CHAPTER 14: TURTLE SEARCH PARTY
ME: Sorry I didn't update on Sunday, guys. I've been busy, and I've been putting this fic off. Oops.
LEONARDO '12: That's fine and all, but now do we get to see what happens?
ME: As a matter of fact, yes. It's just a little shorter than usual. Double oops. But I'll try to make the next chapter longer!
RAPHAEL '87: She owns nothing besides her own OC's and the story...but here, she has no OC's to place.
ME: Exactly.
Chapter 14: Turtle Search Party
Just as Leo '12 was sucked in, the portal closed and fell to the ground.
Sighing in relief, both Leo's let go of the rocks they'd grabbed and ran over to the device. Leonardo '87 picked it up and yelled at the top of his lungs, "I'VE GOT THE PORTAL! NOW WE CAN—!"
Leo '03 coughed loudly, catching Leonardo '87's attention.
"WHAT!?" he yelled.
Sighing, Leonardo '03 uttered an "ah-hem" as he stuck his fingers into his turtle ears pointedly.
"...OH RI—I mean, oh right," Leonardo '87 coughed sheepishly, lowering his voice to a much softer tone. He flushed red. "The portal's closed so we don't have to shout anymore."
Leo '03 nodded in satisfaction, smiling slightly as he rolled his eyes good-naturedly.
Leonardo '87 held up the portal and grinned. "Let's get this thing to the Splinter's!"
"Cowabunga," Leo '03 agreed whole-heartedly, smiling. It was funny, really—around his brothers; even Mikey, he was always the serious one. But when he was around himself; or rather, him from another dimension, they both knew how it felt to be serious but still want to joke. So both of these Leonardo's could kid around and it wouldn't feel out of character. Rather, it felt very deeply in character. Still, that didn't mean he couldn't find time to joke with his brothers.
Racing out of the cavern with the portal, the Leonardo's barely made it out before more rocks tumbled down. It wasn't enough to block the entire place off, but if they'd stayed there for a moment longer—they would've been crushed.
"Phew, that was close," Leonardo '87 stated, wiping his brow.
"A little too close for comfort, if you ask me," agreed Leo '03.
They shared a look, before continuing to run.
It wasn't long until they reached the '12 turtles' lair, having remembered the location after only staying there for like, two days. The Splinter's greeted them, surprised of course, that there were only two turtles.
"Leonardo? Where are the others?" asked Splinter '03, concerned.
Leonardo '03 bowed his head. "Master, something happened while we were there."
Leonardo '87 explained the incident and told them of their plan. "So please watch this portal."
"This is most troubling, my students," Splinter '87 murmured, taking the portal.
Splinter '12 looked troubled as well, but when he spoke, his voice was clear. "I only have one question."
"Yes?" responded Leo '03, admiring the '12 sensei's ever-calm demeanour.
"How, pray tell, does one work this thing?" asked Splinter '12, raising an eyebrow.
The two Leonardo's shared a look. "Oops," they both stated.
"It shouldn't be too hard," Leo '87 said quickly, grabbing the portable portal and fiddling with it. "We just need to press some buttons and flip a few switches—it's already in reverse mode."
Sighing, Splinter '87 rolled back his eyes as he looked to the ceiling. "I'm afraid this might take awhile."
Leonardo '87 smiled sheepishly.
"Here, let me try," suggested Leo '03, taking the portal. He closed his eyes and thought for a moment. Then his eyes opened again. "Maybe we can contact them with the Turtle Com."
"It's worth a try," agreed Splinter '12.
Leonardo '87 nodded and pulled out his Turtle Com. The screen buzzed, and it buzzed again. More buzzing continued until someone managed to answer.
A familiar green face stared back at Leo. "Hello? Who's answered?" Leonardo '87 asked loudly, worried the turtle on the other side might not hear him due to static.
"Why, Leonardo; I'm wounded! Don't you recognize your own brother?"
Leo '87 rolled his eyes. "It's nice to see you too, Raphael."
"So how's it going on the other side?" Raphael '87 asked. More static appeared on the screen.
"Concerning," replied Leonardo. "Can you get Donatello on the line?"
Raphael '87 stuck his nose high into the air. "Humph!" he grunted. "First you don't recognize me and now you brush me off? What kind of treatment is this?" Leonardo rolled his eyes as Raph said after a few moments of silence, "Of course I can get Donatello on the line. Which one do you want? You got three to choose from."
"Any will do," Leo sighed impatiently. "Just hurry!"
"Alright, alright. Don't you know that a tortoise is supposed to be slow?" Raphael muttered. "Jeez, everybody's 'like hurry hurry'. Stop and smell the flowers! Slow and steady wins the race, remember?"
