Stealthy Stories

[Askre]

Now we'll continue with Chaos in the Underworld. Chapter 17 marks the beginning of part 2 of the story. Part 1 can be found here:

http://www.5wwwww5.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11399&mforum=stealthystories

As usual NT-Mikey is referred to as simply Mikey, OT-Mike, is M-Michelangelo, Movie-Mike alternates between Big-Mike or Big-Michelangelo.

If you recall from part 1, the Leonardo Group and the varjan group that includes Movie Donatello had confirmed that neither Kabe or Akre were responsible for the mess in the underworld. The Raphael group had barely arrived on Taron when they ended up catching the guys who gunned down Deputy Magistrate Michelangelo and General Deputy Clarence.

The remaining Donatellos, Carl and Rogue had just managed to infiltrate Oro's operation, pretending to want to work on security details for him and Jalkeo the mysterious Jareta warrior has been sent off to visit N-Don's family.

But now we'll see how all the Michelangelos are doing, and I do mean all. Well except Mad Mike.

Disclaimer and Legal stuff:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles®, including Raphael®, Michelangelo®, Leonardo®, Donatello®, April O'Neil®, and Splinter® are registered trademarks of Viacom International Inc. Based on characters and comic books created by Peter A. Laird and Kevin B. Eastman.

I do not own them in other words.

This story is written purely as a homage to the Teenage Mutant Turtles and not meant for any commercial profit or infringement on copyright. This story will immediately be removed if Viacom International wishes so.

All other characters, not already belonging to Viacom International, are © Hermann Gunnar Sigurðsson (Askre).

AU turtles in all their varety are based off the TMNT.

All species including, Ulfarians, Varjans, Hundarians, Arakkans, Taronians in all their varieties, Rytonas in all their varieties, are © Hermann Gunnar Sigurðsson (Askre).

The story, is copyright © 2008/2009 by Hermann Gunnar Sigurðsson (Askre).


Warning: This story will contain violence and torture. Implied and perhaps mildly described adult situations.
If you don't like to see characters suffer this is not a story for you. If you are of a sensitive mind, then you have been warned. Story is rated R

This story is canon to the Assassin series.

This story is part of the Main story line of the Assassin series and is the 5th official long installment.


To fully understand this story, being familiar with the Assassin series is advisable.

Sum: Trouble is stirring in the Interdimensional Criminal Underground and this time it's not the assassin's fault. The so called Five Lords of the Underground are on verge of war. Will the TMNT manage to stop it before innocent people get caught in the crossfire?


Chapter 17.

???

Where the hell am I? Deputy Magistrate Michelangelo blinked. He was standing on top of a cliff overseeing turbulent body of water; it was so vast that the turtle was sure it was the sea. The sky was dark and cloudy, yet some light seemed to break through from somewhere giving everything a bit eerie atmosphere.

He looked around but couldn’t see much else, the top of the cliff was grassy and it moved in the breeze. But the reptile couldn’t tell if it was cold or warm, in fact Mike could hardly detect the wind at all.

“What is this place?” the deputy magistrate grunted, frowning when hearing how whispery his voice sounded.

“This is the ending,” a calm voice addressed him. The turtle spun around only to see another of his kind, basic green and completely naked. The stranger was smiling warmly.

Again Michelangelo blinked, there was something oddly familiar about this reptile. Another turtle peeked from behind the unknown one. This one looked much younger, maybe twelve years old or so and was bluish green in color, similar to Mike’s.

“Uh… Leo?” the deputy magistrate wasn’t sure, but the turtle definitely bore a resemblance to his brother, just had two eyes and looked thinner.

“Once I was called Leonardo yes,” the stranger smiled wider. “But I am not the one you think I am.”

“Fair enough,” Mike shook his head realizing that this was naturally a counterpart. “So what’s this ‘ending’ stuff you mentioned?”

“This,” the turtle gestured around with a shrug.

“Right mister cryptic, I want some more detailed answers. The last time I remember I was dragging my friend away… holy shit… Clarence!” the Michelangelo froze when remembering the human and started to look around for signs of him.

“I’m afraid he’s passed on beyond the ending,” Leonardo told him sadly.

“Excuse me?” Mike glanced at the other reptile. Suddenly an image appeared up in the sky, it was of himself on a hospital bed. “What is this?”

“This is where you are. Your body is very hurt,” Leo told him.

“But… wait… am I dead?” Mike blinked the third time. He felt a small tinge of relief when seeing the other turtle shake his head. The younger one was now seated close to this strange counterpart.

“You have not crossed yet, thus there is still a chance. That’s why you are here, to wait,” Leonardo explained.

“And you?” Mike frowned and wondered if this guy was in a similar situation and him somewhere.

“My body is dead. But I do not wish to cross until I reunite with my brothers. All my brothers. But I can wait, I’ve been waiting for so long, little longer won’t change much,” Leo now smiled solemnly.

“Oh… guess that’s your brother there huh?” Mike scratched his head glancing at the youngest reptile, who stared back at him expressionless.

“Yes. He came first and he too didn’t want to cross until the rest of us came. He wants to tell his brother something,” Leonardo looked down at his brother, gently placing a hand on his scalp.

The deputy magistrate just nodded and glanced back at the sky, the image of him was gone. Now first did he look at the cliff and saw it was pretty easy to go down it, there was a simple path nearby.

“Where does the path lead to?” he asked.

“Somewhere, I’m not sure,” Leonardo shrugged, he and his brother were now sitting on the edge of the cliff.

“Alright so I’m in coma somewhere, this is sort of a weird waiting room of the afterlife. Any way that I can get myself out of coma? I don’t plan on dying anytime soon,” Mike once more eyed towards the sea.

“I don’t know,” still it was only Leo who spoke. “Some who have come here jump into the sea and swim away. Others take the path. I have so far done neither.”

“Oh great, two paths system,” Mike grunted and sat down on the edge of the cliff. “If this is anything like TV tells you, one path leads to the really great unknown and the other brings me back.”

“You really want to go back don’t you?” Leonardo looked at him smiling still.

“Yes. My brothers need all the help they can get… I just can’t leave them like this,” Michelangelo sighed and stared down, the sea looked really unfriendly.

“I know how you feel,” his brother’s counterpart said.

“I doubt it,” Mike retorted. “Unless you have a brother that went mad on you. Changed your life forever.”

“I did,” Leonardo answered simply, prompting the deputy magistrate to look at him surprised.

“Don was hurtin’…” finally the little turtle spoke. He shyly looked at Mike. “Don was hurtin’ a lot. He didn’t mean to hurt me… he just was forced to… he was sick. They made him hurt me. Hurt us.”

“Don went mad on you?” Mike’s jaw dropped slightly, even further when both turtles in front of him nodded.

“I wish I could have seen it sooner. The signs were all there. But I was… too late…” Leonardo looked very sad now. “Even though he was my brother, he always felt like a son to me.”

“Your… brother wouldn’t have been hailed as… uh say Donatello, Emperor of Turtotopia?” it was slowly dawning on Michelangelo who those two where, having heard the stories plenty of time from his brothers’ counterparts. Leo looked at him, smiled and nodded.


Ru’u.

“All right boys, this is the closest we can get without being spotted,” Hyum explained to the three Michelangelos as the craft stopped on a side road. All of them could smell saltwater.

“So we just swim across and try to hear something unusual right?” Mikey inquired as he and his counterparts filed out.

“Yeah, don’t worry about understanding anything. Everything you hear will be broadcasted back to Simba and Honda. They will give you a signal if any particular conversation is of any interest,” the Hundarian told them. He would be waiting for the turtles on this spot.

All the turtles nodded and started to check the gear they wore. It had been waterproofed and made ready for the long swim they would undertake. Once having made sure everything was in order the three orange-masked ninjas disappeared through the thick woods. Following the smell of the sea, they soon walked out of the jungle and onto a beach. The water looked fairly calm and the familiar sound of seabirds echoed around. Across the sea more land could be faintly spotted. It was Fulmer’s peninsula.

“Alright dudes, let’s do it,” M-wearing Michelangelo said and ran across the beach. His counterparts followed immediately.

“Last one in is a penicillin pizza!” Big-Michelangelo chuckled and managed to catch up and get the lead.

“Whoo hoo!” Mikey jumped and dove skillfully into the water. They had all reached it pretty much on the same time.

The water was warm and fairly clear. The trio had no trouble seeing where they were going. They could also easily spot the various life forms that inhabitant the seas of planet Ru’u. Much of it so far were fishlike creatures that scattered the moment the turtles came too close. One really big reptile looking thing with flippers did come close to Big-Mike but just continued swimming past, ignoring them.

Whoa, Mikey nearly stopped when seeing something large move at the bottom. Then suddenly a huge creature moved off and swam away. It had a flat shell not unlike that of a sea turtle, but there had been no visible head and it seemed to have had six flippers.

The turtles were though very glad that so far everyone ignored them. Knowing all too well that Earth’s seas could contain fair sized predators, there was no knowing what these waters could contain. None of them really wanted to find out.

But after swimming for a while the water started to become shallower. The ninjas realized that they were approaching land and considering how clear the sea was, the turtles had better hurry to get to the woods and out of sight. Once reaching the part where swimming was no longer possible, the three reptiles rose up and hurried quickly towards land.

“Okay guys, you remember what we saw on the map. This place is huge so we better split up to try and cover more area,” Mikey said once they were within the jungle. To be on the safe side, all three of them had climbed a huge tree and hid among the leaves.

“Yo, team on the other side, you read us?” Big-Mike tested quietly the communication device strapped close to his mouth. A small device on his belt blinked a faint red light. The signal that Simba and Honda did in fact read him.

“Wouldn’t it be safer to stick together?” M-Michelangelo wondered.

“Yeah but we don’t have all day at this dude, it’s a large land and we don’t even know where the head building is,” Mikey told his friend.

“Alright here is the map,” their bigger counterpart pulled out a small waterproof map. On it was a very rough layout of the peninsula.

“Like Simba said there are three big structures which nobody outside Fulmer’s influence knows what are. But it’s a given that one of them is the place with the juiciest info,” Big-Michelangelo pointed at three spots on the map, the other ninjas nodded.

They all fell silent when hearing something from the ground. Carefully they peeked and flinched when seeing two heavily armed Ulfarians walk casually into sight. Following them were two creatures on four legs, roughly the size of a Golden Retriever. These were some sort of reptiles, lizards most likely but didn’t have a forked tongue.

Oh crap must be those rammtams they told us about, Mikey realized they were stuck for now and could only hope the guards wouldn’t notice them.

“<Nothing here, eh I’m sure the guys only spotted some shelled rikas getting a breather,>” one of the Ulfarians spoke. They were both similarly tall and both wearing dark reddish shorts and shouldered rifles, communicators were on their belts.

“<Yeah, I mean it’s far too long swim across the bay, even for a marathon swimmer. Plus there is a risk of kroas, I’ve seen some of them feasting out there on the water,” the other wolfoid nodded.

The rammtams looked around and sniffed the air as the guards talked with each other. One poked its snout at the tree the turtles were in and licked the bark. Then much to the ninja’s horror it looked up, it probably couldn’t see them but it smelled them.

“<Something up in the tree?>” the former Ulfarian frowned and looked up. But even for his sharp eyesight he couldn’t make anything unusual out.

“<The rammies aren’t acting strange,>” his partner said and pulled at the leash to get the rammtam away from the tree. Indeed the lizard creatures seemed just unsure about what they smelled.

