A/n: Happy (belated) birthday, Ultimate hothead! Sorry I'm late!
Also, I apologise for not updating this for So Long. It's all the muse's fault. And a whole lot of real life stuff but lets not go into that rant. (Special thanks to FlameShadowFireDragon for helping with the breakfast scene and getting the muse running on time.)
One more thing; I'm not a genius like Donnie so there are probably going to be inaccuracies in scientific explanations, meaning, don't take them as 100% correct. Though I'll try my best to make them as plausible as I can.
Anywho, Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the canon characters, TMNT or camios, that will appear in this story. They all belong to their respective owners. Any OCs or random public is mine though, unless I say otherwise. I'm not gonna put up any more disclaimers so count this for the entire book.
Chapter 1: The Exhibition
Five Months Earlier:-
A large LED screen fixed on the far wall of an elegantly furnished yet still messy living room was turned on at the news channel, showing a female reporter standing in front of a museum, crowd of curious public and more reporters, both humans and mutants, visible in the background as she spoke.
"...largest convention of science this year. Sources say that Doctor Tyler Rockwell, leading researcher on neurotransmitions and, recently, atomic physics, shall be presenting one of his latest creations that he built in collaboration with Hamato Donatello, young genius and winner of four consecutive science awards at his institute. As you can see behind me, there's a general..."
"We're gonna be late! We're gonna be late!" A purple masked turtle squeaked as he dashed past the screen, running back and forth throughout the house in his excitement, alternating between putting something on or grabbing tools and packing them in the duffle he carried, already having made several rounds in a single minute.
"Boys, breakfast is ready!" A female's voice called from an open doorway and almost immediately, a green and orange blur rushed past the TV and towards the kitchen where a dining table had been set.
"Dibs on chocolate syrup!" Mikey announced as he barreled inside, spinning around the table's corner and pulling out one of the chairs to sit on while also grabbing the bottle of chocolate-syrup in the process. "Hey, Mom!" he greeted the amused woman who had been watching his antics with crossed arms.
Meanwhile, in the living room, Donatello struggled to put one sleeve of his jacket on, the duffle bag packed and placed away near the entrance.
"Coming, Mom!" he called back a few seconds after his younger brother had disappeared into the kitchen, his attention fixed on the task of straightening the accursed sleeve, not paying attention to the scattered mess in the living room. His foot snagged on the edge of some random object which was lying around, causing him to trip and stumble forward with a yelp, the ground rushing to meet him.
"Woah, easy there, Brainiac," the voice of his immediately elder brother sounded as a pair of arms stopped his fall, fortunately preventing him from faceplanting on the rug-covered floor. Donnie released a sigh of relief as he was straightened and he finally managed to put on his jacket.
"Thanks, Raph!" he exclaimed before he ran off to grab his breakfast as he headed straight to where the youngest member of the Hamato family had rushed in earlier.
Raphael shook his head and shared a meaingful, amused glance with Leo who had just stepped into the living room, dressed up and ready to go like he was. Usually, they didn't wear clothes, having no need for them, but this time, Tang Shen had insisted that they should atleast look presentable for the occasion.
"I haven't seen him this excited since he built that mini EMP generator a couple of years ago," Leo observed with a grin as he walked next to Raph and they both made their way towards the kitchen, the appetizing aroma of pancakes, butter and syrup wafting from the open doorway.
"One of these days," Raphael mumbled to his brother, low enough so only Leo would hear, "there's gonna be a science fair and he'll trash the house trying to get ready."
"You're not that far off from the truth. He already trashed his room this morning, trying to find the custom made watch he wanted to wear today."
"For real?"
Leonardo gestured at a half-opened door that could be seen down the hall, the brief view of the inside of their brother's bedroom showing pulled out drawers and floor littered with clothes and gadgets.
