Title: Jungle Adventures, Movie References, and Leo's Exasperation
Prompt: Mikey and Leo are stranded in the jungle (any iteration)
Fandom: TMNT 2003
Word Count: 6090
Author: aquietwritingcorner/realitybreakgirl
Rating: T
Characters: Leonardo, Michelangelo
Warning: NA
Summary: All Leo wanted was a couple of hours discussing some books with April. Instead, thanks to Mikey playing with April's puzzle box, he and Mikey are now lost in a jungle in another dimension, with no idea how to get back home. If they get out of this, he just might duct tape Mikey's hands to his shell.
Notes: I didn't mean for the references to keep coming, but they sure did!
Jungle Adventures, Movie References, and Leo's Exasperation
If there's one thing that you should always remember, Leo thought to himself, it's that you should never, ever let Mikey play with shiny objects unsupervised. Especially if that shiny object is a small puzzle box that will transport you and him to another dimension.
Leo took a step back towards Mikey, his swords held out defensively in front of him. They were in some sort of jungle, with all of the humidity and strange flora and fauna that one thought they might find in an alien jungle. Honestly, Star Trek wished they had thought up some of the animals they'd seen here. There had been some truly bizarre creatures.
If only that had been their only problem.
All Leo had wanted to do today was to head up to April's, brew some new tea she had found, and spend a couple of hours discussing a book that she had recommended and lent to him. Master Splinter had encouraged him to do so, saying it would do him some good to relax. He'd been about to leave when Mikey had asked to come with him and turned the puppy dog eyes on him. Seeing how it was clear that Mikey had already gotten under both Raph and Don's skin, Leo gave in, big brother instincts taking over.
Reluctantly, he'd allowed Mikey to come with him. Mikey promised that he'd absolutely stay out of their way and be no trouble at all. Leo had been doubtful but had given him a chance to prove it. That had been a mistake, as Mikey had occupied himself with April's puzzle cube—and accidentally activated it when April was out of the room.
They'd landed in an alien jungle, full of blue-green foliage, towering trees, high humidity, no idea how to get home, and sans the most qualified turtle to figure it out. Needless to say, Leo was not happy, and Mikey had known that he was going to be in trouble—as soon as they found their way home. With no idea of what to do, they'd picked a direction, started walking, and hoped for the best.
Leo should have known better than to hope for the best.
They had, in their search for a way home, quite literally stumbled into a village of turquoise-skinned people. These people hadn't taken too kindly to having two giant turtles—if they even knew what a turtle was—stumble into their home. Instead, they had almost immediately taken up arms, and Leo and Mikey had decided that their best chance of survival was to book it back through the jungle.
Of course, that had worked about as well as most of their plans initially did, and now they were surrounded, angry natives on all sides of them, with decidedly deadly looking weapons held towards them.
"If we get out of this," Leo said, "remind me to tape your hands to your shell when we go to April's again."
"If we get out of this, I'll voluntarily let you—look out!" Mikey jumped in front of him, nunchucks whirling as they deflected a barrage of tiny darts.
Well, that wasn't good.
"Okay, new plan," Leo said. "Forget playing nice. We're taking a page out of Raph's book and forcing our way through." There was no way he was going to let them get caught by those darts. There was no telling what the natives would end up doing to them if they caught them.
"I don't like that plan very much," Mikey said, eyeing the group of twenty or so turquoise-skinned people around them.
"Neither do I," Leo said. "But I don't think we have much of a choice."
He darted forward, with no warning that the natives could see. Mikey, though, saw the tells and he moved forward at the same time, nunchucks whirling. Leo did his best not to kill or seriously injure anyone, but he and Mikey needed to escape. The natives were fierce fighters, though, and did their best to avoid or block his blades with their own weapons. Mikey's weapons, while still just as potentially deadly, tended to be less instantly lethal as Leo's, and Leo could hear the yelps of the natives as they had hands smashed and ribs broken.
And then, suddenly, there was an opening, and they were rushing through it, taking swipes at anyone who tried to stop them, and ducking to avoid the darts, letting their shells take as much of the barrage as possible. The small darts did nothing but ping off of them, and the two of them ran, bowling over anyone in their way.
