Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Give me back my daughter,” Sensei ordered, if eyes could kill, shredder would be dead. “You are welcome to rescue her if you can.” The metal man barked as foot bots revealed themselves from their hiding potions. Splinter leaped forward to take on the Shredder as the turtles separated out to take on the foot bots, Kari struggling against her confines as she tried to warn the turtles of the traps that had been set out for them. But they didn’t realize the traps until Donnie was the first to step on one of the cages while fighting a Foot bot, followed by Raph then Mikey. Master Splinter was off fighting the Shredder “Yes! Fight my rat!” Shredder said as he fought with their sensei, who was restrained by the foot bots, yelping as ropes restrained him by his hands and neck.

Leonardo was the last to be captured, stepping into the last trap that was on the floor. Fortunately, his katana got wedged in between the opening of the cage, making it easy for the blue turtle to collapse and escape. Leo ran towards a chain that was attached from the floor to the ceiling and cut. He grabbed onto the chain as it shot him up toward the top of the mutagen tank. “Hang on, Kari!” He called out before landing on the top of the cage that Kari was being held in. Which was being hung by a thin chain, Was Shredder trying to mutate her? Leo thought bitterly to himself as he got the duct tape off her mouth “Thanks.” She said, Leo, nodded. Shredder, filled with rage as his plan was failing used his strength to jump to the top of the tank, hand ready to strick. “Leonardo!” Splinter called out, trying to warn his son. Leo’s head whipped around to see the Shredders blade coming straight toward him. His instinct was to duck, got out of the way, and do anything to avoid the incoming attack but…

The chain .

The Shredders blades came down on him, ripping into the side of his neck, tearing through his throat and neck as the force unbalanced him, throwing him into the mutagen below. “LEONARDO” Splinter cried out again, voice full of pain “Leo!” The three other turtles shouted from the cages that they were trapped in, unable to save their brother from being submerged in the mutagen. “Leo! No!” Kari called out as she felt the tears running down her cheek, watching her younger brother try to keep his head above the mutagen, before finally sinking into the glowing ooze. “Finally.” The Shredder sighed as he freed Kari from her cage and hopped down with her to safety. Splinter yanked the Foot bots towards him and them half, escaping from the ropes that they had put on him “Leo!” Raph cried out, rattling the confines of his cage as he saw a green paw slam against the glass of the tank, Splinter ran up the glass and just stared “He’ll either drown from the mutagen or from his own blood.” Tiger Claw purred as Kari thrashed in Shredder's hold, yelling obscenities at the ninja. Splinter looked at the tank as the paw banged against the glass, becoming more and more of a blue color before the paw slid off to reveal a midnight-blue tail that had neon blue stripes.

Then, a midnight-blue paw slammed against the metal rim of the tank, a hand that seemed to have claws attached to it. Another hand followed before the two pulled a body out from the ooze, the body was mostly midnight blue but had a neon blue strip that ran all the way across it. It was big, the beast had a slender head with a red snout that blended into the darkness. Splinter stared at the monster as it let out a roar that shook the building’s foundation. “Leo…” Kari whimpered as she looked towards the monster that had come out of the mutagen, hearing the Shredder laugh behind her.

The monster went limp and tumbled off of the ledge of the tank and fell downward, Splinter lunged forward to grab his son as Kari bite into the Shredder's exposed arm, causing him to yelp and push her away. Splinter had caught the strange beast as Kari ran to go free her other brothers. “Leo!” Raph cried out once more as he ran to his father's side with the rest of his family. Splinter gazed upon the being he head in his arms, wanting to believe with all of his might that it wasn’t his son, that this… Monster. Was not the child he had raised “Oh… My son.” he whispered at the still monster in front of him, Mikey’s tears dripped onto the metal floor as he asked out “Leo?” In an attempt to get his motionless brother to wake up. Donnie was the only one who realized the tail raise behind them “Um… Guys-” He was caught off by the tail rushing into him, knocking him away. Leo pushed their Sensei away and slithered out of his family's grasp, before looking at them. Leo hissed as he went off to attack the Foot bots that had been surrounding them “Leo!” The three turtles yelled out as they went to try and calm their older brother.

In all the chaos no one noticed the spilling gasoline canaster until a dismembered Foot bot’s body sparked a flame, causing the whole warehouse to go up into a blaze. 

“No! My lab!” Stockman cried out as he watched his lab go up in flames, Splinter pushed him to the ground before looking towards Shredder, who was nursing a bleeding bite “You. Oroku Saki. You did this.” He cried out at the man who he once called his friend. “Yes.” Shredder agreed, laughing, “I did do this, you took my daughter, so I took your son!” he stated, Master Splinter hissed as he rushed forward, only being stopped by a piece of rock from the crumbling building “No!” he cried out, before feeling a hand on his shoulder “Father, please, we must go.” Kari Pleaded with her father, “Leave me!” Splinter ordered, whipping around, Kari flinched at the anger in his eyes “I promise you, the Shredder will pay for what happened today!” Kari called back, “But for now, we have to leave, and get my brother home!” “Brother?” Splinter looked at the beast Kari referred to as her brother, and there was once a point where he would have believed her with those words. “I will avenge you, my son.” Splinter promised, with tears in his eyes before he and Kari rushed to meet the three turtles.

“We have to get out of here!” Donnie said frantically as he looked around the building that was slowly filling with smoke. Raph stepped forward, tears forming in the red turtle's eyes “Not without Leo!” He stated. Sensei nodded in argument before stepping forward “Leonardo, you must listen to me! We must go!” He said, but as soon as the beast's attention snapped to him, he felt as though getting the beast's attention was a bad idea. Leo zipped to where his father was, and wrapped his tail around him, suffocating him as a snake does with his prey. Raph brought out his sai, ready to charge at the monster suffocating his father, only to stop in horror that this was still his older brother, and he could not harm him. “My son… Please.” Splinter pleaded with the creature, whose pupils dilated as he reared back “Ar… Ar…” The creature was trying to speak, Splinter looked to the creature with a hopeful smile, but then he saw the gash in the creature's neck that had Leo’s exposed vocal cords which had been mangled when the Shredder had landed his attack on his boy… “Oh… My child…” Splinter breathed out as the tail uncurled around him, he could see the sadness in his boy’s eyes… There was pain as well, but Splinter didn’t even want to begin to think about the amount of pain his child must be going through.

Leo slithered away from Splinter, making his way to the exit “Wait Leo!” Raph ran in front of his elder brother to try and reason with him, only to get hit in the face with venom. Raph cried out in pain as he went to the ground, allowing Leo to escape from the building and out to the other side, “Wait! No!” Kari called out as she chased her older brother out and into new york city, Mikey and Donnie caring Raph out and Splinter following behind her. They had made their way onto the rooftops when they had lost sight of Leo, having no clue as to where he had gone off towards. “Take it easy Raph,” Donnie said as he tried to help Raph clear his eyes of the venom their brother had spat into them. “Arg, enough! I can see fine now.” Raph complained. Splinter looked out onto the city, he had not felt this much pain since the day that his love, Tang Shen, had died. And yet Leonardo is not dead. It was clear his mind was no longer with him, turning him into nothing more than an animal.

A predator.

“We will find you, my son, I promise,” Sensei whispered out into the city, hoping with all of his might that it may help his son find comfort out there. “Father…” Kari said, quietly. “We should go home now, my family,” Sensei stated before walking off. Donnie held Mikey close to him. “Do you think that you can fix Leo?” Mikey said in between sobs “Honestly Mikey? I don’t know…” Donnie couldn’t even look his crying brother in the eyes as he admitted this, knowing that it was the truth, and knowing that all it did was hurt Mikey more. They all walked in silence as they made their way back to the Lair.

Off in the distance, a Snake-like figure slithered from rooftop to rooftop, just trying to… Get away? Maybe? But from what? The creature didn’t know, it was all a blur, nothing more than a fuzz in his mind as he tried to remember what just happened to… It? Him? Him sounds right? Ish? Maybe? The creature didn’t know, where did it come from? What was that place? And why was there so much Pain? The Creature finally came to a stop on top of another roof, away from… That… That Place, that horrible place, and the horrible people inside. They did this to the creature. The gray one. The bigger gray one… caused pain. The creature looked at itself in the puddle, it was a dark blue color with stripes and a metal body. But the metal body and dark blue were soaked with a blood red from the gash in the side of his neck. The gray one did this. He did this to the creature. He was the reason why the creature was in pain.

It roared again as it tried to remember, it didn’t like the rain. It was too much. He could hear the sounds of the rain, it could feel its bones. Everything was too loud, why was it loud? The creature slithered away once more. It just needed to go. To where? It didn’t know. It remembered that there was once a place that was safe for it to go, it had things that he loved, but he didn’t remember where it was. It could be far, and its snake tail touching the ground was already too much.

It slides into a seemingly abandoned warehouse. The window was relatively easy to get through. The creature roared again as its body began to shift until it was much smaller. He looked into the mirror nearby to see that he was… Some kind of turtle? He had the same midnight blue, glossy body with that same strip, only this time his red snout had turned into red strips across his eyes, which glowed a bright yellow in the darkness of the warehouse. His Sciera were a light yellow, his pupil had a blue outer ring with a sea soam inner ring. His irises were black slits, fitting for a snake.

The creature was exhausted. He turned over to Lay on his metal shell, and as sleep slowly pulled him in, the last thing it saw was the silhouette of a figure, with two bunny ears looming over him.

Serpent Leo art!:

Chapter Text

The group entered the Lair once more, silenced by the suffocating tensity between the five… five… It was supposed to be six. But they just had to lose him, the one person that actually would know what the hell to do in this situation. Donnie held a crying Mikey close to him as they walked. It didn’t feel right to call this place “home” when a quarter of your heart has gone missing. “Hey everyone!” April called out she got up from her stop on the couch, and she froze once she saw Kari. “Where have you guys been, fighting crime without us?” Casey asked as he came out of Donnie's lab, also pausing to see Kari “K-Karai! Your back!” April stated, “Aw, what you guys went on a rescue mission? Was it too cool for us?” Casey asked, joining Apri where she was standing. April examined their faces, they weren’t of faces from people who had just gotten back a family member, but of one’s who have lost so much. She continued to look only to realize that there were five that returned. One was missing.

“Where is Leo?” She hesitantly asked. They all looked away from her. “Um, guys, what happened?” Casey asked, now looking around to see what April was talking about, the blue turtle was nowhere in sight, and his heart dropped to his stomach. “Where is Leo!” April stated more firmly as she looked for her blue friend. “He… He is still alive… But is no longer with us…” Master Splinter said Slowly. “What…” April whispered, bringing her hands to her mouth “W-What do you mean?” Casey pushed further. “Shredder gutted him, then threw him into a tank of mutagen,” Raph said, plopping down on the couch and holding his head in his hands. “He turned him into… Into some kind of… Monster. A predatory animal. He tried to eat Sensei.” Raph growled. April gasped. “No… No not Leo.” She said as tears started welling up in her eyes “Yes Leo.” Raph snapped back. April stepped forward bringing a fist to her chest “No… NO your lying!” She screamed, Casey, having to hold back his rage-driven friend “Why would I lie about Leo?” Raph asked. April stopped trying to charge at the red turtle, settling to cry into Casey.

“And it’s your fault, princesses!” Raph shouted out as he turned to look at Karai, with tears streaming down his face “Raphael.” Splinter said, not knowing if he can handle a fight between his two children “No! Sensei I understand that she is your daughter, your flesh and blood or whatever, but could you really turn your back on us!? Turn your back on him!” Raph shouted out, “It’s her fault he’s gone, it’s her fault that he’s hurt, bleeding from a wound in his neck as he ran off like a wild animal! If she had just listened to him, this wouldn’t have happened, but no! She had to go off and seek revenge on her own like a… Like a…” Raph struggled to get the words out in between sobs as he raised a fist to attack Karai “A Moron!” He howled out as he began to swing “I know!” Karai shouted back, tears starting to shed “Wha?” Raph said as he froze “I know this is my fault! I know I should have listened to him! I know I’m the reason he’s gone, but I can’t change that! I can’t change the fact that I hit him with blinding power and ran off, I know I should’ve waited.” Cried out at the red turtle. “And if hitting me will make the pain easier for you, then do it all you want, but I swear, I will bring him home with or without anyone’s help! And then I will make Shredder pay for what he did to our brother!” She finished.

Raph lowered his arm. “What do you mean with or without?” He muttered, “Like we wouldn’t tear the whole planet about trying to find him.” Donnie smiled in agreement, but it quickly fell as Mikey let out another hitched breath. “There there Mikey, it’ll be okay.” He said trying to soothe the crying turtle. “How… How do you know that?” Mikey sodded “Because I’m the genus, I know everything.” Donnie's joke made Mikey let out a snort, but it was clear that it hadn’t lightened his mood too much. “Do you want to sleep in my room tonight?” Donnie asked, Mikey simply responded with a small nod.

As Donnie and Mikey made their way to Donnie's lab, and Kari and Raph made their way to their room, with Casey taking a crying April out of the Lair, Splinter went to the dojo, his red-banded son’s words still ringing in his head. He needed to meditate, and heal his soul, he knew that he should be doing more, but right now he was on the verge of tears, and he knew that the last thing that the family needed was to see their Sensei break down. As he entered the dojo, he saw a picture that they had taken together, he took the picture and examined his family, he locked eyes this his son’s ocean-blue eyes as he felt the waterway open. ‘We will find you, my son.’ Splinter promised himself.

It all happened so fast. At first, he was sitting inside the abandoned warehouse that he had found, he normally came here to get away from his friends, just because he loves them, doesn’t mean they don’t annoy him. And stars know that they knew just how to annoy him to no end. And so he was sitting on the chair he had found, looking at the Drawings he had pasted on the wall, he would never let anyone know that he kept them, but he did, when he heard a thud he whipped his head around in the direction the sound came from. There were more noises coming from that same direction, it sounded like… Hissing? Maybe? He slowly crept forward before he opened the door slightly to look out at what was going on. And there In the middle of the hallway was a very injured, and somehow very beautiful snake. It had a gash at the side of its neck, a light purple plastron. That looked to be made out of metal. A Shell…? And the main body was a midnight blue, it had a neon blue strip that made its way around its torso and a red snout.

The snake wrathed in pain on the floor as its body began to distort, head shrinking, tail disinforming. Eyes shaping, claws unsheathing, it shrank and distorted as it tossed itself around in pain, he looked away from the sight, falling as though he was going to throw up just by looking at it. Before the noises stopped. He looked again to see the snake had transformed into… A turtle? The turtle had that same midnight-blue coloring on his body, along with the same stripe, light purple plastron, with a greenish-blue shell. The red snout turned into two red stripes along its eyes, which were glowing in the darkness of the warehouse so that he could see that they had yellow where the white should be, and a glowing neon blue pupil, he watched the beast curiously as it leads down on it’s back.

‘Oh no,’ he thought to himself as he ran to the creature's side as it was sent into sleep. He panicked, he knew that allowing someone to faint from blood loss was bad, but he wasn’t a medic, and he had no clue as to how to fix this. “Um… H-Hey, can you stay with me, please?” He asked, the eyes of the creature slowly fluttered open, but then back down “Keep your eyes open.” He ordered the creature as he took out his phone, he need Kally, she was the medic, and she would know what to do in this situation. “Um, just hang on a sec.” He said, the creature looked totally out of his as he typed in Kally’s number “Hey~ Bunny Boi.” Kally said, in her teasing tone “K-Kally! I need help!” He said frantically as he looked upon the beast “What’s wrong.” Kally asked, now in her medic mode “Well, I-I was hanging out in an abandoned warehouse when this snake-thing came in!” He explained, “Did it bite you!?!” Kally shouted through the phone. “N-No, it didn’t-” “What happened! I’m tracking your phone now! What did it do to you!” Kally Said frantically “NO! Kally, its the beast, it turned into a turtle-thing, but it-” “It WhAT-” “IT’S HURT” the rabbit screamed back, finally getting his point across and shutting up his panicking friend “I-I know you say that I shouldn’t trust people on the spot, but, it has a gash in the side of its neck, and I can’t just leave it to bleed out!” He reasoned, he heard a sigh mixed with footsteps rushing around and grabbing things “We’re on our way, Usagi. Just try to stop the bleeding and keep its eyes open”

The creature looked up at the bunny kneeling beside it, it couldn’t understand why, but the bunny looked… Frantic? He had his phone out and was talking to someone who was yelling so loud that it sounded like the bunny had her on speaker “IT’S HURT” The bunny suddenly shouted out, shocking the creature to the point where its eyes flow open and widened. Not wanting to give the rabbit a chance to hurt him. The rabbit was angry, angry like the gray one, the man that hurt it before. Would the bunny hurt him as well? “We’re…. Our…. Usagi” was all the creature could make out, but he could put two and two together to see that the rabbit's name was Usagi. Usagi sighed, the phone had gone quiet. Usagi looked down at the creature and said “Oh my-” With a gasp as he jumped back, the creature took this time to push himself away from the rabbit. “Hey… Hey…” The rabbit said, holding his phone close to his chest and beginning to slowly make his way towards the beast “It’s going to be okay.” He said, reaching his hand out to the monster that he had encountered.

The monster hissed at him before pushing himself further back, Usagi took his hand away, “Okay, none of that.” he said “Okay… Well um, I’m Usagi, you are?” The rabbit introduced himself. The creature observed him, trying to think when it realized, it didn’t remember its name. Panic became to swell up inside the creature as he realized this. “Hey! Hey! It’s okay, what’s going on?” Usagi asked as gently as he could, “I can’t remember.” the creature wanted to say, but the words only came out as a wheeze, the creature froze up stunned, before trying again “Hello, can anyone hear me?” It wanted to plead, only to realize that it wasn’t coming out right, he clamped his hands over his mother to stop the noises he was making.

That man… Those people… The place… It had stolen his voice. He couldn’t speak. He couldn’t think.

He couldn’t remember .

Angry tears started swelling up in the creature's eyes as it began curling in on itself. Usagi looked on in horror at the turtle, not because of the turtle itself, but of what it had been done to it. “C-Can you speak?” Usagi managed to stutter out, the turtle looked at him once more, tears in its eyes as it shook its head and began to hyperventilate “Hey! Hey!” Usagi said trying to calm the turtle down. The creature let out an involuntary hiss as it backed itself up against the mirror. Usagi didn’t blame it- ‘Him’ he corrected himself, ‘he was still a humanoid mutant with a sentient mind after all, not some type of anima l’. But still, Usagi didn’t Blame the mutant for backing away, Usagi would do the same if he was in that situation. The mutant clearly was recently mutated, and the gash across its neck was making this process worse.

“Hey…” Usagi said, “It’s going to be okay, I have friends coming here right now, they’ll help you, I’ll help you, but you need to let me.” Usagi said, reaching out his hand once more, the turtle hissed again, but didn’t try to get away, instead leaning forward a bit. “It’s okay…” Usagi said as he was able to take the turtle's blood and tear-filled face into his soft hand. The turtle leaned into the touch, taking comfort in it. A thud was heard from behind as Usagi whipped around and the turtle recoiled back “Usagi!” Kally shouted rushing up the him “Shhh!” Usagi shushed Kally, causing her to freeze “He’s scared.” Usagi said simply as he stepped to the said to reveal the injured turtle, Kally gasped, the turtle could be no older than Usagi and herself, and yet someone had put a giant hole in its neck! “Okay, let me get a look at you,” Kally said, slowly approaching the turtle, the turtle shook his head and pushed himself further against the mirror, and looked around. Kally followed his gaze to see that it landed on Usagi “It’s going to be okay…” Usagi reassured the turtle. Kally looked towards the being in front of her to see that it had calmed down. She approached it and took note of its injuries. “We need to get him to the battle nexus” She concluded “What?” Usagi said, alarmed, “they're the only ones who would know anything about fixing a wound like this.” She said, “ ‘Sagi, can you carry him?” She asked, “I can try.” He offered “If he would let me…”

Usagi slowly walked over to the strange turtle and slowly crouched down. “I’m going to pick you up, okay? You're losing blood and we can’t risk you falling behind.” The rabbit said as he crawled towards the creature. The creature knew that it was wrong to trust someone right off the bat, something had taught him that although the creature can’t remember what thought him that. But still, ‘What choice do I have?” the creature thought as it bought a hand to the slash in his shoulder. He would trust these people, for as long as he had to to be safe, to be healed. But nothing more. Not until they could prove that he could trust them. Trust them and not end up being betrayed and borated… Not like the other gray. Darkness slowly pulled in from around him as the adrenaline wore off “Hey! Hey!” keep your eyes open! Someone ordered, the strange creature could care any more than he could care about two soft objects picking him up. He was swiftly pulled away into the dark...

“You couldn’t believe it? But I thought you did believe it!” He had argued, and he was in a room now, the room had yellow flooring and walls, and he looked around to see that he wasn’t alone in this room. There were others with him too, but they were blurry and distorted, he couldn’t make out their faces, or anything about them. There was a red flame, an orange sun, and a purple galaxy, they were also green, he looked down at his originally blue paws to see that he was green as well, there was also a gray spike, and a brown swirl “Father, what have I done?” The spike said to the swirl, those words hit like a truck, knocking him away from the place he was.

He opened his eyes to see that he was sitting at a table, with the other three colors from before, red, purple, and orange. He looked around to see that he was floating in the void, guessing that was probably him not having enough of the memory to fill in the gaps in what this room looked like “So &3*e%!” He got himself saying, the last word distorted beyond relief, he turned to see that the brown was back, the brown also had some tints of red to it, but nothing that he could make out. “Now that we’re fifteen, I think we’re finally ready to go to the surface, don’t you?” The surface? Where was he? He knew he was in the safe place, but nothing else “Yes.” the brown said. He and the other for colors cheered, he guessed that they were other pupils. “And no” The swirl added on, causing the mood to fall. “You are still young, you need experience, and experience comes from making mistakes.” The brown swirl walked around “Ah! So to gain the experience, we have to make the mistakes, so we can go!” The purple said, ‘makes sense to me’ the creature thought to himself, although looking down and around, he looked the same as the other colors that were there. “No.” The brown said, “And yes?” Purple added hopefully. “No!” came from the brown in a stern voice. The purple groaned in defeat “&3*e%! I know you're trying to protect us, but we can’t spend our whole lives hiding down here.” There was so much more that he wanted to say, but the words were silence. The brown thought for a moment, enough of a moment for the rest of them to get on their knees and try to puppy-dog eye their way out of the situation, the brown sighed “You go, tonight.” the cheers from the colors were loud, too loud. So loud that it knocked him back into the black abyss.

He looked around. Along with the other colors he was trapped inside a cage, they were each in different cages, while the brown swirl was tied up with some rope. Fortunately, one of the creature's swords got wedged in between the cage's walls. He shifted his sword, collapsing the cage, and then… It all went dark once again.

He opened his eyes to see that he was now on top of a cage, the setting look the same as the place he was originally trapped in. He heard a shout, he couldn’t make out what it said, but he knew what it was trying to do.

To warn him

He whirled around to see gray coming at him, hand raised with sharp blades drawn. He knew what was going to happen. This was the first thing that he remembered, even if he only remember blurs of color. He tried to get away, go against what fate had decided, but he couldn’t, he felt the cold steel rip into his skin, the soft tissue of his neck being shredded and turned, and he could feel a chunk of skin being ripped away. He screamed in agony as he was pushed into the green glow below the cage. He went into it with a splash and began to scream, others were yelling out around him, but he couldn’t hear what they were saying over his own struggling, only being able to make out an ‘L’ sound.

Struggling to breathe, Struggling to move, Struggling to get out. He thrashed and squirmed, trying to get out but was held down, underneath the glowing Ooze as he suffocated in his blood. He tried screaming out for help, but it was no use.

He transformed.

But it still wasn’t enough, even with the snake form it still felt like he was being forced down, held down by a dozen hands as he tried to leave, but it was no use.

His only escape was the darkness that engulfed him, pulling him into the void.

He woke up to the sound of beeping. He looked around fluttering his eyes to try and get use to the pure white room he was in. He was lying in a bed, with little tubes attached to his arm. The room had a curtain that separated him from what he could only assume was another “Hello?” he wanted to say, only to be painfully reminded of his loss of voice by a wheezing sound. He continued to look, find something, anything familiar or could point him to where he was, but nothing, he started to panic, where was he? Why was he here? What was going on? He tried lifting his arm only to be kept down by another force, he looked and saw that he was chained to the bed.

He was chained

He was trapped

He was trapped like he was before, trapped under the Ooze that filled his throat to the point where he was choking on his blood, trapped like how he couldn’t move to free himself from the green goo that held him under, changing him, transforming him.

He was trapped and he couldn’t get out

TRAPPED TRAPPED TRAPPED

“Woah! Woah! Hey there!” A voice called out from the ooze, he was still trapped, but there was someone else with him. “It’s going to be okay!” It called out, he wanted to believe him, he should have believed him. Something told him that the voice was telling the truth but it wasn’t. It couldn’t be telling the truth because he was here, drowning in blood and Ooze, with no way to escape as others yelled out around him. “Calm…” The voice said gently as a hand was placed on the shoulder of the creature, this hand was… comforting… not like the thing that was on his shoulder before, the thing ripped him apart and threatened to take away anything that he could use to defend himself. No, this one was soft, comforting, and safe . “You're not there anymore, you're in the medbay.” ‘The medbay?’ The creature thought, oh right, the room he was in! It was white and he was laying on a hospital bed, how did he get here?

The creature blinked, eyes becoming focused on the rabbits as it finally began to breathe. It was in the medbay once more, how did it get here? How did it get… There ? He shivered at the thought “Hey now…” Usagi said gently, “You’ll… You’ll be okay, alright? You can breathe.” He offered, and the creature looked at him “Look, I don’t know what you want through, and I don’t even know what you remember, but, we can help you.” the creature went to answer, only to stop itself and grimace at the loss of its voice, those dreams… The felt so real, get looking back at it, he couldn’t remember if the voice was even his. The bunny thought for a minute. “Wait here.” He said, a stupid grin breaking across his face as he hopped off. The creature rolled his eyes at the rabbit.

He did come back after a few seconds, along with a notepad, pencil, and key. “I’m sorry about the chains!” Usagi said, before unlocking the creature from its confines “You kinda turned into a snake monster and attacked us in your sleep.” He adds on with a chipper voice. The turtle looked away, feeling ashamed about what he did. “It’s okay though because now, you're totally mellow!” He said, handing the creature the pencil and notepad “Now, you can write what you want to say!” He said, feeling proud of himself. The turtle held the pencil and notepad in its hands before it started writing, Usagi bounced in his place, ready to see what his new friend would say first, sure Usagi had questions of his own, but that could wait until his friend got what it had to say out first. The turtle finally finished writing, the motions were slow like he had just written for the first time in his life, ‘hey at least he remembers how to write.’ Usagi thought to himself. The creature turned its notepad to Usagi “Why can’t I speak?” it read. Usagi frowned, not really knowing how to answer that “W-Well, you see…The wound you had in your throat damaged them quite a bit, to the point where they were exposed, so, that might be why” The rabbit answered to the turtle's frown, the beast knew the answer, he just wanted confirmation “B-But, that’s okay because now that we’ve gotten you all fixed up we can start working on getting your voice back! The doctors said it might take a bit before you get all of your voice back, and you might only be able to speak a few words and you may not be able to get your full voice back , but at least it’s not gone forever!” Usagi reassured, the turtle looked back at him and flashed a smile that read ‘Thank you, Usagi nodded “Now I do have questions of my own, but if you are not ready to answer some, just tell me okay?” the turtle nodded “Good, now, do you remember your name?” the turtle’s smile dropped before looking down, a clear sign of a ‘no’, Usagi felt pity on the turtle whom he’d just befriended.

“Hey, that’s okay, I can give you one! Just until you are able to remember your actual one, how does that sound?” Usagi pipped out, giddy to name his new friend. The turtle thought for a moment, before writing. Usagi waited in anticipation, head already crowding with suggestions for the name, the notepad turned and read “That would be nice, the only thing I remember is that it has an ‘L’ in it” . A bright smile spread across Usagi’s face as he looked at his friend, “Alright! And I already have the perfect name!” He bragged, receiving a huff and an eye roll from his friend “Lunar!” Usagi said, with a song like a tune, the turtle thought to himself before smiling at his friend and writing “Lunar it is, thank you.” Usagi blushed, finally, someone liked the names he came up with “No problem, it’s what I do, blue light.” Usagi said, Lunar had a puzzled expression on his face with a tilt of the head before looking down at himself, smiling and letting out a huff that mimicked a chuckle, Usagi's eyes widened as Lunar wrote something down “You like making jokes, do you bon-bon?”

Usagi knew that he should have gotten the doctors as soon as Lunar woke up fully, but he couldn’t help but spend the next few hours joking around with his new friend until the doctors came in themselves.

