Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Both
3rd POV

The next day they were all set up in the living room. Casey and April are also there. “So do we all want to talk separately to get to know ourselves and just ourselves.?” Raph asked.

“Yeah, let’s all get a chance to get to know ourselves.” Leo said. They all agreed, both Mikey's went over to the kitchen, Donnie’s went to the lab, Leo’s went to Leo’s room, April’s and Casey went to one end of the living room, and on the other end the Raph’s.

Mikey’s

In the kitchen Mikey and Angelo sat there looking at each other in silence before they burst out into laughter. “So what does the fellow me want to talk about?” Angelo asked.

“I’m not fully sure. Well yesterday we talked about food and our brothers. So why not continue that conversation?”

“Yeah, let’s! So far from what I have seen of your brothers they seem pretty cool.”

“Yeah, they are. They all have their quirks and differences, but that’s what makes them unique. But what I have seen from your brothers and mostly your Dad they all are a lot more serious, about everything. In training it was like the dojo had a slight breeze on how stiff you all were.” Angelo stiffened his shoulders and released them while talking.

“Ha, yeah they can be a bit tense at times but overall they’re pretty cool. How about your villains, what are they like? I mean you’ve met a few of ours but how about yours?”

“Well they got mutated with the Oozquitos. There’s Ghost Bear, he was a professional wrestler before he got mutated. And now he blames us for ruining his career. There's Hypno-Potamus, he was a hypnotist. Repo Mantis, he has a repo business he’s half and half I guess, but overall bad. There's this worm guy, I can never remember his name,” Mikey tapped on his chin thinking. “Yeah, no I can’t remember. And there's the ones who weren’t mutated. There’s the Purple Dragons,”

“We have the Purple Dragons here too!” Mikey spoke up.

“Really! Are they also a tech club made up of high school students that have something against Don for undisclosed reasons?”

“No, they’re this gang that hangs around here.”

“Oh, cool beans, well more like half cool beans. Well before I forget, the non mutated one is also Big Mama, this Spider Yokai who runs this Battle Nexus thing.”

“Battle Nexus? Yokai?”

“It’s a fighting arena where Yokai fight. Yeah so she runs that. She’s a spider yokai who has a human form which is pretty cool.”

“We also have a spider mutant but is a weird old guy.”

“He sounds funky.”

“He is.” Mikey laughed. Angelo laughed along. “He called us karate frogs. And called Raphael's sais salad tongs.”

“Ha, I bet your raph got mad didn’t he?”

“Yeah he was furious!”

“Oh what I'd pay to see that.” Angelo said, wiping his tears away from so much laughing.

“If you’d pay to see that. Imagine seeing his screeching from seeing a cockroach. Funniest thing ever! Cause he legitimately screeched when he saw it. It was hilarious.” Mikey said laughing again. “And it had a little camera on him. Because it was one of Donnie’s experiments so it caught it all on camera. It showed a clear picture of his face. It was absolutely hilarious.”

“Oh, imagine that on a shirt.” Mikey said, both of their laughs and speaking becoming louder the more they talked.

“I asked.” Mikey yelled over both of them laughing.

“And how did your raph react?” Angelo asked between laughs.

“He was furious, he started chasing me around the kitchen.”

“Oh shoot, sounds like your Raph is fun to mess with!”

“A little but everyone here is.” Mikey said, the laughter dying down. “The only one I’d advise to never mess with is Master Splinter.”

After they both finished laughing, Angelo spoke up, “Oh yeah by the way. Why don’t you call Splinter dad, or pops, or a fatherly name. You guys always call him sensei, or splinter.”

“Oh I’m not sure. I guess we never did? I think it’s a sign of respect to him as our sensei. I’m not a hundred percent sure. I think it was Leo who started calling him that I don’t remember why though. Best bet is to ask all of us together so you get a real answer.” Mikey tried steering away from the question, brushing it off like it was nothing, but he had his own personal reason.

“Yeah, maybe,” Angelo shrugged his shoulders. “I’m sorry if that was an awkward question.”

“It’s all good don’t worry about it dude, Oh yeah, and what are Yokai.”

“They are like mutants but weren’t mutated. They are an already set species.”

“Wow, that's sick. Are there a lot of them?”

