Chapter Text
Chapter One: What Mystic Shall be Revealed?
Where was he?
Where are the others?
Why is the ground so hard?
The turtle was curious about what was happening.
He was in his cage and now he’s not.
He was in a softrough hands and now he’s not.
He was in the water(?) and now he’s not.
Now he’s on the floor and he’s just so curious about what is happening.
The Red-Eared Slider could feel the ground beneath him shaking and all the loud scary noises around him.
He wanted to see what that was and if his brothers (brothers? That’s a strange word but it feels right) and the fuzzy human was still here.
He sat up and all he saw was green.
Then all he felt was pain in his eyes.
It’s only when the newly named Splinter had noticed Blue, who never could tell when food was put in front of him and was continuously running into things (walls, sharp and pointy objects, off the edge of the ramp that he somehow managed to climb up?!), did he realize that he wasn’t the only one who hadn’t made it out unscathed.
“I can never be like them!” Splinter can remember his baby blue wail as he held onto him tight. “Why can’t I see them? Why can’t I? I just want to know what you guys look like! It’s not fair! It’s not fair!”
“I know my son, I know,” the rat held onto him tight as he even knew his own words weren’t enough.
“I just want to see your face! Why can’t I? I-I just want to see you all!” Leo hiccuped as tears trailed down his closed eyes. “I just want to see you guys. I just want to be like them! Why can’t I be like you guys? Why!”
“I know Leonardo,” his words echoed once more, almost hollow like.
“I know.”
Lights and New York flair shined brightly in the city above, but down below, where the rat scuttled and the lights were dim, were the sewers where only the nastiest, the grossest, the most disgusting things imaginable laid abound.
What horrors could reside under the city of lights?
What monstrosity could stalk in the shadows of the dark where no man dared roam?!
What horrors-!
“Hurry up guys! We got the night to cover and pools to recklessly splash in!”
Oh, it’s just four teenage turtle mutant brothers and their rat dad, so just another ordinary day in the sewers as a turtle adorning a red mask called out to the rest of his brothers.
“Coming! Coming! You don’t need to rush,” Mikey rolled his eyes as he walked through the door as he tightened his orange mask. “Everything will be all chill.”
“I’ll chill when we cannonball in those pools! I really want to try that fancy pool near the rich people sector,” Raph eagerly said. Those pools almost looked too nice to swim in… almost.
“I feel ya, besides I’m not the last one,” the young turtle said with a teasing edge as a purple bandana turtle walked in.
“Scoff I say, it takes time and perfection to go out and make sure our path is still mostly desolate rooftops. That mostly could be changed to an absolute if someone were to let me use my totally legit secret weapon,” Donnie said with a hard edge as he stared at Raph.
“You are not tranquilizing them,” he sighed as if he had this conversation one too many times already.
“But it sounds so fun when their body hits the ground,” the voice mirthfully said as the last of the turtle brothers jumped down from his spot on top of the ramp and landed in front of them. He too also had a mask, a blue one in fact, but unlike his brothers that had eye sockets cut out for them, his was not. It was just a plain blue fabric with stars sewn on the front and on the tails.
For you see, he was blind.
“Thank you! Someone credits my genius albeit for less than moral standards,” the purple gestured over to the turtle.
“As if you care for moral standards, remember that time you wanted to examine one of those influencers because you wanted to see how their minds work?” Leon grinned as he could hear the groan in his twin voice.
“Is it wrong for me to be curious about the nuances that go on in their heads compared to the average person,” he did not have a single reason to feel guilty. He was curious as to what neurons and electrons were crossed when it comes to their thinking process.
“Donnie morality aside, Leo do you-”
“Yes I have my cane and yes my headphone is charged,” rolled his eyes even if no one could see it, at his eldest brother's words as he motioned towards his sapphire headphones aptly named DragonFLY (aptly Donnie™ branded by the bulbous buds resembling the insect eyes) hanging around his neck. It has a GPS installed in case he got separated (which only happened fifteen times and he was perfectly fine despite Raph's panic!) a 360 info dump on his surroundings/people in the vicinity, and holds the most awesomest tunes known to the internet.
And he also raised his blue and black cane (also Donnie™) in emphasis and with that the blue braided bracelet on his wrist slightly jingled together due to the charms like the orange smiley face, a red unicorn, a purple key, a gray heart, and a yellow lightning bolt.
“We’re all good, let’s go!” Mikey whooped as he shoved the oldest brother forward before he could say anything else. Then he noted an approaching figure, “Hey April! Ready to kick it!”
“If by kick it you mean splash, heck ya!” The blind turtle smirked as his sister pumped up yellow aura bouncing in excitement alongside the ripples of red, purple, orange, and white in the sea of black.
(Auras. It was one of the best and the worst things he has ever had as far as he could remember.
On one hand, under pops tutelage which helped him develop it more, it helps him navigate the world and always keep track of where his family is.
On the other it’s just another mocking reminder of what is out of his reach.)