The three Michelangelos held their breaths. It was though clear that the rammtams were so unfamiliar with turtle scent that it didn’t register as a threat to them. So far they were just simply curious about what it was exactly.

“<Ah probably just some wild sumats lazing about up there, let’s get moving,>” the first guard finally decided with a grunt. He pulled the leash he held to get his rammtam moving.

The guards left but the turtles waited for a bit before saying anything. Simba had warned them that even though Ulfarians were not rymskas or varjans, they still did have a sharp hearing. But after ten minutes of nothing, the ninjas began talking again.

“Right, uh where were we?” Mikey wondered.

“Man they weren’t kidding about tight security. We had barely been here for a minute before these dudes came,” his M-wearing counterpart muttered.

“Too bad we couldn’t understand them,” the biggest ninja scratched his head. “Oh well I’m sure the others did.”

But before they could continue, a rapidly blinking yellow light came from their belts. They all picked up the device giving this signal and saw a message come on the screen:

Do not split up. Stick together. Safer.

“I guess they didn’t like it either how quickly the guards showed up,” M-Michelangelo commented, his counterparts nodded.

“So I guess we’ll just have to be quick then and take one building at a time,” Mikey peeked at the map and wondered if there was anything missing on it.

***

“<Phew I thought the boys were busted when I heard those guards,>” Honda put a hand on her chest and sighed in relief.

“<Indeed, I didn’t think the shore was this guarded,>” Simba nodded with a frown. The two Ru’uian officers were in a small room in the east wing of Ghjar’s summerhouse. They had put up the monitor equipment plus a computer they would use to send signals to the ninjas.

“<And I have never heard of kroas coming this close to land. If I did I would have warned them about those,>” the Ulfarian then commented with a heavy frown.

“<Kroas are harmless, what this guy saw was probably a mating frenzy or something,>” Hyum’s voice sounded from a communicator. He was monitoring the events from his craft.

“<There have been documented attacks Hyum,>” his friend told him.

“<Yeah sure if you are actively messing with them. But you’re more at risk crashing your craft into a tree than getting chomped on by a kroa,” the Hundarian countered.

“<Guys, guys, the boys are moving,>” Honda brought the nature discussion back to the real job. “<They are heading for the southern most building first it seems.>”

“<Right, let’s hope they learn something,>” Simba nodded and now the officers listened attentively.

***

Thanks to the trees, the ninjas could move very quickly across the jungle. Most of them were large with big wide branches. Some had vines hanging down on them, making it even easier to travel between. Soon enough the three ninjas spotted a building through the trees.

It had a big parking lot and there were a lot of crafts and other type of vehicles parked on it. The house it self was several stories high and mostly square shaped. The amount of windows almost hinted at a hotel or an apartment building.

“Wow it’s active down there,” Mikey whispered, there were people walking around but not just Ulfarians or Hundarians. He saw several alien species and couldn’t name most of them.

“Uh is it just me or are those windows barred?” Big-Mike leaned a bit forward and peered at the house. Most of the windows had metal bars in front of them.

“What was it again Fulmer did of those criminal bozos?” M-Michelangelo frowned in thought.

“Ah…” Mikey blinked as the realization hit him. “Um I don’t think that’s the house we are looking for.”

“Why not?” Big-Mike wondered then he got it. “Oh right.”

“What?” the M-wearing turtle still didn’t get it.

“Remember dude, Fulmer is the perverted creep, sells illegal porn and stuff like that,” his bluish-green friend whispered.

“So wait… oooooh,” then smallest of the ninjas got it. “Yeah… I rather not go to that one.”

The turtles made a quick getaway from this particular building. Having no desire to get a confirmation of what they suspected went on in there. But there was no doubt in their mind that those bars on the windows were not to keep people out, but to keep them in.

Their journey took a little bit longer as the ninjas headed for the second building. More guards seemed to appear, forcing them to become still and be extra quiet. All of them always had a rammtam or two in tow. But at least the reptiles could always keep up in the trees and never had to risk ground level.

Mikey was almost sure few hours had passed as they finally spotted a structure. This house wasn’t as big as the last one, but it was still not small. It was about two stories high and did remind the turtles a little bit of Ghjar’s summerhouse though it didn’t look as old. It had a stone fence around it and a small square parking lot.

“You think this is the place?” M-Michelangelo wondered, his counterparts nodded, this definitely looked more likely to be Fulmer’s headquarters.

“Let’s see if we can’t sneak closer,” Mikey whispered. They began moving to the trees that were the closest to the building. But it didn’t seem likely that the ninjas could get too close, it was daylight and the house was surrounded by guards.

“Why didn’t we wait until night?” Big-Mike muttered.

“Simba said it wouldn’t matter. Ulfarians have night vision, we could just as well sneak about in the daylight,” his non-letter wearing counterpart told him.

A movement in front of the house caught their attention. Two Ulfarians were exiting the building and with them was a Hundarian. The turtles froze, knowing too well that the telepathic abilities of the dog-like humanoid could easily detect them, no matter what light there was. They hadn’t been worried earlier because then there had been a whole lot of people around. But the dogoids couldn’t detect their wolfoid cousins, so this time he wouldn’t be expecting his telepathic senses to pick up anything.

Ooooh sheeelll, Mikey flinched when the three Ru’uians started to walk across the parking lot in the direction of the trees they were hiding in.

“<I’m not satisfied with the security at the shore that oversees the bay. The people at the security station were sure those were no rikas that landed there,>” the Hundarian was speaking. He had a very sharp no-nonsense voice, the dogoid looked to be about the same size and Hyum.

“<We’ll get on it,>” one of the Ulfarians complied nodding.

“<See to it. Even though Fulmer is not here at the moment, doesn’t mean we can slack off in the security, it’s even more vital now to keep it tight. This meeting he’s heading to with Oro Yujio could be vitally important for our operation,>” the Hundarian snapped. They all three kept walking, not even glancing at the trees the turtles were in.

“<Yes Harym,>” the other wolfoid said.

“<And another thing, have someone contact the temple. Ask Master Kayr if he can spare personnel to start scouring the peninsula. His people have those you know, whatever it’s called, Jareta abilities. If spies have actually landed here, I want them dead!>” the Hundarian grunted as they passed the very tree the turtles were in.

The doggish alien had barely let go of those words when the devices on the turtles belts started giving off the rapid signal. The ninjas pulled them up to look at the screen. They were very surprised to see the message.

PULL BACK IMMEDIATELY! THEY SUSPECT SPIES! GET OUT! GET OUT!

“Shell!” Mikey cringed and belted the device. “Okay dudes, let’s book!”

***

“<Whoa calm the Dreyras around here, you’re telling me there is a Jareta temple on Fulmer’s land?>” Hyum shouted through the communicator, he sounded quite confused.

“<Remember what Jalkeo told us. Long time ago he had discovered the existence of a secret cult that used the Jareta name and even had a temple somewhere on Gizara, he’s been looking for it himself wanting to eradicate it. He resumed his search once brought to our time after hearing rumors it still existed,>” Simba said and grit his teeth. He was regretting having sent the ninjas over there. The Ulfarian was sure they could handle themselves against regular guards, but if there were really Jareta Warriors there with no qualms to kill, that was a different matter.

“<Of course… it makes sense they would be there. Gizara isn’t that big and the only place nobody can access is Fulmer’s land,>” Honda palmed her face.

“<Either Fulmer himself is a member or just allows it to operate on his land, probably adds to the security there,>” Simba growled and hammed his fist on the table. “Kergja! <I should never have agreed to let the kids go there.>”

“<Calm down buddy. You heard their stories; they’ve been through tough situations before. I’m sure they’ll make it,>” Hyum spoke again.

“<I pray to the spirits that you are right Hyum,>” the Ulfarian muttered, hating that right now all he could do was wait. Honda reached to pat him reassuringly on the shoulder.

***

The turtles were getting the idea that Fulmer’s people suspected spies. Even more guards were starting to appear with shorter intervals than before. The ninjas were starting to find it a little hard to move completely silently and expected those rifles to be used soon.

But the trio hadn’t realized just how far inland they had come. Thus their journey back to the beach was bit on the lengthy side, especially now that they had to travel around much more carefully. The Michelangelos also spotted the occasional building through the trees, and suspected those housed more guards or were watch posts of some sort.

After a while Mikey stopped on one tree branch and frowned. He could have sworn he saw something move up in the trees with them. But so far all the turtle saw were his two counterparts that came to a halt when seeing him not moving. A sound to his right caused the bluish-green one to quickly turn. He noticed that Big-Michelangelo had also spotted it.

Are we being watched? he thought but wasn’t sure. It was a little bit different to get a got detection of presence in this environment. It was a jungle after all and probably teaming with life.

The ninja got his answer a bit abruptly. Something flew through the air and landed on the branch M-Michelangelo was on. The letter-wearing turtle lost his balance when it shook and fell off. He just barely managed to grab a hold on it, then he noticed the suriken like weapon embedded into the wood.

But it wasn’t over, something else came jumping from the canopies and landed hard on Big-Michelangelo’s branch. There was a loud crack as it broke sending both the turtle and the figure down to the ground.

Mikey and M-Michelangelo blinked having hardly registered the speed of the attacker. Now their counterpart lay disoriented on the ground and the attacker was flipping back to his legs. It was a tall Ulfarian, but unlike the guards he wasn’t only wearing shorts. In fact his clothing was black and near identical to Jalkeo’s. Just this one didn’t carry knives but two swords on his back.

“Not cool…” the M-wearing turtle then noticed his branch was giving in. But instead of waiting for it to break, he jumped down hoping to aim a kick at their attacker.

Yikes! Mikey blinked as his friend tried to strike at the Ulfarian. But the alien saw him and ducked really fast out of the way.

“Here I come!” the bluish-green ninja saw there was no point in remaining hidden now. He pulled out his nunchakus and leaped down. The Ru’uian quickly did a somersault so all of the turtles faced him.

“This guy is quick! You know his clothes remind me of someone,” M-Michelangelo commented.

“Yeah? Who?” Big-Mike started to rise up rubbing his sore head.

“Well if we change the breastplate to a shirt and the boots with sandals…” Mikey froze when realizing how closely the clothes resembled the garb of the assassin. It didn’t help the mental image when the Ru’uian sneered and took a battle position, very similar to the one the black-clad turtle usually took.

“Oh well we are three to one,” Mikey frowned and positioned himself beside the other two ninjas. Now they all had nunchakus in hand.

But two more Ulfarians in similar clothes appeared. One had a weapon that was similar to the nunchaku, just with longer chain. The other had a pair of short knives. The new arrivals plus the first Ru’uian formed a triangle to surround the three turtles.

“Oooh they evened the odds a bit,” Big-Mike chuckled and started to swing his weapons.

The Ulfarians charged and a brief battle ensued on the ground. Mikey battled the first one, the M-wearing turtle faced the nunchaku wielding alien and Big-Mike was taking on the knife guy.

“Eh Mikey, any of those moves looking familiar?” M-Michelangelo managed to shout to his friend as he ducked a strike.

“Now that you mentioned it,” Mikey nodded and blocked a sword blow with his weapon. Then he tried to punch but the Ulfarian was quick to dodge it. “They do!”

“These guys are good,” Big-Mike grunted as his opponent managed to land a strike on his plastron. But the turtle wasn’t down yet and tried to hit with swift punch. The wolfoid jumped back to avoid it.

“Let’s try to get out of here, we got to get back to the beach,” the bluish-green turtle called as he ducked a hard sword blow. “At first opportunity, make for the trees.”

