Fun fact: Casey (Cassandra) is the only character in RotTMNT to have a canon eye color. You see both her iris (brown) and pupil in the scene before she betrays Shredder
ROUND SIX: Grandma C.J.
"I'll be right back. Don't go anywhere," Primetime told Casey before leaving the bathroom. Casey breathed a sigh of relief, finally he was alone. No sexy Evil-Donnie or handsome 'Nurse Nardo', as the previously mentioned Evil-Donnie called Primetime. Just Casey, and his thoughts…
Casey didn't want to be alone with just his thoughts. Fortunately or unfortunately, the bathroom door creaked back open. If it turned out to be cute Evil-April Casey was going to throw himself out a window.
CJ walked in yawning. His hair was wet and he was dressed in a large sweatshirt and blue pajama pants. He held something in his right hand.
"Hi alternate version of Mom, Sensei said I needed to take your temperature."
Casey sat still while CJ took his temperature. CJ yawned again. Casey heard a beep. "No fever, so that means Sensei will let you join the next fight. I know he wants to pull you out anyways for exhaustion but Mom really wants you to fight this next round. Honestly she would probably make you fight even if you did have a fever."
"Uhh-"
"Junior? I thought you were napping," Primetime returned, currently eating two slices of pizza stacked on top of each other.
"Ma woke me up. She doesn't want anyone to miss next round. Including him," CJ gestured at Casey. "His temp is ninety-eight, so no fever."
"Well, that's good. I'd hate to be the one to break the news to your mom if he wasn't." Primetime turned to Casey now, "Casey Three, get your gear! You're back in. You have until I finish my pizza to get ready and then I'm dropping you off."
CJ waved as he passed Primetime on his way to the door, "Bye Other-Mom. Good luck, my mom doesn't like holding back."
"Wait, does that mean-"
"Yep," Primetime cut in, "this round is your team verses Casey Jones the Elder. It's your turn to fight yourself."
Doctor Disappointed had closed the portal behind them, leaving them alone in a poorly lit gymnasium. Bleachers lined the walls and there were blue mats on the waxed floor. The group had taken to sitting on the bleachers. Leo was lying down with his eyes closed, Donnie was tweaking something inside his phone with a small screwdriver he had in his belt, April herself had slid down to the footboard and was using the actual seat as a backrest, and Raph was pacing in front of them all.
After what felt like an eternity of waiting a blue portal opened up across from them, and out walked Casey. Well, staggered was the better word. As if he had been pushed or shoved from the other side of the portal to this one. His face was flushed and he was dressed in a t-shirt instead of his usual sweatshirt. Everyone immediately jumped up to rush over to him.
"Casey!"
"Are you okay? What happened?"
"Where did you go? Did they hurt you?"
"Woah, woah! Guys! I'm fine!" Casey gave an embarrassed laugh, "I just… overheated."
"Overheated? You've never overheated before."
Casey's face stayed flushed, and he placed a hand on the back of his neck, "Well, uh, first time for everything? Anyways, we're fighting Other-Me right now."
Music came over the speakers, and April whipped around to face the center of the room, feeling the air shift beside her as the boys turned as well. For a second she thought she heard Casey sigh from behind her.
Another blue portal opened at the top of the bleachers nearest to April. A short woman stepped out. She was dressed in baggy black pants and a tight black tanktop. There was a red belt or sash around her waist that had flaps that came down to rest mid-thigh, with matching red wraps that extended from her knuckles to her upper arm. She slid down the stair railing until she reached the bottom, where she jumped off.
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WELCOME TO THE SEMI-FINALS! THE NIGHT MIGHT BE DRAWING TO A CLOSE, BUT THINGS ARE JUST STARTING TO HEAT UP HERE." The announcer's voice could now be identified as Primetime's. April focused on their opponents face as she stood up from her crouch. She had piercing brown eyes lined in black and red eyeshadow, black lipstick, and several pink piercings that studded her ears and brow, as well as dark hair in a buzz cut. April felt unexpectantly warm. She pulled a red scarf up from around her neck to cover the lower half of her face. She sent a wink at April right before placing a mask nearly identical to CJ's on her face.
