THE LAIR

"And then I saw that picture, and I brought him here!" April explained.

Casey awakens in the TV room tied to a chair. He looks around at the turtles and April.

"Sensei?"

Leo yelps as the others look other at Casey.. Ellie took notice of how he looked at Leo, as though he meant a great deal to him.

"It's you! It's all of you!" He exclaimed. "Together! I never thought I'd see you again!"

"'Again'?" Vee whispered to Ellie and Cairo, who shrugged.

"I'm so happy I could hug you!"

Casey falls forward. Raph then picks him up as a projector falls from the ceiling and turns on.

"Who are you, and why do you have a picture of us?" He asked, holding up the picture.

"Yeah, who took this?" Leo asked, almost sounding serious. "'Cause I look great," he complimented himself.

Cairo looked at the picture. "Where'd you get this? I don't remember taking this."

"What's your favorite pizza?" Mikey asked. "'Cause I'm ordering right now."

"Michael, be a dear and get Barbaque Chicken, please!" Vee requested.

"And why are you wearing Genius Built apparel?" Donnie suspiciously asked Casey. "That's trademarked!"

Donnie accidentally activates Casey's grappling cable, and it zips through the room. It attaches to the TV room ceiling, pulling Casey upside down.

"Grappling hook!" Donnie shouts.

"What's going on?" Leo asks.

"He's trying to escape!" Mikey yells.

"Wait, what if he tells everyone about us? Are we gonna die? I'm not going back to a lab!" Ellie cried.

"I don't even remember being in a lab! I don't want to remember!" Cairo joined Ellie.

"Want me to knock him out again?" April suggests.

"Let me!" Raph tells her.

"Awww, I wanted to!" Vee complained.

"W-WAIT! STOP! I'm a friend! Let me explain!" Casey yells, immediately the 7 turtles stop what they were doing.

"Let's start over. My name is Casey Jones, and the reason I have this photo and your tech is because you gave it to me, but not yet because I'm from... the future!" Casey explained.

Everyone burst into laughter.

"This isn't a joke!" Casey insisted.

Donnie spins Casey and cuts his grappling line with his Spider Shell, and sets the chair back on the floor.

"Oh, please, if time travel is possible, Future Donnie would have come back and already given me all the lottery numbers like we planned!" Donnie tells him.

"It's true! I need you to believe me. Humanity depends on it," Casey pleaded.

Cairo wanted to know the truth. He used his mystic ability and looked into Casey's memories. There was horror everywhere. The beauty of New York City was gone and replaced by no man's land. The last thing Cairo saw before leaving Casey's thoughts was an older version of himself, Leo, Ellie, and Mikey all dying in battle. There was no sign of April, Splinter, Donnie, or Raph.

"Believe him, it's true," Cairo told everyone.

Leo was the only one who laughed at this. "What? I can't be the only one who believes Cairo's gone nuts!"

"In the future, an alien race decimated the planet. We were hunted. We lived in caves. We ate leaves and rats. No offense," Casey told Splinter.

"None taken. We are delicious," Splinter agreed.

"I know how this sounds, but Master Leonardo gave me a mission," he told everyone.

Leo smiled smugly. "I do like how he calls me Master."

Vee rolled her eyes. "Of course you do."

"Of course I do," Casey said, hope in his eyes. "You're the greatest ninja the world has ever seen! You told me to find the Key and stop the Krang."

"Aliens. Pft," chuckled April. "Sure, this story keeps getting better. Splints?"

"The Krang?" Splinter asks. "I have heard that name. Powerful, barbaric creatures worshiped by the Foot Clan. Legend says they came from the stars."

Vee looked back at Casey, wondering if she should believe this or not.

"Ruthless, unmerciful beings with one desire: to enslave our world like so many before us," the words Splinter spoke chilled every turtles' bones. "All seemed lost until great mystic warriors forged a mighty weapon. A key that was used to lock them in a prison dimension beyond this realm. Over the centuries, the Mystic Key remained hidden to protect humankind and prevent the return of the Krang."

"So..." Leo began.

"Future boy is.." Vee added. "Really from the future?" April finished.

"Mind," Mikey said before imitating an explosion.

"Someone finds the Key! Today! They steal it and use it to open a doorway and free the Krang! That's why I came back, to find it first. Master Leonardo drew a picture on the back of that photo. So, to stop the Krang, all we have to do is find the Key before it's stolen," Casey explained.

Donnie, Mikey, Ellie, Vee, Cairo, and Raph look at Future Leo's drawing of the object the Foot Clan stole earlier. Then they glare angrily at a sweating Leo, who avoids their gazes. They all stare at him, expecting him to say something.

Casey looked confused. "What?" Leo anxiously broke it to him. "Yeah, um, did future, handsome, amazing me tell you what to do in case that already happened? 'Cause that already happened."

Annoyed, Splinter flicks a piece of popcorn on Leo.

"Oh, no, we're too late!" Casey sighed.

There was a moment of silence before Raph spoke up.

"No, we're not. 'Cause we know who has the Key, the Foot Clan. Okay, team, we gotta find them before they use it. And this time, we do it together," Raph told Leo.

Soon, they began to leave with Leo mimicking under his breath. But as they leave, Casey was still tied in the chair.

"Uh, can someone untie me now?"

Cairo grabbed his spear and cut the ropes. "Come on Future Boy!"