Renascence
Summary: Rebirth; the revival of something that has been dormant. Don pays for his selfless act and gets remutated. A series of twenty 100 word drabbles. TMMT 2k12
-o-
Instinctual
It was pure instincts.
Nobody had time to think much less question their actions. Even someone as quick-minded and full of alternative strategies as Donatello didn't have time to make a different decision. The canister of mutagen had already broken open and there was no time to reflect. No time to choose any other course of action. No other thought other than that he had to stop what had happened to so many in the past not happen to yet another person he knew, not while he could help it. So Don placed himself between Casey and the flying mutagen.
-o-
Reflection
When he saw the mutagen start to fly, he had no time to reflect on his actions or the reasons behind them. He had no time to think about how Casey was a rival, and sometimes an idiot. That he sometimes thought the boy had a death wish and that this lifestyle that Don was forced into was just a game to him. He didn't even have time to remember that April really liked him, and he was Raph's best friend, and that Don didn't want to let either of them down. His only thoughts were "not again, not this time."
-o-
Blindsided
Casey Jones hadn't been paying attention to what was going on. He had let his anger get away from him. Again. He was just sick of these Kraang attacking his friends. Raph's warning came too late for him to do anything but duck down and hoped that the mutagen would magically miss him. He quickly backed against the wall and turned to face it, closing his eyes to the sound of splats around him. He expected wetness, he expected pain, and felt neither. He opened his eyes and looked above him and saw Don standing over him.
Covered in mutagen.
-o-
Gratitude
Casey Jones had a strange way of showing his gratitude.
"You stupid geek!" he screamed at the figure in front of him. "What did you do that for?"
Donatello didn't answer, his face scrunched up in pain. His breathing started to become labored as he tried to fight the oncoming mutation. His second one.
"I would have been okay!" The tears burned in the boy's eyes, but wouldn't let them fall. "You could have fixed me! Why did you have to be so stupid?"
"Shut up," Don said through clenched teeth.
Casey gripped Don's plastron. "You idiot!" he said hoarsely.
-o-
Knowledge
He knew what was going to happen. He had studied the effects of mutation very closely since being reintroduced to it fifteen years after his first encounter with it. He studied it in his lab, under a microscope and in test tubes. He studied it from afar, watching both friends and foes succumb to effects of it. He knew there would be pain, and a lot of it. He didn't remember his first transformation, having been only a baby.
He knew that no matter how much he fought, it would enter his bloodstream and change the very essence of him.
-o-
Cease
It was like there was fire flowing through his veins. Scorching magma digging tunnels inside of him. He felt his skin start expanding and the pain stabbed at him, like a thousand knives trying cut into him, to recreate him, to mold him into something hideous and grotesque. He felt pain unimaginable and was surprised that he could still breathe, could still think. He tried to suppress his screams but couldn't any longer. He wanted it to end, he wanted this smoldering pain to cease. He wanted his life to cease.
But instead, the pain grew. And so did he.
-o-
Disbelief
Raph couldn't tell you what he was seeing right now. Just a second ago, he saw that broken canister of mutagen head towards his human friend. The next, the canister was bouncing off of the back of his brother carapace and out of harm's way. But it was much too late to for Don. Much too late.
Now he could only stand in horror and disbelief as he saw his brother start howling and snarling in pain as he started to expand. He tried to get his feet to move to his brother, to save him somehow. He just couldn't.
-o-
Sentient
When Don finally stopped screaming and growing, the turtles and human held their collective breaths. Nobody could be sure what the mutation would have done to Donnie. Mr. O'Neil had completely lost his mind and went bat-shit (pun intended) crazy. Did the mutation not only change their brother and friend's body, but his gentle and intelligent mind, also?
Casey stared at the turtle in front of him, who was breathing heavily. Suddenly, the new and angular face looked up and deep red eyes bore into Casey's dark ones.
"Run," Donatello roared, before turning and ripped open an approaching Kraang bot.
-o-
Ease
The battle ended swiftly after that. Donatello, in a rage, plowed through the remaining Kraang bots and the little brainy aliens screeched off in terror. The others didn't even move a muscle as they watched the newly mutated turtle tear down each enemy with relative ease.
"Wow," Leo said, as Don finished off the last bot off quickly. Because what had happened hadn't fully caught up with him, he found he was thoroughly impressed. But then the hulking mass that used to be his brother turn to him and the pain started to bloom in the leader's chest.
"Oh, Donnie…"
-o-
Monster
He had been called a freak before, and essentially, he was. He was a mutated turtle who studied martial arts and built vehicles and weapons out of junk.
He had people and aliens look at him with disgust and disbelief. He's used to the strange looks and odd stares, even within his own family. He was kind of an oddball, even he could admit to it.
He just never had his family look at him like this, though. Like they were seeing him for the very first time. Like they were afraid of him.
Like he was a horrible monster.
-o-
Sorrow
"Stop looking at me like that," Don demanded, and everyone flinched at the rough sounding voice. Even Donatello.
"I'm sorry, Donnie…" Leo started to say, but was cut off by a growl.
"Stop saying that, too!" Don turned away from them, unintentionally showing his family his new shell. Leo felt a shiver run through him at the looks of the spikes sticking out.
