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Chapter Text

8 is an even composite number, part of the Fibonacci sequence and the atomic number for Oxygen. Oxygen is one of the most common and important elements on the periodic table as it is essential for many chemical reactions that allow for life on earth. 8 or “ba” (八) in Chinese is also considered a lucky number in China due to its similarity to the chinese word “fa” (发), meaning prosperity. It is also the number of soulmates that Donatello had. 

Soulmarks were an interesting topic for Donatello Last Name Pending. He couldn’t exactly discount their existence when he had one tattooed on his shoulder, but the science behind them was still unexplained. The facts were that everyone had at least one, it was a picture that represented your soulmate, and that you knew the minute you saw your symbol on someone else that that was your soulmate. 
Everything else remained a variable though, Donatello was able to add that you did not have to be ‘human’ to have a soulmark. In fact, 4 of his soulmates were similarly non-human. He knew this because he was one of the lucky 45% that grew up with one or more soulmates. 

 You see, Donatello otherwise known as Donnie, Purple, or one of the many other nicknames his twin had saddled him with was a mutant softshell turtle who lived in the sewers beneath New York. He had eight soulmarks as previously stated. 

He had a list of each of them, carefully detailed and updated regularly

• His brother Raphael (age 6, alligator snapping-turtle [Macrochelys temminckii] / human mutant,  soulmark: a red plush dinosaur)
• Donatello (age 5, possible twin of subject: Leonardo, spiny softshell turtle [Apalone spinifera] / human mutant, soulmark: stylized D, logo of currently under-construction Genius Built trademark) [included for completion purposes]
• His maybe-twin Leonardo, (age 5, twin status under contest, red eared slider turtle [Trachemys scripta elegans] / human mutant soulmark: blue set of playing cards)
• His youngest brother Michelangelo, (age 4, ornate box turtle [Terrapene ornata] / human mutant soulmark: orange spray-painted heart), 
• and Papa, a.k.a Splinter (age unknown, brown rat [rattus norvegicus] / human mutant soulmark: pile of popcorn, held in the classic red and white bag). 
• Undiscovered: a white (scowling- according to Mikey) hockey mask with a brownie on top
• Undiscovered: a green flashlight powered on with a bright yellow beam
• Undiscovered: A turtle (species unknown) with a hockey stick Undiscovered: an aquatic creature likely of superorder Selachimorpha i.e shark (unconfirmed and debated by Leo who claims it looks more like a goldfish- species unspecified) 
• Unconfirmed- a large  flower-like pizza-like symbol placed behind the soulmarks, colored in each soulmates’ preferred colors. (Found on some of Splinter’s belongings, investigate further later)

So, Donnie had questions. 
What was the likelihood of other mutants? How rare were they? Were there any like them? Like Donnie?  How were they created? What was their origin story? Had Dad been the only mutant before they came along? Where did their human DNA come from? How did he know they were human/turtle hybrids?
Was the symbol behind their soulmarks another soulmark? Where did it come from? Why did Papa have it carved onto the end of that scroll? Why hadn’t he told them about it?

What did it mean? 

“If you’re so curious, why don’t you figure it out?” Leo asked one day after Donnie had once again bemoaned their father’s secrecy.

“What are you talking about?” Donnie asked. 

“You’re super smart Don-tron,” Leo nodded, “We can be like detestives like in Jupiter Jim: Mystery on the Moon 5.”

“Detectives,” Donnie corrected. He thought it over for a moment. He was pretty smart, and he had to know. “I’ll add a check-mark to your good idea counter.”

“Yes,” Leo fist-pumped, “I’ll go ask Mikey if he found any red yarn.”

“Excellent,” Donnie cackled, “I’ll grab that bulletin board we found. Raph can help us hang it up.” 

Mikey didn’t have any red yarn, but he had brought some boring string and some less rusty nails and thumbtacks that Raph hadn’t complained about. Raph had helped him hang the board up and Leo had the bright idea to hang a curtain over it. It took over an hour and balancing on Raph’s shell, but they managed to nail the curtain into place and rig a system to hold it off the board. 

“I dunno about this Donnie,” Raph fussed, “What would Pops think about this?”

“Papa should have thought of that before he didn’t answer my questions,” Donnie replied primly.

“Yeah,” Mikey chirped, “We wanna know! It’s our mark too!”

“Exactly, dear Michelangelo,” Donnie agreed, “Now hand me those photos.” Mikey had contributed to their bulletin board by doodling their soulmark on paper along with self-portraits of them. It was hardly accurate but they had to include Mikey somehow. Sigh. Donnie ignored the pleased feeling that Mikey was taking this seriously.

“Maybe Dad has a good reason not to tell us about this though,” Raph tried.

“Relax, Raphie,” Leo said. He climbed onto their biggest brother’s shell to stick one of the photos at the top of the board. “We’re just being enter-per-izing,”

“Enterprising,” Donnie corrected.

“Enterprising,” Leo repeated, “Dad’s always telling us to be creative and try new things. Besides, he never has to know.” Raph looked at him nervously and Donnie crossed his fingers hoping that he would give in.

“Alright, fine,” Raph conceded, “It’s our mark too, right.”

“Exactly,” Donnie trilled, “Progress cannot be stopped!” He pinned another picture to the board as Leo tied off the string. Mikey pressed a heart sticker onto the board’s edge and the brothers stepped back to look at their masterpiece. 

The board was covered in crayon and paint drawings of their family and soulmarks. String stretched between the photos with little notes describing the photos and the connections. It was pretty sparsely decorated and covered in more questions than answers but it was a start. 

“The Splinter-spiracy board,” Leo dubbed it. Donnie cringed at the nickname but he could already tell that it was going to stick. 

“We gotta promise to keep this secret,” Donnie says suddenly. He thinks of the times his brothers innocently mentioned some of his more ‘dangerous’ projects around Papa and how they were given a ban without adult supervision. 

“We’ll swear on our honor as brothers,” Mikey said solemnly, his too big eyes undercutting his tone with love and innocence. His cheeks are puffed out and for a half moment thinks about how cute his little brother is before he spits onto his hand and holds it out. Donnie recoils in disgust. 

“Ew,” Donnie shudders. 

“I saw two guys do this in the alley of 7th,” Mikey said, “They swore.” Donnie doesn’t want to know what his innocent brother means by that and definitely doesn’t want to touch his germ covered hand. He looks at his other brothers who shrug apologetically and spit on their own hands.

“C’mon Donnie,” Raph said, “You gotta swear.” Donnie looks between them all and sighs. Hesitantly he spits onto his hand and they all grab onto each other in a disgusting awkward mess and agree to never tell Splinter about this. 
Leo passes him a rag and sanitizer as they split apart and Donnie spares a brief second to think about how moments like this are the reason that he still can’t deny Leo as his twin despite the biological impossibilities. 

“Thank you,” Donnie says instead. He wouldn’t say it even if he was sure. Leo’s head is big enough already. 

“We’re in this together,” Leo replies. I’ve got you bro. 

“Together,” Raph agrees. He taps his finger against the hidden soulmark on his plastron. “We’ve got your back Donnie.” 

“We be we,” Mikey says, “You’re never getting rid of us.” Donnie scoffs.

“I realized what a futile endeavor that was after Leo opened his dum-dum mouth.”

“Hey!” Leo shouts as the brothers laugh. Donnie has a lot of questions, but he thinks that he’ll get them. He’s not alone as he worries. He has 8 soulmarks and 4 of them right here. He can work with that. 

As with all things, his brother’s interest in the ‘Splinter-Spiracy’ board wanes over time.  Leo continues to pull him into schemes and cover for them whenever Papa manages to pull himself out of his chair. Mikey sneaks up to the surface and paints the city to let their soulmates know that they are there. Raph worries about them all and pulls them into turtle piles and tries to keep them safe. But Donnie is a scientist and scientists push boundaries. 

Luckily enough for him, his family is very very (that’s two verys) supportive of his hobbies. On Leo and Donnie’s shared 6th birthday, most of his brothers bring him different kinds of electronics to help further his scientific endeavors. They had spent the whole day running around playing Sports Ball, Turtle Tackle, and Papa even let them pull out Monopoly before it was quickly banned again. 

It was a good day for Papa. It was exciting to see him around and smiling with them. He had even managed to find everything for a cake and Mikey had decorated it with wobbly lines of purple and blue frosting. The food dye had gotten all over Mikey’s hands and shell but he was beaming. By the time they got to presents, the dye was all over Leo too. 

According to the Birthday Rules, they each got to open one gift before the other got a turn. This made it imperative to choose the gifts correctly in order to prevent maximum surprise and minimum impatience. Leo tended to just rip off the wrapping paper but Donnie made sure to make strategic cuts to remove it in as few steps as possible. He would argue that his way was much more satisfying despite Leo’s claims to the contrary. 

Leo had gotten a set of hand painted playing cards from Mikey, a lumpy crocheted blanket from Raphie, and a newly improved medbay from Donnie. He had started preparing it for the eventual eye surgery that he was going to ask Leo to perform after he got a bit more experience. Donnie had received stickers and business cards for Genius Built Inc. from both Mikey and Leo, a pile of heavy metal and a soft blanket from Raph, and a coupon for one ‘twin-venture’ from Leo. He rolled his eyes at that one to Leo’s offended gasp. 

Dad handed them each a wrapped gift box as they opened their last gift. Papa fiddled with his hands as he looked away. 

“I -uh- got you both the same thing, so -uh- you should open them at the same time. Happy Birthday, boys,” he finishes fondly. 