Leonardo sighed. "Hurry...!" he urged.
"Okay; jeez. Don't get your shell in a bunch," Raph muttered.
Soon Donatello '03 was on screen.
"How exactly does this portal thing work?" asked Leo '87.
"It's not too hard, really. Cody and April C programmed it so that first you press the purple than the orange than the blue and then the red buttons. Just flip these switches..."
Soon the Splinter's and two Leo's had managed to open the portal.
Splinter '12 glanced at the Leo's. "Looks like it is your time to go, my students."
"Ready or not, here we go," Leonardo '87 called, jumping in.
"I think I'm ready," Leo '03 replied, also letting himself be sucked into the portal.
When the portal closed, all of the Splinter's shared concerned looks.
"Ow!" muttered Leonardo '12, landing on his shell. "I can't believe they just shoved me in like that!"
"Who shoved you in...?"
Leo looked up in surprise. "Raph...!"
Raphael '12 nodded in acknowledgement, grabbing his brother by the arm and pulling him up. "So who pushed you in here again...?"
"The other two Leonardo's," Leo sighed, dusting himself off. "They have a plan and had to send one of us in to tell you guys."
Michelangelo '12 swooped in. "So what's the plan, Chief?"
"Yeah, Fearless Leader—any bright ideas?" Raphael '87 agreed.
Leonardo '12 nodded. "They let the portal close so they could take it back to the lair. They're going to leave the thing in the Splinters' care and they'll come in after us."
"So they're joining us anyway?" Raphael '03 asked.
Leonardo shrugged. "I guess so."
"I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing," Donatello '87 commented, "It's already pretty overcrowded in here."
Donnie '12 turned to his brother in blue. "Leo, we have to find the two April's and Irma!"
"I know, I know—let's just wait a few minutes for the other two Leonardo's, okay?" Leo '12 sighed.
Casey '12 grunted. "Fine, but they get five-seven minutes—tops."
Raphael '12 raised an eyebrow. "Why so specific, Case?"
"Seven's supposed to be a lucky number—my lucky number," Casey '12 replied, swinging a hockey stick absentmindedly.
"Sounds good to me," Casey '87 muttered, flexing his muscles. "The sooner the better—I need to smash something soon or I'll go nuts."
"I thought you went nuts years ago," Raphael '87 replied, flipping his sai into the air and catching them.
"Haha, very funny," replied Casey '87.
Raphael '87 shrugged. "It's what I do."
"Everyone needs to stick together," Donatello '03 ordered. "If we don't, there could be serious consequences."
Leo '12 glanced back at where he'd come from, which was now just empty space. The door to the portal had closed. "I just hope they get here in time, and that the April's and Irma are safe."
"She'll be fine," Donnie '12 stated, although he sounded unsure. "April can take care of herself."
"You bet I can," April '03 agreed, trying to cheer them up. "No matter what dimension I'm from."
Casey '12 nodded thankfully. "But what about Irma? She ain't exactly ninja-type in our world, and she seems kinda like a klutz in your world."
Donatello '87 nodded. "Yeah, you're right. All she really cares about is boys. But I'm going to hope that the April's can keep her out of trouble."
"Have some trust in our best buds," Michelangelo '87 agreed, letting out a low whistle.
"No one can say I'm not trying," Donnie '12 murmured in reply. Leo placed a comforting hand on his brother's shoulder.
Luckily, they didn't have to wait too long. The portal opened up again and two teenage mutant ninja turtles flew in.
"Leo!" greeted Michelangelo '03, directing this to both of the Leonardo's before him.
"It's nice to see you too, Mikey," Leo '03 murmured.
Leonardo '87 nodded. "That was one rough trip," he remarked, rubbing his sore behind. "I think I dented my shell."
"Enough about that; let's hurry up and find the girls!" Casey '12 spoke up impatiently.
"Right; of course." Leonardo '87 got up and stretched quickly. "Let's get going. Where do you think they could've gone?"
"Not far, I hope," Donnie '12 responded weakly. "And hopefully they didn't go into Dimension X. We Earthlings can't breathe the air there."
Raphael '87 shrugged. "That's too bad—I heard that Dimension X is beautiful this time of year." He got a few dirty looks that said "now isn't the time to be joking!", so he smiled apologetically.
"We can try contacting them with the Turtle Com," offered Leonardo '87. "It worked with Raphael."
"And I can try calling her with the T-Phone," Donatello '12 agreed.
Leo '87 looked around. "Only problem is that they may have wandered out of range of a signal."
"I hate it when you say stuff like that," remarked Raphael '87. "You're just going to jinx us!"
