Disclaimer: I don't own the TMNT. Just the world of Haradris and all of its inhabitants.
A/N: Yeah, yeah, I know it's a bit quick to have this thing up and running, but I couldn't keep the thing inside anymore. It's been pounding at my mind's locked door ever since chapter twenty-eight on TM. So, without further ado, let me introduce you to my first chapter in this story - and CLIFFY! BWAHAHAHAH!
1.
Don picked at the fragment of yellow eggshell on his desk with a scalpel and made a frustrated grunting noise. For the past week he'd been trying to get a sliver of the fragment off the larger specimen to no avail. Nothing seemed to penetrate its defenses. He'd tried hydrochloric acid, the sound test that had worked on liquefying the Elentian crystals, even a flame test. Nothing, it seemed, would be able to damage this thing. "You dragons are a handful when it comes to examining something as simple as a piece of your egg!" he growled, leaning back in his chair and sighing.
Saesha didn't even bat an eyelid. "It's not my fault," she said serenely from her perch atop Don's computer monitor. "Only Aireilei knows about where we come from and she doesn't even know how to get there." She shifted slightly, settling into a 'lay down' position, paws underneath her muzzle.
Don shot a searing glare at the egg fragment currently sitting on the desk, as if hoping to disintegrate it where it sat. He scratched one furry ear ruefully, squinting at the stubborn shard of matter, muttering incoherent phrases.
The lavender dragon opened one amethyst eye and smiled. "Maybe that's because it's Iwansi's egg fragment," she said in answer to one of his annoyed words.
The aforementioned dragon stuck her yellow head through Don's subway door and frowned. "Was that an insult, dear sister of mine?" she asked sweetly, eyes narrowing in mock threatening.
Saesha flicked her tail absently. "I was only saying that you're difficult."
Iwansi puffed a black cloud of smoke out her nostrils. "Whatever, Princess Plum." A horrified screech rang out from near the monitor wall, making Don jump in his chair and Saesha jerk her head up from upon her paws in surprise at the sudden noise.
"I'm melting! MELTING!"
"Man, could you be any more of a drama hag? Seriously, I've heard Shredder scream out more melodiously than that!"
"Stupid Wicked Witch of the West," Iwansi muttered scornfully, squealing a claw on the steel floor. She turned around, tail twitching. "Hey, Mikey! Can't you find something better to watch? I'm sick and tired of hearing Dorothy whimper!"
Don sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Iwansi, was there a good reason for coming in here to annoy me?" he inquired patiently. Even his tolerance has limits, and Iwansi was a practiced adept at finding them.
The yellow dragon thought for a moment, then nodded, ears flattening as she heard the sound of hooting, flying monkeys in the background. "Uh, yeah, now that I think about it, Aireilei said she needed to see that egg fragment a minute. She thinks she knows what it can do."
His ears perked up considerably. "'Can do'?"
Iwansi sat down abruptly and twisted around to scratch an irritating itch on the base of her long ear with her metal cyborg leg. "Yup, she told me that she can explain it when you get there." The Cowardly Lion began singing an abrasively joyful ballad in the background. "If that bloody lion says one more thing, I'll go fry that tape within the next five minutes!" Iwansi growled through her teeth, letting out a sigh of relief and dropping her tensed leg when the itch stopped.
"Hahah! Eat that!" A muffled thump, followed by a squeal of mock rage rebounded off the subway car walls.
Don twisted around in his seat, a questioning frown on his green face. "Was that Rijinn I just heard?" he inquired, surprised, since the little red dragon was rarely seen without Raph.
"Yup," Iwansi confirmed. "Lately he's been getting into the habit of brawling with Bima in the dojo."
