Chapter Text
It hadn’t been easy, but Kendra’s plan was finally nearing completion. After hours of work, hundreds of stolen components, and a highly experimental code library purchased off the dark web, she could stand over her greatest creation and bask in its glory. This time, she would not lose.
“All tests completed successfully,” said Jeremy from where he was hunched over his laptop.
“Good.” Kendra reached out with her fingers, trailing over the nodes and wires with a delicate touch. “I can’t wait to give it a test run.”
“I-I don’t know, Kendra… Is this safe?”
She whipped her head around to glare at Jase, who withered under her scrutiny. “Don’t tell me you’re chickening out now.”
He shrank back, holding up his hands defensively. “No, Kendra. Sorry, Kendra.”
“Good.”
She turned her attention back to the machine, listening to the hum of the servers and the whir of fans. This was her best idea yet. Everything was perfect.
“Now we move into the final stage.” She spun on her heels, headed for the door, motioning to be followed. “Come on, boys. It’s time.”
The Foot Clan was up to something again. They always were.
Donnie had no idea what there was to interest them in a shoe factory, but here they were, flanked by an entire squadron of origami soldiers, jumping along conveyor belts, knocking over work tables, and slinging containers of raw materials.
It was a mess, that was for sure.
He was currently standing on a conveyor belt himself, which had been turned on, so he either moved with it or had to run in place like it was a treadmill. It was not really the kind of stunt befitting his brand of comedy, but it was easier to see over the chaos from up here.
There was a blur of red in his peripheral, and then Raph flew past him, his enlarged body casting aside piles of leather and carts laden with wood like they were toys. He took down several opponents in his wake, sending them careening into machinery or knocking them flat with a well-aimed punch.
The whole place was going to be destroyed by the end of it, but it wasn’t like it was in Donnie’s purview to care about property damage.
He hopped off the conveyor belt into the path left in Raph’s wake, raising his tech bo to take down one of the stragglers. “Fibona-”
“Comin’ through, Dee!” was all the warning he received before Mikey was swinging past him, kusari-fundo alight in his hands. It caught the Foot soldier and incinerated it, leaving behind a pile of ash on the factory floor.
“Ooof course you do,” muttered Donnie sourly, kicking the pile with his foot. Jumping in where Donnie had already called dibs was normal Mikey behavior, but that didn’t mean he had to like it.
“Make way! Clear a path!” Leo shouted, and Donnie stepped out of the way of the soldier whose shoulders he was riding like a bronco, his laughter echoing off the metal walls. “Ride ‘em cowboy!”
He swung his odachi, creating a portal just in front of the soldier, then bailed off into a crate of rubber soles. The soldier wasn’t able to stop in time, and was spit out the other side of the portal directly into a trash compactor.
“Heh! Looks like I was the sole survivor of that one!”
“Mixing cowboy jokes and shoe puns? Really, Leo?”
“Eh, don’t get your aglets in a twist.”
“That doesn’t even make-” A fist colliding with his face effectively interrupted him.
Donnie was sent sprawling back into the conveyor belt. He shook off the pain of the slam and raised his tech-bo to face the oncoming Foot soldier.
“One lucky shot is all you’re going to get.” Donnie hit a button, and the rockets on the end of his bo deployed. “Eat science!”
He threw it, expecting it to hit the soldier - but instead it went careening in a wide arc, completely missing his opponent.
Donnie felt his stomach drop. “I thought I fixed that…”
“Raph’s got it!” A huge red hand grabbed the soldier, lifting it up and then smacking it into the ground where it exploded in a shower of confetti. “You just sit back, Donnie; the real ninjas have got it handled.”
“You… what?”
Raph didn’t respond, throwing himself back into the fray. The bo completed its course several feet short, clattering to the ground, and Donnie lowered his eyes to look at it.
By the time he picked it up, he could hear Leo and Mikey whooping in triumph.
“Yeah! We did it!”
“Great job guys!”
Raph held up his hand, giving Leo and then Mikey a high five in turn. They were surrounded by the torn remains of the Foot’s origami soldiers, nothing but charred or shredded heaps of confetti.
He walked over, trying not to think about how none of those wins were his. “Yeah, great job, go team.”
He expected someone to offer him a high five, too, but none of them did. In fact, none of them were even looking his way.
“Hey, do we wanna pick up pizza on the way home?” Leo asked.
“We still have leftovers from yesterday,” said Raph.
“So is that a no…?”
