Work Text:
Flare / water inhalation / “just hold on.”
“Just how do you plan to escape this time, turtles?” Bishop smiled.
The four brothers were once again captured by the government agent, separated out into four glass enclosures, all about 7 feet by 7 feet.
“By shoving my sai up yer-”
“Raph.” Leo locked his eyes onto Bishop. “What do you want this time?”
“Two things really.” Bishop put up one finger. “First off is to get you four out of my way, and second,” he put another finger up. “To sate my curiosity.”
“About what?” Don asked.
Bishop glanced at him, smiling wryly. “I figured since there’s four of you, I could test just how effective four different methods are for killing you. I’ve hand-picked them all.”
Raph slammed his fist against the glass. “Like hell you will!”
“Like you have any say.” Bishop circled around what looked like a control panel in the middle of the circle of the four traps. “Now, who’s should I activate first?”
“What do they all do?” Don seemed more cautious than before.
Bishop grinned wider. “Thank you for volunteering.”
“I didn’t-”
There was a panel above each of the cages, connecting to the ceiling of the room, and they each looked like vents, grated to prevent escape. When Bishop pressed a button, the one above Don snapped shut, and there was a low whirring sound that started up.
Don watched the panel for a moment, blinking when nothing else happened and looking back at Bishop. “What did that do?”
Bishop put a finger up to his lips. “Shush, you’ll ruin the results.”
Don squinted at him, confused, but the agent just turned away, apparently done with him for that moment. He messed with a different button, and Raph’s own panel seemed to shift above him.
Then sand began falling from it, nearly getting in the turtle’s eyes. “Ack, hey!” He stepped back from the middle of the enclosure where the sand was falling, only to bump into the glass. He growled, moving around the box, then running and slamming his shell into one of the glass walls. “Let us out you maniac!”
“Not likely.” Bishop clicked the next button, and the same thing happened with Leo’s enclosure, but instead of sand pouring out of the grate, it was water. Leo huffed. “What, you’re going to drown a turtle?”
“You’re not aquatic.” Bishop noted. “You won’t survive.”
Leo glared at him as he pushed the final button. The panel above Mikey didn’t move. Instead, there was a flicker in the corner of his box, and he turned to it.
A small flame flared up, growing from its spot. Mikey scrambled back to the opposite corner, looking around.
Don looked around, searching the box he was in for any kind of seams or imperfections. He didn’t find any, not even holes…for……air.
Oh shit.
Don looked up at the panel again. Airtight, the whole box was airtight save for a small segment in the corner. When he reached for it, he felt air being sucked into it like a low-quality vacuum.
“Asphyxiation, really?” Don asked. “How original.”
“Original enough that it took you so long to figure out.” Bishop shot back. “Besides, I can’t have that big brain of yours working overtime to get out of this, can I?”
Don glared at him, looking around to find that the fire in Mikey’s box had grown. The orange turtle had managed to curl himself up, trying to stay away from the smoke gathering above him, and he was visibly sweating.
Raph’s box was almost 3 feet deep in sand, and his legs were caught in it, riding up to his torso slowly but steadily. Leo’s water was deeper than that, filling up the tanks three quarters of the way full, leaving him to tread on it as he tried to get his last breaths in before he ran out.
And Don was starting to feel lightheaded and breathless.
He sank to his knees slowly, moving around to once again feel the seam of the glass to the floor. Still, he found nothing, and he was panicking… he was likely hyperventilating. That probably wasn’t helping his air intake any.
He tried hitting the glass, but it felt tempered, or like… like plexi something. Plexi… plexiglass?
Don rested his forehead against the cool surface of the glass, trying again to look around. Leo was fully swimming, Raph was… shouting something, and Mikey was moving… What was he doing?
Don didn’t know. His chest hurt, he couldn’t breathe and his vision was all fuzzy.
He was slowly slipping away into unconsciousness.
~~~
The glass by the fire was red. Mikey stared at it through watery eyes and he covered his snout with his elbow.
He tried to gauge how his brothers were doing, but couldn’t see much outside of his cube through the smoke. He could hear Raph, he was screaming.