"Well, it's an awful good thing that they're not their original size!" Two months ago, Raph had gotten into a fight with Leo and true to form, went on a run to cool off. That was when he'd met Aireilei (who was human at that point in time and was known as Keilah), cornered in an alley by a gang of Purple Dragons. The hoodlums had seen the girl transform into a dragon. They hadn't known that the dragon itself was a different entity from another world. Raph had been about to jump down and beat up the good-for-nuthin's to a pulp when Keilah released Bima and scared them off. The two had met briefly only to be captured by a duo named Keron and Nechai. Both worked for a character named Tiquae, who also worked under Shredder. Raph had simply been along because he was a witness. Long story short, Bima, with the help of the turtles, Leatherhead, and Splinter, had hunted down and released all four of her siblings from their prisons inside Japanese stone tablets. Then was when they'd found out that Keilah was a humanoid-like dragon from the world of Haradris, a realm that was currently in chaos, as were the other five dragons. The turtles had traveled from Japan to New York and beat the ever-loving snot out of Tiquae, who was killed after the battle from result of an enormous energy discharge from Donatello himself. The dragons had been turned into gemstone figurines the height of a ballpoint pen. It had been two months after the fight that Lord Simultaneous appeared in the Lair when all were asleep and revived the dragons. The five dragon siblings, however, had not returned to their original sizes and stayed at the height of a forearm. "The dojo would be an absolute mess!"
"It already is without the factor of size to matter," Saesha commented, shifting her grip on the computer monitor.
Iwansi poked Don in the shin with one of her clawed paws. "Sometime today would be nice, oh Mr. Genius," she prodded.
Don shook his head and leapt to his feet, pulling his tail out of the chair with a powerful whip-like motion. "I'm coming, I'm coming!" He grabbed his Bo and slipped it into the holster on his back. Then he maneuvered his tail to grab the comb-sized fragment of yellow egg from his desk, wrapping it firmly in the coils of lithe purple scale and muscle.
"Show-off," Saesha chided, taking hurried flight and settling, catlike, on Don's right shoulder. She nipped playfully at his lavender ears as he bounced energetically down the steps to the main part of the Lair.
"Hey, knock it off!" The turtle-dragon flattened the objects of her entertainment against his skull.
Iwansi grunted dejectedly, following close behind the two friends. "Oh sure, she gets a shoulder!" The yellow dragon bounded spasmodically toward Aireilei, who was currently sitting on a corner of the dojo mat, waxing her bowstring with a bit of beeswax. Without breaking her monotonous rhythm, she held the bow out of flames reach as Rijinn spewed bullets of ruby fire at his silver-blue sister.
"C'mere, ya chicken of the sea!" he taunted, tackling the silver-blue dragon into the pool of water in the middle of the dojo. The silver-blue dragon grinned beneath the maelstrom of bubbles, white teeth glinting maliciously as she activated her water breathing ability. Only then did he realize Bima was in her element and scrambled hurriedly out of the water, dripping.
Don yelped and ducked Bima's explosive counterattack, diving to Aireilei to land, undignified, on his plastron by her full quiver of diamond-headed arrows. "You called?" he panted, holding the egg fragment in the air. Saesha released her frantic hold on Don's shell rim with a snort of contempt regarding Iwansi's ridiculous behavior. Her sister stuck her pointed tongue out as a rebuttal to Saesha's silent scolding.
The white dragon gave him a toothy grin of thanks, snatching the proffered shard of yellow matter from his tail's grip. "Thank you, oh wise and graceful one." Aireilei squinted critically at it as Don got up with a grunt.
"I'm gonna go see what Raph's doing, 'kay?" Saesha adjusted her grip once more in preparation just in case Don had to take another disgraceful dive. The turtle checked for a cease-fire in the chaotic battle between the two grappling siblings before running, ninja speed, to the other side of the Lair and flipping off a yellow stone pillar to land neatly on the second level.
"Again I say it: show off," Saesha muttered as Don opened Raph's door.
Aireilei grinned at them before resuming her critical observation. "Well, let me see. If I'm correct,this thing contains a bit of natural magic," she mused, turning the fragment of egg over in her hands, putting her bowstring down beside her bow and quiver.
