"What do you mean 'stolen'?!" Donnie shouted, his jaw hanging agape in horror.
"What part of 'stolen' do you not understand?!" Michelangelo more or less shrieked, quite beside himself at this point. "It's gone, nary a bolt left of it! Someone must have taken it while we were out! Oh, I knew I shouldn't have left the workshop! I don't know why I ever let you convince me to come along on your gallivanting!"
Of course Donatello couldn't help but give Raphael a look of mild suspicion at that. After all, he was the one that didn't trust this version of their little brother, and the only one they knew for sure had been in the warehouse when they were gone. Raphael caught that look in his brother's eye soon enough.
"It wasn't me! I don't even wanna get near the thing, let alone take it from this whackjob!" he retorted defensively. Leonardo merely shook his head at the exchange.
"Wait... That machine of yours has to weigh the same as a subway car. It took three of us just to pick up the crystal, and with all that extra equipment of yours around it, I highly doubt someone just waltzed in and grabbed the thing on a whim."
"Yeah, Leo's right." Donnie agreed. "It must be someone who has an interest in that sort of thing or they'd have thought it was just a pile of derelict machine parts. Scrappers would have only picked out the pieces they wanted and left the rest. Michelangelo, did you happen to see anyone hanging around the warehouse when we weren't there? Anyone at all?"
"None that I'd seen with my own eyes. I must admit to having felt like I was being watched, but I'd simply disregarded it as my own paranoia."
"Shit, that's not much to go on..." Leo cursed under his breath. "Could the Kraang have tracked the crystal at all?"
"No, the first thing we did was shield it from giving off any sort of radiation specifically so the Kraang couldn't find it. That doesn't necessarily rule them out, but the only way they'd have found it would be if they happened to stumble upon it by accident."
"Or maybe they were tipped off..."
Both Leo and Donnie looked back at Raphael, who was currently glaring past them at the bespectacled turtle they'd been trying to help. Donnie let out an aggravated growl.
"Would you drop it already?!" the taller turtle whispered harshly, leaning in close so their guest couldn't overhear. "I know you've got issues with this guy, but just listen to yourself!Why in the hell would he have his own invention stolen? That's his only way back to his world!"
"Yeah, well maybe he doesn't want to go back. Didja ever think of that, Don? I'm findin' it real hard ta believe a guy like that would just pop over to another fuckin' dimension by accident! He's up ta sumthin', an' whatever it is, it ain't good!"
Donatello was about to unleash a retort when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked back just as Leonardo put himself between the two quarreling brothers.
"None of this changes the mission. We need to get Mikey back, right? The only way we're going to do that is if we find the stolen device. The sooner we do that, the sooner we can get this Michelangelo out of here and get our brother back."
"Yeah, but... How do ya know that machine of his even does what he says it does? He could be lying..." Raphael replied. Donnie gave a slight huff.
"I helped him build it. I've checked and double checked the math myself. It'll do what we built it for. The only danger that thing could possibly pose to anyone is if it fell on them... And there's the .00000003 percent chance of creating a space-time rift between the two dimensions, but that's a virtually non-existent outcome. Besides, the thing would have to be about as big as Manhattan to pose any real danger of irreparable damage to the fabric of reality."
Both Leo and Raph could only stare at their brother for a long moment.
"Y'know, Don... Sometimes I actually understand yer techno babble... an' then I really wish I didn't."
Donatello merely rolled his eyes at Raph's comment. Leonardo gave a nod of decision.
"Alright, it's settled then. Michelangelo, come with us. We're going to look for-" Leo stopped mid-sentence as he turned to face their brother's British counterpart. He was gone, and in his place stood Casey Jones, just staring at the lot of them and munching on chip straight out of a large Doritos bag.
"Ya lookin' fer Mister Tea an' Crumpets? Yeah, dude took off. Said somethin' 'bout lookin' for a machine. You guys were just sittin' here whisperin' ta each other, so I figured ya didn't care if he left." Casey explained, his mouth still full of snack food. Leo wilted visibly at that.
"You've got to be kidding me... He just took off again?! We can't just let him run around New York randomly searching for that machine of his! He'll get caught by the Kraang, or even the Foot! We gotta go after him!"
Donatello let out a sigh as Leonardo ran out the door towards where they'd parked the Shellraizer.
"Alright, but I'm running scans for both him and the device once we get rolling." he announced before going to follow their leader out the door. He was stopped yet again by a hand on his shoulder, this time it was Raph.
"Look... I know ya don't wanna believe me, but... While we're out there lookin' for the psychotic Brit, could ya at least humor me an' take a good look at those pictures I took?"
