Chapter 10

Several weeks had passed since the battle against Roman Torchwick and Teams RWBY and LMDR. In that time, Donnie had been up to work trying to analyze what they'd seen during the fight, and come up with ideas on how they could've gotten it. Raphael had at the same time taken to try and patrolling the streets of Vale to see if he could find out anything that was going on, or come across any more White Fang hideouts. Other than stopping one or two White Fang Dust robberies, he was so far unsuccessful.

Still, they had to carry on with classes and such, much to the disappointment of some of the turtles, but Leonardo had reminded his brothers that they were taking this task of theirs like any other, and that they had committed to this. After all, they couldn't go obsessively looking for answers with other obligations.

And one of these obligations was combat class, where Leonardo himself was standing in the arena facing off against one of his closest friends and rivals in this class: Pyrrha Nikos. Staring straight ahead at her, Leonardo was in a combat stance, legs spread out and blades held up, feeling the trigger to his shurikan launchers. He stared at his opponent, herself in a well-practiced combat stance, shield held in front as her sword was held back and aimed directly at him, the two daring each other to make the first move. Leonardo smirked as he took a couple steps to the right, with her countering it to the left herself, the two prowling each other, looking for a weakness. Unfortunately, since this was class, they didn't have the time to stay at this game of physical chess.

"Lady's first." Leo offered to Pyrrha. "Besides, I did go first last time, I should share the spotlight."

"My, such a gentleman." Pyrrha retorted back. However she did in fact charge towards him, keeping her shield raised. Leonardo swung his katanas through the air, launching a salvo of deadly shurikans at her. But as he suspected, they cleanly bounced off her shield. Soon the charging Pyrrha had reached Leo, who quickly jumped in the air and kicked his feet to Pyrrha's shield, swinging them back once airborne to flip over the Invincible Warrior, who quickly proved her name by Leonardo swinging his blades down at her only to somehow miss.

Although Leonardo had a feeling on why, regarding her little secret Semblance.

Leonardo looked back at her while swinging his arm and sword up in time to lock blades with her own sword, quickly leaning back as she swung her shield back at him, barely gleaming over him. Dropping, he swung his legs in an arc, causing Pyrrha to jump, allowing Leo to quickly kick up, ramming his head up into her stomach.

Eliciting a small grunt, Pyrrha wrapped one of her legs behind both of Leo's and swung backwards, throwing him back down to the floor. Leo was able to land on his feet gracefully, looking up at her as she fell the same way. However on her way down, her sword was in its rifle mode, firing several times at Leo, who was quick to bring his blades up to strike each bullet from the air.

As soon as Pyrrha landed, Leo charged this time, thrusting one blade forward, intending to distract her shield and try to swing at her back while her sword was still a rifle. However, Pyrrha didn't intend to let Leo dictate the terms anymore. Instead of blocking, she turned her body so that his thrust went just past her body, allowing her to roll over his shell, than kick off of it. As she back flipped away, she also threw her shield at him. Leo however jumped backwards, letting it hit his shell. It bounced right off, ricocheting to the floor then back at the landing Pyrrha, who got it just as Leo landed right in front of her, with his shell to her.

He swung his katana back at her, quickly swinging it up and down, all in successive strikes. However Pyrrha was able to raise her shield and block each strike, then extended her sword into spear form, swinging it low and taking out his legs. Of course that wasn't enough to knock Leo on his shell, who reached down and grabbed the shaft, swinging himself back up to kick her shield and kick back away, giving them some space. The two stared at each other for a moment before charging at each other and clashing each other in a blitz of clashes.

On the sidelines, Teams LMDR, RWBY, and JNPR were watching with the same excitement that filled the class whenever the two top students went at it.

"Go Pyrrha! Knock him on his Shell!" Nora said, pumping her arms with excitement that matched her grin.

"You got it Leo, show her how a ninja does it!" Mikey countered with his own cheer.

Raphael was meanwhile leaning back with a smirk as he and Yang talked about the fight.

"No way red-head's gonna take Leo out today. He's definitely on top o' his game today." Raph said with a grin.

"I dunno Raph, remember how this went last time? That was not exactly promising." Yang reminded him with a nudge.

"An' I told ya, he wasn't on his a game last time." Raph countered.

"Uh huh, sure he wasn't." Yang rolled her eyes.

"Whateva, you know it." Raph said, before turning to look past her. "Hey Blake, ya know that Leo wasn't on his a game last time right?" Raph asked, before seeing that Blake had her nose buried in a book. "...Blake? Come on, ya not even watchin' it's Leo an' Pyrrha!"

