The turtles were tense as the Foot ninja surrounded them and Splinter still tried to call out to Mikey as he lay unconscious. Outside of the camber, Mr. Mortu continued to try and figure out what was wrong.
"Michelangelo is going critical" Professor Honeycutt said, "You must pull them out of the virtual reality system"
"I'm trying" Mr. Mortu said as he continued to press buttons, "The system is locked up, the controls aren't responding"
"Oh, how can this have gone so horribly wrong?" Viola was standing in front of Raph's pod chamber, a worry look on her face as she felt a tight ache in her chest.
Back inside the virtually reality system, Varuna stared at the five creatures with confusion and worry, wondering who they were and how they'd just popped up out of nowhere, questioning whether to jump in to help them.
"Steady guys, this is about to get ugly" Leo said as he kept his stance.
"This shouldn't be happening" Donnie said gravely, "This is supposed to be virtual reality" one of the ninjas charged at Donnie and he moved out of the way while another one came out from behind him and he kicked at them, "They're not supposed to be able to see us, let alone attack us!"
When one of the ninjas charged at Raph with his sword, he grabbed his hand and jumped behind him, using him as a puppet shield as two other ninjas began to attack him. He managed to disarm them and then the man that he was holding, tossing him to the other two before kicking them all down. Some of the ninjas threw ninja stars at Donnie and he dodged them all, he smirked in victory, but then the bamboos behind him feel onto his head.
"Leonardo" Splinter called out to him, "We must become shadows"
Leo kicked down two of the ninjas near him, "Guys, time to disappear! Raph, get Mikey and head for the bamboo!" Raph rushed over to Mikey and placed him over his shoulders and then jumped into the bamboos. "Don, you're with me"
"I shall stand beside you" Leo and Donnie looked over to see Varuna rush to stand beside of the two, her sword poised, "I'm not so sure what you creatures are or how you appeared like that, but if that mystery man is after you creatures, then he'll have to get through me"
Leo and Donnie looked at each other and then back at Varuna with a grateful smile. As the three fought against the Foot ninjas, Splinter chopped some of the bamboo and kicked it to Leo and Donnie. They jumped up and caught them, using them like they would their real weapons. They fought against the ninjas and managed to knock them down, but then more of them appeared from out of the bamboo, but then they stepped back as the Shredder stepped out as well.
"Uh oh" Leo gasped, "Here's comes the Shredders great-great grandpappy"
"Shredder huh?" Varuna said as she glared at the man, "I hate to admit it, but it's a fitting name; but he's not going to like it when I use the term on him" Two of the Foot ninjas stood on either side of the Shredder and fire arrow at Leo, but he stopped them with the bamboo.
"These guys may not be real" Donnie said, then blocked the arrows coming at him, "But they mean business"
"Turtles" Varuna called out as stepped out in front of them, then held her arm out to reveal three small balls between her fingers, "Get out of here, get to the others, I'll deal with the Shredder"
Varuna raised her hand and threw the small balls on the ground, causing a smoke bomb to spread through the field. When the field cleared, Varuna, Leo and Donnie were gone and the Foot ninjas began to chop down the bamboo to search for them.
"Send some men to watch the row through the forest, they won't get far" Shredder ordered, "You others, come with me, I have important business in the village"
Unaware, Leo and Donnie were up in the trees, watching as the ninjas split up into groups to search for them. They looked over across from them and saw Varuna also in the trees, she looked at them and gave a nod before she jumped to a different trees, disappearing in the forest.
"Don, go find the others, make sure they're ok" Leo ordered, "I'm gonna follow Mr. Personality for a bit, I'll catch up" Leo jumped out of the trees and began to follow the Shredder.
Outside of the reality camber, Mr. Mortu continued to try and figure out what was wrong with the system.
"Why don't we just shut the system down?" Professor Honeycutt asked.
