Chapter 21: Mutagen Man's Rampage.

Here's Chapter 21!

I went on a bit for this chapter XD there was just so much i wanted to add, that by the time i had written it all out, i realized how long this chp was! i was going to split it in two, but thought against it. So enjoy this longer chapter haha!

(ALSO! Are these chapters getting too long? please let me know! as they went from being about 11k words, to like 16k, 20k! and I don't want to write too much that it's hard for people to actually read it? :'3)

(Also, if it helps at all for uploading times, I'm in the GMT timezone!)

Now to the reviews:

ProfessorYeti: Thanks again for another really great review! I love reading them! ;v;

Mutant mayhem looks absolutely amazing!! You can really tell how Spider-verse has influenced animation these days and I'm not mad about it! And I love that they're actually voiced by teenagers haha!

Donnie's voice caught me off guard at first, but I sort of love how he sounds like his voice hasn't dropped yet xD

(Also thank u about the update thing, my app kept bugging out BIG time, but I think I've fixed it now! :D)

I'm really happy with how the flashbacks are coming along, and I've got some more cute, wholesome moments on the way! ;)

And I feel that Miwa would be someone to hold a grudge? Like in the actual show, she was pretty persistent on the fact that Leo had lied to her about their deal, and that she wouldn't forgive him? Plus, I think it adds more to her character's personality to have her be a little bit more judgemental?

I also feel like she would try and follow Leo's orders, even if she really didn't wanna. Because she knows that the role of leadership isn't exactly an easy one. So she tries to lighten the load for him, so to speak. Especially when you have Raph and the B team trying to ruin things XD

And as for Leo's train of thought, I feel like Leo would sort of hold a little more hope with Donnie in training, because he was obviously a well trained and obedient soldier. So Leo sorta holds out hope that he'd follow orders to a T and that, but just like Donnie in the show, Donnie doesn't always follow orders, and sometimes even challenges them. And specifically for this fic, I think it's because he's more used to being independent, and not part of a team. :')

And yeah! Tatsu is a bit more relevant in this fic, I found it interesting how Shredder had a second hand man in both America, (who was originally Karai, before Tigerclaw,) and japan to keep things in line! And obviously he was added into season 5 just for story and episode purposes, but like! It would of been cool to hear about him earlier, you know? Plus, a blind ninja?? That's dope dude! XDDD Well, hopefully nothing bad comes from having him in too early...

Ans Tigerclaw definitely knows what he's doing! He's been an assassin for like, 20 years! My man's got experience haha!

Leo is definitely a little defensive about his training to begin with, but he's definitely still learning that a good team is made of individuals and not copys :'3

And with the whole Donnie thing, I'm trying to write his PTSD as best I can! So thanks for any feedback! :)

And with Raph being totally knocked tf out lol, sure they're mutants, but they're not immortal! If a boxer was to get clocked around the face with pure metal solid three times, I'm pretty sure he'd been down for a while too! XD it's something I've always thought about when I'd rewatch the show nowadays, and something I want to properly explore in this fic. How the turtles and their human friends ACTUALLY get hurt sometimes.

And in regards to Mikey being the one getting captured, alternative universe, alternate paths. Something as simple as Mikey being behind the other's could have bad effects, or, even an added person in a usually four person team, could be bad luck... :)

And thank you again about the panic attack! (That sounded weird...xd) I'm glad it's came out good and that it's even caused you to feel overwhelmed with him! Like- :00

Mikey is definitely a pure ball of obliviousness, and I wanted that in this fic too. He just has this way about him of making friends with anyone! And always wanting to help and be therefore them is just- :''''3

And yes! The Hamato murders are finally mentioned! I hope it answers some of ur previous questions! And as too how? Well I hope this chapter helps lmao.

Donnie is a pacifist in the show, he may have a bit of an attitude and temper, but I don't feel as though he ever purposefully walks around looking for trouble like Raph does lol. Even his weapon is longer ranged, meaning he doesn't have to be all that physically into the fight, whereas Leo, Raph and Mikey all have close ranged weapons.

And I feel that's a big part of Donnie's personality. He just isn't a violent person! Like his first fight with the Hamatos, he didn't truly fight them, he just got them out of his way. The only reason Donnie has any violent thoughts or tendencies, is because of the Foot Clan! So I think that if Donnie was somehow involved with murder, it would almost definitely be a stab to his pacifist heart!

And yeah! I was thinking over how I'd do the confession, and part of me wanted to leave it til later? But I wanted it to be sooner rather then later? (I'm not sure if it was the best idea, but i think it'll all work out lmao!)

Casey is one of my favourite characters in the 2k12 series! I love that he's a teen too, and that he's just a chaotic hockey player with a need for justice! It's great XD so I hope I did him some justice back in this fic XD

Fungus humungous, oh yeah... that's gunna hurt :')

And Donnie meditating will come up again! His aura aswell! :3

And I love that you keep guessing when/ or even if, the village burning flashback will be! XD as the author it's so funny to see, but also really heartening that u care so much about this fic that u theorize things! So thank you again, gah!! ;0; it means so much!?!?

And I can't wait for your next review!! :3

This is based on the 2k12 series.

WARNING: 'Dyslexic Writer lol'.


Chapter 21

Donatello's mahogany eyes stayed downward on the sidewalk as he let out a long and exhausted sigh. The past few hours had done nothing but drain him until he was emotional and physically tired. And while the night had gone over better than he had initially expected, it was also not how he imagined it in the slightest.

At first, everyone in the dojo was silent. Unnervingly silent. He expected them to come at him almost instantly with anger, and hurt, but it never came...

Donnie looked over hesitantly to where Splinter was standing, once he had said the truth. Some part of him expected even the rat to have some form of anger, or even judgement on his face. But the comforting father figure Donnie had come to know, only showed him a soft, warm smile, that showed all the pride he had for his youngest child. And the wise words of his Master from earlier rang true in his mind. Once the words had left his mouth, the burden had lifted off his shoulders. It was as if a part of him felt lighter almost instantly!

The first to person in the room to physically react to the news, was of course the youngest mutant. As Michelangelo wasted no time in rushing over to Donnie and trapping him in a firm hug. He was absolutely ecstatic to find out that they were actually family, like really blood related! And spent no time standing around shocked like his siblings, before officially welcoming Donnie to the family, for a second time.

Miwa's reaction had come next, and was definitely not something he was expecting. As the older girl stayed with an astounded look on her face for a moment, before swiping quickly at a tear in her eye.

Many things started to become clear to her at that moment. The fact her and Donnie could do the blood transfusion, or her brother's awkward response to the mention of 'cousins', or even relatives in general. And even after all this time of knowing 'Donnie', she had always had this feeling that he was hiding a secret from when he was, 'Daiki', And now she knew why.

But the most important thing to her right now, was that she believed if Donnie had lived all these years without ever knowing he was a Hamato, then perhaps, there were more of them still out there. More people who were like him, and had no idea of their true heritage. Or maybe even a small collection of Hamatos that had managed to hide away, somewhere the Shredder, and even Daiki, couldn't find them.

It gave her a new found sense of hope, that her clan, and her family, were not truly all gone like she had feared only moments ago.

Raphael was harder to read, as usual, and stood by quietly for a while. As if he was going over the information he had just heard in his head slowly, trying to make his final decision.

However, it didn't take long before he came forwards and slapped Donnie around the back in a rough but joking manner, and with a smug smirk said, "Welcome to the family, cousin."

Donnie had frowned at the nickname, but ultimately smiled back in thankfulness to Raph. He knew emotions and 'feely' moments like these were not his scene, something the brunet could say they had in common, and just by a simple slap to the back and an accompanying smirk, Donnie knew that Raph had accepted his past, and held no judgements towards him.

And it was true.

Raphael wasn't too into the whole sciencey mumbo jumbo junk his brainy brother so passionately loved, but he knew enough to know about DNA and all that.

But to be honest, the hotheaded turtle didn't really give a crap if Donnie shared the same DNA, or blood or whatever! He could of been related to some random guy in Australia for all he care, and still, Donnie would of been Raph's brother.

Because for Raph, your family was made up of the people you were willing to give your life for to protect and keep safe.

And he had vowed to himself privately, the day Donnie lay in the infirmary with wires and bandages covering his body, that he was willing to protect him, and fight for him.

Leonardo was also relatively on the same boat as his sister. He was thrilled to find out that the Clan he spent his whole life trying to live up too wasn't completely destroyed by the Shredder.

However, Leonardo was a man- or turtle, of justice and honour. So, only when the leader was given all the facts and information, would he make his final decision. And as such, he was the first person to question Donnie.

He wanted to know how Donnie had found the other Hamatos, where he had found them, when he had found them. As well as many other immediate questions.

But the abrupt, and seemingly endless rain of questions was incredibly overwhelming. And before Donnie could ask for a different topic, or even try to pass over the questions in general, Splinter had decided to step in and inform his inquisitive oldest son that too many questions at once can bring more harm than good. And as Splinter's most loyal student, Leo was quick to apologise to Donnie and step back. This was something the brunet was incredibly thankful for, and even nodded his appreciation to the two mutants.

What Donnie did feel he was ready to explain to them, or more so Leo, was the night he found out.

How he had asked Saki for confirmation of his Parents deaths, or more specifically, he asked for details on what had actually occured that night. Mainly, because of his own curiosity, but he couldn't deny that the Hamatos each had a hand to play in helping him finally come around and see the truth.

From Michelangelo's kindness the first night they hung out after Murakami-San's, to Miwa's persuasion the night Bradford held Mikey captive with Stockman. From Raphael risking his own life, and even getting injured in the process of saving his own in the Kraang genome centre, and Leonardo's help escaping the maze of doom, as well as his stubborn conviction of his father's innocences.

All of this, mixed with his own deep denial he had been playing off, and that god awful feeling in himself everytime he was around Saki, was what lead him to finally question everything.

Donnie explained how Saki had told him the same thing as always, and dismissed him for the night in a rather unexpected way. And it only pushed him to dive deeper, as the feeling that something was wrong plagued his mind intensely.

As soon as he had left the throne room, Donnie had placed a Spy-Roach on the door, and watched as it scurried up the wall and into a hole, leading it straight into the room. Once he was certain his Spy was in place, he ran to a nearby room and hid, pulling out his phone which held the controls for the little robot, as well as the audio and video feed...

Needless to say, Donnie didn't have to continue, as the others knew that he had learnt right then and there, that not only had Saki lied and tricked him for over ten years, but his mother had also been a Hamato in hiding.

Even Splinter filled in for his sons and daughter on what he had learnt from the Shredder the night of the Technodrome invasion, explaining how he had learnt Donnie's true heritage, as well as his Mother's, who he hadn't known was a Hamato that went missing just before Miwa's birth.

A part of Donnie couldn't help but feel like Splinter was intentionally skipping over some parts...perhaps they were details the rat found too disturbing to share at this time, or maybe, they were details that Splinter himself, was still confused over...

With all that said and off his chest, Donatello had hoped that their interrogation would of ceased until at least morning practice, allowing him just a few hours of peace with his thoughts. But all throughout the night, the bombardment of questions continued. And for the anti-social teen, it was too much.

As the morning hours finally came to save him, Donnie made up an excuse on the spot for needing some air, and made for the exit. He saw the unsure and almost guilty looks in the other's eyes as he said this, and before they could volunteer to come with him, he mentioned going to the store for a few things, and left without another word.

And that was where Donnie now currently found himself, carrying two bags filled with groceries, walking down the street of New York. Mikey had texted him a list of things they needed minutes after he left, and Donnie felt obliged to actually go to the store for him now.

It was a relatively normal trip to the store and consisted of the usual items, Splinter's tea, eggs, rice, flour, ultra frosted super sugar chocolate chip cookie dough cereal, bread and milk. A normal shopping trip for Mikey. As well as a few other items, like cake mix and a few party streamers, ready for Mikey's 'surprise' next week.

In the early morning hours, hardly anyone was around, and even the normally overflowing streets were practically empty, save for a few random people here and there. But the young genius preferred that.

