Usagi's POV of the climax of episode four of the storyline "The Big Brawl" from the 2003 series. Obviously, I own none of this. Please enjoy anyway. I make no money from this either.

Usagi turned and approached the head of the Daimyo's mat. Splinter followed right behind him. After going around the Daimyo's head and kneeling, Usagi looked across the Daimyo's chest to Splinter. The nezumi, having knelt on the opposite side of his friend, turned and motioned to the warrior with the heavy footfalls Usagi had heard earlier. "Noble Triceraton, you must help me get the Daimyo to his feet."

Traximus nodded his large, orange head and walked over to the Daimyo's side too lowering himself beside Usagi. The Samurai moved away to make room for him. Even as the other two creatures scooped up the Daimyo by lifting beneath his arms, Usagi slipped his hands under the Daimyo's head. He carefully supported it until it left his paws. He was simply not tall enough to lift it the whole way. Where his hands left off, though, two other pairs, green and three fingered, slipped beneath.

Usagi looked up to see a blue and a purple mask above his head. When the Daimyo was on his feet, Donatello and Leonardo removed their hands. Then their host began to lift his head on his own.

Splinter looked up at his friend. "Daimyo, I am sorry, but you must trust me and wake, old friend."

The Daimyo turned his face toward the nezumi. The ruler half-opened his eyes. "Splin-ter …" The Daimyo then smiled down at the furry face. "You are … alive … and free."

Splinter grinned up at his friend, though Usagi thought he saw Leonardo shiver and Donatello grimace. Usagi glanced toward the third kame, Raphael. His darker green face had twisted in rage.

Usagi looked back to Splinter. He was still grinning. "Yes, I am, Daimyo. Do not worry about me. There are far more pressing matters that require your attention. We are taking you to them now."

As they began to walk the Daimyo to the door of the silk screen partitions, the Daimyo shook his head and spoke a little louder. "No Splinter … I … I am sorry … You … My son . . ."

Splinter interrupted him. "Think nothing of that old friend, but you must trust us now. Conserve your strength. We will carry and lead you out of this place."

The Daimyo nodded. Then he let his head sag. Usagi marveled at this ruler's trust in the old warrior, even though it seemed well-deserved. They left the Healer's Pavilion and came out into the sunlight. Usagi thought he heard cheers from the crowd. Were the bouts of the tournament still continuing, even with the Daimyo in this condition? At least, if they sounded like that things could not be too bad before the crowd's eyes at least. Then the sound of the crowd changed from a roar of excitement to a collection of gasps and screams.

Usagi would have picked up his pace, but he felt the need to guard the back of perhaps the only person who could help. They turned a corner. Usagi's keen eyes saw something that caused them to widen.

There, in the last ring of the Battle Nexus Tournament was "Kluh" of dimension Levram. He was known to be a fierce, proud, vicious competitor among those who had fought him and those who's just witnessed him fight. A fourth kame was also in the arena. This one wore orange. These two were likely supposed to be there. It was the specific arena the final round of the tournament was fought in. Usagi felt sorry for the kame. However, he was more concerned by the sight of the son of the Daimyo and Drako fighting each other in the arena. These two were "not" supposed to be there.

Neither Kluh nor the kame seemed be attacking each other now. Kluh lay face first on the ground. The Kame was backing away as Drako approached the Daimyo's son his clawed hands clutching the War Staff. So, it seemed the two, once in league, now attacked each other.

Usagi heard Splinter address his friend. "You must be strong, Daimyo, there is an urgent matter, which needs your attention."

The Daimyo raised his head and spoke. "Drako has returned. The War Staff … in Drako's hands it must not be." The Daimyo said more, but Usagi was distracted by the sight of Drako using the staff to attack the Daimyo's son. The latter flew back at the assault losing his mask.

Suddenly, Usagi saw a bubble appear around himself, Leonardo, Donatello, their brother in red, their father, the Triceraton, and the Daimyo who now stood on his own. They all reappeared in the final ring of the Battle Nexus Championship itself by some mysterious means Usagi did not even try to understand.

I'd hoped I might come to be here, the Samurai thought to himself, but not like this. He also noted the absence of Gennosuke. The Ronin wondered momentarily about the size of his friend's bet (and thus his losses) and who had defeated him, the kame wearing orange, Kluh, or someone even earlier in the tournament.

Usagi was distracted from these thoughts by The Daimyo's voice. "Drako, stop!" Almost before his voice had faded into the air, the War Staff's glow had turned from blue to red in the dragon's hands.

Usagi thought that was a bad sign. He thought it a worse sign that Drako seemed just as surprised as he. The dragon stared at the staff with his jaws hanging wide open. His growly voice asked, "What? What is happening?" Still, Drako turned the staff toward "them."

When he saw this, the Daimyo cried out "No, Drako!"

