Disclaimer: The turtles aren't mine, they're just channeling their story THROUGH me... (Yeah, that's the cold medicine talking.)

It was after dark before Donatello woke up. He looked at the glowing digital clock next to the bed and was shocked to find that it was almost nine PM. That's almost 16 hours! Why didn't April wake me up?

He rolled out of bed and quickly donned (A/N- No pun intended!) his pads and mask, then walked into the living room. After April's old apartment had burned down, she had decided that she needed a bigger and better place to live. So with her abundant insurance money in hand, she had been able to acquire a gorgeous apartment that took up an entire floor of a quiet building halfway between uptown and downtown. It had enough rooms for the turtles, (in case of an emergency sleepover) and easy access for them to get in, as well as a spacious kitchen. Mikey had practically swooned when he saw it for the first time, and Raph had had to physically drag him away from the shiny new kitchen appliances when it was time to leave.

In an out-of-the-way corner of the penthouse was April's pride and joy, her modified laboratory. The second largest room in the house, it held plenty of room for any and all scientific equipment that she acquired. It was Don's second home. He had even published a few scientific articles under April's name. Those articles brought in a little cash, but every bit helped. April had spent more money then she probably should have on the apartment, and even though she was paid handsomely for her freelance journalist and editorial work, months had gone by where she had been barely able to pay the bills.

Things were better now, but she still didn't have cable television, let alone a TV. Raph and Mikey had proclaimed that "She's living in sin!" and had made it their personal mission to get her the best television that was available, and were scrimping and saving everything that they could find in order to save up enough money.

Don made his way through the darkened apartment and soon stood in the doorway to the lab. He smiled at what he saw. April was facedown on a pile of books and papers and printouts, faintly snoring.

"April…" Don crossed the room and gently shook her shoulder. "So much for having enough sleep last night, huh?" She moaned softly at his intrusion and muttered under her breath. She then wearily raised her head, her hair a sleep-tangled mess.

"Ugh… Donny? Wha' time izzit?" She blinked owlishly at him.

He chuckled. "A little after nine."

She rubbed her eyes madly and looked back up at him. "Really?"

"Really."

She stared at him groggily for another moment. Then her eyes widened.

"Crap!" She sat up and frantically started searching through her papers. "That means I've been asleep for …" She checked her wrist only to find that her watch wasn't there. She sighed, and continued searching. "Too long." She rolled her chair over to her printer, took a page out of it and scanned the sheet quickly. "Damnit, my trial finished an hour ago!"

She then zoomed over to her computer and started typing frantically.

"April, what trial? I thought you were going to finish the extension of the DNA analysis, then wait up for me to do more."

She snorted. "No way! You needed your sleep, and I wasn't going to sit around and twiddle my thumbs until you woke up! Besides, I've found LOADS of stuff about the mutagen since you've been gone!" She was a swivel-chair speed demon, zipping back and forth from desk to computer to lab bench, and then back again at a dizzying speed. "If you go make coffee, I'll have just enough time to make sense of my data and show you what I found!"

Don backed out of the lab, then walked towards the kitchen, shaking his head. How in the world does she manage to order me around without giving me direct orders? I bet that she could even give Splinter a run for his money in that category…

Ten minutes later he returned to the lab to find April surrounded by at least a resemblance of order. The books and papers were stacked in neat piles and the clutter had been mostly cleared away.

"Wow."

"Thank you." April swooped past him, grabbing a coffee cup and rolling away before he could say anything. She came to a rest next to the desk and took a large swig of coffee. "Ahhhh…" She closed her eyes in bliss. "Many things can be said about you Donatello, and one of the things that doesn't get nearly enough praise is your skill for making coffee." She took another sip. "Where did you learn to make it like this?"

He rubbed the back of his head in an awkward gesture, unaccustomed to so much praise. "Internet."

She giggled, then motioned at him to sit down in the chair opposite her. "Right. Now that I'm fully awake, we can get to business." She set the coffee down and picked up a sheaf of paper. "The details for the DNA analysis are in here. You guys are the same species of turtle… to some degree, that's for certain. What this experiment doesn't show us is how the mutagen fits into all of this." She set the sheaf of paper down and grabbed another, thicker packet. "This is a recent study on the mutagen by TGRI." She handed the papers to Don, who looked over them before raising an eye-ridge at her.

" 'From the Desk of Professor Jonathan Perry?' Did you hack into TGRI's system to get these? "

"Maybe." She said coyly.

He gave a low whistle. "Good job. I've been trying to get at some of these documents for months!"

She grinned. "What can I say? It's a talent." She drained her cup of coffee to fortify herself, then plowed ahead. "Here's the deal- the mutagen takes any animal DNA it comes in touch with and mutates it, right? But we've never been able to figure out how it worked because we never got a viable sample. TGRI has no problems with getting the samples, so they've got analysis's coming out the wahzoo. The one that I got is on the third page. Notice anything interesting about it?"

Donatello flipped over the thin sheets quickly. He studied the page in question for a moment, then exclaimed, "Is that DNA in there?"

"Yep. This stuff comes ready made to mutate things with human DNA. Furthermore, from what I can tell, it a generational mutation."

"But that doesn't make any sense. If the mutagen causes generational mutations, then…"

"You would need a generation in order to mutate something. Or someone."

Don continued to study the paper. "How much of a generation are we talking about here? "

April reached over and tapped a few keys on her computer. "I did a few trials, but they couldn't prove anything. I tried hacking into the system again, but they had upgraded their firewall, and I couldn't get through. Not without more computer power, anyway."

Don was silent. April shot him a worried glance. "Don?"

"Then Splinter's story was wrong. He lied… to us. " Don was staring at the paper, not really reading it anymore, a glazed look coming over his eyes.

"Don?" He didn't move. "Don!" April touched his arm after he didn't answer her. He jumped.

"Sorry." April looked helplessly at him.

"Is there anything that I can do?"

He didn't answer for a moment, thinking. "Could you just call the guys? I think we all should be here for this. They need to know before we do anything."

"Sure." She got up and looked back at Don. "Y' going to be okay?"

He looked back up at her with hollow eyes. "I'll be okay when I find out the truth."

Thanks to a nasty cough/stuffy nose/sore throat/insert random illness here combination I've been able to churn out these chapters faster then I would normally. Yay for lack-of-sleep-induced colds!

Yes, I realize I'm taking a few liberties here. I prefer 'warping the original story to the very limit, then going a little bit farther' myself, but whatever.

For example, the April portrayed here is a mishmash from every TMNT series/movie I've ever seen, and a little poetic license as well.

Y'all shouldn't expect an update, at least for another few days- My cold doesn't seem to be going away, and family is flying in for my grandparents' 50-year anniversary tomorrow morning as well. I'm sure you've all been in an awkward family situation before... Lol! I'm not giving up on this story! 2 more chapters! (Unless I get hit by the Muse truck... again...)

Shout outs!

Misterfooch: Well, originally she was going to have a 4.0, but then I digressed, because then she'd be TOO perfect! (lol) And while a review can be pointless, it is never unappreciated: P

Tbreader: Yeah, fathers do tend to have that annoying psychic trait. Sighs Don't know anything about the Thunderbirds though, so ya lost me there. Lol!

Lunar-Ninja- Thanks for reviewing, and I'm having fun with our debate/discussion thing!

Pacphys- You'll get the bros' reactions… next chapter! I'm glad that you liked the descriptions that I used too!

Don't forget to leave a review before you go! Thanks!