Displaced

Chapter 2

The Turtles were all perched on a rooftop above a vetinarian's clinic. Donnie had figured out that the medicine that usually works on them wasn't cutting it for their guest. So they were here to do some research and determine what medicine might work in reducing a fever for a turtle.

Splinter was watching over Raphael while they were out. He was three days into his fever and they had resorted to keeping him partially submerged to help reduce the fever. It had everyone in the lair on edge, most noticeably Leo. Their leader was currently pacing the length of the roof, clearly agitated.

"Come on…the clinic closed two hours ago." Mikey wined.

Donnie rolled his eyes, "We can't go in while the staff are still there; we need time to poke around. It won't be a quick in and out job."

"What is this guy working on anyway?" Raph grumbled.

Donnie glanced down through the skylight where one of the vets was aggressively typing away at the computer. Unfortunately, it wasn't an Academic Paper or something. It was a romance novel. Donnie figured offering that tidbit of information would not help the frustration of his brothers.

Leo paced past again, "Who do you figure Raphael was fighting?"

That caught Donnie's attention. They had all wondered, but with their counterpart down with a fever there was on one to ask.

Mikey jumped to his feet eagerly, "Oh, I know. It was aliens! They must have made the portal! Maybe he was fighting Kraang like we did!"

"That triangle looked nothing like the portal we had to deal with." Donnie pointed out, before turning to Leo, "Who do you think he was fighting?"

"Shredder." Leo immediately offered.

"Not every enemy is the Foot Leo." Raphael grumbled.

"Who do you think it was?" Leo asked.

Raph crossed his arms, "Someone they were all fighting. Else he wouldn't believe his brothers saw him get tossed through a portal."

Mikey nodded sagely, "Or he took on a fight he couldn't win and got stomped. I could see you doing that."

Raph rounded on Mikey, "Excuse me?"

Mikey yelped and jumped away as Raph gave chase, "It's true!"

Leo turned to Donnie, "Who do you think it was?"

Donnie bit his lip before offering, "What if it was both?"

Mikey looked over from where he and Raph were wrestling, "Both?"

Donnie glanced down through the skylight again, "Yeah. The nature of the damage suggests three blades parallel to each other. However the portal suggests Kraang, assuming there are variations of the same enemies we've faced in Raphael's home dimension."

"Ohh, maybe he fought a bear!" Mikey jumped in.

"A bear?" Raph asked as he dropped Mikey.

"Yeah, three claws in parallel! Oh, or maybe it was an alligator!"

Donnie rolled his eyes and turned back to Leo, "Why is this bothering you so much?"

"You know that feed we set up on the portal roof?" Leo asked.

They all nodded, it had been a fairly quick set up honestly. Leo sighed and continued, "Why haven't his brothers come through yet? We've been watching for them, so we didn't miss them."

That was a hard question to answer. And one Donnie had been aggressively avoiding as he focused on keeping Raphael alive. Mikey slid over to Leo and patted him on the shoulder, "On the plus side, we don't have to deal with a furious other-dimension you!"

Leo turned to Mikey with a raised eyebrow, "Furious?"

"Yeah!" Mikey chirped as he jumped over toward Raph, "I mean, Raphael is in a fever coma. Flip the dimensions and you would be trying to stab someone."

"I wouldn't…" Leo started.

Donnie quickly cut in before Leo could say something Raph would take the wrong way, "Hey, he's leaving!"

His brothers swiftly joined him at the skylight; Raph grumbling, "Finally."

Donnie agreed, it was time to get what they came for.

Raphael blinked his eyes open. He brought his hand up to rub at his eyes. He felt terrible.

Then he saw where he was. Some sort of cobbled together medical room, with sewer brick visible above the hanging lights. Right, he was in some other dimension, with giant versions of him and his brothers. Raphael resisted the urge to groan. Why hadn't it been the comedy dimension? These guys might accidentally kill him just by stepping on him.

He sighed, and tried to sit up. He had multiple IV drips in his arm, and many bandages all over his body. He looked with concern at the number of bandages around his chest and shoulder. Hesitantly he reached up over his right shoulder to feel how bad the damage to his shell was. His hand met nothing. His eyes widened. Searching around, he finally touched shell, but it was jagged, and way too far back.

