Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Five of the seven teenagers living in the O'Neil farmhouse gathered outside to begin another session of ninja training. Thanks to the space heaters built around the farmhouse, they could train outside without the risk of snow or cold, despite it being December.

Donatello spun his bō around, using it to block the attacks of Michelangelo's nunchucks. He then moved his bō to behind his back, blocking the back of his head as Casey tried a sneak attack.

"Goongala!" Shouted Casey, his hockey stick clashing with the metallic staff.

Donatello shifted his weight so Casey was balanced on his shell, putting the staff against the older teen's throat. He then did a front flip, throwing Casey to the ground with an umph. "If you're going to sneak up on a ninja, you have to be quiet." Donnie smirked over Casey.

Casey scoffed and returned the smirk, "Where's the fun in that?" He used the curve of his hockey stick to sweep Donnie's right leg out from under him, knocking him to the ground in turn.

Raphael braced his arm up in the air to block the punches that April threw at him. He caught her arm and moved to the side before she could stab him with her tantō. He heard something whiz over his shoulder and he ducked into his turtle shell before the tessen made contact with his head. He kicked April's legs out from underneath her and let go as she fell into a somersault and stood back up a few feet away.

"Yer not bad with that," He commented, gesturing to the tessen she caught.

April shrugged, "I watched Miwa use it a lot. I'm just holding onto it for her." She muttered, looking down at her friend's old weapon. Her friend's prized possession.

"You can't get distracted!." Raphael kicked at the redhead, but she moved out of the way. She jumped into the air and tried to bring her tanto down into the back of his neck, but he rolled out of her range and aimed the handles of his sai at her neck. She ducked under his arm, but he caught her foot and tripped her backwards. "Sorry, April."

April caught herself on her hands and flipped herself upright again. With Raphael not heeding his own advice, she nailed him in jaw with a hard punch, which sent him to the ground. "Woah..." She whispered, looking down at her hand in shock.

"Lucky shot." Raph said, though he didn't look upset by the hit.

"Yeah, sure." April returned the smile, flashing her sharp teeth at him as she extended her pink colored hand for him to take. "Its nice to see you smile."

Raph pulled away from her hand. "Don't got much to smile for."

"Raph, don't be like that." Casey frowned as he and Donnie untangled themselves from wrestling on the ground. "Things could be worse."

"Yeah right!" Raph snarled. "We're in a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere, we have no friends, no family, just a bunch of fuckin' chickens!"

Donnie played with the piercings on his mask tails while April and Casey just deflated at the mention of their lost families.

"Master Splinter would say we hafta accept the hand the universe has dealt us, right?" Mikey said, trying to be a little positive.

"Master Splinter isn't here, Mikey!" Raph snapped. "He and Miwa are still in New York, probably Kraang bait by now, and Leo might never wake up! The universe," He quoted with his fingers with a vicious click, "Dealt us the shittiest hand in history!"

The bathroom window flew opened with a thud, and a bespectacled girl with black, cyan, and purple hair hung halfway out of it. "Guys! Guys! Come quick!"

Fearing the worst, the five teens booked it up to the second floor bathroom, all struggling to fit through the home's old and narrow door frames. Once they reached the bathroom, they found Irma leaning over the tub.

"What's wrong?" Raph demanded. He'd only left for ten minutes, at most! How could Leo go downhill so-

"Nothing." Irma replied in a calm voice. She stepped to the side, revealing a tired pair of sapphire eyes blinking at them.

"Leo?" April asked in a quiet voice, like she was afraid the smallest sound would chase him back into his comatose state.

"Hey guys..." Leo smiled warily, his voice battered, low and raspy. He cringed as the words left his mouth, no doubt in pain from using his injured voice box.

"Leo!" Mikey threw himself at his older brother, but stopped himself from touching him. He resolved to kneeling by the tub, his head against the edge while he sobbed softly.

"Its okay, Mikey..." Leo put his hand on top of his youngest brothers head. "Raph, Donnie?"

Irma silently shooed April and Casey out of the bathroom and closed the door, giving the brothers some privacy.

Raph took Leo's other hand while Donnie touched Leo's right shoulder, just below the bandaging.

"You're okay?" Raph sniffled, wiping at his eyes.

"Been better, but I think so." Leo replied. Each word was painfully forced out. "Donnie, it's okay..." He assured his taller brother, who was covering his face with his hands.

After getting Leo set up in his bedroom, a hug and proper welcome back from April and Casey, and a brief reminder of who Irma was, Leo asked what the extend of his injuries were.

"We've really been here for three months?" Leo asked as Donnie went over Leo's knee with his portable X-ray machine. "I've been out that long?"

"You had us worried sick, Leo." April gave his hand a pat before moving to the side so Donnie could scan around Leo's neck. "Raph barely slept."

"It was nothin," Raph scoffed, rolling his eyes.

"I don't like that look, Don." Leo commented on the way Donnie's brow was furrowed. "Come on, just give it to me straight."

"Well, your shoulder, shell, plastron, and forearm are pretty much healed completely now." Donnie started with the good news.

Leo slowly turned over his right forearm, remembering the arrow that had been stuck in it. Completely healed but leaving that ugly of a scar behind... He hadn't even really seen the rest of himself yet, not really wanting too. "And the bad news?" He pressed.

Donnie sighed, clearly not wanting to move onto that part. "I... Your knee has healed pretty well, all things considered, but... You shouldn't put too much weight on it for now, its still..."

Fed up of Donnie's dancing around the subject, Leo took the X-ray device and held it over his own leg, reading the scan upside down. "It might never get any better," Leo said melancholically. "That's what you're trying to say, right?"

"We don't know that for sure," Irma tried. "But in the meantime, Donnie made you some crutches and a brace." She motioned to the side of the bed where the objects laid ready for him.

"That's great." Leo gave a weak smile.

"So, like, why does he sound different?" Casey asked.

Leo visibly cringed at the question and went to touch his throat before he stopped himself.

"He sustained damage to his throat," Donnie answered with a glare at Casey.

"I sustained damage pretty much everywhere," Leo gave a dry chuckle before taking another drink of water.

"What happened, exactly?" Mikey asked.

"Mikey!" Raph hissed.

"No, its..." Leo tried to shift on the bed but groaned in pain. "After we split up I got ambushed by the Foot. I must've taken out at least a hundred Footbots, but..." He trailed off as his mind flashed back to that day. "Somehow I ended up in really cold water. It's all kinda foggy after that but..." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Shinigami trapped me in an illusion, made everything a black void so I couldn't see anything. Shredder and his lackeys all got their turn with me." His eyes watered and he sniffled, "Pretty pathetic, huh?"

"Leo," Raph frowned.

"I'm sorry." Leo went on, sobbing as he did. "I failed you guys. Maybe if I had just fought harder... Now I'm just a burden..."

"Hey!" Raph shouted. "Nobody sees it that way! You didn't fail anyone!"

Leo didn't respond. Instead, he pulled the blanket up as far as he could and shifted with another groan onto his left side.

The others slowly left the room after realizing Leo was done talking for the night.

"I'm gonna leave you some of my special patented mutagen medicine." Donnie told him. "Try it, it'll help."

"Get some sleep, kay? First thing tomorrow, we're gonna start training again. You and me." Raph said. When Leo still didn't reply, Raph sighed. "Hey, uhh... I dunno if ya could hear me when you were asleep, but... If, if you wanna be twins again, I'd like that." Not even that got a reply, so Raph left the room and closed the door, leaving Leo silently sobbing in the bedroom.

Raph wasn't kidding when it came to his declaration of getting Leo on his feet again. Bright and early, he burst into Leo's room and helped him out of bed. After some breakfast pizza, he lead Leo out of the farmhouse on a small walk that was more like a hike for Leo. "Come on, Slowpoke!" Raph called over his shoulder. "You got to build up those muscles. You've gotten super weak."

"Don't rub it in." Leo responded as he hobbled after Raph. It felt wrong walking around without his gear, but after struggling for nearly an hour to get the knee brace on, he figured it would just be easier to go without his stuff for now. He wished more than anything that he had his mask that Splinter had given him. He felt exposed without it, weak because it was taken from him.

Raph led him down a small stream and jump from one rock to the other on the opposite side.

Leo's left crutch slipped on a bit of ice, causing Leo to fall down the embankment and into the frozen water. "Aah!"

"Leo!" Raph rushed to his side, trying to grab his brother and pull him away from the icy water, but stopped when Leo's hissed in pain at the way he tugged on his shoulder. "Fuck, I'm sorry!"

Leo clambered back up the embankment he had slid down and let Raph grab his crutches that he had dropped. "I don't... I don't think I'm..."

Raph's stomach dropped as he watched Leo's face twist in discomfort and frustration, "What's wrong?"

"I'm never gonna be the same again, Raph!" Leo snapped as he tried to get back to his feet.

"Don't talk like that!" Raph replied, trying to give Leo back his crutches. "That's not the Leo I know."

"The Leo you know is gone!" Leo fell again, and his raspy, damaged voice gave out as he screamed again, cradling his knee. He pulled out water bottle that Donnie had left him of the mutagen medicine and took a swig of it like it was a flask of cheap alcohol. It wasn't in his stomach twenty seconds before he threw it back up.

"Are you okay, Leo?" Raph asked, helping Leo up again.

"Can you just take me back?" Leo asked with a hopeless groan.

"I-I'm sorry," Raph sighed and slung Leo's arm over his shoulder while he carried the crutches back in his other hand. "I shouldn't have pushed ya so hard so fast. You still need some rest."

The ejected mutagen left behind started to mix into the grass and twigs left trampled by the turtles as they walked away.

Leo didn't say much the rest of the day, just watching from the couch with a blank expression on his face. After falling outside, Raph made sure Leo was bundled up and warm, but Leo didn't want to try to make it back up the stairs to his bedroom on the second floor.

"Here's some tea," April said, bringing Leo's thoughts away from whatever dark place they were dwelling. "I know it's not how Master Splinter would make it, but the honey will help your throat. And, you really need to keep eating, get your strength up, y'know?"

"April, wait." Leo said, stopping her from returning to the kitchen. She took a seat next to him and waited for him to finish. She could tell that whatever it was, he was having trouble finding the words, but he wanted to ask it regardless. "Miwa and Master Splinter, were they okay the last time you saw them?"

April thought about it. "I... There was something about Miwa's mindset... It was like back in Stinkman's lab. Something in her eyes, when I looked at them, I could almost hear her thoughts. She's struggling, trying to make sense of a puzzle she doesn't have all the pieces too."

"And Splinter?"

"I think he understood that too." She replied. "Though, he would've gone after her regardless." She added with a soft smile that didn't reach through Leo's darkness. "I... The plunge she and Shredder took wasn't intentional." April went on, "And I doubt it did anything to either of them. I mean, we can hope Shredder drowned, but..."

"Yeah... Do... Do you think that... Never mind." Leo sighed and took a sip of the tea.

April put a hand on his and smiled, "Hey, you can always talk to me, okay? About anything."

Leo flashed her a smile as her touch lingered on his hand. "Then, can I tell you something?"

"Anything."

"I think your hair looks cool." He said, noting that the ends of her hair had gotten more pink since New York. About a inch now, of course starting at the tips because, well Dimension X logic, he assumed.

April rolled her eyes at the comment, but she was glad to see him smile again. "Thanks."

Mikey came and plopped down on the floor with a bowl of popcorn. "Hey, Leo, this is my new favorite show! It's called Crognard the Barbarian!" He turned on the television to an old, badly animated cartoon.

"It was my dad's favorite cartoon growing up." April told Leo as the blond-haired, barbarian in a blue leotard fought off Slug People.

The others quickly entered the living room to watch the cartoon, but just when Crognard was about to finish off the King of the Slug People, the power to the farmhouse cut off.

"No!" Mikey and Casey both shouted in unison, invested in seeing the end of the episode.

"Relax," Donnie stood up from the side chair he was sitting in. "It's probably just a blown fuse. I'll fix it in two shakes of a turtle's tail." He walked over to the closet above the basement stairs and opened the fuse box.

The fire burning in the fire place blew out suddenly from a gust of cold winter air from an open window.

"Who left the window open?" Irma asked, looking at Casey, who was suppose to clean the windows downstairs yesterday.

"¡No me mires!"  Casey held his hands up in defense. "I closed all of 'em!"

"Great, now we gotta get more firewood." Raph sighed, shining a flashlight into the fireplace. Then his flashlight cut out in unison with Donnie's who was still messing with the fuse box.

"Are you kidding?" They both groaned in unison.

"Are you going out alone?" Leo asked as Raph pulled on a light jacket that was obviously Kirby's in the 80s.

"I'll be back in like, ten minutes." He replied, picking up the axe that was laying by the fireplace.

Raph finished off a big pile of firewood that would last them at least a week or so, depending on how cold it was. He started piling the wood on an old sled that they had found while cleaning out the barn for Donnie's workshop. A crunching of the snow in the distance caught Raph's attention. The space heaters Donnie, Irma, and Casey made didn't stretch that far into the woods, and he clearly heard it coming from the snow covered forest. He tried to tell himself that it was just an animal, but he had this chill running down his shell that just didn't feel natural. When he heard it again, he raised the axe threateningly. "Who's there?" He called out. "Mikey, I swear, if you're fuckin with me!"

Suddenly a deer jumped out of nowhere, nearly running him over as it ran off.

"Just a deer," Raph sighed. But then he heard something else, coming from the same direction the deer had. He realized that the deer was running from something.

A sound came from behind him, and he swung the axe in defense. The blade dug into the side of whatever this thing was, but it just looked at him in return. Its weed-like fingers pulled the axe blade out of its side, and the wound started to close, blades of grass sprouting and sealing off the injury.

It must've been a mutant, Raph thought, but he couldn't understand how one would be all the way out here. He swung the axe again, but the creature's hand sprouted vines that wrapped quickly around Raph's arm and body, binding him faster than he could fight it off. He tried to yell, to call for backup, but the vines were already in his mouth, silencing him.

"Raph!" Mikey called into the night, three hours after Raph had left to get firewood and hadn't returned.

At first, they tried not to be worried about him, they all knew Raph could take care of himself. But as the night turning into early morning, and he still hadn't returned, fear started creeping into the six remaining teenagers inside the farmhouse. They were worried he got too cold and was now entering a cold-stunned state like Leo had.

"Raph!" Casey yelled, using his hands to amplify his voice. "¿Dónde estás?"

April and Irma circled back from checking the lab, but shook their heads before anyone asked if they had seen him.

"Could he have gone into the woods?" Irma suggested.

"Why would he do that?" Donnie asked in reply. "There's plenty of places to get wood without risking going into the cold where the space heaters can't protect him."

"April, can't you sense him?" Leo asked, standing on his crutches on the porch, a blanket draped over his shoulders.

She closed her eyeshining eyes before she opened them again, now even more worried. "No." She answered. "I, I swear I felt him just a little bit ago, but now... It's like something is blocking him?" She held a hand to her head, still searching for him mentally.

"All right, then split up." Leo decided. "April and Casey, you guys check to the east, Mikey, Donnie, and Irma will check the west." He scanned his brothers, both bundled up for the cold weather, but was still worried about them.

"Split up?" Mikey asked. "Are you loco, homey?"

"Leo, are you sure this is a good idea?" Donnie asked.

"Please don't argue with me," Leo sighed, shifting his weight on the crutches as he tried to stand for a prolonged period of time. "Raph need you guys, wherever he is."

"What about you, Leo?" April asked as Leo took a seat on the rocking chair on the porch.

"I'll wait here in case Raph comes back." He groaned. "I'd only be a burden out there, anyway."

April frowned at the response, but followed Casey east as they split into two groups. The scanned over the area that the space heaters reached while calling out for Raph, but eventually realized he must've gone into the snow if he was in this direction. "Ugh," April groaned as they trudged into the snow. "I've always hated these woods at night. When I was a kid, I was sure monsters were gonna creep out of nowhere and eat me." Suddenly she ducked and pulled Casey down with her as a branch above them snapped from the weight of the snow.

"Don't think things can creep up on ya now." Casey pointed out, shining his flashlight on the broken branch. "Besides, the only monster out here is Casey Jones." Then he imitated a werewolf howl, getting an eye roll and a light smile from the redhead.

As the walked further into the woods, Casey took a deep breath before he decided to cease the moment of them being alone for the first time in forever. "So, wheat's the deal, Red? You've been cold as ice to me ever since we left New York."

April frowned at the question, "T-that's not true."

"Yes, it is." Casey replied, stepping in front of her so that she was looking at him. "Did I do somethin'?"

"No! It's just..." She sighed, watching her warm breath she expelled dissolve into the night. "What do you want from me, Casey?" She finally asked. "Our families are gone, mine are mutants, yours probably are too. New York is Alien Central, Miwa and Splinter are in danger as long as we're here, and-" She closed her eyes after looking away from Casey's hurt expression from bringing up his family. "Look, I... I'm not blind, okay? I know you and Donnie both like me, okay?"

Casey let out a shaky laugh as he tried to hide his face behind his mask. "Is that so bad?"

"Kinda, yeah." She admitted. "Because... Casey, I'm a lesbian."

"Oh!" His eyes widened. "Oh, woah. Red, that's-" He was cut off by April grabbing her head again and groaning. "Yo, you pick up on Raph or somethin'?"

"No, its... I-I think something's watching us." She looked behind him at the lights of the farmhouse in the distance. "Come on, lets keep going."

Casey grabbed his bat and held it out as they kept walking. "Hey, Red, I-"

"Not now, Casey." April said softly.

"Raph!" Donnie shouted out as they ventured into the snow. "Come on, this isn't funny!"

"Raph!" Yelled Mikey.

"Raph! It's too cold out here to be hiding on us!" Irma called out. "Do you think he got lost?" She asked the turtle brothers.

Mikey shook his head, "Doesn't explain why he won't answer his phone. Besides, shouldn't we have seen footprints in the snow if he was out here?"

Irma sighed, "Maybe April and Casey are having better luck."

"Yeah." Donnie clicked. "Alone, together." He added that last part softly to himself.

Irma and Mikey shared a glance at his comment. "Donnie," Irma said after a moment, "I don't think anything is happening there. Not from lack of Jones trying but-"

"Please," Donnie buried his beak underneath the scarf he was wearing. "What happens when two teenagers who like each other go out into the woods alone?"

Mikey snickered at what Donnie was not so subtly suggesting.

Irma just rolled her eyes, "No offense, Dee, but this isn't some lame horror movie. I'm telling you, April does not see Casey in that way."

"Has she told you that?" He asked, rather hopefully.

"No," She admitted, which instantly deflated Donnie's mood again. "But I can just tell." Irma had a suspicion that April was into girls, given the way her eyes would light up whenever they spoke of the turtle's sister, and she suspected that she only liked girls given April's deflection of both Casey and Donatello's advances. But, that was April's story to tell, so she didn't say anything else on the matter. "Besides, its too cold for anything like that out here anyway."

As they ventured further into the woods, they came across a shed about a mile into the woods.

"This wasn't here before, was it?" Irma asked. They hadn't ventured this far from the farmhouse since it started to snow, but that was the start of early December.

"No." Donnie answered, disgusted by the eerie feeling oozing from the wooden shack.

"Let's check it out." Mikey said.

Donnie nodded, "Irma wait here."

Irma didn't argue, knowing it was better to let the ninjas do their things than get in their way.

Donnie slowly pushed open the unlocked wooden door while he and Mikey shone their flashlights around the interior. It was a bit bigger than they first thought, and was full of old and rusted farm tools.

"Donnie, look." Mikey pointed towards the back wall of the shed. On top of a wooden desk was the bottle of Mutagen Medicine that Donnie had made for Leo, surrounded by four lit candles.

A soft groan from the far corner of the shed caused them both to jump and spin to face whatever it was. Raph was laying on his shell, seemingly unconscious. But something was off about him. His usual leaf green complexion was nearly grey, he looked malnourished even though they had just seen him in perfect health a few hours ago.

"Raph!" Mikey shouted and raced over to his brother.

Irma appeared in the doorway after Mikey's scream and joined them in trying to wake the unconscious turtle.

"Donnie, what's wrong with him?" Mikey asked, shaking his brother by the shoulders lightly, trying to make him open his emerald eyes.

"Something must've infected him somehow." Donnie guessed.

"Like he's sick?" Mikey asked.

Irma gently lifted Raph's head and turned his head to the side. "I think it has something to do with this." She concluded, showing them a vine that was connected to his nape. They used their flashlights to follow the vine. It trailed back out the door to the shed and they couldn't seen where it ended from where they were seated.

Mikey pulled out his kusarigama blade and held it up so he could cut the vine, but Irma and Donnie both stopped him. "Let him go!" Mikey clicked at Irma angrily.

"Mikey, it looks like that vine is connected to his vertebra." Donnie explained. "If we cut it, we could hurt him."

"Then what do we do?" Mikey demanded. "Leave it?"

"For now, yes." Irma answered, having grown used to Michelangelo's occasional hostility towards her.

Mikey clicked under his breath again, but it turned into a surprised yelp. A vine had snaked its way around his legs, quickly binding the youngest turtle and silencing his scream by wrapping around his mouth.

"Mikey!" Donnie shouted.

"Donnie, look out!" Irma pointed behind the bound Michelangelo to a towering figure that had appeared behind them, blocking their way out of the shed. By the time Donnie saw what she was pointing at, the creature had smacked Donnie into the wall, knocking him out quickly by strangling him with the vines.

The creature then turned to Irma, peering at her from underneath the wool bag that was covering its face. She screamed as it approached her.

April gasped as she heard the far off, high pitched scream of her friend. "That's Irma!"

"It came from that way!" Casey said, taking off in the direction they heard the faint shriek.

April ran after Casey, but quickly realized he had disappeared into the woods. She got the sensation of something to her left and spun to see a figure attacking Casey. It had him against the base of a tree, its large hands wrapped around his throat to stop him from screaming. "Leave him alone!" April shouted. She unsheathed her tanto and charged at the figure, slicing the arm that was lifting Casey in half, leaving it hanging awkwardly as Casey was dropped.

The creature didn't shout or make any sound at all. It looked down at its halfway severed arm as if it was nothing more than a nuisance. As April tried to strike the attacker again, it moved its foot and sent vines snaking along the ground before it wrapped around April and she fell into the snow. She squirmed and wiggled, trying to get free from the vines that only got tighter the more she moved. Her tanto landed a couple inches out of her reach, but she was desperate to try and reach it. She'd had limited success with using her apparent telekinesis, but she only needed to move it to her hand.

"Goongala!" Casey shouted, smacking the creature upside the head with his bat before he jumped onto its back to try and take it down. It's weedy, vine-like hands grabbed Casey and threw him off of its back. Casey was thrown into a tree, which instantly knocked him out and buried him in the snow that fell from the collision. His mask flew off as he hit the tree, which caught the creature's attention.

"Casey!" Screamed April, still trying in vain to move the dagger into her hand.

The creature picked up Casey's mask and placed it over its face after removing the sack. With the mask completing the look, the creature now looked like something out of a bad horror movie as it towered over April.

As the vines encased April in a tight bind, she cried out for their last hope of salvation. Leo! We need you! Help!

Leo! We need you! Help!

Leo jolted at April's scream. He looked around, trying to find her, but he was completely alone on the farmhouse porch. That didn't make any sense. He could've swore she was right there when she screamed. It was so loud that he thought she had somehow snuck past him and screamed in his ear.

We need you!

What could they possibly need from him? He was completely useless now.

Help!

Help? He couldn't help anyone now. But, still, if they did need help.. Who else could come save them? He thought of his father and his sister, what they would do if they were in his situation? They'd get off their ass and go help.

With a grunt through gritted teeth, Leo hoisted himself up onto his crutches and hobbled back inside to the living room. He traded out the crutches for his twin ninjatō blades. He wasn't sure how much he could do for his family and friends, but he had to at least try.

The walk into the woods was agony. Every bit of pressure he put on his knee made it feel like it was shattering again. Even so, he forced himself to stay on his feet, and when he fell, he forced himself back up. Stay on your feet, sis. He repeated that sentence in his head over and over as he followed April and Casey's footprints in the snow. Stop whining and get up, stay up.

When Donnie came too, he was tangled in greenish-brown vines and was hanging from something. It didn't take long for him to remember what had happened before he was knocked out, and he started thrashing around the moment he did.

"Donnie, Donnie, stop!"

He looked to his right to find Irma in the same position as he was, and on his left, Mikey was hung upside down. "What's..." He tried to calm down. "What's going on?"

"I don't know," She answered. "But freaking out isn't going to solve anything."

"We have to do something!" Mikey snapped at her. "Raph is in trouble!"

"In case you didn't notice, we're not doing so hot either." She responded calmly.

The door was flung open, sending a cool rush of winter air into the small shack. The creature that they had been attacked by had returned and was trying to fit its hulking form through the door.

"Its the Creep!" Mikey shouted.

"Casey!" Donnie gasped.

"No, Creep." Mikey clarified.

The Creep had April and Casey wrapped in vines just like the three in the shack, and he placed them both down on the other side of the shack. Casey was unconscious, but April was thrashing around like a caught animal. It had placed a few vines over her mouth, stopping her from making any sounds outside of grunting and growling. As she was placed down, her vines extended back to the wall, essentially chaining her in place.

"April!" Donnie called out.

She looked over at them, her green eyes wide. She then looked from them to Raph and then back to Casey, who still hadn't moved since they were brought inside.

"What did you do to him?" Irma demanded the Creep, but the huge creature paid her no attention. It stalked past the three hung from the ceiling and approached Raphael.

"Leave him alone!" Mikey shouted as it grabbed the vine that was connected to the base of his neck.

"Don't touch my brother!" Donnie screamed, trying again to break out of the binds.

It connected the vine from Raph into the side of its own neck. The four conscious teenagers watched in horror as the vines started became illuminate in a sicking cyan color. The already greyish-green Raph was slowly loosing more color as the creature let out a satisfactory sound.

"What's it doing? Raph!" Mikey wiggled, swaying himself into Donnie while trying to escape the vines.

"Its... It's feeding off of him." Irma realized.

"Off of the mutagen in his system!" Donnie finished her horrifying thought. "Like mutagenic fertilizer!" As the mutagen inside the vines started fading in and out, Donnie cried. "No! No! Stop it! You're killing him!"

As April tried to worm her way towards Raph, her foot hit Casey in the gut, which woke him up. It didn't take long for Casey to figure out what was happening. "¡Deja a mi amigo solo!" He yelled.

"You give that mutagen back!" Mikey screamed, tears running down his face, splattering the wooden ground. "I'll bash it right out of 'ya! Give it back to my brother right now!"

Seemingly done with Raph now, the creature pulled the vines from his nape and approached Mikey with it. It grabbed Mikey roughly by the head as he continued to swing back and forth from fighting against the vines.

"No! Leave him alone!" Donnie pleaded with the creature.

A muffled cry from outside the shack made the Creep slowly turn its head back to the doors.

"Help. Help!"

"Leo..." Mikey whimpered as the creature let go of him in order to hunt down its new prey.

The Creep wasn't five meters from the front door of the shed before a skuriken was buried into its head. It turned to east and came face to face with another turtle, this one struggling to stand.

"Give me back my family, freak." Leo spat.

The Creep had pulled a pitchfork from the wall of the shed and held it up as Leo fumbled into an improvised fighting stance. On one hand, the Creep didn't move very fast. On the other, neither did Leo. Leo put all his weight into his left sword and swung his right at the moss-covered creature, but it blocked the blade with the pitchfork and pushed Leo backwards, who fell down and tried to roll back to his feet.

Leo hissed in agony as the weight on his shell made the section Shredder had broken burn in pain, but that was quickly over shadowed by the pain of his knee that he rolled onto. He forced himself back onto his shaking legs and struck the creature in the mask, knocking it from its disfigured face. In angry retaliation, the creature grabbed Leo by his face and lifted him into the air.

Vines started to wrap around his limbs, and in a desperate move, Leo stabbed his sword deep into the creature's abdomen, making it snarl in pain. He used all his arm strength to slice upwards, splitting its chest and head in two as he did. The vines released as liquid chlorophyll covered the turtle, quickly chilling him in the cold weather. As the Creep writhed on the ground, temporarily subdued, Leo limped his way into the shack, leaning on the door frame as soon as he could.

"Leo!" Mikey cried with a smile.

"What the hell is that thing?" Leo panted, motioning his head to the outside as he made his way over to Casey and April, who were the closest to the door. "What happened to Raph?" He asked, seeing his grey brother on ground, unmoving.

"The Creep." Mikey answered. "And it's been drinkin Raph's mutagen!"

Leo sliced Casey and April free and leaned against the wall as the two of them freed the others.

"That thing is getting back up!" Irma warned the people with weapons.

As the Creep tried to fit through the door, April and Leo sliced its arms off while Donnie and Mikey tag teamed to drive Donnie's naginata into its head. Casey used his bat to drive it down further into the creature's vine-covered skull. They hacked the creature into pieces, but quickly realized it could put its self back together again.

"What do we do?" Mikey asked.

"We gotta get it back to the lab." Donnie said. "Maybe I can transfuse the mutagen from the Creep back into Raph!"

"Would that work?" Leo asked, looking at his brother on the ground.

"We have to try." Irma replied.

It took until noon for the transfusion to be complete, but by the end, the Creep was nothing but goo in a large mason jar. Luckily, it didn't take long for Raph to wake up after that.

"Careful, don't sit up so fast." Leo advised him as Raph tried to move on the hay bale he was laid on.

"What happened?" He groaned.

"A crazy swamp monster sucked out your mutagen and nearly killed ya." Casey told him. "It was wild, dude!"

"But we used this I.V tube to drain the mutagen from the Creep and back into you." Donnie finished. "Do you feel okay?"

"Ugh, I guess." Raph shrugged. "Thanks, Don, Irma. My mouth tastes like fertilizer."

"Yeah, well that's better than nothing." Leo smiled. "Glad you're okay, Raph."

Raph returned the smile.

"Oh, and, my answer is yes." Leo replied.

"Hmm?" Raph looked a bit confused.

"What you said the other night." Leo answered. "If... If you'll have me back?"

Raph stood and held his hand out for Leo, "Of course! That's my line, by the way."

Leo laughed.

"Uhh, what's going on?" Mikey asked.

Raph gently put his arm around Leo's shoulder. "The twins are back!"

"And we got a city to take back." Leo replied.

"Hey, April." Casey peered his head through the door to April and Irma's room. "Can I talk to ya?"

April looked up from where she was writing in her journal and nodded. "Be right back, Irma."

Irma was reading a book and made a small noise of acknowledgement without looking up.

Casey led April downstairs to the kitchen so they were alone. "Hey, so... Back to what we were talkin' about before the Creep..."

April looked away from him and sighed. "Yeah, umm... Can you not tell anyone? I haven't... I mean I just kinda..."

"Not my story to tell." Casey held his hands up. "I won't say nothin. Promise."

"Thanks." April smiled softly.

"But, hey..." Casey rubbed at his bruised back. "Thanks for tellin' me, y'know? And... I'm sorry if I ever... If all my flirting and stuff made you uncomfortable."

"It's okay, Jones." April punched him lightly in the shoulder.

Chapter Text

“Hey, April!” Donnie waved the redhead over after Casey pulled up to the farmhouse. “Over here!”

April looked to Irma and Casey who were starting to unload this week’s groceries from her dad’s Party Wagon. The two shrugged in reply, signalling that she was free to go check out whatever Donnie wanted to show her. She followed Donatello into the lab inside the barn and raised her eyebrows when he held out a wooden box for her to take.

“Happy late Secret Santa!” Donnie chuckled slightly. “Sorry, I’m four days late.” It took him forever to track down who had actually gotten April for their decided round of Secret Santa at the farmhouse, and it took even more time for him to convince Raph to switch him.

“Oh, thanks Dee!” April grinned and took the box from him. “I figured it was you.”

“Huh? Why?” Donnie asked. He was sure that he had been so secretive and sneaky about it.

“Considering I was the only one who didn’t get a present, and no one else received anything from you , it wasn’t hard to put the pieces together.” She teased him. She ran her fingers over the indented inscription of her name on the top of the box. She knew it wasn’t Donnie’s handwriting, the calligraphy style just wasn’t his, so she figured Irma had done this part and Donnie had traced over it with a laser to get the indent.

“Oh, yeah that makes sense.” Donnie rubbed at the base of his neck. “Anyway, I hope you like it!”

April opened the wooden box to find it was actually a music box that he had put together. When she opened it, it played a lullaby version of Counting Stars by OneRepublic, a song April had been listening to on repeat since it came out in June. There was a golden metallic heart inside as well. It was so sweet! Then April caught sight of the small written inscription on the inside of the box. This was very clearly Donnie’s handwriting.

To the most incredible, beautiful, intelligent girl on this and every other planet,

Love, Hamato Donatello

April’s smile faltered a bit after reading the inscription. That’s right, Donnie had a crush on her… She had figured it out a while ago, but it was confirmed to her back during the invasion of New York. She had forgotten that after coming out to Casey, she still needed to tell Donnie.

“Do you like it?” Donnie asked, his smile bright and his garnet colored eyes shining with hope.

“Yeah, I do.” April told him. “It’s super cool, thanks, Donnie.” She gave him an awkward side hug before she took the box into the farmhouse. It wasn’t lost on her, the happy expression on his face. She didn’t want to feel like she was leading him on or whatever, but she just didn’t want to hurt his feelings either. She decided to tell him later. After all, it really was a great gift, she liked it a lot.

“You gave her what ?” Raph gawked at his younger brother with wide eyes.

“What?” Donnie asked, not understanding why Raph was looking at him like he had done something stupid. “She liked it.”

“Real smooth, genius.” Raph rolled his eyes. “You don’t think that message was a bit much ?”

“No,” Donnie answered, shaking his head. “It’s how I really feel about her. What’s the problem?”

“The problem is that it’s never gonna happen, Donnie.” Raph said bluntly.

“Raph!” Leo hissed at his twin brother.

“Dude, don’t!” Mikey backed up Leo.

“He needs to hear it, guys.” Raph replied, not wavering from his decision of being brutally honest, even though the hurt on Donnie’s face made him want to stop. “Look, we’re mutants . She’s a… Mostly human girl and you’re a giant talking turtle. The sooner you accept that, the better.”

“Harsh, Raph.” Mikey shook his head.

Donnie frowned and started to play with the piercings decorating his mask tails, he had gotten quite a few of them for Christmas from Irma.

“Don’t look so devastated!” Raph stood and punched Donnie playfully in the arm. “You know what you need? Huh? Huh, buddy? You know what you need?”

“You to leave?” Donnie muttered.

“No,” Raph scoffed, “A little forest ninja training! Just the bros! Come on!” He put his arms around Mikey and Leo to emphasize his suggestion.

“Just the bros…” Leo repeated solemnly. “I… I don’t think my leg is up for it.”

“Oh, come on, Leo!” Raph tried, but he was shaken off by the older of the twins.

“Enjoy your ninja training, guys.” He said. “Why don’t you try a Turtle Hunt?” He suggested before limping off to his room for some meditation. 

“Turtle Hunt.” Raph repeated with a smile. They hadn’t done one of those in a long time. Of course, when they used to play it back in the sewers, Miwa was always the Hunter , but now… He pushed the hurt of thinking of his sister away, it didn’t matter right now. They weren’t in the city, they weren’t in the sewers. They were in the middle of nowhere. No buildings, no subways, lots and lots of trees.

“Alright,” Raph turned back to his two younger brothers. “You guys are gonna head into the forest, I’ll give you a five-minute head start, then I’ll hunt ya down.”

“Isn’t it still too cold out for that?” Mikey asked.

“The snow in the forest is starting to melt.” Donnie answered. “If we don’t go too far, it won’t be too cold.”

“Good,” Raph said as he started to stretch his arms. “If you can’t stay hidden for at least an hour, you’ll have to…” He put his hands on his hips as he thought about a fitting punishment. “Clean out the chicken coop!” He decided.

“What?” Donnie complained. “No way, that’s your chore this week!”

“Not the chicken coop, man!” Mikey grimaced at the thought.

“It smells like cheese fossils!”

“It’s got spiders so big, they could play the banjo!”

“That’s why you gotta stay hidden.” Raph smirked. “Shouldn’t be too hard for a couple of ninja, right?”

Mikey clicked out a curse at Raph as they left the farmhouse. “Why do we even have a Chore Wheel?”

“How do we hide in the woods, anyway?” Mikey asked, scanning around the forest. “There’s no doors, no caves, no sewers!”

“We could climb a tree.” Donnie suggested.

“That’s the first place he’s gonna look.” Mikey pointed out in response. “Do turtles burrow in the wild?”

“Some species of turtles do, but we’re not exactly wild turtles, Micheal. I mean, have you ever been in the wild before?”

Mikey paused for a moment. “Does Dimension X count?”

“Well, I guess that’s a good question. I think-” Donnie frowned, realizing more of what Michelangelo was hinting at. “Oh, Mikey, I…”

“I mostly hid out in a cave I found.” Mikey kept talking, ignoring the look from his older brother. “But, are there caves in this forest?”

Donnie shook his head. “Not unless we hiked up the mountains, and it’s way too cold for us to go up there.”

A loud roar echoed through the trees, startling the two turtles. They both drew their weapons in response, but because of the roar bouncing off of the trees, they couldn’t pinpoint the direction that it had originated from.

“What the hell was that?” Mikey whispered to Donnie. “Some kind of bear?”

“A bear can’t make that kind of sound.” Donnie replied. “And it’s definitely not Raph messing with us either.”

Loud thudding came from the north, and they quickly realized that whatever was heading towards them, would be on top of them before they could run. They braced themselves and rolled into the snow to avoid the creature that had come barrelling out of the woods after them. It was fast, but the trained ninja were faster, and they avoided the long limbs wildly swinging at them.

This creature was huge, at least ten feet or so, and was covered in brown fur. Despite the furry appearance, the creature was eerily humanoid in statue and shape. At first, Donnie thought it was some kind of ape, but quickly realized that deduction was false. Given the height, apparent weight, and spinal curvature of the creature, he realized with scientific delight that it was something else entirely.

The creature ripped a small tree from the ground and threw it at the turtles, who avoided the projectile with ease.

“What is it? Some kind of monkey man?” Mikey asked his brother, holding his nunchucks up to keep the creature at bay.

“It… It’s almost like the mythical sasquatch, Bigfoot!” Donnie chuckled a bit, shocked at the creature’s sudden appearance.

“What the fuck is that?” Raph had found the two younger brothers by following their tracks in the frost, and was now gawking at the creature roaring and swinging at his prey. His expression quickly changed from shock to joy as he drew out his sai. “Well, looks like we’re gonna get some real training.”

“Raph, wait!” Donnie blocked his elder brother from attacking the creature with his staff. “Listen!”

