Introduction
This fanfiction is set in Nickelodeon's 2012 TMNT universe, following the tone, backstory and characterisations portrayed. It picks up midway through season 3 and will branch from canon at that point. No significant OCs are planned.
Please note that I am British and my spelling will reflect that. Terminology will on the whole be American, but it is likely that Briticisms may occasionally crop up. New chapters will be posted as often as possible, but please be patient as my free time to write is sparse.
Disclaimer
This story is a work of fan fiction and brings me no commercial gain at all. I do not own TMNT, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael, Splinter, April, Casey, The Shredder, Stockman, Fishface, Rahzar or any other character contained within the series. In fact, by tying them to a fanfiction for TMNT, I don't even own any original characters that may appear. For anyone who enjoys this pastiche for TMNT, I strongly encourage you to purchase the original works on which this is based.
CHAPTER 1
Back to basics
The full moon hung low over New York City and was partly shrouded by darkening clouds. It cast an eerie, dappled glow over the damaged buildings and interdimensional fragments that had been left behind after the invasion of the Kraang. The backstreets were still cluttered with fractured crystals and piles of destroyed robotic bodies, as they'd been pushed back out of the working areas of the city.
A form of uneasy calm had been restored, with the humans back under control of their own affairs and no longer manipulated by the alien creatures. They recalled little of what had transpired or of what remained, barely hidden beneath the surface. During the day they worked laboriously to fix the damage and clear the remnants of battle, but at dusk the rumours of what lurked in the darkness drew them to return to the safety of their homes.
As the evening deepened, the city became quiet and most unlike the festive nocturnal activity that would be expected in any other bustling metropolis across the globe, with revellers taking their celebrations to the small hours. Instead, the streets were only frequented by the clueless, the criminals and, of course, the heroes.
Leaping effortlessly from one rooftop to the next, Leonardo landed neatly and silently. He crouched in the shadows, making use of the mottled camouflage of his shell to hide him from the sight of any casual observer. There he paused for a moment, sensing his surroundings and waiting for the almost unperceivable noise of his three brothers as they also made the jump and landed alongside him.
First was Raphael, his tatty bandanna tails fluttering as he landed into a rolling break fall. He emerged with less stealth but poised ready to fight, sais in hand. When it became apparent there was no immediate enemy he straightened and, throwing a smirk at Leo, started moving again.
"Oh no you don't." Leonardo muttered. If Raph wanted a challenge, he was going to get one.
Hearing the twin thumps of the other two, Michelangelo and Donatello, landing safely nearby left Leo free to lunge forwards. He jumped over an air conditioning unit before swinging upwards to run along a railing, then over a small gap between constructions. With a modicum of stealth sacrificed for speed, he raced Raph along the rooftops.
"No way are you catching me!" Raph goaded, wasting the time to tauntingly somersault from the top of a billboard to the shining sign of the next building.
"I don't need to." mocked Leo, sliding under the sign and emerging victoriously ahead of his competitive brother.
"Guys!" he heard Don protesting from behind, but it lacked the urgency that would have made the others pay enough attention to stop.
An animated cheer from alongside Leo revealed Mikey swinging past, hanging on to the chain of his kusarigama as he swung from the water tower. With a practice flick of his wrist the chain returned, leaving him free to bounce into the lead.
"Eat my dust, dudes!" he yelled, looking back and grinning boyishly.
Leonardo winced as Raph took the opportunity to barrel into Mikey and send him sprawling.
"No fair!" Mikey protested, unhurt but out of the impromptu race as he floundered to roll off his shell and get back to his feet.
"Snooze and lose." Raph called back, before tripping gracelessly over a well-placed bo staff and crashing nose first into the ground.
Donnie straightened, his surprise evident as he failed to take the opportunity to race into the lead and instead stopped to stare at his handiwork.
"Uh…" he started, likely already predicting what was about to happen.
"Go, D! Nice one!" Mikey crowed, but his elation dissipated as Raph jumped back to his feet and whirled round with a growl.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Don protested, raising his hands defensively and backing away towards where Michelangelo stood.
"Happy thoughts, Raph. Happy thoughts!" Mikey cajoled.
"I'll show you my happy thoughts!" Raph threatened, preparing to pounce.
With a sigh, Leo halted from where he'd managed to bound into the lead. Turning, he leapt over to land between the warring factions. "The competition is over, we have work to do."
