Leo used a spyglass to count a number of Kraang droids on the street. Only ten. They could finish them without breaking a sweat. But something was not right. Kraang was back into action again right after the world was saved as if they were in a rush to finish the project before someone knew it.
He gave the spyglass to Donnie who was already in science-y mode "Last time they used that kind of portal to transport the Kraanthatrogons from Dimension X. I wonder what they're going to send to our world this time."
"That machine looks like a really big blender." Leo assumed.
"Blender? Hmm, I'm positive that the circle base is the portal they used last time. Except it was used horizontally, not vertically like this. But I'm not sure about the blender. Wait, is that… ingredients? Fragments of power cell and mutagen?" Donnie gasped when Kraang droids threw them into the large blender glass jug and turned on a switch. The jug began to spin making a bizarre noise.
"Wow, they literally combine them to create a new portal." Donnie made a dreamy voice. Leo sighed, not sharing the enthusiasm.
"Donnie, stop that. We need to destroy that thing anyway. So let's get it over with," Raph grunted. "I can't believe you still need more nerd stuff in life when you had already been in space."
"Curiosity is important, Raph. Never stop learning."
"Yeah, whatever."
Donnie made a disappointed sound but he grabbed bo staff out anyway, ready to attack.
Mikey was quiet, but not because he focused on the mission tonight, it was because he was thinking about how to convince his big brother to go on a vacation. He was not sure whether to ask Donnie and Raph to come too. If they came, it would be easy to persuade Leo to come with them. They all deserved a nice trip to clear their minds after all.
Especially Leo, he noticed that his big brother became more distant than ever. After they were back from space, Leo's mind was occupied with million things that pushed him away from everyone. Sure, he still acted like their big brother. But when Leo was alone in dojo or in the kitchen, Mikey noticed that his mind was a mile away from the lair again. It was impossible for Mikey to know what his brother thinking. Okay, he would admit there was still some unresolved problems such as recusing Miwa, but couldn't they be grateful for what they have now? Raph once said he didn't know what was in Mikey's head, but Mikey was clueless about what was inside their heads too.
I bet Leo's mind is somewhere between Miwa and those jurassic aliens. He thinks too much. And they said they never understand me. I'll let them know I don't think that much. We only have one brain so we have to take a good care of it. Just don't dump everything in there! It's too fragile! That's why my mind is about pizza and Ice cream kitty only!
He was concerned about his brother because he didn't want to lose sight of him again. Last time he turned away for two seconds and Leo almost died in space!
"Hey, are you okay?"
"Huh?" Mikey blinked. He just realized that the argument was over and now they were looking at him.
"I didn't hear you at all. Are you feeling alright?"
"Umm, yeah," I guess.
When they were back home tonight, he needed to come up with that long-overdue vacation plan. They were back to Earth safely and they haven't celebrated yet. He had to look for the nice place to visit. Oooh! I want to visit that wax museum. Can I ask them to come too?
Unfortunately, his brother knew his mind was wandering somewhere else again so he got a nudge in his plastron.
"Tell me you didn't space out and listened to our plan."
"Umm, what was it again?"
Leo gave him a disapproving look, and he just returned him a sheepish smile.
After vacation, he thought, everything was going to be the same after nice, long vacation.
The Kraang in black suits threw more mutagen into the glass jug. The usual pink color of power cell and bright turquoise color of mutagen were mixed, changing slowly into sickeningly purple.
"The portal which is created by Kraang to the place where Kraang is supposed to retrieve more spore sample is now finished," Kraang announced. "Kraang. Pour the mixture into the tanks which are prepared by Kraang to contain the mixture."
"Greeting, gentlemen! Long time no see. Do you miss me?"
Every Kraang droids stopped the actions and pointed the guns at Mikey. Of course, this was part of the plan. He should have known he was a bait, or a distraction, that was a term Leo used for him. Well, at least he knew he was the expert in this particular area.
"That is a turtle who called himself Michelangelo which is the enemy of the Kraang."
"Yup, that's me! Don't ever forget it. So, do you remember anyone else?"
