Chapter Text
Universe 2018
“Mikey, I swear to pizza supreme in the sky, if you do not stop eating chess pieces—!”
“You’ll never take me alive,” Mikey cackled as he ducked Leo’s swipe at him.
“Grab him, Raph!” Leo called to the oldest brother.
Raph used his large size to block the doorway of the lab, his arms held out at the ready. Mikey just laughed, spinning around to avoid Donnie’s tackle and jumping up onto Raph’s shoulder to vault him through the same opening in the corner. As he ran away, Mikey could hear the fading groans from his brothers as he jumped into the air. Using his powers, he flew into his train car room and grabbed his cloak.
“I’m going to go visit Michael now!” Mikey called into the lair.
“But you just went to see Mike last week!” Leo argued back from the lab most likely.
“Yeah, but I promised to help Michael practice some new moves,” Mikey explained as he tied his cloak around his neck. Ever since he had gotten the new version of the hand braces Donnie had made for him, his hands had gotten so much better. He still struggled a bit at times but drawing didn’t make him so angry anymore and cooking was becoming a well enjoyed hobby once again.
“Is that a cover story to give him more powers?” Donnie said as Mikey left his room and saw his three brothers now in the main atrium between all of their rooms.
“I don’t think I can without overloading his body,” Mikey shrugged. “I only was able to give him back his electrical powers since there was an imprint on him already from the previous time he had them. All I did was make them more stable so that they wouldn’t fry him from the inside out.”
“Interesting,” Donnie mused with a hand stroke his chin. “I still don’t think you should go. You just crossed universes last week and 2012’s Leo is still scared of you.”
“Well, maybe he shouldn’t have made me bring out Dr. Delicate Touch,” Mikey puffed his cheek out in irritation.
“He just blew up your toaster.”
“It was my favorite toaster.”
“It was your only toaster.”
“Still my favorite.”
“Are you sure you are okay to go?” Raph fretted, shifting on his feet and poking his fingers together. “You just woke up two months ago.”
“It’s actually been almost three,” Mikey corrected with a sigh. “I am totally okay. That year nap did me wonders.”
“And all it did was give us separation anxiety,” Leo grumbled.
Mikey’s demeanor softened, floating closer to Leo to pull him in a hug. “I’m not going anywhere, Lee Lee. You don’t have to worry.”
Leo sniffed and wrapped his arms around Mikey to return the hug. After a moment, he pulled away and gave a dramatic roll of his eyes. “You have two hours before we come get you.”
“Starting the moment you go through the portal,” Donnie cleared his throat and held up his wrist screen in preparation of starting a timer.
“I should get going then,” Mikey chuckled and floated towards an empty space of the room. “Michael is expecting me by a certain point and he might call the calvary if I don’t show up.”
“Have fun,” Raph waved. “Remember that Dee fixed our phones to work across the universes.”
“I gotcha,” Mikey nodded and started waving his hands, conjuring his powers to open a portal. It had gotten a lot easier even since he woke up to open a hole between universes.
Mikey’s markings and scars had just been lighting up with power when the world tilted on its axis. With a hard press of his eyes, Mikey inhaled deeply to right himself. When he opened his eyes again, the world was back to normal but his brothers’ faces had shifted to ones of older sibling worry.
“You good?” Leo asked, his medic side starting to come out. If it did come out fully, that would spell disaster for Mikey’s plans as Leo the Medic was a force of nature that one could not fight against.
“Yeah, I think my blood sugies might be a little low,” Mikey answered quickly.
“Here,” Donnie said as a metal arm popped out of his shell and threw him something. Mikey caught it easily and recognized the special granola bars that Donnie had made him. “Eat this before you go.”
“Thanks, Dee!” Mikey chirped as he unwrapped the treat. In a one bite, he stuffed the treat into his mouth and used his powers to make the wrapper float over to the trash can. “See you guys later!”