Blake looked up quickly, looking back at him. "Huh, what?"

Raph just rolled his eyes. "Whateva, bookworm." He said, before returning his attention back to the fight. Even then, behind the three teams, two students were particularly interested in the fight.

The fight was certainly intensifying as Leonardo and Pyrrha kept locking blades, with Pyrrha slowly keeping Leo on the defensive. In their first few fights, Leo had been a bit hesitant, still getting used to the fact that Aura meant he didn't have to hold back and worry about accidentally cutting or stabbing his opponent, but ever since he did, he'd been catching up with her, until they had become more matched in class. However, he was mostly forced on the offensive thanks to one major issue in their swordplay.

Leonardo kicked off the ground as Pyrrha swung low, landing on her raised shield and swung his blade down under it several times...but each time was a miss on his part. Or rather, her part. Leo could feel the subtle tug on his blades with each swing and he knew he'd have to change his tactics. Fortunately for him, Master Splinter had always taught the brothers that their weapons where a mere tool and extension of the ninja. Everything, from their body to their minds were also honed in as a weapon. And only Leonardo's katana were made of metal.

Kicking off of her shield, his toe caught underneath said shield and as he flipped backwards, the shield was tossed up as well. Leonardo didn't waste a second, knowing he wouldn't have time to land, so as he fell, he swung his hips around and brought his foot across to smack her right in the face, landing on his feet crouched. Not giving her a second, Leo tossed his right sword up and threw in uppercut to collide with Pyrrha's chin, sending her into the air. Leonardo then jumped up to meet her. However, just because Pyrrha worked best when up against metallic weapons didn't mean she was useless against kicks and punches.

As Leo soared up into the air, Pyrrha quickly wrapped her legs around his hips and swung backwards, letting go to send him crashing to the floor. She quickly threw her shield and sword down at his shell, hitting both, then landing on his shell, catching her weapons back, and rolling off of him.

However, Leonardo was not yet done. Kicking up, he got on his feet again and ran at her, coming up with a new idea on what might work. He leaped up and caught the edge of her shield, forcing it down and swinging his blade. As expected, he felt it tug away...which is when he let go of his katana. As she was focused on his sword, his fist caught her by surprise. He kicked her shield with his other fit, falling and swinging his sword again, letting go at the last moment to sock her left cheek, spinning and catching both blades in the opposite hand.

Leaping backwards, he launched several shurikans at her, before going horizontal to kick her back, tumbling her forward. Landing, he quickly charged her, headbutting her right in the spine, rolling over her to grab her shoulders and flip her hard on her chest. Then to finish it off, he tucked in and landed hard on her with his shell. Rolling off of her, he leaped backwards and landed on his feet, looking back at her.

"And that's the match." Came Glynda's voice over the two.

The lights then came up and Leonardo took a heavy breath, relaxing and sheathing his blades, walking over to Pyrrha and leaning down to her. "Excellent job...as always, Pyrrha." He panted, offering her his hand, which she gladly took.

"Yeah...you continue to be a most worthy adversary." She said, similarly out of breath as he helped her up, with the two turning to look at Glynda.

"Well done, both you Mr. Splinterson and Ms. Nikos. You'll both have no trouble qualifying for the tournament." She said with a small smile and a hint of pride.

Leonardo gave her a respectful bow as Pyrrha nodded.

"Thank you, professor." She said, as the two prepared to return to their seats and Glynda returned to her Scroll.

"Now, I know that as usual, they put on a tough act to follow. But we do have time for one more sparring match." Her eyes scanned the classroom, before laying them on one student who was not paying attention, a fatal error in Glynda's class.

"Ms. Belladonna." Glynda said, causing said student yo snap up from her book, shutting it hard, eyes wide.

Raph chuckled quietly. "Heh, busted." However that earned him a smack upside the head from the blonde next to him, which surprised him.

"Huh...it wasn't me this time. Sweet." Mikey said quietly before Glynda spoke up again.

"You've been rather...docile as of late." She said, however with a hint of concern as opposed to the usual strictness.

Leonardo looked up at his other good friend with another hint of concern. Glynda was right, and Leo had noticed it as well. Ever since their last fight with Torchwick, Blake had become reclusive, anti-social, spending all of her time in the library.

…

Okay, now that was normal of her, but not to this extent. She adamantly refused to leave her room or the library except for classes, sometimes even skipping lunch for more time there and from what he'd heard from Raph she was even staying up way too late researching, sometimes even avoiding sleeping at all.

