Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

        To put it simply, they were fucked. (More specifically for the time being: Donnie was fucked)

        The Hamato's had just reached the airport, Casey and April went to greet Karai — since they were the only ones who could be spotted — while the turtles and their pets waited outside, hidden in the shadows.

        Karai had just finished her duties in Japan, after reclaiming the Hamato's old land she worked to train the best foot clan soldiers to be in charge of the dojo before she could return home, Shinigami had gone with her but she'd be returning to america at least a month after, she'd been called on by her coven and had to stay due to some undetermined crisis.

        After picking Karai up the Hamato's planned on staying at the Mighty Mutanimals lair, it'd been at least about a year or two since Bebop and Rocksteady turned good, they'd met with the Mutanimals and they were almost instant best friends. (Mostly Rocksteady and Slash since they both liked to smash stuff)

       Anyways, they were celebrating Bebop's and Rocksteady's engagement after a LOT of pleading on the couple's end.

        Karai didn't particularly like them that much as they'd kidnapped her multiple times, but they'd done a good job getting crime rates down in Jersey so she was willing to tolerate them.

        …

       Oh who were they kidding? She was in it for the booze as many of them were, they knew Kurtzman had gotten the expensive bottles, plus Mikey and Casey had decided it was a good time to make edibles. (And to be fair, they were right) It was high time they got shit-faced, it's been way too long.

        "Konbanwa、 Dōkusu. (Good evening, dorks)" Karai greeted as she entered the alley the turtles had decided to hide in, the other two humans trailing behind her.

        The first one to emerge from the shadows was Mikey, he immediately threw himself against his sister, wrapping his arms around her, there was an angry hiss from the container in his hands. "Konbanwa Karai!"

        The others step out of the shadows and sigh Karai simply chuckles as she pets Mikey's head, "It's good to see you too Michelangelo," ICK peeks out of her cooler and meows softly at Karai, the girl rubs her under the chin. "And you too ICK." ICK purrs and Karai smiles softly, "How have you all been?"

        "Eh, good before you showed up." Raph answers simply, as he talks Chompy — whose sitting on his shoulder — chirps happily at the sight of Karai. 

       The snake girl takes the turtle from Raph, she cradles the little guy (who had gotten a bit bigger) in her arms and scratches his belly. "Ah Raphael, it's good to see you haven't changed. I actually began to miss ugly mug of yours."

        Raph rolls his eyes, "Well I ain't missed you, snakey."

        "Lies! He was moping with Chompy the first week!" Mikey exclaims, Raph glared at the boy.

       "When the fuck did you see me moping?"

        "When you were wrapped in your cover eating ice cream while watching TV!"

        "We were having a movie marathon, dumbass! ALL of us had ice cream!"

        "My point still stands! What about-"

        Donnie rubs his temples and Leo sighs, turning to Karai and tuning the two bickering turtles out. "Konbanwa, Karai. How have you been? How are things with Shinigami and the dojo?"

        "Surprisingly well. With Shini she and a few members of her coven had premonitions that were cloudy and usually those are bad news so they wanted to make sure everything was in the clear."

        Donnie frowns, "You think it'll be something big?"

        "I don't know, Donatello. The witches said there was also a shift in the Astral plane or whatever but that's all I was allowed to know."

        "We should keep on our toes in case something big does happen." Leo states, the others nod in agreement.

        "Okay guys! Don't we have a party to get too?" April states, the others nod before they make their way into the rooftops.

        "Hell yeah! Let's hope Spike was right about Kurtzman's taste in booze." Casey says as he pulls himself over the ledge.

        As they're running, Mikey skids to a stop. He points out a few Kraang entered what they thought to be an abandoned lab.

        Usually, they'd kick some ass then be on their way but Kraang activity had gotten a lot more recent in the past few weeks, it had begun to worry the Hamato Clan, especially after a month ago. The turtles had realized the Kraang were trying to bring the resurrected Shredder back from the underworld for some reason, they'd even tried to steal the seal of ancients used to control Kavaxas and that was when the situation got extremely concerning.

        The seven of them stalk over to the roof, there weren't any visible cameras (which was smart considering the lab was supposed to be vacant) and with the night sky and the blackened skylight it didn't seem like the Kraang would be able to spot them from inside.

        They had Chompy and ICK — because this wasn't supposed to be a runin with danger (but in all honesty they should've expected this, they're the Hamato's for fucks sake) — so they set them on top of the roof by the window they used to sneak in to be able to grab and go once they were finished gathering intel, not wanting them to get injured in case a fight broke out.

        They didn't want to engage in unnecessary battle anyways since the Kraang had gotten a hold of Visiozo's anti-mutant tech and amplified it, before the turtles could just muscle through it and it only affected their breathing but now it worked for their entire system, reacting badly with the mutagen in it.

        The lab had been filled with portals when they got there, it reminded Donnie of the sort of bridge or central station between the portals that they'd visited one time.

        There was a portal machine in the middle, different from the portable ones the Kraang usually used and instead of the pink light the portals normally had, this one formed small portals in all different colors.

       The crew had split up to observe the situation better, they decided not to rush in, lest they set something off.

        April, Mikey, and Leo were focused on getting lower to inspect the surrounding portals to make sure the Kraang weren't trying to bring anything from Dimension X.

        Raph and Karai were on lookout duty, they were the backup to help get everyone out of the lab if things went awry.

        Donnie and Casey were tasked with checking out the portal and maybe figuring out a way to dismantle it unnoticed since those two (Donnie begrudgingly admits) knew the most about machines and the one in the middle wasn't fully Kraang tech which was odd considering the fact the Kraang didn't normally stray from their signature metal.

        The portal in the middle sparked to life and a very shaky portal began to form, it was a pale green, it warbled and was clearly unstable as sparks flew from it.

        "Kraang, Kraang has found the coordinates known as 18 coordinates that Kraang desires. Kraang has that which is known as access to the dimension known as dimension codename, dimension 18."

        The Kraang surrounding the portal quickly worked to stabilize it, the portal shook and a small rock flew from it, Donnie managed to catch it before it nailed him in the eye, it appeared to be a small crystal the same color as the portal.

        The portal in the middle of the room made a loud 'pop!' before it blinked from existence.

        "Kraang must perform that which is known as another attempt." One of the Kraang who failed to successfully stabilize the portal demanded.

       The Kraang at the computer nodded and got back to work, trying to recreate whatever that thing was.

        "Yo D, what's that?" Casey whispered, pointing to the Crystal in Donnie's hand.

        "I don't know what it is exactly, but I think it's some kind of crystal." Donnie answered, holding it out for Casey to see.

        "Think it's dangerous?" Casey asked before reaching out to touch it, the crystal had this warmth radiating from it.

        Donnie pulled it back and studied it more. Upon further inspection Donnie realized it wasn't a normal crystal, it was some form of hardened energy, he could feel that this was putting off some serious energy levels, there was even a good chance it was radioactive. (But that didn't stop Donnie from holding it. Why? It's because he's an incredibly stupid genius)

        The energy crystal thingy had this sort of aura radiating off of it. If Donnie didn't know any better he'd say it was magic but thanks to his studies about the ten dimensions from Fugitoid, he was able to sort of wrap his head around its existence.

        The energy crystal began to glow softly and the lights in the lab flickered, Donnie assumed the energy crystal caused it and thanks to the glow the Kraang were able to spot the two in the dark.

       The lights flicked back on and Donnie and Casey were face to face with the guns that had been directed at them.

        "It is the ones known as the turtles and the human known as Casey Jones." One Kraang announced, within seconds gunfire rained upon them and they quickly moved from their spots, going on the offense.

        Donnie tucked the hardened energy into his shell, he'd look at it more later.

        Everyone else came out of the shadows to help, yet it seemed the Kraang were prepared for them.

        Guns similar to the ones from the Kraang's walkers appeared from within the walls and even began to spin in a similar way, energy blasting all around the room. The surrounding portals disappeared quickly. It's like the Kraang didn't want the turtles to know what they were up to…

        Red gas filled the room, the turtles quickly recognized it as the anti-mutant spray Visiozo had created, the guns from the wall were also firing the same technology.

        Mikey coughed violently, "Guy's it's Visiozo's the gas!"

        "We know Mikey!" Raph responded, his own coughs following his words.

        "It's coming from those vents on the ceiling! Donnie, what would happen if we clogged them?" Leo asked, his sword drawing through yet another Kraang bot.

        "If we clog we'll have less than five minutes before it'll blow this lab sky-high since the walls are lined with the Kraang's plasmic wires and the revised earth chemicals in the gas — which is actually more of a thick smog — reacts extremely badly with raw charging plasma." Donnie managed, suppressing his coughs until he finished explaining.

        "Raph, Karai! Ready our exit, I'm going to block the vents."

