The night air was bitter cold, as the wind mercilessly tore through the air with no regards to how sharp it was tearing at the exposed faces that were rushing for shelter in the streets of New York City.
The city that never sleeps had took a nap, as everyone quickly went indoors, it the wind too much for their already scorched faces. They had never seen wind like it, or more accurately never felt wind like it, as they were quick to retreat to the warmth and protection of their homes on the bitter cold night.
The moon was out, bathing the rooftops in it's white glow. Four figures sprinted past, their shadows barely appearing as they quickly moved on to another rooftop, their destination not too far away. As they skidded to a stand still, they all allowed themselves to catch their breaths, although the frosty cold air was hard to breathe in.
"Woah, dudes, is it just me or is it hard to breathe?" Michelangelo wheezed out, bending down slightly and putting his hands on his knees. All of his brothers began assuming the same position, as the air sliced at their lungs while they panted.
"It is the coldness of the air that is making it hard to breathe in, Mikey." Donatello said, swallowing hard as his lungs burned from the air.
"Winter hit New York hard this year." Leonardo said, looking at the vacant footpaths that glittered with frost. Winter had already set in, even though it was only the 1st of December. The rest of the clan looked at the streets below along with Leonardo, shocked at how empty New York was. They had never seen it so empty, so vacant.
"It's too cold for crimes, can we go home now? The sewer is actually warm compared to this!" Raphael grumbled, his breath coming out as a vapour cloud as he crossed his arms over his chest.
"Yeah Leo, my shell is gonna freeze and fall off!" Mikey shivered, his teeth chattering lightly. He hugged his arms around himself in attempt to keep some of his heat, but it was being stolen by the frosty air.
Leonardo sighed, scanning the streets a final time before allowing himself a small shiver. He turned to his brothers, smiling slightly at how all of their teeth chattered simultaneously, as they hugged themselves for heat.
"Let's go home, I doubt anyone will be out in this weather." Leonardo agreed, leading the way towards the nearest sewer grate. Running certainly helped keep the cold at bay, but their breath was still visible, little vapour clouds puffing out of their mouths every time they breathed out.
As Leonardo arrived at the last rooftop they needed to get to, he quickly stopped himself from jumping down to the alley below, seeing the shadows that lurked in the darkness. He raised a finger to his lips, right before anyone could breathe wrong, and held his arm out, making his brothers all take a few steps back. Leonardo pointed down towards the alley, allowing his brothers to see that much. They caught on quickly, slowly backing away until they all found the hairs on the back of their necks were standing up, and they dreadfully turned around, letting out audible gasps when they seen who was behind them.
There he was, standing in the flesh, was Shredder, his eyes narrowed, as an army of foot bots stood behind him. Shredder grinned at their reactions, enjoying the advantage he had. His voice boomed out when he spoke, "Get them."
The command was clear, and the footbots immediately obeyed the order, launching at the turtles from all directions. They got their weapons out in the nick of time, very close to being stabbed by the swords the foot bots wielded.
Leonardo swung his katanas, severing the heads of many foot bots at a time. Raphael stabbed and wounded with his sais, viciously attacking each one. Donatello could hit more with his bo staff, but it took more than one hit to take a bot down. Michelangelo was swinging his nunchucks with high energy and flinging many of the bots away from him.
It was a good hard defence, even Shredder realised it. Karai examined the fray, and looked up towards the tall man, asking permission to join in by just looking at him. Shredder nodded his head, and watched as the young kunoichi sprinted off into the fight.
Karai got into battle with Leonardo, their swords clanging loudly as they clashed together. Neither could land a hit, only block each other's strikes. Shredder impatiently watched, deciding to take matters into his own hands, and unsheathed a single hand blade. He marched into the fray, as Karai and Leonardo got closer to the edge of the building while they fought.
Leonardo had his back to Shredder, and Karai stole a glance to look up at him. She grinned, and jumped to the side, away from Leonardo's katanas. As the young turtle realised an opponent was behind him, he turned around sharply, his eyes widening as the single hand blade impaled his stomach. He let out a gasp, as Shredder ejected the blade so it would stay in his plastron. Shredder raised his foot and kicked him off the building, watching as the young turtle plummeted to the alley below, Donatello screaming his name as he witnessed what just happened.
