*Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise.
*Special Note: The awesome cover art for this chapter was created by the incredibly talented CorolineThePheonix. It's so very beautiful, my friend.
*Author's Notes: Here's chapter 10 of 'Lost in the Fight' and Donnie's brothers are on their way, but will they get there in time?
Thank you to each and every one of you who have take the time to read, vote on, and comment on this story. I truly appreciate the support.
As always, please continue to read/vote on/comment on 'Lost in the Fight' to let me know if you like it. Thank you very much for reading. ;) CJ
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Chapter 10 - Message Received
"He's still not answering," Raph growled, about ready to crush the outer housing of his T-phone from the sheer frustration of the situation. He had called Donnie at least a dozen times now and he was getting pretty sick and tired of hearing the sound of his brainiac brother's voicemail message. If he had to listen to Donnie tell him to leave him a message one more time, he was sure he was going to break something.
Hearing Raph confirm that Donnie still wasn't answering his phone inspired Leo to push the pedal to the metal and take yet another corner about thirty miles an hour faster than what even Raph felt comfortable with. Sure, the most reckless brother liked to live on the edge and drive fast and furious, but Leo was out of control. The Shellraiser was designed from an old subway car. It wasn't exactly aerodynamically sound enough to be taking turns at a hundred miles per hour. At the excessively high speeds that Leo was currently driving, he was going to get them all killed. And even if they did somehow manage to survive the impending accident, Donnie would no doubt kill them for totaling one of his most-prized creations, all because they couldn't abide by the posted speed limit.
"Uh, Leo . . . I'm not trying to tell you how to drive or anything, bro, but you, uh, might wanna slow down just a teensy-weensy bit. Unless you wanna see and smell the burrito that I had before we left, 'cause I'm about to seriously blow chunks here. And believe me, it won't be pretty, dude. Refried beans look nasty in the first place," Mikey said and his off-color skin served as a testament to his claim. He was definitely looking a little greener than normal.
When Leo didn't take him up on his thoughtful advice, Mikey nervously tugged at his seatbelt, making sure that the safety device was good and secure, because he had a bad feeling that his oldest brother was about to test how well it worked.
The youngest turtle was presently seated in his usual spot in the Shellraiser, which they all referred to as the 'navigation station.' Raph was sitting in front of Mikey, at the 'weapons station.' Leo was at the helm, of course. Not because he was the leader, but because Donnie had decreed him the designated driver of the vehicle since Leo was the least likely to hit something just for fun.
The thought of his genius big brother made Mikey stare longingly at the bluish-gray seat across from his own. The seat where Donnie should have been sitting . . .
A gloomy sigh deflated out of the orange-masked turtle, but his moment of melancholy was soon interrupted by his oldest brother's edgy voice.
"We're almost there. Try Donnie's phone again," Leo barked over his shoulder from the driver's seat. His eyes only glanced back for a fleeting second before they were once again fixed on the road. As he continued to test the Shellraiser's top-end speed, he gripped the steering wheel so tightly, it was a wonder that he hadn't ripped it right off, or, at the very least, bent it.
From behind Leo, Raph grunted his disapproval and folded his arms across his plastron in protest.
"I'm not doing anything you say until you let up on the gas, Leadfoot Leo!" Raph had somehow managed to sound like a grumpy old man and a stubborn little kid at the same time. He then scowled at his older brother to indicate that he wasn't about to budge on the matter.
"Something's wrong, Raph. We've got to get to him," Leo said, demonstrating far more emotion than usual. His hands still clutched the steering wheel much tighter than necessary, partly because of the rising tension and partly to keep Raph and Mikey from seeing that he was shaking. The supposedly 'fearless' leader didn't want his brothers to see just how rattled he was.
"I know, Leo . . . "
The uncharacteristic gentleness in Raph's tone as he had said those three words threatened to reveal his own despair, but an instant later, the gentleness was gone.
"But I can't just sit here and let you make Mikey your crash test dummy," Raph quipped and leaned heavily into the back of his swivel seat, turning it so that his baby brother could see him smirk in spite of himself, but then, his green eyes fell upon the empty chair in the Shellraiser. The one that his genius little brother normally occupied . . .