“Bye Pops, see ya later!” Leo, who retracted his cane small enough to swiftly put on his bracelet amongst the other charms, called out as they all made their way out of the lair.
“Don’t run into too much trouble,” Splinter, their one and only rat father, nonchalantly waved back with his eyes still focused on the tv screen with his own white core humming in relaxation.
“Just cannonballing into pools that aren’t ours, what could possibly go wrong with that?”
“Humans,” Raph whispered as Leon felt his crimson aura settle in somber twitching panic as he heard two approaching footsteps. “Plan H.”
“I should have kept my mouth shut,” the turtle muttered to himself before his smile widened as he stepped forward with his cane in hand and just as he was about to do his nerdy voice he paused for a moment.
Four auras, pink and yellow, and dual grays. It’s nothing special, but why did their auras not fit the body?
He can’t put a finger on it but there was a difference between a human core and whatever this was. He would say they match his brothers, but they have a more sporadic core that seems to be always bursting at the seams, these were different. This isn’t his first time noting them, he saw (never met, he was always a little wary) a handful with these types of auras before, but it always made him wonder.
It didn’t help that the cat dog thing that his family found was the exact same way with its swirl of yellow and blue thrumming in anxiety.
It was only a brief curiosity in that less than a second thought before he continued on his charade. “Excuse me, good people, would you mind directing us towards the nearest sci-fi convention? Apparently, these dweebs thought it would be a funny idea to let the blind lead!”
“Like our snazzy turtle costumes? Made them myself,” Mikey said in a nerdy voice, but his orange aura told him otherwise as it carefully prowled in wait.
“Yes humans, we are indeed humans that got lost in our everyday normal human lives, nailed it,” Donnie statically added with his violet core trying to keep in beat as if it was backing him up.
“And this is why we go to rehearsals,” he whispered with a sigh, it would be a miracle if anyone believed him.
“Give to me creature, how you say? Pretty please or I’ll destroy you,” the pink aura threatened, not even deterred by their acting. Raph didn’t take that tone too kindly as his core turned into anger.
"Really? You think you’re gonna step to our friend? Rookie mistake, big man.”
“And if you step to my friends for stepping to you for stepping to me? You’re gonna have to step to me. Mm-kay?" April backed him up, her older sister's side acting up.
"You do not intimidate us, with or without your fake nerd voices,” the yellow aura mocked.
“That was my actual voice,” spoke his twin.
"Well, you better get intimidated, ‘cause we’re like nothing you’ve ever seen,” Leo could almost hear the threatening stomp his brother did as he took a step forward.
“No seriously, what’s wrong with my voice?“
Before the blind turtle could make a quip about it, he stilled as he felt a shift in auras in almost amusement before the barrier (that’s the word for it! An almost thin purple barrier covering the auras) was slowly coming undone and as everyone was looking at the transformation, Leo was staring at their core as they have now pulsed with relief and urgency, but more importantly, it had let loose.
“So that’s why they felt different,” he muttered as he heard his family at the mention of them not being humans.
If that’s the case, then is the cat/dog thing the same species as them? Something to find out at a later time.
“So, you guys from Jersey?”
“Really?”
“What? I can’t make a joke in the middle of the weirdest thing ever? That’s how I cope." How else can it distract him from the now malicious aura from the four cores all aimed at them.
“Whatever, at least we can use these bad boys out,” the group took out their weapons. Leon did hang back for a bit as everyone attacked and failed miserably. Though he was curious about the dog/cat creature when he heard Donnie excitedly yelp that it teleported. He knew what teleporting was (via his twin scientific description) but what was curious to him was that he can still make out a faint sparkly (or at least he thinks it’s sparkle, he can only gain so much of a descriptor from Mikey and his arts and crafts. He describes it as little dots like someone rapidly poking him on his cheek, but sharper) trail it left.
He quickly focused back when he heard his younger brother yell as one of the gray auras was chasing after a panicked orange, but he could see red sharply chasing after.
“I guess that just leaves me and you big guy,” the star masked turtle readied his sword to the other target. “You just had to ruin Cannonball Day.”
Then he rushed at the creature and his strike was clean and true, but apparently, his rad skills could not hold up with his swords as they just broke!
“Are you kidding me!?” He held up his now useless swords, all that training only for his main weapons to break on him. What the hell!
He heard the pink creature laugh and he threw his swords at them in retaliation, making them dodge, but not avoiding the cane to the face.
“Good thing I have a backup,” he grinned as he jumped above, and with a clean switch, his cane became two as they became dual titanium butterfly swords courtesy of one amazing twin. (What, you really thought Donnie was just gonna make him a regular ol 'cane? In this economy?)
Thus the battle proceeded once more as he will admit that this would have been almost one-sided if not for his cane, parkour, instincts, and the continuous smoke bombs he kept blinding them with to knock the two of them off balance.
Why did he have smoke bombs? His ruling that if he’s blind then everyone else is gonna be to, just keeping things fair.
He would have maybe knocked him out if not for getting distracted from hearing his eldest brother cry out in pain and promptly letting the creature get a free hit and hurdling him into the pile of red, orange, and purple aka his downed brothers.
