I would like to thank R.R. Ten'ou for bravely offering to beta-read this chapter. This chapter would've been collecting dust if it weren't for her help!
And big thanks to everyone who reviewed this story :)


Raph enjoyed the Boeing 707 ride to Newark in a military jet. Plenty of leg room and a personal entertainment screen in front of the seat. It was a luxurious plane ride he had never experienced before. It was a nice change of scenery too, to be out from the military base that he and his brothers were currently kept at. Being with Leo 24 by 7 was not easy on him and thus far, both of them worked hard not to be at each other's throat. For Raph, it was getting harder by the minute. Now he was on a military special operations van with Don, Colonel Jackson and Major Carter heading into New York. 'Ah, home sweet home'. It was nice to be back on the familiar grounds once more.

Raph chuckled when he thought of how he and Don came to be on this van instead of Don and Leo. When Leo and Raph were ushered into the briefing room 12 hours ago, the general told them that they needed to tell him where the Shredder's facility is located. The general was quite insistent on getting the location, explaining to them that it's better for the U.S. government to have the possession of the gate and regulate its usage rather than a rogue individual such as Shredder who could use it for hostile activities. Raph was all for getting back at the Shredder of any dimension. Leo, on the other hand, was cautious and wanted it to use this turn of events as a bargaining chip for their ticket back home. Unfortunately for Leo, the general was a very seasoned negotiator, of whom Leo was no match for. After 4 hours of intense negotiation, they were able to come to an agreement that two of the turtles were to go with the SG team as a guide. The turtles would guide them to where the facility is but wouldn't tell them the location in advance to ensure that they were included in the operation, start to finish. The general wanted to include Don as one of the two since he knew how to get around Shredder's security system. Leo wanted to be the other of the two but general overruled and chose Raph instead of Leo. The general put it nicely saying that Mikey would need Leo's company, someone dependable. (Unknownst to Raph, the General took Leo aside during one of the breaks and told him that Raph would need to vent his frustration out some time soon, Leo couldn't argue any longer.)

Before Raph and Leo got separated, Leo cautioned Raph. "I don't know where they learned about Shredder being in this dimension. They could have reasoned they might have Shredder in this dimension too but I think they got some reliable source. I don't like this at all. Watch your back and tell the same to Don when you see him."

Raph was sure Leo was now at Mikey's bedside, watching movies with him, fuming over the General's decision.

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Don took the role of a guide and was seated near the driver, giving him instructions now and then. Soon Raph saw the familiar building he and his brothers had infiltrated a few days earlier. It looked very quiet from the outside but Raph knew better.

When Don confirmed that they arrived at Shredder's facility, the Colonel took charge.

"Carter, detect any naquadah in the building?" Colonel asked Carter.

"It's very faint but it's there. I also detect Uranium. They have nuclear plant in there too like what turtles found in their dimension." confirmed Carter.

Colonel talked into his microphone to his operation teams who had filed out of other vans. "OK, team one will move into position at the roof top until further notice. Team two, move into position and wait for my signal." Once done with his instructions, Colonel turned to Don and Raph. "OK, kids. You are going with team one. That's us. Now, before we go, here's the rule. This is my operation. I call the shots. If I tell you to play dead, you play dead. If I tell you to rollover, you rollover. Don't ever do anything on your own without my instructions, or I will have your shell. Got that?"

Colonel could tell that Raph was rankled by O'Neil's orders. But nonetheless Raph gave O'Neil a salute, albeit a sloppy one with a 'Yes, sah' loaded with an attitude while Don gave him a smart salute with a crisp "Yes, sir".

Colonel didn't like Raph coping an attitude but he didn't have much time because he had a job to do with a limited time. Colonel let it slide for now and ordered team one to move out of the van. Team one stealthily moved to the wall of the building and started to scale to the top. Once they reached the rooftop, Colonel turned to Don. "Work your magic, Don."

"On it, sir". Don started typing on a laptop Carter had given him earlier. Don spent all the time on the plane rewriting his security disabling program from scratch. "All right. I got the security on building's perimeters and air vents on the roof. We are clear to go".

O'Neil opened the vent at the roof top and secured the ropes. "Raph, you are the guide. Once you get to the room where the ring's at, don't engage the enemy without my permission. You will wait for the team to re-group."
Silently he motioned Raph to go ahead. Without any further encouragement, Raph hopped in.

Raph started the familiar descent into the building's vent system leading towards the sub-ground level which held the gates. He could sense that Colonel along with rest of the team was following right behind him. Once he heard Don stepping into the vent as well, he picked up his pace and moved briskly towards his destination. He could sense that Colonel, despite his military training was straining to keep up with him. Raph heard the Colonel softly cursing and couldn't suppress a smirk. Raph knew he could outrun Colonel and his team and not break a sweat.

Once Raph got to the the opening of the vent into the big chamber that held the big ring, the one that SG team called the Stargate, he confirmed that it was indeed there and did a quick reconnaissance of the enemies present. There were only about 20 foot soldiers guarding the ring and no Shredder nor Hun in sight. 'Donnie and I could make a short work of these', scoffed Raph. With the element of surprise on his side, he was confident.

