Ch. 1
The Situation
"Just one more screw," Donnie muttered to himself as a picked up a mini screwdriver. "Why does Raph keep breaking his T-Phone? Geez, he needs to be careful."
He continued to screw in the itty bitty screw into the piece of technology as he complained to himself. "Doesn't he get how fragile this is?" He rolled over to another table in his wheeled office chair and grabbed a small chip and a pair of tweezers.
"Almost there," Donnie mumbled, sticking his tongue out in concentration. He slowly lowered in the microchip and sat there smiling with satisfaction.
"Done!" he sang as he put the back on the phone. "Fixed the screen and everything." He glanced at his clock. "In a little over an hour too! New record!"
He leaned back in his chair, kicking his feet up onto his work space. "Time to relax a bit..."
That's when he heard his door slam open. He glanced behind his shoulder in horror as the edge of the door hit one of his tables. Two vials fell over and tumbled to the floor, glass shattering. The green and yellow liquids mixed together from the vials to create a lime green color.
Donnie whipped around to face his younger brother, who was standing at the door frame, his eyes the size of plates.
"Mikey!" Donnie yelled, shooting him a glare.
"Eheh..sorry about that, dude," he said nervously as he scratched the back of his head. "I...I'm sorry... I-I can clean it-"
Donnie held up his hand to shush his brother and closed his eyes.
"No need, it's fine," the purple banded turtle replied with a sigh. "I'll just clean it up myself." He opened his eyes then, looking at the T-phone he just repaired.
"Here," he said, handing the phone over to Mikey. "Give this to Raph. I'm sure he's wanting it." He then gave Mikey a quizzical glance. "How'd Raph's T-phone break anyways?"
"He threw it," Mikey replied, turning the phone in his hands. "Like this." He raised his arm and was about to demonstrate Raphael's actions.
"No n-no Mikey!" Donnie shouted. "Don't you drop that!"
Mikey stopped in mid-motion, looking at his brother with a confused look. "Oh, right."
"So, WHY did he throw it?" Donnie couldn't help but ask, resting his arm in his work table. "Anger issues?"
"You could say that," Mikey said, rocking back and forth on his heels. "Leo beat him at pinball, so..." his voice then trailed off as his eyes looked down at where the liquids had spilled over.
"Huh." he said.
"What are you 'huh'ing about?" Donnie asked as he turned in his chair to get a better peek. "Oh?" He stared at the thing Mikey pointed out as if he were seeing things. "Am I going crazy, or was there just a puddle of liquid there a moment ago?"
"If you're crazy, then I am." Mikey replied. He then gasped. "We're both crazy?! Oh, Donnie, I never thought I'd be crazy!"
Donnie slapped his palm on his forehead and groaned. "It's an expression," he grumbled as he slid his hand off his face. He got out of his chair and crouched down by the scene.
"There's...there's nothing there! But...how?" He leaned in. "It couldn't have seeped through the floor. This is a sewer, we have no floorboards!"
"Are you sure?" Mikey asked innocently.
Donnie looked behind his shoulder with a unamused glare. "Positive." he said flatly. "I...uh, I guess you can just give that T-phone to Raph."
"No problem, D," Mikey said with a small smile as he turned on his heel and started out the door. But he then stopped and turned back around.
"Oh, dude, you wanna play pinball with all of us? We're all gonna see who gets the highest score." He looked at Donnie with a mixture of pride and a devilish-prankster look.
"And maybe I'll beat Raph this time!" He chuckled to himself.
"Yeah, sure," Donnie mumbled, not really paying attention. His mind was still shocked that the puddle just seemed to "magically" disappear. "I'll be out in a sec."
As Mikey turned and left, Donnie still stared at the spot where the liquids were. Good thing they were rejects, he thought to himself. Glad it wasn't anything important.
He then sighed, stood to his feet and turned off his light to conserve energy. "Coming!"
"Alright, here's the results!" Leo said after many, many minutes of playing pinball. "In first is... Mikey! Second, me. Third, Raph. And last but not least is Donnie."
"Yeah," Donnie said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. "I don't play pinball much."
"Third?!" Raph exploded, his bright green eyes blazing with rage. "I got in third?! Mikey beat me?"
"Raph, relax," Leo said, holding his hands out to stop him. "It's just a game, no big deal at all."
"Well, it's a big deal to me," Raph grumbled, crossing his arms over his plastron.
"All that matters is that we got to spend quality time as brothers," Leo pointed out.
"Peach it!" Mikey shouted from the other side of the room, pumping his fist in the air.
