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calliecat93 · 6 years

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Callie Reviews: TMNT 2012 Season 2 (Part Two)

Continuing from Part One

The Shift (Episodes 15-18)

After a silly filler episodes that you LARP-ers will probably enjoy, the plot continues in I Think His Name is Baxter Stockman. Finally fed up with Stockman’s incompetence, Shredder triggers the mutagen collar and Stockman is turned into a fly mutant. But he gets the idea to mutate himself with... I really don’t fully understand the plan. To put it simply, he plans to kidnap April due to her unique DNA and have them mutated together to restore his humanity. Such a sound and totally not insane plan!

So part of the season has had Donnie trying to develop a retro-mutagen, a mutagen antidote that will revert the person back into a human. He finally succeeds and has two batches, one for April’s dad and the other or Splinter. The gang goes to get April’s dad, leading to Stockman finding them and kidnapping April. Although April tries to escape, even whacking Stockman with her tessen, she ultimately tied over the mutagen. One of the vials got broken, so Splinter tells Donnie to use the one that’s left to cure Kirby. As Leo, Donnie, and Casey go to save April, Raph and Mikey are sent to find and capture Kirby.

While April does get dunked into the mutagen, as it turns out due to her DNA she is immune to the effects. So since that plan failed, and really? Did we expect Stockman’s B-rated horror movie plan to work? But yeah, Stockman tries to steal the retro-mutagen with Rhazar soon joining the party! They all escape and meet up with Raph and Mikey, April calming down her father. But Stockman manages to steal the mutagen, forcing a huge aerial chase to get it. Which let me just say that April is awesome this episode. When the vial gets stolen, she rounds up her dad and Casey and goes after it. The vial ends up broken, but like Hell April is going to give up the chance of saving her dad after all the shit form before. She manages to get her dad below it as it drips and he reverts back to normal. Also once she gets freed after being mutagen dunked, she kicks Stockman’s ass hard. Seriously, this episode did a MUCH better job at presenting April as a badass who deserves to fight alongside the Turtles ten times better than The Kraang Conspiracy did.

So yeah, Kirby is unmutated, yay! But Donnie’s now fresh out of retromutagen. He feels guilty as now he can’t restore Splinter’s humanity, but Splinter makes it clear that he has come to terms with his mutant status and is happy as long as he has his sons. Stockman is brought before Shredder, who has decided to give him one last chance. There is a certain mutant that he wants, and tasks Stockman with creating it for him.

Speaking of the Foot, we return to the Karai story in The Wrath of Tiger Claw where the kunoichi is having doubts about everything. We also have Tiger Claw return... so what was the point of having the worm swallow him? Anyways, Shredder has him and Karai make a move against the Turtles. After beating intel out of their friend Murakami, Tiger Claw attacks Casey while Karai confronts April. She claims that she doesn’t want to fight, even thinking of turning on Shredder. When Leo and Donnie show up, Leo decides to do what is by no means a bad decision: take Karai to the Lair without questioning if this could be a trap at all! Our fearless leader everyone! Yeah, this is all a ploy by Karai to find the location and she has a tracker so that Tiger Claw will follow suit.

However with Karai there, Splinter brings her into the dojo and shows her a photo of himself and Tang-Shen. A photo that Karai herself has. When she sees the family portrait, it hammers the revelation in further. She cant believe it, which confuses Leo, so she reveals that it was a trap. But yeah, now Karai has physical evidence, so she now knows the truth. She and the Turtles get out of the sewers and to a butcher shop to lead Tiger Claw away and proceed to fight. Mikey end sup pretty badly beaten up as Karai cements her turn of alligence. Agreed, Tiger Claw knocks her out and takes her back to face Shredder. With Mikey’s injuries, the Turtles can't follow and Raph makes it clear that despite all of this, he still doesn’t trust Karai. Leo is angered by all of this, but ultimately there’s nothing that he can do.

Karai is brought before Shredder, Tiger Claw revealing her aiding the Turtles. Angered, Karai asks Shredder to tell ehr the truth. So Shredder does just that, revealing that yes, Splinter is her real father. This murders the last bit of lingering doubt in Karai’s mind. So what does Shredder do now that all of his lies are out on the table? He has Tiger Claw throw his so-called ‘daughter’ in the dungeon below! Father of the Year everyone! Oh, but you think all of this is bad! HA! Oh just wait. JUST WAIT.

The Revelations (Episodes 19-24)

We get three filler episodes after that. The first one is stupid and not worth mentioning other than that I hate it. One involving an arms dealer named Ivan Steranko (who we saw last season in Enemy of My Enemy) and a Tron-esque thief named Anton Zeck. They try to steal Shredder’s helmet, the Turtles get invovled, and Leo tries to use this to bargain for Karai. It fails. Remember those guys names though, it’ll be important next season. The other one is a Kraang plot where Raph gets his mind switched with a Kraang. A fun episode, especially since we get to hear Sean Astin have to talk Kraang-like and it is hilarious. But the episode ends with Raph revealing that the Kraang are about to start another invasion and Donnie revealing a plan for something he’s making to fight back: a mecha!

We return to the Karai plot with her trying to escape, but she sadly gets re-captured. Shredder, in both this and the previously menitoned episode abotu his helmet, has tried to tell Karai thing slike he was trying to do what was best for her or that how she’s acting is hurting him. You know... like an abuser would talk to someone. The Turtles have mad ea plan, but Splinter has forbidden it as he refuses to lose any of his other kids. Leo goes through with it anyways and it does work. They’re able to break Karai out, fight through the Foot, and get back to the Lair safely. Shredder... takes this surprisingly well. Why? Because he knwos that Karai is going to come back of her own volition to get payback. Of course you would you sick fuck, you raised her to be that way. God I hate Shredder...

