Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A year ago, Earth, well New York, was almost invaded by aliens. Not that most people actually know that. Surprisingly enough the whole invasion was covered up by the government. More precisely by the EPF, the Earth Protection Force. Shortly after their best agent, John Bishop, had been tasked to ask New York’s resident turtle mutants a few questions. While the man did get his answers he also found himself a family for the first time. The seven kids just decided that he was now their uncle. He doesn’t regret it.

How is all this important? Easy. Bishop likes spoiling his nieces and nephews. This resulted in Bishop finally getting Donnie that uranium he wanted for so long.

Now, we find out what exactly Donnie can do with his precious uranium.

Donnie gathered all of his siblings inside his lab, ready to show off his new invention.

“Why exactly did you call us here?”, asked Leo, “Are you going to blow something up?”

“Scoff! I have proven the theory of the multiverse correct!”, he grabbed the huge blanket behind him, “Behold! My newest invention!”, he pulled off the blanket, revealing a contraption looking a lot like a television with a keyboard attached. It looked less impressive than what they had assumed.

“A new TV?”, asked April.

“What? NO! It’s an interdimensional window! It allows us to see into alternate universes, also called mirror realms!”

“So, a TV to watch ourselves?”, commented Mikey.

“What- No- Whatever.”, said Donnie.

The soft shell walked over to the keyboard and began tipping away, a few clicks later the screen lit up and displayed the number 20-12.

“This is one of the many worlds in the multiverse-“, began Donnie.

“Donnie, you can’t just watch other people. That’s stalking.”, said Raph, trying to reason with his little brother.

“It’s not stalking if it’s us.”

“It is!”

“I say we let him do it. I wanna see other versions of me!”, said Leo. The rest nodded in agreement.

Raph shot the twins a short glare before sighing and saying: “Fine, but only this once. We’re not making this a regular thing!”

“Of course… not.”, said Donnie, whispering the last part.

“What was that Donnie?”

“Nothing!”

Donnie pressed one more button and sat down with his brothers, curious to see what that world had to offer.

20-12

The screen lights up again and shows what seems to be this world's lair. In the centre, there is a big couch alongside an outdated TV. On the couch, you can spot two turtle mutants and a human. The turtles wore blue and orange masks respectively. The human was a young girl with red hair, she was tipping away on a computer.

“Look it’s Leo and me!”, said Mikey.

“But who’s the girl?”, asked April.

“I did some research beforehand and apparently that is April. She seems to be a ginger in a lot of universes.”, explained Donnie.

“That’s April? She looks basic.”, said Leo.

Leo was promptly hit with a pillow from April. She glared at him.

Their view changes to show Leo's excited face while he’s looking at the television.

“Why do we keep watching Space Heroes? You already watched that episode like 50 times!”, complained Mikey.

“Because Space Heroes is amazing!”, said Leo.

“It’s not, it’s awful.”, complained someone new. This statement was followed by a laugh, coming from another person.

The scene changed to show one more turtle mutant, this one wearing a red mask, and a black-haired human boy.

“Is that Raph!?”, exclaimed Cass, “He’s so tiny!”

“Don’t be mean to mini-me!”, said Raph.

“She’s right though! He looks so short.”, said Leo.

Before Raph could say anything to defend his counterpart Mikey exclaimed: “Is that supposed to be CJ? He looks like he hasn’t showered in a week!”

“Hey!”, came from the boy.

“That can’t be CJ. CJ wouldn’t laugh at other me!”, said Leo.

“I totally would Leo.”, said CJ.

“You used to respect me, what happened?”

“I got to know you.”

Before their conversation could go further Donnie chimed in: “Actually that would be Cass’s counterpart. Most universes don’t have a counterpart for CJ. Side note, most Casey Jones are male, and most seem to only have one Casey.”

“That’s even worse!”, said Mikey.

“Cass, stop glaring at him, you can’t fight every Casey Jones that comes across you.”, said April.

“I need to know if he is worthy of the name Casey Jones!”

“Don’t even think about it Donnie.”, said Raph.

The older knew Donnie was about to suggest building a functioning portal just so Cass could fight all her counterparts.

Before they could argue more, a loud bang was heard off-screen. The screen paned over and a huge door was now open and a turtle mutant wearing a purple mask was seen walking over to his brothers and friends.

“Guys! You have to see this! I was going through some of the Kraang Tech, one of the portal devices,  we found and something triggered it. As if something started interacting with our world.”, he said.

His brothers and friends looked at him unimpressed.

Everyone looked at Donnie, he was the reason that thing got triggered, that much was clear.

“I couldn’t have known, okay!”, he defended himself.

“That aside, look at that Donnie! CJ, he had a tooth gap, like us! We’re all tooth gap buddies now!”, said Mikey exited.

The others laughed at Mikey’s excitement.

“What about that Casey? He also has a tooth gap.”, asked CJ.

“No. He can join once he washes his hair.”, said Mikey.

“Okay that is fair.”, said CJ, “At least I had an excuse for my nasty hair.”

“Does anyone else feel like we’re being watched?”, asked Mikey.

“No?”, said Leo.

As if out of nowhere someone talked off-screen again. “We should stay cautious of Kraang technology. We don’t know what they can do, Donatello.”

“Of course, Sensei.”

The screen paned over and a tall rat mutant came into view. This dimension’s Splinter.

“But I do have to agree with Michelangelo. Something, or someone, is watching us. The mutant turned his head and looked directly at the ones watching them.

The screen turned off.

“That was weird. He knew we were watching.”, said Donnie.

“Maybe we shouldn’t keep doing this, Donnie. Raph has a bad feeling about this!”, said the eldest brother.

“Did you see that Pops? He was huge!”, said Mikey.

“He looked so elegant, why can’t dad look like that?”, complained Leo.

“He also called you by your full names.”, said April.

“Yeah, just hearing that made me think we were in trouble!”, said Mikey.

“I mean I called you by your full name in the future, sometimes at least.”, said CJ.

“Yeah but you knew us when we were old.”, said Leo.

“It’s weird. Like any of you calling me Cassandra. It’s off.”, she said.

Before their conversation could continue the screen lit up again this time displaying the number 20-14.

“Donnie what did I say?”, exclaimed Raph.

“But science!”

20-14

The screen slowly pans over multiple screens and other small inventions until a big shell is shown. Turning around a mutant turtle is shown, he’s wearing a purple mask and a pair of glasses. He’s working on some device, it’s not shown what exactly but he looks at his hands concentrating while working, he’s even sticking out his tongue.

“Dude, he’s huuuge!”, said Mikey.

“How is he that big? He doesn’t even look like a snapping turtle like Raph!”, added April.

“What was in that ooze?!”, yelled Cass.

“We get it, he’s big. Can you calm down?”, yelled Donnie back at them.

“Look, Dee, he’s wearing glasses like you!”, said Donnie.

Raph just looked at the turtle on screen, amazed. Was this Donnie taller than him? Were all of them this tall?

A knock is heard and the screen pans over to a doorway, revealing a shorter mutant turtle, this one was wearing a blue mask.

“Donnie? You wanna take a break?”, he asked.

“Not yet, I still need to finish this.”, answered the younger brother.

“Well, I guess Mikey will just eat your pizza then.”

The taller mutant put down the device he was working on and was next to this older brother within seconds.

“Come on, I want my pizza and get back to work after.”

“Is everyone this big?”, yelled Mikey once again, “That’s so unfair!”

“Trust me, big man, it isn’t. Being this big is a haste. I bump my head so many times. They probably do too.”, said Raph.

As the screen shows the two brothers walking towards what seems to be the living room, the scene pans over to show a table with two more mutant turtles sitting down, as well as a mutant rat. The two turtles wore orange and red masks respectively.

“Finally. Took you long enough!”, said Raph.

“Let’s dig in, dudes!”, said Mikey, excited to finally eat some pizza.

“We really need to work on you taking more breaks, my son.”, said Splinter.

“I know, father.”, said Donnie.

“Look that Raph wears his mask like you Raph!”; said CJ while pointing at the Raph on screen.

“HE does! It’s the best way to wear the mask!”

“Agreed, this is far superior to any other way.”, agreed Donnie.

“HEY!”, yelled the other mutant turtles.

“Is it just me or do they have tattoos?”, asked Mikey.

“They do!”, said Cass.

“Those look so cool!”, said CJ.

After the family finished their dinner the screen panned over to a tunnel, voices came from the dark tunnel. A conversation between two people. Soon a woman came into view, likely the April of this world. A little later a man walked up as well. He was in a uniform, a police uniform.

“Finally, what took you guys so long?”, asked Raph.

“I was still at work.”, said Casey.

Before anything else could be shown the screen turned off.

“That is wrong on so many levels!”, yelled Leo.

“A Casey being a cop?!”, yelled April.

“I don’t like that!”, yelled Mikey.

“Cass no!”, yelled CJ, trying to get the girl to put down the chair she picked up. She was glaring at the screen, ready to destroy this thing. She would never be a cop. Over her dead fucking body!

Donnie stared at the keyboard, he was processing what he had just seen, and he was glad he turned off that screen. The thought of a Casey being a cop was terrifying. Raph seemed to have short-circuited. He didn’t how to feel about that.

Donnie turned to face his siblings and said: “I think that’s enough for today.”

“You think?”, yelled Leo, still shaken by the thought of either of the Casey’s being a cop.

As Donnie began to turn down the machine something sparked behind the screen, turning it back on, displaying the number 20-23.

“Donnie, I thought you were shutting it down?”, yelled Raph.

“I am!”, said Donnie, he took a step back and looked at the screen, “Oh.”

“What do you mean ‘oh’?”, yelled April.

Before Donnie could answer the screen began to glow brightly. Too bright for any of them to keep their eyes open. The light engulfed the whole room.

Once the light died down again, no one was able to be found, as if no one was ever in the room. Everything looked the same, except the uranium attached to the machine that had seemingly gone missing, much like the seven kids that were in the room just a minute ago.

Casey and Raph walked towards the lair, they had just picked up their pizza order, they were having movie night today and the two had lost rock-paper-scissors and had to go out.

This was nothing unusual aside from the bright neon light that they noticed across the city. Neither ever saw something as bright as that. It was incredibly odd.

“Wow!”, said Casey.

Raph put the pizza boxes down and snapped a quick photo of whatever they were seeing. It looked really cool and he just had to show his brothers and April.

As quickly as it had appeared it also disappeared. The mutant picked up the pizza boxes again and they headed back. The other wouldn’t believe what just happened.

Chapter Text

On top of a rooftop, a bright light appeared and seven figures fell out of it, crashing into the roof and each other. The second all seven left the light, the light disappeared. Leaving nothing behind.

“Urgh, did anyone get the number of the bus that hit me?”, asked Leo.

“No and get off of me!”, yelled Donnie while pushing his twin off.

As Donnie stood up he looked around and spotted his siblings, all of them were either still lying flat on the roof, like Mikey, April and Leo, or had already stood up, like Cass, CJ and Raph. CJ had moved to help Mikey up while Cass was looking over the edge of the roof and Raph was still trying to find his balance. Donnie made his way next to Cass; she was likely trying to figure out where they were. She noticed the purple turtle walking over to her.

“This place looks weird!”, she said, quieter than usual. Sometimes all of them forget that she was a trained ninja with out loud she usually was.

Donnie looked around a bit and noticed how odd everything was. He knew it was New York, it couldn’t be any other city. He knew that much but everything looked almost like it was sketched, lines going off buildings in odd places, lights looking just a tad weird. Everything had a certain vibe of the uncanny walleye to it. Everything was off just a bit, it was unnerving.

“You’re right. It’s odd.”, agreed Donnie.

Both walked back to the rest of their siblings, all of them had stood up by now.

“So, where are we?”, asked April.

“New York.”, said Cass.

“But everything looks so weird!”, said Mikey.

As his siblings kept talking, Donnie pulled down his goggles, looking for any mystic that might explain their situation, but much to his surprise, nothing. Absolutely nothing. The only mystic he could find was the mystic he and his siblings emitted. That didn’t make sense. There was mystic in everything. Even humans had it, mystic was something everyone needed to live. It was basically the soul of people. Why wouldn’t there even be an ounce of mystic? There’s no way this could be real, it at least shouldn’t be! Unless…

Donnie flipped up his goggles again, summoned a holographic screen and began typing away. If his idea was correct, this was a scientific breakthrough. One he didn’t anticipate, but something incredibly nonetheless...

His siblings noticed Donnie quickly typing on his screens. They knew he would not answer their questions until he had finished whatever he was doing, so they waited patiently for him to finfish. As soon as Donnie finished his typing he turned to face them, smiling.

“I have figured it out! We’re in a mirror realm. My machine transported us to another reality! I have fully cracked the multiverse!”

“So, we can meet the other uses?”, asked Mikey.

“No. I don’t know what could happen if we meet them. Best case scenario? Nothing happens. Worst case? Both counterparts die. That’s the whole reason I only created a window to view other realities. I didn’t want to risk anything. Meeting our counterparts could potentially even destroy the multiverse, killing every single version of us.”

“So, we better stay away from them? Should we leave New York then?”, suggested CJ.

“No, even if this is a different New York, we know our way around. We can use that to our advantage to get back home. I need to build a new machine.”, said Donnie.

“But you powered that thing with uranium. How are we supposed to get uranium?”, asked Raph.

“Luckily for you Rafala, I grabbed the uranium before we got here.”; Donnie said as he pulled out the uranium.

“How did you think of that?“, asked Leo.

“The plot needed me to take it with me.”, said Donnie.

“What?”, asked Cass.

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Ignoring that, we should find a place to hide first.”, said Raph.

“But where? We can’t exactly go into the sewers if we need to avoid our counterparts.”, said April.

“I hate that I’m suggesting this but”, Leo shuddered a little as he said this, “we could hide on Staten Island. Urgh, I can’t believe I just said that.”

“Gross, but the best shot we have. There may be an abandoned port on Staten Island we can hide in.”, said Donnie, trying to look not too disgusted.

“Does anyone have a better idea?”, asked Raph, he didn’t like the idea of staying on Staten Island either.

A chorus of ‘No’ was all he got in return.

“Well looks like we’re staying on, urgh, Staten Island.”, said April, “Leo, could you portal us?”

“No problema, hermana! Good thing we just these guys remade!”, he pulled out his Odachi. A few weeks ago, Draxum had taken them to the yokai that made their original mystic weapons, he offered that he could make new weapons for them, this time the weapons they normally used, but the three boys had insisted that they got their Odachi, Tonfa and Kusari-Fondo, respectively. They had just gotten back from picking them up when Donnie dragged them off. Fittingly, however, Donnie finished his new Tech-Bo just a few days earlier. They all had the weapons they started their adventures with again.

“Hachiii Machiiii.”

None of them understood by Leo kept on doing this, he was very much capable of opening portals without this ritual, but the portal was open within seconds.

“One Portal to Staten Island.”

After they walked out of the portal they were on top of a building. Donnie decided to hover down and see if the building was abandoned. Luckily enough it was. It looked like there had been a fight in there but most of the building was still intact. Giving the others a small signal, they joined him inside.

“This place looks like it’s seen better days.”, said April.

“I know. Maybe something happened here.”, said CJ.

As if on cue, Raph’s stomach growled, causing the others to laugh.

“Sorry”, he said sheepishly.

“Alright, fam, if we need to stay here for a bit, we need food. Miguel, Cass, you're coming with me. You know the most about food.”, said Leo. The two nodded and entered the portal with Leo.

“They’re going to steal aren’t they?”, said CJ.

“Probably. Not like we have money.”, said April.

“Food isn’t the only thing we will need to steal. We need parts for the machine.”, said Donnie.

“What are we going to do now?”, asked CJ.

“I say we clean up a bit. This place is rancid.”, said April. Raph nodded. This place looked horrible. If they need to stay longer than a few days, he’s going to ask someone to steal blankets, it might get cold.

“You do that, I’m going to do some research.”, said Donnie as he sat down on a random chair. He pulled up his screens again and used his Ninpo to connect to this world’s internet. In the same motion, he connected everyone’s phones with the service of this world. They needed to stay in contact after all, and their coms weren’t always the most convenient, at least for the three humans, they may need to go out in daylight sometimes.

Once the three had returned with some stolen takeout, it was a mix of different dishes. Two large pizzas, one plain cheese and one meat lovers, one box of some kind of Chinese noodles, they weren’t sure which kind, a few dumplings and some water bottles. Not nearly enough to feed all of them it would do for now. They could probably steal some more stuff in the dead of night. As they sat down to eat Donnie decided to relay his findings to them.

“While you were out, I did some research on this place. Also, I connected your phones to this world's service while I was at it. A few months ago, there was this huge mutant whale thing that attacked the city, their intentions weren’t clear and weren’t listed anywhere either. Anyway, they attacked the city and our counterparts saved the city, as expected, in the motion they were revealed to society.”

“That’s horrible! Are they okay?”, asked Mikey, worried their counterparts may be held captive somewhere.

“They are, surprisingly enough they were accepted by the people and are currently attending high school.”

“How?!”, exclaimed Leo.

“This world’s April somehow got into the news station and told the people the truth, she also threw up while she was doing that.”

“A detail I didn’t need, Donnie!”, said April.

“But wait- doesn’t that mean we could just walk around in daylight?”, asked Raph.

“Technically, yes. I don’t we should. While looking up the events, I also found out there’s a small group of conspiracy theorists. They claim the attack was staged so the mutants could integrate into society to observe humans. Some also believe they are aliens, rather than mutants. Others say it’s a side effect of a vaccine for something called COVID-19. Apparently, there was a pandemic here.”

“That sounds wild.”, said CJ.

“A vaccine turning people into mutants? What are these people on?”, complained Leo, “As a medic, those people really need to do better research.”

“Maybe they’re in a cult. Like the Foot?”, suggested Cass.

“Maybe, but even the Foot acknowledged medical professionals.”, said Leo.

Cass nodded in agreement. The Foot had pretty good health insurance, one of the many reasons people joined.

“Getting back on topic. We need a plan of action.”, said Donnie.

“You need to draw up a plan for your thing-a-jig. And get tell us what to get.”, said Leo.

“Yes, but we also need to make sure our counterparts don’t catch wind of us, there will be a suspicious amount of similar thefts around the city after all.”, said Donnie.

“What if one of us observes them? Like to make sure they don’t run into us?”, suggested Mikey.

“That’s ridiculous, Angelo.”, said Donnie, “The worst-case scenario could be triggered by us getting too close to them. We can’t meet our-“ The turtle cut himself off and turned to look at CJ, who was sipping on his water.

“What are you looking at me for?”

“You likely, don’t have a counterpart.”

“Why wouldn’t-“, Raph began, “Oh. Future, right.”

“It’s unlikely they already have experienced time travel. You should be able to get close to them and observe!”, said Donnie.

“What if we put him into school with them? He’s the right age.”, said April.

“What? Do I get a say in this?”

“Nope, you’re only chance to make sure we don’t meet them.”, said Leo.

“Urgh, fine.”, CJ said, “April. How does school work.” Right, CJ has never been to school.

“Here’s the plan.”, began Raph, “April helps CJ prepare for his first day of school, Mikey, Leo, Cass and I will get groceries and other stuff we’ll need and Donnie gets CJ enrolled and makes those blueprints!”

“April should make a list for school supplies too! We can get them too.”, added Mikey.

Everyone nodded and began doing their part.

After Donnie got CJ successfully enrolled in school, he walked over to look at the destroyed wall of the building, he had been meaning to take a look at it. He pulled down his goggles and saw that the damage looked like it came from something big falling through it to being pushed into it. He looked down into the water below.

“What is that thing? A machine?”

“What do you mean it was right here? There’s absolutely nothing, Raph.”, complained Donnie.

“It was right on top here. Casey saw it too!”, said Raph.

“Yeah, it was really bright and then it was gone!”, said Casey.

“What are supposed to see here exactly? It was probably just a drone or something.”, said April.

“Yeah, I saw a few flying around the other day. Maybe some of them have flashlights.”, said Mikey.

“There’s nothing here, guys. We should head back home. Dad’s gonna get worried”, said Leo.

“Something big happened! I know it!”, said Raph.

“We should still head back. I don’t want to be grounded because we were out too late.”, said Leo.

Much to the biggest turtle's complaints they headed back to the sewers; he knew there was something bigger going on than just a drone. He could feel it, and no it wasn’t just his urge to punch something.

Chapter Text

Attending school was something CJ never thought he’d have to do. He preferred to stay in the sewers with the turtles. Not to mention they didn’t do too well with crowds. The amount of people in New York was a little fighting at times. He was glad that Mikey remembered to get him a pair of headphones that way he could at least tune out the people a bit.

Walking inside the building he tried to stay out of people’s way. He wanted to blend in after all. He still noticed the occasional glance and even stare. He did look a little out of place he assumed. Once he received his schedule and walked towards his first class he noticed the group of four turtles and two humans. He found them. CJ stopped and stayed out of view. Observing them a bit. Donnie had made sure he shared a class with each of them. He apparently had math with this world‘s Mikey, Raph and Casey. As well as world history with Donnie and, again, Casey. He also had English with April and lastly Chemistry with Leo. It was the easiest way to make sure Casey saw them regularly. He wasn’t supposed to talk to them directly anyway. Before CJ could observe them more, it was already time for class, off to English it was.

CJ was one of the first people inside the classroom. He sat down as far back as he could. Hopefully, he could go undetected. Donnie had made sure it seemed like he was always part of these classes, not a new student. That way he’d avoid getting attention.

A minute after he sat down April walked in and sat down two rows ahead of him. She didn’t notice him, great. A little late their teacher walked in and began the lesson. 

It’s official, CJ hates English class. Why was it important to know what the thoughts of the author of an incredibly boring book were? Not to mention they likely didn’t think too much about why they described the sky in a certain way. And the teacher was just confusing him. He was close to punching the guy. It didn’t help that he had an incredibly punchable face, it was practically inviting him to throw a punch.

CJ tried to focus on April throughout the lesson. He had to admit it was kind of boring observing her. She just listened to the teacher go through the lesson and took a few notes here and there. She sometimes threw in her two cents about a question but that was it. One thing did. seems odd to him though. She kept checking her phone and taking notes in a different notepad. What could she be looking up? Maybe she was into journalism, like his April.

After what seemed to be years, the class was finally over, CJ was hoping they could get home soon, he wasn’t sure how much longer he could take these lessons. Hopefully, the next one won’t be as boring. He would have to keep a close eye on April though. If she really was into journalism, she would likely link the thefts they were about to commit together.

After a short break, in which CJ decided to go outside to get some fresh air, he walked to his next class, math. Now it was time to observe this world’s Mikey, Raph and Casey. It was a little odd seeing a version of Cass be female but then again, Donnie had mentioned most Casey Jones’s are male, that Cass was one of the few Casey’s that’s female.

CJ quickly walked inside, noticing his three targets were already seated next to each other, in the middle of the room. Mikey was furthest left, Raph in the middle and Casey to Raph’s left. They were loudly talking to each other, well more like Casey and Raph were. Mikey was listening to them. Looks like Raph and Casey being best friends was a universal rule. His Raph and Cass were the same after all. Even if CJ himself tended to spend more time with his Mikey, maybe that was also universal, but they hadn’t really any information on his counterparts. Maybe he could do some research on that in the future.

Math class was a lot easier, then again Donatello had taught him well in most things, even with the apocalypse going on. His uncle didn’t want him to be stupid after all. As they were supposed to be working on a worksheet, CJ’s three targets became louder and louder, well Casey and Raph. To the point that the teacher made Raph and Mikey switch seats. That helped until the end of the lesson.

Unlike the last time, when CJ at least noticed April on her phone, he didn’t notice anything. Two were just being loud and not paying attention and Mikey was trying his best to solve the math problems. As soon as the teacher dismissed them, all three ran out to get to lunch. As CJ walked past their seats, he noticed a piece of paper on Casey’s desk. A drawing of a hockey mask. Looks like some things never change.

CJ was glad the six of them had decided to do their lunch break outside. All of them were sitting on the grass in the yard, talking and eating their lunch. CJ also got out his lunch. Mikey had made it just for him after all. They had managed to steal some cooking supplies and a few groceries last night. Mikey made CJ some pizza bagels. CJ ate his bagels as he wrote down some of his findings from the last two lessons as well as the things he started to notice while watching them.

As he looked at them he saw that all of them were the same species of turtle, something Donnie said was more common than them being different species. Their world was the odd one out again. He couldn’t help but wonder how often they were the odd ones out. First Raph being the oldest, the species thing, that Cass was a girl, CJ himself being sent to the past and likely their mystic powers. What other ways could they be different?

If CJ was honest lunch was over too soon, and judging by his targets. They were also disappointed. He should probably try to sit closer to them tomorrow, just to hear what they’re talking about.

After lunch CJ followed Leo, chemistry was next after all. This time he sat just behind the turtle. It’s not like he would talk to Leo, they had different lab partners after all. The second the teacher walked in she told everyone with long hair to put it up into a bun or ponytail. CJ pulled out a hairband and tied it into a low ponytail. He knew how dangerous it could be in a lab with long hair, he had been scolded about that enough times, by his uncles as well as his brothers.

As the teacher explained the experiment they were about to do, CJ tuned out and stopped listening. He knew all this stuff; Sensei had taught him about chemistry when he was still a kid. While was not as good as his Sensei, he knows more than the basics, not to mention Leo still shows him stuff now and then. Instead, he decided to focus on Leo.