What was missing was their lone sister as he sensed her attempt to attack the creatures, but heard her fail miserably.
“We have the agent and the vial,” the creature spoke and the next thing Leo saw, or rather felt, was a chasm of blue opening up into sheer white. It almost blinded (Ha!) him with how abruptly it shined (he knows shining, amongst the people of New York, his brother's auras are so much brighter than them all) amongst the usual black.
He doesn’t think he has ever sensed something like this before, not in this amount.
But his wonder turned into horror as though the strange aura creatures rushed through the portal, it was followed by a panicking sunshine core, and before he could say anything it vanished.
“April!” Everyone yelled as they examined the wall.
“Where is she?” Raph was looking all around.
“I don’t even sense her aura,” Leon breathlessly said as his eyes remained on that one spot and restlessly tugged on his lightning bolt charm. “But I think she’s okay.” How does he know that?
He knows the signs of when a soul blows out of existence.
“Oh, hey! I’ve seen this before! In fact, we all have,” Mikey snapped his fingers once he figured out where he saw this before. “Or, at least almost all of us have.”
“Blind jokes at this moment,” the blue masked turtle deadpanned before smirking and noogied his brother's head. “I’m so proud.”
“Leon got it,” all three brothers' heads shot up as they saw their blind brother casually hold up the object they were trying to grab.
“How’d you get it,” Raph incredulously asked.
“You know he always passes out after milk and cake,” he motioned his head over to their dad's knocked out body.
“I think our eldest meant, how’d you know which one to grab?” Donnie emphasized.
“It had the same aura as that weird thingie that they all disappeared into,” he said.
“I’m sorry, are you meaning to tell me that there are inanimate objects that can have auras and you didn’t tell me,” the genius shook his brother's shoulder. “Why haven’t you told me? I was under the assumption that the auras that you always equate to are only linked to souls!”
Yes, it was not a fun day for Leonardo when he told Dee that souls were very much indeed real, it blew his tiny little mind.
“Do you know the scientific discovery this could have on the world? Do you know how many theories are debunked? Do you know the sheer compound of this existential momentum that something like this is? Do you?!” A nine year old Donnie spat out as he shook his younger brother by his shoulder.
“I-I-I D-d-o-o-n-t k-k-n-o-w!”
“Of course you don’t know dummy! Something like this could change the world! Gasp!” He stopped and almost desperately asked his dizzy twin. “Was Plato's theory about souls being a simple, pure, unorganized, uncompounded, invisible, rational entity wrong?! Cause the only thing that is correct about that statement for this family is you guys are simple minded!”
“I dunno! I mean everyone's aura is bouncy and wild, so,” he shrugs his shoulders once he gets most of his bearings together. The rest are still out in the wind alongside his words.
“Plato! My hero was wrong!” He gasped before proceeding to once more shake the red eared slider's shoulder. “Tell me everything in detail!”
“S-s-t-o-p-p S-h-h-a-k-i-i-n-g M-e-e-e!”
“S-s-t-o-p-p S-h-h-a-k-i-i-n-g M-e-e-e!” Leo's voice reverberated until he finally stilled his twin's hands. “Beats me. I tried asking Pops about it, but he told me don’t worry about it and that was in his ‘I will never talk about it in a million years tone.’”
“Psh fine,” he grumbled before the group made their way back out of the lair.
‘Should I tell him about the teapot?’ Leon thought as he eyed Donnie's disgruntled aura. ‘ Nah, I'd rather keep my head today. I can worry about it later.’
“How about we let the artist of the crew take a poke at it?" Micheal confidently said as he caught the falling compass and walked towards the wall.
“I say give him a shot. I mean, he can’t do any worse, respectfully,” Leon smirked.
“Hey.”
It took only a moment and Leon swore he felt a warm orange static fizzle when it made contact with the elastic blue before the tunnel of white appeared into existence once more, at least he was prepared for it this time.
‘Still something though,’ he quietly thought before speaking out. “So, what do we do now?”
He could feel his eldest brother almost hesitate, he could feel his eyes boring into the side of his head. Time to nip that thought in the bud.
“And no, I’m not staying behind to keep guard,” he crossed his arms. This isn’t the first time Raph tried to keep him back as if he was still a child. He gets where his brother's heart is coming from and he will never chastise it, but it doesn’t mean that he won’t fight back and prove his worth. “I’m coming with, whether you like it or not.”
“But Leo who knows what could be there, this isn’t New York,” Raphael put a hand on his brother's shoulder. He knows despite Leo's disability, he can keep his own during a fight, but entering an entirely new place, one they may have never been to before, he doesn’t know what would happen. And he knows he isn’t the only one as he though he can’t see Mikey fiddling his fingers, he could hear his shifting feet and despite not seeing Donnie's neutral face, he could hear the clicking of keys a bit more insistent.
