Raph's P.O.V.

Ch. 3

Man, if those divas' dad didn't show up I would've really made Zharra pay. I would've made her bleed so badly I—

Gazing down an alley far from the lair, April's place, and Karai's place… what I see right now… makes me want to cry. Not that I'd admit it to the others though.

"Donnie? Don!" I ran down the dark alley to my brother. Dropping down next to him, I started begging him to wake up. Even though I haven't picked him up yet, I can tell almost – if not every – bone in his body is broken.

"Donnie, please bro wake up! Wake up!" I got on my shell cell. Calling Leo to tell him.

"Raph, please tell me you found Don," Leo sounded like he was begging. "I found his bag and Mikey found pieces of his bo-staff."

"Yes. I did find Don. He's not waking up!" I shouted, holding back the urge to cry. "He's in worse shape than you were when Shred-head came back."

"That's… not good. Bring him to April's. We'll be there shortly."

"You got it bro." Hanging up my shell cell, I carefully picked up Donnie. He didn't even groan! Ah, hell this isn't good. I hurried back to April's place… I'm sure Leo told the others. Gr, it'd be father if I had my Shellcycle. But I can't be too fast. There's no telling what'll happen.

Oh, I so want to beat the living shit out of Zharra. I refuse to let Donnie die. Turning down April's street, a gust of wind blew hard. Making me duck down in a side alley. "Great. I'll bet its worse on the rooftops. And we were so close too." I sigh, guess we'll just have to wait out this heavy wind. But how long can Donnie hold out?

I lean up against the brick wall and sit down. Laying Donnie's head in my lap… I decided to tell him a story. Like we all did for Leo and I nearly cried then too.

"Hey Donnie. Remember when we were kids and I would tease you a lot?"

~flashback~

We were training at home as usual. I kicked Don pretty hard into the wall. There was a crack in the wall now and Don looked like he was going to cry. So I started teasing him about it.

"Gonna cry, crybaby? Go ahead," I teased with a smirk.

"I'm not a crybaby," Don shot back. I could tell he was holding back his tears.

"Crybaby, crybaby, crybaby!" I continued teasing him and he ran off in the sewers.

"Raphael," Master Splinter sounded disappointed. I turned around to face him. He was shaking his head at me. "Seriously, Raphael. He is your brother. There's no shame in crying at your age. Hurting your brother like that ends up hurting yourself sooner or later."

"Yes, sensei," I said with my head. Now feeling what he meant. With the time going by and Don still not returning home… I decided to go find him.

Wondering the sewers, keeping quiet for now just in case Don runs off if I shout his name. I started hearing something from one of the abandoned sewer entrance that no one uses. Punches, kicks and groans came from that way. Getting a bit closer, I heard the turtle I was looking for.

"I. Am. Not. A. Cry. Baby." I heard that over and over along with all those punches and kicks. Going inside this homey little sewer thingy, it looked more like a cave that's about to fall apart. Whoa, looking over at the wall, I see Donnie punching at it. Making craters in it like I've never seen him do before. I waited until he was worn out to announce I was here.

"Hey Donnie," I said walking over to him once he dropped to the ground.

"Huh?" Donnie wondered, huffing as he looked over to see me. "What do you want, Raph?"

"I wanted to say sorry for teasing you like that. I was a jerk and I'm sorry."

"For some reason I don't think that necessity will ever disappear," Donnie said in a huff.

"What is this place?"

"Hm? Oh, I found it when we got separated during our fifth walk around the sewers. I come here to blow off steam. So I don't blow it off on you guys." I looked at his hands and noticed they were shaking. He might've bruised them while punching the crap out of those walls.

"Come on, Donnie. Let's go home," I said with a smile, offering him a hand.

"Yeah," he smiled, accepting my offered hand. We started walking out of this beat up place. But once we got near the exit back into the main sewers… this place started falling apart on us. Before we could get out, we got buried under everything.

I don't know what happened to Donnie, but I got knocked out cold. Once I did wake up, I find myself not buried under a lot of rock? This confuses me.

"Hm?" I wondered, slowly getting up. "Donnie?" Looking up I see a beam holding up the rock that seemed like it was going to fall apart at any moment.

"You… okay Raph?" I hear Donnie ask in a grunt. Looking down the beam, I see him struggling to keep it holding those boulders up.

"Yeah. Just a few scrapes. But… why are we not buried?"

"A little quick thinking in… this kind… of situ…ation… and there you… go. Ah! Raph go! Hurry!"

"I can't leave you, Donnie. Why'd you save me like that?"

"You maybe a jerk at times Raph. But… we're still… brothers." That really touched me, I gotta say. If anything I gotta think of a way to get both of us out of here. I can't leave him here, he's barely holding that stuff up there from crushing us flat.

Huh? What's this on the floor? It's light brown and curls around like a snake. Going over to it… it's rope! Rope, hm. That gives me an idea. I pick it up and tie it around Donnie's waist.

"Okay bro. This is going to go fast," I told him, standing outside the exit. Donnie nodded, bracing himself for the tug.

I took a deep breath and counted down from three. Once I got to one, I tugged on the rope so hard that I made Donnie crash into me as the place inside fully fell apart.

Luckily, we only had a few scrapes and bruises. Both of us were crying then. We thought we were going to die at that moment. Donnie promised not to tell the others that I cried and I promised to not tease him so much. Master Splinter patched us up, sending us to bed once we got home.

~end flashback~

"If it wasn't for your brain working at that time Don, we wouldn't be here today," I finished my story but it doesn't seem like it helped. "Donnie, please bro wake up." Donnie didn't make a sound or move. And that wind is still picking up as heavy rain started attacking us.

My shell cell going off, made me jump nearly out of my shell once I got us some shelter from the rain. I answered it, "Hello?"

"Where are you, Raph?" Leo sounds more worried.

"Three alleys down from April's. The wind picked up hard. I had no choice."

"We'll be right there with the BattleShell."

"Might want to hurry bro. This make-shift shelter is about to blow away."

"Consider us there, Raph." I heard an engine start in the background. Hanging up my shell cell, I hung onto Donnie. Please brainiac… wake up!

...

Stay tooned to find out if Donnie makes it through this ordeal.

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