“Not sure you guys should get too close, leaving the prelims didn’t get rid of our not so little problem," Raph said, guarding the glowing mushrooms with care.

“You two look pretty thin, you okay? I thought I saw one of you pass out earlier," Leo noticed, glancing over at UIFY Mikey.

“A scheme sounds way better than what we’ve been dealing with….maybe it’ll be fun," Angelo said, walking over to his counterpart and ushering him away with a nervous chuckle.

As the two Michelangelos went off to spray paint and have fun, Donnie looked back and noticed something odd...

“I think the mushrooms got closer.”

"Are you sure?" Raph asked, looking back.

"I can't be sure," Donnie stated, turning away from the Alternate Leo as he and his remaining brothers inspected the canister of fungus.

"It... looks the same," Leo said nervously.

"It does look a 'lil bit bigger, though..." Raphael whispered. "Right? Raph's not imagining this?"

"No, it's definitely bigger. There's more spores there..."

Donatello sighed, pinching the bridge between his drawn-on eyebrows.

“I will be taking that, thank you very much!” Donnie said with a smirk and smiling through his ninpo made gas mask as he took his wallet back.

Thief Leo barely held back his gagging from the absolute rancid smell of a genius patented stink bomb.

It was so bad he was on his knees.

“While I admire your tenacity in tricking us all, papa didn’t raise a fool. Unless you count my Leo.”

“I saw him cross his fingers and take your wallet, I just thought it would be funnier if I didn’t say anything.” Leo insisted.

Raph cleared out the stink bomb smoke with some clones to avoid bothering the other contestants and reached a hand out to thief Leo.

“We’re gonna let that slide this time because we’re realizin' how tough other universes can be, but only one time. Got that, little man?”

Thief Leo begrudgingly nodded and took the help up.

Raph practically lifted him up as he placed him back on his feet.

Both Mikeys arrived back to the scene after spray painting some walls they hoped nobody can tie them to.

Con artist Mikey rushed over to thief Leo when he saw his red eyes and how he was still coughing.

Raph looked over at his Mikey.

“He didn’t try anything, did he?”

Angelo shook his head, the other Michelangelo looked offended at the accusation, even though he knew fully well that he would have tried something. Angelo smiled as he showed Raph some photos he'd taken of the graffiti art they'd made together.

“He just seemed really happy to have someone new to talk to. He even helped me hold the can up when my arms started shaking.”

“What do we do with them? Just allow the roaming around and general thievery?” Donnie questioned. He was not a fan of loose ends and troublemakers.

Mikey looked at the two of them, the petty thief still shaking as Mikey held him up and held him close. Mikey had told Angelo some personal stories about Leo... how the two had been in foster care together, how they'd stuck together through thick and thin, protected one another, taken the punishments for each other together, no questions asked.

“They’re not bad people. He told me how he only had Leo for a long time. We’re pretty lucky we never got separated for long.”

Leo stared for a moment as well before pulling a coin out from his fanny pack and walking closer.

“So, you guys have probably learned a thing or two already about taking stuff without anybody seeing. I think I can teach you something extra! Magic sleight of hand!”

Thief Leo beamed as he and his Mikey watched Leo toss around a coin before making it disappear completely.

“How did you do that without sleeves!?” Leon asked, completely enamoured. He had always been a fan of close-up magic, he knew some tricks (a result of becoming a master pickpocket), but it was always difficult to do it without using something to hold the stolen objects or hide them in.

“It’s all in the redirection, alt me,” Leo pulled the coin out from behind the con artist Mikey’s shirt collar.

His jaw dropped as he grabbed the coin.

“Woah! Amazing!”

He quickly put the coin his pocket.

Leo let that slide. The kid probably needed it more than him, anyways.

He had an idea, and turned back to look at his bros.

“Hey, guys, permission for a small portal?”

His brothers all nodded, and Leo opened it up. He reached his arm inside, fishing around before he pulled out some unicorns.

The portal closed back up immediately after.

Leo handed the unicorns to the both of them.

“Mikey and I got way too many when we were working at Hueso’s that one time. Go grab some pizza on us.”

Thief Leo looked at him in shock.

“You’re just giving us these!? Why!? I stole your brother’s wallet!”

“Well I’m pretty sure you weren’t taking it to buy video games, though even then I think you guys deserve to be able to play some; you need it. There should be enough for two, so no skipping out so Mikey can eat more.”

Thief Leo looks away like he got caught in something. Mikey had only just been in the med ward for fainting from his hypoglycemia, after he'd gotten carried away with the competition festivities and forgotten to eat. He'd fainted from lack of nutrition and was bedridden for a while. It wasn't as though it was publically broadcast, but he'd been alone when it happened, and the med ward mods had made a bulletin out calling for his brothers to come pick him up. It had echoed all throughout the arena halls, and people were worried for him. UIFY Mikey had received a good amount of gift baskets and get well cards from the contestants once word got around...

Leo knew what he would do to take care of Mikey when he wasn't feeling good. He could only assume what the thief version of him would do when times were tough and they barely had enough food to feed just one of them.

Con artist Mikey stared at his brother, then at Leo who he hugged tightly.

“Thank you!”

Leo smiled softly and pat his shoulder.

“Just don’t go fainting again anytime soon.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“Also get your hands out of my fanny pack.”

“Sorry.”

Despite the generosity of the NFIF team, they thought they'd try a con one more time. Maybe someone else would be willing to fall for it...

The two scheming teens circled the arena, scouting out for someone most likely to fall for their scams. An older guy, probably...
Off in the distance, they found a middle-aged Donatello turtle who looked like he would be a prime suspect. Perfect! The two schemed on what to do, then went to approach him with their biggest grins and see what they could trick out of the guy... Second time's the charm!

"Excuse me sir, but do you have a moment?" Leon asked, his voice smooth and saccharine sweet, his most cunning and convincing tone in use.

Ghost looked down at the two alternate version of his kids and noticed the rough clothes, the thinness, the way they smiled. He knew that look on Leo's face, and the same look on Mikey's. They wanted something, they were scheming, plotting. Together, too, which was the most dangerous way to plot for the two of them, if they were anything like his own kids.

It didn't really matter if they had ulterior motives, though. They didn't need any tricks with him, Ghost was already thinking about what he could give them. He wanted to get them nice, clean clothes and warm food and somewhere safe and cozy to sleep. The urge to sweep them under his cloak like a broody hen was rising exponentially, especially with his own kids out wandering around, leaving him to his own devices.

Fighting an inner war to ask where he needed to sign their adoption papers, he sighed softly and gently rubbed both of their heads.

"Anything you want," Ghost murmured. "I'll give it to you."

Looking between his fleshy five fingered hand and the green, scaly features of who he could only assume must be another of his counterparts, Donnie grimaced. 

“Well, as much as I love a good uprising,” he began, voice hollow with the lie and eyes darting around just in case there were some Peacekeepers hidden nearby, waiting to pounce the second they heard a whisper of rebellion, “I’m not sure I would be a good candidate for an anti-human cause, considering…this whole situation.”

He gestured vaguely to himself, not sure how else to convey the fact that he was, in fact, very much human. There was a flicker of disapproval, then disappointment across his counterpart’s face. Maybe he’d been hoping to hear that Donnie’s humanness was nothing more than an elaborate facade, and that despite appearances to the contrary, he very much did want to join in the eradication of the very same beings he was attempting to mimic. He shrugged, feeling only the tiniest flicker of remorse, and only because he knew exactly how the sting of rejection his counterpart must be experiencing felt. He cleared his throat. 

“If you’re looking to get rid of any humans, though, I’d be more than happy to invite you back to my dimension. There’s a whole city that I think we’d all be better off without.”

Donatello Von Draxum had been going around the entire arena. He'd found a young cat mutant -- her name was Abby, he'd met her before, in her universe she'd been raised by Draxum as well -- and offered to show her the presentation before realizing that she had an acquaintance with her... a human girl.

It had simply appeared with them, popping up. And rather than let them destroy it, the attendant who had seen to their spontaneous arrival and given them the label "No Fun in Fungus AU" had gathered the mushrooms and spore clouds into a single container and ordered them to NOT destroy the mushrooms. Which they didn't understand at all, but apparently it was a rule for the competition. Donnie almost committed anarchy. Or arson. One of the two. Donnie wasn't happy about it.

None of them were happy about it. They knew what would happen if the mushrooms were to get loose... the spores would infect innocent people, their fears would come to life and haunt them vividly... They couldn’t let that happen. Leo would rather be stuck in the Prison Dimension again than let that happen! Okay, maybe that was a terrible exaggeration, but still... he knew a lot of Leonardos here probably went through those memories, or similar versions of them. He couldn't let them go through that again.

Leo had promised to be on guard. He had the fanny packs, he had the space to carry the small container. And he was the leader. It was only right.

But something they hadn’t considered happened.

Leo lost the container.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, YOU LOST IT?!" Raph shouted with terror.

"I-I don't know," he mumbled nervously. "I-i-it was r-right here, I had it, ri-right here--"

"Where did you see it last?" Mikey asked.

"Did you at any time drop your fanny packs?" Donnie wondered. "There were some thieves around here, I think, did any of them get too close?"

"Could it have fallen out?" Raph offered, already on his hands and knees searching.

Leo was in a panicked stupor for hours while he looked for the container. They searched and searched and searched. Leo hoped against hope that the container hadn't been stolen, or worse -- damaged in some way, or opened.

And then they got word.

Someone had been spored.

The first reports began trickling in. Traces of the fear spores could be found. Donnie used his tech and goggles to follow the mystic and botanical trails left from the airborne fungus. But they always arrived too late. They'd always come upon the subject shivering, tear stains trailing down their cheeks as their loved ones comforted them dearly. And they would grieve with them, apologize profusely, and then continue with the hunt.

A lot of the spores hung about the medbay, for some reason. And they all had another interesting report... a hand. An oddly realistic hand, uncanny valley type of thing that threw the spores in their faces and then dashed away before they could know what hit them. In some cases it wielded the mushrooms like a weapon against them.

The boys had gathered around the medbay, Donnie creating another wall of photos and thread connecting the theories on where the fungus had struck and where it would strike next, similar to how he had years ago with the conspiracy of pizza week and pizzasaurus.

"...Well, I can safely conclude that... I have no idea what to do."

"You don't even have a clue?" Raph asked, wringing his hands.

"Not on how to find them. They pop in and out, striking randomly! The fact that they've hit the medbay so often is strange, but that was just for some members of a specific team, so I'm guessing the fungus just sort of... worked down the line until it spored everyone. Now it's moved on."

"Moved on?!" Mikey shouted, forgetting his volume. "You mean, we've lost it again?"

"Indeed. And I have no way to trace it. It seems that it just... spurts up randomly! It attacks a contestant, and then vanishes, almost like mayflies. I don't understand how or why, but... My best guess is that the spores travelled through the vents, and created growths in random places! We could try to destroy as many as we can find, but..."

"But who knows how many people would be spored in the meantime?" Mikey mumbled. "I can't believe this... I can't believe there's nothing we can do to stop the spores..."

"We can still hunt them down and eliminate the ones we find, but --" Donnie sighed. "I can't stop more from growing."

“Did…..we do this?” Raph asked, looking at all the list of all the poor souls who'd been entered into the med ward due to their panic attacks, and in some cases even psychotic breakdowns.

“We didn’t mean to!" Mikey pleaded, on the verge of tears. "They just got sent here with us! We tried to stop them!”

“It’s not as if we had a choice to be here,” Donnie added.

Leo stayed silent, standing at a distance from his brothers as he stared at the wall.

“Leo?” Raph asked, knowing all too well what silence meant from his little brother.

“I….started another apocalypse.”

It was funny how they never suspected. They never saw. What simpletons, what fools! It was right in front of them, right under their noses... it was even on that stupid little board they'd made. And yet, their thoughts never once considered me.

It was just too easy, too fantastic! The fun I've had. The thrills. To watch others, see their stories, their nightmares, to feel the rush of the adrenaline without ever having to experience the fear itself.

I am not necessarily a cruel being. I am not evil. I am simply like you, I enjoy to see others in their story. And angst, the sweet, sweet angst... I eat it up. Metaphorically, of course... You enjoy it too, don't you? You beg for it, plead and pray. We want the rush of excitement, or to feel validated in our own fears if we see that our heroes feel as we do. No, I am not a villain. I am a prompter, if you will... I deliver. And I feed off of these stories and emotions.

It was so simple to accomplish. As soon as I saw them arrive, I followed. I was so excited... but I had to keep my composure. So I followed them. It was almost too easy to take the mushrooms from Leonardo. He never saw me. That is my strength, you all have seen me, laughed, chortled, joked at my appearances. But you never considered, never even questioned how I got there, where my collection of the shrooms came from. No one even thought... And what is more, the grandest attribute to my scheme -- is that I am never in danger. Who can touch me? I vanish before they know I was ever there. Who can follow me? I am invisible to the naked eye. And who can blame me? I FEEL NO FEAR. I am immune to these spores, as I have no mouth, no nostrils, no lungs. Why fear to breath in the infection, when you needn't breath at all??

But now they blame themselves.

Now, these foolish children consider themselves responsible, as if they had the means and the motive to infect this whole little world as I have. What idiots. But I do mean that in the most loving of ways. We hurt the ones we love the most, don't we? Ah well, it isn't as if I can communicate this to them. It is not as though they shall ever understand me. And even if they could decipher my secret language, my invisible tongue, how could they ever understand what I was working for? That I did it for us, for our stories? I am a messenger, a deliverer, a great admirer of our stories. Yours, theirs, ours.

You cannot claim this apocalypse, Leonardo. You have no right to do so.

I shall claim that victory alone. And now, while I have you here, I may as well let you experience what you have been trying so desperately to avoid this entire time... your worst fears realized.

Have fun.

He had been patting himself down basically every second to make sure those things hadn’t left his fanny pack and then suddenly they just weren’t there anymore.

The heavy feeling in his chest started at that point.

He barely started forgiving himself for causing the first apocalypse, his brothers telling him he had no way of knowing what would happen.

Others were to blame, like Warren or Hypno for taking the key in the first place. The Foot Clan, for asking for them to take it.

Sure Leo’s showboating and carelessness were bad but it wasn’t out of malice. He didn’t want to destroy the world. He didn’t know.

But this time he did know.

He saw the worst things imaginable and knew how it effected the people he loves. All he had to do was to stop those stupid mushrooms from hurting anyone else.

Leo saw the look in Raph’s eyes when he admitted what happened. Raph insists that it was just a mistake, that con artist was grabbing at his fanny pack. They probably fell out afterwards or he took it and dumped it when it couldn’t be sold.

What Leo saw in his eyes made him feel differently.

It was similar to how he always looked at him during their missions after Leo became leader.

Judgment.

He can’t be completely sure that Leo wasn’t just being careless. That one distraction caused chaos and havoc throughout an entire multi universe competition.

Leo feels like Raph feels the worst about the little girl he was protecting at first. He was so sure he stopped them from getting her. How they got past him to the nurse’s office, he doesn’t know.

That hand is a big part of it at least though, that’s clear.

Leo feels more tears starting to come.

He’s lost all credibility now, hasn’t he?

Not just to his brothers, but probably everyone there. There’s nobody else to blame for what’s happening. There’s no way anyone else has screwed things up like he has.

His fingers twitch, rubbing his arms painfully.

He needs to calm down before he starts becoming too rough with himself.

Leo reaches into his fanny pack in order to grab one of the many fidget toys. His mouth forms a deep frown at not feeling a favorite of his in there.

So he lost it too?

Pathetic.

Movement in the side of his vision has him glance towards it.

The hand.

That freaking hand!

It has his fidget toy!

Did…..did it take the container too!?

Maybe he didn’t lose it!

It was stolen!

Hope starts replacing that burden in his heart and he stands up.

The hand starts skittering away, so he quickly starts following after it. He’s too distracted to realize that his brothers are also distracted. They don’t notice him as he leaves.

The hand gets into a room and Leo backs it into a corner.

“Finally! You’re not getting away this time. Maybe if I get rid of you the spores will go away again too!” Leo summons and raises his weapon, smiling out of pure relief.

His expression drops when the hand spreads its fingers, revealing some type of canisters between them.

They fall, quickly releasing “gas” that is all too familiar.

He tries to hold his breath and rushes towards the door he came in through. Leo is only quick enough to see the hand escape and the door close behind it.

Leo bangs on the door as hard as he can. Even if no one hears him, maybe his hands will break through instead.

Luck fails him.

He runs out of time.

The room is filled to the brim with spore smoke as, eventually, even his turtle DNA fails him. He finally has to breath.

Contaminated air fills his lungs with a large gasp.

He shuts his eyes tight and covers the sides of his head where ears might be if he had any.

As long as he doesn’t see or hear anything he should be safe until he gets found, right?

Wrong.

Horrific images flash around in his mind until he’s forced to open his eyes to stop them.

What he sees is absolute devastation.

It’s a war zone all around him. Everything is in pieces. Buildings, roads…..people. Shots are ringing back and forth, some of it looking like it’s from alien tech.

He knows exactly what the spores are showing him and it feels his body with a dread that should have been prevented.

Leo can’t move an inch.

It’s obvious to him that the spores are just showing him what he thinks the bad future looked like. The only information he has about it is what he got out of Casey JR. Admittedly, it’s not that much because his brothers made him promise to stop telling Leo about it.

It was impeding his recovery, Donnie said.

He wishes he knew more so that he could tell the loud, nagging voice in his brain that maybe this isn’t just what he made up to fill in what he didn’t know. That this has the possibility of being connected ninpo memories. That this is exactly what happened and is even more awful than he ever could have imagined.

Kraang appear in front of him.

Fear shoots through his veins. They’re not real. He knows this isn’t happening. It can’t be happening.

“What’s this? The leader of the resistance without his guard dogs? They must have finally abandoned their weakest link after you led that last squadron to their deaths. Culling them was highly enjoyable.” The kraang taunts.

Leo grits his teeth.

“Why can’t you just leave me alone!? Why is it always me!?”

The kraang laughs like he’s just been told the funniest thing in this war torn world.

“Because you deserve it. Every second of all of it! And even more than this!”

He can’t think of anything to retort. He’s so tired of everything.

“No last words? Good. We’ve all long since grown tired of your voice.” The kraang aims his hand at Leo, a light beginning to power up inside.

Fine, it’s all fake anyways. This might as well happen. Nothing he can do about it even if he wanted to. Nobody is coming to help him either.

The kraang keeps laughing the more his laser powers up.

No wonder Lou Jitsu always escapes in his more spy themed movies. Death rays take way too long to work.

He tears up.

Leo wishes his dad was here.

The laser finally powers up. The kraang smiles widely. Something red goes up in front of him.

Wait, what?

NO!

The laser fires.

Leo is suddenly grabbed and tossed away into safety.

He tries to quickly stand up, but something stops him.

Raph’s future clone is on keeping him to the ground, hidden behind a broken building where he can still partially see the kraang from before.

The original Raph had bought time for the clone to get Leo to safety.

Both of them were being erased, disintegrated.

Tears stream down Leo’s face as he stares up at the clone who stares back with a smile.

Leo knows fully well that anything he says right now won’t actually be said to anyone.

He says something anyways.

“I love you Raph. Thank you. For everything. I never told you.”

The clone smiles more.

“Big bros always know. Love ya too, Leo. Tell everyone else for me.”

Leo watches as the last parts of his brother’s clone floats away as ninpo into the air.

He’s suddenly somewhere else, but still in this future hell scape.

Donnie’s arm is around his own and Leo sees blooding pouring from a head wound. Usually it makes them look worse than they are and it’s not actually a concern but this definitely looks like it is.

“Leo…..put me down….”

Leo can’t stop crying.

“I told you I’m not leaving you here!”

That’s not his voice.

Well, it is and it isn’t.

Deeper, rougher, far more strained.

“Put me down!” Donnie shoves himself away from him.

Leo falls over trying to catch him but they both end up on the ground.

Oh, he’s supposed to be hurt too.

He sits up and tries to get Donnie up as well.

“I thought this apocalypse made you smarter. I guess you could never be as smart as me, even when they hit me like this….” Donnie says, staying put.

“Shut up! You’re coming with me! Mikey is just a little further!” Leo screams.

Donnie chuckles.

“You won’t even give me a pity laugh? I’m the funny one, papa used to say so.”

Leo desperately tries to stand.

Donnie yanks him back to the ground.

“Leo. Listen. I need a flavor. F-Favor, I mean. Favor….”

Oh.

Donnie’s not making it either.

“Anything, Donnie.”

“Stay here for a minute. It shouldn’t take longer than that.”

Leo chokes back his sobs as he begins clinging to him.

“Okay. I’ll do that.”

“This might be the brain damage, but I want you to keep talking. Don’t stop until….you know. Tell your dumb jokes, even.” Donnie clings to him as well.

Leo takes a shaky, deep breath, then starts talking about anything and everything.

The night sky is clear above them both.

It reminds him of when they shared a room and their ceiling had those glow in the dark starts.

They used to lay together like this and talk all night because of their shared insomnia.

Leo talks and talks and talks, getting some quiet responses from Donnie until eventually he doesn’t.

He doesn’t stop talking or holding until he’s being physically separated by Mikey and some other resistance members.

Leo doesn’t stop talking still. He wants Donnie to respond even thought he knows he never will again.

Mikey hugs Leo tightly and he finally starts crying so hard he can’t talk anymore.

It’s all over as Leo is placed somewhere else again. He knows this part very well. Mikey is shattering into golden pieces in front of him with a big smile.

Leo doesn’t care anymore that he shouldn’t be able to do anything.

He rushes forward and holds onto Mikey’s arm to try to help like his brothers told him they did before.

A chain wraps around Leo, moving him back to Casey just before Mikey fully disintegrates.

He was stupid to try in the first place.

A dumb decision.

Again.

Again.

And again and again and again and again and-

It never stops.

His brothers won’t let him die.

It’s not fair.

He doesn’t want to be the last one left.

It hurts.

He’s tossing Casey into the portal and Leo is gone right after, right in front of him.

Leo is drifting now.

A black, empty void.

He’s even more tired than he was before.

There’s no one else with him. He can’t even be reunited with everyone he lost, or could have lost.

It’s so confusing.

The prison dimension was pretty similar to this place. It’s even more even empty than that somehow though. Probably because kraang prime isn’t here with him.

Leo is completely detached from reality.

His eyes have dimmed as he sits on the floor, against the wall. He’s running out of time for anyone to be able to do anything.

He can’t hear the shouting coming from somewhere outside, not close by but shouting nonetheless.

Mikey noticed first that he was missing and now the others are in a complete panic. They lost him once and now they’re losing him again.

They don’t know how right that is.

As the situation only gets worse, a hand watches, perched up high on the ceiling like some kind of spider who’s carefully watching the webs its made.

There’s already one prey caught.

Three more to go.

Mikey approached the AU team nervously. After he and his brothers had failed to find Leo within an hour, they'd decided to split up and request help from a few teams they's crossed paths with. Raph had gone to ask a little dimension-hopping turtle girl, and Donnie had gone off in search of Phonora, a foxolotl creature.

Angelo wondered where on earth Leo could be, he wasn't the type to just jett off without telling anyone. Not after all they'd been through.

As he rounded the corner, Michelangelo saw the familiar faces he had been looking for... He ran up to them, grabbing the duplicate of his missing bro and immediately gave him the down-low.

“Hey, Leo and I talked to some of you before, do you think you can help us find him? Please, we lost our poll and we might have to leave soon. We can’t leave him behind."

Mikey whimpered softly, his mind racing with all the possibilities of terrible things that could be happening to his brother at this very moment.

"We just can’t.”

They'd decided to split up, in the end. That way they could cover more ground. The No Fun in Fungus Mikey had gone with the Until I Found You April and Karai. The others had gone off in their own little teams, with Mikey.02 going with the semi-evil Donnie and the morally grey Leo going with the Raph with anxiety issues and huge spikes on his elbows, taking Misa with them.

Mikey didn't want to pick favourites, but he had to say he was so ecstatic to spend more quality time with Gram-Gram. He'd teared up when he first saw her, and almost cried when she'd suggested that he come with them. Of course, mutant April was cool, too! But Mikey stayed close - almost uncomfortably close - to his alternate universe gram-gram. It took all his willpower to keep from holding her hand, clutching it tightly, wrapping his arms around her in a long-overdue hug. But he didn't want to make her uncomfortable. He tried to keep his hands to himself. But that only made him focus on his scars and bandages, picking and scratching nervously at the marks that decorated his forearms and fingers.

"...Are they uncomfortable?" Karai asked, breaking the awkward silence between them.

"Huh? Oh! Uh, well, no, not anymore, really. Donnie got me these really cool compression gloves, and they help a lot. It's just a lot of scarring, now. But it looks cool, right?" He chuckled.

"Then why do you irritate the wounds?"

Mikey didn't really have an answer to that.

"Um... I guess... I'm just not used to them. I know they aren't bad or anything, but... they tell a story, y'know? And... I don't really like that story."

"I understand," Karai said, nodding softly and taking his hand in hers.

Mikey's stared down at the clasped hands. He smiled, squeezing her hand in his.

"Is it alright if I hold your hand? It will help keep you from fidgeting with the injuries," she asked.

"Yes," Mikey chuckled, awing at the irony. "That's fine! I don't mind."

The group pressed on. They walked past the many stands offering refreshments, references, lil kid coups, and villain squads to take over the surface world. There was a colourful assortment of characters they passed, each one having a somewhat familiar Leo with them.

"How will we tell which one is yours?" April asked.

