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Published:
2023-09-05
Updated:
2023-11-05
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2/?
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Muddy Waters

Summary:

Leo had just disappeared through a portal with the Krang and they weren't going to get him back. They were never going to see him again.

Mikey pulled through for them, though. Somehow he managed to open a portal to the Prison Dimension. Raph had Leo in his grasp, pulling him in, so what happened?

How did they get here? And where exactly was 'here' anyway? He just wants to protect his brothers and go home. After everything they've been through, it's the least the universe owes them.

Notes:

No one asked for this, but the 2007 TMNT movie was my favorite when I was a kid and I still love it, so here we are. I've also seen a bunch of crossovers, so now I'm inspired and obsessed. I want all the iterations to interact. UvU

I've tried so freaking hard to find the height of the 07 turtles, but I've found nothing concrete. So their heights are a guesstimate on my part. I did find their ages, though. According to Kevin Munroe (07's directer) the boys are around 18-19 years old during the movie.

Updates will be irregular and spaced out.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter 1

Chapter Text

 

 

The sky was bright with the aftermath of a giant explosion. Debris was falling from what's left of the technodrone, each piece burning in different colors as they almost lazily drifted towards the ground. The reflection of the fires on the city was almost beautiful-in a 'holy crap, we're still alive!' kind of way. Within minutes of the explosion, many people were already starting to celebrate their survival. Though, not everyone was celebrating.

 

 

Horrified. That's all Raphael could feel at the moment. His little brother had just disappeared through a portal with the Krang and they weren't going to get him back. It was a one way trip and they all knew it. It wasn't called the Prison Dimension for nothing.

 

Collapsing to his knees, Raphael tried not to cry at the loss. He felt like his heart was ripped from his chest. Like he was missing a very important part of him and glancing at his other brothers, he knew they felt the same way. They're all hurting so much. In every way they possibly could.

 

It was his fault. All of it. Even though he wasn't the leader any more, he was the oldest. It was his job to protect his brothers. If only he hadn't pushed Leo so hard about the leader thing, if he hadn't left his brother alone, if he hadn't--

 

Raph's thoughts were cut off when he heard Mikey straining. He quickly looked up, concerned about his youngest brother's possible injuries. Thankfully, Mikey wasn't on the ground in pain, but was instead standing firm. His feet were braced apart and his arms were extended in front of him. He was almost yelling with how loud he was straining himself. 

 

"It's over, Mikey," he tried to keep his voice from trembling. It was hard and he wasn't sure he succeeded.

 

Mikey shot his oldest brother a quick glare from the corner of his eye, "Leo never gave up on us . I'm not giving up on him!"

 

Once those words left his mouth, Mikey's eyes sparked and bright, sunny orange lightning raced down his arms and formed a jagged portal. It was small, much smaller than Leo's, but it was enough to stun him.

 

After a second of shocked silence, Raph and Donnie both rushed to their youngest brother, hope shining in their teary eyes.

 

"Whatever you're doing, Mikey, don't stop! "

 

The momentary relief faded slightly at the sight of bright cracks slowly running up Mikey's arms. He could see his brother's pain filled flinch as the cracks ran higher up his arms. Without a second thought and in sync with Donnie, they placed a hand firmly on each of Mikey's shoulders. Mikey glanced at both of them and Raph gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze as the cracks started crawling up his fingers. With a final yell, Mikey ripped open a portal.

 

Unlike Leo's portals, they could see through the other side of this one. The prison dimension was dark and they could barely make out the outlines of destroyed buildings and rubble. They desperately searched through the portal, trying to catch a glimpse of their missing brother. Surely he couldn't have gone far, right? It's only been a few minutes at most.

 

It took a few seconds of restless searching before Raph was finally able to spot the slider. Leo was limply floating a good distance away and Raph could just make out the shine of one of his katanas. They all watched in horror as Leo weakly raised the weapon towards the Krang that rushed him from seemingly nowhere. He wasn't able to get a hit in before he was harshly knocked back.

 

"LEO!" All three of them shouted as he was sent careening through a large chunk of debris and towards Mikey's portal.

 

The slider slowly turned towards them, the eye that wasn't swollen shut widening in realization as a weak smile spread across his bruised face when he saw them.

 

"Took you guys long enough," he weakly reached a hand towards them.

 

Raph reached around Mikey with his other hand, desperately leaning as far as he could into the portal. And when he couldn't reach any more, he extended his reach by projecting his arm. Raph barely registered how injured his brother was, though in the back of his mind, he noted that Leo had a lot more injuries than when he saw him last.

