Chapter 14

Leonardo was sitting out on the cliffs of Beacon, meditating. This was a recent and comforting new exercise of his, suggested by Pyrrha and modified by his own experience. His eyes shut as he contemplated everything that had been going on with his brothers. He still had no idea how they'd gotten here or where they were. Traveling through time and space was not exactly new to the brothers, but they always seemed to make sense pretty soon. They were in a strange alien facility that happened to have a teleportal. Two foes, angry and mutated together, used a mystical war staff to transport them across the stars and multiverse. A random mishap with a time window sent them into a strange but recognizable future New York City. All of these made some sense, and the places they went to could logically be connected, but they'd been here for almost a year now, and they still had no idea how they got here or why that was.

All the more, as he focused, he was missing home. The rumble of the subway above them, the sounds of cars and people at night roaming the rooftops. April, Casey...and most of all, Master Splinter. When he focused and listened to his Aura, and even his Chi as he'd never wanted to neglect the training of his spiritual side, he could almost...hear his father's words and lessons. With his eyes closed and focused, listening out for what he could, he didn't see that his body was beginning to give off a faint, blue glow, with more solid lines slowly forming all over his body. He felt like something was...just there, and he was so close…

Until he stopped and opened his eyes, the glow and lines faded away as he sighed somewhat. "Guessing I've been taking too long, huh?" He asked, hearing the steps behind him.

"Look, I know ya do this every mornin', but yeah, it's time ta go." Raphael said, arms crossed, as he leaned on a tree behind him.

"Sorry, I know it's a busy day. Those are the kinds I really like to clear my mind the most." He said, standing up as Raph sighed.

"Look...we all miss him; you know that. Kinda nice thing about these adventures of ours is that they give us somethin' else to focus on." Raph said, standing up straight as Leo approached him. "But hey, this may not be the first time we've been...very separate from Master Splinter, but this is the first time it happened when he's not under threat." Raph said with a smile, patting his brother on the shoulder, who gave him a smile back.

"Thanks, that's true." Leo nods and looks down at his hands. "Still...it's not just that; I really feel like I'm close to...something. My Semblance maybe? Or something else…" He said this as Raph shrugged.

"Well, look, you may like your whole meditation thing, but for me, nothin' clears up the mind better than a good shell-kicking." He says with a smirk as the two walk off. "And boy am I ready for that!" Raph says as the two brothers walk off from the cliffs of Beacon.

It was a brilliantly sunny fall day a beautiful day for the first rounds of the Vytal Festival Tournament! The air was brisk yet just warm enough, as numerous airships were flying back and forth between the fairgrounds and the massive Amity Colosseum floating above Beacon Academy. Filled with plenty of seats for everyone to watch, this marvel of engineering was a brilliant example of the unity of Remnant, built by all four kingdoms providing the best of their resources and skills.

But the Colosseum itself wasn't the only masterpiece of engineering. Down in the arena, surrounded by rows and rows of seats and surrounded by an invisible force field to provide safety without sacrificing visibility, was a complex system of Dust and moving parts that could allow, at random, any set of terrain. For example, in the current match, half of the arena is set in tall trees and a general thick forest, while the other half is set in crumbled ruins and destroyed architecture. And throughout the arena, as well as broadcast to those back home, came the voices of two teachers from Beacon serving as the commentators for this year, Professor Peter Port and Dr. Bartholomew Oobleck.

"Hello and welcome to the Vytal Festival Tournament, broadcast live from the Amity Colosseum!" Professor Port's boisterous voice exclaimed far and wide. "If this is your first time watching, allow us to break down the rules." He said, giving way to his co-host.

"The tournament is divided into three distinctive rounds; teams, doubles, and singles. Age and school year are irrelevant! In this tournament, your only attribute being tested is skill." Dr. Oobleck spoke rapidly as Port came back in to explain further.

"Correct! The winners of this battle will elect two of their members to represent them in the doubles round, followed by the winners of that round choosing one member to advance once again. The remaining combatants will then fight their way through the final bracket in the hope of achieving victory for their kingdom!" Port said with vigor and enthusiasm as they turned back to the arena, Oobleck speaking up excitedly.

