Lost in the Fight

Chapter 11 - Turtles and Tigers and Bears! Oh, My!

*Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise.

*Author's Notes: Here is chapter 11 of 'Lost in the Fight' and it's another intense one.

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to read, vote on, and comment on this story. The feedback has been wonderful and I am extremely grateful for the support.

As always, please continue to read/vote on/comment on this story if you are enjoying it. I would really appreciate it. Thank you for reading. ;) CJ

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Chapter 11 - Turtles and Tigers and Bears! Oh, My!

It seemed so cliché to him, waking up face down on the littered floor of what was clearly an abandoned warehouse. If bad guys didn't actually want to get caught, then why did they always choose to hide out in abandoned factories or warehouses? They may as well have put up a huge, flashing neon arrow on the outside of the building to let any good guys passing by know exactly where they were.

Donatello probably should have been grateful that his enemies had been so predictable, but he was more irritated by it than anything else. It was insulting that they couldn't at least try to come up with a creative plan. It made him feel as though he wasn't worth the effort of putting a little thought into their evil schemes.

The turtle would have continued on with his mental rant, but he was distracted by an unexpected deluge of pain shooting through him, reminding him of the many injuries that had been inflicted upon him over the past few . . . hours? Maybe days? He honestly had no clue how long he had been unconscious for. He could see that it was still dark outside, which could have meant that not much time had passed since he had been attacked, but then again, a week could have gone by for all he knew. The way that his body ached, he could have sworn that he had been out of commission for several months. Literally everything hurt.

Groaning in utter misery, Donnie peered over at his injured shoulder with his eye that wasn't practically swollen shut. He could see that his enemies had been kind enough to cauterize the stab wound while he was out cold.

Well, that would explain the burnt flesh smell lingering in the air . . .

That disturbing thought made him cringe in his shell. Thankfully, he had been oblivious during what would have no doubt been an excruciating procedure had he been cognizant at the time. He then grimaced, realizing that the warehouse wasn't exactly a sterile, controlled environment to perform cautery. He was willing to bet that his captors hadn't taken the time or the consideration to clean the wound properly before burning it. He also found it extraordinarily hard to believe that they had bothered to use the appropriate medical tools for such a procedure. The genius turtle's assumption was that they had most likely used a lighter or built a fire to heat up the end of one of Tiger Claw's weapons or some random piece of metal that they had found at either the junkyard or the warehouse. Taking into consideration the increased tissue damage that his kidnappers had caused by burning him, as well as factoring in the contaminated surroundings of both the junkyard and warehouse, Donatello concluded that his chances of developing an infection were extremely high. And he didn't even want to think about the wicked scar that the puncture wound would leave behind once it healed.

If it healed, Donatello thought bleakly, well aware of how grievous the injury was. Sometimes, being the one in the family with the most medical knowledge was more of a curse than a blessing. Knowing the potential consequences and worst case scenarios just served as a constant source of stress.

Again, Donnie probably should have been grateful for his enemies preventing his exsanguination, but gratitude was certainly not something that he was feeling right about now. Besides, he was guessing that the two behemoths hadn't stopped him from bleeding to death out of the kindness of their hearts. Their actions were presumably not in his best interest.