Oh God, Are We in Jersey?

by TheCuteImp

Summary:

Alternative title: Batfam Vs. Mad Dogs
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While New York is getting rebuilt post-Kraang, April still has to finish her general education classes if she has any hopes of getting to see the inside of the journalism building. Thankfully unthankfully, Riddler University has an opening that she can take. Hell, she may even end up liking it.

The turtles, recently healed from the battle of (hopefully) a lifetime, soon get the chance to visit her. From there, all chaos breaks loose. Namely in the form of pride, queer awakenings, and a lie that soon blows up.
____

I cannot picture a ROTTMNT and Batman crossover with anything less than a universe with a comedic and chaotic edge, thus this crossover was born.

Chapter 1: Prologue: Moving Forward

Notes:

This is simply a precursor chapter, so it’s a lot jumpier compared to what I want to do for the rest of this. To further clarify, this is just before grabbing a slice in the movie as New York’s still getting rebuild.

And extra thanks if any of you were brave enough to read this before another chapter was posted. Since I have more meatier chapters compared to my other episodic work, it’ll take longer to update this piece. I’m hoping you’ll find it to be a fun ride.

July

If you could ask Leonardo what he was most worried about when he was 14, the moment before the oozesquitoes were unleashed or Shredder appeared, his answer would have been something along the lines of “I don’t know why I can’t find girls hot and I’m too afraid to look into it.” But one whole situation after another happened, and he pushed that deep into the back of his mind. Come on, who can focus on all that when trying to actively not die during battle? As surprisingly well as he found himself handling these newfound responsibilities with his brothers, he still found himself thinking about how cool it would be to only have that anxiety around romance again, back when everything was just training and they spent their time messing around with April around NYC. 

Then he became leader, and for two years before the Krang he found himself pushing back against leadership. Yeesh, for a bit it was like he was entering Donnie’s level of fear of change. Leadership didn’t fully seep into his mind until he saw what had happened to Raph, and then weirdly it all kind of clicked. In the prison dimension it solidified further. Leonardo knew he was no longer the face-man. He had a place in the team and a responsibility to his brothers to lead them as a team, and as a brother being second-oldest. 

He was brought back out of his thoughts in the prison dimension, as pleasant of a distraction as they were, by the orange-gold glow of Mikey’s portal. He grinned at them, ignoring the twists of nausea and pain, as he cracked a joke before getting pulled through. Immediately after that was kind of a blur for him, though he did blink awake on the concrete of Staten Island (ew), surrounded by his brothers. He smiled as he was pulled into a hug. He felt content surrounded by his brothers, the warmth of their hugs a great contrast to the coldness of space. That content, happy feeling ended on a gross note, though, when one particularly strong squeeze reminded him of his nausea and quite unceremoniously showed his internal bleeding and the last meal he ate. All over poor Donnie, who was very much the turtle to get sympathy sick. And his poor, poor twin very much did, no amount of begging himself to keep it down stopping it from coming back up. Gross. 

One unconventional attempt at cleaning the twins up later, they found themselves dragging each other into the lair. Granted, Raph did most of the carrying for the three younger siblings, but whatever. It was weird watching the three brothers play doctor over him for the short time he was awake, though granted Vomitello stood back a bit and just gave verbal commands, Leo guessed he still probably wasn’t mentally recovered from Staten Island. 

Leo passed out not long after he was laid down in the lair, and apparently after finishing playing medic his brothers followed suit into what was probably the longest sleep of their lives. Leo was the champion of sleeping though, with how it took him twenty-two hours to wake up after one short time he blinked awake to find himself moved from the medical bay to the couch of all places. It was probably the hardest sleep of his life, he didn’t wake up once or so much as move aside from breathing. At least according to his brothers, though from one group chat photo from a very amused April, he knows they were all passed out in the living room together by the time her, Splinter, and Casey Jones returned to the lair. He knew the sleep was dreamless, though, and it felt more like a prolonged exhausted blink to wake up twenty-two hours later to his brothers trying to shove him some soup to eat. From there, aside from moving to his actual bedroom, he was placed on rest for a month, not that anyone was complaining about taking a break. 

Okay, that was a lie. He was the one complaining about taking a break. His brothers needed it, definitely. It didn’t take a trained professional to see the Krang situation fucked them up more than physically. Raph was a lot less hug-happy than he used to be, opting instead to train or hang out in the same space but at a distance from his brothers. Mikey took to his anxious habit of cooking and paired it with new “magic lessons” with Draxum at their lair, and his twin seemed to be on the verge of either a shutdown or a meltdown, or some new combination of both. He spent hours in his lab, whenever he was dragged out by one of his other brothers for “social time” he was much more fidgety, anxious to get back to working on repairing everything that was damaged. Leo wasn’t free from knowing that there was probably, more like definitely, some trauma sitting in his mind. He knew himself, though. He knew he’d be fine, and he totally did well just pouring his heart and soul into either social media or Jupiter Jim while on bed rest. Social media considered them all to be heroes, and Leo considered his brothers all to be that. They all were brave, putting up with the mess that he had created with the Krang in the first place and helping him clean up. He struggled to feel like he lived up to the title, especially with sitting around like he was now.

