A/n: Sorry that I took this long to update but my best friend came to visit me three days ago and we met after a whole year!(since she lives in another city). I got busy with her and was so excited that I couldn't write a thing. Anyway, here is the next oneshot.
This takes place in season 3, a few weeks after 'The battle for NewYork'.
Requested by 'CharmGirlLove'.
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters.
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Master Plan
His eyes slowly slid open and he blinked, trying to clear the blurriness from his vision. When the foggy haze cleared away, he scrunched up his face in confusion. "What the... "
Why was everything upside-down?
The confusion lasted for maybe 5 seconds before he registered that the world was normal but he was hanging upside down, his arms bound tightly to his sides. He struggled to get free but couldn't move and finally noticed that he was in some sort of glass tank. It looked very familiar but he couldn't place his finger on it, like something was blocking his memories.
He shifted again and finally looked down- up? at his feet, only to catch sight of another pair of green feet bound to his by the ankles with a thick, electronic strap around them. The strap was attached to a metallic rope which trailed to the curved roof of the glass cylinder.
He gasped, suddenly remembering everything as the effect of whatever drug he was given wore off; Them playing ninja tag on the rooftops – running with his brother to catch the other two – a dart hitting him out of nowhere – him falling – Leo's yell – seeing his brother fall next to him with a dart sticking out of the neck – his vision going dark.
"Leo!"
A groan sounded from behind him, confirming his suspicions; Leo was caught too. He tried to move but the same type of metal straps which were around their ankles also bound him and his brother shell-to-shell, preventing any movement, so he opted to look over his shoulder instead, catching a glimpse of the blue bandana hanging down.
"Leo? You okay?" He asked again, with less panic this time.
"...Raph?" He felt his brother shake his head to clear away the fogginess, "Where- What's going on?"
"We were captured. Can't pinpoint exactly who did this though."
"I think it's... the Kraang."
Now that he thought of it, the glass prison they were in looked excatly like the one which they had been locked inside at TCRI and as he looked outside, the shiny metal walls alongwith pink and purple lights further confirmed it. There was just one, small problem though.
"Didn't we defeat them a few weeks ago? They were gone."
"I know. But apparently, they decided to come back and play Catch the Turtle with us."
One of the large walls swished to the side, opening to reveal Kraang Sub-prime, driving in his Irma-bot. He entered the large chamber and the wall swished close behind him. Grinning like a maniac, Sub-prime approached their prison, glee clear in his movements.
"So the freakin' turtles are finally awake. Welcome to Dimension X, morons."
"Great." Raph muttered under his breath as he glared at the annoying alien, "Just what we needed."
%%%%%
"This is bad! This is really, really bad!" Donnie paced back and forth on a rooftop where he last saw his brothers, his anxiousness increasing by each passing second. "How did we let them get caught so easily? They were right behind us!"
"Donnie, calm down. We'll get them back." Mikey tried to reassure both his brother and himself. He was just as worried as Donnie was about the others but if following Leonardo had thought him anything, it was remaining calm when the situation required it. Leo and Raph were out of the equation and Donnie was freaking out so the responsibilty of being sensible fell on him; which was, ironically, the exact opposite of his usual personality.
"How?!" The purple-masked ninja swirled around with panic-stricken face, "They could be anywhere and they just disappeared! We don't even have a clue about who took them."
"Dude!" Mikey grabbed his brother's shoulders, halting his constant pacing. It was giving him a headache and he never gets headaches, unless he tries some crazy recipe which doesn't bode well for him or he eats too much icecream or he gets beaten by randori or when he gets sick or- Focus Mikey! What were you going to say? Oh yeah...
"You are not thinking straight, Dee. Just calm down first and then we'll figure this out." Donnie nodded hesitantly and Mikey smiled, proud at himself for doing a good job.
"You're right. You're right." The genius took a deep breath to slow his racing thoughts, wishing that his brothers were here. Raph never freaked out in these situations and Leo always had a plan. "I need to stop panicking and think logically."
"That's my ninja. Now, what do we need to do to get our brothers back?"
"First, we need to figure out where they are." Donnie suddenly had his thinking face on, his eyes furrowed in concentration and his hand grabbing his chin. "I can of course use their T-phones to track them down for that and then we'll formulate a rescue plan. Let's head back to the lair for now. Once there, we can devise a plan and prepare ourselves."