Anyways, Splinter reveals to Karai the full story of what actually happened, including his relationship with Shredder. As it turns out, the Hamato Clan had wiped out the Oroku Clan, but Splinter’s father took pity on young Saki and adopted him into the clan. So Splinter and Shredder were raised as brothers, but things got tense when Splinter got together with Tang-Shen, who Shredder has been with previously, and when Shredder discovered his true heritage. Angered and fulled by vengeance, he and Splinter fought, but Tang-Shen sacrificed herself and took a lethal blow to save her lover. Shredder came out of it disfigured and during the chaos, stole the baby away, lying to her the ame way that the Hamato’s did.

Learning this on top of everything else, Karai decides to go back and personally finish Shredder. Leo finds out... and asks to go with her, also wanting to put an end to it. Wow Leo, so responsible there... Karai responds by knocking him out. She goes back and she and Shredder have one heck of a brawl, but ultimately Karai gets pinned and Shredder has her taken to Stockman’s lab. Why? Well remember that mutant that he asked Stockman to make Well it involves using Snake DNA in Stockman’s large vat to lure the Turtles in and mutate them into snakes. What do snakes like to eat? Why rats of course! Yeah, Shredder plans to mutate Splinter’s sons and have them devour him. Wow... wow. Does this man have ANY limit to how sick he can be?! Of course not because he ties Karai over it to serve as bait! There is NO WAY that THAT could go wrong in ANY WAY possible!

The Turtles and Splinter arrive and all but Leo get caught. He reaches Karai... but Shredder attacks him and severs the link. Karai is sent into the vat, turning into a snake mutant. Oh and on top of all of that, a fire gets ignited! So Shredder had kidnapped, lied to, and emotionally abused a young girl, threatened her with violence if she didn’t obey, locked her up when the truth came out, tried to paint himself as the victim when she was understandably pissed off, he used her as bait, and because of his own blind arrogance he got her mutated. SO who’s to blame for this? Why Splinter of course! OF COURSE! Shredder swears to avenge his daughter and I just want to break things. Splinter is able to break through to Karai and she flees. As Stockman’s building burns down, Leo apologizes to Splinter... but all Splinter says is that they should go.

One small note I have to make. When Stockman was preparing the DNA, he split something and it got mixed in. Thus creating a rather unique mutation. One that allows Karai to shift back into her human form, huh...

The penultimate episode, Into Dimension X, has the Turtles receive a message from someone we haven't heard from in over 20 episodes. My friends, Leatherhead is back! He tries to contact the Turtles via communication orb to warn them of the Kraang’s plans... but Mikey gets upset and breaks the orb. They also get a working portal for Dimension X and desperate to save his friend, Mikey stupidly goes in alone. It forces the other three to go in to find him, and kudos to the animation team. Dimension X both looks and feels totally alien. Most of the environment is crystallized and there are these strange little alien creatures. Add in the pink sky and it feels like a place the Kraang would come from.

So as it turns out, Mikey had become... very adapt to how Dimension X works due to his bizarre train of logic. TO out it simply, he understands Kraang logic mroe than regular logic. The Turtles get into the Kraang’s base, rescue Leatherhead, and discover that the Kraang, after nearly two seasons of trying, have perfected the mutagen. Thy can now use it to turn the Earth into a second Dimension X. While the guys cause some damage before getting back home, it is more clear than ever that the invasion is near. But it’s okay! Our boys are ready to face whatever comes at them! They can handle this, right?

Ha... haha... HAHAHAHA!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

I’LL LET THAT SPEAK FOR ITSELF.

But yeah, we now enter the Season Two finale. This is actually both my favorite episode of the season and my favorite in the entire series. It’s one of the best-written, but... also the most depressing. Like this episode left me numb by the end. Why? Well let us go into...

The Invasion (Episodes 25-26)

Desperate to get Karai back, Shredder once more makes a deal with the Kraang. They help him get what he wants, and he helps them get what they want. So once again, Shredder decides to leave humanity to suffer all for his own needs. You see why I hate this monster?!

April and Irma get attacked by Foot Bots and unable to evade them, April is forced to take Irma to the sewers with her. Raph and Casey are on the lookout for Karai, but that gets cut short when the cops show up and try to arrest Casey. As it turns out, these are Kraang posing as humans. Worst? Raph sees Kraang portals opening and the Kraang dishing out everything that they have. UFO’s, robotic fleets, giant walker-things straight out of Star Wars. Casey is able to get free and overwhelmed, he and Raph are forced to try and find cover.

Down in the sewers, Donnie and Leo are arguing over the best course of action to take. Donnie wants to put his faith in the Turtle Mech, confident that it’ll dot he job despite still having kinks to work out. Leo however is concerned about if things could go wrong and wants to establish a second base outside New York. April arrives with Irma, who is taken back... before her body changes and reveals that she is a robot... UMM... so yeah, Irma was actually Kraang Sub-Prime, who was trying to work form within to weasel out the location of the Lair. Now that he has it, the Kraang open portals and attack. The gang gets quickly over-whelmed so Splinter orders the Turtles and April to flee. They head into the tunnels with Leo choosing to stay behind and fend off the Kraang droids chasing them while Donnie, Mikey, and April escape back to the surface.

Everything has devolved into chaos quickly. Raph and Casey are trying to evade the Kraang’s forces. Donnie, Mikey, and April flee to the O’Neil’s apartment where they watch the chaos unfold and poor Kirby has essentially a panic attack. Poor April feels guilty for it all due to bringing Irma to the Lair, even offering to go out and bring the boys to safety herself. Leo gets to the surface, but the Foot have spotted him and Shredder sends all of his forces after him. Splinter is able to defeat SUb-Prime, but the Lair is in utter ruins. But he has little time to grieve as he still has his sons to find. To make things worst, Kraang Prime emerges and launches mutagen all over the city, mutating everything and everyone hit with it. So yeah... things are NOT looking good.