 

August

When he was finally able to get up from his bed longer than to do necessary business without his brothers having a panic attack, he went into training mode. He thought with Shredder gone, there’d be nothing worse than their normal crime fighting until the Krang. He wasn’t about to make the mistake that there was nothing worse out there ever again. He grabbed his katana, practicing a few routines to ensure he was still acquainted with the motions. He’d have all the time to prepare for the next thing. The crime detectors that Donnie had gotten up and running again were quiet, and he wasn’t surprised. The city that never sleeps was taking its sweet, sweet time to rebuild after all the damage. The Hamato brothers all had to hear April’s complaints about the newfound construction problems with getting into their lair, and how her university was temporarily shut down. She decided the immediate solution was a gap semester, hoping it would solve itself in a few short months. “Plus,” April said with a wag of her fingers towards her four younger siblings, “It gives me more time to keep an eye on you guys.” To be fair, with half of the city needing some form of construction, on top of all the existing projects beforehand, they should have all known it would take longer than a semester to solve.

 

---

“Happy birthday!” They all shouted a few short weeks later to their youngest brother as he walked out of his room. 

“Welcome to the 16 club, from people getting ready to leave it soon,” Leo said, patting the birthday boy on the shoulder. Donnie stood beside him, and while he was tinkering with his wrist screen Mikey was just happy he was out of his lab. Michelangelo gave him a snort that turned into a laugh, looking around at all the “sweet 16” themed decorations, and eyes finally landing on a crudely homemade cake being held up by Raph and April. 

“Cake for breakfast?” Mikey grinned, eyes lighting up at the cake. 

“Cake for breakfast,” Splinter confirmed from his seat near Casey, “And you control what else we do.”

“Aww, you guys,” Mikey exclaimed, quickly and happily grabbing a plate and knife to get the first slice of cake. 

“We should warn you,” April said, “It’s box cake mix, we tried following a homemade recipe and.. wellllll-“

“It kind of pwoosh -“ Donnie filled in for his sister, looking up from what he was doing and raising his hands in an explosion motion.

“Not literally, the kitchen’s fine, but it did boil over all weird,” Raph said quickly to calm the look of horror on the youngest’s face.

Mikey’s look of concern quickly turned back into a warm smile, “It’s the thought that counts. I’ll gladly be cooking my birthday dinner though.”

 

September

April found herself spending a lot of time in the lair, even packing long overnight bags to stay for stretches of days at a time. She loved her parents, she really did, but college was all about getting to be an adult and live her own life. Granted, she had Splinter still here as a ‘parent’ figure, but he wasn’t really that overbearing. She hummed to herself in the living area. Which brother should she bother today? Leo she bothered all day yesterday to try and stop him from training too hard, he’d probably get too snippy and she was not in the mood to handle a ‘tude. New future boy Casey was also out of the question, he’d often be sticking with Splinter to try and learn more about today’s time period, not like she’d call him a brother just yet anyways. She stood up, pacing a little. Maybe little Mikey? No, he has a magic situation with Draxum , she reminded herself. Mikey would probably welcome the distraction, Lunch lady Barry? Not so much. 

She walked to Raph’s room, knocking on the wall of the car to get his attention. 

“Come in,” Raphael called from his room.

She walked inside to find him on his bed, a small teddy bear in his lap as he appeared to be scrolling through his phone. “Hey,” She said, cracking a smile at him, “Got bored, so I’m bugging you.”

“I’m probably not going to be any more entertaining,” Raph said back, but still patted the spot next to him.

April sat down next to him, studying his features. With two months of healing, the scars that peaked out from the spaces in his bandana were looking much better, the one eye still discolored despite vision mostly coming back to it (“Though technically due to the differences in vision you’ll need glasses” she could still hear Donnie say. “Like you wear yours?” She could also hear Mikey fire back). “How’re you feeling now that it’s officially been two months since that whole situation?”

“Wow,” Raph blinked, “It’s been two months?”

April snorted, “Yeah, big dude. It’s been two months.”

Raph just shrugged at her, and April couldn’t help the small frown that formed on her face. She knew that shrug, it was a classic older sibling right of passage, and how dare he try it on her. It was a shrug that screamed Not feeling great but not going to talk about it. She disliked that shrug. Still, she wasn’t going to push if her giant little bro didn’t want to talk about it. It was cool, they’d all talk eventually. 

“You know,” She said after a moment to break the silence, “It’s also about three months before you hit the big one-eight. You ready for adulthood, Raphie?”

“Is 18 really adulthood?,” He replied with a small laugh.

April hummed, “I mean, it’s the age most kids graduate high school and start college, some kids move out, you can buy lottery tickets and get into crippling debt. It’s a whole right of passage. So, yeah, it’s like the kid stage of adulthood.”

It was silent for a moment, April staring down her brother and trying to gauge his emotions as he looked ahead at the wall in silence. “Fuck,” was all he said, breaking the silence.

“Fuck indeed, my good man,” April said, patting his shoulder. 

 

December 

When Raphael woke up that morning, the very first thing that ran through his mind was that it was strangely quiet. He pushed himself up into a sitting-up position on his bed, blankets and his stuffed animals falling around him. For a moment, he sat and he listened, noting it was still way too quiet. He considered working out, but his big brother's senses were tingling that he should probably check why the house sounded like a ghost town first. He stood and stretched, moving to change from his pajamas into a simple pair of red basketball shorts and a long sleeve that fit over his shell. He yawned and walked out of his traincar, moving down the tunnels and into the kitchen. 

“Happy birthday!” Mikey screamed as soon as Raph entered the doorway. Raph grinned at the sight, his family all around the table, a large breakfast at the table of all of Raph’s favorite foods. April finished pouring a cup of coffee for his sleep-deprived looking purple brother, before she moved her eyes to Raph and grinned. 

“Welcome to adulthood, Raphie. Need some coffee this morning?” She asked.

