Chapter Text
They finished eating their dinner and began cleaning up. They threw out the empty pizza boxes and cleaned the table. Just then Donnie had an idea.
“We should take a picture together!”
They quickly agreed and gathered around. Don set up something using his Ninpo to make sure everyone was in the picture. The phone took the photo and they all looked at the picture. It looked nice. Something small to remember this whole mess by. Don quickly sent it to everyone.
“Wait!”, yelled Mike, “We still have to show you something!”
“Oh right!”, agreed Mikey. They ran outside, the rest of them following close behind.
The two-orange clad turtles stood in front of a wall. No one could really see anything due to it being too dark already.
“Bigger Michelangelo? Would you do the honours?”, said Mikey in a bad fake British accent.
“Of course, Michelangelo.”, said Mike, also faking a British accent.
The older turtle put up a finger and made a circle in the air. A soft orange glow followed it. Seconds later many small lights were scattered around them eliminating the area and revealing just what was on the wall.
A mural. They had made a beautiful mural of them all.
“You guys made that?”, asked Casey.
“Of course!”, said Mike and Mikey, proud of themselves.
“Is it really okay to spray paint on a wall?”, asked Leo.
Raph shoved his brother. “It’s too late now anyway. And we look good, don’t we?”
“We do!”, said April, “You guys are really good!”
“Thanks, but Mike did most of it.”, said Mikey, scratching the back of his head.
“Don’t put yourself down! You did amazing and this is the first time you spray painted!”
Mikey smiled and looked away a little embarrassed at the compliment.
“We really need to look at this again tomorrow when it’s bright outside!”, said Donnie.
After they walked back inside again Donnie and Don walked over to the machine to start the trial run back to their home world.
The others stood behind them watching them work.
“Are you going to take all of this with you when you go home?”, asked Casey. It was a good question. They had everything here. They made themselves a legitimate home. It would take hours to take everything to their world.
“Nope.”, said Mike, “We want you guys to keep everything.”
“Really?!”, asked Leo, “Is that really okay?”
“Of course. We have all of this stuff at home.”, said Leon.
“Well, so do we.”, said Raph.
“True, but you could make this place, like a clubhouse or something. Like a place to get away from everything?”, suggested CJ.
“You know, that sounds amazing!”, said Raph.
Before their conversation could continue Don chimed in.
“We’re done. We can test it.”
Everyone took a step back from the machine. Now that they looked at it properly, it looked almost exactly like the one Don had built back home, just less put together. Don liked to put a coat of purple paint on everything he built.
The screen lit up, much like it had when they first tried out the device back home, but this time the screen displayed the numbers 20-18. Likely their home dimension.
20-18
On the screen, you could see two mutants and an adult human. The mutants were arguing while the human was tipping on the computer he was sitting on.
“Who are they?”, asked Donnie.
“The rat is Pops, the goat man is Draxum and the human is Bishop.”, explained Leon.
“Bishop?”, asked Casey.
“He’s our weird uncle. We kinda adopted him.”, said Rafa.
“Cool! Can we get an uncle?”, asked Mikey no one in particular.
“Can you two shut up?!”, yelled Bishop, “I can barely think!”
The mutants shut up. Neither liked that they couldn’t do anything about getting their sons back, but because they had likely disappeared due to this broken machine Don had built, they couldn’t do anything. Draxum couldn’t follow their mystic and Splinter was lost when it came to his son’s technology. Bishop was the only one who had any idea about anything.
Just then something off-screen began to glow a mixture between purple and green.
“What did you do?”, yelled Draxum.
“Nothing!”, yelled Bishop back.
All three humans stepped back from the rubble – the screen shut down, turning black.
“NO! What is happening to them?!”, asked Mike, worried about the three adults.
“I don’t know and that worries me.”, admitted Don.
Before anything else could be said the same odd green and purple light emerged from the machine.
“What? Is that a portal?!”, said Rafa.
“Looks like it!”, agreed Raph.
“Will it get you guys home?”, asked Leo.
