A Million Miles Apart
A/N: Hi, Shellheads! I'm so happy to give you a new chapter! So I figured that since Donnie never made those breathing apparatuses, (at least as far as we, as the audience, know) they couldn't go into dimension X, so this is essentially the closest thing to Into Dimension X as we're ever gonna get. Hopefully you won't get too mad about that.
Okay, so in the season 2 finale it had started to snow, so it was either late fall or early winter. Now, I don't plan on doing that, since I plan on having the Invasion pretty soon, but I am planning on trying to have the turtles at the farmhouse for about three months, maybe four or five… maybe... I want them to at least be there until spring, so there may be a time jump here and there in the future, both in the city and in space. It's really hard to write time in stories like this, so next chapter may be a few weeks forward in New York, but the same time in space for Donnie and the others. Just so you know.
Hope you enjoy this chapter and please review, favorite and follow!
Chapter 25, There's A Storm Headed Our Way
"Hey, Red, are you okay? I mean, you've been pretty quiet tonight." I looked up from my trig book at Casey. He and I were at Murakami's place and sharing a meal of pizza gyoza while I was trying to help him with his trig homework. Unfortunately, I was having a hard time concentrating, and I didn't quite know why. I shrugged and took a sip of my soda.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little distracted, that's all." Casey -who usually was pretty immature and a little too arrogant and cocky for my taste- had been pretty understanding these past few weeks. He reached out over the table and placed his hand over mine.
"April, I know I haven't known you for as long as the guys have, but I know you well enough to know that something's bothering you. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to- I just want to know if you're okay." I sighed. There were times where Casey surprised me with how mature and, for lack of a better word, wise he could be. I closed the book in front of me.
"I don't know, Casey. It's just... I dunno, so much has happened, and I'm still running to catch up with everything. School, my friends, my feelings… Everything." Casey nodded understandingly and took a sip out of his own drink.
"Yeah, I get that. But if you think school's too rough right now, why don't you call in sick for a day or two? I mean, you're no slacker, and I'm sure your dad would understand. He knows how close you were to Donnie." I shook my head and brushed my bangs out of my face.
"No, he'll just say that I'm thinking too much of the guys and that I need to focus on school just as much as my training with Master Splinter and hanging out with the guys. I wouldn't be surprised if he'd forbid me from seeing the guys at all, since it brings so much danger to our lives. Like when he got mutated into a bat. I'm surprised he hasn't had a nervous breakdown yet." Casey nodded again, removed his hand from mine and took a bite of one of the gyozas.
"So there's nothing else on your mind? You seem more than just distracted. You don't have to tell me; I'm just a little worried. You haven't been yourself for quite some time now." I shrugged and started to play a little with my pen. He was right. I had been feeling a little extra down in the dumps the past few days. But it was stronger when I was with Casey, and I didn't understand why.
"I dunno. I just have this weird feeling. Like, maybe a bit like guilt, but at the same time, not. Something that tells me something is wrong or I shouldn't do something but I don't understand what. I- ugh, I can't explain it. I'm sorry, Casey, I guess I'm not entirely myself tonight." Casey shrugged and tried to smile at me.
"Well, we've been at this for about an hour and a half now. And you look a little tired. Maybe we should eat up and then go home? You look like you're ready to faint." I didn't really want to call it a day already, seeing how very little trig had been done. And I couldn't help but feel that Casey just wanted to slip away from the tutoring session, and wasn't really as tired as I was. But I also knew that we wouldn't get much else done even if we kept going, so I nodded and gathered up my things, putting them in my bag.
"Okay, let's go. I'll call Dad and tell him I'm coming home early." Casey nodded and swallowed the last of his gyoza before grabbing his own things. We said a quick thank you and goodbye to Mr. Murakami and left the restaurant. It was already starting to get dark, even though it was only the beginning of August and still summer. Only a month was left of summer- soon, autumn. I sighed. How long would it be until the pain in my heart would ease up? And could I even hope it would eventually go away?
