? You seem stressed”

“I’m fiiiine, Draxum explained how I portalled everyone back without a sword and apparently I just got magic hands!” 

“You did what-!?” 

Raph was able to momentarily ignore his brother's fake cheery voice by focusing on the apparent portal Mikey opened?

Everyone in the room laughed at his shock.

“Mikey here saved your ass by portalling all of us back to the Lair with just his hands!” April gently shook Mikey with one hand, who stuck out his tongue to continue the playful energy.

“Language! Also- Since when could you do that??”

“‘Ever apparently! Just discovered ‘em though”

He held up his hands very briefly before stuffing them back into his pockets.

“That’s incredible Mikey!”

“I know you’re enjoying the family reunion but I have tests to run so shoo shoo. All of you”

Donnie waved his hands and Splinter, April, and Mikey all begrudgingly took their turns with goodbyes before exiting to the hallway. Leaving Donnie to attend to his brother’s wounds further.

____________________________________

April pushed back the curtain separating Raph’s bed from the rest of the infirmary. Luckily this time, he was awake, and staring blankly at the wall while fidgeting with his hands. 

“Hey big guy, feeling any better?”

His attention snapped to her and he forced a small smile.

“I’m alright April, how's Mikey?” 

“You mean here or up here?” She pointed to her arms and then her brain.

“Either”

“Well his arms are healing well, Draxum’s been making him put this special mystic cream on the burns. I think you missed the worst of it, the first few days he was in a lot of pain. I don’t know how well he’s handling everything mentally though, he’s been a bit more snappy then usual it’s weird,” She looked up at him and he just hummed in response. Eyebrow line furrowed in concern, “What about you though? You got stabbed by your brother”

He tensed and looked away.

“I’ll be fine”

“Raph”

“I’m just-” He took a shaky breath “Why do you think he did it April? I don’t know how these things work but what if he’s been resenting me all along? I’ve been so hard on him since he became leader I just- What if he hated me for it? What if that was his internal revenge or something?”

“You know he can’t remember anything”

“I know , but his subconscious’s gotta still be there or something right? What if I’ve been too hard on him?”

She held out her hand which he gratefully took over rubbing his own palm raw.

“If his subconscious was still there he would’ve run back to you guys a long time ago”

He smiled a bit without meeting her eyes.

“You don’t think that means we lost him forever do you?” 

“I think he’s still Leo, maybe without his memories, but he’s still the same kid deep down. And  we’re gonna make new memories once we get him back. Ones he’ll remember this time”

Raph took a shaky breath as tears fell down his cheeks, April gripped his hand tighter.

“He’s really never going to remember is he?” 

“I don’t think so, maybe a few things will come back to him but my research says most things are gone for good,”

Raph was full on sobbing now, April pulled him to a hug, letting her own tears spill over.

“It’s gonna be okay big guy”

The pair sat like that for a few more minutes until the snapper calmed down enough to pull away.

“How are you supposed to deal with that?”

“Because Leo’s not dead, and we’re going to get that bitch back whether he likes it or not,”

Raph laughed through the tears, pulling his sister in for one last hug before he finally let go fully. 

“It’ll be ok, me and Donnie are already working on a plan to get ‘im back”

He wiped away the last of his tears and gratefully nodded. 

“Thanks April” 

“Anytime” 

She pat him on the back before the two shared their goodbyes and April left the infirmary. 

____________________________________

“I’m sure I could figure out some sort of shock therapy if I only had more time-”

“ Purple ”

“If you’d let me run more tests I could-”

“ Purple ”

“I’m getting closer to finding a cure I swear-”

“ Purple ”

“JUST LET ME DO THIS DAD!”

“ Donatello ,”

They went quiet at the use of Donnie’s full name. April hung back for this one, Splinter probably knew how to deal with his son’s denial better than anyone.

“You can’t use science to go against science. You should know that better than anyone. Leonardo isn’t going to remember us after a few tests. We need to focus on getting him away from Big Mama as our number one priority”

Donnie refused to meet his father’s eyes. Almost retracting into his shell slightly with arms crossed as if to hide as much of himself as possible. 

