Donnie tugged at his restraints, A bit higher caliber than the usual, that made it more difficult to escape. He inventoried the items around him for tools he could use in his escape.
On one side of the roof was a door leading to a box he knew to be an elevator. On the other side was another box that he assumed to be the stairway. In the middle of the roof was a table filled with several tools and instruments. That was where the contents of Donnie's weapon belt and his Bo staff had been deposited by Tigerclaw. Not that his Bo would have been much help to him, after it was snapped in two by melty face 3.0 Donnie had been left with what essentially amounted to a baton and a dagger.
The thing that really caught his eye was the thing behind the table. A large steel structure covered in wires. The Krang-cell infused cross was the centerpiece of that contraption, outshined only by the Time scepter embedded in its base.
"Is that the time scepter? " Donnie asked. "How did you manage to get that?"
"Simple. You're nnnnot the only one I sent Tiger claw to capture." Stockfly wheeled out a table that had been behind Donnie's and placed it in front of him. Kairos was strapped to it.
"Oh no." Donnie lamented internally. That idiot was here too? That was the last thing anyone needed.
"Sorry Donnie. They were too much for me." Kairos apologized.
"Now that I have the time scepter in my possession I can fulfill my promises to the Kraang, but before that, I will summon my master."
"He figured out how to bring things here with the time scepter? How is that possible? He made this plan before he captured you."
"Uh, I kinda asked him to look at the time scepter before I asked you."
"WHAT!? WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?"
"I thought his rep for evilness was exaggerated ok? He can't fix it well enough to do anything bigger then bring over one thing at a time anyway."
"That is why I needed to send Tigercla-zzz- to capture the brainy turtle, I figure with two scientists-zzz- of our caliber we can get the -zzz- scepter fully operational."
"And why would I do something like that?" Donnie challenged.
"Because if you don't then I'm going to be feeding your fri-ee-nd here to the fishies. It's a long drop down to the river."
Donnie winced, who's bright idea was it to put a hospital right next to the river anyway? Falling off the roof into the river from this height would feel like slamming into a brick wall. A mutant might survive that but they'd be too stunned to get out of the water unless someone dragged them.
"Stockman. Stockman, reconsider. Shredder was the one who turned you into a mutant remember? Nothing good can some your way after bringing him here."
"You'rrre wrrrong, I will be the right handzzz of royalty, that'zz much better than my old job."
"Greedy, status hungry little-" Donnie started, then his eye caught something else.
The door to the stair way was open just a crack, another turtle peeked through it.
"Rookie Leo is here too?" Donnie thought to himself, trying to decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing. He decided it was a good thing since he was bound and Leo was the only hope of turning off that machine.
Leo watched Stockfly carefully then sprinted out of the doorway stealthily the moment the fly's back was turned.
He hid behind the large wall of steel Donnie was tied to. "Donnie, status?"
"OK, Stockman caught Kairos, we need to get him out of the way so we can get the power cell out of that machine."
Leo undid the strap buckles. Donnie let them lie limp across him so Stockfly couldn't tell he was free.
Leo waited until the most opportune moment then rolled behind Kairos and undid his straps too.
They waited for Stockfly to lose himself in his calculations before they made their move. Leo gestured to Kairos to stay where he was and waved Donnie over to him. Donnie cast off his binds and snuck over to Leo. The two of them started to sneak up behind Stockman, stepping carefully to not give themselves away.
Stockman laughed, "zzzilly turtleszzz, don't you know how difficult it izzz to sneak up on a fly?"
Stockman hit a button.
Fashooshfashoooshfashooosh.
Leo and Donnie fell into fighting position as a swarm of Karai bots slid out from behind the machinery.
"New plan. RUN!" Leo called out, turning and gesturing to Kairos to follow them.
"RUN! We can't run! We need to stop Shredder!" Donnie cried.
"I've got a plan." Leo called back, darting down the stairs.
Donnie didn't feel great about this plan, but he had learned not to underestimate his brothers, so he followed.
They darted down the stairways as fast as they could, The stair way coiled down the building in a square pattern, he could look up through the center of the square back at the top of the stairway. When they realized the bots weren't following them they stopped.