Leo eventually ends up at a construction site where Shredder is waiting. Leo tries to make him fight him, but Shredder refuses as Leo is ‘beneath him’. Instead, he sends more Foot Bots and poor Leo is just getting pushed to his limits here. He’s under a lot of stress and pressure at this moment, and the constant attacks are not helping. He bests the Foot Bots in a... pretty brutal fashion that makes you really glad that he’s dicing and stabbing Foot Bots and not actual soldiers. Shredder has Rhazar, Fishface, and Tiger Claw attack him, provoking Leo to devolve to blind fury and kick their asses. But at this point, the leader in blue is exhausted, worn down, and not thinking clearly which leaves him vulnerable to Shredder, who casts the final, and most lethal, blow.

Shredder has his men take Leo away as he finds Splinter, who is NOT happy with the evidence that something happened to his son. Shredder responds by saying that he took Leo just like he took Karai all those years ago. This pisses Splinter off for VERY understandable reasons and they fight. Meanwhile, Raph and Casey finally make it to the apartment, but the relief is short-lived. Leo gets tossed through the window, knocked out and brutally beaten up. The Foot attack, forcing the group to escape. Kirby leads them to his old van they they try to escape in, but Kirby get shit with mutagen before he can tag along. Kraang Prime totally did that just to spite April. Asshole. The group flees in the van. Splinter and Shredder continue to brawl, but Splinter eventually gets trapped under some graters. Fortunately he earlier met up with Leatherhead, who jumps into the fray to save him. Unfortunately, while t works, Shredder gets the upper hand and knocks him into the icy waters. Splinter gets so pissed that he, by sheer force of will, knocks the grates away and tackles Shredder back into the sewers. All while trying to essentially bite his face off. DAMN.

Donnie, Raph, Mikey, and April go back to the Lair to find Splinter as they leave Leo with Casey, who goes to find his family. Spoiler alert: he sadly fails. The Lair is an utter wreck and realizing that they can't stay, Donnie has the guys round up supplies and anything significant before going to find Splinter and get out of the city. It’s a... really somber scene. The Lair is where we have spent the past two years. It wasn't just the Turtles home, it was ours in a way too. I Bremen seeing it trashed for the first time and I was just... crying. Mind you they make the bad choice of having them fix it u next season, which I think was dumb because it negates the emotional significance played up in this moment and potential growth for the cast. But for this moment? It was... hard. Really hard.

April soon senses that Splinter is in trouble and the four venture into the tunnels, discovering that Splinter is still fighting Shredder. The tunnel is caged off however, so they can’t reach him. Splinter gives it his all, even using the same airbending-like maneuver that he used in I. Monster on Shredder. But unfortunately, it fails. Shredder get sup, knocks Splinter out form behind, and literally flushes Splinter away. All while three of his sons and his surrogate daughter are forced to watch helplessly. Raph is enraged, angrily pulling and bating at the bars as Shredder walks away. Mikey eventually hugs Raph to calm him down, assuring him that somehow Splinter will be okay. April, enraged, tells Donnie that they can't run. They need to stay and end this here and now.

Their decision made, the four get the Turtle Mech and fight through the Kraang to reach the Foot. But they never get the chance to face Shredder again as Kraang Prime takes them on. They give it their best, even using the city’s power to use a powerful electrical attack n Prime that knocks out the city power grid. But even that proves futile and even fries the systems as Kraang Prime simply exits his robot suit and attacks personally. The only thing that saves them is April using her powers and Casey arriving to ram Prime back. They all flee formt he city, Donnie apologizing to the still comatose Leo for not listening. April hs a place where they can go, a farmhouse in North Hampton, but it does little to raise anyone’s spirits. The Turtles, for the first time, have completely and utterly lost.

As for Splinter, he is left in the city. But fortunately he is saved form drowning by, of all people, Karai. She doesn't stick around, but Thank God that we have something good happen cause Dear God did we need it! YEAH THIS EPISODE STILL HURTS EVEN FOUR YEARS LATER!

TBC in Part Three...

#tmnt #2k12 #tmnt 2012 #callie reviews

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spectrumscribe · 6 years

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exhaust trails through space.

commissioned by @stasispunk, some good old 2012 TMNT b-team shenanigans and bonding. in space!!

contains some themes similar to my fic These Days, so be aware. but not nearly as severe, since it’s mostly fluffy things.

AO3 version.

It’s not bad, in their home. It’s not. But sometimes it’s just… not good.

It’s not one person’s fault, and it’s not everyone’s fault, either. They’re not the most functional people in the world, even if they were counted as ‘people’ by the greater majority of planet earth. They all have problems, and bad nights, and moments where they just fuck up a situation that could have gone better. And they’re trying, honest, to make it work even with just each other and their friends to lean on for support.

Mikey knows all that, but it still sucks sometimes. Maybe a lot of the time, when rough patches pop up and take root. Sometimes things just suck and that’s a fact about his family’s life.

Doesn’t make it any easier, when it’s the third week in a row where hardly anyone has had what they could call a ‘good night’, and it’s the umpteenth fight about something stupid. The chores today, training yesterday, and attitude the day before that…

It’s always something, and it feels like one or more of them are always mad about it. Some nights it’s easy as avoiding that brother, and some nights it’s not.

Some nights its itchy, bitter frustration building in Mikey’s throat and a lot of words coming out that really shouldn’t. Some nights its Raph saying words just like Mikey’s, and both of their voices climbing higher to be heard over the other. Tonight it’s that, with the additional noise of Leo and Donnie telling both of them to shut up and let it just drop already, and Raph finally losing his temper to the point it gets physical.

They’ve all had it a hundred times worse, but a rough shove backwards, enough Mikey has to really pay attention so he doesn’t fall over, is a real pain in the neck to deal with. Enough that it’s one of the nights he doesn’t back down at that, and instead shoves right back.

Raph makes an angry snarl for the blow, and punches Mikey’s shoulder hard enough it’ll probably bruise. That’s when Leo and Donnie pull them apart, dividing them into B-team and A-team once again.