 

He had just grabbed Leo's hand when a maniacal laugh caused him and Leo to share a horrified look. Behind Leo, Krang One was making its way towards the portal, quickly jumping from one piece of floating debris to another.

 

"I'm not letting you go that easily, Pest! If either of us is getting out of here, it's going to be me!"

 

Raph desperately tries to pull Leo in as fast as he could, but whatever weird gravity there is in the Prison Dimension is causing Leo to move at a slug's pace. The same can't be said for the Krang, though, as it quickly gains ground.

 

He is terrified as the Krang latches onto one of Leo's legs. He gives a quiet, pain-filled whine as he tries to shake the Krang off. Raph still tries to pull him in as Leo grimaces in pain. He puts a weak grin on his face and Raph almost cries at the defeated look in his brother's eye.

 

An enraged cry has Raph looking to his left, where Donnie is pulling his free arm back as far as he could. His bo staff materializes in his hand with an almost comically large drill attached to the top. Donnie gives another cry as he thrusts the bo staff forwards-hitting the Krang square in the face. Sparks fly as the weapon drills into the alien's face, and with a scowl, it finally lets go of Leo's ankle. With the Krang occupied with being drilled in the face, Raph is able to focus on pulling his brother in with all his might. Thankfully, Donnie's attack gives them the time they need to pull their brother out.

 

However, just as Leo made it through the portal, there was a sharp crackle and with a loud pop, the portal changed from Mikey's warm, sunny yellow to a bright pink and white. They couldn't see the other side of the portal anymore, which was both a relief because the Krang was gone and terrifying because he didn't know where this portal came from or where it led to. He felt a strange force that was pulling him towards the new portal and he braced himself as Leo swayed limply in his grip from the gravity.

 

He saw Donnie slip from the corner of his eye and get dragged into the new portal. Mikey tried to grab him but the strong pull sucked him in too. Leo looked at Raph with one wide worried eye before he let go and followed their brothers. 

 

"Guys!" Raph looked at the shrinking portal in horror. With a deep breath and strangled cry, he followed his brothers in, "We're not being separated again!"

 

 

 

 

When Raph opens his eyes, he is in pain and feeling nauseous. The portal was definitely different from any others he was familiar with. Leo's portals always felt cool and light-like a breeze on a hot day-but this one felt hot and heavy. Like someone was forcing him to hold his hand on a still too hot burner. 

 

His vision is fuzzy in his ears feel full of cotton, but Raph can just make out the sounds of a battle dying down. He can't see any of his brothers, which causes his anxiety to spike dangerously. He harshly digs his sharp nails into his arm to ground himself. It's hard to register the pain, as his whole body is aching, but it's just enough of a distraction that he can push the anxiety away.

 

Once he manages to somewhat calm himself down, he forces himself to his feet. The sudden silence told him that whatever fight that was going on was over now. The only evidence of it was the scattered debris and cracked pillars. He stumbles towards the nearest wall and braces himself against it as he looks for any signs of his brothers. He spots a familiar, but weak light flickering and he slowly makes his way towards it. His blood runs cold when he finally reaches the pillar the flickering was coming from. 

 

Not only is Leo badly hurt-he knew he was already, but it looks so much worse now-but his brother was surrounded by strangers. Any other time Raph would be excited to meet other turtles, but not today. Everything has gone wrong today and to Raph, strangers mean danger. Strangers lead to him being separated from his brothers; to his brothers being separated from each other. Strangers led to him being unable to protect them. To him and his family being hurt. To his little brother essentially killing himself to save them.

 

"No." Raph snarls to himself. And, ignoring his injured body's protests, he desperately lunges forward.

 

He catches the other turtles off guard-the one in front is harshly shoved back as he yells, "BACK OFF! " 

 

Raph towers over the other turtles and he easily shields his brother from their line of sight. The three in the back stand in a defensive pose while the one in the front holds their hands up placatingly. All four of the strangers are wearing color-coded masks. It itches something in the back of his mind, seeing the masks and weapons these turtles have, but he wasn't going to scratch that itch right now. He just wanted to take his brothers home .

 

As the moment dragged on, Raph grew more nervous. The other turtles made no move to attack-the other three even put away their weapons-but they made no move to leave like he wanted them to. Raph needed to check on his brother, but he couldn't risk taking his eye off the strangers. And to make matters worse, he still hasn't seen any signs of Donnie or Mikey. 

