Chapter Five: An Accident Waiting to Happen
Don't fear, my friends . . . I will give you a new life . . .
Leonardo breathed deeply as he kicked his left leg into the air, and he was trying with all of his might to concentrate of his Master, but the voice that he had heard in his sleep continued to break through.
I can give you everything you have ever dreamed of . . . you will be able to do what your heart desires . . .
Splinter noticed the far away look on Leonardo's face and stopped him. "My son, do wish to continue your lesson? You cannot preform your kata if you are so distant."
Leonardo brought his bare feet together and hung his head down. "I'm sorry, sensi. There is just so much going on, and so many things that just don't make sense . . . ," He stopped when he noticed that his voice was raising and his fists were squeezed together, and waited a moment before speaking again.
" I didn't wish for this to happen to us. I just want to be myself again."
Splinter bowed, feeling the sorrow his son carried. " I understand, Leonardo." The old rat then placed his hand on Leonardo's shoulder. "We will conclude this lesson later."
As Leonardo sighed and began to head back the couch, which had been his bed during the night, the elevator doors opened and April appeared.
"Okay, guys. What is it that is so important that I had to get up at six o'clock on a Saturday?"
Donatello turned around from his work bench, removing the safety goggles from his eyes and lowering his blow torch. " I didn't say you had to come here this early!" His eyes then went to the couch where Michelangelo had his face buried in a pillow to muffle his laughter.
April sighed then joined Donatello, watching quietly as he melted pieces of metal together. "I take it you found some useful things down there?"
"Yep, I sure did!" Donatello turned off the torch and set it aside, knocking over a small cardboard box full of nuts and bolts. "Aw, shell, not again!"
"That was graceful." April joked. She bent down to collect the pieces of hardware, but was stopped by Donatello's waving hand.
"Don't worry about it, April. I'll get it later."
"Donnie!" April then noticed the many band-Aids that covered his fingers. "What in the world did you do?"
Donatello chuckled, turning his head away in embarrassment. "I, uh, had a slight accident while I was cutting a piece of aluminum."
"A 'slight' accident?" April then followed the brown haired boy into the living room area and she joined Michelangelo and Leonardo on the couch. "And what, exactly, were you cutting it with?"
"A rotary shear knife."
April's jaw dropped. "Donatello! You're lucky to have your hands at all!"
Michelangelo started laughing again. "Yeah, that's why we to hide all of his power tools!"
April shook her head, then got back to the purpose of her visit. " Okay, start talking. What did you want to ask me about?"
Donatello pulled the lawn chair that sat of the left side of the couch over and placed himself on it in front of April.
"How long did you work for Dr. Stockman?"
"Just a little while. It wasn't even a year, I think." April shrugged. "Why?"
"No real reason, except for the fact that while I was down in his lab last night, I happened to come across something that was very interesting, and I wanted to know if you knew about it." Donatello stood and rushed over to his computer desk, then brought back a large glass jar filled to the top with a yellowish green liquid.
"Man, Donnie!" Michelangelo covered his face again. "Do you have to bring that thing back out?"
Donatello sneered at his brother as he placed the jar in April's hands, and watched the look of confusion on her pale face turned into a look of disgust as she peered at the gray object that floated around inside.
"Is that a. . . . brain?"
Donatello sat back down on the lawn chair. " I found a hidden room full of human body parts, bottled up and labeled, just like that one. I also found charts, graphs and stacks of research papers on the inner workings of the human body, most of which focused on human brain."
"I don't understand." April absentmindedly passed the jar to Michelangelo, who held back to urge to vomit as he set it down on the floor below him. "Stockman wasn't interested in human research. Why in the world would that stuff be down there?"
Donatello reached into the back pocket of his black jeans and pulled out a folded piece of yellowed paper. "I also found this." April took the paper out of his hand and scanned over the sloppy handwriting, which look like it had been jotted down in a mad rush.
"It's some kind of journal entry." Donatello leaned over and pointed at the scribbled numbers at the top of the page. " Look at the date. It's from 1999."
"This isn't even Stockman's handwriting," April brought the paper closer to her eyes. " I can barely make this out."
"I hope you won't mind if I stop by your apartment later and use your computer, April. I'm going to see if I can dig up some more information on Stockman." Donatello retrieved the glass jar and returned it to its hiding spot.
"What's wrong with yours?" April asked.
"Donnie spilled his orange juice on it this morning!" Michelangelo said with a laugh as April shook her head. Donatello rolled his eyes as he stood back up and replaced the lawn chair as he walked to the center of the lair.
"Raph! Can you come down here for a second?" Donatello called out as he moved across the bridge that covered the pool of river water.
"NO! I'M SLEEPIN'!" Raphael's voice boomed out of the darkness of his room.
"Leo, could you get him please?"
Leonardo stared blankly at Donatello, then slowly dragged his eyes to the circular platform high above their heads.
"He'll come down here. Just give him a little time." Leonardo said with an uneasy smile and a small chuckle.