I had lied to Casey when I said I couldn't explain what I was feeling. At least, I had lied a little. Deep down in my heart I knew what I was feeling, and why I was feeling it. Guilt. And I also had an idea of why I felt guilt. Because of Donnie's crush on me. One would have to be blind, deaf and pretty brainless to not notice that Donnie had had feelings for me, and in a way, that made the whole thing worse. I mean, if he had been a bit subtler, or if I had been a bit more oblivious to his feelings, then maybe it wouldn't have been so hard to handle his feelings. But because I knew about his feelings, and had practically since Day 1, I couldn't bring myself to tell him that I didn't like him in the same way. It would be like kicking a puppy that was not only adorable in every way possible, but also trying every way it could to make me happy.
Sure, there had been times when Donnie's actions may have been a little questionable, like creating that flowchart, doing reckless things and putting himself in danger just to impress, but every time he had done something for me, it had always been genuine and with nothing but the purest of intentions. He may have said things like 'Princess' or 'my April' a few times, but he had never tried to force himself upon me. Even with that weird flowchart, every option was dependent on my answer, so he had always had my interest in mind. And, I couldn't deny it, that was pretty sweet of him. Which only made it harder, since I couldn't return his feelings. He deserved to have a girl to love, but sadly, that girl wasn't me. And now that Donnie was gone, and I was going out with Casey and ate good food while studying, it felt like I was betraying Donnie in a way. Or like he would look down on me from the Heavens and hate me for running to Casey when he knew that I knew that he had had feelings for me.
Okay, so Casey and I weren't exactly 'dating'- more like going out to see a movie together or going to eat a pizza -most of the time with Irma- or just studying together, like tonight. Never something that went outside the territory of being 'friends', and that's how I liked it. Though, to be honest, I've started to develop new feelings for Casey. What they meant, I didn't know yet, but I didn't really care at the moment. Those feelings weren't important right now. The Kraang and Shredder were still out there, most likely going to try and kill the rest of us, and we needed to focus on that before I could focus entirely on my feelings for a guy. Even if that guy was my friend.
Suddenly, Casey grabbed my arm and pulled me up the stairs, hiding in the doorway to an apartment. He looked at me, placed his finger over his lips and then pointed out to the alley, about ten feet down the street. A white van was parked there, one I recognized immediately. It was one of the Kraang's vans. But what were they doing now? Transporting some tech to TCRI? Or maybe hatching a new plan to take over New York?
"Kraang must restrain the mutant life form known as Leatherhead so that the mutant known as Leatherhead will not escape." Leatherhead? Why did that name ring a bell? I knew I had heard that from somewhere before. I bit my lip and thought as hard as I could, trying to remember. Then I gasped as the memory hit me. Leatherhead- right! That was Mikey's friend. He had escaped from the Kraang and stolen their power cell so that their portal wouldn't work. And when they had stolen it back, Leatherhead had sacrificed himself by going back to Dimension X to keep more monsters from coming to Earth. But why had the Kraang brought him back to Earth?
Leatherhead struggled to get away as much as he could, but he was constantly tasered by the Kraang each time he tried. Casey and I looked up at each other, then back at the Kraang and the poor mutant. Casey lightly tapped me on the shoulder, then asked with his eyes if we should interfere. I shook my head. We didn't have our weapons, and there were about twenty Kraang-droids there, just to keep Leatherhead from escaping. And then there were ten others that seemed to lead the way and give orders. We wouldn't be able to fight them off and save Leatherhead on our own.
"Kraang orders the one known as 'Leatherhead' to cease that which is known as struggling. It is that which is known as pointless." Another Kraang-droid stuck his electronic rod into Leatherhead's side, causing Leatherhead to roar in pain and anger and swipe at the robot.
"Argh! Never!" He roared; that only got him another jolt of electricity coursing through his body as pink-purplish lightning surrounded him. He roared again in pain and was then pushed through the door at the back of the van, despite all of his attempts to get away. The Kraang shut the doors after him and then jumped into the van.
