| Earth (Dimension <Null>); Los Angeles, CA, December 2ND, 2000 A.D. |
The former leader of the Ninja Turtles spent his time trying desperately to convince himself this all was some kind of dream, albeit a sick one. What terrified him was how he seemed to be slowly slipping into the routine of his new human life... was it possible that he truly was a human boy and had been one all his life, perhaps some kind of head trauma causing him to “imagine” his life as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle?
He was left with plenty of questions, questions that had, over the passing months, lost their frustrating edge. Was he truly a adolescent human boy, his adventures as Leonardo the Ninja Turtle just a boyhood fantasy? If not, and he had merely possessed the body of a human boy, then what had become of the boy whose body he had possessed? Clearly this “Leon” boy had been a fan of the Turtles, to say the least—was it only by coincidence?
In some of his free time—he found he had plenty of it when not forced into going to Elementary School by his so-called parents—Leo watched videos his human self had apparently bought that held footage on the lives of the Turtles he had met in Dimension C when they had confronted their native Shredder and Krang enemies. Live action they were not—they were cartoons, of all things—but the characters were unmistakable.
If only I had taken them with me, perhaps we could have won with their aid, he thought to himself aguishly.
His train of thought was quickly broken by his “mother” who called him, “Leon, Lori’s here to see you!”
“Who?” Leo was puzzled momentarily when he saw a pretty blonde girl entered his room.
She looked somewhat resembling one of Casey’s daughter Shadow’s friends he’d seen a picture of. “Hi, Leon. I heard you hit your head while you were in California, so I was worried you might not be able to go with me to that N’Sync concert.”
“What? Oh of course not. I’ll go.” Oh, why the hell not? he asked himself. Something more along the lines of Kid Rock or Eminem sounded more in order, but twelve year-old humans had little say in things, he was discovering.
“That’s good,” the girl said smiling. “I’m surprised you still like those turtle guys. I’ll never forget when my sister first babysat us and her boyfriend had that Turtles movie, and you just loved it!”
Leo chuckled amusedly to himself, a movie about me and my brothers, when suddenly the girl froze solid. “L-Lori?” Leo suddenly noticed he had gotten his regular voice back. He noticed the boy named Leon, who he had been trapped in the body of was right beside him and... and that he was once again a full-blooded Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle in both mind and body alike now.
“What the hell?” No sooner did he say it than—WHOOSH!
| Cartoon Earth (Dimension C); New York City, December 20TH, 1995 A.D. |
Leonardo blinked as he saw himself back in the lair with the Turtles he met in the alternate reality. “What’s going on?”
“Just kick some shell out there for us, dude,” Mike said as he did before. “Turtle Power.”
Renet once again stood next to him. “Leonardo, I have pleaded with Lord Simultaneous in order to give your spirit a shot for redemption.”
Leo looked bewildered. “Why... why was I a human boy?”
Renet shook her head and responded, “It doesn’t matter now, we have a grievous error in time to fix. We must do as you said before and take these Turtles and their sensei with us.”
The Leonardo of the cartoonish world repeated himself, “Yes, but like we said, this is your battle, not ours.”
“But don’t you see?” Renet said. “The Turtles of that Leo’s reality can’t have their world destroyed if they aren’t there. Same as this reality. If the four of you are relinquished along with us, your world may be spared.”
“Well, I suppose it couldn’t hurt,” Donatello said.
“What do you think, Master?” Raphael asked.
“It is possible, admittedly,” Splinter spoke.
“Then let us hurry.” The ground suddenly began to crumble as it did this moment in time before. “Quickly, we must leave—now!”
Leonardo, the Turtles of Dimension C and their Master Splinter leapt into the portal as Renet closed it behind. The crumbling immediately ceased, and all was quiet once more.
| The End of Time (Dimension <Null>); July 25TH, 3689 A.D. |
Suspended at the very brink of The End of Time in the year 3689, the Shogun dwelled in the fraction of a millisecond before Entropy—absolute nothing—enveloped all of existence.
“Blast! Something has gone wrong. The slate in Dimension C has not been properly erased—I cannot begin the procedure on the other two Dimensions until it is fixed! And if not, the one world I have deleted might eventually be recast as it previously was, and all my plans will be for naught!”
“Yeah, no shit!” a voice rang out.
