CHAPTER 2

Like the back of your shell

Mikey didn't get it. He stared in confusion at his two brothers, wondering briefly whether this was some kind of joke they were playing on him. But then, Donnie was the smart one and he did build all kinds of things, so…

"Donnie turned himself into a T-phone?" he finally realised, before grinning widely. "That is awesome! What other things can he turn himself into?"

"Ooh, ooh! I want to be an action figure!" he gushed, excitedly. "Can Donnie turn me into an action figure? That would be too cool, dudes! He could make all of us action figures, then we could have these totally epic fights…"

"MIKEY!" Raph bellowed, raising a hand to bat him again. "If you don't shut up I'm going to shove your head out of the wrong end of your shell."

But his target ducked away and crowed gleefully. "Ha! Too slow Raph, dude."

"Enough!" Leo snapped. "Will you both be quiet? This is serious! He must have been hit by the retro-mutagen. He's turned back into a regular turtle!"

"Wha-?" said Mikey, eyes widening as he finally understood the situation. "No! D!"

"How do we change him back?" Raph demanded, his green eyes intense as he stared at the leader.

"I… I don't know!" Leonardo started, helplessly, before turning by habit. "Donnie, what do you- Oh, right."

Leaning down, Mikey peered at the turtle shell in Leo's hands. "Why can we only see his shell?"

Straightening, he tapped a fist to his hand in excitement as an idea popped into his head. "Maybe just his shell got hit! The rest of him must have fallen out somewhere! We need to split up and look for him."

The withering looks from the other two prompted him to follow up with, "Turtles can be out of their shell, right?"

Raph glared. "No. But they can be out of their mind."

"He's hiding inside his shell." Leo clarified, cradling the turtle protectively. "If he's just a regular turtle now, he must be pretty scared."

"I'd be scared too, if Mikey'd gotten hold of me." Raphael agreed.

"Hey! I didn't know!" Mikey protested, before crouching again and reaching out to pat the shell gently. "Sorry, D. Come on out. Please?"

The three waited expectantly for a few seconds, but nothing happened.

"We need to get back to the lair." Leonardo decided. "Bring his things."

Even once back home, the turtle still seemed reluctant to emerge from within his shell. While Leo tried to coax him out, Mikey was more concerned with the throbbing graze on his beak from where he'd face-planted the floor during the battle with the mutant rats.

"No." repeated Raphael.

"Pleeeaaase?" Mikey wheedled.

"No. It's the smallest wound I've ever seen!"

"PUH-leeeaaase?"

Leo glanced over. "Just do it, Raph. Anything to shut him up!"

"Oh for crying out loud…" muttered Raph. Snatching the band aid from the box, he slapped it onto Mikey's face. "There. Better?"

Mikey grinned. "Yeah, Bro."

Raph rolled his eyes. "Congratulations. Now you look stupid."

"-er." he added, a beat later.

"Still nothing." Leo sighed, straightening from where he'd been examining. "Do you think he's ok?"

Mikey bounced over. "I bet I can totally get him to come out of his shell, dude! Just gimme a minute!"

Turning, he rushed over to Donatello's lab and started grabbing all the sorts of things he knew his brother wouldn't be able to resist.

"Ok, dude." Mikey declared, coming back with arms laden. "You want your computer? It's right here! Come and get it!"

He allowed a few moments of silence before continuing, "How about a picture of April?"

"A screwdriver?" he then tried. "Your center-fudge? And this, er…"

"Actually, I have no idea what this is." he confessed, waving the unknown item around. "But it looks awesome cool!"

After waiting for several seconds, Mikey realised he would need to play his trump card. He reached into the box lying nearby. "Fine! I didn't want to have to use this, dude, but…"

"How about a slice of fresh, hot, yummy… Pizza!"

Holding it above the hiding turtle, a section of the cheese topping stretched downward and oozed across the animal's shell. It only remained there for a few moments before Raphael's hand stretched out to snatch the slice of pizza away.

"Turtles don't eat pizza!" he snapped. Then, much to Michelangelo's distress and ignoring the irony, he stuffed the stolen slice into his own mouth.

"Vey eat bugz n pants." he continued, while chewing.

"Pants?" Mikey repeated. "I've got pants he can eat! Just wait a-"

"Plants, Mikey." Leo clarified. "And Raph, don't talk with your mouth full!"

Raphael responded by roughly pushing Leonardo aside, in order to crouch down in front of the frightened turtle.

"All right, come on little fella." he coaxed, before slowly moving to offer a fresh green leaf. "Raph's got a delicious leaf right here for you."

"There's no way that's going to work." snorted Leo. But he was forced to swallow his words a few moments later as a head slowly emerged from the shell, followed by the limbs.

"There we go." cooed Raph, as the turtle stretched out to take a bite of the leaf.

"Dude, are we sure that's Donnie?" Mikey whispered loudly to Leo.

"Where else could he be?" Leo asked. "I'm fairly sure it's him."