The turtle in front of me was taking notes on everything the teacher said, no matter how unimportant it seemed. When he wasn’t writing something down he was fidgeting with his pencil. It was almost as if rather than writing for the sake of taking notes, he was trying to occupy his hands. CJ saw the turtle occasionally shake with his other hand, likely a stim. He was definitely occupying his hands with something. Once they had to start with their experiments, CJ noticed that both Leo’s and his own lab partner were doing literally nothing. CJ didn’t mind that too much, he knew what to do and how to get it done fast, but he felt bad for Leo. The turtle sometimes glanced to his lab partner and looked back at the experiment, slightly disappointed. CJ couldn’t help but feel the need to just hug this guy. He looked like he could really use a hug, but he couldn’t interact with them. No matter how much the one in front of him needed a good hug.

His last class, finally. CJ has no idea how April did this for multiple years, he had enough school to last a lifetime. He had never been happier that he lived in the sewers and not topside. As he walked into class he saw his current targets, Casey and Donnie. He already saw Casey in math earlier but he hadn’t seen Donnie aside from lunch yet. Much to his surprise, Casey seemed a lot calmer than before. Almost like Donnie was calming him down. He listened to whatever Donnie was telling him contently. Maybe Casey just had a soft spot for Donnie. This time CJ sat close enough to hear what they were talking about. Apparently, this Donnie was really into anime and K-Pop. Not too different to them, all of them enjoyed a good anime and some K-Pop. Though this Donnie seemed to be really into it.

As the teacher kept talking about the history of the world. CJ wrote down some more of his notes. He wasn’t all that interested in the history of a world not his own. He only really wanted to find out about that pandemic Donnie mentioned, that seemed kind of interesting and it was really recent.

CJ occasionally glanced over to Donnie and Casey only to see them pass notes to each other and giggling a little once they read them. CJ caught a glance at one of the notes, it was once again a hockey mask. Casey was really adamant about that, wasn’t he? This one looked a little different, a few more details were drawn in. When Donnie passed the note back, a few notes were added to it, but CJ couldn’t read them.

This lesson was almost as boring as English, the teacher only talked about the French Revolution, something that was the same in his own world. Much to his surprise Casey and Donnie seemed really invested in the topic, CJ wasn’t sure if he liked that. His own Donnie was already interested in overthrowing the government, if he ever convinces Cass to join, that wouldn’t end well. The two of them so interested in a revolution didn’t seem like a good sign to CJ, but maybe and hopefully that was something he was overthinking. He made sure to not write that down, he didn’t want to give Donnie any ideas.

Finally, he was home, well in their current hideout. Leo had picked him with one of their portals.

After he shared his observations, most of which weren’t all that important. Leo explained the next course of action. They had to get the part Donnie needed. Luckily they would have to steal a lot less than they originally thought because for some reason there was a huge machine just outside, deep in the water. They just had to get the necessary parts out.

“Alright fam, let’s get to stealing!”, said Leo as he opened multiple portals, “I’ll you all out on top of the respective buildings. You get in steal what we need and get back to the roof. I’ll open the portals back in an hour.”

They headed into the portals.

All of April's new friends had gathered around in her room. They were having a movie night, they switched up where they were having it sometimes, today April was the host. Just as they were getting to the good part some kind of news began to play.

“Attention, there have been seven thefts within the same hour, all of them were suspiciously similar. None left any traces of breaking in and nothing was caught on the camera footage. If anyone saw something please report it to the police. For further information on the thefts, take a look at the police website. Stay safe.”

The announcement stopped and cut straight to a commercial.

“What was that about?”, asked Mikey.

“How are we supposed to know?", said Donnie.

“You know anything about mutants stealing?”, asked Casey.

Everyone shot him a glare.

“What? You guys said you used to steal your groceries.”

“Yeah, but the only mutants still around are our family!”, said Leo, “We don’t steal anymore.”

“Sadly.”, mumbled Raph.

“And I don’t think they’d need hardware tools and metal.”, said April.

“What if it’s Superfly again? What if he wants to build another-“, Mikey began.

“Then we kick his butt!”, said Raph.

“We should definitely keep an eye out for these, maybe even interfere if there’s more of them.”, said Leo.

The others nodded in agreement. While they weren’t really supposed to do ninja stuff anymore, they all wanted an excuse to do more ninja stuff.

But hopefully, it wasn’t Superfly, maybe it was something way cooler. Who knows?

Chapter Text

CJ never regret a decision as much as today. He decided to put his hair in a ponytail because of the heat today. He didn’t think much of it but said ponytail made him look a lot like this world's Casey. As he was walking around the hall, someone grabbed his arm and started dragging him off to the gym.

The person kept talking about how late he was and how all of them had been waiting for the team to meet up. That they had a game soon and needed to talk about some stuff.

“Really Casey? Today is the day you have to be late? Jennika is not happy with you, dude!”, they said.

“What are-“, CJ was cut off.

“Shut it, Jones. You are in deep today. Save the excuses for Jen.”

They kept complaining about Casey and didn’t let CJ cut in, telling them that he was not the guy they were looking for. CJ just gave up at that point, he hoped that they would figure out their mistake and let him leave before Casey showed up.

Inside the gym were a few people, CJ didn’t recognize anyone, except Casey. He was getting scolded by a girl a bit older than them. CJ had to get out of here, fast.

“Coach! I found Casey!”, yelled the person that dragged him in.

The only adult in the room, probably said Coach walked and looked over to them.

“Casey arrived ten minutes ago, kid.”

“But I-“, they turned around and finally looked at CJ, probably for the first time. “You’re not Casey!”

“I tried to tell you.”, CJ said.

“I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to! I got carried away. You two look so much alike.”

“It’s fine, you didn’t mean to, I’ll just get going then.”

Before CJ could leave someone slung their arm around his neck. He glanced over, oh. Oh no. He’s fucked. Casey was right next to him. How was he supposed to get out now?

“Do we really look that alike? I think I look much more handsome.”, said Casey.

“Nah, he looks better. He doesn’t have a band-aid on his nose 24/7 or fake piercings.”, said the girl who scolded Casey earlier, The girl then turned to face CJ after and said: “You use he/him pronouns right?” CJ just nodded.

“Excuse you! I look amazing!”

“Casey, let the poor boy go. He probably wants to enjoy his break with his friends.”, said the Coach.

Casey grumbled a bit but let CJ go.

“The name's Casey Jones, by the way, he/him.”

“The names Nikk, they/them.”, said the kidnapper.

“I’m Jennika, she/her.”, said the girl, “And you are?”

“Casey Jones.”

Fuck.

Why? Why did CJ have to say that? Why did he have to mess up? He could have just said a fake name like I don’t know Haley Joel Osment. Maybe, hopefully, the name Casey Jones was really common here. But with his luck? Probably not.

“No way!”, Casey said. He smiled at the older boy. “We have the same name? That’s so cool! And we kinda look alike too? Man, that is like the coolest thing ever! I never met anyone else named Casey Jones!”

“Calm down a bit, Case. You’re scaring the guy.”, said Nikk.

“I don’t care!”, the boy yelled and turned to CJ again, “We have to be friends! I need to show off my new twin!”

“Twin?”, asked CJ. He could help but be amused by the enthusiasm of the boy. He really was a Casey Jones and definitely Cass’s counterpart. She was a lot louder than CJ himself, he could still be a lot, but it was a little tamer than the original Casey Jones of each world.

“YEAH! We have the same name and look kinda similar!”

“Wouldn’t that make us doppelgangers?”

“Huh? Oh, I guess. Doesn’t matter I’m your new friend now! I gotta introduce you to my friends! They’re gonna be so jealous! They’ll never find themselves a doppelganger! I have a doppelganger!”

Well, CJ had messed up already, what is stopping him from messing up a bit more? If he needs to change the plans, why not have fun with it?

“I’m pretty sure you’re my doppelganger.”

“What? No! You’re the doppelganger!”

“Pretty sure I’m older than you.”, CJ smirked. He knew Casey was younger. Donnie wasn’t the only one that made some research. If he knew Casey Jones, which he did, being on himself, then Casey would take the bait and get annoyed. Maybe he’d get out of the satiation, or he’d get himself even more stuck in this mess. Either way, he would need a new plan.

“What? Nu-uh. I’m 15, no way you're older than me!”

“But I am. I’m 16, kid.”

“Kid?! You’re only a year older!”

“Still older.”, CJ smiled smugly, the same smug smile that he picked up from Leo, whenever he was messing with any of their siblings.

Casey glared at him, grabbed CJ’s hand and dragged him off. Where to? CJ had no idea.

As the two left the team was staring at the door.

“Are we sure, Casey doesn’t have a brother?”, asked Nikk.

“Yeah, he only has a little sister.”, answered Jennika, “But if I didn’t know any better, I would believe you. They act and look the part.”

“Casey should get him to join the team”, said the coach.

“Coach, you can’t try to get every kid we meet to join the team.”, said Jennika.

“Worth a shot.”

Casey dragged CJ through the halls of the school. The tension between them was intense. Well mostly Casey’s irritation, if CJ was right.

“Where are you taking me?”, asked CJ.

“To meet my friends.”, said Casey.

“Why?”

“To prove I’m the original!”

“You- you do realize I was just kidding right?”

Casey stopped in his tracks. CJ bumped into him.

“Oh.”, said Casey.

“Sorry if I took it too far.”

“No, it’s fine. I thought you were making fun of me.”

“I don’t even know you, why would I-“, CJ was cut off.

“That didn’t stop people before.”

“Well, I don’t for that. My siblings would end me if I did.”

“You have siblings? I got a sister!”

The two shared a laugh, the tension from earlier gone.

“You still want to prove yourself?”, asked CJ.

“Nah- Still taking you to meet my friends.”

“You really don’t have to-“

“But I want to! You’re kinda cool I guess. And I want to brag about my name twin!”

CJ knew he wasn’t getting out of this, he brought this upon himself. But maybe he could use the new connection to make sure they don’t run into his siblings.

“Alright, let’s go then.”, said Casey and began dragging CJ along again.

Casey dragged CJ outside where he quickly pulled him towards his friends.

“Hi guys!”, said Casey as he got closer.

“Didn’t think you could make it with the team meeting.”, said Mikey.

“We finished early.”, lied Casey.

“And who did you drag here?”, asked April while pointing at CJ.

“Right. I want you to meet, drum roll please”, Casey mimicked a drum roll,” Casey Jones!”

“What?”, said Leo.

“No way!”, comes from Raph.

“Really?”, said April and Donnie.

“Nice!”, said Mikey.

“Uh, hi. Nice to meet you.”, said CJ.

“Nice to meet you too! I’m-“, Donnie tried to start.

“He probably knows who we are, Dee. Everyone knows us.”, said Raph.

“I do actually know who you are, kinda hard to miss your whole reveal. Speaking of that,  thank you for saving the city.”, CJ said.

The four brothers stared at him. CJ assumed that much like his own version; the turtles didn’t get a lot of thanks for everything they do for the city. Sure, back home they had to stay hidden, but hearing a thanks now and then was nice. Even if it was only from one person. He saw how the four smiled after Bishop had thanked all of them for saving the city.

“Uh- no problem.”, said Leo, a little embarrassed.

“Dude, sit down with us!”, said Mikey while moving over a little.

CJ sat down next to him, while Casey sat down next to Raph.

“How did you meet Casey?”, asked Raph.

Casey went to answer, but Raph cut him off.

“Not you, him”, Raph pointed towards CJ.

“But both of us are Casey, how are we supposed to know who you meant?”

“Just call me CJ. That’s what everyone calls me anyway.”

“Cool, then CJ. How did you meet this idiot?”, asked Raph again.

“One of his teammates mistook me for Casey and dragged me off because someone was late.”

“To be fair, I had to uh- take care of something.”

“That’s a lie and you know it.”, said CJ.

“Anyway-“, Casey wanted to change the subject, “You said you have siblings. How many?”

“Six-“, before he could continue, Leo cut him off.

“Six? That’s a lot! Sorry. Didn’t mean to get loud.”

“I mean yeah, there’s seven of us but it’s always fun.”

“Are they older or younger? Or a mix?”, asked Donnie.

“All of them are older. I have two sisters, the two oldest, and four brothers.”

“You’re the youngest too?”, said Mikey, “Youngest siblings are the coolest right?”

Mikey held up his hand and CJ gave him a high-five, or high-three.

“What classes do you have? Any with one of us?”, asked Leo.

“I think we would have noticed if he had classes with us. No offence, but you stick out like a sore thumb.”, said April.

“None taken. I actually have classes with all of you, two with Casey.”, said CJ.

“Huh? But aren’t you older than us? All of us are 15, you’re 16!”, said Casey.

“I got held back a year, some stuff happened last year.”, CJ lied. Well, it wasn’t a full lie. A lot happened in the past year, just not anything they would expect.

“You don’t have to talk about it, dude.”, said Mikey.

They still had a few minutes of their lunch break left, but much to his surprise, CJ’s phone went off.

Everyone looked at him as he picked up his ringing phone, Cass was calling him. Why was she calling? CJ looked at the ones around him, CJ had no idea what Cass wanted to talk about.

“Just answer your phone already!”, said Raph.

CJ nodded and answered the phone. He had to come up with something. An idea came to him. He could just talk in another language. But which one? He didn’t know their origin, if they were like his brothers, they likely knew Japanese, having a Japanese man – or rat, as their father. So, Japanese was out of the question, just to be save. He didn’t want to try Spanish. Cass, Leo and CJ were all fluent in it, Casey might as well. Leo was more of a wild card there. The only other language he knew was Korean. The language only CJ and Cass knew fluently. Also, the language they were least likely to know.

“Hello Cass.”, CJ said in Korean.

The girl on the other end of the line stopped for a second and switched to Korean as well.

“Why are you speaking Korean?”

“I’m with the other turtles. I messed up.”

“You’re what? Nothing happened right?”

“I’ll explain everything properly at home.”

“You better, the others are staring at me for yelling.”

“I’m going to get scolded aren’t I?”

“Probably.”

“Why did you call anyway?”

“Mikey wanted to know what you want for dinner. He’s making a shopping list. April and I are going to get some food and it’s your turn to choose.”

“Oh, could he make Katsudon?”

The boy heard some mumbling on the other side before Cass answered him again.

“Katsudon it is. I won’t tell the others yet. That’s your new to deliver.”

“Thanks, Cass. See you later.”

“See ya.”

The boy hung up and looked at the others. They looked a little confused but Donnie was looking at him with awe.

“You know Korean?!”, yelled Donnie.

“I- yeah.”, said CJ, “Do you know Korean?”

Did he mess up? Were they Korean instead of Japanese here?

“No, I just recognized it! I love K-Pop you know!”

Thank Titan, leave it to Donnie to give CJ a heart attack.

“Do you know any other languages?”, asked Leo curious.

“Yeah, obviously I know English and Korean, but I also know Spanish and Japanese.”

“Why do you know so many? I only know Spanish, aside from English.”, said Casey.

“I grew up in an Asian household, the Spanish was more like one of my sisters and one of my brothers decided to teach me.”

Before they could ask more questions, they had to head back to their classes.

CJ knew he was not getting away from them again, if there was one thing he knew about mutant turtles’ it’s’ that they just love adopting people into their family.

CJ was sitting on his knees in front of Raph who was scolding him. Next to the big turtle was April, just waiting her turn to scold him. Behind them were the other four, watching the show go down. It wasn’t every day their youngest was getting scolded. Mikey was getting scolded more than CJ, then again, Mikey also lost his position of youngest a year ago, not that he minded, he liked being a big brother to CJ after all.

They needed a new plan for CJ, they could likely make use of him knowing their counterparts, somehow. They just needed to figure out how.

Chapter Text

The new plan was for CJ to get to know them and figure out if they were even trying to figure out the thefts that had been going on for weeks now. And much like he thought from the beginning, they started dragging him along to everything. He even became Leo’s new lab partner. CJ never thought he’d be teaching a Leo about chemistry. CJ also began sitting with his new friends in each of the classes they shared. April offered him help in English after seeing him struggle. She said that maybe he had issues with it because of all the languages he knew.

He made it a point to always talk in Japanese or Korean when talking to his siblings. Better safe than sorry. This actually led to Donnie begging him to teach him both languages, he kept talking about how cool it would be to watch anime in the original dub or K-Dramas.

CJ actually enjoyed this a lot more than the original plan. School was boring, especially when you were alone, but it was much more fun now. They told him the stories of meeting both Casey and April. He couldn’t help but laugh about these meetings. After all what kind of first meetings were they? They met April by throwing shuriken at her and Casey because he was in a fight with Raph. It seemed very familiar to him. After all, Cass met the turtles while she and Mikey were both trying to get something from a store, which led to them fighting.

He couldn’t help but grow fond of all of them. They were so much like his older siblings, yet different at the same time. He couldn’t help but feel like he needed to protect them, he didn’t want them to get hurt like all of them tend to get hurt. Maybe he could teach them a few moves before they had to leave and go home. Maybe that could make sure they don’t get hurt, or at least not as much.

As Casey and CJ were walking down the street to meet the others in a park, with the snacks they had picked up, CJ was about to be ambushed by one turtle in red. He quickly passed the snacks to Casey and stepped to his left, causing Raph to trip and fall to the ground.

“You need to be faster if you want to catch me.”, said CJ.

Somehow Raph had figured out that CJ had incredible reflexes. Ever since he’s been trying to catch CJ and fight him.

“Just fight me already!”, yelled the turtle.

“Nope, I don’t want to hurt you.”

“I’m a ninja! You can’t hurt me.”

CJ rolled his eyes, took the snacks from Casey again and walked towards the others. He was itching for a fight, but he really didn’t want to hurt them. He knew they were ninja, but they also didn’t have as much experience as him.

After they sat down, Raph kept egging CJ on, eventually, Casey joined in and even Donnie and Mikey wanted to see them fight. The only ones not outright saying it were April and Leo. But judging by their expressions, they wanted to see it as well.

“You know what?”, CJ stood up, “Fine. You wanna fight? Let’s go.”

The end of his patience was reached, hopefully, they’d all stop once he beats Raph’s ass.

“YES!”, Raph jumped up, pulling out his Sai. CJ was sure that he wasn’t supposed to have them with him, but he could work with that.

“Raph? Why do you have your Sai?”, asked Leo.

“To fight him!”

“You could hurt CJ with those. Please put them away.”, said Leo, trying to get his brother to not scare away their new friend.

“Don’t worry, Leo. I can handle this.”

In one swift motion, he kicked the said out of Raph’s hands and caught them in his own.

“I don’t have a weapon, so let’s make it fair.”, said CJ as he passed the Sai to April.

They just stared at him, how did he do that and could he teach them?

Raph was the first one to come back to his senses and charged at CJ, CJ kept dodging him for a bit. He made sure Raph was going to get some of his energy out before he ended this. Everyone could use a little quiet.

As much fun as messing with Raph was he needed to end this soon, the younger was getting exhausted. CJ dodged by ducking down into a squad and kicked Raph’s feet away, causing the turtle to fall onto his shell. CJ stood up and looked at the turtle on the ground.

As CJ bent down to help Raph up, thinking he would give up, Raph jumped up and went to hit CJ again. This time CJ dodged by jumping over his opponent, putting a foot on the edge of Raph’s shell and kicking him to the ground landing almost perfectly. CJ steadied himself but noticed Raph had stood up and was charging at him again. CJ still had his bad turned to him. The older moved only slightly to avoid the punch coming his way and in one smooth motion took Raph’s arm and promptly threw him over his shoulder, throwing the turtle to the ground.

Apparently, that was what it took to stop the fight. Raph, who was still lying on the ground, looked up at him with awe, much like the others.

“YOU HAVE TO TEACH ME THAT?!”, yelled Raph.

“ME TOO!”, joined Casey in.

“Teach all of please!”, added Leo.

The other two boys nodded along.

“I think I’ll stick with some self-defense first.”, said April.

“Maybe another time.”, CJ chuckled as he helped up Raph.

“Dude, can you get any cooler?”, asked Mikey.

“What do you mean?”, asked CJ as he sat down once again and grabbed himself a victory brownie. Cass had made them after all.

“You can fight, you can speak like 4 languages, two of those being Korean and Japanese, by the way, can you teach me? You have the biggest older brother vibes I’ve ever seen and you like us for us and not for saving the city!”, rambled Donnie.

“Big brother vibes?”, asked CJ. That was a first.

“Yeah, like I don’t know how to explain it but it fits you!”, said Mikey. The others agreed with him.

“You sure you don’t have a younger sibling?”, joked Casey.

“Nah, I am the youngest, but I guess I sometimes do things Rap- uh Rafa would do.”

“Rafa? Who’s that?”, asked Raph.

“My oldest brother, he likes to mother hen all of us though.”

“Can you tell us about your siblings? They have to be cool if you’re already this cool!”, said Mikey.

“Uh, sure.”, said CJ. He had to come up with something. “Who do you want me to start with?”

“Just go oldest to youngest, I guess.”, offered Donnie.

“So first we have Cass. She’s 20 and has her own business, she sells brownies.”

“The ones you brought with you today?”, Casey asked, “Those are amazing!” He promptly grabbed a brownie.

“Yeah, her brownies are the best! Anyway, the next oldest is Avril. She’s 19 and attending college, she’s a journalism major.” Casey was proud of himself for that fake name. It was really hard to find a nickname for April.

“Journalism? So cool. Maybe she could give some pointers!”, said April.

“Maybe. Then we have Rafa, he’s 18 and finished school recently. He works in a gym as a personal trainer. He really likes working out too.”

“So, he’s buff? Tell me he’s buff!”, said Raph.

“Oh, he is.”, said CJ, “Next is Don, he is 17 and attending Visions Academy. He’s into building tech and stuff. He’s a genius.

“Visions? Wow, he has to be really smart!”

CJ chuckled. “He is. Next is Leon, he’s also 17, he and Don are twins. He also goes to Visions Academy but he's there for their new med program. He wants to be a doctor.”

“Your family is full of smart people. “, said Leo amazed.

“And just a few months older than me is Mike, he’s also 16. He’s turning 17 soon though.”

“If he’s your age, why isn’t he attending school with you?”, asked Mikey

“He got into an online art school. He’s really into art, cooking too.”

“Oh, sweet. Is he the one that makes you your lunches?”, asked Mikey, “They always look so good.”

“He is. They taste great too.”

“They sound amazing.”, said April.

“They are.”, said CJ.

“How come you’re all so close in age? Biologically-“, Donnie began.

“No one wants your nerd explanation, Donnie.”, said Raph.

“We aren’t all blood-related.”, said CJ simply.

“Oh, so you’re like a found family? That’s my favorite trope in stories!”, said Donnie.

“I guess you could say that.”, said CJ and laughed a little.

“Hey, is it just me or do they have similar names to us?”, asked Mikey.

“They do. That’s really cool!”, said Casey.

“What a fun coincidence.”, said April.

CJ was glad they wouldn’t be able to put everything together. And he really needed to remember his cover story. He should write that down later; it would be weird if he forgets that.

“Can we meet them?”, asked Donnie.

What was CJ supposed to say? They all looked so excited to meet his siblings, but he couldn’t tell them that they couldn’t can he?

“Maybe, they’re all kind of busy.”, said CJ. They looked at him slightly disappointed, they really wanted to meet the people CJ talked so highly about, didn’t they?

As if on cue, April’s phone went off. All of them turned to her, she looked at the message she got.

“There’s another theft!”

“Let’s go then!”, said Casey.

“Thefts?”, asked CJ. Were they trying to find them? He should do something.

“Yeah, you know those thefts that started happening a while ago? We’re trying to figure that out.”, explained Leo.

He needed to keep them away from their counterparts. Hopefully, he could keep them away from the thefts committed by his older siblings and make sure they don’t find out anything.

“Let me help them.”, said CJ.

Leo looked a little conflicted. He didn’t want to get CJ involved. He already felt uneasy about bringing Casey and April along. Casey had some experience in fighting but April only started some self-defense lessons a few weeks ago, if only to help her friends. And maybe her parents wanted to make sure she knew how to take care of herself after the whole thing with Superfly and considering her new mutant friends. They wanted their daughter wouldn’t be a damsel in distress if something happened. April was very set on that as well. She wanted to be helpful in more than one way after all. Leo finally nodded, agreeing to let the older join.

CJ may have his gear with him, but he could still fight without it, having been raised by the greatest team of ninja has its perks after all. He was, however, grateful that Casey handed him one of his hockey sticks.

CJ stayed back a little as he called Donnie, he needed to know where they were headed. His plan was to lead them in a different direction, somehow. Donnie told them their next stop, a hardware store roughly 20 minutes away. Luckily enough, the turtles, while they had figured out which store they were headed to next, the store had multiple locations. One of which was in the opposite direction. He was never this grateful about stores having multiple locations, he didn’t have to try and lead them a stray. Hopefully, everything will be fine.

They ran through the streets, something CJ wasn’t all that used to. They normally took to the roofs, likely kept to the streets more because of April and Casey. Who were driving along with their motorcycle and skates respectively.

Unfortunately, CJ couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching them. He tried to ignore it. Everything would go smoothly, right?

Chapter Text

Keeping up was easy. CJ had no issues. He even slowed down a bit to make sure he didn’t run ahead of them. He wanted to stay behind them. He still felt like someone was watching them.