“Donnie-” April started.

“ Don’t ” The softshell turned and stormed out of the living room without another word. Most likely off to his lab to conduct more experiments.

She turned back to Splinter.

“You gonna be ok?”

“I shouldn’t have let you go on that mission by yourselves”

She sighed.

“I don't think any of us were expecting- everything that happened. But you can’t change the past Splints, you just gotta be there now”

The rat curtly nodded.

“I will accompany you on the next mission, and am going to help you and Purple with your planning,” She smiled at the newly determined Splinter they had in their midst. “Speaking of which you should go call your spy friend”

“Oh I forgot about that!” She pulled out her phone and turned to find privacy amongst the other room, calling back one last time before leaving. “Thanks Splints”

Once she was in the other room she took a second to get her mind back to the task at hand. Find Leo, get him away from Big Mama.

She scrolled through her contacts until she found what she was looking for. She dialed Casey Jones.

Chapter Text

 ____________________________________

This wasn't the regular following orders stubbornness- no Leo had seen that. He doubted she even heard him continue to call after her. He lifted his mask and raised a hand to his lips to sound the disengage whistle, but she wasn't having it. Vee lifted her scythe off her back, spinning it between both hands before throwing herself at Draxum

____________________________________

Donnie quickly pushed open the door and slipped under Bullhop's cart with Shelldon and Mayhem trailing. 

The bull continued pushing the cart without much lag, good. Donnie wasn't about to let a week of planning go to waste with one little slip up.

His wrist tech lit up with a notification from April.

‘Did the T Team transfer work?' 

He responded with an affirmation. Although it was slightly difficult to type with Mayhem squirming in his lap. Sure the space was cramped but couldn't the dog chill for ten seconds?

"-And with that I'm pleased to thank each and everyone of you for supporting the two week air of our beloved Ace of Spades"

Big Mama's voice became clear as the cart was pushed into the hall adjacent to the main room she was holding her party in. He repressed a scoff at her obnoxiously obvious sell out at the fighter's growing popularity. One she undoubtedly had been planning all along.

'The Key holder should be backstage now'

Donnie read through his new notification on his wrist tech from Cassandra. Who'd been working undercover for them as staff for the past week. Currently she was in the party as a guest with her father, and sending information about the security's locations.

He tapped Mayhem, who nodded to him and teleported away. Likely backstage to find the guard with the keys. After a while the kart had reached the end of the hallway, and Mayhem managed to teleport back moments before they got the elevator, keys in mouth.

Donnie awkwardly pat the dog as a sign of a job well done. The T team entered the elevator up a floor to get the camera room. Donnie switched to the layout of the building on his tech, a map Cassandra had created. Two dots were shown on screen, one with his own team’s location and one to the side. Hopefully at the building they’d planned their 

'According to my map, it should be just above where the kitchen was on the floor below' 

Donnie texted Bullhop so he'd be able to navigate the cart there, but before they could continue they were stopped by a passerby in the hall.

They shared a quiet conversation for a few moments.

"-oh the security staff ordered food" 

He managed to make out the end of their talk just long enough to know whoever the yokai was just hummed and accepted Bullhop's answer. Letting them continue their mission.

The mutant reached down into the cart and Donnie handed him the keys to the room. He unlocked the door and allowed the T team to get inside before nodding and leaving them. 

'We're in'

Donnie noted through his wrist tech. He nodded to Shelldon, the robot hovered to the computer where he plugged into the USB port. 

While he was working Donnie filed through the monitor for previous camera footage. It wasn't part of the plan, sure, but you couldn't blame him for being curious what had happened to his brother for the past month. 

He scrolled through previous dates, ones he'd seen Leo on or ones he knew he was in the Battle Nexus. Despite checking most of the rooms there didn't seem to be a lot. He decided to switch to the hotel feed.

"Hey Dee? I got it set up are you-?" Shelldon watched his father work for a few moments.

"Give me a second" He continued clicking away until he found what he was looking for, footage from about a week and a half ago.

He played the first clip.

"Vee! Vee!" 

Leo was seen in full uniform running through the hotel lobby to Ace. Both had their masks off and hoods down. Revealing her to be a turtle as well.

