Tag: transformers

Hiroki and his team were stunned at what happened. “That’s…that’s just…wow!” muttered Hiroki.

“We’re…we’re sorry you had to go through that,” said Endea.

“…We’re gonna need Raph for this one,” muttered Jazz.

“He’s not in the right state of mind for that,” argued War.

“Oh, I think he is,” replied Jazz. “He just doesn’t know it yet. Donnie, can you call one of the Mad Dogz to see where Raph is?”

“Sure, I can do that,” answered Donatello. “But…what do you have in mind?”

“Let’s just say, he’s a bit like my best friend from when we first landed on Mobius.”

---

Jazz got the coordinates and temporarily changed his alt-mode to a coupe-styled Porsche 718 Cayman. He then changed his holo-form to a human of African ancestry with dreadlocks and a blue visor. Tom arched an eyebrow. “…Erm, Jazz,” he said, “this is 21^st Century New York City. The cops aren’t exactly nice to black dudes, especially ones that drive nice cars. Their first thought will be ‘That black dude stole it! Arrest him!’”

“That’s why Donnie’s gonna be guiding me away from those guys,” said Jazz. “Donnie, sync your T-Phone with my comms on my mark.”

“Got it,” replied Donatello.

“And…Mark!” The communications devices synced. “All right. Let’s go!” Jazz’s holoform hopped inside behind the wheel and he took off. Donnie guided him away from the police officers on patrol all the way to an apartment building in the rough part of Brooklyn. He stepped out and made his way to the apartment Raph would be in. Once he arrived, he knocked on the door.

“What do you want?!” called a voice.

“Just here to conduct Hamato Clan business,” replied Jazz. A young human in street hockey gear opened the door.

“…You must be new,” he said. “No one in the entire state’s heard of the Hamato Clan.”

“Combined interests,” replied Jazz. “May I come in. Mister…?”

“Casey Jones, and sure.” Casey let Jazz in. The other guys in the apartment, Raphael, a young woman with her hair dyed neon red, and a Japanese woman in ninja-gear about Raphael’s age all stared at Casey in disbelief.

“Dude, what the hell?!” protested Raphael.

“Casey,” said the ninja woman, “we’re supposed to be undercover!”

“You can’t just let any old guy in-!” snapped the woman with neon red hair.

“Guys, I know what this looks like,” interrupted Jazz, “but I’m here on Hamato Clan business.”

“Are you, indeed?” asked the ninja woman.

“…Wait, are you some Human Jazz cosplayer?” asked the woman with neon-red hair.

“…Come outside and I’ll show you all something more,” replied Jazz.

---

After a bit of convincing, Jazz pulled up in an alley with Raphael and the Mad Dogz watching. “You guys ready?” asked Jazz.

“Just do it,” grunted Raphael. Jazz shrugged, then his holo-form vanished and he transformed to robot mode. “…Y…You’re actually one of those robots from one of those TV shows Leo watches!” said Raphael, his eyes wide.

“Is your name really Jazz?” asked the woman with neon-red hair.

“Sure am, little lady!” replied Jazz. “So, Raph and Casey, I know them. But what about you two?”

“You can call me either Karai or Hamato Miwa,” replied the ninja woman.

“…You’re that little girl in the photo on Splinter’s altar,” realized Jazz.

“I was taken from him as a baby,” replied Karai. “Taken by Oroku Saki himself. Let’s just say time travel revealed the truth to me and I’ve been looking for ways to shut Saki down. April’s been a big help.”

“That’s me,” said the woman with the neon-red hair.

“Well, I’m here because me and my team kinda roped Raph’s brothers into a case,” said Jazz. “We’re looking for a lady called Order and Splinter said that she’s currently the Shredder’s prisoner.”

“It seems we’re working the same case,” said Karai. “That settles it. We have to band together and-!”

“Ixnay!” hissed Raphael. “That’s…look, I already told you how tense the situation is with my brothers.”

“From what they told me and my team,” replied Jazz, “the situation is only tense because you’re not back with them.”

“No, the situation is tense,” argued Raphael, “because I was ready to kill Leo because I was so angry about what he did a while ago!”

“I think you’re misreading the whole thing,” remarked Jazz. “They’ve already forgiven you, from what I’ve heard. …And from what I’m seeing, you haven’t forgiven yourself.”

“What are you, a ninja master like my dad?!”

“Well, a Cyber-ninja Grandmaster, yes, but not one as experienced as your dad. But even then, I’m seeing parallels between you and my best friend, Optimus Prime.” Raphael saw where this was going and wasn’t interested in a story.

“Hey, did I just see a mugger-?” April grabbed Raphael’s shell.

“Sit your shelled butt down, Raph,” she said. “I wanna hear this.” Raphael grumbled and sat down.

“This took place on the planet of Mobius, once known as Earth,” began Jazz. “After us Autobots got settled in, Optimus got a little cuckoo in the head with power. The Matrix of Leadership bricked itself to him and he reverted back to his pre-Prime form, Orion Pax. In a move that still baffles me to this day, he went on a solo-journey around the world to try and fix it, but a witch (yes, magic’s a thing on Mobius) gave him a kick in the pants, saying that he was starting to abuse that power. In the meantime, he left a holographic clone of himself, but the clone got worse, so we had to stage a mutiny against it. Given that the hologram was made of lights and forcefields, we were put on the backfoot, but Optimus managed to come back and shut it down…through a YuGiOh duel.”

“You’re joking,” grunted Raphael.

“I’m not! And it was as convoluted as any YuGiOh duel can get! …But even so, Optimus felt guilty about the whole thing, leaving us with a psycho version of himself. But, over time, he forgave himself.”

“Forgave himself? Even if that thing wasn’t really him, it was based on him, wasn’t it?! How could he forgive himself from that?!”

“It wasn’t an easy path for him, I’ll be the first to admit. But, like you said, it WASN’T him. And, if I heard the story right about you and your brothers, it was the Shredder that made you lose control to a degree.”

“To a degree?! I was gonna kill Leo!”

“And yet I saw him alive and well, so my point still stands.”

“Besides, you heard how much of a monster I am!”

“…Monster or merely a teenager that’s trying to settle his head?”

“Raph, I gotta agree with Jazz here,” interjected April. “You said that you didn’t want to pose a danger to your brothers, right?”

“Right,” replied Raphael.

“I heard the same thing,” said Jazz. “But they want you back. You wanna know why I stuck with Optimus?”

“…Why?”

“Because, deep down, I know he can rely on me to not let him turn evil. He said so himself when he became Optimus Prime again. I will bet you any money your family will do the same.”

“Raphael,” said Karai, “Jazz would have won that bet. Take it from me, I wouldn’t let you turn evil and neither will our brothers.”

“That goes for me,” said Casey.

“And me,” agreed April. Raphael said nothing, then he wiped his eyes.

“…You softies!” he grunted, trying to keep up the tough guy act. “Making me cry like that! Come on! This case is too big for us! Let’s get to the lair!”

After the shouting match, the Turtles split up. Raphael stood by the home gym, poised to spring. Donatello was working on the T-Phones alone. Michaelangelo was trying to meditate, but the fight was still fresh on his mind. Leonardo was in a dark corner for a while. He then stepped out after a while. “…Guys, we gotta talk,” he said.

“Whoever you are,” snarled Raphael, “there ain’t nothing left TO talk about!”

“I want to apologize,” said Leonardo. “You’re all free to not trust me. After everything that’s happened, that’s more than fair. Right now, I know that I AM who I say I am. And I have to trust that you’re all who you say you are. This thing doesn’t wanna show itself. It wants to hide and make us want to kill one another. If it IS hiding, that suggests that it’s vulnerable out in the open. If we fight and kill each other, then it won’t have any enemies left and would be celebrating its victory.”

“Even if you ARE Leonardo,” growled Raphael, “it doesn’t change the fact that we’re still stuck here and the dope with the oversized stick still hasn’t figured out a way to get us outta here!”

“Bite me, Raphael!” snapped Donatello.

“And,” continued Raphael, “it don’t change all the things YOU did by leaving us with Slash!”

“It WAS a mistake,” said Leonardo. “I’m sorry. I should have-.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, you should have! I’m hearing a lotta that woulda-coulda-shoulda crap, but not a lotta what you DID!”

“Damn it, Raphael! I’m trying to get us-!”

“Oh, you’re trying to-!” At that point, Leonardo and Raphael got into another shouting match.

“Stupid intellectual dwarves!” grunted Donatello to himself. “Don’t know why I bother with them!” Michaelangelo simply gave them a sour expression since his meditation was going nowhere…then he saw a shadowy figure. Donatello then looked at Michaelangelo. “Look at him!” he continued to himself. “All the intellect of a-!” He then saw the shadowy figure. He then noticed that Michaelangelo was trying to get his attention. Donatello then pointed at the shadowy figure while maintaining eye contact with Michaelangelo.