Raph nodded and sat at his spot at the table, thanking her as she gave him a mug of coffee. “I thought you weren’t a hot coffee person, Donnie?” He turned his attention to the second-youngest. 

“We’re out of energy drinks and I don’t want to be cranky and ruin your big day,” Donatello replied in his usual flat tone, mouth curling into a frown as he sipped his coffee. 

“You should try creamer in that or something,” Leo suggested to his twin. 

Raph happily watched the banter between his brothers while making his plate, before attention turned back to him.

“So, you control the day,” his father said in a chipper tone, “What do you wish to do, my son?”

Raph hummed, “I was thinking of opening presents, then a Jupiter Jim marathon.”

 

March

Donatello had finished necessary repairs just before Raph’s birthday in December, but now he was moving on to the enhancement and innovation stage of his lab process. He had ways he could make all of his tech better should something ever happen again, and new ideas flashed through his mind of potential machines that could prove useful that he didn’t have yet. He felt his chest tighten as a constant buzz began to pop up from one of his newer battle shells. He hissed and shook his head, reaching for his headphones as he grabbed a screwdriver and a few other tools to find and eliminate the noise. He needed it silent. 

He was normally able to tolerate noise, at least he was before the Krang. He normally found himself seeking out the sounds of drilling and humming just loud enough to have Leo coming over to tell him to shush, but now he found any clang of noise to make his spine shiver. He knew it was coming, the most colossal of episodes, but he’s managed to keep it away this long. He didn’t have time to freak out when there were so many things to do, he could ignore it no matter what his brother’s thought. After all, they had Leo and Raph to worry about, he didn’t want to pile his things onto them either. He felt the vibrations on the battle shell stop after he tightened it, and he lifted a single ear on his headphones to test the sound. He sighed and felt relief when he was met with silence. He moved from the battle shell’s dedicated storage area back to his desk where his computer was connected to a tiny drone of his. He sat down, rolling his shoulders and kicking his legs before typing out some strings of code. He huffed when trying to run the program led to subsequent failure, rapidly deleting lines of code to replace with new ones. 

“Busy?” He heard the voice of his older sister ask from the doorway. He whipped his head around to stare at April, only offering a shrug in return and motioning for her to come in. He heard her step inside, her footsteps stopping once she was standing beside him and looking over his shoulder. He went back to working on the code, enjoying the silence and the company. 

April eventually had to break the silence after a moment, though. “I’m thinking about transferring,” was all she said. The words cut through the silence. His hands stopped, hovering over the keyboard as his penciled brows knit together in a look of frustration. He turned on the screensaver of his computer, swiveling his chair to face April fully. He opened his mouth, but he found words felt heavy. Instead, his hands were quick to fill in the gap with an expression of why?

“Not in a talking mood, huh? You have been holed up in here too long,” April said with a chuckle. Donnie let out a huff of air, glaring at her. “Okay, Okay, grumpy-shell,” She sighed, sitting on an open area of his desk, “I’m thinking about transferring because it’s looking like it’ll take way too long to get my school up and running again. I want to graduate before I’m 30, Donnie.”

Donnie just frowned and crossed his arms tightly, appreciating the pressure across his plastron. He looked away from her for a moment, taking a deep breath. 

“I won’t be going too far, but all the other schools in the state are flooded right now. There’s a school in Jersey that’s not too far that I’ve been looking into,” April said, “I wanted to tell you first before I told the others at game night. I know you like processing time.”

 

---

“So where are you transferring again?” Leo asked, moving his game piece an amount of space before he looked back up at April. 

“I was thinking Riddler University, formerly Gotham University. It could be the field experience I need to get a good story for the journalism program,” April replied, moving her piece next.

“But New Jersey is so far away,” Mikey whined. 

“And not that I share the same opinions of NJ as my twin, but it is still too far to be driving in the open, no matter ‘how close’ it is,” Donnie added. April huffed, she was glad he found his voice since their talk yesterday, but damn did she wish he could be using it to be on her side here. 

“Well then, you guys can treat it like a trial run for someone moving out,” April replied, “I don’t know where I’ll end up after college, whether it's the opposite side of NYC, a suburb, or anything like that! I want to stay near you guys, but when I graduate I have to be realistic.”

“But you’re a mad dog, a human but a teenage mutant ninja turtle, and the first human at that,” Mikey said.

“Yeah, what if we need your help for a mission?” Leo added.

April gave them both a look at that, and Leo hated that he knew word for word what it meant. It was a look that screamed you really won’t be needing me anytime soon here and it was a look that was correct. Crime was slow, virtually non-existent in terms of crimes they normally stepped in to help with, to the point where police could handle it. Even in the hidden city it was strangely quiet as everything was getting rebuilt. April’s expression softened at her brothers, “Guys, let’s face it, we’re all growing up. I’m staring down 19 now and can leave my parents house for however long I want as long as they know I’m alive. I’d like to graduate before I’m old, and I can’t just do zoom classes and risk you guys getting spotted because you burst in.”

“April’s right,” Raph agreed.

“Commander O’Neil in my future always wished she could go back to college, so I’m glad you get to finish now,” Casey Jr. said with a grin.

“I know you all are happy for me at the end of the day, even the crybabies,” April teased, “Consider it a prequel to Raph.”

The game night got quiet for a while after that. “Raph’s not moving out soon,” was all Donatello said to break the silence, though it did nothing to relieve the newfound tension, “Right?”

 

April

“Oh come on Raph,” Leo huffed, his voice raising to a yell. 

