Chapter Text
The first thing that April noticed was the cold. The biting chill was much harsher than anything she felt in New York.
But that didn’t make sense, she had just been underground right? April, the turtles and the Caseys had just been exploring the remains of Draxum’s old lab. And it was always warm in the Hidden City. So why was she so cold now?
Where was she?
And where was everyone else?
She groaned, removing her face from the dirt (why was there dirt?), attempting to get her aching body perpendicular again. She blinked, her vision was distorted, and still she felt unbalanced, barely able to balance on her two feet. She checked to see if she was still wearing her glasses. She was, though they didn’t seem to be helping her vision at all at the moment.
“Guys, is everyone okay?” She called out blindly, stumbling slightly.
Two very human-sounding voices responded, both of them from the Caseys, one a tired groan and the other a vague assurtation of immortality.
But instead of the voices of her little brothers joining the fray, ominous growls and hisses rang out around her.
April knew that the noises her brothers would sometimes make weren’t always ‘normal’ and ‘human’ (a silly concept anyways) and sometimes verged more on the ‘animalistic’ side of things, and she was deeply familiar with their chirps and hisses and rumbles. Her brother’s growls and hisses did not sound like that.
She tried to stay as still as she could as she tried to get her eyes to see.
April fell backwards with a yelp when suddenly her vision cleared enough to show her a mountain of red scales right in front of her, punctuated with a squinted yellow eye staring blearily at her. “WHAT THE-”
As her backside hit the ground, she could only look up, and up, at the beast that lay before her. It truly was mountainous, covered with earthy red scales and rock-like protrusions all down its back.
The dragon (and it was a dragon, she noted, seeing the wings adorning its back) continued looking at her all the while, blinking slowly.
A soft growl escaped its maw. She flinched.
And then she heard Raph.
[April? Is that you? Why’re ya so small?]
Or she didn’t hear Raph, or at least she didn’t hear him speaking, at least not in English. It was like his words and meanings were projected right into her mind. What was going on? She shook her head.
“Raph? Where are you? There’s a-”
[What d’ya mean Apes? I’m right h- why can’t I-]
The dragon in front of her struggled to get onto its feet, growling all the while.
…
Wait a minute.
April looked around, finally taking her eyes off the red dragon. She seemed to be in some kind of clearing, surrounded on all sides by unfamiliar trees. Casey and Junior were still struggling to get up onto their feet. But what really drew her eyes were the three other scaled creatures laying around them.
One orange with dark spots, one colourful with red stripes across the face, and one black and purple. All of them completely dwarfed by the red dragon.
And they were all dragons. April could see their wings splayed outs uncomfortably across the ground.
[Owwww why does my everything hurt?]
“Leo?”
At the sound of her voice, the colourful dragon glanced her way.
[April! Are you okay? Wait why isn’t my voice-]
…
wait a minute.
“HOLY SHIT ARE THOSE DRAGONS?”
It seemed that Casey’s vision was working again. CJ was struggling to hold her back as he eyed the dragons surrounding them warily.
[Dragons? Where?]
The smallest, orange dragon (no- Mikey) whipped his head around, comically searching for the dragons in question before catching sight of his own body.
[OHMIGOSH IM THE DRAGON!?] The dragon jumped in shock before tumbling to the ground as if unable to properly use his legs.
Stumbling in shock, CJ released his hold on Casey, “Master Michelangelo?” Casey then immediately ran to the biggest dragon (who couldn’t be anyone other than Raph) and started to try and climb his new form.
[What’s this about a dragon?]
[WOAH RAPH YOU’RE HUGE!!]
[Why can’t I feel my battle shell? Where’s my tech? WHERE ARE MY ARMS??]
[Did everyone shrink? what’s going on?]
The clearing descended into chaos as everyone finally got their bearings again. There was a lot of yelling, both within and outside of April head.
April stared wide eyed as the dragons -her brothers- started to move, attempting to walk on uncoordinated limbs, inspecting both themselves and each other, wings jutting out and smacking April across the head on multiple occasions.
