"That is a lot of them, Leo." Vicky murmured grimly, walking up from behind to stand next to her friend, lover, husband and father of her turtle twins.
"It is." He agreed quietly. His expression unreadable as always, stance unbending with his arms crossed as he stood high up on the rooftop. His ice blue eye lowered to the scene below them as the night breeze lightly flipped his long mask tails. He was, as always, unmovable. Unbending. Even against these odds, he was their firm anchor.
He was their leader tonight, not the father, step-father or uncle.
He was Sensei to those younger than him, and he was the appointed leader to his brothers and their mates.
But even he knew this battle would be a struggle to win.
"What's the plan?" Vicky quietly asked as the others gathered around, with the leading pair in the center. All of them looking out at the mass below.
Leo thought a long moment, finally shaking his head with narrowed eyes. "There is no plan. Not this time. Not for so many. No matter what I come up with, Spencer and Hun will have learned to counter it over the years. We've got too long of a history."
"But ya got somethin' in mind, dontcha?" Raph asked shrewdly, his eyes narrowing before looking back at the massive portal and the numerous foot ninja coming through. From Hun's home world. Where they had lost power with the fall of their Master.
Leo nodded, his eyes sweeping over the masses below. He had suspected this day to come. With the turn of their evil counterparts to good, Hun and Spencer had nowhere left to go.
Except a world that wasn't familiar with their evil history and had no real precautions to guard against it.
"I do." Leo confirmed in a grim tone. "Something I have kept in the back of my mind since the day, their Master fell." Blue eyes looked now over the children. Those five unusual children. The children who had succeeded in bringing down a warlord much crueler than their own Shredder had been.
"Mind filling us in?" Mikey asked, his eyes also watching the now silent younger group. Even his tone didn't hold his usual banter, puns, or Raph annoyances. Ari, as usual, was sitting on the edge, her leg dangling over and swinging lightly. Thane stood behind her, arms crossed and his eyes narrowed as he watched. Dante was standing next to him, conducting a last minute equipment check while in the center, Ty and Lavi stood, calmly watching their Father in return.
Leo smiled at the sight. Now grown, they had evolved past their awkward beginnings as fledgling guardians of the city. Before him sat a solid team in their own right. "It's a bit of an unusual tactic." Leo began, now moving his eyes to another part of their large group.
Vicky was now talking to Cris, Marina, and even Caitlin had come out for this. Since no one was needed to babysit while the more battle hardened members of the family went out on missions, Caitlin has slowly reprised her role from stay at home turtle tot caretaker to a sort of reserve field medic. She still stayed out of the way for the most part, but she now fully joined the rest of the family. That included Dennis and Amy, who were in quiet conversation with their Mother and Aunts. These children, from Vicky's first marriage, Leo had also took under his wing, raised, and trained.
Much as Ty had become the leader of the tots, Vicky was the unofficial leader of the humans in his family. Usually, Vicky preferred to fight alongside Leo, but she had on numerous occasions proved she could cause enough mayhem with just her human team if she needed to. And, even though she griped that she hated leading, she did tend to have fun with it more than not.
"Unusual, but very fitting for us." Leo concluded.
Donnie raised a brow at that, a small smile on his lips. "Considering your need for a well laid out plan, and lack of one at the current moment, your alternative could lead to an all out clusterfuck."
"Something we have all learned to bend to our advantage over the years." Leo admitted calmly, with a faint smile. "Maybe it's time to pull it out of the no other choice reserves, and use that tactic as our main assault."
"Oh boy..." Raph rolled his eyes as Leo waved the rest of tha family closer to him again.
Once gathered, with them all waiting for instructions, Leo still said nothing on their plan to proceed. He only pulled his katana free, slowly and with that steely hiss that had been enough to strike fear in the hearts of some foes.
One katana was pointed directly at the portal, and his instructions were given in a deathly serious tone. "Take it out. Whatever it takes."
Leo was about to lead the charge, crouching lightly to jump down when Ari stopped him dead in his tracks with an unusual question. "Good title for a motivational tune. Can we? Please?"