Raph's face descended into a frown as he stared at the miscellaneous gadgets and gizmos that only the 'Brainiac' himself knew how to operate. Donnie's self-assigned 'ops station' was loaded with all kinds of fancy dials, readouts, switches, electronic devices, and flashy lights. A bunch of stuff that none of his brothers dared to touch for fear of bringing the wrath of Donatello upon them. The whiz turtle was extremely sensitive about anyone messing with the various instruments and doohickeys on the Shellraiser. He had actually been known to refer to the vehicle as his 'baby' from time to time. The resident inventor of the family had worked his shell off to soup-up the former underground railway car and he had been meticulous in every last detail. From the 'Manhole Cover Cannon' right down to the seatbelts . . .
Frown deepening, Raph peered down at the buckle of his safety belt and traced his fingertips over the letter engraved on it. He remembered making fun of his immediate younger brother for being a nerd because he had put a "T" on each of their seatbelts. He had even gone so far as to ask Donnie why he couldn't have just put the word 'dork' on them instead. Raph could still recall the hurt look on his little brother's face when he had teased him about it. It had been the same dejected expression that he had seen on Donnie's face after Leo had struck him, and again, just before he had left the garage. It then occurred to Raph that his genius brother had probably had that same sad look upon his face after he had sliced him with his sai, but he had been too angry to see it.
You really screwed up this time, Raph . . .
The turtle in red heaved out a long, slow breath. He hated all of this feeling guilty crap, and yet, that was all he had been able to feel ever since he had hurt Donnie. It felt as though there was a crushing weight pushing down upon his chest and he just wanted to get it off of him.
He just wanted his brainy brother back.
The Shellraiser coming to an abrupt stop pulled Raph out of his thoughts and his gaze shifted from Donnie's vacant seat to the front of the vehicle where Leo was already on his feet. The grim look on the oldest turtle's face did nothing to dissuade Raph's own growing anxiety.
Without exchanging a word, the three brothers climbed out of the vehicle and immediately scaled up and over the fence surrounding the junkyard, just as they had done hundreds of times in the past. They knew the property all too well thanks to their mechanically inclined brother. Donnie subjected them to part runs on a regular basis. Anytime that they were anywhere remotely near the vicinity of the scrap yard, the genius turtle would insist on making a quick stop. Of course, Donatello's idea of a quick stop was certainly not the same as theirs. Once their brother got to rummaging around the facility, it was like he lost all sense of time. That tendency to lose time could have been the reason why their brother hadn't called them, but regrettably, it didn't explain why he wasn't answering his T-phone.
"So what's the plan, Fearless?" Raph asked, although he was pretty sure that his older brother was going to tell them what to do whether he posed the question or not. Spewing out orders was what Leo did in a crisis.
"Let's split up. We'll cover more ground that way," Leo responded gallantly, as if his younger brothers actually needed to be informed that splitting up would allow them to search more territory. Sometimes, Raph swore that Leonardo thought that they were stupid. It was either that or he just liked to hear the sound of his own voice.
Then, as if to prove Raph's point, Leo's voice sounded out once again.
"I'll take the middle. You guys head east and west."
Without waiting for his brothers' consent or one of Raph's snide comments that typically followed his commands, Leo took off like a shot straight ahead.
"I guess Leo's going that-a-way," Mikey said with a casual shrug of his shoulders while he watched his oldest brother bolt out of sight. The youngest turtle then tapped a fingertip against his chin and rolled his eyes upwards, like he was deep in thought.
Seeing his baby brother clearly thinking too hard, Raph was tempted to make one of those snide comments that Leo had been avoiding, but he elected not to. At least, not yet, anyway.
Mikey then started to think out loud.
"Hmmm . . . have to choose wisely here. Something's telling me that I should go left tonight. But another part of me keeps saying go right, bro. Go right. Yeah . . . I'm definitely thinking that right is the way to go. It's like I got this feeling in my gut or something."
"I'll give you a feeling in your gut!" Raph growled impatiently, holding up a clenched hand and shaking it a few inches from Mikey's face.
The younger turtle's eyes expanded to the size of baseballs as he stared at his brother's fist.
"Right it is," Mikey squeaked out, pointing to the east with both of his forefingers. He then smiled nervously at the red-banded turtle, as though he was waiting for his older brother to say something or give him the green light to go.
A murderous glare from Raph sufficed and Mikey was off and running.
Raph shook his head a couple of times before taking off in the opposite direction of his baby brother, glad for the momentary reprieve from the little twerp. Sometimes, splitting up was the only way to get a break from Mikey's annoying antics. Maybe that had been the real reason that Leo had suggested it in the first place.
