First Observations
It was burning. That was the first thing that came to his mind as the droplet made contact with his tongue, then his throat. The feeling quickly faded, though, and he breathed in relief.
He wasn't dead.
Good.
Donatello remained seated for a while, waiting to see if there would be any consequences - would he feel dizzy? Have a headache? Morph into a giant squid?
But nothing happened, and after a while he dared to grab his notebook and write his first impressions. Then he pondered how he should use the time that was left before tonight's patrol - should he keep studying the vial's content or try to make his mutagen-detector better?
On one hand, it was essential that he learned as much as possible about the substance he was letting into his body, but on the other hand, maybe detecting Kraang technology could help his case. For example by helping him to find traces of Irma's interference in the lair, like cameras or microphones, or their Kraang equivalent.
Nodding to himself, he decided to improve his mutagen detector. By the time his brothers called him, he had a fully functional 2.0 version. It would require a few adjustments, of course, but it would do the job for now.
"I'm coming!" he shouted, before realizing that he hadn't sent his report to Irma yet. He quickly went to his laptop and typed a few sentences. He still didn't feel any different, but maybe the substance took time to take effect. Or maybe it only worked at higher doses.
Only time would tell.
As Donatello went out of his lab, his new detector in his arms, he was met with the incredulous looks of his brothers. Not that he hadn't expected it.
"Uh, Donnie? What's this?" Raphael asked with the utmost caution.
"A detector for Kraang technology," Donatello answered with great dignity. "Leo asked for it."
Raphael turned to Leonardo and raised an eye ridge. Leonardo shrugged surreptitiously.
It was Michelangelo who dared to say what they probably all thought.
"Is it normal that it's bigger than the TV screen?"
Donatello managed to glare at everybody at the same time. "Yes. I could have miniaturized it if I had been given a three days' notice, mind you, but that's the best I could do in three hours. I believe it will work fine."
"Dude, it has dozens of buttons. How do you even make it work?"
"It's not that hard, Mikey, when you know what you're doing."
"Which I almost never do." Michelangelo nodded emphatically.
Leonardo cleared his throat. "It's perfect, Donnie. Uh… Are you going to strap it to your back or something? So your arms and hands are free for fighting? Not that I wish it would happen, but it's a patrol. Fighting is a possibility."
Donatello shook his head. "No." Putting his detector down, he pushed a button on it. The detector began levitating under his siblings' impressed gazes. "It will carry itself."
"Awesome!" Michelangelo beamed.
"Thank you." In spite of the dire circumstances, Donatello felt warmed by his brother's obvious admiration.
"I don't know. It doesn't seem very stealthy, does it?" Raphael smirked.
Donatello took a deep breath. "The people of New York have just been abducted by aliens. Most of them are still having nightmares of Dimension X. I don't think that a screen, even flying, is going to surprise them right now, even if they should see it - which they probably won't, because it's black and won't emit any light until I told it to."
Leonardo tilted his head, acknowledging the fact that Donatello had thought about everything - or so said Donatello decided to interpret the gesture. "Alright, let's go. April and Casey will meet us outside."
Donatello's stomach tied into several knots. He had carefully managed to avoid thinking about April until then. Would she notice that something was wrong with him? He couldn't have that. He would have to do his best to impersonate a normal Donnie. Except that he wasn't normal around her, or so Michelangelo said. Except he wasn't normal at all, Raphael would have said. As if he wasn't a giant mutant turtle himself, which wasn't very normal. Besides…
"Donnie?"
Leonardo's quizzical voice snapped him out of his thoughts, and Donatello realized that he was frozen in front of the turnstiles and glaring at them. With a cough, he relaxed his features and jumped them, his detector flying behind him.
Trying to slow the erratic beating of his heart.
April and Casey were indeed waiting for them topside. Donatello did his best to avoid avoiding April's look when she greeted him, asking how he was, while Casey was gaping at the detector floating at his side. He tried to focus his thoughts on anything but Irma's blackmail and his actions, filling his mind with calculations and estimations of the night's temperature and the buildings heights. He was relieved when Leonardo claimed their attention.