Taking a deep breath, he put it from his mind. He'd gotten scars on his shell before. An ugly scar was worth the price of keeping his family safe. Seeking distraction, he looked around as he carefully swung his legs over the edge of the massive cot. The bed was sized for the mammoth turtles of this dimension. On the table nearby, there was a tablet propped up. It was showing a feed of the rooftop where the portal had dropped him off. It was a bright day judging from the feed, and he could just see the edge of the message he had left. Raphael smiled. He wouldn't even need to leave the lair to keep an eye out for his brothers coming to bring him home. His mask was beside the tablet.

Raphael felt his smile falter as he reached for his mask. Sneaking out right after being bandaged up wasn't the smartest thing he had done, though from his fuzzy memories he must have been drugged up on plenty of pain killers. He vaguely remembered being chased by Leo and Raph. He'd have to apologize for the trouble. Glancing back at the table and down to his bandages he amended his through. He'd have to thank them all for helping him.

Carefully, he slipped down from the cot. Glancing around, he realized Donnie was asleep in the corner. The massive turtle looked exhausted, and was sleeping deeply. His computer backpack was on the ground beside him. Raphael sighed as he considered the IVs in his arm. Donnie had clearly done a lot of work on him, no point in destroying that. Instead he carefully unlocked the stand the IV's were on, and brought it with him.

Then he set out to explore this dimension's lair.

Casey trotted down the sewer trail to the turtle's home. He hadn't even changed out of his uniform he was so excited to tell them the news! Even as he walked, he realized he hadn't thought this all the way through. The turtles would probably still be asleep, nocturnal as they are.

Still, he shifted the pizzas and fruit to his other hand and pulled a lever behind an un-assuming brick. The false wall slid back just enough for him to slip through. He tapped the control on the inside of the door to prompt it to close. Then he walked the last couple feet to reach the main area.

To his surprise, the small Raphael was standing in the center, naked save for the bandages, dragging his IV stand with him, and the tablet with the roof feed in his other hand. Casey grinned, watching the smaller turtle look around the lair, eyes curiously jumping over everything. Then his eyes settled on Casey.

Casey grinned and held up the food, "Glad to see you up and about! Hungry?"

"Who are you?" The small turtle asked.

Casey chuckled as he walked toward the kitchen area, giving Raphael plenty of space, "I'm Casey Jones. Don't tell me you don't have a Casey Jones in your dimension?!"

Raphael followed him quietly, still keeping a bit of distance, "You're Casey? But you're a cop!"

"Corrections actually, but that's about to change. Don't tell me I'm some pencil pusher in your dimension." Casey asked as he set the food down.

"You're a teenage punk vigilante."

Casey laughed a bit at that as he pulled out his phone, "Really? At least tell me I still like hockey!"

Raphael chuckled, "That you do. I've lost count of how many hockey sticks he's broken on Kraang Droids."

Casey quickly texted Raph as he asked, "Kraang Droids? As in, plural?"

Raphael crept closer to the food as he answered, "Yeah, they're real annoying too. You don't have Kraang here?"

Casey grinned as saw an answering text from Raph. Then he looked up at Raphael and said, "We've only met one Kraang, but he did have a robot body he was piloting. Called himself Commander Kraang."

Raphael started opening the different pizzas, looking at his options, "Huh. Weird. So why be a cop?"

Casey tossed an apple toward Raphael, "You're probably not up to Pizza yet. Start with this. And I wanted to serve and protect. Not to mention bring criminals to justice for the good of the city."

Raphael caught the apple and carefully set the tablet down on the table so he could keep watching it, "Not up to pizza?"

Casey tilted his head, "Raphael, you've been down for two weeks. These guys were terrified they'd lose you despite their best efforts. You only broke the fever a few days ago. So yeah, give your stomach time to get used to solid food again."

Raphael just blinked at him. Then he turned his gaze to the tablet, "Two weeks?"

Casey frowned, mentally sliding his estimate of how old Raphael was lower. He had guessed eighteen or so, since the turtles he was familiar with were roughly nineteen or twenty. Now he'd guess sixteen or seventeen. Casey glanced at the tablet, he could already see potential dependency on it as Raphael dealt with the trauma of …well, everything.

A low rumble called out, "Casey, what's with the pizza?"

They both turned to see Raph walking over toward them, a black knit bundle in his hands. Casey grinned, "I got accepted to the academy! Classes start in two weeks!"

Raph grinned widely, "That's awesome. Detective Jones moving up in the world!"

Raph held out his hand for a fist bump, which Casey cheerfully returned. Then Raph held out the bundle in his other hand toward Raphael, "Here, I don't know how it is in your dimension, but you can't just wander around naked."

