All alone in the danger zone
Are you ready to take my hand?
- Blanche
Another story with a name based on a Eurovision song yay! This is actually my all time favourite song from the past 60 something years. I would def recommend listening to it!
For now, enjoy the story!
TMNT
I groan softly, head pounding ever so slightly. My fingers curled up, putting my arms beneath my body to heave myself up. I blink sluggishly, looking down at the ground beneath me before frowning. Where was I? I blink a couple of times again, trying to clear my vision and slowly looking up.
Immediately my heart skips a beat. Before me, behind me, next to me… only bars. I was in a cage. I scramble upwards, sitting and looking around.
"Don are you okay?" I immediately heard Leo call out, and I whip my head to the left, staring at Leo. He was on the other side of the bars. I frown again, but then I realise, he was also in a cage. It was just that our two cages were right next to each other.
"Leo?" I croak.
"Welcome back big bro" Mikey mutters, and I look forwards, seeing Mikey in the same predicament, also in a cage connected to mine. I look to the side again, seeing Raph in a cage as well. All four of us were in a cage, similar size, and attached like a square. Leo and Mikey next to mine, and Raph on the opposite side.
"What happened? Where are we?" I mutter, and Mikey grimaces, glancing to his right to look at Raph.
"Ambushed by the foot, we ain't got the slightest clue where we are though" He tells me, and I nod. I stand up, walking over to the edge of the cage, where mine met the other three cages. Mikey was the first one to react to the movement, shuffling to the middle and slumping against the bars.
"Is everyone okay?" I ask, glancing at Leo and Raph, who were also approaching the middle.
"A few bruises, Raph got a nasty cut on the back of his arm but it's not bad. They took us out fast" Leo explains, but I shake my head, gesturing for Raph to turn around. He rolls his eyes, sitting down with his shell towards me and holding out his arm. I carefully reached through the bars.
But Leo was right, it wasn't that bad, it had already stopped bleeding. I sigh, taking my arm back.
"So Shredder is behind everything?" I ask, and Mikey nods slowly.
"He'll want to know where dad is" Mikey mumbles, glancing at me with terrified blue eyes, but he was trying to cover up his fear. All four of us were, for sure. I could see the fear in both Raph's and Leo's eyes as well, and the fear coursing through my own body. Yet, none of us had voiced it yet.
"Like hell we're telling the tincan" Raph mumbles, crossing his arms after turning around to us. Mikey glances up, eyes lingering on Raph for a second.
"Have you tried weaknesses in the cage?" I ask, and Leo nods.
"Door in each cell but too secure to open without the right tools" Leo tells me, and I nod.
Then suddenly, all four of us tense up when a door opens in the room. The room wasn't that big, but there was space all around our four cages, enough to stay out of reach from the cage, and our ability put our arms and legs through it.
The door opened, revealing two footbots, and Shredder. I narrow my eyes, gripping the bars tightly and glaring at the man. The footbots however, were bigger, larger. Shredder had surely gotten them upgraded.
"What do you want?" Leo grumbled, glaring at the man as well. Shredder, however, did as much as glance at Leo before he stopped walking. The footbots didn't, walking over to Mikey's door and unlocking it. "Shredder!" Leo yelled, standing up and rushing to the edge of the cage again.
Mikey glares as well, straightening up and ready to bolt. But the footbots took out some device, pointing it at Mike. Without a warning, an electricity bolt shot out both of them, and without anywhere to go, not left, not right, there was no way for Mikey to dodge it.
A scream of pain left Mikey's throat, and he collapsed to the ground. The footbots stopped firing, and still Shredder didn't utter a single word. One of them moved forwards to grab Mikey, but the latter had already scrambled upwards, raising his fists. But he wasn't quick enough.
The footbots struck out, hitting him in the side of the head, hard. His head flew to the side before it connected with the bars.
"MIKEY!" Raph cried out, trying to reach through the bars, but he had fallen too far from him to reach. Mikey groaned in pain. Without hesitation I stuck my hand through the bar, grasping Mikey's arm and pulling it closer, glaring up at the footbot.
"Bros" Mikey weakly called out.
"I won't let you go Mikey" I whisper, but I think even he knew my attempts were futile. The footbot stalked forwards, grabbing Mikey's free arm.
"I'll be alright, don't worry about me." He says, a tear slipping from his eyes. But even without that, I could see he was terrified, slightly disoriented but still terrified. "I'll be fine" He whispers before Mikey is torn from my grip.
"NO!" I cry, blindly reaching out, even when I knew I would only grab air.