Raph snorted at seeing the mess and shook his head, hurrying to the dining table before a certain freckled turtle could eat his share of pancakes too, the other turtle following right behind him. They sat down on the unoccupied seats, trying to ignore the way Mikey was chomping on his food with a brown syrup smeared across his muzzle. Another generous amount of chocolaty syrup was squeezed over the pancakes in front of the youngest and everyone sitting beside him surreptitiously moved their chairs a few inches away. Donnie's beak wrinkled in disgust as Mikey kept adding more and more to the point where the dessert disappeared under the layers of brown and it seemed like he was having just chocolate syrup for breakfast. Don lightly kicked the other's foot under the table.
"Mikey, stop that."
"Buth, Donnie," the orange-masked turtle spoke while he munched and chewed, his brothers skillfully dodging the splatters flying around, "ish de'i chhiush fo' pamcakes!"
"Ugh! Dude, that is disgusting! You're getting syrup all over the place."
Tang Shen returned to the table carrying a plate heaped with a tower of pancakes and the late-comers-by-thirty-seven-seconds took their share from it with regular maple syrup as their mother took the bottle of choco-syrup away from Michelangelo.
"That's quite enough chocolate dressing, Mikey," she admonished.
"But, Mooooom...!" he whined unhappily, reaching for the bottle that was placed far out of his reach on the other side of the table and in front of their father who hadn't spoken a word during the whole fiasco, quite used to the routinely antics of his family. A fake, sad whimper escaped the young ninja while somebody at the table sighed 'Finally' under their breath but the voice was too low to recognize.
"But it's chocolate," he tried vainly, "Chocolate is good."
"No, Mikey, I can assure you chocolate is not good." The woman then playfully whispered to the freckled turtle, ruffling his head, "And neither is it a salad!"
"You'd say that, you love salad," Mikey muttered sullenly.
Tang Shen let out an amused chuckle at this and her son sat back with a hmph, arms crossed and cheeks puffed up in a pout, though they all knew he was just acting at this point.
"Aw, don't worry, Mikey. Be thankful she took that away before your fingers got too sticky."
"Yeah, or the chocolate would've made Donnie's machine go crazy."
"I sincerely hope you didn't just jinx the fate of our innovative invention, Raph."
It was a few minutes later that they all finished their breakfast and were getting up to put away their plates and forks, working quickly because they had to leave for the convention early as they were to be given entrance about an hour before it officially opened for non-participants and the other public, since Donatello had to help set up the machine on display and make a few last minute adjustments.
"Are you boys all ready to go?"
"Hai, Sensei," the brothers chorused.
"Have you grabbed what you needed, Donatello?"
"Yes, father. It's all in my duffle."
"Our passes?"
"I have them, Yoshi. Now quit being anxious and lets go."
"Alright." Hamato Yoshi stood up from his seat and headed outside with his family, Donnie grabbing his bag on the way out the door as Mikey had picked up the car keys. He rushed out and proceeded to hand them to their father who unlocked the seven-seater while Shen locked the door of the house.
Soon, the whole family was seated and the car's engine was softly rumbling as it moved out of the driveway and onto the main street.
The weather in New York was quite pleasant that day, late morning sunlight was shining over the city streets with a few intermittent clouds scattered across the blue sky, occasionally blocking the sunlight as they travelled. The moderately cool spring breeze was fragnant with a slight scent of blossoming flowers and pollen near the parks.
A large, black SUV car slowed down near the museum where a crowd of cameramen and reporters alongside general public was visible, the enthusiastic and loud throng only held back by the security staff (who were thankfully all mutants) as the car doors opened and the family of the young genius Donatello stepped out, all four brothers on their best behaviour after Shen's lecture during the ride and wearing their invitation passes. The keys were handed over to a temporarily hired valet who sat in the vacated driver's seat and drove their vehicle away into the parking lot. As soon as the family moved near the main entrance of the museum, the cameras started flashing and reporters tried to shove their microphones, having logos of varrying channels, in front of them, loudly speaking over each other to get their questions across.
"Sir, what is your opinion on-!"
"Mrs. Hamato, is it true that your son won several-"
"-can we get an idea of what this invention-"
"What lead to your collaboration with Dr. Rockwell?"
"Can you please tell-!"
"Mister Donatello-!"