“Uh, guys?!” Michaelangelo called to the still shouting Leonardo and Raphael. No dice. The two were still wrapped up in their shouting match. Donatello then pointed at a small, black ball on his belt, then pointed at Michaelangelo. Michaelangelo nodded and reached for his own. The two quiet Turtles then moved their hands to their weapons. Michaelangelo counted down from three with his fingers, then threw the ball at the ground, creating a smoke screen. He then appeared at the figure’s side and swung his nunchaku while Donatello swung his bo. The figure grabbed both weapons and threw the two Turtles into the wall at high speeds! Leonardo and Raphael stopped arguing when they heard what happened. Raphael then saw the figure.

“WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!” he shouted as he charged at the figure, drawing his sai. Leonardo drew his katanas and the two Turtles attacked, but the figure threw them into each other, making them drop their weapons. A katana and a sai landed near Leonardo.

“MIKEY, CATCH!” he shouted as he threw the weapons at Michaelangelo. Michaelangelo caught the weapons and stuck the sai into the figure’s chest. The figure roared an electronic roar.

“YEAH, SCREW YOU TOO!” replied Michaelangelo as he swung the katana through the figure’s neck, decapitating it and dispelling the shadow. The Turtles could now see that it was a humanoid machine.

“…The hell IS that thing?!” spluttered Leonardo. Donatello picked up the head.

“It looks like an Utrom-droid,” he said.

“Then where’s the brainy-toy surprise that’s supposed to pop out?” asked Raphael.

“Um, Donnie, should the eyes be flashing now?” asked Michaelangelo. The eyes of the machine were blinking.

“So, are we done fighting?” asked a voice through the machine.

“SHREDDER!!” snarled Leonardo.

“But, why?!” asked Donatello.

“Because your master didn’t teach you a lesson he taught me all those years ago,” replied the Shredder.

“What lesson?!” growled Raphael.

“That brotherhood is fragile in the heat of conflict. I had my technical staff alter this Utrom-droid to create an illusion that would stir up conflict in all of you and simply let you try and destroy each other. Since you’re still alive, I can see that they failed in that regard. No matter. They still achieved my aims. Now you understand what I learned when your master killed Oroku Nagi all those years ago. Brotherhood is nothing. It is weak in the pursuit of power. …I’ll see you again when you’ve mastered that lesson.” The eyes switched off. It was then that they heard a banging on the door.

“MY SONS!” called Splinter’s voice.

“SENSEI!” called Leonardo. He ran to the door and pulled it open to let in Splinter and their human friends! The Turtles goggled.

“…Dudes, we couldn’t open that thing, right?” asked Michaelangelo.

---

After a few explanations, Raphael was sitting alone in his room, feeling ashamed of himself. He heard a knock on the door. “Raphael?” asked Splinter.

“…Come in,” mumbled Raphael. Splinter entered the room.

“You missed the meeting, my son,” he said.

“…I didn’t think it was a good idea for me to be there right now. …Did Donnie and April figure out what happened?”

“They couldn’t find anything wrong. Donatello believes that everything was most likely working as it should be and the four of you couldn’t hear anything over your own yelling.”

“…Great.” Splinter sensed something else in Raphael’s emotional state.

“…Raphael, this is probably a stupid question, but are you all right?”

“No, Pops, I ain’t,” muttered Raphael. “Is Leo near here?”

“Right here, Raph,” replied Leo as he stepped into the room.

“…Leo, it don’t matter if it came from the Shredder’s toy,” muttered Raphael. “All those things I said, they were real. I WAS that angry about Slash. …I was ready to put a sai in your eye.”

“But you didn’t. That’s the important thing.”

“No, the fact that I was even thinking about that about my own brother is the point! I…” Raphael sighed. “I-I need to get away from here. I need some time to think. The Mad Dogz are working a case and offered me a slot in their team.”

“…Will you be home in time for Mutation Day?” asked Splinter.

“…I wouldn’t hold my breath about it, Pops.”

“…Very well, my son.” Splinter put a reassuring hand on Raphael’s shoulder.

“Raph,” said Leonardo, “for what it’s worth, I AM sorry about Slash. Last month, I said you guys were my greatest strength. That opinion hasn’t changed.” There wasn’t much to say now. After a few seconds, Leonardo and Splinter left Raph so he could pack.

A few months ago, T-M-N-T time-scale, there WERE four brothers living in the Lair. Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michaelangelo. It was one of the rare moments where the four Turtles had the Lair all to themselves. Michaelangelo was drawing a comic, Donatello was upgrading a robot named Metalhead, and Leonardo was spotting Raphael as he was doing some bench-pressing with New York City manholes as weights. “Hey, Raph,” said Leonardo.

“What?” grunted Raphael.

“What’s a barista’s favorite exercise?” asked Leonardo.

“…If the answer’s French Press, do NOT tell Kappa Joe that!” warned Raphael. “You know he’s still trying to get over his breakup with his barista boyfriend.”

“Dude, why do you think I’m telling YOU that joke? I don’t wanna put up with a moody Kappa Joe!”

“…Probably a good thing, because it’s sad that I have to-.” The alarms then started blaring. Leonardo helped Raphael return the weight bar back to its rest position.

“Donnie?” asked Leonardo as they and Michaelangelo approached their brother as he sat down at the computer.

“Looks like we got an intruder here,” replied Donatello.

“What?! Where?!” asked Raphael.

“I can’t tell. It’s concealed.”

“Dude, another ninja?!” gulped Michaelangelo.

“Wait, something’s going-!” Donatello’s computer blacked out. “No! NO! Our computer systems! They’re offline!”

“Let’s get out of here!” said Leonardo. “I don’t want to stay here without those emergency protocols you cooked up! Mikey, get the door!” Michaelangelo nodded and put his hands on the door and…tried to open it.

“…Um, dudes!” he called. “I think there’s a problem in the ol’ escape plan!”

“Please do not tell me you’re pushing on it,” groaned Raphael.

“Guys, the door won’t open!” Michaelangelo WAS pulling on it. “And it’s unlocked!” Raphael tried the door, but to no avail.

“…Donnie, pool! I’m the cue-ball!” he called.

“Got it!” replied Donatello. Raphael retreated into his shell and red lightning spouted from his shell holes. Donatello then twirled his bo as purple lightning sparked from both ends. He then jabbed one end into Raphael’s shell and sent him flying across the floor like a pool ball. Raphael then struck the door and created an explosion…then was sent flying back to his brothers, crashing into them all. The smoke cleared and the door was unscathed.

“…Crap!” swore Leonardo as he and his brothers picked themselves up. “The protection spells Kappa Joe set up!”

“Dang it! I forgot!” complained Raphael.

“It was a good shot anyways,” said Leonardo.

“Then we’ll get an axe and chop it down,” suggested Michaelangelo.

“Won’t work,” replied Leonardo. “The spell works on normal attacks too.” He then snapped his fingers. “Donnie! The upgrade you and Mortu made to the T-Phones! You said that if you hit the button three times, it will open an emergency portal!”

“Unfortunately,” reported Donatello with a wince on his face, “the exit point of that portal leads to my lab. It won’t help our current situation.”

“Well, then we try and call our friends!” suggested Raphael.

“Not possible,” replied Leonardo. “The computer’s systems are tied to our T-Phones’ actual phone functions. Without it, we can’t call anyone.”

“Dudes, let me see if I’m reading the situation right,” said Michaelangelo. “We’re stuck in the Lair, we’ve got no way of booking it outta here, no way of calling for help, and there’s some…THING in here with us!”

“Yeah, that about sums it up,” confirmed Leonardo. He then drew his katanas. “Arm yourselves, guys.”

A few hours later, Leonardo checked in with his brothers. “Any luck?” he asked Donatello. The poor tech Turtle ran his three-fingered hand down his face as he set down what he was working on.

“Unfortunately, no,” he said. “It’s not a question of if it’s possible for me to link several communications devices together. I can do that in my sleep. But I keep running into the same problem; there just isn’t enough power to reach out to our friends and family.”

“And that’s assuming that whatever’s happening isn’t blocking the communications channels,” sighed Leonardo. “After all, April helped you in making half the tech here, whatever backdoor she made should have alerted her about all this going down.”

“That’s my theory too,” said Donatello.

“How’s things going in getting the protection spells down on your end, Leo?” asked Michaelangelo. “I’m hitting a wall here.”

“Sadly, you and I likely have the same problem,” replied Leonardo. “We only know how to cast it, but not how to take it down.”

“I tried taking the hinges off,” said Raphael. “Thought we needed to think about a simple solution, but no dice. The screws wouldn’t budge. I think I stripped them too.”

“It was an idea worth trying, Raph,” soothed Leonardo. He looked back at Donatello. “What about the main computer?” he asked. “Didn’t you say you had something to bring it back online?”

“I tried for two hours before giving up on it,” answered Donatello. “The main relays are just too badly damaged to bypass.”

“Yeah, I bet you’re working REAL hard on fixing it,” muttered Raphael. “I mean, you’ve been a big help so far.”

“…And that means what, pray tell?” asked Donatello.

“Oh, nothing,” grunted Raphael. “But I ain’t the tech boy and I never really learned much about Leo and Mikey’s mystic mojo, so I had a lotta time to stand around and think for a while! I just find it funny that the guy that’s supposed to have a way with machines seems pretty crappy at his job, hobby, whatever!”