The box was slightly smushed and wrinkled like it had fallen under a couch but Donnie carefully peels and smooths out the wrapping paper to reveal. 

“An outdated box?” Leo wonders as he turns an identical rectangular electronic around. Donnie looks at his. It makes sense why he would get one- something like this is excellent supplies for his computer but it doesn’t make much sense for Leo to get one too. 

“Outdated?!” Splinter splutters, “It’s a classic. Why, when I was a child, all the cool kids had a walkman like that.” 

“Uh-huh,” Leo responds dubiously. 

“It’s a music player,” Donnie comments, turning it over to examine the buttons, “Produced in the late 1900s.” 

“How do you know that?” Leo gaped in surprise.

“It says it on the back,” Donnie deadpanned. 

“I got you some tapes too,” Papa adds, “I found some of the ones that I used to listen to. I hope you like them.” He hands them a box with a handful of old cassette tapes clattering around the bottom of the box. 

“Happy Birthday, my boys,” Papa smiles. 

“Thanks Dad,” Leo chants, before elbowing Donnie. He looks up from his examination to add his own “Thank you Papa,” before going back to the walkman. 

Compared to his inventions, it’s a simple device. He picks one of the purple tapes and slots it into place before untangling the headphones wrapped around the walkman and slipping them over his head. The party is starting to wrap up so Donnie feels no regret about pressing the play button. It’s quiet for a brief second before the enthusiastic beats of the 80s fill his skull. He turns it down just enough so he can hear the others if they really need him. 

The sweet vibrations hit his brain and dopamine is released as Donnie finds that his toe is tapping. Oh he’s gonna chase this feeling. He thinks about the materials his brothers found for him and checks his mental checklist. With those last few donations, he should be able to finish his computer, his piece de resistance and connect to the worldwide web. 

And now he has the perfect background music as he does. He starts plotting up usernames and passwords as the music plays and his family starts to head to bed when the perfect name pops into his head. 

Later, he’ll boot up his computer and finish coding the last bits of software. Music will dance through his head as he sways slightly. 

[Welcome, Bootyyyshaker9000]

Donnie grins as the next cassette starts to play and starts his foray into the great unknown with the perfect background music. 

Chapter Text

Along with science, music becomes Donnie’s second great love. As he surfs the web, he frequently finds himself pulling on the headphones of the walkman. He rather likes the pressure on his head and finds himself making notes for his next set of tech goggles. In the meantime, the internet is just as wonderful as he had hoped. There are science forums, Jupiter Jim forums, online courses and even music! As wonderful as the walkman that Papa gave him is, there are only so many tapes to listen to. 

The internet becomes a second home. It lets him connect to almost anything. As he teaches himself to code and hack, he can push the limits and help his family to get what they need. He’s starts setting up his company: Genius Built and trying to begin making connections. Leo shuts that down before he gets too far on account of ‘negotiation is a delicate dance, hermano, one your big brain doesn’t get’. 

However, Donnie had managed to make a good friend over the internet. He didn’t know much about her because ‘you shouldn’t cyber stalk your friends Dee’ and stuff about ‘respecting personal privacy’. He had still run a background check of course but April O’Neil seemed pretty normal. Average grades, lived not too far from them with her parents and grandmother. 

He could maybe admit he had gotten spooked when he realized how close she had gotten to him. Detective_Corn, April was just - she was cool. She said they could be weird together and was great at gaming and liked Jupiter Jim like they did. April was an outside friend! He had just needed to be sure that it wasn’t too good to be true.

Donnie wasn’t strong like Raph, or as friendly as Mikey. He was protective. Apalone spinifera or spiny softshell turtles like Donnie were carnivorous predators. When fully grown they faced few natural predators and would defend themselves with both a painful bite and sharp claws despite their softer shell. 

Donnie kept his claws short enough to do delicate wire work, and he had gotten in trouble several times when he was little for biting but as he heard Papa say the other day, ‘there was more than one way to skin a cat’. 

So maybe Donnie had done a bit more research into April O’Neil, age 9, soon to be 10 than he had told his brothers. And maybe he had looked into more than just her grades and address. It’s not like he had a file on her or anything… of course not. He was just being cautious and taking care of what was his. No one was allowed to hurt his brothers but him. 

So, when Leo called Donnie down, he knew exactly who April O’Neil was.

“Oh Sweet Galileo, we’re allowing kidnapping now!” Donnie enthused as he rapidly put the pieces together. 

“No! No we are not!” Raph squeaked with a glance at April. 

“Fooie,” Donnie pouted, “You never let me shine.” He shifted awkwardly as he looked between them all. April was standing confidently between his brothers. She wasn’t blinking at their scaly appearance, or even looked like she was thinking about selling them out. Good. Donnie wouldn’t have to use contingency plans K-Q. 

“Guess who met our new soulmate before you?” Leo cooed, “Uh this guy!” Donnie crashed for a second as he processed this new information. April O’Neil = soulmate. He was kicking himself that he had never realized that his online friend was his soulmate, but that was an error that would be taken into consideration for further calculations. 

“Au contraire, my brother,” Donnie said, covering for his brief moment of stupefaction. 

“Twin,” Leo corrected.

“Unless I am severely mistaken, April and I have met before,” Donnie said expectantly. Oh please be cool. Please be cool. 

“Bootyyyshaker9000?” April guessed

“Sweet validation!” Donnie celebrated, “I knew you were sensible Sherlock Corn.” He shook her hand enthusiastically.

“What?” Mikey exclaimed, “When did you two meet?” 

“We’re teammates on the JJ Space Adventure Game,” April told him, “but I never told you my name before.” 

“The security on the JJSA game was easy enough to crack and find your name,” Donnie waved off her question. 

“Donnie!” Raph scolded, “No hacking!” 

“I mean- of course I didn’t do that, he said convincingly.” Donnie lied. Nailed it. 

“Did ya fix it?” April asked.

“Of course I did, your security was much better after I went through it,” Donnie replied automatically. He heard a slapping noise behind him but April was practically beaming at him. He grinned back. 

“Then I forgive you,” she told him. She hugged him fast and strong before pulling away and giving his shoulder a friendly punch. “This time.” Donnie grinned and rubbed his arm. 

“Excellent.” 

“You’re Purple then?” 

“Of course, it’s my logo: Genius Built.” He had been hesitant to use it but it seemed to be the only thing that really fit. This was what represented him and his. Carefully, he took off his battle shell to reveal his soulmark and April offered him her wrist. 

“Same time then?” He nodded. 

Since Papa had given Donnie that walkman he had become something of a music connoisseur. He and Leo had created an entire catalogue of cassettes and assigned value. Leo was annoyingly good at playing their miniature stock market (although Donnie was better at playing the actual stock market) and Donnie had done intensive research into the beginnings of music theory and the various effects of music on an environment. 

Music was to science and art what the ‘island of stability’ was to protons and neutrons. It was the perfect blend, the ying-yang balance of both. There were rules to music: rhythm, tempo, meters, notes, rhyme schemes and more. It made sense to Donnie and he had started to see each of his family members as their own unique song. 

April’s inner song practically dares you to hit her with your best shot. A strong electric beat that zapped you awake. It had passion and drive and could turn on a dime to mix it up. It’s got the beat. It called to mind hip-hop, rock, and pop and lives in the space between them all. It’s not unusual but it stands out all the same. It’s the perfect addition to his mental library.

“Curious,” he mumbled as he imagined her track slotting into place between his dad’s and Raph’s. He looked up at her. “Now that you’re in the know as they say, I have questions.” 

“You better believe I got some too,” April exclaimed. 

“Sorry to break up the nerd fest, but how about we get comfortable first?” Leo interrupts

“Aw yeah! Turtle pile baby!” Mikey shouted before dashing off to grab blankets, beanbags, and anything else to spread on the floor. 

“Raph’s got ‘im,” Raph promised and chased after him.

“Turtle Pile?” April muttered

“Oh it’s the best,” Leo said, “We all pile on top of each other and just hang.” Mikey dashed into the room with blankets falling out of his arms as Raph carried several beanbags and pillows behind him. He dumped them on the floor and Mikey dragged April into the pile as they all shuffled around and leaned into each other. 

Raph took his traditional center position with Leo draped next to his shell. Mikey curled himself up to fit in between his brothers in a kind of hug and Donnie perched on top of Raph. April had been pulled in by Mikey but after some shuffling sat herself daintily in the middle of their mess and in reach of each of them. 

“So how did you find us?” Donnie asked. He had his newest surveillance devices recording and ready to take notes on how to improve their security. 

Mikey giggled nervously. “So don’t get mad,” he started. 

“Oh Raph doesn’t like the sound of that,” Raph groaned. 

“Don’t get mad-” Mikey started again.

“Yes, yes we all know about your habit of going topside to do graffiti, Mikey. Continue with the story,” Donnie hurried. 

“Mikey!” Raph yelped.

“Donnie!” Mikey and Leo yelped. 

“Oh, we did not all know,” Donnie realized. April muffled a snort. 

“I promise we were super safe,” Leo told Raph, “I was Mikey’s back up, and he always chose really safe spots for his art.” Raph was still worried but April cut in before he could go full mother-hen.  

“It was good he did because I was running out of ideas,” April said, “I went to dozens of hockey games and joined at least 5 different teams, learned every card game I could think of, looked into every dinosaur, plush, or purple thing I could think of. I even made a rating system on the best kinds of popcorn and brownies and I don’t even like brownies that much!” 

“You can’t not like brownies!” Mikey cried. 

“What kind of criteria did you use for your rating system?” Donnie asked. Raph relaxed beneath him as they continued talking and asking questions 

“Buttery-ness, saltiness, amount per price, availability, overall taste, and a general survey for personal preference,” April listed off. “Why do you have that thing strapped to your shell?” 

