teenage mutant ninja writer

A portal crackled as it appeared in the corner of Leo's subway car, and from it came a turtle mutant with red stripes through his eyes and yellow stripes along his limbs. Almost like a clone of himself, but leaner, and strangely, dirtier. He looked surprised, then slightly mortified.

Leo felt the same way. He stared at himself, jaw open.

The other Leo seemed to recover from momentary shock. “Hey,” he said awkwardly, “so is this gonna be like Mr.Peabody and Sherman where if we touch ourselves, we morph into one being? Because that was honestly body horror, and I don't like the idea of that happening.”

Leo just stared at him like he was insane. “How are you here?”

The other Leo’s brow screwed up. “Okay, look, if your timeline is anything like mine, your portals will go screwy in a couple of months and send you bouncing around the multiverse. I think it's like, a canon event or something,” the other Leo said.

“Don't you Spiderverse me right now! What the heck!? My portals stop working!?”

Other Leo cringed. “It's more like they work too well? This is actually the third alternate timeline I've visited. I’ve been trying to stay out of sight because, like Donnie says, paradoxes and whatnot, but it's kinda too late now, huh?”

“Oh my god, this literally is like Into the Spiderverse.” Leo muttered to himself. “So you’re me, but from another dimension?”

“Yep, that's pretty much it.” Other Leo said. He spread his arms and wiggled his fingers as if casting a spell. “It’s like Into the Leoverse.”

“I can't believe this. So you're like, a scrawny, beat-up version of me?”

Other Leo looked offended. “No, I'm not a scrawny– we– we’re on food rations!” He looked down at himself. “And I look rugged! I'm dirty because I was sort of in the middle of something before my portals started going screwy.”

Leo finally set down his comic book. “Yeah, me too, buddy. So you're saying you're here by complete accident?”

“Yeah.”

“And you’ve been to two other timelines, but this is the first time you've interacted with an alternate version of yourself?”

“Yep.” Other Leo face palmed. “Eugh boy, Donnie’s gonna kill me when he finds out I messed with the space time continuum. I didn't think the portal would drop me right in my old– I mean, uh, your room.” He looked around and sighed. “Aw, I miss my old room.”

Leo sat up a little straighter. “What do you mean? What happened to it?”

Other Leo looked morose. “It…uh, didn't survive the invasion.” He sighed. “Man, I miss it.” He walked to Leo's bed and sat on it, and Leo grumpily eyed how dirty he was, but let it pass. He would miss his room too if he lost it.

Leo felt the need to ask a question, but he dreaded the answer. “Sorry, but…uh…what happened with the invasion in your timeline?”

Other Leo had begun to stare at the posters on the wall, but he tore his eyes away. Then he shrugged. “Oh, the usual. I lost the key, and the Krang took over New York.”

“And then…?”

“And then the apocalypse started? That's mostly how it goes, I think. The other two timelines were mid-battle when I visited.”

“Oh.” Leo said quietly.

A timeline where Casey never went back in time to stop the invasion was not something Leo liked thinking about. Casey's original timeline was like that, and it was sad. Terrible and sad. The only good thing about it was that Casey Junior had been born, in Leo's opinion. In that future, everyone had been hurt by Leo's loss of the key. Everyone had died fighting the Krang. To think that this other version of himself was in a timeline like that…Leo had no idea how to tell him that he had pulled the shortest stick when it came to timelines.

Leo let Other Leo run his hand along a Lou Jitsu poster with an air of nostalgia.

“So…you're from a timeline where Casey never came?”

“Casey like Cassandra?”

“Yeah…I’ll take that as a yes.”

The other Leo turned to look at him, brow raised. “Alright, I’ll bite. What happened during your invasion?”

Leo looked away and twisted his fingers. “Well, our timeline got a second Casey, who we call Casey Junior. He actually came back in time from a branch of our timeline where we lost to the Krang, and he helped us stop the invasion and prevent the apocalypse.” Leo said honestly. “So we're actually…good, now.”

Other Leo looked shocked. “You mean…you mean in this timeline, we’ve already defeated the Krang?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh God, wow. Okay. That's– I mean, that's great, ‘cause I was thinking we just weren't capable of avoiding the apocalypse, but turns out there's a timeline where we succeed.” He sucked his teeth. “Cool. Super cool. Definitely not jealous at all.”

