Chapter Text
Today is going to be a completely normal and uneventful day.
Leonardo Hamato repeats this every day, almost as a promise to himself that he and his brothers will not be thrown into life threatening situations for the next 24 hours. It doesn’t always work, of course, they still fight the occasional evil doer, but no one has been hurt seriously since the Kraang invasion, so he must be doing something right. He just needs to keep doing that something, and everything will be fine. He and his brothers will all live long and happy lives, and they’ll die because they’ve simply grown too old, not because someone killed them. At least, not if he has something to say about it.
Leo rolls out of bed, still sore despite the Kraang attack being three months ago. He hasn’t fully healed physically, and he doesn’t even want to think about how he’s doing mentally. Sometimes he wonders if he’ll ever be truly healed from that.
He shakes his head to get rid of those unwelcome thoughts. Uneventful day, remember?
He picks up his mask he left hanging over the edge of his bed and changes out of his pajamas into his regular outfit. He grabs his katanas from beside his bed because well, it can never hurt to be too prepared. Without putting his pajamas away or making his bed, he leaves his room to join his brothers who almost definitely woke up before him. Leo isn’t exactly what most people would call a morning person, while his brothers are the exact opposite. He and his twin, Donnie, prefer to spend most of their time awake at night, while Mikey and Raph love waking up at the buttcrack of dawn.
There’s noises coming from deeper in the lair, so he follows them to wherever his brothers are. He can hear the muffled sound of the tv playing as well.
Alright. Let the show begin.
“Ooooooooo, are there any good commercials on tv today?” He says, zipping through the hall to join his brothers on the floor in the living room.
“Leo! You’re awake! We’ve been waiting for houuurrrsssss.” Mikey whines as he slides off the couch in the center of the room.
“He’s right, we have been awake and waiting for approximately 3 hours, 17 minutes and 3 seconds.” Donnie chimes in.
“Well I was-”
“Four seconds.” The purple clad turtle cuts him off with a smug grin. Leo sighs.
“Can you blame me for getting my beauty z’s? And you know, you’re one to talk, I’m surprised you were up this early Don.” Leo jokes.
“Oh I never went to sleep.” One look at his bloodshot eyes gives Leo all the evidence he needs to believe his brother.
“Eeeooohhhhhkay. So, Donnie is slowly going insane, what else is new?”
“Not you sleeping in, that’s for sure.” Raph chuckles.
“What’s with all the sleep slander going on here?” Leo pauses. “Hey sleep slander, now that’s a good one. Try saying that five times fast.”
“Sleep slander sleep slander sleep slander sleep slander-” Mikey, ever competitive, jumps at the challenge before cutting himself off. “No more distractions! Can we pleaseeeeee show him now Donnie?”
“Show me, what exactly?” Leo questions.
“Our project!” Mikey says proudly.
“Ah yes, of course, because that really narrows it down.” Leo grins.
“It is in my lab, follow me.” Donnie says as he stands up and walks out of the room, not waiting to see if anyone is following him or not.
Mikey jumps up immediately to trail after him, but Leo and Raph hang behind.
“Do you happen to know what this mystery project is?” Leo leans over to ask his older brother.
“Not a clue. They wanted to show it to you first.” He answers.
“Leoooooooo come on!” Mikey shouts from down the hall.
“Yeah Leo, come on!” Raph nudges him gently before taking off down the hall with Leo hot on his tail.
They arrive in Donnie’s lab at the same time, and are greeted by a rather anticlimactic sight. There’s no giant machine, or chalkboards filled with impressive calculations, just a table with a sizable computer and a sheet draped over, something. The sheet does its job well, Leo has no idea what is hiding beneath.
“Soooooooo, what’s this super amazing project I’ve been hearing so much about in the past five minutes?” Leo asks, while Donnie takes his place behind the computer.
“Well, as you know, I’ve been experimenting with the Kraang tech left over from the invasion,” Donnie begins to explain.
Leo tenses slightly at the mention of the Kraang, but he manages to hide it.
“And we’ve been working on multiple backup plans in case anything similar to,” Donnie throws a look at Leo. “The incident happens again. So-”
“We made a portal!” Mikey cuts him off, earning him a raised eyebrow from his brother. “Sorry Don, you were taking too long. I wanna test it already!”
Mikey runs over to the sheet and pulls it away, revealing a large metal circle with wires and bits of Kraang tech all over it.
“And we’re sure this, portal, is safe?” Raph asks.
“Oh we have absolutely no clue. We were waiting for Leo to test it.” Donnie replies.
“I’m honored.” Leo says, clearly implying that he is in fact, not honored.
“You’re the only one who can safely generate portals, so if it doesn’t work you can just portal back.”
Mikey reappears, now sporting some clear high-tech wrist warmers. “So whaddya say Leo? Wanna give it a shot?”
“Why not? And if it goes wrong,” He leans in to whisper to Mikey. “We can just blame it all on Donnie.” Leo finishes with a wink, which Mikey copies.
“Now,” Donnie begins as he leads Leo and Raph to the designated ‘hopefully won’t get brutally massacred during the portal opening process’ area. “I won’t bother explaining all the scientific details since I know you won’t listen anyways, but essentially, the tech stabilizes and channels Mikey’s powers, allowing him to open a portal without literally tearing himself apart.” Donnie glances over at his younger brother, before turning back to Leo. “In theory.”
“And now that theory is about to become a reality! Fire it up Donald!” Mikey pumps his fists in the air.