"Alright. I suggest we split up. Donnie, Mikey and April, you'll each try to locate Kraang portals, Kraang weapons, and every Kraangy-thing you can think of. Raph, Casey and I will back you up."
Donatello suddenly realized that he wasn't going to spend his evening with April after all. He didn't know if he was more relieved or disappointed. April had the ability to sense when somebody was hiding something, and she was partly Kraang. It was undoubtedly safer that he wasn't paired with her. On the other hand…
"I'll go with April," Casey said at once, grinning.
On the other hand, that. Alright. Disappointment it was, then. He narrowed his eyes at Casey as the human stuck his tongue out at him - having beforehand checked that April wasn't watching him, it went without saying.
"I'll go with Donnie," Raphael hurried to say, attracting himself an indignant yelp from Michelangelo.
"Then I'll go with Mikey," Leonardo finished. "Alright. Everybody has their T-Phones? Yes? Then call the others immediately if you need help. Or if you get into any trouble of any kind, even if you don't think you need help." He looked pointedly at Raphael.
"Don't worry, if anyone gets into trouble with Kraang tech tonight, it'll be Mikey," Raphael said, grinning. "And you'll have a front-row seat."
"You're just jealous because your intuition doesn't make the difference between a Kraang portal and a trash can," Michelangelo retorted, taking a careful step behind Leonardo before Raphael could smack his head.
Not that he was wrong to say so, if you asked Donatello.
"Good luck, guys," Leonardo cut them short. "See you later."
Donatello stole a melancholic glance at April as she left with Casey, and jerked when Raphael nudged him.
"Hey, next time, make your toys easier to use for us mere mortals, and Leo won't assume that you have to be the one handling them."
Donatello turned to him, embarrassed to have been caught with what was no doubt a kicked puppy expression on his face. "Oh, you mean I should trust you and Casey with precious state-of-the-art-and-more technology?"
"When am I not careful with delicate stuff?" Raphael's innocent look would have fooled a less sharp individual, but Donatello knew the sad truth.
"I'm not going to answer this."
Donatello didn't know what he had expected, but it wasn't for his detector to immediately pick up a signal, however weak. He couldn't help feeling excited that it was working so well, considering how little time he had to make it.
He was so talented.
"This way," he exclaimed as he tuned the detector to focus on that particular signal.
"I hope it's not detecting knitting needles again." Raphael smirked.
Donatello glared at him. "It was a setting error." An error he had quickly fixed at the time, which hadn't prevented Raphael from teasing him for the rest of the patrol as he picked up the needles and pretended to poke him with them as if they were dangerous weapons. Well, they probably could be used as such, especially by a ninja. And now that he thought about it, he didn't remember Raphael getting rid of them afterwards.
It was worth a try.
"You never told me if they were easy to use," he said casually.
"What? No! I mean, how would I know that?" Raphael protested.
The modulation of his voice told Donatello that he was lying. Now that was useful knowledge. "If you insist, I can probably tune that marvel of technology to find you new ones…"
Raphael threw his arm around Donatello's neck and pushed down. Donatello slipped out of the loose armlock, smirking. Raphael huffed and rolled his eyes, apparently accepting that he had brought this upon himself by criticizing Donatello's skills in the first place.
"Not a word, or I'll have your shell," he threatened.
"Don't worry, Raph, your little secret is safe with me." Donatello patted his back, still smirking.
They both walked in silence for a while. Donatello was focusing on his detector, which helped him to remain calm and as relaxed as he could considering the circumstances. When they arrived at a large manhole cover, Donatello raised his eye ridges, checking the detector's data.
"Into the sewers?" Raphael tilted his head.
"I guess so," Donatello said as he lifted the manhole cover with his bō staff.