"Shredder! Come back here you coward!" Raph raged, turning around and running to the opposite side of his cage, where the Shredder stood. The latter only looked at him, merely glancing without any real emotion other than a slight sense of victory. Then he walked through the door, the footbots pulling a struggling Mikey away.
I gasp in shock, a shuddering breath leaving my body, and I sink to the ground slowly.
Only three of us remaining in the room.
TMNT
"He'll be alright, he's strong" Don whispers, rubbing his arms.
"Don, please calm down" I whisper softly in return, sticking my arm through the cage and putting my hand on his shoulder. He looks up, face disconnecting from the bars and looking up at me. There was an unspoken conversation going on between us. One that told both of us that we were scared.
But being worked up wouldn't get us anywhere.
Don nods shakily, reaching for my hand, and glancing at Raph. Obvious worry was in his eyes had well, but he didn't voice it like Don did. It had probably been hours since Mikey was taken from the room, and we had no idea what was going on right now in whatever room they were in.
We didn't know if Mikey was alright, if he was actually still alive. What Shredder did to him, what Mikey had told… I shake my head. Mikey wouldn't have told Shredder anything. Don was right, Mikey was strong. Something that wasn't always obvious, but he was as strong, if not stronger, than us.
I whip my head around as the door opens again. I'm up the moment the first footbot walks through the door. I couldn't quite get close, as the door was on Raph's side, but it didn't matter anyways. Mikey was being dragged over the floor on his shell by the footbot, dragged along Raph's side of the cell before thrown into his own.
The footbot just threw him into the cell, closing the door before leaving soundlessly.
Immediately Don scrambled towards the bar that got him closest to our youngest brother.
"Mikey?!" Don cries out. Mikey weakly lifts his head, coughing a couple of times.
"Hey D" He mumbles, taking a shuddering breath. Both Raph and I had moved to the edges of the cage, closest to each other.
"Can ya move?" Raph asks, obviously worried as his tone was silent and unsure. Mikey nods stiffly, carefully putting his right elbow beneath him and heaving himself up. My eyes immediately land on his left arm that he didn't use to support himself, and I can feel my stomach clench painfully.
The arm was swollen, bent in an unnatural way. Broken.
Slowly, Mikey crawled over to the edge of his cage, the midpoint and collapsing to the ground again, heaving a deep breath in.
"What did they do?" I whisper, horrified. I stick my arm through the cage, touching Mikey head and rubbing it gently. He closes his eyes, a small smile ghosting over his face. The smile, however, immediately vanishes when Don gently reached for his arm, resulting in a cry of pain.
"I'm sorry" Don cringes, and it was obvious he was torn between being a big brother, or being a doctor right now.
"I think it's broken" Mikey whispers, gazing at his arm with a grimace.
"It is" Don affirms, and Mikey nods shakily.
"What happened little bro?" Raph asks softly, trying to comfort Mikey as much as he could.
"Did you say anything?" I found myself asking, but Mikey just shook his head.
"Shredder-" He stops himself, licking his lips and taking a shuddering breath. "Shredder just beat me.. he didn't ask anything" I frown at that, reeling back slightly.
"He didn't ask anything?" I ask carefully, but Mikey shakes his head.
"Nothing.. he was just silent the whole time dude" Mikey croaks, shuddering slightly and tensing up, closing his eyes tightly for just a moment.
"I don't think you've broken anything else. But he really did a number on you, your whole body is basically swollen and purple" Don voices softly, and Mikey laughs slightly.
"Purple's not my colour" He mutters, and despite the situation, Don chokes out a laugh.
"Why ain't he asking something?" Raph mutters, frowning. I look at him.
"Maybe he thinks we already know what he wants?" Don opts, but I shake my head.
"He would still ask Mikey, it doesn't make sense" I deny, looking down at my youngest brother's body. Swollen, and already bruising like Don had suggested. Mikey's eyes were red, dried tear tracks on his cheeks. He slowly looks up, blue eyes catching mine. He didn't say anything however, and neither did I.
There was nothing left to be said really.
"You should get some sleep" I mutter, rubbing his shoulder carefully. Mikey takes a shuddering breath, nodding. I glance at Don and Raph. "You should do too. I'll keep first watch"
Raph snorts slightly. "First watch for what?" He grimaces. "It ain't like we could defend ourselves when tinhead comes back"
"Raph is right, it's probably close to dawn, we need to be rested" He says, and I sigh.
"Fine" I agree, but only because I knew I was a light sleeper. If someone were to come back, I would immediately hear it. Don never retracts his hands though, laying down in a rather uncomfortable position to make sure Mikey would have some sort of pillow to sleep on. I could see him flashing Don a grateful smile before closing his eyes.
