Quick Author's Note: Hi guys, this is my fanfiction for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I just want to start by stating that I do not own TMNT nor any of its characters minus the OCs I've written. This is going to be rated T for infrequent cursing, suggestive themes and violence. The universe I have decided to use is sort of a combination between the 2003 & 2012 television series and the comics. I love the 1987 series, but story wise, it is by far the weakest. While I understand these three renditions ('03 & '12 tv series and the comics) are somewhat different to radically different you'll just have to go with it since I'll be swapping between which timelines I'll use. In some cases I might prefer how the comics handled it and go with that. In others I'll prefer one of the tv shows. And in other instances I might prefer to make a combination of the storylines and make an original backstory. If I choose the latter I'll most likely explain it in text. Chances are if you're fans of many iterations of TMNT you'll know immediately which I'm using or if it's something entirely new. If you can't figure it out and just have to know exactly what's going on, then just message me about it.

I will update as often as I have time to write and as work and school permit (not to mention my unhealthy video game habit). Finally, I hope you guys enjoy.

1

Michelangelo

It was getting late as Mikey took a turn down another familiar alley. He had just stopped and gotten a slice at Joe's and was now on his way home. He didn't like Joe's, but it was cheaper than most everywhere and Joe didn't ask too many questions. Questions were everywhere now; everywhere since they killed the Shredder.

That was four years ago, but it felt like longer. He could remember how they used to think it would be over without Shredder and that they could live out the rest of their lives happily, but they were wrong. What could he say? They were just teenagers then, they had no idea that life was never going to be like that.

Mikey walked out of the alley and sat on a bench at the end of the basketball court of the neighborhood he was passing through. There were a few kids on the far court playing and a couple of parents with their young ones by the swingsets. For a moment, Mikey just sat on the bench waiting. He looked at the nearby apartment building and all of its graffiti. Mikey liked graffiti, he was always the artist among his brothers, but he especially loved how all the foot clan graffiti had been covered up. It had only been a few years, but the Foot was gone. Or at least it was no longer a threat. When they had finished off the Shredder, Leo had let Karai live and while they had all disagreed at first, she had never made a move to continue the Foot's old ways. In fact, Mikey had heard that Karai was doing a lot of good for the city, like helping to rebuild it after the Ninja-Mutant War. She and Leo had completely eradicated the remainder of the Foot clan as well. Furthermore, she was big into charity, but then again, Oroku Saki had been 'benevolent' to New York too. Leo trusted Karai and while Mikey felt hesitant about trusting Karai completely, he trusted his brother's instincts and now called Karai a friend.

There was something odd about the graffiti, Mikey thought though. He had seen this sign a lot recently. It was the kanji for dream and while it was nothing bad on its own per se, Mikey couldn't help think he had seen it far too frequently to think nothing of. He would tell Donnie back at the lair. He tore his gaze from the graffiti and saw no one was looking. He hopped up from the bench quickly flipped up the manhole about 3 feet in front of him and jumped down below pulling the manhole closed.

He almost landed in a particularly foul puddle, but as a ninja he kicked off the wall and onto solid ground. He pulled off his shoes and then took off his jeans and folded them neatly. Then he pulled off his jacket, pulled it inside out into its bag form and put the rest of his clothing into it, including his hat, gloves and glasses. He remembered how psyched he had been to get clothes for the first time and how much fun he thought it would be, but time is not so merciful. Clothing had become a chore now and he felt so much better out of it. His pads, belt and bandana were all he ever needed now as far as he was concerned.

He pulled his bandana tighter and put on the backpack-jacket Donnie had made for them, and made his way quickly and quietly down the sewers to the lair. He had to report in.

