Chapter 1: Unexpected Discoveries
Donnie could not believe this was happening. This couldn't be happening. He had to be imagining things.
The day had started out, fairly normal.
Raph and Leo were sparing in the dojo and Mikey was lounging in the pit watching the Crognard marathon.
Donnie was in his lab working on a new invention. The first time they had run into concrete evidence of other dimensions, they had been traveling through time with Doctor Hunycutt. Busy as they were with events that seemed to span into the gray area of impossible as it were, Donnie did not have the time nor the capacity to study trans-dimensional travel. Now returned home to their time and their home, Donnie was more prepared to undergo such a scientific exploration. When their counterparts entered their lives once more, this prompted the genius to explore trans-dimensional travel more in-depth. With their rather annoying two-dimensional counterparts returned home, Donnie took the initiative to create his own means of trans dimensional travel. Having an avenue to get a hold of their alternate versions if ever needed would be very practical and may prove to come in handy. Furthermore, he wanted to explore the possibility of their lives in other dimensions, there was so much to learn by this revelation.
It had taken weeks of research, months of scorched fingertips and near explosions before he had a working prototype. It was weeks beyond that before this prototype evolved into the masterpieces currently sitting in front of him. At first he started with a device that reached only into the dimension they had come in contact with already. After succeeding in viewing that world he expanded the prototype and thus far had explored information about several other dimensions! Although there were many inconsistencies and differences across these worlds, there seemed to be a few staple concepts that remained. In each of these worlds, they were mutant turtles, they were brothers, and they were ninjas who fought crime. So far the most fascinating dimensions was the one where Raph was the leader and eldest brother and Leo was the sarcastic 'face-man' whose puns revived the team. Donnie decided to keep information about that dimension to himself. The purple banded turtle could only imagine how Raph would react to that! Probably rub it in Leo's face for the next few months. Donnie grinned to himself at the thought. As much as that dynamic worked in that world, he certainly wouldn't mess with the dynamic they had in this one.
The genius had of course alerted his family to his latest experiment and upon prompting from his overly-cautious older brother had not interacted with the inhabitants or the environment with the other dimensions at all. He didn't even enter these worlds, just caught snapshots of moments of time and key details as the machine processed information. It was as he was sifting through this information that Donnie's fingers fell deaf, staring gaping in disbelief at the information the device presented.
Yes there had been a few differences across the dimensions, but in every single one. There were four turtles. Four brothers. Until now.
In this dimension there were only three.
Donnie's heart pounded in his chest as he dove deeper, trying to gather as much information as possible on this reality.
Tears formed in his mahogany eyes as the clear evidence of a very loud absence reflected.
Although alarming this key difference would not be so hard of a blow, if not for one key point. This dimension was the mirror image of theirs. Its timeline aligned with theirs, out of all the other dimensions none of their counterparts were so closely related to them as in this world. Furthermore, the same key events had occurred in this world as it had in theirs. There were so many similarities, except with the blaring divergence that there was no Leonardo. In this world, Hamoto Yoshi had brought home three turtles that fateful day, three not four. And in that one act had changed their timeline completely.
Donetello of this world sat in his chair stunned, silent tears sliding down his face as he processed the unbelievable. He did not want to believe what he was seeing. He didn't want to even think about a world where any of his brothers didn't exist and now he'd found one. He wasn't sure what to do.
In another universe a light blinked on the computer screen, an old algorithm of a trans-dimensional sorter providing a warning of an intrusion into their world.
Setting down a coffee cup amidst an array of other empty cups, the resident genius opened the algorithm, his brow furrowed in concern, the resident genius explored the intrusion, surprised to find the frequency identical to the one his own machine would put out. For a brief moment, the purple clad turtle wondered if it was just a mirror image of his own device. But he hadn't really used the device since he created it.
It had been months ago now, after an encounter with counterparts from another dimension left questions he could not answer he felt compelled to investigate other dimensions but the results left a bitter taste he could not handle and he hadn't touched the device since.
