Chapter 1: Malfunction
Donnie evaluates his desk, satisfied with his arranged set of parts, all tediously placed and polished. Ever since he finished his new line of research, he has been ecstatic to get started on schematics and assembly plans. He's certain that this discovery is worthy of the papers. Now, he is frantically poking around in his tool box.
"Nope, not that one. Already saw this one. Hmmm, where is it." He panicked and started moving faster, flinging tools about his laboratory as he grew more impatient. "Oh, here it is. That was close, couldn't build this puppy without my handy ¼ by 4 screwdriver."
His array of components are almost cleared as he nears the end of his line of work. "I'ma just pop this bad boy in here…and holy Galileo,"
He sits there for a moment, letting it sink in. "I'm… finished! HA!" He gets up and does a little happy dance as he struts out of his lab, apparatus in hand.
Donnie bolts for Leo's room, where he was sleeping after a long afternoon of training with Raph, and swings the door open. "Look what I just made!"
Leo is painfully annoyed at Donnie's abrupt entrance, but pays no mind as soon as he sees what he's holding in his hand. He sits up right and stares at the object. It appears to be an ordinary metal box with a mesmerizing chromatic finish.
"Yeahhh uh, what is that exactly?"
"None other than an interdimensional communication cube, and you, my friend, get to be the first person to witness its full glory. Even I haven't tested it." Donnie smirked at Leo.
"Are you sure that it's safe though?"
Donnie's smirk shifted into a scowl. "Gasp! Are you questioning my expertise? Have I not built my very own weaponry? Have I not made the most top of the line drill? Have I not built an entire tank!?"
Donnie abhors when anyone questions his skills and, more importantly, his intellect. On the other hand, Leo finds it quite amusing when his brother gets mad, especially when it's at him.
"Uhum, yes, all of which you have tested though," He gives a knowing sneer. "and need I remind you of what happened last time?"
Donnie's eyes fall to the floor, embarrassed. "Yeah, uh, we- we don't talk about that." He lets out a troubled sigh. "And yes, those were tested beforehand, but this invention in particular I wanted to test together."
Leo finds this rather odd, since Donnie rarely shows his brothers any of his contraptions before they are tested.
"Okay," Leo drawls, " so what exactly is it supposed to do?"
Donnie's heart leaps at the opportunity to showcase his device to his younger twin. "Well, I'm glad you asked, and in response I will give a detailed demonstration. You see, once I press this purple button on the side here, the box will begin to unfold. This allows it to read the frequency of the dimension we would like to communicate with and this here is an adjustable frequency meter to specify the desired dimension and coordinates of said person. As soon as I hit this red button in the center, we should be able to communicate with the person of choice." He gives a pleased grin after his lengthy explanation.
"Alright, I get it, can't we just start the inter something something thing already. I would really love to talk to other Leo to see if he is just as amazing as I am."
Donnie shoots him an infuriated glare.
"Yeah, I know, I'm pretty hard to beat in that department."
"You never take anything seriously." Donnie grumbles to himself as he grabs what he thought was his best invention yet, and storms out of Leo's room.
As he huffs his way to the lounge, he finds Mikey curled up on the couch, watching some Lou Jitsu action movies with their father, Splinter. Donnie's little brother, Mikey, has always been the sweet type. He even took the time to help restore Donnie's relationship with his robo son, Shelldon. If anyone loved his contraptions, it was him.
"Father, Mikey, do you mind pausing that for a sec? I just finished making something and I'm pretty proud of it." Donnie says, struggling to contain his excitement.
"Purple, don't you know that you can't pause live TV?" The scrungy rat looks at his son with disdain. He values his TV time, especially when Lou Jitsu was on.
"Yeah, can you move outta the way? We're almost to the best part!" Mikey whines as he shoos his older brother off to the side.
Donnie takes a deep breath and clenches his fist, forcing himself to succumb to his little brother's complaints and, in doing so, suppress his discontentment.
Shortly after leaving the living room, he decides that he needs to take a different approach. So, he strolls down to the training room, where Raph was with his sparring buddy, and presents his cube to him.
"Uh, Donnie? Are you sure that thing of yours is really safe for us to use?" Raph raises a brow.
"Why of course it's safe." He hesitates. "Why would I be showing it to you if it wasn't?"
"Well, I dunno, you don't look so sure." Raph looks at him with a worried expression, running scenarios in his head. He always has the team's best interest in mind, and this was no exception.
"Trust me Raph, this baby is perfectly fine."
"Have you tested it yet?"
"Well, not exactly, but I've double checked the mechanics and everything appears to be in working order so-"
"No, nobody is using this until it is 100% safe. Who knows what could go wrong?"
"But Raph, come on! This is a major breakthrough."
"No. Besides, what would we really need it for anyway? At what point would we need to communicate with a whole 'nother universe? I mean, not to be rude or anything Donnie, but don't ya think it's kinda, well I dunno," Raph pauses, trying to find the words. "useless to us?"
Donnie never thought he would hear his invention and the word useless used in the same context. Doesn't Raph understand how much this means to him? He spent days, months, building this thing, not to mention all the countless nights he spent brainstorming ideas and drawing schematics, all for it to be called useless?
Donnie's throat tightens as he feels the sting of tears behind his eyes. Inhaling a deep, shaky breath, he turns on his heel and walks out the door, retreating to his lab.
He slams the door and paces circles around his lab, brows furrowed in thought.
Is he really good for anything? Raph couldn't have meant what he said, right? Donnie huffs and shakes his head. Out of all his brothers, he thought that maybe Mikey would've wanted to see it in action. But instead he was shoved aside, irrelevant. And what about Leo? Does he really not care all that much about his gadgets? Donnie was kind of expecting him to think it was cool, hence why he went to him first, but maybe he was expecting too much.
Donnie closes his eyes for a moment, fighting the frustrated tears that threaten to spill as he thinks about his dad. Is his dad even proud of him at all? Never in his life has he heard his father say that he was. Not once. Most of the time, Splinter doesn't even remember his name.
His eyes scan his lab as he spins his chair around. Everything in this room means so much. He worked tirelessly on all of it.
The chair swings until his gaze falls on one prized piece of equipment: his techno staff. He gets up and grabs it, feeling its weight. But somehow, the more he holds it, the more powerless he feels.
How much does he really mean to the team? Most of what he did was strategy, but nobody ever follows his plans for most of the missions they go on anyways. He lets out a pained sigh.
In an attempt to cheer himself up, he clears his desk and sets his communication device down.
"I suppose I'll just have to test it myself."
His mind brims with excitement as he watches his creation unfold before him. Nothing made him happier than messing with his tech.
"Okay, lemme just set the frequencies, press the red button and-" To Donnie's surprise, nothing happens. He keeps pressing, tweaking, and banging on it, but nothing seems to work. "Aw, come ON." He hurls the cube and watches it fly across the room. "Stupid thing."
His heart sinks. His tech had failed. Maybe it was true, he really wasn't good for anything. Donnie buries his face in his hands and groans. However, his brooding was cut short as the device began glowing in a mysterious purple hue.
As he approaches the communicator, he begins to feel its pull. He was unsure of what it would do, but he wants to take that risk.
Donnie grabs his techno staff and inched closer. The pull is inescapable and before he knew it, he was spiraling down into some kind of vortex, stemming from unknown origin.