Chapter 54

A Leader Too Many

The Mighty Mutanimals, Casey, and April had no idea why the five Hamato siblings came back looking more than a little bedraggled, and clinging to their father like a lifeline. Nor did they know why Donnie had only broken off from the group to give April a desperate hug, and Raph would suddenly start sticking to Casey like glue any time he left the Lair.

The only one who was aware of what had transpired with the teens was Yoshi (and maybe Shen, but it was unclear if she had retained the story it in her feral state), and he remained supportive of his children on the matter.

But there was no rest for the wicked, and New York wasn't going to save itself. The next few days in the Lair was spent searching for humans still hidden in the city (made easier with April's psychic abilities tracking them), and debating a plan to take out the Kraang once and for all.

The debating portion of the plan was mostly between Slash and Leo. Despite being on the same side, neither of them could seem to agree on anything. No matter what idea either leader came up with, the other would shoot it down, causing tensions to run high between the Hamatos and the Mutanimals.

But it wasn't just between Leo and Slash. The bitter rivalry between Donnie and Dr. Rockwell also seem growing at a rapid rate. Donnie was determined to defend his position as the genius of the team (humbled only by Mikey's brilliance with anything Kraang). However, the monkey remained affronted that a boy not even half his age could possibly be smarter than him, and took the time to take the teenager down a peg every chance he got. This led to many squabbles with Metalhead or April between them trying to keep them from punching each other.

Raph and Miwa were not much in better moods. Miwa was still peeved at Slash for his treatment of her the day he mutated, and the two subsequent meetings between them afterwards had done little to endear him to her, and she would often back Leo up in his confrontations with Slash with her own verbal barbs.

Raph, on the other hand, was not at all enjoying hiding inside the Lair doing nothing. And while he liked Malachi and Jason in small doses, being stuck in the same space as them constantly was wearing on his nerves, and Pigeon Pete seemed to do nothing but annoy the red wearing turtle to death. All this led to Raph being more snappish and rude than usual, and forcing Casey to come up with excuses to go on supply runs just to get Raph out of the Lair before he exploded.

This left the rest of the occupants of the Lair to watch uncomfortably as the tensions continued to build up. Yoshi, Kurtzman and Leatherhead all did their best to smooth things over and keep the peace, but everyone knew that if something didn't change soon, they were all going to pop.

It was during one such debate between leaders that no one noticed Mikey slip away from the yelling, and carry Ice Cream Kitty with him into Donnie and Rockwell's lab.

Putting a pair of lab goggles on himself and his mutant cat, Mikey began doing his best mad scientist impersonation to relieve his boredom.

Humming tunelessly to himself, Mikey began mixing up random chemicals and even more random items (such as an apple core, a bitten piece of pizza, and fishbones) in a large beaker.

Lifting up the now glowing blue substance to examine, Mikey said in a British accent, "Hmm, I do believe this plutonium shall react flawlessly with the sodium barcarbonuts. What do you think, Professor Ice Cream Kitty?" he asked, glancing at his pet.

Ice Cream Kitty meowed, and licked at her frozen stomach.

Mikey smiled at the sight, and reached for another beaker containing a glowing orange substance. "Then perhaps we should add this hyper-ball solution to Donnie's retro-mutagen," he said, still keeping with the act.

At that moment, Donnie happened to walk in to escape the yelling, and saw his little brother about to ruin months of hard work.

"Mikey," he whispered as he realized what was happening. But the second it sunk in, he raced over to his little brother with a bellow of, "HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND!"

Mikey was not phased by Donnie's shouts, merely said, "Pish posh and tut tut, my good man."

Donnie was close to hyperventilating from rage. "I've been brewing that retro-mutagen for months! If you've ruined it, I swear-!"

"Hold on, dude," said Mikey, finally dropping the accent as he tilted his blue beaker over the retro-mutagen. "I got this."

But Donnie lunged for Mikey, determined to stop him from ruining their only cure for mutation.

In the ensuing scuffle, some of the blue liquid went flying from the beaker, and Donnie, Mikey, and Ice Cream Kitty could only watch as one of the flying drops landed in the orange liquid.

There was a beat of silence as Mikey and Donnie stood frozen in their tangled state, watching the beaker to see if anything would happen.

But the retro-mutagen didn't appear to have changed.

Seeing this, Donnie let out a sigh of relief, and began planning the murder of his little brother.

But just as the breath left his lips, the retro-mutagen began bubbling and glowing. Orange steam began floating off of its surface as it lit up the whole room with its glow.

"Oh! Oh no, Mikey!" Donnie yelped as the liquid began to froth and boil in its beaker.