He hoped it was just his imagination but the longer the feeling stayed, the more he feared that it wasn’t just his imagination.

As Leo took a left turn into an alley, apparently a shortcut, he pumped into someone.

“Sorry, I didn’t-“, Leo was cut off. CJ got a glance at his face and saw fear in the younger’s eyes. Why was he afraid? What did he run into?

CJ moved quickly to stand by Leo’s side, ready to protect him from whatever was in front of him.

As CJ got closer he saw a human, surely that wasn’t what Leo was afraid of. They had been accepted by humans after all. Then when he was next to Leo, he saw the real reason. The human, a man roughly in his mid-40s, was pointing a gun straight at Leo. Why would someone-

Oh.

Oh no.

The conspiracy theorists!

CJ didn’t think someone, anyone, would be willing to go that far because of a delusional theory with no backing.

CJ pushed Leo behind him and pointed the borrowed hockey stick at the man.

“Move, kid. I don’t want to hurt a child.”, said the man.

“Then why are you pointing a gun at one?!”, yelled CJ.

“That’s no kid, that’s a mon-“, the man was cut off by CJ hitting him in the face with the hockey stick. He really wished he had his actual gear right now. He wanted his chainsaw hockey stick.

The man fell to the ground with much more force than a teenager should have and dropped the gun. He looked at CJ in surprise and confusion, not to mention fear. He stared into CJ's eyes, his fear growing every second.

“Thank y-”, began Leo, before looking at CJ and staring at him. The others moved to stand next to their friend and brother and got a good look at CJ as well.

“Why, why are your eyes glowing?”

CJ blinked and his green eyes lost their glow.

“Don’t worry about it. We need to get out of here!”, said CJ.

He turned around, ready to get out of there, but the man on the ground collected himself and grabbed CJ by his leg, causing him to trip.

“You little brat! You’re just as corrupt as these things!”

“Don’t call them that!”, yelled Casey as he went to hit the man to get CJ out. Instead of hitting him, however, someone else got closer and grabbed the hockey stick before it connected with the man’s arm.

“Calm down, child. You must snap out of your evil-doing.”, said a woman in her 50s. There was more than one? Did they run into a meeting of insane people?!

“Just let us leave, we don’t want to hurt anyone.”, said Leo hoping to just get home.

“I do!”, said Raph.

“Not helping, dude.”, said Mikey as he hit his brother’s arms.

“Not hurt us?! This kid was about to bash my head in”, the man said, “And this one is a freak that hit me with a hockey stick for no reason!”

“No reason?! You were pointing a gun at my friend! That’s enough reason!”, yelled CJ as he finally got the man to let his leg go and stood up again.

CJ was mad. He didn’t like fighting humans, they weren’t all that fun to fight given the fact he had Ninpo but he would fight them if he was agitated enough, which he was.

He slammed his hickey stick on the ground next to the human and stared him in the face, his eyes glowing a freaky green again.

“Scram and no one gets hurt.”

“Is that supposed to be a thread?”, asked a new voice from behind them. Closing their only way out of the alley.

CJ turned to look at that man, he was well over 6 feet and in his 40s, and next to him was another man in his 30s.

“It’s a promise.”, said CJ, glaring at him.

“Seriously, dude. What is wrong with your eyes?”, whispered Donnie. They all already knew CJ’s eyes were weirdly vibrant but didn’t want to think too much about that, now it was even weirder. What kind of eyes just glow like that?

“You sure about that, kid?”, asked the tallest man as he pulled out something out of his pocket.

They were all focused on the man in front of them, they didn’t notice the man and woman behind them had slipped away.

“We can do this the easy or the hard way.”, said the man in his 30s.

Before someone could even say anything, the tall man threw whatever he had in his hand. It collided with the ground right in front of them. It burst and some kind of dense gas came out. The humans in front of them were holding a cloth over their noses, what was this gas?

CJ pulled his shirt up to his nose, in hopes of figuring this out first, but a second later, April fell to the ground. All of them moved to help the girl, but shortly after the four turtles and Casey passed out as well. CJ glared at the men, ready to hurt them. He didn’t have it in him to hold back anymore. These people weren’t just delusional, they were psychopaths. CJ moved closer to them, but he had already breathed in some other gas and fell to the ground, he wasn’t out just yet.

“We have to thank Cynthia Utrom for that gas bomb.”, one of the men said.

That was the last thing CJ heard before passing out.

Finally, they had almost everything they needed. Today Donnie and Mikey would just finish getting some pieces from the machine right outside and they could start building their way home.

Leo opened a portal back to their hideout ready to go back for the day.

“Has CJ called one of you?”, asked Donnie.

Everyone paused. None of them had heard a thing since Donnie called CJ to tell him their course of action.

They had been debating whether to just tell their counterparts. With their horrible luck, they would run into them eventually. Hopefully, that wouldn’t be today. They all had been incredibly stressed because of their multitude of thefts. They were just happy they had everything and were ready to pass out in a turtle pile.

“I’ll check his tracker.”, said Donnie.

“Tracker? I thought we talked about that?!”, exclaimed Leo.

“Well, they come in handy in situations like this, don’t they?”

“We’ll talk about that later, Donnie.”, said Raph.

“Yeah, yeah.”

Donnie typed away on his hologram and started tracking CJ’s last movements.

“He’s in a- a warehouse?”, said Donnie.

“Why would he be in a warehouse?”, asked April.

“Doesn’t matter, we should head there and see for ourselves!”, said Cass.

“Yeah, Miguel, you help me get this stuff to our base.”, began Leo.

“We’ll start heading there, you’ll meet us there.”, finished Raph.

They nodded and split up, jumping over the roofs while Leo and Mikey quickly brought their stolen goods to their hideout. Thanks to Leo’s portals that didn’t take very long.

“You think CJ is alright?”, asked Mikey his older brother.

“I want to say, yes, but, I don’t know.”, said Leo as he placed down the last object.

Leo put a hand on Mikey’s shoulder.

“But there’s one thing I do know. He wouldn’t go down without a fight.”

“I know.”

Leo opened another portal to join their siblings and was about to step through when Mikey said: “Wait!”

He ran to the other side of the base, grabbed something and came back. In his hands, CJ’s mask and beloved chainsaw hockey stick.

“Good thinking Miguel!”

“Let’s go!”

They walked through the portal and were met with their already waiting older siblings.

“You brought CJ’s gear.”, said April.

“Yup, feel like he would want it.”, said Mikey.

“They should be in this budling unless they somehow found CJ’s tracker. Which I doubt.”, said Donnie.

“They’re here.”, said Cass. She was kneeling next to a triangular window on the roof.

Inside on a podium were the four turtles, dyed up with chains, lights were directed at them from what Cass could tell, only tiny Leo was already awake, the other three were still out cold. On the floor next to the podium were the three humans, they were tied up with robes instead of chains. Tiny April and tiny Casey were somewhat awake, not fully aware of what was going on, but awake. CJ was still out cold.

Raph joined her and looked inside. “Aww. They look adorable.”

“No time for gushing about adorable baby turtles and humans, Raph-a-la. We have to save them.”, said Leo.

“Sorry.”, said Raph while rubbing the back of his head.

“So, what do we do?”, asked April, “By the looks of it they have guns and are pointing at tied-up kids.”

“Here’s what we do-“, began Leo.

CJ slowly opened his eyes; his head was killing him. What happened? Did he get hit in the head? Once he opened his eyes he shut them instantly due to the bright light. He forced his eyes open again, he slowly got used to the light and was surprised by the sight.

Just then memories came back to him. They had run into humans, horrible ones, and gotten drugged by some gas. He had to get them out somehow! Just then he got a sense of familiarity. A piece of home. His siblings, they were here. They were willing to risk everything to get them all out. CJ wasn’t surprised, all of them were very adamant that if the chance of destroying the multiverse wasn’t a thing, they would gladly meet their counterparts, or as Leo and Mikey had started calling them, their baby cousins. He was glad they were here, but he still wanted to buy them time. They were likely coming up with a plan. He started by fidgeting with the robe, hoping to get out.

“Not again!”, yelled Raph. Looks like he was awake now. The yell got the attention of the adults in the room and woke up the other two turtles.

“Again?”, whispered CJ.

“You’re awake? Good. We can start then.”, said the big man from before, “Get over here.”

A short woman walked past him with a syringe and towards the turtles.

“HEY! GET AWAY FROM THEM!”, yelled Casey.

“Shut it, kid. Be happy we didn’t chain you up.”, said a man who then hit Casey in the head.

CJ was still working on untying the robe but he was done. He concentrated and activated his Ninpo, he wouldn’t fight just yet, but his glowing eyes seemed to freak them out enough.

“Just how pathetic are you?”, CJ said.

Both the big man and the short woman turned to him and everyone else also began looking at him. Luckily enough, his Leo used the distraction and created a small portal to get the syringe away from her.

“Pathetic? You are the pathetic one!”

“You sure about that?”, CJ finally got the robe undone and stood up, “You really shouldn’t use a robe. It’s easy to get out of that if you know what you’re doing.”

CJ took a step closer towards the man, never breaking eye contact. The man’s hand went to his side, where his gun was and pointed it towards CJ. CJ stopped in his tracks. He may have Ninpo but he didn’t have a bulletproof west, not right now at least.

CJ glanced to his side to see how the rest was doing, they looked at him with awe in their eyes. Good, he’d rather have them amazed than afraid. He would make sure they didn’t get any more trauma than they had already gotten.

“What are you waiting for, woman!”, yelled the man, “Finish it!”

She jumped a bit and looked at her hand. The syringe was gone, how did she not notice? “What? How?”

“Like I said pathetic. It’s been gone for a solid two minutes.”, mocked CJ.

The attention was on him again, good. He took the chance and a blue and green light formed in his hand, leaving behind a blue hockey puck. As everyone was still processing what they had just seen, CJ threw the puck at the man, hitting the gun. The puck is disbursed and the gun is gone, seconds later it is in CJ’s hand. He pointed it at the man.

“Aww, is your fancy toy gone?”, said CJ.

“Just what are you?! YOU FREAK!”

“Are you afraid of a teen with magic hockey pucks?”, said CJ while smirking at the man.

He would enjoy bashing some heads, he was a Casey Jones after all.

Chapter Text

On top of the warehouse, all of them were crouching together, looking inside the building.

“I’ll get the guns away from these people with my portals, Donnie can you shut off any cameras and other tech?”, explained Leo.

“Scoff! Who do you take me for?”, said Donnie.

Leo bit back a laugh and continued: “April, you will take CJ’s gear and surprise them and that will give us a chance to get these kids out of the chains with no issue. And Cass, Raph and Mikey will take care of the goons.”

“Only the goons?”, asked Cass.

“Only-“, began Leo but he was cut off by Mikey.

“There’s a lady walking towards mini-uses! With a syringe.”

They noticed CJ had gotten out of his robe and Leo used the distraction to create a small portal to steal the syringe. As it dropped into his hand, he noticed a logo for a company, TCRI. What was that? They didn’t have that back home. He held up the syringe to his nose and sniffed it, maybe he could figure out what it was.

“Why are you smelling it, Leo?”, asked April.

“I need to know what it is. Just in case.”

“You still shouldn’t smell it!”, yelled Donnie.

“We’re immune to most stuff anyway. I need to know if I have to whip something up for them if they were already injected with it!”

“Turn down the medic for a bit.”, suggested April.

Leo smelled it once more.

“Midazolam?”, said Leo, “What the?” Midazolam may not work on him and his brothers but Leo had still read up on it a few years ago. And he may or may not have tried it. Not on himself of course. He used Donnie, not that his twin knows that.

“Mida-what?”, asked Raph.

“A drug commonly used to put people to sleep for surgeries.”, explained Leo.

“So, they want to operate on them?”, asked Mikey.

“They want to cut them open? Are they insane?”, said Cass.

“Girl, they are insane lunatics. Thought we established that.”, said April.

“Whatever TCRI is, they are bad news.”, said Donnie. “I’ll look into that later.”

With that figured out, they knew it was go time.

“Alright, fam! Let’s save the minis!”, said Raph as he stood up.

The others stood up as well, before they left, Leo put a hand in his eldest brother’s arm.

“Please keep Cass and Miguel from hurting these humans too much, we don’t want to give them a reason to blame the minis.”

“Of course. You better keep Donnie from going on a killing spree.”

“No promises.”

Raph laughed; he didn’t know why he expected something else. Leo would gladly let Donnie go on a killing spree, given the opportunity.

“Yo! CJ whipped out his Ninpo!”, exclaimed Mikey.

“That’s our cue, guys!”, said Leo.

“Let’s roll!”, said Raph.

“MAGIC?!”, yelled multiple people in the room, including CJ’s friends.

“The correct term would be mystic but you get the idea.”; CJ said as he now summoned an orange puck and threw it towards the woman that had the syringe, she had taken out another one. As the puck met her in the chest glowing orange chains shot out and tied her up, causing her to fall.

“Child, you must let go of these sinful beliefs.”, said the woman in her 50s. Seriously, what was wrong with her? CJ chose to ignore her and move towards April and Casey to get them out of their robes. He’d have to figure out something for the chains in a second.

“He’s a lost cause! That freak is just as bad as those mons-!”, yelled the big man, he was put off by a flaming green bad thrown right into his head, causing him to stumble forward. Was that?

CJ stopped in his tracks, he had freed April and had almost gotten Casey out too. His eyes followed the bat, he was right. It was April, his big sister April! She had been holding back, she would have taken this guy’s head off otherwise.

“APRIIIL O’NEIL!”, she yelled.

Everyone looked to the source of the yell. There stood a girl, confidant and proud. April easily thought she was the coolest person she had ever seen! She had a glowing baseball bat and was fighting these goons. The only thing that could make her cooler in April’s opinion was if she was into journalism.

“What?”, came from the minis.

“Where did you-“, someone began, they were also hit by the bat.

“CJ! Here!”, she yelled and threw over CJ’s beloved chainsaw hockey stick and mask.

“Thanks, April!”, he yelled back.

“CJ? Who is that?”, asked Casey.

“That’s April.”, CJ said like it was the most normal thing in the world.

“We heard that, but why didn’t you tell us you knew someone with the same name as me?”, asked little April.

“We’ll explain that later! We’re gonna get you out first!”, yelled big April.

“You heard her.”, said CJ.

“Stop ignoring us!”, yelled the big man, “You won’t get out! You won’t even get them out of those chains!”

“You sure about that?”, mocked CJ.

“How would you? You only have a hockey stick and a mask.”

“Correction, a chainsaw hockey stick.”, said CJ as he turned on the saw and cut out Leo, followed by Donnie, Raph and lastly Mikey.

“You have magic and a cool weapon?!”, yelled Raph, “That’s so unfair, dude!”

“Really unfair!”, agreed Donnie.

“Stop right there or they get it!”, yelled a man. Turning to their side, a man had tiny April and Casey at gunpoint. All of them stopped in their tracks.

“This is a bit excessive, right?”, asked Leo, trying to get them to let his friends go.

“I don’t think so.”, said the man.

No one dared to move until a blue light illuminated the room and the two guns were gone in seconds. Everyone turned to CJ, he had done something like that before.

“Don’t look at me!”, he defended himself.

“Yeah, that was all me!”, said a voice all too familiar to CJ and big April.

“Took you long enough, Leo!”, yelled April.

“Don’t come at me for wanting a cool entrance, you did your whole thing!”

Someone came into view and much to everyone’s surprise, it was a turtle mutant, he was taller and leaner than the four brothers. He also had cool stripes that were glowing not to mention his blue and red heterochromia. Leo was amazed, the turtle in front of them looked so cool and not to mention confident, if he were able to be half as cool as him, he’d jump out of joy.

“There’s more of you!”; yelled the big man, “I knew you were aliens!”

“Pfft- aliens? Really? Is that the best you have?”, mocked the tall turtle, who was apparently also named Leo.

“I have proof now! There’s more than those four, you are trying to take over the world! This place is full of cameras!”

A new voice, a bored one, began to speak. Strangely enough, the person seemed to be above them.

“All of which are disabled. All the footage was permanently deleted. You have nothing.”

“What?! How did you?!”

“You act like it was hard? You didn’t even bother to get a new program, this whole – scoff – system, is easily 10 years old.” The voice got louder as if the person was coming closer.

Then finally a silhouette came into view, from above. Someone was flying above them. Donnie couldn’t help but be amazed, that was so cool!

They landed in front of the four turtles looking straight at the two men still holding April and Casey. He was also a turtle mutant, had a metallic purple shell on his back had something happened to it? Hopefully not. He also wore the coolest pair of goggles, at least if you asked Donnie.

“Let them go.”, he said, “If you want to leave this place.” He then summoned two glowing purple guns; both were flying next to him pointing at the two men.

They immediately let go of the two teens and moved backwards raising their hands.

“Donnie!”, yelled big April, “We’re not killing people today.”

He, Donnie, turned to look at her, “Urgh, you never let me shine!” And the guns disappeared.

The striped turtle just chuckled at his twin’s antics. The turtle in purple turned to look at the minis and walked over to tiny Donnie. Tiny Donnie looked up at him, the taller had heterochromia as well, mismatched with the other turtle. Were they brothers? He didn’t think there were other turtles! Not to mention ones as cool as these!

“Donnie wait!”, yelled CJ.

The turtle didn’t listen and put a hand on his tiny version's head.

“Huh. Turns out our worries weren’t warranted.”, he said. What worries?

“Stop ignoring me!”, yelled the big man.

“Why should we? You already lost.”, said big Leo.

“You are outnumbered!”

“Nuh-uh.”

“What do you mean Nuh-uh?! There’s ten of you and hundreds of us!”

“Quality over quantity, moron.”, said big Donnie.

“What do you mean? We have guns!”

“We have mystic.”, said CJ.

“Oh, and Raph, Mikey and Cass!”, added big April.

“Who?!”

“The three that took care of everyone out there.”, said big Leo while pointing outside.

“Three people can’t do that!”

“Of course, they can. We have a literal tank, a mystic powerhouse and Cass.”, said big Donnie.

“Cass is her own class now?”, asked CJ.

“Duh.”

“Stop ignoring me!”

As if on cue, the door behind him burst open to reveal three figures, one of them was huge.

“You guys done?”, said the big one, he was also a turtle, a spiky one. Raph looked at him, he didn’t know what he liked more. The cool spikes, could he get spikes? The cool-looking sharp teeth. Or the muscles! What was this guy’s training? Raph needed to know!

“Yup, just need to get out now.”, said big April.

“Good, we waited like 10 minutes before going in. This was way too easy.”, said the only other girl, presumably Cass.

Casey saw her and liked her already. She had a really cool buzzcut. He wondered if he could pull one off, then again he really liked his long hair. She also had piercings. Piercings!! He only had normal earrings; his mothers wouldn’t let him get more than that until he turns 18. He had a few fake ones though. And he really liked her lipstick, she pulled that dark purple off, maybe he could borrow that. She was almost as cool as his Mom, but only almost. No one was cooler than his Mom.

Much to their surprise, the last figure was in front of them in seconds, arms instantly wrapped around Mikey.

“These guys are adorable!”, he said, “They are just so cute!” He picked up Mikey and twirled him around a bit.

Looking at the last turtle, he was only slightly taller than them, just taller than Raph. He had really cool spots and cool knee pads. Mikey wanted a pair of those. What Mikey thought was the coolest though were the turtle’s eyes, they were magenta. He had never seen eyes like that. They were even more weirdly bright than CJ’s green ones. But it was so cool!

“I said stop ignoring me!”, yelled the man once again. He was truly fed up with the mutants in front of him.

“Zip it.”, said big Leo. He and the huge one walked over to the man. The big one grabbed the man’s collar, pulling him down. Big Leo then pulled the big sword from his back, holding it to the man's neck.

“Get close to them again and we won’t be as nice.”, said the big turtle.

The man was in fear.

“Just leave.”

“We will, but first”, said big Leo, “Did you inject them with anything?” Both of them were staring the man in the eyes.

“N-no. We didn’t get to that.”

Big Leo let the man go, he dropped to the ground.

“We better never see you again.”, said the spiky one.

The man just nodded; he would never get close to a turtle.

The turtles turned to the kids they just saved, smiling. They looked much more friendly than before. Not that the six of them were ever afraid of them.

“We’ll explain everything in a bit, let’s get out of here first.”, said the big one, “Leo? Could you?”

“Of course, big brother.”, he swung his sword in a circular motion, “One portal.”

They all walked through the portal, leaving a mess to clean behind.

Could this day get any cooler and weirder?

Chapter Text

It can.

Leo couldn’t believe it. He entered the blue portal. It was a portal, right? He didn’t think something like that was possible, but then again, he was a mutant turtle. He looked around the place and he remembered this building. It was the same one they had confronted Superfly in. The only difference was how much better the place looked. It looked almost like a home. There was a corner full of kitchen supplies as well as a corner filled with an insane amount of blankets and pillows. In another were many metal parts and other stuff Leo couldn’t put a name on. As he looked around more he saw his brothers and friends were as impressed by the place.

“Welcome to our humble about.”, said big Leo.

“You guys have to be hungry.”, said the turtle with spots, he still hadn’t introduced himself, “Do you want some snacks or something to drink?”

“That- That’d be nice.”, said Leo. He was still a little nervous about these guys, but CJ knew them they have to be good people then right?

The spotted turtle grabbed CJ and hurried towards the kitchen area.

Leo jumped a little as he felt a huge hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see the big turtle smile at him. Somehow, despite his size, Leo wasn’t afraid of the big spiky turtle. He actually felt safe. Weird.

“Come on. Let’s sit down and we can explain what’s going on.”

Leo nodded and followed the turtle to the pile of blankets and pillows. The big Donnie and big Leo had begun spreading them out a bit to make a comfortable sitting area for all of them.

They all sat down, Leo sat close to his brothers and friends. He wanted to be close to them just in case. The other turtles and two humans sat down as well. Leo noted that they left a bit of space between them, likely to make sure Leo and his friends were at ease. The second the last one sat down an uncomfortable silence filled the room.

It lasted only a few seconds before CJ and the potted turtle returned, with snacks and drinks in their hands. They put them down and then sat down as well.

A split second after the food was set down, Raph and Casey launched at it. They were hungry. Well, they almost always were. Luckily this seemed to lighten the mood as everyone laughed at their antics.

“Putting that aside. You must have many questions, right?”, asked big Donnie.

“Well yeah, obviously.”, said April.

“CJ, do you want to do the honors?”, asked big Leo.

All eyes turned to the teen. He nodded and looked at his new friends, well hopefully they’d stay his friends after he lied to them like this.

“We’re from an alternate reality. I’m sorry I lied.”

They stared for a second but burst into laughter.

“Why do you always laugh at me when I tell you stuff like this?”, asked CJ as he turned to the other mutants.

“To be fair, it does sound dumb.”, said the big one.

“Wait- are you legit?”, asked Casey.

“Yeah. We’re from a mirror realm. A reality that mirrors your own.”, explained big Donnie.

“It’s like looking into a fun house mirror.”, explained the spotted one. If that was true was he Mikey then? Big Mikey? He wore an orange mask after all.

“Like in Spider-verse?”, asked Donnie. Leave it up to him to make a reference to a movie he watched.

“Oh yeah! I remember that movie. It’s something like that.”, said big Leo, “Wait- does that mean we have a Turtle-verse?!”

“Turtle-verse? I like it.”, agreed the big one. This had to be big Raph then, judging by the red mask.

“So, if you’re us, then why are you here and not in your own reality?”, asked April.

The six of them turned their eyes towards their Donnie.

“This idiot here big a device to view alternate realities and it blew up.”, big April said.

“You built something like that?! How did you do that?”, yelled Donnie excitedly.

“Of course, mini-me. I-“, he was cut off by big Raph.

“Before you explain how that thing works, we should answer any other questions they have.”

“Fine, I’ll tell you later.”, said big Donnie.

“So, any questions?”, asked Cass.

“Yeah, who are you?”, asked Casey.

“I’m Cassandra Jones, the original Casey Jones. You’re my counterpart.”

“But I thought, he was-“, began Raph while pointing at CJ.

“Technically I’m the counterpart of your future child.”, said CJ like it was the most normal thing in the world.

“My Huh?”

“How does that even-?”, wondered Mikey.

“Time travel, that’s how it works.”, said big Mikey.

“Really? Time travel?”, laughed Raph.

“You just met your interdimensional counterparts and time travel is where you draw the line? Really?”, said CJ.

“Okay, fair.”

They shared a laugh, this day was the weirdest day of their lives and that’s saying something, they fought a giant mutant fly-whale thing after all.

“I have another question.”, said April, “You four seem to be different kinds of turtle, while they”, she pointed at her mutant friends, ”look like the same kind.”

“Because we are. I’m a red-eared slider, Dee over here is a spiny soft shell, Miguel is an ornate box turtle and the big guy is an alligator snapping turtle.”, said big Leo

“That would explain your markings and his spikes.”, said April.

Her friends looked at her, confused.

“What? I did some research on turtles after I met you.”, she defended herself.

The big version chuckled, another consistency. The Aprils of each reality tended to do some research about their mutant friends after meeting them. Their April did too.

“Is the soft shell why you’re wearing that?”, asked Donnie while pointing at his counterpart’s metal shell.

