"What!?" Came the three shouts in unison, making Don cringe horribly. He braced himself as best he could for the oncoming onslaught of questions no doubt on their way.
"What do you even mean?" Raph rumbled loudly, "Y'ain't no girl, Don! If you was we- we- we would know about it, right!? I mean, it don't make no sense! How is it even possible? This is such a lame time for a lame joke, Don. Can't we just say Stockman is stupid an' move on?"
"That can't be right, Donatello. Unless you've been hiding it?" Came Leo's annoyingly calm and suspicious tone. The purple masked turtle could practically feel the upcoming lecture, "You wouldn't hide something this big from us. Right? There has got to be another explanation. Because if there isn't, then we seriously need to talk. Do you even realize how serious this could be?"
"No. WAY! A sister!? Wait, does that mean you're going to start wearing makeup?" Oh... Mikey, "But you don't even have boobs! And you aren't very pretty. Have you always just been an ugly girl without me knowing? Why haven't you started painting your fingernails? Or wear makeup, Donnie? I would if I was a girl that looked like you."
"Are you makin' this up?"
"Is there anything else we don't know?"
"Do you have to sit down to pee, now?"
"Don."
"Donatello?"
"Donnie!"
"Will you three just SHUT UP already?" The verbally battered mutant screeched from his wall, effectively shutting up his brothers. His wild gaze darted between his siblings as a warning against any more speech without his permission, "This is the reason I didn't tell you guys! It doesn't serve any purpose for you to know. But, since the proverbial 'cat' is out of the 'bag'; I'll answer your questions. One. At. A. Time." His dark brown gaze shifted over the faces of his silent brothers until it landed on the most eager one. Somehow or another, Don knew what was going to be asked, "Mikey. If you ask about my genitals in any was that is crude, vile, or raunchy in any way, shape, or form, I will make certain the end of yours."
Mikey's gulp echoed off the walls as he visibly deflated.
"So... You're not kiddin' about this are ya?" Raph tentatively asked, choosing not to regard the previous statement. Donatello sighed heavily as he sagged against his restraints, flinching at the pain racing down his arms.
"No. Genetically speaking, I am female." He admitted woefully.
"What do you mean 'genetically'?" Leo voiced bravely from his wall, trying his best to determine the heart of the problem here.
"Uhm, well..." Don started, gathering his thoughts in order to explain his predicament in a way all of his brothers could understand. This had become less and less of a problem over the years, and he quickly regained his train of thought, "In DNA, most living things have a pair of chromosomes that determine the sex-" He tried to ignore Mikey's very inappropriate giggle, "-of the creature. An 'X' chromosome is female, and a 'Y' chromosome is male. DNA with XY genes is male, and DNA with XX genes is female. Right now, like Stockman said, you three have XY sex- MIKEY!- ahem... You have XY, so that makes you male. I, on the rather unfortunate other hand, have XX chromosomes. That technically puts me down as a female genetically."
"Okay, so why do you keep saying 'genetically'?" Raph questioned, gaining an awkward shuffling of feet from his brother.
"Because it's only in my genes. Physically, I am male." Don explained carefully. Not carefully enough for Mikey to huff out a disappointed sigh.
"So you still have the ol' frank an' beans..." He muttered. Don graced that comment with a low warning growl while Raph wished he could at least get his hands around his brother's neck, though he wasn't sure who he wanted to strangle more at the moment.
"You should have said something earlier." The red masked terrapin pointed out in frustration.
"There was no reason for you to-"
"Of course there is!" Leo interrupted the genius. Ignoring the sharp coffee gaze, he continued on, "This situation is part of the reason we should have known! Your genes obviously have caught unwanted attention. We could have been more prepared for a situation like this!"
Donatello seemed to want to argue this point, but his facial expression changed quickly, showing the stages of guilt and humiliation he was no doubt feeling. Silence hung on the walls alongside the four. Until Mikey's thoughts escaped, that is.
"Kind of wish you really were a girl." He loudly, bluntly stated.
"Gross." The other three replied in unison. Mikey rolled his eyes.
"Not like that! Geez, get your minds out of the gutters." He grumbled, "I'm just saying, having a little sister would be nice."