A pulse burst fro the beaker, sending Donnie, Mikey, and Ice Cream Kitty flying into the lab's wall as the chemicals continued to violently froth in its container.

"It's gonna explode!" screamed Donnie in a very high-pitched voice.

The two brothers hugged each other and Ice Cream Kitty for dear life, and screamed as a bright light emanated from the beaker, enveloping the entire room with a brilliant golden light.

Then the light faded, and the retro-mutagen went back to the way it was, with only a few drops of spilled chemical around its base to indicate that any of that had just happened.

The two boys stared at it in shock, having expected to be blown to smithereens by now.

"Aw well, that was weak," said Mikey, disappointed at the lack of reaction.

That snapped Donnie out of his daze, and he proceeded with his previous plan to murder his baby brother.

Said murder attempt was brought to a swift halt with two pairs of giant hands yanked the two apart, and Donnie and Mikey found themselves being held up by Slash and Leatherhead respectively.

Donnie didn't appear to care, and continued struggling in Slash's massive grip to get at Mikey again.

Only to freeze, as the sound of his father's cane reached his ears, and his voice rang out through the lab. "What is going on here?"

It was only then the two brothers noticed their noise had attracted the attention of the entire Lair (save for Kurtzman, who was out gathering information), and were all standing in the doorway watching them curiously.

All but April, whose attention was instead drawn to the retro-mutagen beaker. "Since when did retro-mutagen start doing that?" she asked, pointing at it.

Everyone turned to follow her gaze, and were surprised to see the orange liquid was now sparkling in its glass like someone had poured it full of glitter.


A few minutes of experimenting later and the two science minded individuals of the Lair came to a startling, but very welcomed discovery.

"Wow! Its bonding rate is phenomenal!" said Donnie as he examined this new retro-mutagen under the microscope, watching as the mutated cells on the slide turned back to normal, before stepping aside for Rockwell to see.

"Astounding," said the monkey mutant as he peered through the eyepiece. "This development will save us months of toiling in the lab to create enough retro-mutagen to cure the entire city."

Seeing the confused expressions on the rest of the not-so-genius group, Donnie hurried to demonstrate.

"Here," he said, dripping a miniscule drop of the retro-mutagen into a full canister of regular mutagen, turning the entire thing orange. "One small drop, and I'm able to transform an entire vial of mutagen into retro-mutagen!" he shouted the last part, geeking-out at the possibilities this carried.

The entire room exchanged awestruck glances as that information sank in. If this meant what they thought it meant…

"It gets better," said Rockwell, taking the dropper from Donnie, and dipping it into the canister. Sucking out a bit of the solution, he pulled out another canister of mutagen, and let another drop fall into it, repeating the process. "The solution works so well, that any of the changed retro-mutagen can be reused to convert even more mutagen into the like. Our troubles of constantly brewing more of this concoction seem to be solved indefinitely."

Donnie nodded along with what Rockwell said, before turning to Mikey excitedly. "Mikey, you're amazing!" he said, unable to fully believe that this was happening.

"I know," said Mikey brightly, who was getting pats on the back from Jason, Malachi, Leatherhead, and Metalhead (who was mostly copying the former three).

"Wow, did we step into some kind of alternate dimension here?" asked Raph dryly, still in disbelief at his baby brother's accomplishment.

"I chalk it up to another Kraang-genius thing, and won't stress over it," said Miwa with a shrug.

"Sounds like a plan to me," agreed Slash.

"We ever figure out why he's a genius at this stuff?" asked Jason.

There was a beat of silence as they tried to come up with a reason, but no one was able to answer and they shrugged it off.

"Okay, what chemicals did you use to help create the rapid cellular bonding?" Donnie asked excitedly Mikey, and Rockwell quickly summoned a pen and paper to take notes.

Mikey frowned to himself as he tried to remember. "Uhh, I think I added a bunch of stuff like urinade, analite, um, moronic acid, and some, uh, garlic cappuccino pizza."

"Nope, same dimension," said Raph at Mikey's list of chemicals. The only thing that was even remotely true was probably the part about the pizza.

Rockwell smacked his forehead before crumbling up the paper and tossing it over his shoulder in disgust.

Donnie wasn't much better as he stared at his little brother. "Are you kidding me?" he asked. "You do one awesome thing, and you can't even remember how you did it?!"

Seeing her boyfriend about to blow a gasket, April went to his side, and rubbed his back. "Calm down, Donnie," she said soothingly. "Like Mi said, it's probably part of his weird Kraang know-how."

