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Chapter Text

Hamato Raphael woke up feeling like he was being watched. He groaned as he opened his eyes. The last thing he could recall were brilliant flashes and swirls of vivid orange and blue. He racked his memory. Ah. Right. Leonardo had convinced Michelangelo to use his mystic hands to augment a portal to the surface. Donatello had been present to document the results, while Raph was there to supervise. April had brought Casey by, since he was living with her and her parents now. Raph had no idea how that’d been arranged, but he wholeheartedly approved of giving Casey the chance to live normally.

The portal had been breathtaking. Normally, Leo’s portals were quite the sight to behold, although most of the family had gotten used to seeing and hearing them. Glowing blue mystic energy creating a vortex to wherever the blue masked turtle wanted to go was always gorgeous. This portal, however. This one was even more stunning. Orange sparks had leapt out of the vortex as the new color swirled along with the blue.

Usually, Leo’s portals had a faint suction to them. An unaware person close by would be pulled into one of his average portals. The larger the portal, the more strength the mystic energy pulled with. This portal, despite not being incredibly large, had the same force as the portal to Tahiti. Raph had no way to resist the force, even when he activated his sai to create his large hologram. As he was drawn in, he grabbed his family to shield them from whatever would be on the other side.

Now, he was on a dingy roof, probably some kind of apartment complex from the size of the structure and the number of air conditioners. He rose to his feet, careful not to stomp around. No one needed humans to run to the top of the building in a frenzy. Raph blinked as he looked across the city. He rubbed his eyes, wondering if the glow from the portal had done something to his sight. Everything looked darker. Gloomier, even. He tilted his head one way, and then the other. Nope, didn’t change anything.

He looked across the building, noticing everyone sprawled and in various locations. He winced as he located April. She was literally part way off the roof, one arm dangling over the alley below. The snapper moved to pick her up, setting her in a much safer location. As soon as he moved away, she groaned and sat up. Raph turned back around to greet her.

“Hey,” he said. She blinked a few times, adjusting her glasses.

“Where… where are we?” she asked. She was clearly still groggy from whatever had happened to knock everyone out. Raph shrugged.

“I think New York, but I’m not sure,” he replied. “You feel that too, right?” He was referring to the feeling of someone still staring at him. April rose to her feet, stretching out with a yawn.

“Yeah. What’s going on?” Raph hummed as he thought how best to explain.

“Mystic nonsense,” he finally answered. The human next to him snorted as she grabbed Casey to set him in a more comfortable position near Leo. Raph chuckled at his joke. “But in all honesty, those two-” he nodded at Leo and Mikey “-opened a portal and then laced it with more energy, and something backfired. It was worse than the Tahiti portal.” April nodded.

“Is it just me or is it really dark out here for how bright the moon is?” she asked after a few moments. Raph huffed at her.

“Nah, it’s dark. I didn’t even realize the moon was out, actually,” he admitted. “And I thought the city couldn’t get this dark. I’m starting to think we’re not in NYC anymore.” Now it was April’s turn to snort. Raph moved Splinter closer to the others before sitting down on the roof.

He focused closer on Leo’s arms. The usual black wraps the four had from awakening their ninpo were gone, replaced by once white bandages. They were slowly turning a shade of red Raph wasn’t too fond of at the moment, but considering their location was still unknown, someone was watching them still, and Raph wasn’t carrying any clean wraps, he’d have to leave them alone for now. April sat down next to him with one hand wrapped around the handle of her bat. Hopefully their family woke up soon.

___

Leonardo frowned at Donnie. “Are you sure this is where the energy reading was?” he asked. Donatello scowled back, lowering his goggles.

“Yes, for the last time. I tracked the coordinates exactly,” he snarked back. Leonardo looked around again before he tensed. Donnie and the other two brothers followed his gaze, all stiffening as they spotted the same thing. A massive mutant with a long tail was rising to its feet. Huge spines jabbed out of its back, just as sharp as the claws on its hands and feet. The mutant looked around before picking up a small human girl. The ninjas prepared to lunge and rescue the girl, but the mutant just set her back down closer to the center of the apartment’s roof. Leo held up a hand to indicate they should wait for now.

Raphael narrowed his eyes as the girl stood up after a while. Leo didn’t blame him. He wasn’t sure if the big mutant would attack now that she was moving around, but she actually seemed to be talking to it. After a minute or two, they sat down. Donnie used his goggles to zoom in on the rooftop, muttering to himself under his breath.

“Hey, there’s seven in total,” he told Leo. The blue ninja narrowed his eyes.

“That’s about five more than I was wanting to deal with,” he grumbled. Donnie abruptly starting patting Leo’s bicep to get the leader’s attention.

“One’s injured! It’s bleeding,” he whispered as loud as he dared. “I’m gonna go offer help. Medic’s orders!” Leo sighed loudly.

“Raph, you go with him,” Leo ordered. “We’ll stay hidden in case you need backup.” Raph nodded at his oldest brother while Donnie was already jumping wildly towards the giant mutant. Leo and Mikey slunk closer, remaining hidden from sight while they moved close enough to provide assistance should the spiked mutant become hostile towards their brothers. An added bonus was being able to hear the conversation between Donnie and the big guy.

“Hey! Hey! I’m a medic!” Donnie called from two roofs away. The mutant visibly startled, jumping to its feet. From up close, Leo could tell it was probably a turtle mutant, considering the spines were part of a large shell. Interestingly, its shell and plastron featured a large matching set of cracks and missing material. A large tail dragged on the ground behind it. This large tail was now thumping against the roof as it watched Donatello leap over a gap to get closer.

“You’re not lying?” The mutant hollered in reply. Leo mentally noted the masculine voice, figuring this one was probably male. Donnie nodded rapidly in response.

“Yeah! I’m willing to treat your injured and offer you shelter if you want!” Leo slapped a hand to his face. He should have known his kind hearted brother would want to bring them back to the lair. Raphael shoved Donnie aside.

“You gotta answer some questions first,” the red ninja snarled. Leo raised an eye ridge. Blunt, but effective on his brother’s part. The mutant’s mouth opened in a snarl, drawing Leo’s attention to his face. A single extremely sharp looking tooth jabbed out of his jawline, implying the rest of his teeth would be just as sharp. This was false, Leo decided. His other teeth were primarily flat, like a human’s. Curious, and vaguely familiar.

Looking higher, Leo noticed a red, somewhat torn mask covering the top half of the mutant’s head. It was a vibrant color that somehow worked well with his green skin and dark eyes. The mutant glanced around suspiciously as Leo shrank back to hide behind an access door. Given there was no shouting or fighting, he must not have been noticed. He poked his head back out to keep watching.

“Some,” the mutant agreed after looking back at the human girl.

“Where’d you come from?” Raph asked.

“New York City,” he replied instantly. “Where are we?”

“New York City,” Donnie piped in. Wait, when did Donnie slip over there? He’d just been behind Raph, and now he was unwrapping the bandages on the small, injured mutant. The big mutant tilted his head.

“But I don’t recognize anything in the area, and I’ve been all over NYC.” Donnie shrugged while Raph took a couple steps forward.

“Back to me, ugly,” the red ninja snorted. Leo noticed the flash of anger on the mutant’s face before he glanced back at the injured member of the group. Oh, that one might be a turtle mutant too. There’s a noticeable plastron, although, much like the giant mutant, this little mutant featured several scars on its plastron. A lot of scars. More than Leo thinks should have been possible. Unless this one was like, in its 40s, he couldn’t imagine getting that many scars and surviving.

Leo noted mentally that the injured mutant wasn’t as bad off as the color of the bandages indicated. A few large scratches on each arm were bleeding slowly, but nothing life threatening. The injuries were definitely old. Maybe not super old, but like, a few weeks old. Whatever had given them to the mutant had definitely not been holding back.

Raph was asking more questions to hold the big mutant’s attention while Donnie finished dressing the wounds. As visibly angry as the mutant would get, every so often, the girl would answer a question and he would force a calmer expression on his face. It didn’t take Donnie long to tuck the bandage ends in. The scientist stood up and pulled a sanitizing wipe out of his shell carefully.

“All done!” Donnie grinned. The mutant turned to face him, tail thumping more rapidly against the rooftop.

“Thank you,” he said, looking down at the scientist gratefully. “We really appreciate it.”

“We can take you to our lair and I can monitor the injured guy while you wait for the rest of your group to wake up,” Donnie offered. “I already have the medic's orders in effect, so you’d be allowed in until you’re all awake and ready to leave!” The large mutant snickered.

“Sounds good to me,” he agreed. “Lemme just grab em and we’ll follow you.”

Donnie made an awkward noise. “I should probably warn you, there’s four of us.” Leo watched as the big mutant tensed, every muscle ready to spring into action. A badge on his waistband started glowing a light blue as his eyes seemed to light up faintly. The girl pulled a baseball bat out of her backpack, lowering herself defensively. No time like the present, the blue leader mused. He strode out from behind the roof access with Mikey hot on his heels.

“Hello, big guy,” Leonardo greeted. The mutant nodded, relaxing.

“You’re the leader.” Not a question, a statement. Something the mutant seemed to know as soon as he saw Leo. “Your medic’s already pulled rank.”

Leo’s casual expression became more of a grimace. “I’m aware,” he sighed. “With that in mind, allow me to show you to our base of operations, where you can rest and heal.” The large mutant nodded, tail sweeping across the roof slowly. He turned to pick up what Leo now could identify as a human teenage male in what had to be the weirdest cosplay ever and two more turtle looking mutants. The human girl hefted a tiny rodent mutant with a long tail with ease, returning to the big guy’s side as he cradled his passengers. Donatello carefully lifted the injured mutant, motioning for Mikey to give him a hand. Leo noticed the masks that covered each of the turtle mutants’ faces, color coded like the masks he and his brothers wore. Nifty. They’re good colors, he justified to himself. No other significance.

He motioned for everyone to follow him, glad that for once, Raph didn’t make any kind of fuss. The red ninja did position himself just behind the largest mutant with a glare, but his sai were still holstered. An absolute win! Leo leapt off the roof to lead the way to a nearby construction site, where he and his brothers soon realized the big guy wouldn’t be able to follow them down the scaffolding. Not just because he was holding three other people, which Leo still was struggling to process properly. No, there was a more pressing reason he couldn’t believe he’d missed.

The mutant was huge. Sure, Leo's thought it before, but he’d failed to account for more than just height. Previously, Donnie was the tallest ninja and Raphael was the widest and most buff. This new guy was both taller than Donnie and much bulkier than Raph. The spines on his shell certainly didn’t help. They just hindered any potential attempt at shuffling through sideways.

Before he could figure out a new plan, the big guy leapt down, followed by the girl. They both landed silently, which Leo was extremely surprised by. How could someone so… big be so quiet? He kept moving before Raph could get impatient and shove everyone down the scaffolding. The nearest manhole that could fit the mutant wasn’t too far away, but time was precious. The sky was already starting to lighten.

Leo pulled the cover off the sewer entrance, standing back to let Mikey and Donnie shuffle in first. The big mutant waited patiently for the two to reach the bottom and move out of the way before squeezing in after them. Raphael went next, hot on the big guy’s tail so there was no chance he could do anything to the unguarded youngest pair. The human girl hopped down, and finally, Leo climbed in, closing off the tunnel behind him. He took the lead again.

Boy, he hoped he wasn’t making a mistake, but they were already this far in. Might as well see how it goes.

Chapter Text

Leo really hated this section of the sewers. Someone, way back when the original pipes were being laid, had decided a nice, neat grid shape was too much effort, so the tunnels were an impossible maze. Sure, that’d come in handy if the brothers ever had to leave the lair in an emergency, but that wasn’t an issue. Casey knew better than to spill the location, and April wasn’t easy to follow.

The big mutant was hard to track from just footsteps. If he hadn’t been splashing every few steps, Leo would have had to turn around to see what was going on. The blue leader was halfway convinced the giant was doing it on purpose, given how regularly the splashes happened.

Mikey was humming some kind of pop song quietly as they walked. The one time Leo turned around to check on his brothers, he saw a large grin on the biggest guy’s face. The expression dropped as soon as he knew he was being watched. Just before they entered the lair, Leonardo stopped, turning to face the newcomers.

“Some ground rules,” he announced. “Number one: don’t break our stuff. Number two: don’t wander off. Number three: you’ll be in the main area until I say so. Any questions?” He inwardly grimaced as the big guy raised an eye ridge. Great, the newcomer doesn’t like rules.

“Got any blankets or something so I can set everyone down?” the giant asked. Leo felt his mind relax. Not an issue.