There’s a lot of yelling and not-yelling going on, and Mikey’s shoulder is smarting as much as his pride is, and all he catches is-

“Mikey, you apologize, and then we can all just put this behind us-”

“Excuse me, you want him to apologize? For not wanting to pick up Raph’s dishes?”

“Raph already did the sweeping today, it wasn’t that big of a deal for him to ask Mikey-”

“Raph can clean up his own shit, oh my god. Expecting other people to always do that for him is frankly ridiculous-”

“It isn’t always-”

“It sure feels like it!”

“Donnie.”

“Leo.”

And after a moment of glaring, Mikey suddenly finds himself being dragged out of the room as Donnie throws over his shoulder, “You know what? Fuck both of you.”

Leo tries to call after them. “Donnie-”

“No! Piss off, Leo!”

Just like that, Mikey finds himself in his brother’s lab, and the doors being slammed behind them. He rubs his sore shoulder absently while Donnie paces, muttering and cursing and being generally upset.

“I cannot believe- you know what, no, no I can believe he’d think that was okay. Like Raph wasn’t the first one to make things physical, like always-”

Donnie slams his hands on a table, facing Mikey from the other side of it.

“I am so sick of their bullshit,” he says.

Mikey rubs his shoulder a little more, massaging the forming bruise. “Same,” he replies.

Donnie walks away from his table, pacing a bit more, and then rounds to look Mikey dead in the eye.

“We need a god damn vacation,” Donnie states.

Mikey thinks about that. They actually… haven’t ever taken one of those?

“Not many places to go when you’re a turtle, Dee,” he points out, which is one of the reasons why they’ve never done that.

Donnie mutters grudgingly that that’s true. Then he snaps his fingers and says, “But in space, we can go anywhere!”

Mikey tilts his head.

That’s… very true. He says so, then adding with a slight are you kidding me tone, “And how are we supposed to get up there, genius?”

Donnie pulls out his t-phone, tapping away on the screen.

“Bishop owes me a few favors at least, considering how much we’ve helped them out in the past. Plus, I walked him through how to set up Netflix across dimensional planes. Three hours of that definitely warrants a spaceship loan.”

---

It takes less time than Mikey would have thought to have a ship.

No longer than half a night, and a ship is ready for them to fly into the stratosphere. Brought straight from the remaining reserves of the Kraang armada, now the Utrom armada; basically with Mikey and Donnie’s name on it.

They pack their bags and weapons. It takes shorter than ten minutes, what with how much practice of having to grab essentials and just go they’ve had. Years of life or death situations are good for something.

Once they have everything together- and have made sure April will come and take care of ICK, because Mikey couldn’t ever leave without making sure his cat would be cared for properly- they stand in the technical living room of their home and announce,

“We’re going to space,” Mikey says proudly, and maybe a lot smugly. “See you guys in a few weeks.”

“What,” Leo says, staring at them.

“April will keep an eye on ice cream kitty,” Donnie assures. “so don’t bother feeding her at all.”

“What,” Raph says, also staring.

“Stay out of the lab,” Donnie says.

“And my room,” Mikey says.

“What?” Their brothers say.

“See you!” Mikey cheers, and absconds with Donnie before anyone can stop them.

---

For Donnie, laying his hands on the controls of the formerly Kraang ship is a clean breath inwards. Bringing it online, activating it’s cloaking, and taking off from the ground of the military compound is literally like flying.

The stratosphere rushes to meet them, and Donnie finds himself grinning as the blue of earth fades from the viewpoint. Only endless stars and space ahead of them, an entire universe full of options.

Donnie glances to his side, where he finds Mikey. His brother beaming at the smears of starlight all around them, so excited he’s nearly jittering.

Mikey glances up at him, and Donnie finds his own mouth copying the wide excited smile. Already this trip is an improvement. Mikey barely seems to be feeling the bruise on his shoulder, and Donnie hasn’t found himself thinking about certain arguments in over a half hour.

Their phones are now thoroughly out of range with earth, and they’ve got all the time in the world to explore to their hearts content. Now the only question is…

Where will they go first?

---

They find out unfortunately quick that Kraang are not welcome. Literally anywhere.

After the fifth misunderstanding, and subsequent terror/grudge inspired firefight, Donnie announces they’ll be getting a new ship. Because getting shot at every two hours is the opposite of a vacation.

“But we have zero space dollars, dude,” Mikey points out as they pull into a space dock, planetside of a well populated area and after haggling the local law enforcers into believing that no, they are not a lone Kraang ship here to wage short and stupid war on a tourist planet.

“Weeellll….” Donnie says slowly as they pack up their meager possessions. “We can get an okay price for ship scrap, so that’s a start.”

“Enough for a new ship?” Mikey asks as they clip on the air conversion collars Bishop loaned them.

Donnie makes an Eh, not quite noise. Mikey looks at him for a moment, and then says, “Oh. Okay. Right off the bat?”

Donnie shrugs. “It was bound to happen eventually,” he says as he double checks all his weapons. “We’re bad at staying on people’s good side anyway, might as well do it on purpose for once.”

Seeing as this is their second time on a space voyage, and they’re older and more skilled at it now, it’s actually very easy to steal a new space ship. Sleek and small and fast, perfect for outrunning law enforcement and formerly wasted on the alien equivalent of a trust fund baby.

They then begin the 2.0 version of their vacation, adrenaline hot in their veins and somewhat maniacal laughter filling their ship as they warp away from the long arm of the law.

---

Seeing as no one is hunting their heads this time around (excluding that one quadrant where they stole their ship from), there is abruptly a list of options longer than Mikey’s whole body of what they can do. Their options have always been so limited, even the last time they’d been out here, and it makes Mikey’s head spin for a few minutes.

Best yet, there’s only Donnie here with him in the cockpit of their ship. That’s only one person to convince, and Donnie has always been easier to try that with than any of their other siblings. Donnie’s more likely to listen, as long as it’s not too stupid a suggestion.

“Theme park!” Mikey says, snapping his fingers.