"And perhaps, by that logic, he could do such again if necessary," added Malachi. "Thus may be something to ponder at a later time."

"They are right, Donatello," said Yoshi, making them all turn to stare at him. "Be glad that Michelangelo's tomfoolery yielded the gift that it did. Focus on the goal at hand. You must find all of the transformed people of New York and change them back."

"Well, we know where they are," said Miwa. "April, Metalhead, and I saw them when we were sucked into Dimension X. The Utrom we met, Mortu, showed us how they were being used as slaves there."

Metalhead nodded, and plugged himself into Donnie's computer to show the group his video memory file of the event.

The gathered teens and mutants looked at the image on the screen and winced.

April especially looked downcast. "My dad's there somewhere too," she muttered. "And so's Irma."

Mikey's face fell at the mention of their missing friend, and the rest didn't look much happier.

"So we drop into TCRI, break into their portal, and zap ourselves to Dimension X," said Raph, as if the plan were that simple.

"And crush any Kraang in our path," agreed Leatherhead.

"Sounds good to me," said Casey with a savage grin.

"Indeed," said Malachi.

Metalhead beeped and gave a thumbs-up in agreement.

"Yo, we can do this!" shouted Mikey excitedly. "We can save New York!"

"And I've got the perfect new invention to storm Dimension X," said Donnie with an evil grin.

"Did you finally finish the Turtle Mech?" asked Miwa.

That made Donnie wilt a little. "Ah, no. Different invention."

"While the construction of most of the Mech has been completed, Donatello has yet to obtain a suitable power source to give it life," said Rockwell snidely.

Donnie shot him a dirty look. "Not like you've found one that would work either," he grumbled.

"Bummer, dudes," said Jason. "It woulda been sweet to trash the Kraang in a giant robot turtle."

"For you, maybe," Slash griped mostly to himself. It had always slightly peeved the large turtle that he was too big to fit in the seats and pilot the mech.

"Hold on, guys," said Leo. "We can't just go rushing into this. We need a more solid plan than just, break in and zap everything better."

Slash snorted. "How much more complicated does it need to be?" he asked. "We have a straight forward goal. Let's go for it."

The rest of the group sighed as the two leaders looked like they were going to start yet another argument.

"And risk the lives of everyone in New York if we go in half cocked?" asked Leo. "If we want to save the city we need to do this perfectly."

Slash opened his mouth to no doubt say something argumentative, when a new voice cut him off.

"Forget saving the city for now!" said Jack Kurtzman as he hurried into the Lair, holding up a camera memory card for them to see. "Focus on saving the whole world!"

That got all of their attention.

Taking Donnie's computer from Metalhead, Kurtzman quickly plugged in the memory card, and began shifting through the pictures on it.

"As we've been observing, the Kraang have been spending the last few months building a mutagen missile," he said as he shifted through the pictures of the missile's construction. "Which they're gonna fire at the Earth itself."

The computer screen then showed the picture of a very attractive dragon-like woman dressed in what appeared to be Kurtzman's clothes, making the others blink, and Miwa reach over to clap her hands over Mikey's eyes while Leatherhead did the same to Jason and Malachi.

Kurtzman turned scarlet, and quickly moved on to the next picture. He cleared his throat in embarrassment and said, "Just ignore that."

Donnie's eyes widened in horror as he realized what Kurtzman was saying. "There's enough mutagen in that payload-"

"-To mutate the Earth into another Dimension X," Rockwell finished for him, making Donnie glare at the monkey.

"It's rude to finish other people's sentences, Rockwell," the teen genius pointed out.

"Well then clearly you'll have to speak faster, Donatello," said Rockwell smugly.

Kurtzman shot them all a serious look. He knew as well as anyone that since the teenagers had returned to the city tensions had been running high between the two teams, but this was more important than their squabbles. "Focus," he said firmly. "We're running out of time. The Kraang are going to launch this missile tonight, and we need to stop it. Together," he added pointedly.

The Hamato Clan and the Mutanimals exchanged skeptical glances at the likelihood of that happening, but kept quiet.

Donnie nodded to them all, and move to take his computer from Kurtzman to work out a way to stop the missile.

A few minutes later he hit upon a solution. "I've got it! We can disable the guidance system, or better yet-"

"-Hack in and send the missile somewhere it can't do any harm," finished Rockwell for him.

The monkey then screeched as Miwa drove her elbow into his gut. "Interrupt my brother again, and you'll be blasting off with that missile," said Miwa bitingly, getting sick of the mutant's attempts to upstage her brother.

Donnie, who had been glaring at Rockwell for interrupting him again, shot his sister a smile. Rockwell, however, glowered at both of them.