Before they could get overwhelmed by the flashing cameras and swinging microphones, a member of the event management staff thankfully approached the Hamatos and hurriedly ushered them inside, the uncomfortable heat and loud noise quickly fading away to be replaced by cool air of air conditioning vents and quite, echoing steps of participants, scientists and staff members miling about and setting things up.
As soon as they heard the door close shut behind them, the boys breathed a collective sigh of relief, much to their parents' amusement. Finally safe from the plethora of questions outside.
"That... was crazy." The person who was the main reason for reporters practically rushing them over managed to chuckle out, receiving a snort from Raphael.
"Understatement of the year."
Mikey had taken a step forward with his mouth agape and eyes wide in wonder, drowning out the voices of the other two as he gazed at all the high tech, almost sci-fi looking setups.
"Holy Chalupa..." he whispered in amazement, the others finally noticing all the impressive exhibits that had caught his attention; a high efficiency power generator setup, an antigravity pad, a robotic yellow and white puppy having powerful AI, miniature spy drones possessing high maneuverability, and so much more they couldn't understand the functions of. All of them, except for Donatello ofcourse, was awed by the impressive creations.
"Wow. No wonder you love attending science conventions so much, Dee. This place is amazing."
"Well, it's alright, I guess." He shrugged. "Some of those instruments could be improved further though."
"Are you kidding, dude?! They even have real actual hoverboards!" Saying so, the overly excited turtle ran forward to check out the so called hoverboards, rushing past a middle-aged man who seemed to be coming their way.
"Wait, Mikey-" Leo cut himself off with a sigh as his little brother turned a corner and disappeared out of sight. Represssing the urge to facepalm, he nudged Raph to gain his attention.
"Raph," he whispered, "Go after Mikey."
"Me? Why don't you go after him?"
"Because I need to stay with the others, handling things here."
The raised eyeridge that he recieved at the reasoning prompted another sigh from Leo. "Look. Would you rather spend most of the hour shaking hands with intellectuals and putting on polite smiles, or roaming the museum and observing cool stuff with Mikey?"
Raph grunted. "Fine."
It turned out Leo's prediction was correct, Raphael mused a few minutes later, as he saw numerous scientists and alike meeting with his parents and other two brothers, briefly mentioning or asking things he couldn't discern from that distance. Earlier, he had caught up with Michelangelo and now the two of them were exploring the place together. An impressed whistle escaped the red-masked turtle as they came across an android which moved with the dexterity of a gymnast. If all these things were so impressive, he couldn't wait to see what sort of machine Donnie had worked on. Afterall, it had to be something neat if so many people outside were asking about it.
Snapping out of his thoughts, he noticed that the android had smoothly straightened after performimg a somersault handstand and held out a palm towards them, which his excited younger brother highfived with a grin.
"Sweet! Do you think Donnie would ever make a robot like that?
Raph thought for a moment as they moved forward, then shook his head with a smirk. "Nah. He'd probably make a highly weaponized, reinforced armour robot that looks like a turtle and grabs your face at every opportunity."
Mikey pouted. "Why my face and not yours?"
"I don't know. Retaliation for all the pranks you pulled?"
"I don't pull pranks on him..." came the meek response.
Raph snorted. "Right. And my name is Fishface," he said with a sarcastic deadpan.
It was at that exact moment that they turned a corner and came face to face with a mutant that could've very well been called a Fishface.
Donatello had been meeting up with some of the professors he knew, and was introduced to those he didn't, keeping pleasantries up for almost half an hour as people kept coming to meet him and tell his parents how smart their boy is and how they admire his work. Several made university admission or work offers to him due to his genius, all of which he kept open, not accepting neither refusing. He had tried to find the exhibit of the invention he had co-created but always kept getting interrupted by one person or another.
"I swear, if one more person approaches us to shake hands, I'll blow a gasket," he muttered under his breath after the last enthusiastic engineer had left.
Leo made a faint noise which sounded like he was trying to hold back his snickers.
"Yeah yeah, laugh it up."