“Theme park,” Donnie agrees, writing down the idea on the little holopad that came with the ship.

“Oh and, um, shit, what’s that wet one of those?”

“Waterpark?”

“Yes,” Mikey says reverently. “I wanna use an actual waterslide at least once before I die.”

“Same, honestly,” Donnie says, adding that as well.

Mikey thinks a little more, about parks, and water, and things to do with both of those. And he arrives to a suggestion that seizes him with a strong sweep of fervency.

“Beach!” Mikey yells. “OH. My god. We have to go to a beach. Everyone has to visit a beach at some point.”

He glances at Donnie, who is looking at him funny.

“What?” Mikey asks, and then feels tired trepidation that of all his suggestions, the one he wants most is the one he’ll have to fight for.

Donnie snorts, chuckling as he taps on the holopad. “Nothing, it’s just for a second there I thought you called me a bitch.”

Mikey relaxes. “Not that time,” he jokes. He leans forwards in his pilot seat, towards his brother’s. “But seriously. Beach. We have to go find a real beach. Please?”

“Way ahead of you,” Donnie says. He taps the holoscreen one more time, and a map of stars pops up on the connected ones to the controls. He grins at Mikey. “I think a beach day is an excellent way to kick things off.”

Mikey chest is full of bubbling joy, and he throws his hands up with a whoop as Donnie sends their ship speeding towards the destination.

---

Half a cycle’s voyage and twenty minutes of bickering about which spot to land on later, with brilliant blue waves crashing against the shore and golden beach that stretches for miles each way, and their air converter collars functioning just fine in the new environment,

“You should totally eat it,” Mikey says.

Donnie gives his brother an incredulous look. “It’s an unidentified alien organism on a deserted planet. I’m not going to eat it.”

“It’s an alien organism on a deserted planet that looks exactly like an earth lobster. We gotta eat it.”

Donnie gestures at the space crustacean between their feet on the sand. “It’s bright green! I’m not eating a neon green lobster from space.”

“Technically,” Mikey points out. “we’re green turtles from space, and he just lives here.”

“I’m not eating it.”

“Suit yourself.”

It’s only later, when the two suns have set and they’ve set up camp outside the ship for dinner, that Donnie looks at the lobster again. And considers.

“…that smells good,” he comments, watching Mikey crack open the shell of the lobster he’s boiled to a dark blue.

“’bout to find out if it tastes good,” Mikey replies, and takes a bite out of the pale flesh inside. Donnie waits for Mikey to keel over and the rush to find the right medicinal injection to begin, but all he gets is his brother chewing, swallowing, and saying, “Whew!”

“That’s like getting punched in the nose with flavor, oh my god,” Mikey says, wiping his nose and grinning. “Dee, you sure you don’t want in?”

Donnie looks at the dry ration bars in his hands, and his stomach rumbles as the scent of (probably) shellfish wafts past him.

“Gimme,” he finally relents. Mikey hands him one of the claws with a grin, and Donnie finds out eating lobster does in fact feel like getting punched in the nose with flavor. But it’s a good one, if a little overwhelming at first.

They polish off the lobster, and then go looking for more. Two more end up in the pot taken from the ship’s tiny kitchen, and they methodically shell them under the moonlight by their fire.

---

In stark contrast to the beach destination, Mikey lets Donnie drag him to a planet at least several centuries ahead of earth with technology, if not more.

Not exactly where he would have wanted to go next, but hey, fairs fair. This is a joint trip, and Donnie didn’t even fight with him on going to the beach. Mikey’s gotta share control of their list.

So, rather than hitting up one of the artificial planets made specifically for partying, or one that’s built all its cities in the sky, they land on one that’s long past its phase of military might and moved into intellectual ventures. Transferring their old military research into betterment of the galaxy and all that.

They pick a showcase for tourists, since that’s what they are, and it’d be a big mess for sure if they tried to sneak into the top secret research facilities (which Mikey suspects they might end up breaking into anyway, at some point).

A lot of it goes way over Mikey’s head, but he’s alright with that for the most part. A laser beam works the same either way, even when you don’t understand exactly how it blows up stuff. All that really matters is the seriously sick laser show it creates.

Donnie makes a series of needy, high pitched noises at the end of the show; eyes shining as the demonstrators move on to the more technical part of things. Opening up the interior of the machines for those in the crowd with a head for that kind of thing, while all the normal folks start moving on to the next exhibition.

Mikey glances after the crowd, hearing distantly loud speakers in the ceiling tell visitors are welcome to witness another demonstration of technology- this one an aquatic vehicle, and involving a splash zone to get caught in.

Mikey fidgets a little, because that sounds really fun, but Donnie is still enamored with the speakers on stage. He wants to leave, but also not.

Donnie notices Mikey’s wistful glances, and grimaces sheepishly.

“Sorry for making you wait, this is just really interesting,” he says, rubbing his neck and looking awkward. Then Donnie offers, “You can go on ahead if you want.”

Mikey chews on that for a moment, and then says, “Nah. I’m good. Not like we haven’t seen stuff like that before.”

It would be neat to see the aquatic car thingy- plus get splashed during the demonstration, or be quick enough to not get splashed, that’s even better- but it would be more fun to do it with Donnie, instead of on his lonesome.

They don’t have much in common that’s fun for both of them, so. Why walk away from the chance to share something? Especially something that lifts all the stress that tends to sit on Donnie’s shoulders, and makes him smile like he had when they were younger, holding his first IPad with an intact screen.

Donnie scrutinizes Mikey for a brief moment, and then gives a small smile.

“Let’s move closer to the front,” he suggests with a tinge of giddy curiosity in his voice. “I might be able to copy some of it from memory later.”

“Sure,” Mikey agrees easily. “The Shellraiser would be like, twice as cool if we gave it lasers.”

“That’s the plan,” Donnie says, a glint in his eye. Mikey grins. Cool weapons are definitely something they can agree on.