April raised an eyebrow as she watched Leonardo nervously wring his hands together. "Is everything okay, Leo?"
"Yeah, I'm fine! No problem here!" He answered back in a high-pitched anxious tone, his eyes still fixated on the high walkway.
Donatello returned the blank look Leonardo had given him and sighed as he climbed the metal staircase. After having a wonderfully loud shouting match with his brother that everyone below could plainly hear, Donatello reappeared and descended the stairs, Raphael grumbling right behind him.
"Okay, bros, follow me over here if you would, please?" Donatello motioned with his bandaged forefinger as he walked back to his work bench. "Since I now have the means to analyze our DNA, I will need a small blood sample from each one of you."
Raphael was the first to protest as Donatello sterilized a long needle with his blow torch. " No way are you stickin' me with that thing! I'll have holes all over me!"
Donatello ignored Raphael's comment, grabbed his cranky brother's right hand, and shoved the sharp point of the needle into the tip of his forefinger.
"OW!" Raphael yelled as he pulled his hand back and watched as a bubble of blood rose up.
"See how quick and painless that was?" Donatello smiled wickedly, then pressed Raphael's finger, pushing a few drops of plasma into a glass vial. After he sealed the vial, Donatello grabbed two more needles and repeated the process with Leonardo and Michelangelo, then with himself.
"So how does that thing work?" Michelangelo asked as Leonardo wrapped a band-aid around his finger tip.
"This thing is called a genetic analyzer, Mikey," Donatello placed the vials into the metallic circular vat and closed the lid. "After it purifies our blood, the DNA will be combined with primers that will target specific loci in the DNA molecule to amplify the size of them, and after it goes though a polymerase chain reaction, the instrumentation I built into the machine will determine the sizes in each DNA locus. Then after it's done, I'll compare the results to the ones I did on us years ago and see if we actually still mutant turtles."
"Say what?" Raphael asked, copying the distant look Michelangelo had.
Donatello sighed, then repeated his words in a way that his brother could understand.
"This thing spins around in circles for a few hours then it prints out a piece of paper that will tell us if we're human or mutant."
"A few hours!" Michelangelo whined, then walked back to the couch and slumped down. "What are we supposed to do until then?"
"It's the best I could do, Mikey," Donatello carefully pushed the analyzer back away from the edge of the table. " A normal DNA test can take two days or more."
Raphael joined Michelangelo on the couch and reached down to the ground for the remote, but found that his brother had already beat him to it. He watched helplessly as Michelangelo flipped through the channels, expecting his brother to stop on cartoons, but he instead stopped on something that completely surprised Raphael.
"Mikey, why the shell are we watchin' some old guy play a piano?"
Michelangelo didn't answer him, and the unusual silence caused Raphael to turn his attention to his brother and the humming that went along to the classical music that blared from the speakers. Leonardo, April and Donatello moved closer to the couch and watched in a horrified shock as Michelangelo closed his eyes and his fingers slid across his lap as if he was actually playing the music himself.
"Beethoven's Bagatelle in A Minor," Michelangelo said, his eyes remaining shut. "One of his better pieces, if you ask me."
Raphael stared wide eyed at Michelangelo as the music concluded and his fingers stopped moving. " I thought the only Beethoven you knew about was the dog?!"
"Things are getting very weird around here." April said in a low voice as Michelangelo's fingers began playing another work of music on his lap.
"Is there anyway you can speed up that DNA testing, Donnie?" Leonardo asked without removing his fear-filled eyes from his younger brother.
Donatello turned around and began to walk back to his work bench. "Well, I might be able to accelerate the polymerase phase since it takes the longest and - WHOAAHHH!"
Leonardo and April turned around and gasped as Donatello tripped over his loosen shoelaces and collided with the table, sending the genetic analyzer into the air. It sat suspended in the air for a few seconds, and Donatello prepared himself by shielding his head with his arms as the analyzer crashed to the floor directly in front of him.
"Oops." Donatello mumbled from under his arms.
"Great. Just great." Raphael slapped his hands over his eyes and sunk down into the couch. "I knew I shoulda stayed in bed."
Splinter then appeared and helped Donatello up to a sitting position, offering his son a smile as the throughly embarrassed boy tied his shoe, and noticing the expressions of disappointment on his other sons' faces.
"Miss O'Neil, may I speak with you?" Splinter pulled April aside and lowered his voice. "Normally I would not ask you for such a favor, but would you allow my sons to stay the night? I believe a change of scenery would do them some good."
April hesitated at first, but saw the hopelessness in her friends, and she smiled back at Splinter, who in return bowed his head, feeling grateful for her presence in his sons' lives.
"All right, guys! Pack your bags! You're coming with me!"
A/N: Okay, I take back my previous statement. This is selling! I'm at the halfway point and I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who is taking the time to read this and for all of the wonderful reviews. I really appreciate all of your kind words, and I'm glad everyone is enjoying it. ;0)