Chapter Text
One step at a time. He’d make it there eventually.
If the apocalypse- and four dedicated turtles- had taught Casey Jones anything, it was that patience keeps a man from toppling and like an acrobat on a tightrope, every step must be calculated to keep him standing upright.
Also, the stacked pizza boxes in his arms were so close to falling.
Who in their right mind would ask one lone person to bring home five pizza boxes? Four delusional turtles- that’s who.
Casey struggled to carry them all in his arms but, really, it was a mistake to even attempt to carry them all at once.
As long as he took his time, he would complete his mission… and have to face four hangry turtles, two hangry humans and one hangry rat-dad.
On second thoughts, a little haste never hurt anybody.
A skull mask sat on his head and his weapon was tucked into his belt. Not so soon after defeating the Krang, April had forced Casey to buy new, non-apocalyptic clothes. It was hard; there were so many options.
In the end he settled for a black hoodie and a pair of jeans. When he showed Leo, he was classified as ‘so boring’ but it was good enough for Casey.
The boy stuck to the shadows, bouncing between alleyways, and held the pizza boxes with an iron grip. His vision was blocked but when you live with your life under constant threat for years, you learn how to be aware of-
“Oof.”
He tripped.
Casey looked up from his spot on the slightly damp, New York ground. What the heck is that?
A small, metallic… thing with three hexagons connected to each other embedded into it was not what he was expecting to have tripped over.
It looked technological but it was completely smooth with nowhere to open or activate it, unless-
No. No. He knows better than to poke around at random, possibly dangerous tech he found in the middle of the street.
Master Leo had taught him better than that… no, he hadn’t.
Casey grabbed at it, imitating the moves he imagines Donnie would make looking at the thing.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Suddenly, the thing started glowing purple. It almost reminded him of- no, Casey, no. They were gone, trapped in the prison dimension. The apocalypse was prevented. It’s fine. Everything’s fine.
The thing floated upwards to release some sort of glowing purple portal. Casey’s seen a good number of portals in his time, purple’s never a good thing.
He should just go back to bringing the pizza’s home, he should just leave this thing for Donatello and he most definitely shouldn’t be poking his hand through the portal.
What if it was dangerous? He couldn’t just leave the thing and he definitely couldn’t bring some unidentified object to the lair so…
With a deep breath in, he forced his hand through the purple-pink haze.
That was fine. He’s still alive.
Casey slowly set down his pizza boxes and braced himself. Quickly in, quickly out and then he can alert the turtles.
The world distorted around him, disorienting him like that rollercoaster Leo had brought him to last week but ten times worse.
By the time he reached the other side, he was clutching his stomach.
“Where?” he spoke aloud to himself.
There was nothing but trees. Rustling leaves and bushes surrounded him. The atmosphere felt slightly off- like the world was a different shape to his.
“I should leave.”
But before he could, a deer jumped out, startling him enough to make him step back. The creature almost looked aware of itself as it stabbed its antlers into the tech.
“No!” Casey screamed as the device fell to the ground, “shoo!”
The deer stared at him for an uncomfortable amount of seconds before strutting away.
Casey groaned as the picked up the thing. It looked fine but looks can be very deceiving. What did he do to open it the first time?
Poking it didn’t work again. Neither did rubbing and surprisingly, banging it against the forest floor didn't work either.
Oh god, he was stuck. Casey’s heartbeat rang in his ears filling in the sequential silence of the rustling trees.
Who in their right mind would think entering a mysterious portal was a good idea?
When the turtles get wind of this, he’ll never hear the end of it. Maybe he could just tell them he was pushed.
Leo- his Leo, his sensei- would’ve laughed but not in a cruel way, in a way that made Casey join in with him and then he would tell Casey that if he ever did something so stupid again, he would personally be the one to murder him. Then, they would train because if Casey’s going to go off on his own then he needs to, at least, be able to protect himself.
Casey stared at the device in his hands, sitting cross legged on the ground.
Six months. Six months it had been since he came to New York… well, a non-apocalyptic New York. The turtles, April, Splinter: they had all been so welcoming and, even on their first day of meeting, were prepared to call him family.
He really couldn’t wish for a greater family… so guilt always plagued his heart when these thoughts came to his mind.
His sensei was gone; he’d sacrificed himself to get Casey to safety. He would never be able to fight by his side again or cuddle up to him when he got scared at night.
It had been hard to come to terms with the idea that the Leo he knew now wasn’t his Leo and would never be the same as his Leo.
Casey was fine with that; he adored that Leo but sometimes, he wished he could just pretend they were the same. That his sensei was here with him and they were facing the non-apocalypse together.
That would just be cruel to Leo. He’s different. He will never be his sensei and that’s a good thing. His sensei had to adapt and grow in a world that was ever decaying around him, without the same support line he acted as for Casey.
Casey, in turn, now had to adapt to world that wasn’t always trying to waste him. Without his mom, his sensei, everyone: even if he talked to versions of them every day.
It was unfair to compare them. He wouldn’t like to be compared to some older, more experienced version of himself.
“Enough,” he scolded himself like master Michelangelo did when he went all Dr. Delicate Touch.
Time to figure where the heck he was. A while ago, Donnie had given him a phone with all of their contact information on it and a state of the art navigation system.
With how confused the new… the old? The now New York had made him; he had become a master at using his phone to find where he was.
But, of course! Of course! The thing stops working once he really, truly needs it.
Casey whined, “have to do it the old fashioned way then.”
He looked around. It was just trees.
Alright, he could work with that.
The boy used his grappling hook to propel himself to the top of one of them, allowing him to see over everything.
Woods. Woods. Woods. OH! He spotted a farmhouse a bit off into the distance. They should know where he was.
Quickly, he returned to the ground and gave himself a check over. Weapon, yes. Mask, yes. Weird device, yes. Anxiety, yes.
He was good to go.
It didn’t take long: Casey had grown up with having to run everywhere, he was fast.
The house was fairly basic and a bit a rundown. A chicken coop sat a bit behind it and a big barn a bit further off from that.
Casey felt sorry for whatever farm family whose day he was about to interrupt.
Right as he stepped onto the road in front of the house, the door opened.
Six people stepped out, too distracted by their conversation to notice him. Although, it didn’t take long for one of them to.
They were turtles… four turtles with very specific colour-coded bandanas… oh, that probably wasn’t good.
The red one muttered, “what the fuck”