The chaos -and yelling- continued to grow and grow until Mikey decided to test if he could actually breathe fire, before promptly breathing fire from not only his mouth, but producing a fireball from his tail and underbelly as well. Only the dew still clinging to the grass stopped the whole clearing from going up in flames.
Everyone stopped in their panic to look at Mikey, who somehow managed to look sheepish.
[oops..]
[Can’t wait to find out what I can do!], Leo announced as he wound his head back, reading to blast whatever fire came from his maw.
“STOP!”
Leo choked on whatever had started to come up his throat, quickly descending into a coughing fit, as everyone turned to April. “Let’s just, all take a breather and figure out what the hell is going on before we set everything on fire”
With a tenuous calm established, April took the time to really glance over what her little brothers looked like now.
Raph was absolutely massive now, she didn’t think she could barely reach his shoulder with her arms outstretched and on her tippy toes.
He stood on four stocky legs now, and he was covered in burnt red to earthy brown scales.
Massive antlers not unlike a moose’s grew from his head, large enough that two people could comfortably lounge on just one of the behemoths.
And that seemed to be Casey’s goal as she clambered over the rocky protrusions that littered raph’s back to reach them.
At the end of Raph’s tail was a massive axe shaped blade. Dangerously glistening in the sun. April made a mental note to be more wary of Raph’s happy tail wags now, they had been strong enough to knock her over before, there was no telling what kind of damage they could do now.
Her eyes moved onto Mikey, who was now attempting to stamp out the small fires that had blossomed from underneath him with all four legs.
His eyes were that of a chameleon, and were a bright yellow. His whole body was a vibrant orange, though the tips of his wings were spotted a dark sienna.
And talking about those wings, there were four of them! His tail was long and whip-like, though it was hard to tell truly how long it was when the end was smoking, probably because of the fireball that had grown from there not a minute earlier.
His new body stood low to the ground, almost squat, low enough that without rearing up, his head really only came up to her hips at best. He would definitely not be happy once he realised just how stark the difference in size was between him and his biggest brother now.
Next to catch her eye was Leo, and it was a surprise that that hadn’t happened earlier with the spectacle that were his scales. His sides and back were a bright yellow which faded into lime green in places, and his underbelly was a sky blue.
The frills that sprouted from either side of his head and down some of his long tail were a royal blue. He had managed to keep his iconic red stripes as well, which bled down his jaw in one direction whilst also spiraling up his nasal horn in the other. Two long brown horns grew from the back of his head, sweeping back like antennae.
But the wings were what really grabbed April’s attention, they were patterned just like a butterfly’s, three royal blue eyespots upon a sunset coloured canvas, adorned with lavenders and baby blues. Unlike the other two, his body was thin and snake-like, and he stood on his hind legs, almost upright, with his arms now being almost comically small in comparison to his body.
In comparison to Leo, who now seemed to be a walking rainbow, Donnie was more like a shadow across the ground. Albeit a very purple shadow. He seemed to be more of a wyvern than a dragon, with only one pair of wings and one set of hind legs.
Black metallic-looking spines grew all down his back and tail, as well as from the crest around his head.
The claws on his wings were long and wicked looking, coloured a light-greyish purple and had the same metallic sheen as his spines. The lavender of these wing talons were probably the lightest colour on his whole body, with the scales on his legs, tail and the tips of his wings all fading from a dark royal purple to iridescent black.
Unlike Leo, who was almost standing upright on his hindlegs, Donnie seemed to find his equilibrium much closer to the ground, low enough that he was basically face to face with her, which was a nice change of pace from her brothers either absolutely towering over her or making it so that she’d have to bend down to talk face to face with them.
April took a deep breath.
“Okay. Donnie? Do you have any idea where we are, or uh, how ‘this whole situation’ happened?” she gestured broadly to not only the dragons in front of her, but the clearing they had been dropped into.
The turtle -or dragon now in this case- looked back to April from where he had been squinting up at Raph.
[We could have ended up in a sort of alternate universe? Or perhaps even a different dimension entirely, he said confidently] It didn’t escape April’s notice how Leo’s wings shuddered at the mention of a different dimension.
[I did do some research into alternate dimensions a while back, and theorised that when entering a different dimension, your physical form could change depending on the dimension’s properties in relation to your original one. Good to know that that’s been proven.]
