Raphril Week – Day 1: Crush
A/N I do not own TMNT, but I am forever grateful for their existence.
This one involves both 2k12 and 2k14. How? You shall see…
They all were huddled around Donatello's desk while the purple-clad turtle fiddled with a circuit board and some wires. Apparently, said implements were attached to a Kraang interdimensional portal that the team was hoping to have working again so that they could find more about what the persistently irritating aliens were planning to do next. "Now, if my calculations are correct and I thread the super conducting tubing through the capacitor…"
Donatello's speech was cut off by the sound of glass breaking, "Hey Donnie," Michelangelo guiltily peeped from behind the broken beaker and strange-coloured fluid that was now coating the nearby mechanism, "How bad is it if I split something?"
"MIKEY!" Donatello and the rest of the gang screeched when the wiring began to hiss and spit at an alarming rate.
"I'll clean it up!" Michelangelo backed away from his angry teammates, but just as Raphael launched himself at his little brother, a huge wave of energy resounded from the Kraang portal gate. After everyone crashed to the floor, a blast of bright light shot through the archway before the thing promptly exploded into a panoply of pieces.
As the smoke and debris cleared the air, before Donatello could unleash his own particular brand of fury upon his baby brother, an unfamiliar gruff voice came from the direction of the now demolished gate, "What the hell?!"
A feminine cough followed, "Remind me not to follow Mikey into Donnie's lab."
The four mutant turtles and two humans on the ground exchanged nervous glances, which only grew more concerned when the air finally cleared enough to reveal a young woman and what appeared to be another mutant turtle. A much larger mutant turtle who bore an uncanny resemblance to the red-clad turtle currently holding Michelangelo in a head-lock. The woman on the other hand, looked strikingly similar to April if she were ten years older and had the curves and figure to boot.
"Where are those little pukes? I swear I'm going to kick…" Suddenly the large turtle seemed aware of his surroundings, "Mikey's ass… Where the fuck are we?!"
Two startling silver sai instantly spun into the reptile's hands as he stepped in front of the woman shielding her from the other room's occupants, "You've all got two seconds to tell us what the hell is going on or so help me I'm going to-"
"Raphael!" The yellow leather jacket-wearing female yanked at one of the colossus' arms, "Calm down!"
The group on the floor with the exception of Michelangelo's captor cried, "RAPHAEL?!"
The large turtle snorted while whipping the toothpick in his mouth to the side, "What? You got a problem with that?"
"Dude!" Michelangelo bubbled from under his brother's grip, "You have the same name as my brother! What are the chances?"
"Come again?" For the first time the new turtle seemed ever-so-slightly less aggressive.
Michelangelo twisted out of his brother's hold easily now that it had become slack with shock, "Tell him Raph! You both have the same name! Actually, come to think of it, you do look kind of similar."
"And they both have sai," April pulled herself up with the offering of Donatello's hand.
"You're right April," Donatello nodded in agreement.
"Wait." The older woman walked forward ignoring the glare from her companion, "My name is April."
The teenage girl and the female guest moved closer to examine the other while the others climbed to their feet. Leonardo's eyes whipped back and forth between the two before landing on his purple-clad brother, "What is going on Donnie?! What did you do?!"
"It wasn't me! It was Mikey," Donatello huffed indignantly, "And if I were to guess, it appears as though somehow the Kraang portal brought copies of Raphael and April from a different dimension."
"I ain't anyone's copy, shorty." The giant turtle snapped causing Donatello to backpedal away to a less occupied section of the lab.
"Nuh uh dude," Michelangelo launched at Raphael's carapace forcing his elder brother to wobble forward into the new Raphael's line of sight, "Meet your dimensional duplicate!"
The smaller Raphael tried to keep his cool in front of his replica, but it wasn't easy. His brain kept seizing up just by looking at the guy. How come he was so freaking big?! Holy shell. He probably had 300 pounds on him easy. Not to mention his biceps were wider than April's – his April's – actually probably both Aprils' – waists. His green eyes skirted over each scale as fast as they could before finally meeting up with two golden orbs. Emerald and amber held for a moment before the undoubtedly older Raphael grunted, "Hmph. Bit of a pipsqueak aren'cha?"
The smaller Raphael bristled, "At least I'm not on steroids!"
Amber eyes narrowed, "You want to say that again?"
"Enough!" Suddenly the older April had both of her hands pressed firmly onto her Raphael's plastron, "Can't you be nice for two minutes?"
