-1989 arcade dimension-

All of the turtles stood still, watching April O'Neil's apartment building burn and crumble, sending a huge cloud of smoke floating up in the sky. It was a solemn, sad moment for all of the turtles, huddled in an alley away from the view of the public. Raphael89 and Mikey C were unconscious, strung around Leonardo90 and Donatello87, respectively. Among the large group, there were numerous cuts and burns and injuries. But no one said anything as they watched that building fall apart, burning like the hope they'd had of defeating Shredder. They outnumbered him by so much, but yet that Shredder was so strong and so motivated, he could take them on even with a wounded leg.

The 1989 turtles stared at the holes in the concrete, made by the Foot Soldiers when they got away in the module, and then Shredder and Rocksteady. They couldn't bear to watch the apartment burn, or look up to see April O'Neil still stubbornly filming the destruction of her own home, or the huge crowd screaming and the firefighters failing at putting the flames out.

Finally, Donatello89 looked up from the module's hole and mumbled something. "We should follow them, Shredder and Rocksteady."

Leonardo90 adjusted Raphael89, who was strung around his shoulders. "Are you crazy? Even with our numbers, we can't defeat him. If we go after him, I garauntee someone is going to get more than knocked out. Plus, we need to take care of our injuries."

"Do you want to save the multi-verse or not?" Donnie C said, taking Donatello89's side.

"We need reinforcements," Leonardo90 said, scowling. "We need to find more turtles and get them to join us, before Shredder gets to them first and destroys them. I'm betting Shredder isn't even down that hole anymore. He's in another dimension somewhere already."

Donatello89 didn't bother to listen anymore. He began to walk towards the hole in the ground, determined to prove Leonardo90 wrong. Donnie C followed slowly, and soon more turtles hesitantly came after them, too. Splinter C sighed, seeing that the team was falling into disarray again.

Gradually, all of the turtles followed Donatello89, some telling him and his group to get away from the hole, for there was nothing they could do if Shredder was down there. Michelangelo07 tried to wrestle the Inter-dimensional Portal Stick away from Michelanglo87, trying to open another portal so they could go after Shredder, who was probably already gone from this dimension.


Down in the Technodrome, Shredder12 had just barely stumbled into the control room, followed by Rocksteady. Krang turned around and gargled,"You're back! I see your no better than the Shredder I know! Can't even finish off four measly turtles!"

"There were more than four," Shredder growled. He went straight up to the control panel and shoved a lever forward, not caring what it did. He needed to get out of this dimension before the humongous group of turtles followed him.

"No, you metal-covered moron!" Krang shouted, flailing his arms. "That's not the the way to open a portal! It makes the Technodro - " The alien didn't finish his sentence, as a sudden strong jolt sent him tumbling down the the floor. The Technodrome was surging forward, rumbling under the Earth's crust. "Imbucile! I'm surrounding by pure idiots!"

"You disgusting slug!" Shredder12 shouted,"You dare insult the Shredder?" He kicked Krang out of his robotic body and sent him tumbling across the shaking floor. Shredder12 then bared down harder on the lever, now angrier than he'd been in years. Nearly defeated by the turtles and then downright insulted by a whiny alien.

Over in the corner, Shredder87 was finally coming to, groaning and struggling to his feet and walking over to the monitor. "Krang definitely dares insult the Shredder. He calls me an idiot all the time! And really, after all I've done for him - "

Shredder12 flipped around and grabbed Shredder87 by the front of his cape, pulling the shorter man off of his feet to be at eye-level. His eyes were menacing, full of untold horrors, making it hard for Shredder87 to hold his gaze. Shredder, under the metal mask, smirked as he saw Shredder87 recoil slightly at the sight of his grotesque burnt face.

"You are not the Shredder," Shredder12 said in a gravelly voice,"And you will never be. A coward such as you does not deserve the title."

He dropped Shredder87, and ignoring April O'Neil's constant screams, Splinter's struggle for freedom from Bebop's iron grip, and Shredder87 and Krang throwing meaningless insults, Shredder12 shoved the lever forward as far as it could go, doubling the Technodrome's speed.


Donatello89 finally reached the hole the module had made, and soon enough most of the turtles were surrounding him. A limp-looking Leonardo87 stood at his right, and Donatello96 was struggling to see around Raphael03's tall shoulder. Everyone, bathed in the soft light of the moon, seemed to be waiting for Donatello89 to go down the hole. After all, this had been his idea.

