Chapter 10 – Connections
Donnie peered through the microscope and nodded to himself, satisfied that he had indeed precisely replicated the original lightning-altered mutagen. He transferred small amounts of it to a number of test tubes, stoppered them, and set them in the centrifuge to spin. And there it was, the beginning of April's return to humanity.
He wasn't sure how he was supposed to feel… The last few weeks, having April as a turtle at his side, in his mind, as his lover—they'd been the best weeks of his life. And when he developed this retro-mutagen for her… that was it. She would go back to being a human, and they would go back to being incompatible. Would they even be able to synergize as different species? The thought that they wouldn't be able to connect anymore killed him… to lose the special bond, the intimate understanding they'd found of each other… to never again feel what she was feeling, what they felt together… That was more devastating than the fact he'd never be able to have sex with her again.
There was, he supposed, the off-chance than she would want to stay a turtle. But she had a life as a human to return to topside. Her school, her father… Casey. Ah, Christ… he was going to lose her to Casey after all. He could see it now, Jones picking her up on the rebound, so to speak. What you really need, Red, is a man with the right equipment, he would say, silhouetted by the setting sun in a way that the blade of his hockey stick stuck upward from his pelvis suggestively. Ugh, Donnie felt like he needed to run bleach through his brain after that one. He hoped he could bury the thought down far enough that April wouldn't pick up on it the next time they merged minds.
Still, asking her to remain a mutant… he couldn't do that. It wasn't responsible, and it wasn't fair. Her former life had been taken from her, and it was up to him to restore it to her. Part of him screamed at him to be more selfish, keep her down in the dark with him… it would be easy; just lie about being able to make the retro-mutagen. But he pushed that thought away as well. It was stupid anyway… an obvious lie like that would stick out like a sore thumb when she saw his thoughts, more than Jones's hockey stick… Stop, thought… go away.
He stared at the centrifuge spinning. That was it, then… the end was coming, and time was of the essence from here on out.
April exited Splinter's study, looking a bit forlorn. She caught Donnie's eye and came to sit next to him in his lab. "So," he said, "I guess no more soul-smooching for us."
She sighed. "No. I suppose Splinter has a point… we have no way to guarantee our safety when we're that deep, and with no way to know when to pull out of it.. yeah, it's dangerous. Which is a real shame, because that… wow."
"I know, right?" He shifted her onto his lap, embracing her tightly. "How is this ever going to be enough again?"
She set her forehead against his, eyes closed. "This is so ridiculous… I can't hardly feel you at all!"
He reached a hand up to stroke her cheek, wiping a tear from her eye with his thumb. "Hey…" She opened her eyes and a comforting wave of togetherness spilled over them. Better now? he asked mentally. She nodded, reaching a hand up to stroke his head. She touched one of the cuts left from Shredder's tekko-gaki, winced and drew her hand back to her own head as the stab of pain from it struck her as well.
We share the pleasure, we share the pain… she reasoned. Donnie nodded. He hadn't had time to feel a thing when Shredder had knocked him out; she wouldn't have felt anything in the way that he'd felt the wind knocked out of her. Splinter's right, then... it's an extra liability to use it in a fight if we both get hurt, synergy breaking aside. She hopped off his lap and walked behind him to examine the wounds. I wish I'd've felt these sooner; I could have cleaned them. She regarded the twin slashes critically. Donnie saw through her eyes that they ran nearly from his right temple to the crown of his head, and were still dull red, only partially scabbed over since the battle. These probably needed stitches… it might be too late now, but I can at least try to butterfly them together…
Donnie found himself perplexed at her first-aid abilities, first with Baxter and now with himself, and sought gently through her mind, like flipping through the pages of a book—ah, there. She'd taken a first-aid course for extra credit in a health class a couple years earlier… she hadn't really needed the extra credit, overachiever as she was, so much as she'd had the feeling it would be a handy skill to know. And boy is it paying off now, she thought at him as she fetched a bowl of water and a clean cloth and started carefully dabbing at the wounds.
She was exceedingly gentle, especially since she felt the same pain he did if she blotted too hard at the long rents in the flesh. She once dabbed upon a very sensitive area. He grit his teeth against it, but she hissed in empathetic pain. Sorry!