Donnie jerked to the side, briefly losing his balance, as if he tried to gesture with the arms that he forgot he no longer had.
[Could ya simplify that for Raph please?]
But before Donnie could answer, CJ interrupted him, his eyes wide with realisation. “Mutants must not exist here! So you guys must have got turned into dragons because they fit into this universe?”
[Exactly!]
[Well dragons definitely exist here now, I mean, look at us! We’ve got wings! Mikeys even got four of them!]
[Wait guys, do you think we can fly?!]
[What else could the wings be for?]
Before Mikey could once again act on impulse and possibly launch himself into the sky, April redirected the conversation, “How are we gonna get home? I have a big algebra test at the end of the week! I can’t miss it!”
[Don’t worry April! You’ve all got the resident portal master right here! We’ll get back in no time. Just let me find my sword…]
Leo started to thoroughly look around the clearing looking for any hint of the gleaming metal of his katana, still unbalanced on his new legs.
“How are you planning on using your katana with those stubby little arms?” Casey chimed in, now hanging from Raph’s antlers.
[As long as I can hold them I should be fine, all that matters is my mystic mojo!] Leo punctuated his last words with some jazz hands, which looked absolutely ridiculous with his T-rex like arms.
[At least you have arms. some of us weren’t so lucky.] Donnie griped, clawing at the ground.
While Leo continued to search, Mikey decided to also try his hand at climbing Raph, though to much less success than Casey, as he was still getting used to his new draconic form. After a minute of struggling, Raph took pity on him and clumsily lowered himself to the ground once again (almost throwing Casey off in the process), using his wing to make a ramp for Mikey.
[ough boi-]
[Hey -uh- guys? Do any of you see your weapons anywhere?] Leo called out, sounding nervous.
His question caused everyone to start their own search of their own mystic weapons, searching the grassy knolls around them.
“Found them!” Casey called out, everyone whipped around to look at her (excluding Raph, given that she was currently on his head, and doing so would launch her into the sky) as she pulled out two ordinary daggers from her belt. “You had me worried for a second there blue!”
[Our weapons are made from our Ninpō right? Maybe because we aren’t exactly us anymore they schlorped back inside of us!] Mikey suggested.
[This universe doesn’t support the Ninpō plugin properly then? Interesting.]
[...also did you just say schlorped? Never say that ever again]
Mikey looked down from his perch atop of Raph to look Donnie dead in the eyes.
[Schlorped.]
[come back down here I dare you.]
“You two? Shush,” April was met with twin unfamiliar hisses that put her on the back foot for a second, before she turned back to Leo. “Can you at least activate your Ninpō?”
[Uhhhh lemme try]
Leo squinted his eyes in focus, and a second later he started to glow, the red stripes on his face and the blue eye spots on his wings all glowing. In fact, the closer April looked, the more it seemed that every one of his scales were dimly glowing as well.
Intricate patterns raced up his wings and fins, swirling and flickering. Leo attempted to swipe the air with his now glowing claws, attempting to use them as he did his katana to open a portal.
But nothing happened, and his claws sailed harmlessly through the air.
With a heavy exhale he released his Ninpō, and the glowing flickered then vanished.
[Well that didn’t work] Donnie deadpanned.
[That was way more tiring than I thought it would be] Leo flicked his tail [Our powers definitely aren't working right. Again.]
[I can give it a go!] Mikey suggested, starting to clamber down from his spot on Raph’s back, his own spots beginning to glow a familiar orange.
[NO!] “NO!”, came a chorus of answers. Freezing Mikey in his tracks, and almost making him fall off of Raph when he jerked at the suggestion.
“Yeah that’s definitely not happening Mikes” April said, giving Mikey a stern look. [Ugh, fine] he grumbled, basically emanating annoyance.
“By the way, I was wondering, how can we understand you guys?” CJ chimed in, “‘Cause on one hand, you guys are making just ‘dragon noises’ whilst on the other I can still understand what you’re saying. Like it’s beamed directly into my head. It feels weird.”
“That’s what I was wondering!” Casey exclaimed.