“Yes, we do. We’ll have them right out,” he replied. The giant nodded calmly.

“Cool, then we’re good. I’d rather not tell you my name right now, but you can call me Red,” he offered, walking in behind Leo and placing the human boy down on their only couch. After a beat, the girl placed down the rodent mutant. Red turned back to face Leo with the two turtle mutants still in his grasp. Donnie and Mikey vanished into the lab to set down the injured turtle mutant. Mikey reappeared after a moment.

“Do NOT go in there,” he said loudly, a little jittery from being chased out by the medic. After a beat, the orange ninja registered Red properly. Apparently Mikey hadn’t been paying attention earlier while helping carry the injured one in. Leo watched as his youngest brother screeched like a banshee and leapt behind Raph. Red tilted his head.

“Blankets?” Red prompted gently. For a fleeting moment, Leo had the thought that Red sounded like he was talking to kids. Or so used to talking to kids that he was running on autopilot. Leo nodded stiffly.

“Blankets. Mikey, Raph, do you guys wanna go get him some?” Leo almost missed Red blinking in surprise before schooling his expression. Once again, the giant mutant tilted his head to the side while watching Mikey. The orange and red ninjas weren’t gone long. They returned with an armful of blankets each. Mikey had apparently gotten over his temporary fear in record time.

He jogged right to Red’s side, splaying out one of the blankets and waiting for Red to set one of the unconscious mutants down. Strangely, Red used one of his broad feet to touch the material first. He seemed to weigh something in his mind before setting down a dark green mutant with purple stripes and a purple mask. Red grabbed another blanket with his now empty hand. The massive mutant gently used the blanket and two more after to create a slight wall around the mutant. For the finishing touch, Red set the last blanket Mikey had grabbed over the mutant, cocooning it. He repeated the process with Raph’s armload of blankets for the final mutant. The human girl watched patiently for Red to be finished.

“Hey, you guys got anything to drink? I’m parched.” Mikey turned and grinned widely at her.

“Well, hello,” he greeted. “We got plenty to drink. Hope you like water!” The orange ninja moved into the kitchen to grab the human a cup and some filtered water to drink. With a loud clack of scales on cement, Red sat down with none of the grace he’d been carrying himself with.

Mikey returned, handing the girl the cup with some kind of fancy gesture. She grinned widely before gulping down the water faster than Leo had ever thought possible for a human. Red raised an eye ridge. “Thirsty?” He received only a cheeky grin from the girl. Leo pulled a chair closer, sitting down to wait with their guests.
___

Raphael didn’t know what to think about these strange new mutants. He didn’t want to give them the slightest chance to attack, but the giant guy was just sitting next to the couch. Every so often, Red’s long tail would swish across the floor before the mutant would curl it back around himself. He could hear Donnie’s keyboard clacking from the lab, Mikey shuffling around in the kitchen, and even Leo’s thoughts. Well, not really.

He was currently farther back in the lair, closer to Splinter’s room than the pile of strangers. He wasn’t as willing as Leo apparently was to have these unknown mutants in their lair, but Leo had made a call. Or rather, Donnie had. Stupid medics and their medic’s orders. The clatter of scales was starting to become grating. There was no real rhythm. Roughly once a minute, the mutant would run his tail across the floor, and the tail would inevitably hit something. Granted, the mess wasn’t his fault. And granted, the mess shouldn’t have been allowed to get that bad. The noise was still grating. Cans and boxes would get knocked into each other as the tail moved. Raphael had just made up his mind to go kick the junk out of the way when the human boy sat up noiselessly.

Glowing green dots swept across the lair. The human was still alarmingly silent. His gaze landed briefly on Red, who was still seated and calm. Red made a low, quiet rumbling noise that made even Raphael feel calmer for a moment. This was apparently some kind of signal. With absolutely no noise, the human sat back more comfortably. Raph watched the green eye lights fade back to black, though he didn’t believe for a second the boy had fallen asleep. Leonardo had noticed as well, being considerably closer than the red warrior.

“So, does he have a name?” Leo faux whispered to Red. The massive mutant glanced upward with a firmly neutral expression.

“Yeah, CJ,” he said. Leo didn’t look impressed. Any thoughts he was having, he kept to himself.

“Let us know if CJ gets hungry. We’ve got enough to share.” A blatant lie. They barely had enough for themselves for the night, let alone seven others. Red’s tail tip flicked up and down rapidly, but Red himself stayed silent. At some point, Mikey must have gone to the surface and hunted down some spare food, because the smallest of the ninjas entered from the main tunnel, holding two large grocery bags in his hands. He vanished once more into the kitchen while Raph blinked in surprise and worry. When had he left? How had he missed seeing him go? Was it the fault of these invaders?! Yes, yes it was, he decided. If he hadn’t been so focused on the newcomers, he’d have been watching Mikey better. For sure.

Raph felt his temper rising. First, they forced him to play backup babysitter because Leo obviously needed help with them. Then they made him not pay attention to Mikey, who went topside! What if he’d been seen? Or followed! He wanted them out as soon as they’d all woken up. He wasn’t a monster; they could stay until everyone was able to walk on their own.

Raph realized he’d been caught in his thoughts for far too long. This realization came too late to be of any assistance. He had just re-focused his eyes on the happenings as the small rodent mutant woke up with the most violent response to being surrounded by strangers anyone could possibly have. A long, thin, strong tail whipped him across the face, and he hit the floor with a thud. Leo was already downed. Yet another reason to loathe these intruders, Raph snarled to himself.

With a fluid motion, he surged to his feet. “That’s enough!” he bellowed. He pulled his sai off his belt. In the same breath, he lunged forward, intent on tackling the rodent and teaching it a lesson. He didn’t expect Red to collide head-first with his side, throwing him off course violently. Red hissed, beak wide open and his one sharp fang gleaming in the dim light. Raph snarled back, turning and swiping his leg to knock the larger mutant to the ground. Red rolled, springing forward with his hand’s claws angled towards Raph’s plastron.

Raph countered by swiping with one of his sai. Red hissed again and rolled in the air to let his shell catch the sharp weapon’s blow. The two stood, circling each other for a few precious seconds. Red was standing in a manner that accentuated his height and width, tail swiping violently across the floor as he kept the steady hiss going. Raph twirled his sai to add a bit of an intimidation factor to himself, leaning forward and bracing himself for the next attack.

The attack never came. Raph stumbled as something collided with the back of one of his knees. Red similarly was forced to back off when Leo threw himself towards the fray, sword drawn. The large mutant was hesitant to try to force his way past. He had no beef with the blue ninja. Raph looked to see what had forced him down. The human girl was holding her baseball bat, a firm scowl on her face.

“You’re done,” she said. Her tone left no room for argument. Raph snorted as he rose to his feet. Whatever, he was wanting to go check on Mikey anyways. He didn’t need to be here anymore. (He was lying to himself, he didn’t want to leave Leo alone as more of them woke up, but he really wanted to make sure Mikey was okay.) Besides, Red was once again swishing his tail next to the couch, and enough junk had slid back into place that the awful noises had started up again, so this was a good enough excuse to take off.

He left rapidly, slamming the door behind himself. Raph’s exit led to him missing several things. The introduction of “Lou”, Donnie thundering out of his lab to threaten everyone still present with a full checkup, and the smallest mutant starting to wake up.

Chapter Text

Mikey awoke with a start. His mystic core felt strange, almost like it was fuzzier than it should be. He didn’t like this feeling. As his eyes refocused, he noticed the lair looked smaller, dingier, and gloomier. He noticed Raph hovering over him with a concerned expression and a defensive stance. Someone was swearing in another part of the lair. Raph reached down and offered a hand to him. Strange. Usually, the snapper would simply pick Mikey up. A good sign something was wrong, Mikey supposed. He accepted his brother’s massive hand and let Raph haul him to his feet. He glanced around to get an idea of the situation.

A turtle almost as large as Raph (but slightly shorter and way narrower) was watching them. He could see an orange mask on the larger turtle’s face and frowned slightly. Strange, he thought he was the only orange mask wearing turtle. A turtle with a blue mask was blocking a doorway, presumably to the room where the person with some absolutely disgusting language was. Mikey winced at some of the threats he could pick up on. Raph, the red angel he was, noticed and shifted himself in between Mikey and the unknown. He blinked gratefully as April patted his shoulder.

Casey was watching the other orange turtle at the moment, his mask firmly on his face. Raph seemed to remember something as he looked back at Mikey.

“Junior,” he rumbled. “Niel, Orange should probably have his hands looked at.” April nodded, already grabbing one of Mikey’s arms to inspect his palms. The mystic burns from The Event, as Leo had dubbed it, were mostly faded by now. Training under Draxum had worn down the impact each use of his mystic hands had on him. No new burns showed, and aside from some of the larger patches being slightly sorer, the portal hadn’t actually done any damage. Raph was watching the doorway intently as the noise quieted down and the blue turtle moved back over to their little group.

“Alright, sorry about my brother,” the turtle grinned sheepishly. Mikey had spent enough time around Leo to have an extremely honed sense for when someone was faking emotions, and this guy definitely wasn’t nearly as embarrassed as he was acting. While he probably hadn’t planned for whatever had happened to cause the drama, he definitely wasn’t entirely opposed to it all. “So, would any of you like some food? Water? The bathroom?” Raph shifted his weight to one foot. Conveniently, this offered Mikey the chance to skitter up his brother’s shell and onto his shoulder. The snapper rolled his gaze up to check on him before returning to watching the blue clad turtle warily.

“We’d like for your medic to be done with our other friend,” Raph finally replied. “We wanna go home.” The last line was a bit of an impossibility while Mikey’s mystic energy felt so fuzzy, but he knew Raph didn’t feel comfortable in anyone else’s lair after the whole Big Mama incident. The other blue turtle looked significantly more interested now.

“And how far away from here is your home?” he asked, trying for a friendly tone. Raph glared darkly, thumping his tail in a clearly threatening manner. Thankfully, whatever standoff was happening came to a halt when Donnie grumbled, rolled over, and fell flat on his face because the cot he was laid on was significantly smaller than his bed. As April and Casey rushed to help the disoriented softshell up, Mikey saw a purple clad turtle with glasses dart out of yet another doorway shrieking with a very grumpy Leo clinging onto the edge of his shell by his jaws alone. Hah, classic Leo.

–
When Donatello had finished re-stitching the small mutant’s arm, he took the time to replace the bandages yet again, tossing out the old set. He then inspected the rest of the mutant to make sure there were no other wounds in need of care. At first, he thought the mutant had two large wounds on his face, but they turned out to just be markings shaped like red crescent moons. Yellow stripes of a similar shape lined his arms and legs. His shell was cracked partway, but showed clear signs of having been treated already, so after a quick check, Donnie carefully flipped him over to inspect the back of his shell. His shell was a slate color, with three vibrant blue markings. This mutant had a somewhat short tail, coming about halfway down his thighs instead of dragging the floor like Red’s. Donatello was willing to bet the other two reptilian mutants had tails too, going off this current trend. The shell was just as damaged on the back side, but once again, had already been treated and just needed time to heal naturally. Whoever this mutant had as a medic had been very careful to not skip a single injury.

Aside from the medical bandages covering the mutant’s limbs, he wore a three-point blue sash around his shell with two pouches, one on each side. Donnie chuckled to himself as he mentally compared it to two fanny packs with a single suspender holding them up. His mask was lighter blue than Leonardo’s, and in nearly pristine condition. Leonardo’s was tattered and dirty from years of wear and tear, with stains from fights coating the tails. Donnie flipped the mutant onto his back once again. He had decided to inspect the other’s face and neck for anything he might have missed, turning to grab a magnifying glass, when the small reptilian opened his eyes and let out a questioning chirp. With no answer, the mutant sat up, hissed, and lunged. Donatello was sure he was out of reasonable reach, but apparently the blue mutant could extend his neck to an unfair degree. Donnie shrieked as the smaller mutant latched onto the edge of his shell with an incredibly quick movement. The hissing had stopped. He wasn’t sure the growling that had started was a much better trade off. Something primal in Donnie’s mind took over and he took off running while still shrieking. He burst out of the lab and started running as fast as he could down the nearest open tunnel. He didn’t process Leonardo staring in blatant shock, the other mutants and humans watching with resigned expressions, Mikey screeching and hurling an empty pizza box at him, or Raph exploding out of the kitchen. Off he ran, hoping the smaller stranger would release before they got too lost in the maze of sewer tunnels.
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Raphael snarled as he watched Donatello run into the sewers in a blind panic with the small mutant biting into his shell. He whirled to face Red. Raph jabbed one of his fingers at Red and the gathering of mutants and humans with a positively toxic expression on his face.

