Tides of Reality| Ninjago | Monkie Kid | ROTTMNT

Chapter 49 - Casey Jones

After an exhausting move to New York City subway tunnels, the turtles didn't really have energy to punch a hole into another world.

But Sky, fueled by extreme anxiety, considering she got transported here 3 months ago during a giant fight and didn't know if anyone was even-

No.

Nuh uh.

Not going there!

Sky had energy. They had travellers tea and could make portals to other realms.

"My theory is that since I encountered multiple items and plants that had the power to make portals to other realms, something similar must also be in this world." Sky filled Donnie in. "It's most probable that every realm has its own way of punching holes between realms and we just have to combine a few to make something strong enough to open a portal to another world."

Okay, this theory was very, very (that's two very's) far-fetched and built upon almost nonexistent fundaments, but it was the only lead they had.

The only way that would present a clear objective in front of them and that was kinda what they needed right now.

Because what else could they do, honestly? Donnie couldn't just whip out a portal machine out of nowhere!

"It's far fetched, but let's give it a shot." Tello commented. And immediately after they did, Sky opened a portal and pulled them inside after her.

And that's basically how a month-long inter-realm search for anything that could be used to build a portal started.

Fragments from the collider from MilesSpiderman!New York (Yeah, there is A LOT of New Yorks) were very useful, but only after some serious repurposing Donnie did with Lunella, mostly through text.

On the other hand, Kraang portal technology from 12turtles!New York got immediately tossed out the window. Half because the brain aliens tried to use it to launch an attack, and half because Lunella said something about incompatibility of the technology with huge amounts of parts from the collider and her own portal the two geniuses already used.

So while the group chat of various scientists from across realms, including Tello, Lunella Lafayette, Doctor Olivia Octavius, Gyro Gearloose, Stanford Pines, Tony Stark, Bruce Banner and Ghost (nickname for 03Donnie) and purposefully excluding Goggles (12Donnie) was working on the device, Leo, Mikey and Raph were just screwing around hopping realm to realm making friends and hanging out with new people.

They were particularly interested in the ITSV-Usagi Chronicles-Gravity Falls-Ducktales square, making friends with Miles, Mystery Twins and the Duck triplets. Unsurprisingly for Sky, Leo seemed to only ever visit Usagi.

-

Sky was chilling on the couch in her cat form after a long day of helping out Donnie and Lunella in the lab. She never did anything too important, but was treated more like an assistant to fetch screwdrivers and coffee, but she liked it.

The turtles left to go training or something in the city two hours before, so Sky freely stood up and went to go make herself tea.

While in the kitchen, they heard faint voices of the siblings coming back. Oh, great! Now they can watch something!

" everyone heard me say I got it !" That one sentence felt like a punch in the gut. Adrenaline and cortisol filling her veins at the speed of light.

They took a breath in. Maybe it's something else. Maybe they still have time. They have to focus and steady their breathing.

"Yeah, but I got it with style." She didn't even have to peer out of the kitchen to see Leo's walk, to hear "But you didn't get it!" despite her heartbeat being too loud to hear even the shattering cup that fell out of her hands, spilling tea everywhere.

She didn't even notice Mikey entered the room. He said something, probably asking if she's okay. "I'm fine, but Raph and Leo sound like they're about to start throwing punches." Sky forced a smile and a cheerful yet serious voice and prayed the mask didn't crack.

Fortunately it worked. Mikey left her to try to pick up the pieces of the mug and her mind together. Pushing all the bad thoughts out, she focused on what she could actually do. And one of those things was a joke of the decade.

After the sounds of fighting ceased, she entered the area where all the bedrooms/train carts were and entered Leo's room.

"Hey." No response from the turtle laying on his bed.

"I don't know what happened," Sky continued, a bit dishonestly. "but, you know, 'how bad of a decision was it if no one came back from the future to stop you', right?" She giggled. "It can't be the end of the world." Sky smiled after just now having lied through her teeth to make an unfunny joke.

