Forward And Back Again

Exit The Jammerhead

As Renet woke up, she saw the Turtles and Splinter sitting in a circle together.

So far, nobody had come to their cell yet and Renet hoped it would stay that way for as long as possible.

"Guys?" Renet walked over to the ninja family, rubbing her eyes.

"Good morning, Miss Renet," Splinter told her. "My sons and I were just discussing our strategy of escape."

"We know Jammerhead's upgraded himself again," Leonardo told her as Renet sat down next to them. "And he did it through his tech, which means only one thing… Donny?"

"It means he can be hacked," Donatello concluded, taking a glance over to two office computers in the middle of the room. "It's how Jammerhead was defeated last time in the original timeline. We get into his system and incapacitate him through that."

"Getting to those computers is gonna be the hard part," Raph pointed out. "Before he knocked me out, he more or less said he downloaded every last martial art on Earth into his system."

"So what do we do?" asked Renet curiously, having been out-of-the-loop on their entire plan until now.

"Well, there's no choice but to do this the hard way," Donatello said. "My brothers and father will battle Jammerhead and create enough of a diversion for me to get to that computer and hack his system."

"Do you want me to join?" asked Renet.

"Uh, just stick with me by the computer," Donny told her. "I feel bad enough asking my master and brothers to risk their well-being fighting Jammerhead. All you need to do is watch my back and we hope for the best."

"My sons," Splinter told them. "For most of your lives I have trained you to fight with honor… for the most part. But there will come times when you must unlearn a fair fight in order to achieve victory against a far more skilled and powerful opponent."

"Right," Leo nodded. "Do whatever it takes to win."

"And even if we can't win, we still distract Jammerhead long enough for Donny," Mikey agreed.

At once, the door opened up to reveal a smiling Jammerhead who brought in a briefcase of some sort.

"Speak of the Devil," Raph remarked.

"Hey chumps!" Jammerhead waved cheerfully. "Rise and shine!"

Jammerhead poured himself some coffee from a bunn connected to a wall, taking small sips before setting his cup down.

"Where's the Governor General?" asked Leo.

"He's not here yet," Jammerhead revealed, taking out multiple torture instruments from the briefcase. "I'm here to soften you up and make sure you're more… cooperative and in a talking mood for the Governor General's official interrogation."

"You gonna torture us to make us talk?" Raph pointed out. "You against the six of us?"

"You taunting me again?" Jammerhead took out an electric nightstick. "You Turtles really need to have your brains waxed if you forgot what I did to all of you last night!"

"Remind me again what happened last night?" Raph continued to mock Jammerhead. "Because all I remember are some of the softest punches this side of the south Bronx!"

"Alright, that's it," Jammerhead decided to forego having his men enter the room. "I was gonna give all of you a chance to sing nicely before I tortured you but now that you've really pissed me off, I'm just gonna straight up make an example of you right freakin' now!"

At once, Jammerhead walked to the cell door and opened it up.

"Now!" Donatello cried.

Before Jammerhead could attack the closest person he could get his hands on, Splinter leaped into action. But rather than physically attack Jammerhead, he disrobed mid-air and hurled his martial arts robe at Jammerhead's face.

"Mmph!" Jammerhead cried, not expecting that attack.

Quickly, Jammerhead grabbed the robe and threw it off. As he did, Raphael came in with a punch to the face that knocked him to the floor.

"Good work Raphael," Splinter quickly put his robe back on.

As Jammerhead looked up again, the Turtles, Splinter, and Renet were out of their cell.

"I see," Jammerhead rubbed his chin. "Guess all of you are gonna need an encore performance like last night!"

"Bring it, bozo," Raph taunted.

Jammerhead noticed that all of them were unarmed.

"Tell you what, I'll make it a little more fair," Jammerhead dropped his weapon. "That way you'll know I beat you fair and square."

Raph leaped in with a kick that Jammerhead dodged. The cybernetically enhanced officer avoided another hit as Raphael punched at him.