Donatello stared down at his brother for a moment, taking note of the genuinely sincere look in those bright green eyes of his. He then gave a sigh of defeat.
"Alright, I'll take a look... But that's not a promise that I'll find anything." he replied, earning a smile from the shorter turtle.
"I wouldn't ask any more'n that from ya, bro."
It wasn't long before the three turtles were at their stations on the Shellraizer and on the road. Raphael took care of the driving, Leonardo kept an eye on the scanners, leaving Donatello to comb through the pictures on Raph's T-phone. They'd been out searching for a mere ten minutes when Donnie let out a cheer.
"Finally! I've got something!"
"The device? Or is it that psycho bastard?" Raph asked from the driver's seat. Donnie merely scoffed and rolled his eyes.
"No, dumbass... It's those pictures you took of Michelangelo's notebook. I finally found a page I can actually read."
"What does it say? Anything interesting?" Leo chimed in, genuinely curious at this point.
"You bet your shell it's interesting. It mainly talks about a substance he refers to only as 'Vitae' which he extracts from the blood of dead pigs-"
"Dude, seriously?! He's playin' around with pigs' blood now?! C'mon, that's gotta set off some red flags, even for you!" Raphael interrupted, finally feeling his 'I told you so' moment coming on.
"It would... Except in his world the Hamato family just so happens to run a meat processing factory, which you'd know if you would just talk to the guy! They butcher hundreds of pigs a day, and that tends to produce a fair amount of blood. What, are we going to condemn him for recycling and re-purposing now?"
"What's 'Vitae' then? What does he use it for?" Leo interjected, trying once again to defuse the coming fight before it began. Donnie just shrugged.
"Besides the fact that it literally translates as 'Life' from Latin? No idea. He doesn't have the exact chemical make-up of it written down here. It does list it's uses, though... The raw material itself is used to regenerate the Orb after they break shards off to power independent machines, and it's also one of the main ingredients in something he calls 'Compound X', which looks like... Holy-! By Darwin's beard, you can't be serious!"
"What? What is it?!" Raph asked, fighting the temptation to take his eyes off the road and look back at his brother. Donatello was silent for a long while, his mouth hanging open in awe as he quickly re-read what he'd just discovered.
"Compound X! It's... It's Mutagen! I don't believe it! They've actually found a way to synthesize Mutagen without using any materials from Dimension X! Do you have any idea what this means?!"
"That the dude's a psycho like I've been tellin' ya all along?"
"No! With a stable Mutagen formula we can synthesize it here and have all of the materials we need to make retro-Mutagen! We can return Master Splinter to normal, and Karai and Timothy and all the other mutants! This could be the key to undoing the damage the Kraang have done to New York once and for all!"
"That's great! Would you be able to do it in your lab?" Leo asked, the biggest smile he'd ever had now plastered on his face. With this they'd be able to keep their promise to their Master. All that was left after that was taking out Shredder.
"Yeah, the only thing I wouldn't know how to get my hands on would be this Vitae stuff. I might be able to pick it out of pigs' blood by process of elimination, but that would require, y'know... pigs' blood." Donnie replied, a somewhat uncertain look on his face.
"We can always ask Mr. Murakawa. I think he gets his pork straight from a local butcher." Leo offered.
"Except what if it's not pigs he uses?" Raph retorted, prompting a groan from Donnie.
"Raph, for the last time; Michelangelo isn't some evil psychopath!"
Michelangelo, meanwhile, was halfway across town, far from the warehouse district that he'd been calling home for the past week. The bespectacled terrapin crept along the wall of a shadowy alleyway, trying to stay out of sight of any passersby. He came to the edge and looked out into the street, ducking back when a car drove by. This world really was strange... Automobiles were a luxury in his world, but here it seemed everyone had them.
Tearing his mind away from the myriad of observations he could make on the condition of the human race more than a century after his time, Michelangelo focused on the task at hand. He had something very important to find, after all. Hiding in the shadows, he rested his hand against the tiny crystalline shard pinned to his cravat, closing his eyes.
"I know you're hiding here... But you can't hide from Father's eyes..." he whispered to himself. The Orb shard gave off an eerie glow, and suddenly Michelangelo knew exactly where he needed to go. He wasn't far now. He dashed across the street when all was clear, and it was just a few more blocks of careful maneuvering before he found what he was looking for.
He came upon a newly constructed office building taller than any structure he'd ever seen in his life. His dear Father had often told him of how the Americans boasted that they would build their cities to the very edge of the sky. It seemed they'd finally managed to do just that.