Donnie nods and starts pressing buttons on the computer, causing the metal wheel to spin.
Mikey holds out his arms as they start to glow bright orange. The wristbands expand so there’s about one inch of space around his arm. The cracks and flecks start to appear and break off his arm, but instead of floating away they remain trapped inside the wristband.
“You alright Mikey?” Raph calls out over the noise of the machine.
“Never better!”
A swirling energy builds inside of the circle, starting off orange but slowly turning a not-quite-purple not-quite-pink color. After a couple minutes, the whole circle is filled and seemingly stable.
“It actually worked! I mean I knew theoretically that the science would pull through but mystic elements are iffy at best so,.” Donnie sighs. “Wow I love science.”
Raph steps forward, now that the initial portal opening process is complete. “Hey Don, is the portal supposed to be purple?”
“All the best things in life are.” He replies with a smug grin.
“Welp! This seems incredibly trustworthy. Step aside boys, it’s Leon’s turn to shine.” Leo announces as he approaches the swirling portal.
“If anything goes wrong remember you gotta portal out of there immediately. Don’t worry about finishing the experiment or-”
“Relax Raph! Trust the science or whatever Donnie said.” Leo attempts to pat his older brother on the shoulder, but he can only reach just above his elbow. “See you on the other side, hermanos!” He says with a grin as he dives into the purple-pink swirl, with no clue of what could be on the other side.
The other side, is again, rather anticlimactic. It’s just gray. Gray ground, gray walls, endless gray sky. There’s nothing here. But hey, it’s better than the last new dimension he visited.
“Hellooooooooo? Anyone heeeeerrreeee?” He calls out into the vast emptiness. Unsurprisingly, nothing responds.
He turns around, ready to rejoin his brothers and reports his findings, but the portal is gone. It’s gone.
He spins around, trying to find that small sliver of color in this gray world but there’s nothing.
“Donnie? Donatello this isn’t funny! Mikey? Where are you guys?” He shouts, his voice cracking with the effort.
He grabs his katanas and starts swinging them, ready to make a portal home, but before he does the purple-pink swirl reappears.
He sighs and puts his katanas away, ready to step through the portal and give his idiot brothers a piece of his mind. He passes through the purple-pink swirl, bumping into something but thinks nothing of it, completely preoccupied as his world fades to black.
Today is going to be a completely normal and uneventful day.
Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!
“Gyuuhhhhhhhh.” Leo groans as he rolls over to shut off the stupid alarm someone left on, but smacks his hand right into the wall.
That’s weird. Wasn’t the wall always on the other side of the bed?
Brushing it off as another Mikey prank, he clicks the button on the clock to stop the beeping.
He stands up and once again starts getting ready for the day, ignoring the sense of wrongness growing inside him.
Everything in this room feels off, like it's his room but someone else put up the posters, organized the comics, hung up the mirror,
Holy shit the mirror.
It's broken, showing someone else's face instead of his own.
The person in the mirror has a wider face, blue eyes, and is missing his iconic red eye bananas.
But somehow, when Leo reaches up to touch his face, the mirror's inhabitant touches his own face.
It’s, him?
“I, but I’m, I’m ugly!” He yells in shock.
“Yeah, we’ve known for a while.” A new voice says, coming out of seemingly nowhere.
“Glad you’ve finally accepted it bro.” Another voice joins.
Leo turns around to see three new people standing in his doorway. They all look similar to this new body, but with different eye colors, head shapes and bandana colors.
All three of them are teenaged mutant turtles.
Red, orange, purple, Raphael, Michelangelo, Donatello.
What is happening??
They’re his brothers, they have to be. How many other teenage turtles run around wearing those exact colors carrying those exact weapons in New York? But at the same time they can’t be. His brothers are back in the right world, not this messed up place where nothing makes sense.
“Earth to Leo, anyone there?” Donnie, not his Donnie but a Donnie nonetheless, waves his hand in front of Leo’s face in an attempt to bring him back to reality.
“Captain Leo, we need ya on the planet earth not up in dreamyland.” Raph gives him a solid thwack in the arm.
“Hey, um, ouch? That hurt!” Leo complains, rubbing his arm.
“Oh yeah? Go cry me a sewer.”
Leo has no idea what this shorter, angrier Raph’s deal is, but at least he won’t have to deal with him for long, right? Clearly there was a mix up during the portaling process, but his real brothers will be working on a solution and won’t stop until he gets back.
“Come on Mikey, we gotta make some breakfast.” Raph turns and starts walking away.
“I already told you Raphael-e.” Mikey says, putting extra emphasis on the L. “You’ve been banned from making breakfast. You’re bad luck.”
“I’ll show you bad luck.”
Mikey and Raph continue arguing as the three turtles walk away, leaving Leo alone.
The first thing he does is look around for his katanas. He finds them quickly, and swirls them around in the motion that usually generates portals.
Nothing.
He figured as much, different dimension, different rules, but he can’t deny there’s still some disappointment.
“It’ll be fine. Everything will be fine. Donnie’s smart, he’ll figure it out.” Leo whispers to himself. “And in the meantime, you just have to blend in here.” He rubs his arm again.
If this Raph reacted like that when Leo was only zoning out, how will he react when he finds out that Leo is in fact, not his Leo?
He has to blend in, hide that small little detail, possibly for his own safety.
But it’s fine. He’s the faceman, right? Everyone loves the faceman. He just needs to fake it till he makes it, or until his brothers come up with a mystic/science fix to get him the heck out of here.
Alright.
Let the show begin.