Not a bad tactic, Fearless. There might be hope for you yet . . .
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The last thing that Donatello had been working on before the fight had broken out had been the Stealth Bike. Leo had noticed that his genius brother had the machine pretty much torn apart, which probably meant that Donnie had gone to the junkyard on a parts run in hopes of finding the items that he needed to complete the repair job that he had started.
A parts run? Really? You seriously think the only reason Donnie left the lair was because he needed parts? Leonardo mentally criticized himself. He couldn't believe that he was actually attempting to appease his guilty conscience by pretending that Donnie had simply headed off to the junkyard for supplies. He had struck his younger sibling in anger, and now, he had the gall to try to convince himself that his brother's running off had nothing to do with that. All so that he wouldn't feel so bad about what he had done?
Could you be anymore selfish, Leonardo?
Squeezing his eyes shut for a moment, Leo forced himself to tune out his reproachful thoughts so that he could focus all of his concentration on finding Donnie. There would be plenty of time for Leonardo to haul himself over the coals later, once he located his brother.
And so, the leader pushed onward.
The junkyard wasn't exactly organized into clearly defined aisles or sections, but Leo had gone on part runs with Donatello often enough to know where his brainy brother generally liked to search. There was one particular location towards the middle of the scrap yard that immediately came to Leo's mind. The spot had several back–to–back mountains of junk that Donnie seemed rather drawn to when out scavenging for items. Leo could always find the location by first heading towards the car crusher and claw crane, and then, taking a left and heading towards what was usually one of the tallest piles of scrap in the junkyard.
Running as fast as his feet would carry him, Leo quickly approached the crusher and crane. Once he was past them, he swiftly headed west towards the largest pile of junk in his line of vision. He slowed his momentum to a brisk walk so he could seek out any signs that Donnie had passed through the area.
It always proved rather difficult to track someone when in a junkyard. Most of the ground was covered with litter and loose scrap metal, essentially eliminating any chance of finding distinct footprints to follow. Plus, it wasn't like one could see if something was out of place. The site was literally full of garbage. What exactly would be considered out of place amidst tons upon tons of debris?
Much to Leonardo's dismay, he was nearing his destination and there was still no sign of his little brother. The only thing that seemed to stretch out as far as the eye could see was . . . well, junk.
The turtle in blue pulled out his T-phone and dialed his brother's number again. Still, there was no answer, nor did he hear a phone ring, which he would have if Donnie were anywhere near.
Panic continued to swell inside of the oldest turtle.
"Donnie?" Leo called out for his brother, figuring it was worth a shot, but the only response that he received was the sound of the wind howling. The same wind that kept relentlessly blowing and getting colder with each passing day. It was definitely not the best night to be out for a walk. Especially not in the injured and unhealthy condition that Donnie was in.
Maybe Donnie passed out somewhere. Maybe that's why he isn't answering his T-phone.
Leo cringed at the thought of his brother being so sick that he had passed out, but it was far better than the other appalling alternatives that were racing through the leader's mind right now. Leonardo's suddenly overactive imagination was making it harder and harder for him to remain calm.
"Donnie!" Leonardo called out once again, only this time, his voice had nearly doubled in volume and it was filled with much more dread than before. He had bellowed his brother's name so loudly, he was sure that his other brothers had heard it, along with anyone else who may have been near the facility at the time, but he didn't care. At the moment, there was only one thing that Leo cared about, and that was finding his missing brother.
The blue-clad turtle continued towards the tallest pile of scrap, but he knew that he was quickly running out of real estate and Donnie was still nowhere to be seen.
The junkyard was a large facility, but it was not huge by any means. It generally didn't take them this long to locate their genius brother when he was out roaming the grounds of the scrap yard. If Donatello was here, one of them should have found him by now. Knowing this, Leonardo picked up his pace.
When he got within a dozen feet of the scrap pile that he had been heading towards, he spotted something that brought his momentum to a screeching halt.
It was his brother's duffle bag and the sight of it lying abandoned on the ground made Leonardo's stomach turn. The oldest turtle knew for a fact that his brainy brother would never willingly just leave his beloved duffle bag behind when he was out on a parts run. That duffle bag always contained the various supplies that Donnie considered crucial to take with on junkyard excursions, not to mention he would place any findings from said excursions inside of the bag for safekeeping. When at the junkyard, that bag went everywhere that Donnie went. It was like his security blanket.