The Shogun reeled around to witness Dimension A’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles materializing and behind them their counterparts from the Dimension C Earth.
Renet stepped in with two more Turtles flanking her sides: Slash from Dimension D that had been momentarily erased, and Venus from the Dimension B Earth. The C-Turtles’ sensei also appeared next to both Leonardos.
“You may as well pay the piper now, buddy!” C-Raph yelled.
His counterpart turned around and said, “Man, this is weird, you’re even goofier looking than the me I met earlier!”
Michaelangelo grinned and said, “Just do me a favor, and don’t go fighting with this Raph, too.” C-Mike stared gawk-eyed at his doppelganger as C-Don did at his who had apparently become cybernetic. They all seemed so incredibly different... and yet all at the same time, so similar.
Slash quickly interrupted their daze by shouting “The Mutanimals were the only friends I ever had, Shogun! You killed them, you... evil jerk!” Not the most creative of taunts, but it seemed to have its desired effect.
The C-Turtles all gasped as they noticed him. “What the heck is he doing here?” C-Leo asked.
“He, he came with me. His name is Slash,” Donatello noted with a shrug. “Said something about the vultures naming him that—mean anything to you guys...?”
“We know him,” C-Don said, “only, that can’t be the same Slash we know. Is it?”
Renet shook her head and answered, “No, that is a different Slash, one that the Turtles of his dimension call their demented cousin.”
“Speaking of which, don’t we have our own realities to save?” Raphael mentioned.
“Yeah, let’s do it!” his C self responded. The two of them whipped out their sai as the two Leonardos took out their swords. Michaelangelo drew out his nunchuks and much to his surprise, saw C-Mike take out what looked like a grappling hook with a rope attached to it. “Umm, just why in the hell are you using those?” he asked politely.
“Oh... this? Well, let’s just say after some little accidents with my ’chucks I decided not to use them too much.”
The impressive gathering of ten Turtles rushed the Shogun head-on then, who created a large electro-magnetic bubble that kept him safe from their blows.
“Dang it! This isn’t looking too good, guys,” C-Leo said.
The Shogun turned off his cloak as Slash attempted to rush him again, which he did. The Shogun aimed a razor-sharp spear—the Spear of Destiny, allegedly one and the same as the relic that pierced the body of Jesus Christ as he lay on the cross in 0 A.D.—at the crazy Turtle’s throat.
“No!” Venus screamed as she pulled Slash’s face out of the way just in time as the spear barely pierced her fore-skin. Both Raphaels then jumped Shogun at the side causing his Japanese noh mask to fall off, revealing himself to be a replication of the Leonardo from Dimension A. An older version, but the same Turtle nonetheless.
“Holy guacamole!” C-Mike yelled at the revelation.
“Huh?!” the other Michaelangelo shrugged.
“Yes, Leonardo. It is I, your future self.”
“I know who you are, pal, I’ve been here before, at this exact same moment in time!” he spat. “And Renet was kind enough to ask Lord Simultaneous that she could reverse the timestream enough so that you... me... I, can have a second chance. Will you take it? Will you be the lesser of all evil?”
The Shogun Leo eyed his younger self first in consideration, then confusion, and finally anger before screaming in resolution, “Never!”
“Then I have no choice, but to put an end to this evil you’ve started, by making sure it never happens.”
C-Leo looked concerned at his counterpart. “Wh-what... what are you saying, Leonardo?”
Leonardo drew the katana from the stump of his wrist as did the Shogun/Future Leonardo. Splinter looked calmly at the three versions of his finest pupil while Donatello and C-Raph held Slash back.
“I don’t think I want to watch this,” Raph said. C-Don, Venus, both Michaelangelos and the other Raphael meanwhile had found the console from which the Shogun’s spell had been cast.
“Well, whaddya know?!” Don placed his hand into the spacey vastness of the universal alignment that the Shogun had attempted to shatter with his Entropy.
“That hole there must be where the world this Slash comes from belongs,” C-Mike spoke. He meant, of course, Dimension C’s Earth that he had come to call home, not the toxic dumpworld of Morbus that lay in Dimension X from which he had presumably been spawned.
“Well, maybe we can get him to help us fix it,” Venus suggested.
She and Renet kindly took Slash by the hand and walked him to the odd console. “Slash, do you think you can help re-animate your reality?” Renet asked him.
“I-I do not know.”