"Indeed, and this is quite the showing for that today! Two of perhaps the best teamwork teams we've got set up for the tournament going head to head in a bountiful showing of...teamwork!" Oobleck said quickly as Port nodded.

"It sure is, but why hear us talk about it? Let's return to the match between Team Lumber of Beacon, and Team Mirages of Haven!"

Sure enough, down in the arena, eight combatants were all engaged in a crucial battle for the honor of their school. On their part, the turtles had decided that they'd been sliding a bit...too eagerly in trying to hold up their rather...unusual traits as Faunus, and with the prospect of being broadcast across the entire globe, they decided they weren't going to take that chance. So here they'd brought out an old favorite, each of them in a form fitting black outfit, hugging them tightly to not hinder their mobility or flexibility at all. Which was good because they were in for quite a fight now, with both teams clashing in the open middle of the arena.

Donatello used his bo staff to vault over the ground, swinging his staff in the air before crashing it down on his opponent, a tall lean guy with brown hair and eyes, a small chest plate, vambraces, and greaves over a green jacket and green pants, who raised up his own weapon to block a long, firm glaive, belonging to James Forest, as said on the Aura Board.

Next to them, Raphael was launching a firm series of attacks on his opponent, a white-haired Faunus with perked up white cat ears and glasses in a black suit with a blue scarf wrapped around her neck, holding two shortswords with which to block Raph's attacks, another much longer katana slung behind her back, swinging up as Raph thrust in hard, both swords caught in the prongs of the sais as Raph narrowed his eyes, straining and grunting.

Leaping over the two came Michelangelo, letting out a goofy chuckle as he saw his foe down below him rushing to assist Shirou, reminding him a bit of some Japanese warrior woman as she wore a blue almost combat dress of a Japanese style (or at least that was how Mikey remembered it) with long blue leggings and sandals, holding two curved short swords, being another cat-eared Faunus but with brown hair and brown fur on the ears, thus was the swift River. Mikey pressed the buttons on the end of his nunchucks and twin jets of flame flew down, forcing River to roll back swiftly, her swords folding back to twin pistols, which she rapidly fired up at Mikey, who moved to spin his nunchucks to block the bullets, landing down with a crash as he swung at her.

And finally came Leonardo, swinging his swords in swift and rapid cuts, aiming to not give his opponent a chance to rest, as she was a pale young human woman who had short brown hair and green eyes with a black long-sleeved turtleneck, a pair of dark jeans, and dark gray and green boots. Over her shirt, she wears a lightly armored dark gray and green coat with gloves of the same coloration as her boots, and rounding out the outfit is a heavy black utility belt around her waist with a black fabric hanging from it from the back of her right hip. Finally, she wears a cap with the same style as her coat, gloves, and boots. Over her shirt, she wears a lightly armored dark gray and green coat with gloves of the same coloration as her boots, and rounding out the outfit is a heavy black utility belt around her waist with a black fabric hanging from it from the back of her right hip. Finally, she wears a cap with the same style as her coat, gloves, and boots. Her arms were busy blocking Leo's vicious assault, with one hand holding an arming sword to block and swing as well, while her other hand held a buckler shield that was rapidly moving to block any of Leo's attacks. This was Miranda Dustin, the leader of Team MRJS.

The battle had been a fairly tactical one, as these four clearly knew how to play to each other's strengths and cover their weaknesses, on top of being well skilled fighters on their own. As Leo swung his katana blade up to catch Miranda's arming sword swinging at him, his own thrust expertly sliding aside against her buckler, he could tell this tournament wasn't going to be like anything else the brothers had fought in, not even the Battle Nexus Tournament. Still with the block and parry here, Leo saw a chance, kicking the ground, then lashing his legs out to kick Miranda in the chest as she slid back along the ground. However, Leo didn't have a moment to rest as he landed back on his feet as her arming sword folded back into a short rifle, firing several rounds his way, forcing Leo to back up while blocking each shot.