Raph fired back with yelling of his own. It became a sort of strange routine, both eldest brothers being on edge after the events back in July. Their argument was in the living room, Donnie and Mikey took to hiding in the kitchen. Donnie sat at the table, fiddling with a small mystic-free communicator for emergency uses, something light enough but more durable than their cellphones for battle. Michelangelo was working on baking some cookies, humming rather loudly to distract from the yelling.

“I’m about two minutes away from flipping a coin to see if Dr. Feelings or Dr. Delicate Touch deals with them, Dee,” Mikey huffed as he placed the cookies into the oven.

“My vote is just ignore it,” Donnie replied in his usual snark. 

The yelling progressed, and with the sound of something getting pushed Donatello could watch the box turtle snap. 

“Oh, this is a job for Dr. Delicate Touch,” he said through clenched teeth, stomping into the living room. 

Not long after, the two older turtles temporarily called a truce. Donnie moved into the living room, noticing Raph was now gone. He must have went to hide in his room. Leo, however, was sitting on the couch and patted the spot next to him. He looked awkward, Donatello could tell from the look on his face that he and Raph had just gotten screamed at within an inch of their lives. He moved to sit beside his twin, who wrapped an arm around him in return. Mikey grinned at them and went to check on his cookies in the kitchen again.

“Sooo, mi hermano, it has come to my attention that due to other… priorities, I have neglected our birthday. But I mean, we’ve got to have an all out rager for the big ol’ 17, right?” Leo said, grinning at his twin, “How about we work on some planning?”

Donatello humored his twin, putting his input into the decorations and foods he’d wish to see at their ‘birthday rager’ as Leo would put it. April burst into the living room’s entrance, “I got in! Your girl’s going to Gotham!”

“It’s illegal to sound this excited about going to Jersey, Apes,” Leo teased, leaning his head back to look at her from his sitting spot. Donnie had opted to simply turn his head, lame twin powers activating. “But congrats,” he spoke again after getting a glare from her, waving his hand noncommittally. 

“I’m guessing you get one of those cool college dorms?” Mikey asked, poking his head into the living room. Donnie couldn’t help the chuckle at knowing his younger brother was eavesdropping. 

April snorted, “I’d never call them cool, but yeah. I’ll move in May for the summer semester.” 

“Perfect, that means you get to help plan for two totally amazing birthday boys’ birthday parties,” Leo grinned, receiving a verbalized “scoff” from Donatello beside him. Raphael walked into the living room, anger on his brow vanishing at the sight of April. 

“So what’s the news on your school?” Raph asked.

“I got in,” April said with a smile. 

“We’ll always be a phone call away if you’re in any danger, April,” Raph reminded her, ignoring Leo’s teasing about the twins’ birthday party. 

“Still don’t know why you chose there with how it was only recently accepted back into the United States, but go nuts over there April,” Donatello said, a small smile on his face despite his deadpan tone.

 

---

Leonardo began to feel like his family was conspiring against him. It began the day after his and DonTron’s 17th, when he woke up early for his normal training sessions. Typically, he was the only one up during this time save for his father and occasionally Raph, or a Donatello getting ready for bed. But when he entered the kitchen for a protein shake he was met by everyone up, groggily eating breakfast. Chatter at the table got quiet when he stepped into the room. “Erm, morning?” He offered.

“Good morning, Blue. We decided to have a family day, so we got up at your time,” Splinter said, offering a tiny grin to the slider, “Some of us manage better than others.” He pointed to Donnie, who was now resting his head on the table. Leo couldn’t help but snort. 

“Appreciate it, but I really got to train. I do a run before the sun’s up and then there’s strength training and technique-“ Leo began to explain.

“I’ll run with you!” Mikey offered with a grin. 

“The rest of our lazy asses’ll probably be waiting here,” April said with a tired groan.

“Language, April,” Splinter teased, “But if you wish to take a break, April wishes to have help packing for her dorm.”

Leo sighed, “I suppose since things have been slow we can all go help. But after my run.”

Leo had to admit, it was hilarious watching his baby brother run with him. They were both clad in oversized hoodies and running leggings, Leo’s hoodie being blue and Mikey’s orange, and their hoods were up to obscure their heads a bit. Leo preferred areas close to their tunnels, today’s running route was an empty park. He’d keep it short and pretty for Mikey. He knew the now-16 year old was as active as they all were, heck he was probably more into cardio than he was, but he figured he’d get bored running too long. 

“What got you into running all of a sudden?” Mikey asked, panting, “This is a new thing.” 

“‘Dunno, I find it calming,” Leo answered as he looped back to begin the last half of the run back towards the tunnels. 

“Is that the same answer for getting up at the ass crack of dawn? Like why 4:30 in the morning” Mikey whined.

“Who taught you to swear?” Leo asked, and Mikey’s face was priceless at that moment. He couldn’t help but snort.

“I’m sixteen, not five. And I ain’t no snitch this time,” Mikey said simply, offering a mischievous grin, “Plus, You can’t say you guys don’t swear. I’ve heard you and Donnie gaming before.”

“True, but hearing you say it feels morally wrong,” Leo said.

“Perks of getting older.”

“Yeah, I guess. But you getting older makes me feel extra older,” Leo countered. And he meant it. It was bad enough he was still processing that Raph was 18 now, and he and Donnie were next in line to be eighteen. Part of him still felt like he was eternally 14, even as he aged past Shredder he found himself struggling to truly feel his age. He felt like a kid in a suit trying to masquerade as more mature than he was and hoping others bought it. 

Of course, Mikey had to say what he’d been thinking. “I mean, time moves forward. We aren’t kids forever,” Mikey said once they approached the entrance to the tunnels, the two brothers slowing to a walk. 