"Normally, it would be that simple" Mr. Mortu said, "But the systems be tampered with, the slightest disruption or energy spike could destroy them; we must disconnect their minds from the memory pods carefully, but it will take time, let us hope they can survive that long"
"Hey, these are the boys we're talking about" Viola said with a small worried, but reassuring smile, placing her hand on Raph's camber pod, "We survived on another planet and fought against Triceratons and the Federation, they've fought against monsters in an underground city that Phoebe told me about, they've probably fought battles that I don't even know about yet, and they'll survive this, I just know it"
Back inside the memory pods, night had fallen and Leo was still following the Shredder to a small blacksmith stand and watched as three of the men working there rushed over to kneel in front of Shredder, one of the men placing a wrapped red cloth on the ground.
"Swordsmen" the Shredder said as he approached the three, "Is it finished?"
"Hai, tono-sama" the man in the middle said as he stood up with the wrapped cloth in his hands and walked over to kneel down in front of Shredder with it, "I made the blade just as you requested" he then uncovered the cloth to reveal a blade, "The metal is amazing, I have never seen its like before"
"Nor will you ever again" the Shredder said as he grabbed the blade, then pulled out something from behind him, "Let us just say that the metal fell from the heavens"
Shredder connected the handle to the blade, revealing it to be the Sword of Tengu. The sword began to spark and light up, frightening the blacksmith workers, he aimed the sword at the workers and shot it out at one of them, knocking him into the others and through the blacksmiths stand, destroying it.
"The sword is perfect!" Shredder boasted, "With it, my enemies will not be able to hide, I will find them and destroy them"
The Shredder laughed menacingly as Leo began to worry gravely about what was to come to him and his family if they were to be founded. Leo soon left and began to jump through the trees, searching for his family; when he found them, he jumped down to them.
"How's Mikey?" Leo asked.
Splinter sighed, "We must be careful, Michelangelo is not well, and I fear that in this dream world, if we believe we'd have died, then we will truly die"
"Being careful won't be easy, that guy that looks like the Shredder, he just invented the Sword of Tengu"
Splinter looked completely shocked, "This is not good"
From the tree line, Varuna was looking down at the five, confused and conflicted about these creatures that had came up out of nowhere.
Outside of the Mr. Mortu and Professor Honeycutt were under the control panel, figuring out how to free the turtles and Splinter from the chamber, but then a screen had appeared in front of them, show three people on the screen.
"Motru" one of them said, "We-"
"Are under-"
"Attack"
"This location is no longer liable, we are-"
"Surrounded, we have no choice, we must-"
"Now use the transmat and-"
"Return home"
"Our preliminary defense are holding" Mr. Mortu said, "We must save the turtles and their master, they are under our care"
"Are they're lives-"
"More important-"
"Than the lives of the Utroms?"
"All life is precious Counselors"
"True"
"But remember Mortu"
"You have a great responsibility to your fellow Utroms"
"The burden is heavy"
"But you must bear it"
"I... I understand Councelor" the screen soon disappeared.
"You can't abandon my friends" Professor Honeycutt pleaded.
"Don't worry Professor, we will find a way to save them, and ourselves"
Back inside the memory pods, the turtles continued to stand around Mikey and Splinter.
Mikey groaned and stirred a bit, "Master Splinter, is it... time to eat?" The second that Mikey had fallen unconscious again, they heard a girls scream.
"You guys hear that?" Donnie questioned.
"A fight in the forest" Splinter said.
"Over the hill, to the north" Leo said.
"Go, investigate, I will stay and look after your brother"
The three bowed to him and soon rushed off to where the fight was happening. When they arrived, they saw that the Foot ninjas were attacking an elderly man with a little boy hiding behind him and a young girl with a weapon. The ninjas began to attack them and the girl managed to defend against them.
"You know, I'm really starting to hate these old school Foot ninjas as much as I hate the modern day versions" Raph said as they watched the young girl defend against the Foot. The girl was blocking one of the ninjas and managed to knock him down.
"She's good" Donnie said, "I like her"
"I don't think your girlfriend would appreciate hearing that" Raph teased.
