He Is Quantum (Part Three of The Sunshine Child series)

"Seriously Dee, you give me too little credit. Look how much I've learned."

"And exploded. And gotten wrong. And messed up."

"Okay, fine. The wasp antidote."

"Rubbing mutagen on your face because you thought it said super cool."

"Curing your brainlessness."

"With pepperoni?"

"You said the nitrates made it good!"

"Yeah, but…but…"

Mikey grinned. Donnie's grimace turned into a pout, and his folded arms tightened. Mikey's own crossed arms loosened slightly and his head lifted. "Come on, Donnie. I remember things, I just need someone to help me figure it out. Look, you know I'm good at making stuff up, I just need help with the follow-through."

Donatello sighed loudly, dropping his arms. "Fine. Fine. What do you want to do?"

Mikey smiled. "I wanna learn physics."

Donnie paused and squinted at him. "Why?"

A freckled shoulder rose and fell. "We don't get along. I wanna be friends."

Like a record scratch, Donatello felt an odd twitch thrum up and down his limbs. A little voice in his head said that makes absolutely no sense at all, except it makes all the sense in the world.

He pointed at Mikey, then upward. "You…and physics?"

"Yes."

Don studied his brother for a moment. Mikey was lightly rocking on his heels, mask tails like goldfish fins weaving back and forth, one finger tapping against the opposite arm; he was always moving, unless there was something to stop him, and-

"Okay," he said. "Newton's Laws Of Motion. Let's start with those."

Mikey raised an eye ridge. "What, no Shreddinger's cat?"

"It's pronounced Schro-" and Donnie stopped when he saw the wiseass grin on Mikey's face. He couldn't help but grin back. Little smartass brat. He really does know.

The next morning, right from his bedroom, Don walked smiling toward the lab, just as a bright green and orange blur shot out out of it. Reflexively, Donnie grabbed his bo staff and stuck it in front of the whirlwind, which gracefully rose a foot in the air and landed right in front of him.

"Hi, Donnie!" Mikey said cheerfully. He was balanced on a single toe, his arms folded across his plastron, a hardcover book shielded in them. His mask tails stirred in his own breeze. His azure eyes were completely electric; Don swore he saw a glow. After yesterday's lessons complete with some very strange shows from Mikey following Don's tells, Donnie had decided to privately nickname his little brother "Newton's Quantum Law" – some of the things he did never made sense and probably never would, and therefore were best left to the confounded musings of theoretical physicists and maybe caffeinated philosophers. Donnie suddenly appreciated the mental and spiritual flips Leo had been doing just to keep up with Mikey ever since that bizarre meditation session where they had both gone unconscious.

He really missed Master Splinter.

"Hi, Mikey," he sighed, as cheerfully as he could before caffeine. "Did you take a book from my shelves?"

"Mmaaybe." It was a recent-looking textbook, black and navy with squiggles of blue and white peeking between the spaces around Mikey's arms and fingers.

"Is it the Brief History Of Time book?" Don had been hoping that could be bed time reading. Maybe Mikey wouldn't have nightmares, just confusing dream trips through space.

"Hm? Oh, nah, I was looking through that last night. Then I got to the parts with black holes and thought spaghetti would be good for lunch tomorrow, which is today, and I distracted myself, and it's still on your desk, but I'll put it back on the shelf, promise!"

Don felt his mouth fall open. Wait. Sp-um…spaghettification? Did he…understand…wait, he already read some of it? What? I. What?

That record scratch tremble again.

"Aaanyway," Mikey was rambling, "I saw this one on neurology and I figured that would be better to start with because, you know, my brain was always weird and now it's even weirder what with the stuff Master Splinter said about my spirit intuition, you know, when I saw his ghost, and neurology is about why weird brains are weird, so I'ma make breakfast and read this baby! You want eggs and bacon? Onna pizza?"

Donatello didn't even realize there was a problem until he heard a snapping sound and there were fingers right in front of his face.

"Leeeooo, I think I broke Dooonnn!"

"Mikey, what's going on? It's seven in the morning, Leo's doing his dojo kata thing, you need to stop shouti—hey, what's with Donnie?"

"I dunno, we were talking, and then he just…glazed over."

