A Turtle's Heart

The Fight

"Y/N he can handle himself! We have to go! You heard him!" April yelled, pulling Y/N along. Y/N groaned and gave in, following April down the path and out of sight.

Raph watched as his friends ran out of sight, hoping Draxum wouldn't send anything after them.

He continued to fight off the vines as they darted towards him, hoping Draxum would show his face and possibly his brothers.

"Ah, you put up a better fight than the others, you are much stronger than them," Draxum's voice ran out around him. Raph couldn't pinpoint exactly where it was coming from and couldn't look away from the vines long enough to find out.

"My brothers are plenty strong!" Raph shouted back, grabbing his tonfās and punching at the vines around him as more burst from the ground.

"True, but you are far stronger. I could train you, you could become so much stronger, an amazing warrior to fight against the human threat!" Draxum retorted, still not visible to Raph. His inability to see Draxum frustrated Raphael.

"The humans aren't a threat! And you threw my brother off a building, I will not work for you!" Raph dodged more vines and looked around to try and find the sheep yokai.

Finally, Raph spotted Draxum as he rose on a vine out of the ground.

Raph ran forward and punched the vine Draxum was on, causing Draxum to fall backwards. But Draxum waved his hand as he fell and made another vine catch him and bring him away from the angry snapper.

"Come back here! Where are my brothers!" Raph yelled, running after Draxum. Draxum stopped his vine and stood firm, glaring at Raph.

"They are right here, come get them," Draxum grinned, moving his hand and summoning three vines that held his brothers tightly.

"Raph! Run! We can handle this sheep creep!" Mikey shouted.

"No! I'm not leaving you behind!" Raph yelled back.

Raph ran forward, slamming his fists together and creating a second, mystic pair of fists with his tonfās.

Just as he punched one of the vines, they all reacted and released his brothers, dropping them much to everyone but Draxum's surprise. Draxum simply watched with a smirk.

Suddenly, all three vines snapped forward, wrapping around Raphael and raising him into the air.

Donnie, Leo, and Mikey panicked, hitting their distress signals to turn them off and taking out their weapons. The three turtles tried to attack the vines holding their eldest brother up but were bombarded by more vines.

"Guys! Go! Before he gets all of us!" Raph shouted at his brothers.

"No! We aren't leaving you! Just like you didn't leave us!" Leo snapped back, slicing a vine in half and opening a portal, dropping him on top of his older brother.

Leo cut the vines around Raphael. Unfortunately more vines wrapped around the two.

Mikey, using his Kusari-fundo, grabbed a tree, uprooting it and throwing it at Draxum. Draxum was caught off guard by this and pulled his hands up to cover his face, making his vines fly up to protect him. When his brothers were pulled into the way, Mikey tugged back on his Kusari-fundo and stopped the tree hurtling towards the two turtles.

The tree flew backwards and into the small section of woods.

"Stop hiding behind my brothers you sheep faced coward!" Donnie yelled, flying up and attacking more vines with his tech bo.

"Not a coward, simply using my resources," Draxum stated. It made Donnie furious to hear his brothers called such a dehumanizing thing, even if they weren't humans. They had feeling and were living, sentient creatures! Hearing Draxum call them "resources" made him unbelievably angry.

Mikey used his Kusari-fundo to grab one of Draxum's vines and launch himself forward at the yokai. Of course Draxum dodged, but that's what Mike was counting on. He landed on the vines holding his brothers and nodded towards Donnie. The soft shell picked up what his little brother was doing and flew forward to distract Draxum as best he could.

With Draxum occupied, Mikey ran to his older brothers, grabbing Leo's ōdachi and wedging it into the vines, twisting it and slicing the vines off of them. This caught Baron's attention and he glanced at the turtles as they landed on the ground. Donnie took the chance he saw and hit Draxum hard in the face with his bo staff.

Draxum reeled back in pain, rubbing his cheekbone and glaring at Donnie harshly.

Donnie stuck his tongue out at Draxum and flew over him, dodging vines to get to his brothers. When he got there and laneded, Donnie deactivated his battle shell and stood with his brothers.

"A tough lot you are, huh turtles." Draxum chuckled, wincing a bit from the pain of being hit. Donnie hadn't hit his face directly as he was wearing a mask, but the force of the impact still did quite the amount of damage.

"We can do this all day, come on, sheep man!" Mikey yelled. Draxum glared down at his creations, anger in his expression as he frowned, knowing the box turtle wasn't entirely wrong. If he kept trying to fight them, it would last for a while, he had made them with the DNA of the great Lou Jitsu.

"I want to train you! Make you strong, powerful warriors! Why are you fighting me! We are in the same boat here! We must eliminate the human threat! They are a plague on this world and must be wiped out!" Draxum bellowed.

Raphael felt his blood boil. He felt enraged to hear Draxum imply that he would hurt the humans of this world. Any human. Especially his human. Y/N was a human. Draxum spoke of them as though they were bugs to be stepped on. As if Y/N was a bug to be stepped on.

"No! The humans are good! Not all of them are bad! We should not be trying to hurt them!" Raph shouted back, gripping his tonfās tightly.

"Oh yes, like the ones you hang out with, April and, gah, what was the other one's name? Y/N? Yes, Y/N. All of them, all of them need to be wiped out! And I will do it, with, or without your help!" Draxum replied, laughing, knowing it would piss him off.

"If you lay even a finger on Y/N I swear to the pizza supreme in the sky I will tear your eyes out of your skull and shove them down your throat so you can watch me tear your carcass open!" Raph barked, slamming his fist together and making a mystic shield around them, his eyes now fully white with rage as his breath was heavy and drawn out.

Everyone was stunned. They had never seen Raph so angry. He looked like he would make good on his threat, even Draxum was a bit taken aback.

"May- maybe dial it down a notch there Raph," Leo whispered, nervously looking over at his older brother.

There was a long pause, a long period where no one said a word or moved a muscle. No one wanted to trigger a bigger fight than necessary and Raphael looked as though he was itching for one.

Draxum was the first to move. He waved his hand, making the vines that held him high slowly move away from the turtles.

The turtles prepared for whatever he was planning, holding their weapons at the ready and keeping a close eye on his movements.