“Kindly elaborate on that statement!” snapped Donatello.

“You were the one that told Leo to go on a wild goose chase when his mystic power went haywire despite Pops saying that’s a bad idea! You started working on a weapon for him, but you never got it to work right! And it was your crappy communicator that went kaput when we needed to call him! For someone who’s supposed to be a scientific teen prodigy, you don’t do much around here but screw up!”

“There’s always a margin for error in science, you musclebound meathead!”

“Not to mention that, ever since Utrom Shredder was found guilty and exiled to the coldest parts of space, YOU haven’t had any incentive to help us anymore!”

“Raph,” interjected Leonardo, “Donnie’s had a close eye on him since Ch’Rell was finally brought to justice. And even then, we still have Bishop to help should Donnie go crazy again.”

“Yeah, Bishop was watching him,” replied Raphael, “until all our systems got switched off! He’s been alone in the Lair lots of times! He could have screwed around with the circuits at any time!” Raphael then got an idea. “…Assuming, of course…” he then drew his sai, “he’s who he says he is, at least mentally!”

“What the hell are you talking about?!” protested Donatello.

“It happened with the idiot last year!” replied Raphael as he pointed his thumb at Michaelangelo. “Cyber-Shredder possessed him and it wasn’t that doofus at the controls!”

“…I’m not an idiot!” hissed Michaelangelo.

“Maybe Saki was right and Cyber-Shredder DIDN’T die in the idiot!” continued Raphael as he got into a combat stance. “Maybe he just jumped ship!”

“I’M NOT AN IDIOT!” shouted Michaelangelo.

“Raph, stop!” protested Leonardo. “That doesn’t make any sense!”

“I am NOT an idiot, Raphael!” snarled Michaelangelo. “And you’re not half as smart as you think you are!”

“He’s right!” agreed Donatello. “For someone who throws around words like ‘idiot’, YOU haven’t been particularly helpful to the cause! All you do is wave your sai around!” He then recalled something. “…In fact, when this all started, those salad tongs were the first thing you went for instead of a key!”

“SALAD TONGS?!” roared Raphael.

“WILL ALL OF YOU COOL IT?!” shouted Leonardo.

“You gonna listen to Donnie?!” protested Raphael. “He could be tricking us! He could be Cyber-Shredder! He could be a shape-shifter mutant under his control!”

“Dudes, Cyber-Shredder is dead! He’s, like, FRIED!” insisted Michaelangelo.

“Oh yeah?!” growled Raphael. “And you’d be the expert, wouldn’t you?! You know, maybe Cyber-Shredder DIDN’T jump ship! Maybe we should be looking at the guy who WAS possessed last year and almost killed us all!”

“You leave the Lair all the time to go on ‘patrol’ with the Mad Dogz!” snapped Michaelangelo. “And, yeah, I bet street gangs are real popular since NINJAS still got like six decades on them!”

“Do you even listen to the crap coming out of your beak?!”

“Better than the crap coming out of YOUR beak, Raphael!” Michaelangelo then got into his own combat stance with a nunchaku in his hands. “Assuming that’s who YOU are!”

“This isn’t getting us anywhere!” snapped Leonardo. “We have to work toge-!”

“AND YOU!” shouted Raphael as he pointed at Leonardo. “You left us alone for three months with that psycho, Slash, and he almost killed us! Did you even think about switching off his combat program?!”

“There WAS a way to make him docile!” snapped Leonardo. “You could have turned him off at any time!”

“Yeah, right! …Or maybe YOU’RE not who you say you are!”

“What kind of weed are you smoking?!”

“The remote for Slash’s cybernetics vanished after you got back!”

“An intruder got inside and took it! Master Splinter didn’t feel anything that night and Metalhead never identified who it was! Even then, Slash wasn’t switched on in the Lair!”

“Yeah, somebody got in! But you’ll recall that the intruder alarms didn’t start blaring when he got in! Maybe somebody LET him in!”

“I should be accusing all the rest of you!” Leonardo was addressing everyone now. “After all, I was gone for three months, any one of you could have let that intruder in here!”

“And that’s assuming you came back at all!” snarled Raphael.

“WHAT?!” protested Leonardo.

“We couldn’t contact Leonardo during those three months! Maybe he never made it home! Maybe you’re something else entirely!”

“And yet, YOU’RE the one flinging accusations against everyone else left, right, and center, Raphael! Michaelangelo’s right! You DO leave the Lair for days at a time without a word of explanation!”

“And YOU’RE the one trying to pit us all against each other!” interjected Donatello.

“But he DOES have a point, Donatello!” snapped Leonardo. “YOU have been remarkably unhelpful! You know, maybe I should outsource the science support!” By then, it was a four-way shouting match between the Turtles.

The limo was being fixed as the Orokus talked with Tormo and his Terrorcon friends. “A shame,” sighed Tormo. “I had just figured out the market value of those…Corinthian leather seats, I believe they are.”

“What do you want?” grunted Oroku Saki.

“I sense we’re kindred spirits, you and I,” replied Tormo. “Oh, there are differences, like how we accomplish our goals, but we’re both entrepreneurs at heart. We see an opportunity and we grab it, yes?”

“And what opportunity, pray tell,” said Oroku Kumiko, “do your senny-senses tell you?”

“Well, let me give you a bit of backstory first,” answered Tormo. “In the past few days, my association has been running into a string of bad luck. Autobots and Decepticons working together, the races of my home, …and karate bug-men that use belts to summon their armor!”

“Kamen Riders?” asked Saki.

“That’s them! Thanks to this particular group of Kamen Riders, all our operations have been shut down!” Tormo snarled in annoyance…then calmed down. “But you have a quartet of four half-shelled juvenile delinquents, right? Which brings me to my little…proposition.”

“Continue,” directed Saki.

“Surrender Order to me and me and my guys will give you ninja weapons specifically designed to slay the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” Saki laughed at Tormo’s proposition.

“That’s just too rich,” he said. “One, Order is in my possession for a reason until I find Tengu no Ken. Two, what makes you think you can take on the turtles when you can’t even defeat mere children’s television superheroes from my homeland?” Tormo stood up quickly.

“There’s nothing childish about THESE particular ‘superheroes’!” he snapped. “Besides, like I said, I have ninja weapons specifically designed to target their…weakness.”

“That ‘pizza’ nonsense they have an obsession for?” scoffed Saki.

“Not that, something more…biological. Big Mama Joro, is there someone I can demonstrate this on? Someone that stumbled into mutagen like the Turtles?” Tormo pulled out a kunai.

“…Well, there IS one,” replied Kumiko. She used her natural mystic arts to open a portal and pull a humanoid cockroach through. “This one hasn’t paid me in a while.”

“B-B-B-BIG MAMA JORO!” squeaked the cockroach. “Look, Big Mama! I swear! I got the money! I just need to pay off-!” Tormo stabbed the guy in the heart. As he fell dying, the cockroach man lost many of his insectoid features until he was now a normal red-headed man…as normal as a corpse can be.

“The weapons are capable of deploying retromutagen into the body,” explained Tormo. “Dead or alive, makes no difference.”

“…Perhaps…we can use them for a further purpose,” said Saki. “If you want Order, I need a specific sword. Tengu no Ken, it’s called. The Sword of Tengu. Built with Yōkai mysticism, Utrom technology, and human ingenuity. My first ancestor, Oroku Sansho, was known to wield it on top of wearing the armor I wear as the Shredder. Using these weapons to make sure I’ll dine on turtle soup will be a bonus.”

“Ooh! That DOES sound more promising!” replied Tormo.

“But you must understand this,” continued Saki, “you are dealing with the Shredder and Big Mama Joro. Oroku Saki and Oroku Kumiko cannot be involved in this in any way.”

“Oh, trust me! The Orokus will be Mr. and Mrs. Clean!” assured Tormo. “Deal?” He held his hand out for a handshake.

“…Deal,” replied Saki as he shook Tormo’s hand.

---

Leonardo, Donatello, and Michaelangelo led Hiroki and his team to a part of New York’s sewer system that was once a subway station. “So you dudes are trying to save all the universes by stopping a guy that has some magic book that makes what he writes come true?” asked Michaelangelo.

“That’s the general gist of it, Michaelangelo,” replied Hiroki. “We need to find a woman that calls herself Order.”

“Erm, this Order woman,” interjected Donatello, “is she green and usually carries a crystal sphere?”

“That’s the one!” confirmed Jazz. “Dude, where is she?” The Turtles winced.

“In the hands of Oroku Saki and Oroku Kumiko,” replied Leonardo. “The Shredder and Big Mama Joro.”

“Okay, I have to ask, since Yōkai are a thing in this universe,” said Nightbird, “is Big Mama Joro a Jorōgumo?”

“Yes,” said Leonardo.

“Just to make sure I got my Japanese mythology right,” said Shockwave, “Jorōgumo is a shape-shifter that can turn from a beautiful woman to a giant spider that targets men that have no control over their lust, correct?”

“Bingo!” said Michaelangelo.

“…Well,” muttered Shockwave.

