Chapter Text
Okay, so getting milked at Cynthia Utrum's lab (aka TCRI) wasn't cool, although fighting Superfly when he became a knock-off Godzilla was somewhat cool. But hey, at least Superfly destroyed the TCRI building? Nothing can really be continued by her now.
But also now Donnie really couldn't describe how his chest would twist and stomach would get that gross need to push his most recent meal back up whenever he even heard the word "milk" now. All of his brothers seemed just fine now, and it drove the dude insane. Like, shouldn't Mikey out of all of them be the most traumatized since HE got milked first? Who knows at this point? Mikey was in a different universe half of the time.
But the one thing that came from the whole experience that Donnie really couldn't wrap his head around was how when he went back to the TCRI building after the whole Superfly thing to really just tell himself it's all over, he found equipment and weapons (mainly destroyed but hey, some managed to survive..somehow..) that he really just wanted to figure out. Although, when Donnie found himself digging through the rubble for more there were so many viles of ooze.
Of course, there was the infamous blue ooze all over. The "retro mutagen" and the reason they even managed to defeat Superfly. Donnie had to step around a lot of broken glass and puddles spilt all over. The last thing Donnie wanted was to become a normal boring turtle.
Now, all Donnie knew was that there were two forms of mutagen, one being the mutagen that caused well.. all of this, but now, while he was digging through the rubble of the destroyed building, he found a vile that had red ooze (well Donnie will be assuming it's ooze until further notice). There was only one test tube with the red ooze that didn't break. Without really thinking Donnie just picked it up and put it into his fanny pack and slowly made his way out of the rubble.
Don't judge the poor dude, he's running off of pure adrenaline.
Okay, maybe he's got enough confirmation it's probably not over now. A new form of ooze? Yeah Donnie can leave labeling this not-very-announced visit a pretty bad one. He just couldn't describe why or how.
Like, this ooze could be the cure to cancer or something and Donnie doesn't trust it. Okay let's think logically, TCRI probably isn't curing cancer anytime soon. BUT WHO KNOWS! It could be just as dangerous as the green ooze that they got practically tortured over cause Cynthia Utrum wanted it.
Okay wait, here comes that gross feeling again. Donnie slowed his walking down and stood for a bit, slowly breathing in and out. His body fell forward as stomach acid and his breakfast this morning of half a granola bar and water made its way out of his throat as he remembered the feeling of the electric shocks throughout his body. He gagged and coughed as his throat burned like he swallowed a ton of pop rocks. Donnie's body trembled as he spat out the last bits of saliva that didn't leave with the rest of his insides. Gasping for air, his breathing slowly became less ragged.
"Holy shit." He whispered, wiping his mouth with his hoodie sleeve as his walking fumbled for a second, stepping around his vomit as best as he could. His vision felt blurry as his eyes burnt, tears prickling. That burning sensation in his throat had begun to fade, causing a shaky breath to escape. "Oh my god." He leaned his head back, rubbing his throat before making his way towards the closest sewer manhole. If Donnie wanted to do ANYTHING right now it was to lay down.
His grip on the tunnel lid was weak, nearly dropping it onto his fingers as his hands slipped lifting it up. A slow, annoyed sigh escaped as he slid his body into the sewer and walked slowly down them, following the quickest route so he could get to bed quicker. Hell, he practically didn't even acknowledge Mikey's presence further than a "hello" and how Leos bed had made that annoying squeak sound it does when someone sits on it as he unbuckled his fanny pack and laid it down next to his tent before crawling inside and letting his eyes shut. That vile could be tomorrows issue.
…Okay actually, who would it hurt if Donnie stayed up late?? His sleep schedule? That shit is already fucked up so he'll live.
..hopefully.
After some fumbling around for his glasses and the zipper to his fanny pack Donnie immediately regretted his decision when he realized how bright the ooze was because of fucking course it is. His eyes slowly drifted to his older brother whose body turned being associated with a long sigh. "PLEASE don't wake up." He whispered, slowly making his way out of the room. That was genuinely the last thing the guy needed, Leo waking up and giving him a speech about stealing or how dangerous this is.
OBVIOUSLY it's dangerous! That's why he'll do it in the bathroom away from his brothers. He'll be fine. At least, that's what he kept saying to himself. Especially when he looked into the mirror with a large crack in the middle of it, something Raph oh so lovingly left there and blamed on Leo. Like, seriously man, if you're gonna lie at least be believable! Leo was (usually) the most passive guy ever. "God what an idiot." Donnie mumbled before looking down at his hand— he needs to focus.
Wait.
How is he meant to figure this out? He has no actual science supplies, just this vile. Obviously he can't like.. drink it. Can he drink it? Should he drink it? Why was he genuinely pondering on this? He shouldn't because like.. what if he explodes?? Raph would find that cool, honestly.
After a while of just staring at the ooze, Donnie sighed and walked back to his room. "That was a bust." He mumbled, fumbling through the darkness in hopes to not wake his brothers up. A sleepy mumble from Leo made him pause though, staring at him trying to determine if he was still sleeping or trying to form a coherent sentence right after waking up.
Donnie took the first option of the two and tried as hard as possible to get to his tent without tripping or waking anyone up. With how light of a sleeper Leo was Donnie genuinely didn't take his eyes off of him. Especially since he had some weird older brother sense and would wake up at the WORST moments.
Donnie began getting too into his head, praising himself for not putting himself in danger or waking his brother, which isn't something he'd get an award over but hey, he can be proud of that, okay??? Although, while Donnie got caught in his "I'm so awesome" thoughts, his IDIOT SELFstumbled and in an attempt to steady himself on one of the exposed pipes dropped the vile with a loud shatter sound.