"Not my fault you look funny when your'e grouchy only an hour after you were as excited as Mikey going to get icecream."
"Harde har har."
There was a light snicker before Leo trailed off and stared ahead as they walked past the exhibits, trying to search for Dr. Rockwell in the massively wide hall. "We need to get to your machine quickly before anyone else tries to come meet you and wastes more time."
"Hm..."
Like a lightbulb had lit up in his head, the eldest turtle's eyes widened and he grabbed Donnie's arm to stop him before removing his blue mask and holding it out.
"Here."
"Wha-?" Donnie stared at the object his brother was offering in confusion, but only for a split second before understanding flashed in his eyes and he took the cobalt mask to switch with his own purple one.
Anyone who knew Donnie well enough could easily tell them apart, since the two brothers had completely different eye colors and other features, but anyone who knew Donnie well enough also knew that he only switched masks with one of his brothers when he wanted to be left alone.
"There. That'll throw people off long enough that we'll be able to walk past them before they could approach us."
"Not a bad plan. Now let's go find the machine." Saying so, Donnie sped up to search for it, his now purple-masked brother right on his heals.
They could've just used ninja stealth to avoid everyone, but A: It would have made searching for the location of Donnie's machine more difficult, and B: Tang Shen had insistently emphasized in the car about 'No ninja-ing in the hall unless absolutely necessary'. Moreover, they were enjoying the look of wide-eyed confusion on the faces of people they passed way too much.
"What?" the mutant drawled in what seemed to be a Brazilian accent, "Never seen a snakehead before?"
Raphael took an instant dislike to the guy. "Not as ugly as you, no."
Mikey internally groaned, not in the mood for another one of Raphael's arguments with random people. Last time it had been with some arrogant jerk who kept calling them frogs.
The magenta-scaled mutant growled. "Stupid turtle, I will fille-"
"Watch it, Fishface. Wouldn't wanna reverse that threat, now would we?"
"Why you little-!"
"And how are you even surviving without water anyway?" Raph cut him off for the second time, thoroughly satisfied by the look of annoyance that flashed across the fish mutant's face. Now he understood why Mikey loved getting a rise out of him.
"Artificial breathing rig," a different, more astute sounding voice responded, catching the attention of the three mutants. "My own design."
Mikey pressed his lips and took a step back, the middle-aged man that had made himself known just then giving him weird, bad vibes. He wore a labcoat, which only a few people were wearing, and sure looked like a scientist but more 'working for an evil tyrant' kind.
"Uhh?"
"Oh, how rude of me. Allow me to intoduce myself. Baxter Stockman; technical engineering genius and expert in building advanced artificial limbs and organs. Would you perhaps care to observe-?"
Raph felt a light but insistent tug on his arm and shook his head.
"Appreciate it, but no thanks. We need to be elsewhere." That was all he said before they strode away from the creepy duo, oblivious of the calculative look Fishface gave them as they left.
Only four exhibits away, Leo and Donnie had finally sighted the scientist they'd been searching for.
"Doctor Rockwell!"
The mutant chimp paused in his work at the call, looking up to see the two turtles striding towards him, followed by Mr. and Mrs. Hamato. He blinked in confusion, the unexpected switch in mask color perplexing him for a split second too.
"Donatello?"
The two brothers stopped near the display as they reached him and greeted the still blinking ape.
"Your mask is blue," Rockwell finally managed to comment.
"Oh yeah, Leo and I switched them for a little while. How's the Desynchronisor coming along?"
"It still requires some adjustments, would've been completely set if I had a helping hand." He shot Donnie an inquisitive look, "I was wondering where you've been."
"Heh. Sorry, Doc." The currently blue-masked turtle chuckled, tooth-gap showing for a brief moment. "We got held up by the others."
"I see." Then he looked over towards the two humans who had just arrived, giving a polite nod. "Mr. and Mrs. Hamato. Pleased to see you again."
"Good to see you as well, Tyler."
"The resonance ray hasn't been installed yet?" Donnie's voice floated from behind the machine where he had kneeled and opened a panel.
