The turtles, Casey, Yuuki, Mona, and Venus are at April's antique shop. They were helping her finish cleaning as she is about ready to reopen her shop.
"I can't thank you guys enough," April said as she hammers a nail into the wall. "If it wasn't for you, I might never been able to reopen the shop."
"Yeah, but if it wasn't for us, you'd still have your first shop," Leo replied as he scrubs the floor.
"One hundred bucks for this thing?" Mikey questioned as he sets down a typewriter. "It doesn't even have a monitor screen."
"Maybe it's your calling, Mikey." Yuuki teased.
"And what's with this weird floppy disc?" Mikey asked as he picks up an ink roll.
It smears ink all over on his fingers. He drops the ink roll. He looks around with a mischievous look then wipes his hands on a suit that's on a mannequin. He quickly turns it around so no one would see the three finger marks on it. Mikey whistles innocently as he walks away.
"I'm telling you, it should go in the front of the store!" Raph argues with Casey as they were carrying an suit of armor.
"Get your head out of your shell, it'll look way better in the back!" Casey argues.
Donnie finishes fixing and lighting up the OPEN sign. When he stands up, his bo staff accidentally knocks a glass chandelier. He places a hand on it to keep it from moving.
"Here Don, let me give you a hand with that," Leo offers. When he stands up, his swords knocks over a pile of glass bowls. As he quickly tries to stop them from falling, his foot ends up in the water bucket.
"That's it!" April growls in annoyance. "Weapons boys, fork 'em over!"
"But what if the Foot attack?" Mikey asked. "Or the...girl scouts?"
"You can survive without your weapons for one day," April tells him. She walks over to Raph. After he and Casey set the suit of armor down, Raph places his sai in the box with the other weapons.
"You know what, you're right," Casey said. "It should go in the front."
April walks over to Yuuki with the box "You as well."
Yuuki stares up at her innocently "What? You don't trust me? I'm hurt, April."
"Tell that to the fragile vase you nearly knocked over." April replied. Yuuki pouts and hands over her tessen placing it in the box with the other weapons.
April walks behind the counter and sets the box of weapons down. She picks up a picture frame of her when she was younger with her parents and another man.
"At last, the O'Neil family portrait can assume it's rightful place again," April said, proudly.
"Who's the guy next to your dad?" Leo asked.
"Him?" April questioned as she points to the man dressed in a safari outfit. "Oh, that's my Uncle Augie, August O'Niel. Uncle Augie was a real character, a head for figures and a heart for adventure. He used to disappear for months on end, traveling the world. We wouldn't hear a word from him. And then, suddenly, he'd just show up out of the blue with a suitcase full of trinkets and a million stories from his travels."
"Then one day, he just disappeared for good," She said.
Raph, who was getting annoyed with a fly, screams and he drops the suit of armor.
"You want a piece of me, you little garbage eating maggot!" Raph shouts.
Casey stumbles backwards from the weight of the suit. He accidentally throws the armor into a cabinet full of dishware.
Raph chases the fly out of the store and slams the door. "I hate bugs!"
"And from the looks of it, you hate bone china teacups, porcelain figures, and depression glass too," Donnie said as everyone gathers around to pick up the broken pieces.
"You two, away from the breakables! Garbage detail, now!" April ordered, angrily.
"Yes ma'am," Raph said.
"Sorry ma'am," Casey apologizes.
"What is this stuff?" Raph questioned, holding a box.
"Just a bunch of junk that got damaged in the fire," April answered.
"Whoa, this still looks good," Raph said as he searches through the box and pulls out a weird looking puzzle cube.
"I don't believe it!" April gasps as she takes the puzzle cube from his hand and starts to it.
"What is it?" Leo questioned as he and the others gathered around.
"It's a puzzle cube that used to belong to my uncle, I can't imagine how it survived the fire."
Suddenly, the puzzle cube begins to move on its own. It glows and begins to open up. Everyone is in shock before they knew it they were sucked into the cube. Then the next thing they knew, they were falling out of the sky and landed into a giant bush in a strange place.
"Ow. Where are we?" April asked as she looks up to see floating rocks in the air.
"Sure don't look like midtown," Raph said as he stands up.
"Or anywhere on Earth for that matter," Leo murmurs. He helps Yuuki as he takes her hand pulling her out of the bush.
She blushes. "Thanks,"
"No problem, " Leo replied.