The second youngest turtle abandoned his fight, running to the edge of the building and jumping after his older brother. Donatello hadn't expected the height of the building to be so high through his panicked mind, and he had jumped without proper calculation. As his older brother landed flat on his shell with a sickening crack, Donatello's legs took the full force of the fall, and an exploding pain along with two more cracks emitted through the air.
Donatello screamed in agony, as both his legs broke. He had fell onto his back afterwards, and now lay staring at the night sky, sweating although the air was bitter cold. He panted, clenching his hands into tight fists to try and bear the pain. Donatello's vision blurred, as he remembered his brother was more wounded than him.
Donatello rolled onto his front, stopping to take a few deep breaths to manage his pain. He pulled himself with his hands toward his older brother, deciding not to look at his probably now deformed legs. When Donatello finally reached his brother, he got himself up, and leaned his back against the wall, crying in pain when his legs moved.
Donnie's jaw dropped in disgust when he stole a glance at his legs. The left one had a squarish bump down below his calf, and was turning a dark colour, and because he was in the shadowed part of the alley, he couldn't tell what colour it had went. His right knee wasn't very centred, and had also turned a dark colour.
"Oh God...oh God..." He whispered to himself, hovering his hands over his legs. Donatello cursed at himself, why did he just jump off the building without checking the height first? Now he was no use to Leo. Now he couldn't get his older brother to his lab, and probably save his life.
Reaching down to his dying brother, Donatello pulled Leonardo up to where he was sitting, getting a pain filled groan in return. He lay his brother's head on his thigh, holding his hand as he watched his brother struggle to breathe.
"L-Leo?" Donatello choked out, squeezing Leonardo's hand. At this point Donatello didn't even expect Leonardo to open his eyes, but was astonished when his brother did.
"D-Donnie?" Leonardo barely managed to say, squeezing Donatello's hand in return. Truth was, Leo was terrified, not at the fact that he was impaled with a blade, but because he felt no pain. In fact he felt numb, his body gone past the point of pain.
"It's okay Leo, I'm here." A hard lump formed in Donatello's throat, making it painfully hard not to burst into tears. What made it even harder, was the fact that Leo was crying, squeezing his hand as hard as he could.
"I'm scared Donnie. I don't... I don't feel anything." Leo admitted his fear, tears streaming down his paling cheeks. Donatello's mind went blank, he didn't know what to say to reassure his older brother, because it was painfully clear, Leonardo was going to die, right here, in this dark alley.
"It'll be okay Leo. It'll be okay." Donatello couldn't hold his tears back, as they silently streamed down his face. He felt so guilty for saying that. Leo would not be okay. Leo was dying, and all he could do was say he would be okay, and rub his hand reassuringly.
Leo took a deep breath, putting his hand on top of his plastron, near the wound. He knew that the liquid on his hand was blood. He knew his minutes were now numbered, but he was absolutely terrified of death. The thought of leaving the world, leaving his brothers, his father. No more training sessions in the dojo. No more meditating with Splinter, or simply by himself. No more space hero episodes, or marathons. No more getting pizza, and having movie nights with April and Casey. He would never get to go on patrol again. All he knew, everything he loved, was gone.
Leonardo tried to calm himself, but the thought of his death brought even more dread upon him. He gripped his brother's hand tighter, as the world blurred.
"I love you guys, I love you all. Donnie, I'm...I'm scared." Leo cried to his younger brother, his vision blurring even more. "Donnie I'm dying!"
Donatello squeezed Leo's hand back, his tears flying out wildly. "I'm here Leo, I love you too. We all do." Donatello choked on his words, the lump in his throat pressing hard on him.
Leonardo's vision left him, a solid blackness taking over his sight. It scared him even more, and he squeezed Donnie's hand again to see if he was still alive. The darkness got too much for him, and he was soon in hysterics. "Donnie, Donnie it's all dark!" He cried.
