..

I ain't a comrade or a friend
I ain't a brother I'm a means to an end
In times of war and living hell
You can't trust a man at war with himself
-Heavy, by Glorious Sons

CHAPTER 17: BROTHERS IN ARMS

Michelangelo watched in complete awe as the octopus-jellyfish-thing recoiled from the cannon strike, stretched up, and screamed.

"How the heck am I going to name this?" he wondered out loud in exasperation. There was way too much going on here with this monster, and the coolest part of it was…all of it.

"Good luck with that," Karai said from beside Michelangelo. Then, with a lot more urgency, "We should leave."

He glanced down at her but she was looking at Raphael for that second part, who was on the opposite side of her, and she was tugging at his arm.

The misbegotten chimera in front of them went ballistic after recovering from the shock of the hit. Its tentacles spread rapidly out in all directions, grabbing hold of anything or anyone blindly and violently.

"You should go," Raphael replied, pushing her behind him as one of the monstrous tentacles rushed straight for the group of them.

Michelangelo didn't have much time to contemplate who Karai was or why Raphael was so protective of her, because he had to leap out of the way to avoid being grabbed. In fact, everyone had scattered from where they'd been clustered by the console.

"You're leaving?" Leonardo said in disbelief to Karai. "This is your fault!" He sounded genuinely hurt.

Karai was retreating hesitantly from behind Raphael, who was slashing at a tentacle in a vain attempt to keep it away from them.

"Fuck you, Leo," Raphael snapped. "Look at this thing!" Turning his head slightly back to Karai as the weight of the appendage he was wrangling brought him down on one knee, he yelled, "Go! Now!"

"How about Octo-Bug?" Michelangelo suggested, trying to lighten the tension as he used his nun-chucks to bat away another lurching tentacle. As he ducked below the retaliating whip of it, hot laser bolts swept past him, reminding him that the few remaining Kraang were still firing wildly all around them.

"Umm, Octo-eyeball-jelly-bug?" Man, he was really grasping at straws now, usually he was so good at naming stuff. "Screw it, his name is Justin," Michelangelo loudly declared.

He then sprinted in a wide arc, swatting at flailing tentacles here and there along the way until he settled behind a group of Kraang droids, using them as cover fire for himself. It gave him a chance to catch his breath from their previous battle, and to check on how the others were doing in the chaos.

Raphael had unfortunately been picked up, and looked like he was struggling to breathe from within the gross, squeezing grasp.

Karai doubled back to try and help him, frantically hacking away at the tentacle imprisoning Raphael.

Leonardo was circling and parrying attacks with his swords, jumping in close to strike at Justin's eyes or body, looking for weaknesses, but he didn't seem like he was having any luck with that so far.

Donatello, over on the opposite side of the room from him, had his legs swept out from underneath him but neatly sliced into the purplish flesh with his naginata to repel it.

Casey ran up beside Donatello's prone form, picking up a Kraang gun and shooting laser bolts at Justin, which was a great idea, actually.

The Kraang beside the cannon had recharged it enough for another mighty blast, making Justin flinch and roar again, revealing the mind-boggling mouth full of sharp, mismatched teeth. It must have distracted Justin just enough to loosen its grip on Raphael, because he burst from the tentacle with an angry roar of his own, the Shredder-like claws from his gauntlet glistening.

All of this had happened, mostly simultaneously, in under forty seconds, but Michelangelo's mind took it all in easily. His own thoughts were often as disjointed and fleeting as the numerous moving pieces of a battlefield. Also within that time, he had taken two deep, slow breaths just as Master Splinter had taught him to, and made himself consider what his next move should be.

Raphael and Karai seemed to be holding their own now that he was free, and though Leonardo had just been knocked out of the air, he landed on his feet and instantly started circling again. Michelangelo felt he would only be in their way.

Donatello was on his feet again, but he and Casey would probably benefit the most from his help. Michelangelo darted forwards to cross the room and assist them, but was distracted as Justin reached out and wrapped one of his thick tentacles around the cannon before the Kraang could charge it yet again, and hoisted it up into the air like it was nothing.

