Donnie experiences technical difficulties.
The intro of a "What-If" episode of the cancelled Season 3 of Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Storyboarded, Edited, and Directed by Cadence Calvert
Written and Sound Design by Charis Calvert
Hello all! This is the fic I wrote that inspired the animatic “Tear and Tear Again.” Thank you so much for the love you’ve shown for the animatic, and as a bonus feel free to check out the fic!
***
Stars twinkled overhead and lights glittered up from below as the boys zipped onto the skyscraper’s rooftop. They crouched along the edge and scoped out the elaborate building across the way.
“You’re sure that psycho flower guy is down there, Donnie?” Leo asked.
“Why do you continue to question me? When has my tech ever steered us wrong?”
“Well, what about SHELLDON’s first...” Mikey began.
“THAT was user error and I refuse to accept responsibility for that.” Donnie cut him off.
“Okay guys, let’s focus up here. Donnie, what part of the museum is he in?” Raph inserted.
“Security cameras say the south corridor of the northwest wing, which is... color me shocked, the rare botany section.”
“Sick, i love a good orchid.” Leo took over. He gestured to the blueprint. “Blow it up, would you Don? Let’s see, Mikey, your fire’s tabled for now, I want you to keep the plants as far out of harm’s way as possible. This guy likes his new cousins a lot, so I doubt he’s wreaking havoc, but we don’t want them to get either stolen or squished.” Mikey pepped a bouncy salute.
“I’ll keep him busy. Raph, get my back in case he catches up to me, I don’t want to have to take a dozen showers in the next 24 hours. Donnie, can you make sure the cameras...”
“Already playing a loop, what, you think this is my first high-security break-in?”
“You’re an inspiration. I want a good single shot incapacitation here, we’ll all have to live in the same lair with anyone who gets hit. That’s on you, Dee. I’m sure you’ve got a good method for weeding this guy humanely.”
“Why yes, I’ve been synthesizing a specific growth inhibitor for-“
“Notice I did not phrase that as a question. Now let’s see, he’s already left the skylight open; Mikey, you and Donnie enter that way. Raph and I will portal in but I’d prefer he not get a good look at all four of us right away, so you two can go old school.”
“Time for me to blow him away with my fabulous dazzling ninjocity!”
“I would say ‘dazzling’ and ‘ninjocity’ don’t belong in the same sentence, but I understand your point, Michael. Let’s dazzle. Discreetly.” Donnie forearm-bumped Mikey affectionately.
“Alright we good, boys? Sweet, let’s twist!” Leo jumped through his portal with Raph right behind him, barely intelligible as he said, “I’m still not sure about that catchphrase-“
Mikey flashed Donnie a big grin as he leapt off the ledge. Donnie smiled and went to follow, but as he flexed his legs in preparation to jump he felt a wave of... not cold, not heat, but something hollow and prickly rush through his lower limbs. He stumbled, falling off the roof more than jumping, but he was flying down anyway and it took less than a second for his battle-shell to kick in and follow Mikey. He cursed himself momentarily for standing up too fast, his legs must’ve fallen asleep.
***
The fight was going well, all things considered. Raph and Leo had got the plantman well-cornered and Mikey had only let one plant get smashed. He and the villain had taken that equally harshly. Donnie, positioned perfectly in the rafters, whipped his targeting screen up on his arm screen and effortlessly narrowed his scope in like he had a hundred times... except it wasn’t effortless. The same empty feeling from before suddenly surged up his right hand, leaving it shaking gently, but enough that his screen wobbled uselessly. His fingers were stretched taut and quivering uncontrollably as he pulled his hand back, eyes wide. That wasn’t... what was going on? Tentatively, he reached back to his screen, but his hand convulsed and he nearly launched the tranquilizer straight into Raph’s shell as a stabbing pain shot up his forearm to his elbow. He bit his lip hard to keep from yelping, and tucked his now-violently shaking hand against his chest, mind racing.
Something’s wrong, something’s happened, I don’t know, I don’t understand, I don’t- task at hand, Donatello. Order of operations. Solve the first things first.
Donnie whipped his left hand up to drop his goggles over his eyes, and executed a quick shot with his pupil controls... which swung wide and shattered a window when another sharp pain up his arm caused him to flinch and blink at the wrong moment. Heat rushing to his head as the alarms tripped, he got off a second shot that hit the mutant squarely in the back of the neck, knocking him out.
“‘Bout time, Donnie! Let’s get out of here!” Raph yelled over his shoulder as he grabbed the plantman and hurled himself through Leo’s new giant portal. Leo was through immediately as well and Mikey was right behind him, noting out of the corner of his eye Donnie shoving his goggles up and dropping clumsily from the ceiling to the ground before pushing himself forward and... collapsing?? Mikey spun in disbelief as Donnie sprawled, and at first his eyes shot around, looking for a trip wire or some other trap, but there didn’t seem to be anything, no glint or flash or... he locked eyes with Donnie and felt a sudden bright shock under his skin.
Donnie was afraid. The lost, desperate, mind-bending afraid that meant something was horribly wrong.
His right arm was twisted up against him as if it were injured, and he couldn’t really see his legs, but based on the straining of Donnie’s left arm working alone to push his torso up from the damp sticky floor, they were messed up too. Mikey swirled and launched his chain at Donnie, who, in a rush of understanding, lunged forward and threw out his left arm to tangle in the chain and grip it tight. Mikey yanked, hard, and caught his brother as he half-slid and half-tumbled across the floor, and as the sounds of police sirens filled the room and the pounding of footsteps grew louder and louder, Mikey tightened his hold on Donnie’s waist and arm and plunged through the portal.
Donnie experiences technical difficulties.
The intro of a "What-If" episode of the cancelled Season 3 of Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Storyboarded, Edited, and Directed by Cadence Calvert
Written and Sound Design by Charis Calvert
Also Donnie is This Way because, as the trouble child, you gleefully take every opportunity to provoke your siblings into getting themselves in trouble.
A while back I had to make a pamphlet for bible school explaining what the point of Christianity was. I didn’t want to make a pamphlet, so I did this instead. It’s a little rough but I think it captures what I was trying to pin down in my own thoughts at the time.
I’m happy to discuss it if you have questions, or I’m happy to listen if you want to share your own worldview. -C