        Karai and Raph nod before they force their way through newly arrived Kraang, Donnie assumed they had a portal working behind the scenes to bring reinforcements in.

        They were headed up to go out the windows they used to come in but there was a cannon blocking their way, as soon as they came in range it fired.

        It would've hit April if Mikey hadn't taken the shot for her.

        "MIKEY!" The team shouted in unison, April used her telekinesis to block the next shot as Karai rushed over to catch her little brother before he hit the ground. The boy gave everyone a shaky thumbs up.

        "At least things can't g-" Casey starts, he's met with a very loud outbursts.

        "DO NOT FINISH THAT SENTENCE!" Everyone shouted in unison, Casey winced.

        Unfortunately, someone heard Casey and they decided to prove the boy wrong by having Traag and Granitor make an appearance. There were a few heated glares and a LOT of not-so-nice words sent Casey's way.

       "You fucking dumbass!" Donnie hissed as he stabbed a biotroid, knocking another one under Traggs next step.

        "You just had to open your big mouth!" Karai scolded as she charged Granitor.

        "Hey! It's not my fault God hates us!" Casey hissed as he rolled out of the way of Traag's lava puke.

        "No, he just hates loud mouths!" Raph countered while he dodged Granitors punches, he launched Karai up to the giants head who managed to slice it's head off before Granitor picked it up and put it back in its previous spot.

        "I know you're not talking, Raph!" April shouted, she had lifted Traag in the air and held it over Granitor, she waited until Karai jumped down and Raph moved out of the way before she dropped it.

        Mikey, bless his heart, was standing in front of the cannon from before when the others noticed they nearly had a heart attack.

       "HEY!! TRAAG! GRANITOR! LOOK! OVER HEEEEEEEEEREEE!!" He teased, the cannon began charging and Mikey moved in front of the two now standing giants, he dodged at the last second, letting the cannon hit the two.

        As Traag and Granitor bits rained the others congratulated Mikey but the victory was short lived as more Kraang soldiers and biotroids filled in, there were even a few Kraang's walkers.

        As the fight progressed Donnie noticed the cannon aiming upwards, he realized it was pointing at Leo and quickly moved to stop it.

        With his Bō staff releasing his Naginata blade, he dove to ruin the machine. What he didn't expect was for a force field to be around it.

        The force field warped and sent a burst of energy towards Donnie, it sent him flying back into the main system, the energy crystal in his shell fell out, it buzzed against the Kraang computers.

        "LEO LOOK OUT!" Mikey screeched once he noticed what was going on, Leo looked his way and was able to dodge the cannons blast, but it scraped his arm giving him a nasty burn.

        The cannon had fired directly into the vents, making the metal collapse around it.

        "Guys, this place is gonna blow! We have to get out of here!" Donnie informed, he dodged a punch from a Kraang biotroid, the gorilla sparked and the Kraang inside was electrocuted.

        When the machine fell over Donnie saw the thing had punched the energy crystal thing, it was now embedded in the computer and it looked to be drawing power.

        The lab erupted into chaos as it shook, the lights flickered on and off as electrical currents surged everywhere, most of them frying Kraang but a few managed to nail the Hamato clan, shocking them.

        Debris, glass, and metal rained from the ceiling, a few pieces sticking into everyone's skin or impaling stray Kraang.

        Donnie yanked the energy crystal from the computer, he was limping as a piece of metal from the ceiling had decided that his leg was its new home.

        The portal in the middle had been severely damaged but as soon as the energy crystal was free it sparked to life, the pale green portal returned except it was much bigger than before and it bathed the entire room in its glow.

        Donnie rubbed his burning eyes and took in his surroundings, Granitor and Traag had reformed and they'd punched Mikey's shell in who in return looked on the verge of unconsciousness, from afar said shell looked like it had a few spiderweb cracks in it, he was leaning up against Karai who was moving them from getting hit but had glass shards sticking out body, her arm limp by her side, and her head was bleeding.

        Leo was practically crawling on the floor, coughing up his lungs as he tried using his katanas for support to limp towards the exit, Raph running to support him while April — who looked to be in pain — held up an extremely big chunk of ceiling and Traag's fist from crushing him.

        Donnie had been the closest to the portal at the time and it looked ready to blow, "D, GET BACK!" Casey shouted running to get him out the way, but it was too late.

       Everything happened in the blink of an eye, the crystal glowed in Donnie's hand then it shot a thin beam of concreted energy into the forming portal, the portal wavered then warbled again and glowed bright in a beautiful lime green shade. The group stared in horror, assuming something even worse was going to come through it, Casey raised one of his hockey sticks and prepared to strike the machine to get it to stop.

        The portal shook, it shone brighter and the warbling grew louder and louder. A split second before Casey strikes the machine the portal flashes and the room is covered in the green light as the group disappears from the lab right as it explodes.

~°~

        Traveling in the portal had to be one of the most pleasant things Donnie had ever experienced, the ride was smooth, it was neither hot nor cold but a perfect blend in between.

        The portal was somehow soft and Donnie forgot the fact that it even was a portal along with his name, his home, and everything else that lingered in his mind.

        He felt the tiredness and pain he had before exiting him, leaving him completely rejuvenated and relaxed. Why had he been tired before?

        They wanted to stay there forever, he didn't know where there was but he knew they didn't want to leave this place. They closed their eyes and sighed contently, letting themself be pulled along the- whatever this was.

        It was like a massage, one of the most relaxing massages ever, all the previous tension in it's body immediately disappeared. Has it ever had a massage before? Maybe. It's mind was blank and soupy right now... hmm. It'd worry about it later, right now it'd just live in this heaven. Maybe sleep for a little bit…

        One minute it was enjoying its massage, the next it was floating, then it was falling. But the fall was also quite lovely, it was like gently being lowered on a bed of cotton. Then it hit the ground. Hard.

        Dizzy and disoriented, Donnie groaned as he sat up, his head killing him and ears ringing. Donnie blinked to clear his vision, he'd landed in an alleyway and something smelt horrible.

        Was he drunk?

        Or had he ended up here while he was drunk?

        Donnie debated getting up and returning to the Mutanimals lair but… his (supposed) hangover was killing him, so instead he laid back down and tried to block out that putrid smell.

        It was at that moment Donnie remembered he hadn't made it to the party, his eyes snapped open and he sat up immediately.

        Donnie, again, took in his surroundings. This time he noticed the three beside him. 

       On the concrete laid Casey's unconscious form, the boy had glass and metal jutting out from various parts of his body, his hoodie and uncovered skin — due to burnt clothing — had scorched marks, and bruises littered his free skin.

        On the other side of him lay Mikey, on top of his shell… Rahzar's rotting corpse rested.

        Donnie grimace, Rahzar's corpse had rotting bits of flesh flaking off, its broken and mangled limbs sprawled across Mikey while maggots crawled in and out of gooey bits of flesh.

        Donnie moves the body off of Mikey's shell which indeed had another crack in it, it wasn't as big as before and it definitely wasn't as deep.

        The turtle notices a very familiar cooler by the body and quickly snatches it up, luckily the cat inside was okay.

        ICK poked her head out and mewled at Donnie, the turtle gave her a wry smile and scratched the cat under her chin. "Hey ICK…"

        ICK's dot eyes look past Donnie, she lets out another mewl but this one sounds extremely heartbreaking. Donnie turns to look at what caught the cat's attention, she was staring down at Mikey whose green skin had gone pale, he was sweating and his breathing was off. Donnie knew it was likely due to all the gas they'd breathed in.

        Donnie placed Mikey upright against a building's wall and set ICK beside him who took a few ice cubes from her cooler and rubbed them against Mikey's skin, the scene is both adorable and incredibly sad. 

      While she was tending to Mikey, Donnie turned to Casey, he didn't have his medkit on him so he'd have to make do. Donnie carefully removed the boy's sweater, he had padding underneath so luckily none of the glass or metal struck him too deep.

        Casey had a white tank top on, Donnie removed it and cut it into strips with a kunai knife, he then worked to remove the smallest bits of glass and metal — as he didn't want the boy to lose anymore blood — before wrapping the boy.

        Behind him Donnie hears ICK's meows and he scowls at the cat, "Stop it. I keep telling you to stay out of my business." ICK responds with an annoyed hiss, "It's not- you know what. I'm just going to ignore you, why am I talking to a cat anyways?" ICK throws a piece of ice at Donnie's head, who ducks easily and the cat glares at him before turning her attention back to Mikey.

        Donnie rolls his eyes, and focuses back on Casey. The boy had lost a lot of blood if the puddle on the ground was anything to go by, his lips were bordering a light blue shade and he looked pale. Donnie assumed if he didn't stanch most of the bleeding now the boy would go into hypovolemic shock.

        Donnie had no clue where they were, but he knew they couldn't stay here as humans had begun to pass the ally, one of them would surely see him. Donnie had to find someplace safe and then look for the others.