"What do you say we lend a hand?" Leo said.
The three soon rushed towards the fight, but they were barely half way there when they saw something moving in the trees from above the fight. Three other ninjas jumped out of the trees with weapons in hand and when they landed, they knocked down the Foot ninjas. The turtles gasped as they watched the mysterious ninjas fight against the Foot.
"All sorts of bozos are coming to this party" Raph said.
"A few too many, look!" Leo called out and pointed down the road to show more Foot ninjas coming their way.
One of the Foot ninjas managed to knock down one of the mysterious ninjas and the other two were outnumbered. The turtles soon jumped into the fight and were knocking down the Foot. While the girl was defending herself against one of the Foot, another was standing behind her and threw the metal end of the kusari-gama at the girl and she gasped as it came right at her. Leo saw this and was about to jump in, but then one of the other mysterious ninjas jumped in and used their sword to grab the chain before it hit her.
Leo gasped as he got a closer look at who the mysterious ninja was, "Varuna?!"
Varuna pulled at the chain and threw the Foot onto the ground and she continued to help protect the young girl while the turtles knocked the other Foot ninjas down. When Raph knocked down another ninja, they all soon retreated and the turtles gave each other high fives.
"Turtles kick serious ninja butt, even in ancient Japan" Donnie cheered.
"Stay away evil goblins!" the old man yelled, but then looked at the other three mysterious ninjas, "Save us! Save us from the green kappa! Goblins! Goblins!"
"Somehow, I don't think we're gonna get the thank you we deserve" Leo said gravely as the two of the mysterious ninjas approached the turtles.
As the mysterious ninjas continued to approach the turtles, the old man, little boy and young girl were making their escape. Before they left, Varuna approached the young girl and handed her a rose, when she took it, Varuna gave a single nod before rushing to the others and placed herself between the turtles and the other two.
"Wait a minute!" Varuna called out, stretching her arms out.
"Step aside Varuna" the man with the black hair said.
"Look, we were only trying to help" Leo said.
"We don't wanna fight you" Donnie said.
"Although I like fighting" Raph said as he punched his fist into his hand, "But what I don't like is being trapped in this stupid Urtom video game" the two mysterious ninjas and Varuna stepped back when Raph said that.
"The Utrom?" the man with the brown hair said.
"How do these strange kappa know of the Utrom?" the man with the blue hair questioned.
"That's it!" Leo gasped in realization, "That's where I've seen that medallion before, on the Guardians, and plus Varuna was also a Guardian, so we should have figured that out in the moment she appeared, we forgot that she's the first incarnation of the Guardians. You work for the Utrom right? Well look, we're on the same side"
"We need to talk to the Urtom, we're stuck in this place like them, and maybe they can help us" Donnie said, "Can you take us to them?" the Guardians didn't say anything.
"Can you at least let them know we need to see them?" Leo asked. The two Guardians continued to stay quiet, not sure of what to do, but then Raph looked at Varuna as she was looking down at the ground, looking conflicted.
"Varuna" Raph called out as he stepped forward, "You're the first of any of them, don't you over rule them in some way?" When Raph had placed his hands on her shoulders, the man with the brown hair gripped at his hand and raised his sword.
"Don't you touch her!" he shouted as he brought his sword down.
"Kenta!" Varuna shouted as she grabbed his hand and pushed Raph back and she placed her hands on his chest to calm him down, "That's enough, they've done nothing to us to deserve to be struck"
Kenta calmed down and lowered his hand and remained quiet. Varuna turned around and pulled her mask down and walked to stand in front of Raph, looking him in the eyes. She saw that he looked both angry and worried and she thought it was about the other turtle that was knocked down. She placed her mask back on and walked away from them, the two other Guardians stepping aside to let her through.
"I will tell them of your situation" Varuna said and the Guardians put their swords away as they began to walk away.
"Wait!" Donnie called out, "But how will we find you?"
"If our masters agree to an audience, they will find you" the man with the black hair said as they began to walk away again.