Seeing this, Miranda looked out to the rest of her team and shouted out to Shirou. "Get back; we have a range advantage!" She said as Shirou, gritting her teeth as her swords were still held by Raph's sais, nodded as she grunted and quickly leaped back, letting Raph briefly stumble forward, using his superior strength against him.

"Hey James, could use a hand!" Shirou shouted, swinging back up as Raph recovered and returned to rapid stabs towards her, barely being blocked.

"On it!" James said, rolling on the ground as Donnie swung his staff down, going low as he swung his glaive horizontally and caught Donnie's feet, making the turtle stumble back when suddenly he felt his entire body grow several times heavier, slamming into the ground with a grunt, seeing James smirk before rolling quickly, his glaive folding back to a high-powered rifle, which was aimed at Raph, Donnie figuring that was his Semblance then.

Just next to them, River saw this happening, and as Mikey was using his own speed to swing at River, who had her own swiftness to swing up, she blocked his fast nunchuck swipes. Looking over, River briefly saw as James had pulled out his rifle, and she noted who was being aimed at. She leaped back onto her hands, briefly doing a nearly vertical handstand, Mikey's nunchucks slapping down on the ground just inches from her head and back, which gave her the time to leap up and roll over his shell, running towards Raph and Shirou. Just as James fired, River leaped in as well, forcing Raph to focus on trying to block the shot, and then River's great speed slashed at his arm and legs, making Raph grunt.

Shirou took quick advantage of it, running back towards the ruins, her shortwords folding back into revolvers that she took potshots at Donnie with to keep him from re-engaging with James, who quickly ran besides Shirou.

Miranda and River were quick to join, both firing their rifle and pistols, respectively, but going a bit slower to keep the turtles from intercepting their teammates. Recognizing this, the four quickly gathered back up, weapons in hand, to block each oncoming shot.

"Okay...so these guys are good." Mikey said, his nunchucks a twirling blur as he kept an eye on them.

"And they know how to work together." Donnie said as Leo nodded, having observed them while fighting.

"Right, and they do have a range advantage over us. So we gotta get in close and stay close." He said as Raph twirled his sais.

"Now that's my kinda language…" He growled as Leo nodded.

"They obviously know that and will work to keep us away...fortunately they may work together well, but they haven't been doing it as well as us." Leo said it with a small smirk. This may be very different from the Battle Nexus Tournament, but unlike there, this time they had their strongest advantage: each other.

Now MRJS weren't just letting the brothers get their bearings; they had been set up. Miranda's buckler had folded into an arm guard, which she held in her forward arm as she aimed her rifle at the brothers, while River had her swords back out, eyes narrowed, and was ready to intercept any of the brothers. Behind them in the ruins, James had his rifle peeking out while Shirou had put her short swords aside and pulled out the massive katana, which folded out into an even longer rifle than James or Don's. Seeing the four together, Shirou began firing out bullets, but her one showing blue eye glowed a bit as the bullets began to arc in midair, aiming for the gaps between the brothers' active defenses. Donnie grunted as he caught one in the shin, forcing him to stand on his staff to not fall over as a purple glow followed over his body, his Aura taking another bad hit, while Leo was forced to jump to the side to avoid the same thing.

"Right, well, we're never gonna get anywhere standing here. Mikey, you and me open the way for Raph and Don." Leo said as the brothers nodded, not needing to explain everything, especially with the other team right there. Mikey ran forward, holding his nunchucks up to act as a rapid spinning shield to deflect the bullets coming in. Leo was running forward but also bouncing off his feet so he would make ground, but never in a straight line. River saw this and ran forward, swinging her swords rapidly as Mikey was now on the offensive as well, ducking and weaving as he chuckled, and even swiftly wrapping one of his nunchucks around her two shortswords, though she scoffed and leaned down and kicked her leg out, connecting with his chest as Mikey grunted and skidded back. Leo had leaped up and kicked out at Miranda's armored arm, leaping over her, and while in midair, swung his blade, a few shurikens spinning out to her. She looked back and raised her arm as a few bounced off the armguard, but she gasped as one smacked her head, making her stumble. She had barely the time to activate her rifle to return to being an arming sword, blocking Leo's katana.