Immediately, Jammerhead unleashed multiple punches across Raph's chest and head at blinding speeds.

"Aaaagh!" Raph fell to the ground.

Mikey leaped at Jammerhead next but Jammerhead struck the Turtle across the head with a spinning wheel kick that knocked Michelangelo to the floor.

Splinter came in with multiple finger strikes as Jammerhead dodged them.

"Trying more advanced moves on me, huh?" Jammerhead avoided the blows. "Too bad for you I've already downloaded from the best! If you're supposed to be the grandmaster, consider me your great-great-grandmaster!"

Jammerhead spun around, elbowing Splinter in the stomach.

"Aaaahhh!" Splinter fell back in pain.

Jammerhead quickly grabbed Splinter and hurled him into Mikey with a judo toss. After that, Leo came in but Jammerhead struck him in the thigh with a Muay Thai kick.

"Agh!" Leonardo cried.

As Leo sank to one knee, Jammerhead rained blow after blow across Leo's face at lightning quick speed.

"Was last night not enough?!" demanded Jammerhead. "I'm better than all you chumps put together!"

Quickly, Leo rolled to the side to try to get some distance but Jammerhead ran at him fast and punched through a wall, destroying it as Leo frantically dodged the hit.

At the computer, Donatello quickly typed away at the computer, trying his best to access the system, in addition to Jammerhead's frequency in the room.

"C'mon, c'mon," Donny swore under his breath. "There has to be a way to get inside."

At once, Jammerhead realized what was going on as he held Raphael by the throat, choking the Turtle who was now on both knees. All of them were trying to distract him long enough for Donatello to do something with the computer in the room.

"You were trying to distract me!" Jammerhead yelled at Raph.

"No duh genius!" Raph clenched his fist and tried to punch Jammerhead in the groin as hard as he could, remembering Splinter's advice to eschew honor and to fight to win.

All his fist connected with, however, was a hard steel that ignited all the pain nerves in Raph's hand.

"Aaaah!" Raphael cried.

"Reinforced groin protection," Jammerhead told him. "C'mon, you really think you're the first perp to try that with me?"

With that, Jammerhead threw Raphael across the room with all his might and walked towards Renet and Donatello at the computer menacingly.

"Uh Donny," Renet looked on in worry. "I think Jammerhead's found us out."

"I'm almost there," Donny gritted his teeth as he continued the hacking process.

"He's on us!" Renet cried as Jammerhead landed before them after somersaulting across the air.

Renet tried to protect Donny by throwing a punch at Jammerhead. The cybernetic law officer caught her punch and drove his own fist into Renet's stomach to immediately take her out of the fight.

"Renet!" Donatello spun around.

"Trying to hack me, I see," Jammerhead smiled, watching the download Donatello performed on the computer.

At once, Jammerhead punched through the computer to Donny's shock. He grabbed the Turtle and hurled him across the room. Donny tumbled across the floor until he landed near the coffee machine.

"Just for that, I'm gonna break your fingers," promised Jammerhead, walking towards Donatello menacingly.

Donatello looked around frantically. He remembered the words of his master that now was the time for him to unlearn what he had previously learned about fighting with honor. Suddenly, he calmed down, realizing what he needed to do. Donny leaned up against the wall weakly as Jammerhead closed in on him.

"Any last words?" asked Jammerhead.

"Yeah, hope you like it hot," Donny smiled.

At once, Donatello grabbed the coffee bunn and hurled hot, burning coffee all over Jammerhead's face.

"Aaaaahhhh!" Jammerhead screamed.

Jammerhead stumbled back as Donatello grabbed the mop's head. By the time Jammerhead was able to look up, Donatello swung the long stick into his ribs.

"Ugh!" Jammerhead keeled over from the blow

Seeing their opportunity, the other Turtles realized they had an opening.

Leo came in first as Jammerhead was bent over, kneeing the cyborg in the jaw to send him stumbling back. As Jammerhead fell back, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Splinter came in, hitting Jammerhead as hard as they could with all they had.