"I'm afraid not," Rockwell responded, floating beside the crouching turtle to observe the circuitry and wires. "It required two pairs of hands and my psychic amplifier doesn't help when focus for precision work is required along with holding several objects in-"
"Mom! Sensei! Guess what!" An orange clad turtle enthusiastically rushed towards the group of five gathered around the display, having ran out of a different path then they came from and followed by another, much less excited turtle.
"We saw a robot! And there was also this cute little robo puppy that could fly, and a spinning thing and..."
"Sounds like you two had a lot of fun," Donnie commented to his hotheaded brother, soldering a wire inside the panel as Mikey continued to ramble in the background.
"We did. Until we came across Fishface and-"
"Oh boy, what happened this time?" Leo asked with a raised eyeridge.
"Nothing! Just made that guy a bit angry and we left before anything happened. Stinkman was being too creepy anyway..." He muttered the last part under his breath but his brothers caught it.
"Who?" the two chorused.
"Dexter Stinkman or something... What was his name again, Mikey?"
"It had rings below which were glowing all blue like- huh?" Mikey stopped in his retelling of all the cool stuff he saw to his parents and turned to the others. "Oh! Baxter Stockman. Speaking of which; Donnie, you need to stay away from that dude!"
He paused in his work again to look up at the youngest. "Is there any particular reason or are you just saying that because his creation wasn't as cool?"
"I'm serious! He was all creepy like a dentist!" The boy shuddered. "And he gave me really bad vibes."
"Huh," Donnie mumbled, not noticing that he had left the wires hanging and grabbed the wrong tool. "I'll take your word for it then. Dentist-like scientists give me the creeps to- "
"Donatello, I would really appreciate it if you focused on the task at hand. We don't have much time left," came the agitated request from an agitated monkey.
"Wha-? Uh..." He winced at seeing the wrench in his hand and quickly switched it with a precision drill. "Right. Hey, Raph, can you hold this tube up for a minute while we install it?"
The turtle shrugged, "Sure. Move over a bit."
As the three started to work in silence, or noise, considering the buzz of that drill, Leonardo engaged his youngest brother in a conversation, pulling him away from the display since the others needed to concentrate at the moment. They talked about what they did earlier while the other had been away, Mikey excitedly telling Leo about the exploring he did with Raph and all the cool stuff they saw while Leo told him about how Donnie got grouchy because of too much handshakes and then explaining the mask switch when the youngest pointed it out.
It wasn't too long before the others were done; and just in time too, since the doors would be opening for non-participants and reporters in just a couple of minutes.
"That should do it," Donnie declared proudly and stepped away to gaze at his machine. The invention had been assembled and put up on a proper display, while several tools levitating in air through Rockwell's telekinesis floated down into toolboxes and a dufflebag.
"Cool! A scifi weapon!" Mikey exclaimed as he admired the ray attached to the machine. "What does it do, Donnie?"
"It's not a weapon, Mikey. It's a- don't touch that button!"
Mikey quickly pulled his finger away which was about to curiously press one of the buttons installed into the apparatus, turning to give an innocent smile to the glaring genius.
"Sorry. What were you saying this thing is?"
Before Donnie could respond, a loud clack followed by an echoing groan diverted their attention towards the main, wooden double doors which were slowly being opened and now the group finally took note of all the staff members hurriedly shuffling around. As soon as the doors opened, guests, students, teachers, cameramen, reporters, numerous science enthusiasts and other non-participants who had already been waiting outside, teemed into the hall, spreading out to scatter out of their own sheer curiosity about the exhibition displays instead of consideration about the potential congestion at the entrance. The hall was spacious enough to handle the large numbers, though, and the area near the doors was gradually clearing out as people engrossed themselves in learning about the new advancements in science this exhibition was featuring.
The media and other guest scientists also engaged in observing the displays and interviewing the participants about their creations, flashing cameras and small groups gathered around several exhibits indicating that those creators were giving a live presentation of their respective creations.
"You should probably put back your own mask now, before they reach us."
