Takes place during chapters 44 - 51 in "Realities Collide".
Leonardo watched as the large portal fired up. He stood with his arms crossed as he once again caught sight of that serene landscape on the other side.
"So far so good." Michelangelo muttered quietly next to him. Leonardo didn't say anything, but just looked at his little brother. He had used to be the boisterous one, the playful one. Always smiling, laughing. Now he was the quietest one out of all of them. And just recently his dark eyes had a dull, lost look in them. The older turtle's hand twitched, wanting so much to reach out and comfort the turtle standing next to him, but didn't dare do it. To many were watching, there was always someone watching...
"So it seems." Leonardo replied instead, turning his head back towards the portal as Bishop's men prepared to enter it. They never got the chance to go through though before it seemed to grow fuzzy and distorted. There was a sudden wind that came from it, pushing at all of those in the room. Leonardo spun towards Donatello, his eyes angry. "Now what's wrong!" He snapped.
"Another portal opened up at the same location!" Came the frantic reply as Donatello tried to shut the whole contraption down.
Leonardo held in his scream of frustration... He was rapidly growing tired of this place! His anger turned to astonishment as two little bodies, children, came tumbling out of the portal and hit the floor hard. He just stared in wide eyed shock...that little girl...he knew that little girl...
Sure enough, her mother came flying out of the portal next to hit the floor with a loud groan of pain and the others came falling in right behind her before Donatello finally managed to get that portal closed.
"Get them!" Bishop snapped and his men immediately began to open fire at the group lying by the portal.
Leonardo didn't move, even as his brothers did. He just stared at those small, scared children, couldn't take his eyes off of them until their Michelangelo managed to cover them with his body, protecting them from the bullets heading their way. "No..." He barely whispered, the commotion of more men arriving with those taser sticks covering the sound.
"Mikey! Get them out of here!" Their Leonardo shouted over the noise even as he fought to keep the men away from Vicky.
Their Michelangelo looked around desperately to find a way to do just that when his eyes locked onto the wall nearby. Leonardo followed his gaze and saw the vent he was aiming for as the rabbit from earlier joined him. "Leo! I need some cover bro!"
Leonardo felt something kick him in the gut at the nicknames they called each other. He had once called his brothers by those names... He closed his eyes briefly to fight the feelings away that were threatening to spill over. Why was it that every time he saw this group he was so vividly reminded of what they used to be! Why did he have to keep seeing what he could have been! Why did his life go to shit when theirs didn't!
His eyes opened just in time to see their Leonardo leap up into the air and slice open a pipe and steam came pouring out of it. "Mikey! GO!"
Leonardo's eyes narrowed as the steam rapidly filled the room, noticing some of Bishop's men trying to go for the children...and he acted without thought. His movements lost in the commotion around him, he rapidly pulled out some shuriken and threw them at the men when they got to close to where the children were last seen, hitting one in the back of the neck and another in the base of his skull, both crumpled to the floor, lifeless. When the steam finally cleared, the turtle, rabbit and children were gone but the others didn't fare as well as they were all laid out on the floor.
Again Leonardo kept in the background as they were gathered up. "Take them to the storage room down the hall." Bishop snapped at his men. "And have some vehicles prepared to ship them out of here as soon as possible. I want them all out of here and enroute to different complexes within the hour."
"Yes, sir!" A couple of his men dashed from the room.
Bishop didn't acknowledge the men who carried out his orders but instead turned to look at Leonardo with a raised brow as he motioned to the two dead men on the floor. "They got in my way." The turtle growled as he crossed his arms.
"See that your aim improves in the future!" The man snapped.
Leonardo just turned from the man, and caught Michelangelo watching him. The younger turtle's eyes flickered for a moment to the vent before they settled onto his big brother again. "You let them go." He said quietly, with a desperate hope in his eyes. Leonardo again looked his brother over very carefully, taking in his worn, troubled features. Somehow knowing this meant more to him than just catching Leonardo in the act of mercy.
"Yes, I did." He replied just as quietly.
"Why?" Again those younger eyes had a need in them. He needed to know the answer. "Why all of a sudden do you protect them?"
"I don't. Just the children. I...can't..." Leonardo took in a deep breath to calm himself, then looked his brother full in the eyes. "I can't deal with another child staring at me in my dreams." He finally admitted. "Especially not those."
Michelangelo's eyes wandered back to the vent. "I...understand. I might have done the same thing. But I just wish I had the chance at my counterpart again. Defeating him would have...given me a reason to believe that my life wasn't a lie." He sighed then, a strangely sad sound and Leonardo just quietly watched his brother work through this. "His very presence mocks everything I have ever done."
"As does mine." Leonardo told him before turning away from him.
"Leonardo, why don't you tell the Master? You know that...I am struggling with this."
"Because then I would have to report myself." Came the quiet answer before another one of Bishop's men came back in.
"The trucks are ready Agent Bishop." He called across the room.
"Then get them loaded up in them and moved out of here. I don't want them within fifty miles of this place, or within each other."