“Now, I have a question for you boys,” said Hiroki, “where are you taking us?”

“To our home,” replied Leonardo. “We need Master Splinter’s insight into all this.”

“Are you sure that’s a wise idea? Introducing Splinter to all of us?”

“We’re not introducing all of you,” replied Donatello, “just you, Hishikawa-san.”

“…Fair point,” conceded Hiroki. They entered the Lair and Leo pointed out a set of Japanese sliding doors.

“There’s the dojo,” he said. “Master Splinter’s usually in there either practicing or meditating.” Hiroki nodded.

---

A man-sized rat in Japanese clothes was kneeling in front of a makeshift altar with a photo of a young Japanese couple in traditional clothing and holding a baby in cloth. Incense was burning and the rat’s eyes were closed as he breathed slowly. His ears twitched as he heard a foot on the bamboo flooring. “…You hesitate to disturb me,” said the rat.

“This…seems too important,” replied Hiroki’s voice. “I am Hishikawa Hiroki. I presume you are Master Splinter?”

“That is what my sons have nicknamed me, yes,” replied the rat. “Though, if you wish for my original name…I am Hamato Yoshi.”

“A pleasure, Hamato-san,” said Hiroki as he bowed.

“Please, Hishikawa-san, sit,” directed Splinter. Hiroki knelt next to Splinter. “I sense there’s another issue?”

“Well, I’m afraid of rats, but a talking rat manages to calm down my fear,” admitted Hiroki.

“Not that,” said Splinter.

“…Yes, I’m dodging the question here. I came from another universe.” Splinter sighed as his ears flattened in annoyance and his eyes opened to reveal brown, human eyes instead of a rat’s usual black orbs. “I can understand your frustrations, given what your sons told me and my team about the renegade Utroms under Ch’Rell’s command, but this goes beyond what the ‘Demon’ Shredder had planned. A person is using a book called the Tome-.” Splinter gave Hiroki his full attention.

“THE Tome?” he asked. “How did he get that? The Utrom Queen assured me and my family that such a task was impossible.”

“This person tricked the guardians of the Tome into serving him and now he’s collecting the Sources of the Apocalypse and Flourishment as well as three powerful first-place prizes from a tournament known as the 3V2R. He plans on combining them with the Tome to literally rewrite reality into his image. We have the Apocalypse and four of the five Flourishment Sources secured and we came here to retrieve the last one.”

“Order.”

“Exactly, Hamato-san,” said Hiroki. “Your sons said that Order is in the tender mercies of the Shredder.”

“She is, sadly,” replied Splinter. “I will do what I can to assist you and your team.”

“…Just like that?” asked Hiroki.

“Surprised?”

“A little, yeah. I thought you’d want to test me or something.”

“Even if I did, you have already passed it. See, I overheard my sons talking outside the Lair and they intended to introduce me to yourself and your team slowly. I doubt you have anything devious on your mind. If you crept in here, I’d have been in a better position to do something about it.” Splinter could hear the gulp.

---

The team met in the garage, given the size of the Transformers. As they planned, Tom seemed distracted by something. “TOM!” called Hiroki. Tom snapped out of it.

“Yes, Hiroki?!” he said.

“I was asking what you thought of the plan to get Order out of the Shredder’s private palace,” said Hiroki, “but you seem distracted.”

“…Sorry, Hiroki,” sighed Tom. “It’s just…in most universes centered around the Turtles, they’re supposed to number four. …Where’s Raphael?” The Turtles winced.

“Dudes…you probably wanna stay sitting,” said Michaelangelo.

“It started like this…” began Leonardo.

Hiroki meditated for a bit before his mission. He just sat in the middle of the room, breathing in and out slowly, settling his nerves. Once done, he opened his eyes and stood up. “Here we go,” he said. As he was leaving, Xiomara kissed him.

“Good luck, mi amor,” she said.

“Always, my dear,” replied Hiroki.

“Oto-san,” called Sora. “If you need hope, don’t hesitate to call me or Gabriella, okay?”

“Will do, son,” promised Hiroki. He headed out to meet his team, consisting of Agus, Barbara, Elgrad, Endea, Fordelam, Jazz, Katrina, Laserbeak, Leemii, Michael, Nightbird, Pestilence, Ravage, Shade, Shockwave, Silver, Sweemar, Teefmanam, Tom, Twaldar, and War. “Minna, we’re the last team,” he said to everyone. “We NEED to secure Order and her Source. And once we do…we’ll frustrate the Author’s plans even further. And we WILL win! I can see it!” Everyone cheered at the speech.

“Rift’s open for T-M-N-T!” called Rosadera.

“Minna, ikuze!” called Hiroki. Everyone followed him into the rift!

---

The team ended up in New York City, Times Square specifically. It was nighttime, but that didn’t really matter for the City That Never Sleeps. People saw the rift! “ALIENS!” yelped one.

“It’s gotta be those Triceratons!” said another.

“No way! That was a portal!” replied a third. “It’s another Utrom invasion! Kraang must have sent them!”

“I though Ch’Rell was in charge!” called a fourth.

“I think we better get out of here!” Jazz advised Hiroki.

“Minna, hide!” called Hiroki. Everyone ran from the gathering mob to find some cover. They found it in an abandoned garage with enough space for all Transformers to rest in vehicle mode and switch on their holo-forms.

“…Triceratons?” muttered Nightbird as everyone caught their breath. “Utrom? …I swear I heard those words before.”

“Same here,” replied Agus.

“We’ll figure out that mystery later,” said Hiroki. “Right now, we need to get information on Order and her Source. …And I’m sorry to say, my Transformer friends, your alt-modes are too advanced for this era. This is definitely 21^st century New York.”

“Tovarishchi,” said Ravage, “I’ve found a news article from about a week ago.” He started reading the online article’s title aloud. “‘Yōkai Mafia panic city! Police Shakeup as Big Mama Joro strikes again!’”

“Big Mama Joro? Yōkai?” asked Hiroki. “Wait, so they’re NOT just myths from my home?!”

“Not in this universe, apparently,” replied Ravage. “Big Mama Joro is the head of a whole Mafia gang consisting of Yōkai. Like many of Asian descent, Yōkai are the subject of mockery, so the Yōkai Mafia was formed in an attempt to protect Yōkai. But, nowadays, they’re giving the impression that all Yōkai are criminals.”

“Great, more racism to deal with,” muttered Hiroki.

“A staple of the human race,” remarked Shockwave, “and not exclusive to straight, white, male Americans.”

“…Explain the Organiphobes in our respective factions,” replied Jazz.

“Now’s not the time to discuss this,” interjected Hiroki. “We need to find Order and…War?”

“Someone’s in here with us,” replied War. Everyone stood up and the Riders brought their belts out…which were promptly knocked out of their hands by kunai.

“…Ninjas. Lovely,” muttered Hiroki. He was then grabbed from behind and pulled into the shadows. Everyone else assumed a combat form.

---

Hiroki managed to wiggle himself free in the shadows and face his attacker. “If you’re a ninja that runs wild like Shuriken Sentai-!”

“What?! Dude!” protested the ninja in a distinctly surfer-dude voice. “No way! Those guys are a TERRIBLE Sentai team! And terrible ninjas!”

“…Okay, but now your accent-.” Hiroki didn’t get very far as he had to leap out of the way of the ninja’s nunchucks. “Questions for later!” Hiroki fought off his attacker as best he could. He then grabbed his attacker’s full-face mask and yanked it off. “All right, let’s see who you are, you c-c-c-c-k-k-k………KAME?!” Looking right at him was a green turtle’s head complete with beak!

“Well, you got that right,” said the turtle. “You know how many people call me a Kappa? Do I have a pie dish on my head?!”

“Wait a minute…ninjas…humanoid turtles…you have nunchuks…” Hiroki then looked at the mask and saw orange highlights around the eye holes of the mask. “…Michaelangelo?!”

“…You…know me?!” yelped the turtle.

“…I think our teams made a big mistake!” Hiroki rushed out to see his team fighting two other ninja turtles, one with two katanas and blue around the eye holes, the other with a bo staff and purple around the eyeholes. “MINNA! YAME!” shouted Hiroki. The fighting stopped.

“Stop?! What for?! We were just attacked!” protested Silver.

“By a team that thought us a threat to the people they’re protecting in the first place!” replied Hiroki.

“Yeah, bros,” Michaelangelo addressed his teammates, “I don’t think they’re bad guys here. We just got a mondo misunderstanding here.”

“You’re sure about that?” asked the bo-wielder.

“Donnie, this is Mikey we’re talking about,” said the katana-wielder as he sheathed his weapons. “He’s the guy in tune with emotions. He’s our best read on the subject. Even Raph turns to him at times.” The katana-wielder then removed his mask. “I’m Hamato Leonardo, and these are my brothers, Michaelangelo and Donatello.”

“Hey, dudes and dudettes!” called Michaelangelo. The bo-wielder, Donatello, removed his mask.

“Salutations,” he said.

“…No way!” realized Tom.

“Yes!” replied Hiroki. “Universe T-M-N-T!”

“Then this is the home universe for the Adolescent Genetically altered Shinobi Terrapins,” remarked Shockwave.