"Fine, then, whatever you say, Leo," Raph replied. A smirk then appeared on his lips as he heard a ding from the oven go off, signaling the pizza Mikey had put in earlier was now cooled off."But, I get the first slice of pizza." He then began to sprint to the kitchen.
"Hey!" Donnie yelled, running after him. "I was in last! I should get the first slice!"
By the time Donnie reached the kitchen, it was too late. His hothead brother already had the slice of pizza in his mouth, chewing slowly to taunt his younger brother.
"Aww, man," Donnie whined. "Raph got the biggest slice!"
Everyone groaned but got plates and each took a couple slices of the pepperoni topped pizza.
Everyone took their rightful seats at the table, munching on their dinner.
They all ate in silence, but of corse, Mikey broke that silence every now and again. Then, Raph cleared his throat.
"I still don't get how Mikey won," he said, taking another bite of pizza. He then looked over at his freckled brother. "Maybe he cheated."
"I did not!" Mikey said. "I played fair and..."
"Square?"
"Yes! That!"
"Look, Raph, it's obvious Mikey didn't cheat," Donnie explained. "I watched him the whole time."
Raph gave his brother a blank, unamused look. "Ok?"
"If Mikey would've cheated, we all would've known." Leo said as he finished off his last bite of pizza.
"Yeah! You didn't think I cheated, did I?" Mikey asked innocently. "Huh?"
Raph sighed, going over to the sink and washing off his plate.
"You know what? I don't even care anymore."
Leo glanced at the clock and he stood up quickly. "Guys," he said.
"What?" everyone asked in unison, turning their heads towards their leader.
"I almost forgot. Master Splinter wanted us to do training right now!"
"That was tonight?" Mikey wailed. "I forgot!"
"Yeah, we all did, Mikey." Raph said.
Everyone got up and started heading to the dojo to begin their routines, but Donnie ran to his lab once again.
"Donnie?" Leo snapped, stopping in his tracks. "Where are you going?"
"I forgot my bō staff in my lab!" Donnie called over his shoulder as he ran. "Meet you in there!"
He quickly ran into his lab and grabbed his staff and was about to run back out the door. But something caught his attention.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a faint yellow glow. "What?" he muttered to himself as he crouched down. A realization then hit him: it was the same place the reject liquids had spilled and mixed.
"Why is it glowing?" he wondered allowed. He leaned in closer to get a better look. When he got closer to the glowing, he noticed it became much brighter.
Donnie stumbled back and fell on his bottom, his bō staff dropping out of his hand. "Wha-"
He scrambled to his feet, grabbing his bō staff off of the floor in the process. He started to run towards the dojo, shocked.
"I need to tell my brothers!"
The purple banded turtle quickly sprinted into the dojo, clutching his bō staff tightly, shouting his brothers' names in the process.
"Donnie?" Leo asked, clearly confused. "What...What is this?"
"Leo!" Donnie cried as he skidded to a stop in front of his brothers, panting with his hands resting on his knee pads.
"There's...there's something going on in my lab," he explained. He then glanced over at Mikey. "Mikey, do you remember how you accidentally spilled those reject liquids?"
Mikey nodded. "Yeah. Wait. They weren't important? Phew!" He wiped his forehead.
"Yes, Mikey, they weren't important. And you know how the puddle of liquid just...disappeared?"
"Yeah. So?"
"So, the spot where it spilled is...is glowing!"
Raph raised an eyebrow at his brother. "This for real?" he asked, sounding very unconvinced.
"I swear, Raph, it's real!"
"So you're saying the stuff you spilled is magic?" Raph smirked and crossed his arms.
"What? Wait, no! Just...just come see!"
Donnie dashed towards his lab. His brothers shrugged and followed suit.
Donnie's brothers stared at the spot in confusion.
"See guys, I told...you?" Donnie's mouth dropped open to see the spot was no longer glowing.
"But..."
"Donnie, you may just be seeing things," Leo said calmly, putting his hand on Donnie's shoulder.
"I swear it was there," Donnie snapped, shrugging Leo's hand off. "It was glowing yellow!"
"Have you been sleeping okay?" Leo asked him.
"Yes!" Donnie shouted. "To be accurate, you don't start seeing hallucinations until you haven't slept for 3 days, or 72 hours. And, I can promise you, I have slept lately."
"Donnie," Raph said. "There's nothing there."
Mikey nodded. "Not looking well for you, dude." he said sympathetically.
"Come on, guys." Leo said, turning around. "Let's go and practice.
They all then turned and started to walk off, leaving Donnie standing there, mouth wide open and shocked about this whole situation.
"But...I know it..."