Donnie felt his gut twist as he remembered that day months back, when he and his brothers had met their counterparts from another dimension. They had helped their counterparts defeat their Shredder and Krangg, a feat they themselves have not yet pertained. Tensions had been high at this time, not due to the threat they faced but because of the counterparts themselves and the questions their arrival had raised. Because there were many differences in this other dimension, the main one being that there were four. Four not three.
When they had arrived in this world, they had met 'their' Mikey and Donnie first. That had been exciting, not only the new scientific possibilities of other realities but the newness and excitement of their counterparts. But when Raph made a comment about "talkin to their Raph", and betting that was the better leader out of the two, the other Mikey had opened an unexpected can of worms. "Wait, you're the leader?"
Raph had been furious to learn that he wasn't the leader in their reality. Because who else would lead. He was the eldest. He was the strongest. But Donnie and Mikey would agree that although Raph is often headstrong and doesn't think things through, neigher brother would want to take up that mantle of responsibility in Raph's stead. But right when the turtles thought the situation could get any more tense, he arrived: Leonardo.
Standing there on that rooftop, you could have heard a pin drop right before it exploded into chaos. And although things had calmed down, the entirety of their counterparts stay held a tense undertone. To say the trans-dimensional turtles were shocked that their dimension didn't have a Leonardo was a gross understatement. The three youngest were practically glued protectively to the eldest side, the whole time they were in this dimension. The reality of a life without their brother, too harsh to bear.
Donnie sympathized, he could not imagine a world without any of his brothers. They were the world to him. Which brought upon the dilemma he and his brothers had faced: why didn't they have a Leonardo? It was a question they asked themselves many times even after the others had left. Seeing the four of them together it just seemed so right.
It was this question that compelled Donetello to construct the trans-dimensional device; he needed to see if their counterparts were an anomaly. But the hard truth to swallow was that they were not. Every dimension he discovered had a Leonardo.
It was after that discovery that Donetello put the device aside, the harsh reality too overbearing to face. It brought up questions he did not have the answers to there for the inability to face. To open that door…
His brothers did push for answers and for that he was grateful, he could sense they were as overwhelmed by this revelation as he was.
Regardless of their unspoken agreement to put this aside it seems this revelation would not stay separate from their lives. Due to this intrusion from a mirrored device from another universe the resident genius found the sidelined device once again brought back to attention along with the questions and revelations it held.
With a heavy breath, Donnie dove deeper into the algorithm to track down the exact origin of the frequency.
"I'm going to need more coffee." The resident genius mumbled as his suspicions were confirmed. The intrusive frequency was not originating from the device; instead it came from an identical replica from another universe. It made sense that his counterpart would take the same steps he would have meer months prior, possible due to similar circumstances. Regardless of the logic behind the action it still stung. True it wasn't as if the family had lost their brother but this almost seemed worse. They were deprived of ever having him. It had taken witnessing what things could have been to even realize something had ever been missing. And then to find out it wasn't an isolated example that their reality was the exception and not the other way around, it had been a devastating revelation for everyone, there hadn't been words. Meeting their Leonardo from the other dimension had been a roller coaster of emotion. It had been a deep searing wound, that just felt wrong yet they were also drawn to him, to this version of their brother that could have been. But as much as they wanted to get close to him they couldn't deny that this Leo wasn't their Leo.
Therefore the whole situation had been too overwhelming for any of them to bear.
With a refreshed cup of coffee Donnie dove into the project with a fresh set of eyes, shocked to find the frequency more than similar but an exact mirror to that of his own device. Not only that, in exploration of the dimension the frequency stemmed from it was a mirror of that of their own!
Rage wheeled in the genius unbidden, the sting of the recent reveal still fresh. Because this mirror dimension defeated the Krangg, this mirror dimension had been able to defeat their shredder and this mirror dimension did in fact have a Leonardo. And it was not fair!
"AURRAGG" a scream of pure agony and anger tore out of the docile turtle's throat as he shoved the offensive device onto the ground.
"My son, are you alright?"
"Donnie what is it?"
"Bro what's wrong?"
