HOLY SHIT! Reason I'm freaking out? This story has been read in over 25 countries! Not only that, but it also has over 1,000 views! Oh my Mahal I love you guys!
Okay, calm down, Tatsu. Calm down. Deep, cleansing breaths. *repeats ten times* Okay. I'm good. New chapter time!

Chapter 7: Thoughts

Fallyn flipped over the turn-dials. She braced herself for an attack and berating from Mikey about not coming by the lair in two weeks, but nothing came. Looking around, she noticed no one was in sight. April noticed too.

"Where is everyone?"

"Shush!" Closing her eyes, the whitette concentrated. Her ears twitched when she picked up voices coming from Donnie's lab. "They're in the lab." April grinned.

"Sweet! Let's go!" The redhead ran to the lab, her sister following at a more leisurely pace. She entered in time to see Donnie escort April out.

"And just where are you going?" Donatello smiled at her.

"April's taking me to see Rockwell's lab. I hope that's okay." Fallyn stared at the two for a while. April sighed.

"Fallyn, I'll be fine. I'm with Donnie, and we're going to a scientist's lab. What's the worst that could happen?" Fallyn snorted, though it sounded more like a growl of defeat.

"Fine. Text me when you reach it, and when you're coming home." "If you see Falco, make sure your speaker is on." April nodded.

"Done. Thanks sis!" Fallyn stepped to the side, letting the duo leave. She walked inside the lab.

"What's up guys?" Leo screamed, spinning a poster board. He leaned against it, failing miserably at faking nonchalance.

"He-he hey Fallyn. Hey Fallyn." Raph and Mikey keeled over laughing. The girl just stared at them.

"Uh… did I miss something?" Raph leaned against Donnie's desk, trying to catch his breath.

"If you had come in with April, you would understand." She humphed before turning to Leo.

"Mind telling me why you freaked out?"

"Uh… not really." He cowered at her raised eyebrow. "Okay, okay. Just… don't kill Donnie."

"Why would I–" Fallyn stopped midsentence as Leo turned the poster over. "Oh. I see." She walked up to the board, an eerie calmness about her. "Leo?" The blue-masked terrapin gulped.

"Yes ma'am?"

"How long as Donnie liked April? As in liked liked her."

"Um… since the first night." Fallyn nodded, straightening.

"I see." She took a deep breath, still staring at the board.

"I know you're probably really mad right now, but please please please don't hurt Don!" Leo was pleading now, his hands clasped in front of him. Raph and Mikey were on their knees, pulling puppy-dog faces, complete with clasped hands and lower lips stuck out. "He is just a dork that doesn't know how to-"

"Leo." The turtles froze. "I'm not mad. I'm actually a bit impressed with the effort he's put into this." Raph blinked incredulously. His arms dropped, hanging by his side limply.

"So… you're not going to kill him?"

"No." Fallyn smirked as she walked out. "I'm just going to give him hell for hitting on my sis without asking me first. When he gets back of course." The ninjas gulped as they stared after her.

"Um… so… we going to save Don, or…" Raph held up his hands.

"Hey. I'm staying out of this one." Mikey whimpered.

"Fallyn's scary when she's passive aggressive."

複

Fallyn looked up from her spot next to Leo. He was still enraptured with the latest episode of Space Heroes to notice April come in with a severely injured Donatello leaning on her for support. The whitette leapt up as the duo made their way down the stairs. Raph joined her.

"Whoa. What happened?"

"Donnie got beat up a lab monkey." The others exchanged glances. Leo and Fallyn rushed over, taking Donnie from April.

"April can you get an ice pack?" As the redhead ran off, Fallyn and Leo laid Donatello on the couch. "Donnie. You gonna be okay?" Fallyn rested her hand on Leo's shoulder.

"Yeah. Yeah I'll be fine."

"In that case-" Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Fallyn burst out laughing. Donnie's face flushed in embarrassment. Raph regained enough control to speak.

"Y… you got beat up? By a monkey? In front of your girlfriend!?"

"She's not my girlfriend! And that monkey was a vicious mutant!" The foursome leaned down.

"Yeah. I'm sure he went, bananas!" Leo's quip sent them all over the edge again. Fallyn wiped a tear away.

"No, no I got it! He went ape!" Mikey fell on his back, clutching his sides. Hearing a familiar step, Fallyn sliced her hand over her neck. "No more monkey puns." She and the guys immediately shut up, their faces impassive.

Leo started humming as April glared at him. Sitting down, she pulled Donnie onto her lap, resting the ice pack on his forehead. "Are you laughing at him because he's hurt?" Mikey scoffed.

