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Chapter 3
Potentate battle 1- begin!
Rath and Leo jumped into place, their opponents leaped onto stage too.
One was the size of an adult human and shaped like one, though they couldn't tell what he really looked like under his mask and clothes, the other looked like a featherless chicken with a mushroom shaped head.
"BWAHAHAH that thing thinks it can compete against us." Raph laughed.
" I kind of thought this'd be a bit harder." Leo remarked, before shoving Raph in the direction of the chicken, "Alright, you finish him off then join me against the other guy."
"Why do I get the chump job?" "cause' I'm the oldest."
Leo bowed and Raph grudgingly did the same.
"Alright, pip-squeak lets get this over with," Raph said, raising his fists.
The pink alien hit a button on the controller around its neck and some packages Rath didn't even notice on the field opened up and shot out machine parts.
The alien flew up and the parts constructed a metallic mount underneath. It landed on the robot and was covered by a see-through protective dome on the top.
Rath paused for a moment, then let a small "huh."
Leo approached the masked one pulling out his swords.
The Mask made a bunch of hand signs faster than Leo could see and suddenly copied himself into five clones.
"Damn."
On the other side of the nexus grounds, Donnie and Mikey entered their second competitor battle.
The arena was strange, instead of a flat surface there were a bunch of metal balls floating in mid air, Donnie leaped on one and had to run on it to keep from falling off.
"Seriously? This is the arena? We have to fight while Birling?"
"Whaaaat's Birling?" Mikey asked. Nearly falling off the first one he jumped on.
"It's a lumberjack game where you run on a spinning log," Donnie said. "And there's our opponents." He said, gesturing at the long stick-like aliens that appeared.
(scene break)
Leo tried to cut one copy only for it to slip out of range, forcing him to step off-line and evade another.
Rath leaped up and tried to pound the metal Goliath but just bounced off. It picked him up and threw him clear across the arena where he hit Leo, knocking the two of them into a wall.
(scene break)
"Whoa!" Donnie exclaimed. Almost falling off the ball yet again and he swung past his opponent.
"Dude! This is hard."
I know what you mea-a-n!" He stumbled over and was nearly flung back over Mikey.
Mikey sidestepped and Donnie grabbed one end of Mikey's nunchuck to steady himself.
The chain went taut and they both stood balancing on the still ball, countering each others weight with the chucks.
They smiled at each other and leaped three balls over. Using the chain to trip their opponent.
(scene break)
Alright big guy, let's do this!" Rath screamed, holding up his fists. The bot held up its arms, folding its hands back into its body it spat fire balls at Rath.
"Woah, hold on- THAT'S CHEATING" Rath screamed dodging.
(scene break)
Doubles Contest 3 BEGIN."
Donnie leaped from post to post collecting the gems scattered around the arena. He leaped onto a high rise and dart up it until he got to the end and came to a halt. There was another gem suspended from the ceiling. It would be difficult to bring it down with a projectile, and it was a bit far to jump.
"GANGWAY!" He leaped out of the way and Mikey barreled past him on a skateboard. He shot right off the end of the rise and past the gem, grabbing it out of the air as he did so.
(scene break)
Rath dodged the balls. "I'm not getting anywhere with this." He thought in a panic. "Leo's not going to let me live this down."
Leo somersaulted backward until he was close to Rath and stepped into a fighting position, he waited until two approaching ninjas got into striking distance then hit them with his swords. A third one slipped between and slammed Leo down to the floor. The clones all swarmed over him.
"LEO!" Rath jumped on top of the bot and grabbed one of its arms, forcing it to point in the direction of Leo's attackers. The blast knocked all of the ninjas off.
The bot withdrew its cannon, folding it into itself and separating the folds into fingers. It grabbed Rath and slammed him to the floor.
He rolled up onto his feet and held his hands up as it balled its fingers into fists and tried to double punch him.
He felt the smack against his palms as he curled his hand over its fists, the force dragging him backward through the dirt.
His feet strained under the pressure as they were pushed back. Leo ran up behind him and, jumping onto his shoulders, swiped once at the dome to remove it and then knocked the alien off its perch with his sword hilt.