"You're okay, you're okay Leo." Donatello tried to reassure his brother, but he was inconsolable. How do you calm someone who is on the verge of death, and is also completely terrified that they're dying? That's the thing, you can't. So all Donatello could do was rub Leo's hand, and wipe away his tears with his other.
Then came the part when Donatello knew it was the end for his older brother. The time when Leo's breaths became lighter, and less consistent. His heart broke in two, when Leo's tears began to stop, and the grip on his hand loosened.
"I love you Leo, wherever you go, give me- us, the strength to live without you." Donatello sobbed, not even feeling the pain in his legs, not even remembering they were broken. Donnie felt nothing but the pain in his heart, the aching pain that was grief. Leonardo, his oldest brother, his leader, was dead.
Donatello weeped, squeezing at Leo's lifeless hand. He finally closed Leo's eyes, and that's when he crossed the line into hysteria.
"Why did you leave me! Come back to me! Squeeze my hand Leo! Open your eyes!" Donatello screamed into the night, squeezing Leo's hand and waiting for him to squeeze it back. Waiting for Leo to open his eyes and say he was still alive, but Leo never did what he said. "You're NOT DEAD!" Donnie screeched.
As Donatello yelled and screamed over the death of his brother, above on the building that he jumped off, Raph and Mikey heard his screams. Mikey looked over at Raph, hoping he had heard Donnie wrong but when Raph looked over at him with the same dread-filled look, he knew he had heard right.
Michelangelo refused to believe it but the heavy weight of grief crashed down on top of him. He rushed over to the edge of the building seeing Donnie sobbing over Leo's body. Mikey's heart shattered, tears gushing down his cheeks. His big brother Leo... Was dead?
Michelangelo, too distraught to remember the footbots that were stalking his moves, let out a shriek of surprise when the footbots snatched away his nunchucks, and grabbed both his arms, dragging him away from the edge of the rooftop. Raphael, too engrossed in his vigorous battle with so many footbots, failed to see his little brother getting dragged away.
After hard attempts to shake them off and failing, Michelangelo panicked, and called out for his brother. When his older brother didn't hear him over the loud racket of battle, and Donatello's screaming, Mikey's yells became panicked screams.
"Raph! RAPH!" Mikey screamed out, still getting forcefully pulled away by a swarm of footbots. It took a couple of attempts, but Raphael finally heard him, and quickly left his fight to come to the aid of his younger brother.
Raphael stabbed the two holding his brother, then went on to fight the rest of them, shouting to Michelangelo, "Go get your nunchucks Mikey. Quick! I can't hold all them off by myself!"
Michelangelo scrambled off to find where his nunchucks had went, not being able to locate them after a quick search while dodging attacks. He heard a yell, "Now!"
Looking up in confusion, Michelangelo found the source of the voice and seen Karai had yelled. His eye ridges knitted in even more confusion as to why she had just yelled out 'Now!'
Unfortunately for Michelangelo, he found out a split second later, when the tiny little dart embedded itself in his right leg. All too quick, the world became a slow motion blur, and soon enough, Mikey passed out. He hadn't even time to hit the floor when he had fallen unconscious.
Raphael, completely unaware his little brother was getting dragged away, continued to fight, when he heard the next order from Karai.
"One of them is down there!" Karai ordered them to chase Donnie, who would surely not expect them. Raph worked faster, kicked them all out of his way, and ran to the edge of the building, quickly checking the height unlike what Donatello did, and used the firescape to maneuver his way down.
The footbots followed him down, stalking Raphael's moves as he flipped down into the alley, rushing over to Donatello. Raphael pushed his greif back temporarily, and grew a bit frustrated at how Donatello hadn't moved to help them fight, but his annoyance quickly diminished when he seen the state of Donatello's legs.
He turned away, as much as he hated to admit it, he was squeamish towards stuff of that nature. Raphael forced himself to push that back too, and turned back to his brother.
"Donnie...what the shell happened you? No wait, tell me at the lair, we have to go! Right now!" Raphael was forced to turn around to defend them from the oncoming wave of footbots, his muscles aching from his previous fight on the rooftop above.
He stabbed one of his sais into a footbot's head, followed by numerous kicks balancing on one foot and knocking back several bots. Raphael stopped and panted, holding his sais up in a fighting stance as he prepared to fight again.