Holy Chalupa, he was strong!

Justin's eyes began to crackle with energy, and then, like the ugliest version of Thor ever, shot lightning out of his eyes. It would have been awesome if it wasn't for the sickening way Donatello's body went stiff and then fell to the ground. It didn't look like Casey had been hit directly, but he'd obviously been too close to the strike. A blast of energy flung him a few feet away, and he slammed flat on his back onto the unforgiving floor, the gun springing free of his grip.

Mouth dry, heart thudding loudly in his ears, Michelangelo was so intent on getting to them that he didn't even register that Leonardo's voice had yelled, "Mikey, look out!" until after his hand had grabbed the back of his shell and pulled him back.

Michelangelo's forward momentum being stopped so suddenly made him feel like he was in slow motion, all four limbs stretched cartoonishly out in front of him, suspended in mid-air before the pressure of Leonardo's grab began pulling him backwards. Michelangelo distinctly felt the whoosh of displaced air as the giant Kraang cannon rocketed through the space he had just been occupying.

Time returned to normal and he gasped, stumbling into his brother. "Dude! You just saved my life!"

He regained his footing, turned to thank Leonardo, and saw Raphael. Michelangelo's jaw dropped.

Leonardo hadn't made it in time, and he was actually a few steps away, also stunned.

Of course no one looked more shocked than Raphael himself, but he shrugged it off quickly, pushing past them both to bark at Karai to run.

He saved me. Michelangelo knew there was some of the old Raph in there somewhere, knew he wasn't irredeemable.

He felt vindicated.

He felt elated.

He felt…the crushing pressure of a tentacle as it wrapped around him. Leonardo jumped onto it, anchored into its flesh with both katanas. Michelangelo couldn't move, all he could do was watch the growing horror on Leonardo's face as the wind rushed at his back.

Michelangelo smashed shell-first into a wall, then dropped several feet to the floor. His breath caught for a long, queasy moment, then rasped in and out of him uneasily. His entire body ached with the impact and he had twisted his knee badly.

Leonardo would have been flung face-first into the wall if not for the grip he'd had on the katanas, though he was still thrashed around in the air and ultimately thudded to the ground not far from Michelangelo, swords clattering on the tile beside him.

Michelangelo blinked his vision into focus and noticed that everyone was down. Even all of the able-bodied Kraang seemed to have fled the scene. Fear hammered in his chest. Justin had easily kicked all of their butts.

"Leo?" he said raggedly, his lung capacity still not what it should be. "What do we do?"

Leonardo grabbed his katanas and pulled himself up onto his knees. "I brought her here, this is my fault. I'll deal with it."

His voice had that steely resolve in it that meant he was about to do something epically crazy and heroic, consequences be damned. Then he was running at Justin, yelling to keep his attention, and dodging electrical blasts like a boss. In what looked a desperate last resort, he let the lightning hit one katana, held the hilt of the other against the electrified one, and stabbed one end into the console.

Electricity flared all around him, then arced back to Justin, and the creature screeched as it started burning up.

"Leo!" Donatello cried out, getting to his feet in a panic.

The alarm in Donatello's voice made Michelangelo's heart sink. He didn't know exactly how dangerous what Leonardo was doing could be, but Donatello certainly did.

Sparks began to fly out of the console as well, and smoke and open flames started pouring from it. All the while Justin was screeching and flailing wildly, his form more and more shrouded by the thick, dark smoke.

"Leo?" Michelangelo said weakly, unable to see him anymore. Had he been electrocuted? Did they need to go in there and pull him free of the console or Justin?

Michelangelo made himself get up and stagger forward, ready to rush into the flames if need be.

Leonardo's hunched and coughing form parted the curtains of smoke as he bolted towards them.

"It's gonna blow!" Leonardo wheezed in warning, running first to Donatello, who was closest to him. "We have to get out of here, now!"

Donatello collected Casey, who by this time had already struggled to his knees, hauling him up and practically dragging him towards the exit.