        After wrapping Casey as best as he could, Donnie carried Casey to the roof before going back down for the other two, once he has them both up there he hoists Casey on his back and carries Mikey bridal style and sets ICK's cooler in his lap before running off.

        After Leo, Donnie knew he had breathed the most gas. The only reason he wasn't out like Mikey was the pure adrenaline coursing through his veins. He had to get them to safety before clocking out.

        The turtles rarely got out of breath as their stamina training helped greatly with that but due to the gas Donnie was sweating and panting hard as he jumped across rooftops. 

        His leg had gone numb but he could feel the metal move in his leg each time his leg flexed, sending sharp stabs of pain throughout his entire leg but he had to bear with it, if he were to pull it out right now he'd lose a lot of blood.

        Donnie had tried to spot an abandoned building or some familiar landmark to help him pinpoint his location but nothing was familiar.

        They hadn't explored every single inch of the city, but Donnie knew he wasn't in Manhattan anymore and this didn't look like New York city, Brooklyn, or Queens either, so where were they? Another city? Another state?

        Donnie sets Casey and Mikey down and leans against the beams of a billboard as he stops to catch his breath, the city was bright which was doing nothing to soothe Donnie's forming headache, plus the gas was slowly catching up to him. If he didn't find a place soon he'd pass out on one of these rooftops.

        ICK peeks out of her cooler, she states at Donnie before letting out a loud meow calling for his attention, when he notices the cat she holds up an ice cube. Donnie smiles softly.

        "No thanks, you need it more than me. You'll start to get all soupy if you give them all up." ICK meows softly before returning to her cooler, Donnie closes it and sighs. He needed to get out of this.

       Donnie looks around, making sure he was alone before pulling out his T-Phone, he had to find the others.

       He first tries the last person he called — which happened to be Raph — the phone rings, but he doesn't answer.

        Next was Karai but this time it didn't even ring — the line was dead. He tries her second phone, Donnie had created her a T-Phone in case anything happened to her normal one, unfortunately, that line was dead too.

        Donnie's blood runs cold, was his family okay?

        At this point the turtle was fighting unconsciousness, he stared blankly ahead as the world seemed to blur. He had to blink away the drowsiness a few times, it felt like he was dragging his soul back into his body.

        It felt like a dream, was he asleep? Was this real?

        Donnie opens his eyes (when had he closed them??) and slowly turned his head to look around, blinking the blurry world back into focus.

        No! It wasn't a dream and he had to stay awake. He had to make sure the others were safe, he had to get to safety.

        While fighting sleep, the turtle tries Leo next, the phone rings three times before he realizes Leo had answered.

        "-onnie?"

        "Leo? Leo!"

        "Donnie! Thank God. Are you okay?"

        Donnie says with relief at his brother's voice, "I'm fine! What about you? Are you with everyone else?"

        There's a loud crash, "I was going to ask you the same thing. I'm with April and Raph wasn't picking up."

        "I'm with Mikey and Casey, Raph didn't pick up for me either and something happened to Karai's phones."

        "Both of them?" Leo cursed softly as there's a crash in the background and Donnie here's a very familiar mechanical whirr.

        "Leo, what's that?"

        "...Mousers. Stockman's here." There's another crash, closer this time and Leo yelps, "Shoot- Donnie I'm going to have to call you back."

        "Leo wait-!" The phone clicks and Donnie screams into his hands.

        Leo had breath in more gas than the others, if he was fighting there was a good chance he'd pass out in the middle of it.

        An empty feeling of regret began to sink into Donnie. His choice to call Leo caused more harm than anything, now not only was he alone with two injured comrades, he now was worrying about the rest of his family who were MIA!

        Heh, this reminded him of the second Kraang invasion, Leo had gone off to distract all the Kraang, unknowingly falling into a trap.

        The self-sacrificing idiot.

        "Fuck you, Leo!" Donnie hissed as he threw his T-Phone, immediately regretting it as it bounced off the roof. "Wait no! Shit." Donnie had upgraded the durability on the T-Phones but he threw it hard, there was still a chance it had broken.

        ICK had peeked out of her container and she stared at Donnie with an unamused look.

        "That was stupid, I know."

        "Mrrw."

        "And I shouldn't curse Leo out for being a Dumbass…"

        "Mreoowww."

        "And I should probably go pick that up." ICK seems content with that answer then points over the ledge, Donnie glares. "Y'know your pretty bossy for someone stuck in a cooler."

        "HISSSSSSS!"

        "Okay! Okay! I'm going, damn…"

        As Donnie jumps down he finds his T-Phone had fallen in a dumpster on top of a trash bag, luckily it seemed undamaged.

        "Thank God.." Donnie mutters, he's about to jump back on the roof when he hears voices.

        Hiding in the shadows, Donnie watches as four turtle(?!?) Mutants enter the alley.

        The tallest turtle, resembling Slash, has a purple(? It's hard to tell all the colors in the lighting, there was currently a billboard above flashing every color of the goddamn rainbow) durag on, an unzipped leather jacket on top of what looked to be a beige undershirt and black sweats.

       The second tallest turtle who looked to be wearing a blue mask (again, he could be wrong) wore a white cap, a faded jean jacket on top of a black hoodie and ripped jeans showing off patches of their green skin. (Had they been walking around like this???)

        The third turtle at least dressed smartly for being a mutant in the city. They had on a dark purple(?) durag under the hood of an oversized purple hoodie and black pants.

        The smallest turtle wore a reddish(?) mask, sunglasses, a long sleeved red and black shirt with black, baggy cargo pants.

        "Oh come on! You can't put a ban on pizza!" The blue masked turtle exclaimed.

        "Actually, yes I can. It's an abomination." The turtle wearing the purple hoodie counters.

        "So?? You don't have to eat it!"

        "Looking at the monstrosity nauseates me."

        "You taste buds just suck! Come on, someone back me up!"

        "I mean… the sweet and saltiness does create a nice flavor." The smallest turtle says.

        "Gasp, How dare you turn the innocent against me!"

        "I didn't turn anyone! We're all right and you're wroooong!"

        "I'm not wrong, pineapple on pizza is."

        "How about we just get a pizza to take home?" The Slash look-alike suggests.

        "I'd rather not have that in the lair."

        "Now you're just being extra petty."

        "Of course I am. Fucking with you brings me unbridled joy."

        "Look, we can't go in arguing Hueso might kick us out… so if we do order a Hawaiian pizza we'll just move to the next table, deal?"

        The turtle in the purple hoodie grumbles something, but they seem to agree. 

        The Slash look-alike smiles then turns to some graffiti on the wall, he does some hand gestures and a blue small covers his hand.

        The graffiti opens something akin to a portal on the wall that glows the same color of the fire on the Slash look-alike's hand.

        What is that?

        Donnie notices writing and leans forward slightly, on a sign hanging inside the building it says ''Run of the mill'' and Donnie sees a few mutants pass by the entrance. Huh.

        Most mutant owned establishments in New York had been run by villains, (except the ones Napoleon's town had created) did they create a new one?

        Donnie held back his wince as his leg throbbed, he was currently holding onto the stairs on the side of the building, he hadn't had time to move in it and his leg was sitting in an awkward position.

        Maybe…

        Donnie quickly moved his foot, it wasn't perfect but it was definitely more comfortable than it had been a few seconds ago.

        Unfortunately, the second tallest must've seen something because he turned Donnie's way.

        The mutant stares directly at Donnie, well, at the space near Donnie. Their eyes narrow but they don't notice the turtle, instead they run into the already closing entrance to the run of the mill place, getting their head stuck inside and their body out before they're pulled in.

        Donnie sighs, his brain was now working a million miles a minute to figure out where the hell did this new restaurant come from. Fishface had skipped countries, Rahzar, well, he was dead and the rotting corpse Donnie left behind confirmed that. Could Kurtzman have created it? Donnie knew they were trying to find someplace for mutants to hang out freely as Stockman's early experiments had been running rampant. But he wasn't in the usual mutant hotspots, had mutants taken root someplace else?

        Whatever the case may be, Donnie knew he had to come back and check it out for himself. But, with his family next time.

        Donnie notices the wall opening again and a elderly woman who looked relatively normal stepped out. The turtle takes that as his cue to leave, there were too many mutants and if it was run by villains then he had to get out of there now.

        Donnie gets back on the roof, he picks up Casey then Mikey and ICK meows questionably. "We have to go."

        ICK crosses her arms, she gestures to Donnie's legs and the turtle rolls his eyes, "Look, I'm fine." Donnie assures, ICK gives him an unconvinced meow. "Fine! You got me. But lemme ask: how are you feeling about Mikey being unconscious and the others missing, hmm?"

        ICK glares, but she looks at Mikey and her ears drop, she looks up at Donnie, "...Mrrw…"

        Donnie crossed his arms and grinned, "Exactly what I thought."

