AN: You guys are amazing. Truly, you are! I melt into a puddle with every review and fav and follow. I can spend hours and plenty of writing space telling you guys how wonderful you are, but I think you'd guys rather have another chapter, so here it is. We speed up the timeline and are now right after Don leaves he lair after drugging Leo. There is some more Donnie introspect, but I felt it was warranted. Besides, the next chapter is very meaty with action and confrontation. So, enjoy!

Beta'd by Kamerer220, who's a doll!

Chapter 3 – More Than Useless

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"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid."
- Albert Einstein

-o-

*Present Day*

The chill factor was around 35 degrees Fahrenheit by the time Donatello drove the Shellcycle up to the high-end apartment building that was across the street from Foot HQ. He rode around the block twice, making sure that he had no stragglers before moving up to the underground parking garage. He punched in the access code he had gotten earlier was quickly allowed entrance. He had already set up the security cameras to play on a loop for the next twelve hours so he was essentially invisible at the moment.

He drove the bike up to an outside storage closet close to the elevators, picked the lock and parked the bike in the closet, which had plenty enough room for him to hide the gift he had built for Raph. He patted the seat of it, remembering the time and effort he had spent making the motorbike, after so many years of his brother's lamenting and unsubtle hints. Raph had been ecstatic the day he received it, and Don could only hope that he would be able to have it returned to its owner.

His hand seized slightly on the seat, tightening up at the thought of its owner. He hadn't gone Leo's route and went around saying goodbye. He had had too many things to do, and the thought of looking at Raphael, or any of his brothers or their father, as if it were the last time he would see them made him ache deeply. He knew he wouldn't have been able to go through his plan, because he would have either backed out of it or would have confessed everything to them and make them promise to never leave his sight again. It had taken a lot of strength to finally walk away from the bike and locked the door to the storage room without looking back at it. Now that he was separated from his getaway vehicle, cutting himself off from another way to run from this, he was able to go about setting the rest of his plan into action.

He walked the perimeter of the Saki building, checking to make sure that everything he had set up earlier that week were still there and still operational. He also wanted to check to make sure that the extra security Karai had set up was still the same. It took thirty minutes to go around to check and recheck everything, but after the third time around, he knew he couldn't stall any longer. The deadline that Karai had set for Leo was close, and he didn't want to give Leo the reputation as the kind of turtle who was tardy to the party.

Don could feel his palms start to sweat as he made his way back down to street level. His arms and legs were starting to feel like jelly and his heart was pounding out a heavy crescendo. He stayed in the shadows as he tried to calm his nerves. There was no way this will work if he didn't seem as calm and collected as he should. It would give him away immediately and he needed to let this to play out if he had any hope of surviving the night. Oh, shell. He was so stupid. This has to be the stupidest thing he has ever done and despite his genius reputation, he's done pretty stupid things. He was a teenager, after all, and they were always lacking in certain common sense department until they were old enough to realize their mistakes. Sadly, Donnie feared that he wouldn't live long enough to get to the point where he would stop doing stupid things.

Because this was really, really stupid.

Was he really going to walk into Foot HQ, masquerade as his older brother, and take on the entire Foot clan?

He was starting to doubt this entire thing. Not the plan. His calculations were as flawless as ever, he knew them better than he knew himself. He had been meticulous in its execution. Everything is exactly as he had planned in, and considering his margin of error rested on the predictability of Karai, he still felt really good about this plan.

He was doubting his reasons.

Was being pissed off at a brother reason enough to do something as stupid as walking into Karai's web on a seemingly suicidal mission.

Oh, he knew that this was not the only reason. It wasn't even the main reason, but right now, it felt like a heavy weight on his shoulders, bringing home the realization of the stupidity he was about to embark on. This was definitely something atypical of him, to allow even a smidgen of anger to be a catalyst to his actions.

He easily could see Raph doing this, running off and taking Leo's place in this deal just to piss "Fearless" off. To a lesser extent, he could see Mikey doing this, taking up the role as leader as a game, a self-dare, just to see if he could do it. Don knew it was slightly unfair to think like that. Both of their reasons would be very similar to his own: protecting Leo, protecting family, anger at multiple parties for the part they felt they had to play. Don just didn't so stuff like this, usually. Sure, he's gone on a few excursions by himself when he felt they were warranted, but ultimately, he was a team player, someone who waited until the collective was okay with something before venturing off to do something, usually with a brother or trusted friend. Solo excursions were not his forte, along with suicidal missions. He'd much rather have the company of others than having to face something by himself.

