Chapter Text
Not much good can be said to have come out of the Krang invasion.
The aftermath left New York city a complete wreck, buildings crumbling, scrap metal falling from the sky, weird left-over pink sludge lining the streets - overall, not exactly a fun time. Not only that, but half the world's eyes were trained on New York, aghast at the explosive supernatural occurrences that had started and then promptly stopped for seemingly no reason.
In all honesty, the attention was fair enough.
The sky had split open in a flash of brilliant light like lightning that day, blinding the streets of New York City down below with floods of neon pink before a shadow had formed to swallow the world in darkness. Flowing tentacles, pink ooze and sticky residue spat onto the pavement, sending screams of terror echoing in every crevasse, nook and alley. It was the call of death.
Michelangelo and his family had found themselves laying low until the media coverage and conspiracy theories blew over.
Which was easier said than done, because half the mutants in their quaint train-station home were getting some serious cabin fever, Mikey included.
On several occasions, he had found himself gazing wistfully at the exit to the lair, an incessant pull at his heart begging him to grab his skateboard and fly free on the rooftops of his city, but with the helicopters and police ever vigilant, searching for the cause of the near-apocalypse, he knew it would be a stupid idea. Didn't stop it from being a major bummer though.
The Hamato clan, furthermore, had found themselves in complete disarray after the dust had settled. Leonardo was sporting a serious concussion and several broken bones, a set of tentacle-shaped scars lined the edges of Raphael's right eye, and Donatello had hardly taken his battle shell off since they'd stepped foot into safety. Mikey himself wasn't fairing too much better, in all honesty. Small glowing yellow cracks traced along his arms up to his elbows. They were fading, dulling, as the days passed, but the smallest turtle knew they would never leave for good.
However, there was at least one silver lining, and that was the technology.
After the Krang had been thrust back into their prison dimension and time had been spent winding down, Donnie had snuck back up to the surface (without Splinter's permission might he add - Donnie had gotten a severe telling off for that one) and returned with a bunch of stuff that looked like junk to Mikey's uninformed eyes, that which his brother lovingly dubbed 'Krang-tech.'
Since then, Donatello had spent practically all his waking hours stuffed in his lab, creating and experimenting with the materials.
"Surely," his brother had said with a grin that verged on maniacal, "with this technology, I can make something that will change our lives. This, dear Michelangelo, is the key to our future!"
Mikey didn't know about that, but the conviction in Donnie's eyes had fired him up anyway, and he'd ended up spending many an hour sat by his older brother's side, listening to him ramble about his findings, asking questions where he could, trying his very best to keep his brother's attention away from the tense atmosphere of the lair.
Everyone had been taking a while to recover; he didn't know if they ever truly would. Mikey liked to play up his 'little brother mindset', but he wasn't blind. He saw the way that Raph's right eye often twitched, as if to remind himself that it was still there, the way Leo's insomnia seemed to get even worse than it had been before the invasion, the way April spent much of her time in the station doing menial chores to distract her mind from the past, the way that Splinter held them more often, more tightly, seemed to stare at them when he thought they weren't looking.
And he noticed that Donatello was running himself into the ground with work.
So he did what any good little brother would do - helped him. Splinter did a great job of wrangling Raph and Leo, while April had already informed him that her parents were making her see a therapist. Everyone was pitching in to support Casey Jr in what must be the most whiplash inducing period of his life, and Mikey wasn't doing too bad himself.
Sure! The nightmares of having his body torn apart weren't exactly 'pleasant', but Raph always let him clamber into his bed to rest, and Donnie often let him simply sit next to him while he worked if he didn't feel like falling back asleep.
The least he could do, as a little brother, was make sure Donatello got enough shut eye.
It was obvious that he was working to distract himself, and Mikey couldn't blame him. He remembered looking at the Technodrome's control panel, then meeting Donnie's horrified eyes and realizing what his brother would have to do, felt the bile crawl up his throat. He knew how bad his brother's sensory issues were, knew that touching the slimy, disgusting tentacles would be akin to Donnie touching a burning hot grill.
But Donnie had done it anyway, had even let it touch his soft-shell.
Mikey sometimes dreamed about it - he couldn't imagine what it must have been like for his brother to let it dig into him, to consume him.
He shivered. That was not something he wanted to think about at the moment.
"Hey Don," he greeted as he peeked into the lab, his eyes barely flickering over the eclectic variety of different mechanical creations before falling onto the silhouette of his brother, "You good bro?"
There he was, crouched down, his head stuck in the wiring of his latest creation, a device that Mikey had tried to get him to stop or postpone on many occasions, but to no avail.
A teleportation catalyst.
Donatello jolted, nearly hitting his head on the sleek black metal of the machine as he turned to face the entrance, pulling his goggles up onto his head and wiping a smudge of dirt from his cheek, "Ah, Michelangelo, just the turtle I was hoping to see!"
Mikey smiled, stepping further in, before noticing the deep black bags that hollowed his brother's eyes. The grin on his face turned sour, "Heyy, Donnie. You didn't happen to ignore me when I told you to get some sleep, did you?"
The older mutant blinked and hesitated before answering with an unsure sounding, "No?" Then, after a moment, tried again with a little more conviction, "No. Of course not! Why would you ever think I would... it's silly you think I'd..."
He trailed off upon noticing Mikey's unimpressed expression. His face morphed into a sheepish grin.