"You mean big sister." Don was quick to correct, eyeing his brother suspiciously. He was certain this conversation was heading in a direction he wouldn't like travelling.
"Nope! You'd definitely be younger if you were a girl." The quirky turtle matter-of-factly informed Donatello.
"Mikey. That makes no sense." Don sighed.
"Well, it kind of does." Leo tenatively inserted his opinion. All eyes fell on the leader, who had done something he rarely ever does. Agree with Mikey. An audible gulp came from Leo, "W-well, I mean... It would make sense? We would be more protective of you if you were our sister, than we are of Mikey. And since Mikey's considered the youngest because of that..."
"It would make me the youngest?" Don finished, finally grasping a bit of their 'logic'. He stared wide-eyed with disbelief at his oldest and youngest brothers.
"Yeah!" Mikey agreed wholeheartedly, a small grin on his face before it fell drastically and he eyed Leo, "Wait... What? Hey! I'm not-"
"That's stupid." Raph voiced his interruption loudly, "You sayin' that we'd be more worried about 'im if he was a girl?" Mikey and Leo shared a knowing look before turning back to the hot head and shrugging. Raph's face contorted in what looked to be disgusted confusion, "That's... That's just sexist, isn't it?"
"What? No!" Leo defended, "I'm just saying I'd be more worried about him!"
"Because you'd think I couldn't take care of myself!" Don accused angrily, "See, now this is why I didn't tell you!"
"Chill, Donnie! It's not like you're an actual girl." Mikey pointed out.
"Yeah, but now it's going to be there in the back of your heads forever!" The genetically defective one answered in despair, "Every time something reminds you of girls, you'll think 'Hey, Don is part girl.' or 'You know, its weird that I have a hermaphrodite for a sibling.' or-"
"Don! No one is gonna judge you for dis'. My only point was that you're makin' a bigger deal outta this than ya should." Raph assured him. Donatello blinked his chocolate eyes.
"What?"
"Whether yer a guy, girl, or neitha', ya still Don. Ya think I'd just write ya off as incompetent just a'cause the smallest, most unimportant thing about ya is different?" He huffed indignantly, his accent flaring violently as his frustration came through, "Y'didn't say anythin' cause y'didn't want us to think y'were a girl. But y'sure are actin' like one." The turtles all gaped at their brother.
"I-I am not!"
"Are too!" Mikey chimed in on the teasing, picking up the momentum quickly, "Seriously, you've been moody ever since that day you set the sink on fire!"
"It could be the power of suggestion." Leo stated, all business. He wrinkled his brows and looked at Don seriously, "You may have been stuck on the fact about being genetically female, and subconsciously started acting like a girl."
"Wha- That! That is just ridiculous!" Don denied, voice unintentionally cracking as he tried to defend himself.
"Not really, Dee!" Mikey laughed, obviously completely forgetting the situation, and Donatello's feelings, "Girls are the ones who are all dramatic and hide stuff all the time. And you can't say you haven't been super paranoid about it the entire time you knew!"
Raph laughed his agreement, Leo nodding along as well. Don just took a deep breath as he tried to come up with a viable explanation for his recent behavior. When his logic told him that no explanation would quell his brother's reasoning, he let out his breath in a deep sigh.
"Right, I'd love to listen to you all ostracize me for another half hour, but we should really- OW!" The purple masked turtle interrupted himself with the outburst. His brothers' teasing came to an abrupt halt.
"Uh, you okay?" Raph asked in confusion as he watched Don look up to inspect his cuffed right wrist. Suddenly Donatello yelped again, looking to his left wrist this time. His brothers stared in confusion as their sibling glanced worriedly between wrists. Soon the brown gaze turned to them.
"I dun thin' thish ish good." Don slurred out the words as if he was half asleep. Before anyone could ask what the shell Donnie meant by that, the purple masked head dropped to his chest, body going unnervingly slack against the restraints.
An instant later, the door swished open once again to reveal the cyborg scientist.
"Looks like two doses were enough." Stockman noted as he waked in with two of his white-clad lackies. Three dangerous looking sets of eyes fell on the brain.
"What did you do to him?" Raph growled, not gaining much attention as usual in his incarcerated position.