You don't have to be in synergy for this… you can step out again and save yourself the pain, he insisted. No point in both of us feeling this…
It's not bad, and I don't want to be alone out there… it's so cold!
He understood. He didn't want to be without her, either. It wasn't as intense as the emotional warmth of the spiritual plane, but at least they could feel some of those calming, warm emotions from each other through their bond. Even the memory of that place and their souls' touch brought some of the comfort of it back to them, a balm to the loss of their access to it.
I'm going to have Dad bring us some more medical supplies… you guys are really running low. April finished cleaning Don's gashes and carefully pushed the flesh together as she applied medical tape to hold them shut. I hope they don't scar…
And? he jabbed at her, If I'm horribly mutilated for life?
She giggled a little. You'll look like someone to be reckoned with… My brave warrior! She traced the burn mark on his shell. He looked at it through her vision… it was remarkable how close to the Hamato crest it was, just on pure chance, the way he'd fused the mutagen containers together, resembling a five-petaled flower. It was still off by a few details… It was kind of a pity…
Well, now that you're all patched up, April suggested, maybe you could help me with—
"DONNIE! APRIL!" The two of them blinked at Raph's angry shout, and they both came quickly to the same conclusion.
"—cleaning," they finished aloud simultaneously.
"Sorry, Raph!" April called, packing the medical supplies back in their box.
"We're on it!" Donnie added. They looked back at each other, sharing an embarrassed giggle, and she followed him out of his lab.
x-x-x-x-x
The train car was, as they'd left it, a disastrous mess. The furniture was turned over, some of it looking decidedly worse for wear. The mattress was folded over on itself, sheets torn off and draped over the upended couch and wadded up on the floor, cushions strewn everywhere. A rank, hormonal smell hung in the air. April wrinkled her nose at it as they entered. "Ohmigod, what the hell were we doing?!" she wondered again.
Donnie looked around, setting down their bucket of clean water, and wilted. Everything was filthy. The task ahead of them was daunting. And for having had sex for 15 hours, he was a bit jealous that he hadn't gotten to feel any of the pleasure from it. True, the soul-touch was much more fulfilling, but nonetheless, he felt a bit cheated.
"Okay, this one, I think I get…" April said, leaning tauntingly over the overturned armchair, exposing her backside openly to him. He felt something swelling in his nether-regions, but tried to put it out of his mind as she stood again and pointed at a splotch on the arched ceiling. "…but how did you manage that?!"
Donnie stared at the stain, perplexed despite being kind of grossed out. It seemed to defy physics. "What the fuck…? How…?"
"That one's all yours , tall guy," April smirked, clapping him on the shoulder congratulatorily. She herself grabbed the wadded sheets, grimaced, and took them out onto the platform to shake them out over the tracks. They shed a plethora of crusty white crumbs.
It took them nearly three hours, but for their efforts, the abandoned subway car was absolutely shining and spotless. April was still looking things over critically. "I wonder if we could scrape up some fabric somewhere for curtains… and maybe some throw pillows…"
"Curtains? Why?!" Donnie scoffed. "Not like there's that much light down here to block out…"
April rolled her eyes. "Just for comfort. You know, to make the place feel more… homey."
"Homey? It's a subway car. That we have sex in. Granted, kind of a lot."
"Exactly! There's no reason we shouldn't make it comfortable, as long as we're in here so much."
Don looked at her through narrowed eyes. "This is one of those 'girl things' I keep hearing about, isn't it?"
She stuck her beak in the air at him. "You'll like it when I'm done."
"I'm not the one that has to like it—this is Raph's place, remember, for as much as we use it... Anything too foofy, he'll tear it out, I promise you that."
"I'm not saying it needs lace trimmings and doilies… just, ya know, some touches to make it less… subway car."
Donnie sighed. "You're wasting your time…"
"And you are gonna be eating those words. Now c'mere and help me with this." She bent as if to pick up the green plush armchair.
"Wh—what're you doing now?" he chuckled at her. "You want to wreck the place again and start over?"