       "Hiss!"

      "Oh don't get snarky with me! You don't do this with Mikey!"

       ICK gives him her best “Mhm” look.

       "Okay… you do but still! I'm trying my best here, just give me a little bit of leeway, okay? I already feel fucking shitty."

       The next meow ICK gives seems a bit apologetic, Donnie gives her a soft reassuring smile. He couldn't stay mad at the cat for long. (Except when she rigs the cards in solitaire. Now that was unforgivable)

       A bit of ice cream drips from cats ear Donnie bends to look in ICK'S cooler.

        The amount of ice she had in there significantly decreased as she used most of it to try and cool Mikey's fever, her bottom half had gotten soupy.

       "We have to get you some more ice." He mutters, the cat blinks drowsily — as she usually did when she was a bit melty "Here, stay in there until I get something to keep you cool." ICK licks Donnie's hand before she curls back into the cooler, Donnie closes her in then places her back on Mikey.

        The turtle winced, his eyes trailing down to his leg which had begun to swell and the numbness was slowly fading, instead being replaced with pain.

        Okay, think Donnie. You're smarter than this, I just need to fight through the pain. Pain. Fuck, where are my painkillers when I need them? Painkillers… PAINKILLERS!

         Donnie nearly falls over at the realization, a pharmacy! He needed to find a pharmacy! He could get disinfectants there for them and enough gauze to finish wrapping them all.

        Okay, okay, okay! It's a good plan! If they weren't in New York then there wouldn't be as many EPF bases here. He could get what he needed and get out.

        The turtle sets off again, in the opposite direction of the weird building. After only a few minutes Donnie spots a sign for CVS, he quickly ducks in an alley beside it and places Mikey and Casey behind a dumpster so they were out of sight.

        Donnie heads to a back door, the lock is rather simple and he has it open in less than two minutes. 

        It's dark as he scans aisles but he managed to find a few antibiotics and even a few things to help treat Mikey's fever, he just needed to get the gauze.

        A shadow flits passed the window of the store, the genius was hidden enough that no one would be able to see him inside but the shadow gave him a bad feeling.

        Donnie grabbed a few different boxes of gauze before quietly sprinting out the store, he heard the soft patter of footsteps and cursed.

        The turtle barely made it a few steps before the second tallest turtle mutant from earlier — except he wasn't wearing the clothes for before — had jumped in front of him.

        "Woah! Where d-" 

        Instead of stopping — like most people would — Donnie ran straight into the mutant, ramming his elbow into their plastron.

        Careful not to drop anything, Donnie slunk into the shadows as he headed for Mikey and Casey.

        Donnie didn't have the time to be careful, he hefted up the two quickly— softly apologizing at their groans — before making his way onto the rooftops.

        It's too much excitement. It's too much running.

        The mutant feels himself crashing, he nearly falls on his next jump and instead leans against a wall on concrete — the stair entrance on the building.

        Donnie tries to calm his breathing, he closes his eyes and sighs. He ran pretty fast and a good elbow — like the one he just gave — could stall enemy's enough to get away.

        Donnie holds onto his last bit of consciousness like his life depends on it — because in this case it does.

        The turtle's breathing is even when he senses someone stalking up in front of him, Donnie eyes snap open and he whips a kunai from his belt, throwing it at whomever tried to sneak up on him.

        Donnie struggles to stand, he drops the supplies he got beside his brother. Grabbing his Bō staff, Donnie takes a stance in front of the two unconscious forms.

        "Ow! Hey, watch the weapons!"

        It was the mutant from before. The kunai had soared past and cut its cheek, the only problem with it now is that it wasn't alone.

        A shorter turtle mutant who looked to be wearing what Donnie now realized was an orange bandana was beside him, holding a kusari-fundō chain in its hand.

        The genius scowled, the scientist part of his brain wracked itself since there was definitely something going on. but the larger, protective big brother side of him won in the end.

        The small mutant took a step forward, "Hey-"

        Donnie released his Naginata blade, it was chipped but it'd have to do for now. "Get back you Kuso yarō." He hissed, the mutant stopped and frowned.

        Okay, it was a 2 v 1 and Donnie was on the verge of passing out. He had to get away from these mutants quickly.

        Instead of fighting them, Donnie opted for a tactical retreat. He just needed time to pick up the other three with him.

       The Slash look-alike jumps to the right of Donnie, he held two sai and looked to be… glowing? Honestly, Donnie didn't know at this point.

       Everything was so weird that Donnie half expected to wake up with an extremely bad hangover draped over the railing in the mutanimals lair. (Believe it or not, this has happened before)

       He never did but the headache he still had gave him the false hope that he was only intoxicated.

        The fourth turtle appeared beside the third and Donnie swore he could hear somebody laughing, their taunting cackles sounding as if they were saying good luck.

        FUCK YOU THEN

        He got a weird look from the mutants… had he said that out loud?

        Oh well, he could use this to his advantage…

         As the mutants were already confused by Donnie's random outburst, he uses the momentary pause to throw a smoke bomb at the two groups. He rushes towards the biggest — in case they were anything like the actual Slash — and takes out a blinding powder (or poison, at the moment he couldn't remember) bomb — courtesy of Karai — and cracks it in the coughing turtle's face, they double over as Donnie sweeps the leg of the second one.

        Donnie grabs Mikey's and Casey's arms — wincing as he notices Mikey's had been popped out of its socket — and tries to run away but the biggest mutant grabs his leg injured, he nearly screams as the metal pushes itself deeper, blood oozing out beside it.

        The mutant quickly let go but the damage was done, Donnie felt his leg growing cold from the lack of blood.

       Sooooooooo, grabbing the others and dashing was definitely out of the question. His leg could go out at any moment, instead Donnie crawls up to the fourth mutant, there's something purple on the second turtle's back that looks like… a metal shell?

        Donnie doesn't take long to study it as the smoke was clearing and the other two mutants ran their way, they were surprisingly fast.

        The other two mutants stopped in their tracks as Donnie pulls a Kunai knife from his shell, and holds it against the metal shell mutants neck, small beads of blood forming around the blade as he pressed down.

        "Step back." He commands, they follow his orders, but something itches in the back of Donnie's mind. Why hadn't those two attacked him yet? They had plenty of chances to attack him seriously but they didn't. Why were they being so cautious? Were they waiting on something? Was this a trap?!

        Donnie curses under his breath, the turtle below him stirs and two spider legs(??) emerge from the metal shell, Donnie jumps back, nearly falling off the edge of the roof as his leg gives out.

        The metal shell turtle sits up in front of Donnie and his spider legs or whatever point at Donnie as the taller turtle from before stands beside him, (the small one tending to the spike look-alike) in the small light Donnie notices the swords peeking out from behind him.

(Aaaaaaand here we are)

         Donatello Hamato everyone and he was fucked.

        Royally screwed.

        And he was officially dead as he felt bile rise in his throat, he doubled over and spewed the contents of his stomach all over the concrete in front of him (and a bit on the metal shell turtle but honestly? He didn't care. He hoped his stomach acid fucking burned.) and began being pulled into an unwanted unconsciousness.

      In a last attempt at salvaging anything, — or maybe just because he was pissed — Donnie pulled a second blinding powder bomb and cracked it in the metal shell turtle's face before he passed out.

~°~

        The mad dogs were all crowded in the living room, Mikey was skateboarding in the middle of the room, (it wasn't a big as their old lair but he was skilled enough not to run into anyone) Raph was filming Mikey as the turtle smiles and does a few tricks, Donnie was tapping at something on his wrist, and Leo was laying upside down on a bean bag while reading a comic.

        The day had been pretty calm so far, it was a saturday so April was in the lair along was Casey and CJ, they were currently trying to bug Splinter out of the room the projector room, April said it couldn't be done and Casey took that as a challenge so now they were trying it. (And his actual sons stayed as far away from that bound to be train wreck as possible)

        CJ had gone to live with Casey since he couldn't return to his timeline. And sure CJ was technically Casey's son but she literally adopted him when she met him for the first time, along with April, well, after the whole Krang sitch.

       Though at times, even with the boy being extremely, adorably so, but still extremely clueless, he seemed to be the parent over both of them.

        But the girls had helped him get used to things like electronics, actual, good food, and — most importantly — Lou Jitsu movies. But the boy came to visit/stay with the turtles a lot, bringing Casey along with him since he easily forgot where they lived (seriously, why the need to have many buildings? — CJ's words). It was fun to see him so excited about the world since he hadn't gotten to enjoy it in his original lifestyle.

        Before he had apologized a lot for closing the portal (which honestly helped no one as they tried to move forward from the whole ordeal but none of them told him that. They didn't want to bring the boy down) even though Leo had told him too, and before he always seemed to stare misty eyes at the turtles. Now, he was more comfortable, he was interacting more without the heavy weight of guilt crushing him.