All three of them managed to jump away from their opponents for a quick breather, but all attempts of trying to escape there thrown out of the window. Suddenly all around them in the trees appeared even more of those black clad Ulfarians.

You have got to be kidding me! Mikey blinked. It had been hard enough to face the first three who were still standing upright; now thirty of those aliens surrounded them.

They quickly turned around when hearing someone approach with a low deep growl. Into the circle three large Ulfarians broke through. They were all well over seven feet tall, clad in black shorts and had black sleeveless shirts. These ones wore sandals instead of boots and their weapons were strange looking whips made out of metal chains.

“Um…” Big-Mike blinked and so did his counterparts.

“Someone remind me why we agreed to do this,” Mikey gulped.

End chapter 17.

I realized that this chapter isn't exactly brimming with the humor, considering that all three TMNT Michelangelo's were together alone for nearly a whole chapter. But considering the situation and that all three of them have become a bit savy on the various aliens and other cultures, I figured that all three of them realized that goofing off was not the best thing to do.

Rika: It was a particularly big rika that Mikey spotted moving off, the creature with the shell and six flippers

Kroa: Movie Mike spotted this one, the big reptile like creature with four flippers.

Calm the Dreyras around here: Same as if we would say "hold your horses" or "hold the phone"

Kergja: Similar to our damn.

I also realize that all my disclaimers are now a bit incorrect. But I need to wait until I see the Nickelodeon version before I can change it.
_________________
Confusing the heck out of the world since 1983.

~

"He never gives up!" - Storm Shadow about Snake Eyes.

[Askre]

Holy crap, chapter 18 already? Yeah well what I can I say, I was inspired and I guess in small parts some guilt played into it as well

Also nobody has to fear reviewing in this topic, any changes I have planned for my forum space won't be implemented for at least several months.

Chapter 18.

Assassin’s world.

“Alma?” General Magistrate Raphael raised an eye-ridge when he and Luna entered the hospital room. Beside his brother’s bed sat the rampa deputy.

“Uh… sir,” the Rytona looked up and rose up. “I was just visiting.”

“I figured that. But weren’t you working with Gary on getting more info about that drug operation Mike and Clarence infiltrated?” her employer inquired.

“I was,” the rampa woman assumed a more stubborn expression, that only Rogue Leonardo could claim to rival. “If you’re wondering where the security guards are… I told them it was all right while I was here. They said they would be back in an half an hour.”

Luna ignored the conversation and approached Michelangelo’s bed. There was still no sign of the deputy magistrate waking up. She sighed and sat down on a chair on the other side of it. Gingerly the petit turtle placed her right hand on one of Mike’s bandaged wrapped one.

“Then you haven’t heard that they caught the bastards who fired the bullets,” Raphael in the meantime was still talking with his deputy. It had turned out the rampa had been here for few hours already.

“Good,” Alma snorted and sat back down.

“And we probably now know who is behind the operation too,” Raphael’s voice got quieter as he looked at the bed where his brother lay. He approached and stood by it where Luna sat, placing one hand on her shoulder.

“Who?” the rampa’s eyes narrowed, she saw now cross-legged and with arms folded.

“Oro Yujio,” the general magistrate told her. He would have also liked to say he was a strong candidate for being responsible for the unrest, but that was a classified discussion.

“Why am I not surprised?” the Rytona growled.

“Ah yes indeed,” a calm and steady voice suddenly addressed them.

Alma blinked and quickly rose up, Raphael spun around and his eyes bulged. Immediately the General Magistrate stepped in front of Luna to shield her. Inside the room having been hidden somewhere, though they couldn’t be sure where was a tall Ulfarian. The wolfoid’s silver-gray shorts and row of canisters on his belt could only identify him as one person. Sinda.

“Where did you come from!” the rampa snarled but didn’t move. The mad criminal was holding knives and even she knew how quick he was to throw them.

“Well my knives aren’t my only trademark,” Sinda chuckled and pressed a button on a device that was on the middle of his belt. Suddenly the Ulfarian seemed to fade away and disappear.

“Oh right… the cloak…” Raphael gulped and realized the Ulfarian could have been waiting there for a long time without any of them knowing about it. But oddly enough Sinda reappeared still standing on the same spot.

“So what the hell do you want?” the general magistrate frowned a little, though he was starting to worry that Sinda had been hired to finish his brother off. The mad criminal was infamous for assassinations.

“That is a good question,” was growled and the door to the room was kicked open. In walked Assassin Leonardo, his katana drawn and pointed at the Ulfarian.

“Now what,” the general magistrate blinked, bit surprised although strangely relived to see him. Of everyone in the room, the black-clad turtle stood best chances against Sinda.

“Hello Leo,” the alien just smiled. Raphael blinked, his brother’s sword hand was shaking and not from anger.

“Raphael! Get Luna and your deputy out of here. He’s not here to kill Mikey or he would have done it already!” the assassin snapped.

“This is Sinda. Even I know he’s not that predictable!” the general magistrate shouted.

“He is when it’s assassination!” Leonardo snarled then groaned and shook his head. “Alright then, you go and get those Arakkan security guards!”

“Alma you go!” Raphael ordered the rampa and scowled when seeing her sneer. “Do not argue! GO!”

Snarling the Rytona darted out of the room. Sinda just watched looking fairly unimpressed. Luna was also pointed to leave the room; she did so hesitantly but did escape out. But all the Ulfarian did was chuckling and shrugged.

“Leo…are you alright?” the general magistrate took another glance at the assassin, his breathing was accelerating.

“Raph… do you ask Pretty Boy that when he sees me?” the black-masked turtle slowly looked at his brother. Raphael was stunned at what he saw and slowly looked at Sinda who just stood there looking bored.

“You…” the general magistrate addressed the criminal. He nodded to the assassin. “I’ve seen that face plenty of times before. But not on him, but on his counterparts he’s been messing with.”

“Oh really? Gee should I be flattered?” Sinda chuckled some more.

“You are responsible for this aren’t you? You are responsible for what happened to Leo aren’t you?!” Raphael’s voice started to rise and real anger started to show on his face.

“In many ways I suppose,” the Ulfarian’s smile changed and was much more sadistic.

Something just snapped in Raphael. He had always suspected in recent years what had happened to the assassin. But hearing it pretty much confirmed just did it. With a roar the general magistrate hadn’t produced for a long time, he charged for the Ulfarian.

“Raphael, NO!” but the assassin was quicker. He barreled right into his brother knocking him up against the wall. The impact rendered the general magistrate unconscious and the turtle sunk to the floor.

For once there was no smirk on Leonardo; he just stood hunched over his brother breathing heavily. His beak twitched when laughter came from the corner Sinda stood in. Slowly the turtle glared towards him.

***

“Ugh… what happened?” the general magistrate slowly came to again but found himself on a hospital bed. Beside it were Luna, Alma and a human doctor.

“We found you knocked out, Sinda and Leonardo were gone,” Luna told him, she was shaking.

“What happened sir?” Alma asked and helped the turtle sit up. Raphael didn’t respond right away, rubbing his soar head he glanced around. They were not in the room Mike was in.

“Mike?” the general magistrate glanced at the doctor.

“He is fine, still in coma though. But he didn’t seem to have been disturbed at all,” the human answered.

“What happened Raphael?” Luna whispered.

“Ah… I’m not sure… it’s really all in a haze,” the turtle frowned in thought. “But… I could have sworn Leo saved me from a terrible mistake.”


Rytonas. Akre’s mountain.

“Was it really necessary to send those two together?” Dqrre snarled.

“Well I figured we should make it authentic if we were caught. Leonardo has shown tendencies to protect his brothers, despite things being sour between them,” Kabe the varjan shrugged.

“I wish you had consulted us first though,” Akre frowned and rose up from his throne. They were all in the Main Cave of the Mountain.

“It may be secret to the world at large what happened between those two, but it is no secret for us,” the crime lord continued. He glanced towards where Assassin Leonardo stood; he was still shaking and breathing heavily.

“Leonardo, go and rest. We do not require your presence here at the moment,” the light-gray rymska addressed the turtle gently. The assassin just slowly nodded and left the cave quickly.

“I agreed that we could use Sinda if you kept him on a short leash!” Akre now glared at the large varjan crime lord.

“I did. I strictly told him, to go there, download information from the deputy magistrate’s mind and if he was caught, the assassin was nearby to play the role as if he had just arrived to visit his injured brother,” the varjan explained.

“He didn’t get caught!” Dqrre glared to where Sinda was cleaning his fingernails with a knife. “He deliberately disengaged his cloak. He could have left without any further incident.”

“Just what we needed, now people will wonder what Sinda was doing there. This is not going to be turning the law enforcement’s attention to Oro!” Akre grunted and sat back down on his throne.

“Hey at least I got the info,” Sinda shrugged, he pulled out a small device from his belt and threw it to Dqrre.

“Get out of here and stay clear of Leonardo and his employees. I need him in clear thinking state!” Akre growled at the Ulfarian. Oddly enough the Ru’uian snapped to attention and rather hurriedly disappeared through a dimensional portal.

“I must apologize, Akre. I should have known Sinda wouldn’t be able to resist playing around,” Kabe sighed.

“Why you keep him employed at all is what I wonder,” the rymska grunted. “Even Rakl knows better than jeopardize delicate missions like these.”

“Too true, but Sinda does have his uses that I need. He can travel much more freely than many of my other employees,” the varjan told him. “So why did you need this information from that reptile?”

“Deputy Magistrate Michelangelo and that General Deputy infiltrated one of Oro’s many very hard to reach operations. I want to see if he contained more information about places he hadn’t managed to rely to his superiors,” Akre fingered the device Sinda had thrown to him.

“And do what with them?” Kabe raised an eyebrow.

“Remember Kabe. We are going to be helping those investigating these unrests,” Akre held up the device and now smiled.


Somewhere on Fulmer’s land on Ru’u.

The Hundarian identified as Harym walked up stone steps that lead to the entrance of a temple. It was slightly similar to the Jareta Karano, just smaller and only with some stone carvings on its walls. No statues were visible. Following him were two Ulfarians wearing dark-red shorts and holding rifles.

The two wolfoids looked a bit nervous. Several of their kinsmen were around, but all black clad, some similar to Assassin Leonardo, others with slight modified versions of the clothes. They did not watch the three arrivals very kindly and seemed almost ready to spring into action at moments notice.

Once they reached the top, they were created by a tall older Ulfarian. This one had silver symbols on his black breastplate and he had a black flowing cape. He wore steel boots and black shorts with golden symbols on them. On his belt he carried two swords, not that unlike samurai swords.

“<Master Kayr,>” Harym addressed the elder, he only did a short nod as a courtesy. There was not that much respect in the Hundarian’s voice.

“<Harym, how is your employer doing?>” the elder asked smiling kindly; his voice was deep and had sharpness in it.

“<He is on his way to a meeting at the moment. But I’m not here to discuss the whereabouts of my boss. I heard you caught the spies,>” Harym growled. Angry murmurs came from many of the Ulfarians around, but Kayr only raised one hand to silence them.

“<We did catch trespassers but whether they are spies remains to be discovered,>” the elder said simply.

“<So you haven’t killed them yet?>” the Hundarian sneered. “<I thought we had a deal here!>”

“<We have and we still hold it. But what we do with our prisoners is our business. Besides if they heard anything of importance they didn’t understand it. They don’t speak our language,>” Kayr explained to him.

“<What about equipment, surely they had something on their person,>” Harym growled.

“<They had nothing of importance,>” the old Ulfarian said simply.