“You’re doing this on purpose, ain’t ya?” he roared. Red lowered his stance defensively, already opening his jaws to hiss again. Raphael growled quietly as Leonardo slipped in between him and Red’s bunch. The leader of the brothers shot Raph an annoyed look before jerking his head in the direction Donnie had run off. A clear dismissal from the impending argument. Raph glared at Leo before stomping down the sewer. Orange patted Red’s head lightly before jumping off the large mutant’s shoulders and darting after Raphael. He didn’t say a word. Ignoring the small mutant would keep Leo off his shell, right?

Ignoring the mutant proved difficult quickly. He wasn’t saying anything, just following. Sometimes he would move so quietly Raph thought he’d been left behind, only for the mutant to pop back into his peripheral vision. Donnie’s shrieks stopped suddenly. Raph thought he felt his heart stop as he bolted forward, chasing the last direction he’d heard them come from. To his annoyance, the small mutant was keeping up with no problem, despite Raph running as fast as he could go. As he rounded the final corner, he saw the small mutant snap into his shell, something Raph wished he’d done when he was crashed into by Donnie. He was apparently destined to inspect the floors today; he mused idly as he felt his rage climb to previously unheard-of levels. First, get Donnie and the two strangers back to the lair. Then, kill Leo for getting them in this situation. Yeah, that’s a solid sounding plan.

Chapter Text

Leon blinked in annoyance at the purple wearing turtle across from him. It wasn’t his fault they were lost; the weirdo should have known to stay out of neck reach. What kind of moron thought a turtle-based mutant couldn’t stretch their necks? He reached up idly to scratch his ear, startling the other. He finally noticed the thick pair of glasses and complex headset over the turtle's face and forehead. The tech looked so… retro. Don could do way better with the same parts. He grumbled to himself, which was all the flighty turtle needed to take off in the other direction.

Loud footsteps were rapidly approaching when the turtle approached a T shaped junction. A turtle in red collided with the turtle in purple. Leo couldn’t help but burst out laughing at the collision. He trotted towards the two. As he reached down to offer a hand to the purple clad turtle, his smallest brother jogged around the corner. Mikey grinned at him, leaping across the two larger turtles to hug Leo.

“Blue!” Mikey chirped. Leo immediately picked up on the cue his brother was giving him.

“Orange!” Leo replied, chirping in response. He set Mikey back on the floor before reaching down once again to offer a hand to the other turtles. The tech-coated one accepted the offered limb, scrabbling to his feet gracelessly. The other one, who Leo noted was wearing a red mask (hey, like Raph, he thought), snorted and hauled himself up. Leo couldn’t help the surprised chirp as the others rose to their full heights. Almost as large as Raph, nowhere near as visibly bulky. Sure, the red wearing turtle was visibly muscular, but last Leo checked, Raph had biceps the size of a human’s head, so Raph was definitely buffer. He idly wondered which one was stronger in a contest of brute force. His distracted mind was forced back on track by the purple one calling for him.

“Hey, Blue! Aren’t you coming back to the lair? Raph already went ahead with Orange,” the purple themed turtle called. Leo paused, extremely startled. Well, if Raph was going by his real name, why in the world were he and Mikey going by their colors? Where had Raph been the whole time? Ah, wait, the purple themed turtle meant the red masked turtle, didn't he? He darted toward the other, deciding to test something on a hunch.

“Yeah, I’m coming, Donnie!” he replied. The purple wearing turtle grinned nervously as Leo got closer.

“Hey, how’d you know my name?” ‘Donnie’ asked, tilting his head. Leo frowned and narrowed his eyes in thought.

“Just, just a hunch I had,” he answered. The walk back to the other turtles’ lair was extremely awkward as Leo spent the whole trip deep in thought.

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Unbeknownst to Leonardo, Leonardo was a step ahead of him with the puzzle. Leo adjusted his armor as he kept feeling his thoughts derail thanks to the struggles of managing both his brother and the strangers. Mikey was ignoring any subtle hints to move away that Leo was giving him. Rather than potentially calming the strangers, this was starting to clearly stress out Red. Red had briefly introduced the final stranger in the main room as Purple before Purple had shuffled behind Red to talk to Niel and Junior. Leo really wished right now he was a mutant rabbit, or dog, or something with better hearing than a turtle. Every so often, Purple would extend his neck slightly and glare at Mikey when the youngest brother would shuffle too close. Mikey would take a step back only to begin shifting closer. It was a repetitive cycle, and Leonardo was about to lose his mind.

Thankfully, the cycle was interrupted by the return of Raph and Orange, with Donnie not far behind. Leo could only assume the last mutant, who was trailing Donnie with a pensive look, was going to go by “Blue”, given the current trend. He felt the puzzle from earlier pop back into his thoughts.

"Hey, so, you never gave us your name," he realized, turning to the rodent mutant. The rodent grimaced.

"You may call me Lou," he finally said. The pause had been long, clearly touching a sore spot. Leo's face fell for a second before he forced a more passive expression. He'd been hoping for the rodent (What was he anyways? A mouse? A rat? Not important right now.) to reply with something derived from Splinter, or Hamato Yoshi. That would have finally solved it once and for all. He was sure he was onto the right track. These strangers seemed to be alternate versions of himself and his brothers. But that’d mean their Leonardo, or Blue, or whatever he was calling himself was… tiny? Yeah, he’d go with tiny. He studied the smaller mutant, having missed his chance when Donnie had fled with him stuck to his shell.

Sure, the other Leo was small, but he was lean. Every inch of Blue’s long legs screamed ‘fast’, and his arms looked muscled enough to pack a mean punch. Two katanas (just like his own) were strapped to the back of his shell. Clearly, Donnie hadn’t thought to remove his weapons during the time they had been in his lab. Probably for the best.

Blue strutted to the other mutants, tail wagging. Hang on. A mutant turtle with a tail? Did turtles even have tails? Leo made a mental note to ask Donnie later, once things calmed down. Blue made some kind of chirping noise. The sound was quickly mimicked by Purple and Orange, while Red relaxed.

Mikey clapped his hands, startling the mutants. “Okay, dudes, now that we’re all together, how about some lunch? Lou kinda ate the entire pizza already.” Purple raised an - hang on, a mutant turtle with eyebrows? Leo’s calling BS, those eyebrows are over Purple’s mask. That’s cheating. But also, something to think about in the future.

“It’s far past lunch time,” Purple drawled. Leo snorted.

“As if we have to go by regular food schedules?” he chuckled. Orange, who had scrambled to sit on Red’s shoulder the moment he rejoined the group, patted Red’s massive arm. Red sighed. Leo could feel the frustration from the poor mutant. Boy, that sigh resonated with Leonardo’s soul.

“Fine, fine. Just… stay within arm’s reach?” Red asked, sounding as if his sanity was on its last legs. Oh, big mood. Leonardo could definitely relate to Red.

“Can do!” Blue promised. Judging from Red’s defeated expression, that was clearly something he didn’t expect possible. Purple scoffed. Or well.

“Scoff,” Purple said, rolling his eyes. Leo raised an eye ridge as Blue’s tail started wagging. Orange was also wagging his tail, if the sound of rapid tapping on Red’s shell was any indication. Niel was sitting on the couch next to Lou and Junior, watching the mutants with a fond expression. Well, actually, Leo didn’t know what Junior’s expression was, given his mask was still firmly in place. The lights in the eye sockets were dark as though his eyes were closed, but the teen(?) was sitting up in the world’s most awful sleeping position. Back aches for days. Leo assumed, at least. Junior’s lights glowed as Blue approached before the small mutant whispered something in his ear. Leo couldn’t help but notice the still wagging tail. He was going to learn to dread what happened when Blue’s tail was going a million miles an hour, wasn’t he?
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Raph groaned as he watched Leon dart from Casey over to Donnie. Whatever the slider was planning, he wished he wasn’t going to most likely be playing clean up. Mikey was a source of comfort on his shoulder, and an extra pair of eyes on his new weak side. He was kind of surprised Leo wasn’t taking charge in this situation. Then again, Leo would step up when the situation called for it. Until then, he was okay with letting the others assume he was the leader.

Mikey made a quiet gurgling noise from his perch on his shoulder. Raph watched as the other orange themed turtle reached for his phone. “Alright dudes, what kind of pies do we want, and how many?” the other asked. Mikey tilted his head. Raph answered before Donnie and Leo could start their nonsense.

“One medium vegetarian, one medium pepperoni, one small cheese, and one large meat lovers for us,” Raph grunted. April would most likely swipe a slice from Donnie and Leo, and Casey would want a slice from Leo too. Pops piped in with his request for a large extra cheese, so Casey would probably be able to get a slice off him too. The mutant nodded, punching their order into a website. Raph figured he would already know what the others would want, so he decided to take a seat on the floor. Not the most comfortable, but April, Casey, and Splinter were taking up the couch, and Raph wasn’t certain it could handle his weight. He wasn’t big on manners, but he was pretty sure breaking someone’s furniture because you weighed more than most furniture could tolerate was pretty rude.

Mikey adjusted to lean against Raph’s head and neck. The warmth and weight of his youngest brother was comforting. Leo sprawled dramatically across the back of the couch and stretched his neck to start talking to Casey. Donnie perched on April’s arm rest to chat with her about some book the two were reading. The other turtles were talking to each other until the purple masked turtle threw his arms up and turned to face Raph’s group.

“I just realized my moronic brothers failed to introduce any of us,” he griped. Raph tilted his head as everyone stopped talking. “It’s nice to meet you, my name is Donatello. These are my brothers, Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo.” As Donnie leapt off the couch with an overjoyed shriek, Raph felt his mind temporarily stall. Well then. This wasn’t at all what he’d been expecting when he woke up on that rooftop.

Chapter Text

Donatello inched backwards as an over eager Purple lunged forward, grabbing the smaller mutant’s head and holding him back. To his dismay, Blue was not the only stranger with a neck far longer than expected. Purple’s head stayed firmly in Donnie’s hand. His body, however, got close enough for Purple to grab Donnie’s plastron. Purple’s muffled screech of joy was still very loud despite Donnie’s large hand covering his beak. Donnie could sense the moment Purple narrowed his eyes. He wasn’t fast enough to pull his hand away. Purple clamped his beak on Donnie’s finger. Thankfully, Purple didn’t bite hard enough to pierce the scales. Unfortunately, it still kinda hurt. Donatello let go fast. Purple inhaled deeply.

“Ah, air that doesn’t smell like stale reptile,” Purple drawled. “Anywhoodle! Ohmigosh! Alternate dimension versions of ourselves!” Donatello blinked at the smaller mutant. Purple raised one of his eyebrows. “You haven’t pieced it together yet?” Donnie shook his head.

“I don’t get what you’re implying, because it sounds like you’re saying you’re me but from another dimension,” the taller replied. He furrowed his eye ridges. “But then, that’d make you me and Red Raph and oh that made way too much sense in hindsight.” Purple’s eyebrow raised further as Donnie wheezed in shock. “Dimensional travel is a thing, and you guys are just tinier versions of us,” Donnie finally exclaimed. Purple grinned triumphantly, missing Blue and Leo trading knowing looks. Red moved closer and placed a hand on Purple’s shoulder.

“So these guys are us?” he asked. Purple’s eyes lit up with glee as Donatello looked over what he presumed was his counterpart. The other turtle was shorter, yes, but his arms were muscular. Definitely due to the bo staff he had strapped to his shell. His black shell appeared to actually be artificial, given Donnie could see the edge of his real shell at the joints. Black wraps wound up his arms starting at his palms and ending just above his elbows; on his legs, the wraps came much to about the middle of his thighs. An asymmetrical pair of goggles with blue and red lenses sat on his head much like Raph’s sunglasses. Interestingly, his eyes were blue and purple. The blue eye was on the opposite side as the blue lens. Blue sidled over at some point during the time Donnie was observing Purple (or was it Other Donnie now?), leaning on the slightly shorter mutant and slinging an arm around his shoulders. Donnie noted Blue had blue and purple eyes as well, this time opposite of Purple’s. Curious. He forced himself to stop staring at the pair’s eyes, now eyeing the artificial shell. Blue smirked as he tracked Donnie’s glare, chirping in amusement at Purple.

“Like what you see?” Blue taunted. He struck what Donnie could only describe as the most flamboyant pose to grace the lair before cackling at Donnie’s expression. Before the menace could continue terrorizing poor Donatello, the back of his shell was grabbed by Red as though the massive mutant was scruffing a wayward kitten. Blue didn’t struggle or startle, indicating this was normal for him. He simply hung limply, letting Red pull him over to the couch again. Purple followed willingly, perching on the arm rest he’d previously claimed.