"Naked?" Raphael looked genuinely confused as he looked down at himself.

"Just put it on." Raph grumbled, "We'll figure out pants later."

Raphael took the bundle and shook it out. It was a knit black poncho with a red pattern on it. The pattern was the flower symbol they had found on a shrunken in Raphael's belt. Casey grinned, it had been fun listening to Raph gripe and growl about getting the pattern right. Eventually they had asked a knitting club online. Some sweet little grandma had helped them get the count right. They even embellished it with a red stripe around the neck and lower edge. The end result was actually pretty cool looking.

Never one to pass up a teasing jab, Casey offered, "Knitted with love by Raph."

Raphael just lifted an eyebrow at Raph. Raph just met him dead on, "What, you don't knit?"

Raphael snorted out a laugh as he pulled the poncho on, "No, knitting has literally never occurred to me. Never thought of myself as naked before either. This dimension is weird." Then he seemed to remember himself, "Thank you for the poncho."

"No problem. How are you feeling?"

Raphael glanced at the tablet, "Better, I guess." Then he took a bite of apple.

Casey snagged a slice of pizza before sliding it toward Raph. Raph took his own slice as he offered, "You had us pretty worried. It's good you're back on your feet."

"What happened anyway?" Casey asked. He'd been holding his curiosity at bay since April had told him about the small dimension traveler, and couldn't wait another moment.

Raphael looked away, hand with the apple dropping to the table. Casey yelped as Raph kicked him in the shin. The yelp must have woke up the others, because they started slowly filtering out of their rooms.

Mikey dropped down from the upper level with a broad grin, "Hey, little Raph is up! Sup Officer Jones?"

"It'll be Detective Jones soon." Casey answered.

"Ohhh, Detective in the house!" Mikey crowed.

"Congratulations Casey." Leo offered as he wandered about the kitchen.

Donnie burst out of the medical area, "Guys! Raphael is….Oh, there he is."

Raphael waved the apple at him as he took another bite. Casey noted he was watching the other turtles warily, if not nervously.

Casey leaned forward conspiratorially, "Don't worry about them, they're pretty good at not stepping on us normal height guys. Beside, I'm pretty sure Donnie would kill whoever messes up his work on you."

"I'm not worried." Raphael lied.

Casey just leaned back and winked at him. Raphael was going to be fun company. Casey was also able to watch as all the turtles surreptitiously inspected their small counterpart. All from safely behind him where he couldn't spot them of course. The turtles puttered about the kitchen, idly starting their day and enjoying the pizza.

Just as Leo finished brewing the tea, Splinter joined them, "Good morning my sons, Officer Casey." Then Splinter caught sight of Raphael, "And Raphael. I'm glad to see you awake."

Raphael slid down from his seat and formally bowed to Splinter, "Thank you Master Splinter. And…thank you for housing me and helping with my wounds."

All the turtles froze as they watched the exchange. Casey narrowed his eyes at the shocking formality. Splinter merely retuned the bow and said, "We are glad to help. You are our guest for as long as you need. Now." Splinter snagged a pizza with his tail as he changed the topic, "What brings you here today Mr. Jones?"

The conversation meandered until it was time for the turtles to train. Casey excused himself and made his way out of the lair to get some rest. He mentally ran over the meal in his head. Despite moving about a bit, Raphael hadn't let the tablet be more than arm's length from him at any given moment. He had also been tense and quiet. That could stem from a lot of things, and in truth, none of them actually knew Raphael. They could all guess he was like their own Raph, but they didn't know.

With a sigh, Casey resolves to brush up on some of his study of trauma on kids. He had a sinking feeling it would be needed.

Leo grinned as he carried the case to the medical alcove. As he entered, he could see Donnie moving about the space as he inspected their small charge. Raphael for his part was just watching him warily as he sat on the cot. Leo fought to keep a goofy grin off his face. There was just something about this tiny turtle using all these things that were sized for Leo's brothers that struck him as funny.

"Donnie, mind if I borrow your patient for a moment?" Leo asked.

Donnie took a step back as he shut down his various holograms, "Of course. Just not for too long. Raphael still needs to rest."

"I'm fine." Came the predictable grumble.

"No Raphael, you're not." Donnie stooped down to be eye level with his patient, "And given how not fine you are, it wouldn't be that much of a challenge for me to make you rest; so let's save everyone the trouble and just cooperate with doctor's orders, okay?"

