Part 4-When It Rains, It Pours

"Miiikeeey! Where are you!?"

Donnie called out for the fifth time, but he had once again received no response. He had been searching for Mikey for over half an hour now, and he couldn't find a single trace of him.

The rain had already started to come pouring down, but it wasn't a heavy downpour yet so there was still time for Donnie to find Mikey and bring him back home safe.

"Where are you, Mikey? Please, give me a sign…" Donnie whispered to himself, praying that he would find his immediate younger brother soon.

Suddenly, he remembered that Mikey didn't leave his shell cell behind, which meant that the youngest turtle must still have it on him. With this in mind, Donnie checked Mikey's signal on his own shell cell, and he immediately noticed that it was located on the same roof as he was, meaning that Mikey was close by.

"Found you, bro…" Donnie said with determination in his voice before he hurried over to where his brother's signal was.

Soon, he came across a big pile of wooden boxes, and he noticed that one of the bottom boxes was covered over with a sheet. As he got closer, Donnie instantly heard the sounds of sobbing coming from within the box.

He slowly pulled the sheet to one side to reveal a heartbroken Mikey, who had his legs brought up to his plastron and his arms were wrapped around them whilst his face was hidden against his knees, but the sounds of sobbing could still be heard quite clearly.

"Mikey…" Donnie called out his brother's name softly to avoid startling him.

The youngest turtle slowly lifted his head up from his knees and looked up at Donnie with a miserable and watery face, making the purple-banded turtle's heart break even more.

"Are you ok?" The purple-banded turtle asked gently as he knelt next to him inside the box, which was just big enough for them both to shelter in.

Mikey immediately looked away and took a moment to catch his breath before he spoke whilst keeping his eyes lowered.

"…I-I'm sorry…I-I wasn't trying to ruin…your friendship with Leatherhead…I-I just-"

"Hey, hey, hey…who said that you would do such a thing?" Donnie interrupted softly.

"…R-Raph…" Mikey stammered with a sniffle as he wiped the tears from his cheeks.

Now Donnie was even more angry at Raph. Who gave the red-banded turtle the right to tell Mikey, to his face, that he was ruining the friendship between Donnie and Leatherhead?

As much as the purple-banded turtle wanted to run back to the lair and give Raph a piece of his mind, he had to remind himself that Mikey was his number one priority since he was suffering emotionally right next to him.

"Mikey, don't let what Raph said get to you, because none of it is true…!" Donnie told his little brother soothingly.

"B-But he's right on one thing…I-I'm a loner! I-I don't have any best friends cos I've got nothing in common with anyone…!" Mikey slammed miserably.

"What makes you think that?" Donnie questioned, now stunned at what he had just heard.

"L-Leo has Master Splinter cos they're both passionate about Ninjitsu, Raph has Casey cos of their love for fighting and motorcycles, and you have April and Leatherhead cos of your shared interests in science and inventions…! M-Me? I-I've got no-one cos the stuff I'm interested in are all too childish to them…!" Mikey told him specifically before more tears fell down his cheeks.

Donnie felt awful for Mikey and immediately gave him a sideways hug.

"I don't think your interests are childish, bro…! In fact, without them, you wouldn't be you!" The purple-banded turtle soothed.

"H-Huh?" Mikey said in confusion.

Just as Donnie was about to explain…

BOOM! CRACKLE!

The loud sound of thunder striking was suddenly heard from a far distance, making Donnie and Mikey jump in surprise.

"Uh, oh…" Donnie said quietly before he looked back at Mikey.

"Listen to me, Mikey, I'll explain everything later, but we need to get back home first; a terrible storm has been forecasted for tonight, and we'll get caught up in the middle of it if we don't leave now…" He told him seriously but softly.

"W-What!? B-But what if the others don't want me back…!?" Mikey questioned anxiously.

"Of course they want you back; they're really worried about you, especially Leatherhead…!" Donnie countered in a reassuring tone.

"Oh, man…H-He must be really upset with me for causing this mess…" Mikey said worriedly when he thought about his crocodile friend.

"No he isn't, Mikey; he knows that this is all just a misunderstanding…" Donnie reassured.

"Now, come on…we need to start making a dash for the sewers before this storm gets worse…" He then said as he pulled the cloth aside and started getting out of the box before he looked back at Mikey. "Are you ready to go?"

