Hints and spoliers of Same As It Never Was, The Real World and Good Genes are in this chapter. Hope you're caught up!
Underground
The smell of dirt surrounded the brothers as they slowly made their way down what seemed to be an endless tunnel of sort. The wall was made of soil and uneven as if someone haphazardly carved their way through. They also appeared to be sloping downward. There was no sign of any light up ahead, leaving the turtles to continue in the dark. Without much to go on, Leonardo couldn't help but feel a touch of frustration over their predicament. Wandering in the darkness was the choice by default. Not a very elaborate plan. A gut feeling eased his worries. Patience would reveal more and he was very good at waiting.
"How are you holding up?" He inquired of his younger brother as he matched his slow pace.
"Functional." Was mumbled out.
"How's your head?"
"Bearable."
"Donnie." Leonardo sighed.
"It's a little hard to focus. Conditions aren't ideal. I'll be fine, Leo. Just do what you do best and lead us out of here. I'll help however I can."
"Why don't we take a breather?"
"Because walking at this pace is so strenuous? Cut me some slack here, brother. We're not exactly exerting ourselves." He rolled his eyes.
"I'm just looking out."
"I get that but I'm fine. I'm not harping on your wound."
"It's not even a wound."
"Fine. Abrasion." They continued on in silence for a moment before Donatello spoke up. "They're probably freaking out."
"I only hope they don't get themselves into trouble."
"What were you thinking when you sent them together?"
"Get everyone home safe. Raph always has Mikey's back in battle. I figured it would have been the safest move." Leonardo said after a pause.
"So I'm the other weak link?"
"Where is that coming from?"
"I'm simply observing." Donatello stated, placing a hand against the wall as he came to a halt. "You didn't send me with Mikey. You didn't trust us to get out safely."
"Is this about what happened back there? You know it's not your fault, Donnie." Noting his brother's lack of movement, he stopped and turned toward him.
"Why do you think I put all of my focus on our tech? I wish I had brought some with us during patrol. We wouldn't be in this mess."
"We'll find a way out of this. There has to be an end to this tunnel." Just then, Leo's shell cell rang. Donatello handed it to his elder brother.
"Mikey!" The blue clad terrapin spoke into the cell.
"Leo!" The little brother responded with much excitement.
"Are you alright?" Straight to business. He needed to know what their status was.
"We're trapped in some maze thing." Raphael's deep voice came through. "We're fine otherwise."
"Great..." Leonardo sighed. He was not pleased that they were in their own predicament. "We need to find a way to escape and meet up again."
"You're -eaking up!" Michelangelo's voice sounded panicked over the static.
"Can you hear me?"
"-eo! L- Ho- Donnie? S-He -kay?"
"Donnie...He was a little roughed up." Leonardo responded.
"I'm fine!" The family genius affirmed. There was silence. "Did they hang up?"
"Mikey? Mikey! Hello?" He raised the cell over his head. "Hello?" He dialed to call them back. Only silence remained steadfast, causing him to growl in frustration. "We lost them."
"A maze, they said? Do you think the same people got to them?"
"It's possible. We need to carry on."
With no other choice but to move forward, the brothers did just that. The never ending tunnel grated on Leonardo's nerves but he kept himself collected for the sake of his younger brother. Over time, the narrow space seemed to widen. Leonardo pulled out his shell cell and used the light to get a better view of his surroundings. They were in a large room with one other way of exiting. As he contemplated the purpose, a movement from the far corner gave him a theory.
"Stay on guard." He murmured as he slowly pulled a sword from its sheath.
Donatello eyed his brother, illuminated by the light of the shell cell. The elder turtle pointed toward the exit. Holding a hand up, he let his fingers fall one at a time in a 3-2-1 motion. The light of the shell cell went out and the brothers bolted toward the opening as fast as they could. Something skittered toward Donatello. He was knocked to the ground with a grunt. A searing pain followed as the mystery creature sank something into his left shoulder. The sound of slicing seemed to take some weight off of his shoulders but he could still feel something attached to him.
"L-light!" Donatello called out. The shell cell was immediately whipped out and directed at him. The decapitated head of an ant had its mandible sinking into his left shoulder. "What the shell!?"
"I'll get it off of you."
"It's going to bleed if you do. It's pretty deep..."
"You intend to walk around with the head of an ant on your shoulder?"
