Mikey couldn't remember when and why he woke up in the dark cave alone. The rough cave wall was decorated with the torches, giving soft light for him to see. He couldn't see the entrance nor exit through the shadows.

"Leo?"

He called his brother. But Mikey only heard an echo of his own voice.

"Leo!"

This time his big brother heard him and stepped out of shadows, half of his body was concealed by darkness. Mikey felt relieved, but couldn't help pointing his index angrily at his own brother.

"There you are! You promised you won't leave me! I thought I was alone for a second!"

"Mikey, I think I understand now. This world is not completely bad."

Mikey stunned for a second. 'What did Leo just say?' Usually, his brother would begin with 'I'm sorry. Let's get out of here' or something. But Mikey decided to play along.

"Well, it does have some awful moments but it's not that bad, I think."

"They offer a chance to join them, to become like them. We can join them together."

Now he was worried.

"Umm, can we go back to the part where we become like them? Because I'm sure I don't want to be a mushie."

Leo took a step towards him. "Mikey, join us."

"Dude… are you even listening to me?"

When Leo walked into the light. Mikey saw a big orange sea flower on his big brother's head and thought Leo was going to join Halloween party, but then he realized it wasn't Halloween yet. So why Leo wear a costume? And he thought this costume looked similar...

Then he looked at Leo's left arm. It was rotten.

"GAAHHH!" Mikey yelled. "Your arm! Mushroom's on your head! Dude! It's on your head! Take it off!"

Leo's evil laugh made his blood frozen. Mikey was too terrified to move away when Leo touched his shoulder.

"I'll eat you..."

"GAH! No, you can't! I don't taste good. Get away from me!"

He tried to squirm but Leo held him tight, ready to bite his neck.

"GAAHHAAH!"

Mikey screamed with his eyes shut, trying to move away from his brother's embrace. Then he heard Leo's gentle voice near his ear.

"Mikey?"

His eyes opened instantly. The dark cave was gone. They were on the old mattress in the apartment. Leo's head was on a pillow they shared together, he lied on his side next to him.

Mikey peeked at Leo's left hand that draped over his shoulder lightly, the blue eyes stared back at him. Not rotten. Good. He quickly groped Leo's head for mushrooms. Leo frowned at his strange action.

"What are you doing?"

"Checking your head. No mushrooms?"

"I don't think so. Me? Zombie?" Leo looked amused. Mikey huffed. Yeah, sure, having your little brother scared to death is funny. Real funny.

"Mushie, bro," He knew he would have a nightmare tonight. He knew it. Good thing he had his older brother. Once he was sure that this was really his brother, he sighed sleepily. "I'm glad I have you back."

Leo chuckled and nuzzled his forehead. "Go back to sleep. I'll be right here."

Mikey slept soundly for the rest of night, having Leo as his personal teddy bear.

His heart ached when Mikey told him he wanted to go home, now he felt guilty to see Mikey having a nightmare.

He couldn't shield him from the world.

Leo remembered when he fell into the liquid portal, he saw Mikey jumped after him. He tried to stop him not to come. Another dimension always came with a new environment. It was something out of his control and he feared he couldn't protect them from the unknown danger. So he didn't want any of them to come here at all.

And when they realized they were stuck here, Leo thought he was right. This dimension had proven itself to be the worst dimension ever. Now he missed Dimension X.

Since they came to the alternate dimension, they tended to avoid meeting people here. Not only they would shoot something they didn't understand such as mutants, but from what Leo observed they killed other people just for foods. They would kill and check victim's bag to find foods, water, and other garments. The reason to kill was so simple and ultimately disturbed.

"Leo?"

He remembered the first day he was out to find something to eat, he hid in the shadows seeing the group of men hunting a couple on the road just for canned foods. He was shocked, looking at cans in his hand that he gathered from someone's house. The value of it caused the death of the human.

"Leo..."

He didn't know how long their foods would last. He just didn't want to fight human for it. But if he wanted to survive… he didn't have much choice.

"Leo!"

"Huh?"

Leo turned to see his little brother who looked a bit annoyed at him, waving the slim wooden bow in his hand. It was one of the weapons they found yesterday. Leo preferred it over that pistol any day. "You asked me to use a bow and arrows?"

"Umm yeah," His mind tried to switch back to reality. He would worry about those people later. "It's a part of our plan. You said you're good at long-range weapons."

"Why can't I use a gun? It's cooler."

