Okay, so this will be quite a trip, I'm sure of it. Let's get moving here shall we?
Chapter 20: Coming Together Again
When Aika and Fina both walked through the place, they found themselves in a very dark place that smelled absolutely horrible. Leo, who was used to this, lifted the lid of the place they were in, and was greeted by the familiar sight of a New York alleyway.
"Ew!" cried Aika. "You should have at least told us we would be teleporting into a dumpster! Yuch!"
"Hey, don't blame me!" said Leo angrily as he stepped out of the dumpster. "They said I would be returned to where I started this whole journey! I didn't know it would be so exact!"
"This is indeed very disgusting," said Fina as she too stepped out of the the dumpster with Fina following behind. "So, where are we now?"
"We are back home," said Leo, stretching his hands out into the air. "Girls, welcome to New York City."
Aika and Fina both looked around and shrugged, walking to Leo and patting him on the shoulder.
"Okay," said Aika. "This is pretty boring..."
"Oh, you think so?" asked Leo, facing the two girls. "I'll see what you think after seeing this!"
The turtle suddenly grabbed the two girls by their waists, and the two of them yelped as they suddenly faced the ground.
"Hang on tight," said Leo. "This will be a pretty rough ride..."
And with that, Leo bounded up the wall as deftly as anybody could, jumping off of the bricks onto another wall just across the alley. As Aika and Fina saw the distance between them and the ground decrease, they suddenly realized just how high up they were. The dumpster they had jumped out of became nothing more than a box, and all of the little things in the alleyway suddenly became much smaller. From what this was, the girls were unsure, but both felt a little stranger as they climbed the building.
They were snapped out of their reverie as Leo jumped off of a wall and finally landed on a rooftop somewhere in the city. Leo then positioned the girls upright with their heads in the right place as they looked around at the sight around them.
"This, girls, is New York," said Leo, gesturing at the view.
Aika and Fina were taken by what they saw. From the rooftop, they were able to make out the shapes of buildings from which a thousand lights emanated like torches in the night sky. Some of these buildings were unbelievably tall, as the height of some of the lights suggested. The two Arcadians were both taken at this sight, and they could not help but feel delighted at this marvel that was before them.
Before they could comment on it, however, Leo placed a hand on both of their shoulders, and then he gestured towards the other side of the building, where not too far off they saw a huge body of water, all of the little lights glowing on the surface of the water as it rippled slightly from its contact with ships. The brilliance of some of the light was startling to the two of them, but the ships that floated gracefully over the water was a sight within itself.
"And that is our ocean," said Leo softly. "Welcome to my world, girls."
"My goodness..." said Fina. "This place is amazing!"
"Wow!" said Aika, holding her hands out wide to the spectacle before her. "This place is awesome! I don't think I'm gonna regret coming here at all!"
"I didn't think so either," said Leo with a chuckle. "I think I know where we are now, and I think we know where to find some people that I know."
"Really?" asked Fina.
"Yeah," said Leo. "And it'll be a place where the two of you can get a nice, warm shower after that dumpster."
"Yeah, that would be good," said Aika. "So, where is this person's place?"
"I'll take you there," said Leo, walking up to them before Fina laid a hand on his chest softly. The turtle looked at her, confused as he saw this.
"Please, not again," said Fina. "We would rather much ride on your back."
"No problem then," said Leo, turning around as Aika and Fina both figured out how they could ride on the turtle's back. "Get on!"
The two girls nodded to each other before jumping onto Leo's back, a pair of arms grasping around both shouders so that their legs hung loosely from behind them. Leo grabbed both sets of legs, and then looked forward.
Leo exhaled and inhaled fairly briefly, and before either of them knew what was happening the turtleman was leaping and bounding across the rooftops of New York City, carrying the two girls with him as they traversed the city in the middle of the night.
The turtle finally stopped bounding over the rooftops after a while, and then he set Aika and Fina down on the roof of the building they were on.
"Aw, why'd you stop?" asked Aika. "That was so much fun!"
"We're at my friend's place," said Leo.
"Ah, okay," said Aika, nodding as Leo walked to the edge of the building. "So how do we get there?"
"Simple," said Leo. "We climb down the building."
"What?" asked Fina, quite alarmed at this. "Are you serious?"
"Hey, they have staircases on the sides of these buildings," said Leo with a reassuring smile. "It won't hurt too much!"
"Well, okay," said Aika nervously. "But somehow, I've got a bad feeling about this..."