"Oh right." Saying so, Donnie and Leo quickly reswitched their masks and put them on. The Hamatos had a sneaky suspicion that they wouldn't be left alone for long and would be approached as soon as a random person points out, 'Look! There's Doctor Rockwell and Donatello.'
'Never doubt when a family of ninjas collectively suspects the same thing.'
Raphael thought with a smirk about five minutes later, now surrounded by many more people aside from his family as cameras flashed around him and questions were asked to the two mutants upfront who were presenting the machine everyone had been so excited about.
The brief sentiment of smugness was quickly replaced by annoyance once again as someone unknowingly jostled him to move forward for their own inquiry about that so called Desynchronising Seperator. Repressing the urge to groan or sigh or growl or trip that stupid lady who kept shoving her microphone forward, he simply clenched his jaw to release a bit of irritation. It was crowdy, it was loud, it was uncomfortably warm, he kept getting shoved or jostled, the lighting would get either too dark due to presence of people or too bright due to uncalled for flashes, the air around him was getting thick with CO2, stifling his breathing, he was also beginning to feel an emerging headache. And the worst part was that he had to keep an eye on Mikey again, since his parents were constantly being interviewed too and Leo had somehow been seperated and now stood on the other side close to the front; consequently in view of the many cameras from where he could only watch them but convey nothing. He kept glancing their way, though, so Raph caught his attention after making up his mind when he felt another uncomfortable shove.
With his brother's eyes on him, he made a few quick gestures with his hand, signaling that he was leaving the overwhelming hoard for some air and to watch Mikey while he was gone. Leonardo gave a barely perceptible nod in response, recieving an appreciative smirk from Raphael before the red-masked turtle slipped away undetected.
Raph let out a breath of relief when he was quite a ways away from the others, moving to a different line of displays than the one he had explored with his brother.
"...the final step of the process involves this resonance ray. Once automated targeting is engaged and targets scanned for their composition, the computer selects a series of resonances which get blasted out of this ray in rapid successive bursts. This causes the particles of the targeted object to vibrate at their respective resonance frequencies, resulting in the collapse of molecular bonds."
"So it disintegrates objects?"
"Not... precisely," the older of the two inventors responded somewhat ambiguously, glancing at the purple-clad turtle who took the signal and continued in his stead.
"It actually breaks apart molecules and compounds of just about any object, organic or inorganic. The matter doesn't convert to entropic energy, rather changes its internal structure, so to speak." A projection screen adjusted behind them showed the slides which illustrated what Donatello was saying in simple, understandable images, currently showing a colorful model of a molecule seemimgly vibrating. The next image displayed the bonds, represented by yellow lines, between atomic particles breaking away. This was followed by an animation clip of the same process.
"This machine allows the individual atoms to seperate from the molecule on a high vicinity level, depending on target selection, and atoms of stable elements gather seperately by time difference. The process takes about two to ten minutes, depending on target's mass, and needs to be done on objects in a controlled environment which makes it ideal for industrial use for anything ranging from extraction of ores to waste management and disposal with minimum pollution. But not for everday use at home or workplace."
"Sir, what about the targeting system?" A physics student among the assembled crowd asked, "How does it make the untargeted objects in near vacinity safe from the apllied resonance?"
"Ah yes. That shall be made clear in a moment as we provide a practical demonstration. Donatello?"
The turtle nodded and placed two objects on the table in front of the resonance ray's opening, a painted vase and a cardboard box containing various discarded items.There was another, smaller white screen behind these, right in the supposed path of the beam after those objects, placed there as a precaution and a secondary control set-up. He moved away from the table, out of the path, and taking the hint, most of the assembly stood clear of it too.
"As you can clearly observe, there's a screen behind the vase and box, the latter of the two being used as the main target. Everything in the path of beam is previously scanned." A red, scanning beam passed over the whole setup as Rockwell worked the controls attached on the adjacent side of the machine along with a notebook sized screen. He selected the specific object after everything was scanned and the computerized system appointed the box he had selected as a target.