Leo didn't like the idea of his little brother holding a gun. He knew Mikey's aim was the best, but what unsettled him was the target his little brother had to shoot at. Humans. At least with the bow he could choose to injure them, not killing them.

Mikey is not ready to bear this burden. Not yet.

"Not yet. Besides, it causes loud noise. I don't want to attract unwanted visitors." Leo tried not to use 'mushie' term. Because after he got a close look at it, it should have a name related to spoiled meat instead.

Mikey pouted but complied anyway. He always followed the leader without complaints, and Leo was grateful for it. Mikey tugged a hood to cover his face, hooked the bow over his shoulder, getting ready. "How are we going to do this?"

"You distract the group from the rooftop. I'll catch one man and bring him to our meeting point."

"And then we'll ask him nicely?" Mikey smiled playfully.

Leo cracked a smile. "I hope so."

He led Mikey to the building near the bridge. It was the street their car usually passed by. They didn't have to wait at all as there was already a commotion on the ground when they arrived. The scene was almost the same as Leo has seen before. Killing mercilessly for foods. But today was different as he saw a young man with a kid running away from the group of armed men. Leo's gaze immediately fixed on the kid. His breath hitched.

That boy was almost the same age as them.

"No!" Mikey exclaimed, turning to him with wide eyes. "They'll kill him! What're we going to do?"

"Mikey, on my mark."

His little brother abruptly adjusted his bow. Leo looked intensely at the scene below. There were five armed men on the ground and two in the truck, their prey was running to the opposite side of the street.

He gave a hand signal and leaped off the top of the building.

An arrow hit the gunman's shoulder with surprise. They didn't expect the tourist would have the reinforcement. Mikey shot another man with precise aim. Now two men down. Another two ran into the building to find their prey, but that was okay because he saw Leo ran after them. Only three of them in his sight.

One of them in the jeep saw the direction arrow came from and shouted. Suddenly they shot at his hideout. They were mad someone interrupted their hunt. Mikey rolled behind the edge to avoid the bullets. The Kraang's laser and bullets were the same concepts, although he had some difficulties because the bullets were smaller. It grazed his shell and he flinched at the sharp pain.

"Ow! Hey! Gah! Umf! Stop, stop! I hate guns! Wah!"

Now he couldn't shoot. This was bad. Leo might need some support down there, and he only had him. Okay, what would Raph do… heh.

"That's all you got? Now eat this!" He took a chance to shoot another arrow. Then he saw the man on the ground holding a funny-looked glass bottle with fire, ready to throw into the building where their prey was. "Ooh no you don't!"

Mikey didn't miss. Molotov exploded in his hand, and the man screamed.

Leo went down with katana in his hands following two men from the group, moved around to avoid getting shot from the outside. Two shurikens hit their backs, they shouted, but it was too late to raise their guns. He finished them off in two slashes. Leo glanced back for a second, no one followed him. Mikey was a good distraction, maybe too good. Because he could hear his little brother yelling from the rooftop. Leo sighed. Mikey had so much to learn about stealth attack. But this way he was relieved to hear his voice, it meant he was doing okay, for now.

He ran inside and found African-American man and the boy he saw earlier hiding behind the counter. When he had a closer look at them, he was sure the kid was around fourteen. The man tried to pick up his gun. Leo sheathed his katana, tugged his hood and offered a hand.

"Come."

The man looked surprised at his simple word. Both of them refused to move. Suddenly his head whipped when he heard the explosion outside. Leo couldn't wait for an answer anymore. The loud noise attracted those zombies and he didn't want to be here when they came. His instinct told him to go, so he pushed them to the back door.

Mikey was too excited with the result. Nobody had told him before that glass bottle can explode. He thought only glass objects that exploded were beakers in Donnie's lab. The man's arm and clothes were on fire and he ran off so fast out of his sight. That poor guy, he must get hurt so bad. He was trying to look for that injured man so he hadn't noticed that two men in the truck were gone until he heard the steps from behind. They knew where he was so they decided to climb up to finish him. Mikey turned promptly, his hood slipped off revealing his face to them.

Oh shell...

"What is that thing? New type of clicker!?"

"Who cares. Kill it!"

Turtles were not bulletproof. Mikey took kusarigama out and swung the chain to knock the guns from their hands. But the bullets were already fired, grazing his right cheek and arm. He gritted his teeth and pulled the chain back.