The girls walked over to the edge of the building, and to verify Leo's word, they looked down to find a wire staircase that rusted that wound down several stories below them into the alleyway. With this, Aika suddenly began to laugh.
"What's so funny?" asked Leo.
"No..." said Aika, still laughing at herself. "I can't believe I didn't trust you on that!"
"Don't worry about it," said Leo as he helped Fina down onto the fire escape, her feet landing on the iron staircase with a soft click. Aika jumped down soon afterwards, a rather loud slam resulting from her landing on the staircase.
"Quiet!" Leo augmented this exclamation with a gesture at Aika. "We can't have the rest of the apartment waking up to find us here!"
"Uh, okay..." said Aika.
Leo went down the staircase first, Fina and Aika following close behind. After walking down a few floors, Leo stopped in front of one of the windows by the staircase, and then he brought a fist up to the window and knocked on the glass as hard as he could.
The girls glanced at each other briefly, shrugging as they waited in complete silence for a few seconds.
Quite a few seconds later, the light on the other side of the window was turned on, and a rather burly man with black hair walked into the room, rubbing his eyes groggily before opening them. The shock in his face was apparent when he saw Leo on the other side of the glass. The window then slid promptly upwards, the man looking at Leo disbelievingly.
"Leo?" asked the man. "Are ya there?"
"Yes, Casey," replied Leo nonchalantly, stepping into the apartment. The burly man would have closed the window, but Leo gestured him to keep it open. "Mind my friends, please."
"Your what?" asked the burly man, looking back at the window to see Aika and Fina both step into the apartment.
As the girls entered, the large man gave the two of them a funny look, and after a few seconds of feeling his stare on her back, Aika turned around with an annoyed expression on her face.
"What's your problem?" asked Aika.
"Leo, what the hell happened?" asked the large man. "Ya came here with these two girls, they smell like crap, they're dressed all wierd, and on top of that I don't see Raph anywhere with ya!"
"Okay, long story short, Raph and I found something in this dumpster, and before I know it I'm in this other place where I ran into my friends here, and on top of that--" rolled of Leo quickly.
"Whoa whoa whoa, hold up!" said the large man, holding his hands up. "Ya mean to tell me that you weren't even on this planet?"
"Apparently," said Leo with a shrug. "But I digress. Fina, Aika, this is Casey Jones. Casey Jones, these two are Aika and Fina."
"Nice ta meet ya," replied Casey, taking Aika's hand and shaking it vigorously. "Lemme go wake up April! She'll be thrilled ta see ya!"
The burly man known as Casey Jones rocketed back out of the room, but before anything else could be said he walked back in leading a young red-headed woman into the room. At first, she had to rub the sleep out of her eyes, but when she set her eyes on Leo she knew there was no doubt that it was him.
"Leo!" cried April, almost happy to see him. "You're alive! We've been looking all over for you! Where have you and Raph been?"
"It's a long story," said Leo with a shrug. "But basically, I don't know where Raphael is, and somehow I got involved in this quest to save the universe with these two girls."
"These two...?" asked April, her gaze suddenly turning towards Aika and Fina as the more energetic girl began to get progressively more and more annoyed. "Ah. I'm sorry about that."
The news reporter walked over to the two Arcadians, presenting her hand to the two of them.
"I'm April O'Niel," said the young woman ecstatically. "Who are you girls?"
"I'm Aika, and the other one's Fina," replied Aika, shaking April's hand.
"Pleasure to meet you both," said Fina with a graceful smile on her face as she shook April's hand.
"So, ya got a lot ta tell us now," said Casey. "Where've ya been, where're these girls from, and where's Raph?"
"I already told you guys, I don't know where Raph is," said Leo. "And it's an awfully long story, too."
"Yeah, and before we tell that I think we could really do with a shower..." said Aika.
"What, have ya been hidin' out in a dumpster for a couple of hours?" asked Casey sardonically.
"Casey!" reprimanded April.
"No, he's kind of right," said Fina slowly. "The only problem is, it was more like a few minutes than a couple of hours..."
"In any event, of course you may use the shower," said April. "But we're not talking until you girls come out. Would you like me to prepare anything while you're in there?"
"Like in, food?" asked Aika, her eyes glistening with a blatant desire written all over them.
"Yeah," said Casey.
"Oh my god, I'd love some!" cried Aika. "It's been ages since I last ate!"
"Now that you mention it, I am feeling kind of hungry as well," said Fina.