Donatello

"Yes ma'am. Uh-huh that's right. Yes you have to make sure it's plugged in. Okay, I'm happy I could help. Alright bye." And then Donnie let out a huge yell. At least this time he did not lose it on the phone. Out of all the jobs Donnie had, this was his least favorite and surprisingly the most difficult. Donnie currently had fourteen jobs, but the tech support gig for Super Computers NYC was the best paying. It alone put Donnie into 6 figures, but he hated how dumb the people who called were. It wasn't hard, but it was time consuming and if he could not solve something over remote desktop it was often infuriating. The other jobs Donnie had, required no interaction with others except for his supervisors by email. They were pretty standard networking and cybersecurity gigs and since the majority of his bosses thought he was a burn victim he could do any on site maintenance at night when no one was around.

Now a normal person would have a lot of trouble with fourteen jobs, but Donnie was not normal. Seeing as how Donnie was a super genius and had experience decoding, translating and reprogramming alien technology, often times on the fly, he could handle these jobs like they were nothing. Normally he could fix a problem from his T-cell alone.

Donnie leaned back into his chair and stretched. It was almost seven and he had still not done afternoon practice. He hopped up and headed down the stairs from his office to the living room. As much as he loved the way the lair used to be he loved how it looked now. A normal person coming into the lair from the sewers outside would truly think they had walked into the twilight zone. The lair was huge now. Ever since Donnie had began binge watching House Hunters episodes late at night he got hooked on all the DiY shows and quickly got into architecture. With a little bit of excavating and some money that his jobs had afforded him, Donnie had transformed the lair into a mansion. It still had a homey feel to it and was still sewer-like in design, but it was so much more than that. They had a theatre for crying out loud!

As Donnie approached the dojo he began creeping quietly. As he lurked closer to its door he realized how stupid he was being and just went in. He grabbed his training staff and started going through his stances. He guessed old habits died hard. It had been four years since Splinter died protecting them, yet he still had trouble believing it. The Ninja-Mutant War had claimed many lives. Both the Foot ninjas and the rebel mutants had lost lives in the war, but so had many innocents in the city. And of course Splinter too. The war had been too much, he and his brothers had been too stretched. Donnie had been in charge of making sure the portal to dimension X did not open, but got trapped battling Baxter Stockman at the same time. Leo, Mikey and Raph were rescuing Splinter, but ended up splitting up as Leo crossed swords with Karai for Mikey and Raph to go on. The two were then attacked by Leatherhead whom was running rampant with an overdose of adrenaline. As Mikey stayed to calm and maybe redirect Leatherhead's wrath, Raph had gone to finally free Splinter, but that was the last good thing that happened to them that day.

Donnie shivered as he swung his bo down hard for the five hundredth time. He laid it down in front of him and sat down to meditate. He tried to banish these old thoughts, but now it was flooding into him. He remembered his T-cell ringing and April pleading for help as her and Casey were overwhelmed by the Shredder. He remembered Stockman's robotic body pulverising the room around him and finally the ticking. The bomb that had been set. To this day Donnie still did not know who activated the bomb, but it was that bomb that had truly taken their father from them.

His aura wavered slightly as he tried to remain calm in his meditation. He should probably just stop meditating all together, but Splinter would not have wanted that. As he thought back he remembered Raph answering the T-cell saying he was coming. But he and Splinter ended up getting separated as the cyber Foot ninjas flooded them. Raph made it to Shredder first and saved April at the last second. Casey was already in a bloody heap on the ground. He had lost an eye and April had a deep wound in her side. Raph drew his sais and put himself between them and the Shredder. As much as Donnie thought Raph was an idiot for doing it he knew his brother would not have been able to carry the two to safety with Shredder there.

Donnie himself had finally managed to pin Baxter under a lift and had dismantled the portal, but the bomb was nowhere near him. He began running and calling his brothers to see if anyone was near it. Leo was the first to answer having just beaten Karai and her elite guard. He had sounded awful, but it was Leo so he immediately began heading for the bomb. Mikey had spilled Leatherhead into the sewers with a horde of Foot ninjas and was heading there too. When he arrived at the bomb he saw Mikey over April and Casey. Raph was crouched beside them nursing his chest; Donnie could see there were chunks of his plastron (the 'belly' part of his shell) cracked and broken. Later Donnie learned that Raph had spent the majority of his fight with the Shredder protecting April and Casey until Splinter had showed up. The bomb was in the same room as the Shredder! The evil helmeted ass was currently engaged in combat with Master Splinter and it was clear the bomb would only be reached over his dead body. As Donnie had made his way to them he saw Leo enter from another corridor with what must have been hundreds of mutants. Donnie later learned that they had all been scheduled for disposal and that Leo had released them in the event that the bomb were to go off. That was when it happened; Splinter disarmed Shredder and kicked him down. As Master Splinter pounced to finish Shredder, Shredder pulled out a detonator to take everyone down with him.