They end up staying after each demonstration to hear the what’s what of things, and Mikey’s attention definitely wanders during them, but Donnie is focused intensely enough for the both of them. It evens out.

Plus, Donnie takes Mikey to the biggest, baddest, most epic theme park of three systems right after they’re done- just on the other side of the planet, how did Mikey miss that in the brochures- and then he is far too busy trying to ride every single ride possible to care about anything else.

It’s a good vacation spot. Loud, teeming with people, a bright sun hanging over their heads- they’ve seen plenty of this stuff on television, but never actually experienced walking through halls of valuable and ingenious inventions, rarely experienced the thrill of adrenaline that didn’t come from danger and certainly never experienced being pressed into a huge crowd, hundreds of people around them and not giving a second look their way.

It’s a good spot to stop, like the quiet freedom of the beach was. Miles and miles of untouched nature, not another soul to disturb them, and an endless sea they could swim in all they wanted. Just the two of them, all on their own, and for once an easy balance struck between them.

It’s good to see the lingering exhilaration in Donnie, once they leave that planet. Mikey almost interrupts a few times, a little bored but mostly just confused by all the scientific stuff Donnie is rambling about, but then he stops for a moment and looks at the bright excited smile his brother has, and just… doesn’t want it to stop.

Like it usually does, when someone tells him enough is enough and changes the conversation topic.

So Mikey keeps his mouth shut for the most part, and gives his best at trying to understand the things Donnie goes on about. He notices after a bit that Donnie tries to include him, bringing up potential redesigns to their cars and the lair’s facilities that Mikey could get interested in.

Donnie could’ve just kept on about the more complicated stuff, but he’s actively trying to make their conversation something Mikey can contribute to- which doesn’t often happen. It’s a little clumsy, faltering here and there as Donnie backtracks to water down the jargon, but that attempt at inclusion makes Mikey smile.

---

Their ship breaks down after about seven different stops, and they have to pull over planetside to get into a repair shop. One thing leads to another, a wrench and fission torch end up in Donnie’s hands, and then he’s arm deep in the engine of their ship and drinking up every bit of information their mechanic gives him.

And there’s another three ships in the shop, all with totally different engine designs and aeronautic exteriors and Donnie wants to take every single one of them apart, haul every manual he can find into his lap, and commit the contents to his memory. He wants to spend time here even more than he did at the massive intergalactic library they visited, because tangible knowledge is even better than books.

But. That would take a few days, at least. Donnie is good, but he’s not good enough to get everything down like that in one night.

But he still desperately wants to- this is one of the nicest (and one of the very few) individuals he’s met that is willing to teach him something useful and interesting. He doesn’t want to depart before he can at least enjoy the experience.

Donnie is waiting for Mikey to start complaining about the time it’s taking to fix the ship, needle at Donnie for being a gearhead and a nerd and using up their precious vacation to learn boring stuff. But it hasn’t happened yet.

Mikey is alternating between sitting atop the ship, reading comics on the holopad, or messing around in the scrapyard surrounding the shop and traversing rusting piles of ships. He’s only stopped a few times to peer over Donnie’s shoulder, and every time Donnie expects his brother to finally start up, finally say “We’re just wasting time, come on Donnie,” he just… wanders off again.

The next time Mikey swings by, sliding down the side of the ship to hang above where Donnie is working on the engine- while their helpful and kind mechanic takes zir dinner break- Donnie chews his lip, and then asks.

“Aren’t you getting… impatient? Or something?” Donnie questions. Mikey cocks his head to the side, like a curious bird.

“No?” he says. “Why, are you?”

“No,” Donnie says, because how could he? “but… I thought maybe you’d… I dunno. Want to go do something else already?”

Mikey shrugs. “Nah. We’ve been on the go for a few days now; a rest is cool by me. ‘sides, you’re getting your nerd-on for all this- stuff,” he waves vaguely at the shop. “so I’m good to just hang out ‘til you’re done.”

“Oh,” Donnie says, blinking, taken a little aback. “You sure?”

“Sure am,” Mikey says, and clambers back up the side of the ship with a wave goodbye. Donnie is half certain his brother is going to double back, turn around with a “Gotcha!” and be kidding about what he’s said, but Mikey just jumps up into the rafters and goes exploring again.

Donnie scratches his head, but decides wondering is ultimately looking a gift horse in the mouth.

Mikey is patient the whole four days it takes for Donnie to be satisfied with his learnings, and barely fusses about anything the whole while. Donnie is a little disbelieving it’s actually happened, but largely touched for the gift of time and space.

---

Mikey gets to choose the next destination after Donnie’s binge on spaceships, and he picks a planet made of softly glowing plant life and deep, fathomless seas.

It’s the seafood, in all honesty, that draws him. Mikey can’t help it- good food, like seriously good food, is so hard to come by. He gets teased for it by his brothers, but he can’t help his passion for food. Baking and cooking comes easy to him, and getting to experience space fine cuisine isn’t something he can pass up.

They end up combing through the smaller markets, where local fishermen- literally, with their scales gleaming- show their wares. Mikey trails his hands over the fins of large exotic looking fishes, takes cautious sniffs of fruit only found on this planet, and mourns he can’t take the time to try every single item for himself.

He expects sometimes for Donnie to complain about the smell of raw meat, or maybe about the stickiness of some patches on the market road, or about wandering in aimless circles and eating things. But he doesn’t.

Mikey is still cautious though, because as much as he really, really wants to take his time, he also doesn’t want to start a fight accidentally. Not when things are going so well, and they’re getting along so easily, and Donnie is still carrying himself with content gait he only gets when he’s accomplished something that makes him happy.

Until he gets to an open cookout, Mikey manages to keep himself from getting invested in anything. It doesn’t seem so much a cook-off, but instead a gathering of locals. Sharing food, showing off skills at a grill. Family things. Mikey’s hands twitch around an imaginary knife- wanting to get in there and let his translator do its thing, let him learn what these people are all talking about to each other.