“They deep washed my uniform for the finale! It doesn’t smell like dried blood and sweat anymore!” Leo twirled around a few times.

“Yeah! It’s great right? I didn’t want to vomit putting it on this morning!" Ace responded, she was- surprisingly nice to him? Oddly enough, and looked genuinely friendly. 

And Leo seemed to be having fun.

Donnie skipped to another clip, this time further back, a bit over three weeks ago.

Ace was sitting in the lobby again watching a Battle Nexus re-run. She was out of uniform although still carried a few belts. Leo was running up to her with only his sword scabbards, also without the uniform.

"Vee!! There's an arcade!! We gotta go check it out!”

“Do I have a choice or-?”

He grabbed her wrist and she didn't fight back as he dragged her away from her food and entertainment.

Donnie stared at the clip of his brother a few moments longer.

Leo was having fun here. And everything about the situation felt so humane. Like him and Ace were just Big Mama's employees enjoying their time off. They weren't being held captive, they weren't being forced to fight every moment against their wills.

"Awwe, Leo made a friend!" Shelldon didn't realize how little he was helping the soft shell's mood.

Donnie plugged in his wrist tech into the computer and quickly downloaded as much as he could from the past few weeks of the hotel lobby. He felt sick as he switched back to his original task and shut the security cameras off for Draxum.

'Cams are down, you're free to engage' 

No response.

Donnie shared a look with Shelldon. 

Mayhem jumped into Donnie's arms and his vision swirled as he was teleported outside.

____________________________________

Mikey was itching for Donnie’s go signal. He was hyped and ready for a fight .

“Donnie, Shelldon and Mayhem just got in the cart, so it’ll probably be awhile”

He groaned in exasperation.

“Be patient Orange, we don’t know what lies ahead. Stick to the plan”

“I wanna get in there and make Big Mama pay ! She can’t just stab our brother like that! It’s messed up!” 

His three teammates shared concerned glances, ones even Draxum had mastered.

“We’ll get down there soon enough, just gotta get the ok from Donnie”

April was acting like he didn’t already know the plan. He knew the plan. Everyone did. If they’d all stop treating him like a child, they could see that.

“Big Mama’s going to try to film the fight for her Battle Nexus even without the cameras. How do we know she doesn’t have a backup plan to our plan?”

“She doesn’t even know there’s going to be a fight tonight. Even then, if she has a backup plan, Donnie will find it”

“April is right. You must have faith in our son, Drax”

Mikey was sick of everyone reiterating what they already knew . They should be down there busting their brother out. Not talking about how great Donnie is.

“Michelangelo, are you alright?” He looked up from the Nexus offshoot building to see his father’s worried gaze having stopped the other’s conversations.

“I’m fine” He snapped. April and Splinter glanced between each other again, as if silently communicating.

April looked like she was going to say something but her phone lit up.

“Tech Team made it to the cam room, just a little bit longer now” 

They all froze as a familiar voice landed behind them.

____________________________________

Leo pulled up his mask- even if it didn't matter for these particular enemies, Big Mama didn't know he'd revealed his identity. And that wasn't something he was about to tell her.

He dropped down onto the lower rooftop. Apparently his stealth skills were improving because they didn't notice him fall behind them. 

"Hey guys! Just a note for the future, can you like- not crash big parties? The Boss gets cranky afterwards and you do not wanna know how she is when she's cranky,”

The opponents spun around and immediately crouched into their battle positions. Strangely enough they were missing the purple one along with Raph. Which was weird because he didn't remember stabbing purple at any point. What was his name? He was pretty sure it was Donnie or something, like Dannie but more boring.

The remaining orange turtle looked pissed enough to make up for his two missing brothers though. So Spades figured it evened out.

"Where's your friends? I thought I only stabbed one”

Just as he said that Donnie showed up in a swirly blur with a cat-looking creature in hand.

Most of the enemy team turned to look at the new arrival, but the orange one- Mikey, kept his eyes locked on him.

"Where's your friend? Or did she have the sense not to show up?" Mikey spat, his kasari spinning on fire beside him.