In the ruins, James and Shirou were keeping an eye on Raph and Donnie as they tried to run circularly around their brothers and their opponents. They both aimed and fired, with James' shots keeping Donnie off balance as he had to focus on blocking as well as jumping around to avoid shots. Shirou's shots were more accurate, for a certain definition, as the bullets kept arcing to hit Raph, making him grunt as he felt his arm and leg sting, a red glow flowed over his body with every hit, but he made himself keep going. Donnie knew they wouldn't make it with this barrage, so he saw a low-lying piece of rubble, and he skidded to a stop behind it.

"Hmm, the ruins here are matching that of any other kind…" He says, feeling a spray of rubble hit him as James shot at his cover. "...which means they're full of structural weaknesses." Donnie said, peaking out briefly, his eyes scanning the ruins that James and Shirou were hiding in. It was a second story, a bit of a distance up. He very briefly did the math in his mind as he looked at the angles, ducking his head back to not get shot as he realized it. "Thank you, Weiss." He mumbled, his staff folding out to a rifle again as he pulled out a special magazine with a flame imprinted on it. He took a breath, quickly rolled out, avoiding a shot as he aimed right where he needed it to, and fired. The flaming round was hard to miss as it slammed into the wall next to James, who flinched but quickly raised up his rifle...when both he and Shirou heard the rubble groan. They quickly looked to each other before a gasp was heard as the front of the ceiling collapsed down, a wave of dust flowing out not just from them but even going down to obscure Leo, Mikey, River, and Miranda.

"Ugh, hey James, are you okay?" Shirou asked while coughing. Looking around, it wasn't that bad; the front half of the roof had fallen down, but it hadn't collapsed entirely. They were stunned but unharmed.

"Yeah, yeah...ugh doing fine." James said, shaking his head as he looked. His firing sights were now obscured as he found a smaller hole to look out of. "That said, I see the purple one, but not the red one." He said.

Unseen by either of them, Raph had taken full advantage. When he saw Donnie duck down, he knew he was going to try something and had waited for the chance. He may be the brash one, the one most willing to run into a fight, but as he hid in the shadows behind them, he was still a ninja.

In the middle of the battle, as the wave of dust briefly obscured them, Miranda looked over to where the team was, and her eyes gave off a green glow as she used her own Semblance. She could see the outline of Aura of her two teammates behind the rubble, so they were fine...but she also saw a third one.

"James, Shirou, be careful there's-" Miranda shouted out before Leo took advantage of her calling orders to leap up and kick her right in the back of the head.

"Miranda! You little-" River shouted, but with her attention on her briefly fallen leader, she felt wood and chain wrap around her hand as she looked back at a waving Mikey.

"Turtle airlines, we're ready for takeoff!" Mikey said, rolling forward as River's eyes widened as Mikey used his leverage to fling her by the arm.

Back with Shirou and James, the two had sort of heard Miranda through the rubble. "What was that?" James asked...when suddenly some legs wrapped around him from behind.

"Peekaboo!" Raph said, having noticed a weak spot on the roof as he swung James up, slamming him through the ruins as James gasped, flying up and out, landing on the roof with a groan.

"James!" Shirou said and glared at Raph, her large rifle being turned back into the large katana...one barely fitting their cramped quarters.

"And we ain't through here." Raph smirked, rushing in, his smaller sais perfect as Shirou's blade kept bouncing off the rubble and Raph's attacks were too fast to allow Shirou to swap to her smaller swords. Raph stabbed, kicked, and really punched out, knocking her sword back as he slid under her, swinging his leg up to hit her in the back. Shirou grunted and looked back, quickly running for the hole created by James. She climbed out and landed there, looking down as James groaned and slowly stood up...before the two of them were collided with by the flying River, who crash-landed into the two, their Auras flashing from the blow.

Miranda, quickly standing up, seeing River going flying and now surrounded by Mikey and Leo, looked between them and quickly ran away, heading for the ruins as Mikey ran off to where Donnie had been hiding while Leo chased after Miranda.

