Chapter Text
Leo groaned as he struggled his way back to consciousness. He was reluctant to admit it but he was starting to think that maybe the solo mission to the Grand Nexus Hotel hadn't been one of his better ideas. It should have been easy. It was a freaking recon mission for pizza supreme's sake. And maybe after two years of relative peace and normalcy they had grown a little bit lax with protocol's, but by that point anything short of earth shattering, alien invading, apocalyptic calamity had started to feel like a walk in the park. Big Mama had been especially manageable, keeping mostly to herself in the time since the Krang invasion as she worked on restoring both her hotel and the Battle Nexus back to their former glory.
When Donnie's network had picked up whispers of something, it was really a no-brainer for for Leo to portal in, take a look around and report back, easy peasy lemon squeazy. But where Leo was involved things were rarely easy, and really he should have known this would be no different.
Leo's plan had been going great, dare he say it, it had been going perfectly. Through a masterful combination of portaling ninja invisibility lessons 1-5, Leo had made his way through the hotel completely undetected. The only thing that wasn't going right was that he was coming up empty. Nothing, diddly, squat. There was no mention or evidence of any ill intent or grand nefarious plan that he could find. He was getting ready to call it quits and head back to inform Donnie that their intel had been wrong, when the previously empty hotel corridor became very much the opposite.
"Oh turtley-boo," came the all too annoying sing-song voice from behind him. "Surely you aren't leaving without coming to say hello to Big Mama!"
Leo slipped into the face man persona as easy as breathing, turning on his heel with a grin and open arms. "Big Mama," he crowed, "Long time, no see. How have things been?"
“Oh, things have been just splendiferous, thank you for asking,” Big Mama said as she clapped her hands together. “The hotel is just bustling with patrons, and I have some giddidy-grand new ideas for the Battle Nexus.”
Leo nodded along, not failing to notice the glint that flashed in her eyes at the mention of the Battle Nexus. So maybe Donnie's intel had been correct, she was definitely up to another one of her schemes.
“You know that all sounds really great,” he said, shifting ever so slightly to more easily reach his katanas, “but I really do have got to get going. It’s been so—” Leo was cut off by a large hand clamping down on his shoulder, the owl yokai having suddenly appeared behind him along with several other distinctly murderous bellhops.
Big Mama's lip jutted out in an exaggerated pout. “I really must insist that you stick around just the teensiest bit longer my dear. You are quite important to my little pimbly-plan after all.”
Leo felt his stomach drop as he realised this wasn't just a bit of bad luck and a really good security guard watching the tapes. This was a trap and they, scratch that he (because he had been the one to insist that it would be totally fine to go alone), had fallen for it.
Leo's hand reached for the panic button on his chest at the same moment something hard and heavy connected with the back of his head, dropping him into unconsciousness.
Which is how he found himself strapped to a table in the Grand Nexus Hotel. Really he expected better of Big Mama. She usually had the decency to provide 5-star accommodations to her prisoners, at least through the "negotiation" process, and the barren room and glaring lights simply weren't cutting it.
Leo craned his neck to survey the damage, but couldn't see any cause for alarm other than the lump growing on the back of his head. Leo chuckled half-heartedly, glad to see that Big Mama still preferred brawns over brains when it came to selecting her employees, his tech and weapons piled conveniently on a table.
The detail that was bothering him the most, however, was the freaking needle and IV tube sprouting from his arm, red blood spiraling out of his line of vision and toward a truly unsettling golden-green glow that was emanating from behind him. Not only had he been captured by Big Mama but now she was using him as some kind of science experiment? Hadn't he been a part of enough of those by now?
The room was still empty so he took some time to contemplate his options. Option A: He could portal himself to his swords, but without holding one it took a lot more energy and if he was being completely honest the draining blood and probable concussion were making that rather unappealing. Option B: He could wait for his siblings to notice that was missing, which based on the two hour check in he had planned with Donnie, would be happening soon enough. Of course Option B came with the unfortunate addition of having to be rescued from Big freaking Mama and her goons and jeeze that was just embarrassing. There was also the small chance that Big Mama was about to let him die from exsanguination.
Leo's escape plans were interrupted by the arrival of Big Mama in her true form, along with a variety of lab coat sporting yokai.
"Apologies about the amenities, they aren't up to my usual standards, but changing terms and all that," she said as a weasel yokai with dark brown fur began the process of removing the IV from his arm. He could hear several of the others working on something behind him, but could only see the weasel and Big Mama.