        The same applied for Casey she'd turned good and stopped hunting the turtles and now she was permanently a part of the Mad dogs. 

        Leo's stomach growls, breaking him out of his thoughts, it was about time for dinner and he didn't want to bother Mikey with cooking so…

        "You guys want to go to Run of the mill?"

        Mikey presses his heel into the ground, essentially stopping his movement. "Yep! But can we stop by Barry's first?"

        Donnie raises his head and looks at the turtle skeptically, "For what?"

        "Um… I need to drop something off."

        "And what is that?"

        Mikey averts his eyes and rubs the back of his head sheepishly, "Heh, nothing important."

        Donnie's eyes narrow, "Right, he says with guilt practically radiating off him."

        "Okay okay! I was… I was going to give him that last piece of cake."

        "Hold up, my cake?" Leo asks, Mikey sucks in a breath.

        "I mean, you didn't eat it yesterday and I'm not sure Barry has actually had a red velvet cake before-"

        "So you were gonna steal mine."

        "Come on! You already had two pieces. The only reason that one is yours is because you called dibs!"

        There's a collective gasp.

        "Are you saying… you'll go against the sacred rules of the dibs?" Raph exclaimed.

        "What?! No! I meant-"

        Donnie shakes his head solemnly, "That's low. Even for me."

        Leo tsks, "For shame brother!"

        "But-"

        "For shaaaaaaaame."

        Mikey pouts, "Oh come on! He's our second dad! Can't we give him gifts every once in a while?"

       Donnie looks at the boy skeptically, "...He asked you to do this." He deadpanned. 

        Mikey lowers his head, "He asked me to do this."

        Raph sighs, he wouldn't put it past Baron to ask the innocent to steal for him. "Why did he ask you that, Mikey?"

        "Because Leo ate his leftover meatloaf last time we were there."

        All eyes are on Leo, the boy laughs nervously. "In my defense, he'd been going on for hours about his job. I got hungry."

        Raph quirks a nonexistent brow, "So you stole another person's food?"

        "Oh, sue me! You would've done the exact same thing if you were in my shoes. Plus, he still hasn't apologized for throwing me off a roof."

        Donnie rolls his eyes, "You've been through worse, why are you still holding a grudge?"

        "I honestly don't know. For some reason it's literally impossible for me not to let it go. And isn't that a bit hypocritical? You still have a grudge against the purple dragons."

        "Okay, that is completely different. They stole my tech, stole government tech, and turned Sheldon against me."

        "He still threw me off that roof."

        "Nardo, I swear god-"

        "Look! We'll just give him the cake, now come on. Raph's starting to get hungry." Raph says, rubbing his now grumbling plastron.

        "Raph no…"

        "Raph yes."

        "Raph. Please."

        "You ate the man's food Leo. Food crimes are unforgivable unless repaid."

        Mikey nods along, "He's right. Food crimes are the most evil crimes. Even Donnie wouldn't stoop that low."

        "Actually, I woul-"

        Two very heated glares.

        "-d'nt. Food crimes are the ultimate sin."

        "Fine! But anything but the cake."

        Mikey shakes his head, "He wants the cake, Leo."

        "He wants the cake. So we give him the cake."

        There had been many pleas on Leo's part but they fell on deaf ears as everyone got ready to head out, unbeknownst to them Leo snuck in the kitchen to retrieve his cake which… had gone missing from the fridge.

        Leo stands like a deer caught in headlights as the others watch him close the refrigerator, the cake resting in a container currently sitting on Mikey's hand.

        "Um... I was-"

        "Save it. Get dressed. Meet us outside." Raph says before they all leave, Leo deflates as he heads to his room. His poor cake fallen victim to the hands of one Baron Draxxum.

~°~

        After dropping off Leo's cake, who still glared at his family for betraying him like that. (Let the record show, he had every right to be in a bad mood as Draxxum insisted on eating the cake in front of him. The petty bastard)

        But as they were there Draxxum had asked them if one of them had taken his mystic crystal. Apparently there's been were energy fluxes in and out of the hidden city mostly surrounding things with mystical properties, they'd been trying to find the source and something else… protection something- and blah, blah, blah. Leo honestly stopped caring after they handed him the cake.

        After their run they were starving so they headed to Run of the mill.

        "Leo, I'm hungry, so please don't bother Heuso too much." Raph begged as they ran across rooftops.

        "Yeah, I don't feel like getting kicked out today…" Mikey adds.

        "Fine… I'm still mad about my cake. But I guess I can leave messing with Heuso for another day." Leo agrees, "Besides, I'm craving Hawaiian pizza as much fun as messing with bone man is, I wouldn't risk that."

        Donnie's beak wrinkled in disgust, "You're not actually ordering that crime to humanity."

        Leo grins, "Yes. Yes I am."

       "No. No, I'm banning you from ordering that. It's disgusting."

       The four jump down into the alley which housed the infamous Yokai restaurant, but Raph didn't let them in just yet. He'd wait till Leo and were done with their little spat.

        "Oh come on! You can't put a ban on pizza!"

        "Actually, yes I can. It's an abomination."

        "So?? You don't have to eat it!"

        "Looking at the monstrosity nauseates me."

       "You taste buds just suck! Come on, someone back me up!"

        Mikey smiles apologetically to Donnie, "I mean… the sweet and saltiness does create a nice flavor."

        "Gasp, how dare you turn the innocent against me!"

        "I didn't turn anyone! We're all right and you're wroooong!"

        "I'm not wrong, pineapple on pizza is."

        "How about we just get a pizza to take home?" Raph buts in, looking rather unamused, out having done this time and time again.

        "I'd rather not have that in the lair."

        "Now you're just being extra petty."

        "Of course I am. Fucking with you brings me unbridled joy."

        Raph sighs, "Look, we can't go in arguing Hueso might kick us out… so if we do order a Hawaiian pizza we'll just move to the next table, deal?"

        Donnie mumbles a soft “fine”, the turtle could hold a grudge against Leo for but he respected majority rules. Plus, as said previously, he enjoyed fucking with Leo but not so much so he had to deal with Mikey's puppet dog eyes or even worse… the Doctor…

        The turtles entered the establishment, the others had entered when Leo swore he spotted something moving, the turtle didn't see what it was exactly, and it definitely did look like anything was there… but the space did make Leo feel uneasy.

        Leo peered into the darkness as if a face would magically form in it, though he swore he saw pure white eyes…

        Ah shoot, the door was closing!

        Leo hurries into the pizza place but, of course, the door closes around his head.

         "Seriously? I should've expected that but alas, your stupidity continues to stun me, brother." Donnie says as Raph yanks Leo through.

        The turtle frowns, "I thought I saw something."

       "And what did you think you saw?"

        Leo blanks, he hadn't been sure what he saw, hell, it probably wasn't even there. "I don't know…"

        Donnie rolls his eyes, "Great, so now Leo's seeing ghosts."

         Leo scowls, "Let's just go get a seat."

         The four walked to a booth in the back, they're waiting for a waiter when Leo spots Hueso leaving the kitchen.

         The turtle waves and the man waves back at first but then he does a double take. He's at their table in seconds.

        "Dios mío! Today of all days, why are you here?" Hueso demands, Leo raises his hands innocently.

        "For diiinner." He sings songs.

        "Out. Now."

        "Come on! We'll be good!" Mikey tries but Hueso looks unconvinced.

        "No! You said that last time and I still had to clean up your mess! Out! shoo! I have important people coming tonight and you are not ruining this for me."

        "But-"

        "Do you want me to have to use force?"

        The four sigh, dejected, they lower their heads in shame as they walk towards the exit. (And they may or may not be trying to guilt trip Hueso into letting them stay, it hasn't worked yet but there was always hope…)

        They're met with the cool outside air and they watch the door close in front of a stern-faced Hueso.

        "Nice going Leo." Donnie mutters.

        "Me? What did I do?!"

        "You're the first one to have pissed off Hueso."

        "I- eh, true."

        Mikey throws his hands up and sighs, "Aw man! Where are we gonna eat now?"

        "Bro's pizza?" Raph suggests, the others shrug."

        "I mean, I'm down."

        "Sure, why not?"

        "Eh, what the hell."

        "First, language. And come on then!"

        After the whole Digg fiasco, the pizza place had begun getting more popular, people even dressed in costume to match the performers so it wasn't too out of the norm for them to walk in there, even with their green skin showing.

       The four make their way to the pizza place, on their way there they pass a CVS, Leo gets that ominous feeling again and it seems Donnie does too as his eyes are drawn to the store.

        "Hey guys, wait up!" He calls, the others two to a stop and turn to face him.

        "What's up Leo?" Raph asked, his eyes following where Leo's were currently directed out.

        Leo points to the pharmacy, "I think someone's in there."

        "Maybe it's the manager?" Mikey suggests as he squints at the dark windows.