Raph looked confusedly from the purple-cladded turtle to the creature. It was admitting a low, rumbling whimper from its throat. The ferocious roar that had scared them moments ago was gone, replaced by the whines of an injured animal. “Look at the way it’s holding it’s arm.” Raph said softly, noting how the creature was cradling it’s right arm in the left while it decided on when to attack next.

“He’s scared..” Donnie said, lowering his weapon. “And probably hurt.”

Bigfoot watched Donatello carefully as he replaced his bō back into its shaft on his back. He whimpered and grunted as he approached the creature, clearly apprehensive but not overly aggressive. “Scared.” The elusive creature repeated the sounds it heard. “Hurt.”

“He can talk ?” Raph’s jaw dropped open slightly.

“Wow, speech!” Donnie’s eyes lit up in fascination. “And look at that sagittal crest! It could be a Paranthropus robustus, a hominid long thought extinct! Though, this one is much bigger than any fossils found, so maybe not.” He reached his hand out for the creature, which let out a harsh grunt in reply. “Easy, I won’t hurt you. I can fix your arm if you let me.”

Bigfoot let Donnie get close enough to touch him, and let the turtle examine its arm. He had clearly been attacked by something, it looked like he had been injured by a bullet grazing its forearm, tearing the fur away from the area.

“It’s not bad, it’s okay.” Donnie said. He had gotten much better around blood and wounds after Leo was attacked. He walked over to a good pile of snow and gathered it in his hands before returning to Bigfoot. “Here.”

As he pressed the cold onto the wound, Bigfoot hissed and drew its other arm up into the air, like he was about to attack. But, slowly it started to lower it’s arm as the cold began to make the wound’s burning pain lessen,

“See? It’s okay.” Donnie told the creature.

Bigfoot recoiled as Raph and Mikey tried to approach and quickly ran off into the woods, leaving the trio of turtles at a loss for words.

Even though Bigfoot took off, the brothers had the feeling that he wasn’t far behind them. As they neared the farmhouse, Raph leaned over to whisper to Donnie. “Should we be leadin’ Bigfoot back home?”

“He’s not dangerous.” Donnie said. Then he noticed the look on Raph’s face and grimaced, “Okay, maybe he is dangerous, but… I mean, this is Bigfoot Raph! Scientists have been arguing his existence for decades! And hunters have been after him for just as long.”

“I get that, Donnie.” Raph said. “But still, what if he hurts someone?”

“I’ll take responsibility, Raph.” Donnie pouted. “Please?”

Raph scoffed and rolled his eyes at the way Donnie was trying to mimic the way Mikey used his puppy eyes. It wasn’t as effective as Mikey’s, but damnnit if Raph didn’t have a weak spot for younger brothers. “Fine. You’re in charge of Bigfoot, Donnie.”

“Injured woodland creature?” Mikey said. “Aren’t you the one who keeps getting in trouble for bringing them home?”

“Rabbits and squirrels are different from Bigfoot , Mikey.” Raph clicked at him.

Donnie slowed to a stop and turned to where they knew Bigfoot was hiding. “Hello? We know you’re following us.”

After a pregnant pause, Bigfoot emerged from the trees, stopping about fifty meters away from them. He had gathered some more snow to hold on the wound.

“Hi, I’m Donnie.” Donnie said, pointing to himself. “Donnie. And this is Raph and Mikey.”

“I…”

“I?” Donnie repeated. “Your name is I ?”

“I no name.” Bigfoot clarified slowly.

“Of course you have a name.” Mikey smiled. “You’re Bigfoot !”

Bigfoot looked down at his feet in response, examining them. “Bigfoot?” He let out a rumbling giggle, “Bigfoot.” Then the massive creature looked behind his back, letting out a scared whimper. “Bigfoot scared.”

“It’ll be okay.” Donnie told him. “You’ll be safe with us. My brother, Leo, can help patch you up.”

“What do you think he’s scared of?” Mikey whispered to Raph as Donnie led him towards the farmhouse.

“Not us.” Raph responded. “And that wound came from a weapon.”

“Agreed.” Mikey replied. “Something or someone is tracking Bigfoot.”

“I hope Donnie knows what he’s doin.”

“Hello?” Donnie called as he opened the front door. “Anybody home? We got company!”

“Are you crazy?” Leo asked from the couch, throwing a blanket over his head in a desperate attempt to hide himself from whoever Donnie decided to bring home with them. “You can’t let anyone in!”

“Why is the doorway full of hair?” April asked, using her body to somewhat shield Leo, even though it was obviously not working given their height difference.

Mikey snaked his way through the door and started trying to coax whatever was outside to come in.

“ ¿Y un culo gigante?” Casey snickered from the top of the stairs to the second floor.

“Come on, it’s okay.” Donnie was helping Mikey convince the creature to enter the house. “I promise, no one here will hurt you.”

A large, five-fingered hand gripped the doorframe and the giant, ape-like creature squeezed through the door.

“Is that-” Irma asked, her eyes wide, smudging her eyeliner she was applying as she gasped.

“¡Es Pie Grande!” Casey gasped, shaking Irma by the shoulders in surprise.

Leo uncovered his head to take in the scene. Without missing a beat, he forced himself to his feet and put on his scolding siblings tone, “You brought Bigfoot home?”

“All know Bigfoot?” Bigfoot asked Donnie, scanning the others with apprehension.

“Bigfoot, these are my friends and family.” Donnie explained. “Leo, Casey, Irma, and April.”

Bigfoot looked at Leo, tilting his head to the side while poking at his arm. “Green too.”

“Umm…” Leo shifted back onto the couch as Bigfoot cornered him.

“Leo is my brother,” Donnie said. “Just like Mikey and Raph.”

Bigfoot continued to prod at Leo but suddenly stopped when his fingers came close to Leo’s scar on his shoulder from the Shredder. “Is hurt. Like Bigfoot.”

“He’s not kidding,” Irma said, walking down the stairs to join the others to gawk at the mythical creature in their living room. “He’s bleeding, look.”

“Are you okay?” April tried.

The second Bigfoot fully noticed April, he started to freak out. Growling and baring his teeth at her.

“Woah!” Donnie shouted as Raph and Casey drew their weapons. “He’s just scared, don’t hurt him!”

April backed out of the living room slowly, only stopping once Bigfoot started to calm down. “It’s… It’s okay…” She sounded dejected, but she kept her expression neutral so as not to further upset the creature. “Animals have never liked me… I’ll just be upstairs.”

“April,” Donnie frowned, watching her leave.

“I’ll grab the first-aid kit for Leo.” Irma said, going back up the stairs so she could also check on April.

“Guess I’m doing first-aid.” Leo muttered, still being checked over by the Sasquach now seated next to him on the couch.

“It’s just until his arm gets better.” Donnie told the others.

“I think we have another problem.” Raph said. “That wound on his arm came from somethin. Probably a gun, which means someone is hunting our big, furry friend here.”

“Bigfoot scared.” Bigfoot repeated, confirming the younger twin’s suspicion as Irma handed over the first-aid kit to Leo. As Leo started to clean the wound, Bigfoot hissed, but didn’t pull away. He made a small boom sound and acted out something grazing his arm in the same way a bullet might’ve. “Bad man hurt Bigfoot.”

“Great, so we got a Bigfoot hunter out in the woods somewhere?” Casey asked. “Why does Donnie get to keep his pet? When I wanted to have a dog, everyone flipped out.”

“He’s not a pet !” Donnie and Irma both glared at Casey with nerdy fire.

“Bigfoot is the missing genetic link between humans and the ape.” Donnie explained. “This discovery will change the face of science itself!”

“So, Bigfoot is more impressive than talking turtles?” Casey mused.

“What if he’s not just that?” Irma posed.

“What do you mean?” Donnie looked at her.

“Well, you guys said the Kraang have been here for eons , right? What if Bigfoot, Mothman, and other Cryptids are mutants of some kind?”

“Ohh! Why didn’t I think of that?” Donnie’s eyes lit up. “Maybe we can study his biology, see if he has any mutagen in his system!”

“Why bother?” Raph asked.

“Because I still don’t know how to make a retro-mutagen for Miwa.” Donnie answered plainly, the scientific joy he had previously had now gone. “Anything could be helpful…”

“Okay, okay!” Leo exclaimed as Bigfoot recoiled away from the needle Leo had pulled out. “I’m not gonna use it, calm down!”

“Bigfoot, relax!” Donnie rushed over to the couch to help lull the creature. “Leo’s not going to hurt you.”

Leo had just taken the needle out to have better access to the scissors he quickly used to cut the bandage and tie off Bigfoot’s arm. “I don’t think you’ll be able to take many samples from him.” He said to Donnie.

“Yeah.” Donnie sighed.

“Bigfoot thank Donnie.” Bigfoot said, turning to Donatello. “Bigfoot safe?”

“That’s right,” Donnie smiled. “You’ll be safe here.”

“Donnie good man.”

Donnie laughed a bit, “Well, technically, I’m not a man.” Donnie replied. “I mean, I’m a male, but not a human.”

Bigfoot tilted his head again, not understanding what Donnie was saying.

“Oh, here.” Donnie turned around and knocked on his shell. “Turtle.” He explained, then pointed to his skin. “Turtle, green.” He then pointed to each of his brothers. “Human, not green.” He then po inted to Irma and Casey.

“Turtle.” Bigfoot repeated, pointing to Donnie.

“Yeah!” Donnie smiled.

“Human.” He then pointed back to Casey.

“Exactly!”

“Turtle no man?” Bigfoot asked. “Turtle lady?”

“Oh, uhh,” Leo cleared his throat.

“No, we’re not ladies.” Donnie clarified. “Turtles male.”

“Male?” Bigfoot repeated looking back to Leo. “Bigfoot no male. Bigfoot lady.”

“Woah.” Casey snickered but got elbowed by Irma. “Bigfoot’s a girl! Come on, that’s kinda funny.”

The team celebrated the New Year with Bigfoot sleeping on their couch. After being comforted by Donatello, Bigfoot grew an attachment to him and followed him around pretty much everywhere he went. She helped out Donnie and Irma in the lab by lifting heavy objects, even though she did that regardless of it was actually helping. She got upset when she first saw the team training together, but after it was shown they weren't actually hurting one another, she backed off. She babied Leo like no tomorrow, clearly aware of his injuries and didn't want him to get hurt any further. Even when she was helping the team with blending into the forest, something she was incredibly good at, she refused to let Leo participate without carrying him back inside the farmhouse.

The other thing Bigfoot didn't budge on, was her disdain for April. Bigfoot remained on edge anytime April was in her line of sight, and didn't relent her low, grumbling growls until the redhead retreated to another part of the farmhouse. Donnie did his best to try and vouch for his friend and crush, but Bigfoot wouldn't hear it. After three days of this, the others were starting to get fed up with Bigfoot's animosity towards April.

"Dude, you have to do somethin'." Casey said. "This is ridiculous! She's practically been exiled in her own home!"

"I know, I know." Donnie sighed. "I'm trying, but she just won't let up!"

"I know Bigfoot can't really help it," Irma picked at the nail polish on her fingers, "But this is really starting to hurt April. April can't do anything about her Kraang heritage, her appearance, or whatever it is that makes Bigfoot upset."

"I know." Donnie repeated. "But Bigfoot can't help her instincts either, you know. I promise, I'll keep trying."

"How much longer are we going to have to deal with her?" Leo asked. "I'm tired of her treating me like an injured baby bird."

"At least until we deal with whoever's out there hunting her." Donnie replied. "I know Bigfoot is a lot, but she doesn't deserve to live her life afraid and alone."

The others in the kitchen had no counter to that, they knew he was right. Mikey served Irma two bowls of oatmeal for her to take upstairs and eat with April.

Not long after Irma departed the kitchen, Bigfoot came in through the back door carrying a bloody deer carcass. "Bigfoot bring meat!"

"Oh come on!"

"Gross, dude!"

"Donnie!"

"¡Eso es jodidamente enfermizo!"

Donnie quickly took Bigfoot out of the house, making sure she brought the deer with them. Raph turned to Mikey and Casey with a disgusted grimace,"After breakfast, we're going into the woods to find whoever is after Bigfoot and getting rid of 'em. I can't handle this anymore."

Bigfoot did a good job at mopping up the blood from the deer, but didn't warn Irma of the wet floor before she slipped and nearly fell. Bigfoot quickly caught the bespectacled girl and helped her back up.

"Woah. Thanks, Bigfoot."

"Bigfoot welcome." Bigfoot smiled. Her eyes focused on the objects Irma was holding, but had no clue what they were. "What that?"

"Hmm?" Irma looked at the nail polish and makeup Casey had gotten her for Christmas. "Oh, I'm just taking these in the living room. April and I are having a little girl day. Well, us and Leo."

"Bigfoot girl." Bigfoot said.

Irma hummed, realizing Bigfoot wanted to be included. "You can join," She decided, "But you can't be mean to April. No growling, no glaring, no attacking. Promise?"

"Bigfoot promise."

Even with the promise, the moment Bigfoot saw April in the living room, she started her rumbling.

"Irma, what are you doing?" Leo asked, positioning himself in front of April as best he could while seated on the couch.

"Bigfoot, you promised." Irma said sternly, like she was scolding a child.

Slowly, the growling stopped and Bigfoot sat on the ground, Irma sitting in between her and April. "Here, everyone pick a color." Irma said, trying to quell the tension in the room by showing off the nail polish colors she had.

"Bigfoot like!" Bigfoot smiled, picking out a silvery color.

"Good choice." Irma said. "Here, give me your hand." She got to work painting Bigfoot's nails, trying not to comment on how rough they were. "Bigfoot you gotta hold still, okay?"

"Hey, Leo?" April asked as she started to paint Leo's a dark blue.

"Hmm?"

"Why haven't you worn your new mask I made you?" She asked. She had been Leo's Secret Santa and had made him a new mask out of an old sweater of her's that didn't fit because it was for a six year old. "I know I left the tails a little long, but I thought maybe you'd like earring studs like Donnie and Mikey. Or is it the color? I thought was pretty similar to the one Splinter gave you, but-"

"It's not that." Leo answered. "It's just... I dunno, I kinda feel like I don't deserve it."

"Why not?"

"Because I lost mine in a fight against the Foot." He replied, sourly. "It was practically taken from me as a token of my defeat."

"Leo, nobody blames you for what happened." Irma said.

"I know." He sighed. "Nobody but me, I guess."

"Didn't Shredder shred up Raph's old mask the first night you fought him?" April asked.

"Yeah?" Leo answered, a bit confused.

"And didn't Slash steal Donnie, Mikey, and Miwa's as a trophy?"

Leo gave a soft smile and rolled his eyes, "Okay, I get it."

"You don't have to keep beating yourself up about what happened." April put her hand over his after finishing that hand. "All we can do now is make sure that doesn't happen again. To you or anyone else."

"Thanks, April. Irma." Leo gave them a bigger, more genuine smile. "I'll... Keep that in mind."

"Bigfoot, don't lick at it!" Irma grabbed Bigfoot's hand to stop it from going into her mouth. "It won't taste good!"

"Pretty." Bigfoot commented, looking at her sparkling nails.

"Look pretty, not eat pretty." Irma tried.

Bigfoot hummed. "Donnie not eat. Bigfoot bring Donnie meat."

"Wait, I'm not done!" Irma tried, but Bigfoot was already in the kitchen.

The three were left hearing Bigfoot bang around in the kitchen. "I really hope she doesn't try to spoon feed me again." Leo muttered under his breath as he turned back to painting April's nails.

"Why do you think she's so obsessed with Donnie?" Irma asked, picking out the bright blue color to do her own nails.

"Whatever or whoever is after her, Donnie is the one who really wants to protect her." April answered.

"He is the one who's the nicest to her." Leo admitted. "I guess it makes sense. He's the one who brought her here and is advocating to allow her to stay."

"Donnie!"

Donatello cringed at Bigfoot's voice, but tried not to show it. "What is it?" He asked over his shoulder, not looking up from the retro-mutagen batch he was working on.

"Eat!" Bigfoot shoved a pot of yellow stew with furry meat at him.

"Oh, wow." Donnie gagged at the smell. "No thanks, Bigfoot. I'm not hungry." He gently moved her arm away from where he was working, but she pushed it back.

"Donnie not eat today." Bigfoot grunted. "Eat."

"I'm not hungry." Donnie said again, trying to move her arm away once again. "I'm busy."

Bigfoot grunted again, this time sounding angry at Donnie's refusal. "Eat!" She shoved the pot back in front of Donnie, in the process she splattered the soup all over his desk and down into the batch of retro-mutagen he was developing.

"No!" Donnie shouted in despair. He jumped to his feet, staring down at his ruined progress as anger bubbled inside him. "God, ju-just leave me alone!" He shouted at Bigfoot. "G-go away!"

Bigfoot frowned and let out a whimper. "Donnie..."

"G-get out!" Donnie shouted at her.

Bigfoot let out a sobbing sound and ran out of the barn, dropping the soup as she did.

Donnie quickly realized the mistake he had made with yelling at her. He knew she didn't mean to ruin his work. And more importantly, whoever was hunting her down was still out there, and now she was all alone. He grabbed his staff and ran after her, calling for her to come back.

"Someone's definitely been out here." Mikey said as he rejoined Casey and Raph. "I found a few traps that way." He said, pointing towards the east.

"I found some bear traps." Casey said. "Think we can keep 'em?"

"I found these." Raph showed them some arrows that he had pulled out of a few tree trunks. "Whoever this is; they don't just have bullets."

A sound coming from the direction of the farmhouse put them all on edge. They quickly hid as the sounds of crunching snow came closer, but they soon spotted that it was Bigfoot running.

"Bigfoot, wait!" Donnie's voice came from the distance.

Bigfoot didn't look up from where she was burying her face in her hands and ran headfirst into one of the traps Mikey had found. She had fallen into a pit trap, leaving her in a deep hole and wrapped in a net. Bigfoot let out a wailing cry of despair.

"How many years has The Finger been chasing you?" Asked the bad man that was after Bigfoot. He cackled and sneered down at her from the top of the hole. "Well, guess what? The chasing's finally over. Bigfoot, you're gonna make The Finger rich!"

"Let her go!" Donnie said, revealing himself to the man.

"What the-" The man's beady eyes widened in surprise. "Some kind of alien turtle?"

"Let Bigfoot go." Donnie repeated, holding his bō out.

The man scoffed, "As if. I figured whoever was in that Farmhouse was hiding him, but I had no clue it was another freak! If I bring you both in, I'll make millions!"

"Neither of them are going anywhere." Raph joined Donnie's side while Casey and Mikey crept over to where they could free Bigfoot.

"Another one?"

"That's right." Raph spun out his sais. "And trust me, pal, you don't want to fight me."

The Finger quickly drew a pistol and shot at Raph, who barely had time to turn around and duck behind his shell before the bullet reached him. Neither Donnie nor Raph had known before now, but their shells were bulletproof! Sure, it left a nasty bruise, but it hadn't broken through at all.

"What the-"

"Ow, fuck!" Raph cursed.

The confusion of what had just happened allowed enough time for Mikey and Casey to cut Bigfoot free. She climbed out of the hole and let out a deafening roar when she saw the Finger pointing a weapon at Donnie. She leapt on top of the man before he realized she was out of the hole and started beating her large hands down on him, over and over and over again until the man stopped fighting back.

"Joder, eso está retorcido... Creo que me voy a enfermar."  Casey remarked, trying his best not to gag at the state of the body after Bigfoot was finally done caving in the man's chest.

"Bigfoot sorry." Bigfoot said to them. "Donnie..."

"Its not your fault, Bigfoot." Donnie said, doing everything in his power not to look at the very obviously dead man. "I'm sorry for yelling at you. Come back with us."

The three others looked at him in shock. After seeing that, Donnie still thought they'd be okay with having Bigfoot around the farmhouse?

"No. Bigfoot go." Bigfoot grabbed the Finger by the leg. "Bad man no hurt Bigfoot now. Bigfoot go. Thank Donnie." And with that, she drug the corpse deep into the forest, vanishing into the snow.

The next morning, Donnie approached April while she was outside trying to work on her telekinesis. He was careful as he came up behind her, not wanting to startle her powers out of her, seeing as she was trying to move the axe they chopped firewood with. "Hey, April?"

She jolted at his voice, but the axe didn't budge. She had been so focused that she hadn't heard him coming. "God, Donnie!" She laughed. "Don't scare me like that!"

"Sorry." He gave a weak smile. "Can we talk?"

"Sure, what's up?" She asked as Donnie circled around to sit in front of her. She could see he was nervous, and the look on his face made her realize what this conversation was going to be before he even spoke. Uh oh.

"Do... Do you really like the gift I gave you?" He started.

Not how I was expecting him to open this with. "Of course I do!" She said earnestly. "Really, it was such a sweet gift!"

"I'm glad." He gave a small, lopsided smile. "Look, April, I... I-I... Back in New York I wanted to tell you... I still... April, I really like you!" He finally blurted it out.

There it is... April looked down at her hands after taking a small breath. "I know."

"You, you do?" He asked, surprised.

"I've known for a while." She admitted. "Even back before we left New York."

"Oh..." It was Donnie's turn to look away. "You... You don't feel the same way, do you?" His voice betrayed that he was feeling hurt even though she hadn't answered the question yet.

April shook her head, "No, I don't. I really you Donnie, but not in that way. I'm sorry."

"Its okay." He shrugged. "I... I get it. You're a human girl, and I'm just... A mutant." He said sadly.

"Hey, that's not it!" April said sternly, reaching over to take his large hand in her's. "Donnie, you're not just a mutant! You're brilliant, sweet, and one of my best friends! I really have a lot of fun with you. And, I'm not entirely human..."

Donnie drew his brows together in confusion. "Huh? I... I was sure that was the reason why you liked Casey."

"I don't like Casey that way either." April said. "It just... Neither of you are my type?" She suggested.

"Type?" Donnie repeated. "What is your type?"

April let out an awkward laugh and rubbed at the back of her neck. "Like... Miwa? Irma?"

Donnie blinked at bit, trying to pick apart what she was trying to say. Then his eyes widened and his mouth fell open, "Ohh!"

Chapter Text

Even though it had been the decided schedule since they arrived at the farmhouse, it was still boggling to April how much they could dirty the house in just a week. Every Sunday was the teams designated cleaning day, where they each spun the Chore Wheel that April, Donnie, and Irma put together and cleaned the house from top to bottom. Nobody ever complained about the chores, aside from cleaning out the chicken coop, which they all hated. It had only been two weeks since Leo awoke from his coma, and the chicken coop was the only chore that was outside of the house, so the others all agreed that one of them would switch with Leo, if he got the coop.

Raph landed on dusting, Mikey was in charge of cleaning the windows, Donnie got sweeping and mopping, Leo got laundry after switching with Casey, Casey got the chicken coop, April got the bathrooms, and Irma got vacuuming. It only took about an hour if everyone pulled their weight, and with Leo finally up for helping out, it took even less than that. Of course, it took a bit longer for Casey because he had to fight to get the chickens out of the coop first.

Irma had just finished vacuuming the ridiculously 80s carpet in the basement when she felt something off underneath her. Using her foot, she located the spot in the floor that slightly caved underneath her weight. She hummed, wondering why she had never noticed this before, then again, none of them came down into the basement more than they needed too. Upon closer examination, she realized that the carpet was pulled up around this area on the floor. "Hey, guys! Come check this out!" She shouted up the stairs for any of the other seven teenagers while she peeled the carpet back.

"Woah!" Said Casey, having just entered the house when Irma called out. "What is that?"

"Check it out, dudes!" Mikey joined them, looking at the trap door hidden under the carpet.

"What?" April whispered, a sense of uneasiness filling her stomach.

"You didn't know about this door?" Donnie asked her.

"No." April responded. "I never went down here when I was little. I was always afraid of a monster in the dark that would eat me." In all honest, this was the first time April had been down here since they had first gotten to the farmhouse. "The last time I remember coming down here was the day that Dad and I fled to New York."

"What do you suppose is down there?" Leo asked from the top of the stairs of the basement. The stairs to the basement were steep and uneven, and he dared not venture down there if he didn't need too, not with his bad knee and crutches.

"An evil clown?" Mikey suggested.

"Only one way to find out." Raph shrugged. Using his sai as leverage, he flipped open the trap door to reveal another set of stairs that led down into a secret part of the basement. This part was clearly covered up and left abandoned on purpose, it didn't have any wiring to hint that it had been upgraded with electricity or heating. The open door sent a blast of cold air up the stairs, making all of the teens shiver.

"Uh, who's going first?" Donnie asked, clearly not thrilled about venturing into the freezing hidden spot of the basement.

"Not it!" Everyone but Casey called out.

"Ustedes apestan,"  Casey grumbled as he took the flashlight Irma handed him. The others filed down after him, leaving Leo alone at the top of the first set of stairs.

This part of the basement was completely gravel and wooden scaffolding for the farmhouse. They almost decided that nothing was down here, until April's foot hit something metal. She let out a loud gasp that caused the others to quickly turn to find what she had. Buried halfway underneath the gravel was a Kraang ship covered in dust.

"Woah."

"Impossible."

"It can't be!"

"Actually, I think it can." Donnie said, brushing some of the gravel aside to get a better look at it. "It's definitely a Kraang stealth ship. But it looks like its been buried here for years. And we know the Kraang have been here before, right?"

April was so disgusted that she couldn't bring herself to answer the question. Her green eyeshining eyes just bore into the ship as if she was trying to light it ablaze with her mind. "What the hell is a Kraang ship doing underneath my house?"

Donnie's gloved fingers continued to feel along the dust and grime covered ship until he found a button that would open the ship from the outside.

"Wait!" Irma said suddenly, reaching for his hand to stop it from opening the ship, but it was too late. The ship beeped as it was activated for the first time in years and the door slip upwards, revealing an untouched inside.

"Only one way to find out, Red." Casey answered April's previous question. "¡Vamos, pandilla!"

Irma let out an uneasy sigh and followed the others inside the ship. She looked over at April, who was holding her head with her hand. "April, are you okay?"

"Its just a migraine, Irma." April retorted, rather shortly. "I'll be fine."

"Maybe if we're lucky, they have some mutagen hidden in here." Donnie commented shining his flashlight around the ship. Until Miwa was cured, they could never have too much mutagen to work with.

"Guys, look!" Raph pointed out a hidden cupboard in the ship, the door slightly ajar revealing something strange inside. He pushed the door open more as the gang shone their lights on it. It looked like a human-sized cryogenic tube you'd see out of a sci-fi movie.

"Is that... A person in there?" Casey asked. It was hard to see through the mist inside of the capsule, but the shape of the figure inside was distinctly humanoid.

"Donnie, what are you doing?" Irma asked as Donnie knelt by the bottom of the capsule, examining the panel. "Don't touch anything!"

"I'm not gonna open it-" Donnie started, but then the ship's insides lit up after the ping of a button behind the group. They turned to see Mikey had leaned backwards on a panel and activated the ship.

"Mikey!" They all shouted at him.

Mikey chuckled a bit, "Oops."

The cryogenic tube started to beep, and the fog from inside the machine started to leak out of the vents near the bottom. Donnie backed up and drew out his bō, "Okay, change of plans. Whoever that is, they're waking up."

The others drew a similar fighting stance as the figure inside began to slowly come too. Once the fog had cleared enough to get a good look at the figure, April let out a pained, choking gasp. Both from the shock of what she was seeing, and the burning, throbbing of her head only growing in intensity.

The figure inside was a middle aged caucasian woman, roughly five-foot-five or five-foot-six with sandy blonde hair. However, the thing everyone noticed right away, was the pink stained fingers the woman had.

"Mom?"  April choked out, unsure if her migraine was just making a sickening hallucination.

"Mom?" Casey repeated in confusion. "Wait, but I thought-"

The woman seemed dazed and didn't seem to notice the others inside the ship with her. She groaned and grabbed onto the side of the tube, trying to lift herself out. She tumbled over her feet and was caught by Donnie and Raph.

"Take it easy, ma'am." Donnie said as comfortingly as he could.

"Hold on." Raph added.

Her eyes opened fully for the first time, the same neon green as April's, though the whites of her eyes were still white. She looked at the two turtles holding her up and screamed. "No! No! They're already... I..." She thrashed in their grasp, fighting for her life to get away from them. "No! Get away! Let go! Let go!"

"Okay, okay, please calm down." Donnie said with a frown. He and Raph gently lowered her to the ground as she flailed her arms around, striking both of them repetitively as she did.

The second she was on the floor, she scrambled backwards, screaming and pleading in a nonsensical string of words.

"Hey, ma'am, please calm down." Irma said gently.

"Yeah, don't worry, Mrs. O'Neil," Casey joined in, both stepping in front of the three turtles in hopes to quell her fear and anxiety. "These are good mutants. They don't work for... Uhh... They're good! Expect for Donnie, he's kinda a jerk."

"Hey!"

It took a while for her panic attack to pass. Slowly, she lowered her hands that covered her ears and peered up at the three turtles. "You... Don't work for the Kraang?"

"Absolutely not." Donnie shook his head.

"Hell nah!" Mikey stuck his tongue out at the thought.

"We don't work for anyone." Raph added.

"Where... Where am I?" Then her eyes widened, her pupils constricting into slits like April's. "April! Kirby! Where... Where are my..."

April, who had been frozen the entire time finally spoke up. "M-mom? Is that you? Really you?"

"A-April?" She looked at the teenage girl in shock. "No, it... It can't! My daughter's..." She really took in April's appearance, scanning her from head to toe. "Six..." Slowly, she lifted her hand to look at her pink fingers then looked back up at April. When she spotted the same pink discoloration, that must've sealed it for her, because she began to hyperventilate again before she passed out.

Similarly, April passed out as well, the pain of her head finally overtaking her.

"What is going on down there?" Came a shout from Leo.

Once both of the O'Neils came too, the team gathered in the living room for a proper sit down. Irma set the coffee table with teacups while Leo pour them all some tea. He tried to ignore the stares from April's mom, but he was all too aware she still didn't trust them.

"I just... I don't understand." She said. "Just yesterday, you were six years old, and now you're telling me that you're almost eighteen?"

"I know its a little jarring," April fidgeted with her teacup. "Hell, I'm just as shocked as you are."

"Language, April." Her mother said in a playfully serious tone. "You're a young lady now." Though she was trying to be cheerful, her resolve wavered and a deep sadness was still in her voice. Her hands shook as she looked over her daughter. "I'm sorry, I'm still a little shaky."

"So, can you tell us what's up with the Kraang ship in the basement?" Leo asked, taking a seat in the armchair. "If you're up for it, of course."

She eyed Leo, almost glaring at him before she sighed. "The Kraang ship has been here for generations. I grew up in this house, but I was only told about it on your grandfather's deathbed." She told April. "Your great-grandfather was the one who rediscovered it and accidentally signaled the Kraang where our family was."

"Bishop told us that the Taylor family was originally willing participants in mutagen experiments." Donnie said.

"Bishop?" She repeated the name like it left a bitter taste on her tongue. "I'm not sure I know who that is. But, from what you've told me, it seems you know more about this then even I do. All I do know, is the Kraang have been experimenting on our family's bloodline ever since. They believed we were the key to unlocking the secret of their precious perfected mutagen. They used us as guinea pigs." She looked down at her fingers again then up at April's.

"At least guinea pigs are cute, right?" Casey laughed awkwardly, earning a glare from both April and her mother.

"Don't be stupid, you moron." Irma flicked his forehead.

"I didn't know I was pregnant when they took me." She continued. "But when they found out..." She closed her eyes and shivered. "It was clear they believed you would be special. They wiped my memory not long before they released me, no long needing me. I didn't fully remember what had happened, but I had a dreadful feeling that something was coming for you. That it was only a matter of time before something horrible happened." Her eyes watered and she wiped them with her long sleeve while April gave her a hug. "I thought you'd be safe here, that's why I refused to leave... They must've made me believe that... But, yester... That day, I suddenly remembered the Kraang, but by then, it was too late. I'm just glad that you and Kirby were able to get away. You lived a... Somewhat normal life, right?" She put her hand on April's cheek.

"Dad did his best to make that happen." April answered, placing her own hand over her mother's. "Still... All these years, you were alive. Dad and I thought you were dead... Dad lied to me when I was little, said that you had gotten sick, but I never fully believed that."

"Don't be upset with your father."

"I'm not. He was trying to protect me." April sighed. "But, it became clear once I met the Hamato and ran into the Kraang."

"Now you know," April's mother stood and embraced her daughter. "And now, we never have to be apart ever again. Where is your father, anyway?"

The teenagers all shared an anxious look, debating on wether or not to tell the still distressed and mentally unstable woman the truth.

"Kirby's, uhh..." Irma started.

"I was asking, my daughter." April's mother said with a hint of aggression.

"Dad's still in New York." April admitted that much. "We... Had to separate from him and aunt Cindy."

"I see..." She frowned. "At least, I have my April back." She brushed April's bangs from her face as they hugged.

"So, uhh, Mrs. O'Neil-" Irma started.

"My name is Carol." She snapped. "And leave me be for a moment, would you? I have twelve years of catching up to do with my daughter." She started outside, her hand still holding onto April's, leading her out the door as well.

"Oh, sorry." Irma reeled back a bit. She went back to the kitchen to wash her teacup, and jumped when Mikey suddenly appeared behind her.

"Is it just me, or does Carol seem a little bit off?" He asked her bluntly in a low voice.

Irma blinked at his question. She was surprised that he wanted to have a discussion with her, but more-so that he had also been picking up the odd vibes. "You think so too?"

He nodded, a rather serious expression on his face. "I dunno, its my ninja vibes, y'know? And I've spent a lot of time around Kraang stuff. She gives me a bad feeling. I don't trust her."

"Remember how we used to sit out here in the summertime and look up at the stars?" Carol asked, sitting next to her daughter on the old wooden swing-set.

"Like it was yesterday." April smiled, leaning back to enjoy the mixture of the winter breeze and the warmth of the heat-lamps. "But, so much has happened since those days... So much time has passed."

"And that's exactly what it is." Carol stroked April's hair. "The past. We're together again. We start over. Is your favorite color still purple?"

"I actually really like yellow now." April replied. "Blue's a close second."

"Hmm..." Carol's smile fell a bit. "I guess I really do need to make up for lost time... Did your father allow that?"

April looked at her confused, "Allow what?"

"That piercing." Carol replied, a little short. "April, facial piercings are tacky and ugly. Don't you ever want a real job one day?"

April blinked a bit, surprised by the sudden shift in conversation. But, she couldn't help but be a little happy to have a mother to scold her once again. "Oh, well, not really? He was... Away when Casey did it, but he didn't seem all the bothered by it, he never-"

"Casey..." Carol clicked her tongue. "Is that the greasy haired girl in there?"

"Casey's a boy." April clarified. "And yeah, he's the one who did it."

"And who's that girl?"

"Oh, that's Irma. She's been my best friend now since-"

"April, you shouldn't be friends with delinquents like that. Look at that girl! If a magnet came close to her, it'd rip her face apart!"

April gave a uneasy chuckle. "I know they're a bit alternative, but that's not so looked down on these days, mom. And they're actually really good friends. Casey's saved my life multiple times, and I've saved his. And Irma's my ride-or-die. Next to Miwa-"

Carol shook her head, displeased with April's defense of her friends. "I don't approve of these friends of yours, April. Punks and mutants?"

April frowned. Had her mother always been so judgmental? "Again, mom, they-"

"Oh, look at your ears!"

April was cut off by her mother examining her ears. April had always had pointed ears, she was teased relentlessly as a kid for having elf ears.

"They're pink too. Mine only cover my fingers, but yours has spread."

April felt her cheeks burn, she hated it when people pointed out her Kraang features. "Yeah, its on my feet too. Even in my hair."

Carol hummed again. She pulled April close, for what the seventeen year-old thought would be a hug, but instead she pulled out April's ponytail. "There," She smiled, framing April's hair around her face. "Now no one can see them."

"Oh." April gave a weak smile. "Thanks, mom."

"Your teeth are very sharp, sweetie. It's not your fault, but it definitely makes people uneasy. Try to smile with your mouth closed, okay?"

"Sure." April answered.

"And maybe we can get you some contacts. I miss those beautiful blue eyes your father gave you. We'll have to find some that cover the whites of your eyes too. Sound good?"

"Yeah." April looked away from her mother, suddenly once again very aware that she wasn't fully human. She was a freak. At least her mother could hid her Kraang features easily. She just needed to wear gloves. Her eyes were normal enough that no one would be too put off by her.

Mikey watched the mother-daughter duo from afar. Something definitely wasn't right here, he just couldn't put his finger on it. He knew April and her body language enough by now that he always knew if she felt something off. She always twitched a finger or grabbed her head when she got the sense she was being watched, but nothing like that had happened since he followed them outside. Not a glance in his direction, not a straightening of her back, nothing.

Was she really unaware he was watching? Was something messing with her powers? He wasn't sure, but if it was, he was certain it had something to do with Carol.

Suddenly, a chill froze him to his core when he locked eyes with Carol. She had known he was there, and now they were staring at each other. Her pupils constricted, hatred burning in her green eyes that sent Mikey right back to Dimension X.

He was certain now. Carol was dangerous. Now he just needed to convince the others. He stopped the recording he had been taking of her's and April's conversation and withdrew further into the forest so he could loop back around to the farmhouse. He needed to regroup with Irma.

After sharing what he recorded with Irma, the two gathered the other teenagers in the barn to report their suspicions. When the recording was finished playing for them, the four others each looked conflicted, with various levels of uncertainty.

"Okay, I know that didn't sound great," Leo shifted in his seat so that his knee wasn't bent. "But none of that was all that convincing."

"Yeah, I dunno, guys." Casey sighed, scratching at his hair, a little self conscious after the greasy comment. "I mean, no offense, but after all she's been through, it's kinda expected she wouldn't be crazy about mutants living in her house?"

"Casey, didn't you hear what she said?" Irma frowned at his dismissal.

"I did, but..." He looked uncomfortable, crossing his arms over his chest. "It's not like I haven't heard it before, y'know? And I'm not wearing my binder today. But April corrected her, so that's fine."

"Everything was thrown at her at once." Donnie said. "I'm sure once the shock of everything settles down, Mrs. O'Neil will warm up to us."

"It's not just the comments," Mikey said firmly. "Look, when I looked into her eyes it was like I was looking into a Kraang's." Raph opened his mouth to make a smart comment, but Mikey interrupted before he could. "Yeah, I know she and April are part Kraang, but it wasn't like that. Her eyes aren't like April's. There's something else there. Cold, dark, evil."

"Mikey!" Leo snapped at him. "Don't say something like that. Especially not about our friend's mother."

"You don't get it!" Mikey snarled, suddenly fuming, his body shaking as his mind went back to the months spent in Dimension X. "Don't treat me like I'm a dumb little kid! I know the Kraang, and I know when something is up with them! I'm the one who spent nine months alone with them! I don't trust her! She gives me bad vibes!"