"Calm down, i just gave her some sedatives. I can do the same to you at any moment if you don't watch that tone! And, I think it is quite appropriate to refer to it as 'she' now." The scientist informed as he stalked up to Donatello's prone form, where the other two were now removing the restraints and sharing the turtle's weight between them.
"Uh, you did not just call our brother an 'it'!" Mikey angrily put in his two cents, struggling against the cuffs and chains as they dragged his brother out the door that was just out of his reach.
"Sister!" Baxter sang with a chortle as he began to make his exit.
"Stockman if you lay one hand on him, I swear I'll-" Leo shouted his warning, not realizing he was going to be stopped by the door being closed without warning. He swore he could have heard a reprimanding "Her!" from behind the no doubt locked exit.
A rage filled roar ripped through the room as Raph struggled against his restraints. Mikey whimpered and Leo tried to gather his thoughts.
"What's he gonna do to him?" Mikey asked in anxious concern, eyes large enough to make Leo think they were about to overwhelm his other features. The leader shook his head in frustration.
"I don't know. Knowing Stockman, it could be any number of things." He pointed out as he inwardly cursed himself for letting them get so sidetracked from coming up with an idea as to how they were going to escape.
"Well, whatevah' he thinks he's gettin' away with," Raph's voice was booming and coarse, "He ain't gon' even have his brain left after I'm done with 'im!"
"And to do that, we need to focus on getting out of here, and getting Don." Leo was quick to respond as the voice of reason. It seemed to work, as they all immediately looked at their restraints to seek out any weakness in them. They pulled, yanked, pushed and grappled against the chains. At one point, Mikey had even managed to get himself twisted around and upside down. The end result was the same as the others though; Failure with a side of complaining.
Exhausted and scared for their kin, the turtles that remained fell into silence with the occasional struggling against the metal. Time went by with no window to shed light or a clock to measure it with. Only their wild, treacherous imaginations kept them occupied. What could have been minutes seemed like hours, and they could only hope hours were not passing by.
"Donnie..." One of them murmured, speaking the concern they all felt. At what very early could have been the last instant of the nickname's vocal outing, the chains dropped from their wrists.
"What...?" Leo wondered out loud as his sore arms suddenly fell to his sides. His brothers were obviously just as bewildered by the sudden release. Mikey was rubbing his wrists and looking back at him while Raph rushed immediately for the door, pounding away at it despite the pain his muscles might be in.
"Don, can ya hear me!?" The red masked terrapin shouted, praying to some unknown god that Donatello could. He must have prayed pretty darn hard, because the answer to his question appeared before him in the form of his brother.
"I can hear you." Don smirked when the door fully opened, "Ouch!" He added as he was slugged in the shoulder, defenseless due to the fact he was holding all of their weapons in his arms.
"Donatello, if you ever keep something this big a secret from us again, I'll make sure ya won't be able to call yerself a man!" Raph threatened as he was joined by the other boys, taking his sais out of the mix. Don nodded carefully in understanding.
"Right. Dually noted," Don curtly addressed as he was hugged by Mikey and relieved of a pair of nunchaku, "Can we leave, please?"
"Is the coast clear?" Leo asked as he tried to look around Donatello, taking his katana and holding them both in a defensive position. The olive reptilian's facial features darkened considerably.
"Oh, they're clear all right. I can assure you of that." Don's ominous tone set a cold atmosphere about the room. The other's didn't have time to question it as their brother swiftly turned back to the dark corridor from which he had come. Not that they had to ask. They quietly followed Don down the hall. Soon enough it opened up into a larger area lined with different doors that held signs to designate what they were used for.
The one that read 'A.I. Room' particularly captured their attention due to the mess surrounding it. The white tile floors around the outside of this room were spatted as smeared with a familiar red substance. The windows were darkened from the inside with the liquid, so no one could clearly discern what had exactly taken place there. Though three turtles had an odd sinking feeling that they understood the gist of what had occurred.
"Uh, Donnie...?" Mikey hesitantly piped up from the back of the group. His concerned tone was a result of the sight of bloody, smudged footprints leading down the path they were now taking. Familiar, two-toed footprints.
The turtle taking up the front ignored Mikey's voice, veering down a corridor that went to the right, while the bloody trail went to the left. No one said anything, but they all had seen the motionless metal body that was lying in the middle of the opposite path, brain in a jar nowhere to be seen.