"Okay," said Leo, coming up with a plan. "We ninja in from above, and we drop down and disarm the missile."

"Forget it," snapped Slash, moving to loom over Leo. "I say ground attack. They won't even know what hit 'em."

Leo scowled back up at him. "A ground attack is way too risky," he stated.

Surprisingly, it was Raph who stepped between them to break up the fight. "I think the only way this mission is gonna work is if we do both," he stated, trying to draw on the leadership skills he'd learned during Leo's hibernation to get them to listen to him.

But the last thing they needed right now was another leader, and both of the other lead turtles turned and glared at him for interfering.

"Forget it, Raphael," snarled Slash, stepping away. "Leave this to the Mighty Mutanimals."

He then turned and moved to leave the Lair, Pete and Rockwell following after him, but the three of them paused as they realized half their team hadn't moved.

"What are you waiting for?" Slash asked, turning to look back at Malachi, Jason, and Leatherhead, who were still lingering.

The three of them exchanged hesitant glances. The had known this was coming, it had only been a matter of time after all.

Since the invasion, the Leatherhead, Malachi, and Jason had all been steadfast and proud members of the Mighty Mutanimals, and had been happy to follow Slash's lead. But that hadn't changed the fact that before the invasion they had all been members of the Hamato Clan, and following Leonardo's orders had become second nature in their time as such.

Now it seemed the time had come for them to choose just which team they were really on.

This seemed to occur to the rest of the Lair as well, and they all watched with baited breaths to see how it played out.

"Let's go," said Slash, not liking the idea of losing half of his team, and already wound up from his argument with Leo.

But the three of them remained rooted to the spot in indecision.

"They don't have to follow you if they don't want to," Leo snapped, glaring at the larger turtle.

"Yes they do," Slash said defensively. "They're part of my team, not yours!"

Leo opened his mouth to retaliate, but Jason spoke up before he could.

"Uh, Chief, dudes, I thought we were all on the same team," the skater said uncomfortably, the alligator and sparrow next to him nodding in agreement.

Both lead turtles snapped their mouths shut, and you could cut the silence in the Lair with a knife after that statement, waiting to see who would break it first.

Slash remained stoic, knowing that saying or doing the wrong thing at this moment could cost him his teammates. But it was clear from the look on his face he was terrified that that would happen anyway.

Kurtzman looked like he was going to step forward and say something, but Yoshi held up a hand to stop him, and cast the other man a look that clearly said, 'They must work this out on their own.'

Finally, Leo broke the silence. "You guys can go with him if you want," he said softly.

Malachi, Leatherhead, and Jason's heads snapped in his direction in surprise.

"Are you certain, Sir Leonardo?" asked Malachi.

"Yeah," said Leo, refusing to look at the three of them. "Go on."

After another moment of hesitation, Malachi and Jason moved to join the other Mutanimals at the entrance of the Lair, but Leatherhead hung back, and gave Leo's shoulder a squeeze.

"Thank you, my friend," the alligator said, before moving to follow the rest, and the six Mighty Mutanimals exited the room.

With them gone, the remaining occupants of the Lair stared silently at their leader.

"My son," said Yoshi, stroking his beard. "I sense there is something you wish to get off your chest."

Leo looked like he'd rather pull his head into his shell and hide, but under his father's gaze he finally said, "I just- I don't know if I have the right to tell those three what to do anymore," he said softly. He then glanced around at the others. "We-we abandoned them, didn't we? The invasion happened, and while we were safe at the farmhouse, they were all trapped here just trying to survive. How can I be Jason, Malachi, or Leatherhead's leader if we failed them?"

"I wouldn't exactly call the farmhouse 'safe'," Miwa grumbled under her breath.

"Wait, is that why you've been going off on Slash this whole time?" Raph asked. "You've been feeling guilty, and jealous of him being the leader here when you couldn't be?"

Leo ducking his head, and refusing to look at his immediate younger brother was answer enough.

"But that totally isn't your fault, Leo," said Mikey, his eyes big and pleading his brother to believe him.

"Between the shock of mutating and hibernation, there is no way you could have done anything to help them," said Donnie in agreement. "And even if you were able to stay awake, remember that you couldn't even walk when you first woke up. You would have been in no shape to lead us on a rescue mission for them."

"If anything it's our fault," said Casey, jerking his thumb at himself and the rest of them. "We were the ones still awake and doing junk. We shoulda tried harder to find them before we left the city. But I was too wrapped up with worrying about my family being missing, and you guys being okay that I didn't even think of them 'til we were already miles from the city."