“So, if my calculations are correct, we’re simply shifted a step to one side. Which side, I cannot say, but I’m certain I can build a machine to at least rule out the majority of directions, at which point we’ll be able to try to re-open the portal. Maybe we can get some kind of camera rigged up to give us a view of where the portal leads?” Blue (Leo from another dimension, Donnie assumed) wasn’t even trying to keep up with Purple’s thoughts, already resuming his conversation with the humans. Mikey yelped in shock as Purple darted to his side at a speed even Donnie hadn’t expected.

Donnie gasped as the artificial shell partially unfolded to reveal four metal arms. Purple used them like they were part of him as he inspected one of Mikey’s arms. He turned to Donnie once he was done. Donnie took a step back warily, still not sure about this whole - spider turtle thing - Purple had going on. Thankfully for the larger mutant, he had an overprotective brother who was in between the two in the blink of an eye. Thankfully for the smaller mutant, he also had an overprotective brother who was in between the two in the blink of an eye. The two seemed to reach some sort of unspoken agreement, grabbing their respective purple brothers and pulling them to opposite ends of the room. One purple themed turtle was more relieved about this turn of events than the other.
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Raph huffed as he set Don carefully down on the couch. The softshell opened his mouth to hiss but quieted at a low rumble Raph released as a reply. Mikey had jumped down when he surged forward to pull Donnie back. The lack of knowing where his smallest brother was made Raph slightly nervous. He didn’t like the looks of this city, alternate dimension or not. It was so dark and gloomy, even in the brighter areas of the lair. For a moment, he relaxed as Mikey jumped back onto his shoulder, patting his arm with one of his tiny hands. Mikey remained crouched for now, unsure if he’d have to jump back off. Raph didn’t blame him, considering what was going on now.

Raph’s shoulder scales bristled as he watched Leonardo strut towards the larger, more armored Leo. If it wasn’t for Leon’s incredible reflexes, he’d have pulled the snapper back to the couch too. Leon started with his usual flirty, confident attitude as he directly addressed the leader of the other turtles.

“So, are all you the same kind of turtle? Because you’re all pretty similar looking. Not that you’re ugly of course, just that you can’t compare to my rugged good looks.” Leon tossed his mask tails over his shoulder to add some flair to his statement. The larger Leo watched Leon with an amused look.

“We’re all red eared sliders,” he replied. Leon hooted with laughter.

“Ah, good one, but seriously, what are you all?” Leon tried again. Leo’s amused expression started to drop slightly.

“I told you, red eared sliders.” Leon tilted his head, raising a hand to gesture at his red eye marks.

“You're kind of missing these bad boys,” Leon smirked. “Are you really red eared sliders if you’re not, you know, ‘red eared’?”

“Blue!” Raph barked. “Quit annoying them!” The alternate Leo looked over at the snapper briefly.

“You better get back over to your Raph, he’s looking kind of angry,” Leo informed the slider. Leon winked while aiming finger guns at his larger counterpart.

“Sure thing,” he smirked, strutting back towards Raph. He leapt onto the back of the couch, yelping and flailing as it almost tipped over. April sprung up to avoid going over with Leon. Once Casey was on his feet, less than a second after April, the couch toppled. Donnie’s awkwardly balanced weight wasn’t enough to prevent Leon’s momentum from sending the twins to the ground. Raph sighed as he watched the middle children scramble to their feet and start blaming each other for the fall. He turned back to the other turtles across the room.

“I guess since we know your names, you might as well know ours,” he offered. He was still unsure about this, but from what he knew about Mikey’s portals, the youngest would take some time and recovery before Raph would feel comfortable letting him open another one. The best place to be was with the turtles who knew the threats of this world, and that meant giving them reason to trust the dimensionally displaced group.

“Might as well,” bigger Leo agreed. Raph spent another moment warring with himself mentally before forging ahead.

“I’m Raphael, this is Mikey, and the two over there are Donnie and Leo,” Raph began. “Splinter is the rat man, and the humans are Casey and-” he was cut off by the other Michaelangelo whirling to face the entrance and greeting someone entering the lair.

“April!” the larger Mikey gleefully called. Much to Raph’s confusion, a tall, pale skinned woman entered the lair with a furious expression on her face.

“Wait, I’m white here?” April asked from behind him. And go figure, the April of this dimension was storming towards Raph’s April now. Raph groaned miserably at the thought of having to stop the upcoming probable girl fight. A sentiment not echoed by Mikey, given the small turtle’s giggles and tail wagging rapidly.

Chapter Text

Mikey chirped in amusement on Raph’s shoulder as Raph rapidly set the couch back upright. Of course, the snapper didn’t have any issues with the heavy piece of furniture. Mikey kind of wanted to go meet the other Mikey up close, but Raph was obviously stressed and worried, so the last thing he needed to do was to leave his oldest brother. April jabbed a finger at ‘April’, scowling.

“This is not another me,” she growled dramatically. “Why did the universe decide to whitewash me?” Leo and Donnie swarmed to her side as the taller, pale skinned April stepped back in surprise. She whirled to face the Leonardo from her dimension.

“What is this?” April all but demanded. Leo tilted his head with an amused expression as his larger counterpart started trying to explain, stumbling over his words slightly.

“Well, they’re uh. I guess these are our guests?” Leonardo tried. Mikey stifled a giggle at taller April’s expression.

“I couldn’t have guessed,” she said in a monotone voice. Mikey took the chance to look around the room to see how his family was reacting. Leon didn’t even try to muffle his loud laughter. Don was watching his twin with a single raised eyebrow. Raph was even shuddering from trying not to react to the scene as he attempted to appear like a mature adult. April had a similar expression to Don, just aimed at her counterpart. Casey was seated on the couch again, seemingly in a casual and relaxed pose, but the green lights of his mask were tracking the alternate April’s every movement. Finally, Pops had... Okay where did he get a bowl of popcorn, and would he share with Mikey?

The smallest turtle slipped off Raph’s large shoulder with a couple quick pats to indicate he’d return soon. He moved silently to behind his father’s couch seat and reached across to grab a handful of the glorious, buttery snack. To his amusement, Pops let him swipe a sizable amount. Mikey ate his stolen treat rapidly. He jumped back up onto Raph’s shell as quietly as he’d left with a surprise for his brother. Pops had allowed him to grab a second handful for Raphael with a large grin and a wink. When Raph tilted his head to look up at Mikey, the box turtle held out the popcorn with a cheeky grin. The snapper accepted the snack gratefully, seeing how he was getting pretty hungry. Sure, Mikey’s hands were miniscule compared to Raph’s, but the gesture was appreciated.

As the two re-focused on Leonardo and April, Mikey moved so he was seated behind Raph’s head. He grabbed the long mask tails and started twisting and tying them in complicated knots. The events going on didn’t really matter at the moment because Raph would alert him if he needed to pay attention, and this was something to keep himself entertained without causing some kind of uproar. Idly, he reached for his mystic core to see if it was cleared up yet. Still a funky feeling. He’d have to tell Don if it didn’t start feeling like normal soon.

Mikey finally ran out of length on Raph’s mask tails and frowned. He looked back at the others to see if anything interesting was happening because he didn’t feel like undoing his hard work just yet. Big Leo and Small Raph were finally done explaining what was happening to Adult April and Giant Mikey had vanished, presumably to pick up their pizzas. The two Donatello's were discussing something that sounded scientific at this point. Mikey silently decided to go nowhere near the two if they went into this lair’s lab. He hadn’t seen where it was yet, but he knew if there wasn’t one at the moment, his brother would build one just to have somewhere to hide from Raph. He pulled out his phone to browse memes, groaning and flopping on Raph’s head when he realized there was no signal in this lair. Stupid interdimensional phone service.
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Casey was listening as April ranted about her counterpart. From what he could follow, she was clearly peeved that she’d been written off as insignificant compared to the brothers and Splinter. In his experience, this was about the point when Donnie would have to drag her to the sparring room or Raph would take her on patrol so she could blow off steam. He nudged her as the other April left in a rush. Something about an important meeting she couldn’t afford to miss ‘but she’d be back, mark her words, this was far from over’. She relaxed a bit as the taller woman got out of ear shot. Casey grinned under his mask.

“Pizza’s here!” the taller Mikey whooped as he leapt into sight. Casey’s grin fell. Right, they weren’t out of danger yet. He stood up to pass Splinter the extra cheesy pizza, knowing the rat would save him a slice or two if he didn’t manage to swipe one from his sensei friend. Leon gracefully dashed to swipe the pepperoni and vegetarian boxes before slinging an arm around Donnie’s shoulders to drag his brother to the couch to eat. This time, the slider sat on the back just behind Casey. Donnie perched next to his twin, the two already trading jabs about the other’s pizza topping choice. Casey stopped focusing on the argument around the time Don loudly announced his disdain for Leonardo’s ‘grease covered, overly crunchy abomination that even Raph would hesitate to touch’ due to Leo dropping the box on Casey’s lap, lid open and three large slices left.

He watched as the other four turtles shared a single large pepperoni, marveling at the fact the four weren’t all eating the same amount as the snapper seated on the floor was. Raph was somehow already done with his entire large pizza and was eyeing Donnie’s half eaten pizza. The softshell had set it on the cushion next to Casey to avoid dropping it as he argued with Leon about topping choice. Casey decided to pretend he hadn’t seen anything as revenge for a prank Donnie had pulled the other day on him and Leo.

In typical Disaster Twin fashion, the argument was drawn to a close by Donnie’s arm mounted police scanner going off, loudly announcing a robbery. The softshell grimaced at the dirty looks shot at him by his family.

“Okay, in my defense, I didn’t expect the police here would use the same kind of service as they do at home,” Donnie huffed. “Good news is, once this is dealt with, I can hook your phones up so they get Wi-Fi and calls again.” Alternate Donatello moved in closer.

“So, what’s going on with the police?” the taller Donnie asked. One of Don’s mechanical arms reached for the now empty box of pizza while he typed furiously on his computer with his flesh arm.

“Some kind of robbery,” he replied. “A group of armed gunmen rushing an armored transport truck on a nearby highway. If we go now, we can intercept them as they reach the truck and try to stop them.” Larger Leonardo frowned.

“Can you guys fight?” he asked. “If you’re coming with us, we can’t be defending you constantly.” Casey wordlessly grabbed his weapon, imitated by the turtles and April. Splinter sank into his couch cushion. Raph chuckled menacingly.

“Of course we can,” the snapper smirked. “Let’s roll!” Leonardo nodded his approval and the group funneled out to the general sewers to begin their pursuit.

Chapter Text

Where Raphael and his brothers preferred to stay low and quiet when running towards a fight, the dimensionally displaced mutants were all kinds of crazy. The dash through the sewers had been what Raph would call sane and normal, but once they went above ground, things changed.

Orange was clearly the most acrobatic. He was using his nunchucks to swing high across gaps and roadways, adding in frequent front flips and backflips like some kind of performer. Blue was achieving impressive jumps, using any ledge he could get his limbs on to get more air for himself. Purple’s mechanical arms were allowing him to move like some kind of turtle-spider hybrid as he typed furiously on his arm's computer screen. He saw Donnie shudder as they ran before the purple themed scientist pointedly looked away from the smaller turtle.

Red almost seemed the most normal, running style wise, but the human girl on his shoulders stood out, especially when combined with the vague thought that no being built like an entire brick house should be half as fast as Red was. The human boy was easily keeping up, using a grappling hook built into his bulky gloves to match Orange’s swings, just without the acrobatics. The cape fluttering behind him more than made up for the dramatic factor.

Raph was mildly impressed with the six so far. Their movements, despite being entirely separate, were coordinated in the fact that none got far enough to be able to be picked off by a surprise attack. Mikey still somewhat struggled with the concept of moving with the group. A point proven by his orange-masked brother at this very moment. The easily distracted turtle was trying to pull off the flips his miniscule counterpart was making look effortless with varying degrees of success. Raph moved to get closer to him just in case some rogue Shredder fanatic was wandering around, even though Shredder was all but guaranteed to be a non issue and his remaining lackeys had all gone extremely quiet.

Maybe not so quiet, he thought to himself with a snarl when he saw the armored vehicle. Foot Clan goons were riding double on motorcycles and packed into cars as they surrounded the truck in a manner similar to when Shredder had been in the process of being transported. Raph pulled out his sai as his brothers grabbed their own weapons from their holders. He glanced at the 6 others, eyes widening as his brothers looked over too.