Probably the real crux of it all, Don would probably had more faith in either one of his warm-masked brothers doing this than him. Both were by far superior in their ninja skills, and would be more believable as the seemingly perfect Leonardo than him. He was well aware of his inferior skills in fighting. He was a great ninja, but that was only because of so many years of training and his own determination to not be a burden to his family. No matter how hard he tries, no matter how much patience his sensei would show him, no matter how his brothers tried to motivate him, he was never going to be the perfect ninja. He's not even sure why he even wants to.

Okay, that's not entirely true. Don knew exactly why he wanted to be a better ninja, and it had nothing to do with protecting his family, like Leo. Or a way to channel his anger into something productive, like Raph. Or just because he was naturally gifted at it, like Mikey. The main purpose for Don to try so hard to do something that he was inherently bad was simple: he wanted to please his father.

He knew that Raph often feels like the black sheep of the family, but Don knew that his hot-tempered brother was more in tune with their family's dynamics than he was. Donatello was a freak among freaks. They trained and fought for the survival of their genetically altered species, and Don was predisposition to back away from a fight rather than engage. He saw the look of disappointment in his master's eyes when he admits defeat too quickly during a sparring match rather push his advantages. He sees his father's confusion when he talks to him about his projects. Don feels his unworthiness seep through his pores every second he is in the dojo, camouflaged as sweat. Donatello knew he was the least understood of his brothers, and perhaps that was why he tried so hard in matters not pertaining to ninjutsu. Why he has made so many appliances and inventions to aid his family's comfort, since he could not be an equal in the team.

Don's niche as the family mechanic, doctor, and go-to guy for all around knowledge hadn't come easy. When they had just started out as mutated beings with intelligence, Splinter had no knowledge of what it was to be a father and raise four increasingly intelligent children. They were taught how to tumble before they were taught their letters, to perform a kata before learning their numbers. These things came so much easier to the other three, but Don never had the natural coordination to perform the moves the others were able to do so precise. He listened to every word their father had said, understood every move and memorized their placements, but he couldn't get his undersized body to cooperate with what his mind was telling him. Even Leo, who was just barely bigger than he was, had gotten the moves eventually, after lots of practice, but Don just never could get them down perfect before their father finally gave up and allowed them to move on to the next movement or pose, leaving Don struggling to keep up.

Early on, having not understood the family dynamic just yet, Don had been afraid he was going to be abandoned, an instinctive thought that was brought with them from their early days of just being a turtle. He was the least productive of his brothers, and he feared that Splinter would soon realize that he was of no use to him as a ninja-wanna-be and would want to be rid of him.

By that time Splinter had finally realized that the information he himself had gained from living with humans for almost all of his life, such as the ability to read easily after recognizing the characters in the books Hamato Yoshi and Tang Shen had around and the ability to count up, was not something that came naturally through mutation. So he started to teach the basics to his young sons, and was Donatello dying of thirst for knowledge. Splinter's early academic teachings were just droplets to the desirous young mind of Donatello. Despite what his brothers may say, Don was not born with all the knowledge seared into his cranium, he had to be taught just like almost every other being in the universe. Without the proper tools and resources, Don was left to wither.

There was no way for Donatello to convey that he needed something else to occupy his fast paced and depleted mind, not having the knowledge to even think to do so, so he tried to find other outlets to fill his unoccupied mind. That was when he started to get into trouble. First it was the toaster, a rare find indeed that gave his family their first hot food. It was dismantled completely after Donatello was left unattended for five minutes. Then it was the alarm clock, then the radio, and the list went on and on. Whatever Splinter had been lucky enough to find in working order, Donatello had torn it down to its skeletal form to find out how it came to be. Most of the time, because of the surprising meticulous nature Don seemed to have, the pieces were able to be put back together (though it took almost five times as long to rebuild than it was for Donnie to tear down because Donatello was usually punished immediately and not allowed to help speed up the process.) It didn't matter how many times Splinter would fuss and punish, whether it was a slap on the bum or back flips that Don hadn't even mastered yet, Don would continue the pattern over and over again, the tearing things apart to find out how they did it.