"Don't you see how much this means to April?" Casey asked, his eyebrow twitching at this discussion. "She's a little rough, but that makes total sense! You guys can't just ruin this for April because-"

"You weren't there either, Jones!" Mikey clicked.

The elder trio of brothers all suddenly deflated at the mention of Mikey's lost days. "Mikey, I-"

"Save it, Raph!" Mikey pushed Raph away from him as he stormed out of the barn. "I know what I'm talking about! She's dangerous and April's in trouble."

Irma turned to go after the youngest Hamato, but was stopped by Casey grabbing her arm. "Irms, you don't really believe Mikey, do you? I mean, just because she called us some kinda mean things doesn't mean she's some evil Kraang monster."

Irma frowned, "I'm not sure what to think. It's not just her words, I see it in the way she reacts to everything. The way she reacted when you mentioned that Bishop guy, for one. But, yeah, I agree with Mikey. Something's not right."

"Why are you siding with him?" Casey asked, still not understanding her point. "Mikey's been nothing but snappy with you since we got here."

"Because he's right." Irma said, pulling away from his grasp. "He's spent more time with the Kraang than the rest of you. And I know he's not a bitter or mistrustful person for no reason. So, if he thinks something is wrong, then I'm gonna listen to him. Maybe you should too." She shot a look at the brothers before going after Mikey.

It was the early hours of the morning after everyone in the farmhouse went to bed for the night. April never got much sleep anymore, she chalked it up to her Kraang DNA, but she only needed a couple hours before she could stay awake for multiple days without feeling fatigued. But with this horrible migraine, she hadn't gotten any sleep anyway. Irma was still sleeping, so April crept out of bed and went downstairs to get something to drink.

She only made it halfway down the stairs when the throbbing in her head started up again, right at the top of her skull. She noticed that the front door was ajar, and when she went to investigate, she saw her mother was standing on the front porch, seemingly staring into space.

"Mom?" She asked. "Are you okay?"

"I was just thinking about when we used to picnic in the woods by the stream." She replied.

"Those are some of my favorite memories." April smiled, joining her mother and looked out into the night. 

Carol hugged April tightly and whispered in her ear. "We should go somewhere, just the two of us. Drive off, leave these creatures behind."

April pulled away and looked at her with hurt. "What?"

"April, I know you think they are your friends, but I don’t trust them."

"Mom, I-I can’t do that." April looked away from her mother.

"Why not?" Carol demanded, her voice agitated at her daughter’s stubborn refusal.

"They’re like family." April told her. "After dad was captured by the Kraang, the Hamato really took me in. Splinter and Miwa are still in trouble, I can’t just run off and abandon them. Splinter, Miwa, Leo, Raph, Donnie, Mikey, Irma, and Casey have always been there for me.”

"I’m your mother." Carol said forcefully. "I’m your family, not them. They’re just a bunch of freaks and degenerates!"

"Don’t say that!" April frowned.

"We are leaving tomorrow. Pack your bags." Carol huffed and stomped off back to her room that she had kicked Raph and Donnie out of. 

April sighed, unsure of what to do. How could she make her mother see that the others weren’t dangerous or a threat?

Mikey sighed, squirting some whipped cream in his mouth as he sat at the kitchen table with Ice Cream Kitty in a bowl next to him. "Why don’t the others trust me, Ikky?" He asked the cat.

Ikky meowed in response, purring as Mikey scratched under her chin.

"See, you get it!" Mikey frowned, leaning back in his chair. "I thought they were finally gonna start treating me seriously, y’know?"

"A cat made of ice cream." Carol commented as she stood in the doorway of the kitchen. "Wonderful," She sneered sarcastically. "Can’t even eat breakfast without having more freaks in my house." She exited the kitchen and went outside.

Ikky hissed after her and swiped her paw like she was trying to bat the woman away.

"You don’t trust her either, Ikky?" Mikey asked. When Ikky hissed again, he took that as confirmation. He watched Carol start to wonder off into the woods from the window. "Where could she be going?" He wondered aloud. "What do you think, should I follow her?"

Ikky mewed.

"I couldn’t agree more." Mikey went after Carol, sending a quick text to Irma that he was doing so.

He followed her through the trees as they left the warmth of the heat lamps and into the snow. Mikey hadn’t noticed it, but she had picked up a canister of mutagen since he saw her in the kitchen. About a quarter mile into the forest, she stopped by the stream and undid the lid of the canister. 

Mikey gasped and shot out his kusarigama at her before she could pour it into the stream. It wrapped around the base of the canister and he ripped it from her hands, spilling the mutagen into the snow instead.

"You foolish whelp." She snarled, facing Mikey as he made himself known.

"Don’t try flattering me." Mikey clicked at her.

Carol’s snarl turned into a smirk. "You shouldn’t have done that, Michelangelo. Now, you’ve made Mother very angry."

Mikey drew his brows together but stood his ground against her. "I knew there was something wrong with you! You’re working with the Kraang!"

"Yes." She answered honestly. "It is my duty to assist the Kraang with their takeover of this pitiful planet, as it is April’s. Once I make her see the truth, she and I will finally be one with our masters."

"Well, Mom, if you think I’m gonna let you hurt April, you got another thing coming!"

"Don’t be ridiculous. Your compliance is not a factor in this situation. But you may be of some use." She pulled a small knife out of her pocket and raised it to the back of her neck with a maniacal grin on her face.

"What up, Dee?" Mikey said from behind Donatello, making him jump.

Donnie didn't look over his shoulder, he was too enthralled with investigating the Kraang ship below the house. "Mikey, you know I don't like when you do that." He sighed, "I'm just looking over data from the Cryotube's computers. You and Irma made some good points, and while I don't think we should be so quick to cast judgement on Carol, some of these readouts don't make sense."

"Hey, Donnie, have you seen my mom?" April asked, coming into the ship.

"No, what's up?" Donnie answered.

"We... Kinda had a disagreement this morning, and I haven't seen her since." April told him.

"Don't worry, April." Mikey spoke again, now startling April, who hadn't seen nor sensed him. "I'm sure she's around. Why don't you go see if Irma has seen her?"

"Woah, Mikey!" April breathed out. "You scared me!"

"You couldn't sense he was here?" Donnie asked, suddenly curious.

"Its hard to concentrate," April shook her head, placing her hand on top of of her red hair. "My head's been killing me ever since yesterday. The Healing Mantra hasn't been helping much either."

"Maybe you should try to relax?" Donnie suggested. "Leo's probably meditating, he could show you some breathing techniques that help."

"Once I find Mom, maybe." April shrugged. "Thanks anyway, guys." She waved to the brothers before she went back upstairs.

"What have you found that doesn't make sense, Don?" Mikey asked now that they were alone again.

"I've been trying to see what exactly the Kraang did to Carol, but I found this report. When I ran it through my translator, it said that Carol O'Neil died on November 28th of 2002. But, that doesn't make sense, because she's obviously still alive." Then a chill ran down his shell when the next sentence of the report finished being translated. Once the vessel was braindead, Kraang transmitted fully Kraang ideals and objectives into the host. "Oh, oh... Mikey, you were right! She's, she's not- We gotta tell the others!" Donnie turned to run, but was stopped by Mikey grabbing Donnie by the face and smashed his head down into the floor.

"You won't be telling them anything." Mikey said.

"Mi-Mikey! What are you doing?" Donnie struggled, but didn't want to attack his brother.

"Good work, Michelangelo." Carol suddenly entered the ship, but her appearance had changed dramatically. She had six long tentacle-like appendages coming out of the back of her neck. One was extended over to the base of Mikey's neck, who's eyes were blank and glazed over.

"Wh-what did you do to my brother?" Donnie demanded. He tried to wrestle Mikey off of him, but soon Carol joined in holding him down long enough for Mikey to chain him up.

"Would you like to join him, Donatello?" Carol asked.

"April, I need to talk to you." Irma said, meeting April as she came up the stairs from the basement.

"Can it wait?" April asked. "My mom's gone missing. I gotta find her-"

Irma grabbed April by the wrist and stopped her from going outside. "It's... About your mom."

Leo's meditation was broken by his tPhone ringing. When he answered, he got a garbled scream from Donnie on the other end before it was quickly cut off.

"Donnie? Donnie, answer me!" Leo shouted into the phone, grabbing his crutches to hoist himself upright. Some kind of scuffle was going on the other end, but he couldn't hear any distinct sounds from his brother. "Donnie?"

Suddenly Donnie spoke again, but now his voice was robotically calm. "Sorry for the scare, Leonardo. I knocked over my laptop. Can you come down to the Kraang ship please? I need your help right away."

"Donnie, are you sure you're okay?"

"Can you come down to the Kraang ship please? I need your help right away." Donnie repeated.

Leo groaned at the thought of going down the basement stairs and then even more stairs. But, his brother said he needed him for something, so he would suck it up and do it. "Okay, okay, I'll be down in... Five minutes or so, depending on how my knee wants to work."

"Thank you, Leonardo. I will see you soon."

Leo hobbled down to the ship as fast as he could. He'd been trying to only use one crutch the last few days, but it was still hard to maneuver around with. He had hoped to see one of the others to inquire if they had found Mrs. O'Neil yet, or if they knew why Donnie was being so cryptic about requesting his presence in the ship, but had no luck. They were probably still outside looking for Carol then, he figured. Once he reached the ship, he climbed inside and had a look around. He hadn't been down here yet, but he figured the ship was laid out the same way other Kraang scouting ship were.

"Donnie? Donnie, what's up?" He asked, coming into the control room to see Donnie standing by the main control console. Donnie was standing emotionless against the controls, staring at him blankly. "You, uh, know where Carol is by any chance?"

"No one's here but us." Donnie responded, monotoned.

"Okay..." Leo squinted at his brother. "Are you feeling okay? Don't tell me you've been down here all night instead of getting sleep."

"You know me, work, work, work. Busy, busy, busy."

"Right." Leo was starting to get an uneasy feeling. Something was wrong with Donnie, but he couldn't tell what. Leo took a step backwards, but bumped into something. When he looked over his shoulder, Mikey and Carol were behind him. "Huh? Carol, April's looking for you. She's worried sick."

"I will see to my daughter soon." The blonde woman replied. "I must see to the other children first." She turned her head slightly to the side, which allowed Leo to get a good look at the tentacles coming from her bloody nape. "Michelangelo, Donatello, take care of him."

Mikey swiped Leo's crutch away from him, which sent Leo crashing to the ground. He cried out as he knee buckled, but he was quickly silenced by Donnie pouncing on him and silencing him by placing his hand over Leo's beak. Together they flipped Leo onto his plastron while Carol approached with a psychotic smirk.

Raph came back inside to do another sweep of the house for Carol when he heard clattering coming from the basement. He broke into a full on run when he heard Leo's pained grunts coming from the hidden level. "Bro, you okay?" He asked, rushing over to his brother that was on the floor, panting and moaning in pain. "What are you doin' down here? Where's your crutch?"

"Mikey and Irma were right." Leo said as Raph helped him over to a chair. "April's mom is some kind of Kraang Sleeper-Agent."

"What?" Raph immediately spun out his sai and took the defensive, looking at the ship as his first target. "She in there?"

"Close, Raphael."

Raph spun back to face Leo and saw that Carol was now behind him. She had her hand on Leo's leg that was outstretched, resting her fingers on the knee brace. Coming out of her neck was six tentacles, and one was connected to Leo, who sat motionless next to her. "You leave him alone!" Raph warned her.

"You better behave, Raphael." Carol said, a look of humor across her face. "I have complete control over Leonardo at this moment. You do anything to test me and I will have him break his knee again."

Raph gasped but hesitated about lowering his weapons. He wondered if he'd be able to rush and attack her before she could do anything to Leo.

She must've sensed what he was planning because she removed her hand from Leo's knee as his own hand took its place. "Leonardo,"

"Yes, mother." He replied automatically. He twisted his leg to the side and began to push down on his knee, immediately beginning to scream out in pain.

"No, stop it!" Raph shouted, dropping his sai.

"Leonardo," She repeated again, and Leo ceased his attempted breaking of his own knee. "Now, Mother needs you to be a good girl, Raphael. Join your brothers so we can be a happy family."

Raph followed two of the other tentacles stretched behind him and found that she had already gotten to both Mikey and Donnie as well. Fuck this, I can't let her hurt the others. As she approached Raph with one of the tentacles coming for him, he quickly grabbed the appendage and sliced it off with a hidden kunai he kept in his new leather gloves that Mikey had given him for Christmas.

Carol screamed and hissed in pain, leaving the hypnotized brothers dazed without orders from their master.

Raph sprinted past Carol, punching her hard in the stomach to keep her down longer. As much as it pained him to do it, he had to get past Leo to get out of the cellar. He grabbed his twin brother and threw him to the ground before he bolted up the stairs. He was all too aware of the howl of torture Leo made as his knee twisted underneath him as he fell.

"Are you fucking serious, Irma?" April sneered, pushing away Irma's hand.

"I'm sorry," Irma frowned. "But Mikey and I both have gotten a bad feeling from her, and now, Mikey's been MIA all day."

"And you think my mom has something to do with that?"

"Yes." Irma answered earnestly.

"Irma, my mom couldn't lift a big bag of flour, she didn't do anything to Mikey. This is ridiculous!"

"Are you serious?" Casey ran up to the two of them. "Don't tell me you actually told April yours and Mikey's crazy ass conspiracy!"

April looked at Casey, "You knew about this?"

Casey sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "They told us all last night. But none of us bought it! Your mom isn't very threatening."

April let out a strained laugh as she rubbed her temples with her fingers. "No wonder my mom wants us to run off! My friends think she's some crazy Kraang experiment!"

"She does?" Casey asked, frowning at her.

"Yeah!" April exclaimed. "While you guys were debating wether or not my mom is a Kraang agent, or whatever insane shit Irma and Mikey were spewing, she told me how scared she was here! How she doesn't trust any of you, and how she leaving tonight. With or without me." April hung her head.

"That's rough, Red." Casey said consolingly.

"April, I'm sorry, but-" Irma tried again.

"Enough, Irma!" April snarled, baring her teeth at her friend. "I don't want to hear it! I just got my mom back!"

Unlike Casey's slight jump, Irma was unfazed by the feral move from the redhead. "I know you don't want to hear it, but I... Something is off with your mom."

April stood up from the swing, glaring down at her shorter friend... Had April gotten taller? "Say one more bad thing about her and I... I..." April moaned again as she gripped her head. "No, I'm sorry, I don't..."

"April!" Raph was running as fast as he could out of the farmhouse towards the three human teenagers. "Casey! Irma!"

"Raph, what is it?" April asked, turning towards him.

As Raph panted, Irma paled. "It's her, isn't it?"

"Irma!" April and Casey both started.

"Yes!" Raph answered in a shout. "She's not- You and Mikey were right!" He looked at Irma. "She's not April's mother! She's a Kraang creature and she's done something to the others!"

"No. No, you're wrong." April shook her head. "You're lying!"

"¡Ay, ven!"  Casey groaned. "Not you too!"

"Why would I lie about this?" Raph snapped at her, his emerald eyes meeting her neon. "April, she did something to Leo, Donnie, and Mikey! She... She..."

"April." Carol had appeared in the doorway of the front porch. "April, I told you to pack up your things." She said in a scolding tone.

Raph had lost his sai in the basement, so he resolved himself to use hand-to-hand if it came to it. He stood in front of his friends to keep her from reaching them. "Stay back! What did you do to my brothers!"

"April, now." She ignored Raph's warning and started towards them.

"I said stay back, Mom-Thing!" Raph clicked at her.

"Stop it, Raph!" April pushed past Raph to stand in between him and her mother. "You're scaring her!"

"That's it!" Carol grabbed April roughly by the arm.

"Ow, Mom!" April cried out, the intense migraine tripling as they made contact.

"We're leaving! Now!" Carol started to drag April back towards the farmhouse.

"Mom, are you... Bleeding?" April reached up to touch her mother's neck after nothing the blood on the back of her shirt. A ripping sound stopped her hand from touching her mother's skin, but it was too late. A pink tentacle burst from the open wound, splattering April's face in hot, thick blood.

"Listen to your mother!" Carol hissed.

April screamed and began to struggle as four more tentacles wrapped around her limbs. But the more she fought, the more it felt like the top of her skull was going to split open.

"¡Qué coñ!" Casey gasped before he sprang into action. "Let go of her!"

"Children!" Carol screamed.

Mikey and Donnie came rushing out of the farmhouse and jumped into defend Carol. Without a word, the obedient Donnie made quick work of Casey, who had no weapons or gear to defend himself with.

While Raph took on both of his brothers, Irma used all of her strength to free April from Carol's grasp. "Go, April, run!" Irma grabbed April and practically started to drag her towards the barn. Just as the two of them were about to reach it, Irma was caught by one of the tentacles and drug back towards the fight.

"Take her," Carol told Donnie and Mikey, gesturing to Raph, who had been caught in Mikey's kusarigama chain. She lifted the unconscious Casey with one of her Kraang appendages.

"What of her, Mother?" Mikey asked, holding Irma as she struggled in his grasp.

"I don't need her kind. Dispose of her." Carol replied mercilessly.

"Irma..." April groaned on the ground, reaching towards her friend as the migraine threatened to pull her back into the depths of her unconscious mind. The last image she saw before she ceased by the pain was Mikey cracking his nunchuck against Irma's head, and her small body crumbling to the ground with a dull thud.

"Come join your mother. Together we shall bring forth the destruction of this pitiful planet and its inferior inhabitants."

April was awoken by her mother’s voice ringing in her mind. Immediately, the throbbing of her head returned, but now April believed it had been her instincts warning her about Carol all along.

She was still outside of the barn, but she could hear her mother beckoning her down to the Kraang ship where she had taken the others. Expect for Irma… Irma was no longer where she had been struck by Mikey. April tried to scan the farmhouse to single out Irma’s being, but it was blocked out by the pain in her head. She didn’t want to entertain the idea that she couldn’t feel Irma because there was no longer anything to feel. She didn't see any blood on the ground from where Irma was knocked down, so she took that as a positive sign.

April pushed herself to her feet and drew out her tanto, as well as Miwa’s tessen. That creature wasn’t her mother, no matter what she looked like. She had to save the others from her. Preparing herself, she went down to the Kraang ship to finish off this creature that dared to sully her mother’s image and memory. She was frozen when they found her in the ship. She figured it was her best bet to try and refreeze it in the Cryotube.

The monster using her mother's voice was screaming in her mind as April drew closer. They shared a telepathic connection, so there was no way that April could sneak up on it.

"April, we can be together. No more pain, no more sorrow. We belong to the Kraang, it is our mission to serve them."

When April reached the hidden level of the basement, she saw that the Turtles and Casey were thankfully still alive. They were laid unconscious on the floor by the Fake Carol's feet.

This was the first time she got a proper look at this creature now that it wasn't hiding behind the full masquerade of her mother. She still bore an uncanny resemblance, but now the Kraang tentacles were unfurled for April to see. She had six in total, but one had been cut in half and was dripping blood. The pink-staining from her fingers had spread up to her forearms, just like April's, and her teeth were much sharper now.

"Are you ready to join me, daughter?" It asked.

"You are not my mother!" April snarled.

"Of course I am." She replied. "I have merely been fixed to see the glory of the Kraang, and you will too."

She swung her tentacles at April, but she dove under two while she cut off another one, making Mom-Thing roar in pain. April had managed to get in close to the creature, raising her tanto to stab it through the heart, but when she locked eyes with the creature, she froze. It still had her mother's eyes.

Using April's hesitation, the four remaining tentacles bound April tightly. "Enough of this!" She squeezed April until the teenager could no longer hold onto her weapons, clattering to the gravel floor. "We will be a family again, wether you want it or not!"

"No!" April screamed. "No! No!" The pain in her head finally exploded outwards and a blinding golden light enveloped April's entire being for a split second. The light burned the creature, making its inhumane squeals as April used her telekinesis to hold the evil monster in place. April continued to scream, forcing the light to spread further and further, burning more and more of the creature away until it was nothing but a smoldering pile of ash.

April collapsed as the others slowly came too.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Mikey asked, looking at Irma with a grimace as she held an icepack to her head.

"I already told you, I'm fine." She waved off his worry. "Might have a migraine for a week, but it'll be okay."

"I'm really, really sorry." He frowned.

"Seriously, it's okay!" She exclaimed. "You weren't in control of yourself, its-"

"No, I mean for being an ass..." He muttered. "You... You give me weird vibes, but I don't think you're a bad guy."

Irma smiled at that, glad that the orange-cladded turtle was going to finally back off of her. She opened her arms for a hug, she could tell he wanted one. "Friends?"

"Friends." He embraced her.

"Yo, April's up!" Casey shouted at them from the living room.

April was sat up on the couch, holding the blanket they covered her with over her shoulders as she looked in the handheld mirror Leo handed her. Sprouting from the top of her skull were three pink antenna. April was just staring at herself, a defeated and unconsolable somber on her tired face.

"These must've been what was causing your pain on the top of your head for so long." Donnie figured. "Like your other Kraang features, it must've needed a catalyst for them to finally take full form and-"

Raph elbowed him in the side to get him to stop.

"Oh, sorry..."

April lowered the mirror and tucked her knees up to her chest. "Are you guys okay?" She asked quietly.

"Thanks to you." Leo said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Thank you, April." He decided to wait until tomorrow to tell them that his knee had been fucked up again from the experience.

"I'm not even really sure what I did." She responded with a shrug. "I... Did I..." She looked at Donnie, knowing he had been looking through the ship's data. "Was that my mom?"

Donnie picked at his talons as he answered. "Yes and no." He told her honestly. "When I downloaded the data from the Kraang ship, I discovered that she used to be Carol O'Neil. The reports said that..."

"Just say it, Donnie." April muttered, bracing herself for the outcome.

"That was your mother's body, but not her mind. They downloaded her memories, but she wasn't in there at all, it was all essentially programming." Donnie answered. "Your mother died the night you and Kirby fled to New York, and they used her body as a failsafe in case you ever came back here."

"Of course they knew I'd come here..." April put her head down. "I can never escape them... Mom..." She sniffled down a sob.

Casey gave her shoulder a squeeze before they all moved to let her process things alone.

"Wait-" Her voice caught in her throat. "I... I don't want to be alone right now. I've just lost my family all over again, even if it wasn't really my mom."

"I know it feels hopeless," Irma took a seat next to her on the couch. "But, you've got another family right here."

"That's right," Donnie smiled. "Even if they are two delinquents and four talking turtles." He referenced the recorded conversation.

April let out a soft chuckle. "Two delinquents, four talking turtles, a giant mutant rat, and a badass kunoichi."

"Now, you're talkin'!" Raph gave her shoulder a light punch.

"Group hug!" Mikey beamed as everyone hugged April. "Also, I was totally right!"

Chapter Text

Donnie sprinted down the streets of New York City, his heart pounding so hard in his chest that he was worried it would burst through his ribs. He was running from... What was he running from exactly? And how did he get back to New York from the farmhouse?

While he tried to figure out what was happening, he caught a glimpse of a shadow moving behind him. It was hunting him and no matter how fast he ran, he still couldn't escape the perimeter of the shadow's cast. But even more frustrating than that, whenever he attempted to peak over his shoulder to see what was in pursuit of him, it vanished though its shadow remained to loom over him like a dark cloud of misery.

The figure let out a roar that sounded like a mixture of Bigfoot's and Tiger Claw's. It was enough to rock Donnie to his core, and he suddenly wasn't so curious of what the thing chasing him looked like.

He turned down a street he knew would allow him to escape to the lair, but the layout of the street had changed since he'd been gone. Now, it was just another city block that stretched on and on. Wondering if he had just gotten confused after his time outside of the city, Donnie scaled the wall to reach the rooftops and find his way home from there.

He took a break from running, sure that he could relax for a moment, but that's when eight monstrous claws swung at him from overhead, nearly stabbing him through the head. Letting out a scream, Donnie ran in the direction of the lair again, knowing that he should come across a manhole cover sooner or later. Whatever was after him was much closer now, he could hear its heavy breathing with each step he took.

Dread filled him as he realized that he couldn't let this thing find the lair. He had to protect his home, right? He resolved himself to fight the creature, and spun to face it with his staff drawn. Except, he didn't have his bō with him. How could he not have his bō? He never went anywhere without it! Had he dropped it somehow? But where could he have left it?

The creature seemingly read his mind because its face twisted into a sinister grin, putting its large teeth on display. It pulled the metallic staff that Donnie had put so much time, care, and effort into, and snapped it like a twig.

It had been a month since Leo woke up, and he had made a lot of progress in getting his strength back. He had started wearing his gear around again, luckily he always carried his sword sheath over his right shoulder shoulder, which let broken part of his shell, shoulder, and plastron not have anymore pressure put upon them.

However, he was pushing himself far too hard on his leg. Once it had become easier to walk around with only his knee brace, Leo started to push himself to train without it. He could walk easily enough and stand on it, but not for very long. Still, the team was glad that he was finally able to get back to training with them again, even if they were all still taking it as easy on him as possible.

Mikey blocked the swing of Leo's blade and rolled under him to avoid the other one. "So, is Donnie coming down or what?"

Raph threw some shuriken at Mikey, who ducked behind an tree before scaling it. "Nah, he's out. Guess he didn't come to bed last night til super late." Mikey dropped from the tree, swinging for Raph, who jumped backwards to avoid the strike. Raph then charged at Leo, who caught his ninjatō in between the prongs of Raph's sai and twisted them out of his grip. Raph threw two punches at Leo, before kicking Leo back to grab his weapons.

Leo stumbled back, but stayed on his feet and swung at Raph. Raph brought his sai down for Leo's shoulders, but Leo again caught them with his blade. Leo ducked under his sword and flung Raph over his head. He wobbled a bit and stabbed one blade into the ground to lean on for a moment.

"Nice move," Raph said as he picked himself back up. "Lookin' good, Leo. You're really coming along."

Leo smiled and put his other sword away. "It's nice to have some energy again."

"Hey, guys?" April said, pulling a beanie on over her head to cover her new antenna. "We're heading down to the store. Any requests?"

"Ooh!" Mikey stopped preparing for his sneak attack on Raph. "I need some of those spicy gummy worms! Need!"

"We're not going to the big one," Irma said with a small frown. "Didn't sell enough eggs for that one. We're heading to the small one a few miles west."

"That one doesn't have spicy gummy worms?" Mikey asked.

"No way they'll have them." Casey laughed, spinning the key ring around his finger.

"Mikey, that store is smaller than the house." April told him. "It's the kind of place that has peanut butter or jelly."

"Think you wanna try drivin again, Red?" Casey mused, flinging the car keys at her.

Irma caught the keys before April did and scowled at Casey. "After she nearly drove us into the river last time? I don't think so, Jones."

April blushed at the memory. "It wasn't that bad."

"We could've died, April." Irma shook her head. "Maybe just leave the driving to me or Casey?" She opened the driver's door and climbed in as April took the passenger seat.

"Yeah, well... I can move things with my mind." April muttered.

"Only by straining your face so hard your eyes look like they'll pop out of your skull!" Casey laughed again, settling in the back of the van as Irma drove off.

"Okay, let's do this." Leo stood up straight again.

Raph and Mikey looked at each other with hesitation. "You sure, man?" Raph asked. "You've been pushin it pretty hard, and we can tell-"

"Save it, Raph." Leo sighed. "I'm fine. Come at me!" Leo stepped back into a fighting stance and waited for one of them to strike.

Raph took the bait and charged in. Leo blocked his hits and threw him off balance by pushing him to the side. Raph came back and the two grabbed hands and started wrestling, but Leo brought his good knee up and got Raph twice in the plastron before twisting to the side and throwing his twin brother back. Leo threw a kick with his bad leg, but the moment Raph blocked it with his forearm, Leo let out a scream of pain.

"Oh, fuck!" Raph cursed as Leo crumpled to the ground. "Leo, fuck, I'm sorry!"

Leo punched the ground in frustration as he cradled his knee. "You shouldn't have to apologize for blocking a fucking kick! Damn it!"

"Bro, you were hard bad." Mikey knelt by his eldest brother. "You gotta give yourself more time to heal."

"Yeah, but how long? I thought our mutant healing would've fixed this by now." Leo said bitterly. "I was completely out for three months, and I'm still out! This is taking forever!" He leaned on his sword again and started back inside. "I'm fine! I'm fine!"

"Here, let me-" Raph started but was shoved off by Leo.

"Let me-" He let out a strained sigh. "I can't just lean on you forever, Raph. I can make it upstairs by myself."

"Okay, just take it easy." Raph said, unconvinced of Leo's assurance he was alright. "And put your knee brace back on."

Leo glanced over his shoulder before he closed the door behind him. He leaned against it and allowed himself another gasp of pain. He couldn't get upstairs like this. Defeated, Leo limped over to the couch and laid down. He tried to rest and take a nap, but his knee was aching so bad that he couldn't sleep. After struggling to fall asleep for at least an hour, he sat back up and grabbed one of his crutches. He went back to the front door to tell Raph and Mikey that he was going for a walk, but they weren't there anymore. He figured they were probably out back now to work on stealth or something.

Leo limped off into the forest, lamenting his failure of recovering in a timely matter. This was taking forever! He couldn't just keep the team here, their families needed them back in New York. The last time anyone had seen Splinter, he was dealing with the fact that his eldest son might be dead while also trying to help his daughter remember who she was. And then they both got washed away in the sewers. Splinter could swim, but could Miwa in this form? She was some kind of desert snake mutant, right?

Letting out a cry of frustration, Leo threw his crutch against a tree. "I'm never gonna get better!"

He slumped against the trunk and looked up at the night sky. That was one thing he liked out here, you could actually see the stars. He scanned the sky, naming off constellations in his head before he caught a bright twinkle. He squinted his eyes, even though that wouldn't actually help him see lightyears into space, trying to figure what that light was. He thought it could've been a supernova of some kind, before he noticed it was getting larger. No, not larger, closer. Much closer! As it was heading straight for him, Leo hobbled to his feet and tried to get away from the foreign object raining from outer space, but he wasn't fast enough.

The meteorite crashed several hundred meters away from him, but the impact was enough to fling him off his feet. Dazed and confused, Leo looked at the crater in front of him, smoke billowing from the object. When he finally caught his breath and the pain subsided enough for him to stand, he limped over to the crashed meteorite in awe. Cracks created in the rocks surface showed something azure glowing underneath. Though he knew better than to touch it, something inside him ignored his common sense and he touched the object that had once in been in space.

His body was engulfed in the glowing blue color and it burned, but not in a painful way. It concentrated on his scars, purifying them and returning them to how they were before. How he was before. Once the sensation had passed, Leo felt stronger than he ever had before. Not wanting to believe his prayers had been answered just like that, Leo tested his weight on his knee. It felt completely fine. He took off the brace and tried again. It was completely fine. Leo reached over his left shoulder and found that the broken part of his shell had been healed as well, and all the scars on his arms were gone.

Letting out a giddying laugh, Leo leapt into the trees, moving swiftly and quietly as a ninja should. With each branch he used to move through the forest, which each powerful jump in his legs, he just felt better and better. Swinging himself into a kick, he broke through the thick trunk of the tree in front of him with ease.

The three teens walked into the small convenience shop, each taking one of the three rows of food to choose from. April did her best to ignore the old store owner, but even without her powers, she could feel his eyes on her. She wondered if it was because she was wearing sunglasses, gloves, and a beanie on a relatively nice and cloudy day out, or if he was just a creep. Part of her powers felt like an itch on the side of her brain and she wondered if she scratched at it, would she be able to hear the old man's thoughts? No, better not find out what exactly he was thinking.

She looked for the gummy worms that Mikey had requested even though she knew they weren't going to have them. The store owner came over to where she was, "Hey, there!" He smiled, "Name's Bernie." Now April felt like an asshole, because he seemed genuinely nice and didn't set off any red alarms from her Exrasensory Perception, as Donnie called it.

Bernie then looked over at Irma, who had poked her head around the corner as he spoke. "Haven't seen you folks before, you finding everything you need?"

"Don't suppose you have any spicy gummy worms?" April tried, giving him a closed-mouth smile.

He looked at her in confusion, "Is that some kind of fishing bait? I don't have anything spicy, but I do have bait."

"It's candy, not bait." April answered.

"Oh, I got candy." He leaned down and pulled out a jar of salty water taffy.

"What flavors you got?" She asked, knowing that Raph like taffy.

He looked back down at the jar, "Brown. So, caramel or toffee."

Casey, uninterested in the candy talk, spotted something behind the cash register that caught his attention. He saw a book locked inside of a small locked glass case. He leaned over the counter more to try and read the words written on a piece of duct tape in sharpie. "Ob-obtura culum Som-" He tried, figuring it was probably Latin, "Somniorum?"

"Young man, please don't climb on my counter," Bernie rushed around the back of the counter, blocking Casey's view of the book.

"What's with the book?" Casey asked.

"Never mind that, did you find anything you liked?" He avoided the question, fidgeting nervously over someone noticing the book inside the case.

Casey hummed, his curiosity piqued by the man's shifty response.

"Casey, quit harassing him," Irma bumped her hip against Casey's thigh to get him to move over while she and April placed their groceries on the counter. "This should last us a few days, right?"

Casey grumbled out a, "Probably."

Bernie got to work ringing up their items while still flashing a glance at the pouting Casey by the exit. "So, I thought nobody lived around here, you kids from out of town?"

"We're from New York but we're just here for the winter," April answered.

Irma pushed her glasses up her nose as the man tensed at the mention of New York. "No offense, sir, but if you thought nobody lives here, why would you run a convenience store in the middle of nowhere?"

"Eh-" He shrugged, "I like my alone time. I make enough to get by from folks going too and from place to place." Then he looked back at the total on the cash register and then at the amount of food they had bought. "You kids out here with your parents? Quite an awful bit of food you're buying."

"Uh, no, just us three. The three of us." Casey said, picking up one of the boxes Bernie put the food in.

"Uh-huh," Said the old man, eyeing them suspiciously as the three started trying to rush out of the store. "Tell me, you kids been... tired lately? Real tired?"

April knitted her eyebrows together, trying to get a read on what he was implying. "Nope, we're fine. Just the normal amount of tired."

Once they were back in the van, Irma and Casey both looked at April to see if she got anything from the strange man.

"No clue," April shrugged. "He's... A little off, but,"

"Did you notice him flinch when you said New York?" Irma asked.

"And what's up with that locked up book?" Casey added.

Happily enjoying his returned strength, Leo continued to tear through the trees of the forest. He alternated breaking whole trunks in half with a single punch to a single kick, laughing joyously the whole time. "I feel like a superhero!" Leo exclaimed with glee.

"What does every superhero need?"

Leo turned, trying to find the source of the unfamiliar voice in the darkness of the forest. "Who's there?" He asked, grabbing his ninjatō.

"I'm everything you've ever feared in one convenient, horrifying package." The voice replied.

Leo punched over his shoulder after hearing the voice directly in his ear, but his fist made no contact. He still stood alone in the small clearing of the forest with no sight of the threatening voice.

"And if you think you knew pain before, just wait until I'm done with you!" The voice cackled before something solid smashed into Leo's shell and knocked him through a tree. It didn't give him a chance to recover before it stomped down on his plastron and used its long claws to cut deep into his body. Blood ran from the wound as the creature recreated the wounds that Shredder had given Leo during their last encounter.

Leo cried out in pain and opened his eyes so that he could fight off the attacker. The imagine of it changed briefly. He caught a glimpse of what he believed the attacker truly looked like, a giant purple beaver-like mutant with glowing red eyes and massive golden claws and teeth. Then the image shifted into the cold, dead eyes of Oroku Saki.

"Mikey, what are you doing?" Raph asked when he saw his youngest brother's shell hunched over the couch where Leo was sleeping.

"Just a little art," Mikey said, showing Raph the mustache and glasses he drew over Leo's face. "He's really out, he must've been really tired."

"Nice work, he'll love it." Raph rolled his eyes at the drawings before yawning. "You know, I'm pretty tired myself." He sat in the chair by the couch and slumped back in it to get comfortable. "A little shut-eye wouldn't hurt anything, right?"

Mikey gave a fake yawn, but it quickly turned into a real one. "Me too," He said, creeping over to Raph so he could continue making art projects of his brothers.

"Don't even think about it," Raph said, not opening his eyes as he caught Mikey's wrist before the marker touched his scales.

With a shrug, Mikey curled up in the other chair and quickly dozed off.

After bringing in the groceries into the eerily silent house, the three teens returning from the store found the trio of turtles napping in the living room.

"We're out taking care of business and what are these slackers doing?" Casey asked with a joking scoff. "Mierda."

"Donnie must be up by now, right?" April asked, looking up the stairs at Irma who had gone to check on him.

Irma shook her head in response, "He's still out like a light."

"What?" April asked, suddenly getting a strange feeling in her gut. She went up to the room Donnie shared with Raph, the pit in her feeling growing with each step.

"What's up, Red?" Casey asked.

"Something... Something doesn't feel right." April said, her serious tone made Casey's smile drop. April started to shake Donnie, getting more and more aggressive with it when his eyes refused to open. "Donnie? Donnie? Donnie!"

April and Casey carefully cared Donnie downstairs so that all four sleeping turtles were in the same room. "All that and he's still not up?" Casey asked.

"It's more than them not waking up." April commented, her hands touching Donnie's head while she closed her eyes. The Kraang antenna on her head twitched as she used her power to try and make sense of what was happening. "It's like something is keeping them asleep, they're trapped."

"Trapped in their dreams?" Irma echoed.

Donnie continued to run from the massive beaver-like mutant chasing him. It was so strange, normally he'd fight back in a situation like this, but his body refused to allow him to even attempt anything combat related. He just ran and ran as it grew ever closer to breaking open his shell with its massive claws.

"Peak-a-boo!" It said, teleporting in front of Donnie to slam him to the ground with its tail. "Dark Beaver sees you," It taunted him. "May I eat you? You look salty." Donnie stabbed the creature in the gut with his naginata and wiggled away from it.

He began to run again, taking shelter in April's high school. However, the moment he burst through the locker he entered from, Dark Beaver was right there. Books, papers, staplers, rulers, erasers, anything that belonged in a classroom was swirling around like a tornado as every door was filled with the shape of the magenta-colored demonic beaver.

"This can't be real!" Donnie said to himself, backing up into the gym as dozens of the beavers stalked towards him. "I must be dreaming!" He began to pinch at his arms, trying to wake himself from this nightmare. When it became obvious the pinching wouldn't cut it, he began to slap himself in the face repetitively. "Wake up! Wake up!"

He bolted upright in the bedroom he shared with his brother back at the farmhouse. Desperate to know he had escaped, he looked under the bed and in the closet for the monster. Standing inside the closet was Miwa, her body half mutated and resembling a Nure-onna from Japanese mythology. "Mi-Miwa?"

"I hope you don't mind," Dark Beaver said, emerging from the endless depths of the closet to put a claw on his sister's head. "I invited a guest over for dinner. We're dining on salty turtle soup."