[Maybe that’s normal in this dimension?] Donnie shrugged (or at least he did a weird imitation of a shrug with his wings). [Maybe all humans can understand dragons here?]
“Sounds legit,” Casey nodded, before she swung down on Raph’s antlers so she was hanging off them and looking him straight in the eye, “Hey Red! How loud do you think you can roar now?”
[OhMiGosh!] Mikey gasped, his earlier annoyance forgotten, [Do it! Do it! Do it!] he bounced.
[Yes! For science!]
[I’m on it!] Raph nodded (once again almost throwing Casey off), before taking a deep inhale and roaring into the clouds.
It was quite possibly the loudest sound April had heard ever in her life, she could feel it reverberate in her very bones, shaking her to her core. And the rest of the forest seemed to agree, as what seemed like the entire population of birds took to the skies.
[Oh, if only I had my tech, I would be able to measure the sheer decibels you reached!]
April slowly removed her hands from the side of her head, her head was still ringing. she sighed “I’m not going to get back home in time for my algebra exam am I?”
[Eh, when we do get back, I’m sure Donnie can change your grades to like an A or something.] Leo nudged her with a wing in support, flashing her a draconic grin before turning to his equally dragony twin, [Won’tcha Donnie?]
[Hm?] Donnie turned back from watching Mikey try to roar as loud as Raph had, [Oh certainly April! You need not worry!]
“What about my parents?!”
[Can’t hack your parents, sorry.] (He did not sound sorry)
April groaned, throwing her head back.
“Did anyone at least tell Splints where we were going?”
The responding silence told her enough. Save for Mikey’s roaring, he was still trying to be louder than Raph.
“Really guys?”
[In our defense, uh, we wanted to see what kind of magic stuff Draxum had in his old lab]
“I know that Raph, that’s the reason I came too!’
[I was looking for inspiration for my lab redesign.]
“I just wanted to find embarrassing stuff to tease Draxum with”
“Yeah, yeah, okay, well. There's not really much we can do now, except waiting for Drax and Splints to realise we’re gone and find us.” She sighed, “We’re gonna be here a while.”
[And that’s not even taking into account the possibility of time dilation between dimensions!]
“Donnie I swear to god.”
[In the meantime!] Leo chimed in, sticking his face between the two, [Please can we figure out if we can breathe fire, I have been so, so patient!]
At the mention of fire, Mikey’s jaws finally shut with a clack, before bounding off of Raph and back onto the ground (The turtles had all adapted to moving as dragons much faster than April ever really expected them to), and skidding to a stop.
[As the fire expert among us I will be leading us in this exercise today!] He crowed, before turning to Leo [Come on Leo, show us what you’ve got!]
Leo once again took a deep breath and wound his head back, preparing, before April noticed a large flaw in his plan. “WAIT! Face away from us if you’re gonna breathe fire dude.”
[Oh, whoops, gotcha April.], turning so he was aiming away from the very flammable humans, he prepared to fire for the third time, rearing back with a determined look on his face.
Something amber whizzed out of his throat.
SPLAT
[uhh..]
[I’ll give you a two out of ten, too goopy, points for the colour though!]
Leo ambled over to where the amber landed, and hesitantly poked it with a claw, [It’s solid now!]
[Woahh]
[Facinating, can you break it?]
Leo looked up from where he was still poking the amber, [Wait why would I want to break it?]
[In case you get one of us trapped in your goop-breath, Nardo.]
[Fair.]
[Raph dibs trying to break it first!] Raph shouted, before bounding over to where the amber lay, still with Casey still hanging on to his antlers and manically laughing all the while. Once he reached it he reared up, slamming his front paws down on the amber with enough force to shake the ground.
To everyone’s shock though, when he lifted his claws to check what was left of the rock, the amber was still intact! With not a single scratch marring its surface.
[WOAHH, Okay Leo I don’t do this often but I’m going to bump up your score to a four out of ten.]
[Gee, thanks.]
[Well there’s gotta be some way to break it.] Donnie mused, scratching at the amber with one of his wing talons. [Wait, Leo, try and bite it.]
[Huh? That’s so gross though -that was just in my mouth! Why?] He asked, his snout wrinkling in disgust.