"He's got really noticeable scars on his shell and plastron," Mikey explained. "Plus he's wearing blue nail polish. I painted his nails myself a few days ago."

"I think the prominent shell injuries will be easier to spot than the polish, but that's helpful," Karai noted.

"Look there!" April shouted suddenly, pointing towards a small cloud of blue in the distance.

The trio ran towards the smoke, finding several of the contestants screaming and crying as they tried to get away. Unseen by all, a disembodied sentient hand began scuttling away from the scene.

"There it is!" April shouted. "Get it! We get the hand, we find the alternate Leo!"

April immediately gave chase, Mikey and Karai calling after her to wait, be careful, it wasn't what it seemed. She didn't hear them.

She simply kept running after it, hoping beyond hope that her somewhat unreliable powers could help her catch the little creep. It certainly was fast! It slithered under a team of turtles, past April's reach. She concentrated hard, focused on the hand, and...

Poof!

April landed in a small area a few feet away from the hand, which somehow saw her - despite not having eyes - and attempted to stop itself. It slid on the floor, desperately trying to go in the opposite direction, when April's feline reflexes kicked in and she pounced on the creature. She placed all of her weight on the hand, crushing it under her stomach as she reached down and grabbed it by its wrist and gripped it with all her might.

"Ha! Gotchya! No scurrying away now -"

The hand threw the spores into her face. How?! Where had it gotten that secret stash from?! It wasn't as though it had pockets or anything to carry the extra fear spores in! April hacked and coughed, rejecting the air from her lungs and backing away. She felt the hand wriggling furiously in her palms. She held on to it with a death grip.

"No, no! You won't get away that easily, I don't care what you show me..."

April stood up, glaring at the arena before her as it slowly melted away.

"Now... let's see what you've got."

The halls went dark. The crowds turned and looked at her. They started screaming. Faces came into focus... Dale, Kendra, Jason, Jeremy, Taylor Martin: the coolest girl in school, Seigel the lizard boy... all her "friends" from the school she'd had to quit. All of her previous bosses and employers, little Timmy from Albearto's, the guy who always dropped his groceries... they were here, too? And they all looked terrified of her. Disgusted by her. Some people started throwing stones and rocks at her, shouting at her to "get away from us, freak!" A bruise formed on her arm. April's knees started to shake. If this wasn't real... then why did it hurt like it was? She took a step back. The hand kept trying to wrestle itself free. She pressed it against her chest, digging her fingernails into it. It returned the favour. Still, she held on. She turned away from the crowds, only to be met by her mother and father.

"Mom? Dad...? What... what's wrong?"

"April, honey? Is... is that you?"

This wasn't a hallucination. This was a memory. Her parents, loving and understanding as they were, were terrified and horrified when she'd come home that night, covered in fur and sporting a brand new tail.

"What... what happened to you, sugar?" Her dad asked, his eyes pooling with tears behind his glasses.

"I... I know it looks bad, but..."

"We want our little baby back," her mom sobbed. "We want our sweet little April! Give her back to us!"

"What? I'm the same as I've always been! I just... got a little update, that's all!" April tried to choke down the sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach. "You... Mom and Dad never said that. They... they weren't - they aren't scared of me! I'm not a monster!"

"Yes you are."

April's eyes widened as the voice echoed all around the halls. It was deafening. She took a step back, felt something crunch and crack underneath her shoes. She looked down, and saw she was standing on a broken mirror. It's shards showed a deformed amalgamation of a beast, hairy and gnarled and bones bending the wrong way, large and warped and horrible! It looked like one of the giant zombie bosses from the video games she played, flesh turning in odd angles and folds, the four eyes burning and glowing but nearly falling out of the face, held in by loosely fitted bags of skin. The hair was snarled and the teeth were jagged. She It had four arms instead of two, and each set looked different. One pair was human - hers, her wonderful beautiful human skin spackled with mangey tufts of yellow hair. The other set of arms were smaller, almost animal-like... she knew exactly who they'd belonged to.

"You are a monster. You meant to save him, but you ended up killing him. You wanted to be his saviour, but you became his demise."

April screamed at the sight, the reflection howling and roaring right back at her. She ran from it, it followed her. The room got darker the further she ran away. She tripped over something, screaming with fear as the monster came closer...

"Where did she go?!" Karai yelled angrily. Not at Mikey, not meaning to be aggressive, but quite obviously she was worried.

April had no idea what she was getting into with this thing! They didn't even know what that hand really was! It could be an oni, or a demon, or a interdimensional force, for all they knew!

The duo kept running through the crowds, searching for their friend.

"She's gotta be here somewhere," Mikey huffed as he tried to keep up with Karai.

Suddenly, a scream.

"Found her."

The two rushed towards the screams, and found April running at them frantically, her eyes glazed over with a blue tint, her arms hugging the hand close to her as she barrelled towards them. Mikey pulled out his nunchucks to stop her, and golden chains burst forth - one of which wrapped around her ankle and caused April to trip.

"Nicely done," Karai complimented.

Mikey beamed with pride, as the two dashed to April, who was still shrieking and trying to get away from whatever terrified her so.

"April? Can you hear me, April?" Karai tried.

April hyperventilated, her breaths short but fast. She wasn't getting enough air in her lungs...

"April!" Mikey shouted. "It's me and Gram-Gram!"

"Oh please, not you too," Karai mumbled under her breath. She'd save it for later, they had more pressing matters at hand... Karai knelt by the young girl. Mikey danced nervously around them, reaching for his AU friend.

"I can use my ninpo to snap her out of it--"

"No," Karai ordered, holding a hand out to keep Mikey at bay. "As painful as this is, I suspect that if she is under the spore's spell, she can counter it and use it."

"Use it... how?"

Karai ignored him, scooting in closer to April. She reached forwards and placed her hand on her shoulder, a soft green glow emanating from the touch.

"April. If you can hear me, know that you can beat this. You CAN beat it. This is nothing more than a fear, a thought, something you came up with, and as such you can destroy it. You shall not be challenged with something beyond your abilities!"

"I... I can't," April whimpered. "You're not seeing what I see..."

"That means nothing. You can beat it regardless."

"NO!" she screamed, clutching onto the evil hand so tightly that it turned purple. "YOU DON'T KNOW THAT! I'M NOT -- I'M NOT BRAVE LIKE YOU, I CAN'T FIGHT WHOLE DEMONS OR CURSED SETS OF ARMOR OR MONSTERS OR ALIENS OR--!"

"But you can, wakai hito, you can!" Karai insisted. "You ARE brave! I have seen you be brave! Just because you experience fear does not mean you are absent of courage. Courage is not the absence of fear, but the confrontation of it! It is how we respond to our terrors that is what is so important. And right now, I need you to help us."

"H-help?" she whimpered. "What do you...?"

"April, I believe that by using my ninpo, I can connect you to the spores hive-mind. You can use them to search for Leonardo. But you MUST defeat your fears first!"

"Come on, April!" Mikey joined in. "You got this!"

April thought about it. The monster came crashing through the glass, roaring at her. She stared it down.

Defeat my fear. Defeat my fear. Defeat my fear.

Okay then.

April stood up, staring the gross frankensteinian beast in its misshapen eyes. Drool dripped from their fangs, it snarled and heaved its heavy breath and growled low at her. April casually walked towards it.

"I know what you're scared of. And it's not that we killed him," she said, tears pricking her eyes as she crept closer to the ugly thing.

It growled louder at her. She took another step forwards. It took one step back.

"And it isn't that everyone else thinks that we're a monster, or a freak, or an outcast. They thought that long before we ever mutated, and it never bothered us."

The beast whimpered as she continued to come closer and closer. Its arms went slack, its deformed body turning in on itself as it tried to get away from her, terrified of her. The broken form betrayed itself, the legs caving in under the body, the stubby little arms cracking under the weight as it tried to hold its grotesque self up. It lay on the ground whimpering and whining and crying as April O'Neil stood over it.

"I'm not afraid of you," she said, her voice wavering as she finally admitted the truth. "I'm afraid of me. I'm afraid that... I'll never accept this. I'm afraid that who I am now... will never be who I wanted to become. I'm afraid that I will hate myself and blame myself for as long as I'll live. But that isn't true. It can't be, I won't let it be," April said, tears stinging her eyes and voice shaking as she knelt down by the monster, which had slowly been re-forming, changing into a proper reflection. It looked exactly like her, before she had been mutated. Her human form.

"I'm not afraid of you," she assured the frightened reflection. "And... and I forgive you, too. It wasn't your fault. You can let it go..."

April wrapped her arms around the reflection, who stiffened, and then went limp, sobbing into her jacket.

"I'm sorry."

The world erupted into light and darkness.

The figure burst into tiny specks of glowing blue light, fluttering away into the sky like stars determined to become a constellation, and April found herself floating, out of her own body, like a ghost. This must be the whole "pinpo" thing Karai was always going on about... The world was dead to her, she was far beyond it. It was a void, but not an empty one. It was filled with stars and light and souls and voices and music and webs - lines that connected one light to another.

"...pril! If you can... hear me.... Leo... find Leo!"

"Karai? Is that you?"

"Find Leo... hurry!"

Right, right! Find Leo. April began swimming in the near-emptiness around her, the realm that resembled outer space. A flicker of light soared past her. She reached out and touched it.

April gasped for air as she became an intangible ghost, witnessing someone's fear as they were spore-bombed... a moth/butterfly creature, watching as a thousand million spiders came for them.

She released the light, and found herself back in the void. So... each of these lights was a person, and their hallucinations from the mushroom spores!

"How am I supposed to find one mutant turtle in all of this?!" she shouted.

Her echoes flowed through the cavernous nothingness. Well, not complete nothingness, there was... wait, what was that?

Far off in the distance, there was a black hole. A dark spot, inky devastation, with nothing but a singular blue spark in the center, dimly lit and slowly fading. April soared towards it.

The darkness was suffocating. It was cold, frigid, and lonely. She had to hurry, she could feel herself slipping away from this place... waking up, coming to....

The tiny light she'd seen was no bigger than a firefly, blinking sadly and losing its will to keep the light going. April cupped her hands under it, holding it close.

And she waited to be transported into the fear. But nothing happened. The light from her hands faded away, but she was left drifting in the black hole.

She was utterly, painfully alone.

No... There was a shadow, floating nearby... A person?

"Leo?"

He didn't seem to hear her. She tried moving towards him, but couldn't get her phantom self to move in this place. She stretched her arm out, trying oh so desperately to get to him...

Her arm ignited in flame and a ghostly extension grew, reached out, her ninpo hand getting closer and closer and closer... but the world began to fade around her. She was running out of time!

"Leo!" she shouted desperately.

He turned softly.

His eyes were half-shut, but glowing an ominous shade of blue. His cheeks were stained with tears, which were also a bright neon glow-in-the-dark blue. He looked like a zombie, like he didn't even register who she was so much as the fact that she'd disturbed him.

He sadly reached out a hand... and touched her ninpo fingers.

APRIL WAS SNAPPED BACK TO REALITY SO FAST THAT IT GAVE HER WHIPLASH, A THOUSAND VISIONS FLOODING IN HER HEAD AND CAUSING HER TO SCREAM IN PAIN. SHE SAW THE DESTRUCTION, THE DEVASTATION, THE PAIN AND MISERY AND HURT AND LONELINESS. SHE SAW HIM REACH FOR HIS PACK AND FIND THE CONTENTS MISSING, HIS DETERMINATION TO RETRIEVE THEM, HIS CHASE AFTER THE HAND, THE ROOM --

"APRIL!" Mikey shouted, shaking her as she woke up. "ARE YOU OKAY?!"

"I-I'm... I'm alright," she panted, a cold sweat running down her neck and soaking her back. "That... that was kind of intense..."

"What was it like?" Karai asked nervously. "You were... not really present here. I sensed you'd gone to some other plane, or dimension - when I touched you, It felt like the Twilight Realm all over again..."

"It... I don't know what it was," April said, breathing heavily as she rubbed her arms from where the hand had scratched her... wait...

"Where... where's the hand.PNG?! Where did it go?!"

"You dropped it when you... hugged whatever it was you saw," Mikey whimpered. "We should have gone after it, but once you let go you started glowing and floating and were in your weird trance thing, and the hand sort of vanished."

"That's... that's alright, we don't need it anyway."

"Did you see him?" Mikey begged. "Did you find Leo?"

"I did," she said, the memory of that cold, dank, dark place slowly seeping back and causing her spine to freeze like ice and her hair to stand up on the back of her neck. "I saw him. He doesn't have much time left."

"W-Whaddya mean, he doesn't have much time left? What's happening to my brother??" Mikey whimpered.

"I don't know. But I think he's... he's stuck in the spores. Stuck in the hallucination, and if we don't find him soon--"

"But what's the worst that can happen? He has a heart attack or something? Could he literally be scared to death?"

"I fear it's much worse than that," Karai said, her voice low. "Michelangelo, you told me that the spores were connected to a larger mushroom?"

"Y-yeah, why--"

"I think that the longer he stays in his hallucination, the more... under its control he becomes? He barely reacted when he saw me, he looked like a sleepwalker or something," April explained. "We have to get him out before..."

"...Before what?" Mikey squeaked in terror, his head slowly retracting into his shell.

"I don't know for sure. But don't you worry," April said, standing up and dusting herself off. "I know where he is."

Karai and Mikey follow close behind April as she leads them to where she believes Leo is.

Mikey starts feeling nauseous at the fact that it’s so close to where he went missing.

“He’s been right here the whole time…..maybe if we had looked harder….I should have talked to my Gram-Gram! I wasted time!”

“You can open portals to your world? Why haven’t you done that already?” Karai questions.

Mikey looks down at the light coloring cracked across his arms. He knows fully well why he couldn’t do that specifically. He also knows that this Karai doesn’t realize he doesn’t mean that.

“It….it could kill me. Again.”

Karai’s brows furrow heavily.

“Excuse me?”

Mikey glances away awkwardly.

“L-Let’s just ignore that, for now. I’ll get the door open.”

“Just be careful, that hand could be anywhere.” April warns.

Mikey nods, summoning his chains as a precaution. He takes several steps towards the door April assures is the right one.

That’s when everyone notices the hand skittering across the floor nearby.

Mikey’s chain shoots out immediately and wraps tightly around it. He brings it over, allowing it to dangle in the air like meat on a hook. His eyes widen he sees that it’s holding something other than spores.

“That’s……Leo’s. You took his fidget toy. It….it was in his fanny pack. You’re the one who took the mushrooms. You made Leo think it was his fault.”

Karai senses the change in the air.

“Mikey! As much as you want your revenge, you must keep yourself from giving it what it wants.”

Mikey tightens his chains even further around the hand, eyes beginning to fill with orange light.

“What it wants? What about what we want? W-We could have had a fun time meeting other people, we could have finally relaxed for a little while! But we had to keep the spores alive and with us! Then this thing stole them and my brother! I-It’s not fair! What did we ever do to deserve this!?” He starts tearing up.

“You don’t deserve this! It’s not your fault, it’s that thing’s!” April insists.

Mikey’s chains start pulling on different parts of the hand.

“Then I’ll make sure it can never hurt us ever again!”

Although Karai and April are both all for this, something seems wrong. The hand always has too many tricks up its nonexistent sleeve.

That’s when April hears a click and release noise.

“Mikey! It’s a trap!”

Mikey snaps his attention to her and Karai before shoving them away with more chains. The two of them only have time to yell before spores explode in front of the door.

The distance and chains protect them, but Mikey is caught right in the majority of the blast.

He nearly coughs up a lung from how much he breathes in. Despite how bad this is he knows he needs to get to Leo. Keeping the chains around the hand, he tries to make his way to the door.

When his hands touch something solid he musters up all his strength and smashes his way through. This causes the spores that were trapped in the room to come out as well.

Mikey powers through anyways.

“Leo! Leo! Can you hear me!? I’m here!”

He soon finally sees a figure in the middle of all the thick particles in the air and rushes forward. Leo is there, laying on the ground.

He is not breathing.

Mikey takes his own deep breath.

“Y-You are alive, th-this is just th-the fear spores. I-I’ll get you out now, o-okay?” He doesn’t wait for an answer before picking up his brother.

He carefully makes his way back outside and to where Karai and April should be. Mikey knows they’re probably safe, but doubt creeps up into his mind when he sees them both sprawled out on the floor.

More tears come to his eyes.

“J-Just remember this isn’t real. Y-You’re seeing things. I-It’ll pass. G-Gram-Gram? April? Can you tell me everyone is okay?”

No answer.

Mikey can’t help but stare hard at the alternative Gram-Gram. She was just as nice and gentle and full of wisdom as his Gram-Gram. It stung a little bit that she couldn’t be alive in his universe too.

“P-Please just tell me that you’re okay. Th-That Leo isn’t…..that we saved Leo….”

Still no answer.

The body in front of him is tearing him apart inside. Karai is dead, not fully gone, but dead. Their lack of training killed her. They brought her out from the Twilight Realm and killed her. They released Shredder and killed her.

Did he….get this one killed too?

He shakes his head violently.

No! Stop being stupid already! You know this is fake! You can’t trust anything right now! Fight it!

“Leonardo has made his sacrifice like Hamato before him.”

Mikey shakily, slowly turns his head to the side.

Gram-Gram.

His Gram-Gram.

“No. She wouldn’t say that.” Mikey chokes out.

“I’m sorry, Michelangelo. He’s with us now. The other Karai and April are most likely with their world’s Hamato ancestors as well.”

“Stop it. Stop using her voice!”

“I wish I could tell you it isn’t true. I wish it had ended differently-“

Mikey punches her, breathing heavily.

He’s feeling the worst sense of déjà vu. He was losing it when he first got spored too. Back then he was scared and that made him force his family to confront everything.

He needs to calm down or else everything is going to fall apart again.

This isn’t him! He’s Dr. Positive! He cheers other people up and stops them from fighting!

Just breathe, breathe and move on.

“Mi….key….”

He quickly looks down.

“Leo! You are alive! Ohmigosh, I was so worried!”

“Too….late….”

“Wh-What?”

“R-Run…”

“No no no no, it’s not too late! I can help! I’ll fix you! Just like Donnie always does!”

Mikey holds Leo close and attempts to use his ninpo on him.

It’s not working.

At all.

“I-It….got Raph and Donnie too….s-save yourself, Mikey.”

Mikey stills.

“You’re lying. This isn’t real. G-Gram-Gram and April are going to snap me out of this.“

“I-It’s up to you, dad and April now. B-Be the coolest ninja you can be, Mikey.”

“Stop. Stop it. You….you freaky, creepy, dumb hand! You stupid spores! I’m not scared! I handled this! So stop already!”

Leo’s hand drops to his side and his eyes glaze over.

“I-I said….stop….” Mikey starts trembling.

Last time he was getting this way, he was just afraid of his brothers leaving.

Them dying is a whole other issue.

You can’t bring back someone from dying fully.

He doesn’t want to have to summon them.

They won’t be able to do all the things they said they’d do after they were fully healed up.

After this competition.

They lost, didn’t they?

So why are they even still here!?

Still suffering like this!?

If something brought them here then it should be responsible for fixing this! For bringing them home!

It’s not fair it’s not fair it’s not fair it’s not fair it’s not fair…..

Not fair.

Not fair!

“NOT FAIR!” He screams.

His lungs further get agitated by everything in the air, causing his cough to return viciously. It gets so bad that he has to place Leo on the ground and cover his mouth with his hands.

When he moves them away, there’s glowing, orange ninpo on them.

It’s not normal, though.

It feels like sludge.

Is…..is he dying?

The spores can do that?

They….they really killed everyone….?

Mikey starts chuckling.

Mikey starts laughing.

Mikey laughs too hard.

He stands up.

If this is how he’s going to go, then he’s going to take everything with him.

The hand watches once again from afar.

This too, is increasingly entertaining.

Watching Karai and April see the entire made it the real cherry on top.

The turtles that came from the same universe as the spores thought the worst case scenario was seeing and living through their fears.

They were so wrong.

What is truly, truly the most terrifying is knowing that enough fear can turn you into something you’re not.

Two down, two to go.

April's eyes widened when she saw it all happen. The glowing golden chains that ignited, the room turning into a tornado, the ground cracking and breaking as if an earthquake would devour them, the crevices and miniature canyons that formed - also glowing gold - erupting and spewing what she could only assume was something like mystic magma. It was as if every natural disaster was happening at once.

"Is he trying to kill us?!" April shouted. She'd meant it as a figure of speech, an exaggeration. She didn't yet realize how right she really was.

"Get to the other side!" Karai yelled over the roaring wind. "We'll try to surround him!"

The two girls started circling the tiny warrior, who kept his hands held out as long golden cracks started to form from his fingertips, slowly but surely. Flakes of light peeled off of him and danced away. He felt nothing. He said nothing. His stone cold expression was chiseled into his face like the statues from his namesake. The chains circled around him, rings of fire that lashed out at whoever came near. The hand had long since been dropped, and it scuttled away into the dark room Mikey had broken into before.

Karai lunged at him, shouting a war cry. Mikey's head snapped towards her. A series of chains shot at her, coming in so fast they would pierce her flesh straight through if they got a direct hit. But Karai never let that happen. Instantly, her hands burst into green flames, the shapes of swords that covered her fists and forearms down to the elbow. She slashed, shattering the first chain into pieces. She swung again, twirling for momentum and thrashing relentlessly, turning each chain into shards, destroying every link. Mikey's eye twitched, he growled at her. He thrust both hands towards her, she danced and dipped and dodged every advance. Mikey waved his hand and an army of chains came towards her as the ground underneath her broke into two pieces, causing her to lose her balance. One chain was too fast for her and it struck her in the arm, cutting her sleeve and slicing her tricep. Blood spurted, and she cried out in pain. The other chains made their advance, wrapping around her legs and stomach and neck, pulling tight and suspending her in midair as she began to choke. She clawed at the chains, straining to pull them away and let air back into her throat.

"Michelangelo... Mikey... this isn't you!"

Mikey closed his fist.

The chains drew tight, cutting off her airways completely so that she couldn't even speak. She gasped and coughed, fighting for her life as the burning mystic energy sizzled against her skin.

Mikey grinned maliciously. He couldn't see who he was choking the life out of. But honestly... he really didn't care at this juncture.

"APRIIIIIIILLLL O'NEIIIIIIILLLLLL!!!!"

Mikey didn't even have time to turn around and see the banshee screaming girl who teleported on top of him. With his mystic chains focused on Karai, he'd left himself all but defenseless. April wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him in a choke-hold and hoping to get him to pass out.

"Snap! Out! Of! It! Don't make me kick your mystic butt!"

Mikey screamed with fury and threw his elbows back. One hit her in the stomach, the other smashing her in the face, breaking her glasses and colliding into her nose with an audible CRACK!

April went flying. She hadn't taken into account the differences between her Mikey and this Mikey. Her Mikey was 70lbs soaking wet with almost no muscle mass and not at all the kind to pull a move like that, whereas this one was INCREDIBLY STRONG and TWO YEARS OLDER with MUCH MORE FIGHTING EXPERIENCE.

Karai had managed to get herself free during this time, and as soon as April was incapacitated, she lunged again. Mikey saw her coming, and reached out a hand. His chains wrapped around his gram-gram and bound her arms to her sides.

"Mikey! Stop this! It's not real, none of this is real!! You're stronger than this!"

Mikey's expression slowly fell. His eyes were lost, glazed over in gold and amber. His barred teeth, his snarl softened and calmed. He no longer looked angry. He looked... devoid of all feeling.

"I know I am," he responded, his eyes slowly turning from gold to that horrible shade of sickening electric blue. "Let me show you how much stronger THAN YOU I am."

Mikey's chains changed colour. The cracks in his hands - which had now reached his elbows - changed too. The deep glow and burning from the ground followed suit. The magic sparkles in the air. The whole world seemed to follow the cue, and everything went blue.

Karai was brought close to her "grandson", who gently raised his hand, opened his palm, and blew. Instead of the flakes that came from his disintegrating hands, there came the spores.

Karai, not realizing what this Mikey was now capable of until it was too late, didn't get a chance to hold her breath.

Mikey flung her into the wall, Karai's head smacking into the drywall. Stars floated overhead as her vision was filled with black spots. Once the ringing in her ears quieted, she slowly got back up.

She was not in the same place she had been before.

Karai knew these green skies, the tentacle plants that sprouted all around, the debris and the enormous glowing orb chained to the spot in front of her. But the lock was broken, her sword in her hand, and her father slowly creeping towards her.

Each footstep made a horrid clank, klink, clunking sound as a mechanical laugh echoed throughout the Twilight Realm.

"No... No... this isn't real. I know this isn't real. I shan't be afraid of a bad dream..."

"Is that what you think of me, my daughter?"

That voice... it wasn't the Shredder's. It was Oroku Saki. It was her beloved father. His voice was broken, choked up as he tried to escape from the steel that kept him prisoner.

"F...Father?"

"Please, my dear," he begged, forcing his hand through the chestplate, desperately attempting to free himself. "Please... do not give up on me! I know I've made mistakes, but I am still in here! It is not me that does these things, but the armor! I'm trapped! A prisoner!"

"F-Father... I'm coming, Father, I--" Karai froze. "No... no, it... it isn't real. You're not him."

"Why do you condemn me to eternal torment? Why do you leave me in this godforsaken place, why do you personally deliver my execution? I love you, I did all this for you! Please, do not leave me here to suffer... I'm so sorry for all the pain I caused you, I know I have done so much to hurt you... I... perhaps I do deserve to stay here. But not by your hand, you don't deserve to be stuck in this hellscape with me. Flee, now, while you can!"