"I told you to get some rest Donnie," the younger rolled his eyes and shook his head, "You're going to end up passing out from exhaustion at this rate."
"That boat has passed, my dear brother," before Mikey could even begin to unpack that specific can on worms, Donnie powered through, "I'm nearly finished with my greatest creation yet! This technology, paired with your mystic abilities? Creating portals will be as easy as breathing!"
Mikey's heart skipped a beat, and he couldn't quite tell if the feeling in his gut was one of appreciation or nausea.
After all that had happened, he wasn't quite sure if he ever wanted to use his mystic hands again.
Instead of saying all this out loud, for fear of sounding ungrateful, he plastered on a blinding smile, "I know it's gonna be sick, Don! But... I don't want you falling ill again." Swallowing dryly, he glanced up at his brother, "I really appreciate you doing this for me Donnie, but you need to prioritize your own wellbeing. I get it, I'm not doing my best, so I'm sure you're not either, but working so hard you literally pass out at your desk is... it's worrying me. It's worrying our brothers."
As expected, Donnie writhed under the weight of Mikey's words. He never was one for emotional vulnerability, a fact that had only seemed to worsen since the attack.
"I can't stop," he replied, dipping his head in something like shame, "You know I can't stop, Mike."
The younger's expression softened slightly, "I know, but you need rest."
Mikey was practically the only one in their family to succeed at getting Donnie to take a break with any sort of consistency. Perhaps it was his little brother privileges, or perhaps it was just the bond they'd developed over the years, but either way it worked wonders... most of the time.
"I'm so close to completing it," Donnie said, running a gloved hand over the catalyst's metallic plates, "Just a few more adjustments to it's circuits and it's done. Let me do that, and then we can sleep."
On one hand, Mikey just wanted his brother to rest, but on the other, he could see the desperation flickering in Donnie's eyes, the conviction, the guilt. It wasn't rocket science to figure out why he was doing this in the first place: his little brother had nearly died trying to open a portal to another dimension, Donnie had the means to prevent that from ever happening again. Why wouldn't he spend day and night trying to find a solution. It was as heartwarming as it was concerning.
"Sounds good. You need any help with it?"
"Glad you asked," he replied dryly , "Actually, yes. I'm going to need two pairs of hands for the last section, do you mind?"
"Not at all, that's what the Mikester is here for baby!"
His brother gave a signature stoic smile and lead him over to the area he had previously had his head stuffed inside. He handed Mikey his goggles, "Okay, I'm going to hold the plate open, you need to attach each of the coloured wires into their specific adjacent clips."
The blue and red tinted eyeglasses weighed heavily in Mikey's hands. They were more than just equipment, they were a sign of trust that Donnie had handed him on a silver platter, an unspoken message that said 'I trust you with this part of me, I trust you to help me.' He cradled them gently, staring down at them in awe before shaking himself into action and carefully pulling them over his head to secure in place on his crown.
"Alright, but how do I know which one's match up?"
"You just have to-"
It all happened so fast he could barely comprehend it.
Donnie leant backwards onto his desk, causing a spanner to shift, tilt over the edge and clatter to the floor with a resounding BANG. Mikey started, his eyes flashed and for a moment he couldn't feel anything at all.
His Ninpō activated on instinct, his hand brushed up against the Krang-tech, and his mystic energy sparked against the conductive material.
"Ack-" he tried to grit it back, but that familiar feeling of fire in his veins burned under his skin. His mystic powers, which he had so far kept locked up tightly in the corner of his soul, lashed out violently, sending bright orange particles flying across the room.
"Mikey-" Donnie cried out, but was forced back when the centre of the portal device glared, igniting the room with neon-pink light.
It was like boiling water, Mikey couldn't contain it, his mystic energy poured out through cracks in his mortal vessel, and it hurt so badly-
"Mikey- Mikey you need to stop it!" his brother cried somewhere behind him, "Your powers, they're jump-starting the portal- MIKEY!"
But he couldn't hear him, he couldn't hear anything over the roaring in his ears, the sounds of his own agonized panting, the feeling of his blood becoming molten.
Suddenly there was a powerful force, a suction, like a whirlwind, it was dragging tools, materials, papers directly into the opening of the portal. And before he could even comprehend it, the force was dragging Mikey too.
There was a shout behind him, a hand gripping tightly to his wrist, which can't be right because Donnie hadn't touched him in weeks-
"MIKEY PLEASE SNAP OUT OF IT! No, no no no NO-"
He could feel the grip loosening.
Then there was a body slamming at full force into his own, limbs wrapping around him protectively as the two of them were thrown into the portal, which promptly flickered once, then twice, before it closed behind them entirely.
)()()(
Mikey woke up to what had to be the worst headache of his life.
He groaned, face scrunching up in discomfort as he rolled off his carapace and onto his front, feeling cold hard concrete under his hands. A chill breeze swept across his face, forcing him to suppress a shiver. The night was cold and unforgiving on the surface.
Wait... why was he outside?
He wasn't supposed to be up here, Dad told him so. He'd clearly stated, quote: "If any of you boys even think about going up to the surface, you will be grounded for a year- no two years! Do you understand me?" Travel into city was strictly forbidden after Donnie's little stunt, and from the look in Splinter's eyes, he really meant to enforce his threat if necessary. Now, Angelo knew exactly when to follow the rules and when to break them, but this law in particular, as much as he hated it, was one he would not be skirting around any time soon. So how on earth was he out in the open?