Donatello89 gulped, and he leaned forward to peer down the tunnel. He had to go down there, because he wouldn't let April's home be shattered without punishing the man who did it and the multi-verse depended on defeating Shredder. The module tunnel, a perfect circle was carved through the rocks and dirt, was steep and eventually the tunnel became so shadowed it was impossible to peer any farther down. Leonardo87 took a step closer, beginning to slowly step into the crevice, turning to the group and saying,"Follow me, let's go have a look around down there."

But as Leonardo87 took another step, adjusting his feet in the crude footholds made by jutting rocks, the world suddenly jolted forward. It all happened in a fraction of a second, as the burning husk of the apartment buiding tumbled to the ground - with people running and screaming in all directions - Leonardo87 stumbled and fell down the hole. Donatello89 quickly leapt forward, holding out his hand for the turtle to grab, but Leonardo missed his fingers by mere centimeters, shouting out in fear as he rolled down the steep tunnel and out of sight.

In a fraction of a second, Michelangelo87, Donatello87, and Raphael87 shoved their way to the front of the crowd and slid down the tunnel on their shells, in a mad rush to rescue their brother. Before he slid down with his brothers, Donatello87 passed an unconscious Raphael89 over to Donatello07 to hold. "I'm coming, Leonardo!"

And everyone followed after them, without hesitation, because, even though some of the turtles had never wanted to travel down the tunnel, there was no turtle left behind. Ever.


-1984 dimension- (Turtle Prime)

Michelangelo Prime was feeling dizzy and seeing spots, like he'd gotten hit too hard over the head and was nearly unconscious. Raphael Prime also had a similar feeling, and Donatello Prime felt like he'd gotten shot in the arm but there was no sign of an injury. Over the hours, Leonardo Prime had felt several quick bursts of pain, but not much more.

And now they sat in Donatello's lab, contemplating what was going on, as Donatello rushed to find an explanation for the strange pains, grimacing as he used his stinging right arm. He was flipping through three science textbooks all at once, muttering curse words as no answers showed themselves in those dusty pages. A recently used set of beakers, a centrifuge, a relic of a computer, and a microscope lay on his table.

Whatever was going on, all the turtles felt it was going to lead to something big, and they had to be ready for it.


-1989 dimension-

Leonardo87 closed his eyes as he fell down the tunnel. A frightening feeling of weightlessness overtook him as he free-fell, occasionally hitting against the wall of the tunnel painfully. There was no use opening his eyes, only to see the pitch black world that surrounded him and the seemingly endless shaft.

He finally hit the wall of the tunnel one last time and was surprised, opening his eyes, to see that he was now tumbling out of the shaft. As he rolled, groaning from the painful bruises forming on his skin, he caught glimpses of an enormous sphere of metal slats, as well as a nice view of the huge arching cave in which it sat. Once he had stopped rolling, Leonardo87 gingerly began to sit up, marvelling at his new surroundings. While the huge stalactites and stalagmites, as well as the small lava pit nearby, were awe-stricking, what surprised Leonardo87 the most was the huge circular metal machine. It looked like it was made with thousands of random pieces of metal welded together, stuck on wheels way too small and branded with the FOOT clan logo, and to top it all off a giant steel blue eye on top.

"The Technodrome?" If Leonardo87 had been expecting anything to be down here, never in his wildest dreams had he imagined it being the Technodrome of the 1987 dimension. How had Shredder12 gained control of it?

When Leonardo87 had last seen the Technodrome, it had been drastically changed by Utrom Shredder. Though now, the Technodrome looked to be halfway between the old machine Leonardo so vividly remembered and Ch'rells Utrom version, like Shredder87 had been trying to bring it back to how it had always been. There was a still a huge red laser in the middle of the sphere - put there by Utrom Shredder - but Leonardo87 doubted that Shredder87 would ever take it out.

Leonardo87 stood up and, limping a little, began to step towards the giant vehicle. He finally noticed it was moving, ever so slowly, shaking the ground like a moving earthquake.


Shredder12 looked up from the controls of the Technodrome to see the monitor, as it was flashing and making a lot of noise. On the screen, a little blue-masked turtle stood on the rocky ground, staring up at the Technodrome, no doubt. A red blinking circle surrounding the turtle, as if the Technodrome was telling Shredder12 to fire at him.