That begged the question: where was Donnie?
Leo's stomach continued to pirouette uneasily and his heart began to pound erratically inside of his chest as he approached the forsaken bag, afraid of what he was going to find. The lighting in the junkyard was fairly dim, but as he drew closer to his brother's tattered bag, he could have sworn that it was stained even more than usual.
Then, he saw the color of the stains and his queasy stomach bottomed out.
He prayed that he was wrong. He prayed that it wasn't what it looked like.
The sudden clamor of his T-phone pierced the night air and nearly scared him out of his shell. The particular ringtone indicated that he had received a text message, which made his heart begin to flutter wildly with anticipation. He didn't want to get his hopes up too soon, but in all honesty, he already had.
Leo knew that if Raph or Mikey wanted to get a hold of him, they wouldn't have bothered with texting him. They were both within close enough proximity that they would have just yelled out to him or come and found him. Odds were, it wasn't April or Casey. They rarely – if ever – texted him. They were a lot closer to Donnie and Raph, so if they were going to text somebody, it would have been one of his brothers, not him. And it definitely wasn't Master Splinter. He was a bit old school, so he didn't have a clue how to text, nor did he ever use the mobile device that Donnie had made for him. He was perfectly content with his vintage cheese phone.
Having just rationally eliminated everyone but his missing brother from the list of possibilities of who would be texting him, Leo felt his spirits rise. It had to be his genius brother.
Taking deep breaths in an attempt to get his heart rate back down to a nonlethal level, Leo eagerly reached for the communication device attached to his belt. Just as he had concluded, the text had come from Donnie. A relieved smile stretched across his face, but as soon as he read the text message, the happy expression instantly faded and any sense of relief all but vanished. His face then shifted into an expression of horror as his hands began to shake.
He couldn't take his eyes off of the message and his ability to breathe was suddenly compromised.
The word "no" was all that Leo could manage to gasp out.
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Raphael had no idea how his genius brother could spend hours on end at a place like this and not be bored out of his freaking shell. The red-clad turtle didn't see any appeal in rifling through a bunch of other people's trash. But, then again, he had never been able to see the appeal in most of the things that his brainiac brother occupied the majority of his time with. Text books, scientific research, instruction manuals, chemical behavior, computer programming, classic literature, medical journals, technology magazines, biological theories, clinical studies – basically Donnie was into everything that Raph made a point of avoiding. The turtle in purple was always reading or putzing around with stuff that the hotheaded turtle considered downright mind-numbing.
Sometimes, Raph worried that his immediate younger brother was somewhat of a lost cause. A complete and hopeless nerd . . . But as nerdy and irritating as his little brother was, Raph was fairly certain that Donnie was the only member of the family who was capable of keeping them all sane and together. His peacekeeper brother, with all of his crazy inventions, mad computer and mechanical skills, and amazing intellectual abilities, had saved their shells more times than Raph could keep track of. The genius was always protecting them as well as taking care of them.
Sure, Donnie may have been a geek, but he was their geek and Raph wouldn't trade him for the world. He would literally do anything to protect his younger brother.
That was why it was killing Raph inside that he had hurt his little brother so badly. He was supposed to protect him, yet he had injured him, both mentally and physically. In the back of his mind, he could still see the bloodied gash he had made across Donnie's shoulder and the brokenhearted expression on his younger sibling's face just before he had rushed out of the garage.
Raph fought back a roar of frustration, knowing that his temper and his own stupidity were the reasons that they were out searching for their brainy brother on this godawful night.
They had to find Donnie and make things right. He had to make things right, because all of this blaming himself and feeling bad for what he had done garbage totally sucked.
Raph just hoped that Leo and Mikey were having better luck finding their missing brother than he was. The second oldest turtle had already exhausted his search area and not found any evidence that Donnie had been there. He had even checked the outside perimeter of the far west end of the junkyard where his brother rarely ventured. Still, he hadn't found a darn thing.
Disgusted with his lack of progress, Raph turned and started to head in the direction that he knew Leo would be, using the massive car crusher and crane as his beacon. The lighting over that area of the scrap yard was always the brightest and made it the logical place for Donnie to be drawn to. Like a moth to a flame kind of thing.
Not long after changing his course, Raph heard a faint cry carrying through the junkyard. He could have sworn that it was Leo's voice, but it may have just as soon been the wind whistling or perhaps he had been hearing things. The extreme cold and fatigue were probably starting to affect his senses.