“There's a whole underground city, where they live. It’s called the Hidden City.”

“That's pretty cool.”

“It is! There's this Yokai, that created us using my pops human DNA. His name is Draxum, he also created the Oozquitos who are mutating people.”

“Oozquitos? We just have mutagen here, if someone touches it they get mutated.”

“Woah, for us they get pricked, bitten? Something like that and then they get mutated.”

“Woah, so are there some who are mutated and some that are Yokai?”

“Yeah, pretty much!”

“So you guys are Mutated, right?”

“Yup, the one who made us was a Yokai.”

“Oh that makes more sense. Hey, do you wanna see my room?” Mikey said, jumping up.

“Of course!” Angelo said, also jumping up.

Mikey started walking to his room, waving for Angelo to follow him. Angelo gladly followed.

They walked by the April’s and Casey. Angelo gave a quick wave to Apes, Apes waved back before turning back to the conversation her and herself were having. They walked into Mikey's room, “Welcome to my room!”

“Nice?”

“Why the weird reaction?”

“It’s messier than I expected…” Angelo said softly, trying to not say anything offensive.

“A bit, but what are you gonna do?” Mikey said, shrugging his shoulders before throwing himself onto his bed.

“I mean it’s not that messy, just messier than mine.”

“Come on, let’s not talk about that. Let’s talk about your lair!”

“Yeah, okay.” Angelo sat down on Mikey's bed. “Well our lair has more color, thanks to me. Uh we have a skate ramp, our own rooms. We got Donnie's lab as well. It has our rooms, a dojo, a tv room, and a kitchen. Basically your but instead it’s taller, add the ramp, and add colors.”

“You have a skate ramp?! One time we skated in the lair and Splinter wasn’t too happy.” Mikey gave a small chuckle.

“Yeah, we all have our own personalized skateboards. Oh and that reminds me we wanted to find a skate shop to grab some skateboards and go skate around the city!”

“Really! Me and my bros should totally join you guys. We also have our skateboards, we don’t usually go out and skate that much anymore but hopefully with you guys here they’ll say yes!”

“Yeah, that would be awesome!”

Leo’s

Leo and Leon walked into Leo’s room, Leon sat on the floor upon coming in while Leo went and sat on his bed. “Your room is really tidy ain't it little me?”

Leo was fidgeting with his hands, he had a few questions he wanted to ask. He looked at Leon for a second giving a simple, quiet, “yeah.”

Leon could feel the slight discomfort from Leo, so he decided to change the subject a little bit to ease the mood. “So little me, what do you want to talk about, huh?” Leon asked, finally breaking the silence after a while.

“Uh there has been a question that has been lingering in my mind for a bit. What are you?”

Leon looked confused and slightly offended, Leo saw the reaction he was given and immediately waved his hands in an X formation, “No no, I don’t mean it like that. Not what are you but who you are for the team. For me I’m the leader, that’s what I am and I can’t see myself being anything else.” He corrected himself.

“Well if you can’ tell I’m obviously the face man.” Leon said motioning to his face, but Leo didn't laugh, he just kept a straight face looking at Leon waiting for a real answer. “Okay, okay. Real answer is that we don't really have set roles. I mean yes, Raph is the leader, but he doesn’t fully do it alone. We all work together, we all kinda mush together. We’re brothers, we fight together, and we usually fight the same fight.”

“Yeah, but everyone is so different. How do you guys find plans that go all together?”

“Well I think we’ve known each other for so long, so well that we can just make it work naturally. We know each other better than anyone I think. Plus we usually plan things out all together anyways, so we all pitch in ideas and see what we can do.”

Leo looked a bit confused. “Huh, so you even hear Mikey’s ideas as well?”

“Yeah why wouldn’t we?”

“Cause he comes up with obscure things that are mostly all jokes. He doesn’t take planning all that seriously. He’ll get his ideas from his comics. Sure some of them end up going well, but is that really a whole solid plan? The plans that Mikey has come up with aren’t really the most secure, it's more childish than anything.”

“Yeah, but sometimes you need that. In the plans that whatever he said, they worked didn’t they? And would you or anyones else on the team be able to come up with the plan he came up with?”