"Yeah, yeah, just get to the point!" Iwansi stood on her hind legs, bracing herself against Aireilei's forearm. "What about natural magic?"
"It's things like natural magic that make things such as birth without…uh, you know, possible." The white dragon scratched at it with her claw, holding it out of flame's reach as Rijinn launched yet another bombardment of fire on his sister. "That's how my mother managed to conceive you five. All she had to do was wait for the right moment and the right time before blowing a bit of dragon fire on my egg fragment."
"HIYA!" THWACK! Bima had just unleashed a rapid tornado kick on Rijinn, who went sailing through the air to land in the water once more. She dove underwater with a small splash, no doubt to get him where he was weak.
Iwansi gave Aireilei a quizzical look. "So what this means is that you're going to get pregnant." Aireilei stared at her, trying to contemplate the question intelligently, for a few seconds and began roaring with helpless laughter. All activity ceased until she waved a hand to continue doing their thing, still giggling distantly.
"No, that doesn't happen on Earth, silly!" Iwansi furrowed her brow and blew a stray strand of fur out of her eye. "But, if you're not on Haradris, I do believe the only thing it does is transport all beings with dragon in them to Haradris."
"So in other words, pack your bags cuz we're leaving."
"Well, not necessarily. After lying dormant for a millennia in that cave in Japan, it might've worn off."
She looked a tad disappointed. "So we won't get to kick Pastey's rear?"
Aireilei gazed at Iwansi for a while before speaking. "I suppose that's why we must go. To relieve my home of that slug. They've been waiting for my returnfor nearly fivehundredyears."
"Five hundred? Renet told me it was a thousand!"
"Time passes differently in different worlds, Iwansi. A year here would equal half of one in Haradris."
Iwansi frowned. "I'd think that Pastey would have enough time to take over Hardris in five hundred years!"
"Actually, we Haradrians are a stubborn bunch. If something happens and we don't like it, it could take a very long time to get the situation under control. The denizens are apprently still fighting back, but with fewer numbers than when I was there."
"So the days are really long then?"
"No, it's rather complicated. Maybe I can tell you later. Now, breathe a bit of smoke on this when I tell you to." Aireilei put the object of interest on the floor with a soft clink. Iwansi went down on all fours and tossed her head to rid her eyes of the obtrusion that was her long tuft of yellow fur.
"Now?"
"Now." A small puff of black smoke coupled with ashes floated from the smaller dragon's nostrils and once touched, the egg fragment glowed briefly before returning to its original dull color. "Try some fire." At the moment Don, Raph and Saesha exited Raph's room, Rijinn was hurled back into the wall, as was Bima, from a counterattack that made both go flying. Iwansi spat a miniscule amount of yellow fire at it and the shard of matter exploded into bright colors.
The two stunned dragon siblings suddenly began dematerializing on the spot and then materializing. Don bellowed a shout of surprise before leaping down from above, Raph following close behind.
"Guys! We're in flux! Grab somebody before you—" He hadn't a chance to finish, for just as he reached Rijinn, he, Saesha, and Raph disappeared.
Mikey jumped over the couch with a squeal. "I think we're crossing dimensions!" he cried, grabbing Aireilei's long tail. "Hold on to your britches!" Bima landed on the white dragon's lap, along with a drowsy Kiyo, who had no idea what was going on at the moment.
"Why's everything so fuzzy?" he asked aloud as they fizzled out of existence.
Leo ran out of his room and followed suit with a shocked yell. The only sound left in the entire Lair was Dorothy whimpering, "There's no place like home…there's no place like home.." after the hot air balloon left without her.
AUGH! (dodges a chair) Well, I didn't say it was going to be a happy ending, did I? And besides, you should thank me! I was planning on releasing it sometime in August! (household appliances freeze in the air and slowly set down) And about the 'Wizard of Oz', I honestly couldn't think of a different annoying movie to have Mikey watching. Sorry.
LN