“C’mon Leo just bite it! Stop being a wuss!” April groaned.
[Fineeeee]
And as Leo reluctantly leaned down to bite the amber (Whilst Mikey and Casey cheered him on), it struck April all at once just how weird this situation was. Her little brothers had literally turned into dragons!
If it weren’t for their voices in her head she probably wouldn’t have been able to recognise them at all! It spoke to just how weird their life was with how easily they had all just collectively accepted it. And in all honesty, there were worse things to turn into.
She was just thankful that the magical artifact they had accidentally activated back in Draxum’s lab hadn’t turned out to be an instant death ray or something. But seriously, what was with this family and opening portals to other dimensions?
April focused back on the scene at hand just in time to see the amber splinter and break apart under Leo’s jaws.
“Jeez Leo! Just how strong is your jaw?!” She exclaimed.
“I refuse to believe that his bite force is stronger than Dragon Raph's” CJ contributed.
[You raise an excellent point Junior! If it isn’t Leo’s bite force that’s strong enough, some other factor must be at play here. Hmm…] Donnie thought for a minute, staring intently at both Leo and the broken amber at his feet.
[Leo. I’m gonna need you to lick it.]
[Dude.]
[No no no, It makes sense, if it’s not your bite force that breaks it, then it must be your saliva! Do it for science Leo!]
[I’m not going to lick it??]
[C’mon Leo! It’s for science!]
Slowly but surely, Everyone started chanting for Leo to lick the rock. And slowly but surely, Leo started to crack under the pressure.
His eye twitched.
[FINE! I’ll lick it. But I am not happy about it.]
His audience all erupted in cheers, and he leant down and licked a chunk of the broken amber. They all watched in silence, waiting for something to happen. Casey broke the silence by finally getting off of Raph’s antlers and crouching down to poke the amber, which gave under her finger, allowing her to sink her whole hand into it.
“Cooool” she admired, and Donnie came up behind her. [This is amazing! There must be some kind of chemical reaction catalysed by a component of your dragon saliva that softens the amber! I must study you.]
“Uh, guys?” Casey called out, lifting her hand. And bringing the chunk of amber with it. “It solidified again.”
[Well it’s a good thing we know what softens it now.]
Both of them turned to Leo in scary unison. Who quickly understood their intent and started running as fast as he could away from the two.
“GIVE ME YOUR SALIVA BLUE!” Casey yelled after him, instantly giving chase to the butterfly-winged dragon, with Donnie hot on her heels.
After watching chaos unfold between the three for a second, Mikey turned to Raph. [Let’s see what you can do Raph! I bet you’ll get a better fire score than Leo]
Raph huffed, [As long as it doesn’t set Donnie on me then I think I’ll be fine.]
“Let’s see what you’ve got Raph!” April cheered, as Raph opened his mouth and blasted a river of lava from out of his mouth. It fell onto the ground of the clearing, red hot and still bubbling.
[Woah, that felt weird.]
In the corner of her eye, April could see Casey, Leo and Donnie all frozen in shock at the sight of the lava, with Donnie sat on Leo holding him still whilst Casey shoved her hand into the poor dragon’s mouth, freeing herself from the amber encasing her hand.
They all immediately untangled themselves and rushed over to see the new burning river in their clearing.
[I can breathe lava?! This is so cool!] Raph squealed, wriggling in excitement. Eagerly adding to the lava lake he created.
[Yeah that’s a ten out of ten. No notes.]
“Awesome! What can you do, Donatello?” Junior exclaimed, turning to the softshell-turned-dragon.
[I don’t know but I can’t wait to find out!] He said as he readied himself, flexing his wings and opening his maw wide. Everyone was watching, anticipating what would happen.
But nothing did happen.
[Uhhh, am I doing this wrong?] He shuffled uncomfortably in place, looking back towards his family.
[You gotta go like, bleaegh Donnie!] Mikey advised.
[Thanks. That really helps Angelo.]
[You’re welcome!]
But it was to no avail, No fire, or lava, or amber came rocketing out of his maw.
Eventually, after they had all exhausted themselves of suggestions on how to get it to work, they had to give up. Donnie lay dramatically across the ground, groaning at the sky.