“Why, yes. This is my battle shell-“, he was cut off by his twin brother

“Now putting that boring nerd talk aside, do you, maybe want our origin story?”, asked big Leo. He kinda wanted to see their reaction to their very odd origin story.

“Please tell me you have a cool one!”, said Donnie.

“Do we? We have the coolest!”, yelled big Mikey.

“Please tell us!”, said Leo. He was curious and who was he to turn down a good origin story?

Big Raph fake coughed and began to tell their story.

“15 years ago, a yokai named-“, he was cut off.

“What’s a yokai?”, asked Casey.

“That’s a Japanese spirit.”, said Donnie he then turned to his big counterpart, “Right?”

“That’s correct. They are very real in our reality.”

“Can I continue?”, big Raph paused for a second and then continued, “A yokai named Baron Draxum kidnapped a man going by the name of Lou Jitsu also known as Hamato Yoshi to create his perfect soldiers, us.”

“You’re super soldiers?”, asked Raph amazed.

“Yup, pretty much.”, said big Mikey.

“But after he successfully mutated four turtles, Hamato Yoshi freed himself and the turtles, he managed to destroy the lab but got bitten by a rat in the process, getting mutated himself.”

“Wait- So your Splinter was a human?!”, asked Leo.

“Yeah, I’m guessing yours wasn’t?”, asked big Leo.

“No, he was a street rat.”, said Mikey.

“Mark that down Dee, we’re two for two now.”, said big Leo.

“I already have.”

“What are you writing down?”, asked Casey.

“How many splinters across the multiverse were rats first and how many were human. Currently, two were rats and two were human, both times the human name was Hamato Yoshi”, explained big Donnie.

“Does that mean you’re Japanese? We could have been Japanese?!”, yelled Donnie.

“I mean, yeah. We’re technically half-human and that part is Japanese.”, said big Donnie.

“Unfair, next you tell me you have a destiny you needed to fulfil.”

“Well…”, said big Leo.

“Oh, come on!”

“Donnie, what were you expecting? These guys have powers and everything.”, said Raph.

“Wait! Are you- are you anime protagonists?”, asked Donnie.

The four bigger turtles looked at each other.

“Are we?”, asked big Raph.

“I guess we are.”, said big Donnie.

“We even had a whole transformation when we unlocked our Ninpo.”, said Mikey.

“We’re not just anime protagonists, we’re magical girls.”, said big Leo.

“Did you guys just realize that?”, asked big April.

“YES!”, yelled the four.

“Before we have any other big realizations, we also have a question, you might be able to answer.”, said big Donnie.

“Yeah, shot.”, said Mikey.

“We found a big machine on the ocean floor; do you know what it is?”

“That’s probably Superfly’s. He built a mutation machine to turn every animal on the planet into mutants.”, explained Donnie.

“That sounds like a horrible idea.”, said big Mikey.

“Does he know how many insects are on the planet? Earth would be overpopulated in seconds.”, said April.

“I- I don’t think he thought that far.”, said Leo.

“Good thing you kids stopped him then.”, said Cass.

The kids looked away from them. There was something in their eyes all too familiar to them. Trauma. They would leave it be for now, it’s only been a short while since that whole incident.

Big Mikey, being the emotional genius and family therapist he was, decided a change of topping was needed.

“I just remembered. We need to figure something out about our names. It’s going to get really confusing when we have two of us.”

“Me, Cass and Casey are good to go.”, said CJ.

“IF HE CAN PROVE HIMSELF!”, yelled Cass.

“Prove myself?!”

“Oh, yeah. She wants to fight every Casey Jones to see if they’re worthy of the name Casey Jones.”, explained big April.

CJ leaned over to Casey and whispered to him: “Don’t worry, you don’t have to win. I definitely didn’t.”

“That doesn’t make it better, dude!”

“Cass, we can take care of this tomorrow, please.”, said big April, putting a hand on the other's shoulder.

“FINE! Prepare yourself!”

“Should I be scared?”, Casey asked.

“Probably.”, said Raph ever so helpfully.

“Assuming CJ was referring to you when he talked about his siblings we could use those names.”, offered Donnie.

“You talked about us?”, asked big Leo.

“He did. He came up with a whole cover story and everything.”, said Leo.

“Oh? What did you say?”, asked big April, as if to challenge him.

“You’ll never let me live this down, are you?”, CJ asked.

“Never, chico.”, said Leo.

CJ sighed and began retelling his massive lie.

“I said Cass has her own bakery and sells brownies, which isn’t a full lie. I just left out the feral girl scouts and the plan to dominate the world.”

“Feral girl scouts?”, asked Donnie.

“World domination?”, asked Mikey.

“How do I get feral girl scouts?”, asked Casey.

“CASEY!”, yelled Leo.

“Let him, he’s a Casey Jones.”, said big Donnie.

“What is that supposed to mean?”, asked Raph, but no one decided to answer him and CJ continued.

“I said April, who I called Avril, and I said she was a journalism major. Again, not a lie.”

“Avril? Really? I’m not going with that nickname, call me O’Neil instead.”, complained big April, well O’Neil.

“So, you’re really a journalism major? I want to go into journalism as well!”, said April.

“That’s so cool, lil me!”

“For Raph, I said he works as a personal trainer in a gym. I also called you Rafa.”

“Rafa? I like it. We can go with that.”, he said.

“Speaking of which, how are you this massive, dude?!”, asked Raph.

“I’m just like that.”

“He’s an alligator snapping turtle, they’re some of the biggest turtles. Of course, he’d be big.”, said Donnie.

“Wait- you were going oldest to youngest. Is Rafa the oldest of the brothers?!”, asked Leo.

“Yeah, I am.”, said Rafa.

“That means this Donnie”, Casey said while pointing at big Donne, “is older than their Leo too.”

“Mind blown!”, said Mikey.

“Anyway, I told them Donnie and Leo were both in Visions Academy and are in the Tech and Medical tracks respectively. I called you Don and Leon.”

“That checks out, I say we stick with Don and Leon. What do you say, Don?”, said Leon.

“Works for me.”, said his twin.

“And for Mikey, I called you Mike, I said he was attending an online school with an art program.”

“Nice, I could actually look into that. That sounds fun!”, said Mike.

“You do art then?”, asked Mikey, “Can I see some of your stuff?”

“Sure!”

As if on cue, Mikey yawned.

“We should really get some shut-eye, you can stay here if you want.”, said Rafa.

“Thank you.”, said Leo he then turned to his brothers, “I can call Dad and let him know we’re having a sleepover.”

The brothers nodded.

“I’ll call my parents too.”, said April.

“Me too.”, said Casey.

“Great. You can take as many blankets as you want. Make yourselves at home.”, said Mike.

Chapter Text

Mikey woke up to an amazing smell. He wondered what it could be. Before figuring that out he opened his eyes and was met with a foot in front of his face. He looked over a little and saw that it was Raph.

Mikey tickled Raph’s foot, the bigger turtle woke up and pulled his foot away from his brother and glared at him. Mikey just smiled at Raph, as if he had done nothing.

The two stood up and looked around at the other four still fast asleep.

Leo was lying close to April. Not close enough to be considered cuddling but it was clear to the brothers he did that on purpose. Raph quickly pulled out his phone and took a photo. He would never say no to some blackmail of his brothers. And it would make Leo a blousing mess once he saw it, that was always fun to watch.

While Raph took photos, Mikey looked to see where Donnie was, only to find him and Casey very much cuddling. How did that happen? Casey mentioned he moved a lot in his sleep before, could that be the only reason? Probably not. Much like his brother, Mikey wouldn’t say no to some blackmail, especially if it’s on both of them. Though Casey probably wouldn’t even care that much, not as much as Donnie at least. Mikey had to admit though, they were pretty cute.

Just after Mikey took the picture, Raph decided to wake Leo up. Leo woke up and screamed in surprise since Raph decided it was a good idea to jump on Leo to wake him. In turn, this also woke up April, Casey and Donnie.

April just stared at them, unimpressed. She had gotten used to their antics. Donnie and Casey however stared at each other for a second before scrabbling off of each other, trying and failing to hide their blushing faces. Mikey wasn’t sure how much more he could take off those oblivious lovesick fools. It was getting a little annoying.

“You guys are awake? Good, Mike and CJ made breakfast.”, said Leon, who had walked over to them, “I’d hurry if I were you. Don’t Rafa and Cass eat everything.”

The four teens on the floor hurried to stand up and followed Raph and Mikey, who were already walking after Leon. Once they reached the kitchen area they were met with many different dishes, some they recognized others they didn’t.

“Good morning!”, said Mike enthusiastic. His siblings were much more silent in their greetings.

“Morning.”, said the six in chorus.

“What do you want for breakfast? We have pancakes, tamagoyaki or just some cereal?”

“Tamagoyaki?”, asked Casey.

“That’s a Japanese omelette.”, said Donnie, “Can I have one?”

“Sure!”, said Mike while walking off to prepare a new omelette.

“You want some hot chocolate?”, asked CJ.

“AH! Dude, why are you always so quiet?”, asked Mikey.

“Sorry. So, hot chocolate?”

Raph, Mikey, Casey, Leo and April asked for one, while Donnie asked if he could have a coffee. He really was a Donnie, wasn’t he?

Shortly after Mikey had brought the pancakes and the tamagoyaki for Donnie over to the table, he sat down as well with his own tamagoyaki. In the same motion, CJ came back with their drinks. They seemed like a good team in the kitchen, which was surprising with how bad Casey was in the kitchen, he told his friends about how he burned water once. That was the first and only time Donnie wondered why he fell for this guy.

As they enjoyed their meal they kept talking amongst each other until Leo asked one question.

“You mentioned that you saw other versions, what were they like?”

“We only saw two, one was just weird and the other was not that different from what we saw.”, said Rafa.

“Weird how?”, asked Mikey.

“Well, the turtles there were really huge, like taller than Raph huge I and their Casey was a cop-“, Donnie explained before Cass cut him off.

“THAT IS NO CASEY JONES!”, she yelled.

“We get it.”, said Mike, “You want to smash his head in, we know.”

The younger group looked confused, O’Neil picked up on this and said: “Cass doesn’t approve of a Casey as a cop, she even wanted to throw a chair at the machine, well him.”

“That explains very little.”, said April as she took notes.

“Are you writing this down?”

“Uh- yeah. Is that a problem?”

“No, but maybe don’t publish an article about this. We don’t need people knowing the multiverse exists.”

“But-“, she really wanted to write one but she understood why O’Neil would say that, “Fine.”

“Back on topic, what about the other one?”, asked Donnie.

“Oh, they were cool, I guess. They seemed fun, even if their Casey could have used a shower.”, said Mikey.

“You’re still upset about that?”, asked CJ.

“YES! And you suggested he join our club!”

“And you said he could join once he washes his hair.”

“What are you talking about? What club?”, asked Raph.

The two looked at him and it hit them. He had a tooth gap.

Mikey jumped over the table and picked up Raph while hugging him. Leaving the turtle in red confused.

“Put him down, we need to explain that first.”, said CJ.

“Oh, right!”

Mikey quickly put down the turtle and smiled at him.

“CJ and I both have tooth gaps, so did the Donnie in that reality and, sadly, that Casey. You are now part of our club since you have a tooth gap!”, said Mike.

“Sweet!”

“Ignoring that, that world also had a really big Splinter, he was like six foot or something.”, said Leon.

“Weird, Dad’s not that tall.”, said Mikey.

“Same here, our Pops is really short.”, said Rafa.

“Anything else cool about that world?”, asked Leo.

“Not really we didn’t watch that long.”, said Leon.

“You may not, but used that world to test my device. I picked up a few things over there.”, said Don, “For instance, I saw that their Donnie found a cure for the mutagen.”

“A cure? For who? Wouldn’t that just turn us into animals?”, asked Mikey.

“It would, but it wasn’t meant for mutants that were originally animals, but mutants that were human first.”

“Cool, our ooze only mutates animals!”, said Leo.

“Did you find anything cool about that Casey?”, asked Casey.

“I did. Aside from his horrible hair he and that Donnie seemed to be in some sort of relationship, or at the very least they were pinning over each other. They had a whole enemies-to-lovers story, well more like rivals-to-lovers, but still. A good story nonetheless.”, Don explained he may not admit it but he liked a good rivals-to-lovers story. They were always fun to read. “Did I say something wrong?”

He only saw Casey and Donnie looking away from each other, he wasn’t sure why they seemed embarrassed. Not to mention the other four seemed to know something, Don was missing.

Don’s siblings also seemed to know what was up. What was he missing?

“What am I missing?”, he asked.

Leon chuckled, leaned over to his twin brother and whispered to him.

“Pretty sure that Donnie and Casey like each other.”

Oh. That made more sense now. Don decided to not say anything. It wasn’t his problem after all. He’d still keep an eye on them. They didn’t have the same story as their counterparts from world 20-12 but they would be fun to observe.

After they had finished their breakfast and cleaned up the table as well as the kitchen they sat back down to discuss the course of action, they still had to finish that portal after all.

“Since we have the majority of the parts we need, we’ll first sort them and make sure all of them are in good shape. We can’t make any mistakes. Especially considering half the stuff was from junkyards.”, said Don.

“Wait- you didn’t only steal from stores?”, asked Leo.

“Most stuff we stole from stores was groceries and some specific parts, the rest is just junk.”, explained Leon.

“Will that even work?”, asked Donnie.

“Of course, it will. I work with scraps a lot back home too.”, said Don, “Working with new parts is really fun too though. It just doesn’t have the same charm though.”

“You achieved dimensional travel with scraps? HOW?!”, asked April.

“You’ll see, sharing this would ruin the fun. But I didn’t only use scraps, I used Uranium as well.”

“How did you get Uranium?!”, yelled Leo.

“We have a really cool uncle.”, said Don as if that explained anything.

“You have an uncle?”, said Mikey, “That’s so unfair! We only have Dad.”

“We have Scumbug and the others”, said Leo.

“Scumbug?”, wondered Mike.

“Others?”, asked Cass.

“Oh yeah, the other mutants, they live with us now.”, explained Donnie, “Scumbug is our stepmom, I guess.”

“You got a mom? Cool. We have two dads.”, said Mike.

“Two dads?”, come from Casey, “I have two moms!”

“Two moms sounds fun too!”, said Leon.

“Do you have to watch them kiss?”, asked Raph, “Dad and Scumbug do that all the time. Casey said it’s a normal parents thing.”

“Not really”, said Rafa, “Then again, they’re really weird in their own way.”

“As much as I would love to find more differences, we need to get to work.”, said Don, “Angelo, you’re going to help me get parts out of the water, the rest of you- do whatever.”,

Don walked off; Mike quickly followed his big brother. Donnie and Mikey looked after their bigger counterparts and decided to follow them. Maybe they needed some help. And they wanted to spend more time with them.

“Real helpful, Don!”, yelled Leon after his brothers, “How about we-“

He was cut off by Cass as she pulled Casey up by his arm.

“You will fight me! Prove you’re worthy of the name Casey Jones!”

“What? Now?”, Casey asked. Sure, he was down to fight her, but he was also a little terrified of her.

“CJ! YOU’LL BE THE JUDGE! COME!”, she yelled and dragged Casey off to a corner in the building. CJ just stood up and followed them.

“Okay, now an actual plan.”, began Leon, “Rafa, can you move the big parts we took and make sure they work?”

“Will do!”, Rafa said, he then turned to his younger version, “Wanna help me, mini-me?”

“DO I? LET’S GO!”, Raph yelled. He really wanted to see just how strong his counterpart is!

They headed to the pile of big parts, Rafa just hoped his mini wouldn’t hurt himself while they worked.

“Good, O’Neil can you and April test the smaller stuff, Rafa isn’t delectate enough for that.”

“Will do, come on. We have some work to do!”

“I don’t know much about tech.”, April said.

“Don’t worry, I’ll show you.”, said O’Neil

The two went to sort through the pile of smaller components.

“So, what do we do?”, asked Leo.

“You can help anyone if you’d like.”, said Leon, he wasn’t sure if his mini would be interested in it.

“Oh.” The smaller turtle sounded disappointed.

“Or you could help me, only if you want though.”

“I do!”, Leo said exited. He wanted to get to know the big him better. He seemed so cool!

He ran up to the bigger turtle, stood by his side and looked up at him.

“So, what are we doing?”

“We’re getting some medical equipment ready.”

“Medical equipment? Why?”

“I kinda forgot about it yesterday, but I want to check over you and your friends, just to make sure.”

“Oh, I feel fine though.”

“And that’s what Don always says when he hasn’t slept for a week.”

“He goes a week without sleeping? That’s a lot.”

“I know. Rafa always ends up forcing him to sleep.”

Leo chuckled; he could imagine that. It seemed like something the big turtle would do.

“Now come on. We can get everything set up.”

Leon walked ahead and Leo followed him.

Chapter Text

Mikey and Donnie ran after their bigger version and finally caught up to the two once they reached the edge just above the water.

“You wanna help us?”, asked Mike.

“Yes!”, said Donnie, “But how are you going to get the machine out?”

“I’m glad you ask, my smaller version.”, said Don as he pressed a few buttons on his wrist hologram, “I’ll go underwater, take the necessary parts off and attach them to Angelo’s chain. He then pulls them up.”

“Easy, right?”, said Mike.

“I have no idea what you just explained.”, said Mikey.

He knew their bigger versions were really cool and strong, but pulling big parts out of the water seemed more like a job for Rafa than Mike. Mike was barely taller than Mikey and his brothers. He couldn’t be that strong, physically at least. Donnie questions the plan just as much as his brother. But he decided that his bigger version knew what he was doing.

“What can we do?”, Donnie asked.

“You can dry off the parts a bit and check them for any rust. Make sure I didn’t miss anything underwater.”, said Don.

“We can totally do that, bro!”, said Mikey.

Neither of the brothers truly understood what they were about to witness, they just wanted to help their cooler counterparts.

Don tapped one more button and a quiet noise came from his battel shell. Mike, who had been standing behind his brother, took the battle shell in his hands and gently put it down on the ground.

“Alright, let’s do this!”, said Don and jumped into the water underneath.

“Mikey and Donnie stood next to Mike. They saw his markings and eyes glow a soft yellow and magenta respectively before two long chains appeared out of nowhere. He held onto one end each, while the other end went into the water, ready to be tied to the pieces Don decided they needed.

“That’s so cool!”, said Mikey.

“Thank you.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, how are we getting this all out? The whole machine is pretty heavy.”, said Donnie, “And doesn’t Don have to come up a lot?”

“Oh, we didn’t explain it that well, did we?”, said Mike, “Anything attached to my chains gets weightless and Dee can stay underwater for like 10 hours or something.”

The two looked at the turtle amazed. They knew he was cool but that just made him cooler.

Just as they finished their small talk, Mike noticed a gentle tug on the chain, Done had attached something. He pulled whatever was attached up with one swift motion and sat it down gently on the ground, he didn’t want to ruin it more than needed.

“I can’t say this often enough, these guys are so cool!”, said Donnie.

“Agreed, dude.”

Raph just stared at the big version of himself. He was so cool and big and strong and spiky! The big turtle lifted the massive machine parts with no issue as if they were nothing more than a sack of potatoes. He sat down the first thing he had gotten out of the pile and looked at his smaller version.

“Okay, little man. Don said we need to check these things. He said we need to check if all the cables are fine and then we plug these babies in and see if they light up.”, Rafa said, “Or something like that.”

“Did you understand anything he said?”

“Nope.”

“Me neither.”

Rafa sat down and Raph swore he could feel the ground underneath him shake. Rafa began checking a few cables for possible rips or tears. Raph did the same and went to sit next to Rafa.

As they were looking at the cables, something fell into Raph’s lab. He looked down and saw that Rafa’s tail had wrapped around him and the very end of it was now in his lab.

“Dude, just how long is this thing?”

“Huh? Oh, my tail! It’s pretty long I guess.”

Raph and his brothers had tails, but they weren’t close to being this long. Made wearing clothes a lot easier. Even with him having a tail as well he couldn’t help but wonder a few things.

“Why is it so long? Like your brothers are a lot shorter.”

“I’m an alligator snapping turtle, remember? We have pretty long tails.”

“They do?”, Raph never did any research on turtles. He didn’t even know what kind he was after all.

“Yup, we did some research about our species when we were younger, we got curious ya know?”

“That’s kinda cool. Maybe we should do that too!”

Rafa huffed a laugh and stood up, his tail moving from Raph’s lab onto the floor again. Looking at it again, Raph thought it looked too big. Not just because of how huge it was, but it was almost like the tail was too big for Rafa.

“Your tail looks too big.”, Raph blurted out. Oh, no. Please don’t let his big mouth make this cool version of him hate him!

Instead of being offended Rafa just laughed.

“I know. Leon suspects I still have to grow into it.”

“Oh, cool. Wait- WHAT?!“

Grow into it? How big was he going to grow? He was already huge!

To say Leo was looking up to his taller and cooler counterpart was an understatement. The older turtle held himself with a confidence Leo could only dream about. If he were that confident maybe he could get the courage together to ask April out.

He followed the striped turtle like a little duckling walking behind its mother.

“Okay little me.“, said Leon, “Do you know anything about medical care?“

“Uh… no.“ Was he supposed to know that?

“That’s fine. In most universes, the Donnies do that kind of stuff. I’m just the odd one out.“

“Donnie doesn’t know anything either, not that I know at least.“

“Honestly it’s a good thing, none of you had to. And with your situation, you may never have to.”

“Had to?”

“Well, someone has to patch everyone up when they get hurt. We can’t exactly go to a hospital on the surface.”

“I guess you’re your right. But why did you pick it up? You said in most other worlds Donnie does that kind of stuff.”

“Yeah, but my dear twin doesn’t like this kind of stuff, he gets squeamish about it and would probably throw up. And contrary to popular belief I’m actually pretty smart.”

“Why wouldn’t you be smart?”

“Most think my attitude doesn’t mix well with intelligence and stuff like that. Compared to the other two Leos I saw, I’m like a whole different person.”

“What do you mean?”

“If you asked me it’s because they were the oldest and I wasn’t. I got to goof off while Raph did the whole leader/big brother thing. They didn’t have that.”

That didn’t sound all that nice. Sure, being the oldest was nice, but he didn’t want to stop being a kid. He didn’t want to grow up just yet.

“Oh… Do I have to be more serious now?”

“No, be a kid. You and your brothers are the first ones of us to go to school after all. Enjoy that.”

Leo looked at him and nodded. Leon put a hand on the smaller turtle’s head, giving him a gentle ruffle.

“Now come on. We need to prep everything for a checkup.”

“We feel fine, you don’t have to.”

“I know, you wouldn’t be walking if you weren’t fine.”, Leon smiled at him gently, “But I would rather check and find nothing than find out something was wrong in a few hours.”

“Well, okay then. We’ve only ever been to the doctor once though.”

“That should be fine. My brothers only know two doctors as well.”, Leon chuckled.

“So, what do I do?”

“First we clean that table, then-“, Leon began. They soon began prepping their impromptu med bay. Leo couldn’t help but be interested in everything Leon was talking about.

April followed O’Neil to the table filled with small gadgets. There were many things she didn’t recognize but some looked rather familiar. For some reason, she really didn’t know why, there were broken toasters, phones as well and a random computer. Where did they find all that stuff?

“How did you get all that stuff?”, asked April.

“We stole it.”, said O’Neil like she did that every other day. She wasn’t a thief, right?

“I know that. But where? Most of this stuff looks broken.”

“Cause it is. Some stuff we took from the junkyard. Mike, Cass and CJ got a few things while dumpster diving.”

“Dumpster. Diving? Gross!”

“I know, but those three were the only ones willing to do it. Well, Rafa was too, but he’s too big for most.”

“Remind me to never hug them.”

“You won’t get out of that, Mike loves hugs. I’m surmised he hasn’t ambushed all of you yet.”

“He ambushed Mikey.”

“True, but he is very cute.”

“You think mutant turtles are cute?”

“I mean, yeah. But I might be biased.”

“Biased? How?”

“I’m a big sister to four mutant turtles, of course I think their cute. Especially the Mikey’s. That one looked universal.”,

April looked at O’Neil sceptical. Somehow that statement made her wonder just how O’Neil met her turtles. They surely didn’t meet like she met the guys. Did they? Not to mention that they seemed way too close for that.

“So, wanna get to work?”, asked O’Neil.

“Sure, but what do we do?”

“First we try to turn on the phones, we charged all of them over the last few days. If the battery still works, we should be able to turn them on. Then Dee can decide which parts he needs.”

They began turning on the many phones. Pressing the buttons didn’t take long, but the butting up took a while. No wonder seeing that the phones had been thrown away.

“Can I ask you something?”, asked April.

“Go ahead.”, O’Neil said as she put down another phone she turned on.

“Do you have many friends?” April herself didn’t have any before she met the turtles. And no matter how much she loved her friends, she sometimes still wanted some other people to talk to.

O’Neil paused.

“You don’t have many, do you?”

April shook her head.

“Well, me neither.”, she smiled, “I got the boys and Cass. Aside from not really. I do have a girlfriend though.”

“Oh.”, April paused, “Wait, girlfriend! You have a girlfriend?!”

O’Neil just chuckled.

Casey wasn’t sure he wanted to be here right now. He was always up for a fight, but not against someone like Cass. Don’t get him wrong, he looks up to her, she did remind him of his Mom, she was the one who taught him self-defence after all. But he just knew he was about to lose that fight. His Mama had taught him to only start a fight he could finish and in a way Cass was doing that, she could finish that fight.