All the teenagers in the room felt their jaws drop as the large turtle before them practically deflated in front of them under April's touch, even going as far as to sheath his sai under her stare. Emerald-eyed Raphael's spine stiffened slightly when he saw this new Raphael then wrap one hand around the woman's wrist in what was undoubtedly not a platonic gesture by any means. Apparently he was not the only one who noticed, "Wait one second," Everyone redirected their attention to Donatello, "Are you two a couple?!"
Amber-eyed Raphael tightened his hold to bring her tight to his side, while she placed her hands lovingly on his shell. However, before her boyfriend could spit out around snarky remark, the young woman cut him off, "Yes we are. Why?" Her blue eyes jumped onto the younger April and Raphael, "Are you two not?"
Raphael was sure his face looked like the Fourth of July, it was burning so badly. Apparently April was little better off for her own cheeks were so red it was impossible to differentiate where her hairline met her skin. The raucous laughter that unleashed from the four other teens did not help, especially from two individuals in particular. Casey was slapping his thigh guffawing, "Raph, a romantic?"
Donatello was practically bent over double, "Can you imagine? Instead of chocolates he'd give out punches!"
"And I thought the girl was supposed to be the moody one in the relationship," Casey jeered back.
The smaller Raphael wanted to vanish on the spot. His gut was curling and twisting into sickening knots under their teasing; he didn't even dare make eye contact with the silent April from his world. Meanwhile, their dimensional guests were frowning deeply at the chaos that adult April had accidently ensued. More than equally unimpressed as his girlfriend was but also at the obvious effect it was having on his dimensional double, Raphael released her to stride forward and grab Casey by the hoodie and Donatello by the back of the shell. Lifting them several feet up he snarled, "Listen you little puss pockets, unless you want me to count each of your funny bones with my fists I suggest you shut it."
Leonardo and Michelangelo had fallen silent the instant the goliath Raphael had begun to move, but were now joined by a petrified Donatello and Casey. All the two could do was nod mutely at their captor before Raphael sneered and dropped them onto their butts, "Glad we have an understanding."
Older April shook her head and sighed before looking in Leonardo's direction, "I'm assuming you must be Leonardo then?"
"Uh," The blue-banded turtle eyed the foreign Raphael warily, "Yes ma'am."
"April is fine," She smiled at him encouragingly.
An orange and green bullet then flew forward to shake her hand, "And I'm Michelangelo! And those two your Raphael just totalled are Casey and Donatello!"
The larger Raphael smirked down at Donatello, "So you're the brainiac huh?"
Donatello nodded shakily, "Y-yes."
"Figured out how to get us home yet?" He quirked an eye ridge expectantly as he folded his massive arms across his plastron.
"Uh…" The addressed turtle sunk into his shell slightly, "No…?"
"Figures." Raphael turned to his April, "Looks like we're stuck here for a bit Red."
"But I call her-" Casey began to complain before Donatello kicked him in the shin hissing, "Hush it puck head."
"Hmph." Casey pulled himself up, "This is getting too weird, I'll see you later dudes."
As Casey skated out of lab, Master Splinter entered, "What is all the commotion…" He took one look at their guests before banging his cane on the floor, "Boys! Dojo, now!"
The four young turtles scuttled by while the two April's and new Raphael remained where they stood. The large mutant particularly seemed at a loss as to what to do. Splinter examined the large turtle, "You are Raphael?"
"Uh," Said Raphael rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, "Yeah. I guess you're Master Splinter?"
"Yes." Splinter tilted his head to look at his "son" in the eyes, "Seeing as you may be a guest of ours for a while, would you-" He nodded respectfully in April's direction, "Both of you be interested in accompanying us?"
"Sure." Raphael shrugged two massive shoulders, "Can't get any weirder."
Soon enough, Splinter found himself kneeling in front of all five turtles while the two Aprils knelt respectfully at the edge of the dojo. April had already completed her morning training, but the turtles still had the afternoon ahead of them. The four turtles were arranged descending in age and Michelangelo was more than enthralled to be sitting next to the behemoth beside him, "Dude, how much do you weigh?"
The larger Raphael glanced at the vibrating turtle beside him, "I don't know six – seven hundred pounds?"
"Whoa… You know how much pizza that is?"
"Uh…"
"More than twenty bucks worth that's for sure, bro! Wait… If you're Raphael from another dimension does that still mean you're my bro? Cause it would be way cool if you were!"
"Uh…"
"Oh! What's the Michelangelo from you're world like? Is he cool? I bet he's super cool!"
"Michelangelo!" Splinter frowned over in his youngest son's direction, "Please do not be a pest." The rat turned to the rest of his pupils, "Now then, I would like an explanation for our guests' appearance."