"Same here," admitted April guiltily. "In the invasion, everything was just happening so fast, I barely had time to think about anything but what was right in front of me. And when they never showed up to help us try and rescue Irma, well, I guess I just assumed the worst."

Even Metalhead let out a sympathetic sounding whirr, and patted Leo's arm comfortingly.

"Not to mention, if you had taken those three with you when you left, it's quite likely the Shelter would have never been created, and all the people in it would have fallen victim to the Kraang," Kurtzman pointed out. "As terrible as it is you had to leave them, if you had not, a lot of people, myself included, would probably be mutated or worse by now."

"But-" Leo tried to deny, but was cut off as Yoshi placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Listen to the wisdom of your team, my son," said Yoshi. "We all have choices we regret, but we must move forward, and build a better future. Starting with you seven disarming that missile."

"You mean eight, Father," said Mikey brightly, pointing at the one he'd forgotten. "Can't forget Metalhead."

Said robot let out a beep and nodded his head.

Yoshi let out a small smile at the correction. "Yes, my mistake. The eight of you."

Metalhead gave a thumbs-up in thanks.

Leo frowned slightly, looked up at them all with a determined expression. "Even if they're not on our team anymore, we should still give the Mutanimals some back up. Raph's right, combining our two plans is our best bet."

Raph smirked at the acknowledgement, but said, "I'm also right in saying now that you owe Slash an apology and explanation once all this craziness is over.

Leo winced at the idea, but nodded in agreement. "Later I will. Right now, we need a way to drop down on that missile." He then looked at their resident genius. "Donnie?" he asked.

Donnie's face split into a grin. "I've got something that just might work," he said proudly.


"Isn't this the water tower we found you pouting on before the Renet thing happened?" asked Raph staring up at what was supposed to be Donnie's great new invention.

"No!" Donnie denied, despite the fact they all knew full well that it was.

"A water tower, that's your new invention?" asked Leo skeptically, and Miwa, Casey, and Mikey burst out laughing at the ludicrousy of the idea.

"You know these have been invented for years, right," said Miwa sarcastically.

"It's not exactly what it appears to be," said Donnie grumpily, not at all happy with his siblings reaction.

"Er, I'm sure it's really useful, Donnie," said April, trying to be supportive, but it was clear to see she didn't think much of the tower either.

"What, you keeping some kinda laser attack bot in there?" asked Casey.

"Don't we already have Metalhead for that?" asked Raph dryly.

Metalhead puffed out his chest and beeped in agreement.

"Are we gonna flood the place?" Mikey suggested when he finally stopped laughing.

Donnie smirked, and hefted himself up onto the water tower. "Not exactly," he said. He then twisted a knob on a tank attached to the tower.

Below, the teenagers' eyes widened in surprise as the entire tower seemed to expand, the boards of it falling off as a large balloon began to inflate out of it, until hovering above them was a graffiti covered blimp.

"I give you," said Donnie with a flourish. "The Turtle Blimp!"

Casey promptly burst out laughing again.

"A blimp?" Miwa questioned, raising an eyebrow. "You're great invention… is a blimp? What, you couldn't pick a lamer form of transportation?"

Donnie glared at her, and Mikey whisper shouted, "Told'ja we shoulda kept that cowboy helicopter, dude."

"Hey, I happen to like blimps!" said April defensively.

"Well that explains a lot," said Casey breathlessly as he recovered from his giggle fit. They all knew if April liked something, Donnie tended to be biased towards it as well.

"Knock it off, guys, this is just what we need," said Leo, moving to join Donnie on the blimp. "While the Mutanimals distract the Kraang with a ground assault, we'll fly this over to the missile, and have Donnie and Mikey hack it."

"If they don't see us coming in a big slow blimp," grumbled Miwa, as the rest moved to join the two of them.

"Give me some credit, Sis," said Donnie dryly. "Do you think I'd build this, and not come up with a way to make it go fast?"

Miwa chewed on that for a moment, before shrugging. "Fair enough," she admitted, knowing Donnie's creations hadn't let them down yet.


At the base of the massive missile, legions of Kraang were gathering to witness what was sure to be their kinds' greatest triumph, as well as make sure no pesky mutants, teenagers, or any combination of the above were able to stop them.

As the final preparations were made, and the mutagen filled monstrosity rose up into its firing position, the crowd of Kraang parted to allow one of their highest ranking members step through.

The petite form of Irma looked out of place amongst the robots and biodroids, at least until the small android unfolded into its much hulking and more intimidating battle form, revealing Kraang Subprime sitting in the pilot seat.