(scene break)
Donnie fixed up the aliens broken fountain machine, she rewarded him with a case filled with chemicals. Mikey sighed. This was taking forever. Donnie had fixed three machines and traded a half dozen schematics and Mike didn't understand any if the stuff he was getting.
"Come on Donnie, what's taking so long, we could be competing right now, or at least outside watching fights."
"Yeah, I'm with Mikey, this is Dullsville." Casey added.
"Just a minuet Mikey, then we'll go sign up for another match." April reassured
*siiiigh*
(scene break)
WOOOOAHH!" Raph screamed, running along his tiny part of the field. "SOMEBODY STOP THIS CRAZY THING!" He screamed.
Leo was doing marginally better. He wasn't confined to one ball anyway, but it didn't make fighting his opponents much easier. Since Rath couldn't figure out how to get off his ball, they'd both decided that Leo was the bigger threat and both of them were after him.
"Whoa." Leo jumped over a sword swipe and carried his jump too far, landing on Rath's shoulders.
"This isn't making things easier on me, Leo." Rath snapped. Both of their opponents -anthropomorphized rabbits- jumped on the ball in front of Rath, one on the others shoulders, mimicking the turtles pose. Leo put up his fists and the rabbit did the same. After a minute of fisticuffs, he managed to knock the rabbits down.
(scene break)
Mikey stood in line to sign up, sighing heavenly. Donnie was still fixing stuff and this line was longer than he'd thought it'd be, and the event wasn't even for another hour.
(scene break)
Rath and Leo stood staring out at the expanse before them. They'd gotten all of the other gems, But how were they supposed to get that one?"
(scene break)
Mikey jumped up and down cheering, they were in district nine now and the games going on there were wicked awesome, too bad Donnie was still busy. It kind of made him wish his brothers were here to watch it with him. But at least he had his new friend Casey.
(scene break)
Leo threw some projectiles that bounced off the gem ineffectually. He knew this wasn't working but he couldn't think of anything else.
Rath racked his brains trying to think of something heavy enough to knock that thing down.
A light bulb went off and he smacked the bottom of his fist into his palm, why didn't he think of that before?
He grabbed Leo by the ankle and swung his around and around building up momentum, then with a heavy swing sent him flying into the gem knocking it off its perch.
(scene break)
Mikey was on cloud nine. "I want to eat and eat and eat until I die." He sighed dreamily.
Donnie laughed, "Pizza does have that affect on people."
"I'm not really sure what you see in it. It's a good food-" April started.
"Shh." Casey said, "Let them have this." She looked at him, stumped.
"You're the best Donnie."
Don smiled, the words had a nostalgic feel. Mikey had said that to him many times before, But it had always been directed at Donnie the big brother, not Donnie the new guy.
A slight queasiness settled in, It was so easy to forget this Mikey had only met him a few days ago.
"What's your family like Mikey?" He asked.
Mikey smile faded, he sat up and hugged his knees. "They fight a lot, mostly my two brothers... Sometimes I expect Rath to just up and disappear, It keeps me up if I hear sounds at night.
I have to check them to make sure it isn't Rath, sometimes I see Leo poking his head out of his room too, I guess he has the same worry. I know those two really care about each other, but they never show it at all." Mikey rolled onto his back and gazed up at the currently empty sky. "Sometimes I think that as soon as we all grow up and Splinter finally lets us out I'll never see the two of them again.
"Why... Why are they like that?"
"I guess they're stir crazy, We aren't allowed out of the sewer."
"Splinter never let you leave?"
"He did once on our fifteenth mutation day but... We ran into some Purple dragons."
That's certainly a step down from fighting Krang. "What happened?"
"I... Well... The fighting got rough and I climbed up on a roof and I was cornered and... I thought Rath or Leo'd catch me. But they were bickering again and didn't notice I was so far away."
Donnie winced. "Were you OK?"
"After a few weeks, but Splinter won't let us back out until he thinks we can work as a team. Which won't be for another bijillion years 'cause we've been even less of a team since then."
Donnie wasn't sure what to say.
Casey, despite having a mouth full of pizza had no such issue, "That's rough, buddy."
"Sometimes I feel like a burden." Mikey said quietly.
"Don't say that," April said.
Donnie smiled in what he hoped was a reassuring manner. "You've certainly helped me these past few days, I couldn't have gotten my lab together so fast without you."