But… that would take hours, and there’s no way…

Mikey glances at Donnie, hardly keeping his feet from dragging him right towards the gathering.

Donnie looks at him, bemused.

“What are you waiting for?” Donnie asks, smiling. “Go already.”

Mikey smiles brilliantly, and does.

He spends the rest of the afternoon, then evening, and then late evening enjoying the party of food. It’s a local holiday, it turns out. A time to share food and bounty from the sea, and pay tribute to their two sided ocean goddess. The one who provides and the one who takes, they tell him over a grill, three slices of seasoned fish on it.

Mikey focuses on the providing side of things, like the rest of the participants in the communal barbeque are. Whenever he glances towards Donnie, he finds his brother relaxing comfortably to the side of things. Reading, or maybe writing, on the holopad while locals mill around his spot at one of the many tables.

Mikey slides dish after dish in front of his brother on his quest to learn all of the local cooking tricks, and he is pleasantly surprised again and again that the plates are empty when he swings by next.

They don’t leave until the last vestiges do, wandering off into the ambient glow of the town around them. Donnie doesn’t complain even once about the long wait, and for that, Mikey is more than happy to share the last of the sweetly crispy desert he made.

---

The wealth of planets they can visit never decreases, and even as they check off more and more things on their list, it never ends. Just keeps getting longer and longer, and it’s..

Incredible. The endlessness, the unlimited time, so much freedom.

After spending so many years, especially the years following their father’s death, in a world that felt too small and too crowded and just so hard to deal with some nights… it’s intoxicating in the best way.

Neither of them has felt this easily happy in years, if ever.

---

“What if we just stayed out here forever?” Donnie hears Mikey whisper, sitting on the edge of their ship’s tail while they dock for a sleep cycle. They’re taking a moment to enjoy the endless swirl of stars and planets around their rest station, and Donnie doesn’t react with surprise at the suggestion.

Because in all honesty, he’s been thinking the same thing.

“Earth is our home,” he says, because that’s true. “and we said we’d go back already. We told our family we would.”

Mikey sighs, curling over his knees and resting his chin on them. “I know,” he says. “but…”

But what if? What if they never gave up this freedom? What if they kept going forever, taking what they needed and working for what they couldn’t get, seeing the edges of the universe and going farther. Never again boxed in by anything, or anyone. Not like on earth. Not like at home.

Donnie sighs, and leans back on his palms.

“We said we would,” he says eventually, because that’s all there really is to say. They will go back, one way or another, and how could they ever really stay away? No matter what, they couldn’t ever leave their family behind. Not forever.

Mikey seems to know that fact as well as Donnie does, and sighs a second time. As the quiet pause draws out, Donnie puts an arm around his brother’s shoulders; pulling him to his side. Mikey’s arm comes to rest around Donnie’s shell, and remains there with a loose grip.

They enjoy the view until their personal atmosphere filters start to let in the cold of space, and then head inside to sleep.

---

Somewhere, after another dozen planets, they start talking. About home, about themselves. About how things are. About how they were, before war, before their father’s death, before growing up.

It’s not a bad conversation. But it’s not a good one, either. It fills up the space of their dark bedroom, laying on a large bed they’ve been sharing. Big, heavy… hard to think about…

It’s doesn’t feel good to talk about, but it doesn’t feel exactly bad, either. Feels like a long time coming, if they feel like being honest about stuff a little longer.

It’s okay, afterwards. Maybe even better.

They’re better for it.

---

They go home, after another few weeks. With a ship full of souvenirs- all theirs, all things they got because they wanted to and could- and time spent in just each other’s company, it’s… easy to go home. Easy to land the ship in one of the many warehouses that the military and the Utrom share, and disembark with all their gotten (and stolen) booty.

They feel steadier. Better connected. Things are exactly perfect per say, but its better now. They understand each other better. They feel closer for their vacation.

And like the saying says, walking back into their home is a swell of fond emotion. Space is huge and endless and full of possibilities, but this is where they grew up. Where they became who they are, for better or worse, and the feeling being enclosed in a too small space is absent.

Their brothers greet them with a range of emotions. Relief they came back- happiness they’re unharmed- upset they did this so out of the blue- kind of pissed off they didn’t invite anyone else- and ultimately resigned, but somewhat fond and amused, grievance about the whole thing.

Donnie exchanges a glance with Mikey, who grins mischievously.

“You know…” Donnie starts, interrupting the barrage of questions and thinly veiled scolding.

“Maybe you guys should try taking a vacation sometime, too,” Mikey finishes for him, and just grins at the sudden silence from their family.

Donnie puts their holopad into Leo’s hands, information on screen about the start-up sequence to the engine controls. Mikey passes Raph a physical notebook, containing info about all the places they visited.

“It’d probably do you guys a world of good,” Donnie says cheekily, and they both have to laugh at the truly baffled looks on their brother’s faces.

Commission info & Kofi link.

#spec commissions #stasispunk #tmnt #tmnt 2012 #Donatello #michelangelo #b-team babes #<3 #My writing #this is 70% fun things and 30% kind of sad things #i think that's a good balance of content

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liimitless · 4 years

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name — Allysia/Ally

gender — Female

star sign — Capricorn

height — 5′1

age — 18

wallpaper on my phone —

ever crush on a teacher — Yes, but nothing serious. Just admire the good looks baybee

coolest halloween costume — Lydia from Beetlejuice (Wedding Dress)

favourite 90s tv show — The one that comes to mind is Angry Beavers that shit is hilarious

last kiss — My boyfriend when we drove him home today ;)

have you ever been stood up — Nope

favourite pair of shoes — My custom Converse from the 8th grade that still fit and say “Fangirl” on the back because why not?

have you ever been to vegas — Nope, but my grandparents want to take me.

