Work Text:
The room smelled like mold and burnt metal, clearly having been abandoned for a good few months. The turtles had found one of Bishop's old underground labs, abandoned for who knows what reason. Raph was looking around for anything interesting looking. The tables were covered in beakers, filled with nothing but dust. A control panel was completely turned off, none of the buttons did anything. Tanks on the walls that probably once housed kidnapped aliens were empty except for mystery bubbling fluid.
He paced around for a bit, after finding nothing of interest. Raph turned into a smaller room next to the main lab to find Donnie.
He was behind a metal cube covered in dust. It looked sort of like a mini fridge with no doors. It was made of a sleek metal with different colored squares decorating it. Donnie knelt behind it with his magnifying goggles on, clearly messing with the cube.
“What’cha got there, Don?” Raph asked as he leaned on the door frame.
“I don’t know,” Donnie said flatly. He didn’t look up at his brother.
“What do you mean, you don’t know?” Raph raised a brow, “You’re telling me that you have no idea what this thing is and you’re just fiddlin’ with it?”
“Well, I have some hypotheses–” he lifted one of his hands that had a screwdriver in it– “but it’s clearly alien, and doesn't appear to have any obvious functions, so I’m seeing if I can take it apart.”
“That doesn’t make me feel any better.” Raph crossed his arms over his plastron.
“Well, maybe when I get this panel off, that might shed some light on what this thing does.” He focused his attention back on the cube.
Raph heaved a sigh, he knew there was nothing he could do to stop this. When his nerd of a brother got fixated on something like this, practically nothing would get him to quit. So, he just watched his sibling fiddle with his tools until a metal creak was heard.
“Got it!” Donnie grinned with pride. He held up a colored square that was bigger than the rest of the ones on the cube, fittingly in the color purple.
“Alright, brainiac, what’s in there?” Raph smirked at his brother. Donnie looked down at the hole he had just uncovered and frowned.
“That’s odd.” He tilted his head and lifted the goggles off of his eyes.
“What is it?” Raph took a couple paces forward towards the cube.
“It’s just one button.” He held up one finger for emphasis.
“What? No way.” Raph stood next to Donnie and looked at the hole in the cube. Sure enough, a single dark grey button was sitting on its own in a two inch deep pocket.
“Huh, I’m no engineer, but that doesn’t seem right.”
“No, it’s not.” Donnie ran his fingers along the metal around the button; It was smooth and cool, with no other screws or seams. Donnie hummed to himself, considering his options.
“I think there’s only one thing I can do,” He rubbed the back of his head.
“And that would be?” Raph asked, hoping his brother wasn’t suggesting what he thought he was suggesting.
“I press the button,” he said simply.
"Are you nuts?" Raph threw his hands in the air. "This box could do anything and you wanna just push an unlabeled button!"
“Yup.” Without hesitation he pushed the button. Raph jumped back and sucked in a breath.
Beep
The cube didn’t move. It didn’t change or activate an alarm or anything. It just beeped. Raph breathed a sigh of relief, then glared daggers at his sibling.
“Well, that was anticlimactic.” Donnie put his hands on his hips. Raph growled as he rubbed his face with his hand and then sighed.
“Alright, let’s get outta here before you find any more mystery buttons to push.” He turned around and headed for the door.
Beep
“Why would you push it again?” Raph threw his hands up in the air.
“I didn’t.” Donnie was standing, all of his tools were back in his bag.
“Then why did it-”
Beep
It went off again, Donnie’s hands were nowhere near the cube. Raph stared at the metal box. It hadn’t changed, still looked like an unassuming colorful mini fridge.
Beep
“That’s getting faster, I wonder if–” Donnie started to say.
Beep
Donnie knelt back down to the box, he touched it with his hand, frowning when he did so. The cube was warm to the touch, it hadn’t been before.
Beep
Beep
“Raph, I think this is a bomb.” Donnie kept staring at the box.
Beep
Beep
“What!?!” Raph jerked back.
Beep
Beep
Beep
“Oh, that’s definitely a bomb.” Donnie stood straight up.
Beep
Beep
Beep
Beep
“RUN!” Donnie shouted. He grabbed Raph’s wrist and pulled him through the door. They kept running till they reached the other side of the main lab. They could still hear the beeping get faster.
They nearly ran into Leo and Mikey, who had been exploring in the weapons room next to the lab.