Raph looked behind and wasn't surprised to find that Colonel hasn't reached him yet. It'd been days since he got physical and he was itching to get in some skull bashing. 'To shell with waiting for these snails to catch up. I'm goin' in'. Positioning himself on his shell, he gave a quick and powerful kick to the vent cover. He immediately jumped out of the vent and tackled two foot soldiers on the way down. Getting to his feet quickly, he looked around for a weapon he could use and luckily for him, one of the poor souls he tackled had a pair of short daggers in his hands.

'Ha! These'll do nicely'. Raph swiped them off the foot soldier's hands and prepared to meet the next unlucky soul. "Come to daddy", taunted Raph to the foot soldiers that had started running towards him brandishing their weapons.

O'Neil groaned inwardly when he saw Raph moving faster and faster out of sight. He couldn't risk yelling at him to slow down and give away their operation. 'Damn that kid. Should've leashed him.' When he finally caught the sight of the vent cover, he saw Raph just jumping out of it.

"You idiot! I will have your hide!", frustrated, O'Neil yelled after the falling figure. His plan was now going to have to be accelerated. He quickly radioed his second team to move in and looked back to see rest of his team in sight, coming around the bend.

O'Neil motioned his team to move. "Change of plans. We are going in without distraction."

Ignoring the surprised look on his subordinates' faces, he lodged a hook in the sturdy looking part of the ventilation system, secured a rope and jumped down through the vent opening.

He couldn't believe the sight as he was going down the rope. There was Raph moving as if he's dancing, jumping in and out, stabbing with a short dagger in his hands. O'Neil could tell he was having good time, with a wicked grin on his face. "What a maniac." What he found strange was that the foot soldiers, as turtles called them, were brandishing swords, knives and all sorts of outdated Japanese weaponry. O'Neil almost felt ashamed to have to shoot at them.

Once O'Neil touched the ground, his military training kicked in and he dove for the cover, looking around to disarm anyone who would try to harm his team coming down the rope. He could tell some of the foot saw him and were quickly advancing towards the vent. He took a careful aim and shot the first one in his kneecaps. What happened next surprised him. The one who got shot went down but the others all of sudden vanished, there one second and then gone the next.

"OK, so this is what real ninjas do", muttered O'Neil. He was glad Don had prepared them for fighting with ninjas. Digging into one of many pouches in his combat jacket, he pulled out a heat sensor goggles and put them on. Looking around to the team who are within his sight, he silently pointed towards his goggles, indicating that they should put those on too.

With goggles and superior firearms on their side, O'Neil and his team took no time in subduing the foot soldiers and securing the gate room. As they were rounding up the last of the foots, his second team filed into the room, telling him that they were able to secure the building as well.

"Good job, people." O'Neil commended his team and moved his attention to whereabouts of the turtles. He saw Don with a big pole in his hand gravitating towards the Stargate. And he spotted Raph still holding his daggers, walking around the room poking the fallen foot soldiers with his foot. Figuring Carter would take care of Don, he moved towards Raph. Quickening his pace, he marched up to Raph and quickly disarmed Raph taking care not to get slashed by Raph's daggers. Pinning Raph to the nearest wall, O'Neil shouted at Raph, his face a mere inch away from Raph's beak using his best drill sergeant's voice. "What the hell did you do! Didn't I make myself clear outside the building? Yes or no!",

"There're only about 20 goons here. Don and I coulda handled them easily by ourselves. And we got the gate so what's the fuss?", growled Raph, trying to push off O'Neil. To his surprise, O'Neil wasn't easy to shrug off.

"Didn't I tell you to obey my orders? Thank your stars that no one got hurt, otherwise, I'd make sure you wish you weren't born!" With that O'Neil got off Raph and motioned several of his team members over. "Give your daggers to Captain Brackly and sit quietly over there until I call for you, understand? I am not done with you yet. Once we get back, you and I are gonna have a talk."

Raph didn't go quietly but eventually he relinquished his daggers and obeyed seeing that there is not much choice. Once Raph left with Brackly, Colonel rubbed his temple to clear his head and went to see Carter for a progress report.

"Carter, what have we got here?"

"Well, sir, it's definitely an intact Stargate. We will have to take it back to the base to check if it's functioning but from what I can tell, it has all the right pieces and the dialing device too. However, it doesn't have the 7 and 8th chevron like Don and his brothers found in their dimension. It might not be capable of transporting to outside this universe."

"That's a bummer... Look, I need to take the turtles back to the plane. I don't want them seen by anyone else and Raph's a loose canon. Work with Captain Brackly to arrange the transport for the gate. We are leaving at 1300."

A/N: As much as I'd like to complete this story, I am not sure where to take the story from here. Therefore, unless I come up with some brilliant idea to send the turtles back to their dimension/universe, this story will be on hold indefinitely. Thank you all for your kind reviews and advice!