Don blinked, finally. Mikey was in the process of snapping his fingers again, and Raph was gawping at him, head tilted, like a dog finding a frog in its water dish. Don realized he had been standing slightly slumped, hands loose and bo slack between his fingers, jaw hanging, eyes wide, for a good couple of seconds. That was actually a decent amount of time.

Shaking himself out of it, he straightened up and sent Raph the flattest look he could manage.

"Okay, enough of this, I need my coffee, okay?"

"Already made!" Mikey chirped.

He closed his eyes and took a very deep breath. "Okay. Thanks, Mikey. Have…have fun with the neurology textbook."

"Tomorrow I'll be back for biology."

Raphael froze with an expression of deep concern. "Whaaat is going on?"

Donnie just waved him off. "I'm teaching Mikey science. Apparently he reads faster than I do."

As he finally, finally disappeared into the lab and began to shut the door, he heard Raph yell "THIS IS THE WEIRDEST PRANK EVER." And he just shook his head and smiled.

Donnie was immersed in welding. But recent experience had taught him to hone his ninja sixth sense more than the others, otherwise their apparently telepathic little brother could sneak up on him and do anything and yet somehow not manage to endanger his experiments. Don would watch him randomly pick up something, "what does this do?" and then he would pause and stare at it from all angles, and then he would carefully put it back down and grin, "Cool, I know what it does. Have fun, Dee!" Sometimes he wouldn't even pick it up, he'd lightly brush his fingers against it and then announce his understanding. And then he'd just watch Donatello for a long time, announce that he was awesome, and skip out.

Donatello found him calling for Mikey and asking if he wanted to see the finished project, and even then Mikey merely smiled in awe.

There…really wasn't anything Don could panic about. He was so used it to. He almost missed that. Mikey's tomfoolery kept him on his toes, actuely aware instead of absorbed.

It was still hijinks and pranks. But it was…quieter. Heavier. More…critical in Mike's thinking? Don still maintained his healthy skepticism; he could not quite rationally believe that ESP could just just show up like that, especially in someone like Mikey. But the kid's brain had never been on a straight course...

The welding was halfway done when his ears picked up the footsteps and his ninja senses picked up the direction of the visitor. Don pulled back and removed his mask and gloves.

"What's up, Mikey? Did you want another science book?"

Mikey shook his head, hands behind his back.

"Want to see my latest little invention?

Again, a shake no.

Don frowned. "Mikey? Can you speak? Is something wrong?"

Mike gave him a focused, exasperated look. Then he slammed his hands onto Don's shoulders. "Let's try it again." And he stared, stared, stared in Don's eyes.

DONATELLO.

CAN.

YOU.

HEAR

ME?

Donnie rocked back and felt a shiver grab his whole body. His eyes widened. "Yuh—yes?"

"Finally!" Mikey said, with an exaggerated roll of his eyes. "You're definitely the hardest. Raph freaked out a little, but he's more easy and open I thought. And Leo, well. You know Leo."

Donnie blinked at him. "You really are telepathic. You're getting so strong."

Mike frowned. "Noo, I just screamed so you could feel me. You heard it as words?"

Don blinked. "It's not supposed to be words?"

"I dunno, they said it was like feelings. Or colors, or something."

"Well. All right. What was the initial message you were trying to get across?"

"I…I just wanted to know if you guys could feel it when I projected at you. Leo saw colors. Raph felt emotions. You're the only one who got words."

Don pressed his tongue to the inside of his cheek. "Possibly because I think all in words. Perhaps this spiritual projective empathy depends on the way the recipient processes thoughts and feelings themselves." He scratched his chin, then began to pace. Mikey simply watched him, eyes huge, mouth turned down on one side.

Donnie found himself leaning against the arm of the couch, staring at the television, which was playing an episode of Space Heroes: The Next Generation that Leo had played twice over yesterday. Dr. Mindstrong was conversing with a long-haired humanoid feminine alien telepath named Koi.

Okay, so receptive empathy is generally what comics and cartoons portray, but projective empathy is rare and potentially dangerous. His mind whirled. I don't know if Mikey knows if he's even capable of that. If he's able to project simple messages, would that in fact actually count as telepathy? Could he literally manipulate his target into experiencing anger or fear? If so, could that anger or fear then be manipulated even further to actually control the target's physical movements and mental decisions? Like…okay, Rocksteady. Could Mikey use projective empathy to make Rocksteady hit a Footbot instead of us? I mean, yes, I need to remain skeptical about this entire thing, but pondering all these realistic possibilities isn't hurting…

"Don? Donnie! Hey! Are you watching this with me or what?"

