Chapter Text
“Let me get this straight. Draxum, the guy we just saw, created your turtles?”, said Donnie.
“Yup.”, said CJ nonchalantly.
“Why?”, asked Raph.
“What do you mean, why?”, asked O’Neil.
“Why would someone need to make mutants?”, clarified Leo.
“TO destroy humanity.”, revealed Cass.
“CASS!”, yelled her siblings.
“WHAT?!”, yelled the others.
“What? It’s true.”, Cass defended herself.
“Can you elaborate on that more?”, asked Splinter. He looked towards O’Neil, trusting her the most.
She nodded before she began.
“Sixteen years ago, Baron Draxum found a fighter in the Battle Nexus-“
“The what?”, asked Casey.
“Battle Nexus, a fighting ring in the Hidden City, a yokai city. There he found Lou Jitsu, also known as Hamato Yoshi-“
“That’s Master Splinter!”, said Mikey.
“Yeah, so Draxum kidnapped him from the Nexus he was forced to fight in and used his DNA to perfect the ooze.”
“Is ooze the mutagen?”, asked Donnie.
“It’s what mutated them so, yeah. Anyway- Draxum wanted the guys to be generals in his army to fight humans. For the good of yokai-kind but Splints didn’t like that and freed himself and the turtles, he got mutated into a rat in the process.”
“Dude, that’s like a comic book worth back story.”, said Mikey.
“Forget about that, they were made to fight. I wanna fight them!”, said Raph.
“I don’t think that’s the best idea.”, said O’Neil.
“Why don’t think I can take them?”
“You can’t.”, said CJ.
Raph scoffed as he turned to the boy. “Why not?”
“They guys are literally bioengineered super soldiers.”, said CJ.
“What now?”, said Raph confused.
“They were made to be weapons.”, explained Donnie.
“Weapons of war!”, added Cass. O’Neil shoved her as she said that.
“You’re lucky your Splinter got out with them.”, said Leo.
“We are. Humanity would be gone. And I don’t mean because of them being evil.”, O’Neil said.
“The Shredder or the Kraang would have had a much easier time.”, said Cass.
CJ shuddered at the thought. “I don’t even want to think about that.”
“That bad?”, asked April.
“Let’s not go there.”, said O’Neil.
Despite the fact that all of them were healing, they weren’t ready to tell them everything, let alone that Cass was actually part of the Foot at one point or that CJ was actually from an apocalyptic future where everyone died. Neither of the Jones liked sharing that little detail of themselves, not that there were many chances to do so. It wasn’t something that was brought up often anymore.
Picking up on the discomfort on the three faces, Mikey wanted to change the topic. Not many would assume it, but he was more aware of others than he let on. For a mutant that lives in the sewers, he was pretty good in social situations.
“Other us are sixteen then?”, he asked.
That did the trick. Everyone’s attention was on Mikey. The three guests thanked him mentally while his family understood what he was doing, all of them were pretty bad at these things, even the two humans and their father.
“Only Mikey is.”, said CJ, “Donnie and Leo are seventeen, and Raph is eighteen.”
“Hold up- I knew other me was the oldest, you said that, but not like the oldest quadruplet.”, Raph said.
“You’re quadruplets?”, asked Cass.
“Yes, all of us are sixteen, like your Mikey.”, explained Donnie.
The three humans had to answer a few more questions until Mikey remembered something important.
“Your Donnie called that Draxum guy mom. What’s up with that?”
“That’s because he is their mom.”, said CJ.
“After he had a whole redemption arc.”, explains O’Neil, “He became a second parent to the guys. They felt weird saying Dad since that’s Splinter, so they went with Mom.”
“And Splinter and him are married.”, said Cass.
“They’re married?!”, yelled Raph, “He married the guy that kidnapped him?”
“To be fair his track record is really bad. He was with Big Mama.”
“The lady that’s responsible for you even being here?”, asked April.
“Yup. She’s also a the one that made him fight in the Nexus.”
“Damn, he has s horrible taste in people.”, said Mikey.
Over the next few days, the three dimension travelers were met with more questions.
“If you have powers, what about our counterparts?”, asked Donnie with a notebook in hand.
CJ delved into a detailed explanation of his older brothers’ powers, as well as some of the history behind it, he left out that the Hamato Clan are descendants of the Foot, let alone that Splinter and the four turtles are direct descendants of Oroku Saki.
“Who’s older, CJ or your Mikey?”, asked Casey out of curiosity while fighting Cass.
“Mikey.”, she simply said as she swiped Casey’s feet, “CJ is the baby.”
“Do you also have a Karai?”, asked Leo as he and O’Neil were watching an episode of Space Heroes.
“We do. She’s great.”, said O’Neil. Leo seemed to admire the other girl a lot. O’Neil didn’t want to tell him her counterpart was gone.
And a few more things were revealed.
“What do you mean Lou Jitsu isn’t a thing here?”, asked O’Neil.
“What about Splinter's acting career?”, asked CJ.
“Splinters what?”, asked Leo.
That led to a very detailed explanation of the LJCU, the Lou Jitsu Cinematic Universe. As members of the Hamato Clan, it was a must that all three knew this by heart. Well, just like Splinter's kids.
“They are different species?”, asked April. O’Neil had just dropped more lore as if it was nothing special.