“<I want to see them!>” the Hundarian demanded and prepared to continue into the temple. That caused many of the warriors around to draw their weapons and growl.

“<Harym, while I do have a deal with your employer and I do my best to help him secure his land, we do not allow those who are not members of our order or similar ones entry into the sacred temple,>” now first did Kayr drop his smile and scowled. “<You will do well to remember that, for I will not stop my warriors from skewering you apart if you don’t.>”

Harym looked around and saw that most of the Ulfarians had now weapons in hands. His guards were nervously aiming their rifles, but they could never handle the entire horde. The Hundarian glared at the elder but said nothing; he turned and began walking down the steps followed by his men.

Master Kayr chuckled and raised his hand again; the warriors all sheathed their weapons. The elder then walked inside, followed by two of his kinsmen clad in similar outfits and Jalkeo did. The three Ulfarians went through a hallway that led to spacious room that contained more Jareta warriors standing guard. On three chairs in the middle sat the three Michelangelos, untied.

“You three are skilled. My warriors say you put up quite a fight before they managed to overpower you,” Kayr addressed the three turtles.

“Uh thanks… I guess,” Mikey responded.

The three turtles had simply been outnumbered. In addition to the three large Ulfarians, there were the smaller sized warriors too. The ninjas had desperately tried to break out of the circle, but were faced with too many skilled opponents. After fighting for a bit all three had been knocked out, only to wake up in the room they now sat in. But all their equipment had been removed, except their masks and pads.

“But I would be lying if I said I was surprised. I have known of you… hm what would you call yourself, ninja turtles? For a long time now,” the old Ulfarian approached the confused prisoners.

“In fact for quite a while now, I have had the privilege of having one of your kind as my disciple. I believe you know him better as Leonardo, assassin and bounty hunter,” Kayr immediately caught the recognition in two of the turtles.

“Well… uh can’t say I know him personally… but I’ve heard of him,” Big-Michelangelo shoot in.

“Indeed, I must admit he was delivered to me a bit more damaged than I had wanted,” the elder shook his head looking disappointed.

“Um… dare I ask why delivered?” Mikey raised an eye-ridge.

“As I told you, I have known of your kind for a while Michelangelo,” Master Kayr looked at the bluish-green ninja who blinked when hearing his name.

“Ah yes, I know how to tell you all apart. You with the orange cloths are the Michelangelos, and you use the nunchaku as your primary weapon. I believe the blue clad ones are the Leonardos and use the katana. The red ones are Raphaels and use the zai and finally the Donatellos, wear purple and carry the Bo,” the Ulfarian continued smiling now warmly. “Yes there is very little I do not know. We have been watching many of your counterparts for a long time.”

“Huh?” all three ninjas blinked in confusion.

“It started over 20 years ago. Some of my warriors reported about worlds where strange creatures portrayed amazing skills in the martial arts, skills that looked similar to ours. That caught my interest,” Master Kayr began explaining, reaching inside his cape he brought forth a familiar looking dimensional traveler.

“We Ru’uians have been traveling for a long time between worlds, longer than the InterDimensional Alliance has been in existence. And I personally always wanted to see if I could expand my teaching to others. People who would be receptive to our ways,” the old Ulfarian continued.

“We witnessed many worlds that had your kind in it, though some were always a bit different from the other. After hearing my warriors talk about these warrior reptiles for a while, I desired to witness one such event myself. Several years ago I went personally to a world that contained a set of your counterparts. I believe two of you know it now as earth 1984.”

“The… world where the assassin lives…” Mikey’s eyes opened wider.

“We witnessed a fight, a glorious fight. I was impressed by the skills I saw and I desired to see if I could get one of them and teach them myself. But the situations were never right; I knew none of them would be receptive at the present time. So I waited and had my warriors watch,” Kayr kept telling, a frown started to form on the bluish-green turtle.

“Don’t tell me, the time came when… Leonardo was all moody and broody,” the ninja dared asking.

“Precisely. Yes, when he came a bit too relentless after a near death of him and his entire family. But when the time came I wished to summon him, I couldn’t spare any of my warriors. So we did something we seldom do and hired outside help to fetch him for us,” now did the old Ulfarian narrow his eyes. “That naturally turned out to be nearly a mistake.”

“Sinda had left Ru’u for reasons of his own. But we tracked him down and approached him to retrieve Leonardo for us. He did abduct him as we wished, but became greedy and used him as a bargaining chip to have us pay him more than we originally did,” Kayr shook his head again. “I was pressed on time and I couldn’t wait much longer. Another chance might never come, so I agreed to pay him. But again Leonardo impressed me with his skills; he escaped Sinda’s hideout and was found by my warriors and brought to this temple to begin his training.”

“So uh… did his training involve going nuts on his brothers and Sensei too?” Mikey retorted.

“You can’t serve two masters Michelangelo. For him to be fully initiated, he had to reject his old Master and leave his past behind,” the old Ulfarian smiled wider.

“Uh okay, let me rephrase that going nuts, he whipped one of his brothers, cut out the tongue of the other and yeah even beat up the third. Not sure if he did anything to his sensei, the guys have never told, but I would say that was a bit extreme for rejection,” the bluish-green ninja snorted.

“And that’s why we had to get him under certain circumstances,” Master Kayr shrugged and gestured to Mikey. “He would probably have had similar ideas as you have now, if we had gotten him sooner.”

The turtle was about to respond when he spotted a figure entering the room. The Ulfarian having apparently sensed the newcomer coming turned around. Two of the ninjas blinked when recognizing the assassin approaching, but with his head hung. The black-clad reptile dropped own to one knee once closer to Kayr.

“Uh so this is that assassin dude?” Big Michelangelo whispered.

“Yeah… that’s him,” the M-wearing turtle confirmed.

“<Master,>” the assassin said speaking Ulfarian, his voice didn’t sound quite right, almost broken.

“<Ah, I see your employment has forced you close to your demons again,>” Master Kayr commented and started to circle the turtle.

“<It wasn’t supposed to happen, Master. He forced my hand. He was playing with me,>” the assassin said, keeping his stare on the ground.

“Ko’hak!” Kayr looked around and shouted. All of the Ulfarian guards disappeared out of the room.

“Before we begin I better let my guests here leave. I was just finishing my talk with them,” the old Ulfarian said switching to English and glanced at the surprised prisoners.

“Your gear will be given back to you on your way out. We will transport you away from Fulmer’s land,” he addressed them.

“Wait… we are just free to go?” Mikey blinked and hesitantly rose up.

“Of course, we have no quarrel with you and your kind. Now please leave, my student here needs his privacy,” Master Kayr told them with a shrug.

Confused and surprised the three Michelangelos started to head for the entrance. All of them took a glance at the assassin who had never left his position. It was strange for two of them to see this particular turtle like that. But as they were passing him, the black-masked reptile glared at the trio, particularly Mikey.

“I swear Mikey. If you tell anyone what you have seen here. I will hunt you down and kill you. Counterpart of my brother or not. All three of you!” Leonardo snarled.

“Um… right,” Mikey gulped and the ninjas quickly evicted themselves from the room.

***

“Simba you’re not going to believe this,” Hyum shouted into his communicator. Walking from the jungle were the three orange-masked ninjas. “The kids are back, safe and sound.”

“Jeez, don’t scare us like that boys,” the Hundarian then jumped out to meet the three turtles. “Wait a minute; you’re coming from the main road not the shore.”

“Uh yeah… we were dropped off by um…” Mikey stopped and looked at his counterparts. The assassin’s threat was still very fresh on their mind.

“Whoa, I can sense something big happened,” Hyum frowned and gestured to the craft. “Hop on in; you don’t have to tell me anything for now. Let’s get back to the summerhouse and catch our breaths after this scare.”

None of the turtles protested and they all jumped into the vehicle. The Hundarian started it and drove back to the main road. He found it a little uncanny how silent the three turtles suddenly where. His telepathic senses could pick up that something had happened. But Hyum didn’t want to pry.

“So, uh how about a little music on the way eh?” he said and turned on the radio, switching to a channel that had a cheery tune going.

Man the boys look like they have seen a ghost, the officer frowned in worry.

***

Back at the temple Assassin Leonardo and Master Kayr had relocated to another room. This one had a huge statue of a figure that hinted at a varjan or at least a large wolfoid. Two bronze bowls were at its base and had fire burning in it. The turtle was once more kneeling in front of the Ulfarian.

“<What is the source of power?!>” the old Ulfarian snapped. Leonardo took a deep breath before answering.

“<Control!>” he said then, his voice was shaky.

“<And how do we maintain control?!>” Kayr asked still sharply.

“<By… by controlling ourselves and… our surroundings…>” the turtle breathed heavily and now shook; he had to force the words out.

“<How do we control our surroundings?!>” the Ulfarian turned to face the statue staring at it gravely.

“<By… controlling those who wish to control us!>” slowly Leonardo’s voice became steadier.

“<How do we control those who wish to control us?!>” Master Kayr didn’t turn around.

“<By any means necessary,>” Leonardo’s beak twisted into a sneer.

“<Rise my student!>” the Ulfarian growled. Slowly the turtle rose to his feet, his master swiftly turned around and punched hard. It sent the assassin flying towards the door.

Leonardo only lay flat on the back for a split second. He jumped to his feet immediately, but the black-clad reptile didn’t charge. Instead he simply walked slowly back to the Ulfarian and knelt before him.

“<Your demons still rule you Leonardo. You are letting them control you instead of you controlling them,>” Master Kayr snarled.

“<I am sorry Master,>” the assassin answered calmly.

“<You will get them under control, one way or another. But you have begun on the right track. Do the children keep you focused?>” the Ulfarian asked sounding less angry now.

“<They… they do Master. They really do feel as my sons… I really care for them,>” the turtle admitted.

“<Good. I had planned to suggest you adopted a child to your home, but those clones your employee created fit well into things, I am glad you didn’t object to my suggestion to make them your heirs,>” Master Kayr nodded in approval.

“<You… you did?>” Leonardo blinked and looked up. The Ulfarian sneered.

<Don’t forget Leonardo. You are merely a student while I am the Master. You will not escape me, even if you are in another dimension,> the voice of his master echoed through his mind.

“<Of course… forgive my insolence Master,>” the assassin looked down gritting his teeth.

“<Now then, I think you have managed to calm down enough for the present time. Return to your job my student and finish it for now. But once it is over I want you to return here. I think you’ll do well spending a bit of time in the temple,>” Master Kayr instructed him, smiling warmly.

“<Yes Master. As you wish, always,>” Assassin Leonardo rose up and bowed, nothing but respect was in his face. Then the turtle disappeared shortly afterwards through a black portal.

End chapter 18.


Aaaaand now you know!

Took me long enough to reveal that one eh?


Ko’hak: Is a Jareta Warrior order, can roughly be translated as "leave!" It's not really the general Ulfarian word for leave though.

But this chapter I think has definitely answered some questions about the Ultimate Bastards eh?

Jeez we haven't been seeing a lot of A-Leo being the one in charge in this story have we? Don't worry, we'll see him back as his smirky self again sometime

And I will answer a question right away that probably popped up. Is Master Kayr really responsible for Silver and Obsidian being adopted by A-Leo?

Yes he is, as is implied Master Kayr has a really, really strong hold on the assassin. We have just been getting a small sample of it here.

But Master Kayr is not responsible for A-Leo going after counterparts can't blame that power hungry Jareta Master for everything.
_________________
Confusing the heck out of the world since 1983.

~

"He never gives up!" - Storm Shadow about Snake Eyes.

[katt30]

Uh

.....

