It was a beautiful evening in the wilderness as Splinter, the gray-haired mutant rat was giving his four reptilian sons a lecture on being one with nature. “My sons, I brought you with me on this sabbatical for good reason. For far too long your minds have been prone to the devices of civilization here and elseworlds, causing you to lose touch with your roots." The old rat turned his gaze to one of his pupils. "For instance, Donatello, you have been extremely preoccupied with your inventions. Not to mention the great influence our friends the Utroms have had on you with their advances in technology.” 

Michelangelo began to laugh at his brother for being singled out just as their wise sensei whapped him on the arm. 

“You, Michelangelo, have spent the better part of a decade reading comic books, thriving on the lives of imagined characters! Of course as we’ve seen in the last few years, some of these heroes really do exist in our world. But I digress. Raphael, you have created quite a bond the last three years or so with Casey Jones. At first I was concerned for your safety because of his wild nature, but now that I see he and Miss O’Neil are starting to settle down, he has wizened and become more than just a biking partner for you. He is your surrogate brother, as it were.” 

Raph made a grin as he looked towards his brother Leo. So what’s Sensei have to say about old Teacher’s Pet over here? 

Before the wise sensei could continue with the lesson, there was a rift in the sky and out popped a strange man in business attire with horns on its heads, wings sprouting out of his back, and a smoking cigar in the corner of his mouth. 

"Greetings, Turtles!" the demonic-looking man bellowed down at the Turtles. Flapping his bat-like wings, he hovered slowly down to earth, retracting his wings, which vanished as he touched down.

“What the shell is that?” Raph asked. 

“It looks like an Avien!” Don responded. 

“Yea right, except you forgot that Aviens have those feathered wings, not bat wings!” Mike added. 

“Whatever it is, get your weapons ready!” Leo shouted, drawing out his swords. 

Don, Raph and Mike followed him in suit just as Splinter took out his walking stick. “My sons, you must be very careful! We do not know if this... thing means us direct harm.” 

“Oh, I can answer that for you, Splinter!” the horned man spoke loudly. 

“How did that guy—” Mike tried to speak, but could barely continue to speak, as if the very sight of the creature caused him to freeze up in fear. 

“How do I know his name? I know all of your names... Mikey! I also know the names of those pathetic Mutanimals I had killed!” 

“Mutanimals...?” Don asked, confused. 

“Oh, how right you, the Mutanimals don’t exist here... bully for you but what a bloody pity! I was hoping I might get the chance to kill them all over again and screw around with Mondo’s girlfriend some more!" A malicious grin spread infectiously across his lips as he savored a puff from his cigar. "I didn’t even get the chance to strip that sullen bitch fully naked so that I could—"

“All right, that does it you fowl-mouthed pervert! Just what the shell do you want?!” Raphael shouted angrily as he lunged at the creature. “What are you, another one of Bishop’s freak experiments sent here to go ballistic on us or something?” 

“Oh, I’m not one of that stupid Men In Black wannabe’s friends! I come from a whole other time and place that you can’t even begin to fathom! A place where I nearly destroyed the world with the help of an enlightened alien race known as the Malignoids... the only ones who stood in our way were you goddamned freaks and all your pathetic friends! But now that world has been wiped clean out of existence, leaving me without the chance to exact my revenge on you—or should I say your counterparts—from there.”

“Uh, Don, do you have any idea what that dude just said?” 

“I haven’t the foggiest at this point, Mikey!” he said. Alternate realities? That sounds almost like something out of that whole ordeal the Ultimate Draco creature put us through! 

“Nevertheless, I’m growing tired of telling you fools my life story! I will be leaving now, and taking your sensei with me!” At that, the demonic man’s great wings again sprouted from his back. Bounding and gliding straight forward, in one fell swoop he grabbed Splinter by the collar of his kimono and took flight. 

“Master Splinter, nooo!” Leonardo screamed angrily after him.

The rat tried desperately to tear himself free of the demon’s iron grip, but it was to no avail. “I will not allow you to taunt my sons and I like this, foul beast!” 