He blinked again. "Oh. I, uh, yeah, yeah."

"Okay," Leo said, "so what did Koi just suggest they do about the return of the Psionoids?"

Donnie froze. He had watched it yesterday, right? What was he doing yesterday? Hadn't he been upgrading the gaming systems?

"Uhh."

Doonnniiee, pay atteeenntion!

He grabbed his head. That was Mikey!

Now both Leo and Mikey were staring at him.

"Dude, you got that, right?" Mikey said excitedly. "I projected at you. Did you still get words?"

Leo looked just as excited.

Donatello could only nod. "Y-you told me to pay attention."

"Wait, you hear him?" Leo asked. "I see colors that kind of tell me what he's thinking at me. Raph said he just feels whatever Mikey is feeling. So you get words, that's neat! It's like telepathy."

"Dude, high-three, I guess Donnie and I are telepathetic!"

"Mikey, for the last time it's not-"

"Duh I know, at this point I'm just messing with you guys."

"…you're kidding, right."

Donnie watched as Mikey's expression turned both completely serious and highly exasperated. "Bro, I have grown up significantly. And none of you have even acknowledged it."

Of course Michelangelo was using "big" words. He had read a science textbook per day for the last few days and he was inside Don's own mind. Donatello sighed.

"Leo, sorry, I'll watch the show. Mikey, I'm sorry it took me so long to respond to you. Wait, where is Raph?"

"Went off with Casey," Mikey said. "Plus he wants to see how far I can go with this empathy thing, so we're keeping an open connection. Oh, he's at that junkyard! Hang on." He closed his eyes, head tilted one way then the other. "Uhmm. Hey, Don, d'you need another whole toolkit box? Casey just found one. It's heavy."

Don watched Leo's eyes widen.

"Damn, Raph, tell Casey to stop trying to drag it…yes, both of you. He should lift with his knees…there ya go. Oooh, a mini fridge!"

"I'll take the mini fridge," Don said out of instinct. Then he blinked. Wait, was he acknowledging this?

"Get the mini fridge, Raph!"

Mikey clapped his hands together and opened his eyes. "They're on their way back. Casey has the toolbox, Raph has the fridge! Casey wants mushroom, pizza, bee arr bee."

He dashed off to the kitchen. Don and Leo glanced at each other.

"How…how did he do all that?" Leo asked.

"Why are you asking me? You're supposed to be the spiritual one."

"You're supposed to be the logical one."

"Parapsychology isn't meant to follow logic."

"Isn't it supposed to be a kind of science?"

"No, it's supposed to be pseudoscience!"

"There isn't anything fake about this, Donnie!"

"Obviously not, so I guess we should just call it extrasensory perception and pretend we understand?"

"How is pretending going to help Mikey?" Leo huffed.

Don frowned. "What do you think he needs help with?"

Leo threw up his hands. "Control. Perception. Acceptance. Understanding. Like any sort of ability. We're ninjas. The mystical arts is part of ninjitsu. Master Splinter had been training us in that."

"He had been training you, Leo, not us. You were the only one willing to sit still long enough to meditate anywhere near the astral plane." Donnie folded his arms. "Remember when he got drunk and fought us all? He said that aside from April, you and Michelangelo had…what was it? Ah, yes." He lowered his voice and held up a finger. "Ahem. Michelangelo and Leonardo have the strongest ability to sharpen their intuition." He paused, voice steadying out. "Now, I don't know about you, but I heard a bigger hint in there."

Leo folded his arms. "You mean, hinting that Mikey was always more spiritual than any of us, maybe even April."

"Well. He did pass out after you two meditated, and you said he had mentally pushed you or something. And you did claim to talk to our dead sensei who apparently told you he had forgotten to tell us all that Mikey had started exhibiting this powers as a toddler."

"Claim? Apparently? Donnie, I did see Master Splinter! So did Mikey!"

"So how come I haven't? Or Raph?"

"Maybe because you're too rational and Raph's too emotional! You're both too clouded to be as spiritual as we are!"

