Disclaimer: This chapter could be viewed as inappropriate, but I couldn't resist writing it. Please remember that this is rated K+, and keep all thoughts on that level. You'll see what I mean when you read it. O.o.

Mind Games Pt. 4

Donnie

Donnie gazed down at the parts of the carefully-dismantled brain gun, tapping his chin thoughtfully. The design was surprisingly obvious, yet remarkably complex. He had never looked inside a Kraang gun before, and the components were fascinating. The guns had a powerful energy source for the bullets that he was itching to apply to other weapon designs. Alas, he faced the same problem da Vinci had when he tried to make the helicopter: a lack of the future's materials and technology. The guns used a special kind of energy that he was pretty sure was impossible to recreate on Earth without the materials from the Kraang's planet. Earth simply lacked a reasonable and sustainable way to gather the needed amount of energy. Oh well, there would be other ideas, other inspirations.

With a sigh, Donnie started piecing the gun back together. Raph had told him this morning about the think-about-someone-then-switch-minds-with-them-if-shot theory. He had apparently been thinking about Shredder right before he was shot, and upon questioning, Mikey had admitted that he had been trying to remember exactly how Splinter had told him to do a particular move when he switched minds. Donnie had checked out the gun as an extra precaution, and although he hadn't been able to figure out exactly how the technology worked, he was fairly convinced that that was the process… simply think of someone and get shot in the head.

Donnie glanced at the clock: 2:47 PM. He had really wanted to show April Mikey in Splinter's body and Raph in Shredder's. It was a pretty funny sight to see Splinter skateboarding through the lair, and he knew she would get a kick out of it. But Raph had been bellyaching every second about wanting to get back into his own body, and poor Splinter had been in his room all day. It had to be hard to be put in an entirely new body for the second time in your life, especially when it was your son's. And to have the man who killed your family in your living room? He had tortured them long enough. It was time to switch back.

Donnie twisted the front of the gun into place, then turned it on, looking at it musingly. Too bad, though. April would have…"Is it ready?" Shredder's voice sounded directly behind him, and Donnie jumped, the gun clattering to the floor.

Donnie ignored it and spun around. "Raphael! How many times have I told you not to sneak up on me?! Especially now, with that stupid voice of yours!"

Raph didn't pay the peeved turtle any attention, his eyes locked on something behind him. "Uh, Donnie? Is the gun supposed to do that?"

Donnie whirled around, still shaken by Raph's surprise greeting. The gun was quaking and trembling, the symbol on the side flickering uncertainly. "No, it's not! I'll have to fix it…great going, Raph!" Donnie stooped over, reaching for the gun. It looked like April would get to see everyone, after all.

Without warning, the gun fired, a golden bullet flying into Donnie's face. "Ahhh!" Donnie tumbled back as little black dots began to dance in front of his eyes. He tripped over something and crashed to the floor. The black dots grew, soon covering his entire vision.

The last thing he heard before the spinning started was Shredder's deep voice cursing. "Not Donnie, too! Leo! Ara! Come h…"

The voice faded away, leaving Donnie spinning through space, little splotches of gold flying all around him. The spinning worsened, and Donnie became so dizzy he feared he was going to throw up. Suddenly it all stopped, and the dizziness left him so swiftly it knocked the breath out of him.

Donnie slowly opened his eyes with a small groan and looked around. He was sitting on the floor beside a desk in a bright, airy classroom. Wait…a classroom? Donnie's heart stopped beating. Nonononono. He managed to glance down at himself before collapsing into a heap on the floor, his worst fear confirmed. Why? Why? WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE APRIL?! Anyone but April. AnyTHING.

"Miss O'Neil!" Donnie was interrupted from his inward lament by a sharp, disapproving voice. He glanced up to find a prim little teacher standing over him, peering at him from over her glasses. She was dressed in a spotless white blouse and crisp gray skirt, her graying brown hair pulled into a tight, perfect bun. "Do you need to see the nurse?"

"N-no," Donnie started to stammer, letting out a squeak and clasping his hands over his mouth when he heard April's voice burst out of it.

"Well, then get off the floor, for heaven's sake!"

"Yes, ma'am." Donnie leapt to his feet and slid into the empty desk next to him.