He winced since it echoed so loudly Leo hit his head on the pipe Donnie caught himself on when sitting up and yelped, causing a reaction of his brothers waking up.
Donnie wanted to die so badly. How can he explain this? How SHOULD he explain this? "Donnie?" Leo stumbled over, navigating his way around the glass shards. "Whhhaaatttt happened?" Leo's words were as calm as he could force, but looking up at his older brother's face Donnie just knew it wasn't real. Leo had made a face that expressed the exact amount of confusion that any older brother who found their younger brother surrounded by glass and red liquid would make.
Nervously, Donnie glanced down at his foot which had a few drops of ooze on it. That's.. probably not good. "So what happened was.. Istolefromthetcribuildingandthenbrokethethingistolebutisweariwasgonnagiveitback" Donnie's rushed speaking did nothing more than confuse Leo more.
"You did WHAT?" Leo's voice squeaked, looking at the other two brothers like they could translate whatever just got said. "It's obvious what he said," Mikey started, turning to look at his brothers, "he said hubusuushubushuhbuh." Mikey's random noises mocking Donnie made Leo nothing more than annoyed, especially with the long sigh that escaped him as his head fell back.
"Donnie, I won't get mad." Leo stated, well.. lied, but Donnie won't get into that, as he placed his hands on Donnie's shoulders, holding eye contact forcefully. "I mayyy have stolen from TCRI but I SWEAR I was gonna give it back I just dropped it and.." his voice faded as Leo's expression went from confused and concerned to absolutely horrified and angry in the span of seconds.
"YOU WHAT?" Leo and Raph yelled in sync, causing Donnie to nod, scared to open his mouth again. "Donnie you were like.. my second to last brother expected to steal." Raph stood up before realizing he was surrounded by glass and the mystery ooze. "What the fuck is the red shit on the floor? Did you steal blood?!" He pointed downward and ignored Mikey asking who Raph thought first to steal was.
"..ooze." Donnie whispered. "OOZE??" Okay now Mikey decided to join in on the yelling. "Yeah. I don't know what it does and I just.. I saw it and stole it. I was gonna put it back!"
"Well look where that got you!"Leo snapped, walking out of the room, leaving the others to look at each other in shock. Leo yelled at Donnie? What the fuck? "I told you he gets crazy!" Raph crossed his arms, probably referring to the broken mirror. "Leo yelled, he didn't punch him!" Mikey leaned over his bed, glaring at Raph. "I dunno.. he looked like he was gonna."
"Gonna what?" Leo walked back in, a roll of paper towels in his hands. "Gonna nothing." Raph smiled innocently, which immediately went past Leo. He didn't have the younger sibling charm Mikey and Donnie usually had. "Whatever." Leo mumbled, getting onto his knees so he could clean up the mess, immediately followed by Donnie and Raph (begrudgingly, but he felt like being nice).
"Dude what the hell did they put in this? It's nasty." Raph wiped a bit of the liquid that got onto his thumb on a napkin. "Wait now I wanna feel." Mikey leaned over the bed and reached his hand out like someone would actually hand him a napkin.
"We're not- you're not touching it!" Leo looked at Mikey like he was insane, being given a whine in response before hitting Raphs arm when he wiped one of the napkins down his arm. "Raph what the fuck?!" Leo looked down at his now red covered arm and wiped it off, ignoring how Donnie started telling Raph that they didn't know what was in the ooze and how he was being dangerously stupid doing that.
Then, when they tried to stop talking entirely, any concept of silence kept being interrupted by Mikey asking to feel the ooze. "Oh my god- MIKEY. You could get hurt!" Leo's voice cut the younger brother off, causing him to groan and whine. "You hate me! You hate me and you hope I never experience life changing things!" Donnie kept his head down, biting his tongue as he watched Leo get genuinely angry for once.
When they were finally done cleaning up the mess Donnie ignored Raph smuggling Mikey a napkin with just a LITTLE bit of the ooze on it. He didn't feel like listening to Leo telling them off, nor did he feel like snitching. "Genuine idiots." He mumbled, crawling into his tent and immediately blacking out.
Donnie shot up from his tent when he heard the sound of an echoing scream coming from Leo. "DONNIE WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO?!" Donnie didn't even get a second to process that a random human with Leo's voice was stood in front of him, grabbing his hoodie and screaming into his face. "Wha.. who are you?" He mumbled, searching for his glasses.
"It's Leo! Dude what the fuck! You- that ooze did this! Look at you!" Donnie blinked a few times, grasping the fact Leo was.. human now. Wait 'look at you?' Does that mean that he is ALSO human? "Whuddya mean look at me?" Donnies eyes drifted down to look at his hands, examining how he now had five fingers and dark brown skin.
"Oh my god." His voice was a soft whisper, eyes slowly looking up to examine Leo properly since he now had his glasses on. He was the same skin tone as Donnie and his hair was already in perfect locs? "Did you like.. do your hair the millisecond you woke up?" He asked, sitting up more.
"Huh? Wh- THAT'S WHAT YOU'RE FOCUSING ON?" Leo yelled before sighing and running a hand down his face. "No, no I didn't. That ooze decided that I needed my hair to be perfectly done immediately." How the fuck- what?? Wait does that imply Donnie's hair is already done?
"I just had to know." Donnie mumbled, reaching his hand up to feel his own hair. "No, no you didn't! But you know what you do need to know?" Leo started before standing up and crossing his arms like a disappointed mother. "What, Leo? What do I need to know?" Donnie sighed, leaning back a bit as Leo pointed a finger into his face.
"You need to fix this."