X-pocalypse

It was the greatest ecological and humanitarian disaster mankind had seen. At 3:48, on a sunny Wednesday afternoon, the sky split open over the city of New York, a giant, triangular portal between Earth and Dimension X, miles wide, and globules of mutagen began falling out of it, shimmering brilliant green in the sunlight as Earth's gravity took hold of them and sent them cascading down on the awed populace. Loud speculation and panicked shouts about another invasion quickly transformed into agonized and terrified screams as thousands of people, animals, plants, and even some inanimate objects mutated.

Just as some began to come to their senses, they had to deal with worse things than mutagen falling into their dimension: traag, kraathatrogons, rocktopi, sword-sharp shards of the crystalline "trees" that tended to explode upon shattering, and other Dimension X horrors.

Those survivors who had looked upward later described seeing a chunk of asteroid with some sort of building on it, a portion of it already up in green flames, before the entire thing exploded in a blinding white flash. The megaportal, mercifully, was taken out by the blast, and the accompanying shockwave never reached the already devastated city; presumably the destruction of the facility also broke whatever generated the massive rift.

XXXXX

The six people who arguably had the most experience with the Kraang, however, were safely underground, and could only watch the events on the news as the horrifying events above them unfolded. Splinter stood next to his sons, who were clustered around the TV, watching the events as reports came in. The sixth, April, was pacing back and forth behind them, phone to her ear. "Dad? Ohh… I finally got through… I'm fine, Dad… I'm at the lair with the guys. Are you okay? … Okay, good. Don't go outside for anything… I'll be all right here. … Love you, too. Stay safe."

Leonardo shifted restlessly, and not for the first time, stated, "We should be out there… People are going to need our help!"

Donatello shook his head sorrowfully. "We can't right now… not without risking secondary or even tertiary mutations, with all the mutagen everywhere… We're just going to have to wait for the EPF's cleanup crews to come through first."

"Well," Raphael quipped in a subdued sarcasm that said he knew it wasn't remotely funny, "I guess we're not freaks anymore. Just faces in the crowd." He shuddered as what looked like a human-human mutation crossed in front of the camera, shrieking as it stared at hands with an inordinate number of fingers as it shuffled past on five feet. "Icchh… and movie stars, compared to that poor bastard…" He looked down at his phone as it bleeped at him. "Text from Casey… he's holed up with his team at the rink."

The camera changed to one following a traag as it lumbered down 5th Avenue, chasing a cluster of the newly-mutated. Michelangelo clutched his head. "No, no, NO!" he bellowed at the TV. "You don't run away from a traag in a straight line! You have to go around the back where it can't see—ugh!" His hand smacked against his face in frustration, then horror as the rock creature vomited lava onto a particularly slow person, who screamed as he was incinerated. "We have to help them! They don't know what they're doing out there!" he cried desperately. "If I could just tell people what to do…"

'Mikey!" April exclaimed. Once she had his attention, she held her phone out in front of her, shaking it meaningfully. "Call the TV station! They'll be able to get your information out to everyone immediately!"

"April! That's brilliant!" Donnie exulted, jumping up to grab his laptop and quickly looking up the number for Mikey. He looked up again once Mikey was dialing, beaming widely and adoringly at their human friend. She grinned back triumphantly, holding his gaze longer than mere friendship dictated.

XXXXXX

"Carlos Chiang O'Brien Gambe, bringing you the latest updates on the New York City megarift disaster, as we're now calling it. An emerging pattern is coming to light: the mutations seem to be linked to creatures the victims last came into contact with. As you can see, this reporter had a cuddle with his umbrella cockatoo, Chiquita, before becoming a victim of the mutagen rain on his way to the studio.

"Once again, we want to reiterate: please move inside and stay inside to avoid both contact with the extraterrestrial creatures and the mutagenic substance which is coating much of the city. Evacuation crews will come to transport you to a safe area. The Earth Protection Force is working at a breakneck pace to put together a cleanup effort and are asking for any volunteers who have experience handling hazardous materials to please contact the number on your screen; don't try to go to them; they'll come to you.

"Aid is already flooding in from all around New England, with more states organizing to mobilize as we speak. The National Guard has been dispatched, but are having some trouble with some of their tanks refusing to cooperate after coming into contact with the mutagenic substance. Apparently the vehicles do not feel they get enough respect, because no one ever says—" The reporter paused, pressing his earpiece closer to his ear. "What was that?" he mumbled, then addressed the camera once again, cocking his head to be able to look into it properly. "And now, apparently we have a caller on the line with some crucial advice about the extraterrestrial life… What's your name, caller?"

"Michelangelo. That's a good look for you, Carlos!" Someone in the background yelled, "Mikey!" angrily. "Right, sorry… So, first off… the Traag, the big rock dudes that puke lava, and their twin brothers, Granitor, the ones with the fire breath… You wanna run behind them and stay out of sight. If you run in front of them, they'll follow you; but if they can't see you, they'll forget you're there after, like, a minute, and wander off. Then there's the Click-clacks… the swirling metal ball things. They'll ignore you if they can't hear you, so if you see them coming, just hold real still. Let's see… then there's the rocktopus… rocktopi…"

The reporter led the caller with a question. "Michelangelo, how did you come upon this information?"

"Oh, I, uh… spent a few months in Dimension X, fighting for my life against this kind of stuff. NOT an ideal tourist destination, lemme tell you…" Mikey chuckled. "Now, the Kraathatrogons… that's the big worms… they're pretty docile if you just leave 'em alone. You can climb up on 'em and steer them around by their antennas. They're also where the Kraang get the mutagen from."

"Like the mutagen that fell from the portal?"

"Yeah, exactly!"

"Michelangelo, what else can you tell us about this mutagen? Is there any way to reverse its effects?"

"Oh, yeah, definitely! My brother Donnie came up with a retromutagen a while ago…"

The cockatoo on the screen was stunned into a moment of silence. "So… your brother… could possibly cure all the mutations in the city?"

"I… um…" Mikey paused, muffling the phone with one hand and calling over his shoulder for his brother. "Donnie?!"

Don took the phone as Mikey passed it off to him. "Donatello here…"

"Donatello, Carlos Chiang O'Brien Gambe, Channel 6 News. Your brother says you can make a retromutagen that could cure all the recent mutants?"

Donatello thought for a moment, smacking his tongue as his mouth went suddenly dry. "Well… potentially, yes. If any of the kraathatrogons survived the fall into our dimension, they could produce enough mutagen for me to process into retromutagen… Especially if I had access to more centrifuges… that would cut down on the time it took me to make retromutagen with my one little centrifuge by approximately three point five times… With a little help, I might be able to develop the first batch in as little as three weeks!"

Amid his excitement, Don remembered the crucial ingredient the retromutagen hinged on and he looked up to April. She met his glance and nodded once. She was such a giving soul; anything she could do to help another person, she'd do willingly. It was only one of myriad things he loved about her. He sighed, staring at her, helplessly smitten.

Carlos called his attention back to the matter at hand. "Don, we're going to put you in contact with the EPF and the Center for Disease Control, and get you everything you need to make that retromutagen. We're gonna cut to a break and when we get back, we'll talk more with Michelangelo about the extraterrestrial threats we're facing." The news anchor waited until the cameras were off before adding, "Kid, if you can do what you say can, you're gonna be a hero to a lot of people."

a/n: Taking a little time off of Turtle Doves to chase this plot bunny around. Hoping to kick this one out pretty fast. The big problem is, I'm faced with a big choice for the ending... we'll get to that. I may need you guys's help! .0