"Why is no one coming?" Leo asked.
"Because it's smarter to stay and protect the machine then to chase us all through the hospital and scatter their forces," Donnie guessed,"We need to get those power cells, if that machine powers up the Shredder will be able to come through."
"We need to get to an elevator, I saw Karai and Raph talking to that Tigerman on the security cameras about going to the roof, now they're all stuck in the elevator and trying to fight each other while it bounces between floors."
"The power cells have to come first."
"Were you not listening? They are trapped inside a small soundproof box with a Tigerman."
"We need to get the time scepter." "Kairos said, "THAT'S what we need to be worried about."
Leo Looked back at Kairos in surprise, then a look of realization overtook his features and he snarled.
"I know who we need to be worried about."
Leo shoved Kairos against the wall, "It's you isn't it?"
"Him?", Donnie asked, confused.
Kairos began to sweat, "What makes me a bigger threat than Shredder?"
"Because you're always there. Not doing anything, just there. Donnie, What was he doing before Tigerclaw showed up in the arena?"
"He was talking to me about repairing the Time scepter."
"And what did you say?"
"That I couldn't do it."
Leo's eyes never left Kairos's. "And then Tigerclaw showed up and Kairos tried to stop you from leaving the cart because?"
"Because he didn't think I could save Mikey by myself, That I needed to repair the time scepter to save him."
"And he was there after melty face tried to kidnap you. And there when you tried to follow the robot back to its source."
"Stockman... You don't think?"
"That it's a little funny him and Stockman suddenly want the same thing? Not at all, If you consider the fact all the villains were trying to bring you here. He and Stockman decided to pull this hostage stunt to get you to repair the wand for them."
Donnie gasped, and watched Kairos's sweaty face for sign of confirmation. It did make a certain amount of sense, he'd tried as hard as he could to get Donnie away from the other turtles, and when he had reason to think they'd stop Donnie he'd sent Karai to make sure Donnie wound up where he was wanted, the turtles could stop Donnie from coming here, but not Karai."You ... You summoned all of my enemies... To manipulate me!?"
"Damn it ... I told you not to let this bunch get involved." Kairos hissed under his breath.
Donnie backed away. "That's sounds a lot like a confession."
Kairos smacked Leo away from him.
"Did anyone tell you you're kind of famous in the future? You even had a dojo open in one of your visits to the future, 2200? Was It? I can't remember... Your fighting style is taught in many places in the future, I decided it would be prudent to learn a bit. But Hey, why rely on that when you have an eternity full of tec to borrow from."
Kairos held his hand close to the ground- A blue whip fell into his palm.
He grabbed the handle and flung it outward at Leo. The whip crackled as it hit him, zapping him with electricity and sending him flying into a wall.
"Leo." Donnie whispered, He looked at Kairos in confusion, " Why?" He asked, "What could you possibly need to do this for?"
"I thought you were supposed to be the smart one, I need that scepter fixed."
"Why can't you just go back to the time palace and get it fixed there?"
"Because they kicked me out! Said I wasn't time apprentice material, rejected me, why should they get to hog all the power? I used a machine to copy the wand, but it came out wrong and won't work right, so I needed someone to fix it, but they found out what I was doing and somehow managed to shut me out of most of the timelines I wanted to get to."
"So you made this... This... cut-off timeline? So you could ask the scientists here to help you?"
"I would have preferred to get here 80 years later but my time scepter wouldn't let me."
"You.. Made us? Including me?"
"Yeah.. I guess you could say that."
" You made us." Donnie said out loud, having difficulty believing it.
"I am your creator, you are mine to do what I wish with, you will do what I say." Kairos snapped.
" You took my family's memories of me."
"I didn't want you being distracted by them, so I tried to separate you two."
"I..." Donnie scraped around for something to say, he wanted to be angry, incandescently, blindly angry, like Raph on a bad day. But he couldn't muster enough strength. He felt drained, these past few days had put him through the emotional wringer, and now this jerk was telling him that Donnie had sobbed his guts up not once but twice because the man was riding a power trip.
Donnie's shoulders shook and he tried not to tear up, "How can you live with yourself? Going the way you are? How can you just treat people like toys?"