"Raph, get up!" Karai shouted, shaking him where he lay. She looked battered, and a thin line of blood trickled from her hairline at the temple down the side of her face. Raphael was groaning, but seemed barely conscious.

Michelangelo hadn't seen what had happened to them while he was being thrown into a wall, but he wasn't taking any chances that they didn't get out in time.

He hobbled over quickly from behind Karai, and reached them at the same time as Donatello, Casey, and Leonardo did from the other direction.

"Leo, please," Karai said forlornly.

Michelangelo touched her shoulder and nudged her to the side. She quickly stood and made room for him so that both he and Leonardo could pull Raphael somewhat upright, wrapping his arm over Michelangelo's shoulder to bear the brunt of Raphael's weight.

Michelangelo started moving, ignoring the sharp pain in his knee and heaving his limp brother towards the exit. Leonardo was trying to help, with a hand gripping Raphael's other arm, but he'd also picked Karai up after she'd stumbled.

Everyone shuffle-ran out of there in an awkward, huddled group as quickly as possible, barely making it outside before part of the roof caved in completely and Justin's cries went eerily silent.

ooooooooooooo

It felt like one moment he had been fighting, and the next, he was being hauled along a sidewalk. Raphael took a shuddering breath, feeling his heart beating erratically and hearing nothing but a high-pitched ringing in his ears. His head lolled to his right, where most of his weight was leaning on Michelangelo. He blinked and tried to focus, to clear his head enough to make his legs cooperate, to put one foot in front of the other and speed this up, because they also had no cover here. He was vulnerable, he knew that for certain and it made his blood quicken, reminded him of where they were despite having not quite shaken off how disoriented he was. The industrial district. They were less likely to run into people at this time of night, but it wasn't impossible.

As the ringing in his ears faded into the just as horrible wail of sirens, Raphael managed to ease some of his weight off Michelangelo and put them into his steps.

On his left, he realized that the stabilizing hand above his elbow was Leonardo, walking quickly just a pace behind him. He looked back to find that Leonardo had scooped Karai up, cradling the backs of her thighs along his forearm so she was sitting in the crook of his elbow, balanced along his side with one arm thrown casually over the top of his shell.

Raphael jerked his arm away roughly, trying to wheel around and knocking himself and Michelangelo off balance.

Michelangelo hissed as if in pain, shifting them again so they could keep moving without falling over. "Dude, settle down," he scolded. "We're almost there."

"I'm alright," Karai said, as he reluctantly kept moving forward while still glancing back at her. "I just hurt my ankle."

Raphael huffed. She was lying, and there was a pinch to her tone that he knew meant she was injured, but he wasn't in a position to argue or help right now, so he allowed himself to be brought into a dilapidated, long-abandoned warehouse that stunk of mold and pigeons. Fire trucks screamed by, temporarily illuminating the space with red, then the siren droned farther into the distance and they were left in darkness.

Donatello, who was still propping Casey up, pulled a flashlight from his belt and set it on top of a rotting wooden barrel. "Casey, can you stand?" he asked.

"Yeah," Casey replied, pulling away from Donatello, but his voice was shaky and he had to lean a hip on the barrel to stand. "My hands hurt," he added, sounding confused, then looked at them in the beam of the flashlight. "Oh man, my hands!" His palms were a bright, angry red.

"When the lightning hit me, a streamer must have struck the metal gun you were holding," Donatello said wearily. "You shouldn't be alone for a couple of days, someone needs to check your vitals regularly to make sure the electricity didn't affect your heart."

"I think that was what got me as well, a lightning bolt," grumbled Raphael. No wonder he felt so off-kilter.

"A total pleasure, wasn't it?" Donatello asked sarcastically.

Raphael wasn't worried for himself, despite how horrible he felt. Donatello looked like he'd mostly recovered from the shock already, and neither of them had burns. Unfortunately, toughness and quicker healing was not an attribute shared by their human companions, and suddenly Raphael was stepping away from Michelangelo to check on Karai.

"Did you…?" he started to ask her.