Orange’s spots had begun shining vividly, and his nunchucks were glowing the same color as his mask, extending to impossible lengths as he leapt down with a shrill battle cry. Red roared as he followed, a red glow expanding and creating a large hologram, visually identical, around him. Blue hooted as he slashed his twin katana. His yellow and red markings lit up at the same time as a bright portal opened in front of him that he leapt through with no hesitation. Purple smirked as his mechanical arms threw him towards the highway. His markings glowed a light violet color while his wooden bo was encased in a glowing purple projection that gave the weapon a technologic appearance, buttons and metal plating included. The human girl launched herself off Red’s back with her bat drawn. A fiery green glow encased the otherwise ordinary looking wooden weapon. Raph narrowed his eyes. He could understand the turtles having weird powers; mutagen was weird stuff. But the girl? No way. He’d confront them about that party trick when they stopped the Foot and got back to the lair.

“Cmon, boys!” Leonardo whooped, leaping down to land on the armored truck. Raphael called his own battle cry, echoed by his two brothers as they all leapt down after Leo. Time to show these newcomers what they could do, since the others were going to show off too!
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Donnie cackled as he set up a barrier with his mystic projectiles to stop all the cars behind the truck. His mystic essence formed a jetpack on his battle shell as the mechanical legs retracted. He,April, both Raphs, and both Mikeys would remain to fight the enemies he’d stopped while both Leos, Big Donnie, and Casey defended the armored truck to the best of their capabilities. No official decision had been called out, barring the Leos nodding at their respective backup. Donnie and his brothers had simply used their mental link to plan the split up as they analyzed the situation. He had no clue how the other turtles had decided on their plan of action, but he supposed it was a similar situation.

Donnie knew he’d be fine to join the armored truck chase now that the cars were stopped, but he’d much rather stay behind and leave his twin to embarrass himself against his counterpart by himself. Besides, he still wasn’t entirely sure what the range was on his shields, and now was a poor time to test that out.

April launched herself at one of the enemies before the other humans present could react. The softshell watched in amusement from the air as her chosen target dropped like a sack of bricks. One of the men crouched behind an open car door and pulled a rifle out from behind his back.

Donnie took a second to note they had guns, alerting his brothers (and Leo) via the still present mental link they shared. Almost instantly, Raph’s projection dropped in favor of the snapper creating several clones and camouflaging to get close to his opponents. Mikey scowled, swinging his nunchucks to elongate the chains. The excess metal swirled around him elegantly, creating a shield as the box turtle lunged forward. Donnie decided to go for sheer force, creating several ranged weapons with his mystic powers. He could feel Leon worrying asking about them via the link, so he sent back reassurances before closing the bond to focus on his fight.

The strange Raph and Mikey chose to fight similarly to April, getting in close while dodging bullets and using vehicles as shields. Smaller Raph’s twin sai flashed as he spun them to knock people and guns aside. Donnie watched as the red warrior lifted and threw one gunman at another, knocking them all over.

Big Mikey was working amazingly with his box turtle counterpart. The two’s nunchucks made them a ferocious combo. Mikey was faster than his larger version, but the two were fairly equal in combat capability. Donnie did notice the larger Mikey struggled with range. Where Donnie’s little brother could simply extend his chains with mystic energy, Michalengelo was forced to get closer than he really should, given the guns their opponents were carrying.

As Donnie fired mystic weapon after weapon, he occasionally set a mystic shield in front of the three close quarters combatants when necessary. Each time, the shield deflected several bullets just long enough for the targets to move to cover or press the temporary advantage. April was used to the shields appearing out of nowhere, but the two other turtles were startled every time a purple projection appeared in front of them.

Between Donnie’s mystic firearms, Raph’s clones, and Mikey’s ability to just lift and throw cars like they weighed nothing with his chains, their enemies soon ran out of accessible cover and were overpowered. No matter which way they turned, there was always someone to tackle them from behind. As the fight ended, Donnie allowed the force field to vanish and Raph dissolved his clones, dropping his camouflage next to his brothers. He stared down the highway as he stood next to his smaller counterpart, both in the same pose and clearly concerned about their brothers.
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To say Casey was having a bad time was an understatement. In the weeks he’d been in the past/side timeline/whatever it was, he hadn’t had to try to fight while barrelling down a highway at speeds only Kraang machines could go. Now, however, he was thrust headfirst into the chaos of freeway traffic. He’d never seen a street in New York this empty, even at night, but he was grateful for it. His grappling hook couldn’t keep up with the motorcycles, so he was stuck on defense with the alternate Donatello. Both Leonardos were taking care of offense, leaping around and throwing katana back and forth so Leon could teleport them directly onto the bikes and out of the way of gunfire.

Leon was clearly having fun, judging from the loud laughter. Although, considering other Leonardo was also whooping and hollering, Casey was sure the two were more alike than he had originally considered. Every so often, he’d duck to allow one of the katanas to pass over him as one turtle botched the throw. He wasn’t judging, he’d tried throwing weapons against the Kraang before. Aiming an entire sword was surprisingly challenging, especially against moving targets.

For every motorcycle the four managed to eliminate from the chase, it felt like two more showed up. Casey tilted his head. Where were they all coming from? Donnie had stopped the majority of the pursuers at one point, but he was sure his team was fighting more people collectively thanks to the constant inflow.

Casey revved his chainsaw threateningly as one of the bikes tried to get close enough for the passenger to jump on. Thankfully, the driver swerved away again. Larger Donnie wasn’t used to the noise when in combat, given how he startled when the chainsaw revved again.

Casey brought his weapon down to break the gun of one attacker who jumped onto the truck and clung to the edge with both hands. Even weaponless, the man swung a large fist at Casey, knocking him across the truck. The Donnie up on the roof with him grabbed him with one arm while Leon teleported himself on top of the truck, hissing furiously. After a swift kick, the man was booted off and Leon returned to his elaborate teleporting routine with his counterpart. Casey didn’t bother to see if the man had survived or not, given he was occupied with fending off another grown man trying to climb onto the moving vehicle.

He took a moment to glance back at Donnie to make sure the large turtle was doing alright. Thankfully, the goons attacking the truck were too preoccupied with shooting at the teleporting turtles to focus on the one standing on the vehicle and knocking off any that managed to climb on. Casey swatted his latest opponent off with a growl of frustration. This felt far too much like one of the Jupiter Jim action movie crossovers the turtles had convinced him to watch.

One gunman clambered onto the roof just out of sight of the turtle and the teen. Before the man could actually fire, Donnie swung his bo behind him, having heard the noise. The man was knocked off and caught by one of the passenger-less motorcycles. Casey groaned when he saw the catch. That was an opponent that’d return as soon as the driver gave him a fresh weapon.

“We got to retreat!” Donnie shouted suddenly. “There’s too many and Leo’s injured!” Casey swore under his breath as he glanced at Leon. Nope, the flashy slider was okay, meaning it was the other Leo that had been injured. Sure enough, even more motorcyclists had shown up. Casey nodded at Donatello.

“Grab your Leo and let’s go!” he called back. He tapped the side of his helmet, activating his comms. “We’re retreating! Big Leo is injured to an unknown degree!” Casey felt the air ripple as Leon teleported himself to the top of the truck. The slider wasted no time in opening a portal to warp all four back to the main group. Leonardo protested as he was taken away from the fight.

“They’re gonna get the truck!” Leonardo growled. “We have to stop them!”

“We can’t do anything to stop whatever’s happening if you bleed out!” Leon snapped back.

One of the Raphaels grabbed the injured turtle while the larger Donatello pulled down his goggles to begin scanning. Donatello frowned.

“He’s not hurt too bad, but we’ll have to get him to a sterile environment so I can bandage him,” the purple scientist announced after just a few seconds. Leon nodded, moving closer to take a look for himself.

“Looks like a gunshot to the arm and some nasty road rash,” Leon murmured. Donatello’s gaze darted up to meet Leon’s for a second before he nodded in agreement. The two medics eyes returned to Leonardo as they kept looking over their newest patient.

After a while, Leon drew his katanas. He closed his eyes to concentrate. Moving this large of a group was going to leave him drained, but it was vital. He focused before snapping his eyes open and opening a massive portal beneath everyone present. The group fell through nearly instantly. His portal spat everyone out in the lair, where he and larger Donnie grabbed the bigger Leo in a moment of unspoken medic solidarity to drag him to the lab for treatment. As the two team medics vanished, the rest of the group was left to sit in tense silence for the results.

Chapter Text

Michelangelo didn’t quite know what to think. Smaller versions of himself and his brothers, minus Raph, dropping out of nowhere in a flash of bright yellow and blue? Absolutely wild. That’s before he even got into thinking about their awesome, amazing magic powers and their epic combat skills! They were like superheroes! Speaking of, he’d love to talk to his tiny version about those magic nunchucks. He took all of two steps before Raph grabbed the back of his shell. From Tiny Mike’s face, his expression was hilarious.

“What are you doin, Mikey?” Raph asked quietly. Red raised an eye ridge as Tiny Mike scrambled off his shoulders to get closer to Mikey before Raph could notice. Mikey turned to fully face Raph, shaking his brother’s grasp off.

“I was gonna just ask em some q’s, chill,” Mikey huffed indignantly. He could feel Tiny Mikey approaching before the smallest turtle leapt with a whoop, landing on top of his shell. Raph’s eyes widened in shock.

“Run!” Tiny Mikey screeched gleefully. Mikey chortled, whipping his board down and rocketing out of the lair and into the first sewer tunnel he could spot. He didn’t know why Tiny Mike wanted to ditch everyone, but if it meant he could finally chat with the small turtle, he was willing to go along with him. Besides, he trusted that he wasn’t evil! The others had fought to defend them from the Foot goons and stop the threat. Not that that had worked out too well, but they’d tried!

“So,” Mikey finally started. They weren’t lost, he knew the way home with ease. He kept puttering around on his board, deactivating the rockets when he figured he was far enough that Raph couldn’t interrupt them. “Magic nunchucks?” His tiny self grinned and adjusted his grip to something far more comfortable. He slung his legs around Mikey’s neck. Tiny Mike folded his arms across his head, stacking his own head on top.

“Yep! We all got mystic powers,” he chirped happily. “I can lift stuff, even if it’s really heavy, and my nunchucks extend however far they need to, and I can even set them on fire!” Mikey felt like he had stars in his eyes from excitement.

“And you can do this whenever you want?!” Tiny Mike nodded vigorously.

“Yeah! And Leo can teleport wherever he wants, or just to one of his katana! That’s more for like, combo attacks or showing off.” Before the small turtle could keep explaining, Red, or Large Raph, wandered past them. The one eye Mikey could see was clouded over, so he assumed the other was too. Tiny Mike chirped excitedly at his brother, getting no reply.

“You should head back now,” Tiny Mike informed Mikey. “We’ll catch up later!” He leapt off Mikey’s back, landing squarely on Big Raph’s spiked shell. The two turned a corner and vanished from Mikey’s sight. Slightly unnerved, Mikey decided to return to the lair before Raph tracked him down and drug him back by one ankle. Not an experience he craved to repeat.

As he entered, Raph grabbed him and spun him harshly, inspecting his shell. “They didn’t hurt you, did they?” he asked. Mikey would normally have rolled his eyes, but he was still too weirded out from whatever Other Raph had going on. The delay he took to reply was enough for Raph’s eyes to narrow as he stared out the lair. Mechanical clattering sounded from behind both brothers. Mikey whirled, nunchucks drawn defensively. The small Donatello stood a few feet away, hanging from the ceiling by his shell’s spidery, mechanical legs. Tiny Donnie grinned menacingly at Mikey’s startled squeak before his expression returned to deadpan.

“Leo says Leo’s all patched up,” he said. His monotone voice snapped Mikey out of his startled daze.

“Aww, sick, brah!” Mikey cheered, darting for Donnie’s lab. Raph was hot on his heels as the two barreled into the room. Tiny Leo raised an eye ridge, resembling Tiny Donnie for a moment before he stepped out of the way of the two much larger turtles. Mikey slung his arms around Leonardo. He hugged tighter when his oldest brother returned the affection, wrapping him in a warm hug. Raph rolled his eyes at the display, but leaned over when Leo and Mikey opened their arms to invite him and Donnie in. Donnie all but melted into the embrace. After a couple minutes, the brothers separated, noticing the lab was void of their counterparts.

Leo left the room first, glancing around suspiciously. His other self was wiping down some dishes in the kitchen area, humming along to some kind of pop song playing from his phone. Smaller Donnie was whistling to himself as he made adjustments to their lights up on the ceiling. Casey was sweeping the floor, with Other April mopping behind him. Casey whirled the broom like it was a weapon.