"Did you not understand what I just said?" Kairos stepped up to Don and grabbed the front of his shell. "I made you! The only reason you exist is because of me! I am your god! Worship me."
"You're no god," Donnie whispered. "You're just as fallible as I am."
"I have the power to control all of space and time!"
"Not- uf- anymore." Leo huffed, pushing himself to his feet. "You left the time scepter upstairs, Stockman is the one with all the power now."
"And he's using it to create Shredder. Do you know anything about that man?" Donnie said.
"Stop questioning your god!" Kairos screamed, He pulled back his whip intending to lash Donnie with it. Leo grabbed the end of it, and, enduring the shocks, yanked back the whip enough to pull Kairos off his feet.
Leo sped forward, grabbing his brother's hands as he ran past, Donnie fell in step with him as they ran upstairs.
They burst through the doorway onto the roof, Leo drew his swords, Donnie made to draw his Bo then remembered he didn't have it.
The Karai bots swarmed at them, Leo's world dissolved in a flurry of flashing blades and kicks.
Donnie sprinted away from them. Trying to lead as many as he could away from Leo to increase his brother's chances. Donnie tried to circle around to attack Stockman directly.
Kairos leaped in front of him and sent a lashing whip-strike his way.
Donnie ducked and allowed the whip to wrap around a Karai bot, electrocuting it. Then leaped forward, kicking Kairos in the chest. Kairos flew back but managed to land on his hands and fling himself back onto his feet, drat, he must know more ninjutsu than Donnie had hoped.
He felt so stupid, he should have known something was up the moment Karai appeared, Why did Kairos work so hard to keep him away from the turtles and then send Karai to push him to come here? Because he knew if he didn't the turtles would drag him back home, and then they could get their memories back and expose him. And why did Karai remember him when Kairos hadn't mentioned her being near the brawl when the time scepter was hit? Because he was lying about that. For a genius he'd really been had this time.
Ding!
The elevator door opened, Karai and Raph tumbled outward, slammed Tigerclaw underneath them.
Karai rolled out and onto her feet, pulling up the two pistols she'd taken off tigerclaw. She spun around and around like a ballerina, firing in all directions, hitting The Karia bots this way and that.
Raph leaped onto another Karia bot as it folded its hand into a buzzsaw. He dragged it to the ground under him and pressed on the arm above the elbow, bending its saw back until the machine started sawing itself in two.
Karai sent a few bolts flying at Kairos.
Kairos dodged the bolts and kicked her in the chest, knocking her back toward the stairs.
Tigerclaw growled from his spot on the floor, recovering from his beatdown he charged at Karai like a raging animal, forgetting his ninjutsu in his rage he smashed into her, knocking her over the stairway! "Karai!" Leo called. He leaped over the Railway, jumping from wall to wall across the railing in a zigzagg he intercepted Karai's fall and knocked her into another room.
They rolled along the floor until their momentum tapped out and Leo came to a stop on top of her.
She was surprised for a moment, then smiled at him, he felt his cheeks burn.
They heard a roar behind them.
"This way, " Leo said, getting up and grabbing her wrist, he ran into a closet and shut the door.
They hid in the closet and held their breath. They could sense Tigerclaws presence outside, heavy and oppressive.
Leo peeked at Karia, she caught him looking at her, His cheeks blazed even hotter and he looked away.
He could feel her gaze hold on him and eventually gave in and looked back at her.
"You really don't remember me do you?"
He paused, Should he?
"You still have that surprised and awed look you had back when I first met you."
She shifted slightly, "I never imagined I'd see that look again." She mused aloud.
"How did we know each other?"
"You tried to save me. You know the story, girl runs with bad crowd, boy thinks he can change her, realizes he can't, gets hurt. Only this story had a twist, I found out my real past." She sighed. "And I tried to deal with the only way I had been taught how, via stabbity methods. Didn't work out well for me. I lost myself." She smiled at him. "You promised to bring me back. To bring me home. Thank you."
Leo's heart started pounding in his chest. "T-Thanks." He stammered. "I mean, you're welcome." He corrected, feeling embarrassed for trying to take credit for something that was done by another him.