Leo felt awkward and sort of guilty for volunteering the devastating information. He could only imagine what it must have felt like to fail, so he knew there was something he should definitely tell himself. Something he had needed to hear even after saving the world.

“It's not your fault.”

The sentence was heavy; it carried weight because Leo had learned how to give it meaning. His journey of healing had been hard, and long, but he could say it to himself now and mean it.

“The invasion. Losing the key. It's not your fault.” Leo repeated.

Other Leo had gone very still. He looked as though he didn't know how to react.

Then he began laughing. He laughed, and it was a forced, hard laugh that looked like it hurt him.

“Oh yes it is.” He said suddenly, venomous. “Don’t be ridiculous; it's always about me: Leo the loser leader, Leo the guy who got dad killed, Leo the stupid harbinger of the end of the world!” he splayed his hands wildly. “Raph wanted to kill me, and he was right! Mikey and Donnie didn't want to trust me because they knew I would steer them wrong. I messed everything up and I didn't even know how bad I screwed up until the Krang had already–”

“Oh my god! Stop!” Leo yelled. “I get why everyone hates you now! It is not. About. You!”

Other Leo fell to stricken silence.

Raph knew that laws were set in place for a reason, and he absolutely understood that public safety was a priority, but…that logic all just sort of fell from his head the moment that a yokai had threatened Mikey. Something inside him fell like floodgates, and nothing seemed to matter as much as knocking that jerk flat onto his back until he apologized.

And he never did apologize, Raph thought bitterly. The poor guy had been too busy choking on his own spit.

The handcuffs clicked against his wrists, and the police officer said something he hadn’t said the last few times Raph had gotten arrested.

“You are hereby under arrest for disorderly conduct in a public area, of which you have multiple counts of previous arrests. You have the right to remain silent, as anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law.”

Well, the first part was about the same.

Leo didn’t appear phased by the flash of police lights and the song-and-dance of getting arrested. None of them were, considering their wealth of experience with the Hidden City PD. He leaned on his sword, looking between Raph and the officer boredly.

“You don’t have to say all that, I’m gonna meet you at the station in like, a split-second to pay the bail. We could even just give you the money now, so that this doesn’t have to take up so much of your time, officer.” He suggested, giving an easy Faceman™ sort of smile.

“Sorry, but no.” The manticore told him, grabbing Raph by the shoulder and motioning towards the police balloon. “This time you’re going to court, son.”

Raph froze, and his brothers gasped, dumbfounded.

“Court!?” Mikey screeched. “But he didn’t even kill him!”

Raph looked towards the stretcher where the yokai lay, unconscious and bruised, and even he had to wince. It was true; he hadn't killed him, but that dude was a punch shy of dead.

“Not that he would, Mikey.” Donnie said quickly. “Poor choice of words. But you can’t be serious, officer.” He motioned abstractedly, “This was clearly a minor case of aggravated assault.”

The manticore officer straightened his sunglasses. “That will be for the Heads to decide.” He leaned to Raph and said quietly, “Just do as I say, son. It will be alright. Get into the balloon.”

Raph took a step forward.

“Hold on,” Leo put a hand out. “He doesn’t have a lawyer.”

“We will provide him with one.”

“But we’ll be present in court too?”

“As witnesses, yes.”

Leo looked away, biting his thumbnail. “Crap. We’d better call dad.”

The manticore took Raph’s shoulder again, and they stepped over the threshold to the balloon.

“Raph.” Mikey said, meeting his eye. “It’ll be fine. You were just doing your big brother thing; they…they have to understand that.”

The manticore untied the ropes, and the balloon began to lift.

Below on the ground, Donnie, Mikey, and Leo watched Raph float away in handcuffs. A phone was pressed up against Leo’s ear, and his stare gave away a feeling much more anxious than he would probably ever admit.

The charges weighed heavier on Raph than even a floating balloon ride could hold up.

Three years since they failed to stop the Krang, three years of running and hiding and killing innocent, krangified New York citizens to avoid infection. Three years of absolute hell. It had unfortunately made Donnie sort of numb to anything that should have been traumatizing, such as the experience of sitting in a prison cell.

Maybe he was supposed to be crying right now. Maybe he was supposed to worry and wonder when his brothers would rescue him back to the blood red sky and the broken city full of death.

Really though, comparatively? He was not ashamed to say he preferred the quiet, cleanliness of the prison cell.