“Do I really have to fight her?”, Casey asked CJ.

“Yup.”

“Really helpful dude.”

“I’m not trying to be. You can’t get out of this. She spared me of this for a few weeks because I was still recovering when we met.”

“Why did she wait with you and not me? I’m younger than you!”

“Because she only wants to fight you at your best.”

“My best won’t be enough to win!”

“You won’t and you don’t have to. Just give it your best, dude.”

“I’m starting to not like you anymore!”

“Yeah, yeah.”, CJ pushed him forward, “Good luck!”

Casey stood across from Cass, she looked incredibly excited.

“Give me all you’ve got!”, she yelled at him.

Casey gulped. He was so screwed.

“Before you start. You both agreed to fight without weapons, just hand-to-hand combat and the first one of you to fall to the ground and stay there for five seconds loses.”, said CJ, he then turned to Cass, “And keep the injuries to a minimum. Leon will end us if we don’t. Got it?”

Both Cass and Casey nodded in agreement.

“Good.”, CJ lifted his arm, “GO!” The boy's arm came down to signal the start of their sparing match.

Cass moved towards Casey quickly. Casey managed to move back just enough to avoid a fist to his face.

Most of the fight was just Cass hitting Casey and him trying and often failing to dodge. He did try to hit her, but Cass was just too good and he never landed one. He got close only once. He almost hit her side.

As they moved Casey accidentally bumped his left heel against his other foot, pooping out the roles attached to his sneakers. He didn’t notice it in time, causing him to stumble and fall forward. The second he was flat on the floor, Cass sat down on his back, keeping him in place.

Great. He surely wasn’t worth of the name Casey Jones now. He liked his name a lot.

“And you lose.”, said CJ.

“I know that! No need to rub it in.”, said Casey.

Cass helped him up and Casey looked at her, she looked pleased, somehow.

“You fight well. A true Casey Jones.”

“But I lost!”

“No one said you had to win.”, said CJ.

Looks like could stay Casey Jones.

Chapter Text

As Mike pulled out another piece, Don came back to the surface and climbed out of the water.

“We’re done. I got everything we need.”, said Don.

“Great!”, said Mike, putting away the chains, “And just in time for lunch too!”

“Already?!”, said Mikey. It hadn’t seemed that long.

Donnie pulled out his phone and said: “It’s almost 1 pm.”

“I’m going to dry myself off.”, said Don and left the other three standing there.

Mike helped the smaller turtles dry off the last part and check it for rust. Luckily there was only a little rust, nothing important had been damaged.

“I’ll go make everyone some sandwiches; can you get everyone else together?”

Donnie and Mikey playfully saluted towards the older turtle and walked off to get everyone.

They first walked over to the turtles in red. They had finished their work as well. Before they called out to them, they saw Raph pick up Rafa’s tail and hold it in the air for two seconds. He looked really proud of himself and then within a second the tail crashed down on him, trapping Raph underneath the massive tail. Rafa moved it immediately and picked up Raph. Mikey and Donnie laughed at their brother’s embarrassment. After the two had finished laughing, they let the red-clad turtles know that Mike was working on lunch.

They headed over to the Casey’s first. Casey was lying on the floor, exhausted. He really had to fight Cass, didn’t he? Cass and CJ were sitting on the floor talking. Mikey let Cass and CJ know while Donnie walked over to Casey.

“Can I still call you Casey?”, asked Donnie.

Casey smiled at the turtle and said: “YEP!”

“So, did you win?”, said Donnie as he helped Casey up.

“Nope. I lost. Big time.”

“I mean she has a few years of training on you. Mike is making lunch. He’s making sandwiches.”

“Great! I’m hungry!”, said Casey before running off, right behind him were CJ and Cass.

As they looked around, they saw that the Aprils as well as the Leos had already walked over to the table. They promptly followed the three humans.

As they were all sitting together and enjoying the sandwiches Mike had made for them, the smaller versions kept arguing. About what you may ask. About who has the coolest counterpart.

“Look at his size! Obviously, Rafa is the coolest!”, said Raph.

“Nu-uh! Cass is a badass, she can kick Rafa’s ass no problem!”, yelled Casey.

“No w-“, Raph was cut off by his counterpart.

“She has actually. Beat all of us I mean.”

Raph stared between the woman, who looked incredibly smug, and the turtle that was almost twice her size and probably five times as heavy as her. Casey looked at her, even more amazed. He just threw that out, he didn’t expect it to be true.

“That doesn’t matter, big me is way cooler! He lifted all that stuff on his own!”, said Mikey while pointing at the parts Don and Mike had salvaged for the water.

“Sorry to burst your bubble, Mikey.”, said Leo, “But Leon, so much cooler. He can make portals and teleport!”

“And big me built the thing that got them here! He’s so much cooler!”, said Donnie.

“And he got them stuck here.”, said April, “O’Neil is way cooler, she’s a journalist and she can kick ass!”

“Should we stop them?”, asked Leon his siblings.

“Probably.”, said Don as he took a bite out of his sandwich.

O’Neil decided to break the argument up. Once she finished her sandwich, she slammed her hands on the table, getting everyone’s attention.

“That is going nowhere. You’re all a little biased. Not to mention that obviously, I’m the best.”

“HEY!”, came from her siblings.

The rest of their lunch was rather peaceful, just the occasional snide here and there.

Once they finished, Leon clapped his hands together.

“Alright, we’re gonna do a little check-up. I didn’t get to do that yesterday but I really want to make sure none of you have any serious injuries. CJ you're up first.”

As Leon was checking CJ, one of the mutants, Raph, couldn’t help but be a little concerned. This was only the second time they ever got a medical check-up. For some reason, Leo didn’t seem worried. That was a little odd.

“Why aren’t you worried?”, asked Raph his brothers.

“Leon and I prepared everything. I don’t understand what he is doing but he knows what he’s doing. It’s that so cool! He’s 17 and probably better than most doctors!”, said Leo

“And he probably knows more about mutant turtle anatomy than any other doctor in the city.”, said Donnie.

“Trust the dude, he looks like he knows what he’s doing.”, said Mikey.

Leon first wanted to check on CJ. Call it playing favorites, but he wanted to make sure his youngest brother was treated first. Luckily enough he only had a few scraps and some small cuts, nothing serious. He some cream on the scraps and bandaids on the cuts. With that CJ was already taken care of. Hopefully, the other six would be just as easy.

Next was April. She didn’t even have as many cuts and scrapes as CJ. She had stayed out of the fight anyway. He did notice the few bruises she had.

“Why do you have so many bruises? They aren’t from the fight yesterday, are they?”, asked Leon.

“No, I started taking self-defense classes a bit ago. I got them there. No big deal.”

“Good to know. I’ll still put something on them.”

He applied the cream to the bruises on her arms and legs. After he finished, he handed her the jar of cream.

“I feel like you’ll need it a lot more in the future.”

“But-“

“Don’t worry, we have more than enough. And between you and me. We plan on giving you all this stuff anyway, we can’t exactly take it back with us.”

“Thank you, Leon.”

“Don’t mention it.”

The last one of the humans was Casey, who was off worse than the other two. Not that he was badly injured, just a bit more than the other two.

“How did you get that beat up? You didn’t look that bad yesterday.”

“Cause that was Cass!”, he said proudly.

“That is nothing to be proud of. She’s just making more work for me.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be. We all know Cass is just like that and we love for it.”

Casey had much like the other two a few scraps and a few cuts. He put on more cream as well as bandages. Casey had the biggest bruise out of the three humans, one rather big on his left wrist.

“What happened there? Was that Cass too?”

“Nope, that was one of the old guys, I think at least.”

“Well, that’s going to be a bit annoying to heal. I want you to put cream on it every day”, he handed the boy a jar of cream, “and please, don’t play hockey for a week. Tell your coach you got hurt and I’m sure he’ll understand. And before you can say that you want to play, the more you move your hand, the longer it will take to heal.”

Casey pouted a bit, there was a big game coming up and he wanted to play.

Leon put one last bandaid on the teen, right on his nose bridge. As he felt the bandaid be placed he groaned.

“What’s wrong?”

“For some reason, I always get hurt on my nose, I have a bandaid on my nose more often than not!”

“Though luck, buddy. You’re done.”

“Thanks, dude.”

“CASS! DON’T GIVE ME MORE WORK!”, Leon yelled after Casey left to be with his friends again.

“HE’S FINE!”, she yelled back at him. If he couldn’t take that, she would take his rights to the name Casey Jones away.

Leo walked over to Leon and Leon began to work. He spotted a few bruises and cuts. Nothing unexpected. As long as none looked as bad as Casey, they’d be fine. But as the older was looking at the smaller mutant’s arms, he noticed something oddly shiny near the boy’s neck, something around the shell. He couldn’t get a good look unless he took off his shirt.

“Can you take off your shirt?”

“Sure.”, said Leo and started pulling off his blue shirt.

Leon walked behind the boy and stared at what he was seeing. He noticed the resin, that was the shiny thing he saw. But more importantly, why did a 15-year-old child, have a massive crack in his shell?!

Apparently, Leon stayed too quiet for a little too long.

“Leon? Is everything okay?”, asked Leo, worried.

Instead, of answering the boy Leon walked over to the remaining mutant turtles, still on his checkup list. He stood in front of them with an expression so serious they couldn’t quite place it.

“Take off your shirts.”, he demanded. It was far from a request.

They did as told. Leon stared at the cracked shells. Much to their luck off four had received the proper care already but that didn’t worry the slider any less.

“Leo? You good?”, asked Rafa his little brother. It was rare to see him this serious.

“No. These four have massive cracks in their shells. They have resin all over their shells!”

“WHAT?”, yelled Leon's brothers. They all know how painful a hit to the shell can actually be, especially Don, but a whole crack? One bad enough that it needed resin to be fixed? That sounded horrible!

To say the interdimensional visitors were worried was an understatement. Leon was silently working on the four boys, something incredibly usually for him. Usually, he’d have some banter with his parent. He would try to keep the atmosphere light, making it easier for the patient. No one liked doctor visits after all.

Don was frantically tipping on his phone, hoping to maybe find something that he might have missed. Something that caused these cracks. He was just happy that none of them were soft shells like himself. He would likely be off worse than they are. He doesn’t want to think of that. He was actually glad that he was the odd one in the multiverse with being a soft shell. What if there was a soft shell mutant that couldn’t make themselves a battel shell? Or had a Donnie to do it for them.

Rafa was looking at the cracked shells and couldn’t help but to move his hand up to the crack in his own. He remembered how much that hurt. And that crack was much smaller than the minis. Not to mention that his crack wasn’t dead center on his shell, but only the very edge of his carapace and plastron. He would give them a Raph hug once Leon was done treating them.

Mikey looked away. He didn’t want to look at the cracked shells. The phantom pain of thinking about it was enough to make him shudder. He sometimes tended to forget that they could feel their shells just as much as any other part of their body. Whatever happened to them to cause this, must not only have hurt them physically but also mentally. Maybe he should get them a session with Dr. Feelings before they go home.

CJ looked at the cracks in his friend’s shell and he felt like crying. He knew how painful this could be. He remembered when Master Michelangelo had to get his shell fixed once. They didn’t have any pain medication at the time but Leonardo still needed to fix him. CJ was holding Michelangelo’s hand the whole time. He hoped they hadn’t had to get them fixed without pain meds.

O’Neil had read up on turtle anatomy years ago, she knew how bad a cracked shell should be. She was worried and she wanted to end the one responsible for this. They had the audacity to hurt four 15-year-olds. Not to mention other versions of her little brothers. No matter what reality, she’d kill a man for them.

Cass didn’t need a reason to kill someone, just the right motivation. Motivations she had now. These are kids, kids barely older than her Girl Scouts. Heck, a few of the girls were 15. She was ready to throw hands with the poor bastard that hurt them.

“So, you guys gonna tell us how your shells got cracked?”, asked Rafa.

“It’s uh… a long story…”, said Mikey.

“We got time.”, said Mike; “But only if you want to share that with us.”

“Okay, here we go.”, said Leo.

Chapter Text

They decided to move their pending conversation to the older version's sleeping area. The younger ones were a little surprised by the sheer amount of blankets and pillows, it almost looked like a huge nest. It felt like they were invading their privacy in a way. It felt like they weren’t supposed to see that.

All of them climbed into the nest, and before the four younger mutant turtles could even sit down, Rafa snatched them up into a hug, even picking all of them up. The hug lasted a good minute before Rafa set them down again and sat down with his siblings again. The four mutants sat down alongside April and Casey. Leo sat next to April, while Donnie was next to Casey, with Mikey and Raph between them.

“How did you get those cracks?”, asked Leon.

“LEO!”, yelled his eldest brother.

“What? They’re about to tell us anyway!”

“But that was rude!”, said Mike, he turned to the younger one, “I said if before, you don’t have to tell us anything. Only if you want to. We can also just sit here and calm down a bit.” Mike’s Dr. Feelings was showing.

Leo took a breath and began talking.

“You heard about the huge mutant stomping the city? The whole reason we were exposed?”

“Yeah, Don did some research after we got here.”

“Well, originally he was a fly mutant made by Baxter Stockman.” Leon and Mike looked at each other concerned at the mention of that name. “You know the guy that built the device on the ocean floor? We pushed him into the water with the machine and he, like double mutated.”, said Mikey.

“Double mutated? Sounds ugly.”, said Mike. He also wondered if Baxter Stockman was this world's version of Baxter Stockboy. He’d talk about that with Leo later. They should probably keep an eye on that kid, just in case.

“It was, he first turned into a whale thing. Then he got into a zoo and all the animals there mutated into him too. He had legs made of horses!”, said Raph.

“This gets more and more disgusting.”, said Don.

“After that, we tried to stop him. That didn’t work at first. But April stole a bike from the TCRI and there was some stuff to undo the mutation. We couldn’t get close to him at first, but the humans began to help us and we won in the end.”, said Donnie. They were purposefully leaving out the part where they got the cracks.

The four took a deep breath and joined hands. Leo’s hand was in Mikey’s, Mikey was holding onto Raph and Raph was holding Donnie’s hand. April took Leo’s free hand to give them their support as well. Casey did the same to Donnie.

“While we were trying to get the stuff to him, he caught us in his claw.”, said Leo.

“He – He tried to crush us.”, said Mikey.

All four of them were holding back tears.

Within seconds they were engulfed in a hug. The big versions were hugging them, they didn’t even know just how much they needed this hug. They cried. They let the tears flow. They probably wouldn’t be fine for a while, but they’ll get there. Eventually. As long as they have each other.

The hug lasted a good ten minutes. It would have lasted longer if not for both Donnie’s wanting to get out of the physical contact. They were at their limit, for now at least.

They were all seated again. Mike and Leo scrambled off but came back a few minutes later with many cups in hand. Why did they have that many in the first place? They handed them out to everyone. They were cups of hot chocolate. Something sweet after all that.

“How about, to lighten the mood a bit, you can ask us stuff about our world?”, suggested O’Neil, “We know you’re curious.”

“How did you all meet?”, asked April instantly.

Everyone turned to her.

“What? I want to know. It’s different from how Casey and I met you, I assume. At least how they met Cass!”

O’Neil chuckled. “Those are some stories. Cass, CJ, you want to share yours too?”

The two nodded, they would just keep a few things from these guys, like the Kraang and the Foot.

O’Neil started her story.

“Back in the year 2010, over ten years ago, I was on my way home from school and heard a noise from a dark alley.”

“Don’t tell me you walked into a dark alley, alone?!”, said April.

“That sounds really stupid.”, agreed Raph.

“Well, I did and I think it was the best decision of my life! Moving on, I went into the alley, looked around and saw a ball. I went to pick it up and as I was just about to pick it up, a pair of green hands took the ball as well. A second later I look at a small mutant turtle wearing glasses way too big for him.”

“Hey! Not my fault we could only find that one pair!”, said Don.

“You wore glasses too?”, asked Donnie.

“Yeah, he still needs them.”, said Rafa.

“Did you scream, when you saw them?”, asked Leo.

“Only a little bit, I was more surprised by someone picking up the ball and being that close to me out of nowhere than anything.”

“And we’ve been the best of friends since!”, said Mike.

“You’ve known her for so long.”, said Mikey.

“Yup, I don’t think I remember much of the time before we met April.”, said Leon.

“That is so cool!”, said Casey, “How did you two meet them?” He turned to Cass and CJ.

Cass started, she just had to leave out a few things.

“I was with a – bad crowd, growing up and I met Mike when I was trying to steal something that he wanted to buy. We fought, I kicked his ass, then the rest showed up and that’s that.”

“Wow, that’s one way to tell that story.”, said Mike.

“What am I supposed to say? I’m no good at telling stories.”

“At least you got out of the situation eventually.”, said April, trying to lift the mood a bit.

CJ decided to take the spotlight, he didn’t want Cass telling them things she didn’t want them to know, not yet at least.

“Since I’m from the future I met two versions of them. But I’ve always known the future ones. I grew up with them after all.”

“Right, I forgot you’re a time traveller.”, said Donnie.

“How did that work?”, asked April.

“Mystic. No idea what else you needed for that.” That was a lie, but they didn’t need to know Master Michelangelo died opening that portal. “But after I was thrown back in time, I thought I should find the present versions. I looked for April – I mean O’Neil first.”

“That was a really stupid idea by the way.”, said O’Neil. The kids looked at her confused. “He thought it was a good idea to sneak up on me. I knocked him out and dragged him to the lair.”

The kids laughed at CJ’s idiocy.

“Yeah, not my brightest moment. Anyway, after that I wake up tied to a chair. They-“, he was cut off by Mike.

“We interrogated him, and Don got into his face and pressed a button on his grabbling hook. Then- “, CJ cut him off this time.

“My grabbling hook went off and attached itself to the ceiling. A second later I was hanging upside down with Rafa and O’Neil ready to knock me out again.”

The kids laughed again. It was good to see them laughing after that whole thing.

“You mentioned that your dad is human. What is that like?”, asked Mikey.

“Probably not that different from you.”, said Mike, “I think at least.”

“It had to be!”, said April.

“Well, we don’t know what you think is normal.”, said Don, “It was likely different. I mean we were raised with Japanese as our first language. We picked up English from shows more than our dear Papa.”

“Oh. I remember that. Your English was really bad when we first met.”, said O’Neil, smiling back at the memory of four turtle tots speaking in broken English with a few Japanese words in between.

“You really helped us a lot at getting better!”, said Mike.

“I can’t believe you get to watch anime without subtitles, in the original version!”, said Donnie.

“We still have subtitles on.”, said Leon.

“Oh? Why?”, asked Mikey.

“Well, we have subtitles on for everything we watch that has them. Sometimes it’s easier to have them on.”, said Rafa.

“Maybe we should do that sometimes too.”, suggested Casey.

“Hold on!”, yelled Cass, “If their Splinter was always a rat, do they even have Lou Jitsu?!”

“Who is Lou Jitsu?”, asked April.

“What world do you live in? Next, you tell me you don’t have Jupiter Jim!”, yelled Leon, putting the back of his hand on his forehead to add drama.

“Jupiter who?”, asked Raph.

Mike jumped up from his spot and tackled Don, who was already frantically tipping on a hologram screen.

“Don! Do you have a copy?”

“I’m looking!”, a few seconds of tension passed. Then Don frowned.

“Dee?”, asked Rafa.

“I cleaned my storage and didn’t put the files for the movies in again.”, he sounded really disappointed.

“Can someone explain who those two are?”, asked Casey.

“Jupiter Jim is the best movie franchise ever! We love his movies. He travels the universe, has adventures and saves the day!”, said Leon.

“We need to show you his movies once we get a portal going! You need to see them all!”, said Mike.

“Okay, and who is Lou Jitsu and what does he have to do with Splinter?”, asked April.

“Lou Jitsu was Pop's stage name when he was still an actor.”, said Rafa.

“That makes sen-“, said Leo, “He was what?”

“Your dad was an actor?”, said Mikey, “That sounds so cool!”

“What are those about?”, asked Casey.

“Lou Jitsu is a martial artist and he beats up bad guys in ridiculous situations.”, said CJ, “I haven’t seen all of them yet, but they’re really good!”

“We’re getting there. It’s ridiculous how many movies he made.”, said Cass.

“As much fun as this is, we should get back to work.”, said Don.

“But we want to know more!”, said Raph.

“You can ask us more stuff over dinner later.”, offered O’Neil.

“Everything we want to know?”, asked April.

“Everything!”, said Mike.

They quickly made their way to where they wanted to build the machine, funnily enough, it was in the same spot Superfly had built his device.

They first moved the big parts to build a foundation. Don, April and CJ worked on the wiring. Donnie looked closely to see what exactly they were doing. He was really invested in how this was thing would function.

It was amazing to see how the big versions worked together. Rafa and Cass held the pieces together while Mike and Leon welded the metal pieces together. The younger versions mainly brought over the tools and pieces they needed. All while Don explained everything. It was fascinating to hear, even if Donnie was the only one who understood what exactly Don was going on about.

“The frame is done, Dee.”, said Rafa.

“Good.”, Don said. He, CJ and April stood up, looking at the rest of them.

“I just need to put in the program again and put in the uranium again and we should be good to go!”

Just as he said that a big rumble was heard. All eyes turned to the source of the noise, the two turtles in red.

“It wasn’t me!”, Rafa defended himself.

Raph laughed a little embarrassed.

“I mean it’s almost dinner time.”, said O’Neil, “Anyone up for pizza?”

“YES!”

“Tell me what you want then. April and I will get them!”

“We are?”, asked April.

“Yup. I need to know the best pizza place and you’ll take me.”

“Yeah, sure.”

They quickly called the pizza place to give them their big order, the two just had to get the pizza now.

“Don. I need money.”, O’Neil held out her hand and a claw from the turtle’s battle shell handed her the needed money. The two girls walked out after.

“I got it from here. You can do whatever.”, said Don. Everyone else walked away ready to relax a bit. Expect Donnie. He stayed with Don.

Chapter Text

O’Neil couldn’t help but admire the city around her. This was the first time she actually walked around in broad daylight since they had gotten here. The city looked like her home, yet it was so different.

“Is the city different from your home?”, asked April, having noticed O’Neil looking around.

“It is. I don’t know how to put it, but the city is brighter and sharper back home. Does that make sense?”

“Not really. It probably would if I ever got to see it.”

“Knowing Do, you will.”

“That would be really cool!”

“We could show you around New York. We would have to get cloaking brooches for the boys though.”

“Cloaking brooches? What are those?”

“Brooches that make mutants or yokai look human. They can walk top side unnoticed. Or they could put on disguises.”

“Why would they need them?”

“Mutants and yokai can’t really walk around without them. The boys dressed up before but I still don’t know how they never got caught.”

“Aren’t they, uh, known to the city?”

“Nope. Even with the whole saving the city thing. Most people don’t know they exist. They prefer it that way.”

“Isn’t that kinda sad?”

“Not really, we have each other and they can still go to the Hidden City.”

“Hidden City?”

“A mystic city beneath New York filled with yokai and nowadays mutants as well.”

“Okay, I have no idea why a yokai is.”

“Donnie said it right. Yokai are Japanese spirits. But I’m assuming that doesn’t help much.” O’Neil chuckled as April looked at her unimpressed. “Think of it like this, mutants are man-made yokai. Does that help?”

“So, there are people that are born looking like mutants and they call themselves yokai?”

“Yup. There are all kinds of yokai. Goat yokai, spider yokai or slime yokai for example!”

“That sounds like you them.”

“Because I do! There’s Big Mama she’s a spider yokai. She’s Splints’ ex and she’s basically a crime lord.”

“Splinter’s ex and crime lord? What did she do?”

“She owns this place called the Battle Nexus, an arena where she makes people fight and she makes money from it. She even forced Splints to fight back when he was still human.”

“She made him fight? Why did he date her then?”

“That happened after, he proposed and she just kidnapped him, I guess.”

“How did he get out?”

“Baron Draxum.”

“The guy that mutated them?”

“Yup, he did that whole thing. He was a major baddie back when we first met him.”

“What kind of yokai is he?”

“A goat.”

“Also, what do you mean when you first met? Isn’t he anymore?”

“Nah. He’s the boys' second dad now.”

“You mean to tell me your Splinter first dated a woman that forced him to fight in a battle ring and then he went for the guy that mutated him? He has some issues!”

“You tell me, girl. You tell me.”

They shared a good laugh.

“So? What about the slime yokai?”

“That’s Sunita! My girlfriend!”

“Right, you mentioned you have a girlfriend. What is she like?”

“She’s amazing!”, O’Neil smiled, it was clear she was smitten with the girl.

She pulled out her phone and showed April a photo of herself next to another girl, she looked Indian.

“That’s her when she’s wearing her cloaking brooch.”, said O’Neil.

“She’s really pretty! I love her make-up!”

“I know! She took hours to get ready! That’s actually us at prom.”, she zoomed out a little and you could see O’Neil wearing a suit and Sunita in a beautiful dress. O’Neil’s suit almost looked like a dress as well, due to the long and wide black pants. On top she wore a yellow dress shirt, her hair was out of her usual pigtails and pulled into a high ponytail with a few pieces of hair sticking out in the front. Sunita on the other hand was wearing a saree, it was different shades of pink and had details in both gold and green. Her hair was partially pulled back and a few strands were framing her face. She had beautiful green, almost venom green, earrings on. They seemed out of place but she made it work nonetheless. Both of them look truly beautiful together.