She placed a hand on her mouth to stifle a mirthful, pppth! She placed a hand on his face and pressed him away. "You look like such a groupie right now. Stop it. it's embarrassing."
He nearly shrank into his shell from embarrassment.
"I think Tigerclaw is gone." He said quickly, getting up.
He opened the door just a crack and peeked through, seeing the coast was clear he threw the door open.
"Come one, let's go."
Donnie did a backward somersault, leaping over another Karai bot, The bot fell prey to Kiaros' whip.
"Imbecile!" Stockfly screamed. "You're supposed to hit the turtle not my inventions."
"Shut your mouth, fly!" Kairos snapped.
Donnie took advantage of the bickering to make a break for the cross.
He clambered up the side of the machine, reaching for the cross.
Kairos noticed him and snapped his whip.
The whip hit the base of the machine, causing it to tilt back.
"NO! Stop, you'll ruin zzz everything!" Stockfly cried.
Donnie fell half off the machine, gripping it with one hand.
Donnie!" Raph cried, running forward to grab the base of the machine in an attempt to keep Donnie from falling off.
Donnie dangled precariously off the end of the machine, he lost his grip and fell.
"Donnie!" Raph called after him.
Donnie fell, He twisted in mid-air to try and look under him to see if there was anything to grab onto.
He was surprised to see an equally shocked Mikey clawing his way up the side of the building with his scythes. They locked eyes as Donnie sped by.
Mikey pulled his scythes out of the building and jumped after Donnie, grabbing his brother and swinging a scythe off towards the wall, catching it and swinging into the window.
They crashed through the glass into the cafeteria.
Most of the tables had been removed, but one or two still remained.
"We need to get to the roof." Donnie said, rolling to his feet and sprinting for the stairs, he threw open the door to the stairway and looked up towards the roof.
Tigerclaw met his gaze from behind the railing a story above him.
Donnie slammed the door shut behind him.
"Nevermind, run the other way."
The Tiger burst through the door and landed on Donnie's back, pinning him to the floor.
Donnie let out a strangled whine as the weight on his back pressed all the air out of his body. "Mikey, run!" He wheezed.
"I'm not going to leave you, D!" Mikey called back.
"He's too strong... Run" Donnie wheezed out with his last his breath.
Mikey looked on for a moment, his features frozen in an expression of clear distress, then he turned and ran.
"That one isn't as dumb as he looks." Tigerclaw said. He raised a paw over his head, intending to slam it down on the back of Donnie's skull and slam his head into the cafeteria tiles to knock him out.
Donnie pulled all of his limbs into his shell.
"An obnoxious reptile trick." Tigerclaw noted, "but it won't spare you."
Donnie felt the padded paws of the tiger on the sides of his shell as Tigerclaw picked him up and started carrying him. He heard the screech of a hinge swinging open, and felt a grate against his belly as Tigerclaw set him down. He heard a click and then everything went silent.
He waited for the longest moment see if anything would happen, when nothing did he risked peeking out of his shell to see where he was. He seemed to be looking out of some type of small window, he could see Tigerclaw's knees outside of it.
He unsheathed his arms to try and push himself up, but they banged into a pair of cramped metal walls, he pulled away from the biting cold of them. He tried to pull his legs out and found there was a third cramped metal wall behind him, he was stuck inside a metal box that was too small for him to come out of his shell in.
"What is he trying to do? Freeze me to death inside of this icebox?" Donnie thought, He wondered if that could actually happen, his turtle side wouldn't really be a help in this case, turtles hibernate. His human side wouldn't really help either, humans get very sick and sometimes die if pressed against cold metal all night. Although, the metal grate he was sitting on didn't feel as cold as the walls, he could have sworn it was just as frozen the rest of the box when he was placed on it. But it felt warm now, too warm, pizza warm.
He was in the oven. wasn't he?
He placed his palms on the oven door, and shoving off the back wall with his feet, pressed against the door with all his strength. He could see the pads of Tigerclaws foot against the glass, holding the door shut, He was trapped!
"Hey Jerk! Eat this!"
What?" Tiger claw turned away from the door. Donnie could see Mikey through the window, his little brother was holding up a fire extinguisher.