"Aww, but that means you won!" Mikey protested.
Leo smirked. "Of course."
"Doesn't count." Raph said, folding his arms.
Ignoring him, Leonardo moved over to peer over the edge of the building. "See anything, Donnie?"
"Yeah, as I tried to tell you earlier." Donatello grumbled, pulling down his visor and beginning to scan for mutagenic remnants. "Now where- There!"
He studied for a moment, before lifting the visor and turning back to the others. "Next alleyway along. Looks like mutant rats, probably leftovers from the Rat King."
"So are they rats turned human or humans turned rat?" pondered Mikey, tapping a finger on his chin.
"Does it matter?" Raph asked, snappishly.
"Well, assuming there were no unexpected complexities in their mutations, the retro-mutagen should work either way." Don conjectured. "Although it could present a bit of a moral conundrum over which is the more worthy recipient, as we have limited supply."
Leo glanced over. "I thought we had plenty of retro-mutagen?"
"Thanks to my totally awesome creation!" Mikey chipped in.
"We have a small amount of the reagent remaining, although replicating the compound is proving difficult without the formula. We're missing the substrate required to bring about the chemical reaction necessary in order to produce the—"
"English, Donnie!"
Don scowled at Raph before reducing his statement to, "We're out of mutagen."
Leonardo frowned. "With the Kraang gone, the supply is now limited. Unless there are any Kraathatrogons still around."
"Dude, we totally should have kept one!" Mikey exclaimed.
"You are not having a giant worm as a pet." Raph declared. "Who would look after it? Take it for walks and clean up its mess?"
"Wouldn't the fact that it eats people be a bigger problem?" raised Donnie.
Mikey, oblivious, just beamed happily in his own little world. "I could ride it round the city and teach it to fly! That would be so awesome, dudes."
"Quiet down." Leonardo said, attempting to take control of the situation. "Let's deal with the rats using the remaining retro-mutagen, then tomorrow we'll scour the city for any remaining mutagen canisters. There must be some we've missed."
"Let's go, Turtle Titans!" he called inspirationally as he moved off.
"Turtle Titans?" Raph groused. "Where do you come up with these?" But he followed all the same.
Mikey tilted his head thoughtfully. "I kinda like it."
Bounding in the direction where the rats had been sighted, they dropped silently down into the alleyway and drew their weapons in readiness for the impending skirmish. Rooting around in the piled up trash, even in the patchy gloom it was easy to see that the rodents were of unusual size and obviously mutated.
Realising they weren't alone in their foraging any longer, the three mutant rats turned to face the turtles, baring their teeth and pawing at the ground with filthy claws. Their fur was matted and their ribs on prominent display, after what must have been months of fruitless scavenging for food enough to sustain themselves.
Raph smirked. "Only three? This'll barely be a workout."
"We're just trying to subdue them enough to use the retro-mutagen." Leo instructed, but his words fell on deaf ears as the others were already jumping forward into the skirmish.
"Booyakasha!" yelled Mikey, crashing into the nearest rat and sending it flying with a well-timed hit from his nunchaku. It squealed in protest, then grunted as it was landed on moments later by the creatures that Raph and Donnie had ploughed into.
Squeaking furiously, the rats disentangled themselves and scampered towards their foes, jaws snapping together in rage as they tried to rip the turtles apart. Claws scrabbled over shell and tried to get a purchase through the tough flesh of their assailants.
Leo took a graceful swipe at the one aiming for Mikey, deflecting what might have been a painful attack if it had connected, before neatly somersaulting over another that lunged in his direction. With a well-placed landing, the leader of the brothers succeeded in two solid hits across the creature's haunches, provoking the oversized rodent to whirl around and lash out in rage.
"Leo!" Donnie called, using his bo staff to vault over before twisting in the air and bringing the weapon down over the rat's head with a crack. The beast was promptly reduced it to a stunned heap on the floor.
On cue, Leo pulled out the retro-mutagen he was carrying and sprayed the creature right between the eyes. It thrashed wildly for a few seconds, before rapidly shrinking down to the size of a regular rat. It lay there, dazed, for several moments before scurrying for cover.
The two brothers shared a brief high-three before separating to help with the remaining rodents. Leonardo was unsurprised to find Raphael had managed to get hold of his target's tail and was busy swinging the dizzy rat around his head like some corrupted form of the hammer throw.