“Think back on the memories you had, of the people you’ve met. Krang, Bellybomb, the Turtles, the Mutanimals.” It was that word that made Slash shake quietly. Tears emerged as he began to sobb their names like Candy did, “Leatherhead... Man Ray... Dreadmon... Jagwar... Wingnut... Screwloose... and Mondo. Candy’s Mondo! M-Mondooo!” The rage built up in him as he plunged his face into the vortex. C-Don and Donatello quickly pulled him back, when they suddenly noticed that the Archie universe had been restored as it was prior to its demise and Slash began to be transported back to it.
“Just like that!” C-Raph boasted.
“Yes,” Renet announced, “he and the people of his world shall have no memory of this cosmic intervention.”
Donatello scratched at the temple of his chrome head. “So you mean... they don’t remember meeting me?”
Renet shook her head again. “No, Donny. And as for you, Shogun Leo, you are to be returned to your rightful place in time.”
Her attempt at disrupting the struggle between the three Leos caused the Shogun to break free. Donatello took out his hand rifle and tried blocking the Shogun who took out his blade and struck Don’s Cybernetic body components, and circuits, causing a neural overload in his system. Blood and sparks began to flow. “No!”
Leonardo, Michaelangelo and Raphael all grabbed their fallen brother while the C-Turtles angrily beat the Shogun to a pulp. “You jerk-faced dork—” shouted Raph, “—of a bro—” Mike continued, “—from another dimension in time-space!” Don finished.
Leo was the last to hear the Shogun, who lay in a barely conscious state, say, “I would suppose... I deserved it.”
C-Leo stared coldly at his counterpart’s future self. A silent, grim look of understanding was exchanging.
“You sure did,” Renet quipped. “And now, Shogun... we banish you!” The young Mistress of Time opened a time hole and the Turtles tossed the Shogun into it in short order, sending the villainous incarnation of Leonardo back to his own time in 2089 A.D. Dimension A.
Donatello was in critically bad shape and fading fast. His brothers knew it.
“What’s gonna happen?” Michaelangelo said, dangerously close to sobbing.
Raphael raised his voice, shouting “Damn it, Don! You had to take matters into your own hands, now look at ya!”
C-Don examined his counterpart and explained, “You know, I’m betting that I can find something to make him his old self again, you know... like the rest of us. Though I’m not sure what I could do.”
Leonardo looked pleadingly into the half-dead Don’s eyes. “You have to.”
“I guess we better take him to our lair then,” C-Leo spoke.
Renet popped in to say, “There’s just one tiny problem with that. You see, the timestream is beginning to overlap dimensions too much. If the eight of you stay in the same place too long, you may end up merging characteristics, and you won’t know which reality is which. It’s not a safe plan. In Timespeak we would call this a Time Crisis, or a Paradox. In the end, if you get too comfortable in a dimension not yours we may end up only doing exactly what the Shogun was planning.”
C-Mike sighed, “She may have a point, dudes. I mean, what if we like started losing our body parts?”
“She means like our personalities, dumb-dumb,” C-Raph offered his input.
“I have a suggestion,” Splinter said. “Why do I not go with you Turtles in your Donatello’s place? I have always wanted to visit another world.”
C-Leo himself didn’t think it was a good idea. “Master, are you sure you want to do this?”
“Yes. Have faith, my son,” Splinter said. “As soon as Donatello has aided his alternate self’s recovery, I shall return and he will go back to his world.”
Renet smiled and said to the Dimension A Turtles, “Guys, I’ll be with Donny every step of the way, looking upon him with the greatest of care.”
“Me, too!” Venus shouted. Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Raphael and their counterparts all bid one another their adieus ad Renet opened two separate time holes, one leading Cartoon Earth Splinter and the three Dimension A Turtles home, while the Dimension C Turtles carried Cyborg Donatello into their home.
| Mirage/Image Earth (Dimension A); New York City, December 20TH, 1990 A.D. |
Splinter sat quietly as he continued meditating when the sound of a dimensional gateway opening in the next room woke him. He gathered himself as he went to greet his sons, who had a stunning surprise—Donatello had somehow been replaced by another giant humanoid rat. “My sons, you have been gone for hours. I am glad to see you have made it back safel—who is that?”