 

May

“You guys should come visit me. You need a break from the lair and New York”

 

April’s voice was still repeating in Leonardo’s head for two weeks after she left. Her moving to Gotham had made them all nervous, with how the internet had shown the two biggest news pieces were about a villain being their mayor and some billionaire getting arrested. It seemed like criminals just ran wild there. But he had to admit that her voice rang through his head because she was right. 

He didn’t need a break, he needed to keep training. Today, his brothers were all hanging out with him in the new designated exercise room and watching him as he practiced a few kicks and hits. When he stopped for water, his eyes scanned across his brothers. He was met with tired expressions. Mikey almost looked bored staring down at his sketchbook, Donnie looked frustrated at his phone, and Raph looked like his new normal of annoyed. He could also feel the anxiety seeping through the room, some of it even his own. 

It’s not about you, Leo . He could hear Raph’s voice echo in the back of his mind. He sat his water down, and sighed loudly, causing his brothers’ tired expressions to all move up to him. He didn’t need a break, but they did.

“Apes is right,” Leo said simply, rolling his shoulders to stretch his muscles. 

“Huh?” Mikey asked, tilting his head.

“April’s right, you need a vacation. You guys look miserable,” Leo said. 

“We are the only ones looking miserable?” Donnie asked, sarcasm dripping out of his voice.

“Hey, don’t derail me here,” Leo huffed, flicking Donnie’s forehead and getting an annoyed hiss from him, “Know how April always complained that she can’t take her brothers to pride up top for a birthday-pride combination?” 

It was silent for a moment, but he watched his brothers all nod.

“Well, I think you guys should surprise her for Gotham’s, it’s in the second week of June but we can totally spend the first week just seeing why people like Jersey, get some ally stuff, surprise her for her birthday,” Leo offered to his brothers.

”And what would you do?” Donatello asked.

”Stay here and listen for signs of crime, train, the usual,” Leo said with a shrug.

”We aren’t going without you,” Donatello said, placing his phone away.

”But you guys need to do something other than sit around here,” Leo countered.

”So do you,” Donnie argued.

They were taken out of their argument by Raph’s phone beeping. He took it out, frowning at whatever was on his screen. From a distance, Leo could hear his own phone, and soon his two other brother’s phones were going off as well. 

“You’ll need to come with us,” Raph said simply, tone hard to read, “Check your phone.”

Leo sighed and walked over to where he sat his phone, opening up the sibling group chat. It was a message from April.

Roommate talked about some people with footprints painted on their heads carrying around a jar of mosquitoes. Seen the foot clan recently?

Chapter 2: 1. Starting Off Great

Summary:

Can they ever have a mission go well?

 

———

 

One of the chapters on the shorter end of my word length goals for the chapters of this story, but still a goodie.

Notes:

*gets really close to the microphone, practically inhaling it* Thank you for the patience. I'm really close to graduating with my masters and am drowning in school work so I'm a little behind on updating this and literally everything else on my account. I have a google doc I type this on while I'm at work or else this would be even slower to update.

Roommate talked about some people with footprints painted on their heads carrying around a jar of mosquitoes. Seen the foot clan recently?

It took three days of scrambling to get on the road, between Donatello finishing a cloaking device to make the tank look more like a large truck, Mikey insisting they find a place to sleep that wasn't the tank in Gotham and failing miserably to find crumbs of an existence of a Hidden City there, and convincing their dad to let them go alone after Raph and Donnie's strange insistence causing some stalling. 

Now, the four brothers sat in dead silence on the road. Dead, tense, weird silence. Michelangelo nervously eyed over at the blue-clad leader, noticing his eyes just bouncing between the GPS directions to Gotham and the windshield to look ahead at the clogged highway. Raphael insisted on driving for the trip, causing the three younger brothers to have nothing to really do with no battle going on. 

The box turtle would be lying if they said they weren't excited to be on the surface during a pride parade, even if he had to sneak away and watch it on a rooftop. April would always tell stories about the different events she went to, like daytime drag shows for families, merchants, rainbow everywhere. He wanted to see it in person. He could break the silence with that, couldn't he? 

"So," he drawled out, grinning at the other brothers, "Foot clan or not I think April will strangle us if we miss pride."

Leonardo just hummed, "She'll get over it." 

Michelangelo frowned, looking over at his immediately older brother. Donatello's frown deepened as he stared down his twin. It reminded him of back at the lair. 

 

Leonardo had stared at his phone in silence, expression something that Michelangelo couldn't read. Though, Mikey was sure his expression wasn't any easier, as his lips were pressed in a tight line and waiting for a response. He eyed over at Donnie, who looked strangely nervous as his eyes were focused on Leo, and Raph who looked eerily calm. 

"Fine," Leonardo spoke after a long, tense moment, "But this isn't a fun trip anymore. And we need to get the others involved, get as many hands on deck to figure out what the foot clan wants." 

"No. Just us Leo," Raph was quick to respond, calm turning to annoyance. 

 

Mikey hated when his brothers argued, he remembered before the invasion the many nights of crying in frustration while trying to drown out their yelling. Nowadays, it was more annoying. He'd give them both credit, the arguing dramatically decreased, but it was still present and rather than sad It left him pissed off. 

"Leo," Raphael huffed, keeping his eyes on the road, "You remember what dad said, we still have to hang out with April."

"Who would have thought Mr. Adult would care what daddy thinks," Leo spat back. 

"Oh Jesus FUCKING Christ! If you guys start right now I will turn myself in to the government," Michelangelo groaned, causing the two oldest to snap their mouths shut. 

"Language," They heard Raph mutter with no real malice.