I swallow thickly, looking at my youngest brother. There was blood smeared on his body in several places, skin breaking open from sheer force. His skin, swollen in numerous places, and already turning a different colour. The worst injury was no doubt his broken arm, and without supplies, Don really couldn't treat it that well.
He had wrapped his own elbow guards around Mikey's arm to stabilise it a bit, as well as the bandages around our hands, but that was about everything he could do.
"Go to sleep fearless" Raph grumbles, and I glance at my older brother. His head was in the midpoint, closest to all four of us, but his head was turned away from me, instead his eyes focused on Mikey's sleeping form.
I hum slightly, shifting on the spot slightly before closing my eyes as well.
TMNT
I was immediately up when I heard the door creak open, scrambling upwards and glancing around the room. Mikey jerked awake as well, hissing, and cringing in pain as he moved too fast. Don acted immediately, reaching out with his hands to stabilise our youngest brother, and to avoid hurting himself even more.
"Shredder" Raph hisses, but didn't move from his spot in the midpoint. Mikey slowly gets up, but Shredder didn't move to his cage, instead he stays rooted.
"What do you want Shredder?" I hiss, glaring at the man, no monster, in front of us. He watched us with cold us, finally taking a few steps and stopping just in front of my cage. For which I was grateful, it meant he was further away from Mikey's cage.
"It's a shame you haven't figured that out yourself Leonardo" He spoke, voice low and full of hatred.
"I have, and we will not tell you where he is" I retort, and Shredder smirks, taking one last step towards my cage so he was almost touching it.
"That is where you are wrong" He tells us, glancing at Raph, before moving to Don and Mikey respectively. "There are more ways to hurt Hamato Yoshi"
I heard Mikey murmur something behind me, and Shredder smirks. "He seems to have figured it out" He says, an amused smirk on his face. Despite my better judgement, I turn around to face Mikey, who was looking at me with wide terrified eyes.
"He's hurting us to hurt dad" He whispers, now loud enough for me to hear it as well. I could feel my blood run cold at the implication. That's why Shredder didn't ask Mikey any questions, that's why he hadn't mentioned dad in any way, or voiced is distaste for him so far.
He didn't want to know where we lived, he didn't want to know the location to our lair in the sewers. He just wanted to hurt him. And that didn't necessarily mean hurting him physically, but hurting him mentally. We all knew how devastated he was when he lost Shen and Miwa, or when he encountered the latter as Karai.
Shredder knew dad's weakness was his family, Miwa, Shen… us.
And he was hurting us, to hurt dad in the worst way possible.
"Recognise these?" Shredder continues, holding up an item we were all too familiar with. A t-phone. I glare again.
"If you're planning on tracking down the lair with that thing, you can give up now" Don hisses behind me, and it was clear that he was just as pissed off as we all were.
"I have tried, it would have been greater to have Splinter watch your demise" Shredder tells us. "But no matter, there are functions I can still access" He continues, unlocking the phone with ease and opening the text function.
There were a few messages on the left side, but Shredder ignored those, scrolling upwards until he stopped at a right sided message. Something that could only mean one thing, he sent it to whoever the receiver was. And something told me that someone was dad who had received this.
Shredder smirks, clicking on the message. Without waiting, Mikey's cries of pain suddenly wailed through the entire room. I cringe, whipping my head around. Mikey seemed as horrified as we were, darting his head around frantically to search for the source of the sound, but we all knew.
The phone.
The voice, Mikey's voice, continued to cry out in pain, whimpering but never uttering a single word. The sound of blows, hits on his body were heard, but that was nothing compared to the cries of pain from Mikey, the only thing I could focus on.
"That has been sent to the hideous rat you call your father" Hurting dad in the worst way possible, forcing him to listen to Mikey crying out in pain, being tortured. And I think we all understood that dad wouldn't not listen to it. Anything on the recording could lead him to us, could help rescue us.
And Shredder knew that.
"Hamato Yoshi will hear your demise, starting with the youngest, and ending with the oldest" he eyes at me, and I glare, baring my teeth. "And I will not stop until you are all dead"
Until we fall dead from the exhaustion, from all the torture Shredder would inflict on us. Starting with Mikey, and only turning to Don when Mikey would perish, leaving me for last.
Until dad had no one left, and would be broken after losing his family once again.
TMNT
Lovely isn't it? :3 *Hides*
So just to be clear, all four are in separate cages that are connected to each other. Looking at it from above, Leo would have the upper left cage, Raph the upper right. Don would have the down left cage, and Mikey down right. There's space all around the four cages to walk around. And the door to exit the room is in the furthest corner where Raph's cage is. So the upper right when shown from above.