“Oh, believe me, rodent,” the demon said as he held Splinter by the arms and looked him in the eye. ”I will do far worse to you than that villain Shredder could ever hope to achieve.” 

That very moment, Splinter saw the most frightening vision he could ever possibly imagine... the demon’s trance showed Splinter the form of his Master Yoshi on fire, as if the very fires of Hell itself were consuming him. Splinter could barely stand it as he cried out in terror and fainted. 

“Come on, we have to follow him!” Leonardo ordered his brothers as they ran as fast as they possibly could. 

“It sure would be nice to have those jet packs again!” Mike complained. 

Just then, another warp opened up, and out fell five green figures. 

Five... somewhat familiar-looking green figures.

“Aw great! We don’t have freakin’ time for this!” 

“Whoa, chill out a second, Raph!” Donatello told his brother. “These guys look like they’ve been hurt.” 

“Not only that, they look like us!” Leo added as the Turtle in blue limb bands and a belt buckle with the letter "L" on it arose. “Hey, are you... all right?” 

“I think so? Where am I, and how did I get here?” Dimension C-Leonardo asked. 

“Search me, Leonardo!” Dimension-C Donny explained as he helped C-Raphael to his feet.

“Oh man, my head feels like a ton of bricks just upped and fell on it!” 

“You’re gonna feel even worse if you don’t tell me what the shell is going on around here!” E-Raph growled. 

“Whoa, chill out, dude! I can explain everything!” C-Mike shouted as he assisted Venus, who had reverted back to herself after they had left Dimension B.

“There has been an anomaly in the fabric of space-time and all existence will be moot unless—” 

“Holy shell, dude!” E-Mikey shouted, interrupting Venus’ train of thought. “You’re a friggin’ chick Turtle! Oh my god! Y-you’ve got boo—ow!”

E-Raph promptly smacked his brother in the back of the head for the outburst. 

“What kind of anomaly are you talking about, lady?” C-Don asked. 

“Look, dudes, I really don’t know how to explain all this to you, but we’re all in some serioso grave danger unless we defeat this Null weirdo!” C-Michaelangelo answered. 

“Um, he wouldn’t happen to be a big ugly bald guy with horns on his head and wings on his back, would he?” E-Don asked quizzically. 

“Oh yea, that’s him all right, dude!” 

“He’s got Master Splinter... our Master Splinter!” E-Leo said in distress. “We have to go after him!” 

“Not to worry, Leonardo of this dimension. I know Renet can help us find—” Venus turned to her friend, only to realize there was no sign of the Timestress. Not a trace. “Where is she?” 

“Did you just say Renet...?” E-Raphael asked. “We once met a girl named Renet who had this powerful Time Sceptre.”

“Which fell into the hands of one of our enemies! He used it to send us all across time and space!” E-Leo said, coldly, anger seething through his teeth.

“Lets just say it wasn’t a pleasant experience,” E-Mike replied. “Well, it kind of was for me after getting to see what it would be like if we all had super powers!”

“Uh, right,” C-Mike said, eyeing his own counterpart. Geez, no wonder Raphael always thinks I’m obnoxious!

“Hey, what’s this thing?” C-Raph asked as he picked up a fancy looking pole with an hourglass attached on the top. There was a note written on a piece of paper that had been taped to the pole. 

“That is the Sceptre... it must’ve fallen from Renet’s hands,” Venus replied matter-of-factly. “She must have sent it along with us and gone back to the 79TH Level of Null-Time...” And that was being optimistic, Venus knew.

“Why would she do that?” C-Don asked.

Venus took the Sceptre from the rather goofy-looking Raphael and looked over the note. “Her powers are weakening..." she paraphrased. "She is sorry. It says on the note to use the scepter only as a means of communicating with her for the time being...” 

“So we’re here on our own?! What a load’a crud!!!” 

“Hold it, Raph! That guy may be holding all the cards at this point, but we now out-number him nearly ten to one!” E-Leo spoke. “Lets all head back to the farmhouse and get the Battle Shell! We’ll need it if we want to stop this guy.” 

“The Battle Shell?” all four Dimension C Turtles asked curiously. 