As they watched them walk away, Raph got angry when he saw the man that about struck him, Kenta, wrap his arm around Varuna and held her close to him; he was about to charge at him, but Leo and Donnie held him back.
"Raph" Donnie groaned and Raph face palmed himself when he remembered again.
"I know, but... she just looks so much like her, I can't help but think about her every time I see her"
"Sometimes we think about that too, but right now, we have more important things to worry about" Leo said.
Outside of the memory camber, the whole place shook violently and it knocked Mr. Mortu, Professor Honeycutt and Viola down to the ground.
"Oh dear!" Professor Honeycutt gasped, "That can't be good"
"What's going on out there?" Viola questioned as she stood up.
"When you and your friends traveled through the transmat, you created a stir with the army and they're trying to get in to see what is happing inside" Mr. Mortu explained. A screen came up and it showed the Counselors again.
"Mortu, there has been-"
"A breach-"
"And internal security control is not responding"
"We must leave at once"
"I understand Counsel" Mr. Mortu said.
"Wait!" Viola called out, but the screen disappeared.
"Deploy the security robots" Mr. Mortu said to the other Utrom that was standing at the control panel.
"Yes sir" the Utrom said.
Mr. Mortu soon pulled off the rest of his suit, "Instruct the transmat room for immediate evacuation"
"But you must free my friends" Professor Honeycutt pleaded.
"Of course Professor Honeycutt, we will not abandon them, I promise; if only they can activate the pods internal fail safe, but that's too much to hope for"
"But they're in the past right?" Viola asked, "They'll meet my grandmother, if what you told me was true, that she can sense whether a person is good or bad, then I know she'll help them get out of this"
Mr. Mortu looked at her and smiled, "I'm sure you're right, but let's hope they hurry before we have to evacuate"
Back inside the memory chamber, the turtles were rushing quickly back to Mikey and Splinter and when they arrived, they were relieved to see that Mikey was fully awake, but surprised to see that there was a sushi buffet there.
"Welcome back bros!" Mikey greeted happily as he ate some more sushi, "Anyone for sushi?"
The turtles cheered for Mikey being alright as they walked to sit around the buffet and Raph placed Mikey in a headlock as he gave him a noogy.
"Aww Mikey, you bum, I'm glad you're ok" Raph said and then sat down beside of him.
"Mikey, you know that not a molecule of that food is real" Donnie pointed out, "It's all a part of this illusion"
"Yeah, I know" Mikey said, but continued to eat the sushi, "But right now, it's real enough for me"
"That is it" Splinter said and everyone turned their attention to him, "The answer, it is-"
Before Splinter could finish that sentence, they heard a rustle and they looked to see the Guardians jumping out and land in front of the five.
"Hey Varuna, thanks again for the sushi" Mikey said happily.
"Wait, when did she come by?" Raph asked.
"Moments after you left" Splinter answered.
"How could you have come here to deliver sushi and then jump into that fight with the Foot?" Raph questioned.
"She's a ninja Raph" Leo said.
The Guardians stood to the side and the turtles looked to see someone come out and they saw that it was one of the Utroms in disguise.
"Greetings" the Utroms said and removed his robe to reveal himself, "I am Mortu" the five bowed to him.
"Mr. Mortu" Leo spoke first, "You're just the... man we need to see" Mr. Mortu looked a bit confused when he said that. They all sat around and Leo began to explain of what was going on.
"It was at that point, that the pods story became real" Leo finished, "So you see Mr. Mortu, we're trapped in this virtual reality and we can't get out"
"I do see" Mr. Mortu said, "It is an interesting phenomenon, you have much knowledge of our ways, but your knowledge of the Shredder is incomplete; you should know, the Shredder is one of-!" before Mr. Mortu could finished his sentence, they heard laughter and Foot ninjas jumped out from the trees and surrounded them and the Shredder came out from the forest.
