Live-Action Earth (Dimension B); New York City, December 19TH, 1997 A.D.

“Who are you? Who sent you here?" Leo held the odd-looking katana to the Turtle’s throat, pinning him in place on the ground.

"It’s one of Quease’s clones again," Don remarked, studying him. "It has to be."

Leo narrowed his eyes and looked him over once again. "No." Everything about him looked so real, so natural. "No, I don’t think so..."

Mike finished the sentence for him, "This one looks genuine." He glanced at Raph. "Hey, it’s got your color bandanna on..."

While the others had been practicing, this Turtle imposter had seemed to just fall on them from a ripple the sky. But how exactly did it get here, and where had it come from? Donatello had gone over all the possibilities, but he just couldn’t come up with a concrete, scientific answer. Of course, were she around, Venus would probably insist that it was magic.

As the others were deliberating, the red-bandannaed Michaelangelo found his opportunity to make his move. In a swift motion, he shoved the blade aside, flipped backward, and was on his feet facing them.

"Hey, it’s mobile!" the one in the orange mask shouted.

Michaelangelo rubbed his head. "Jeeze, guys, what gives?" But as he looked closer, he noticed that these were not his brothers, but some very strange looking Turtles in different -colored masks, wearing letters on their belts and/or straps. The only one of them in red shot him an evil stare.

"Who are you? Where’d you come from?"

"My name’s Michaelangelo... I’m a Ninja Turtle, and—"

"Wait a minute... hold on!" The orange-masked one seemed a little upset. "I’m Michaelangelo!"

"Who are you working for?" the blue-masked one asked coolly.

Michaelangelo’s head was spinning. Perhaps that bump on the head had done more damage than he’d thought. Or maybe the time or dimensional travel had messed with his brain. Wait a minute! Dimensional travel—that’s it! I’m in an alternate dimension. Too many bad science fiction novels and films came to his mind. "What day is it? What year is it?"

"December 19th, 1997—your last day on Earth if you don’t tell us who the heck—"

"Raph..." The blue-masked Turtle held out a hand, stopping him.

Michaelangelo stared at them in disbelief. "Raph? Did you say Raph?"

"That’s my name," the red-masked one hissed.

"On the contrary, buddy." The voice from behind caught everyone’s attention, and when they turned around, they found themselves facing another red masked Turtle who looked strikingly similar to the one that had fallen on them just moments ago. This one had no bandanna, but instead had an eyepatch over his left eye.

"Raph!" Michaelangelo grinned. "So he didn’t send me here alone..." But Leo... Donny... Renet... if Raph and I are here, what happened to them? Where are they?

"Would someone like to tell me what the heck’s going on here?" the blue masked one stood eyeing them skeptically, his fists on his hips.

"You tell me." The second displaced Turtle went to join the first. "One minute we were in the 79TH Level of Null-Time, and then suddenly I was face first in a pile of dust’n shit in this crazy place."

Michaelangelo buried his face in his hands, rubbing it for a moment, muttering, "An alternate dimension..."

"Turtles from an alternate dimension?" orange masked Mike asked, rubbing his temples. "Stranger things have happened, I guess."

Raphael stared at his surroundings. The walls were made of brick, the floor of concrete, not too much different from their current cemetery mausoleum den back home. At the far end, a ladder stretched high above them, probably leading to the world above. Suddenly, recognition struck him. A sewer... this is a sewer...

But not any sewer—a subway station, either abandoned or otherwise left unfinished. Cars of a train still on its tracks seemed to have been made into the dwellings of the Turtles of this dimension.

"Uh, nice place, guys..." Michaelangelo began to walk slowly around the room, noticing the empty pizza boxes and weapons strewn all over the place. It almost reminded him of the lair he had grown up in back home in the sewers, except this was a disaster area. Blankets, dirty dishes, and some indistinguishable items covered every inch of the place. Splinter would have never approved of such disorder. "You always lived here?"

"Not always," Michaelangelo’s orange-masked counterpart replied. "We did grow up in a pretty bogus sewer den... then we lived for a while in April’s country home after her store burned down—"

"Your April had her store burned down, too? Ours did, too. By the Shredder?"

"Nope, but I’m sure he ordered it," the purple-masked one answered. "It was Tatsu and his Foot thugs."

