From "Grudge Match." I own nothing. Please enjoy anyway.

Mikey was banged against the side of the dome separating him and Kluh from the rest of the stadium. Any moment now! He just had to hold out a few seconds longer!

Surely it would be soon. He could already feel damage being done to his body! They should be transporting him out of here any second! Unless of course, it really needed to be a killing blow ... But that should happen soon too. This big, purple guy going at him was, really, really mad!

Man, why did he think he could do this? Why did anybody, even Leo, Mr. Fearless Leader of all of them, think he could do this? And Donnie and Raph were up there laughing at him right now he just bet! Maybe even Splinter was laughing at him now! And Leo ...

Mikey felt a twinge in his heart, when he thought about his oldest bro. Leo had tried to convince him he "could" do it, and he wasn't even trying ... But there were just some things you couldn't do! Not even for your oldest, best bro ... And Leo had been his bestest, best bro ever since Kluh showed up in New York City to challenge him to this "grudge match," and everyone else just enjoyed the prospect of seeing his shell handed to him.

Now, like he'd been waiting a long time to do it, Kluh leaned in as he held him up and whispered in his invisible turtle-ear. Man, Kluh was going all dramatic villain on him! His words froze the humor right out of Mikey. "There is no one to save you now little one. And after you, it will be all your family."

Mikey's eyes opened slightly. What?! Why? It was all "his" fault!

He'd taken Splinter's gift and bragged afterward like he'd done it all by himself! He'd made fun of Raph and gotten him to lose his temper and their match! He'd bumped into and yelled at the little, purple guy, who had turned out to "really" be this "big" purple guy! He'd bragged his head off every chance he got to anyone near for nearly the past year!

None of it was his family's fault! Splinter, Splinter had been so awesome, and he'd ... Why would Kluh punish him, them, his family?

What could he do about it?! What were they doing now to his bros, his father! Leo! Oh, man, Leo ...

His oldest brothers words ran through his head. He wasn't sure he believed all of them, even now, but ... Leo … Leo believed in him ...

Leo had prepared him for this, when no one else would, not even sensei. Sure, his blue-clad brother had been scary as their adventures in the Underground lately, but ... he was still Leo. He was not Leo, though, he was Mikey ... He couldn't ... But ... If his family needed him ... and Leo believed in him ... Maybe ...

Leo had been there for him! Leo had trained him. Leo had run him ragged, propped him up, talked him down, been at his back this whole time! And he'd kept hoping to run away instead of going through with this! Well, there was no running away now!

Mikey dislodged himself from Kluh's grip. He flipped away to land on his feet. The crowd roared. He only felt his spirits lift a little bit at the sound this time, though. It had to be enough.

He "would" do this! For his family, for Leo! "Okay, ugly you want this? Come and get it!"

Now, they were really fighting. He wasn't waiting to get beamed-up now! Maybe Kluh was all talk. Or maybe he had gone full supervillain, and tried to kidnap his family and failed! Or maybe his family was really in danger! Even if it was just an ugly bluff though, he'd threatened his family! That was 'way' beyond the limits of appropriate smack-talk! This was "on!"

If his family's protection was really all on his shoulders, now, he'd be like Leo! He'd be fearless!

. . .

Kluh knelt defeated before him, looking tired, looking beaten. He told him to go ahead and "finish it." Finish it?

Mikey remembered how Leo had been after "finishing" the Shredder, you know, the second time around? Man, he hoped they'd 'really' seen the last of him this "fourth" time around!

Their father had tried to do it the first time ... Father. The last person to kneel so before him here in the Battle Nexus had been Sensei. What an ironic twist in the story, huh? His father accepting defeat before, here, then, when he didn't need to, had given him the victory that had in turn brought him here. And how would he honor that sacrifice now?

Mikey stopped the swirling his nunchucks. He caught them in his hands instead. "Naw, my father taught me better than that. Besides, you're already finished."

He just touched the big guy then and pushed him lightly back. The big guy fell over. And then it "was" over. He was the Battle Nexus Champion "again!" He smiled.

. . .

As it turned out, while he'd been playing hero in the ring, Leo had been playing hero outside the ring, of course. So his family hadn't really been in that much danger. Still, he was the one who got a medal for being super-duper honorable in the ring.

Splinter looked proud. Even Donnie did. Raph actually looked kinda sad and scared at the same time. Mikey thought he overheard his red-clad bro say something about "moving out." Maybe he'd end up being able to bother him over at Casey's place instead if those two became roomies, because where else would Raph move out to? Mikey grinned.

Still, it was Leo he sought out after the ceremony. They had a different moment then together than Mikey ever remembered the two of them having before. It wasn't so much that Leo was different, though he had been lately. "He" felt different. Because, for once, Mikey thought he'd experienced, even if just for a moment, Leo's fearlessness.

What do you think?

God Bless

ScribeofHeroes