"No. We were laughing at him because he was hurt by a MONKEY!" The youngest turtle fell on his back again, the others laughing their lungs out with him. Leo tried leaning on Fallyn for support, but ended up falling on top of her. This only furthered the laughing, the sprawled duo joining in. April even let a chuckle slide at the sight of her sister squashed underneath a mutant ninja turtle.

Eventually, Leo and Fallyn recovered enough of their composure to sneak away. They crept into his room, still chuckling. "So… you still going to give Don hell?" Fallyn snickered.

"Nah. I think that monkey did it for me." Leo rolled his eyes, relaxing against his headboard.

"But seriously Fallyn. Would you have hurt him?" Fallyn cooed, sitting on the foot of Leo's bed.

"Aw. Is this your big brother complex?"

"Possibly."

"Then you should understand where I'm coming from with April." Leo's eyes widened minutely.

"So… you wouldn't have hurt Donnie. You would have just given him a good talk." Fallyn nodded, staring down at her hands.

"April is very trusting, and extremely naïve. She doesn't want to believe there people out there who would date a girl simply because they want some arm candy." Fallyn's hands clenched slightly. "I'm not saying that Don, or any of you for that matter, would do that, but…"

"But it doesn't change the fact that there are people like that." Leo covered her hands with one of his. The warmth in his stomach returned, but he pushed it down, not letting himself get distracted. "I get it. You're just looking out for your little sister." He squeezed her hands lightly, prompting her to look at him. Fallyn smiled softly at him, turning one of her hands over to grip his.

"Thanks Leo." The girl stood up. "Speaking of her, I'd better see if she needs any help patching up Donnie." Leo nodded.

"Sure thing." Just before she opened the door, he called her back. "If you ever want anyone to talk to, I'm here." Fallyn nodded.

"Thanks Leo. I'll remember that." Leo watched her leave, shutting the door behind her. The second it shut, he whipped around, buried his face in his pillow, and screamed his lungs out.

'What the hell is wrong with me?!'

~ *.* ~

Fallyn sat next to April, decoding the notes Donnie had swiped from the lab. April had tried, but to no avail. Don would have done it, but he was currently talking with Splinter.

"Aren't you glad you have me as a sister?" April huffed.

"Whatever. I'm still mad at you for laughing at Donnie."

"Relax April. Just be glad I didn't beat your boyfriend up." April glanced at Fallyn.

"You would, wouldn't you?" Fallyn shrugged, not removing her eyes from the laptop screen.

"I was actually planning on it, but the monkey beat me to–" The screen flashed, going blank. Two seconds later, files sprung up. "Got it!" The guys stopped what they were doing to sit around the girls. Leo sat on Fallyn's right.

"What is it?"

"Well, the notes are a bit sporadic, but… from what I was able to decipher… Rockwell was able to modify the mutagen." Leo quirked his eyebrow.

"Why would he do that?"

"He thought he could use it to create a neurochemical that would…" Fallyn stared at the screen, blinking several times.

"That would what?"

"Temporarily give someone psychic abilities." April gaped at her sister. Before she could speak, Raph did.

"You mean that monkey was psychic?" The younger O'Neil shook her head.

"It was more like he was reading our emotions. After all, he was only hostile when Donnie was hostile." The scientist frowned.

"Yeah well next time I'll be sure to think friendly thoughts while I'm beating a little sunshine into him." Leo spoke up again.

"Okay. We need to track him down before he attacks someone else. Let's go up to the surface, spread out, and search."

"How are we going to stay in contact?" Don grinned as he stood.

"I have a little something that might help." He walked to the front of the group. "Gentlemen, and ladies, I give you…" he flung his hand out, holding a device. "The tPhone!" Mikey frowned.

"Dude. I'm in charge of naming stuff. I would have called it, the tPhone."

"I did call it the tPhone."

"Yeah but I would have called it the tPhone." Mikey yelped when Raph hit the back of his head with a comic.

"And April." Donnie held the device out to the redhead. "If you give me your cell number I can patch it into our network."

"Sweet!" She tapped it in, handing the phone to her sister. Fallyn pretended to not hear Don's celebration of getting April's number.

"Her number is on the fridge you dork." The whitette did smirk at Raph's comeback. She handed the phone back to April, who gave it back to Donatello.

"Let's go!" The girls followed the turtles. April glanced at her sister.

"Hey. You think Rockwell could have pulled it off? The psychic thing I mean."

"I don't know, imōto1. I don't know."

複

Fallyn skidded to a stop, tapping her earpiece. "I've got eyes on the monkey. Mikey! He's headed your way!" She flipped off the toy store, joining Raph and Leo on the ground.

The monkey hit Mikey as it ran past. "Hey! Watch it!" The turtle followed the primate over the railing, grinding it with his skateboard.

All of the teens met up at an intersection. "Anybody see where he went?"

"I thought he headed off in that direction." Donnie pointed to his right.