But above all, Leo could feel all of that in their auras, but he grinned at them with an air of ‘I can do this’ and spoke. “Well it’s a good thing that I have my awesome ninja skills backing me up and you guys now don’t I?” He confidently said as he stared straight at his brothers and jingled his bracelet. “Now then big man, what do we do?”
It took Raph only a moment to nod and his worry red had turned into a vibrant excitement as he yelled. “Cannonball!” And dived right in!
“Cannonball!” Not to be outdone, the rest of them followed suit as they all tossed, turned, and slide down a fountain of rapid blues and whites before three of the four brothers collapsed on the hard ground and the remaining one just barely manage to land safely.
“And I stick the landing…and I’m down!” Only to have a full body spaz out when everything bombarded his already next to nothing vision. “What the fuck?” He wished he could block it all out, but nooo almost everywhere his body turns he can sense it all.
“What are you yelling-whoaaa!” He could hear his brothers aww of wonder at whatever they were seeing and he would absolutely love to join them…after his body calmed down from apparently overstimulating.
“Fuckkkk,” he whispered.
“Hey,” he barely held back a flinch at the cool hand on his shell. “Are you okay?!”
“Yeah, yeah I’m cool,” he lifted his head from his knees (when he do that?) “That was just a lot at once, holy shit,” he patted his Raph hand. “Thanks for the check-in.”
“What are you seeing?” An uneasy twinge of purple shuffled quietly closer to his blue aura that was still.
“I don’t know what you guys are seeing- and I’ll take that description later,” he cut off Mikey before he could start. “But like how you all describe New York, It’s like that, but dial it up to 100.” Leo let out a breath and mutters. “I don’t think it was possible to be blinded when you're blind.” And once more he refocuses and takes in the sea of colors.
There wasn’t just one solid color for each spot oh no. There were swirls upon swirls of colors as none of them were stagnant or rooted in one place.
He could sense a swirl of red and pink all gathered around.
Another burst of blue and green popped like a firecracker as they almost giggled around each other.
One area was a roaring violet as it lazily drifted along a river of orange and yellow.
There were crackles and pops and glides and shimmer and colors he didn’t even know had existed before! (And he knows of the descriptors of colors, Mikey always makes sure to describe each one of his paintings in vivid details for him) It was so much more! It was so much more than he could ever swallow in his life, is this how his family sees it?
How have they not gone blind with how bright everything is?
With how beautiful everything is?
He almost wished he could stay and stare at this forever, but a missing sister calls, and that thought is more than enough to snap him back to focus.
“So does anyone have any clue where April is?”
“Psst over here!” They all heard a loud whisper and turned back to see the one and only reckless human that charged head first into the void of white.
“This dude looks like big trouble,” April muttered as they all crouched down and watched as a goat looking creature uncorked a green looking ooze into a tank of mosquitoes.
“No kidding,” Leo muttered as he saw the beating pink eagerly thrum in contentment as the two other others hum in excitement as they stop in front of the dull purple aura. But his breath caught in his throat when a small green aura suddenly landed on the purple one and, to his amazement, he could see a bright green trail swirling down the human aura and rapidly wrapping itself around it like a possessive snake.
“That’s messed up,” he heard his sister faintly say amongst the screams of agony, but all he could focus on was how the dull purple aura had quickly become bright purple-green.
“What happened to him?” He asked, still not comprehending all of it.
“The human mutated into a fish-like entity,” Donnie explained.
“Mermaid style or head of fish and body of a human?”
“More of the second.”
“Ha! Should we go after him?” One of the gray auras laughed, but the pink one ignored it and triumphantly muttered about how his mutation worked all those years ago, which sends a lot of siren warnings in his head.
“Mutation? Does he mean like us?” The red masked brother gasped. “Could we be-”
“Imitation crabs!” Mikey interrupted.
“Haha…oh wait, you’re not kidding.”
“I’ll deal with you next,” the creature hovered over the swirl of blue and yellow cat dog thing.
"We can’t let that sheep-horned weirdo do anything to that dog!" April spoke up.
“But except for half of us are out of weapons and as much as I love my cane sword Dee, I do need a little more weight for my sword no offense,” Leo clasped his hands.
As much as he loves his butterfly swords, he is used to fighting with a heavier set on him, which suits his fighting style well.
“Note to you, next time, make your main weapons out of high-grade titanium,” he crossed his arms.
“Guys, who needs weapons? We’re ninjas! Leo’s got his mad skills, nobody flips better than Mikey, Donnie’s got that big old brain, and I got, uh –" Raph thought for a moment before the human scooted in confidently.
"A friend who knows where there’s a room full of weapons."
“Wait, how do you know where the weapons room is?” Leo asked.
“I have a third sense for the dangerous shinies plus all the sneaking around I did,” she mischievously grinned before pulling down a lever and sending them all tumbling down until they reached the bottom.
“Whoaaa,” they exclaimed at the plethora of weapons laid before them.
“It’s like science and magic had a baby!” Donnie squealed as Mikey grabbed Leo's hands and pulled him towards the swords.
