Ch.4: To Save The Past

Future Leo tried and tried again to break out of Stockman's horrifying room, but the door was three-inch thick steel and refused to give in to Leo's blows. Suddenly a voice from out of nowhere stopped Leo in his tracks.

"Nice to see you finally arrived Fearless Leader,"

"No it can't be," thought Leo turning around to see the 'dead' body of his hot-tempered brother with eyes open and a smirk on his face.

"But how?" said Leo.

The door opened allowing Don to step in.

"If you permit me I can explian" said Don "after you made Raph leader of the team he sugguested that I betray the team and get on Stockman's good side. I convinced Stockman that I would be useful as a spy in the resistance and slowly leaked out the information about me and Raph building a time machine."

"Raph followed me to Stockman's lab and put on a mock show which ended in his capture. I put together a fake Raph to send to the past. He was suppossed to help our past selves stop Stockman, but Stockman kept me under survallince and I was forced to make the Fake Raphael work for Stockman instead,"

"So that's what you sent into the past" said Leo " but why bring me here?"

"You have to save the past Raphael before Stockman has him destroyed and defeat the Fake Raph I sent into the past" said Don " here are the cooridinates where Stockman will be keeping the real Raph. Now we just have to get you to the time machine,"

"What about our Raph?" said Leo.

"I have to hang around here for awhile until I get the signal from Don to move in on Stockman's secret project" said Future Raph " don't worry I'll be fine,"

With that settled Don and Leo ran out of the room and started making thier way towards the complex's inner chambers. Stockman's trust in Don was guarded but not completely unfaithful, he had left the time machine out in plain view so it's orginal creator could toy with it.

The purple-masked turtle was imedatelly at the controls and started programing the machine to send Future Leo back into the past. Lunging through the portal Future Leo found himself in old times New York.

"According to Don's device I should be close to the building where Stockman is holding the Real Raphael" said Leo on the run " I just hope our other past selves don't get in trouble with Don's Fake Raph,"

"Yeah right what am I thinking?"

--

The turtles were defineately getting into trouble with Future Don's creation. Ever since the discovery that thier Raph had disappeared during the fight Leo was getting suspicous if Future Raph was really what he claimed himself to be.

Right now Fake Raph was leading the turtles to abandoned werehouse, which he claimed was another of Stockman's robotic factories. It may have been fear, but Leonardo felt that if he and his brothers entered that werehouse they were heading for their doom.

None the less the three turtles followed the Fake Raphael inside, and a few seconds later the darkness was completely consumed by a blinding white light. The light bounced off of thousands of metal heads and wings of Ariel Mousers.

The mousers eyes glowed an eerie imperial yellow and thier mouths opened wide to reveal rows of gleaming metal teeth. Don, Mikey, and Leo imedately drew out thier weapons, but Future Raph just turned around and looked at them with a smirk on his face.

"This was a trap" said Leo " you're working for Stockman,"

"Just now figure that out oh fearless one?" said Fake Raph " I was designed by your brother Donatello to help Stockman take over this world,"

"What?" said Don surprised "I would do no such thing!"

"Ah but you did" said Fake Raph " your Raphael is now suffering the same fate as my counterpart in the future,"

"What's that?" asked Mikey.

"Death,"

The turtles were to stunned to speak and to shocked to move. Raphael was dead, it couldn't be true. But no matter how much each turtle denied it they all believed that what Fake Raph had said had not been lies.

"Don't look so glum" said Fake Raph " after all you'll be joining him soon. Attack!"

The Areil-Mousers roared and prepared to attack, but before they could a tiny blue-gold orb dropped out of nowhere. All eyes watched as the orb grew closer and closer to the ground. Then...

ZAP!

A whole electric storm blew out of the orb and hit every machine within a five meter raduis. That of course included Fake Raph himself. Soon all the areil mousers and Fake Raph were nothing but piles of junk on the floor.

"Whoa" said Mikey " I wonder who saved us?"

"You don't have to wonder for long," said Future Leo dropping out of the shadows.

"Wait let me guess you're my counterpart from the future right?" said Leo.

"Yes" said Future Leo " but I'll have to explian everything later. Right now we have to rescue your Raphael,"

"That fake said Donny created him" said Mikey " did he?"

"Unfortunately yes" said Future Leo as he and the others started to walk "but he only did it under Raphael's command. You see I made Raphael the leader after I was injured trying to save his life. Although back then I had a deep distrust for him,"

"Because he killed Mikey?" said Don.

"Yes" said Future Leo " but I can understand his anger. We had lost three important people, and Raph being the hothead he is went out for revenge. He was held prisoner for three days and during that time Stockman implanted a chip in his brain to make him attack anything he saw. I didn't dare to defend him until I heard a tiny bit of conversation between him and Donatello,"

"During his imprisionment Raph had discovered the key to Stockman's power, and so when the Razor-bots attacked I took the hit and let Raphael take over in my place. He had a plan and I wasn't going to get in his way,"

"Then what was the purpose of a fake Raphael?" said Donatello.

"He was orginally designed to help you defeat Stockman" said Future Leo " You see Raph sugguested that you betray us so you could get close to Stockman. It worked, but Stockman didn't fully trust you and you forced to make the fake Raph work for him,"

"What about our Raph?" said Mikey " is he really dead?"

"Not yet" said Future Leo " but's he's going to be if we don't reach him in time,"

So with that said the four turtles sped off to save Raphael.

--

Meanwhile, Raphael had ceased struggling againist Stockman's shackles. His wrists were bleeding from the friction that cut them apart. Then a strange sound met his ears and his eyes imedately went searching for the source.

A dark figure stood crouched in the shadows, its yellow eyes glowing with the intensity of a solar flare. A silver collar was entwined around its neck keeping the creature pinned in one place.

Raphael didn't know what to make of the creature. It had the fur of a monkey, walked like a man, and had claws like a falcon. The strange creature would growl for several minutes and then lye back down with a solemn look on it's face.

"I bet your the source of all of Stockman's power" said Raphael " well don't worry, I promise I'll set you free someday, you can count on that,"