Saying that, the olive green turtle jumped down the fire-escape and into the alleyway below, his younger brother following after him.
Mikey was elated by the change, his own stress ebbing away from him since he believed that Donnie will come up with something now. He might not be the strategizer and leader of their team but he was practically the smartest guy on the planet.
They opened a manhole cover and jumped down, sliding it back as they disappeared. It only took them 10 minutes to cover the 30 minutes long distance to the lair, the determination for saving the other two pushing them to go faster.
Sprinting towards the lab was the first thing both turtles did when they hopped over the turnstiles. Donatello grabbed his laptop and plugged his T-phone to it, his fingers moving over the keyboard with blurring speed as he pulled up a program which pinpointed the location of all the T-phones. He suddenly froze, his face scrunching up in confusion, "What? But this isn't possible! They have to have a signal, I modified the internal antennas to recieve and emit a signal no matter what the location is, even buried underground."
Seeing that his elder brother was going in panic mode once again, Mikey carefully approached him, "Donnie, hey, relax. Maybe it's something different that is blocking their signal. Or maybe they are not in the city anymore."
"I know that possibility, Mikey. And I checked the whole globe. There's no sign of their T-phones, like they're not even on Earth anymore. I even checked their Shell-Trackers in case they might have lost the phones but still nothing."
Mikey glared at his brother in suspicion, "What are Shell-Trackers?"
Donnie blushed hard, gulping and nervously avoiding eye contact with the orange-clad turtle. "Nothing!" His voice came out more high-pitched than he expected, making him even more nervous. "Absolutely nothing, bro! It's just a silly invention which didn't work..."
Mikey's eyes narrowed even more at him.
"Okay! Okay! I'll tell you! I might've... kind of..."
%%%%%
"What do you want Sub-prime?" Even in this position, Leonardo somehow managed to sound threatening.
"Just to get rid of you annoying turtles, always jumping in to ruin our plans." A girl speaking in a voice which didn't belong to her while doing puppet hand gestures was weird. But it didn't faze the two turtles; they had seen enough of weird stuff as it was.
"Annoying? Have you ever looked in the mirror?"
"Indeed." The Irma-bot depicting the alien went on, ignoring Raph's insult and fluffing her hair. "I must say that the designs I stole from Rook make quite a convincing human."
The two turtles simultaneously rolled their eyes, each without knowing that the other was doing the same.
"In case you haven't noticed, Sub-prime, you only managed to catch two of us, not four." Raph said smugly, "That doesn't really work out to prevent the 'ruining of your plans'."
"Yes it does. It's all part of my Master Plan."
"Doesn't seem very Master-y to me." Raph whispered to his brother who snickered in response.
Sub-prime missed the exchange and continued talking, "With the strongest fighter and the leader in our clutches, the rest of your team will be lost and they'll crumble without you. We won't even have to worry about those two runts trying to stop us."
"What did you just call them?!" Raphael struggled hard as he yelled in rage, his eyes turning white. "You'll so regret saying those words about my brothers!"
"Oh no! I'm so scared!" Their captor exclaimed in mock terror, making the two ninjas glare daggers at him. "The other weak turtles might come to kill me."
"Donnie and Mikey are not weak, you over-sized bubblegum."
Raph snorted but agreed with the term Leo had used. It pissed the pink alien blob off and he enjoyed every second of that scowl. It was well desreved after insulting his brothers.
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"YOU DID WHAT?!"
Donatello flinched, even though he was totally expecting the loud, angry yell.
"I know! I'm sorry!"
"Sorry?! You drilled trackers into our shells without our knowledge!"
Alright, that sounded way worse when he put it that way.
"I didn't exactly want to! But it was necessary with our lives being so dangerous where there is 67 percent probability of someone getting captured or hurt or lost."
"You still could've asked us!"
"Would you have agreed to it?"
"No! Cuz it's all mad scientist thingie, dude!"
Donnie sighed, dragging his palm down his face. "And that is why I didn't ask."
Mikey crossed his arms in a show of anger, frowning distrustfuly at the other turtle. "Meanie Mad Scientist."
"Can we please forget about this know? We need to rescue our brothers."
Mikey stared at him for a moment before sighing. Leo and Raph were more important than his betrayed feelings over a necessary precaution.