Mikey opened his eyes and smiled, "Yeah... I guess that's true. Maybe If I beat up enough aliens and bring back a trophy, Master Splinter will see that I can take care of myself and let me lead my bros on another trip." Cheered significantly at this thought Mikey groped around the many pizza boxes surrounding them until he felt another piece and shoved it in his mouth.
"I'm going to go take another look around, can you guys poke around for a Krang power cell, or something similar?
"Sure." Casey said, " Come on Mikey, you can hang with me."
"I'll go with Donnie." April said, she would prefer it if none of them wandered this strange place alone.
"Uhh, Thanks April." Donnie said, feeling something flutter in his stomach.
The two groups separated.
(scene break)
"Ah man, we've been all over this crazy district, where is he?"
"We've been on screen all afternoon... But only in the districts we were competing in. Either, he's ignoring us. Or he's been bouncing around districts like crazy."
"Great, we'll never find him like this." "We unlocked a few districts, maybe if we went around them, we'll see Mikey competing in one of the games."
Leo stopped and held his arm out, Rath walked right into it with an umph. " Hey, what's the big idea?" he asked, rubbing his stomach. Leo pointed to the smallish form of Donnie darting through the crowd. "Hey! That's the guy Mike was with." They took off in hot pursuit.
Leo weaved through the crowd easily, Rath was close on his heels, but a large elephant-like alien walked right into him, knocking him to the ground. "Hey! Watch it!" Rath snapped, He caught something orange and green out of the corner of his eye and honed in on it, catching sight of Mikey walking off with some punk human kid. Rath leaped to his feet and made a beeline for them.
(scene break)
Leo pushed through the crowd and was rewarded at last as he came to a booth selling something electronic and complex looking.
His target was standing at a shelf narrating what sounded like an instruction manual to the girl at his side. Leo took a moment to try to think of a good opening. The two noticed him and he plastered an awkward smile on his face and waved. "Heeey... You. I've been looking all over for you."
"Leo?"
That stumped him. " How do you know my name?"
Donnie wondered whether to explain, but settled for- "You're Mikey's brother, he told me about you."
"Yeah, well. About that, me and Rath here- Rath?" he glanced to his side. "Great, just great."
"Leo, what are you doing here?"
"You entered these.. Games... With my brother right? Do you know where he went? I'm looking for him."
"He's been hanging out with me and April, he's off with Casey right now. The two of us are going to enter another event soon, would you like me to bring him over after?"
"Yes!" Leo said brightly. "Yes, I would."
Donnie started fiddling with the gizmos on the shelf and Leo rocked back and forth on his feet.
"Soo." Leo started, "You're a teenage mutant ninja turtle too."
"Yup."
"I thought there were only three."
"No, there's four."
"Yeeeaahhh... Sooo, how'd that happen?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you, well, actually, considering where we are, maybe you might."
"What's your name."
"I'm Donatello, I'm working on trying to identify some temporal anomaly's that I think are affecting New York, I came here to get some Tec to help me analyze it."
Leo nodded, trying to process that statement for any part of it that he could understand.
"Temporal... That means time, right?"
"Yes, I suspect that there was an event that might have altered the time stream, you might not notice, but there are some things that aren't part of your life that maybe should be."
"Like what?
"Well, for starters, I suspect you'd be a bit more jaded to things like this." He gestured to the street.
(scene break)
MIKEY!"
Mikey barely had time to utter a single "Huh?" before he was tackled in a hug.
"Rath? What are you doing?"
"Hugging you... I think."
"Well, could you not do that, It's weird."
Rath put him down. "What are you doing here?" Mikey asked.
"What am I doing here? What are you doing here?"
"I'm helping Donnie get tec so he can fix his lab, He can't use his old one for some reason."
"Donnie?" Rath then noticed Casey. "You're friends with a human?"
"I'm Casey, and do you think I'm I look like a regular human? I hang out with mutants and walk with aliens, Casey Jones isn't average."
"Uh, huh... Mikey, A moment." Without waiting for an answer Rath yanked him down an alley.
"What are you doing out here, where did you meet these people?"
"I met Donnie in the sewers, He was down so I offered to come here with him to cheer him up."
"You ran off with a complete stranger because he was sad?"