“We aren’t really on a strict time limit to come home, we can always find the foot clan and then hang out with her,” Donnie offered, his monotone stiffer than usual. That got a groan of annoyance from Leo, and Mikey found himself sharing a look with the soft shell.  

 

Immediately after the argument ensued between the leader of the team and the oldest in the family on what to do, Donnie was quick to drag Mikey away to his lab. "My dear sweet Angelo, I am in need of a lab assistant," was all he said before grabbing the younger by the arm and dragging him down the tunnel to the subway car that encompassed his lab. 

"I hate when they do that!" Mikey exclaimed, feeling frustration burn wet on the edge of his eyes as he dragged his hands across his eyes to stop it, "You'd think they'd have smoothed over better than this. We were on a good streak."

"They're still working out who gets what responsibilities," Donnie said with a sigh, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"I'm more angry than I am upset at anything, they do so good about not arguing and then the dumbest things set them off," Mikey grumbled, sighing in partial relief as no more angry tears formed in his eyes. 

"Mikey, Michel, Michelangelo," Donnie hummed, "My only other neurodivergent sibling-"

"You can't convince me any of us are neurotypical, I'm just the only other person you convinced to sit down and research it. Not even counting mental illness," Mikey chuckled. 

"Yes, but that's for another day," Donnie said simply. He went to grab his tablet from its charger, opening up his coding program, "The point that I was going to make was that I have something to tell you."

 

"How much longer?" Donatello groaned, swiveling in their chair.

"We're entering Gotham now. Human disguises ready?" Raph asked, looking back briefly once they reached a stop light. 

"You mean the layers of clothes?" Mikey asked, snorting at the near-offended look on Raph's face.

Donnie pulled out his phone, sparing a glance at Mikey. Mikey looked back, raising an eye ridge at him. Donnie just grinned, "Texted April that we're in town."

"There's an alley in walking distance of the university and the shopping district, we’ll base the tank there when we aren’t driving it,” Raph said, “When we pull in you can send her the coordinates.”

Soon enough, the tank was parked snugly in an alley, cloaking changed from having it appear as a van to blending in with its surroundings. The turtles all put their clothes on and hopped out of the tank, looking ahead at people walking by. The most they were spared were small side glances as they exited the alley, but nothing in the expressions of the people screamed concern.

Donnie heard his phone ding, and looked down at it again, “She’s in the shopping district, let’s meet her there.”

Without waiting for an answer, the purple turtle walked towards the shopping area and adjusted his headphones, following crowds of grumpy Gothamites. Michelangelo followed close behind, grabbing onto the oversized purple sleeve of Donnie’s hoodie. 

“Guys,” Leo whined, before speed walking with Raph to try and catch up to the two younger turtles.

Donnie continued to weave through the crowd, noticing the sidewalk rules ran similar to how they did back home. People were not a fan of people walking slower, or stopping, so he made sure to keep his pace as he stared ahead at the neon signage of stores. Once he reached a bigger clearing of concrete connecting the stores together in one large plaza he felt comfortable enough to stop. 

He adjusted the noise input allowed on his headphones, eyebrow quirking when he heard someone walk past him mumbling about some kind of new crocodile goons. He didn’t get it. 

“Um, Donnie?” Mikey spoke up behind him, tugging on his sleeve again. 

“Yes?”

”I don’t see Leo and Raph,” Mikey spoke, tone unsure.

”They’re big kids, they have phones, and April really is here,” Donnie replied simply, his eyes catching a hot topic, “Now, let’s enjoy a small detour shall we?” 

---

“Leo! Raph! Hey,” April grinned, a Pretzel Pete’s soft pretzel maker uniform still on from the end of her shift, sitting in the plaza at the front of a cluster of stores waiting on the boys to show up, “Where’s the other two? I wanted to prove to Donnie I could keep a job longer than four days.”

The blue and red turtle in question looked in her direction before stopping in front of her.

”They walked ahead of us,” Leo explained, “And we lost sight of them.”

“Oh,” She pulled out her phone to send a text to Donnie, “They’re probably in a store thinking I’ll be in one. Kinda forgot to mention where specifically I worked in here to Donnie.”

“How’s Gotham been?” Raph asked her.

April grinned, “Surprisingly fun, Riddler Uni is actually not that bad, there’s weird people fighting crime and weird villains doing the crime… feels like home.”

”Never compare Jersey to our sweet beautiful town again,” Leo gasped, feigning offense. 

“I think you’ll come to see there’s not much between Gotham and New York,” April chuckled, “My neighbor, Babs, is a Gotham native, and she’s got a lot of cool stories about this place. Her dad was the police commissioner before Mayor Joker. He’s… not as cool in the stories.”

Raph snorted. Leo found himself sighing, “Look, seems fun, but let’s focus here. We need to find Donnie and Mikey, and then we’re talking about that foot clan thing.”

”Leo, I know you need a chill pill when you’re the one suggesting we focus,” April said, “You’re the Mad Dogs, you can handle this.”

“But really, any update from our younger brothers?” 

“None,” April said with a frown.

Leo pulled out his own phone, sending a text in the brother group chat. He decided to speak into the comms after no indication anyone but Raph looked at his text, “Earth to Orange and Purple, where are you two? We’re here with April.”

Leo’s concern grew when the silence continued to grow. 

“I’m sure they’re fine. People are okay with mutants here, for the most part, especially with villains being more open here,” April asked, “You know how they can fixate on something sometimes.”

”Let’s look around, they have to be somewhere.”

