Gritting his teeth in a determined snarl, Leo blocked another razor sharp combat knife swinging straight for his throat with a katana, then side stepped a punch and skipped back to hook a foot behind the mercenary's knee, sweeping up and sending him flying face down onto the floor. The blue masked turtle twisted around to quickly meet a tanto blade, and held it in a lock for just a moment, then the floor shuddered violently underfoot, and everybody, turtles and mercenary alike, had to lurch to maintain their balance. At the other end of the cargo plane, wind howled through black clouds and wild, pelting rain, the view visible because the cargo door had been blown completely off by a deflected grenade throw.

Leo blew the blue tails of his mask out of his face in annoyance, and quickly lunged forward to re-engage in the fight, hoping to take out yet another mercenary before they could recover as well.

Just why did they keep finding themselves in these type of situations?!

It had all begun a few years ago when, because this was their life and things like this just seemed to always be happening to them, the Foot Clan had splintered into two opposing factions. There was the honorable version of the Foot Clan, lead by Karai, their sister and the long lost daughter of Splinter, and then there was the evil forces loyal to the memory of the deceased Shredder, now calling themselves the NeoFoot. One thing had lead to another, fights were had, evil plans were revealed, assassination plots were uncovered, and now, in the climatic battle after a multi-national chase, Leo and his brothers were currently fighting about a dozen armed mercenaries in the belly of a large cargo plane flying through a turbulent thunderstorm somewhere over the East China Sea. The NeoFoot were after the cargo these mercenaries were guarding, and Karai had made it quite clear that if they got it, it would be bad. Very bad. As in, 'a city somewhere will probably be destroyed' bad.

Leo sighed, and dodged another attack. Because, of course, this was their life and things like this just seemed to always be happening to them.

"Donnie!" he called out, twirling and leaping off a surprised mercenary's armored shoulder to dive kick his buddy behind him. "The ride's still a little rough back here!"

"I'm working on it!" Donnie yelled back from the cockpit, his voice more then a little annoyed. "Might I remind you that we're flying through a major storm system, the cargo door's been ripped off, the control panel is damaged, and-" He cut off for a second, and there was a fleshy crunch, accompanied by a pained grunt, followed by an unconscious mercenary being tossed out of the cockpit. "-and I can't seem to get anything done because I keep getting interrupted!"

"Okay then. Mikey!" Leo grunted as a particularly burly human thug plowed into his crossed swords and pushed him back so his shell clanged against metal wall of the cargo plan.

"Yes, dearest big bro?" Mikey was clinging to a panicking human's head like a starfish, and paused in his battering.

"Go help Donnie!" Leo indicated the cockpit door with a slight inclination of his head, his voice strained as he pressed back against the surprisingly strong human.

"Sweet!" Mikey knocked his opponent out with the butt of his nunchucks. "Can I fly the plane?!"

"What?! No!" Donnie poked his head out in alarmed protest.

"I meant more like guarding him!" Leo clarified, exhaling in relief as Raph charged by and full body tackled his opponent away, relieving his aching arms. "Mikey, help Donnie by guarding him so he can fly the plane!"

"Oh thank goodness." Donnie said, relieved. He flipped his bo around, tripping a guy. "You need to specify that first next time, Leo!"

"Aw." Mikey sounded disappointed, but still somersaulted and vaulted his way easily towards the cockpit, swinging his chucks to bonk the guy that Donnie just tripped. "I never get to drive!"

"With good reason!" Raph grunted, slamming his fist across the pinned mercenary's face and knocking him out cold.

There was another turbulent shudder, and a loud crack of thunder outside. Leo swore inwardly as they all fought to keep their balance in the bouncing plane. They had to get out of this storm!

His shell hit a large container, and he grabbed it, hoping to steady himself. Then he caught movement in the corner of his eye, and moved just in time to avoid the machete flung at his head.

A machete?! Who throws a machete?!

But then he didn't have time to ponder that question any further, as the machete punctured the container he was standing right next to.

"Gah!" Leo yelped in surprise and pain as the seams around the puncture in the pressurized container burst, jetting out a stream of chemicals and mist. He stumbled back, trying to shield his face with his arms, but it was too late. Searing pain jolted through his face, and he cried out, falling to the ground and holding his face in anguish.