 

Where were they?

Chapter 2

Summary:

Who are these turtles, and where did they come from?

Also, how did they get here without anyone noticing?

Notes:

Keeping the tradition of not having an update schedule and updating in the middle of the night, lmao.

My job's in its off season, so things are hella slow at work rn. I've been able to use that time to write and draw a bit. Pretty much this entire chapter was written while I was at work, lol.

As a heads up, there's descriptions of injuries here.

Hope you guys like it!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

"Man, I'm ready to sleep for a whole week," Mikey groans out and pats his stomach. "After some food, of course."

 

Donnie nods in agreement, "That was the biggest fight we've had in a while. I can't wait until we get home."

 

Leo couldn't help but agree. All the activity of the past day alone is catching up to him and he's tired. His rather intense fight with Raph, being drugged and kidnapped, fighting immortal stone soldiers almost immediately after waking up. It adds up, and Leo's willing to admit to himself that he's exhausted. Splinter's already gone back with Casey and April, which leaves the turtles to do a final sweep of the ruined building.

 

It doesn't take long and thankfully, they don't find anything unusual in the rubble, so they start to make their way to the exit. A quiet, pained grunt catches Leo's attention just as they get outside. He pauses and scans the rubble again, unsure if he's hearing things. A second passes and just when Leo's convinced there was nothing else there, a weak cough echoes quietly throughout the room.

 

"Hold on a second, guys," Leo calls to the others. They all look at him in confusion from a few steps ahead. He turns towards where the sound came from. "There's someone else in here."

 

He pulls his katanas out as he quietly makes his way towards the sound, weary. His brothers follow close behind him, their weapons also drawn. There's a weakly flickering light coming from behind one of the cracked pillars and as the turtles get closer, they can all hear heavy, raspy breathing.

 

"What the Hell?" Raph voices all of their thoughts when they finally see what was making the noise.

 

What they can only guess is another turtle is sitting propped up against the pillar. They look different from Leo and his brothers, a lighter shade of green with yellow markings on their arms and legs. The strangest thing, though, is that their markings are glowing. As is the sword the turtle is tightly gripping in their hand. Leo circles around to stand in front of the stranger. As he kneels down, he sheathes his katanas.

 

The stranger dazedly looks up and Leo gasps. The other turtle's bare face is covered with dark bruises and deep cuts and their left eye is swollen shut. At this angle, Leo can see that they are severely injured. There's an ugly bruise with various puncture marks wrapping around the stranger's neck and their plastron has deep, jagged scratches running across it. There are deep gashes and scrapes scattered across their body and Leo can see that the edges of their carapace is cracked in some places. That's not good. Who knows how injured the back of their shell is.

 

Leo reaches a hand out to the other turtle, but before he can touch them, he's roughly shoved away. His brothers immediately close in around him and he stares up at the newcomer.

 

"BACK OFF!" They shout at him defensively. Their voice is rough and their teeth are bared.

 

They're huge, towering over Leo and twice as wide with a deep scowl on their face. There's a red bandana tied around their head and their right eye is shut-likely due to the deep gashes surrounding it. There's a large bloody gash on their shoulder in front of a massive chip on the rim of their shell. There are also numerous scrapes and bruises scattered throughout their body. They purposefully block the other turtle from the other's view, using their large size as a shield.

 

They all stand in tense silence for a few moments, neither party willing to make a move. His brothers cautiously put their weapons away when the stranger makes no other moves to attack. And though they don't relax or take their eyes off of Leo, the turtle does speak.

 

"D, Mikey, you there?" They sound worried as they address the room, but they don't take their eye off the group.

 

"... We're alive," comes a somewhat tired response.

 

There's a shuffling coming from somewhere on the group's right and suddenly, two more turtles run up to the group and slip behind the largest turtle. The two new turtles are also surprisingly beat up, with numerous scrapes and bruises littering their bodies. Leo is shocked that they all somehow missed these turtles when they did their sweep and he can't help but wonder where they came from.

 

The smallest of the newcomers is wearing an orange mask that matches the spots that are spattered across their skin. There are strange yellow ( why are they yellow? ) cuts running up both of their arms starting thick at their fingers and thinning out the closer to the shoulder it got. Each of the other standing turtles have similar looking cuts on opposite arms. Red-the large one-has them on their left arm and the other has them on their right.

 

The final turtle has a purple bandana and thick goggles resting on their head. They're looking down at their wrist with visible confusion and irritation. They look up and study the surrounding area before their eyes land on Leo and narrow.