"All right then," said April with a cheery smile on her face. "I'll prepare something while you girls are in the shower. We've got a lot to talk about..."
"Oh no," said Leo, noticing the slight trailing of April's last sentence. "Something happened to my family, didn't it?"
"Yeah," said Casey. "But we'll talk about you first."
Leo nodded, but as April guided Aika and Fina to the bathroom, the queesy feeling in his stomach had begun to settle in, and somehow he knew that his family was in big trouble.
Vyse, Largo, Ryu, Serene, and Lina all sat around in a circle once they had arrived at the nearest oasis. Vyse had just finished telling the tale of his adventures with Markus and the rest of his friends up to the point when Ryu saved him, and the only other witness to this story was the setting sun and the clouds around it.
"So, let me get something straight," said Serene. "We've been fooled for all this time?"
"Yep," said Vyse. "So now, we know we need to find people."
"Wait," said Ryu. "What if everybody has found out?"
"Then we need to come together at some point, right?" asked Largo. "I mean, if we're going to meet with destiny here, we need to find the other twenty or we'll be in bad hands here."
"True," said Ryu with a shrug, emerald eyes closing briefly. "But what if they are repelled by us?"
"Naw," said Lina, waving a hand at the idea. "They're probably already together by now."
"I hope so..." said Ryu.
"You better believe they are," said a disembodied voice loudly.
"Aw, no!" cried Vyse, slowly standing up and raising his fists.
However, instead of the green orb Vyse had expected, a pale yellow mist emanated down onto the ground in front of them.
"Wha..." asked Serene as the rest of the rather amazed group stood up. "Who're you?"
"I would be the queen of the underworld," said the yellow mist. "You may call me Persephone."
"Wait, you co-rule the underworld?" asked Largo. "Wierd..."
"So what are you here for, if you're not that other chick in the green balls that've been visiting us here?" asked Serene.
"I am here to aid you on your quest," said the mist quietly. "By now, there are four factions of heroes that are coming together as one large faction."
"So people have been coming together," said Ryu as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"See?" cried Lina. "Told ya!"
"However, they must pass trials that are greater than themselves," said the yellow mist. "One faction needs your help, and they need it quickly."
"Okay," said Vyse with a shrug. "So, what are we up against?"
"You are up against a very powerful person by the name of Oroku Saki," replied the mist as she shifted into a map of a strange place. "Within this faction, he is better known as 'The Shredder'."
"Oh boy," said Largo with a slightly aghast look on his face. "With a name like that, the other faction will definitely need the help."
"His goal is to rule the world, and he is one of the most ruthless criminals in the streets of the place I am about to send you to," added Persephone. "His underlings are very agile, but the man himself is unbelievably powerful."
"So we have to go in there, help the other faction, and call it a day?" asked Serene with a shrug. "Sounds like a plan to me. When do we get started?"
"Whoa, hold on Serene," said Vyse, holding his hands out in front of him. "How do we know we can trust this thing?"
"Well, Vyse, I've got a secret for you," said the mist. "Two of the people in this other faction happen to be your friends..."
The realization hit Vyse like a ship from the Armada, and then he stared blankly at the mist.
"Aika and Fina are there?" asked the air pirate.
"Yes," said Persephone. "They will be in trouble very soon, I will tell you that much."
"Oh my god..." said Vyse, stepping back in shock at this. "They're alive! They're alive!"
"Well, there you go," said Ryu with a wink. "Your friends are alive. When do we leave?"
"Now, in fact," said Persephone.
The mist migrated to a spot next to the oasis, and then suddenly a black portal appeared out of nowhere, beckoning to the five of them to enter. Lina, Largo, and Serene all walked up to it and paused as Vyse and Ryu followed suit.
"So, can we trust you?" asked Largo.
"Definitely," said the mist. "In fact, let me give you this."
From within the mist came a sudden pulsation of light. Ryu quickly held a hand up and caught a small medallion on a string. He held it, and Vyse looked on as well as the ninja examined it.
"What does it do?" asked the ninja.
"If you ever need help, hold this medallion in the air, and all of you will gain powers beyond your measure," said the voice. "Think of it as a booster."
"All right, then," said Serene with a smile. "Thanks."
"You are welcome," replied the mist. "Now go! Destiny awaits!"
With this, the golden mist slowly dissipated into nothing, leaving the black warp gate behind for the group to enter.
"Well, looks like we've got no other choice," said Largo.
"Lina's scared..." said the little girl softly.
"Don't worry, Lina," said Serene comfortingly. "We'll all be here."