"But I am sorry," Leo said, stepping forward determined. Don had his face in his hands, and Leo reached out and placed a hand on his rough shoulder.
"I'm sorry that it was you and not me."
-o-
Normal
"But you can fix it," Mikey said, staring at the spikes coming from his brother's carapace, so different from the smooth ridges that it was before. "You can just whip up some retro-mutagen and turn you back to normal, right?"
There was hope and faith in his younger brother's voice, something that Don had never wanted squash from the optimistic turtle. Don turned his sad eyes to that upturned face.
"It doesn't work like that, Mikey," Don started to say, and he saw hopeful look falter, "we started out as normal turtles. I would never go back to 'our' normal."
-o-
Namesake
"So, what name you've got picked out for me?"
Mikey's lips trembled as he viewed the turtle in front of him, but Don didn't noticed. He tried not to look at any of them in the face. He didn't want to see what he looked like in their eyes.
Mikey always had a name for all the mutated creatures they came across, so why would this time be any different. He did come up with some good names.
"Razorback? Shelledge?" Don started to list, but was stopped when arms enclosed around his stomach.
"Big brother," Mikey said, hugging him close.
-o-
Reluctance
"We should head back to the lair." Leo's voice was quiet. "Splinter will need to know. Maybe he has an idea on where we can go from here."
Most of the bodies around them nodded and started heading to the turtle's home, but they quickly noticed the largest of them hadn't moved.
Mikey walked back to the stationary figure and looked up at him. "What's up, D?" His voice calming despite the chaos.
Don looked down at his now enlarged hands. "Maybe I shouldn't." Before he could voice his fears, he felt Mikey's tiny hand fit into his new one.
-o-
Politeness
The lair was quiet when they returned home, both welcoming and unnerving for the genius turtle. They all filed through the turnstiles, except for Don who could now step over it with ease. Leo had moved ahead and called for their father, who came out almost instantly. He smiled as he saw his sons and opened his mouth to greet them, before his eyes finally caught sight of the enlarged turtle that was standing in the back, away from everyone else. Splinter looked him up and down and gave a polite smile.
"And who might you be?"
Don's heart broke.
-o-
Turmoil
Everyone looked on in horror as Donatello sprinted back over the turnstiles and out into the sewer. Mikey didn't hesitate in following him. Raph and Casey were quick to go into action, following the younger turtles out while Leo felt compelled to stay behind and explain what had happened to his father. The look of horror and turmoil on his father's face was something he never wanted to see again. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, though, Splinter was quick to push down his sorrow of yet another child suffering this fate and ran after him.
-o-
Heartbreak
This was what he had been wanting to avoid when returning home. He hadn't wanted to see his father to ever look at him like was a stranger. He never wanted to see anything but recognition and love shining through those mahogany eyes. His father had watched him grown from his first mutation, had raised him from an infant to teenager. He taught him his first kata and given him his first textbook. He had given hugs and nursed wounds. He hadn't want all those years of closeness to be removed by only a single moment of stupidity and selflessness.
-o-
Comfort
They had found him quickly. He was too big to miss. Raph and Casey hesitated, still put off by his size, but Mikey showed none as he crawled into his brother's lap as he cried. As gently as he could, Don enclosed his claws around his brother and hugged him close.
When the other two came upon the scene, Raph was kneeling close by with a supportive hand on a meaty leg, Casey was trying to get out words of comfort to the sobbing beast, and Mikey was rubbing his face against the elongated snout, his tears mixing with Donatello's.
-o-
Acceptance
Leo held back as Splinter approached the group, making sure his soft paws made enough sound to alert his newly mutated son. The sobs had stopped but the tears still flowed from Don's pure red eyes. The pain and sorrow in those eyes tore Splinter's heart in two.
"My child," he said softly, "My poor, bright boy."
"I'm a monster," Don stated, his voice was deep and rough. "I'm a freak."
"Hush," Splinter said, now able to take his son's face into his hands and caressed it. "I will not allow anyone speak such of my children, not even themselves."
-o-
Evolution
"Where do we go from here?" Leo asked, finally coming up and placed a comforting hand on his brother's bulky shoulder. Splinter smiled and wipes the tears from the angular face.
"We adapt, like we have always done." His voice was strong, yet gentle, and Don truly appreciated the tone.
"Evolution started to occur when organisms started to face adversity and learned to adapt to their hostile surroundings."
They blinked at the large turtle. It was such a Donnie saying that they didn't really hear the deep roar that underlined it, they just heard their genius.
They couldn't stop smiling.
-End-
This was just test to see if I could still tell a story in a limited amount of words. Each and every one of these drabbles are 100 words. No more, no less. It was based off an idea about what would happen if one of the turtles got mutated a second time and the real possibility that he would never return to back to what he was before. I chose Donnie just because I always choose horrible things to him. He's my favorite, after all, and reacts so well to the torture I inflict upon him.
There is a reason I didn't do a descriptive drabble of Don's new form, because I purposely wanted to make it ambiguous. I wanted the reader to try to picture their own version with the little clues I gave. There would be no way for me to do in 100 words how I would describe him.
And with this, I have now written for every single reincarnation of Ninja Turtles except for the comics. Go me.