[No arms, no tech and no breath weapon? This dimension has it out for me.] He pouted, covering his head with one of his wings. Mikey scrambled up to him, ducking under Donnie’s wing to comfort him, [Aw don’t worry Donnie! I’m sure you’ll get your breath weapon soon! I believe in you!]
Smiling as much as his dragon anatomy would let him, Donnie lent back into Mikey, soaking in the warmth of his scales against his cool ones.
“Don’t worry Purple! You’re still the second coolest looking dragon!” Casey comforted.
Donnie stood back up, Mikey still leaning into his side, [Wait who am I second to?]
“Red obviously! I mean look at him!” With wide eyes she jutted out her arms in Raph’s direction. Then she sniffed, close to tears, “He’s so beautiful,”
[Thanks? I think?]
CJ cleared his throat, “Uh guys?” April turned to see CJ squint up at the sky nervously, “It looks like it’s getting pretty dark, we should probably find some shelter. We still don’t know how dangerous this place is”
Two city girls and four formerly sewer-dwelling dragons blinked back at him. Clueless.
[How do we do that again? Raph’s forgotten everything Todd taught us.]
April clapped her hands to her lips and looked at CJ, who had grown up in an apocalypse and probably had more survival skills in his pinky toe than everyone else in their group combined. “Boy am I glad you ended up here with us”
Caught off guard by everyone’s expectant gaze, CJ stuttered, “How about we fly up to get an understanding of our surroundings? Then we can figure out where to go from there?”
Mikey startled, [HOW DID I FORGET ABOUT THE FLYING???] he shouted, flapping his wings excitedly. Immediately, he started to beat his wings with more purpose, gaining more and more lift with each flap, until he completely took off from the ground. And soon enough he was flying above their heads as if he was made for the sky.
“Dibs riding on Red!” Casey shouted, once again running to the biggest brother to climb onto his back, whilst Raph nervously stretched out his wings to their full wingspan.
CJ jumped onto Leo, sitting at the base of his neck and holding on tight to his long winding horns as Leo flapped his butterfly patterned wings experimentally, quickly growing in confidence with each stroke. [Oh this is going to be so cool!] He said with glee as his feet started to lift from the ground.
“Why are you so spiny now?” April asked as she climbed onto Donnie’s back, taking care to avoid his new extensive collection of spines, Donnie just grunted in response, spreading his own wings.
“Hey, how are you holding up with all this?” She asked, getting a good grip on the spines on her brother’s crest. “It’s gotta be a real weird change.”
[It has been a weirdly fast adjustment I’d say. Being a dragon almost feels natural already, which it most definitely should not. So I’m marking that down as dimensional interference, or I would if I had my tech. Though I still miss my arms, April, I miss them a lot.]
April laughed, “well I’m glad to hear that this whole situation hasn’t been sensory hell from you”
[Don’t get your hopes up. We’re in the middle of nowhere and I don't have my phone. Or my tech, or my arms.]
Donnie jumped up into the sky, his wings flapping furiously to each side of her. For a second it felt like they were about to fall, but Donnie quickly gained his balance and got into the rhythm of flying, joining his brothers in the sky.
[This is very different from flying with my battle shell!]
“I’d say!” She had joined him for quite a few flights on his battle shell after all, and she could now say with full confidence that flying on a living breathing creature was way different than just a whirring machine. This was a lot bumpier. And more uncomfortable. And spikier.
They quickly caught up with their brothers (Donnie was fast) who were circling above the island. Because it was an island they had landed on, she could see how the ocean surrounded them now, and how more islands could seen more dotted across the horizon.
“I don’t see any signs of inhabitation!” CJ said, squinting down at the island whilst Leo hovered in place.
[Is that good?] Leo asked,
“No way of knowing until we find out what kind of people live in this dimension.”
[Hey guys I think I can see some caves down there!] Mikey pointed out, [Maybe we can stay there for the night!]
[Great catch Mikey!] Raph praised, [Let’s go!]
And with that, Mikey led the band of Dragons and Dragon Riders to the caves he had spotted. They were all still uneasy in the air, and often that would get caught off guard by a sudden gust of wind, sending them careening off course until they could get their balance again.