Donnie and Raph helped Venus and Mona out as well. Raph sees that April was struggling with the vines wrapped around her legs as she tries to climb out.
"Here, let me help you out," Raph offers as he pulls a vine.
"No, really, I'm fine, Raph," April protests as she is pulled out of the bush. Raph keeps pulling. "I can do it-" The vine breaks and rips and tears April's pants. "Myself!"
April pulls off the shredded remains of her pants, making it short shorts, then she shoots a glare at Raph. He smiles nervously.
"So you think some Utrom clown hit the wrong switch on his transmat?" Mikey asked.
"No, this feels different," Donnie explained. "The transmat was a whoosh. This is more like a shift. If i had to guess, I'd say Uncle Augie's puzzle cube acts as some kind of dimensional gate way."
"I got the heady science of whoosh vs shift, but after that, you lost me," Mikey said.
"The theory goes something like this: We're all made up of atoms and atoms are mostly made up of empty space, so you could theoretically have parallel universes all occupying the same space by vibrating at different frequencies. A slight shift of atoms and presto, you're in a whole different dimension."
"Okay! Okay Donnie, you're making my head buzz," Mikey complains holding his head.
"It's not just you, Mikey," April speaks. "I hear it too."
"We all hear it," Leo said.
"Oh great, more bugs," Raph groans as he picks up a stick. "Show yourself, you lousy little rat!"
"Uh, Raph, you're gonna need a bigger fly swatter," Leo said as he points to the sky.
"Oh crud," Raph groans as they see a giant wasp, flying towards them.
They try throwing rocks to scare it off, but it rams into Raph and flies around the others before going after Raph again.
"Raph, look out!" April warns.
The wasp snatches Raph up and Donnie grab's onto his feet, but they were both taken away.
"Raph, Donnie!"
"No!"
"Bugs, why did it have to be bugs?!" Raph growls.
"Oh sure, you can survive without your weapons for one day," Mikey mocks using April's voice.
Donnie looks down and sees something. "Raph, there's some kind of man made structure down there!"
"When you're through sightseeing, how about helping me kick some bug butt?" Raph retorted, trying to shake the bug off.
"Let's see, an insect's exoskeleton is usually thinnest at the right joints," Donnie tells him.
"And I should care because?" Raph questioned, angrily.
"Just swing me up and you'll see!" Donnie answered. Raph swings Donnie up and Donnie kicks the wasp making it drop them.
Donnie and Raph crashes through the trees and branches as they fall. As the others run through the forest, they see Donnie fall to the ground.
"Don!" Mikey exclaimed. "You alright, bro?"
"Where's Raph?' Leo asked.
Donnie groans and shakily raises his hand and points up to the trees. Raph was dangling in the tree above them.
"Did I mention how much I hate bugs?" Raph groans in annoyance.
"We'll get you down bro," Leo said as he and April climbs the tree while Mikey and Venus helps Donnie up. "Just hang on."
"Like a I got a choice?" Raph asked in response.
"I spotted some kind of tree house down by the river anyways," Donnie informs. "We should check it out. Maybe someone could tell us more about where we are."
"You guys up for it?" Mikey asked. Raph falls hard to the ground. "Or, down for it."
"Okay, but no more flying," Raph groans.
The turtles, Yuuki, Mona, Venus, and April made make-shift weapons for defense. Leo and Donnie break off sticks while April grabs a vine. Donnie sharpens the stick to make a spear. Venus and Mona make spears as well. Yuuki sharpens a stick then curves it and places a sharp rock on the two pieces, tying a piece of vine on the two, making chakrams. Raph sharpens a piece of rock. Mikey finishes his nunchucks and spins one. But a rock breaks of off it and hits Raph. "Ow!" He growls at Mikey, rubbing his head holding the rock. Mikey smiles sheepishly. Leo sharpens the sticks to make swords. April ties a piece of string to her spear then she throws it to a tree, practicing.
The turtles and April tear a large piece of bark off the trees. They make sailboats from each piece of bark. Then they all sailed down the river towards the treehouse.
"Would it be too cliche to say Cowabunga!" Mikey jokes.
"In a word, yes," Raph said as he splashes Mikey.
April catches a small wave and does a flip in the air.
Mikey and Yuuki both stare at her in shock.
"Whoa, April, where'd you get those moves?" Mikey asked.
"I don't know, something about this place just brings out the jungle girl in me!" April calls out.
They continue to float down the river until they stopped at the shoreline near the treehouse.