Raphael's response was to pull his lips thin, however he nodded, relenting to Donnie's orders. Satisfied Donnie stepped back and went to putter with something in the back of the lab.

Leo stepped forward and knelt down, "We weren't able to find your other sai; however from your gear it's clear that you're used to two. So I took the liberty of making you a second sai."

Then he opened the box. Inside he had lined it with some velvet to hold Raphael's original sai and the one Leo had forged. He was quite proud of his work, despite it easily being one of the smallest weapons he had crafted. The new sai was forged using the same dimensions as the old one; and Mikey had helped him find some red colored leather to use on the handle. It was a darker burgundy color compared to the original. He had also stamped the little flower symbol they had found on Raphael's shrunken onto the sai pommel as well.

Raphael's eyes went wide. He hesitantly reached out for both sai; comfortably gripping both of them. A genuine smile spread on his face as he twirled them into different grips.

"How's the balance?" Leo asked.

"It's great. They're a little different, however that's easy to adjust to. You forged this?" Raphael was carefully examining the small etching of the flower symbol.

"Yes. I made the weapons for all my brothers." Leo smiled as he closed the box.

Raphael's smile fell, and his eyes got distant. Leo's own smile fell as well; wondering what he had said.

The Raphael looked Leo directly in the eyes; his own green eyes narrowed, "Why are you doing all this?"

Leo was genuinely confused, and it must have shown. Raphael continued, "Taking me in, healing me, setting up the cameras," then he lifted the new sai, "making me a weapon. Why?"

"Because you needed help." Leo was stumped. Wasn't it self-evident why they had helped him?

Raphael seemed unsure how to proceed as well; simply watching Leo through guarded eyes.

So Leo tried a different tactic, "Are you really telling me you and your brothers wouldn't help someone who literally collapsed at their feet?"

"Of course we would help!" Raphael was quick to answer, heat in his voice.

"Well, there's your answer." Leo offered a gentle smile.

Raphael still looked uncomfortable as he considered the sai in his hands. This got Leo thinking; there had to be more to what was going on.

Leo frowned slightly, "Raphael; what happened when you lost your sai?"

That was evidently the exactly wrong thing to say. Raphael's whole body seized up; and his eyes became unfocused. Leo was abruptly dragged backwards by Donnie, as the resident medic said "That's enough for today. Raphael, how many fingers am I holding up?"

Donnie planted himself between Leo and Raphael, one hand extended. Leo noticed that Donnie was a good step outside of striking range. Donnie called out again, "How many fingers Raphael?"

Raphael blinked and squinted at Donnie, "Two, why?"

Donnie offered a bright fake grin, "Just checking. Visiting hours are over, get some more rest." Then Donnie unceremoniously drug Leo out of the medical cove. Leo went willingly; and Donnie shoved him out into the main area. Raph and Mikey looked up at the noise.

Donnie stepped right up into Leo's space, and Leo was unpleasantly reminded that Donnie was actually the second tallest turtle. Donnie looked furious, "What were you thinking?"

"I just asked…"

"A damn stupid question. Whatever brought Raphael here is still within the last 72 hours for him. We've had two weeks to process and ponder; he hasn't. Give. Him. Time." Then Donnie looked around at his other brothers, "That goes for you all too."

Raph just gave a thumbs up, "Doctor Don's orders."

"How much time? I have questions that need answers!" Mikey whined.

Donnie just snorted and retreated to the medical cove. Leo looked over at his brothers. Raph set down the weight he was using and asked, "So, did he like the sai?"

Leo shrugged, "He didn't stab me in the eye, so probably."

His brothers returned to their various pursuits. Leo privately reflected on how Raphael reacted at first. He had been genuinely happy to have been gifted a replacement sai. Regardless of the conversation going south; Leo felt vindicated that making a sai had been the right call.

Karai gazed through the glass as some of the Foot scientist worked to bring Shredder out of his deep freeze. They had irreparably damaged one of Shredder's feet already. That scientist was currently behind used as target practice by her ninja.

"What is your progress?" Karai demanded.

"We have a clear path forward Mistress Karai. Shredder will live." The head scientist assured her.

"How long until he is awake?"

"A few weeks; however his recovery after will be harder to predict. Especially depending on the prosthetic choice he makes."

"Leave the prosthetic to me. See to Shredder." Karai spun on her heel and stormed off.

Thank you for reading. Critique on my writing and suggestions for improvement are welcome.