Chapter Text

After a few hours of talking, there wasn’t a clock that Lunar could see in the medbay, but Usagi said that it had “Been a few hours.” to which Lunar simply responded with “How descriptive” but even through Usagi’s lack of being able to describe things after the doctors had come in, scolded Usagi for not getting them immediately, checking up on the wounds that Lunar had, and then get his temporary name into the system.

Lunar was able to get some new information. First, he had been out for three days. He had little control over his snake form. They didn’t have any information on Lunar, other than his new n

This place was called the Battle Nexus. It was in a different dimension from the one he was on before. It’s a fighting tournament, where champions can sign up to fight each other. But the dimension also had a city that people, but fighters and normal yokai, as they were called, stayed in. It was called the “hidden city”.

Usagi came here to fight in the Battle Nexus and ended up getting lost and finding Earth. He showed his friends Earth, but they haven’t gone on a mission there yet. They have enemies that Usagi wouldn’t expand on.

And he isn’t a mutant, he’s just from a different dimension where Yokai exists that was separate, but closely tied to the hidden city dimension, but he has seen people get mutated, and some of his friends are mutants, so he knows it can be painful and hard on someone.

Did you get all that?

No?

Neither did he, let’s keep going.

“Oh! I do have to introduce you to my other friends!” Usagi said, Lunar grimaced a bit, his wrist was getting tired, Usagi must’ve noticed this. “We can wait until you’re ready if you want, but I do know someone who was in a similar situation if you want someone to talk to.” he offered “Someone who’s not a complete goof?” Lunar wrote down.

Usagi scoffed “I have no idea what you’re writing about, I am flawless.” Lunar huffed out, he still couldn’t laugh completely, but the pun of using writing instead of talking to make light of the situation worked. “See, even you think my puns are A-mazing~” He sang out.

Lunar rolled out his eyes before writing “Don’t get too ahead of yourself, Bunnie boi” Usagi huffed “Well, one of my friends was in a similar situation, with the whole memory loss, but he was with us when he lost his memory, and when he had his memory, so it might be a little different… But! He can still help, I’m sure of it!” Usagi was starting to ramble.

“I would love to meet him Usagi, even if he can’t help.” Lunar wrote down. Tense in Usagi’s shoulders dropped “I’m sorry, I want to help but…” Lunar placed a hand on his shoulder, before showing him “You’ve helped plenty.” which was written on his notepad.

Usagi sighed as he smiled “Y’know, Aoi would fit you as well.” Lunar laughed before asking “Blue?” Usagi nodded. He went to say something but some called out “Sorry to interrupt, but we have a problem.”

Usagi and Lunar turned to see that someone had entered the room, it was a feminine calico cat, the same calico that had fixed Lunar up back at the warehouse, “Kally!” Usagi shouted out before hopping over to his friend, “Lunar, this was the medic friend that fixed you up! Lunar meet Kally, Kally meet Lunar!” He introduced, gesturing wildly at both of them, Kally tilted her head “You got a name outta… Him?” Kally asked the first part towards Usagi, and the next part towards Lunar, Lunar simply shrugged with a nod, and Kally nodded back.

“Yeah! Well… Not really, he can’t speak, and he can’t remember his name, so we came up with Lunar and Aoi.” Usagi explained, Kally nodded once more. “Okay, okay, fair enough, but we still have a problem.”

Usagi turned fully to her, “Oh! Right! What is it, do some criminals need to be taught a lesson?” Usagi asked, his stance turning into a mimicking of someone boxing, “Calm down now, we don’t know what these guys are capable of, but someone is planning a break-in on a street not too far from here.” Kally explained.

Usagi nodded, “Okay, let's go!” He said, turning to hop out the door, but then Lunar slammed his on the table, gaining their attention “You don’t know anything about this threat, and yet you’re jumping in head first? Don’t you think that’s a little unsafe?” he wrote down “I agree with the memory loss patient.” Kally said, ignoring the offended look on Lunar's face “We can’t just keep jumping into things.” she reasoned. 

“Maybe you should study your enemy before confronting them?” Lunar tried “Don’t worry your little head about it, Aoi, we’ll be careful!” Usagi said, trying to calm Lunar's nerves, but it didn’t help, something bad was going to happen, and he had to stop it. Lunar quickly scribbled down “I want to come with you” Usagi looked at the paper before looking at Kally.

“No.” Kally stated, “You just woke up from a three-day coma, your stitches aren’t healed up yet, and you can’t remember a damn thing, you are not going.” She snapped. Lunar's shoulders slumped, mimicking defeat, “Not only that but your leg is more busted than me.”

Ah yes… The leg…

Something went wrong when he transformed into a turtle, and now his leg was broken… Great. Just peachy. “Don’t worry Lunar, we’ll be back before you know it!” Usagi said, and with that, he and Kally left the room. But Lunar wasn’t stupid, he knew what he had to do, luckily the doctors took off the heart monitor after assessing him.

The two animals stood at the top of a building, “Are you sure this is the place?” One asked, they were a giant, although slim, alligator, they had on a mute red armor, with a golden plate in the center, that was being held by black straps, there was a scar across their eye, turning them half blind.

“Trust me, this is the place they’ll attack, we just have to be patient,” The other said, he was an orange fox, who wore mainly camo and a serious face.

“I hope we don’t have to wait for long!” A chipper voice rang out, the two turned to see their two friends, Kally and Usagi walking towards them, the fox let out a huff, “That depends if you can listen or not,” He quidded towards the rabbit.

“Oh, please, I’m all ears,” he said, pointing his fingers toward his rabbit ears. “Besides, I won’t do anything to just annoy you~,” He said, ‘He’s lying through his damn teeth.’ the fox thought with a huffed-out chuckle, although he couldn’t blame the rabbit, like, the fox does stuff to get on his nerves all the time. They all do. It was all a part of their weird little family.

“Anyway, what are we doing here, Kitsune?” Usagi asked their friend, the fox smiled back at him “We’re just waiting for them to show.” He said, “Waiting for who?” Usagi asked, “Them,” The gator said while pointing at something below them, they all ran up to the ledge, checking out who he was pointing at.

This wasn’t their first time going out on a mission, but they were still new to this whole thing, they never even sorted out who was the leader, they just followed who had an idea, which landed them in bad situations, but they managed!

At least, they tried to.

They looked down to see three figures, they were still in the dimension of the battle nexus, so of course, they were animals. They couldn’t see exactly what they were from the far, but at least no humans had found this place yet, there would be mass panic in the human world if that was the case.

“I say we wait a bit, see what exactly they're up to,” Usagi suggested, “We know what they're up to, their breaking into that shop!” The gator pointed towards the shop, “Slow ya roll, bronze.” Usagi said, “There is no reason the be hasty, there might be a reason for their break-in that we don’t know of.”

Kally looked at Usagi, “Seems like you're finally taking some advice, wonder why that is?” She questioned, Usagi looked at her, confused. “What are you trying to say?” He questioned.

Kally rolled her eyes and looked at her nails “I’m just saying, you never take the advice I give you, then once a cute guy shows up you’re all responsible.” Usagi’s eyes widened as his face heated up, “W-what! No! That’s not the reason at all,” He whispered harshly to Kally, who rolled her eyes, “Whatever,” She whispered back, “Anyway, Usagi is right for once, we should figure out what they're planning before scaring them off.” the others nodded at her.

They stuck behind the intruders as they went into the shop, being careful to not be seen by them. The group traveled to the back of the store, and stopped in front of the display case “Yo, check it out!” The third one said it. The voice was masculine. The figure appeared to be some kind of hippo Yokai in a purple vest, white undershirt with long sleeves, black dress pants, and more human-like fingers, but they were big and matched the color of the hippo’s skin.

“Boss is going to be so impressed!” the second commented, she was a pink salamander, she sounded young, and she wore a semi-cropped top white shirt, they couldn’t see the front, and blue jean shorts with black boots.

“Can it dorks!” a female voice hissed from the first, who was clearly the leader, and most competent of the group, which wasn’t saying much. She was a cat, it was clear, but she was purely black ninja clothes that wrapped around her whole body, including her face, the only thing they could see was a tail that had an ocelot-like pattern that was swishing around, upset.

From the angle they were at now, it was clear to see that the leader was a cat, the second was some type of salamander, and the third was a hippo. Usagi decided that he had had enough of being patient, “I’m going in” He whispered “Alrighty.” he heard someone else whisper. He jumped out and landed on the ground with a thud, causing the criminals to turn around and face him.

“Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in.” He said while looking at the leader of the group, it was half a joke about her and Kally because she was the one they brought him here, and judging by the huff he heard coming from close behind him, she knew this.

“Very funny, but listen punk, we don’t want any trouble, and you don’t want to get hurt.” The cat said, punching a fist into her hand. “Well, it sucks to be you today because you just so happened to get our attention whilst trying to rob a store.” Usagi pointed out “Now leave, and no one gets hurt.” “Well, it looks like someone getting hurt then.” The cat stated, before pulling out a machete and aiming it at the group.

They charged at each other, Usagi being able to dodge the cat's guns as they were focused on him, letting Kally sneak up from behind, jumping on her back, trying to restrain the criminal, but getting thrown off in the process.

Usagi Slashed at the cat, who swiftly dodged, pulled out her sword, and blocked his attacks. on one of her blocks, Usagi’s sword was raised above her head, but was stopped by her sword “I got it!” Usagi had yelled out beforehand, but then the cat grabbed him by the collar and threw him at Kally, who was running up to them.

Kitsune was fighting the salamander but was cut off by bronze when they landed from jumping back from fighting the hippo “Watch it!” Kitsune shouted at Bronze, “I watch it? You watch it!” they shouted back, before getting the wind knocked out of them by said hippo.

The salamander used Kitsune's confusion to kick him in the stomach, sending him flying backward into a pillar, and dropping the Kama that he was wielding.

The salamander pointed a knife at Kitsune's neck. The Hippo had Bronze pinned down. A concussed Usagi was using his body to put a barrier in between a knocked-out Kally and the cat they had tried taking on.

“You’ve been defeated, surrender now and your death will be swift.” The cat had declared “Back off!” Usagi snarled, and the cat simply rolled her eyes, “You’ve lost, there is no one else who can save you now!” The cat chuckled.

Crash

They all turned to see what had made the crash. Usagi’s eyes widened. There was Lunar. The turtle he had just saved, with the help of Kally, from bleeding out. The one that was mutilated. The one that should have been on bed rest. The one that was on the highest security that there was(Seriously though, how did he make it past the guards?). The one with a BROKEN LEG! And the only thing he was using for the said leg was a brace.

Great.

Just amazing.

The cat let out a chuckle, “Whose this light show?” she asked, referring to the stripes and eyes that glowed in the darkness of the shop. Lunar slowly stood, his leg screaming at him, before turning into a sloppy fighting stance.

The cat rolled her eyes “Listen, sweetheart, you’re clearly not in the best shape, so why don’t you go ahead and limp along home while we-” The cat was starting to monolog about how they were so great, she also had some keywords in there like how they were working for someone to bring something back, how they were to become powerful.

Lunar and a mental note of that. He looked around the shop before he noticed something, and he smiled to himself. Lunar shifted, hands going behind his back, one shoulder facing the cat, the other facing the opposite way. He stuck out his hand and used two of his fingers to make a motion, which was clearly read by the cat.

“Come at me.”

The cat charged at him, yelling out some form of war cry as she did so. Lunar ran some numbers in his head before his other hand came out from behind his back, he didn’t know how he knew what to do, but he knew how to do it. He was wielding shurikens and a Kunai knife.

He threw out his weapons, spinning around while missing the cat with all the weapons. The cat was upon him, but while he was spinning he discreetly pulled out a Tanto, blocking the sword she wielded, “You missed!” She yelled out. ‘Funny to think I was aiming for you’ he thought to himself as he used his good leg to knee and kick the cat back.

And then stumbled over himself.

Just in time for the Kunai knife hit a rope that was used to hang up an ancient cage, causing the rope to snap and the cage to fall, trapping the cat in.

Behind him, the salamander and fox looked on in shock as they watched the cat be taken down by an injured person when she couldn’t even be taken down by two others. The fox snapped out of his shock, grabbing a pipe near him hitting the salamander's back, and lunging for one of his Kama, the Salamander tried to land another hit on him, but he was able to block it with the Kama he obtained.

Bronze decided that it was time for them to break out of the hold the hippo held on them. They spun around into a death roll, making the hippo roll with him until the hippo let go of bronze. They jumped up and roared, before pulling out his Tonfa and charging at the dazed hippo.

Lunar had run over to Usagi and started helping him pick up Kally by slinging one of his arms over each of their necks. “What are you doing here?” Usagi hissed out in a whisper. Lunar simply shrugged, Usagi didn’t know what he expected, Lunar couldn't just pull out a notepad and write in the middle of a battlefield.

“You realize you could’ve pulled out stitches doing what you did? And do you know just how broken your leg is?” Lunar stopped looking at Usagi, turning forward, both to ignore his friend and to focus on the battle. The cat was still stuck in the cage, yelling out in frustration. The fox and the gator seemed to have finally gotten back on their feet and were caring for the other two.

Usagi’s eyes were still burning into Lunar as the turtle turned around, ‘What do you want me to do, say something for myself?’ he thought with dry humor.

“Ugh…” Kally said as she slowly opened her eyes. “W…What happened?” Kally questioned, “You got knocked down pretty badly, do you think you can walk?” Usagi asked “Yeah… Yeah… I think so… but who…” Kally slurred her words as she completed her sentence, looking to her right to see who was on the other side, only to be met with a not-so-forgettable, but forgetful, face “Lunar, why are you here?” Kally asked Lunar simply gave her a sheepish smile in return.

“You busted b-”

“Okay!” Usagi cut off Kally as Lunar gave her an offended look. “We need to go.” he continued, setting down Kally, who took a moment to stand. Lunar looked around to see the others fighting the thieves. “Bronze! Kitsune! We’ve got to go!” Ah, that’s what their names were, Usagi had got Bronze and Kitsune’s(Lunar had no clue as to which is which) attention

The fox latched on to the salamander and used the other hand to knock them in the head with the blunted side of his Kama. before making a detour around the scuffle between the hippo and the gator, the gator quickly broke up the fight between themselves and threw the hippo into the wall of the cage the cat was trapped in, making her let out a yelp.

Lunar turned to the exit, then made a gesture with his hand to tell the others to ‘Come on’ as he started running, “You're not meant to be running!” Kally shouted after him, maybe she was right, after all his Leg was on fire, screaming at him to stop running.

But he can’t.

He knows he should’ve.

He knows he should've stayed in bed.

He knows he should trust his friends.

He knows he should’ve trusted the doctors.

But he didn’t

What if something bad happened to his new friend?

What if some bad happened at the medbay?

He couldn’t stop running.

He couldn’t stop because they were almost out.

He couldn’t stop because they were behind him.

He couldn’t stop because they were going to hurt him.

He couldn’t stop there was a blur of gray behind him the last time he looked over his shoulder.

He couldn’t stop because the man that hurt him was there.

He was here, and he couldn’t stop running.

He couldn’t stop running

He had to run

Run

Run

“Lunar!” A familiar voice called out, Lunar came to a halt. He shouldn’t have done that, because now he would catch him, tear him apart, force him to watch his friends die, knowing it would be his fault-

A soft hand was placed on his shoulder “Lunar…” Usagi's voice said gently. Lunar turned to see his friend “You were running for a while there, you alright?” The rabbit asked, and as a response Lunar fell to the floor, hissing in pain as he grabbed his leg. How long had he been running? Usagi fell to the floor after him, “Woah- Are you good?” He questioned.

“Of course, he’s not!” Kally snapped.

“I told you to not come along! And not only did you come along, but you also ran like you were being cashed by a monster-” Kally realized something when she said that and closed her mouth, thinking before speaking again.

“Did… Did you see something?” She questioned, Lunar shrugged, and Kally bit her lip, she knew that the Kitsune used to see things when he went through his memory loss.

“That’s right, no voice, does anyone have a notepad?” she questioned, the alligator reached into their back pocket and pulled out a notepad and pencil. “Bronze, you beautiful gator, give it to him,” Kally said, Bronze was already walking over to Lunar and handing him the supplies.

Lunar quickly wrote down his thoughts and explained what was going on “I’m so sorry, I just had a bad feeling about the mission and panicked, I escaped pasted the guards and scientist you had stationed, I didn’t trust them. I stole some of the weapons I found and quickly figured out where you and Usagi were. I just panicked, and as we were running I thought I saw the gray, and I just couldn't stop. I’m sorry.” he had scribbled out.

The words were jagged and messy, his brain felt scrambled and fried, and his whole body was in pain.

‘I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry, please don’t leave me again’ the pleads rang through his head, and he showed the rest, whose eyes widened. Usagi stopped and thought for a moment. “Wait… What’s important about gray again?” he asked, believing he had missed something that had already been said, Kitsune spoke up “Ya, what did that mean?”

Lunar sighed, this was going to be ruff to explain. “I had some dreams memories? I dreamt of 5 separate individuals. They were blurry and were turned into something that looked more like blurs of color put into shapes. Purple, red, orange, gray, and brown were the colors.” Lunar paused for a moment. “I think purple, red, and orange were somehow important, the brown as well.” he showed the rest.

It took a moment for them to read, as his words were nothing but scribbles, his hands were shaking, and it caused his lines to smush together.

“And the gray?” Usagi asked, Lunar looked down, squinting. “I don’t know, I trusted the gray once, it had betrayed my trust because it didn’t know. But then, in another dream. The gray was bigger, stronger.” The shake in Lunar’s hand only grew as he remembered the pain. “It ripped the giant hole in my neck, and threw me into a green glow.”

The group read the paper, eyes widening in horror. “Mutagen…” Usagi whispered.

“So you're telling me, this gray betrayed your trust because it didn’t know something, and then it chose to still be your enemy and then gutted you. Then THREW you into mutagen, most likely leaving you to drown in either the mutagen or your own blood!” Kitsun said, his words turning into a shout.

He didn’t know the turtle, nor had he been probably introduced. But he knew what it was like to be mutated. Especially at such a young age. Something that shouldn’t have happened to anyone.

And to make it worse for Lunar he had gutted then tossed to the side to drown!

Someone who just risked their lives for people whom they didn’t even know that well was tossed aside as though they were nothing more than a broken toy, left alone to suffer and die a horrid death while writhing and struggling between two bodies, neither of which is theirs.

Kitsune felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Bronze looking at him in a worried way.

He started to steady their breathing, He didn’t even realize it had gotten out of hand.

It was safe to say they had… Opinions about mutagen. And the Krang.

Fuck those bastards.

Bronze looked at the turtle, it was clear that Kitsune was upset, and from the looks of it the turtle, Lunar, seemed to think that the fox was upset at him.

Bronze was trying to wrap its head around the whole thing. But if there was one thing for certain it was that they all needed to get back to the medbay, Lunar was now immobilized and had most likely pulled a few stitches if the blood on the bandages wrapped around the poor thing's kneck wasn’t enough of a tell-tail sign that something had come loose.

Bronze sighed, “Alright,” They started as they turned towards Lunar, “Let's get back to the Hotel and get you back to the medbay.” Bronze walked forward, scooping the turtle up into his arms, much to the turtle's annoyance, and Usagi’s jealousy.

Lunar didn’t know how to feel at this moment. Sure, he had just saved his new friends from a couple of robbers. But he didn’t really like being picked up. Something about being vulnerable around another just rubbed him the wrong way. although he can’t complain because he did immobilize himself by coming to help them when he was supposed to be on bed rest.

But hey, at least that means they care. Maybe meeting new people isn’t too bad after all.

Chapter Text

It’s been three weeks.

Three weeks since Lunar got mutated, two weeks since he lost all sense of identity if he even had one before.

Three weeks since he met Usagi, and his world had been nothing but confusion.

Lunar was put on bedrest for the first of those two weeks, the doctors almost had to tie him to the bed because he kept running away to go do something.

But he couldn’t help it! There was just this… Feeling , underneath his skin, the urge to move, to get up, to find something – Someone? Who knows, but he needed to get up, the doctors didn’t seem to get that, though.

When the first week was up it took a lot of convincing from both him and Usagi for the doctors to allow Lunar to move again, but he was still kept under strict rules and watch, where ever he went, someone always had to be with him.

It brought on a type of resentment from being watched so closely, as though he was going to break at any moment, but he quickly squashed those feelings of resentment with gratefulness that he was able to move in the first place.

But, still, he was resigned to the benches whenever the others trained, he was upset, sure, but he wasn’t going to complain.

He got to watch his friends have fun, and he also got to learn their moves.

He learned quickly that he soaked up training techniques like a sponge, after he effortlessly pointed out some openings in Kally’s stance during her fight with Kitsune when she was trying to help him learn, Kitsune quickly took advantage of Lunar’s naivety and swept Kally off of her feet.

Kally would’ve seemed actually made if she wasn’t laughing so hard at the absurdity of ‘You know how to fight, but your own name?’ Lunar had huffed in annoyance at that statement, a bit hurt, but he ended up seeing the humor and laughed along with Kally about it.

The main thing he liked to do during the training sessions was to watch Usagi and his sword training, it was mesmerizing to watch, Lunar almost felt a bit of envy pick up whenever he saw the rabbit training, but he wasn’t quite sure why.

Speaking of Usagi, he had been the main one accompanying Lunar to his daily doctor's appointments, which became necessary since Lunar kept trying to escape from the doctors whenever he was around them.

He just didn’t trust them, okay? He didn’t know why, but something about them made Lunar think they were going to hurt him, betray him, not that he ever told anybody that, whenever someone asked, Lunar would just shrug.

He didn’t understand why he was so distrusting of the doctors, after all, they were the main people helping him learn sign language.

They were right in the fact that Lunar would never get his full voice back, maybe a word or sound here or there, but they were persistent in helping him learn sign language, although, some of the signs felt familiar to the turtle.

He wasn’t fluent– Not by a long shot, but he was okay enough so that he could make some basic needs known when they were ready to into New York.

Which, they finally were! They were given the ‘okay’ for Lunar to move around on his own with a brace at the end of the second week, the third week was filled with planning and excitement on Lunar’s end, to see the best way to get a feel of New York, as Lunar’s leg still needed more time to heal.

So now, at the end of the third week, they were standing in front of the portal to New York, Kally and Usagi standing up front, Kally with her hands on her hips, and Usagi what one hand on his hip, Bronze was behind the two of them with his arm’s crossed.

Lunar was in the back, he had on a black bandana on his mouth, two katana’s strapped to his back in an X shape (He insisted on having two, they just felt so familiar to him), he had a small black leather bag that was strapped across his torso and shoulder, notepad and pencil at the ready, hands shaking and forehead sweaty, and his leg tingling a bit in pain.

This was it.

He was going to New York.

The place that has been at the front of his mind since this… Mess started.

The place where he could find answers to his past.

The place where he might’ve had a past.

The place where he could’ve had friends. A family .

Where the colors were.

…

The place where he was hurt.

The place where he was mutated.

The place where his memory and voice were taken away, and he was left there, bleeding out, to die alone, cold, and scared .

He jumped when he felt a hand on his right shoulder and looked up with wide eyes to see Kitsune right behind him.

“You’re having second thoughts,” the fox stated, not looking at the turtle, Lunar simply looked down, he couldn’t deny that, he had been so excited about this, but now he was just plain scared .

Kitsune sighed, “I know, it’s hard to go into a place where the only thing you can remember is pain,” he started, “But, if you never know what’s inside of it, you’ll forever be plagued with the questions you have.”

“There could only be pain, but there could be something more, the only thing that we need from this trip is some sort of closure , got it?” The male fox took his hand off the metal turtle’s shoulder and looked at him, Lunar stared back for a moment before nodding.

Kitsune smiled at him, “Good…You’ll be okay, I promise,” he stated before walking up to the front.

“Alright people, let’s go kick some ass!” He stated, drawing up his Kama with a big, toothy grin on his face.

“Oh, no you don’t! Not without me!” Bronze shouted back, dodging past the smaller two as Kitsune walked through the portal, Bronze charged in after him.

Kally started giggling, “Wait up, you knuckleheads!” She shouted, jumping through the portal.

Usagi shook his head and looked back at Lunar with soft eyes and a kind smile, Lunar’s heart fluttered although he couldn’t understand the feeling.

“Let’s go find your memories,” the rabbit offered his hand to Lunar, and Lunar gave a thankful smile before taking it, and they both walked through the portal together.

The three men crept alongside the wall of the old apartment building, eyes set on the Chinese-looking museum.

The skinniest man, the leader, was in front, grinning wildly.

“So how we gonna break into the museum, Fong?” Sid asked, he was the tallest, and biggest out of the group, being the muscle out of the three.

“You wanna steal? Steal a key,” Fong responded, spinning a key chin around as he did so, the other two, Sid and Tsoi, smirked at him.

Meanwhile, on the rooftops above, a red-headed girl with blue hair, wearing a yellow shirt and jean shorts jumped from roof to roof, grunting the strain that it was taking on her body.

April was shocked it had taken her this long to get used to the rooftop jumping, she was getting better, but still was the slowest out of the group, since Casey had his rollerblades and ears of skating knowledge.

She came to an end, climbing onto another roof, and sliding to a kneel, her eyes scanning the rooftop wildly.

Her mind was spinning as she put the binoculars to her eyes, searching the place for something, anything , that could lead her to her missing brother.

It’s been three weeks.

Three weeks too long since she had last heard someone rant about space heroes.

Three weeks too long since someone has nagged her other brothers to start training.

Three weeks too long since she had awoken to the smell of jasmine tea, a scent she had grown to associate with comfort and care, now gone in seconds she didn’t even get to witness.

Her eyes still stung from crying.

But as she looked around, there was only a cat coming out of the dumpster.

“That is not true!” A voice stated, catching her attention, annoyance and frustration towards the other two quickly flooded her.

“I’ve gone through years of intense physical training!” The taller turtle in the purple bandana stated as he jumped over a pointed glass window with a flip, following quickly behind him was the other human, wearing purely a dark gray, who just lifted himself over the window.

“Ninjas are some of the most skilled athletes on the planet!” Donnie continues to argue.

The turtle jumped off the roof, and landed on a fabric roof cover, bouncing upward, before using the fire escape above to flip on top of the roof.

He then flipped through the air and landed in a kneeling position, before getting up and putting a hand behind his head.

April didn’t know whether it was supposed to be cool or suppose to be annoying.

But she was annoyed by it.

“You’re just flipping around dude!” April heard Casey’s voice scream at them, she looked over, rolling her eyes in huff at the other human.

“Now, this is how Casey Jones crosses rooftops!” The other human shouted, pointing at the two.

He then slid down the door that he was on before jumping and sliding on a clothesline connecting the two buildings.

Then he jumped up and spun around, facing April while kneeling and slowly sliding to her.

He had this smug smile on his face that made April want to smack him.

“Lame!” Donnie shouted, crossing his arms in a huff, jealousy building inside of him.

“Oh! Will you two keep it down!” April snapped at the two boys, who straightened, “We’re supposed to be looking for Leo!” She huffed crossing her arms.

Donnie put a hand on his neck and approached the redhead “Sorry, April. I- I don’t mean to–” Casey was about to interget, when April shoved Donnie away from her, backing up and staring at the two boys.

“Leo’s been missing for three weeks , and you two are acting like you don’t care!” She snapped, eyes narrowing at the two, she pointed to Donnie, “He’s your older brother, Dee, and yet, here you two are, goofing off!” She stated.

Donnie winced at the scolding, Casey stood next to April and put an arm around her shoulder, “Yeah, Donnie! Super insensitive–” April shoved him off as well, before pointing at him, Casey held his hands up in a surrender motion.

“And you , quite goofing off, this is our friend we’re talking about here!” She stated, Casey put his arms to his sides and looked away.

April huffed, “You both are acting so immature,” she stated, looking down, refusing to acknowledge the two in front of her.

This was Leo , they were looking for, couldn’t they quit this petty rivalry for two minutes so that they could look for him?

Donnie looked to his left when he heard key jingles and saw the three purple dragon goons they always had fought sneaking into a museum.

“Uh, guys?” He asked, stiffening a bit, “Purple dragons,” he mentioned, pointing to the three.

The others looked in the direction he was pointing, Donnie took this moment to grab April’s hand and start heading over to the place the Purple dragons were raiding.

Leaving Casey miffed.

Fong peeked through the door of the museum, analyzing the area before pushing in further.

The three slowly made their way through the room of the museum, looking at the statues, pots, and armor that had been put on display that had to be centuries of years old.

Fong had stopped and stared at one of the statues, while the others went ahead.

Fong looked to his left and saw what was at the end of the rectangle hall.

A dagger, trusted by time and what looked to be the sea, sealed in the glass container, having to be worth millions, just by age alone.

“Wow,” Tsoi breathed out as he looked at the ancient dagger.

“Steranko’s gonna pay through the roof, we hit the motherload!” Fong stated the three stared at the valuable dagger, figuratively foaming at the mouth at the idea of the amount of wealth it would bring to them.

“Yeah?” A cocky voice asked, causing all three to stiffen and turn to whoever had entered the room.

There, they saw the kid in the hockey mask that the turtles had on their side.

