Chapter 9-Mikey is a WHAT!?

As the sunrise slowly began to appear and brighten the dark sky with its warm colours, everyone looked on with their eyes and mouths wide open as they witnessed Mikey emerge from within the fading light during the descent towards Dark Fang as not a turtle, but a dragon!

His new form was huge and it was almost the same size as Dark Fang, and it featured glowing orange-coloured eyes, sharp teeth and a hard-covered back with small signs of wings, and he was also capable of flying despite the lack of visible wings.

Dragon Mikey charged downwards with a roar before landing on top of some of the demon creatures and then began attacking the rest of them with his powerful bite as they went for the attack. Dark Fang, on the other hand, managed to dodge Mikey's attack and stayed at a far distance to watch him fight with a sickening grin before deciding when to make a move.

"I…I don't believe it…! Did Mikey just…?" Raph stuttered whilst still in shock over what he just saw.

"Yeah…he…he changed into his spirit avatar!" Donnie said also in a stutter from shock.

"But…I thought that…Leonardo would be the first one to do so…since he discovered the dragon avatar first…" Faragi said as he looked at Mikey's new form in awe before looking at Leo, who shook his head at what he just said before he spoke.

"Not exactly...I think… it was Mikey's heart that caused him to focus and transform in the first place because his wish to atone and protect us by stopping the demons alone was a strong desire that he had made and kept deep inside his heart ever since the argument and the forest ambush."

"That is a valid point, Leonardo…as I too had seen such a strong desire through Michelangelo's eyes after the ambush in the forest," Master Splinter said in agreement before looking back down to watch the ongoing battle below, with the others doing the same to see how Mikey was doing.

So far, Mikey was doing well in standing his ground and keeping the land and flying demons away from his family and friends above him, but he was starting to receive multiple bites and deep scratches, which were bleeding slightly, made by the demons during the process until he eventually managed to defeat all of them a few minutes later by finishing them off with his powerful light fire beam.

Everyone above him was silent for a moment before they all cheered for him with both joy and relief knowing that Mikey was able to defeat the demon army and protect the tower with them on top of it at the same time.

However, their celebration was short-lived because they forgot that they still had to stop the army's 'Chief', Dark Fang, who charged out of nowhere and tackled Mikey without giving him the chance to prepare himself, slamming him hard into the tower wall in the process and causing the tower to shake again.

"Mikey, no!" Raph called out to his brother after seeing him pinned against the wall by Dark Fang's sharp claws, which were digging into his neck and left arm and causing them to bleed, before attempting to jump off the edge to help him but Leo and Donnie stopped him by restraining him.

"Let me go! He needs help!" Raph shouted out in desperation to get to Mikey.

"No, Raph, it's too dangerous!" Leo shouted back at him before he and Donnie dragged him away from the edge.

"Then what should we do, Fearless!? He'll get killed if we don't act now!" Raph replied heatedly before Master Splinter placed a calming and comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Calm yourself, Raphael, we must approach this with caution. Charging into the battle recklessly will not help him at all," He said firmly but softly to his red-banded son, who nodded in understanding whilst sighing in frustration.

Donnie went back to the edge of the tower to check on his little brother, who was able to get Dark Fang off of him and was now standing in a defensive pose as he prepared himself for another one of the beast's charge attacks. Whilst he was assessing the situation, Donnie noticed that part of the tower's wall behind Mikey was so badly damaged that it would cause the whole tower to fall with one more heavy strike, and that was when an idea came to him.

"Of course! Mikey!" Donnie shouted his brother's name as loud as he could to get his attention, which he succeeded as he saw Mikey's head turned upwards to see who was calling him.

"I've got an idea! Get Dark Fang to charge into the tower wall behind you!" Donnie explained loudly before he watched Mikey nod with a grunt and turned back to focus on Dark Fang, who was at his final stage in readying his attack. Donnie was then suddenly pulled back and he turned around to see that it was Raph who was not a happy turtle.

"What da Shell are ya trying ta pull off here, Donnie!?" He asked his brother angrily whilst the others looked at Donnie with glaring and panicked looks on their faces.

"Guys, just calm down and hear me out! If we can get Dark Fang to damage the wall one more time, we can cause the tower to tilt and fall forward in the same direction to where he is standing, meaning…" Donnie calmly explained to everyone before Leo understood where he was getting at and finished his sentence for him with a smile.

"We can all take him out with one big strike! Good thinking, Donnie!" Said turtle smiled back at his oldest brother before he and everyone else continued to watch the battle below just in time to see Dark Fang starting to charge towards Mikey at full speed ahead.

As soon as Dark Fang was close enough to Donnie's liking, he signaled his brother by shouting, "Now, Mikey!"

Said brother moved to one side just before Dark Fang could slam into him and instead, he crashed into the already damaged tower wall, causing it to crack all around the bottom and crumble under the heavyweight of the whole tower.

As Dark Fang backed away from the rubble in a daze, the tower began to lean forward and the acolytes started to panic as they did not know how to escape from the top of the tower without having to jump from a height that's too high up. It was then that Mikey quickly took flight and appeared at the top of the tower with a roar. Leo understood what he meant with a nod.

"Hurry, guys! Get on!" He said before jumping onto Mikey's head with the others quickly following his lead by jumping onto his neck and back depending on the order of size, and they all watched from above as the tower leaned forward and collapsed on top of Dark Fang without giving him the chance to snap out of it and move away in time.

After a moment, everyone breathed a sigh of relief before they started cheering whilst Mikey descended slowly towards the ground. Once he landed, he lowered his head to allow his family and friends to jump off of him. Whilst still lowered down to everyone's level, Donnie ran over to Mikey's head and hugged the bottom of his face.

"Way to go, Mikey! You did it!" He said to his brother with a proud smile.

"Great job, lil' bro, or should I call ya big lil' bro?" Raph said bashfully with a smirk after reminding himself that Mikey was bigger than his older brothers at the moment, but Mikey gave him a dragon smile anyway to that funny remark.

"You did good, Mikey. I'm proud of you, bro," Leo said as he stroked Mikey's nose before he laid his forehead onto it with his eyes closed to show how grateful he was for what his brother did for them.

"Well done, my son," Master Splinter followed before patting his son's dragon nose softly and affectionately with a smile, before the Ancient One and the other acolytes began to praise and thank Mikey for saving them as well.

Then, at the corner of his eye, Mikey noticed movement under the rubble and he growled towards it to warn the others just in time before something arose from beneath it.

Much to their horror, it was Dark Fang!

He opened his eyes, which glowed red with rage as he looked towards Mikey, and growled at him before he breathed out his dark fire.