Chapter Text
The mountain stood in the middle of a massive snowstorm.
Snow enveloped her, making it nearly impossible to see as she continued to walk upwards.
She was dressed in a long, light blue dress covered in sparkles, with a sheer ankle-length train. For shoes, she wore high heels the same color as her dress. Her hair was in its usual french braid.
Despite her being dressed completely inappropriately for the weather, she didn't feel uncomfortable. Each blast of arctic air felt as pleasant as a summer breeze.
Her elemental lines glowed bright, reflecting her utter pleasure as she stood in the storm.
As much as she enjoyed being there, she couldn't remember how she'd gotten there. Was there something she needed to do? Or maybe...
"Hello?!"
A voice. A girl's voice was calling out over the storm.
Panic went through Elsa; a normal human couldn't survive in this weather. She needed to find them, get them out of--
As soon as she decided to look for them, Elsa found herself facing the other girl.
She was dressed in an outfit that completely contrasted Elsa's, both in color and practicality. She had on a long dress with a dark blue skirt, black bodice, and pale blue long-sleeved undershirt. She wore a long pink cloak, and black winter boots. Her red hair was in two braids, which framed her freckled face. A single strand of blonde hair was woven into one of the braids. Her eyes were the exact same shade as Elsa's.
"How did you get here?" Elsa asked.
"I don't know..." The other girl shrugged. "I guess I'm having weird dreams again..."
Elsa blinked. "This is a dream?"
"Mm-hmm. My dad calls them lucid dreams, where you know you're dreaming. But my dreams are weirder than lucid dreams: in most lucid dreams you can control what happens. But I can't ever do that, which stinks because that sounds cool. I tried to make a mountain of sandwiches and a huge chocolate fountain appear once, but... nothing."
"...Can I control the dream?"
"Try it."
Elsa willed the snowstorm to stop. It did. She didn't even have to use her ice magic.
"Wow!" The other girl cheered. "I've talked to people in my dreams before, but they've never been able to control stuff before! Then again, I've never brought up that this is a dream before..."
"Wait, what?" Elsa shook her head. "Is this your dream, or mine?"
The other girl paused. "Wait, you're not just a dream-person?"
"I think I'd know if I was..."
"...Okay, that's weird..." The other girl seemed to consider that, then shook it off. "Oh well! Anyway, what's your name?"
"Oh, I'm--"
She shot up at the sound of two turtles yelling at each other.
"Watch where you're going, 'Nardo!"
"Says the turtle with night-vision goggles! What are you doing up, Dee?"
"I had welding to do, and the same question applies to you."
"My favorite web comic always drops episodes at two a.m., I couldn't sleep until I'd read it!"
The two continued their late night bickering as Elsa shook herself.
Her room's structure hadn't changed from when she'd first created it, but now it had a few more personal touches. Books (and a couple comic books Leo wanted her to try) lined the shelves, her clothes filled the wardrobe, a Genius Built alarm clock sat on her desk, a homemade blanket (evidence that Raph did, in fact, knit) acted as a bedspread, and Michelangelo had used his paints to give the walls some extra life.
She pondered the dream as she lied back down, the turtles' conversation fading as they walked to another part of the lair.
Like most dreams, the details were already starting to fade. But she knew that the girl in the dream hadn't been a figment of her imagination: she'd been real.
But how had they held an actual conversation?
And who was the girl?
- - - -
Mikey could tell something was up.
He wasn't that great at noticing stuff, but he ALWAYS knew when people were acting differently. It wasn't even something he'd learned how to do: he just knew when someone had something bugging them, and that bugged HIM unless he helped them resolve it. Sure, he got distracted a lot or hyperfixated on everything but what he SHOULD be doing (like that time he forgot about training because he couldn't remember the artist of a painting he really liked). But when it came to people and their feelings, he was almost always right.
So he knew something was going on when he noticed Splinter and Barry acting differently.
Dad, for one thing, had always been more into the TV than his phone. Sure, he used it to call them or look up how his old movies were holding up on Rotten Tomatoes (all of them still certified fresh), but other than that he didn't use it too often. But in the days since Raph's birthday, he'd been texting Draxum a lot (which he NEVER did) and looking up stuff a lot.
Draxum was also texting Splinter a ton; Mikey hadn't resorted to reading their texts (he was curious but he had standards!), but each one had Splinter grabbing for his phone like Mikey for the last slice of pizza. Not only that, but he'd started spending a lot more time in the Hidden City. He'd even canceled one of Mikey's twice-weekly mystic lessons because he "thought he'd found something".