Raphael and Michaelangelo shook their heads, asking simultaneously: "Tatsu?"

"Big bald guy," Don continued. "Bad attitude; not big on words. Shredder’s right hand man for a while. Not sure what happened to him."

"So you guys killed Shredder, too?" Raphael asked the Turtles of this dimension.

"Not exactly," Leonardo responded. "Splinter sort of killed him the first time... but he wasn’t really dead. He came back, then mutated himself into, well, a SuperShredder in a club Vanilla Ice was performing at."

"You’re kidding..."

"No, he really did become a SuperShred—"

"No... Vanilla Ice?"

Leo shrugged. "I guess the Foot found him afterward and reversed the mutagen in his bloodstream like we did to Tokka and Rahzar... made him normal again. Last we saw of him he was a catatonic wreck torn into two personalities—the Shredder and Oroku Saki."

"Aw, shit, man," Raphael mused. "We killed Shredder for reals twice. Blew him up real good the first time, then fearless leader Leo chopped his fucking head off the second three years later." Raphael chuckled, debating whether or not he should mention that in his dimension—reality—he had taken on the mantle of the Shredder.

This dimension’s Turtles seemed taken aback by Raphael’s words. Leonardo was the one to ask the question they all pondered: "You Turtles... kill?"

"We’re ninja," Raphael answered without shame. "Ninja kill. Or is the definition of ninja different in this whacked out dimension?"

Leonardo winced. "That’s... not what Master Splinter taught us... he taught us—"

"Whatever, man," grumbled Raphael. He started pacing around, starting to look restless. "You know, this place is a real dump. Who’s your decorator, Ghandi?"

The one in the tattered red mask pushed past the others and stared Raphael coldly in the face. "What did you say?"

Raphael stood his ground, a tight scowl spreading over his lips. "I said this place sucks."

"Hey, One Eye." The red masked one pulled out a double sai staff, holding it up so the light reflected off its tip, as if to emphasize his point. He snapped it open, taking a sai in each hand. "No one comes into my home and degrades it. Take that back."

"Oh yeah? And what are you gonna do if I don’t?"

"I’m gonna run you through, and use you as a wall ornament."

"You and what army?" Raphael too, pulled out his weapons. "Don’t forget which one of us is willing to kill."

Michaelangelo stared from one to the other, realizing with awe, that in this angered state, it was actually hard to tell the two apart, aside from a few physical characteristics. The other Turtle was a little taller, and his forearms and ankles were covered with a heavy white lacing. His bandana was torn and tattered, possibly from battle. But their angered expressions matched almost perfectly.

"Hold on, Raph." The blue masked one tugged his comrade by the arm, and reluctantly, he allowed himself to be pulled away.

The two groups stared at one another for a while, each scrutinizing the other, trying to find an answer to this maddening puzzle. What were these other Turtles doing here? Where had they come from? Who were they?

Finally the blue masked one spoke up. "Okay, look. This isn’t getting us anywhere. Now, you two seem like reasonable Turtles. Why don’t you tell us who you really are and how you got here?"

Michaelangelo decided that he better be the one to explain this whole thing. Raphael seemed to be very close to losing his patience entirely. He explained about Renet, about the time travel, about their trip to the 79TH Level. He told them about their discovery of the Shogun, how somehow familiar he seemed. He explained the Shogun’s plans and the events that took place in the 79TH Level leading to their "banishment," evidently to the alternate dimension Michaelangelo and Raphael now found themselves in. He even talked about their own master Splinter and everything that led up to their mutation.

"That cinches it..." Donatello stared at them in awe. "These guys aren’t clones, they’re us."

He knew his friend was right. There was no way that these guys could have possibly known all they’d told him about their master and their transformations otherwise. One of the only discrepancies was their relation. This Turtle claimed they were brothers, but it had been made clear to him by both Don and Master Splinter that they weren’t of the same blood. Another discrepancy was their age—Michaelangelo and Raphael were nineteen in their reality, but the Turtles in this dimension were seventeen... though it could be attributed to the apparent fact that not only had the two Turtles been thrown into an alternate dimension, but seven years into the future. He should have made the connection earlier. December 19th, 1997 one of the native Turtles had said earlier... it was December 19th, 1990 in Raphael and Michaelangelo’s reality.