The three Turtles, sans Donatello, introduced Splinter to his Dimension C counterpart. “Greetings, Splinter of this reality. Not only am I an alternate version of yourself, but that of your jonin sensei, Hamato Yoshi. Your Leonardo met up with my students.”
The other Splinter was enthralled. He kept his emotions in check, for if it was truly standing before him Hamato Yoshi, then standing before him was the man—rat like himself or not—whose death in his own reality had set the Turtles lives in motion for vengeance on both Yoshi and Tang Shen’s deaths at the hands of the Shredder. Splinter presumed history had played itself out somewhat differently in this other Splinter’s reality, but he would not pry.
“Wicked cool!” Mike giddily added, “We met another Splinter in this other dimension where the Turtles of that dimension have all this cool stuff and—”
“Michaelangelo, please,” the elderly Splinter spoke. “Where is Donatello?”
Leo sighed and knelt before his sensei. “Sensei, you see... Donatello was injured drastically in battle, so the Turtles of the world I was in vowed to save him by taking him there into the care of their own Master’s place. It, it was the only way, I assure you.”
“I see,” came the simple response. Thankfully, it was one of understanding.
Raphael had now begun feeling a tad odd having two Splinters in the same place. He asked conversationally, “So, umm, do you like sushi, too...?”
The Yoshi-Splinter of Dimension C nodded happily. “And I take it you feel odd... about my presence here.”
“It’s not that. I’m just worried. Guys, if Don doesn’t make it, well...” Michaelangelo, the two Splinters and Leonardo noticed as a tear seemed to be forming under Raph’s good eye. “Dude, he’ll be fine.”
| Cartoon Earth (Dimension C); New York City, December 20TH, 1995 A.D. |
The Dimension C Turtles returned quickly, only to realize they hadn’t been gone long either. In their Master Splinter’s place was the horrific, crippled state of the Donatello from another dimension, the same dimension that the Leonardo they’d met prior to came from. It was that Leonardo who took them to save all reality as they knew it, and didn’t know from his future self’s destructive fury. But now the Turtles had a new crisis to overcome, saving the life of one of their alternate-reality brothers. “Let’s get him into my lab,” Don shouted. Mike and Leo each held the cyborg Turtle by the feet as Don and Raph pulled him up by the arms.
“Boy, Donatello, this other you is a lot heavier than his brother, the other me,” Leo spoke as they lay the barely living mutant onto a table.
“So, like... now what?” Michaelangelo asked.
“I guess first I should hook him up to my mutation ray. Perhaps I can sustain his life support by using a transfusion like we had with our own past selves.”
Raph made a face as he stated, “You know, the one odd thing about that was I had no deja vu when I saw myself like that. I mean, I don’t ever remember being taken from the Technodrome into the future and going through the same thing over again.”
“Well, Raphael, it’s obvious Landor’s time machine used a memory-irradification unit installed,” Don said. “Yeah... now it makes sense.” Well, about as much as everything else that’s happened to us so far, he added the mental note.
As Don began hooking wires to himself and his counterpart, the other Turtles decided it best to leave and allow their brother to work in peace. “Hey, Leo, buddy, you sure have been quiet,” Raph said to him as they walked through the sewers.
“Yeah, I guess I’m still a little shocked over the fact that it was another me we fought. And he was the same version of me that we met before, only from further ahead in time.”
Mike made a grin and said, “I’m just curious as to who that Turtle chick was—she was cute!”
Raphael made a snicker and responded, “Well, I guess the Michaelangelo from her world thinks the same, Michaelangelo.”
“Yes but, it’s obvious she’s not from the same world as the alternate Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles we just met,” Leo added.
Mike nodded as he mentioned, “Yeah, cause like I also noticed she looked a lot more bulgy. Not that she looked fat or anything, but you know. She just seemed so different for some reason, kinda like that Slash we met from another reality. Some of those names he said were so familiar, yet there were a couple he said who I don’t think we’ve met.”
More questions; few answers.
| The End of Time (Dimension <Null>); July 25TH, 3689 A.D. |
Though a day had elapsed in The End of Time in truth, time would forever stand still in this place regardless.
Venus looked down at the three graves Renet had made for her Council elders that she had come to love as paternal figures. “You will all be missed,” Renet said, just as somberly as she did solemnly.
“Renet, may I ask you something?” Renet looked at the Turtle and smiled.
“Of course.”
“Of all these different versions I’ve met of the guys... who would you say is the sweetest?”