“Perhaps we can discuss this in the tank? No doubt security will be here any moment.”
That finally got their attention, though Donnie didn’t understand the puzzled looks they were giving him.
“We didn’t bring the tank,” said Mikey, tilting his head.
“Wait, what?” Donnie didn’t remember taking the tank, that was true. But they were in an entirely different borough; surely they didn’t walk here.
“Why do we need wheels when we’ve got portals, bro?” Leo asked, slicing the air to open one up. Donnie gave it a suspicious look.
“We’ll be lucky if that thing gets us home. It’s more likely that we’ll end up in Hoboken.”
“Oh ye of little faith,” said Leo airily. “It’s more reliable than your tech, so who are you to talk?”
Donnie’s stomach swooped again. “What do you mean?”
But the others were already walking through the portal, and he had to hustle to catch up.
Surprisingly, Leo’s portal delivered them safely to the lair. Their dad was asleep in his chair, as usual. His brothers headed straight for the kitchen, chattering about what pizza they called dibs on and what they were going to do after.
Donnie didn’t feel particularly hungry.
“I’m going to my lab,” he announced to their backs. He was expecting them to argue, to try to convince him to at least eat with them first.
None of them even looked back.
If asked, Donnie would say he preferred it if his brothers didn’t bother him; if they left him to his work without complaint and didn’t try to distract him with frivolous pursuits.
So why had that stung so much?
It wasn’t like Donnie wasn’t used to his brothers’ ribbing. They were often picking on him.
Of course, he gave back as good as he got, and wasn’t above his own pranks and jokes at their expense. Their dynamic was backed by years of shared experience and understanding, so he knew the safe zones, and he knew what would hit a sore spot. Of course, accidents still happened (he and Leo had certainly bruised each other countless times), but they always made it up to each other later.
He wouldn’t be surprised if they showed up any moment now with leftover meat-lovers as a mea culpa. Not that he was hurt by their comments, or anything like that. He was an emotionless bad boy, after all! But just so he could be sure they properly appreciated his genius.
They didn’t bring any pizza. An hour passed, time spent going through his projects and blueprints, trying to find one that would spark his inspiration, trying to distract himself from the rising itch under his skin.
He just had to find something - something that would really knock their socks off. That would put everything back the way it was! But what from his current projects would accomplish that?
He flipped through his blueprints again, for what felt like the hundredth time, and something felt… odd, as he looked at them. Like they were out of date, or some were missing.
He really needed to better organize the lab. But that was a job for another day! Right now, he had brothers to impress.
Finally, his eyes landed on one of his prototypes. It was still in beta, but it was promising. With a few tweaks, he could likely have it ready to go within a few days.
Normally he might wait on showing them something unfinished (lest they hound him about it as they did the drill), but, well, what the hey? A little sneak peek couldn’t hurt.
Just so they knew what he was up to. Just so they knew what kind of exciting things were coming.
Donnie gathered up everything he would need and left the lab.
He found them in the atrium. Leo was doing tricks on the halfpipe while Raph and Mikey alternated between heckling and encouraging him.
Donnie circled around to the opposite side of the halfpipe, centering himself where they could all see, and cleared his throat.
“Excuse me, gentlemen. Not to interrupt your important business here, but I have a new invention to show you and I think you’re really going to like this one!”
“I’m gonna do it this time,” said Leo from the top of the ramp, not so much as looking Donnie’s way.
“You’re gonna bust your face is what you’re gonna do,” said Raph, amused. He wasn’t paying attention to Donnie either.
“Can I have your stuff if you die?” Mikey asked.
“Oh ye of little faith! Just watch me now!”
Donnie didn’t know what trick he was trying, but as Leo coasted up the other side and started to spin, he guessed it was yet another attempt at the 1440. For a moment Donnie forgot his mission to watch the inevitable wipeout.
Sure enough, Leo lost altitude too early and failed to catch himself on the rim of the platform. With a yelp, he retracted into his shell just before skidding down the wood. Raph and Mikey laughed uproariously, and Donnie couldn’t help but add his own chuckles to the chorus.
“Oh yeah, real impressive there, Leo,” said Raph once he regained his composure. “I’m speechless.”
“Alright, why don’t you show us what you’re made of, huh?”
“Sure. Watch. And. Learn.”
“Ahem!” Donnie tried again. They ignored him to call out to Raph as he ascended the ramp and did a handplant at the top. “Exaggerated clearing of throat!” he snapped once Raph was back down, and this time he caught Mikey’s eye.