He smirked, and pointed his index behind them. One Kraang droid turned to see and got a shuriken in his face. Raph was the first one to tangle the closest droid, Leo followed him shortly. And all hell broke loose.
Mikey joined the chaos. It was like a typical day on Earth where they trashed the droids. He thought they were in spaces too long. Everything was going according to the plan. Donnie already stopped the machine-Blender, I think-and installed a bomb to destroy it. After Blender was destroyed, they would get back home and have some pizza. Ah… awesome day.
"I want to know what it is. If it's really a portal then where it leads to…" He heard Donnie talking to himself, he usually did that when he was in the lab. If Donnie decided to create this blender at home, he would gladly to be the first volunteer. But he didn't Master Splinter would allow it, unless Donnie told him it was just a blender. Man, I miss normal life in the lair.
Mikey delivered a strike to Kraang's abdomen and kicked him hard enough he flew to hit the large glass jug. That was when the jug swayed dangerously, spilling the purple liquid on the ground.
Oops?
Raph did a backflip kick to another droid sending him into the liquid. Instead of splattering sound, the droid was absorbed and disappeared within a second.
What?
"What the shell was that!?" Apparently Raph was confused as well. Even Mikey knew the liquid wasn't supposed to do that.
Mikey flinched when he heard a loud crashing sound, the questionably purple liquid was now everywhere on the ground.
"Be careful! It's the liquid portal!" Donnie yelled somewhere behind him.
Mikey jumped to the ladder and climbed up quickly. He threw shurikens at the Kraang to buy his brother a time to escape. Everything happened so fast. Leo was still on the ground beating more droids. One of injured Kraang droid got behind him and shot Leo's back. The impact sent him into the purple fluid.
"Leo!?"
He swiftly bound the Kusarigama chain to the ladder and jumped after Leo, reaching out to grab him. Leo's eyes widened when he saw Mikey coming after him.
"Mikey!? Don't!"
Huh? Why does Leo try to stop me? I'm trying to help him!
"Come on, I got this," Mikey spun his legs so he could go faster, or so he thought. "Hiyaaah! Turtle speeding bullet. Not bad, huh?"
Leo's shocked face made him frown. Suddenly the background changed from the dark ground with purple liquid to the sight of the rooftop.
"Huh...?"
The bright sunlight hit his face. He was now falling from the sky. Mikey just realized he was already on the other side of the portal.
He felt the chain on Kusarigama sagging. Panicked, Mikey turned to see what had happened. The portal was floating in the sky but getting smaller and smaller. The section of ladder his blade was bounded on was broken, including the platform and handrail. All of them were falling on the top of him. Their lifeline was utterly broken.
There was still a chance. He won't give up, not yet. They still could go back if he could grab Leo and swung his chain through the portal in time. But the portal was already too small for a turtle to get through. But if it was his chain, he could still make it. He could do something. He could-
While his focus was on the portal, he totally forgot he was falling. The impact on his shell kindly reminded him of that. He gasped. The air was knocked out from his lungs. His vision was blurred for a second, then he heard Leo calling his name.
"Mikey!"
Oh, right, he forgot about the ladder, it fell with free fall speed and would crush him if Leo didn't push him out of the way. Mikey quickly moved away from the debris, turning his head and looking at the sky again. It was dark blue shade without the portal. It was closed, and so their fate.
Which means they were stuck here...
"Are you okay?"
Yeah, you fell into the portal after got hit by Kraang's laser and I was supposed to rescue you. But now you rescued me. Awesome day indeed. "Fine. I'm fine. Nothing's broken, see?" Mikey groaned and sat up. "Ough, just a bit, I think. My back hurts. What about you?"
"I'm fine." Oh yeah, bro, I know that tone too well. Leo tried to hide his injuries again. Maybe his back was hurt like him since he also landed on his shell. I'll let it go this time, bro.
"Where are we?" Mikey asked, looking around the rooftop. It felt weird to fall on the top of the building when they were supposed to hit the ground. "Are we just got teleported outside the building? Or are we in another dimension?"