What’s going on? Leo asked, eyes wide.
“Get down! Donnie shouted.
They nearly tackled their brothers, pushing them back into the armory. Raph covered his siblings as best he could. Donnie covered his cutaneous plates with his hands. For a moment it was quiet.
“Uh, guys,” Mikey piped up from the center of the group. “Why are we?-”
There was a flash of pale blue, then the whole room shook with a thunderous roar, the sound of the explosion made the turtles wince in pain. The ceiling rained dust and debris on them.
After a moment, everything settled. The ceiling had thankfully held and not collapsed on them. They each stood up slowly, scanning their surroundings.
“Well, I guess that answers my question,” Mikey said shakily. He brushed the dust off of his arms.
Raph groaned and wiped his face off.
“Ugh, Don, I know you’re a genius and all, but sometimes you’re worse than Mikey.” He jutted his thumb at his youngest brother.
“Is everyone alright?” Leo rubbed his eyes and wiped the dust off of his mask.
Leo looked at each of his brothers, scanning them over to make sure they weren’t hurt. They all nodded their heads. He took a moment to clear his throat.
“So, does anyone want to tell me what the shell just happened?” He gave Donnie and Raph a look like a mother would give a child after they just broke something, which to be fair they sort of just did. Donnie looked down at the floor and flapped his hands, clearly embarrassed, and a bit overwhelmed from the experience.
“I didn’t mean to.” Donnie mumbled.
“I think Don just took your Captain of the land-mines title, Leo,” Raph chuckled. Both Leo and Donnie shot him a look of irritation.
“Donnie set off a bomb?” Mikey looked at his brother in awe. “That does sound worse than something I would do.” He brushed a small chunk of dirt off of Donnie’s shell with a giggle.
“Alright, that’s enough.” Leo Intervened, and gave Donnie a sympathetic look. “Now, let’s go make sure the exit didn’t collapse in the explosion.” He made his way towards the main lab, his younger brothers trailed behind him.
The lab appeared to be fine, the ceiling had cracked a bit and the stuff on the tables had all fallen on the floor, but the overall damage was pretty low. The door that led out was also fine, some rocks were in front of it, but none too big that couldn’t be easily picked up.
“Fascinating,” Donnie mused, looking around the room. “With how loud the explosion was, I expected a lot more damage.”
“And you’re complainin’ about that?” Raph tilted his up at the ceiling; the cracks made him a bit nervous.
“No, just an observation.” Donnie walked towards the other side of the lab, “I’m wondering why something so loud caused such little destruction.”
“Maybe we can find out if we go look.” Mikey jogged over to the other side of the lab, towards the little room where the bomb had been.
“Mikey don’t!” Donnie called, “We don’t know what kind of radiation it could have left!”
Too late, Mikey had already reached the doorway of the little room. He peeked inside.
“Woah!” Mikey walked all the way into the room and looked up. He did a little spin then walked back out of the room.
“You guys have to see this!” Mikey shouted. “It’s awesome!”
The three older brothers looked at each other and shrugged, and they followed Mikey out of sheer curiosity. They all walked up to the door and peered inside. Their jaws dropped.
The entire room was covered in black, blue, and teal powder. It shimmered with sparkles from the small fire that was on the floor. The ceiling had a huge dent in it with spider webbing cracks that covered the whole roof. Where the cube had been was just a flat piece of blackened metal, scorched from the explosion.
“I think I know what the cube was, Raph.” Donnie mumbled, still staring at the ceiling.
“What?” Raph looked at his twin.
“It was fireworks.” He looked back at him with a wild grin on his face.
“You set off alien fireworks indoors,” Mikey chuckled. “Not your brightest move.”
“Yeah, let’s go before Mr.Trigger-happy pushes any more buttons,” Raph commented.
“Agreed.” Leo led them out of the room. They managed to move all the big rocks out of the way of the exit and slipped out of the underground lab.
Nothing was really gained from this mission, in fact it was more overwhelming than anything, but they left Bishop's old lab a colorful torched mess which was enough of an accomplishment and felt good after all they had been through. Donnie was glad he had hit that button.
“Hey Donnie, do you wanna set off fireworks in the purple dragon’s hideout or Shredder’s building next?” Mikey teased.
Donnie sighed. He was never gonna live this down.