HEY, Y'ALL! I KNOW THIS IS PROBABLY PRETTY UNREALISTIC, BUT I COULDN'T RESIST! THIS IDEA WAS FAR TOO TEMPTING TO PASS UP.
SIDE NOTE: TAKES PLACE DURING TIMING IS EVERYTHING IN THE 2003 VERSION, AND DURING THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE CASEY JONES FOR THE 2012 VERSION.
HARDYGAL, IF YOU ARE READING THIS, FEEL FREE TO PM OR E-MAIL ME WITH ANY QUESTIONS, KAY?
FOR THOSE WHO HAVE SEEN THE FAST FORWARD SEASON, I KNOW THAT THE TIME WINDOW, EVEN THE SCREWED-UP ONE SHO-KAN-ABO MADE, PROBABLY COULDN'T REALLY GO ACROSS DIMENSIONS, BUT...LIKE I SAID...THIS WAS REALLY TOO TEMPTING. THIS IS A ONE-SHOT, SADLY. MIGHT BE LONG, MIGHT NOT BE.
ASAMI REALLY NEEDS TO LEARN TO NOT BE SO JUMPY...GEEZ.
GOD BLESS AND GOOD DAY!
~THE LUPINE SOJOURNER
One thing I hate about being an Adult Mutant Ninja Wolf...
You just can't seem to ever catch a day off! I mean, seriously! All I wanted was peace and quiet as I listen to Lindsey Stirling and read Redwall for the twentieth time. But no~, the universe decided to screw us over again!
I think grumpily as I power my hover-cycle or whatever this thing is called, toward the downtown area, where the tacheonic energies (don't know exactly what it is, but apparently it's really bad, according to Don and Kody) are at their greatest, grimacing as subtle tremors vibrate my body. Directly behind me, Lupa giggles.
"That tickles!" She muses, wriggling to rid herself of the sensation. I can't help a small shake myself and a little chuckle.
"Kinda, but be serious, sis!" I reply, then listen to Kody as he watches the dials on his gauntlet increase at an all too quick rate.
"If the temporal energies continues to build like this, we may be looking at a complete space-time rupture!" He explains, grimacing worriedly. Suddenly, there's an almighty boom so loud, it could have been thunder, and there's white streaks of pure energy and light that I somehow doubt are actually lightening directly ahead! "What the-" Kody's cut off by more...bubble-like windows into...
The future, past and some other weird thing. Should have guessed. Honestly...
Whenever there's time-travel...it's always either the future, the direct past, or the frickin' dinos! There's what looks like some whacky version of our old lair, a rooftop of our past hometown, and then there is just a street, an ordinary New York street. We swerve our vehicles around, but we had been going too fast and all of a sudden, I've lost control of the hover-cycle. I grab Lupa and leap out and to the side, perpendicular to the falling cycle. Too late, I realize that I'd fallen through the time-space bubble, and that it was gone as fast as it had appeared, leaving us in that weird version of our home, to several outcries of shock from many voices. Oh, man, oh man, oh man...what have I done?
Lupa and I were stuck—HOLY FRICK! I barely duck a naginata blade, and instinctively slice out with my tomahawks. All of a sudden, I'm looking down at a pile of sparking, metal body parts.
"What the fricky-frick?!" Lupa yelps, already fighting off two more—what even are they?! I don't know, but suddenly, there's a slicing noise, and I turn to find a deactivated...robots thing, and...
"...Leo?" I whisper. The turtle before me is nearly at my nose, which...no. He's at the base of my collarbones usually. He also seems...fuller, more...lifelike somehow. I note idly that I suddenly feel tingly and...oddly life-like, as well, before we are forced to put conversation aside.
There are robots to fight, after all. What are they doing in (what I assume is) the lair, anyway?
Wait...a foot?! I recoil. What is a Foot symbol doing on these weird—oh, right. This is just some alternate dimension, right? It doesn't take long for us to fight off the first wave. I take a breath.
"Stay alert. More are coming." That...voice...so new and yet...I turn, and do a double take in shock!
"M...M...master...Splinter?" I whisper, head cocked to the side. The rat before me is taller by me than a head at least, wearing a brown-ish red traditional Japanese kimino with three sakura flowers embroidered along the right-hand side of the bottoms. Around the bottom half of his arms (much, much longer than the Sensei I know's) are wrapped in cotton thongs, all the way to just past the first knuckle of each finger. His whiskers...his fur coloring...his whole demeanor is different here! Just where are we?! What is going on?!
"Nani? (What?)" He replies, looking and smelling as shocked as I feel.
"Shiranai. Anata wa...Supurintāte imasu ka? (I don't know. Are you Splinter?)" I reply, feeling light-headed and disoriented, but all of a sudden, there are several more of those weird Foot bots. One in particular, hardly even seen from it's position in the far back of the crowd, was swiveling it's head back and forth, eyes...scanning. My eyes widen. Oh, crap...
"Guys, look!" I cry, even as it finishes scanning. Don (he's almost alarmingly scrawny and nearly as tall as me. Whoa, weird...) pales.
