Takes place during Chapter 1 of "Future Realities".
"Get down!" Leo hissed at them and they all ducked behind whatever cover they could find. They had literally just crossed over and barely started out scouting when fate had decided to test them. By sending in the very beings they were trying to avoid. Leo had luckily spotted them a few rooftops over and was now desperately hoping that these little shields would work, because he really wasn't up to trying to explain. Probably because he knew they wouldn't give him the chance.
Leo quietly watched as they maneuvered the rooftops with ease, no doubt from countless years of practice.
"Who is the fourth woman with them?" Raph asked curiously as he watched by Leo's side.
"I'm not sure..." Leo replied, staring hard at her a long while before it clicked and his eyes grew wide. Was this the little girl he had seen that first time they met? Was this the child that he had almost killed when he took her mother away? The spunky little tyke who blew raspberries at him and shot him the bird that time in Bishop's storeroom? Had so much time really passed that she was now grown? And competent enough by the way it looked to accompany them out on missions. "It's her daughter..." He told Raph stunned. "Vicky's daughter..."
"Didn't she also have a son?" Raph asked curiously as they watched the group move away.
"Yes, but I don't see him."
They stayed hidden for awhile, well after the other group had left before Leo moved out of his concealment. Lotus was standing next to him, both of them looking in the direction the others had gone. "So, those are the ones you had been sent to destroy?"
Leo sighed, he had filled the others in completely on who exactly they were, and what had gone on between them. It had been so painful to do it, but needed to be done so the others fully understood what was here. "Yes Lotus. Those are the ones."
"Creepy on how much you guys look alike." Holly muttered.
Leo just turned away and began to head out in the opposite direction. He wasn't about to risk coming even close to them. This encounter had been close enough. Too close for his liking.
They moved on deeper into the city, looking for anything that would give them a clue of the ones they were searching for here.
"It's so...different." Holly murmured in wonder as they moved. "To see all of these people move around, with no fear in them..."
"They don't have the reason to fear that the souls in our world have." Leo told her. "Certain events played out differently here than there."
"Though this place has it's own demons." Raph grumbled.
"True, but it also has a group that keeps them in check." Leo replied quietly. "Not one that aids them."
Silence took hold of the group after that, all of them knowing the meaning behind the statement. What would their home be like if the turtles hadn't followed the path they did? Leo shook his head to clear those thoughts. He would never know, all he could do now was try and do something about it now.
Suddenly Donnie called a whispered halt, his eyes narrowed as he zeroed in on something going on in the street below. "Look." He whispered harshly, his hand pointing.
"Hun." Raph rumbled.
They all ducked down behind the parapet and watched as the large man walked into one of the buildings after kicking the door in. "Well that was surprisingly easy." Donnie said quietly as they all ducked down again.
"What's he doing?" Mikey asked as they kept watching. Some men had apparently come with him and they were all piling into the same building Hun had entered a few moments earlier.
"Looks like he is breaking in." Raph replied as they watched.
"Should we stop them?" Mikey seemed unsure about it.
Leo was unsure himself. No doubt stopping whatever was going on here would be a good thing, but he really didn't want to make their presence known just yet. He didn't have a secure place to retreat too, nor the forces with him to take on this many. While he still puzzled this out, he blinked in astonishment as another turtle jumped into the fray. Who was this yahoo? Before he could even form the words into the obvious question, more turtles came diving in to help the first. What in the hell... Where did they come from? And who were they? And why are they jumping into a fight they obviously were not going to win? Skill they did have, Leo could tell by the way they fought, but they were just as obviously inexperienced as they bumbled around. Reminded him of his early mission days actually...when his brawn was talking more than his brain was. He learned the hard way to change his thinking around and to not blunder into these scenarios.
"Leo?" Raph asked as they watched, then met his older brothers eyes. "What are we going to do?"
"We should help them." Mikey spoke up quietly. "It...feels right to help them..."
Leo looked curiously at his little brother, he was actually feeling the same thing. Something was screaming out at him to go down there and help them. They couldn't even go back up the way they came because the rooftops were now covered with more of Hun's men. They were trapped.
He pulled out his katanas and was about to get to his feet when Donnie pulled him right back down again. "What the hell Donnie?" Leo snapped at him.
"It going to be taken care of." Was the reply. "It would be best if we stayed hidden."
"What?"
Donnie looked up from his wrist device, his eyes now searching the horizon before his eyes narrowed. "There."
Leo looked, straining his eyes in the darkness and distance, but soon enough the object of their attention closed in rapidly. He could now clearly make out their counterparts as they raced along the rooftops towards the turtles below. The humans didn't accompany them this time, and they moved much quicker than before, in a straight line towards their goal. They barreled through Hun's men on the rooftops with hardly any effort and plunged into the ally below without hesitation. Ripping into Hun and his men who now had the other group of turtles cornered.