Before Shredder12 could even react, Shredder87 shouted with pure joy,"Oh! Oh! It's that blasted turtle Leonardo! Destroy him, destroy him!" He made a mad dash for the control panel, giddy like a child getting a new toy, his eyes dancing with the opportunity to crush his opponent with every single weapon in his arsenal. Shredder12 turned around quickly and pressed his hand firmly to Shredder87's forehead, easily holding him back, but Shredder87 still struggled towards the controls and shouted various insults. Shredder12 couldn't let this Oroku Saki burn out the Technodrome's weapon supply, and Shredder12 felt that only he should have the honor of annihilating the turtles.

Smiling wickedly, Shredder pressed a single button on the control panel, glad he was the one destroying this turtle and not the unworthy Shredder87.

The red circle began to blink wildly, and the little turtle onscreen, looking so very helpless, stared wide-eyed as the large shadow of a missile flew over him.


The explosive missile, six-feet long and metal with a blue eye like the one atop the Technodrome, blasted towards Leonardo87, a chain of smoke trailing behind it like a dragon's breath. He began to run, but he was slow from the sore injuries all over his body. In no time, it was closing in on him.

Suddenly, with the wild shout of "Cowabunga, dude!" a blurry figure of green and orange flew out of the module tunnel, followed closely by two others. They slammed at high-speed straight at Leonardo87, hitting him and sending him soaring twenty feet away. He sprawled out on the ground, catching his breath as the missile hit the place he'd just been. There was a huge burst of red and orange, like a fireworks display, and nothing was left afterwards but a smoking crater.

Michelangelo87 was right next to Leonardo87, rolling off of his shell onto a sitting position. He smiled ectastically. "Dude, you owe us, like, a ga-zillioin pizzas. Extra cheese! Without us, that crater would have been you, bud!" He helped Leonardo87 to his feet and they watched as the rest of the turtles slid down the tunnel on their shells, crashing into each other and shouting. Casey Jones C and Splinter C came out last.


Shredder12 slammed his fists against the control panel as the missile completely missed Leonardo and instead hit the cave wall. And then he growled angrily as more and more turtles piled into the cave. There were too many now.

"Look at all of those shellbacks!" Krang shouted, his purple eyes widening. "Get us out of here! If four turtles can take down the Technodrome, imagine what thirty - no forty - can do to it!" He turned and walked towards Shredder12, who was still forcing a kill-crazy Shredder87 away from the controls. "I won't have you destroy my Technodrome, Shredder! I won't have it!"

"Do not order me around," Shredder12 said,"But I will get us out of here." He pressed the button that opened a portal and quickly drove the Techodrome through it without a second's hesitation. The monitor displayed a huge crowd of turtles, a vigilante, and a rat, pointing up and yelling, chasing after the vehicle, but after the Technodrome squeezed through the portal it shut instantly.

"Mondo bizarro!" Michelangelo87 exclaimed, his happy expression dropping as the portal disappeared, along with the Technodrome. "How did that maniac Tin-grin get the Technodrome?"

"Who knows how?" Leo C said. "But we've got to follow them. Did anyone see what dimension it went into?"

Within the entire group, there was one simultaneous shrug. Donatello13 stepped forward and said,"That crazy machine blocked out the portal completely, like how the sun is blocked out during an eclipse. And I can't believe how those wheels that are so small in porportion to the Technodrome, can even get that thing to move, no less at that speed -"

Raphael03 pretended to be covering his ears. "There's no need to remind us how smart ya are, brainiac!"

"Yeah, just go back to shouting 'Time for a staff meeting' over and over," Donatello87 said, snickering. "It's really quite a clever catchphrase." He struggled to keep a straight face.

Leonardo90 set an unconscious Mikey C gently on the ground and cleared his throat. Even though the group had erupted into a turmoil of angry voices trying to beat each other out, everyone stopped shouting once they heard Leonardo90. The blue-masked turtle was such a perfect and experienced leader, so he knew how to get his brothers to listen to him. He was a large presence in the group even if he didn't talk much, as he usually had something smart to say, so everyone always listened to him. And as that huge crowd of turtles looked up at him, Leonardo90 spoke, his words filled with energy.

"We should have no problem taking care of this Shredder. He is one man and we are an enormous collection of brothers. I really think we can do this, but what we must focus on is uniting ourselves as a team. We are in complete chaos right now. Nothing we do against Shredder will work unless we fight like a team, like we are united as one."

Splinter C smiled. At least one turtle knew how to fix this team. Behind him, a few of the turtles exchanged nervous glances, slightly guilty for so harshly mistreating each other.