“Don’t you dare step on the wet floor,” he snapped. Other April aimed her mop threateningly towards the much larger turtles as well.

“You’ll be eatin dirt!” she added. Raph snorted, taking a large step forward.

“This is our lair, you can’t tell us what to do,” he smirked. The confident expression was wiped off his face as the two humans lunged. Before Mikey could process what had just happened, Raphael was face down on the floor yet again. From the bewildered stare his brother wore, apparently Raph had no idea why his view had suddenly changed as well. Casey and Other April grinned at each other, returning to their chores in sync. Mikey, Leo, and Donnie reached out, grabbed Raph, and slowly dragged him back into the lab in an attempt to dodge Casey and April’s wrath. Yeah, they’d wait there for now.
_
April high fived Casey as the two finished the final bit of the floor in the main lair area. She could say this room was cleaner than it’d been since it’d been built, given that her mop water had to be changed several times over. Casey grabbed a bag of trash from the pile the two had created as they moved along the floor space, tossing it upward at Donnie. The softshell was still upside down on the ceiling, but he had claimed ten minutes ago that he was mere moments away from having the dingy, dark lights upgraded. Donnie shrieked as the bag hit his battle shell.

“Cmon, we gotta do something with all this,” Casey grumbled. He grabbed the fallen bag and hefted a second one. April grabbed two as well, while Donnie grabbed the remaining bags with his mechanical arms. Donnie sighed, moving his goggles over his eyes to pull up his pathing feature. April followed her brother easily with Casey hot on their tails. She knew Donnie wasn’t actually upset about being interrupted. He’d rather help them take out garbage than have to smell it while working.

“And, we just go through this hatch, and voila. Don’t hit me with slimy garbage bags again,” the scientist glowered. He threw open the small door, revealing a ladder that led to the surface. April shimmied up first, just in case there were any people around. She emerged into an empty alley with three large dumpsters. Casey shuffled up behind her. Donnie, rather than exit the safety of the sewers, threw his bags up, hitting Casey in the back. Casey yelped in surprise but threw his two bags into one of the dumpsters and turned to pick Donnie’s up off the ground. After April chucked hers into the dumpster closest to her, she helped Casey before dropping back into the sewer tunnel. Donnie had, of course, waited for the two. The softshell led them back to the lair, raising an immaculately drawn eyebrow at the expression on Raph’s counterpart.

April sometimes wished her ninpo allowed her to make constructs like Donnie. All the purple themed scientist had to do was use his battle shell to go back to his work on the light system to avoid any confrontation. Casey and her, however, were stuck on the ground for the large turtles to interrogate about Raph of all turtles.

“Where’d the big red one go?” the other Raph asked, a scowl present. April shrugged.

“Places,” she answered. Clearly, the four were not thrilled with her response.

“Why’d he go places, miss?” Big Leonardo asked. April raised an eyebrow, leveling him with an unimpressed stare.

“Reasons that have nothin to do with you nosy tortoises,” she snapped. “Now, back off, or I’ll show you what your brother 's been experiencing all night.” She internally cackled as Big Leo took several rapid steps back with his hands raised. Other Raph grabbed him by the arm, dragging him further into the lair to have some kind of secret discussion. Sighing, April flopped down onto the couch. She was shortly joined by Casey. The two sat on the furniture in silence, not counting Splinter’s loud snores; waiting for something to happen.

Chapter Text

Deciding they had nothing better to do, the twins decided to make a game of how much they could wind up their oldest brother's counterpart. Leo had started strong with far too much eye contact when the red masked warrior returned. Donnie, however, was gaining a distinct lead by stretching his neck at a snail's pace whenever other Raph was looking. Leo's tail thumped against the chair he was seated on as he made direct eye contact without blinking. Judging from the disgusted expression, Leon was currently in the lead. He lost magnificently against his twin when Donnie used his mechanical arms to dangle from a doorway and T posed at the unfortunate turtle.

"Victory!" Donnie shrieked as other Raph grabbed him by his real arms and pulled him down with a furious snarl. The sound Raph made as a response could only be summed up as a verbal keysmash of sheer rage. Still held aloft by the much larger turtles, Donnie stretched his neck, made direct eye contact with Leon, and dabbed.

–
The rest of the day continued in a similar fashion. Raph and Mikey had straight up vanished, April and Casey were sleeping since they needed more rest than the mutants, and Pops was watching his shows on Donnie's tablet. The softshell himself was now hounding his own counterpart about wanting to use his lab, getting turned down repeatedly.

At some point, Leon meandered over to watch. And by watch, he meant stand directly behind Donnie and extend his own neck to wig out the much taller Donnie. Given the shriek of terror and the way Big Donnie locked himself in the lab, it worked. Given
the way his twin whirled to face him, already conjuring a fist extension to his bo, it worked a little too well.
–
Leon groaned in boredom as he sat in Big Donnie's lab with his arm bandages being re-wrapped. He considered this very unfair, he'd already checked them! Sure they were a lot more red than they normally should be, but it wasn't his blood! These excuses did not convince Big Donnie to let him out of his lab, and his twin had confiscated his katana. He debated warping himself to his weapons, but Donnie'd probably find some way to fully restrain him.

"Cmon, I'm fiiiine," Leon whined. Big Donnie didn't even look back at him from where he was rooting in a bin of medical supplies. The large turtle popped up with an 'Aha!' As he located a small box of gauze squares.

"Even if you are, I wanna swap those bandages out for gauze to let your healthy scales breathe," Donatello informed him. Leon propped his head on one of his hands as the larger turtle lifted him as though he were a child, setting him on the same medical bed Leonardo had been on earlier.

"So, any clue what your Raph is up to?" Donnie asked him. Leon scowled.

"So you're just wanting to snoop, huh?" he snorted. In truth, he wasn't even entirely sure. Raph had closed his end of the mental link enough that he and Donnie couldn't get anything through. They could only pick up a hint of rage and destructive glee. Mikey had reassured them he'd stick with Raph to keep him company, but then he'd fallen silent on his end. Big Donnie looked at Leon with a genuinely upset expression. The slider sighed as the scientist started unraveling the bandages on his arm's to check on the healing wounds and swap them for the gauze pads as promised.

"He's off doing Raph things, I guess. Mikey's with him, so we'll know if something goes sideways." Donnie nodded, lost in thought as he inspected the deep scrape for a second.

"Hasn't he been gone for, like, a couple hours now?" Leon shrugged.

"Personally, I'm up for giving him another half hour or so before we go find him," the slider answered. "Raph things are usually pretty dangerous, especially if he doesn't have FrankenFoot around to help blow off steam. Hey speaking of Raphs, you got any, like, confetti poppers down here? I gotta one up Don." Donnie shrugged.

"I might. I'd be willing to trade a few for, say, some photos? And safety from your Donnie when he inevitably gets in here to swap info on our biology," the purple scientist replied cheerily. Leon grinned widely.

"Bro! I'm the biologist," he chirped, tail starting to wag eagerly. "What did you wanna know?" Donnie's face lit up.

"Why do you all look different? How old are you? What's the difference between your mutagen and ours? Does your different appearance affect anything?" Donnie asked in a rush. Leon chirped in excitement and surprise at the amount of questions. He made himself more comfortable as he began to answer.

"Well, we're different species and ages, to start. I'm a red eared slider, Don's a spiny softshell, Mike's an ornate box turtle, and Raph's an alligator snapping turtle. Don and I are 16, nearly 17. Mike's 15, and Raph just hit 18 last week." Leon paused to take a deep breath before continuing.

"We do have different biology than each other. Donnie and I are the most aquatic, we can stretch our necks the most, and you've seen my rugged good looks." Leo couldn't help the wink he shot at Big Donnie, smirking at the startled expression. "Raph's the strongest, but you've seen that. He's the second most aquatic, and he's got that wicked tail! I once saw him slap Foot Brute through a wall! On accident! Sure, it was a wooden wall, but it totally counts!" Big Donnie's eyes flicked down to Leo's tail for a moment. The slider smirked again.

"Yeah, we've all got em," he informed the big turtle. "Mine's the most prehensile, but that's not saying much. I can't like, grab a pencil and write with my tail, but I have the most range and flexibility. Raph's is the longest and most powerful, Don's is shorter, and Mike has this adorable little nubby tail."

"Fascinating," Big Donnie muttered. "Ah, but what about your dimensions mutagen?" Leon scrunched his brow.

"We don't have mutagen, we have Oozesquitoes that bite people and inject them with glowing green sludge that mutates them," he answered. Big Donnie folded his arms across his plastron.

"Sounds like mutagen to me," he huffed. Leon shrugged, jumping off the bed. "Hey! Medic's Orders, leave those on and don't scratch at them!" He couldn't help it, he laughed loudly.

"You can't Medic Orders me! I'm the medic!" the slider retorted. Other Donnie's eyes narrowed and he strode closer confidently.

"I treated you, I'm your medic!" The scientist yelled. Leon matched his steps forward, hissing. There was no malice in the sound. If anything, he was having a blast! His own Donnie would have just pulled out his bo by now.

"I'm capable of assessing my own injuries, thank you very much!" Leon snarled, a playful tone in his voice. His twins counterpart puffed himself up. Whether to play along or because he thought it was serious, Leon wasn't sure, but either way, this was still fun.

"Hey you guys done in here yet, or what?" Donnie asked. He entered the lab, saw the two practically nose-to-beak. "Ah." And walked out. Leon shrieked, darting to catch up with his twin, Big Donnie hot on his heels.
—--
Up on the surface, a woman sat down at a rather formal table. The room was decorated in a heavily Japanese inspired style, including live bamboo and a koi aquarium taking up an entire wall. She waited patiently for a handful of her 'employees' to filter in. Really, they were just her father's workers. Paid in the ability to continue living. Not that they expected payment; they were rather eager to serve him.

"Alright, in front of you are instructions. They contain specific locations I want monitored at all times. We'll wait a few days, cause a scene. Your job is to alert me if you see anyone coming or going who looks strange. You already know the penalty for failing." The handful of highly trained men and women nodded, bowing and filing back out with their packets. The woman turned her seat to stare into the aquarium behind her. The survivors had reported duplicates just last night. She wanted to know how, exactly, they'd pulled that off, because this could be a massive hindrance in her plans.

She smirked to herself. No, her plan would work flawlessly. She just had to be patient. Months had already passed as she rebuilt her resources, re-trained her father's servants. What was a few days more in the grand scheme of things? She stood at last, exiting the room. She flipped the lights off and closed the door behind her, walking down the hall and out of the building with purpose. Time to do a little large game hunting.

Chapter Text

“Alrighty, time to go get Raph,” Leon announced. Donnie glanced up at him from where he’d been googling weird stuff on his arm computer. He rapidly closed the screen, but not fast enough to stop Other Donnie from managing to read the search. The taller scientist shot his own older brothers a look before waving a hand at Leon and Don.

“I’ll go with you two!” Big Donnie volunteered. Leon grinned widely, leaping to his feet. Before he could grab Big Donnie’s arm, the one Raph present grabbed him by the back of his shell. Raphael hoisted him upward as Donnie watched in amusement.

Raph gave Leon a warning glare before dropping the slider. Donnie rose to his feet to walk into the sewers with his counterpart and his twin. As they walked, he pulled up his trackers on his arm screen. Raph and Mikey were hanging out somewhere to the left, but he kind of wanted to see where Leon, who was walking like he knew where he was going, was taking them. Not like he couldn’t get them out of whatever weird maze Leon got them into.
__
Okay he couldn’t get them out of this weird maze Leon got them into. If it wasn’t for the fact Leon hadn’t used a portal at all, he was certain they were in another dimension entirely. Even his own counterpart looked lost. They’d have to go to the surface to get their bearings, and Bigger Donnie seemed unsure about the disguises the twins had rummaged up.

Leon gave a large, dark grey trench coat a hash shake. “I’m telling you; these things are foolproof! Humans just think you’re a mascot if you act confident enough!” After a few minutes more of hesitation, Donatello finally nodded, donning the trench coat. He buttoned it up, throwing on the hat Don tossed him.

“And what are you two going to do? That was, like, all the human clothing down here,” Donatello asked. Leon grinned.

“We’ve got a fool proof routine down,” he replied with a happy chirp. Opening his second belt pouch, the slider pulled out his classic Jupiter Jim Alien Turtle Goggles™. Donnie rolled his eyes dramatically. He opened a slot on his battle shell to deposit a pair of plastic antennae on his head, sliding his goggles over his eyes. His counterpart watched with barely hidden skepticism.