Renet giggled and answered “That’s a pretty deep question, hon. To me all of them, each and every version of them. Look,” she showed Venus a chart that held a long list of names. “These are all the people that the Turtles of each world have known. Some like them exist in all four realms, others merely two or three. But to me, the people who exist in one just of these worlds are the most precious. You, Venus, are the one and only Venus.”
The female Turtle—the one and only—smiled as she
and Renet watched over their newfound Turtle friends. “I’m
glad you showed me what how the Turtles I live with feel about
me. Now I have a better understanding for them.”
| Cartoon Earth (Dimension C); New York City, December 21ST, 1995 A.D. |
Just an hour past midnight, the Dimension C Turtles were settling themselves in front of the couch after a long day of practicing. Donatello, who had spent the whole day surgically removing the cybernetic components from his counterpart’s body, was exhausted. “So how’s the patient, Doc?” Raphael asked, pointing to the recovering ex-cyborg Turtle who lay still in a nearby cot.
“He’ll be fine. He’s uhh, gonna be pretty groggy after he wakes up, and it’s possible he won’t remember anything from the point in time he was turned into a cyborg, whenever that was... or will be.”
Leo scratched his head as he removed the cover from the other Don’s rest. His entire shell was in stitches and his arms were bruised and bandaged up. “So you mean he’s gonna look completely like those other Turtles?”
“Well, perhaps aside from some certain characteristics that make him and his brothers different from each other. But there is one odd thing I have to show you.”
Taking out a little device Don had, he pressed his thumb to a sensor and the encoding of it made the E.E.G. readout say DONATELLO. “Cool dude!” Mike said.
“Yeah, now watch what happens when it reads my counterpart’s handprint here.” Don took his counterpart’s hand and pressed the thumb to the sensor, from which the readout stated ?-DONATELLO-?
“Uhh, I don’t get it,” Michaelangelo uttered.
“Well, it’s obvious. This is an alternate version of me, meaning we’re similar in certain ways as intelligence and strength. However certain aspects can and may be completely opposite.”
Suddenly they heard a groan.
“Wow, that didn’t take him too long.” Raph said as he went ahead and gave Dimension A Don a friendly shoulder shake. “Hey, buddy, you all right?”
“Raphael... is, is that... you?” The Turtle steadily arose and looked at each of his “brothers.”
“Michaelangelo, Leonardo! But who—who are you?”
Don grinned and answered to his counterpart, “I’m Donatello. Well, okay, I’m a different Donatello, but in a big way we’re both Donatello. You don’t remember what happened do you?”
A-Don shook his head. “No, the last thing I remember was being shot out of an airplane by Oroku...”
“Shredder?” Leo asked. “But I thought the Leonardo from his world told us he was dead there, just like ours is now.”
“Well, Shredder had a bastard daughter named Pimiko... it’s starting to come bac—wait, what do you mean the Leo from my world?”
The four C-Earth Turtles sat back and said in agreement, “It’s a long story.”
After a few hours of relaying the events of the past couple days to him, the Turtles set out for the day along with Donatello’s counterpart who now wore Raphael’s spare red mask and a belt with Don’s initial on it. “I don’t know you guys, I mean as much as I like those colors, it just seems awkward to me.”
The purple masked Don nodded and explained, “I know, pal. Listen, it’s just until Renet comes back for you then you can go home and our Master Splinter will return to us.”
“I hope he’s doing okay, fellas,” Leo reminded them as they all went up to the streets where they ran into none other than Bebop with Rocksteady, who now had a hook in place of the hand A-Earth Leonardo chopped off previously.
“Well, well, well... lookie who we found!” the rhino boasted.
“We got us a little score to settle!” Bebop seethed.
“Oh great,” Raph groaned.
| Mirage/Image Earth (Dimension A); New York City, December 21ST, 1990 A.D. |
Splinter of this dimension and his alternate self meanwhile spent the morning with Leonardo watching over New York. “You know, this is not too different from my New York. There are some apparent differences but all in all it seems the same to me.”
The other Splinter quietly sighed, “So it is. I am glad you were able to live Hamato Yoshi. But what ever happened to Tang Shen?”