Raph struggled against the restraints tying him to the chair. Well, they weren't actual restraints, they were snakes! The snakes coiled around his limbs, binding him to the chair while burying their fangs anywhere they could. He could feel himself getting weaker, their venom taking effect on his strength and willpower, but he desperately tried to fight off the exhaustion. He looked back up at his sister, her fingers twisted and deformed to make the snakes holding him down. He tried to ask her why she was doing this, what he had done that made her so mad, but he couldn't open his mouth without the fear of the snakes moving up to his beak.

Behind Miwa, his brothers were playing heavy rock music on instruments of bones while a huge brown and red beaver laughed at him. "Your soul is mine!" He taunted him.

No matter how far or fast Mikey ran, he couldn't find the portal back to his dimension. But he could hear Miwa's screaming as if she was right beside him. He had been running nonstop for hours now, but he didn't care. Maybe this time he could do something. He could save her from the mutagen that took her from him. He could make his family whole again. He just had to find her.

"You really should just give up,"

Mikey spun but was smacked to the ground with the paddle tail of a beaver. He looked up at the bright blue creature in confusion.

"You're not gonna find her and all you're doing is wearing yourself out."

"Shut up!" Mikey tried to wrestle out from the heavy weight holding him down, but he couldn't do it. "I'm gonna save her! I have too!"

The creature frowned in response and shook his head. "No, you're not."

Irma pulled her hands away from where she was checking Mikey's pulse and looked at April and Casey, who were checking Leo and Donnie's respectively. "All of their pulses are getting weaker, aren't they?" She asked.

"Yeah," April confirmed.

"This is so fucked," Casey muttered. "Are they sick or somethin'?"

"None of them have a fever," Irma shook her head, "Or other symptoms. Their just..."

"Something feels strange," April knelt down by Donnie and put her hands on his head again, the antenna again twitching to life as she did. "I can feel something there, something leaching the life out of them.

"Do you think you can get through to them?" Casey suggested.

"I can try," April said, placing Donnie's head on her lap while closing her eyes.

Irma took Casey's arm and lead him into the kitchen so April could concentrate without their distraction. "Remember what that old guy said when we were leaving the shop?"

Casey scrunched up his face as he thought back. "¡Oh sí!" He exclaimed. "He asked if we'd been feeling tired."

"Do you remember what that book said?" She asked.

"Umm, I think it was Ob-obtura culum Som-Somniorum?" Casey tried to pronounce it.

"Obturaculum Somniorum?"

"Yeah, something like that."

"Somniorum is Latin for "dreams," or "of the dreams. And obturaculum could translate to "obstruction" or "stopper"."

"So he has a book called the Stopper of the dreams, or something like that, and our friends are now trapped and dying in their dreams?" Casey just wanted to clarify.

Irma nodded, "Sounds like it."

Casey hummed and walked back into the living room to grab his baseball bat. He swung it over his shoulder and looked over at April, "Irma and I have an idea, you do what you can here, we'll be back."

April let out a soft sound that almost sounded like a hum of agreement, but Casey and Irma were already out the door.

As Donnie hid in the lair, he found a container of coffee grind sitting out on the counter. He picked it up, curious what it was doing in his home of tea drinkers. Then he noticed the woman on the container looked a lot like April. "April?"

Suddenly the picture sprang to life, and the April lookalike shove a cup at coffee at him while screaming for him to wake up. Donnie screamed in response and threw the coffee container just as the army of beavers he had left in the school came into the sewers.

Leo tried to turn away from the sight of the mutated form of Miwa, but he was stuck frozen in fear. He watched helplessly as the snake mutant coiled around Miwa's human form and began to tear away at her. He screamed for her, but Miwa didn't fight back.

Suddenly, one of the snake heads that the mutant Miwa had for hands turned and looked at him. It got closer and closer to him and opened its mouth to speak, splattering Miwa's blood on his face. "Leo! You have to wake up! Wake up!" The voice didn't belong to Miwa. It was April's voice.

"What? I'm not..." Leo turned to the Beaver that was watching him sob in despair at the death of his sister at her own snake-hands. "Am I dreaming all this?" He asked.

"Not a chance!" The Beaver responded, grabbing Leo by the face and slamming him down through the ground.

"Raph, you have to wake up now!"

Raph's struggling stopped when he heard Miwa speak. He wasn't the only one who looked shocked by her suddenly speech, all three of his brothers and the beaver watching over them all looked equally confused. Then the beaver snarled at her, "Shut up, girl, this isn't your dream to control!"

Raph, however, was trying to pinpoint the voice he had heard. It wasn't his sister's, but he knew the voice was familiar. The voice belonged to someone he viewed as a sister, didn't it? "A-April?" He asked.

Mikey fell to his knees, wheezing heavily as the blue beaver stood over him. "Why-Why am I so... Out of breath?" He asked allowed. He didn't understand it, he had barely started to fight this thing and now he felt like he'd been training against Master Splinter for hours.

"That's because I'm draining your life force," The beaver explained nonchalantly.

"That would do it," Mikey muttered. Then the words of the beaver sunk in and he looked up in confusion, "Wait, what?"

In one of the crystal trees of Dimension X, April appeared for a split second. She bashed her hands against the branches until it broke from the inside. The shards spelt out "Mikey, wake up!"

Once they arrived back at the store, Casey took out one of the lock pick devices Donnie made him for his birthday while Irma peaked inside the shop.

"He's not in here," She whispered from the door and Casey followed her inside. With one bat in hand, Casey went behind the counter and picked the locks that chained the book. As quietly as he could, he laid the chains to the side and opened the case to retrieve the book.

"Put the book back! Now!"

Casey turned around to find the shopkeeper holding a, thankfully powered off, chainsaw. He was holding it near Irma's stomach, but his shaking hands betrayed the fact that he wasn't going to hurt her, at least not right away. "Get away from her!" Casey raised the bat while tucking the book underneath his arm.

"They sent you, didn't they?" He asked, his eyes wide and crazed.

"Who's they?" Irma asked calmly. She stepped around the deactivated chainsaw until she was at a safe distance from him.

"Them!" The old man shouted. "The Dream Beavers!"

"¿Castores de ensueño?" Casey asked, not understanding what that meant.

"Nobody sent us," Irma replied. "We came because our friends are in trouble and your book seems to be the answer-"

"Nobody touches that book!" Bernie shouted. "Put it down, now!" His hand moved to start the motor of the weapon, but Casey was faster.

Casey swung his bat into the hand by the throttle. Bernie screamed in pain and dropped the chainsaw, which Casey then kicked away so he couldn't use it again. "Sorry,  viejo,  but we're taking the book."

"That book is the only thing standing between this world and total destruction!" Bernie yelled.

"And it's also the key to saving our friends," Irma stepped over to where Casey held out the book for her to take. "Now, what did you mean when you said Dream Beavers?" She pulled out her phone to try and call April, though she wasn't sure if she'd answer.

Bernie sighed and rubbed at the growing bruise on his hand. "They're beings of pure evil from another dimension. Forty years ago, I was a physicist trying to prove my theory that our dreams take place in a dimension of their own, when a defective portal projector short circuited and I lost consciousness. The Dream Beavers had been about to break through into our reality, but instead, they materialized in the Dream Dimension- in my dreams. When I awoke they remained trapped in the world of dreams, unable to return as long as the device in that book stays operational."

Irma opened the book to find halfway through the pages was a hollowed out part of the book. Inside was a device connected to the pages of the book with flashing red lights. "Stopper of dreams..." Irma repeated the translated version of the book title.

"For forty years, I have protected the Dream Plug to ensure that the Dream Beavers remained trapped. For forty years, I have made sure that I never once reached REM sleep so that they cannot drain my life force."

"So how did they end up getting to our friends?" Casey asked.

Bernie frowned at that. "They attack anyone in close proximity to me. That's why I owe this shop out here, far away from everyone."

"Well, clearly that wasn't enough." Casey pointed out. "Come on, old man." He grabbed Bernie by the shirt collar, "You're comin' with us to save our friends."

Irma sighed as Casey practically dragged the man from the shop. "Sure, just kidnap him, Casey."

The beaver that had been after Donnie finally captured him by trapping him in a giant test tube. Donnie wasn't sure how he had even gotten inside of it. One second he was running out of the sewers and the next he was being rolled down the street inside of the tempered glass tube.

He tried to figure out what April's vision had meant back on the coffee container. He hadn't dreamt of April since she came out to him, what is it that? Wait, dreamt? Wasn't she telling him to wake up? "This... is a... dream!" Donnie realized.

"So, you figured it out, eh?" The dream's version of Miwa asked as she pushed the test tube down the street. "Took you long enough," She laughed.

"Very clever. Clever, salty boy!" Taunted the Beaver as Donnie continued to struggle inside his prison. "Don't worry, though, we're approaching the climax of this dream anyway."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Donnie asked.

"We're going to be meeting the others now," Miwa answered.

"Others?"

Miwa's snake tail wrapped around the tube and threw it through the air. When it shattered and freed Donnie, he found Leo, Raph, and Mikey each looking just as exhausted and beaten down as he was.

"What?" Leo looked around, confused on how he was suddenly in New York. "Now I'm dreaming about New York?"

"Why am I dreaming about you guys now?" Donnie asked, rubbing at his head.

"You can't be dreaming, I'm here." Leo dismissed the dream version of Donnie.

"'Cause I'm dreaming you!" Donnie snapped at the dream version of Leo.

"Maybe I'm dreaming you, but you're not dreaming me." Leo rolled his eyes.

"At least I'm not in Dimension X anymore," Mikey muttered. "Wait, where's Miwa?"

"There!" Raph shouted.

The three different versions of their sister that the three eldest turtles had been dealing with were now standing next to one another. Then they turned into a puddle of mutagen before the mutated Snake form towered over all four of them as the four different Beavers stood behind her.

"It's so much easier to get multiple victims when they share something in common between dreams," Spoke the red Beaver, caressing the diamond-shaped end of Miwa's tail.

"You guys really messed up with her, huh?" Asked the blue one, pointing his tail at Miwa. "She's haunting all your dreams, so sad."

"Thanks for failing so bad," Laughed the purple one. "Made it so much easier to take ahold of you all."

"And your life force is so much more delectable than those pitiful humans," The brown one licked at his lips. "Seriously, human life force for every meal for thousands of years. It gets old."

Dire Beaver's tail thumped against the ground, cracking the pavement until the brothers fell through. "Time for the main course!" He laughed. The turtles landed inside a giant oven, looking up at the exit at least a hundred feet above their heads. "We're gonna drain you dry and spit out the shells!"

They could hear April screaming from the driveway. "No, no, no! Come on, guys! Wake up! Wake up! Don't do this!"

Irma ran into the living room while Casey dragged Bernie in by the arm.

"I can barely find their pulses anymore!" April said, she had tears running down her eyes and she was shaking Leo in a desperate attempt to wake him.

"What in the world?" Bernie asked, staring at the four turtles in shock.

"Fix them, now!" Casey demanded the old man.

"You see them too?" He asked Casey. "I thought I was hallucinating."

"Bernie! Dream Beavers! Fix!" Casey shouted, grabbing the shopkeeper by the collar of his shirt.

"I can't fix them." Bernie said. "The Obturaculum keeps the beavers trapped in the dream realm, and as long as they're there, their powers are unbeatable. That's why you can't enter REM sleep around them!"

"Donnie's not breathing!" Irma shouted, before she started doing mouth-to-mouth like she did for Leo back in New York.

Casey grabbed the book from Bernie, "So this is what keeps them trapped?" He asked, holding open the book to the hidden device. Casey dropped the book to the floor as Bernie screamed "No!"

The book landed off to the side as they struggled, but before Bernie could reach it, it levitated into the air. The antenna on April's head stood straight up as she used her telekinesis to draw the book over to her. Without waiting for it to hit the floor, she unsheathed her tessen and stabbed it through to the floor. Sparks sputtered out from the broken device as it made a sharp and quick loud-pitched tone before it died completely.

"What is going on?" Asked Dread Beaver as the world began to crumble around them.

"The Barrier is broken!" Said Dire Beaver in delight. "We are free! Free!"

Just as Donnie had collapsed from the heat of the oven, he vanished. His brothers had no time to react because they quickly joined him.

One by one, the turtles awoke with a start. Donnie accidentally jolted upright, knocking his head against Irma's, who fell against the floor with a groan.

"Oh, god! I'm sorry!" Donnie said to her, looking around for something to help her now bleeding nose.

"Leo! Raph! Mikey!" April let out a choked cry and hugged Leo tightly. "Thank god! You guys are okay!"

"You broke the Obturaculum!" Bernie yelled at April. "You fool! Do you realize what you've released on the world? All is lost! All is lost!"

From the broken device, a purple storm began to swirl up into the air. As the lightning from the book flashed, the thunder turned into evil chortling as the Beavers took form. No bigger than the average beaver, the four looked just as shocked as everyone else at their appearance in the real world.

"This is it?" Casey asked, looking at Bernie.

"This is it?" Bernie repeated, anger and disbelief in his voice. "This is what I've been protecting the Earth from for forty years? Stuffed animals?"

Casey hummed, raising his bat threateningly. "Alright castores, you can go the easy way, or the hard way." He tapped the bat against his hand to make his point more obvious.

The beavers all shared a look before they disappeared in a puff of blue smoke and purple lightning.

"I've wasted my life," Bernie muttered to himself. "I could've had a wife. A family. A Nobel Prize winning career." Then he collapsed on the floor, snoring away.

Casey clicked his tongue and shook his head. "Well, who wants to help me carry him back home?"

As Casey and Raph took the old man outside to the van, Mikey took a seat next to Leo on the couch.

"What's wrong, Mikey?" Leo asked as Mikey lifted his arm and leaned into his elder brother's chest, like he used to do when they were little.

"I miss Miwa," Mikey answered softly. The screams he heard back in his dream still echoed in his mind.

Leo hugged him tightly. "I miss her too," He said, not sure of what else to say. Unlike the rest of them, it had been over a year since Mikey had lost Miwa, thanks to his time spent in Dimension X. "But I promise, we're gonna get her back. Master Splinter too." I just have to force myself to get better, Leo thought to himself.

Chapter Text

"So, why did you guys decide to bring me along?" Donnie asked. He was seated in the back of the Party Wagon with bags and boxes of groceries surrounding him on all sides.

"Sorry, Donnie," Irma frowned as she turned from the passenger seat to look at him. "April and Leo are working on the Healing Hands thing, Raph didn't want too, and Mikey... Well..." She trailed off, though Donnie didn't need her to finish her sentence. It was kind of hard to trust Mikey to stay put in the van while Casey and Irma were shopping.

"Plus, we need someone to make sure the eggs don't break, dude." Casey gave a teasing chuckle from the driver's seat.

Donnie scoffed and rolled his garnet-colored eyes, "We don't even buy eggs! We have chickens!" Donnie then shifted around, uncomfortable with such limited space in the van. "Could we maybe switch places?" He said to either one of them. "I need to stretch my legs..."

"We're almost home," Casey groaned, "Can't you just deal?"

"This may be hard for you to understand, but I have long limbs!" Donnie shot back. "I've been back here for hours!"

"Dude, you're barely taller than me," Casey chortled.

"Still taller," Donnie gave a short, stabbing chuckle.

"Whatever! It's not like you can take a turn driving. Someone might see you."

"It's night!"

"Yeah, and how's the guy with the bright-ass headlights gonna react when he sees a giant turtle driving a hippie bus? What if he's an old dude with a bad heart? You wanna give a old man a heart attack, Donnie?" 

Irma sighed and rubbed at her temples. "Alright, guys! Casey, just pull over, I'll get in the back and then we'll go back home with everyone happy."

"Come on, it's only a few more minutes." Casey rolled his eyes.

"Just pull over!" Donnie kicked the back of Casey's seat.

"¡Oh, realmente jodidamente maduro!"  Casey shouted.

"Guys!" Irma shouted as Casey turned around in his seat and almost swerved into the next lane.

"He started it!" Donnie and Casey both said in unison.

"I'm ending it! Pull over, Jones!"

With a grumble, Casey did what he was told. Just as they came to a stop and Irma was about to step out of the passenger's side, a car sped past them, inches from rear-ending them and plowing them straight into the rocky mountain side.

"Are you two okay?" Donnie asked, leaning up to make sure that neither of them had gotten injured.

"Seems like someone wants to play." Casey said and floored the van to catch up to the dangerous driver.

"Casey, what are you doing?" Irma demanded, clinging onto her seatbelt for dear life. "Just pull over!"

"It's just a friendly game of Chicken, Irms," Casey dismissed her worries. "Besides, I already did and he tried to run us off the road! Nobody forces Casey Jones off the road!"

The purple sports-car slammed into the side of the Party Wagon, sending it into a tailspin that ended with a tree-sized dent in car and three dizzy teenagers.

"Nobody forces Casey Jones off the road, huh?" Donnie glared at Casey after his world stopped spinning.

Casey started to mumble and curse in Spanish while he pounded his hands on the steering wheel.

"That's it, I'm driving." Irma groaned as she tried to find her glasses that had flown off in the middle of their terrorizing tailspin.

Mikey booed the TV when the Crognard marathon was interrupted by a news broadcast.

"WHYY breaking news!

A word of warning for those planning on driving tonight; Stay home!"

The screen showed a 2D cartoon of a car on fire driving off of a cliff with the title LUNATIC ON WHEELS! 

"Reports are coming in of a mysterious driver running people off the road."

"That qualifies as breaking news out here?" Raph asked, taking a break from doing pushups.

"Back in the city, ever driver's a reckless driver." Mikey rolled his eyes. "Get back to Crognard!"

April turned her head to the front door before Donnie, Casey, and Irma came through moments later with their wreckage of groceries. "Wait, did you guys-" She started.

"It was them!" Donnie said, pointing at the TV with his free hand. "That's the maniac who nearly trashed us!"

"You ran into that nut?" Leo asked, eyes wide with worry.

"More like he ran into us!" Casey huffed.

"Did anyone get hurt?"

"Luckily, no." Irma shook her head.

"Not seriously, at least." Donnie rubbed at the back of his neck. "I got whiplash trying to save all the food."

"A noble sacrifice, Dee!" Mikey said, walking over to help rub out the pain from Donnie's shoulders and neck.

Casey punched his palm, "We gotta get back out there and teach that guy a lesson!"

"Casey, it's not worth it," Irma sighed. "Just be glad we're all okay. Besides, I don't think the Party Wagon can handle another run-in with that guy."

Grumbling out another string of Spanish, Casey stomped off upstairs.

The next morning, Casey and Donnie woke up around the same time to start working on different projects in the lab. Casey was adding more upgrades to his car while Donnie worked on another batch of retro-mutagen. He hoped that once it was finished, he could test it out on the chicken that had accidentally gotten into the mutagen supply a couple days ago.

"Hey, armpit, hand me the 1/4-inch socket." Casey said over his shoulder to Donnie.

Donnie rolled his eyes at the insult. "Sure thing, Barf-face.  " He threw the tool over his head.

Casey caught the tool without looking up and tightened the nut in place. "This baby is almost ready to roll, eh, Craang-breath?"

Donnie paused and turned around to look at Casey with disappointment. "Kraang starts with a "K", not a "C"."

Casey blew a small raspberry, "Says who?"

"The Kraang." Donnie answered. "Come on, that one doesn't count, come up with an actual c-word."

"Ohh, I'm thinkin' of one, but I don't think Irma or April would be happy if I said it." Casey wiped his greasy hands on a rag before adjusting his bandana back to better hold back his hair. "How about, Camel-breath?"

"That's better," Donnie said. "So, are you planning on taking that out to get back at that guy from last night?"

"How'd you know?" Casey asked.

"Why else would you put tire-spikes on this old thing?"

"Ya gonna tattle on me?" Casey raised his pierced brow.

"Not if you let me help you."

"Are you blackmailing me?"

Donnie pursed his lips into a small smirk, "Maybe."

After using the Party Wagon to tow the hotrod to a mostly deserted road near the mountains, Casey jumped into the driver's seat to fire up his car. After sputtering for a couple seconds, the engine started with a loud backfire that sounded more like a gunshot. Casey grinned at the purring of the engine and called Donnie on his tPhone. "You ready for Casey Jones to beat some all-time speed records?"

Donnie rolled his eyes, "Yeah, yeah, ready. On my mark; Three, two, one," He counted down on his three fingers, "Go!"

Casey set the stick shift into driver and floored the gas pedal, causing the back wheels to screech as the car lunged forward. "Whoo-hoo!" Casey cheered as the old rust-bucket of a car sped towards Donnie and his radar device.

Donnie grinned at the car speeding by, going from zero to 60 in 3.5 seconds. "Great job!" He called out to Casey. His grin quickly disappeared when he realized that Casey was not going to stop and come back for a check on his radar. He sighed, knowing exactly what Casey was planning on doing. He was going to go and try to find that jackass. Without him!

Casey laughed as he felt the breeze blow through his hair. He didn't need a stupid radar gun to know his baby was fast! The best way to test her out was to find that road-raging creep! He didn't need Donnie, he'd just try and get in Casey's way.

Casey drove down the same road they had ran into him the night before and drove in circles for nearly an hour before he decided maybe this whole thing had been a waste of time. The minute he was actually looking for the maniac, he was nowhere to be found. He thought about going back, but decided he wanted to wait a while longer. He knew that when he got back home, Donnie would whine that he had left him. Or, he'd already ratted on Casey and the others would now know he had been out looking for ese idiota instead of leaving it alone like they wanted. After another thirty minutes had passed, Casey turned to go back home. That was, until a purple sports-car sped around him just like the one from last night had done. "¡Vamos a hacerlo!" Casey muttered to himself and pressed his foot down harder on the gas.

Once he was equal with the car, he looked over to see if he could get a look at the crazy driver. What looked back at him was what looked like a chewed up piece of pink bubblegum with one large red eye and a large mouth with a couple of teeth. Casey let out a yelp of surprise and he began to slow down as he tried to think about how this had happened. How could this guy be a-- mutant? The only thing that made sense was that somehow the Creep had been involved. While they were taking the pieces of the swamp creature back to the lab, Mikey noticed that one of its hands and crawled off into the night. With Raph's life on the line, no one bothered to try and go after it. They had all figured that it would die without mutagen eventually. His eyes flickered down and he noticed the cyan glow of mutagen beneath the car and realized he had to have been right. Which meant this was another mutant that the team was responsible for bringing into the world.

The mutant rolled down the window and turned to him with a smirk on his wide, cracked lips. "You! You're that kid that tried to stop me last night!" He swerved into the same lane as Casey, making the teenager slam on the breaks to avoid being hit. "Speed Demon's King of the road, baby!" He cackled in a distorted growl. "Whoo! Yeah!"

Another car was coming up on the road now, and Casey rammed into the side of Speed Demon's car before jerking the wheel to the other side so that the innocent car went in the middle of the two struggling for control over the road. "Are you insane?" Casey shouted. "You coulda killed someone!"

"I'm gonna smash you!" Was the response from the mutant. "Every fuckin' human on this road's goin' for a wild ride!" He laughed manically. He slammed into the side of Casey's hotrod, ramming him against the rocky mountain and sent sparks flying from the impact. Casey spun out of control before crashing into a rail guard that kept him and the car from plummeting down the mountain side.

"Speed Demon - 2, loser human - 0!" Laughed the mutant as he sped off.

Shaking uncontrollably, his heart pounding in his ears, Casey quickly dialed Donnie and waited in silence for him to come pick him up.

When Donnie found him, Casey was sat in the driver's seat with his eyes shut and his hands balled into fists so tight that his knuckles were completely white. Instead of lecturing him right then and there, Donnie just checked him over to make sure he was uninjured before he started to set up the towing system so they could get what was left of the hotrod back to the farmhouse. After a few minutes, Casey shakily got out of the car and finished helping Donnie.

"You okay?" Donnie asked.

"I... I thought I could take him..."

"Casey, you're lucky its just parts of the car splattered across the rocks. That road-maniac could've killed you."

" ¡Yo sé eso! " Casey shouted before shaking his head. "Sorry," He muttered, not looking at Donnie. "Its... He's no road-maniac-- he's a road mutant."

"A mutant?" Donnie exclaimed. "Are you sure?"

"Absolutamente," Casey nodded. "Kinda looked like a one-eyed Kraang with a waaay bigger mouth! And I think he's got some mutagen fuel or somethin' in the car too, I saw the glow."

Donnie muttered in Japanese for a moment before he looked back at Casey, "Think it has something to do with the Creep?"

"That's what I'm thinkin', we didn't get all of 'im."

Donnie nodded and went back to muttering. "Well, at least we know what we're working with now. But the hotrod's got a lot of work ahead before we're ready to challenge him again."

"Wait, you're still gonna help me?" Casey's eyes widened.

"If you don't ditch me again." Donnie narrowed his eyes.

"Promise," Casey held out his hand for Donnie to shake. "We're partners. For now, at least."

Donnie hummed but said nothing. He was waiting for something.

Casey sighed, "I need your sweet scientific genius, Don. Please?" He added in a singsong tone and batted his eyelashes like some damsel in distress.

"Okay, okay," Donnie cracked a smile. "As long as you promise to never do that again."

"Why not?" Casey smirked, "I've been told I have beautiful eyes."

When they returned to the farmhouse, the two renegade street-racers were bombarded with questions. April had guessed what they were doing the moment they felt the driveway. Everyone had been worried sick about them.

"I thought we agreed we were going to leave it?" Leo said, shifting his weight off of his bad leg.

"We can't!" Casey argued back. "The cops can't catch that guy! Besides, that guy is actually some one-eyed mutant! Someone's gotta take him down!"

"And that's just gotta be Casey Jones, right?" Irma sighed, shaking her head.

"And Donnie," Casey huffed, putting his arm around his new partner.

April looked bemused at Donnie, like she was expecting him to object to Casey's declaration. Instead, Donnie just nodded. "Look, we're responsible for any mutant out here, right?" He asked. "And we have to do something before he kills someone."

Knowing that Casey and Donnie had a point, everyone decided relent with their protests. The last person who left the two in the barn was Irma, who still wore a deep frown. "Just... Look out for each other, okay?"

"Yeah,"

"¡Por supuesto!"  Casey waved off her concern and turned back to Donnie so they could start fixing up the hotrod. Casey climbed under the hotrod to take a look at the damage done to the underside but slid back out to pull the mutated chicken out from his workspace. "So, uhh, you got any ideas?" He asked Donnie.

"I got one," Donnie admitted, allowing himself some pride. "A crazy, awesome idea!"

Casey grinned. Donnie led Casey to the Kraang ship left untouched after the ordeal with Mom-Thing. With careful and precise instructions, Donnie and Casey stripped the ship of many useful parts so they could upgrade the hotrod. Donnie handled the programming and more sensitive parts of the assembly while Casey did as he was told without putting up a fight. They worked throughout the night thanks to two full pots of coffee but they were finally finished. Well, almost.

"Ella es hermosa,"  Casey laughed, looking at their masterpiece.

"I know," Donnie congratulated, "And she's almost done." He sat in the driver's seat and opened up the laptop to finish some programming. "We just have to figure out the problem with the artificial intelligence for the onboard computer system."

The mutant chicken with the giant brain climbed up onto the laptop and started to peck at Donnie's hand. He cried out and tried to get her to go away, but then he realized she had opened the notes app on the laptop and was typing. Communicating.

"Woah," Casey gaped at the chicken.

"Huh," Donnie blinked in surprise. "Maybe we don't need artificial intelligence. Hey, uhh," He blanked on the name of the hen.

"Mikey calls her Cluckingsworth," Casey said.

"Dr. Cluckingsworth, can you interface with the hotrod's computer?" Donnie asked the chicken in his lap.

The hen let out a cluck and typed out an affirmative response, saying that she had been watching them build the whole thing.

Casey held out a fist bump which Donnie accepted with a genuine smile.

The others weren't as thrilled as Donnie and Casey had been when they saw Dr. Cluckingsworth as the onboard navigator. Irma and Leo both thought it was still too risky to go after Speed Demon, Raph and April were bemused by the lack of a plan, and Mikey was worried about his favorite, and only, mutant hen. Still, after promises of being careful and swearing to protect the good doctor, Casey and Donnie went out to hopefully have their last battle with the road-raging mutant.

"We clear on the plan, Jones?"  Donnie asked as he trailed the hotrod in the repaired Party Wagon.

"As long as you can keep up in that thing!" Casey responded with a laugh. When he got no reply, he sighed and responded with an affirmative "Yeah, yeah, got it."

They started to come up on where Casey had last clashed with the mutant speed-racer when Cluckingsworth began to cluck like she was trying to warn Casey. Before he could as what was up, she peaked at the keyboard and the message appeared on the small screen on the dashboard. Speed Demon Approaching.

"He's just up ahead, Dee!" Casey said to speaker

"Roger that, Casey! And remember, stick to the plan!" Donnie said the last sentence slower to emphasize the importance of working together on this one.

Cluckingsworth informed Casey that it seemed Speed Demon was driving on the wrong side of the road, heading straight for them with a head-on collusion moments away. "Ah sí?" Casey asked, "So he wants to play chicken, huh?" Cluckingsworth let out a single cluck. "Heh, sorry, doc."

Despite his bravado, when it became obvious that Speed Demon was not going to swerve, Casey did. The hotrod spun around in a 180° with Casey cursing. He was instantly speeding after the mutant, signaling to Donnie with his hand to follow. Though he was going so fast he wasn't sure Donnie could see it as he passed the Party Wagon. He caught up to the mutant, who had once again lowered the window so he could snarl at Casey.

"This time, Imma splatter you across the road! I'll grind ya in my grill like the bug you are!"

Casey let out a chortle, "Prove it!"

Speed Demon slammed into the side of the hotrod, but thanks to the Kraang ship upgrades, it didn't budge nearly as far. Still, Speed Demon was far enough ahead of Casey that he managed to push in front of the seething latino teenager.

With a cluck from the doctor, Casey nodded in agreement and shot out the smoke bomb that Donnie had installed in the front headlight of the hotrod. It shot in front of the purple sports-car and exploded on the road. Casey drove around black smoke so that he was ahead of the panicked mutant driver. It slowed the car down enough for Donnie to catch up in the Party Wagon.

Donnie hadn't had time to fully test out the autopilot he installed in the Party Wagon, but it was too late to back down and much too late to go back for Irma or Leo's help. He opened the back door of the van and jumped onto the top of the sports-car, using magnetized upgrades he installed in his gloves and kneepads to remain on the roof. He could hear the screaming from the driver and he could feel him jerking the wheel to try and shake him loose. But with the wind rushing past him, Donnie couldn't make out what he was saying. He crawled over to the driver's window and punched out the glass, shocking and angering the driver.

There wasn't much to work with, but Donnie did his best to grab the driver by his neck. The comically large singular eye budged as Donnie easily lifted the driver and pulled him through the window. They rolled across the ground, Donnie taking the brunt of the fall on his shell which ached but was strong. The driver squealed and twitched on the ground in agony as the car drove down and crashed into a small ditch after having no one to steer it clear.

Donnie gave himself a quick once over to make sure he wasn't broken or bleeding anywhere and responded to Casey's yells for a response. "Casey, we got him!"

"Ha! That'll ya not to mess with Casey Jones!"

Donnie turned to the driver while drawing out his bō. "Not so thought without your-" He stopped short as he looked at him in shock. The driver's mutant features had completely disappeared as if they had never been there. What was left was a dazed and confused young man, no older than his mid 20s. He looked as if he had been seriously ill recently and a bit beat up from the tumble out of the car, but other than that he was fine. Normal. Human. Not the mutant.

"Where, what, why," The man rubbed at his eyes and when he was certain he wasn't imagining the towering turtle, he screamed. "What are you? Leave me alone!" He picked up a rock and threw it at Donnie while he ran off.

Donnie caught the rock without a thought, racking his brain over what was happening. He knew they were after a mutant, but it certainly wasn't the driver. But, if it wasn't the driver then...

The sports-cars's headlights turned on, inches from Donnie who had somehow not noticed the car's silent return. The engine roared to life as Donnie figured out that the mutant fuel Casey had mentioned wasn't for the driver. The hood of the car opened and a tongue-like appendage shot out and wrapped around Donnie, pulling him inside. The transformation was quick, the fuel seeping into Donnie's mind.

Casey pulled the world's most dangerous U-turn as he raced back towards Donnie. After Donnie had said they got Speed Demon, he heard muffled shouting before Donnie let out a pained scream and then the phone cut out. He didn't have to drive long before he found out what happened.

Bursting out of the roof of the purple sports-car, a further mutated Donatello was cackling with the same distorted voice the previous driver had. His body was huge, coming up at least six feet from the top with big, long hands that held his bō that now operated as a stick shift outside the car. At first, Casey didn't believe it could've truly been Donatello. But he quickly knew it had to have been; two items truly sealed it. The deep iris bandana was wrapped around his distorted-bobblehead of a head, and Casey's old bandana that he had given Donnie back in New York when they took down that freaky ghost guy. Casey had never asked for it back and Donnie continued to wear it even though the wound had long since healed. "¡Maldita sea! ¡Donnie, no!"

"Whoo hoo-hoo-hoo! Yeah, baby!" Cackled Speed Demon Donnie. "Thanks for the upgrade, dumbass!" Donnie's left hand punched down into the hotrod's front hood, nearly flipping the whole car over as he passed the shocked Casey.

As the hotrod settled, and Casey's head hit the steering wheel, his mind raced. He watched Speed Demon drive away with Donnie, the fuchsia blue pattern on Donnie's shell disappeared around the curve of the mountain. Casey always loved Donnie's shell the most out of all the turtles. He thought it was the prettiest and most pleasing to look at. The deep, almost black, bleached cedar outer layer. The lighter honey flower and the fuchsia blue with the six white dots. Casey found himself sketching Donnie's shell pattern the most out of all of them.

It was the car the whole time! Like stupid Stephen King book about the killer car, only now it was real!

Cluckingsworth's squawking brought Casey out of his confusion and anger. "You're right, doc." Casey said after slapping himself. He was lucky he had been wearing his mask because nose would've broken from hitting the steering wheel and he wiped the blood from his nostrils. "Let's go get our Donnie back." Not that he really had a plan outside of get Donnie. "How far is he, doc?"

The screen showed a map that now had the Hamato Clan's symbol thanks to Donnie's tPhone being in there somewhere. It sickened Casey. "Time to see what this baby can really do."

Casey flattened the pedal against the floor, speeding up to ram into the back of the purple sports-car. Demon Donnie yelled in surprise and looked back at Casey like he was looking at a pesky cockroach that refused to die. "You again?" He swung his large hand at Casey, but the smaller driver swerved out of the way.

"Let my friend go, freak!" Casey shouted.

"No way, Casey Jones! Donatello belongs to Speed Demon now, baby!"

Casey rammed into the back right wheel of the sports car, making Demon Donnie let out a shrilly chortling laugh. They both spun out and came dangerously close to driving off the road and off the mountainside.

Demon Donnie looked Casey in the eyes now that they were facing each other in a stalemate of sorts. "You know, I have access to Donatello's memories. I know the two of you don't really see eye-to-eye. Why don't you just let me go? Get him out of your hair?"

It was Casey's turn to laugh before spat at the car. "No way! Donnie and I might bug the shit out of each other, but he's my friend! You ain't goin' anywhere with him!"

"How about we race for it?"

"How about you give me my friend?" Casey rammed the car closer to the edge of the cliffside.

Using the bō shiftstick, Demon Donnie backed out of the way before Casey hit him again and sped off towards Dead Man's Curve.

Casey slammed on the brakes before he drove straight off the cliff and cursed. Cluckingsworth let out a squabble of frightened squawks. "Sorry, doc, hang on tight!" Casey raced after Demon Donnie as he hit the buttons on the dashboard that were meant for a last resort against Speed Demon. It opened a harpoon from the right headlight and sniper's scope for Cluckingsworth to monitor. Closing in once again on Demon Donnie, Casey realized that if he fired, he'd likely hit Donnie. Maybe that's why it was their only play now. Demon Donnie was likely counting on him not to do it, not to hurt Donnie in that way. "I'll give you the signal, doc." Casey said melancholily.

"Last chance, freak!" Casey shouted. "Give me Donnie or else!"

"Or else what?" Laughed Demon Donnie.

Casey grabbed one of his exploding pucks and his baseball bat. He stood up from the seat of the hotrod as Cluckingsworth used the autopilot controls to line up with Speed Demon. Casey jumped on the hood of the hotrod, using the magnetic upgrade Donnie put in his skates to stick to the hood and smashed his bat into the hand reaching for him, making Demon Donnie howl in pain. Casey used the window of time to crawl over to the mouth of the hood and smashed in the headlight before throwing in the lit hockey puck.

Demon Donnie grabbed him with his free hand, threatening to pop Casey's head like a grape. " ¡A ver!"  Casey yelled. Casey knew the harpoon had been fired when Demon Donnie let out a scream and he watched the mutagen fuel bleed from Donnie's shoulders. Suddenly they were both yanked through the air as the hotrod slammed on the breaks and the sports-car drove over the railing of Dead Man's Curve right before it exploded.

Casey made a mental note to have Leo check him for a concussion as he shakily got to his hands and knees. He looked over at Donnie, now thankfully back to normal. Donnie was bleeding the mutagen fuel from the back of his shell where the harpoon had got him, but it was quickly running back to its normal red. " ¡Lo siento mucho!"  Casey shouted as he ran, or wobbled, towards Donnie. "I didn't... We-I..." He cradled the shaking and crying Donnie, "Lo siento, le siento," he repeated softly.

Once Donnie stopped jerking away from Casey's touch, Casey did his best to clean off his shell, knowing how sensitive Donnie was about it being touched. Once he cleaning away most of the blood with a bottle of water, he realized it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. Thankfully, the harpoon hadn't stuck after Donnie transformed back and hadn't broken through his shell completely. There was a crack down the fuchsia colored diamond pattern, but with a little resin back at the farmhouse, Donnie would be okay. It was nowhere near as bad as Leo's had been.

Casey wrapped Donnie with his hoodie and Casey drove him back home in the Party Wagon, Cluckingsworth driving the hotrod. "I'm really sorry, Donnie." Casey said, his hand on Donnie's as he was laid down in the passenger's seat. "I shouldn't have... I didn't know what else to do."

Donnie looked at him and managed a small smile. He squeezed Casey's hand in response and signed something with his other. Casey still wasn't fluent in sign, but he thought Donnie had said, Don't be. You saved me.

Even though Donnie had been okay with what happened, the others weren't. Seeing Donnie so hurt, even if it wasn't as bad as it looked, nobody wanted to listen to Casey. Irma was the only one who stayed to hear Casey out, and with Leo's cold blue stare, she was left to check out Casey's minor scratches. After Donnie recovered enough to tell the others what had happened from his own lips, the others were apologetic for the cold shoulder.