“I call it my battle shell,” Donnie told her, “I’m an apalone spinfera. ”

“Spiny softshell turtle,” his brothers chorused. 

“My shell is covered in leathery skin and made mostly of bone. Dad used to tie a pillow on my shell when we wrestled so I improved it.”

“You probably would have been fine without it anyway,” Leo called, “You were a vicious baby turtle. I still have bite marks.” Donnie snapped at him playfully. 

“Those are from when you tried to steal his headphones last week,” Mikey helpfully called. There was a small tussle at the reminder before Raph pinned them under his arms and threatened air jail. 

“Guys,” Raph pleaded, “I promise we’re not always like this,” Raph lied to April. 

“Maybe I could borrow a spare and join you,” April mused. 

“I would recommend it,” Donnie agreed, “It is very very (that’s two verys) mentally stimulating, but you do seem rather squishy.” Still, if she had any sort of strength comparable to her gaming skills she would probably be fine. 

“I’ll show you squishy,” April threatened playfully, “How many times have I beat you at JJ Space Duels?” 

“No comment, he said shiftily,” Donnie sniffed. 

“Alright, what is your favorite food?” Mikey asked.

“Pizza,” April answered promptly

“What kind of toppings though?” Raph crossed his fingers. 

“There’s a chicken bbq pizza at the shop two streets down that I like,” April said.

“Chicken barbeque pizza?” Mikey wondered, “What’s that like?” 

“I’ll try and get you some sometime,” April promised, “It’s really good.” 

“At least you didn’t say pineapple like a certain heathen turtle,” Donnie said.

“Pineapple is good though!” Leo argued.

“Pepperoni’s the best though,” Raph cut it before they could repeat the Great Pizza Debate. 

“It’s a classic,” April agreed, “Why do you all have masks?” 

“We’re ninjas,” Raph told her.

“Or at least, ninjas in training,” Donnie prefaced, “Papa trains us occasionally. He says its tradition but never fully explains what.” 

“Cool,” April breathed

“You better believe it,” Leo bragged, “We’ve even got weapons.” 

“Right,” April snapped,” You had those swords when I walked in.

“Katanas,” Leo told her, “and I’ve got two!” 

“They’re family heirlooms,” Raph told April, “Most of the time they stay inside on the shelves though. The first time we got them, there were a lot of bruises.” 

“I’ll say,” Donnie agreed, “Mikey looked like a bruised peach.” 

“Nunchucks are hard!” Mikey groaned, “And I was way littler then! I’m totally better now.”

“You’ll have to teach me sometime,” April said, “Mom’s always saying I should learn more self-defense.” 

“You have a mom?” Raph asked. April nodded. 

“I have her, Dad, and Grammi,” April told them, “And now you do too.” 

“What?” they all exclaimed. April fidgeted nervously for a second before tucking some of her bouncy brown hair behind her ear and adjusting her glasses. 

“According to O’Neil tradition, y’all are part of our family now. O’Neils almost never have blood relations for soulmates, but they all end up as part of the family one way or another.” 

“Fascinating,” Donnie breathed. 

“Wow,” Mikey gasped, “I’ve never had an older sister before.” 

“Technically, April is the oldest, that would make her our oldest sibling,” Donnie added. There was a brief moment as they all looked at Raph before April smirked. 

“Little brother,” she declared before patting him on the head. Raph blinked at her as the brothers gasped in disbelief and shouted in delight. 

“Hey!” Raph said after a minute, “That’s not how it works! Is it?” April thought for a moment. 

“I think it is. I’ve never had any siblings before,” April said, “We can both be the biggest sibling though. I’m oldest, and you can be biggest.” Raph agreed and they shook on it before jumping back into exchanging the details of their lives and catching their newest sibling up on the most important parts of life. 

April was a fountain of information. For every question they shot at her, she shot one back at them. She fit in with them like she had always belonged right here with them. 

Mentally, Donnie updated his file. 

April O’Neil

Status: Soulmate/sister (soulmark: green flashlight with bright yellow beam)

Age: 10

Species: human ( homo sapiens ) 

Skills: gaming, wrestling, analysis, 

Likes: pizza, Jupiter Jim, asking questions, yellow, turtles, video games

Dislikes: Kendra, New York Traffic, not knowing things 

Additional family: Mom (Carol O’Neil), Dad (Kirby O’Neil), Grammi (name unknown), Papa (Splinter), Raphael (brother), Donatello (brother), Leonardo (brother), Michelangelo (brother)

There was a familiar scuffing noise that had Donnie looking up from his thinking to see Papa walking towards them. 

“What in the name of-?” he exclaimed as he eyed their turtle pile and saw April. Splinter’s hackles raised at the sight of her holding Mikey in what had started as a tackle and ended as a hug. 

“Human!” he shouted, “Get away from my sons!” Oh no. The turtle pile fell apart as Splinter’s tail came whipping towards them. Mikey dragged April down and Raph stumbled to try and step in front of her. 

“No-no look out!” Donnie shouted as he fell onto Leo and as Dad darted around Raph. 

“She’s Flashlight!” Mikey screeched with his Dr. Delicate Touch voice, “OUR SOULMATE!” Papa stopped in his tracks like they had all been conditioned to and looked at April. She was a little more rumbled now, with her glasses eschew on her face from their mad scramble. 

“Oh, my apologies little one,” Dad apologized. 

“It’s cool,” April swallowed. Donnie scooted a little closer and slightly off Leo. “You never said your dad was a rat,” she hissed at them. Donnie didn’t know if she realized that Dad could hear that but he merely twitched and smiled. 

“Are you Popcorn?” she asked. 

“I am,” Dad told her, “You can call me Splinter.” Yes, yes wonderful, Donnie thought impatiently.

“April O’Neil,” she offered. Dad was cut off from saying anything else when April’s phone went off. “Shoot! It’s my mom!” she blanched, “She’s probably wondering where I am.” 

Dad snatched the phone out of her hand and accepted the call, turning slightly away as he put the phone up to his ear. 

“Hello? Is this April’s mother?” he asked. There was a moment of shock as they all stared at him and he listened to Mrs. O’Neil. 

“Yes, sorry for the surprise, I thought I should offer an explanation. … Yes, of course … Well, it seems that Miss April here is the soulmate of my kids and I … yes, no I understand … of course I can send you a picture for proof.” Dad carefully curled his hand to hide his claws and sent a picture of it to Mrs. O’Neil. “Yes, she called me Popcorn, I believe … no, we simply ran into each other. Hamato Yoshi, but I go by Splinter mostly now … of course … no, she’s welcome-” There was more that he said but Donatello was only half listening at this point. 

Dad’s name wasn’t Splinter? His name was Hamato Yoshi? He blinked in shock and looked at the stunned faces of his brothers before looking back at April who just caught her phone from Dad tossing it back to her. Ooh! The things they could do with this information!! 

“She wants you home after lunch. I would come up with an explanation that doesn’t involve this for now,” he points between himself, the turtles, and April before clapping his hands together. “So! Would you like to stay for lunch?” 

“Would you like to stay forever?” Leo calls from the floor. 

“LEO!” Donnie and his other brothers yell. Donnie surreptitiously squishes his brother just a little more even though he privately agreed. They still weren’t allowing kidnapping and he had to uphold that no matter how boring that was. 

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” April grinned at them. Leo cackles from under Donnie’s foot and Donnie lets out a gleeful cackle of his own with a more diabolical twist of course. Ooh, he’s just had the perfect idea! 

Splinter’s having a good day and is very interested in chatting with April. This is excellent news when framed within a normal day, but rather horrible now that they are desperately trying to get April- and only April’s attention. 

Luckily his brothers understand the imperative need to inform April of her ability to uncover life-changing information prior to her departure which will occur precisely after lunch. Regardless of how imprecise ‘after lunch’ is as a unit of measurement. In this case, that works to their benefit. 

Raph concocts a rather complicated plan to distract Splinter’s attention that would involve a frankly ludicrous amount of flour and chicken feathers before Leo slides in and asks if ‘Dad could please show him that noodle recipe he made last week? I wanted to know if we had all the stuff for it or not.’ 

With Papa sufficiently distracted it is child’s play to grab hold of April and drag her to the lab. 

“Wha-?” she starts to ask before Donnie shoves a finger in her face and hisses for her to shush! She lasts a brief moment before Donnie yips in pain and pulls back his finger.

“You bit me!” he complains.

“What, you can dish it but you can’t take it?” April asks, spitting. Donnie stares at her for a brief moment before nodding to himself.

“Objection retracted, you shall fit in perfectly. I eagerly await the day you join our wrestling piles,” Donnie turns and walks over to the far wall. The battered gray-ish curtain is still hanging over it and he hurries to the rope hanging nearby. 

“So what’s with all the secrecy?” April repeated. 

“Behold!” Donnie declares with all due gravitas as he yanks the rope. The curtain lifts to reveal their conspiracy board hanging in all its glory. Papa’s- Splinter’s photo was pinned in the middle of the board. Raph lumbers up to it and presses a small sticky note next to it that reads ‘Hamato Yoshi’ under it. Mikey adds a small sticker of a video game character to keep it from falling off before they both fall back and allow April to admire their creation. 

“You have a conspiracy board about Splints?” April questioned. 

“It’s called the Splinter-spiracy Board!” Mikey chirped. Donnie loves Mikey. He’s a great little brother. His song breathed with the city streets and found music in the mundane. If ever a music could be described as colorful, his could. It had emotion and depth even though most just read the upbeat tempo as solid positivity. 