"Kraang will transport the one known as Leatherhead to TCRI, where Kraang will do that which is known as interrogate for information about the ones known as the turtles who are turtles." After all the Kraang bots had climbed into the van, it backed out of the alley and drove off down the street towards TCRI. Casey and I snuck down from the doorway and stared down the street after the van.
"What kind of mutant was that? A new Kraang-mutant or something?" Casey was more shocked than I was, and that was understandable. He had never seen Leatherhead before, and even for me, who had seen him once, he was pretty intimidating. I shook my head and gazed up at him.
"No, that was Leatherhead. The guys saved him from the Kraang last year, but he only really made friends with Mikey at the time, since he had a really short temper and was easily angered. Kinda like the Hulk, in a way." He nodded in understanding, and I kept going. "When the guys learned about the Kraang portal, they tried to destroy it, but failed. The only way to stop more monsters from coming to Earth was for Leatherhead to sacrifice himself and go back to Dimension X. We haven't heard from him since." I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed Leo's number.
"What are you doing?" Casey asked and looked over my shoulder, trying to see. I placed the phone against my ear as the dial tone started to ring.
"I'm calling Leo to tell him about this. I know Mikey'll want to know that Leatherhead is back on Earth, but he's also their friend. I bet they'll want to save him." I barely had time to say all that before the tone stopped and Leo answered.
"Hi, April. Uh, is this important? We're kinda in the middle of training right now." I snapped my focus back to my phone and had to restrain myself from yelling into the phone.
"Leo! Casey and I just saw the Kraang out in the city, and they had Leatherhead with them! They're driving towards TCRI right now!"
"Come on, guys, let's move! Leatherhead needs us!" Mikey was standing on the other side of the turnstiles, impatiently waiting for me and Raph to join him. I looked over at Raph, who was walking from the dojo and placing his sai in his belt. Both he and I were hesitant to go on this mission, and I knew Mikey was, too, deep down. This was our first real patrol in more than two weeks, and to go out on patrol with only the three of us just felt wrong in every way. It had always felt a little off when we went on patrol and had one of us stay at the lair, even if there was a logical reason why, like the flu, a broken leg or something. But Mikey also wanted to save his friend, and that was what drove him tonight.
Maybe I should explain a little bit of what I'm talking about. Ever since Donnie had... well, left us, April and Casey had tried to be on the lookout for the Foot and the Kraang while we took some time to recover from our loss. April had said that they were having a pretty hard time recovering like we did, but that they wanted to help in every way they could. These past few days had been pretty eventless, or at least April and Casey had said so. Then April had called us tonight, saying something about seeing Leatherhead being transported in one of the Kraang's vans after she and Casey had studied at Murakami's place, so that was tonight's mission. Mikey had demanded that we had to go and save Leatherhead- even though we were in the middle of the second training session for the day- since the last time we had seen him was the first time we had entered TCRI and he had sacrificed himself to make sure the Kraang couldn't bring any more things here from Dimension X.
"Are we sure that we're all up for this? I mean, I'm all for patrolling and fighting bad guys, but something like this, on our first patrol in days? Maybe we should start with something that doesn't have to do with the Kraang. I'm just saying." Raph looked bored and like he had very little interest in what he was talking about, but I knew Raph well enough to know that this move was too big for him, and was happening way too early. Raph had always had the hardest time adapting to new situations, so I could understand how this was hard for him. Okay, Donnie had also had a hard time adapting, but he did try his best to attempt adapting to his surroundings. In his own way, sure, but still.t he did try his best to try and adapt to his surroundings. In his own way, sure, bit still.
Mikey shook his head fiercely and glared at Raph. His patience (if he had had any to begin with) was wearing thin, and I almost expected him to start dragging us to TCRI.
