Raph and Mikey tested out their weapons on the roof of an apartment building. Leo, Donnie and Aina watched them fool around with their magical weapons.
"Check this out!" Mikey swirled his kusari-fundo, forming a fiery circle around Raph. "Power-fun-Jitsu!"
"Uh-oh." Raph used his fonta to protect himself from the fiery tornado. "Not bad, not bad. but check out these puppies."
He smashed his fists gripping the fonta and created bigger red fists from the impact of the fonta. "Tonfa-smash-Jitsu!"
"Ohhh," the thrre other turtles and Aina gasped in amazement.
Leo quickly shoved Raph aside and pulled his his sword from behind him. "If you guys want to see some real skill, look right here. I’m going to make a portal to New Jersey."
He moved his sword around, grunting, and attempted to make a circle. A line of blue glow vanished a second after it appeared at the tip of the long knife.
"Come on, power-portal-jitsu," Leo mumbled.
He tried again with the same move he created himself, but another line disappeared. He groaned and tried again a few more times.
Finally, he was only able to make a small portal in front of him.
"Yeah!" Leo said victoriously.
Raph laughed, holding onto his sides. "That’s not going to get you across the street, let alone to Jersey."
"Okay, but…" Leo placed his finger through the portal and another one popped up behind him.
He started scratching his back with his hand through the second gateway. "See, it’s practical, which makes it better."
Mikey and Mizuki saw Donnie holding a small purple gem and his goggles.
"Hey, Donnie, what are you doing, bud?" Mikey asked him.
"Well, while you guys took flashier items from Draxum, I, on brand, took a more cerebral one," Donnie explained. "See, the crystal, combined with the elements—"
"Get to the point," Leo interrupted him.
"Now, I can see all the mystic energy hidden around New York," Donnie finished and placed the crystal into his goggles. "You’re welcome, and thank you."
"You managed to nab it from Draxum’s laboratory?" Mizuki asked him hopeful. "Did you find any more down there?"
"Well, I didn’t have much time for that, but we can try and find more, if you so wish," Donnie smiled at her.
"Whoa, that’s awesome," Raph said, walking up next to Donnie and Mizuki near the balcony. "Hey, what about that laundromat?"
"It looks like a laundromat," Donnie said, looking through the goggles at a laundry place.
Aina spotted an old woman pushing a shopping cart down the street. "Try that woman, see if you can find anything on her."
"Alright, what do we have over here?" Donnie aimed his goggles at the old woman and gasped. 'Whoa, underneath that old lady’s skin is some sort of fire mutant thing."
"What?" Mizuki exclaimed. "What she doing now?"
The old woman checked to see if anyone is paying on her and moved her hand in some sort of magic motion. The words ‘NYC’ suddenly changed to a portal at her command. The old woman went through the portal, which vanished a second later.
"She just disappeared into that wall!" Mikey said.
"Incredible," Aina breathed in wonder."What do you think is behind that portal?"
"I believe she went into some sort of cool, mystic pizza place,”"Donnie answered, slapping away Leo’s hand from his goggles.
"Pizza!" Mikey’s eyes lit up. "Guys, my blood shuggies are getting low. I need to eat, bad."
The turtles jumped from the apartment roof and landed near where the old woman mutant had gone through. They stood up near the wall and stared it down.
Raph went to use the same motion as the old woman did, but Leo stepped up in front of him.
"Step aside, let’s put the prettiest face first," he said, rubbing his hand through his head.
"I don’t think that’s a good idea," Raph replied.
"Why? If anyone’s gonna get us inside, it’s me."
Leo used the movement of his hand as the old woman. The skull on the wall blew raspberry at him in response.
Aina giggled and covered her mouth.
"Nice try, pretty boy," Raph laughed.
He gently shoved Leo aside and moved his hand in the same motion as before.
The portal opened up at his command.
"Awesome!" Mikey said.
The turtles and Aina, whose hand is being held by Donnie, jumped through the gateway and stopped as they got through.
They gasped at the sight in front of them.
Various mutants sat at different tables, chatting away, while waiters walked by without noticing them.
Donnie and Mikey walked forward, but Raph stopped them by lifting them up by the backs of their shells.
"All right, all right. Everybody be cool," Raph told them. "This is our first time in a classy restaurant, uh, establishment."
Aina saw that Leo is not there with them. "Wait, where’s Leo?"
"Hey, I’m over here," Leo called, his head stuck through the half-closed portal. "This wall is definitely broken."
Aina shook her head, chuckling, and she, Donnie and Mikey pulled him through the entrance.
"Hm, a table. What do we do?" Raph questioned his brothers and Aina.
"Okay, be cool," Donnie told them. "I think we just sit at it, and ask for stuff."
"Uh, like regular people?" Mikey asked.
"I think here, we are regular," Donnie nodded.
The three turtles walked towards the table Raph spotted. Aina saw Leo looking at a doorway with a sign above, "Prove You’re A Champion".
"Leo?" She called to him.
"You know what, you just go with them. I’ll catch up," Leo waved at her and walked towards the doorway.
Aina reluctantly stared off to where Leo had gone and followed behind Donnie and the others.
She sat down near Donnie and calmly sat up straight. She looked at the purple bandana turtle out of the corner of her eye and smiled at him lightly.
Donnie beamed back at her reassuringly.
A slim teen lizard mutant walked towards their table with a notepad. "What can I get getcha, fellas?" She said through her Brooklyn accent.
Aina viewed the restaurant with astonishment while the boys ordered their own pizza. When the lizard waitress looked to Aina next, narrowing her eyes at the human girl.
Aina tried to pull off her cloaking broach, but unfortunately she remembered Donnie had messed with it while she was asleep and it was stuck onto her clothing. So she just chuckled at the lizard lady nervously.