But! That did not mean that Donnie had to like the names that Mikey continued to perpetuate and propose for his creations. April snorted. 

“Again, why do you have a Splinter-Spiracy Board?” 

“Well, Papa has the rather unfortunate habit of keeping secrets,” Donnie explained, “Where did we come from? Why haven’t we ever met or seen any mutants before? What did he do before us? When did he become a ninja himself?” 

“Pops doesn’t like to answer questions about himself,” Raph said, “So Donnie n’ Leo started this up. I mean, Dad’s got some stuff with our pizza-symbol on it, but we don’t know why.” He taps his shell where his soulmark is. “He just says that it’s a dead-end for a soulmate hunt.” 

“Seriously?” April prickles.

“It’s not all his fault,” Mikey defends, “Dad gets sad sometimes. I think he’s been through a lot and sometimes it hurts to think about old memories.” That was an unfortunate and frustrating truth. Ah, the conundrums of morals impending scientific progression. 

“Oh,” April said before looking back up at the board. A blue sticky note that Leo had stuck on it read ‘Depression?’ in his scratchy barely legible handwriting. 

“Well,” April said, pushing up her jacket sleeves, “I guess it’s up to us then.” 

“Yeah!” Mikey cheered, “Let’s work some turtle magic!” 

April snagged a pad of rarely used yellow sticky notes and scribbled on a doodle of the pizza flower and wrote Japanese under it. She stuck it under the board and tied a string from it to Dad’s photo. 

“From my research, I was able to get that the pizza-flower had Japanese roots,” April told them, “But that was a far as I got.” 

“That combined with Papa’s recently revealed name means that our last name would be ‘Hamato’.” Donnie said, “It’s custom to say the last name first.” 

“Hamato,” Raph repeated. 

“Hamato-O’Neil Michelangelo Orange,” Mikey repeated. He grinned, “I like it!” 

“Nice!” April grinned, “Next step, is to track down more about any Hamatos in New York.” 

“And how would you go about that?” Donnie asked curiously

“Let me introduce you to the magic of family history sites,” April grinned. Her smile was sharp and shared among the brothers. Oh-ho-ho yes, Donnie cackled to himself, this was an excellent idea.

Chapter Text

There were some mixtures in the world that were doomed- like trail mix with raisins or bleach and vinegar in an enclosed space, but April O’Neil and turtles proved to be one of those rare discoveries that led to something amazing. It was like combining nitroglycerin and diatomaceous earth to create dynamite even though his family didn’t actually let him make dynamite. He made do. Besides, lasers were so much more precise!  

Either way, April O’Neil was amazing and a wonderful partner both in the lab and outside of it. Despite being a squishy human, she adapted quickly to their wrestling and Papa quickly integrated her into their ninjutsu lessons. She was quickly gaining an edge on them. 

He didn’t think it was just April either. The rest of the O’Neils seemed rather extraordinary as well. True to April’s proclamation, the O’Neils quickly adopted the Hamatos into their family. 

Donnie and his family were still being cautious of course. He had allotted 24 new contingency plans covering scenarios on their mutant status being revealed, to the O’Neils reacting badly to Papa’s green bean casserole, and the O’Neils realizing where they lived. But he had to admit that it was nice having them around. 

The O’Neils would patiently listen to him rant about his inventions and were not shy with their praise. Leo complained that they were giving him a big head but Donnie argued that true genius was rarely recognized by the minions around them. That led to another wrestling match and air jail when Raph caught them but it didn’t make Donnie stop smiling when Mrs. Carol O’Neil said that his mechanical arms that he had started to implement into his battle shell were incredible. 

The O’Neil parents had invited them to call them Aunt and Uncle but Donnie didn’t think they were there yet. He bet that Mikey would be the first one to give in to their request. 

Leo was gossip buddies with Mrs. Carol O’Neil, Raph was learning to knit from Grammi O’Neil, and Mikey bounced between them all. Donnie liked to think that he got along rather well with Mr. O’Neil personally. 

Mr. O’Neil worked as a journalist and photographer. He agreed that Pizza-saurus Rex was possible despite the jeers of their family and had a vested interest in Donnie’s inventions. He had apparently had an interest in robotics in high school and even made a water-melon catapult with his L.A.R.P.ing group. Donnie thought his inner song might be something of a mix between an old detective film and ragtime. He was a very lighthearted man and unashamedly a nerd. April claimed they were ‘embarrassing’ but Donnie had discovered a kindred soul.

“Did you hear about the convention they’re having on the 15th?” Mr. O’Neil asked, “Apparently there’s going to be quite the Jupiter Jim showing this year.” 

“Oh my stars,” Donnie exclaimed as he pulled up the website, “It looks fabulous.” 

“I’m hoping to drag April along with me this time,” Mr. O’Neil said, “There’s supposed to be some good fantasy booths too. We’re gonna try and get the Party together and go in costume. We all snagged extra tickets for our families too.” 

“Ah, good luck convincing April,” Donnie said as he soldered some circuits together. 

“I think I’m wearing her down,” Mr. O’Neil laughed, “I saw her looking at my cape the other day. 

“Really,” Donnie exclaimed, pushing his goggles up to look at the phone, “Didn’t she claim she didn’t know you last time you were in the park?” 

“She’s coming around,” Mr. O’Neil nodded, “I think you’re a good influence on her. She’s stopped worrying about what people at school think as much as she used to.” Donnie felt like he was glowing. Was he glowing? He checked quickly. 

“Ah, thanks Mr. O’Neil. April’s been good for us too,” Donnie complimented. 

“Now we just have to find a way to drag you boys out for our L.A.R.P sessions too,” Mr. O’Neil continued, “We could set you up with some good costumes if you really wanted to be disguised the first few times.” 

“Costumes eh?” Donnie said, tapping his soldering tool against the desk. He had an idea. 

Now, was sneaking out into New York with nothing more than a hoodie the best idea? Some (Raph) would argue that is was not, but based off prior data, Donnie believed that this was a testable hypothesis. After all, if Mr. O’Neil could get away with turning up in the grocery store in a full suit of armour -that Donnie might have helped with- without anyone blinking an eye, then he doubted Most New Yorkers would think twice about his unique skin condition after he put on his excellent disguise. 

Ah, New York. What a town. 

The point being, New Yorkers had proven remarkable resilient and blessedly apathetic to appearances. So now, Donnie was testing his hypothesis by attending April’s school with an oversized purple hoodie that he had found. So far, the stealth operation was a go. He giggled to himself in glee as he snuck through the slightly less crowded high school. 

He had planned his infiltration for just before lunch hours. Everyone would be eager to get to lunch and utterly disinterested in new visiting exchange student ‘Othello Van Ryan’. Not to mention, April had a study period just before lunch. A study period that happened in the library!! 

He slipped into the library and took a deep sniff. It smelled like books and old erasers. Perfect! He scanned the library before spotting April sitting in the back near the stacks hunched over a book. 

“Psst,” Donnie hissed, “Psst.” 

“Wha?” April exclaimed before looking up “Donnie!? What are you doing here?!” 

“Investigating,” Donnie breathed excitedly, “We’re testing the effectiveness of my latest disguise.”

“What disguise? You’re not even wearing pants!” April cried. 

“Part of the process,” Donnie waved her off. 

“Just don’t get caught,” April begged, “I don’t want to have to explain all of this to the teachers.”

“You just gestured to all of me,” Donnie complained. April just looked at him and Donnie coughed before nodding.

“Of course,” he agreed, “Quiet as a ninja.” 

      “Hey, do you think I could help you out with that?” 

               “Sure, I’m stuck on this one problem here, see.” 

“I don’t think it works like that.” 

“Excuse me, which of us has built a computer before?” 

“Which of us actually goes here?” 

“Touche.” 

“Can you hand me that chair?” 

“What are you planning to do with it?” 

“Wha-ha-ha-hat? Nothing! He said convincingly.” 

“Uh-huh. … Boy I’m gonna regret this.”

“No! No! No!” 

“Yes! Yes! YES!” 

“Oh no! LOOK OUT!” 

“There goes another one!” 

“Quick, Toss me that sandwich!!”

“Dale! Hand me the Apple!” 

“Do you think we could start a food fight with this?” 

“Get in the closet!”

“I would argue that a better hiding place would be-” 

“GET IN THE CLOSET!” 

“I’m getting! I’m getting!” 

“ESCAPE! BE FREE ROLLING CHAIRS!”

“MWA-HA-HA-HA!!” 

“I’ll save you April!!” 

*THUD*

“Is he dead? It’s not kidnapping if he’s dead right?” 

“You gotta get out of here!” 

“Ah, parting is such sweet sorro-oooow! OW!”

“You deserved that! Now fly fool! FLY!” 

“Aye-Aye you, defenestrating Dumbledore!” 

“That was Gandalf, you over-dramatic pancake!!” 

“MISS O'NEIL! MR. MENGER!”  

“Oh no…” 

“Ugh, Did I miss something?” 

The fact that April knew better than to take Donnie at his words was probably the only reason that they had gotten away in hindsight. In the end, casualties included 4 half-functioning computers, 6 rolling chairs, a packed lunch, a stack of textbooks, and detention for April and her friend? Dale who had both sacrificed themselves so Donnie could avoid capture. 

Despite the slight disaster, Donnie had not been I.Ded as a mutant turtle and considered it a success. April had as well after she had gotten over her grounding and detention. Donnie began planning for their next adventure at April’s school. After all, official visiting student ‘Othello Von Ryan’ had promised to help with April’s next science project- providing the fuzz had settled down by then.