The box turtle had thought about taking his findings to Donnie, but had quickly decided against it. Donatello didn't hate distrust Draxum the way Leo did, but he wasn't the yokai's biggest fan. Plus, while he loved Donnie to pieces, Mikey had to admit that his brother's conspiracy theories sometimes took things a little too far... Like that time he'd tried to convince them that the members of Huntr/x were secretly demon hunters and almost flew to South Korea to prove it.
But when Mikey'd put all of the clues together and really thought on it, he thought he'd found the answer: he knew why Draxum and Splinter were acting weird... They were finally getting along AND planning for his birthday in a few months!
It all made so much sense: Draxum was kind of a control freak so he'd want to start planning as soon as possible, Splinter would be texting him to tell him what Mikey liked or didn't like... And it would totally make sense that they were keeping it a secret so Mikey wouldn't find out.
He'd been planning on telling Elsa, Leo, Raph, and Donnie about what he'd found after breakfast. He'd even been in a good enough mood to make pancakes!
April hadn't been able to sleep over due to taking an early-morning babysitting job for someone else in her building.
Before he could tell everyone, though, Barry himself had sent him a text. One that was very much not about Mikey turning fourteen in two months.
"Uh, guys?"
- - - -
"So," Leo briefed the rest of the team. "Apparently, the Foot Clan got mad at Big Mama because... reasons, and now they're leading an attack on the Battle Nexus."
"Excellent, that means she'll be out of our metaphorical hair for the foreseeable future," Donatello commented.
"Donnie," Raphael gave him a look. "People are gettin' hurt."
Mikey nodded. "Yeah, Barry said that they're attacking the Nexus as a whole, not just Big Mama. The customers, the people who work there... Even yokai just walking by are getting attacked!"
"Look, none of us like Big Mama and none of us have a reason to," Leo admitted. "But if we wanna be heroes, then sometimes we're gonna have to suck it up and help people we don't like."
"The Foot Clan has not been particularly challenging since the Shredder was defeated and we began regular ninjutsu training," Donnie commented as he typed on his phone. "I see no reason why I will be needed."
Elsa looked at him for a moment... then smirked.
"Alright," she shrugged. "You heard him, guys. Looks like Genius Built tech is no match for the Foot Clan."
Donnie looked up, dropping his phone. His eye twitched.
"What did you say?"
"Oh, man, she's done it now," Mikey whispered to Raph, who gave a worried nod.
"I will not have my incredible engineering be challenged by low lives!" Donnie all but shouted as he took his bo staff in his hands.
Deciding not to get in his way, Leo simply made a portal and led his family through it.
As Barry'd warned, it was chaos. The Foot Clan had forgone their old origami ninjas, meaning that the soldiers attacking were capable of thinking for themselves. And they thought nothing of attacking innocent yokai. Some of them had been trying to fight back, but not every yokai's magic was good for fighting.
Elsa jumped right in and shot an ice blast. Four Foot found their feet frozen to the ground, allowing several yokai to get away.
From there, Leo was about to lead the group to take out the rest of the Foot soldiers... Only for them to run away.
"Uh... What?" Raph asked, voicing the thoughts the rest of them had.
"Are they afraid of us? Are we that awesome?" Leonardo asked, looking smug.
"Don't count on it."
At the sound of a new voice, the four turtles and one hanyo turned in sync.
Two mutants stood behind them. The first one was a mutant rhinoceros who was as tall and buff as Raphael. The other was a mutant warthog with a brightly colored mohawk who was about as tall as Donatello.
Both wore Foot clothes, and identical sneers.
"The Lieutenant thinks youse guys are becoming too big of a thorn in the Foot's side," the warthog spoke up. "So he sent us to break a couple shells."
"Looks like we're gonna hafta beat up a little girl, too," the rhino added, baring his teeth. "Especially after what she did at the bug place."
"Wait, you two?" Elsa asked, recognizing their voices.
"These are the guys who tried to steal that Oozesquito?" Raphael asked her. "You didn't say they were mutants."
"They were just normal humans, then!"
"Less talk!" The rhino shouted. "Let's rumble!"
That was exactly what Raph wanted to hear. The snapping turtle and rhinoceros collided, grabbing each others' arms and trying to shove each other off.
As Leo, Elsa, Mikey, and Donnie prepared to gang up on the warthog, he shouted into the air. The Foot soldiers who'd fled before reappeared, and started engaging the Hamatos. Elsa, Donatello, and Michelangelo engaged the Foot while Leonardo faced the warthog one-on-one.