“Yup. Mikey is an ornate box turtle, Leo a red-eared slider, Donnie is a spiny softshell and Raph’s an alligator snapping turtle.” O’Neil just kept eating her noodles.
“aren’t snappers really big?”
“Yeah, Raph’s a big guy.”
Little did O’Neil know, no one would know just how big Red is.
CJ and O’Neil had one mission to complete before they left. They needed to set up the two hopeless idiots.
They managed to fool them into falls security and with the help of Donnie’s brothers and April, they were looked in a room until they talked.
They all assumed it wouldn’t take this long. But neither of the teens made a move to try and confess. Eventually, they gave up and let them out.
Defeated they sat in the main area.
“What are you even doing?”, asked Cass as she looked at them, she decided to make brownies for everyone and wasn’t aware of the plan.
“We’re trying to set them up!”, yelled Raph. The teens in question blushed.
“Aren’t they dating already?”
“NO!”, yelled Donnie.
“But you’re in love.”, said Cass as if it was the most obvious thing she ever said.
The two looked at each other, faces flushed. Donnie took Casey’s hand and dragged him to his lab.
About an hour later they came back and proclaimed they were dating. No one knows what happened in there and none of them wanted to know.
Mikey and Leo handed Raph his money, and he just smirked.
After a week of waiting everyone was hanging out in the main area after Casey and April got there after school, a loud noise came from Donnie’s lab. Only a second later a turtle mutant ran out of the lab and threw himself at CJ.
“MIKEY!”, yelled the three humans.
Cass and April walked over and joined their hug.
Mikey looked at Orange. He looked just like in the picture he saw, just without the pain all over him. The rest of the group took in Orange as he let go of his brother and sisters.
“It’s good to see you three again.”, said a familiar voice, Draxum. The yokai walked out of the lab as well, oddly enough there were still noises coming from the lab, only this time it sounded like someone cleaning up.
Draxum stood in front of Splinter. “Thank you for giving them shelter.”
“It wasn’t an issue.”
Splinter hated how flustered he sounded. This was someone’s husband, his counterpart nonetheless. He shouldn’t be this affected by a pretty face. The rat mutant chose to ignore his sons’ smug faces.
“We should go soon, the twins can’t hold the portal open for long.”, said Draxum as she ushered the kids to the lab.
The resident Hamato Clan followed them as they heard a new voice.
“We gotta hurry, guys.”
The lab door opened to reveal a huge portal and a big spiky mutant turtle. He was moving things out the way, that had seemingly fallen. The second they saw his mask they knew; this massive mutant was Raph. There really was something else in that mutagen.
“We’re coming Raph.”, said Orange as he dragged his siblings along. The box turtle would have loved to talk to his counterpart but he wanted to get home and have a turtle pile. It wasn’t the same without their human siblings.
Red picked up his four siblings easily as he waved at the counterparts before entering the portal. Draxum bowed to them one more time as a thank you and followed the kids. The second Draxum was gone the portal snapped close and everything Red had put up fell over again.
“You think we’ll see them again?”, asked Mikey.
“I’m sure we will.”, said Splinter.
Donnie forced everyone to help clean up his lab, when he got to the artifact he noticed it still had a faint glow to it. He smiled and put it safely away on a shelf. He knew that if they ever came to visit, they would let them know now. He couldn’t wait to talk to Purple about all the tech he had.
While cleaning, Raph wondered just how strong Red was. He was massive and that alone had Raph’s respect. If he was anything like Raph, he’d enjoy a good sparring partner too, even if everyone is telling him it’s a bad idea.
April and Leo were collecting small pieces of tech as Leo wondered about his counterpart. At first glance, one would assume they are very different, but to Leo, it was much simpler. Blue was what Leo could have been if he didn’t have all the responsibility he was forced to carry. Blue wasn’t the oldest or the leader. He was only himself, something Leo envied a bit, but he was happy for Blue anyway.
Mikey and Casey got brooms out as Mikey daydreamed about Orange. What kind of pizza does he like? Was he also a great cook? Did he have an Ice Cream Kitty? He wanted to know everything. Mikey just knew they would be great friends, best friends even.
Casey and April thought about the fun they had with their counterparts the last few days and weeks for CJ, they will miss them. It was like they had older siblings. Casey was the older brother and never had an older sibling, but Cass was like an older sister now. Kind of at least. CJ was like a brother too, just not older or younger, Casey wasn’t quite sure how to describe it. He would miss the two Jones.
Being an only child, April loved having O’Neil around. The older quickly turned from someone she didn’t trust to someone she looked up to. April wasn’t sure if that’s what an older sister feels like, but to her it was what she imagined an older sister to be like.
Splinter faintly smiled as he wondered about the other Splinter. He was curious about the other rat. He wondered if he faced the same, or similar, hardships while raising four troublesome boys as a single parent. Splinter knew it would have been different alone from the fact that the other world's turtles are different ages and that Red was the oldest. But he would enjoy talking about that with someone who understood. April’s father could only understand so much.
One world over
The short rat man fussed over his three human children alongside the woman next to him worried about her daughter and her chosen siblings. The other adult was getting some tea ready for the worried parents while the other boys prepared everything for a turtle pile and a movie. Even if they didn’t see much of the movie, everyone was tired and could finally sleep again.