Ceasing all movement, Raph strained to listen for the voice again.
The uneasy feeling building inside of him rose to new heights. He wondered what the heck was taking so long. Not out of his usual lack of patience, but out of an atypical sense of panic. His two brothers should have had more than enough time to cover their designated section of the junkyard at this point. And, if one of his brothers had located Donnie, they would have tried to contact him and let him know their position.
Something was wrong.
One of them should have found Donnie by now.
Unless Donnie isn't here . . .
A voice in the distance called out again, but this time, it was much louder and there was no question that it belonged to Leonardo. It had not been Raph's tired mind playing tricks on him. His older brother had called out Donnie's name and there was unmistakable fear in his voice. Just like Raph, Leo must have also realized that they should have located their missing brother by now.
If he's at the junkyard . . .
Raph whipped out his T-phone and switched on the GPS function. He then shook his head in disbelief. The tracking signal showed that Donnie was no longer at the junkyard. He was several miles away, in the opposite direction of the lair. It made no sense that Donnie would be heading away from the lair.
Unless he wasn't planning on coming home . . .
Or . . . what if he couldn't come home?
Inundated with a flood of awful mental pictures, Raph broke out into a full sprint in the direction that Leo's voice had come from. He was rapidly closing the gap between himself and his older brother when the ringtone of his T-phone instantly broke him out of his stride. He immediately stopped to check his phone, thinking that it could have been Donnie texting them something. Maybe his little brother had just gone somewhere for a few miscellaneous supplies and he was sending them a quick message to let them know where he was at.
Raph pulled out his T-phone again and promptly read the message. It was indeed from his genius brother, but what the red-masked turtle had just read did not bring the relief that he had been hoping for. If anything, it just got him even more worked up.
The first line of the message read, 'The self-destruct mechanism on Donatello's T-phone has been initiated,' followed by the date, the time, and the –
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"Last known GPS location?" Michelangelo read aloud, even though no one was around to hear it. Well, maybe some of the little critters crawling around the junkyard had heard him, but they probably didn't understand what he had said. Actually, he didn't really understand what he had just said either. He scratched his bald head as he stared down at the display of his T-phone, confused by the weird text message that he had just received from his brainy big brother.
The youngest turtle had been scouring the scrap yard for Donnie, just like Leo had told him to do, when he had heard his oldest brother calling out for the same brother that they were all supposed to be searching for. Leo sounded super stressed, so Mikey had run faster than a shuriken towards the sound of his big brother's voice. The turtle in orange had just made it past the big car smasher thingy and 'The Claw' (as he liked to call it) when his T-phone had started vibrating. That had made him stop cold in his tracks so he could check if had been Donnie.
As it turned out, it had been Donnie. Well, sort of . . .
Mikey was still gaping at the message that he had gotten from his smartest brother a few moments ago, trying to figure out what exactly it meant.
The first sentence was now officially starting to make him wig out.
'The self-destruct mechanism on Donatello's T-phone has been initiated.'
Oh man! That can't be good . . .
The youngest turtle knew that his techie big bro would never blow up his phone unless it was something really, really bad. The last time Mikey remembered Donnie setting off the self-destruct option on his T-phone was when the two of them had been –
Captured . . .
Reality hit him with all the tenderness of a sledgehammer.
No! No, no, no, no!
Frantically hooking his T-phone back on his belt, Mikey ran like a madturtle towards the biggest scrap pile in the junkyard. He was totally sure that that had been the direction where Leo's voice had come from. Well, maybe not totally sure, but he was pretty darn sure . . .
Within a few minutes of receiving Donnie's creepy text message, Mikey had reached the tallest mountain of junk in the scrap yard. Once there, it took all but a second to find Leo and as soon as Mikey laid eyes upon his big brother, his heart sank like a stone. Leo was visibly upset and he was kneeling down on the ground beside –
That was when Mikey saw it . . .
That was when he realized what had his oldest brother so upset . . .
That was when his legs gave out from underneath him . . .
"D – Donnie . . . " The youngest turtle whimpered as he toppled to his knees and began to sob.
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To be continued . . .
*Author's Notes: Aw, poor Mikey . . . (;_;)
I really hope that you enjoyed this chapter. Once again, please continue to read/vote on/comment on this story if you like it. I would love to know if you are enjoying my story. Thank you for reading. ;) CJ