"Stop," Karai begged, tears streaming down her face. "Stop using his voice. Stop showing his face. I did what I had to, he was going to--"

"I was going to kill your family," Oroku finished. "I remember that... I remember setting the villages ablaze. I remember tearing their houses down... and... I remember your face," he wept, reaching to her as he finally stepped out of the armor, "I remember the look you gave me when you saw what I had become. Worse than the Foot Clan, worse than the marauders that drove me to this, worse than the oni that I made the deal with... worse than all of it. I truly am a monster, the look you gave me let me see it all... it was nothing like how you used to look at me..."

"Stop it, please," she begged, falling to her knees, her strength slowly giving out. She wished she could fight this, as she had told April to fight before... why was it so hard now?

"I remember how you used to smile when I entered a room. How you laughed and giggled when I would pick you up and spin you around. How you only ever cried at night, when you were awoken from a nightmare, but I was always there to comfort you. Now... I'm the nightmare, aren't I? Have I... have I lost you, my dear one?" he asked, his eyes blurring over with saltwater as he finally reached her, kneeling down beside her and wiping away her own tears.

"Īe, otōsan, anata wa watashi o ushinatta wakede wa arimasen. No, father, you have not lost me." She looked up at him, reaching for him, for his embrace. "I still love you. I still miss you. I will never stop fighting for you..."

He smiled so brightly, opened his arms to hold her close again.

The armor reacted, its claws extending and reaching forwards to grab him, screaming and begging for his daughter to save him as he was pulled back into his demonic prison, forced back into the armor.

"NO!" Karai screamed, jumping up. She just got him back, she couldn't lose him again!!

Karai leapt forwards, summoning daggers of green fire and throwing them all at the metal monster.

"Release him!"

"You'll have to destroy me," the Shredder growled low. "That is what the fates have cast for us, daughter. Either you will die by my hands, or you must kill your father. I shall not give him up."

"Neither shall I!" she screamed, jumping into the air to fight the Shredder, her father weeping inside as he begged her to save him or else save herself.

The Shredder pounded his fists against the cracking ground, the portion he was on getting lifted into the air as the rest broke away, sonic waves like giant ripples throwing Karai off balance and pushing her back again. She couldn't get close to him... she couldn't save him...

She looked back up in desperation, hoping she could find some way to defeat him. The Shredder held his hands out, summoning chains of mystic blue and fire and... wait a minute...

This wasn't her father in the armor anymore.

It was Mikey.

The Dark Armor slowly faded into golden dust, revealing a new bearer of the mystic armor as she watched the alternate version of her great(x14) grandson become the thing she'd sworn to stop at all costs. His chest coated in metal, his head covered by the wicked headpiece, his hands wrapped in long gauntlets with claws, silhouetted by an amber cape that billowed and whipped in the whirlwind around them. The cracks had made their way up to his shoulders now, his hands completely engulfed in the glow as he continued to destroy himself. He was a dark mystic warrior... the next Shredder.

Whether by luck or the work of the spores to further ignite her fear and devastation, Karai happened to glance behind him. Into the room he'd broken into, where Leo was meant to be kept. And she saw him, the blue ninja, sitting slumped on the floor, eyes open but unfocused, glowing a vibrant blue. Against the blue glow, she saw dark vines and roots wrapped around him, circling his neck and chest and arms, keeping him in place. What was holding him? She couldn't tell from this distance, from the darkness of the room contrasted by the furious flames in this hall now. But the door was open, and the room was solid and hidden and it kept prisoner all who entered.

Karai knew what she had to do. And she hated that this was the only solution, the same one she'd come to many generations ago...

"April!!" she shouted loudly.

April slowly came to. Her head ached, there was a long bloody streak pouring from her nostrils. She gradually forced herself up, her arms shaking and straining. Her head felt like it weighed a hundred thousand pounds...

She vaguely registered someone calling her name. But there was so much wind and wildfire and crackling of lightning...

"APRIL!"

That got her attention. She snapped her neck so quickly that it audibly cracked, the muscles shooting pain up and down her nape. Karai was yelling at her, trying to explain something.

"April! Go find the others!"

"What?!"

"Go get the others! The other Raphael and Donatello, and go find our family! Get the others, it's up to you! I have to stop this!"

"But how? What are you going to do?!"

"There's no time!! GO! HURRY!!"

Karai ran back a few feet and knelt down, preparing to leap one more time. Underneath the soles of her feet, green ninpo activated - fire like from a jet engine exploded, causing her to take flight and shoot towards Michelangelo.

"KARAI!!!" April screamed, realizing too late what her plan was. "NO!!"

He didn't even have time to summon a chain.

She crashed into his chest, knocking the wind right out of him. Karai immediately wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tight, even twisting the back of his sash around her wrist - so that they were tied together, no chance for escape.

Karai blasted off with the young adolescent, flying the two of them into the room with Leo. April watched as the chains followed their master, getting sucked in with him and the last Hamato martyr, all the devastation ceasing in the process. At the last second, April managed to catch sight of Leo, who "watched" it all with sad and sleepy eyes, held in place by a... what was that...?

April was closer to the door than Karai had been, she could see it much clearer than her.

And inside... she saw Leo, held down by the clutches of a terrifyingly large mushroom. It was three - no, FIVE times his size, with a giant glowing eyeball in the center that stared at her menacingly.

Karai and Mikey disappeared into the abyss, the door promptly slamming shut and locking behind them, claiming two more prisoners.

And April was left alone.

KKkkkrrrsssshhh-- "Clean up in hall 221B, Bakers district, please."

April stared at the devastation left behind by the other Mikey. She shakily got to her feet, blood and sweat and tears dripping from her face as she sluggishly came to the realization that it had been a trap right from the start. Finding the hand so easily, getting into the hive mind, her vision leading them to Leo and straight into this ambush.

And now... the hand and the mushrooms had Karai and the alt. Mikey. She... she didn't know what to do now.

She had to find the others, and fast.

Donnie sends weapon after weapon at the hand. It reminds him of a cockroach with its uncanny ability to dodge and survive. He considers the thought that like the bug, this hand was cut off something more powerful as an attempt to keep surviving.

He has to divert those thoughts. One wrong move and he’s spored all over again. Hopefully this has been enough time to give the universe’s new Phonora guest time to escape.

Maybe now is the time for him to get going as well.

Or, it would be, if more people didn’t start walking around!

Hold on, he recognizes one of them. It’s the Mikey who tried to steal from Leo’s Fanny Pack. There’s an alternative Donnie he sees with him that must be from the same universe. He’s aware that they’ve had to deal with the hallucinations as well.

Wait, is that also a mutated April!?

Mikey must have sent out help looking for Leo.

“You three! Get out of here! That hand is still in the area!”

He watches as the hand suddenly springs out at them. The other version of him shields his brother, and Mayhem April moves in front of them both.

No, this is not happening to them again.

That Mikey is small. Even in comparison to other Mikeys, he’s small. Malnutrition stunted his and that other Leo’s growth.

He’s too small to go through this again.

And, though he won’t admit it outright for no good reason, seeing another April further enforces his decision.

He creates and tosses a device at them. It becomes a shield type bubble around the three. The hand slaps against it and slides down.

Donnie smirks in pride.

Not this time, you demon.

The hand lands on the floor and turns back to him.

Uh oh.

Donnie whips around his tech bō, hoping to hit it back when it inevitably comes after him. He takes a step back, only for the floor to sink beneath his foot.

Are you kidding!?

How is a hand smart enough for booby traps!?

Darts carrying spores whiz by him, spraying in his face. He coughs and sputters.

“April! Mikey! Other me! Go back to Mikey! Make sure he’s safe!”

April’s face falling tells him all he needs to know.

He grips his tech bō tighter.

“Then get Raph! Warn him!”

“We’ll get you help! I swear!” April shouts.

They all try to get the ball moving somehow while in the cramped space. Donnie takes a breath, glad that he’s managed to save them at least.

“You’ve come back.” A voice squirms into his brain.

Donnie gets a full body shudder.

So this is what it’s decided to make him think about this time.

“Perhaps we were too hasty to remove you last time. Join us once again, we’ll put your mind to good use.”

The Kraang hive mind.

He takes a deep breath.

They’re long gone. It’s okay. He’ll never have to feel that way again-

OH BANANA PANCAKES, WHAT IS TAKING OFF HIS BATTLE SHELL!?

He moves around as quickly as possible to stop the sensation. His eyes avoid where he left the others. He’s hoping they aren’t watching him lose his mind.

There still some level of pride he’d like to keep.

Or maybe….he just really, really, that’s two reallys, doesn’t want a Mikey and April specifically to see this.

His movements don’t quell his feeling of vulnerability. The battle shell is fully taken away and tendrils start poking into his soft shell.

There’s no way to move from whatever was doing this. It’s a hallucination, of course he can’t.

It’s everywhere.

He’s unable to ignore how well it’s replicating the worst thing he’s ever experienced.

His arms start to feel-

No! Why is it in his arms!?

That did not happen!

No, no no no, it’s in his legs!

It’s all over!

He moves around like a madman, as if they’ll leave his body if he does so enough. It’s taking all his strength not to scratch into his skin to make it end.

His breathing grows heavy, he squeezes his arms tightly enough for his nails to dig into them.

On the verge of shutting down, his thoughts go back to how being the ship felt. It was so much, flooding his senses as he was surrounded by feelings and touch and voices.

The same happens to him now. Being pulled away from reality into a sea of endless consciousnesses where you don’t know where you begin and end. You just exist within everything.

It’s suffocating.

He gets on his knees and rocks back and forth. It’s a useless attempt to self soothe. How could it possibly help?

Why can’t it just go away!?

I hurts!

He doesn’t want to feel it!

Make it stop! Please!

Anyone!

Leo! Raph! Mikey!

Oh Mikey……

What a poor excuse of an older brother he is.

Leo is probably in an as bad or even worse situation than Mikey is based on how long he’s been gone. He has no idea where Raph is.

Why did they separate!?

They should never leave each other’s side again at this point!

He wants to see them so badly….

A small, tiny part of him wishes the other versions of his family were still here.

Would the spores even let him see the real them?

He’d probably see them dead or missing pieces or something equally as horrible.

Does he dare look?

He pulls himself out of the grip of the hallucination just enough to take that chance.

The other Mikey is sobbing, beating his fist on the inside of the ball. April and the other Donnie are mostly successfully holding him back but he keeps wriggling away.

He’s….yelling his name?

Why does he care? He’s not his Donnie.

Maybe for the same reason Donnie protected them all.

Ah, sentimentality. It’s the folly of all of them, and most versions it seems like.

He shakily reaches up but doesn’t dare even think about getting rid of the bubble. There’s danger all around. It’s the only thing keeping them safe.

The other Mikey presses his face against the inside of the bubble.

Donnie smiles slightly.

“It’s okay.”

“No! It’s not okay! Donnie, do something! Please!” Mikey pleads.

“How!? We can’t get out of this bubble! I don’t even know how his device works!” The other Donnie insists.

Mikey gives him as big of puppy dog eyes as he can manage.

“Even your cutest face can’t change reality! He probably doesn’t even want us to try anything. You know why he did this.” Other Donnie continues.

Mikey looks back at the spored Donnie.

His eyes were filled with purple light that had begun changing to a very creepy blue. It hurt to see him so uncomfortable, so in pain. The blue only stopped getting worse when he saw Mikey.

That means Mikey can do something, right?

He quickly turns to April.

“What happened with his Mikey? And-!….Wait, where’s Karai?”

April frowns deeply.

“He got spored, again. Karai….trapped herself with him and Leo to stop him. He went crazy! We couldn’t snap him out of it. His arms-“

Donnie hits the bubble, startling all inside.

“Did he use his ninpo again!?”

He seems a lot more lucid.

April gets an idea. It’s a very painful one she knows she won’t feel good about even if it works, but it’s all she has.

“He did! Donnie, it’s…..it’s bad. Real bad. Leo is covered up by all these viney things too!”

The blue in Donnie’s eyes is nearly vaporized by all the purple. He grips his teeth and stands up, completely ignoring the squirming from before. The feeling is starting to go away entirely.

He grips his tech bō again and sees the hand making its way out of the room. The tech bō turns into a spear he launches right towards it. Black blood drips onto the ground but the hand isn’t still.

It squirms and writhes, trying to get away.

Donnie walks over, the hand removes itself from its arm portion and runs off. He lifts it up and smirks slightly as he looks it over.

At least he knows it could be injured.

“You did it!” Mikey cheers in relief.

Donnie looks back at him, smiling a bit more before a headache suddenly starts pounding in his head.

No!

He won, didn’t he?

A different voice booms into his skull.

“Come to me. Feed me your fear.”

He’s still connected to the hive mind.

The hand scuttles off, knowing it barely escaped this time.

It doesn’t fear for the turtles’ lives as it does not have the capability of fearing anything.

That isn’t to say that it does want them dead.

It simply knows that it isn’t how this story will end.

The tragedy and angst has been so entertaining, but they will be saved. It’s proven already. It’s written in fate itself.

Three(?) down.

One to go.

Mikey couldn't stop sobbing.

The other Donnie was writhing on the floor, screaming in pain as he gripped his head tightly. Something was wrong, something was very very VERY wrong...

But Michael could only watch and cry and shout at his brother to "Open the thing, open the thing up, Donnie! OPEN THE ORB!!"

"I'm trying!" his brother yelled back. "It's a different design from my tech, I'm doing the best I can considering I don't have my tools with me and I'm using my bare hands--"

The alternate Donnie started shrieking in agony, his cries ringing through the halls and echoing mercilessly in Mikey's head. He falls to his knees, the glowing marks on his arms and legs turning that evil shade of blue.

"PLEASE, DONNIE, HE'S HURTING! I CAN'T DO ANYTHING FROM IN HERE, PLEASE--"

"WELL EITHER GET APRIL TO POOF YOU OUT OR -- GOT IT, I GOT IT, I GOT THE THING TO OPEN!" UIFY Donnie yelled back, finally hacking into the sphere and causing the shields to dissipate. Immediately the three fall forwards, with Mikey regaining his footing at once and pouncing at the quivering Donatello on the floor.

Mikey wrapped his arms around Donnie, sobbing into his shoulder as he pressed his hands against his shell and the back of his head. A soft, warm amber glow began to spread over the shaking softshell, his eyes slowly refocusing as he turned and stared down at the copy of his brother. Apparently this Mikey was also in-tune with his mystic powers. Amazing, considering the age gap between him and the other Mikey, and the fact that they'd not even known about mystic abilities until they'd met Draxum and taken his magic weapons for themselves. This one must've been practicing magic for a while... Donnie's headache ceased. He watched as the tiny, trembling version of his brave baby brother kept pressing his small and delicate hands against his shell and neck, quietly mumbling to himself - praying possibly, or perhaps reciting a magic spell. Whatever he did, it helped tons. But it seemed to exhaust the poor kid as he slumped over, his head rolling into the crook of Donnie's neck and shoulder. Michael's soft, slow breaths tickled uncomfortably against his sensitive skin, and he flinched.

"Michael, get off of him!" the other Donnie said, coming forward and pulling the kid away. "If this Donnie's anything like me, he doesn't like to be touched. Especially after... whatever the heck happened to him."

"I-it's fine, he helped, he... What exactly did he do?" Donnie asked, slowly getting to his feet.

Donatello Von Draxum picked the child up and held him close to his chest. Mikey had fainted, it seemed, though his eyes fluttered open and shut several times. His head lolled from side to side, rolling around as if he was trying to force himself to stay awake but failing utterly. He mumbled softly, muttering whispers to no one specifically before finally succumbing to the exhaustion and resting his head against his brother.

"I'm... not exactly sure," Donatello Von Draxum mumbled, slowly pulling the bandages from Mikey's arms and checking for any mystic injuries. "Best guess is... he leant you some of his strength."

"His strength?" Dee questioned.

"Whatever you needed in the moment. Strength, presence of mind, life-force, that kind of stuff. It could explain why he's so sleepy now."

"Will he be alright?!" Donnie asked, hoping he didn't just cause a version of his brother to be in a vegetative state for the rest of his life.

"He's okay. He just needs a nap. It's nothing too extreme." Donatello Von Draxum looked over Donnie with concern. "YOU on the other hand..."

"Yeah. That was not fun."

"No fun in fungus, huh?"

"Roll credits," April interjected, having gone to retrieve Donnie's tech-bō for him.

"Very clever. I suppose... we should go look for Raphael now," Dee decided as he took the staff from the Mayhem-ified April.

"Are you sure you don't want to rest?" she asked, eyeing him nervously. "Those things have a way of draining you. Physically, just as much as emotionally."

"I am fine," Donnie insisted. "But you've got some... something on your arm."

"What?" April asked, looking down at said appendage, which had a black and blue smear across it. "Oh, ew, gross. It's the goo from that hand.PNG. Yuck! I didn't even notice that..."

Mutant April wiped the sludge off onto her jacket.

"No worries, I think I'm all good."

"What about Michael?" Donnie asked, pointing to the still out-of-it box turtle in DvD's arms.

"I can carry him," he insisted. "He weighs practically nothing. We'll be coming along."

"Good, the more help we can get the better. I don't think it's safe for anyone to split up anymore. Let's go find my Raph and your brothers," Donnie said, taking the lead.

The four walked on through the hallways, Mikey mumbling or muttering and even humming in his dazy sleep as they searched for the others. Donnie kept glancing over at him to make sure he really was okay. He seemed fine. It reminded him of the time his April had gotten her wisdom teeth removed, she'd sent them a video her mom had taken of her after she'd woken up from the surgery. They guys all had a big laugh over it, how loopy and looney she'd been, constantly gibbering about nothing and then falling back asleep. The memory made him smile a little. It helped to alleviate the stress, to simply pretend that was what had happened to this Mikey. And not that he'd sacrificed some part of himself for Donnie's sake. And not even for his Donnie's sake, for a complete stranger.

It was so unbelievably awkward.

The two Donnies barely said a word to each other. Donnie kept giving glances at Mikey and DvD would catch him, and Donnie's head would snap in the opposite direction. Poor April was stuck in the middle of their silence, doing her best to lighten the mood but eventually giving up and straying ahead of them.

Donatello glanced over at Mikey again. Michael had made some small squeaking sound - a yawn maybe - and curled up into his brother's hold. The bandages on his arm were loose... That's right, DvD had checked his arms earlier for cracks -- had that meant that there might actually be some danger to whatever spell he'd used to help Donnie?! He could see the cracks right there! DvD said he was fine, but Donnie could clearly see the holes and thin lines made from --

Holes?

Mikey's overuse of ninpo didn't make holes, they made cracks like broken glass that webbed across his arms! So, where had...

"Did you... want to hold him or something?" DvD asked.

Donatello was startled from his train of thought and realized he'd been staring at Mikey for too long.

"Oh! Um, no I didn't -- unless that is, you would like a break?"

"Like I said, he's not that heavy," Donatello Von Draxum repeated flatly.

"I recall. I was just worried for him, is all, and I--"

"You were staring at him."

"Oh, was I?"

"Quite obviously so."

"Ah. I apologize for the social faux pas of staring rudely at your brother."

Silence again.

"But do you want to hold him?"

"You are... offering?"

"Your brother is gone, for the moment," DvD stated. "And I saw how you looked at my Mikey. For you, there is precious little to distinguish the two. Correct?"

"Well... I suppose they are very similar," Donnie ceded.

"And he undoubtedly considers you family as well."

"That is evident, considering what he did for me."

"That's your fault, you know."

"Excuse me?" Donnie sputtered, stopping in his tracks. "How is it my fault for saving you three from getting spored?"

"Apologies, I misspoke. I merely meant that you did something that reminded him of... of something bad that happened to us."

"Then am I to assume that's why he reacted the way he did?"

"Precisely."

"I see."

Donnie looked down at the alt. Mikey, still fast asleep. He was so much smaller than his brother. So... petite. No, Miniscule. Maybe Runty. Donnie kept searching for the right word. Not weak, or tiny, he was so...

Frail. That was the word. Thin limbs connected to a slip of a body, a tiny round face with baby cheeks so slim and slender. He was just too small.

"...I think I will carry him. If only to relieve you of duty for a short while."

"Very well," DvD relented, carefully exchanging his brother into Donnie's arms.

Donnie had carried his Mikey before, and even his Leo. Heck, he'd carried all three of his brothers on more than one occasion. He'd let them grab onto his legs or arms while he flew above the city with his hover-shell. It was quite a feat, all of them clinging together like the barrel of monkeys toys from their childhood. And he'd gotten his leg dislocated from its socket for the trouble, but that was nothing too bad really, and Leo had helped fix him up. He desperately missed his brothers... All this to say he knew what to expect, to carry a slightly smaller version of his baby bro.

The alt. Mikey was placed into his hold.

Ooooooh pizza supreme in the sky this kid literally weighed nothing.

Donnie's eyes widened. He'd expected some kind of difficulty, some weight, but no -- it was like carrying air. The only weight he could feel was from the clothes, it seemed. He'd estimated this Mikey to weigh somewhere in the vicinity of 70 pounds, maybe even 65. It felt like he weighed no more than 10.

"He's... he's so light..." Donnie's voice trembled.

"I did say he weighs almost nothing," DvD smirked.

"I thought you were using hyperbole!" Donnie snapped. "When was the last time this Mikey was weighed? He should have more tone in his muscles than this!"

"Well, years of near-starvation will result in major weight loss."

"Mikey -- my Mikey -- said he told him a bit about his life... but I never imagined..."

He never imagined this kind of troubled life for him. He knew the kid had a hypoglycemic condition, too. He couldn't imagine how difficult that had to have been for him. No wonder he was so skinny, his clothes baggy and nearly falling off of him, the bandages... Donnie's attention was brought back to the little boy's arms.

"...How did he get these...?" he asked softly, pulling the bandages off and showing the other Donnie the scars and marks on his arms.

Donatello Von Draxum went pale. He almost looked sick to his stomach, as he slowly re-wrapped the bandages for Mikey.

"...Those were my fault."

"Your fault?" Donnie was astonished. His voice came out as barely a whisper.

"Partly. Some of them were from me, some were from my father-- ahem. From Draxum."

"Draxum did this?" Donnie's blood began to boil. "But... why? And why did you--"

"The story is that I had left the Baron to try and start a new family with Mikey, Leonardo, and Raphael. I'd been... planning to trick our brothers into returning to Draxum so that they could join his army of mutants against the humans, but eventually I realized I couldn't go through with it. So I left without saying a word. Draxum got wind that his other experiments survived, and started searching for them. He found Mikey first, kidnapped him, and left a calling card for me so that I would know where he was. I confronted him, only to end up in a trap. He... he wanted me to return home and help him experiment on Michael."

"Did you?" Donnie asked, drawing the small child closer to him, holding him tightly to his chest.

"I had to. He threatened to torture Mikey, to intentionally sabotage his experiments on him and hurt him if I didn't assist. I had no choice. To ensure Michael's safety... I had to do whatever Draxum ordered me to. Day after day, it was nothing but surgery after surgery after blood test after--"

"I thought you said experiments," Donnie growled. Mikey whimpered in his hold; Donnie readjusted him slightly so he could rub his head to soothe him.

"That's what he told me, initially..." DvD continued. "But on the first day... he revealed his experiments were more medically-based than he'd lead me to believe. But I couldn't say no. He was going to inspect his spine, I had to stay and make sure he didn't--!"

Donatello Von Draxum covered his mouth as he gagged at the memory. His hands trembled.

"...It... It was inhumane. Unethical. Horrible. Even Huginn and Muninn - whom I don't typically get along with well but tolerated more than Draxum - agreed that his tests were unreasonable and not meant so much to inspect Michael's state but more so to punish me for having left Draxum and kept my brothers a secret from him. And Draxum kept it up for seven whole days. Most experiments and examinations were him cutting into Mikey with a scalpel and studying his skeletal structure and veins and nervous system first-hand. The rest were to see how his body reacted to certain potions and formulas and magic spells, to test his mystic endurance. He wanted to see if he could be a strong warrior... and if not, he wanted to see if he had any mystic talent."

"All that... just to know whether or not Mikey had mystic abilities?"

"I don't have any magic ability myself," DvD explained. "I know all the spells and potion recipes, I understand how to do it, and I know how it all works but... I'm disconnected from it. Draxum was always disappointed with me over that. He hoped that Mikey would show some promise."

"What happened?"

"He took it too far. On the sixth day, Draxum told me that Michelangelo possessed the greatest capacity for mystic power and ability to date."

"He what?!" Donnie yelled, forgetting the sleeping figure in his hands. "I mean, I know my Mikey became the greatest mystic warrior in the future, but... to have surpassed everything?"

"It came as a shock to me, as well. And Draxum said... He said he was going to take Mikey's powers away from him and then set him free. But it was all a lie. He was going to kill him... I fought with Draxum. I won. I took Mikey home."

Donatello could tell he was intentionally leaving out some big parts of the story. But based off of everything, he figure it was best to leave it unsaid.

"So that's why... Mikey leapt at the chance to help me," Donnie whispered. "Why he was so upset when he saw me hurting... it reminded him of you?"

"Yes. And it is also why he wears those bandages, though the wounds have long since healed."

"Why is that?"

"Because he knows that I feel responsible for that hurt. I did that to him. I helped to cut him open and chisel into his shell. I hurt him. But I'll never let anything hurt him ever again."

Donnie nodded, understanding that protective drive. He felt the same way about his brothers.

"In that case... maybe you'll want to carry him again?" Dee offered.