"It'll give away our location!" He whimpers, but there's an anger underneath it.
"Yah think, genius?!" Lupa and I snap, before we can stop ourselves, rushing forward and...dang. This Master Splinter has moves! I mean, mine does, too, but...whoa...he doesn't even need a weapon to take these things down. Wow...
We don't even stop to think about the several unknowns and overall newness of this situation, content in the known fact that we need to deal with these things, and hope we get to the right one in time.
"Casey Jones is on it!" A young, scraggly, wild version of Casey cries over-confidently, leaping over turnstiles at the head of the lair. His mask is so much different, but it's still undeniably Casey...after so long, knowing we were so far into the future, he'd have long since gone to rest...man...
"Tell Casey Jones I don't need his help!" This version of Raph (with a small, lightening shaped scar on his plastron and tattered mask) barks angrily in reply. I cock a brow, somewhat amused. Some things never change...
"Don, look out!" I bark, catching a bot about to impale Don through his carapace with my ninjaken, slicing the blade out of it and swinging it toward another in a fluid motion.
"Thanks, uh...sis." He murmurs as I turn, flip, kick and slice, but there are just so many!
"Lupa, heads up!" Came a new voice. I spin during a small lull in fighting and...whoa...
This version of me...she looks so...young. So...different, yet so similar at the same time. Her catsuit ripples as her muscles contract and release, her small pieces of armor clinking when anything taps it. Her eyes are pure white as she fights to protect her little sister, who's taken a small gash to her abdomen. I brush aside an initial concern and want to examine the little wolf mutant, knowing I need to concentrate on the battle at hand, but I do take a second to really look at everyone and...there's something...oddly squared about their appearance. Everything here, really, seems so...odd. Like...any given object is too large for the amount of space it occupies. It's disorienting and makes it slightly harder to fight, but we Hamatos are nothing if not adaptable. She turns, and we take each other in. "What the—are you...me?" She asks, stepping forward and sheathing her tomahawks. In sync, we cock our heads.
"Y-yeah...I...I guess so." I reply slowly, still not getting over the difference in our appearances. This whole dimension...it feels so...vibrant, thrumming with energy and an...unidentifiable something. Her eyes shift from the pure white I had just seen to a combination of sapphire, emerald, and brown. It's...beautiful.
"Uh...you can stop with the white eyes now." This dimension's Lupa notes. I turn to her, even as my own Lupa shrugs.
"What white eyes?"
"You...you're eyes...look white." Asami replies. I frown.
"Huh. Who knew?" This dimension's Lupa and Asami gawk at us.
"Musume. (Daughter.)" Master Splinter calls. "We must focus on the task at hand." I shake myself and charge out, already slicing Foot bots as more continue to invade this lair. Asami is right behind me.
"Hai, Sensei." We call. Then stare at each other for a second, smiling. This dimension might not be so bad, after all...Shaking the thought off, I resume fighting. Like before, with so many fighters, we are soon able to gain a foothold, and soon enough, when one bot falls, there aren't two to replace it. A few more moments are all it takes...then we are finished. The lair is clear. For now. I sheath my ninjaken, taking a breath and listening intently for any more intruders approaching. There are none. I wonder if there are Foot Tech ninjas in this dimension, or those cursed Elite Foot...
"Is that all of them?" Leo asks, just as Splinter slices through the last bot, directly behind Leo.
"Yes, that is all." Splinter replies, holding the naginata easily, despite it's obviously heavy metal attachment.
"Finally!" My Lupa groans.
"I know, right?" The other Lupa replies, and the pair high-five. "This is so cool!" Leo and Asami come over, justifiably wary. "I always wanted a twin!"
"Uh...you do know I'm not really-"
"What what happened to Raph and Casey?" A redhead I assume is this version of April interjects. Before anyone can do more than shrug, hoping those two got the bot before it could reveal the lair's location, voices come from the tunnels. I tense, but then recognize the voices as this Raph and this Casey. They don't sound or smell defeated or depressed, so I think it's safe ot assume they were successful.
"Dude, the way we chased that thing down!" Raph reminisced excitedly. I guffaw. Whoa...usually, the pair only trade insults and wrestle. This is...a little odd.
"Uh...Raph's weird here." Lupa (my Lupa) muses confusedly.
"This is a different dimension, after all." I reply, shrugging.
"Wait...Raph isn't like this usually?" Asami asks. I shrug.
"Well...usually, those two trade insults and talk smack about each other's motorcycles while wrestling."
"Raph...drives a motorcycle?" Their Lupa asks, only for Don to smack his hand over her mouth.
"Don't give him any ideas." He warns. Then blinks. "Wait...Casey and Raph are...friends? They...know each other?" I take a step back, confused.
"What about when I shocked it with my stunner! How cool was that?" Casey asks before I can reply as the pair round a corner.
"Yeah, and don't forget the subway chase, that was the awesom-est part!" Raph replies. I blink. This is so unusual...
The pair then note that there is no more fighting to be done as they come down the few stairs into this dimension's Lair.