"Leo, if I weren't so rational and logical right now I would take that as an insult. And I agree that Raphael is too clouded by his emotions to sharpen his intuition enough to be spiritual. I'm not entirely certain I can believe that Raph and Mikey had a telepathic communication consisting entirely of emotion and feeling, but…"

"But it happened, so shut up!"

They whirled around to see Raphael and Casey, already setting their haul down near the couch.

Raph was already glaring, and Don could feel the air tighten as Leo's muscles instinctively clenched. Don sighed. "There was evidence when Mikey said he could sense that Casey had found a toolbox and a mini fridge, and yes, the evidence is right in front of my eyes…"

"Don," Casey interrupted, "man, are you kidding? We've been to space. We all saw what happened when Dark April…uh, you know. With Za-Naron. You saying you don't believe in psychic powers by now?"

"I do!" Donatello snapped. "I mean, April, obviously. But that was through pure genetic manipulation of the DNA of her ancestors by the Kraang. Mikey's powers are…idiopathic."

"He's not an idiot, he's-!"

"No, idiopathic means of unknown origins! We're not sure if he was born with them as a normal turtle, or they happened when he mutated, or what. And if they happened after he mutated, why only him, why not the rest of us? What about any other mutants affected by that ooze? And was it only that specific ooze sixteen years ago? What about any current mutants?"

Casey's jaw hung open. Don couldn't help but roll his eyes. Raph's narrowed eyes slid back and forth.

"Hey, Case, here's your mushroom pizzaaa!" Mikey's cheerful voice was like a knife of sound. "Hi, Raph! You should wash your hands, there's mold on that mini fridge."

"Thank you, Mikey," and Raph suddenly relaxed his entire body, smirked, and sauntered off to the bathroom.

"Sooo…" Casey took his pizza and flopped onto the couch. Don sighed and grabbed the new toolbox, taking it to the lab. "is that why Mikey is so good in Dimension X?"

"Psshh. Obviously, dude." Mikey hopped onto the couch beside him, a S'mores pizza in his lap. ""I'm awesome at whatever isn't rational Earth logic. I'm my own logic."

"This is incredibly true," Donnie nodded. "I still have many questions, I still need to do research, I want to conduct experiments, I want to compare your ability to April's, and I think we should do as many tests as possible."

Mikey's grin was prize-winning. "WOO, SCIENCE, YEAH!"

"That does not mean you can randomly touch my stuff."

"Awwww..."

April stomped into the lab looking pouty and tired, and Donatello felt a massive pang of guilt for begging her to come down in the middle of her studies. But, as Casey pointed out, summer vacation was starting. Donnie of all people would understand how April needed a break. He put on a wide smile and turned in his desk chair. "April, hey, I-"

"Don, can we make this quick? I promised myself I would use today just to do research on—WAUGH!"

Her yell startled him, and he shot out of the chair, muscles tense. "What? What? Oh."

"Hey, April, what is uuup?" And Michelangelo casually dropped from the ceiling right in front of her and swept her into a hug. April's expression went from surprise to confusion to sheer wonder. "Mikey? Um, how come I couldn't sense you?"

"Ninja, duh. Also, you know," and Mikey tapped the side of his head.

April raised an eyebrow. "What do I know?"

"What, you don't know?"

"I don't know what I know unless you tell me what you know, Mikey."

Mikey looked at Donnie with an expression of can you believe this? Sighing, Donnie gently steered his excitable sibling away from his best friend. "Sorry, April. This is why I wanted you to come over today. We're testing out Mikey's suddenly active psychic empathic powers and I wanted your assistance."

"Oh!" April brightened immediately. "I can totally make time for that!" She followed them and threw an arm around Mikey's shoulders. "At least someone else gets to wear that silly hat and I get to watch."

Michelangelo giggled at that. Don rolled his eyes. April just beamed.

Mikey broke the meter on the EKG-like helmet. Donatello grumbled words that made Raphael skid through the lab door in excitement. If Leo had been there instead of the dojo, he might have said something authoritative.

Hours later, the lab's little fridge held Don and Mike's favorite energy drinks. April had decided it was worth it to see Donnie smile while fixing his little brainwave toy, because she knew damn well he'd be using it again.