"Funny you're the one saying that-" He paused "Oh god I missed banter" 

Mikey rushed towards him, just barely missing hitting Spades square in the chest thanks to a dodge. The slider spun around and unsheathed his swords, using them to block another attack with an X position. But the turtle was one step ahead of him, and the chain wrapped around his dao's which the box turtle used to throw Spades across the battlefield towards the Nexus building. 

Big Mama would've killed him if he damaged her property even more, so he sliced open a portal behind him and used it to appear behind the orange turtle. With his gained momentum he kicked him off the current building, falling with him in the process. 

He attempted to teleport back to the rooftop, but Mikey grabbed him and forced him to take the both of them wherever he teleported. 

Eventually a giant purple vine found its way off the original building and grabbed his orange opponent from the air-squabble. Spades took the opportunity to teleport back to the roof. He stumbled before finding his footing across the roof.

"Whooaaa- I like your plant magic" 

More purple vines grew from a seed in the sheep yokai's hands, diving after Spades which he promptly dodged.

"Eww! Are those slimy??" 

"APRILLLLLLL O' NEIL!" 

He turned around just in time to see a bat headed straight for his plastron. He was hit and sent rolling across the roof with the air knocked out of him. April, Mikey and the sheep all advanced on him within the few seconds he used to regain his footing. Although for some reason the tiny rat, that was also there, was just standing defensively in front of his more familiar purple opponent. The weird cat thing seemed to be nowhere in sight now. 

Once he shifted his focus back to the three opponents actually in battle, Mikey was gone, and the next second Spades was flying towards the other two with an excruciatingly painful burning punch to his shell. 

He hit the ground again and immediately checked his back to make sure his costume wasn't burnt- which it was. Big Mama was going to end him for that. 

He barely got enough time to stand up before vines were coming at him again. Luckily Mikey actually helped him by hitting him to the side with a painful bash of his fiery nunchaku. Spades raised his swords to block another immediate attack. Metal clanged together as the chain bounced back off before being swung back at him again.

He continued to slice back at the weapon being flung at him. And with all his attention stuck on the very persistent enemy, he would've been out cold by Donnie jumping into battle with his bo staff aimed directly for his neck had Ace not shown up to his rescue. 

She hit Donnie to the ground with the butt of her scythe, she would've left him incapacitated if Mikey didn't use his chains to grab his brother's leg and pull him back to their side of the battlefield. 

"Whoa why's the scythe back?"

She shrugged, panting slightly. Probably giving her 'Big Mama's orders' look.

"I ALMOST HAD HIM MICHEAL! WHY'D YOU GET IN THE WAY?" The sheep-man yelled at Mikey who wasn't even looking away from Spades.

“It's not my fault you can't aim, Draxum ” 

It was- surprisingly threatening despite how tiny he was. 

"Now that the fights even. You wanna make these runts run home to big bro?" Spades spun his weapons with a grin, expecting Ace to take a battle stance in response, but she didn't move. "Ace?"

She was still as a statue with her gaze fixed on the sheep man, Draxum.

She slowly lowered her mask. Spades eyes widened. Ok that wasn't good.

"Dad?" Her voice shook a uncharacteristically surprising amount.

" Dad ? DAD ?! THAT'S YOUR DAD??" He waved his arms towards the yokai "THAT IS A SHEEP" 

He waited for her to acknowledge him, but his lighthearted jabs went ignored in favor of staring at her apparent father. He softened slightly.

"Vee are you ok?" He waved his hand in front of her face, but her gaze was locked.

She looked on the verge of tears. Leo had no idea that could be so terrifying. 

Her expression changed from horrified to the angriest he'd ever seen her in a matter of seconds, now that was terrifying. He took a step back.

She began a steady walk towards Draxum, steps heavy with rage. He placed a hand on her shoulder but she was pissed , and batted him away before continuing her march. 

"Vee? Hey buddy? What are you doing?" Panic rose in Leo's voice as he watched his friend blatantly ignore him in pursuit of the enemy.