“We just met the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!” cheered Jazz.

“I believe I just said that,” said Shockwave.

“So, you’re NOT Kraang’s minions or Foot Ninjas?” asked Leonardo.

“No, but our quest DOES lead us across the multiverse,” replied Hiroki.

---

In another part of the city, a Japanese businessman and his elegantly-dressed wife approached their limo. They were known as Mr. and Mrs. Oroku, heads of the New York Branch of the Technological Cosmic Research Institute. On the surface, they did much for their American home. But, much like their marriage, it was all a front. Mr. Oroku kissed his wife as he helped her into the limo, but there was no love in either of their eyes. Mr. Oroku sat in the limo after he helped his wife into it. “The office,” he directed the driver.

“Away we go, Mr. O!” replied the driver. The Orokus blinked.

“…‘Mr. O’?” asked Mrs. Oroku. “Sampson?”

“Oh, Sampson had a little…accident.” The limo driver then shimmered and turned into…well, the Orokus could only assume some form of green person. The person hit the gas and sped through New York! An impressive feat, given the traffic there that particular Friday night!

“All right, mister!” snarled Mrs. Oroku as her teeth sharpened and dripped with a vile, green liquid. “I don’t know what your gimmy-game is, but I promise you’ll pay dearly for this!”

“You’re dead, DO YOU HEAR ME?!” roared Mr. Oroku as he slipped on a pair of blades mounted to the back of his hand. He punched through the window separating him from the driver and yanked on the steering wheel. The limo went careening into a junkyard, then was surrounded! The person unlocked the limo’s doors and Mr. and Mrs. Oroku jumped out. The attackers stepped into the light to reveal Deceptitran, Rodimus Unicronus, Sideways, and Straxus in robot mode.

“Oh, lovely, some of those…those Shape-formers to rip limb from limbity-limb!” said Mrs. Oroku.

“Transformers,” corrected Mr. Oroku. “Possibly of that Decepticon variety.”

“Not DECEPTI-cons,” corrected the green person, Tormo, as he stepped out of the limo. “TERROR-cons. I do apologize for this, Oroku Saki and Oroku Kumiko…or rather, Shredder and Big Mama Joro, but I believe I have a deal for you.”

Everyone returned to Beyond City in grand style. The TARDIS arrived the instant the Transformers exited the rift and Health and Death were the first ones out. “Lady Health, welcome!” greeted Megumi. “I’m Megumi Hishikawa, head of the Feudal Nerd Society!”

“A pleasure to meet a friendly face,” said Health. “And a welcome change from having to deal with the Daleks.”

“Daleks?” asked Megumi. “What happened?”

“I think,” called the Doctor, “you’re in for quite a story.”

“In the meantime,” said Death, “I need to reacquaint Health with our sisters and introduce her to Lacey.”

“You go ahead,” replied Megumi. “And after the story, Doctor, could you PLEASE convince my husband his project needs a lot of work!”

“…Project?” asked the Doctor with trepidation.

---

Death and Health arrived at the Horsemen’s mansion. Health took a deep breath, then released it slowly. “…Home, sweet home,” she sighed happily.

“All that’s left is Order,” said Death, “then the sisterhood is reunited!”

“Minus Chaos,” remarked Health.

“Minus the original Chaos, yes, but there’s a new Chaos.”

“There is?!” Health opened the door. She almost crashed into Pestilence.

“Hey, easy there, la-!” Pestilence stopped when she saw her opposite. “HEALTH!” By now, everyone heard her voice.

“Health, welcome back!” said Bounty.

“Great to have you back!” greeted Life.

“It’s great to BE back, girls!” replied Health. She then saw Lacey. “…A human?”

“FORMER human,” said Lacey. “I’m Lacey Thanatos Atmadja, the new Chaos.”

“You’ve clearly adjusted well to being the new Chaos!”

“It took some training, but I used to come from The Simpsons and-.”

“That world with mustard yellow people with overbites?” asked Health. “The chaos there must have helped you adjust.”

“Never really liked my old home,” remarked Lacey, “and was raised by an asshole dad, so it wasn’t that big of a decision to leave my old life.”

“Ah, that makes sense. …So, why the Indonesian surname?”

“That would be because I’m married to a Mobian Komodo Dragon, Dr. Agus Atmadja.”

“…And…he’s okay with you not being a normal-?” Health stopped her question abruptly when she saw Famine trying to stealthily accept something. Everyone else turned to see that Famine was still getting pasta dishes! Once Famine shut the door, she turned and realized everyone saw the whole thing.

“What?!” she protested as she tried to hide the comically tall stack of pasta dishes behind her.

“‘What?’” Death repeated mockingly. “Got a boyfriend delivering it all to you?!”

“How many has she had?” asked Health.

“20 dozen stacks that tall, so far,” muttered Lacey. “We’re gonna go bankrupt at this rate!”

---

“Richard, this looks like it was built by Ogrons!” The Doctor said once she examined the Spectacular. Batman, Gandalf, and Wyldstyle were standing next to Megumi’s Legacy.

“Oh, come on!” protested Richard. “I thought you of all people would appreciate it!”

“Because of the jury-rigs she used to fix the TARDIS on numerous occasions?” snarked Batman. “At least they work until she can make proper repairs!”

“Yeah, there’s no way this thing should move at all!” agreed the Doctor.

“Your assessment, Doctor?” asked Megumi when she joined the group.

“Well-,” said the Doctor. Richard didn’t let her finish.

“While the Doctor found a few minor issues,” he said, “she agreed that if I were to put the Spectacular into production, I would make a fortune!”

“…Doctor?” asked Megumi incredulously.

“No, I didn’t say that,” replied the Doctor.

“Look, I did the math!” protested Richard. “The Grand Caravan was 2,500 studs, the Chrysler Pacifica was 3,000, the Tesla was 60,000, and the work was 70,000, that’s 135,500 studs in total. I could sell this thing for 500,000 a pop.”

“No, you couldn’t,” muttered Wyldstyle.

“I could!” insisted Richard.

“I must agree with Wyldstyle,” remarked Gandalf. “You couldn’t.”

“Yes, I could! A 2023 Phantom sells for almost 500,000 studs here!”

“A 2023 Phantom,” argued Batman, “is a proper car built by Rolls-Royce!”

“Exactly! What you have, Richard,” said the Doctor, “is three scrap cars glued together by a Muppet with no engineering know-how!”

“Look, the van isn’t designed for people like you!” snapped Richard.

“What, people with eyes?” asked Megumi.

“People who dress themselves in the morning?” asked the Doctor.

“I’ll tell you exactly who’ll buy this!” declared Richard.

“Orcs from Núrn?” asked Gandalf.

“No, baseball players!”

“No, they won’t!” protested Wyldstyle.

“Baseball players like Fords and Chevies!” agreed Batman. “Especially their respective lines of pick-up trucks! Not that hunk of junk!”

“What’s going on here?” asked a voice. A Jaguar Mark X then arrived, and Michael stepped out of the driver’s side.

“See, THAT’S a proper car!” said Batman.

“Ah, discussing the Spectacular, hm?” guessed Michael. “Oh, good lord, and you brought the Doctor.”

“Didn’t exactly give it a ringing endorsement,” remarked the Doctor. “…Now, your Jaguar…” Michael smiled and opened the hood (excuse me, bonnet) so the Doctor could see what’s underneath. “Is that a bi-radial catalyst engine?!” she asked, clearly impressed.

“It IS a bi-radial catalyst engine!” replied Michael. “I took some design ideas from your car, Bessie.”

“And you paid homage to her really well!” said the Doctor. “Though that engine’s not a cheap one.”

“No, building my Jag wasn’t cheap. But it wasn’t as expensive as I thought. In all, it took me about 385,000 studs.”

“What?!” yelped Megumi and Richard.

“I know! That’s a lot of car for only 38 and a half purple studs! Look at the size of it!”

“Michael, that’s about 150,000…” Richard rechecked his math. “No, 250,000 studs more than I paid to get the Spectacular built!”

“That people carrier you cobbled together,” replied Michael, “is your embarrassing attempt to reinvent the wheel, the classic pitfall of American technology! My Jag is definitive, your van…is derivative!”

“Michael, not to give Richard any leeway here,” said Megumi, “but a Jaguar, especially a Mark X, that’s something a Bond Villain would drive.”

“Well, I got the goatee and the dark clothing,” replied Michael, “so why not indulge in a bit of that feeling?”

“…Your car, your attitude, I guess,” muttered the Doctor.

Gol and Maia were taken to prison for their crimes. The Doctor managed to figure out how they knew it was Jak. “It turns out,” she said, “that during their time in stasis, their minds were flooded with data linked through all the Precursor Robots. It fed them all the information about the Metal Head Wars, the attack from the Dark Makers, and the Eco shortage, and they couldn’t do anything about it.”

“To be stuck in the same position for 300 years, knowing that the world is going on without you,” muttered Layla, “that’s just…maddening!”

“Kids, you were very brave to go on this adventure with us,” said Jak. “…Though, I have to admit, that was more death than you should have been exposed to.”