Yoshi/Splinter shook his head in response and told him, “I had no bride. The feud between myself and the Oroku Saki of my world was strictly over the leadership of the Foot Clan, who he made into an army of crime, and then sought further guidance through the vile alien Krang, who sounds like the Utroms you told me about earlier. It was he who provided Shredder the mutagen that was supposed to kill me, not mutate myself and my Turtles as it did.”
The other Splinter looked amusingly on as he listened when Leonardo got up and shouted, “Well, me and the guys are going to go spar. Would you like to join us?” Both Splinters nodded.
They entered the training room deep inside the sewers where Michaelangelo and Raphael were already in the middle of a sparring session. The two of them watched one another quietly, armed with merely their bare hands, since after once almost killing Mike in an angry fit, Raph secretly vowed to himself never to aim a weapon at his beloved brothers again. The two tackled each other almost playfully as they wound up tickling each other. “Cut it out, man!” Mike said under his breath.
“Sorry, pal.” Suddenly they heard a noise.
“Like, uh... what’s that?” Mike asked.
“I dunno, but let’s find out.”
The Turtles, Splinter and Yoshi/Splinter walked through the sewers up until they came across none other than the ragged form of who they had known as Lord Haa’tan, the Rat King.
“What the hell are you up to?” Raph snapped.
The ragged, disheveled man regarded him with a confused look. “Whatever a Monster is usually up to... today I am the Monster, you see.”
“Rat King, is that truly you?” Splinter from Dimension C asked, surprised that this Rat King, too, was different that the one he knew who had hypnotic powers over rats’ minds. But it was the Rat King nonetheless.
The Rat King gave pause. “The last time I recall meeting your kind... there was only one mutant rat you had for a master. Now who is this?”
“I am Splinter from another reality,” the Yoshi/Splinter calmly answered.
“Ah, so I understand,” Rat King nodded. “In that case, be prepared to play.”
That moment a skittering horde of rabid rats came chasing them.
“Let’s get the heck outta here!” Michaelangelo yelled over the commotion. They ran as fast as they could when a trap door sprung under their feet and they all dropped to a lower level. The elderly Splinter held onto his counterpart.
| Cartoon Earth (Dimension C); New York City, December 21ST, 1995 A.D. |
Bebop and Rocksteady, who had both apparently escaped in time from the Technodrome’s final explosion, had found their quarry. The rhino waved his hooked stump at the Turtles. “Where’s that toitle that did this to me? I just want a chance to kick his butt around!”
“He’s not here anymore, pal,” Raph answered.
“Well, that’s too bad, then!” Bebop snorted as he whipped out a chain and began lashing it at them. Michaelangelo quickly took out his grappling hook and subdued the warthog, and surprisingly enough the chain hit him in the face.
“Oww, that smarts!” The less-than-intelligible mutants tucked tail and ran off once again in a roadster that took off into the air.
“Hey, they still have that cruiser the Neutrinos used to own!” Leo pointed.
Donatello from the other dimension shrugged and said, ”Oh, I see. Boy you guys sure are a lot more passive than my own brothers. I mean, Raph would go right ahead and kill those two idiots.”
“We know, dude,” Mike answered.
At that moment a beam of light hit Michaelangelo, Donatello and his counterpart, causing them to vanish. “What the heck was that about?” Raph asked, when suddenly he and Leonardo were ambushed by a couple of goons who were conspicuously running away with bank loot.
“Hey, what’re you two supposed to be, Halloweenies?!” The Turtles punched them in the guts as police sirens following them came closer.
“Come on!” Leo shouted.
“Uhh, Leonardo?” Raph was suddenly
pelted unconscious by a jab to the face and Leo with a whack in
the forehead. Both were picked up by their assailants and carried
off.
| The End of Time (Dimension <Null>); July 25TH, 3689 A.D. |
“Whoops,” Venus said as the three confused Turtles looked around.
“Hey, how’d we get back here?” Mike asked.
C-Don watched as Donatello happily greeted Renet. “Renet, I haven’t seen you in years!”
The Timestress giggled as she said, “It’s good to see you again, Cyber Don!”
“Cyber Don?”
“Well, didn’t these guys tell you how you were shot from a plane and merged with that merc cyborg, symbiote and all?” the two Dimension C Turtles sighed as Don explained, “We didn’t know that.”
“Oh, sorry,” Renet said. “I’d been giving Venus some, ah, pointers on using time travel techniques. She’s the one who brought you back here, and she’ll be more than glad to send you back as soon as possible.”
