Title: You Better Pray I Don't Get Up This Time Around
Day: Whumptober 2023, Day 5
Prompt: "You better pray I don't get up this time around," Debris/Pinned Down/"It's Broken"
Fandom: TMNT 2003
Word Count: 2,002
Author: aquietwritingcorner/realitybreakgirl
Rating: T
Characters: Donatello, Karai, Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo
Warning: Just a step above canon-typical violence.
Summary: A haughty look settled on Karai's face. "Because, Donatello, I have figured out that you are the key to their success, and without you, your family will fail." Karai has figured out the turtles' weakness and has decided to take care of it. But Donatello will not let himself be taken down so easily.
Notes: Anyone who says that Donatello is the weakest of them has not paid attention to how many heavy things Don has moved on his own.
You Better Pray I Don't Get Up This Time Around
Don panted, staring at the Foot Ninja that surrounded him. There had to be at least fifteen, and that wasn't counting Karai, who was standing back, watching the fight.
He was backed into a corner, on the rooftop of an abandoned building. A run-down and broken shed was to his back, and the Foot Ninjas surrounded him on all other sides. So far, he had avoided any major wounds, but he had enough minor ones that he knew it was only a matter of time before they wore him down like they had worn down Leo before.
The Foot Ninja also knew that. For the moment, they had pulled back, but they would strike sooner or later. It was clear that they were regrouping, but the fact that they took that time meant that they were confident that they had him pinned down, which was bad news for Don.
It didn't matter. Don wasn't going to make it that easy for them.
Don watched, alert to any movement. The second he caught the smallest of tells, Don lashed out. He struck out with his bo, fast and precise, breaking the collar bone of the Foot in question. But the others took advantage of his momentary focus and moved in. Don stood his ground, expertly lashing out with his bo. He couldn't let them drive him further into the corner. He had the advantage in open areas, but not in restrictive ones.
A block, a hit, a thrust. Duck, leap, spin. Kick, hit, strike! Don's bo was as quick as his mind, and he used it to his advantage. Block the katana, use the momentum to force it to the ground. Duck while doing it, and kick at the tonfa user coming from behind. Go to the ground, and thrust up with the bo while doing it, knocking the pinned katana-user in the jaw. Use that momentum and become upright again. Slide the bo back and use it to leap and avoid the incoming chains. Land with a kick to take out one Foot and sweep the bo to the side, breaking the ribs of another. No second to rest, no moment to form a plan. Act, react, anticipate and move. Instinct and muscle memory were driving him forward, even while his brain tried to find a way out of this.
But even with all of his skill, Don couldn't last forever, especially when the environment was turned against him. The Foot he had injured, the ones that couldn't fight but could still move, they weren't idle, and Don belatedly realized that he should have been paying more attention to them as well. They were setting something up, but he didn't have time to work through what it was.
The Foot broke through his defenses, and he cried out in pain when he took a solid hit to his shoulder and felt something in it break. He hit the wall of the shack behind him, and heard it groan. The rooftop groaned, too, and the Foot Ninja leapt away. In a fraction of a second, Don realized that this ambush was more well-thought out than he had assumed, but he had no time to do anything about it. The shack, the wall behind it, and the rooftop under him had been weakened, and with his bodyweight hitting it, it all collapsed, sending him plunging to the floor below, taking wood, brick, mortar, and metal with him. The debris landed on him, with him, and pinned him down to the floor.
Don coughed, trying to get his bearings as he struggled to free himself, but he couldn't get his right arm to move well. As the dust cleared, Don looked up and glared at Karai.
"Your shoulder is broken, Donatello," she said, leaping down to the floor he was on. "You will not free yourself."
"Then answer me this one thing, Karai," Don demanded as he continued to struggle to get free. "Why ambush me? It's clear you were waiting for me and not my brothers. Why?"
A haughty look settled on Karai's face. "Because, Donatello, I have figured out that you are the key to their success. Leonardo is a brilliant strategist, but his plans are pulled off successfully because of you." She pointed her sword at him. "You build the machines. You improve the weaponry. You prepare for unanticipated circumstances. You hack computer systems. You find the weakness in technology. You put to use knowledge that the others do not have and could not use. You are the key to their success, and without you, your family will fail."
Karai's words made Don's blood run cold, but they also ignited a fire in him. No. No, he wouldn't be the downfall of his brothers. He wouldn't be the downfall of his family. He would not be the reason that his family died! He'd worked too hard to prevent it. He wouldn't let it happen now!
Don bared his teeth, and dug deep, pushing up against the debris pinning him down, heedless of his injuries or the weight of it. It began to shift and rock around him. Karai, alarmed, took a step back, as did the ninja who had followed her down.
"You better pray I don't get up this time around," Don spat out, "because if I do, you're a dead woman, Karai!"
His words were snarled out, and for a moment it took everyone aback. The Foot Ninja paused, uncertain for a moment, and Karai stared at Don wide-eyed. Then she shook her head. "Quickly! Slay him before he rises!"