Well, except for Raph. Despite the explanations and Donnie's assurances of being okay, Raph couldn't forgive Casey for hurting Donnie. Weeks went by with not a word from Raph to Casey, he never stayed in the same room if Casey came in. Casey didn't even try to defend himself to Raph, knowing it was unforgivable in Raph's emerald eyes.

One day, after training, Casey cornered Raph outside with only two words. "Do it,"

And Raph did. He beat Casey pretty bad and the other teenager didn't even raise a finger to stop the assault. Eventually, April found them behind the chicken coop, her senses directing her to the bloody Casey and the silent, fuming Raph. Raph said nothing as she approached, simply looking down at Casey before he walked off. April helped Casey inside where Leo looked him over. He'd be okay, just sore for a while. Casey laughed, saying it reminded him of the beating Raph had given him the first time they met.

Chapter Text

A bird flew by Dead Man's Curve, innocently bringing a fish it caught to its nest to feed its new hatchlings. Then, overhead a purple sports-car was driven off the side of the cliff and exploded in mid-air. The mutagen fuel that powered the car mutagen splattered like blood over the bird. It screeched in agony as the effects of the mutagen quickly started to warp the poor bird. The hawk, the fish it was carrying, and the worm that the fish had devoured moments prior, all started to fuse together.

Lost, angry, confused, and in pain, the new creature flew off into the night, searching for water to dive into and fill its gills.

April let out an involuntary groan as the helmet was placed over her head. It squished down her antenna, something that they didn't like, and made her head spin in ways it hadn't since they had appeared. "Umm, Donnie, Irma, is this thing safe?" She asked. The helmet had been constructed from her old bike helmet that fit the head of a six year old, not a seventeen year old, but now it was decked out in Kraang ship parts and was attached to Donnie's laptop.

"Absolutely," Irma said. "Frankly, I'm offended you'd think we wouldn't have tested it first." She teased. "Donnie and I both took some shocks for you, y'know?" She playfully bumped April with her hip while Donnie connected two jumper cables to the helmet to power it.

"Aaaannndddd, we're live!" Donnie said.

The lights in the barn flickered but the machine whirled to life without electrocuting April.

"Woah, April! Check you out!" Mikey laughed, coming into the barn. Dr. Cluckingsworth hopped off the workbench and went over to Mikey, expecting him to have brought her food. "Is that some kind of..." His aqua eyes squinted for a moment as he tried to figure out exact what was on her head. "Space tiara? I love tiaras!"

"Its not a tiara," Donnie rolled his eyes.

"Its actually a psychic neurotransmitter," Irma explained to Mikey.

"Uhh-"

"We're going to use it to try and test April's powers," She told him patiently.

"Yeah, they've been getting stronger lately," April confessed, scratching at her pink fingers. "I don't want to accidentally hurt anyone, and I really don't have a hold on them yet."

Mikey just gave her a smile and pat on the shoulder to show his support. "Sounds fun! Can I help?"

"Weren't you helping Leo?" Donnie asked,  not dismissing his brother, just confused on why he was here instead of training with their elder brother.

Mikey frowned, "I was but..." He didn't need to finish his sentence. Despite Donnie's shell being nearly healed, Raph still hadn't forgiven Casey for hurting him. Even after beating the shit out of him. Now Casey was mad at Raph because he didn't know what else to do to earn back Raph's trust and forgiveness. Whenever the two of them started to go at it, Leo tried to step in and stop them.

"Sure," Irma said, "More hands is always... handy." She smiled, waiting for someone to give her a pity laugh. Instead, the others just looked disappointed, even Michelangelo. "Oh, come on!"

Donnie walked over to the old record-player-slash-radio he and Irma had converted as a makeshift Kraang translator. "Okay, starting... Now." He turned the knob between channels as Irma waited for a change in April's expression. "Feel anything?" He asked the girl with red and pink hair.

April resisted the urge to free her antenna from under the helmet. "Hmm... Nope,"

"Going to FM frequency," Donnie said to Irma, "How about now?"

April closed her eyes, trying to find that little tickle in the back of her mind whenever her powers were about to make themselves known. "There's a, slight tingle?"

"Good or bad?" Irma asked.

"Uhh, good, I guess?" She shrugged, unsure.

"Okay, now, April, focus on this card I'm holding." Donnie held up a card with its back turned to April. "Tell me what you see."

April took a deep breath and focused as hard as she could on the back of the card. Slowly, her eyes slid shut and a vision passed through her of a hawk soaring in the air. "A bird," She said.

Peering over Donnie's shoulder, Mikey saw that the picture on the back of the card was a plane. "Ooh, so close!" Mikey said. "It can fly, but not like-"

"Shh, don't tell her!" Irma shushed Mikey with a finger to her lips. "The whole point is to see what April can tell."

"Don't ruin the test, Shellbrain," Donnie shot a look at Mikey. "Okay, trying card two." This one held a picture of a monkey.

April groaned, her antenna pushing against the helmet like it was suffocating. "Hmm... I'm gonna say," She watched a fish swim in circles deep in a lake. "A fish?"

"Nope," Mikey said, "It's a-" He caught himself after getting a glare from Irma's cyan eyes and Donnie's red ones. "It's not a fish..."

"Onto card three," Donnie picked up a picture of a regular, non-mutant turtle.

"April, you still doing okay?" Irma noticed the sweat on April's forehead, her face scrunched like she was getting another migraine.

"I... I see..." She saw a worm digging through the dirt. "It's a worm! Definitely a worm!"

"Woah! Uhh, Dee?"

Donnie looked up from the card to see April was digging her nails into her palms. "April, stop!"

The visions of the three creatures continued to flash in her mind, drowning out the others as the sounds of nature took over. Rushing wind, splashing water, crunching dirt. "Get... Get it off!" She snarled out. Her hands came up and started scratching at her face, desperately trying to free herself of the bike helmet.

"Mikey, help me!" Irma jumped to her feet to try and hold April's hands down while Mikey got the helmet off.

"Seriously, you two?" Leo groaned, shifting his weight off his knee as he looked at the two bickering teenagers. He felt like a mother scolding her children for pushing each other on the playground. "What is it gonna take for this to end? It's been nearly two months!"

"I got nothin' to say to 'im." Casey scoffed.

"Same," Raph said gruffly.

Leo just sighed and rubbed at his temples.

"Look, you wanna train or not?" Raph asked his twin, completely ignoring the greasy-haired boy to his right.

"Not as much as I want you two to stop fighting."

"That's bullshit, Leo, and you know it," Raph gave a halfhearted laugh. "Come on, show me what you got!"

Leo set down his crutches and walked into the grass as he pulled out his ninjatō. "How about a bet?" He said, turning to them while stretching out his shoulders. "If I take both of you down, you two have to make up and stop fighting."

"Ha!" Raph spun out his sai, "In your dreams, Leo. Deal!"

As Leo stretched out his knee after taking off his brace, Casey turned to Raph and put a hand on his shoulder. Before the red-cladded turtle could shove him away, he said in a low voice, "Dude, the guy's been down for, like, ever. We should cut him some slack, yeah?"

Raph pushed him off with a snarl, "Don't tell me what I already know, Jones."  Casey took his battle stance a few paces to Raph's right and Raph called out to Leo, "Okay, let's see what you got, rusty butt!"

"始め!" Leo called out like Splinter would at the beginning of a sparring session.

Despite being at each other's throats, Raph and Casey were still a formidable team when paired together and Leo immediately knew he was facing a steeper uphill than anticipated. Although he wanted to win, to prove to himself that spending nearly four months recuperating wasn't just a waste of time, he was hoping that this exercise would at least remind Casey and Raph that they were still on the same team.

Leo charged Casey first, swinging his ninjatō just as he used too, without fear of putting too much weight on his leg. Casey parried the blows with his hockey stick and baseball bat, blocking and dodging until he saw an opening. He swung an overhead strike with his bat, but Leo twisted under his arm and kicked him hard in the ribs, sending him sprawling to the ground. Casey hit it with a surprised grunt, not expecting such a powerful kick from the bad leg, but he shook it off and got back up as Raph rushed in next.

Raph took the offensive, swinging his sai for Leo's head and neck, making him back away in retreat. When Leo struck out, Raph easily moved out of the way as Leo wasn't as fast as he used to be. However, what Leo was lacking in speed, he was making up for in power behind his attacks. They clashed their weapons together while trying to get a feel for their first real sparring session since before the invasion. No, since before Miwa's mutation. They traded blows and dodges, just like old times, and Raph saw the first real smile on Leo's face since he woke.

He caught Leo's right blade in-between his sai and twisted it out of Leo's hand. Leo's leg came up at the same time and he kneed Raph hard in the plastron, knocking him backwards. However, it was Leo that fell, not Raph.

"Ugh!" Leo crumpled to the ground, the cry of pain choked out of his damaged throat. " いや、いや、またかよ！" He whispered to himself as he wiped at the tears brimming from the pain before he looked even more pathetic. Just when he thought he was finally ready to earn back his bandana...

" ¡Hermano!"

"Leo!"

Raph and Casey were instantly by his side, forgetting their squabbling to help him stand and limp over to the porch.

"It's hopeless," Leo said with a melancholy expression. He gestured down to his leg before he just laid back on the porch, still uncomfortable with the way his broken shell now brushed against anything. "I'm never gonna get better," He laughed sightly, the only thing he could do to keep from bawling like the failure he was.

"Ah, come on, Leo," Raph started. "Don't be like that! You're so much better than you were a couple months ago!"

"Yeah, you just gotta give it some more time, dude," Casey backed up Raph. "You can still spar with us."

"No!" Leo clicked angrily, making both of his attempted consolidators recoil. He covered his unmasked eyes with his arm and shook his head slightly. "Sorry, I mean... I'd just hold you back. You guys... Train, fight, whatever. I'll... Watch. It's all I'm good for anymore." Even though his words made it seem like he was going to spectate and correct forms like Splinter would've, Leo didn't sit up or uncover his face.

Neither Casey nor Raph knew what to do or say to help Leo. They both knew there wasn't anything they could do anyway. Leo had gotten hurt, and as fast as they had tried to right his injuries, his mutant healing had started to heal the shattered knee in all the wrong ways. There really was no way to fix Leo and make it like nothing had happened. And the physical part wasn't where the troubles ended. Leo had completely lost faith in himself and took every opportunity to kick and belittle himself.

With nothing else to do, the two started to train by themselves, still not ready to talk or fight out their grievances. Leo didn't notice, he was too consumed in his despair.

After getting April a glass of water, she was ready to try the transmitter again. It took some convincing on her part, promising her hesitant friends that she was okay and that she just needed a place for her antenna. She had bandaged her hands and had a bike bell that she would ring if she needed the helmet off again or needed them to stop.

Donnie turned back on the machine and they tried the cards again, but April had the same answers as last time, even after Donnie held up three new cards.

"I don't get it," April commented. "These images in my head made so much sense, they're so clear. It's like I'm there." She lifted her hand out for the deck of cards, "Can I see them?"

Donnie moved to hand them over, but then he felt a pull on them, despite April's hand being a few feet away.

April's antenna were standing straight up and she had turned her palm face up. She curved her fingers ever so slightly and the card lifted out of Donnie's hand and floated in the air.

"April, you're doing it!" Irma smiled.

"Shh," April shushed them. "I need quiet..."

The three others sat in silence, apart from Irma taking notes on the laptop. April slowly lifted more of the cards into the air, her eyes closed in concentration. The helmet started to spark and April let out a shriek as it sent a jolt through her body. Her scream sent a shockwave throughout the barn, knocking Donnie, Irma, Mikey, and Cluckingsworth down.

"April?" Mikey was the closest and reached for her, carefully taking the helmet off while Donnie turned of the machine. "Are you okay?"

"I'm so sorry!" Donnie apologized.

April opened her eyes, but they had gone completely white. It was as if the whites of her eyes, which had been a pale green color for months, had swallowed the iris and pupil. "Wh-What happened to the barn?" She asked, reaching out blindly and touched Mikey's face. "Who-Mikey? Where are we?"

"Still in the barn?" Mikey answered slowly. He looked at Donnie and Irma for any sign of assurance that this was normal somehow.

April shook her head, "No, we're... Flying?"

"What do you see, April?" Irma asked, joining Mikey by her side.

April reached for Irma's voice and found her hand on Irma's slim shoulder. She gripped it tightly, afraid that if she lost her hold, she'd vanish. "I see... Clouds. Like, like I'm flying. Soaring."

"Totally understandable," Mikey tried lighten the mood with a joke. "I get that way when I eat pizza."

"Do you feel anything else?" Donnie asked. "Dizziness or nausea?"

April shook her head slightly. "No, I mean, it kinda feels like I'm moving but... My feet are on the ground, right?" She asked for clarification.

"Yes, you're still here in the barn." Irma confirmed in a soft voice.

April's face scrunched up while gripping the others tighter for support. "Now, now I'm heading down. I can a building. It kinda looks like-"

A huge shadow blocked the sunlight from reaching the inside of the barn, followed by a deafening screech of a bird.

April gasped and squeezed Mikey's fingers enough for him to make a small ow. "Outside!" April said. "I see Casey, Leo, and Raph! They're under attack!" Mikey and Donnie were outside before she finished her sentence and April stood to follow them. She tripped over a tool box but was caught by Irma, who helped her outside.

Outside was a huge conglomerate of a mutant screeching at the others. It's head was like a bird's but the neck gave a worm-like appearance, along with its bottom half that had half a dozen tendrils in the place of talons. It had wings of a bird as well, but it's body was covered in scales like a fish.

It snapped its beak at Casey, who rolled out of the way. "¿Qué demonios? Another mutant?"

"Where'd it come from?" Raph glanced over at Donnie and Mikey as they ran up to join the others. With that split second distraction, a tendril smacked Raph off his feet.

Leo sliced at the tendril that came for him as he tried to hobble back to where he had left his brace on the lawn. Mikey hit the creature over the head with his nunchuck handle before it could charge at his elder brother.

"Ooh, bird, worm, and fish?" Mikey took in the appearance of the mutant. "Three animals; one body. I know this, there's a name for this in mythology!"

"Chimera?" Donnie, April, and Irma said in unison.

"I was gonna say Turducken. But, Chimera is better." Mikey shrugged.

They managed to knock it down but no matter what they tried, they couldn't scare it away.

It went for Leo again, who jumped back a few feet as it tried to skewer him with its beak. But he landed wrong and his knee buckled on him. One of the tendrils smacked into him and he flew into Irma and April. "Sorry," He groaned. "You guys gotta find cover,"

"I'm trying to get her inside," Irma said, running after Leo's swords that got knocked from his hands. "But every hit that thing takes knocks her down."

"What?"

"I'm connected to it, somehow," April answered. "I think I'm seeing through its- Is that me I'm looking at? Look out!"

Leo grabbed April and rolled out of the way as it dive-bombed at them.

"This is all my fault," April groaned, her world becoming dark as the Chimera's head was buried underground for a moment. "I summoned this thing!" The sunlight blinded her for a moment before she saw Irma in the creature's vision. She was still running for Leo's other sword. "Irma, look out!"

Irma tried to run, but the Chimera caught her in its beak. "Put me down!" She flailed awkwardly in its jaws, kicking at the neck as best she could. "Little help?"

"¡Déjala en paz!"  Casey ran at the Chimera, but was knocked out of the way by Raph.

"Move it, Jones!"

One of the tendrils grabbed both of them and when Donnie and Mikey ran to free them, they were also grabbed. The creature flew away as Leo stumbled after it, screaming for it to bring his brothers back.

"No! No! Put them down! Leave them alone!" Leo screamed, tripping over his own feet and falling hard onto his knees. The tears he had been fighting earlier returned with a vengeance and his body was quickly wrecked with sobs as he was left all alone. Splinter, Miwa, now his brothers... He had failed all of them. Again.

"Leo?" April called out. "Leo, I-" She had managed to crawl towards him, following the sound of his agony until she reached him. "I'm sorry, my eyes- I couldn't..."

Well, he wasn't completely alone. He turned to look at her through his tears and for a moment, forgot his pain. "April, you're... You're blind?" He asked.

"Not exactly," She answered. "Somehow, I got a psychic connection to the Chimera. I think it was a combination of Donnie's neurotransmitter and my powers. I'm seeing through its eyes."

A wave of hope surged through him. "Really? Can-" He wiped at his face, suddenly aware of the blubbering mess he had become in such a short space of time. "Can you see where it's taking them?"

"Yeah," She nodded. "Its at the top of that mountain," She pointed in the wrong direction, but Leo knew the one she meant. "Talbot Peak.. And..." Her face paled, "It's hungry... I think that's why it came when I summoned it..."

She watched it circle a nest before it dropped them in it. They all looked dazed and scared, but they had survived the flight. One of them must've realized they were supposed to be lunch, and they began scrambling out of the nest while the Chimera circled back. Irma found a hole for them to hide in, and they jumped down, away from April's sight.  "Okay, they're safe, for now." She pulled Leo to his feet.

"What are you doing?"

"I'll be your legs if you'll be my eyes," She told him. "Come on, they need us!"

They started towards the mountain, painfully slowly. Leo hobbling on his crutches, April practically blind and holding onto his sword sheath for guidance. April frowned, "Leo, don't be that way."

"What?" Leo looked back at her as he brought them to a stop so he could rest on a rock.

"You heard me." She said sternly. "I know things don't seem... Great, but, I shouldn't have had to talk you into coming in the first place!"

"April, I didn't say anything." Leo interrupted.

It was April's turn to be confused. "Yeah, you did. You said, This is hopeless, look at us, which, by the way, is a little difficult right now!"

"No, I didn't." Leo said. "I... Can you hear this..." Leo thought about his knee and how nothing seemed to be making it better.

"Your leg got seriously hurt," April answered. "I know its healing as fast as you want it too but-"

"There!" Leo pointed out. "April, you're hearing what I'm thinking."

"I... I am?" She paused. Now that he mentioned it, when he was talking about his knee, it kinda sounded echo-y. "Say something else?"

"I can't walk up that mountain."

April pursed her lips at his pessimism. "Now think something."

Think? Think what? Man, if she's able to read my thoughts then I have to think about something... Quick think of something, anything! Damn it, sis.

"What- What's Miwa got to do with this?" April asked him.

Damn it, she heard that. Fuck, now she's gonna know! No, just don't think about it!

"Leo,"

"Sorry, but..." His mind kept repeating the secret over and over. "My thoughts are supposed to be mine."

April frowned. "I'm not doing it on purpose. I can't help it, I'm sorry." They sat in silence, or at least Leo did. His mind kept repeating don't think about it, sometimes going to no one needs to know right now, I have bigger things to worry about, I can tell them later, I can't be selfish right now, I haven't earned it.

"Y'know," She started, biting her lip. "I don't want to force you to tell me anything you don't want too, but we need to keep going." She reached for him, touching his face before feeling down to rest her hand on his shoulder. Her fingers traced the scars left over from Shredder's vicious assault that broke his shell.

It doesn't matter, we'll never make it.

"We will make it!" April exclaimed. "No matter what! This isn't like you, Leo. Where's that fearless guy who always looked for the bright side?"

"That Leo is gone," Leo answered bitterly. "Died the day that they were broken beyond repair."

April shook her head. "You're not broken, Leo." She sighed and leaned her head on his shoulder. "I know..." She didn't want to make his pain about her, but she didn't know how else to help him. "I know how hard it is to accept you've changed. But we can't change what happened to us. All we can do is try to put the pieces back together as best we can."

"You don't get it! I thought I was getting better, but I keep getting hurt again. Way too easily. I'm just a liability to the whole team, to my family..." I wish Shredder had just killed me.

April gasped and felt her way up his face again before she smacked him. "No, you're not!" April yelled at him. "Don't you ever say or think something like that ever again! You're their leader! Their brother, their friend! My friend! We can help them, we have to help them! It's up to us!"

Yeah, the blind girl and the turtle that can't walk on their own, He thought grimly.

"Exactly," She smiled.

"Would you stop that?"

"I can't!" April stuck her tongue out, hoping he was looking at her. "Come on, let's keep going." She helped Leo to his feet and they started back on their path to save their friends and family.

They kept a steady but slow pace, but luckily the Chimera couldn't get to the others so they had time. Every few minutes, Leo's thoughts circled back to you can't be selfish right now, wait until you have your family back, if you get them back. Between his thoughts repeating in her mind, and the jerky flight of the Chimera, April's mind was spinning. "Can I suggest something? About your secret?"

Leo stopped short, causing April to walk face-first into his shell. "What'd you hear?" He asked, hesitantly.

"I'm trying to block it out, I really am." She said, rubbing at her nose. "But, at this point, I think I'm gonna find out whatever it is. And I'd rather you just tell me than hearing it in your private thoughts."

"Its selfish, okay?" Leo sighed as they started walking again. "Everyone's life is in tatters, I can't just make things about me."

"Leo, its okay to be selfish from time-to-time. No one would blame you, you're probably one of the most selfless people I've ever met."

"Its just... Maybe I'm wrong? No... I don't know, fully..."

April hummed. "I could tell you my secret. Make it even?"

Maybe? I dunno, what if she says something to the others?

"Hey, give me a little credit." April teased.

"Yeah, I guess you did keep a pretty big secret back in New York." He smiled slightly. "Alright, but as long as we promise not to share each others secrets."

April nodded, "Promise." She could hear him still debating with himself, so she went first. "Okay, it's not that much of a secret because I already told Donnie and Casey but... I'm a lesbian."

Leo blinked before a smile spread over his lips. I coulda told you that.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"That you and Miwa weren't that subtle about being interested in one another," Leo answered.

April rolled her eyes, but Leo couldn't notice a difference. "Yeah, yeah, whatever."

"Thanks for telling me."

"Of course, I trust you."

Leo took a deep breath, his mouth trying to form the words. However, she heard it in Leo's thoughts before the words left. Okay, just say it. I think, no, I'm pretty sure? "April, I'm... I'm trans."

They had found refuge from the Chimera, but now they had a different problem. The hole they had fallen down didn't seem to have an easy way out. Good news was, the Chimera either couldn't get to them or didn't want to follow them down.

"I guess we're safe for now," Casey muttered.

"Safe?" Sneered Raph in reply. "Dude, we're trapped inside a giant hole!"

"Well, if you hadn't shoved me out of the way-"

"Please, you couldn't have saved Irma from that thing?"

"Right, and you did such a good job!"

Donnie pushed between them, "Enough! We gotta focus on getting out of here!"

The cave gave a small rumble that shook a bit of rocks loose above them. Irma watched the pebbles fall into the water about twenty feet beneath them. She noticed it was bubbling and had steam coming off of it. "Uh oh," She muttered.

"What'd Casey do now?" Raph asked, looking at her.

"Me?"

"Stop!" Donnie shouted again.

Irma just shook her head and drew her fingers up the rock around them. "Donnie," She said to get his attention. When he looked at her, she nodded to the pool beneath them.

"Oh no," Donnie quickly looked around the cave and came to the same conclusion.

"What?" Mikey asked.

"We're in some sort of geyser," Donnie answered. "And given by the smoothness of the rock, it must erupt all the time."

Casey looked over the edge into the pool. Now that they had brought it up, he was dying under his gear. It was really hot down here. He wondered how Irma wasn't sweating off her makeup. "How long do we got, Dee? An hour?"

"Don't talk to him!" Raph shouted, trying to push past Donnie and create a barrier between his little brother and the person that had hurt him.

"Raph, enough!" Donnie glared at him. "I'm fine! Fighting with Casey isn't going to change anything! I let it go!" Raph looked taken about by his yelling, so Donnie looked back at a equally shocked Casey. "And to answer your question; I think less than that."

"So how are we gonna get out?" Mikey asked.

"Simple;" Raph said. "We'll tie all our grappling hooks together."

"Uhh-" Irma started.

"We know you don't have one, its fine," Raph replied.

"Uhh," Mikey started.

"Son of a- what?" Raph glared at his youngest brother.

Mikey grimaced, "Yeah, I didn't have time to grab all my gear before we got bird-napped."

"Same here," Donnie said, rubbing the piercings on his masktails.

Casey took out his but held it away before Raph could snatch it away from him. "Dude, can we just be good?"

"Maybe," Raph rolled his eyes. "If we don't get boiled into Turtle Soup!"

Irma adjusted her glasses as she looked up to the top of the hole. "Maybe we can reach it by standing on shoulders and using the two hooks we got?" She suggested.

"So, how long have you known?" April asked. She could see the others in the hole starting to panic about something, but she was worried about telling Leo. They had started making it faster up the mountain and talking things out seemed to be helping Leo keep her mind off of the pain in her knee.

Leo grunted as her crutch hit a rock, but April steadied her as they hiked up. "I dunno, I guess... A while? I guess I always kinda wanted to be a girl, but it didn't really start coming until sometime last year?"

April's stomach growled and her mouth watered so bad she had to wipe some spit with the back of her hand. "Are you planning on coming out?"

Are you? 

"I guess I'm waiting for the right moment," April answered her thoughts.

Leo shot her a glance, annoyed with April's mind reading even if it was unintentional. Yeah, I guess the same for me. I don't want to be selfish and making things about me anymore than I already am. When I do tell the others, I want my family to be together again. Until then, please don't say anything.

"I promise, I won't say a thing," April smiled and hoped she could see it. "But, Leo, it is okay to be selfish from time-to-time."

I'll keep that in mind.

"Oh, uhh, do you want me to call you something other than Leo?"

I haven't really thought about it that much. I don't mind Leo. Maybe Lee? For now?

"You got it. And, I'm really sorry this happen this way."

Its not your fault. It does feel kinda nice to have told someone.

"I'm glad," April whined at how empty her stomach felt.

What's wrong?

"We have to hurry," She told her. "The others are panicking about something, I can't really tell what. And the link with the Chimera is getting stronger. I'm feeling its hunger..."

Don't bite me, I can't run. Leo smiled at April's small laugh.

"I think you could, actually. I haven't been helping that much,"

Testing April's theory, Leo leaned further away from her and noticed she was able to stand on her bad leg without help. She lifted the crutch and found that she could stand pretty well without its aid. Hey! I'm doing it!

"Then come on," April extended her hand in the direction of Leo's voice. "Let's save the team!"

Leo took her hand in her own.

Despite Irma's rather good suggestion, they still couldn't reach the top of the hole. The heat was rising more and more and everyone was starting to get antsy.

"Whadaya think, Dee?" Casey asked. He tied his hair back loosely with his bandana and wiped the sweat on his forehead with the back of his sleeve. He chose a bad day to wear his binder.

Donnie hummed, his tongue sticking out of his mouth as he watched the bubbling, boiling, water. "Oh! Mikey, you have your nunchucks, right?"

"Right here," Mikey pulled out his chucks and let Donnie take them.

"Okay, by attacking Mikey's kusarigama chains to our two grappling lines, it should be just long enough for us to climb out if we stack ourselves."

"Let's find out," Raph said, too hot to argue at the moment. They arranged themselves so that Raph was the closest to the top, given he was the physically strongest of them and would be the fastest at pulling everyone out. Then it was Irma, who still couldn't lift much even after doing some strength training with the team. Followed by Casey, Mikey, and Donnie. Raph gave a hard pull on the chain, making sure it stuck before he started to pull himself up.

Once he reached the top, he started trying to pull Irma out, but was accosted by the Chimera snapping down at him. "Whoa! Back off!" Raph smacked the Chimera hard in the head with the butt of his sai, which disorientated it enough for it to fly off for a moment. "Move it, move it!" He pulled out Irma, Casey, and Mikey before the Chimera was back on them.

It lifted the kusarigama chain in its mouth and tried to take off with Donnie, but Casey smashed his bat in the creature's eye. "Leave him alone!" Donnie fell nearly twenty feet, but had retreated into his shell to take the brunt of the fall. He popped out as soon as he could and joined the others with their weapons drawn.

"Are you okay?" Leo asked, looking down at April who had cried out in pain. She saw that April had momentarily let go of the rope she had tied around them so that Leo could lead her up the mountain's steep face. Luckily Leo had gotten stronger than she gave herself credit for, because easily held April's dead weight and climbed up the cliff's edge to give them both a rest.

"Yeah," April groaned, her hand over her right eye. "They got out of the hole, but the Chimera is still going after them. Casey nailed me in eye."

Leo looked up at the top of the cliff. They weren't far off now. "Ready to keep going?"

April nodded and felt her way over to the wall to start up it again. It only took ten more minutes of hard and fast climbing, but they made it.

"I don't get it," Leo looked around. "I don't see it the Chimera anywhere." She looked to April, "Where are you?"

"Flying," April answered. The others ran to get cover in some trees and the Chimera couldn't follow them in so now it was circling them. "Do you see a small forest or something?" She asked.

Leo looked around and spotted it not far from the hole the team had apparently fallen down. "This way," She took April's hand and started to lead her towards it.

"Be careful and quiet," April told her, "The Chimera isn't that high up."

Leo looked up and spotted the tendrils dipping up and down from the clouds. "Right." Once they reached the woods, Leo called out for the others. "Guys, do you hear me? Are you alright?"

"Leo?"

"And April?"

The others materialized from the further end of the woods, having been trying to see how far the forest stretched for cover from the circling menace above. "How'd you get up here?" Raph asked, putting his arm around Leo's shoulder.

"Shh," April hushed them, though she wasn't facing any of them. "I'm right on top of us. If we wanna get off this mountain, we gotta be quick and quiet."

"Well, the forest only stretches about a mile that way," Donnie pointed for Leo. "Then we'll be out in the open again."

"Any idea how to get it to leave us alone?" Casey asked Donnie.

"Its hungry," April told them. "If we can bait to back to the hole, maybe you can make it down the mountain safely?"

Raph shrugged, "Its better than nothin'. If we're lucky, the geyser will boil it."

Leo looked at April, catching a certain word in her last sentence.

April answered the look he gave with a sigh, even though she was blind to everything the Chimera couldn't see. "I'm still connected to it," She reminded them. "What if it follows me back to the farmhouse?" After a few moments of some kind of wordless exchange the others didn't understand, she shook her head slightly. "No, you should go with the others. I can do this by myself."

Leo crossed to her before dropping his crutch as some kind of symbolism. "You're my legs, I'm your eyes, remember?"

Despite not being able to see the act, April must've figured out what he had meant because she smiled her sharp smile. "Right, we finish this together." She took his hand after blindly reaching for him.

"Uhh?" Before Raph could ask what was happening, Leo turned around with the confidence Miwa had when she had been the leader of the team.

"You guys get down the mountain, April and I will take care of the Chimera." He picked back up the crutch, but instead of leaning on it, he snapped it in half.

Not wanting to break Leo's sudden newfound resolve, Raph nodded and followed Donnie over to the edge of the forest to wait for the signal to go.

Leo ran into the clearing and threw his broken crutch down into the hole while April stood out in the open. Her antenna stood straight up while she had her eyes closed and her tanto raised. She seemed to have drawn the Chimera towards them because she reached over for his hand again. He took it just a moment Chimera was on top of them. It knocked them off the edge of the mountain side before catching them in the worm-tendrils. Their grip on one another was broken as it took one in each talon.

Leo let out a cry of pain as the conglomerate held her by her legs.

"Leo! Are you-" April started.

"I'm fine!" Leo shouted, more as a reassurance to herself than for the redhead. "I'm not going to let a little pain stop me!" Not anymore, she said to herself, though the thought brought a quick and soft smile to April's lips. She drew her ninjatō and raised it. "Brace yourself," She shouted to April, knowing she felt the creature's pain. She stabbed the tendril that held her, making both the Chimera and April hiss in pain.

The creature released it's hold on Leo, but she already had a hand on her grappling hook and fired it so that it wrapped around the midsection. The creature flew upwards sharply, trying to shake her off, but instead it just launched Leo into the sky and landing on its back. Leo struggled to hold on, using the rope of the grappling hook as a makeshift tether. "You okay?"

"I will be!" April assured her. With her other hand, she pulled Miwa's tessen. She hoped her training with her friend's beloved weapon had paid off as she angled it upwards to hit the Chimera - and herself, in between the eyes. It connected, stabbing into the bridge of the Chimera's beak before Leo dislodged it. The Chimera's grip loosened enough for April to wiggle free and she climbed up the body of the Chimera so she sat just in front of Leo. She felt her hands go somewhere damp and squishy and she cringed at the feeling around her neck. "I got by the gils!" She cringed.

The part-bird mutant dropped into a corkscrew to try and shake off its hijackers.

"Hold on!" Leo shouted.

"Holding!" April answered back. Then April saw what was quickly approaching them as the creature dove. "Hold your breath!" She managed to get out before they were underwater. The Chimera held them down, seemingly hoping to drown the attackers. April dug her hands deeper into the Chimera's gils, but it held firm.

Unsure of how long April could hold her breath, Leo stabbed the monster with Miwa's tessen while April turned it upwards. The breeched the water and it wasn't long before they were above the clouds again.

Shivering and afraid of what happened to Leo before, April shouted over her shoulder. "We gotta finish this!"

"Agreed," Leo replied as the wind whipped around them, chilling the water on their bodies.

"It looses balance when hit on the head," April told her.

"Worth a try," Leo scooted closer to April and wrapped her arms around her to act as her makeshift tether. On the mental count of three they both kicked the Chimera hard in the left set of gils. It let out a screech and spun back down to the mountain. "Is that the geyser?" She asked of the fast approaching crater in the ground.

"Think so!" April answered.

"Get ready to jump!" Leo told her and April tightened her hold on Leo's hands.

The Chimera's head and neck got lodged in the geyser's opening as Leo and April jumped off before going down with it. Leo landed on her feet, holding April bridal style before her knee buckled and she dropped down.

"Leo, are you okay?" April asked when she heard her wince.

"Kinda wish I didn't break my crutch," Leo admitted. "But I'll be fine. How about you?"

She was still aching in the parts of the Chimera they had injured, but she shook her head. "I'm fine," She lied, though she heard through Leo's thoughts that she didn't believe that. "Or I will be. The creature's in total darkness right now."

"We better get down the mountain before the geyser erupts," Leo said as April helped her stand.

April nodded then grimaced. God, how much would the pain from being scalded by a geyser be? But she didn't need to worry because the next time she blinked the world returned to her eyes. Her real eyes. And the pain from the mental link with the Chimera was gone. She turned to get a look at Leo, thankful that a spark of light and joy was once again lit in her gorgeous sapphire eyes. "I can see again!" She exclaimed happily.

"That's great!" Leo said with a strained smile. April quickly realized that she didn't really need to be connected to her thoughts because she could easily read her face. Her knee brace had gotten pretty torn up and was practically useless so April shifted her arm further over her shoulders. "I got you," She reaffirmed Leo. "I'll always be your legs," She promised.

"Thanks, April," Leo smiled at her. "For everything."

"Of course," April said.

But Leo stopped them so she could look April straight in the neon green eyes that belonged to the redhead. "I'd still be at the farm if not for you," She said with a soft shrug. "You really inspired me."

"Aww, Leo," April pulled the tall turtle into a hug. She was thankful for the strength she had built up since meeting the Hamato, because she could easily sustain the weight Leo put on her as she leaned down. "I think you inspired me too."

Leo held the mask that April had sewn her for Christmas, feeling the soft fabric for the first time since she threw it on the dresser. The color was nearly identical to the one that Splinter had picked out when they had first been given their masks. April had left the tie strings longer than Donnie's and she remembered April and said she did so in case Leo wanted to put earrings on them like Mikey and Donnie did.

"Think you've earned it?"

Leo looked up from the mask to see April standing in the doorway with two hot cups of tea. She knew April didn't like that Leo thought she had to earn the right to wear it, but after learning what she had, she didn't criticize her thinking. "I think... I need to accept I won't be the same again. That part of me was broken." April's smile faded as she crossed into the bedroom. "But that doesn't mean I can't put the pieces back together."

"Good," April sat down next to her and handed her one of the cups. "I was getting ready to smack you again," She joked.

"What's going on downstairs?" Leo asked. She had gone upstairs before she heard a ruckus that she was getting ready to go investigate.

"Raph and Casey made up," April answered, "And about time too."

"Really?" Leo raised her eye ridge in surprise. "How'd that happen?"

"Something something Donnie something something cave," April shrugged. "I guess almost being boiled in a geyser made them realize that fighting wasn't going to change what happened."

Leo chuckled and took a sip of her tea. April had nailed the way Splinter used to make it. "That was real brave of you, y'know," Leo said. "Telling the others."

April shrugged, "Well it wasn't much of a secret after telling you. I already told Donnie and Casey a while back, so it only felt fair to loop in Mikey, Raph, and Irma." She bumped her hip against Leo's, "And I told you that its okay to be selfish from time to time."

"Yeah, yeah," Leo rolled her eyes. "Hey, can you do me a favor?"

"Sure, what is it?"

Leo held up the mask for April. "I'm not ready too, y'know," She still wanted to wait until Miwa and Splinter were back.

April nodded to show she was following along.

"But, uhh, you got any ideas for how to make this more... Girl-ish?" She blushed a bit at her own awkwardness.

April giggled a bit on her expense but took the mask to examine it. After a moment, she got an idea. "Well, you're letting Donnie modify your swords, so I can modify this, right?"

Leo nodded, "I'm hopeless."

April tied the mask around Leo's face before she measured out the length of the mask tails. Then she took the mask back off and cut two narrow strips on the tails so they made an even third tail when tied together. She replaced the mask and braided the tails together. "How's this?" She asked, laying it gently over the scarred shoulder of the turtle.

Leo looked at herself in the mirror and smiled. "I love it."

Chapter Text

On a walk in the woods with April, Leo drew an arrow back and aimed it at the buck. The Hamato siblings had been trained in archery as children, but none had much use for the skill while in the city. Once a week while at the farmhouse, one of them had gone out to go hunting. They had a butcher in the nearest town who paid them decently for deer meat, though they hadn't had much luck throughout the winter. Now that spring was in bloom and March passed, more wildlife was returning to the area.

This was the first time April had volunteered to go with one of the turtles, having been previously grossed out at the idea of killing and dragging a deer back to the farmhouse. The others thought that it was because she wanted to be there in case Leo's leg started to act up again, but both of them knew it was because of their newfound closeness. It had been pretty immediate since the ordeal with the Chimera a week earlier. Leo's knee hadn't given out on them since Donnie and Irma made them a new knee brace and Donnie upgraded Leo's ninjatō to turn into crutches with the click of a button.

April had led Leo silently towards the large deer and she waited for Leo to take it out. But just when Leo was about to release the arrow, the deer walked away. Sighing, Leo jumped from the tree she had perched in to join April on the ground. She let out a slight wince but she stood straight and refused to make a show of her weakness.

April drew her eyebrows together as her antenna stood at attention. Leo knew this was her something was watching us reaction and quickly reloaded the arrow and gazed around the forest to find their target. April's face didn't relax, which was the tell that whoever or whatever was watching them wasn't friendly. That squashed Leo's first assumption that one of her brothers had come into the woods to see what was taking them so long. When April's eyes snapped to the side, Leo spun to aim his arrow in the same direction.

