Chapter 1: Purple Dragons
Raph's head was spinning like he'd come out of an All-night After-Hockey game bender with Casey, he sits up holding his head trying to shake the fuzz out of it so he could figure out where he was. When he felt the ground under his hands and body, he realized he was on Pavement, so he figured that he was just flung onto the New York streets.....which he realized was a bad thing since he was in the open, but he had a hard time standing up since he was still dizzy from the trip, “Are you okay mister?” Raph panicked thinking a kid had come across him when he realized the kid wasn't afraid of him, “Ugh....my head's spinning, I think I mighta hit it.....” the kid swiftly took his hand and leads him down the street, “Come on, I’ll take you to my brother, he's a doctor” Having been injured enough times he knew when to recognize if whether or not the injury he'd sustained was a concussion, he didn't think so since his vision was clearing up, and as soon as it did, the kid leading him and Raph himself walk by a guy that gives a friendly wave to them exposing the tell-tale tattoo of a certain known street gang, “ Guh! Watchit kid!” he pulls the boy behind him and draws his zai ready for a fight, “yer pretty brazened to be walkin' by like a pal Purple Dragon!!!” the guy backs off in a panic, he was carrying a bag of groceries and his wife jumps behind him holding their baby, “Whoa whoa whoa easy bro, I mean no harm, I was only saying Hi....” the kid jumps out from behind raph, “ it's okay Gene don't mind him, he hit his head pretty hard and I think he confused you for someone else in the dragons” Raph lowers his weapons and slights them back into his belt realizing that they weren't freaking out over him being a mutant, just him being hostile, “ummm....can I ask you all somethin'??” they nod, “What do I look like to you?” all three look at eachother thinking the turtle hit his head hard to ask a question like that, “You're a 5'10” tall Ninja-gear wearing Box Turtle Mutant of course, you better go see Adam’s brother quickly if you're forgetting your own species” he walks off with his wife who gave a concerned backwards glance before raph realized the wife was a mutant Bug, she had dragonfly wings tucked to her back and her antennae were flat on the back of her head.
Within 15 minutes the kid leads Raph to his apartment and towards the back into the Doctor's office, “Mondo, I got an emergency patient here.” The Doctor in question was a Gecko mutant, Raph looks at the kid one more time and he looked human, now he really was weirded out, “He hit his head and is quickly losing his memory, I think he's getting Amnes-thi-sia” Mondo chuckles pulling the two apart, “That's Amnesia kiddo, and if he was then he wouldn't be wearing a weirded out look on his face, My name Mondo Gecko, and this is my little brother Adam who you already met.” Raph does a lazy wave of his hand still trying to process how a human and a gecko mutant can be brothers. Mondo sits raph on the table does a routine exam, eyes, lungs, heart, reflexes, then he uses a small scanner akin to something Donnie would have built from spare parts scanning his head, “Well the good news is you didn't hit your head so you don't have a concussion, the bad news is the visit alone is $200 and you owe me $500 for the exam” said with a straight face, Raph nearly jumps out of his shell at the amount, that is until Mondo bellows out in laughter, “I'm kidding, don't worry, it's on the house, now, why don't you tell me what happened?” Raph explains what happened with the Artifact being in pieces then turning into a magic mirror and sending himself and his brothers flying across the apparent multiverse, yet again, “That sounds a little like the story of the Star Crystal Mirror” Raph kriks a brow ridge at him, “And that sounds like something out of some girly Anime.” Mondo laughs again, “I'll explain, the Star Crystal Mirror is an artifact from Atlantis, known for showing the user many doors or windows to everywhere in the known universe and for those with strong enough control over the energy crystal it spans the Multiverse.” Raph could only frown at the mention of Atlantis since the Y'lintians are also Atlanteans in his world, not a very good track record.
After a few hours of looking around and still wrapping his head around the idea of mutants walking freely in the world, Raph finally vocalized the question that's been scratching at his shell for the past hour, “How are mutants and humans together, married and cooperating with one another?” Mondo hands him a bottle of Sam Adams, “it's been like that for decades since the first mutants came out of hiding” Raph blinked expecting to hear a story of four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or possible other mutants, “They were a family of mutants that stayed in hiding out in Jersey for decades until the Fourth War, when they decided to help all of us fight; Mutant bugs, rats, Mammals, Reptiles, Insects, Fish, you'd think humans would freak out every time they saw anymore appear, but after the war, the humans were looking for more mutants to try to encourage them into showing themselves. Promising no hatred or animosity towards their appearance. The memorial is right there in the square” Adam points out a war memorial of a group of mutant soldiers with human ones, he still couldn't believe it, one human sees him and his brothers and they freak out and run away, that answered that question, but then the other one, “Who are the Purple Dragons?” Mondo nods knowing that was next after his brother Adam told him about his outburst, “I'm guessing in your world the Purple Dragons are an enemy of some kind.” Raph explains they were a street gang that terrorize the citizens and fence and sell weapons to other gangs, both street and mob.
Mondo gives a bemused chuckle, “then this'll be Ironic, take a closer look at the memorial; the Purple Dragons are the names of the mutant fighting team that helped in the war, they took in human soldiers and trained them to survive the war, that Dragon tattoo is their mark for their legacy, everyone that's a descendant of any of the soldiers gets one when they turn 15. Look” he rolls his sleeve up showing his own Tattoo to Raph. After the sun started setting Raph decided to walk the city streets to see what he'd find, so far he'd gotten a lot of friendly 'hi' and 'how do you do' and 'wassup' greetings, especially among the humans, none of which freaked out, screamed running away, or called him a freak. He soon realized he was shaking, more from an excited form of fear than from nerves or anything else, like it was a dream come true for all of Don and Mikey's optimism on them someday becoming friends with and being accepted by humans; he was walking out in the open, not hiding himself, not worrying about being hunted down and dissected for experimentation or anything else of a negative manner. As soon as his thoughts fell on his brothers however, he sat on a Garden wall and took a somber tone, he wished his brothers were there to share in this experience, for once they could be normal without it being Halloween or being out with the group of humans that know they exist, it was literally normal for him to be there and it would have been the same for his brothers.
A wind blows up and throws a flier in his face, he peels it off looking at it and it had the word 'Kumite' scrawled across the top of it, he opens the flier a little more finding it was a tournament flier, while reading it aloud, “Anyone that wants to test their skills as fighters are invited to the CJK Dojo for sign-up, you must be a purple-belt or higher, or have your Sensei/Sifu/mentor prove your skill before the Master of the Dojo to qualify. All entries welcome” A big grin paints Raph's face as he runs off to the nearest information panel to find the CJK Dojo. However he got here and however he'd get back would come later, right now he wanted to vent and a tournament was a good way to do it.