“Watch, and learn,” Donnie said. The softshell clambered out of the sewer, popping up in a quiet alley. Donatello followed him and Leo took the back of their funky chain. Both twins strode forward like they weren’t giant mutated turtle human hybrids while the even larger turtle human mutant hybrid shuffled behind them like he was going to perish on the spot. Donnie led them across several fairly busy intersections before pointing at a manhole cover. The twins stopped every so often as a human asked them a question or two. The questions were easily answered by Leon adopting his “nerd voice” and politely replying as if he was a clueless and lost cosplayer. None of the people around them yelled, shrieked, or started freaking out in any way relating to the mutants walking among them.

Donatello relaxed a bit more with every step they took that got them any closer to the manhole. He was clearly way out of his element up on the surface. In a way, Donnie felt responsible for getting his counterpart back to safety. Them being lost was his fault since he could have taken over navigating at any point. To Donatello’s relief, the manhole was hidden enough he could leap in without causing any ruckus. Leon skittered down after him, followed by Donnie. Donatello shucked the outfit as soon as he could.

Moving forward, Donnie half-heartedly listened to the two discussing turtle anatomy behind him. He’d taken the lead thanks to his spider-shell and glaring at Leo until the slider backed down and let him take over. The trio was still a way from Raph, but they were finally getting closer bit by bit.

“So, any idea what species you are?” Leo was currently asking. Don’s counterpart hummed.

“Well, we saw a video of us as regular turtles, and we seemed to have been red eared sliders like you,” he replied. Leon chirped with glee.

“Slider supremacy!” Leo cried. Donatello chuckled quietly. “You guys have any claws? Do you have to trim them a lot?”

“Claws? You guys get claws?!” Donatello asked indignantly. “Why did you guys get all the cool turtle features?” Don snorted.

“We didn’t just get fun features,” the softshell huffed. “We got some pretty serious downsides too. Regulating our diets, temperature struggles, and especially getting enough sunlight to dodge some nasty conditions are not nearly as exciting or cool as you might think.” He intentionally left out his softer shell. His counterpart knew what Don’s base species was. Their biggest weakness was in the name.

He could feel Leo testing their mental connection to Mikey and Raph. Whatever was going on with the snapper, he was still keeping the link mostly closed. Leo frowned, picking up his pace ever so slightly. As the group got closer, Donnie and Leo sped up, running into the tunnel Raph’s tracker was signaling from as fast as their legs could take them.

The snapper had his back to them. Just in front of him, they could spot Mikey holding an arm out. Whether defensively or offensively, the twins didn’t care.

“Raph!” they shouted in unison, charging forward with one arm extended to grab their oldest brother’s massive arm as he pulled it back.

“Leo? Donnie? What are you two doing here?” Raph asked. He sounded hoarse and exhausted. The twins moved around either side of him to look at his face. Raph had some new bruises, a few scratches, and most worryingly, a black eye. They took a moment to look over Mikey too. He was covered with a, frankly, alarming amount of red and dust. The area was covered in rubble and spilled paint. More red tracked up and down the floor, even reaching the ceiling in some places. Donnie couldn’t help as his mind raced with possibilities, several grimmer than he was hoping for.
___

Raph blinked at Leo pulling out his first aid kit and rifling through for some painkillers. “Neither of us are really that hurt, Leo,” he tried to assure his brother. Leo didn’t listen, ignoring him in favor of whipping out the small tube of tablets.

“Take two and see me in the evening if it still hurts,” the slider joked. Raph chuckled lightly. Leo moved over to Mikey to try and get an idea of what was going on under all that red. He pushed down the Kraang shaped part of his mind that reared its ugly head. No need to jump to those extremes yet.

“Hey, do you have a shower or something back at your lair? I can’t tell what’s going on under all this,” he asked Big Donnie. The larger turtle frowned at the sight of Raph and Mikey but nodded slowly.

“Yeah, we do,” Donatello replied. Leo sighed in relief, grabbing Mikey and Raph’s hands and pulling them out of the room and back into the tunnels. Donnie’s mechanical arms grabbed Leo by the shoulder, pointing him in a different direction than he originally planned to go.

“That way,” Donnie hissed. Leo marched forward. Yeah, he kinda deserved that. He’d rather not have to go above ground right now, after all.

Chapter Text

“Explain,” Donnie demanded as the five walked back to the lair. Raph sighed, tapping his fingers together.

“So, the stress, it got to me, and I kinda went all weird. Mikey had to snap me out of it, and then we were breaking stuff for fun,” the snapper answered. He wilted under the twins’ stares.

“Weird, how?” Leo asked. “Weird as in…” Raph waved his hands frantically as Leo trailed off.

“No, no no no, not at all like that again!” he yelped. Leo’s shoulders dropped in relief. “It was just a lot of stress, and I wasn’t thinking clearly.” Raph turned his head to stare directly at the larger of the two Donnies, who was tilting his head in curiosity. At the menacing glare, Donatello yelped and jumped to put Leo between him and Raph. “We don’t talk about that,” he rumbled at the smaller turtle. After Donatello nodded, he stopped glaring.

“We were breaking bricks and Mikey found some abandoned cans of spray paint, which we thought were empty, but the red one was actually still full. So, I was squeezing them to crush them with my powers, and when I got the red one, it exploded all over him,” Raph finished. Mikey hooted in amusement.

“It was a mess! I was recording, so you guys can see!” he informed his older brothers.

“Oh, that reminds me, gimme your phones,” Donnie said. He turned to walk backward through the tunnels so he could grab Raph’s phone. “I’ll hook them to this dimension’s signal now that I know what the cell service is like.” Mikey tossed his over to Donnie from behind Raph. Donnie yelped but caught the device in his hands. Leo had already had his upgraded, so he kept it tucked away in his secondary pouch.

“You two didn’t see, but we got Raph’s double to freak out at us,” Leo snickered. Raph sighed dramatically as Mikey snickered and jumped onto his shoulder. “Wanna try to get other me to flip out next?”

“Shouldn’t we, you know, not do that?” Raph asked. Leo waved a hand dismissively.

“No, they need this,” Donatello encouraged. “We don’t really prank each other much anymore.” Donnie looked back, surprised.

“What happened to cause that?” he asked. He almost added ‘the end of the world?’, but Leo wouldn’t take that kind of joke very well yet. Maybe not ever, after he’d very nearly done so. Donatello shrugged.

“An alien that wanted to conquer Earth and then the rest of our dimension,” the taller scientist replied. Raph felt his heart drop for a moment, his tail wrapping protectively in front of Mikey. The youngest turtle snapped into his shell as Raph shot a hand to his cloudy eye, phantom pain racing across the scars under his mask. Leo whined before imitating Mikey, sliding into his shell with a more awkward movement than his brother. Raph forced himself to stop focusing on his eye so he could pick his smaller brothers up.

“That’s something that hits a lot too close to home right now,” Donnie managed after a few moments of repressing the urge to rip his battle shell off his shell was in pain not meant to merge with Kraang biotechnology it hurt so bad.

“We don’t want to talk about it. Maybe in the future, but not now. Not today,” he told the taller scientist bluntly. Donatello nodded wordlessly, taking the lead back to the lair. He was glad he was in front so the others couldn’t see his expression of frustration at himself.
__
Karai glared furiously at the grunt in front of her. “You lost them?” she snarled. The man apparently had more of a spine than most of her father’s clan, because he didn’t cower away from her in the slightest.

“No, they entered a crowded area, and I was unable to track them,” he replied. His gaze never wavered from her own. “Another team reported someone suspicious entering their surveillance zone. No reports of anyone exiting, but several more have spotted workers moving back and forth. In addition, just before we lost our targets, one team reported suspicious shaking. There is a construction lot nearby. They will continue to monitor to see if it was a one-off event or typical of the site.”

“Is that all?” Karai hummed. The Foot grunt shook his head as he continued.

“There are reports of several paper stores being robbed.” He hesitated.

“Go on, clearly this is something you believe is worth wasting my time on,” she instructed, her voice icy. The grunt sounded like he was regretting his decision.

“The stores are robbed by two men with flaming heads and giant orange feet tattooed on their faces.” Karai shot upright out of her chair, slamming her hands on the table in front of her.

“You’re joking!” she roared. “This is what you bring to me? Am I supposed to order you to go recruit them?”

“They disappeared into thin air! We had a team attempt to intercept them as they split up to flee the scene. The men reported that as they rounded corners, their targets had vanished without a trace, resulting in the loss of an hour as they searched. Minutes after the search started, a report came from a store miles away about a robbery,” the grunt answered. Karai raised an eyebrow.

“Am I to believe they used something like magic?” she huffed. The grunt shrugged. She almost felt bad for the man. Here he came, to report some good news, bad news, and something worth investigating, and she had failed to get the rest of his report due to letting her temper take over her. Her father surely would have managed to wait for the full report before losing his patience with the nonsense.

“Thank you. Dismissed,” she told him, waving a hand. She made a note to raise his salary by a reasonable percentage within the week. Her father would not be pleased if she managed to drive off his employees because she could not control herself.

Karai turned her chair to look at the aquarium behind her. Perhaps she should contact her favorite scientist for advice. Yes. The situation was spiraling, and she required the assistance of one Baxter Stockman.

Chapter Text

As the five re-entered the lair, Leon was still in his shell. Mikey had popped out after just a little while, but the blue twin didn’t seem to want to emerge quite yet. Or, possibly, he’d fallen asleep. Raph wasn’t sure yet. He rumbled in greeting to April and Casey, who had woken up as the group entered. The largest turtle stifled a yawn as he sat next to the couch again. Mikey had long since dozed off while resting on his shoulders, and with Leo still in his shell, Donnie and Raph were the only two still up. Other Donnie had remained silent the whole way back, something the exhausted brothers had been somewhat grateful for. Don sprawled on the back of the couch in a manner similar to Leo earlier, snoring loudly within seconds.

Raph was ready to spend the whole day awake, but knowing April and Casey were up for at least a couple hours was enough to send him to sleep.
_
Leonardo stared curiously at his smaller counterpart for a moment before turning and clapping a hand on Donatello’s shoulder. At the unspoken sign, the two retreated deeper into the lair to have a serious conversation about what happened. Donnie mostly fumbled his way through the details, pausing for a minute while Leo processed the new information. He narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.

“They must have a Kraang in their dimension too,” he mused.

“That reaction tells me we really, really, don’t want to meet him. We shouldn’t use this as any kind of blackmail or control over them,” Donnie said. Leo held up his hands defensively.

“Of course not!” he replied quickly. “I didn’t mean to sound like that was what I meant. I just meant it’s… interesting. I wonder if our Kraangs are the same Kraang.” Leonardo nodded at Donnie, leaving the room and returning to the main room. April and Casey (and boy did he have questions about these two) were still seated. His counterpart was still in his shell. The larger Raphael was sleeping, like the other two turtles.

Briefly, Leonardo debated staying up until his brothers were awake to deal with the situation, but the stress of the day won out. He trudged to his room, yawning, unaware that the youngest of the newcomers had latched onto his shell for warmth.
__
His rest was rudely interrupted by loud thuds, roaring, and a sound he was sure he’d be familiar with in no time, but currently couldn’t place. As he left his bedroom, he once again failed to notice the extra weight on his back. The two Raphaels were once again going toe to toe, snarling at each other while the larger of the two thumped his massive tail against the ground in a threatening display. Neither, interestingly, had their sai drawn. Progress, in Leo’s opinion. The unfamiliar noise was apparently Mini-Leo opening portals to random parts of the lair. Mini-Donnie was running around in a frenzy.

To Leo’s surprise, April winked at him when she saw him. He checked himself over briefly. What was she on about? He also noticed Casey was missing. Leo tilted his head at Splinter. The rat was… asleep? How was he sleeping through all that noise? The pair of Raphs finally ended their temporary stand off when Big Raph’s eyes locked onto Leo, staring at a point just over his shoulder before narrowing as the large mutant focused back on him. Raphael collided with his counterpart when the larger started running at Leo while roaring. The two strongest in the lair started a violent looking wrestling match, up until Leo heard a soft chirp from just behind him.

Whirling, the blue warrior realized rapidly that the missing fourth counterpart was sprawled on his shell, still half asleep. Leo heard his smaller self open a portal just behind him before the small Mikey was gently peeled off him. Once the small turtle was removed, the larger Raph snorted and stopped wrestling with his smaller counterpart. His tail thumped the ground a few more times as he retreated to fuss over Mini Mikey.

Leonardo groaned as the lair quieted back down. He glanced at the clock. 5 pm. For a moment, he debated trying to go back to sleep, but another portal opened behind him, and Mini Leo hopped out.