They were once again looking at the same buck they had tried to shoot earlier. This time felt different now, somehow more spiritual. As if they had entered a different world at the moment it took for the deer to face them on equal ground. Adding to the spiritual moment, the clouds parted overhead and shone a ray of light that illuminated the deer and gave it an otherworldly appearance. In unison, Leo and April relaxed their bodies and weapons.

Leo looked to April, who had adopted a foreign look in her eyes that made her realize April must've connected to the deer. Something similar to what she had with the Chimera, but deeper and more personal. She must've been communicating with it telepathically, her soft, pink lips subtly moving to mouth words Leo couldn't make out. She waited for the conversation to play out, making herself seem as non-threateningly as possible to keep the animal in their presence.

The whole confrontation couldn't have lasted longer than a minute or two before the buck bathed in light returned to that of an average deer and ran off. But as April's eyes returned to focus as she turned to look at her patient friend, Leo knew that they hadn't seen the last of the deer. Someone had sent the deer to them and they needed to seek it out once more. Whoever it was needed to speak to the Hamato teens as soon as possible.

While Leo and April were off hunting in the woods, Raph had been tasked with a session of training until they returned. "All right, team," Raph said to the others. "If you can clobber Kraang, you can crack logs. Watch and learn," He turned to Mikey who held up a piece of wood he had picked out of the firewood pile.

"Aw, yeah! Time for some ninja training, farmhouse-style!" Mikey grinned, waiting for Raph's demonstration. On Raph's signal, Mikey threw half a dozen logs in the air for Raph to break. Raph did so in quick secession, snapping all six in half before they hit the ground with a series of different strikes. "Whoo-hoo!" Mikey cheered for Raph.

"Ready to try?" Raph asked the others.

Irma raised her hand slightly, "Yeah, uhh, why am I out here?" She asked. "I'm not exactly the fighty-fighty type like the rest of you?" She wasn't kidding either. The others had tried to show her basic defenses with their weapons in the past, but she always managed to nearly hurt herself or the others in the process.

"Because you gotta be ready, Irms," Raph put his arm around her shoulder. "We're preparing to go back to New York, and its gonna be crawling with Kraang. You gotta be able to defend yourself at least a little."

Irma shrugged, "I guess I can try?"

Donnie tossed Casey a log so he could hold it out for Irma.

"Sure you don't want me to soften it up for ya?" He asked with a smirk.

"Just hold it straight, Jones," Irma replied and got into what she figured to be a good position. "Wouldn't wanna miss and kick that smug face of yours." She was glad that she had accidentally spilt some coffee on her skirt that morning, though April's sweatpants were pretty loose on her smaller frame.

"Remember, its not just physical strength that breaks the wood," Donnie told her. "It's also inner strength."

Irma gave a half laugh at that. "I'm lacking in both, Don." Irma took a deep breath and kicked at the wooden log, but all she did was lightly push Casey back a couple steps. "See?"

"Don't beat yourself up," Mikey joined Irma and showed her a better stance. "You can't kick like your stomping down on something, you gotta bring your leg up. Drive the force of your body through your kick." He demonstrated a couple times without splitting a log before he let Irma try again.

"You guys didn't get anything?" Casey asked, directing everyone's attention to April and Leo emerging from the woods.

"Woah, you guys okay?" Raph asked, "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"We had an..." Leo and April exchanged a look, trying to figure out how best to describe what they had seen. "Encounter? Realization? In the woods."

"And what does that mean?" Donnie asked.

April shook her head. "Not sure you'd believe us if we told you,"

"We're losing our touch," Leo decided. "We're so caught up in tPhones and junk food and TV that we're becoming at odds with nature. True ninja and kunoichi must become one with it to master themselves."

"Hey, dude," Mikey eyed Leo suspiciously, "You leave TV outta this."

"You're starting to sound like Splinter," Raph pointed out.

Donnie scoffed and rolled his eyes at Raph. "Yeah, maybe because Master Splinter did it. Remember he told us that only when you become one with nature can you make peace with yourself."

"Ugh, but that was back in the eighties!" Mikey whined. "That's when there was nothing interesting to do! Just dinosaurs walking around faking moon landings and junk."

Ignoring Mikey, Raph argued back against the midnight colored duo. "Make peace with what? What are we, hippies or ninja?"

"We're ninja," Leo answered looking back into the woods with solemn determination. "We'll do three days of meditation and practiced awareness in the wilderness, only eating what we can forage."

"Three days?" Mikey asked. "That'll be easy! As a group we'll-"

"No, we're going off alone." Leo said.

That made Mikey stiffen and the others drew a quick breath. Mikey hated being alone nowadays. "A-alone? By myself?" He asked.

Leo put a hand on Mikey's shoulder. "Not until later tonight. I know it'll be harder for you then the rest of us. But its just a few days, and its for the best. You trust me, don't you?"

Mikey nodded meekly before he hugged Leo. "I...I guess..."

"April, let's go." Leo said nodding towards the woods and signaling they were going now. When Irma and Casey moved to follow, Leo held up a hand. "Sorry, Hamato Clan only."

Irma sighed in relief, not loving the idea of camping in the middle of nowhere by herself.

Casey, however, scoffed. "What? I'm part of the team!"

"Yeah, but remember when Splinter offered to train you?" Donnie gave a smug grin at the memory as he teased Casey. "I remember you said something like, Casey Jones only fights like Casey Jones."

Casey rolled his eyes and pushed Donnie's face away from him. "Whatever, Stick-Master. Have fun eating bugs!"

"Tell Ikky I'll miss her!" Mikey waved to Irma before they disappeared into the green forest.

"So, what exactly are we doing?" Raph asked Leo as they were led further from the farmhouse.

"We've mastered our weapons, stealth, and hand-to-hand combat, but the haven't achieved the very first of the eighteen ninjutsu disciplines." Leo explained. "The Seishin Syuyou, or spiritual refinement. All true masters of ninjutsu must master it, ninja and kunoichi alike."

Leo looked back at April and a bit of nervousness began to rise in his stomach. April was still being taught under Splinter, she wasn't even a full kunoichi yet. He wasn't sure if he was really the best one to be teaching her this when she hadn't fully mastered the other subjects had had mentioned. But, if there was one thing he did know about April, it was that she was stubborn. She wouldn't want to be left behind and she would do all she could to keep up with the others. Her fiery determination was one of the things he admired most about her. After a moment of consideration, he realized she'd be fine.

"And who says I'm not spiritually refined?" Mikey asked. "I mean, I did nine months in Dimension X," He reminded Leo bitterly. "Wouldn't that qualify me?"

Leo frowned at the mention of Mikey's lost days. "You were just surviving," Leo replied. "This exercise is to strength our minds, bodies, and spirits."

That answer didn't give Mikey much solace but he didn't say anything else.

With no further arguments, Leo lead them through several training exercises. Donnie's modifications to Leo's ninjatō included adding a button on the sides of the handles that allowed the blades to be exchanged for crutches to use at Leo's leisure. Once back on more solid ground, Leo switched back to his blades and stopped beneath the base of several trees. They each scaled one, and once at the top, they were to meditate for several hours. Then they crossed a river and Leo refused help even when his crutch nearly got swept away with the current. Once they found a rock quarry, they practiced the basic stances of ninjutsu for several more hours.

Once they were getting ready to settle for the night, the team split up tasks. Mikey and April went out to forage for food, Raph was in charge of the fire, and Leo and Donnie built their shelter. They had just settled around the fire for another meditation session before sleep when the wind changed direction. Donnie pointed towards the distant forest where a shape materialized into something more familiar.

"It's the same deer," April whispered.

"Has it been following us?" Leo asked.

"Maybe it's laughing at the five dumb teenage mutants lost in the woods," Raph suggested with a bemused grin.

Donnie hummed, "Actually, in the Shinto religion, deer are considered messengers of the divine. Maybe it means were on the right path."

As the deer came closer, it shifted its shape once again into a more humanoid one. The golden antlers and markings were almost as hypnotizing as Shinigami's eyes. It walked right through the group and came up to April, resting one of it's hooves in the fire but made no sign that it felt the flames. It bent its digitigrade legs, almost as if bowing to April, and closed its eyes.

"Careful," Raph said protectively, but was ignored by the redhead.

April reached up and gently placed her hands on either side of the deer's head. Her antenna stood straight and her neon green eyes went white as the flames of the fire burned blue. The flames jumped and swirled to form the image of an old human man that the turtles had only ever seen in photographs saved from the flames that burned down the Hamato Dojo. Hamato Yuuta, Master Splinter's father.

"私の家族の次の世代、" The lips of the old man moved, however his voice came out of April's mouth. The spirit didn't seem at all confused or frightened by their appearances, and smiled warmly at the group.

"Woah," Mikey whispered. "Are you, like... a ghost?"

"My spirit has passed from this world, but I am still connected to all those who bare the name of the Hamato Clan," Explained the old man using April as a mouth piece.

"So, you know about everything?" Raph asked. "You know who we are?"

"Yes," Frowned the spirit. "My son-Your father's spirit is slowly becoming detached from his body. As time passes and his isolation and desperation to reunite our family grows, the mutation that befell him is influencing his mind."

"He's still alive? What about Miwa?" Leo asked, standing up. "Tell us where they are, please! We have to help them!"

The frown only grew as Yuuta slowly shook his head. "Miwa is fairing far worse than your father. Her mind was already betraying her, and now she acts almost entirely on survival. However, you cannot help them yet. There is much you must overcome before you are ready to return. If you cannot find your inner, spiritual strength, you will not stand a chance against the Kraang and the Shredder."

"But Master Yuuta," Leo lowered his head in shame. "My leg injury, it's physical. I, I can't, it's not going to get much better."

Yuuta touched Leo's shoulder. "The start of any healing journey is the physical part. We choose what holds us back and what moves us forward. Your injury will only hold you as far back as you allow."

Yuuta then turned to the others, "You will all learn this. When the day breaks, each of you must journey out alone to face your spiritual adversary."

Yuuta stepped closer to Raph, who shrunk down a bit and averted his gaze from the spirit. "Raphael, your temper is a like a fire that you must learn to focus for power."

He turned from Raph to Mikey. "Michelangelo, your mind is overrun with distractions. You must learn to strong and calm, like the forest."

"Donatello, you rely too much on your mind and not your body. Be strong and immovable, like the mountain."

"April, must stop fighting the currents of the otherworldly abilities she has been given. She must allow her powers to flow through her body like a river, giving nutrients to power her physical body."

Yuuta finally turned back to Leo, "Leonardo, you must be the leader in both body and spirit. Be like the wind, let nothing weigh you down."

"はい、先生!" Agreed the turtles.

"Good, sleep now, Hamato. Your battle awaits in the spiritual plane. For the challenges you face there, will be just as deadly as those you face in the real world. Be warned, be prepared, be careful." The fire once again engulfed the old man’s shape and he was gone.

April’s antenna fell against her head and she collapsed to the side, falling against Leo’s scarred shoulder. The deer turned and ran off into the woods as April shook her head slightly and turned to look at the others. "What happened?" She asked, looking rather nauseous.

"They're both alive," Sniffled Raph, wiping at his eyes with the back of his hand. "Papa and Miwa are still alive," He said again, his voice wavering with relief-filled sobs.

"Come here," Leo said, putting his arm around his younger twin. The other two Hamato brothers quickly snuggled next to the twins and fell asleep. April was pulled into the sleep pile by Michelangelo a few hours before dawn.

Once the sun came up and the fire was out, the team readied themselves for what laid ahead.

"Master Yuuta made our quest clear," Leo said, the first one to rise. "It's time we begin, Hamato."

"Begin how?" Asked Mikey.

Leo lead the group back to a cave they had past the day previous. "We'll leave our gear and weapons here. Each of us will forge new weapons, then journey on alone where we'll be challenged in the spirit realm. The place where the unreal become real, and we meet our ultimate fate."

It took until the early hours of the next day for the five teens to finish their gear, all working in mostly silence. When they had finished, each brandished a new weapon; Leo made a new bow and arrows, Raph a pair of tekkō-kagi with a built-in button for a flamethrower, Donnie made a battle axe, Mikey made a pair of kamas, and April made a pair of kyoketsu-shoge. One by one, they finished and waited for the others in meditative silence. Once all five had finished their weapons, they agreed to meet back up in the cave within three days. If one didn't show, the others would go find them.

"It's time," Leo said, removing the knee brace that Donnie, April, and Irma had made for him and replaced it with one he had made himself for this journey. "Good luck, everyone. 健闘を祈る," He bowed to his fellow ninja.

"健闘を祈る," They replied, bowing in return.

None of the teens had a real idea of where they were going. All five had split up in different directions, and Leo was just wandering through the woods while trying to figure out what his spiritual foe could be. Master Yuuta said he needed to learn to let nothing weigh him down. The dull and constant ache of his knee made him think that perhaps he was supposed to try and overcome the pain? But he didn't know how that was supposed to work. He was trying not to let the physical pain and scars hold him back anymore, but his willpower didn't matter much when his body wasn't catching up to his mental goal.

He had just come to a stop to rest and take a drink of water when he spotted a flash of brown fur in the corner of his eye. He spun to follow it, drawing an arrow as he did. The brown creature had stopped just behind him, showing the humanoid form of the deer from the night of Hamato Yuuta's visit. He tried to speak to it, but it transformed back into the shape of a regular deer and took off uphill.

「ああ、待って！」He called after his grandfather's spiritual guide. Leo chased it through the heavy fog, only able to follow the sound of it's hooves. It took a while for him to realize the terrain underneath his feet had changed. When he stopped to try and figure out what it was that he now stood on, he realized he was now on a wooden rope bridge. Hesitantly, he reached out to his sides and luckily found rope guard the edges of the bridge that he could've easily tumble off of without.

The fog cleared a bit, and the deer stood far in front of him. It motioned with its head to look behind him. When Leo did, he was no longer on the bridge, but in New York. Snow was lightly falling around him as he stood in the construction site as hundreds of Footbots surrounded him. Shredder and his lackeys all stood on a building above him, watching in sadistic delight as he fought. He was rushed by a Footbot, but when Leo stumbled backwards to avoid the blow, his shell hit the rope of the bridge. Suddenly, he was back among the thick fog with only the black shape and glowing red eyes belonging to Footbots to keep him company.

"Okay, not cool," Leo muttered as his shaky hands drew back an arrow as the robots closed in on him on both sides. Was he truly afraid of Footbots now? "Definitely, not cool."

He did his best to remain calm, but every arrow that flew sent him back to that cold day in New York. Every arrow he drew back caused the scar on his arm to throb with the memory of having the tip of an arrowhead stuck deep inside. Still, Leonardo tried to remember what Master Yuuta wanted him to remember. He tried to remember what he and April had talked about back when they faced the Chimera together. "Keep 'em coming!" He shouted at the spiritual realm phantoms. "I can do this all day!"  Each Footbot that was hit disappeared in a puff of blue smoke, but dozens kept coming. One had come up underneath the bridge and tried to grab at his foot, but Leonardo stomped down on the robotic hand while he batted it's head with his bow.

He had taken out enough of the robots to gather the arrows left on the bridge near him, but the bridge became to shake and the ropes began to snap underneath his weight.  He cried out in pain as he fell to the side and landed roughly on his knees. Looking ahead, he saw the Footbot apparitions working on cutting the ropes one by one. Leo tried to run once he realized what was happening, but between the shaking of the bridge and his knee injury, he only made it a couple feet before the bridge snapped and he fell.

He grabbed a hold of the nearest rope and hung onto it for dear life, thankful that his gloves stopped the rope from completely destroying his hands. He opened his eyes just in time to see he was about to smack into the side of the mountain that the bridge used to strung across. He braced himself and slammed into rocks. It nearly knocked the wind out of him but he just focused on keeping hold of the rope, less he loose his grip and plummet who knew how far below. He gave himself a moment to gather himself before he climbed up the rope and flung the Footbot awaiting him off the cliff side.

Even though he had finished off the Footbots, Leo knew that his spiritual trial wasn't over. He decided to hike up the mountain he found himself on while he waited for the next part of his journey. Master Yuuta had said they would each face their greatest spiritual foe on this mission, but for the life of him, Leo couldn't figure out who that would be for him. Perhaps Tiger Claw? He wasn't sure, unlike Raph and Mikey, none of Shredder's goons were exactly his "arch-rival". He had been walking for about twenty minutes when he spotted the deer from before. It bowed its head to him, as if congratulating him for completing the first part of the trek to spiritual enlightenment.

"What is it?" Leo asked him after the deer looked back straight. "What is your lesson?" 

"Lesson?"

That voice... Even more than seeing the Footbots, hearing that deep, growling voice put him right back in New York. His body was in excruciating pain and he couldn't breathe. His heart was beating so loudly in his ears that it only caused that voice to echo around his head. Leo fell to the ground, his hands defensively around his throat to try and protect it from whatever was choking him. His eyes brimmed with tears of pain and fear as that voice laughed at him mercilessly.

"You've already failed!"

The Shredder stalked towards him, the snow falling around them changing the world from the cold construction site to the mountain side. His blades cut through the rocks as if slicing through butter. "You were too weak to stand without your master. You were too cowardly to take the fall instead of Miwa."

He was back on top of the cage that held Miwa. He was removing her gag when she warned him that the Shredder was behind him. They exchanged blows, and Leo watched once more as his sister sank beneath the glowing ooze.

"Had you the right to call yourself her brother, you would've accepted your fate and taken her place!" He raised his blade and cut into Leonardo slowly. He started over his left shoulder, cutting into his shell, then his shoulder, then his plastron. He brought the heavy blade down centimeter by centimeter as the helpless turtle beneath him barely struggled. "Now you leave yourself open. Are you accepting your fate now?"

"Be like the wind, let nothing weigh you down."

Leo sniffled down his sobs and forced his eyes open. He watched Stockman's lab fade back into the construction site. The construction site faded into the mountainside and he could make out the deer standing behind Shredder.

"Worry not, you will be alone in death for long," Shredder told him as he slowly drug the blade deeper into Leonardo.

Leo reached around blindly beneath him, knowing that if he didn't fight back, he'd be split in two. His fingers gripped one of his arrows and he held it tightly as he lifted his arm and drove it into Shredder's exposed bicep. The old master exclaimed in pain and Leo kicked him in the breastplate as hard as he could. The Shredder only landed a few meters away, but Leo got to his feet and went on the offensive. He fired arrow after arrow despite the blinding pain that came from moving his shoulder. He could feel pieces of his plastron and shell breaking off but he ignored it.

Shredder leapt at him, trapping him against the mountainside with nothing but his bow blocking those blades still dripping in Leonardo's blood. Leo pushed him off balance enough that he was able to roll away from him. He drew two arrows like he would his twin ninjatō and slung his bow over his uninjured shoulder. He brought the arrowheads down, stabbing for Shredder's shoulders but was countered by the longer blades. 

Shredder smacked Leonardo across the face, his immense strength enough to knock the turtle to the ground. Leo landed with an oomph, but that sound quickly turned into a scream as Shredder brought down his heavy boot on Leonardo's injuries knee. "Your wounded leg is like a ball-and-chain, dragging you toward defeat."

Leo spun the arrow in his hand again and tried to drive the arrowhead into his neck, but the Shredder only grunted out a scoff at the attempt. One hand grabbed the wrist of the armed hand, the other found a place around the turtle's throat. "This time, you will not be able to limp away."

Shredder was right, Leo admitted. This time he couldn't limp away. He couldn't fail his Clan, his family, again. He couldn't let his fear and pain of what happened distract him. The pain he was experiencing wasn't real. The warm, sticky blood running down his body wasn't real. The pain of his knee, his shoulder, shell, plastron, throat, it was all just an excuse at this point. He couldn't get rid of the lasting pain he'd experience for the rest of his life. He had to accept it was there. But it couldn't hold him back.

He smiled a bit. How many times was he going to have to learn this lesson for it to finally stick?

"Today is the day Hamato Yoshi will lose both his daughters," Shredder laughed manically. "It is time we end this, turtle," His hand tighten around Leo's throat. "I'll leave a mark far worse than Tiger Claw did, this I promise you."

We'll see. Leo thought. He brought his legs up and planted them firmly against Shredder's breastplate. Despite the screaming agony from his knee, Leo pushed back with all his strength. His body was longer than Shredder's arm length, and he dropped the turtle. Leonardo jumped to his feet and cleared a distance of several yards while he drew back an arrow. The Shredder regained his footing, but not before the arrow pierced his neck and he bled blue smoke.

Raph walked east for hours, waiting for a sign from the spiritual plane that he was on the right path. He had finally gotten fed up with just wandering around and decided to take a dip in a pond that he had found. While swimming underwater, he discovered the pond was connected to an underwater path that led him into the mouth of a cave. He took a look around the cave that looked like something out of a movie where pirates would store their treasure. So much for finding a hidden pirate ship, he thought to himself as he emerged from the water to take a look around.

He climbed a small cliff and found dozens of lit torches at the peak. That wasn't right, and it sent a chill down his shell. He realized he couldn't have been alone in the cave because somebody had to keeping the torches lit. He took a step closer to examine them a bit more when something beneath the closest torch shifted. He jumped back and drew out the blades of his tekko-kagi. He was suddenly aware that he had designed them to be almost identical to the one's Shredder wielded in his memory.

The base of the torches all flickered together and turned into Footbots. They all held their flaming weapons towards Raphael threateningly. This definitely had to be his spiritual adversary that Master Yuuta had mentioned, but Footbots? He had expected this spiritual journey to be as difficult as Master Yuuta had warned.

Just as he had hundreds of times before, Raphael easily cut down every Footbot that came for him. He had missed the feeling of breaking something that belonged to the Foot Clan, that he hardly noticed the robots vanishing in red smoke after he delivered a finishing blow. Still, even the weirdness of that situation wasn't enough to shake his pride as he reveled in the feeling of destroying something that belong to the man who took his sister away. He would've been way more into this spiritual quest if he had known beforehand he'd get to slap some Foot around. He looked at the symbol on their shuriken, a human foot within a circle, and scoffed at it. It was so literal and so stupid! 

He decided to test out the flamethrower he had build into his weapons and laughed as the robots burned. "Hell yeah!" He congratulated himself. Now if only he could finish roasting Shredder alive. 

"Raphael, your temper is a like fire that you must learn to focus for power." Master Yuuta's words from the days previous came back to him and his smile faltered. Where the last flaming Footbot had fallen into the water below, he watched bubbles began to form as something dark moved just beneath the surface of the water. Raph narrowed his eyes and raised his weapon in anticipation of what was next.

Seconds later, whatever had been swimming in the dark waters jumped out and landed just behind Raphael. Standing not much taller than Raph, a magenta colored mutant fish, with robotic legs and a breathing apparatus, snarled at him. "Olá, velho amigo," his voice dripping with venom.

"Fishface? Here?" Raph asked.

"That temper fizzles fast under water, doesn't it?" He asked. Before Raph could make a smart-ass comment, Fishface dove at him with the intent of dragging Raphael underwater. Raph did his best to remain calm as Fishface drug him down further and further. As a turtle, Raph could hold his breath for quite a while underwater, but Fishface could breathe down here. He was in enemy territory underwater. When they reached the bottom of the pool, Fishface stomped down hard onto Raph's plastron, making the turtle yell and expel some of air in his lungs.

Then he let go of Raph while the turtle struggled to gain awareness of his surroundings but couldn't see through the dark waters. Fishface was extremely fast underwater and used his switchblade to cut into Raph as he did drive-byes. He laughed and lapped up the blood beginning to fill the water. Finally he grabbed Raphael and threw him up to the surface, knocking his shell hard against the cave wall.

Raph coughed up the water that had gotten inside his lungs while his rage bubbled. He felt his biceps where he was bleeding and shook his head. "Breathe, Raph," He told himself. "Master Yuuta is right," He needed to concentrate and focus his anger. Sharpen it and give it a form. He took a deep breath and activated the button on his weapon that would coat the blades in flames.

"Ready for another swim?" Fishface asked with a sneer. "I bet your toys don't work so well under water."

Raphael turned slowly to face the snakehead mutant. His anger took the form of Fishface and his stupid deformed face. He charged the bipedal fish, stabbing his flaming blades into the respiratory system keeping him able to be above water. Then he pulled his arms apart and split the illusion of the Shredder goon into two red clouds.

Donnie was lost in thought of the mission for the journey he was on that he hadn't even realized that he had been climbing up the mountainside until he came to a steep and narrow ledge. When he tried to turn back, he realized he must've been on this ledge longer than he thought because he couldn't safely turn back now.

He mentally chastised himself for seemingly going in the wrong direction. He knew that it wasn't what Master Yuuta wanted, but he really wished he had brought a GPS guidance system with him. Even though the odds of his technology being able to get him to the spiritual plane was low, he figured it was probably the same statistic score as just walking up a mountain.

He was weighing his options of moving forward versus trying to maneuver back when a heavy thud from above shook the mountainside. "What the-?" He exclaimed, clinging to the rocks while craning his head upwards. Hundreds of feet above him, he made out the shapes of Footbots with what looked like huge ōtsuchi. The continued to bang the hammers against the cliff they stood on, shaking the mountain and sending rocks raining down.

"You're gonna bring the whole mountain down!" He shouted angrily. Then he remembered that Footbots were programmed to kill them, it didn't matter if they were destroyed in the process. And when a rock smacked him on the top of the head, it dawned on him. If these were his spiritual enemies that Master Yuuta had warned he must face, then they wouldn't care regardless.

Several of the Footbots ran down the side of the mountain while the others continued to shake the mountain and keep Donatello essentially trapped. Sometimes, Donnie really hated being right. He forced himself onto his feet by the time the Footbot reached him and combatted their attempts to force him over the side of the cliff. He barely managed to knock off the two that reached him first before the ones above shook the mountain again and sent boulders raining down. He was lucky though, their reckless attempt to bring down half the mountain ended up killing off the other robots that were after him.

Donnie used his axe as a makeshift lever and launched himself up to where the other Foot were still pounding away at the mountainside. He split one robot in two and used it's bottom half to knock the other one from the mountain. It only took about half a minute to finish off the rest of the Foot in clouds of purple smoke.

Ha! Hey, this Seishin Syuyou was way easier than he thought it'd be. All it really took was a little quick thinking and-- Donnie didn't have time to finish that thought before an explosion went off right by his head, making him jump backwards and nearly tumble off the edge of the cliff.

"What a distracted little cub," Growled Tiger Claw, landing next to Donnie with his jetpack. "Let's see how quick your thinking is when I smash your brain against the rocks."

"Tiger Claw? No, you're just a spirit, too!" Donnie exclaimed, though he found himself backing away in hesitation all the same. "You can't be real!" Though that explosion had definitely made his ears ring and thrown him off balance.

Tiger Claw just smiled a sharp grin in response and raised his large paw. He punched Donnie hard, knocking back several meters and sprawling on the rocky mountain ground. "Did that feel real to you?" He asked with a cackle.

Absolutely, Donnie answered in his thoughts while wiping at the blood coming from his nose. He got back to his feet and swung his axe over his head to break off part of the mountain that Tiger Claw stood on. Tiger Claw flew back up with a malicious cackle and slammed Donnie against the ground. He began to push Donnie towards the broken part of the mountain he had just created. He ripped the axe from Donatello's hands and raised over his own head.

Donnie tried to roll to the side, thinking that Tiger Claw was trying to take his head clean off, but that instead gave the large tiger-man access to kick him square in the plastron. Donnie rolled off the side of the cliff and barely managed to catch himself on the lower ledge. He groaned while flipping himself over to look back up at his attacker. Tiger Claw was laughing again and spun the axe into the mountainside. It crumbled from the strength of the hit and began to fall all around Donnie. Donnie ducked into his shell as the debris rain down on him until everything stopped shaking.

"Come out, cowardly cub," Tiger Claw demanded, now off to his right.

Donnie popped out and looked back to see Tiger Claw leaping from the rubble to get down to him. Donnie felt his body tense in fear when Master Yuuta's words came back to him. Be strong and immovable, like the mountain. "I'll try," He muttered to himself as he got to his feet. It was only now that Donnie realized that Tiger Claw was only a few inches taller than himself. The tiger mutant looked like a mountain of fur, with strong muscles just underneath his fur. But Donatello had thick, hard scales and a solid build of his own. He saw Tiger Claw preparing to pounce, so he braced himself.

Tiger Claw came in with a punch, so Donatello raised both arms and caught the fist while blocking the other that came up. Tiger Claw growled and started trying to use his bigger size and muscle to force Donatello back, but Donnie kept his feet planted firmly in place. "And they say you're the smart one?" Tiger Claw asked. "You will fall!"

Donnie moved his right foot behind Tiger Claw's, tripping him a bit when Donnie pushed back. Tiger Claw fell against the axe, piercing his jetpack before Donnie shifted Tiger Claw's weight onto his shell and threw him over the cliff.

Deep in the foggy forest, Mikey was trying to figure out what being "strong and calm like the forest" was supposed to mean. He decided to try and work on stealth as that made sense in his head. Stealth and calmness went hand in hand, he remembered that lesson from Splinter. As quickly and as quietly as possible, Mikey maneuvered through the trees. His mind kept drifting back to when he trailed the Kraang back in Dimension X. It was hard to focus on anything but the feeling of abandonment as he was once again left alone, but he did his best to remind himself that was just for a few days.

Perhaps if he wasn't already years deep into his ninjutsu training, his distracted thoughts wouldn't have allowed him to notice he was being trailed by something. He stopped near the top of a tree and drew out his kama. He scanned the forest as best he could with the limited visibility. He briefly wondered if mutated Miwa was here, would she be able to see body temperatures like some snakes could?

A flash of black to his right allowed him the brief amount of time to brace himself for the attack. Whatever had hit him, knocked him from the branch he was perched on and he fell a couple of feet. Luckily, his shell bounced slightly off a branch and he was able to catch himself before he fell all the way down. He swung back up and looked around for another movement of black within the fog. He opened his mouth to call out to his assailant, but then thought that maybe it was an apparition from the spiritual plane.

Then he was struck again, but his kama had dug into a bit of the attacker. Now he had black fabric hanging from the blade that confirmed that he was being physically attacked. "Come out!" He shouted.

The next attack hit him from behind, but Mikey heard the slight rustle and leaves. He caught the shuriken in between his fingers and looked at the symbol it adorned. Foot Clan? Looking behind him, he spotted dozens of glowing red eyes hiding in the trees. Be strong and calm like the forest. He tried to keep that in mind while he focused on the fight he found himself in, and not how Footbots may or may not have been in the forest so close to the O'Neil farmhouse.

He figured the Footbots had better eyesight than he did, but he retreated into the fog and up a tree to gain some distance. He needed to figure how just how many Footbots were after him before he exerted more energy. The robots were right behind him, however, running up the trees around him to surround him on all ends. Michelangelo didn't wait for them to do so, and leapt from the highest branch he reached before their pursuit and used his kamas to cut down each robot that came for him. Each one that he smashed or cut disappeared in a poof of orange smoke.

"What-" He tried to ask, but he was tackled in mid-air. He was flung through several branches on the way down, something big and heavy weighing him down like an anchor.

"Been a long time," Spoke a growling bark that Mikey recognized instantly. He kicked the heavy creature off of him and jumped to his feet. Rahzar, whose real name was Chris Bradford, Shredder's old righthand man and Mikey's ex-friend.

"Wanna help me find a bone for you?" Mikey replied, narrowing his aquamarine eyes. "Bad dog,"

Rahzar responded with a rumbling chuckle, "Oh, you have many bones I can feast on." Rahzar pounced for Mikey, claws sharp and fangs dripping with saliva.

Mikey rolled away from the snapping jaws and jumped to his feet to combat the razor sharp claws. Rahzar grabbed the kamas and tried to pull them from Michelanglo's hands, but the youngest turtle held strong.

Rahzar's snarling vanished into the forest until Michelangelo could no longer hear it. Actually, no that wasn't true. He could hear the rumbling, low growl that Rahzar was always making, but it reverberated off the trees making it difficult to pinpoint where the sound was coming from. He closed his eyes to fully give his senses to his ears. He could hear the rustling of leaves that blew past Rahzar's fur. The scratches of tree bark as he maneuvered above and around him.

A drop of saliva hit his forehead, giving him the split second to determine that Rahzar was above him. Mikey moved to the side as Rahzar pounced down, getting a mouthful of grass and dirt instead of turtle flesh. Michelangelo kept him in his line of sight as he used his smaller, faster frame against the mutant werewolf. He dodged and ducked under the exposed bone-claws until Rahzar was roaring in frustration.

Mikey ran up a tree to flip over and bring his kama down on Rahzar's snout. He used his other arm to reach under the wolf and sliced upward like he was disemboweling an animal, breaking the illusion of the spirit and awarding him with a poof of orange smoke. Mikey looked around, ready to face his next foe, but instead he saw his grandfather's spirit animal give him a soft nod of the head.

April sighed while she trekked up stream. Apparently, Master Yuuta wanted her to allow her powers to flow through her like a river. What was that supposed to mean? April thought she had been doing just that, she had certainly been using them more often lately. She supposed that she was still coming around to the idea that she was part  alien, but she had certainly accepted that it was part of her.

She stopped to admire the way the forest looked in the fog. She was scanning the river she was following when she saw the humanoid deer creature staring at her from across the stream. It tilted its head to the side and then looked up over her head as if seeing something behind her. In that same instant, April got that familiar tingle in the back of her neck that told her she was being watched or followed.

She spun, raising the blades of her new weapon up while staring into the forest. The purple color that her eyes spotted glowing in the dark made her irrationally angry. The purple color was hidden in the fog, but she could see it clearly thanks to her heightened senses. It came closer and closer and began to multiply. Soon, she was surrounded by dozens of Kraangdroids with their guns focused on her.

"Halt the one known as April O'Neil," Said one of the Kraang robots.

April felt her skin prickle with rage at the familiar, robotic pattern of speech. She hated the Kraang, everything about them. She threw out her blade and it stabbed into the abdomen of nearest Kraangdroid. She swung it around as best she could, knocking into the other robots. Some were disarmed but the rest were distracted enough for April to use the other blade like she had seen Mikey do many times before and swiped the robot's heads clean off.

Even after they disappeared in puffs of yellow smoke, April continued to flail her weapon around. She stabbed into the dirt where the robots fell over and over and over again. It wasn't enough that they were gone. She wanted them to have never existed. They had tormented her family for generations. They had kidnapped and experimented on her pregnant mother. They kidnapped and murdered her mother and then turned her reanimated corpse into a slave. They made it impossible for April to be the one thing she's always wanted to be. They made it impossible for April to be normal. She hated them, she hated the Kraang. She hated them for everything they had done! She hated them for everything! She hated the Kraang! She hated... What she was. What they made her. She hated the "gifts" she had been given. She hated that tingle in the back of her neck.

A kusarigama's chain shot up around her waist, binding her. The orange tiger's eye gemstone smacked her in the stomach as it secured itself around her midriff. "Such a pitiful display, little bird," giggled the witch with the kusarigama. "So sad, so hateful,"

"Fuck off, Shini!" April cried, thrashing around trying to get her weapon at her feet. April realized that, like the Kraang, Shinigami shouldn't have been in this forest. She was supposed to be in New York along with the Kraang. In a moment all that rage at herself, the Kraang, the world was gone and Leo's voice came back. "Master Yuuta said that you need to stop fighting the currents of the otherworldly abilities you have been given. You must allow your powers to flow through your body like a river, giving nutrients to power your  physical body."

"It must be painful to hold so much hatred for your own self." Shini kept going. "To fight off what gives you strength."

Allow your powers to flow through your body.

Despite seemingly being a part of the spiritual challenge, this apparition of Shinigami only kept a tight hold on April instead of knocking her around. April closed her eyes and tried to focus on her weapon by her feet. She tried to will it to her hand but when she felt her antenna stand, she froze. She could feel them, twitching and it made her ill. But not because they felt disgusting but because of how natural they felt. Like they had always been there, just waiting beneath the surface. Maybe because they were. Over the last year, since she really started developing her powers, she would always get migraines at the top of her head. But, since they appeared, the migraines hadn't been there. Because I could no longer fight them.

"Too deny a part of yourself,"

She tried to think back to when she had used her powers to deliver Master Yuuta's message. The antenna rested against the antlers of the deer and she felt her body tense. She always tensed when she used her powers. Always tried to fight it, even for a split second. Because she just didn't want to admit that she was truly a part of the Kraang. So she would try to stop it, and in turn she made herself ill. At least that was part of it. Part of it was just that her colliding DNA being at odds with one another.

"A part of you that makes you helpful to your friends,"

You must allow your powers to flow through your body like a river, giving nutrients to power your physical body.

"A part of you that could make you helpful to Miwa,"

Again, April closed her eyes and extended her antenna. She pushed through the twitch of her antenna that made her sick and fully focused on the blade on the ground. She pictured it in her mind, the rough shape and dull blade from her unskilled hands. The strung together metal meant to resemble a kusarigama but ending up looking more like the older counterpart. She tried to remember the feeling whenever she called her tanto. She strained her fingers and willed it to her.

"That part of that you hate, could save her,"

Her fingers found the hilt of the blade and she slashed through the chains binding her. She kicked Shini away from her and held her blade above her head with a victorious snarl. "I will do whatever it takes to save her!"

"Good," Shini smiled and bowed her head. Yellow smoke swirled around her and she poofed away with a wink of her lavender eyes.

"Casey, relax," Irma called after the geared up hockey player, her makeup only half done. "I'm sure they're fine!"

"And what if they're not?" Casey replied in a shout, whirling around and lifting his mask.

Irma's eyes widened at the genuine look of fear and worry on his face.

"Donnie and the others have been gone for three whole days, Irma! What if they were attacked by some crazy mutant we didn't know was out there? What if he needs my help?"

Irma closed the distance between her and her friend, taking his gloved hand in her's. "I know you're worried about Donnie and the others," She said calmly. "But they're ninja. I'm sure a little forest training won't be the most dangerous thing they'll face." Her eyes flickered over to where those baring the Hamato name had disappeared into the forest. One by one, she saw them emerge decked out in crazy new weapons but each wearing a satisfied, albeit tired, smile. "In fact, I think they're stronger than ever."

"Rest up everyone," Leo said once they reached the other two teenagers. "We're going back to New York."

Chapter Text

It was fitting that the way things unfurled. After the Hamato teens spiritual journeys, Leo told the team to take the rest of the week to rest up before they left on Friday for the city. Fittingly enough, as if the farmhouse was bidding them farewell, Kirby's old VHS tapes of Crognard went to the season three finale. Even though there were five seasons, Kirby didn't have any of the last two, so this was the last movie night the teens would be having at the old O'Neil home.