_____

 

Donnie knew that there was a lot of things he never really understood, perks of having a “touch of the ‘tism” as April and Leo would joke. But one of those things was the social convention of clothes, masculinity, and femininity. He walked through the Hot Topic, looking at the variety of flag merchandise on display and the fandom content, stopping when he got to the clothes to feel at the texture of a skirt. Mikey was nearby, eyeing up the pins. 

“Did you bring Dad’s card?” Mikey asked.

”No,” Donnie said, “But I did bring a card with money.”

”Who’s card with money?”

”Dearest Angelo, do not worry yourself with this pursuit,” Donnie replied. Really, it was a card that skimmed off of a variety of billionaire business accounts. Only recently made by him, but he knew its reception would probably be poor if discovered by the other brothers. 

Mikey gave him a look, but didn’t bring it up anymore. “Anything catch your eye?” The box turtle decided to ask instead.

Oh, a lot of things in this store caught his eye. But they didn’t know if they were ready for that conversation yet. So, Donatello shrugged instead.

”Let’s head out then,” Mikey said. And soon, they were out of the store.

”Why’d you ask me about having a card if you didn’t want to purchase anything?” Donnie asked.

”I thought about it, but decided not to,” Mikey said. 

Out of the corner of his eye, the purple turtle noticed Leo and Raph with April. “Sigh,” He mumbled to himself. He wasn’t ready to get too focused on the mission yet, they were states away in an area where no one seemed to care much about green teenagers running around. 

“Miguel?” Donnie asked.

”Yeah?” Mikey responded.

”Would you be offended if I offered we leave the plaza?”

________

Leo was getting restless, the sun was setting and many stores were beginning to close in the area and there was still no sign of the two youngest. They walked put of the Hot Topic, frowning at Donnie and Mikey not being there.

“Hey, that’s one of the vigilantes, I think,” April spoke up, and Leo followed her arm to the woman she was gesturing at, “She might help. Cops are non existent here anymore.”

Leo nodded, walking over to the blond woman.

Notes:

If you like the story, I'm open to comments, criticism, theories, etc!

Chapter 3: An important author’s note

Hello all! I want to start by saying I still have plans for this work, although admittedly it has sat dormant longer than my other multi-chapter fan fiction. I’ve been stuck on how to write out a plot point for this piece but I think I may have finally gotten passed it. However, I wanted to make a note on the recent AI scraping that’s been going on with the publicly accessible fan fiction on here. If you read multiple of my fan fictions, you’ll likely see this on other multi-chapter works as well. 

First off, I am going to be keeping this fan fiction public. While I am extremely disheartened at the chance it could have been used to train Artificial Intelligence without my permission, this also isn’t completely like how I write when intending to publish a work (note: I have no published pieces right now, but hope to some day), so I’m not too worried about my voice being stolen. On top of that, I do want the guests who have started this piece to be able to finish it.

Important to note, though, is any new fan fiction I create will be locked from guests. So if you are interested in seeing any works I create as a multi-fandom author in the future I will encourage you to make an account. 

So, to recap: My Mike-centered Total Drama Fanfiction, my Hazbin Hotel oneshot piece from back when it was still a youtube pilot, and my ROTTMNT/Harley Quinn fan fiction are public and will remain public. Any future works for any fandom I create onward will be locked. If AI scraping continues from there, then I guess we’ll see what happens. 

Thanks all, and sorry to those who got the notice of an update and were super excited for a new chapter!

Chapter 4: 2. Harlequin

Summary:

Leo is totally not going to commit fratricide when he found his twin and baby brother.

—

Meanwhile, Purple and Orange take on Gotham!

Leo was cool. 

Leo was cooler than cool. He was so cool in fact, he was totally not about to commit fratricide when he found the two youngest turtles. He knew what fun was. He was fun (or, well, used to be if you asked the right people). He could totally understand. 

He was so, so cool with being in a new city with no idea where they were. One could argue he was ice cold. They were all so confident Donnie left eloping behind when he was 10, and now here he was gone and Mikey went with him? He took a deep breath to stop the rage from boiling up further. Then, he pulled out his phone and sent an additional message to the brothers’ group chat. If they valued their lives, they’d hopefully respond and they can go back to their mission and everything would be smooth sailing from here. He felt a pang of annoyance re-emerge, with a particular twitch of his eye, when a beat passed with no response. He sighed, it was time to talk to the woman April pointed out and not just be awkwardly standing a few feet in front of her.

The woman, the vigilante pointed out by April, wore pigtails. Weird for a grown ass woman, but hey who was the giant turtle to judge? The tips of her hair were dyed pink and blue, and she was near crayon white in her complexion. Slung over her shoulder, relaxed in the grip of her hand, was a baseball bat. With the outfit on top of that, divided between blacks and reds, and rather revealing, Leo was almost glad they were not the only ones fighting in shorts and virtually little else. But she also didn’t look much like the heroes Leo had researched and seen. 

The wafting scent of Raph’s worry stink hit his nostrils and he frowned. Need to focus, he reminded himself, as he stopped focusing on the woman’s choices and started walking up to her.

As he got ever closer, the woman turned and looked in his direction. 

“Hey, uh, you..?” He began.

“Yes, uh, you..?” The woman matched back, sarcasm in her tone, “You’re not from here are you?”

“Eyeah, we’ve been told you can help us with something that’s pretty urgent?”

---

Donnie may have miscalculated how a journey in Gotham would go. He was walking down the street, Mikey with him, as he looked around at the various businesses and buildings. Part of him had expected it to be similar to NYC, after all they were both rather large cities marked by notable tall buildings and an overabundance of people around— an overabundance of people who were weirdly cool with two turtles walking down the street compared to the reaction he’d expect at home. However, he had expected it to be a similar grid system. 