But no matter. If their story was true, they had been taken from their own time and dimension and sent here, which also meant that the whole timestream, if not the fabric of material reality itself, could be in great danger. But why? Why had they been sent here of all places, to face another version of themselves? And what would happen to history now that they had?

"This is too weird," the orange-masked Turtle exclaimed. "Oh well..." he held out a hand to his new found friends. "I’m Michaelangelo. But you can call me Mikey."

Michaelangelo stared at his counterpart thoughtfully. He seemed a little overly dramatic, almost to the point of annoyance. He was sure glad that this—hopefully—wasn’t his permanent dimension. Otherwise, he might drive his own self crazy! Nevertheless, he seemed genuine and witty, two things he admired in himself.

"Hi, Mike, nice to meet you." He shook the other’s hand. "I’m Michaelangelo, too. For the sake of our sanity, why don’t you call me Michaelangelo and I’ll call you Mike?"

The Turtle agreed, and proceeded to introduce himself to Raphael.

The red-masked one was the last to approach the new Turtles, and he did so cautiously. "I still don’t know if I trust you guys, but if you really are us, then I guess I should say ‘welcome to our humble abode.’"

As Raphael shook his counterpart’s hand, a weird feeling flowed through him. This was like looking into a mirror of his very soul. He could see himself now in a way that he never had before, and it both frightened and amused him.

Their introductions were broken suddenly, as the lair’s alarm system began to sound. Michaelangelo stared at the flashing police lights in fascination for a moment. Wonder how they got that down here. Hmmm... maybe I could convince Donatello to put one of those in the lair back home...

"Don," Leo asked quickly. "What’s going on? Is someone close to the lair?"

"I’ll check it out on my Turtle-fied Eye in the Sky." The purple masked turtle sat down in front of a strange looking, souped-up computer monitor and began to type on the keyboard. "Cripes, it’s the Dragon Lord!" he breathed. "He’s close to the lair, but not down here in the sewers. Looks like he’s above..."

"Can you pinpoint his location?"

The Turtle typed a few more things into the computer, watching anxiously as the bright dot moved quickly to the north. "It looks like he’s moving toward the old museum on 132nd street."

"Well, what’re we waiting for? Let’s book!" Raph grabbed up a pole with a sai at each end. Raphael couldn’t help but laugh a little. The weapon looked utterly ridiculous.

"Mike, go tell Splinter and get Venus."

Mike scooted quickly from the room.

Venus? Raphael thought, Who the hell is that? Their chimpanzee sidekick?

He found out soon enough, when this dimension’s Mike reappeared with another Turtle right behind him.

"Whoa... who’s the babe?" Michaelangelo gasped. Aside from an embarrassing occasion when the shapeshifter called Lurch briefly turned into one and made out with him, he had never seen a female mutant Turtle before and quite frankly, it fascinated him.

"This is Venus DeMilo, otherwise known as Mei Pieh Chi," Leonardo introduced quickly.

"Hello," the light blue bandannaed female Turtle said gracefully, if not a little confused. "It is nice to meet you... but please, do not refer to me as ‘babe.’ Or ‘hottie,’ for that matter."

"Uhhh... sorry..." Michaelangelo blushed.

A female Turtle? Raphael thought to himself. With tits? Man, now I’ve seen everything!

"We’ll have more time for introductions later. Right now, we have to stop the Dragon Lord!"

"Wait a minute! Who the hell is this Dragon Lord, and why the hell should we help you?" Raphael demanded. He thought briefly of his brothers’ nemesis, the Warlord Go-Komodo, whose henchmen referred to as "The Dragonlord," but didn’t think the Turtles he was in the company of now meant the same guy.

"Raph, they’re us," Mike observed. "Their enemies are our enemies."

"The Dragon Lord is a powerful adversary," Leo said. "If you help us defeat him, I swear that we will do what we can to help you defeat this... Shogun... and return home."

Leonardo had never been one to go back on his promises. After a moment of deliberation, Raphael finally agreed.

As they hurried out into the sewer tunnels, Michaelangelo stared after Venus, and then glanced excitedly at Raphael. "Wow... we certainly don’t have one of those at home!"