"How fortuatice that I should find you here Mortu" Shredder said, "Now, I can display the true powers of the Sword of Tengu, for your amusement and your demise!"
The sword began to light up and spark and they prepared themselves for the attack, but when the Shredder struck the ground, the hit was too fast and it struck Mr. Mortu's robotic body, electrocuting him. He fell out of the robots body and the turtles jumped out of the way just as it exploded. The two Guardians jumped to stand with Mr. Mortu to protect him as the Shredder laughed and fired the weapon again, knocking them into the trees.
Varuna rushed to Mr. Mortu and picked him up, but before she could run to help the other Guardians, she groaned in pain and fell to the ground, curling up in the fetal position. Shredder struck the sword again at Donnie, Leo and Splinter as they were charging at him and knocked them back and he struck again to knock Splinter back again.
When Raph tried to attack him, the Shredder fired the sword again, shocking and knocking him down to the ground. Leo tried to help him, but the Shredder fired at him, knocking him back towards Donnie and Mikey and then fired again at all three of them. Shredder then made his way towards Mr. Mortu and laughed menacingly.
Leo rushed to his fallen sensei, "Master Splinter! Are you alright?"
Splinter stirred and sat up, "Leonardo, listen, there is little time, this virtual reality is an illusion in an illusion, an illusion of the mind; control your mind, and you will control the illusion"
Leo thought about it, "I will try, sensei"
Shredder raised the sword as Varuna pushed her aching body up on one of her arms to glare up at him, "Goodbye, Mortu" Leo tried his hardest to concentrate, to save Mr. Mortu and Varuna; the Sword of Tengu disappeared from the Shredders hands, confusing him and the Foot. "What?" Shredder questioned as he looked around, "Where is the Sword of Tengu?"
The sword had soon reappeared in Leo's hand, "It's right here!"
"Whoa" Mikey gasped while Donnie looked confused, "How'd Leo do that?"
"You want it back?!"
Shredder actually looked frightened for once; Leo raised the sword and struck hard with all his might, causing a huge explosion and the Shredder and the Foot to fly far off. Leo struck at the Shredder again and again until he was sent flying through the bamboo and caused him to fall off a cliff and into the rocks below. Leo turned to the other Foot ninjas and they retreated. Once they were gone, Leo concentrated again and the sword disappeared.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Neo, I-I mean, Leo" Donnie called out jokingly.
"Way to go bro" Mikey cheered.
"Varuna!"
The turtles turned to see the Guardians rushing to Varuna as she continued to lay on the ground, groaning in pain and they rushed over to her as well. Kenta sat down and pulled Varuna up and leaned her against him, pulling her mask away as she took a few deep breaths and the other Guardian took Mr. Mortu into his hands.
"What's wrong?" Raph asked.
"I... I don't know, I just... my stomach just started to hurt real badly" Varuna gasped, trying to breathe through the pain.
Splinter kneeled down to her and placed his hand on her forehead for a second before he placed his other hand on her stomach. After a minute, he pulled his hand away and smiled, "I would like to be the first to congratulate you, you are with child"
"What?!" Varuna and Raph yelled in surprise. Varuna looked at Raph questioningly and he face palmed himself when he forgot, yet again, that this wasn't Viola.
Varuna ignored him and looked down at her stomach, placing her hand on it, "A... a child?"
A larger hand was placed on top of hers and she looked up at Kenta as he removed his mask and smiled down at her, "Our child"
Varuna's eyes started to fill up with tears and she laughed happily as nestled up closer to him.
"Your actions demonstrate the varsity of what you say" Mr. Mortu said to the turtles and Splinter as all of them stood up and the Guardian holding Mr. Mortu held out something in his hands to the turtles, "Take this, it should help you return safely to where you belong"
"But, if we're stuck in a video game, how can you give us anything to affect the real world?" Mikey asked, "I-we-you, urg, my brain hurts"
"If this world is a virtual projection created from our technology, then we Utroms have encoded an internal fail safe that can be activated by using the virtual reset device you now poses" Mr. Mortu explained.