I...don't know what to say, will get back with a more coherent review later, wow.
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Banner not made by me, but used with permission, no stealing.

Click my mini cities :
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[Askre]

I can now finally reveal some original concepts I had of this particular twisty plot

Though I could have sworn I mentioned it somewhere. But yes I always knew that A-Leo had gone somewhere, where he could learn his deadly alien skills. But I got to admit that a breakaway section of an Ulfarian religious group didn't actually enter my mind until "When the Assassin Strikes" was finished and I started to really plan out "Shattered Shells"

Essentially first I had some rough concepts of an alien reptile group that had taken A-Leo in and well essentially brainwashed him. Then the idea of Shattered shells was that A-Leo was going to bring OT-Leo to that group to initiate him, and the rest of the turtles had to come to his rescue.

But I felt it was a tad early to reveal what really happened to A-Leo, people were still just getting to know him so I scrapped that idea. Plus the alien reptile cult just never came out right for me. When I pictured them in those black clothes, they just looked so silly.

Then I remembered my Jareta warrior Jalkeo and the whole Jareta warrior system. And after going through both Turtotopia and When the assassin strikes, I realized that A-Leo was in many ways portraying the fighting skills of a Jareta warrior. Didn't help that his clothes did match a trainee.

Master Kayr and his breakaway group really just came shortly after that, replacing the alien reptiles quite easily. I've always had an idea for an evil version of the Jareta warriors, and this really just helped me flesh them out a bit. All I really did have to do was putting the Ulfarians over the reptiles, and yes I did originally intend the reptile warriors to have been watching A-Leo and his brothers for a long time

As for Master Kayr, I often do have an "evil counterpart" of some of my characters (that are not just alternative versions of them mind you) and Master Kayr is the evil counterpart of Jalkeo so to speak. No Sinda is not evil version of Jalkeo, he's evil version of Simba
So Master Kayr is essentially Jalkeo if the more honorable warrior didn't value honor, the right conduct and doing the right thing.

But yeah the cat is out of the bag now. Turns out that A-Leo has a Master after all and naturally he's not been open about that, it is a rather secret cult after all
_________________
Confusing the heck out of the world since 1983.

~

"He never gives up!" - Storm Shadow about Snake Eyes.

[Ramica]

Wow Askre, what an intense chapter. Never thought I'd see the day where the Assassin bent the knee to anyone.

Never mind stopping Magistrate Raph from doing what is stupid! Wow, the Assassin has more layers then an onion. Always something new, different.

Way to go! Loved it!
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If there is no chocolate in heaven I don't want to go.

[katt30]

This certainly explains alot in terms of the Assassin, like where he gets his obsession with control, it all makes sense now!

But him working with Sinda had me going. Though I was also shocked that M-Raph would get so pissed off as to charge at Sinda, I mean doesn't he know Sinda could kill him? Atleast A-Leo stopped him.

And of course Sinda couldn't behave, though I did wonder why on earth he was there, and how nobody noticed him.

But anyway, get chapter 19 up soon Askre! I wanna know more!
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Banner not made by me, but used with permission, no stealing.

Click my mini cities :
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[Askre]

[engelina]

this last chapter surely explains a lot.

not much to say that has not been said already this time, so and looking forward to the next chapter.
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[Askre]

I don't think I have to clarify which turtles are which, especially since two of the Leonardos disappear fairly quickly into the room. But just so you know that the three turtles in the hallway are the Movie turtles, it's OT-Michelangelo and NT-Mikey who are in the room with Honda.


Chapter 19.

Ru’u. Ghjar’s summerhouse.

A black portal opened in a hall of the east wing and the three Leonardos stepped through. The Ru’u team had contacted the headquarters and notified that their turtles needed someone to talk with, preferably family. Right after them was Big-Donatello and to greet the four arriving reptiles was Simba.

“Ah, good you are here, come this way,” the Ulfarian officer gestured the turtles to follow him.

“Are they hurt?” Leo asked worried, but Simba gave him a reassuring smile.

“Not much physically at least, only minor bruises, obviously after a battle of some sort. But they have been acting a bit odd since arriving,” he informed them. “Honda has been with them, giving some support through telepathic means. But an outsider can only do so much.”

They arrived at a door and the turtles were surprised to see Big-Mike leaning on the wall beside Hyum. The Hundarian looked mildly concerned, but the turtle was frowning in thought.

“Mike?” Big-Leonardo addressed his brother. “Are you ok?”

“Huh? Oh yeah, yeah,” the orange-masked turtle looked up when seeing his two brothers approach. Hyum and Simba meanwhile ushered the two other Leonardos into the room. The two officers then walked away to let the brothers in the hall in peace.

“Just a little spooked. I’m more worried about my two new buds,” Michelangelo glanced at the door. “They’ve just completely zoned out.”

“What happened, Mikey?” Donatello put a hand on his brother’s shoulder. But the orange-masked ninja was eyeing their sword wielding sibling.

“Dude, you were right. That counterpart of yours is one freaky dude,” he said and managed to produce a half hearted grin.

“What counterpart?” Big-Leonardo’s brow sunk heavily. “You mean the assassin? You met him?”

“Chill bro, nothing serious happened really,” Big-Mike reached to pat his brother on the shoulder. Then in a very low voice he proceeded to tell them what had occurred in brief.

“No wonder the other Mikey’s ‘zoned out’ as Mike put it. They’ve been dealing with that guy before, several times. For them that threat must just have been a terrible reminder of what he has done to them and their brothers,” Donatello said once the story was done.

“Yes, for them the threat is very real. You Mike on the other hand, for you that was just a random stranger making a threat you have heard before and means nothing,” Leonardo nodded.

“Yeah I guess. It was spooky sure but I didn’t really think much about it until I saw how the others looked like,” Mike glanced at the door. “Hope they are all right.”

***

Honda had been on her way out but the Leonardos asked her to stay. So far their orange masked brothers said nothing, so she had to tell them anyway what had happened. The woman had gotten her information from Big-Mike who had in the end told the officers. Since then the Hundarian had tried by telepathic means to calm down his smaller counterparts.

“Wait what?” Leo’s eye-ridge rose when Honda had finished. His L-wearing friend blinked.

“He was kneeling for someone…” L-Leonardo hardly could believe this.

“Right, we’ll worry about that later,” the basic-green turtle shook his head and turned to where his brother sat on a couch.

“Yeah… of course,” the letter-wearing ninja sat down beside M-Michelangelo.

“I’ve been mostly a calming presence in their minds. I didn’t want to go further, least I risked intruding. Since they aren’t natural telepaths I might have accidentally brought up unpleasant memories,” Honda explained to them. The two blue-wearing turtles nodded their thanks.

“Mikey,” Leo said gently and put an arm around his brother’s shoulders. “It’s all right. We won’t let him harm you or the others.”

“Michelangelo, you are safe. It’s okay, he will have to walk through us before he could touch any of you,” L-Leonardo in turn was comforting his own brother, wrapping his arms around him in a comforting hug.

A bluish-green hand reached and grabbed Leo’s free one. It squeezed tightly but the blue-masked turtle didn’t mind, his brother was being responsive. Mikey didn’t speak up just yet, he was still staring forward and his eyes were distant. Honda quietly rose up and left the room now, she could feel that the orange-masked ones wanted to be alone with their brothers.

“I… I couldn’t stop thinking…” Mikey suddenly whispered but didn’t look at Leo. “Back when the assassin creep-o ambushed you and me... you know, when he darted you… but took me… because I… told him to.”

“Although I was not very happy about it, it was a very brave thing you did Mikey,” Leo told him and smiled. “We were all very worried about you. But you really stuck through then. Heck you even faced the Demolisher later, at gunpoint.”

“But Leo…” Mikey looked at his brother, the basic-green ninja was shocked to the fright in his eyes.

“That… really was nothing compared to when we saw him now earlier… his look… the voice…” the orange-masked one gulped.

“I thought he was going to kill us right there…” M-Michelangelo finally spoke up, his voice was very quiet. “We wouldn’t have stood a chance… he would have had plenty of others to back him…”

“Shhh, just don’t think about it,” L-Leonardo said, gently patting him on the back. “It was an empty threat I’m sure. He was just scaring you.”

“Leonardo is right. Somehow I don’t think the assassin will drop out of his routine just like that, just because you found out where he has been… training,” Leo’s brow sunk a bit. He had to admit having always wondered where his evil counterpart had acquired his skills, but now he knew.

Later… right now we have another job to finish, the basic-green turtle thought, feeling suddenly an urge to learn more about this.

“Don’t forget that he’s always used mind-games on people, even his own brothers. He knows you will have too much support to ever be able to carry out his threat,” he then said.

The turtles looked up when there was a soft knock. Leo glanced at his counterpart who shrugged, so they invited whoever it was to enter. The door opened and Simba looked in.

“I apologize for the interruption. But I have been in further contact with our superiors advising them of the situation. The Magistrate, being responsible for you and your brothers, has ordered that the two of the Michelangelos take a short break while recovering, a day or so,” the Ulfarian explained and indicated to the two orange masked turtles.

“Understood Simba, but we were going to divide the teams anyway, because the Akre team and the Kabe team already have finished their work. Since my counterparts and I plus Donatello are already here, we could assist you with Fulmer,” Leo told him.

“Of course, we will be having a small talk in half an hour, but you can easily be exempted if the Michelangelos do not want to be alone,” Simba told him. The two Leonardos hesitated before nodding.


Rytonas. Akre’s mountain.

“You said this was what?” ex-Emperor Donatello blinked, holding a flat device between his fingers. He was in the laboratory cave where the turtle had been working for Akre; the underworld lord himself was now present as well as Dqrre.

“A varjan mind downloader. It can download selected memories from people by simply placing it on their heads,” Akre explained to him.

“You just put it on people’s head?” the olive-green reptile blinked and turned the device around. “No needle? Simple as that?”

“Simple as that,” the light-gray rymska nodded with a chuckle. “Unfortunately Kabe’s people are too busy to extract the information it contains and we need. That is why I’m placing that responsibility on you.”

“So uh… what information is that?” the turtle looked up at the two Rytonas. Akre sighed and shook his head.

“Your employer’s brother, Deputy Magistrate Michelangelo, infiltrated one of Oro’s many operations on earth 1984. Judging by how Oro has then been trying to ensure he dies, I suspect that his brain contains some more information than just on that one place. Information we can use to help point the signs towards Oro,” the underworld lord started.

“I asked Kabe to handle the information gathering part, stressing that no harm come to the deputy magistrate. Unfortunately he sent Sinda to do the job. For a while the Ulfarian did well, he got into the room cloaked and downloaded the selected memories from the turtle.”

“I see,” Donatello nodded and glanced back at the device. Then he frowned, that name had been very familiar. “Sinda, I’ve heard that name before.”

“Ulfarian criminal, but you need not worry about him. He does not have a too free access to the Mountain. Needless to say I would prefer not using him again, he did nearly blow this mission,” Akre’s eyes narrowed.

“Yeah, couldn’t resist playing around as usual,” Dqrre growled.

“Doesn’t sound like someone to send on such delicate mission,” Donatello turned to face the computer he was sitting at. He noticed that there was a slot on it that the device could fit into.

“Yes, I would have myself preferred to just send Leonardo,” Akre nodded and walked closer when seeing that the former overlord had started working. “And now they will wonder what Sinda was doing there. Hopefully his unpredictable reputation is good enough excuse for them.”

“So how can this thing select memories? How does it even know what to download?” Donatello asked and inserted the device into the slot.