"So, how do ya suggest you fix this team, fearless?" Raphael03 said, folding his arms and scowling. He added jokily,"I say we get rid of the useless turtles, like those guys." He pointed in the general direction of the 1996 anime turtles, who instantly snapped back at him with furious insults and folded their arms in contempt, clearly not taking that as a joke.

Leonardo13 suddenly spoke out, getting back on subject. "We need a leader." A lot of the Leonardos nodded in full agreement, adding their comments about who should lead. All of the Leonardos nominated themselves, except for Leo C, who looked angry.

"Not this again!" he groaned. He turned to Michelangelo87 and commanded him to open a portal. "We're wasting time. We can find a leader some other time, but now we need to catch Shredder." The rest of the Leonardos glared mutinously at Leo C, like he'd dishonored them.

Raphael87 chuckled at the angry Leonardos and said to Leo C sarcastically,"Come on, Leo, get your priorities straight! Leader first, then the multi-verse!" Raphael89 was the first to walk through the portal that Michelangelo projected against the cave wall, but the other turtles first examined the dimension they were about to enter. They had a nice view of a city street, completely empty of cars and people. The dark buildings were outlined with moonlight from the full, blue-ish moon in the night sky.

"This is New York?" Michelangelo07 said, scratching his head. "Where are all the people?" He relunctantly stepped through the portal, giggling at the strange feeling he'd never get used to as the portal swallowed him up. He was followed closely by Donatello07, clutching his bo staff nervously. Slowly, more of the huge group went through, staring up at the big full moon as they stepped through the image of the dimension.

But instead of walking through the portal, Michelangelo03 didn't move. He stared dumbfounded at the vast city of New York sprawling out before him, his eyes wide. A flash of recognition crossed his face and he turned to the few turtles remaining in the cave and shouted,"I've seen this dimension! It's the one where Shredder came from!"

"How do you know, bro?" asked Michelangelo87.

"Remember when we were fighting Shredder in my dimension and I tried to send Shredder back to where he came from with the Portal Stick? This is the dimension I saw; this is where he's from, I'm sure, dude!"

Donatello13, also one of the last turtles remaining in the cave, looked up at the shimmering portal with a new appreciation. "Hmm...This could be extremely important. Something big happened in this dimension that alerted Shredder of the multi-verse and allowed him the ability to travel through dimensions. I'd say there's something distinctly different about this place compared to the other worlds."

"Totally, dude," said Michelangelo87, rolling his eyes. "But if you don't hurry up, compadre, I'm leaving you behind here!" With that, he dashed through the portal with the rest of the turtles.


-2012 dimension-

Michelangelo87, the last through the portal, looked around to see the huge group of turtles standing around on an empty street. There was no sign of people anywhere, but they were still being cautious and quiet. Each turtle, along with Casey Jones and Splinter C, was taking their turn dropping into the sewers from an open manhole.

Michelangelo87 closed the portal, his eyes wandering around the city, amazed at every new sight. Even from so low on the ground, surrounded by tall buildings, he could see the skyscraping monument in the distance. It was a shiny silver building, it's top made of two sharp pointy spikes. The building looked futuristic and out-of-place, with the letters TCRI stretching down the side. Michelangelo87 didn't know what TCRI meant, but he didn't give it much thought, and the giant building left his mind the second he dropped into the sewers and lost it in his view.

Leonardo90, still carrying Mikey C - who was now starting to awaken - lead the way down the tunnels, followed directly by every other Leonardo. The blue-masked turtles walked quickly, struggling to keep up with tall Leonardo90's huge strides, as they wanted to be in front, leading the group because. It was so natural to them to lead.

Donatello87 took the still unconscious Raphael89 back from Donatello07 and hefted him gently over his shoulder. He looked around at the pitch black that surrounded him like the dead of night, nervous and suspicious, and said,"Guys? I think the Lair of this dimension is that way." He pointed to the right side of a fork in the tunnels that they were approaching.

"I think so, too," Leonardo90 called back. "It just feels like the right way to go, like I've always known where this dimension's Lair was."

Splinter smiled. "I've a feeling the multi-verse is heavily connected, and if you search deeply enough, you always know the right way to go and the right thing to do, because the dimensions are not as different as you'd like to believe."

"Wow, deep," Michelangelo07 said. He then turned to Donatello07 and asked,"Now, what did it mean?"

