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"You're hurting me!" Donnie hisses, but once he feels that grip loosen enough, he greedily sucks in a breath, coughing for his over-enthusiasm. "You think I'm going to sit still in this situation??"

Oh, but that threat is quite effective, the turtle teen freezing outright as it sinks in. It doesn't strike him as unusual that she knows he has brothers, not when he still thinks she might be related to the Kraang.

...but that look only lasts for several seconds before it shifts into something cold. Determined. Desperate. Because he's had enough people threatening his family.

Purple light traces, forming pieces, slotting into missiles that are already taking flight towards her. Reckless? Quite, especially given he's right there with her but she's gone and touched a nerve.

"Foolish child," Esmeryl hisses as she barrel rolls upwards to avoid the missiles. Or, the bulk of them, considering she isn't fast enough to avoid everything.

He's lucky she did not drop him. That she didn't angle so it was he who took the brunt of the attack. Maybe she should have. Missiles hurt, and she is almost certain she is bleeding somewhere, yet like every other time she's been hurt in her long life, the Empress weathers it with grace. "A death wish? I can deliver."

Her grip tightens briefly to crushing levels before it eases off to allow him to breathe as she levels out again.

Something in her lasercore constricts and rebels against this treatment of the boy, but this is not her son. Not the child she befriended on a lark that became something more. This one is a means to an end. Useful alive, but just another organic at the end of the day.

"Now be good. Or useful and help locate a park that isn't pink coated."

Donnie glares defiantly at her, at least until her claws tighten around him again, the sudden pain whiting out his vision as the air's squeezed out of him, and he'd swear he'd heard his bones grinding in ways they shouldn't. He hangs limply in her grasp even once he finds his lungs unobstructed, his shell still twinging along with his arms.

Fear once again takes precedence over anger, and all he can do is try to focus on breathing again as he blearily watches the scenery pass below him.

She'll settle for good, then. Alive and compliant is all she needs; this pale imitation of her Donnie is a means to an end, and he's said a few strange things that she needs clarified.

Yet, how to go about it is the question. Dropping him isn't appealing and with his mystics, it's likely he'd create something to catch him.

She mulls it over as they fly for what feels like hours -it's only about 30 minutes- as she searches out a place to land that is both away from people and provides decent cover while also easy to vacate if his brothers make a sudden appearance.

Eventually, Esmeryl finds a park out on the outskirts of the city and dips down to land near some trees, only somewhat careful of the turtle in her claws as she lands with a thump.

She wastes no time in using a claw to pin him to the ground.

First things first. "Can your brothers track you in any fashion? Say via any of your tech?"

Tech that is just tech and not a mimic. Another difference. Another proof this isn't her Donnie.

The turtle groans as he finds himself almost thrown against the ground and then nearly crushed again under that insistent claw. He still feels dizzy from everything, and his body aches, making him regret not staying back at the lair after all. It's not like regular activities could tell him he hadn't quite healed up from the strain of trying to defend against an up-close strike from a Kraang armor, and the ground feels particularly uncomfortable against his shell. He's only thankful there's at least some bandages and a hoodie between it and the earth beneath him.

"Why...do you care?" he pants, still somehow finding himself able to summon up another glare up at the strange robotic beast. "...if... you're trying to lure my brothers out to finish them... well... fat chance!"

Again with the assumptions, but it's giving her ammo to work with. She can use this to her advantage.

"I'd rather not be interrupted while I gather information," she says, honest if somewhat amused by the defiance. "Rest assured that I have no interest in harming your brothers unless they interfere. Nor you, unless provoked into it. I am not without mercy."

For a given value of Decepticon mercy, that is. "So, answer my question, Donatello. Please."

Well, that certainly gets his attention. Donnie's eyes go wide.

"H-how do you..."

Because the Kraang never cared about their names. And certainly they'd never spoken their full names around them. Was it because of when they assimilated Raph? When he interfaced with the Technodrome? Possible, but...somehow, he doesn't think they'd bother.

No one calls him Donatello except his father. There's a cold sensation sitting in his chest and he's not sure what to name the feeling.

He closes his eyes, letting his head rest against the grass as he tries to catch his breath again.

Why does this one want information?

What if it's not Kraang in origin..?

"...they won't. They don't know the passwords. ...don't hurt them. Please."

Esmeryl's beak twists into a smile as she slowly steps off him, though it's clear she is more than willing to pin him again should it be needed.

She settles back on her haunches, and while she could transform back into rootmode, she'd rather not loom too much over the child.

"Provided they do not interfere, they won't be harmed. Now, you said this was Earth? What year?"

Donnie drags in a deeper breath once he feels the pressure removed from his plastron. He winces, daring to open his eyes again before he tries pushing himself to sit up on shaky arms.

"Twenty...twenty," he says, carefully raising his gaze towards her. No, not Kraang. Organic as the shape of her form suggests, the parts that make her up are lacking in the shapes and curves the Kraang seemed to favor. This is something sleek, delicate but deadly lines that form a creature that is still in its own way stylized, mechanical.

Wings outstretched protectively, a place to hide away from the world...

Donnie blinks, brow furrowing at the thought as he shakes his head.

"Four hundred years into the past? Or... Displaced in time yet again...?" She mutters, more to herself than him. Her tail swishes at the implications that this could be the Earth of the last universe, but before it was Cyberformed.

"Or to another universe..." Not ideal. Not when her only way home was the spacebridge, and her gaze sharpens. Without a way home, or the promise of a way home, she's trapped. Her mouth curves down into a displeased frown. "The pink goo I saw. What is it?"

He watches her as he massages his aching arms. The past..? What did she mean? Are there more than just Casey Jr. getting thrown through time holes?