There were only so many times one could see the insides of a toaster before they were clued in that there was something missing in the equation. When Splinter finally realized what Don had been trying to tell him, but hadn't the data or the abilities to put them into the right words, and that he needed something other than letters and numbers to learn, Splinter quickly and efficiently came up with a solution.

The very next trip to the surface, when he brought down simple reading books to three of his sons, for his smallest and despondent son, he brought a beat up encyclopedia. It was wordy and thick, something Splinter was sure was way too advance for a four-year-old. He wanted to test his theory, though, and Donatello had been the only son to speed through his reading exercises with relative ease and could count almost higher than he could. He was soon rewarded with a delighted child and a sudden lack of dismantled appliances.

Donatello had gobbled the information up, and set it to memory. What was even more impressive, instead of hoarding the information to himself, unlike some of his other brothers who would gain a new toy and be insistent they keep the treasured item to themselves, he was more than willing to spread the wealth. He followed each of his family members around sprouting out information that nobody had asked for and within the first week, everyone had received information overload and would try to distance themselves or pass off their loquacious brother off to someone else. Even after all that, though, Don still yearned for more. He finished the encyclopedia within the month and started eyeing the electronics again, before Splinter had gotten the aforethought to continue to bring in more books on learning and then eventually broken and seemingly irreparable objects for his son to tinker with.

That was when the miracles started to happen. Don, who was now learning new things left and right from the wonderful books his father was bringing him, discovered he had a natural gift when it came to mechanics. His fingers, which couldn't hold him up during a difficult kata involving a headstand, could deftly maneuver through tiny wires and bolts to find the kinked up circuitry of the tiny gameboy, or easily rewire the stereo. Whether it was instinctual or something that he had gained as he learned to expand his mind, Don had been able to make the broken machines work. If he didn't have the right materials to work with, he learned to make do with replacement and improvised parts. Sometimes the items were basically useless, like the hair dryer (none of his brothers had hair and Splinter claimed he preferred to air dry) but others, like the heater and the microwave turned out to be extremely useful.

Once he realized how much his little quirk with machinery helped his family and the positive reaction each new appliance, Don finally realized the role he was meant to fill for this family. So he continued to expand his knowledge, to fix up broken things, and invent new things from scrap. When they were finally forced to move to a new place because of the growing rate of the four turtles, it was Donnie that had aided his father in the repair work and building of new materials. It had been great to be his father's go to turtle for once, his new found expertise was needed in almost every aspect of getting the new lair livable for four cold-blooded turtles and one scrawny rat. Once that was done, his brothers started coming to him to fix broken toys and objects, or to gain insight they lacked. He was by no means an expert in everything, nor could the knowledge just be plucked from the air to give an answer to any questions ("Seriously, Mikey, how the heck am I supposed to know if turtles could fly if they had feathers?"), he had the ability and now the resources, thanks to their father's find, to look for the answers himself. At that young age, he had thought he had found a way for his family to love him.

Logically, now, he knew that his family would have loved him even without his knowledge and expertise. That they loved him regardless of him being less of a ninja then they were. They had just spent months trying to keep him from overworking himself, taking up the blunt of the repair work in the new lair and kept him out of the dojo for his own safety. But during his low spots, when his brothers would bring him broken object after broken object, or when Splinter would try to teach him another move he knew he wouldn't master, he wondered if they would love him less if he told them 'no?'

Was taking up Leo's role in this game Karai was trying to play his way of trying to prove to his family that he could be just as much of a ninja as they were, that he belonged to this family? Maybe. Again, not the main reason for him to do something so ill-advised, but just like his righteous anger at Leo's inability to control his "saving-people thing" and his fear for his family's safety, it was still a major factor. All of this was still not a good enough reason to kill himself in this foolhardy mission, but it was too late to back down now. Everything was set, his marks were in place, Leo… Don's breath hitched slightly, Leo was drugged into submission back in the dojo, and the rest of his family and friends were left in the dark at a safe distance.

It felt like a bad omen to have left his eldest brother unconscious, surrounded by his meditation candles, before coming here. By the time Leo would awaken, everything would have occurred and he should be on his way home. But…

If things don't go to plan, if his calculations were off even by a tenth of a point, or he is struck down before he could finish, he didn't want to rely on his older brother having enough of a clear mind to know what to do if he didn't return.