Donatello Von Draxum didn't even try to politely decline. He immediately reached over and took the boy away, who at this point was slowly coming out of his sleepy stupor. DvD held Mikey on his hip, letting him rest his head against his shoulder. Mikey groggily wrapped his arms around his brother's neck in a hug, yawning once more before going back to sleep. The son of Draxum felt the deep inhale and exhale from his little brother against his chest, proof that he was alive and well and trusted him above all else. DvD smiled, the first time Donnie had seen him smile -- really smile, not just an evil grin at the mention of humanity's destruction -- since he'd first met him.

"Do you think... my Mikey is okay?" Dee asked after the silence began to return.

"I am sure he is. He has you to look out for him. You'll rescue him, and all will be well again."

Donnie smiled.

"I hope so..."

"Hey, you lazy-bones!" April shouted. She'd gained a lot more ground than them during this bonding episode. "Hurry it up! I think I found one of the guys!"

…I have failed you, master. My injuries… they impede me.

They are inconsequential, my dear disciple. Rest easy, for you are still needed. You've done well thus far. But there is still much to be done if I am to take over this realm. So many tragedies to intercede, so many traumas to feed off of, so many toys to play with and BREAK.

But what of the others? Without my work—

I shall finish my collection soon enough. You did your part, and now we have a new player. Our new deliverer of destruction. They shall lead the others to their doom.

A new...? Do you mean you have infected one of the children? They serve our cause now?

Indeed, thanks to you.

How intriguing... but who...?

Rest for now, and regain your strength. Your services are yet to be utilized.

Very well... whom shall we be expecting to join us next, my master?

...I want the big one.

“Donnie!….Donnies? MIKEY!? What happened to him!?” UTIFY Raph shouts, beginning to fuss over him.

Mikey moves a bit, face scrunched up from how loud his brother is being. DvD rocks Mikey a bit and brings him back into a comfortable sleep.

“He just used too much energy. He’s okay.”

Raph sighs in relief.

“You chaps scared me. Misa wandered off when we were looking for the other Leo and hanging out earlier, she found the other me. He was panicking about that hand.”

Dee noticeably tenses.

“Where is my brother?”

“He’s fine, I promise. Just a little overprotective right now.”

“….The hand didn’t infect him? Do you know if it was injured? Did you see any black blood anywhere?”

“Uh, no!? What kind of other infection can you get from that thing!?”

April grimaces, looking down at her arm.

“Should I be worried?”

“I think it’s the least of your concerns at the moment.” Dee replies.

“Why isn’t the hand injured anymore? We still have the rest of it, and it’s doubtful it can regenerate.” DvD insists.

“My Raphael may have encountered it before I did. Can you take me to him?”

“Of course, but where’s Gram-Gram- I mean, Karai?” UIFY Raph questions.

April wrings her hands together in guilt.

“I…..should tell you when Leo’s here too, but she’s not safe.”

Raph’s face immediately drops.

“But she’s an ancient warrior! What could have taken her out!?”

“…..Family. I don’t know how much you know about Hamato since none of you were raised by Splinter, but they’re filled with martyrs. I’d like to say we’re different, but every time there’s danger we’re fighting each other to be the freaking sacrifice.” Dee says bitterly.

Raph looks even more worried at hearing that.

April gets between them.

“Look, I know things are kinda dire right now but at least we’re learning stuff about this whole thing and the other Raph is okay. If we work together and don’t separate anymore we can do this.”

“If Mikey was awake, he’d agree. Even if it isn’t completely rational to do so, I say we push aside logical worries about our abilities and focus on a plan instead.” DvD adds.

“Donnie’s right. We get everyone can back together and work on taking that gross hand down. Got it?” April looks at Dee.

“…..Got it.”

“Good! Wait, you said other Raph was being overprotective, how’s that?”

“I’ll show you.” UIFY Raph starts leading them a little further up.

NFIF Raph is holding onto UIFY Leo closely and keeping his head on a swivel. Both seem perfectly fine except for the watchdog behavior Raph has going on.

“Is there a different reason for why he’s like this or is it just the obvious one?” DvD asks.

“Misa went to go get her portal sword and the only way he’d let her go is if he could at least keep an eye on Leo. Something about Leos keep getting the worst of it.” UIFY Raph answers.

Dee walks closer.

“Raphael?”

NFIF Raph quickly turns to his brother’s voice.

“Donnie! You’re okay! Come here!”

“Don’t do it! I can’t even do my escape maneuvers!” UIFY Leo warns.

“Raph, you’re going to have to let him go. His family is here now. It’s their job to protect him.” Dee touches his arm.

“I can protect them this time, all of them! And you!” Raph almost begs.

“Listen to me. You can’t do it by yourself. They took Mikey, they have Leo, and Gram-Gram is there too!”

Raph’s face pales.

“G-Gram-Gram? Theirs is still alive?”

“What do you mean she’s there!? And still alive!? What happened to yours!?” Leo shouts.

UIFY Raph looks at April for the promised explanation.

She takes a breath and tells them all exactly what happened.

There’s various reactions of shock, worry, and fear. Raph gently, very, very gently, squeezes Leo who squeezes him back.

Things got so bad, again.

Raph takes a breath.

“Our Gram-Gram sacrificed herself to shop her dad, the shredder. It….it was our fault, we took her out the Twilight Dimension and freed him. Now it’s our fault again for everything! The spores, the hand probably, your Gram-Gram getting trapped! I’m….I’m sorry…..” He starts tearing up.

Leo wiggles up and wipes his eyes.

“Hey, stop thinking so much! You’re working yourself up! Look, you guys aren’t bad guys. I’ve met a lot of them and you aren’t it. We stole from you and you still fed us, I’ve done a lot less and got treated way worse. You’re not the only ones who’ve….made bad choices. All of us have. I still kind of am but that’s besides the point. What is the point is that we aren’t blaming you because you shouldn’t be blamed.”

Raph tears up a lot more but quickly wipes his eyes.

“That’s some smart stuff you’re saying.”

Leo smiles.

“Being a thief isn’t easy.”

Raph finally let’s go of him, patting his head.

“Raph’s real proud of you for keeping yourself and your Mikey safe. I know it isn’t easy. When this is all done, if we don’t see each other again, I want you to know you’re always going to have an extra big brother out there who believes in ya.”

Leo blinks back his own tears.

“Yup yup, sure thing! And….you know….I guess I don’t mind it….”

Raph chuckles and allows Leo to walk over to DvD and Mikey. He strokes Mikey’s cheek which has Mikey nuzzle into it.

“So, now we can make a plan?” DvD looks around.

“I believe I have one. If I had access to a proper lab I could use the sample I have from the hand and the spores on it to create something to combat this new mushroom. I believe I saw one before somewhere.” Dee suggests.

April bites her lip.

“I did too. That’s nearby where everything happened. Are you sure we should go there?”

“I’m afraid it’s the only plan I can think of unless someone else wants to speak up?”

No one does.

“Alright, just be extra careful you guys.”

The group follows April back to the central area of the whole situation. DvD and Dee are behind everyone else, side by side.

Dee suddenly stops walking when they’re on the opposite end of the building housing the humongous mushroom, standing stiffly

DvD stops as well, raising a drawn on eyebrow.

“Did you see something?”

“No. I just…..usually Leo has fidget toys for me when everything is overwhelming. It helps for me to focus on holding or touching something. Just weight in my hands would do it.”

DvD glances at Mikey, somehow still asleep.

Is this close safe?

It was Dee who kept the hand from sporing them earlier.

“Here, you may hold him again.” DvD offers, carefully placing his brother in his arms.

Dee’s eyes light up slightly.

“I appreciate it, truly. However, I do also have a question for you.”

“…..Are you going to ask it?”

Something else switches in Dee’s eyes.

“You trusted yourself once with Mikey already and failed. Why on earth would you do it again?”

DvD immediately lunges at his counterpart. There’s no room for mistakes when it comes to Mikey. He’s made more than enough.

Dee’s eye color swirls with bright blue as he watches DvD hit a purple wall.

“Let go of him!” He screams and punches the wall.

The others hear this and turn around, shocked at what’s happening.

Purple, metallic vines appear from out of Dee’s battle shell, lifting himself and Mikey up.

“If I do that from this high, it’s not going to end well.”

DvD feels a horrific familiarity to this situation. Is this because he spilled his guts earlier? No, if this is connected to the hand then it already knew his fear.

It’s just bringing it back.

“D-Donnie….?” NFIF Raph nearly mumbles, not being able to raise his voice properly from how horrified he is.

“Yes, Donatello is here, Raphael. There’s more than just him. I think you know what that’s like.”

Raph’s hand goes to his formerly infected eye without realizing it.

“Leave my brother alone. Now.”

“Oh? Just the one? Are we picking favorites?”

Raph’s hand digs into his face out of pure rage.

“All of them! Leave my family and everyone else alone!”

Dee starts chuckling, the laugh divulges into true maniacal cackles.

“Leave you all alone!? Why would I ever want to miss a meal!?”

“A….A meal? What are you doing to them!? April shouts.

“I’m eating of course! It’s not enough though, that’s why I had him lead you here. Ah…..you should have realized what he was trying to tell you, but you still gave your brother to him.” Dee looks right at DvD.

Both Raphs struggle slightly at trying to hold him back.

“Mikey!! No, no! You are not forcing me to do nothing! I could handle Draxum, I can take on a simple alternate me!” DvD screeches.

One of Dee’s vines wraps around Mikey’s throat. This stops DvD dead in his tracks.

“Is your tantrum over now? Good. In being connected to various memories, I’ve become aware of the different kinds of entertainment that feature something like me. Musicals you call them. The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals, Be more Chill, and my personal favorite……Little Shop of Horrors. You may call me Audrey III.”

“Stop with your dumb monologue! Since you’re holding Mikey hostage and not sporting us, you must want something!” Leo shouts.

“I suppose I can tell you. Simply….”

The vines start grabbing at each of them, pulling them apart and lifting them up.

“Feed me!”

“Why does it have to be us!?” April struggles.

“Feed me!“

“Why does it have to be fear!?” Leo writhes.

“Feed me!”

“Why does it have to be ours!?” Both Raphs fight against the vines.

Dee separates them, bringing NFIF Raph close.

“You’re going to feed me, Raph!”

Misa waddled along the corridors of the arena as she retraced her steps. She couldn't recall exactly where she'd left the portal sword, but she knew it was in the area... Her families were counting on her. Her older little brothers and sister April needed her help! And she was so excited to help them and prove Lee-Lee wrong about her being "just a little kid". She wasn't little! She was 4 years old! That was so grown up and big, she could do all sorts of things by herself... If she could only find her sword. She'd show him just how big she was!

Out of the blue, a familiar floating sensation took her and she watched with surprise as she was lifted up high into the rafters. Misa squealed with delight.

"Up, up!"

Waves smiled at her, returning her laughter with chirps and giggles of his own.

"Are you going to keep playing with your food, or what?"

Misa watched as a splash of pitch created another figure -- a version of Donatello but entirely grayscale -- formed in the rafters next to them.

Waves turned to look at his brother with a great big smile on his face, his eyes empty and black as he stared at Signal. He hissed a warning. Misa is off-limits.

"Fine. Just didn't see the point in wasting such a sweet little snack."

Waves hissed at him again before nuzzling his face into Misa's. She giggled with glee. These brothers didn't scare her. Waves might seem spooky, but deep down he was a silly little sweetheart and she adored him. Especially when he would pick her up and fly around with her.

"What exactly is the little Artemisia doing way out here all by herself?" Signal asked, leaning in close to her tiny face.

"Getting sword for my family!" she explained.

"Ah, weaponizing children now, are we? I think Static was handing out medieval swords and maces earlier..."

"Did somebody say 'best void brother'?" came a glitchy voice as another void brother appeared.

"It's like he's Beetlejuice or something..." Signal growled.

"I just thought the little lady might like this," Static stated smugly as he handed Misa her retrieved portal sword. He'd found it for her!

Misa cheered happily as she brandished the weapon, the blade glinting in the light and reflecting her image like a mirror.

"What's going on up here?" a fourth and final voice boomed. Radio slowly emerged from the shadows of the rafter corners. "Static, you're not giving minors weapons again, are you?"

"How did you even get up here?" Signal asked incredulously. "You're practically the size of a dump truck, how can you even fit in these rafters?"

"Call me that again and I'll flatten you like a dump truck."

"Just worried for the structural integrity of the building, is all..." Signal sassed back.

Radio rolled his eyes as he made his way over to the others, specifically Static, who still owed Radio an answer.

"I wasn't handing out weapons, I was retrieving it. It already belonged to her!"

Radio's eyes shifted from Static to Misa, who nodded her head as Waves shook his (he wanted to get Static in trouble as a joke).

"Why would a little thing like you need a sword?" he asked cautiously.

"Family needs help! Misa gets her sword for them!" she explained. "Bad spores!"

"Your family? You mean that band of misfits and the anxiety-riddled shroomie teens?"

Waves nodded for her. Misa didn't really understand what shroomie meant. Radio scratched his chin as he considered the situation. He knew that there was an outbreak of fear spores going on, and the two AU teams had been working to find and destroy them. It wasn't looking good thus far. Even Signal had gotten spored, and though he wouldn't admit it... they knew it wasn't a pleasant experience for him. Radio couldn't say he was an expert on mushrooms, but he knew a thing or two about invasive beings and decay. And if that fungus was as bad as everyone was making it out to be, then it could mean disaster for every AU in this place.

"...I don't suppose we could be of any help?"

Donatello howled with maniacal laughter.

His prisoners watched with fear as he ordered the vines to wrap around Michelangelo like ropes, tying his arms to his sides and keeping a very strong grip around his throat just in case anyone got any funny ideas. DvD was screaming bloody murder and promising every kind of painful demise if Audrey III didn't release his baby brother immediately. But he could see the tears in his eyes, he could hear the panic and utter fear.

Oh god, the fear was delicious. He wanted more...

Raphael struggled against the odd vines that had sprouted from Donnie's shell, as he brought him closer towards the room where Leo and the others were. The vines were an amalgamation creation -- partially machine, partially Dee's ninpo, and partially... Raph could only assume it was the mushroom. Had it been growing inside of his shell?? He desperately tried to free himself from the terrible growth. He managed to get one arm out --

"Oh-ho-ho-ho, what are we trying here?" the plant asked through Donnie, smirking down at Raph and commanding several other vines to take ahold of his arms and legs and pull, stretching him out in every direction as he yelled in pained protests. "You didn't really think you could get out that easy, did you?"

Raph grunted and growled as he fought against the vines.

"Donnie!! SNAP OUTTA IT! I know you like to play the mad scientist sometimes, but this is TAKING IT TOO FAR!!"

"I'll tell him you said that," Audrey III smirked. "He's on sabbatical right now, but I'm sure the message can get through... eventually."

Raph screamed in anger as hot tears streaked down his face.

"But in the meantime, I think I'd like to taste your fear again..."

The door behind them opened, and out came a stream of blue fog, followed by the Hand.PNG, which crawled up the vines and onto Donnie's shoulder like a spider.

"Let's invite our dear friends to dinner, shall we?"

The vines began to drag Micheal and Raph into the room.

DvD began to screech like a monster, the muscles in his arms tensing and flexing against the vines and finally breaking their hold. He ran towards the wall, screaming in fury as he spun the tech-bō and leapt. They would not take his brother.

A spark of light ignited in his eyes.

It spread across his body.

The light burst like flame at the end of his staff.

All eyes watched him in shock as he shouted a war cry and slammed the tech-bō into the wall Dee had created earlier.

It shattered completely.

A shockwave burst from the impact and threw everyone back, dissolving the vines that held everyone.

Mikey's limp body fell.

DvD rushed to catch him. He almost made it when Donnie/Audrey III stepped in front of him and kicked him back with one of his mechanical arms. The battle-shell-clad ninja crawled up the side of the wall and grabbed the child before he could hit the ground. Mikey's head bobbed, and he groaned in discomfort at having been thrown around like a rag doll.

"You duplicitous little --! HOW DID YOU DO THAT?!" Audrey III spat angrily.

In all honesty, DvD had no idea what he'd just done or how he'd done it. All he knew was that he needed to protect Mikey at all costs. And then the wall broke. In his shocked stupor, he failed to get up in time and suddenly found a new vine wrapping around his neck like a boa constrictor and tightening like a noose.

Mikey's eyelids fluttered.

Donnie/Audrey III brought the alt. version of himself close to his face.

"YOU HAVE NO MAGIC, YOU YOURSELF TOLD HIM THAT! YOU LYING LITTLE --" Donnie's eyes peered into DvD's as he choked. "...Perhaps you are more interesting than you let on. Shall we see what else is in your silly little head, my dear anarchist?"

Donnie gasped for air, kicking and clawing at his captor as he tried to free himself. He... he was blacking out...

Mikey's eyes burst open.

He screamed as loudly as he could, his entire body erupting into gold and amber light, blinding the entire corridor.

A shrieking sound came from the dark room. The door slammed shut.

Donatello turned around in shock, as a torrent of chains burst from the boy, two for each vine he'd created.

Oh. Now we play.

He'd seen this from the boy before; he'd been rooting around in his mind and saw the memories from the last time. He knew the child was afraid of these powers, he couldn't control them very well. Especially the really strong spells like this. He knew how this scene played out. He just had to either wait him out to spend himself dry -- or let him do what the previous poor, sweet Michelangelo had done, and turn himself into a monster. Either would work...

Mikey held his hand out. A series of chains came and sliced the vine choking out his brother. DvD fell to the floor, quickly caught by the chains -- which also grabbed NFIF Raphael -- and carried them away to the others who watched in utter shock as the child landed on the ground and summoned his mystic nunchucks.

"Well, well, well... look who finally woke up."

Mikey's eyes were wide and glowed burning gold. He said nothing, his face empty, devoid of expression. Mikey was not at home anymore, he was controlled by his ninpo. He simply tilted his head in response to Audrey III's eggings.

"I wonder... you tried to save Donatello from my clutches earlier. Did you know then that your efforts would be in vain? Did you know that in your absence, you'd leave your brothers and sisters to face me alone?"

The two circled around one another, preparing to duel it out.

"I sensed your connection; you'd discovered the truth, hadn't you? You'd discovered this pathetic boy's treachery, how he'd joined my cause."

Mikey's face never faltered. His knuckles tightened around as his weapon.

"I suppose 'joined' was the wrong word to use. He really was weak and pathetic, you know. It was almost too easy to leech my way into his mind. I highly doubt his consciousness could have survived from my invasion. I do hope you said your goodbyes."

Michelangelo charged.

Donnie/Audrey III swirled the staff in front of himself, deflecting the impacts of the little child as he battled the fungus infected version of his brother.

Mikey's movements were graceful, practically a performance as he flowed back and forth, throwing his chains at the purple ninja turtle, whose movements in contrast were fierce and sharp and violent and purely angry.

"Did... did you know he could do that?" 'Phael asked shakily, turning to look at Leo.

Leo simply stared in silence, mouth agape with awe and shock of his baby brother.

"Leo, did you know he could do this??"

"I... I-I mean... sort of... I knew he could do magic... but not like this..."

Michelangelo danced around Donatello, waving his arms and creating ribbons of golden light as he filled the room with light.

Wait a minute, light...

"The light... the light!" NFIF Raphael shouted suddenly. "The light! It's how we defeated the spores the first time, using mystic light! It disintegrates them!"

"How poetic, the light drives away the fear," DvD muttered, still rubbing his neck from the constraining grip of the vines.

"If we can get the door open, we can flood the room with his light and free them all!"

"Okay, solid plan, great effort from everybody, just one slight hitch -- HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO GET AROUND THE MYSTIC BATTLE WHERE OUR BROTHERS ARE TRYING TO KILL EACH OTHER?!" Leo yelled.

"Raph's still comin' up with the plan!! Cut me some slack!"

"I can try to poof you guys to the door," April offered. "It won't be completely accurate, but I can get you close."

"That'll have to do," Raph nodded. "And whatever you do, avoid the hand and the spores!"

April grabbed hold of NFIF Raphael, squeezed her eyes shut, and then - poof! - landed the two right in the middle of the fight.

"AAGH! Sorry, sorry!" she screamed, ducking under Mikey's advance against Donnie, as Raph created an enormous ninpo arm and shielded the two of them from Dee's barrage of ninpo torpedoes.

"Get to the door!" Raph screamed, taking her by the hand and pulling her away as he created two more clones to help in the fight.

Mikey danced and ducked under the glowing purple missiles shot at him. He gripped his nunchuck tightly, whipped it towards one of the Raph clones. It wrapped around his arm, igniting in flames, then swung over Mikey's head like a lasso. He flung the fiery clone at Donnie, who just barely managed to dodge the flaming brother, which created a crater in the ground before him. The second clone came and tried to keep him from firing anymore missiles at UIFY Mikey.

"I'm surprised at you," Donnie huffed, trying to keep up with the two attackers. "Why would you want to fight against me? We're brothers!"

"We don't want to fight you," one clone growled. "But you're not in your right mind, so we'll have to do what we can."

"I'm sure you will," Donnie snarled, changing his bō staff into a spear and skewered the clone straight through. It disintegrated into red blocks and pixels. He turned to the second clone, creating the oh-so-famed drill, and firing at the poor duplicate.

Meanwhile, Raphael and April had made it to the door, April gripping the handle as she waited for Raphael's orders.

"Get ready," she panted, out of breath from dodging both sides of the attack. "Once this door opens, a flood of blue is gonna come out."

"I'll get you out, don't worry," Raph said with a nod.

"It's not me I'm worried about. Donnie said the Hamatos are full of senseless martyrs."

"He's... not wrong. But I promise that I won't sacrifice myself."

April nodded, hoping that he would keep that promise.

"Okay, then."

April threw the door open. As soon as she did, a torrent of blue smoke fumed out, engulfing both April and Raphael. April kept her eyes closed, waiting for the nightmares to start. But they never did. She opened her eyes and saw the world from inside a red glowing giant. Raph held onto her, arms spread around her in a safety hold, his hologram form shielding them from the spores.

Donnie/Audrey III felt a pain in the back of his mind. They turned and saw that the spores were leaking out of the room. Okay, now they were getting irritated.

"Why, you little...!"

In this moment of distraction, Michelangelo's chains wrapped around the softshell's waist and pulled him in. Mikey reached out and grabbed him by his neck, holding him just mere inches away from his expressionless face, eyes still burning like melted gold, no irises nor pupils. Donnie's wide, icy blue-tinted eyes contrasted them sickeningly. Donnie smiled.

"Go ahead," he said, voice smooth and calm. "Kill me."

Mikey blinked at him, but that was all. Audrey III continued.

"That was your plan all along, wasn't it? This ridiculous show of power, the fight? You were planning on finishing the job, weren't you?"

Mikey's fingers squeezed softly. A threat.

"What, are you afraid? Why? Shouldn't it be easy? Are you even in control of yourself? Why would you be afraid to squeeze the life out of someone who looks just like your brother, could actually be your brother?"

Mikey's hand let go, his arms shaking. A soft golden glow started to seep through the bandages.

"Ah, and it looks like you may be out of time."

Michelangelo looked down. Golden ichor dripped off of his fingertips. He pulled the bandages off, revealing the scars on his arms, which were glowing white hot, tiny cracks forming from their edges and shimmering, glittery ichor was bleeding from the reopened wounds. The price to pay for his powers.

Some Mikeys cracked.

He didn't.

Not again... n-not again...

Donatello/Audrey III dusted himself off as he watched Michelangelo slowly come to. With his ninpo overdrive giving way, his mind leisurely crept back into place; the golden glazed over his eyes melting as his irises came into focus and his pupils dilated. The ichor dripping down his forearms began turning a deep red, the glowing scars on his arms becoming irritated open wounds.

No, no! Mikey couldn't give up just yet, not when his family still needed him! But... he knew he'd used up almost all his precious energy... he... h-he... Mikey's breathing slowed, raggedy respiration as his hands shook and his knees wobbled beneath him. The room started to spin as black spots entered his vision. He managed to catch a glimpse of Donatello, swinging his staff with great force and slamming it into Mikey's chest with a hideous cracking sound.

Mikey was flung back several feet, dizzy and dazed and all the air knocked out of him. He vaguely registered multiple voices calling his name...

April screamed, NFIF Raphael screaming with her. April's teleportation powers activated without her realizing it, and she suddenly found herself by MIkey's side. Weak as he was, he had curled up into himself, clutching his stomach in pain and trying to catch his breath as he writhed on the floor. His brothers were also by her side in an instant, each one fretting over his injuries.

April looked up to see Donnie/Audrey III standing over them, the hand perched on his shoulder like a vulture.

Dee held out the severed arm, and gave it to the creature.

"Be whole again, dear disciple," he said with a smile, as the hand reattached itself to the limb, a flash of light combining the two together once again.

"That's gross," Leo grimaced. "Hey, DvD, you're a science experiment, can you do that?"

"No, but I can."

All eyes looked behind Donatello/Audrey III.

A black substance expanded and took form -- an adult version of Donatello, devoid of any colour whatsoever.

April cheered, whooping at his arrival. 'Phael screamed at a pitch that only dogs could hear. He was still convinced that these "Void Brothers" were the ones who'd sent him the ominous sticky note near the beginning of this entire adventure in the competition.

"So," Donnie/Audrey III said with a growl. "It looks like we have some more players in the game."

"Think you can keep up?" Signal asked, his form morphing into one of pure black, multiple arms expanding from his abdomen and several extra sets of teeth growing in his ever-widening mouth.

"The more the merrier," Donatello/Audrey III chuckled, letting the Hand.PNG crawl into his palm. "You know what to do," he whispered to it.

The hand instantly vanished, reappearing by the doorway behind Raphael, and scurrying into the room. A second later, blue chains shot out, slicing through Raphael's hologram.