Donatello continued along the street with his eyes lowered for a few minutes, before deciding to turn down an alleyway nearby. His reasoning, was that he intended for this 'shortcut' to take him a little longer then his usual route to get home.

The darkly lit alleyway lead straight to a dead end, save for the manhole cover the brunet was about to use. This alleyway all in all, held no importance to it. Or so Donnie thought.

The young teen placed his bags down and scanned the street behind him for any people who may have happened upon him, before he decided the coast was clear, and reached down for the manhole cover.

Yet, it was at this very same second, that a metallic slam met his ears. Like something had just rammed into the dumpster in the far corner of the alley, stopping Donnie almost instantly in his task to lift the sewer cover. He lowered the heavy metal lid down quickly, and swiveled round to face the dumpster beside him. The large trash-filled object cast a dark, almost black, shadow into the corner, big enough for something to hide in. Or someone...

An unintelligible noise came from the depths of the dark, like metal groaning as it's durability was being tested. And what sounded like some sort of gargling was mixed within.

"Who's there!" Donnie called out, shooting to his feet on high alert, as well as raising a hand full of shurikens at the ready. His narrowed mahogany eyes focused completely on the corner.

Scrapping sounds rang out as an indiscernible shape among the shadows started to rise up, reflecting the morning suns glow off the top of what looked like a metal rim. The shadow grew and grew, larger and bigger in the most menacing way, until it appeared to be almost seven foot tall!

The huge object looked as though it was about to come at him charging, until it seemed to slip on something, or perhaps it just simply fell over, and a pathetic gargled sounding wail broke out, as the shape rolled out of the shade.

A large cylinder tank came rolling out in an unbearably slow track toward the brunet boy, completely unable to stop itself as it went, filled to the brim with a sickly looking green substance. As well as what looked to be a mouth, a brain, and many other organs. And eyes, that stared back at Donnie with an unintelligent stare.

It only took the human genius a second to recognise the pile of floating organs. "Timothy...?" He questioned in disbelief, not truly believing the sight in front of him.

The eyes in the jar, seemed to register his voice, or perhaps the name, and turned to face him. Even the detached mouth inside the slime seemed to wordlessly mouth something back. And that was all Donnie needed before he rushed forwards to the tank, knocking over the groceries he had just brought. "Tim!" He yelled, dropping down and stopping the jar in it's slow roll.

The teenager placed his hand on the glass with a sad frown, before leaning closer to the mutated remains of the once human boy. "Your alive!" Donnie exclaimed, before setting his brows in a more serious tone. "Don't worry, Timothy. I'll get you back to the lair, and fix this." He vowed, pulling out his T-phone with his other hand and dialing a number. "But I'll need a hand bringing you home first."

The line rang for a split second, before the worried, but relieved sound of Leonardo's voice answered. "Donnie!" The leader all but yelled into the speaker, before coughing casually to make himself sound more collected. "I-I mean, Don, hey! How's it going-"

"Leonardo, not now." Donnie interpreted with a sigh. He knew the others had been worried about him since he left, but right now there were more important things to deal with. "I need you to bring the Shellraiser to my location, asap!" Donnie then shared his location with the leader, waiting to hear the soft 'ding' from Leo's side of the phone, to let him know he had received the coordinates.

The phone ding, "Shellraiser?" Leo repeated in worry."Why? Are you in troub-" a loud thump was heard as Leo was shoved to the ground, and his phone snatched up by another. Donnie knew this was the case, as it was Raphael who answered next.

"Donnie, you ok?" Raph barked into the phone, making Donnie pull the device away from his ear for his own sake.

"I'm fine, guys!" He tried to reassure them, "But I found Timothy and-"

"THE PULVERIZER?!" A chorus of four voices yelled, telling Donnie that he was now on speaker.

"But that dude got like... Pulverised!" Mikey exclaimed.

The brunet slapped his forehead with a long exhale, glancing down to the mutant in the jar, licking at his hand from inside the glass. "Look, can you guys just bring the Shellraiser, please?" He asked tiredly.

The other side of the phone was quiet, apart from a few hushed whispers, before Leo answered, "No problem, Don. We'll be there in a bit. Hang tight."

TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT

After a troublesome ten minutes of hefting the enormous glass jar filled with mutant slime into the back of the Shellraiser, the teens were eventually sat at their designated stations, and on their way back to the lair.

"How on earth is that guy still alive?" Miwa questioned in pure disbelief, she tapped the jar and watched as the uncoordinated eyes floated to look at her finger. "I mean, we watched him blow up!"

"I'm telling you, dudes! He was attacking the giant canister thingy when we left!" Mikey explained for what felt like the 100th time, and gave the giant tank and good slap for good measure.

"Yeah, and got stuck in it by the looks of things." Miwa added, and glanced over to her brainy brother, who was currently connecting some sort of wire to the tank.

The wire lead back to a small screen at Donnie's station, which was used as a emergency heart monitor in case of accidents while out on patrol. And once the wire was somewhat secured to the jar, a steady heartbeat came through the screen.

From his seat in the front, Leo could sense his younger brother's worry from behind him, and with a slight cough he asked, "Has he said anything to you yet, Don? Or, is he able to?"

Donnie was quiet for a second while he rested his hand on the glass. "I spoke too him," He started with a sad exhale. "But, I'm not sure how much of what I said Timothy is actually able to retain. Or even how much of his old life he remembers..."

Watching the steady heartbeat with a dejected look, Donnie frowned, "To be honest, he seems to be nothing more then a barely sentient blob of slime at this point."

"But, thanks for getting here so quickly, guys." Donnie says quickly with a thankful smile, too fill in for the awkward atmosphere he felt he'd made.

"Don't worry about it, Don." Leo reassured. "It's the least we can do."

"Yeah, and we're letting you keep him," Raph added near the other side of the jar, while jabbing his thumb towards the gooey mutant. "But you gotta stash him in your lab so I don't have to look at him."

Donnie nodded, and turned a small smile down to the jar. "I'll turn him back to normal...eventually."

"Psstt! A mad scientist like you? He'll be human in no time, D." Mikey said without a worry in the world.

Donnie smirked, but didn't speak after that. He just watched as the mutant in the jar, scanned his new location with unsure eyes. The others also didn't say anything, but they could all see the hurt in Donnie's eyes, just by how he was watching his friend.

The genius got the feeling he was being stared at, and glanced up to see four sets of worried eyes, which all shot back to their own stations once they were discovered.

He could tell they were worried about him. He could also tell that they still had questions...

He knew that was to be expected, especially when you dropped a giant bombshell of information onto someone like he had. But the truth was, avoiding it was Donnie's way of dealing with it. Ignoring the small reminders as best he could, or just simply walking away when the topic was brought up, that was how he learned to cope with it.

He feared that if he truly allowed himself to dwell on the past, and his many mistakes he'd made along the way, it would break him...

But the Hamatos weren't like him. They needed their questions answered, or they'd never truly be able to move on, and begrudgingly, the brunet knew that.

He just so happened to catch Leo throwing a quick glance his way from the front of the drivers seat, confirming his theory, and sighed.

"I'm sorry I sorta, up and left earlier..." Donnie said while fidgeting his fingers together. "I-I find it easier to avoid things like this, then to speak about it-"

"It's alright, Donnie." Leo interpreted quietly, "This is a lot for you- For all of us, to process. We understand if maybe you just need some alone time."

"Just remember that we're here if you need to talk about it." Miwa added from his side, flashing him a understanding smile.

"Yeah. Don't try to bottle it all up, it's bad for yah." Raph comments in a surprising way.

Donnie nodded his understanding and with a reluctant sigh, he sat back in his seat. "You guys still have some questions then, I'm guessing?"

The other teens were hesitant, until Leonardo spoke up, "A few...?" He said with a guilty expression.

"Well, ask away I suppose." Donnie said.

"You sure?" Raph questioned while raising his eyebrow.

Donnie nodded again. "It's the least I could do after you guys helped me grab Timothy."

The oldest teens sat for a moment and thought. Thinking over what they were going to ask, and how.

"Apart from her name, do you know anything else about your mother?" Miwa suddenly asked, "You know, before she left the Clan?"

With a regretful expression, Donnie shook his head. "I don't."

"Do you at least know why she left?" Leo asked from the front.

"I'm guessing it was because of Saki killing Yuuta? But...I'm not sure..." Donnie mulled over in thought in his head, "Even now, I feel like there are somethings that just don't add up right..."

"Like what?" Miwa asked intrigued.

"Splinter told me that he only knew my mother as Hana?" Donnie explained, "So she must of left the Hamato clan before Saki found out his true heritage and went after Yuuta?"

"He did say that Hamato Emiko disappeared eighteen years ago?" Raph chirped in.

"But that was before Miwa was born?" Leo explained, now also in deep thought.

"So mother left and changed her identity well before Saki was even suspicious of Yuuta." Donnie concluded with a frown.

"Strange..." Miwa murmured. Her thoughts were racing on any and all possible reasons for Donnie's mother's sudden disappearance.

"How- How did you find them? The other Hamatos?" Leo asked unsurely.

Donnie smirked slightly and answered, "You'd be surprised at how easy it is to hack into government files, if you have the right skills and equipment, that is."

"Well, that's terrifying." Mikey declared in a scared way, and his siblings silently agreed with him.

"When Saki noticed that I had a 'thing' for computers, he wanted me to start helping him in his hunt-" Donnie stopped himself mid-sentence and stuttered, "I-I mean, his search, for the rest of the Hamatos."

"I managed to hack into the Official Japanese Government database, and from there, it was just a simple case of seeing when a sudden new resident would turn up in a town, or a random family would come almost out of thin air to the country side." He explained, before frowning in an uncomfortable way, "Then I'd either run their faces through an app to confirm their identity, or Saki would go to check in person..."

"I still can't believe that- that Gesu yarō! 'Asshole!' Actually made you track down your own family and blood!" Miwa sneered under her breath, clenching her fists against her armrest. If she wasn't totally convinced that her mother's murderer was the vilest piece of scum on this planet, then she was now. And deep down, a growing need to avenge her mother, and all her fallen Clan members, was beginning to boil...

Once Miwa had said her piece, the Shellraiser had an uncomfortable air inside it. With the teens all lost in their own thoughts as they continued homeward. It wasn't until they were about five minutes into said silence, that Mikey decided he had had enough of the gloomy mood.

He spun around on his chair, so his legs were beside the back rest, and pulled his head up above his headrest. Facing down Donnie with the most serious face he could muster. "What's... your favourite colour?"

All four of the other Hamatos slowly wheeled their heads around to face the youngest turtle, besides Leo, who was driving. But he too made sure to throw a confused look his brother's way every now and then.

"What?" Donnie asked, but at seeing how little Mikey's face had changed, and how the blue eyed turtle kept his full concentration on him, Donnie replied back uncertainly, "Um...purple?"

"Purple?" Raph scoffed, "That's a girl colou- Ow!?" He cried as Miwa backhanded him round the head.

"I think purple suits him," Mikey grinned back to his human brother, "Sensei once said that purple means that your mysterious and smart."

"So, why did you want to know?" Donnie asked curiously.

With a childish snicker, Mikey grinned like a Cheshire cat. "No reason..." he said, and slowly sank back down into his seat.

Donnie shook his head with a smile, and looked back down to his friend in the glass jar. He placed his hand on the glass and felt the slight warmth coming from inside. "Don't worry, I'll fix you, Timothy." He vowed quietly to the mutant, and looked back to the heart monitor to keep an eye on the mutants vitals. The genius was so caught up in his task, that he failed to notice the way the floating eyes seemed to be scanning him over, before scowling...

TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT

Once the Hamatos arrived back home, they began to carried the large tanker carefully into Donnie's lab. They tried to move quietly, as not to raise any suspicions from Splinter, who seemed to be in the kitchen. And it all pretty went smoothly, until they reached the stairs to the lab. That was when the tank slipped out of Mikey's hand, and slammed down onto Raph's toe.

A high pitched scream, as well as several obscenities blasted throughout the lair, as Raph dropped the jar and charged after his retreating orange-clad brother.

