Chapter 6: The Cat and the Dog
New York City, the city that never sleeps, the big apple. The city was truly a sight to behold that night as the stars shined like diamonds in the sky, comets shooting across the great black ocean like bullets.
However, that did not stop April O'Neil and Casey Jones from worrying.
It had started off as a regular patrol meeting where they were planning to meet the guys and go out on their regular evening patrol.
When they didn't show up, they understandably assumed they were late.
But after a week passed and still no word, that's when they started to worry.
April and Casey had both checked out the Lair, only to find it empty except for the occasional sewer rat (to which Casey screeched like a little girl upon seeing).
Next, they checked with Karai and Shinigami at the old Foot Clan headquarters, but they hadn't seen any sign of the Turtles either, even after having dispatched several foot soldiers to scour the city for them.
That just left one more group for them to ask.
Their old friends the Mighty Mutanimals.
Currently, they were having to wait in their hide-out while the simian mutant Doctor Rockwell was coming up with several theories as to what could have happened to them.
Casey paced around impatiently while April leaned against one of the support beams as she folded her arms over her chest.
They waited as Rockwell began to come up with another theory about how the Turtles could have possibly migrated to a place outside of New York let out a frustrated sigh.
"This is taking too long!" Casey barked, getting the attention of both April and the Mutanimals as he stomped around. "The guys are missing and what are we doing? Squat!"
He was stopped when suddenly a hand lashed out and grabbed his arm, holding him firmly with no intention of letting go. Casey snapped his head to see April frowning up at him as she shook her head.
"I don't like it either, Casey, and neither do any of the others, but freaking out and yelling isn't going to solve anything." April said. "Believe me, I'm as worried for the guys as you are." especially for Donnie, she almost added.
Mona Lisa stepped forward. "April is right. We need to work together if we're going to find all of them, including my love, Raphael." The Salamandrian said.
"Got anything, Doc? At all?" Slash asked the simian psychic.
Rockwell sighed. "Nothing but theories which no one seems to appreciate."
"Bogus, dudes." Mondo Gecko muttered as crossed his arms with a clenched jaw.
Leatherhead let out a deep hum from his gator throat. "Perhaps April could use her powers to find the Turtles." He suggested.
"You think I haven't tried that?" April questioned. "I've been trying to sense them in the city for weeks, but nothing!"
Rockwell scratched his chin in thought. "Perhaps if we used the Kraang psychic neurotransmitter, we could increase her range of sense."
"That could work." April replied. "It should still be in Donnie's lab down in the Lair."
Upon going back into the sewers and arriving at the Lair, the group immediately headed into Donatello's now vacant laboratory.
Once they found the neurotransmitter, they wasted no time in hooking April up.
"Are we ready?" Rockwell asked everyone as he attached the high voltage power cables to the transmitter on April's head before adjusting the straps.
April furrowed her brows as she tried to make the transmitter on her head feel as comfortable as possible. "Ready, Doc." She replied.
Rockwell nodded as he moved over to the modified radio. "Alright, starting…" He flipped a few switches before turning the radio on, "... now!" He then turned the dial lightly. "Do you feel anything?"
Instantaneously, the Kraang tech lit up with its pink glowing lights, the set of bars on the transmitter lit up, but April looked unbothered.
"Nope." April said.
Rockwell frowned as he fiddled with the radio a little more, even giving a little bang with his fist, before glancing at her again. "How about now?"
The transmitter made a low fizzing sound as April closed her eyes in focus. "Oop, that tickles a little." She said as she twitched a little.
Rockwell figured that was probably as good as they were gonna get. "Now, April, focus. Try to locate the Turtles unique mutagenic signatures. Let your mind reach across the world."
April did as she reached out with her powers, trying to find any sign of the Turtles' presence around the world.
But she found none.
Frustrated, April opened her eyes with a deep frown. "I don't understand. I'm not sensing them anywhere. It's… it's like they've disappeared off the face of the Earth!"