“Ooo, which one should I choose?” He eagerly said as he glazed his hands over all the swords and picked them up one by one.
“This will do!” He could hear the swing of chains and rightfully assumed that his brother found a spare nunchucks.
"Hey guys! How about we take the glowy ones?" Raph shouted, it drew both of their attentions to four glowing weapons that stood out amongst the full auras in the room.
Both brothers promptly dropped their weapons and charged over.
“Is the pretty blue one the sword!” Leo called out as he rushed forward.
“Yep! Catch!” He heard the sharp zing of metal as blue flew towards him and with little effort, he caught the sword mid-air. The star masked mutant smiled at the somewhat familiar weight as he gave it a few swings, “Oh yeah usually I am a dual wielder, but this will do nicely.”
“Okay everyone!” Bright red announced once the group got their weapons or shiny new object. “Let’s go save that dog thingy!"
Leon amusedly heard Raphie repeat his demands once more to the big bad, who he was keeping a close eye on though he was confused about why the pink shone with amazement and childlike glee before he felt a familiar reckless yellow get anxious and charge in. “Stop charging in like that April!” He exclaimed as followed her war cry.
He was not about to lose track of her aura to the white void again on his watch!
“Leo!”
“Everyone just stop rushing in!”
“Cowabunga!”
He sensed that she was intercepted by two gray auras, but judging by the sound, she didn’t seem to be in too much trouble, so that left a wide opening for the big pink one as he was distracted by April's sudden appearance.
He landed one solid hit, pausing as he felt a trill of warm blue curiosity from the sword connecting to his own core, before he shook it off and smirked. “You really should find another day job. Mutating people is so not good for the economy, you know.”
“Using the human as a decoy to ensure a sneak attack, adequate strategic thinking,” the pink aura hummed as he stared down the blindfolded turtle.
“Less decoy, more wanting to not want to see her die,” he shrugged before ducking to the left when he heard the floor crack and multiple sharp pink lines shot their way toward him and his brothers.
“What the heck?!”
“Whoa!”
“Giant robot!”
“Capture those specimens!” He heard the creature yell and thus the battle started as Leon disengaged from his confrontation with his previous target to help cut a metal leg, making the large gray entity stagger. It was only after the robot was down for the count did the pink aura creature speak again.
“Accidentally impressive. With a little bit of training, you could be as formidable as I’d hoped."
“It’s okay, I got this!” Leon held back a laugh at his sister's words, who was still fighting the two smaller entities.
“Okay, well, great, and since you’re surrendering."
“Baron Draxum does not surrender,” at least they finally have a name for this dude. He was so close to just calling him Scar with the way he talks, all edgy and devious.
"Okay, well, when he gets here, we’ll deal with him...oh, ho, ho, I see,” he joked. “You’re doing that whole ‘sinister talking in the third person’ thing."
“Only Raph can use the third person! All right, guys, time to put our training to use!” He cracked his tonfas together.
“Training? Have you guys been training without me?” He demanded to know because ain’t no way his brothers would train without him when he literally begged them multiple times to train with him during his sessions! He would feel highly offended if that were the case.
Nonetheless, they all attacked him simultaneously with him adding a few hits and dodges before cartwheeling and flipping out of the way from the tendrils of pink. He honestly felt like he could have kept this up if not for Draxum shooting a blast of pink toward April and it had wrapped around her yellow.
"You did not just do that to our friend!" Mikey threw the orange chain at his head, but he simply dodge, but to their amazement, the end of the chain lit up in a blaze of flames. “Ooo, a magic weapon-whoa!” He yelped as the chain swept him off his feet and began to pinball all around the room and cause mass destruction.
As everyone watched in amazement, Leo was freaking out over the violent dark orange aura (which has wisps of black?! There was only one thing that had traces of black! He didn’t even know others could come in that color!) in Mikey's weapon audibly cackling as it destroyed the room.
“Is Mikey's weapon possessed by a demon?” He whispered to himself before realizing Raph tried his weapon and the two cores connected, but something went wrong and it shunted the biggest turtle brother into the wall. He eyed his weapon and felt the same trill as earlier, but this time in crackling excitement, and he grinned in eagerness as he charged forward. “Let’s see what you can do chica!”
He took a swipe at Baron but laughed nervously as it seemed to do nothing and it was only by the grace of him sensing the amusement sparking from the blue blade aura that he was able to sidestep it in time. When he felt another pop up did he realize what the familiarity was.
“I can portal, oh this will do really nicely!” He excitedly said before he got knocked back. “Okay ow,” but he righted himself up and charged back in as Donnie took his chance to attack. It was only when Baron was hit by Dee's staff, which judging by his core popping in shock he could guess it was totally accidental, did he take a chance to go for his legs, making him falter. “It takes two to tango don’t cha know?”
“Must you insist on puns,” he heard Donnie groan as he leaped in the air above before being tackled by a high-flying Mikey.
“Yes, yes I do-whoop can’t touch this!” He barely managed to duck under whatever Baron's pink aura was spitting as it then wrapped around the rest of his family.