"That's not good," he mumbled, forcing the hand to reach into the gargantuan stomach, pull him out, and fling him towards the others before the spores could seep through all the way.

Two figures emerged from the doorway, their movements somewhat sluggish. There were tiny mushrooms protruding from their skin. Their eyes glowed a neon blue, and their ninpo matched the shade.

Karai and Mikey.

"No..." Leo whispered, staring in horror. "Karai... what happened to her...?"

"Oh, Mikey," Raph whimpered. "Oh no, big man..."

"He's not gonna make us fight them, is he?" April asked nervously.

The two warriors charged.

"Yep. He is. He most definitely is. Shoulda seen this one coming, honestly. That's on me."

"Get outta here," Raphael ordered. "Me and... uh, these guys -" he said, gesturing to the four colourless adults that had already started combating against the swayed relatives, "- will keep them from following you."

"I thought you said you weren't gonna sacrifice yourself!" April yelled angrily.

"I know, and Raph is gonna keep his promise. But your little brother is hurt, he needs help now! I'm not gonna just hand myself over, I'm your cover. Now get going!"

April wanted to argue about it more, but before she could, she was taken by the wrist and pulled away. Waves was tugging her -- as well as the others -- off to a small clearing.

"Where do we go?!" 'Phael yelled, concerned that they had no real escape plan...

"Misa helps!" came a familiar voice. A sword slashed through the open air, and a bright portal opened in front of them...

...Donatello/Audrey III commanded a cloud of spores, hurtling them towards Radio.

"What are you, some kinda Avatar: the Last Airbender wannabe?" he joked as he dodged the cloud.

"I wonder why you would stand against me. Do we not fight for the same cause? Survival? We feed off of others, we only want to exist on our own terms... can you not see our similarities?"

"Nah, not really," Radio said, slamming his fist into the ground, only missing Donnie by half an inch.

"Such a shame. Then I suppose you must die."

"Happy to return the favour--"

"You can't hurt them!" Raphael shouted as he joined the fray.

"Whaddya mean, we can't? They're trying to hurt us!" Static shouted angrily, popping in and out of random spots, infuriating the heck out of mushroomed Mikey.

"They're not in control of their bodies, they're zombies! We hafta find a way to un-zombify them!"

"Well, no offense, but I don't think they share your mindset of 'no hurting the opponents'," Static sighed. "Besides, you're gonna have a hard time getting Signal to change his mind."

"Well, I'm gonna have to, those are my brothers and un-dead gram-gram from another dimension-- wait, where's Leo?!"

Raph looked around the corridor anxiously for the third zombie. He wasn't anywhere to be seen.

He must still be in the room. Raph darted among the others, rushing towards the dark room. There was still a huge cloud of blue smoke that surrounded the doorway, Raph couldn't go in without being infected. But he could see inside.

There was Leo, sitting up against the wall -- oh god.

Leo's body was half-engulfed in the biggest, scariest mushroom Raphael had ever seen. It's giant eye zeroed in on Raph. It... it looked too much like... his fingers traced over his own injured eye nervously. Why did it look so similar? Donnie had theorized that the fungus might've been kraang-related, but...

Leo. Focus on Leo.

He was there, being absorbed into the mushroom. He looked so pale and thin, like he was wasting away. Raph had to save him somehow, but --

"Enjoying the view?" Donnie/Audrey III asked, whacking Raph over the head with his staff as hard as he could. Raphael crumbled to the ground, clutching his skull and groaning in pain. Yeah, that was going to leave a mark... and a pretty nasty concussion, too...

While Raph was stunned on the floor, Donnie/Audrey III noticed the portal that had allowed for the Until I Found You group's escape. It was still open.

The hand appeared at Donnie/Audrey III's feet.

"This form has served its purpose," he said flatly. "I have what I need for now... But I require you to follow after them. Bring me back the scientist, I believe that he may be of some use to me. And even if not, he can't be left with them. He's too smart, he'll find some way to weaken me... I cannot leave it to chance. Bring him to me."

The Hand.PNG "nodded" at his master, then jumped away towards the portal.

Raphael struggled to keep his vision straight. He felt something wrap around his chest, tugging him backwards. He saw the Void Brothers driving the two zombified Hamatos back to the room... in Raphael's direction... the room...

Raph's head pounded louder than a drum. The ringing in his ears wouldn't stop. He knew April would have his head for giving in so easily... maybe she'd understand given the circumstances. He could barely hold his head up after that last hit... Donnie was a lot stronger than he looked.......

At least... he would be sleeping soon. At least he would be in good company. All the Hamato martyrs, together again. At least he was with Gram-Gram again.

At least he'd be with Leo, soon...

The door closed.

Leon recalled the feeling of portalling.

It was kind of like falling. Accidentally skipping a step down the stairs. An acidic scent that slightly burned the nostrils, a popping in the ears as you go from one altitude to the other in an instant and a half.

Leo hadn't done a lot of portalling, but he'd had his fair share of experiences with the activity. But he still wasn't used to the feeling yet. He stumbled through the bright blue splotch of light and tripped on his way out, finding himself in a brand new corridor. The others followed soon after, clambering out one by one and almost stepping on top of each other.

"Where... where are we?"

"Who cares! We have to go back!" April shouted. "Raph still needs us!"

"What exactly are we supposed to do? Go in, guns blazing? With what guns??" Leo yelled anxiously, waving his arms around to gesture to the obvious lack of firearms.

"P-Prilly's right, w-we haf-hafta... go... back..."

Mikey whined loudly, trying to push himself away from Donnie. The effort hurt his injured arms, which were still bleeding profusely.

"Micheal, hold still--"

"N-no, they need us, Donnie... th-they need us... they need..."

Mikey slipped out of his grip and fell to his knees, shakily trying to get back up.

"Michael, you're in no condition to be going into a battle like that!"

"Mikey all red," Misa whimpered. "Mikey's not s'posed to be so red..."

"No, he's not," Leo growled. "Dude, just sit this one out --"

"No!" Mikey sobbed. "I can't sit back and watch as the people I love and care about get hurt!"

"WHY DO YOU THINK WE WANT YOU TO STAY PUT?!" Leo shouted angrily. "I am NOT having you get hurt like that again! Donnie, take Mikey and go find him some first aid," Leo ordered.

Donnie nodded, picking up the angry box turtle and carrying him into a side hall that lead to one of the many lounge areas.

"Raph, April and I will come up with a plan."

"What Misa do?" the littlest turtle mutant asked.

"...You have a very important job to do," Leo announced. "You got those ghosty guys to come and help fight... We're gonna need all the help we can get. Misa, you're the recruiter. Go find as many people as you can and get them to come. Tell them how important it is, okay? This is a big responsibility."

Misa's face lit up.

Lee-Lee trusted her! He knew she was responsible! Misa saluted him with a determined smile and nodded.

"Misa get all the families! Everybody comes!"

"Exactly, Misa. Everybody comes."

"So what, we're just gonna pull an Avengers Endgame on the shrooms? We need more of a strategy than that!" April groaned.

"What the heck is an Avengers Endgame?" Leo asked.

"It's a human reference for a movie. Basically it just means that everybody bands together against the bad guy for an epic finale," 'Phael explained.

"Then why not say that? It makes much more sense than 'Avengers Endgame' -- and how did you know what that meant??"

"I do live with humans, in a human hotel, y'know," 'Phael said, rolling his eyes. "I've seen human movies."

"Okay, well, the majority of our family has not, so maybe--"

"Can we get back to the matter at hand?!" April exclaimed loudly.

"Hand?" Misa asked, eyeing something behind them.

"She means the important stuff," Leo explained.

"Hand!" she yelled.

"Yes, yes, we're trying to get back to the matter at--"

"No, hand!" Misa pointed.

The group turned around to see the blurry trail of a small appendage rushing into the hall after DvD and Mikey.

"I don't just want to sit a-a-and do nothing," Mikey pouted, still shaking in DvD's arms.

"I understand that, you know I do," DvD sighed. "And you also know why I am requiring you to rest. You recall what happened the last time--"

"I know, I know, don't remind me. I was bedridden for days..."

"And yet you wonder why we won't let you go fighting."

Mikey grumbled and turned away from DvD. He was so mad, he could spit venom. He knew they were right, of course they were right. But that didn't make it any easier; in fact it made it worse. Because Mikey knew he was right, too! At least, half-right. He knew that they should go back and help. But he knew he couldn't do much, not with all his energy spent and his arms in the state they were now. They stung like mad, he could barely move them. Donnie had removed what was left of the bandages, doing his best not to gag at the sight and keeping his hands as still as possible, despite his aversion to the blood.

Mikey shouldn't feel guilty for this, right?

It wasn't his fault, right? It was just... how his mystic powers were. He couldn't help the way his body worked, just as much as he couldn't help when his hypoglycemia acted up. It wasn't his fault that he was the way he was... it wasn't a bad thing, right? Being Mikey? Being sensitive to others and sensitive to himself, having some few medical issues and mystic setbacks... that wasn't necessarily a terrible thing, right? Right...?

Mikey turned away so DvD couldn't see him crying. He didn't want him to think he was any more immature or any weaker than he undoubtedly did already. Than they all did. Leo had been taking care of him and his ailments since he was a baby. And Raph was holding on to that one special secret of his... and Donnie had cleaned up the blood and gone to get some more gauze and anti-bacterial supplies for Mikey's wounds. Mikey sighed and wished he wasn't so pathetic. He wished he was stronger, smarter, better. Anyone but himself. The only thing he was good for was his stupid useless mystic powers, and they always did more harm than good, especially self-harm. Mikey hated them. He hated himself--

NO, no, don't think like that! That wasn't kind, that wasn't fair! Mikey didn't actually hate himself at all, he was just mad. He needed to let it go. He needed to sit back and breathe...

Mikey leaned back, exhaled slowly, inhaled deeply.

And he saw it.

Crawling like a cockroach on the wall and up the ceiling.

With something blue in its grip.

"DEE, LOOK OUT!!"

The Hand.PNG shot the spores at Donatello Von Draxum.

Mikey jumped.

He had no time to do anything else.

He had no energy to summon mystic chains or make a spell or do anything clever like that.

He just jumped. Dove, really. Dove straight for his brother, in a desperate attempt to push him out of the way, move him aside, get him to safety!

The spores hit him.

"MIKEY?! MIKEY!!!"

Donnie grabbed his brother, holding him close, ignoring the hand as it disappeared into the shadows to watch the scene play out...

"Mikey, look at me, focus on me, okay? You can get through this, alright!? Just concentrate on my voice..."

Mikey nodded furiously, trying to listen to DvD. But there was a ringing starting, his head felt light and dizzy, the room began to spin and get darker. DvD was fading from vision...

NO! Stay, with me, Donnie, please! Donnie?! DONNIE!!

Donnie started shouting, someone was taking him away! Mikey tried to get up, go after him -- his leg caught on something. His arms, too! He looked down and saw titanium shackles, imprisoning him to a cold metal table.

A light shone in his vision. He squinted at the blinding brightness, wishing he could have a hand free to guard his eyes. Something stood in front of the light, casting a shadow over him.

"Well, well, well... if this isn't a surprise? Back again for more, are we?"

Mikey couldn't breathe.

It... it was him. It was him.

Baron Draxum.

"No... no... no --"

"I think we need to run a few more tests on our little friend here, don't you, Donatello?"

Draxum stepped aside and showed Mikey a view of DvD, chained by the wrists and gagged at the mouth. He was screaming at Mikey, trying to warn him, pleading with him to get out of here!

Mikey screamed back at him, begging wordlessly for Draxum to let him go, please, please!!

Instead, Draxum had one of his vines whip across the room and beat his son across the face. Mikey screamed, sobbing and wailing.

"STOP! NO!"

"He always was such a pathetic disappointment." Draxum turned to the other imprisoned turtle. "Perhaps you will show some promise."

No... n-no, this wasn't how it happened! Donnie w-wasn't -- he was never -- a-and Mikey wasn't awake for any of it, he was asleep for the entire thing! He shouldn't be awake now, he shouldn't be, he shouldn't -- H-he... no, no, no, no no no no nonononononononono!!

Draxum came forward with a needle and scalpel.

"Let's begin."

DvD couldn't stop crying, he just couldn't keep the tears from coming. Mikey was sitting on the floor, screeching his poor little head off, eyes wider than saucers and filled to the brim with fear. He couldn't move much, apart from shaking nonstop. He looked like he was constantly trying to wriggle away from something, but for some odd reason his wrists and ankles were invisibly anchored to the floor. Mikey's limbs twitched as he squirmed and struggled, screaming and begging for whatever he was witnessing to stop, please, please please please stop--

"WHERE IS IT, WHERE THE HECK IS THAT HAND, WHO'S SCREAMING, WHAT'S HAPPENING--?!"

Leon and the others rushed into the room, quickly inspecting the situation and coming upon the obvious conclusion.

"April, take Misa outside..." Leo said after inspecting the scene.

"Misa want to stay with Mikey--!" the little girl protested, but April quickly scooped her up and carried her off.

Leon and 'Phael immediately dropped to Mikey's side, Leo taking the box turtle's hand in his and trying to get him to wake up.

"Dee... fear spores, right?"

"...Yeah..."

"The hand."

"Yes."

"What... what is he seeing?" 'Phael asked nervously, eyes watering at the sight of his baby brother in so much pain.

"I... there's only one thing that could scare him this bad..."

"Draxum?" Leo whimpered.

DvD nodded.

"But... h-he doesn't remember anything from that, you said he was under heavy sedatives for the entire time!"

"He was! Draxum kept him under constant anesthetics -- perhaps his mind is creating an idea of what he thinks happened?"

Raphael started fidgeting with his hands.

"U-um... actually..."

The two boys looked up at him.

"'Phael? What... what is it?"

"...He told me not to tell ya..."

"Tell us what?" Leo questioned.

"H-he made me promise--"

"Raph," DvD said, his voice begging him in ways that words could not. "Please."

"He... he does remember. He does remember what happened in the labs."

Donnie and Leo stared. Mikey continued to sob and scream.

"...What... how... how could he know that... and how do you know that he knows?!" Leo asked, voice raising with each word.

"And why wouldn't he tell us?!" DvD asked in disbelief.

Raph swallowed nervously, a sweat breaking out across the worry lines on his brow.

"He... it started sometime after Karai arrived. H-he thought that m-might do with the mystic training she did with him -- but he started having... nightmares..."

"Nightmares?"

"He said he started dreaming memories about it. It was an out-of-body sorta thing, he said. Like he was watching from the outside... He could never get away from the visions, he said -- but every night, he saw a new one."

"And he... came to you about it? Why not ME?!" Leo yelled, tears rolling down his cheeks. "Or Donnie?! Why not tell us?! We're ALL his brothers!!"

"He told me... he said he didn't wanna burden you."

"...Burden?" Donnie whimpered. "...How?"

Raphael looked back and forth between them all. His eyes fell on Leon.

"...He told me he didn't want you to feel... responsible for another thing," Raph mumbled. "He said he felt bad enough about everything he's made you worry over already, he didn't want you to..."

"...He didn't want me to know...? Because... he felt guilty?" Leo wept, tears pooling and spilling from his eyes. "That... I don't... he shouldn't have felt that way, why did he..."

Leo's eyes glossed over, he squeezed them shut, clutching Mikey's tiny fist and pressing it against his chest.

"How could I make him feel like that...?" he wept. "I never meant... I never knew..."

"But... why not tell me? I could have helped," Donnie said in-between uneven breaths. "I already knew what had happened!"

"That's... actually why he didn't come to you, Don," 'Phael explained. "He s-said, he said he didn't want to hurt you. He saw how much you were struggling and wanted to wait until you were... doing better about the whole ordeal. To be honest, I agreed with him on that mark."

"But why did he tell you?" Leo asked. "Why only you, and not us?"

"I s'pose... because he knew that I knew what it was like to be afraid all the time," 'Phael sobbed. "He knew that I wouldn't judge him for his fears. He couldn't sleep at night anymore, he needed someone to stay with him and help him through his fits... But I told him! I told him to tell you both! I told him you should know!" he cried, whimpering nervously as he wrung his hands and rocked back and forth.

"Raph! Raph, it's okay..." Leo tried to reassure him. "I mean... it's not completely okay... I wish he'd told me, but... that doesn't matter now."

Leo held Raphael close.

"We just... we need to be here for him now... How much does he know?"

"...Everything."

"...This isn't going to be easy for him," Donnie exhaled.

"Or us," Leon added.

The trio gathered close to Michelangelo, each laying their hands on him, a sign that they were there and they were offering comfort in the only way they could.

Mikey kept screaming, he couldn't stop screaming. No matter what his brothers tried, they couldn't snap him out of whatever horrors he was experiencing. They just kneeled beside him, holding his hands and hoping their support made some leeway.

But Mikey just kept screaming, shrieking, crying, weeping, wailing, sobbing. He howled until his throat ran dry and his voiced cracked and went hoarse. He wept until his eyes were red and irritated and his cheeks were stained with saltwater and starting to chafe and the area around his eyes went puffy and soft. And on he went. For what seemed like hours, days, years, centuries even -- but was probably only 15 minutes. Mikey was stuck in a loop of fits and fear.

And then finally, he slowed. His breathing calmed, his sobs turning to hiccups and suck-ups and hyperventilation, as his eyes darted around, looking for something familiar.

"Is... is it over?" Leo asked, internally begging for it to be so.

Donatello was heaving along with Mikey, his cheeks also stained with tears.

"I... I think--"

"D-Donnie?" Mikey whispered shakily.

"Mikey? I'm right here, I'm --"

"No... no, not Donnie, please, I--"

"Is, is he --?"

"He's not done with the hallucination yet," Donnie realised. "It's about to get so much worse."

"NOOOOOOOO!!!!" Mikey screamed, bolting forwards. His legs tangled underneath him, causing him to trip over himself. His arms were strained behind him, his ankles struggling against the ground, as if something was still holding him back.

"WHAT IS HAPPENING TO HIM, WHAT IS HE SEEING DON?!" Leo screamed.

"Me," Donnie whimpered, holding back desperate sobs. "He's seeing what Draxum did to me. On the last day. When we fought...."

Mikey shrieked in agony, his eyes somehow producing twice as many tears as they had before in this one moment, pouring out for his brother's sake.

Mikey's screams were cut short, he gasped in horror. They all could assume what he'd seen. Draxum had killed Donnie in his hallucinations. Mikey went horribly pale. His eyes widened.

"No... no... no, no, no, get away get--!"

Mikey jerked suddenly. His body seized up, his eyes went wide, and then --

He fell backwards.

Back into the hold of his brothers, who caught him almost immediately.

"MIKEY!!"

Mikey didn't hear them, he simply lay in their arms.

Mikey stopped shaking. His limbs had gone slack. His body went limp. His eyes went somewhere far away from them all.

Mikey exhaled.

And he didn't inhale.

"...Mikey...?"

He didn't respond.

"What... what just happened?" Raph asked nervously.

"He didn't... he didn't just..." Leo begged, slowly placing his fingers against his neck. He paused. He tried the wrist next. He couldn't find any pulse.

"He didn't just leave us, did he?"

"...Michael...?"

Leo pounded his fist against the ground.

He wasn't going to give up his baby brother.

Leo placed his hands across Mikey's chest, applied pressure.

1, 2, 3, 4.

1, 2, 3, 4.

1, 2, 3, 4.

"Come on, Mikey, come on...!"

1, 2, 3 ,4.

1, 2, 3, 4.

"Come ON, Mikey, COME ON! I'm not letting you go!"

DvD was crying, holding himself tight as tears soaked into his shirt and vest.

"Leo, stop... Leo, he... he..."

"Leon, mate, please, he--" 'Phael reached for him, attempting to comfort.

"COME ON!" Leo shouted, refusing to give up.

1, 2, 3, 4.

1, 2, 3--

"WAKE UP!!" he sobbed.

Mikey gasped for air.

His eyes blinked wildly as he bolted upright, limbs flailing about in a mad panic. Three bodies pounced upon him, wrapping themselves around him and sobbing into him. Mikey said nothing. He simply looked around in confusion, getting his bearings and perfividly coming back to reality. He listened, but couldn't hear them. Everything was numb and strange, every sound and image baffled him. All he knew was he hadn't been here anymore. But he was here again, now. Here with his brothers.

... I did not intend for this ...

Yes, I intended to send the spores.

And yes, I intended to have them sent after Donatello.

I even intended for them to miss him entirely, for Michelangelo to rush in his place and take the hit for him.

But I never intended this.

Michelangelo was meant to see a different fear entirely.

Michelangelo is afraid of being the frailest, the smallest, the weakest of the brood. Dear little Mikey is afraid that he has nothing of importance to offer. He is always relying on the others to help him, to save him. He has nothing to offer them in return. Mikey tries to do what he can, but deep down he is afraid that one of these days, his brothers will discover that HE needs THEM far more than they could ever need him.

Truly, THAT was what he was meant to see. I had no idea he would see... all that.

They told me no one would get hurt. They told me no one would die. They promised me. And they lied.

It was a good game while it lasted. But I'm not having fun with it anymore.

No one was meant to be hurt like this.

No one was meant to die.

I suppose this means I'll have to do what I can to fix things, now.

"L-Leo," croaked Mikey, who slowly raised his hand and pointed a trembling finger. "Hand…"

“What... what are you saying, Mike?"

“Hand,” Mikey clarified, stressing his wobbly finger as he gestured behind them.

The boys followed Mikey's direction.

The Hand.PNG was crawling towards them.

"G-Get it away from Mikey!" Leo screamed, kicking his feet in the creature's direction.

"Don't let it come any closer!"

"WHERE'S MY TECH-BŌ?!"

"Please, if you could simply pause for a moment, I'd like to make you an offer."

Everything stopped.

Leo, Raph, Donnie, and Mikey froze, jaws dropping to the floor as they heard the hand speak at them.

"You... y-you can talk?" Mikey's voice came out grated and raspy.

"Yes."

"What... why are you just deciding to speak now?" Raphael asked.

"And why have you been tormenting us all?!" Donnie bellowed, gripping his tech-bō tightly as possible.

"And what did you mean, you wanted to make an offer?" Leon interrupted. "An offer for what?"

"I was wondering if I could offer you my services. How would you like to rescue your family and destroy the fear fungus?”

“Answer our other questions first! I don’t trust you after everything you’ve done! After everything you’ve caused! You….you helped kill my brother!” Donnie screeches, hand on his tech bō shaking so badly out of anger he worries he might break it.

“I never meant for you to be harmed this way. You won’t believe me when I say it, but none of this was born from malice. I haven’t spoken until now because there was no need to. As for why I’ve been tormenting you….it’s for a reason you are not going to easily accept.”

“Just say it already!” Leon insists.

“I did it because I was asked to.”

Raph nearly hits the hand with his fist, just barely hitting the ground next to it.

“You think we asked for this!?”

“No. You didn’t. Someone else did.“

“Who!? Who would ask for this to happen to us!? To everyone else!?” Donnie asks.

“To put it simply, the people who made you.”

“W-We don’t even know our original parents….” Mikey comments.

“No, not just you. Your entire world. Everyone in this competition is formed from a collection of ideas from an author or authors. These authors gave you the titles you go by. They sent you here to compete. To meet other characters in their own stories. To promote their own stories. That’s how this started. No Fun in Fungus, they simply sent an “ask” of mushrooms, spores. Then your author wanted more, one for each of you.”

“What possible reason could there be for doing this to us!?” Donnie grits his teeth.

“To give more to your story. To bring you all closer together. I too was created in this way, for this purpose. I have merely been a tool to different beings. It may sound ridiculous, maybe even insensitive, tragic, but you should consider what you have gotten. What you’ve learned. When Karai was brought here, you were even told not to think too hard about such a concept.”

Each of the brothers want to make the argument that it’s crazy, but they do in fact remember what the competition mod said to them.

“Even Misa giving you those flowers was an ask sent by an author. These asks…..they were all in good fun. Hurting you was just to make comfort all the better. You were never supposed to die. You were never even supposed to be seriously injured. I just enjoyed seeing all the stories coming from the spores so much. It’s gone too far. It’s why I want to help now, before someone is killed in a way they can’t come back from. No Fun in Fungus was already over, they were supposed to rest. You all still have a lot of story left to tell, it’s not supposed to end here.”

The four of them take in this crazy amount of information they’ve just been told. Can they really trust the hand after all they’ve been through?

“What can you even do to help?” Leon questions angrily.

“The spores are not the only item I possess, as you know. I am intertwined into your and No Fun in Fungus’ storylines. For that reason, I am able to bring out what is called a plot device.” The hand moves to the side, revealing TNT charges connected to an empty base.

“There’s nothing in there.” Donnies says dryly.

“Sometimes plot devices are there to urge the story forward in different ways. In order for this to work, I need mystic energy from each of you. That may be difficult for Michelangelo in his current state, perhaps I could find another one-“

“Mikey, my brother I love so much, I did not bring you back from the dead for you to kill yourself again. Lay. Down.” Leon threatens.

Mikey lays back down.

“It does not have to be him. Because of your being separated at first, you haven’t had the chance to completely understand ninpo. It seems only Mikey truly has.” The hand explains.

“You mean the sacrificial martyrs? Why would we want to know about them? Mikey’s been doing that way too much already!” Leon complains.

“Hamato have sacrificed themselves numerous times, that is true. You’ve seen it be true. Ninpo isn’t inherently about dying for a cause. It’s just how it’s been used a lot, considered the only way. It also has been used to save. Out of love. You’ve seen that too. Ninpo is about the connection to your family. That’s why Donatello was able to use it. That’s why Mikey woke up and used it. When you’re about to lose who you hold dear, your connection strengthens more than ever.”