Instead, he found himself more confused.

He pulled out his phone to look at the maps of the area. He could see messages pop across the top of the screen in the group chat from Leo. He closed his phone, adjusting his headphones to the hums of the crowds around them to cancel the noise out. He was also so sure things would be fine, with being used to the noise of NYC and his own blaring EDM playlist in the layer, but he couldn’t help the way the noise made his skin crawl today.

“Leo’s sending messages,” Mikey said, and Donnie looked over to notice his younger brother on his phone as well. Mikey wore a small frown on his face.

Donnie sighed. He opened his phone and  read the messages, then reread them again. He put his phone back in his shorts pocket, tapping his fingers against his thigh in a rhythm from a song he heard passing by a store. “Ignore him. He’ll survive if we don’t reply right away,” he answered Mikey. 

He was hoping it wouldn’t bite him in the ass. Knowing how Leo has been acting though, he couldn’t help but acknowledge deep down it would probably bite him in the ass very, very hard.

“Where did you want to go again?” Mikey asked.

“Sigh,” Donnie began, “There’s a store called ‘Comicz’ that is known for being the largest vendor of comic books, cosplay, and memorabilia in all of New England. Of course Gotham had to beat us at that.”

“Ooo,” Mikey cooed, “Fun!”

Donnie grins, “Yes, little bro, very fun. And after that, if time allows, I see a show should be in the park nearby.”

“What time limit are we on?” Mikey asked.

“However long it takes our lovely eldest siblings to hunt us down.” 

Mikey grinned, a bounce in his step, “Call me crazy, but I think we got the upper hand, Dee.”

“Okay, crazy, sure,” Donnie replied, a grin tugging at his lips to match his brother as he playfully bumped his shoulder. 

---

“So,” The woman, Harley clicked her tongue, moving her bat from her shoulder as her hands moved to her hips, “Your younger brothers, who are 16 and 17, just decided to walk away?”

“Yeah, they’re nowhere to be found,” April answered this time. 

“And it’s important we find them so that we can get back on track,” Leo added. He frowned as he heard a sigh from his sister beside him.

Harley nodded, humming, “Back on track— were you guys just here for a pitstop? The gas station is like 5 miles down the road.”

Leo groaned, “No— it’s— not that easy to explain. We just need to find Michelangelo and Donatello. They should hopefully be easy to find, one is a giant talking soft shell and the other is a giant talking box turtle.” 

“Oh, are the four of you named after artists? Raphael, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello… or are you guys Italian?”

“No—“ Leo ran a hand down his face. He really did not have time for this, this game  of fifty questions. “Well, maybe the painters, our dad is Japanese and our technical other dad is like… a yokai? Do you know what that is— don’t actually answer that.” He held a hand up when he saw Harley opening her mouth. “Point is, we’re here because some bad guys from New York are spotted here, it’s only a bonus that our sister April lives here. I know you guys have Pride right? It wouldn’t be fun if that got ruined for everyone.”

“True, true, so you guys are like superheroes?”

“Mutant ninja turtles. But we do protect people. And Michelangelo and Donatell, aside from being brothers I love dearly even if I want to strangle them when I find them, are part of our team and mission. Can you help us find them?”

Harley hummed, and checked the time on her phone, “Yeah, sure, I can help a little. But I promised my girlfriend dinner so if this goes on too long I need to call her. You should explain it some more while we look.”

---

The inside of Comicz was large, and Donnie was sure if Heaven was real it’d look approximately like the inside of this store but with his lab stapled on to the left of it and add a dance stage to be the barrier between the two. It was glorious, with copious amounts of Jupiter Jim merchandise, Atomic Lass solo comics, various other heroes and anime merch and books. They even had a pride collection, Donnie looked over the rainbow section, debating getting a gift for April, before he was dragged away from his thoughtful consideration from a three-fingered hand shaking his shoulder.

“Sigh,” Donnie said, looking back to face his brother, “See something you want, Mikey?”

“Oh, lots, but I don’t think we’d fit it all in the tank,” Mikey grinned, “But something else actually caught my eye.” Mikey pointed, back towards the entrance. 

Donnie followed where his finger was pointing, noticing a large community board with events plastered on it. “What about it?” Donnie asked. 

“Center left flyer.”

Donnie squinted his eyes to read the flyer. A family friendly drag show. “Can we go?” Mikey asked, “It’s in an hour, at some Thomas Wayne Park”

Donnie checked their distance from the park on the phone, before shrugging, “Sure, why not? Let’s grab anything we want then, pay, and get there.”

Mikey smiled, looking at the pride section Donnie was looking at before, “Do we want to be underdressed for a pride thing? April would be pretty sad.”

“I own nothing rainbow, Mikey, and even if I did we packed bare minimum,” Donnie replied. 

Mike shrugged, “Neither do I.” He reached, grabbing a tote bag tha had a rainbow atomic symbol and a hat that had Jupiter Jim’s ship but with a rainbow beam coming out of it. “But we would if we got these.”

Donnie smiled, “I’m alright with that, but I get the Atomic Lass bag.”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way, Donnie.”

Notes:

You cannot tell me NYC was rebuilt quickly after the Kraang. This takes place 10 months after the ROTTMNT movie. I also don't think all of their birthdays were a day before the film took place, so some characters may be mentioned to be slightly older than cannon.

Also, the humor is getting amped up to match the Harley Quinn show’s but they’re still teens so don’t expect them in any situation too overly mature or explicit.