Leo paused. Her hesitance in asking was from the well know fact that Leonardo detested anything that could distract them from their mission. Music, over their headsets, was one of those things. It could very easily cause distraction in the wrong moment which in result could lead to failure, injury, or worse...
Which is why it took them all by surprise when he straightened, looked at his niece with a smile...and nodded.
Ari squealed with delight and rushed over to Dante, snatched the arm with the tiny control panel, and began to search. Only mere moments later the first notes of the song came over their headsets. Then, with a bubbly little hop, she landed next to her Uncle and beamed up at him.
Mikey just chuckled as the realization of which song she picked became clear. "That's my girl..."
Leo, not above a bit of dramatic flair on occasion, once again stood straight and pointed his katana at the portal. "Whatever it takes!" Came out as a firmer order, and those around him immediately leapt off the building, with him right behind.
They hit the ground and split. seemingly to automatically shift into three smaller groups. Proving Leo's thoughts very correct on their ability to take control of their own actions when no clear command was given. They knew the mission, and each group split off from the rest to find the best way to make it happen.
Falling too fast to prepare for this
Tripping in the world could be dangerous
Everybody circling is vulturous
Negative, nepotist
Everybody waiting for the fall of man
Everybody praying for the end of times
Everybody hoping they could be the one
I was born to run, I was born for this
"Left flank!" Ty bellowed over the noise. All hell had broken loose once they hit the ground, and began to make their way towards that portal. "Thane, take out those archer's center!"
The big turtle nodded as their group split left. Here was where the archers were committed to watching over the process, more than likely to cover from and well planned ariel distractions of interferences that had happened in the past.
More than once Leo had used such distractions to help bring down a threat. Hence the archers. They were told to look up, not down. Ty used that to his full advantage. Even as he spun, his katana whirling along with him taking out those archers closest to him, his group hit the back side of those lookouts with a force of controlled fury. This was their home these punks were trying to invade.
It wasn't going to happen.
Thane flipped over his leader cousin, landing in the middle of the now confused group before he went to work.
They lived for this. Had grown watching their parents go out night after night, had snuck out after them one night in a very clumsy attempt to follow with the intention to help. And, fell face first into a trap that the more skilled elders clearly could see and avoided. The number that had cornered them that night had been but a mere fraction of this, and Daddy still had to come and bail them out.
No more.
They easily plowed their way through the archers. Experience in numerous missions since then giving them confidence needed to see this through.
Ari, was laughing openly, singing along "Whip, whip. Run me like a racehorse" as she weaved in and out of the outer fringes of this group. A kunai in her hand. She seemed to take a very special delight in slicing bowstrings as she bolted over, under and through the rapidly growing frustrated foes.
She was the youngest, smallest, and fastest out of this family. Often times overlooked, underestimated and because of her size and gender, not taken seriously. Sometimes not even by her own family.
The blonde girl had eventually found her place in the ranks of the turtle clan. She knew her skills, and so did those around her. Ari was know now for far more than a pretty smile and occasional girliness episodes. She was Arianne, daughter of Michelangelo. And she was just as deadly as her wise cracking father.
Now, once her bowstring snapping frenzy ran it's course, Her three sectioned staff came out and she spun it around her with deadly accuracy, all the while happily singing along.
"Pull me like a ripcord. Break me down and build me up" Lavi chimed in, joining her cousin. These lyrics suited her best. She had been broken down by these thugs before, had been Spencer's prisoner before her family found her. The things he did, nearly shattered her. Had almost made her turn to a darker side in a want to just end all of this. But, she came back from that edge. Her uncertainty at what was right was now solid. She knew why she still fought, and it was because of no personal vendetta.
Tonfas whirled around her. Held in practiced hands they struck again and again. The girl no longer showing any hesitation on the choices made in her life. She came in from the side, hard. Slowly but surely making her way to the center, and Thane.
Then, the boys joined in.
"I wanna be the slip, slip" Dante grinned, spinning out of the way of a clumsy attack. Butterfly swords held easily in his hands as he put them to work. His struggle wasn't quite as obvious as the others. Dante was much more openminded about the fact that he had a lot to learn, and it was going to take his time to figure out just who he was.
