Disclaimer: I have a couple of plushies (Donnie and Mikey) from some arcade from… I don't actually remember when I got them and an action figure (Do I even have to tell you?), do they count? No? Ok then. I own nothing, I am paid nothing, and I mean no harm. Please don't sue!

Chapter 2 - Not a Gairen

"We know you're there, so you might as well come out." The first alligator creature called. When Raphael and Michelangelo didn't move it tried again. "We can see you in the shrubs over there. We won't hurt you, go ahead and come out.

"Do we trust a crocodile?" Michelangelo asked Raphael quietly.

"I don't think we've got a choice." Raph reluctantly responded, and the red masked turtle stepped out of the bushes and showed himself to the alligators. He could feel Michelangelo behind him doing the same.

"He look, Alison, they're gairen. When's the last time you saw a gairen out this way?"

"It's been a while. I thought they knew better than to come out here. Evidently, these two don't. They are children though."

"What's a gairen?" Michelangelo asked Raph. All he received from his brother was a shrug.

"Silly boys, that won't work on us." The nearest alligator sneered. "You are a gairen. The shell on your back all but proves it."

"We're not gairen, and we're not children. We're turtles." Raphael insisted.

"Yeah, we just fell through a… well, back home it was a wall. Here… I don't know we just kind of landed here. We're really sorry. We didn't mean to upset you."

"Outsiders," One of the alligators breathed in shock. "Come, let us take you to the city where you can find a place to stay."

"What about our brothers?" Michelangelo didn't want to go anywhere without Leo and Donnie.

"There are more of you?" Alison asked. "Sarah, if they didn't land together…"

"Young turtles," Sarah explained. "If your brothers did not land with you it is highly likely that they are not in this world."

"We heard Leo calling just before you saw us and Donnie should be with him."

"You are lucky; they must have been very close behind you. Come, we shall try to find your brothers."

"Raph! Mikey!"

"Michelangelo!"

"Do you think they even came through to the same place?" Don asked suddenly.

"Let's assume they did for now." Leo responded. He didn't even want to consider the thought Don had just put into his head. "Raphael!"

The two turtles heard movement coming from the nearby forest. It was something big, and it was moving quickly. Leo and Don drew their weapons and watched in amazement as Mikey bounded from the trees. The two turtles standing in the middle of the field barely had a chance to get their weapons away before they were tackled by their overenthusiastic brother.

"Leo, Donnie, you're here!"

"Yeah," Leo assured him from the ground, "We're here. Are you going to let us up now?"

Mikey got up and helped pull Leo to his feet before reaching down again for Don. Raphael ran up beside his brothers.

"Shell, Donnie." Raph exclaimed, noticing the bandage on his brother's leg. "Who did this to you?"

Donatello pointed a thumb at the blue-masked culprit, and Leo looked down at the ground. "When we fell through he landed on top of me and one of his blades got my leg. It's fine." At that moment Don noticed the four alligators emerging into the meadow. "Raph, please tell me you know these uh… people."

"Oh yeah, they're going to show us the city."

"City?" Leo questioned, he couldn't imagine a city anywhere around here. The landscape was far too picturesque, too natural for there to be a city nearby.

"Yup," Mikey confirmed, "meet Alison, Sarah, Megan and Lindsey. Uh, I'm not sure which one's which." Mike confided to his two confused brothers before turning back to the alligator people. "This is Leo and Donnie."

"Very nice to meet you," Megan said politely, "but we must be getting back to town if we're to find a place for you to stay before we have to get to work."

"Um, we don't…" Leo began, but he couldn't finish as he wasn't sure how to end the sentence he had started.

"Don't what, honey?"

Leo was almost too surprised at being called honey to continue, but based on their voices and how they acted, he would guess that they were about Splinter's age.

"We don't have any way to pay for a place to stay." Donatello finished for Leo.

"Don't worry, young ones, I do believe there are four openings at a restaurant in town. If that sounds like something that might interest you for the time being you are more than welcome to take the jobs."

"It doesn't have to be anything permanent. You can have them for as long as you need them."

"Or until you find something better. Your brothers are nice enough that you should all do quite well in the positions, if you choose to accept."

"The pay's not great, but it's enough for you to get a place to stay."

The paragraph had been handed off between all four crocodiles, and paying attention to the current speaker was kind of like watching someone play pinball. Don knew that he and his brothers did that too and couldn't help but wonder if they left people as baffled as he was now. Probably not, he decided. It wasn't their paragraph passing that confused him as much as what they had actually said. We've been here five minutes and they're already offering us jobs and places to stay? What's going on here? From the look on Leo's face his brother was just as mystified by the turn of events as he was.

"Um, I guess that's the best option we have." Leo finally agreed tentatively.

Four turtles followed four alligators out of the meadow and toward the city that Leo still couldn't see, or even imagine anywhere near a place like this.

They came to the crest of a nearby hill and just beyond lay a metropolis. It was huge, and Leo couldn't fathom just how this city hadn't spread into the meadow they had just left. All the same, his eyes insisted that a city was exactly what he was seeing.

"Whoa," Raphael enthused at the cityscape. Turning back around to double check, all he could see for miles was nature, the grassy meadow, the trees in the distance.

"Would you take a look at that architecture? Wow!"

Leo didn't notice it until now, but Donatello had a point. Every building looked like a work of art. Grandiose spires, incredible flying buttresses and hundreds of creative shapes made up the city, none of the square boxes that they were used to seeing in New York. Every building almost seemed to defy gravity. As they walked Leo noticed that pedestrians and motorized vehicles moved quickly and efficiently through the streets. There were many vehicles moving about, but never once did he see a traffic jam. He heard his brother marveling on that aspect of this place as well.

"Yeah, Donnie," Raph growled, "it's great, wonderful, amazing, can you drop it now?"

Leo had tuned out long ago, but evidently Don had been giving a running commentary on what they were seeing. He was about to open his mouth in an attempt to prevent an impending fight, but Michelangelo beat him too it.

"Aw, Come on Raphy, you're sounding like Leo. Just let him have his fun."

"Don't call me Raphy."

Evidently, 'sounding like Leo' was more than enough to stop Raph from acting the way he was. Leonardo, meanwhile, was debating whether or not he should be insulted.