Little Brother
By Maikafuiniel


Chapter 18
"See this big dot? It shall hereby be named, 'rock'. And this one will be called 'Hard Place'. Now see this tiny, fragile, delicate thing in between them? That would be us."

They had only managed to get about three steps into the tecnodrome when they were attacked- and what a tree steps they were. One step: the had broken through the three feet of steel doors that would normally only open if you had a pass card (thanks mostly to Donny, and his weird chemical experiments- though to be honest, Raphael did kind of want to ask Don why he had been inventing metal melting material.

Step two, they had managed to walk right on through the detectors that sounded off alarms. Loud, blaring alarms that made the world seem like it was going to explode at any possible moment- worse, one of the speakers letting loose with the blaring noise was right above them.

Step three, foot clan ninjas had started coming at them from all sides, pressing in on them as they struggled to catch the three ninja turtles. The fight was quick- all three turtles focusing mainly on kicking and punching instead of their weapons, what with such close proximity to their opponents.

One managed to get a punch into Raphael's face, only serving to enrage the already red turtle, while another decided to fight dirty and managed a kick into Leonardo's groin. It was tougher then it should have been- the turtles had always fought in a quartet, each of them used to having three brothers ready to back them up. But because of Mikey's absence, each had to focus more on themselves then each other, leaving their family with no back up what so ever.

The only one who seemed to be fighting with the same zeal as ever was Donny. On some level, he had always been more of a pacifist and care giver rather then a fighter, and as many fights as they had been in, he had always stood a little apart when it came down to blood letting. The others didn't begrudge him this, he had his own way.

And right now they needed all the help they could get.

Unfortunatly it was about to get worse. Through the battle there had been no end to the number of foot soldiers that Shredder could throw at them- but when the number started to dwindle suddenly, Leo knew something was up. They hadn't been fighting that well. In fact, they had been fighting rather badly compared to what they were used to. There was no way they could have won the battle already.

That was when Shredder himself passed through what was left of the foot ninjas still fighting for their master.

"Turtles," he hissed through his metal mask, "What a pleasant surprise! Though to be polite, you should have called before dropping in…"

Ignoring their enemies taunts, Raphael kicked at one of the foot ninjas that had tried to attack him, and turned to Shredder. "Give him back, bucket head!"

Shredder tilted his head, just a little bit, as though he were honestly considering giving back their little brother. Finally however, he said simply, "No."

The battle resumed again, each of the turtles fighting for their own lives as Shredder joined in. Finally, much to their anger, they heard Leo call out, "Retreat, guys! We can save him later, but only if we survive today!"

He hated being the leader sometimes; having to make these decisions… leaving their team mates behind… but like the quote said, 'He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day.'

It wasn't honourable… it wasn't the way of the ninja. Not really. But it wasn't like they had a force like Shredder's to back them up should they fall in battle. He could reclaim any lost honour later, when he saved Mikey.

Donny was already off and running when he heard Leo's instructions, less caring about honour and more caring about that vent space he had just spotted near the top of the technodrome…

Rapael let out a growl, and for a moment Leo was worried he was going to have to go back to the battle and drag him away. Finally though, he too was off and running. He was just too worried about what horrers they were putting Mikey through to have himself killed before he could save his brother…

Meanwhile
Mikey laughed loudly as one of the scientists explained to him just how 'realistic' they had made Krang's mechanical body- and just how 'unrealistic' it could be in certain circumstances as well. On some level he wondered just what they thought they were doing, tell a three year old this kind of thing, but decided he didn't care.

He would rather be in here, after all, then fighting some freak dimensional monsters.