However, a cruel reminder that the teens had danger waiting for them popped up when Donnie moved to change the channel from live news. "Ever since the invasion that is known as the invasion of New York, humans want to know what is going on. Everything is... fine. No human is allowed in or out of the city until Kraan- uh, the military allows it. This is Carlos Kr-Chang O'Brien Gambe," It was one of the most popular news reporters in New York.

"Did the news guy seem a little Kraang-y to you?" Mikey asked, throwing popcorn at the screen when an image of Kraang Prime popped up.

"A little?" Raph scoffed at the rhetorical question.

April shook her head, "The Kraang may have the rest of the world fooled,"

"Somehow," Irma added softly.

"But not us." April finished popping her knuckles in a very Raph-esque way. "What's the plan, Leo?" She asked, turning to look at him with a small grin.

Leo moved the braid of his mask from over his scarred shell and behind his back. "Step one; storm the castle walls." He looked to his tallest brother, "Donnie, Irma, Casey, what'd you guys cook up?"

Donnie smiled, "It's not as heavily armored as the Shellraiser, but it's more maneuverable, has more weapons, and gets better gas mileage." He pulled some blueprints out of the box he had packed from the room he and Raph were staying in. It showed a souped up version of the Party Wagon.

"I thought the chainsaw from under the tires could be helpful taking out Kraang driving too close," Casey said, congratulating himself on his contributions to the new Turtle Tank. "Also, Mikey and I took the liberty of painting some sick ass designs on it!"

"Sorry, hope you don't mind us taking your dad's old van," Said Irma while putting a hand on her friend's shoulder.

April shrugged in response. "Its to help defeat the Kraang. My dad wouldn't mind."

"All right, team," Leo said, turning off the TV after the movie night mood was ruined. "We leave in the morning."

Mikey put his hand out for a hands-in cheer. "Let's do this!" The others put their hands in as well. "Booyakasha!"

Early the next morning, the teens woke to make their final preparations for the trip back. Irma and Casey went into town to sell the last bit of eggs they had while April went to visit the neighbor. Wearing a beanie, hoodie that covered her hands, and sunglasses, April informed him that she was leaving the farmhouse and would like him to check in on the chickens again. He agreed, saying that her father paid him well. But he also inquired what Kirby was doing while his daughter and two friends, one being a boy, were alone in the farmhouse for six months. April came up with a quick lie that he was abroad teaching a psychiatrist course.

Back at the farmhouse, the turtles started packing up the upgraded Party Wagon. Mikey was in charge of cleaning out the kitchen and making sure Ikky had enough ice to stay frozen for the next few hours. Donnie cleaned up the last bit of tech and experiments in his lab and hooked up the repaired hotrod to the back of the van. Raph carried down the boxes from the rest of the supplies the gang had gathered over the last six months. Leo did the last bit of cleaning to thank the old home for housing them while he recovered.

"Arrievederci, Dr. Cluckingsworth." Donnie said shaking the foot of the mutant chicken. The chicken then stepped in for a hug and bowed her head. "Remember that Mr. Hill will be by every morning around ten, so make sure you're well hidden."

Leo put his hand on April's shoulder, "Are you ready to go?"

April put her hand over his and nodded softly. "I'll be out in a second." She told him.

Once Leo cleared the front door, April went down into the basement. She hadn't been down here since the death of Mom-Thing, but she couldn't leave without a little goodbye. She arranged some of the gravel and rocks down there into a little memorial and wrote out her mother's name in the dirt. "Goodbye, mom. Thanks for everything. Watch over us, okay? I love you."

"¿Todos aquí?" Casey asked from the driver's seat once April climbed into the backseat with the turtles.

Irma looked back and did a quick head count. "Four turtles, one April, two us," She told him. "We're good."

"Next stop; New York!" Mikey exclaimed.

They were on the road for six hours, only stopping a couple times for gas and snacks. As they neared the entrance to the city, Leo reminded the team of the plan.

"Alright team, first we track down Master Splinter. Then we hunt for Miwa and free the city."

"You make it sound a lot easier than it will be." Donnie sighed.

"None of that sounded easy," Mikey said, slightly dejected at the daunting tasks ahead of them.

Raph looked to Leo, "So what's the plan, fearless leader? Ninja-y or all-out attack?" He asked, hoping for the latter but expecting the former.

"Ninja-y," Leo answered. "We park at the gate and sneak in. Once we clear the space, we'll get the Party Wagon through and hide it. Then we split up and search for Master Splinter." Then Leo leaned forward a bit to look at Irma, "Umm, do you wanna come with us or?"

She let out a breathy chuckle, "I'm not exactly a warrior. I can stay with the Party Wagon and keep you updated on what's going on with the Kraang while you look for your dad." She pulled out her new tPhone, showing she was an official part of the team now.

All the streets leading in and out of New York were completely deserted, all the signs said it was closed and that no one was allowed in. They were about a hundred meters from the gate when a spotlight turned on from above the entrance and blinded Casey. He slammed on the breaks while cursing.

"This is not good," Donnie muttered.

"Everyone quiet!" Leo ordered in a whisper. April squeezed in with the turtles underneath her old comforter and they did their best to be silent.

"Those soldiers are holding Kraang blasters," Casey whispered to Irma as they approached the van. "Be cool,"

"Got it," Irma said.

"Citizen! This Is EPF Quarantine Sector 7-B. Roll down your window."

Casey did as he was instructed and put on his best smile. "Evening, sir!"

"Authorized personnel only. No one goes in or out of New York City."

"Can't you make an exception?" Casey asked and put his arm around Irma. "My girl and I are visiting her parents and-"

"Authorized personnel only. No one goes in or out of New York City." Repeated the soldier, shifting the gun closer so that Casey could clearly see it.

"Whatever you say, army dude." Casey didn't break his smile. 

As the soldier walked away, Irma adjusted her glasses while she squinted. "What's that thing on the back of his neck?"

April dared to peak out of the blanket to see what she had. A small purple flash appeared underneath his skin in intervals of three seconds. "Leo, is that?"

Leo lifted the blanket to look. "Yeah, it must be the same device I took out of Kirby."

"Took out of him?" Casey asked, keeping his head facing forward.

"It's a Kraang mind control device," April explained. "Last year they put one in my dad and Leo had to remove it."

"Is that how he got that awesome scar?"

"Casey," Irma hissed.

"If one has one, I bet they all have them." Leo said. After a moment and removed the blanket entirely. "Scratch what I said. Ninja-y won't work." He sighed before his next order. "Go all-out, Casey. Everyone else, hold tight."

Casey smirked and flicked down his mask while the others braced themselves. Casey floored the gas and put down the armor that protected the windshields just in time for the Kraang-controled soldiers to start firing at them. Once it was clear the van was not going to stop, the soldiers dove out of the way as Casey plowed through the barrier. Luckily for the team, the streets behind the blockage were just as deserted, so Casey was able to swerve out of the laser fire while speeding further into the city.

The streets were completely abandoned with only memories of the former inhabitants. Abandoned vehicles and rubble from the Kraang takeover was all that was left of the city. Nearly every plant in sight had been transformed into the Kraang crystal trees they had discovered back in Dimension X.

"April, can you sense anyone? Any people?" Irma asked.

"Did they mutate everyone?" Mikey added.

April closed her eyes and pushed her headband back a bit so her antenna were free from where she pinned them down. "No, but most of the city. I can only get a read on a handful of people in any direction, but I'd say ninety-nine percent of the entire city is just... Gone. Millions of people gone!"

Chapter Text

With a disgusted snarl, Ivan Stranko retreated from the window. He returned to the fortified area of the base with a furious growl. "Have been months since aliens invasions. There must be way out of city!"

Anton Zeck sighed, lifting his head from the blow-up mattress the two of them had been sharing since the start of the invasion. Night after night, Stranko would say the same thing and look to him like Zeck had any clue of what to do. "Why not use one of your fancy tanks to get us out, Big Daddy?" He suggested.

Stranko sat down next to him, bouncing the smaller man nearly off the inflatable mattress. "How many times I must tells you? Show models only! I get them big discount."

Zeck sighed again and rubbed at his eyes. When he opened them, he saw a rat trying to pick out the remains of a soup can. "Man, I'm starving!" He complained. "All our food is gone, and we're down to moldly ketchup, dead cockroaches, and rats..." Zeck grabbed one of the last ketchup packets and lifted it to his mouth, only for Stranko to snatch it away. "Hey!"

"Secret headquarters mine," Stranko narrowed his bi-colored eyes. "Moldly ketchup mine. Cockroaches mine, rats mine."

"Oh, snap, Daddy S. That's cold-blooded!" Zeck laid dramatically across Stranko's lap, trying in vain to get some kind of sympathy from the Russian. "We gotta get outta this city, dog! We gotta get outta this city!" With each whine, his voice shrilled.

Stranko nodded in agreement and led Zeck back over to the only exposed window in the base where he had been spying on the outside world from. They watched dozens of Kraang patrol down the street, several scouting ships fly past, and a walker stalk by. "Only problem, no way out, Malýsh. When henchmen try to make out of city, they all gets mutate!" His lip curled in revulsion. "Ivan Stranko never turn into freak!"

Zeck pouted again. "But how are we gonna make it past a million alien robots? My invisibility field is totally jacked! I'm jacked!"

Stranko grabbed Zeck by the shoulders and pushed him down as a Kraang scouting ship scanned by their window. Once it was gone, he released the younger man. "Shredder is only one who can get us out of city."

"Yeah, but, that dude hates us." Zeck reminded him. "Remember? You and I tried to jack that stupid helmet?"

"We make deal." Stranko said plainly.

"That's brilliant, Papik Ivan! Brilliant!"

Stranko broke a rare smile but kept it shielded from his annoying companion. Russian, butchered but still attempted.

"So, uhh, whatdya we got that Shredder wants?"

They went back inside the base and Stranko dug around in a desk drawer before pulling out a small black device. "Is old Shredder communicator from back in day. Never turn off, still update." He hit a couple buttons and a hologram of a teenage girl appeared. It was a rather blurred image, but she appeared to be Asian with short black hair and a mask covering the lower half of her face. "We find her, Miwa Hamato."

Zeck squinted at the blurred image. Sure, he was good at finding people, but this picture was barely a help.

Stranko then changed the picture to that of a large snake mutant with heads for hands. It was ripping apart a Kraangdroid and the last update said this was the last known sighting of her. "She was mutate by same stuff that make turtle freaks. Shredder has look for her for year now. Is obsessed with finding."

"She his daughter or somethin'?" Zeck asked, recoiling from the creature that replaced the blurry but beautiful girl.

"No. Not sure why he want her."

"Whatever, so you're sayin' we can use her as a bargaining chip with Shredder to get out out of this trash heap?"

Stranko nodded, "Da. Oroku Saki will have no choice."

In the boarded up Antonio's Pizza-Rama, the Hamato team had been taking care of cleaning up the abandoned restaurant and apartment. They figured that whoever owned the restaurant and apartment was one of the millions of victims of the Kraang invasion. Hopefully, they had fled New York before the city went into lockdown, but it was more than likely that they had become Kraang Zombies. Still, they were staying somewhere they didn't belong and weren't invited. So they did their best to care for their temporary home so that it was prepared for the owners' return.

Unlike the farmhouse, no one felt comfortable sleeping in the beds that were left behind, so they made use of what they had. They had moved the couch into the restaurant and dug out some sleeping bags they had grabbed while staying in the farmhouse to make a sleeping area.

Now that they were reunited with Splinter, the teenagers were keeping an eye on him. After months of being in and out of his own mind and barely being able to keep himself alive, the toll had taken effect on the rat. Leo had practically ordered Splinter to stay on bedrest on the couch, and they each took a turn watching him and aiding in his recovery. He slipped back into his regressed state from time-to-time, but April was able to help him with meditation. Still, he was recovering well, at least, that's what he said. Leo kept an eye on his physical recovery, and though it had only been a week since they had moved into the pizzeria, he was getting stronger by the day.

"You okay, Sensei?" Mikey asked. He rushed to his father's side as the rat sat up, noting the distressed expression on his face.

"Hm?" Splinter looked at Mikey and gave a slight nod. "Forgive me, Michelangelo," He said, patting his son's head reassuringly. "My thoughts are... elsewhere." April stepped closer but he held his hand up to stop her. "It is very dangerous out there. Casey and your brothers have been gone for a long time."

He was right, of course. The four of them went on a mission into the sewers and city to bring back supplies. But what was supposed to take only an hour had turned in several without any contact back to the others.

"Don't worry, Splinter," Irma tried to reassure him. "They planned to make several stops, right? I know my apartment is pretty far from here, but I'm sure if they ran into trouble they would've called Mikey and April."

"Yes, I am sure you are right." Splinter nodded, though his expression didn't ease.

While Mikey tried to distract his father, April and Irma went into the back of the kitchen area where Donnie had set up shop as a makeshift lab. He had left a new batch of retro-mutagen brewing while he was gone, but he had secured it in case someone, Mikey, came into the back for whatever reason. Hopefully they'd be able to get their hands on more mutagen for Donnie to use because the batch he had now was the last of what they had back at the farmhouse. Brewing retro-mutagen took so much regular mutagen for very little in return, and it took weeks to develop properly.

"Do you think this batch will work on the Kraang Zombies?" April asked Irma, who had been helping Donnie the most with the chemical parts of the brewing process.

"Well, that's the plan," Irma answered. April's hopeful smile dropped and Irma hugged her friend. "The results from the perfected mutagen has been tested yet. But if it doesn't work, then all we need to do is get some of perfected mutagen for Donnie to work with." Then Irma pulled away and looked back to where Mikey and Splinter were talking. In a low voice, she said, "But you know who this batch is waiting for, right?"

Miwa...

As much as April knew Donnie wanted to de-mutate everyone the Kraang had gotten their tentacles on, Miwa was at the very top of the Hamato's list. And she couldn't argue with it. April missed her friend so much it hurt, and she wanted her back just as much as her siblings and father did.

"Yeah," April answered with a shrug. "It's only fair we save her first. She's saved me too many times for me to argue that." Then she smiled again and bumped Irma with her hip playfully. "I can't wait for you two to properly meet. I think you'll hit it off."

"Properly?" Irma raised an eyebrow. "I haven't met her, April."

"Actually, you did once." Mikey said. He and Splinter had probably overheard their conversation despite Irma's whispers. "Remember when Stockman kidnapped you?"

Irma looked surprised that they knew about that. "How did- Wait, was she the girl who saved me?"

"Yeah!" Mikey nodded. "Did we not tell you that?"

Irma shook her head.

"Miwa..." Splinter muttered, clearly not following the conversation.

A knock on the side restaurant door interrupted them and Casey, Leo, Raph, and Donnie came in with boxes of items.

"Score!" Raph laughed, showing off the spoils of their adventure.

"Yo, Don, where you want me to put these chemicals?" Casey asked, carrying a box of stuff clearly taken from the lab back in the lair.

"Under the sink," Donnie answered him, setting down several boxes of food and bottled water.

"You were not hurt?" Splinter asked, attempting to stand but was stopped by Mikey. "Not followed?"

"All clear, Splinter," Leo assured him and set down a couple boxes of keepsakes. "And even though the Kraang were on our shells, we didn't forget to grab these." Leo pulled out a stack of the last photographs left in the lair. Some had obviously been damaged by the fire months ago, but most of them were still untouched.

Splinter took the photos and flipped through them slowly. "You boys did a great job."

"And we got Mikey's big request," Raph said and pulled out the TV from the lair.

"TV!" Mikey cheered and hugged Raph tightly. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" He laughed. "Now we can find the last two seasons of Crognard!"

Raph patted his brother's head, "Yeah, yeah, let go."

"Seems like the place is almost home," Casey said, pulling out some stuff from his own apartment. He held a small doll that belonged to his sister and frowned slightly. "Except... My sister and dad are still missing..."

"No home will be completely without our missing family," Splinter agreed to his somber statement.

Casey wiped at his face and put the doll back into the box. "Can't worry about them right now," He said with a forced laugh. "They're probably with the Kraang so..." He cleared his throat even as Donnie put a hand on his shoulder. "Uhh, isn't the next part of the plan to find Miwa?"

"Right," Leo nodded, frowning at the facade Casey was putting on. "The longer she's out there alone, the more she's a risk of losing her humanity. April, you said she's still in New York, right?" The redhead nodded. "Then we just have to keep looking."

"I know it's different because Stockman was messing with the mutagen she fell in, but I think I can help her." April said confidently. "I got through to you, Master." 

"You did," Splinter nodded. He drew his brows together while he tried to recall through the hazy memories of the past few months. "I saw her only a few days ago roaming the streets at night. But I was not in my right mind to help her..."

"It's okay, Master," Donnie said. "Do you remember where? I've been updating all of my surveillance tech, and I'm just a few days off from finishing more retro-mutagen! If we can use April and my Spy-Roaches, we can find her!"

Raph got to his feet and punched his fist. "Then what're we waitin' for? Let's do this!"

"Right," Leo nodded and switched his crutches for his blades. "Irma, you stay here with Splinter." It was already a given Irma was staying behind, seeing as she was a non-combatant. "She won't recognize you and it'll probably just agitate her."

"Fair," Irma nodded.

"I do not need a caretaker," Splinter said.

"Then stop trying to leave the restaurant," Leo replied sternly, almost like he was chastising one of his younger brothers.

"Do not speak to your father that way, Leonardo." Splinter said, though there was no conviction in his tired voice.

At Shredder's cathedral, Shredder glared down at his subordinates who knelt beneath his throne. "You continue to fail in your search to find Miwa." His gaze was hyperfixfated on Fujiwara, though his wrath was directed at all of them regardless.

"Ehh, Master Shredder," Xever tried to defend himself. "Miwa is just too scaly--" His eyes widened and he scrambled to correct himself. "I mean stealthy-- and this city is so big..."

"She's as slippery as a serpent!" Bradford added before realizing his mistake and slammed a paw over his muzzle. "Um, I mean... We've looked everywhere, Master!"

"Is the cub really the main concern, Master?" Tiger Claw asked. "Shouldn't the Kraang be a top priority?"

Fujiwara was thankful to be working with such idiots, as their careless tongues drew the Master's ire away from her.

Shredder snarled and slammed his fist down on his marble throne, silencing the three mutants. "You will find her, or I will turn you all over to Stockman! He is growing bored of having little experiment subjects. Disappointing that the fly has been the most useful of my clan as of late."

"Thank you, Ma-zzz-ter," Stockman bowed his head.

"Yes, Master!" Bradford lowered his head. He couldn't think of anything less appealing than a third mutagen bath.

"Eh, no problem! Estamos nisso!" Xever all but outright cowered.

"Of course, Master," Tiger Claw sighed.

Fujiwara bowed her head softly, "As you say, Master."

As the four of them left the cathedral, Xever began to chuckle.

"What's so funny?" Bradford snarled at the fish.

"I just had the realization that little miss Deusa da Morte is the only non-mutant left serving under Master Shredder."

Fujiwara felt all of their eyes on her, but she did her best to hold her head up high and to appear unafraid of the revelation. "Perhaps it is because I am too pretty to become a yokai like the rest of you." She giggled.

"Or because you are already dangling above another pit," Tiger Claw growled, a satisfied smirk on his face.

Fujiwara kept her face unchanged, but dread filled her stomach. Tiger Claw knew about Mori... What else did he know?

Starting at the street where Splinter last remembered seeing Miwa, the Hamato looked for any sign that she was around. They exited the Party Wagon after parking it somewhere safe nearby and climbed out to do their search on foot.

"You getting any readings, Donnie?" Raph asked, standing on top of the Party Wagon.

Donnie pulled down his goggles and looked around the dark street. He walked a couple of feet before stopping behind a dumpster. "I found trace amounts of mutagenized DNA..." He moved the dumpster and came back to the others with a handful of something the color of sand. "Snake cell/human hybrid DNA sequencing... It's definitely Miwa!"

"What are those?" Casey asked, looking at the objects in Donnie's gloved hands.

"Look like potato chips," Mikey said, reaching for them. "Guess even snakes like to snack, probably stale but..."

Donnie smacked Mikey's hand away before he grabbed one of them. "These are snake scales, dummies. Miwa must be shedding."

"Eww, cool," Casey stuck his tongue out at Donnie.

"Do you sense her nearby?" Leo asked April.

April shook her head in response. "No, but that doesn't mean she couldn't be. Being around all this," she waved her hand, gesturing to all the mutated plants around them. "Is throwing me off."

"That's okay," Leo put a hand on her shoulder to reassure her. "We can follow Donnie's DNA trail. Lead the way, Dee."

Now that Donnie had a read on Miwa's mutated DNA, he could scan the streets for a signal of her location. He put the scales into his mission bag in case he needed them for further batches of retro-mutagen.

Zeck scanned the street with his vision, picking up several hidden Kraang Zombies on his thermal setting.

"Ooh, snake-girl is close. This is funky fresh." Stranko held up a large layer of shedded snake skin. "I am better hunter than my brother!"

Zeck gagged at the sight of the skin and looked back down to the street. "Stop messing' with that fuck-nasty skin. What we want is right down there, son! Heh heh!" He caught the heat signature of the snake mutant rummaging through a trash can. She was probably just as hungry as he was. "So stupid," He laughed at her, "She thinks she's hiding!"

"Da." Stranko chortled as he got into position, aiming an electrified net-gun in the direction Zeck pointed. "When she come out, I make her go sleepy nap time." He saw the head poke out and he inhaled softly. "Устойчиво..." He reminded himself. Then something green and orange moved into his scope, blowing a raspberry at him while making its eyes go cross-eyed. "Turtle-face?" A projectile hit his gun, breaking off the scope. "Oh! Mother Russia!"

"Leave our sister alone!" Leo said through gritted teeth. He stood on a higher rooftop accompanied with Raph and Donnie, while Mikey, Casey, and April went after Miwa.

"Aw, man! Not these freaks again!" Zeck whined.

"Freaks?" Raph repeated, eyeing the man in the Tron inspired purple jumpsuit. "Try lookin' in a mirror."

Zeck then lifted his visor with a confused face. "Wait, how can turtles be siblings with a snake? That don't make sense."

"Da, next you say parents are lizard."

"Rat, actually," Donnie corrected.

Zeck threw out the laser that came from his purple mohawk, causing the turtles to spread out. Raph and Donnie took on Zeck while Leo went for Stranko.

"Finish them off, one and for alls!" Stranko opened his weapon bag and pulled out a machine gun that he immediately fired at the turtle. Leo deflected some of the bullets and ran away from the rest. "You are like fleas on back of powerful Russian bear!"

Both Zeck and Stranko were good at keeping the turtles at a distance, quickly frustrating the trio. Donnie even more so, with Zeck's repeated he-hes and sham-ons. "Why does he keep making those noises?"

"He's just trying to distract you!" Leo shouted over the gun and laser fire.

Raph managed to sneak up on Stranko and jammed the barrel. Stranko snarled and kicked the weapon away before donning a pair of brass knuckles that he smashed into Raph's face. Raph returned the snarl and charged back at Stranko, swiping his sai for the large Russian's face before he landed a solid kick in his ribs.

"Comrade Zeck," Stranko called. Zeck dodged one of Donnie's bō swings and stood next to Stranko without question. Stranko pulled out a stun grenade and threw it at the turtles. When the blinding light and ear-ringing stopped, the two were gone.

"Should we go after them?" Raph asked Leo, hoping for a yes but knowing it was the opposite.

"No, we gotta go help the others with Miwa. She's more important than them." Leo answered.

Donnie led them towards Murakami's abandoned restaurant and they heard yelling coming from inside. There were several broken Kraangdroids around and Mikey, Casey, and April had Miwa cornered behind the counter.

"Miwa, chill!" Casey yelled.

"Don't yell at my sister!" Mikey shouted at Casey.

"You're making it worse," April tried to hush them.

"Miwa, it's us," Donnie lifted his goggles as the three joined the others.

She hissed in response, her eyes flicking around for a possible way of escape.

"Miwa, its your little brothers," Mikey pleaded with her. "It's okay, we won't hurt you."

"Miwa, remember us!" Leo said.

"Yeah, Mi, we're your friends." Casey said.

"Remember who you are!" Raph begged.

She hissed again and snapped at Mikey, who was the closest to her.

Donnie sighed, "She's becoming more snake-like by the day. She doesn't understand us."

"Yes, she does," April stepped closer, holding her pink hand up. "I know you remember me, Miwa. I know I've changed, but its still me. You're changing too, but we wanna help you."

Miwa hissed in her face, showing off her fangs in an effort to frighten April. It didn't work, all April did was bare her own sharp teeth in response. Miwa turned to her to the side and allowed April's fingers to brush against her nose. "April..." She said slowly.

"Yes, it's me!"

Miwa then let out a pained shriek and her body twisted and contorted. They moved to grab her, to try and help in anyway, but then they realized her body had changed. Almost reverted to her true, non-mutant form. Almost. Her skin was still clearly scales despite the human appearance, retaining the sandy white color as her snake form. Her eyes were still the blinding, serpent green, and her fangs stayed as well. Her ears had sharpened and gotten a bit longer, like April's. Her fingers were abnormally long for her hand, with the tips curling into dark brown claws. Her tail had shrunken to be behind her legs, also ending in the dark brown color of her fingers. She was still dressed in the clothing she had be mutated in, but it was ripped and barely held together, the breastplate misshapen and hanging around her skinner frame. Her hair had grown out, coming down nearly to her shoulders now. The piercings Casey had given her the day she was taken by the Foot were also still there, as was the purple eyeliner and lipstick, embedded in her scales.

"Woah!" Mikey gasped, shocked that she had shapeshifted.

She lifted her head and looked at them. In a raspy whisper, she begged them, "Help...me. Pleassssse..." Her forked tongue flicked out with hiss.

Her brothers moved to embrace her, but she sat back against the wall and wrapped her arms around her, almost rolling into a ball.

"Miwa, come back with us." Leo said softly.

"No," She answered with a soft shake of her head. "Tooo... Dangerousssss..."

"You're not dangerous," Raph dismissed her worries. "You're our sister! You can't hurt us."

"Yessss, I can..." She answered hopelessly. "Not sssssaaffffeeee..."

"I told ya I smelled turtles!" Cackled Rahzar, standing in the doorway of the shop.

"Thank you for making our job a whole lot easier!" Fishface joined him.

Despite her brothers and friends trying to protect her, Miwa began to panic and soon she shapeshifted back into her snake form. She slithered under Casey's feet and swiped one of her snake hands at Fishface, who barely dodged her.

Rahzar slammed his massive paw into the armored part of her torso, knocking her down enough for Fishface to wrap an restraining pole around her neck. It looked similar to one a dog-catcher might use, but this one was clearly made by Stockman and designed for Miwa. It electrocuted her, making her shriek in pain.

"Stay away from my sister!" Leo shouted, stabbing for Rahzar.

"You have done enough to her!" Raph yelled. "Leave her alone!"

Rahzar smacked Leo away and hoisted the unconscious Miwa over his shoulder. Fishface smirked and stepped in front of them, keeping the teens trapped behind the counter of the small shop. "Have a whiff of poison, escória de tartaruga!" He threw down what looked to be a smoke bomb, but quickly revealed itself to be so much more.

Instantly, the shop filled with a toxic gas that had everyone coughing and gasping for air.

Casey, who was luckily wearing his hockey mask after the two Shredder goons entered the shop, ran over to the door. He pulled out his bat and smashed all the glass that he could to try and air the shop out before he went back for the others. "Come on, we gotta move!"

Mikey and Donnie both used their weapons as makeshift fans to try and blow the gas out of the shop while Casey helped Leo and Raph, who got the worst of it. April joined Donnie and Mikey, using Miwa's tessen to help fan out the gas as they escape to the street.

"We can't... let them get away!" Leo coughed, halfway dry-heaving on the sidewalk. "April, which...way did they go?"

"Nice job back there, amigo," Xever complimented Bradford as they approached the motorcycle Stockman had made for the snakehead mutant. "I'll take her to Master Shredder." He bowed slightly, offering his arms.

Bradford took the unconscious snake-girl, now in a humanoid form, from his shoulder and dropped her into Xever's arms. "Yeah, better you or me." He said with a low chuckle. "Get the two of us into the Master's good graces for once..." Bradford paused, seeing the fish drape the girl over the back of the bike. "Wait, why do you get to take her to Shredder?"

Xever smirked, "Because you are too big and bony to ride this bike. Meaning, I'll get to him first."

"Watch it, sashimi lips!" Bradford grabbed the fish off the bike with a snarl.

"Ey! Get your claws off me!" Xever snapped his poisonous jaws at Bradford, making him drop Xever. He flicked out his switchblades in warning.

Just as the two were about to go at it, Zeck dropped down from where he and Stranko had been trailing the turtles and landed on the bike. "Haha! Thanks for the ride, freaky fellas!" He sped off before the two shocked mutants could respond or react.

"Huh?" Bradford blinked.

"Quem era?" Xever dropped his switchblade.

April had led the group far enough to see the man in the purple and black jumpsuit speed off on a motorcycle, Miwa on the back. "Look! There she is!"

"No!" Leo shouted. "Miwa..."

The sun was just coming up over the tallest buildings in New York when Zeck arrived at his and Stranko's rendezvous spot.

"Ho ho!" Stranko's eyes widened in surprise. "is nice work, Comrade Zeck!" He admired the motorcycle. "You get snake-girl and steal cool-looking motor scooter!"

"I barely made it, Big S!" Zeck collapsed once he was safe inside their base. "The streets are full of Kraang. Let's dial up Shredder and get the hell outta dodge."

Stranko nodded and walked over to his old communication device, "Da, da, I dial now." He made sure the encryption on the device his old men had installed before becoming Kraang Zombies would keep his base hidden before he dialed. "Привет, Is Stranko."

Zeck noticed a cockroach on Stranko's shoulder pad and was once again reminded of how hungry he was. He started trying to grab the bug, but only began to annoy his comrade. Stranko waved him away, "You got a cockroach on your dang--" He whispered.

"Прекратите! Shush! Is Shredder!" Stranko pushed him away while covering the mouthpiece of the communicator. He turned his back to Zeck and went back to his deep, serious, negotiation voice. "We has your snake girl. Make deal. Da, at docks. One hour! До свидания." He hung up and turned back to Zeck, "All is according to plan." Then he plucked the cockroach from his shoulder and went to put in his mouth before noticing Zeck's face. With a sigh, he handed over the cockroach for Zeck to eat.

The Hamato team rushed to the docks to wait for the exchange of their sister.

"Donnie, are you sure they'll be here?" Casey asked, leaning on Donnie's shoulder while looking at the screen of his surveillance app.

"I planted a whole bunch of spy roaches on Stranko and Zeck during the fight earlier. I'm pretty sure they ate most of them, but there's still a couple left." Donnie replied.

"Wait, which one is which?" Mikey asked.

"Pretty sure Stranko is the big Russian dickwad with the brass knuckles," Raph commented, rubbing his jaw where a bruise was forming.

"So Zeck is the Michael Jackson wannabe?" April asked.

"Seems like it," Donnie said.

Leo shushed them and pointed down towards the boatyard. "There they are."

Zeck was picking some cockroach legs out of his teeth when Shredder made himself known. "So, the thief who stole from me desires to make a deal. Where is Miwa?"

Zeck smirked and pointed to the door of the harbor master, where Stranko came out. Miwa was awake now, and back in her snake form, hissing and trying to slither away. Her snake hands were bound behind her back with rope, and Stranko was practically dragging her by the neck over to Shredder.

Stranko stopped before he reached Zeck, keeping himself at a safe distance. "You get us out of city safe. You get girl. That is deal."

Shredder responded coldly with a shake of his head. "I don't make deals." Rahzar climbed over one of the shipping containers, Fishface came out of the ocean, Shinigami appeared close behind Stranko, and Tiger Claw flew down on his jetpack to land next to Shredder. "But perhaps, this is worth the exception." His words seemed to surprise his subordinates, though none of them said anything. "Give me Miwa, and you will leave this city alive."

"Let her go..." Leo stood on the taller shipping container, looking down at the deal unfolding. "And I'll let all of you walk away alive!" Leo drew his blades and the others came out of hiding, each brandishing their weapons.

Fishface pounced first, lunging for Zeck and nearly getting his leg in his jaws. Zeck was more acrobatic than the fish expected, however, and did a backhand spring to get away from him. "Back off, fish-man!"

Raph, Donnie, Mikey, and Leo all ran at Shredder, trying to keep him distracted. Mikey smacked him hard with the handle of his nunchuck, but Shredder merely backhanded him away. Then Leo stabbed for Shredder's exposed shoulders, but was caught by the madman.

"I'll enjoy breaking you again," He said, before he kicked Leo away and swung his blades down to further break Leo's shell.

Raph charged in just in time and threw all his weight against Shredder, making his tekko-kagi dig into the wooden docks instead. Shredder snarled and grabbed Raph by the feet, throwing him off and at Donnie, who was running in to hit him with his warhammer. He then dodged the shuriken Mikey threw at him and stomped back down on Leo's plastron, right where his blades had carved into bone and cartilage.

"You are nothing to me!" He yelled.

"Leo!" Raph shouted, the fear and agony of losing Leo again so profound in his voice. What if he lost him for good this time?

Leo stopped his shaking and looked up defiantly at the monster above him. He raised his blade but at the last moment, hit the button that exchanged it for his crutch leg. The unexpected transformation of the weapon noticeably distracted Shredder, allowing Leo to get him hard in the neck. Leo then kicked Shredder away with both his legs, clearing enough space for Leo to roll away from him. Leo got to his feet and turned the crutch back into his sword. "We’re just getting started!" Leo replied in a battle stance.

Fishface struggled against Zeck, whose hip lasers and explosive energy mohawks took down the mutant. However when Zeck was celebrating with more moonwalking and poor Michael Jackson impressions, Fishface got the jump on him. After coming back out of the ocean, he nailed Zeck with a hard kick, knocking him through the wooden dock master’s office. Another hard kick to the head knocked out the man.

"Thank god, I can hear myself think again." Xever muttered. "You talk too much, and that means a lot coming from me."

Rahzar and Tiger Claw both went for Stranko. None of them noticed April and Casey sneaking towards Miwa, who was still bound by Stranko’s feet.

"Hand over the girl," Tiger Claw ordered.

Stranko tugged the rope around Miwa’s neck up, making her head chest height with the two mutants. She instantly started hissing and snapping at them, "Attack, vicious Snake-Woman!" Stranko instructed her, as if she was following orders instead of blindly trying to protect herself.

Tiger Claw grabbed Stranko and threw him away from Miwa. "Get the girl," He told Rahzar before he pounced on Stranko, who was making a run for his weapons bag.

Rahzar grabbed for the ropes binding Miwa, but was hit by an explosive hockey puck that knocked him back.

"Here, boy," Casey jeered, speaking like he was trying to get a dog’s attention. "Come on, here, boy!" He whistled while skating around Rahzar and jabbing at him with his hockey stick. "Wanna play fetch?"

Fueled by anger, Rahzar ran after Casey, leaving sudden Shini and April in a standoff.

"New look, little bird?" Shinigami asked, keeping a foot pressed against Miwa’s shoulder blades and trapped against the dock.

"Let her go," April snarled, unsheathing her tanto and wielding Miwa’s tessen.

"I can help her," Shinigami said, her playful tone gone while she looked down sadly at Miwa. "With Stockman, we can likely restore her mind."

"I can help her," April retorted. "I know you watched me reach Splinter. I felt you there, watching. You hadn’t gone for Shredder yet, you saw me."

Shini’s averted gaze over to where Shredder was battling the turtles proved April was right. "And if that does not work?" She asked quietly.

"We have a retro-mutagen," April said. "A way to turn her back."

Shini’s eyes widened at that and she paused, genuinely taking in what April had told her. "A way to turn her back..." She repeated softly. Then she threw out her kusarigama chain, binding April and pulling her towards herself and Miwa. April cursed and struggled but stopped when Shini whispered in her ear. "It needs to look like a fight. Hit me as hard as you can, knock me away and cut the rope."

April wasn't sure how to take this, but she wasn't going to look a gift witch in the mouth. Not when it came to protecting Miwa from the Shredder. So she gave Shini a small nod and felt the golden-eyed girl release her binds a bit. April twisted her arms up, raising the chains enough to slip out from when Shinigami quickly pulled the two ends of the chain together. It wrapped around April's neck, choking her for a moment before Shini pulled her into a gut-kick and sent her sprawling to the ground. "What the-" April started.

"It needs to look like a fight," Shinigami replied spinning out her crescent blades. "Surely you can do better than that, little bird?" She teased, her voice purposely louder this time.

Even when trying to help, Shinigami was a bitch! April straightened, getting back into a battle stance while looking for an opening. April sliced for Shini's face with the tessen and watched the pendulum come from the right. She raised her hand holding her tanto so it was vertical. Once the gemstone went around, she ducked away from it's reach and with a flick of her wrist, wrapped it around her blade and sent it right back for Shini. It hit the witch in the chest, wether it was intentional on the witch's part or not, April couldn't tell. Then April used the movement of Shini being knocked backwards to slice the ropes off of Miwa.

Miwa sprang to life, slithering out from under Shini and flinging her off the dock with her tail. She looked confused but didn't fight it when April knelt next to and took her head in her hands.

April wanted to try and reach her here, but it was just too risky with so many foes around. "Miwa, you have to go," She told her. "Hurry. Don't let them take you."

Miwa blinked in understanding and pointed her right snake-hand to the east. "Comet," She hissed weakly. "Comet," She repeated.

"Comet?" April asked her. "What does that-"

"Miwa!" Shredder shouted, finally seeing what was happening.

Miwa dove into the water, vanishing under the waves.

"Kraang-girl!" Shredder shouted, dropping Raph from where he was choking him into a drop kick. "My blade is now for your neck!"

"Now!" Leo yelled. The six Hamato teens pulled out smoke bombs and disappeared in the clouds.

Shredder yelled in a blind fury and punched one of the metal shipping containers hard enough to dent it. Then he turned to where his four subordinates had bound the unconsciousthief and old weapons dealer. "Someone will pay for this." He growled. "Take them to Stockman's laboratory. Seems he'll get to have his fun after all."

"April, what happened back there?" Raph asked, fuming at the redhead. "You had her!"

"It was too dangerous," April argued, pushing his hand off her shoulder. "I needed time that we didn't have!"

"What if we don't find her again?" Raph shouted.

Leo stepped between them, glaring his twin brother down. "We'll find her. We still have Donnie's tech and April's sense. Calm down."

Raph scoffed, but didn't argue anymore. He stocked over to a trashcan and began to pound on it to let his anger out.

"You okay?" Leo asked April with a gentle hand on her shoulder, worry in his shining sapphire eyes.

April smiled and put her hand over his, "Yeah. Raph doesn't scare me." Then she turned to the others, all looking as equally dejected as Raph. "And she gave me a clue where she is, though. She pointed east... And repeated "comet" twice."