"No way, dude! Leatherhead may not have that time! I'm not waiting around for you! If you're not coming with me, then I'm going by myself!" I sighed. I could understand both of my brothers. This was a big move on Raph's part, and he saw a mission at TCRI as too big of a mission to do without Donnie, coming much too early. And Mikey didn't want to lose anyone else that he cared about. Me? I was torn and I really had no idea what to do. I wanted to help my friend, but this was too sudden and came on a very short notice. I knew what I had to do, but I also knew that it would be really hard for all of us. So I took a deep breath and walked up the stairs to the turnstiles.
"Come on, guys, let's move!" We all jumped over the turnstiles, but before we could leave, Master Splinter came out of the dojo.
"Hold on, my sons." We all stopped, and Mikey was practically ready to explode from his eagerness and impatience. "I understand that this is a big step for you to take at the time being, but I also understand that you wish to aid your ally. All I ask of you is to keep an eye on each other at all times. I do not wish to lose another child." We all shared a look, and even Mikey seemed to calm down enough to take his words to heart. I tried to smile reassuringly at him.
"You won't, Sensei. I promise, we'll stick together and keep an eye on each other. No one is going to be taken down by the Kraang this time." Splinter sighed heavily, then nodded with a look in his eyes that clearly showed that he didn't want to do this.
"Well then, go. Save your friend, but be careful, my sons." We all nodded and left the lair. We ran into the Shellraiser and took our seats at our stations. It had been a while since I had been sitting behind the wheel, so for a second, I didn't remember what to do. Thankfully it only took seconds for me to remember. Raph and Mikey didn't seem to have any problems with getting back into their positions, but I could tell that they were a little jittery in their seats. But maybe that was because this was our first mission in a while, and Mikey wanted to get to TCRI as quickly as possible to save our friend.
Hm… I couldn't help but wonder how Donnie would react if he heard that we had to save Leatherhead, since they had had a rather rocky friendship. He'd probably do it, but mostly because he was Mikey's friend and wanted to please our younger brother. But I quickly realized that I was thinking of Donnie, and instead opted to focus on where I was driving.
"Okay, what's the plan, Fearless?" Raph asked, and I could hear in his voice that he was trying to sound as casual as possible.
"We break in through the windows, stick to the shadows, let Donnie hack the-" I stopped myself and looked over my shoulder, at the station where Donnie usually sat with his computers. It was so strange to see it empty. Mikey and Raph looked a little sad, too, but I tried to shake myself out of how I felt and think of the mission instead.
"Right... Uh, second plan! We sneak in, stick to the shadows and search the prison cells for him- if we don't find him there, we'll eavesdrop on the Kraang to get any info out them." The others nodded to show that they understood, but didn't say anything.
"Note to self: try to not mention Donnie during the mission at all. It's hard enough for us as it is right now, anyway." I murmured to myself and my grip on the wheel tightened ever so slightly.
After we parked the Shellraiser in the alley closest to TCRI, we all made our way to the rooftops and looked over the building from the closest one. Mikey seemed ready to jump into action and dropped into a running stance, but fortunately Raph managed to grab his shoulder before he could get far.
"Whoa, hold on, Mikey! I can't believe I'm saying this, but we can't just run straight into battle like this." Mikey glared up at him, yanked away from Raph's grip and looked a little frantic.
"What? Why not? Leatherhead's in trouble! They might be torturing him right now! We can't just sit here and do nothing!" I shook my head and placed my hand on his shoulder, looking straight into his eyes.
"Of course not, Mikey. But we don't even know where he is right now, and running straight in without a plan is not the best strategy. Now, follow my lead." I took out my grappling hook, aimed at a window on the top third of the building, and fired away. It hit just above a window- not the best place for three turtles to climb across and into a building, but it would have to do. I drew my sword, placed the flat side against the rope, and started to slide across the gap in between the two buildings. I heard (and saw in the reflection of the window) Raph and Mikey following behind me, and thankfully I didn't see any Kraang through the window.