“Uh, you’ll see it when we get there,” E-Don replied. 

During the twenty minute-long walk back, Venus and C-Michaelangelo both explained to his brothers and their Dimension E counterparts the basic idea of what was going on—that they had been with other incarnations of the Turtles in a world where they were basically fictional characters whose very existence relied heavily on the fanbase that adored them... as well as the creators themselves who were responsible for seeing to it that they remained active in the media. Mike also reminded his brothers of the whole incident with the one-armed Leonardo from Dimension A whose transcendence into and out of a young fan’s body was thought to be the catalyst of saving all existence of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. 

“Wait, did you say that in another world, we’re, like, all comic book characters and stuff? That is sooo cool!” The native dimension’s Mike was almost overcome with giddiness over the idea. 

“Not exactly, dude. None of us here are the... um, comic book Turtles,” C-Mike explained to his counterpart, remembering well what he had seen in the Words and Pictures Museum. “My bros and I were from the original cartoon done in the late 1980s and were canned in the mid-’90s. You dudes are basically the current animated series airing in the twenty-first century.” 

“That would explain the dissimilarities with appearance and everything,” E-Don added. 

“Yea, but what about this Venus character? Don’t tell me we got our own version of her here,” E-Raph muttered. “Not that it would be a bad thing...” 

“Definitely not, Raph! In the real world Kevin Eastman was more or less in charge of a television show which I now understand was the basis of my dimension,” Venus explained, lowering her head. She kept her emotions hidden, but there was no mistaking the sadness in her voice. "It only lasted a year though. That was some three years before he relinquished his rights to co-creator Peter Laird, the man responsible for giving your world its life. Apparently, Laird was none too fond of my existence, and he made sure that I be wiped out of my dimension’s timeline when they release the next movie in early 2007...” For the first time since their visit to the real world, she couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed by how grave her situation was. Even if she could manage to save these Turtles from Null’s destruction, as far as she knew from her transdimensional adventure so far, her fate would be sealed within less than a year. 

“Eastman and Laird...?” E-Leonardo asked curiously. 

“That’s the name of the street corner in New York our lair is under!” E-Don remarked. They all seemed to share the realization that it was no mere coincidence. “So, um, Donatello, do you like to make gadgets?” he proceeded to ask his Dimension C counterpart. 

“As a matter of fact, yeah. Though it seems I don’t have any on me except for this Turtle Communicator,” C-Don answered, pulling a small shell shaped walkie-talkie out of his belt. 

“Wow, that looks awfully low-tech compared to my Shell Cell!” 

“Well it must be, considering our reality was done about sixteen years before yours!” C-Leonardo figured. 

“Okay guys, we’re here.” E-Leo pointed towards the quaint-looking farmhouse just past the clearing of the woods. 

“Whoa, awesome pad you got!” C-Michaelangelo exclaimed. 

“Well, it belongs to a good friend of ours,” E-Raph replied. “Yo, April! Casey Jones! Get your butts out here! We got something major freaky to show you!” he yelled as he ran to the front door where a young redhead and a tall black-haired man, both in their twenties sat. 

“Did I—I mean, did he just call that guy Casey?” C-Raphael asked. Whoever this guy is, he can’t be anymore of a goofball than the Casey Jones we knew in our world! He added mentally. 

The two humans stood in shock to see their friends accompanied by what looked like five other Turtles. 

“Um, is this something you’ve been keeping from us?” the man asked. 

“Not exactly, Casey,” E-Leo answered. 

”But we all need each other’s help in a big way!” E-Mikey boasted. 

“Didn’t Master Splinter come back with you guys?” asked the redhead. 

“No, April. He was kidnapped by this winged demon these other Turtles are after,” E-Don mentioned. ”Apparently those four are us from a different dimension of sorts. Their Michaelangelo told us he and the girl Turtle know who the demon is and why he’s after us!” 

“I’d sure like to come with you guys and help kick some butt!” Casey said, throwing his fists in the air. 

“I’m sure you could if you didn’t invite your mother and Cousin Sid over for dinner three hours ago!” April said with a sigh. “Listen, we’ll be right here if you guys need anything! Just call us on the kitchen phone. I’ll go get you the number.” 