Glaring at his fellow aliens, Kraang Subprime bellowed, "YOU GUYS ARE AS DUMB AS A BOX 'A ROCKS!" He reached over and grabbed one of the nearby androids by the neck, and continued screaming in the unfortunate Kraang's face. "SERIOUSLY! WHAT'S TAKIN' YA SO LONG! IT'S BEEN THREE MONTHS!"

"Much of Kraang's mutagen supply was spent in the invasion of the city known as New York City," droned the Kraang in his grip mechanically.

"What is it with the 'Krang's invasion of the city known as New York City'," Kraang Subprime said mockingly as he shook the Kraang in frustration. "What is that? We been here fer thousands of years. YA CAN'T EVEN SPEAK PROPER ENGLISH?"

"Kraang does not understand the query known as Kraang Subprime's query," said the manhandled Kraang in response.

Kraang Subprime snarled and jabbed the purple painted nail of Irma's fingers in the Kraang's face. "I should vaporize yer sorry, pink, tentacled butt for insubordi-WHA!" he was cut off in mid rant as the sound of laser fire reached whatever Kraang used for ears.

At the outer rim of the Kraang legions, several androids were being sent flying as the Mighty Mutanimals burst into view.

"Come on, fellas, keep moving!" shouted Slash as he led the crusade, plowing through the Kraang like bowling pins.

The rest of the group hurried to follow his lead, and soon even more Kraang were being turned to scrap.

Kraang Subprime sat in his Irma-android with a resigned expression as he glanced around at his fellow aliens, who were mostly just standing there watching the Mutanimals' progress.

"I am surrounded by incompetents!" he shouted to the heavens, before throwing the Kraang in his hand away in disgust, and turning to the rest of his troops. "Go! Move it! Hustle! GET THEM!" he bellowed, and the Kraang surged forward with their blasters firing up.

The aliens were so focused on the ground attack that they didn't even notice the large dark shape emerging from the clouds above them making a beeline for the missile.

On the Turtle Blimp, Raph stood at the mounted telescope and peered down at the fight below. Grinning at what he saw, he turned to the others and said, "Guys, check it out! We were right, the Mutanimals' ground attack is the perfect distraction."

"How are they doing down there, Raph?" asked Leo in concern.

Raph peered through the glass again, and took in the sight of Slash and Leatherhead powering through androids with their massive strength, Jason and Pigeon Pete tag teaming the aliens with their own unique styles of fighting (which mostly involved Jason throwing bread at the Kraang and having Pete peck at them for it), Malachi and Rockwell combining their powers for devastating results.

"I'd say their kicking butt and taking names," the red wearing turtle said with a wide smirk.

Amidst the chaos of the battle, Kraang Subprime began making his way towards the missile controls with a scheming expression on his face.

Catching sight of him, Slash darted towards him with his mace held high. "Oh no you don't!" he yelled as he smacked the Kraang spy away from the machinery.

Stumbling as he landed from the blow, Kraang Subprime turned and glared at the turtle hatefully, before morphing into a deranged smirk as pink saw blades sprouted between his fingers, and he launched himself at Slash with a laugh.

Slash quickly brought up his weapon to block the spinning blades, but found himself unable to do anything else for fear of getting sliced.

Above, the blimp finally floated into position, and the five ninjas got ready to propel down.

"You guys man the controls here," Leo said to Casey and April as he tied his rope securely to his waist.

"Got it," said April as she moved to the blimp's steering controls.

"Yo, Gifuto, got any weapons on this thing?" asked Casey expectantly.

"Trash Cannon's on the left," said Donnie in reply as he double-checked his siblings' ropes to make sure they were good and tight.

Casey grinned viciously as he caught sight of the controls, and made his way towards them. "Sweet!"

With that taken care of, the five ninjas used their ropes to slide down to the missile, with Metalhead flying down after them.

Landing on top of the missile, Raph and Leo quickly transferred their ropes to knot around Donnie and Mikey respectively, and stood balanced on the top of the weapon as the younger two began carefully climbing down to a position to hack the missile's controls. Miwa and Metalhead stood guard nearby for when the Kraang inevitably realized that they were there.

Reaching the glass casing surrounding the missile's computers, Donnie pulled out a glasscutter, and carved a window into it to allow them access.

Leaning in the window, the two brothers peered at the blinking lights of the computer before them.

"Now according to Kurtzman's data, the missile guidance system uses a form of binary code," mused Donnie thoughtfully.

Mikey glanced at his brother, before shrugging. "I have no idea what you just said, bro. But just do what I say, and let me work my magic."

Donnie rolled his eyes at his brothers confidence, but complied and began poking his fingers at wherever Mikey told him to.

