Why was my first TMNT fic posted on the L forums? Well, after I went to see the 2007 movie, some friends persuaded me to go to my very first comic convention (NYCC 2007) dressed as a Foot ninja. As soon as we set foot on the con floor in our matching 1990-movie-style costumes, we were almost literally assaulted by the superfan sometimes known as Michaelangelo. She invited us to her website, and after hanging around there for a while, I tentatively posted a story.

But before that first "real" TMNT fic, I had posted a couple of TMNT-esque fics on a forum dedicated to X-Men: Evolution, my former fandom. (I'm a one-fandom-at-a-time kind of person.) This, then, is the first story I ever wrote that was inspired by TMNT.

"Whoa." From the canopy of the enormous tree they'd materialized in, Renet felt like she could see the entire world, and she didn't recognize any of it. "Where are we? When are we?"

"Salem, Massachusetts," replied her mentor. "1692. Ring any bells?"

"Um..." Renet tried to remember her lessons at the Sorcery Underschool. "The witch trials?"

"Very good."

"But why would Savanti go to a place and time where they burned witches?"

Lord Simultaneous twirled the Time Scepter through his fingers with an easy grace that belied his age. "Savanti Romero's last spell was powerful enough to timejump him to the modern age. But that power came at the cost of accuracy."

Renet screwed up her face, as she always did when thinking through difficult problems. "So, from here he can cast a weaker but more accurate spell? But hasn't he already burnt all his energy?"

"Good," Simultaneous nodded. "It should have taken Savanti some time to rebuild his magical stores enough to cast another timespell. But, luckily for him, and unluckily for us, he happened to land here."

Renet gazed across the valleys and villages, trying to see why this situation was so bad. "I don't get it," she said at last. "Is he planning to mess with the timestream?" She turned excitedly to her teacher. "Are we going to thwart him?"

Lord Simultaneous sighed and pointed down at the courthouse. "None of the people put on trial here were really witches. But, I suspect that there is a well of magical energy somewhere near here. And if you would be quiet, I might be able to sense for it."

Renet shut her mouth. She hadn't yet learned how to sense for magical fields, or really to do any magic at all. So far it was all "theory of looptime" and "physics of timeslips".

"Hey," she said suddenly. "If there's a magic well here, then Savanti could use it to recharge himself and timejump back to -"

"Yes, Renet," Simultaneous said. "Now please be quiet."

Renet adjusted her seat on the branch. She could tell this mission wasn't going to be any fun at all. It would just be "there's the well, now stand back while I drain it", and back to the Academy.

And she'd thought being a Timestress would be cool.