Donnie flinches at her frown, bracing for...something, he's not sure. At least she doesn't crush him again. Her question is an odd one but it more or less confirms what he'd started to realize.

"...what's left of the Kraang invasion," he says quietly.

Something in her chest pangs at the flinch, but she ruthlessly ignores it. Not her son. Not the Donnie she knows.

Her head tilts to the side as she studies him. She doesn't know much about the Kraang, except that Roku is one, and that the brothers have a history with them. She's also aware of what Tech and his team shared after the mission to defend Mortu and Co.

"Interesting. I don't suppose there's still tech lying around? Or was it all confiscated?"

There's a clear look of distaste at that. "Well, I wouldn't call it tech, at least, not in the manner you're probably thinking. It was more techno-organic, although their battle suits were considerably less gooey." Donnie still can't help for a shudder.

"All that pink stuff is left of their attempt to assimilate things. They could take control of machinery and organic creatures by that method."

"A good thing they are gone, then," Esmeryl says, one wing half opening before she catches herself.

Not her son. Not her daughter, either, and it's doubtful the child came through with her. Pity, but she'll find another child to claim as hers. "And they were stopped. How? You?"

It's possible they did so, though this Donnie is significantly more limited than the one she knows.

Donnie lifts his head at that, pausing. Expectant? He frowns, looking almost...disappointed for a moment before he shakes his head again. What is with him?

"Yeah, guess you could say that. But they were too powerful to defeat in a fight, so we had to trap them again instead, seal them back where they'd been."

"The Prison Dimension," Esmeryl says, more a confirmation than a guess at this point, even as she starts to pace, much like an agitated lion would. "That you assumed I escaped."

She pauses to pin the boy with a look. "Trapped, not defeated? Dangerous."

She knows all too well what it is like to be trapped somewhere and how desperate one becomes after time. "Even the strongest seal isn't infallible. Even so, that means you will of use, ideally in returning me to my children."

Donnie. Hikari. The rest of the turtles, she supposes.

With her no longer looming, Donnie crawls to his feet, using his bō to steady himself until he's not about to sway.

He stills again when Esmeryl looks back at him.

"It's worked before. Unfortunately they key that was created to seal them away is indestructible. But that requires someone to know how to use it, and I think the Foot Clan has been entirely Kraangified if not destroyed." So hopefully no one else will be seeking the thing out.

The defiance returns in his expression, and he straightens his posture as he meets her eye.

"I'm not sure how you figure that. I don't even know where you came from or what you are. How do you even know my name?"

Again, her core pangs, but again, she dismisses the pang to focus on his words.

"I know much about you. The hows and whys are unimportant." Emeryl states it like it is the weather, before moving on to other much more important things. "You trapped the Kraang away, thus making you and your brothers also knowledgeable in how it works. You think, but do not know, if this Foot Clan is truly gone."

She stares back at the boy before smirking. "To my people, I am the Empress of Destruction."

And then she transforms to loom over him, only mildly upset that she's only 13ft tall instead of her near 40ft. Yes, yes she is claiming to be the Empress of an entire race, so sue her.

More to the point, she is sleek and dangerous, and her purple Decepticon badge is now on full display.

"No, we don't. The Kraang opened a portal big enough to pull their ship through. I piloted it back through, or tried to- before we were caught. We managed to distract them long enough to unplug the key on this side of things, closing the way on their ship to effectively destroy it and seal them back in the Prison Dimension."

For some reason he doesn't seem nearly as intimidated as he thinks she probably means to be upon hearing her title.

But then the robotic beast does something else, plates and limbs shifting and rearranging until she's standing on two feet instead of four. Maybe Donnie should be a little more startled, but all he can do is stare, in fascination, in awe...

His attention falls upon that crest, and it's like the world around him gets tuned out.

He...he knows that symbol. Where has he seen it before?

The lack of fear is interesting in itself, though she puts it down to being smaller than she typically is.

She could bask in the awe, yet now is hardly the time for it - or the pointless staring at her symbol.

Esmeryl hisses, irritated and dismayed in this version of her son. Perhaps, if the wooden bō is any judge, this one isn't as tech savvy.

How disappointing. "Then you are useless to me... Unless..." She cocks her head, considering before a "You said the key is indestructible. Where is it now?"

"De...cepticon..?" The word floats up, unbidden, an alien word that he feels he shouldn't know, and yet he does, somehow.

Being called useless feels like a slap in the face, making Donnie flinch again. It seem to sting even more than it should have any business to. But before it can truly sink too deeply, the question about the key stokes that fire of defiance again, a sharp look in his eye as he glares back up at the supposed empress.

"I don't know." He wouldn't tell anyone where that thing is, not after all the trouble it's caused.

Whatever Esmeryl was about to say dies in her throat as his words catch up. She blinks, then squints.

Things just took a turn for who knows what, but it isn't something she expected out of him. The flinch at being called useless, yes, but that's ignored. It has to be ignored. This isn't her son.

"How do you know that word?"

Donnie shakes his head. "I-I don't... It just...came up," he admits, frowning, not liking being uncertain, but that's the best he can offer for explanation.

And yet that word's meant something to the big robot. No, it's what she identifies as, somehow he feels this to be true, his eyes falling upon that purple insignia again.

"I appeared in your mind after I transformed, then?"

Interesting if true and potentially a game changer.

Potentially. "What else is coming to you?"

She'll back track to the Key in a second or two.

Edited 2025-08-04 05:02 (UTC)

Phrased like that, Donnie's unsure what to think. His hand tightens around his staff, but he resists the urge to step back. To step back is to show weakness.

"When I saw that symbol. But...something about you changing...was familiar, somehow."

He shakes his head, frowning. "It doesn't make sense."

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