A light buzz, gradually getting louder and increasing in pitch, began to emit from the ray as a lime glow started to accumulate in its opening before suddenly shooting out with a blast in a constant stream. The surroundings became comparatively darker due to the intensity of that glow as everyone present, including Mikey, Leo, Yoshi and Shen, gasped in astonishment. The beam did not miss, having hit the cardboard box with pinpoint accuracy and kept streaming as the glow surrounded the object in an outline and it, and everything else in it, began to vibrate for several seconds before colors and mass seemed to fade and something dark brown and powdery accumulated below the box, followed by the accumulation of clumps of copper metal as the tray of carbon was safely replaced, and then several other elements in their stable form heaped without creating molecules and compounds with other atoms of other elements since those were regularly removed.
In only one-fifty-eight seconds, the mass of the selected target was reduced to nothing but powders and clumps that had been collected in seperate containers by Rockwell's telekinesis and the ray died down as soon as there was no unaffected part of the cardboard box (alongwith the items it included) left. The most astonishing part was not only this but also the fact that nothing behind or around the target was affected, neither the vase nor the portable screen set behind the table for control showed any sign of being grazed by the resonance ray.
There was a long moment of silence as every gathered person stared at the Desynchronising Seperator with wide eyes and jaws dropped, too flabbergasted to say a word. Even Donnie's family was unable to say anything because of their amazment at the spectacle. Donatello couldn't help but let out a joyful grin when the audience's shock wore off and amazed silence was followed by a loud round of applause and excited exclamations.
Their invention was a success.
Partially hidden away from sight due to its far away position from most of the commotion, another lane of displays stood close to the left wall of the hallway, a customary path created next to it by the space left in between the next lane and that one. Closer to the corner of the hall and leaning against the wall near a contraption were two figures, whom to a casual observer seemed like part of the normal public. To a trained eye, however, they weren't so. One of them, the more muscular one, shifted in impatience.
"Why aren't we doing anything? I'm bored."
"We're on observe and reckon mission, remember?" responded the other one. "Besides, there are cameras and guards patrolling all over the place, keeping an eye on things from upper floors. Attempting to strike in this crowd is suicide." Saying so, he threw a quick, scanning glance around. Luckily, nobody overheard their conversation.
His companion grunted despondently, shuffling away a bit, only to accidentally hit a display table set up near them, a thirty centimetres long, cylindrical, lead-based powercell toppling over and rolling off its surface due to unbalance. It fell with a resounding thud, the floor vibrating with impact giving away the huge density of the object, before once again rolling away and into the path of visitors. The brunette woman who seemed to have created it and the rest of the confusing contraption could only stare in dismayed shock. The culprits knew it wouldn't last for long and hurriedly made themselves scarce, watching for any signs that she had noticed them.
Raph was just passing through when he heard the thud, his head snapping around to see a heavy looking cylinder rolling into the path. Seeing the upset and shocked look on the scientist's face who seemd to be the owner of that thing, he frowned, approaching the now stopped object and making to lift it up.
"W-wait! It's too heavy to-!" She gaped as the red-masked turtle mutant picked the cell up with a grunt, only slightly bothered by the weight and turned to her.
"Where do I put it?"
"Up there. On the disk." She stammered absentmindedly, logic demanding she focus on trying to figure out just how he had been able to carry the power cell. It was lead-based, it was dense. She knew how heavy it was and it had taken five people to carry it around without a trolly.
The battery was placed where she had indicated.
"There. Be careful it doesn't fall again."
"Thankyou. But... How were you able to lift it so easily? That powercell is constituted of seventy-two percent volume ratio of lead resulting in greatly increased density. The higher density allows it to possess a weight force of over six hundred Newtons which can either shift one's center of gravity or..."
Raphael, meanwhile, was staring at the engineer with wide eyes, having developed a slightly panicked look only halfway though her explanation.
"Uh, no problem. Just focus on your science project... thingie... whatever." The turtle stated somewhat awkwardly, not understanding a single word she had uttered just now and moving away to prevent a brain melting. Having a genius for a brother had taught him enough, and one of those things was that trying to comprehend any techno-babble usually resulted in a headache and even more confusion, thus it was necessary to be as far away from one as possible.