"Foolish turtle! I won't spare you this t- HACK!"
Mikey sprayed the fire retardant at the space Donnie could only guess was Tigerclaw's gullet. Cutting off the Tiger's villain speech.
Mikey hurried past the choaking Tigerclaw and threw open the oven, grabbing Donnie and dragging him out.
Donnie folded out of his shell and grabbed Mikey's wrist before making a break for the door.
The sputtering Tiger noticed an abandoned drum of grease and picked it up, throwing it across the cafeteria.
"Look out D!" Mikey called.
Donnie noticed the drum and dived out of the way. The drum barreled past them, rolling all the way across the room then smashing against the door, covering it in grease.
Tigerclaw pulled out a third pistol, (now, where did that come from?) And shot the grease, setting the door ablaze.
Not looking forward to the grease burn that would result from trying to kick open the door when it was in that state, Donnie called out "New plan." And made a beeline for one of the abandoned tables.
"Help me turn this over." Donnie asked Mikey. They turned the table over and pushed against it, sliding it across the floor in front of them as they charged Tigerclaw.
Tigerclaw fired at them wildly as they charged, scorching the table. The two teens cart wheeled out of the way as Tigerclaw placed his foot on the tabletop and kicked, sending it flying across the room until it smashed up cross the opposite wall.
Taking advantage of the moment, the two darted around him. Making a break for the opposite door.
"Look! An elevator." Donnie exclaimed.
He sprinted to the end of the hall and pressed the button. Rapping his fingers against the metal door impatiently. He looked back.
Tigerclaw lurched through the door, clutching his chest and gasping for breath.
He hit the button a few more times. "Come on, come on, come on."
"You're not hitting it hard enough!" Mikey said, pushing Donnie out of the way and slamming his fist against the elevator button frantically.
Tigerclaw let out a low growl and started shuffling faster.
The door opened, and they piled inside.
Donnie's eyes darted from the tiger shuffling towards them, to his brother slamming his fist down on the close door button and urging it move faster, to the corners of the elevator, looking for anything he could use as a weapon.
Tigerclaw snarled, getting down on all four feet and charging the elevator.
Donnie threw up his hands to protect himself from the gnashing teeth descending upon him, when the elevator door shut, clamping down on Tigerclaw's neck and holding him in place like a vice.
The two boys back against the wall entitled to sit together to get away from the snarling teeth in the scrabbling noises of Tigerclaw breaking his claws against the metal door of the elevator.
Elevators weren't supposed to clamp down on you like that, but this one was old, it must had a broken sensor of some kind.
Tiger claw managed to pull his head out of the elevator door, and also managed to shove his pistol in between the door before it shut, keeping a few inches of it open.
He shoved his fingers into the opening, starting to pry the doors open.
Oh man, we're in trouble." Donnie whimpered.
Mikey looked up at the ceiling, "I have an idea." Tigerclaw managed to force his way into the elevator sliding in and through the door before it shut behind him. He scanned the small space for any sign of the turtles, then looked up, noting that the escape hatch on the top of the elevator was open, he leapt up and grabbed the top of the hatch with his paws before forcing his head through to look out it. He spotted the turtles in their new position clinging to the cables of the elevator, Donnie was holding on with one hand and holding onto Mikey's ankle with another.
Mikey was angling down upside down over the elevator cable, whittling it away with his scythe.
"HaSTA LA vista, kitty!" Tigerclaw gave one last distressed mewl before the elevator tumbled down into the darkness, taking him with it. Donnie pulled Mikey up, "come on, we have to get to the roof. Ralph is fighting all by himself up there."
(Scene break)
Raphael moved from side to side, making sure to keep out of the way of the whip.
"Why won't you stop moving?" Kairos snapped in frustration. "Yeah, like that's going to happen." Raph thought to himself sarcastically.
Raph danced around to the machine while the bots soldered it back in place, why Stockman made them to fight when he could've made them into engineering bots was a mystery, sure, would've driven up the unemployment rate, but he would've been rich.
Raph managed to maneuver his frustrated opponent in between Raphael and the machine. He smirked to himself, and charged.