A blast of red energy reached up from the staff instead of out. and twisted around in the air as it rose into the sky. A red and black hole appeared there. The Daimyo gaped up at it. "With his evil heart, Drako has torn a rift between the worlds creating a multidimensional wound that will destroy everything it touches!"

Usagi's blood turned chill. Everything? This world with all these warriors, spectators, and natives, "his" world, with Tomo Ame, Lord Noriyuki, Katsuichi, and Mariko, his new friends' world, this Triceraton's, Kluh's, and even Drako's own? What had these fools done?

What were they continuing to do? After seeming to wrestle with and grimace at it a moment, Drako lost his hold of the staff. It flew out of his hands and landed on the pavement.

Usagi's sharp ears picked up the voice of the Daimyo's son. "The War Staff, I must have it!"

Usagi grit his teeth. Unfaithful son, hirer of assassins, attempted murderer of an "honorable" warrior! If there were hands "less" suitable to hold the staff than Drako's, it was those of "The Ultimate Ninja." Suddenly, the title seemed fitting indeed to Usagi. At least other ninja he had known were loyal to their clan's reputation. This "Ultimate Ninja" was loyal only to his own glory to the point of wanting a staff now tearing apart perhaps multiple worlds!

So was Drako. He also overheard the Ultimate Ninja looked to the latter and said, "What? No!"

Neither would have it! Apparently, his new friends thought so as well. As he raced to the staff, he was flanked by Leonardo and Raphael; Usagi could also hear the large, booming feet of the Triceraton Traximus and the much quieter, but no less hasty steps of Donatello behind them. Usagi's stomach twisted and sickened upon hearing Drako call out, "No! My war staff" as he also ran toward it.

The Ultimate Ninja, growled "It will be mine," while racing toward it himself. Usagi and his companions called out nothing. He hoped this course of action would allow them to reach it first.

In fact, with a final lunge on his part, quickly copied by both his friends and foes, his fingertips "did" touch the staff first. However, his quick leap also caused him not to grab, but to shove the staff further away. Drako and the Ultimate Ninja's fingers only seemed to brush it as his initial shove sent it out from under their hands too.

Suddenly, the hole in the sky changed. It grew and began to suck up and inward like forced open bellows. Everyone, friend and foe alike, stood or sat up to stare at this. Then the staff rattled on the ground. Usagi looked to and studied it determined "this" time to calculate his move and not miss again.

Another did not have this same thought. Leonardo's brother in red, simply said "The staff!" before leaping forward. He drew out his sai on the way and landed stabbing it over the staff and into the pavement and pinning the scepter in place. Usagi stared. It had been a bold and effective move. Would none in this family go the day without performing some great act of honor?

Usagi barely had time to think this before the kame in red was swept off his feet and upward by the sucking wound in the sky. He hung onto the sai pinning the staff into place. This kept him tethered to the ground. Usagi himself knelt to be closer to the now precious pavement.

A cry of alarm sounded behind him. Usagi turned his face toward it. The kame in orange was rising off the ground.

Usagi was about to draw Leonardo's attention to this, when the Battle Nexus finalist turned himself face downward. He then swung his nunchaku at the ground. An end of his weapon pierced the pavement. He was held fast.

Kluh, the kame's opponent in a battle perhaps never to be fought, rose past him. The kame turned and swung another nunchaku, so that it wrapped around Kluh's foot. Usagi smiled. So, Leonardo's brother in orange also acts with intelligence and honor this day. That, I think, makes the whole family.

Then the Gyoji, whom Usagi had not noticed before, but who had to be near any battle where the rules were not being followed, floated past Kluh. Both hands of the Levram warrior were free, yet, the Gyoji flew past them and disappeared into the hole in the sky. Usagi's heart lurched at the loyal servant's cry.

Usagi then felt his ears and clothes pulled upwards. The Daimyo's son and Drako were lifted off the ground nearby. They began to spin in the air as if they were inside a cyclone. Usagi felt his own feet lift off the pavement.

Leonardo and Donatello flew up on other side of him too. Usagi looked down. The Triceraton still stood, but only for a moment. His feet soon left the pavement too. He turned upside down in the air as had the kame in orange, and pulled out his ax. He slammed its edge into the pavement. Then he reached upwards. "Turtles, grab on!"

Even as he gave this command, he grabbed onto Donatello's staff himself. The smart kame gripped his weapon for all he was worth, and then reached up with his free hand. Usagi felt the same three fingers that had clutched his wrist, to stop him from reaching out to help Leonardo, now grip his ankle even harder preventing him from being drawn into that black abyss.

Usagi looked up to see who he could grab. He clutched at the air as the Daimyo's son, Drako, and Leonardo spun above him. He caught hold of Leonardo's ankles first. He was glad of that. Leonardo then reached up with both his own free hands and grabbed … the Ultimate Ninja's wrists!