Of course, that didn't stop the natives from giving chase. Mikey and Leo ran as fast as they could, but Leo could tell that something about it was off. The natives kept up, but they didn't seem to be trying to stop them. In fact, Leo suddenly realized, they almost seemed to be herding them.
Oh, that definitely wasn't good.
"They're directing us!" he called out to Mikey.
Mikey leapt over a fallen log. "Something tells me it's not to the next portal home!"
"Probably not." Leo's mind was whirling through possibilities. "We need to ready for anyth—"
Leo cut off as soon as he realized what "anything" was. It was a ravine. Or a small canyon or maybe a gorge? Don would know the exact terminology for it. But that wasn't important at the moment. The fact of the matter was, they were coming up on a large, long crack in the earth, as wide as two of the alleyways they normally jumped put together.
"Leo—" Mikey said.
"Jump!" he said, putting on a burst of speed.
"What?" Mikey said, even as he sped up to catch up with Leo.
Leo sheathed his swords and reached into his belt to pull out his shunto spikes.
"Jump and be ready to catch yourself!"
Mikey shot him a look that clearly said he thought Leo was crazy, but he didn't argue. Instead, he put his nunchucks in his belt, took out his spikes and ran on.
The natives were clearly surprised when, instead of slowing down, the two turtles sped up, practically hurling themselves towards the ravine. They started slowing down, trying to keep themselves from going over the edge and watched as Leo and Mikey poured in every last ounce of speed they had and flung themselves into the air.
The jump was terrifying. It was a long drop to the bottom, and if they didn't make it across, a very painful landing was in store for them. Mikey was slightly ahead of Leo, he the faster of the two, and Leo watched as his angle curved, clearly not going to make it to the jungle on the other side. But the two of them still managed to have enough momentum to get them to the opposite wall. Leo saw Mikey hit it a split second before he did, smacking into it hard, and scrambling to find purchase on the wall. He dug his spikes in, but the wall was crumbly. It took a few terrifying seconds for him to find purchase, and then look to see if Mikey had as well. His baby brother looked a little pale but was clearly secure on the wall.
Shouts came from the other side, and then the sound of darts. With that motivation, the two began climbing, scrambling up the cliff as fast as they could. The crumbling rock made it difficult, especially for Leo, who was just a bit behind Mikey and had to make sure that the wall wasn't going to crumble further from where Mikey had dug his spikes in, but they made it to the top. Mikey got there first and then turned to pull Leo up. For half a second, they sat there, looking across the ravine at the natives. One shot some sort of arrow at them, and Leo decided then and there that it was time to leave and disappear into the jungle. He finished standing up, and pulled Mikey along, both of them disappearing into the foliage on the other side.
"Keep going!" Leo said, not even stopping to catch his breath. "Let's put as much distance between them and us as we can!"
"Right!"
They forged on ahead, not even trying to be stealthy as they ran. The goal was distance, not hiding, and Leo watched as Mikey pulled ahead of him. Then again, Mikey always had been the fastest of them. But had he always been that fast? And why was it getting harder to breathe? Leo pushed himself harder, trying to catch up to his brother, but for some reason he just couldn't seem to go any faster.
And then his leg gave out.
He crashed to the ground, hard enough to rattle his brain for a second. He heard Mikey skid to a stop.
"Leo?!"
Leo pushed himself up on his elbows, trying to get his legs under him even as Mikey practically threw himself at Leo's side.
"Leo's what's wrong?" Mikey's hands hovered over Leo, clearly not sure what to do.
"My leg gave out on me," Leo gasped out, still trying to catch his breath.
Mikey immediately moved to look at Leo's leg. "Uh-oh," he said, and Leo felt a slight pull. Mikey came back into view, one of the small darts in his hand. "Uh, I think I might know why."
Leo stared at the dart. Well, that wasn't good. Mikey was so in trouble when they got home.
"Help me up," Leo said.
"Just so long as you promise not to strangle me," Mikey said, already working his way under Leo's arm and hauling his brother to his feet.
"No promises," Leo said.
The two started moving again, Leo trying his best to keep up. But as they continued, he found himself leaning more and more on Mikey. His head was swimming, but he wasn't sure if that was from the dart itself, or because it was getting increasingly hard to catch his breath.