“What?” he asked, and his impatience caught Donnie off guard. But it finally got Raph and Leo’s attention, so he pressed on.
“As I said, I have a new invention here! And I’d like to see what you think before I try it live.”
He waited for their normal “ooh”s and “aah”s over this announcement, but none came. Instead, Mikey jumped to the top of the ramp.
“Okay guys, my turn. Get ready for some razzmatazz!”
He dropped into the pipe, and Donnie saw red.
“HEY!” He leapt into the middle of the halfpipe, his mechanical arms catching Mikey on his way down. “Stop ignoring me! I’m trying to show you something here!”
Mikey squirmed against the hold. “Geez, Dee, can’t you see we don’t care?”
It stung. Donnie hoped it didn’t show on his face, but it so often moved without his input.
It was okay. He just had to make them care.
“Well, I think you’ll be changing your tune after you see what I have to offer you!” He set Mikey down, the metal arms releasing him and giving him a little dust-off.
“Oh boy, everybody, time for another exciting tech speech from Donnie.” Leo closed his eyes. “Wake me when it’s over, okay?”
“Hey, let’s hear him out,” said Raph, and Donnie felt his heart leap… until he followed up with, “The sooner he’s done the sooner he’ll go back to his hole and leave the rest of us alone.”
This was… really starting to get a little harsh for banter. Had he done something to make them mad at him? Forgotten a birthday? Skipped out on a brotherly bonding activity? Messed up their brain chemistry with an untested invention (again)?
Nothing came to mind. Birthdays were too big and loud of an ordeal in this home to be forgotten, and he couldn’t remember any nefarious experiments or times he’d turned them down. But then why…?
No, he had to focus. Show them the invention, and then everything would go back the way it was. The way it should be.
“Alright. Behold, gentlemen!” He pressed a button on his gauntlet, and his creation came forth from his shell.
A swarm of tiny robots, each one equipped with targeting sensors and needles, flooded the space around him. They were less than an inch long, but the punch they packed when working together made up for their small size.
“These are my Dee-bees!” He held out a hand and let one robot land in his palm. “They’re small, but fierce! They target a foe’s joints and other vulnerable parts of their body and deliver doses of a paralyzing agent, ultimately incapacitating them!. Unlike the tranquilizer gun, they can attack multiple opponents at once and adapt dosage on the fly for different sizes and body types! And because they swarm like bees, they’ll be difficult to fight off… but unlike bees they can sting more than once, so they’re reusable!” He held out his hands. “So? What do you think?”
He studied each of his brothers in turn, and it was hard to keep smiling in the face of their obvious apathy. None of them looked impressed. They just looked bored.
Mikey was the first to speak. “Can I do my trick now?”
“That’s it!?” Donnie spluttered. “You have nothing to say!?”
“Not much to say, Dee.” Raph shrugged. “We have mystic powers now. We don’t really need all that stuff.”
“Yeah, I mean, what do we even need something like that for? I can just tie people up with my kusari-fundo.”
“Or I can portal them into a cage!”
“Or Raph can just hold them with my boss strength!”
“O-okay, well, what happens if you can’t do any of that? Then you’ll need my tech to help you! And that’s not all I have!” he continued when they still looked unconvinced. “I have other tech, too! Oh, I haven’t even begun to show you the depths of my genius-”
“Eh, that’s okay,” Raph interrupted. “Your tech just gets in the way.”
It hit him like a shock. Donnie pulled his arms tight to his plastron. “In the way…?”
“Yeeeaaah, I’m with Raph on this one,” said Mikey. “Your tech’s always shooting lasers where I’m trying to swing.”
“Or launching a rocket at our heads,” Leo chimed in.
“No, it’s helped us plenty of times! Like… like…”
“Like with the Shredder?” Mikey asked, his tone mocking.
Donnie felt the air leave his lungs.
“I’m glad we’re talkin’ about this, because I’ve actually been thinkin’.” Ignoring the critical blow he’d just dealt, Mikey turned back to the others with a smirk. “Why don’t we kick Donnie out and add someone cooler to the team?”
“How about we hold it to a vote?” Raph suggested.
“Oh yeah! Democracy!” Leo cheered.
Donnie managed to regain his voice. “Now hold on just a-”
“Everyone in favor of kickin’ Donnie out and getting someone better, say ‘aye’,” said Mikey.
“Aye!” yelled Raph and Leo in unison.
“Hey!” Donnie stomped his foot on the ramp. “I don’t know what kind of prank this is, but it isn’t funny.”