"Jeeze... you guys have a Hummer?" Mike stared at the vehicle in awe. "Master Splinter would never let us have a car..." He thought better of mentioning their aircar, which had once nearly gotten them in an extreme amount of trouble when they had been seen landing it in their Westwood Cemetery lair. "We’re ninja; we move with the night... and fade away into it..."

"Yeah, well, he doesn’t really like the idea of us having one either, but he’s gotta admit, it sure helps us get around!" Leo hopped in the driver’s seat and started up the engine as Michaelangelo watched the others battle for a spot in the front seat.

As soon as Raphael spotted Raph with his motorcycle, Michaelangelo knew there was going to be trouble.

"Wait a minute... you have a bike?"

Raph grinned at his counterpart, who stood there in complete awe over the massive machine. "Yeah...she’s a ’beaut, isn’t she?"

"Wait... this ain’t no fair! You guys get all the cool shit, and we’re stuck back in our time with nothing but our feet and our weapons! What gives?"

Raph shrugged and started up the motorcycle. "Them’s the breaks, I guess. You should see the anti-vampire gear we used on Vam Mi."

Raphael laid his hands on the handle bars. "Lemme ride this muther."

"I don’t think so." Raph gave him a cocky look.

"Look, I’m not leaving here unless it’s on this."

"Fine," Raph snarled. "Goodbye."

"You’re not listening to me..." Raphael held his grip on the motorcycle.

"Get your hands off my bike!" Raph yelled.

"It’s just as much my bike as it is yours. I’m you, remember?

An argument ensued, which turned into shoving, which turned into the tipping of the motorcycle.

"You’re gonna pay for that..." Raph hissed.

Finally, Leo stepped in. "Knock it off, both of you! We’re supposed to be trailing the Dragon Lord, not fighting amongst ourselves." Suddenly, that idea seemed so bizarre—fighting with one’s own self.

"Come on, Raphael," Michaelangelo pleaded. "We don’t belong here. We need to help these guys and find a way out of here. You do want to go home, don’t ya?"

Raphael mumbled something inaudible, and stormed off toward the Hummer to join the others. "Fine. But then I get to sit next to her." He found a spot in the back right next to Venus.

Raph glared as he picked up the bike, but then, noticing no damage, a satisfied smirk spread across his face.

Leo glanced over at Michaelangelo and noticed his seat belt wasn’t fastened. "A good ninja always buckles up," he instructed.

Michaelangelo forced a smile and glanced back at Raphael, who was rolling his eyes and murmuring "what the fuck?" This Leonardo was even more annoying than the one back home.

"Raph’n Roll, baby!" Raph shouted as he peeled out on the motorcycle.

"Yeah!" Don shouted. "We’re gonna show the Dragon Lord some Total Turtlefication!"

"It’s mega-shellage time!"

"Mess with the green and it’s gonna get mean!"

Raphael itched under his eyepatch, giving Michaelangelo a curious frown. Michaelangelo just shrugged.

The museum was dark and quiet. Beams of light lit up the room, casting orange shadows on the expensive paintings and sculptures. The crackle and hum from the security system was the only sound. Leo glanced to Don, who nodded in return. He knew what to do. Carefully and quietly, he rushed away, in search of the control panel. After a few moments of careful testing and analyzing, Don found the correct switch and pushed it. Dim lights turned on suddenly, and the laser beams fizzled out.

They glanced around carefully, searching for signs of their enemy. All was quiet—deadly quiet in fact, and Raphael didn’t like it.

"Looking for me?" a deep, menacing voice said from behind them. They whirled around, and Michaelangelo and Raphael saw one of the craziest sights they’d ever seen. It was a six foot tall talking dragon man, reminding the two a little bit of King Komodo back home. His skin was reptilian green, his eyes the color of sapphires, and he wore his black hair in a ponytail down the back of his neck. He was wearing some form of protective armor, and he wielded a sword. A funny looking, smaller dragon creature rested on his shoulder, a silly grin showing off his many sharp teeth.

Leo drew his sword and held it steady in front of him. "You’re not going to win this time, Dragon Lord."

The Dragon Lord laughed, shaking visibly as he did so. "Not only am I going to win, but I will have you on my dinner plate tonight for my next meal!"

