Spool
part 1
Michelangelo was desperately trying to stay awake. He did not want to pass out before his brothers came to his rescue. That would be too embarrassing.
Getting himself into this mess had been exceedingly simple, not that he was actually trying. His plan for the evening hadn't included hanging from a bridge like a giant fish waiting to be gutted and dried.
Damn Foot ninjas. They sure were getting a lot better at tying knots. Mikey had tried pulling at the ropes after the Foot had tied his wrists to the bridge cable; leaving him dangling. There was absolutely no play in the bindings, and now his hands were growing kind of numb.
Hanging his nunchucks on the cable next to his arm was supposed to be an added insult, but Mikey was glad they were there, even if he couldn't reach them. At least the Foot hadn't tossed them into the water as they had done with his shell cell.
It had surprised Mikey when one of them had laughed and chunked the phone into the murky water so far beneath his feet. The Turtle ninja was sure he was hung out like this as a trap to lure his family to attempt a rescue.
His face must have shown his surprise, because the Foot soldier who'd laughed told him, "We can catch the others any time we wish, just as we caught you. Our mistress wants to send a message to your brother Leonardo. Your dead body will say everything she needs for him to hear."
What those idiots had no way of knowing was that Donatello had waterproofed that phone. Seriously – duh! They lived in a sewer; chances of the shell cell getting wet at some point? One hundred percent.
The tracker inside the shell cell would beep underwater just as well as above, but he bit his own tongue against the urge to shove that fact in their faces. They might decide to move him then, and he seriously wanted to be rescued.
Mikey just hoped that there was enough battery life in his phone to guide his brothers to his location.
He hoped that there was enough battery life left in him as well, 'cause he felt like hammered shit, as Raphael liked to say. He'd made sure those Foot ninjas knew they'd been in a fight before they got him though. Mikey had taken quite a beating prior to succumbing to the sheer volume of his attackers.
Mikey coughed and a gut wrenching pain shot through his side. A small amount of blood trickled from the corner of his mouth and dripped onto his plastron. That was probably not a good sign.
At least most of the blows he'd received were to his body, Mikey thought with optimism. If he was gonna die, he wanted to go out looking good.
Shell, speaking of going out, why had he been so determined to do that this night? Hadn't Leo warned him; hadn't Leo been warning them all that Karai was on a rampage?
It was all Leo's fault really. They had entered a fairly peaceful period there for a while; she was too busy building her father's legacy to bother with them, and the Turtles were too busy trying to rebuild their home.
They were also too busy discovering their hormones and a newfound attraction to each other to be bothered by Karai's obsessions.
Until during one of Leo's nightly runs he had seen the statue of Oroku Saki that had been erected in central park. All of the brothers knew Leo had a temper that could equal Raph's; it was just that Leo could normally manage to keep his under control.
Not that night. Leo had snapped just long enough to completely destroy the statue with his katanas.
He had to have known that when Karai discovered the destruction she would investigate. Leo had to have known that Karai would know immediately what type of weapon had been used to cut the stone into little pieces.
A week and a half later and the family was still dodging the massive numbers of Foot ninja that were being unleashed on the rooftops at night. April and Casey were being watched again and all because of Leo's sense of honor.
Raph was pissed and wasn't missing any opportunities to tell Leo what he thought about having to stay underground so much. He was also rubbing it in Leo's face that the eldest hadn't been able to keep his temper under his famous control.
Leo's temper was sure being put to the test again by that. Mikey understood though; he really, really did. He spent most of those nights in Leo's bed just to make up for Raph's razzing, and he also told Leo that it was his right as clan leader to do what he saw fit about the stupid statue.
Mikey still believed that, despite the situation he currently found himself in. He was really worried though that Leo might snap again if Mikey were to die. In fact, he knew Leo would lose it if Mikey didn't survive.
Lifting his head, Mikey looked around. The stupid Foot ninjas were standing on top of the bridge to his left, just staring at him. Karai must have told them to watch his suffering so she could describe it to Leo. That was the type of perverted thing she was getting off to these days.
The effort to look up made him dizzy, so Mikey let his chin drop down to his plastron again. He tried shifting his arms a bit; he even attempted a pull-up just to keep the circulation going. As soon as he moved though, that sharp pain in his side came back and the world started spinning.
"If I cease to function," Mikey thought with a little internal laugh at his own humorous phrasing, "Leo is gonna kill Karai. So I better not cease to function."
Raph wanted Leo to kill Karai. Shell, Raph wanted to kill Karai, but he couldn't. Killing a clan leader was the job of another clan leader. Leo had to do it, and he wouldn't.
Amend that, Leo wouldn't kill Karai as long as Mikey stayed alive. That was added motivation for Mike to make it through this ordeal in one piece. 'Cause killing Karai would destroy the Leonardo that Mikey loved.
Mikey's head was starting to throb and he was having a hard time keeping his eyes open. He let them drift closed for a few minutes; then snapped his head up and blinked.
"No sleeping on the job Michelangelo," he berated himself.
Wiggling his toes helped a little; the action didn't make the pain in his side any worse; and it helped to distract him from the need to just nod off. If Raph had to crawl out on this cable, cut him down and carry him back to safety, Mikey would never hear the end of it.
After all, Mikey was out here because he had sworn up one side of a stack of comic books and down the other that he would stay out of trouble if Leo let him go out for just a bit.
And that was how this whole fiasco had begun. With Mikey begging.
Spool part 2