[Fanfic] TMNT: Trouble in the Tropics

[Panda_Kahn_fan]

Chapter eighteen

The two opponents lunged at each other, grappling for several minutes before the gator man forced the turtle back. Raph stabbed twice with his twin sais, but Leatherhead Drew his Bowie knife and blocked both strikes with his blade.

"Hah! You gonna attack my with those gardening tools, boy?" Leatherhead mocked him, twirling his knife in his claw. "It's gonna take more than that ta beat me, by Gumbo!"

Leatherhead swung the knife, and Raph dodged by leaping backwards. The gator man swung a second time, and the turtle caught it with his sai, tossing the knife aside.

"Not bad for a gardening tool, eh?" Raph smirked, as he headbutted Leatherhead, knocking him backward. "Got any better weapons than that toothpick, Wally Gator?"

Leatherhead growled, swinging his tail, and knocking the turtle back into the temple wall. Kicking his blade up off the ground with his boot, he caught the Bowie knife with his tail, and threw it straight at the turtle. Raph tried to dodge, but the knife speared him, right in the back of his shell.

"Arragh!" The turtle cried, pulling himself back to his feet. "How... how the hell do you move that fast?" Raphael asked, pulling the blade out of his shell. "You aren't a ninja!"

"No boy, I ain't no ninja." Leatherhead explained, cracking his neck. "My mamma was a bounty hunter, she taught me knife and tomahawk fighting. My papa was Cajun, he learned me how ta shoot, and savate kickboxing." He reached to his belt. "You ain't gonna have an easy time with me, ninja boy. I guarantee."

Running across the courtyard, Raph tossed several shuriken at the gator man. Leatherhead deflected each throwing star with a tomahawk, then threw the Apache weapon at Raph, The turtle ducked his head into his shell to avoid the deadly axe, which almost took his noggin clean off.

"Okay, that does it!" Raphael declared in anger, pulling out both of his sais. "No more mister nice turtle!"

"Boy, I'm gonna tear your shell open, and have your gizzard for breakfast!" Leatherhead took another tomahawk from his belt in his left hand, and took his Bowie knife in his right. "Let's do this thing, tout suite!"

The two opponents smashed into each other, sai colliding with tomahawk and knife again and again. Sometimes Leatherhead would try a tail swipe, or a bite with his powerful jaws, but the turtle would always manage to stay just out of the gator man's reach. Likewise, the Cajun always managed to bat away the ninjas shuriken and kunai.

"This isn't getting us anywhere!" Raph told the gator man. "We're too evenly matched!"

"That be true, by gumbo." Leatherhead agreed. "At least until moi gets the higher ground!"

The Cajun ran up the stairs of the temple, then jumped down, slashing both of his weapons simultaneously. The turtle managed to catch the blows with his sais, and the two pushed up against each other in a test of power.

"It no use, tortue!" Leatherhead growled. "I be stronger than you!"

"Yeah, maybe so." Raphael replied. "But my weapons are stronger than yours!"

Raph pushed up against the gator's knife and tomahawk hard, breaking both of them off at the handle. But before he could strike the finishing blow, Leatherhead had jumped out from underneath him.

"Why, you no good pile of putain! Those were family heirlooms!" The gator man was so angry, he snorted steam from his nose. "I'm gonna beat you like a drum, boy!"

Leatherhead roared, jumping feet first at the turtle, and hitting Raph with several powerful savate kicks. He pummeled the turtle with several powerful blows, knocking the sais from his hands, before lunging at Raphael with his powerful jaws wide open.

"Oh no, you're not taking a bite out of me!" The ninja yelled, struggling to hold the upper and lower halves of his jaw open. Raphael barely managed to jump out of the way, as the mutant gator's powerful jaws snapped shut.

"Well, if I can't be you in a fair fight, I just have to blow your head off!" Leatherhead pulled his shotgun off of his back, and proceeded to open fire on the turtle.

click-click, BANG! click-click, BANG! click-click, BANG!

The Cajun fired again and again, stopping only to reload, as Raph ducked behind the pyramid's wall to avoid the shots. Leatherhead unleashed a spray of bullets on the entire surrounding area, not leaving any spot for a turtle to hide.

"Come out out, you shelled freak!" The gator man growled, reloading his weapon. "There be no escaping ol' Leatherhead, you betcha!"

Leatherhead scanned the entire sight of the Taizumal ruins, looking for his quarry. But his eyes did not notice the shape of a turtle climb into a parked van.

VROOM!

Suddenly, the parked turtle van behind him roared to life, and it raced forward towards the gator man. Leatherhead opened fire on the speeding vehicle... just as it plowed into him, then smashed into a nearby temple wall.

KABOOM!

What happened next, Raph really couldn't tell; wither Leatherhead's bullets had hit the gas tank and made it explode, or wither the shells in the gator man's shotgun had exploded upon impact with the vehicle. The turtle had leapt out of the driver's seat as soon as the turtle van hit Leatherhead, and he had hit the dirt and rolled as the whole thing exploded. When he looked back, all Raph saw was the flaming wreckage of the turtle van, with Leatherhead's scorched legs and tail sticking out from beneath the wreckage.

"Now who's a pile of gumbo, ya Cajun handbag?" Raph asked, before passing out on the ground, unconscious, from total exhaustion.