All while Miwa and Donnie struggled to carry the tank up the stairs, and Leo explained the situation to a very peeved off Splinter.

But eventually, the large tank was fixed to the lab wall, where Donnie could monitor Timothy's health and wellbeing, with the help of Metalhead.

And as Donnie scanned over the large tank, making sure everything was in place and working, his mahogany eyes landed on the floating ones in the jar. And he vowed to work even harder at finding a cure...

TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT

- Four days later -

Loud music blared from the television as a theme song, as well as the words 'SRMFF', appeared on screen, as an old 1940's anime began to play.

A flashing red light came onto one of the many screens on a spaceship, as a green haired girl in a pink jumpsuit walked over to it looking very concerned. "Oh, no! Super bad times for all!" Princess Zee cried.

"Does great danger arrive?" Captain Coolstar, a dark blue haired man in a blue jumpsuit called in alarm, though the obvious dubbing over the original Japanese words was hard to miss as he spoke. "Where?"

A younger man with ginger hair, glasses and a green jumpsuit opened up a screen beside him, showing three giant yellow robots with claws heading their way. "Kill-beast-bots from planet seven are here with steely resolve!" Dr Blip cried and ran to the man in blue. "Captain Coolstar, what are we going to do?"

The captain smacks him round the face, before grabbing his shoulders and shaking him uncontrollably. "Get a hold of yourself, man!" Coolstar yells.

A yellow space monkey whimpered in fear from it's position on top of the final members shoulder. A black haired man in a red jumpsuit, furrowed his brows in determination. "Don't worry, Squeakums. We'll blast 'em with mighty super robo mecha!" Lunk declared, and the monkey instantly perked up.

Now all five of the members sat in colour coordinated tubes with helmets on, "Team! Combine in teamwork mode!" Captain Coolstar ordered, and the five all fell down their tubes. Leading them to a giant mechanical robot. With each part of the robots body, being colour coordinated to match the tubes.

They all entered a different part of the Mecha and powered up their station, calling out, "Super! Robo! Mecha! Force! Five! Team! Five! Go!!" All whole the robot produced a sword made of light, and struck a heroic pose to finish.

"What the heck is this nonsense?" Raphael questioned with a scoff, peering over his younger brothers shoulder. "It's terrible!"

Mikey spun around on his knees to see all four of his siblings stood behind, all watching the TV. "Terribly awesome!" The freckled turtle defended with a cheesy grin.

"Mikey, where on earth did you find SRMFF tapes?" Donnie sighed in disappointment, recognising the anime. "This show was cancelled like, years ago!"

"SRMFF?" Miwa questioned with a teasing grin. "Sounds like someone is a secret fan?"

"Yeah. When I was like, eight." The brunet defended sourly.

"Well, your in luck dude! Coz I found a bunch of these old tapes in a dumpster. Check it out!" Mikey declared proudly, carrying a large crate filled to the brim with old tapes of discontinued and forgotten TV shows.

"Well, that explains it." Donnie smiled smugly, picking up one of the many tapes to inspect it closer.

"Dude, this is awful." Leo began to chastise. "And you guys complained about Space Heroes."

"Mikey, doesn't watch Space Heroes every waking hour of the day." Miwa stated with criticism.

"Their lips don't even match what they're saying!" Raph added with a scowl. "I could never watch a show this bad!"

- Five Minutes Later -

"There are too many of them, Captain!" Princess Zee's cries call out from the TV, as all five of the Hamatos teens sat on the floor, watching the show.

"So she's the princess of an entire planet?" Raph gasped in awe, "Cool!"

Mikey nodded frantically, "Yep! And she also pilots the robot's left leg. She rules! But that scientist dude made the robot!"

"I bet he was your favourite character?" Miwa teased her human brother while nudging him with her elbow.

"So what if he was." Donnie poited in response, but didn't deny. "Besides, the story has an intricate, layered plot. Four stars in my opinion."

"P-p-princess, I'd like to invite you For space dinner if you please, yes?" Dr Blip stuttered out with little confidence.

"What? I, date a weakling like you?" The princess barked in offence, "Not for 10,000 Zarkon crystals!"

The teens all laughed as dramatic music played, and the camera zoomed in on Dr Blip, who had a horrified look on his face as the princess left.

Mikey pointed at the screen and flashed a joking smile toward his younger brother. "Dude, that's just like you and April!" Mikey's siblings seemed to realise his error sooner then he did, as the freckled turtle turned to face Donnie with a grin, only to be faced with the brunet's hurt expression instead.

Donnie blinked away the hurt look, and narrowed his eyes at the orange-clad turtle, shooting up from the floor. "It is not!" He snapped, making Mikey recoil a bit in guilt, "This show is lame anyway. And the plot makes zero sense!" With that, Donnie turned on his heels and made his way out of the pit.

Leo sighed at his younger turtle brother, and made to get up aswell. "Donnie, wait, he didn't mean it-"

"I'll be in my lab." Donatello shot back, before slamming the door after himself.

Mikey sat with a guilty frown pulling at his usually cheerful expression, and faced Leo sadly. "You think he's angry at me?"

"What do you think?" Raph shot back, receiving a firm punch to his arm for his blunt rudeness from his sister.

"You know how hard he's taking the whole 'April' situation." Miwa reminded her oblivious brother.

"I know." Mikey said dejectedly. He knew how his brother was taking this all too heart, blaming himself day and night for everything that had happened. "I just- didn't think before I said it..."

"Nothing new there." Raph comments from behind him, making Mikey frown deeper, and his older siblings scowl his way.

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Mahogany eyes glanced sadly over a collection of photos on the lab wall. Pictures of him with each of his family members, as well as group photos. But as Donnie scanned them, he stopped next to a certain frame and took it down.

This picture was one of his favourites. As it was of him and April on their first study date. Both the teens were sat on a swing set in their park, with books of trigonometry in their hands, which Donnie had learnt was April's favourite subject.

But both teens also had a slight blush to their cheeks. That night was supposed to be the night that Donnie would ask April out officially. The genius had it all planned out perfectly, only it had been April to ultimately pop the question before Donnie even knew what had happened.

Not that he had been mad about it.

"What am I thinking?" Donnie sighed with a downcast demeanour. "She'll never forgive me... I messed everything up!" He placed the photo down on his desk, and clenched his fists angrily. "Because of me her father is now a mutant! A giant freaking bat-"

Donnie stopped himself mid-sentence and looked at the sentient jar of organs staring back at him.

The large tank filled with goo and organs was fixed against the wall of the lab, and was covered with wires and cables all leading to various machines, monitoring his heart and other vitals.

"Sorry, Timothy." The teen felt the need to apologise, placing a sympathetic hand on the jar. Timothy's mouth reached up, and began to lick aimlessly at his hand from within the glass, giving Donnie a hunch that he was hungry.

"It doesn't matter." Donnie sighed, grabbing hold of a fish food type bottle, and shaking mixed up bits of food into the jar for Timothy to slurp up. "April blames me for her dad's mutation." He walked around his desk and towards a cupboard, leaving the picture of him and April on the end of the table, in Timothy's line of sight.

"So I have to find an antidote. A retro-mutagen!" Donnie exclaimed with determination, and went back over to his desk. Placing down tubes and beakers full of mutagenic experiments. He also reached down into a locked drawer in his desk and pulled out a canister of mutagen. Completely unaware, that Timothy's eyes had also caught the green glow of the substance.

A small valve in the bottom of the jar opened up, and Timothy's long and stretchy mouth silently slide across the floor.

"And pretty soon you won't have to be a barely sentient glob of intestinal goo any longer." Donnie promised with a smile, "Now, let's see." He announced, and pulled out a pipette, dipping it into his newest version of Retro-mutagen, before adding a few drops to a small glass jar full of pure mutagen.

He waited a moment for something to happen, and just as he thought the test had failed, the green mutagen started to turn a light bluey-green colour, and froze instantaneously. Sending cracks up the glass jar until it shattered to pieces from the cold.

"Whoa!" Donnie yelped as bits of ice shards and glass flew at him, landing around his desk. "Frozen? Oh, great. Another batch lost!" He cursed, and slammed his fist against the desk, cutting his hand from all of the left over glass shards. "I swear, if it's the last thing I do, I'm gonna find a cure!"

Donatello got up from his desk, feeling more at blame then he ever did before, to correct his notes on his chalkboard. Leaving Timothy's sly and silent mouth to slither up along his table, and hover above the canister of half empty mutagen. Where without a moments thought, the blob of organs dunked his mouth in, and began to drink up the rest of what was left in the jar.

All while Donnie stood oblivious in the corner, too zoned into his work to even notice the sounds of slurping behind him.

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"Seriously, April. When are we going to hangout! It's almost been a whole month!" A short, girl called from beside the redhead, with a pout to match her whining tone.

"Sorry Irma, I've just been busy with some things..." April apologized with a small smile.

The two girls walked down the crowded hallways of their school, with books in hand from different subjects, as they headed towards the lockers. Once the two were there, April opened up the metal door and dropped off her many books inside. Looking at the ever growing pile of papers and books, she sighed at all the extra-credit she had to get done.

For the first three months, her genius boyfriend would of helped her keep all of this in check, since it was his idea in the first place. But a good one, since she had missed alot of schoolwork when she had to go into hideout in the sewers for a few weeks. But since their falling out, April hated to admit that she had been slipping behind on her work.

But that was how her life was now.

She had cut Donnie, and all the other Hamatos completely off from her life after the...situation, leaving her practically on her own. She moved in with her aunt once again, but the older woman was a full time nurse, so she wasn't really there a great deal of the time. Not to even mention being an option for studying help. And it wasn't as if she could go to her father for help...

However, in the dark that seemed to follow in the past month, April did manage to become friends with the new girl in her Maths class. She had transferred here just a few months ago, and the two girls were quick to form a close friendship.

The girl was slightly shorter then the redhead, and was named Irma. She had thick red glasses and lavender lipstick, and a short black bob hairstyle with a few purple streaks. The girl's overall appearance was very gothic, consisting of a black tank top with a white broken glass effect logo printed on, another tank top underneath that, that was pink with red stripes, a blue and black checkered pattern skirt, large boots that went up to her calves and high black socks underneath. As well as multiple bracelets and hair ties around her wrists.

"You mean, you've been busy with that boyfriend of yours?" Irma inquired teasingly, using her finger to push her large glasses back up her nose. "I met him once, and never again. Something tells me your trying to hide him from me?" She joked with a cunning smile.

"Oh, me and him aren't exactly...a thing anymore." April replied in a murmur.

The goth girl gave her a sour look, and placed her hands against her hips. "So your sad over a boy?"

"No, I just- it's complicated-" The redhead tried to move the conversation elsewhere. She sighed, and flashed a quick smile her friends way. "You know what? I could do with a night out, actually."

"Finally!" Irma cried, before turning a accusing finger to April. "You owe me a movie! Friday!"

"Sure thing, Irma." April nodded with a grin. And with that, Irma smirked in success, and made her way happily down the hallway, and round the corner.

April turned to face her locker, and practically buried her head inside the metal box. "Ok, April, This is it a new start." She began to whisper to herself. "Just pretend you're a normal girl. Don't talk about alien-robots or mutant dads, and don't even think about turtles and ninjas- Whoa!"

With no warning what so ever, April's legs were suddenly struck by a fast moving object, knocking her to the floor with a yelp. And as the redhead blinked away the stars above her, a hockey puck rolled to a stop near her head.

"Ugh! Are you serious?" She asked in exasperation to the boy now stood above her, with a wooden hockey stick in hand.

Painfully, April got up from the floor, and dusted herself off with a scowl. Before throwing a death glare sideways.

She came to realise that the boy was actually alot taller than herself once she was fully upright again, maybe even taller then Leo and Donnie. Which also lead her to presume that he wouldn't of reached Master Splinter's height, as not many did.

The taller teen had black, medium-length hair, with a black bandanna tied around his forehead. He had dark brown eyes and was also missing his two front teeth, leaving a large gap in his smile.