This wasn't the regular following orders stubbornness- no Leo had seen that. He doubted she even heard him continue to call after her. He lifted his mask and raised a hand to his lips to sound the disengage whistle, but she wasn't having it. Vee lifted her scythe off her back, spinning it between both hands before throwing herself at her- Uh Dad?

The yokai spun to the side, throwing vine after vine towards Vee which she sliced threw with ease. 

Her weapon spun into a blur as she leaped to attack again. She sliced at him dodge after dodge, weaving through the vines he grew like it was a dance. She was clearly at an advantage being much more nimble than the older sheep man. Her blade snagged his arm after one particularly unlucky dodge. 

Vee took the opportunity to stack her attacks one after another, quicker and quicker until Draxum was using his vines to block her attacks to give him enough time to move. Her normally stern battle face had turned to complete chaos and rage, and Spades could swear she looked like she was having fun with it all. 

A metal clang echoed across the battlefield as Donnie blocked an attack that could've been lethal had it landed. Vee raised her scythe to her side and prepared another attack that was held back by the chain of Mikey's nunchaku. Leo took the opportunity to run and disarm his deranged sister. He hooked his arms around her shoulders and held her back from struggling directly against Mikey, who tore the Scythe from her hands with a yank of his chain. 

"Vee! Venus listen to me, you need to think!" 

She kicked back at him, her sadistic grin replaced with the burning rage she'd stored against her father.

"You're going to regret this, just stop struggling!" 

She cried out and flipped him over her back. He landed with a thud and she jumped off his plastron towards Draxum.

He managed to force himself to his side and see Donnie and Splinter holding her back in front of an injured Draxum. 

"VEE!" He stumbled to his feet and ran after her. He threw himself onto her back to hopefully force her to the floor. She faltered but didn't go down until the rat swept her legs out from underneath her. 

"Get Draxum out of here!" The rat ordered. 

"I'll hold her, you guys need to leave ," Leo tried to ignore the way the pair's eyes widened. 

"I SAID GET OUT" He hissed, they nodded and left him to keep Vee incapacitated. She was hopelessly flailing and kicking against him. Her attempts to escape became more and more desperate until she strained her body against him before collapsing. She broke down sobbing, still being held back by her hesitant counterpart. 

“Hey it’s ok, you’re ok I swear”

She continued to sob even as he let go of her, hesitantly patting her shell in hopes of some form of comfort. 

He just stayed next to her while she for once let out her feelings. 

Chapter Text

 ____________________________________

She stared at them.

"It's Baron Draxum!" 

Milo pointed to nowhere which officers immediately locked their gazes to. She took the opportunity to run. 

____________________________________

Milo felt a metal hand rest on her shoulder, she flipped around to see the familiar mask of her father as his Gargoyles landed on his shoulders.

"Milo, what do you think you're doing?" His tone was harsh but she knew that was just how he talked. Or at least that's what she told herself.

"I'm drawing! Munnin told me about it! It's where you make a picture! Isn't that cool?" She scooted away from the wall so Draxum could see her work, but there was no reaction from him.

"What is the point of that?"

"It's fun!"

He just gave a short hum, and she hesitated. 

"I can stop-" 

"You may continue, just keep it in your sleeping quarters. I can't have this in the lab"

She grinned, that was good enough for her. As long as she got to do it, it was fun!

____________________________________

"Milo. Ready the subject" 

She nodded and placed the pet carrier into the larger cage before letting the mouse out. It was honestly adorable, she couldn't wait to draw this one, if she could find a space on the walls of her room. 

Draxum gripped the animal and injected a syringe filled with a glowing green liquid into it. Version 19.4.2 of the Mutangin, she made sure to start keeping track after Draxum had asked her to recall an experiment result she'd forgotten the sample number for.

The mouse's body began to expand like an overfilled water balloon. It was a repulsive site, the skin stretched and the creature made a god awful shriek of pain in fear when the fur started to melt off. After a few seconds of this there was a horrific popping noise and the organs blew out of the stretched creature's body and its guts skewed out onto Draxum and Milo. Milo wanted to vomit. 

"NO! THAT ONE DIDN'T EVEN LAST A SECOND! IT'S LIKE I'M GOING BACKWARDS!" 