His biggest hurdle had been, what to contribute to help the family with when Donatello, his Father, had already thought of everything?
Or, did he...
As time moved on, new tech started to appear. Things that the family hadn't had to deal with before. Stunners that could turn limbs useless, shields that blocked out his mother's ability to sense the turtles. It seemed, no matter how much Donatello thought about everything and tried to prepare for it, someone out there was thinking about things that never occurred to him.
Dante now learned along side his Father. Both working together to combat each and every new device, drug, or genetic alterations dumped onto the general populace. Now he worked with his father and Aunt Caitlin to solve these things where before he had felt a little lost. "Word upon your lip, lip"
Thane, was large, hot headed, grumpy, set in his ways, mistrustful and tended to grumble more than actually talk.
"Letter that you rip, rip" But he was grinning now. His head nodding to the beat of the song, occasionally using the quicker beats to time his punches. 'rip rip' actually became a double punch to one unfortunate foot clan member's face.
He wouldn't have been caught dead doing this with his cousins before. To set in his anger, stubbornness to allow himself even this little bit of fun. Fighting was for him nothing more than a way to relieve stress of living in a tightly disciplined family.
It took his own father, the notoriously hotheaded Raph, to sit down and have a heart to heart with Thane for the younger turtle to understand why things were the way they were.
"I turned my weapons on your uncles, Thane." Even now, the vivid memory of that confession revisited him. "Coulda killed yer Uncle Mikey, and I did cut Leo up pretty bad. Boy, we follow these rules because they are there to keep that from happenin' again. Not because we are tryin' ta suffocate ya. Rule aren't meant ta inconvenience ya, they are meant ta keep ya from doin' somethin' stupid, like I did."
And, just like his Father, Thane struggled to understand that. It, hadn't been easy. These things never were, but the boy, now young man, had learned to channel his anger and frustrations. Before, he had been a ticking time bomb. Now he was a reliable tank, right now tanking away at the soft squishy center of this donut. Thinned down by one more member as he picked a goon up and threw him some distance away. And actually having fun with his cousins as they all sang.
"Break me down and build me up" Ty easily maneuvered his swords around the almost clumsy attacks. Once fear had clouded his mind. Fear that he would make that one, fatal mistake that would cost him someone he loved. He was so much like his father in this regard, failure was his one weakness, because he knew what failing could mean.
It had taken some time, and endless hours of patient counseling from his father, who had gone through similar phases, before he could fully trust himself. When he first started, he was scared. So scared that he could never live up to the enigma that was his father. Could never be like him.
But, he wasn't Leo, he was Ty. And that is all he ever needed to be. Once he learned that he didn't have to achieve that status his father held, that he was doing just fine with who he was and not who he tried to live up to be, Ty settled into his role as leader of this group so much easier. He learned to trust them, as a team and individually. He learned to trust himself.
The young turtles smiled when they heard the song being picked up from the right flank, and kept singing with their mothers.
Whatever it takes
Cause I love the adrenaline in my veins
I do whatever it takes
Cause I love how it feels when I break the chains
Whatever it takes
Yeah take me to the top I'm ready for
Whatever it takes
Cause I love the adrenaline in my veins
I do what it takes
Vicky, had been the first. Well, the first to stumble into this weird family situation. She had struggled with trying to live a normal life, mainly because she had no idea what normal was. Then normal flew out the damn window the night Leo and his brothers literally appeared out of nowhere into her living room.
Those who knew her, knew that she had dealt with a lot. And, despite everything that had gone wrong, she had still held onto the hope, a promise even, that she could in some way help to change some of the hell in the world. In every choice that had guided her in life, there had always been that deep seated need to hold onto a promise she made to a little girl so long ago.
She would try everything to try and do some good in this damn world. And, she embraced this step out of the ordinary to make that effort her core needed to fulfil that promise. "Always had a fear of being typical. Looking at my body feeling miserable"
Her asps twirled in her hands as she renewed her advance through the right flank. Her sister wives fanning out behind her, each one had gone through their own struggle before they reached this point. And each and every one had grown from their past. For Vicky, she had finally found a place in her life where she could hold her end of that promise. she hoped that somewhere above in the heavens, a little girl was watching. Proud of her friend who never gave up that fight.