His outfit consisted of a messy and ripped maroon shirt that reached his elbows, with a short-sleeved gray shirt above it, and a sleeveless black hoodie over top of all that. Grayish-blue jeans covered in spray paint, with a large array of keys hanging out his back pocket, black fingerless gloves that stopped at his wrists, and black and white sneakers.

"Nice job stopping my puck like that." The black haired teen said with a cocky, and slightly Brooklyn accent. Whilst moving to her side to reclaim his puck. "You got some moves, Red."

"Umm, you could start with 'Sorry'?" April said without as much of a hint of amusement on her face.

"'Sorry' you got in the way." The teen shrugged, pushing his puck around as he circled her. "What were you doing blocking the hallway like that anyway?"

April's eyes went wide from the pure audacity of this guy, "Blocking the-!" She scoffs in a frustrated manner. "Exactly who do you think you are?"

"You signed up for extra cred, right?" The boy said while leaning against his hockey stick. "Well, rejoice, 'cause I'm the guy you're gonna tutor."

April mentally cursed the fact that Donnie had convinced her to sign up to extra credit yet again, before turning her eyes away with a scowl and answering back with a sarcastic, "Great."

As if this boy had sensed her strong disinclination to tutor him, his features turned serious, and almost a little desperate. "Look, if I don't pass trig, they'll kick me off the hockey team. Nobody else wants to tutor me." He sat for a moment tapping his stick, before turning back with a smug grin. "They're all intimidated by my supreme awesomeness."

April looked almost disgusted at his comment. "So this is you asking me for help?" She rolled her eyes, "Charming." With her sarcasm out of the way, she went to leave it at that. But the taller boy leaned heavily against his stick with a kick-puppy look in his eyes, and fixed his gazed completely on her until she budged.

"Fine." She reluctantly agreed, "Meet me at the park at seven. Don't be late!"

The bandanna wearing teen backed off with a victorious grin, "It's a date, then. Nice." He then swatted his puck straight down the hallway where it hit not only a water fountain, but an unsuspecting teen as well. He cringed for a moment, before shrugging it off.

The redhead, on the other hand, straightened her reluctant look to an offended one in a flash, "Hey, I have a boyfr-" but she was quick to realise her mistake. "nevermind..." She muttered, and shook her head to clear the invading thoughts. "S-so what's your name anyway?" She asked as the teen started to strut down the hall with his stick wrapped under his arms.

The black haired teen wheeled around with a wink, and a gap-toothed smirk. "Casey Jones."

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"B-b-b-booyakasha!" Michelangelo's shout could be heard from miles away, as the turtle skated across the rooftops. He used a glass skylight as a rail to skid down the current roof he was on, until he stops his board abruptly with an amazed gasp.

"Whoa..." he breathes in awe, as a seemingly discarded pizza box with a single slice sat along the edge of the building. His baby blue eyes scanned around the roof. "Hello? This slice belong to anyone?" He asks with growing anticipation.

When no immediate reply came, he narrowed his eyes and slowly scooted forwards on his board. "Ha! Then it's all mine!" Mikey cheered, completely unaware of the new pair of eyes perched atop the glass skylight. Or the shadowy figure that bolted up the water tower once he had passed.

Mikey's three-fingered hand reached slowly down into the box, before his head snapped sharply round with a glare. He scanned the area again, getting the feeling he wasn't truly alone on the rooftop, and ever so slowly brought the pizza slice toward his mouth.

"Ow!" Mikey cried as Leonardo suddenly appeared out of the darkness, and swerved his hilt into the smaller turtle's plastron, sending him to the floor. All while the leader stood above him eating his recently claimed pizza slice. "What the heck was that?" Mikey snapped with irritation.

The leader finished off the slice and sheathed his katana back behind him. "That, was a stealth attack!" He said smugly, as Miwa appeared beside him a moment later, "And that's what we're practicing in today's training session."

"No fair! I couldn't see you coming!" Mikey whined as he took Leo's offered hand to help him up.

Close to him on the ledge, Raphael scoffed at his little brother, 'That's why they call it 'stealth', genius!"

"Why would you eat random pizza you found on a roof anyway?" Donnie pointed out from his position leaning against the water tower.

"Roof pizza is, like, one of my ten favorite kinds of pizza!" Mikey said with a dreamy expression.

"Okay, guys, listen up!" Leo ordered as the four others payed attention. "There's two keys to stealth: Misdirection and camouflage. Got it?"

Three of the teens nodded back, while Mikey pouted and Leo smirked at him. "Good. Raph and Mikey, you guys are up."

"Ehh, I don't wanna do this anymore, Do you, Raph?" Mikey moaned with crossed arms, but as he looked to the spot his red-clad brother had just occupied, it was now empty. "Raph?" He called again, now noticing that all the others had vanished aswell.

Mikey frowned slightly and looked around the rooftop, until his skateboard knocked gently against his shin, making him bend down to grab it.

It was then that Raph silently suck up from behind him and grabbed the sides of his shell, holding the young mutant up. "Shell wedgie!" He laughed evilly.

Mikey screamed like a young girl who had just found a bug in her room, as his shell was tugged upwards, with him kicking and punching the air. "Ow! Ugh! No fair! Stealth attacks are lame!" He cried through his struggles.

From up above, Donnie watched Mikey and Raph's antics with a smirk, however, his good mood didn't last long. As the brunet's thoughts soon turned sour, he jumped down from the water tower and strolled away to the other side of the building, hidden from the others by the roofs shed. He leant against the wall with a sigh, and almost instantly picked up on the sound of someone coming up behind him.

He expected it to be the leader in blue, ready to chastise him for walkin away while in the middle of training.

So when Miwa came round the corner, standing beside him with her arms crossed, he was a little more surprised, but stayed ready to receive her complaints instead.

But her expression was far from annoyed, as the older girl's features held only sympathy. "You doing good, D?"

He automatically nodded back to her, and answered with, "I'm fine-" But the kunoichi's abrupt glare his way, quickly had him changing his answer. "I-i've been better." He admitted with a tense exhale.

Miwa allowed herself a split second of inner victory for finally getting her brainy brother to open up, before getting back on track with her interrogation. "You've been locked away in your lab for hours, D." She pointed out with worry. "And it normally doesn't take Mikey more then fifteen minutes to convince you to leave the lair, either."

"I know..." Donnie muttered shamefully. "I just- really feel like I should be concentrating on the cure. Anything else at this point is just a distraction."

Miwa sighed sadly at her workaholic brother, knowing too well, that Donnie was too fixated on this to let it go that easily. "Maybe you should try and take your mind off of science for a while? Relax a little bit?" She suggested with a shrug.

"How can I?" Donnie shot back and stood up straight again, where he began pacing back and forth. "I have to make this retro-mutagen. I messed up Timothy's life, I ruined April's life-"

"You didn't do anything, Don. And you certainly don't owe anyone anything." Miwa snapped quickly and grabbed her younger brother by his arm to stop his pacing. She then softened her gaze. "Stop trying to take all of the blame onto yourself, Otōto. It's all of our faults that Timothy and Kirby got mutated, not yours alone. So stop trying to carry this weight by yourself." She pleaded to him, knowing that if one of her brothers could of been spared the weight of responsibility, she would gladly share it.

Donatello looked away from her sadly with a blameworthy frown, "I just miss how things were... Like how it was those past three months, and I feel like it's my fault that everything changed."

He leant heavily against the shed with a sad smile. "Like how April and I would study together in the park to catch up on her work." He reminisced to himself, "And how we'd come back home with pizza, to you four all trying to rip each others throats out."

Miwa chuckled, and went to sit on the ledge, sharing a smug smirk. "That does sound like our family." She agreed. "But, you didn't change anything, Donnie."

"Things just change on their own, and sometimes there's nothing you can do or say to about it. It just happens." Miwa stated with a understanding tone, "But you shouldn't let it define your choices you make."

Donnie took in her words, and knew she was speaking the truth, "Maybe your right." He admitted to himself, and with a drawn out exhale, he stood back up, and looked over the ledge one last time before leaving, "I just-!"

"Okay. Show me how you solve for 'x'." The familiar voice rang bittersweet in Donnie's ears, and the young ninja was quick to duck down. Joined seconds later by his sister.

The voice was undeniable, it belonged to their once redheaded friend, and echoed from down below. Miwa and Donnie poked their heads up from the ledge and glanced downwards a rarely used park. Where April and an unfamiliar teenaged boy sat on the swing set.

"You just dig, right?" Casey answered back with little to no interest in the subject. Swinging back and forth in his seat with a dull expression. "'Cause 'x' marks the spot."

That was, before April grabbed hold of his swing's rope and pulled it to a stop. Where she held the hockey players forgotten trigonometry book in front of his face. "Have you ever opened this book?" She asked in frustration. But at his lack of words she throw the book down in a huff, and reclaimed her seat on the swing. Part of her was really missing her old genius boyfriend, who'd willingly sit for hours and listen to her talk about trig.

Casey sighed, and sat upright to face her. "School isn't really my thing." He confessed, "When I graduate, I'm becoming either a pro hockey player or an international bounty hunter."

"Those are quite the options." April replied in an unimpressed manner.

Casey looked back over to her smugly, "Who wants a normal life anyway, right?" He asked, but he didn't expect the red haired girl to suddenly look disheartened by his comment.

Inside Casey's head, he had this idea that the bookworm April O'Neil, was nothing more then another goody two shoes trying to get ahead in life. But really, he felt that perhaps she was more then just another try hard nerd.

She seemed more complex then he had originally imagined, giving off the impression of having an attitude and a temper to match, which Casey didn't mind at all. And to top it all off, she was pretty. With her big blue eyes, freckled complexion and silky ginger hair. And he did always have a thing for redheads.

Plus, she said she was recently single...

So with a smirk, he moved his hand closer to her face were a faint pencil mark was left on her freckled cheek. "Hold still, Red. You got a smudge on your face." And at the same time Casey's hand had moved further towards April's cheek, an unseen teenager watching them from above felt his chest twist inside in an awful way.

Donnie got up from his crouched position and rested his hands on the concrete ledge. "S-she's on a date?" He asked in pure disbelief.

Miwa took another hard look at the messy boy beside April, and after a furrow scan, she knew immediately from the redheads many, many, MANY, 'girl talks' that she had tried to force Miwa into, that he wasn't exactly her type.

April's type being nerds and geeks, not jocks and sportsmen. She throw a highly sceptical look back at Donnie to confirm this, "Umm, looks more like a 'study' date, then an actual date-"

"I can't believe it!" The brunet interpreted with a huff, throwing his hands down towards the two teens below. "She's going out with some punk hockey player!"

"Don, I think your overreacting a bit?" Miwa chuckled at her frantic brother. If she had known he was the jealous sort of type, she would of teased him long ago, back when him and April were still dating.

"What are they saying?" Donnie muttered and leant dangerous over the ledge of the building.

However, it was only Miwa who could see his fatal error as the teen leant forwards, "Donnie! Don't!-" She tried to reach for him, but his hood slipped through her fingers as the younger teen's hands slide off the ledge, sending him falling off the roof.

"Whoa?!" Donnie screamed for a moment as he entered his face-first free fall straight towards the ground, but fortunately, or rather, unfortunately, his decent was stopped by an opened dumpster down below. Which the teen crashed into, with the lid closing down on top of him. Startling the two teens in the park to the sudden noise.

"Huh? What was that?" April jumped, and scanned the area suspiciously. She had a feeling she was being watched, and looked above to the rooftops. But Miwa had ducked just in time to avoid her sight, leaving April turn back to Casey who just seemed to shrug it off.

Both teenagers in the park were oblivious to the dumpster lid slithering open just a crack, as peeved mahogany eyes peered back out. "Saiaku da! 'This sucks!'" Donnie murmured angrily, before breathing in and gagging at the awful smell surrounding him, before having to quickly close the lid again to hid from the two teens looking his way, and endure the horrible and humiliating smell.

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After a lengthy shower to remove the smell of New York's finest garbage collection and a two hour scrubbing of his shozoku, Donnie made his way back to the living area where the others were currently watching SRMFF. Again. With Mikey and Leo occupying the floor in front of the TV, Raph in his bean bag, and Miwa on the couch.