"Like, I hate to interrupt the party, dudes; but we have a mondo big problem on our hands!" cried Michelangelo '87, waving his arms wildly.
Leonardo '12 turned to the surfer turtle. "What's the matter, Michelangelo?"
Mikey '87 was trembling, struggling to speak.
"Spit it out already, pizza-breath! We don't have all day," Raphael '87 called. He had clearly forgotten his own jab at Leonardo about "stopping to smell the flowers".
Michelangelo '87 finally managed to swallow the frog in his throat and find the right words. "Don't look now, but I spy with my little turtle eye more than a few Kraang-droids approaching!" the orange bandana-wearing turtle reported.
Raphael '87 immediately did a face-palm, turning to Leo '87. "See? Told ya you'd jinx us!"
"What do we do now, Oh Fearless Leader?" Raphael '03 asked the Leonardo's, his gaze narrowed. The blue turtles shared worried looks.
Sucking air into his lungs, Leo '12 tried not to feel frustrated. Now isn't the time for Kraang, when we could be out fighting to save Irma and the two April's.
"Leader Boy, we don't have much time!" snapped Raphael '03, turning to stare at the first Leo he laid eyes on.
His impatient gaze settled on Leonardo '12, who felt a sudden urge of irritation surge through him. With newfound energy, he bounced up and whipped out his swords. "We're going to kick their sorry butts to Uranus," he muttered.
Raphael '87 stifled a laugh despite the situation. "Let's keep this for kids, okay?" he breathed.
Leonardo '87 sighed and rolled his eyes, pulling out his own swords. "Leo's right—we have to get rid of them quick."
"We can't take all of them at once," protested Leo '03, raising an eyebrow.
"We won't," Leo '12 stated simply, glaring forward at the Kraang. He pointed at the Donnie's and Mikey's in front of him. "You guys take the Kraang on the left; split them up, you know. The Raph's and other Leo's—including me—will take the ones on the right."
"The old A Team and B Team routine?" Michelangelo '87 asked. "Who's the B Team?"
"We are!" Mikey '12 said cheerfully, and the other two Michelangelo's stared at him like he was crazy for not minding.
Donatello '12 allowed himself to smile slightly, for the first time since April '12 had disappeared into the portal. "Don't think of us as the B Team," he suggested, "but rather, the A- Team."
"Sounds good enough for me," Donatello '87 responded, swinging his Bo staff. "Let's show our brothers on the 'A Team' we can be better."
"Hey, what about us?" Casey '12 demanded, rolling a hockey stick between his hands. "I want to get these alien creeps too, y'know."
"I was getting to that," Leo '12 replied. "You and Casey B can come with us. The B—err, A- Team can take Casey C and April C, as well as Cody."
Donatello '03 nodded in satisfaction. "We'll need their help with technical things."
"Let's destroy them," smirked Raphael '12, smashing his two fists together with a dark gleam in his eyes.
Leo '12 nodded, before pointing a sword toward the Kraang. "Attack!" he yowled, his voice ringing across the void of doors to other worlds and nothing else.
The Kraang-bots looked up, eyes all glowing magenta dangerously. Leonardo '12 had always been surprised the Kraang could make pink look menacing. The magenta colour laced their robotic suits, and yet the droids still seemed scary.
"Pink is not your colour," snarled Raphael '12, smashing himself into a Kraang-bot. He'd clearly been thinking the same thing as Leo.
Bullets whizzed through the air and one grazed Leo '12's arm. He chose to ignore it though, turning to his brother Donnie and yelling, "Now!"
Nodding back, Donatello '12 led his patrol deeper into the crowd of Kraang. With the help from the Michelangelo's (who always served as good bait—and were easy to bribe with pizza), the Donatello's managed to lead half of the Kraang away.
"Turtles fight with honour!" shouted Leonardo '87, raising his sword.
As if it were a signal, the other '87 turtles called, "Turtle Power!"
"It's ninja time!" their '03 counterparts cried.
Leonardo '12 didn't know what sort of battle cry his turtle brothers had, but Raph's look told him not to come up with one.
Sighing in relief, Leonardo '12 slashed Kraang after Kraang into more than one piece. With the help of so many mutants (and people...with a robot), he was quite sure they could fight half of these robots off.
He turned to see Leo '03 joining him, fighting side-by-side. "We can do this!" the older turtle exclaimed.
"I don't doubt we can," Leonardo '12 agreed, turning back to the Kraang, who were racing toward him. He dodged the laser beams, spinning into the air to stab a sword through one.
"Show-off," Raphael '12 smirked, having broken Kraang apart. He was holding a Kraang-droid head.
"You're such a creep," remarked Raphael '87, shaking his head as he battled a Kraang-droid. "You like, mutilated them."