Up ahead, Leonardo87 suddenly passed Leonardo90 to become the leader of the group. He thrust forward his katana in a heroic manner and shouted,"Let's go, turtles! We're the only hope the multi-verse has!"

Raphael87 chuckled and again turned to the wall and said,"Don't you wish you could deliver lines like that with a straight face?"

Most of the turtles ignored Raphael87's random quip, rushing forward to get to the Lair, but Donnie C came over to Raphael87 and asked,"Hey, why do you always talk to the wall so much?"

"It's not just any wall, it's the fourth wall!" Raphael87 said as Donnie C pulled him along to keep up with the group.


In the Lair, Donatello12 had his feet propped up on his lab table table, leaning back in his chair. He could see his confused and panicked expression so clearly in the black screen of his computer. And he could see that same expression so closely reflected in the faces of his brothers, strung around the lab with him. April and Casey were there too, but they were afraid to speak, afraid of hearing more of the terrible thing Karai had done to the turtles only a couple hours ago.

Leonardo12 hadn't spoken since they had gotten back to the Lair, escaping Karai and her mad scheme by sheer luck. Leonardo felt like his whole body was numb, and he was so confused. His spirit was broken, for now.

Raphael had been angry - at Karai, at being humilated, at being hurt, and who knew whatever else - and had made sure everone knew when they returned to the Lair. Now he sat in the corner, glaring at the wall as if it had insulted him, surrounded by the bits and pieces of a small device of Donatello's he'd torn apart. Every once in a while, he'd ask Donnie what Karai had done, but the purple-masked turtle still had no answers. The blood samples he'd taken, the experiments he'd done, they'd all come up short. They explained nothing about what Karai had done to them in TCRI, why she had strapped them to that machine.

But all of the turtles had the very same feeling. Emptiness. Like something had been stolen from them.


The huge group of turtles soon reached the end of a sewer tunnel and instantly knew they were in the turtles' Lair. What else could it be? There was an old TV sitting in a lowered part of the floor, an arcade machine, a pinball game, a kitchen and some other rooms, as well as a small pool of water over in the corner. The whole place was considerably dark, so the turtles were careful as they spanned out across the room, looking for any sign of the turtles.

"This place definitely looks like a fixer-upper," Donatello03 noted, looking around at the rather drab Lair. He remembered his Lair back home and this one was nothing compared to it.

"Do you think they're on patrol?" Michelangelo03 asked once the group confirmed this dimension's turtles weren't in this part of the Lair.

Suddenly, as Raphael90 was about to say something, there was a loud, booming crash. Everyone looked to see that it had come from an odd garage door near the turnpike entrance. Soon after the explosion, a strict voice shouted,"Mikey! How many times do we have to tell you not to play with Donnie's stuff?"

"One more time, I guess," replied someone, who was probably Michelangelo.

The large group of turtles immediately rushed to the garage door, and once there stared at it as if it was as interesting as a portal to a new dimension. They wondered what these turtles looked like and whether they would help defeat Shredder (he was their Shredder, after all) but no one volunteered to open the garage door. Finally, Donatello96 was pushed up to the it. He knocked first, then said "Hello?" in a quivering voice.

The same voice that had scolded Michelangelo inside the room spoke again. "Who could that be? Everyone is in here, and Splinter's in the dojo meditating!"

Donatello87 and Leonardo87 pulled Donatello96 out of the way and propped open the garage door. As they walked in, the turtles of this dimension eyes widened and their mouths dropped open. Michelangelo12 backed against the wall and shouted,"It's the return of the dork turtles!"

"Dork turtles?" Michelangelo87 said, coming up behind his brothers. "Dude, harsh!" Raphael87 came in next, and whispered to Michelangelo87. "The return of the dork turtles? He's seen us before?"

Leonardo87 turned around and whispered to the rest of the huge group to stay behind in the main part of the Lair, because it would be best to slowly introduce the 2012 turtles to avoid confusing them. But the rest of the group peeked into the room, staring at these new turtles, who looked so different.