Donatello unconsciously began to pace around the edge of the pit, mumbling to himself and slowly beginning to tick off his siblings.

The others would occasionally throw a glance his way, or in Raph's case, just growl and hope he shut up eventually. But it was the leader who spoke first.

"Donnie, no one knows what your saying if you mumble." Leo interpreted his youngest brothers quiet rant with a hint of contained frustration.

"They were studying together, at our park!" Donnie scoffed aloud, throwing his hands in the air frantically. "That was our thing! And she looked at him- She gave him that look! Like this." He then cup his chin with one hand and flashed his best 'cute eyes' to the others, before dropping it with a scowl.

"Somebody's jealous~" Mikey sang as he rocked on his shell.

The brunet stopped his pacing and blushed with a dopey frown. "I am not jealous of some puck-for-brains hockey loving punk!"

"If your not jealous, then why is this bothering you so much?" Leo questioned with a sly smirk.

"It's not!" Don snapped back, "I just- I don't know why April would be with a guy like him?"

"Even if she was, which she isn't." Miwa stated, "It's not up to you, Donnie."

"I know, I know." Donatello sighed back, running a stressed hand through his hair. "She's her own person, and I need to respect if she's moved on." He said quite wisely, before crossing his arms and muttering, "Even if it's only been a month."

"Donnie, would you relax! Your stressing me out!" Raph barked in irritation.

"Ok, I'm calm!" Donnie exclaimed and took a seat on the couch beside Miwa. Silently counting to four on his fingers.

"Why don't you do something to take your mind off April, Bro?" Mikey suggests happily and waves a full box of popcorn which was in his lap, around in an enticing way. "Like, chill and watch a movie with your favourite brother?"

"Anything that isn't worrying over April, or Retro-mutagen." Miwa added in a serious tone.

"Fine, I will take a break." Donnie sighed with emphasis on the 'break'.

The others exhaled in victory, and Leo smiled in relief to his younger brother. "Thank you-"

"Timothy's voice box needed some fine tuning anyway." Donnie announced with new found interest and left to the lab almost instantly.

"Is he serious?" Raph snorted out a shocked laugh. "Does he ever do anything other than smash stuff in the lab?"

"It's his way of coping, Raph. We know that." Leo defended with a scowl his red-clad brothers way. "I think we should just leave him be, to get this out of his system."

Miwa nodded slowly, "Yeah, the last few days have been stressful to say the least." She commented, and at that, her brothers could all regrettably agree.

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"I'm almost done with your voice box, Timothy." Donatello called over from his spot at the desk, using a magnifying glass, which Metalhead was helpfully holding, to help see the smaller and more trickier wires to connect. "Then you'll actually be able to have a conversation again."

"And you can ask me for things you want?" He added with a smile and nodded his thanks to his robot companion, sending him away. "Then we can make your stay here more comfortable while I'm making the retro-mutagen."

Once the wires were connected inside the device, he closed it back up, and screwed it shut to prevent any internal damage. But as Donnie held the box shaped device, he frown slightly. "Will this even work?" He wondered momentarily, and got up from his desk.

He bent down beside Timothy, grabbing a few larger cables from the bottom of the tank to connect the voice box. "I don't even know how much of your humanity is left in there..." Donnie said regretfully, placing a hand on the glass. "But, it's worth a try."

Metalhead gave him an approving thumbs up, which Donnie nodded back too. He then snapped the plug of the large cable into the box, and attached the device just below the glass of the tank. "How's that, Tim?" The brunet asked with hope.

Timothy's mouth moved, and the device seemed to crackle to life for a split second, before a radio static type voice broke through, "S-speaking t-to you, Don-nieee?"

Donatello's face lite up in amazement, "Haha, it works!!" He began to laugh, "I can't believe it!"

The pile of organs seemed to watch as the teen celebrated, before side eyeing the desk near him. "I Like Ap-ril, Don-nieee."

Donatello's happy mood stopped as he blinked in confusion.

He had only mentioned April to Timothy a handful of times over the past couple of days. So the fact that was the second thing he asked, completely out of the blue, was certainly strange.

But as Donnie turned to follow the jars eye line, he found himself staring at the photo of him and April at the park. And realized that Timothy was probably on about the picture and shrugged it off.

"You and me both, Tim." Don sighed in agreeance as he picked up the photo.

The eyes seemed to float upwards in the tank to try and peer round Donnie's shoulder to see the photograph. "I see he-r?" The slime asked in a curious way.

"I'm afraid not, buddy." Donnie says dejectedly, placing the photo back on the desk. "I think I just have to face it. She'll never wanna be friends again..."

"April...friend?" Timothy said whilst staring aimlessly at the picture.

"Yes...but, she's a hurt friend." The brunet nodded, and went back to his desk. Where he began to bring out a new canister of mutagen and beakers. Metalhead noticed this seemed to shake his head with a series of tired sounding clicks, before moving to a corner to busy himself with cleaning.

Donnie knew the others didn't want him working on retro-mutagen right now, but he didn't want to waste anymore time avoiding it. "Now then, let's get back to work-" But the doors to the lab opening up caught him by surprise. And the teen was quick to stand up and use his back to cover up the equipment. Mainly, because he thought it was Leonardo, once again coming to check on him for dinner, but instead it was Splinter who walked in.

The rat took a few steps in and smiled at his youngest son failing miserably to hide his experiment. "Donatello, my son. I would like to speak with you." He asks, while suppressing a chuckle.

And Donnie was quick to respond back. "Yeah, sure, Master Splinter." He answers and slaps his forehead for how rushed his response was, before glancing back to the jar for a moment. "I'll be back in a minute, Timothy." He calls and closes the doors behind him.

However, with the genius teen out of the room, and the robot occupant distracted, Timothy's mouth decided to slither out the bottom of the tanker again and wrap itself around the canister. His mouth opened the seal and began to slurp down the mutagen like an energy drink.

His mouth then began to retreat back to his warping and changing body, but not before wiping itself on the photograph of April.

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Splinter stood with his gaze fixed on his youngest student, who bowed once he felt his Sensei was ready.

Splinter hummed and then spoke in a very calm manner. "Today, I will teach you to enjoy falling down."

Donnie's head shot up, raising a brow in confusion. "Huh? Why would I ever- Whoa!!" He yelped as his legs were suddenly swept out from under him, landing hard on his back.

The brunet lay dazed for a moment as Splinter's shadow came to stand above him. "Did you enjoy that?" The rat asked.

Donnie was now completely bewildered by the rat, not understanding this training in the slightest. He got to his feet and shook his head, "No!" He said as if it was obvious.

"Then let's keep trying." Splinter replied patiently, and turned in a second to face the teen once more.

Donnie decided it was probably best to just go with it, and prepared himself for Splinter's attack once more. But he was yet again knocked down. And again, and again, and again. Until he could physically feel his brain pounding in his skull.

The mahogany eyed teen sat back up again and rubbed his head, before taking Splinter's extended arm reaching to help him up.

"Hm. Do you like it yet?" Splinter asked once more.

But this only ticked Donnie off more. "No, Sensei! Not at all!" He snapped back in irritation.

"Hmm." Splinter hummed, and began to stroke his beard. "Then perhaps one cannot make someone like something."

With a scoff, Donnie turned to the large rat with a glare. "Of course not! No one wants to be-"

It was now, that Splinter's lesson became clear to the angry teen. Who began to recoil slightly in embarrassment at his outburst moments ago. "Oh, I get it." He states, rubbing his neck. "You're talking about me and April, aren't you?"

Splinter watched his nervous son and sighed sympathetically. "My son, you have proven yourself time and again to be someone who is very intellectual. But I have noticed that the obvious sometimes often eludes you."

Somewhat offended by this comment, Donnie raised a brow at his Sensei. "What do you mean?"

"You like to focus on the harder and more complex parts of a problem, rather than the simple and easier parts." Splinter informed him.

"What does that have to do with April." Donnie frowned in thought.

"You feel that if you fix all of the problems caused by the mutagen, it will bring April back to us." The rat explains, " But she will come back when she is ready, in her own time. Not when you want her too, my son."

Crashing sounded from the far side of the lair, stopping Donnie and Splinter's conversation abruptly.

"What was that?" Splinter asked cautiously. His ears perked up, to try and scan for the cause of the noise.

"It sounded like it came from my lab?" Donnie said in realization, and the two quickly took off, arriving in the lab to see bricks and dust covering a good amount of the floor. As well as a giant hole in the wall where the tank of mutant goo once stayed.

Donnie gasped at the massive hole now smack bang in the middle of his wall. "Timothy! He's gone!"

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New York city was unusually quiet on this particular night, as couples sat outside to drink coffee together and hotdog stands got some late night customers. Even a local newsagent restocked his papers now that the afternoon rush hour was over.

Yet in spite of all that, the calm atmosphere was about to be disrupted. As a loud clanging sound rang out in the streets, stopping the people in their tracks.

As a giant tank of green slime and organs stumbled it's way into the middle of the street. Timothy's new arms and legs made from a hardened version of his own gooey body, carried him clumsily in front of a black car, which screeched to a halt in horror.

Timothy clenched his giant fists and shouted. "Wher-rre i-sss April O'Neil?"

The people wasted no time before starting to run away from him screaming, and the jar of organs grew angrier as he then had to chase them down.

Timothy got himself to the sidewalk and began to march after a few people, who tripped and fell over each other to get away from the raging mutant. And one poor man was unfortunately too late in getting back up, as the giant slimy hands grabbed him around the waist and hoisted him closer to his glass body.

Detached eyes floated down the jar to glare at the scared man, as Timothy's other hand held out the picture of April and Donnie. "Hu-man, help f-find Aprilll!" But the terrified man fainted in his hand, causing the mutant to growl and shake him viciously.

Police cars started to flood the streets behind him, as two cops got out and stared ahead in shock. "What- What is it, Jim?" One cop cried to his partner.

The cop, named Jim, pulled off his glasses and sneered at the monster before him. "Some kinda granola-crunchin' hippy, Bill!"

It didn't take long before both cops had turned their guns towards the mutant. "Get on your knees and put your hands on your...Jar!" Jim yelled out.

Timothy stopped shaking the man and threw his unconscious form to the floor, before starting to clumsily waddle over to the cops with the picture in hand. "Po-lice, Help find Aprilll!" He shouted.

"Stop where you are, whatever you are!" Jim bellowed before slamming his baton into Timothy's glass tank, scaring the mutant back a bit. But the assault on the confused mutant only continued as Bill joined in with his partner, ramming their batons into Timothy repeatedly, until one of them hit the photograph right out of his hands.

The photo frame smashed on the ground, and Timothy roared at the policemen. Grabbing hold of their batons and melting them with his fists. "Stu-pid humans! Hurt meee?" He growls and punches Jim right in the chest, sending him flying towards their cars. "Go away!" Timothy yells and slams Bill in the gut, knocking him into the windscreen of his car.

The two men got back up to see the mutant running down the street with his arms up, still roaring and shouting to itself. "Ugh... So what'll I tell dispatch?" Bill asked his partner in disbelief. "A bottle of goo with arms and legs on the loose?"

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Stood gaping at the massive hole in his lab's wall, Donnie only just registered Metalhead coming up to him from behind with a series of beeps.

"Yep, it's a mess, Metalhead." Donnie confirmed while looking over the damage. It was safe to say, that the wall was most definitely going to take a while to fix...

"Donnie? Sensei?" Mikey questioned from the doorway of the lab, clearly coming to investigate the loud crashing sound. "Whoa, dudes..." he gasped out, only to get shoved aside by Raph, who now stood over him.

"What happened?" Leonardo called, knocking into Raph on purpose with a smirk.

"Are you guys okay?" Miwa asked, glaring at her idiot brothers as she rounded them, before stopping near her father.

"Timothy somehow escaped!" Donnie exclaimed with increasing worry.

"How?" Mikey asked intrigued, scratching his head over this mystery. "He has no arms or legs? Oh! Do you think he rolled away?"