“Well, you’re about to get hit by a mother lode of Casey Jones!” Casey introduced, grabbing onto one of his hockey sticks.

Donnie then shoved him to the said, “And a mother lode of Donnie, too,” and spun his Bo staff. He found Casey’s entrance stupid but wanted to join in on the dumb fun that was making fun of Casey’s entrance.

“What the…?” Casey asked, confused by the taller one.

“And April,” Donnie added on, the girl pulling out and reading her tessen.

Casey just slumped.

Tsoi through a ceramic pot the two, and Casey quickly saw where it was going.

Casey shoved Donnie out of the way, allowing the pot to shatter against his leather glove.

Why did he just do that?

He couldn’t tell you.

They all ran forward, Casey smashing another pot in the process of trying to hit one of the Purple Dragons.

April was able to to lure Sid back, dodging the bigger guy's attacks before grabbing the wrist of the arm that he was using to swing at her, slicing his arm, then, when Sid grabbed his wrist, April spun around and sliced him again, sending the big guy to the ground in a bloody mess.

Donnie had his bo staff against his shell, leaning on it a bit with his arms as he slowly backed up, dodging Fong’s punches with ease.

Then, when Fong graded a pot and swung it at Donnie, the turtle simply kicked Fong in the stomach, getting the other away from him.

Meanwhile, Casey sent hockey pucks flying toward Tsoi, but the dude had hidden behind a statue, causing the pucks to break into the stone ground.

But right when the Purple Dragon thought he was safe, the statue's head came crashing down on him, causing him to go to the ground.

Casey laughed at the dude's misery before looking over to where Donnie was, eyes narrowing at the purple turtle.

Donnie was still fighting Fong, the member throwing down the case with the old dagger, Donnie was able to thrust the stick into the member's stomach, sending him crashing into another put and over the podium, the pot was on.

The member then jumped over the pot, threatening to kick Donnie in the head.

Casey’s world seemed to slow down as he watched, panic flooding his veins, his body moving on his own as he pushed Donnie out of the way, and hit the leader of the gang with as much force as he could.

The leader went to the ground with a grunt.

Casey looked over to the turtle, feeling relief to see the other was okay, followed by confusion on what the heck had just happened.

Donnie stood, and Casey got into a smug stance, putting his hockey stick on his shoulder in an attempt to appear as though he didn’t care.

“I had him!” Donnie snapped as he got up, getting into Casey’s face, “Why’d you do that!” He demanded to know.

Casey shoved a finger into Donnie’s plastron, frustration building in him, “I saved you from a kick in the head!” He countered.

Donnie looked from his finger, and then back to his face with a scowl that honestly surprised Casey.

“Oh, you were just trying to impress April–” Casey was starting to get annoyed, it was always about him and April, “And I–”

“Nice job, guys!” April shouted at the both of them, cutting Donnie off.

Casey and Donnie looked around, seeing the door close behind the Purple Dragons, and the entire museum shattered to bits.

“Great.” April spat out.

“You let them get away!” She continued to yell, turning her back to the two.

Donnie and Casey looked at each other, then at April, guilt rising inside of both of them.

The group was on top of the roofs, going over the plan of patrol.

“Alright, so, for now, we are all going to stay in one group,” Kitsune started, Bronze was in front of him, but far away, Kally was closer, but sitting behind him, off to the side, on the half wall of the rooftop.

Usagi was closer to the billboard, and Lunar was sitting on the half wall on his left.

The group has decided to go on a short circle around the city, before ending back up on this roof.

They did this so they could all keep an eye on each other, and be mindful of Lunar’s leg.

Lunar had, of course, tried to insist that he was fine, but the others, of course, shot this down real quick.

Lunar huffed, he wanted to explore the city more than anything, he wanted to remember.

And the city had brought a kind of familiarity that Lunar hadn’t felt since he had those dreams three weeks ago, he hasn’t had them since, nor has he remembered anything.

He shook his head as the others talked, his notepad in hand, at the ready, and that was when he heard something.

Looking down, he saw three men, each with a dragon tattoo on the head of their shoulders.

The dragon was purple as well.

Lunar leaned closer, squinting at them.

There was a sense of Déjà vu and dread that came with looking at the three guys, as though he either needed to fight or run.

He didn’t know why, they were just guys with purple dragons on their shoulders.

There was a type of ping in Lunar’s head.

Something about that thought was familiar.

He squinted his eyes at the three, before hearing Kitsune call his name.

He shook his head, and got off of the roof’s wall, doing a double take on the three before finally making his way over to the others.

He noticed Usagi had a concerned frown on his face, and so Lunar smiled at him.

“Are you okay?” He asked, Lunar nodded and scribbled down “I’m fine, let’s go,” on his notepad, then showed it to Usagi and let the rabbit read it.

The rabbit looked between Lunar and the notepad, before hesitantly saying “O- Kay,” and watched as Lunar walked towards the others.

Lunar didn’t need to know what was going on with the men.

He didn’t need his first quest for memories to be figuring out those men and their tattoos screamed ‘danger’ to him.

And if that tinging sound he heard from the alley as he walked away was something bad, that was a problem for someone who remembered who they were.

Karai followed the other two turtles as they jumped across the rooftops.

Raph and Mikey were in front of her, basically ignoring her.

She cringed at the feeling, she felt so out of place.

For the past few weeks, she’s been in the lair, Splinter had told her that she should lay low for now, try to see if they could shake Shredder off of her trail, or at the very least, give her some time to recover.

This was her third mission back, and she felt awful about it.

Guilt had been eating away at her for the past three weeks, nightmares of the gurgled scream that came from Leo’s mouth, the red mixing with green as he cried out for help, the fear in his eyes as he went under.

The images mainly flooded her head during week one, when she was just a zombie, barely eating, with an unrecognizing look in her eyes.

The full weight of the situation hit her on week two.

The realization that Leo not only tried to warn her, but had come to save her, and had been mutated to do it.

But Leo also most likely realized the chain was too thin to not break if it was hit by Shredder’s blow, that she would’ve been the one mutated if he moved out of the way.

Leo sacrificed himself for her.

That was something she couldn’t quite comprehend.

She shook her head.

This was no time to think about the past, now it was just trying to get Leo back.

Raph was the furthest ahead, far in front of the other two, mind racing almost as fast as he was running.

Donnie, April, and Casey had gone off on the other route.

Leaving him, Mikey, and Karai to stick together.

This was wrong. This was all wrong.

It was meant to be Leo who was in front.

Raph shook his head as he slowed down, seeing April, Don, and Casey up ahead.

“Any luck?” Raph spat out as the two groups came together.

“No, no sign of him,” Donnie stated, there was a sourness between the two.

Donnie was side-eyeing Raph, and Raph was glaring at Donnie.

With Leo gone, after the second week, there was an obvious question:

Who was the temporary leader?

No one dared ask who was the ‘new leader.’

Leo wasn’t dead. He was just MIA at the moment.

“We did just have a run-in with the Purple Dragon gang,” Donnie added, his voice blunt, like a robot, Raph nodded at him.

“So, did you win?” Raph asked, there was pure venom in his voice mixed with a condescending tone.

Donnie rolled his eyes, Raph’s temper had gotten to a new worse the last three weeks, Donnie and he were always arguing, Raph had broken plenty of stuff, and was even being a jerk to Casey.

Donnie pretended like he didn’t hear Raph crying in his room at night, or when Raph came into the lair at an ungodly time of day and would fall asleep on the couch, that he didn’t hear Raph ask for Leo whenever Donnie put a blanket over him.

Donnie’s heart pained, it seemed like they were all mourning, but Leo wasn’t gone.

He couldn’t be.

But even with that, Donnie couldn’t deny the facts.

He had a huge gash wound the last time he saw his oldest brother, and Leo was completely deranged and angry.

If Leo didn’t die via blood loss, he most likely got captured.

But Donnie kept his mouth shut.

That couldn’t have been the fate of his brother.

Fuck the facts, Donnie wouldn’t believe it.

“We almost had them, until these two goofballs let them get away,” April scolded, Casey and Donnie looked down in guilt and shame.

Mikey walked up to her, rolling his eyes, “Ah, it’s no big deal, April,” he stated, smiling all the way through. April didn’t know how Mikey could be so happy at a time like this.

She wanted to hate him for it.

But without that small bit of happiness, April would’ve gone insane.

“Those guys are like a level one boss battle!” Mikey stated, making a punching gesture with his fist, before putting his hand behind his head, “Who cares about the purple dragons, anyway?” He asked.

April smiled at the youngest, she hoped he was right.

Bronze was out in front, followed by Kitsune, then Kally, then Lunar and Usagi next to each other.

They jumped from roof to roof, far away from where those guys that Lunar saw were.

They had chosen a less jump-heavy path, due to Lunar’s leg, but Lunar still felt incredibly strained, he was the slowest in the group, Usagi just having slowed down to be close to him.

Lunar shook his head, he felt guilt seep throughout him, he was trying, but no matter how hard he tried to run, he couldn’t keep it up for long, and just ended up going slower than he was going before.

They had finally gotten to the second resting stop, everyone was breathing heavily, but Lunar was full hands on his knees wheezing.

He felt heat flare up in his cheeks, he was so embarrassed.

Lunar suddenly felt a soft hand on his shoulder, and he looked over to see Usagi, who must’ve noticed his shame, smiling at him.

“That was good for your second time, Aoi!” The rabbit started with a genuine smile, Lunar gulped, his face heating up some more, how out of shape was he?

Lunar shook his head, reaching into the black bag he brought along and pulling out his notepad and pencil he wrote a quick “Thanks,” before showing it to Usagi, and shoving the two items back into the bag, then walking away from the rabbit.

His mind kept going back to those three men.

There was something so familiar about them, but Lunar couldn’t place his finger on it.

He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

He didn’t want to get wrapped up in whatever they were doing, even if they were tied to his past, Lunar had gotten a bad feeling in his stomach when he saw the three, so it was most likely better to stay away from them until his leg healed.

They looked at the others, who were currently checking over the surrounding area. He was about to see something when Kally whistled, gaining of all their attention.

“Guys, look at this!” She stated, pointing over to one of the windows of the apartment building next to them, the windows used to be boarded up, but now the boards were hanging limply from their nails, claw marks traced them and the structure around the walls.

They all were now at the edge of the roof, examining the window. Lunar tilted his head and squinted.

“So…” Usgai gestured to the window, “Anything about this seeming familiar, Aoi?” He asked, looking at the metal turtle.

Lunar shook his head, he brought both his hands to his chest, the closer thing he had to a pointer finger up, and then pointed down at the window, and then made a cup shade with his left hand, then put his fingers together on his other hand, and putting them in the cup.

“Go in.”

Usagi looked at Lunar’s face, “You sure, Aoi?” He asked, Lunar nodded, repeating the gesture.

Usagi looked at Bronze, who just shrugged, “Seems like a plan to me,” the big reptile stated.

And with that, one by one, they made their way into the wind, Kitsune jumped to where the window was and launched himself in, Usagi followed with Kitsune's example, Bronze just jumped and landed further down from where the window was, grunting in annoyance as he caught himself with his claws and climbed upward.

Kally jumped from one fire escape to the next before using the one right above the window, which was extremely busted, to swing herself inside the building.

Lunar hesitated at first, then lunched himself with a small, barely vocal, grunt, caught the fire escape, and swung himself inside, rolling as he hit the ground to soften the blow before using his right hand to stop himself in a crouched position while looking down.

“Not bad, Lun!” He heard Kally call, Lunar just kept his face down to hide the wince of pain as his leg started to flare up, his bones feeling like they were bruised from that little act.

Lunar looked up, and his wince turned from a false look of determination to a wide-eyed look of confusion.

The room was abandoned, white, broken tiles laced the floor, beaten up, old marble walls had dents and holes in them, wires spilling out of said holes, moonlight poured in from boarded up windows, wind blowing torn up curtains.

And three circle-like holes in the floor.

As though something had ripped up whatever machinery was there.

The three turtles sat on the couch, Raph was pacing next to the couch, Mikey was shoving Pizza into his mouth, and Donnie was just sitting there… Thinking.

They had been at this for three weeks. They had just started going on missions every day, every few hours for a week straight.

He was exhausted, they all were, Mikey was stressed, and Raph was getting ready to punch someone or something, and Donnie did not want to be the poor soul whom Raph took that anger.

The thoughts all echoed in his head.

What if Leo’s gone for good?

He shook his head, closed his eyes, and started thinking.

The mutation that Leo experienced was clearly rushed and put a strain on his body, and had a high chance of making his mutation unstable, Leo had a giant gush in his neck, that would’ve at least slashed his vocal cords, if not his windpipe, and Leo has most likely gone feral and would be easily captured.

And Shredder would most likely love to use Leo against them.

All signs point to Leo being dead.

But that couldn’t be right.

The facts were wrong, and this was Donnie talking.

His older brother isn’t dead.

He couldn’t be dead.

…Right?

Donnie groaned and leaned back, putting his hands on his face.

He was trying to come up with something, anything, that could track Leo down.

But nothing was coming to mind.

Karai stepped out of the dojo, everybody's attention going to her.

She held a strong wince on her face, looking down at the ground, and stiff, she glanced over to where the dojo was.

“He’s been like that for days,” Karai admitted, still standing, all the passive-aggressive glares she was getting from the brothers clued her in that she didn’t have a place on the couch.

“Leo’s mutation really messed him up, huh?” Raph snapped, adding one bite to his voice.

He couldn’t help but feel enraged whenever he looked at Karai, the girl that his brother was convinced was good, the girl who was their father's actual daughter, the girl who they risks their asses to save.

The girl who chooses revenge over keeping the family safe.

And cost him his twin because of it.

“Fa– Sensei’s not messed up, he’s just… Healing his spirit,” she stated, she didn’t feel worthy of calling the man her father, not with the sons he raised all glaring at her, not when she mutated his oldest.

“Heh, like you would know anything,” Donnie quidded, Karai winced.

Donnie… Didn’t know what he meant. Karai just sounded so much like Leo. Trying to find the most ninja-like way to reason with what was going on around them, trying to find reason in madness, and trying to hold them together.

It sometimes brought him comfort, it felt like they still had a part of Leo with them.

But most of the time, it angered him and made him think that Karai was trying to replace his older brother.

It made him sick to his stomach to think that after all of this time, Sensei finally got exactly what he wanted.

And it took his brother away from him.

“I can’t stand this…” Mikey stated before sitting down, trying to make a joke before adding on in a serious tone, “Let’s keep searching.”

He wanted to back to normal.

He wanted everyone to stop hating each other.

He wanted his big brother.

“We could really use Casey and April’s help,” Raph stated, stopping his pacing and sitting down on the couch, “I think they’re hanging out at the ice rink,” he added.

Donnie hopped up, a bright smile on his face, “That’s a great idea we can break them up!” He stated, he then realized his working “I– I mean split them up!” He stumbled, still not liking the wording.

“I– I mean split them up into two teams,” he stated, gesturing with his hands and looking to his right, trying to come up with the right words. He chuckled in embarrassment.

The group walked around the room, each inspecting their little part.

Usagi was looking at the torn curtain he had in his hand, then looked at the part of the wall that was revealed when the curtain was lifted “What the heck?” He muttered, shocked, there was a massive claw mark, twice as big as his hand, torn into the wall.

“Whatever did this had some massive claws,” he stated, trailing his hand along the deep marks.

Kally hummed in agreement, Bronze nodded, “And strong enough to rip whatever was here out, what do you think they were?” he asked, Kistune shrugged, his arms crossed and looking at the wires.

“I have no clue, but whatever it was, we might not want to stick around to find out,” the fox responded.

Lunar walked around the room, aimlessly trying to find something to add to the conversation when something caught his eye.

There was something strange about the wall farthest from where they came in, and when Lunar walked over, he saw that the wall was dented in, another wall hiding a doorway.

Lunar tilted his head and grabbed the handle, the door was metal, but it was also rusty.

With a little bit of strain, Lunar was able to open the metal door with a loud metal screech.

Looking into the area on the other side, Lunar saw that it was a staircase that was shrouded in darkness.

Lunar considered going into the area, but chose against the idea, instead stepping back out from behind the wall, where the others were staring at him.

He stood there awkwardly for a moment, scrunching up his nose in concentration, before it finally came to him, he made a ‘V’ with his right hand and put it under his right eye, then he pointed the ‘V’ towards the doorway.

“See this.”

The others all looked at each other, before, all except for Usagi who just started walking up to Lunar “What did you see, Lun?” He asked it seemed to dawn on the others who followed.

They all went up next to Lunar, who gestured to the doorway they all were staring at now.

Usagi squinted at it and leaned forward, “Hey Kally,” he started, they all looked over at Usgai, Kally with mild curiosity, Lunar with a small amount of concern, and Kitsune with a smirk, and Bronze had a wide-eyed look on him.

“Sagi, don’t–” “I dare to jump down those stairs,” Usagu said, cutting off Bronze with a smirk.

Kally thought for a moment, then just shrugged, “Might as well,” she stated before bending her legs and jumping “Geronimo!” She shouted, her voice echoing as she went down.

“Kally– Oh my word!” Bronze shouted, face-palming, “You idiots are going to be the death of me!” They snapped, Kitsune just shrugged, and then sat on the railing and slid down while saying “Don’t have a stroke, old bitch!”

Bronze just growled at Kitsune, but their attention quickly turned to Usagi when the rabbit followed in the fox's actions, sliding down the other railing with a “Woo!”

Bronze sighed and looked at Lunar, who was wide-eyed with fear and concern.

Bronze just sighed, “You’re my favorite out of these idiots,” they stated, gesturing down the stairs, “Let’s go make sure we don’t have a second person with an injured leg.”

Lunar nodded, then followed Bronze as they went down the steps.

April struggled against the purple dragon member that had her.

She was just at the ice rink with Casey, and Irma, when all of a sudden, the purple dragon gang busted through the roof with these… Powers.

They took Casey out and stole both her and Irma, literally flying away with them.

They were now in the Purple Dragon’s hideout on the second floor, April looked up from the floor, the fear in her veins increasing as she saw this 8-foot-tall translucent, blue-tinted old man in a dragon Kimono standing from a makeshift throne.

“You have power in you!” The weird guy stated, walking closer to April and pointing at her, “A power you have barely tapped!”

What was this guy talking about? She knew she had Krang DNA, but what else could that bring?

“It will belong to Ho Chan,” he declared.

Okay, she knew his name now.

The ghost-looking dude walked over to where Irma was being held, “And you…” He started, leaning, leaning down and taking off her glasses to look into her eyes better, “You have power too,” he stated.

April got sick of standing by as she and her friend were being looked at like some type of science experiment.

She struggled against her capture, the big guy of the group, but she was able to get one of her hands free, causing the attention of the old dude to be drawn to her.

She punched the big guy in the face, sending him over the edge before pulling out her tessen, “Come on, Irma!” She shouted.

The purple-haired girl looked to the floor, and April’s heart dropped when Irma’s kick went straight threw the dude’s body.

“You’re… Some sort of ghost?” Irma asked, looking up at the man, confusion clear in her voice.

“Indeed,” Ho Chan answered, “I have been cursed without flesh for 2,000 years,” and with the finishing of that sentence, he blasted blue lasers out of his eyes, which sent Irma to sleep, she groaned weakly as she fainted.

April was too busy trying to fend off the others to notice that the ghost had made two blue lassoes, which were now wrapped around her and Irma, causing her to drop her tessen to the ground.

Both she and Irma were brought into the air, panic sored through April as she looked at the old man’s face.

“My power is ancient and vast,” he declared.

“But you both,” he pointed at the two of them, “Exhibit a power I have never encountered before,” he stated.

Confusion racked April’s brain, she could understand how she might have some power, but does Irma have to do with this?

“A power that Ho Chan will take to become flesh one more,” he continued, “And rule the universe,” he threw his hands up before bringing them back together, to his chest, and chuckled.

“Now we start the ritual!”

The others were okay, but right now, they all were just bored.

The stairs that Lunar had found just kept going down.

They were on their fifth flight of stairs.

Usagi groaned, putting his hands behind his head and doing a more cartoonish walk down the steps with large swings of his legs.

“We’ve been doing this for forever !” He complained, Bronze rolled thier eyes at the rabbit, “All of the doors we’ve tried we haven’t been able to open, I don’t think there’s anything in this place,” he stated.

Lunar looked away from the rabbit, slight guilt bubbling up from the other's words.

Usagi seemed to notice this and turned to Lunar, cringing a bit out of guilt, “Not to say that this wasn’t an awesome find, Lunar, I mean,” he closed his eyes and looked in front of him “Anything you find is– WoAH!” He missed a step.

He started tumbling down the stairs, slamming into each of the steps with a variety of grunts and ‘oofs.’

He went down three more flights before he finally stopped, hitting against a wall.

Kitsune looked over the railing at the place Usagi landed, “It seems you took the expressway down,” he stated, Kally also peeked over “Now that is what call ‘down bad,’” she stated with a wink, earning an injured groan from Usagi.

Usagi shook his head and held it, looking around as his vision swarmed, before realizing that he felt something cold on his back.

He stood up and turned to it, it was another metal door.

But the key lock on it seemed broken open.

Usagi tilted his head and grabbed the handle of the door, opening it with a creak.

He smiled “Hey, guys!” He called out, looking back at the stairwell, the group peeked over the railing, “I found another openable door! How many times do you think we’ll need to go through a door today?” He joked.

Bronze smirked at him, “You used your head, for one,” he stated, Usgai looked from the door, and then back to Bronze, “Yeah, I guess–” He then realized the insult, and looked from where there was a dent in the door, then to Bronze.

“Hey!” He called out, then thought for a moment, “Was that an insult on my intelligence, or a joke about me hitting the door?” He asked, Bronze shrugged, “Both.”

“What… So you’re saying you just let them take April?” Donnie shouted, gesturing wildly with his hands, Casey rolled his eyes.

They were currently in the hockey rink, they had gotten a text from Casey that something serious had happened, and that he needed them there yesterday face.

Karai looked at the two boys, frowning, she had just tagged along on this mission, but now she couldn’t help but think that it may have been a better idea just to stay back.

She sighed, and watched the two closely, hoping that they don’t start fighting and make this take even longer than it had to.

“Listen, these dudes got powers, yo!” He argued, gesturing around to the chaos around the hockey rink.

“‘Powers?’” Donnie asked, getting closer to Casey before grabbing the boy's shirt and getting right up in his face, anger sky-high.

“They’re just a gang of third-class wannabes!” He shouted, Casey felt his heart skip a beat, “No, I’m telling you!” Casey argued, leaning further into Donnie, causing the turtle to have to lean back.

“They were all throwing lightning bolts a– and blasting wind!” Casey shouted, stuttering over his words because of how angered he was.

Donnie rammed further into Casey, causing the two to meet in the middle.

“Like me, after I eat broccoli,” Mikey offered with a chuckle, trying to break the tension that was as thick as the ice they were standing on.

The two guys grabbed onto each other, about to get into a fistfight, when Raph pushed both of them off of each other.

“Maybe Casey’s right,” Raph offered, not wanting to deal with this right now, “Either way, we’ve gotta save April and Irma!” He declared this wasn’t his strong suit, calming people down, but the only person who did it the best was fucking mutated and god knows where.

“Maybe we can let them keep Irma in exchange for April?” Casey offered with a smile, he never liked Irma, he always got a weird vibe from her, she was so monotone and robotic, that it freaked him out.

“Quit joking around, Casey!” Raph demanded, scowling at the other who simply held his up in surrender.

Raph was pissed, they were supposed to be looking for Leo right now, not having to deal with the Purple Numb Skulls.

He groaned, rolling his eyes before saying “Let’s move,” and rushing towards the hockey rink exit, the group following him.

They all looked into the room that Usagi had found.

Usagi squinted, the room was pitch black, and the only thing he could mae out were the tiles, outlines of broken lights hanging by a wire from the ceiling, what looked like a control panel on the right side of the room, and some sort of cylinders on the left.

Usagi was the first to step inside, being cautious about where he was going, Lunar followed, he seemed… nervous, and actively shrunk away from the cylinders, then it was followed by Bronze, then Kitsune and Kally.

“Now would be a great time for you to have night vision, huh, Kall?” Usagi asked over his shoulder, he could hear Kally’s eye roll as she groaned “Fuck you, man,” she spat out.

She would be the first to tell you how annoying it was to hear people constantly say that, but she could smile at Usagi’s gab because it was just one of the ways that they communicated.

However, Lunar didn’t seem to take kinda to that, as he stopped, and his head whipped around to Kally.

Kally was taken aback in shock, Bronze stopped in his tracks and looked at Lunar wide-eyed, and Kitsune jumped with an “Ah shit– Jeezes,” as he came down and put his hands on his knees.

Lunar went from annoyed at the swear, to puzzled as he looked at the others, Usgai looked at him, also looking slightly puzzled, and was about to say something when he also stopped and squinted at Lunar.

Lunar gestured as though to say ‘what’ and looked at everyone.

“Lunar, your eyes are glowing,” Usagi stated.

Lunar didn’t expect that, he looked around at the others, who were all either about to laugh, or completely shocked.

Kitsune finally recovered from his fright and looked up at Lunar, “Lunar, buddy, how well can you see us?” He asked, Lunar just tilted his head.

He could see them perfectly fine, sure, there was a tint of green and black over everything, but wasn’t that just the lighting?

Kitsune shook his head, “Never mind, forgot you couldn’t speak, can you write?” He asked, and Lunar nodded, opening and digging into his bag, and pulling out his pencil and notepad, Kitsune just held his hand up.

“Lunar, if you can see well enough to right, you have night vision, we do not, it’s pitch black for up,” he stated, Lunar slowly put down his hands, feeling guilty.

Usagi shook his head, “Never mind that can you see like a generator or something?” He asked, Lunar looked at him and then looked around the room.

There was a generator-looking thing, it was on the opposite side of the panel.

But he didn’t know how to work it.

He looked at Usagi and took the rabbit's hand, there was a strange flutter in his chest as he took Usagi’s hand, and started leading rabbits over to where the generator was.

Usagi was confused at first, his heart skipping a beat as Lunar led him until his hand was set on something metal.

It took a moment, but eventually, Usagi was able to activate the generator.

This caused the lights that weren’t completely broken to flicker on, lighting the room with a white eleumansient light.

They turned and looked at the cylinders.

They were test tubes.

And all were empty, and broken out of.

Usagi cringed, “Well, that’s not good,” he stated, Lunar nodded, staring at the objects that had scared him when he walked in.

Bronze shook his head, “Come on, I want to know what in the fuck is going on in this place,” the reptile stated, he walked forward to the door that was at the other end of the room, ignoring Lunar’s glare as he opened it.

Lunar watched as the rest followed.

He hesitantly did so as well.

He couldn’t help but shake the feeling that he was being watched.

Chapter Text

They all snuck alongside a graffiti wall that was in front of the fortune cookie factory that was the lair of the purple dragons.

Donnie was out in front, followed by Mikey, then Raph, then Karai.

“I don’t like the looks of this,” Donnie whispered, his voice hesitant as he looked at the three gang members, each had a straw hat on, and their eyes weren’t visible.

“I like the looks of those hats!” Mikey responded, “They're awesome,” his voice was giddy as he smiled, he would look so cool in one of those hats, and he’d have to ask the gang where they got them from.

“They’re only loser Purple Dragons, how tough could they be?” Raph asked, his sai at the ready, Donnie snorted, finally, something the two brothers could agree on after this long of fighting.

Raph snared at Donnie, most likely taking Donnie’s snort as an insult, he was about to say something when they were cut off by a horn blaring.

They all looked over, eyes wide in shock as Casey rode in on his bike.

He was rushing straight toward one of them, and pulled out his bat, yelling his battle cry of “Goongalla!” As he charged.

The Purple Dragon, however, did not seem to take kindly to this as he moved his hands in a ball and blew Casey right off of his feet, sending him flying across the rough pavement of the road.

Casey grunted in pain, and Donnie felt his heart drop for some reason.

“Okay, they’re a little tougher than I thought,” Raph suddenly admitted, they all turned toward where they heard the sounds of static.

When they looked up they saw the three purple dragons flying in the air.

The leader blasted lightning at them, and they all scattered in different directions, with Donnie hopping onto a fire hydrant, spinning his bo staff, and leaping at the one who had blown Casey away.

Admittedly, this was not his best plan as the guy simply tossed a wind vortex at him and sent him flying the opposite way.

The big guy flew straight towards Mikey, and screamed at him, causing Mikey to yell back in shock, he dodged, and spun around his nunchucks, trying to hit the guy.

He eventually was able to land a hit on the big dude, kicking him square in the face, and sending him to the ground.

Mainly, Karai was busy taking on the leader, the girl screamed and grunted as she dodged the lightning being thrown at her, her sword at the ready.

Eventually, she was able to get up close to the Purple Dragon when he was getting started with another one of his lightning attacks and landed a punch that sent him flying into the wind one.

Raph, Karai, and Mikey all looked on as the Purple Dragons moaned in pain at the beating they had just received.