"Die turtle freak!" He faintly heard the machete thrower snarl.

"Leo!" he could hear the concern in Raph's breathless cry, and then there was a crash and a grunt as two creatures collided next to Leo, snarling and fighting. Raph's voice was much closer and sounded strained as he asked, "How bad is it bro?"

"I... My eyes! It got in my eyes!" Leo gasped, pushing himself up to one hand and knees, desperately clenching at his burning face with the other hand. "I can't see!"

Raph swore. "Leo's down!" he yelled. "Mikey! Get over here and help me cover him!"

"Oh crud! On it, bro!"

There was the sound of chains whipping through the air, the surprised grunt of a human male, and general sounds of chaos and fighting around him.

Leo grabbed his bandana and ripped it off, trying to get the burning chemicals away from his face. He desperately wiped at his face with his arm wrappings, trying desperately to see.

"Leo's hurt?!" Donnie's voice sounded panicked. "How bad is it?!"

"Stay up there and keep flying the plane!" Leo ordered through pained gasps, clutching his face as he tried to get to his feet. "I'll... I'll be okay!"

His... his swords. Where did his swords go? As soon as his eyes cleared and he was able to see again, he had to help his brothers! He needed his swords!

Suddenly there was the sound of an explosion, and Leo was tossed off his feet again as the plane lurched wildly, landing hard on his plastron.

"Donnie!" he heard Mikey wail among the panicked cries of humans as the plane rolled around wildly.

"We've been hit! Hang on!" he heard Donnie's voice squeak out up at the cockpit as he fought for control of the wildly pitching plane. Somehow, he managed to get the plane upright again, but barely, and from the sounds of multi-syllable curses, he was obviously fighting for every inch of control. "We have to land! Now!"

"We're over the middle of the fucking ocean!" Raph's voice was now across the room, and he grunted and there was a crash of wood, as if he had just pushed something off of him "There's no place to land!"

"Guys, stay calm!" Leo grunted, unsteadily pushing himself up again. "We need to-"

Then Donnie cursed and the plane bucked and spun with such violence that he was tossed backwards again, his shell scraping across the metal floor as he slid helpless across it.

"Leo! Look out!"

Leo felt his heart freeze at the raw and uncharacteristic panic and fear in Raph's voice. Danger! He was apparently in real imminent danger! Look out? He couldn't see anything! Look out for wha...

A large object slammed into him with enough force to knock the breath completely out of him. The large crate or shipping container or whatever it was continued it's slide across the tilting plane's floor, pushing Leo along with it on its path. Leo's breath hitched as he realized that he was being pushed in the direction of the missing cargo bay ramp.

"LEO! NO!"

And then the floor was gone, and in the darkness that was now his entire world, all Leo knew was there was no longer anything underneath him, only rain and the roaring wind of the storm outside.

He had been pushed out of the cargo bay! He was falling!

Leo only had a momentary snatch of Raph and Mikey's screams fading quickly away into the distance, before everything was stolen away from him by the roar of wind and rain and thunder.

Never before had he experienced something so terrifying. He wasn't even sure if he was falling downwards! He couldn't see, and the wind from the storm was so intense that it felt like it was physically lifting him up and shaking him around like a ragdoll. The rain sliced across his shell and skin, pelting him like hail, and a nearby boom of thunder shook his very core with its intensity.

And then Leo was slammed shell first hard against a surface, and all the breath was painfully forced out of his lungs even as a unbelievably powerful cascade of water rushed over his head and pulled him down into a churning chaos. The impact almost knocked him unconscious, and it was only through sheer willpower that he refused to surrender what little senses he had left.

Leo's world was only darkness, with water churning all around him, tossing him back and forth and tumbling him all around like he was nothing more then a paper doll in a tornado. He had no idea which way was up or down anymore, and his lungs begged for air. He desperately clawed at the water around him, hoping desperately that he was moving upwards towards the surface.

Just as his limit was reached and his lungs were about to give out, his head managed to barely breached the water's surface, allowing him only a small, lifesaving gasp of air just before a huge torrent of water washed over him, forcing him under once more. Leo was sent tumbling head over heels through the cold and violent water.

Desperately, he struggled against the torrents of water, and somehow managed to surface once more, and once more was only given again only a few precious seconds to simultaneously cough out water and try to inhale air at the same time before he was forced under again.