Deep within the dimly lit bowels of Stockman's lab, Stranko and Zeck were awaken from icy cold water being poured over them. Without an explanation from Xever or Bradford, the two were dragged to their feet and made to walk from the cage they were being kept in. As they approached the glowing cyan light source, they caught glimpses of the fly-scientist making final checks on the set up of whatever awaited them. They were finally stopped above a pit in the floor, giving them a view of what was planned for their sins.

Two screens were placed above their heads, each holding all the personal information known about one of the men. Even more frightening was the anatomy scans of an animal next to the scans of their own anatomy that must've been taken when they were unconscious.

Anton Zeck, Male, Date of Birth: 10 December, 1989, Age: 24, Ethnicity: African American. Family: Kate Zeck - Alive (Mother), Jack Zeck - Alive (Father), Amber Zeck-Harris - Alive (Sister).

Zeck whimpered, seeing the Phacochoerus africanus or Common Warthog next to himself. Xever laughed maliciously next to him, holding his chains tightly so that he couldn't escape. "Some excellent DNA to be spliced with, don't you agree meu amigo?"

Bradford let out a barking cackle, "I wouldn't wanna be a warthog. A warthog!"

Ivan Stranko, Male, Date of Birth: 22 January, 1967, Age: 47, Ethnicity: Russian. Family: Sviatoslava Stranko - Deceased (Mother), Pavel Stranko - Deceased (Father), Boltak Stranko - Alive (Brother).

Stranko just stood frozen in terror seeing what was next to himself. Чёрный носорог. A black rhinoceros.

"Help me, Big Daddy!" Zeck grabbed at Stranko's jacket. "I don't wanna be a mutant! You guys are old pals, right? Talk of sense into him! I'm too handsome-- both men and ladies would agree! I'm too sexy!"

"Silence your mewling," Shredder demanded with his booming deep voice. "You stole my sacred helmet. Hunted my ward. Your fates are sealed."

Despite Shredder's anger and dismissal, Stranko tried to plead anyway. "Oh, no! Shredder, how long have known each other? It is ten years! Huh? I supply you weapon for army! I ask little in return!"

Shredder just narrowed his dark, cold, dead eyes. "Your insolent begging is pathetic, Stranko."

Shinigami stood down with Stockman, watching the fly type away awkwardly with his misshapen hands. When he buzzed with a nod of his head, she poofed up to where her Master stood. Stockman pulled a lever and metallic claw unfolded from the top of the machine and pumped a red vial into the tank of mutagen. The liquid bubbled, the top of it turning red for a moment before it mixed into the cyan color.

"Anton Zeck is first for stealing the Kuro Kabuto." Shredder said, more so to the victims of his wrath than to his subordinates.

Zeck tried to back away, to fight his way out of this fate, but was held by the stronger snakehead mutant. Xever just slowly pushed him towards the pit that opened into the mutagen vat, despite his whimpering and whispered begging. "Can we just talk about this, G?" He squealed. The last thing he saw before he was pushed was Xever's sinister smirk.

Stranko tried to avert his gaze by looking away, but the screen's once showing their information flashed to a wide-side of the laboratory where he could see Zeck's mutation in all its glory.

The burning pain wasn’t immediate, but more of a gradual build. At first, it felt like he was being drowned in a pool of thick glue. Then it started to heat up. Slowly, just by a couple of degrees, everything began to burn within the glue and he couldn’t escape it. Parts of his jumpsuit began to melt into his skin, seeping down into the bone. And, oh, god, now he started to feel the humidity of the ooze. It felt like he was getting covered in a blanket of thick hair.

Then it really started. He felt his ears begin to close, like they were being sewn shut. As the thread was being pulled tighter and tighter, his hearing began to fade out, leaving him the only mercy of no longer hearing himself choke and scream on the sludge. Then something out of his skull began to change. It first felt like something had hit him on both sides of his head, breaking open his skull and allowing something foreign to grow out of the opening. His hearing returned just as slowly as it left him the first time.

His jaw began to ache, noticeably even throughout the pain in his skull and burning ooze. Then it began to throb, with each pulse of pain bloating it out and making it swell. His teeth were changing too, especially his bottom incisors. They were growing, sharpened, stabbing top lip before they grew up past his lip towards his nose.

His nose, oh, god his nose... His face was flattening out, pulling out into a snout. His nostrils were pinched upwards and stretched bigger. He was able to grab a hold of his face, trying to protect it from any further damage. Instead, his cheekbones juddered out, sticking out of place.

That was when he blacked out. If it wasn't lack of oxygen it was from the pain. Either way, the mutation didn't stop just because its victim had passed out. The bones in his fingers cracked and snapped in half back into each other where they fused. Five became four, four became three. Out of his tailbone grew a thin tail coming just down past his knees with wiry hair. His feet twisted into hooves, five toes becoming two.

And just like that it was over. In actuality, the whole mutation was over in less than twenty-three seconds. But the damaged was already done. The bottom of the tank opened and the mutant warthog was dumped out onto the metal flooring with holes designed to let the mutagen drain and drip down after each use. After a couple of moments of laying there motionless, Zeck began to stir. He whimpered and squealed in agony, "Oh, no! Look at me! I'm a fucking warthog!"

Stockman refilled up the tank with more mutagen curtesy of the Kraang and inserted the rhinoceros DNA.

Satisfied, Shredder turned his attention to the shocked and disgusted Stranko. "And now... Ivan Stranko, my "old friend." Your animal is apropos."

Stranko shook his head in desperation. "Let us become reasonable! I am more useful to you as normal guy," Stranko tried to step around the hexagon-shaped opening above the mutagen tank, trying to reach Shredder. "Not mutant!" He couldn't save Zeck now, all he could do was try to save himself. Shredder said nothing. Realizing that he couldn't reason with Shredder, Stranko tried to make a run for it, but one swipe of Bradford's large claw sent him down into the mutagen.

Unlike with Zeck, the mutagen was already burning when Stranko fell in. His face started melting, his eyes sliding to the sides of his face while the bridge of his nose broke. In two places, he could feel something large and heavy growing out from his nose. His skin burned and prickled, his hair burning down to the base of his skin. His body expanded, he felt like he was being blown up like a hot air balloon. His teeth spiked out of his curled lips.

The spiked shoulder pads of his military jacket burned and fused into his skin, as did the brass knuckles. Five fingers fused into just four, large misshapen fingers attached to a flattened hand. His feet burst through the shoes, flattening and rounding out to carry his now large frame. A pitiful little tail grew out of his tailbone and it was over.

Or maybe he too had passed out from the pain. All he really knew was that the next time he opened his eyes, he was on the metal floor next to Zeck. "Don't feel so well..." He muttered and raised a hand to put on his head. Then he got a look at his flattened, disfigured rhinoceros hand. "Oh, nyet. Look at me!" He looked around for help, but Zeck just cowered next to him, covering his face with his own monstrous hands. 

"Don't look at me, Big Daddy! They've turned us into freaks!"

They both let out roars of anger and agony.

Chapter Text

Both Zeck and Stranko roared in anger and agony at what had become of them. The other mutants working for the Shredder simple rolled their eyes at their whining.

Zeck was covered in short, dark brown fur, except for his hair that ended in the neon purple. He still had his purple mohawk and visor, but the rest of the suit had devolved into shreds looking like an imitation of a vest. The chest of his suit had melted and fused into his skin, leaving purple energy trails across his chest and down his arms. The pants luckily survived in all the most important parts, as did his boots.

Stranko's army jacket had burned away, leaving his white shirt underneath in tatters. The golden shoulder pads had fused into his shoulders in golden spikes, as did his brass knuckles. His army pants were mostly in tact, but his shoes were gone and he stood on his flat, powerful feet. Unlike Zeck, who hadn't grown from his mutation, Stranko was now twice the size he was as a human, which was already impressive being over six foot.

"Look at me!" Zeck shouted. "You--you--you turned me into a fuckin' pig! I don't wanna be a pig! No one loves pigs! Can't you turn me into something cool? Like a mongoose?"

Stranko pushed Zeck out of the way so that he could fully look at Shredder with an outraged snort. "Oh, you mutates me into giant, talking rhino?" His large hands formed fists, "You will pay for me, Shredder!"

Stranko and Zeck both used their new mutant strength to jump up to the top level where Shredder and the others stood. Once again, the both roared in anger and readied to fight the man who had done this to them.

Shredder's henchmen each stepped forward but were stopped by a single raise of Shredder's hand. "No," he said calmly. "I will deal with them myself."

Zeck hit the button of his jumpsuit, and though it was still in tatters or fused into his flesh and bones, it still powered on. In the parts attached to his body, the warmth of the tech powering on actually tickled a little. "Eat this! Ha!" He danced forward, using his erratic movements to try and distract Shredder before blasting him with his hip lasers.

Shredder easily avoided the blasts, the only expression his face betrayed was boredom now that his vengeance had been dulled out. His superior speed got him in and he used his blades to deliver a warning swipe, slicing off part of Zeck's left tusk. Using the same momentum of his swipe, he spun and used his other arm to punch Zeck hard in the stomach. Spit and a bit of stomach acid flew from the warthog's mouth and he quickly went down with a groan and a coughing fit.

Stranko bellowed in rage, his roar eerily similar to one a rhinoceros might make in the wild. He slammed the ground with his fists and charged forward, running with his horn centered to impale Shredder.

Shredder blocked the horn and moved to the side. He grabbed the horn with both hands while using his foot to trip the rhino. He used Stranko's size and speed against him, following the tripping momentum to spin them around and throw Stranko. The rhino rolled into where Zeck was laying, crushing the warthog.

"Can't! Breathe!" Heaved Zeck underneath the heavy rhino. "Big! Da-"

Stranko rolled off of him as the Shredder approached. "Ivan Stranko, Anton Zeck, you now have two choices. You will either serve under me, or fall by my blade." His flicked out the blades on his right tekko-kagi to show his ultimatum was serious.

Zeck rubbed at his tusk, bleeding slightly from where part of it was sliced off. "Uh, being a pig does have limited employment options," He said, like he was seriously debating which option he'd prefer. "Fuck it, the bacon's in." He shrugged.

"Da," Agreed Stranko, though he glared up at Shredder through his diamond eye. "We serve you, for nows. What is you want us to do?"

Shredder held out his hand for Fujiwara and she stepped forward to show a cleaner, more descriptive picture of both the mutated and un-mutated Hamato Miwa. "You found her once, you will find her again." He narrowed his eyes, "Fail me, and I will introduce you to new forms of pain."

After the team got back to Splinter and Irma, they filled them in on what happened with Miwa. Donnie got to work on finishing the last touches on his retro-mutagen while the others formed a plan on what to do next.

"Comet," Raph repeated Miwa's last word to April. "What does "comet" mean?"

"She's been here in the city the whole time we were gone," Casey pointed out, laying down on the couch and draping his legs over the side of it. "Maybe she knows something the Kraang do? Like a giant comet's coming and the earth's doomed?"

"Way to be melodramatic," Donnie rolled his eyes at the notion.

April shook her head, "No, that's not it... It felt like she was trying to tell me a location. Maybe where she's hiding out?"

"That's what Donnie and I thought," Leo said. "Donnie's found three locations in the east corner of New York with the word "comet" in them."

Donnie moved away from the retro-mutagen batch and opened his laptop to show them the locations on a map. "We've got Comet Cleaners on Bleecker Street. A movie called "Earth vs. the Comet Creeps is supposably playing at the Argosy Theater here. And then we've got the Coney Comet roller coaster on Coney Island here." Donnie leaned back in his chair and played with Casey's bandana around his bicep. "One of these could be where she's hiding. Given she's a snake more comfortable somewhere hot, she's likely not hiding in any of these places out of comfort. Though, she might've been chased there and now thinks it's the only safe place. Theoretically, anyway."

Mikey jumped up and grabbed Leo by the shoulders, nearly shaking his elder brother off of his crutches. "Ooh, ooh, ohh! Can I check out the Comet roller coaster? I've never been on a roller coaster, Leo!" He pouted out his bottom lip and batted his aquamarine blue eyes at Leo, guilt-tripping him like he used to do as a little kid. "Please? Come on, Leo, hook a turtle up."

Leo cracked a smile on his tired face, "Alright, alright." He steadied himself after Mikey let go and he turned to the others. "Donnie and April, you take Comet Cleaners. Raph and Casey, you take the movie theater. Me and Mikey will check out Coney Island."

Splinter emerged from the back apartment where he and Irma had been cleaning up. "I will be coming with you," He said.

"Sensei, it's better if you stay here," Leo said with a frown. "You're still recovering and-"

"Leonardo, I have sat on the sidelines long enough." Splinter said flatly. "I will not sit by any longer while my family is in trouble. Getting your sister back is the most important thing to me, right now."

"But, we need you here," Leo tried to think of a reason of the top of his head. "Irma needs to be kept safe and-"

"I'll be fine on my own for a while." Irma argued back with a shrug. "I can always lock myself in the bathroom or something if there are too many Kraang around the shop."

Leo glared at her for siding with Splinter but relented. "Alright. Splinter go with Donnie and April." The laundromat seemed to be the least likely spot for Miwa to be hiding and the last thing they needed was for Splinter to freak out while trying to reason with Miwa. He looked to April, who seemed to read his mind and gave him a short nod of understanding.

Splinter didn't argue this agreement so it was left there.

Donnie went back to his chemical station and pulled on his work gloves. Slowly, he and Casey separated the retro-mutagen into three containers. Then they fastened a mist-like spray device that had a long range in case they needed to shoot at her from far away. "I have just enough retro-mutagen brewed for three doses. Each team gets one." Donnie threw Leo his and Mikey's while Casey walked to Raph with theirs. "It'll be weeks before I finish more."

"So in other words, don't waste it." Raph replied, taking the gun-like device from Casey. "Got it."

Splinter noticed Donnie's solemn face. "What is it, Donatello?"

Donnie sighed and shook his head. "Miwa's condition is unique. This is just the regular batch I've been working on. There's not guarantee this will even work on her. I have some of her mutant DNA now, so that'll help if this doesn't work but..."

"What'd really help was knowing what chemicals Stockman used when making her mutagen?" Irma finished his thought.

"Yeah... Let's hope this batch will work though." Donnie shrugged sadly.

"All we can do is try, Donnie." April said, trying to stay positive. "At the very least, I can reach her."

Zeck hummed nonchalantly as he skated down the purple energy lines that shot from his boots. He waited on the rooftop while Stranko charged up the stairs and broke through the metal door, it hanging from his horn. "Y'know, Big S? Anyone else would make being a mutant rhino ugly, horn-headed, Jurassic-looking, and stupid. You make it work though. I mean, as much as you can, anyway." He tried flirting, his way of coping with what happened hours prior.

Stranko was unamused with the lighthearted attempt of bettering their situation and pulled off the door with an angry snort. "I am rhinoceros. Not dinosaur." He threw the door into the distance and was a little shocked by how far it went. His mutant strength was very impressive, but that didn't make him feel any better. "Listen, Comrade Zeck, forget Snake Girl." He bawled up his fists in anger. "We must destroy turtle team instead for what they did to me!"

"Us," Zeck snorted.

"I mean, us!" Stranko corrected himself.

"Uhh, but Shredder's the one who dumped us in that nasty goo, dude." Zeck reminded him.

"If not for turtles, never would become mutants!" Stranko snarled. "We would made deal and been out of city!"

Zeck stood and stretched out his back, which ached from the new attachment of his tail throwing off his balance. "You're right, big S! If they hadn't interfered at the docks, none of this would have happened. I mean, its not like turtles can actually be siblings with a snake anyway, why the struggle, man?" He didn't dare think about what he would do if his sister was in the Snake Girl's position instead. Or what she'd do if she found out what happened to him. "I say we comb those turtles' wigs back, flip it and comb the wig back again!"

"I say we splits up, track them down and sqwoosh them where they stands." He added with a snarl. "As for pink girl and skeleton boy, we deliver Shredder. Girl is one let Snake get away, after alls."

Zeck smirked, "I like the way you think, Papik!" Then he took a deep inhale through his nose. "Holy shit," He laughed, "My piggy nose is better than a bloodhound's." He jumped off the roof and continued skating towards the east. "Whoo-hoo! I just need to catch a whiff." He used his visor to x-ray buildings, looking for any sign of the brats responsible for his sexy-ness massacre. After a while of searching, he caught a scent of aroma de turtle.

April exited the old laundromat just as Donnie and Splinter met her around the back of the building. "No sign of Miwa inside." She told them.

"Nor outside," Donnie added. "The place is completely abandoned."

"We shall double check just to be sure," Splinter decided. Before giving the two teens a chance to argue with him, he ducked inside the store.

April and Donnie just looked at each and sighed. Donnie pulled down his goggles again to scan for any trace of Miwa's mutant DNA while they walked around the block again. "He's being stubborn," Donnie muttered softly. "She's not here. Never has been."

"A bit," April admitted. "But it never hurts to double check, I guess. Either way, we're one step closer to finding her, right? One location down; two to go." She pulled out her tPhone, "I'll call Leo, maybe they and Mikey had better luck."

"Maybe they-" Donnie started to repeat her, but then April froze. She left her phone dialing Leo while she unconsciously bared her teeth and began to look around, searching for something. "April?" He asked, knowing this behavior meant she got one of her feelings. He drew out his bō, "Where is it coming from?" He whispered to her.

"I... I don't... Someone is watching us but... I can't see them..." She drew out her tanto blade.

A puddle to their left splashed, revealing something was in fact there. They both faced it, but saw nothing. Then whatever it was attacked Donnie, smacking him to the ground with an obnoxious laugh. Donnie got to his feet, but he was struck again from the right.

"Old what''s-his name, the fly guy-- Baxter Bughead? He fixed my invisibility tech. Wow to the wow to the wow to the wee--" April swung upwards to her left, and made contact with their invisible assailant. He flashed back into visibility a couple times as he stumbled back, rubbing at his nose. "Ow!" He stood fully in view with a small pout on his pig snout. "Oh, man. How'd you find me?"

"Cause you don't shut up." April responded. "You're that Zeck, guy, aren't you?" She asked. "The one who kidnapped Miwa?"

"Guessing the makeover came curtsey of Shredder," Donnie added.

"This is all your fault!" He squealed in anger. He spun to the side, his hip lasers firing something tangible instead of the usual explosives. "None of this would've happened if you had just let us give him the Snake girl!"

Despite trying to dodge them, April got trapped against the wall in some kind of glue-like substance. She struggled against it, but lost grip of her tanto as she did. "Ugh! What is this?"

Donnie went after Zeck, but he had to admit that the already elusive thief was now much stronger and faster. He easily avoided the heavy swings of Donnie's titanium bō. Fighting him reminded of sparring against Mikey.

"You think you can take me? Huh?" Zeck taunted the purple-shelled turtle. "I will drop you like an ex-girlfriend."

"Stop dodging and fight, pighead!" Donnie retorted with a click. Donnie's turned his bō into a naginata, but when it connected with Zeck's hip shooter, it electrocuted him instead. Donnie cried out and fell to the ground, and because he left his work gloves back at the pizzeria, he took the full shock of the electricity. He passed out from the shock and pain.

"Donnie!" April yelled.

Zeck knelt by Donnie and checked his pulse. "Don't worry, Kraang-girl. My hip lasers were set to stun, he'll live."

"Don't call me that!" April snarled at him. It may have been partially true, she may have accepted it, but she still didn't want it to be her identity.

"Sensitive!" Zeck laughed at her. "We need you guys alive to bait your turtle bros, so relax!" He went to pick up Donnie but then found the retro-mutagen spray bottle he had strapped to his belt. "Hmm? What's this?" Then he caught Donnie's tPhone where he had pulled up the other two locations they were searching for Miwa. "Ha!"

He touched a button on his visor that connected to an earpiece Stranko wore. "I got some sweet news, Daddy Ivan! Not only did I catch the tall, skinny turtle and the Kraang-girl, I know exactly where the other freaks are going! Check out the Argosy Theater on Houston. Yeah. Me and my my new homies are going to Coney Island."

April had managed to free her hand enough to extend her palm towards her tanto, but she had run out of time. Zeck approached her and picked up the weapon. "Small sword," He commented before hooking it to his belt. "Bet it'll sell nice though." He walked over to an abandoned van and broke into the back of it with his mutant strength. He hot-wired the engine and then threw April and Donnie into the back.

"Hey! I promise you don't want to mess with us!" April snarled at him. "Our Master is with us, and once he finds you-"

Zeck slammed the door shut, mimicking April in a high pitched whine and moving his fingers to match her words. "Whatever, Kraang-girl."

What Zeck didn't notice was Splinter watching the van drive down the street, his fur raised in anger. "Donatello... April..." What had he done?

"I don't know, sarge. I'm scared down to my Skivvies."

"I wonder if these Comet Creeps can be communicated with. Reasoned with. Perhaps a universal understanding of peace can be--"

Casey and Raph left the theater in defeat. "Damn it!" Raph cursed, kicking and denting an abandoned car in the parking lot. "She's not here!"

"Dude, chill," Casey said. "We searched every inch of the place. Miwa's definitely not here. But maybe the others found her? I'll call Donnie," he pulled out his tPhone. Before he dialed he looked at Raph, "So the Comet Creeps in the movie are definitely based on the Kraang, right? I mean, they look just like 'em."

"How would I know?" Raph hissed over his shoulder at him. "Don't bother Donnie, maybe he and April found Miwa..."

Casey frowned slightly but put down his phone. "Ok... So, then what do we do?"

"Let's check one last time," Raph said and turned to go back inside. "Maybe there's a basement--"

Stranko let out a roar as he leapt from the rooftop across the street. His hulking size and weight was enough to make the pavement crack beneath him. Casey pulled down his mask and the two spun to meet their opponent with equally confused faces. "Well, well, well," Stranko snarled, dusting off his spiked shoulder. "Comrade Zeck made good on info. Red turtle here... and strange skeleton friend."

"Whoa, another mutant?" Casey muttered. This one was so cool! A fucking rhino? Awesome! "Dude, he's kinda rad." He said to Raph.

"Rad and strong," Stranko agreed. He easily picked up an abandoned car and threw it at the two teens.

Casey wheeled back on his skates in time to avoid it. Raph jumped up and used his grappling hook to lift him away from nearly being ran over with the side of the car. Raph then rushed the rhino but Stranko's large, metal-infused fist punched him hard in the plastron and knocked him on his shell. The hit knocked the air out of Raph, but he rolled back to his feet with a grunt and charged in again. He stabbed for Stranko's side, but another heavy punch set Raph into the side of the building.

Casey lined up some of his explosive hockey pucks and sent half a dozen at the large target. They connected, and though they seemed to hurt, it wasn't enough to put the rhino down. Or wipe the smirk from his beak-shaped lips. "The July of Fourth!" Laughed the Russian. "Fireworks do you nothing."

Casey skated away from the theater as the Rhino started towards him and pulled out his bat. "Well, let's see what this does!" It was a stupid decision, and Casey knew it the moment he thought about it, but he wasn't sure what else to do. He skated towards the Rhino with his infamous, "Goongala!" He was aiming for Stranko's eye, but his bat split in pieces when connected with his horn instead. Casey huffed and threw the broken weapon to the side, "Yeah, that was a long shot..."

"Casey, look out!" Raph shouted, only now climbing out of the debris of the theater.

Casey didn't react fast enough, Stranko hit him hard in the back and knocked Casey into the ticket booth outside the theater. Casey's gear had very little enforced protection in way of armor, so the blow was enough to knock him out instantly. At least, Raph hoped it only knocked him out.

"No, Casey!" Raph staggered into a run to protect his friend.

Just before he reached Casey, Stranko changed his charge at went for Raph instead. Raph had no time to react and Stranko was able to slice Raph's underarm as his horn and snout lifted the turtle into the air before slamming him down into the asphalt. He drug the turtle along for a moment before he threw the turtle back towards the skeleton boy. Raph bounced off the wall near where the car landed, unconscious.

"Ha! Too easy," Stranko laughed to himself.

Coney Island was completely abandoned after the Kraang invasion, but the electricity had been left on. Likely from workers running for their lives instead of doing their job once the Kraang showed up. Seeing some burnt out lights, food and garbage littered around, and empty ride was an eerie reminder of what had transpired all across the city.

"Dude, Leo, this is so cool!" Mikey said, unbothered by the empty amusement park. "Can we go on the Whirlwind? What about the Wheel of Fun? Ooh, can we play Robot Ringtoss? Please?"

Leo sighed and looked back at him. "You promised you wouldn't goof around, Mikey. We're not here to play, we're here to find Miwa."

Mikey frowned, "I know..."

"We gotta be quiet, we don't want to scare her off." Leo turned again started towards the Comet Coaster.

"I know..." Mikey repeated. "Its just... We'll never get the chance to come here again... Once all the people come back, we'll have to stay hidden again..."

"Yeah," Leo shrugged. "I know it sucks but... It is what it is..."

Mikey looked around, "She's got to know we're here by now, right? If she was here, wouldn't she come out by now?"

It was Leo's turn to frown. "Maybe she's not in her right mind. She could be hiding because she sees us as threats... Or maybe she's worried she'll lose control and attack us." Leo's grip on his flashlight tightened, replaying the memory of Miwa falling into the mutagen. "I feel so bad for her. I wish I was the one who got mutated instead..."

Mikey hugged his eldest brother, "Don't say that, dude. We'd be in the same position either way... I'm happy you're here."

Leo patted Mikey's arms, "Thanks, Mikey. You're right, let's just focus on finding her."

Before Mikey released Leo, he asked, "How's your brace holding up?"

"I'm fine, I promise." Leo assured him. They reached the rollercoaster and searched all around it. "No sign of her," Leo muttered melancholically. "I hope the others are having better luck..."

Just then, something clattered to the ground behind them. The eldest and youngest turtle spun to catch a glimpse of Miwa's diamond-shaped tail disappearing behind a game booth.

"I just saw her!" Mikey exclaimed, both of them chasing after her. They followed her further into the amusement park until she disappeared inside the haunted house. "She went in the ghost house..." Mikey whimpered.

"I'll protect you," Leo promised him, drawing one of his swords to emphasize his promise. "Let's go." He lead Mikey into the dimly lit attraction, a cool breeze from the air conditioning running over them. Just inside the entrance they found old scary movie props spray painted in neon colors so they popped in the blacklight.

"Oh, this place isn't so bad," Mikey whispered, clinging to Leo. They rounded a corner and got jump-scared by a Frankenstein animatronic that Leo swiftly decapitated. "Oh, man, Leo! That thing totally scared you!" Mikey laughed nervously. "But it didn't get me," Then he saw a painting of an alien and jumped onto Leo for protection with a yelp. Leo stumbled under Mikey's weight, but he kept them upright by leaning on one of his crutches. "Hehe, you been working out, bro?" 

Leo opened his mouth to respond, but instead heard a faint hissing sound that sent shivers down his spine. "I think she's up ahead," Leo whispered to Mikey. They went forward into the funhouse mirror maze and Leo spotted Miwa's tail. He motioned for Mikey to be quiet and pulled out the retro-mutagen. He sprayed it, but ended up only getting the reflection of a startled Miwa.

She was hunched over, eating something he couldn't make out in the dark. The moment she heard the spray of the canister, she bolted upright and hissed in their direction before slithering further into the maze.

"Mikey, quick! Don't let her escape!"

In their desperation to catch their sister, they quickly forgot about the mirrors and ended up running into several. Still, they didn't give up and managed to chase her back out of the haunter house. Leo couldn't run as fast as Mikey now, so the younger of the two sprinted forward and blocked her path with his kusarigama chain.

She hissed and spat out some venom as a warning, but Mikey held strong. "Miwa, we want to help you!"

Leo caught up and slowly approached his serpent sister, doing his best to fight off his fear of snakes, like he had done back with the fear mushroom. Though, this time, the snake was real. "Miwa, it's us. Don't you recognize us?"

She snapped her jaws at his extended hand then tried to escape. Mikey pounced on her but she flipped him over and pinned him down with her snake hands. She opened her mouth and went to bite Mikey with her venomous fangs.

"Miwa, get off him!" Leo grabbed her around the armor of her torso and pulled her back. "It's us! Your... Brothers! Leo and Mikey!"

She tried to wiggle out of his hold, but she looked at him in confusion.

"That's it, try and remember. Focus." He encouraged her, meeting her green eyes. He missed seeing the brilliant amber color they used to be.

"We're here for you," Mikey sat up and reached out for her.

Her tail smacked his hand away and she broke free of Leo's grasp. She slithered backwards, her snake hands coming up to grab her head like she was rubbing at a migraine. She backed into a game booth and shifted back into the humanoid form of her mutation. "Brothersssss..." She whispered in a hiss.

"There you are!" Mikey smiled.

"We want to help you, Miwa," Leo said, calmly walking towards her. "Please just let us-"

"Ssssstay back," She warned him with a shake of her head. "Give me... Minutesssss..." She sat with her head against her knees, her arms wrapped around her legs. Mikey and Leo sat a few meters away from her, letting her take deep breaths in silence. Leo had used quit a bit of the retro-mutagen and didn't dare risk using all of it trying to catch her.

Just when she lifted her head, tires screeching to a halt scared her back into the snake form. She slipped away in the moment Leo and Mikey looked at where the sound had came from.

"Miwa!" Mikey yelled for her, but was stopped by Leo from running after her.

Leo led him towards the sound of the tires and they found a white van. Out of the driver's seat exited a mutant they had never seen before. With a snort, he touched a button on the side of his visor, "Are you here yet, Stranko? What's the deal, yo?"

The thunderous steps alerted Leo and Mikey, who hid behind a game booth to see another mutant stomping towards the first one. "Da, comrade, look behind you." He was carrying two objects, one under one arm and the other over his shoulder. One was Casey, the other Raph, both unconscious. "Whoo! Rhino legs very fast. Good workout! Better than the pilates."

"Toss 'em side here, Big Daddy!" Zeck said, opening the back of the van.

Though they couldn't see her, Leo and Mikey clearly heard April's voice exclaim as the unconscious Raph and Casey were thrown inside the van. Without bothering to look at or respond to her, Zeck closed the door and turned to the rhino.

"So, other turtles are here?" Stranko asked. "Da?"

Zeck turned his visor on while taking snorting sniffs of air. "Oh Turtles!" He called out in a singsong tone. "Come out and plaaaay!" His in thermal vision, he caught sight of the two hiding turtles. "Gotcha," He chuckled. "If you surrender, the humans go free!" He said.

"Not human," Stranko argued.  "Skeleton boy and Kraang girl. Kraang girl let Snake girl free."

"Look, I don't know what she is," Zeck rolled his eyes, "But the other one is just wearing a mask, Daddio." Then he turned back to where Leo and Mikey were, "But, I guess we need the girl, so you can have Mask Boy back!"

Stranko didn't argue with that, but added to the negotiations. "Pinkie promise," 

Mikey scoffed and yelled back, "Forget it! We don't trust you dudes!"

"You has no choice," Stranko taunted. "In five second, I pop humans' head like the blueberries!"

"Four!" Zeck started a countdown, holding up all three fingers on one hand and one on the other. "Three, two, one!"

As he was counting, Leo signed to Mikey to distract them while he snuck around to the van. Mikey nodded and gave him a thumbs up.

Mikey jumped out from their hiding spot with his hands raised in defeat. "Okay! Okay! Don't hurt them! Let's talk this out, yeah?" He walked closer, examining their new mutant forms up close. "Um, what do we call you guys now, anyway?"

Zeck and Stranko both looked confused by his question and exchanged curious glances. "Heh?" Asked Zeck.

"Yeah, you need mutant names!" Mikey explained, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Out of his peripheral vision he saw Leo had made his way over to the back of the van. He motioned for Mikey to keep talking. Mikey focused back on the two baffled mutants, "Yeah! And it just so happens I am awesome at naming stuff! I've named pretty much every mutant in the city!" He paused and walked towards them, examining them thoroughly, circling them to buy Leo some time. "How about..." His eyes looked around the amusement park for some inspiration. "Pork Rind and Chili Cheese Fry?"

Zeck scoffed and shook his head.

Stranko fold his arms in disapproval, "Nyet, nyet. Not so good names."

"Okay," Mikey looked away from Leo, drawing their eyes in the same direction. "How about Pretzels and Beef Jerky? Or Sprinkles and Hot Sauce?"

"Nyet."

"The Royal Weenies?"

"Oh come on!" Zeck snorted.

"Nyet!"

Mikey pretended to be more afraid of them then he really was, making sure they were focused completely on him. "Okay, okay! Then how about, um..." He noticed a sign advertising a joint tour of two indy music artists Mikey had never heard of before. BeeBop Records presents Rocksteady Rascals on tour! "Bebop and Rocksteady?" He suggested.

Zeck had enough of Mikey's random suggestions. He got right up in Mikey's face and snorted in frustration. "Is that what you do?" He asked. "Randomly name enemies based on stuff you see around you? Imagine if we did that for my nephew! Oh, here you, go! Little baby Diaper Pail!"

Stranko, on the other hand seemed unbothered by the newest suggestion. "Hey, is not so bad. Kind of like the Rocksteady."

"Wha?" Zeck turned to look at him. "Who said you get to be Rocksteady?"

"I calls it!" Rocksteady dismissed him.

"Whatever," Bebop rolled his eyes. His visor beeped and when he turned his head, he noticed the other turtle kneeling by the back of the van. "Aha!" He ran over to where Leo was picking the lock. "You think you can get past my googles, son? I saw you a mile away!"

He raised his hand, powering up and laser blast hooked up through the parts of his suit that fused into his skin. Just as he was about to blast Leo away, Splinter's heavy and sharp tail smacked the warthog mutant away from his eldest son.

"Sensei!" Mikey and Leo both exclaimed.

"Free your brothers, April, and Casey," Splinter told Leo and Mikey. He jumped down from the van and stood between them and the opposing mutants. "I will handle these two."

"You got it!" Mikey smirked, knowing that Bebop and Rocksteady had no clue what was in store for them now.

"Yo! Who is this fool?" Asked Bebop. "Oh, are you the Rat Dad of the turtles and snake girl?"

"Does not matter who is, no one can face the Bebop and the Rocksteady!" Rocksteady declared, flexing his biceps.

Bebop pulled out the retro-mutagen he had stolen from Donnie and held it threateningly at Rocksteady. "I am not going to be called Bebop, you feel me? That is the dumbest name ever!"

"He’s got the-" Mikey started, but was cut off by Leo’s hand being placed firmly over his mouth.

Bebop’s ears picked up on Mikey’s words though, and he looked down at the chemicals swirling around in the canister. "The what? What is this nasty gunk?"

Splinter sprang forward and grabbed the retro-mutagen with his tail while punching Bebop into Rocksteady, knocking them both down. "That is none of your concern," He said sternly. He tossed it back to Mikey, who caught it.

"Oh, You wanna go, Ratman?" Bebop snorted in anger. "Let’s dance, homie!"

Bebop and Rocksteady charged at Splinter, but he was much faster than the both of them. He quickly maneuvered the fight away from his sons, allowing them to rescue the others without distraction.

Leo finally picked the lock of the van and got it open.

April beamed seeing him, "Leo!"

Leo jumped into the back and pulled out his kunai to cut off the gunk binding her. "Sorry it took so long, April. How are the others?"

"Coming around," Donnie muttered, taking Mikey's hand to sit up. "Thanks, Mikey."

When neither Raph or Casey stirred, Leo broke open some smelling salts and they both bolted up. "Ugh, my aching brain," Raph groaned, rubbing his head. "I feel like I got hit by a steamroller."

"Nah, it was that huge rhino dude," Casey said. He cringed when he felt the back of his head, "Fuck, I he nearly broke open my skull... Where'd he go?"

"Master Splinter's taking care of those two," Mikey pointed outside the van. The others followed his finger to where Splinter was absolutely wrecking the two mutants.

"Woah!" Casey muttered, forgetting all about his throbbing head. "Dude, Splints is sick as hell!"

"Focus, Jones," Leo said, bringing the focus back to the group. "Miwa is around here somewhere. Mikey and I found her but she got scared off by those two arriving. Split up and look for her."

"And be mindful of how much you spray!" Donnie added, seeing that Leo and Mikey's canister was halfway empty.

Splitting into the same teams as before, the teens spread out to find Miwa. Still, they were all astounded by the beat down Splinter was laying out. Each time one of them caught a glimpse of the fight, they had to sit and stare for a moment.

Eventually, April and Donnie found Miwa hiding underneath the Coney Comet coaster. April tried to coax her out of hiding while the others made their way over to them. Splinter had finished with Bebop and Rocksteady, leaving them unconscious in the back of the locked van, and met up with them.

"Miwa, come on," April pleaded to her. "I know you're scared, but you don't have to be anymore. We're not going to hurt you,"

From the darkness underneath the ride, one of the snake hands reached out. It transformed into the more humanoid version and she slowly came out, resting barely underneath it. Splinter reached for her, but she recoiled back and nearly vanished into the dark again.

"Do not run again, Miwa," Splinter begged her. He took a few steps backwards, showing her that he would not try to frighten her again.

"We can help you," Donnie said, trembling. "I-I made retro-mutagen for you! R-remember? Like how we fixed Kirby?"

"Fix?" She hissed, peering back out again. "Me?" Donnie, Leo, and Raph all held up the retro-mutagen canisters to show her that he was telling the truth. She closed her eyes and lowered her head slightly, allowing them to spray her. They did, but when the orange mist cleared, nothing had changed. She looked down at her hands, confused and the right one morphed back into the snake head.

"It didn't work," Casey whispered.

"Donnie?" Raph looked to his brother for answers.

"I-I It was a possibility," Donnie looked at the last bit of his failed batch in despair and frustration. "Her mutation is special... But, maybe I can... I have her scales! I can try again!" He said.

"See?" April said calmly, noticing the panic creeping back into Miwa's expression, the agitation of the snake hand. "It's going to be alright,"

"You can come home with us, Miwa," Leo added. "We can take care of you until-"

"No," She shook her head. The hand turned back and she gripped the side of her head, "Too dangerousssss... My mind issss going..." She confessed. "Might hurt, might kill..."

"Miwa," Splinter whispered.

"We wouldn't let that happen," Raph argued with her.

She pointed her finger at Mikey and shook her head, "Almost did..."

"But you didn't!" Mikey yelled, making her retreat further under the rollercoaster. "Miwa, please!"

"I don't get it," April said. "Then-then why did you want us to find you?"

She slowly looked back at them, a tear running from her eye. "Wanted to sssay ssssorry... And goodbye..." She tried to escape, but April dove under the coaster and wrestled with her. Leo instantly jumped in to help April.

"No!" She shouted at Miwa. "Not like this!"

Raph and Mikey joined in the struggle, pulling her from her hiding spot and trying to hold her still.

"Miwa, please, please, let us try!" April begged her.

Miwa hissed, baring her fangs and threatening to spit up more venom.

Splinter finally reached for her again, slowly stroking her face like he used to do when she was little. "Miwa, do not give up on your family. Please, my daughter. Do not give up on yourself."