"I'll go with him, to make sure there isn't any trouble from them." Leonardo told Bishop who only nodded in reply as he once again tried to prepare his men for the upcoming mission.
Leonardo let the man and some more of Bishop'd troops lead the way, his own thoughts wandering. He should have beaten his little brother for his invasive questions and signs of weakness but instead he chose to reach out to him. It was like being here...thinned the influence of their Master on them and every encounter they have with their counterparts widens the gap. He was seeing and feeling things that wasn't the norm for him, and it was starting to show on his brothers as well. Leonardo should pull them all away from this environment, but found himself reluctant to do so. And it was that doubt he was feeling over everything that fueled his anger this time as they reached the room they were being held in.
Bishop's man was already in there when Leonardo walked up, but he could still hear the conversation clearly through the open door. "Looks like you are going on a road trip. Bishop wants you all separated and shipped off, and just to make sure you don't give us any trouble..." Leonardo clearly heard Vicky's gasp of pain. "You will behave, if you give a damn about her."
"Let her go." Leonardo's counterpart growled. "She's already hurt, you're making it worse." Even the Leonardo could hear the anger in the tone.
"Good, then maybe that will be your incentive to behave."
"I'll show you incentive." Their Raphael growled.
"No, actually you won't." Leonardo told him as he stepped into the room. "It's time to go, your rides are ready. It's a shame your brother abandoned you. My little brother was looking forward to playing with him." Glares was the only thing he got as the men began to untie the legs of their captives.
Leonardo caught the concerned looks the others gave an obviously struggling Vicky, obviously holding back out of concern for her. It was pathetic. They could probably easily break free if they weren't burdened with care for her. "Still think she isn't a weakness to you?" He taunted his counterpart. who just returned his comment with a glare. Leonardo laughed with amusement over it all before turning away from the helpless turtle. "Bring them to the garage." He told the guards.
He was about to walk out the door when all hell broke loose behind him. He turned to see Vicky stumbling away after Raphael pushed her out of the way, and they then began making short work out of the incompetent idiots that Bishop had. Leonardo just mumbled under his breath as he moved back in. Why did this have to be so damn difficult? How hard could it be to keep tied up prisoners in line? Muttering about the lack of intelligence in his human cohorts, he walked up to the other female, since she was closest, and grabbed her arm. He pulled her close to him and wrapped his other arm around her head. "I advise you to quit, or I'll break her neck."
They looked at each other and let the few guards there were left be, and they weren't happy about it either. Vicky was pulled back up to her feet by one of the few remaining guards standing. Finally, he could get them out of the here before anything else could go wrong.
Leonardo's eyes narrowed when he saw Vicky's widen in fear filled shock at something behind him, and he turned just in time to see, a fucking spitball?, coming his way. He sidestepped it and looked incredulously at where it had came from and laid eyes on a grinning little boy. You had to be fucking kidding...a god damned spitball? Really? The kid then laughed and disappeared into the clutter of the room.
"Get that little brat." Leonardo growled and two guards went into the back of the room to go find him. While they were searching for him, the little girl popped into the doorway and blew a raspberry, then flipped them the bird and then she, too, ran back out laughing.
He just stared a moment at the child, not really believing what he was seeing as a few more guards ran out of the room to get her. But neither set of guards came back.
Damn it! Was this turtle really that fucking stupid? He had allowed them to escape so he could take those little brats and get them out of here! And he brings them back? And now they have the nerve to taunt him? The earlier compassion he had was now lost in the anger filled talons of the shadow as it gripped him more firmly. He growled in frustration as he drug his captive with him to go find the little brat than ran into the back of the room. He found his guards, knocked out on the floor, but no little boy. He looked around just in time to see another guard, the one holding Vicky, go down with a hubcap to the head. He snapped at that point. "Show yourself or I swear to god I will rip her head off!"
His answer was more laughing from behind another pile of boxes. He again drug the woman with him and as he came up the the boxes, then the whole thing fell over on top of him. She used that to roll away from him as far as she could when he lost his hold on her, then made her way onto her feet again then she, too, disappeared in the overfilled room.
Leonardo heard the little girl come back into the room, laughing as he struggled to get out from under all of this crap. He was shaking in anger by the time he dug himself out and was now tearing the room apart trying to find his little tormentors. He was going to find them! And he was going to give them more than just a god damned spanking!
He somehow managed to get his anger under control and turned back to the other captives just in time to see them snap their arms free of their restraints, each holding a kunai the little girl had no doubt managed to slip to them earlier while he was busy room rearranging. "Get them!" He snapped at the guards who thought his shit fit was more interesting than their captives.
That had the predictable results as their weapons fell from above. Now armed, the turtles easily beat the guards and they rapidly began to decorate the floor with them. Leonardo snarled in fury as he rushed the group, his anger now in full control. He met his counterpart's eyes briefly met his eyes, before a sharp, blinding pain erupted in his head. He looked dumbfounded at the printer that hit the floor in front of him after it made contact with his head, dropped from above. Now, wasn't this embarrassing... Then he fell face first onto the floor, out cold.