Over and over, Leo managed to fight his way to the surface for a gulp of air, only to be sucked back down into the churning depths of the sea. Time seemed to slow down. It seemed like he had been stuck in this endless cycle of darkness, water, and fighting for every scrap of air for an eternity. Nothing else existed, nothing else mattered. Only that fight for the next breath.

And then Leo's shell slammed into something hard floating in the water, and he instinctively grabbed at it. Another wave almost tore it out of his tentative grasp, but it finally registered in his stunned and foggy brain that this was a piece of debris that was floating. It floated! He quickly lunged forward and clung to it all the tighter.

It was metal, round, and hollow. A barrel? He couldn't tell through the never ending darkness that was his world, but when the next wave crashed over him, sending water pounding over him head in its attempt to bury him, the buoyancy of the object sent him bobbing straight back up to the air almost immediately.

Leo clung tightly to it, gasping and gagging and coughing and trying to keep breathing and sputter out any water he kept accidentally inhaling.

He couldn't let go.

No matter what, he couldn't let go.

To let go was to die.

He... He couldn't let go.


Leo had no idea how long he clung to that barrel in the darkness, battered by the roaring, pounding waves and the gales of wind and sheets of solid, pelting rain as thunder shook the air around him. Hours. Days? It could have been lifetimes, for all he knew.

The only purpose of his existence at that moment was only to cling to that piece of flotsam, his lifeline, the only thing keeping him from being sucked down into the depths. Conscious thought was eventually driven away, his muscles screamed in agony, and only his sheer stubbornness and will to live kept his grip firm on the barrel. There was no other option, no other purpose. Just hold on, no matter what.

But at some point, what seemed like a whole lifetime later, the storm eventually lost its intensity, though Leo was hardly aware of the fact. It hardly registered in the uninterrupted darkness that he wasn't constantly being shoved deep underwater by crashing waves anymore, that now he was more just bobbing along rocky waves in darkness and cold and the driving need to Not Let Go!

Then, in his exhausted, barely conscious mind, Leo suddenly realized that his feet were brushing against something. Dragging across...?

Sand...

There was sand under his feet...

There was a moment of panic as the water pulled him back, and he lost that wonderful sensation against his half dead feet, but then another violent surge shoved him forward, and the sound of his shell slamming against a rock was both painful and wonderful.

Rocks meant land. Sand meant shore. He needed to get out of the water!

Leo let go of his lifeline, the barrel that had saved him against all odds, and clung to the rock, sputtering and coughing. Then, exhausted muscles screaming, fighting his every attempt to move, he pushed off. His feet sank into the fine sand, but somehow waded through the shallows until there was no more water to help support his weight, and he collapsed to his hands and knees, too exhausted to support the weight of his own body.

Everything was still dark...

...Away from the water...

He had to get away from the water.

Conjuring every last bit of his strength, forcing his leaden muscles to respond somehow, Leo crawled forward farther up onto the beach, panting, coughing, and choking. Then his hands touched what felt like grass, and a second later he bumped into something solid. He lifted his hand shakily to touch it, and quickly realized it was a rough tree trunk.

Exhausted, Leo collapsed into the sand and plants on the other side of the tree, keeping it between him and the sound of the roaring ocean behind him. Too tired to even curl up, even the distant thunder and crash of waves quickly faded away, enveloped, like everything else, into endless darkness..


A/N

Yes, I know this tropes been done multiple times, but it's one that's always intrigued me, and I decided to give it a try myself.

There's a select few who might recognize most of this first chapter. I had written this part a long time ago, dipping my toes into this particular story idea, and had posted it on another site, among other unfinished plot ideas. I picked it up, dusted it off, and decided it was time to give it a proper try. The reason I was hesitant to try it before was the plot I had planned for it made some of the characters seem a little out of character. In fact, I briefly toyed with the idea of instead using the 2k18 turtles, as it might fit their personalities more. But I really, really like writing the 2k3/2k12 turtles, so I wasn't thrilled with that idea.

But, if anything, the last few stories I've written has shown me that the characters are going to take the story in the direction they want, my careful plotting be damned, so I finally decided that if they wanted to drive, then fine. I'll start this story, and watch with intense curiosity to see where they take it.