In the end, Othello Von Ryan turned out to be an excellent alias considering how often Donnie visited April at school. It was addicting to be at a locale of learning, surrounded by his fellow intellectuals- or at the very least April. 

According to April, most of his visits ended in disaster but every time she said that, Donnie told her that they hadn’t failed but simply found another data point and further stress tested his disguise. April told him to get a better disguise.  

Donnie made sure to raid the drama department on his next visit for ideas. April dragged him to a thrift store after that where they started gathering essential disguise components and even acquired some new tapes for his walkman. He was extremely proud of his Hortense costume. It breathed well and allowed for a large range of motion while providing an encompassing disguise. He had even put together a persona for it. 

Mr. O’Neil seemed supportive if confused, and Leo had insisted on Hortense having a sister so Donnie considered it a success regardless of how April groaned. 

His costume reservoir got quite the workout after their discovery of the Hidden City which completely threw off his calculations. 

There was a completely different society under their very feet with different rules, schools, and people that they could blend in with. It was fascinating and entirely infuriating. His brothers seemed to be able to just intuit this new power system. It was fine. Donnie was fine with that. He had his Donnie tech, so it was fine. 

Still, the reaches of knowledge that he could unlock! Oooh! He could scarcely wait! Even if their ‘turtle luck’, which was really just statistics when you looked at it, continued to interrupt their innocent wanderings. 

It got to the point that Donnie started a new rating system for all the ne’er do wells, monstrous scum, and villains of the week just to keep track of them all. It soothed him to see the data written out in clear lines, with action reports, surveillance videos, and potential contingency plans even if it did show a rather concerning pattern. 

The patterns showed a clear spike in altercations between Donnie and his siblings against foes after their first interaction with the Hidden City and its occupants. Continuing the trend, meant that projections for further fights would only get more extreme which was not something that he was looking forward too.  While Draxum and the others were a clear threat to Donnie and his, they did make wonderful test subjects for his more volatile experiments. Donnie felt extremely mentally stimulated, especially when you considered all the extra data points that their exploration was providing the Splinter-Spiracy Board. 

Yet, even with all his predictions and investigation, he hadn’t realized what Draxum had meant when he said that he had created them. He hadn’t put together the clues that were staring him right in the eye and realized that Baron Draxum was responsible for their creation.

Now obviously, he knew they weren’t mutant sheepmen -Raph- or imitation crab people -Mikey- but there were so many other questions. They were mutated- no, created by Draxum. Draxum had thought they were dead and were subsequently separated from him. Somehow that led to Dad finding them and raising them as brothers. With Dad having enough info to know that they were all mutants- not yokai. 

But how did Dad find them? What happened in that moment in between? Donnie groaned and flopped onto his desk. His brothers were out doing their own things, Dad was watching his shows, and Donnie had meant to keep working on unraveling the mystery of their very lives but no! He gets stuck now. If he could just… Ugh! He groaned again. It was hopeless. He flopped back down onto the desk to wallow in his failure. 

It was a few minutes of moaning before someone intruded on his solitude.

“Hey, what’s up Dee?” April asked as she ducked into the lab.

Donnie let out a pathetic groan from where he was flopped against the table. 

“That bad huh?” She asked. April kicked over a chair and popped down next to him before settling down. “Well, I know what it’ll make you feel better.” There was the sound of shuffling cardboard and styrofoam when the smell of shrimp filled the lab. Donnie perked up to see April pushing a container of fresh fried shrimp over to him. 

He grabbed it and took a deep inhalation of the delicious scent before popping one of the delectable crustaceans into his mouth. He sighed in happiness and the two siblings sat in silence for a moment as they munched. 

“Something just isn’t adding up,” Donnie complained to April after a bit. April nodded. 

“Want to rubber duck?” she asked. Donnie grinned and the two sat knee to knee on the floor before grabbing a bouncy ball.

“So what’s not adding up, specifically,” April asked, tossing the rubber ball to him. Mikey had found it years earlier. It had a faded yellow duck on it that his hand covered as he caught it and bounced it back to her. 

“Draxum,” Donnie groaned, “He’s an entirely new piece of the puzzle that we didn’t even know about. How does he even fit into this!?” He waved a hand at the Splinter-Spiracy Board behind him. 

“Yeah, I can’t say I was expecting a magic sheep-man to be behind your mutation,” April agreed, “But it’s a big clue.” 

“Exactly!” Donnie cried catching the ball again, “A big clue that doesn’t seem to fit in at all!” He tossed the ball back to her with another wave at the board. He had managed to pull a picture of Draxum off his surveillance cameras and pin it to the board. It just barely covered the bit-off corner of the board and was surrounded by purple sticky notes with dozens of questions, a picture of the oozequitos, and those two gargoyles that hung on his shoulders. 

“Well,”  April started, “We know he’s responsible for the mutants, because he made the ooze. And Splints always called himself a mutant instead of ‘yokai’.”

“I can confirm that Papa has never referred to himself or us as ‘yokai’,” Donnie agreed, “But obviously he has had dealings with the mystic city.” 

“Yeah,” April agreed, “He had that mystic key thingy in his ‘do not touch cabinet’ right?” 

“I’ve scanned that entire cabinet with my mystic scanner,” Donnie added, “It is not the only item with trace amounts, if not entirely mystic in nature.” 

“I wonder why he never said anything about this before,” April wondered as she caught the ball again. She bounced the ball back towards Donnie but it simply bounced off his knee and back onto the ground. “Donnie?” He glared resolutely at the ground. 

“Donnie?” she repeated, “Are you okay?” 

“Am I okay?” Donnie burst. He let out a laugh before cutting himself off and getting up to pace. “Apparently, I’m an experimentally enhanced mystic mutant soldier created by a megalomaniac caprine to destroy the human race. Not only are we facing new threats that we had no idea were below our feet that I still haven’t figured out, but we are under threat by that same megalomaniac who is seeking either our cooperation or demise. And the only two people who knew where the megalomaniac and our father who isn’t even our biological donor and never tells us anything!” 

April stood up to comfort him but Donnie jerked away.

“All those years of looking at our DNA and I never put together the clues that it was all deliberately designed? That some mad genius took Lou Jitsu’s DNA and spliced it with a turtle to make some super-soldier? What kind of scientist am I when I can’t see what’s looking at me straight in the nose?” 

“Donnie,” April breathed

“Not to mention, what else he might have done while he was playing mad scientist with our genes. Subliminal messaging? Programming for aggression? Potential failsafes to exploit?”

“Donnie!” April yelled and Donnie jerked up to look at her. She grabbed his arms and looked him in the eye. 

“You’re still you,” she said, “I trust you Dee.” She pulled him into a hug. Donnie struggled for a minute before sighing and laying his head on her shoulder. “Besides,” she continued, “I think if sheep-man had been smart enough to leave some kind of failsafe in your head, he would’ve tried using it by now.” 

She grinned and Donnie let out a breath before smiling. 

“You’re right,” he said.

“‘Course I’m right!” she punched his arm, “I’m April O’Neil.” 

“Ah, so you’re saying that time when you tried to mix yogurt with-” 

“AH!” April cut him off, “Fine, I’m almost always right.” Donnie smirked.

“Like right now,” April said excitedly as she started to shake him, “Hamato Yoshi started as a human before his disappearance. If we can see who he was interacting with when he disappeared, maybe we can figure out how he ended up with Draxum!” 

“That’s genius!” Donnie lit up and they rushed towards the conspiracy board to start digging through their timeline of Hamato Yoshi. 

Maybe they were meant to destroy humanity, but Donnie rubbed his soulmark, he’d like to see anyone try and force them to do anything they didn’t want to do. Donnie looked at April who was grinning as she trawled through the timeline. She nudged his shoulder as she pulled one of the pins and Donnie grinned. Maybe in another timeline, Donnie would have been forced to fight April, but that wasn’t this one. In this one, Donnie chose to call her his best friend and he and his brothers would fight for this. He rubbed his soulmark again. 

They’d fight for each other and good luck to anyone who tried to stand between them and their soulmates.

Chapter Text

The Shredder learned the hard way what it meant to challenge the Hamatos. Donnie had to add another level to his Villainous Rating System and confirmed the escalating threat pattern. However, for as many questions that the Shredder added to the Splinter-Spiracy Board, he answered just as many. 

Finding the answers about their origin, the origin of the pizza-symbol on their soulmarks, and their dad’s true identity was truly the end of an era for the turtles. Leo’s bets were truly unfair considering how they were placed before Donnie and April had truly gotten into their investigation and how he had continued to stay updated on all their latest gossip despite missing the majority of their Splinter-Spiracy missions. 

He would not admit that Leo had been rather helpful in connecting the strings on the board and had oftentimes risked life and limb to bring back Mikey’s cooking so they could continue on one of their investigation binges. That was the least he could do considering how much he had apparently been holding out on him. 

He was surprised that April had been holding out on him as well with ‘Splinter having another secret identity’. 

“Et tu Brute?” Donnie gasped as Leo handed out the winnings from his book. 

‘What can I say,” April shrugged, “He just seems like the type.” 

“You’re just mad you didn’t get anything out of secret artist,” Mikey smugged, waving the ten bucks he had won around. 

“Why else would have named all of us after Artists!” Donnie threw up his hands.

“It’s okay, Dee,” Raph patted his shell as Donnie sulked, “Raph didn’t get anything either.” 

“Ah, no!” Leo said, “You actually got 15 from ‘Dad having helped with the Lou Jitsu movies’.” 

“Sweet,” Raph exclaimed, “I knew there was something there!” 

