Chapter One - A reluctant beginning
All of the brothers woke up from the induced coma that professor Honeycutt's mind-melding machine had put them in so that they could save Mikey's mind from being erased. They all hugged in relief that their brother was still very much himself.
"Hey! I just had a great idea!" Mikey announced. Everyone groaned, because the all knew that Mikey's ideas are just the greatest. "Hey! It is a good idea!" he argued with them, arms crossed in a comical way.
"Well... come on, spill the beans" Raph goaded him.
"Okay... what if we all went inside each others minds? Because, I mean, you know, it's not fair that you all got to be inside my head, right?" Mikey said to them all, Leo's eyes suddenly went wide.
"No, absolutely not" Leo said quickly and defensively, and all eyes turned to him. He realized the mistake he had made when he saw Raph's smirking face.
"Alright Mikey, I'm in" Raph said smirking at Leo, "I want to know what Fearless is so afraid of. Leo didn't respond, but he narrowed his eyes at him.
"Well, if you want my opinion, I think it's a splendid idea. Not only will you improve your team, but as a family, you may only benefit" Professor Honeycutt said to them all. They all looked back to Leo, as if wanting some response.
"No one is going to benefit from the things I am 'hiding' in my head" Leo said, and put air quotations around the word hiding.
"Well, Donnie, I think it's up to you" Raph said smirking.
"Uh... Leo can I talk to you in private for a second" Donnie asked, Leo nodded, and they walked into one of the ships corners. Donnie leaned in closer to Leo, "So, how bad is it?" he asked.
Leo furrowed his brows, "That implies I am trying to hide something" Leo replied vaguely.
"Stop playing with me Leo, your previous actions have proved that you know something that you don't want to share with your family. I respect that, but if it's something that's going to come back and bite us in the shell, we need to know" Donnie tried to convince Leo. After a moment of deliberation from Leo, Donnie got an answer.
"It's bad. But not to any of you, it's long over, long gone. It's never coming back" Leo responded, and Donnie couldn't tell if the glint in his eyes were from tears or happiness of reliving a memory.
"On a scale of one to ten, if we see this, how badly will it negatively effect us all?" Donnie asked him.
"A 9" Leo answered quickly.
"Okay" Donnie said unsurely. "Can you send Raph over here please?" he asked Leo.
"Yeah sure Donnie" Leo said, nervously. As he walked back to the group, Raph went over to talk to the resident genius.
"What'sup Donnie?" Raph asked.
"What do you think the chances are that going into each others heads is going to hurt someone?" Donnie asked him.
"I dunnow Donnie, you're the genius, figure it out" Raph responded.
"If I went inside your head right now, and saw something you didn't want me to see, on a scale of one to ten, how much would that negatively effect us all?" Donnie asked him.
"Umm... maybe a 4?" Raph said. Donnie rubbed his mouth with his hand and sighed. "What did Leo say?" Raph asked him.
"9" Donnie responded.
"9? Holy shell, what could be that bad?" Raph asked Donnie, "We need to know, maybe not even for our sake, for his" Raph said as they both turned and looked at Leo.
"Alright!" Donnie announced as him and Raph rejoined the group. "We will go into all of our heads - turtles only guys, sorry" Donnie added quickly to April and Casey who slumped their shoulders in disappointment. "But Leo will go last" Donnie finished. Everyone nodded in agreement, even Leo, which surprised Donnie, 'Maybe,' Donnie thought, 'he realized that it wasn't that bad after all'. Little did Donnie know he was very wrong.
"Alright! Let's get you hooked up to these things" Honeycutt said enthusiastically. He helped the turtles get the headset on. "Who's first?" Honeycutt asked Donatello.
"Raph" He responded.
"Here we go! Good luck turtles!" Honeycutt said to them as they drifted off into Raphael's subconscious.