Donatello12 was tall and skinny, with huge brown eyes and a purple mask slung around them. It was easy to tell from his gaping mouth that he had a gap tooth. Leonardo12 was the second-tallest, holding himself proudly and sturdily even now, looking at the 1987 turtles with his obsevant blue eyes. He looked like a competent leader and Leonardo87 took an instant liking to him. Raphael12 was short and obviously had a bad temper, sitting alone in the corner of the room among the dispersed pieces of a broken machine. Michelangelo12, leaned over the counter (and also over a black burn on the surface, likely the result of the recent explosion), staring intensely. He had freckles, and short bobbing mask ends. Also in the room were Casey Jones and April O'Neil. Casey was skinny, wearing dark clothes and a bandana over his jet black hair. His face was painted like a skull, and it was noticable that he had several teeth missing. April O'Neil was red-headed and sported a yellow jersey, her huge blue eyes narrowed at these new turtles suspiciously. She looked liked she wanted to say something - in fact, all of the 2012 characters did - but for now they didn't speak. Just stared.

Donatello87 felt the tension in the room and tried to loosen it up. He looked around at all of the stuff in the room - plenty of scientific tools, a computer, science posters on the wall, some algae pools, small inventions, and a few vehicles, including a huge one that looked like a graffitied subway car. Letting loose a low, impressed whistle, Donatello87 said,"Nice lab. I have one at home, but it's much more crowded. I've always wanted something a bit roomier, like this." Still, there was silence, so Donatello87 resorted himself to staring at the tank in the corner, that looked oddly like a frozen collection of organs. He tried not to think too much about whatever the thing was.

Raphael87 said to Michelangelo87,"Ah, the strong and silent type." Michelangelo87 struggled not to laugh out loud.

Finally, something broke the heavy awkwardness that had enveloped the room. Donatello12 rose slowly from his chair, struggling to comprehend what was going on. "I know these turtles. I've seen you all before..."

"On Channel Six news?" Michelangelo87 said,"I swear, that station practically survives off of 'exclusive coverage' of us, dude. Can't I ever eat my pizza without April cramming a video camera in my face?"

Leonardo87 turned around and hissed,"Michelangelo. Now is not the time for jokes. This is serious." He turned back to the 2012 turtles and composed himself again. "Sorry about that. Donatello, where have you seen my brothers and I before?"

"In the dimensional gateway," Donatello12 said solemnly. He walked forward, feeling his way around the table as he still wouldn't take his eyes of the 1987 turtles. "In the place the Kraang use to travel between worlds. We saw your dimension there."

"Krang?" Donatello87 said. "Dimensional gateway? What do you mean?"

Leonardo87 hesitated. "We can talk about this later. It's obviously important but" - he looked up to Leonardo12 - "we have a rather large group with us. Some need medical attention. Plus, we haven't rested in over a day. Later, I can explain what's going on and you can tell me about this dimensional gateway and Krang's exploits."

"Yeah, I'm starving. Do you dudes have any pizza?" Raphael87 interrupted.

Donatello12 backed away in surprise and nearly tripped over his chair. Michelangelo12's eyes widened, staring at Raphael87 like he was an alien. "Donnie?" he called out in a scared voice. "What's going on? That dork turtle sounds just like you!"

"Dork?" Raphael87, hands on his hips. "We resemble that remark!"

"Dude, that joke's not funny the second time," Michelangelo87 drawled.

Leonardo12 walked towards the group and looked down at Leonardo87, and he instantly knew they'd get along great. "I'll help you and these other turtles you mentioned, and we'll tell you about the Kraang, but in turn you have to explain everything that is going on. Deal?"

"Deal." The two turtles shook on it, smiling, and then the 1987 turtles they lead the 2012 turtles out into the Lair to meet everyone else.


Thank you for so patiently waiting for this chapter. I'm sorry it took such a lengthy amount of time to complete it.

This is the first chapter I have published in the month of May 2014, I believe, and I would like to not that this is the month TMNT turns 30 years old. This is a huge milestone worthy of celebration. TMNT is one of my favorite things. Nearly every iteration has that charm that makes the story of the turtles so fun, and I don't know what it is about TMNT that makes me like it so much. Is it the fact that every iteration is so drastically different but still recognizable as TMNT, or that this is one of few franchises that connects each iteration in a multi-verse, the martial arts, the characters, or just the plain wit and great storytelling? I think that all of those contributes to the great genius that is TMNT. You can't deny this is one of the most original franchises to ever come about, and has far surpassed any early expectations of its success. Even years from now, maybe when there are no more TMNT stories to tell in movies, TV, video games, or comics, TMNT will still live on, because no doubt there will be many life-long loyal fans. And that is why I am proud to be a shell-head.

As Michelangelo would say,"It's been a Cowabunga ride, dudes!" And I look forward to the next thirty years, and the many more that come after them.

Look forward to the next chapter!