“Are you kidding me!” Donnie shouted.

“Aw, it’s okay, Donathan,” Leo teased as he leaned over and waved the stack of bills that he had won in his face, “We never would have figured this out without you.” 

“That is true,” Donnie started to say.

“I thought Dad and Draxum just kinda confessed in front of us, no investigation needed,” Mikey tried to say.

“We would never have known,” Donnie affirmed louder. “Besides, we still have some questions here.”

“Like what?” Raph asked. 

“LIKE WHAT THE PIZZA SYMBOL EVEN IS STILL!?” Donnie yelled, “Anyone remember that? Hmm???” 

“Oh yeah,” 

“I totally spaced,”

“You know, for something tattooed on my arm, I didn’t even think about it.” 

Donnie groaned and bemoaned his fate.

“There, there Donnie,” April said, “We’ve still got plenty of questions left to go through. We’ll keep helping. Maybe one of your other bets will pay off.” 

“Yeah, like shadowy revenge driven monster,” Leo scoffed, “Think the Shredder counts for that?” 

“Yes!” Donnie hissed, clutching the meager 5 dollars he won from his bet. “You know, as long as there isn’t another shadow monster hiding out there and waiting for a chance at revenge. I’m okay with this.” 

“Right,” Mikey giggled, “What are the odds of a second one?” 

Donnie opened his mouth to tell him when Raph covered his mouth. 

“I don’t wanna know.” He shook his head, “Let me just live here for a moment, where we aren’t almost dying again.” 

“Boys?” Splinter called from the other room, “Have any of you seen my extra teapot?” 

“Quick! Hide the board!” Leo hissed as Splinter started to wander into the lab. There was a scuffle and shuffle as Mikey spun in place from Leo’s attempts to open a portal, April tried to throw a sheet at the board and covered Donnie, and Raph took another bite out of the board. They just managed to get Mikey out of the portal trap and the sheet onto the battered board before Splinter stepped into the room. 

He stopped and squinted at them suspiciously. 

“What are you all doing here?” he asked.

“Nothing!” the kids chanted. 

“He said convincingly,” Donnie added. There was a resounding slap of hands meeting faces and slight groans behind him. He didn’t understand but Splinter just looked at them before shrugging. 

“Well, have any of you seen an extra teapot lying around? Old Skully is still … in use.” There was a moment of silence for the evil teapot and Donnie resisted the urge to fistpump at the fact that they had finally gotten it out of the house. 

“We might have one in the kitchen, Dad,” Mikey volunteered, “I’ll help you look.” 

“Thank you Orange,” Splinter said fondly as they walked out of the lab. The others all sighed as Splinter left the room and the sheet that had been draped over the board fell off as the board fell face-down onto the floor once more. 

“Really Raph?” Leo asked, eyeing the second bite mark in the board.

“Raph panicked,” Raph apologized. 

“It’s alright big guy,” April patted him, “Happens to the best of us. 

“Does it?” Donnie debated. Leo elbowed Donnie. “Ow! I was being quiet.”

“You really weren’t,” April told him. 

“Rats,” Donnie swore. 

“It’s okay, Raph knew.” They stood there looking at the board in silence. It really was an impressive bite mark. 

“Well, if we’re done here, you can leave now. I need to hang this up again,” Donnie told them. “Anytime now.” 

Of course, ‘Turtle Luck’ or was it ‘Hamato Luck?’ struck again.  Donnie had to wonder if he got another 5 bucks for ‘shadowy revenge driven monster’ if the monster was after them and not Dad. 

Now, had Donnie been expecting Piebald to show up out of nowhere as a mutant bent on revenge against their family for the crimes of their youth? No. Was he planning for what to do if a beloved pet (cough*Mayhem*cough) ended up lost and decides to return for revenge later? Of course. But for now, it was time for damage control. 

Mikey was practically shaking apart at the seams and Raph was hovering nervously over them. Donnie could see that Leo was still riding the adrenaline high from tackling Piebald and watching them fall to their doom. 

“Well,” Donnie clapped and ignored how they all jumped at the sound. “I’m going to go set up in my lab for the night and arm the security system. Raph, Leo, Mikey,” he nodded to them. 

“I-I’ll come with you,” Leo stuttered, “Can’t have you staying up all night of course.” 

“Of course not,” Donnie agreed drily, “Raph? Mikey? You coming too?” 

“Uh, Yeah, yeah, of course,” Raph nodded, “Gotta make sure our local insomniac gets his sleep too right?” Mikey nodded a little too fiercely as he bobbled back and forth. His head was barely out of his shell.

“Yeah, sure let’s just bring everybody,” Donnie complained as his brothers headed towards his heavily reinforced lab. He waited behind for a moment before fistpumping to himself “Nailed it,” he whispered. 

“I heard that Don-Don,” Leo called. 

“Whaaat? Noooo!” Donnie looked up, “You didn’t see anything.” He hurried after his brothers. 

They all filed into Donnie’s lab where he activated his emergency alarms and perimeter sensors that he installed. He looks mournfully at the cot he has set up in the corner before pulling the blankets off it and helping Mikey to set up a nest in the middle of the floor. Raph beds down in the middle and Mikey crawls under his arm before hiding in his shell. Leo grabs Donnie and pulls him down next to him, pressing them shell-to-shell like when they were little and Raph grabs both of them and tucks them next to his side with Mikey in their reach. 

Donnie knows that by morning they will have all migrated across the entire nest, with Raph squishing at least one of them as the others try to squish him back and/or rescue their unfortunate brother but for now Donnie let out a breath and grabs Leo’s arm and settles into the sound of his brother’s breathing and the feel of his twin’s shell against his. 

Surprise, Surprise, Donnie is the one being crushed under Raph’s shell come morning. Mikey has apparently abandoned them for the kitchen because he can smell the scent of Mikey’s homemade waffles and bacon. Leo is snoring on top of Raph’s shell as Donnie is clutched to Raph’s shell like one of his stuffies. 

Donnie’s beak wrinkles as Leo lets out a particularly loud snore before Raph’s sleepy grumbles translate into him sawing logs as if this was so kind of of demented choir. He wiggles but Raph only holds him tighter as they harmonize. Donnie makes one more attempt at escape before giving in to his fallback. 

“Initiate Protocol ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’, max volume,” Donnie says to the ceiling. There’s a brief delay before the ear-splittingly loud sounds of Rick Astley start playing. Honestly, Donnie doesn’t mind the sound. It’s a classic that has ascended to the halls of infamy. But at maximum volume in his lab at 7 in the morning, it is truly horrendous. 

“I’m up! I’m UP!” Leo screeches, jumping up and off Raph like a startled cat. Raph himself lurches forward and Donnie flies off his chest as Raph slams his hands over his ears. 

“Turn it off,” Raph growls. Donnie makes them wait a moment longer before shutting off the music and brushing himself off. 

“Pleasure to see you awake, gentlemen. How would you rate your wake-up experience? 5 stars? 4?”

“Please stop talking,” Leo begs rubbing his eyes, “It is way too early in the morning for all your Donnie nonsense.” 

“Offended scoff!” Donnie says, “Rick Astley is a classic you uncultured swine.” 

“Meatsweats is the pig, we’re turtles,” Raph mumbles as he stretches awake. 

“Astounding observation Raph,” Donnie nods, “Truly inspirational. Still, I can smell Mikey’s cooking from here so I shall bid you adieu.” He nods at them, gives Leo a final warning not to mess with his stuff by shooting him a look. Leo merely gives him an innocent ‘who me?’ blink back before Donnie leaves. 

If the worse comes to worse then Donnie will have to reprogram it but he doubts they could do worse than what they did with S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. He still hasn’t figured out what they did to him to change his personality so completely. Donnie’s pretty sure he’s just going to have to roll with it because S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N has integrated it so completely into his code that even the back-ups of his back-ups have it. 

Donnie gets so drawn into plans for S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N’s next update that he wanders into the kitchen without thinking much about who might be in there and what had happened last night. 

Donnie mumbled a “good morning, Mikey,” on his way to the fridge to grab one of his flavorless juice boxes before turning around to see Mikey and Piebald standing at the stove. He blinked slowly for a moment as he processed the scene in front of him. 

Piebald had changed out of the black cloak that she had been wearing yesterday? Last night? and into some old clothes. Donnie recognized the oversized sweater that he had stolen from Raph once or twice and some stained skirt that he and April had gotten at a thrift store for his disguise closet. 

She had a bowl of strawberries in her hands and looked like she had been laughing with Mikey before Donnie came in. Mikey looked between them and shuffled from foot to foot but he seemed much better than he had been last night. He had his chef’s hat that Leo had given him for his birthday a few years back and was standing at the waffle maker. 

Donnie closed the fridge with a snap and sound seemed to rush back into the kitchen. Interesting. 

“Morning Donnie,” Mikey finally said as the waffle maker beeped and he popped a fresh waffle onto a nearby plate. 

“Good morning,” Piebald smiled, “Strawberry?” 

“No thanks,” Donnie told her. The two stared at each other for another moment before Mikey’s waffles beeped and he added another one to the plate. 

“Be nice, Donnie,” Mikey warned with a hint of Dr. Delicate Touch to his voice. 

“Sigh,” Donnie replied. 

“All good Butterscotch,” Piebald said, popping a strawberry into her mouth and patting Mikey on the head. 

Donnie stared at her in suspicion. Piebald stared back. Challenge accepted. 

“So aside from returning from the dead and threatening us in order to teach us a lesson in honesty, what is your purpose here?” 

“Donnie,” Mikey repeated. Donnie ignored him this time. He was being nice. 