“Likely, this could be our only chance to go home!”, said Don.
“We need to take it!”, said Leon. His siblings nodded at him. They each quickly gave their counterparts a short hug and one by one walked through the bright portal.
Cass went through it first.
“Watch out for a guy named The Shredder!”, she yelled before he jumped through the portal.
“Always embrace the turtle!”, yelled Mike as he jumped after her.
“Look out for each other, okay?”, said CJ as he jumped after them.
“Beat up all the bastards-“ “LANGUAGE!” “That want to start fights with you!”, said Leon, with a small interruption by Rafa, and jumped into the portal.
Don jumped through the portal next, right after his twin. “We’ll meet again, I’ll make sure of that.”, he promised before leaving.
“Make sure to enjoy being kids.”, said O’Neil as she jumped in.
Rafa stood before the portal, turned to look at all of them and smiled.
“Anata wa hitori ja nai. You are not alone. Remember that.”
He then jumped in as well.
Just as Rafa entered the machine began to heat up more and more until it eventually blew up, leaving nothing of the device behind, except the piece of uranium Don had brought along.
They were in the lab, trying to figure out just what had happened to the kids when the left-over machine began to glow engulfing the whole room in a bright light. Making the three shut their eyes. Only to hear a loud crash seconds later.
“Everyone okay?”, asked an all too familiar voice. Raphael.
“RED!”, yelled Splinter, quickly moving to his eldest son.
“Pops!”, yelled the snapping turtle as he picked up the rat mutant into his arms.
“We missed you!”, said a different voice. It was Orange, he attached himself to the hug as well. Were all of the kids back?
“As much as I like our reunion. Can we please move it to outside of MY LAB!?”, yelled Donnie. There were far too many people in his, unfortunately messy, lab for his liking. He ushered everyone out of the lab.
When they all were just outside the lab, Draxum turned to them.
“Where have you been?! We searched all over New York and the Hidden City!”
“We were in a different dimension.”, said CJ.
“A what now?”, asked Bishop.
“So…”, began Leo. This would take a while.
They explained everything. Everything from Donnie’s machine blowing up to CJ going to high school and finally just how they got home.
“Wait, if you used the uranium I got you to power the machine, where is it now?”, asked Bishop. He didn’t like the idea of uranium being lost in the space-time continuum.
“We left it.”, said Donnie.
“You left it?”
“Yes, I kinda forgot.”
Bishop took a deep breath. “Do you realize how long it’s going to take me to get you more uranium?”
I know. Wait- you’ll get me more?”, said Donnie exited. He didn’t think Bishop would get him more, not after that stunt.
“Of course. But it will take a bit.”
“That’s fine. Thank you!”, Donnie smiled. Knowing he could use uranium as a power source again would make a stable portal much easier.
“Bishop.”, said Splinter.
“Yes?”, the man turned to look at the rat mutant, still trapped in the arms of his oldest son.
“When you get it, tell me first. I’ll decide when Purple get to have it.”
“PAPA!”
“Of course.”
“UNCLE BISHOP!”
“To be fair you were incredibly irresponsible, Donatello.”
“DRAXUM TOO!”
Donnie slummed down to the floor. Sometimes having three parental figures was a blessing as well as a curse.
April placed a hand on Donnie’s shoulder.
“That just means you have enough time to figure out a stable portal. Or a way to contact them.”
“April’s right. We can just take things slow until Dad decides you get to have some uranium.”, said Leo.
“Now you kids get some sleep. It’s been a long day.”, said Splinter, finally having freed himself from Raph’s hold. “Shoo, off you go.”
The seven walked off to their respective train carts, but to the adult's surprise, all of them emerged from the carts shortly later, in their pyjamas and with their blanket and pillow in tow. They built a nest in the middle of the living room and the adults didn’t stop them. Instead, they got comfortable in the turtle pile as well. They could finally rest. None of them had a good night’s rest since the kids dropped off the face of the earth. They needed some sleep.
The whole area was covered in smoke after the machine blew up.