        "But why would the manager have to sneak around? The lights aren't even on." Donnie says, he moves his glasses down over his eyes, "Besides, I'm picking up something mystic."

        Leo ditches his clothes (as he didn't want to ruin them) then rushes over to the building.

        The back door to the pharmacy opens and Leo jumps in front of the turtle Yokai? Weird, they had never seen a turtle yokai before. Was it a mutant? Had Draxxum tried creating more of them?

        "Woah! Where d-" Before Leo can deliver his amazing one-liner the Yokai rams his elbow straight into his plastron before running off. Leo coughs and doubles over, "O-okay, that was a good one.." he wheezed.

        Mikey arrives to help him, he seemed to have the same thought as Leo as his clothes were also missing. "Leo come on! The yokai went th-..." Mikey trails off as he notices a small pool of blood on the ground, it hadn't been Leo so… "What if they're hurt? Maybe that's why they robbed a pharmacy of all places."

        "Maybe, but we still gotta check it out. Let's go."

        The two bound after the yokai, Leo spots it first, they're leaning against a stair entrance and they seem to be trying to catch their breath.

        Leo steps forward and the Yokai's wearing kneepads, dirtied bandages around there hands and legs and… a purple mask? Strange..

        Leo nearly jumps as the Yokai's eyes open, they take something out of their shell and whips it at Leo, it was so quick the turtle couldn't tell what it was but it flew past and cut his cheek.

        "Ow! Hey, watch the weapons!"

        Mikey had been correct, the Yokai was in bad shape. Not only did they have a piece of metal stuck in their leg, there were cuts and bruises all over their body and they stood protective over two injured people behind them and they didn't seem too eager to attack, which was smart considering they looked as if a leaf could knock them over.

        Leo notices a bunch of unopened boxes behind them, that must've been what they stole and no wonder they stole it in the first place!

        "Leo they're hurt, we have to help them." Mikey whispered, 

        "I know, but how?"

       "Just... try talking to them or something." Mikey steps forward, Leo doesn't have time to tell him the boy is still holding his kusari-fundō chain which probably wouldn't help with showing the Yokai they weren't trying to harm them.

        The Yokai held a Bō staff, the staff released a chipped blade and he pointed it at Mikey. "Get back you Kuso yarō." They hissed.

        Leo knew that was Japanese but he'd have searched up what he meant later, it was probably a curse word. (That he totally wasn't going to say because Raph wouldn't know what it meant)

       As if he was summoned Raph arrives to the right of the Yokai, he has his ninpo activated and Mikey and Leo mentally facepalm, of course he had to arrive now of all times. No offense to Raph tho! They loved him to death, but his timing could've been a little better.

       Donnie jumps beside Raph and this time the first pair actually facepalm. Again, they loved them. They really did, but Donnie and Raph now hold the title for the worst. Timing. EVER.

        Luckily, Raph's ninpo went out. He seemed to have come to the same conclusion as Mikey and Leo, that Yokai was doing what was necessary to survive. He wasn't stealing just for the fun of it.

        Mikey looks ready to attempt to get closer to the Yokai again when it shouts, 

        "FUCK YOU THEN!"

        They all give him a strange look, "Is it okay?" Leo whispers.

        "Probably not…" Mikey answers.

        The Yokai throws an… egg? Well whatever it was, it explosion purple gas in front of Mikey and Leo, they reel back coughing. Through the haze Leo notices the yokai running towards Raph and Donnie.

        The smoke didn't seem to last long as it already begun to clear, Leo and Mikey hear a shout and they run over to check on their brothers. They didn't want to use their abilities lest they frighten the Yokai even more.

        "Leo wait!" The two stop the Yokai has gotten over Donnie and currently held a knife to his neck, the latter looking less than please to be in the situation.

        "Step back." The yokai commands, the two takes a few steps backwards, they new if Donnie moved fast enough he could get out of that, they knew they could save him any minute but they really didn't want to hurt the mutant, they looked extremely scared, their family (or friends) were sitting against the concrete and they were currently fighting for their life.

        Donnie moves and Leo and Mikey frantically shake their heads but the turtle either doesn't notice them or he ignores them as his mechanical spider legs emerge from his battle shell.

        The Yokai jumped back, they'd been pretty close to the ledge and Leo was glad when they didn't fall over.

        The Yokai's leg seemed to go out and Donnie sits up, his mechanical legs pointing at the Yokai.

        Leo rushed over to explain the situation as Mikey turned to Raph who was still on the ground rubbing his eyes.

        The mutant looked sick, Leo was about to ask if they were alright when they puked all over the concrete and Donnie (It wasn't funny. It wasn't funny, Leo. Do NOT laugh) before they began to sway.

        The Yokai looks on the verge of unconsciousness when they pull a small round ball and cracks in Donnie's face, it explodes in a white powder and said mutant scurries back while rubbing his eyes.

        Leo catches the Yokai as they fall unconscious, he slowly lowered them before looking at the others.

        "Ew, ew. They puked on me. It puked on me. I've never felt more disgusted. I need a shower-" Leo snorts but covers it with a cough, Donnie stops. "Are you laughing right now?"

       "Yes. Yes I am."

       "Oh, I'm so glad my misery brings you joy."

       "Guys!" Mikey interrupts, he was knelt in front of Raph who looked rather confused as he stared at Mikey, "What was that stuff you just got hit with?"

        "Yeah, it's making things all blurry and stuff." Raph says as he slowly reaches towards Mikey, feeling around his head — probably trying to figure out what the hell it was.

        "I think that was blinding powder." Donnie mutters, and Leo notices his eyes are bloodshot and a bit misty as he squints at the turtle. "Find some water or something, it'll flush it out quicker."

        Leo nods, he goes to the stair entrance — hoping they had a hose or something inside — and luckily, it was open.

        Leo stalks down, he spots a water cooler and settles for that. The turtle turns the thing upside down, praying no one walks in, and unscrews the jug from it before bringing it back upstairs.

        "Here." Closer to him was Raph so the turtle starts with him first, he pours the water over his face and Raph rubs the rest of the substance out of his eyes.

        He then moves over to Donnie and a wicked grin spread across his face. Leo dumps most of the water on the turtle before getting his eyes, the purple clad turtle scowled.

        "You enjoyed that, didn't you?"

        "Of course."

        Once they're set Mikey crouches over the purple turtle Yokai, "Come on guys, we have to get them back to the lair!"

        "Woah hold on big man, we don't even know them." Raph says, Mikey frowns.

        "But they're hurt. Plus, we owe it to that Yokai, they were scared — terrified and we made it worse and we can't just leave them here to die or be picked up by the government or something."

        "We're taking them." Leo says, "It didn't attack us just for kicks, you guys saw it! They were trying to keep us from hurting them. Like- um-"

        "Self defense?" Donnie supplies.

        "Yes that! Besides, we stopped them from being able to treat themself and their friends," Leo gestures to the two unconscious forms the Yokai had previously been defending, Raph visibly deflates. It seems he hadn't seen them early. "We have to help them."

        "Leo's right. We messed up big time… we gotta help them." Raph agrees.

        Donnie lets out a long drawn out groan. "Fiiiiiiine, but if they try to murder us I'm blaming all of you."

        Raph carefully picks up the purple Yokai, as he head to pick the other one up it's face scrunches up and they blink drearily.

        "Slash? 'ats 'oing on? 'ut 'appen'd?" The Yokai mutters, Raph frowns, he didn't know anyone named Slash.

        The mutant stands on shaky legs and then winces, they turn to their arm which was limp by their side, Leo assumed it was dislocated or broken which is why everyone stared in horror as the Yokai simply popped it back into place.

        The Yokai notices the purple turtle in Raph's arm and frowns, "You aren't Slash… 'imme back m' 'other." They slur, reaching to his side where two sets of nunchucks laid.

        "We aren't trying to hurt you, I promise." Raph says softly, "You're hurt we just wanna help."

        The Yokai seems to consider Raph's words but he frowns, "D said I 'ouldnt tru-st 'angers any 'ore. I al-ways get hurt an…" The Yokai pouts as he tried to remember something, "an 'idnapped"

        Raph frowns, "I promise I won't try to hurt you."

        "O.. k." The Yokai looks at the human on the ground then back to the turtle in Raph's arms, "Will 'ou help 'em?"

         "We'll help them, they'll get better okay." Raph assure, the Turtle gives a wry smiles.

        "Oki, 'M 'Ickey, mmm, Mikey." The y- erm, Mikey says.

        "I'm Raph."

        Mikey snorts, "You 'othing lie Raph, 'our 'icerrr." They mumble before rubbing their eyes sleepily, "I 'reathe alo of gas."

         "It's okay, go back to sleep we'll treat you?"

        Mikey points to his brother, "You 'eally 'omise they'll bve oooo-ki?"

        "I really promise."