“Right now? Eating Strawberries and Pancakes while I hang with Guppy,” Piebald answered. She picked off the leaves of another strawberry and tossed it into her mouth without breaking eye contact. 

“I see,” Donnie said, “I thought you were intelligent to recognize the subtext of that question.” 

“Donnie,” Mikey said again.

“Intelligent enough to recognize a poorly hidden trap,” Piebald agreed, holding his gaze. 

“Piebald,” Mikey turned, “You both need to work all this out! Get out of my kitchen until you can work out all this aggression.” His nose wrinkled. “And you better not sneak off or I’ll have you both sit through another presentation by Dr. Delicate Touch! Is that clear?” 

“Crystal,” Donnie said, not quite exchanging a look with Piebald since they hadn’t stopped their staring context. 

“We’ll be good,” Piebald promised, turning to smile at Mikey. Yes! Point 1 for Donnie! He glared at her, backing into the doorframe and hitting his head. Piebald stifled a giggle along with Mikey and Donnie glared at them both. Mikey might be eager to forget the terror of last night, but Donnie had saved that experience with high-definition cameras of his own design. He met Piebald’s stare. He would not forget it easily and he would not forget Mikey’s expression from last night. This was his clan. His family. 

If Piebald tried to hurt them again, then Donnie would teach her the true limits of their mystically manipulated genetics and his genius intellect. He pointed from his eyes to hers and backed into the shadows, hitting the wall again. 

“Ow!” He exclaimed. Piebald laughed as Donnie made his escape. He would just have to avoid Mikey and Dr. Delicate Touch for the next day or so. 

The true issue of the matter was that Piebald was winning his family over with stunning speed. Splinter was already a lost cause- he had always had a soft spot for Piebald, Mikey and Raph were all too eager to forgive and forget but even Leo? Leo, his brother in preparedness and fellow aficionado of contingency and chicanery. At least April still hadn’t made it back to town yet. 

It’s not like Donnie was unaware of Piebald’s soulmarks. Dr. Delicate Touch had tracked him down and given him the 411 about Piebald's relation to their family and how she was a part of it too and that Donnie had better act like it. Donnie's brand was stamped firmly on the side of her neck along with his family’s and atop the Hamato crest. In a way, Piebald was family but she was family that had attacked his brothers and nearly killed them as part of a ‘prank’. Donnie wasn't going to let that go so easily. 

Donnie made a point of following Piebald as she got reacquainted with the Hamatos. She was constantly telling stories of her life and travels across the globe as she looked for them. There had apparently been several detours. She taught Mikey new recipes from her travels, sparred with Raph and took him through different exercises and meditation practices that she had been taught. Leo and Piebald started a friendly prank war, setting traps for each other that occasionally hit the others. 

Donnie had hoped when Leo had set his first trap that Leo had seen sense but it was not to be. He could only hope April would back him. 

A few days later and Donnie was sorely disappointed in April. He should have known he was expecting too much from her. April was the one who had followed Mikey -a stranger of an unknown species- to a secondary location that was both isolated and unfamiliar to her. 

Had Donnie pointed this out to April however she would have pointed out how Mikey was 1. Younger than her, 2. Her soulmate, and 3. Mikey and that Donnie was repeating this feat as he continued to spy on Piebald’s comings and goings from the Lair. 

Piebald it seemed had finally taken offense to that as she was now dragging Donnie down the tunnel outside his lab. She stopped in the corner that led to the kitchen and turned to face him. 

“Look,” she started, “I’m not sure what your problem is-” 

“Not sure?” Donnie scoffed, “You nearly killed my brothers and I.” 

“And you almost ate me!” Piebald threw back at him. He paused. “I remember that. You almost ate me multiple times and it was your actions that led to me becoming so estranged from you. I swear you didn’t used to be this paranoid.” She muttered that last bit under her breath.

“I call it being prepared.” Donnie interrupted. 

“No, when you have someone who has stated that they don’t wish to harm you, soulmate even, you don’t keep them under surveillance like they’re a criminal. 

“Technically,” Donnie started. 

“Urkgh!” Piebald grunted. She clutched her top fin and stomped away slightly before whirling around to face him again. “Listen! I’ve pillaged the ghost pirate of Davy Jones’ Locker, studied under the witches of New Salem, fought with ninjas and against samurai warriors, traveled across time and space and taken down mafias, yakuza, and gangs. I’ve learned how to hide from Bigfoot and how to bluff like my life depends on it. I’ve gaslit people out of believing my existence. I’ve trained under Master Splinter, Champion of the Battle Nexus and Head of the Hamato Clan. If I wanted to hurt you, you wouldn’t realize it until it's too late.” 

Donnie glared at her. 

“But I wouldn’t,” Piebald says a little desperately, “I will tease, terrify, and terrorize my family but I will protect you to my dying breath. You need to lighten up and realize that not everything is about you. It’s about second chances. Mikey trusts me, why can’t you?” Piebald stared into his eyes and Donnie squirmed under his shell. She shook her head and stepped around him. 

“By the way?” she added, “I forgive you for nearly eating me, soulmate.” She flickered into the shadows and disappeared. 

“Second chances huh?” Donnie muttered looking after her. “What does she know?” he scoffed. It didn’t convince him. He squirmed before evacuating to his lab. He stalked around his lab table, Piebald’s words turning over and over in his head. He glanced at his still open security feeds to see Piebald chatting with Leo. 

People would never guess it, but Leo was much more paranoid than him. Leo was the people person. He understood what made them tick so much more than Donnie ever would. Leo had been the one to peg Big Mama as a crook and he had talked them out of as many problems as he had gotten them into. Donnie may never admit it to him, but he trusted Leo. And Leo trusted Piebald. Just like Mikey, and Splinter, and April, and Raph. Sigh. 

Donnie groaned and slumped down into his chair, bumping the table as he did. There was a clatter and a hunk of metal crashed onto his desk. It rolled slightly to face him. It was S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. What was left of him anyway. The blank eyes stared at him accusingly. 

“Don’t give me that look,” Donnie ordered, “You’re the one who went rogue.” The robot tipped slightly. 

“I didn’t program you to try and replace me.” No, his brothers had simply messed with his delicate coding and made his beautiful creation go haywire. One of the circumstances where Donnie was right not to trust them near his stuff. Donnie tried not to think about how his brothers had only done so after he had made S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N favor him. 

“What did they do to you anyway?” Donnie wondered. He pried open the fried casing to dig into the circuits and plugged in his computer to pull up the source code. 

He groaned at the tangled mess that his brothers had made out of his orderly code. He could practically see their fingerprints all over this. He happened to glance up to see the Splinter-Spiracy Board hanging behind his monitors. The various strings, pins, and evidence made a chaotic modge-podge of their lives. He could see the grape-juice stain that Leo had left, the glittery stars that Mikey had stuck all over, Raph’s careful handwriting and April’s insistence on photographs that she had made Donnie take and pin up. 

It was annoyingly similar to S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N’s code. It was knotted and certain executive functions were tied up with extraneous protocols and files that had no business being part of his code. 

“It would be easier to scrap it,” Donnie groaned but his eyes flicked between the board and the code. It’s about second chances. He flicked his eyes back up to the conspiracy board to see an old photo that April had snapped and printed out. 

It was an old family photo. Raph was grinning from where he got to hold up Mikey. Mikey was holding Piebald’s bowl up to the camera. Donnie and Leo were tangled together. Donnie’s glasses were crooked on his face and Leo was beaming with a gap-toothed grin. April was next to Splinter who had dragged her into the photo with his tail as he smiled gently at his kids. 

Mikey had made them take it to welcome Piebald into the family after Donnie had almost eaten her the second time. Splinter had made sure April had included herself and paid for her to get several good copies from the store on the corner and a frame. There was a copy sitting proudly in Splinter’s room and another in the lounge. April had made a few paper copies too. She had one sitting in her wallet and another for the conspiracy board that Donnie was looking at now. 

I forgive you for nearly eating me, soulmate.  Donnie shook his head. 

“Then again, iterative design is the backbone of engineering and it’s unlikely that I’ll get a sample like this again.” He pulled his keyboard closer and isolated the code with a few keystrokes to save for later and analyze exactly which parts made S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N go rogue. He would start working on that later. In the meantime, he pulled up a digital copy of the photo on the conspiracy board, a few other photos that April had stored on his servers, and the plans for his newly improved subdermal trackers. 

“Maybe I’ve been too hasty but, I believe I have a fix!” Donnie declared. 

Donnie emerged from his lab several hours later with a newly improved chipping gun, a reinforced wallet, waterproof phone and several glossy photos of his family. Mikey was glaring at him from his spot on the couch next to Leo and Piebald who had been shuffled into a game of go fish with him. He took a deep breath before approaching Piebald and stowing the chipping gun in his battle shell. 

“Here,” he muttered, holding out the wallet for Piebald. She took it carefully. 

“What’s this?” she asked. 

“Reinforced wallet, waterproof phone with our numbers programmed in and a few photos I thought you might appreciate,” Donnie scratched the back of his neck looking away. 

“Aw, Donnie,” Leo cooed. Mikey was grinning at him again. Piebald’s eyes raked over him before giving him a coy grin. 

“Is this your way of trying to tell me to get lost?” 

“Ah! No, No! I mean- ah,” Donnie spluttered. Piebald cackled. 

“I’m kidding Purple People Eater,” she told him. 

“I just thought you should have a way to keep us close… just in case,” Donnie admitted. The surrounding grins grew wider. 

“Thanks PPE,” Piebald said, “You want in?” Donnie glanced at the already paired matches and the smug look on Leo’s face. 