"What's your plan here Big Mama?" he demanded, blinking hard to dissipate the dancing spots that had begun to gather at the edges of his vision.
"Oh I'm so glad you asked," she replied with a small shimmy. "As I'm sure you know you know the relaunch of the Battle Nexus has been....a bit of a cracker doo. I need my next Battle Nexus Champion and your family are the best competitors I've ever had."
"Look," Leo sighed, "I don't know how many times we have to tell you but--"
"Oh, no," Big Mama interrupted. "I'm no longer interested in you or your siblings. Too much of a fizzy winkle to deal with."
"Hey!" Leo may not have wanted to fight for Big Mama, but really where was she going to find anyone better than them?
"I've found some alternative avenues that I have yet to explore. Really I should be thanking your father for the idea.”
“Splinter?” Leo asked, wondering what the hell his Pops had gotten into now.
“Ah, no. Your other father, Draxum,” she said, her smile growing wider.
Leo's blood turned to ice. Big Mama had always preferred trickery or pure force when enacting her schemes. Science had never been a part of the equation and certainly never Draxum’s brand of science.
"Surely if Draxum could pull it off, my vast resources can accomplish the same."
What had she done? Leo's heart pounded in his chest and his jaw ached from how tightly he had been clenching his teeth. He wasn't sure how he knew, but Big Mama had crossed a line. Something about all this was simply wrong.
Big Mama gestued and the squeak of rolling wheels signalled the appearance of the glowing light's source.
It was a tank, shaped like a giant pill capsule that had been placed on its end, and the golden-green empyrean bubbled inside. The other end of his IV, protruded from the tank, still red with his blood. Leo saw all this before focusing in on what he was really being shown: the small dark figure suspended inside.
"Why take, what I could simply create?"
Leo couldn't process what he was hearing, what he was seeing, or perhaps he was just processing it all a little bit too well.
The bubbles began to dissipate, revealing the figure in greater detail and confirming every fear Leo never knew he had. The infant mutant turtle was small, about the size of Leo’s hand, and it was curled in on itself, eyes tightly shut against the world around them. He couldn’t discern much about the baby thanks to the glowing liquid, but he could see that they had stripes marking their face and limbs similar to his own.
Pizza Supreme in the Sky, Big Mama had created a mutant, just like Draxum had done with Leo and his siblings 19 years before, a mutant made using his blood. His heart squeezed as the connection between him and the tiny infant snapped into place and and his body filled with an immediate, overwhelming rage.
“You have made a very big mistake,” Leo growled, his eyes snapping from the tank to Big Mama as the glow of his ninpo began to build beneath his skin. He didn’t wait for Big Mama to respond. She had talked long enough and he was done with her villainous monologuing. Golden-green was overwhelmed by blue as Leo teleported free of the restraints and to his katanas on the other side of the room. He swung his satchel and belt over his shoulder and spun with his swords at the ready.
The henchmen had already started to converge and he lunged forward, knocking a cat yokai to the ground with a blow from the hilt of his sword. He spun, slicing out at the weasel who had removed the IV from his arm and kicking a gangly, bird thing squarely in the chest.
"Stop him!” Big Mama screamed over the rapidly rising chaos, “Don’t let him reach the test subject!”
His anger burned impossibly brighter. Test subject. Not a living creature, not a baby, not his baby (because he had apparently decided that much was a fact), but a test subject. There wasn't time for anger though and certainly not time for life altering revelations. If they had any chance of escaping he needed to stay focused.
Leo surveyed the disappointingly small room, and knew he couldn't fight them. Well he could, but that would be messy and the chances of the tank getting hit or broken was too high.
His legs tensed and he dove through the portal that appeared at the end of his blade, just barely dodging the bird yokai who had gotten back to their feet. The exit portal opened just above and to the side of the tank, and Leo swung his katana strong and sure, cutting cleanly through the glass and ooze. The top of the tank shattered to the floor and Leo landed on sharp shards that bit into his feet.
He didn't wait for the thugs to track his progress across the room. He sheathed on his katana and plunged his hand into the ooze, grabbing the small creature inside. The sharp claws of a fox yokai dug into his shoulder as Leo pulled the baby to his plastron.He jerked forward, claws tearing through flesh, and using the movement from his momentum to open a portal beneath him and falling through, Big Mama and the Grand Nexus Hotel disappearing behind them.