A chorus of worried voices exploded into his lab. Distantly Donnie realized what he had done, as he looked up to see the worried faces of his family. He opened his mouth to apologies but instead what came out was.
"They have a Leonardo."
"What?" Raph replied as his emotions battled between worried and utterly confused.
"I was investigating a..an interference." The words seemed to fall out of his mouth as though automatic as his shoulders shook with emotion as he fought to communicate to his family his sudden upset. "At first I thought maybe it was the Kranngg or stockman." sensing his brothers tense he shook his head. "When that was a dead end I thought it was..it was..that ridiculous" he spit out the word "trans-dimensional sorter I built a while back bouncing back mirrored transmissions." HIs fists began to shake. "But although they were identical frequencies of my device, they were coming from this device but an outside force. We have a mirror Dimension! Whereas the other dimensions were like ours, this one is a mirror to ours with one glaring difference. Can you guess what it is?!"
"Leonardo '' Mikey whispered the lab falling into an eerie silence, Donetello's outburst suddenly crystal clear. While Mikey and Raph vented their emotions about the external crisis dumped onto their shoulders in one way or another the scientist seemed to retreat away from the problem. At first he dealt with the discovery by creating the sorter trying to research this anomaly to answer the questions that came unbidden with this reveal but when the answers to the questions he sought brought only more questions and pain, he shoved it all far from him not wanting to talk or even think about it. Raph and Mikey knew what the sudden return of this reality affected the purple banded turtle.
Absently Donnie traced the blue cloth tied to his upper arm. After learning about the brother they did not have, the three brothers had taken to wearing what would have been Leo's color on their arm in a show of honor and remembrance.
"Oh My Son.." before the elderly rat had a chance to finish his thought or even embrace his son a blaring alarm interpreted him.
"Donnie, what's happening?" Mikey wailed as the lights began to flicker, a power surge making the room seem to shake as loose papers began flying around the room from a wind that seemed to appear from nowhere.
Rushing to his laptop the genius scoured through the data."Oh no" Donnie whispered in horror.
"What?! What the shell is going on Donnie" Raph had to yell over the sudden storm, fighting against the force to get to his brother.
"Somehow our mirror realities are on a collision course!"
"What!" the room chorised.
"It seems isolated to this room." the genius continued. "Well this room, in two separate realities, my guess is that I activated this device the same time the other one was activated and as they are identical the two energies somehow synced." Donnie yelled over the blare of the alarm. "The device was constructed from the same device used to transport our counterparts home as I'm assuming the mirror device was, as they are somehow syncing it is activating that same programming from the original design!" Donnie fought to yell over the noise, his heart racing.
"English Donnie!" Raph snapped.
"Unless I can somehow manage to shut both this and the other device down at the same time, we are about to either get transported to our mirror dimension or they are about to come here!" eyes wide he turned to see the same worried expression on his family's face. The resident genius took a centering breath, knowing he only had a second to prepare.
Regardless of whether he wanted or was prepared for this to happen it was.
He was going to meet the Leonardo that would be the exact mirror image of the brother they were robbed of in three, two, one.
"Donnie what is going on?!" Leo demanded over the blaring alarm as he rushed into the lab.
"It's the transdimensional portal!" Donnie exclaimed.
"It has latched onto a mirror frequency and with the transportation design of the two parallel devices the original programming has been activated and without the ability to override them both simultaneously the results are inevitable."
"English Donnie" Leo demanded, oblivious to the fact that the same conversation was happening in the mirror universe.
"Leo, we are about to be transported to a mirror dimension."
"Cool" Mikey exclaimed.
"No Mikey, not cool!" Raph growled. "Well genius. Shut. It. Down."
"I can't!" Donnie's eyes widened.
Grabbing his brothers, Leo watched as the device started to glow and eerie blue, the room seemed to spin.
Here we go again. The leader thought to himself. Closing his eyes and reaching for his brothers Leo braced for impact as the bright light consumed the room.
What do you think so far? I'll try to get to the next chapter soon.
Note, the idea of multiple dimensions is a story idea I am a little unfamiliar with. I prefer to think of it as all the TMNT worlds writers have come up with.