“Hey so is there a shower or a tub or even a pool that isn’t sewer water?” the second blue ninja asked. “I’m feeling gucky and I’d like to change that.” Leonardo sighed and resigned himself to being up early for the day, turning to lead his miniature self to the makeshift bathroom Donnie had whipped up. The small turtle winked and slipped in, popping out after just a few minutes.

“Okay, onwards to the kitchen!” Leon cheered. Leo led the smaller to the doorway, freezing when he registered what he was seeing. The two Raphs were in some kind of eat off, jamming the foulest things still in the fridge they could get their hands on in their mouths. Both Mikeys were dashing back and forth with food for the pair, each handing their burdens to the opposite Raph. Big Raph was apparently winning, given that he downed an entire dozen raw eggs with no hesitation.

“We don’t want to go in there right now,” Leo told his small self. Leon shuddered as he had the chance to peek around and get a look.

“Wanna go get something else then?” he suggested. Leo frowned.

“Above ground?” he questioned. Small Leo nodded eagerly, pulling the same disguise Donnie had told him about from his pockets.

“I looked it up, there’s some kind of sci-fi convention in town,” he explained. “We just put on these awesome disguises and use nerd voices, and no one will notice!” After a moment, Leo nodded in reply, accepting the googly eyed glasses Leon passed him. Leon seemed to be debating something, finally gesturing for Leo to lead the way to the surface. The two paused when they thought they felt eyes on them for a moment but continued forward to merge with the crowd.
______
“I didn’t know you were a babysitter,” Karai taunted. Baxter Stockman scowled at her, mimicked by the near identical kid standing next to him.

“I’m not,” the scientist snarled.

“And I don’t need a babysitter!” the kid protested. Stockman ignored the boy’s protests as he walked around the table separating him and Karai.

“What are you here for, Karai? If you’ll recall, our last interaction didn’t end so well.” Blunt and to the point as ever. She could appreciate that.

“I want to re-open the portal and bring Shredder back from Kraang’s Technodrome,” Karai informed him. “If I get you the pieces, can you get it out again?” Baxter’s scowl deepened.

“I could. But why would I? I don’t like to make the same mistake twice.” Both in the room failed to notice the kid leaping onto the table until he started yelling at them.

“You’re going to bring Kraang back? New York barely survived the last time,” the child protested. “The Mutant Menace had to save us.” Karai raised an eyebrow. Mutant Menace?

“Mutant Menace?” Stockman asked for her. The kid now was clearly confused.

“Yeah? Everyone’s heard of them,” he huffed. “Four turtles that run around causing trouble for everyone. They wrecked my parents’ store.” Promising, Karai mused. A kid who knew about the turtles, had a grudge against said reptiles, and looked just like Stockman.

“Didn’t know you had a kid,” she taunted. Stockman sputtered furiously at her. “Anyway. Will you do it?” The scientist looked at her intently.

“No tricks? No trying to ship me off to Tokyo?” Karai nodded sincerely.

“I will not pull any tricks, including trying to send you to Tokyo,” she nodded, stretching a hand out. Stockman thought for a moment before he caved, shaking her hand.

“We have a deal then,” he agreed. The kid started screeching something, but Karai was already leaving the scientist’s lab. As she exited TCRI, her phone started ringing.

“Boss, we got a read on one. Two subjects in disguise. We’ve lost them but will continue to monitor.”

She hung up, walking forward with a new pep in her step. All her plans were coming to fruition. Soon, she’d have Shredder out of Kraang’s custody, and nothing could stop her.

Chapter Text

The two blue turtles strolled casually through the rush hour of New York City. Leon had no clue where he was going, but he figured if they walked enough, they’d stumble across some hole in the wall restaurant that wasn’t crowded. Their walk was uninterrupted until someone dressed in an intimidating alien costume stopped them.

“Hey! Are you two headed to Sci-Con?” they asked, bouncing eagerly. Leon grinned, striding forward.

“We were, but then my bro here got hungry. You a local?” Leon could see Big Leo getting agitated, but he waved a hand casually. The costumed human nodded.

“There’s a great little joint about 3 blocks away, does the best Italian you’ve ever had. Tell em the chaotic seasonal will be by to pay later, and order whatever you want,” they told him. “Ah, and if you got any family, get them something too! I’ll cover it as long as you don’t like, order ten of the most expensive thing on the menu.” They wheezed pathetically at their comment. Leon chuckled.

“Well, we’ll just grab a couple large pizzas for the fam,” he assured them. The human grinned widely.

“Sick! You guys have fun at Sci-Con, and if they give you any trouble at the Italian joint, call this number.” They peeled a sticky note from under their collar, scrawling a number on the small paper. “And wicked costumes! Alien turtles, very unique!” They winked at Leo and Leon before darting off to join up with a similarly dressed person farther down the road.

Leo finally seemed to remember how to breathe, having tensed up at the person’s little comment. “Hey, tiny me? I think that person knows we’re not dressed up.” Leon waved a hand at him.

“Happens sometimes. They’re pretty common. That person won’t sic the cops on us,” he assured his larger self. Leo still looked unsure but followed Leon down the street in the direction of the supposed Italian place. To his surprise, the instructions they had been given led straight to a small building. He entered behind Leon.

“Hey, can we get five large pizzas to go? We bumped into someone, they said to tell you something about chaotic seasons?” Leon asked the cashier. The young man at the counter grinned at the smaller turtle.

“Aw, of course, broski! What do you two want on em?” The cashier seemed genuinely excited about the request.

“One’s extra cheese, then we’ll have…. A cheese, a meat lover’s, a pepperoni, aaaaand…” Leon trailed off, not sure what to do with the final pizza’s toppings. Thankfully, Leo piped in, though he sounded tense.

“Supreme,” the taller warrior answered. The cashier nodded as he punched in the orders.

“They’ll be done in about twenty minutes. Do you want any garlic knots, cheese sticks, or sodas?” Leon thought for a minute before nodding.

“Garlic knots and cheese sticks please,” he replied. The cashier finished the order, momentarily displaying the total. Leon wheezed in shock at the price before sitting nervously with Leo at a nearby table. As soon as the pizzas were finished, the two grabbed the bags the cashier handed them, thanking the young man and leaving so Leon could open a portal back to the lair in the alleyway nearby. For one, Leo wasn’t even entirely sure where the lair was from here, and Leon decided not to cause his counterpart any more stress wandering above ground.
____
Back in the lair, Mikey, Mikey, Raph, and Raph were still locked in a competition. The red brothers had been arguing when their orange brothers suggested some friendly contests. The first one, an eating contest, had backfired spectacularly with both Raphs throwing the increasingly gross foods at the Mikeys. Arm wrestling had popped up on Raphael’s part but had been turned down due to the direct aggressive contact it’d allow. The Raph with a tail had suggested a race, so now the two were lined up at one wall of the lair. Both Mikeys were at the opposite end with the smaller Mikey crouched on his large counterpart’s shell.

“Go!” both shouted at once. Raph took off as fast as he could, winning the race against his tailed counterpart. The two shared a vaguely respectful nod before turning to their younger brothers.

“How about… hmm…” Mikey was at a loss for the moment. Michelangelo had an idea thankfully.

“A throwing contest!” he cheered. “We got a dartboard a little while ago. They can use that!” The two orange teens hi-fived (or hi- threed in this case) as they rushed to the dartboard, the two red ninjas hot on their heels. The large pair stared each other down in an attempt to intimidate the other into giving up the red darts. After a time, Big Raph snorted and grabbed the green darts. He wasn’t admitting defeat. He just wanted to compete against someone who could finally match him without him having to hold back his strength.

The pair matched in darts, as in Mikey and Angelo would have been safer standing directly in front of the board. Raph winced as both yelped and retreated into their shells for safety while darts flew randomly across the room. Raphael slammed his hand on the table with a snarl as the orange brothers emerged.

“You suck,” Small Mikey snickered.

“That was, the worst darts I've ever seen,” Big Mikey added gleefully. The Raphs shot him a nasty side eye before collecting the scattered projectiles.

Small Mikey clambered on top of Small Raph’s shell, throwing the tailless mutant off balance for a moment. With a wide grin, Big Mikey climbed Big Raph’s spined shell, perching delicately to avoid stabbing himself. The two grabbed their rides’ mask tails, looping them across their faces and tying them off.

“Blind race!” the pair whooped. Big Raph was the first to agree with Small Raph agreeing moments later. The two charged down the length of the lair and out into the sewers, guided by the opposing Mikeys.
–
Raphael huffed at his brother. Last time he lets a blind race go that long. He and Big Raph had finally collided with each other after thundering through the tunnels under New York for about half an hour. He missed the surprisingly fond look on his tailed counterpart’s face. Big Raph raised a hand the size of his Mikey’s whole skull to gently pat the top of the much smaller turtle’s head. Raphael looked away hastily. He was a warrior, an expertly trained ninja. He did not want head skritchies.

He started leading the way to the lair again. Obviously, he trusted Michaelangelo to get them back, but he’d rather make sure they moved through the tunnels efficiently. The two Mikeys seemed to have an idea for another contest, because they blasted past their older brothers as fast as they could, with the smaller piggybacking on the taller’s. Raph watched them go with mild amusement before he registered Big Raph approaching. Before he could turn around, a massive hand was patting the top of his head gently. He swatted the appendage away, shooting a glare at his tailed counterpart. The offender had the gall to shoot him a friendly grin.

Raph pointedly ignored the fact he’d enjoyed the friendly contact. He was an expert fighter; he did not need or want head pats.
__
Raph tilted his head at the contest the two youngest brothers had set up. They called it an agility competition. Raph knew it was secretly just a game of “how low can you go”, aka limbo. He already knew he was going to fail. A massive tail does not always lend balance, especially when you’re folding yourself backwards. Not to mention his shell would cause issues with the giant spines. Ah well, he’d compete if it made his brother happy.

He pointedly ignored the smirk his newfound rival shot him. The slightly smaller turtle gestured for him to go first. Raph wiggled under the pole to succeed at round one. Two was harder, and he could tell he was close to failing at three. Sure enough, on round 4, the largest turtle fell over backwards, landing squarely on his tail.

The snapper moved out of the way after a moment, holding the end of his tail and inspecting the scales for damage. He was not sulking, not at all. He ignored as his counterpart reached round 5 before he, too, failed. He couldn’t ignore, however, the hand that patted the top of his head a couple times before his counterpart walked away to chat with the two orange masked ninjas. Raph let go of his tail, feeling the limb thump against the floor in happiness. He shot the appendage a glare. Traitor.
___
Michelangelo hi-threed Tiny Mike. “It worked, brah!” he cheered. Tiny Mike whooped while doing a celebratory backflip.

“So, do you like to do art?” Tiny Mike asked. Mikey grinned widely.

“Of course! I’m only the most artistic in this family!” he replied. Tiny Mike’s grin grew wider.

“We should redecorate the lair!” Mikey felt his jaw drop. Genius!

“Let’s do it!” he whooped in agreement. The two bolted for Mikey’s room to collect Mikey’s stored paint cans. The two grabbed as many as they could carry before returning to the main room. Tiny Mikey used his mystic nunchucks to grapple a support beam along the ceiling, making him the official upper areas painter. Mikey himself was in charge of the lower walls, including the floor after a heated argument about whether or not the floor should be repainted.

Before long, they were happily splattering paint everywhere. They didn’t pay much attention to where their respective brothers were unless one was about to disturb their work. At which point, the offender would have to put up with both orange artists yelling and threatening. Mikey was pretty sure he heard Tiny Mike shriek something about a “Dr. Delicate Touch”, which was enough for the smaller Donnie to drag his larger self into the lab. He’d have to ask about that when they were done.

Tiny Mikey was somehow the first one done, but only by a couple minutes. In Mikey’s defense, he’d misplaced his paintbrush after pulling out his nunchucks to threaten Raphael. The hardheaded hothead hadn’t wanted to be holed up in his room for the time the paint would need to dry, but until the Leos got back, he’d have to put up with it. The Leos showed up around an hour into the process. Tiny Leo had immediately been put to use portalling the multiple turtles around the lair to dodge the still wet patches of paint.

“This place looks better than ever,” Mikey announced once the paint had completely dried. Tiny Mike scowled.

“Something’s off…” the small acrobat mused. Both artists looked slowly around the main room to attempt to spot the wrong bit. Mikey was sure both spotted it at the same time.

“Eww, that couch gotta go!” Tiny Mike snarled. Mikey nodded his agreement. The two looked at each other before grinning widely.

“Oh, Raph!” they hollered in unison.