After Donatello regaled his Sensei of what had occurred, Splinter stroked his beard thoughtfully, "Very well. Since it appears only you can rebuild a portal to their dimension you are excused from this afternoon's training session, Donatello."
"Hai Sensei," Donatello bowed before rising to exit the dojo.
"What about us Sensei?" Leonardo questioned from the end.
"You, Leonardo, will spar with Michelangelo, and Raphael shall spar with our guest."
Raphael's jaw unhinged while his larger version rose along with his other two siblings, "Fine with me."
At the sound of his opponent cracking his knuckles, Raphael turned pleading eyes on his father, "But Sensei… He's like double my size! He'll crush me!"
Master Splinter rose, "This is a great opportunity for you Raphael. After all, how many of us are given the chance to duel with themselves? Besides, how do you think Michelangelo feels when he is paired against you?"
"Yeah bro!" Michelangelo piped from his and Leonardo's side of the room, "You squashed me into the mats just this morning."
"B-But that's different!" Raphael protested as he stood.
"Stop whining pipsqueak," Suddenly Raphael found himself in his giant version's shadow, "At least you got the home advantage."
The smaller turtle tried to hide his gulp, "Yeah great…"
The taller Raphael threw the first blow, which the smaller dodged fairly easily. Quickly, it became apparent that although his opponent was stacked in the strength department, Raphael's smaller size at least gave him a speed advantage. The only problem was, it would probably only take one good hit from this guy to knock him out and that meant Raphael had to take out his dimensional doppelganger before then, which apparently was about as easy as taking out a tank. Every blow he managed to land felt like it hurt him more than it did his massive opponent. The smaller red-clad turtle did not feel much better when he sent a kick to the back of Raphael's knee, which would have made any normal opponent lose strength in the leg, at least temporarily, but did nothing to the green colossus. The larger chuckled, "Did I mention I'm bulletproof?"
"Why am I not surprised?" The green-eyed turtle grumbled as he narrowly dodged the back-kick that came from the leg he should have been able to disable.
"So how'd you get the lightning-shaped scar? You trying to pay tribute to that wizard kid?"
The smaller Raphael snapped back, "What about you? Why are you lugging sunglasses around? Not like you can use them in the sewers."
Meanwhile, the two Aprils were sitting side-by-side watching the battle unfold. Michelangelo had lost to Leonardo early due to his constant lack of focus in favour of watching the newcomer duke it out with his brother. The younger April was slightly nervous for her Raphael, "Uh… Exactly how strong is your Raph?"
"Hmm?" The woman dragged her attention from the match, "Pretty strong. Not sure what he's at on the bench press, but he can throw shipping containers if that helps put it into perspective."
"S-shipping containers?!" April's eyes widened, "If he lands a punch our Raph is toast!"
"Relax," The elder placed a hand over the teen's, "Raph wouldn't hit anyone with his full strength unless they deserved it…" She tapped her chin thoughtfully, "Well usually. Unless he's really pissed then there's no hope, but don't worry!" She waved her hands in placation, "He's nowhere near that!"
Mildly relieved by the woman's words, April relaxed slightly, "Guess that means they're both hotheads."
"Yours too?"
"Oh yeah." The younger laughed, "Our Raph is a force to be reckoned with when he's mad, that's for sure."
"Mine too." The elder sighed, "but that passion is why I love him."
At the younger's silence, the new April turned to her, "Sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."
"It's cool," the girl waved her off, "You shouldn't feel ashamed for how you feel about someone!"
"That's not what I meant." The elder's voice had become serious, "I meant earlier when I asked if you and your Raphael were…"
"Dating?" April felt her cheeks blazing again and tried to mask it with laughter, "Don't be silly! Me and Raph? There's no way that could ever happen! Not in a million years!"
"He likes you too you know."
"What?"
Young azure eyes met wise sapphire. "If there's one thing I know, it's how my Raphael works. I know they're not the same person, but watching him from here…" The elder turned back to the match, "You can easily tell they're a lot alike. Besides, you weren't the only one turning crimson earlier."
"No way…" April shook her head but despite her reservations she still had to ask, "Do you really think so? That he likes me?"
Yet, before she could answer a loud smack was heard and one instant the mat in front of them was empty and the next it was full of a young Raphael as he slid to a halt after taking a hard kick to the plastron. Raphael laid on the back of his shell for a moment as the two Aprils leaned forward in concern. However, the second his green eyes met their blue, all signs of disorientation were gone. Wide-eyed, he suddenly sprang up and fled from the dojo. "Shit," Raphael the victor strode over to where his smaller counterpart had laid only a moment before, "That kick landed harder than I thought."