"Just give me a minute to think." Donatello snapped at his brother who irritably sheathed his sword. As he brought his arm back down, his focus remained on his wrist.
"I think I have an idea." He said, unraveling the wraps he had on it. He, then pulled off an elbow pad. "These should work to cover the wound."
"Hm. Not a bad idea." The genius finally smiled. "It will work in a pinch. After you remove the head, cover the wound with the pad and secure it tightly with the wraps."
Leonardo handed him the shell cell before gripping on to the mandible of the ant's head and giving it a firm pull. A hiss of pain emitted from the purple clad terrapin's lips. Once the wound was exposed, Leonardo tossed the head aside and pushed the pad against it. Following his younger brother's previous directions, he wrapped the fabric as tightly as he could muster over the pad.
"How does it feel?" The leader inquired as his younger brother tested the range of motion he could manage without experiencing too much pain.
"It will have to do. I think we should rest here for a bit." He finally admitted. "If we have more of those to contend with, I'd rather reserve my strength right now. I can only imagine what hardships the other two are going through. A maze...It's as if someone is testing us."
"Whatever their intent is, they're messing with the wrong turtles." Leonardo murmured. Now that his younger brother was further injured, he was moreso determined to get them out. "We'll get out of this. We have each other. I can't tell you how much I wish I had you guys when Ultimate Drako transported me to Usagi's world."
"...I would have liked to have gone there. Anywhere else was better than..." The younger sibling stopped himself as he grimly recalled where he was taken. When he was taken.
"I know it wasn't easy for you..."
"No, Leo, you don't get it." Donatello swallowed the lump in his throat. "You all went on little adventures that seemed to match you. Raph and racing on a space motorcycle. Mikey and his superhero dimension. Even you went to a world that was traditionally like Japan. So why me? Why was I sent to my own personal nightmare?"
"..." Leonardo couldn't find anything to say.
"Why didn't I get sent to some planet with technology beyond our comprehension? Why couldn't I be sent to a world where I could tinker. Why did I have to be the one to watch my family in ruins? You. All. Died. Before my eyes, you were ripped away and it was all my fault."
"Donnie, that is a future that we won't let happen."
"We don't even know that. When I was mutating, I knew something bad was happening. I had to get away. My final thoughts were 'This is it. This is what starts it all.' Can you comprehend how terrifying that is?"
"No, Donnie. I can't." The elder brother sighed and put an arm around him. "You are the one who fixes things. Maybe you were sent back because you can fix it so we don't have that kind of a future. We won't let you down."
"Just promise me that if I ever do disappear, you won't let this family fall apart like it did. You won't abandon Mikey. You won't chase away Raph. The worst part of that future was seeing you all so angry with each other."
"I promise." They grinned at each other. "Now we need to find a way to get out of here and find the others so I can hold up to it."
"I thought about something...You don't think they might be in the same vicinity as us, do you?"
"It could very well be possible. We can try the tracker to see." He took the cell and switched the screen to track his missing siblings. "Look!" A red and an orange dot were blinking on the screen.
"From the looks of it, they aren't too far. Maybe a couple of miles but they're on the move."
"Then we should be moving." Leonardo stood and reached out a hand to his brother to help him up.
"I'm not sure I'm up for running just yet." Donatello warned his brother as they headed for the exit. "And who knows what will interrupt us?"
"We'll have to cross that bridge when we get to it."
They found themselves going down another endless tunnel, much to Leonardo's disappointment. Again, they moved on with no other choice. Meanwhile, the dots on the tracker were veering off to the right where they could not follow. At that point he put the shell cell away to conserve the battery.
"What's wrong?" The younger brother inquired.
"We might as well save the battery. We're still a long way off from reaching them." Was the reply. "We can check it every so often to be sure we're not too far from them."
"Well, here's to another long walk down another endless tunnel. If whatever beasts awaiting doesn't kill us, surely the monotony will. Our captors are real sadists." Donatello sighed.
"Tell me about it..."
After what had to be another hour of walking, a glimmer of fortune seemed to shine on them. There was a warm light up ahead. They hastened to the direction of the light, their surroundings becoming more and more visible as they approached. Another large room awaited the brothers. It was lit with torches and revealed a sleeping creature the size of a buffalo by the exit. It had a dog-like face and two straight horns coming from the top of its head. Its skin was scaly and it had a lizard-like tail.
"Definitely sadists..." Donatello whispered.
