𝐀 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐑𝐢𝐬𝐞 | 𝐋𝐞𝐨 𝐱 𝐎𝐂 𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐜

09. Where's Raph?

___𖤐___

Back at the lair

The escape pods zip through the abandoned subway tunnels of new york.

Small dotted lights on a radar back at the lair, the lights resembling each escape pod, make their way back to the lair.

"Escape pods, incoming." Donnie's automated voice system call out.

Donnie's pod enters first, booting him out of the pod as he tries to steady himself. A banner pops down from the ceiling above and confetti shoots out of nowhere.

"Congratulations on surviving, fam." The AI says.

The other pods arrive everyone crashing into eachother in the middle of the room and falling back as they are all released from their own pods. All but two.

April sits up and rubs her head, then looks around the room."Is everyone okay? Anybody hurt?"

"How did we get here?" Questions Mikey, clinging onto the back of Casey.

"Donnie pods..." Donnie says, sitting up in fear. "We've never had to use those before..." He continues.

"So, how would everyone rate their escape experience? 'Very satisfied', 'Very, very satisfied', 'Extremely satisfied'-"

"Donnie!" April yells.

"Sorry. Data collection calms me down..." He responds, looking down.

"You did great Don, Thanks." Heidi pats his shoulder.

Splinter starts to regain consciousness and groans.

"Splints!" April helps sit him up.

Casey stands up, hands on the side of his head. "This is terrible! Why did we leave?"

Mikey, still clinging to Casey with his legs wrapped around his waist, turns his head to make Casey look at him. "In case you didn't notice, we were getting out butts kicked!" He yells, feafuly waving his arms and the hugging Casey.

Casey pushes him off and Donnie catches him, taking him away.

"But my mission was to stop them. Right now, the Krang are using that key to bring in something that will destroy the world! We lost." Casey says, feeling like he has lost all hope.

Heidi looks down and feels something is missing. 1,2,3,4,5,6... "Where are Raph and-"

As if on cue, Raph's Donnie pod arrives and Heidi lets out a little breath of releif. but where's Leo's?

The pod lands and releases Leo as Casey and Heidi move out of the way. Leo stumbles out of the pod and falls to the gorund as he pants and gasps for air. His heart is racing and his ears are ringing.

He looks around the room at his family and friends as they frantically ask if he is okay and where Raph is. their voices are muffled due to the ringing in his ears although he can make out a few sentances.

"Where's my other pod."
"Where's Raph?"
"I mean, where's Raph?
"Leo, what happened?"

Then he found casey, focusing on him as anger started to fill him. Leo lunged toward Casey but Donnie and Mikey restrain him before he can do anything.

"Did you know this would happen?! Why didn't you tell me?!" Leo furiously snaps at the boy.

Casey, scared and confused, backs up. "What are you talking about?"

"Easy! Leo, what's going on? Where's Raph?" Mikey asks.

"Leo, what happened to Raph." Donnie asks, Leo now cooling down but still angry as he moves out of their grip.

"Leo calm down." Heidi says, now moving slightly to his side, slightly worried and afraid at how much anger he is displaying

"Leonardo?" Splinters voice calls out.

Leo stops and frowns full of grief and distress. his stands still, not looking at his dad, brothers, anyone. his fist clenhced and shaking, full of adrenaline.

"They... They got him."

"You left Raph?" Asks April.

"He left himself!" Leo retorts. As he speaks, he rubs his hands across his head and down his neck. "He used his pod to save me, all because I went after this stupid thing."

Leo pulls the key out of his fanny pack and shoves it into Caseys chest.

"You got it! Nice." Casey says, amazed as he looks down at the key.

"'Nice'? They captured Raph!" Leo remarks angrily. his eyes widen, coming to a realization. "He's from the future! He knew this would happen!" He accuses, pointing a finger at him.

"No. I didn't. This didn't happen in my time." Casey looks down at the key hope filling his voice. "We changed the past, and you got the Key. That means there's still a chance to stop them."

"No, we have to save Raph. Come on." Leo says, walking past Heidi, unsheathing his sword.

"Leo, wait." Heidi calls after him.

"If you won't come, I'll go myself." Leo tries to swing his swords to create a portal but his swords don't respond to his attempts to activate it, just glitching again and refusing to activate.

The slider grunts in pain as blue and red hues shutters around, showing that they are unresponsive.

"We've lost our mystic powers." Donnie reminds him.

"We don't have a plan." Mikey adds.

"We don't need a plan. Remember I'm the greatest ninja the world has ever seen, his words." Leo points to Casey. "And Heidi is the best mystic warrior in the Univ-"

"I'm not a mystic warrior if I have no mystic powers, Leo! They're gone. I can't do anything without them." She shouts back at him.

Leo frowns for a moment reaching out to her but she shakes her head and moves back, Mikey moving in to comfort her.

Leo feels a pang of guilt but nods at Mikey, thanking him.

"Shouldn't we talk about this before we off half-cocked, willy-nilly, pell-mell?" Donnie questioned.

"Look, I keep being told I'm doing this hero thing wrong. But I got the key didn't I? I get results, so now we're doing it my way." Leo tells everyone.

"My son, listen to your team. This is not about you." Splinter tells his son.

"They made it about me when they took my brother." Leo snaps back, throwing his katana at the wall next to the exit. "Trust me, I got this. Donnie, you're driving." Leo tells his brother as he takes the katana out of the wall.

The group looks at him, slightly wide eyes and concerned but finally give in. Donnie, Mikey, and Heidi follow him to the turtle tank.

"What do we do with this?" April asks, poitning to the key in Caseys hand.

"We can't just bring it with us, but we can't just leave it behind..." Casey dabates, looking for other options.

April takes the key from Casey. "Then we should destroy it. Splints and I will stay here and take care of business."

Casey looks over at Splinter, who places a bandage on his leg and give him a thumbs up, and nods.

He starts to follow the others but stops at the entrance and looks back at April.

"Thanks, commander O'Neil." He nods and exits the lair, trailing behind the group.

"Commander?" April questions after Casey leaves. "I like the sound of that."