"No, stop fretting," she said before he could finish, "I feel like I got hit by a truck, but I didn't get electrocuted."

She leaned towards him while in Leonardo's grip, and finally he gently set her down so she could limp the few steps towards Raphael's outstretched hand.

"You're bleeding," Raphael noted, pulling her close and trying to find the wound hidden in her hair. It was impossible in this light, so he settled for glaring at Leonardo over the top of her head instead.

Donatello caught Leonardo's attention, but Raphael ignored his brothers completely as they tallied their minor injuries for Donatello so he could check on them.

"I'm a bit dizzy," Karai admitted quietly to him, leaning fully into his chest.

He felt her flinch at the initial contact before melting against him, and a sense of urgency to get her the hell out of here kicked a lump up into his throat. Between the physical reaction to contact, her shallow breathing, and the acrid tint to her sweat, he knew that she was hiding how much pain she was in now that the adrenaline had worn off. Knew that she didn't want to show any more signs of weakness than she already had in front of enemies.

"Come on," he said under his breath. "You need a doctor." He started backing them up but by the third step she had gone completely stiff.

"I can't…" she whispered.

"Shh, I got you." Picking her up and arranging her against his plastron as gently as possible, Raphael felt her suck in a harsh breath, and she held it with her eyes clamped shut until she was settled against him.

"I won't make it all the way to the Watchtower like this," she hissed. "Even being carried, it's too much. It hurts and I'm nauseous, my head feels like it's spinning."

"No hospitals!" Casey proclaimed loudly, making Karai wince and Raphael tune back into whatever drama was happening between the others. "I'm still payin' for the last time I was there. Can't you just help me, Donnie?"

"You need to get your head checked," Donatello insisted.

Casey tried to put his hands on his hips disapprovingly, but almost lost his balance and gripped the barrel. "Real nice, Don," he griped.

Donatello sighed in exasperation. "I meant that I think you have a concussion."

Casey waved it off. "Is that all? Wouldn't be the first time."

"You do realize that's worse, right?"

Casey pointed a finger at Donatello, ready to give some asinine retort, when the defiant mask on his face crumbled away into something much more sickly. "I gotta sit for a minute." He crossed his arms over his belly and sunk down to sit on the nasty floor, with his back leaned against the even nastier barrel.

"The safehouse," Karai said suddenly, loudly as if she couldn't control the volume of her voice. "W174," she clarified. "It's really close."

Raphael tensed. Everyone was looking at them now, noticing how they'd drifted several feet away from the group.

Donatello tilted his head to one side and focused on Karai, then made eye contact with Raphael. "May I?" he asked, gesturing to her.

Raphael gave a tight nod of consent, but kept his stare harsh as Donatello approached with the flashlight and shone them in Karai's eyes briefly.

"Yeah, she probably has one, too," Donatello said, backing up a respectable distance. "What else happened to you?" he asked her gently.

She sighed wearily, but Donatello seemed to be the healer in their group and Raphael also wanted to know what they were potentially dealing with here. "Just tell him," he encouraged.

"A tentacle picked me up and it felt like it crushed my whole body," she replied honestly after a moment. "It clipped my head on something before it dropped me."

Shit. He had been knocked out shortly after stabbing the tentacle that had grabbed her. He remembered the suffocating constriction from his own turn in the creature's grasp, and that was with the protection of a shell. Karai could have multiple broken bones, internal bleeding, anything.

Donatello sighed. "Both of them should go to a hospital, they need x-rays at the very least, C.T. scans."

"Donnie," groaned Casey from behind them. "I'm not going, I'll be fine."

"Idiot," Donatello and Raphael muttered under their breaths in unison.

"He can go with us," Karai said tightly. "To the safehouse. One of our doctors will come to us."

"I think that proves you have a concussion," Raphael drawled, but at this point he just wanted to get out of there and get Karai somewhere safe and clean as soon as possible. "But whatever. Let's go, Jones."

Casey got to his feet with as much coordination as a newborn deer. "I'm going to need help getting wherever it is."

Raphael huffed impatiently. "I can't carry both of you when you're like this."

