It all started out as a normal, peaceful day. Maybe that was why Leo was so on edge. 'Normal' should never be in a giant, mutant, ninjitsu-trained turtle's vocabulary. But it was so nice to have some down time after their latest battle against the Foot clan. The blue masked terrapin focused his meditation outwardly to listen to the sounds of the lair. Raphael could be heard beating away on the practice dummy, either blowing off steam or for the fun of it. Soft explosions were sounding from the living area where Michelangelo was playing his video games. Leo could only be thankful that the television's sound system wasn't on full blast, otherwise it may have sounded more like that explosion had really been in the pit.
Although it was nice to have some quiet time for once, Leonardo knew it was too quiet. His immediate younger brother could not be heard at all. He knew that something had to be amiss when he could not pick up the sounds of tinkering coming from the young genius' laboratory. There should have been some sort of ruckus going on in there with Donatello having been so ramped to find the last piece for his DNA fingerprinting kit. He had been so excited to mess with the new equipment that he had holed himself up in that lab of his at the break of dawn, warning against any intruders. Though Leo was usually one to heed such warnings, something in the air had him itching to see what was up.
Opening his eyes and letting out a worried huff, Leonardo stood from his place on the dojo floor to begin making his way to the silent lab. He was glad to notice that his joints didn't pop from sitting for too long in the half-lotus position, though he did have pins and needles in his toes.
"What's up dude?" Mikey asked nonchalantly when Leo slid open the rice paper doors without so much a glance from his television screen. Leo only hummed a response as he turned to the left, passing the pit and the area where Raph was straining his pent-up energy. The lab was directly ahead of him, but not before the shrine that stood outside his father's room. Leo took a moment to bow respectfully to his late father's picture as greetings before walking briskly up to Donatello's fortified double doors.
"Donnie?" Leo called, listening intently for any signs of life behind the lab's entrance. Mikey had kindly paused his games, and Raph ceased dealing one-sided attacks to the dummy so that they could listen as well, obviously both curious about why their leader sounded so concerned. After hearing no reply for several seconds, Leo knocked and pushed against the doors, "Don, I know you said not to, but I'm coming in..."
He hadn't gotten the door cracked even a foot open before his brother's face appeared before him. Leo held in a gasp of surprise as he backed away from the door that Donatello was now swinging open. The olive-green turtle held the door wide open with one hand, his other arm loaded with a rather thick stack of paper. What concerned Leo, though, was the frantic, disturbed look in his brother's eyes, and the way his body trembled slightly.
"Woah, Don." Raph said from behind Leo, making the older turtle look back at his frowning red clad brother, "What happened to ya'? Looks like ya just seen a ghost."
"A ghost!?" Mikey squeaked from somewhere further back. Ignoring all of them, Donatello hurriedly pushed his way past his brothers and made way for the kitchen. The remaining three turtles exchanged equally confused and concerned looks before following their abnormally distraught brother.
A resounding thud could be heard when they entered the kitchen as they watched Donatello practically slam his stack of papers into the stainless steel, economy sized sink. Afterwards, the purple masked reptile rummaged through one of the many junk drawers, drawing out a lighter as he did so.
"Er... Donnie?" Leo tried, causing the turtle who was behaving oddly to suddenly snap his attention over to them as if he hadn't noticed their presence before. Donatello's wary expression hardened in an instant. Leo gulped as he went on, "Is, uh... something wrong? You're acting a bit odd."
"Yeah, you're freakin' me out man!" Mikey whimpered, causing Donatello's glare to sharpen so thin that Leo felt as if it could slice their heads clean off. The turtle in purple thumbed the lighter quickly, causing an orange flame to spark to life.
"What's wrong with you?" Leave it to Raph to ask it bluntly. The question seemed to cause Don's mood to swing once again, this time his eyes flaring wildly with clear defensiveness.
"It doesn't matter." Donatello flatly stated, his tone of voice sounding a lot more even than what looked possible given his condition. At that the lighter was lowered into the sink. It was all the three other brothers could do to stand and stare in bewilderment as the papers Donatello had brought out were consumed by a mighty fire. Even when the trio had regained their senses enough to attempt snuffing the blaze, the resident genius firmly stood his ground between them and the burning sink as if he were protecting it.
Fortunately paper burns fast. The flames reached their peak quickly and were gone within a few minutes, leaving smoldering paper remains in the sink and a dark black smudge to join the others made by Mikey's failed cooking attempts on the ceiling.
Mikey was the first to speak after coughing a bit, "Dude, is paper supposed to leave black smoke?"
"There were a couple sheets printed on plastic." Don answered in deadpan once again as he turned his shell towards them and sifted through the remains of the victim of his spontaneous pyromania lapse.
"I'll say it again!" Raph growled loudly after recovering from the shock of what had just happened, "What is wrong with you?"