favourite fruit — sweet peaches and pears

favourite books — More Happy Than Not, Fangirl, and Attachments

all time favourite shows — Penn Zero Part Time Hero, TMNT (2012), Chowder, Danny Phantom

last movie you saw in theatres — Sonic the Hedgehog bc I talked my family into it at the theater

Stole From: @rxtroskull Tagging: STEAL FROM ME, BAYBEE

#| ᗯ𝐞 คŘ𝓔 𝓝ⓤ𝐦𝕓𝐄Ｒ 𝑜Ň𝐞 | RP Memes #| Narration | OOC

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roninkairi · 7 years

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A Look Back At "Turtles Forever" and "Transdimensional Turtles"

As many of you know, the current season of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on Nickelodeon is also known as the final one before a new series, with a new animation format, is premiered later. Now while I have enjoyed a lot of this 2012 incarnation, I would be doing it a huge disservice by not mentioning that it owes a lot of it’s success to it’s ties, both spiritual and literal, to the original 1987 series. No doubt you may have noticed that many of the characters that inhabit this show have in some way or another been derived from the first cartoon, some of them with very radical changes (points at Robot Irma)

But my focus for this little piece will actually be on another issue. That being the 25th Anniversary movie “Turtles Forever” and the Season 4 episode “Trans-Dimensional Turtles”. Why you may ask? Well, sit down and let me explain.

First a little backstory: To celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the TMNT, 4kids, the company responsible for so many anime fans’ outrage (a discussion for another time) made a TV movie featuring not only the current TMNT (known here as TMNT2K3) but the original 1987 cartoon TMNT…well, SORTA. The original voice actors from the cartoon could not take part in this special (because apparently 4Kids had this rule concerning union workers) so alternate voices had to be cast. The movie even threw in the original comic book TMNT just for the fans. And while the movie did get many favorable reviews, it was not without some controversy. And that controversy: the 1987 TMNT. Or, at the least how they were portrayed.

TMNT2K3 was, in essence, much closer to the original Mirage Comic series than it’s predecessor. There were some darker stories, bigger story arcs, episodes that were directly lifted or borrowed from the Eastman and Laird run, even characters that only appeared in the comics (Such as Renett and Karai) were put in this series. And there were a lot of action as well, along with starling revelations and adaptions/changes to TMNT lore. (Such as the reveal that the Shredder in fact was Che’rell, an Utron war criminal…and despite whatever he may have claimed he was NOT the One True Shredder, as it was a title he stole from the Demon Shredder. Yeah, there was more than one Shredder in this one, don’t try to make sense of it.) In contrast, the 1987 TMNT was a beast of a different nature. There was a good deal of action, yes, but there was a more comedic approach to the portrayal of the team, and the series was tailored for a young audience. But it was well beloved enough to spawn at least 3 movies, several video games and God Knows What Else. So, the meeting of the characters from these 2 universes would be cool right?

Well…that depends.

No doubt, if you are a 1987 TMNT fan, when you look at the way that the first team are portrayed compared to the TMNT2K3, you note that if anything, their comedic aspects are a LOT more prominent. Moreover, their methods of fighting seem to be more ineffectual unless they work in tandem with the TMNT2k3 Turtles. I think though for me, what made me feel more than a little, well, shell shocked, was one point in the move’s climax, where the 1987 Team was sent crying into the arms of TMNT2K3’s Raphael.

Like little children.

…No, I am not making this up. Go on, go find a copy of this movie or look on Youtube. I’ll wait..

…

Oh you’re back. Yes, that happened. And to be honest, certain aspects of the cartoon are met with some derision, like Karai’s comments on the Foot Soldier tech. (Based on tech that, I should add, brought Che’Rell to them in the first place.) and Raph’s joke about the Turtle Blimp and Turtle Van. Even 1987 Shredder and Krang were not immune from some character decay; while no doubt Che’rell as the Shredder is a far bigger menace to the universe as a whole, The Shredder and Krang were not incompetent villians as this movie seems to have them pegged. The 1987 Shredder was no slouch in the hand to hand-ruthless tactics department (who, believe it or not, got even more ruthless in the later seasons) and the only other person who could actually stand toe to toe with him was Master Splinter. (Who was actually treated with much more respect in this movie). Krang, while overbearing, was also somewhat of a viable threat as well. He was exiled from Dimension X for a VERY GOOD REASON.

But against the Mirage TMNT? Yeah, both teams have good reason to be afraid of them…

Now, lets fast forward to the episode “Transdimensional Turtles” . I consider it a better more compact version of Turtles Forever myself and it’s honestly more of an homage to the show than anything. For starters, the original voice actors are back. (Minus James Avery, the voice of the Shredder, who sadly passed away a few years ago) And unfortunately we don’t have Rocksteady and Bebop here. But we also got back the original voice of Krang. This episode manages to easily shift between both the 3D and 2D styles well and, to many, keeps the personalities of the original 1987 TMNT intact. There are some jokes about the original show (like Leo’s awkward kicking at Krang) but they do not seem mean spirited and it goes along with some jokes about the current show (like Rob Paulsen voicing both Raph and Donnie) and the francise as a whole. Plus the 1987 TMNT fight WAY more effectively than how they were shown in Turtles Forever. And even the Mirage TMNT show up. (Rather briefly, and with no lines). The overall plot even seems to be a shout out to the plot of “Turtles Forever” (bad guy tries to destroy all of the TMNT) but subverted (The Kraang of the TMNT2012 universe points out that destroying all of the universe just to get rid of one is incredibly stupid.)

So where was I going with this? Uh yeah, good question…I guess what I wanted to say is that we all enjoy different versions of this franchise for different reasons. And while the 1987 series may not be as dark as brooding as some of the later incarnations. (And believe me, TMNT012 got away with a LOT of dark themes when you look back at it later) it does not mean it’s no less enjoyable than the others. So yes, Turtles Forever is good but I enjoyed Transdimensional Turtles a bit more.

That’s just me though.

#teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmnt 2k3 #tmnt 2012 #turtles forever #Transdimensional turtles

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