Chapter One
Several hours earlier
Stockman knelt in front of the Shredder and his daughter Karai, he had just managed to finish his latest invention and had presented it to the Shredder.
"Stockman are you certain this device will work?"
"Yes Master Shredder. The device works to swap two minds completely between their two bodies. If you are going to use it on the turtles then as long as the body of the person swapped on our side is taken prisoner with the swapped turtles mind then the others should not be aware of the change. This will leave the Foot ninja free to fully utilise their position and attempt to break the family."
"Excellent work Stockman. Tonight will be the time to put this plan in place, the turtles are sure to be out on a training run and you can be with the Foot ninja to ensure it is put in place properly."
"Do you have a candidate for the mind swap Master Shredder."
"You shall be the individual to swap minds considering it is your invention. Which turtle you choose to swap with is up to you."
Stockman smirked. "Being a scientist I believe it would be best to target their own so-called scientist Donatello. Also he is the quietist of the family and so the others will be less likely to notice anything is wrong."
"Perfect. Prepare everything you will require for this evening. Karai will gather the Foot ninja and will be ready to go at midnight."
Stockman bowed and left the room. He headed to his lab to ready final preparations for his mind swap and to read up on all the knowledge they had gathered so far on Donatello to ensure he could slip easily into character.
Don tightened up the last of the pipes he had been fixing for April when he felt his shell cell vibrate. Laying it open and putting it on loudspeaker the concerned voice of his oldest brother echoed into the room. "How you doing at Aprils Donnie? It's getting late out so we were going to come over and meet you to start our training run."
Don rolled his eyes at the protective nature of Leo. "Hi Leo, I'm just finishing up now. April won't mind me waiting here for you guys."
"Great, we'll see you in about 30 minutes then."
Leo rang off so Don cleared up his tools and went to see April in the kitchen. "I've fixed the leak in the bathroom April. The others are coming over to meet me here to start our training run so I'm afraid you'll have to put up with me for a bit longer."
April smiled at Don's self-deprecating nature. "That's not a problem Don, if it were any of the others I'd kick them straight out on their own."
"Even Leo?"
"Even Leo." Don joined in laughing with April at the thought of his brother's getting chucked out by April. "Fancy a coffee while you wait?"
"I'd love one."
They sat and made small talk about things that had happened in the lair since April had last visited, including Raph breaking the latest TV set today after Mikey had bragged one too many times about being the Battle Nexus Champion. Soon there came a knock on the window and they looked round to see Leo peering into the room.
"Hi Leo. How are you?"
"Hi April, I'm good actually just come to pick up Don."
"Where are the other two? It seems surprisingly quieter than it usually is when all four of you are in my apartment."
"Oh I left them on the roof to expend their energy. Mikey was winding up Raph again on the way over here so I thought it best if they don't enter a room full of breakables."
"I'm eternally grateful to you for that thoughtful move, if they broke any more of my ornaments I think I'd have to ban you all from visiting!"
Don chuckled. "They will get the hint one day April, they learnt to stay away from my lab eventually after Mikey caused a minor explosion."
April rolled her eyes at the statement. "Well I better let you go join them. Thanks for fixing my leak."
"No problem. We'll see you soon."
"See you April."
As April closed the window after Don he followed Leo up to the roof where he found Mikey bouncing round the rooftop while Raph leaned against a wall watching him. When he saw Don and Leo appear he made his way over to them "So we gonna start this run or what? I was on the verge of pushing Mikey off the roof for being annoying."
"Ok, I just want to do a normal circuit of the city tonight. Master Splinter has planned an outside training session tomorrow night so we don't need to push it tonight."
Mikey had managed to make his way over and stand still long enough to listen to Leo's instructions. "Yeah short training session! Does that mean I can be back in time to watch the horror movie I've been planning to see?"
It was left to Don to point out the flaw in the plan. "But Mikey how do you plan on watching TV on a broken screen?"
"Cuz Donnie you're my favourite brother and if we are on a short sess tonight that means we will be back soon enough for you to fix it." Mikey used his puppy-dog look on Don which usually meant he got his own way but instead got a smack round the head from Raph. "OW!"
"Stop sucking up to Don, it will do you good to be away from the TV for a while its rotting ya brain."
"Guys lets start this run, we've wasted enough time already."
"Lead the way fearless."
Don fell in behind his brothers as they took off leaping from rooftop to rooftop. For the first half hour things appeared to be going smoothly but soon Leo started getting edgy, Don noticed he was looking off to the side constantly as though somebody was over there.
Raph obviously noticed Leo's odd behaviour too. "Something eating at ya Leo?"
"I've just got a feeling that we're being watched." As if on cue a horde of Foot ninja appeared on the roof opposite them. Turning around Don realised a group had snuck around behind them too. He drew his bo staff and backed up against his brothers, he realised that Karai had materialized to the front of the Foot ninja soldiers.
Raph snorted. "Seems like your bad feeling translates into bad luck Leo."
"Foot ninja attack!"
The brothers managed to hold their own against the Foot for a while but soon he felt himself getting pushed apart from them. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Stockman appear on the roof near him holding an extremely technical looking device.
"Donnie watch out!" Raph came jumping over the heads of the ninja and struck down one ninja which was behind him ready to knock Don out. "Got your back brainiac."
Don only had eyes for Stockman who was intent on fiddling with the device in his hands, it did not look like anything he had seen before and the fact the ninja were intentionally keeping out the way of Stockman gave Don an extremely bad feeling about it. "Keep the other brother away from him! It is imperative I only have him in my sights." Don swivelled around to find his way back to Raph blocked back off as a wall of ninja formed between them. He had his bo ready to fight the ninja that had appeared but they seemed to be ignoring him as they were more intent on pushing Raph away. He ran to the edge of the line but got pushed violently back into the space in front of Stockman. Don felt increasingly panicked as his every move to escape the space was blocked, it seemed the ninja wanted to keep him there for a reason. He could see Raph trying to desperately fight his way back to Don but his other two brothers did not appear to have noticed the situation as they were kept distracted by a huge group of ninja and Karai.
"Escape is futile Donatello." Don turned back round to see Stockman wearing the biggest smile. The scientist seemed to assess him for a moment before he raised his hand and lowered it straight into the middle of the device. A blindingly white light emanated from the spot where Stockman had just been standing and totally engulfed Don, however the light dissipated as quickly as it had come. Suddenly Don lost all sense of reality as his mind felt like it was being ripped from his skull. He tried to raise his hands to grip his head but could not feel his arms respond. The pain felt like it would never end and the last thing he was aware of as unconsciousness took over to protect him from the pain was his brothers voices shouting his name.