Don took out his shellcell and looked up a number. It was a last minute plan, born from the need to make absolutely sure that he had everything covered. He found the contact quickly, and fingered the number, slightly unsure about not only the message he was about to send, but also who he chose. There was not a single person on his contact list that he did not trust with a message such as this, but not just anyone could handle the 'just in case' message he was about to send. This person, he thought of highly, and as unfair it was of him to call upon their ability to handle the pressure he was about to put upon their head. Don was essentially trusting this individual with his family's life and peace of mind, and there was no one else he thought he would want to comfort him in his time of misery.

So, after a few moments to program the message to record, Don toggled the button and pressed record.

"April? It's Donnie…if you are getting this message…"

Donatello had to stop and start several times, erasing and rerecording almost the entire message three times before he could complete the message without his throat closing up on him or breaking down. The fourth time was erased because of the shakiness that was evident in his voice. He didn't want to hurt his friend any more than he was already going to, if she listened to this message. His fifth and final time was the charm. He sounded brave and repentant, except for a catch here or there, but Don didn't think he could try to record it one more time. He would have probably turned around and high tailed it out of there if he had to say goodbye a sixth time.

He set up the message to be sent to April's shellcell in three hours. That would give him time to stop the message if, no, when, his mission was complete and he walked away from this crazy mess in one piece. After the message was set up to be sent, he turned off his own shellcell, disabling the GPS system he had installed on it. He was sure that nobody was missing him right now. Leo was still out and Raph and Mikey had been watching some college football when he left. Splinter had retired for the night before he even started to make Leo's drugged tea, and he was sure April and Casey were on a date. There was nobody trying to gain his attention right now, aside from the Foot, and he anticipated it to stay that way until Leo woke up. However, that won't be for another few hours. Either way, he still didn't want his family to start to inquire about his whereabouts or try to track him down when he didn't answer. Besides, with the mess he was probably about to make, he wanted to try to minimize the amount of electronic disturbance.

He tucked the shellcell into Leo's belt, next to his own throwing stars and other goodies he decided he needed for this little rendezvous with Karai. He rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck. He closed his eyes and tried to visualize, just like Splinter had taught them, and picture his brother Leo. He imagined his stance, his poise, his self-control, and confidence and tried to emulate that to the best of his abilities. After a few moments, he could feel his shoulders squaring out, his chest inflating, his back straightening and a feeling of importance start to settle into his limbs. He kept his visual of Leonardo in his head as he opened his eyes and emerged from the shadows.

A confident and no-nonsense mutant turtled walked to the front doors of Saki Enterprises and opened the door. Inside, the lobby was clearer, the receptionist's desk was vacant. It was only him and the Japanese painted ferns that lined the space. The blue-masked turtle only had to step into the lobby fully, allowing the door to close behind him, to draw out the four Foot soldiers that he had sensed hiding in the shadows. The four of them brought their weapons, ready to attack if he did, but he just merely stared at them.

Don spoke, his voice lowered in an almost perfect imitation of his more intimidating older brother. "I have an appointment with Oroku Karai."

The ninjas stared at him for a moment longer before one of them motioned to the elevator. Without looking at them, the presumed 'Leonardo' walked confidently to the elevator, which opened as he neared. He entered it with only a moment's hesitation, and turned facing the front. The four Foot ninjas entered after him, surrounding him, and then the elevators closed, locking them all together.

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AN: Whaaaaaaat? We're almost there y'all!

A note about this chapter: I know that Splinter is a great father to our turtle boys, but let's remember, he was a rat to start with (at least in this version). It's hard trying to raise four kids all by yourself, especially when you have absolutely zero experience in it. It's even more difficult to raise a child like Donnie, who no doubt was very precocious and most definitely a little difficult to raise, especially since he had a different mindset than his brothers. All of them are unique in their own way, but I've heard stories and did some research on how to raise a genius child, and it can be daunting, even if you know what to expect. Splinter couldn't automatically assume Donnie's abilities were any different than from his brothers if he had no clue how to look at them. So that is my headcanon, that Splinter had a difficult time trying to discipline a child who thought on a different plane than you. And with the way Don is as a teenager, that little sassy minx, you know he now takes advantage of it.

Chapter title is from the song by Reliant K.