For as long as he could remember, Raphael had thought sharks were ugly. It might have been their open mouths full of spiky teeth, or it might have been their cold, dull black eyes that showed no flickers of intelligence. Either way, he disliked them, and he particularly disliked ones that worked for the Foot Clan.

That tail crashed into the street just a few inches from where he was standing, and he leapt away from it, close enough to the shark to kick its thick leg. It swayed, but it didn't go down, and an outraged bellow came from its throat.

Mikey was spinning and leaping like a whirlwind nearer the shark's head, dodging expertly every time the creature tried to take a bite out of him. That was a distraction to Raph — he couldn't fully focus on fighting when he was constantly watching to see if those jagged teeth would cut into his brother. He had to get it together. Had to make himself focus.

"How ya doin, bro?" Mikey called out, smashing a nunchuck into the creature's left eye.

"Could be worse!" Raph panted, jabbing Bludgeon in the flank with his sai. The heavy tail whirled just above his head, but he managed to duck in time.

This wasn't going to work, Raph realized. They might have a chance at defeating this mutant, but right now the two of them were just chipping away at the edges of his defenses. That might work if they had unlimited time… but they didn't. Sooner or later Foot reinforcements would come for them, and Raph wasn't confident that they could defeat two dangerous mutants and an army of Foot ninja.

He gritted his teeth and leaped up the shark's back, scraping up the rough skin before launching himself at the back of its head. Those damned weird eyes it had saw him coming, but not before the turtle could land a massive strike directly between them.

Bludgeon swayed and stumbled — still not fallen, but weakened. Raph felt a surge of pride in himself.

And then he heard Leonardo scream.

Without warning, the world around Leonardo seemed to grow slower and darker. At first he barely felt it as the bird's small, sharp teeth sank deep into his arm, but then an arc of white fire bloomed on his skin. Something wet dripped down the inside of his arm, and he could feel a cry rising up in his throat.

Koya's eyes glinted feverishly at him, and he had the distinct feeling that she would have gladly taunted him if his arm hadn't been lodged in her beak.

Before he had a chance to regain himself, she lashed out, kicking him solidly in the stomach with one clawed foot. The wind rushed from his lungs, and the spinning in his head worsened as he nearly fell backwards — but he couldn't let himself do that, or Koya would make good on her previous promises. And Leonardo wasn't particularly eager to be eaten alive or have his heart ripped out.

"Leo!" Mikey's voice cried out.

Leonardo took a deep breath and forced himself to lean into the bite, even though every instinct he possessed screamed at him to rip away, get far from the bird and her teeth. His free hand still held a katana, and he swung it almost without thinking, in a wide arc towards Koya's neck — if he could just get her to let go—

Her claw swung around to meet the sword, knocking him off balance and nearly tearing it from Leo's hand. He braced himself against the ground and jabbed the blade at Koya's neck, slashing off some of her smaller feathers.

She uttered a muffled shriek of rage and disgust, and seized his flailing arm with her claws. Before he could rip it loose, she twisted it back against his shell, sending sparks into his shoulder.

Leonardo barely hard time to react before he saw rage and triumph flash through Koya's eyes, delighting in his pain and confusion. He could feel her slowly grinding her small, sharp teeth deeper into his arm, forcing another tortured gasp from him. His other arm was slowly being twisted in her grasp. There had to be a way to make her let go —

Then something even worse happened — he felt her pulling fiercely at his arm with her beak, trying to tear the flesh from his bones —

"Get away from my brother!"

Raph's voice rang out across the street, distorted by rage and raised almost to a scream.

Koya didn't have time to react. Something pointed and silver streaked past Leo's face and embedded itself in the hawk's shoulder. Koya shrieked, twisting her head to the side, and another slash of pain trailed across Leo's arm as her teeth were torn from his flesh, followed by a splatter of blood that arced past his face.

She let out a ear-piercing shriek and stumbled back a few steps, desperately swatting at the sai that had pierced her body, suddenly releasing Leo's other arm from her iron grip.

Leo could feel a stream of hot blood pulsing down his arm with every beat of his heart, trickling into the curve of his elbow. He was bleeding, but at least he was free of that wretched hawk's screeching mouth. He gritted his teeth through the pain, reversing his grip on the sword in his uninjured hand, and smashing it with all his strength into Koya's chin.

The hawk's eyes went wide with shock, and she crumpled to the ground in a tangle of her own feathers and claws.

"Koya!" Bludgeon roared.

Leonardo swung around towards the mutant shark, raising his swords in front of him, ready to lash out if Bludgeon decided to attack. For a moment the shark's solid black eyes stared directly at him, and Leo had the feeling that Bludgeon was torn between going to see if Koya was all right, and attacking the one who had knocked her out.

Then he surged forward, sweeping his tail at the Turtles almost blindly, and lunged towards the fallen hawk. Leo had to duck unexpectedly as the tail whizzed directly over his head, nearly throwing him backwards.

By the time Leonardo had straightened and turned around, Bludgeon and Koya were gone from the street, except for the distant sound of heavy footsteps.

Leonardo looked down at the fallen sai at his feet, then back to his brothers.

"Is everyone all right?" he called out.

"I've got a scrape on my knee, but I'm okay," Mikey called out.

"Good," Leo said, putting a hand over his forearm. It wasn't bleeding as much as it had been a few minutes before, but it still hurt, throbbing hot and wet against his palm. Maybe if he kept the pressure on it, the bleeding would stop and he would be able to convince the others —

Raph swooped down on him, his eyes glittering in the faint light. For a moment he stared intently at the bite marks in Leo's green flesh, now half-hidden by a wash of thick scarlet blood. Without a word he pulled the mask from his face and swiftly tied it around Leo's arm at the elbow, pulling it uncomfortably tightly.

"Bro, you're bleedin' all over the place," Mikey said, concerned.

"It's not that bad," Leo argued.

"It's that bad," Raph said tightly. "And we ain't even got Donnie to patch you up right now, do we? We ain't got Donnie to stitch you up and make sure you don't got an infection from that stinkin' bird's mouth. We ain't got Donnie to tell you to take it easy 'cause you've lost so much blood already, 'cause you sure ain't listening to me when I say it!"

"I think he's got it, Raph," Mikey spoke up faintly.

Raph's face tightened, and he glanced back at Mikey.

"He obviously didn't, 'cause if he did, we wouldn't have gone out lookin' for trouble tonight," he said fiercely, his voice growing rougher with every word. "We shouldn't even be here right now. We should have stayed home with Donnie and Father, until things were safer and we didn't have to worry about our leader gettin' his arm ripped off and losin' even more of his blood."

He yanked the makeshift tourniquet tighter, and Leo drew in a shaky breath. He could barely feel his own hand.

"You're right," he said at last.

Raph didn't reply, focusing instead on knotting his mask.

"Let's get back home before anything else happens," Leo said quietly. He could feel the world starting to waver under his feet again, and wasn't particularly eager to collapse out in the open, on a dark city street where the Dragons roamed.

Raph remained stubbornly silent, but he pulled Leonardo's uninjured arm over his shoulders as they limped home.