He jumped high using the other man's face as a platform, then leaped onto the machine, climbing his way up it like a lizard.
He grabbed the cross -and- placing both of his feet on the machine, pulled again with all of this strength, wiggling it this way that until it dislodged.
Kicking off he did a backflip and landed softly on his feet, holding up the cross, he placed a finger on his eyelid and pulled it down, sticking out his tongue, "nyah."
He pivoted on his foot, intending to make a break for the door, when his body jerked to a stop.
One of the robots had grabbed onto the cross and had a death grip on it.
Rath gritted his teeth and grabbed the cross with both hands, getting into an impromptu tug-of-war match with the robot.
He heard a cracking crackling of the energy whip, and spotted Kairos out of his the corner of his eye.
Raphael maneuvered the robot between him and Kairos, so when Kairos sent his whip. He caught the bot instead.
Their tug-of-war battle continued, Kairos tugging the bot, and the robot tugging against the cross.
On one side of the roof, the elevator door shifted as someone on the other side tried to pry it open, on the other side of the room, the door slammed open as Leo and Karai made their entrance.
Karai threw her sword at the energy whip, cutting off the end.
Kairos pulled it back and pressed a button, it merely grew back.
"Good fight for something like you, I'm going to have to make an example of one of you and I think you're my pick, I know, I'll turn back to the clock to when you thought you were a member of the Foot. Would you like to go back to your old life?"
"Never!" Karai screamed, pulling out her pistol and pointing it at Kairos.
He threw out his whip, wrapping it around the gun.
The electricity in the whip overloaded the gauge in the laser pistol.
The energy gauge showed one bar of energy, then two, then four, then an overload sign blinked on it and it exploded.
"Karai!" Leo called.
Karai's mutant resilience kept the blast from killing her outright, but she swayed uneasily from foot to foot, then fell to her knees. The energy whip wrapped around her torso and yanked her forward against Kairos.
"Surrender! Or I'll fill her full of so many volts her pet cat will keel over."
Leo paused, hesitantly, unsure of what to do.
Raph watched Kairos for a moment, sizing him up. Not liking what he saw, Raph threw down his weapons. When Mikey saw what his older brother did he followed suite.
Leo's hands trembled, but managed to loosen their grip enough for the sword to slip out of his palms and clatter to the ground.
Kairos watched them. "Good, but I think perhaps we need a demonstration of why the creation doesn't go against the creator.
Leo held his palms up and opened his mouth to cry out, but Donnie beat him to it.
"Wait!" Donnie cried.
Everyone's attention turned to him. Donnie gulped, feeling less sure of his gambit now. "Er, the whole reason you were doing this was because you wanted me to fix the time scepter right? Well, if you let her go unharmed, I'll go fix it for you."
Kairos remember his plot and grinned, "Deal. Or else." He added unnecessarily.
Donnie swallowed and walked up to the time scepter. The wand looked smooth and elegant as ever, if he hadn't been told other wise, he'd have never even guessed that there was tec in there. How was he going to fix it?
He climbed the three steps up to it and walked behind it.
Okay, first order of business. What has Rennet told him about the scepter?
Nothing usable, she only spoke of the time scepter not as a machine but as a type of sentient entity. Could that indicate that the time scepter had a type of AI in? It was a long shot, but…
He looked from Leo's distressed face to Ralph's seething one. then to Karai twitching in her bindings at Kairos's feet to Mikey trembling in the corner on the verge of tears.
Donnie and let out a shaky exhale and then closed his eyes. "Please help me." He asked, placing his hands on the shaft of the time scepter.
A burst of light streamed out of the time scepter, forcing everyone on the roof talk to cover their eyes to prevent blindness.
"There you are young man," a booming voice called, "I sent people to look for you."
"No, no! it can't be."
The light dimmed down enough that everyone could look at the newcomer.
A short, chubby, doughy faced man, the likes of which you would expect to see working at a bank, not the office of time itself tottered his waythrough the doorway of light.