"Well, I figure we've earned a break, and this did look fun…"
"Fine, once." He rolled his eyes bending to help her turn the chair over.
x-x-x-x-x
As they returned to the lair, Donnie swung by his lab to rotate out the mutagen, but stopped when he pulled the first test tube out of the centrifuge. It hadn't separated at all. "What the…" he said looking around, and declaring, "Agghh," as he found the plug lying on the floor. He breathed an annoyed sigh… there was a few hours wasted. Either he or April must have caught the cord on their foot or something as they were leaving. He stuck it back in the outlet, and the centrifuge began humming merrily again.
Leo approached as Don was on his way out of the lab. "Hey… You guys coming on patrol tonight?"
"Yeah, of course… why?" Leo pointed to the tape across Don's head. "Oh… 's fine."
"Good. We still have mutagen around the city we need to track down, now that we're not fighting the Kraang or Shredder. Seems like a nice, relaxing change, actually…"
Donnie gave a little laugh. "I know, right? Just roaming around looking for mutagen after all this is like a vacation!"
"By the way… Casey's coming. You might want to thank him."
Donnie looked at him questioningly. "What? What for?"
"You guys were a little too involved with each other to thank him for taking care of the mutagen the other night. You were pretty much ignoring everyone at that point…"
"Oh. Right… I guess he does deserve some credit. I gotta admit, the catnip bombs of his were pretty ingenious…"
Even so, the fact didn't keep Donnie from stewing about Jones even being along… Yes, he retrieved the mutagen while the rest of them were busy fighting, and he did great against the Foot-bots and Tiger Claw… but Don had to wonder if he would have done any of it had April's restoration not been on the line. After all, Casey probably had the most to gain from April's restored humanity… or maybe Donnie was just being jealous of his rival again. He didn't care. He was allowed some vices, wasn't he? After all, the shining star of his world would run right into Casey's arms as soon as she was human again.
God, he hadn't even refined the first batch of the mutagen yet, and it felt like he'd lost her. Were she and Casey really fated to be together instead? And how could that be, when he and April were similar enough in soul to create a synergy? Or maybe it was all owing to April's psychic abilities—maybe she could synergize with Jones if she tried. That would mean there was nothing special between them… that it was just luck that they'd synergized. Surely not… but the thought of it broke his heart into a million pieces, and then took those pieces and stomped on them.
He wished she wasn't in training with Splinter at the moment. The touch of her mind would have been such a comfort…
He plunked down beside Leo on the bench before the TV, pensive.
"By the way, you 'considered' what we discussed earlier?" Leo interrupted his thoughts… and thanks, Leonardo, for throwing acid on that wound…
"Yeah," Donnie replied simply.
"…and?"
Don let out a wearied sigh. "Leave it alone, man… We've only got a few weeks left together, and then it'll be a non-issue."
"It's gotten worse, hasn't it?"
"Not that much," he said optimistically. "Maybe it's ebbing off. Maybe she's getting a handle on it."
Leo stared him down. "Really, Donnie? Fifteen hours?"
Donnie glared at his brother. "Don't talk like you have any idea what happened there. Until you ascend two states of being with someone, Leo, you don't have the right."
"So, you weren't having sex…?"
He made a number of choked-off syllables. "I am so done talking to you right now." He rose and stalked off in a fouler mood than before.
Figuring it would help him blow off some steam, he headed for the dojo to practice his kata. It did seem to help, a little bit anyway, to burn off some of the venom percolating through his system. His moves were powerful and accurate, fueled by channeled rage and frustration. He aimed a spin-jab at their training dummy, stabbing it with brutal force. He had every right to be upset, didn't he? With April all but guaranteed to leave him, and Leo nettling him about her so-called aggression. He struck the dummy again with the butt of his staff, and gave it a swinging kick for good measure. And then there was the fact that when April left, she would probably go right back to dating motherfucking Casey. He rammed the dummy with an over-powered jab to its face, coupled with a mighty, wrathful yell. The blow was so strong, the metal ring holding it up broke. The dummy was sent airborne across the dojo, landing with a flump. Donnie groaned; now he'd have to weld the ring back together. Could this day possibly get any shittier?!