“Well yeah they did work. But it was risky and things could have gone totally wrong on those missions, someone could have gotten hurt, or something else could have happened, because they were so obscure.”

“Well I think being a ninja in general is risky. Plus you still trusted his plans enough to go through with them. You saw the plans he gave out and even though they were obscure you still did them. Now, that’s saying something.”

“Yeah I mean he is my brother what was I supposed to do?”

“You could have not. But then that brings up the big question. If you wouldn't have done his plan would something else happen? Would it have not worked?” Leon was proudly defending Mikey. It might not be his brother exactly but it was close enough for him to feel the need to defend him.

“Probably not.” Leo was rubbing his arm in slight defeat.

“Exactly,” Leon said, sing songy. “You don’t always have to do everything to keep your title of leader you know. Your brothers are always gonna be there for you. That’s what brothers are, your friend that you don’t know how they got there but there and not gonna leave.”

“Yeah, they are.”

“So stop putting unnecessary pressure on yourself. It gives you wrinkles.”

“Ha, thanks.”

“No, it really gives you wrinkles. Then you’ll look older than you actually are.”

“Who exactly is gonna see and care if I look older than I actually do?”

“You, yourself, ME! Anyone who is me has to look amazing.”

“I do look amazing.”

“The more I look at you the more I can see that you're the oldest.” Leon said plainly.

“No, actually?!”

“Yup, my man you do.”

Leo’s face scrunched up for a quick second. Leon noticed, he knew something was up. “What was that?” Leon said, pointing at Leo’s face.

“What do you mean?” Leo hoped that Leon wasn’t referencing the motion that he unconsciously did.

“I mean the face scrunching thing. Right after I said “my man” that thing.”

“Oh, it’s nothing.” Leo swatted his hand at Leon.

“Are you sure? I mean I am you. So you can tell me, I won't judge.”

“You sure you won’t judge.”

“98% sure.”

“What do you mean 98% sure?!”

“I don’t know. I just think some things, I would judge you, like your wrinkles.”

“I don’t look older.”

“Sure ya don’t. ANYWAYS spill, tell me what’s up.”

“No telling the others.”

“No telling the others, this can stay between the Leo’s.”

“Okay, uh, how do I say this?”

“Just say it in a way that makes sense for you.”

“Okay, well then. Do you ever not feel like yourself in your own skin? When people call you one thing, but it just doesn’t feel right. But you're not sure why?”

“Yeah?”

“When people use he/him pronouns it doesn’t feel all that right to me.”

Leon’s eyes widened, “What?!”

Leo’s eyes welled up, he knew that was gonna be something he would be judged for. It didn’t matter who it was he was telling he was gonna be judged harshly for it. “So that was in the 2%, huh.” He lowered his head.

“No, no, sorry if I made it seem that way but that’s not it at all.”

“Huh?” Leo’s head shot up.

“Yeah, sorry. But just to make sure what pronouns you would rather be called.”

“She/her?” Leo said, in a more questioning tone.

Leon did a dramatic gasp, “You took my gender!”

“What do you mean?” Leo looked shocked at what Leon just said.

“This whole thing happened to me as well. But the other way around.”

“We switched genders. I used to be a girl.”

“What!?”

“Yeah, maybe there was a mishap with the universes that switched it up on us.” Leon gave a small chuckle.

“Yeah,” Leo gave a small chuckle as well.

Donnie’s

They walked into the lab, Don looked around for a second. Donnie walked over to his chair and sat down. Don just stood there before he spoke up, “Why do you fight with a stick?”

Donnie’s face lit up, “That’s what I’ve been saying.” Donnie went back to normal, before he talked, “With that being said, I wanna ask about your tech.” Donnie said, getting right into the point.

“Hmm?” Don hummed in response.

“So going off of yesterday, your battle shell. What do you have in it? I’ve seen the robot arm things. But what else is there? Also what material is it made out of? What do you use to program it? I’ve also seen your Bo staff. Is it made out of tech or is it just a style choice? If it is tech what components does it have?”