He took a look at the sewer grate a few feet from where he stood, and decided it was best to call it a night. Raphael ran over to Donatello, who was still holding onto Leo's hand, weakly shaking it in a sad attempt to try and get the blue-clad turtle to shake it back.
Raphael was about to reach down to lift Donatello, when he suddenly remembered about Michelangelo. He turned and made for the fire-escape, challenging the foot bots to follow him by nodding towards himself with his hands.
"C'mon' then!" Raphael growled, anger over his brother's murder getting to him. He had done so well at keeping his anger back, but it was slowly but surely submergeing from his insides, starting to cloud his better judgment.
Raphael jumped his way up the fire-escape, flipped onto the building rooftop, and found it empty excluding the foot bot body parts.
"What the?" Raphael said, thinking his thoughts out loud. His mind raced, where was Mikey? Where was Shredder and Karai?
And then, as if the world had decided to let him know where his enemies had fled, the rumbling of an engine filled the air, and then the sound of a vehicle backing up.
Raphael sprinted as quick as his aching legs would allow, almost tripping in his panic induced haste to reach the wall surrounding the rooftop. He looked over the edge, and seen Karai and Shredder in the large van Raphael knew was for holding them if they were captured.
Raphael frantically looked about the surrounding rooftops, but his youngest brother was nowhere to be seen, nowhere to be heard. It finally sank in on Raphael, that young Michelangelo must have been caught, and as Karai and Shredder's faces disappeared from view once the vehicle got turned around to get out of the large alley, the whole world seemed to crash and fall around Raphael.
Two of his brothers, gone. One dead, one captured by the enemy, and another badly injured, it was all too much for him to take in. Raphael's vision left him, it was all white rage. The building of emotion in such a short space of time had pushed his temper past the boundary line, so far that he seen nothing. He subconsciously pounded his fist off the wall, yelling and roaring the word 'no'. It took Raphael a few minutes to realise that his eyes had let the river of tears gush out like Niagara Falls.
Then he was aware of someone else screaming, and realised it wasn't his own voice. His vision sharply returned, and along with it came the agonising pain in his hand. Once he stopped pounding at the wall, one of his three fingers refused to move, and half of his hand was already heavily bruised. It made Raphael wonder how long he had being hitting the wall for without being completely aware of it.
Then came the agonised scream again, and Raphael quickly recognised it was Donatello. It was at that moment that Raphael realised the footbots hadn't pursued him when he ran to the edge of the rooftop, and now Donatello was sitting in the alley, defenceless.
Raphael sprinted on resisting legs, carelessly swinging down the fire-escape and into the alley below. Donatello was lying out on his front, his bo staff to the side in evidence that he had been trying to defend himself. Raphael furiously stabbed the footbots in range, then ran towards the remaining footbots, kicking one back at the wall while stabbing one to the right. One got by Raphael, and he threw one of his kunai knives at it, embedding right in the back of its head.
Raphael ran over to Donatello, his agonised whimpers heart breaking to hear. Raphael winced when he used his right hand to try and lift his younger brother, and Donatello seemed equally reluctant.
"Raph...Raph it's too sore." Donatello held his hand out to stop Raphael's attempts, his breaths laboured.
"Donnie we have to go home." Raphael tried to make him understand, but Donatello was in a great deal of pain. Raphael tried again to lift his brother.
"Ow ow. Raph I can't bend my knees, one of my thighs are broke." Donatello gritted his teeth, putting a hand on Raphael to stop him.
"How are we gonna do this then? It's gonna hurt either way Donnie.' Raphael frowned.
"I can't myself."
"C-call April." Donatello chanced turning around onto his back, yelping in pain as he did so.
Raphael got out his t-phone, pushing the button to call April with shaking hands. He needed to use his left hand to hold the device to his ear slit, his right hand too painful to use.
"Um...hey Raph." April answered, nervous as she never got a call from Raphael unless they were on a mission or something was very badly wrong. Since she was home in her father's apartment, she knew something had happened.
"April-"
"Oh GOD! AWO!"