"Nothing anyone can ever prove." Don replied ominously, turning back to them after being satisfied with his findings in the sink. A dark shadow hung over his face as he eyed each of his brothers in a rather frightening manner, though it only made Mikey flinch. A dark cloud of negativity seemed to be hanging over their brother, though that may have been the smoke. Donnie continued on in a voice that none of them had ever heard him use. It was filled with malice, anger, and fear all at once, "Do me a favor and never. Ever. Ask me about what just happened again. I'm only going to say this once; What I just did is neither of concern to you, or anyone else. If you so much as think of asking me about this, I will never repair a single item in this household again. That includes Raph's bike, Mikey's video games, or the toaster that Leo seems to be oh-so fond of ruining every morning."
"In fact, I think that if any of you bring this event up, I will move out. Yup, just pack up and leave! Bye, bye to Donatello! Don't come to visit either. I'll move where you can never find me and you'll never know what happened!" At this point, everyone seemed a bit scared, including Donatello himself who was chuckling like a psychopath as he continued with the threats. Leo had to place a hand on his shoulder to stop the turtle's mouth from rambling on. His cool grey gaze met with frantic chocolate eyes.
"I won't ask about it." Leo promised, "I just want to know if you're okay...?" He watched as Donatello slumped at the question, mood taking another drastic turn as he went from hysterical to exasperated.
"Y-yeah... Just..." Don started, stuttering as he looked shamefully down at his toes, all the fight leaving him, "Leave me alone for a couple of days, alright?"
With that, Donatello was dashing off to shut himself up in his room. The slam of the door could be heard even from their position in the kitchen. Stunned silence reigned for a few more moments.
"So..."
"What the shell just happen'd, Leo?"
"I... Have no idea."
"Yeah, well, I don't want Donnie moving out!"
"Then lets agree to let this thing slide as long as Don seems okay in a couple of days. Agreed?"
"Agreed."
Three Months Later
"How did we end up in this place again?" Raph growled dangerously as he tugged once more against the chains that held his arms above his head. His killer amber glare was directed at Leonardo, who had been chained up in a similar fashion directly across the white room they were in.
"Mikey got distracted." Don answered smoothly from Raph's right, causing the turtle to his left to whine indignantly.
"Hey! You're in here same as me. Obviously you didn't see those darts coming either!" Mikey shot back, glaring at the purple masked mutant. Don only rolled his eyes. But he was right. They had all been captured. Again. This time by none other than the floating brain-in-a-jar known as Stockman. Usually they found it easy to escape from the mad scientist, but he had obviously wizened up since teaming up with Bishop. All four of the brothers were now chained to seperate walls and couldn't reach each other's locks or cuffs to even begin an attempt at freeing each other.
"Quiet you guys," Leo reprimanded firmly from his wall, "Quit bickering and start brainstorming. We need to figure our way out of this place."
"Now, now, Leonardo. Don't be so hasty to leave. After al, you just got here!" A familiar voice sing-songed as the door on Mikey's wall slid open automatically to reveal the cyborg. If he had a face, Baxter Stockman would have been grinning goofily. The proud posture in which he held his mechanical body was enough to tip the turtles off to his good mood, though.
"Stockman!" Raph spat, lunging out at the brain despite the restraints, "Save yourself a beating for once and set us free!"
"Ah-ah! Sorry, Raphael, I can't do that just yet." Stockman cockily scolded, gaining an animalistic growl from the brawny young adult. There was a hint of excitement in the scientist's voice as he went on to explain, "You see, after you four were brought in, I decided to do a long overdue DNA analysis."
"No..." Don's whisper instantly gained the attention of all present. His brothers looked on in sudden concern as the color drained from Donatello's face, a horrified expression etched into his normally softer features.
"Oh, yes, Donatello!" Stockman laughed heartily as he approched the far wall. Every metallic footstep brought him closer to Donnie, who flinched with every resounding tap and seemed to be cowering slightly. Their brother's uneasiness made the other's defenses go up immediately.
"Hey, leave him alone!" Mikey shouted fearfully. Baxter ignored them as he came within arm's reach of the purple banded turtle, staring at him with his one eye that shifted on its mechanical stalk.
"It seems like you know exactly what I found, Donatello." Stockman said with a smirk evident in his voice. Donnie was shaking now, making the chains above his head rattle noisily, "And it seems as if they do not."
"Wait-" Don started, as if he knew where Stockman was going with his thoughts. Leo visibly flinched at the dread evident in Donie's voice.
"Oh this- this is just rich!" Stockman interrupted with a loud, bellowing laugh, "They really don't know, do they!? You're afraid to tell them!"
"Stop! Stockman, don't-"
"What? Tell them? You know I have to Donatello. This is just too good!" The cybertronic body turned to face the other three turtles who wore confused and worried expressions, "Actually, I think they should be glad at this discovery!"