"Always hanging on to the visual. I wanna be invisible" Caitlin was openly laughing as the words flowed out. She was...having fun. For years she had been the quiet one behind the scenes. The one who had stayed behind when the family needed to rush out the door to stop one crisis or the other. It was a role she had been most suited for, serving as turtle tot babysitter and sometimes medic and full time Donnie assistant.
But, as the children out grew the need to be watched and began to go out on their ow, Caitlin found herself battling...loneliness. She had begun feeling left out, secluded even. Once she had been fine with staying behind in the lair. She had a purpose, an unseen one, but one that was important none the less in this family. She had never been a fighter, hell, her first run in with the turtles, she had been running from a fight. One that, looking back now, she could have easily fought on her own.
But her nature had always been passive. She wanted to learn, to heal, her background in genetics had supposed to be the way for her to help people, not combat the latest Stockman fuckup or Bishop experiment. But, she had grown into the role given her. With ease. It was in her heart to nurture, or so she had thought.
She began finding that as the long hours of the night stretched out, both her husband and daughter out there, combating Hun and his ilk, she began to worry. More and more the threats amped up in intensity, and more and more Caitlin was left behind to ponder.
It, had been an offhand remark from Leo that changed her perspective. By this point she had begun to fall in a light depression. Not sure what to do with her life now. Empty nest syndrome at it's turtle mate best. "Caitlin, No one said you had to stay behind. If you want to come out with us, you are more than welcome." He had smiled a bit "Lord knows, I could use another voice of reason out there with this bunch."
And, just like that, twenty years after the other women started their training, Caitlin was taken under the fold. Her tutelage in martial arts began, and she began to accompany her family out more and more. Her midlife crises had been abruptly brought to a stop. Right now, she was doing her best covering Vicky as the taller brunette began to carve out a path.
Marina, had started off on the wrong side.
She had been created to bring harm to these gentle beings, by Bishops orders. And, it took her a long while to see that his explanations were nothing but a pack of gentlemanly concealed lies.
The black haired, cool beauty had learned the hard way her true reason for being his test subject. And it had nothing to do with his desire to see how well his new toy handled the turtles. Marina had already lost a brother. Killed the day the turtles broke out of Sacks' captivity. A ricochet bullet had struck him in the neck, ending his life before Marina could even truly figure out if Hank had been on the right side, or the wrong one.
Bishop had saw that, and began to feul her hate, her desire for revenge. The grief of losing her son in such a violent manner had already taken Marina's mother's sanity. So Bishop had said. He also had foot the bill to have her mother placed in a special institution. So he had said.
He had lied. Everything he told her had been a lie. It had taken an act of bravery, and somewhat stupidly considering his intellect, from Donatello to find the truth. She, had been slated to die, so Bishop could record the affects of his serum. Just, as her mother had dies. Painfully, stuck somewhere between human and reptile and kept like a damn trophy in Bishop's lab.
And Donnie had gone through a horrific transformation trying to help her see this all for what it was. And almost died from it.
Marina, in a blink of an eye, had lost everything. Her mother, her reason for revenge, her purpose for even living. So, she clung to a new reason. She set aside her feud with his brothers and joined them in their cause to bring him back to normal.
And now, she had a family again. She learned to love again. And son of a bitch, she was having fun! "Looking at my years like a martyrdom. Everybody needs to be a part of them"
She spun as she joined into the song, her midnight hair flying around her as her foot lifted, then connected with a face.
Cris, came spinning over her sister, her own foot leading on the way down as she covered Marina's back. She hit the ground in a crouch, a wide grin on her face as her hanbo snapped around to take out a few knees. "Never be enough, I'm the prodigal son. I was born to run, I was born for this."
Cris came from a rough beginning. Like Vicky, she had to fight for what she had. Even shared some similar experiences. And the only thing that kept her going was her love for her horse, Beast, and her love for her Father.
The former, now aged and happily grazing in his pasture at home, had been there through this surprising shift in her life. Though the beautiful black stallion still hated Raph with a passion.