"S-stop," Leo said, and felt Mikey immediately oblige him.
"What?" Mikey said.
"I need—I need to rest," Leo said.
For a moment, Mikey didn't move, although Leo could tell he was looking around.
"Okay, Leo. We'll rest in a second. But first let's go this way." He tugged Leo with him, eventually settling him in the hollow of a tree. "Just… stay right here. And, uh, I'm gonna borrow this."
Before Leo could say anything, Mikey reached out, took his mask off, and then stepped back, pushing a few giant leaves in front of where he had sat Leo down. The coolness of the shade felt good to him, honestly, and he tilted his head back a bit, still breathing heavily. It didn't take Mikey long to return, and when he did, Leo's mask was soaking wet. Mikey gently put it on Leo's head, not pulling it all the way down, but keeping it on his forehead.
"What?" Leo said, halfway opening his eyes. When had he closed them?
"You're hot, Leo," Mikey said. "And something tells me that's not a good thing."
"Mm." Leo didn't feel like arguing. In fact, the longer he sat there, the worse he felt. Mikey kept going back and forth, wetting Leo's mask and bringing him water to drink. Leo's head felt dizzy, off, and it became hard to keep track of things. He felt uncomfortably hot, and his mouth stayed dry. He lost track of time—not that he had any idea what day or time it was in this world anyway.
"Come on, Leo. Drink a little more," Mikey said shaking him out of his stupor.
Leo groaned. "…When we get home… 'm gonna put you through so much trainin'…"
He vaguely heard Mikey whine something, before the world started to fade out again. When it faded back in, he heard voices, and he tried his best to open his eyes and focus. He couldn't see much beyond the leaves that Mikey had hidden him with and he didn't want to risk interrupting any plans that Mikey had—and he was capable of them, if he wanted to be. He just wished he could make out what they were saying.
The leaves were pushed back, and Mikey was suddenly there, pulling Leo up and out. Leo's head swirled, but he managed to see enough to realize that they were surrounded by teal-skinned people. He tensed, and made a grab for his swords, but Mikey caught his arm.
"They're not the same, Leo!" he said. "They can help us. I think. Either that, or they just want to keep us. I'm not sure."
Leo shot his brother a look.
"I know, I know!" Mikey said. "But it's better than nothing!"
The teal-skinned people were quickly cutting down what looked like saplings of the giant trees that were around them, and pulling leaves, vines, and smaller plants, as well. It didn't take long before they'd constructed a hand-carried stretcher—a litter—and Mikey was helping Leo onto it. He took Leo's swords before he did though, carefully sliding the straps on and making sure they were secure. And with that, they were off.
The jungle really was beautiful, in its own way. The trees had a more purplish undertone than anything Leo had ever seen on earth, and the leaves a sort of blue-ish color to their green. Mikey actually blended in pretty well, even when he was near to Leo. Even the orange of his bandana made sense here, looking like some of the brightly colored flowers that hung on vines.
Leo raised a hand towards Mikey, and his brother was immediately there.
"You need something, Leo?" Mikey asked.
"How… did you find them?" he asked, gesturing to the people.
"Oh. Uh, well…" Mikey started out, clearly a bit reluctant to tell the whole story. "You see, I went to get more water, and I heard some noise. So, I went to look. And I saw our other blue-skinned buddies attacking some women. And, like, they were fighting back, but it wasn't a fair fight at all. So, I kinda jumped out of the leaves at them, and joined it. Anyway, the ladies tried to take me with them, but I managed to get them to understand that I needed to leave to get to you. So, I left. But when I came back to the river again, there were a whole lot of them there. And with a lot of charades and Pictionary, I managed to get them to understand that you were sick. I think they have an antidote, but it's back at their village. So, they kinda insisted we go with them, and I figured its better than what we've been doing."
Leo blinked at him. Of course, Mikey would end up being friendly with some of the natives and figure out how to communicate with them.
Leo sighed, feeling dizzy again. "…I suppose so," he agreed.