“Unfortunately, the Daleks are like that,” sighed Death. “They always bring out the worst in us.”

“…Guys,” said Layla, “can I…have my fur back?”

“Allow me, little one,” said Drebber. He raised his staff and dark energy was seeping out of Layla. After a minute, she changed and shrunk into an Ottsel like Daxter.

“I’M FUZZY AGAIN!” she cheered.

“Now, Layla,” said Daxter. “Step 1: listen to your dad this time. Step 2: …NEVER THINK ABOUT DOING SOMETHING LIKE THAT AGAIN!”

“That goes for you too, Markus!” said Jak.

“Okay! Okay! We won’t go to places that are forbidden!” replied Markus. He then spotted Megatron looking at the wall behind the elevator. “…Mr. Megatron, sir?” he asked.

“I just remembered something,” replied Megatron. “Jak, Daxter, a rift gate was right there, yes?”

“…Yeah?” asked Jak.

“…Perhaps there’s another one that could use 100 power cells,” mused Megatron.

“NO!” shouted Jak and Daxter together.

“I am NOT going through all that again!” snarled Jak. “Metal Heads were coming out of both ends of the rift gate!”

“BOTH ENDS!” agreed Daxter.

“The Forbidden Jungle’s still got Metal Head remnants harassing the Lurkers there!” shuddered Markus. “Dad showed me last year!”

“…Well, I guess that’s that,” remarked Galvatron.

“Death, see if Health’s ready to go,” said Farmee.

“No need for that,” called Health as she arrived with her Source in her hands. “I’m all set!”

“Then this is goodbye,” Farmee said to Jak, Daxter, and their friends and family. “Everyone, it was a pleasure seeing your world. I hope we can meet again under better circumstances.”

“Just a moment!” called a Haven Guard. He stormed up to Farmee. “Top secret military project, huh?!” he snarled. Farmee blinked. His eyes then widened in recognition.

“Oh! Y-You’re the…the Port Authority Commander!” he gulped.

“Yeah! Make a moncaw out of me, huh?!”

“Commander, stand down!” snapped Torn. “Did you bring that box?”

“Yes, Sir! Box is currently right behind us!” gulped the commander as he pointed at the TARDIS.

“There she is!” said the Doctor. She then seemed to consider something. “…Eh, why not?” she said. She opened the TARDIS doors and looked to Jak and Daxter. “Want a peek?”

“It’s a blue box,” remarked Jak as he and Daxter headed inside. “What’s so…?” Jak blinked when he saw what was inside the TARDIS.

“…Did I get hit on the head?!” asked Daxter. Jak stepped outside and circled the TARDIS.

“…H…How-?! It’s…bigger on the inside?!” yelped Jak.

“Is it?” asked Farmee with a wry grin.

“I had no idea!” chuckled the Doctor. Health took a look inside and gasped.

“…Is this a Type 40?!” she asked. “Tell me it’s a Type 40!”

“Good eye!” praised the Doctor.

“Now THAT’S a TARDIS type with proper character!” said Health. “And more user-friendly than those Type 70’s or Type 190’s or Type Infinity’s or whatever the Time Lords cooked up! Bells and whistles are nothing without proper character!”

“Exactly what I always say!” agreed the Doctor. “All right, everyone! Back home we go!” As the more human-sized people entered the TARDIS, Galvatron called Beyond City.

“Galvatron to Command,” he said, “rift for three Transformers.” The TARDIS then dematerialized as the rift opened. Galvatron, Megatron, and Hot Rod then jumped through the rift.

---

Deep within the bowels of the Imperium, Khan met with Intrag, Metaltron, and the Supreme Dalek. “A massacre, that’s all it was!” Metaltron snapped at Intrag. “Only one survivor and the rest are either normal or warped corpses!”

“Your Daleks brought no victory!” roared Intrag. “They were too scared to sacrifice their so-called genetic purity for a greater cause!”

“There is no greater cause than maintaining the purity of the Daleks!” barked the Supreme.

“The fault lies with the guy that assigned you that mission,” grunted Khan. Everyone looked at him.

“…That was you, my lord,” remarked Metaltron.

“Like I said, the fault lies with me,” said Khan. “Sending Daleks, tampering with Dark Eco, I must have been desperate! …Metaltron, do you have any Combatmen skilled in Ninjutsu?”

“As a matter of fact, yes,” replied Metaltron. “…And if I may say, my lord, you should have assigned Benny and Captain Don Shinobi to Universe T-M-N-T.”

“Well, let’s hope that I didn’t mess up so badly on that front. …And that woman, Dalek Supreme, are you sure she introduced herself as THE Doctor?”

“Correct!” confirmed the Dalek Supreme.

“I think we need to confirm that.”

“My Time Controller is outside the room,” said Metaltron.

“Bring him in,” ordered Khan. “Supreme, feed the information to him when he gets in here.” The door opened and a Dalek with a longer neck and rings intersecting one another entered the room.

“Time Controller receiving,” it said. The tone was…humanish, for lack of a better word. That unnerved Khan for reasons he never disclosed. The Time Controller then projected images from its eyestalk. It started with the Doctor as she looked now, then reverted to a short, Asian woman, then a portly, black woman, then a freakishly tall blonde man…then a blonde woman in a grey coat with a rainbow across the chest of her shirt, then an fierce looking old man with attack eyebrows, then a man with delicate eyebrows and a bow tie, then a skinny man with a long, brown coat, then a man with huge ears. Metaltron backed up when she saw that man. She KNEW that man! The Time Controller then switched the images off. “Identity confirmed,” it said. “That woman is our greatest enemy! The Time Lord! The Doctor!”

“SHE MUST BE EXTERMINATED!” shouted the Supreme.

“NO!” countered Metaltron.

“No?!” argued Intrag. “If this woman IS this Doctor you Daleks have a particular hatred for, then she must die!”

“There are spatio-temporal imperatives we must obey,” said the Time Controller. “Any deviation would mean the failure of our mission.”

“But the Doctor-!”

“Her presence in that universe,” the Time Controller interrupted, “was not foreseen. We do not know what her purpose is among our enemies. We cannot risk destabilizing events at this stage of the conflict! Our imperatives are to claim the Sources and the 3V2R prizes belonging to Megumi Hishikawa, Optimus Prime, and Arsha Royana!”

“But the Doctor will attempt to impede our progress!” argues the Dalek Supreme.

“The Doctor is resourceful,” mused Khan. “We must use that resourcefulness. For now, Metaltron is right. She must be kept alive.”

“…Very well,” said Intrag.

“In the meantime, Intrag, I need you and your forces to begin searching the Mushroom Kingdom for the Source of Pestilence.”

“At once, Author.” Intrag bowed and he, Metaltron, and the two Daleks left. Metaltron…had a smirk on her face.

“All according to plan,” she muttered to herself.

“…Welp, the Acherons aren’t serving our enemies,” remarked Galvatron.

“How did they-?!” spluttered Megatron. “I mean, they made Lurkers by putting Green Eco into Dark Eco, but making Lurkers out of Daleks?”

“They’re acting crazier than the test subject,” observed Jak as he looked through his goggles.

“…I think I have an idea,” mused the Doctor. “If I can somehow get a good source of Dark Eco’s direct opposite…”

“Light Eco!” said Jak. “But it can only be made when Red, Yellow, Green, and Blue are equally combined!”

“Or if you have a Light Eco Sage!” called Murda. “Doctor, what do you need me to do?”

“I need Light Eco shunted into the robot’s head,” explained the Doctor. “If I can use its camera eyes, I should be able to trigger a widespread counteraction effect all Dark Eco affected people should be vulnerable to.”

“Light Eco can stave off the effects of Dark Eco, but the powers will still be a part of you, Doctor,” said Murda. “Just ask Jak. He has Light Eco running through his veins to counteract the experiments he suffered.”

“She’s right,” said Jak.

“The thing is, you have an innate sense of good,” replied the Doctor. “Those that just seek power don’t understand right from wrong.”

“So it’s going to specifically target those without morals?” asked Murda.

“That’s the idea,” confirmed the Doctor. “But I need to get closer.”

“Megatron, Galvatron,” called Farmee, “take me, the Doctor, Murda, Jak, and Daxter. We’ll hold off the Daleks and their Lurker counterparts while the Doctor does her thing. Everyone else, keep the enemy off our backs!”

“Let’s go!” said Galvatron as he and Megatron transformed. The team jumped into their cockpits and they took off to the silo. Their arrival was not unnoticed.

“Cybertronian energy signatures detected!” barked a Dalek.

“Intercept and exterminate! Exterminate!” ordered the Supreme. Daleks then fired on the two Decepticon Lords as they took to the air.

“Covering fire for the Doctor and Murda!” called Farmee as he fired lightning. His target was Intrag’s back!

“WHO DARES STRIKE ME FROM BEHIND LIKE A COWARD?!” roared Intrag.

“It’s that Blender over there!” called Scorpo.

“Scorpo, yes?” asked Farmee. “You were supposed to be the Titan of Air before my parents upset that little apple cart, yes?”

