This might just be the longest part lol

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"I think I know who's doing this." John murmured, half to himself.

Of course, Charlie heard him with those big ears of his. "Who, John?"

John laughed nervously. "No one. Forget I said anything."

"If you know who it is, you better tell us cat." Hope snapped. "The faster you three can leave the better."

John sighed. "She's not really, um, easy to find. But! If another portal appears, we can go through it before anyone comes out and hopefully find her from there."

Leo rubbed the back of his head. "Sounds risky. Who knows where the portal might take us?"

"There's not really any other way." John shrugged.

"Leo, you promised you would get rid of them yesterday." Hope reminded him.

"I know, I know, fine." Leo relented. "We'll do it."

"But who's all gonna go?" Mikey asked hesitantly.

"Clearly Leo and I." Hope answered quickly, turning to Raph. "And Raph and the cat."

"Why can't we go?" Charlie whined.

Hope dragged a hand down her face. "Not more whining."

"Your mom is just going to come here later and drop her back off, so don't get too used to the silence." Leo squeezed her other hand.

Hope took a deep breath. "Easier said than done."

"Since our plan is in place, I'm guessing you all have better things to do other than just standing around." John ushered everyone out of the kitchen except for Charlie and Dawn. He wanted to talk with them.

Hope grumbled under her breath. She wanted life to just go back to being full of Leo's family again—without those three—but that might not happen for a while. So for now, she would try to relax. She deduced to turn a movie on and went into the living room to do so. Leo leaned over the back of the chair as she scrolled through choices. There weren't very many.

"Bored?" He asked eventually.

"And tired of waiting." she leaned her elbow on the armrest, balled her fist and rested her cheek on it.

"Same." He circled to the front of the chair. "Move over. You need cuddles."

She obliged, still scrolling. He grabbed her hand and the remote and moved the selector back to some Jupiter Jim movie. Then took the remote away and put in down. They watched the movie in silence, Hope adjusting herself to be sprawled over Leo halfway through. Then an ear-piercing shout echoes around the lair coming from the main atrium.

"I'm gonna guess a portal finally showed up." Hope remarked after peeling her hands off her ears.

"A portal appeared! Better come quick before it disappears!" Mikey called.

She smirked at Leo and pulled herself up. She made her way to where Mikey's voice had come from and flipped over. John was already there, so was Raph. Hope shrugged and fell backwards into the portal right as Leo appeared around the corner. Everyone else followed suite once he was beside them.

The landscape on the other side was dark and almost depressing looking. Hope rocked on her heels. Leo and the others were glancing around like something was about to ambush them.

"So, what now?" Hope asked eventually.

"She's not here." John turned in a circle a few times, just to be sure. "We'll have to wait for another portal. For now we need to find somewhere where we won't be discovered."

They raced across the rooftops. Whatever this place was, it looked a lot like their New York, just gloomier. Much gloomier. And the strangest part was that everyone was _solid_. John suddenly ducked behind a vent. Except he didn't duck, he was pulled.

"Uh, guys...?" Raph slowed down.

Hope and Leo skidded to a stop and headed back to where Raph had stopped. Both signing in exasperation.

"What is it, R–" Leo broke off when he looked down at who was holding John in a tight hold. "Oh..."

"Let go of the cat, Mikey." someone said from behind them.

Leo, Hope and Raph spun around.

"But he's so soft!" the turtle mutant now behind them protested.

Hope blinked. She couldn't believe her eyes. When a much different dimensional variant of your husband is standing a foot in front of you, what do you do? A much more difficult question to answer than ask.

"Yeah, we'll just be taking the cat and leaving." Leo said, starting to walk away.

"Not so fast, pretty boy." the probably-Raph-from-this-dimension blocked Leo's way.

"Back off, red." Hope growled. "We're not here to cause trouble and by the looks of your masks, neither are you. So you can just let us go about our business."

"She's right, back off Raph." the blue-masked one commanded.

The Raph grumbled and went back over to the Leo's side. Hope heard a sound behind her and turned her head to watch the Mikey go to stand by the Leo too.

She cleared her throat and resolved to introduce them all. "I'm Hope, that's my Leo with the stripes, that's my Raph over there and the cat is John."

"You must know who all we are then." the Leo glanced at his dimensional counterpart, who was whispering something to Raph. "You can all call us by our full names for now to make it less, well, confusing."

"Great, Leonardo then?" that was meant to be more of a question than she made it sound. "We came here completely by accident and are trying to stop someone—who the cat won't tell us about—from continuing to send mutants from probably her dimension into ours."

A bright shimmering portal suddenly appeared to their right. Hope sighed with relief. She didn't want to be in this particular dimension anymore.

"Well, that's our call to leave." Hope headed toward it. "It was nice to have met you...three..." she just realized this dimension's Donnie wasn't here.

She yanked Leo with her into the portal. Raph and John weren't far behind.

"Oh, this is so much better!" she exclaimed. "I never want to feel or be solid ever again!"

"I'll take it you didn't like that dimension very much?" Leo teased, nudging her.

"If I wasn't so happy to be flat again, I'd probably make you look over there and push you." She warned.

Leo just laughed. She pointed in the direction of his right. He turned his head -- gullibly, I might add -- and she pushed him over.

"Hey!"

She fell back laughing so hard. "I warned you I was going to do it!"