“Kabe’s people preprogrammed the device. I fear that I do not understand enough about it to really know. Varjans usually do not share their technology that much,” the underworld-lord told him.

“Well this might take a bit, I’ve never done this before,” the former overlord warned and began typing on the keyboard.

“I can wait for now. Dqrre,” Akre glanced at his brother. “Find Leonardo and ask him if he feels like going on a scouting mission for us. I think it would do him good to work alone somewhere for a while. Make sure that Kabe has Sinda busy in another world.”

“Leonardo left the mountain; he said he needed to go somewhere. But he did promise to be back as soon as possible,” the dark-gray rymska grunted.

“Oh yes, I recall Raphael approaching me about that,” Akre rubbed his muzzle thoughtfully, but then shrugged. “Check if Leonardo has returned then, if he hasn’t I’ll just have to send someone else.”

“Right, I take it you want that meeting you were warned about scouted,” Dqrre waited for a response and when his brother nodded, the older Rytona walked out.

“Keep me informed Donatello, I will be in my cave,” Akre then addressed the working turtle, before the rymska left he also nodded to an umska who was working on a machine. This was the assistant Donatello had asked for.


Klarak City.

The door to the house was smashed off its hinges; it flew several feet before crashing on the wall of another building. Out walked Cyborg Raphael, Akkar and the Jumper. None of them looked too happy.

“Empty too, we’ve been to several of Klear’s buildings and they are all empty, not even guards,” Raphael snorted.

“He is falling back,” Akkar frowned and glanced around. “He is trying to minimize contact with other underworld businesses. He must be trying to avoid possibilities of conflict.”

“So you telling me that he’s neutral?” the bigger cyborg frowned.

“That is quiet possible,” the Arakkan nodded.

“Say, tell me one thing, about two years ago or so I witnessed an operation where hundreds of robots were stolen away. My magistrate counterpart said they would most likely be sold as the cheapest labor available, hurting any slave labor business. Has it had any significant impact on Klear?” Cyborg Raphael frowned as he thought back to the when he and the other turtles had infiltrated the Technodrome.

“Yes we did notice a decrease in Klear’s activities for almost a year, they have been slowly increasing again but even so they are only a shadow of what they used to be,” Akkar nodded. “Why do you ask?”

“Well most of the buildings we have been checking don’t look like they have been used for a long time, except this one,” Raphael pointed back at the house they had left.

“Yes… I noticed that too,” the Arakkan looked at the Jumper who had been very silent. “Lereth?”

“We are being watched,” Jumper Leonardo whispered. Cyborg Raphael blinked before beginning to actively scanning around, but there were so many people in other nearby buildings or streets, he couldn’t pinpoint one who could be watching them.

“Odd, I did not sense anythi…” Akkar frowned and glared up. “Of course.”

“What? Up there?” Raphael glanced at the dark, almost purplish sky. “I would have to establish a satellite link to scan that far.”

“Not me,” the smaller cyborg stated. “Small scout ship, definitely Arakkan in origin.”

“Close enough to shoot at it?” the bigger mechanical turtle raised his right arm upwards, the hand sunk in and the laser gun barrel came out.

“It’s cloaked,” suddenly the Jumper sprang upwards. The others had to watch in amazement when he went higher and higher, becoming only a small dot in the end.

“Oookay, didn’t know he could jump that high,” Raphael blinked his organic eye.

“Well we did upgrade him a little bit at his request,” Akkar but raised an eyebrow. “But this was still unexpected.”

Suddenly they saw electric energy flash up in the sky and a small ship uncloaked. Jumper Leonardo could then be seen back on his way down, landing bit away from his partners. But the other cyborg wasn’t watching that, now that he could see it his scanners already measured the distance between them and the fleeing vehicle.

“Just close enough,” he growled and fired from his laser gun.

The ship swerved as it tried to avoid the lasers. But one made an impact and something blew up. The flying vehicle took a nose dive towards the ground. Now it was Akkar’s turn, the Arakkan darted off towards the crash site.

“Wow, did you just shot down a ship?” the Jumper inquired as Cyborg Raphael ran past him after Akkar.

“Not sure, would have thought I needed to hit it more, maybe it was already damaged,” the bigger turtle grunted.

Since neither cyborg did move slowly, they had soon caught up with their wolfoid partner. The Arakkan was already digging through the wreckage. Raphael scanned it and spotted one life form close to where Akkar was trying to get in.

“Uh Akkar,” he approached. “I’m not reading an Arakkan in here, but a human.”

“Indeed,” the Arakkan growled and reached in, he pulled out disoriented young man out.

The man had black hair, cut very short except at the front where it was shaped in almost devilish horns. He wore black pants and leather rain coat and underneath he wore nothing, but on his chest was a python tattoo. Around the man’s neck were a chain and a single fang on a string.

“Eric ‘The Python’ Daren,” Akkar pulled the man away from the destroyed ship. “One of Klear’s many non-Arakkan lieutenants.”

But the two cybernetic turtles and the Arakkan were quickly reminded that the crash site was in the middle of a city. People were arriving and the wailing of sirens approached. Despite its lawless nature, there was apparently still some hint of a peace force in it.

“How about we get out of here,” Raphael suggested, putting his right hand on Akkar who still held the man and the left one on Jumper. In a flash they had disappeared just as the first distress vehicles arrived.


Assassin’s world.

“You realize who it was you suddenly charged right?” Captain Ghor’s frowned in concern.

“Of course, of course…” General Magistrate Raphael grunted. It had been few hours now since the incident at the hospital and the turtle had been telling those in the room at the office what had happened. “I just saw red… I’ve never been so angry in… well a long time.”

“Well if Sinda is good at anything, it’s pushing the right buttons,” the Ulfarian captain nodded. “I’ve experienced that a lot with my officers.”

“Now the question is, what in Ice’s name was he doing there in the first place,” Khjan wondered.

“I don’t know and I’m not sure I want to find out,” Raphael grunted. “We had Mike moved to another room and quadrupled the security. Even an old friend of mine who arrived here recently sent a couple of guards.”

“Well one thing is obvious,” Aro folded his arms and furrowed his brow in concern. “Your brother knows something that is sensitive to whoever was in charge of the operation he infiltrated. Though I’m starting to guess it must be Oro, based on who it were that did the shooting.”

“Oro is starting to become more and more likely target for the unrest as well, though we still can’t rule Fulmer and Klear our,” Abraska pointed out, the rest in the room nodded in agreement.

“Yes this is Raphael,” the General Magistrate answered his phone that had started to ring. “Oh I see, I’ll be there in a moment.”

“Excuse me gentlemen, our extra player has finally arrived,” the turtle then addressed the others before leaving the room.

“We will be hopefully getting some more answers on Fulmer, the Ru’u team is preparing to move again, seems that Fulmer is going to be in a meeting soon,” Captain Ghor mentioned. His communicator signaled so the old Ulfarian stepped aside and picked it up.

“Funny though how the most powerful guys have been easy so far, while the lesser guys have been giving us trouble,” came from Arnold Müller where he leaned against the wall with Dfgra, Akranan and Fjio.

“Well as we found out, Kabe and Akre were not responsible thus who knows, they probably deliberately put people around that would confirm that. Getting us off their back to focus on others,” Dfgra shrugged. “Wouldn’t be surprised that the guy Leonardo talked with was just one of many guys we were supposed to spot and get to talk.”

“But Akre doesn’t know who are involved in the team, at least…” Fjio the rampa started but his friends’ glances stopped him. “Oh wait, Akre… he probably even knows where we are located too.”

“Wouldn’t put it past him,” Akranan shook his head.

“And Kabe is not above sacrificing his grunts to save his operation,” Abraska looked at the Forest Guards.

“I’ve just been talking with Simba again,” Captain Ghor spoke up returning from his talk on the communicator. “They are about ready to send a team to spy on Fulmer, but they have expressed wish to have a fourth, seems that two of the Leonardos wish to remain with their brothers. And I’m afraid that Simba, Hyum and Honda are just too recognized faces on Ru’u.”

“I can go,” suddenly Brian spoke up and rose from the floor where he had sat.

“I am not sure that is a good idea Brian,” Abraska frowned, glancing at the young eager varjan.

“Oh come on, let the kid have some fun. I mean the last time all he got to do was watch in the distance,” Jorekur chimed in. “If he’s going to learn, he needs a little more involved field work.”

“He’s right, first we were dragging the kid over here in the first place, better let him do something,” Avrenn grunted. “Besides he’s going to Ru’u, no varjans there and he’s old enough not to be phased by those stun guns of theirs.”

“I’m not sure the criminal elements only carry stun guns,” Abraska snorted but then raised his hands in surrender. “Very well, Brian you can go and join them, but keep sharp and listen to the others. Most of them have more experience than you.”

“Yes sir,” the Junior Heptagon Agent grinned and shortly after was gone through a portal Captain Ghor provided for him.

“I hope I’ll not regret this,” Abraska sighed wearily. At that moment the door opened and General Magistrate Raphael returned, following him was a brown furred rymska, Doctor Hea.

“May I introduce Doctor Hea, she’s finally arrived,” the turtle introduced.

“Hello, sorry I’m late. I decided to have another talk with Maccar the Cabbat who is in prison in Kila,” the rymska waved before explaining her absence.

“Ah yes, I understand that a Cabbat has been spotted in Oro’s employment,” Captain Aro nodded.

“Indeed and I do think it is Alo having some of his features disguised,” the doctor nodded.

“I’m inclined to agree after seeing that photo of the Cabbat, there is something synthetic about his features. Definitely the work of a varjan disguise chip,” Abraska nodded.

“Well then, since our Alo expert has arrived, what can you tell us?” Khjan inquired.

“Oh dear, well I never really got to talk with him except once at the jail,” Hea sighed and got seated on a chair. “That’s why I spoke with Maccar again, seeing if he could tell me more. I know four of the turtles who are now helping you also have had the ‘pleasure’ of meeting him twice. When they return they can probably add in something more.”

“But yes being a Cabbat, Alo has his own sense of honor and having now being beaten twice and then imprisoned, he’s thirsting revenge by any means possible. So he’ll definitely be after the turtles that encountered him, especially Leonardo and Donatello who he seems to hate the most from what Maccar could tell me,” the doctor then started.

“Whoever freed Alo no doubt promised him his revenge, but I’m still not sure why he would be working for Oro. Somehow he doesn't strike me as someone capable of springing anyone out of a maximum security facility.”

“Oro does usually refrain from freeing his people from prisons,” Theo Aro nodded. “It makes no sense he would spring out a Cabbat who would be unknown to him.”

“But from what little I could get from Alo and what Maccar has described for me, is that we are dealing with a clear case of a psychopath here. I would even say mildly sociopathic but I have to take into consideration the society he is brought up in. Cabbats are violent by nature and display sometimes what in other races would be considered sociopathic tendencies. So it would be more proper to say that Alo and probably the generic Cabbat do not work well in other societies while they function in their own,” Hea continued.

“I’m curious though why you think Alo is so important. Yeah he is probably after revenge for his imprisonment, but so far he seems a fairly small player,” General Magistrate spoke up.

“It’s because of the nature of his escape,” Abraska stepped forward with a serious expression. “Even the Heptagon felt it and was gravely concerned. Something just whisked away Alo without a trace, from a highly secure facility and has apparently planted him within Oro’s people. We might in the end have to deal with that Cabbat one or way or another.”

End chapter 19.


What? You didn't think I had totally forgotten Cyborg Raphael and the team he was in?
_________________
Confusing the heck out of the world since 1983.