“Is everyone alright?”, yelled Leo.
There was a chorus of yes from around him.
“The exit is this way!”, yelled April.
They followed her voice, finally reaching the outside and taking a deep breath of fresh air.
“Well, that was something.”, said Casey.
“It really was.”, agreed Mikey.
“Do you think we’ll see them again?”, asked Raph.
“Of course, we will! Don promised!”, said Donnie.
“We should probably head home. This will need a bit until the smoke is cleared.”, said April.
The boys nodded in agreement.
They all walked April home first, she lived the closest after all and wished her a good night. They then made their way to Casey’s place, bidding him a good night. After they said good night to their friends they looked for the next manhole cover and made their way into the sewers.
Once they walked into their home, they saw their father. He was in their face instantly worrying about them, they hadn’t called or texted him all day. He was worried.
“Sorry, Dad. We just had a lot of fun and got distracted.”, said Leo.
“Just remember to call me at least once, boys.”
“We will, Dad.”, said Donnie.
“Now, off to bed with you! You have school tomorrow!”
“Good night, Dad.”, said all four.
“Good night, boys.”, said their father.
Inside their room, Donnie moved over to his computer instantly.
“Donnie, Dad said we should go to bed.”, said Leo.
“I know. I just need to do one thing.”
“And what is it? Read a fanfiction?”, said Raph.
“Or maybe he wants to save the pictures he took of his boyfriend?”, said Mikey. Raph and Leo chuckled a little, while Donnie blushed a little.
“I didn’t take any pictures of Casey!”
“I never mentioned Casey.”, said Mikey.
“Anyway – I wanted to print out this!”, Donnie held up a piece of paper with the picture they had taken earlier. Hopefully, they’d leave the teasing be, at least for tonight.
“Ooh. We should put it up!”, said Mikey.
“YES!, Gimme!”, said Raph as he took the picture from Donnie, “Leo, hand me the tape.”
Leo gave Raph the tape and the tallest turtle put up the picture for everyone to see.
“We’re not gonna tell Dad, are we?”, asked Leo.
“Nope.”, said Raph.
“Nu-uh.”, said Mikey.
“Not yet at least.”, said Donnie.
Similar to the four brothers, April and Casey had put up the picture in their room as well. They needed to remember these odd events after all.
It’s been a few months since they had met their interdimensional counterparts. They had, just like CJ had suggested turned the warehouse into a sort of clubhouse. All of them had their own little areas.
Donnie had made his own little workshop with the tools Don had left behind and began tinkering around with things he found.
They had brought along a desk for April to have her own work desk with her board for potential stories.
Mikey didn’t really have a single corner, he really picked up the spray painting and covered most of the walls in drawings, even the floor had gotten a few. He was thinking about how he could put them on the ceiling too.
Leo made a small med bay and made sure to study the notes Leon had given him. It became really helpful every once in a while. Not that they got seriously hurt since, but Casey and Raph did like to get into fights.
Speaking of them. Casey had a corner filled with his, as he called it, mission gear. He took some inspiration from Cass and CJ in that department.
And Raph? He had made himself a makeshift gym or training area. He wanted to buff up for when they met their counterparts again.
The only thing that was still the same as it was before was the nest. They didn’t want to move anything. They occasionally slept in it but they didn’t move it. It felt wrong to move it. They wanted to leave it here, just in case their counterparts dropped in and needed a place to sleep.
Donnie was working on his newest project, fixing their toaster. Leo had somehow busted their toaster and since Donnie had started fixing their things, he was trying to save the thing. He wasn’t quite sure how Leo had managed to break it so badly.
Just then he got a notification from an App he didn’t recognize. I looked a little like Discord. The message read:
Hello other Tello, long time no see.
The username read BootyyyShaker9500. Was that who he thought it was? Was it really Don? It had to be!
“GUYS!”, Donnie yelled, “Don texted me! He texted me!”
Don really kept his promises, didn’t he? They couldn’t wait to see them again, one day.