April emerged from Splinter's study as Donatello was hanging the dummy back on its hook, ring restored. He felt instantly warmed by her smile. Finally… He sought to sink into her comforting mental embrace, opened the door between them and… felt it shut in his face. He blinked and tried again, but couldn't seem to make a connection with her. He looked querulously over at her. "Are you blocking me?!"
"Sorry, Donnie… it's just… Casey's going to be here soon, and you know… it'd be kind of rude of us to be in synergy again when he gets here. I think it weirds him out."
"April…" he started, visibly hurt by the sudden rejection just when he needed her to be receptive.
She opened a bit to him, giving him a mental caress. After the patrol, okay? Besides, I've got homework I need to get done. Then she shut him out again.
He gawped after her as she went to lay on the tire swing and read. He grumbled and dragged himself off to poke at something or other in his lab. "This day is so fired…"
x-x-x-x-x
Donatello sat on the steps. There was surprisingly little to do in his lab for the time being, and not enough time to start on anything else, and now he was just flat-out bored. Casey arrived, doing a hand-plant and swinging himself over the gates. " 'sup, Donnie?" he said cordially.
"Eh, ya know. Stuff," Donnie said downheartedly. "Oh, and, uh.. good job the other day with the fight and getting the mutagen and all."
"No prob. Hey, April!" he called to the turtle on the tire swing.
"One sec… almost done here," she hailed in return.
Donnie stared at her, head in his hand. He did his best not to sigh, but Casey picked up on his mood anyway. "Seriously, what's with you today?" he said lowly. "You look like someone ran over your cat."
He kept staring at April. Casey followed his gaze. "You'll take care of her, won't you, Jones? Once she's human again?"
" 'Course I will! Not that April needs taking care of… I mean, it's more like her pulling my ass out of the fire most of the time! …Don't tell her I said that. But what… " His brow furrowed and his eyes narrowed. "Are you giving up on her?!"
Donnie looked at him forlornly. "We don't have much time left together. If I can make her retro-mutagen with no complications, maybe a few weeks. Then she goes back to her normal life on the surface. I just want to be sure there's someone there to watch her back, ya know? Someone to be there for her, make her happy, keep her safe from the Kraang…"
"And why aren't you gonna be there for that?!" A shocked look came to his eyes, and he dropped his voice below a whisper. "You're not planning on…?!"
Don blinked. "Huh? OH. Nonono… I'll be around, just not… as close." He gave April another mournful but loving look. "She's a flower. She deserves a life in the sun. Not the sewer."
April closed her book at last and ambled over to join them. "So, what're you guys talking about?"
"Erm… uh…" started Donnie brilliantly.
"We were just talking about what I could do to improve Donnie's new shell-brand. My aunt got me a wood-burning kit for my birthday, thinks a new hobby will keep me out of trouble. Should work like a champ on turtle-shell. I figure a detail here and there, and I can make it look just like Splinter's house symbol, right? Totally hot." He held his hand out expectantly. "April, fan me."
"What?!" April snapped, utterly offended.
"What?!" Donnie echoed.
"Your fan, little miss genius; it has the design on it! I need to see it!"
April blushed a little beneath her green skin. "Ohhh. Right." She handed her tessen over to Casey.
Jones compared the burn mark on Donnie's shell and the Hamato Clan sigil. "Yep, just need to fill this bit in a little more, and draw in the points and half circles at the top… Maybe do the circle bordering it, but I don't know if it'll all fit… I need one of those circle-drawing things…"
"A compass?" April volunteered.
"No, compasses are for pointing direction. I need a thing to draw a circle with!"
"That's also called a compass, Casey, you dimwit!"
"Am I seriously considering letting you do this?" Donnie pondered. "How do I know you won't just screw it up? Or write 'Dorkatello' across my shell?"
Casey gave him a winning gapped grin. "Trust me. If school has been good for anything, it's given me plenty of time to doodle on my notebooks."
April backed him up. "This is true… granted, most of it is band logos and skulls and hockey gear…"
"I can line it out in pencil first. And April can watch and make sure I'm not screwing you up."