April started sweating, and dug around in her back pocket. She pulled out a wad of crumpled up bills and slapped them into Casey's chest. She wasn't the only one, because when she glanced back Casey's arms were full of cash and all of the turtles were stubbornly looking away from him. Casey was just standing there confused. April turned back around, sure her face was bright red. She heard someone mumble "I can't believe he was right."
"SHE'S A MADMAN WITH A GROWING EMPIRE IN BAKED GOODS, SHE WAS THE SHREDDER'S TOP GENERAL, AND SHE LOVES REALITY TELEVISION. SHE DRINKS THE BLOOD OF HER ENEMIES AND STARS IN THE NIGHTMARES OF HER FRIENDS. EVERYBODY PUT YOUR HANDS TOGETHER FOR MY PARTNER IN CO-PARENTING, GRANDMA C.J.!"
Grandma charged.
She didn't have any weapons, but that didn't stop her. Grandma plowed straight into them with a yell. In moments April was being flung across the gymnasium from a kick and Leo was on the ground from a punch to the face. Grandma grabbed Donnie's bo-staff and used it to throw Donnie up onto the bleachers. Raph got an elbow to the face. Grandma advanced on Casey, who pushed down his own mask and took a fighting stance.
"So, you're me?"
Casey had entered this tournament thing ready to fight everything and everyone. But now, with Alternate-Him stalking over after taking out his whole team in mere seconds while screaming like a banshee the whole time, he realized he was in fact not ready. This lady was a whole new level of crazy.
Casey did the only thing he could, he braced himself and at charged her, attempting to use the same overwhelming force on her that she had on them. She easily jumped over him, laughing as he frantically tried to slow down.
He turned and faced her again. Grandma leaned down and mimicked his stance, waiting.
Then Raph tackled her from the side.
They slid across the floor. Grandma kicked Raph off her with a yell. Raph fell back into the first row of the bleachers.
Raph saw as April and Leo re-entered the mix, forcing Grandma to do a lot more dodging and weaving than punching.
Grandma managed catch April in some sort of elbow lock, forcing April to drop a tessan. Grandma kicked April into an arriving Donnie and scooped up the tessan before flipping out of the way of Leo's blades. April and Donnie went down like dominoes.
Grandma used April's tessan masterfully, easily catching and deflecting Leo's katanas. Raph rushed back in and struck at her side. She caught the tongs of his sai on the edge of the tessan. Raph looked up to see her masked face inches from his. Casey had told Raph before that he painted his mask in an attempt to look scarier, but Raph had to say looking at Grandma's stark white mask with creepy and piercing glowing green eyes was much more unnerving than a painted skull.
Grandma disengaged from Raph's sai in time to push Leo's sword away from her and make herself an opening to hit Leo in the plastron. Raph saw something out of the corner of his eye and moved in time to watch Casey whack his hockey stick into Grandma's head with a yell. There was a loud crack.
Everyone paused for a moment.
"Uh, Casey. That might've been too far."
There was laughter. Grandma turned to look at Casey, "I didn't know you had that in you!"
Her mask was cracked all up the right side of the face, the light in that eye having gone out.
"You might be a worthy opponent yet!"
Grandma ripped the mask off her face and threw it behind her, hitting Donnie in the head.
"Ow!"
The lower half of her face was still covered in the cloth mask, but now her eyes were visible. Raph decided he preferred the unnatural green eyes to her real ones, which were filled with a burning intensity.
She tossed the tessan over her shoulder and dropped herself into a boxing stance. The tessan nearly hit Leo, who dodged it in time. Instead it hit Donnie, who was getting up off the floor, right in the face.
"Why!?"
Once Donnie's vision cleared, he handed April her tessan before looking back at the action. Grandma had uppercut Casey with enough force he was now on the ground several feet away. She managed to hog tie Leo with his own mask, and Raph was trying to cut him free. And now she was coming towards them.