“Be safe!” Raph called as Mikey moved his hands, an orange portal opening in front of him. Mikey waved back as he flew through, feeling a shift as he crossed from one universe to another.
Universe 2012
“Hello?” Mikey called out as he entered Michael’s universe.
“Boss! You’re here!” Michael cheered from the couch, throwing his comic down to the side as he shot up from his laying position.
“Sorry, I’m late,” Mikey inclined his head as he floated down to the ground. “My bros were chasing me and then were such worry-warts before I left.”
“Did you eat Purple’s chess pieces again?” Donnie asked from the kitchen island where he was fixing the toaster.
“I plead the fifth,” Mikey grinned, bumping his fist against Michael’s.
“I don’t understand why you keep eating them,” Raph rolled his eyes. He threw another punch at the punching bag, ducking as he pretended an invisible foe was there.
“Because,” Mikey shrugged.
“That’s not an answer.”
“Sure, it is,” Mikey laughed.
“You just don’t understand our intellect bro,” Michael smirked, resting an elbow on Mikey’s shoulder.
“Never has such a truer sentence been said,” Raph muttered to himself.
“Where’s Leo?” Mikey asked as he looked around.
“In the dojo with sensei,” Donnie jerked his chin towards the closed doors.
Mikey looked down at the toaster that Donnie was working on. “…did he break the toaster again?”
“When doesn’t he?” Donnie huffed.
Michael had gotten bored of the conversation and started pulling Mikey by the arm. “C’mon, let’s go. I have a move I want to try out.”
“We should probably bring someone for you to test it out against,” Mikey mused, rubbing his chin.
“Not me,” Donnie vetoed himself as he waved a hand over his shoulder. “I have too many projects on time constraints right now.”
“I would ask Leo but he’s still scared of you,” Michael winced.
“I’ll go,” Raph volunteered, cracking his neck. “Someone has to make sure you two don’t make something explode.”
“I feel like that applies more to Donnie than us,” Mikey chuckled.
“Yeah, but dad said that if he can go an entire week with causing an explosion, then he is going to partially lift the coffee ban on him,” Michael explained.
Donnie sat up straight and raised a fist into the air. “I will prevail and get my life sustenance back!”
Mikey and Michael looked at each other, giggling at Donnie’s dramatics while Raph just shook his head. Reaching out, he grabbed both Mikey’s by their mask tails and pulled them along. Michael and Mikey yelped as they tried to make sure they wouldn’t trip from how they were being pulling backwards.
“Let’s go,” Raph rolled his eyes and released the Mikey’s once they were moving. “I know somewhere you can practice.”
“Aww, Raphie cares,” Michael chirped.
“Why I oughta—,” Raph grumbled, reaching for Michael to give him a noogie. Michael yelped in playful fear and disappeared in a bolt of electricity. “Hey, that’s cheating!”
“All’s fair in Raph’s anger and war!” Michael cheered from down one of the tunnels with a laugh.
Raph just groaned and smacked a hand to his face. Peeking to the side between his fingers, he saw Mikey still standing there with a smile on his face. “Aren’t you going to go ahead with him?”
“It’s your home,” Mikey shrugged, slipping his hands into his cloak for it to close around. “Lead the way.”
“I thought you discovered our layout from when you chased Leo down?”
“Nope, I was more focused on getting revenge for my kitchen at the time. I just followed wherever he was running.”
“Ah, that’s fair.”
“C’mon Raphie, it wasn’t that bad,” Michael groaned. He and Mikey followed after a stomping Raph with his mask tails singed.
“What wasn’t bad?” Leo asked as his brothers and Michael’s counterpart hopped the turnstiles at the entrance of their home. With a press of a button, the old VCR playing Space Heroes was paused.
“Don’t tell him,” Michael begged, holding his hands out in front of him. “Leo’s gonna ground me from my powers again.”
“Numb nuts here nearly set me on fire from target practice,” Raph growled, stomping his feet all the way to the couch before flopping down.
“Mikey!” Leo scolded.