It was too late, though. Don was freeing himself from the pile of debris that had him pinned, pushing up on the impossible weight, heedless of his broken shoulder. One hapless Foot took a swing at him, and Don moved just enough that it missed him, and he, instead, grabbed the sword, pulling the soldier forward towards him. He stole the sword from the startled soldier and killed him on the spot.
"Kill him!" Karai called out. "Kill him, quickly!"
Don was already using the sword like a lever, using it to pry a large piece of debris off of him. He almost had himself free when the first ninja got to him. Don didn't hesitated, but instead picked up a brick, and used it to block a blow, before hurling it at another Foot, striking him in the head. The debris shifted with all of the movement, and Don yanked first, himself, and then, his stolen sword free and used it to take care of the other Foot that had dared to approach him.
The Foot Ninja backed off as Don stood up, clearly afraid. Don had an arm hanging limp, blood from cuts and strikes dripping down him, and a ferocious look on his face that almost looked animalistic in nature. Karai's breath caught in her throat, and she began to realize that she might have miscalculated. Don brought his stolen sword to bear, clearly confident in his ability to handle it.
The remaining Foot charged him, and Don didn't hold back, cutting through Karai's ninja as quickly as he could. The katana was not his preferred weapon, but he knew how to use it better than any of the quickly trained ninja Karai had brought with her tonight.
But he only had eyes for Karai at the moment.
"I will not let you turn me into a liability for my family!" He snarled at her. "Try it—and see the consequences!"
Karai took a step back, looking at the carnage happening around her, and the unforgiving and hard look on Donatello's face. For all of her faults, Karai wasn't a stupid woman. There would likely be heavy losses at best if this kept on. Not to mention, Don's brothers likely wouldn't be far away at this point.
"Foot ninja! Retreat!" She called.
They obeyed without hesitation, and Don let out a roar as he made one last grab at Karai. She barely managed to dodge it before she vanished into the shadows.
"Karai!" Don called, trying to follow, but only making it a couple of steps before he started to collapse.
"Don!"
He knew that voice, and within a fraction of a second, there were arms around him, catching him, lowering him to the floor instead of him hitting it hard.
"Don! Don!" Leo's voice called out above him, and Don tried to focus on what he could see of his brother—mostly his legs and feet—as Leo knelt beside him. "Raph! Bring those medical supplies!"
Don groaned, and Leo's attention returned to him. Leo ran a gentle hand across his forehead. "Don? Don, can you hear me?"
"Y-yeah," Don said, forcing himself to look up at his brother.
Raph and Mikey suddenly appeared next to Leo, both of them sucking in a breath at his condition.
"Shell…" Raph said.
"Donnie…" Mikey breathed out.
"Start assessing him. Bandage the worst ones first," Leo said. "Mike, call April and tell her we need the Moving Van here now." Leo paused. "Your shoulder. Don, I think it's broken again."
"I do, too," Don breathed out.
"What happened, Don?" Leo said. "We got your emergency signal, but by the time we got here—"
"We thought we were too late, the way the Foot were runnin'," Raph said.
"And that scream from you…" Mikey added.
"What happened, Donnie?" Leo asked.
"They ambushed me," Don said, his breath hitching a little as the adrenaline started to fade and the pain of his injuries hit him more and more. "I fought back. Ended up falling in here. Was trapped under that pile."
"Was that how you broke your shoulder?" Raph asked.
Don shook his head, and immediately decided that was a terrible idea. "No, that was before."
"So, you pulled yourself out of there with a broken shoulder?" Mikey said. "Dude…"
Don blinked at them as it became harder to stay focused. "She said… said she was going to kill me. Because I was the key. Without me you'd all fall." Don looked at his brothers, imploring them to understand with his eyes alone. "I couldn't let that happen."
His brothers exchanged a look. They knew of the horrible future that Don had told them about. Of how he had disappeared, and the family had eventually fallen apart, and that Mike had blamed Don for it. Of how it had, in Don's mind at least, lead to the death of his brothers, at his hands. They understood the chord that Karai's words must have struck in Don, and why he had fought so hard, falling into a ferocity that wasn't normally seen from him.
And looking at the damage and what Don had told them, it must have been a rare ferocity indeed. Don didn't normally kill, and when he did, it was usually very calculated so that his victim felt little pain. These Foot had been killed without regard to that. It had been kill or be killed, and Don had been the one doing the killing this time.
"You did well, little brother," Leo said, smiling down at Don.
"Yeah! Betcha Karai's gonna think twice before messing with you again!" Mikey said with a grin.
"Nobody's gonna wanna mess with you after word of this gets out," Raph said with a grin.
Don gave his brothers a weak smile.
Mikey's phone chirped, and he looked down at it. "April says she's down there."
Leo nodded. "Alright. Let's move Donnie down—carefully."
Don, predictably, felt his head spin and hissed at the movement, it becoming harder and harder for him to hold onto consciousness. But even as he felt himself start to fade out, he knew one thing.
Karai had better watch her back. Don now had reason to have a personal grudge against her—and he was not as altruistic as Leo about things. She had just made a powerful enemy, and Don would make sure she knew it.