"They're robots," Raph '12 responded, rolling his eyes. "It doesn't matter what happens to them."
"Let's just keep this for kids," replied Raphael '87, smashing his knee into one of the Kraang bots. "We don't want to get reported for anything."
Raph '12 gave him a weird look, before turning to continue fighting the Kraang-droids.
Leonardo '12 glanced around him. The noise of battle was nearly deafening, but he could see his comrades bravely fighting against the Kraang. Leo hoped that he hadn't brought them to their doom, and that they would survive and more than that; he hoped they would win.
"Watch out!" shouted Leonardo '03, slamming into a Kraang-bot in front of Leo '12. He glanced at his counterpart. "You need to be careful," he reminded him.
Feeling embarrassed, Leonardo '12 nodded. "Sorry," he mumbled.
"Don't worry about it," replied Leonardo '03, jumping onto more Kraang-bots and slashing them apart. Leo '12 noted how strong this Leonardo was.
"It's working!" Casey '12 exclaimed, doing a roundhouse kick against some more Kraang-bots.
Casey '87 was smashing Kraang after Kraang, switching between his weapons quickly and efficiently. He sent many of the Kraang aliens fleeing.
Leo '03 glanced over at Leo '12 and they both nodded. They began fighting side-by-side, moving as one.
Soon the Kraang turned to flee, and the A- Team came back, having already gotten rid of their half. Michelangelo '12 turned to the A Team. "We beat you!" he declared triumphantly.
The A- Team were all carrying Kraang weaponry. Donatello '12 passed a gun to all of the A Team, and they began shooting them at the remaining Kraang.
It wasn't long until all the Kraang had fled, and the turtles were left feeling victorious.
"We won!" exclaimed Michelangelo '87, giving his turtle brethren a high-three.
"It's not over yet," Donnie '12 reminded them, "we still need to find the April's and Irma."
"Let's try the Turtle Com now," Leonardo '87 suggested, pulling out the phone-thingy.
"And the T-Phone," agreed Donatello '12. He grabbed his version of the device.
All the mutants and humans waited with baited breath for the result to be made. Who would answer? Which device would work?
The Turtle Com buzzed first.
"April...?" Leonardo '87 questioned.
The screen lit up and April '87's face appeared briefly. "Turtles!" she cried, before more static appeared. When it cleared, she asked, "Can you hear me?"
"We can hear you, April! Where are you?"
April '87 glanced around. "We haven't moved far," she admitted. "We're just a little up ahead. But everything looks the same to us."
Leonardo '87 looked a little more relaxed, as were everyone else. "We're coming to get you," he promised, "we're already in the portal."
Donnie '12 nodded beside Leo '87, though he looked disappointed that the T-Phone hadn't worked.
"Try to think of anything that could tell us where you are," Leonardo '87 suggested.
April '87 looked around again. She turned back to the screen. "I see a portal where it's all pink and—" She was abruptly cut off as the Turtle Com stopped working.
"Oh, shell!" muttered Michelangelo '03.
Donatello '12 turned to Leonardo '87. "How come your Turtle Com worked but mine didn't?"
"Ours follow the laws of cartoons, so it can do things when normal things can't," explained Donatello '87.
Donnie '12 looked confused. Suddenly, his T-Phone suddenly started ringing. "April!?" he gasped, pulling out the phone.
April '12's wide blue eyes stared back at him, and she looked panicked. "Donnie?" she asked. "Donnie...! I'm so glad to see you! We have a problem here!"
Donatello '12 looked relieved to see April, but he returned to concerned immediately. "What's the matter?" he asked.
"We're near the Kraang portal, and we've had to—" She suddenly let out a cry, and the T-Phone stopped working.
"April; no!" both Casey '12 and Donnie '12 cried.
"April B said the portal was all pink," Leonardo '87 murmured.
"And then their April confirmed that they're near a portal..." added Leo '03, pointing at the T-Phone.
Leo '12 looked at his grief-stricken brother and friend. "We know where that it is," he said quietly. "It's the portal to the Kraang's home planet. We'll have to go there if we want to save them."
ME: 'Tis the end for today! Told you it was a little shorter than usual.
LEONARDO '12: Oh well. You better update soon.
ME: ...Karai appears again next chapter. *coughs*
LEONARDO '12: Then you need to update really soon!
RAPAHEL '12: *rolls eyes* Leo...
DONATELLO '12: I'm still waiting to see if April gets saved!
ME: *shrugs* Maybe she will be~ Maybe you two will have a moment.
DONATELLO '12: *blinks* Then you need to update really, really soon!
KARAI & APRIL '12: Hey, we're standing right here, y'know!