Chapter four:
Donatello stops them as they reach the spot where he had picked up the signal. "The signal was here but it's gone now." He mentions. "I'll try to see if there's any traces of it." He scans the area looking for it. "Nothing. Maybe it was going to open a portal but didn't." He sighs after speaking to which Splinter speaks up.
"It is alright Donatello. You cannot control how this world works. We'll try to find the next one instead." Splinters words do seem to help Donatello relax a little as if it's what he needed to hear. His gaze shows total faith in the abilities of the turtles in the group to be able to survive this.
Donatello nods his head and begins looking for any signs of another portal opening. He stops as a voice yelps in surprise not too far away.
"That sounded like Mikey!" Raphael gasps and dashes that way with Leonardo and Donatello.
Then the others join in on heading towards where the sound came from.
They all arrive to find a Mikey who looks to be from the same world as Donatello, Leonardo, and Raphael.
This Mikey, who'll be called Mike, has a rather cute looking puffy ends of his bandana mask. He turns to them confused and surprised. "Whoa! So did you all come here through portals too?" He grins purely childish making Leo realize how childish and cute he is.
Leo didn't expect much considering Mikes looks. He also knows that even his worlds Mikey is childish so it's usual for him to see that look on him. "Yup. You're our newest member. We have to leave this place."
Before Mike could ask why the ground shakes with a particularly hard rumble.
Leo glances back seeing the ground cracking behind them. He realizes that either the crumbling is expanding, or it's a particularly bad one. "Follow me!" He shouts taking the lead as he gets them away from the crumbling ground. He stops to turn hearing Michelangelo scream.
Michelangelo tries to jump to safety with ground crumbling beneath his feet.
Raph hurries over and reaches out towards Michelangelo who reaches for him.
The ground shifts under where Michelangelo had landed. It dips and he moves forward hoping to get to safety. It collapses and he lets out another scream terrified.
The scream is cut short as Raph dives down enough to grab his hand.
Raph now has almost half of his body hanging over the edge. As he tries to hold onto the ground with his free hand.
Leo puts down Splinter by Donatello who searches for any portal. He hurries with Raphael, Leonardo, Mike, and Don to pull the two to safety... Or what they think is safety...
The ground cracks some more causing everyone there to rush away from it.
Leo takes the back to make sure no one gets left behind. He can feel the ground slip away behind him with each step he takes.
Mike stumbles and falls to his hands and knees for a moment.
Leo moves quickly and nudges him to his feet then gently pushes him to keep going.
Mike does so and keeps running for safe ground. He seems to understand that a thank you can be saved for later.
Leo almost falls back as the ground starts to catch up with him. He uses one of his swords, wedging it in a crack, to pull himself forward before taking it out of the crack. He makes a dash for the solid ground seeing the others get to safety. He feels the whole cracked ground fall all at once taking him with it.
"Leo!" Raph calls out hurrying to try to link hands with Leo who reaches back. He even dives to try to do so, sliding on his stomach on the ground.
Their hands just miss each other to which they share a horrified look.
Leo feels panic flood his chest as he falls towards the darkness. His eyes glancing to the rocky cliffs that seem to go down all the way where land is. He blinks as an idea comes to his head. He'll have to act fast since the darkness is approaching fast. He swings his sword slamming it into the rock. He gasps as he is stopped abruptly though clings to his blades handle. He closes his eyes scared knowing he'll fall if his sword breaks. He isn't even sure if his sword can support his weight, let alone withstand the force of stopping his fall. He just has to hope it can.
The sword is truly his last hope at surviving this.
Leo peeks one eye open then the other. He's hanging by his sword, only having thoughts that it won't hold for long. He can see the sword straining under his weight. He carefully moves to the wall grabbing onto its uneven surface. Once his hands and feet are held onto the wall like a rock climber he removes his sword from the wall. He puts it away then glances down. He finds it rather unnerving how instead of darkness covering a never ending fall, it is instead darkness that swallows everything. He can see that it's so close to him like dark water below the land left in this world.
"Leo! Are you okay?!" Raphs voice brings Leo out of his thoughts of the darkness.
Leo glances up managing to see everyone in the group looking down at him. He thinks it could be a mixture of relief and concern. "I'm not hurt." He informs Raph then glances at the wall. "Just got a bit of climbing to do." He could still fall and he knows it. He isn't sure that he could save himself a second time if he does. He focuses on trying to climb the rocky wall as best as he can. He tests out each spot before putting his weight on them or trusts his grip to it. He can hear echoes of the others discussing how they can help him... If they can help him. He lets them figure that out as he focuses on the climb.
If they can help they'll figure it out.
Leo places his foot on one spot testing it only for it to crumble away. He grips tighter to where his hands are. He sits there for a brief moment letting his heart settle. He then finds a new spot to put his foot down on. He sighs in relief and keeps climbing. His hands are getting sore as he slowly makes his way towards the top. He groans seeing he may be about only halfway from the top, going by about the point where he got on the wall compared to the top. He pushes himself to slowly and carefully climb.
At the top the group can't agree on how to help Leo.
"These have holes in them." Donatello points out gesturing to his own bandana mask. "They're not made to hold someone's weight. Especially not a more adult weight. It'll likely snap and send him falling into that darkness. Plus it could possibly be not long enough to even reach him."
"What about your staff?" Mike brings up causing Donatello to turn to him. "You modified it like my Donnie did right? Why not make it super long?"
"I don't have a feature that'd work for this." Donatello explains to Mike who slightly slouches in disappointment that his idea failed. "And I can't add it in time even if I had all the materials to do so."
"Why didn't you think about a situation when that could have been useful?" Raph growls as he tries to hide that he's just scared of losing his Leo.
"I couldn't have known we'd end up here and would need such a feature!" Donatello retorts to Raph. "I worked on better features for the situations in my world!"
"Boys. Stop it. This is not the time to fight." Splinter moves between them to break up the fight.
"We still have to find a way to save Leo... The Leo that fell down there. He's clever for using his sword." Don admits though keeps it short as Leo's life is on the line still. "He's not out of danger yet."
"What if we tie our weapons together?" Michelangelo suggests gaining the others attention as they quiet down. "Then he could either climb up it or he could hold on as we pull him up."
"There's a chance the weapons could get caught." Don brings a hand to his chin in thought. "We'd be better off trying our masks before our weapons. If we all used staffs like us Donatellos use then maybe. But it's less likely to work well enough."
"Then we use our masks. We have to take the chance to get him to safety. The ground could crumble at any moment." Raph removes his mask with the others following.
They tie them together making a makeshift rope.
Raph takes it when it's done and tosses one side over the edge. He holds the other end in his hand. He watches it go down and manage to reach Leo. "Grab on!" He calls to make sure that his brother notices.
Leo turns to the dangling makeshift rope. He reaches towards it as Raph tries to swing it closer. He hopes that he can reach it as he'll get to safety faster. He still remembers that at any moment the ground could crumble.
Suddenly cracks start coming up from below Leo who hears them coming.
Leo knows he'll have to take a chance and trust his abilities. He leaps away from the wall reaching for the makeshift rope. His heart pounding in his chest hoping that he'll make it.