E-Don and Mike escorted both their counterparts and C-Raphael to the driveway where a giant green tanker truck stood. 

“Holy guacamole, dudes!” 

“That thing’s gotta be like twice the size of the Turtle Van!” Raph spoke. 

“Yea, and they painted the whole thing green! The van was like 85% yellow!” Don added. 

Back inside, E-Leo and Raph were talking with Casey as Venus and C-Leo were given the piece of paper by April. “You guys be careful out there, all right?” 

“Don’t worry, April. We’ll be just fine!” Leonardo said, feeling somewhat strange speaking to someone who in some ways looked just like the April from his reality, but seemed so incredibly different. Of course, this wasn’t the best time to delve into questions. 

April and Casey said their final farewell to the Turtles as they loaded up into the Battle Shell. “Give my best to your mom, Casey!” E-Leo yelled out, winking to his friend. 

“Aw, get outta here you knuckleheads!” 

“Who’s calling who knucklehead?” E-Raph’s voice yelled from the driver’s seat of the Battle Shell as he revved the motor and took off. He howled with excitement as he sped down the road, smirking at his own counterpart sitting next to him in the passenger seat. He couldn’t get over the dopey look on the other Raphael’s face. “Hey pal, you don’t drive motorcycles ever, do you?” 

“Who, me? Nah! I’m really more of a jokester! Though apparently I once drove a cab when I had my mind switched with this guy named Oscar. It’s a pretty funny story, really!” C-Raph said with a chuckle. 

“Ohhh-kay.” E- Raph glared at his counterpart, not wanting to delve into any further questioning. He already knew more than enough from that small moment of interaction. “Yo Don, you want to help me get some directions here or what?” 

“Just a second, Raph! My counterpart here is helping me fuse the Sceptre with our tracking equipment. We should be able to locate Null’s chronal energy powers.” 

“Thank you for clearing that with me before we hit the highway that leads into town!” 

“Don’t worry, Raphael. We’ll get there in time!” E-Leo assured his brother. 

Nearly an hour later, the Turtles found their way to the heart of Northampton. Venus and Dimension C’s Michaelangelo were both in awe at the sights. In their minds, they thought back to what seemed like just seconds earlier when they and the various comic book dimensions’ Turtles were in the real world with Renet looking for Peter Laird. I suppose Laird must give the workers at 4Kids a lot of info about Northampton’s geography, Venus thought offhandedly to herself. 

Raph parked the Battle Shell just alongside the parking lot to an abandoned warehouse with white walls. 

“You sure this is the place, Donatello?” C-Leonardo asked. 

“According to my counterpart’s findings, this should be it. In fact, now I’m purely positive about it! Look at the Sceptre,” he said as he held it up in his hands. The hourglass with the Sacred Sands of Time began to glow an eerie shade of yellow. 

“Eeew! It looks like dried up mayonnaise!” E-Mike whined. 

“It must be the place. The building’s architecture is similar to that of the Words and Pictures Museum,” Venus spoke.

“For sure, I’d recognize that archway anywhere!” C-Mike added.

Just as they exited the truck and shut the doors, a painful sensation overtook Venus. “Gah! Oh no, not again! Aughk!” All eight Ninja Turtles stood back in shock as Venus suddenly grew a long flock of brown hair, on her head and her shell disappeared while an elongated green tail sprouted out of her tailbone.

“What the shell’s going on with her?” E-Mike asked.

“I don’t know, but she seems to have taken on the form of... a salamander,” E-Don replied.

“Wait a second, we know that salamander!” C-Leonardo spoke. “Raphael, isn’t she your friend from that cruise you took with April before?”

Raphael’s features lit up excitedly. “Y-yeah, she is! It’s Mona Lisa!”

“R-Raphael?" the female mutant asked meekly. "What’s going on? H-how did I get here?”

“It’s kind of a long story, ML. But we really don’t have time for it right now!”

“Its better that you don’t know what’s going on, anyway,” E-Mike added, scratching his head. “Trust me, it’s enough to make a dude’s head explode!”