Raph looked at the others, “Come on!” He stated, but when he said that, there was a zap from behind them.

They all turned to see this big, ghost guy floating down, and landing on the ground.

Karai was at the back with a grimace on her face.

This couldn’t be good.

“Ahh, behold” the old due started, “Tortise warriors,” he put his hands together and started.

“It is said that the great turtle helped the god Pangu create the world,” he responded, Karai looked between Mikey and Raph, who clearly were not appreciating the man's creep-tastic words.

“And you looked more competent than the morons I have,” the old man said with a smirk and pointed to Karai.

He then let out a burst of lightning from his fingertips that struck all of them, lifting them up into the air as he chanted a spell.

“Fitting that these turtles, and girl, should help Ho chan rule it!” Ho Chan stated.

Donnie watched on helplessly as his brothers and sister were turned, Mikey spinning around and letting out a burst of wind, Karai charging up with lighting, and Raph wielding yellow thunder.

Ho Chan just laughed.

“But… Master,” Ho Chan looked at who had spoken, it was the leader of the Purple Moron gang he had originally recruited, he scrunched up his nose, “Why?” The skinny one asked.

“Because you’re losers,” he responded, putting an ‘L’ to his forehead before zipping the places the three men were, causing them to run.

“Get out of my sight before I send you to the abyss of infinite morons!” He shouted as they ran.

Donnie’s eyes were wide with confusion and worry, and Casey looked between his friend and the others, guilt welling up in his chest.

“Guys…” Donnie called out, helplessly trying to get through to his family.

His heart was breaking as they floated towards him and Casey.

“Your guys are my guys.”

And with those words from that stupid ghost, Donnie’s heart shattered.

“Bye-bye for now!” The ghost said in a cheery, sing-song voice before disappearing in a flash of blue.

The thing that took his family was mocking him.

Donnie clenched his fist and gritted his teeth, his eyes narrowing at the spot the ghost once was.

Casey looked between Donnie, and his other friend, before deciding that they were not going to wind this fight.

“We got to go, Donnie!” Casey looked at the turtle and shouted, grabbing onto the other forearm, ready to drag Donnie away if he had to.

“ No. ”

Donnie couldn’t go.

He couldn’t leave.

He needed to save them.

He needed his family.

He wasn’t losing them too.

But Casey had to forcefully drag him away from where a lightning bolt was sent down by Karai, he snapped out of his ranging trance.

Donnie looked up at Casey, who was currently dragging him as the otters through down attacks at them.

Casey looked down at him, “We’ll get them back, I promise, but we have to go .”

Never did Donnie think he would see the day Casey was right.

And with that, the two ran.

They two booked it to the shell raiser.

They quickly started driving down the street the fastest they could go, whipping through traffic.

The three other remind right above them, sending lightning straights, thunderbolts, and wind at them.

The thunderbolt made them serve, Donnie was trying to avoid hitting the cars on the road that were blaring their horns at them, and Casey just wanted to not fall.

“Let me take the wheel!” Casey demanded, lunged for the steering wheel.

Donnie served more, going up onto the sidewalk, and narrowly avoiding a light post.

He was forced to whip around as cars were coming straight at them, and they were eventually able to swing into an alleyway.

It was between two buildings that Donnie cut the lights on the shell raiser, which made the three others fly straight past them.

Casey turned to Donnie, who was currently looking at the monitors of the Shell raiser.

“Ah, they’re gone!” He reported, Donnie looked around, puzzled.

“Yeah, but there’s somebody else here,” he stated.

Two left the shell raiser and looked at the metal jaws the vehicle had on the front.

When they opened with a metallic hiss, it revealed the three Purple Dragons, cowering in the jaws.

Anger filled both Donnie and Casey as they looked at each other, then back to the gang members, before grabbing them all by the collars and throwing them into the wall.

“You better start talking, punk,” Casey started, pointing at the leader, who seemed to be the one with the most brain cells out of the three.

Donnie looked at Casey with a frown, which was more directed towards the gang members than anything, he appreciated that Casey was taking this seriously.

The leader, who had his hands up in surrender, started “He came out of an ancient Chinese dagger,” he reached into his pocket and pulled out a rusty dagger sheet, “Like a spirit.”

Donnie took the dagger from the scrawny man's hand and analyzed it.

“He promised us great power, but once we had it he had the power to control us!” The leader of the gang continued, he seemed genuinely shaken by the whole thing, Donnie would’ve felt pity if the guy hadn’t gotten his family taken away.

“All I know is his name… Ho chan,” the dude finished.

Donnie’s eyes widened in anger as he did a double take.

“What…?” Donnie growled, Casey looked between Donnie and the gang and grimaced.

Donnie stomped over to the three, arms rigid, ready for a fight as the leader held his hands up to protect his face.

“You mean to say that–”

“Don!” Casey cut the turtle off, whose head whipped around to face him.

Casey cringed at the way Donnie looked at him, the purple turtle looked lowkey feral, his pupils pinpoints in a sea of brown, and his face had darkness dancing on it.

He wanted to hurt them.

Casey shook his head, “I want a Purple Dragon beat down as much as the next guy, but we have to help the others,” he reasoned.

Donnie looked between the Purple Dragons and Casey.

He groaned.

Casey was right.

For once in the history of the universe, Casey was right.

They needed to do their own research if they wanted to save the others.

He already lost one brother.

He’s not losing anymore.

Lunar and the rest walked through what they assumed to be a lab, there were metal tables, glass tubes, and empty fridges all broken and tipped over.

Most of the tables had scratch marks on them, and others were broken in half.

Kitsune kneeled and looked at one of the metal tables that was broken in two, “Whatever these people had in here, clearly did not like them,” they mentioned with a grimace on their faces as they trailed the broken edge with his finger.

Usagi looked at the shattered glass on the floor and scrunched up his nose, there was some type of purple liquid that was dried up and staining the glass shards and the floor under them, “No kidding,” he responded.

Lunar looked around, the rest were all taking a peek at what the lab had in store, but he still couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching him.

There was a whistle as a dagger flew through the air.

Lunar whipped around, pulling out one of his swords and slashing down the dagger, causing it to hit the floor right before it could hit him.

They now were all on the alter.

“What the–”

Usagi was cut off as three people fell from the ceiling.

It was the black cloth-covered ninja cat, the pink salamander, who was wearing a white, paint-splattered design t-shirt, and blue jean shorts, and the hippo, who, for some reason, looked like a magician, from before.

“Thieves!” Usagi called out, taking out his sword and pointing it at the other group, the cat rolled her eyes and scoffed, “You call us thieves, but look where you are!” She responded, gesturing around, “You’re no better!”

Usagi shrugged, “This place is abandoned, finders keepers,” he smirked, and Kally just face palmed, while Lunar just had a done look on his face.

The cat looked Lunar up and down, her mask only showing her bright green eyes and a hint of white and tan fur, “Well, looky here, isn’t it the ‘busted bitch,’” She mocked the words that Kally almost called Lunar the last time.

Lunar huffed and readied his weapon, pointing the business end of the sword towards the cat.

The cat seemed to be getting frustrated, “What? Do you have nothing to say?” She asked, Lunar just looked up and to his right and nodded his head from side to side, he couldn’t have anything to say.

“Do you think you’re better than us?” The cat growled, getting into an attack stance and putting a hand on the machete she had last time, the others on Lunar side quickly grabbed their weapons, and in response, the others on the cat's side grabbed their weapons out, the salamander with their daggers, and the hippo with a bunch of… Hoops?

“Nobody dares think less of the purple– WINDS–”

The cat was cut off when a giant shadowy hand grabbed her by the throat.

Donnie and Casey were sitting in Donnie’s lab, strolling through a website on Don’s computer as they tried to find any hint or clue as to who this ghost dude was.

“Nope, that’s not it either,” Donnie grumbled, furrowing his brows at the screen, he was sitting in his chair, and Casey was standing next to him, leaning over to look at the website Don had found, it seemed like some sort of ordering website with dumplings as it’s first picture.

“Let me try something else,” Donnie stated as he glanced over at Casey, who nodded, both of them turned back to the screen as Donnie furiously typed.

“There he is!” Casey said, pointing to the screen where an article with an old line drawing of the man whose ghost they’ve fought.

“An ancient sorcerer who goes back to the Shang dynasty– Oh, snape! He’s shangy!” Casey joked, chuckles thrown throughout his sentence, Donnie snorted and rolled his eyes, before continuing to read the article.

“According to the legend, the only thing that can defeat Ho Chan is the mystic dagger,” He read, scrolling past a picture of the ancient dagger itself, an ad popping up on the screen.

He felt a grimace spread across his face. And a large amount of panic boiled in him, not that he was going to let it show any more than he already had. There was nothing to get the others out of his control.

“And what about stopping your bros and Karai?” Casey asked, as though he read Donnie’s mind.

“We can’t.” Donnie snapped, feeling frustration bubble in him, “They’re in some kind of super hypnotic state,” he continued, his voice was quiet, but it held a bite to it as he ranted.

“Nothing can get them out of it!” He finished, raising his voice a bit, frustration and desperation rang clear through it. He was just so… Angry.

He felt so– Useless, he couldn’t do anything . He wasn’t made for plans .

Casey looked at Donnie with a frown, he felt bad for the guy, losing his brother, and then the rest of his family in a matter of weeks must be hard, he’d seen how much the turtles relied on Leo to keep sane.

He looked over at the computer and noticed the ad that popped up. An idea popped into his head and he smirked.

“Nothing?” He asked, nodding towards the screen, Donnie looked over, confused.

The ad was for a deal on pizza.

The cat screamed in shock, kicking her feet and flailing willy as she tried to pull the hand off of her.

Kally was the first to break out of shock, zig-zagging towards where the other was, and grabbing her leg and pulling.

She then reached behind her and pulled out a dagger she kept, and threw it at the base of the hand.

The hand's owner screamed with an animalistic roar, it opened its hand, allowing the other to fall to the floor.

Kally had also dropped the hold she had on the other cat.

She looked down, about to say something like ‘You owe me one’ but paused.

The hand had taken off the other's mask, revealing an ocelot with the biggest green eyes Kally had ever seen.

Her eyes went wide, and the only thing she could get out was a ‘woah.’

The ocelot looked up at her, miffed.

Then, the shadow fell from the ceiling, causing both of them to stumble back to avoid the blood of darkness.

The blob quickly moved away from where it dropped, there was no way for any of them to tell what exactly the thing looked like.

It siped to a wall closer to where Usagi was and pounced in the rabbit's direction.

Usagi quickly moved out of the way with a yelp.

But the creature didn’t stop, even when it hit the wall, it just turned around and set its eyes on a new target.

It was looking straight at Lunar.

The thing pounced, and Lunar tried to move out of the way, but the pain in his knee made itself unpleasantly known.

The monster got on top of him and wiggled and struggled, the claws of the beast dug into his biceps as it pinned his arms to his body.

The creature was barely visible in the darkness, the only thing most of the people in the room could see was the outline of a grotesque body.

But Lunar? He was about to throw up.

The creature was still in a tinted green image, but he could see the body.

Two heads, a fox with big ears, and a deer on one neck, were pressed up against each other in stiff, odd positions, the deer's mouth being broken open, and the fox's eyes being gudged out.

It was on all five legs, there were two arms, one on its neck, and one where it was supposed to be, something that looked like a leg with a hand in the middle of the torso, and two fox legs.

Green, oozy veins bludged from the body of the creature, the torso was covered with a hospital gown that was shredder, revealing metal parts and bones sticking out of the creature's body.

He was going to be seeing that thing in his nightmares.

He felt panic rise through him as the fox head, the one with the working jaw got closer, the deer head’s eyes filled with unmatchable rage.

It reared back its head, and Lunar knew exactly where it was planning to go.

The throat.

He was sent into a panicked frenzy as his body twisted, bones snapping out of place, and melding into one, his head growing longer, and his nails sharpening.

Right as the creature dove for him, the fox's mouth wide open, Lunar used his snake tail to hit it off of him and sent it flying into the wall to the left.

The creature hit the wall with a whimper, before quickly getting up, and jumping onto the metal table, the new, small light around it revealed tan fur and bulging green veins.

Lunar got up as well and quickly turned back into his turtle form, relieved to see that nothing was lost.

He looked over and saw the cat thief giving him a bewildered look.

They all surrounded the creature, nobody knowing what the do.

Suddenly, the creatures leaped.

They all scattered out of the way, but the thing ended up getting on top of Kitsune.

Kitsune grabbed the snapping jaws of the beast, claws dug into him, and blood dripped from the creature onto the fox’s orange fur.

“Dear, fuck! How many heads does this fucker have!” Kitsune screamed Lunar looked back, and they all were stunned, Usagi was closest, followed by the cat thief on Lunar's left.

Lunar held up two fingers.

Usagi looked from the fingers, then to the beast, then did a double take, eyes widening in fear or shock.

“Two!” Usagi yelped back, Kitsune just screamed in response.

Finally, Bronze was able to get a hold of himself, he took in a breath, before crying out in a battle cry and charging at the beast.

Bronze tackled the thing, ripping it off of his friend and throwing it to the other side of the lab, then he turned back to his fox friend.

Kitsune looked at Bronze, shakened, and nodded a silent ‘thanks.’

Bronze nodded back and then turned to where they threw the creature.

“Alright, Kally, Usagi, keep it distracted, Kitsune, attack it from above, I’ll be restraints and Lunar,” Bronze turned to the metal turtle, then jabbed his finger at the thieves, “Keep these three in line,” he stated.

The four who were assigned to do something all turned and charged.

And Lunar grimaced, already seeing five different ways this could go wrong.

The Shell raiser pulled up in front of the fortune cookie factory.

Donnie jumped out of the vehicle and pulled out his bo staff, Casey following close behind him as he looked around.

“Coast is clear,” Donnie analyzed, “Is the manhole cover cannon completely loaded?” He asked, Casey nodded, “Yep,” he answered.

He then pulled out his hookey stick, “You distract them and I’ll go rescue April,” he stated.

Donnie looked at him, eyes narrowed, and he could practically hear the smirk in his voice. Not only was this just another ploy to get April’s attention, but it was also extremely stupid to just rush in like that with no back plan.

Casey was going to end up hurt if he kept doing this.

Donnie blocked the other with his bo staff, and forced Casey to look at him, “No way! I’ll rescue April, you distract them!” He snapped.

Suddenly, there was a loud boom of thunder.

Casey and Donnie both looked up.

“Um, I think we both just distracted them,” Casey mentioned, fear present in his voice as he stared up at where the noise was coming from. He used his glove to shield his eyes from the bright light of lightning.

Above them, Karai, Raph, and Mikey were all hovering far in the sky, New York’s sky was broken up with a bright neon blue streak in the dark stormy clouds.

They floated to the ground and landed with a kneel, and Donnie and Casey held on to the shell raiser, the wind whipping around them with enough force that it almost dragged them.

The three stood and raised their hands above their heads with a clap, and different colored lights formed in each of their hands. Blue for Karai, green for Raph, and white for Mikey.

The wind speeds picked up once they did so.

The wind dragged Casey, who tried to hold on to the metal of the chair of the manhole cover by hooking his hookey stick to it, but ultimately failed, Donnie followed soon after.

Both of them were sent flying through the tornado.

The creature whipped around, screeching wildly.

Usagi and Kally were surrounding the creature, jumping around in a circle around the creature.

But the thing was unnaturally quick, causing Usgai to have to jump above the snapping jaws, only to be batted away when he was still in the air.

Kally wasn’t having much luck either, as the thing's snake-like tail whipped and slammed into her.

Kitsune was next to attack, falling from the ceiling.

The creature simply jumped up and used the mouth on the deer's head and grabbed and threw kitsune, causing Lunar and the thieves to jump out of the way.

Lunar landed near the thieves, and winced, his leg started to pound with pain.

He shook his head and watched as bronze charged from the back, the alligator seemingly being the only one out of the four of the ones who attempted to get to the beast that was able to match the creature’s strength.

The thieve looked at Lunar, “Okay, Quiet, I’m not too fond of dying, so I’m going to ask you , what is the plan?” She snapped out.

Lunar felt panic grow in him and looked between Bronze, the creature, and the thief.

He felt like he needed to do something, he felt like he wasn’t doing what he was supposed to, but… Bronze told him to stay.

He looked at the cat, who was clearly shaken and not trying to show it.

He glanced around the room and saw something interesting.

It was a metal hatch with a grid-like vent under it, Lunar looked above the hatch and read the sign.

‘Incerator.’

Something clicked in his head, he looked towards Bronze, then to Kally and Usagi, who were in front of Lunar, and back on their feet, and then looked at the thieves.

Lunar brought up his hands, then hesitated, he didn’t know the signs for what he wanted to do.

He then quickly went into his bag, fished up his notepad and pencil, scribbled down what he wanted, and then showed it to the thief.

The thief looked at him, then started reading the writing.

The thief smirked.

It was go time.

Donnie and Casey were flying through the air, spinning as the rustless winds kept hold of them.

Casey tried not to think about how far above the ground they were, the spinning was already not helping with keeping his dinner.

The three floated to in the middle of the twister, and Karai made some gestures with her hands before pointing straight at Casey, causing lightning to zap the teen, and send him to the ground below.

He landed on the metal roof of the Shell Raiser and skited across it before he finally got the chance to hang it for dear life.

Meanwhile, Donnie was still spinning in the air, when Mikey through more wind at him, sending him spiraling to the middle of the tornado, where they all hovered around him.

Karai was the first to come at him, But he was luckily able to reach him grab his bo staff, and smack her done as he twisted awkwardly through the sky.

Mikey was up next, Donnie was able to knock away the younger’s hands before ramming at him and smacking with his bo staff.

But when he turned around, Raph was already hot on his tail, and sent a ball of thunder straight into Donnie, knocking him back as pain shot through him, allowing Karai to knock him out of the sky.

Donnie skitted across the ground, his staff clattering to the ground with him.

He got to his knees and looked up, panic filling him as the three hovered ominously above him.

He didn’t want to fight them, especially not his own brothers.

He gulped, but right on time, he heard the screeching of tiers.

He turned around and saw the Shell Rasier, with Casey handling the manhole cannon.

“Oh, yeah!” He shouted as they turned toward where they were, and shot out three pies of pizza.

“Googalla!” With the shout, the pizzas landed right in front of the three.

The smell wafted up towards the three.

“Pizza?” They all asked.

The two turtles twitched, “Connat resist the urge,” Raph and Mikey stated, before diving for the food, leaving a confused-looking Karai just floating there.

Raph picked up one of the pizzas, then Mikey punched him out of the way to take a bite, to which Raph shot a thunderbolt at the other while saying “Keep away from it!”, sending him away from it before picking it up himself.

“It belongs to me!” Mikey argued, sending wind straight at Raph.

Karai watched as the other two fought over food. Her face contorted into a mixture of being impressed and confused.

Before the absurdity of the situation seemed to get to her, and she coiled over with an echoing laughter, that got her wind and a thunder ball thrown at her with a “What’s so funny!” From both of the turtles.

Casey helped Donnie up, and the two watched the scene unfold.

Casey looked at Donnie with a smirk, “I knew that would work!” He stated, Donnie just scoffed, “Boast about it later, let’s rescue April!” He asked.

Both of them took off running towards where they believed the ghost had taken their friend.

Bronze strained himself as he wrestled with the arms of the beast, gritting his teeth as a burning pain flooded his muscles.

they didn’t know how long they could keep this up.

It was supposed to be a simple plan, but he was never really too good at making plans in the first place, they normally were one-way working only.

And normally, that way didn’t happen.

Suddenly, there was a loud crash that was mixed with the sound of shattering glass.

The creature's attention was ripped away from Bronze as it turned around.

“Oi, furry ball!” Usagi shouted, cupping his hands, Kally waved at the monster, “We’re over here!” He stated, waving his arms in the air with a cocky grin.

The creature snorted, and ripped away from Bronze, charging straight at the other two.

Bronze felt their heart beating in their head, pure fear coursed through them as the only thing they could do was step forward.

Suddenly, as the creature leaped at the two, Kitsune hung down from the ceiling and grabbed the two, pulling them up and out of the way with ease.

The monstered wailed, angry that its prey was taken from it.

Bronze looked at the situation, confused, and then he heard a shout of, “Hey!”

Bronze looked behind the creature and saw the cat thief holding open a hatch, she gestured inside of the thing.

Bronze smirked and readied himself, noting that he was also joined by the hippo from the thief's team.

They both charged at the monster, ramming into it and sending it off of its feet, confused.

They shoved the thing into where the hatchet led, it took a bit, but they were able to get it in.

They backed up, and the cat thief, now joined by the salamander, pushed the hatchet shut.

Before Bronze could get a word in, the cat thief yelled, “Hit it!”

Lunar, who was on the opposite side of the thief, turned a valve, causing the incinerator to start up.

As the flames started, screams of annoyance and terror erupted from the incinerator, the creature banged on the hatchet, thrashing around in pain as it was slowly metaled away.

The cry died down into a whimper, then a whine, then nothing.

All of them, including the three in the ceiling who had jumped down to join them, stared at the incinerator.

Kally shook her head with a grimace, “I hope that thing can find peace in death, at least,” she stated.

They all looked at each other, none really knowing at happened now.

The other cat was the first to speak up, “Okay, what the hell was that thing?” She asked, they all just shrugged.

“Don’t know, I think it was here before we came in,” Usagi answered.

They all went back to awkward silence, “Do we fight now?” the salamander asked.

Bronze shrugged, “Depends if you’re picking a fight.”

The cat thief looked between Bronze and the incinerator, “Someone should turn that off, and I think we’re good,” she stated.

Her original plan was to get back at the metal turtle– Snake– Thing? for how he humiliated her, but right now, she was just confused.

She’ll get him next time.

Donnie and Casey crept through the fortune cookie factory, hiding in the shadows as they made their way to the second-floor platform that was in front of the giant statue.

On the platform, there was the ghost, chanting something in gibberish, and then there was April and Urma, both of whom were floating in the air, a blue tint in casing them.

Casey looked over to Donnie, “Why don’t we both just go up there and wack him while his eyes are closed?” He asked, genuinely hoping to do that.

“I… Don’t think that’s a good idea,” Donnie stated, Casey’s face grew puzzled under the mask he wore, the turtle was currently facing away from him, staring at the ghost, “Why?” He asked, frustrated.

“Because I think he’s listening to you,” Donnie’s voice came out as a shakey whimper, his eyes wide with fear as he stared at the ghost who was staring right back at him.

“Whack me? ” Ho-chan asked, offense and anger creeping into his voice, Donnie subconsciously reared back a bit, ” You don’t whack 2,000-year-old master!” He stated.

April, who was once just floating, rag-doll style finally lifted her head when she heard the ghost speaking to someone, she turned to where Donnie and Casey were, her face paling as she did so.

“You beg for mercy, and then you–” “Guys, watch out! Get out of here!” April shouted, fear boiling over her as she lashed out, trying her hardest to get to her friends, “He’s too powerful!”

“I will call my servants to put an end to your physical existence,” Ho Chan talked over April as he looked at his hands, a twisted smile crossing his face, “While I finish with gaining mine,” he finished his sentence with a tone that was mixed with a chuckle and pure glee.

He then brought his hands to the right under his chine, clenching his fist, his two pinkies were in an x in front of his chin, and his thumbs wiggled in and out as he made clicking noises with his mouth, he squeezed his eyes shut as he did so.

There was a whirling sound of power that died down as quickly as it begun.

He opened one of his eyes, “Strange,” he commented, before he opened the other of his eyes and looked over his shoulder a bit, “They do not respond,” his hands dropped to his side, “It’s as if some power greater than my own holds them outside!”

Casey and Donnie looked at each other, both smirking, although you couldn’t see it under Casey’s mask, as their plan had worked out perfectly– Sure, Karai was a bit of a guess, but she was too busy enjoying the show.

Donnie and Casey then turned back to where the ghost was and pulled out their weapons.

“Goongalla!” Casey screamed as he swung his bat out, running to where the ghost was, ready to strike.

He leaped up, and raised his bat high, ready to come down on the dude and…

He fell straight through him.

Ho Chan just chuckled at Casey’s attempt.

He glanced over to where the teenager had landed, “You missed,” the ghost pointed out.

Donnie was now running up to Ho Chan when something collided with him.

He was sent down to the first floor with an ‘Oof,’ as he landed, his body skipping across the floor as he held on tightly to his bo staff.

He groaned as he lifted himself, and looked up to see what had slammed into him, gasping, and face going as pale as a sheet when he saw what had got him.

In front of him stood Karai, her face contorted into a glare, and her whole body flickering with electricity.

She turned her body to the side and planted her feet shoulder-width apart, her hands coming up to an attack stance, blue lightning coursed along her.

Donnie gulped.

It seems the pizza only worked on his brothers after all.

Meanwhile, Ho Chan walked back in front of April.

April couldn’t help but put the pieces together.

When Ho Chan had control over the purple dragons, their eyes glowed blue.

And Karai had that same glowing blue-eyed look to her.

And neither Raph nor Mikey are here.

April’s blood coiled in rage and fear.

This– Manic had just taken control of her brothers, didn’t he?

She gritted her teeth, lashing out at the ghost, trying her hardest to break through and get to him, to do something to him, anything that would make it so the rest of her family would be okay.

Her heart felt shattered beyond words, she had already lost Leo, and she couldn’t lose anyone else.

But Ho Chan smiled forced out his hands with a shout before bringing them back in and leaning forward, his eyes shooting out blue lasers in the process.

The lasers struck April, and she felt herself being forced to arch her back in white, hot pain as she writhed, a ghostly face emerging from her body, and a blue trail following it as it floated over to where the weirdo was.

She felt her energy begin to drain, her breath becoming ragged and hollow, her eyes widening as she felt her life leaving her body.

Ho Chan reached out his hand as the blue substance began to cover his body, turning the originally translucent blue skin into a more fleshy tan, his outfit gaining a navy blue color main, the dragon design on his kimono being a light gold color, his shoulder guards and top of his hat turned red, and the band of his hat was royal gold. All around he was what used to be considered fashionable, his kimono flowed with a certain grace that only years of practicing could make.

He chuckled, reveling in the remembers of when he was once worshipped like a god, his physical body slowly returning to him.

He chuckled as he looked at himself, smiling as he gleefully said, “I think it’s working!”

“Good!”

Ho Chan looked over at the aggressive voice and got a bat straight to the face.

With an ‘ow!’ he stumbled back, grabbing onto his body.

That was when a look of realization dawned across his face.

He looked at himself and smiled.

“Pain!” He cheered, throwing his arms out, and basking in the feeling, “Oh, for the first time in centuries, I feel something !” His voice was far too happy for Casey’s liking.

Casey’s eyes widened in shock at the reaction, before a familiar, protective rage bubbled in him, and he charged at the once ghost, now semi-human.

He lunged, swinging his back as he tried to make some form of contact with the fucker, but Ho Chan simply dodged each one of his attacks.

“Ho Chan is almost human once more!”

Down below, Donnie gasped as the voice rang out through the Purple Dragon’s lair, a mixture of confusion and fear engulfing him.

If Ho Chan turned human… What would happen to his brothers?

His attention was quickly drawn away from the fight above, though, when a flash of blue came charging at him.

He yelped and dodged back, hopping away from the stream of lightning Karai was aiming at the ground, and following him with.

He jumped onto one of the cookie conveyors and tried to steady his breathing.

That was when the shock climbed the metal of the belt.

He gasped and only had a second that he used to jump before the whole converter belt was electrocuted, the mechanical and technological parts freaking out as blue lightning encased it, causing the belt to explode from a short-circuit in a blast of black and blue, forcing Karai to cover her eyes to avoid being blinded by the smoke.

Meanwhile, Casey had chased the old man down the stairs, grinding on the rail of the stairs, he slid down, following the man to the lower level of the lair.

The explosion shook the building, causing Casey to stumble for a moment before regaining his footing.

He then started to look around, frantically trying to look for the one ally he had in this situation.

His heart was pounding so hard that he thought that it might burst out of his chest.

That was when he laid eyes on Donnie, who was perched on top of the railing of the second floor, his eyes a pure white as he smirked at Casey, giving the human a thumbs up.

Casey’s heart sputtered in what he could only think was relief at seeing the turtle alive.

Casey then turned back to where Ho Chan was and continued to charge at the man who dodged left and right.

They went from one conveyor belt, then hopped on the statue, then jumped to the very last one close to the opposite wall that they started on.

Casey felt a smirk cross his face as he figured he had the dude cornered, and he charged.

That was when Ho Chan just leaned back, and spun around on his feet, ending up right behind Casey, who felt his heart drop.

Casey whipped around, but that was only met with quick hands that hit his body, he cried out in pain as each hit landed on a pressure point on his torso, effectively paralyzing him as the hits kept coming.

Was Casey was sent flying back, Ho Chan didn’t follow, instead choosing to have his hand expand out, turning into a tinted blue hand that grew to be able to grab Casey’s entire body.