Milo flinched as Draxum banged his fists against the table, seemingly unbothered by the repulsive sight the two had just witnessed. Beside the fact the test failed.

He made an angry sigh and the room went quiet.

"Should I clean the- mess?" Milo hesitantly offered.

"Do what you want. It's pointless anyway." The yokai grunted and swiped an arm over his desk, knocking the various different items to the floor in a fit of rage. He stormed off to his quarters.

Milo repressed a sigh and began cleaning the mess. 

____________________________________

"Whatcha got there De?" 

Milo looked up to see Munnin hovering behind, most likely coming to summon her back to the lab for orders.

"A drawing! Remember how you showed me these a while back?" 

“Yeah like when you were eight or something-? Your still doing-”

She moved to the side to show off her sketch. It was simply the mouse Draxum had mutated a while back, labeled '19.4.2' so she could remember the exact number in case it was necessary. 

"Whoaaa that's really impressive. You're super talented! I can barely even draw a stick figure!"

She frowned, these were probably the result of more of a skill than a talent, but she chose to focus on something else.

"What's a stick figure?"

"Oh! It's sorta like" He floated over and took the pencil from Milo, doodling a quick five lined man with a circle head and two dots and a curved line for a face. She giggled.

"Why's his neck so long?" 

"Oh- I don't know actually! But that's basically a stick figure, humans made it so it's based off their shape but y'know" 

She looked over at it again and smiled.

"It's cute! I like it" 



____________________________________

"Good work" He nodded and took the sheet of metal from Milo, she glowed slightly at the praise. 

"Sorry to ask but, what exactly are you using the metal for?" 

Draxum looked at her for a moment and she panicked.

"You don't have to tell me of course! I was just curious, I'm not trying to question you"

Draxum didn't say anything for a moment, he could be hard to read at times, not at all like Huggin and Munnin.

"The metal is part of an ancient armor set, one very powerful. I’m glad you’re taking interest in my work”

"Why not rebuild it with something else?" She tilted her head slightly as Draxum set the sheet on the table.

"The metal we're collecting is mystic" 

"Oh" 

Milo didn't say much more than that, not that she didn't have more questions, she had a million of those. How could metal be mystic without a power source? Could you smelt it down to create weapons? How was it mystic in the first place? Could a human gain powers if they had it on? 

She kept her mouth shut however and just let her father continue his work. Watching intently and taking notes in case he needed a reminder of something.

____________________________________

"Milo, come here"

Her head snapped around when Draxum called her in a surprisingly gentle tone, she hurried over without a second thought.

"I'm going out on a mission for the next few days, you'll need to keep the experiments fed while I'm gone"

She nodded, nothing out of the ordinary.

He stared at her for a moment before turning and picking up a box off the table behind him. 

"I've created these for you in case something happens, don't lose them."

She tilted her head slightly in confusion, taking the box and removing the cover. Inside lay a pair of short Nekote gloves in a similar fashion to Draxum's, going up to about elbow length. Her eyes widened and she looked up at her father in surprise.

"Fourteen years ago today I created you, and I wanted you to know I am pleased with how you've turned out. Congratulations." His smile didn't reach his eyes, but it was enough to shatter Milo's heart with excitement. She had to restrain herself from hugging him- knowing how much he hated those.

"Thank you!" She slipped them on, although they were slightly heavy, they seemed to be designed specifically for fighting instead of the yokai's design for delicate chemistry work. 

She flexed her hands a few times and grinned, glancing back up at Draxum who had regrouped with Huggin and Munnin and were speaking to them a few feet away. 

She hugged herself with the new weapon fitted on her hands. 

Happy 14 years of mutation day. She told herself.

____________________________________

"Hidden City Police! We got you surrounded Baron Draxum!" 

Milo crouched below the window. Using the mirror she'd grabbed to see outside through the reflection. They were right- the lab was completely surrounded with police blimps, and with the anti mystic bombs there was no chance of portalling out either. Huggin and Munnin were gone as well, out on their own mission no one decided to fill her in on.

She didn't know what changed in the last hour that made Draxum's work suddenly be dubbed illegal, but there was one thing she was certain about. 