"I'll bring him," Michelangelo volunteered, picking up the lanky human.

"We'll all go," declared Leonardo.

"Absolutely not," Raphael said in disbelief to his entitlement. Truth be told, he didn't even want Michelangelo seeing where their safehouse was. "Mikey only, and don't test me by tailing us. I already hate this idea enough to call it off."

"I'm not letting him go into Foot territory alone," Leonardo growled, eyes narrowing. "It could be a trap."

"Yeah, Leo, this was my brilliant master plan all along," snapped Raphael, gesturing to Karai in his arms. "Moron."

"What exactly was the plan? I was obviously set up for something."

"We wanted to track you back to the Kraang. We need to know more about them."

"You could have just asked!"

"I did," Karai interrupted quietly. "You just said stay away, predictably. So we set you up to find them."

"You were supposed to be scouting for signs of the Kraang around April's school," Donatello said accusingly to Leonardo. "You lied to us so you could meet up with her?"

"I did scout," Leonardo insisted. "Quickly. And then I also met up with Karai before heading back to you."

"Unbelievable," Donatello sighed. "And you know her, how?"

"Hey, looks like you guys have lots to talk about, come on Mikey," Raphael said bruskly, turning on his heel and walking away. If they didn't join him now, what happened with Casey was on them.

Predictably, there was some arguing among them as Raphael took the back exit – a metal door so severely rusted that he could peek outside through the holes before pushing it open.

Soon, Michelangelo's footsteps slapped quickly across the concrete to catch up to him.

"Mikey, don't run," Casey wheezed from somewhere behind them. The footfalls stopped suddenly and the sound of retching made Raphael's nose crinkle in disgust.

"I knew it! You did eat my last Skittles!" yelled Michelangelo. "You monster!"

Karai made a whining noise in her throat that Raphael could only interpret as instant regret for having them come along.

Taking it slow and easy, sticking to the shadows as they navigated loading bays, empty lots and long, barren stretches of alleyways between factories and warehouses, they reached warehouse W174 in just under an hour. Michelangelo had prattled on here and there about how 'cool' Justin had been and how it was too bad they couldn't have tamed him down into a pet or some other nonsense, but mostly they were quiet because noise made the humans nauseous and neither of them wanted to be thrown up on.

Despite not being in use currently, the Foot-owned warehouse was maintained and clean, overall. On the second level, there was an office that overlooked the warehouse floor, and beside that, a full apartment. Karai and Casey had soldiered through the journey with minimal whining as they were carried, but both yelped and grumbled in pain as they were shifted and set down on the bed. Which brought up another small problem. There was only one.

"It'll have to do for now, I guess," Raphael sighed. "I need to make a phone call, I'll be next door in the office. Stay here," he ordered firmly. "Get their shoes off and make them comfortable while I get the doctor on the way."

"Right," said Michelangelo, standing up straight like a soldier.

"I mean it," Raphael warned. "Don't leave them." Don't follow me.

Michelangelo gave him a lopsided grin and nodded, more serious. "Okay."

ooooooooooooo

Raphael scowled as he texted Baxter Stockman.

He had just finished relaying the evening's events to Shredder, explaining that Karai was in no condition to travel and that they would likely be spending the night at the safehouse unless the doctor determined that she should be in a hospital. Shredder had agreed distractedly, the echo in his voice indicating that he was in a large, but enclosed, space.

Then Stockman had piped up in the background, and Shredder had ordered Raphael to text the scientist the address of the former World Wide Genome Project building. He wanted to organize a team to investigate if there was any Kraang technology that could potentially be salvaged.

Raphael didn't know exactly what project Shredder and Stockman were working on, but he hated how Stockman seemed to be a constant worm in their Master's ear as of late.

He let out a long sigh after sending the text, rubbing his eyes. What a fucking night.

He mentally braced himself as he went back into the apartment. Dimly lit by a floor-lamp in the living room area, Michelangelo paced just outside the open door that led into the dark bedroom.

"They both wanted the lights off in there," Michelangelo explained, looking anxious. "But we can't let them fall asleep, right? If they have concussions?"