The last thing he remembered was checking on each of his brothers before going to bed. He'd visited Raph's room, his older brother already fast asleep under a thick blanket, teddy hugged tight to his chest, then to Leo's abode, where he found the red-eared slider reading comics on his bed. After saying goodnight to both, he went to Don's lab, where he'd nearly had to pull out Dr. Feelings despite knowing how much his brother loathed emotional confrontation. He remembered agreeing to help his brother with his project before-
It all came rushing back.
He jerked upright, nearly falling flat on his rear, and desperately looked around, "Donnie? Donnie!"
There, crumpled on the ground, was a figure, curled up tightly into a ball, black battle-shell facing towards him.
Without thinking, and ignoring the way practically every part of his body protested, he scrambled towards his brother's body, hovering his hands and feeling, not for the first time, completely and utterly helpless. He barely held back the urge to shake Donnie's shoulders with all of his might.
"Donnie?! Are you alright! Speak to me!! DONNIE!"
The small grunt he got in response to his shrill yelling might have been pathetically weak, but it was music to Mikey's ears.
"Too loud..." his brother groaned, his face twisting in discontent.
"Oh thank goodness," Mikey breathed, placing a hand to his plastron and leaning back on his heals, "Are you hurt?"
"Short answer: Ow," Donnie didn't open his eyes, in fact he seemed to close them tighter than before, "Long answer: Owwwwwww."
Alright, so he was well enough to joke around and play up the theatrics. That was... good? "I think Leo is rubbing off on you," he smiled, feeling relief well in his poor heart. If he experienced another near-death experience in the next month, he was sure he'd collapse from high blood pressure or a heart attack or something along those lines.
"Anything but that," his brother whined, turning his head away in shame.
Mikey to looked up and glance around. The area they found themselves in was strange, quiet. The New York they knew was anything but quiet, with a constant thriving nightlife, so why was the only noise the distant vibration of housing ventilation or a lone car engine? Were they even in New York anymore?
"Hey Don?" he grimaced, turning back to face the older of the two.
"What is it?"
"Do you want the good news or the bad news?"
Donnie's brows tucked together, "Uh, good news I guess?"
"Your teleportation device worked!"
"Do I even want to know the bad news?"
"I have literally no idea where we are."
"... Great."
Shakily, Mikey tried to pull himself to his feet, but quickly found that was a terrible idea, as he fell straight back onto the floor with a soft 'oof,' legs trembling beneath him. That seemed to pull Donnie out of whatever dramatic funk he'd found himself in, as he sat up straight in an instant, scrutinizing his brother with those calculating eyes of his. The numbers and probabilities were practically visible behind his pupils, cogs turning at ninety miles per hour to work out a solution to whatever problem he was currently foccussed on.
"You overdid yourself."
It was a statement, not a question.
"I didn't mean to," Mikey replied with a wince, "The moment I touched that freaky Krang-tech stuff with my mystic hands, it just activated! I couldn't help it..."
Donnie hummed, crossing his legs and placing one elbow onto his knee, using his hand to pinch his chin in thought, "If I remember correctly... I knocked that open-ended spanner onto the floor. You were startled; the loud stimulus must have activated your acute stress response, or 'fight or flight instinct' as you probably know it. In your panic you chose 'fight', used your powers and it... reacted with the alloy? At least now I know I did something right." He looked around, "We did teleport, but where exactly to I have literally no idea."
The city was dull, almost monochromatic. Instead of the vibrant glowing blues and pinks often associated with NYC at night, this new place felt dead. There were sky scrapers in the distance, individual lights from windows glimmering softly, but for the most part the lights of houses were off, as if the entire city had gone to sleep. It was strange, weird, but still it somehow felt like New York just... different.
"I- I don't know," Mikey replied, "I wasn't thinking when my hands started doing their thing - it wasn't on purpose! I've never seen this place before in my life!"
Donnie's eyes were still focused entirely on the unfamiliar town when he spoke, "I know it wasn't on purpose. I should have known that if I created a device capable of interacting with your mystic energy and then let you touch it before it was complete something would go wrong. Just how dramatically wrong is yet to be seen." Then, he turned back to face him, "How are you feeling?"
"Like I got run over by the turtle tank," Mikey said, "I don't think I could activate my mystic powers right now even if I tried."
His brother blinked, "Now that you mention it, my Ninpō feels much weaker as well." He flexed his hands and turned them over, inspecting them, before throwing them up in the air, "Oh well, who cares? Science is better than magic anyway."
"Yeah but," Mikey frowned, "My Ninpō is what got us here in the first place. If I don't have it, then how are we supposed to get home?"
"Well, our first step would be to find out where exactly 'here' is."
Donnie plucked his goggle from where they were sat snuggly on Mikey's head and fixed them over his eyes, adjusting them for comfort. With his newly acquired insight, his eyes swept over the city. Where there was once a look of assurance, Donnie's expression morphed into something more disturbed, almost horrified.
"Oh no. No, no, this is- this is all wrong."
"What is it?!"
"I'm not sensing any mystic energy at all," he informed the other, stumbling to his feet and searching around himself desperately, "I- the only mystic beings here are me and you, but that's not possible! Magic is found all across the world! It's-" pulling the goggles up onto his head, his eyes widened and he brought a hand up to cover his mouth, "Unless we- but no, that's not- it was just a hypothetical. I-"
"It came from over here, I'm sure of it!"