It had dark pink walls made of metal. Windowless. There was a ledge for a bed and a sink and a toilet. Dark pink was an interesting choice, he thought. It was sort of bright, maybe even encouraging. Or...maybe it was just creepy. Yeah. Nope. Definitely just creepy.

He had known he would be captured at some point. For some time now, Donnie had been noticing patterns in their interactions with the Krang that were suspiciously pinpointed on him.

It was just little things, like the way a pack of Krang hounds would herd him off from the group. Or his com would malfunction, and suddenly it would just be him and the sister Krang, and she would smile with a glint in her eye like she was glad it was him; him in particular.

The arrogant side of Donnie rationalized that it was because he was the biggest threat of the four brothers; his tech was making it very difficult for the Krang to completely stomp out all rebellion like they wanted. But the more humble Donnie knew that even without him, his brothers would still be a formidable opponent standing in the way of the Krang until their last breath. That was just what they did. What they all did.

So why him in particular? Why had the Krang captured him and put him in a cell? Because all things considered, Donnie was coming to a very unpleasant hypothesis: The Krang wanted to kill his brothers, but they wanted to keep him.

Keep him, trap him, use him; it was a horror story no matter what they wanted him for.

He would just have to convince them that he wasn't worth it.

Only one problem: Donnie wasn't exactly known for his ability to convince. He figured that when it came down to it, this whole mess would probably end with fire, bullets, portals, and a giant red version of Raph smashing everything in sight. The Krang had a tendency to provoke those sorts of messes quite easily.

For now though, they had their stupid emitter pulsing quietly and consistently, keeping his ninpo locked away for the time being. When it was a constant, repetitive exposure, the Krang had discovered that their new emitter prevented even the emotionally-driven 'power unlocks' that were a result of their mind melds.

Donnie...still didn't really have the right vocabulary to describe it. Despite his best efforts to analyze it, ninpo, as well as the Krang's mysterious ability to lock it, remained elusive from the laws of science. He'd dwell on it some other time.

For now, he would focus on the impending terror of whatever was going to happen to him. Because Donnie knew something was bound to happen.

And happen, something did.

…

Donnie had been waiting for around two hours when something finally spoke to him.

Emphasis on ‘thing’, because the voice was not that of a Krang, or his brothers, or any living being. Instead, what blared throughout his cell was the mechanical, predictable cadence of a machine.

"I am KrangDroid.” It said. The voice was cool, feminine, and impossibly neutral.

Donnie rolled his eyes. This ought to be interesting.

“I am known in the code as KD.” The voice continued, playing through his cell from an unknown source. Nothing suggested that the robotic voice had a physical presence; there wasn’t even a flicker of the lights when it spoke. “My objective is to ensure you remain alive and mentally stable in captivity. To do so, I will require your responses to queries surrounding your wellbeing and health. Please confirm your presence.” The voice paused.

Donnie sat petulantly silent on the bench in his pink prison cell.

“Please confirm your presence.” The voice repeated.

Donnie did not speak or move.

“Donatello Hamato, I require a response to my inquiry in order to ensure you remain alive and mentally stable in captivity. Please confirm your presence.” The AI’s voice would have sounded like a reprimand, had it had the capability of being anything but neutral.

Donnie shifted on the bench.

“Movement detected. Please confirm your presence.”

Donnie directed a sour look at the wall since there was no face to direct it at.

“I will continue delivering the query until I receive an answer. Please confirm your presence.” The voice said flatly. “Please confirm your presence. Please confirm your presence. Please confirm your–”

“You can go ahead and log ‘silence’ as confirmation of my presence, alright?” Donnie finally said, feeling prickly and overstimulated. “I’m not going to speak to you; you’re imprisoning me.”

There was a pause, like the AI was considering. Then it said, "I am not imprisoning you. The Krang have chosen to imprison you. I am not Krang. I operate under a specific ruleset set in place by Krang."

Donnie rolled his eyes. "And what does that ruleset say about my imprisonment?"

"It states that you are to stay imprisoned."

"Okay, great. So, translation: you're imprisoning me. I don't care if you're not Krang; you're working for them, and I do not want to speak with any Krang or Krang droid. So no, I will not be responding."

“I require responses to my inquiries in order to gauge your health and wellbeing.” The Krang droid told him doggedly.