Leo just smiled politely in a way that, to Sky, seemed to scream 'get out of my room please', but maybe it was because she herself preferred to be alone after any disagreements.

Nevertheless she walked out and to the kitchen to make herself some popcorn. Splinter was probably gonna steal it either way.

And just when the microwave dinged, indicating the popcorn was ready to eat, April barged into the lair with none other than Casey Jones Junior thrown over her shoulder.

When everyone gathered in the living room and Future Boy was all tied up, Sky set the popcorn down on the first flat surface fit for such a thing and approached Casey.

"Hey, wake up." She almost sang in a soft voice, gently tapping his shoulder. The last thing she wanted was for this poor guy to immediately start freaking out, especially since his whole life he had to be on guard all the time.

He opened his eyes with a groan and his lips immediately broke into a smile. "It's you! Together!" He shouted, filled with joy and hope. "And even Sky is here!"

Well, that one was not planned.

"You know me?" She asked, genuinely curious, pulling out her phone from the pocket dimension.

"Of course I know you! Well, heard about you. You were one of the strongest fighters in the rebellion, your shapeshifting powers mysterious and unmatched!" Well, that was certainly flattering to hear.

"You only heard about me? What happened?" Sky asked a question she probably already knew the answer to while furiously writing everything down in her notes app.

"All I know is that you, uh... died, saving auncle Tello."

"Yep, that sounds like something I would do." Sky finished noting and only then pulled her head from her phone.

"Anyways. We've got places to be, so spadamy ferajna!" Sky stood up.

"Wait! What do you mean?! We haven't asked him a single meaningful question yet!" Raph protested.

"Correction. You haven't asked him a single meaningful question yet. I have all the answers I need." Sky corrected and walked over to Splinter's chair to watch the scene unfold from afar. But only for a second because she quickly walked up closer. "But I will be telling you to hurry up."

"Who are you? And why do you have a picture of us?" Raph started out.
"Yeah and who took this, 'Cause I look great!" Leo, as Leo, asked.
"What's your favourite pizza? 'Cause I'm ordering right now." Mikey added.

"And why are you wearing genius built apparel? That's trademarke-" Before Donnie could finish the sentence, Sky quickly caught their hand in mid air before it could hit Casey's forearm.

"Careful. He has a grappling hook there and you almost activated it." She let go of Tello's wrist and walked back away to give the rest some space.

"Okay, let's start over." CJ sighed. "My name is Casey Jones, and the reason I have this photo and your tech is because you gave it to me. But not yet. Because I'm from the future." Casey finally dropped the lore.

"Okay, um can we hurry, pretty please?" Sky spoke up. No one actually listened to her, since pretty much everyone was now rolling on the floor, laughing.

"You're... not laughing." Casey pointed out to Sky in a mixture of surprise, gratitude and sheer confusion.

"Yeah, I'm alive purely because of time travel shenanigans. I'm not gonna laugh at that." Having said this she turned to CJ, seeing the silent request to elaborate on his face.

"It involved a Djin, venom of a giant spider found only on one island in the whole world and a lot of sleepless nights afterwards." It was Sky's turn to drop some lore.

"Haha... okay. If time travel was possible, future Donnie would've already-" Donnie, once again, couldn't finish, because Sky cut them off.

"Future Donnie didn't come back from the future to give you your lottery numbers, because there are no lotteries! In the future an alien race decimated the planet! Humans were hunted by the Kraang, lived in caves and ate rats! Casey was sent back because today someone finds the key. His sensei drew it on the other side of the photo." Sky shouted. There was no time!

While the siblings were checking out the picture and Splints almost had a heart attack because of the name of the aliens, Sky noticed Casey looking at her weird.

"How do you know all that?!" He whispered.

"Doesn't matter. They already lost the key, so if we don't hurry, we won't stand a chance." Sky whispered back.