However, before Glynda could finish suggesting that Blake spar, one of the very interested students behind Raph and Yang raised his hand. He was a pale, well-built young man with gray eyes and gray, partially slicked back while unkempt at the front, hair.

"Mercury, is it? Very well, let's find you an opponent." She said, but then Mercury spoke up again.

"Actually, I wanna fight...him." He said, pointing down at Leonardo. Leo was a bit caught off guard by that, not expecting to fight again after that grueling duel.

"I'm afraid Mr. Splinterson has just finished a match. I recommend you choose someone else." She said sternly, eyes narrowed.

"No no, it's fine." Leo said, rolling his shoulders. "It's Friday, I can rest easy tomorrow."

"Very well, if you insist." Glynda said, walking off. Pyrrha gave Leonardo a warm smile and a thumbs up.

"Good luck, Leonardo." She said, as she walked off.

In a moment, Mercury walked down. He didn't seem to have any weapons, the only thing Leonardo noticed as he took up position was that he had some rather heavy-looking boots. Leonardo saw him get into his own combat stance, arms held out with his legs ready.

Glynda gave the countdown and the two warriors stared each other down as Leonardo did earlier, keeping an eye out for any noticeable weakness. However, Mercury seemed to be the less patient of the two, quickly rushing at Leonardo, swinging his leg out at Leo, who was quick to dodge it, leaping back. Once he landed on his feet, he charged forward, swinging his blades back and forth in deadly arcs. Sure enough, Mercury used his boots to block each swing of his attack.

Mercury was definitely fast as Leo could see, able to block each swing of his. Leaping back, Leo pulled on the triggers and swung his blades, a deadly barrage of shurikans hurtling towards Mercury. Mercury just smirked and raised one leg, kicking it out several times. With loud bangs, his boot fired off several rounds, knocking the discs out of the air.

So...now we have boot guns. One of these days, I'm going to stop being surprised.

After that bit, Leonardo charged in again, leaping over Mercury, swinging his sword down at him. This did hit Mercury in the face, but as Leo landed, Mercury swung a leg out, catching Leo's back, firing as it hit, sending Leo forward. He landed on his hands and backflipped quickly o recover, panting and still a bit tired from his last fight.

However, as Leo stared at Mercury, he saw that Mercury was just looking Leo over, a small frown on his face, as if he was trying to figure something out but couldn't. Leo shook his head and took the distraction, leaping up to connect his face with Mercury's, backflipping and catching his chin with both of his blades. Landing there, he was about to continue when Mercury shook his head.

"Alright, I forfeit." He said, which caught Leo by surprise. Sure, there had been forfeits in this class before, but that tended only to be in one sided matches. This fight had barely started, but from what had happened, Leo got the impression Mercury was quite a skilled warrior.

"Wait, what? Why, the fight's barely begun!" Leo asked, raising an eyebrow.

"What do you mean? You just beat a world renown fighter and you were even barely breaking a sweat now, it's clear this is a hopeless match." He said, shrugging.

Leo didn't buy it for a minute, slowly putting his weapons away, while he crossed his arms. Glynda seemed equally surprised as well before announcing the results.

"Alright. Leonardo Splinterson wins...again." She said, putting the results into her Scroll then looked up at Mercury. "Maybe next time you'll be wiser in choosing your opponents."

"Will do." Mercury said casually as he walked away, just as the bell rang.

Leonardo walked back over to the stands as Glynda told the class about how the upcoming dance was on Sunday, but also that their first missions would be on Monday.

As Leo met up with his brothers, the four started to make their way out towards the dorms. Mikey was the first to give Leo a high three.

"Awesome job, bro, you totally kicked shell today! Two victories in a row, and one was also against Pyrrha!" He said, winking. "Someone owes me twenty Lien now." Mikey said with a chuckle.

Leo nodded smiling. "Thanks Mikey, I'm glad you're so confident in my skills." He said, before his smile slowly vanished. "Still, there's something about that Mercury guy...he gave up way too easily."

"Yeah, I thought der was somethin' fishy wit' dat guy." Raph said in agreement as they made their way out.

"Hey guys, look can we hurry up and head back to the dorms? I wanna show you guys something I found out." Donnie said quickly.

Raph shrugged. "Sure, why not. T'anks ta dis stupid dance, Yang's bailed on our race night." Raph said as the four brothers walked to their dorm.

The turtles soon made their way over to the dorm, with Donnie standing over one of the confiscated swords they found last semester.