He wasn't sure exactly how long the journey to the teal people's village took. Time was still hard to keep track of, and by the time they got there, Leo was fading out again. When he woke up, he was laying on his plastron on some sort of woven mat, a thin pillow of some sort under his head and bowls of some sort of incense around him. He groaned and moved to sit up.
"Leo!?" Mikey was at his side in a second but pushed him down. "Hang on, hang on, don't move yet!"
Mike whistled, and Leo blinked, still trying to make sense of what was around him. Within seconds a teal-skinned man and a few younger looking people hurried over to them. Mikey gesture at Leo, and Leo looked up at the man from where he lay. The man nodded, then seemed to mime to Mikey to hold Leo down.
"Mikey, what—" Leo said, but that was all he got out before Mikey was putting pressure on him.
"Sorry, bro, this'll only take a moment," Mikey apologized.
"What will only take a—OW!" Leo felt a tug as something that felt like a needle was pulled out of him.
In fact, several were pulled out of him, and Leo grit his teeth as they were. There was more talking and gesturing that he couldn't quite see, and then he felt hands on him, spreading something where the needles had been, and wrapping what he could only assume were bandages around them. He was tense, not liking this, but he said nothing, only shooting Mikey a look that said he would be demanding answers after this was over.
Mikey just nervously grinned at him.
After a few moments, the ministrations ended, and the assistants and the man got up to leave, making some sort of gesture towards them. Mikey returned it, and they left, leaving the two turtles alone. Leo stayed there a moment, then took a breath, and began to push up. Mikey quickly moved to his side helping him to turn over and sit up. Leo's head still felt off, but he felt a lot better than he had earlier.
"Alright, Mikey," he said, looking around. He was in some sort of open-air hut. "Where are we?"
"In the Teal People's village," Mikey said, reaching for what looked to be a cup of some sort. "You passed out again, but they brought you here. I showed them the dart and they took it, and came back and took these needles and, like, stabbed you in twelve places, like acupuncture or something, and then lit these incense bowls. It's been, like… I dunno. Maybe a few hours? They brought me some food and then something I could draw with, so I sort of drew out what happened to us."
Leo shook his head. "Well, at least I'm feeling better." He looked out beyond the open-air hut and saw the people seemingly going on about their day, although a few kids were clearly curious about them. "Why aren't they afraid of us?"
"Uh… I think they think we're some kind of jungle spirits or something," Mikey said.
Leo looked sideways at him. "Jungle spirits? Like what? Some… some ghost of the jungle or something?"
Mikey laughed. "Nah, that's too dramatic. But, like, if I've got this right, our whole ninja skills and the way I can sort of blend into the jungle better, they seem to think I'm a part of it. And you're like… I dunno, some other kind of nature spirit or something."
"Fantastic," Leo deadpanned.
Mikey nudged his shoulder a bit. "It's not all bad! I drew April's puzzle cube, and they recognized it. One of them pointed in a direction, and I think he was saying that there's a big one of those that way. So, we might can use it to get back home!"
Leo frowned. "Maybe. But Donnie was the one who figured it out last time. We don't have him here."
Mikey frowned. "What else can we do, Leo?"
Leo took a breath in. "Not much. It's our best option, so we'll go for it."
"Yeah, okay," Mikey agreed. "But after you rest. I think the doctor guy said you might not feel good for a bit."
Leo frowned. "I'll rest the night. But in the morning, we leave."
Mikey nodded. "Yeah, okay. I'll let them know."
Leaving was not as easy as they thought. The people wanted to make sure that Leo was alright first, and they insisted that they stay for a feast and through the night. The days and nights here seemed to be longer than on Earth, but it was what it was, and the doctor checked on him, clearly not pleased with his progress, and insisted that they stay longer. Considering that Mikey and Leo needed their help, Leo relented, and they stayed. Finally, after three days, the villagers loaded them with supplies, and a small contingency of them headed out with Leo and Mikey. It wasn't exactly how Leo wanted to go, but it had to do.