"I'm not sure..."
"There are no buildings, ow, when I was in Dimension X last time," Mikey tried to stand up, Leo helped him get on his feet. "Hey, if this is really Dimension X, am I supposed to be a genius now? Come on Mikey, use your brain. Grrr."
Mikey squeezed his eyes shut to use his brain power but nothing happened, of course. Leo walked to the edge, his breath caught when he saw a familiar sight.
"It's New York..."
Suddenly Mikey opened his eyes and ran to see what his big brother saw, and he squeaked. "Holy chalupa! Is this really New York?"
"It is..." Leo whispered, he couldn't believe it too. It was like a deserted city in movies with the-end-of-the-world plot.
The daylight made everything visible to see. Mikey began to shudder. "It's New York… except it seems to be destroyed by… Kraang?"
"No, I think the city is abandoned. If it was Kraang, it would have been more damages."
Mikey looked down at the streets and found no one, not even a single living thing moving on the road. There were a lot of abandoned cars with green plants grew all over them. If plants grew on them, then they were definitely abandoned for decades. New york city he knew was never quiet.
"Ugh, I smell zombies," Mikey muttered under his breath. "This kind of place reeks of zombies."
Leo reverted his attention back to his brother. "Don't say such a thing. Zombies don't exist."
"But this is another dimension. Anything can exist."
Leo facepalmed. "Don't, Mikey, or you're going to freak yourself out again."
He got a point, Mikey thought, so he changed the subject. "What do we do now, Leo?"
The portal was long gone, so basically they were stuck. Before Leo could say anything, the sound of footsteps behind them make them froze. Leo quickly signaled him to hide which he quickly complied. They just had a conversation about zombies and Mikey was not too keen on meeting one today.
"I heard something fell from the sky." A male voice, good, zombies couldn't talk so at least this is a good sign.
"Alien attack? Great, as if we don't have enough disaster already." Another male voice, he thought. Mikey took a peek at the newcomers. They seemed human enough. They would look like normal citizen if they didn't have guns pointing at the crumbled ladder.
"Look, it's here."
"How can this piece of junk fall on the rooftop?"
"Maybe there's helicopter passed by?"
"I didn't hear anything."
"Of course, you were day-dreaming as always."
"Hey!"
"Well, the government stop flying that thing a long time ago…"
The voices began to falter away from them. They didn't seem to interest in the wreckage or small drops of purple liquid which were made of alien technology. Mikey saw Leo's frown deepened as he observed two men walking away.
"At least there are people here," Leo said, "This city is not completely deserted. But why do they hide themselves during the day?"
A sound of the gunshot made both of them flinch. Leo looked over the edge to find the source, his eyes widen when he saw at least twenty people on the street. It was silent and empty a moment ago, now it was full of people. They didn't look like Purple Dragons, just ordinary citizens. He was sure he spotted a woman in the group too. They shouted and screamed and shot at someone who tried to run away.
"Leo, look!"
A man fell, he tried to crawl away but a group of people cornered him and shot again.
Mikey squeaked.
"They're… killing each other?" His little brother's whisper was so quiet he almost didn't catch it. Mikey was scared, and Leo had to do something.
Unable to turn away from the scene, Leo formed a plan inside his head. A plan to go back home.
"Let's get to the lair. If this is alternate dimension maybe we can see our counterparts like we did last time."
"Good idea, let's go!"
"You're too loud, Mikey. Quiet!"
Mikey tried to run away from the edge, Leo grabbed his arm to slow him down and followed him. They didn't want to see what people doing down there, they didn't want to see what they were going to do with a corpse And most of all, they didn't want to see if they were zombies or just a gang who killed others in order to survive in this cruel world.
Author's note The event in this fanfic happened right after s04 "Earth's last stand." I'm not sure if there will be Leo's change of heart in "City at war". Hopefully not. By the way, I haven't watched "Trans-dimentional turtles", so my knowledge is based on 2003 version.
I just realized I put a very short summary but I think it's appropriate. Thank you for favs/following!