"I thought it was that way!" Raph pointed to the left. Fallyn glanced at April as the boys began to argue. The girls turned to look down an alley. Motioning for April to stand behind her, Fallyn walked over to a dumpster. From the scent, she knew something alive was inside, and it sure as heck wasn't a rat.

Lifting the lid, the girl's golden gaze softened slightly. The monkey was panting, his massive hands covering his head. It looked back at the girl, fear showing in its hazel eyes. Fallyn smiled softly, extending a hand. The primate spoke, though she couldn't tell what he said. He climbed out of the dumpster, staring at the girl.

A chain shot past them, wrapping around the monkey's torso. He roared as he fought the metal links. "Ha ha! Got you that time!"

"Great. We got the monkey. But we're not any closer to finding Dr. Rockwell." April began to walk slowly towards the creature.

"April! What are you doing!? Get away from him!" April ignored her sister, staring at the monkey. As his eyes retreated back into his skull, the pupils dilated.

"Actually, we're a lot closer than you think." Donnie blinked.

"What? How?"

"I think this is Dr. Rockwell."

複

Fallyn's claws were now permanently imbedded into her palms. They had taken Rockwell back to the lab, but he was about as excited to go there as Fallyn was to go to hell. In other words… he fought them the whole way. Eventually, they had strapped him down in the chair on the far side of the room. The fact that it fit him perfectly didn't escape Fallyn's notice.

Falco injected the mutant with a sedative, knocking him out. "There. That should calm him down a little. Poor Rockwell."

"Is there any way to get him back to normal?"

"I wouldn't even know where to begin." Fallyn's eyes narrowed at the scientist as he began to stroke Rockwell's head. "But I'll see if there's a way to give him some semblance of a… normal life." The teens looked at each other before exiting the lab.

The whole way back to the lair, Fallyn didn't say a word.

複

Donnie was sitting at the kitchen table, going over Rockwell's notes. Fallyn stood behind him, her chin practically resting on his shoulder. Normally, the turtle would be flustered over the closeness, but he made an exception this one time. 'Especially if Fallyn was right about Falco. Besides, her warmth doesn't hurt.'

Raph walked in. "Pizza's here!" The turtles grabbed a piece each, April and Splinter following suit. Donnie and Fallyn ignored it.

April noticed. "Hey sis. How come you're not eating?"

"Huh?" Fallyn moved her head in April's direction slightly, not removing her gaze from the laptop screen. "I'm not hungry." She sighed, actually resting her chin on Donatello's shoulder. The turtle tensed at the contact, but relaxed as her warm temperature seeped into his still slightly hurting body. "Something's been bothering me." April tilted her head.

"What?" Don spoke up.

"Falco said Rockwell was experimenting on a monkey." Leo quirked his eyebrow. He pushed down the jealousy that surged through his body at the sight of Fallyn resting her chin on Donatello's shoulder.

"And?"

"Well according to these notes, he never had a monkey in his lab. He was just using samples of monkey DNA." Fallyn lifted her head from Donnie's shoulder.

"And then there was Rockwell. Did anyone else noticed the collar and cuffs he was sporting? And how he reacted when we brought him back to the lab?"

"We're still not following." Fallyn barely restrained herself from slapping Leonardo.

"If he never had a monkey, then what broke out of the cage?" Raph gasped.

"It must have been Rockwell!"

"Which means that Falco put him there and that's why he was lying the whole time!" Leo looked at his brothers. He stood, pushing the stool back. No words needed to be said.

The ninjas sprang out of the kitchen, nearly crashing into Splinter. He watched them go, turning to the girls. "What is going on?"

"Falco was lying. He was the reason Rockwell is a mutant. The guys are going after him." The rat nodded, stroking his beard.

"I see. Fallyn… might I speak to you privately?"

"Of course." Fallyn laid a hand on April's shoulder. "Save me a slice, would ya'?" April smirked.

"Not a problem now that Mikey's gone." Fallyn chuckled.

"Right." She walked out with Splinter, following him to the dojo. "What's up?" He gestured for her to sit down.

"I am curious to know how your sister knew the monkey was a human, and how you knew Falco was lying." Fallyn tilted her head.

"Well, I know April already told you half." Splinter raised a snowy eyebrow.

"I had not realized you heard that." Fallyn chuckled, shifting so her hip rested on the mat.

"I hear a lot more than I'm given credit for."

"I see. Would that include… heartbeats?"

Fallyn's Revealed Powers: Telekinesis, Enhanced Hearing and Smell, Retractable Claws

Translations:
 1) Japanese for "little sister" ( 妹 )

Dun Dun Dun! Cliffhanger! *Blows raspberry* Splinter's figured out that Fallyn can hear heartbeats. Has anything else come into the light?

Episode: Monkey Brains