~

"He never gives up!" - Storm Shadow about Snake Eyes.

[engelina]

*huggles the mikes* i hope they will be okay. at least their brothers now are with them.

i wonder what the deputy knows that is so importand.. must be quite interesting, judging from the amount of people either wanting the info, or trying to kill him.

and we get to see what the cyborg and the group he is with are doing. interesting to see him and the jumper working together.

and i was wondering when the cabbat would come back into the fic..


and looking forward to more!
_________________

[Ramica]

Wow the poor Mikey's that is some threat to linger over them. But if this is all about control the Assassin is probably hoping to control them through that threat of his.

Yeah, nice to see where the cyborg and his crew are at and where they've gotten to.

Then we have that escaped Cabbat wondering exactly where he'll fit into this fic later on- and I'm sure I'll find out in due time.
_________________
If there is no chocolate in heaven I don't want to go.

[Askre]

[Lana]

[Askre]

[Askre]

NT-Don is always Don or the non-letter wearing one, D-Donatello is OT-Donatello or the D-Wearing one.

NT-Raph is Raph or the non-letter wearing one, Big-Raph is Movie-Raphael and R-Raphael is OT-Raphael or the R-wearing one.

Chapter 20

Assassin’s world.

Luna watched the children play in the backyard. The turtle woman was nervously rubbing her hands together, recent events heavy on her mind. She had surprised the others at how calmly she had taken it when learning what her husband was up to. But deep inside, her nerves were on the edge, worrying about her family she had only had for less than four years.

What had happened at the hospital hadn’t helped much either. The magistrate had to spend few moments calming and reassuring her before taking her back home. Apollo had been left in the care of three Splinters and two Aprils. Besides, her son was having the time of his life with new playmates.

The arrival of the rymskas and the third version of Splinter had taken her mind, temporarily away from current events. They had now something more to talk about and the newcomers could tell about new things.

Apollo was in the sandbox with Dia, the little rymska girl was no older than him and thus couldn’t play too much with the rest of the toys in the playground. Michelle on the other hand was old enough to climb around the monkey rails and she did so quite easily and fast. But her speed was outmatched by the oldest child, Braka. The rymska boy was far oldest and in many ways helped keeping an eye on the younger ones. But he played too and Luna was surprised to see someone so agile and so swift, not to mention fast.

“How are the terrors doing?” former-empress April inquired as she stepped out in the backyard. She witnessed Braka and Michelle race around the slide now, Apollo and Dia happily dug with their little shovels.

“No emergency just yet, then again Braka has always been very good with his little sister, guess he’s extended it to the two others,” Jala mentioned, she was sitting by the same table Luna was.

“And I thought Michelle was quick,” the human chuckled when Braka actually outran her daughter.

“She isn’t willing to give up though,” the rymska giggled when the turtle girl put on a determined face and tried to keep up.

“Oh by the way, April took the Splinters to the magistrate’s office. They were a bit curious on how things were going, she offered to take them,” the ex-empress informed them meaning her counterpart from this world, Jala and Luna nodded.

“And how are you holding up?” she then turned her attention to the turtle woman, walking over and reaching down to put her hand over hers.

“I-I… just not sure,” she whispered. “He always… always told me he might have to disappear quickly for something… unannounced. I-I accepted it… knew it was just part of who he was… but…”

“I know it’s hard, but he will be back. Rest assured,” April told her gently.

“Nea! Dia,” Jala suddenly called and rose up. Her daughter was in the process of trying how the sand tasted.

“Apollo!” Luna blinked when her son figured this could be fun and did the same. She almost stood up but the rymska was already in the process of cleaning both children.

“Yuck, no good,” Apollo made a face, Dia did the same.

“Nea, nea,” she peeped.

“Yes you do not eat it, you dig in it,” Jala said smiling and then repeated what she had said in Rytonas to her daughter.

“No good,” Dia nodded, although young she was starting to pick up on English much like her brother. But Jala still primarily spoke with her children in Rytonas, but had told the others to just go ahead and use English; they already understood most of it.

“Two little rascals,” April chuckled, let go of Luna and sat down. Jala returned and the youngest resumed digging in the box.

“I thought by the age of two they would have outgrown eating sand,” the rymska woman muttered but was smiling while returning to her seat.

“Apollo has so far never eaten the sand,” Luna said with a small frown, she had stopped rubbing her hands together.

The Rytona’s nose suddenly vibrated and she arched an eyebrow. Jala glanced at the other two women who looked at her, but before the wolfoid could open her mouth the doorbell rang. The female turtle blinked and rose up, not expecting visitors and this world’s April did have the keys.

“It’s an Ulfarian and a couple of Taronians,” Jala said and stood up too.

“You weren’t kidding about rymska sense of smell,” the former empress blinked, she started to rise but then eyed the children. Braka and Michelle had stopped in their play and perked up when hearing the door-bell, so did Apollo and Dia.

“I’m not expecting anyone,” Luna said as she disappeared through the backdoors. The two other women had to intercept their children who darted off intending to follow.

The turtle woman crossed the living room and entered soon the front hall of the house. She peeked through the small hole on the door and saw a tall Ulfarian in black looking clothes. The reptile froze, the garb reminded her strongly of the assassin, just this one had a chest plate, what looked like knives and heavy boots instead of sandals. Behind the stranger were two tarofoxes of the red variety, just like Jala had already scented.

Luna nervously opened the door a crack so she could at least address the newcomers, she really didn’t want them inside. The two Taronians seemed to get ready for something, but the Ulfarian just looked down at her smiling warmly.

“You must be Luna,” the Ru’uian said kindly. “I hope we are not interrupting you and were wondering if we could take a minute of your time to talk with you.”

“A-about what?” the turtle whispered, not liking the looks that came on the two red-fox headed aliens. They were definitely impatient, waiting for something to happen.

Before I continue, I must apologize for my actions. Know that your husband is currently working on remedying the situation. But if it comes to it, you will see that I personally mean no harm. I can not say the same about those two who follow me, his voice suddenly echoed through Luna’s mind.

I can sense your nervousness and I realize you do not associate my clothing with anything good. But your husband told me to tell you that March 1st will happen and to give you this, suddenly for an odd reason the Taronians turned around as if something had compelled them too. The Ulfarian quickly reached inside, grabbed Luna’s hand and dropped something into it before letting go.

Luna blinked and looked at the item. It were two small tickets to a fashion show on Rytonas, something the woman had wanted to go to for a long time. But her husband was never sure he could make the time to go with her. Its scheduled time was March the first. The woman quickly pocketed the items and looked at the Ulfarian, the Taronians had turned back, bit surprised that they had turned around for no apparent reason.

I have faith in your husband and his comrades, if everything goes well I will personally dispose of my two tag-along. But right now if things do not go well I can not strike at them myself, if you and those inside can temporarily dispose of them on your own, you will get no resistance from me, the Ulfarian continued, still speaking with Luna in her mind.

“I fear though that no matter your answer, I must insist,” the Ru’uian then said out loud and put his gloved hand on the door to push it open.

Luna gulped and even if she wanted to couldn’t resist it when the three aliens walked into the front hall. Now first could she spot guns on the belts of the Taronians, she could only wonder why they weren’t drawn already.

“<April, w-we got trouble… w-we h-have to get r-rid of the T-taronians,>” she called in Japanese, knowing the former empress had been learning it from the gray-furred Splinter. The turtle woman had no idea why, but actually felt she could trust the Ulfarian.

*

April heard the call and saw through the window as Luna backed into the living room. The Taronians now looked much more threatening and one did prepare to grab the turtle woman who fled. The human and the rymska quickly herded the children to the furthest corner of the playground; it had a big fort.

“<Braka, keep them in here, do not move, keep them safe>” Jala ordered her son who nodded but looked confused. He held his squirming little sister.

“Michelle, stay here, you too Apollo,” April addressed the turtle children. “You are playing now in the fort, but keep quiet.”

It was a bit much to expect a two year old and a three year old to be quiet but it was all she could do for now. The two women then glanced back and noticed that one of the Taronians was walking out from the backdoor. Inside the living room the Ulfarian stood tall and with eyes closed, like he was concentrating, Luna and the other Tarofox were nowhere to be seen.

“I could try and grab the gun, Leo’s been teaching me few… ahem… moves,” Jala whispered as she and April approached the alien who narrowed his eyes on them. So far the weapon was still, oddly enough, on the belt.

“Do I want to know when he’s teaching you them?” the human tried not to giggle. “I’ll distract him one way or another.”

“Alright, you two just be quiet and nothing bad will happen. Jalkeo just wants to talk with the head of his household,” the Taronian growled at them.

“Oh really,” April folded her arms unimpressed. “And what exactly are you going to do if we don’t.”

The Taronian sneered and now first did go for his gun, which was no longer on his belt. The rymska woman had shown where Braka inherited his swiftness. As the Tarofox looked at April, she had quickly approached form the other side and plucked up the weapon, she aimed it at the alien.

“All right… I don’t have to be expert to know I only need to pull the trigger to use this,” she said though her voice wasn’t too threatening. But April jumped forward and grabbed the Taronian in as good bear-hug as she could.

“Jala the safety is on!” she shouted and struggled to hold the alien who tried to throw her off.

“Uh, safety?” Jala looked at the gun having no idea where to even begin to remove it.

The rymska looked up and cringed, if she didn’t do something quick April would lose the battle. The Taronian was clearly much stronger than her. Not wanting to risk the children picking it up, the Rytona pocketed the gun then balled up her fists and struck the Tarofox. He had just managed to throw April off and to the ground.

He keeled over when the punch landed on his stomach and then his head snapped up when the rymska actually tried an uppercut. Groaning the alien crumbled to the ground. Jala herself was quite surprised and looked at her hands. In truth all she had done was trying to mimic her husband and his brothers after watching them so many times practice.

“I guess it is true, rymskas are stronger than they look,” she blinked having never actually had to test that until now.

“Right now I’m very glad for that,” April rose up and looked to the house. “You keep this guy here, I will go to Luna.”

Jala nodded and the human ran to the backdoor. The Ulfarian still just stood in the living room like nothing had happened at all. But as April entered there was a loud clang from the kitchen, a yelp and then another clang.

“Eep, help!” Luna called, ignoring the Ru’uian the human woman ran to the kitchen.

“Luna what’s… uh wrong?” April blinked at the scene; the turtle woman was wielding a frying pan and had just knocked the other Tarofox out of commission with it.

“I uh, think I hit too hard,” Luna whispered, there was a spot of blood on the pan.

“He is not dead, he is breathing but he will wake up with a very big headache,” the Ulfarian suddenly stood in the kitchen. April jumped and turned around almost ready to lunge into the much larger alien. She and the turtle froze when the Ru’uian reached for the knives on his back and pulled them out.

“Seems that my ‘comrades’ have been defeated. I fear then that I am at your mercy,” he said and handed his weapons to the stunned human woman.

“April he… I don’t know how… but he is on our side… he knows where Donatello is…” Luna pointed at the Ru’uian.

“I couldn’t strike at them myself, just in case if something would go wrong with our current plan. But Luna’s husband is working on enabling me to deal with this scum personally,” the Ulfarian said and handed restrains from his belt to April. “But for now, let’s tie these two up so they will make no further trouble. And if you were wondering why they never pulled out their guns, let’s just say that the weak minded are easy for me to fool.”


Taron.

“Why is it always a warehouse?” Rogue grunted as he, Carl and the three Donatellos stepped out of the truck. They were somewhere in the countryside and in front of them was a large white building.