The Mutanimals and Casey frowned as they looked down. It seemed like their only way of finding the Turtles was not of any use at the moment.
But then, Rockwell had an idea. An idea so crazy… that it just might work.
"Perhaps if I make some adjustments…" He murmured as he gave the radio dial a few more twists.
"What are you doing, Doc?" Slash asked.
"Testing a theory." Rockwell replied. "Perhaps if I adjust the transmitter to the right frequency, I can make it so April can scan for the Turtles' across all ten dimensions."
"Do you really think she can handle it, Rockwell?" Leatherhead asked.
"Only if April is willing to." Rockwell said before turning to said girl. "Do you believe you can do it?"
April shifted in her seat. "I don't know." She said, "But… we have to try!"
"So what are we waiting for?" Casey asked. "Let's do it!"
Rockwell nodded, making one last adjustment to the radio, the device letting out a louder hum. "Do you sense anything now, April?"
April closed her eyes again as she focused her powers, letting her mind drift into the endless cosmos and going further beyond that. She sensed many different life forms throughout many planets in many galaxies, in many dimensions…
… and then she finally felt the ones she was looking for.
"I… I think I've found them!" She exclaimed, her eyes still closed as she focused.
Slash, Rockwell, and Leatherhead sighed in relief while Casey, Mona Lisa, Mondo Gecko, and Pigeon Pete all cheered.
"Can you tell us anything about where they are?" Rockwell inquired. "Details about their environment?"
April pressed her hand to her head as she focused. "I see… a valley." She said. "And a village below it. And at the top of the mountains… some sort of palace."
Slash hummed a little. "Valley, village, mountains, and a palace." He listed. "Sure doesn't sound like any place we've been to on Earth."
"And it most certainly does not sound like Dimension X." Leatherhead added.
April's brow creased as she started to sweat. "And… I think… I see…" She found herself unable to finish as she groaned, sounding like she was straining.
Before anyone could ask what was wrong, the lights in the Lair began to flicker and the transmitter on April's head sparked as electricity danced across it, causing her to let out a cry of pain.
And as she screamed, waves of golden yellow light burst from her head, creating a blinding light followed by a shockwave that sent everyone in the room flying back.
Casey struggled to get to his feet, using arm to cover his eyes from the blinding light as the shockwaves burst from April's head.
"Red! What's happening?!" He yelled over the shockwaves.
April didn't respond as she continued to scream, the blinding light seeming to glow even brighter.
Pushing against the raging winds, Casey slowly made his way over to the young kunoichi, just managing to grab her shoulders to keep himself steady.
"Snap it out of it, April! Snap out of it!" Casey cried desperately.
Rockwell squinted his eyes, just managing to see the young vigilante holding on tightly to April as the light grew brighter and the shockwaves became stronger.
"Casey! Get away from her!" Rockwell yelled, already figuring out what was going to happen.
But his pleas went unheard as Casey gripped April's shoulders tighter while the wind was trying to do everything in its power to blow him back.
Then, there was a bright explosion of yellow-gold light before it died down in an instant.
As the light died down, the Mutanimals were shocked to see April and Casey were nowhere in sight.
"April, Casey. What happened to them?" Slash said, picking up the neurotransmitter in his big hands as it was the only thing left of them.
"Y-you don't think they're… gone, do you?" Pigeon Pete asked nervously.
Rockwell furrowed his brow. "I don't think so." He then placed his hands on his psychic amplifier, trying to sense for any sign of the two humans. "But I don't sense their presence here or anywhere in this area."
"But what could that mean?" Mona Lisa asked.
"Any number of things." Rockwell stated. "They could have been disintegrated for all we know, or transported to a different location in the universe, or maybe even scattered somewhere across the dimensions."
Mondo Gecko gulped. "Well, let's just hope they're in a better place right now."
April slowly blinked her eyes open, her vision distorted and blurry as she struggled to sit up. Her head was on fire, feeling like it was ready to pop.