On the ruins rooftop, Raph quickly leaped out of the ceiling hole, twirling his sais as he grins at the other three starting to get up. Behind him, Donnie pole-vaulted up onto the rooftop, with Mikey leaping up between the outcroppings to get there as well. Miranda had been forced to climb from the side to avoid the other three, rolling onto the roof next to her team, with Leonardo being the last to arrive. LMDR and MRJS now stood in a line across from each other at the edge of the ruins rooftop, with the fall behind MRJS leaving to the exit of the arena.

"Okay, this is bad, but we've been in bad spots before. Just remember, keep them away and we can do this!" Miranda shouted to her teammates as they nodded, all forming their weapons into their gun forms and aiming at the turtles.

The turtles meanwhile heard Miranda, and they all smirked and looked to Leo, who gave a grin and nod, as they knew what to do, their weapons out and gripped.

"Now!" Miranda shouted as the four all pulled the trigger of their weapons, which was exactly what the turtles had been waiting for as they jumped up, the bullets harmlessly slamming into the ground below them, kicking up some dust and rubble, while the four brothers spun in the air, legs outstretched. They all collided with their opponents, kicking off them to land back, weapons at the ready. But the four members of MRJS could only gasp and stumble as they fell back, all four falling back with a cry as they fell off the edge, down off of the arena, and out of bounds.

A loud and shrill horn sounded off as, on the Aura board, all of the members of MRJS were crossed out simultaneously.

"And what a thrilling way to conclude such a great fight! Team MRJS is eliminated not only by ring out but by a last-second four-way Aura level!" Port's loud voice boomed around the arena.

Down on the battlefield, the four brothers slowly stood up and looked around.

"So...we did it?" Donnie said with a grin as Leo nodded, slowly sheathing his swords.

"Yeah, we did!" He said as the four brothers raised their arms excitedly.

"Yeah this is totally awesome!" Mikey shouted and raised his hand to them. "Come on, you guys know this deserves it!" He said, as the other three looked between each other and gave a small sigh but a smirk, as he wasn't wrong.

They all slammed their hands together with a loud shout.

"Cowabunga!"

After finishing with the post-fight, including a brief talk with their opponents and complimenting their skills, the four brothers were more than a little worn out, happy to finally watch a fight instead of be in one. Granted, the next fight they watched, RWBY vs. ABRN, turned out to be a little more than quite the exciting match, so they weren't quite as restful as they'd hoped.

The four brothers had caught up with RWBY, and the two teams made their way down from Amity to the fairgrounds.

"You guys seriously did so cool! Man, I just hope one day we can work together as well as you!" Ruby said, her eyes beaming as she walked along, causing Leo to awkwardly rub the back of his head. The four brothers were still almost entirely wrapped in their black combat gear, leaving only their faces partially exposed and their shells.

"Well, hey, to be honest, that's only because we've been working together literally since we were babies."

"Yeah, we grew up training, so that's all." Mikey interjected...then remembered Yang and Ruby were sisters and cleared his throat. "Ah, I mean...yeah like you and Yang, but, uh...I mean, I'm sure you work even better together...oh uh, not that Weiss and Blake drag you down I ah-" Mikey stammered, caught in a loop, as Raph smacked him and Leo rolled his eyes.

"What he means to say is that despite mostly only knowing each other for around a year, you girls are about as well coordinated as possible, probably even better." Leo said with a smile back as Ruby smiled and rubbed the back of her head with a small blush.

"Oh, stop it, heh, uh anyways, we're going to go grab some food; stop by if you're hungry! Mikey, I know you are." Ruby said with a pair of finger guns at Mikey, who chuckled.

"Heh, guilty as charged." He said that, but Leo rubbed his shoulder.

"We'll catch up; first, we've got to decide who we're sending to the doubles. We wanted to pick while watching your guys' fight, but ah, it was a bit distracting." Leo nodded as Yang grinned and gave a thumbs up.

"Well, think carefully about who you send, cause you might be facing me and Weiss next." She said, slamming her fists together as Raph smirked.