“This isn’t a prank, Dee,” said Leo, his voice nonchalant. “We took a vote, and you’re out.”
“That isn’t how this works!” Donnie took a step toward them. He could feel his muscles tensing, like he was bracing for impact. “You can’t just throw me out with a vote.”
“Well then, how about this,” Raph said, and Donnie shrank back as he stepped up.
In all his life, Raph had never made him feel so small.
“You’re out, Donnie. Leader’s orders.”
Donnie clamped his hands to the sides of his head, trying to block out the sound. This couldn’t be real - it had to be a prank, some terrible joke. But they were taking it too far; surely they would see they were taking it too far, and they would stop, they couldn’t really want to kick him off the team, they couldn’t really-
Raph’s ringtone cut through the silence, and he went to pick it up. “Oh, it’s April.” His voice sounded far too cheery, too unbothered by Donnie’s reaction, and Donnie felt himself slipping over the edge of something he did not yet understand. “Hey, what’s up?”
Donnie missed most of the one-sided conversation that followed, too busy fighting the urge to curl into the fetal position. He could feel his eyes sting and the edges of his mask grow uncomfortably damp and he cursed himself for getting emotional when his brothers were still there, when they could see the mess he was turning into when all he’d wanted was to impress them.
None of them were looking at him now, and he didn’t know if that made it better or worse.
“Alright, April says Hypno and his roommate are trying to make some bank disappear, so we better split.” Donnie listened as his brothers gathered up their weapons. None of them had called psych yet. None of them had told him they were just kidding, or apologized, or spoken to him at all.
It was the sound of one of Leo’s portals splitting the air that finally pulled Donnie’s eyes from the floor. He took a step forward, then another, but a hand stopped him.
“Where are you going?” asked Raph.
“I…” Donnie swallowed. “Hypno-”
“We just went over this. You’re out.”
“You…” He looked at each of their faces in turn, desperate for them to stop this, to reconsider, to not leave him behind. “You were serious?”
“Uh, duh.” Mikey rolled his eyes, turning his back on Donnie. “And he calls himself a genius.”
With that, he stepped through the portal.
“Just let the real heroes handle this one,” said Raph. And then he followed Mikey.
Only Leo was left. He had his sword over his shoulder and was looking down his nose at him. Donnie had curled in on himself so tightly they no longer saw eye to eye.
“Leo…” He reached out one shaky hand. “You don’t agree with them, do you?”
“Yeah, I do.” He stepped one foot into the portal. “Face it, Donnie: we don’t need you.”
Then he was gone, the portal closing behind him.
Donnie was alone.
He allowed himself to wallow in it for exactly five minutes.
Then he straightened up, swapped battleshells to the jetpack, and left the lair in a rush.
Didn’t need him? Didn’t need him? He’d show those dumb-dumbs who was and wasn’t needed! He would get to that bank, swoop in when they inevitably needed rescuing from Hypno, and prove just how needed he was!
It was easier to be angry. Anger spurred him to action. It buoyed him rather than bogging him down. He could keep going while he was angry.
He picked up on the address of the targeted bank using his police scanner; simple enough. With his jetpack, he could be there in just a few minutes. Even with the others’ head start, he had plenty of time to join the fight and save the day.
It occurred to him, briefly, that Leo had portaled them without knowing where they were going. No, he had zoned out for part of the conversation - Raph must have said it while he wasn’t listening. Too bad, or he could have shaved some seconds off his arrival time.
It was fine, though! Because the bank was just over the next roof, and soon he would see what kind of trouble his brothers were in!
The answer became clear as he crossed to the other side: they weren’t in any trouble at all.
They were running circles around Hypno and the worm guy, coordinated in a way Donnie had never seen them. Their attacks were in harmony, and their mystic abilities were in full display with flashy bursts of color.
And April was there, right in the thick of it, whooping and swinging her bat with confident ease.
None of them fell under one of Hypno’s spells. None of them needed help with the worm guy.
It was done and dusted just minutes after Donnie’s arrival, and there had been no openings for him to swoop in. He watched them trade fist bumps below him, a complete team of four. No room for a fifth wheel.
He turned and left before they could see him.
He sat on a fire escape, one leg pulled to his chest, the other dangling, and stared at the dark phone in his hand.
He wasn’t sure how long he’d been still like this; he couldn’t bring himself to check the time. He didn’t want to know how long he had sat here, waiting for a text to light up the screen.
A text from his brothers. From April. From his dad.