“Your parents?” asked Scorpo. He then realized something. “Of course. You’re one of Arsha’s kids. Not by blood, obviously. You’re too white for that.”

“True, my blood parents are Falnii and Foresna Royana, but I have just enough of Arsha’s ideals…and Malnar’s.”

“So my latest descendant forsook the Emboramii name!” hissed Intrag.

“I don’t know, I’d say Mama Malnar’s still a bit of a firebrand,” remarked Farmee.

“She failed miserably! And taught you how to fight like a coward!”

“You’re undeserving of an honorable battle!” At that declaration, Intrag charged at Farmee, distracting the tyrant from the Doctor. Murda kept the Lurker Daleks at bay.

“Doctor, whenever you’re ready!” hissed Murda.

“I’ve got to set the head so the Light Eco wave covers the breadth of the Citadel!” replied the Doctor.

“Well, hurry it up!”

“I AM hurrying!”

“DO NOT MOVE!” barked a normal Dalek as it fired on the Lurker Daleks. “You will cease all activity and surrender! You are my prisoner!”

“Oh, for the love of-! Here we go again!” groaned the Doctor. “Always with the barking orders! Always exterminating through your gunstick or forced labor!”

“That is the fate of all Non-Daleks!” replied the Dalek.

“It really isn’t! I’ve seen it before!” snapped the Doctor. “Whenever you suppress a populace, you galvanize others into being stronger than you lot!”

“Nothing is stronger than the Daleks!”

“The Thals beg to differ.”

“The Thals are weak! They shall perish and so will their human allies!”

“You couldn’t make them perish! I’ve seen it happen! They last long until the collapse of the universe! You fail in exterminating them! That’s a future worth fighting for!”

“That is no future! That is Hell! Hell shall be avoided! You and your kind will be exterminated!”

“Do you have any idea how often Gallifrey has come back? About as many times as Skaro!” The Dalek twitched at the mention of Gallifrey.

“…Why invoke Gallifrey’s name? Who are you?! IDENTIFY!”

“Have a scan! And know that I am Ka Faraq Gatri!” The Dalek ran several scans as its eyestalk went up and down. It then stared directly at the Doctor.

“You…cannot be!” it practically begged.

“Oh, but I am! I’m the Doctor!” The Dalek backed up in fear. It then sent the information to the nearby Daleks, attracting their attention. Even the Lurker Daleks caught wind of the Doctor’s presence.

“EXTERMINATE!” shouted one Dalek. All the nearby Daleks and Lurker Daleks fired! The Doctor rolled out of the way, trying to get the Daleks to not shoot at the robot’s head.

“THE DOCTOR IS AN ENEMY OF ALL DALEKS! EXTERMINATE!” shrieked a Lurker Dalek, remembering old instincts.

“NO! IDIOTS! NEVER MIND THAT WOMAN!” shouted Gol as he and Maia dueled Jak.

“Hey, ugly!” called Daxter. He yanked on Gol’s ears and snapped them back, causing the former Dark Eco Sage to stumble into Maia.

“MURDA!” called Jak. Murda then channeled white energy into Jak. Jak drew on the Light Eco and performed his usual Jump Dive, creating a shockwave that knocked Gol and Maia to the floor, unconscious. The Doctor took advantage of the distraction and finished her work.

“NOW, MURDA!” she called. Murda fired a stream of Light Eco into the robot’s head and the Doctor set the controls. She then leapt out of the head. “EVERYONE DOWN!” The robot head created a shockwave that covered the whole area. The Daleks were caught up in the shockwave and lost control.

“ALERT! ALERT! ENERGY WAVE DISRUPTING CASING! FUNCTION IMPARED! WEAPONS NON-RESPONSIVE! GRAVITATIONAL FLUCTUATORS OFFLINE! IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEE!” Gravity caught up with the Daleks and Lurker Daleks as they started dropping like flies, crashing into the trees below and dying upon impact. Intrag looked around, there was only his team and the Dalek Supreme.

“RRRRGGGH! THIS MISSION IS A FAILURE!” he shouted. “WE HAVE TOO FEW FORCES TO RETRIEVE HEALTH! RETREAT!” His team and the Dalek Supreme vanished, then a rift opened for the Scorpion. It flew into the rift as it closed behind them.

“…That’ll give them something to chew on,” muttered the Doctor.

“Well, that’s that,” said Farmee. He then looked to Gol and Maia. “Now what to do about them?”

“Leave them to me and Dax,” replied Jak as he cracked his knuckles. “It’s time for them to get acquainted with this era!”

Health was stunned when she heard the entire story. She held onto the warp gate to steady herself. “…Th…The Tome? …My Source?” she mumbled.

“That’s why we’re here,” said Farmee, “to keep you and your Source out of enemy hands. …But we can’t exactly leave this universe to the Daleks.”

“…Jak,” Health said.

“Yes?” asked Jak.

“You do realize the Dark Eco Silo isn’t just full of Dark Eco, yes? There’s…something else?”

“That robot Gol and Maia used, yeah.”

“What about it?” asked Daxter. “Jak turned that thing to scrap and those two drowned in the silo.”

“The Acheron siblings are not dead,” replied Health.

“WHAT?!” yelped Jak, Daxter, and Kiera.

“That’s why Drebber and I have been keeping Health’s appearances so scarce,” explained Murda. “Somehow, the Dark Eco has kept them in a state of suspended animation.”

“And that kind of isolation for roughly 300 years, well…” Drebber left the answer up to everyone’s imagination.

“How dangerous could they be?” asked Torn. “They obviously lost.”

“Torn,” replied Jak, “Gol and Maia managed to scavenge a Precursor robot, add their own bits to it, enslave all the Lurkers, and were almost successful in opening the Dark Eco Silo to flood the world with it to try and play God. Trust me, the sting of their defeat will make them crazier and more dangerous on top of being stuck in suspended animation.”

“And with Daleks involved,” sighed Health, “there will be untold amounts of havoc.”

“Well then,” said the Doctor, “…I can’t believe I’m being so cliched here, but Doctor in the house.”

“…Doctor?” asked Health. “…THE Doctor?”

“The Enemy of the Daleks herself!” confirmed Death.

“…Well, with her here,” chuckled Health, “we may actually have a shot! I’m not a fighter, but I’m the best healer in the multiverse!”

“If you could work with our medics,” said Drebber, “I think we’ll be able to see this through!”

“And once the Daleks and their ‘masters’ are taken care of, I’m gonna have to take my Source and leave this world.”

“…Leave?” asked Murda.

“It’s not safe for me to stay here, Murda. I’ll have to go,” said Health.

“…Very well,” sighed Murda.

“In the meantime, we better get ready,” said Jak. He then saw a cluster of yellow energy. “…You know, I’m feeling nostalgic!” he said.

“Yellow Eco?” guessed Farmee.

“The Eco of long-range strength itself!” replied Jak. “There’s probably Daleks on the other side of the door.”

“I’ll lead the way,” said Farmee. “When I get charged up with the Yellow Eco, open that door and storm the place, guns blazing. Healers stay at the back. We need you alive. Jak, Megatron, you’re my guides. Riders, armor up.”

“Understood,” replied Megatron. Adam, Brendan, Death, Henry, Jandro, Joshua, Liam, and Sam brought out their belts. Adam and Sam then pressed a button on their crystal spheres.

“DEVIL!” announced Sam’s Crystal Sphere.

“ARCHITECT!” said Adam’s Crystal Sphere.

“HENSHIN!” shouted all the Riders. Their armor appeared and they summoned their weapons.

“Whoa!” gasped Markus. “That looks…!”

“So cool!” finished Layla.

“All right,” said Farmee. “Here we go! Touching the Eco…NOW!” Farmee touched the Yellow Eco and became charged with energy. The doors opened and everyone fired! Farmee’s punches fired energy shots that struck various Daleks.

“ALERT! ALERT! ENEMY FORCES DETECTED!” warned a Dalek before it was destroyed by Jak’s Morph Gun in its sniper-rifle Blaster mode.

“They must not reach the silo!” barked the Dalek Supreme. “EXTERMINATE!”

“The elevator’s still working!” called Jak. “It’ll take us to the roof!”

“From there, there’s a platform that goes from the roof to the silo!” elaborated Megatron as he fired on the Daleks. Unfortunately, the Daleks regained enough of their wits to start firing!

“They taking two hits!” called a Babak Lurker. “We no-!” The Babak screamed as a Dalek shot it. One could see the skeleton as the shot hit the Lurker, scrambling his insides.

“Aim for the eyestalk!” called Jack as he fired at his Dalek’s eyestalk.

“VISION IMPARED! I CANNOT SEE!” The now-blinded Dalek started firing wildly.

“Path to the elevator’s clear!” announced a Haven Guard. “Go! Go! Go!”

“Jak, you lead everyone up to the roof! I’ll cover you!” said Torn.

“You’ll get killed by them!” protested Jak.

“I’m no hero! I’ll come back!” insisted Torn. “Now GO!” Jak didn’t really want to, but with all the Daleks inside the citadel regrouping, he didn’t have much choice. The team went into the elevator and went straight for the roof. Once up top…everyone saw the Scorpion with a Dalek saucer near the giant silo, both trying to blast the locked roof doors off.