"Oh, don't worry, if that happens we won't embarrass you too much." He says as Yang gives him a big smirk back before the two teams separated, noting briefly as they saw that one girl from Haven, Emerald was it, head to them. Mikey was the first to speak up as they stepped aside to discuss the next round.

"Now obviously, as the one with the most tournament championships under me, clearly I'm going to be moving on; now for my partner, I think it might be best if-" Mikey started when Leo raised his hand.

"Uh Mikey...no. You're not moving on." He said as Mikey widened his eyes.

"What? But...how?! I'm the Battle Nexus Champion!" He said this in disbelief, to the collective groan of his brothers.

"We know that! Sheesh, but you think we're gonna let that happen again?" Raph said with his eyes narrowed.

"Raph's right. You really think we're dumb enough to give you the chance to gloat about winning another interdimensional combat tournament?" Donnie asked with a playful chuckle.

"Frankly, I think I speak for the rest of us when I say I'd rather us lose this tournament than give you that." Raph said as Mikey glared at him.

"Gotta go with the team on that one. You had your shot, and, ah...you sure let us know." Leo said, rubbing his brother's head as Mikey swatted his hand back.

"And with you out...look I'm big enough to admit that of us four, I might not be the best pure fighter." Donnie said with a shrug. "I might be able to get some extra work done anyways, but I also sadly remember I was the first one eliminated in the Battle Nexus."

"So...I guess that leaves you and me, Raph." Leo said, looking over to his brother, who was grinning back.

"Sure does! Besides, bro, the only reason you were out of the Battle Nexus was because some dark and malevolent force outside our control rigged the game to take you out before it could be finished. And honestly, what's the chance that happens again? This time it's only right you get a shot fair and square." Raph said as Leo nodded.

"Alright, so me and Raph will fight next. But that's not until tomorrow, so come on, I think I saw RWBY heading for that noodle stand over there." Leo said with a smile, nodding his head as the four made their way there, happy to see that team JNPR was there as well. All four were sitting down to join them, ready for JNPR's upcoming fight.

Overall, their spirits were pretty bright. Leonardo briefly thought of his meditation and how he missed Master Splinter. But he knew if he were here, he'd be so proud of the brothers for everything they've done while here.

Still...a small part in the back of Leo's mind was a bit off. He still felt uneasy that things weren't quite what they seemed, especially with how Roman and the Breach ended. He felt like too many unanswered questions were there...and the answered questions were wrapped up a little too nicely. And he couldn't help but shake the feeling that anytime things seemed to be going super well for the brothers, that was when things could turn the worst.

...Still, he shook his head, smiling as he looked back up at Blake and Pyrrha, the three teams chatting excitedly. He was probably feeling a little overly paranoid. They were in a whole new reality, and things had been going well.

What's the worst that could happen?

Author's Notes:

Well...this took much longer than I'd hoped after I finished last chapter. This time though, technology conspired against me, as my laptop was at the end of its life, and every few months it was dying or requiring some expensive repairs, so a few months back I just bit the bullet and decided to get a new computer when I could. Not that I will promise any sort of a consistent release schedule, but hopefully chapters won't take three years to come out.

But yes, here we are finally at the infamous Volume 3! Not gonna spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen this Volume of RWBY (though I highly recommend you do), but the second half of this fic is actually the direct cause of why I started writing this, where I kept imagining how the turtles would react and respond to what happens...so I just decided to start writing.

Anyways, I'd love to give a shout out to SirHades, IridumSky, and Inglorien on Spacebattles for giving me permission for three of the four members of MRJS (Miranda, River, and Shirou respectively)...and so sorry it has taken almost a decade to actually use them.

Anyways, onto some questions now:

Guest-Questioner:

The team name, um, HOW to pronounce that exactly, again?

LMDR is pronounced as Lumber, like the wood.

Guest

Does Baxter know that Salem wants to destroy all humans

cause come on he was a dick

but he did have um few moments where

he cared

Setting aside that Stockman is a somewhat nihilistic egomaniac (who might have a bit of sympathy with Salem's whole "I want to die but others won't let me" plight, if he ever knows about it), how many of Salem's crew knew about this anyways? And right now, Stockman's more Cinder's lackey than Salem's.