Miwa sighed, shaking her head and gesturing to the hole. "He was attached to the wall, Mikey. I don't think he just got up and 'rolled away'."

"Actually..." Donnie says fearfully, "I think he did."

The others turn to see him holding a empty mutagen canister, with a look of shock on his face.

"Please tell me that was empty before..." Raph groaned in annoyance.

Donnie shook his head and turned back to his desk, noticing something else was missing... He couldn't quite put his finger on it, and scanned over his desk again and again, until he figured it out. Though he wished he hadn't.

"I think...he went after April." The brunet continued, realising that the photograph was nowhere in sight.

"What?" The others gasped.

"Come on, I'll fill you guys in on the way." Donnie said in a hurry, and made his way for the exit. "Oh!" He quickly said, and swirled round again to face his Robot. "Metalhead, could you clean up the place a little while I'm gone?"

The little turtle-bot stopped scanning the damage and started to bleep at Donnie a mile a minute while pointing accusingly at his maker, as well as the hole in the wall.

The brunet sighed and ran his hands through hair in frustration. "Look, if you do it, I'll give you some electrochemical cells for the week. Deal?" Donnie bargained, holding his hand out.

The small bot crossed his arms in a huff, before bleeping a few times, and taking hold of Donnie's hand and shaking.

"Thanks, buddy! I owe you!" The teen beamed and ran out of the room with the others teens slowly following after in mild confusion.

Metalhead looked at the damage and beeped wearily, grabbing hold of a broomstick and making his way over.

"Well then, I will leave you too it, my small robotic friend." Splinter remarked, and quickly took his leave. And for a second, the rat mutant could of sworn that the robot had just cursed at him in his robotic language. He hummed, and made a mental note to tell his youngest son to teach his invention some manners.

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Following after the trail of goo leading out of the sewers, the five Hamato ninjas were soon on the surface. But when their one path to find the mutant ran cold, they took to the rooftops and followed after Donnie, who suspiciously knew which way they had to go.

"So, Donnie. Can you explain where exactly your leading us?" Leo asked after about ten minutes of running around clueless after his human brother.

"I didn't realise it, but I think all of my April talk made Timothy go after her!" Donnie exclaimed.

"You told your thoughts and feelings about your ex to a pile of guts in a jar?" Raphael snapped in disbelief.

Don narrowed his eyes at the red-clad turtle, "He's a good listener!" He scowled back in defence.

"How dangerous is this thing?" Leo questioned with a serious face.

To which Donnie frowned at Leo's question, or more so, the wording of it, "Well, he obviously doesn't know his own strength! He could end up hurting her."

Pulling out her T-Phone, Miwa added, "Ok, but her T-Phone is still off. There's no way of tracing the signal or warning her." Even if she wasn't exactly in Miwa's good books, the Kunoichi still didn't want April to get hurt by a rampaging mutant.

"Actually, that's where we're heading. She might still be at the park." Donnie added to Miwa, but not before mumbling, "On her date."

All five of the Hamatos came to a abrupt stop on the current rooftop. Even Mikey fell off his skateboard and turned on Donnie with his turtle siblings sharing varying expressions.

Raph slapped himself on the forehead with a groan. "Oh yeah, I forgot that you followed her."

"Not creeptastic at all, D." Mikey laughed beside him, nudging his arm in a playful manner.

Donnie scowled at his turtle brothers and swatted Mikey away. "Hey! I was not following her! And Miwa was there too!"

"Okay guys that's enough." Leo declared, trying to get his team back on track. "So she's either at the park with her 'date'," he added in quotations for Donnie's sake, "Or April's headed back home. Miwa, Donnie, we'll take the park. Raph and Mikey, you two head to April's.

"Got it!" Came the unanimous shout, as all the ninjas dispersed to their missions.

But little did the Hamatos know, that April and Casey were actually passing by just below them on the street. The lanky teen pushed his bike along while the redhead strolled next to him with her books in hand.

"We didn't get much studying done." April replied with a guilty sigh to Casey.

"Is studying all you do?" The lanky teen laughed back, walking ahead of her with his bike. "You gotta learn to relax. Cut loose a bit."

April scoffed at him, "Hey, I 'cut loose'!" She defended, "You have no idea the kind of crazy things I do!"

Casey turned his head with fake interest, "What, like being a science olympian?" He asked jokingly.

April flashed a smirk at the cocky boy, totally unaware of the approaching danger down the alley she stopped by. "You like pushing buttons, don't you, Jones?" She retorted smugly, "I bet you-"

"Aprilllll!"

April pivoted on the spot to see a giant, clumsy tank of organs, stomping it's way towards her. It only took her one glance to recognise the mutant in question. "The Pulverizer?" She said with widening eyes.

The once superhero obsessed human had been friends with Donnie, before his purposeful mutation. And the brunet mentioned him a few times in the past, hoping to one day find him alive again to cure him.

April narrowed her eyes and groaned at her luck, "Can't I go a month without some mutant attacking me?"

The red-haired girl instinctively reached for her tessen, only to stop when a outstretched arm was pulled in front of her protectively. "What are you doing?" She asked.

"Whatever that thing is, It's pure evil and completely cool-looking." Casey Jones smirked with a cocky air about him, before turning to April with a wink. "I'll handle this, sweetheart."

April scoffed in annoyance, "Sweetheart?"

However, Timothy didn't like the fact that Casey had just placed himself between them, cutting him off from April. "Aghh!! You punk kid!" He roared, punching his fists together in a threatening way.

"I don't think it likes you." April added while slowly backing away, her senses telling her that the mutant was only becoming angrier, to the point of charging.

Casey smirked back, "We're even."

In a uncoordinated manner, the mutant slammed a dumpster to the side in pent up frustration and charged them, just as April had predicted. Making thr two teens jump away to the side as the jar knocked over Casey's bike, before barreling head, or jar first, into the parked car on the road.

Timothy picked himself up quickly and turned on Casey, who was currently down the alleyway scrounging around in the knocked over dumpster.

"Come on, come on! Gimme something..." The lanky teen muttered, moving bag after bag of garbage until he found a metal pipe. "Yes!" He cheered, only for the dumpster lid to slam down on top of him.

Timothy grabbed hold of the large garbage bin and launched it down the alley. Smiling wickedly to himself at Casey's screams. And when the dumpster came to a halt, the mutated goo smiled and turned for April. Just as the lid flew up, and Casey's hand came out holding the pipe.

"Yes!" He called again and climbed out of the overturned dumpster. Using the tins and bottles around him, he held the pipe like a hockey stick and sent his makeshift pucks at Timothy's jar as a distraction.

And when the mutant wasn't looking, he ran up to him with a cry of, "Goongala!". But the hit against the reinforced glass of the tank did little to Timothy, as Casey was soon about to find out...When the mutants massive hand whirled around in a fist, and sent Casey crashing into the alley wall head first with a painful, "Ugh!" Where he slide to the ground unconscious.

Timothy growled as he approached Casey's limp form with a pleased snarl, "Now I crush you!" He yelled and began to raise his fists above him.

But before he could bring his fists down, April's tessen flew at him, knocking against the glass of his jar, before flying back to her hand. "Back off, gruesome!" The redhead snapped firmly, and leapt at him again, slamming her tessen into him to get him to back away.

Groaning came from Casey's position on the floor as he looked up, seeing April attacking the mutant with her back to him, he smirked devilishly to himself. "I'm liking what I see."

All while April continued to pound the jar over and over again in frustration, until Timothy's hands came up defensively, trying to protect his 'face'. "W-wait!" He cowered in confusion and fear, "April! Friend!"

"Friend?" April said, halting her attack on the mutant. She felt bad for hurting him, but she knew she was in her rights to do so. "You're the one who attacked us, you walking anatomy class!" She yelled, glancing over her shoulder to see Casey getting back up from the ground. The lanky teen cracked his neck and held his pipe firmly, before both teens bolted forward.

Using their own techniques and strengths to their advantage, the two managed to hold their own against the mutant, until Timothy was on the floor.

That was when Casey decided to try and rush him. Energetically, he tried to hit the jar with his pipe one last time, until the mutant snatched his weapon out of his hands and melted it away with the acid that was currently pouring out of his hands.

With the pipe, little more then a metal stub at this point, Timothy dropped it back into Casey's open hands. Where said teen stared at it in amazement, "Acid hands? Wow!" He shouts, only to get punched down the opposite end of the alley.

With Casey gone, April jumps at the jar with her tessen, aiming for the top of his tank, only for him to swivel round and send her flying backwards aswell.

When she landed, April could feel the air get knocked out of her, leaving her struggling to get back up when the mutant started to come closer.

"April!" Timothy cried out, reaching his hands towards her as if to help. Unaware that if he touched her, he'd only cause the redhead more harm.

On instinct, April flipped round and tried to shuffle away from his dripping acid hands. And at that very last second, where Timothy went to grab her, Casey shot passed on his bike, snatching April from out of his reach, and throwing her on the back of his bike.

Casey's bike screeched out the alleyway and onto the main street in seconds, pedalling a mile a minute as he went.

"How fast can you pedal?" April yelled as the mutant came gracelessly out of the alley, and onto the road. Knocking over everything in his path.

"No! Stop!" Timothy cried as he only continued to gain on them, slamming cars and even trucks out of his way, "April will come back!"

"For a big guy- Thing! He's fast!" April shouted in fear, staring in horror at the fast approaching acid hands just inches away from reaching her face.

"Let's see him outrun this!" Casey smirked and effortlessly threw the end piece of his pipe behind himself.

The melted metal smacked into Timothy's jar, causing him to topple over himself and fall to the ground. And as if by pure bad luck, a truck then came down the opposite road, crashing into him and sending him flying straight into a building.

Both the teens on the bike cheered out in victory as the acid mutant was taken out, "Yes! We did it!" Casey cried, and continued to pedal faster, away from the scene.

As the smoke from the wall debris cleared, Timothy could be seen slowly pulling himself out of the hole, crawling after the two teens on the run. "April, wait! Be good, friend!" He called after her weakly, not noticing the two shadows approaching him from behind.

"Not so fast, barrel full of ug-lay!" Mikey shouted out.

Timothy clenched his fists and roared, awkwardly turning round to face the two turtles behind him.

Raph gritted his teeth in realization. "Donnie's right." He tells Mikey, pointing at the larger mutant in front of them. "Pulverizer's been drinking mutagen. You're not going anywhere, pal!"

"No!" Timothy yells, and slowly begins to stumble down the street the redhead disappeared down. "Must find April!-"

But Mikey flipped over the tank, and landed in front of him with outstretched arms, "What happened to you, Pulverizer? You turned into some kinda...Mutagen Man!"

However, The newly named Mutagen Man, clearly didn't approve of the name. He gripped his fists in rage, growling at the small turtle beside him.

Raphael spun out his sai, signaling Michelangelo to backflip to his side, where he then pulled out his chucks, and both turtles got into a fighting stance.

But Mutagen man threw his fists down onto the road before the two could move. And with so much force behind the hit, the shockwave sent both the turtles, and anything else nearby, into the air.

With the turtles now completely caught of guard, Timothy slammed his fists into their plastrons. He managed to pin Raph to the street underneath his foot, and send Mikey flying into a dumpster, which turned over and trapped the smallest mutant inside.

"Mikey!" Raph yelled in alarm, before throwing a death glare towards the jar of organs above him. "Lemme go!"

Timothy smiled menacingly, as his acid hand began to drip all over the street, slowly approaching Raphael's scared face. "Good-bye, tur-tllle."

But before the acid could reach him, Leonardo jumped in with a slash from his katana, slicing Mutagen man's hand clean off. Where it melted away into a acidic puddle on the street.

Timothy bellowed in pain and back away from the turtle in blue, leaving Raph on the floor to breathe out a sigh of relief.

"Let 'em go!" The leader snarled, pointing his blade towards the jar.

As Miwa jumped down beside the oblivious goo mutant, and pulled Raphael up to his feet. "Oh, you made mother mad!" She teased her immediate younger brother with a grin. All while Timothy continued to growl as his stump spat acid everywhere.