Casey felt as if his body was crushed, he grunted as the fist with him in it slammed into the wall, feeling his bones squeeze under the pressure.

Meanwhile, Donnie had jumped on to Karai, who was still trying to recover from the explosion, and sent her to the ground, before getting onto the belt right next to Ho Chan and lunging for the waistband the thing had on.

Where the dagger was.

Ho Chan caught him, and before he knew it, he was also being held by a massive hand, pinned to the wall, and struggling to get out of the dude's hold.

The two boys struggled before Ho Chan started speaking again, Karai got up as he did so, her body slumped over, clearly in pain.

“Gaint hands…” Ho Chan’s voice was breathy and marveled, “My contribution to the ancient arts,” he chuckled as he brought the two closer to him, and lifted them into the sky while saying, “Everybody loves giant hands!” Psychotic laughter echoed through the building.

Meanwhile, April and Iruma fell from where they were being held, shouting, “Yes, giant hands!” Followed by laughter was heard by the redhead, who was still awake, unlike her friend.

She got up and looked over, her body ached and writhed with pain as she crawled over to her friend, tears popping up in her eyes as she realized Irma wasn’t getting up.

Pain and fear were the only two things on her mind right now, her heart shook her rib cage, and her ears rang, it felt like she had just been hit by a bus, everything inside of her just felt… Mushy.

She got her friend in her arms, “Irma?” She asked, a little voice in her head pleading for her friend to wake up.

She looked over, and her stomach dropped.

There were the two boys, being held up in the air by the ghost who had used the Purple Dragons to kidnap her, but he wasn’t just a ghost now, he looked more… Physical.

It was clear from the writhing that the two were uncomfortable, to say the least, and were struggling to breathe.

Donnie struggled, holding up the dagger that he had nabbed from the dude’s waist.

Casey’s eyes widened, and his heart sped up as he realized that Donnie– Fucking Donnie had gotten the damn dagger!

“Donnie! Go for it!” Casey pleaded, before he felt the grip on him tighten, he grimaced and tried not to scream in pain as something in him let out a sickening crack .

“I will crush the loud one first!” Ho Chan stated a snare on his face.

Donnie just snarled at the man, feeling some form of anger flood him, and his grip tightened on the dagger.

“Hold on, Casey!” He shouted, feeling his voice shake in rage as he threw the dagger down at the man who had them captive.

That was when the hand around him retracted, and grabbed the dagger before it could hit the dude’s head.

He twirled the dagger in his fingers, “No magic necessary,” he commented.

Donnie fell to the ground, landing in a kneel as he looked up, his eyes wide, and expression hurt, a feeling of helplessness flooding him.

He couldn’t do this– He couldn’t do this, he wasn’t Leo who could make plans, he didn’t have Raph’s strength or Mikey’s willpower, he had machines! This was a ghost!

Ho Chan just continued to toss the spinning dagger up, and catch it, “It’s all in the reflexes,” he stated as he pulsed the shade of blue he was before.

Right as the dagger went up, April jumped through the air and caught it, landing on the ghost’s side.

“What!?” He yelped, shocked and frozen as he looked at the girl.

April charged at him, her face contorted in anger as she plunged the dagger into his heart.

He screamed in pain as she did so.

The stab wound started glowing blue, and the ghost stumbled back.

The blue light engulfed the man, a scream of “No!” Echoed through the air as a despite cry for it to stop.

April stood, her fist shaking in anger, “Too bad your reflexes–” She pointed to the man, “Aren’t as quick as mine,” she spat out, anger lanced in her voice, her head still fuzzy from the toll her body had taken on.

The blue hand that had Casey tightened for a moment, before dropping the kid and retracting back to its owner, causing Casey to fall.

On the outside, blue light poured out of the windows of the building, screams of pain and terror rang out as lightning struck, power desperately trying to work as the source withered away.

Ho Chan was engulfed in a cloud of blue smoke, his screams dying as the smoke swirled and spun around him.

When the smoke cleared, the dagger spun in the air, and a blue rune made of light was in front of it.

When the rune disappeared, the dagger dropped to the floor.

Donnie didn’t waste any more time, he jumped over the conveyor belt that separated him and where the dagger was and snatched it.

He pulled out the sheath to the dagger and began putting it inside.

As he did so, Ho Chan’s desperate cry of, “NO!” Rang through the air once more as his voice echoed and stretched.

Donnie seeth the dagger, and the scream is cut off.

Donnie glared at the dagger for a moment, before both of him and April leaped over the conveyor next to them to get where the other boy was.

Casey got up slowly, clearly hurting, “Whoa… That was Shangy!” Casey stated, Donnie rolled his eyes and suppressed a scoff, what Casey meant, he figured not even Casey might know.

That was when the boy turned and looked at Donnie, his brown eyes sparkling, his face broken into a smile.

Donnie felt himself well up with pride, a warm feeling rising in him.

“Awesome job, Donatello!” Casey shouted, his voice usually loud, but it was mixed in with something else, “High three!” He stated, already raising his hand, Donnie barely had time to get his hand up before Casey’s hand collided with his.

“Ow– Ooh–” Donnie stammered, looking at his beaten hand, and wondering why Casey always had to high three so hard.

April let out a mixture of a huff and laugh as she put her hands on her hips, it was good to see the two getting along, and she allowed herself to smile for what felt like the first time in a while.

“Hey, everybody,” the youngest voice rang through the air, and the three looked over.

Mikey approached them, Raph walked behind him, and Karai quickly joined them, hopping the conveyor and crossing her arms, guarding herself a bit more than usual.

April looked Karai up and down, trying not to sneer at her.

“Sorry we’re late,” Mikey apologized before pointing over his shoulder at Raph, “But somebody was trying to hog all the pizza.”

Raph stepped up next to him, “So who was the big hero– Donnie, Casey?” He asked, looking between the two.

Casey smiled at his friend, “It wasn’t us,” he admitted.

Donnie stepped up, and gestured toward the redhead, “It was all April,” he stated, causing April to smile as pride filled her.

That was when the two stepped next to April, and threw up their arms, “Peace hug!” Donnie shouted, and that was when the two boys wrapped their arms around April and grabbed onto each other.

April was in the middle of this, and she couldn’t help but giggle at his whole mess, she felt as though her bones were being squished.

“Uhh, okay, okay, I’m getting kind of squashed here,” she admitted.

They all stood there, April trapped between the two, and the others watching, but not paying close attention.

Casey and Donnie had a tight hold on each other, a Donnie felt Casey reassuringly squeeze his shoulder and felt his smile brighten.

That was when a groan was heard.

They all looked over to see Irma walking down the stairs, clutching her head as though she was in pain. The turtles dipped out of there, along with Karai.

Donnie had to back away from the hug, and he felt some sort of sadness as he felt the warmth leave.

But he was more upset about the warmth on his shoulders leaving, and not April leaving.

He gave the two humans he knew a kind smile, so many thoughts racing threw his head as he did so. He turned around and took off after his brothers.

He didn’t know what was going on.

He was so confused as to why he was feeling like this.

There was a pain in his heart that appeared, and he winced as it did so.

Leo would know what to do .

The group exited the building and went to the Shell Raiser, feeling as though they had just been hit by the thing.

They all looked exhausted, dragging their feet as they walked.

Karai was the last in the Shell-raiser, and she stepped up onto the entrance, before looking around a bit.

She felt a shiver slide up her back, a mixture of paranoia and grief-struck her.

She felt like she was being watched.

Up above the rooftops, a short figure watched as the giant vanish car that the group he was watching had drove away from the fortune cookie fracture, his ‘brows’ furrowed in thought.

Lunar turned around and saw the rest of his group standing there, the thieves had gone off to who knows where, so it was just him and his friends.

He walked up to them and noticed how tensed they looked.

There was a few moments of silence before one spoke.

“What were you looking at, Lunar?” Usagi was the first to speak, he was always the one who was brave enough to handle Lunar, the snake turtle was cute, he knew that, but he could also see how the others found Lunar a bit… Unsettling at times.

Specifically, times when he just stood there, unblinking, unmoving, just… Analyzing . As though it was second nature to him.

Lunar paused for a moment before he raised his hands, he figured that the others knew enough of the special ‘TSL’ or ‘Turtle sign language’ that they had made up for Lunar. And so he began to sign.

He pointed on finger with his thumb down at the group. Then his hand pointed up, and the finger furthest from his thumb crossed over the finger that was the point. His fist balled. And then. His thumb and other finger went out, leaving the middle one down.

‘G R A Y’

The group stiffened around him, and a collective breath was sucked in.

Usagi’s eyes narrowed, and his claws dug into his own fur on his biceps.

The others had only heard of this ‘Gray’ person in Lunar’s memories once, the time when he was running like a madman from where they met the thieves.

But Usagi was a bit more familiar with the thing.

Lunar often times shook when he was asleep, nightmares that the poor turtle couldn’t even scream from when he woke up, but thankfully, he was able to forget them quickly.

But there were times when Lunar didn’t forget.

There were a few moments when Usagi watched, helpless as Lunar pounded his head, seeming like he was trying to forget.

Usagi wanted to help, his heart pained and ached for the turtle, but whenever he tried to give Lunar a notepad to write down what he needed, Lunar only wrote one thing:

‘GRAY’

That same word is over.

And over.

And over again.

If he could even write at all, some nights, he would have to sit there was watch as Lunar fully broke down, and even if he was able to write, it always seemed as though Lunar wanted Usagi to do something.

But whenever Usagi didn’t understand what he wanted, Lunar just broke down further.

There were other nights, however, when Lunar would shoot up in the middle of the night, and stare at Usagi, wide-eyed and confused, it was as though he didn’t recognize him.

And then, after everything goes down, Lunar would forget what would happen once more.

But it seemed more like a defense mechanism than anything.

So, yeah, Usagi the feeling of coiling disgust and rage that was writhing inside of him was not unfamiliar when he was hearing the word.

“What do you want to do?” Usagi spat out, Lunar looked at the rabbit, feeling his heart flutter a bit, Usagi, apparently, knew better than anyone how he felt about the entity he had dubbed ‘Gray,’ because, apparently, he keeps having nightmares about them.

Lunar tried to rack his brain around the situation, they had just come out of the building they were in with the thieves and had gone there.

Lunar couldn’t say for sure that the girl he had just seen– The one with the black and yellow hair, was Gray.

But she looked so… Familiar. There was the same sense of knowing that he felt with the three men.

He knew those men once.

He must’ve known that girl once, too.

But… If he knew the girl, then that means that she–

He shivered, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment to think, only to see images of a gray blur coming toward him.

His eyes shot open, and he looked around, his breathing quickening, even as he tried to slow it.

They all were looking at him now.

Their gazes were concerned.

He didn’t like that.

He hated that.

He didn’t want to appear weak.

He knew better than to be weak.

Lunar shook his head, he reached into his bag and pulled out his notepad, before writing something down, and showing it to the group who leaned in closely to see what it said.

“We wait until we know more.”

The words were jitter from his shaking hand, but it got his point across.

Usagi nodded before speaking up once more, “Alright, then I say we had back and get some rest– That includes you, Lunar,” he stated, eyeing the turtle's leg.

Lunar grimaced, his leg felt like it was about to fall off, and he was about to collapse.

He watched as the others began getting ready to make their way to the portal they entered before he finally decided to join in.

He heard the giant can that the Gray had gone in to drive away, the revving of the engine fading in the distance.

As it faded, Lunar felt some sort of pain in his chest.

He felt like he was abandoning something.

Something important.

But… He couldn’t place his finger on what.

His friends were all right here.

What more could there be?

As the sound of the giant van finally ceased, Lunar knew he was walking away from another chance to get back his past.

But he will deal with that later.

He will deal with the Gray later.

He will deal with the pain of remembering what to him later.

He will deal with everything later.

…

Right?

Chapter Text

The man in gray metal armor sat atop his throne, his breath steady as he began to concentrate.

It had been some time since his plan. Since he had stripped Hamato Yoshi of his eldest child.

The thought brought a grin onto the Shredder’s face, he closed his eyes and thought back on his life.

Memories of Karai flashed before him when she first took out a group of soldiers when she first earned her sword.

And when she announced that she wasn’t his daughter.

He had raised her for his entire life. Cared for her. Trained her. She was his daughter. She had his outlook, and his morals ingrained into her.

That was how he knew she would return.

That was how he knew she would come back to fight him.

Memories of that day swam across his mind.

The turtle he had once fought, was thrown down into the mutagene by him. And was turned into a predator of his making.

Finally. He had done it.

He had taken away one of the only things Yoshi held dear to him.

He had taken his son, just as Yoshi had taken his daughter.

It was fitting for the pride of the family to become the father's biggest downfall.

“Master Shredder,” Tigerclaw’s voice echoed through the room, and Saki opened his eyes and looked down at the giant cat.

The tiger bowed before him, and he looked up, “The hour grows late, have you made your decision?” He asked, there was bitterness in his voice as well as his gaze. The Shredder knew it was there, and a form of irritation rose in him.

Shredder hummed in acknowledgment, They are dangerous allies,” he admitted, “But they had provided us with much technology, asking little in return.”

Tigerclaw’s eyes glinted in what the Shredder presumed to be frustration, “They will betray you. You know this. They care nothing for the human race,” he argued but kept his voice respectful.

The Shredder only narrowed his eyes.

“Nor do I,” he stated, leaning forward as he spoke, the cat could feel the frustration and anger radiating off of him, a sneer was etched into the Shredder’s face.

“Leave, Tigerclaw,” Shredder ordered. He wanted to be left alone. He wanted to plan his next move.

That was when he watched as the mutant cat got up and left.

When he exited the room, a Krang head on a metal spare lifted, a holographic purple beam appearing from its eyes.

“Kraang Prime,” the Shredder grated, in front of him there was a holographic of a TV image, Kraang Prime’s giant, brain face taking up the entirety of it.

“Once called Shredder,” the blob responded, “Kraang must have your decision,” it requested.

“If I help you, will you uphold your end of the bargain?” The Shredder asked. “Kraang will deliver the ones called Splinter and the turtles,” the blob agreed.

Shredder narrowed his eyes, “And once I find Karai, you will help me bring her back?” He asked, he knew the Kraang experience in brainwashing people.

And if it comes to that, he will not hesitate to do what is best for his daughter.

“Kraang agrees to this,” the blob agreed once more, but it was clearly forced, as though it was getting tired of the constant request. Shredder huffed, “And as for the mutated turtle, the snake, you will return it to me.”

The Krang remained silent for a moment, “Krang will be sure to do as asked,” it stated, “But in return, Shredder must then help Kraang conquer the city known as New York City.”

“And then, the world!”

Splinter was currently in the lotus pose in front of the giant tree in the dodge. He was training to quell his mind from the intruding thoughts that penetrated it.

It had been weeks since it happened.

His other sons were searching nonstop.

His daughter was beating herself up about it.

April was not doing much better.

And from the sounds of it, Casey has been more reckless than normal.

And he can still remember the day clearly.

He could remember all of it clearly.

He can remember the first time his son ventured out into the sewers alone, searching for supplies for all of them when he was sick.

He can remember the first time he had given Leonardo a real sword. The pride on his son’s face made him tear up.

And he can remember the scream.

He can remember the strangled sounds of pain that erupted from his baby blue’s throat.

He can remember the thrashing that caused the mutagen to splash.

He can remember how the Shredder was coated in a thick red substance.

He can remember how the mutagene caused his son's body to shift and break, before reforming him into something he was not.

He can remember how his child looked when he first held him.

He can remember how his child looked when he last held him.

The gash in his son’s shoulder and neck was burned into his eyes.

The ripped organs reveal themselves.

He can remember how his child struggled to form sounds.

He can remember the fear in his eyes.

Splinter was never the best parent.

He will admit it.

He was absent at best during the days of his sons’ childhood when they had found a sustainable place to live, but it was still early on.

He knows Leonardo had picked up a lot of his slack.

It was actually what got him out of his episode.

Seeing his baby blue in the middle of a room, sobbing but still trying to comfort a crying Donatello as red blood poured from the younger boy's mouth.

He can see the image of Leonardo’s gaze flickering to him.

He can remember the pain he felt when Leonardo only pulled Donatello closer, clearly not trusting Splinter to take care of his brother.

And Splinter couldn’t blame him.

Not when he ignored Michelangelo’s calls of hunger. Not when he ignored Donatello’s complaints of boredom. Not when he ignored Rapheal’s cries of fear when there was a bug infestation.

Not when he ignored Leonardo’s begs for him to just come out of his room.

He never wanted to see that image again.

He wanted his children to be kids.

But he never learned his lesson, did he?

He forced so much on Leonardo. He was always afraid of a day when he might break the boy. A day where he might shatter his son.

There was a secret that Splinter would take to the grave.

Despite his lectures on Rapheal’s anger, Michelangelo’s impulsiveness, and Donatello’s genius.

He saw Saki the most in Leonardo.

Saki was quiet as a kid. Always wanting to please. Always wanting to make their father proud. Always wanted to protect his brother.

Until, one day, he snapped.

Saki broke and it gave way to something that was no longer human.

Splinter had always feared that he would be the reason his son would break.

And in a way, he was.

But Leonardo hadn’t broken.

No.

Leonardo held strong.

His son held his morals to his chest. His son followed his teachings of being brave. His son fought for what he believed was right.

Splinter saw it in Leonardo’s eyes.

Splinter knew that if Leonardo had moved out of the way of Shredder’s strike, it would hit the chain.

Splinter knew that the chain wouldn’t hold against the Shredder’s strike.

And Splinter knew that his son knew that the chain wouldn’t hold.

If his son had dodged, he would be safe. But at the cost of his daughter.

He knew Leonardo knew that.

And he knew Leonardo was afraid.

He knew his son was terrified.

He knew his child needed protection.

But his child– His baby, held strong.

He was always so strong .

Leonardo didn’t break.

He took the hit.

He did as Splinter taught him.

And it cost him.

It costed him.

Splintercostrying now, wet streaks ran down his fur as he tried to gain composer.

Leonardo. His child.

His brave, caring, selfless, child .

His heart hurt so much.

He wished Leonardo didn’t have to be brave.

He wished Leonardo didn’t have to care as much as he had to.

He wished Leonardo could’ve been a child.

He wished Leonardo was selfish.

He should’ve never told Karai so much. Maybe, if he had only waited, they could all be here.

His daughter wouldn’t be in pain. His sons wouldn’t be lashing out at each other in agony.

Leonardo could’ve been a child.

Outside in New York City, it was cold. Freezing .

Winter had come, and snow fell softly from the sky, landing on the ground, and spotting the concrete flooring of New York.

“It’s just that… Why can’t you introduce me to your secret friends April? I don’t get it,” Iruma asked.

April looked over at her friend, she felt exhausted. And colored. She was currently wearing a black hoodie, jean shorts with leggings under them, and a thick green jacket. Of course, she also had her t-shirt under the hoodie, so she was layered up.

Irma had been extremely pushy about making her and Casey’s secret friends these days, and she didn’t have the energy to lie to her.

“One of these days, Irma, maybe,” she responded, her tone must’ve given away her absent-mindedness, as Irma looked at her like she was a zombie.

Her mind was elsewhere at the moment, okay?

“They’re really good, um… People,” April tacked on, forcing a smile to appear on her face as she stumbled through her words, trying to make herself seem less dead to the world.

She was in pain.

“Anyway, what I wanna know is, how can you go out in this weather without a coat?” She asked, trying her hardest to deflect this situation as she looked her friend up and down.

Irma, the purple bobbed air girl in glasses, wore her usual black tanktop, and black and blue checkered skirt with brown boats. She also had on some accessors that April could practically tell you exactly what they looked like without even looking at the girl.

Irma never changed up her outfit, granted, she was one to talk, but at least she put on a coat for all that’s worth.

She bet Leo is cooled. Alone. Scared.

Her thoughts were bitter. She couldn’t help but be bitter. It was the only thing she felt today.

“Eh,” Irma waved off her question, “I hardly ever notice the cold,” her friend explained, April shrugged to herself, she was willing to leave it there.

“But seriously, if we’re friends,” Here she goes. Again. “Friends should introduce friends to friends and–” Irma gestured with her hands before she cut herself off with a gasp.

Behind her, footbots landed.

Irma whirled around and faced the bots, both of the girls backed toward the house behind them more appeared.

April felt her heart hammer in her chest, “Footbots!” She shouted as she looked around, a mixture of fear and rage engulfed her.

She wanted to scream.

“These aren’t the types of friends I meant!” Irma shouted, April looked over at her human best friend and saw how fear traced her face.

At first, April was confused. These were just some footbots, nothing she couldn’t get away from.

That was when it struck her. These were footbots . Robotic ninjas. Those weren’t normal to humans.

She didn’t even think she could call herself human anymore.

Irma was new to this. She was new and she was scared, it showed clearly on her face.

April’s heart jumped into her throat.

She remembers a thing when she was afraid.

She wonders if that was how Leo was feeling right now.

Was her brother afraid? Was he hiding somewhere? Hoping for any of them to rescue him?

Or had he gone mad? Like her father? Had he lost his mind to the mutagen?

None of that matters right now.

She had to get Irma out of there.

She pushed her friend gently, trying to rush her, but not harm her, “Move, Irma! Run!” She ordered both of them to take off running.

To footbots were quick to chase after them.

April looked behind her at the sounds of machines approaching, and briefly wondered if they were going to try to kidnap her or Irma, maybe both? She knew she was once needed for the invasion plan.

But that spinning wheel of dread needed to be ignored right now, they needed to run. They needed help.

April pulled out her phone and started dialing Donnie’s number.

That was when a ninja star was flung into her phone, destroying it.

“No!” She screamed, anger mixing with the fear in her.

“Who are these freaks, April?” Irma’s calm voice now sounded like a terrified whine as she asked the question, it hurt April to hear, “Doesn’t matter! Run!” She shouted back.

She didn’t want Irma to get wrapped up in her mess. She already forced Casey into her life. She didn’t need to burden Irma with this.

Her legs and lungs burned, but fear kept her going.

On a rooftop, Raph scanned the surrounding area, a telescope to his left eye.

He was faintly aware that he was biting his lip, a tactic he was using to try to keep his lip warm from the cold.

It was definitely not because he was nervous. Or felt a pit in his stomach that kept growing each time he scanned the rooftops, and saw nothing.

No hint of black or blue. No snake tail.

Nothing.

“Where are you?” Raph whispered, it was the only thing he could do, his chest was heavy with a pressure that had never been lifted, and his throat tightened painfully around his words, making his voice crack.

He lowered the telescope and looked around. There was still no sign of him.

“You gotta be out there somewhere,” Raph stated, closing his eyes and taking a breath, he could feel his heart breaking by the moment, the whirlwind of emotions from before had cooled down for now, and it only left sadness.

His words were a desperate plead.

He had to be alive. He had to be out there. Raph just needed to find him. Raph just needed to find–

His breath hitched and the stabbing pain in his heart returned.

It had been a few more days. And now he couldn’t even think of his name without breaking down sobbing. He couldn’t even think of his own brother's fucking name.

Anger began to swell, he hated this. He hated the universe for taking his brother. He hated Karai for putting them in this mess. He hated how upset he was. He hated that he was angry.

He heard what sounded like clicks of a photo being taken going off, and he opened his eyes and looked over to where the sound was coming from.

When he looked down into the alley, his blood began to boil.

There was the whirlwind again.

He jumped down in front of Casey, who was currently taking pictures of the wall.

Raph stood his fist clenched and his face contorted in a glare, “Casey!” He shouted, startling the boy a bit.

“We’re supposed to be looking!” Raph hated how he couldn’t say his brother’s name, but the sickness and guilt he felt only fed the anger that was swarming him.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing, man!” He screamed, stomping his foot, and gesturing at the wall.

He wanted to beat Casey into the ground. He felt his chest grow painfully tight, and his breathing became heavy, and whimpering, his head spun, and he tried to figure out where the hell Casey got the audacity to joke around while they were supposed to be looking for L–

… Agh!

His brother.

“Hey, I’m just taking a break, peeping at some awesome art,” Casey responded dismissively, he turned away from Raph and ran up to the graffiti, “Check it! That is so metal!” He stated, waving his arms around, but he kept his back to Raph.

This only angered Raph more, he felt his heart thumping in his chest, and the area seemed to spin slightly.

“Yeah, great,” Raph responded, sarcasm seeping through his voice, “It’s not like we have a missing brother to fucking look for, right? We can just goof around while he is god knows where bleeding out while you don’t even care!” He shouted, pointing at Casey who was still keeping his back to Raph.

Casey knew Raph was angry. He knew Raph was hurting.

But no part of him had the energy to care.

He didn’t have the energy to care about… Anything, anymore, really.

He had spent his first few nights without sleeping, dwelling over the guilt he felt over not being there when the whole thing happened.

He repaid how the whole event would have turned out if he had been there, how none of them would have had to watch what happened.

He spent so long going over what-ifs and maybes that he had a long sense of accepting the situation.

And he wanted everything to go back to normal.

He wanted to go back to goofing around, messing with Donnie, talking with April, and laughing with Raph as they both skipped training and ended up angering–

He wanted everything to back to normal. Because everything was fine now. Everything will be fine.

The great Casey Jones never fails, no matter what they all always make it out fine, a little bruised, but fine.

Now won’t be any different.

Everything is fine.

Raph saw how the other wasn’t turning to look at him, and he almost screamed in anger.

But that won’t help anything. They needed to get back to searching.

“Come on, Casey, let’s move,” Raph ordered, he then turned around and started making his way back to where he was before.

“Hold up, Raph,” He heard Casey ask, he stopped and looked over his shoulder, the dork running after him.

“Um. Got a question for ya,” the hockey player said, his voice wavering as he slowly approached Raph after he rubbed the back of his head.

“Some, um, April ever talk about like–” Casey gestured a bit, “Ever?”

Raph was looking over his shoulder at Casey, his eyes narrowed, “It doesn’t matter,” He responded, his voice harsh, he felt a mixture of annoyance that Casey was still trying to get with April, and anger that Casey was using time that they should be looking for L– Hmm – His brother, to figure out whether he has a chance with her.

He turned to look Casey head-on, and he snarled at the taller one, “You know how Donnie feels about her,” he stated, and he watched as the player’s face faltered for a moment, looking genuinely hurt by what Raph just said, but to the turtle’s confusion.

It wasn’t as though Donnie was exactly subtly with his feelings.

So Casey couldn’t understand why it felt like a stab in the gut when Raph said that. He felt like he was crushed all over a gain. Like the first time April kissed Donnie in front of him, but it was… Worse.

He felt his face grow hot from embarrassment, and he huffed, clenching his hands over and over again. He guessed it just hurt to not have his buddy have his back. But it made sense, Donnie was his brother, and Raph always stuck by his brothers.

“Ah, yeah, yeah, it’s cool, it’s cool,” Casey responded, feeling his chest grow tight, and teeth grit, he always got like this whenever he thought of Donnie with April. But it’d been getting worse over the past few– Days? Weeks? He’d really started noticing it ever since they fought that ghost.

“When you got that man/woman thing going on in a team, it just screws everything up,” Casey said the thing he had been repeating in his head ever since the feelings started getting worse out loud– He thinks things actually started picking up when he saw April kiss Donnie, back when they got her dad back to normal.

He had tripped Donnie then, and it was the most team thing he could think to do with the turtle, it felt as though his whole world shattered back then, and he wanted to take it out on someone, preferably the person who had made the feelings appear by getting kiss by the girl he had been into.

But when he tripped Donnie, he felt an instant swirl of regret. It was as though his mind didn’t want to do that.

His brain was weird, he’ll give it that.

“I’m not that into her, anyway,” Casey got out, he then walked past Raph and kept his back to the turtle.

Everything was going to be fine. Everything was fine. He and Donnie were already back to this whole rivalry thing, and it gave Casey an excuse to annoy the genius. See? Everything was fine, and he was going to be back to normal in no time.

Raph watched as Casey left, and then turned to the graffiti on the wall.

It was an image of an orange triangle thing, wearing a hockey mask, and holding a hockey stick.

Sitting down in front of the thing, though, was a girl with dark skin, reddish-brown hair, and brown eyes.

She was wearing blue jeans and brown, long bracelets on her wrist.

She also had on a… Purple headband? And a purple shirt with the number ‘5’ on it, it looked exactly like April’s shirt, just… Purple.

“Right…” Raph responded, analyzing the image. He was 100 percent sure that the image was meant to be April, and he was guessing the change of the colors was meant to confuse him into thinking it wasn’t.

Whatever it was, Raph could’ve sworn he’d seen that specific shade of purple, if only a bit darker, somewhere.

He shrugged it off and turned around to follow Casey, the events already slipping from his mind as he focused on finding his brother.

They were now in the lab, Donnie was working on his computer at his desk, Mikey was shoving Pizza down his throat, and Karai was pacing the width of the room back and forth, from the giant frozen thing in a jar with guts to the door.

They all were stressed, ever since they went to Dimension X, the Krang invasion had been on everyone’s mind.