Mikey crouched down next to Raph, casting a careful eye over the turtle's baleful brown eyes and taking in the various unique markings and scratches on the carapace and plastron. He'd thought it would be easy to recognise any of his brothers, no matter what. But suddenly it seemed difficult to be certain.

Leo pointed. "Look, there's scratch on his shell that Raph gave him during the noodle bar incident."

"He took one of my pizza gyoza!" Raph maintained. "He deserved it!"

Mikey twined his fingers together. "Actually, I kinda meant to tell you… But that was me."

Raph turned on Mikey, but never carried out the remonstration as they both spotted something at the same time. The turtle whose identity they were trying to confirm tilted its head and took a wide bite to finish off the leaf. There, obviously, was a notch in the top section of the turtle's beak. It matched up exactly with the familiar gap in Donatello's teeth.

"Yep, definitely Donnie!" Mikey declared.

"We need to figure out how to change him back." averred Leo, the 'I told you so' he clearly wanted to add hanging unsaid in the air.

But before either of the others could answer, a familiar greeting rang out from across the lair.

"Hi guys!" called April, raising a hand as she headed towards them.

Behind her, Casey followed. "Yo." he greeted, sliding into one of the seats at the makeshift kitchen island.

"Aww, did you get a new pet?" April asked, spotting the turtle. "It's so cute!"

"What's its name?" she asked, reaching out to gently pick up the turtle and cuddle it to her chest.

"It's Donnie." Leo explained, causing Casey to snort with laughter.

"You named the pet after Donnie?" he chuckled. "I like your style!"

"You don't want to do that, April…" Raph said, reaching out to pluck the turtle away from her. "You'll- OUCH!"

"Dude, no!" Mikey yelled, as Raph furiously flung the turtle across the room.

With a running leap, Mikey dove over the seats and managed to catch the flying creature before it crashed into the floor. Landing with a graceful, protective roll, Mikey then straightened and trotted back over to the group.

"Don't throw him around." he chided Raph, setting the turtle carefully back onto the table. "Poor Little-D."

"He bit me!" Raph ranted, glaring at the doe eyed turtle and raising a fist threateningly.

Leo batted the fist back down. "Cool it."

"So where's, uh… Big-D?" April asked, looking around. "In his lab?"

"No…" Leo said slowly, gesturing at the turtle that was slowly crawling its way back towards April. "He's, um, right here."

"He got hit by retro-mutagen." Mikey helpfully explained.

April and Casey stared for a few moments, eyes wide.

"You mean, that turtle, is-?" started April, horrified.

"Ugh, this is all your fault, Mikey!" Raph raged, suddenly.

Mikey started in surprise. "Me? What did I do?!"

"You were the one playing rat rodeo!"

Meanwhile, Casey snorted with laughter. "He turned back into a regular turtle? That's awesome! Looking good, Donnie. Better than ever, in fact!"

"It's not my fault the rat hit him!"

"Please tell me we're leaving him like this?"

"You shouldn't have been messing around!"

"All right, that's enough! Will everyone please be quiet!" insisted Leo, banging his hands on the table surface for emphasis and causing Donatello to sharply recoil back into his shell. "Uh, oops. Sorry Donnie."

"So, how do we change him back?" April asked.

Leo sighed heavily. "We've been trying to figure that out." He frowned. "Or, at least, I have."

"What we need." elucidated Mikey, "Is some anti-retro-mutagen."

April frowned slightly. "You mean, regular mutagen?"

"Is it that simple?" Leo asked, uncertainly. "We just need him to touch some mutagen to turn back to normal?"

"I guess so." offered Casey, picking at his ear.

"Yeah, one problem." Raph interjected. "Aren't we all out of regular mutagen?"

"Well, then we'll just have to find some."

Raph pushed himself to standing. "I guess we're hitting the streets."

"Oh!" Mikey gasped. "I know!"

The others turned towards him. However, rather than the optimistic expectation he was hoping for, the looks were closer to wearied resignation.

"Dudes!" he pouted, "Seriously, I have a really good idea."

Leo sighed. "All right, Mikey. Let's hear it."

"Buzzkill! Buzzkill has loads of mutagen in his lab." Michelangelo triumphantly declared.

"That's-!" Raph started angrily, before pausing to consider and regulate is tone. "-actually not a bad idea."

"Of course, Bro!"

"Without Donnie and that gadget he uses it would be hard to track down any lost canisters anyway." Leo mused. "All right, let's get some mutagen from the lab. But this is a stealth mission! We go in, grab some mutagen, then get out."

Raph frowned sulkily. "You spoil all our fun."

"Count me in." declared April, hopping down.

"All right! Time to bust some skulls!" Casey joined in, emphatically.

"No skull busting!" insisted Leonardo. "Raph, bring Donnie. Mikey, bring his things. Casey, bring your quiet voice."

"I don't think he has one." Mikey pointed out, shoving Donnie's possessions onto a table cloth before tying it onto the end of the bo staff as a makeshift bindle stick.

"You'd know." agreed Raphael, scooping the de-mutated turtle onto his shoulder.

"C'mon Spike." he murmured, before quickly correcting to, "I mean, Donnie."

"Time to get you fixed up."