The teacher glared at him. "One more stunt like that and you'll be in the principal's office. Do you want that?"

"N-no, ma'am."

"Good. Now…" The teacher walked briskly to the front of the room and continued her lesson. Not that anyone was paying attention; they were all too busy staring at Donnie with whispered comments and badly-suppressed giggles. Donnie sank deep into his seat, trying to control his crimson blush.

April was not going to be pleased. He grimaced when he thought of where April was now, and even more so when he wondered how she'd kill him: in boiling oil or by cutting him into very small pieces. He tried to get his mind off things by looking down at his hands. He had ten whole fingers! Well, they didn't seem like whole fingers to him, more like fractions of fingers. But ten! What was he—

"Miss O'Neil? MISS O'NEIL!"

"Wha? Oh, umm, yes?"

A boy with sandy blonde hair and cruel blue eyes snickered, turning around in his seat to face Donnie. "Didn't get enough bananas today, APEril?"

Most of the girls in the room started laughing at his comment like he had just said the cleverest thing ever. "Oh, you're so FUNNY, Luke!" one gushed, batting her eyelashes.

"Enough, Lucas!" the teacher snapped, turning to a red Donnie. "Now, April, when did the Civil War start?"

"April 12, 1861," Donnie mumbled sullenly.

The teacher blinked in surprise. "That's…correct, April. I was only looking for the year, but well done. When did it end?"

"On May 9, 1865," Donnie said, enjoying how easy the questions were to him. "It's a little-known fact that the last shot wasn't fired until June 22 of the same year." The teacher's eyebrows shot up, and she peppered him with questions until the bell rang, Donnie getting every one of them right.

As everyone was filing out, the teacher pulled him aside. "I must admit that I'm very impressed, April. How did you know all that?"

Donnie blushed at the praise. "Well, I've always been intrigued by the Civil War. It brought about the end of slavery, which meant that African Americans recieved some fraction of the rights every human deserves." He frowned. "Racial oppression didn't end there, of course. African Americans still had to fight for equal standing and opportunities despite being just as capable as whites. People are too intolerant of things that diverge from their narrow-minded view of what they consider to be the ideal norm, even if it's just differing amounts of melanin in the skin. I doubt the issue will ever go away completely. It's a shame, too." Especially for mutants living in the sewers, he couldn't help adding inwardly.

The teacher nodded thoughtfully, snapping her briefcase shut. "True. Well, have a good weekend, O'Neil."

Donnie nodded and headed out the door. He was almost trampled by the swarm of kids as he did so. Rowdy shouts filled he air.

"Wanna go to my house tonight?"

"Ready for the big game?"

"That was sick, Jeremy!"

Donnie pressed himself against a wall, waiting for the hall to clear a bit before he headed home. "I VOLUNTEER! I VOLUNTEER AS TRIBUTE!"

"Gaah!" Donnie jumped as a girl leapt up next to him, shouting the phrase in his ear. The girl's dark blonde hair was pulled into a less-than-perfect ponytail, and she was wearing jeans and a slightly wrinkled GO VIKINGS! T-shirt. She had glasses over her hazel eyes, and a tiny sprinkle of freckles dotted her nose. Definitely a breath of fresh air compared to the giggling, perfectly-dressed girls he had been seeing lately.

"I can't wait for Catching Fire! Want to go with me when it comes out?"

"Umm, sure…Cassidy." Donnie crossed his fingers, hoping that this was the friend April sometimes mentioned. The girl just grinned, grabbed his wrist, and pulled him through the crowd, so he assumed it was.

"Hey, APEril." Donnie winced at the now-familiar voice, turning to face Luke. "You did pretty well back here in history… nerd."

Donnie's nose twitched up to form a snarl, his fists clenching at his sides. Cassidy grasped his arm tighter, tugging him forward. "C'mon, April. Just ignore him."

"You must be pretty smart to remember all those facts. Too bad you're not smart enough to get plastic surgery." Donnie whirled back around, his face turning hot with anger. How DARE he say that stuff about April! Luke just sneered. "Oh, that's right. You can't afford a surgery because your dad got kidnapped by a bunch of meanie aliens. Wow. What kind of desperate nutjob makes up stories like that?" Donnie saw red, and his breath turned ragged with rage. "Since you can't afford a surgery, at least do us all a favor and get a bag to hide your face in. Or at the very LEAST something to cover up that hideous red hair."