And that trip was a train let in itself– No one could truly take up the leader mantel, Raph and Donnie kept getting into fights, Leatherhead was just focusing on getting out, and no one trusted Karai to lead.

That left Mikey– Or savage Mikey, to lead, which worked out in dimension X, but even Karai could tell that the others would never– Not in a million years, let Mikey lead the team.

So it’s safe to say that tensions were rising by the second.

“Ah!” Donnie groaned, “I’m so worried I can’t even eat,” he complained, tossing the slice of the pizza he had to the side.

Mikey grabbed the thrown pizza, “Me too,” he said with a pizza in each hand, and took some bites out of the one he already had, “Totally.”

Mikey could see the irony in what he was saying. But he was stressed. Eating just helped with that.

“You have a right to be concerned,” Splinter’s voice echoed through the lab, and everyone turned to look at him.

Donnie wore an expression of shock on his face, he could honestly say he wasn’t expecting Sensei to come out of his room for a long time.

Sensei walked up to them, and Karai joined them, “The Krang invasion is imminent,” the rat said, “What plans have you devised to stop it?” He asked.

Karai looked her father up and down. Guilt roared in her stomach. She could tell that Splinter is still not fully recovered from what happened to Leo– None of them are.

“I give you my latest invention,” They turned to Donnie, who was the one speaking, the purple turtle pulled out a board with a paper that showed a turtle robot, “The turtle mech!”

“It’s fully armed with rockets, flame throwers, and an electro harpoon–” Donnie gestured as he explained, “Guaranteed to stop a massive Krang invasion army! Or your money back.”

The three others looked at the blueprint, Splinter looked unphased, Karai held some skepticism in her glance, and Mikey looked at the plan in awe.

“Giant robots are Awesome!” Mikey cheered, “I vote turtle mech!”

Karai huffed, “But that thing’s not even ready,” she responded, feeling uneasiness grow in her. She had been thinking it over for the past few days.

The best thing for them to do was leave the city. She knows the Krang. She knows they won’t come unless they know exactly where the turtles are.

“I mean– What are you going to do if that thing just crashes in the middle of a fight? It’ll destroy everything around,” she reasoned, she felt as though the bot would only cause more harm than good.

She stiffened from the way Donnie glared at her, he crossed his arms, “It’s ready,” he snapped back.

She grimaced, even though Donnie had been willing to work with her in finding Leo, and was willing to save her when she was possessed by the ghost, the purple turtle had most likely been the one with the clearest disdain for her.

Mikey shrank up around her but was still friendly.

Raph was loud, and temperamental as always, he always tried to pick a fight with her, and was quick to remind her that they needed to find Leo after the ‘stunt she pulled.’

But Donnie was short with her. Rude. Angry. She could see the pure rage in the turtle’s eyes whenever he looked at her and didn’t think she could see him.

It’s safe to say the two haven’t been getting along.

“There’s gotta be another way,” Karai stated, Donnie rolled his eyes at her words, she was starting to get fed up, so she just decided to get out with it, “We need to establish a second base outside the city.”

She might as well have just slapped April with how Donnie’s face fell.

“ Excuse me?” Donnie asked, his voice tight.

Karai didn’t respond to the question, she only narrowed her eyes at him.

Donnie scoffed, “There is no time for that, Karai, the Turtle Mech is solid!” He stated, “Now that I’m Leader, we–”

“You’re not the leader Donnie! Leo is!”

Donnie’s eyes widened at Karai’s words, before his face contorted into a sneer, “No, Leo was the leader, and he’s not here anymore, thanks to you,” he shot back.

He watched as Karai stumbled as though he had physically attacked her, her mouth opening and closing, but no words were coming out.

Anger swirled inside of him, and disgust filled him.

He was disgusted at Karai for daring to talk about Leo to him when she knows damn well that she was the reason his older brother isn’t here anymore. She’s the reason his family is falling apart.

He was disgusted with himself for choosing to just replace Leo like this. He wanted to tear off his skin to remove the dirt that he had gained. He hated that he had brought Leo’s–

…

Leo can’t be dead.

And Karai is over here trying to get them to leave.

Karai is trying to get them to just move on.

She is trying to take away the only chance he has at seeing Leo again.

And Donnie won’t stand for it.

He won’t leave this city.

He refuses to leave this city.

He will use the Turtle Mech to tear New York up so quickly that the Krang will be in shock before he leaves this god-forsaken city without his brother.

“Enough!”

The loud voice snapped Donnie out of his thoughts, he looked over at Sensei, who was now guarding Karai.

Bitterness festored in him.

Even Sensei has replaced his gold child already.

“Your egos fight one another when we should be preparing to fight the Krang,” his father stated.

He knew his father was talking. But Donnie just couldn’t make sense of the words.

The only thing that mattered was the feeling of betrayal that seeped through him.

He wanted to scream at his father. He wanted to throw everything– All his experiments, his data, he wanted to throw it all to the ground.

It was as worthless as he was.

He should’ve seen this coming.

Splinter has always wanted his old family back. Now he has his daughter back.

It should come as no surprise to Donnie that Sensei would use the first opportunity he got to coddle his true oldest child.

That thought only made Donnie angrier.

Raph has been so focused on fighting Donnie about being the leader, but Donnie knows his brother is not doing well with Leo’s absence.

Mikey has been the same.

April has been a zombie, and ignoring all of them.

Casey doesn’t seem to care. (Which hurt more than April’s general uninterest in anything.)

And their father– Leo’s father, has already chosen Karai over everything else.

Sensei spent years of their childhood in grief due to his wife dying and only needed a few weeks to get over Leo.

Everyone has moved on from Leo already, Donnie just knows it.

And he can see how Karai is trying to fill a role.

He won’t let her.

He refuses to let her fill the role that has been left empty– He refuses to let her into the spot of the family that has been stripped from someone else– Someone she caused the spot to be stripped from.

That spot is Leo’s spot, and he’ll be damned if he lets her take it.

April and Irma ran through the streets of New York, foot soldiers hot on their tails.

“Faster, Irma!” April shouted, “Move those little legs!” “I’m moving! I’m moving!” The other yelped back, fear clear in her tone.

The foot soldiers had all of their weapons out, at least that was what April had gathered from the last time that she looked back at the group, and their intent was clear.

They wanted to kill them both.

They came to a corner, and April put a hand on Irma’s shoulder, causing her to stop, “This way!” April shouted as she brought Irma down the street.

They came to the end of the street.

And there was a building in front of them.

“A dead end!” Irma exclaimed, panting as she did so, April felt her heart pound as she tried desperately to think of a way out of this situation.

“It’s the end and we’re dead,” She heard Irma say, the other’s voice clearly heartbroken, frightened for her life.

April felt a twisting feeling of guilt well up inside of her.

April looked over to her side and noticed a dumpster.

She smirked. “Not yet,” she stated, a plan forming.

It only took a few moments until the foot bots had rounded the same corner the two girls had, and came across the same dead end.

They paused for a moment, then looked around, their robotic eyes landing on a dumpster.

They opened the dumpster and peered inside, the thing had trash bags in it, and it appeared to have nothing else.

The three that had opened the thing took out their swords and stabbed the bags repeatedly.

Meanwhile, April and Irma peeked their head over the trash cans that they were hiding behind, April silently thanked her gut before both she and Irma snuck away from the scene.

They went back behind the corner they rounded and stuck to the wall, watching as the bots continued to stab the trash bags.

That was when April spotted a manhole cover.

She wanted to sneak into the sewers and go, leave the foot bots to destroy the trash bags.

But she couldn’t leave Irma here.

She thought for a moment. She surely couldn’t bring Irma to the lair, right? How could Irma be trusted by the turtles?

It would be selfish of April to get another one of her friends wrapped up in her life.

… But… Irma was already wrapped up in her life.

She had to deal with April and Casey ditching her, she had to deal with the rat king, and April was willing to bet she had to deal with a lot more than what April could remember right now.

It would be selfish of April to leave Irma here.

And Irma withstood all of that without breaking, so she would clearly make a good addition to the team.

… So…

She grabbed Irma’s arm, “Quick! Down here,” she whispered her order as she dragged Irma over to the manhole cover.

She grunted as she lifted the heavy cover, lifting the things that had yet to get easier.

Irma looked into the sewers, and April could see the concern on her face.

“You’re not serious,” Irma stated, April could hear the pleading in the girl’s voice, but still, the redhead started climbing down the ladder, and into the sewers below.

“Oh, you are serious,” Irma corrected her previous statement as she watched April go down the ladder.

But she still followed her friend, as she didn’t want to be left behind with those creeps from before for long.

As she went down the ladder, she groaned, “Ugh, the smell is making my sinuses melt,” she complained.

She went down the ladder, not bothering to recover the hole.

Raph was on the metal-fenced balcony of a building, he continued to look through his telescope, scanning the rooftops and streets below for any sign of his brother.

He was starting to lose hope, he wanted desperately to find his older brother, but there was a part of him in which every rattling dumpster that ended up being at, black movement that ended up being a rat, and every movement in the streets that ended up being some homeless person, just wanted to give up.

He didn’t want to get his hopes up anymore, just to be crushed by the increasingly likely idea that his brother was dead.

That was when he caught something as he was scanning across the roofs, he quickly doubled back to see it.

It was something dark, black, and long, it moved in a way that only a long tube could move, its top looked like it had a hint of purple to it, and its long, sleek black body was stripped with blue.

His stomach dropped.

Leo.

He ignored the stinging in his eyes, and he gasped, trying to get air past the lump in his throat, Casey was saying something, but Raph couldn’t be bothered to make it out.

That was Leo. That was his brother. There was no red. There was no blood. His brother is alive.

He’s alive.

“Casey!” He called down, his voice breaking a bit, “I see him! Le– o!”

He watched as Casey looked up at him, the boy had a goofy, non-caring smile on his face at first, but when he spoke his brother’s name, the smile quickly disappeared with a wide-eyed expression.

“He’s slithering across the street–”

There was the sound of sirens that ended up cutting Raph off.

The two turned to the noise and saw a police car pull into the alleyway where they were located.

Two officers stepped out of the car, they looked weirdly similar to each other, other than hair and skin color, that is.

Casey smiled at the two, nervousness welling inside of him.

He needed to go, he needed to help Raph.

Raph had found Leo. And he needed to help his friend get his other friend.

But he didn’t want to run from the cops.

“Great,” Casey muttered, not wanting to deal with this.

“Uh, can I help you, officers?” He asked, trying to sound as polite and nonthreatening as possible.

The police approached him, “You’re loitering, kid. You know what that means?” One asked, his walk was stiff, but Casey just figured that he was just trying to be formal or something.

“Loitering? Seriously?” Casey asked with a chuckle, he suppressed an eye roll, being sassy was not about to get him out of this situation, and he needed to get out of this situation.

“Don’t you got real criminals to bust?” He asked, trying to direct the cops’ attention to something other than him. “Or a donut shop to go to?”

“We’ll figure out a charge later, Casey Jones,” the other one of the Officers stated.

Casey felt his stomach dropped, he narrowed his eyes at the officers.

That… Wasn’t right. He’s had his fair share of run-ins with cops, and they don’t just arrest you and then figure out what you did– Casey could understand if someone reported him, but that would mean they would at least give him that information, right?

Alright, he wasn’t too well-versed in being arrested, but there was something else… Off about this.

“How do you know my name?” He asked. Sure, he’s seen some cops, but not enough that he was on some list or something.

That was when the two men walked up and grabbed him, the grip was unnaturally tight for a human.

Casey struggled in their hold, “Hey, got off of me!” He shouted, panic spiking in him, normally, he wouldn’t do this with cops, but it only made things worse.

But he had his… Suspicions about these ones.

The cops started to pull him toward the car, “I got rights! Let me go!” Casey shouted, panicking a bit as he tried to stop himself from being dragged.

Something wasn’t right about this.

Lunar zipped through the rooftops, wind whipping against his scales as he slithered across the ground.

He was currently in his snake form, his katanas stripped as an X to his back, which was still a shell, just a bender shell.

He used his hands to semi-lunch himself as he slithered. He was hiding from sight, and making his way back to where the group was.

It wasn’t long before he spotted the group once more, and came to a stop beside Usagi, who had his phone out.

Usagi clicked a button on his phone before looking up at Lunar, smiling as he did so.

“Not bad speed there, Aoi!” Usagi chirped, Lunar nodded, then closed his eyes before transforming back into his turtle form, ending up in a perched position as the transformation completed.

They were testing out Lunar’s snake form as they know close to nothing about it, the first test that Bronze wanted them to do was a speed test, this was both so that Lunar could get a handle on the controls of the snake form, and so that they could see if the broken leg affected anything.

Which– It didn’t! Not really…

There was still a pain in the right side of Lunar’s tail, where the broken leg was, but nothing else.

The pain was getting to be a bit much, causing him to try to keep down a wince at any form of movement.

But still, everything considered, it was a success!

“Good job, you two!” Lunar got up and looked over at the voice, waving to Bronze as he put back on the mask that covered his mouth, the taller smiled at him.

“If you’re still up for it, Lunar, Kitsune, and Kally suggested another patrol here in New York, apparently there’s something strange going on, and they suggested that it might be better if we checked it out sooner rather than later,” they stated.

Usagi smiled at his friend, “Sounds good to me! Lunar?” The snowy rabbit looked over at the turtle.

Lunar thought for a moment, his leg was bad, and getting worse, but he could deal with it for now.

But… He also couldn’t help but feel as though he was being watched for a moment there.

After a bit, he nodded, deciding that if something was watching him, it would be best to get away as soon as possible.

As they all were walking away, Lunar heard what sounded like sirens in the distance, and briefly wondered what that was about.

Karai was walking out of the lab, and Donnie was following her.

“Karai, the Turtle Mech is our only answer!” The purple turtle shouted out after her, and she internally groaned.

“Be reasonable!” That was what made her finally turn around.

“I am being reasonable! We need a second base, Donatello, period,” she stated, clenching her fist in frustration at the cluelessness of the purple turtle.

Donnie snarled at her, “Look, I know you were the leader of your own clan for a bit, but you do not get to just– Step up and order us around,” he stated, crossing his arms and glaring at her.

Karai returned the glare, and huffed, “I know the Krang’s plan better than all of you combined!” She argued, “I’ve been in their den I know that they won’t start the invasion until they know–”

The sound of the gate clicking caught the two arguing off guard, and they both looked over to the entrance.

When they looked over they saw April, she ran into the lairs shouting, “Guys!”

And she was dragging someone behind her, who quickly tripped and fell to their knees and lost the glasses they had on.

April had her hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath, “I’m sorry about this,” she apologized, she felt genuinely bad for bringing someone into the lair without the person gaining their approval first.

Everyone had their eyes on the two now.

April felt fear collide into her as she straightened her poster, “But– But–” She kept stuttering, “But footbots were after us, and– and Irma here is really good at keeping secrets, and, um…” She was trying her hardest to explain this, but she was fumbling.

Karai registered that April was talking, but her eyes were dead set on the girl that the red-heard brought with her.

It was that purple-haired girl from before– Irma? And she was currently on her hands and knees searching for her lost glasses.

Karai felt she should know this girl. Sure, it was the girl who was kidnapped with April.

But… Karai felt like she should know her personally. Like… Karai knows she has talked to this girl before–

But… Where?

“April, you have brought a stranger here?” Karai could hear her father’s voice, it sounded betrayed, and she didn’t blame him for feeling like that. But where has she seen this girl?

“Don’t worry, Master Splinter, she’s cool,” April tried to reassure them as the friend of her’s found her glasses and got up, brushing herself off in the process.

That was when Karai got a good look at her.

That was when Karai’s stomach dropped, and her blood ran cold.

April looked over to her ‘friend,’ “Right, Irma?” The red-head pressed. Karai was frozen to the spot.

Irma looked at them all in shock. “Irma?” April asked hesitation and concern clear in her voice.

Karai’s mouth was dry, and she couldn’t speak, even if she wanted to.

“T- T- T- Turtles?” Irma stuttered, her eyes still widened with fear. Karai couldn’t take her eyes off of her.

“What up, dog?” Mikey yelled out, Karai nearly smacked the man.

That was when Irma started to twitch, her head shooking unnaturally, “Turtles… Turt… Turt…” Her mouth was kept shut, but she was still making noises.

Karai’s ears immediately picked up on the mechanical whirling sound that only confirmed her fear.

“No…” She muttered, backing up a bit, a feeling of hopelessness engulfing her.

“No, no, no, NO !” She screamed and charged forward, reaching for her sword, only to realize that it wasn’t there.

Fear engulfed her further, and her throat felt raw, she felt the same as the first time she figured out that Splinter was her father– When she was leading Tigerclaw to the lair.

Her heart pounded and she paused for a brief moment, looking between April and the thing.

She couldn’t fight that thing .

She grabbed April and pulled her back toward where the turtles were, causing April to yelp in surprise.

The right was the thing's head went up, revealing it to be attached to a metal rod that extended from the neck.

The rod was a familiar gray and purplish pink.

Karai wanted to cry.

“Holy chalupa!” Mikey screamed, and jumped back, he felt himself shake and his mind started running at a hundred thoughts per second.

He threw his pizza at the thing’s head, causing the slice to hit right as the head started spinning.

“Turtles. Turtles. Turtles.” The thing’s eyes were flickering red.

The air in the lai felt cold, and the place quickly erupted into screams of terror as everyone realized what was going on.

Karai’s hold on April tightened, she never let go of the other girl’s arm, and she also screamed, but for a different reason.

The scream was raw. Painful.

April instinctively grabbed onto her, and the other’s hold tightened when Karai screamed.

The krang had discovered the Lair.

The body of the Krang started expanding, its shoulders widening, and its hips doing the same, revealing a mess of wires and metal parts.

When it was finally done transforming, there was a hole in the center of the thing, where a pink blob rose from.

The blob was covered in purple scars and had one metallic eye.

Its laughter boomed through the room, taunting and sickening.

The alarm sounded through the lair, “Turtles, turtles,” ringing through like some sicking chant.

Donnie backed up from the droid, and Miey looked over at his red-headed friend.

“April, you gotta, like, pick your friends more carefully,” the youngest stated, the redhead’s face showing pure horror at the scene in front of her.

Karai didn’t pay attention to any of that though, she just kept glaring at the metal beast before her. Hatred seeped through her skin, and her face contorted into a snarl.

The thing's laugh only pissed her off more, and then it had the guts to punch its fist in a gesture that showed it was ready for a fight.

“Oh my gosh…” April’s voice was enough to pull Karai out of her thoughts, she let go of April as the other backed up in horror at what was happening, “Irma was a–”

The thing turned around and grabbed the arcade machine, “Krang!” It finished April’s sentence, and then tossed the machine at them, causing them to fall as the ground shook, Splinter being the only one who was able to dodge the object.

Karai propped herself up and continued to look at the thing.

She felt disgusted with herself.

She couldn’t even take the time out of her days of throwing a pity party to warn the others that there was a Krang on the loose.

Sure, she didn’t know it was Irma , but still.

“Lowly insects,” the thing began, it gained everyone’s attention.

Karai looked around and saw that Mikey was at the part above the couch, Donnie was bit to her right, and Splinter was further back.

April was directly beside her, the red-head still wasn’t up.

“Kneel before the genius of Krang subprime,” the thing walked further, and stepped down into the pit, Karai scouted away from the thing, and closer to April where she tried to shake the girl awake.

“Greatest Krang spy in all of dimension X!” Rolled her eyes hard at the comment.

They’ve gone to dimension X, and it’s not hard, especially when you are the only one who can speak proper English.

The thing continued to walk forward, and everyone backed up, except for Splinter and April.

The human was still knocked out cold.

“The discovery of the lair was the final component needed to launch full-scale invasion!” Krang sub-prime yelled out, seemingly proud of itself.

Karai wanted to be sick.

Portals opened in the lair, and everyone tensed.

“Oh, no!” Donnie cried, followed by Mikey’s whimper.

Karai looked over to April and felt her breathing quicking, she started to furiously shake the redhead, muttering, “Come on, come on, wake up,” under her breath.

April’s eyes slowly fluttered up, and she propped herself up and looked around, gasping at the sight.

Karai followed her gaze, no longer being able to ignore the pit in her stomach that was forming.

At least a dozen portals opened all around them, and everyone felt the same crushing weight of fear crumbling over them.

Mikey balled his fist, his heart squeezed, and his throat felt tight.

“This can’t be good,” the youngest turtle spoke out.

The invasion had started.

Raph watched as Casey was dragged by the two cops, shouting, “Back off of me, man!” Rang out through the air.

Raph couldn’t help the swirling disappointment in his gut, a form of sadness that made him uneasy, and sick.

“Get in the car now, punk!” One of the cops shouted, Raph internally cringed.

“Casey, what have you done?” The red turtle muttered to himself.

Something dawned on him then.

He had to stop himself from quickly getting up, but he looked around at the rooftops, regret flooding him.

He had no clue where his brother went.

Casey was getting arrested.

He felt as though his world was slowly starting to crumble, and the one person he always counted on to make things better wasn’t here.

He looked back down at the ground, anger bubbling up.

Why the hell did Casey have to go and get himself arrested? Raph told him to stop dicking around, they had to search. And when he did get a glimpse of his brother, Casey had to go and do this, and–

A zapping sound caught Raph’s attention.

He looked up toward where a park was and squinted.

Electricity crawled through the streets, spreading up buildings and fire escapes, making the lights flicker and cut.

The lighting seemed to form a pyramid, it all started at one point.

And from that point, a pink portal was created.

Raph gasped in shock, he felt his heart pound.

He thought they had more time.

Three more portals appeared in that one area alone, the swings swung, and the merry-go-round spun on its own.

A krang emerged from the portal.

Then three more.

Then another row of three.

It got to the point where it looked like the whole army was coming out of the portal, all of the Krang marching in unison with their blastors at the ready.

“ Krang! ” Raph winced at the sight, his chest tightening. Surely this couldn’t be it? Right? Surely they had more time. He thought they had more time.

He looked down to where the sounds of Casey struggling were, and quickly realized how much terrible they were going to be in if Casey got into that car.

Casey was currently in some sort of game of tug-a-war with one of the cops, he was trying to pull his hockey stick out of the cop’s grasp while the other held him back.

That was the cop that was holding his stick let go, and then tried to go after Casey again was he shouted. “Give me that stick!” Causing Casey to accidentally hit the officer in the face, causing the dude to stumble back.

Casey winced at this, knowing that attacking an officer is a chargeable offense.

“Oops,” He muttered as he watched the dude stumble, his back was now turned to Casey, meaning the teenager couldn’t see his face.

But when the cop turned back to him, his body glitched and distorted as though it was a hologram, revealing a Krang droid underneath.

“Whoa!” Casey sucked in a breath, he stiffened and stared at the droid.

He looked over at the cop that was hanging onto him, and he felt his blood drain from his face as the other turned into a droid.

His heart pounded as he tried to figure out what the hell was going on.

He didn’t know where Raph was, all he knew was that Raph had seen Leo, and most likely was going after his brother.

And so, he shouted the only thing that he could come up with to try and get Raph’s attention.

“They’re already infiltrating!” He screamed as he swung at the krang that was grabbing him, “They’re here!”

He was able to knock the Krang down, and he heard what sounded like someone destroying metal behind him.

Casey turned and saw Raph ripping the Krang apart, he seemingly landed on top of the droid, and Casey felt some relief that he wasn’t going to have to figure this out alone.

“Raph, what the heck is going on?” Casey asked, fear littering his voice.

A twisted, warped screech of metal came from behind him.

Both of them looked and watched in horror as a giant pink portal formed, ripping effortlessly through the air, and seemingly standing on nothing.

Krang droids started coming out of the portal, and Raph didn’t need to be a genius to figure out that they were outnumbered.

“The invasions started!” Raph shouted out, his blood running could, he turned around and gestured for Casey to follow him, “Back to the Lair!”

Casey followed Raph as they both ran.

The sound of chaos surrounded them.

Kally and Kitsune landed on a rooftop, both of them standing as soon as they hit the ground.

The two walked further into the center of the roof and looked around for any sign of the rest of their little band.

“Are you sure this is the right place?” Kally asked, clicking her tongue a bit, Kitsune sighed, pulled out his phone, and checked his text messages.

“Yes, Kit, I am sure that this is the right place,” The fox responded before looking up, he caught sight of a few figures off in the distance and smiled.

“Look, here they come now.”

Bronze, Usagi, and Lunar all landed on the roof and went to greet the others.

“Hey, you slow pokes, what took you so long?” Kally greeted, playfully knocking Usagi’s arm as she did so, the rabbit rolled his eyes and scoffed.

“We were barely behind you, besides, we have to lug Bronze around,” he stated, gesturing over to where the giant alligator was.

Bronze growled, “Easy there, Sagi,” they stated, the rabbit only laughed them off, knowing that their friend loved each of them, even if they annoy the shit out of the gator.

Kitsune shook his head, “Well if you all don’t mind, I think it actually might be the time that we get going,” he stated.

They were all currently in a place that allowed them to travel back to the battle nexus, this roof was where they first entered.

Everyone who could voice their agreement, and Lunar gave Kitsune a thumbs up.

The fox nodded and turned around to where there was a door that entered the apartment’s lower levels.

He walked over to the door and reached to the side of it, into a little hole that was dug out of the doorway.

This was one of the many entrances to the battle nexus and was the main one the group used.

There was a little handle that you pulled out of the hole, and then the door turned into a portal.

Lunar watched one as Kitsune struggled to get a grasp on the handle, he was currently sitting on the ledge of the roof.

He let out a few sharp breaths that made a silent chuckle as he watched the poor fox struggle.

He then heard something… Weird.

Lunar looked over the ledge and to the streets below, eyes narrowing as he tried to figure out what on earth was making that noise.

That was when the wind started to pick up.

Some sort of energy surged through the air, and the lights from the windows started to flicker.

An uneasy feeling erupted in Lunar’s chest, something screamed at him that this wasn’t right.

He felt like he should know what was going on.

“Umm… Guys?”

Lunar turned around to where Kitsune was standing, the fox’s voice catching everyone’s attention.

Kitsune looked back at him, a wince clear on his face.

“Something’s wrong,” he stated, Lunar raised a non-existent brow at him.

He looked over to Kitsune’s hand, which was currently pulling the lever to turn the door into the portal to the battle nexus.

But the door wasn’t turning.

Why wasn’t the door turning?

CRASH.

The sound of lighting catches Lunar and the other’s attention.

Lunar stumbled onto the rooftop, and whipped around, looking back to where he was looking before, the others running up beside him as he did so.

The world seemed to still be around them.

Down in the streets, a pink triangle was forming.

And it was getting larger .

The triangle grew, and it eventually got to the point where it was about half a building taller than the building that they were standing on.

They all were frozen there, the same shocked expression written on their face.

“What the fuck!? ” Kally shouted, backing away a bit.

“Not good,” Bronze commented, balling their hands into a fist.

“No shit, Sherlock,” Usagi muttered.

Lunar stared wide-eyed, his heart pounded and his heart hurt.

He should know this. He should know what this is. He should know what was happening–

“Krang.”

Lunar looked over to his left at Kitsune, who had just spoken.

His voice was as riddled with hatred and disgust as his face, his teeth bore, and his eyes narrowed.

That was when something stepped out of the portal, causing the ground beneath the group to shake from the pure size of it.

They all looked up to see a two-legged machine with a disc-like control station that was broken up into two sections, four metal balls with blastors on them circled the machine.

Until the beast noticed them.

The balls stopped and aimed toward the rooftop.

Lunar could only watch as the blastors powered up with a pink glow.

Chapter Text

Lunar stared as the blastors of the machine powered up with a blinding glow, the sound of a whirling engine making itself known.

After a moment of revving up, the blastor sent out a bolt of electricity right at the group, who were all too stunned to move.

All, except for two.

“Look out!” “Move it!”

Lunar and Usagi were grabbed and tackled, both of them sliding against the pavement of the roof.

Lunar’s head spun for a moment, and he couldn’t process what was really going on, the weight that was on top of him moved, allowing him and Usagi to sit up.

Lunar looked over to Bronze, who was the person who had tackled them and nodded a thanks.

He looked back to see that Kitsune had picked up Kally and bodged the bolt, moving to the opposite side of the roof.

Kitsune put Kally on her feet and then looked at them.

“Guys, this isn’t good– “

A pink triangle appeared in front of the fox, blocking the two groups from each other.

Lunar got wobbly and got up, fear flooding as thoughts raced through his head about his friends being separated. The others followed him as he got up.

That was when these– Robots started coming through. A row of three of them came through.

Then another row.

Then more and more rows.

Lunar didn’t know how to explain the fear that was rushing through him. The cold streams of blood that coursed through his veins, or the way that he was frozen to the spot.

He should know this.

He should know what is going on.

He has seen these– These things before.

The Krang .

Kitsune said that.

These things were Krang.

“Huh, guys? Any ideas?” Usagi spoke out, his voice shaking as he did so.