The sound of a new voice jolted the two out of their spiral. The noise was close, closer than they would have liked, and approaching fast. Now that they payed attention, the resounding sets of footsteps echoing on the pavement were unmistakable. There were other people here, and they need to hide.
Mikey's breath hitched, and a part of him wondered what mystic yōkai he'd managed to piss off for this to happen. Before he could say a word, Donnie grabbed him and pulled him onto a perron that was attached to a nearby building, the two of them falling into the shadows formed from the droll moonlight. Distantly, he remembered the days when hiding had seemed so difficult, back before the Krang, before they'd even defeated the Shredder. Now, however, becoming one with the environment almost seemed like second nature.
"You know, I'm starting to think you just dragged us out here to mess with us," said a gruff voice, obviously disgruntled and on the verge of anger.
"I'm sorry, but it's not my fault you can't keep up with my explanations," replied the first voice, rather nasally.
There was a scoff and then, "Oh yeah? Well it's not my fault that your scientific jargon was too stupid for me to understand!"
"Guys, please! We're getting nowhere with this," interrupted a new person, placating and calm, "Please, just explain it from the top."
The group of individuals finally became visible, and Mikey felt his heart plummet to the floor, because in front of him, stood where the duo had been not moments before, were four turtle yōkai. The first one, leading the group along, was tall, taller than the both of them. He had maybe three-four inches on Donnie, and was wearing a faded purple mask, with long ends trailing behind him. On his back, was a bō staff. The similarities to Donnie were... uncanny.
His brother also seemed to notice, his face becoming pensive.
The second was shorter than the first, and adorned a blue bandana, slightly darker than that of Leo's. Strapped to his back were a pair of dual katanas- okay what the shell was going on? First the tall purple turtle, now blue as well? What a whacky coincidence.
"Yeah, bro. Do tell," one wearing a red mask sneered, folding his arms over his plastron and morphing his beak into a chilling smirk. Attached to his hip were two, three-pronged traditional sais. Just like Raph's.
The fourth one was the smallest, with a slightly more yellowish tone to their skin and freckles dotted along their cheeks. They wore an orange mask. Mikey brought a hand up to run his fingers on the hem of his bandana, so similar to that of the turtle in front of him. They even had the same short bandana trails, like little puffy bows!
The tallest, who Mikey dubbed 'Purple' for lack of a better name, waved the small device that he carried in his hands. From such a distance, the mutant couldn't quite make out what the diagrams on the screen meant, nor what data they were presenting. Donnie's eyes were trained on the machine like a vulture, hungry for knowledge.
"As of recent, I've been monitoring the energy waves of the city. You know, just in case something happens so we can investigate it and prevent any future disasters," Purple explained, "So far, there hasn't been anything out of the ordinary. That is, until today."
"Aw man, are we gonna have to stop the apocalypse again?" Orange groaned, throwing his head back and swinging his arms by his sides, "Can't we catch a break?"
The other three looked at the turtle with uninterested expressions.
"Maybe let me finish speaking first?" Purple raised an eyebrow, and then coughed into his fist, "Ahem, I checked the city's energy levels just half an hour ago and BOOM! There was a colossal energy flux in this exact location! Not only that, but my systems couldn't pinpoint the exact energy type. At first I thought it might be mechanical or even nuclear energy, but neither of those transfers would be powerful enough to elicit that kind of reaction, and they would have left behind at least some kind of trail but..."
The four looked around the area, finding nothing out of place.
"There's nothing here. Did you read your whatchamacallit right?" Red retorted, "Or maybe your gizmo malfunctioned, something like that?"
"No, no it-" the turtle ran his hand over his skull, a nervous habit, perhaps? "It wasn't a mistake, I can assure you. Something happened here, I just know it!"
"Use your eyes shell for brains! There's. Nothing. Here!"
"According to my calculations, the amount of energy that was released may have even been enough to tear a hole into the fabric of reality as we know it! We have to search around, there must be something left behind-"
Blue looked at the taller apologetically, "I hate to say it, but it wouldn't be the first time your tech has messed up. I know this is important to you but we can't be wasting our time on false leads like this."
"But you don't understand! This could be serious! Why aren't you listening to me!"
"I'm sorry Donnie, but Raph is right. We should head back before the sun starts rising."
Mikey felt his mouth go dry.
The purple bandana. The obsession with technology. The weapon choice of a bō. The name.
His blood turned to ice as his head whipped around to stare at his brother, who suddenly looked rather pale in contrast to his usual jade-green tones.
"Donnie, are they-"
Before he could finish, Donnie's cold hand clapped over his mouth to silence him, a sudden dread flitting over his face, but it was too late, the four turtles below them tensed up. Angelo barely had time to blink before the four of them had dropped into their fighting stances, weapon's drawn, expressions steely.
"Who's there? Show yourself!" Blue demanded, gripping his katanas in a way that was so familiar yet so different to Leo's usual posture that it made Mikey's eyes burn.
"If you come down now, we won't have to beat you within an inch of your life," Red said through a bloodthirsty smile, dual sais held in an offensive position, one pointed to where he'd pinpointed the sound and the other hung loosely at his side. His overall demeanor was confident in a way that the others weren't, "How does that sound?"
'Great job, Mikey,' the box-shell hissed internally, shrinking further back into the shadows, his shell pressed tightly against the rough, brick wall, 'Way to get yourselves caught.'
Donatello was tense at his side, wound tight like a coiled spring, gripping his tech-bō tightly.