“How many guards do you have in there already?” the human ignored his friend and addressed the tarowolf who was escorting them.

“Four, we are stretching pretty thin. The boss needs most of his men elsewhere. We’ll be sending those away once you’re in place,” the Taronian grunted and started to walk towards the building, the others followed.

“No guards on the roof? Nothing?” Carl blinked; the truck was already heading away. They were the only ones around now.

“Don’t need them; this is deep within the boss’s territory. Nobody comes here but those working for the boss,” the Taronian chuckled.

“Oh good then,” the human shrugged and suddenly his fist connected with the alien’s jaw. The Tarowolf never managed to figure out what had happened, Rogue was already there to knock him completely out.

“Uh wouldn’t it have been wiser to wait until we saw what it is actually we are guarding?” Don blinked.

“No I think this is the place, it’s secluded and if the prisoners were to escape they won’t be able to get help very quickly. Also Oro’s been underestimating Jalkeo and his family for a quite a while, only four guards and all inside? Yeah he actually thinks they will play docile,” Carl told the turtle while he and Rogue tied the unconscious alien.

Let’s hope you’re right Carl, the Ninja Master signaled. You stay here with this one; the rest of us will go inside.

*

The main warehouse was mostly empty, but few crates and boxes were stacked up around it. Four heavily armed Taronians, all Tarodogs of the German Shepherd, variety patrolled the room but still keeping an eye on the middle of the room.

There on a chair sat an Ulfarian woman, just as tall as Jalkeo was. She had long hair tied up in a ponytail, was dressed in grayish chainmail and shorts with small armor plates on them. The Ru’uian looked almost as stoic and calm as the Jareta Warrior himself.

Kneeling beside her was a much younger female of the same species, wearing a simple brown dress. She looked more nervous and her head rested in the older one’s lap. The armored woman gently caressed the untied hair of the child and was softly humming a calming song. Standing close to the two females was a male Ulfarian. He looked much younger than Jalkeo but was nearly as tall as him, wore a dark blue tunic and long sleeved blue shorts. He was staring gravely around.

Suddenly a guard disappeared behind a crate. The three Ulfarians looked up at the noise, so did the remaining guards. Two of them were about to run over to see what was going on but something grabbed them too. The remaining guard turned around when somebody tapped his shoulder, a green fist punched him square in the face, sending him flying towards the prisoners.

“Huarm if you would be so kind,” the older Ulfarian woman said smiling. “And assist our rescuers?”

“With pleasure my mother,” the male Ru’uian said, stepped forward and grabbed up the disoriented guard. Quickly he removed the rifle and then with a hard hit knocked out the Taronian.

“Yllia, I need to rise up,” the woman the addressed the younger one. She nodded and lifted her head allowing the older female to stand up. Just at that moment one of the Taronian guards came running, having escaped whoever were attacking.

But the Ulfarian woman jumped forward and intercepted him. She used her left knee to hit him swiftly in the guts and then chopped at his neck with her right hand. The Tarodog was out of commission instantly.

“Ouch… I see what Carl meant by underestimating them,” D-Donatello said as he and the rest of the turtles approached. Rogue and the Ninja Master dragged the remaining guards with them.

“Greetings, I am Stevala, member of the Hyumaian Republican guards. These are my children Huarm and Yllia,” the older Ulfarian woman looked smiling at the approaching reptiles. “And I take it that you are here on my husband’s request?”

“Sort of,” Don nodded. He and the rest began tying up the guards; Carl joined them shortly later inside carrying the fifth tied up Taronian.

“I must thank you for your assistance. I knew my husband would be planning something to come to our aid, but as he always is, I can never always tell when it will happen,” Stevala said once all the guards were securely tied. She and her children then bowed deeply.

You are more than welcome, but let’s get you to further safety, the Ninja Master signaled and was translated by the non-letter wearing counterpart. D-Donatello grabbed a dimension traveler from one of the guards.

“Isn’t this one of the illegal modification models? You know who can open portals anywhere even if there are blockers?” he inquired.

“Seems so,” Don nodded and glanced at the device. The Ninja Master was nodding in agreement.

“Oro must want his men to able to move freely without having to wait for permission to go over,” Carl said and grinned wide. “Lucky us.”

“Yeah,” the D-wearing turtle chuckled and punched in the coordinates to the Ninja Master’s own house.

You go first, if Jalkeo gave me the right hints, he will be waiting there, the dogi-wearing turtle signaled, again Don translated.

The Ulfarians nodded and stepped through the open portal the D-clad turtle had created. But they had barely gone through when the Ninja Master suddenly grabbed Carl and threw the human through the gateway. Rogue, Don and D-Donatello stared shocked at the closing portal then glanced at the dogi-wearing reptile.

Change of plans. As Jalkeo said, Oro is a big enough target. Sinda will have to wait, Ninja Master Donatello began signaling. Something is not right here, ever since Jalkeo told how his family was abducted I’ve been at unease. And ever since we entered Oro’s lands that unease has just intensified.

“You don’t think Jalkeo was lying was he?” Rogue frowned heavily but the black-clad turtle shook his head.

He only told what the truth was for him, what Oro had told him. But Arakkans do NOT share their time traveling technology with anyone. Someone else provided Oro with the means to travel back in time. We better find out who, he answered.

“But why did you throw Carl through…” Don stopped as the realization hit him. Carl was maybe a General Deputy and knew how to handle himself in tough situations, but he wasn’t a ninja like the turtles. They were now on Oro’s lands and needed stealth and ability to disappear quickly. There was probably an added factor that Carl and the deputy magistrate were good friends.

***

“Well I can’t complain so far, we got the punks who shot the deputy magistrate and Clar, what’s next?” Raph asked. He was riding the unmarked police motorcycle; right beside him on the other one was Robert the white Tarofox and the rest of the team were in the car driving in front of them. The turtle spoke through a communicator that was built into his helmet.

“Going to another place that this time belongs to Oro; we have often suspected it of being one of his main information hubs. You ninja boys will have the honor of sneaking in and find some dirt,” Ryan answered, he was driving the car. They were now one member short, Harot had been ordered back to the briefing room on earth 1984. Captain Theo Aro didn’t want the tarodog risking his wounded arm further. Thus Robert and the human decided to utilize fully the three turtles’ ninja skills. It was starting to get dark; the sun was slowly setting in the west.

“Sounds good to me,” Big-Raphael commented, he was sitting in the passenger seat.

“Hey Raphael, you’ve been awfully silent there, what’s up?” Raph spoke again, addressing his R-wearing counterpart who sat in the backseat of the car.

“Sorry… just thinking,” the R-wearing turtle said. His bigger counterpart glanced back at him, though he remained silent.

“Well don’t keep us hanging, what’s on your mind, aside from the bonehead jokes,” the non-letter wearing ninja chuckled through the communicator that was located in the car.

“The building that exploded here on Taron, they said a turtle was spotted on the scene. Blood-red mask, camouflage pants,” R-Raphael ignored the crack from his friend, already used to them and in many ways just found them amusing.

“Friend of yours?” Big-Raphael asked, he recalled earlier when they had been filled on what had happened in the city sometime before they had arrived.

“Nope, though he is yet another double of us, called the Demolisher,” Raph growled. “A whack-bag with taste for explosives and loves nothing more than to pummel people to dust. I’m pretty sure he was the one who blew that building sky high.”

“Charmin’,” the biggest of the red masked turtles grunted, he glanced at the R-wearing turtle that looked suddenly uneasy. “Yo, you alright?”

“Raphael has had the ‘honor’ of being the Demolisher’s personal punching bag few years ago. We’ll tell you the story later. Raphael!” Raph spoke again then said his friend’s name sharply.

“Don’t think about him now. The building was destroyed few days ago and even if we do meet him. He’ll not come near you!” the motorcycle riding turtle assured him.

“Never a dull moment, alright we are coming,” Ryan said and slowed the car down.

The human found a secluded parking space and stepped out, so did the two turtles. Robert and Raph parked the bikes right behind it, before climbing off. The Tarofox glared around, the area was dark and there was no life at all, safe for the occasional light in some of the buildings around.

“Nice place,” Raph grunted and joined his two counterparts.

“This is too silent,” Robert frowned. “You don’t think Oro has evacuated from here already?”

“Why should he, the punk shouldn’t even know we have been having this place under surveillance,” Ryan told him.

“Well the sooner we get this show on the road, the sooner we’ll find out and get out of here. Which building is it?” Raph frowned and glanced at the human and the Taronian.

“Come with us, we parked a bit away from it just so nobody would see us,” Ryan headed out of the parking area, followed immediately by the turtles. Robert came in the rear with his gun drawn just in case.

The human led them into an alley that faced a tall building made out of bricks. It had several windows and did look a bit like an office building. The street in front was empty of life and no lights were in any of the houses around.

“If Oro has evacuated we would know it,” Ryan growled, our surveillance team is in place and they already know that we are on our way intending to infiltrate the place.

“Alright let’s go,” Raph nodded to his counterparts, the three turtles quickly and silently jumped across the street and into the alley beside the brick house.

“Good luck kids,” Robert muttered, glaring around his gun at ready.

*

Big-Raphael quickly found a window on the side he could pry open with his sai. Then the ninja opened it fully, standing guard as his smaller counterparts snuck in. Once they were through, the big red-masked turtle quietly climbed in. He saw the other turtles already in the process of leaving the dark room.

“Okay two ways, we better split up to cover more ground,” Raph whispered, they were in a hallway. The only light was a dim emergency one that indicated where the exit was.

“There are stairs that go up, I’ll take that one,” R-Raphael pointed at nearby stairs.

“I’ll go right then,” his friend nodded.

“I’ll go left,” their big counterpart offered and the three ninjas silently went their separate ways.

Raph managed to find a file room; the locks on the cabinets were no hindrance for him as he broke them up using his sai. Quickly, using a small pen flashlight, he went through the papers to see if something of interest was to be found among the folders.

*

Big-Raphael managed to find an office. The turtle searched the desk and few of the cabinets before stumbling upon a paper with some odd numbers. Frowning, the ninja looked around and spotted a painting on the wall. Wondering if his gut feeling was right he removed it and found a safe. Chuckling the reptile used the numbers to open it, inside were folders.

“Jackpot,” he grinned wide and grabbed them and stashed them on his belt.

“Guys!” all of the sudden R-Raphael whispered sharply through the communicators.

“Yo,” the big turtle responded.

“What’s up?” Raph answered too.

“I found a bomb!” the R-wearing turtle whispered. “And it’s only fifteen seconds from going off!”

End chapter 20.


Although Luna speaks Japanese there, it's probably obvious that Jala is addressing Braka in Rytonas. And finally the girls get to do something other than sitting around

And yes, rymskas are actually this strong, even those who don't regularly practice anything. So Jala hasn't gained some mysterious superpowers, she just was punching an alien species that really is no match to a rymska of any type, especially a female rymska. You don't piss them off, you just don't.

Nea: Means no, nothing, none, and most negative meanings.

I've come to realize that it's the most difficult to write the Raphaels so it's clear who is who, so far the one with the best identification is OT-Raph with his R-buckle and I can only describe Big-Raph as big so much because he's not that much bigger than NT-Raph.

I might have to drop into a simpler format, but just know that currently it's NT-Raph and OT-Raph that are described as friends, having known each other for few years by now. Big-Raph is on friendly terms with them but hasn't reached friend status just yet.
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Confusing the heck out of the world since 1983.

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"He never gives up!" - Storm Shadow about Snake Eyes.