Chapter 4

Donatello peered eagerly into his microscope. The small speck of blue ooze on the slide shone brightly before his eyes, revealing its secrets to him, one by one. He picked up a pencil to jot down some notes in his notebook, but found the task unexpectedly difficult. He wasn't aware of the complicated finger position required for writing. At last he figured out a method that worked and then pressed his eye once more the microscope's lens.

"Hey, Donnie, can I come in?" came Leo's voice from the doorway. Donnie looked up and saw his brother poking his head through the half-open door. It was still so strange to hear that familiar voice speaking, and then to look up and see such an unfamiliar face in his brother's place. Donnie beckoned him over.

"Have you discovered anything yet?" Leo asked as he approached the desk. His blue eyes held a mixture of concern and anticipation. Donnie smiled a little to himself. At least those eyes were the same, reminding him that his big brother was still there, still concerned for all of them, even if he looked different.

"I'm working on it," Donnie answered, turning his gaze back to the shiny blue substance magnified before him.

Leo waited patiently as Donnie wrote a few more notes, then caught his attention once more. "Uh, Donnie," he said uncertainly. "Something happened to me a few minutes ago that I wanted to ask you about."

Donnie looked up, curious, and Leo related the details of the strange numbness that had come over his arm a few moments before. Donnie listened intently, nodding.

"Yeah, something similar happened to me as well," he answered unexpectedly. "I think it's a sign that our mutation might not be entirely stable. Here." He handed Leo a Q-tip, and began searching around on his desk.

Leo raised an eyebrow and stared in confusion at the cotton swab in his hand. "Um, Donnie. . ." he began, but Donnie, who had located the glass slide he had been searching for, interrupted him.

"I just need a sample of your DNA. I've been analyzing mine and comparing it to the data I had collected regarding our previous mutated form, but my results will be more accurate if I use samples from more than one specimen." He stopped talking as he realized Leo was still just standing there, holding the Q-tip. "I need your spit, Leo," he clarified. "Just swab the inside of your mouth."

Leo obeyed and handed the DNA laden swab back to his brother, who swiped some of it on the glass slide, and then took the Q-tip to the other side of the lab where he searched among his glass bottles for a moment before beginning a complicated chemical process Leo didn't understand.

When Donnie came back to the desk to input some data on his computer, Leo ventured to ask, "What did you mean exactly, when you said our mutation might not be entirely stable?"

"I'll have some answers for you soon," Donnie answered without looking at Leo. He moved quickly to another part of his desk and stuck his tongue out in concentration as he carefully let a single drop fall from an eyedropper he was holding into a petrie dish.

At that moment, the door burst open and Mikey came sauntering into the room, holding an ice pack to his ribs, but smiling nonetheless. He plopped down in a swivel chair and spun around a few times before leaning his elbows on the desk across from Donnie, resting his chin in his hands. The ice pack fell, forgotten, to the floor.

"Watcha doin', Donnie?"

Donatello did not remove his concentration from the experiment before him, so Leo answered for him. "Donnie's doing some experiments with our DNA and that weird blue Kraang stuff, to try and find out what exactly happened to us."

"Why?" asked Mikey. "We know what happened. That Blue Goo turned us human."

"Right," answered Leo slowly, "but we need to know why, and how, and whether it's permanent. And we also need to know why the Kraang are experimenting with such weapons. Why would they want to create something that turned mutants into humans? It seems like the opposite of their usual plans."

"I'm not entirely sure that's what this ooze does," responded Donnie, who had apparently been listening after all, from behind his computer screen.

"What do you mean?" asked Mikey. "That's exactly what it did."

"To us, yes," said Donnie, taking his eyes off the data on the screen for a moment, "but maybe not to everyone. I have to do more research to find out for sure." With that, he gave his attention wholly back to his work.

Mikey, already bored, spun around in his chair a few more times, coming precariously close to the illuminated pools of algae behind him. Leo watched Donnie's progress for a few minutes, then turned to his orange-banded brother, who was continuing to make himself dizzy.

"Hey, Mikey, where's Raph?"

"He went to take a shower," answered Mikey, giving the chair an extra fast spin and promptly tumbling off it to the floor, where he lay on his back, arms spread wide, staring at the ceiling. "Dude! The whole room is spinning! It's like being on a space ship!"

"Huh, interesting," said Donnie suddenly, gazing at something under his microscope.

"What's interesting?" asked Mikey, sitting up and putting a hand to his head as if to stop it from spinning. "Being dizzy?"

"No! The results I'm getting from our DNA and this Kraang. . . stuff."

"Blue Goo, bro," stated Mikey from the floor.

"What?"

"Blue Goo. It's what I named the shiny paint ball stuff. Because, well, it's goo, and it's blue, so I thought – "

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," said Donnie impatiently, waving his hand to brush aside the irrelevant comments. "The point is, I think I found a few answers."

Leo leaned on the desk, looking more closely at Donnie's experiments, as if expecting to suddenly comprehend them. "What did you find out?"

"Well," began his brainy brother excitedly, "I analyzed the sample of your DNA and deciphered . . ." and here Donatello launched into a very detailed scientific explanation of exactly how he had performed the experiments, and what precisely he had discovered, using vocabulary far beyond Leo's understanding.