“Well, thanks a bunch,” Don said “but what about our Master Splinter?”
“Oh, your sensei, sheesh... almost forgot
about him. Here, Venus shall take you all back to that Donatello’s
world and you can find him there. But you must hurry—he and
the other Turtles there are in great peril.” Venus took the
scepter she had been loaned in good faith from Renet as the three Turtles gathered around
her. “Godspeed, Turtles!” Renet spoke as the four of
them vanished.
| Mirage/Image Earth (Dimension A); New York City, December 21ST, 1990 A.D. |
Leonardo, Raphael and Michaelangelo found themselves tied to a large wooden shaft aimed at a brick wall. “What’s this about?”
“You two shall now become rat food for my faithful pets while your two senseis and I get better acquainted,” Rat King said, as he pointed to a cage where the two Splinters sat quietly. Rat King flipped a switch as the wall divided in two revealing a giant crane which began chewing at the shaft. Rat King laughed in amusement.
“You’ll never get away with this!” C-Splinter yelled.
“Oh really? And just who’s going to stop me?”
“We are, dude!” a voice shouted.
“Michaelangelo!” C-Splinter spoke as he recognized the voice of his own student.
Just as Venus, Mike, Don, and the other Donatello fully materialized again they ran to the rescue. C-Mike and Venus attacked the Rat King while C-Don jammed his bo-staff into the crane’s power generator just as it came seconds away from devouring the Turtles.
“Hey, it’s Venus!” Michaelangelo shouted.
“Yeah, and that’s your other self from that dimension I visited,” Leo added.
“Is that our Don?” Raph asked looking at the bandaged-up Turtle.
“Hey guys, long time no see, huh?” Donatello laughed as he freed his brothers.
“Don... you aren’t a cyborg anymore!” Michaelangelo said.
“Yeah, but the sad thing is I remember nothing about that. Though... come to think of it, I suppose that’s actually a good thing, isn’t it? And I have myself from another world to thank for it.”
C-Don grinned as he said “Well, hey, you would do the same for me, I guess.”
Donatello nodded and answered “Well, sure, I mean... I am you. Kinda spooky isn’t it?”
“Yeah, what say we celebrate and go get us a pizza?!” C-Mike suggested. “Or... beer, or whatever you guys have in your dimension.”
“No, I must return you three to your home!” Venus protested, the voice of reason. The Dimension C Splinter rejoined the Michaelangelo and Donatello of his world while the other Splinter rejoined all four of his.
“So, I guess this is where our paths disperse once and for all,” the Splinter native to this dimension spoke.
“I believe so,” the other Splinter answered.
“Good luck to all of you.”
“Same to you.” Venus opened the
portal leading them home as the Dimension A Turtles all waved
their final goodbyes.
| Cartoon Earth (Dimension C); New York City, December 21ST, 1995 A.D. |
Leo and Raph wound up face down in the middle of an alleyway. “Where’d those punks run off to?” Raphael exclaimed in annoyance.
“I don’t know, but we gotta do something,” Leonardo answered.
They walked around and noticed that they had been taken to the water district. “I wonder if that other you’s theory about killing had a good point to it?” Raph said with a smirk.
“Now, Raphael, just because there’s another universe out there where we feel the right to being that vicious, it doesn’t mean we need to act the same way. Besides you saw how he had that one hand of his taken off, and his brother Donatello told you about how their ‘Raph’ wound up losing an eye.”
“I know, but does it mean that could happen to us if we tried it?”
“I’m not sure, but I’m hoping it never does. And that’s why we stay the way we are.”
Suddenly a guard came in and the two Turtles positioned themselves to attack. Only it turned out the guard was Caswalt, Shredder’s brother. “Hey, guys. Fancy seeing you here.”
“Hi, Lieutenant Saki!” Leo said.
“You guys did a good job foiling that robbery. We tracked those guys down right when we saw you being kidnapped.”
“Oh, so everything’s okay now? All fine’n dandy?”
“Not exactly. See there’s a bomb in there and we gotta get it out quick or else the whole dock’ll explo—” the cop was interrupted by the temporal disturbance of the time hole from which Mike, Don, Splinter and Venus came.
“Hey, guys, miss us?” Leo gave Splinter a hug and said, “It’s good toy see you again, Master Splinter.”