"What do we do?!" Michelangelo whispered to his brother, who looked just as out of his element as Mikey felt. Sweat rolled down his cheek as his jaw quivered.
"We have to get out of here," Donnie responded quietly, yet equally as urgently, and began to fervently mutter to himself, "They've accurately assumed our location, a sure sign of training and skill. You can hardly stand on your own. We have to find shelter for the night, but first we need to lose these guys."
"But how-"
"Oi! What are you yapping on about!" Red yelled, waving his weapons threateningly, "Get down here and face me you cowards!"
Blue stepped forward, a determined expression on his face, "Don't make us come up there."
"M-maybe they can help us!" Mikey suggested, feeling his heartbeat in his throat.
The turtles below were starting to become agitated at the lack of response.
Donnie looked at him like he'd grown a second head. He hated that look, the one his brothers all gave him when he said something too naïve, too trusting, like when he'd dragged Draxum into their lives with the promise of redemption, "Mikey, they have their weapons drawn on us. What part of that screams, 'I'm so totally not going to kill you if you show yourselves to us!'?"
"Alright, I'm giving you five seconds to come down from there, or else," Blue called out in warning. For what it was worth, he didn't seem malicious, just defensive, but that really didn't help their situation all that much. Tomato, tomato, "Five."
Mikey felt helpless tears well up in his eyes. Could this day get any worse?
"Four."
Donnie didn't seem to be fairing any better, teeth gritted together and brilliant mind working rapidly to form a solution. It was in moments like these that Mikey wished their brothers were there. Leo had really stepped up his game since the invasion, and Raph was always a dependable source of safety and comfort. He missed them so much already.
"Three!"
It was in that moment that something sparked in his brother's eyes. He grabbed the box-shell's wrist - to which the mutant had to suppress a wince - and held him close, which was already weird and concerning because Donnie did not do physical contact unless it was an absolute emergency, "Hang on, Mikey. This is going to get bumpy."
"Wha-" he tried to protest, watching as Donnie dismissed his bō staff and began to fiddle with his tech-wrist band, "Hey what are you-"
"Two!"
Several small beeping sounds filled the tense air, and Mikey's eyes widened in realisation as a small hiss escaped Donatello's battle-shell and four titanium-grade metal arms reached out.
"ONE!"
"WAIT-"
Two of the arms shot out of the darkness, slamming into an unsuspecting Orange and Purple, and forcefully throwing them into Red and Blue respectively, knocking them to the floor. The sounds of their startled cries made Mikey tighten his grip on his brother, his arms looped around Donnie's neck and his legs both hung to one side of the older turtle's hips. One of Donnie's hands held onto the back of Mikey's shell will the other supported his thighs so that the younger was held in a one-person lift.
The other two mechanical arms pressed into the grated metal floor of the perron and used the force of the push to launch them both into the air and onto the rooftop, right behind where the quadruplets had careened into the ground.
Donnie tucked Mikey close, ducking into a combat roll the moment his feet met the concrete and swiftly pulled himself up once again before taking off in a desperate run.
"Now would be a brilliant time to tell me if you have any spare ESCAPE PODS!" Mikey screamed, scrunching his eyes closed.
"Just hold on!" Tello ordered, not looking back for a moment as he sprinted, jumping across an alleyway gap onto a parallel building.
The ornate box-shell turtle looked over Donatello's shoulder to see that the four alternates had recovered quickly, Red already hot on their heels, promptly followed by Orange as Purple was left behind to help Blue to his feet. The katana-wielding turtle's face was scrunched up in discomfort as he took Purple's hand. A sense of guilt knocked at the young ninja's ribs despite the fear of capture. They might not have been the friendliest of mutants but that was still technically their brother. Or their weird stoic cousin? Alternate universe Leo? Oh it didn't matter.
In his moment of hesitation, he hadn't noticed Red reaching for something at his belt, not until the ninja star was ripping through the air straight towards them.
"Look out!"
It wasn't enough of a warning for Donnie to dodge it.
"Gah!"
His brother let out a cry as the shuriken sliced at his leg, and he stumbled. The momentum of Donnie's running speed caused them both to go tumbling harshly into the ground. The two ended up rolling several feet, Donnie still holding onto his little brother, desperate to protect him from the unknown threat that was rapidly approaching. Mikey's head was tucked under Donnie's chin, his entire body jittery with energy and pain. Everything was fuzzy, everything hurt-
"Hng" Donnie gritted as he tried and failed to pick them both up, biting back a whimper at the fresh cut along his calf.
"Donnie!" Mikey cried out, finding his footing long enough to support his brother's weight, "Donnie stop-"
"I'm not going down like this," Donatello hissed, using his tech-bō as a crutch and growling at the shorter turtles who had halted in their approach not a few meters away. It had been weeks since Mikey had seen his brother this desperate and disconcerted, which was saying something, because a few weeks ago they were fighting for their lives and literally nearly lost their brother in a prison dimension.
"Wait, you're turtles! Like us!" Orange placed a hand to the Red's plastron, holding him back from approaching any closer.
"Haah? You going around impersonating us or something?" Red tilted his head backwards, his lip upturned in a snarl.
"You could say that," Don said without further explanation, trying to shift himself into a better position.
"Woahh, you sorta look like me!" Orange said, blue eyes staring straight at Mikey. His face split into a laidback grin, "That's sick!"