"Aww, whassup? No more robots left fer me an' Raph?" Casey asks nonchallantly.
"Whooaaa, okay?" Mikey blinks. "What's up with you two? Yer like, best friends forever now or somethin'?"
"Uh...du-"
"I see you have found a new ally, Raphael." Splinter's voice interjects, and he's smiling at Raph proudly.
"Yeah, Casey's cool."
"Okay, wait..." My Lupa steps forward, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Yer telling me that tho-"
"Just who are you two, anyway?" Leo asks, cutting my Lupa's reply off, looking at us as if seeing us for the first time.
"And how did you get here?" Asami adds, glancing between me and my Lupa. I scratch my head.
"Uh...some kinda time window, I think. A friend of mine noticed an uptake of tacheonic energy and then, when we went to investigate...there were these weird...bubble-like things. Lupa and I fell through one when we tried to avoid it in the hover-cycle we were using." Asami frowns.
"'Tacheonic energies'? 'Hover-cycle'? 'Time window'? You need to do better than that." I sigh.
"I know. I'm sorry. Usually Don...my Don is able to explain..." This Don frowns as if insulted I thought him inferior, which I didn't. Not yet.
"Tacheonic energy is, in theory, what makes time travel possible. But...it's just a theory. It hasn't even been discovered yet, though." I rub my temples in dismay. I really wasn't suited to explain, but...
"Come. There is much to discuss with our...guests." Master Splinter orders. "To the dojo."
=#=#=#=#=
Sitting across from Master Splinter, even this...elongated version...felt right, after so much that was new and different had been thrown at me...it just felt grounding and normal. I could feel a little of the tension all over ease as I sigh.
"...What do you want to know first?" I ask this new version of my father, and the reality of our situation hits me...oh, man...how are we gonna get out of this one?
"What are you wearing on your chests?!" Mikey (slightly chubby in the cheeks, with adorable freckles that made him appear years younger than he actually was) chirps excitedly. "Are those superhero symbols?!" I laugh, but take note of the tinny tone to Lupa's laugh, the memory of her extra-dimensional travel haunting her. I peek at my chestplate in amusement, wondering how they could be taken as hero symbols.
"No. They...in the future, there are different areas that have different gravity and air composition and these help us move and breath." I explain. Splinter nods, but brings us back to the original question he was about to answer.
"I believe the phrase is 'take it from the top'." Dad replies. I bit my lip, amusement gone. So much had happened...how to begin?
"...Let me tell you about a fascinating alien species, marooned on my world for centuries upon centuries..." I then launch into the tale, trying to keep it concise and not overly detailed. When I describe the Utroms' appearance, it takes a few minutes to convince these Hamatos that they are friendly and haven't done anything wrong on Earth. Then, while hesitant at first, I find it fairly easy to talk about Master Yoshi, poor soul. Master Splinter gasps, as do everyone present except my Lupa.
"Wait...what?" Asami whispers, eyes wide with fear and disbelief.
"...Shredder found Hamato Yoshi...and, when Yoshi refused to give up the Utroms...killed my father's master. Splinter could do nothing. He was still a simple street rat at the time, not yet mutated." I reply, cocking a brow. Asami picks up on my confusion easily.
"...This is Hamato Yoshi." Asami says after a moment, indicating Master Splinter. My eyes widen.
"Masutā wa...Sore wa kōeidesu. (Master...it is an honor.)" Lupa and I mumble, awed and unsure of what else to say. We give him a formal bow, awaiting his word to rise. It is swiftly given, but I can tell I need to elaborate further, judging by the way everyone looks at us like we've grown a third head. "I've heard about father's Master Yoshi...all my life...I never met him...I meant no offense or disrespect."
"You have offered none of either, musume." Dad replies softly. "I must admit, this is much to process."
"And I still don't buy their story." Raph grumbles. I shake my head. Typical Raph, no matter what dimension we're in.
"Raph, honestly, if I had come here to destroy you all, you would have known long before now." I reply. "Besides, you should know I can't lie that easily." I add, wagering that, in any dimension, I can't lie well. At all. Asami cocks a brow at me.
"Wow...I guess some things are just constant throughout the multiverse." She mumbles. Don nods in agreement.
"We've always thought that there could be other dimensions, other universes, but..." I nod.
"Yeah, this is a little new for us, too." I reply easily, disregarding the memory of that awful future I had been sent to. Lupa (mine) catches my eye but for a split second. She understands. It was a hard memory, even now, but one of the only times I had been sent somewhere else. Suddenly, there is a time window very similar to the one Lupa and I had fallen through, and I knew it was our ticket home. I stand, even as the Hamatos draw weapons and prepare for a new threat. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! This is my Don's work, okay? No need for those." I urge, pointing to the array of weapons pointed at the window. I grab my Lupa and we bow at the waist. "This has been a pleasure." We intone respectfully. Splinter bows, as well.
"It was our pleasure." He replies.
"Let's go, Lupa." I say, sighing as we slip through the portal and come out in Kody's penthouse lab.
"Miss us?" Lupa quips after a second.