Even though Mikey was scared and unsure about going back home to face the others again, he knew that he couldn't run away from his problems forever, especially when they were affecting those close to him. Therefore, he gave Donnie a nod and both turtles left the safety of their box before making a run for the nearest sewer hole cover through the now heavily pouring rain.

/

In the sewers…

Donnie and Mikey were able to enter into the sewers just as the rain had worsened.

However, they weren't in the clear yet; the heavy rain had caused large streams of water to pour through every drain hole and increase the water levels, and the temperature within the sewers was very low and it wasn't helping the now soaked duo, especially Mikey since he wasn't wearing a coat.

"Shell, this isn't good…" Donnie cursed quietly before he turned to Mikey, who had started shivering. "You ok, Mikey? We shouldn't be too far away from the lair…"

"Y-Yeah, I'm g-good…" Mikey stuttered as he fought the cold, which was trying to overtake his body.

Donnie could tell that Mikey was struggling to stay warm, and he mentally slapped himself for not bringing Mikey's own jacket with him when he left the lair. What worried him the most was that, out of all the turtle brothers, Mikey was the most prone to catching illnesses due to having a weaker immune system than his older brothers, and seeing his little brother shiver in front of him made him worry that he was on the verge of catching something serious.

Then…

SPLASH! WOOOSH!

The sound of heavy water splashing and flowing down the sewer tunnel that Donnie and Mikey were standing in was suddenly heard, making them look at each other with scared expressions on their faces because they knew what those noises meant.

It was then that they saw a rush of high-level water coming towards them from behind!

"Oh, no…Run!" Donnie shouted before he and Mikey ran as fast as they could to avoid getting caught by the flood water.

Whilst they ran, Donnie spotted a large sewer pipe on the right side of the wall that was just high enough to avoid the flood. He immediately sped up and jumped on the edge before breathing a sigh of relief.

However, when he looked back, he saw that Mikey was not running as fast as he usually was, and he knew that this was due to the cold that was slowly weakening his body.

Then, to his horror, the flood water had soon caught up to his little brother and knocked him off of his feet.

"Waaaaaaaaaaah!" Mikey screamed as he struggled to keep his head above the fast-flowing water.

"MIKEY!" Donnie shouted in terror.

Luckily, Mikey started to drift a bit closer to Donnie's position as the water flow pushed him further down, so Donnie went straight into action and reached out his hand to grab one of Mikey's, which was stretched out in a desperate move to try and grab something.

As soon as Mikey was close enough, Donnie quickly grabbed his hand and used his own spare hand to hold onto the side of the tunnel wall to prevent himself from falling into the water.

"Hold on!" Donnie cried as he tightly held on to Mikey's hand.

"L-Let me go! Y-You'll go down with me if you don't!" Mikey pleaded whilst spluttering due to the water splashing in his face.

"No! I won't do that, Mikey! You're my little brother!" Donnie countered firmly before he pulled him closer to the edge of the tunnel step with all his might.

"Hurry, grab on to the edge!" He then told his brother.

With just a small amount of strength left, Mikey reached his spare hand over to the edge and pulled himself up with his brother's help. As soon as he grabbed the step, Mikey used both his strength and Donnie's help to completely pull himself out of the water before collapsing on his side and catching his breath, with Donnie sitting next him and catching his own breath.

Shortly after doing so, Mikey suddenly started crying. The whole ordeal with Raph's cruel words and the near-death experience with the flooding had overwhelmed the poor turtle, and he could no longer maintain his emotions. Donnie immediately gathered his baby brother in his arms, giving him a secure and comforting hug.

"Shh…It's ok, bro…I've got you…" Donnie soothed as he securely held his brother close.

"Y-You should've just let me go…A-All I do is…bring everyone down…" Mikey sobbed.

"Mikey, I told you; you're my little brother, my only little brother, and I will never forgive myself if anything bad happen to you…!" Donnie countered as he rubbed his little brother's back soothingly.

Unfortunately, the poor turtle was too busy sobbing against Donnie's chest to listen to his words. All that Donnie could do now was to comfort Mikey until he had calmed down, which he did after 2 minutes went by.

"Come on…Let's go home and get warmed up…" Donnie said before he helped Mikey stand back up and held onto him as they both walked through the clearer sewer tunnel to head for the warmth and safety of the lair.