"Don’t worry about her," Mikey spoke up as he went to the Softshell's defense. "She’s a good friend of ours."
"Okay, well, what are you gonna have, sweetheart?" The waitress asked her, still eyeing her suspiciously.
"Um, do you have any smaller pizza? A regular, perhaps?" Aina said.
"We got some, yeah," the lizard mutant nodded. "Well, your order’s gonna be right out, fellas."
As soon as the lizard waitress walked away, Aina felt eyes staring at her. The patrons in the eatery saw her sitting with mutant turtles, others looking uncomfortable at her intentions.
Aina shifted in her seat nervously, in hopes of trying to avoid their gazes.
Donnie noticed this and protectively wrapped his arm around her while staring at the patrons as if he was telling them something. The mutants seem to understand his language, for they went back to whatever they were doing.
"Here ya go, fellas," the waitress came back with their pizza and set them down on their table. "And here’s a small regular pizza for you, kid."
"Um, thanks," Mizuki said, followed by Raph, Donnie and Mikey.
She thought she saw the waitress winking at her from the corner of her eye. She shook it off and started to eat her pizza.
"Sweet salvation," Mikey picked his piece adn opened his jaws.
Leo suddenly slapped it out of his hands.
The slice landed on a gecko mutant, who ate it the moment it was on his head.
"My salvation!" Mikey cried.
"Leo, what are you doing?" Mizuki scolded.
"Yeah, what is your problem?" Donnie practically yelled at him.
"No, what are you guys doing?" Leo smirked. "Don’t eat that run of the mill garbage..."
"When you can have the world’s greatest pizza," he finished and showed them a doorway with a red curtain and red velvet rope.
A sign above read, ‘World’s Greatest Pizza’. A skeleton with one of his arms as a cane in a red and gray suit stood near the entrance.
"Oh, please, every place in New York claims to have the world’s greatest pizza," Donnie rolled his eyes.
Raph and Aina comforted Mikey, who appeared disheartened from the loss of his beloved slice.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, but this pizza’s behind a velvet rope," Leo urged and crouched behind the rope. "Velvet rope, guys. Velvet rope—"
The skeleton slapped him with his arm-cane.
"You know that means quality!" Leo came up behind his brothers with a hand mark from the slap on his face.
"Unfortunately, the madame must stay outside of the maze," the skeleton said, eyeing Mizuki. "Because she is a human and not a mutant, the maze may become too dangerous for her."
"Actually, I’m thinking about—" Aina stepped forward, but Donnie stopped her.
"No!" He nearly shouted, placing his hand in front of her.
The others and the skeleton man became surprised at his answer.
Donnie stood up and cleared his throat. "No, Nina. I think the bone-man’s right. This is probably gonna be too dangerous for you to go through. Besides, you could get hurt."
"Donnie..." Aina started.
"We’ll be right back, Mizzy," Leo called to her as he and the turtles went through the curtain. "Won’t take long."
"But..." she faltered.
She sighed and strolled outside the room of the champions photos. She leaned against the wall and sighed broodingly.
What seemed like hours passed, even though it had been only a good 30 minutes or so. Some patrons in the restaurant stared at Aina uncomfortably, others whispered about her as if they don’t her to hear them.
A few younger mutants pointed at her, their parents telling them to not worry about the "long-haired human".
Aina viewed at where a infant mutant is staring at her and nervously smiled at them. The infant laughed in reply.
Her smile fell after a second and she gazed back at the floor.
Even though the maze is not for a human like her, she really wanted to see what it would be like. But Donnie and his brothers are more worried for her safety than she believed. Even if she did go with them...
"Excuse me?" A voice broke her out of her thoughts.
Aina turned to find the same lizard waitress from before. She became surprised when she was standing a few inches from her.
"Oh, hey," Aina greeted.
"Sorry about what I did back there," the lizard mutant apologized. "Turns out I haven’t seen another human in a while."
"It's not your fault, and what did you mean?"
"Long story short, I used to be a human before I became like this," the waitress rubbed the back of her neck. "So what are you doing here?"
"I'm actually a mutant Softshell as well, but my cloaking broach which is stuck onto my clothes turns me human."
"Interesting," the lizard teen. "And I’m gonna guess that you’re part of some rebellion?"
"Basically, yeah," the younger yokai chuckled.
“So, um, where are you from?”
"I used to live in Texas a few years back."
"Really? My grandparents went on vacation in Texas. They love it there."
"Well, to me, yeah of course they would."
"I would travel but that was dress size or two ago," the lizard waitress warmly said to her.
"You didn’t know about it, it’s not your fault."
The other woman smiled at her in reply.
"Anyway, my break’s gonna be over soon," the waitress smoothed out her apron. "My name’s Mona Lisa, by the way."
"Aina," the Softshell answered.
"See ya, kid," Mona Lisa said before she walked off.
Aina sighed in relief and leaned back against the wall again.
Leo groaning and the sound of laughter reached her ears. Aina's looked to her side and noticed Leo on Raph's back and the other three turtles laughing.
"What happened?" The female turtle asked, concerned.
"It’s a long story, Nana," Mikey explained, nearly crying from laughter. "Leo just wanted to get a picture of himself on the wall of champions and he tricked us into getting into this Maze of Death."
"That explains so much," Aina nodded.
"And then we tried the world’s greatest pizza, which is so good," Mikey went, then broke into laughter. "Then Leo finally got his picture...in the wall of cheaters!"
"What?" She cackled.
"Leo had to make a portal to get us out of that one part of the maze, even though mystic powers are forbidden," Donnie added, smiling. "But all in all, it is a good night. Right, Leo?"
Leo groaned, lifting a finger in the air, before his head slammed back down on Raph’s shell.
"I guess that’s a yes," Raph said.