"So what is it Donnie?" Leo asked.

"See these swords? Well thanks to Blake and Sun's recon, we did see that they're making more of these, or at least getting more of them. And unlike the Paladin that Torchwick was piloting, there's at least no open mention of these kind of weapons. So I doubt that they're also stealing these from Atlas or anywhere else."

"So what? Da Purple Dragons were a two-bit street gang back home, yet dey still were able to steal super classified stuff from the US Government an' even freaking Bishop." Raph said.

"Yes, that is true, but just because something happened I our world, doesn't mean this one works the same." He said, before returning to the swords. "Besides, I did some more through examinations of the tech on these swords. It's brilliantly advanced no doubt...but the material used to make it looks almost shoddy and kinda scrapped together. Not exactly something the world's most advanced nation and military might would make."

"But it is something that a hidden terrorist group might make...assuming they have the technical know-how." Leo stated, nodding his head.

"Exactly. Now, where this knowledge came from is still stumping me, but it's not as important right now. Raph here did a little scouting for me on a hunch in that warehouse district that the White Fang were meeting in." He said, turning to Raph.

"I couldn't stay out dere too long, but sure enough dere'd be trucks an' Bullheads that'd be heading in. Always one at a time, neva in a group." Raph confirmed.

"Not only that, some of the pressing and fabricating of the metal is definitely machine pressed. Not super high quality, but it wasn't just some guy over a furnace smacking some metal with a hammer either. Funny thing is it turns out that in this district, there are a couple abandoned factories. I asked around for some information, and it turns out one of them is missing any sort of records."

"You know, we've been in a lot of evil lairs before, and that sounds like grade A evil lair material myself." Mikey said. However, Leonardo felt his smile lower into a frown after hearing Don's explanation.

"Hey Don...where'd you get that information about the factories from?" Leonardo asked.

Donatello felt his own smile falter a bit as he rubbed the back of his head. "Um well...I kinda...asked Blake about that stuff..." He said, causing the mood in the room to somber a bit.

"Ya know, what she's doin', it ain't healthy. Not dis kinda obsession." Raph said looking over to Leo.

"Yeah...almost beginning to remind me a bit of someone I know." Mikey said, meaningfully looking up at Leonardo. "Admittedly, a lot less...moody, somehow."

Leonardo gave a deep sigh and nodded. "Trust me...of everyone here, I know best how much this can change you for the worst. And...I was able to pull myself out. But only with some help." Leo said, looking at his brothers. "I'll try talking with her tomorrow, I promise."

"Good, an' when you're done wit' dat, we can go in an' smash dat place apart." Raph said, grinning as he slammed his fist into his palm.

"Wait, we can't do it so soon! What about the dance, bros!" Mikey said, which caused his three brothers to look at him with raised eyebrows as if Mikey was...well, being more Mikey than usual.

"What...about it?" Leonardo asked neutrally.

"Come on, we are so going there, we have to!" Mikey said, as Raph, Leo, and Don rested their faces in their palms.

"Mikey, we kinda got much, much bigga things ta do den go ta some stupid dance." Raph grumbled.

"Come on, every classic highschool movie ever has a big ol dance for it! Footloose, Back to the Future, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, heck even Teen Wolf!" Mikey said, counting them off on his fingers.

"Well, Beacon's really more of a college than a highschool..." Donnie pointed out before Raph shook his head.

"That don't matta, we ain't in a movie!" Raph pointed out.

"Come on, weren't we just talking about how Blake is going too far with this whole thing, how she's too focused and pushing herself? We gotta be the same way, have a little bit of a break." Michelangelo argued.

"Mikey, look we're not exactly pushing too hard. Even if we don't go out and destroy it we could use that time spying on it and scouting it out." Leo said.

"Look, guys come on. This is important to the school and the people we're supposed to be blending in with. Besides, right after the dance is a big major mission. I bet we could find one nearby the warehouse and kill two birds with one stone, instead of wearing ourselves out just before then." Mikey said.

His brothers were...a bit surprised to say the least.

"Did...Mikey just make a logical argument?" Leonardo asked, looking at Donatello.

"I...think he did." Don said with a nod.

Raph shook his head. "Oh come on guys!"

"Raph...Mikey does have a point. We've been going the extra mile ever since that incident at the docks last semester, and this is a big deal for these people who are basically holding us while we're lost in their world." Don said.

"And while we're used to that, we shouldn't be constantly at this. We can still help out, and it would work as our mission we're going on just one day later. Plus it would be good to take a break once in a while."