As they neared the exit of the rather large warehouse, Donnie let Leo take control of the group as usual. They silently made their way out, glad to find it was dark outside, and into the nearest sewer system without further incident. That silence was not broken for a good fifteen minutes.
"So, uh..."
"Don't wanna talk about it." Don abruptly stopped Mikey from asking his question. They were just slowing down, having found a rather large tunnel they could all walk side by side in. The purple masked young adult had kept a noticable distance from the others, avoiding their curiously worried gazes.
"Uh, no. You are not hiding something again!" Raph vehemently put out as he closed the distance between he and his brother, "What exactly happened back there? Did they hurt ya or somethin'?"
"N-no! I'm okay." Don was quick to assure, hand going to his side despite himself. Raphael immediately tore the limb blocking his inspection away. He growled low in his throat when he spotted the crude stitches loosely sewed into his brother's side, closing a cut that was about four inches in length.
"Okay my shell! They were dissectin' ya!" Raph rumbled, the fire in his amber eyes burning brightly in the non-existent sewer light.
"Is that true, Donnie?" Leo hurried over to join them and make his own inspections. Don shoved them away with a scowl.
"No! Well, I mean, they did try to cut me open." He tried to explain, gaining negative reactions all around.
"They were turning him into a robot!" Mikey shrieked, grabbing and pulling at his cheeks in horror, making his whole face droop and stretch dramatically.
"What?" Don grimaced at the strange conclusion his brother had drawn. Mikey threw his arms into the air with great exuberance.
"You were in the Artificial Intelligence room! They were going to take out all of your body parts and replace them with machines!" Mikey seemed genuinely convinced of his theory as he explained it, and was not pleased when he gained disbelieving looks, "Hey! I saw the door! It was the 'A.I. Room'!"
"Mikey! Geeze, that- That wasn't what A.I. stands for!" Don sighed in exasperation as his palm met his forehead. The hand slid down his face tiredly as the turtle realized he had been cornered once again, "It stands for Artificial Insemination." Three slow, uncomprehending blinks later, Don realized he was going to have to go into detail, "You guys really, really don't want to know."
"Probably not," Leo answered, choosing his words carefully, "But I think Raph is right. No more secrets." Don let out another huff.
"They were trying to get me pregnant." He simply stated. No one said anything, and since he really rather they not, Don went on, "Apparently, we are stronger, and longer-lived than humans. Perfect warriors with great offence, defence, stamina, and intelligence. They wanted to make reproductions."
"But... I don't understand. How-? What-?" Leo searched for a question, not exactly knowing how to put his feelings into a sentence at this point in time. So instead of addressing the sick, twisted plot that had tried to overcome his brother, he asked about a separate matter, "How did you break out?"
"Stockman must have miscalculated the proper dosage to sedate me." Don answered, "I woke up by the pain when they were cutting into my side."
Mikey winced sympathetically, "Ouch, dude. Rude wake-up call."
"Tell me about it. I managed to stitch myself up pretty well, though it was difficult with the awkward angle I had to work with." The turtle tenderly touched his wound as he spoke of it, gaining another wince from his brother in orange.
"So, wait, why was the place all covered in gore?" Raph puzzled, knowing his brother to be passive. Though waking up to being cut open was enough to make anyone angry, Donatello was not one to create such destruction over something so 'trivial' as he would put it. The question caused Don's body language to turn defensive. He shuffled his feet and looked at the ground, reluctance to answer the question practically oozing from his very being. One hard stare and warning grunt later, the interrogator got his confession.
"Well, after I panicked a bit from my painful realization of what had been going on while I slept," Donatello started slowly, "That... Scientist started talking to me, trying to get me still enough to put me back under. But..." The turtle trailed off as his story came to a part he dreaded telling his brothers, who waited semi-patiently for him to continue, "Swear to me that you won't laugh."
"Laugh?" Leo echoed, wondering what on earth could be funny enough to make them laugh at the horrendous ordeal Don had been through. Said turtle glared hard at his brothers, waiting until they all nodded or voiced their promise to let out yet another tired sigh.