I'm very disappointed in you, young man, "Lord simultaneous said in a much less impressive, much less moving voice, "I'm going to be cleaning this up for months,and that's providing I let Rennet take care of the Ground Zero of this mess. Now you come along and I'll send Rennet to clean up this mess,"
"No. No, you can't make me." "Oh no?" Lord Simultaneous asked. snapping his fingers.
The white light behind him started swirling in a vortex. It rose up and then slammed down over Kairos swallowing them whole.
"Sorry about this, and don't worry about the new time scepter causing trouble, I've already sent Rennet after it and I'm sure she's on her way here to pick it up."
And with that he was gone.
Leo rushed over to Karai and pulled the whip off her. "Karai! Karai!" He called.
She stirred, "Leo."
"I'm so glad you're OK."
She punched him in the shoulder, "Did you really think you could get rid of me that easily? "She asked, "I was just stunned a bit, that 's all."
"Looks like everything's going our way for once, big brother." Raph said clapping Donnie on the shoulder." Little brother- big- Ok dude. you've got to help me out here."
"Karai's a year older than us and I'm slightly older than Mikey, but slightly younger than you." Donnie explained.
"What?" Leo asked, "You were our little brother this whole time? Why didn't you tell us? We could have finished this fight so much faster if you let us know that."
"We could have?" Donnie said, confused about how this information could have helped any.
"Yeah," Raph said, pulling out his sai's and raising them above his head. "Don't you know we big brothers become invincible when defending our little bros? That's just science."
Donnie tried to stifle a snigger. "I think I've patched you guys up after a fight enough times to know that that's not true."
Leo slipped an arm around Donnie's neck and pulled him into a one arm hug. "You thought we were bleeding? That wasn't blood. That was liquid determination trying to leave our bodies."
Raph put an arm around Donnie's neck too, forcing Donnie to stoop to their level. "Now come'er you, we've got 15 years worth of noogie's we owe you."
"Guys." Donnie laughed, "I already had enough of those the first time around."
"Group hug!" Mikey announced. Leaping at them arms outstretched and knocking all three of them to the ground.
Donnie slammed to the ground, pinned by his brothers' weight. He let out a whoosh of air, then started laughing. Man,he'd missed this. And the best part was he would get to keep having moments like this without end. Because Kairos was lying wasn't he? He'd been lying about everything else so why not this? Donnie hugged his brothers close, they might not be exactly like his other brothers, but they were his brothers and he was glad he got to stay with them.
"I get to stay." He thought, hugging them even tighter. "I get to stay."
Karai smiled at their antics. A noise caught her attention and she followed the sound to a bit of rubble that was moving.
Stockfly dragged himself out of the rubble weakly, looking beat up and ready to fall over. Which he did, landing on his stomach.
Stockfly stayed still for a second, then started to tremble and make weird buzzing noises. It took Karai a moment to realize he was laughing.
The hair on the back of her neck stood up and she was on him in a second. Slamming him farther into the ground. "What's so funny fly? Are you pulling something?"
This got the attention of the turtles who all sat up to watch.
"Foolish-zzz- Girl, I've already won, You think you've beaten me? I Have only begun to-"
Karai grabbed one of his wings and yanked it out of his back, causing the turtles to flinch.
"YOW!"
"WHAT DID YOU DO!? Tell me or I'll yank out your other wing."
"You'll pay for that! You'll pay. You'll all pay- YEOWCH!"
Karai pulled out his other wing.
Now the fly was mad enough to talk. "You think my plan was to let those meatheads try to capture you? Why would I? They've never managed before. No, My plan was to distract you. While my machine did its work."
"We pulled the power cell out of your machine, Stockman, It won't charge no matter how much time you give it."
"You pulled out one of the power cells I put in there, you forgot about the one -zzz- I got at the mall. And they should be done powering up right about... Now."
On cue the machine started buzzing to life.
"No." Donnie thought, getting to his feet and racing toward the machine.
"No." he thought, as he neared the platform in front of the time scepter.
"No." He thought, as he reached out to grab the scepter and pull it out of the machine before-
A large blast of energy enveloped the wand, filling the platform with white light and blasting Donnie backward onto his shell.
He sat up and held up a hand to keep the light out of his eyes.
"No." He muttered. Looking at the imposing figure looming above them.
The Shredder was back.