"Here we go" Leo said as he was about to press a button.
"Wait a minute!" Varuna called out as she stepped out of Kenta's arms and walked to stand in front of Raph, "What is wrong with you?"
"What?" Raph questioned.
"Whenever I run into you, you have this look of surprise, on all of your brothers and sensei's faces, and when I got a closer look into your eyes, I saw this longing and you were shocked when I found out I was with child; what is the reason for these emotions you have?"
Raph scratched the back of his head as his face turned red with embarrassment.
"You know how we're not from this place? That we're from the future?" Raph said and she nodded, "Well, we're friends with your granddaughter"
"My granddaughter?" Varuna asked confusingly, placing her hand on her stomach.
"Yeah, she looks exactly like you" Mikey said.
"And we mean exactly like you" Donnie said, "Except her hairs shorter and covering half of her face"
"And we get just a little surprised ever time we see you, because you just look so much like her" Leo said.
"I see" Varuna said, but then looked back at Raph again, "But that doesn't explain why you look in longing when you look at me"
"It's because he's got a mega crush on your granddaughter" Mikey told as he wrapped his arm around Raph's shoulder and Raph pushed him away roughly.
Varuna looked at him for a second, and seeing him blushing and looking embarrassed, she began to laugh a little. "I see" Varuna said as soon as her laughter died down, "You are in love with my granddaughter"
"W-well I, you see, i-it's nothing like-uh, well... yes" Varuna laughed again and placed a hand on his shoulder, "Well, the way you are acting just of thinking of her, I approve and I wish you luck" Raph looked at her a bit confusingly, "By the way you are acting, you care deeply for her, you act the same way as Kenta when he told me that he loved me" Kenta had blushed deeply, but wasn't that embarrassed about it, "And as I seen your fighting skills, I trust that you will do your best to keep her safe and I trust that you will keep her happy as well"
"O-oh, uh, t-thank you" Raph said and bowed to her.
"Well, we better get going now" Leo said.
"Goodbye and thank you" Splinter said as he waved and then bowed to them.
"See you in a few hundred years" Raph said as he gave a thumbs up.
Leo soon pressed the small box and it began to light up brightly, blinding the Guardians. "Wait!" Leo called out, "What was it you were trying to say about the Shredder before?"
"The Shredder is-"
They didn't have enough time to hear him as they were engulfed in a bright light and when they opened their eyes, they saw that they were back in the real world again.
"They've done it!" Mr. Mortu exclaimed, "They activated the internal fail safe! But how?" The turtles sighed as they stepped out of the pods.
"Well, you helped us" Leo said, "Not you you, but you, it's kind of a long story"
"Thank goodness your alright" Viola said and hugged Raph tightly, he was a bit surprised at first, but hugged her back as well, glad to be seeing the real her, rather than just her twin ancestor.
"Well I don't care how you got out" Professor Honeycutt said as he helped Splinter out of the pod, "What matters is your safe and sound"
"Still, I can't understand how the oracle pods malfunction" Mr. Mortu pondered.
"Oh, but I do" a familiar, chilling voice called out.
Everyone turned to see the Shredder standing at the doorway with Hun and the Foot Elite with him and everyone was completely shocked at seeing him again, alive.
"No, it can't be!" Leo gasped in confusion, "I finished you off myself, you can't be alive!"
"You merely separated my head from my body" Shredder laughed menacingly, "A courtesy I will gladly extend to you all, for none of you are leaving here alive; and to add to this little reunion, there is someone that I'm sure you'll be glad to see again" Shredder said as he looked at Viola, who was glaring deathly at him, her sword gripped tightly in her hands.
"What are you talking about?" Viola questioned.
Shredder laughed as he stepped to the side and everyone gasped in utter shock as a person stepped into the room, and not just someone, another Viola lookalike.
"V-Vanessa!" Viola gasped as she was face to face with her presumed dead twin sister again, but this time, she looked different, she looked angry and vengeful.