 

Purple and Orange stare suspiciously at Leo and his brothers before their attention shifts to the one behind them all. Leo wants to move forward again when he hears the shocked gasps the new turtles let out, but Red is still staring him down and he doesn't want them to bolt or start swinging.

 

"How's he lookin'?" Red gruffness sounds much softer than before, but their voice is thick with worry.

 

Purple hisses, "Honestly? Really, really bad. That's two really's."

 

Taking another step back and peering around Red, Leo can see that Purple has pulled down their goggles and was currently looking Stripe up and down. They're tense and after a moment, they reach into a side pouch Stripe was wearing and start pulling stuff out-though Leo couldn't tell what it was from this angle.

 

Orange sat on their other side, a trembling hand gripping tightly onto Stripe's arm, "What do we do?" They choke out, voice thick.

 

"Patch up what we can right now," Purple sighs heavily at whatever they pulled from the bag. "This isn't much, but you have some stuff in your bag, correct?" Their attention turns towards Orange, who nods and starts rifling through their own side pouch. They sigh again, "Okay. We don't have much, but we'll make due for now."

 

Leo couldn't see exactly what Purple and Orange were doing-Red was still shielding the others-but he could assume they started patching Stripes up based on the pained hisses and grunts coming from them.

 

Turning fully towards his brothers, he ushers them to huddle around him and before he can say anything, Mikey speaks, "Dude, more turtles!"

 

"I'm more concerned about where they came from and how they're so hurt," Leo looks back at them. Red had turned towards the others, their spikey shell doing a good job of blocking the other turtles from view. "Do you think they're with Winters?"

 

Donnie shook his head, "I doubt it. If they were working with Winters, we would've seen them before now. Besides, they looked too confused about their surroundings to be working with him. Did you see the way the purple one scanned the area?"

 

"Can we take them home?" Mikey hopefully asks. "They're hurt and need help. Plus! They're turtles!"

 

Raph scoffs, "We can help 'em without taking 'em home."

 

He pouts, "Well, yeah, I guess. But–" Whatever Mikey was going to add gets cut off as a panicked shout comes from behind them.

 

"NO! WAIT, DON'T P–!" Leo turns just in time to see the four new turtles be engulfed in a sparking blue light and disappear.

 

There's a long moment of silence as he and his brothers try to figure out what happened.

 

Raph is finally the one to break the silence, "What. In the actual. Shit."

 

 

 

 

Some time later, the four of them are sat around the table eating cold pizza, each lost in thought. The sound of Splinter's dramas drift in from another room, filling the silence.

 

Once again, Raph is the one to break the silence, "Alright, I'll be the first to say it. What the Hell was that??"

 

"Finally!" Mikey slams his hands on the table, nearly spilling his drink with the force. "Like, where did those dudes come from? And then they just-poof! Gone!! What?? "

 

"I wish I had some sort of idea. But I know as much as you guys right now," Leo sighs, honestly at a loss. "Donnie, do you have any ideas?"

 

"Well, maybe, but it's only a hypothesis at this point," Leo gestures for him to continue. "The vortex was open for a while, and since the monsters came from it and went home through it, we know it acts as a portal. So, what if those turtles were sucked in from the other side?"

 

"So, they came from the monster's home? That's just great! Exactly what we need, monster lookalikes running around."

 

Mikey looks skeptical, "I don't know, Raph. They didn't look like the other monsters. If anything, they looked like weird us's. They had masks like us!"

 

"Just 'cause they look like color-coded turtles, don't mean they look like us," Raph rolls his eyes.

 

"Regardless," Leo cuts in, "there's not much we can do right now since they literally vanished on us. We'll just have to keep an eye and ear out for them when we go out. And hopefully, they won't cause trouble in the meantime."

 

It was frustrating and confusing who those turtles were. Where exactly they came from and how they all just disappeared were questions they needed answered. But with the group up in the air, they only had guesses for now.

Notes:

In case it's not clear, 07Leo's calling them all (minus RiseLeo) by their mask colors. RiseLeo is Stripes because he doesn't have his mask.

Oooo, I got ideas for this bitch and I'm looking forward to it. C:<

I have a tiktok (it's zodothebird) if you guys wanna see some more turtle stuff.

Notes:

I'm so excited to finally be posting this! It's been sitting in my Google Docs for ages, lol. And I'm looking forward to writing more.

Let me know what you think. :)