If Donnie had thought about it, he probably wouldn't have done it. Probably. But for once in his life, Donatello didn't think. With a roar, he lunged forward and punched Luke in the nose.

Luke doubled over, a couple drops of blood dripping from his nostrils. "You BROKE my NOSE!"

"Oh." Donnie pulled him upward by his hair. "Let me fix that for you." He twisted the nose with a vicious tweak. "There."

With an outraged howl, Luke attempted to butt Donnie's middle with his head, which Donnie easily sidestepped. Before long they were having a full-blown scuffle, limbs flying every which way. Not very strategic or ninja-like, Donnie thought, but a heck lot more satisfying.

"Okay, okay, BREAK IT UP!" A muscular man whom Donnie assumed was the PE teacher pulled them apart from each other at arm's length, both of them still fruitlessly swinging at the other. The man dragged them down the hall and dropped them each into a seat at the office. "Principal Poppydiar?" he called.

"Yes?" The principal walked into the room, her eyes widening at the scene before her. She rushed up to Luke. "Lucas! What HAPPENED to you, sweetheart?"

"T-that girl!" Luke sniffed, even though he had been fine two seconds previous. "I told her how smart she was, but I think she's one of those gangsters who don't think that's cool, so she snuck up behind me when I wasn't looking and PUNCHED me! See?" Luke pointed to a blackening eye.

Donnie raised an eyebrow. "I snuck up BEHIND you and punched you in the EYE? That's not physically possible!"

Luke ignored him. "Then her f-f-friend there," Luke paused to point at Cassidy, who was peering from the hallway at the scene, "held me down and April punched me over and over and over and I got this bloody nose." Luke let a tear roll down his cheek. Man, he was good at this. "I thought I was gonna…gonna…DIE! Luke sobbed, erupting in tears.

"Oh, there, there." Principal Poppydiar pulled Luke into a hug. "Mommy's here for you." Wait…mommy? She was Luke's MOM? He. Was. DEAD. When the principal finally pulled away, she glared at Donnie. "How dare you?!"

Donnie shrank back. "He was lying! He insulted Apr…I mean me and so I came at him, but Cassidy didn't hold him down and he fought back just fine and I didn't even fight my hardest and I didn't sneak…"

"ENOUGH!" The principal roared. "Are you calling my son a liar?"

"But it's true." Cassidy stepped into the room, bravely putting herself on the line.

"Oh, and I suppose you are this… this delinquent's friend that held my son down, aren't you?"

Cassidy paused, and Donnie caught her eye, silently shaking his head. Just because he was in trouble didn't mean she had to be. "Yes!" Cassidy declared anyway. "I mean, I didn't hold Luke down, but I AM April's friend and she IS telling the truth."

"Lies!" Principal Poppydiar hissed. "Wait here." The principal walked into her office and shut the door with a slam.

Luke turned to Donnie. "You are in SOOO much trouble!" he whispered with a sneer, though Donnie noticed he kept his distance. Donnie bit his lip, turning his head and blocking out the jeering words that followed…which is what he probably should have done the first time around. Who knew what kind of horrible punishments he was getting April into? The principal stepped out of her office, and Luke immediately stopped taunting and put on his "kicked puppy" face.

"Now," the principal said sternly, clasping her hands behind her back. "You both have pretty much spotless records so far, so I am going to go easy on you." Donnie and Cassidy let out a sigh of relief. "You will both have a half hour of after-school detentions every day for the rest of the month. Count yourselves lucky I am choosing not to expel you.

"What?!" Donnie and Cassidy gasped in horror, their eyes widening.

The principal fixed them with a dangerous look, so Donnie hung his head, deciding that humility was the best course on this particular case. "Tomorrow, detention will take place in a classroom, but today I want to keep an eye on you, so detention is here…and it starts now. Come on Lucas, lets get you washed up," the principal sniffed, ushering her son into the office restroom.

With a groan, Donnie and Cassidy settled into their seats and prepared themselves for a long wait.