“My battle shell has a lot of different components. But the way it all works is that it is voice, or using yes me tech bo staff to do certain commands. I can take it off and all of that. It has a compartment for my bo staff when I am not using it. It’s near the bottom and I can call it out but using my tech watch, or voice command. I can fly with it, shoot lasers, it can have a small speaker set up. The robotic arms, with them I can also make them channel electricity to taser someone. With my tech bo it also has a lot of things, a grappling hook, selfie stick, a mallet, a tennis ball cannon, dual rockets, turtle tank tracker, a fire extinguisher, a drill head, chainsaw, circular saw, clothing rack, a laser gun, a tranquilizer gun, a multi tool, a concrete mixer, a cane, a feather, a jack hammer, ect. Ect.”
Donnies eyes were wide open, jaw dropped.

“Oh and they are all made out of titanium to answer your other question.” Don said.

Donnie's mouth closed but his eyes went wider. “T-Titanium?”

“Yeah.”

“How did you get titanium?” Donnie asked, trying to calm himself down from the shock.

“I have my ways.”

“What do you mean by ways?”

“I think that’s enough about me. So what about your tech?” Donnie said quickly changing the topic.

“Well my tech isn’t made out of any fancy material I get most of my things from the junk you find around.” Donnie said scratching his head nervously, he wanted to make a good impression on other him.

“Oh nice, I do that from time to time. Or we just go hangout at the junkyard. That’s actually where we were going home from. Then we ended up here.”

“That’s cool! Oh yeah about that, you guys never told us how you guys got stuck here.” Donnie said tilting his head to the side.

“Oh we were going home from chilling at the park when Leo was complaining about how his feet hurt from walking so he used his odachi to teleport us but then we got here and not home.” Don responded.

Donnie looked bewildered, “Did you say teleported?!”

“Yeah. You guys aren’t able to do all that, are you?”

“No. I don’t think that's a normal thing to be able to do in general. The closest thing we have to that is the Kraang portals. And we don’t have full access to them, we just randomly find them around town. Even then they don’t send you wherever you want to go but instead it takes you to a kraang place, wherever that might be.”

“Well you are right that it isn't the most normal thing. But it is pretty frequent in out universe.”

“So how does the whole teleporting thing work?”

“By using Mystic Energy, they are typically found in the Yokai community, but can be used by humans. Mystic Powers can range with a bunch of different uses. You can have supernatural powers, but it can also be used to make potions, mystical objects, and portals. The powers can range from powerful to petty. With us we have the Hamato Ninpo. When we unlocked it allowed us to tap into our mystic powers. We all have different powers, except we all are able to generate our weapons.”

“Woah.”

“Yeah. How about you how's your universe like?”

“Compared to yours, it's a bit boring. We have saved the earth and New York.”

“Yeah, that’s definitely boring.” Don sarcastically rolled his eyes.

Donnie tapped his fingers on his knees, “Well we also fight people such as the foot clan, The purple dragons, the Kraang, and the other mutants, like FishFace, Razhar, Snakeweed, Baxter Stockman. And the worst of all the Shredder.” Donnie had a tinge of distast in his voice when he brought up The Shredder.

“How about your tech? How's that?”

“Well like I said before, most of my things come from the junkyard or from the Kraang. I tinker around a lot making new gadgets for the team. I made a robot guy, Metalhead. He’s a pretty powerful fighter, but not the best Ninja. He’s pretty heavy, making it hard for him to move around quietly.”

“Sounds like my son!” Don spoke up, having starry eyes from mentioning his creation.

“YOU HAVE A SON?!” Donnie yelled, surprised.

“Well not exactly he’s a robot, S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. he’s my wonderful son. Now thinking about it, I wonder how he's doing. Hopefully he’s not too worried.” Don tapped his chin thinking about S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. “Oh, sorry I interrupted you. Continue.” Don motioned for Donnie to continue on what he was saying.

“Well that’s mostly all the big things I have on my tech currently. I have made some sort of retro-mutagen. Well Mikey made it, sorta.” Donnie muttered the last bit.

“Really? We haven't really thought of that. Since most of us have a place to go after you get mutated. It’s not a whole thing in our universe. Most people think it’s a costume.”

“Wait, so you've gone out in public? Not hiding?”

“Yeah, I went to school once. Didn’t make the best impression with certain people.” Don gave a slight shrug.

“You have gone to school! While school was going on?!”