Michelangelo didn't bother with stealth as he entered the building through the front door. The lobby was huge, but sparsely decorated and mostly a sterile white. Despite the late hour, a receptionist sat at the desk at the end of the huge lobby. He made his way casually up to her, and she started on what was most assuredly a well-rehearsed spiel.
"I am sorry, sir, but the office is closed. Please come back during normal business ho-" the receptionist froze when she looked up, coming face to face with the strange young mutant turtle dressed in an old English-style suit. Rather than scream in terror and run away or call security, the woman stared blankly at the creature, quickly rising to her feet.
"That which is known as 'the Turtles' have infiltrated the place that is the Kraang b-"
Before the suddenly rather robotic-sounding woman could finish her overly-redundant sentence, Michelangelo had vaulted over the desk and placed a kick squarely in her ribs. He was on her the moment she hit the floor, slamming a knee into her throat to silence any further commentary.
"You're quite astute, Madame. Alas, I'm afraid I'm not quite like the turtles you've dealt with in the past..." he began, removing the Orb shard from it's setting on his cravat. ".. and I'm afraid you're no 'Madame'."
Michelangelo thrust the Orb shard into the woman's abdomen, earning him the most ungodly, inhuman screech anyone had ever heard. Arcs of blue electricity danced over the frame below him, it's camouflage soon flickering away to reveal the cold metallic form it truly was underneath. It flailed wildly, the Kraang still screeching as the Orb shard seemed to burn a hole right into it's soft pink forehead. After a moment, it fell silent and still.
Never faltering at what he'd just done, Michelangelo retrieved his Orb shard from where it had embedded itself in the dead Kraang's flesh and replaced it in it's setting. He then checked the drawers of the desk. Ah, yes. These creatures were just as predictable as Donatello had led him to believe. He pulled out the Kraang's energy rifle, turning it over in his hands as he inspected it, trying to deduce how it worked. He slid back the covering of a chamber in the side of the rifle, revealing the glowing pink crystal that powered the weapon. A wicked smile crept across Michelangelo's face. Yes, this would do nicely indeed.
The Kraang were rushing all over the building now. Their scout at the door had reported an intruder, one of the Turtles, then gone offline. A security detail had been sent down, but all they'd found in the lobby was the body of the scout, it's rifle missing. It was dead. That was unusual. The Turtles never killed, not on purpose. Not so brutally. Something was very wrong.
A group of about five Kraang passed through one of the upper halls when a vent cover suddenly popped out of the wall, clattering to the ground in front of them. There was a brief chirr of droid chatter as the patrol raised their guns, prepared to mow down the intruder the second he showed himself. Even so, they hardly had time to react as a Kraang rifle emerged from the vent and proceeded to spray the entire hallway with hot blue plasma.
The Kraang weren't sure what to think. That was their rifle, but theirs didn't fire anything like that. Anywhere the plasma touched it burned through instantaneously; the walls, the dense alloys of mech suits, Kraang flesh. The attack lasted seconds, yet by the time the intruder emerged there remained only a single Kraang left alive, and even this one was suitably disarmed and reduced to a single functioning arm.
Michelangelo couldn't help but smirk as he stalked up to the injured alien, rifle in hand. Hunting, as it turned out, was quite exhilarating. He could see why his Father had taken up such a hobby. The Kraang stared up at him as he approached, making no attempt to crawl away.
"The location of the one known as the intruder has been located in the location of-"
"Silence!" Michelangelo barked out, aiming the energy rifle down at the Kraang's squishy, helpless head. Surprisingly, it shut up. The turtle smirked. If it was one thing he liked in a hostage, it was obedience.
"Thank you. Now then, I do believe we've gotten off to a rather awful start. I've no idea what quarrel you have with the turtles of this world, but I can assure you; I am not your enemy. Why should we fight when there is so very much we can offer each other?"
"Kraang does not need anything that that which is known as the Turtles could possibly offer to Kraang." the alien replied as monotone as ever, though the look in the little pink creature's now opened eyes betrayed it's fear. Michelangelo merely chuckled.
"Oh, but that's where you're wrong, my little friend..." he began, opening the power chamber of his rifle to reveal not the usual pink crystal, but a tiny blue shard of a stone.
"You've already witnessed what this single shard can do, and it is a mere fraction of the power I could offer you if it were whole again. If you and your kind help me achieve my goals, I can give you access to a near-infinite supply of crystals just like this. You can conquer the universe or whatever it is you things do, that is of no concern to me."
He received no verbal reply, but the look in the Kraang's eyes, the greed, the hunger for power, spoke volumes.
"Ah, I see I have suitably whetted your appetite. Well then, right down to business. At this juncture, I think it would be most appropriate if you were to... How does that saying go again? Ah! Yes, of course... 'Take me to your leader.'"