Elsa, her elemental lines glowing brightly, hadn't had as much hand-to-hand experience in battle, nor did she have an actual weapon. But she knew that taking out other peoples' weapons or freezing them down would keep them from hurting others. As she froze one Foot soldier to the wall, she heard the sound of running feet as someone tried to ambush her. Gasping in surprise, she balled a fist and threw it in the air. A wall of ice suddenly appeared between her and the soldier, who ran into it face first and knocked himself out. Letting out a breath, Elsa returned her focus to the fight.
Michelangelo knew that nunchucks, even magically enhanced ones, weren't great for fighting off numerous people at once. Nor did he have anything super heavy nearby to throw as a distraction. So he decided that this called for hand-to-hand. He took a breath to steady himself as his first opponent ran towards him. Then, moving faster than anyone could have predicted, he delivered a specific blow to one of the Foot soldier's pressure points. He made a tiny, pathetic noise as he fell to the ground, temporarily paralyzed. The other Foot stared at their downed friend before giving Mikey a disbelieving look. He simply cracked his knuckles and readied himself to do it again.
Donatello was still ticked at what Elsa had said (he'd known it was a ploy and was mostly upset that it had worked so well), and he was more than willing to take out his frustration on the Foot Clan.
"Don't worry about him, guys!" One of the Foot soldiers shouted. "That's the nerdy one! He'll go down easy!"
The softshell paused... then smirked.
"Have you ever seen a nerd do this?"
As the first Foot soldier ran at him, he began spinning his staff. Every time a Foot tried to come near him, he was kicked or whacked with a wildly spinning bo staff. In less than a minute, every soldier who'd tried to touch him was down. Only one was left, and he was trying to run away. Donatello's markings glowed purple, and a purple cage with a five feet-by-five feet perimeter surrounded him.
"How the--" the Foot muttered as he pounded his fist against the ninpo-constructed cage.
"Here's a tip for the future," the mad scientist told him. "Brain beats brawn."
The warthog was blocking Leonardo's katannas with two crowbars, because of course a thug would carry around crowbars. His reflexes showed that he was an experienced fighter, even if he wasn't skilled in ninjutsu. If Leon couldn't beat him with blades, then he's have to outsmart him.
"So, you kinda lost the mutant gamble," he quipped as he blocked a really obvious strike.
"What are you talking about, freak?" The warthog growled as he barely blocked both of Leo's swords.
"You're only the second mutant pig I've met, but he's got a cool power. All you got was that dumb mohawk."
"You think I don't have powers?!" He shoved Leo off, snorting in anger. "I've got the best hearing in the Foot Clan! Nothing gets past my ears! And nobody calls Bebop dumb!"
"Thanks for the info!" The slider grinned, already knowing his next objective. "And for the record, I didn't say you were dumb. You and your hair are dumb!"
Bebop charged him like the angry pig he was. Leo teleported out of the way and over to one of the Nexus' souvenir stands. Bebop stared at where Leo had been, quickly located him, and charged again... only to start squealing in pain and fall to his knees, his hands over his ears.
Leonardo taped down the button on the air horn, wincing a little at the noise, and held it close to Bebop. He quickly disarmed the warthog, using a portal to send the crowbars to a dump in L.A. Then he turned off the air horn. Bebop got two seconds of relief before Leo punched him out, knocking him to the ground.
"Sounds like you've lost this one," he quipped.
Bebop groaned, but no one could tell if it was out of pain or the terrible pun.
Raphael had long gotten used to being one of the strongest people he knew, so it was always a surprise when he ran into someone who was just as strong as him, if not stronger. The rhino mutant was his equal in strength, and their fight so far had no clear winner. He had no idea what kind of stamina his opponent had, and he knew that he couldn't stay locked in combat with this guy forever. He'd have to try and figure out what kind of tricks this guy had up his sleeve.
"So," he started as he dodged one of the rhino's punches. "You got a name?"
"Rocksteady," he admitted as he tried to give his opponent an uppercut.
The sixteen-year-old caught the fist, and kept talking.
"Raph didn't think the Foot had learned how to mutate people. I thought they were all just idiots. I'd bet you don't even have any mystic powers."
"I've got powers, you're seein' 'em right now! I'm super strong!"
"...That's it?"
Rocksteady paused, looking confused and a little offended.
"...What do you mean 'That's it?'"
"I mean, all you have is super strength?"
"Hey, it's a cool power!"
"Yeah, it is." Raphael started smirking. If he'd had markings like his brothers, they'd have been glowing. "It's also an easy power to defeat."