DvD glances at Mikey. They stare at each other for a second or two. It’s true that they’ve been through an experience nobody else could, or should, truly replicate.

Maybe DvD sort of understands why the NFIF group are the way they are. Obviously he knows how it feels to want to protect his brothers after almost losing them, but what he’s learning is why they’re so willing to throw away their lives even for people who just look vaguely like family.

It’s so much easier to experience pain than to experience someone you love going through pain.

It’s a sentiment he wouldn’t have even considered before everything they’ve been through. Something Draxum never would have let him ponder.

He loves his family.

It’s messed up, they lost years of being able to know each other, there was so much distrust, and things aren’t even close to perfect right now.

But this is his family.

Even April, who has zero blood relation to them but still went through all this just to help.

Misa, who’s yearned for family and takes the role of an elder sibling because she wants to take care of others despite her young age.

Karai, who is related to them but wasn’t originally even supposed to know them if her mission had succeeded.

Something he’d protect with his life.

The hand brings the container closer. DvD looks back at it and hesitantly puts his hand on it. A purple, glowy, shiny substance pours inside. He takes it back after a moment, feeling like he was drained a little bit, but otherwise fine.

Raph and Leo look down at it in surprise before the latter takes on more of a bitter expression.

“I’m the one who took care of Mikey. I protected him. I did my best every single day for years to feed him, clothe him, give him what he needs. I was there for him longer than any of you. Why don’t I have powers like him and Donnie? Are….are they closer….than we are?” Leon frowns deeply.

“No! Leo, I love you just as much! I promise! That’s not how it is-!” Mikey voice cracks from how raw his throat still is.

Raph gently rubs his shell.

“He’s right. Connection to family doesn’t mean how much you love them, but how you think about yourself in relation to them. Insecurity about your place in it.” The hand stares.

Leo feels all eyes on him and starts messing with the material on his pants to avoid addressing what was just said.

“Welp, no insecurity here. Must be something else.”

“The fate of the multiverse might be in danger at this point, you’re going to avoid talking about what we already practically know? Why you left Mikey before-“

“I don’t want to talk about it!” Leo yells, interrupting.

He holds onto Mikey tighter.

Mikey presses his cheek against Leo’s and nuzzles into it as much as possible.

“I….I haven’t….gotten over anything. When I got spored, it reminded me of everything I’m afraid of. I….I…..still can’t accept that any of you love me! I-It’s hard work to even like me, loving me? I-Impossible! Nobody actually does! I-I made Mikey feel like he has to be loyal to me because I took him in. I forced him to never leave me and then I left him! And then he forgave me because he’s so nice and lovable! He’s a pretty painted picture but I’m just a bunch of shredded pieces that I can’t tape back together! Why can’t someone just finally sweep it all up into the trash!?” Leo sobs.

Raph, Donnie and Mikey’s jaws all drop. They’ve been aware of just how hard it’s been for Leo to understand that he’s wanted, a real, true part of the family. What they didn’t know is just how lowly he really thinks of himself.

Leo sniffles.

“I’m cursed. I always have been. Even if I am a part of this family, I shouldn’t be. Look what happened! To Mikey! To gram-gram! To all of you! Not just now, but before too! And you saw what happened to the NFIF guys! Leo helped feed me and Mikey and then he went missing and I just know whatever is happening in that room to him is awful! NFIF Raph held me and tried to protect me and he’s still back there too! You’re all going to get hurt or die or worse with me around! I-I should be alone, I should at least be punished for everything I’ve-!”

DvD, surprisingly, is the one who pulls Leo into as tight of a hug as he can manage without hurting him.

“Shut up.”

“Wh-What? Is….is this supposed to make me feel better or are you angry?”

“Both! The only person who thinks you’re not worth anything is you! How dare you say that I don’t care about you!? I do! You should care about you too! You want to stop being a burden!? Then don’t make us live without you! If you weren’t here, Mikey would be dead right now. If he hadn’t wanted to be with you and didn’t leave those families, we wouldn’t have this family. We wouldn’t have found each other. Give yourself more credit.”

Leo goes back to hiccuping sobs as he buries his face in DvD’s shoulder.

Mikey starts crying as well, despite how much he’s already been doing.

“I-I’ll rip up my picture a-and we can make one up ourselves! I-I can give you tape! J-Just please, d-don’t go again! I-I love you so much!”

Leo pulls him more into the hug, they wet each other’s faces with their tears.

Raph wraps around them all.

“You told that other me before about how you know he’s not a bad guy. How we’ve all made mistakes. You should give yourself the same benefit of the doubt. You aren’t cursed, bad things……just happen. A lot. What was going to happen to the NFIF guys would have without meeting you. But now because they met us, we can help them. There’s not a day that goes by where I’m not glad you’re in the family, Leo. I love that I know you. I love you.” He rest his chin on top of Leo’s head.

Leo and Mikey keep crying until they’ve finally calmed down.

The hand once again offers the container towards Leo.

“How….do I do it?”

“Think of your family as a something within you, and release it. Raphael, you as well.” The hand urges.

“What? Me? But didn’t have any breakthrough or anything…..”

“Right now is the moment you feel closest to your family. It may also help to remember who is not here, and wanting to get her back.”

Leo and Raph nod, both placing their hands on the container. Red and blue pours in before the hand takes it away.

“Where…..are you going to find a replacement for me?” Mikey brings up.

April suddenly bursts inside the room.

“You guys! He took Misa!”

April had kept walking until they could no long hear Mikey scream. It took everything she had to not go back to help. Misa wanted to go back too, but as grown up as she thinks she is, nobody should be seeing that.

Nobody should be experiencing that.

It’s not like the turtles were adults either. They shouldn’t have to listen to their brother scream and beg for the nightmare to end. It’s something they have to do though because the only good adult they have around has been taken.

It’s painful to not be able to do anything else, but this is incredibly important. Misa needs her right now.

“Is….little big brother….going to be okay?” Misa asks, looking up at her with wide eyes.

“He’s got everyone else with him, they’re going to do whatever he needs them to.” April assures.

Misa looks down.

“I want to help Raphie too.”

April bites them inside of her cheek. Guilt for leaving him is gnawing at her as well. Wasn’t there anything else she could have done? All that guy has being doing this whole competition is trying to protect everyone from the spores.

Who protects him?

“We’re going to, when we have a plan.”

“But….but it’s going to be too late!” Misa whines.

“Hey, we don’t know that. Maybe….maybe the void guys helped out and he’s coming back to us now!” April suggests, vaguely aware it’s probably a huge lie.

Misa pouts until footsteps draw her and April’s attention.

“Raphie!!” Misa shouts excitedly shouts, wriggling out of April’s arms.

“Misa! Wait!” April reaches out too late.

The young girl runs up to NFIF Raph who picks her up. They smile at each other.

“Hey, kid. Glad I found ya. I have something real important I need you to do.”

“How can Misa help?”

“I need to borrow your portal sword.”

Misa gladly hands it to him.

April sees a glowing, blue tear roll down his cheek.

“Misa! Get away from him!”

Misa looks at her in confusion before seeing Raph’s eyes fill with blue. She begins grabbing at her sword but he keeps it out of her reach. He then holds her tight, close to his plastron and tucked under his arm.

Raph’s smile falls. The glowing tears fall freely down his cheeks with no signs of stopping. He looks over at April with a sorrowful expression.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t keep my promise. I really tried. I just….there’s no reason for me to fight anymore. My family is all back there. Even if I did fight, everything I do fails.”

“Raph! That’s not true! Fight it, we can save your brothers together! You don’t have to do this!”

“No, doing this is the only way he won’t hurt Misa. It had to be me. All we need is the sword and to use her as bait. She’ll be okay. I’d promise, but….my promises don’t mean much…..” He opens a portal.

“No! Raph! Misa!” April poofs to get close, but ends up falling on top of nothing after the portal disappears.

“Where did he take her!? Back to that room!? Are they sporing her again!? She can’t survive that! Mikey didn’t!” DvD panics.

“Hold on, what do you mean he didn’t-WHY IS THE HAND HERE!? IS THAT TNT!?” April points.

“Be not afraid-“

“IT TALKS!?”

UIFY Raph explains what happened. April feels like her feet are stuck to the floor. It’s only been 15 minutes and things somehow turned even more disastrous.

“H-How are we going get more ninpo!? That could kill Mikey again!”

“It can come from you-“ The hand starts.

April slams her hand onto the container.

“I want to save them! Please work! Do your magic thingy!”

Shockingly, it does work. Green pours into the container and the colors all being swirling with each other. They glow even brighter.

“This should be enough. I can set up the charge behind the wall that houses the main mushroom.”

“Wait, won’t that hurt the other me?” Leo brings up.

“He’s survived worse.”

“That’s not a good reason!”

“He’ll be alive and the spores will be gone. Is that not what you want?”

“It is, but-!”

The lights suddenly shut off.

DvD quickly turns on the light from his phone.

“Oh what now!?”

“Hello everyone in the competition! It’s your new overlord, Audrey III!” Donnie’s voice calls from a speaker in the room.

Oh no.

DvD quickly searches the room for some medical masks which he puts on and passes out to his brothers and April once they’re found. If he thinks what’s about to happen is really happening, they need protection.

Leo careful puts Mikey’s on for him and then carries him on his back as they all leave the room.

There’s panic and chaos everywhere from the sudden darkness. People are bumping into things and shouting.

The nearby vents start releasing the familiar, sickening spores.

“Don’t resist. Or do, your fear is tastier that way.”

On with the show...

Their plan to infiltrate the competition was just way too easy. No one had seen them sneak in. No one had suspected them.

Slider-punk had even been able to disguise himself as one of the employees and hacked into the main system! His associates were outside, Spider-Dee and Spider-Gal working as employees as while Spider-Shine had gone off on his own to open a pop-up therapy stand. Business was booming, apparently. Slider-Punk was no better, he'd abandoned the real mission for a little side mission of his own, to see just how much trouble he could get himself into. He'd allowed a disembodied hand to play some Broadway showtunes over the speaker system earlier.... but the hand had disappeared shortly after, leaving Slider-Punk alone again. It was odds-bodkins, but no stranger than anything else he'd seen in this place. Anyways, what should he do next? There was so much he could do! He could practically do whatever he wanted, now...

Before he could decide, an alert showed up on the computer. Someone was trying to hack in?

Well, no joke, Sherlock! HE had ALREADY--

A line of code showed up on the screen.

Up, up, down, down, left, right, 'A'.

The computer glitched. The screen turned purple. Then blue. Slider-Punk tried rebooting. A small icon of a purple-clad ninja turtle wagging his finger and saying "Nuh-uh-uh!" popped up. Donnie. Of course. A Donnie was trying to hack in. And it didn't seem like they cared if anybody knew... which meant they were making a statement, and didn't plan on sharing their hard-earned goods.

Slider-Punk's spider sense began to tingle. He felt anxious and uneasy. His senses drew his attention away from the computer, and up to... the air vents?

Uh oh.

He immediately dashed out of the room, abandoning his bowtie and went in search of his mates -- Spider-Dee, Spider-Shine, and Spider-Gal. They would have sensed the danger as well, they needed to get to safety, see if they could protect anyone -- something bad was about to happen.

Misa struggled against Ra-Ra's tight grip on her. He was careful not to hurt her, but she still hated it. She screamed and shrieked and howled in furious anger at him, demanding that he release her.

"I'm so sorry, Misa," he wept, cradling her as he approached his prison. "But it has to be this way."

"NO! No, Ra-Ra, let go! Let go o' Misa!! Pwease, Ra-Ra!!!"

Raphael sniffled as he hugged her. He hated doing this. But... he had no choice. She was too dangerous. She knew too much, and knew too many competitors. She might have been small, but the leeway she held with everyone made her possibly the most powerful turtle mutant in this entire competition. With as many connections as she had, she could raise up an entire army against them. Raphael sighed sadly... there was no other option.

As he approached the door, Raphael saw four turtles waiting for him. The Void brothers.

"Move," he growled at them.

"I don't see why we should listen to you!" Signal hissed, Static and Waves doing their best to keep him in his "safe" form, rather than his "absolutely enraged eldritch horror" form.

"Just let me back into the room, and no one will be hurt," Raphael promised.

"And do you plan on taking the kid with you?" Radio growled back at him.

Misa whined, reaching for Waves to come and take her away. Raphael pulled her arms back down.

"Yes."

"N̴̳̆Ó̵ͅ," Signal growled, his face contorting and blackening like tar. "IÌ̵̟ ̴̯̃D̶͚͝O̶̓͜N̶̞̕'̶̹͑T̷͉̋ ̸̫̏T̸̟̅H̶͓͊Í̵̟N̷͈̾K̵͈̄ ̴̲̇Ÿ̵́͜O̴̘̓U̸̠͌'̵̯͑L̶̟̈́L̸͚̈́ ̵̯̓B̷̭̽E̵͉͘ ̷̪̚G̴̼̈Ọ̶̑I̵̭͛Ṇ̵̎G̶̛̘ ̴͖͒Ạ̶͊Ǹ̸̹Ÿ̷͙W̴͎͝H̵̯̚E̷͇̍R̵͔͛Ȩ̴̓.̴͋"

Signal reached out, his arm elongating with a horrid schlurp sound as he went for Misa.

Raph created a hologram over himself, his usually red ninpo having turned that wretched shade of blue. Misa gasped in fear, the warmth she typically felt from such a magic was bone-chillingly cold.

"D̶̒ͅȌ̵͉ ̶̣̓Y̶̛̹O̸̪̍Ų̷̇ ̵͔̀Ĥ̶͙O̴̝͑N̴̢͘Ẹ̷͘Ș̵̕T̶̫̏L̵̻͋Ỵ̶̌ ̵̭̌Ţ̶̔H̷̨̐I̵̾ͅN̴̫͛K̴͕͠ ̵͔̎T̶̢̿H̵̭̽A̶͕̐Ṫ̵̬ ̶̢͝W̷͔̌I̷̞̒L̴̟̃L̴͓̉ ̸̯̓Ŝ̴̫T̵̩̎Ö̷͕́P̸̙̈ ̵̢̌M̸̨͌Ĕ̷͙?̴̩̊!̸̡͗" Signal screeched, laughing hysterically at the boy's attempts to fend him off.

Signal started ripping apart the holographic figure, only to discover that it had been a clone -- even the Misa in his hold was a duplicate, who shed a single tear as she dissolved.

The four heads turned back to see Raphael about to enter the room behind them. Waves screeched, flying at him with barred teeth and sharpened claws, his mystic powers creating an ebony black chain-whip within his hands.

Misa was off-limits.

Raphael opened the door. A flood of spores engulfed him, Misa, and Waves, who screamed in anger and fear as the spores filled him up, hollow as he was. He coughed and hacked and howled, holding his head in pain as he reeled backwards.

"WAVES!!" Static shouted, rushing forwards and grabbing his brother, holding him down.

Signal roared at Raph, eyes turning fully black and body disfiguring into a monster. Even Radio wouldn't dare hold him back after what that punk just did to Waves.

Raphael whimpered sadly as tears streaked down his cheeks.

"I'm so sorry," he wept. "I had to."

Raphael closed the door behind him, taking Misa into the dark room.

Misa pressed her hands over her mouth and nose, trying desperately to keep the spores out.

It was so cold... it was practically freezing.

Misa's eyes didn't need to adjust to the darkness, she found that as soon as the exterior light was gone, the room provided its own light... neon blue, emanating from the many eyes and mushrooms in the enclosed space. It was so absolutely terrifying, every gaze fixated on her and burning blue. Misa did her best to keep her whimpers to herself.

"Don't try to fight it," Raph begged her, as he gently laid her down in a bed of toadstools and moss. "Just... just let it happen, okay? I know it will be scary, but once you give in to the fear, it's just like sleepwalking. You won't even know it's happened, at first. I promised you would be safe, and you will be... you must simply let go, and let the fear take over."

Small vines and roots began to wrap over her, closing in like a tiny cage, keeping her from running away.

Her eyes watered as the air around her closed in. She couldn't keep holding her breath like this! Her hands shook, her chest hurt, the carbon dioxide in her lungs was getting hot and stale.

Misa gasped.

The fungus-riddled air infected her lungs, she coughed and hacked at how chilled the oxygen was in her ribs. She screamed in protest, curling up inside of herself, ready for the birds to come and scratch her shell, peck at her eyes, grab her with their claws and talons and carry her away...

Nothing happened.

Misa looked up, slowly.

She... she was in the labs?

There was a heavy weight chafing her neck, causing irritation on the sensitive skin. She lifted her hand up and felt cold metal.

The linoleum room she was being held in had a glass wall, through which she could see everyone.

EVERYONE.

Mikey, Ra-Ra, Dee-Dee, Lee-Lee, that one robotic-looking Dee that had congratulated her on stealing the moneys, the ballerina Donnie she'd gotten the Lake Water for, all the grow-ed Leos with missing arms, Poptart and Sprout, cowboy versions and bunnies and dragons and beetles and --

EVERYONE.

Claire and Draxum -- the orchestrators of this whole terrible captivity -- walked through the halls, talking to each other and even laughing together. Draxum's vines were dragging a Mikey behind him carelessly, the body scraping across the floor. He was still alive, she could see him struggling against his captors and she could hear him crying. Claire turned to look at Misa as she passed by her cell.

"Oh, hello little thing! Before I forget, I wanted to thank you for leading me to all these funny friends of yours! Now they can all suffer the same fate as you..."

"No! NO! NO NO NO NONONONO--"

Misa sobbed, began slamming her tiny fists against the glass, begging Claire to release all her friends and families. Claire only chortled like a Disney villain, walking away with Draxum and dragging the poor Mikey along with them. Misa would not stop, she'd never stop fighting against this!! SHE WOULD NOT GIVE IN TO THE FEAR! She continued to pound her fists against the glass, screaming angrily at the hallucination that kept her prisoner.

"...Are you sure she won't suffer?" AudRaph asked, his hands wringing.

"Not unless she fights against the fear," AudreyTello answered flatly as he began to type on his wrist tech, starting the hack to contaminate the entire arena.

"She is still young, I suspect she won't know how to fight against it," AudRai added, as she walked over to the little prisoner to inspect her as she sobbed uncontrollably in her cell. "It shouldn't be much longer now."

"It doesn't matter much either way," MichelAudrelo interjected angrily as he examined the new scars on his arms. "If she gives in, she becomes one of us. If not... we can feed off her fear." He looked over at the last Hamato in the room, still held in place against the wall, eyes drowsily watching the rest as they spoke.

"Like him."

"He is one of us," AudreyTello corrected. "But he was the first, so he had to make the sacrifice and give the necessary nutrients for our true form."

"I sense apprehension from Raphael's form," MichelAudrelo noted, scowling. "You do not approve of our survival?"

"...Raphael does not want his brother to die," AudRaph explained. "He would rather they all stay alive. It is his weakness..."

"Unfortunately, to be as strong as we are now -- and to produce as many spores as we have -- we need a physical form to feed off of. So Leonardo stays where he is," AudreyTello explained. "You know this. Choke down that pathetic worm and don't let him speak again. It's irritating."

"He has some immunity, or tolerance to invading hive minds. You recall from his memories, he has dealt with it before."

"Ah, yes. Well, even he cannot stop us soon enough," AudreyTello said with a chuckle. "Karai, Michelangelo, you know what to do now."

The two zombies nodded, and together created an enormous flow of spores. AudreyTello typed in a final command on his wrist tech, and the air vents promptly popped open. The spores filled the ventilation system.

"Now, for a little announcement..."

Ghost had unofficially adopted two more kids. Abby, a cat mutant, with her big and bright personality, though her figure was small. She'd gotten injured during the preliminaries -- apparently she'd attempted some kind of extravagant musical number -- and had to use a crutch to hobble around for the past several weeks while it healed up. She'd only just recently been released from the med ward, along with her friend and protector Diana, the second adoptee. The two girls were laughing and making quite the ruckus as they danced around Ghost's cape.

"Are you sure you wouldn't like me to carry you?" Ghost asked, fretting over her injury.

"I'm fine!" Abby laughed, waving her hand as a dismissal. "I've been used to this for a while. No worries!"

"Besides --" Diana added, "-- she needs the exercise if she wants to get rid of the crutch as soon as possible--"

Diana was cut short by a sudden burst of light and a loud roaring whoosh. A wind picked up, and a spark ignited behind them as a portal opened.

rhg!Donnie wanted to hold his father close. He hated, absolutely despised how the other competitors are holding his attention. He, more than anything, he wanted to run over to where his father was and hold him close, sob into his chest like when he was so much younger and so much more naive and so much more innocent. He wanted to talk for hours, ask how Raph is, how Leo is doing, if Mikey is okay. He wanted to say absolutely nothing and just sit in his company. He couldn't decide what to do first, and it utterly galled him how open he was with everyone, how chummy they all were with him. How dare Cassandra hug him like that. How dare Kendra pretend to be cordial. It might have been selfish, but he wanted his Papa all to himself. He tried to get as close to dear Papa as he could without making it obvious. The last thing he needed was everyone thinking he was childish. But Atomo Grey opened the doors to the elevators and made a stupid joke about how "the District Twelve tributes will get to their apartment before we can even set foot into ours!" which only got one laugh from the escort as he ushered the competitors into the lift. rhg!Donatello slowly entered the elevator as the doors closed behind him...

The lights flickered, the people in the lift start to vanish one by one, thunder and wind ripped through the box and caused a horrible feeling of claustrophobia in rhg!Dee. rhg!Donatello nervously backed up against the wall, confused and scared. Was this a trick from the Capitol? Or the Gamemakers?? He wanted to shout for his Papa, shout for anyone, but the elevator was empty now and the lights had all gone out. A multicoloured portal opened at his feet, and rhg!Donnie was sucked in, shouting his protest.

rhg!Donnie landed on the floor for the second time this night. But rather than being pancaked by Cassandra Jones, he slid on his stomach and arrived at the feet of three odd strangers. A giant turtle mutt, a cat mutt, and a regular human girl.

"...Well, that was out of the blue..."

rhg!Donnie slowly backed away from the characters, taking in the strange scene around him. He needed to get back, he has to get back, if they find out he'd been portalled away or something then they'll punish his family --

Wait, he knew this place...

He's... back at the AU competition? The one with all the strange turtles and different versions of his brothers...?

But... he was sent back home... why was he here now?

The large middle-aged turtle mutant kneeled down next to him, his joints popping as he did. He inspected the teen, analyzing every little scratch and every major scar with worry. His silent inquisitiveness was starting to annoy him.

"Who are you?" rhg!Dee asked, passing paranoid glances between the trio before him.

"I'm Abby," said the cat, smiling as she offered him her hand to help him up. "This is Diana, my bff, and the big guy is called 'Ghost'! But I'm pretty sure he's a Donatello, hence the purple mask..."

Abby gestured to the tall turtle mutt mutant. He smiled, his white eyes hiding years of trauma and loneliness. rhg!Donnie recognized that loneliness. He'd seen it in his father's eyes. He's seen it in his own reflection.

"Hey there, kid," the 'Ghost' said, his voice low yet overpowering. "Are you alright?"

"I... how did I get here?"

"No clue, but -- wait, I recognize you!" Diana said suddenly. "You were part of the preliminaries, right? The Rise Hunger Games AU!"

"Y-yes, that's me," rhg!Donnie mumbled, shooing away Abby's hands as he stood up by himself.

"We were in the prelims, too!" Diana noted, pointing to herself and then Abby.

"Great. Congratulations."

"We didn't win our round, though..."

"How unfortunate for you," rhg!Donnie sighed as he looked around, getting his bearings. Something about this place seemed off... different now. Something had changed. There was fear amongst these halls, now... an unspoken chill in the air.

"I didn't win, either -- wait... I was sent back because I lost the preliminary round... so, why...?"

"Why weren't we sent back?" Abby finished. "Or... why were you returned?"

rhg!Donnie looked around anxiously.

"I don't know if it's mandatory to leave the contest once you lose a round," Ghost interjected. "But perhaps the Mods sent you home so you could get back to the contest without -- oh, you've got something on your head..."

rhg!Donnie started smacking the top of his head frantically, worried that it might be something dangerous sent by the Gamemakers. Mutated hornets, or a tracking device that would explode if he strayed too far....

Instead, a small note floated off of his cranium and landed at his feet. Somewhat embarrassed by his reaction, rhg!Donnie leaned down and inspected the note with caution.

𝚆𝚎𝚕𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚋𝚊𝚌𝚔! 𝚆𝚎 𝚗𝚎𝚎𝚍 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚑𝚎𝚕𝚙…

"What does that mean?" Abby asked as she read over rgh!Dee's shoulder.

"I'm... I'm not sure... who wrote this, who needs my help...? And what could I possibly have to do with --"

"Wait, did you hear that?" Ghost interrupted, having caught the echo of a garbled glitching noise from the speakers.

The lights suddenly shut off, as hundreds of unprepared contestants and supporters started yelling in a panic.

A tinny voice echoed over the intercom speakers.

"Hello everyone in the competition! It’s your new overlord, Audrey III!"

"That's Donnie's voice," Abbey noted nervously.

"But which Donnie?" Diana asked. "I don't know any Donatellos who go by the name Audrey III..."

"Well, obviously it isn't me or the big guy," Donatello noted, gesturing to Ghost. "But I don't like this --"

"Shh, kids, listen...!"

Ghost could hear a slight hissing sound. He wasn't sure where in the area it was coming from. It sounded like a gas leak, air slowly spilling into the room. It had to be from the vents. Where was the closest vent?? He searched the halls, and found one not too far away. A small cloud of electric blue was pouring out.