"Congratulations on your victory Raphael," Master Splinter appeared at his side, "But you should know even the strongest of warriors must know when to temper their strength."
"Hai Sensei," Even when he bowed, this Raphael towered over the rat. Leonardo and Michelangelo left the dojo first, but the girls lingered when the last turtle turned back to Splinter, "He'll be okay though right?"
Master Splinter nodded, "Physically he is fine, but his pride has been wounded."
That surprised the larger, "But I'm twice the size of him! Not to mention I'm pretty sure I've got more than a few years on him. He can't be that upset about losing to me."
"Except he didn't see you when he lost, Raph."
Amber eyes turned to familiar blue while they made contact, the elder April gestured with her eyes to the small red-head who was now almost out of the dojo. Seeing the remnant blush on the side of the young girl's face made Raphael pinch the fabric between his eyes, "Aw cripes."
"Being gentle with emotional strength is part of this lesson too, Raphael." Splinter gave a slight smile before excusing himself to his own chambers.
Raphael turned back to April, "Seriously?"
April folded her arms sternly, "Seriously."
Giving an exasperated sigh, Raphael left the dojo and followed the teens to where they had gathered around the television. Aiming himself at the young girl, he walked over to where she sat before leaning over her, "Hey."
The red-head jumped slightly when she found herself so close to the large reptile, "Uh hi?"
"Where did Raphael go?"
"Probably his room, why?"
Choosing to ignore her question he continued, "Where is it?"
April pointed towards the bedrooms, "First door on the right."
"Thanks." He grunted before storming off in said direction.
When the older female plopped herself down on the couch beside her duplicate, the younger asked, "What was that all about?"
"Oh nothing," The elder smiled to herself while April glanced back at Raphael's departing shell in confusion.
Raphael was laying on his carapace staring at the ceiling wondering when this day would finally be over when he heard a loud rap at his door. In no mood for his little brother's stupidity, he shouted, "Get lost Mikey!"
In response, the door flung open to admit the giant turtle who was the reason his chest now ached. Raphael slammed the door closed before leaning his shell on it. Irked that his own privacy had been so blatantly ignored, the younger turtle sat up, "What do you want?"
"Just want to talk."
"You already crushed my shell into the dust. Isn't that enough?"
The standing turtle grunted, "Not my fault you're a pipsqueak."
"Is that why you're here? To remind me?" The smaller glowered from the bed.
"Stop being a pain in the ass, twerp."
"No one's stopping you from leaving, Hulk."
When the giant turtle strode over to the bed, Raphael thought he was really done for now. Instead, his guest sank onto the bed beside him. Raphael didn't like the ominous creak the frame made with the added weight, and silently prayed it wouldn't collapse. "You okay?"
Surprised by the larger's question Raphael snapped, "Why wouldn't I be?"
"Because I just kicked your ass in front of your girlfriend."
He immediately retorted, "She's not my girlfriend!"
The smaller Raphael had to admit he was not expecting the softer tone this version of him could muster, "Doesn't mean you don't want her to be."
Still, that didn't mean he was off the defensive yet, "Look buddy, just because you and your April hooked up doesn't mean every other Raphael and April in the universe want to!"
The elder chuckled, ""Every other?" How many of us can there be?"
"Hell if I know," The green-eyed turtle grumbled. "But I know it's one too many."
"The feeling's mutual pipsqueak." The larger Raphael's tone lowered once more, "Don't care much about the other Raphael's and April's though, nor should you. Just got to worry about you and your April."
"There is no me and my April." Raphael countered flatly.
"Not yet," Amber eyes landed on green, "Doesn't mean there couldn't be."
"Yeah right." The younger huffed. Suddenly the huge turtle laughed and Raphael grumbled, "What's so funny?"
Folding his massive arms behind his head, Raphael leaned back and smirked, "That's the same thing I used to think. Still can't fucking believe it."
The smaller adjusted his feet awkwardly for a moment before muttering, "How did you manage it?"
"There's no big secret." The elder sighed before landing his intense gaze onto his equally intense counterpart, "I just told her."
"And…" Emerald eyes could not disguise their curiosity, "She said yes?"
Raphael smiled around his toothpick, "She said yes."
A/N And that's where it ends. Also yes, Donatello fixed the portal and sent 2k14 Raph and April back home. I just didn't feel like writing a paragraph about it lol.