Now that he was standing closer, Mikey could see the pair of nunchaku at the turtle's belt, each one sat snuggly in a pouch on either side of the turtle's midriff. It was like staring right into the uncanny valley. The mutant in front of him was so similar to himself, yet there were plenty of differences at the same time. He barely suppressed a shiver at the sight.
"This is not sick!" Red yelled at his brother, gesturing violently at the two injured turtles, "They're imposters trynna impersonate us! How is that sick?!"
"I don't know bro, it just is!"
Mikey blurted before he could think to stop himself, "You're Mikey and Raph, right?"
Both of their attentions turned back to the younger, one's expression filled with confusion and anger, the other simply curious. Even Donnie looked at him, something like pride in his eyes, pride in knowing that his little brother had managed to figure out their predicament too.
"How do you know our names?" Orange cocked his head to one side.
"Because, simpletons," Donnie replied with far more confidence than Mikey could even think to muster in a situation like this, "We're you from an alternate universe."
There was a pregnant pause, in which Mikey thought he might die from the tension. His heart was still racing fast, body laced with adrenalin begging him to pick up his brother and run. But instead he remained frozen in place, waiting anxiously for a response.
After several beats, Red, rather unexpectedly, pinched the bridge of his beak and sighed loudly, "Ugh, not again. I've had it with multiversal crap!"
"I knew you looked like me!" Orange bounded over to them, smile blinding, "That's totally rad dude! You're Mikey too, right?"
The reaction took the two aback. He was expecting more skepticism, not a groan of exhaustion and radiating positivity. For now, however, Mikey decided it would be best to just roll with the punches, move with the tide.
"The one and only baby!" he poked a thumb at his chest with a smirk before his mind fried, "Wait, the... not-one and only?"
He looked from side to side in confusion before simply deciding that he did not have the energy for that kind of thinking right now. Donnie huffed a small laugh, leaning heavy on his bō, "This is going to get very disorienting very fast. I didn't drink enough coffee this morning for this to be happening."
"That's cause I told you to get some sleep, and what did you do? Pulled another all-nighter on one of your silly inventions, that's what! Look where your sleep problems got us! Thrown into another dimension." He flicked his older brother's forehead, right between the eyebrows.
"Yeow! Was that necessary?" Donnie pouted as he covered the offended area with his free palm. Yeah, Leo's theatrics really were rubbing off on him.
"Absolutely," Mikey preened, smile stretching his beak.
"Raph, Mikey, you guys okay?!"
The brothers turned in the direction of the voice. Purple and Blue had caught up, both with vaguely perplexed expressions. Blue was limping slightly; Mikey noticed as he swallowed dryly, guilt once again curling in the back of his mind.
"We've got a multiverse problem again," Red said, rubbing a hand over his face.
"Again?"
"Again."
A certain type of tiredness overcame Blue's features. The turtle upturned his head to stare at the sky, as if contemplating what mistakes he had made to get him to this point, and if jumping off the edge of the building was still an option.
"If that's the case," Purple said thoughtfully, leaving Blue to stand in his own misery as he inspected his counterpart, "then you must be me, right? I mean, it makes sense. The purple aesthetic, the technology, the bō et cetera."
The soft-shell scoffed, "If your name is Donatello, like mine, then that would be the case yes."
"It is as I thought... that must mean that the energy fluxes were your doing. It takes a lot of energy for someone to be transport across realities after all."
A soft shadow fell over Donnie's eyes as he tilted his head downwards. The smile was still present on his face, but it was sharper than before, "You seem very familiar in this area of expertise. Up until now, the idea of alternate realities was completely hypothetical, yet you have already moved on from that fact."
For a moment, Mikey had almost forgotten how frustrated his brother could become if he found someone else who knew more than him. It was the whole reason he hated mystic so vehemently - he couldn't delve deep into its secrets to unlock its full potential, it just was. It existed on it's own plane, outside the realm of human understanding and anything that his brother couldn't fully understand was like an itch he couldn't scratch: annoying and irritating.
Purple blinked, "Oh, have you never interacted with your alternates before?"
"I can't say I've had the pleasure no."
Red laughed at Don's deadpan response, nudging Orange with his elbow, "Hah! I like this guy."
"You know, I'd like you more if you hadn't sliced my leg open with a shuriken," Donnie gestured towards his bleeding leg as he glared at his older brother's counterpart.
"You what?!" Blue snapped out of his stupor to chastise Red, evidently scandalized.
"What? He messed up your leg again! You can't expect me to let him get away with that."
"I'm fine, Raph! It's nothing some rest won't fix," he turned back to face the two new mutants, "I'm sorry about our... reaction to your appearance. Most things in this city want to kill us so we sort of just assumed you would too. For that I apologize."
Mikey and Donnie glanced at each other. This Leo was weird.
"Uhh, sure. No problem," the box-shell replied with a breathy laugh and looked away to avoid the counterpart's piercing sapphire eyes. Blue seemed to take notice of his hesitation but, thankfully, didn't question it further.
"So, you're Donnie and Mikey, then where's Raph and uh- Leo?" he asked, glancing across the barren rooftop, "Are they around here somewhere?"
"I don't- I don't think so. I can't sense them. Can you, Donnie?" Mikey looked to his brother, hoping, praying that he wouldn't receive the answer he was bound to get. His Hamato Ninpō was weaker from the strain, sure, but maybe that just meant he'd overdone it. Surely Raph and Leo would be around here somewhere, and they would all be reunited without issue.
