Fighting!
2003 verse
Raphael raced across the rooftops of his beloved city.
The wind in his face and the effort in his muscles helped him to release his considerable anger at the last events.
Nothing had gone according to plan. Not that he really had a plan, but still.
And now they were back to the beginning, without magical sword and without knowing what the Purple Dragons were up to.
They were up to something, though. When the turtles had entered the meeting room, Hun had been talking about completing the boarding of Raphael didn't know what - because then Mikey had taken a picture of him and a Purple Dragon as a souvenir, and lo and behold! the Purple Dragon had noticed that the face pressing against his own wasn't human.
Which had marked the beginning of the fight. A nice fight, all things considered, until Raphael had noticed Leo's absence and worried that he had been captured or worse - but no. And while it was a good thing in hindsight, it also infuriated Raphael that Leo hadn't wanted to stay with them.
The red-masked turtle finally came to a stop on the top of one of his favorite skyscrapers.
If only Leonardo was there, he would have made up a new plan in seconds; but Leonardo wasn't here. Instead they had a Leo who lost swords and ran away from fights.
Maybe Donatello would have an idea. Maybe he could invent something to bring Leonardo and Michelangelo back. Raphael certainly trusted him more than these Mikey and Leo combined.
And he was beginning to feel slightly guilty that he had left his brother alone with the two other-dimensional turtles.
Raphael took one last cleansing breath and made for the lair.
Mikey was sitting on the couch of that foreign lair, fingers intertwined, waiting for Raphael's return. From the corner of his eye, he could see Donatello examining his mystical weapon - the purple-masked turtle had sounded so enthusiastic after seeing it used in combat that Mikey had wholeheartedly agreed to let him borrow it for a few experiments.
Leo had disappeared somewhere upstairs. Mikey didn't remember him asking Donatello whether he could borrow one of the rooms, but Leo rarely asked for permission anyways.
Mikey was tired too, of course, but he wasn't going to go to bed without completing his mission. Therefore, he stubbornly waited.
After what felt like hours, Raphael finally came home. Mikey stood up with an inner sigh of relief.
"Raph! I'm so glad you're here. I have something important to tell you."
Raphael barely spared him a glance. "Can't it wait until tomorrow?"
Mikey shook his head vigorously. "No, no, no!"
Raphael sighed. "Fine. Be quick."
"Of course." Mikey stepped closer to him. He had decided that Doctor Delicate Touch would do the best job here, and Doctor Delicate Touch needed to be close to his victi- patient's ears.
"GET A GRIP ON YOUR ANGER, MAN!"
Next thing Mikey knew, he was flying across the room at high speed and crashing against the many TV screens.
"Raph!" Donatello said indignantly.
"He started it!" Raphael protested.
"Okay," Mikey whispered to himself, lifting a finger. "Maybe Doctor Delicate Touch was a bad choice." He watched as Raphael left the room, probably in order to go to bed. "But Doctor Feelings hasn't given up on you yet," he added with great determination.
Leo opened several doors before he found a room that looked like it could have been his counterpart's - at least the comforter was blue.
It was a little pared-down, but it was still better than the mess of a room with its pizza boxes everywhere, including under the orange sheets.
Leo had some standards.
He lay on the bed and crossed his arms behind his head. Where could his sword be? He had thoroughly searched the warehouse and the Purple Dragons' lair, no matter what Raphael said. It just wasn't there.
Someone cleared his throat from the doorstep. Leo lifted his head lazily to see who it was.
It was these turtles' Splinter. What did he want with him?
"You're in my room," the rat stated.
Leo blinked. "Oh." He stood up, trying not to look too ridiculous. "My most sincere apologies. I didn't know."
Splinter tilted his head. "Why didn't you ask?"
"Of course I should have! It just eluded me. Probably because I was too busy thinking about this great plan to find my sword and…" Leo realized too late that maybe he shouldn't have mentioned to Splinter the mission was a failure.
It was a beginner's mistake, he really needed some sleep.
Splinter sighed and leaned heavier on his cane. Leo would gladly have left him alone, but the rat was still on the doorstep and thus, blocking the exit.
"The whole plan was terrible," Leo defended himself, just in case.
"Ah."
Splinter stood there like an unsettling authority figure. Didn't he have some TV to watch?
The rat's voice was perfectly neutral as he spoke. "Why didn't you tell them so, then?"
Leo shrugged. "Like they would have listened to me. Besides, Raph is the leader. It's his job to make plans."
Splinter raised an eyebrow. He seemed surprised for some reason. "Hmm."
A yell followed by a loud crash were heard from the living room. It didn't sound like a life-threatening crash, though, and neither Splinter nor Leo moved.
"But you're working on a plan now," Splinter went on. "Isn't it what you just said?"
Leo felt a bead of sweat go down his forehead. "Did I? I mean, yes, I said that, of course. And if I said that, it's true. Everything I say is the pure, unaltered truth."
Splinter's eyes were piercing him.
"Uh, which room could I take? To sleep in?" Leo said in a desperate attempt to change the topic.