While the eldest teenagers handled Mutagen man, Donnie ran over to the overturned dumpster and shoved his bō under it, using it as a lever to pull the heavy container upwards.

Allowing Mikey to then crawl out from under said dumpster with a disgusted look on his face, before turning thankfully to his brother. "Thanks, dude." He says with a gulp of fresh air.

Donnie nodded and helped him up, before turning his attention back to Timothy, who still stood wailing and clutching onto his stump.

But seeing the mutant was distracted, gave Leo the opportunity he needed to stalk up to it with his katana ready. And just as the leader went to slash down, Donnie jumped between him and Mutagen man, holding his arms out widely to protect the jar.

"No! Don't hurt him!" Donnie begged his brother frantically. Stopping Leo dead in surprise at his tone.

"What?" Raph spat in disbelief. "That thing just tried to melt my face!"

Donnie frowned, and stood his ground. "All he wants to do is make April our friend again. He just doesn't understand that he's more dangerous this way-"

"No!" Timothy shouted from behind Don, making him pivot round to face the angry mutant. "April not Donnie friend! April only my friend!"

"What?" Donnie asked in a hurt voice, "I thought you were trying to get April back for me!" He blushed slightly, and stuttered at his mistake, "Um, I mean, us."

But Mutagen Man just snarled back, directing his finger at the teen's chest. "Donnie hurt April! Donnie hurt me!" He points to the brunet, before pulling his stump back up, where his lost hand begins to reform. "Ninjas attack me!"

"Must destroy you all!!" Timothy shouted, punching his fists together ready. The Hamato siblings were also preparing themselves, as they pulled their weapons out with serious faces. It was only Donnie who showed any reluctance at all, with a look of guilt lacing his face.

Mutagen man's eyes narrowed down on the teenagers as he began to stalk forwards, until he seemed to freeze up almost, and his eyes became droopy as the colour of his goo seemed to turn from a mutagen green, back to a more slimy goo one. "Powerrrring dowwwnnn." He slurred as his arms and legs began to deflate, and the giant jar of mutant goo dropped to the floor without it's limbs to support it.

"Uh, what happened?" Leo faltered, but didn't stop his fight ready stance.

"He ran out of mutagen!" Donnie exclaimed in realization. "Quick, let's get him into the Shellraiser!"

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After a few minutes of rolling the tank across the street, and hefting it into the subway car, the teenagers had successfully loaded Mutagen man into the back of the truck, and were now driving back home.

The tank filled with disoriented goo lay between Mikey and Donnie, but because of the size of the jar, and the now noodle like limbs attached, Raph and Miwa had to pull their seats forwards a bit to allow room.

The red-clad turtle whirled his chair around to face his human brother. "Remind me why we're bringing Mr. Personality here back to the lair?" Raph quipped, leaning his elbow on the tank behind him.

"What he did isn't his fault, Raph. It's mine." Donnie clarified with a frown. "He was lonely! And all my April talk made him want a friend." He glanced down at the tank, resting his hand on the glass sympathetically. But as he did, Timothy's eyes seemed to narrow at him and look away.

He sighed dejectedly and continued. "But more importantly, I promised to fix him. And I think Timothy's DNA could be the key to retro-mutagen."

As Donnie carried on with his explanation, he was utterly clueless to the fact that Timothy's mouth had once again slithered out of the tank, "I could cure April's dad and him if I-" Donnie gasped as the slimy goo colour in the jar changed gradually to a mutant green. "Oh, no!" He yelled, and followed the tongue to a small compartment under his computer, where he had been keeping a couple of canisters of mutagen from their last couple of days hunt.

No one had time to react as Mutagen Man regrew his arms and legs, and began to fumble and fall out of the Shellraiser's doors. Shouting "APRILL!" As he ran down the street at a surprising fast speed.

Leonardo pulled up at the sidewalk, and all five ninjas ran out of the truck.

"I thought he was out cold!" Raph snapped in annoyance.

"You keep mutagen in the Shellraiser?" Miwa questioned in a ticked-off manner to her youngest brother.

But Donnie only had time to raise his hands in a 'I surrender' type of way, before Leo snapped his fingers to get everyone's attention.

"We split up and find him." The leader ordered, and at once, the other three seemed to instinctively separate into two groups and begin to run in opposite directions.

"There's no need to split up." Don interpreted him, "We know where he's headed."

The four stopped, and turned to him in realization, before taking off all in the same direction.

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Rounding the corner near April's apartment in a sneaky and quiet way, the two teens got off the bike and scanned the area for any dangers.

"Hmm. No sign of any hideous organ monsters." Casey exhaled in a calm manner, but really the teen was a mixture of totally freaked out, and totally pumped up. He even let April take the lead out of the alleyway, before following quickly after her.

But the two stayed vigilant as they walked along the street, until they arrived just outside April's apartment door.

"So do all of your 'study sessions' go like this?" Casey mused to himself sarcastically.

April chuckled to herself at the irony of the situation, the fact that most of her previous study sessions did indeed contain a mutant sometimes, was too much. "You have no idea." She said afterwards.

"So when's our next date?" Casey asked casually, leaning against his bike. "You can tell me all about that crazy metal fan you're carrying." He finished and flashed her a gap-toothed grin.

April's eyes narrowed slightly at the grin, feeling a strong sense of deja vu from her most previous relationship, before playing off her sudden change in mood. "'Date'?" She questioned with a playful scoff, "Don't get ahead of yourself there, Jones."

Both of the human teens were unaware of the eyes watching them from the alleyway, as the giant tank of goo clenched his fists together after seeing Casey again. Before turning to walk out onto the street. "April! I'm coming for-"

But he was stopped as the five Hamatos jumped down from the fire escape above. Blocking his path to the road ahead.

"Where do you think you're going, handsome?" Raph joked, "April's house?"

"Keep him in the alley!" Leo ordered as he and his team pulled their weapons out. "We can't let April's boyfriend see us!"

Donnie blushed and turned on Leo with a death glare.

But his own anger wasn't nothing over the growing growls of the now peeved off mutant before them. "Leave. Mutagen Man. Alone!" The jar of organs yelled and slammed his fist down where the teens were standing. Only for them to jump away a second earlier.

April looked around at the lanky teen and smiled, feeling as though the two of them had gotten off on a good note. "So another study session tomorrow?" She asked reluctantly.

"Possibility." Casey smirked back, and pulled his bike around to face the street. And as he did, April gasped as she saw Timothy lumbering out of the alleyway near her apartment, only for Raph and Mikey to firmly direct him back in.

"Wait!" April near but shouted to Casey, "Hold on!"

Casey turned with a mischievous and curious glance, "I knew it. Something you wanna say to me, Red?"

"Yeah... Um, You don't wanna go down this way," She told him quickly, grabbing him by the arms and pulling him to the opposite side of the street. She then took a moment to think of an excuse that didn't make her sound like a crazy person. "Because, uh...toxic fumes! Why don't you take this side street over here? You can get home faster!"

Casey blinked in confusion, before shrugging off the girl's weird behaviour. "Whatever you say, O'Neil." He called, getting back on his bike and cycling away. "Later."

She waved slightly, waiting for him to turn the corner before bolting to the alleyway beside her apartment. She looked round to see all five of the Hamato teens currently in battle with the jar of organs.

"I knew they had something to do with this." She muttered to herself in exasperation. "Just keep walking, April. It's not your problem- Wah!?" She ducked away and ran as a garbage can was suddenly flung her way.

Mikey flipped over Mutagen Man, and used his lid as a ledge to jump off of, landing onto the air conduct above. The gooey hand tried to follow him upwards, but smacked into the wall just below him. "Ew, man-hands!" Mikey commented with disgust, and the jar seemed to growl in offensive.

But before the larger mutant could do anything more to him, Leonardo ran at him from the side, and kneed him in the tank. Sending Mutagen Man backwards away from Mikey. The giant tank then turned and backhanded Leo into the wall.

"Try not to hurt him!" Donnie exclaimed in an authoritative way. "And lead him away from the street!"

Miwa swung at him with her tantō blade, managing to scare him off a bit, until he reached behind him and launched yet another garbage can at her. Flinging her backwards, into a still recovering Leo.

Raphael then took over, jumping in the way of his hurt siblings, and leading Mutagen Man to the other side of the alley. "Little tough when he's swinging acid hands at me!" Raph barked.

The red-clad turtle flipped onto a car which unfortunately happened to be parked in the same alleyway as them, only to leap back down as the mutant slammed his fists on to the hood. But this only lead him to pick up the car and hurl it back towards the Hamatos.

They all screamed and dodged the car, as it barrelled passed them. Exploding once it hit the other side of the street. Mutagen Man then reared back and roared, clearly not intending to give up anytime soon.

The Hamatos readied themselves and charged back in, but it was clear that the acid mutant was going to come out on top.

The two younger turtles both ran at him and leapt, only for Mutagen Man to grab Raph by the plastron with his hand, and yank Mikey's ankle out of the air, and throw him to the floor.

The eldest teens then charged at him, but they too, were quickly beaten. He used Mikey as a bat to slam Miwa to the floor, where he then put his foot on top of her chest to stop her getting back up. While he also used his stretchy mouth as a rope to tie Leo up before the leader had a chance to slice him with his katana.

Mutagen Man stood victorious with all four Hamatos at his mercy. "April Is mine!" He yelled, and slammed Mikey and Raph's shells together in rage.

"Not if I can help it!" Donnie shouted from the fire escape above. Flipping down and using his bō, he whacked the jars mouth to the floor. Making him drop Leo and the others and step backwards off of Miwa.

Before hulking his massive form round to growl at Donnie. "Agh!! Destroy You All!" Mutagen Man bellowed, and punched Donnie hard, straight into the wall.

The teen struggled to get back up for a second, having just had the air knocked out of his lungs, only for Leo to jump beside him and help him to his knees.

"Donnie, we have no choice." Leo started in a sympathetic way. "Whatever the Pulverizer- Timothy was, is gone now." The leader stood up with his katana ready as the giant mutant continued to roar and batter his siblings. "You know what we have to do-"

"No! We can't kill him!" Donnie exclaimed once he realized where Leo was going with this. "He's still in there, and I need to fix him! I promised!"

"I-I just need a little more time to find a retro-mutagen," the brunet begged his older brother. And Leo could feel himself physically wilt at his youngest brothers reaction. "Then i can fix him and April's dad- A-and everything will be ok-"

"And what about April?" Raph snapped at him, knowing this thing wouldn't stop until he had her.

"Don, listen. It doesn't help if April's not here to see her dad turn back into a human." Miwa said harshly. But it was the harsh reality Donnie needed to hear at that moment. As Mutagen Man only continued to grow more unstable and feral by the minute.

"I..." Donnie stuttered for a moment, before his gaze hardened and he stood up with his bō drawn. "I have an idea. We need to distract him. Misdirection and camouflage!"

His siblings looked at one another sceptically, but put their trust in him. And almost immediately, all five teens vanished into the shadows.

Mutagen Man soon realized he was alone in the alleyway, and his eyes began to frantically search the space. "Tur-tles gone?" He growled to himself.

While he was distracted, Donnie had ran back to the Shellraiser in record breaking time, arriving in the truck and slipping from how fast he had ran. His eyes shot up to see canisters of mutagen, as well as his emergency chemical kit he left in the subway car. "I hope this works!" He pleaded and swiped up the chemicals he needed before getting to work.

Meanwhile, the others did their best to keep Mutagen Man occupied. Each taking turns to run out of the shadows and attack him, slashing and stabbing, before vanishing again.

"Over here, Mutagen Man!" Mikey teased, and the gooey mutant ran for him. He punched what he thought was Michelangelo, but only knocked over a few trash cans and pizza boxes instead.

"No, over here!" Leo called from behind, and the mutant ungracefully ran at him. Grabbing hold of a garbage bag instead of the turtle, he growled and throw it away in frustration.

