Lost in the Fight

Chapter 7 - Out of Their Shells

"D-Donnie . . . I . . . I . . . " Leo stumbled over the words, not even sure what to say. He reached out for his traumatized brother just as he started to stagger away.

It was at that moment that Raph was finally able to process what had just happened, and as soon as he did, his sanity up and abandoned him. Seeing Leo reaching out for Donnie instantly pushed the hothead over the edge.

"Don't you touch him!" Raph roared, suddenly springing forward and barreling into Leo's plastron with something that looked more like a football tackling maneuver than a ninja move.

Despite Raph's bestial strength and the tremendous force of the collision, Leo somehow managed to stay upright. The leader then used his powerful lower and upper body to push Raph backwards a couple of steps. For a moment, the two livid oldest brothers were separated and they took this opportunity to reach for their weapons. Within a fraction of a second, Leo's katanas and Raph's sais were locked together in a heated battle. The two of them were both at their wits' end and their animal instincts had kicked in. They released guttural growls and looked at each other with the same loathing expressions that they would wear if they were facing one of their sworn enemies.

Even after what had just happened, Donnie's first impulse was to try to intervene, but Mikey was quick to pull him away from the fight, afraid that his genius brother would get hurt even worse than he already was. It was then that Mikey noticed the heat radiating off of his big brother's skin.

"Shell, Donnie. You're burning up," Mikey gasped out and his already big eyes just about doubled in size.

"I'm fine, Mikey," Donnie grunted in response, shrugging free of his younger sibling's grip with relative ease.

Mikey hadn't even realized it, but he had loosened his grip on his older brother's upper arm when he had momentarily panicked over his fever. Donnie, on the other hand, had instantly noticed and he had quickly capitalized on his little brother's distress over his elevated body temperature.

"Come on! We have to stop them before they kill each other!" Donnie exclaimed, motioning for Mikey to grab onto Leo as he himself moved towards Raph.

"Dudes! Cut it out!"

As expected, Mikey's two oldest brothers did not listen to him, so he rushed behind Leo and seized hold of his belt. The youngest turtle tugged on the thick band of leather with all of his might, trying to tear Leo off of Raph, but the oldest turtle didn't budge. Not even an inch. Mikey was pretty sure that the belt was going to give way before Leo did, which would be all kinds of awkward, but he kept pulling nonetheless.

Leo and Raph's weapons were still knotted together and they were pushing against one another with every bit of raw power that they had, as if they were both trying to push down an impenetrable wall. Their eyes burned with unforgiving wrath, locked in a death glare on one another.

"Stop it! Please!" Donnie pleaded to no avail.

The genius turtle's efforts to separate his brothers weren't going much better than Mikey's.

Unlike his younger brother, who had gone for the belt, Donnie had opted to wrap his arms around Raph's waist before pulling like mad. The ninja in purple was trying to get a good foothold so he could yank his older brother backwards, but all of his efforts were wasted. Regardless of his obvious height advantage over his hotheaded brother, Donnie had always been the lightest and leanest of the brothers whereas Raph had always been the heaviest and sturdiest of them. This disadvantage in bulk was not working in the genius turtle's favor. He was seriously outmatched for his current tug of war with Raph.

A new strategy was needed.

Donnie released Raph's abdomen and moved alongside his uncontrolled siblings. He decided that his best option would be to attempt to wedge himself between his two older brothers. Keeping a close eye on their weapons, he started to wriggle his good arm between their vice-like hold on each other. His plan was to essentially use his limb as a crowbar to pry them apart. It took a little doing, but he managed to get his arm through far enough so that he could seize Raph by the shoulders and press his elbow against Leo's upper plastron. Donnie then attempted to push Raph off of Leo and further lodge himself between his feuding brothers, thinking that if he somehow jimmied himself into the paper-thin gap between the two of them, he could get them to stop trying to slit each other's throats. His strategy appeared to be working, as the distance separating Leo and Raph began to open up. Donnie then bettered his position and continued to push against Raph's shoulders while Mikey kept pulling on Leo from behind. The katanas and sais finally unlocked, but Donatello was in the wrong place at the wrong time . . .