Raph looked at them before sighing and shaking his head. "Fine, yeah, whateva." Raph said, laying back in his bed.

"Hah hah yes! Score one for the Mikester!" Mikey said cheering, until a pillow slammed him to his bed, scaring Klunk off.

Author's Note:

So...it's been a while. We even passed the one year anniversary and we're only on Chapter Ten thus far. I can only apologize, I temporarily ran out of steam and the stress of writing that last chapter made me realize I wasn't having fun writing anymore. And that the last chapter...was really bad. I just blatantly copied the episode, very little original stuff (not that this fic was all that original to begin with) and I just sorta kept pushing it off. Then I started writing my other fic Life has Many Walls, Ed-boys an Ed, Edd 'n Eddy and Attack on Titan crossover and I was just having a blast doing so. I was coming up with so many ideas that I am actually looking forward to getting to, and it made me reevaluate how I'm writing this fic. I think I need to scale back a bit, each chapter in this fic breaks between 5-8 thousand words, which is good and all and if I have that much to fill I will, but I started trying to just keep an eye and was trying to put in more words for the sake of more words. I was already meeting my established goal of at least 1k per chapter, so this was unnecessary.

So with that said, I am going to be shaking things up a bit, chapters may be getting smaller, and I am not going to be promising any schedule for my own sake.

Oh, and I hope everyone enjoys my new cover title, made by myself...which I probably shouldn't brag about.

Also, with this chapter, I decided to do some thing that I almost never do (since it doesn't have the advantage of being on a forum like Spacebattle does):

Answer and respond to Reviews! Most of these I've already sent a PM to, but I figured it'd be good to answer in public for those who read the reviews, but still don't see them:

"Starboy34tcoos-

Of the TMNT stories on here, I'm glad someone finally did one of the 2003 turtles stuff and that you didn't make them Human. I look forward to the next chapter."

Thanks! I'm not a fan at all of stories that just turn non-human characters into human characters. It loses some interesting story potential and is usually just a cheep cop-out.

"Jackelope89-

I do hope you explain why the Turtles suddenly get aura when it clearly shows it has to be activated/released by someone first."

Obviously I won't spoil what I will and won't say in the story, but as far as RWBY's earlier moments...Jaune's activation is a pretty weak part in the storytelling and a lot around it makes little sense, so I wouldn't say it's quite that obvious.

"stardrago-

So, I was wondering that if the turtles have been practicing with their Aura, will they be able to like when their time in the Ninja Tribunal to be able to transform into their Dragon avatars; like their form of semblance?"

Again, no spoilers, but I will say the way Semblances and the Ninja Tribunal ki works is very similar, but very different at the same time (namely the power "source"). However, the turtles themselves don't quite fit in with Remnant either…

"nightmaster000-

Something's been bothering me about Stockmans appearance. Shouldn't he be just a brain now, instead of just a head? I mean I think this point in the NT timeline he's only a brain in robot that projects a hologram of his old head."

This one I definitely should've clarified given the...popularity of Back to the Sewer, but Stockman did gain a new robotic body when he was dealing with the Purple Dragons that almost got hijacked from the Cyber Shredder. And as that was the last we saw of Stockman (besides in the far future, of course) that's what he would look like. If anyone's interested, the episode is called "Hacking Stockman".

"Anime brony-

Lose one of their own? Are talking about the when Donnie was turned a monster by the mutant outbreak Bishop caused."

I'm...sorry if I am missing something obvious, but I've gone over my fic extensively again and again but I can't find the part you're talking about.

"JessesanMan-

How is LMDR pronounced ?"

Lumber. I believe I've said it in the fic before, but there.

"DarkDevilKnight-

When the school dance come up I think Raph should be Yang's date for the night. Makes me think that two hot heads would be a good pairing for the shipping, however this is just a suggestion til the turtles go home."

Oh gosh...I'm surprised it took this long for the shipping to start.

"the17thmuse

Um, just a small suggestion on the team's names. Almost everything in RWBY is color-themed, so maybe instead of team LMDR, why not arrange it into MRLD to spell 'emerald'. Other than that the story is turning out nicely."

As I've said above, the team is named "Team Lumber" with the color in reference being like that of wood or even a forest (so brown or green). Not to mention, MRLD wouldn't work as then Mikey would have to be the leader...and nobody wants that.

Any Question I didn't answer I feel already has been answered by now or would be too spoilery for me to answer.

Anyways, overly long Author's note if finally done.