Gauging from the way things were going down there, their counterparts knew this group and was allied with them. Soon enough they broke out of the ally, with Michelangelo holding one of the smaller ones in his arms. A female by the way it looked. They ran along the darkened street a bit before they outpaced the mob chasing them, then went back up to the rooftops, heading off in another direction and soon disappeared from sight.
"Well, that was...interesting." Donnie mumbled as things calmed back down again.
"Any idea who these others are?" Leo asked him.
"No clue." Came the reply. "And I wasn't about to give us away trying to scan and find out."
Leo just looked thoughtfully in the distance that they had disappeared in before turning his attention back to the matter at hand. "Follow him." His attention now firmly fixed onto Hun.
They silently slid over the rooftops as they tailed the large man. Leo keeping as much an eye on his target as well as his surroundings. Twice now they had come dangerously close to being seen by their counterparts, he wasn't about to go for a third time.
Having the two women with them did slow them a bit, having to help them along if some gaps were too large for them to cross on their own, but not enough to where this group couldn't keep up.
After some time, Hun entered another building. This one by walking right in. Leo skidded to a stop and hunkered down again as the others crouched down all around him.
"Big place." Raph muttered as he looked it over.
"Very big." Mikey agreed.
"Busy too." Holly pointed to the ninjas crawling all over the place along with what appeared to be Hun's men.
Leo took all of this in, more than a little worried. They had obviously brought more men in than he had thought. He was now unsure if their small band would be enough. For a brief moment he considered reaching out to his counterparts. This was their world, it would make sense if he did do so. He was also wise enough to know that just because they parted ways under a truce, that it very may well not be the same now. Once again his past was making his present difficult to deal with.
Another thing was bothering him with that thought. As much as he wanted to contact them, how much pain would resurface in Vicky at what he had done, in her mate, in himself? Would he even get the chance to explain? He quickly shied away from that idea as quickly as it crossed his mind. He honestly was scared to even try. Scared of the doors that may be reopened from it, and he didn't want to walk down those dark halls.
"Master?" Lotus touched his arm and Leo realised that she had been talking to him and shook himself out of his thoughts. "Are you alright."
"Not really." He honestly replied as he looked down at her. "I know we need to do this, but I really don't want to be here." He admitted quietly to her.
"I understand." Her voice just as quiet, their eyes meeting. Something stirred in his stomach as that gaze held, she was so close, he could see the thoughts running clearly in her eyes as she looked up at him. Running through everything he had told her of what happened here and they were full of understanding as her calm presence soothed him. She at least didn't judge him for what he had done. Leo would forever be grateful for that. He brought his hand up and placed it over hers that was still on his arm and she smiled slightly.
"So what do we do?" Raph broke the moment and didn't even notice as he looked at the building.
Leo pulled his hand away from Lotus' to turn to reply, and caught the flash of disappointment in her eyes, accompanied with a small sigh. "We need to scope it out." Leo replied, then eyed Lotus curiously, what was wrong with her? She seemed...sad...
"Unadvisable for us to go in." Donnie murmured. "Wouldn't be good if we got caught in there."
"Especially with no back up." Raph agreed.
Silence took hold of them as they tried to figure this puzzle out before Lotus broke it. "I will go." She firmly said as she started to get to her feet.
"You will do no such thing!" Leo snapped, also coming to his. "It's too dangerous!"
"That may be so, but it needs to be done."
"I won't allow it." Leo growled as he tried to stare her down. Was like staring at a rock though, it wasn't going to budge.
"You can not stop me." She calmly told him.
"The hell I can't!" He couldn't explain the reason really, he just didn't want her to go. He told himself that it was because he wouldn't be able to go and get her, but that really wasn't it. His mind refused to go into the true reason, even as it screamed at him to quit being an idiot over it. "I'll tie your ass up!"
She just looked at him amused, then easily backflipped off the side of the building. Leo let out a strangled cry as he started to lunge after her, but found himself being pulled back by Raph and Donnie. "Stop it!" Raph snapped.
"She does have a better chance," Donnie added "but not if you go bumbling after her."
"Well, if that's the case..." Holly grinned, then she flipped off too.
"Son of a bitch!" This time it was Leo and Donnie holding Raph as he was about to jump off after her. Mikey watched all three of them amused before he turned back to what was going on with a slight chuckle.
Leo was furious, but he did hold back and settled down to watch, and wait. His sharp eyes caught them quickly as they approached the building, both with their heads now covered. Then they just calmly joined up with the other ninjas scattered around and walked right in. Leo's jaw dropped. He didn't even think of that...