        Mikey yawns, he smiles at a cooler than had been sitting in between him and the human and grabbed it, holding it close as he curled up and went back to sleep.

        "Well… that was adorable." Leo says as he goes to pick up the human, Raph carefully picks up the other Mikey, cradling him in his other arm. 

        Donnie looks stunned as he looks over the mutants, "How come I didn't realize it before…" he mutter, the others looked at him skeptically.

        "You know them?" Mikey asked, Donnie shrugs.

        "Sort of. I'll explain once they wake up. For now let's get them back to the lair."

        As they enter the lair it's surprisingly quiet, they're sneaking towards Donnie's lab when April enters the room.

        "Hey guys… what happened?" April asks as she pointed to the body's the boys were currently carrying.

        "They-were-hurt-and-we-made-it-worse-so-now-we're-helping-them bye!" Mikey says all in one breath before they scurry into Donnie's lab, unfortunately, April follows.

        "Woah. They're in bad shape." She mutters as the group sets them on cots.

        "Yeah, we should probably asked what happened when they wake up." Raph states as he sets the supplies the Yokai had gather on the table.

        "Okay then, let's get to work." Donnie says, he already has gloves on and cotton pads in hand.

        They removed the shards of glass and all the metal from all three of them and treated their wounds before using a ridiculous amount of gauze to be able to wrap them.

        After Mikey and the human are set Donnie as the purple turtle needed stitches in his leg and he planned on doing a separate examination. 

         April explains CJ and Casey had left earlier failing to get Splinter to leave the projector room as they sat living room waiting on the results. Donnie had just finished the ones in his lair now he was coming out of April's room.

        "Well?" Raph asked as soon as he saw the genius.

        "Well, they'll survive." Donnie said, everyone sighed a collective sigh of relief. "But the two Yokai have weird traces of this chemical in their system, it's on the human but not it's harming them in any way, the Yokai on the other hand had an extremely bad reaction to it."

        April frowned, "Is it an allergy or something worse?"

        "I'm assuming something worse, if we inhaled it I'm fairly certain it'd affect us in the same way, I'm assuming it doesn't affect humans, just Yokai and mutants."

        "That's possible?!" Mikey exclaimed, he shuddered.

        "Entirely. I believe it's what made the purple one faint and the Mikey so drowsy."

        "Can it spread?" Raph asked, looking warily at the space behind his brother.

        "No, I believe we're safe, it's leaving their systems rather quickly." Raph's shoulders relaxed, "Okay moving on, I didn't examine the human as thoroughly because ew. As for the Yokai… they definitely haven't had it easy."

         Mikey frowns, "What do you mean by that?"

         "The Mikey's shell looked like it's only been healed no more than week ago now it's cracked in new spots, the purple one is extremely malnourished — well both of were but his is the most severe — and he's shown signs of little to no sleep, plus both of them already have previously healed scars and cracks on their shell, plastron, and all over their bodies."

        When Donnie finished everyone's eyes were blown wide.

        "Whoa, who are these guys?!" Leo exclaimed, dragging a hand over his face. "Sounds like they've definitely been through some shit."

        "I'll let it slide because I agree, no wonder they attacked you guys they've probably dealt with a lot." Raph observed, everyone nodded along.

        "Don, you said they were malnourished, right?" Mikey asked.

        "Yeah, it looks like their eating schedule has been irregular."

        "I'm going to go pick up a few pizzas, they're probably going to be hungry once they wake up."

        April nods, "Come on, I'll help you."

        "I'll come too, to help carry it all." Raph says. "You too stay here, make Mikey's friend and his brother don't freak out when they wake up."

        "This is gonna get so confusing reaaaal quick." Leo mutters as the others take their leave.

        Well, all that was left to do was wait for their guests to wake up.

Chapter Text

         Meet Donnie. Donnie was losing his goddamn mind.

         Donnie felt like screaming. Or burning something down. Or repeatedly beating the absolute shit out of something… maybe he could visit a rage room.

         Anything violent would do, really. Because that's how Donnie was feeling. Violent.

         As soon as the Yokai had been settled and the others had departed, Donnie went to take a shower, mostly to get rid of the icky feeling of lingering puke on him, scrubbing all the germs away. But also to think.

        When the Mikey had stated its name Donnie had been overjoyed, the genius assumed they were his and his brothers dimension counterparts but now… he wasn't so sure.

        Turtle Yokai, or their official species name: Kappas went extinct a long time ago in both regular city's and all the hidden ones. Either the Yokai had been in hiding or they were mutants, like Donnie and his family — minus April.

        They could be Mutants but it seemed like too much of a coincidence, the masks? The name? The animal ? It'd confirm either the clone/failed versions/Draxxums fault theory or the alternative universe one.

       As for the alternative universe theory, wouldn't there have been some energy spike? When Jr had arrived the residual Mystic energy from ripping a hole through time had lasted for almost two months, both on Jr and the place he'd arrived. To feel the energy from his little brother charged with his entire life force felt so wrong at times. It had made Donnie want to claw at his skin, pour his energy out, just givegivegiveGIVE until Mikey was safe and back and alive even though he was right there.

        Where the Krang's ship had been is still charged with enough energy Donnie gets chills everytime he goes to that part of town.

        Donnie avoids the area they'd pulled Leo back.

        The Hidden City had even sensed the disturbances, it was major news and still the stories went around the streets.

        To Donnie's knowledge, there weren't any large energy spikes recently. If they'd come from another universe shouldn't there have been some indication somewhere there had been a literal tear in the universe?

(A little while before the Digg crisis Donnie had found pictures of different turtles in his lab. He had no idea where they came from, he'd already been doing research on them and when the pizza places got destroyed the turtle thought he had figured it out, unfortunately the two events weren't related.

        The pictures had laid, forgotten, until Donnie was… in a right state of mind then they were put on his unsolved mysteries conspiracy board (of course he had more than one), unfortunately, they were lost when the old lair was destroyed.

        Had the pictures been connected to this? Had someone caught photographic proof that Kappa were still alive and kicking?

        Had Barry taken pictures of his failed experiments?

       Were they an omen?

       Was something coming to head?

       Was that why Donnie felt restless? )

        It was a strange situation. What puzzled Donnie the most was the puke Yokai(Or mutant, or clone)(he hadn't forgiven them and there was no other name for them, so this is what Donnie would refer to them for the time being).

        Donnie had first noticed the puke Mutant (Or yokai, or clone) when they were at the Run Of The Mill before Leo had gotten stuck in the wall; he noticed the puke Yokai (or mutants, or clones. Damn, this was giving him a headache. He'll stick with Yokai for now) up hidden in the shadows on the walls. He doesn't know how he saw them but he just did.

        Well, technically, he hadn't seen them.

        Like he said, it was strange.

        It was more a feeling? He'd only been able to make out the Yokai's pure white eyes which had also seemed dimmed from the creature's hiding spot.

        He'd known it was the puke Yokai since right after he felt him again at the CVS. He swore he saw movement in the building then he was just… drawn to the Yokai, staring at the shadows through the tinted windows of the closed building.

        Which was again, strange.

        The only people Donnie could remember being able to sense like that had been his brothers and his dad and that was only due to the familial link in their Mystic Energy.

        As far as Donnie knew this Yokai didn't have any mystic powers, he checked. (But not as thoroughly as he would've liked. He had been rushing since he wanted to hurry up and get in the damn shower)

       Though he did find something else (other than an unnecessary amount of weapons) on their person that was interesting.

        Sure, it was probably a violation of privacy or something like that but in Donnie's defense; he didn't care.

        It helped that they puked on him and threw that stuff — Donnie is 95% sure it was blinding powder — at him and Raph so if anyone asked, it was him simply getting back at the puke Yokai.

        In the back of their belt the puke Yokai had a pale green mystic crystal, (And that had raised a dozen more questions. It could've just been something they bought from the hidden cities market, it also could've been something they stole. With how they met the puke Yokai he wouldn't say it was that unlikely. The crystal was so pure, the condensed mystic energy was so potent Donnie had felt it from across the room. (Donnie wondered how well it'd power his devices) Crystals like these were expensive) that had been what Donnie saw when he checked the CVS for anyone, the Yokai seemed mostly free of any mystic energy.

      And that brought even more questions because everyone seemed to have a bit of Mystic Energy in them. Mystic energy was in and around everything. In the Hidden City’s it's counted as an element. Everyone has Mystic Energy in them, not everyone has a lot but it's still a fairly good chunk. The amount in these three was practically non-existent.

       And unless Draxxum had tried recreating him and his brothers (he highly doubted it, but he honestly wouldn't put it past Barry), then they weren't family.

       …Though, they seemed older than Donnie and his brothers.

         Were they clones? Failed versions of Donnie and his brothers? 

       (Could they have been deemed failures because of their miniscule amounts of mystic energy?)