Donnie shuddered and felt his aura flicker many times until he finally steadied himself. He let out a deep breath and continued to remember. Master Splinter had hooked his tail on a pipe from above in mid-pounce and flung himself at the bomb knocking himself and the machinery over and into a vat of scalding water. Then the bomb detonated and blew half the building off, but not all of it. By submerging the bomb the blast radius had been diminished and Splinter had saved them all. Unfortunately, the Shredder was back up too and had retrieved his weapon. Donnie could remember being dumbstruck, he could hear Mikey crying and Raph screaming. He was in shock and if truth be told Shredder would likely have picked them clean, had it not been for Leo.

True everyone has their faults, but it was at that moment that Donnie knew exactly why their father had chosen Leo to be leader. Sure Leo was brave and responsible and yeah he was admittedly the most skilled too, but what made him leader was his cool head. They had just lost their father, but Leo stood before Shredder putting himself between the Shredder and his brothers. Donnie wasn't sure about Mikey and Raph, but he could clearly see Leo's chi. It was steady. Furious, but steady. He had seen Leo fight all the time, but never did he appreciate how important Leo's overall mastery of ninjutsu was. There was nothing fancy like how Mikey fought or overly aggressive and heavy handed like with Raph. There was no keep-away or calculations like how Donnie himself fought either; it was just the basics, but faster and stronger. Leo's greatest strength had always been balance: he had no obvious strengths like the rest of them, but no glaring weaknesses either and more importantly Leo excelled at everything. Leo had abandoned the code of bushido he had always held and was facing Shredder as only a ninja. Later, Leo had explained to them that bushido was a code of honor which samurai's always carried and while Leo still believed in it, he was also a ninja and as the Shredder was a man without honor, he was deserving of none in return. Donnie wholeheartedly agreed and could remember the frighteningly accurate ninja stars and kunai Leo had used in that fight, ducking to the shadows at one second and back clashing blades with the Shredder's the next. It was a bloody fight between them culminating in a midair clash that Donnie thought time had stopped for. Then, when it looked like the Shredder had won Leo had somehow dodged in midair and came down lightning fast on the Shredder. Leo had a large gash running down over his left eye, which Donnie managed to save later back at the lair. The Shredder, who had dropped to his knees however, was not so fortunate. Donnie could remember his haunting last words like it were yesterday. 'Even in death, you will never be free of me!' he stammered slowly.

"That," Leo responded slowly, "I can live with…" Leo had then sheathed his blades and walked away. Later they would all chide him for trying to sound cool, even though they all thought he had actually had sounded so; even Raph had thought so! For a second, the Shredder stayed still on his knees, his menacing eyes staring a hole into Leo's retreating figure. Then the top half of his head slid off and the Shredder was no more.

Donnie swallowed hard and strengthened his aura. The thing about meditation was that even when you are unfocused you should continue. Regaining focus is a powerful thing that helps ones mind exceptionally. He let out a sigh and stood up. He walked to the end of the dojo and bowed to the plaque on the wall. The plaque was of course for Splinter. After they dug Splinter up and burned the Shredder they agreed they should perform a funeral for him. Donnie had managed to construct a beautiful crypt overlooking their father's treasured rock garden. A small tear ran down Donnie's face as he whispered to his father and then Donnie decided it was time to head to the command center. Donnie placed his practice bo on the wall and exited the dojo as he saw Mikey enter the lair. Good, it was time to do his real job.