"This is it, guys," Donnie tells them as they look up to see a treehouse in a high tree.
"Hello?" Mikey calls out as his voice echos throughout the jungle. "Anybody home?"
Leo takes a closer look to see holes in the floor of the treehouse. "Maybe termites?"
"If they're anything like that overgrown flying cockroach, I don't wanna know about it," Raph said.
April starts to climb the ladder near Raph.
"Where do you think you're going?" Raph calls out.
"I'm not afraid of bugs, tough guy," April replied, sarcastically. Leo and Donnie follow her then Yuuki, Mona and Venus.
"Don't be scared, bro, Jungle Girl can protect you," Mikey taunts.
"Hey, I ain't scared of nothing," Raph argued. "I just hate bugs." He soon begins to climb up the ladder.
"You mean, like that one crawling up your back right now?" Mikey jokes.
"What?! Where?!" Raph panics as he reaches behind him.
"Gotcha!" Mikey laughs. Raph growls then swings the ladder, smacking Mikey in the face with it. "Hey!"
When everybody made it to the top, they see that the treehouse is abandoned.
"Can't say much for the decor," Mikey said. "But it's got great ventilation."
As everyone searches the treehouse, April sees something on the homemade table and gasps in shock.
"This was my Uncle Augie's," April said as she picks up a pendant.
"Are you sure?" Leo asked as everyone gathered around.
"I'd recognize it anywhere," April flips it open to reveal her family portrait. "Look."
Raph takes the pendant from her and turns it to look at the back. Something was written on it. "So you'll always find your way back to us."
"April, look at this," Donnie said as he flips through the journal.
"This is my uncle's handwriting," April realizes as she looks through it as well. "He was here, in this dimension or whatever it is. The puzzle cube must have transported him here just like us. Day 96, my shelter's barely holding up against the attacking swarm, I fear this may be my last entry as my life is in constant jeopardy."
Suddenly a loud screeching noise was heard. Everyone quickly draw their make-shift weapons.
"We know that tune," Leo said. "Look sharp guys."
"Buzz off, scuz ball!" Raph exclaimed as he picks up a chair and throws it out the window, hitting one of the wasps.
"Raph, no!" Donnie exclaimed as he pushes Raph back. "If you make them mad, they'll just fire their-" The wasps shoot their stingers and Donnie pushes Raph out of the way as he tries to avoid them. "Stingers!"
The others tried to dodge out of the oncoming stingers as well.
"Good one, Raph," Mikey scolds, but he doesn't hear a response. "Raph?"
Everyone looks back to see Raph leaning against the wall with a dazed look on his face.
"I...hate...bugs." Raph said as he tilts to the side, falling to the floor. Mona ran to his side worried.
"Oh no, Raphie!" Mikey exclaimed.
Donnie walks over to examine him.
"Donnie, is he?"
"Just paralyzed," Donnie informs. "If these are anything like Earth hornets, the effects should only be temporary."
"Look out!" Donnie exclaimed as everyone jumps out of the way as a wasp busts through the wall.
Mikey tries to protect Raph from the bug. Then the wasp flies over to April and she tries to stab it. The wasp grabs her spear in it's mouth and starts to fly her around the room. Leo charges at the wasp, kicking it in the face. The wasp lets go of April and she rolls on the floor and lands on her feet, catching her spear.
The wasp rams through the wall again. Another wasp tears through the wall. April and Leo try to attack but the wasp breaks Leo's make-shift swords. "Uh oh." When the wasp comes at him again, Leo rolls under the table, towards the two stingers and grabs them.
"Let's see how you like a taste of your own medicine!" Leo exclaimed.
He charges at the wasp and ducks under it, slashing it's underside with the stingers, causing it crash through the wall. Suddenly the whole treehouse starts to shake violent and starts tilting.
"Abandon treehouse!" Mikey exclaimed.
Leo rushes over and places Raph over his shoulders and everyone jumps out through the hole in the wall onto a large branch. April grabs her uncle's journal and pendant. Everyone makes it to safety just as the treehouse falls and destroyed. Leo slides down a vine. Yuuki, Mona, and Venus slide down as well. April swings down. The wasps are still coming after them and Mikey jumps down to a small branch to swing on it and kicks a wasp back, knocking it into a tree.