Admittedly, it turned out to be useful. The natives showed the turtles some more of the wonders of the jungle as they traveled. Fruits that could be opened to show tasty water within them. Animals that tasted good roasted over a fire. Something that was sweet like honey, although not made by a creature that would have been classified as an insect back on Earth. Even when the jungle presented its dangers, in the forms of swarms of bugs that ate anything nearby, hidden caves to fall in, and large predators, the group worked together. Mikey and Leo certainly proved themselves to the Teal warriors, further cementing the idea of them being spirts or gods in their heads, no matter how much the two turtles tried to deny it.
Finally, after four long days, they stood in front of a large ziggurat, its steps steep. They'd had to negotiate with some aquamarine-skinned people for passage, but they seemed fascinated by Leo, and some stories from their Teal-skinned friends as well as a demonstration of Leo and Mikey's own prowess seemed to have gained them passage.
Of course, the passage had come with some delays of their own. The aquamarine people had insisted that Leo and Mikey go through an extensive cleaning process, almost like a purification ritual, and had afterwards painted their skin with symbols and lines and adorned them with some clothing and jewelry. It had taken at least half a day, but it had, eventually, been done.
The Teal warriors hadn't gone through the same rites, and now stood just a little way back from the base of the ziggurat watching. Leo and Mikey both glanced back at them.
"Aren't you coming?" Mikey asked gesturing towards the stairs.
The reaction was instantaneous. They took a step back, gesturing no rapidly. Leo and Mikey looked towards each other again, and then Leo bowed to them, Mikey following suit.
"Thank you," Leo said. He held the bow for a moment, and then both he and Mikey straightened, Mikey giving them a wave and a smile, and the two of them headed up the stairs.
The stairs were steep, and there were a lot of them. It was almost exhausting climbing up them, and by the time they got to the top, both brothers were tired, hot, and thirsty. Leo sat down and reached for his legs, massaging his calves.
"I never want to do another climbing workout again," he said.
Mikey flopped over on his shell. "If I even hear a commercial for a Stairmaster, I'm gonna flip," he complained.
The two took a short break, taking the opportunity to eat and drink, and then forced themselves to their feet and inside the opening of the temple that sat at the top of the ziggurat. The building looked remarkably similar to the one on the wasp world, or, at least what they could recall of it. This one wasn't covered in wasp eggs, though, nor any other kind of eggs. The place looked well-kept and decorated, and there in the middle of the center room, was the giant version of the puzzle cube.
"So… any ideas?" Leo asked as he stared at it.
Mikey shook his head. "Nope," he said.
The two stared at it for a moment, before Leo walked forward and put his hand on it. Like the one on the wasp world, it was heavy and solid. Moving it would take both of them, most likely.
"Donnie and April used some sort of math algorithm to figure out the other one," Leo said. "Something about a… Fibonacci sequence?"
"Do you have any idea what that is?" Mikey asked hopefully.
Leo sighed, his shoulders drooping a bit. "Nope."
"Me either," Mikey said. He ran his hands over the giant puzzle cube, peering at it.
Leo slowly walked around it, trying to remember what it was that April and Don had done. Unfortunately, he'd been less focused on the puzzle cube, and more focused on fighting the queen wasp. He was three-fourths of the way around it when he saw something catch Mikey's attention. He watched as his brother leaned in, peering at something on the cube.
"What is it?" He asked, making his way over to Mikey's side.
"Look—they're hard to see unless you get your head at just the right angle, but I remember seeing these in a notebook Donnie had. They're symbols." Mikey gestured at a place, and Leo tilted his head.
"I don't see—" he stopped as he caught the faintest sight of something, although it was hard to see. "It's like it's almost not there." He frowned a little. "What's this residue that's near it?" There was a whitish substance near it, almost like leftover paint or powder. He ran a finger over it, some of it flaking off as he did.
"Hang on, I got an idea!" Mikey said. He went over to one of the bowls that was nearby, peering in it before he moved on to another one. Finally, on the fourth one, he seemed satisfied and came over with it, grabbing something that looked similar to a paintbrush.
"What are you doing?" Leo asked.
"Okay, so I was reading this comic, right?" he said as he moved the brush around in the substance. "And in it there was this abandoned alien ship. The humans went on it, and they were attacked, and all sorts of stuff happened." He started painting the substance on the place where he'd seen the symbol. "Any way, long story short, there were all these warnings about things left on the ship, but, like, these aliens saw colors human's couldn't and they'd written them all in that color and so the humans couldn't see the warnings until something splashed on one of them that made it show up."