“We don’t spend nearly as much time together,” Mikey squeezed closer to the other.
“Oh please not now Mikey,” Donnie groaned as he instead tried to see if he could reach for his tech bo, but it was just out of his reach.
“Don’t let the goop hit you Leo!” Raph yelled as he did his best to wriggle out of the restraints.
“Wow, I never thought of that big bro,” he rolled his eyes and instead casually made his way in front of his brothers and sister, never once losing track of the simmering pink aura as he pointed his new sword at him. “I suggest you start running before things really start getting ugly and I don’t mean you.”
“Why are you trying to stop my plans? We are all in this together!" The creature took a step forward. “You all are untrained, but under my teachings, you can become true warriors! Especially you,” he stared down at the lone turtle standing.
“Mmm nah, that seems to be the start of every bad guy monologue and I don’t think Raph will let me be a part of an evil organization,” Leo hummed as he anxiously listened to the sounds of mini explosions crackling all around them.
“You dang right I won’t!”
“You are shortsighted, we can rise up and take power over the humans! The yokai can rule over the pathetic-”
“Nardo, barrel roll three o'clock now!” Leon, without hesitation, complied with his twin's demands and moved.
CRASHHHH
“Thanks Dee!” He shot towards them, passed the downed pink aura and what he assumed was something very large smooshing him, and sliced into his family bonds. “Eww, what is this?” He grimaced at the sticky substance that splattered on his skin.
“Gross that's what it is,” April whipped the substance off, and in her hands landed the teleporting dog. “Hey little guy, mind getting us out of here?”
And in that instance, he teleported the group out of the lab and Mikey quickly drew the symbol once more and they all scampered through the portal just before the sound of a large explosion cut off when they entered. They managed to land safely on the other side in a pile of exhaustion, but the same couldn’t be said for the compass as it slipped out of the orange turtle's hand.
“Oh, no! Splinter’s doohickey!"
“Are you okay, boy? Or girl? Thing?” April examined the creature in her arms.
“Yokai.”
“Huh?” She turned towards Leo, who was twirling his sword around to get that gross gunk off of it.
“I think they're called yokai, that’s what that Draxum dude said in all that chaos.”
“It certainly was mayhem there. Hey, Mayhem! That’s a cute name,” she petted his head.
“Guys, we just defeated a boss villain. We’re heroes,” they struck a pose, though the red masked turned Leo's head to face the same direction as them. “We deserve a name like Mad Dogs."
"Mad dogs? You don’t think something like Mutant Ninja Turtle Teens or…I don’t know. We’ll keep brainstorming,” the blind turtle shrugged before seeing a small bright green aura flying past them. “Uhhh.”
Suddenly a plume of bright green spots emerged from the open white void and out into the open.
“Well that can’t be good,” Donnie deadpanned.
“We should probably go, I can hear people's doors starting to open,” he urged the group out of the construction site and back into the sewers.
“Not to interrupt your fascinating story RiRi,” Leo's voice halted the animated description April was giving about her short time exploring the Hidden City, he looked towards his youngest brother. “Miguel, can I see your weapon real quick?”
“You want a chance to see my awesome magic weapon? Of course!” He happily held out his weapon.
The blind turtle examined it for a bit before nodding. “Cool, I don’t sense the demon thing that was in here anymore.”
“I’m sorry the what now?” That grabbed the eldest brother's attention right quick as his core thrummed in panic. “What do you mean demon?”
“Did you not hear the mad cackling when Mikey threw it?” He raised his brow as he handed back the weapon.
“I thought that came from Mikey,” he admitted.
“Maybe it only emerges when Micheal is using it?” Donnie theorized, already making rapid notes about this.
“Let me try!” The orange banded turtle tries to reconnect with his weapon.
“Wait! Before we start, do I need my mama cross before we try this?” April questioned the group.
“Or a bigger area, remember what happened when you first awakened it?” Leo backed up a few spaces, still eyeing the flickering orange weapon core.
“Relax, I’m sure it will be fiiIIIINE,” he screamed as his weapon lit up and almost in a taunting way, dragged him through the underground sewer.
“Hey wait! Hold on!” Raph yelled as the group gave chase. “Get back here with my brother!”
It was only after it crashed once more into Donnie (“You have got to stop doing that!” “Sorry!”) did it quiet down once more and left the kusari-fundo back in its dormant state.
“How about we not do that again,” April heaved out with Mayhem nodding on her head. She had more than enough running for one day.
“On the bright side, I don’t sense whatever that thing's presence anymore,” Leonardo took out his cane.
“What do you mean? Did you not see him dragging Mikey all over like a ragdoll?” Raph pointedly said with said turtle draped over his back.
“It was like a rollercoaster,” he giggled despite his new supporting bruise on his head.
“I don’t know what to tell you, big guy. Before, the aura was like a dark orange, almost blackish, which is wild as I don’t think I've ever seen a black core before. And it was violent and chaotic as hell, this one was much more mischievous and it no longer has the black wisps anymore, just pure orange and white swirling around each other.” And he doesn’t know if that’s a good thing or not.