Three wasps come after Donnie and he runs to jump off the tree and lands on one of the wasps. He uses his staff to hit the wasp in the head, causing it to fall. Donnie uses it to swing down to the ground. A wasp has Leo and Raph cornered. Leo is having a hard time fighting the wasp off. April comes swing down on the vine and knocks the wasp in the air.
The brothers look at her impressed.
"You go, Jungle Girl!" Leo cheers.
"High school gymnastics," April gloats.
Nighttime has fallen and everyone was gathered around a campfire. April was reading her uncle's journal. Raph walks towards the group, groaning.
"Feeling back to your own self, bro?" Leo asked.
Raph growls. "Bugs...must...pay!"
"Definitely, back to his old self," Mikey laughs a bit.
"Guys, I found something!" April calls out. "Or my uncle did anyway. There's a temple somewhere to the northeast. Here, listen: Day 130, I followed the river until I came a grey stone temple. Deep within a chamber, at the center of the pyramid, was a large puzzle cube, if I can determine how to correctly position the cube. Day 145, I believe I have finally cracked the secret to the puzzle cube.
Unfortunately, since my first journey to the pyramid, the giant hornets have begun constructing a nest on the side of the structure. The journey will be dangerous, but I must try to reach the cube. I leave behind my journal and my compass-pendant, should any poor soul end up in this infernal place. Heaven help you, heaven help us all; That's all he wrote, the rest are just calculations."
"Looks like your uncle was trying to decipher the cube mathematically," Donnie informs.
"We need to get to that temple," April said as she opens the pendant with the compass in it, to look at the family picture. "And find out what happened to him."
"If we can piece together his notes, we might be able to program the puzzle cube to send us home."
"Then its settled," Leo speaks. "We head out for the temple first thing in the morning,"
Morning comes and everyone walks through the jungle until they come across a river that April's uncle talked about.
"Your uncle's calculations seem to indicate a logarithmic correlation in an otherwise stochastic deviation," Donnie explained as he looks at the journal while April tries to use the compass-pendant.
"Of course!" She said, excitedly. "The algorithms follow a variation of a Fibonacci sequence!"
"Do you guys come with subtitles?" Mikey asked, confused.
"Guys, look!" Leo calls out, pointing down the river to show the temple and see a giant wasps nest on the side.
"What I wouldn't give for a big can of bug spray," Raph said. "A really big one."
"I think I know how we can get past them," Donnie explained, tossing the journal to April. He runs and jumps into the river, coming out covered in mud and muck. "Hornets and other wasps have a strong sense of smell. We need to disguise our scent."
"Do we have to disguise them that bad?" Mikey asked as everyone was disgusted by the smell. Yuuki, Mona and Venus nearly gagged.
April jumps in then the other three brothers follow, diving in, as well. April comes out of the water slowly like a huntress on the prowl.
"I think you may be taking this Jungle Girl thing a little too seriously," Leo teases, but gets a face full of mud.
Yuuki laughs uncontrollably pointing her finger at him. "She got you good, Leo!"
But, she stops when she sees Leo smirk, holding some mud in his hand. "Don't you dare-" He throws it, hitting her in the face.
Donnie and Raph looked towards the other two girls, holding mud as well.
Venus and Mona both shoot them an warning glare. "Donatello, if you throw that-" Venus lets out a shriek while Mona glared at Raph as the mud hit them.
" It's for your own good, you two. " Raph replied.
Everyone soon make their way towards the temple entrance.
"I sure hope this is worth having Mikey downwind," Donnie jokes.
"We're about to find out, cause here they come!" Raph calls out as they see the horde of wasps come out.
The swarm flies around them before they begin to fly away.
"They're leaving," Donnie said in relief. "Old factory principle proven."
They walk inside the temple and gasp in shock when they see the room was filled with wasp pods.
"Looks like the hornets have tunneled their nests right into the temple," Donnie replied.
"So how come no one's minding the eggs?" Mikey questioned.
"These aren't eggs, they're pupa, second stage development. And by the looks of them, I'd say they're nearly fully formed adults."
"Weapons ready," Leo said. "Let's move out."
Mikey twirls his nunchucks, but it tears as a rock shoots out, hitting a pod. Suddenly, all of the pods begin to squirm.
"Nice going Mikey," Leo scolds.
A hornet pops out of a pod behind Leo and he moves out of the way.
"Everybody, move!" Leo ordered.
All of the hornets soon break out of their pods and start to fly around the room, chasing everyone.
"They're gaining on us!" Mikey exclaimed.
