AN: CCA here! Wassup, FF dot NET! How is your day? I am juss fahn, thank youz for askin! ^^ I'm in an accenting mood. Sue me if you want. Leo was last chapter, so this chapter you have to guess who it is! This chapter will be easier because it's from the point of view of a fellow intellectual. AND I explained why Donne absolutely HATED it whenever Leatherhead or anyone else would hit or grab him by the face. I was listening to the remix of "He grabbed me BY THE FACE!" by Metalhead Inventor on YouTube, so :/ yeah, a lot of anger at the face-grabbing/ touching. Take note, Donnie fans, do NOT touch the FACE! XD Remember to read and review because I love it when I get those!

Shout outs go to aliengirl13, miceaholic, and Rachel Erica for being the first reviewers! You three are FABOOLIS! And yes, aliengirl. My brain exploded at the fact that I wrote all that cuteness!

DISCLAIMER: Do I look like a bunch of orange letters spelling NICKELODEON to you? Nope. I'm a blondie freshmore that is taller than you all. XD

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The Sharpest Mind

He was Doux. At least, that's who he thought he was. That was the name that was crooned loudest. There were other names, other colors. He's heard Lee and Rae and Milos. Their father had a human word for a name, though. Doux didn't know what a Slash was, but he digressed. He finds that he thinks a lot. Too much for a turtle, he found. He thinks of he might be a human in a turtle's body, but that's still thinking. He can't stop, and there are so many thoughts that go by at once; his mind is almost never quiet. Doux dreamt sometimes, of clanking and clanging and he welcomed it with an open mouth. He was pretty sure the expression went that way.

Doux shifted in the egg, causing it to quiver. Were those his brothers chirping? He didn't want to be out last! He managed to calculate the exact spot he would need to hit to be out almost immediately, and hit it with his head. One more blow was dealt to the spot to make the gap large enough to crawl out through, calling out his name as he exited his egg. Compared to the egg, the outer world was relatively cool. The first thing he spotted outside their containment was a cage full of furry creatures with furless tails. Looking at the human letters, Doux somehow managed to translate 'rats' to the turtle term, mangeous. The mangei scurried around their cage as Doux watched them.

The young turtle was brought out of his thoughts when another turtle, Doux thought it was Rae, was placed next to him. The other turtle was just as surprised as Doux. Human does not touch Rae! Rae— apparently— shouted at the human as he tried to bite the larger creature. Tried, if it weren't for the fact that Doux stopped him. Rae needs classes on how to deal with anger Doux muttered to himself, not sure on what a class was. As Doux worked a stubborn Rae away from the human Lee was staring at, Milos waddled by and ran into the glass wall of the… thing they were in. Milos doesn't like this place anymore the younger turtle whined, almost making Doux do the turtle equivalent of a laugh.

Suddenly, Lee was picked up by a human hand and placed in a smaller containment unit outside of their current one. Be careful what you wish for, Milos Rae scolded the younger, and Milos gave Rae a guilty almost-grin. Doux was picked up as well, and he guessed that he would have thought he was flying if he didn't know better. He was put down next to Lee and the hand went back for Rae. When Milos was put in, another human hand reached in and grabbed him gently. This hand bore a female-scent, and Doux supposed it made sense. The female tickled Milos a little on the underside, babbling in her human language, and put Milos back. Doux couldn't help but stare at the human, his mind blank for once. There was only one word that could describe her, and that was a human word. Beautiful…

They began to move, and Doux was separated from an immediate line on sight from the human. She stayed in his mind until the human carrying them almost dropped them. Doux's thoughts raced again, and he was disappointed at this turn of events. Besides, who knew his brothers' reactions to his liking a human. After all, Rae and Milos just wouldn't stop arguing! They stopped moving eventually. Doux wanted to know what was going on. Even Rae and Milos, who had argued the whole way here, were silent. There was the garble of human speech down the alley, but it was too far away for Doux to decipher their meanings in the turtle language. A loud cry of pain from a wild mangeous came from below and the humans turned toward them and the human carrying them. The way they spoke prevented Doux from translating their speech. Their syntax was strange, even for humans to turtles.