“As I am to see all of you. Now that we are together again, the alternate universes we live in are once again fully balanced.”
“Yeah, a real Balance to the Force or something. Except her,” Don said, pointing to Venus. “I hate to interrupt, but this place is seconds from blowing up.” No sooner did he say it than—KABOOM!
Hours later the Turtles sat in the sewer den, each wrapped in bandages. Ironically Leonardo had his hand wrapped up as did Raphael’s eye, and Donatello’s shell. Michaelangelo and Venus were the only two unharmed by the blast which crippled the dock and caused them to fall into the water along with Splinter while the others were covered in debris. “Well, guys, I’m sorry I wasn’t much help there.”
“Aw, it’s okay,” Don said.
“Yeah, we just had never felt this much pain before,” Leo groaned.
“So, are you staying or not, dudette?” Mike asked, grinning.
“You know, where I come from the Michaelangelo I know always calls me annoying things like babe or mutant hottie. But dudette, I do not find offensive,” Venus said, laughing.
“Yeah, I guess I’m the only Michaelangelo in the galaxy who knows how to be a charmer then!”
Raphael made a knowing snicker and said, “Sure you do!”
“I really like you guys, but for some reason I miss the Turtles I was mutated with in so much more of a... fond sense. I know they can be rude at times, but they can’t help it.”
Leo shrugged and said, “Do what you feel is right, then. If you can find one good reason to go back, then so be it.”
Venus got up and looked at Leo, his eyes wide like the courageousness of the Leo she knew so well. “You are quite right. Thank you, Leonardo.” She took her time staff and prepared herself. The four Dimension C brothers waved to her as she vanished yet again.
| Live-Action Earth (Dimension B); New York City, December 21ST, 1997 A.D. |
Dusk approached as the Leonardo of this dimension quietly sat, pondering to himself if he’d ever see Venus again. He had talked with his brothers earlier about the possibilities that lay before them from knowing her, how it meant their legacy could be continued. But alas, they were alone once again.
“I don’t know what to do about you, Mei Pieh Chi, but if you do ever return, I swear I’ll be more in touch with you. And... I-I’ll always make sure you’re safe with us.”
All of a sudden he heard a familiar feminine voice say in a soft tone of voice, “Thank you.”
Leo reeled around in amazement to see Venus, his Venus, wrapping her arms around him. “Venus, how did yo—”
“Shhh,” she spoke, laying a gentle finger across his lips. “I’m glad to see you, Leonardo... the Leonardo I love in a way I am no longer afraid to hide. You have no idea how much I know now about you; how much I understand.” She gave Leo a kiss and he began to blush.
Both of them started giggling which alerted Raphael, who had snuck in from the outside to see what was happening. The sight of the two embracing each other made him feel extremely happy. “Aw—it’s a Kodak moment!” he chimed in.
Fade to black...
| Earth (Dimension <Null>); Los Angeles, CA, December 2ND, 2000 A.D. |
"Whoosh! Kaboom! Whuht... no!"
Leonardo startled himself awake, not even consciously realizing the words he was shouting. He was disoriented, confused as he found himself wrestling with some green bedsheets on the wooden floor beside a queen-sized bed. He fought and wrenched against the sheets, finally freeing himself.
"What the..."
Leonardo’s eyes turned to his hands. He had two hands... but moreover... he had five fingers on each small hand.
Human hands.
A now-familiar lady in her forties burst into the quaint-enough bedroom, further startling Leonardo. She jabbed a finger in his general direction, angrily shouting, "Leon! What are you doing?"
"Look, I—"
"You’re going to be late for school! What do you think this is, Christmas Break?"
"No! I need to—"
"What you need to get dressed and get ready for school, mister!" With that, the lady turned and left, slamming the bedroom door behind her.
He found himself once again an eleven year-old boy, was left alone once again to his private thoughts and ruminations. Was it truly all just a dream? Where did the dream end and the reality begin?
Leonardo could no longer be certain.
And now, we come to the end. Maybe this is the right ending, yet maybe it isn’t. Or what if it was the ending of the final chapter that was meant to remain, all dimensions save A left in oblivion? Perhaps... all will be moot, come the day of Deliverance that is said to lie in wait...
The transcension continues... in the end, when everything is said and done, what do we truly have left to hold onto? Whatever your answer is, cling to it with a passion ; cling to it with your heart and soul.