"Raph? Raph w-what's wrong?"April's heart rate quickened. There was a rattling and the sound of the phone being moved around, someone's pained sobs muffled by the speaker being covered.
"April, oh shell... Aw no I can't look at it!" Raphael turned away from Donatello, unable to look anymore. "Squeeze my hand or something... No wait not that hand! AH!" Raphael's broken hand burned in pain as he subconsciously gave over his hand for his brother to squeeze.
April listened as two pain-filled yells emitted on the other side of the phone call. She paced her room, anxiously waiting for Raphael to come back to the phone.
"Ow Donnie let go!" April recognised Raphael's voice and waited rather paitently for Raph to come back, pacing quicker around her room.
"Don- aw sewer bunnies..." More rattling and rustling filled April's ear. She stopped pacing.
"Raph will you tell me what's going on? What's wrong?" Her voice attached itself on the pitch of concern, which was no different from the emotion she felt.
More rattling. "Ow... April can you meet me here? I need, um help. Serious h-help." Raphael's voice was now raw with emotion, unlike the relatively strong voice that had rang April.
"I'm on my way, where are you?" The teenager ran out of her room, pulling her jacket of the hook off the coat rack and yanking open the door.
"April where are you going?" Kirby O'Neil emerged from the kitchen, holding a bowl of popcorn fit for two. He set it down on the coffee table, and walked over to his anxious looking daughter.
"The guys need me dad." April held the door, lightly bouncing on her heels, ready to leave.
"Oh, well I just thought we could... watch a movie or something." Kirby said sadly, watching as April inched closer to outside the apartment door.
"Dad, I'd love to, I really would, but this is um...urgent." April said guitlily, forgetting Raphael was still on the other end of the phone.
"Oh okay April." Kirby replied a little sadly, but understanding that it must be really urgent for her to look so anxious. She gave him a quick hug, in which he kissed her forehead, and let her sprint off down the hall.
Raphael waited, growing impatient while he waited for April. He was both concerned and relieved that Donatello had passed out, because at least he wasn't in as much pain now.
But of course you can only have so much of a good thing. Donatello woke again, and could do nothing but cry in pain.
Despite Raphael's best efforts to comfort him, Donatello was just too sore for comfort. The screeching of tires caught their awareness, as April and Casey jumped out of Kirby's van once the vehicle came to a stop in front of the alley.
"Raph what happened?" April shivered once she opened her mouth to speak, the cold of night settling in as she jogged down to meet them. Upon getting close to the two turtles, she gasped and held her hand to her mouth.
"What's wro-oonngg ouch." Casey briefly turned away, frowning. He sat on his honkers as April knelt down beside Raph and Donnie, his eyebrows knitted together.
"Raph? Raph what happened?" April asked, putting her hand soothingly on Donnie's shoulder. Had he not been in so much pain right now, he would have grinned like a mad man that April had put her hand on him, but now he couldn't escape the unbearing pain and enjoy her company.
"They took im'. They took Mike and, Donnie I dunno how but he's broke both his legs..." Raph stared into blank space, rocking slightly as he retold his perspective of what happened. He couldn't bring himself to telling them about Leo, and his corpse lay only feet away.
April's eyes brimmed with tears, soon spilling over her cheeks and streaking her face. "B-but how did this happen Raph?"
"Patrol... Shredder and the foot was waitin for us..." Raph squeezed his eyes shut, his breath hitched in his throat as he slightly nodded his head into the corner of the alley, where Leo's body was.
April followed his nod, looking over into the corner but not seeing properly. She got up, Casey following after her. April shrieked when she got the length, jumping back and falling into Casey's arms. She turned around to face him, hugging Casey as she cried on choked sobs.
Casey couldn't hold in his emotions either. He buried his head in April's shoulder, holding her tightly as she started screaming. Casey held her closer, making soft hushing sounds to calm her.
"No he's not! No!" April sobbed, as everyone else in the alley gave in to their grief as well. It was too much too quick. She hadn't even been told Leonardo was dead, but when Raphael didn't tell her that what she thought wasn't true, she knew her conclusion was right.
Leonardo was dead, Michelangelo was gone, and they had no idea where to even start planning how to find him.