The Worst Day

Troubled day, bad day, the worst day.

Shredder's troops had practically disintegrated the building around them. The rebels were forced into retreat; bloodied and screaming, there was no way to fight, no chance for surrender.

Leo sent Raph away. Mikey was missing but Casey was down and there was no way to tell how badly he was hurt. Everything; everyone was covered in blood. Raph made Leo promise to stay until their little brother was found.

Raph lifted Casey in his arms and ran as another mortar hit their makeshift barricade. Leo leaped aside, rolling free of the falling debris and coughing up the smoke that the fires sent into every crack and crevice.

Then he was on his feet, calling for Mikey, calling and coughing. Wild eyed adolescents ran past him; children with guns who should have been allowed to be children.

The Shredder's fighters were approaching. They would wipe out any living thing that remained. Leo could not leave.

Above the increasing din he heard the sound of his little brother's voice. Tripping and stumbling over rubble, Leo spotted Michelangelo.

His arm was trapped beneath a section of a fallen stone wall. Leo tried to lift it off of Mikey, but it weighed tons and wouldn't budge. Grabbing up a large stone, Leo began to chip away at the wall.

"Go Leo! Get the hell out of here!" Mikey screamed at him.

"No! I won't leave you!" Leo shouted, doubling his efforts to remove the stone.

"Leo, listen to me. This will take too long. Shredder's troops will kill you on sight, you have to go. Please Leo!" Mikey begged.

"I'd rather die with you than run away and leave you alone," Leo's voice dropped to a whisper, threatening to crack even then.

Mikey's face settled into a mask that was without emotion. Shifting his body, he stretched his trapped arm as far out as he could.

Meeting Leo's eyes and holding them, he said, "You know what you have to do."

Leo's voice shook. "I can't."

"Then I'll die. Choose, Leo, but do it now," Mikey told him.

The sound of the drawn blade was loud even in the deafening fight that surrounded two brothers.

So was Mikey's scream.

They escaped the mayhem that day. Mikey lost an arm.

Leo lost his vision. There are things one should never have to look upon.