Two other strange humans came up behind them and after all four stopped speaking, they all attacked their human at once. The human carrying them held his own until a strange container filled with glowing ooze smashed against the differing human's back when he'd turned in an attempt to protect them. The male had gasped in pain and dropped the container that had them in it, and it smashed against the ground, scattering the four of them. Doux had ended up on his back as the human crumpled onto his knees, spilling some of the ooze all over the turtle's head and belly. Immediately, it felt as if fire consumed him, and Doux saw why the human had dropped them. It was some sort of… mutagenous fluid capable of combining genetic signatures. Now if only he could figure out where he learned to speak human…

The world went black as he tried to figure out how he'd learned those words.

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When Doux woke up, it was to see Milos and Lee in front of him. Both bore blue yes, although Milos' eyes resembled those of woman from earlier. Now he was confused. What was a blue? His mind automatically translated the color in his head. Blue was lee. (AN: Heheh, Bruce Lee) Lee suddenly grabbed Doux's mouth and wrenched his lips apart, seeming confused at his teeth. Lee looked at Milos, who bore his own teeth at his older brother, and Doux decided that he didn't like people grabbing him by the face. He wrestled his mouth out of Lee's hands, and explained They're called teeth with a glare to Lee. Milos and Lee helped him up, and they all toddled over to Rae, who was already sitting up and pouting with his arms crossed over his plastron. It was a little hard to miss the chip in his plastron on the left side, and Doux knew that the missing piece would only get more apparent as they got over. Milos tried to poke the missing piece of shell out of concern, but his hand was slapped away. That's where I landed when the human dropped me Rae bitterly supplied them. Lee suggested that they wake up the rat, which was lying not far from where Rae was. Poor Milos had to be the one to drag Rae when the overly stubborn turtle had refused to help him up. Doux was only as tall as Milos, he soon found, and soon became nervous for when the former human woke up. What if he grabbed him by the face? What if he shook him around like a ragdoll?! Doux didn't know what a ragdoll was, but seemed to be a good analogy. When the rat woke up, his expression was dazed, as if his vision went blurry. He blinked several times and scrambled away from the four once Doux supposed the man's vision had cleared. Doux bit back his fear, and examined the mangeous as he examined each of them in turn.

He would be much taller than them if he was standing up. His fur was the deep brown of fertile soil, with black markings. There was a white spot on his chin that crested twice onto the side of his muzzle, and a larger one on his belly. Up to his elbows and knees was skin that looked almost scaly, and the bare tail was long and almost worm-like. There were white, slightly bushy eyebrows above red eyes that had an amber tinge to them and he had the beginnings of a goatee on the end of his muzzle, just below his lip. His ears were typical rat ears, dish-like and with the notch on the edge facing the back of his head, white tufts extending off of the tips.

The giant rat reached a hand to Lee, but seemed surprised to see his own hand. The furry creature looked himself over and seemed to be almost fighting off panicked. Once he calmed down, he sighed and made a move to get up or leave. Milos cried out Please don't leave, Daddy! as he latched onto one of the rat-man's legs. Fearing that the comparative giant would grab or attack Milos in the face, Doux attacked his other leg, setting him off balance, and the furry sat down hard on his tail. Doux let go, his job in protecting his brother done only to find that Milos was still glued to the dry-skinned leg, whimpering and keening out self-reassurances of We need Daddy, Daddy can't leave, he keeps us safe.

Doux nearly tackled the creature again when the larger being reached his four-fingered hand down, but relaxed when he only patted Milos' head as a way to comfort him. He shared a look with Rae, as Lee seemed transfixed with the human. I still don't trust him Rae growled, and Doux agreed with that a little.

This creature had once been a human, and he had heard their mother croon to them— mainly Lee and Milos— about humans, how they gave them other-names and destroyed whatever they touched. But if this human (even if he wasn't human anymore) and the pretty human in their birthplace were this kind, maybe not all humans were that bad. He'd have to share that theory with Rae.

Now if only he knew what a theory was.