“Sure, Fish Reaper,” Donnie agreed. 

“Fish Reaper?” Leo repeated, “C’mon Donnie! We can do better than that! Like the Scaled Shadow or -or maybe Horror Gill, like Horror Girl but as fish pun.” Piebald laughed as Mikey offered "Fearsome Finned One”. Donnie sighed at their horrible naming schemes but started counting the cards. 

His offering had been accepted and Donnie would make sure to chip her with a tracker like the rest of his brothers -hopefully without her knowledge- but it seemed that he hadn’t ruined their relationship before it had truly begun. 

“Thank you,” Piebald whispered, leaning over to brush his shoulder. 

“It was no problem,” Donnie replied, “I was being difficult as Mikey would put it.” 

“I think he’d be a little blunter than that,” Piebald chuckled.

“Well, yes, yes he was,” Donnie admitted. Dr. Delicate Touch had made an appearance not long after Piebald’s declaration and had been both blunt and loud. Donnie had only just been able to pacify him. Since Piebald was nearby though. Donnie lifted off the edge of Battleshell and offered her his soulmark. Piebald’s grin was more watery this time but she tapped the symbol before pulling down the collar of her turtleneck. Donnie lightly pressed his fingers against the D, hyper aware of the gills fluttering not far away. 

Piebald’s song was a remix of an old one. A haunting melody from some isle far away floated and caught on his attention. It was thrilling and wouldn’t feel out of place on Broadway or whistled out in the middle of nowhere. The songs roots were deeper than Donnie would ever be able to research and he knew it was on the kinds of songs that survived on through countless versions and in millions of dreams because it was free. It took a little from everywhere and gave back just as freely. Fitting. 

“Huh,” Donnie hmmed. Piebald grinned and squeezed his shoulder before turning back to the game. Leo and Mikey had started throwing popcorn at each other as they gave the two siblings space. “Leo did you have any fours?” 

“Oh come on!” Leo grumbled, tossing the cards at Donnie. He snagged them with his Battleshell and settled into the game. 

Donnie ended up losing the game, but managed to chip Piebald during an intense stare-down between all 4 players that had exploded after Leo was revealed to have also been cheating. 

He ended up embroiled in the prank war as it escaped confinement between Leo and Piebald and pulled April in along with him. Mikey gleefully joined Piebald and left Raph trying desperately to mediate between the two sides before being dragged in on the grounds of ‘evening out the odds.’ Piebald did end up leaving, but Donnie sent her off with the best equipment that he could offer her and orders to keep in contact. Alas, his attempts at replicating Leo’s teleportation capabilities were proving fruitless. He contented himself with the reminders that his microchips were near indestructible and Piebald’s promise to not stay away for another year. 

It would be alright and in the meantime, Donnie had another project to keep him busy. He pulled S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N’s shell closer and grabbed a pair of pliers. It was time for another second chance to be given. Hopefully this would lead to a break in the prank war as well. Piebald had left a rather explosive gift that had continued it past her departure and Donnie was not going to lose now.

Chapter Text

S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N ended up not being that hard to rebuild. The hardest part was smoothing out the parts of his code that led to such extreme action and Donnie’s near-demise. At one point he had to just bring S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N online and hope for the best and update his code as they went. 

Donnie disconnected the cables running into S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N’s head and screwed the back panel closed. He had disconnected S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N from the smart Lair system ages ago but Leo had insisted on being there and was standing ready with both his odachi and a bottle of soda for ‘emergency deactivation’. 

“Alright, S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N, Activation Code: Bootyyyshaker9000.” Leo snorted from his hiding spot. 

“Woah dudes,” S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N blinks awake, “What’s up!” Donnie sighed as Leo snickered. Apparently the voice was one of the things that had gotten layered into the essentials of S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N’s code and wasn’t going away. 

“Greetings S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N!” Donnie said, “I need you to run a systems diagnostic and inform me of my standing in your processors.” 

“You didn’t make sure he wasn’t going to go nuts already?” Leo whispered. Donnie shushed him. 

“No prob dude!” S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N chirped, floating up slightly. There was a pause as S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N scanned through his systems. “Donatello Hamato: creator, primary user, ally.” 

“Oh thank goodness,” Leo breathed. S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N spun around to see Donnie’s brother and scanned him. “Leonardo Hamato: primary user, ally,” he announced. 

“No way!” Leo exclaimed, dropping the soda and sheathing his odachi. “You kept that?” 

“Ah,” Donnie looked away, “It seems like that was also too deeply embedded into his code to remove that. What a shame.” Leo gave him a knowing smile before grabbing S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N and turning him around. 

“So, not feeling evil bro-bot?” Leo checked, “No secret plans to overthrow us and turn us into turtle soup?” 

“Nuh-uh, dude,” S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N shook his head and floated free, “I ain’t filling no nemesis role!” 

“Uh-huh,” Leo nodded slowly. He looked up at Donnie who gave him a thumbs-up. “I guess any bot of Donnnie’s would be pretty bad at lying.” 

“Offended Scoff,” Donnie replied, “I am not.” 

“It’s cause we’re twins, bro,” Leo joked, “I got all the lying skills and you got the nerdy brain stuff.” 

“One could argue that a love of Jupiter Jim is considered quote ‘nerdy’ unquote,” Donnie argued. Leo brushed him off. 

“As entertaining as this is, Mikey said something about trying to recreate those pizza puffs Meat Sweats made, so I’m gonna bounce!” Leo told him. He snagged the soda bottle and sauntered out of the lab, “Later Dontron, Bro-bot!” 

Luckily the test ended up going well as Donnie had privately decided that if Leo opened that bottle of soda in his lab that he may reverse the common food chain and lose a brother. He wondered idly if he would have been able to pass S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N off as Leo before discarding the idea. 

“Now, S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N, let’s begin the more intensive tests shall we?” Donnie lowered his goggles. 

“You got it man!” S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N replied. 

“Excellent!” Donnie cackled before letting loose his best maniacal genius laugh.

S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N’s reactivation had proved to be a great success and was opening an entire new realm of experimentation. There was something special in S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. Mikey claimed that was because S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N was his kid. Donnie couldn’t deny that S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N was important to him, especially after S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N’s latest run-in with the Purple Dragons. 

He had felt panicked at the idea of S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N getting hurt or leaving. Panicked and protective in a way that was different from when his dum-dum brothers got into trouble again. If this is what having kids was like, Donnie didn’t like it. 

Donnie guessed that since S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N’s back in one piece that it’s fine. As long as he doesn’t repeat this kind of stunt again. He sighs and pulls off his battle shell to exchange it as S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N hovers nervously around him.

“What’s that?” he asked. 

“What?” Donnie looked up. S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N seemed nervous but pointed one of his fans at Donnie’s shoulder -no, his soulmark. 

“Ah, that’s my soulmark,” Donnie explained, “It’s a mark of love and belonging.” He sets down his shell and rubs the mark with his thumb. “The pictures represent my family, but others may have important friends, loved ones, children, etc.” 

“Whoa,” S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N breathes, floating a little closer. “So it’s like a promise that you’ll always love each other?” Donnie blinks and thinks about how his and Piebald’s relationship started. 

“Something like that,” he says instead, “Not every soulmate gets along. It’s up to the people to make the marks mean anything.” 

“Huh,” S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N tilts and gently pokes the mark before floating away. Donnie can just hear ‘Dr. Feelings’ telling him to ‘ask questions’ and ‘take an interest in his life’. 

“Why do you ask?” 

“...I don’t have one,” S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N finally answers. Donnie sucks in a breath. Oh this is getting really personal. 

S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N is an AI but even Donnie can tell he’s advanced. Not for the first time, Donnie curses and thanks his brothers for messing with his creation’s code. He still hasn’t figured out how that garbled mess turned into this bright creation but one thing that is becoming readily apparent is that while S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N is an Artificial Intelligence, his emotions are just as real as Donnie’s. – At least according to Dr. Feelings. 

“W-well, uh, no,” Donnie responds, “You’re an AI, soulmarks form during birth on organic organisms with a sufficiently high intelligence. Piebald didn’t get hers until she mutated apparently.” Which was fascinating information. Did that apply to them as well? Donnie had just barely begun to pry such data out of Papa and Baron Draxum and what exactly did such information imply about 

“So I’m not intelligent? Not cool bro,” S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N pouts.

“Oh, no,” Donnie stutters, “That was not what I meant to imply.” There’s a pause before Donnie continues, “I meant that its likely that since you are not an organic lifeform that soulmarks will not form, regardless of your state of sapience.” 

“Oh,” S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N positively droops in response. Oh no. What now? Donnie can practically hear Dr. Feelings coming for him. 

“But uh,” Donnie coughs, “I repurposed my soulmark as my logo for Genius Built™. It’s on all my creations.” He reached over to tap the back of S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N’s shell. “Yours is right here.” 

“What? Really??” The drone swivelled trying to see it before Donnie snapped a photo and showed it to S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. “Awesome!” He zoomed around the room in excitement before freezing at Donnie’s look. “Aw man, dude, sorry. I just- you think your bros would do something like that too?” 

“I imagine Mikey would love nothing more than to cover you in stickers and paint,” Donnie said dryly. S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N’s eyes glowed and he zipped out of the room. “Hey! What did I say about racing inside?!” 

S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N only laughed as the noise of his just barely repaired fans faded out of earshot. 

“Oh, Mikey had better not gunk up his vents,” Donnie grumbled, fighting a smile. It was kinda nice to have someone look up to him and ask for his mark. It felt special. … He still didn’t want a kid though.