Her father, had passed. And it was because of her love for the man who had stood by her for all those years that finally woke her up, and gave her the courage to leave her abusive relationship. Packing up her horse, she drove halfway across the country to lay the man in his final resting place, and was very surprised on what the dear old man had left her. Acres of farmland he never did anything with. And, coincidentally set next to Vicky's own property.
One early spring ride, had changed her life forever. Beast had spooked, bolted, declined to inform his ride that he was going to aim for a low hanging branch that smacked her right in the forehead, and clean knocked her out.
And she woke up in Vicky's living room, with that big brute of a teddy bear looming over her. Her life had never been the same.
Raph put on a good show, but once you got past his occasional bouts of anger and frustration, she saw so much more. She had thought she would be the needy one here, but she was wrong. Because of her presence in his life, Raph actually mellowed a lot. When he realized that she, a human, loved the monster regardless of how he looked and behaved, then maybe he wasn't a monster after all.
Her thoughts often flew to her father, thanking him for making the right choices that led her to her own lifetime of happiness.
And nothing, nothing, could replace the feeling of standing by his side. No matter at home or out on a mission. She was home. Finally home.
Whip, whip Run me like a racehorse
Pull me like a ripcord
Break me down and build me up
I wanna be the slip, slip
Word upon your lip, lip
Letter that you rip, rip
Break me down and build me up
Both groups sang loudly as they made their way ever closer. Some off key, some voices crackling because they didn't sing much, but they were singing, confusing their foes even as they fought forward, step by step.
But the amount of enemies was still high. There needed one more element of chaos to help thin this herd of losers out.
And it came in the face of Dennis and Amy.
Dennis behind the wheel of the van as it barreled in from the side. Amy sticking out of the top, unleashing the vans weaponry as Dennis kept on plowing.
"Whatever it takes" Amy sang as she reloaded, cocked, and opened fire again. Grinning at the excited whoops of her turtle cousins, then the song kept on. "Cause I love the adrenaline in my veins. I do whatever it takes. Cause I love how it feels when I break the chains"
Amy, was a firecracker. She had her views, opinions, and didn't hesitate to share them.
One of those opinions, was why she called Leo, well, Leo, instead of dad. He did marry her mother, did adopt them, in a very unusual ceremony that left Amy's sperm doner almost fit for a hospital visit. Even through all that, she still called him by his given name.
Because Leo as a whole deserved her respect, love and honor more than her desire to tag a 'dad' on him. Dad, to her, was a deadbeat low life that never kept his promises. Who had walked out and hadn't seen her or Dennis for months on end on occasion.
It was the chicken first, or the egg argument. Modified a little. The saying "Any man can be a father, but only those who care are dad" has also been said as "Any man can be a dad, but only those who care are a father."
Amy just took the entire confusion of that statement out of the equation by honoring the turtle who had raised her by addressing him by his name. A name she respected far, far more that the other label. Leo shouldn't have to fight through her perceptions to earn a title that meant nothing to her any way.
Leo, was Leo. No more, no less.
And she loved that guy to bits.
Dennis, had always been the quiet one of Vicky's two human children. The shy one. The one who always seemed to just hover around in the background.
He was also smart. Very smart. Donnie had caught on early on that the boy had potential to be anything he wanted, but was being raised by a mother who loved him very much, but was stretched thin herself. Vicky tried, but sometimes she floundered on trying to find the best way to guide her tech inclined son.
Enter the turtle who had taken it upon himself to show the boy everything he could. From fixing broken water heaters, to toy planes, to helping set up this monster of a ride that Dennis took great pride it.
He had flourished under Donnie's guidance, and when he wasn't out righting wrongs with his family, he earned a very good living as a computer programmer. An innocent seeming job for a very complex man. Dennis was almost as good as Donnie and Dante, and this thing was his baby. So, by default he had become the central base in this mobile unit. All correspondence between groups was filtered through the van, and to Dennis, who would look up vital information for them on any given mission, keep track of their movements, and, on the rare occasion like now, just say screw it to just hanging back and listening and brought his toy out to play.