No. No Lunar didn’t have any ideas. He was too busy racking his brain, trying to figure out where on earth– Or in the hidden city– that he had seen these things.

“Only one,” Lunar looked over the Bronze, the gator’s voice was a growl, their eyes narrowed and frustrated, staring at where Kitsune and Kally were.

“We fight.”

Bronze didn’t wait for the others to respond, he charged into the group of Krang, roaring and all.

Lunar and Usagi watched as Bronze ripped the Krang droids– How did Lunar know that they were meant to be droids? – Apart, from flinging body parts left and right.

He used his tail to smack down a line of three and grabbed one of their guns– Black blastors that were shooting out pink shots– And used it to shoot the rest of the droids, stealing and another one to duel wield them.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the roof, Kally and Kistune were dodging the beams from the machine that they first saw.

Kally jumped up, leaning onto the half wall of the roof, she looked at the fox.

“We need to get to the others!” She shouted out, knowing damn well that Kitsune also saw the amount of these robot things that were coming out of the portal.

Kitsune had to jump backward, going from one foot to the other as he dodged the razors that were being thrown at him.

He was backed against the billboard when it finally stopped, he looked over at the cat, “And you think I don’t know that? –” He looked back at the machine as he shouted, now seeing the laser that was being sent straight at him, “Gah! –” He dodged to his left, just in time.

He landed right next to Kally,  who looked at him with a sneer while he continued to keep an eye on the machine.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I thought you enjoyed having a robot Lazor on your a–” “Get down!” Kitsune grabbed Kally and forced them both to duck to the ground when a laser obliterated the spot where they were just standing.

The Krang droids continued to press forward, blasting their guns at them as they did so.

Sensei charged, knocking down the robots as though they were nothing, easily dodging the shots thrown their way.

Another Krang entered through the portal, this one a silver one.

“The signal was correct, Krang has discovered the place of turtle hiding,” it analyzed.

Splinter ran across the pipes above, dodging the shots from the three Krang droids that looked up to get him.

Karai ran through the lair, Krang's prime following behind her.

She got over to the punching bag and grabbed one of the small daggers that were launched into the thing before turning around, ready to put up a fight.

That was when the thing grabbed the pinball machine and threw it at her.

Donnie looked over his shoulder just in time to see the pinball machine in the air and coming at him, he jumped out of the way just in time.

Karai was sent tumbling to the ground, her ribs ached and her head screamed.

Her bones felt as though they were knocked out of place, every fiber of her being screamed at her.

But something else took over, a form of fear that yelled over everything for her to get up and move .

That voice ended up being correct because when she propped herself up on her elbows, she yelped before tossing herself back to avoid Krang Prime’s massive, thin hand.

April was currently behind a massive crossway in the pipes, hiding from the shots and flooding the lair.

Hate fueled her, it wrapped her up and made her head spin.

“This is so messed up!” She shouted, her voice horse and shaking a bit, “My best friend for the past year was a Krang?”

The krang in question only smiled as it watched the chaos unfold, “Fooled you! Fooled you all!” It shouted gleefully.

Laughter rang through the lair as Mikey retreated to the kitchen.

He ducked behind the counter, hiding from the blasts sent his way, wincing as some of the blasts came close to shooting through the pipes that the stove needed.

He looked around, he knew this kitchen better than anything– This was his area.

He got up and grabbed the pots on the stove before whipping around and throwing the two items at the two Krang droids, sending them both to the ground.

He then jumped onto the counter and spun on his shell, shouting out while he kicked the Krang back into the counter they use for cooking.

It wasn’t enough, though, the krang droid just looked back up at him, and started walking forward.

That was when the freezer’s door swung open, hitting the droid in the face and sending it to the ground.

Mikey made his way over to where the freezer was, he looked down at the krang, then back into the freezer, and smiled at the Neapolitan ice cream cat inside.

“Oh, yeah!” He cheered as he high-fived the ice cream kitty, the cat was a blob with a cat head, a tail, and two arms, and she was the cutest thing on earth.

Suddenly, a force slammed into his shell, sending waves of pain through his back as he lunched forward, slamming his face into the still-opened fridge.

His mouth felt numb with pain, and his face pulsed as he fell to the floor with a thud .

Manic laughter echoed out behind him.

He didn’t need to turn around to see who it was, but he did so anyway.

He sat up and backed away, but his shell to the counter, he whimpered as the giant Krang Irma Krang stomped toward him.

The thing grabbed him with its giant claw, lifting him into the air as he struggled.

Once he was in the air, the thing’s other hand produced a pink saw between its fingers and lifted the hand to him.

He stared, wide-eyed at the approaching saw, his blood going cold, his mind running like a train, trying to figure out a way out of this situation.

He screamed, using his left hand to latch onto the hand that was clasped around him, his right fished for something anything to get him out of this situation.

That was when he grabbed onto the bagel slicer, and without thinking, he sliced the neck of the robot, causing it to drop him and stumble back, its head swinging loosely.

He smiled to himself, and gestured, “Bagle sliver-slicing time robot!” He shouted, his hands making a DJ movement as though he was playing with the disc before pointing at the thing.

That was when the thing walked toward him, he yelped before dodging it, and he hopped onto the counter with himself facing the thing as he backed up, wanting the counter they use as a table to put some distance between him and the beast.

That was when the light above smacked against the robot’s head, knocking it off of its body.

Mikey gasped and whimpered in fear as he backed off, trying to get away from the strangely human head that was now at his feet.

Then the eyes opened.

The head jumped up and out of the hole that the neck had emerged a platform with metal tendrils that allowed the thing to walk.

It screeched at him, and he felt his blood run cold.

That was the point when it really struck him how tense the situation was.

He screamed as he bolted out of the room, the head following him and blasting Lazor out of its eyes, destroying pipes and walls, bent on taking this place down.

“Destroy the turtles!” Krang Prime shouted as it walked behind its head, “Wipe out the Lair! Take the daughter!”

It looked behind it and saw Splinter fighting off another droid.

“And also the rat comes with us.”

Karai was able to hide behind the corner from the main room to the bedroom halls, she knocked down a passing Krang before immediately having to get back to hiding as a pink beam threatened to shoot right through her.

She jumps back further as the beam moves.

This is due to Mikey who spins around on a handstand to throw the head away from him, sending it flying toward the direction that Donnie is in.

Right at that moment, Donnie kicks down the droid shooting at him, leaving his calf open to be bitten by the decapitated head.

Pain rushes up Don’s leg and he hoops on one foot, “Ow, ow, ow, ow!” He shouts, trying to figure out the best way to get the head off of him.

“Sorry, D!” Mikey shouts as he runs toward his room, passing by April who was hiding behind the fallen arcade machine.

The youngest crashes through the door to his room, trying his best to dodge the bullets heading his way.

He looks back out the doorway, and his face turns into a panic grimace.

This feels helpless.

He looks up at his shelf and sees his nun-chucks hanging there.

Splinter moves back, he is in the dojo now, and is next to an empty weapon rack, facing on the giant robot that tricked April.

“Take that, you filthy rat!” The robots shouts, Splinter huffs and looks around the dojo, and sees both Donatello’s bo staff, and Karai’s sword still in their weapon racks.

The thing kicks at him, and he dodges once, only to be knocked in the face by the thing's other foot, causing him to stumble back and near the middle of the dojo.

The thing laughs as a pink saw form between its middle and ring finger.

Raph and Casey run through the streets, blasts from the Krang chasing after them as they do so, trying their hardest to avoid each of the glowing pink bullets.

Casey was hooped onto his skates and started to go faster than Raph.

The two rounded a corner to see a Krang facing them head-on.

Raph jumped onto a railing and pulled out his sai, and he took note that there was a car behind that was going the same way that Casey was.

“Look out!” Rpah shouted as he took down the Krang, and landed right in the middle of the road.

The two dodged the swerving car before turning around and seeing more cars coming at them, as well as some more Krangs.

“Whoa!” Casey shouted as they got out of the way of a yellow car, “Crosstown traffic!” The boy shouted while trying to get out of the driver’s way.

Suddenly, a muted yellow car came through, and the two got on opposite sides of the street in order to let it be before Raph hooped on top of the car, and Casey skated after it.

Eventually, Casey was able to grab onto the back of the car and allow it to pull him.

The car was cut off by a giant portal form, and it had to drift to make the turn, causing Raph and Casey to yelp.

Raph eventually hooped off, and Casey followed by letting go of the car.

The ground shook under them and looked over to see one of those giant two-legged machines stomping through the street to their right.

“What the heck?” Raph shouted, feeling absolutely done with today.

The machine’s top lifted, and the four blasters charged up and spun around.

“Oh, snap,” Casey whimpered.

The two turned around and bolted away from the thing, “Move it! Run!” Raph shouted, feeling panic rush through him as his body worked on pure adrenaline.

The two stopped for a moment as the machine blasted the place they were running, causing the ground to be destroyed.

Casey eyed Raph and saw a formal look of irritation in the turtle’s eyes, “There’s too many of them Raph!” Casey scolded.

Raph looked up at the machine that was about to crush them with its foot before starting to run once more, he knew Casey was right.

The hockey player followed him, and eventually surpassed him in speed.

The two turned around the corner where cars lay flipped over or abandoned, and Casey quickly noticed that they were heading away from the lair.

“Just keep going!” He heard Raph shout, as though reading his mind. Or the red turtle noticed as well and was trying to reaffirm himself.

Raph hooped a car and got off right before the machine behind them made it explode.

His heart pounded in his chest, “Go! –” The cars around them exploded, “Go! –” The beam of the machine was catching up to them, “Run!”

They were far away from the lair now.

Lunar pulled out his katanas and charged into the madness, Usgai quick to follow him.

He slashed through the Krang droids as he made a B-line toward the opposite end of the roof, jumping up onto the billboard and then whipping around to jump to the other side of the portal.

Lunar looked from the place where he landed, then up to see both Kitsune and Kally getting up from the ground.

“Lunar!” “Move!”

Lunar jumped with that command, managing to dodge the things beam, when he landed again he looked over to where the machine was.

He then turned back to his friends and used his left hand to point over to where the billboard was.

“Go.”

“Are you crazy?” Kitsune barked out as he helped up Kally, they both looked at the machine just in time to jump away from each other with a yelp and dodge the beam that was about to crash down on them.

Kitsunee landed next to Lunar, and Kally did one more jump to land on the other side of him.

The machine powered up once more and sent a beam directly at Lunar.

The turtle narrowed his eyes before putting his swords in front of himself at an angle, causing the beam to be sent right back at the thing, cutting through the control panel and causing the Krang inside to panic as the machine tilted to the undamaged side.

Lunar looked at Kitsune, who returned his gaze, “Smart serpent,” he stated, then turned around and got ready to jump.

“Let’s go!”

The group used the way that Leo got over to get onto the other side of the portal, where Bronze and Usagi were busy taking down the Krang droids.

Kitsune pulled out his kama and sliced two of the Krang droids that were about to attack Bronze, while Kally pulled out her tanto and helped Usagi finish off the two Krang droids that had come after him.

They all looked back to the portal and saw that more Krang droids were coming out, the three Krang in a row turning to five.

“There’s too many!” Kitsune shouts, Lunar blocks a blast with his sword, “Everyone, let’s go!” Bronze yells out and gestures for everyone to follow him as he starts running.

The group starts running, and Lunar notices two figures running in the streets.

Two krang droids stand outside of Mikey’s room, and the youngest knocks them down with the other end of his nun-chucks, eyes white with focus as he rolls out of the room, dodging the blasts flying through the air, and trying to not be blocked in.

Two droids rush into where the bedroom hallway is.

Karai shouts out another one as she rushes out from her hiding place that was the hallway that turns from where the rooms are, she runs towards the main area of the lair, her breath labored and heart pounding.

She slows down and looks around.

Time freezes as she barely dodges the head of Krang Prime leaping on her, a sword going through the robot's head.

The head clatters to the floor and her mind spins, wondering what on earth just happened.

“Go!”

Her head turns to where Splinter is, her heart pounding and confusion racking her brain as she looks at the rat.

Splinter is holding Karai’s sword and Donnie’s staff, and he throws both at his respective owners, “Escape!”

Karai catches her sword and feels herself crumble.

He wants them to leave him.

“I will hold them off!” Right on time, Krang Prime kicks down one of the dojo’s doors and charges at Splinter.

Splinter turned around and blocked the blows that came from the robot, having his arms raised in an X and straining against the creature’s strength.

We’re not leaving you!” Karai shouted she felt her heart pound in her chest, her whole world felt as though it was about to shatter, but she kept it together as best as she could.

Splinter was now holding onto the thing’s wrist, “I have a plan, go! Now!” He shouts.

Karai didn’t know how, but she could tell it was a lie.

Donnie huffed and whipped his head, he was out of breath and panicking, but he pushed forward, “Come on! Head for the shell raiser!” He shouted, gesturing to the others to follow before tunning toward the exit of the lair.

The others followed Donnie, making their way to the car.

What they didn’t see was Krang Prme pushing Splinter to the ground, and jumping down to the main area of the lair.

 The krang transformed its arm, turning it into a type of cannon, and aimed it at the truck.

“You’ll go nowhere!” It shouted as it shouted a missile toward the thing.

Everyone turned and gasped as the shot whizzed past them, Donnie having to move a bit out of the way, watching as three of the missiles struck the Shell Raiser and exploded, making the giant vehicle fall to its side.

Donnie felt his blood run cold, “My baby!” He screamed, he had spent so long working on that. All of his progress. All of his time. All of his energy– Now gone in an instant.

He felt torn and angry.

They started running over more, and KRang Prie got one more shot in before Splinter tackled the cannon, forcing it to aim at the ground.

The shot hit something right as Mikey was on one of the subway machines, and he yelped as the resulting blast hit him.

Karai blocked any hits from the blast with her arm before lowering it and taking in the surroundings.

They couldn’t take the Shell raisers and the tunnels ahead of her were a dead end.

She huffed, “Everyone, follow me!” She shouted, gesturing before taking off down the tunnel behind her.

The others looked at Karai for a moment, all of them considering whether or not it was a good idea to trust the girl who didn’t know the sewers very well.

But with the shots raining down on them, they didn’t really have a choice.

They all yelped before rushing after her.

They ran down the tunnels for what felt like hours but could’ve only been a few minutes.

“This way!” Karai shouted as they rounded a corner, the cold air of winter beating into her, her lungs felt like they were squeezing tighter and tighter.

April was in the same boat, her bones growing tired from all the running.

They kept running. Away from the lair. Away from where Master Splinter was fighting off the Krang.

She felt tears well up in her eyes, she felt terrible, after everything that the guys had done for her, this is how she repays them? Bringing the Krang to their home.

“This is all my fault!” She complained, feeling as though she had to get something off of her chest. “I led them straight to the lair!”

Mikey ran up next to her, “Don’t blame yourself, April, you were just trying to help a friend,” he stated. It didn’t help her building guilt– It might have even made it worse. They should be angry at her, and yet, here Mikey was, telling her that it wasn’t her fault.

They came to a stop, “Uh-oh,” Mikey whispered, looking from Karai to Donnie. This wasn’t good. He could feel the emotions he was trying to bottle start to come up.

“Which way?” April called out, Mikey envied her naivety. He knew that Karai and Donnie had been struggling with each other about how to deal with the invasion, and he suspected that this was going to be the result of that.

“Left!” Donnie shouted, pointing down the tunnel hole that he was looking into, “That’ll lead us to the turtle mech.”

Karai turned around and shook her head, “No way, we’ve gotta find Raph and Casey first,” she stated, her voice was more of a question, she felt unsure of herself as she shifted from one foot to the other.

She didn’t want to waste time arguing with Donatello. But she also didn’t want to lose anyone else.

“We can find them in the mech!” He argued back, Karai huffed, and walked up to Donnie, “It’s too slow!” She retorted.

“You’re the one that’s too slow!” He snapped, “Just because Leo risks himself to save you, doesn’t make you Le–”

“ GUYS! ”

“WHAT!?” Karai and Donnie shouted in Unison and looked over at Mikey, who was the one who shouted.

Mikey huffed, he was sick of this. Sick of the arguing. Sick of the bickering. Sick of feeling as though his entire family was lost that day.

“Neither of you are helping the situation! We have an invasion on our hands and you’re acting worse than me !” He stated, his voice wobbly but strict. He was scared. He was so damn scared. He just wanted to go. To leave.

He wanted his big brother. He wanted Leo to tell him everything was going to be okay and to lead them out of danger.

But he didn’t have his big brother anymore.

He felt like he lost everyone the day that Leo was mutated.

He took in a breath, not even realizing he was shaking, “We go after Raph and Casey,” he stated, Donnie glared at him, and opened his mouth to argue.

“No, Donnie, I’m not losing more family today,” Mikey snapped, causing all of Donnie’s arguments to die on his tongue.

April huffed, “Mikey’s right, guys, we need to find the others,” she walked toward where Donnie was pointing, “This area has a manhole cover close by, right? Let’s move.”

No one argued with the redhead as she started running down the tunnel, quickly following the rest.

Just in time to miss a Krang portal opening up.

“Come on!” Kitsune shouted as he jumped from one roof to another, the others following behind him closely.

Lunar didn’t know where on earth they were running to, all that he knew was that they were trying anything possible to avoid the Krang.

They were cut off by a portal, forcing them to make a turn right and just keep moving.

“Kitsune!’ Kally shouted, the fox gave no acknowledgment as to hearing the cat, his main focus was getting out of there.

“ Kitsune !” Kally called out once more, completely out of breath, “What!” Kitsune snapped over his shoulder, anxiety racing through his mind as he tried to figure out a plan.

Kally yelped as she was cut off by a Krang popping out of a roof door, she sliced the thing in half and kept moving, “Where are we going!?” She screamed, her voice sounding rough from the shouting.

Kitsune let out a groan, “I know another portal– It– It’s underground, and safer– But a bit further away!” He stated.

Lunar could feel the air freezing his lungs, his chest hurting so badly that he couldn’t quite get it to expand. His leg felt as though it was on fire.

As they jumped another street, he thought he saw the manhole cover below open.

Mikey lifted the manhole cover and peeked out, his heart spiking when he saw shadows pass over his head.

He waited a moment and made sure that there was no Krang, or humans, coming.

“Coast is clear–” Right as he said it, he had to duck as a car drove down the alleyway, making the manhole cover spin in its spot.

Mikey lifted the cover once more, “Okay, now the coast is clear,” he commented, feeling his cheeks flush a bit out of embarrassment.

Everyone moved out of the sewer, looking around anxiously as they tried to gauge how long they should stick around.

Karai looked from one end of the alleyway to the other, a plan already forming in her mind.

“Okay, let's go find April’s dad first, that’ll give us a place to meet up with Raph and Casey,” she stated, placing one hand on her hip as she tried to think through her raising fear.

Donnie nodded at her, a look of determination was placed on his face before one of concern crept on.

“What about Leo?” He asked, Karai stiffened at the question.

April looked at Mikey, but the youngest kept his eyes on the ground and refused to acknowledge anyone.

Karai felt her chest squeeze, and her eyes narrowed. She had to do something to fix this situation.

“H- He’ll be fine, alright? I’m sure, wherever he is, he is trying to find us right now, and… And–” She gestured to herself trying to find the words to justify her thoughts, “Maybe… He’ll think to look for us at April’s?” She suggested, her voice squeaky.

Nobody responded, but she did see Mikey and Donnie’s demeanor relax a tad, becoming more hopeful and willing to fight.

Her heart just about shattered right there. She was trying to keep up hope because, at this point, that was the only thing they had left, but she knew the truth.

They were going to have to leave Leo.

Suddenly, a krang portal appeared at the end of the alley.

Krang droids rushed out of it, seemingly endless based on the amount that they had already seen.

Once the robotic footsteps got further away, the group poked their head to look through the window of the taxi that they hid behind.

“I don’t think they saw us,” April breathed a sigh of relief.

“You were right, Karai.”

Karai looked over at Donatello, her eyes wide in shock as she watched the purple turtle turn and sink to the ground, resting his shell against the car.

“We should’ve gotten out of the city while we had a chance,” he stated, his voice fueled with regret.

Donnie’s heart was pained, and all the resentment toward the girl started to simmer down.

He was so stupid. If he had just listened…

“Not without my dad and the others,” April snapped, her voice wavering a bit. She felt her bones growing heavy. She was tired. Not tired from the fighting, but tired of everything.

“Come on, guys,” she commanded as she started making her way to her apartment, the others following her.

She fully agreed with what Mikey said.

She wasn’t going to lose any more family.

Casey climbed the door on the rooftop of an apartment building to get a better look at what was going on around them, Raph followed behind him.

A giant portal opened in front of Casey, and both he and Raph ducked as a Krang stealth ship flew out of the portal, going who knows where.

Casey turned around and watched the ship with a grimace on his face, “Dude, this is worse than that giant technodrome thing last year!” He stated, panic fueling his voice as he tried to figure out what the hell they were meant to do in this situation.

They climb down from the door and hide behind one of its walls from another stealth ship, “It’s totally crazy!” The human stated.

Raph’s ringtone echoed through the air, and the red turtle pulled out his phone.

He nearly gasped at the scream, his heartbeat picking up a bit.

Mikey was calling.

He answered the call, “Mikey, where are you?” He asked, his voice loud and irritated, but he was mainly thankful that his little brother was okay, let alone alive.

“On the way to April’s apartment,” the youngest’s voice came through the phone, “Meet us there, dude!”

Raph was thankful that there was an ‘us’ in that sentence. That meant that at least some of his family were okay.

“Roger that!” He responded.

Casey heard a weird whirling noise of an engine and looked up, his eyes widening.

“Raph! Look out!” He screamed as the stealth ship from before circled back for them.

The two ran, but the things Lazor was right behind them, meaning that they had no choice but to jump off the roof as the Lazor exploded the roof under, making them scream in shock.

They ran across the buildings, dodging Krang and hiding from these giant, disc-shaped ships that Kitsune said were ‘Stealth ships.’

It felt like they were running for hours when, finally, they jumped down from the roof and into an alleyway below.

As Usagi and Lunar, the two furthest behind, landed, Kitsune walked over to the sewer cover that was in the middle of the alley.

“Kitsune, what are we doing here?” Kally hissed out, her voice low as she looked from side to side, trying to see if they were about to be ambushed or something.

Kitsune shook his head and lifted the cover, “I told you, the portal is underground, it’s in a subway station, and the best way to get there is the sewers,” he responded, and then gestured to the hole, “Now hoop in.”

The other four exchanged looks with each other before they rushed over to the hole and climbed down the ladder, Kitsune was the last to enter as he put the cover back.

Right in time to missed a Krang portal that opened in the alley.

Kitsune landed in the sewer tunnel and looked around, confused to see that there was nobody there.

He was starting to get worried, “Guys? –” He let out a muffled yelp as his mouth was covered and he was pulled into another tunnel.

He was pulled into Bronze’s hold, the alligator putting a finger to their mouth when Kitsune tried to complain.

Kitsune settled down and finally listened, he then realized that there were metallic footsteps that were echoing through the tunnel.

The two of them peeked around the tunnel, allowing Kitsune to see that the rest were in another tunnel, also peeking around.

The tunnel that Kitsune landed in went into another tunnel that they were currently looking at.

They all hid when Krangdroids appeared in that area.

To Lunar, the Krang didn’t seem to be in a rush, only walking and looking around.

From the sudden stop of footsteps, it appeared the Krang had stopped.

“Krang, still no sign of turtles,” one stated, and Lunar’s eyes widened.

Turtles? Like– Turtles like Usagi and Kally, or turtles who were like him?

“Hurry, Krang. We must obtain the turtles for the one called Shredder.”

With those words, the sound of rapid footsteps disappeared into the distance.

They all came out of their hiding place, and Lunar could tell that there were mainly eyes on him.

“ Shredder? ” Usagi whispered it was more of a question, but the simple word felt like a gut punch to Lunar.

His skin felt like ice, and he shivered in fear. He should know who that name belongs to. But all he does know is that the name brings fear.

Then he keeps playing the words back in his head.

Turtles .

Plural.

He should know. He should know… Something . He should know what that means. That–

That word should mean something.

He looked down at his three-fingered hands and caught his chest– His plastron – in the corner of his vision.

He was part turtle. They figured this out. The doctors figured this out.

“Come on, we need to go,” Kitsune’s voice cut through Lunar’s spiraling thoughts, he watched as the fox gestured for everyone to follow him before taking off.

Everyone rushed past Lunar, who was still in a state of shock.

He shook his head.

What happened before the incident doesn’t matter right now. He needs to make sure his friends are safe.

He rushed after Kitsune.

He once again felt as though he just abandoned something.

Karai, April, Mikey, and Donnie were all currently in April’s apartment, the living room had a brown wooden floor, with an orange rug, there was a long coffee table in the center, then a fireplace on the wall, there was also a tv in the corner.

Mikey sat close to the TV, wanting to keep an eye out for news, Donnie and Apil sat on the white couch facing the fireplace, Karai sat on the blue one facing the window that currently had its blinds closed, and April’s father was pacing in the middle.

“The city’s overrun,” Kirby stated, his face shaking in fear as he continued to walk, “What are we– What is anyone going to do?” He asked, he desperately wanted answers, for someone to tell him that it was going to be alright, that he and his family would be safe.

 But the only people he could trust to say that were currently hiding in his house, or out who knows where, or most likely dead.

Donnie was lost in thought, his chin on his hand, and his knee bouncing wildly as he tried to calm his mind down.

There were so many things that were going wrong all at once. He had no clue where Raph and Casey were, so they couldn’t leave the city.

That was when it hit Donnie like a gut punch.

They had to get out of the city.

He didn’t know if his brain was in denial or what, but it clicked for him fully what that meant.

He had to leave behind his home, his projects, everything that made him feel safe and sane.

He had to leave behind anyway to get Leo back.

Tears pricked up in his eyes for the first time since the day that Leo–

Damn it .

He had spent so long ignoring everything, throwing himself into his work, training the best he could, or trying to protect his family when they were in Dimension X or when the ghost possessed them that he never gave himself time to truly think about Leo’s–

He allowed himself to be in denial for so long. He didn’t allow himself to think about what happened.

But now? Now there was nothing to do but wait for Raph and Casey. There was nothing he could do to protect his family– No projects that he could do– Now his mind was running ramped.

A hand was placed on Donnie’s forearm, and he looked over to see April with a sympathetic look on her face.

He wanted to say something to her– Maybe tell her how he feels sense, you know, it’s the end of the world and all.

But his jaw was locked shut, and there were no words that he could get out without breaking down.

So he just nodded and looked away from her.

The building shook, causing Mr. O’Neil’s breath to pick up.

He fell to the floor, his heart pounding in his chest as helplessness took over, “We’re doomed!” He cried, a crushing guilt flooding him, “Doomed!”

He should’ve known this would happen– He should’ve realized this city wasn’t safe.

“Oh, my poor sweet April,” he had promised he would protect his daughter– Keep her safe from the creatures– He betrayed his wife in every way possible by letting this happen.

Karai looked at the man with a grimace. She felt terrible for him.

He had nothing to do with any of this– He, apparently, lost his wife, then got kidnapped, then was mind-controlled into giving up his daughter, then when he finally had his daughter back, he got mutated into a mindless bat, then got un-mutated, and now this?

This man needs a break.

Mikey looked down at the guy empathically, “Don’t worry, Mr. O’Neil,” his voice cracked, he wanted to reassure the guy, but had no clue where to start.

“This whole alien invasion thing is really no big deal,” he tried, gesturing to himself in an attempt to downplay the situation.

“Look,” he then turned around and opened the blinds to the window, then stood next to it with a smile.

Outside the window, people screamed as robots stomped after them, shooting lasers and explosions.

When a robot walked right by the window, Mikey realized this was not going to help.

“Oh–” He closed the blinds then turned around once more with his hands on his hips, “Never mind.”

Mr. O’Neil fainted, his head knocking on the floor.

Mikey then looked back out the window, an ‘Oh, boy,” escaping his lips as he watched the city dissolve into chaos.

There really was no positivity in this situation, was there?

Kitsune opened a metal door, sending a loud creak echoing through the cinder block walls of the forgotten subway track.

He peeked in and looked around, making sure that there was nothing there ready to jump out at them.

Once he was sure there was nothing there, he stepped fully in and then jumped over to hide behind the subway cart, sneaking into the cart through the back door.

The others follow, Lunar was the last one to get into the cart.

The turtle looked around, the subway cart looked familiar, but not in the sense that he had been there, just somewhere like there.

He huffed and shook his head, Usagi was standing by him, an action that the rabbit normally did, Kally was leaning on Bronze, and Bronze was watching Kitsune.

Lunar’s eyes went to the fox, who was currently digging around under a seat right next to where a door was.

The fox was muttering for a bit, the words weren’t sensible to Lunar, and he seemed frustrated.

It felt like longer than it was when Kitsune’s face lit up with a ‘Yes!’

He pulled out a long wooden lever, and pushed it toward them, and…

…

Nothing happened.

Kitsune’s face grew grim, and Bronze started fidgeting with their fingers.