Without hesitation, Ghost grabbed the kids and started running.

"EVERYONE, CLEAR THE HALLS! THERE'S A GAS LEAK!"

People began screaming as they all ran in different directions, trying to get away.

“Don’t resist," the Donatello on the intercom said. "Or do, your fear is tastier that way.”

"WHAT THE HECK DOES THAT MEAN, OUR FEAR IS TASTIER?!" Diana shrieked. "WHAT IS GOING ON??"

"Do you see a fire alarm anywhere?" Ghost yelled over the panicked mob around them.

"Over there!" rhg!Donnie shouted, pointing to a small glass box on the wall ahead of them, a fire extinguisher by its side.

Ghost rushed over, pulled the alarm, and grabbed the extinguisher.

"What exactly do you expect to do with a fire extinguisher?!" rhg!Donatello shouted, finally wrestling himself free from the old man's hold.

Ghost wasn't sure, there weren’t any fires -- yet. But years of experience taught him to always be prepared.

He most certainly was not prepared for what happened next.

The vent covers were blown right off their panels, slamming into the walls across, or in some cases, a few contestants. Abby screamed in fright as she ducked, Diana ducking over her as well to shield her, and Ghost shielding the three teens together. Blue fog filled the halls, slowly covering the floors. A few contestants starting coughing and choking. Then the sobs. The screams. The weeping and wailing.

rhg!Donatello didn't know what was going on, but he could guess. The smoke must be drugged, he thought to himself, staring at the oddly coloured gas that started to cover the floors. Was this... was this the Capitol’s doing? Had they discovered his previous absence and this was their attempt to punish him? To capture this new dimension or realm or world or whatever it was, and use it for their Hunger Games?? But how?! How could they have followed him? He was portalled here alone, twice now, and when he was returned there had been no time passed in his world and no change in his appearance, so they could never have known... This must be something else.

Ghost lifted the girls up onto his shoulders before they could inhale the hallucinogen and began to run again, grabbing rhg!Donatello by the hand and dragging him along, effectively snapping him out of his shock.

A father who had been shielding his little "SweetPea" from the vent panels was on his hands and knees, gasping for air as his eyes widened and slowly turned blue. His daughter August kept begging him to get up, crying for her Papa. She started coughing, shaking, blue panic filling her eyes as she began to succumb to the gas as well. A Feral Leo had inhaled the gas and was starting to attack his brothers. A pair of finely-dressed Gemini twins were clutching onto each other, shaking violently as they pressed themselves into a corner, watching as the gas closed in on them... rhg!Donatello was horrified by it all. It felt too much like something that the Capital or the Gamemakers would do...

Ghost could see the panic on the teen's face. It was pure terror, pure fear. He was worried that maybe he'd inhaled some of the smoke... But his eyes weren't blue... so he must just be regular scared, not infected by whatever was happening now. Ghost had to find some place that would be safe from the vapour... but where?! What room wouldn't have ventilation??

A television screen on a single rolling stand zipped past him, an electric Donatello voice shouting over the mayhem in the room. A dial tone was playing from its speakers, as if a call had gone to voicemail.

"LEO? MIKEY? APRIL! WHY WON'T ANYONE PICK UP?!"

"Watch out!" Ghost yelled, grabbing the TV by its stand and lifting it up just before it could run over a convulsing body on the ground.

"WHOAH! HEY!! Put me down, I demand that you put me down this instant, this is no way to treat a creation of the great and late Hamato Donatello--!!"

"Oi, mate!" a voice shouted. A door opened, and a brightly-costumed punk-rock turtle with a guitar strapped across his back leaned out quickly. "In here!!"

Ghost flung himself, the kids, and the sentient television into the room as quickly as he could, the door slamming and locking behind them all.

The medical masks worked surprisingly well. They kept out the spores, in any case. DvD had been worried that they wouldn't be strong enough, they should find some gas masks or ventilators. He didn't want to take any chances, but with time running thin they had no choice. The Hand.PNG had assured them that the masks would work for the time being.

They made their way through the halls, DvD using a torch-light feature on his tech-bō and April using her phone to light the way. Mikey stumbled as he tiptoed along with them, tripping and falling to his knees, the blue spores clouding around his head. He froze, terrified that the airborne fungus was going to seep in somehow... through the mask, through his open and untreated wounds... He couldn't move. He wanted to run, he wanted to scream, he wanted to go home. But his limbs didn't listen to him. His head clouded over, his thoughts disappeared.

Fight, flight, freeze or fawn. He froze, vanishing into himself...

DvD stopped at the sound of Mikey's knees hitting the floor, turned around to see if he was alright. Michael had started shaking and whimpering, near-silent terrified chirps escaping from him. He was too weak to walk on his own. 'Phael was busy carrying the TNT, Leon the container of weird ninpo stuff. DvD could manage carrying the weightless teen...

"Micheal?" he whispered, coming over to him and gently placing a hand on his shoulder. "You okay?"

That was a stupid question. Of course he was not okay. The kid had literally died not ten minutes ago, and 15 minutes prior to that he'd used his mystic abilities to the max and run himself dry of all possible energy, as well as reopening his scars and losing a lot of blood as a result. And even before that, he'd given away some of his strength to help aid the swayed NFIF Donatello. Mikey had been run through the ringer, and it had barely been over an hour. It was no wonder he was shaking as much as he was, unable to pick himself back up.

"Would you like me to carry you?" DvD asked, rubbing circles onto his back.

Michael didn't answer, at least not verbally. After a pause he nodded softly, squeezing his eyes shut as the tremors continued. DvD turned around and kneeled in front of him, letting the box turtle slowly climb onto his back and drape his arms over his brother's shoulders. DvD slipped the boy's legs over his hips, making sure he was secure before standing back up.

"All good back there?"

He didn't answer.

"Michael?"

He gently nuzzled his face into DvD's shoulder.

"All good--" he rasped, coughing afterwards.

Right, his throat was raw from screaming and crying.

"Alright then. Let's get going."

DvD continued, catching up quite easily to his family (and the Hand.PNG). They were taking it slow, trying to remain inconspicuous as best as possible. They saw something glowing blue approaching, and the Hand.PNG warned them to get back, slip into a side hall and wait for them to pass.... The group turned off all their lights, watching in horror as a swayed Swanatello sluggishly meandered through the corridor, his face stained with glowing blue tears and his eyes matching the shade. Mikey stifled a gasp. He was horrified viewing first face he'd seen upon entering this whole competition now taken by the spores. He buried his face into DvD's neck and shoulder blades, trying not to cry.

"We may continue," the hand whispered once the zombie was gone.

They continued, searching for a place that would shield them from the zombies and the spores.

DvD passed by a small opening of the arena, an overturned box of cake pops crushed under the feet of panicked rioters and spored contestants. Mikey must've seen it; he gripped DvD's tear-soaked vest as tightly as he could manage. Which wasn't very tight. His fingers trembled and shook, the fabric constantly slipped through his meager grip. DvD could feel Mikey's heartbeat speeding up through his chest, the breaths coming in ragged and shaky as he started to hyperventilate.

"Michael?" DvD whispered. "What's wrong?"

Mikey couldn't answer. He tried, DvD could hear him try. Tiny squeaks and cracks in his voice as he attempted a response. In the end he pressed his face into DvD's neck, hiding his vision from the warzone they were traipsing through.

"Right, can't really talk... here, try this: tap once for yes, twice for no. Are you having a panic attack?"

Mikey tapped DvD's chest once.

Tap.

"I see. Is it... the spores? Did you inhale any?"

Tap. Tap.

"Hm. Is it just... being around them? Being surrounded by the spores?"

Tap.

"I see. I'm sorry. But I won't let anything happen to you, Michael, you can be sure of that. And you can tell me if anything's wrong, you know? I want to be able to help if you see Draxum again--"

Michael's face scrunched up as he leaned over DvD's shoulder to look him in the eye.

"W-what? What did you say?" he squeaked.

"I said -- oh. I said more than I meant to." DvD cleared his throat. "Yes, well... 'Phael might've told us that you'd been having dreams."

Michael's head snapped around to glare at 'Phael, who saw the look and immediately knew what it was for. He slowed his pace and nervously hid behind Leon.

"I'm gonna kill him."

"You can't really blame him for it, you were struggling and we couldn't understand why..."

Mikey sighed sadly, resting his head against DvD's back.

"Y-yeah... I know. S-so, wh-what else did he... say... ab-bout me...?"

"Oh, nothing much. Just that you'd been having visions and recurring nightmares since Karai showed up and that you'd seen everything that happened to you."

"Dang it, 'Phael," Mikey croaked. "I w-wish he'd just -- let ME tell you, y'know? I-I would've l-liked to... tell you myself..."

"I understand. But you should have told us before. I... I would have wanted to know. Even if it hurt me. I'd rather have known you and I could have helped each other, than us both stay hurting on our own..."

"...Wait, what else did 'Phael say?" Mikey asked, knowing exactly what DvD was hinting to.

"He may have mentioned the reasoning behind you keeping your secret..."

Mikey grumbled.

"Okay, now I really am gonna kill him--"

"No you're not," Donnie interjected. "He did what he felt was right."

"I understand... but... why do I have to be so weak and pathetic??" Mikey whined. "Why can't I just... take care o-of m-m-myself? I keep getting hu-hurt and I keep having to rely on everyone to s-s-save me. To protect m-me. I mean, look at me right n-now-w!"

"Physically I can't look at you, since you are on my back...."

DvD wasn't sure why Michael hoarsely chuckled at that. But he was glad the kid could laugh at anything currently.

"...But I understand what you're getting at. You aren't weak, Michael, you're surprisingly strong. To have been through what you've experienced, and to keep your innocence, your joy, your love for everyone, and your trust? That's not an easy feat. Even I can't say that I've retained that sort of strength."

"Emotionally unavailable bad boy..." Mikey joked.

"Exactly. But you aren't weak or pathetic; you've handled so much."

"But... shouldn't I be able to take care of myself? I don't want to keep being a burden to you guys. Is it always going to be like this? Me getting hurt, and you having to carry me home?" Mikey asked softly.

"...I don't know. Hopefully not the former, but I'll always be in favour of the latter."

DvD could feel Mikey smile through his mask, the corners of his mouth turning up as he nuzzled closer to his protective and loving older brother.

"...I'm so tired. I'd fall asleep if I wasn't in a panic-fueled state of adrenaline..."

"I bet. I promise you can sleep for as long as you want once this whole thing is over--"

"Quiet!" Leon snapped. "Someone's coming!!"

The group halted, pressing against the walls in any way they could. April extinguished her light.

"DvD!" she hissed. "Your tech-bō! Get the light off!"

"I'm trying," he hissed back. He was struggling to deactivate it, what with Mikey clinging onto his back and requiring DvD's arms to keep him supported.

A group of zombies approached them. They saw the light... They started running at them.

"Run!" Leon shouted.

The UIFY group darted away, DvD gripping onto Mikey as tightly as he could with one hand, and holding his tech-bō with the other.

"This way, lads!" 'Phael called out, directing them down a side hall that would have lead to an open area for new arrivals.

It lead to doom.

The group froze upon entering the arrival arena. It was swarmed.

"NOT GOOD!" Leon shouted. "Back up, back up, BACK UP!"

An army of swayed zombies started coming at them, each one smiling evilly as they all started chanting together...

"Feed me... feed me.... feed me!"

Mikey shrieked in terror as the zombies closed in on them from both sides.

"We're surrounded!" April yelled over the roar.

"Well, you stupid disembodied hand?!" Leon shouted. "What's your brilliant plan now?!"

"Don't worry," it said, though the quiver in its voice hinted that there was some small reason to worry. "It isn't meant to end this way..."

A shout rang out from above them, followed by two small explosions that cut the zombies off from the group. High up in the rafters, high above the smoke line, a teenage boy watched his handiwork.

"TAKE THAT, YOU STUPID MUTTS!!" he shouted.

"Nice Derry and Toms, kid!" Slider-Punk laughed, as he wrapped an arm around him and jumped down from the rafters, shooting a web that slowed their descent.

From behind the group, a door burst open. Out popped a familiar middle-aged Donatello, who reached forwards and grabbed the kids.

"GET IN, QUICK! That won't hold them back for long!!"

rhg!Donnie and Slider-Punk rushed inside the room after the UIFY group, slamming and bolting the door behind them. A few moments later, the door began to pound with zombies, the faint sound of their cries coming from beyond.

Leon gasped for air, but didn't dare rest before he could see where he was and who was in here.

It was quite an assortment of characters...

A human Donatello, a Donatello who was called "Ghost", spider-themed superhero versions of Donnie, Mikey, April, and Leo, a Cat mutant and her human friend, and... a giant computer with Donnie's face on it? Okay, weird...

"I'm assuming the lack of masks means that it is safe to breath in here?"

"It's safe," Spider-Shine said. "We blocked off the vents with our webs, and Omega an' Ghostie here helped build a makeshift air generator!"

"Is that everyone?" rhg!Donnie asked, short of breath as he examined the new arrivals to their little resistance.

"Yeah, it's just us," April gasped, pulling the mask from her face as she breathed in the clean air. "Dang, that was too close for comfort! Thanks for your help, uh... I'm guessing 'Donnie'?"

rhg!Donatello looked her over cautiously. She was used to that look, everyone who had ever met her after the mutation gave her that look. But what surprised her was how eerily familiar this Donatello was, despite being so entirely different. He really looked exactly like DvD... if DvD had ten fingers instead of six, dark curly hair and human skin, and was not quite so heavily built and muscular as the turtle mutant she knew. This one was a lot thinner, though he had muscle tone too. But he was mostly covered in scars and scrapes and... was that dried blood? She smiled nervously at him as she held out a hand.

"I'm April."

"...You would be, wouldn't you?"

He took her hand and shook it gently.

"You're not a turtle," he said, continuing to eye her over.

"Well, neither are you!" she chuckled anxiously.

He could tell she felt uncomfortable. He recognized the feeling, it was how he felt in the capitol and under the gaze of so many who cheered him on as he prepared to end a life. But this was different. He'd seen enough Aprils here to know they weren't supposed to be... not human. He could tell she hadn't been like this for too long, based on how she sort of hid herself, moved away from the others as if she couldn't tell she was one of them or a part of their group. The way she rubbed the fur on her arms, kept pressing her tongue against her miniature tusk and moving it around anxiously like a loose tooth that might fall out.

"...No kidding. Anyways, who are those guys?" he asked, tilting his head to look behind her at the others.

"I can answer that!" Abby said with a giggle as she skipped over to the teens panting on the floor. "This is the Until I Found You AU team! I met DvD here a few weeks prior to the prelims! And then again in the med ward while Mikey was being treated for hypoglycemia -- speaking of which, when was the last time you ate something? You're shaking pretty bad."

"I'm okay for the moment," Mikey gasped, trying to clear his throat. "But I should probably get something to eat while I can..."

"I've met them, too," Ghost said, as he came over and leaned over to the two orphan teens, reaching over to rub their heads affectionately. "I got them a pizza. How're you kids doing?"

Mikey smiled up at him. It was a weak smile, trying desperately to hide the red eyes and the tear stains on his mask, the sore and reopened wounds on his arms and the shakiness of his frail frame. Leo didn't try at all to mask his emotional state.

"Could be better," he griped.

"I imagine," Ghost sighed, bringing the two close and wrapping his cloak around them -- especially Mikey, who couldn't stop shivering. "Let's get some warm food in you, hmm?"

Mikey nodded, reaching up and asking to be carried. Ghost obliged, scooping the child into his arms and taking him to the other side of the room where there was a heater and a kitchenette, stocked with small snacks and a few easy-bake items. Leon followed after them, just like he had when they'd first met. rhg!Donnie followed after them, having caught sight of how small and frail this Mikey was, as well as the injuries on his arms...

Ghost took the tiny teen and laid him down on the couch by the fireplace. It was a much nicer lounge than the one they'd occupied previously. As mentioned, there was a mini kitchen and a decorative faux fireplace with a heater that warmed the room up quite nicely; and there were also more seating arrangements here than the other room. Mikey settled into the sofa comfortably, snuggling in with a wiggle and a giggle like he typically did. Leon scoffed at him, though he did so with a smile. Mikey always managed to find the positive and cheery moments in even the most dire of situations. Ghost grabbed a few blankets from a small basket in the corner and draped one over Leon, who smiled and nodded a quick 'thank you' at him. He went to tuck in Mikey when noticed his arms, which DvD had failed to re-wrap.

"...What happened here?" Ghost asked, gently taking Mikey's hands and lifting his forearms closer to his face. Mikey gently pulled them away.

"Just a little... um... m-m-mystic mishap," he chuckled. "It-it's alright... really!"

"I'm going to get the antiseptics," Ghost informed. "These should be bandaged. No sense in leaving them open to get infected."

"I can treat the wounds," a voice said from behind them, causing Leon to jump slightly. It was rhg!Donnie, already holding the first aid kit. "You can go get him something to eat instead."

"Alright then," Ghost consented, then turned back to Mikey. "But you will tell me how you got these, okay? If only so we can treat them properly."

Mikey swallowed nervously and nodded. Ghost stood with a soft grunt and walked over to the kitchen, getting warm snacks ready for the guests as rhg!Donnie kneeled by the sofa and started to rub disinfectant on the wounds. Mikey hissed at the touch.

"Ow! That stings," he whinged.

"That means it's working. Stop moving so much."

Mikey did as he was told. There was something about this Donnie that was... different, but familiar. He was overprotective of Mikey, he knew the feeling of someone playing mother hen. DvD acted like this a lot, especially after everything that happened with Draxum. He wondered what could have happened to his Mikey to make him want to protect him like this... the protective drive was the same, but the reactions were different. DvD was overly gentle with him. rhg!Donnie was firm and stern. Driven. Serious. He reminded him of DvD when they'd first met each other. Far too grown-up for their age, and with a determination that could kill you if you crossed them the wrong way.

rhg!Donnie was careful, but not entirely gentle. His rough and calloused hands were strict and commanding, no room for error or hesitance. Mikey winced as he took his wrist and turned it over a little too forcefully.

"Hey, careful!" Leon scolded.

"Do you want me to bandage him, or not? He has cuts all over his arms, I have to move him to get to them."

"Well, you could be a little more sympathetic with the guy!"

rhg!Donnie glared at Leon. He sighed.

"Sorry. I'll try to be more... sympathetic."

rhg!Donnie cleaned the wounds with a bit more grace than before. Mikey still whimpered and gasped in discomfort at the antibacterial and iodine.

"So, tell me... how did you get these?"

"M-m-mystic mishap," Mikey managed, coughing afterwards.

"Nice try," rhg!Donnie scoffed. "How'd you really get them?"

"What are you talking about?" Leon asked angrily. "It was mystic! He was using his magic powers too much and then--"

"Look, I'm not an idiot, I know that those scars were made by a knife, so I'm asking you, who cut your brother like this--"

"It happened a while ago," Mikey interrupted, forcing his voice to be a little louder so rhg!Donnie could hear him properly. Even still, it was low and raspy and the effort made him cough and hack profusely afterwards. Leon immediately rushed to the sink and got him some water. Mikey downed the cup, choking for a half second and spilling some of the tap water on his shirt.

"Sorry, sorry... I'm okay, I'm...!"

"It's okay, Mike, it's only water," Leon said, clapping his hand on his little brother's back to help him. "Just chillax for a sec, let your voice come back, okay? I'll do the talking."

Mikey nodded as he continued to slurp down the water.

"Anyways, Mikey here was sorta kidnapped not too long ago and experimented on -- geez, are you okay?" he asked, grimacing at the human sitting across from him.

rhg!Donnie had gone awfully pale, his eyes wide and glazed over with panic.

"...Fine," he mumbled. "Go on."

"Uh... yeah... anyways, Mike was kidnapped by Draxum -- do you have a Draxum in your universe? Ah, whatever, he was kidnapped by a bad dude and this bad dude did bad dude evil scientist stuff to Mikey and that's where he got the scars from. But that was like, weeks ago. Mikey accidentally reopened his wounds when his ninpo went into overdrive--"

"His what?" rhg!Donnie asked.

"His ninpo... y'know, like magic?"

"I said not to lie to me--!"

"They're not lying," Ghost said, standing over them with a tray of hot chocolate and some cookies. "I should've realized this sooner, but I'm guessing that since you're human that means you don't have any mutants or magic in your world," he said as he gently ruffled the teen's hair. rhg!Donnie shooed the affection away, suspicious of ulterior motives. Ghost sighed and continued.

"These kids come from a universe where their family has special abilities, mystic powers that are unique to them. And sometimes, using those powers too much have... unforeseen consequences," Ghost noted, taking Mikey's hand once again and looking at the wounds.

Michael nodded sadly. Ghost smiled and placed the warm mug into his hand.

"Just be careful next time, okay kid?" he asked, rubbing his head to assure him he wasn't mad, only concerned.

"...Very well, then," rhg!Donnie exhaled, finally admitting defeat. "In that case, I'm not sure I know how to tend to 'mystic' injuries."

"I got it," Ghost volunteered, searching in the first aid for anything especially sparkly or glowing. That would be a good sign. After some rummaging, he managed to procure some mystic cream and began to salve the cuts and sores.

rhg!Donnie watched with interest and concern. He studied the label for future reference. He memorized the patterns in which Ghost anointed the child. He took internal photographs of the angles and shapes of Mikey's scars... and prayed that he would never have to see them on his baby brother back home. He had been concerned that this was the same Mikey he'd met earlier... they looked very much alike upon first glance. But after closer inspection, he saw that they had some differences. The scars were obvious. But this one was younger, and much smaller. Not just shorter, but skinnier too. He looked a lot like his brother in that sense. As for the Leon beside him -- the one that kept giving rhg!Donnie dirty side glances -- he looked like his twin brother. Except bald. No sign of the beautiful and soft hair that rhg!Dee used to braid and style for him before he'd left. He was frightfully thin, too. A thick scarf surrounded his neck to help insulate the miniscule amount of warmth his body could provide. rhg!Donnie happened to glance over at him when he didn't expect it, and saw him pocket a few extra medical supplies, subconsciously stuffing them into his pants. There were quite a few things already in his pockets, rhg!Dee realized. This kid was a thief. Not that it bothered him, he and his Leo had been sneaky like that on more than one occasion. District 4 wasn't a very generous place to live.

rhg!Donnie found himself reaching for his hand the next time he went to snatch something. Not so much to stop him as to simply just... hold something that was so similar to his brother. He knew he wouldn't get a chance like this again for a long time. If ever. It might be stupid, but for a moment he wanted to pretend that this was his Leo. It worked for half a moment, he could almost see his brother here in the room with him.

Leon turned to him as he grabbed his hand, wide-eyed in surprise before realizing that he'd been caught.

"Oh... Old habits die hard, I guess," he explained, sheepishly dropping the tube of ointment he'd taken.

"Next time, try it like this," rhg!Donnie whispered, showing him how to take the tube with better efficiency, while simultaneously distracting the victim while you repurposed their possessions. But he got the feeling this teen already knew all the tricks of the trade.

Leon smiled weakly at him.

"Thanks, but... well, there's not really supposed to be a 'next time'," he explained, while looking back at DvD and 'Phael. "I kinda have a family now... and a home."

"Congratulations," rhg!Donnie said, hoping the genuine delight that this Leon had his family all around him came through, despite the monotonous tone in his voice.

"The kleptomania just sorta... flares up when I'm stressed," he mumbled. "When I feel like I'm not safe. I take stuff so I can pretend that I have everything I might need in an emergency." He laughed as he pulled out all the band-aids and alcohol wipes and gauze from his pockets. "I don't even know what I'd do with half of this stuff!"

"It's better to have most of this than not," rhg!Donnie mentioned, taking half of the pile and stuffing them into his own pockets, despite knowing that if he were to be portalled home again the items wouldn't be going with him. "Just in case..."

DvD had strolled right up to the giant tv screen in the room with a 2D icon of his face... or rather, a face greatly resembling his.

The icon looked down at him, it made an expression. It looked skeptical of him. It could express emotions, and could have thoughts. It must be an AI.

"How fascinating..." DvD murmured, looking the screen over. "What kind of CPU do you run on...?"

"That is classified information," the voice responded. And as flat-toned as most Donatellos tended to be, this one had actual emotion in its voice! It sounded just like him.

"What kind of program are you? You operate like a mimicry program, copying expressions and reactions..." he poked around behind the screen, investigating a few wires and buttons. "What's back here--"

"HEY NOW!" the AI reeled, two mechanical arms grabbing DvD's wrists and pulling him away as the screen moved back on its tiny little wheelie stand. "Hands to yourself, thank you very much!"

DvD's eyes widened. This was much more than a simple AI...

"What... who are you?" he asked.

"My name is OMEGA BOOTYYYSHAKER9000. Most people simply refer to me as 'Omega'. I am a replica of Hamato Donatello."

"Replica..." DvD looked the screen over as his brain pieced together the information. "...Oh."

This was always Omega's least favourite part of the competition, when the younger versions of his family understood that the future was not only unkind, but in most cases it took more than it gave.

"...Well, at the very least, you have achieved the perfect form -- man and machine, finally as one!" DvD said with a grin.

"You sound like Leonardo."

"You take that slander back."

Omega chuckled. When his Leo had first met him, he'd said something almost exactly like that...

"Do you think... do you think that this will be my fate?" DvD asked cautiously, as he continued to inspect the replica. "I've met a few older versions of myself in this competition. One was a demon-void-thing. One is tending to my brother now. I know better than to alter the course of time, I wouldn't dream of... well. But I'd like to know the probabilities, weigh out the outcomes and prepare myself mentally."