"And you think that maybe that's what that white residue is. This stuff, put on it so that the symbols will show up," Leo said.
"Maybe!" Mikey said. He stepped back, putting the brush back in the bowl and looked at where he'd painted it. "But nothing seems to be happening."
Leo frowned. "Hold on. I might have an idea now." He went over to one of the braziers that had been set up, a fire burning in it, and brought it closer to the puzzle cube. Carefully he tipped it over just enough that the fire was close to the painted area. And when he did, the symbol started to glow.
"Alright, Leo!" Mikey cheered. "How'd you know to do that?"
Leo grinned at him a bit sheepishly. "Remember that scene in National Treasure where they use heat to reveal the map on the back of the Declaration of Independence?"
Mikey laughed. "See? Movies are good for you!"
Together Mikey and Leo worked on revealing the symbols on the giant puzzle cube, Mikey painting them as he saw the symbols easier, and Leo bringing and setting up braziers and torches to keep the sources of heat close. When they finished, they took a step back, looking at the device.
"…Now what?" Mikey asked.
"Good question," Leo said. "I guess the next thing to do would be to figure out if these symbols can help us." He frowned. "They look familiar."
"Yeah…" Mikey frowned. "I think… I think Don had some of them written down."
"I think you're right," Leo said. "I remember him calling April, excited about something he had discovered about her puzzle cube." He shook his head smiling a bit. "We were going to watch Star Trek VI together, but he got so excited that he completely forgot about it. He apologized later."
Mikey snorted. "Yeah, that sounds like Donnie."
"I went over to them later… I might remember some of the symbols," Leo said, frowning.
Mikey shrugged. "Let's give it a shot!"
Carefully, he and Mikey maneuvered the device into the first configuration of symbols that Leo remembered, fairly sure that Donnie had said that it was the way he'd worked out setting it up to get them home from the wasp dimension. It didn't work. They tried another variation of it, but again, there was no luck. After about ten different tries, the brothers sat down, taking a break.
"I don't get it," Leo said. "I'm positive that first order was what I saw." He let out a frustrated huff. "I remember him saying it was like a code or an address that could get people from one place to another."
"Maybe it's like the Stargate." Mikey said. Leo looked over at him. "You know—you've got to have a gate address, right? But it only works if you've got a point of origin, cause then it knows where you're connecting from and to."
"Actually," Leo said slowly, "you might be onto something. Because I remember Don saying something about how he thought one of the symbols was linked to April's puzzle cube."
"Which one?" Mikey asked.
"The first one. It was first on the ones he had listed for our escape from the wasp world. But it came last when he was talking about going to the other world he and April had visited." Leo frowned. He had not been happy to hear that Don and April had gone off on their own like that, but it had been over and done with by that point.
"So, what we need to do is find out what the symbol for this cube is!" Mikey said.
Leo nodded. "Spread out. Let's see if we can find it recorded anywhere. If we think we see a hint of it around, let's paint it and try to see it."
They spread out, examining the puzzle cube and the room from every angle they could find. But after a few hours, it was clear that they were coming up empty. Leo stopped in the middle of the room, frustrated. There had to be a clue! They were so close! He looked down at the floor, for a moment, before rolling his neck around to stretch it out. He let his eyes unfocus, the slightly different colors of the floor blurring as he tried to clear his mind. He was missing something, he knew it. But what?
And then, Leo started. He snapped his eyes back in focus and looked around him at the floor. Glancing around, he jumped up to a corner of the room and braced himself to hold him up.
"Uh, Leo? Watcha doing?" Mikey asked, looking up at Leo like he'd lost his mind.
"Finding our origin symbol," Leo said.
Mikey blinked at him, and then hopped up into another corner, staring down at the floor with Leo. "Holy movie references, Batman, it's just like the library scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade!"
"Exactly." Leo said with a grin.
The two turtles hopped down and quickly went back to the giant puzzle cube. Making sure they had everything they needed with them, they set all the other symbols again, and then, after quite a bit of turning and twisting to get everything lined up just right, managed to figure out how to click the last one in place.