"No, let them rest," Raphael replied. "The sleep thing is a myth, they can be checked on without waking them up constantly. A doctor is on his way, so you can't be here."

"Can you let me know what he says? I'll put my number in your phone," he said, holding his hand out expectantly.

Raphael handed it over reluctantly. "I guess so."

"This is so tiny, how the heck do you use this thing?"

"The stylus pen clipped to the side."

Michelangelo carefully used the pen to tap out his contact information. "Man, maybe I can hook you up with a T-Phone, this is horrible."

"It's fine."

"Hey, thanks for saving my shell earlier," he said as he handed it back. "I would've been wall pizza if that thing had hit me."

And there it was, the topic he'd been hoping to avoid. In the back of his mind he heard his child voice say, I'll always protect you. He flinched back from Michelangelo's outstretched hand, leaving his cell phone.

"Did you…remember something?" Michelangelo asked cautiously.

"No," he answered coolly, quickly grabbing his phone and turning away. "You really need to go."

"I know we were young, but there really is a lot you don't remember, huh? Come on. What was it?"

If Michelangelo was spotted by the doctor it would definitely get back to Shredder and be impossible to explain in a satisfactory way. He was already going to have a hard enough time dealing with Casey being there. "Will you leave if I tell you?"

"Yeah."

"Fine," he sighed. "I remembered saying I would protect you, but what would I have to protect you from when we were four?" he scoffed. "It's ridiculous."

Michelangelo smiled sadly, and it became apparent that Raphael was still going to have to physically get him moving to get him the hell out of the warehouse. "Let's go," he said gruffly, walking away and out of the apartment.

Michelangelo followed, catching up with him quickly as Raphael marched towards the nearest exit.

"Don and Leo picked on me a lot. So did you, but you fought with all of us so I guess I didn't take it personally," Michelangelo recalled with a note of humor in his voice. "Even back then, Leo was the perfect little son, Donnie was crazy smart, and you were the brave and strong one. I've always just been the screw-up, but you defended me when they went too far or ganged up on me. And then you were gone…"

"I was the problem child who didn't fall into line and Yoshi got rid of me."

Michelangelo looked frustrated and took a deep breath, no doubt to start some tirade that they didn't have time for. "That's not…" he started.

Raphael pushed the bar on the back door and cut Michelangelo off. "I don't need to hear whatever lie Hamato Yoshi fed you," he said impatiently. "You need to be gone."

Eyes narrowed, fists clenched, Michelangelo glared at him. "Raph…"

He had to shut down this argument before it started, so he interrupted with the first thing he could think of that might sway Michelangelo's attention. "I'm sorry I ruined your night last week."

Michelangelo beamed at the apology, his mood thankfully seeming to shift instantly. "Are you kidding? It was great! Well, mostly great. You're still invited to come hang out with us again."

"Maybe I should make sure that our idiot friend doesn't die before we think about making any plans," he replied pointedly, nodding his head towards the open door.

"Oh, yeah. See ya around," he said with a little wave, then finally disappeared into the night.

Relieved, Raphael waited anxiously for a white cargo van to pull up. Dr Meadows, the American doctor who had given him the rundown on Flip, had two large rolling carts of medical equipment that Raphael helped unload and roll into the service elevator. In fact, the one he was pushing was actually a portable x-ray machine, and he hummed in approval.

"How quickly can you get results from this thing?" Raphael asked.

"Within an hour, and if Karai needs to be admitted, I can take her. There's a gurney in the van."

"I have an informant here who also needs to be seen, but he must remain completely anonymous for his own protection," Raphael said. "If you tell anyone that he was here, he's as good as dead. I will personally handle any of his expenses."

Dr Meadows took this in stride and promised discretion as they wheeled everything into the bedroom.

Despite Dr Meadows' warning, Karai and Casey hissed like dramatic vampires when the light went on. He directed Raphael to help Casey into the living room and onto the couch so they could have privacy while being examined, and in the same vein, Raphael was banished to the office.