As he began to cackle again, Raphael exchanged curious frowns with Michaelangelo. They had fought some pretty cheesy villains before, but this guy took the cake.

"Ohhh... majesty, can we eat them now? Just a little taste, perhaps?" The little dragon at his shoulder squealed in a high-pitched, irritatingly scratchy voice.

"Silence, Wicke! First we destroy them... then we eat."

Raphael pulled his sai from his belt and stepped up to face the enemy. "Sorry, but you ain’t eatin’ nothing, shitface. In fact, I doubt you’ll even be around to see your next meal."

The Dragon Lord stared at him in confusion and then at his comrades. There were now seven Turtles instead of five. Were they multiplying? Was he hallucinating? Where had the other two come from? It didn’t matter. This defeat would be even more glorious than he’d hoped. He would be able to absorb the power of seven mutants instead of five.

The seven Turtles stood in ready mode, preparing for the battle. Raphael figured taking out this dragon guy would be easy. He hadn’t expected a whole army of black-clad Rank warriors to scurry in from the shadows.

"Get them!" the Dragon Lord shouted.

Suddenly, the swarm of green-faced ninjas were upon them.

"It’s Green Time!" the five shouted. Michaelangelo shot Raphael an amused, questioning look. Raphael just grinned and shook his head.

The battle broke out. Raphael and Michaelangelo noticed that the other Turtles didn’t use their weapons much. They seemed to prefer their bare hands. Raphael, however, enjoyed working with his sai, and decided that their triumph would be much quicker if he used them. Besides, as Raphael rationalized it, a dead enemy doesn’t come back for more. Michaelangelo also wielded his nunchuks, which Mike watched him use in interest. His counterpart used nightstick-like tonfa, which were much more restrictive. That was probably why he generally discarded the weapon most of the time.

The Turtles made short work of the Rank warriors. With the seven of them working together, it had been easy.

"Piece of pie." Venus grinned. Leo didn’t bother to correct her this time.

But their battle wasn’t over. Now they faced their most threatening opponent, the one which the Turtles had never been able to bring down before.

The Dragon Lord was obviously furious at the defeat of his well-trained, yet often defeated soldiers. An evil snarl spread across his lips and his eyes began to glow red. Mike took a step back and began to visibly shake. Michaelangelo watched his counterpart, wondering why he was so stricken with fear.

Then he realized why when a flame of searing flames shot from the Dragon Lord’s mouth. He was definitely not in a good mood.

The Turtles backed up to form a sort of huddle, all the while keeping their eyes on their dragon enemy and his annoying little sidekick, Wicke.

"Okay," Leo whispered. "This is going to be tricky."

"Tricky?" Raphael smirked. "Believe me, we’ve faced far more dangerous villains than this! Baxter Stockman, The Shredder, Pimiko, Komodo, Romero, the Triceratons... this guy ain’t shit!"

"Yeah, c’mon, Leo," Raphael’s eyepatchless counterpart responded. "This guy ain’t so tough. The only reason why we haven’t defeated him yet is ’cause you wouldn’t let us use our weapons on him."

Leo sighed. "Look, Raph, I just wanted us to learn how to fight as a full-fledged team. If we work together, if we get our minds on the same track, we can defeat anything. We’re ninja; we use our bodies and minds. Weapons are meaningless without that."

Michaelangelo thought about that for a moment. Wasn’t that what their Leo had been trying to get them to understand for a long time? Suddenly, it all made sense. The Turtles were skilled, yes, and their weapons helped them defeat their enemies. But they had something much stronger than that. They were bonded, both mentally and emotionally, a tie which nothing but death itself could ever sever.

But ninjas... ninjas were assassins.

"Okay, now, I’ll take the lead. Raph, you and, uh, Raphael can follow up and attack from the side. Now..." He stared at the two of them seriously. "This is going to take teamwork, so no bickering."

"Yeah, yeah..." Raphael mumbled. Just like my Leonardo... always so damned bossy...

"Michaelangelo?" Leo continued. "You can join Don, Mike, and Venus at the rear. Everyone understand their positions? Good." He drew his oddly-crafted two-in-one sword. "Now... attack!"