Jammerhead felt a whiplash across his jaw as Splinter smashed his tail across his face, followed up by an uppercut by Raphael, and a kick by Michelangelo that knocked him to the floor.

At once, Leo, Mikey, Raph, and Splinter tackled him, trying to hold him down.

"Hold him still my sons," Splinter grappled against the powerful cybernetic opponent. "I have a chokehold which will render him unconscious!"

At once, Jammerhead felt a resurgence of power come back to his body after his system rebooted from its previous crash when Donny threw hot coffee on his face.

"GET OFF!" Jammerhead screamed.

At once, Jammerhead hurled the Turtles and Splinter off of him.

"You got lucky for a brief second," Jammerhead told the Turtles and Splinter. "But don't think that you'll—"

At once, Jammerhead was struck in the face… with his own fist.

"What?!" Jammerhead was shocked.

Over and over again, Jammerhead began to punch himself, sending him stumbling back close to the broken wall he made when he was fighting Leo.

"By now the download is complete," Donny waved from the second computer that Jammerhead didn't destroy. "Your whole system is rebooted. And that means all your unearned martial arts abilities are out the window."

"Damn you!" Jammerhead cried.

However, he was silenced by his own hacked fist hitting himself in the face again. Jammerhead stood at the very edge of the broken wall, realizing that he might fall hundreds of feet to the ground.

With his free hand, Jammerhead quickly took out a bomb.

"That's it," Jammerhead promised. "If I go down, I take all you mutant freaks down with me!"

Before he could set the bomb off, Renet came in, punching Jammerhead across the face hard and sending him plummeting to the ground below.

"Aaaaahhh!" Jammerhead screamed as he fell.

"Ouch," Renet clasped her hand, realizing how much it hurt punching someone who was quite possibly a cyborg.

"Good job Renet," Donny walked up to her.

"Did Renet just kill Jammerhead?" Mikey looked down at the amount of distance Jammerhead had fallen.

"Even if she did, it can all be undone once we change this altered timeline back to its original course," Donny told him. "Now come on. I also found out the location of our weapons from the computer. It's on this same floor. We'll need those if we're gonna survive."

oooo

"Somebody care to explain this?" demanded Darius Dun.

Dun had just arrived at the building with members of the Phantom Force at the scene.

At the entrance of the building was a crater made by Jammerhead's body hitting the floor at breakneck speed. Jammerhead's mangled body was at the center of that crater.

The Phantom Force soldiers were in the process of removing Jammerhead from the wreckage while Triple Threat stood there delivering the report to Darius.

"We're sorry sir, but the Turtles escaped and managed to do this," Triple Threat told Dun.

Dun sighed. "Was Jammerhead attempting to do an interrogation before I could arrive?"

"I… I believe he was."

"Swell," Darius Dun shook his head. "I swear, that ne'er-do-well has the patience of a toddler!"

"What do we do next?" asked Triple Threat.

"Have all the men spread out and find those miscreants," Dun ordered. "This group consists of four mutated turtles, a mutated rat, and a blonde woman. With a group that has those specific traits, finding them shouldn't take long."

"We're on it," Triple Threat promised.

"Remember," Dun told him. "Emperor Zixx has decreed that all time travelers be brought before him. That is a royal order!"

oooo

"Everybody dressed?" asked Donatello.

The rest of his family and Renet put on their robes to hide as much of themselves as they could.

Thankfully, in the mixed human and alien society they were in, blending in wasn't too big of a problem. What also helped was that there were some aliens who also wore robes and hoods to hide some of their features.

"Time to go incognito," Raph put on a metal face mask over his mouth.

"So what do we do first, guys?" asked Renet.

"Well, for starters," Donny told her. "In this new timeline, there is no more Cody and O'Neil-Tech building for us to go to. But I have an idea for someone else who could possibly be of service. And since Torbin Zixx is now Emperor, I imagine the guy we're thinking about might have some other vocation."

"How will we do that?" asked Renet.

"We could always just go look up a computer at a public library," Michelangelo suggested.