"That way." Splinter pointed at the other half of the corridor with his cane. "The room on the left."
The rat finally cleared a path to the door, and Leo hurried to leave.
"Maybe you should consider sharing your plan with my sons," Splinter said softly when Leo passed next to him. "Sometimes, they do listen."
Rise verse
April didn't lose time in leading the turtles to the last place where her new boss had been seen, aka his very own restaurant. She was curious to know where the heck Leo and Mikey had disappeared, but it would have to wait until the poor man was rescued. There weren't that many people willing to hire her for decent wages.
Plus it was the right thing to do.
"It's there. We were preparing for the evening rush when Meat Sweats crashed into the place."
"Quite literally, it seems." Michelangelo watched the hole in the wall of the restaurant with some concern. "If I believe this hole's shape, that poor mutant had way less luck than we did."
"Not everybody can be a first-class mutant," Donnie pointed out.
"This poor mutant kidnapped Pops once," Raph said with unabated indignation.
Donnie tilted his head. "Unless Dad kidnapped him. That part was never quite clarified."
"And," Raph went on, "he also tried to eat us."
Michelangelo gulped.
"So, where do you think he left?" April asked Donnie.
"Hmm…" Donnie took a remote control and pressed a button.
Under Michelangelo's and Leonardo's baffled gazes, his shell took off while another one rushed from nowhere to replace it.
"My tracking shell will find him for us." Donnie puffed himself up, savoring the other turtles' surprise.
"Excellent!" Raph said.
The tracking shell led them to a grim-looking trailer in a waste ground.
"Apparently his living conditions have only gotten worse." Donnie shook his head. "Good thing Mikey isn't there to see that. He's a huge fan of the guy."
"You mean, the guy who tried to eat you? Just asking," Michelangelo said in a detached tone.
"Yes."
"Uh-huh, uh-huh." Michelangelo put an arm around Leonardo's shoulders. "Can we go home now?" he whispered in his brother's ear.
"What's the plan?" an unfazed Leonardo asked Raphael.
"We come in, save April's boss and come out!" Raph beamed.
Leonardo watched him with some concern. "That's… quite straightforward."
"So, are you sure you still want to come? No hard feelings if you don't," Raph said delicately. He wasn't too keen on risking these two turtles' lives on a mission. What if they got hurt?
"Okay," Michelangelo immediately answered.
"We're coming," Leonardo said at the same time. He grabbed Michelangelo's arm right before his brother could sneak away.
Raph straightened up and raised a giant fist. "Then let's go, team!"
They came closer to the trailer and looked through one window.
A gagged puny man was tied up on a chair in front of a giant mutant pacing back and forth.
"What do you think he's doing?" April whispered.
"It looks like he's lecturing him," said Michelangelo, who knew about such things.
Leonardo considered the new situation. "Then we have an opportunity to surprise him and -"
"LET HIM GO!" April shouted as she kicked the door open.
Raph and Donnie followed her inside.
"What she said," Donnie added way more nonchalantly.
Leonardo raised an eye ridge and signaled to Michelangelo that both of them should stay outside and remain unnoticed.
"This man is the worst cook I've ever seen," Meat Sweats spat with a thick accent. "He doesn't deserve to have a restaurant!"
Some of Meat Sweats' acid saliva reached the chair where he had tied up his guest. One of its legs began to melt.
"Mmmmmm!" the gagged human expressed.
"Raaaaaaaaaaaah!" April and her baseball bat threw themselves down Meat Sweats' throat.
Meat Sweats punched her into Donnie, which infuriated Raph. Chaos ensued inside the trailer, and April's boss fell on the floor.
"Let's get this man out of here before anything bad happens to him," Leonardo whispered to Michelangelo.
His brother nodded and they proceeded to bring the human safely out. He ran away as soon as they cut his bindings.
"And thank you," Michelangelo muttered. He liked a little gratitude.
A sudden flash of red light threw Meat Sweats outside. April came after him and trampled him with gusto.
It looked like the fight was already over.
Then the trash in the waste ground came to life.
Donnie, who had followed April and Raph outside, grimaced. "People really should stop wasting so much organic matter."
"Uh?" Raph and Michelangelo said.
Donnie rolled his eyes. "Food. Oozesquitoes and their mutagen can reorganize the molecular structure of-"
"Maybe another time, Donnie?" April panted as she tried to take down a ten-foot high mess of… something.
"I wish you had told us sooner about these Oozesquitoes," Michelangelo complained.
"Think about how you will tell the others about this epic fight," Leonardo suggested as he sliced a garbage can in two.
"Point taken. Raph is going to be so mad he missed this!" Michelangelo knocked off another of the… things. "Let's just avoid mentioning the trash part."
Donnie watched Leonardo and Michelangelo's efficient fighting with interest.
"I love when people on my side know what they're doing," he commented.
"Hey!" April said from below the ten-foot high mess of something who was now trying to crush her. "Stop bad-mouthing your friends and help us, will you?"
"Your wish is my command," Donnie said.
And he unleashed the Drill.