After we had climbed in through the window and come to the conclusion that there was no Kraang presence in the room at the moment, we started to make our way down the hallway, sticking to the shadows and being as quiet as possible. Just as I started to think of which way would be the best to go, we started to hear the sound of buzzing electricity; it sounded like somebody was being tortured through electric shocks, if the roars of pain gave any indication. Mikey tensed up immediately and started to run down the hallway, not caring about stealth or caution anymore.
"Leatherhead!" He didn't get far before Raph and I caught up to him. Raph clamped a hand over his mouth and stopped him from running while I shushed him as loudly as I dared.
"Mikey! What did I just say out there? You can't just run recklessly into danger without knowing what you're gonna face! Do I seriously need to tie you to Raph and tape your mouth shut?" Mikey looked a little taken aback by my harsh words, and I admit that I sounded harsher than I meant to, but he needed to understand this.
"I-I'm sorry. But Leatherhead needs us! I don't want him to get hurt!" I sighed and rubbed my hand over my face. Raph let go of him and grabbed his shoulders.
"Yeah, we know, Mikey. And I understand why you want to save him; really, I do. But we can't be reckless right now. This is our first mission in a few weeks and we need to go slowly and carefully. Don't you remember how we promised Sensei to stick together and keep an eye on each other?" Mikey nodded slowly and looked down at the floor. I patted his shoulder and tried to smile at him.
"Then try to be more quiet this time- and stick with us. Now, come on; it came from this direction!" We started to run down the corridor, the roars of pain and humming sounds getting louder and louder the closer we came. We soon came to a corridor with cell doors on each side. From inside one of the doors came a purple and pink light out of the small window, indicating that Leatherhead was in there with the Kraang. We sneaked up to the door to hear what was going on inside.
"The one who is known as Leatherhead has sabotiged Kraang's plans for the time which is known as the last." I narrowed my eyes in confusion. Sabotiged? I looked at the others and they seemed just as confused as I was. Then, a new Kraang spoke.
"Kraang believes it's 'sabotage'." I couldn't help but snicker. That was such a Donnie-thing to do: correct somebody on such an unimportant little detail. But that was one of the nicer little quirks about him, if not an annoying one as well. Just as I thought that, I felt a small wave of sadness wash over me and I realized again how off it felt to be on a mission without him. But yet another Kraang voice spoke and that snapped me out of my thoughts.
"And no longer will he be an irritant to our dorsal regions." Mikey sniggered a little the Kraang's version of 'pain in our butt', and both Raph and I couldn't help but find it a tad bit amusing as well. Then we could hear Leatherhead's voice, as well.
"Ugh… I believe the phrase you're looking for is 'pain in your-'" He was interrupted with a loud humming and roared again. Mikey immediately grabbed his weapons, and Raph and I grabbed ours as well.
"We'll handle the Kraang. Donnie, you open the-" I cut myself off again as I realized, again, that Donnie wasn't here. We were thrown off balance as we realized that, and for a second, no one did anything. Then, Raph shook his head, stomped up to the lock and stabbed it with his sai until the doors opened. The Kraang-droids that were in there looked up in surprise, and before any one of them could do anything, Raph and I had either sliced their robot bodies apart or stabbed them in the head. Mikey ran up to Leatherhead, who was handcuffed with a big purple device that also had his head captured.
"Leatherhead! Buddy, I've missed you so much! Are you okay? Are you hurt? Do you need-?" Raph, once again, placed his hand over Mikey's mouth and stopped him from talking.
"Whoa, slow down, Mikey. Let the guy breathe a little." Leatherhead groaned and tried to stand up, but the handcuffs made it hard for him to do so. I grabbed my katana and sliced through the restraints and they immediately disappeared. Then he could stand up properly.
"Thank you, my friends." We all smiled at him. I eyed him up and down and saw that he was greyer than he had been when we had seen him last. Mikey also noticed.