"He was trying to get me to calm down, so he started talking," Don was pinching the bridge of his beak now, face contorted in disgust, "Smooth talking. In a very revolting manner." While Leo and Raph still looked confused at the explanation, Mikey was covering his mouth, holding in snorts of laughter.
"Y-you mean he was..." Mikey started, gulping several times to swallow his amusement, though it showed through in his expression, "He was hitting on you?" A loud groan answered him in confirmation.
"That. Is. Disgusting." Raph emphasized, a deep grimace down curving his lips. The mere thought of Baxter trying to butter him u making his stomach quiver. He looked at Leo, finding his brother had just about the same look on his face, and was probably feeling the same way.
"I know! I got so mad after that!" Don nearly shouted as he threw his hands up, "I just snapped. I guess after hiding it for so long and being so worried about it, the tension of the situation just mad me go crazy! I started seeing red, and the next thing I knew I was standing all bloodied next to a smashed jar of brain. It took me forever to clean myself off."
Mikey gasped, "Geezey Pete's, Donnie! You went and finally killed the guy?"
"What? No. I made sure to shove his brain in a freezer filled with other mysterious body parts," Donatello assured, not getting any comforted responses from this revelation, "I'm sure Bishop can fix him up somehow, not that he deserves it."
No one said anything for a full minute as they stood around the sewer, not knowing how to reply to the knowledge of Donatello's uncharacteristically violent outburst. Raph felt a mix of pride and confusion gnawing away at him, Leo was concerned that his brother may have went too far and would need professional counseling, and Mikey still could not get over the fact that Don had been hit on by Baxter Stockman.
"I guess its a good thing I didn't laugh at you!" Mikey chuckled, gaining a venomous glare, which he aptly either ignored or didn't notice, "I don't want to ever make you mad!"
"Ditto." Raph said with a smirk, slapping Don on the back with good intentions. The brainy turtle shook his head shamefully.
"Come on, guys. Lets get home and sleep this whole crazy thing off." Leo suggested as he backed out of the tight circle they had unknowingly formed. The others nodded, and after a quick trip to the surface to determine their exact location, they set off ona long trek back to the lair. Few comments about Don's feminism were made, those that were voiced were promptly smacked into silence by a grumpy Donatello.
After almost a three hour hike, they came back to their home. Don was the first to make way for his own private space, understandably. The remaining three soon retired to their respective bedrooms soon after. Before the leader of the group did so, though, he quietly knocked on the bo wielder's door.
"Come in," Leo opened the door slowly, peeking his head around to see into the dimly lit room. His brother sat on his bed, legs dangling off the side and wearing his mask around his neck, "What is it?"
"Just checking in to see if your okay." Leo responded honestly. Don snorted indignantly.
"What, now that I'm a girl you're worried?" The bitterness wasn't kept out of the tone Donnie used, causing Leo to flinch. He didn't say anything though. That seemed to be the proper response, for soon after he spoke, Don's anger dissipated, replaced by a forlorn, shamed expression, "Sorry."
"It's fine. I can understand why you'd be on edge," Leo reasoned, feeling comfortable enough to come into the room fully and sit on the bed next to his brother. Don shook his head.
"You know, it just isn't fair! I feel so humiliated," He grumbled, "This could have happened to any one of us. It just happened to be me. Not that I want you guys to have to deal with this."
"What do you mean?" Leo asked, perplexed. Don smiled at him in a tired manner.
"It's because there's only male of our species around us that I'd changed in the first place," Don explained, which he realized he'd been doing a lot of lately, "I guess my genes were just the most susceptible to Protandry."
"Sorry." Leo offered, patting his brother on the shell sympathetically, "But you do realize Raph is right. It really doesn't matter what you are as long as you're Donatello."
"Yeah, I guess." Don sighed as he flopped back into the covers. Leo laughed a bit and stood up to leave.
"And, I'll try to keep the others from poking fun at you too terribly." Leo chuckled. He didn't have to see his brother to know that he was rolling his eyes.
"Cheh, thanks." Don commented unceremoniously as Leo walked out the door, "Night bro." He added as the blue masked brother began shutting the door. Leo smiled to himself.
"Night, bro."
They all slept well that night.
And in the morning, a bag of toiletries hung from Donnie's doorknob.