“I didn’t do it on purpose,” Michael moaned in defeat. “I was trying to hit the can near him but the lightning curved at the last second.”
“I call bullshit,” Raph scoffed. “I’ve seen how precise you control your kusarigama and you were using your lightning like that. I bet you were trying to set my mask on fire.”
“I would just like to add that control electricity is a lot different than a kusarigama,” Mikey piped up.
“Yeah, right,” Raph rolled his eyes and sunk deeper into his seat.
Leo looked at Michael slouching and the look of regret on his face. The leader in blue felt himself softening as he could tell that his brother truly didn’t mean to accidentally hurt Raph. “It’s okay, Michael. I believe you.”
“Really?” Michael brightened, his little tail wagging in hope.
“Of course, you do,” Raph grumbled. “You always go easy on Mikey.”
“I do not,” Leo scoffed in annoyance.
“Yes, you do,” Raph turned his head towards Leo and narrowed his eyes. “All Michael has to do is put on a pouty face or his puppy-dog eyes and you cave.”
“You are delusional,” Leo said, his face turned down in a frown.
“Guys, please don’t fight,” Michael begged. He really hated when they fought and even more when it was about himself.
“Face it, Leo. You go easy on Mikey more than the rest of us because he is the youngest,” Raph pushed.
“Maybe I’m just nice to him because he doesn’t antagonize me every moment like you do,” Leo shot back.
Raph rolled his eyes again and pushed himself up off the couch. “Whatever.”
Donnie had been coming in the room at that moment and was shoulder-checked by Raph. He was going to say something but stopped when he noticed the anger radiating off of him. Raising an eye ridge, he stepped into the living room. “What happened?”
“Just a fight between me and Raph,” Leo answered with a huff.
“Ah, so the usual,” Donnie nodded.
“Hey,” Leo argued.
“It’s the truth,” Donnie shrugged and continued on his way to the kitchen to get a snack.
Leo sighed and reached a hand up to rub the back of his head. “Sorry you had to see that,” he said to Mikey. “Must be different from how your Leo and Raph interact.”
“It’s alright,” Mikey waved a scarred hand at Leo. “You would be surprised by how much the two of them got into it in the two years between the Shredder and the Kraang.” He looked at the clock in the kitchen and hummed. “I should get going by this point. My bros are gonna come busting down the portal if I don’t get home soon.”
“Thanks for coming over,” Michael smiled and waved at his counterpart. “I can’t wait until next time. Hopefully by then, I’ll have figured this trick out.”
“Just keep practicing and I’m sure you’ll get it,” Mikey winked and jumped into the air to fly.
“Bye, Mikey,” Leo waved and pressed play to resume his show.
“I’ll see you guys later,” Mikey waved, turning to an empty space to open a portal. His markings had just began lighting up and he could feel the pull on his core that always happened when he was opening a portal.
All of a sudden, Mikey’s powers fizzled out and he dropped to the ground as his flight disappeared. He got his balance at the last second, looking down at his feet now touching the ground in confusion.
“Are you okay?” Michael asked as he reached out towards Mikey. Leo looked up from the TV and furrowed his brow, his hands positioned to push himself up in a hurry.
A wave of fatigue ran over Mikey, making him wobble as the world tilted on its axis. A hand reached out to grab at the counter near him but missed by a mile, Mikey falling forward to flop on the ground.
“Boss!” Michael screeched in alarm.
Mikey wanted to assure him that he was okay but that would be a lie as Mikey’s consciousness was taken from him. It wasn’t a normal passing out, though, as he has had experience with that in the past. This time, he was fully aware as he felt himself being pulled and pulled and pulled…
…until he wasn’t pulled anymore. Now, he was in a large spacious room.
The space was dark and filled with porthole looking portals all around him. Without a doubt, Mikey knew where he was. He turned around and jumped back when he saw the conscious of the multiverse a mere few inches away from his face.
“Mikey, we have trouble,” the Conscious paled.