“Both of you look so good!”

“Thank you. We were the best-dressed people at prom, I tell you!”

O’Neil then scrolled a bit and showed April another photo. This time it was O’Neil with a green slime person.

“Is that-?”, April wondered.

“Yup, Sunita in her true form!”

“She’s still pretty, somehow.”, said April, “Don’t take this the wrong way, I just didn’t think I would find a slime person- uh- yokai pretty.”

“It’s fine. Knowing her, she would have laughed at that.”, O’Neil laughed.

“So, how did you two meet? That has to be an interesting story.”

“Oh, it is. So-“, O’Neil began telling the story. A story she fondly thinks back to. Who would have thought her normal day would be so, well, not normal? Though she did decide to leave out Cass when talking about the Foot. Well, even the Foot itself, they were just some cultists. April didn’t need to know about the Foot Clan just yet. And hopefully, she would never know about them.

As they continued their walk through the city, they kept talking. They talked about almost everything. From small adventures O’Neil and her siblings went on to stories of the turtles' first few days in school.

“So, Mikey does improve? I can actually see that.”, said O’Neil.

“Yeah, he really enjoys it. And he’s pretty good at it too!”, said April, “Oh, we’re here.”

“This the pizza place?”

“Yup. Best pizza place in the city.”

The two walked in ready to get their order. They walked up to the counter and were greeted by a man in his mid-forties.

“Hi, we placed an order for O’Neil.”, said April.

“Ah, yes. You ordered 15 pizzas, correct?”, said the man.

“Yup.”, said O’Neil.

As she looked at the man she couldn’t help but think that he looked familiar. Something about him was so familiar. She couldn’t quite place it. Maybe she had met his counterparts back home. She picked enough food for her brothers over the years to have met many restaurant owners and employees. Most likely knew her as well. O’Neil was pulled out of her thoughts by the man addressing her.

“Niña, is everything okay?”, the man said as he handed April back the change.

“I’m fine, I just wondered if we met before.”, said O’Neil.

“I don’t think so, no.”

“Sorry about that then.”

“It is fine.”, he finally handed them their order.

“Enjoy the food!”, he called after them.

“Thanks, Senior Hueso!”, yelled April back.

“HUESO?!”, yelled O’Neil the second they were out of the door and she had registered just what April had just said.

“Do you, like, know Hueso in your world?”, asked April.

“Do I know him? We frequent his place!”

“But didn’t you say you can’t go outside with the guys?”

“We can’t but Run of the Mill isn’t a human pizza place. It’s a yokai one!”

“So, Hueso is a yokai? What kind?”

“He’s a skeleton. Leon likes to call him bone man.”

“A – A skeleton?”

“Yup, he’s all bones. He can even take off his arm and stuff no problem.”

“That sounds horrifying.”

“Nah, it’s cool. He acts like he hates us but we know, we grew on him. You should bring the guys here sometime.”

“I probably should. We haven’t really tried going to a restaurant yet. A lot of people still treat them differently.”, said April, looking a little sad.

“Because they’re mutants?”

“Well, yes and no. Some people are still scared of mutants but others put them on a pedestal and treat them like royalty. They thought it was fun at first, but now it’s just weird.”

“Is that why you all latched onto CJ like that? Because he treats you like normal people?”

“I guess so.”, April looked disappointed.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s just- It’s kinda sad that you guys have to leave. We like all of you and CJ became one of our best friends.”

“I’m sure we can see each other again. We’re building a portal, we can just visit you whenever.”, O’Neil reassured her younger counterpart, “Even if we can’t for whatever reason, it will be fine.”

“How do you know?”

“You’re April O’Neil. Odd stuff is bound to happen to you.”

“What do you mean?”

“April O’Neil’s are weirdness magnets. A very obvious consistency.”

“How so?”

“In every universe, at least the ones we’ve seen so far, the Aprils were the first humans the four turtle brothers have met.”

“Okay, yeah, that’s weird.”

April still looked a little sad, maybe a bit upset even. What could it possibly be? O’Neil was worried about her little counterpart. She had grown fond of the girl. O’Neil had little brothers, but this was the first time she had someone she could consider a little sister. She liked it, having a sister if you could call it that. Cass was her sister too, sure but Cass was a little much at times. This was nice, O’Neil didn’t want April to be upset while spending time with her.

“But I’m sure that isn’t all this is about.”

April looked at her, surprised.

“How can you read me this well?”

“We may be different, but at our core, we’re both April O’Neil. So, what is it?”

“I just-“, April paused, “How are we counterparts? We’re so different.”

“We just are. We don’t have to be the same. We’re exactly what we need to be. It wouldn’t be fun if every universe was the same, would it?”

“I guess not…”

“And I mean, look at Rafa. From what we know. Our big guy is very different from his counterparts. In the two universes we saw, the Raphs were angry and were constantly going against the Leos. He usually isn’t the oldest either. – My point is, you’re perfect the way you are. Take it from the April that sticks out like a sore thumb amongst the others.”

“How do you stick out? But you are so cool!”

“Aww, thank you. But I stick out because of what Don said. I act a lot more like a Casey than an April. I’m, as Leon has put it, a little unhinged.”

“You act like a Casey? I don’t buy it.”

“I didn’t either, but you haven’t seen me in my best moments yet.”, O’Neil chuckled and April joined in.

“Just be yourself and show everyone that thinks otherwise that you are April O’Neil and nothing can stop you!”, said O’Neil trying to encourage April.

“I will!”, said April.

“And just between you and me, you are by far, the cutest April I’ve seen.”

April couldn’t help but smile at the compliment.

The more time April spent with O’Neil, the more she began to look up to her. She was an amazing person. She wasn’t just the turtle’s friend, she was family to them, a sister. O’Neil was everything April could hope to be, she was smart, strong, admiring and not to mention pretty. But hearing O’Neil complimenting her, she couldn't help but be proud of herself. Growing up, people always made fun of her, she was the weird girl, the odd one and many more hurtful things, but after she met the turtle she had friends for the first time. And if her universe was anything like O’Neil’s she was stuck with them. April wouldn’t want to change that for anything.

The boys may be idiots but they were her idiots. She may not be as strong as O’Neil but she’ll do her best to keep her friends safe.

For the first time in a long time, April had a person to look up to. Someone she truly admired. Ironically enough it was a different version of herself.

They walked into the not-so-abandoned building and O’Neil called over to the Casey’s to help them set the table.

April would take O’Neil’s advice to heart. She was April O’Neil no matter what. She was going to do great things one day! Like any other April O’Neil in the multiverse!

Chapter Text

Cass, Casey and CJ walked over to the mountain of boxes in a corner. As much as Cass wanted to get more of her energy out, she also knew that the two boys needed a short break before she could tourt- I mean spar with them.

CJ sat down on one of the boxes while Cass and Casey decided to sit on the floor, for some reason. CJ wasn’t going to question them.

“Can I ask something?”, asked Casey.

“You already did.”, said Cass.

Casey looked at her dumbfounded.

“Ignore her, what do you want to know?”, asked CJ.

“You said that you’re her kid from the future right?”

“Yeah.”

“Who’s your other parent?”, there was an odd silence, “Sorry, if I overstepped.”

“No, no. It’s fine-“, CJ was cut off by Cass.

“You never told me that either!”

“I didn’t? Huh.”

“So, anyone we knew? Or she knows?”, asked Casey.

“No one you know, because I only have a mom.”, CJ chuckled at the two’s confused expressions, “I was, as Sensei called it, a dumpster baby. Mom found me when I was just a baby.”

“So, she saw you and decided she was your mom?”, asked Casey.

“From what I know, yeah.”

“That makes more sense!”, said Cass, causing the two boys to look at her.

“What do you mean?”, asked CJ.

“I’d never settle for anyone like that!”

“Agreed, said CJ.

“What do you mean?”, asked Casey.

“Why be with someone, when you can just take over the world!”, yelled Cass.

“With brownies!”, added CJ, “Much more productive and it tastes good.”

“What is wrong with you two?”, wondered Casey.

“A lot.”, said Cass, CJ just nodded along.

“Before I get even more confused, I want to know something else.”, Casey said and turned towards Cass, “Do you really have a group of feral Girl Scouts?”

“Of course! I trained them myself!”, Cass sounded incredibly proud, “They’re called the brownie clan!”

“Brownie clan? Because you sell brownies?”

“YES! The brownies that will allow me to get world domination!”, Cass yelled.

“Wait-“, CJ interjected, “Since Cass is part of the Hamato clan, and the Brownie clan is her clan. Does that make them like a branch of the Hamato clan?”

The three stared at each other for a good second.

“We have to ask the rat.”, said Cass.

“We’ll ask him when we get home.”

CJ couldn’t help but be a little terrified of the idea of the Girl Scouts unlocking Hamato Ninpo if that was true. They were already a force unstoppable by most. Add powers to that and Cass will take over the world in a day, maybe less.

“Now, it’s our time to ask you something.”, said Cass.

“Sure, go ahead.”

“You mentioned your moms. What are they like?”, asked CJ.

Both he and Cass had to admit. They were curious to see what it could be like to grow up in a peaceful time with two parents that cared about you. Something neither of them had.

“Well, my Mom is really cool! Cass kinda reminds me of her. Cass is almost as cool as my mom!”

“Almost?”, asked CJ.

“Yeah, no one is cooler than Mom! She taught me everything I know! She used to get into gang fights a lot when she was younger. At least that’s what Mama said.”

“Getting into fights! Sounds like a great woman!”, said Cass.

“What about your Mama?”, asked CJ.

“Mama is the kindest person I know. She’s always really sweet and caring. She’s also like the best cook I know! No offence to Mike, but my mama’s food just hits the spot every time!”

“Don’t let him hear that or he’ll try to steal all her recipes.”, joked CJ.

They shared a quick laugh, knowing Mike would love to make a dish from another reality.

“Do you have a picture of them?”, asked CJ.

“Duh!”, Casey pulled out his phone and looked through his camera roll. He showed them a picture of two middle-aged women, Casey and a young girl.

“Who is the girl?”, asked Cass.

“That’s my little sister; her name is Angel. She turned 5 a few weeks ago.”, said Casey.

“She’s cute.”, said CJ, “You look a lot like both of them.”

Casey smiled at CJ. He may not be blood-related to his mom, his mama gave birth to him after all, but hearing he looked like his mom as well was nice. It was much better than people asking about his good-for-nothing sperm donor.

As they kept talking Cass decided the break was over! She grabbed Casey and dragged him along for only a few steps.

“What are you doing?”, asked Casey.

“We’re going to train!”, she said as she let go of his arm, “You are worthy of the name Casey Jones, but you still need some training!”

Casey looked excited at the thought of that. Training with Cass sounded exciting, as long as he didn’t have to fight her again. She was too good. He doesn’t think he could ever fight her and win.

CJ looked at them and just knew that once Casey was exhausted, he was next. Cass had a lot of energy and he was impressed she waited this long to drag them into some training. The green-eyed teen walked away to get them some water to drink. They would need it once Cass Is done with them after all.

As he returns with three bottles of water, he sees Cass and Casey going through some basic kata. Cass kept correcting his movements and his positions. As much as Cass liked going ham when fighting, she also believed that you needed a solid foundation to break the rules, especially when fighting. She likes fighting, but that doesn’t mean she likes getting hurt. Getting hurt means not being able to fight after all. Especially considering she wasn’t with the Foot anymore and the Hamato family will force her to stay in bed when she’s hurt. And as much as she liked keeping up the thought act of not feeling any pain, they all had broken down her walls. They had learned to read her like no other. They all knew her better than anyone in the Foot ever did. They were here family after all.

CJ remembers meeting Cass for the first time. He had intended to drag that out for a few weeks if he ever confronted her, but being Cassandra Jones, she came the second she found out that they were back in the lair. She and Draxum had barged in as soon as they were able to. They were worried about their families and the first thing they had to do after explaining that everyone was fine, mostly at least, was the teenager in the room fast asleep next to Mikey. CJ was glad he was asleep and didn’t have to explain it.

He's glad he and Cass had a heart-to-heart though. They both knew she wasn’t his mom and likely would never become her. And that was fine. He liked Cass more as his sister anyway. She was a fun older sister, even if she was a little insane. But really, who wasn’t in this family?

Casey spotted CJ with the water bottles and ran over to him, grabbing one of the bottles from him and chucking down the whole bottle before he sat down on the floor exhausted.

“CJ! IT’S YOUR TURN!”, yelled Cass.

CJ sighs, puts down the bottle next to Casey and walks towards Cass. He puts part of his hair into a ponytail, just to keep his bangs out of his face.

“Are we going to spar or-“, he was cut off by Cass throwing a punch towards him. One that he dodged, barely.

“Spar it is then.”

Casey was trying to catch his breath as he watched Cass and CJ spar. I looked almost like they were dancing. Well, a very violent dance. They both dodged the other's attack with little to no effort, Cass better so than CJ. Not to mention they really kept the other up on their feet. One moment CJ throws a punch, Cass dodges and within a second she swipes his feet away. The boy just barely keeps himself from falling to the floor.

Casey knew CJ was cool already, but seeing him actually putting in effort to fight Cass was something else compared to the small fight he had with Raph. Could that even be referred to as a fight? Not if you ask Casey. Not after seeing these two fight each other.

If Casey was honest, he couldn’t decide who was cooler: Cass or CJ. Both were incredibly cool in their own unique ways. While CJ was calm and collected, Cass was aggressive and straightforward. Not to say the other couldn’t be aggressive or calm. They could. Casey didn’t know how to put it but he wanted to be like them, both of them. He was well aware that only Cass was his counterpart but that didn’t change the fact that CJ was still really cool and a person he had been looking up to since they met.

Casey wanted to be strong like both of them. Passionate like Cass. Compassionate like CJ. But most importantly, he wanted to be Casey Jones. After meeting both of them he felt like he wasn’t really there yet. Sure, his name was Casey Jones but something about them felt so right with the name Casey Jones. Something he was still missing. Maybe it was the years of experience in fighting that he lacked. Or maybe the years of knowing the turtles he had yet to face. No matter what it was he wanted to find it. He felt the desire to not only make his parents proud of him but also these two. He wanted Cass and CJ to be proud of him. They saw something in him and he wanted to prove them right.

If someone as amazing as Cass or CJ had something in him, then they had to be right, didn’t they?

“Casey?”

Casey yelped at the sudden mention of his name.

“You good? You zoned out for a bit.”, said CJ, he was sitting to Casey’s left while Cass was on his right. When did they finish and get here?

“I’m fine, just thinking.”

“That’s never good.”, said Cass.

“HEY!”

“To be fair, we’re all Casey’s. We tend to get stuck in our heads if we think too much. Which is why we don’t most of the time.”, said CJ, laughing a bit.

“WE avoid stupid decisions that way.”, said Cass.

“Are we doomed to make dumb decisions?”, asked Casey.

“Probably.”, said Cass.

“I mean I jumped O’Neil; she was with a bad crowd. The Casey from one world decided being a cop was a good idea. And the other one thinks tapping explosives to a hockey puck is a good idea. Casey Jones don't always make the best decisions.”, CJ chuckled, “But that’s what makes us fit in so well with the rest of them. Well, and that we always do what we do best.”

Cass nodded.

“And what is that?”, asked Casey.

“Do our best. We give everything we do our best shot, no matter how impossible it seems.”, explained CJ.

“You’re probably right.”, said Casey.

“Of course, we are.”, said Cass, “You got something you wanted to tell us?”

“Nope, don’t worry about it.”

Maybe Casey didn’t have to worry about making anyone proud. Just doing his best was enough. That’s what Casey’s do, and what they do best.

Only a short while later April and O’Neil walked back in with many boxes of pizza. O’Neil called over to them and Cass ran over to them, she was hungry after all. The two boys were a bit slower than her.

“Casey, one more thing.”, said CJ, putting a hand on Casey’s shoulder.

The younger looked up at him.

“Think about telling him.”

“Huh?”, Casey knew what he was implying and blushed a bit, “What are you talking about?”

“Tell Donnie. You like him.”

“I’m not sure…”

“It worked in another world, why shouldn’t it work here as well? I’m sure it will be fine.”

“One day, maybe.”

Before CJ could say more, Casey ran off to help the girls. CJ laughed and ran after him.

Chapter Text

“You don’t need to stay here.”, said Don, “I got it covered.”

“I know. You’re like crazy smart.”, said Donnie.

“Then why? This isn’t something you help with, not that I doubt you.”

Don was right. Donnie couldn’t really help. Not with the code, not only because there was only one screen and keyboard but also because Donnie wasn’t as smart as Don. Donnie wanted Don to teach him. Explain this to him. He wanted to know.

“Can you explain this to me? Maybe?”

“You want me to go into detail about my work?”, Don looked so excited.

Donnie nodded. Don smiled and moved over a bit to make room for Donnie. The shorter turtle moved closer and was ready for his lesson. He couldn’t wait to find out just how this stuff worked!

Don dived into explaining his delicate work. He saw how lost Donnie looked at first, so he decided to start with some basics. Even if he was a Donnie, he had to start somewhere. And Don was happy to help him start his journey in the glorious world of technology. If Don knew one thing, it was that Donnie would go to do great things. Even if any Donatellos had a head start compared to him.

As he explained and put in more of his code, he saw that Donnie slowly began to understand what Don was saying. Don didn’t even have to dumb it down, that much. If he kept picking up everything his fast he could end this explanation without dumbing anything down at all.

Donnie started this lesson with little to no knowledge about coding, let alone coding a portal, yet he was beginning to understand it. Don was a great teacher, the things he said just made sense. It was surprisingly easy to understand. He wondered why there weren’t more people figuring this out.

“How come no one has figured that out yet? It makes so much sense!”, said Donnie.

“I know, right? Most people just don’t think about the big important things.”, said Don laughing a little, “Now. I think you could try coding a line or two.”

“But you just explained it to me! I don’t know if I-“, he was cut off.

“That’s why you need to try it out. If you do anything wrong, which I highly doubt, I can still fix it.”

Why did Don have so much faith in him? Donnie didn’t know. Donnie took a deep breath. He could do this. And like Don said, if he did mess up, Don could fix it.

Donnie began typing. He tipped a lot slower than Don had been typing. Could Donnie be as fast as Don if he kept this up? Maybe, it would be really cool at least. Heck, maybe he could reuse that coding knowledge to make one of those cool Discord chat fanfics. Don thought those are really cool.

Don watched Donnie code. He was slow, sure, but he was good. He picked this up incredibly fast. Much faster than Don himself. If it had been anyone else, Don would have been jealous, but this was a mini him. A Donatello, of course he was bound to be just as good as him. Even better in this thing. Each Donatello was great at all things tech and science, but that didn’t mean that they didn’t have their expertise. The two Donnies he’s seen on screen were more adapted in chemistry than Don but that didn’t mean they weren’t great at building tech. Don was more into building his weaponry and Donnie seemed to pick up coding incredibly fast. Maybe he would be a Donnie that’s a lot more into coding than the other Donnatellos.

“Did I do it right?”, asked Donnie.

“Yes, not a single mistake in sight.”, smiled Don. He couldn't help but feel proud. This kid was going to do amazing.

They were done. They had coded a portal machine. A portal that could accomplish dimension travel. Sure, Don did that already once before but that time was an accident. This time it was supposed to happen. Donnie on the other hand, was amazed. He was amazed by the fact that Don figured all of that out, but he was even more impressed with himself that he knew how this thing worked. He knows how to operate this. He could, given the materials, rebuild a machine that could travel between worlds.

“I honestly thought all this would be a lot harder.”, said Donnie.

“Why would it be?”, wondered Don.

“We coded something that will open a portal to another reality! Why wouldn’t it be hard!”

“Because we're both Donatello?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I don’t understand. We’re both Donatello. The smart ones.”

Don was truly confused. It was one of the constants between realities. Donnie was smart. Leo was inspiring. Raph was protective. Mikey was optimistic. April was kind. Casey, no matter if the original or a child from the future, was unhinged. To name a few between realities.

“The smart ones? Is that really a thing?”

“Of course, it is! That’s our thing.”

“I don’t know. I’m not that smart.”

Don just stared at him. He figured out how to code perfectly in such a short amount of time. How did he not think he was smart?

“Do you not think you’re smart?”

“Not smarter than the average person, no.”

Don took a deep breath, hands clapped in front of his mouth. He moved his hands down, pointing them at Donnie.

“Boy.” He looked unimpressed. “You figured out how to code within like thirty minutes. I didn’t even have to dumb things down that much. You have no idea how much I dumb down the stuff for my brothers sometimes.”

“I’m sure it’s not that bad.”

“It is, trust me.”

“But-“

“Ah ah ah. No. No buts. You are smart. Smarter than most. Above average. Very much above average!” Don was a little, no scratch that, he was incredibly fed up with Donnie not understanding he was smart. Don hasn’t talked to him that much yet but the older knew that Donnie is smart. Not only because they were counterparts. He was smart in his own right.

“Why would you say that?”, Donnie wasn’t sure he could believe Don. He knows he was somewhat smart but he didn’t understand a lot of things that many knew right away. As if there was a book everyone had read except Donnie. It was weird. It made him feel like he wasn’t smart sometimes.

“You just picked up coding and yet you already helped me a lot. You are at a level already that many people can only dream about reaching, not to mention the time they will need to get there. Myself included. It took me years to get good at coding.

“You? Not good at tech?”

“Believe it or not, even I had to start somewhere.”

“When did you start, you’re not that much older than me.”

“Coding? I was 9, I think. I’m not too sure. As for building tech, I don’t remember when exactly I started I always took Dad’s stuff apart.”

“That long? How am I supposed to catch up?”

“Catch up? You don’t need to catch up.”

“But everything you made is so cool! And we’re counterparts. How am I supposed to keep up with that?”

“You don’t need to.”

Seeing and hearing about everything Don had created was amazing but it always made him feel insecure. He feared that if he was the outlier of their family, then maybe that would end badly for all of them. Heck, he was sure Don could have thought of a way to take down Superfly without involving Attach on Titan.

But here he was, Don was telling him he didn’t need to catch up. Why? Didn’t he want Donnie to be like him? To have someone to talk about tech?

“What do you mean?”

“This is usually Angelo’s job, but I’ll give it a try. You don’t need to catch up to me or my achievements. You don’t have to be the tech guy. I’m sorry if I gave of that impression. I didn’t mean to.”, said Don, “I just assumed you were into this as much as me.”

“I am into this stuff! It’s so cool and I want to build stuff like this too, but what if I can’t? What if I can’t because I didn’t start early enough?”

“It’s never too late to start. Me and many other Donatellos just had a head start. But most don’t make their biggest and best machines until they’re like 17 or older. I’m not sure if I have built my best invention yet.”

“But you built a portal device to another dimension!”

“Yup, one of my best. But I don’t know what I’ll build next year or the year after. And neither do you. You could be the first Donatello that is a coder over an inventor or a chemist.”

“I don’t know what I want yet.”

“And that is fine. Take your time. You have enough time to find your calling.”

“Thank you, Don.”, said Donnie, “Can I – uh – Can we hug? Maybe?”

Don normally would have refused, because urgh, togetherness. But Donnie deserved a hug, a short one.

“Sure.” Don opened his arms and the smaller turtle hugged him.

“That’s enough.”

Donnie laughed. “Not the biggest fan of hugs are you?”

“Nope, not at all.”

“You’re pretty good at this.”

“At what?”

“Comforting people.”

“I’m not. I just took a page out of Dr. Feelings book.”

“Dr. Feelings who’s that?”

“Someone you hopefully never have to meet.”

Donnie could ask more but he decided to leave that be. Maybe Dr. Feelings was his therapist or something. If he was, Donnie thinks he and his brothers should meet him.

Donnie didn’t expect Don to be good at that, but then again they were counterparts. Maybe that made Donnie just easy to read. For Don at least. Donnie wanted to pick up all the things Don had talked about. At least give them a try. Maybe he should also give Dr. Stone a try. He heard the anime was really good and it involved chemistry. Maybe that’d be a fun way to learn.

If there’s a way he could one day, build stuff as amazing as Don’s then he’d be content. Maybe not all the weaponry, he didn’t think his Dad could handle having that in their house, but the Turley Tank Don talked about sounded really cool. Maybe Donnie should try to find that pizza bus again and try fixing it up. That would be fun, maybe. And maybe Casey could help him with the paint job too.

“Do you think we could go to anime worlds? Like JJK?”, asked Donnie.

“Why would you want to go there? One Piece is far better.”, said Don.

“Urgh, you're one of those anime fans.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“You know one of those idiots that think only the big three are good anime.”

“Dude. No. I just like One Piece. All of us do, but we also like other shows. We just also have a lot of nostalgia for One Piece. It was the first anime we saw.”

“Really? That’s pretty cool. Have you seen the Live Action version?”

“IT’S OUT ALREADY?!”

“Yeah, it came out a few weeks ago.”

“It was just announced last year!”

“It was announced in 2020.”

“Yeah, last year.”

“Dude, it’s 2023.”

“What?”

“Is, is it not where you’re from?”

“No, it’s 2021. You’re two years ahead of us!”

“Cool.”

“I don’t know how I feel about this. Thus, I choose to ignore it.”