        It would explain a few things, like the masks, and the Mikey. (Even though those things had been given to them after escaping from Draxxum, it could've just been a mutant thing)

        But that didn't explain the human.

        And still, all of that could've been blamed on interdimensional travel.

        All Donnie's theories had holes in them and Donnie couldn't do anything until they woke up.

        Donnie was going in circles, each question went unanswered and only brought more. It was unexplainably frustrating. It was odd, Donnie wasn't even this agitated with the Digg situation.

        The mutant now had a bad feeling about the Yokai — and human — currently unconscious in his lab. They'd even discovered some new chemical meant to harm people like Donnie and his brothers. 

        Who had even created that?

        Donnie shuts the shower's stream of water off, moving to get out.

        A feeling of restlessness settled over the mutant. He'd had the same feeling for the last few days, Donnie hadn't initially worried about it because it'd been in the back of his mind, its presence there but just out of reach, the outskirts of his consciousness.

        Now? It was taking a stance, making itself comfortable in the middle of Donnie's mind, sitting between his rationality and sound logic and his gut, causing trouble. It was like an unscratchable itch. Right there. Niggling. Reminding him it was there every so often.

        He's only able to ignore it for so long.

        So Donnie wanted answers, he needed answers and he needed them Now.

        There hadn't been any real threats to the Mad dogz in a while but Donnie couldn't help but feel these guys meant trouble — or that trouble was coming at least.

        It wasn't a common thing. Him following his gut. Donnie followed logic. Logic was explainable, logic was Safe, Comfortable. Even Mystic energy has its own properties, its own laws. Donnie knew not everything could be explained with logic, but it was still a damn hard habit to break.

       Normally he would turned to his brain for these things but right now a large portion of his brain was waiting on facts — which to be honest was a bit conflicting considering that same half was a little bit impatient at the moment — then there was the other, albeit smaller, part of his brain that was screaming at him to listen to his gut so, what the hell? He'd indulge it, for now at least.

       Plus, until the Yokai and/or the human woke up he wouldn't have his answers (in a way deemed acceptable by his brothers…) anyways. And he couldn't shake the foreboding feeling that was slowly taking over his mind so to calm — or at least distract — his restless brain he'd listen to his gut, give himself something to do. Something to investigate.

       As Donnie dries and ties his mask on before he begins to redress the wound on his neck. Sure, there were a million questions to be asked and even more answers to be given, but the first thing he was getting was an apology (Read: revenge).

        Donnie had now re-entered his lab. It'd been a little while since the others left, it was quiet and Donnie, surprisingly, didn't spot Leo in his lab.

        Again, he couldn't help but feel something was… off.

       His brothers were always one to help people...most people. Not always immediately . But still.

       Though even then, the others hadn't suggested bringing someone to the lair since they discovered the Hidden city. If they find an injured human; to the hospital they go. If they found an injured mutant or yokai then they were taking a trip to the Hidden City.

        Then after Shredder and their old home, bringing someone new to the lair became taboo.

        What made this time different? What had made Mikey and Leo so ready to help these three?

       …and why were these three in this state in the first place?

        Donnie sighed, there hadn't been any trouble in a while, after the Krang trying to take over the world and all, most things had calmed down.

        Their “villains” were more of a nuisance than anything but even their appearances were few and far between after the Krang invasion and Warren and Hypno's wedding.

        There was an incident in the Hidden city a few days ago, plus the Draxxum situation but they haven't had an emergency… They haven't had a life threatening emergency since the Krang (excluding the few months of recovery afterwards).

        Donnie's eyes couldn't help but wander to the injured Yokai and the human they'd brought in.

        …had it been the calm before the storm?

(And that thought scared Donnie the most because dammit, He was starting to become like Raph and if Donnie ever gave a “we are heros, bad villains will come blah blah blah” spiel, he will shoot himself because that would mean he was no longer in his right mind)

        The only sounds Donnie could hear was the soft hums of electricity running through the walls and wires and Sheldon's “snores” — the result of Shelldon messing around with his coding a little, though Donnie swears the robot installed the program just to spite him (to be fair, he was right. Shelldon could be a little shit when he wanted to) — that could faintly be heard reverberating around the lab (a reminder that the robot was out of commission as he was currently recharging and that was no aid to Donnie's already growing concerns about being with the Yokai that tried to murder him half an hour ago).

       Thanks to the gaps in its teeth, there was also a soft whistling coming from the puke Yokai to accompany the obnoxious “snores”. It annoyed Donnie, sure, but it also… comforted him in a way? Against his will, it rose against the white noise and the snores and it unwound him a bit (Yet another thing to add to the “reasons why these Yokai/mutants/clones are potentially dangerous” list) and that's what irritated him, making him contemplate whether to gag the turtle or not.

       And– oh, oh look! Guess what it could be? Surely not another question. Oh wow. It is. How shocking. Donnie’s eye twitched.

      Why was he so worked up? Donnie can't remember the last time he'd felt this frazzled with nothing visibly going on. Why was he so tense when nothing has happened? Why was he overthinking this much? Why was-

       Why was the damn whistling getting louder?

       Donnie walked over the Yokai, he grabbed a cotton pad from the first aid kit and stuffed it in-between the gap. Why did doing that make the white noise so unbearable?

       Donnie was getting a headache.

       With Leo's unannounced absence and Sheldon being out of commission, let the record show that if anything happens (to clarify, he means to the Yokai, not himself. Donnie was confident in his ability to defend himself, though fairly less confident in his ability not to snap ) he's putting the entirety of the blame on Leo.

        The turtle was currently looking over the Yokais and the human with his goggles. For two reasons, both to check more thoroughly that the three didn't have any mystic powers and for any anomalies he didn't want them to pop out of existence due to their atoms being in the wrong dimension, if they were from a different dimension that is.

(And no, this is not a movie thing. A lot of “movie things” are based off of scientific theories anyways, no matter what Leo and Mikey say.

But, just in case, his brothers will never be hearing of this examination because if they knew he tried something from movies — no matter how many actual scientific theories they're based off of — they'd never let him live it down and probably demand he test every sci-fi myth in existence and yes, they've tried this before).

        The three didn't seem to have any visible reactions happening so Donnie assumed they were safe, for now at least.

        The turtle was tempted to wake them up already but ultimately decided against it. With the drug they had come in contact with, the genius wasn't sure it would be a good idea to wake them up prematurely.

        Speaking of which…

        Donnie had run a few cotton pads over the yokais skin and taken a few samples of their blood earlier when he first discovered they were under the influence of some type of drug.

        When he first scanned them he found the drug in their lungs, but a separate diagnosis led him to discover it'd been on the Yokais skin and rapidly dispersing in their blood so he believed it'd been a type of gas they were subjected to.

        Donnie also realized it seemed to mix with the Yokai's blood, well, the blood that wasn't in their body at least. The genius decided it'd probably be best to know more about the substance that seemed to specially target Yokai and mutants.

        Before he'd gotten in the shower Donnie made the quick decision of letting his computer scan the samples.

        Which now seemed to be complete.

        Donnie nearly cried at the opportunity for a distraction.

        So. the turtle moved to his desk, sat down, read over the file and…

        Restrained himself from banging his head against the table.

        At least ⅔ of the chemical compounds in the drug were unknown.

       And that shouldn't be possible since Donnie's computer could run both chemicals from topside and the Hidden city. PLUS additional compositions from the damn future (courtesy of CJ, his genius nephew second assistant).

        It was piling on, the list of concerns Donnie had.

        There weren't many times where Donnie could say he's been this frazzled. The most recent being during the Krang 's invasion and Donnie really hoped this wasn’t as bad because he didn't want to go through another thing like that.

        It's been a while since Donnie so desperately hoped he was wrong.

        He didn't want to dwell on it, lest he fell into a rabbit hole of questions while being no closer to an answer. (Raph’s says it's “unhealthy”, Nardo says Donnie gets crazy eyes. The only reason he restrains is to not worry Raph, which would involve the wrath of Mikey, because Raph is a conniving emotional manipulator that's used the power of Guilt and brought Mikey over to the dark side.)

       He could be patient and wait. Donnie was very patient.

       In fact, he's so patient that, instead of snapping when the puke Yokai’s head lolls to the side and the cotton ball falls out and that damn whistling continues , he calmly stands and leaves his lab to get some fresh air.

        “Nardo, I'm going out.” He calls out, Leo was there , he wouldn't have left, Donnie was sure he heard him. He just wasn't bothered enough to check <s>(he was this close to losing it)<s>.

        Donnie climbs up a fire escape after he leaves from a sewer grate in an alley. On top of the building Donnie sits on the edge and pulls out his phone.

        He could text the others.

The yokai are still asleep. How long is left on the food?

cant tlk be ing chased byyt stocks bous mous ers

        Donnie calmly takes a deep breath.

        He screams.