“Yeah, sometimes I tag along with Apes to go to school. Rarely though, kids can be weird.” Donnie shivered at the thought of it. “But based on your reaction you don’t visit school do you?”

“No, but how cool would it be if I could. The things I would learn, I would probably already know all about it but still. The tech, the people, the tech, i think it would be an absolute dream come true.” Donnie had gotten up from his seat and had started pacing. Until he threw himself back onto his chair. “And going with April to school, wow just wow that would be a dream come true. Imagine spending a whole day with April, walking around with her, helping her with her books, eating lunch together, the whole shabang!” Donnie looked like he was love sick talking about it. Moving around all swiftly and acting it out as if it were happening right there.

Don had a face of disgust planted on his face, as Donnie talked, then he spoke up, “Huh?”

Donnie looked over to Don, “What? Why are you looking at me like that?” Donnie sat back down in his seat.

“Your whole spiel about April.” Don said pointing around the area Donnie was just pacing and acting in.

“Um, yeah? Sorry, another question: do you like your April?”

“Yeah I mean she's a great person but the way you're talking about your April. If your asking in that way, No. April is like a sister to me.”

“Ha, well different worlds I guess.” Donnie said, scratching his arms, and chuckling nervously.

“Yeah, guess so. Also don’t scratch your arms too much.” He pointed down to Donnies arms.

“Oh, yeah, sorry bad habits.” Donnie shot his arms down quickly.

“Hey, don’t worry. I’m talking from personal experience. If you scratch too much, red skin, slight peeling, a bit of blood. It’s not the funnest. Plus when your brothers see you they’ll interrogate you.” Don rolled his eyes in an endearing way.

“Ha, different worlds indeed.” Donnie mumbled, turning

April’s ft. Casey

The April’s and Casey sat on the stairs of the entrance. “Well then, tell me a little bit about yourself.” Apes started.

“Well what do you wanna know?”

“How about how you met the turtles?”

“Oh well I met them when me and my dad were being kidnapped. They tried helping us but didn’t do so well. But they later came to help me escape but it took a bit to get my dad back. When he did he got transformed into a bat mutant. I didn’t talk to the turtles for a while after that…. But then they found a retro-mutagen and brought him back! Which was wonderful. And yeah that’s basically it.”

“Woah, your sounds more interesting than mine. I just met them and became really close with them and now they’re my family. So how old were you when you met them?”

“I was sixteen.”

“Really?! I met them when I was a kid.”

“So you are practically family then.” April gave a small chuckle.

“I found out about the turtles when I was fighting the purple dragons.” Casey butted in,

“It was three against one. I took them all down with ease, Blam! Bam! When Raph came down and stopped me from finishing them. I was on board with the whole mutant business back then so we fought. Anyways after a bit I got to know the turtles and with April being their friend, I decided that they were cool enough for Casey Jones to know.” Casey, shooting finger guns at the end of his story.

“Woah, that's interesting. You fought a bunch of teenagers from a tech club.” Apes said, stifling a laugh.

“Huh?”

“The purple dragons, their teenagers who are all in a tech club at my school. Who all have a grudge against Donnie.”

“Who doesn’t have a grudge on Donnie.” Casey mumbled.

“Well here they’re this city gang.” April said, ignoring Casey's comment.

“Wow, crazy how so many things can change from one place to the next while still being similar.”

“Yeah, it is really weird.”

“So what other things are going on in this New York?” Apes asked.

“Well the foot, we got the kraang, we got shredder, and his goons. The guys go out and fight them. I don’t go out as much, cause I’m not fully trained yet. I usually stay here and train with Master Splinter.”

“Really?! I almost always go with them.”

“Really!? I wish I could, but they also have more stamina than me considering they are mutants.”

“True, but I usually just ride with Don, or at least try to keep up.”

“Ride with Donnie?”

“He has this tech that allows me to ride on his battle shell with him.”

“Huh, that’s really cool, Donnie really cares about you.”

“Yeah, he’s like a brother to me.”

“My Donnie keeps giving hints that he likes me, so does this kid.” Apes, points back at Casey.

“Of course, red. Of course I am obviously the better choice.” Casey said, hearing his name.

“Yeah Yeah,” April swats him away.