“Okay, that’s fair.”

Don was intrigued by this realization, but he really would prefer not to think about this too much. He didn’t want to think about the fact that he and his younger brothers would be adults in this timeline, much like Raph already was. He still had a year before he was doomed to being an adult, he didn’t want to think about it. Not that much would change with hitting 18 years of age.

Their conversation was cut short by Cass calling, more like yelling, to everyone that the pizza was here. The two purple turtles looked at each other and ran towards the table. They had to make sure their brothers didn’t eat everything themselves after all.

Chapter Text

Mike and Mikey walked over to one of the outside walls of the building. It was surprising for Mikey to see that there was little to no stuff in front of the wall, but once he actually looked at the wall he knew why. There was a big graffiti on it. It wasn’t finished yet but it already looked really good.

“Did you make this?”, asked Mikey.

“Yup. I want to finish it before we go home.”

Mike picked up one of the spray paints on the floor and grabbed one of the protective masks.

“Can I help?”, asked Mikey.

Mike smiled and threw him the mask he was holding. He moved to get the other mask and put it on.

“Grab some paint and put on the mask.”

Mikey needed and quickly put on the mask. He grabbed the yellow spray paint and stood next to the bigger turtle. Mike was already putting more paint on the wall.

“I never did anything like this. How do I do this?”, asked Mikey.

Mike stopped and looked at the smaller turtle. Even though Mikey couldn’t see most of the older turtle’s face, he knew Mike was smiling. It was the kind of smile that reached the eyes.

“I can teach you! I never taught anyone this! This is going to be so much fun! We can be graffiti buddies!”

“Great! So, what do I do?”

“Okay, first we need to get the general stuff down.”, Mike’s voice became much more serious as he continued, “You need to wear that mask. No matter what, keep it on. The paint dusk is toxic. If you don’t I will ban you from even watching me paint.”

“Even watching would be banned?”

“Yes, why do you think I have two masks here? One for me and one if someone wants to watch, and now paint with me, I guess. So, do you understand?”

“Yes, sir!”, Mikey saluted towards the older, Mike saluted back towards him.

Mike explained many different techniques as the two of them painted their masterpiece. Mikey listened closely to everything he had to say. He had always thought graffiti was really cool and so many of them were really pretty too! If he could pick this up that would be really cool! And given that he was a ninja, he could get to places no one else could. They were currently working on the guidelines, as Mike had called it,  on whatever he had planned out. Before they had started he had finished the background. It was a pretty mix of many different colors. It looked like a galaxy of sorts. It was really pretty.

The guidelines they had but above the background, looked like people. Were they going to draw people?

“Mike?”, called Mikey.

“Yes?”, he called back.

“What exactly are we making?”

“Didn’t I tell you?”

Mikey shook his head.

“Sorry, we’re making a mural.”

“A mural? Of what?”

“Of us. Just this whole situation.”

“Cool! Have you done one of those before?”

“Yup, I can show you later, if you want.”

“Please!”

“We should finish the base colors and then we’ll take a break. The paint will have to dry anyway.”, said Mike.

“What are we waiting for then!”

Mikey went back to putting down the colors. The mural also explained why there were so many different shades of green. They would need a lot of that. Mike asked Mikey to focus on the big spaces that need to be filled, he’ll do the smaller parts. As Mikey put on the last bit of green on the wall, he looked at the painting. It wasn’t finished but it already looked really good. He couldn’t wait until they finished their painting. It would be amazing! He had a lot of fun with this. He should ask for some spray paint gear for his next birthday!

The base colors were done. Mikey, as to Mike’s orders, sat down on the ground. Mike ran back inside and came back a few seconds later with two water bottles in his hands. He sat down next to Mikey and offered him the bottle.

“Thanks, dude.”

“You’re welcome.”

Mikey took a sip and noticed Mike pulling out his phone.

“Are you gonna show me your other murals?”

“Yup.” Mike showed him his phone. The mural on screen presented the four brothers, O’Neil and what Mikey could only assume was Splinter. They were fighting some kind of armor. It looked somewhat demonic. Odd was also the outfits they were wearing. The four brothers wore matching ninja outfits. All of them had red masks. That was weird.

“What’s with the matching masks? And who are you fighting?”, asked Mikey.

“We tried following the way of the Hamato Clan. It didn’t work. And we’re fighting the Shredder. Well, our first fight with him.”

“First fight? You fought him multiple times?”

“Yup. This”, Mike swiped to show the next photo, “is for the last time we fought him and the time we won for good.”

This mural had more people on it. This time there was also Cass and who Mikey could assume was Draxum, given that was the only other adult. There were also a few ghosts in the background. Strangely enough, most of them looked the same, except two of them. One was a pretty lady with long hair in a ponytail the other was a bald man. He could pass as the lady’s father. Both of them were smiling. They looked nice. But who were they? He also noticed the symbol in the back. It was the same one Cass, O’Neil and CJ had on the back of their clothes. Did it have a special meaning?

“This looks incredible!”, said Mikey, “Who are these guys though?” He was pointing towards the ghost.

“Those are our ancestors. The Hamato Clan ancestors. And the two in front are Oroku Saki, our gramps, and Hamato Karai, our gram gram. She is the founder of the Hamato Clan!”

“Is she like your Splinter's mom or something?”

“Nope, she’s our great great great – I don’t know how many greats – grandma. Dad’s mom was Hamato Atsuko.”

“It’s really cool that you have so much family history! We don’t really have that.”

“Then you’ll just have to make that yourself!”

“I guess we will. I have another question. What is that symbol? I saw Cass, O’Neil and CJ have it on their clothes. What does it mean?”

“That?”, Mike pointed at the crest and Mikey nodded, “That’s the Hamato Clan crest. It represents our family.”

“Oh, so like the symbols in Naruto? The ones ninja clans use?”

“Yeah! Something like that.”

“Do you and your brothers wear them too?”

“Yup. Not every day, but we have them on a few things. Dad started sewing them on after that fight.”

“That is really cool! Do you have another one?”

“Yeah, only one though.”, Mike swiped to the side again and this time it looked a bit shakier than the other two. The lines weren’t as neat but it still looked really nice. This picture looked more like a family portrait than the aftermath of a battle. CJ was in the picture now as well. They all looked incredibly content and happy like they had just accomplished something amazing.

“Is that when CJ came from the future?”

“Yeah, we had one hell of a fight but we made it out with a new brother.”, Mike smiled, but Mikey could tell he wasn’t ready to talk much more about the events of this mural. Mikey would press it much more, aside from one question.

“If you don’t me asking. The lines are less clean than before. Why is that?”

“You noticed, huh? I injured my arms really badly in that fight and it took a while for my arms and hands to get better.”

“Oh, they’re better now, right?”

“Yup! All better!”

They smiled at each other. It was fun talking to someone aside from your family for a change.

“Enough about my adventures.”, said Mike, “What is school like?”

“Honestly, it’s not all it's jacked up to be.”, said Mikey, “They teach us a lot of dumb stuff. Like when am I gonna need to do half that stuff?”

“April complained about that a lot too. She had regular fits of rage when she was in a test period. It got better once she got into college though.”

“Somehow I can see that.”, said Mikey. He hadn’t known O’Neil for long but she seemed like the kind of person that would go on rants about the school system and how stupid it is for hours.

“But what is it like? Going to school with humans? Are you having fun? Are the humans nice? Do I need to kick someone’s ass?”, asked Mike.

“That’s a lot of questions.”, said Mikey, chuckling a bit, “Okay, so. Aside from the useless stuff they teach, it’s kinda fun. The humans are pretty cool, I guess. Most are nice but some are a bit weird but who am I to judge? And why would you do that? You could probably throw them across the city!”

“I could and I would. Just tell me who to throw!”

“Why do you want to throw someone, dude?!”

“Anyone that’s mean to you deserves to be thrown.”

“But no one is mean to me! Only the guys you already beat up!”

“Good.”, Mike looked proud of himself. He placed a hand on Mikey’s shoulder and smiled. The smile looked menacing, “If anyone is mean to you, tell me.”

“Got it.” Mikey was starting to think people in their world might be more scared of Mike than Rafa, despite their size difference.

Mikey jumped up from the ground and put his mask back on.

“Come on, we have a painting to finish!”

Mikey decided to ignore that whole thing and put his mask on as well.

They did it. They finished the graffiti. It looked amazing if you asked Mikey. The painting was much more like the family portrait Mike had shown him. All of them were smiling and looked really happy. Mikey couldn’t help but feel proud of them. They made this. He made this.

“We did a great job!”, said Mike, “You did a great job.” Mike gently patted his head. Huh, he didn’t think something like that would be so nice.

“Thanks! Only because you’re such a great teacher!”

“And you’re a great student!”

They began putting away the spray paints, they couldn’t let them lay around like this after all.

“I really need to get myself some paint! I want to keep doing this.”, said Mikey.

“You can have these if you want.”, offered Mike.

“I can’t take all these from you.”

“You aren’t, we got them here. I have more than enough paint back home. You don’t have to worry about that.”

“If you’re really sure.”

“I am!”

“Thank you then.”

They put the paints as well as both masks into two boxes. That way Mikey and his brothers could take them home easily. Mikey was already thinking about ways to make their bedroom prettier. Dad wouldn’t mind, right?

Looking at it now, Mikey noticed something changed. Growing up, he wanted to be like the humans he watched on TV and from the roofs, but now? Now that changed. Not because of how they were expected after everything that happened but because of Mike. Mike was unapologetically true to himself. And that included, as Mike put it, embracing the turtle. Something Mikey decided to keep in mind. He didn’t mind being a mutant turtle if he could one day be like Mike, then he’d be excited. Maybe he should embrace the turtle more, like Mike had said.

He was pulled out of his thoughts by Cass yelling for them. April and O’Neil had returned with their pizza. The two-orange clad turtles made their way to the table, they were hungry after they’re painting session. Mikey couldn’t wait to get something to eat and show off the painting they made. Everyone would lobe that, he was sure.

Chapter Text

Leon walked towards the improvised med bay. He still had to clean up after all. Leo walked after the taller turtle.

As he followed Leon he couldn’t help but get lost in his own thoughts.

If Leo had been honest, he never expected to look up to someone like this, aside from his father. But here Leon was, the coolest person Leo had ever met! Leon was everything Leo could hope to be! He was a good fighter, from what Leo had seen. He was confident and not to mention funny and smart. But the coolest and most amazing part was that he’s the medic of the team! He was really good too, likely as good as a human doctor and those go to school for years and here Leon was, a fully-fledged medic at age 17. How impressive is that?!

As much as he and his brothers scared Leon with the still-healing cracks in their shells, the older remained relatively calm, after his initial shock. He not only looked at their recent bruises but also looked carefully at their shells. Making sure the doctor, well the vet, had taken care of it properly. Getting taken care of by Leon was a much nicer experience than the first time they got actual medical attention. It was like a normal doctor’s visit, from what April and Casey said at least.

Due to the fact that their shells had been cracked, the most logical approach was going to a vet. Even it was weird for everyone involved. The turtles, and every other mutant involved, felt weird going to the vet to treat most injuries and the vet wasn’t used to their patient talking back to them and explaining what they were doing to the patient rather than the owner.

Having Doctor Leon take a look at them was like they were with an actual doctor, like a human doctor, not a vet. It felt much better. If that was a possibility, Leo and his brothers would just ask Leon to take care of their wounds and everything else from now on. It would be a much better experience.

Leo was lost in his thoughts as he followed Leon but was pulled out of his admiration for the older blue-coded turtle mutant by bumping right into the older mutant’s shell. Leo rubbed his beak, walking straight into a shell hurt more than he thought.

“Leo? You good?”, asked Leon.

“Uh, yeah. Why?”, said Leo, confused by the question

“I called you like five times. You zoned out for a bit.”

“Oh, sorry. Did you need something?”

“I guess. I just wanted to talk to you. Get to know you a bit, ya know.”

Leon wanted to get to know him. Him? Why would he want that, he was so much cooler than Leo.

“Really?”, wondered Leo.

“Duh, you’re a Leo and with that, you are obviously the coolest of your brothers.”

“I’m not really.”

“Yeah, not buying that.”, said Leon, smirking.

Leo couldn’t help but get a little fidgety, it was nice getting complimented and he was sure how to respond to that, other than to get nervous. Without even noticing he flapped his hands a bit. He stopped once he realized what he was doing, embarrassed. Leon picked up on this.

“You can keep stimming you know? I’m not judging you.”

“Stimming?”, asked Leo.

“Yeah, what you were just doing with your hands. Don’t you know what stimming is?”

“No? Is it bad?”

“What? No! If someone tells you otherwise, they’re lying. Did someone tell you not to stim?”

“Really? The teachers said I was just distracting the other students.”

Leon looked at him in disbelief.

“A teacher? A teacher told you that? Like I said stimming is not a bad thing. And if you’re distracting others by just flapping your hands. That’s a them problem, not a you problem.”

Leo smiled, it was nice to hear that he wasn’t weird for flapping his hands, well stimming. That was the first time heard about that. He has always flapped his hands, it was a calming motion, he never really understood why, but that doesn’t matter to him. While his family never had an issue with it, heck his brothers did similar things sometimes, their dad too. But once they were allowed in school, some people found it weird and annoying when he and his brothers stimmed. He assumed it was just another issue some people had with mutants. He didn’t want to think about it too much.

“Now that we have established that stimming is a good thing and that your teachers are assholes. Tell me about yourself.”, said Leon. He was really curious about his mini version.

Leo didn’t know what to tell him, he never really talked about himself. Not many people were interested in him as a person. A lot of them like the idea of having a hero as a friend more than they would probably like Leo.

“What do you want to know?”, said Leo. Good start, Leo.

“How about your life before your heroic reveal? What was that like?”, asked Leon.

“Before everything? Well, it was very different. Me and my brothers kept to the shadows and didn’t really do all the stuff we do now. We had our chores and those were the only times we were allowed to go out of the sewers. Dad was very worried about us going outside.”

“How come? You mentioned he was a rat before he got mutated. Is it from that?”

“A bit. Humans don’t usually like rats so he was afraid of them. And sometime after we got mutated he tried to go top with us but that didn’t end so well. From what Dad tells us, people tried to hurt all of us. We don’t really remember it. We were like two maybe?”

“Harsh, but it’s understandable why he is protective of you. He wanted to keep you safe.”, said Leon, “Maybe he isn’t so different from our Pops after all.”

“How? Your dad was human. Why would be he afraid of humans?”

“He wasn’t afraid of humans. I was talking about the protective part. Dad’s been through a lot and he just wanted to keep what’s most important to him safe. Us. I think that is something every Splinter is. A protective Dad, that loves his kids no matter what and no matter their origins.”

“Probably. It’d be really cool if you could meet Dad! I think he’d like you guys.”

“You think? Are we charming enough for that?”, said Leon jokingly.

Leo laughed and Leon looked proud of himself to get his mini to laugh.

“Can I ask you something?”, asked Leo.

“You already did, but go ahead.”

“What was It like? Having the leader role thrown at you?”

Leon thought for a second before answering.

“It was weird. I didn’t take the role seriously. I didn’t think there was anything hard about the job, Raph always made it look so easy. Sure, we sometimes really got on his nerves, like the one time we ate poison, but he always knew what to do. When Dad said I was the leader. None of us liked it. We had to go through something… not so great for me to take this seriously.”

Leon wasn’t about to trauma dumb about the Kraang to a child.

“Oh, so being the leader is hard and terrifying?”

“Yup, but you aren’t alone. You don’t have to do this alone. Look at me, I may be the leader but I still turn to Raph a lot. He knows more than I do and helps me as he put it, grow into the role. You’ll do great, I know it!”

Leo smiled. If Leon believed in him, then it had to mean something.

“Now, let’s pack this stuff up shall we?”, said Leon, turning to the medical equipment still lying across the improvised med bay.

Leo moved next to Leon and began rolling up the left-over bandages, while Leon picked up a few other things, Leo didn’t know what that stuff was and put them in a plastic box sitting next to them. After Leon put everything he was looking for inside the box, he got a small box and put it in front of Leo.

“Put the bandages in here.”, he said and put some other stuff inside. He put some adhesive tape, bandage strips, some instant cold packs and a few safety pins inside the box. He also put in some medication, some aloe vera gel, some kind of lotion and some pills. Leo wasn’t quite sure what those were. He was a bit curious though.

They finished up putting the bandages and medication away. Leon moved back to the plastic box and picked it up.

“We need to clean these thoroughly. Come on.”

They moved over to a sink. Leon put the box down next to the sink and placed the things inside into the sink separately to not damage it. He then cleaned the box itself, pulled out some one-use gloves and put them on and pulled out some rubbing alcohol.

“Okay, I want you to clean them with hot water and then you give them to me and I clean them with the rubbing alcohol. I just need to clean the inside of this first as well.”

Leo nodded; the instructions were simple enough.

They cleaned the tools and Leo’s curiosity grew more and more, he wanted to know what these things were used for and why they needed to be cleaned so much. Maybe he should take a first aid course. It wouldn’t hurt to know this stuff, would it?

“Leon?”

“Yes, mini-me?”

“Can you, maybe, teach me a few things? Only if you want to-“

“Sure, let’s get this all cleaned first and put away, then we can do a crash course.”

“Thank you!”

They finished putting away the medical equipment into the first aid kit. Leon sat down and patted the floor next to him. Leo sat down next to him. Leon pulled out his phone and typed some stuff in, looking for something.

“Get out your phone. Don makes me write down all of my work digitally and you could use some of the things that I wrote down.”, said Leon.

Leo pulled out his phone and Leon sent him the notes.

“There’s a lot I found out about us and turtle mutant by trial and error. Those might be different though. Take them as a guide more than anything, the ooze probably affected us differently. As for the human notes. Those are probably the same.”

Leo nodded along.

“Now, let’s get the basics in first.”, Leon began explaining. Leo asked questions whenever he had one. Leon was a good teacher he explained things and they made a lot of sense. Much better than half the teachers Leo has at school. More fun too.

As Leon came to a stopping point, noticing as much as Leo was enjoying this, he was reaching his limit. You couldn’t teach someone years of medical knowledge in a day, let alone a few hours anyway.

“How about we stop here.”, said Leon.

“But I still have so many questions!”

“And that is good, but you can’t learn and remember everything in a day. It takes time, take it from someone who’s been learning this kind of stuff for years. You’ll get there.”

Leo looked a little disappointed, he knew it would take long, humans go to school for years after all.

Leon put a hand on Leo’s shoulder, causing him to look at the red-eared slider.

“You can have the medical equipment if you want.”, said Leon, “You can start learning by taking care of you’re the bruises on you and your brothers, those aren’t too serious. But still, see someone that knows what they’re doing for you shells!”

“But that’s your stuff!”

“We stole it. I have most of my stuff back home. I don’t need it.”

“Thank you.”

As if on cue, Cass yelled. Dinner was here. Good, Leo had gotten hungry during his medical lesson.

Chapter Text

Raph looked up at the spiky mutant. Raph still wasn’t over the fact that Rafa was a giant of a mutant. He was probably the tallest mutant he had ever seen. Like he was almost twice as big as Raph. He already towered over all his siblings, but the height difference was very apparent between them. Raph was only a little shorter than Mike. So of course, Rafa was a giant compared to him.

The taller turtle was easily the coolest person Raph had ever met! He looked really cool even if the tail still looked way too long for him. Raph was sure it wasn’t supposed to drag on the floor that much. He was everything Raph could ever strive to be! Yet, at the same time, Raph felt like they were different. Very different. Raph knew he had a few anger issues, and apparently, that was a him thing, not a Raph thing. The bug guy was nothing but calm and relaxed, sure he seemed a bit on edge but that was more likely than not from being stuck in a different dimension.

The two of them had moved a bit away from the rest of their family. Rafa mentioned how he wanted to clean up a few things, they had made a mess in the whole warehouse after all. They walked over to the makeshift beds that Raph and his brothers, Casey and April had slept in. That was a mess. The younger turtle knew he and his brothers were messy sleepers but looking at the mess in front of him made that much more apparent. Were their counterparts as bad as them? Was that the reason they seemingly preferred to sleep in a nest?

Raph was about to pick a few pillows up while Rafa held up a blanket, it still needed to be folded together. Raph didn’t pick up the pillows and moved to help Rafa. Folding blankets was much easier if there were two of you. Raph picked up two of the ends of the reed blanket. They began putting it together and Raph couldn’t help but ask.

“So, how tall are you?”, blurted Raph out.

Rafa took the blanket and put it on the floor. He picked up the next one and looked down at Raph, Rafa put a hand on his chin and began to think.

“Not sure, it’s been a while since I measured myself. Last time I was 6’9’’. Might be more like 7’’ now.”

“SEVEN FEET!?”, yelled Raph.

“I mean I’m just guessing here.”

“You're almost seven feet and you’re still growing?!”

“If Leon is right, yeah.”

“That’s just unfair! I wanna be huge!”

“Being this big isn’t all that great.”, Rafa laughed a bit, remembering all the times he bumped his head somewhere.

“Name one thing! One thing that is bad about being tall!”

“I have a few. I always bump my head. I don’t fit through every door. Clothes are really hard to find. I can go on.”

“Okay, maybe being huge has its downsides too.”, said Raph.

Raph picked up two of the ends of the next blanket, the yellow one, and helped Rafa fold it up. They did that with all of them.

Rafa looked at the tower of blankets they had made as Raph just stared at the spiky shell. Could he climb that? Or would that be rude?

Screw it, since when did Raph care about manners? But how was he supposed to get up there?

Raph was just about to put a hand on of the spikes, he could probably use those to help himself up. He wanted to feel tall! But before he could Rafa moved to look at him. Raph froze, still standing there, reaching for the spot where the was a spike a few seconds ago.

“Uhh… What are you doing buddy?”, asked Rafa.

“Nothing!”, Raph quickly moved to straighten himself and hide his hands behind his shell.

Rafa looked at him with something Raph couldn’t pinpoint. It was familiar but he couldn’t quite pinpoint it.

“Do you wanna sit on my shell?”, asked Rafa.

“HOW DID YOU KNOW?!”, yelled Raph.

“I’m the biggest brother. All of my siblings climb onto my shell all the time!”, Rafa laughed, “You want to get up there yourself or do you want me to pick you up?”

Raph stared for a second before he decided. Getting picked up sounded fun, but climbing up himself would be really cool as well! Climbing it is!

“I can do it myself!”

“Go ahead then. Look out for the ends of the spikes. Use the wider parts as a ladder.”

“Got it!”, said Raph as he carefully put a hand on one of the spikes. He pulled himself up slightly and put his left foot on one of the spikes. He quickly lost his footing. He stared at his shoes. He took them off and tried again. This time his foot didn’t slip off, he put his right foot on another spike and made his way up the shell. Once he reached the edge Rafa held out his hand to help Raph sit down comfortably. Raph took it and sat down; both of his legs were hanging down in front. One left from Rafa’s head the other down the right.

“I DID IT!”, Raph cheered.

“You did, buddy!”, joined Rafa.

“Is this what it’s like to be huge?”

“Yup.”

“I can see everyone! Look Cass and Casey are fighting!”

Raph hadn’t even seen them before because of the rubble between them. Now he could see them sparring.

“Yeah, and Casey is losing.”

“Of course, he is! He can’t even beat me and CJ! No way he can beat Cass!”

“True, she can beat all of us.”

“Even you?”

“Even me. She can pick me up too.”

“That’s so cool!”

Rafa picked up the pillows shattered around them. Raph was amazed. He moved around so easily all while having a whole other mutant on his shoulders. And Raph wasn’t light! He was the heaviest out of his brothers, he’s the biggest of them after all! Like Rafa!

Rafa had put the pillows into one pile next to the blankets.

“Why are you putting them together again? Do you want us to leave?”, asked Raph. Did they do something to make them all upset?

“Huh? No? CJ said you had school tomorrow again. You need to go home today because we don’t want your parents to worry.”, explained Rafa.

That made sense.

“You can just come over tomorrow after school if you want. We like having you around.”, said Rafa.

“We like having you around too.”, mumbled Raph.

“What was that, buddy?”, asked Rafa. He didn’t quite catch what Raph had just said.

“Nothing!”, yelled Raph. He didn’t want to repeat himself.

Rafa just chuckled, used to antics like these because the tiny turtles are so very similar to his little brothers. Rafa found it cute. But that was the big brother in him talking. He finds most things that remind him of his little brothers cute. Especially if reminded him of Mike and CJ. If something reminded him of the twins, it usually meant something exploded.

“So, what do you wanna do, little buddy?”, asked Rafa, “We still have to wait until April and O’Neil get here with our food.”

“Little buddy! I’m not little!”, said Raph, he impulsively hit Rafa in the head.

“Ow, sorry. Won’t call you that again.”, Rafa rubbed the spot Raph had hit.

Raph looked at the spot. He knew he had a few issues regarding his anger. He was prone to get angry and hit things. That didn’t mean he liked hitting people, not people he liked at least. He hates himself every time he gets angry and hits one of his brothers. It doesn’t happen that often but he feels bad every single time. Was being this angry really just a him thing? All of them had someone to talk to with their counterparts, Raph did too, but Rafa was so different from him. Their counterparts had mentioned how they were kind of the weird ones, having a lot more differences than usual. Was Raph also the odd one? Were the other Raphs out there like Rafa? Calm and the responsible ones? Raph just had to ask.

