Chapter Text
Leo startled awake.
Something was wrong.
He rubbed his eyes, trying to adjust.
It was dark.
Leo tried to sit up, but he bumped his head on exposed bricks.
He sucked in a painful breath and rubbed the top of his head.
Then he stopped. His skin felt different. Eww… was he molting? His skin felt extremely dry, and he’d never let it get to that point.
He searched around for his phone, but it wasn’t on his end table… actually, his end table wasn’t even there.
Leo eventually found it under a blue blanket that he could’ve sworn he’d thrown out years ago and he checked it. The phone light flooded his face which made him recoil and blink rapidly. When his eyes adjusted, the time read ‘3:06’. Leo ran his hand down his face, ignoring how oily it felt.
The wallpaper of his phone was different.
Leo squinted at it and saw a selfie of what looked like his family, but weird.
There were four turtles wearing color coded masks like him and his brothers, and they were eating pizza. But, the turtles didn’t look like his brothers. The purple one had glasses, the orange one had braces, and they all looked really young. And those were just the glaring differences.
Leo swung his feet off the bed, alarmed. He tried to get off his bed, but it wasn’t the subway car he was used to. There weren’t any of his action figures
It’d been a while since he’d gone on a run. He just had to run to clear his head, and then everything would make sense.
Leo navigated the dark room, the fairy lights strung about doing little to provide him light.
(Fairy lights. Add that to the list of weird.)
He eventually found his way out of the room, and he did a double take when he got to the main area. It was messy, and looked nothing like his lair.
What was going on? If this was a prank, Leo wanted to take notes because this was elaborate, even by his standards.
He jumped when the light flicked on, and he saw a turtle in a red bandana. He was around his height, and he had a few random scars. He also looked pretty muscular. Whatever. He took on the Shredder, he fought in the Battle Nexus, he took down the Kraang! He could take this kid.
“Leo? What’re you doing?” The turtle asked.
He looked upset, and he seemed busy getting something from a cupboard. “Why are you up so early?”
‘How do you know my name?’ Leo wanted to ask. Instead, he thought it best to answer that last question.
“Ah, you know. Couldn’t sleep.” He stretched to punctuate his point. Then, he rested his hands behind his head in his classic ‘Chill Leo Pose’. But, he flinched when he heard his voice. Why did he sound like that?
The turtle looked disturbed by this and gave Leo an up-down look.
“You’re acting weird. You’re acting like me.”
‘How else am I supposed to act?’
“What’re you talking about? I’m always like this,” Leo laughed.
He knew he overplayed his hand when the turtle stopped what he was doing and got close in Leo’s personal space.
If it was Mikey, sure. (He had a soft spot for the little guy.) But, this was not Mikey.
“Are you on drugs?” The red turtle asked, narrowing his eyes. Up close, Leo noticed a missing tooth. Geez, how young was this kid if he was losing teeth?
Leo jumped and held out his hands defensively.
“Shell naw. I wouldn’t touch that stuff.” Leo waved his hand dismissively, folding his arms.
The turtle leaned back, raising an eyebrow.
“Did you seriously say ‘shell’? Dude, you’re starting to freak me out.”
Leo moved to flip his mask tails (which weren’t there because he just woke up and didn’t have his mask on. He probably still looked good, as always.) and said, sniffing “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
The turtle paled and grabbed a knife from the counter, threatening Leo with it.
“Who are you?” He asked shakily.
Leo held his hands up like stop signs, not taking his eyes away from the knife.
He debated spilling his guts then and there. He’d taken on scarier threats, but maybe this kid could help him figure out what was going on.
“My name is Leonardo Hamato, I’m 19 years old, and if anyone asks, I’m disguised as a mutant turtle because I’m going to a science fiction convention.”
the turtle lowered the knife, stammering.
“May I go?” Leo asked. “I’ve got places to be.”
“What happened to Leo? What did you do?” The turtle asked, voice getting a nervous edge.
Leo rolled his eyes.
“I literally woke up and abracadabra-“ he motioned to his frame. “This happened.”
The knife clattered to the floor and the turtle in front of him was slack jawed.
“Y-you… Leo…?” The turtle stammered. “If this is a joke, I’ll punch your face in.”
“You do that, and I’ll fight back and mess you up more than you could do with me. My face is my greatest asset.”
“Holy crap,” the turtle muttered. Then, he jumped away like he’d been burned. “You aren’t my Leo.”
“No duh. I said that before,” Leo grouched.
The turtle looked genuinely scared.
Leo carefully picked up the knife (the turtle was too young to play with it) and set it on the counter. He thought about activating it so he could use his mystic mojo, but that would freak the kid out.
Leo and the turtle had a staring contest for a minute before the turtle looked away.
“May I go?” Leo repeated, giving an unimpressed expression. “My brothers need me.” Holy shell, they did. They were fighting Big Mama for training, (and slaying, by the way) and then he got hit. Now… he was here.
The turtle stepped back, but didn’t say ‘yeah, sure, go ahead.’
Leo rolled his eyes and looked around the room. He stopped when he saw his reflection in a mirror hanging on the brick wall. He rushed to it and gingerly touched his face.
His stripes! His skin! His eyes! His plastron!
He looked rounder, his skin was an olive green, and his beautiful face was misshapen and round! His plastron was flat and more muted.
“No, no, no, no, no…!” Leo panicked, voice cracking.
Why was he in a different body! What was going on!
Leo snapped his attention to the other turtle in the room, upset.
“W-wha…” he cried indignantly.
The corner of the turtle’s mouth twerked up in a smirk and he asked “would you like some tea? I’ll explain everything.”