Donnie looked at him with something behind his eyes and shook his head, "If you can't sense them, then there's no way in shell I would be able to. You've always had a stronger connection to mystic energy than I have."
The four alternate mutants looked between each other, "Mystic energy?"
"Never mind, it's too complicated to explain right now, and I have a killer headache," the soft-shell waved them off with a dismissive hand, "It's safe to assume they're back at home. They weren't in my lab when the portal opened. Looks like it's just you and I for now, Mikey."
"I hope Raph's doing alright," the boy felt a chill along his back, "You know how he gets when he's alone for too long."
Donnie reached out to pat his brother on his head comfortingly, "Well then it's a good thing he's not alone, is he? He's got Leo, Dad, April and Case, they'll all be fine."
It was as good a reassurance as Mikey would ever get from Donnie, so he'd take it. His brother had never quite gotten a hang of the whole consolation thing, but it was the thought that counted really. However, his relief didn't stop him from noticing the way the group behind him seemed to tense slightly at the words - for what reason? He wasn't quite sure he was privy to that kind of information yet, so he kept his mouth shut.
Orange held a hand to his temple and swayed in place, discomfort written all over his expression, "Ugh, all these names are making my head hurt. I keep getting confused!"
"We could always go by nicknames if you'd prefer," Mikey suggested, "It would make it easier to tell ourselves apart."
"In that case," Donnie grinned, leaning forward with a smug smirk on his face, "You may refer to me as Othello von Ryan - a sophisticated name for a sophisticated gentleman such as myself."
The bout of awkward silence that followed that sentence made the other four mutants look like they wanted to curl up into their shells. Mikey was used to his brother's theatrics by then, but it seemed that this particular area of dramatization was uncharted territory for them. They would need to get used to it if they wanted to survive his brother's eccentric nature.
"Yeah, no way in hell," Raph deadpanned, to the collective agreement of his brothers.
"You all have no taste," Donnie muttered to himself, his ego wounded but other than that completely unaffected by the group's unanimous distain for his chosen name, "Fine! You win, does Tello fit your soulless expectations?"
"It's better than 'Othello von Ryan,'" Purple replied with a wince, "Seriously, I hope you never have to name anything important."
"Oo, can I go by Angelo," Mikey waved his hand in the air, "I like that nickname. Please!"
"Sounds good," Tello clapped his hands together, "Great, but now that that's over and done with, we need to find shelter somewhere. Not to rush things along, but we really should be getting out of your hair, or lack thereof."
Angelo blinked in confusion, "Huh?"
"Surely your adrenalin levels are crashing by now," the soft-shell stated factually, "I've got some pain meds on me, but it would be best if we had some place relatively safe to crash so you don't end up with fever."
The younger hadn't even thought of that before, but it made sense. After the Krang invasion, and the group had returned home, all four of them had all ended up falling ill over the next couple of days from their respective injuries and the stress of having to literally save the world from its destruction at the hands of evil aliens. Raph's fever had been the first to break, and he'd spent the rest of that week coddling his younger siblings, hand feeding them, helping them bathe, dressing them in comfortable clothes until they were better. Splinter had also been a huge help during that period of time, as was Casey. Angelo's own fever couldn't have lasted longer than four days, but they were four days spent mostly delirious and mentally gone.
Mikey's was bad, but Leo's was the worst by far. It was very touch and go for a bit, and he'd been out of it for an entire week before he'd even started to get better.
Thank god for their heightened healing factor, because without it...
"I'm sure that there's a pharmacy I could borrow some supplies from, and convenience stores never have brilliant surveillance, so I could definitely sneak in and grab the essentials. Food, water- you need more greens when you're sick- and some bandages would be-"
"Woah woah, let's take it easy with the robbery plan," Leo - this world's Leo, all serious and collected and was that a worry line between his eyes? - raised his hands placatingly and gave a nervy smile, "We could always let you crash at the lair if you want?"
"We could what?!" Raph suddenly yelled. Angelo wondered, for a moment, if this is what their Raph would have ended up like if he'd never gotten his anger under control, "You can't just invite random people to our base!"
"They're not random people, Raph," Leo spoke authoritatively, "They're our brothers - from another dimension sure, but still our brothers none the less. How would you feel if Mikey- our Mikey, and Donnie got portaled to another world, and an alternate version of you refused to help them while they were injured?"
That seemed to stump the shorter, feistier turtle, who turned away with a grumble. That was another thing - this Raph seemed constantly on edge, tense, like a powder keg ready to explode upon a moment's notice. There was a fire in his eyes, flickering between his own brothers and their new company as if looking for the spark that would set himself alight. He still hadn't put away his weapons.
"That's what I thought," the turtle huffed in mild annoyance before returning his attention to the two newcomers, "We have plenty of supplies back at the lair. Painkillers, antibiotics, bandages, antiseptic, you name it. Anything you need."
Tello's expression flattened, "I feel like a toddler being bribed into a van using candy."
"Yeah, but we kinda need the stuff, don't we?" Angelo commented, "I know I do! I can feel all my bones!"
The statement was said so cheerily that the others did a double take at its contents, but Tello didn't bat an eye, sighing heavily, "Fine, I guess we can join you to your lair," he turned to his brother, "Can you walk?"
"Hm, lemme try."
Angelo took approximately two and a half steps before his body nearly crumpled into a pile on the floor. Flashes of pain laced up his legs like lightning, causing him to grit his teeth together to prevent him from crying out. Thankfully, Tello's reactions were swift, as he grabbed his little sibling by the cervical of his shell and hoisted him back up to a semi-standing position.