He hurriedly strode away before she could say anything else.
Donnie had just finished answering why there was a constant stream of resonance shooting out instead of rapid successive bursts like they had said earlier when an unexpected wave of dread suddenly washed over Leonardo. He felt his stomach clenching tightly and barely managed to stop himself from giving an outward reaction as his intuitive instincts went haywire. Something really bad had just happened.
Looking around frantically, he tried to locate what could have caused this sensation, his mind simultaneously drowning out and sharpening the sounds around him in that state of anxiety. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary, though, which only amplified his worry; His instincts had never steered him wrong before.
Gaze darting around all over the place and over everyone, all seemed fine; Donnie and Rockwell were upfront, the people present didn't give off any strange vibes, his parents were politely standing to the side, Mikey was next to Shen and seemed to be thinking about pizza, and Raph was- Where was Raph?!
Eyes wide and pulse quickening, Leo rescanned the assembled crowed once, twice, three times, and still no sign of his hotheaded brother. Making a quick decision, he bit his lip and sneaked away inconspicuously, almost invisibly, not caring that he was breaking the one rule his mother had insisted upon. It didn't even matter at that moment.
He had a little brother to find.
Just a little while after he had escaped from the inevitable brain-melting, Raphael walked past a couple of suspicious looking guys who were watching him intently, though inconspicuously, while leaning against a wall. He shot them a glare and they averted their eyes, but not hurriedly or with an air of someone intimidated. It looked more like they had casually gazed away to observe something else.
Why were they staring at him like that?
Shaking his head, he went ahead, throwing one more narrow-eyed glare over his shoulder at them and made a mental note to report those two to the security staff. His ninja instincts were screaming at him to take them down there and then for unfathomable reasons but he held himself back. It would be mighty unwise to start an impromptu fight in a media infested place like this when he had no proof and he wasn't fond of recieving any intense lectures from his parents afterwards.
As he went away, trying to ignore the sensation of being watched again, he had another urge to punch those guys' faces in and his fists clenched in frustration. Quickly striding ahead, he moved out of sight before he could lose it.
The feeling of being watched thankfully went away as soon as he stepped into another lane.
Raph was frowning, not paying attention to his surroundings at the moment so it came as a surprise to him when he heard his name being called and he looked up.
"Raphael? Raph! There you are." It was Leo. Apparently, he had been searching for Raph and had just sighted him as he ran towards the red-masked ninja. "I've been looking everywhere for you. Why did you run off?"
The turtle in question raised an eyeridge, "I told you I was going away for a while, remember?"
Leo blinked, having completely forgotten that in his moment of panic. "Right, sorry. Just... Are you okay?"
"Yeah. Fine." Raph fell silent for a moment before he shook his head and made to move forward, "Let's head back to the others."
Leonardo didn't believe him. Raphael had looked shook earlier and he had his fists clenched too. Grabbing his arm to stop him, the blue-masked ninja turned his brother to face him.
"Are you sure you're alright? Nothing weird happened, right?"
"Jeez, Leo, I told you already. I'm fine. And will you move it already, we should go back before the others start to worry."
"Yeah... I guess you're right." He sighed, letting go of the other's arm. Raph was right. He could see it now, the other was telling the truth. But still, Leo couldn't help but feel suspicious; something had happened while Raphael wasn't with them. Something was wrong. He just couldn't put his finger on it.
Still feeling a nagging sense of forboding and repressing the urge to figure it out immediately, he reluctantly followed his brother back to the horde of flashing cameras and reporters surrounding a certain display.
A/n: Okay, so this is where the story actually starts from. The prologue chapter was sort of a teaser and we'll get to that point properly. I hope you enjoyed.
PS: I was tempted (oh so tempted!) to add in a mutant two tailed fox as easter egg but... oh well, couldn't adjust Miles here because he would've hogged all the attention away from Donnie. Maybe later. Atleast I was able to add in his invention.