Like Father Like Son [ROTTMNT]

Chapter Twenty-One: Flatline

Donnie's knees were shaking as he stumbled out of the portal into the living room, April's head lolling against his shoulder. As soon as they were clear, her grip on her bat weakened, the weapon clattering to the floor.

"Raph, try and get that helmet off of him," he said, studying April's pallid face. He glanced around, straining to hold more and more of her weight. "I need easy access to the area around his neck." To April, he murmured softly. "Can you- can you make it to the chair, 'Pril?"

Her eyes fluttered and she nodded, sluggishly fumbling to stand and walk over to Splinter's usual seat. Her knees entirely buckled a step in, and Donnie lunged to grab her under her armpits.

She needed to get medical attention, now. It wasn't something that could be put off.

But Leo- Donnie squeezed his eyes shut, shaking his head. Prioritize. Check the situation, who needed attention more?

Would he have to choose who to give emergency care to?

"How bad is it if I-" Raph grunted, sounding pained. "-can't get it off of him, Donnie?"

Donnie opened his eyes and turned to look over at them. Leo was squirming, trying in vain to rip free from Raph's grasp with a kind of feral desperation that left raked claw tracks carved against Raph's collarbones and probable bruises all over his upper body, but the oldest just held Leo tighter, as if scared that the second he put him down Draxum would come reclaim him.

Another warning trill from the collar and Raph braced himself, this time dropping to one knee as Leo stared up at him in blatant terror.

Donnie shuddered as Raph screamed, his own left hand burning with the phantom sensation of being shocked.

He could not save his brothers from any of their pain once a shock started; he would simply join the current if he grabbed onto them. If Raph was just taking the shock because he refused to let Leo go through this alone, then by all rights, Donnie should do the same. But at the same time, even if it lessened the guilt of watching Raph and Leo go through this, Donnie knew that if he got shocked again he wouldn't be strong enough to keep his wits about him afterwards to actually help. So all he could do was watch, feeling painfully, agonizingly helpless as he shifted his grip on April.

Mikey catapulted through the glowing blue portal sitting in the middle of the room just as the shock ended, skidding to a stop as his arms pinwheeled in the air. Not taking a second's pause, he quickly scanned the room. "Guys!" he cried, heading towards Raph immediately, who had sweat dripping down his face. "How is he?" he asked, tossing aside his kusari-fundo into the corner of the room.

"Ugh," Raph gasped, his breath coming out in shaky heaves. Leo seemed to have made up his mind to go back to trying to kick and claw at Raph with a renewed desperation, his eyes wide and blank with mindless fear. "He'll be fine, once this collar is finally off. Right, Dee?" He shifted, trying to lessen the damage from Leo, and Donnie caught sight of his forearms, already starting to show telltale marks of electrical burns from wherever he had been in direct contact with Leo.

"...we have to hurry." His own voice sounded distant, like someone else was saying it, as his mind raced. Donnie glanced between Leo in Raph's arms to April in his own, caught in a frozen struggle between who to help first. He was the only one who could help Leo, but if April was left alone...

April, as always, read him like a book. "Go help him," she hissed.

"But-"

"Do not have let me get stabbed for nothing, Donatello," she gritted out. She shoved him weakly off and staggered to the living room chair and basically collapsed in it, pressing Mikey's now-maroon sash against her shoulder.