"Yeah, I'll take that as a no."
Mikey - the freckled one- winced, scratching the back of his head, "Jeez man, what even happened to you? You look dead on your feet!"
"You sure he's not faking it?" Raph received a hand slapping the underside of his head for the comment. He barely bit back a yelp, turning to glare at Donnie who was staring at him, unimpressed.
Tello, mildly annoyed with the accusation towards his brother, replied, "Yes, I'm sure he's not faking, and we can explain what happened at another time, for now we need to rest and recuperate."
"Uhh, quick question. If I can't walk, then how am I supposed to get to the lair?"
"One of us could carry you if you want?" Leo suggested, trying to be helpful, but the very idea of someone else carrying him made Angelo feel slightly nauseous.
"Yeah, no. Not happening. I'll carry you," Tello cut in monotonously, as if his words didn't cause his brother to tense up.
Since they were young tots, Angelo had always remembered having to be very careful around Tello when it came to physical contact. Raph had explained to a younger, teary eyed Angelo that no, Tello didn't hate him and no, he wasn't being mean on purpose, it just seemed that he had some sensory issues when it came to hugs, touches, materials, foods. Furthermore, he was never the most emotional turtle - he didn't enjoy elaborate displays of intimacy even when he was a baby, often protesting against them, whining until he was released from hugs of any kind. It quickly became a habit to ask his brother for permission before initiating an embrace, and really he didn't mind having to. Whatever made the soft-shell more comfortable.
Sometimes, Tello came off as aloof, or uncaring, or unemotional, but really Angelo just found that he had different ways of expressing himself than most people, and that was fine.
Today, however, his brother had instigated physical contact more times in the span of less than an hour than he usually would have in a full week. Not only that, but carrying him while his leg was injured just seemed like a recipe for disaster. A coiling worry festered in Angelo's gut, fearing that Tello would force himself into a state of burnout if he kept this up.
"No, no it's fine," he tried to dissuade the other, waving his hands in an attempted gesture of goodwill only to find that his arms were aching badly. He smiled through it, hoping that it didn't look too strained, "Really, I don't mind one of them carrying me-"
"Listen, Mike- sorry, Angelo," Tello's eyes shifted from the younger to the group mutants stood nearby, "It's fine."
"But-"
"I promise I'll tell you if it's not."
Clenching both his hands into fists and nodding determinedly, Angelo sniffed, "You'd better."
"Alright, hop on."
The taller of the two crouched down, using his weapon as an aid. The turtle wasted no time in clambering onto his brother's back, wrapping his hurting arms around Tello's neck and hugging the cool metal of the battle-shell as he let out a sigh of relief, happy to get his feet off the ground.
Tello righted himself with a tiny wince but steadied himself easily, and sent a nod towards Leonardo, "Okay, we're all good over here. Lead the way oh mighty leader."
The blue masked turtle's beak wrinkled slightly at the sarcasm but he mostly ignored it, electing instead to send a worried glance towards Tello's injured leg, "Uh, are you sure you want to be walking on that?"
"Hah! You think something as petty as a flesh wound will stop me? Pathetic," Tello grinned arrogantly, "Besides, holding Angelo is like holding a couple of grapes."
"He's really small, like even smaller than me!" Mikey said with wonder in his eyes, tilting his head to get a better look.
Normally Angelo would have replied with something like, 'small?! Who you calling small?!' or 'I'm fifteen, I'm basically an adult!' but it seemed that the exhaustion was finally starting to get to him, especially now that he didn't need to focus on remaining standing upright. His eyelids were heavy with the urge to take a nap.
"Feeling sleepy there, Angelo?" Tello asked, noticing the lack of response.
"Mn."
"Yeah?" he could practically feel the way one of his brother's large, drawn-on eyebrow raised - semi amused, "You can sleep if you want, I'll take it from here."
"No, no, I'm... I'm all good. I'm awake."
Slowly, he peeled his eyes open again, suppressing a yawn. The four alternates were staring at him with these looks on their faces, Mikey had both his hands over his mouth and was barely hopping in place, vibrating with energy, and Leo's expression was soft in a way that Angelo had only ever seen his Leo do when he thought no one was paying attention. Donnie's mouth had adorned a gentler smile and even Raph, who so far had been nothing but harsh and prickly seemed pacified to some extent.
"What?"
"Oh- nothing, you're just- you really are small," Leo replied, like he was looking at the mutant with fresh eyes, a wistful sort of tilt to his tone.
"M not," Angelo whined, burying his head in the crook of his brother's shoulder, "M a big man."
Maybe looking away hadn't been the best idea, because he didn't need to look up to visualize the way that Mikey's face lit up like a kid on Christmas from the small squeal he emitted. It was the same one that Angelo made all the time when he saw something adorable beyond words.
"Okay then big man. Let's get you back to the lair," Leo said, something in his voice that Angelo was too tired to unpick.
As the group moved, Angelo tried his best to keep his eyes ajar, but with every passing step his adrenalin-induced energy seemed to slip through his fingers like sand, tiredness overcoming him. In the background he could hear talking, small murmurs and mutterings, Tello's neck vibrating as he spoke, but the box-shell turtle couldn't hear them at all.
'I gotta... gotta stay awake,' he thought to himself fleetingly, 'I gotta just... stay...'
Angelo conked out before they got past the third rooftop.