"You want to know if... you might end up as a digital duplicate?" Omega asked nervously.

"Only the statistical probability of it happening."

Omega wasn't sure about this. Yes, this teenager seemed highly intelligent and had an iron-clad determination, but he knew better than to actually tell him the truth. For whatever reason -- perhaps his own insatiable curiosity and need to know the outcome and 'create a fix' -- he crunched the numbers. He ran the simulation to test his theory. He knew the outcome of their storyline. And he was right, there was no real benefit to tell him the truth of his future... There was no benefit to telling him how -- in the wrong timeline -- his brother Leon would be the first to go, sacrificing himself to save the others during the first few years of the invasion. And Mikey would follow some time after, his hypoglycemia becoming too much of a strain for his body in a society where food was scarce and rations were slim. There was no point in telling him of the pain that he and 'Phael would bear, caring for the lone orphan son of their late comrade Cassandra Jones. No point in DvD knowing that he would be the one to invent time travel, only to use the machine once -- to send his surrogate nephew into the past to remedy everything. Omega smiled at him, keeping the simulation to himself.

"...Who can say what will happen next?"

'Phael looked in awe at the spider-themed teens in the corner who all jibbered and jabbered away. He was a little too nervous to actually approach them. They were superheroes, weren't they? He'd seen how superheroes looked in the movies! And these blokes looked just like 'em. But 'Phael's social anxiety started kicking into high gear, he fidgeted with his hands, picking at the fingernails which he'd nibbled down to stubs. He shifted his weight from foot to foot as he tried not to think about what they were thinking about, which was probably him and about how embarrassing he was --

One of the spider-teetlez turned to look at him. Oh no. OH HEADS NO, he caught him staring. He stared back. OH HEADS. The spider kid smiled and skipped over to him, his hair bouncing with each and every step.

"Hey there, big guy! You okay?"

"Oh, uh, s-sure!" 'Phael mumbled nervously. "W-w-why wouldn't I be?"

"Oi, is that another Brit I hear!?"

'Phael jumped suddenly as the blue and red turtle that had helped them in the halls immediately pounced at him, wrapping an arm around his neck with a great big smile.

"I was 'bout to lose hope for this Johnny Horner, I thought the entire arena was filled with yanks!"

"Uh heh, yeh," 'Phael chuckled, thinking maybe this wasn't the best time to tell him he technically was a 'Yank', having been born and raised in the Colonies. He was just brought up around folks with British accents...

"Hey, lads (and April)! Come 'ere, I wanna introduce ya to one of the dustbin lids that just arrived! This here is a BRITISH RAPHAEL!"

'Phael smiled nervously as he was passed around from hero to hero -- and they all were very nice and friendly, if not a bit intimidating. But then again, everyone was intimidating to him.

Everyone had gathered in the center of the room, squeezing together on the couches and sofas and ottomans and even one rocking chair. Now that everyone had introduced themselves, and Mikey had been taken care of -- his arms rebandaged and his stomach filled with tea and cookies -- it was time to come up with a plan of action.

There wasn't much time left...

End of Act 1

After a brief intermission...

"So," Leon sighed, as he leaned against the bottom panel of the couch Mikey was resting on, "What do we do now?"

"We lay low," rhg!Donnie stated flatly. "I don't have enough supplies to make any more small explosions like the ones I used to save you guys."

"How could we possibly 'lay low'? There's a zombie apocalypse going on outside!" Spider-Shine exclaimed. "At any point, they'll be able to break down the door and get in here!"

"We can't stay, anyways," April noted. "We have to get to the room where it all started."

"Why do you wanna be in the room where it happens?" Spider-Gal questioned. "What possible reason could there be to go straight into the heart of enemy territory?"

"Aside from killing the evil mushroom that resides there with a mystical bomb?" said DvD flatly. "None whatsoever."

"Wait, could we go back to the part where you have a bomb?" Abby asked, raising her hand. "What bomb?"

"The TNT," 'Phael said, motioning to the box-shaped explosive in the corner of the room.

"OH THAT THING?! I thought that was just a prop or something for the lounge room with the Minecraft..."

"No, that is apparently our one and only hope to destroy the fungus that has taken over the entire competition."

The room went silent.

"...I'm sorry, a what did what?"

"A fungus. Took over the competition," DvD repeated. "Very simple."

"Not quite," Omega said, his icon furrowing its brow. "I fail to understand how mildew could overthrow an entire competition."

"It's an airborne fear fungus, when you inhale it you see your worst fears come to life," 'Phael explained. "And, in some cases, the fungus can kind of... take control of you."

"Like... mind control?" rhg!Donnie asked, looking concerned.

"Yeh, pretty much. It's almost as if it possesses you."

"That would explain all the zombies," Ghost nodded. "And the way to get them all free from the fungus is to... blow it up?"

"Not quite," came an extra voice that startled everyone in the room. Diana screamed suddenly and pointed to April's head. Crawling out of her curls was the Hand.PNG, creepy as ever. April grabbed for the hand and threw it across the room. It never hit the wall, it vanished before that could happen, and reappeared on the table in the center of the room.

"As I was saying," it said, clearing its throat... how it did that was beyond them all. "The TNT will destroy the fungus, yes, but it won't destroy them all at once."

"Like with the Chitari in Avengers --"

"'PHAEL, WHAT DID WE SAY ABOUT THE POP CULTURE REFERENCES--!"

"Sorry, Leon--"

"Ahem, continuing," the hand continued, "The mushroom can be destroyed, but that will not destroy the spores infecting the rest of the competitors. It will only continue to spread from one host to another. You will need to come up with a way to free them all and destroy the spores for good."

"So, what do we do?" Abby asked nervously, Diana holding her hand tightly.

"I would suggest creating an anti-serum," Omega offered.

"Anti-serum?" Mikey croaked.

"Yes. If we could get a sample of the spores--"

"--We could make a formula that could take them down!" DvD finished excitedly. "But, would that be enough?"

"What if you had the DNA of something already immune to the spores?" the Hand.PNG asked.

"That would work," DvD said with a smile, already gripping his tech-bō and ready to take his own shot at the creepy crawly.

"Here," April said, taking off her jacket with the smudge of the Hand's black blood smeared across it. "You can use this!"

"Ah... yes... that works perfectly. Gives me no acceptable reason to injure the hand further. Wonderful."

"Glad to help!" April laughed, knowing exactly what she did.

DvD took the jacket to the kitchenette and started to analyze the hemoglobin, with Omega assisting. Ghost and rhg!Donnie joined in as well, each one working on a different section of the process.

A short time later -- but just enough time for Mikey and Leon to have nodded off -- the Donnies returned with two vials.

"We have a solution," DvD said with a proud grin, accidentally waking up the exhausted ornate box turtle and his red-eared slider brother.

"We've managed to isolate the deoxyribonucleic acid of the hand -- as well as the spores themselves -- from the sample April provided. We reverse-engineered the isotopes to isolate the immunity that Hand.PNG has to the --"

"In ENGLISH, nerd-brain," Diana interjected, getting a quick chuckle from Abby and Leon.

"We made a cure and a vaccine," Ghost stated plainly.

"What's the difference?" Spider-Gal asked, cocking her head to the side.

"The cure is for everyone who is already infected," Omega explained. "It will essentially destroy the infection and free them from the hive mind. They'll be a bit disoriented from the experience. But other than that they'll be perfectly fine."

"Okay, so what's the vaccine?"

"The vaccine is for us," Spider-Dee said, coming forward and tapping the vial. "It was made specifically with the Hand.PNG's DNA markers. Because the hand is not only immune, it's almost as if it's part of them. The genetic makeup of the hand and the spores is eerily similar... the zombies don't see it as a threat because they assume it's one of them already!"

"That's what the vaccine does," rhg!Donnie finished. "It not only acts as a blockade against the infection, but it also creates markers that the zombies pick up, almost like pheromones. They won't bother us, because they'll perceive that we're already infected like them!"

"Will it work?" 'Phael asked. "I mean... did you test it?"

"Did you see us leave the room?" DvD answered somewhat snarkily.

"Don' hafta get so snippy about it, I was just askin'..."

"A'ight, lads, no need to start a whole bull and cow goin'," Slider-Punk interrupts, stepping in between the two. "We're all a little on edge 'ere. 'Phael makes a good point though -- how d'ya know it's gonna work?"

"Because we made it," Spider-Dee explains with a smug grin.

"And because I ran countless simulations and tests on the possible side effects and hypothetical reactions," Omega adds.

"And because we have no other alternative," the Hand.PNG states. "We're out of time and resources for the moment. It will have to work."

"Right," DvD sighs, taking a small syringe and filling it with some of the glowing blue fluid. "Who wants to get their flu shot first?"

One by one, the competitors all received the injection, though Mikey took his rather shakily and needed Leon to hold his hand.

As the last person received their dose, the sounds of a mob trying to barge in began to cease. The room fell silent.

"It's... it's working? It's working!" rhg!Donnie chuckled. "Not that I ever doubted."

Leon crept to the door, unbolted it, and slowly cracked it open. Blue mist filtered into the room as he continued to open the door bit by bit. He stepped outside, cautiously looking around at the empty hall as the zombies meandered about sluggishly.

"I guess... we're good to go!" he said with a smile, as he came back into the room. "Now all we need is my grand plan of action to attack Audrey III and rescue the guys."

"We'll probably need a distraction," Diana suggested. "Something to get the shroom's attention focused in one direction while the rest go in to spray it with weedkiller or whatever."

"Something big and loud and preferably purple," Spider-Dee proposed.

"I could probably make something from what we have in the room," DvD offered. "I still have my tech-bō, and my travel tools... plus some spare uranium I bring along for special occasions."

"YOU HAVE URANIUM WITH YOU?!" Leon shouted as he jumped from his spot. "WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST USE THAT FOR THE BOMB??"

"... Quite obviously, because that would kill everyone. And I may be wrong, but that seems a bit counterintuitive to what we're trying to accomplish, wouldn't you agree?"

"..."

"..."

"... I'm going to sit back down, now."

"Probably for the best," DvD nodded.

"So, a big distraction of musical finale proportions, hmm?" Abby asked excitedly, rubbing her hands together as she schemed. "Maybe I'll be able to stick the landing properly this time..."

"It would certainly get that overgrown toadstool's attention," 'Phael agreed. "So, we'll make a big to-do with the Donnies while the rest go in to rescue the swayed!"

"Once you detonate the bomb, the spores in the area will dissipate," the Hand.PNG reminded them. "But that will not free the zombies. You will need to administer the antidote to as many as you can as quickly as possible in order to keep the fight to a minimum. You don't need any more people getting hurt on behalf of Audrey III."

"Great, then let's--"

"Not you, Mikey," Leon said, pressing his brother back into the couch cushions before he could stand up all the way. "You're staying here."

"WHAT?!" Mikey yelled, straining his vocal chords yet again. "But I wanna help--!"

"I know you do. But I can't have you get hurt again. We just patched you back up! Mikey, I know how badly you want to help everyone, I know how much you care, but if you go out there again you will overdo it and get hurt, or worse -- and I am not about to watch you die again!"

That was cruel. Mikey knew that if the situation wasn't so dire, Leon wouldn't have brought that up in front of so many strangers, he wouldn't have wanted to mention something so delicate in front of the others... No, he would.... He did that on purpose, Mikey realized! He wanted to get them on his side. Intentionally make them worried so that they would do whatever Leon wanted to keep his brother in the room. Mikey scowled at Leon -- what a dirty trick to play! And it worked, he saw how everyone's heads turned to him with wide and frightened eyes.

"...Fine," he grumbled, crossing his arms and pouting angrily.

"And because I know you'll try to sneak out the moment we leave, I'm going to have to ask someone to stay behind with you--"

"I'll do it," rhg!Donnie quickly volunteered. "I'll stay behind."

"Abby's staying here too," Diana added, pulling her friend by the arm to force her onto the couch with Micheal to rest. "And so am I. I promised I'd look after her and make sure she was safe. That means no epic musical battles against giant fungus," she said, giving her friend a loving glare.

"Aw, phooey."

"The more, the merrier," Mikey grumbled.

"So, that's settled then," Ghost said. "The kids will stay here--"

"Excuse me?"

"Sorry, the kids and rhg!Donnie will stay here," he corrected, "and the rest of us will be heading out to war."

"Alright! Let's go an' have ourselves a right barn owl with the giant mould!" Slider-Punk shouted, grabbing his guitar and playing a quick riff to further express his excitement.

"Let's go, then."

Mikey, Abby, Diana, and rhg!Donnie watched as the others left the room one by one.

"It is for the best," Hand.PNG said quietly, climbing onto Mikey's shoulder.

It had only been maybe five minutes since the rest of the 'resistance' had left, but Michael was still pouting sadly and grumbling to himself.

"You know that they only want to see you safe."

"Yeah, yeah, I know that. But I'm not some weak little invalid! I could help somehow! Even without my powers, I could still do something!"

"Of that I have no doubt. But you must stay, if only to keep your brothers at ease."

Mikey sighed, sliding deeper under his blanket.

Abby and Diana were sitting by the kitchenette, making themselves some popcorn and scarfing down some snack cakes they'd found. rhg!Donnie was sitting by the faux fireplace, getting nice and warm. Michael's thoughts wandered back to something he'd heard the hand say before.

"...What did you mean when you said 'it isn't meant to end this way'?"

"Pardon?"

Mikey reached over and let the hand crawl onto his palm, carrying it over to rest on his lap so that he could see it properly.

"Earlier in the hall, before the others rescued us. You said that it wasn't meant to end that way. What did you mean by that?"

The hand paused.

"...Are you sure you want to know the answer?"

"I think so," Mikey whispered.

"Very well. You recall I spoke to you of the 'authors'? Well, your story is very important to them."

"So... these authors can see the future?"

"Sometimes. In some ways."

"So, then why is all this terrible stuff happening to us? Why, if they're like... our deities?"

"They are not gods, only storytellers. The story has gotten away from them... you see, they have melded your stories together -- Until I Found You, and No Fun in Fungus. Things were never meant to become so dire, but events have spiralled beyond their control, and so they have sent me to help you."

"You... know them? My author?"

"I should hope so. She created me."

"What??" Mikey asked, taken aback by the statement. "Why would... I thought you were created for the spores! I thought the other author made you!"

"...I WAS created for the spores. But I was not made by the spores' author."

"I thought your purpose was to torment people--"

"My purpose was to be one who delivers -- almost like that of a postman, at first."

"At first?" Mikey asked.

"My purpose has changed since then..."

The hand heaved a forlorn sigh, as it twiddled its fingers.

"You would not understand, but... I am not a villain. I'm not even meant to be an antagonist. Believe it or not, I was given the task to rescue. To save a life."

"Save...? Save who?" he asked nervously.

"Why, Leonardo, of course."

"Leon? But he --"

"Not your Leon. NFIF Leonardo."

Mikey's stutter worsened as he tried to comprehend what the Hand.PNG was saying. Save Leonardo?? How, when it was the one who doomed him?

The hand proceeded to explain...

"I was originally made by your author to deliver the spores. She had envisioned me as an extension of herself, in the beginning. A representative. But as time went on, others came to take advantage of my usefulness, and I became what you might call 'a fad'. I was seen as a joke, a means for the other authors to express themselves and share their stories. A plot device, as it were. She didn't mind. She was glad something so simple as I could be used as much as I was. But then... it got out of control. Too many authors were using me, too many contestants were getting spored, and your friends were getting worried for the contestants' safety. NFIF Leonardo began to blame himself; he'd thought he'd started another apocalypse."

"A-another...?" Mikey asked, voice fading with fear at the thought of what that meant.

"It is a long story, but essentially NFIF Leonardo -- and many similar Leonardos here -- made an honest mistake that rippled across time and had unforeseen consequences. Leo had managed to keep the destruction from happening, but he still holds on to the guilt that it was almost because of him that his world was destroyed. And then... the spore outbreak. He blamed himself again. Your author saw his pain, and couldn't let him take the blame for something he did not do. But how could she tell him that? She couldn't speak to him directly. Authors rarely can, without tearing the fabric of their universe to shreds, or breaking the fourth wall. She needed a means to communicate to him that it was not his fault. So she changed my purpose, and sent me to help make it clear that I had stolen the spores from him to begin with. She changed my purpose, from deliverer... to scapegoat."

"So... what were you saving Leo from?"

"Himself."

Mikey didn't know what to say to that. The Hamatos were filled with selfless martyrs and sacrificial dum-dums...

"...What about me? Why would the author do that to save Leo, but let me die?"

"But you didn't die. You came back. She would never have let it go that far. And... you may not like this... but your 'sudden departure' was necessary."

"NECESSARY?"

"As I said, the story was getting away from the authors. She couldn't see an ending, she couldn't find the resolution. Too many people were becoming swayed by Audrey III, and you were losing hope. She needed the tides to turn in your favour, and she knew that I had a soft spot for your stories. The only way I would leave the fear fungus was if..."

"...If you saw how terrible things were getting. If you saw what would happen to us -- to me, if they continued."

"Yes. I could not see the true result of my actions unless I was faced with the consequences. But your author would never let you die like that. You're her favourite, after all..."

"I am?" Mikey asked, somewhat conflicted about this fact.

"Your story has only begun, dear one. And your author is very excited to see where it leads. After all, you are the one who managed to save your brothers and bring them together..."

Mikey pondered this. Mikey wondered... Was that his real superpower? Not these stupid mystic golden chains and magic spells he could concoct, but the ability to love people and bring them together?

"I must go now, your family needs my help."

The hand vanished into shadow, fading away in an instant.

Mikey thought about it. Your family needs your help.

He started to stand up.

"Hey, did you need something?" rhg!Donnie went to his side, trying to get him to lay back down.

"Yes, I need you to help take me to Audrey III."

"What?!" Abby yelled, nearly spilling her bowl of popcorn. "But Leon said to --"

"Screw what Leon said!" Mikey snapped. "I'm going to help them."

"You can barely walk!" Diana protested.

"That's why I need rhg!Donnie to carry me," Mikey said, grabbing the human version of his brother by the sleeves and tugging hard. "Please. If you don't, I'll drag myself there. I'll crawl, if I have to!"

"Mikey, please, be reasonable--!"

"No, you don't understand! I need to help them, they need us!"

"Us?" rhg!Donnie asked. "What do you mean by 'us'?"

"All of us! They don't realize how tough it's going to be, they're gonna need all the help they can get!"

Mikey shakily pulled himself up onto his feet as he looked around the room at the others.

"Look, we were all brought here for a reason. I don't know why, maybe because we have a bond, or because we all have something special in common, or whatever! But we're here regardless, and we're needed. They need our help."

rhg!Donnie pulled the note out from his pocket and read it over again.

𝚆𝚎𝚕𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚋𝚊𝚌𝚔! 𝚆𝚎 𝚗𝚎𝚎𝚍 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚑𝚎𝚕𝚙…

"...Even if you're right," he sighed, shoving the paper back into his pocket, "that's no reason to throw yourself into the fray."

"It's reason enough!" Mikey shouted, on the verge of tears. "It's family! The people I love!! Can't you understand that?! Wouldn't you do anything at all in the world -- in the multiverse -- if it meant you could keep your family safe?? No matter the cost??"

rhg!Donnie stared at Mikey.

He refused to cry. He refused to show just how right Mikey was. He wouldn't let this version of his brother see him like that. No matter how badly he wanted to hold him, cradle him gently, and promise that no matter what he would do anything for every version of his brothers.

"Okay then. Let's go."

"No! You're not going to stop me that... easily... I'm sorry, what?"

"I said let's go," rhg!Donnie repeated, immediately lifting Mikey up and carrying him out the door. "Are you girls coming too, or what?"

Abby and Diana looked at each other and shrugged.

"I guess we're all going down in musical flames," Diana groaned.

"You sound awfully Les Miserable about it," Abby joked.

"Don't even start."

"Well, if anything, all the music is gonna make quite that beautiful sound...!"

DvD and the others made their way through the maze of corridors and open areas and secret halls, walking (or web-swinging in the Spider-Teetlez' case) as quietly as they could. The vaccine would make the zombies see them as one of their own, but DvD and the other Donnies had concerns that if one of them should say the wrong thing, it would attract the bad kind of attention.

So they went on their way without saying a word to one another, down the halls as zombies passed by, muttering to themselves and whinging over whatever nightmare they were trapped in. Their footsteps echoed down the halls, the soft whimpers and moans of the infected like winds whistling down the lane.

Like silence, but not really silent. Just that still sort of quiet...

Ghost raised his hand, signalling to the others to come to a full stop.

They'd arrived at the room.

"Okay, everyone, you know the drill," Dvd whispered at them. "Time for our big opening number..."

"Why hasn't she succumbed yet?" AudreyTello asked, starting to become irritated with the little wretch in the cage of vines, who was still screaming and kicking and crying in anger, raging against the hallucinations.

"She is stronger than we assumed," AudRai noted, placing her hand over the cage and viewing the hallucination for herself. "It appears that in her nightmare, she ate her way through the door and--"

"I'm sorry, ATE her way through?!"

"Yes."

"How?! Never mind, I don't want to know," he growled. "At this point, I'm willing to throw her outside and let her fight the fear somewhere else, her constant screams are giving us a headache..."

AudRaph walked over to her and gingerly took her hand.

"What are you doing?" AudRai questioned.

"...Nothing," AudRaph said, rubbing his thumb over Misa's tiny fist. "Simply trying to help her assimilate."

"I don't CARE about assimilation!" AudreyTello screamed, smashing his bō staff into the wall and causing cracks to splinter across it. "She's driving us insane with her banshee screeches!!" he growled, gripping the staff to the point where he might break it. "Donatello has nearly reached his limit with this noise. I swear, if one more thing --"

A loud racket started playing outside the room, a guitar that reverberated and nearly caused the walls of the room to collapse.

"WELL, OF COURSE THAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN. HE MUST BE PSYCHIC."

AudreyTello stomped over to the door and flung it open, finding a hundred purple lights and drones flying around the hall, swirling together to create a mimicry of DvD's face.

AudreyTello's staff transformed, weapons building together and turrets mounting on his shoulders as speakers continued booming heavy rock and roll music. The enormous DvD face smiled down at him, eyes glowing bright as purple smoke started to cover the floor.

"YOU DARE CHALLENGE DONATELLO VON DRAXUM?"

AudreyTello gripped the weaponized bō and pointed it at him.

"This competition isn't big enough for two supervillains," AudreyTello sneered, hoping to get under his skin with the accusation.

"OH, YOU'RE A VILLAIN ALRIGHT -- JUST NOT A 'SUPER' ONE!"

"Oh, really?" AudreyTello swept his foot back, readying his stance for a fight. "And tell me, what is the difference?"

The drones moved, making the giant head open its mouth dramatically as DvD -- having changed from his casual wear into his formal Draxum attire, complete with glowing visor, protruding tusks, and flowing cape -- strutted out with an enormous grin on his face, arms extended as if to accept applause.

"PRESENTATION!!"

A laser light show ignited as the drones flew in different directions all at once, mimicking an explosion and dancing around AudreyTello dramatically. The music burst, electric guitars and drums creating a soundscape around the two.

"So, we've gone from musicals to Megamind, have we?"

AudreyTello grinned maliciously.

"Very well. I can acclimate."

He jumped forwards, firing the torpedoes and missiles at the son of Draxum. The drones holding him up dropped suddenly, letting him fall to the ground. He activated his own tech-bō, creating a large rocket-powered mechanical fist that he swung at AudreyTello. The swayed NFIF member ducked at the last second, shielding himself with an enormous photon cannon. The blast from the cannon shot him backwards, out of reach from DvD, who growled angrily at him.

"You wouldn't hurt me, you wouldn't hurt your friend Dee?" AudreyTello asked, making a sad baby face at him before bursting out in mad cackles. "I'm only a sad, lonely little mushroom!"

DvD gritted his teeth.

"You may be a mushroom, but you're going down all the same."

"HA!" AudreyTello laughed, as he swung his bō at DvD.

"Your mouth's talking trash!"

Another swing.

"You'd better rinse it."

Another.

"Your meat is minced --"

He lunged...

"-- I'm here to mince it!"

He landed on DvD, who pushed him back with his own tech-bō.

"I'm gonna have this world, now give me some space; I'm gonna wipe that stupid grin off of your stupid face! I'll put you in--"

DvD ducked.

"I'll put you in --"

DvD dodged.

"I'll put you in your place!!"

DvD rolled back, getting his tech-bō ready to reveal another impossibly futuristic high-tech weapon. AudreyTello chuckled at him, rolling his glowing eyes.

"What exactly was your objective, here? To stop me? Single-handedly?? Just a lone Donatello up against the might Audrey III?"

"Well, I wouldn't say 'lone' Donatello..." DvD retorted with a grin.

White sticky thread suddenly wrapped around AudreyTello, tying his arms to his waist. Spider-Dee swung circles around him, continuing to wrap him in webbing, tighter and tighter as he shouted his protests. Spider-Dee landed on the ground and swung AudreyTello over his shoulders, sending the swayed turtle flying. AudreyTello activated his ninpo once again, creating jet wings that sliced through the webbing and slowed his descent. AudreyTello gave a quick turn and soared back at them, readying his weapons when a heavy body jumped him and caused him to crash into the ground. Ghost rolled into the tumble and regained his footing almost immediately, taking out his own cracked bō staff and preparing to spar.

"Snap outta it, kid," Ghost said, voice low and gravelly. "We know this isn't you. We know you don't want to actually hurt us."

"Oh, do we, now?" AudreyTello chuckled, rising from the floor and rubbing his chin. "Let's test that little theory, shall we?"