"What is he yappin' about, Don?" Raph angrily asked, frustrated with himself for not being able to tear apart the creep who had captured them. Don made no voiced reply, only shaking his head to signify his reluctance to answer.
"Don...?" Leo worriedly called his brother's name, glancing between the good and evil scientists in the room.
"I-Its nothing!" Donnie finally tried to cover.
"Nothing? NOTHING!?" Stockman shouted to the heavens, "They really don't even have a clue!"
"Please, Stockm-"
"I'll tell you, turtles. I'll shed a little light on your brother's secret. It's far from 'nothing' I can assure you!"
"No! Stop!"
"You see, turtles, genetic mutations are tricky. Yours is especially so seeing that you have turtle, human and alien DNA in you. But there are some pieces of that DNA that aren't so hard to identify."
"I-I'm warning you! Stop it rig-"
"There is a certain set of chromosomes that define your sex, XX and XY. While you three have clear XY chromosomes, Donatello here has-"
"I. Said. STOP!" Donatello finally roared over all the rambling interruptions given out by the cyborg. While he had been out of arm's reach, Stockman wasn't quite out of leg range. Don's arms popped dangerously as he hung all of his weight from them in favor of twisting his legs up and out from underneath himself, grabbing the metal body between them. He tripped the robot up and drug him closer to the wall with his powerful thigh and calf muscles, effectively shutting the mad scientist up. Donatello used as much force as he could muster to slam the evil man against the wall with only his legs.
"Oof!" Baxter let out despite the fact that he really couldn't feel the attack. Before he had a chance to recover, Don had released his scissor-grip and kicked the brain off of the metal frameworking of the body under it.
Everything was still for a few moments as Baxter's line of communication via robotics was cut off, leaving Donatello's pained, panting breaths as the only sound in the room. Before anyone could comment on what had just happened, though, the metallic body jerked to life, scrambling about in search of the brain it had lost like Velma when she lost her glasses.
Nine eyes watched in silence as the cyborg's body pat the ground blindly in search of the brain. That silence was not broken for the better part of five minutes, when it finally retrieved its prize that had landed with a splat halfway across the room.
"Well!" Baxter's voice returned venomously as he screwed his squishy pink mess of a brain back into place on its usual perch, "You're a feisty girl! We'll see how much fight you have left in you after I'm done here!" With that, the robotic body stood and stumbled towards the door, still disoriented from taking such a hard hit. The turtle's gazes followed Stockman out the door. As soon as it slid shut, three sets of stares fell on Donatello.
"What...?" Raph started, all anger gone from his voice, replaced by cold dread and confusion.
"D-Don, did he just say...?" Leo stuttered as he tried to wrap his brain around what was happening.
"Why did he call you a girl, Donnie?" The pieces started to click with Mikey first, his voice more accusatory than questioning. An audible gulp came from Don as he tried to look anywhere other than his brothers.
"Donnie." Leo finally found his wits enough to use his big-brother threatening tone, causing the olive turtle to shift his feet awkwardly, eyes squeezing together.
"Donatello! You'd better got a good 'splanation bout' dis!" Raph grumbled, pulling out the full-name-game and his thicker Brooklyn accent all at once. This seemed to be what finally caused the turtle in question to snap.
"L-look! Don't freak out, or get mad!" Don started, looking and standing up while wincing slightly as his aching shoulders tried to shift back into place from where he had dislocated them. He looked around the room at his brothers in a panic, "I ran some DNA tests a few months ago. I didn't especially look for those chromosomes, I just- just wanted to see how much info I could get out of a few simple tests. And when I did find them I just couldn't tell you! I still can't! But what Stockman was saying about us having three kinds of DNA is true! AndthenI- I found out that the Utrom are protandrous hermaphrodites! Oh God, guys... None of you were mutated with Protandry, and even I didn't get it in the same way that the Utroms have it. Turtles and humans don't exhibit Protandry, but I- I got it on a cellular level. Oh, guys... I- I'msosorryIshouldhavetoldyousoonerbut- but- I couldn't...!"
"Don, chill!" Mikey fretted as he watched his normally calm brother started to wig out, hyperventilating and slurring his words together in a panic, "I don't even get what you're saying."
"Yeah, bro. Just take it easy. Breath." Raph tried to sooth, sounding more impatient than comforting though. Leo was the only one who seemed to have registered a bit of what was said.
"Is this about those papers you set on fire a while back?" Leo asked suspiciously, eyes wide with anxiety as he watched Don lower his eyes, bite his lip, and nod as if ashamed. His heart skipped a beat as all the pieces fell into place. But, no, he refused to believe it! Not until he was absolutely sure, "Don, tell us what Protandry means."
Apparently this was the question Donatello least wanted to hear. He went from looking at the ground, to swinging his head up and thumping his skull against the wall. His chocolate eyes faced the ceiling, and if his brothers didn't know better, they could have sworn they saw tears in his eyes.
"It means I'm female."