"You're right... But don't think that I'm forgetting what you did. I'll deal with this later, mister."
The genius rolled his eyes and started his work on locating the other two, only to fail... again. His concern and feeling of uselessness caught up with him and he growled in frustration, hitting his table with enough force that some of the equipment bounced and toppled.
"WOAH DONNIE! Calm down dude!"
Donatello was immensely grateful that his younger brother had sort of restrained him with a hug; He didn't want to accidentally break any of the lab equipment. Within a few momemts, he felt his anger receding and other emotions taking it's place.
"I'm so useless... can't even..."
He shuddered and covered his face with his hands, trying to hold back his tears as he slumped. Mikey didn't release his hold on him but shifted his position, so he wasn't restraining Donnie anymore and was supporting him instead.
"Look, You can do this, bro. I believe in you. And I'm pretty sure that Leo and Raph believe in you too."
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"You're underestimating them." Raph declared in avoice filled with confidence, "They are capable of far more than meets the eye. Donatello is the smartest person you'll ever find, he can- Ow! Hey!"
"We can't reveal our strengths to an enemy, Raph!" Leonardo hissed through clenched teeth after he had jabbed his elbow into Raph's carpace.
The hothead retorted with an elbow jab of his own. "Don't tell me what to do, Fearless!"
"Really? You're gonna argue with me over this now?"
"I can argue whenever I want to!"
"Reeeal mature, Raph."
"Quit chiding me, Leo. You don't have to treat me like I'm some annoying little kid! Ya always go on an' on about how..."
The rest of the words were drowned out by the leader as he tried to survey his surroundings the best he could and figure out a way to escape. Their straps would be hard to get out of since they were electronic and none of the two knew how to handle Kraang technology; that was more of Mikey's department. There was a control panel right next to the glass cage which would easily release them but that had to be done from outside. And then there was the matter of toxic gas of Dimension X, they would require the breathers.
It would be simple enough to escape if Mikey and Donnie are able to locate them. The only problem would be to keep Sub-prime oblivious about his base being infiltrated. Leo smirked as he came up with a solution for that too.
But his hotheaded brother had been blabbering for the past five minutes and he couldn't take the background noise anymore. He knew that Raph wouldn't stop talking and if that continued, he'd go crazy with just listening to the complaints so he cut his brother off mid-sentence.
"Just shut up."
"You shut up!"
"You are the one yelling!"
"Well, it's your fault!"
"How the hell is it my fault?!"
"You started it!"
"I did not!"
"Yeah, you did! You hit me first."
An exasperated groan. Well... so much for peace and quite.
"I was trying to stop you from giving away our strengths to our enemy here so he wouldn't figure out a way to defeat us."
"Stop being paranoid. They're too dumb to figure it out anyway."
An offended "Hey!" came from their captor but it was ignored as the two turtles continued to bicker.
%%%%%
After the tiny pep talk and encouragement from Mikey, the purple masked turtle had started working on the trackers. He had been typing nonstop for a while but by his clenched jaw and narrowed eyes, it was clear that he wasn't having much success.
Michelangelo bit his lip, remembering Donnie's words from a few minutes ago as he watched his brother try and fail to locate the others.
"Donnie, you said that there was no sign of their T-phones, right? Like they aren't even on Earth anymore."
"Yeah. What are you getting at?"
The youngest straightened up, glad that his brother was actually listening to him for a change. Guess desperate times really do call for deperate measures.
"Then what if the reason they can't be found on Earth is because they aren't on Earth?"
Donnie's eyes lit up as he assessed the implication of those words.
"Mikey, you're a genius!"
"I knew that." He said smugly, leaning back a little. "Not everyone can be as smart as me."
Donnie ignored him and turned his attention to the laptop as he began typing again, "There is only one place they could be outside of Earth and if I connect this software with the communication orb, I might just- Yes! Got it!"
"You found their signal?!"
"Yup!"
"Then what are we waiting for?! Let's go! Lets go! Let's go!"
He began pulling his brother's arm as he rushed out without a second thought, dragging Donatello behind him.
"Woah woah woah, wait." Donnie quickly skidded to a stop, bringing his brother to a halt as well. "We can't just run out to get them, Mikey. They're in Dimension X."
"Oh... You mean it's the Kraang who took them?" Mikey's face fell and the worry was back in the place of his enthusiasm. "What if they are being experimented on?"