“I know just what you mean, man!” C-Mike remarked.

“I guess for now it would be best if your brother lead the way in,” E-Leo suggested to his counterpart. “Donny and I can watch your backs while Raph and my Mike guard the front entrance.”

“Agreed,” C-Leo responded.

“Oh enough of this crud, already!” E-Raph spat, clearly in no state of mind to listen to Leo barking orders at him. He rammed his sai through the handles of the door and barged inward.

“Raphael, you will stand down!” E-Leo ordered his brother.

“Man, this guy sure has some issues!” C-Raphael whispered to Mona Lisa as they followed his brothers inside the building.

“I’m not surprised, Raphael. I mean when we first met, you seemed somewhat aloof, but in a more Matthew Perry sort of style. This guy’s more like Luke Perry!”

“I’m sorry but could you two please keep it down?” E-Don asked as kindly as he possibly could. “It’s hard to get a fix on any reading with—” Before he could even finish his sentence, the Sceptre’s sands began to erupt in a torrent of light that lit up the entire building. “Unbelievable!”

“What does it mean, though?” E-Leo asked.

“It means, fledglings, you are all doomed!” Null’s voice boomed through the building.

“Okay, this guy is really starting to get under my shell!” E-Raph snarled.

“Yea, I can see that!” Mike chuckled just as his brother gave him the look.

“I’m through toying with you freakish shellbacks and your rodent senseis!” the foul demon spoke as he emerged into the light. He still had Splinter of Dimension E within his grasp. ”It’s time I finally ended your wretched existence once and for all!”

“No!” E-Leo screamed as he ran in. “I won’t let you destroy anyone, Null! I won’t let you dishonor us!” the Turtle howled as he plunged his sword into the devilish man’s left shoulder.

Null cried out in pain as he threw Splinter to the ground and clamped at his wound. “Oh, yes, you’ve had it you... you fucking freak!” he seethed. Utilizing what little strength he had leftover, he erected the same force field from before. 

“Master Splinter, are you all right?” E-Don asked as he helped the rat to his feet. 

“I am fine, my son. I see you had some—ahem—help.” 

“Yea, it’s a pretty long story,” E-Mike spoke. 

“Which we really don’t have any time for, dudes!” C-Mike added. 

“Michaelangelo is right. You guys better beat it!” C-Don suggested to the dimension’s native Turtles and their sensei. 

“But what about all of you?” E-Raph asked. 

“Whatever becomes of us shouldn’t matter. Our dimension died out long ago... therefore we don’t belong here,” C-Leonardo told them. 

“Right, but neither does that creep! Let’s take him, Turtles!” C-Raphael shouted, drawing out his twin sai. 

“What a bunch of fools you are, the lot of you... so full of yourselves you could choke on it!” Null said, laughing maniacally as he wavered the force field. The bloody gash on his shoulder had healed itself enough to be no more than a mere paper cut. “I could have taken you all out with one fatal blow... but now that you’ve shooed away your more contemporary likenesses, I see now that the only way to most effectively destroy you is in the past... the original past!” With that, to a flurry mottling of fluorescent hues and ultraviolet, almost neon lights, Null opened the transdimensional rift once again with a snap of his fingers. 

“Oh man, this doesn’t bode well, dudes!” Michaelangelo noted. “Like, what do we do now?” 

“Search us, Mikey! I’m still having a hard time understanding how we could even have replaced our Dimension A selves!” Raphael replied. 

“Dimension A? Oh no! I think I know where Null is heading!” Donatello said as he took out the Sceptre. Before he could even figure out how to use it to contact Renet, another wave of temporal energy materialized, sweeping over the Turtles and Mona Lisa. 

As the energy wavered, the Turtles took notice at themselves and at one another. “Guys, your bandannas are turning red!” Mona Lisa spoke in shock.

FORWARD TO FINAL CHAPTER
BACK TO PREVIOUS CHAPTER
BACK TO MAIN MENU
BACK TO FICTION SECTION

SPECIAL THANKS TO HSINCUBIC, WHOSE ART APPEARS IN THIS CHAPTER