Above them, Metalhead let out a shrill beep, and brought out his blasters.

Following his gaze, Miwa slid into a defensive position and yelled, "We've got incoming at twelve 'o clock!"

The two older brothers turned as well, and paled beneath their scales at the sight of flying Kraang coming their way.

"We can't fight and hold the others up at the same time!" said Leo. "Armonia, Metalhead, you've got to cover us!"

"You got it," said Miwa as she threw Boom Stars at the oncoming Kraang, making some of them explode in mid air. But others managed to evade the exploding throwing stars, but were still cut down by Metalhead's laser fire.

One lucky Kraang looked like it was about to land on the missile with them, but before it could do so, it was knocked out of the air by a ball of compressed trash from above.

On the blimp, Casey let out a whoop at making his shot, and hurried to keep shooting at the Kraang both in the air and on the ground below.

But despite their best efforts, a few Kraang still managed to land on the missile, and Miwa kept herself busy cutting them down before they could reach her brothers.

Down on the ground below, Slash was still going at it with Kraang Subprime.

The hulking android managed to grab the turtle by the front of his shell, and the Irma face's eyes lit up as it tried to fry him with lasers. But Slash managed to wrest himself free, and dove at the head with an angry roar, knocking the head completely off the shoulders of the android.

"MY HEAD!" Kraang Subprime screeched in rage, and retaliated by kicking Slash hard enough to send him flying.

Preening at the blow, Kraang Subprime turned back to the controls, and once again made to launch the missile. "Nobody messes with Kraang Subprime. Now to launch this sucker."

Slash was on his feet again as fast as he could, and rushed towards Subprime, latching onto the android's leg in an attempt to stop him, but all he managed to do was slow him down.

Seeing what he was doing, the rest of the Mutanimals dropped their fights, and rushed to help. Rockwell sent a psychic pull on the metal body to try and draw it back towards him. Leatherhead rammed into Kraang Subprime's side and tried to push him back with all his might. Pete dropped down from above and clung to the arm of the suit to try and weigh it down and stop it. Malachi dug the talons of his non-peg-legged foot into the neck where the head used to be, and began flapping his wings as hard as he could to pull back. And finally, Jason slipped into the front Kraang Subprime and began pushing on the alien pilot's face as he tried to shove him back.

All this was able to bring Kraang Subprime to a standstill as one arm reached desperately towards the control panel only inches away from him. But then the Kraang gave a smirk despite Jason's hands pressing against his face, and made his finger extend just enough to hit the launch button.

Instantly the jets beneath the missile roared to life, and the weapon began shaking as it started to lift off.

"NO!" shouted Slash as he and his team scrambled back to avoid being fried by the rockets, and watched in horror as it rose into the air.

From their window messing with the computer, Donnie and Mikey exchanged horrified looks.

"Oh snap, dude!" Mikey shouted.

At the top of the missile, they rest of the siblings were having similar reactions.

"Hang On!" shouted Leo, shooting a desperate look at his brother and sister.

On the ground, Kraang Subprime grinned victoriously. "For the glory of Kraang!" he cheered.

Then with a final burst, the missile launched rapidly into the air, shooting past the blimp leaving Casey and April to stare after it with wide eyes.

On top of it, Leo, Raph, Miwa, and Metalhead found themselves being pressed against the missiles metal surface as the air pressure pushed them down. They were not at all helped by the fact that some of the Kraang were still on the missile as well, and continued to try and attack them despite the situation.

Three of them managed to pry Raph off the metal surface, and sent him tumbling towards the ground, only to be stopped as the rope pulled taught around Donnie's waist. As it did so, the genius let out a pained gasp, and Mikey had to grab him to keep them both from being pulled away. Below them, Raph continued to scream as he dangled above the rapidly vanishing ground.

"Hurry up, boys!" shouted Miwa as she clung to the top of the missile with all her might. "It's about to get really hard to breathe soon."

"On it dudes!" shouted Mikey as he reached for the controls with one hand, and kept Donnie steady with the other. "One missile heading straight for the sun coming up!"

With a final tap, the missile began changing directions, and their work there was done.

Glancing dubiously at the drop below them, Leo ordered, "Jump, guys! Metalhead, grab our ropes and try to slow us down as best you can!"

With nods of understanding, the five teenagers launched themselves from the missile, and let gravity take effect.

Metalhead used his rockets to swoop after them, gathering each of their ropes and then turning his boosters downwards to slow their decent to a nonfatal speed.

"Activate your gliders!" shouted Leo as he did so himself.