"Okay..." said the little girl.
And then, the five of them walked into the black gate one by one, and then they left the strange place they had been in for the longest time for good.
"So then, we were teleported back to the dumpster I had started this crazy adventure in, and then I came over here. That's basically the whole story."
Leoardo had sat down on one of the couches in the apartment, and Fina and Aika had eaten some microwave pizza. The girls were in bathrobes as their clothes were in the laundry to rid it of all of the stuff it had acquired in the dumpster. The Blue Moon Crystal laid on a coffee table, the blue glimmer resounding faintly in the apartment as the night wore on. The three of them had told their story to April and Casey, who were sitting on the other couch in the small apartment, April glancing at the clock every so often to make sure that the girls were not wearing overly-hot clothes when they came out of the laundry. As Leo finished his story, Casey nodded with his elbows on his legs.
"I'm tellin' ya, man, that's pretty crazy," said Casey. "I would've had a hard time believin' it if it was anybody else."
"Yeah," said April in reply. "Not to mention the blue crystal thing you have with you; that helps too."
"So that's our side of the story," said Fina. "You said something about Leo's family?"
"I didn't, but he did," said Casey. "Yeah, about your family..."
"What about them?" asked Leo, bracing himself for the worst and hoping for the best. "What happened?"
"The Shredder came back while you were gone," said April.
"The Shredder?" asked Aika. "Who's that?"
"Oh, no..." said Leo. "So the Foot Clan is back in action?"
"Yes," replied April with a nod.
"Wait, I still don't get it!" cried Aika. "Who's the Shredder?"
"He's the leader of a very dangerous criminal organization here," said Leo softly. "What did he do?"
"While you were gone, there was a raid on the lair," said April.
"Your brothers and I were lookin' everywhere for ya," said Casey. "And when I called them this one time, they wouldn't pick up the phone."
"So you went down to the lair and what did you see?" asked Leo.
"The whole place was trashed real good," replied the Brooklyn native nervously. "And we also found this note talkin' about holdin' families hostage or something."
"Oh, no!" said Fina, recoiling from the shock factor. "That's terrible!"
"Oh, no..." said Leo. "What do they want from me?"
"They want you to go to an abandoned factory complex to do battle in," said April worriedly. "It's a good thing you came back tonight, too; tomorrow at sunrise was the cutoff date for you to be at the complex before they killed your family, and it's currently 12:01 at night."
"What?" cried Leo, standing up abruptly. "No! I can't let them do that! I won't let them do that!"
"Yeah!" added Aika in kind, jumping up as Fina stood up slowly. "Get our clothes out of the laundry; we're taking those guys out!"
"Okay..." said April as she stood up. "I hope the dry cycle is almost finished..."
With this, April went into a room to the side as Casey stood up as well.
"Ya want me to help?" asked the burly man quickly.
"No," said Leo. "I want you and April to stay here no matter what. Aika, Fina, get your stuff; we'll be leaving as soon as you get your clothes on."
"Yeah, they're acceptably dry," said April as she walked out of the area with Aika and Fina's clothes folded up nicely.
"Okay, that's good," said Fina, the two of them grabbing their outfits and rushing to the bathroom to change.
"Why, though?" asked Casey. "I can help ya!"
"Casey, please," said Leo. "If all of us get killed here, then who's going to defend New York? If anything comes up, I'll get the word to you somehow. That, I promise."
"But are you sure you'll survive?" asked April with worry etched on her face.
"Hades told me that me and my brothers were part of the 20," replied Leo assuringly. "I'll survive, I know it."
"Well, all right," said Casey with a defeated shrug. "We'll trust ya on this one. But if ya die on us, I'll never forgive ya!"
Just a few seconds after Casey said this, Fina and Aika walked back into the room wearing their normal clothes, and Aika held her boomerang as Fina unleashed Cupil to feed on the moon crystals once again.
"So, are we ready?" asked Aika.
"Yes," said Leo. "Where is this abandoned factory complex?"
"It's just outside of Brooklyn," said April, finding a sheet of paper and handing it to Leo. "Those are the directions. May God be with you and your friends, and please get Mikey, Don, and Splinter back to us safe and sound!"
"Sure thing, April!" said Aika cheerfully as they walked towards the way they had entered.
"Good luck!" said Casey.
And then Leo opened the window, the three of them climbed onto the fire escape, and then Leo got Aika and Fina onto his shell before the three of them were off to the abandoned factory complex in the dead of night.