Donatello fell silent for a moment as he contemplated this possibility before he looked up at his baby brother, his expressions screaming of unbending resolve.
"We won't let that happen."
Mikey just stood there with his mouth hanging open, admiring how much Donnie looked like his eldest two brothers at the moment and he felt a wave of various repressed emotions wash over him.
Leo... Raphie... He missed them... a lot. He wanted his big brothers back- No... NEEDED them back.
It must have showed on his face because Donnie slowly approached him and wrapped his arms around the smaller turtle, engulfing him in comforting hug.
"We will get them back, Mikey. I promise."
The youngest allowed his brother's embrace and his comfortung words to chase away his doubts and fears. He hiccupped, burying his face in Donnie's plastron as he clinged to the taller turtle.
"W-What if-?"
"Shhh. It's Okay. Leo and Raph are fighters; They'll be alright."
A few moments later, Donatello sighed and released his brother who had stopped crying now.
"Feeling better?"
"Yeah."
"Good. Now cheer up! We need that optimistic attitude back and I've come up with a Master Plan."
The orange-clad turtle beamed at the affectionate nudges his elder brother kept giving him.
"Thanks Dee."
"Sure thing. What are brothers for?"
"Does teasing count?"
Chuckling a little, Donnie rubbed his head one last time and went back to prepare things for the upcoming rescue mission.
Michelangelo looked around the lab for something to keep him occupied in the meantime, but at finding nothing that wouldn't involve disturbing the genius, he hopped up to sit on the metal table and took out his T-phone.
As the youngest busied himself with his game, Donatello produced two Kraang teleportation devices from somewhere and placed them on his desk. Next, he searched for Leo's tazer gun and disassembled it to take out a small contraption; or more precisely, a miniaturized EMP generator.
Tweaking with the objects he had at his disposal, he was finally able to install the generator on one of the two Kraang devices in such a way that it will be triggered immediately after the gadget is used.
That done, the genius picked up the other teleportation device, the one without the EMP generator. He fumbled with it for a while as he tried to activate the stupid thing but it was in vain.
"I don't understand."
"Hmmm."
Donnie stood up with the small metal gadget in his hand and began pacing. "This isn't working. Why the shell is it that difficult to activate it? It makes no sense!"
"Uh huh."
"This thing is impossible!"
"Yup."
"Kraang tech is so confusing sometimes; it's ridiculous, crazy and has no logic in its programing! I wish there was someone with an insane, randomly logic-less mind who would be able to-"
He suddenly paused in his rant, his eyes blowing wide as realization hit him and he slowly turned to face his younger brother.
"Mikey."
"...Yeah?"
"Can you activate this portal?"
"Sure." Mikey said distractedly, his eyes glued to the T-phone's screen where a video game was in progress.
Donnie took a deep breath and calmly approached the freckled turtle, stopping right next to him. He leaned forward and spoke, his voice sounding suspiciously low, "Then stop wasting time and DO IT!"
Mikey winced, rubbing his poor, hurting ear as he put the phone away, "Alright, alright. You don't need to shout or anything."
He jumped down from the table and snatched the poratable device from Donatello, randomly pressing a few buttons before he tossed the object in the air.
It floated and a pink triangle formed from it. Donnie could only blink at it with wide eyes before he snapped out of his daze, attaching his breather and grabbing the other portable portal.
"Let's go save our brothers."
"Oh yeah boi!" Miley threw down a smoke bomb and his brother coughed, waving one hand in front of him to keep away the fumes of purple cloud. When the smoke cleared, an excited Mikey appeared in his wild, Dimension X attire.
"Savage Mikey of Dimension X ready to go!"
Donnie rolled his eyes and grabbed Michelangelo's arm, pulling him along as he hastened towards the floating triangle. "Now, C'mon. Every second we waste here is another hour passed in that dimension."
The two brothers jumped through the portal and it disappeared behind them, the small Kraang device which had projected it clattering to the lab's floor.
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"But carbonated drinks can weaken your immune system!"
"Says who?!"
"Says me and Donnie and Sensei and April and-
"OK, I get the idea. But still! Tea is disgusting!"
"It's not disgusting, Raphael. It's refreshing!"
"Why the hell do you like it so much anyway?"
"Because I just do!"
"That ain't an answer, Leo!"