“Are you sure you're not just seeing things?” He immediately regretted what he said by the large smile on the blind turtle's face. “No, no I take it back! I didn’t mean-”
“ Eye can see it perfectly fine,” he emphasized the first word.
“Gha! Why the puns,” he groaned in misery.
“But back on track, no I didn’t see it wrong. The thing was dark orange before, but now it’s light orange, similar to Mikey in fact,” he mused as he noted that it had in fact lightened to almost match his brother's humming core.
“Intriguing, maybe your weapons, as magic as they may be, are tuning themselves to your auras,” Donnie theorized as his mechanical legs did the walking for him. He had been squashed, crashed, and hampered with far too many times today, he deserves to pamper his bruised ego. “And sensing that is the case, it’s probably that it extends far beyond the reach of your souls, which in that case Leonardo-”
“I am just as confused as you are Dee,” he held his hands up, he could already feel his twin violet core twitching in annoyance. “This…this is a whole nother ball park,” the masked turtle slowly put his hands down. “It was something else.”
“You good there Lee?” April gently bumped her shoulder with his.
“Me? Pssh, indubitably, everything is cool,” he tried to sell his fake smile, but judging by the silence and how not a single one of their auras even had traces of belief, he didn’t sell it so well. “Ughh, I hate when you all give me that look…even if I can’t see it,” he weakly punned.
“I swear I will pop you if you don’t spill,” she threatened.
“Fine, it’s just…are colors usually bright?” The blind turtle quietly asked.
“Yeah, did you like it?” Mikey hopped off his eldest brother's back and snagged onto Leon's shell.
“Yeah, it was pretty awesome they weren’t even stagnant like human souls! No offense Apes.”
“None taken, now that makes me curious. Was it like the pops of firecrackers? Or swirly like spinning in a whirlpool?” She asked.
“All of it! Even more than that! It was so much happening that I could look in all directions and see that there was something different!” He excitedly said as he shook his hands.
“Really? What else was there?” Raph could almost feel Leo’s excited energy seeping into his own as he couldn’t stop the large smile spreading across his face. As much as his baby bro tries to hide it, he can always tell when he is depressed when the rest of them marvel at something new or interesting. So to see him visibly get excited about auras and colors and all sorts of things he never saw before, of course he is pumped up.
(And yes, he will ignore that part of him that makes him want to wrap his little bro, all of them in fact, in bubble wrap and blankets. But he will get ganged up on if he ever tries that again, so lock and key. Lock and key.)
“There were even colors that were overlapping or part of the same core, like Mayhem!” The blue masked turtle pointed toward the yokai, who picked his head up at the mention of his new name.
“Truly? What color is his aura,” Donnie asked as he continued to type away, all his exhaustion already seeped out at this new information.
“Mostly blue, but it has a swirl of yellowish?”
“Is it dark or light?” Mikey instantly asked.
“More dark.”
“Ooo, then it could be gold.”
“Swirl of blue and gold! Such a pretty combo!” Leo laughed and couldn’t help but squish Mayhem's little face between his hands. “You are so pretty, yes you are!”
Mayhem crooned at the compliment and nuzzled into his hands in thanks.
“He’s something special ain’t he,” she grinned as she scratched the back of his head before she dragged him into telling her more about every little thing he saw and trying to guess what it could have related to.
It was during that time Mikey gently got off his brother's back and slowly trailed behind with the rest of his bros. He could tell by their expression, what they were all unison thinking, Donnie was the first to say it though.
“We need to find a way back,” he neutrally said
“Heck yeah! Leo would be excited to see those awesome colors again,” the youngest turtle grinned. “And that place was pretty awesome as well!”
“Not that, well yes that too, but I mean he saw your weapon aura.”
“Yeah? I thought we already cleared that?”
“And he saw the portal aura and many other aspects in that city that were probably non-sentient.”
“What are you getting at?” Raph asked as he leaned down, making all three come in closer together in a huddle.
“What I’m getting at, is if Leo could see all that aura from the Hidden City then the probability is high that whatever chemicals made him lose his sight was the same one that granted him access to see those auras. This means that if we find the specific chemical formula that gave him his spiritual sight then-”
“There could be a way to make him see!” Both brothers whispered in a gasp as Raph continued. “You really think it would work?”
“I can make the world's greatest tech out of a pile of garbage, of course I can,” he pointedly said, ignoring the twinge of hesitation and doubt pinging in his mind.
“Wow, never thought I would see the day where you go to magic for help,” Mikey joked.
“I don’t!” He spat out automatically but noticeably eased back down. “But I will admit that due to new evidence coming into light that does seem to be the case for this specific instance. And while I will never say that my tech fails me…” he shot a look at his blindfolded brother holding his stomach in laughter as April described going through the vents and getting revenge on the yokai that took Mayhem via making their dogs chase them around with a laser pointer.
“I know when to open my mind up to alternative possibilities.”
The other two followed his eyesight and nodded with determination lighting their eyes.