“Rafa?”

“Yes?”

“Are you”, Raph rested his head on Rafa’s, “Are you ever angry?”

“All the time.”, said Rafa.

Raph’s head snapped up. What? What did he just say?

“But you’re not-“

“Yelling, screaming, hitting stuff?”

“Yeah…”

“Well, I’m a Raph. Raphs are angry. You just need to know how to deal with that.”

“Like therapy?”

I guess. I never got real therapy, only the occasional appointment with Dr. Feelings.”

“Dr. Feelings?”

“Mike had a few doctor personas. One of them is a therapist, his name is Dr Feelings. Don is terrified of that one. Another one is Dr Delicate Touch.”

“Really? Dr Delicate Touch?”, Raph laughed. What did that doctor do? Talk to his patients all calm and collected? Sounds dumb.

“Yup, let’s hope you never meet him.”, Rafa said. Raph could feel Rafa shudder a bit. Maybe he was wrong.

“So do I have to go to therapy?”, asked Raph. He knew he probably should, not only because of his anger issues but also because of the trauma he received from the whole Superfly thing.

“It would likely help, but Raph knows a few things that can help with the anger.”

“Really? Like what?”

“There are a lot of things you can do. Raph likes to take it out on a punching bag. But sometimes squeezing something helps too.”

“Like a pillow?”

“Yup.”

“Do you uh- ever lash out?”

“Lash out? What do you mean?”

“Do you ever hurt your brothers?”

“Oh. No. Not anymore at least.”

“You- huh? Are they okay?”

Thinking about Rafa hitting his brothers, it scared him. The turtle is big, really big. Maybe Raph shouldn’t have asked.

“They are. We heal quickly. And I stopped that when we were still tots.”

“Can I ask what happened?”

“Course, we were just playing, I don’t even remember what, but I lost and got angry. I threw a tantrum and I accidentally hit Don right in the shell-“ Rafa was cut off by his mini.

“Doesn’t he have a soft shell?”, Raph said worriedly.

“He does. Since I’ve always been the biggest and strongest, I can easily hurt them all, Raph realized that in that moment. I was really scared Donnie would hate me after that.”

“But he doesn’t, does he?”

“No, once he was taken care of he hugged me and told me he was fine. He didn’t want me to worry. I made him his first battle shell after that. I didn’t want him to get hurt more.”

“You built a battle shell? How?”

“Nope, it was just a pillow with some fabric to attach it. I just had to find a really nice pillow that didn’t mess with his sensory issues.”

“Oh. That’s still really cool!”

“You don’t have to worry about your brothers hating you if you hit them. I hit the twins if they’re up to their middle-child nonsense.”

“But you just said you don’t.”, Raph was a bit confused now.

“You asked if I hurt them. I don’t hit them with full strength. Just a little smack. We all hit each other sometimes. But we probably have a screwed sense of what’s hitting hard and what isn’t”, Rafa remembered all the times he and his brothers hit the ground and the ground cracked while they were completely fine.

“You guys are really strong!”

“OF course, we are! We’re heroes!

Their conversation really helped Raph. He didn’t feel like he was the weird one anymore. He and Rafa were much more similar than he thought at first. It was pretty cool. But instead of continuing their heartfelt conversation, Raph decided to abuse Rafa as his personal jungle gym. According to Rafa, this was also a normal occurrence to him. Raph had fun hanging from Rafa’s arm and slinging back and forth. This was a lot cooler than a real jungle gym!

That’s when Cass finally yelled for all of them. Their dinner was finally here and when the two walked over to the rest, Raph was still hanging from Rafa’s arm.

Chapter Text

They all made their way to the table. All the pizzas were laid out alongside cups and drinks.

As everyone sat down and began eating Don put a hand on Donnie’s shoulder and announced: “We have good news! The code for the portal is finished. We can trial-run it later.”

“Good job, you two!”, said Rafa.

“Of course, dearest brother. Who do you take us for.”, Don said.

Leon took this as an invitation to mess with his twin. He took the pizza slice Don was holding. Don turned to look at his twin brother, who quickly ate it.

“NARDO!”

Were there still slices left? Yes. But the whole point of taking Don’s was just that. Taking Don’s. Leon just smiled smugly as Don mumbled something under his breath and grabbed another slice. And just then laughter erupted. The minis, safe for Leo, were all laughing. Did they find the twin's antics this funny?

“What’s so funny?”, asked Mike, genuinely curious.

“Don called him Nardo pfft-“, said Raph.

April was the first one that calmed down.

“Since they don’t have a last name, Mikey had the idea to split up their names. Leos was Leo Nardo. He was very against that.”

“Nardo isn’t that bad.”, said Leon. Leo just looked away, pointing. He really wanted them to let that joke go already, it’s getting old.

As they ate their dinner they shared some fun stories, anything the other group was curious about.

“What are some of the coolest things you ever did?”, asked Mikey.

“I threw a ship!”, said Mike happily as he took another bite of his pizza.

“You what?!”, yelled Casey.

“He threw a fully loaded cargo ship at our enemy.”, said Don.

“Dude, can you get any cooler?!”, said Mikey. Mike laughed at the younger turtle’s excitement.

“What about you guys?”, asked Donnie, turning to his counterpart.

“I’ve archived many things. But my greatest accomplishment by far is the Turtle Tank!”

“Turtle Tank? You built a tank?”, asked April, amazed.

“Mike and I stole the moon buggy and I improved it.”, Don said as he pulled out his phone and showed it to the minis, “This is my baby.”

“She looks amazing!”, said Donnie. While Don had talked about the Tank before, this was the first time he got to see it. He really needed to get his hands on a car and make it better. He needed the practice anyway.

“And Leon?”, wondered Leo. What cool things could he have done?

“I outsmarted an evil mastermind! She makes deals with people and changes the terms last minute. I planned with that and got what I wanted!”

Leo looked at the older, amazed. Leo wondered if he could one day be as good as Leon when coming up with a plan.

Before Leon could continue about how he outsmarted a crime boss, Casey cut in.

“And you two?!”

Cass was the first to answer.

“I got my Ninpo by beating up some bastards that thought I was just a tool!”, she was so proud of herself that she beamed at the statement.

“The bad crowd you were with?”, asked Casey. Cass just nodded, a smile never leaving her face.

“Back in the future, there was a time when I took care of tiny versions of Leonardo and Donatello. I like to think I did a very good job!”, said CJ. He was still proud of himself for keeping two pocket-sized turtles alive. Luckily enough not at the same time.

“You what? I never heard that story!”, said Mike, “How did happen?”

“Tiny? How tiny?”, asked Casey.

“Donatello”, said CJ, “And about this big.” He held out his hand.

“That’s tiny!”, said Casey, he turned to the bigger turtles, “You were this tiny?!”

“I think so. We would have to ask Dad to make sure.”, said Rafa.

“The coolest thing I ever did was teaching these idiots,” O’Neil said while pointing towards her four turtle brothers, “How to unlock their powers.”

“Cool! How did you do that?”, asked April.

“I was possessed by Gram Gram and she told me what to do!”

“You were what? You were possessed? Do I have to get possessed?!”, said April.

“Probably not. Don’t worry about it too much.”, said O’Neil.

April decided to go with that. She just hoped that O’Neil was the only one April that ever got possessed.

“The best for last right?!”, said Raph.

“I don’t know what I-“, Rafa was cut off by Mike.

“He turned into an even bigger version of himself to save Leon from falling down a building! He punched us out of the cell like it was no problem. He also-“, he was cut off by Rafa.

“That’s enough.”

“Dude! You’re so cool!”, said Raph.

Rafa sheepishly scratched the back of his head.

“Now that we shared some stuff about us. I need to know. How did you meet April if you haven’t known her as long as we have known ours? Oh! And Casey too!”, said Leon.

“They were messing on a rooftop and threw throwing stars. One hit my helmet.”, said April, “Then my motorcycle got stolen. They got it back, but still.”

“In my defence, I was trying to stop them!”, said Leo.

“Way to throw us under the bus, dude!”, said Mikey.

“Snitch.”, said Raph. Donnie just glared at him a little.

Casey burst out into laughter, alongside the dimensional travellers. He had never thought about asking them how they met. This was hilarious.

“After that, the whole Superfly thing happened.”, explained April.

“Man, you kids are something. Next thing you tell me you met Casey by fighting him.”, said O’Neil between laughs.

“WE DID!”, said Raph, “WE FOUGHT!”

“Why on earth did you fight each other?”, asked Don.

Casey and Raph looked at each other.

“Don’t remember.”, said Casey.

“Dunno.”, said Raph.

“You don’t remember?”, said CJ, perplexed, “You know what? I’m not even surprised at this point.”

“Casey does have a reputation for starting fights at school.”, said April.

“Dude, why though?”, asked Mike.

“People got on my nerves; they got punched in the face. That’s enough reason.”, said Casey.

April sighed and said: “He doesn’t beat up random people. He beats up the bullies. The only reason we don’t have many of them at school is Casey.”

“I do what?”, asked Casey.

“You do, dude.”, said Mikey.

“Really?”

“Yup, you and Raph have beat up every single person that ever tried to make fun of us.”, said Donnie.

“Good work, kid! Keep beating them up!”, said Cass.

“I remember the first time he got into a fight.”, said April.

“You do? How? I don’t even remember that?!”

“We were in fifth grade, I think, and I was just walking to my next class when there was some older kid making fun of you for wearing a pretty dress for picture day. You beat him up. It was kinda cool to see.”

“I really don’t remember that, but I remember those pictures! My dress was dirty. So, that’s why.”

This caused everyone to laugh again. The only thing Casey remembered from that day was that he was upset his dress was dirty for picture day, that was one of his favorite dresses.

“Just so you guys know”, began Mikey, “Casey and Donnie met like they were in a bad romance movie. They bumped into each other in the hall.”

“MIKEY!”, yelled both Donnie and Casey. Neither could stop their cheeks from warming up.

“They then walked to class together.”, said Raph, adding fuel to the fire.

“And Casey made up a lie to have an excuse to spend time with Donnie.”, said Leo.

“GUYS!”, said Donnie, now fully hiding his face in his hands.

The older counterparts couldn’t help but find it cute. These two were head over heels for each other and it was only a matter of time before they got together.

“Can we please talk about something else? Like I don’t know. Something stupid you did?”, asked Casey, looking at the older versions. He really wanted to change to topic, he didn’t want to talk about his love life now, especially since Donnie is here.

“Something stupid?”, Leon decided to save Casey from more embarrassment, “Well there was this one time-“ He was cut off by a hand being placed over his mouth.

“Raph has just the story.”, Rafa said, “When these bozos were 14 and 15, they thought eating poison was a good idea.”

“POISON?!”, yelled Leo.

“Yes, they ate poisoned pizza puffs.”

“Pizza puffs are really good.”, said Mikey.

“How did they get their hands on poison?”, asked Donnie, concerned.

“I found one of our usual bad guys and took it from him. When I got home, these guys were asleep so I put them away and wrote on them to not eat them.” He shot a glare towards his brothers. “When I woke up they had eaten them.”

“That’s on you, dude. You don’t write do not eat on stuff and think your brothers listen.”, said Raph.

“I told them they’re poisoned and they kept eating them.”

“I take it back. They’re idiots.”

“In our defense, they were really good!”, said Mike as Don and Leon nodded along.

Rafa looked at them with pure annoyance and let out a big sigh.

“Leon was sweating and constantly on fire. Don’s stomach was talking, literally. And Mike had jelly bones, he was in a bowl the whole time.”

“But we fixed it!”, said Leon.

“After I forced you. You were convinced I’d fix it. Mikey even forgot that I’m Raph!”

“Okay, that was not our greatest moment.”, said Don.

“Where were you when that happened?”, April asked O’Neil.

“I was studying for a test. And I’m glad I did. Hearing the story is always a fever dream, can’t imagine what seeing it would have been like.”

“I would have loved to see that!”, said Cass.

“Of course, you would have.”, said CJ laughing.

“I think all of us are banned from eating pizza puffs.”, said Leo.

“What?!”, yelled Mikey.

“We need to make sure we don’t get poisoned Mikey!”

“But pizza puffs, Leo!”, said Donnie.

“Before the big guy gets more of a chasm, how about a different story? What was your first day of school like?”, said Leon, hoping he didn’t have to get scolded again for the pizza puff incident.

“Pretty normal I guess.”, said Raph.

“Buddy, none of us went to school, expect for April. You need to be more specific.”, said Rafa.

“Right. Uh… We got there and a lot of people were all over us since we saved the city.”, said Leo.

“Then we got our schedules and went to class. Nothing exciting happened. Nothing like what happens in the movies.”, said Mikey.

“Awww… Really nothing?”, said Mike.

“Sorry, it’s not exciting.”, said Donnie.

The dimensional travellers looked a little bumped at this. They had hoped something really exciting would happen to them. Something cool.

“We did get to go to prom though!”, chimed Raph in, maybe they’d think this was more exciting.

“Prom? What was it like? Did you dress up all nice? What did you wear?”, asked Mike. He remembered when O’Neil went with Sunita and both had been so pretty.

“We did!”, said Mikey and pulled out his phone and showed it to them. “That’s what we wore.” The picture showed the four turtles and April all of them dressed for the occasion. They were missing Casey though. They likely met him after prom.

“Looking good.”, said Leon, “Next time call us up, and we’ll make you look even better!”

“Where’s Casey though? Did you not go to prom?”, asked CJ.

“I did. I just met them after prom.”, said Casey, “Wait a second I have a picture.” He scrolled through his phone and held it out to the dimension travellers. In the picture was Cassey, likely still at home judging by the background in a black dress with a tuxedo jacket and ripped stockings. Very on brand for him.

“Now that’s what I’m talking about!”, said Leon.

“Next time you have to let Casey get you your outfits! He has style!”, said Don. His siblings nodded in agreement.

“Thanks, dude! My parents helped me with that.”

Chapter Text

They finished eating their dinner and began cleaning up. They threw out the empty pizza boxes and cleaned the table. Just then Donnie had an idea.

“We should take a picture together!”

They quickly agreed and gathered around. Don set up something using his Ninpo to make sure everyone was in the picture. The phone took the photo and they all looked at the picture. It looked nice. Something small to remember this whole mess by. Don quickly sent it to everyone.

“Wait!”, yelled Mike, “We still have to show you something!”

“Oh right!”, agreed Mikey. They ran outside, the rest of them following close behind.

The two-orange clad turtles stood in front of a wall. No one could really see anything due to it being too dark already.

“Bigger Michelangelo? Would you do the honours?”, said Mikey in a bad fake British accent.

“Of course, Michelangelo.”, said Mike, also faking a British accent.

The older turtle put up a finger and made a circle in the air. A soft orange glow followed it. Seconds later many small lights were scattered around them eliminating the area and revealing just what was on the wall.

A mural. They had made a beautiful mural of them all.

“You guys made that?”, asked Casey.

“Of course!”, said Mike and Mikey, proud of themselves.

“Is it really okay to spray paint on a wall?”, asked Leo.

Raph shoved his brother. “It’s too late now anyway. And we look good, don’t we?”

“We do!”, said April, “You guys are really good!”

“Thanks, but Mike did most of it.”, said Mikey, scratching the back of his head.

“Don’t put yourself down! You did amazing and this is the first time you spray painted!”

Mikey smiled and looked away a little embarrassed at the compliment.

“We really need to look at this again tomorrow when it’s bright outside!”, said Donnie.

After they walked back inside again Donnie and Don walked over to the machine to start the trial run back to their home world.

The others stood behind them watching them work.

“Are you going to take all of this with you when you go home?”, asked Casey. It was a good question. They had everything here. They made themselves a legitimate home. It would take hours to take everything to their world.

“Nope.”, said Mike, “We want you guys to keep everything.”

“Really?!”, asked Leo, “Is that really okay?”

“Of course. We have all of this stuff at home.”, said Leon.

“Well, so do we.”, said Raph.

“True, but you could make this place, like a clubhouse or something. Like a place to get away from everything?”, suggested CJ.

“You know, that sounds amazing!”, said Raph.

Before their conversation could continue Don chimed in.

“We’re done. We can test it.”

Everyone took a step back from the machine. Now that they looked at it properly, it looked almost exactly like the one Don had built back home, just less put together. Don liked to put a coat of purple paint on everything he built.

The screen lit up, much like it had when they first tried out the device back home, but this time the screen displayed the numbers 20-18. Likely their home dimension.

20-18

On the screen, you could see two mutants and an adult human. The mutants were arguing while the human was tipping on the computer he was sitting on.

“Who are they?”, asked Donnie.

“The rat is Pops, the goat man is Draxum and the human is Bishop.”, explained Leon.

“Bishop?”, asked Casey.

“He’s our weird uncle. We kinda adopted him.”, said Rafa.

“Cool! Can we get an uncle?”, asked Mikey no one in particular.

“Can you two shut up?!”, yelled Bishop, “I can barely think!”

The mutants shut up. Neither liked that they couldn’t do anything about getting their sons back, but because they had likely disappeared due to this broken machine Don had built, they couldn’t do anything. Draxum couldn’t follow their mystic and Splinter was lost when it came to his son’s technology. Bishop was the only one who had any idea about anything.

Just then something off-screen began to glow a mixture between purple and green.

“What did you do?”, yelled Draxum.

“Nothing!”, yelled Bishop back.

All three humans stepped back from the rubble – the screen shut down, turning black.

“NO! What is happening to them?!”, asked Mike, worried about the three adults.

“I don’t know and that worries me.”, admitted Don.

Before anything else could be said the same odd green and purple light emerged from the machine.

“What? Is that a portal?!”, said Rafa.

“Looks like it!”, agreed Raph.

“Will it get you guys home?”, asked Leo.

“Likely, this could be our only chance to go home!”, said Don.

“We need to take it!”, said Leon. His siblings nodded at him. They each quickly gave their counterparts a short hug and one by one walked through the bright portal. 

Cass went through it first.

“Watch out for a guy named The Shredder!”, she yelled before he jumped through the portal.

“Always embrace the turtle!”, yelled Mike as he jumped after her.

“Look out for each other, okay?”, said CJ as he jumped after them.

“Beat up all the bastards-“ “LANGUAGE!” “That want to start fights with you!”, said Leon, with a small interruption by Rafa, and jumped into the portal.

Don jumped through the portal next, right after his twin. “We’ll meet again, I’ll make sure of that.”, he promised before leaving.

“Make sure to enjoy being kids.”, said O’Neil as she jumped in.

Rafa stood before the portal, turned to look at all of them and smiled.

“Anata wa hitori ja nai. You are not alone. Remember that.”

He then jumped in as well.

Just as Rafa entered the machine began to heat up more and more until it eventually blew up, leaving nothing of the device behind, except the piece of uranium Don had brought along.

They were in the lab, trying to figure out just what had happened to the kids when the left-over machine began to glow engulfing the whole room in a bright light. Making the three shut their eyes. Only to hear a loud crash seconds later.

“Everyone okay?”, asked an all too familiar voice. Raphael.

“RED!”, yelled Splinter, quickly moving to his eldest son.

“Pops!”, yelled the snapping turtle as he picked up the rat mutant into his arms.

“We missed you!”, said a different voice. It was Orange, he attached himself to the hug as well. Were all of the kids back?

“As much as I like our reunion. Can we please move it to outside of MY LAB!?”, yelled Donnie. There were far too many people in his, unfortunately messy, lab for his liking. He ushered everyone out of the lab.

When they all were just outside the lab, Draxum turned to them.

“Where have you been?! We searched all over New York and the Hidden City!”

“We were in a different dimension.”, said CJ.

“A what now?”, asked Bishop.

“So…”, began Leo. This would take a while.

They explained everything. Everything from Donnie’s machine blowing up to CJ going to high school and finally just how they got home.

“Wait, if you used the uranium I got you to power the machine, where is it now?”, asked Bishop. He didn’t like the idea of uranium being lost in the space-time continuum.

“We left it.”, said Donnie.

“You left it?”

“Yes, I kinda forgot.”

Bishop took a deep breath. “Do you realize how long it’s going to take me to get you more uranium?”

I know. Wait- you’ll get me more?”, said Donnie exited. He didn’t think Bishop would get him more, not after that stunt.

“Of course. But it will take a bit.”

“That’s fine. Thank you!”, Donnie smiled. Knowing he could use uranium as a power source again would make a stable portal much easier.

“Bishop.”, said Splinter.

“Yes?”, the man turned to look at the rat mutant, still trapped in the arms of his oldest son.

“When you get it, tell me first. I’ll decide when Purple get to have it.”

“PAPA!”

“Of course.”

“UNCLE BISHOP!”

“To be fair you were incredibly irresponsible, Donatello.”

“DRAXUM TOO!”

Donnie slummed down to the floor. Sometimes having three parental figures was a blessing as well as a curse.

April placed a hand on Donnie’s shoulder.

“That just means you have enough time to figure out a stable portal. Or a way to contact them.”

“April’s right. We can just take things slow until Dad decides you get to have some uranium.”, said Leo.

“Now you kids get some sleep. It’s been a long day.”, said Splinter, finally having freed himself from Raph’s hold. “Shoo, off you go.”

The seven walked off to their respective train carts, but to the adult's surprise, all of them emerged from the carts shortly later, in their pyjamas and with their blanket and pillow in tow. They built a nest in the middle of the living room and the adults didn’t stop them. Instead, they got comfortable in the turtle pile as well. They could finally rest. None of them had a good night’s rest since the kids dropped off the face of the earth. They needed some sleep.

The whole area was covered in smoke after the machine blew up.

“Is everyone alright?”, yelled Leo.

There was a chorus of yes from around him.

“The exit is this way!”, yelled April.

They followed her voice, finally reaching the outside and taking a deep breath of fresh air.

“Well, that was something.”, said Casey.

“It really was.”, agreed Mikey.

“Do you think we’ll see them again?”, asked Raph.

“Of course, we will! Don promised!”, said Donnie.

“We should probably head home. This will need a bit until the smoke is cleared.”, said April.

The boys nodded in agreement.

They all walked April home first, she lived the closest after all and wished her a good night. They then made their way to Casey’s place, bidding him a good night. After they said good night to their friends they looked for the next manhole cover and made their way into the sewers.

Once they walked into their home, they saw their father. He was in their face instantly worrying about them, they hadn’t called or texted him all day. He was worried.

“Sorry, Dad. We just had a lot of fun and got distracted.”, said Leo.

“Just remember to call me at least once, boys.”

“We will, Dad.”, said Donnie.

“Now, off to bed with you! You have school tomorrow!”

“Good night, Dad.”, said all four.

“Good night, boys.”, said their father.

Inside their room, Donnie moved over to his computer instantly.

“Donnie, Dad said we should go to bed.”, said Leo.

“I know. I just need to do one thing.”

“And what is it? Read a fanfiction?”, said Raph.

“Or maybe he wants to save the pictures he took of his boyfriend?”, said Mikey. Raph and Leo chuckled a little, while Donnie blushed a little.

“I didn’t take any pictures of Casey!”

“I never mentioned Casey.”, said Mikey.

“Anyway – I wanted to print out this!”, Donnie held up a piece of paper with the picture they had taken earlier. Hopefully, they’d leave the teasing be, at least for tonight.

“Ooh. We should put it up!”, said Mikey.

“YES!, Gimme!”, said Raph as he took the picture from Donnie, “Leo, hand me the tape.”

Leo gave Raph the tape and the tallest turtle put up the picture for everyone to see.

“We’re not gonna tell Dad, are we?”, asked Leo.

“Nope.”, said Raph.

“Nu-uh.”, said Mikey.

“Not yet at least.”, said Donnie.

Similar to the four brothers, April and Casey had put up the picture in their room as well. They needed to remember these odd events after all.

It’s been a few months since they had met their interdimensional counterparts. They had, just like CJ had suggested turned the warehouse into a sort of clubhouse. All of them had their own little areas.

Donnie had made his own little workshop with the tools Don had left behind and began tinkering around with things he found.

They had brought along a desk for April to have her own work desk with her board for potential stories.

Mikey didn’t really have a single corner, he really picked up the spray painting and covered most of the walls in drawings, even the floor had gotten a few. He was thinking about how he could put them on the ceiling too.

Leo made a small med bay and made sure to study the notes Leon had given him. It became really helpful every once in a while. Not that they got seriously hurt since, but Casey and Raph did like to get into fights.

Speaking of them. Casey had a corner filled with his, as he called it, mission gear. He took some inspiration from Cass and CJ in that department.

And Raph? He had made himself a makeshift gym or training area. He wanted to buff up for when they met their counterparts again.

The only thing that was still the same as it was before was the nest. They didn’t want to move anything. They occasionally slept in it but they didn’t move it. It felt wrong to move it. They wanted to leave it here, just in case their counterparts dropped in and needed a place to sleep.

Donnie was working on his newest project, fixing their toaster. Leo had somehow busted their toaster and since Donnie had started fixing their things, he was trying to save the thing. He wasn’t quite sure how Leo had managed to break it so badly.

Just then he got a notification from an App he didn’t recognize. I looked a little like Discord. The message read:

Hello other Tello, long time no see.

The username read BootyyyShaker9000. Was that who he thought it was? Was it really Don? It had to be!

“GUYS!”, Donnie yelled, “Don texted me! He texted me!”

Don really kept his promises, didn’t he? They couldn’t wait to see them again, one day.