“Really?” Apes face contorts. “Don, would never. Plus I’m already dating someone.”

“Really! Who?” April leans in, intrigued on who she’s dating in the other dimension.

“My wonderful girlfriend, Sunita.”

April's eyes went wide, so did Casey’s. “You have a girlfriend?” April sputtered out.

“Yeah.”

“Woah, wouldn't think red would have a girlfriend.”

“Yeah, same a shock for me too, so how’d you meet her?”

“She was a new girl at school, I wanted at least one normal friend. But it turns out she was also a yokai.” Apes shrugged her shoulders, “But she’s still the sweetest person.”

“I had a sorta similar experience, where I had a friend but turns out she was a Kraang robot.”

“Woah.”

Raph’s

Raphael looked at Raph who was sitting on the floor, “Let’s get this straight, how do you manage to be leader? Cause I’ve tried and all I’ve managed to do was get someone hurt. And when I needed to lead I just froze there. I heard them asking me what to do and how to do it and I couldn’t do anything. It’s like my mind went blank, I couldn't think, I couldn’t speak. Mikey was knocked out, and I didn’t know what to do. I froze like a coward. My mind just couldn’t think under all the pressure.”

“Well yeah it’s hard being leader. You have to think quickly, and efficiently to make sure no one get’s hurt. The constant yelling in your head when you are leading. But I think the way I can do this without going completely insane is my brothers. They help me figure things out. I know the constant pressure you get when your leader. Taking care of everyone and always making sure they are okay. It’s a lot.”

“Yeah, but even when I don’t freeze my anger always gets to my head and I blow up.”

“Well anger is a common emotion. Everyone gets angry. It’s how you control that anger.”

“I’ve tried! But my brothers always push my buttons and get me all mad again! It’s like they enjoy making me mad!” Raphael huffed.

“I don’t think they enjoy making you mad. They all seem to care about you. I mean you guys are all brothers right? And brothers take care of each other. I mean sometimes you need a way to let out your anger instead of taking it out on someone. I like to knit, crochet, and sew to relieve my anger, pressure and anxiety after a hard day. Sometimes I can’t and I do blow up. But I try not to. That’s what my brothers appreciate the most about how I am trying. But anger is a regular everyday emotion. Some people just have a harder time trying to control it”

“Yeah, I guess”

“Do you have something that helps you calm down sometimes?” Raph asked.

“Well I like to draw sometimes.” Raphael shrugged,

“Well then you can channel your anger there. Draw or paint what you're feeling. Angelo does that too. Even here with all his nervousness being pent up about being here he decided to do a bit of spray painting to liven up your universe.” Raph said. “Everyone copes in a different way. You might just need time to figure out what works for you.”

“Yeah maybe you're right.” Raphael rubbed his arm awkwardly.

“Raph is always right. But actually, find your relaxer, whatever that may be.”

“Yeah, but if I’m not the angry, tough guy, who am I for the team?”

“You're a brother.” Raph leaned back.

“Yeah, but for the team!”

“Let me tell you something. Your team is your brothers and they are who is gonna back you up when times are tough. So it doesn’t fully matter what role you are, as long as you are doing what you can to protect your team. Your team, your brothers.”

“Thanks, I’ll try.”

“Of course. Any other questions?”

“Why are you so tall?”

Raph looked a bit confused on why that would be the first question. “Well I am a different type of turtle than my brothers. I guess it’s a big turtle.” He just shrugged.

“How come I’m stuck being this height!”

“Hey, being tall isn’t all it’s cut out to be.”

“I bet it’s better than being this height.”

“Yeah but you have to be a lot more cautious, trust me little man, it’s not all that great.”

Raphael glared up at Raph, “I know you did not just say that.”

“What did I say?”

“I may be short but I can bite your kneecaps.”

Both Raphs got up from where they were sitting, “Come at me little man. Or do you remember training earlier.”

“You did not just bring that up.”

Rapheal charged at Ralph’s legs. Trying to tackle him rugby style. Raph didn’t move until Rapheal stepped on his foot, hard. “Ouch.” Raph moved his foot to steady his ground. He knocked Raphael off his foot. Both Raph’s gave a small chuckle, before falling to the floor with a thump.