Leonardo pointed to the exit and made slow deliberate steps in its direction. His brother followed suit so as not to wake the creatures. Before they could reach the opening of the exit, the tail slammed in front of the blue clad terrapin. A low growl emitted from the creature as it turned to face them. Weapons were immediately drawn as it reared up and roared before charging at Donatello. Leonardo jumped into the air and threw a flying kick at its flank, knocking it off course as his younger brother took a leap out of the way. He rebounded off the kick and flipped backwards, landing in a crouched position.
As the behemoth slowly got up on all fours, they circled it slowly; prepared for the next strike. It looked between brothers as if deciding which to attack. Seeing this, Leonardo clanged his swords together to draw its attention. It took the bait and headed for him. Meanwhile, the other brother, with bo in hand, leaped toward the action and swung his weapon down on its head as it raised its claws to strike his brother. The wood made a dull THOK and the beast howled in pain. Leonardo took advantage and sliced downward, lacerating the shoulder. It was quick to move; veering away before he could create a deeper cut. Its tail struck him hard, sending the eldest turtle into the wall.
As it charged at him, Donatello jumped on to its back and brought his bow under its neck to choke it while his brother shook of the collision he made with the wall. It reared up and swung its claws at the blue clad turtle who dodged out of the way and brought his sword up into its neck, just under the bo. It dropped on top of him, gurgling, twitching and choking. Donatello jumped off of the creature and struggled to roll it off of his brother. Once the weight of the beast was off of him, Leonardo sat up and winced. His right arm was hanging lower than it should.
"I think you dislocated it." Donatello noted, kneeling by his brother. "We're going to have to pop it back into place and immobilize it. I'd rather get an x-ray before hand but given our current situation; it doesn't look likely. " He took his mask off.
"Shell..." The injured brother breathed out as his younger brother flexed the elbow to 90 degrees and gradually rotated the shoulder outward to line the socket up with the ball of the joint. With a firm push, a popping sound indicated its replacement and Leonardo growled in response. "Feeling nauseous..." Pain is in the mind. Pain is in the mind.
"That's normal. Trauma to the body can do that. Hold your arm like that." He directed. His brother obeyed. After tying the ends of his mask together, he slung it over his leader's neck and slipped the other end under his arm to create a sling. "Try not to move it as much as you can."
"Easier said than done." He reached for the katana that was still in the monster's neck. With a quick pull, he freed it in a spray of blood. "This day just keeps getting better."
"You're starting to sound like Raph."
"I think it's more along the lines of 'The old turtle luck workin' true to form.'" He imitated his immediate younger brother's voice by deepening it with raspy tones.
"Not a bad interpretation." Donatello chuckled, impressed with his brother's rare display of a sense of humor.
"We can take a moment to recuperate." He tossed the shell cell to his brother. "Try Mikey." Following his brother's direction, Donatello dialed the number with no luck.
"I'm starting to suspect that we need to be closer to them to get to them." He sighed. "Remind me to enhance the signal when we get home. "
"Noted." Leonardo swung his blade to throw off as much blood from it as possible before sheathing his sword. "How far are we from them?" After pushing a couple of buttons, the younger terrapin gazed at the screen.
"They're way over to the left. I think we'll eventually cross paths at some point. I'll set it to go off when they are close." Was the reply as he pushed a few more buttons and adjusted the settings. "How are you holding up?"
"I'm fine." Pain is in the mind.
"I know you're 'Leo fine' but that shoulder must be killing you."
"It's tolerable." He affirmed. "Its not like we can do anything about it here. You can work your magic when we get back to the lair. Five minutes and then we should be on the move again. If they're still moving, we're going to fall behind if we wait too long." Donatello took a seat beside his brother. "How's your head?"
"I've grown used to the headache. Throwing myself around hasn't done a bit to help it." He replied. "Well, we could be worse off. I'd say we're at 75% functionality." The eldest brother shook his head slowly knowing that there was probably more to come. He went over a mental inventory of one armed techniques for the next time he would need to battle. They were still far from getting home and he needed to be sure he could protect any and all of his brothers should the need arise.
I hope you're faring a lot better, Raph.
Author's Note: I felt it appropriate to update this chapter first since I want to really have these stories running side-by-side. I'm still in the works with Separated. Completing this chapter serves as motivation. I have no other distractions! Thanks for the love you have shown these stories. 3