Kally got off of Bronze and turned her full attention to Kitsune, and Usagi stepped forward.

“Kitsune?” The alligator of the group asked, the fox simply sighed, and then stood.

“I was afraid this would happen,” Kitsune admitted, Lunar felt their nerves crawl under their skin.

“What? Afraid of what?” Kally demanded, fear present as her voice shook.

Kitsune’s eyes narrowed, “The hidden city– It doesn’t like getting involved with– ‘Earthly matters…’ It would much rather leave earth– Abandon any of their citizens on it– Then risk itself when the earth is in trouble.”

Bronze’s face drained of color, “So what you’re saying is–”

“The hidden cut-off contact. We’re trapped.”

Chapter Text

The lair was on fire. Orange hues mixed with black smoke as the place was destroyed.

Splinter had been backed into Donatello’s lab, dodging the attacks of every persistent krang that had betrayed April.

He slid back and looked up at the thing, down on his knees and ready to jump out of the way of an attack thrown at him.

“Now I’ve got you cornered,” the thing growled, its voice rough and parched, “You monstrous Rat!” It continued to stomp forward, Splinter narrowed his eyes at the thing.

“Corner a rat, and see what happens!” He challenged.

The thing swung its saw hand at him, forcing him to dodge back away from the weapon.

Both of the saws on each hand were out now, and they both tried to go after him. Splinter jumped up and away from the saws, landing near the desk in the lab.

The thing continued to stomp after him. But it was slow. And big.

He jumped over the thing, pushing himself with the back as he got away.

It took a moment for the thing to turn, and Splinter took the slowness as a moment to grab the thing's wrist, stopping it from attacking.

He let a small knife drop from his wrappings and used it to slice the arm he held off.

The krang was stunted still, Splinter used this to his advantage by kicking it back.

The top fell off of the thing, and it couldn’t get its balance back as it went out of the lab, screaming in pain and fear as it did so.

Eventually, the bottom of the machine fell, sending the brain to the floor in a lump.

It grunted as it got up, Splinter was already by the lab door.

It snarled in hatred at the rat, “Krang shall dominate the earth!” It shouted, “You and your kin will be destroyed!”

It raised a tentacle and shook it at Splinter, “Krang will be back–”

Right then, a giant piece of sewer fell onto it, crushing it with a sickening splat and causing the krang to whimper in pain as it struggled.

Splinter looked up from the Krang and around, taking in what was left of his broken home.

The place was burning, and destroyed, and fire spread everywhere.

All the memories, all of the safety– Gone in an instant.

He felt his heart squeeze. He was crushed, he felt like he could collapse right then and there.

Eventually, something caught his eye.

He walked down into the pit and walked over to a broken photo that was framed in a goldened wood.

He picked it up and inspected it, his chest squeezing tight.

In the photo, there was Michalanglo at the front, waving to him, Donatello in the back to the left with his bo staff, with Raphael to his left, in his fist held high as one of his sai.

And right next to Raphael, on the other side, was Leonardo. Standing strong and confident with his katanas strapped to his back.

He couldn’t help the pity he felt. A swirling bit of sadness washed over him.

Where was his family? Where were Casey and Raphael? Where the others– Donatello, Michelangelo, April, and Karai– Were they safe?

Was Leonardo alone in this madness?

He shook his head, the smoke around him smelling all too familiar.

“Don’t stand here like a fool, Yoshi,” he scolded himself.

“Find your family.”

He will do what he failed to do all of those years ago.

Raph and Casey came running around the corner, their lungs stabbing as they cucked in the cold air.

“Just a little further to April’s place!” Casey shouted he noticed Raph had stopped, freezing in his tracks, but he couldn’t understand why.

Until he saw it.

A massive portal. Opening up right there in the street.

Things slowly grew. And grew. It was already bigger than any of the portals from before and it just kept growing .

Raph felt his chest tight, his blood going cold.

What the hell?

A giant, smooth metal tentacle emerged from the portal and slammed to the ground, cracking the concrete as it stabbed into it to stand.

The rest of its body followed a massive, top-heaving thing.

Its body was like a pill case, its main blob was giant and looked like it was about to make itself fall over.

Its arms were uneven. Bigger than what they were meant to be.

On top of the brain, there was a giant tank of mutation that was connected to a pump that was on its hand.

“Yes!” It cheered, “Krang Prime returns to earth!”

People looked up from the streets and started to run in any direction that they could just to get away from the thing.

Casey was staring at the thing, his heart pounded. “You got some kind of plan to fight that thing?” He asked, his voice wobbling a bit.

They both started to back up, “Uh, not really, no,” Raph answered the other’s question, a sense of doom hitting him.

“People of earth,” the thing began, its hideous face transforming into a wicked grin, “The Krang forming of your world–” It raised its giant pump, “Is about to begin!”

The shooter powered up, flickering pink before spawling mutagen out.

Raph and Casey watched from behind a statue as two groups of people were encased in the sludge, knocked to the ground, and covered.

Fully mutated .

Raph felt some sort of burning in his eyes, “No!” He screamed, guilt building.

The people emerged from the mutagen, their heads a blob of pink with multiple bright green eyes placed in places they weren’t supposed to be. Their arms turned into giant tentacles, and at least two mouths were placed at odd sops around their head.

Casey was too stunned to speak. His mouth was a gap in horror at what he was seeing.

These people– People with lives, family, homes– All– Just– Gone.

They walked through the streets like brainless zombies. Stumbling on themselves.

It was horrific.

He should be saying something– Anything. Maybe there is something about this being a real-life zombie apocalypse?

But nothing came out.

Maybe because that was when it hit him.

Nothing was just going to be okay. Nothing was going to go back to normal.

They weren’t making their way out of this with just a few scraps and bruises.

People were mutated, walking mindlessly in the streets. The Krang had taken over. Leo was gone.

Nothing was okay.

Casey continued to stare at the people and finally got some words out.

“Now that is really messed up.”

It was all he could say.

Anything more and he would break.

The gang stood there in the subway cart, everyone was taking in Kistune’s words.

“What do you mean… We’re trapped,” Kally asked, her question slow, trying to process what she just heard.

Kitsune shrugged, “I mean , we’re trapped. We can’t get back to the hidden city, we are stuck on the side of this city,” he stated, his voice harsh and angry.

“ What!? ” Bronze all but screamed, getting up from where they were leaning against the wall.

Kitsune threw up his hands, exasperated, “I don’t know what to tell you! We’re locked out, how else is there to put?” He asked.

Bronze shook their head, trying to clear the haze of confusion and fear in their minds, “Well– Is there any way to re-open the connection? I mean we could–”

“No, Bronze, we can’t,” Kitsune snapped, cutting the alligator off, “We force the connection to go back, and we can’t open portals, we’re stuck here until they open a connection on their side.”

Lunar watched the both of them, noticing how the tension seemed to continue to rise. He couldn’t help but feel as though now was not the time to be arguing,

Bronze huffed, “But that doesn’t make sense– Like so many hidden city civilians come to earth! Why would they just shut it with no warning?” They gestured around, blood pulsing with frustration, “There has to be something you can do–”

“ No, there is nothing anyone can do!” Kistune practically shouted over Bronzen, pointing to the place where the level was, the giant stick sitting in an on position uselessly.

Usagi stepped up, “Okay, guys, let’s not fight, everything will be okay–” “No it won’t be okay, Usagi,” Bronze snapped, cutting the rabbit off, “But of course, you won’t know that because you can’t be bothered to use those giant ears for actually hearing!”

Usagi reeled back as though he was physically hurt, and then his eyes narrowed, “You know what? Fuck you, Bronze!” He replied with a snarl, “I’m actually trying to look at the bright side, and you’re being a prick!”

“What bright side, Usagi? We are fucking stuck in this hell hole,” The alligator turned to the rabbit and jabbed a finger at him, “And I don’t need you getting on my nerves as well by not listening to what’s going on around you!”

“Guys– Guys– Hold on–”

“Oh~ Is that right? Let how you’re listening to Kitsune when he’s telling you that there’s no way he can open the portal. You got any brains to go with that muscle?”

“Oh, that’s rich coming from you, fuzz brain.”

Lunar watched as everyone around him basically unfolded. Kally’s pleas for peace were falling on deaf ears, Kistune was looking at his hands, his eyes wide and wild, the pure urge to hit something clear on his face, Bronze and Usagi’s argument continued to devolve into a screaming match.

And he was just… Sitting there.

The world seemed to swarm around him. He watched as the little group of friends he had made quickly fell apart. Bronze was getting angrier by the minute, and Usagi was getting more defensive. Kally looked like she was about to smack one of them. Kitsune looked like he wanted to strangle them.

He felt a pressure on his chest, and his breathing picked up. Everything was falling apart, and he was just standing there, powerless to help.

He couldn’t speak. He couldn’t get the other's attention. He couldn’t scream at them to stop. That he couldn’t breathe. He wanted to cry, but something was stopping that as well.

He was useless.

“Freeze!” A metallic voice ordered.

There was a symphony of machine whirls behind him.

Lunar didn’t need to look to know what was going on.

The T.V. flickered to life, channel 6 news coming through the screen.

“Invasion! That’s right, folks, the aliens are back!” The News reporter stated, that the screen then showed a giant video of the head Krang stomping through New York, blasting everyone with mutagen.

“Robots are emerging from portals! UFOs are everywhere! A giant brain is stomping through the east village!”

The giant robot then aimed its shooter at the camera, and the screen glitched and crashed.

Donnie, Karai, April, and Mikey were all sitting on the floor, watching in concern. Kirby was behind them on the couch, rocking back and further while hugging himself.

“Yeah…” Donnie started as he turned toward the others, “I’d say we’re basically doomed,” he mentioned, Karai only lowered her head, and April and Mikey winced.

“This is all my fault,” April stated, her voice shaking with unshed tears as she looked down in shame.

Guilt was eating away at her. Her insides twisted with regret and shame. Her head pounded with unwanted thoughts.

“If I hadn’t brought Irma to the lair–” “You can’t blame yourself, April,” Donnie cut her off, he leaned over and looked past Karai.

His heart hurt. He wanted to scream. He wanted to say something. But he couldn’t stand to see April hurt because feelings be damned, that was his best friend.

Mikey felt so many mixed feelings right then.

He wanted nothing more than to argue against it. He wanted nothing more than to yell at April and tell her exactly how it was her fault.

Because it was.

She was the one who brought Irma to the lair.

She was the one who brought someone to a place where they specifically said to not bring anyone.

A part of Mikey knew better. A part of him knew he should give April some grace because they were being chased by footbots.

But that was blocked out by the anger. The shaking rage that he felt deep inside of him.

He leaned over and put his arm around April, and with a smile said, “Yeah, we can do that for you,” in a condescending voice.

Donnie punched him in the arm, and he quickly pulled it back with a grunt, trying to soothe the injured spot.

He threw a glare at Donnie.

He didn’t know how Donnie could do it.

He didn’t know how Donnie could hate Karai’s guts, and not April’s.

What Karai did was stupid. Heartless. Impulsive. It lost them their brother.

It lost them Leo.

What April did was stupid and impulsive. And it lost them their home.

It caused a full-scale invasion. It lost hundreds of lives.

What was the difference? What made Donnie hate Karai, and yet scorn Mikey for hating April at this moment?

April suddenly straightened her poster, a determined look spread across her face, “I’m gonna fix this,” she insisted, “I’m gonna find your brothers and Casey.”

Mikey looked at her as she spoke.

“You can’t go out there, April! You have to stay with me!” He insisted before putting his head back into his hands and rocking, “I’m scared.” he whimpered.

They all looked at each other, confused about what to say.

Suddenly, Miey’s ringtone went off.

He brought out his phone and checked the message that was just sent to him, and his eyes widened.

“Whoa! Raph just sent me a text,” the youngest stated, trying to keep the shakiness out of his voice, “On our way, being chased by Krang Prime, frowny face.”

“Oh, guess they’ll be a few minutes late.”

Raph and Casey ran through the streets, trying to avoid the countless mutants that were flooding them.

Casey shoved one of the creatures, he was ahead of Raph, who was currently screaming, due to his shakes.

His mask was down and he could hear the metal sound of the giant’s legs behind him, the ground rocked as it stepped.

“You cannot run, earthlings!” It shouted, his heart was beating rapidly, his body running on pure adrenaline and the need to survive as his legs began to hurt.

He knew Raph was close behind him, and knowing that Mikey was apparently well enough to send a message to them was the only thing that was keeping him going.

Suddenly, blasts went off behind them, and Raph and Casey had to dodge the way of mutagen shots, with Raph having to get on a fire escape to not be mutated.

Unfortunately for the kid hiding behind a dumpster in terror, he was now one of those… Things.

“Your entire plant will transform!”

Casey heard Raph get back on the ground, and he knew the turtle was getting far behind him, but he picked up his speed.

His mask was down, he was hiding his face. Hiding the terror he knew was on it.

Where was his family? His father? His little sister? Were they okay? Were they–

Raph eventually came up next to him, he looked over at his friend, and his voice spoke before his mind could think, “Raph, what is going on?” He cried out, the fear was clear in his voice, and he knew it.

Raph didn’t mention it, though, he only answered with, “The Krang perfected the mutagen! They want to turn Earth into Dimension X!”

Casey took in the information, his mind spun at those facts. He knew things were getting bad– But this? He didn’t have the words to describe what he felt.

So, his mind defaulted to what was expected from him.

“Wicked!” He stated a short word that wobbled due to his tightening throat.

“Wicked!? Are you crazy!?” Raph shouted as another mutagen blust hit a pigeon that was on the sidewalk, turning it into a gray and white blob that let out a chirp.

Casey zig-zag through the abandoned cars as Raph hopped on top of them, setting off alarms as people screamed and ran– Casey couldn’t tell if it was because of Raph, her because of the giant brain behind him.

One was hideous, the other was an alien.

Casey let out a wet chuckle at his own joke, trying his hardest to distract himself from the situation at hand.

The thing picked up three cars and through it at the two.

One of them blocked Raph off, gaining his attention to the flying vehicles and allowing him to tackle Casey out of the way of another one that was coming.

The two were now on the ground, and they both looked up.

Terror filled both of them as they screamed, the finally car coming straight toward them.

Casey’s heart pounded in his ears, he felt the world go fuzzy around him, he was screaming, but he couldn’t feel his mouth open.

He blocked his face with his arm– What the hell would that even do? – Closed his eyes and waited.

There was a giant metallic crush.

But nothing else.

Casey let out a breath that he didn’t realize he was holding and looked around, seeing that the car had landed in a way that made it stop right on top of them.

He felt relief flood through him, he took in more breaths as he tried to get his mind straight.

They crawled out from under the car.

Right as a metal click was heard near them.

They both looked behind them and saw the brain pointing its blaster right at them.

Casey’s heart sank.

“Goodbye, lower life forms,” it stated, its blaster powering up to shoot the two boys.

Then it was hit with a rocket, and let out a pained yelp.

It whipped around to where it was hit from, screaming “What?” As it tried to figure out what had just hit it.

Behind the thing, there were dudes in dark gray and blue outfits, full-head helmets that had red goggles, and they all had body armor that was on their shoulders and chests.

“Earth Protection Force, move!” A robotic-toned voice ordered, they started to press forward to where the giant alien was, tanks and rocket launchers at the ready.

“Get into formation!”

Dozens of armed cars and tanks flooded the streets where the blob was, calling out orders and making commands as human soldiers took their stand against the giant beast, ready to shoot at it with what seemed like all the power that they had.

Casey watched this in awe. It was impressive to see things like this come together.

There were also soldiers on the roof that ready their weapons, the giant turned to them.

“Pathetic humans!” It roared.

But it did nothing to dissuade the soldiers.

“Fire!” One called out, and they did, firing their blasters, and shooting the rockets they loaded into the beast.

It screamed in pain, and it looked like it was about to topple over, swinging its arms wildly as it was struck.

Raph quickly got up from where he was still on the ground, “Now’s our chance!” He turned to Casey and stated, he then turned, “Run!” He yelled as he started down the road to April’s place.

“But it was just getting awesome!” He heard Casey yell. He didn’t mention the crack in the other’s voice.

There were dozens of those metal bots blocking the door to the subway car, all of their blastors at the ready and pointing at them.

As soon as as Lunar turned around and saw the seen, he quickly backed up to where everyone else was, choosing to remain close to them, despite the thick tension he could still freeze.

“The ones who are the enemy of Krang will come as hostages with Krang,” the main bot in the doorway spoke, Lunar could see Kitusne’s snarl out of the corner of his eye.

“Bronze,” the fox began, then pointed to the group of Krang, “Door.”

The alligator roared at the request, charging forward fast enough so that none of the bots had time to shoot.

Everyone else was close behind them, rushing out of the subway car as lasers rained down on them, forcing them to leap and dodge out of the way in the small hope that no one got shot.

Lunar’s leg was killing him. It felt like it was hanging on by a thread that was about to snap any moment now, and Lunar would let it if that meant the pain would go away.

They continued to run through the tunnels of the sewer, Kitsune listened to the echoes of the metal footsteps chasing behind them.

He let out a huff, it seemed like no matter how far they ran, the Krang were still right on top of them, coming after them–

No, wait.

They were in front of them.

Kistune immediately pulled out his Kama, “Up ahead!” He called out, it was a warning to Bronze, the one up front, who nodded in return.

Right after Kitsune said that a group of six Krang droids came around the corner.

Bronen lunged at one of the droids, bitting the thing down as he used his clawed hand to swing at and bash another.

Kistune leaped forward and sliced one of the droid’s heads off with his kama, before stabbing the one behind it in between the eyes with the other.

Usagi and Kally both drew their swords as they continued to run, slicing down their respective droids in a flash.

Lunar ran past the destruction, his whole body felt as though it was about to burn up. Nothing in him wanted work, let alone keep running.

But even in his spiraling thoughts, he could’ve sworn he had heard two things:

More bashing of Krang.

And someone walking in the sewers.

A group of Krang made their way through the sewer, metallic footsteps echoing through the tunnel walls.

Splinter ducked behind a corner just in time to avoid being spotted by the group.

Once the sounds cleared, he peeked back around to check if he was in the clear. After making sure of that, he walked out slowly, looking around for any hint as to where his sons and daughters could’ve gone.

He looked around the empty sewers, there were no signs of life. Nothing to hint to where his children had gone off to.

He couldn’t help the hopelessness he felt in his heart as he continued to walk along the tunnel, wishing for any sign that they were alive.

He knew he should most likely check April’s place, that was the most logical thing to do, but a part of his brain struggled with the reality that they might’ve not lived long enough to make it there.

Suddenly. He heard what sounded like blastor shots and froze, feeling his heart race as he looked down the tunnel that he heard the noise from.

There was also a chorus of footsteps that flooded the air, a mixture of humanoid ones, and metal ones.

He wondered what on earth the Krang were chasing now.

The group ran down the tunnels, dodging the glowing blast and trying to get as far away from the group of Krang behind them as they could.

Usagi jumped up onto the wall, and spun around, tossing daggers back at the Krang and causing a few of them to go down.

He landed back on the floor and grimaced before he turned back around and continued to run with the group.

Nobody was really saying anything, all of them were just focused on running and getting away from the group that was after them.

Lunar couldn’t help but look back, feeling a bit relieved to see that they were losing the Krang a bit.

That was when something caught his eye.

His vision was coated in green from the darkness around him, but he could see it clearer than the others.

Above them, there was something– A giant creature hiding in the roof of the tunnel, using the tunnel pipes to stay up.

He and the creature made eye contact and he shivered.

He turned back around and sprinted, his leg killing him as he tried to catch up with the group.

He had no reason to figure out what the hell that was.

After the group of Krang passed, Splinter dropped back to the floor from his hiding space and looked down the tunnel he saw the things run down.

He had made eye contact with one of the mutants in the group, and it was clear the one saw him.

He felt a form of helplessness bubble in him as he memorized the eyes he saw.

The eyes he saw on the same beast his son had transformed into.

“ Leonardo? ” He whispered, confusion swirling through his mind as he tried to logically go through what he had just seen.

Suddenly, there was the sound of machinery behind him.

“It is the rodent known as Splinter,” he heard one of the Krang droids say as they powered up their blasters to shoot.

They all fired, “Exterminate,” being repeated as SPlinter jumped from wall to wall to avoid the shots being thrown at him.

He ran down the tunnel he saw the others go down, determined to not let those robots stop him from finding his son.

But he was cut off by another droid, who used the saw on the blastor to slice at him, trying to cut him into pieces.

He caught the droid’s gun right as the others started to approach where he was fighting, trying to corner him so that he had no way to escape the blows.

Suddenly, one of the droids had its head cut off, causing the others to stop and look at where their fallen droid once was.

The head was crushed under a foot, and the Krang turned around to see a current alligator rising.

Leatherhead roared at the group, then charged at the Krang, biting off one's head as he used his tail to slam the other into the wall.

He then to the other and crushed it against the floor, punching it excessively as bitterness and fear coursed through his blood and boiled into anger.

Splinter stood there, he had defeated the Krang he had taken on, and now was watching one of his allies ruthlessly go after another.

“That is enough!” Splinter shouted, trying to get through to the reptile, “Enough!”

Leather Head then rose to look at Splinter, his eyes going from white to green in the blink of an eye.

He crushed the Krang’s head and watched as the blob scurried away.

Splinter walked up to him, “Leather Head, my thanks,” he said, nodding at the other.

Leather Head looked at him, “Great Splinter, where are your sons?” The gator asked, he had gone to the lair in hopes of reaching his friends, only to find it destroyed, and no one there.

He assumed the worst.

Splinter looked down, a hurt look he was trying to keep down clear on his face, “Lost in this madness, will you help me find them?” He asked, looking back at Leather Head.

He nodded, “Anything for my friends,” he offered. Splinter’s eyes narrowed.

“Then let us hurry!” He ordered.

Both of them ran down the tunnel.

Splinter was ready to find his children.

The gang ran through the tunnels, twisting past corners, and stepping through the dirty water.

Lunar’s body was flaring in pain. The edge of his vision began to blare, and his breath aboard and he felt as though he was about to pass out.

He started to fall behind the rest of the group, his chest felt as though it was caving in. His throat hurt and felt like it was swelling, raspy noises escaped his lips.

He had known that he had just gotten out of recovery. The doctors had told him to take it easy so that way nothing gets injured once more. But right now there was no room to be careful.

His vision swam and he was trying his hardest to not think about his leg. To not think about anything else other than running. Not think about how he was trapped in the very place that–

He looked around, confusion and fear welled inside of him.

Where were the others?

The tunnels were empty, no noises other than his own ragged breaths were heard. No sign of the Krang, but no sign of his friends.

He was alone.

He whipped around wildly, did he take a wrong turn? Were they just up ahead? What was going–

There were quick footsteps in the sewers.

A part of him felt relieved, maybe that’s where they were, maybe they were just down the tunnel.

Until he realized that his friends were meant to be in front of him.

Not running after him.

His heart quickened and he slowly started to back up, his mind racing as he tried to figure out what was coming after him.

The footsteps were getting closer.

He turned around and chose to run for it, sprinting down the tunnels and trying to escape from whatever was after him.

He made a right and noticed a ladder leading up to the surface, he took a glance up and realized that the manhole cover was opened.

Maybe they went up?

He grabbed the ladder and threw himself up, lifting the cover off of its place and heading out of the sewer, feeling panic in him grow when he looked around and realized he was in an empty alleyway.

He made his way over to the end of the alley and peeked over to see what looked like humans in black clothing, that had a red bandana on that had a foot elblom on it. The people were stiff, weird looking, they looked too thin to be alive.

Lunar shivered and thought briefly about just going back into the sewers.

Then he spotted what looked like a scaly tail on the opposite side of the area.

He sucked in a breath.

Bronze .

He looked around and spotted a few places he could hide, he needed to get across the area. No sticking around, no fighting. Just run.

He kept to the shadows as he moved, hiding under the fire escape of the building he was near, and then moving quickly toward the inner walls of what looked like some sort of mine or construction site.

He crouched down and looked past the corner, seeing two of those people walk down the area.

He crept through the walls and to a hall entrance about halfway down the area he was looking at, making his way through the maze of walls and tunnels without being caught.

He stopped by another wall and looked around, trying to steady his breath as the cold air nipped at him, worsening his already painful leg.

He then heard what sounded like machinery and paused, freezing as he sensed something walking up behind him.

He grabbed his katanas and spun around, seeing three of those people there, he sliced one of them through the chest and jumped up throwing his left katana to take them down around.

When he landed and charged at the third, sending his last katana through its chest.

He looked over at the weapon and threw it and started to try and get it.

When the wall next to him collapsed four more of those soldiers charged out.

He reeled back, his eyes going wide in shock and fear, his heart thumped in his chest, and it felt as though time had slowed.

He put his remaining katana in its holster and felt his body shift. Bones cracked numbly and formed together as he turned into his snake form.

He used the sharp point of his tail to stab one of the robot people, and then he whipped his tail with the machine still attached and sent another to the ground.

He bit down on another's head as he dove, sliding close to the group to avoid the weapon the final one had.

He quickly zipped past the last one, dropping the one in his mouth, and using his claw to slice the last one as he got by.

He moved through the maze, not caring to get into a fight with any more of those things.

It only felt like a few minutes before he was out of the maze, and on the other side. He transformed back into his regular form and started to run to where he saw the tail disappear.

Something jumps down in front of him. A massive humanoid cat that roared, showing its claws, clearly ready for a fight.

Lunar immediately dropped down and slid, kneeing the cat in the crouch as Lunar slid under his legs and past him.

Lunar jumped to his feet and kept running, ignoring the stabbing pain in his leg.

A fish and what seemed to be a skeleton dog jumped down as well, both going on either side of him and lunging.

Lunar jumped up and allowed the two to slam into each other.

He was now in the area where he saw Bronze go and noticed another open manhole cover on the ground.

He bolted over to the hole and got into it, preparing to lower himself back into the sewers and escape from this hell hole of a place.

That was when he felt someone watching him.

He slowly looked up to the roof to see a man in metal armor just… Glaring at him.

He felt an immediate chill run down his spine and he quickly went back to getting down the sewer.

He closed the manhole cover as soon as he could and leaped up off of the ladder, a breath was forced out of him due to the  pain as his leg twisted a bit, forcing him to have to regain his balance.

He immediately started to try and run against when something in front of him grabbed his biceps.

His brain went into fight or flight, and he started to struggle and kick the person holding him, trying his hardest to get out of the grasp so that he could. Run from the man he saw on the roof. Run from the things that were bound to follow him.

Images started to flash in front of him. Images of something come down on him, Something looming over him. Something standing in front of some sort of words.

He felt fear boil in him. He needed to run. He needed to get out. He needed–

“ Lunar! ”

He paused at the familiar voice and looked up, seeing Bronze’s worried face looking back at him.

He felt immediately calm once more. He found them.

“Are you okay?” The gator asked, looking over Lunar a bit.

Lunar thought for a bit before shaking his head and backing out of Bronze’s hold.

He pointed urgently down the tunnel, trying to get everyone to move.

Bronze’s face scrunched up in confusion.

That was when Lunar saw Usagi pop around Bronze.

Lunar felt himself relax more at the sight of the rabbit, feeling as though he could finally breathe.

He repeated his gesture as Usagi watched the movement, and a look of understanding and fear flashed across his face. “We need to go?” The rabbit asked, and Lunar nodded quickly.

He, ironically, felt heard.

Bronze nodded and turned around, “Let’s go then,” they ordered, Kitsune and Kally nodded and started to hurriedly make their way down the tunnel, but kept a slow speed to make sure the others could catch up.

But Usagi stayed behind, hesitant.

The panic he felt when he realized Lunar wasn’t with them still lingered, guilt and panic had swarmed him that moment, and he and Bronze fought again .

That did not help with the guilt, they were all high on fear, and so tensions were thick, it made sense that they were fighting. But it didn’t make him feel any better.

“Sagi, go,” Bronze ordered, feeling frustrated that the rabbit was still sticking around.

But they saw as the rabbit’s eyes darted back to the turtle behind them, and understood.

Bronze turned around to see Lunar’s face in a grimace of pain.

They bent down a bit and swooped Lunar up, causing a look of confusion and panic to spread onto his face.

Bronze turned around and saw that Kally and Kitsune were waiting for them up ahead.

They then looked down at Usagi once more, and nodded, “Let’s go.”

Rabbit nodded back at them, a look of determination spread across his face.

They two started to run down to the, catching up to the other two, which caused Kally and Kitsune to start running with them.

Lunar was grabbing onto Bronze’s neck, and couldn’t help the embarrassment he felt inside of him.

But he also felt relieved that Bronze had picked him up, his leg still throbbed with pain, but at least he wasn’t running on it anymore.

Something felt… Off. He once felt as though he was leaving something behind. That he was meant to be going somewhere.

He remembered that he forgot his katana back there, and felt a bit bad that he lost the sword.

He decided to pretend that that was what he had forgotten.

But something told him that it wasn’t.