"It’s Green Time!" they all shouted, and this time Michaelangelo and Raphael joined in, just for the heck of it.

Instantly, Leonardo rushed forward, throwing a forward kick into the Dragon Lord’s stomach. The Dragon Lord didn’t even so much as flinch. Leo staggered back a little and rose the sword.

"You’ve been lucky in the past, Dragon Lord, but this time, you’re going down."

The Dragon Lord began to laugh. "I don’t think so, my reptilian friend."

Michaelangelo noticed that his mouth hardly moved as he spoke. How does he do that?

Leo tried a punch this time, making contact with the Dragon’s jaw. He wavered a little, but just barely, his eyes glowing red again.

"Leo! Duck!" Mike called from behind.

Leo dropped down just in time for the flames to miss his head. While the Dragon Lord was distracted with Leo, Raphael and Raph set themselves in motion. They had a plan—they would attack simultaneously, one from each side. He may be able to block one, but he certainly wouldn’t be able to handle both at the same time.

They charged, weapons in hand, heading straight for their enemy’s sides. Raphael was still amused at the crazy weapon Raph wielded. Whoever heard of a pair of sai connected at the handles before? But he reminded himself he needed to concentrate. There would be more time for questions later.

Michaelangelo couldn’t help but wonder why they didn’t attack simultaneously as a group, but Leo probably had his reasons. He always did. He glanced at Mike. "So... when did you decide to switch to tonfa?"

Mike shrugged. "Well, I did use to have ’chuks. Sometime after we went on a time-traveling trip to 1603 Feudal Japan, I guess I just got tired of the things. But now I’m starting to fall in love with them all over again."

Raph ran for the Dragon Lord and sent a kick into his side, where the armor didn’t protect him fully. He winced in pain, his eyes glowing more brightly than before.

"Just for that, you’ll be the first au d’erve."

"I don’t think so," the Turtle snarled.

Meanwhile, Raphael was stealthily sneaking up on his other side. Their plan was working perfectly. But just as he was about to drive the sai into the Dragon’s side, the pesky Wicke spotted him.

"M-ma-majesty!" Wicke wailed. "Another Turtle... over here!"

"Shut up, you pesky ’lil short shit," Raphael snapped.

The Dragon Lord turned, fire burning in his eyes. Raphael matched the intense glare, and held it there, challenging him. The Dragon Lord’s anger grew.

In a swift movement, the Dragon Lord pulled out a jagged sword, so quickly, so violently, that Wicke fell off his shoulder to the floor. "Now you die," he said calmly.

Raphael met the challenge.

As the two began to fight, Leo returned to the others. "If we’re going to defeat him for good, we’re going to have to work as a team. Just remember what Master Splinter taught us."

"Don’t worry, Leo," Donatello nodded. "We know what to do."

Venus reached in a pouch at her waist and pulled out two round kai mi balls. Mike grinned. He loved this part.

Raphael blocked the Dragon Lord’s stab with his sai. This guy was good, but not good enough. With the Dragon’s weapon caught, Raphael seized the opportunity and sent a kick into his chest. The Dragon Lord cried out in frustration. Still, Raphael was confused. He seemed to have a wall around him that was impossible to penetrate.

Silently, Venus snuck up behind the Dragon Lord and tossed one of the kai mi. The whole area where Raphael and he were fighting filled with smoke. "I am shinobi," she said proudly.

The others clutched their weapons and rushed into the smoke. Here was their chance to practice the art of blind fighting. Splinter had taught it to them well. With the Dragon Lord and Wicke seriously outnumbered, and unable to see or fight in the thick cloud of smoke, the Turtles had the advantage. Teaming up, Don cracked him in the side of the neck with his bo, one of the only places he wasn’t protected by the heavy armor. The Dragon Lord was knocked off balance and clutched the sore spot on his neck. Michaelangelo seized the opportunity and began to swing the nunchuks, hitting him in every possible weak spot he could find. Leonardo used a sweep kick technique to knock him even further off balance, and eventually sent him to the floor. Mike joined his counterpart in attacking the Dragon Lord’s weak spots until he was bruised and weary, then grabbed some rope from around an exhibit and tied the Dragon Lord up by his wrists and ankles. Raph was busy with Wicke, one hand around his neck, pinning him to the wall. The Dragon Lord now subdued, Raphael made his move.