"Stop playing around, Raph." Leo ordered, leaping up and striking the rat to the ground with a kick. But before they could do anything else, they were distracted by Mikey charging by atop the other mutant rat.
"Ride 'em cowboy!" Mikey hollered, pulling back on the chains he'd wrapped around the creature's snout and causing his unorthodox mount to rear in protest.
"I've got him!" Donnie called, stepping up with his dose of retro-mutagen ready to fire at the creature's exposed belly. Before he got a chance though, the rat whirled round and sent him flying against the wall with a flick of his tail.
Michelangelo then got unceremoniously thrown face first into the ground, as the creature bucked into the air and tossed its rider forwards.
"Wipeouuuut…" Mikey moaned.
Leo grabbed the arm of his youngest turtle and pulled him aside just in time, as Raph launched fury upon the furry animal. As the red clad turtle finished off venting his frustrations, Leo took the retro-mutagen Michelangelo was carrying and used it on the downed rat, reverting it to natural form.
That left just one remaining, which by now had lost the will to fight and was cowering against the wall in resignation. With a flourish, Raph was the one this time to pull out the retro-mutagen and finish the battle, sending the last normal sized rat scurrying into the darkness.
"Aw, no more?" Raph lamented.
"Good job everyone." Leo congratulated, as he helped Mikey back to his feet. "That's three mutant monsters that won't be causing any more trouble."
Mikey grinned playfully. "Now, back to the lair for Crognard the Barbarian and piiizzaaa, dudes!"
"I'm choosing the toppings tonight." Raph demanded, "I've had enough of your weird creations!"
Leonardo hesitated. The night was still young, wasn't there more that could be done? Donnie had mentioned that they were out of mutagen. They'd need to find more, in order to create more retro-mutagen and continue to clean up some of the mutant remnants that had been left behind and were plaguing the city.
"Donnie," Leo started, turning with the intention to ask whether there were any readings of mutagen canisters in the area.
But the original question never got voiced. Instead, it changed to, "Uh, guys? Where's Donnie?"
Raph and Mikey had been arguing over the pizza, but hesitated and both looked around, mirroring the movements Leo had carried out just moments previously. The fruitless result was identical.
"He was right here!" Mikey insisted.
"Donnie?" Raph called, pacing further down the alleyway with sudden urgency before leaping up a nearby fire escape to get a better view. "Donnie!"
Meanwhile, Mikey turned and hurried a few paces towards the street to peer around and look for evidence in that direction.
Leo, pragmatically, pulled out his T-phone and scrolled to call the missing turtle. It dialled and started to ring, which provided some immediate relief. Even if Donnie didn't answer, at least they would be able to track him easily enough as long as his T-phone remained online.
"Wait, wait, I hear something!" Mikey suddenly said, turning around. He prowled forwards, then stopped by the side of a dumpster. There, on the floor, lay not only the vibrating T-phone but also Don's bo-staff, mask, belt and all the other possessions he usually carried.
Michelangelo reached down to pick something up. "Found his T-phone!" he declared, picking up the turtle shell device before peering at it curiously. "Hey, did he change the design? Where's the screen gone?"
Leo terminated the call and headed over, joined seconds later by Raphael as he dropped down beside them.
"What the-?" Raph asked, scooping up Donatello's other possessions. "Did he strip off?"
"For everyone's sake, I hope not." Leo joked.
From the pile in Raph arms, Don's T-phone dropped out and bounced onto the floor with a clatter.
"It must be a secret lockable case, because he totally has something on his T-phone that he doesn't want us to see." grinned Mikey, still prodding roughly at the device in his hands, "I bet it's pictures of April!"
He started to try and peel the two sides apart. "Well that's not going to stop the great turtle detective…"
As one Raphael and Leonardo stared at Michelangelo, glanced at the T-phone on the floor, drifted their gaze over to a broken canister of retro-mutagen, then looked briefly to one another before both suddenly shouting "Mikey!" and diving towards him.
Leonardo, without his arms full, got there first and quickly, but carefully, whipped the turtle from Mikey's hands.
"Oh no…" he murmured, as Raph took the opportunity to smack Mikey across the head.
"Ow!" Mikey protested, "What was that for?"
"That's not his T-phone, you idiot!" Raphael ranted.
"That's Donnie!"