The ground behind her head was hard. She sat back up and glanced around. The dimension they were in now *also* looked like their version of New York. It was brighter than the last one's, but still not nearly as bright as their New York.

"How many times are we going to land in dimensions with different versions of the turtles in them?!" Hope wanted to scream and let all of this New York hear her.

She buried her head in her hands and swallowed back the scream bubbling up her throat. Leo gently rubbed her back. Raph and John just glanced at each other.

John cleared his throat. "Hopefully this is the last time. One last portal should get us to where the creator of all these portals is located."

"Speaking of that," Hope raised his head and tried to get her stare to burn through the cat's heart. "You still haven't explained who exactly she is. Is she a mutant? Human? Yokai perhaps?"

John huffed. "She's a yokai. Portals only appear whenever she sings."

"And what is she to you?" Hope added, raising an eyebrow.

The cat stiffened. "Just a, uh, really good friend no one where I'm from has ever heard about...yeah."

She rolled her eyes. "That's not suspicious at all."

Leo suddenly elbowed her. She could see out of the corner of her eye why and took it upon herself to introduce them all again.

"I'm Hope, that's my Leo, that's my Raph and the cat is John." she explained to the four without looking up. "We'll be out of here soon, don't worry."

"How are you so tall?!" Tiny Raphael exclaimed, having walked up to Bigger Raph. "How do I get that tall?"

"I don't think you can." Raph laughed nervously. "And being tall isn't as great as it looks."

"Yada, yada, it was great meeting you four for a few minutes..." Hope trailed off as -- hopefully -- the last portal appeared. "Bye now!"

She pulled Leo in with her again. Raph and John went in after them, vanishing with the portal. The ground on this side was soft this time, being grass and not concrete. Hope couldn't be more overjoyed. (Except for when she wasn't solid anymore)

"She's here." John said after a glance around their surroundings. "Everybody keep an eye out."

Something -- or someone -- descended and landed in the middle of the little circle they had created unknowingly. "Well, welcome guests! It's nice to have some."

Everyone spun around at the same time. John narrowed his eyes.

"Jaz." the cat growled.

"What's with the greeting?" the two-tailed fox asked, mildly hurt.

"You should know why." John rolled his eyes. "You've been making portals all over the dimensions."

"You should know I mostly sing when I'm feeling happy or sad." Jaz reminded him. "I just missed you."

"Look, Jaz, was it?" Hope broke in. "You sent three different mutants into my dimension that I personally didn't want there. And neither does Raph here. If you could sing them back to where they came from that would be great."

"Well, I could..." Jaz trailed off in thought. "But I won't."

"What? Why not?" Hope demanded.

"You are really not good at first impressions, are you?" Jaz got closer to Hope.

Leo stepped forward and pushed the fox back. "Back off, cooperate and this won't end poorly for you."

"Aren't you going to stop them from saying these things to me, John?" Jaz turned back in his direction.

"Not unless you bring Dawn and Charlie back here where they belong." John said.

"I already said that won't be happening." Jaz repeated, falling back into the grass and closing her eyes.

Hope pulled everyone a few feet away. "What are we going to do? We can't just keep asking."

John sighed. "I have an idea. But it's not going to be pretty. It's best for all of you to stay here while I do it."

"What?" Hope asked.

"I know Jaz best. She'll listen to me before she listens to any of you. Just please stay here and don't move. I'll have you back to your dimension and Dawn and Charlie back here before you know it. Please trust me." he added.

"Frankly, I don't trust you, but I can just this once if that's necessary." Hope shrugged.

John nodded his thanks and hurried back to Jaz. They were far enough away that Hope, Leo and Raph couldn't catch any of their conversation. Nearly two minutes later, singing rang out. Hope had to admit -- Jaz really was good at singing. A portal opened beneath their feet, making them fall down through and for Dawn and Charlie to fall up through. Hope was finally home and the mutants were gone. John rushed over to his friends as the portal snapped shut beneath them. He was so grateful Jaz had finally agreed to send them back home.

"Are you two okay?" John asked worriedly.

"We're fine, John." Charlie reassured. "Glad to be home, though."

"Same." Dawn and John agreed at the same time.

Hope groaned as she stood up. She felt like she had been to the sun and back today. Her mom stood at the entrance to the lair, holding something, and blinked.

"Was it a bad time to bring her back?" Her mom wondered. "I didn't want her to be away from her parents for much longer."

"No, it's alright, Ma." Hope smiled at the bundle in the woman's arms. "Leo, she's back."

Hope's mom carried Chandler over and deposited her in Hope's arms. Chandler immediately started crying -- obviously for a nap.

Hope wanted to cry herself. "Please, baby, don't cry. Mommy can't take crying or whining right now."

Leo and her mom laughed. Hope scowled at them. She took Chandler to the living room, put the baby in her crib and began to hum them both to sleep. Leo had to carry Hope over to the couch when she fell asleep too. It had been *way* too long of a day.

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YASS

Finished and out before I go to bed, let's go

(it's nearing midnight🤫)

Also, 2k12 TMNT and TotTMNT jumpscare because why not

Had to give Hope a break from being ✨solid✨ so I used TotTMNT as an excuse to do that cause going even further back in time to 2003 or 1987 didn't make sense...although -- unpopular opinion here -- the show was a complete bust

And with all that said, without further ado, thus endeth Portal Troubles

I think I speak for both of us when I say we hope you enjoyed this roller coaster

Prbly time for me to go to bed now, peace out✌