None came. The phone was silent and dark.
He gritted his teeth and swiped on the glass, pointedly avoiding the clock to look at the battery life instead. It was in the red, and he cursed under his breath.
He had a charger in his battleshell, but eventually that would need to be charged, too. And then what? Was he supposed to go back to the lair? Crawl back to them, after they said… when they didn’t want…
After they were stupid jerks who couldn’t see his genius?
(Anger was easier. Anger was so, so much easier.)
So he wouldn’t go back to the lair. He would use his gauntlet and the drill to deliver some of his tech backups. But then what? Where was he supposed to go?
April was out. When she joined her brothers in battle without him, she made her own choice clear.
Draxum? No. Mikey may have trusted him, but Donnie didn’t, and going to the man when he was vulnerable hurting lacking in options was a foolish idea.
He had no one to turn to. But that was okay. He didn’t need anyone. If no one could see his talent for what it was, then he would just prove he could make it without them. Then they would be the ones crawling back to him. And maybe, if they really groveled, he would accept them back.
He got on his gauntlet and typed the command to bring his tech to him, effectively emptying the lair of what he could. Then he backed up his data to the cloud and set his computers to self-destruct.
And he changed the lair’s wifi password. His last little act of petty revenge.
It would take some time for his tech to arrive, leaving Donnie to linger on the fire escape, staring at the grimy brick wall on the other side while he waited. The sounds of the city that had been his home his whole life felt oddly muted and far away tonight, further wrapping him in his own lonesome little bubble.
With one last sad jingle, his phone died in his hand, and Donnie looked at his reflection in the dark glass, trying to puzzle out his next steps.
He couldn’t stay in this alley; he would need to find somewhere to bunker down for the day. An abandoned warehouse, or an under-construction apartment. Somewhere with a roof over his head. Preferably with electricity.
He would lay low for a while, build up his resources. Keep tabs on his brothers and their targets. Watch for a good time to make his reappearance. Perhaps with a whole new look. A whole new attitude.
The Donatello they thought they could push around, the Donatello they didn’t think they needed, was gone.
He’d build a new Donatello in his place. One that wasn’t weighed down by annoying attachments to others or a need for their approval.
Building things was what he was good at, after all.
He had just slid off the fire escape when he sensed someone approaching him - or rather, three someones.
For a second, he actually thought they had come looking for him. But no; he would know his brothers’ footsteps anywhere, and these were not them.
But they were still familiar.
“Hello, Othello von Ryan.”
He bristled, curling a hand around his tech-bo. “Kendra. Kendra’s leeches. What an unpleasant surprise.”
“I thought that was one of your drones I saw flying over here.” She stood in the center of the alley, framed by the lights of the streetlamps beyond. Her hip was cocked, tone bored. “What’s the matter? Brothers finally get sick of you?”
It didn’t sting. It didn’t.
“Did juvie give you a day pass?” he asked, keeping his own tone equally bored, equally level.
“I’m out, actually.” She grinned. “Good behavior.”
“Hah! Every day I lose more faith in our criminal justice system.” He kicked on his jetpack and started to rise. “As fun as catching up with you has been, it’s actually been intolerable. Goodbye.”
“Wait. We have a proposition for you.”
“Not interested.”
“Are you sure? It could be fun. It’d even give you a chance to show off.”
He slowed his ascent and looked down at her. She was trying to manipulate him, he knew that. But if he was aware then she wouldn’t succeed.
And he was just a little interested.
“What? Stealing trinkets from an Apple store? Raiding a Dell warehouse? Whatever it is, I’m sure it’s beneath me.”
“Well, that’s fine.” Kendra impassively studied her nails. “It’s not like we need you.”
He sank back down a few feet. “Don’t you? Without me, you’ll just end up in jail again.”
“Only if we get caught. And that’s what we thought you could help with.” Her eyes cut up to meet his. “What do you say, Donatello? Want to help us make fools of your brothers?”
He did want that. He wanted that a lot, actually.
But how did she know that they-
No. Thinking about that brought on feelings that weren’t anger. Anger was wanting to rub his genius in their smug faces. Anger was wanting to leave them helpless and afraid. Anger was wanting to make them rue the day they had ever cast him aside.
He landed back in the alley, wary eyes on Kendra, even as a sick and twisted eagerness rose in his chest.
“Alright. Maybe I’m interested. What’s the job?”
Kendra’s smile was so like a shark’s.
“Come with us, and we’ll tell you.”