Mikey peeled off the wraps he had around his ankles and wrists, tying one over his snout as he used them as cushions over one hand, and wrapped his belt around that for extra protection. He looked at the red spot as it grew, waiting until it was an appropriate size. He felt like it had to be big enough. He jumped forward, punching the spot with his wrapped fist and the whole wall shattered, using his momentum to roll through and past without staying in the fire.
He took a second, looking around before he realized he was out, but his brothers were not. He had broken out on the side opposite of the control panel, so he ran in, barreling into Bishop much to the man’s surprise. He had been watching Leo, who was losing his fight with the water quickly.
Mikey skimmed over the control panel frantically, trying to figure out what to push that wouldn’t make the situation worse. The panel seemed flimsy, only with the four programmed buttons, and some numbers and blinky lights that Mikey couldn’t read.
He tried pressing the button to his own enclosure, and the fire flared hotter and bigger.
Mikey watched it, frowning. That was off the table then. He instead grabbed the edges of the panel and yanked, managing to get a chunk off the edge, ripping the rest open to reveal skewed wires and mechanics.
“Just hold on, Leo!” Mikey didn’t take a moment, turning with the chunk he’d gotten and slamming it against Leo’s box. He had to hit it a few times to get it to crack, then once more for the pressure of the water to take over.
Leo fell out along with the water, his shell ramming into Raph’s box, and leaving a crack there too. Leo began coughing all the water out, so Mikey shoved him to the side to hit the crack he’d made to release Raph. The sand came falling out too, and Mikey hated the way it stuck to the water and his legs, grating against light burns.
He finally turned to Don’s box, running and slamming the panel piece into it repetitively until the glass shattered. Mikey looked around at his brothers. Leo was scooting over to help Raph, who looked like he was in a lot of pain. Mikey crouched by Don, trying to shake him awake.
“Mikey.” Leo called, and Mikey turned to look at him where he was pulling Raph into a sitting position. “Check his pulse!”
“Right.” Mikey pressed a finger up to the side of Donny’s neck, waiting for a moment. “I can’t find it!”
Leo looked about as panicked as Mikey felt. “Do you remember CPR?”
“I think?” Mikey turned back, laying Don carefully on his shell. He got up over him and clenched his hands together, beginning compressions. He also tried mouth-to-mouth and kept it up for a couple minutes, his breathing growing more haggard through the ache in his chest. “C’mon Donny.”
Leo helped Raph over, worriedly sinking down on the other side of Don. Raph reached out to try patting Don’s cheek to wake him up.
Then Don gasped.
It was light, and wheezy, but he took a breath, then another, and another.
And when he breathed, so did his brothers, all releasing a sigh of relief unanimously. The sigh made Raph groan, noting again his injuries. Leo looked at Mikey with a small smile. “Good job, Mike. We should get out of here.” he hoisted Raph onto his shell and asked Mikey to grab Don.
They made it out before Bishop woke up, and rushed home.
Raph had several cracked ribs, from the weight of the sand. Leo had swallowed some water, but not enough to keep him from taking care of his brothers. He patched up Mikey’s burns, and tended to Donny, giving him an oxygen mask and checking on him every hour. They were all anxiously waiting for him to wake up.
He didn’t for over a day, and Leo had started pacing a hole into the floor when he first groaned.
Leo and Mikey scrambled over, Raph was stuck in bed, craning his neck to try to see his twin. Donny groaned again, his eyes flickering open. He seemed to take a second to scan the two faces over him before he looked around. “Wha? Wh’re’s ‘aph? Hurt?”
Leo put a hand on his head, knowingly keeping him down before he tried to get up. “Raph’s fine, Don, he’s in the other bed. We’re all home and safe, so just take a deep breath.”
Don did as he was told, sinking into the pillows and closing his eyes again for a few seconds. “Bishop?”
“Mikey knocked him out, then we escaped.” Leo said, putting his free hand on Mikey’s shoulder. “He got us all out.”
Don looked up at Mikey and smiled. “Thanks.”
Mikey grinned back. “No problemo, brother!” he scooped Don into a hug, then pulled Leo in as well. Don complained that Raph wasn’t part of it and Raph retorted with a sassy remark about not wanting to be in it.
The whole interaction felt so normal and right that Mikey couldn’t help but relax. His brothers were safe, only minorly injured, and they were all still together.
Bishop hadn’t won this fight.