The device lit up, glowing, and Leo and Mikey reached out to each other, neither of them willing to even risk a separation.
"Think we gave it the right address?" Mikey called out.
"I hope so!" Leo replied.
There wasn't time for more conversation as the device sucked them in, pulling them through it. Leo could only hope that they had gotten the symbols right, and that they weren't about to end up some place worse.
And then, with an abrupt shift in senses, and a very hard and loud thump, Leo and Mikey crashed to the floor. Leo's head was still spinning as there were shouts around them, and the sound of feet running towards them. Mikey groaned, and Leo pushed his brother, trying to get him off of him.
"Leo! Mikey!"
"My sons!"
"Guys!"
"Get off of me, Mikey—I don't need your butt in my face," Leo complained.
Mikey rolled off of him, and Leo sat up, only to immediately have April hugging him tightly. He looked over to see Splinter already looking over Mikey. He knew that he was next, their father not going to be satisfied until he looked them over himself. Leo hugged April back, even as the others rounded on them.
"Leo what happened?" Raph said, clearly taking in the body paints, the jewelry, and the clothing. "April called, said that you and Mikey had disappeared, but that her puzzle cube was on the ground."
April let go of him, moving on to Mikey, and Splinter was right there, looking Leo over as well.
"Mikey was messing around with April's puzzle cube, and somehow set it off," he explained. "We ended up landing in some sort of jungle, got mixed up with some unfriendly natives, found some friendly ones, got led to a temple with one of the big versions of the puzzle cube, had to go through a ritual to get to it, and then figured out how to use it to get back home."
"Yeah, it was crazy!" Mikey said. "We had to jump over a canyon, Leo got shot with a poisoned dart—"
"What?" Don exclaimed, rushing over. "Where?"
Leo showed him where on his leg as Mikey continued, both Don and Splinter examining the area
"—the friendly natives gave him some sort of acupuncture to cure it—"
"What?" Don repeated again, practically hissing it between his teeth. "Where?"
Leo pointed to the carefully re-bandaged places on him. Immediately his father and brother set about unwrapping them and examining them.
"—the natives thought we were jungle spirits and gave us a feast, then we walked through the jungle for days and ate a bunch of other stuff, and the hiked up a bazillian steps to get to the top of a zig-zag pyramid—"
"Ziggurat," Leo corrected, wincing as Splinter pressed on one of the places.
"—and used movie references to figure out how to get home!" Mikey finished with a grin.
"To be fair," Leo said. "Stargate is a TV show."
"It was a movie first, bro," Mikey shot back.
"But we both know you weren't thinking of the movie when you made that reference," Leo said.
Don let out a huff, interrupting both of them, and sat back. "I'm… going to have to process all that later. Right now, to my lab, both of you, I'm doing blood work to make sure you're both alright." He stood up and shot them both a hard look. "And I mean right now."
Raph reached down helped Leo to his feet, while Casey helped Mikey to his.
"I will fetch some water and soap to clean the markings off of them," Splinter said. He turned to get it, and then paused. "Regardless of how you are back, I am glad that you found a way to return to us, my sons," he said.
"How long were we gone?" Leo asked, letting Raph keep a steadying hold on him, even though he didn't need it.
"About a day," Casey said. "Donnie was trying to figure out how to figure out where you guys went the whole time."
"A whole day?" Mikey said. "Maaan, I missed the Justice Force marathon!"
Raph reached over and lightly whacked him on the back of the head. "Maybe that'll teach ya not to mess with things, then!"
"I doubt it," April said amusement and relief both present in her voice.
Leo just shook his head and let out a sigh. It had been a crazy few days for them, and he was currently resigning himself to being a pin cushion for an overly stressed and sleep deprived Don. It had been quite an adventure and, admittedly, the jungle had been beautiful, and the people there interesting. But for all that happened, and all of the beauty of that jungle, he was more than happy to finally be back home.
"Ow! Donnie!" Mikey yelped.
"Oh hush," Donnie chastised him. "It's what you get for sending you and Leo off on an accidental adventure. Now sit still and stop complaining."
Leo smiled to himself and leaned into Raph. Yeah. It was good to be home.