"What happened to you, Leatherhead? Did you quit moisturizing or something? You look, like, a ton older." Leatherhead opened his mouth to answer, but then an alarm started to sound off throughout the building and purple lights started to flash in the corridor.
"Oh no, we've been discovered!" I looked out in the corridor and saw Kraang bots running in with weapons raised. But before I could give any orders, Leatherhead ran out of the cell with a roar and started to attack the Kraang-bots, ripping them apart with his jaws and tearing them apart by himself. We grabbed our own weapons to join the fight, but when we ran out of the cell, he had already finished off the Kraang-bots. He turned to us.
"We must get out of here. I have terrible news to give you, but it cannot be told here. Too dangerous." We nodded and started sprinting down the corridor. But while I had been in the lead when we started, Leatherhead quickly caught up to me, and then he started to lead us through the building. After Leatherhead had smashed his way through a few doors, torn the Kraang-bots apart, and smashed his way through a wall, we ran down the street with Kraang-bots shooting after us. Raph ran up to the Shellraiser and opened the doors, and we all jumped inside and drove off down the street.
Leatherhead gazed around the subway car and then turned to us. It was a bit cramped for him, but he managed pretty well between Raph's and my station.
"Is this my old home?" We all looked at each other. None of us had really shown the Shellraiser to Leatherhead, or told him about it. And it had, technically, been his, so this was a little bit awkward.
"Well, yeah, it is. Donnie rebuilt it into the Shellraiser so that we could have our own mode of transportation. I hope you don't mind." Mikey said shyly and rubbed the back of his head. But Leatherhead just shook his head and looked around the car.
"It is very impressive. But I must ask: where is your brother?" We all looked at each other with downcast eyes before either looking down at the floor or closing our eyes in pain. Raph sighed heavily and stared straight into a wall.
"He... got sucked through Kraang portal a few weeks back. Haven't heard from him at all in almost three weeks now." He suddenly looked hopeful and turned to Leatherhead. "You didn't see him in Dimension X, did you?" He sounded eager, but I still didn't want to believe that Donnie was still alive. It just made my heart hurt even more. But I couldn't help but hope that he might be there and be alive. Leatherhead shook his head apologetically.
"I am afraid not, Raphael. I am sorry." Raph's look went from hopeful to disappointment so quickly that it literary hurt to see his face. The Shellraiser got uncomfortably quiet for a few minutes, and then I remembered what Leatherhead had said and used it to change the subject.
"Hey, Leatherhead? You said something about terrible news- what was that?" Leatherhead gasped, as if he just remembered something important, and started to talk.
"My friends, the Kraang have perfected the mutagen. If I remember correctly, they will be ready to invade in only a few weeks." I stepped on the brakes and the vehicle stopped short in the middle of the street. The others fell out of their seats and slammed into the walls because of how unexpected it was.
"What...?" That was all I could say. I couldn't get anything else out of my mouth at that moment. Leatherhead looked up at me and tried to calm me down.
"I destroyed as much of their technology as I could, and tried to destroy as much mutagen as I could, as well. The time it will take for them to repair it all can take up to several months, which will give us weeks to prepare ourselves for the attack. But yes, it will happen very soon." I couldn't breathe- this was too much to take in all at once. But I needed to drive back to the lair now.
"Leo? You okay, bro?" Mikey asked carefully. I took a deep breath. I had to pull myself together. No time for being slow and not acting.
"We need to tell the others and Master Splinter about this immediately. We need to come up with a plan to prevent the invasion as much as possible." I started to drive again, and once again the car was awkwardly silent. But this was another kind of awkward. A kind where everybody was afraid that, if they spoke, they would make things worse. I took a deep breath.
What a wonderful way for our first patrol to go.
A/N: Okay, so it's exactly like Into Dimension X, but still! It counts as a replacement for me! I made some small changes here and there and I also changed the time before the invasion to a few weeks instead of a few days, since I need some more things to be established in the next chapter, which will be a few days after this chapter happened.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter and please review, favorite and follow! G'night everybody!