"Hey! That's mine!"
Grandma yanked Donnie's staff out of his hands and slammed it into April's abdomen. April gasped and curled in on herself, crumbling to the ground. Grandma then swept the staff behind Donnie's knees before jabbing the end into the front of Donnie's shoulder.
Donnie was suddenly staring up at the rafters. Grandma's face appeared above his, blocking the view of the rafters. She was resting his bo-staff along her shoulders, the backlight framing her in a halo. Donnie's breath caught.
She was clearly tiring. She was breathing heavy and sweating. She switched her hold on the bo so it was now in front of her. She moved as if she were going to hit Donnie with it again, but her body was forced to bend backwards as Casey's hockey stick caught her around the neck.
Grandma made a choking sound as she stumbled back. She instinctively released Donnie's staff to grab at her neck. Raph then tackled her again, this time moving to pin her arm down before she could recover. He threw his leg across her chest in a attempt to control her other arm. Casey ran in to help. Grandma started growling and thrashing. Donnie was just sitting up when Leo ran past him and jumped on her kicking legs.
All Donnie could see was a pile of wiggling limbs. The horns went off. Grandma let out an anguished scream.
"The only reason you won was because I was not allowed to bring my own weapons."
"Uh huh."
"Were I allowed to fight you at a higher level, you would have been crushed!"
"Uh huh."
Grandma had introduced herself as 'Cassandra' once Raph had called her 'Other-Casey'. Cassandra made it clear only her friends were allowed to call her 'Casey,' and as they were not friends, they had to call her 'Cassandra'. She was now leading them to their final arena.
She was mourning her loss by shoving boxed brownies into her mouth. She also made it clear they were her brownies and her brownies alone, nearly murdering Casey when she saw his hand in the box.
The sky was beginning to lighten, and it was making Leo nervous. Cassandra assured him they were almost there.
Leo noticed the same symbol Other-April had on her jacket was printed onto her belt.
"Here we are. The Doom Dome."
Cassandra led them through the entrance. The Doom Dome was circular with an open air ceiling, seats ringed around the dirt floor of the stadium. It looked like the stadium was last used for some kind of demolition derby, as vehicles in various states were scattered around. Cassandra simply jumped the railing from the seats down to the ground, dirt kicking up in a cloud at her feet. Leo and the rest of the team followed her example, jumping into the arena.
Leo glanced up at the sky, seeing the first colors of sunrise appearing, before hearing whooping off to the side. In the stands there was almost everyone they've faced so far, and some unfamiliar faces, all clustered together. Most appeared to be wearing pajamas. Primetime stood in an aisle with a microphone.
Cassandra made her way over to the group as Primetime began speaking.
"IT'S TIME FOR THE FINALS!"
More cheering.
"AFTER A LONG, LONG NIGHT OF COMPETEING, WE HAVE OUR FINALISTS HERE WITH US THIS MORNING. IN THE VISITORS CORNER, WE HAVE THE TEAM KNOCK-OFF BRAND."
The audience boo-ed.
"AND IN THE RETURNING CORNER WE HAVE THE, NOT ONE, NOT TWO, BUT CONSECUTIVE TEN YEAR CHAMPION OF THE BATTLE NEXUS!"
More cheers. Leo scanned the arena, looking for their competitor.
"YOU KNEW HIM AS LOU JITSU! I SIMPLY KNOW HIM AS DAD-"
Leo's heart stopped. Someone sucked in a gasp behind him. They were fighting Master Splinter? They've never won against their father before.
"AND TONIGHT HE WILL BE REPRISING THE ROLE OF RAT JITSU!"
The audience stood and screamed, stomping their feet. Spotlights turned on and made a sweep of the arena before they all landed on one car. Where a short rat-man stood in a pose, wearing a tight blue jumpsuit and yellow glasses. Leo clapped his hands over his ears as fireworks went off.
"HOT SOUP!"