The yokai would sooner die than let his work be used against him by the mighty heads. 

She pulled an item from the pouch clipped to her belt. Titan let Draxum have mercy on her for this. 

She threw the bomb into the center of the lab. Where the main power source sat stationary. She turned and leapt out the window moments before the bomb detonated. 

The sound was deafening as she tried to escape before too much damage was caused. The shockwave threw her forward and bashed her head against the concrete outside, pinning her there as a pile of rubble from the building behind was thrown on top of her.

Her ears rang as the muffled noise of the police force screamed in the background. Her head was spinning so violently she almost threw up. Every movement left her more and more drained until she surrendered to the single task of filling her lungs with air. It was almost a chore with the dust and tons of debris crushing her lower back. 

She didn't want to die yet.

It was her mutation day.

Why did these things have to happen on her special day?

She didn't even realize she was sobbing until the salt water ran into her mouth and ground her back in reality.

Focus. 

Breath in , through the thick air and heavy weight on your lungs.

Breath out, force the dust clogging your throat back into the atmosphere. 

Repeat. 

Don't die yet. 

She squeezed her eyes shut and continued to breath for god knows how long. In and Out for days on end- or maybe it was just a few minutes. But eventually the debris was lifted off her and she forced her eyes open. 

The figure said something and she just had to stare at them, ears still ringing from the explosion. She suddenly felt two hands firmly grip each of her shoulders and drag her to her feet. She wanted to vomit so badly yet the thought of doing that made her feel sick. Repeating the cycle. 

Her head spun like crazy as she was leaned against a wall. Eventually the sound of a clicking noise slowly began to form, she opened her eyes to realize it was a police officer snapping in her ear, and another with a clipboard in hand. 

She batted their hand away, almost tripping over rubble while she backed away.

"Hey kid! You're ok" Their words were still muffled, but Milo wasn't having it. They couldn't lie to her that easy. She'd just destroyed a major piece of evidence for any case against her father. She was at least going to prison for life for something like that. 

"Whoa kid calm down!" 

She didn't even realize she'd been raising her nekote until the officers stepped away from her with their hands up in compliance.

She stared at them.

"It's Baron Draxum!" 

Milo pointed to nowhere which officers immediately locked their gazes to. She took the opportunity to run . 

And run she did, away from the lab, away from the officers, and towards wherever her father might be. 

She didn't stop running until she was miles away and deep into the city. Where she ducked into an alley and hid behind the trash waiting for the police sirens to sound and pass, but they never came. 

She didn't leave though, not until it was well into the night. Until the city finally rested long enough for her to sneak out unnoticed. She checked her pouch for her portaling devices but they'd all been crushed in the explosion. 

It wouldn't be too hard to find her way. It's not like she'd never been here before, she'd gone plenty of times under Draxum's orders, but this time she didn't have a mission from Draxum. 

No, she had a mission from herself. To get home and find her father. 

The walk was much longer than expected, she hadn't realized she'd run so far. And now the heaviness of her limbs mixed with her damaged body was taking its toll on her speed. She trudged onward, continuing to force herself to move. She was afraid she wouldn't be able to start again if she stopped. 

Milo knew she was close when the police lights were the brightest thing in the area. Which was a problem, it was probably around 4 am already, they should've left hours ago. There was no way she would find Draxum- or anyone in there.

She crumbled to the floor in defeat. Finally letting the tears flow uncontrollably. It was a waste of water sure but she was too tired to care. Everything hurt, her head was throbbing and every step made her head spin. Now her home was overrun by the newly established enemy and her superiors were nowhere to be found. She had nothing and no way of finding anyone. 

That is until her head cleared the self pity long enough to be useful. 

Of course - Draxum’s old lab. The one that got destroyed by Lou Jitsu. If she could make it there he might be able to find her. That was always their backup location during particularly risky plans. 

She stumbled to her feet. Attempting to repress too loud of a gasp from the sheer pain in her legs, but instead throwing her into a coughing fit. After taking a moment to compose herself and stop the spinning in her head, she began her journey to the old building.