"I wanted to bring the two of you, but you were so busy snapping at each other I couldn't even ask."
Rath thought hard back to the night in question, still a little blurry, he remembered that he had met the other turtle too, He said something about his brothers, but he couldn't really recall what.
"I'm sorry Mike... If competing's what you really want, I'll support you."
"Thanks, Raph."
(scene break)
"I'm just glad I've found one of the guys I'm looking for. I can't believe Raph just took off like that."
"I'm sure he's around here somewhere Leo." April soothed. Trying to readjust the bag in her arms.
Donnie was trying to do the same with his bag- which contained a glider not unlike his bat wing inspired invention, when the computer on his arm beeped.
He paused and glanced down at his monitor. It showed a grid with an icon showing his position, and a red dot blinking a few meters away. He glanced up just in time to see something dart out of sight. "I'm being watched ' he thought, and scrambled into an alleyway, Pulling the glider over his shell, once there he clambered onto the roof of another merchant booth and blended into the shadows.
He could see something darting around in the shadows on the other side of the alley, it paused, perhaps confused about the sudden disappearance of its quarry, then moved off.
Donnie eased himself over the other side of the booth and tried to sneak behind them to somewhere where he could think. He walked right into something slightly shorted but wider than himself.
"There you are!" "We've been looking all over for you."
"Rath? "
"so Mike told you about me, huh, well you can tell Mikey we-" one moment Rath was pointing a finger at Don's face, the next he was grabbing the back of his shell and forcing him to the floor.
A red bolt of energy flew over their heads carving a scar into the wall behind them.
"What the heck was that?" Leo asked, sliding up next to them and facing their new opponent.
Donnie rolled onto his stomach and pushed himself onto his hands. "A mouser, here?"
"That thing a friend of yours?"
"No." Donnie said, keeping his eye on it. It wasn't even a typical mouser, this one was upgraded to be much bigger.
"All right, well, I'm sick of looking at it so-"
"You'd better sit this one out, rookie "Donnie said, getting back on his feet.
"Rookie! Who do you think you are?" He's upset Raph, he was sorry about that, but he needed to say it, more to remind himself than anyone else. He couldn't rely on his older brothers too much this time. Donnie leaped over the mouser and ran off with it on his tail, he ignored the angry cries of the other three and kept running.
He saw a large building coming out of the side of a small mountain in the middle of the grounds, he clambered onto the mountain and kept climbing. Two more mousers joined the third and ascended after him. He waited on a level section a third of the ways up and let them come to him.
All three of them tried to leap on him at once, he threw down a smoke bomb and leaped onto the third ones back, knocking it into the range of the other two and getting it torn to shreds by their stabbing metal legs.
He leaped off, released the blade hidden inside his Bo and dug it into the side of the mountain, dragging it through the dirt and slowing his descent to a stop.
The mousers swept down the hill after him. Rath appeared out of the shadows and knocked one off, clinging to its back, he wrapped his arms and legs around its metal appendages to keep it from regaining its grip on the mountain side before it hit the ground, its head smashing open as Rath leaped off.
Leo landed on the last one's back, it tried to reach around to stab him, but only succeeded in impaling itself. Leo moved from side to side dodging the mouser's limbs as it stabbed itself to death like an angry scorpion.
Donnie descended back to the ground. "What are mousers doing here?"
"DING" "GAAH I'm going to be late! I can't just leave Mikey hanging." He ran off in the direction of the next event." OY! " The other two called behind him. He waved back to them. "I've gotta go, meet me in front of the pizza place afterward, we'll do lunch."
"What? Hey! Get back here!"
Don ran into the entrance to the next event, the electric sign flashing ' competitor 54 enters.'
Raph and Leo slammed into a force field blocking them from the gate. The electric sign flashing 'signed in competitors only.'
(scene break)
He darted into the room, looking for Mikey, he spotted him by a rack of weapons, waving Donnie over.
"It looks like this is an archery competition, except you need to shoot from a moving cart." Mikey pointed to a rail way circling around the tournament.
Donnie grabbed his bow and arrows and leaped into a cart, Mikey leaping into the one behind him, they began to move as soon as they jumped in.
Donnie focus on the targets, he hit them easily, Mikey did the same.
"You're pretty good at that."
Donnie started, he turned around to face Kairos.