"What the hell!"

"Sorry! Gotta go now!" Mikey sprang from his position and jumped to the next rooftop in full-speed. He struggled to stay on feet because of a sharp pain from his left ankle. Stupid ankle, just get better already!

If only he knew how to stun them just by opening his mouth, he would do it a moment ago. Two men stood in shock, realizing the voice they heard all the time came from the green creature.

"That thing talks!?"

He carefully stayed in shadows most of the time, not letting them suspected he wasn't entirely human. The meeting point was actually the second floor of their apartment. It was difficult enough to convince them to come, but after they nearly ran into another group of armed men both of them followed Leo with less resistance. They didn't talk much, only short replies for directions, Leo was still a mysterious stranger to them.

"Where're you taking us?"

"My safe place."

When they finally reached the room, Mikey was on half-way climbing through the window, panting, with blood smeared on his cheek.

"What happened to you?"

He could tell that Mikey was hurt all over his body, but he pretended to look tough. "I err… I'll tell you later? Where's our guests?"

Leo slapped his hand on his forehead when he saw Mikey's hood lied naively on his back.

Damage was done. Now that they saw Mikey, the only option they had was 'interrogate nicely' if it was even possible.

He heard a sharp intake behind his back. Big brother's instinct told him to step in front of Mikey just in case. The African-American man looked wary at them and suddenly searched his jeans for something. Leo held up a gun he secretly snatched earlier.

"Sorry, I'll return it after we finish talking."

The atmosphere went frigid. The man must have thought they were some kind of dangerous animals. Such a familiar sense from humans. The distance between them was still wide enough for an escape. Both humans feared of them, although the kid was more likely curious and stared at him like he met the animal costume in an amusement park, so Leo forced a smile in return.

It was the man who spoke first.

"What are you? What do you want? Are you guys… infected?"

"What? No!"

"Dude, have you heard zombies, or mushies speak? We're turtles."

"Not helping, Mikey."

Mikey pouted, then his eyes darted between the man and him as if he wasn't sure he should do the talk. Leo sighed.

"My name is Leonardo, and this is my brother Michelangelo. We just arrived in this world and want to know about what happened here." He held out his hands. "Mister, we might look different but we're not your enemy."

Mikey nodded, he gave his best with his proud friendliness, even with the blood stained on his cheek. "Yeah, chillax. We don't want to bite you."

The man was quiet for a long time.

"So you're alien, real alien. Not the one that inhaled the spores and turned into a green alien."

"More or less," Leo conceded.

The man gripped the kid's hand. Leo knew they prepared to run if they had a chance, so he tried again.

"We helped you. Please, we just want to get home. When we finish you won't see us again."

The kid still looked at him, but the man narrowed his eyes. "How can I trust you? Who do you work for?"

"No one, we're on our own."

"Why did you help us?"

The answer is obvious. Leo thought. He replied smoothly.

"I know you are a good guy because those guys don't keep kids around." He gestured toward the kid who still stared at him. And he's around our ages, Leo thought.

The man stepped up protectively. Leo stood still, both hands on his sides, trying to make himself less offensive. The man stepped slowly until he was in front of him, then he looked down at him. "You're just a kid too. How old are you?"

"Sixteen going on seventeen!" Mikey sang behind him, waving his hand. "But we still haven't celebrated yet. We're too busy saving the world."

Leo decided to pull Mikey close to stop his talking, and at the same time gently wiping the blood on his little brother's cheek with his sleeve. Mikey whimpered.

He didn't know a small affectionate act towards his little brother changed a glimpse in the man's eyes. He was slowly, visibly relaxed.

"Too young to stay out here on your own," The man murmured under his breath, wrapped his arm around the kid loosely "I'm Henry. This is my brother, Sam. You're Leonardo right?"

Finally, a mistrust had been lessening. Leo turned to look at him and gave a tiny, genuine smile, while Mikey looked happy to learn that they were brothers, just like Leo and him.

Author's note: Tiny bit of idea in this chapter comes from 2003's "The Darkness Within" and IDW's Mikey micro series.

Sooooo for those who didn't play the game, please don't read spoilers about this game lol. No cheating! They will be a little bit different from the game. I find Henry and Sam's characters difficult to write... a few next chapters will be some events from the game.

Off topic, I found TMNT fic with Pacific Rim AU. I'M SO HAPPY. Great crossover!

Thank you for reading!