"Hey, Timothy!" Donnie shouted from behind him. "Mutagen!" He held up a canister full of bluey-green mutagen with a false grin. As the giant jar of organs turned round, Donnie began to slowly back up, leading the mutant away. "That's right...This way...Come closer."

"M-ore muta-gen!" Timothy growled, and charged the rest of the way, arriving next to Donnie in a matter of seconds, before back-handing the human away, and into the wall beside him.

"No!! Don't drink it, Timothy!" Donnie tried on last time to reason with him, as well as warn him. But Mutagen Man slurped up the spilt contents with a pleased smiled.

"Oh, no. Not again!" Mikey cried from the clothing lines above, as he and his siblings watched on in confused horror at the scene. Donnie however, only looked on sadly.

Mutagen Man drank down every last drop, and throw the canister away with a grin. But his smile quickly dropped as he began to try and clutch at his 'stomach', feeling as his inside suddenly became incredibly cold. "Don-nie? Some-thing's Wro-nggg-" he tried to reach out to his friend for help, but his arms and legs went first, freezing at the tips, before travelling upwards to his gooey centre.

The crackling of ice resonated around the alley as Timothy's face was the last to freeze, stuck in a state of permanent fear.

Donnie got up from the floor and slowly made his way over to his friend. "I'm sorry, Timothy." He apologised. And for a moment he thought it was all finally over. But at the very last second, Timothy launched for him with a growl, making Donnie duck away from the mutant in fear.

However, nothing ever followed that, as Donnie glanced up to see the frozen remains of his former friend, forever stuck with hate on his face.

"Wow! Awesome move, Donnie!" Leo cheered as he and the others came down from above. "Real scientific!"

"Yeah... Real scientific." Don murmured slowly, and walked up to the jar. Placing his hand on the glass, he could feel the cold coming from inside, and wilted even more. "Don't worry, my friend. One day I'll fix you... I promise."

"It's okay, Donnie." Raph sighed, and rested a firm but reassuring hand on his brothers shoulder. "You did what you had to do. Let's just go home."

TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT

Back in the lair, the sounds of SRMFF were blaring on the television as the teens all sat down to unwind after the long, and eventful night they'd just had.

Raph, Mikey and Leo sat on the floor in front of the screen cheering, as Dr Blip blow up a Kill-beast-bot with his laser ray, sending bits of robot everywhere. "Yeah! Right on! That's so rad! Ha, ha! Oh, yeah!" The turtle teens whooped out.

Behind them, Miwa sat on her beanbag chair reading. But she wasn't entirely paying attention to her book. Her worried amber eyes kept flicking over to her depressed looking brother sat by himself on the couch.

The brunet had asked to be left alone to think once the young ninjas returned home, and the eldest teens respected that, and left him to his own devices.

But once he eventually made his way into the living area, Miwa had chosen to sit near him, mainly for her own sake of knowing he was ok. The Kunoichi even noticed that her brother in blue shared her same worried look every now and then.

As Donnie sat with his elbows on his knees, and hands cupping his chin, he would give out a weary sigh. So completely focused on his thoughts, that he didn't notice the soft patter of feet coming from behind.

"How are you, my son?" Splinter asked softly, yet the words still gave Donnie the start of his life. As the teen almost fell of the couch with a startled yelp.

He whirled around to see Splinter and sighed in relief, before his thoughts became gloomy again. "Sensei, I messed everything up." He answered dejectedly, "I turned some poor dummy into a monster, who could've squashed the girl I'm totally into. April hates me, and to top it all of, I couldn't even fix Timothy! How do you think I feel?"

Splinter glanced at his son with a warm smile. "Never lose hope, Donatello. With a brain as smart as yours, I am sure your friend will be human again in no time." He then began to stroke his beard. "And as for April, I do believe she will return to us. When she is ready."

"Oh, Dr. Blip!" Princess Zee called from the television, holding the scientist in her arms and kissing him frantically. "You saved me with all of your might and brave intelligence! How I adore this!"

Donnie smiled at his childhood hero, feeling a new found sense of optimism restored inside him. "Yeah. There's always hope." He agrees with Splinter.

The rat hummed in content, as he went to turn back to the dojo. But he stayed and observed how his youngest son seemed to have something hit him all of a sudden.

Donnie stood up as an idea suddenly dug it's way into his head, and without so much as a word, he left to go into his lab. Not noticing the way Splinter's ears lay flat, and the old rat sighed.

TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT TMNT

Leonardo seemed to toss and turn in his bed, as sleep all but refused to come to the young leader.

Sleeping was never a straight forward thing for the turtle teen. As his insomnia had a habit of plaguing his mind and keeping him from drifting off. But tonight seemed to be all that more troublesome for some unknown reason.

And after about three hours of trying, Leonardo eventually gave up on the fruitless process of sleep, and got up from his bed. Making sure to sort out his sheets before leaving his room.

His plan was to take some of Splinter's special herbal tea, that used to help him to sleep when he was just a turtle tot. But even now, as a teenager, the leader found himself slightly dependent on it.

But as Leo walked down the stairs of the bedroom hallway, he saw a faint glow coming from the other side of the lair. Which just so happened to be where Donnie's lab was.

And as such, that was where the faint glow was coming from. The half opened doorway let out the light from inside the lab, telling Leo that his genius brother had once again stayed up all night, trying to make the retro-mutagen.

So with a annoyed sigh, the oldest turtle made his way over to the lab, stopping just outside before sliding the door open, and walking in.

The lab had an undeniable smell of caffeine lingering in the air, as well as an incredibly overwhelming amount of chemicals. Leo had to physically steal himself at the suddenly burst of scents hitting his nostrils as he quickly scanned the room for his brother. And once he found him, he strolled rather quickly towards the genius's desk.

When he arrived, he noticed a few things jump out at him. Firstly, the giant hole had been cleared of debris, and a large tarp was hung over it. Probably so it wasn't so much of an eyesore until Donnie fixed it.

He also noted the multiple empty mugs on the side of the desk, all with leftover coffee stains in them. Aswell as the many glass beakers and vials containing all sorts of colours, and piles of books and opened sketchbooks filled with Japanese Kanji, equations and drawings. Which Leo guessed was important for Donnie's ongoing science experiment taking place on the rest of the desk.

The brunet in question, didn't seem to notice Leo's presence, much less arrival in the lab, as his goggles rested around his eyes and he carefully began to pour a blue liquid into a beaker full of red liquid.

Leonardo decided it was best not to disturb him while he was in the middle of pouring and waited until he felt the human was finished before speaking.

And as Donnie placed his beaker and vial back down, Leo coughed quietly next to him and spoke. "Hey, Don. What are you doing up?" He questioned.

His brother jumped slightly, as to be expected, before pulling his goggles back over his messy brown hair. "Sorry, Leo. I didn't hear you come in." He apologised, "And um. I'll be done in a few minutes." He added quickly and turned his focus back to his experiment.

Leo frown, looking at the pile of coffee mugs. He turned to face Donnie, now that he was able to see his eyes, only to also see the dark rings around them. He frowned with a concerned look, and continued to interrogate his brother. "Donnie, maybe you should take a break from-"

Leo faltered when he properly looked at Donnie's project. There was no mutagen in sight. And the sketch book wasn't the one he regularly saw the nerdy boy working in almost every hour on end.

It was different...

"That...doesn't look like retro-mutagen?" Leo questioned as he moved in closer.

"It's...not." Donnie said absent-minded, inspecting the two liquids carefully as he swirled them around in the vial.

The leader raised a brow, "Then, what is it?"

"It's...It's for Timothy." The genius said vaguely, leaving Leo to have to guess.

"A cure?" The blue-clad turtle asked as he picked up the opened book, reading over the Kanji.

"Sort of? But not quite." Don murmured, mixing the contents until they combined, turning into a dense purple liquid, with a similar consistency of slime. The genius seemed to quietly study it for a moment, as did Leonardo.

"What does it do?" The leader asked, eyeing the strange liquid uncertainly.

"Hopefully, bring back some of his humanity." Donnie answered, and Leo's eyes widened. "Or at the every least, his sanity. That way he won't have to remain a giant organ popsicle."

At Donnie's comment, Leo looked over at the frozen jar of organs with a frown. "Donnie... You don't have to do that." Leo felt the need to say. "We can just keep him frozen until you've made the cure-"

"But I don't know how long that's going to take!" Donnie interpreted loudly, placing the vial of purple liquid back into the holder before turning to Leo in one harsh spin on his chair. "He has a family out there, Leo. Somewhere he has people who are worried about him, who are searching for him, who love him! And I took him away from them-"

"Donatello, you listen to me." Leo snapped calmly, grabbing his brother by the shoulders so the genius was facing him. "The Pulverizer chose to be a mutant, remember?"

"But I should of tried harder to stop him... I should of..." Donnie's words stopped, as he sighed in an ashamed way, and looked away to the the floor.

Leo dropped his brothers shoulders and crouched besides him, and with a understanding tone, he spoke. "You know, Sensei taught me something when I was younger that I think might help you."

Donnie looked reluctantly at him. "What?"

"You can't change the past." Leo said sternly, "And obsessing over your mistakes, won't bring you anything but more pain and suffering. All you can do right now, is look forwards. Fix your mistakes if you must, and move towards a future that will fill you with happiness."

Donnie sniffed, and chuckled to himself. "That does sound like something Splinter would say..."

Leo smirked, and nodded, catching sight of the frozen mutant once more, he shivered slightly. "Besides, would you want to be sentient while looking like...that?" He gestured to the jar in the corner.

"I suppose not." Donnie agreed with a sigh, and decided that he would stop his current experiment. But the teen eyed the purple liquid with a dejected smile. "Guess I wasted all that time for nothing, huh?"

The leader looked at the vial on the stand and back to his brother. Knowing how many hours Donnie had just put into it, he thought for a moment, before saying "You never know, Don. Maybe in the future there'll be a mutant that actually needs it?"

Donnie looked up with hopeful eyes, "You think?" He asked cautiously.

"I know so." Leo confirmed without a doubt. "Someday, this serum will help someone gain back the humanity they lost."

"I hope so." Donnie smiled in thought, and went about putting his experiment away. And just as he finished clearing his desk, with Leo's help, he turned to the turtle with a questioning look. "Hey, what did you do anyway?"

"Huh?" Leo asked at the sudden question.

"To make Sensei say that?" Donnie continued.

"Oh, that. I didn't really do anything, to be honest." The leader laughed nervously, not wanting to share. But at Donnie's blank look, he said, "Umm. Let's just say, your not the only person in this family that has self-esteem problems...?"

Donnie cocked his head to the side in confusion and raised a brow. And eventually Leo gave in and sighed.

"I have panic attacks too, Don." Leo admitted full of shame. And Donnie's eyes went a little wider.

"It's hard being the leader sometimes... Somedays, it feels like i make mistakes, and that I should off done better. And I worry that maybe I'm not cut out for this?" Leo sighed, and smiled at Donnie sadly. "I think, I fear letting you all down the most though, you know?"

Donnie nodded in a sort of understanding, "I may not know the burden of being a leader, but, I'm here if you ever need someone to talk too about it?" He suggests, "Splinter told me that it's easier to get stuff off your chest, then to bottle it up."

Leo smirked at him with a hint of amusement. "I'll talk. Only if you open up a bit about you being a Hamato."

Donnie blushed, and scratched his neck with a nervous chuckle. "Touché."

Leo grinned, before turning back to his first point of the night. "Good. Now, go to bed, Kyōdai. 'Brother.'" He ordered, "We've got like, an hour before morning practice."

"Oh shoot!" Donnie exclaimed, and practically flew out of the lab in realization, in hopes of getting at least that hour of sleep.

Leonardo rolled his eyes with a snicker, and made for the door. Switching the lights off in the lab and closing the door, before thinking to himself for a minute.

It would be nice to talk to someone about these stressful feelings he gets, other than Splinter, of course. And maybe Donnie would be a good confidante for him to rely on.

And maybe, he could hopefully be there for Donnie in the same way?


I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! If you did, please leave a review! I love to see people's thoughts and opinions on this fic!!

Till next time! 3 \(•v•)/