Metal wings sprang out from the teenagers backs and shells, further helping to slow them down.

Seeing them coming, April spun the steering wheel of the blimp to get it into the proper position, and soon enough the whole zeppelin shook as the teens landed and bounced off of the balloon's surface, before managing to grab ahold of the railings to keep themselves from falling again, Metalhead coming down for a landing not long after.

"Wow! Too close," Mikey gasped as he clung to the blimp for dear life. "I saw my entire life flash before my eyes."

"What did you see?" asked Donnie in hopes that he'd somehow remembered the super-retro-mutagen formula.

"Pizza," said Mikey wistfully. "Mostly pizza. It was awesome!"

Any disappointment Donnie had at that response was quickly forgotten as April rushed over to him and yanked him into a rib-cracking hug as the sky lit up when the missile hit the sun.

The rest of the teens grinned at the sight.

"Don't you ever scare me like that again," she demanded when she paused to let him breathe.

Donnie managed to let out a dazed hum of agreement before she yanked him into another hug.

Below, Pigeon Pete was beaming up at the sight of them. "The ninja-kids got the missile!" he cheered. "Yeah! This calls for a loaf!"

With that he promptly pulled out a loaf of bread from his helmet and split it between him and Malachi in celebration.

The short sparrow held his half of the bread up in the air as if in toast. "Oo De Lally!" he cheered, and both birds began munching on their snack.

Unbeknownst to them, the Irma head that Slash had knocked off suddenly sprang to life, and moved to blast the two of them.

Seeing this, Slash shouted, "PETE! MALACHI! LOOK OUT!"

Pete reacted quickly grab Malachi and shield the younger bird, but still was hit in the back by a laser blast.

Before the for the fire could continued, Slash dove between the birds and the head, blocking the lasers with his shell, before leaping up and crushing the head beneath his mace.

"You two okay?" the massive turtle asked once he was sure the metallic scrap could do no more damage.

"I'm good," Pete squeaked out.

"As am I," said Malachi, fluttering out of Pete's hold. "I owe you both a debt of the greatest gratitude."

Slash sighed in relief as he helped Pete to his feet. "Anytime, kid. Anytime."

From above, Leo witnessed the whole thing through the telescope, and stood impressed.

"NOOOO!" wailed Kraang Subprime as it finally sank in what had happened.

But then a shout of "GOONGALA!" came from above, and the Kraang spy had to duck as Casey began firing more of his trash cannon balls at the remaining alien troops.

"Kraang, Retreat!" shouted Subprime to the remaining aliens. "Right now! Retreat!"

Following his order, the Kraang fled the scene, leaving the teens, mutants, combinations of the both, and one short robot to celebrate their victory.

As Mikey rushed over to pull Malachi, Jason, and Leatherhead into a big group hug, Raph and Donnie did their best to make amends with Pete and Rockwell respectively (with mixed results).

Meanwhile, Leo made his way over towards Slash, bringing a reluctant Miwa along with him.

"Slash," he said solemnly to gain the larger turtle's attention. "I owe you an apology. I was letting my guilt over leaving LH, Jason, and Malachi behind, and my jealousy that they were now following you instead cloud my judgment, and for that I am sorry."

Slash's eyes widened in surprise at Leo's words, before glancing skeptically over at Miwa, knowing she wasn't one for apologies.

Scowling, the kunoichi gave a heavy sigh, and admitted, "I was too harsh too. I'm still mad about you tying me up, but I can see you're not the same mutant who did that anymore." She then turned and stalked away without saying anything else.

Knowing that that was probably as close to an apology as he was going to get, Slash nodded after her, before turning his attention back to Leo.

The smaller turtle managed to give him a friendly grin. "I gotta admit, Slash," said Leo. "You stepped up and saved your teammates when they needed you the most. I'm glad the guys had you to watch their back while we were gone."

Slash smirked. "Told'ja I'd changed, Leonardo," he said, holding out a hand for Leo to shake. "I'm a different kinda turtle now."

Leo shook his hand with a grin.

Slash then turned to address the rest of their gathered team. "Alright, fellas," he said. "Time to storm TCRI."

Seeing where he was going, Leo took up the instructions as well. "We go to Dimension X, and save the citizens of New York."

With determined nods of agreement, the entire group hurried off to plan their next move.


A/N And so the Battle for New York begins. What do you think, with everyone involved will it run smoothly, or still be a big mess? At least Leo's on better terms with Slash now, and though Miwa still has some issues, she's willing to try and work past them.

Thanks again to Shockeye7665 for suggesting some of the dialogue when they first see the blimp.

Disclaimer: I own nothing