At one point, A sudden wind caused Leo to collide with Raph, almost sending both of them falling from the sky, though they managed to catch themselves at the last moment, not without absolutely terrifying everyone else though.
Just before they arrived at the mouths of the caves though, Donnie mentioned something to April.
[Hey April? Little warning, I don't think any of us really know how to land.]
“Well shit.” April remarked, as the ground got closer and closer.
Suddenly panicking, Donnie reared back in the air, spreading his wings to try to get as much drag as possible, almost throwing April off in the process. And when they hit the ground, he tripped over his own feet, falling forwards onto his face, and this time truly dislodging April, who went flying over his head and landed in a nearby bush.
[Owwww]
As April untangled herself from the brush, thankfully mostly unscathed, it became clear that none of the others had stuck the landing either, Leo was currently lying defeated on the ground with CJ stuck underneath him, and Mikey was somehow halfway up a tree.
Suddenly, the sky went dark above her as a massive shadow was cast over the ground. April paled.
“GANGWAYYYYY” Casey shouted, looking over Raph’s antlers as they approached the ground at uncontrollable speed. [How do I slow down!??] Raph roared.
Everyone scrambled to get out of the way of the incoming dragon, with Leo even picking up CJ between his teeth in the rush to safety.
Raph landed with a thundering crash, kicking up dirt and dust into the air.
“You guys okay?” April called out, once Raph had skidded to a stop.
“WE LIVE!” Casey yelled, triumphantly appearing out of the dust as Raph picked himself off the ground and shook off the fall. [Nothin’s hurting, we’re both good! You guys okay?]
[Only thing hurt’s my pride.] Leo groaned, folding his wings against his back, [Same here.] added Donnie.
[Guys I think I’m stuck,] They all looked up to see Mikey plastered onto a thick branch in a nearby tree, his tail curled around it. [I don’t know how to get down.]
[I’ll help you down buddy!] Raph walked up to the tree, and barely had to reach his head upwards to be close enough so that Mikey could jump onto his antlers.
Whilst Mikey found his footing again on the ground, Junior approached the caves that Mikey had spotted from the sky with Leo following behind him. “These look good, I think Raph will be able to fit in here too if he ducks -just barely.” CJ said, appraising the walls of the largest cave.
April shivered as she started walking towards the cave, now that the excitement of flying (And then crashing) had worn off, she became all too aware of how tired she was and just how cold it had gotten now that the sun was starting to sink below the horizon. It seemed that wherever they had ended up, it got cold quick there. And her clothes were just not exactly suitable for this new weather.
The center of the cave wasn’t any warmer than the outside either, and she could see Casey start to shiver as well. Unsurprising due to her outfit being a much thinner fabric than her own, her mask had been pulled up to cover her chattering teeth and to provide as much extra warmth as she could possibly get.
It seemed that the events of the day and the strain of traveling between dimensions was finally catching up to the turtles-turned-dragons as well, as she saw Raph open his jaws and yawn, and how the others all dragged their feet behind him. April yawned herself.
“~Okay, I’m enacting a turtle pile - there is no way I am sleeping on the cold, hard rock tonight.” She announced, receiving an enthusiastic response.
[Shouldn’t we rename it a dragon pile? Since, well, you know?] Leo snarked while Raph plonked down onto his side, his back against the rock wall.
“Fine, Leo, Get your scaley butt in the dragon pile.” She ordered, “We’ll figure out what to do next in the morning.”
It took a while for everyone to settle in, especially the more draconic ones of the team, who were still getting used to their new forms and kept poking people with new spines, wings and tails. But eventually they all relaxed into comfortable positions. April was leaning on Raph, with his unnaturally warm scales battling the cold around her, she lay next to Casey who was coala-ed around CJ. Mikey lay over all of them like an oversized lapdog, and Leo’s tail wrapped around them as he lounged on top of Donnie, who was curled around himself into a bundle of dark purple shapes, his head hidden under his wing.
Raph had moved his own wing to cover them all, keeping everyone pressed against his side, warm and safe against the cold of the night, ready to face the next day.