Leo smiled. He knew Raph found Donnie's long-winded descriptions annoying, and that Mikey often made fun of him or just completely tuned him out, but Leo couldn't help but find Donnie's extreme nerdiness rather endearing. He waited patiently while his genius brother enthusiastically showed him some advanced calculations he had made in his notebook and explained with relish some of the primary facts. When he finally wound down, Leo smiled at him and said gently, "That's great Donnie! Now, could you tell me again what all that means, but in language that Mikey could understand?"

Donnie frowned in slight exasperation, and addressing both his brothers, he said, "It means, that the synthesized mutagen wasn't potent enough to mutate us permanently. It is possible that by administering a second dose, followed, perhaps by subsequent doses, we could maintain the mutation, but unless we do, we will eventually revert back to our usual forms."

Leo pondered this information, but Mikey's face still looked blank. "That was supposed to be language I could understand?"

Donnie face-palmed and said loudly, in a vexed tone, "The Blue Goo wasn't strong enough to keep us human. If we don't get more, we will turn back into turtles!"

Mikey looked unhappy to receive this news. "Aw, no, I like being human. Wait, if we change back, will hurt as much as last time?" he asked fearfully.

"I don't know for sure," said Donnie grimly, "but probably."

"Aaaah, no! I don't want to do that again! Never, never again!" Mikey's eyes were wide as he leaped speedily off the floor and ran to Leo, clutching his arm. "Don't let me change back, Leo, please!"

Leo peeled his brother's hands off his arm, but he didn't like seeing Mikey so afraid. "We'll see, Mikey. You know I would do anything to keep you from being hurt, but I can't promise anything yet. We still have a lot to figure out."

Mikey nodded and let go of Leo. His eyes still bore a trace of fear, but he trusted his big brother.

"Donnie," Leo turned to his purple-banded brother, "How long do we have before we change back?"

"It's hard to say, but my guess would be a few days, at the most."

Leo tapped his finger on his chin as he thought. "So, if we get a hold of more of this Blue Goo, we can decide to remain human if we want. And we would have to make that decision within the next couple days."

"Yeah, that's how I figure it," responded Donnie.

"Raph'll never go for it," said Mikey despondently. "He hates being human. He's the one who kept asking Donnie for a cure."

"We'll have to sit down and have a serious discussion about it," said Leo, "but nothing needs to be decided just yet. However, no matter what we choose, we still have to figure out what the Kraang's plan is and put a stop to it. They didn't create this Goo just to turn the four of us human. Something bigger is going on here, and we need to find out what it is. Tonight, we'll go back to that old garage and see if we can find any answers."

At that moment, Raph came into the lab, drying his hair with a towel.

"Hey, Raph!" greeted Mikey cheerfully. "Watcha doin'?"

"My stupid hair won't dry!" he answered in frustration. "It keeps dripping in my eyes!" He rubbed the towel vigorously over his head before tossing it onto a chair.

"Hahaha!" Mikey pointed at Raph's head. "Your hair's sticking up in all sorts of crazy directions now!"

Raph glared at Mikey. "So?" he said angrily. He put a hand up to feel it, though, and then turning to Leo, he asked sincerely, "Does it really look funny?"

Leo chuckled. "Yeah, it kinda does."

Growling, Raph attempted to flatten his hair with his hands, but to no avail. "How do you get this stuff to lay straight?"

"I think you need a comb for that," said Donnie from behind his desk.

"Well, where am I gonna get a stupid comb? We don't exactly have that kind of human stuff lying around the lair."

"Maybe you could borrow one from April," said Leo with a playful smile.

"Or," said Mikey, slowly and dramatically, "We could buy one!"

There was a moment's silence while the other three stared at Mikey.

"You mean, go topside?" asked Donnie. "In the day time?"

"And go into an actual store?" added Leo. "While it's open?"

"And buy something new?" Raph put in. "With money?"

There was another silence while the former turtles were suddenly struck with the realization of all the freedoms that were now available to them.

Mikey grinned at his brothers. "Yeah," he said quietly, "That's exactly what I mean!"

"Well, what are we waiting for?" asked Leo excitedly, "Let's go!"

Donnie glanced back at his desk, torn by two desires. "But my experiments – "

" – Can wait!" exclaimed Mikey, grabbing Donnie's arm. "Come on, we have some serious human stuff to do!"

The four brothers raced each other out of the lab, all eager for experiences they had only ever been able to wonder about.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

On the other side of town, in a hidden facility, two Kraang droids met and conversed together amid the blinking lights, glowing screens, and reflective metal surfaces of their lab. The bleeping, clinking noises of activity were all around them as scores of Kraang went about their duties, performing various tasks for the fulfillment of their experiment.

The first Kraang droid spoke. "Phase One of the experiment which is known as Experiment Five has been completed."

"Kraang is correct," agreed the second bot. "Now Kraang must determine if Phase One has been successful. Kraang must obtain the ones who are known as the turtles, and bring them to this place. When the ones who are known as the turtles are in this place, then Kraang may begin Phase Two of the experiment which is known as Experiment Five, in this place."

"Affirmative, Kraang, but if Phase One was successful, then the ones known as the turtles will no longer be turtles, so they must be known as the ones who were known as the turtles."

"Affirmative, Kraang. Kraang will search for the ones who were known as the turtles. The ones who were known as the turtles will be captured and brought to this place in the unit of time known as today."

"Excellent, Kraang."