Donnie stopped to think it over. Shredder had already mistaken the scorch mark for the Hamato no kamon, it may as well actually be the crest in full. April would be supervising, and wouldn't approve of any nonsense on Jones's part. And of course, the mark would shed away after a while. He actually couldn't find any point to object to. "All right, you're on."
"Sweet! How's Saturday?"
Donnie looked to April. She nodded approval. "Saturday it is." He paused. "Should I be apprehensive at how eager you are do to this?"
Casey gave a chuckle. "I never turn down a chance to burn stuff." April rolled her eyes.
"Guys," Leo called, approaching the steps out, "patrol time. Get a move on!"
The three of them rose. Donnie snagged the mutagen detector from his lab and joined the rest of the group on the way out, catching up with Raph and Casey. "Nice cover," he whispered to Casey.
"I got your back, man. Besides, I was gonna bring it up anyway. Never miss a chance to burn stuff."
x-x-x-x-x
The group trekked east across the rooftops. Casey, though he was getting better at making roof-to-roof jumps, opted to stay on the ground and follow on his skates. Though Donnie had managed to make a map to predict the general area the mutagen containers had fallen on, given the flight path of the Kraang ship and the scatter plot of the containers they had found so far, the swath of city to be covered was still miles wide. Donnie insisted on working the margins inward, as this would provide less interference for his mutagen Geiger-counter. Leo had wanted to attack the bull's-eye of the targeted area first in hopes of picking up a greater quantity of the flasks faster, but he'd assented to the more logical, methodical approach in the end, as the confusion often netted them nothing but evenings of frustration.
On top of that, twice now, a blip they had been unable to pin down one night had simply gone off the radar the next. "Maybe it's just Donnie's hunk-of-junk tracker flipping out," Raph suggested.
"It's not the tracker… it's still picking up the radiation signatures just fine," Donnie replied. "Someone else could be picking them up."
Leo looked concerned. "Like who?"
"The Kraang?" Mikey guessed, but Donnie shook his head.
"The Kraang don't seem to care about the lost mutagen, and they're pretty free with it… they can just harvest more from the kraathatrogons. Plus, the more mutagen out there, the more potential mutations," Don explained, crossing the rooftop, looking only at the tracker. "It's this way…"
"Casey, hang a left at the next corner," Leo relayed over the phone.
"Left turn, check," the tinny voice on the other end copied.
"So… bored…" Mikey complained.
Raph chimed in, "I'm with Mikey. This is the worst scavenger hunt ever. Are we even getting close yet?"
The blips on the mutagen tracker increased their speed and pitch as Donnie approached the opposite side of the building. "Yes, matter of fact. There should be one right around here!"
"South side of the building; Donnie thinks he's got something," Leo directed Casey.
Casey turned the corner. It led to what looked like a lowly-trafficked side-street. He looked around, not spotting it immediately, but then seeing a slight greenish glow coming from the curb. He knelt and pulled the cylinder of mutagen out of the storm drain. He was about to notify Leo that he'd found it when an alarm sounded from a small grocery shop on the main street. Casey reached back and drew his hockey stick. "Well! Maybe tonight's gonna see some action after all!" He skidded around the corner, mutagen under his arm, in time to see something furry retreating around the following corner.
x-x-x-x-x
"What's he doing?!" Raph hollered, looking over the ledge.
April appeared next to him. "Casey, you idiot!"
"What is it?!" Leo ran up next to her.
"He just went chasing someone around the corner, carrying a container of mutagen!"
"And if it breaks, he'll be mutated!" Mikey reasoned.
"Let's—" Leo started, breaking off his order as a lanky, furred figure appeared on the roof two buildings ahead of them. It appeared to be carrying a number of bags, and judging by the green gleam in its eyes, it had spotted them. Surprisingly, it raised an arm in a greeting wave.
"Oh, no! We're too late!" Mikey fretted, but April interrupted his panic.
"No… that's not Casey!"
Raph shot her a look. "How can you tell?"
She pointed as the mutant put a foot up on the ledge of the building it stood on. "For one thing, Casey doesn't wear gum boots!"
"Come on," Leo yelled, launching his grappling hook at a billboard across the street.
x-x-x-x-x
a/n: This ended up being a super-long chapter, so I'm giving you guys a break and splitting it in half. ;p