"Exactly how many reasons do you want to hear?"
Leonardo and Raphael kept bickering, completely disregarding the fact that they were captured and suspended upside-down in the middle of a glass tube by their enemy.
No, that wasn't even important to them. The important thing, apparently, was to decide which drink is better.
"I still think that beverage taste waaaaay better than tea! And it's refreshing too."
"It's not good for health, Raph! Do I have to beat it into you thick skull?"
"This thick skull is more useful than your stupid tea, Leo! At least I can headbut with it!"
"How the hell does headbut sound good if it only ends up giving you a concussion?"
"Like ya said: Thick Skull. That means no concussion."
"It doesn't work that way! Ughhh. You're impossible..."
"Thanks!"
"Wasn't a compliment."
"Taking it as one anyway."
"Of course. That's what I should have expected from you, considering the hotheaded, irrational, impulsive brain you've got."
"Well, your brain is so stupid that it can't think of a way to get out!"
"Would you Shhh? I got a plan for that."
"Oh, really? Then please enlighten us with your Master Plan."
"Would you stop doing that?"
"No."
Leo sighed in resignation before he turned his head around as much as he could and whispered his plan to his brother. Raph's eyes widened slightly and there was a flicker of eagerness in his eyes for a moment before he quickly masked it, narrowing them in a glare.
"No. Just no. Worst idea you ever had, Leo."
"Isn't that your opinion to my every single idea? I bet you'll agree to Mikey's plans instead."
"Sure I will. Since yours suck!"
"You got any better idea?!"
"Yes! Get your foot away from mine!"
"Ow! Stop kicking me!"
"Stop digging your elbow into my side!"
"You are the one squirming around!"
"Like you aren't!"
"No, I'm not!"
"Yeah, you are!"
"You got any proof for that?!"
"The proof is that I'm stuck here with you!"
"It's no picnic for me either!"
One hour later
"Idiot!"
"Jerk!"
"Kill-joy!"
"Lamebrain!"
"Moron!"
On the other side of the room, Kraang Sub-prime was getting increasingly frustrated by the constant noise.
"Kraang asks kraang what the one known as turtle is saying to the one known as turtle and the one known as turtle is saying back to the one known as turtle? Does Kraang know the meaning of the words that the ones known as turtles are saying?"
"Kraang does not know what the one known as turtle and the one known as turtle are saying. Kraang refuses to acknowledge the meaning of those which Kraang wishes to call words."
And the speech of those two Kraang-droids(who were supposed to be guarding the door) wasn't helping matters either. Finally having reached his limit,the agitated alien snapped.
"SHUT UP!"
His loud outburst had halted the brothers' bickering and Sub-prime stomped towards their cage with irritation and rage. "You keep squabbling like toddlers; Bla bla bla this, bla bla bla that! It's giving me a headache!"
"Uh... No offense but, you're a talking brain. How in the world do you get headaches? You're everything aches?"
Sub-prime gave him a flat look before throwing up his tentacles, "That's it! I'm done! Should've gotten rid of you morons a long time ago."
He pushed a few controls on the elliptical console next to their glass cylinder and the floor of their prison opened up from the middle, the semi-circular panels sliding to the sides to reveal huge arrays of sharp buzzsaws rotating at a very high speed.
The metallic rope which attached them to the roof started to elongate, slowly lowering both brothers towards the floor.
"That can't be good."
"Ya think?"
%%%%%
"Dammit." Donatello hit the side of his T-phone in an attempt to make the cross-dimensional tracker work, only to receive a static noise. "The signals are being blocked again."
"Don't worry, bro. I got this."
The genius raised an eyeridge at his brother but Mikey already had one hand near his forehead, wiggling his fingers as he imitated the sounds of a radar. He was slowly twisting around while doing so before he suddenly paused.
"Uh-oh."
"What?" The younger turtle ignored him and lept up on a high vantage point, doing the same action he did just a few seconds ago. He then looked down at his brother, worry written all over his face.
"Mikey, what is it?"
Mikey jumped back down, the despair in his eyes highly contrasting the confident persona he had when they came here. It made Donnie worry.
"I can't track them through my organic antenna."
That one sentence made Donnie's blood run ice cold and he gazed across the vast, never-ending, pink space; knowing that their brothers are held in this dimension but not having a clue as to where.
"What do we do now?"
To be continued...