"Alright stinkbugs!" Raph exclaimed irritably as he draws his weapons. "This time it's personal!"
They begin to fight the hornets but there were too many of them.
"There's too many of them!" Leo shouted. "We need to find another way out of here!"
"Guys, over here!" April calls out when she sees a doorway open.
Everyone runs into the next room, trying to close the stone door behind them, as Raph was trying to fend off the hornets while he backs up towards the room. While he makes it inside, Donnie and April close the door before any hornets could get in. Then they notice a giant puzzle cube that April's uncle described across the room.
"There it is," Mikey said. "Our ticket home."
Everyone walks towards it walking up the stairs. April notices a scroll on the ground and picks it up.
"It's Uncle Augie's handwriting," She gasps in surprise and relief. "So he did make it back here."
"That's odd," Donnie said as he looks through the journal. "The settings on the cube don't match the coordinates in your uncle's journal. Wherever it sent him, it wasn't home."
"You're right, something must have happened while he was setting the final coordinates, but what?"
Suddenly, a loud growling noise echoed.
"You had to ask?" Raph questioned, irritably.
They look over to see a giant hornet advancing towards them.
"It's the queen," Donnie said, gravely.
"I don't care if it's Queen Latifah, you guys need to get that cube fired up!" Mikey exclaimed as he draws his nunchucks.
Mikey charges at the hornet while Donnie, April and Raph try to set the coordinates of the cube. But during the fight Mikey is knocked to the ground and tries to avoid the hornet's stinger, only to get stung by it and paralyzed.
"Mikey!" Yuuki shouted.
She jumps into the fight with the hornet as it tries to eat Mikey. She slaps it in the face with her make-shift chakrams. It turns and roars at her angrily. Yuuki tries to dodge the hornet's claws jumping out of the way as it swiped at her. One slices through her jeans hitting her leg, scratching her. She falls to the ground, paralyzed.
As the hornet comes towards her, Leo jumps into the fight landing between the hornet and Yuuki.
"You're gonna have to go through me to get to her!" Leo exclaimed, angrily.
He charges at the queen, trying to fight it off. It swipes Leo on his arm, knocking the stinger out of his hands, scratching and paralyzing him.
"Leo!" Raph shouted as he jumps down and grabs the stingers. He uses them to fight against the queen but it suddenly beings to fly. Raph is scratched again.
"Not...again," Raph groans as he falls down.
The queen hovers over Raph getting ready to eat him. April smacks it with her spear. "Get away from him!" The queen growls at her. "You...witch!" April throws her spear at the queen, stabbing it. It falls to the ground.
Donnie, Venus, and Mona pushes the cube back into place. It begins to glow brightly, opening up.
"April, it's time to go!" Donnie shouts.
April, Mona, Venus and Donnie drag the others onto the platform. The cube is taking a while to start and the queen, now conscious, flies over to the group. April, Venus, Mona and Donnie squeeze their eyes shut, waiting for the blow from the queen. But the cube finally works and quickly transports everyone out of the temple.
They land back in April's shop.
Just as they land, Casey walks back in.
"What died in here?" Casey questioned then looks to see everyone covered in mud.
"Whoa, we're gone for two seconds and suddenly everybody's covered in crud?"
After the paralyze effects from the hornet queen have worn off, the turtles, Yuuki, Mona, Venus and April have all taken showers and they tell Casey what happened.
"So, uh, let me get this straight," Casey said. "You defeated the giant hornet queen? All by yourself?"
"Like I said, something about that place just brought out the jungle girl in me. Not that I'm in a big hurry to go back there." April answered. She opens up her uncle's pendant, that she was wearing around her neck, looking at it fondly. "But, I'll find you someday, Uncle Augie, I swear it." She closes it, looking at the engraved writing on the back.
Then, Mikey looks over at the typewriter sitting on the counter and walks over to it and picks it up.
"Hey, April, mind if I borrow your typewriter for a bit?" He asked.
"Hmm?" April questioned. "What for?"
"Just some short stories." Mikey answered.
"Well, if you want it. You can have it. No charge." April said.
"Really?! Are you sure?"
"I insist." April smiles.
"Wow! Thanks April!" Mikey exclaimed.
"What are you gonna do with a typewriter, Mikey?" Donnie teases.
"I bet it'll be something silly." Raph adds.
"Hey, I'll make you eat those words! I'm gonna write the best selling novel ever, just you wait!" Mikey shouted.