They would do whatever it takes to get their brother's sight back.
Three turtle tots slowly peek into the room, the oldest two hesitated as they heard the sound of sniffles, but a seven year old Mikey barged in without hesitation.
“Lee Lee!” He leaped for the pile of blankets and pillows all scrunched together in the corner of the room.
“What the-Mikey! I told you to stop doing that!” A young Leonardo yelled through the sheets as he detangled himself from the ambush. He managed to poke just his head out enough for the brothers to see his maskless red marked face, his eyes were still notably closed but they can still see the tear tracks. “What was that for?”
“We have a surprise for you!” The turtle exclaimed as he push forward and ripped out the blankets.
“What surprise? It better not be another one of those slime balls, the last one exploded all over me. It took Dad forever to get it out of my shell,” he shivered at the memory. Leo then turned his head towards the other two auras, “It's not slime is it?”
“No, pops already hid that from him,” Raph reassured him as both he and Donnie came closer.
“Okayy, so what's the surprise?”
“I go first!” Mikey eagerly shoved an item into the turtle's hand. “Here you go! I made a bracelet for you!”
“Another one? Cool,” Leo smiled as he felt it, but paused when his fingers grazed over bumps and small metallic objects. “What is that?”
“A charm bracelet! Since you can’t see, I made you a bunch of charms for each of us using Don Don 3D printer!” The orange bandana turtle exclaimed as he grabbed his elder brother's hand and began to explain which charm was whose with each touch.
“This is amazing,” the red eared turtle smiled as his fingers grazed over a key charm. “Hey Dee look, I have the key to your heart.”
“Ha Ha, very funny,” he rolled his eyes before stepping forward. “I do believe it’s my turn, here take this,” he nudged a cane into his hands.
“Your surprise is a stick?” He questioned the long metal object.
“It’s not a stick!” He stomped his feet before composing himself. “It’s a cane, I made it myself so that you can use it to gauge your surroundings.”
“That’s co-”
“I also added a hidden knife inside in case you need to stab someone and you can turn it into a taser if you need to electrocute someone,” he added.
“Now that’s awesome!” He oooed at his new weapon as he swung it around.
“Donnie! No dangerous weapons!” Raph aguishly said as his eyes widened at his brother finding the hidden knife in his cane.
“What? You thought I was giving him an ordinary cane? No invention of mine will ever be ordinary,” the mini genius crossed his arms with no regret. Besides, judging by his twin's elated smile he could tell his gift was most satisfactory.
The oldest brother could only grumble before he too held out his hand. “My turn, I know you don’t like your mask, so I made you a new one!”
“Hm?” Leo paused marveling at his weapon at his brother's words. He despised his mask because it was just a fabric only, what use would cut out eye sockets be for him? “How did you change it?”
“Let me show you!” Raph gently took his younger brother's hand and got him to touch the texturized craft on the fabric. “Do you know what it is?”
“A triangle-no wait this has too many points? Is it a star?” He said after he finished tracing over it.
“Yeah it is! I got a lot and sewn it all over the front of your mask,” he proudly said. “Do you like it?”
“Well yeah, but why stars?” Leo couldn’t help but ask.
“Cause you are a star. Even when it’s dark and scary, you always know how to cheer us up-or was it brighten our night? Wait-how did that quote go,” the red masked turtle muttered to himself as he tried to think back on the words he had planned, but was completely failing.
“It was he shines bright even when everything is dark,” Donnie helped.
“I thought it was he twinkles like a diamond in the sky?” Mikey piped up from his spot on Leo's side.
“Now you're getting confused with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.”
“Either way!” Raph raised his voice before lowering it. “I wanted to make it special, make it more you.”
Leo thumbed the mask as he felt the cane rest at his side and the bracelet clink on his wrist and the only response he had was.
“Why?”
“We heard you and Papa,” Donnie quietly said when his other two brothers didn’t answer.
“Oh…you did,” Leo hunched in on himself, he didn’t know he was that loud.
“Mmhmm and we just want to let you know that you are still our brother no matter what,” the purple band turtle continued.
“Yeah! Your Lee Lee and nothing can change that! No matter what stupid people will say!” Mikey loudly stated. “You're our brother!”
“And even if you can’t see us, you can know we’re always with you,” Raph stepped forward with a smile. “That’s why we made it, to remind you we have your back.”
It took Leo a moment to let that all sink in and when he did, he opened his eyes and there they saw the familiar scarred milky whites overlapping a current of blue eyes that was hiding behind it. But even with that, the three brothers could all see the softening of his eyes as he threw himself into their arms for a hug.
“You guys are the best.”
It was a little while later, Splinter holding a plate of cookies, when he peeks in and smiled as he see all of his sons listening rapidly to Leo's made-up story about a dragon prince as he uses a cane to stab the invisible foe as the bracelet jingles on his wrist, but on his face, he had his proudly worn blue star mask with a large grin.
He quietly stands there and thinks
‘This was worth fighting for…it’s gonna be alright.’