Not this guy again. "Hey," Donnie said awkwardly. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to ask you a favor."
"Me? What could I do for you?"
"I need someone to look at the time scepter, I think something is wrong with it."
"The time scepter? Me? I wouldn't have the first idea of what to do."
"If there is anyone in this time stream that has what it takes it's you."
"Me? Why me? This technology's got a be 1000 years ahead of me. Fugitoid would be a much better pic for this, It's going to take me a thousand years just to grasp the basics of this tec."
"That is exactly why I need you. You are one of the most famous inventors in Earth's history, not just because of your number of breakthroughs, but because of the way you made them, your intuition is unimitable."
Intuition was a word that Donatello had heard his brothers use many times, and he had learned not to be so quick to discount it as it had come in use. But it was a word that he associated with his brothers, never himself.
Kairos frowned, "what's the matter Donatello, are you just not motivated?"
"I am definitely motivated enough. I just don't see how it is possible." Donatello countered.
"Maybe you just need a little push." Kairos said.
"Hey guys." Mikey said.
"I don't see what type of push could help."
"Guys?" Mikey said uneasily.
"I'm sure we could find something."
"Guys, there's something moving through the trees. I keep seeing eyes watching us."
"Eyes?"
Suddenly a laser blast severed the rail under Mikey's cart."
"AAAHH!" Mikey screamed, falling fast he stuck out his hand and managed to grab a branch in the center of the ring. " Phew."
"Tigerclaw!" Donnie exclaimed, recognizing the telltale signature of the tiger mutant's blast gun.
Tigerclaw flew up, hovering over the roller coaster with his jet pack.
"You are coming with me, turtle, we have things to discuss."
"I will not." Donnie snapped.
Tigerclaw's ears twitched, twisting to listen behind him. "It seems we are being watched." Tigerclaw muttered. Donnie looked across from the mutant to see Raph and Leo with their hands pressed against the force field enclosing the arena.
"Is this part of the game?"
"I don't like it."
"What say you we give them a little show." Tigerclaw said before flying up the side of the field and pulling out a silver stick of metal. He tapped the wall of it and opened a screen that he tapped with the silver wand.
Suddenly the layout changed. Instead of a forest, the roller coaster rolled around and around a volcano.
"Mikey!" The turtles called in unison.
"Yikes! This is getting me hot under the collar. " Mikey joked, but the humor didn't really help to drown out his terror. A spiral of flames shot up the tree he was holding onto, blackening it in a matter of seconds."
"Ulp." was all he had to say before his branch broke off the tree, sending him falling screaming onto a large rock in the middle of the magma.
"Mikey!" Donnie exclaimed before looking up at Tigerclaw."
"So that is how they managed to change the scenes of the contest so often and so easily. These contest stadiums are holographic, like Fugitoid's training room." Donnie realized. "And that silver wand Tigerclaw is holding must be the electronic key they used to input the program. I have to get it to save Mikey."
Donatello ignored the jostling of the cart as it hit the bottom of the hill of the hill and started to crawl up slowly. Kairos caught his arm as he tried to jump out.
"You can't save him. That giant beast will blast you out of the sky if you try."
"Then I will just have to take out Tigerclaw before I save Mikey."
"That's impossible! But there might be another way." He held up his wand, "if you fix my scepter then I can go back in time and save him."
"I told you, it's too advanced." Donnie cried.
"Well, unless you can find a way to take that giant out of the sky this is the only chance you got."
"Then I'll just have to find a way to take him out." And with that Donnie jumped out of the cart, deploying his wings.
He swooped in fast and hard, clipping Tigerclaw with his wing and causing him to drop the electronic key. Donnie swooped down and caught it.
As his fingers wrapped around the key something jostled him and he started to spin out of control. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the laser-blast-sized smoldering hole in his wing right before his vision was obscured by the pink of the force field as he slammed into it.
He skated down the field before catching on to the metal ring that circled around the Stadium, separating the holographic projector from the force field film that encompassed it.
He heard the roar of the jet as Tigerclaw swung around to take another pass at him.
He reached into his weapons belt and pulled out three throwing stars. He threw the stars behind him at Tigerclaw who dodged easily. The throwing stars bounced off the sides of the force field until they flew back and lodged into Tigerclaw's backpack.