“A command saucer,” muttered the Doctor. “We’ll have a hard time of it.”

“Guys, we better step on it! They’re almost through!” warned Daxter.

“…That door is NOT being broken into,” said Jak.

“Jak’s right, the door is curved upwards,” remarked Galvatron. “Which means…”

“Something’s coming out!” gulped Layla. And something DID come out. It looked like a Precursor robot’s head, but its right eye looked like multiple yellow-lensed cameras were grafted into the socket!

“How’s that thing flying?!” asked Daxter.

“Hold up, the eye’s opening!” said Megatron.

---

The Precursor robot’s eye opened and out jumped what looked like Ottsel/human hybrids with navy blue fur and glowing Lurker eyes. They looked around and cheered. “THREE HUNDRED YEARS OF IMPRISONMENT!” called the male. “AND NOW WE’RE FREE!”

“THIS WORLD IS OURS FOR THE TAKING!” cheered the female. “ALL SHALL BOW TO US!”

“Gol and Maia Acheron?” asked a voice. Intrag and his team approached them with a squad of Daleks.

“That would be us,” replied the male, the former Sage of Dark Eco, Gol Acheron.

“Who are you?” asked his sister, Maia.

“I am Intrag Emboramii, King of the Under-realm,” Intrag introduced. “And my people have need of you.”

“We serve no one!” snapped Gol.

“Oh, but you do,” chuckled Intrag. “Daleks, prepare them for the experiment. Perhaps THEY will do.”

“We obey!” barked the Daleks.

“Oh, look!” chuckled Maia. “New Lurkers!”

“…Erm, no, Daleks,” replied Intrag, confused. “Not Lurkers.”

“They WILL be!” laughed Gol! He fired a stream of Dark Eco energy at the Daleks.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” yelped Scorpo.

“ALERT! ALERT! MENTAL STABILITY AT RISK! I! I! IIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA!” The Dalek that spoke then changed! A pair of Lurker eyes opened just under the dome lights with the eyestalk in the middle, the neck section gained a set of Lurker tusks, the travel skirt became warty tentacles, and a mouth formed where the tusks grew! The Dalekanium casing was now as flexible as flesh and so were the limbs and eyestalk! This happened to all the Daleks in the squad and they laughed maniacally once the mutation was complete.

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!” demanded Intrag.

“DESTROY THESE INTERLOPERS!” Gol ordered the Lurker Daleks. They trained their gunsticks on their former master and comrades and fired!

Dark Jak continued stabbing the Dalek creature, seemingly unaware of Daxter being free. “Dad! DAD!” called Markus as Layla checked on Daxter. Dark Jak glared at Markus. “Dad, Uncle Daxter’s okay! …You ARE okay, right, Uncle Daxter?”

“Listen to your kid, Jak,” said Daxter. “I’m fine now.” Dark Jak saw that Daxter was okay, then he took deep breaths to calm down as he returned to his normal self. He was taking deep breaths to calm down.

“…Haven’t gone dark since the kids were born,” said Jak. “Didn’t wanna harm them.”

“Is that why you kept taking deep breaths whenever you got mad at me?” asked Markus.

“…Yes. Markus, you know how much of a short temper I have. I can’t afford to lose it or Dark Jak would hurt you. …I can’t have that on my conscience. …But that anger is born from fear.”

“Fear?” asked Layla.

“We don’t wanna lose you,” explained Daxter.

“So, I have to keep a lid on my temper, otherwise…otherwise I’d make that nightmare come true by hurting you,” said Jak. Markus then gave his father a hug.

“Layla and I were being stupid,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

“No, I’m sorry,” said Jak. “I threw you headfirst into this adventure.”

“No, Uncle Jak, we took those steps,” replied Layla. “And now…well, I paid the price.”

“…How about we skip the grounding and just get my kid cured and toss the Daleks out of our homes?” suggested Daxter.

“Sounds like a plan,” agreed Jak.

---

As the scene unfolded before the group, Megatron smiled. Galvatron looked to his father. “…If I did something like this-?” he asked.

“I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t have been grounded so many times, my boy,” replied Megatron.

“Doctor, I thought Jak’s shot would have killed that thing immediately,” said Farmee as he, Jack, and the Doctor examined the now truly dead Dalek. Death swung her scythe and severed the Dalek’s soul from its mortal frame.

“It must have been the Dark Eco that kept it alive,” replied the Doctor. She started working on the casing’s internal systems. “Let’s see, if I attach that wire here, engage the holographic display like so…aha! Here we are!”

“What?” asked Jack.

“Archived monitor data relating to the experiment!” explained the Doctor. She got the eyestalk to move upwards and project a hologram of Intrag and a few Daleks at the site.

“All equipment prepared!” barked the Dalek Supreme.

“Then let’s see how well a Dalek can handle Dark Eco,” replied Intrag.

“Warning!” called a scientist Dalek. “Direct injection of Dark Eco is likely to cause unwanted mutations! Mental stability of test subject at risk! Haven City’s Dark Warrior is necessary to successfully filter out all ill effects.”

“We can’t afford to delay!” snarled Intrag. “Begin the experiment!”

“I obey!” replied the scientist Dalek. It linked the test subject to the machine. “Connections established! Eco Injectors online!”

“Dark Eco from smaller silo above now being injected into Dalek organism through casing nutrient feed!” reported the assistant Dalek.

“Dark Eco levels rising!” called a third Dalek.

“Alert! Alert!” warned the first scientist Dalek. “Energy levels climbing to unsafe levels!”

“Disengage test subject!” ordered the Dalek Supreme.

“Unable to regain control!” replied the scientist Dalek. “Dark Eco now mutating organism! Mental stability at risk!” The Dalek test subject started screaming!

“Alert! Alert! Move away from the test subject!” warned the Dalek Supreme. “Arm weapons!”

“Belay that!” ordered Intrag. “The test subject must stay alive!”

“Mutations accelerating!” warned the scientist Dalek. “Arming weapons! Targeting creature!” It aimed its gunstick at the test subject.

“That’s one of your kind!” protested Intrag. “We can’t afford to-!”

“No! No!” replied the Dalek Supreme. “That creature is no longer a Dalek! There must be no genetic impurities! Exterminate the creature!” The test subject broke free.

“Creature is freed!” called a Dalek. “Exterminate! EXTERMINATE!” It fired on the test subject, but nothing happened.

“Creature’s shielding altered!” warned the scientist Dalek. “Recalibra-!” The test subject then fired a stream of purple light from its gunstick, ripping a hole into the scientist Dalek. It then fired on the other Daleks and the equipment.

“This facility is lost!” shouted Intrag. “All survivors, evacuate to the Acheron Citadel! Intrag to Scorpion! One to return!” The Dalek Supreme and two other survivors then flew into the air and abandoned Misty Island while Intrag vanished. The Doctor then switched the feed off.

“I rather think we have all we need,” she muttered.

“We’ll have to get to this Acheron Citadel,” said Farmee.

“The best way would be to warp directly to the Yellow Eco Sage’s lab,” replied Jak. “That’s where Drebber lives.”

“…Drebber lives in Gol and Maia’s old citadel?” muttered Megatron.

---

Everyone returned to the mainland and explained the situation. “I’ll see if I can have Torn spare the Haven Guard,” said Jak.

“And I’ll have my citadel guards on standby when they arrive,” said Drebber. “I better tell Murda too.”

“Murda?” asked Farmee.

“My wife, a Robber Lurker from the old Precursor Basin. She’s the Sage of Light Eco and works with the monks outside Spargus sometimes.”

“A Lurker studying Light Eco?” asked Megatron. “Interesting.” Jak and Drebber made their calls.

“Thanks, Torn,” said Jak when he finished. He turned to the team. “The Haven Guard’s gonna be joining us.”

“And Murda’s been made aware of what’s going on,” said Drebber. “She and Health will meet us all in the Yellow Sage’s Lab.”

“We’ll follow the Haven Guard in alt-mode,” said Galvatron. “You guys go through the warp gate.”

“Good luck,” said Farmee. “Everyone, let’s get going.” Kiera set the warp gate to the Yellow Sage’s lab and everyone human-sized and smaller went through. Megatron, Galvatron, and Hot Rod transformed and sped off, leading the Haven Guard to the north. First they went over the Fire Canyon now that roads with heat shields were established, then they went through Rock Village, then over another bridge over lava, then through the mountain pass, then across the roads surrounding the volcanic crater the Red Eco Sage made his home in, then through the Lava Tube to the Yellow Sage’s lab, meeting with everyone there. A female Robber Lurker in white robes then hugged Drebber. As they discussed the situation, Farmee saw a woman in a purple dress with purple skin. He approached the woman.

“Lady Health, I presume?” he asked.

“…You presume correctly,” replied the woman. She then saw Death. “My sister!”

“Hello again, Health,” said Death as she hugged Health.

“Death, what’s going on?” asked Health. “What are those people at the silo and what are they doing with the Daleks?”

“…Lady Health,” said Farmee, “you may want to sit down.”