"Mikey," Donny looked at his brother. "That's… actually a pretty good suggestion."

"Mikey said something smart for once?" Raph raised one eyelid.

"I imagine public libraries in the future aren't too different from public libraries in our time," Donatello walked out of the alley they were in. "C'mon guys."

oooo

In Emperor Torbin Zixx's throne room, both Zixx and Boss Zukko waited for the Governor General to arrive.

"I don't like the idea of time travelers," Zixx twiddled his fingers nervously. "They could undo everything I've worked so hard to create!"

"They will be taken care of," Boss Zukko promised. "And remember, it was all my schematics and plans that got you this far. I was the one who carefully calculated every fixable point in time to bring you this far and make you a made man. Don't forget who did the heavy lifting, Zixx."

"Well, you've got a point," conceded Zixx. "I really couldn't have done this without you."

All of a sudden, a thought came to Torbin Zixx's mind as he realized something didn't quite make sense.

"Say Boss Zukko," Zixx pointed out. "I know we changed a lot in time to bring me to this point but I notice you still have the same injuries and cybernetic replacements you had in the original timeline from that accident. Shouldn't our tampering have erased all that and made you whole again?"

"I changed the future for you, Zixx," Zukko pointed out. "Not myself. Besides, I wear these scars and my robotic replacements on my body as a badge of honor."

"Well, if you wanna be a cyborg Triceraton, who am I to question your motives?" Zixx smiled. "As Emperor, I'm all about giving people their hearts' desire… provided my hearts' desire gets fulfilled first!"

At that moment, Darius Dun walked in.

"Darius, good to see you!" Torbin Zixx smiled.

"My Emperor," Dun bowed. "It is as you feared. The time travelers do include four Turtles and a rat. There is also a woman who is with them, though I don't know who she is."

"I knew it!" Zixx squeezed his wine goblet in anger. "How is this being taken care of? Have they been captured?"

"They were… briefly," admitted Dun. "But being the impulsive idiot that he is, Jammerhead decided he wanted to interrogate them before I could arrive… and let's just say that those Turtles made their escape."

"Well?" Zixx's voice began to rise in impatience. "What's being done about this now, Governor General?"

"I assure you my men are on it," Dun told his Emperor. "They are scouring every corner of New York and allocating every resource to finding them."

"Alright," Zixx calmed down a little. "Remember, once you capture them, bring them to me."

"Your order is mine to carry out, your highness," Dun bowed and walked out of the room.

As soon as Dun was gone, Zixx turned to Boss Zukko.

"Can you believe those Turtles?" asked Zixx. "I go back to their time, team up with them, quietly change history in such a manner that they shouldn't have noticed, and have a good time with them. And then they have the nerve to come ruin my fun!"

oooo

"Alright Donny," Leo asked his brother. "What's the scoop?"

"Well," Donny told the group quietly at the computer room in the library. "It would appear he's still alive in this new timeline but… his life went down a different path."

"Who are we talking about again?" asked Renet.

"One of our old enemies," Mikey told her.

"You mean like Zixx?" she grimaced.

"Nah, this guy genuinely changed for the better," Leo told her. "Agent Bishop originally was a monster who tried to dissect us and did all sorts of nasty things. But when we traveled to the future, we saw how much he'd changed and became President of the Pan-Galactic Council and welcomed peace and co-existence with aliens."

"So can Bishop really help us?" asked Renet.

"He's the only chance we've got," Donny replied. "Besides, I can't seem to find the Inuwashi Gunjin on any database here. Nor anything for the Turtle Titan of the future."

"Aw man," Mikey sighed, realizing there would be no superhero teamups.

"Alright, I have his location and it's in Upstate New York," confirmed Donatello. "You guys ready?"

Donatello got up as the others followed him from behind.

"So what's Bishop up to now?" asked Raph. "Still an uptight authority figure like he was in the original timeline?"

"Well, you'd be surprised," Donny told him. "Let's just say Bishop is still redeemed in this timeline but his life took a MUCH different turn from becoming President."

To be continued.