His jet started to sputter, starting and stopping, one can then the other, Spinning the large man-tiger out of control.
Donnie took advantage of the situation to crawl along the metal edge away from Tigerclaw and towards his siblings.
"Let me in there!" Raph screamed bashing the force field wildly with his fists.
"Donnie, help Mikey!" Leo called, knowing that Donnie was the only one in the position to help.
"I'm trying," Donnie said, tapping the side of the Coliseum with the electronic key and opening a screen. He tapped the screen with the key but got a locked program signal. "Drat, I'm going to have to try something else."
"Hurry!" Leo urged.
"Yeah, Don, I don't think I can stand this much longer." Mikey cried out.
"Let me in there!" Raph roared.
"Excellent Idea, Raph." Donnie said brightly. Tapping a few more keys the force field surrounding the stadium disappeared.
"That's what I'm talking about, "Raph whooped, "I'm coming, Mikey," He stopped at the edge of the ring and peered down at the lava. "Or not."
"Maybe I can make one more small alteration," Donnie muttered, A rope appeared around his shell. "Yes!"
He threw the rope over to Raph and Leo. "Let me jump over there, then tie the rope to myself, then with you two holding the other end I can swing over and save Mikey.
"No chance! It's too dangerous! I'll tie it to myself. You stay there until the game overseers figure out how to stop the program, leaping around this arena is too dangerous!"
An odd side effect of Donatello's intelligence and his impulse to solve which ever puzzle happened to come his way was that he had a tendency to get hung up on irrelevant trivia.
He puzzled over the cause of Leo's behavior. Temporal echo of his big brother instincts, transference caused by his resemblance to Leo's other kin?
Or just the older turtle's noble instincts and hero complex. He forced it away from his mind. What was important now was saving Mikey and they didn't have a moment to lose.
"I'm not arguing with you I'm just coming over."
He leaped at the other two turtles, ignoring Leo's flinch, it would have been an easy enough landing, just bounce off the two remaining non-flaming trees and land. But what he didn't think of was Tigerclaw spinning around as he landed on the first tree.
Irritated by the dizzying ride he'd been forced to take, Tigerclaw readied his beam weapon and shot at Don.
His aim was put off by the spinning, so instead of the turtle being vaporized, he hit the tree branch Don was standing on instead.
Donnie yelped as he fell downward. Fortunately for him, he fell right past the stone column Mikey was stranded on and Mikey managed to yank him onto the rock with him.
He stone cracked and the column started to slide sideways.
"Sideways, sideways!" Donnie called as they both leaned back.
The column started to tip the other way.
"Other way! Other way!" Donnie exclaimed as it tipped over a bit too much.
"Center Center!" He cried as it started to settle back into a less rocky position.
Mikey and Don hugged each other in terror. Trying to keep their weight centered.
"Don't worry guys, we'll save you!" Leo exclaimed, launching himself into the fray.
He fell till he was level with the column, then yanked to a stop as Raph pulled the rope taut.
Then he swung back and forth until he got close enough for the younger two to grab his arms.
Raph pulled them all up, leaving the stone column to crumble without the stabilizing weight.
He knew he was stronger than Leo, and both of them could lift a few times their own weight, Mutant strength and all. But he was a little surprised by the fact he could pull up three turtles out of a pit and drag them over the edge to safety this way.
He tugged the other turtles over the edge, He and Leo pressed the two younger turtles in-between them and let out a simultaneous sigh of relief.
"Let's get out of here." Raph said.
"Yeah," Leo agreed with him for once, "Let's."
(end chapter)
Sorry about that, I won't have any more chapter's that make you suffer through two and a half pages of scene breaks again, I promise.
The turtle wiki claims that the turtles are each capable of lifting five times their own weight, so Raph pulling all three turtles up should be possible.
I'm thinking of doing a cool website of the week type thing where I show a cool website I think people should know about at the end of each chapter. Or a cool tmnt related amv.
Today I'm going to recommend the non profits .com
It's a click to donate website where you can click to donate dog food, or water, or even click to plant trees. All you have to do is visit and click, you don't have to sign up or pay anything.
I'm going to upload about a chapter a week, except in the unlikely event I get one hundred favs, then I'll do it twice a week.