Usagi stared. Had Leo made a mistake? No, the kame looked up, saw who he had grabbed, and held on. Drako whirled by. His clawed hands grabbed hold of the Ultimate Ninja's ankles.

Usagi's looked down at the quick-acting brother of Leonardo, for he could hear the kame in red grunting with exertion. Usagi saw Raphael pulling the War Staff out from under his sai. The kame then turned his face toward his father and the Daimyo. "Master Splinter, Catch!" He tossed it toward the nezumi. Usagi's eyes widened. Why hadn't he thrown it to the Daimyo? Perhaps he trusted the speed of Splinter's hands?

The nezumi did catch the staff. Then he turned and held it toward the Daimyo. "Here, my friend. Hurry!"

Then, to Usagi's surprise, the Daimyo lowered his head and simply said. "Yes, I must close the rift immediately."

Usagi wondered if the Daimyo's son's actions and words might have caught his father by surprise. They had not told him of his son's crimes. He'd first seen Drako in possession of the staff. Then the Ultimate Ninja had run for it saying, "it shall be mine" not "give that back to my father." Perhaps the shock of this slowed the Daimyo's will now?

Usagi then heard Leonardo above him and looked up. The kame in blue was saying. "Hang on! I've got you." Usagi hardly thought the other warrior deserved this encouragement, but admired Leonardo for doing this for the Daimyo "and" his own deadly foe.

Then Drako, apparently unwilling to hold on with one hand, did more than just hold on with two. He began to try to climb down the Ultimate Ninja's form saying, "You will not be rid of me so easily!"

The Daimyo's son, who had neither thanked nor apologized to the kame who'd grabbed him as he spiraled in the sky shouted back at the dragon, "You fool! You'll kill us both!"

At once, Usagi both agreed with the Ultimate Ninja and was disgusted by him. Fool? He who'd attempted to use assassination to gain what was rightfully his father's and slay one who'd honorably met a dishonorable challenge from him, "he" dared call someone else this?

Leonardo cried upward, "Stop fighting! You're slipping!" Usagi's ears twitched. Leonardo barely sounded angry, as if he spoke to one of his brothers rather than his enemy.

Drako kept clawing at the Daimyo's son, trying to climb down his form back toward the ground, rather than just hold onto what he already had in his hands. The Daimyo's son kicked back. "Drako, rot in the abyss, where you belong!"

Then Leonardo's warning, both so readily given, and so readily ignored, came true ... The Daimyo's son's metal-claw-clad fingers slid through Leonardo's six. Drako growled. "You fool!"

Leonardo cried out. "No! Noooooooooo! Noooooooo!"

As the kame's cry resounded in the air, the Ultimate Ninja and Drako fought one another while rotating through the sky. They even did so as they drifted into the bright center of the dark wound. They disappeared into it with a burst of sound and flash of light.

Usagi heard the Daimyo cry out below. "My son! No!"

The Samurai looked down to see his host's eyes turned downward too. The Samurai clutched even harder at Leonardo's heels. Would the Daimyo still do his duty or wait until they all lost their grips as he had now lost his only son? Usagi saw Splinter, however, look up at the rift and his own sons and others still being drawn up toward its bright center too. The old warrior spoke to his friend. "Daimyo, you must act now!"

Usagi watched the scene below. The white head beneath him nodded. "Yes." The Daimyo raised his head. Then he raised his staff. It glowed blue, and the rift closed.

All who'd drifted up toward the now nonexistent hole came crashing down one at a time. After landing, Usagi lifted his head and shook it. Then he looked around.

He spied Kluh, now fallen back to earth. After the warrior from Levram stood to his feet, he weaved on them, but then he began to approach the kame in orange from behind. Said kame was attempting to free his nunchaku from the pavement. As the kame concentrated on this, Kluh charged his shelled back.

Outraged, Usagi opened his mouth and drew in a deep breath. Before he could shout, however, the kame's nunchaku end came flying out of the pavement. It flew over the top of kame's head and straight into the front of Kluh's.

Kluh cried out an "Oh!" Usagi's mouth fell further open. The warrior from Levram wavered on his feet, once more, and then fell back onto the arena floor. Once there, Kluh lay still, not dead still, but most certainly "defeated still." Only then, did Leonardo's brother in orange turn around toward him while whirling both his nunchaku.

His voice was cheerful as he spoke, "Yo, Ugly! Do you think we're supposed to fight now?"

As the warrior in orange began to realize his competitor's current condition, his nunchaku ceased to whirl. "Uh, yo?" After another moment of Kluh's silence and stillness, the kame's tone became both stunned and reticent. "Oops!"

Usagi grinned. Then he laughed under his breath. The Samurai turned toward Leonardo. The kame in blue was also grinning. Usagi nodded to him. The kame in blue nodded back. Usagi's smile widened further still. They were both still alive, and while neither had won the Battle Nexus Tournament, it had turned out to be a most satisfying day.

What do you think now?

God Bless

ScribeofHeroes