"April? April! Are you okay?" A familiar voice spoke.
"Casey?" She asked, raising her head to look at the teenage vigilante…
… only for her to blink in surprise as she saw what looked like a tall and lean anthropomorphic siberian husky dog staring back at her.
At first she was tempted to scream, but then she noticed what the dog was wearing; the dog was armed with a belt full of various large clubs, bats, and hockey sticks that was attached to a leather strap over his shoulder. He wore knee pads over his slightly ripped black jeans and large thick gloves on his front paws, one a normal baseball glove and the other covered in jagged spikes. But what really stood out to her was the metal mask on his forehead which now shaped to resemble a dog skull.
"Casey…" April spoke. "Are… are you a… dog?"
Casey glanced down at himself, noting the black and white fur all over his body under his clothes and even feeling the triangular ears on his head that peeked out through his hoodie.
"Heh, looks like I am." He chuckled, not at all sounding bothered by the fact that he was a freaking dog and not a freaking human anymore. "I even got a little tail, too." He felt behind him before looking directly at April. "But look at you, Red. You're like a big lion lady, yo."
April blinked in surprise. "Wait, what? No I'm not. I'm a-" She raised her arms to prove that she was still human, only to see the skin of her arms was now covered in sandy-yellow colored fur.
The young girl froze as she gazed at her hands/paws which now had three fingers and a thumb on each one instead of four fingers and a thumb. She then slowly reached up to her head, feeling through her hair until she felt her hands touch to soft round shaped objects that were no doubt her ears.
Now almost hyperventilating, April pulled out her tanto, gazing into the reflective surface of the blade, praying desperately to see her human face.
Only to find the face of a yellow lioness with orange hair tied into a pony-tail that clearly resembled her staring right back at her in her reflection.
April couldn't help it. She screamed.
And she screamed for about ten seconds before Casey finally grabbed her and shook her by the shoulders.
"Red, get it together!" Casey told her.
Shaking her head rapidly, April quickly calmed down as she gazed back at her paws again. "Casey, what's happened to us? Where are we?"
"Don't know and don't know." Casey replied. "Whatever you did must have turned us into these things." He then peeked behind April and noticed something. "You've even got a little tail too, you know." He said, giving a fanged grin of amusement.
"I have a what?!" April exclaimed, whipping her head around to see a long thin yellow tail with a tuft of orange on the end sticking out from her behind, the tail itself flickering like it had a mind of its own.
April began to hyperventilate again, her eyes growing wider than before as she opened her mouth.
Casey quickly clamped his gloved paw over her mouth. "Are you gonna scream again?" He asked, to which April shook her head.
Releasing his paw from her mouth, Casey and April looked around at their new surroundings.
They appeared to be in the alleyway of some sort of village, the sun shining down directly into the alley and illuminating their surroundings.
"Where the heck are we?" Casey asked as they stood up.
"I don't know." April replied. "But I guess we won't find out until we get out of this alley, come on."
She and Casey quickly walked out of the alleyway and into the streets and were shocked to see several other anthropomorphic animals walking around the town like regular people.
It was unlike anything they had ever seen before.
"What the heck?!" Was all April could say, feeling like she had had too much weirdness for one day.
"Have-have I taken too many kicks to the head?" Casey questioned, pinching himself to convince himself that he wasn't dreaming. "What am I seeing?"
April furrowed her brow as she thought before she remembered something. "Wait, I remember the Turtles told us about a place like this. A dimension full of anthropomorphic animals instead of humans!"
"So that's where they are?" Casey asked. "Well, how are we gonna find them?"
April glanced upwards towards the mountains, spotting a large temple palace through the clouds, the same one she saw in her visions.
"That palace up there," She spoke, pointing up towards it, "I saw that place briefly when I was sensing the Turtles. Maybe they're up there."
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Casey questioned, already starting up the thousand steps to the palace. "Let's go."
Without hesitation, April nodded as the two ascended higher and higher up towards the palace.