The tunnels were deserted and they progressed fast. The signal was growing stronger and they followed it through several intersections until they arrived at a crossroads of three tunnels which looked oddly familiar.
Donatello stopped dead in his tracks. He recognized the place. That was where he had met Irma four hours ago.
"What's the matter, Donnie?" Raphael asked, taking his sai in hand.
The matter, my dear brother, is that my detector is working so well that it's leading us right to Irma. Which is a very, very bad idea right now.
"Oh no!" he exclaimed, his heart beating faster as he quickly tapped a sequence on the detector's keys. "It has lost the signal!"
Raphael shook his head. "Well, let's look for it, then."
"No! It's malfunctioning. It wasn't ready to use. Let's return to the surface," Donatello insisted.
Raphael looked at him in surprise. "I thought you said…"
"I must have been mistaken." Donatello shakily turned around.
"You must have been mistaken?" Raphael's tone left no doubt as to how he was feeling about that statement coming from his brother's mouth.
Donatello hurried forwards, trying to keep his hands from shaking. And to think that he had done such a good job of acting normal until then.
The rest of the patrol went without a hitch. Donatello made sure that they stayed clear of the sewers, and drowned Raphael's suspicions under scientific small talk until they met the others back.
"Have you guys found anything?" Donatello quickly asked the others before Raphael could speak. "We thought we had a signal, but it was a false lead."
April shook her head. "No. In fact, right now I'm feeling closer to Kraang tech than I have this whole evening."
"It must be my detector. It has Kraang parts." Donatello swallowed hard. He truly hoped that it was the case, and that April couldn't feel the vial's drop in his body. She couldn't, could she? It was only a drop.
"That must be it, then." April nodded, although she didn't look entirely convinced.
"And you?" Donatello asked Leonardo and Michelangelo, hoping to divert April's attention.
"We found the remnants of a portal, that Mikey teared off to make sure it would never be used again." Leonardo smiled at Michelangelo.
"That's right," Michelangelo answered proudly, at the same time allowing everybody to see that his mouth was full of food.
"Oh, gross!" Raphael exclaimed. "Wait, is that pizza?"
"There were three slices left in a pizza box. In a dumpster! Who leaves unfinished pizza in a dumpster?" Michelangelo replied indignantly before swallowing his food.
"You could have kept some for us."
"Dude, only three slices and two turtles. That's one turtle too many."
"Sorry, Raph. I almost didn't salvage a slice on the spot, there is no way I could have brought it back undamaged." Leonardo grinned.
"Oh really?" Raphael nudged him. "Then you better buy all of us pizza, or you're going to have a riot on your hands."
Casey nodded. "Pizza for everybody!"
"A mutinery?" Leonardo chuckled. "Alright. A leader has to make sacrifices sometimes. Pizza it is!"
Donatello watched his family's banter, his heart heavy. For once in his life, the perspective of pizza wasn't appealing to him. What if the food reacted with the Kraang's substance in his stomach? Of course, he would have to eat sooner or later, but he would rather have tried it in the relative safety of his lab, where he wasn't exposed to his brothers' and friends' prying eyes if anything happened.
"Hey, Donnie?"
Donatello realized that April was watching him and quickly turned to face her. She didn't look suspicious, which was good. "Yes?"
"I wanted to ask you something. There is this presentation I have to make about the Sun for my science class, and I thought that it would be more fun with you. Would you help me?"
She smiled, knowing what his answer would be. Her smile disappeared when Donatello didn't answer immediately.
"No, I mean yes! Yes, of course, it would be great! I'm looking forward to it!" Donatello fidgeted, on the verge of panic.
And he was, truly. Almost as much as he was scared that he would be found out. He would have to tread carefully - to check and double-check his lab, to make sure he had enough Kraang devices on display to distract her mind. He would need to draw a chart to make sure he had thought about everything, and prepare several explanations for each possible event. Maybe her mere presence would inspire him in solving his current predicament - it had happened more than once.
"It's always a pleasure to help you."