The only thing keeping her feet moving was her need to return home. She couldn't leave Draxum, not when the situation was so dire. She wasn't going to leave him alone now. So she forced herself to take step after step until she'd walked almost half the length of the hidden city.

It was a five hour walk even without injuries, so it was late morning by the time she finished her trek. The former lab stood atop a plateau surrounded by a pit of lava, the only way to it was a few sketchy bridges up. Thankfully it looked significantly more accessible then last time she'd been here, the building had been transformed into an apartment complex apparently. Though it was hard to tell with the mind fog.

She trudged up the bridge and made her way around to the back of the building. Where she collapsed to the floor and waited for her father to find her. She dared not to succumb to the heaviness in her limbs, scared she wouldn't be able to wake up for her rescue. Instead she counted the seconds and waited.

And waited. 

And waited.

She lost count of the seconds once Draxum never came. 

There was no rescue, not even Huggin or Munnin came to her aid. She'd passed out after a few hours, not even as stubborn a person as Milo could keep up with her body's constant throbbing. But she never left, she'd stay there until she died if it meant she might see her father again. 

There was a hand on her shoulder and her eyes snapped open. 

There she saw an unfamiliar foxy figure standing above her with a concerned companion. 

"Hey kid? Are you alright? Where are your parents?" 

She just stared at them. 

No-nononono

she couldn't be kicked out now. Now when Draxum was surely on his way any minute now. 

"I think they're in shock" 

"They look hurt" 

The two yokai shared a few more comments about her state, trying to decide what to do until one of them turned back to her.

"Hey kid, let's take you back to our apartment okay? My partner's a nurse and they'll check over any injuries so you don't have to pay for a hospital. We can call your parents- or if you have any folks"

Vee almost considered turning their offer down, but it'd be better than continuing to clock out and hope to wake back up so she nodded. The fox yokai wrapped an arm under her shoulders and lifted her up. She didn't even try to hide how much she leaned into them as they trudged up the stairs to their apartment. Where she was laid down on the couch surprisingly gently.

She passed out again.

____________________________________

"We're not giving the kid to Big Mama"

"What else are we supposed to do? I'm not ready for a child and we can't send them to the orphanage" 

"I know you like your boss and all- but seriously ? Big Mama is a crime boss . She can't take care of a child!"

"Well when you put it like that-" 

"We need to ask the kid about their living situation and then we'll decide, ok?"

Vee watched the fox nod through her blurred vision. The nurse yokai- a deer- noticed her wake up and rushed to her side. 

"Hey? Are you ok? You've been out for two days!"

She sat up immediately at that. Ignoring the spike in her headache.

" TWO DAYS ?? Has a tall sheep shown up around here at all? Or two very small gargoyles?" 

"Um- no not to my knowledge" They shared a look with the fox.

No.

No god please don't let that be true. 

Draxum wouldn't give up that easily if he was looking for her, unless he wasn't. No he wouldn't leave her here? Surely he at least checked . If he wasn't in jail that is. She didn't have the energy to stop the tears.

"Whoa hey kid you're really dehydrated!" They insistently handed her a cup of water, which she took with shaky hands and a death grip that dented the plastic slightly. 

They let her cry and drink her water for a few minutes before she finally calmed down. She brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around herself.

"Do you have anyone we can call?" The fox was the first to break the silence after a while. 

She just shook her head. If Draxum was gone she knew Huggin and Munnin wouldn't have the resources to take her. 

She was completely alone.

"Okay... Do you have any place we can drop you off?" 

She shook her head again. 

She was also kinda homeless now.

And on the run.

Shit.

"Do you have a job or friends? Anyone?" 

"Ok hun, you don't need to keep rubbing it in" 

"I'm just asking! I'm sure Big Mama would give her a place at the hotel if she can be a bellboy or something. It'll give her a job and she doesn't have to be doing anything dangerous!" 

The deer scowled but didn't object as they refilled Milo's water. 

"What's your name kid?" 

She hesitated, if she was wanted by the police now she might now want to relate herself to the De Milo that Draxum had referred to her as.

"Venus"

The pair nodded and shared a look.

"Venus, how would you like to work for Big Mama?"