He slammed the brakes, that now familiar grin on his face as he spun the wheel hard. The circling back end swinging around to take out a very large number of foot, and causing a very large hole. All the while, his voice adding to the general chorus of his family. "Whatever it takes. Yeah take me to the top. I'm ready for, Whatever it takes. Cause I love the adrenaline in my veins. I do what it takes"
There was a lull in the song. Both in chorus and in voices singing. As of yet, the last group hadn't picked up singing. They were just in the center, as usual, fighting as they always have. As brothers, a family, a single unit.
None had really expected those four to pick up on the song, it had never been their style to do so before, well, besides Mikey on occasion.
But now, in that lull, in this fight, there was a hushed silence as the family wondered, would they?
Leo kicked the last foe out of his way, now flanked by his brothers as he walked forward. And, to his family's surprise, and delight, Leo's soothing baritone picked up the song. Never breaking stride as he marched forward. His eyes focused on those in his way.
"Hypocritical, egotistical
Don't wanna be the parenthetical, hypothetical
Working hard on something that I'm proud of, out of the box
An epoxy to the world and the vision we've lost"
A wild cheer went up from those around him. His family rallying by Leo's calm addition, and perfect pitch to the song. Heck, a few of them didn't even realize the blue banded turtle actually knew the song...
Then, the others joined in. Walking with Leo, never breaking stride as the Fathers picked up the last part of the song. A part that reflected how they lived their life, raised their family and showed their determination and dedication for all to see.
They were mutants, they were turtles, but they would always give it their all for what they fought for.
They did not fear the end.
"I'm an apostrophe
I'm just a symbol to remind you that there's more to see
I'm just a product of the system of catastrophe
And yet a masterpiece, and yet I'm half-diseased
And when I am deceased
At least I'll go down to the grave and die happily
And leave the body and my soul to be a part of thee"
Then Leo, and Leo alone, gazed firmly at the crowd of foot in front of him, and finished the verse with a hint of deadly promise for their fate if they didn't get out of his way. His right hand lifted, katana pointing at the mass in front of him as he stood firm.
"I do what it takes"
The cheers over the headset, and off, was deafening. Raph grinned at his older brother, the turtle he had fought the most with over the years. He took a moment to pass on a fist bump. Mikey was squealing with glee and Donnie was grinning from ear to ear.
Then they charged, their voices now once again joining the rest of their familiy.
Whatever it takes
Cause I love the adrenaline in my veins
I do whatever it takes
Cause I love how it feels when I break the chains
Whatever it takes
Yeah take me to the top, I'm ready for
Whatever it takes
Cause I love the adrenaline in my veins
I do what it takes
And, they did. This strange tactic had their foes so confused to the point that there was no regrouping. And this family wasn't backing down to give them the chance to figure out what in the hell was going on.
The song was played on repeat, each time it played, it pumped the family up more, and they pressed on. No weariness, no despair at the odds. Just unrelenting determination.
And it payed off.
They finally broke through to the portal. Donnie and Dante coming together, with matching grins, and hooked up explosives on either side of it. Amy was still laying out cover fire as the rest formed a semi circle line. Holding back the pressing crowd.
Weapons never slowed. The bodies kept falling. Hun and Spencer could only watch as everything they tried was met with this strange motivation. This unbending determination and mindset. Ari and Mikey both lept hight, flipping of the leaders of this clan with obsene gestures before landing, and causing havok.
Hun was sputtering in anger, the tots were laughing their asses off.
"Done!" Dante shouted over the noise, flipping easily to the top of the van.
That was their cue to finally pull back. Amy launched another barrage that gave her family room to disengage and the van was soon covered in turtle family members. Donnie standing tall on top as Dennis hit the gas.
Grinnig widely, he made a grand show of holding up the remote, finger hovering over the button.
"Whatever it takes!" he bellowed out, then pressed the button.
The massive explosion, may have been a bit over done. Yes, it took out the portal, and a large amount of Hun's men. But the shockwave hit the van, knocking Donnie off of his feet and onto his shell as the others scrambled to hold on.
"I think ya took too much there, genius." Raph grumbled and rolled his eyes. "I don't think blowing us up was part of what was needin' takin'."
Donnie just shrugged impishly.
He had never been one to half ass anything.
And what a better way to go out of such a magical fight night? Yes?