"Raphael!" Leo shouted, seeing him move with the rage in his eye. "No!"

But it was too late. Raphael was on top of him, burying one sai through a fold in the Dragon’s torso plate mail armor and the other straight into his gut. He thrust them in as far as he could, twisted them, held the Dragon’s wavering gaze for a moment, then withdrew his weapons and stood away.

As the smoke cleared, the Turtles stood around. They’d done it. After all this time, they’d finally defeated their enemy, and it had been teamwork that had seen them through.

"This... isn’t... over!" the Dragon Lord rasped.

"Majesty!" Wicke choked. "Help me!"

"Oh... shut up, you... blubbering idiot!" he snapped back, his voice choking on the blood caught in his throat.

"Good-bye, Dragon Lord," Venus said quietly. "I will now banish you once again to the Realm of Dreams where you belong, and avenge my master, Chung I."

"Nuh... no!" the Dragon Lord protested, pain in his voice. "N-no, you... can’t!"

But Venus ignored him. Instead, she closed her eyes and began to concentrate, focusing all her power on the task at hand. Slowly, her hands began to light up, and a swirling force began to form around the Dragon Lord.

Raphael let Wicke go, tossing him into the void with his master. As the air swirled faster and faster around them, the Dragon Lord gave one last cry of defiance, and then they were gone.

Venus knelt down on one knee after it was over. "At last it is over," she sighed. "Shall we return now to our home in the toilet?"

"Sewer, Venus," Leo corrected for the umpteenth time. "Sewer."

"You have done well, my sons," Splinter said softly, sitting cross-legged in his subway car. He glanced at the two new-comers. "All of you."

"Thank you, Master Splinter," Michaelangelo said, and he and Raphael bowed. They wondered why this dimension’s Splinter’s right ear had been cut most of the way off and considered asking him about it.

"You two... I see your own Splinter has taught you well," Splinter spoke to the two Turtles. "Please give him my regards."

"We’ll do that," Michaelangelo said. Since being returned to normal from the rabid bat-state he had been left in for those bleak months after being injected with Go-Komodo’s synthetic mutagen, Splinter had been spending most of his time reclusively, meditating during most of it.

Their extra-dimensional romp had been fun while it lasted, but the two of them were ready to try and go home. Even though they were returning to the real world, this experience wasn’t one they would soon forget.

Don came and stood in front of them. "Ready?"

"Ready as I’ll ever be." Raphael grimaced.

Raph walked up to him, and shot him a cocky smile. "It’s been real," he said.

"Yeah... you’re all right." Raphael grinned.

"Hey, master, I think I want my ’chuks back." Mike grinned and glanced back at Michaelangelo. "So you say in your dimension you have a girlfriend?"

"Okay, let’s get started." Donatello pressed a button on the computer. "Now I’m not sure if this is going to work, but it should. I simply reversed the gravitational pull from the first time hole." It had not been any picnic figuring it out, but Don had some time to study the physics of time travel since their experience in Feudal Japan with April’s scepter a year ago. "In, uh, theory, that should send you back through the portal to your own time and dimension."

The computer began to hum, and Michaelangelo and Raphael took their places in the middle of the lair floor.

"Wait!" Venus called. "I want to go with you!"

"Huh?" Michaelangelo and Raphael glanced at each other in shock.

"I want to see your world. I want to experience it and learn from it. And perhaps I can be of assistance in the defeat of your enemy."

"Now wait just a minute..." Raph protested. "Venus, you don’t know anything about this other world. Besides, you belong here with us."

"How do you know you can get back?" Leo added.

"Mei Pieh Chi must make her own decisions." Splinter stepped in. "She is her own person, just as all of you. She must choose her own path."

"Thank you, Master Splinter." She bowed, then turned to Michaelangelo and Raphael. "Do you have any objections?"

They looked at each other for a moment, sharing the same thought—What would Leo think?

Raphael grinned. "What the hell. Welcome aboard."

Venus took her place with the other two and bid her farewells as the world started to shift around her.

"Until we meet again." Leo bowed.

The three waved and faded into nothingness.

Damn... I gotta get me a bike! Raphael thought.

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