Thanks to his new bracelet, he knew that he could make up to twenty clones before he started to exhaust his magic. Luckily, all he needed right then were three.
The four Raphaels (one real, three glowing) attacked Rocksteady. Shocked, the rhino tried to fight them off. But each of the Raphaels was as strong/skilled as the original, and were able to either tank or block his hits. Two of them held down the rhino's arms while the third put him in a headlock.
"Hey," Raph asked conversationally as he walked up to the immobilized rhinoceros. "What's the opposite of okay?"
Rocksteady paused, looking confused by the question.
The snapping turtle smirked. "K.O."
Then he decked the mutant.
Rocksteady was the last Foot member to go down. Since they'd openly attacked the Battle Nexus and several Hidden City citizens without cause, the Hidden City's guards started arresting as many members as they could. Because they had very few good experiences with said guards, Leo portaled them all back to the lair as soon as possible.
- - - -
"Right there." The Agent 87 asked, her expertly-painted nail pointing at the screen. "Do you see it?"
The security footage was from Grand Central Station. In the video, criminal dressed in gang attire bearing some kind of symbol met with a few others. They'd been sneaking around Grand Central Station for days, to the point that an employee had called the authorities. The authorities had called the agency.
"I do," Agent 203 nodded, his expression grim. "From what our sources tell us, that's the symbol of the Foot Clan."
"Foot Clan... What approach should we take with this?" She asked.
"None, Agent 87."
Both agents stood and saluted as a third member entered the office, the security footage still playing on Agent 203's computer.
"Agent 12," they chorused.
"For reasons you don't have the clearance to know," the older man told them, "all footage pertaining to the Foot Clan and vigilantism in New York will be sent to higher authorities."
"...May we ask who, sir?" Agent 87 asked.
"The Earth Protection Force."
"They're real?" Agent 203 gaped. "I thought they were--"
"That's exactly what you were supposed to think," Agent 12 replied, wearing a stern look. "And if either of you tell anyone else about it, you'll be demoted to the janitorial staff. Understood?"
They both nodded. Agent 12 was infamous for demoting those who displeased him.
"Now," he continued. "I want all footage to be forwarded to me before twenty hundred hours. Then you are to pretend this conversation never happened."
"What conversation, sir?" Agent 87 asked.
"Very good."
With that, he left. As Agent 12 walked, he called back his superior on the Earth Protection Force.
"Sir? Yes, I'll have the footage sent to you before the day's over... What?"
He nearly dropped his phone in surprise.
"No, no, I'm not questioning you, sir. I was merely startled... Does this really necessitate calling in T.C.R.I.?"
- - - -
Thankfully, right after the Turtles portaled away, Bebop and Rocksteady had recovered long enough to fight off the Hidden City guards and escape. They were still a little banged up from their fight, but all in all they were in a good mood. They'd done exactly what they'd been told.
"Back again?" The Lieutenant asked as the two mutants entered the Foot's base.
"We did what you said," Rocksteady grinned, even though Raphael had left him with a black eye and two missing teeth.
"Those dumb Turtles have no idea what youse guys were doin'," Bebop smirked, even though his ears were still ringing.
The Foot Brute gave a pleased grunt.
"Yes," the Lieutenant agreed. "Our real plans are already being carried out. A few of our members have already planted the tools under Grand Central Station."
"Oh, uh, speakin' of," Rocksteady muttered. "A lot of our guys got beat up or locked up in the Hidden City. I don't know how many got out."
"We have reserves, that's none of our concern."
"Hey," Bebop spoke up, looking concerned. "Those Turtles and that witch girl are a lot stronger than you said they'd be. What do we do if they show up and ruin the party?"
The Foot Lieutenant gave a sickening grin as a figure wearing a ragged, black cloak walked in.
The new individual pulled the hood from her head. She was shorter than everyone else in the room, yet she seemed more threatening. Under the cloak she wore a black bulletproof vest and black hockey pants that stopped at her knees. She wore no shoes, revealing her two-toed feet. A black belt around her waist held a black battle ax, which was chipped and scarred from years of combat. However, her clothes and weapons did little to hide her appearance.
She had brownish-green skin, the color of swamp water. Two white lines ran down her face, starting at her eyes and ending at her neck. Her plastron was covered in scars and faded cracks leftover from fierce battles. Two bright pink eyes stared at the rhino and warthog; the eyes almost seemed to glow.
The Lieutenant spoke with a smug, slimey voice.
"Then I guess we'll just have to fight fire with fire..."