Is breaking into a lab at your university a crime? Maybe. Does one of the greatest genius in the world (this is not exaggerated at all) care about it? No.
That's pretty much how Donnie found himself creeping through the empty halls almost in the middle of the night. It's been a while since he started searching for one of his school's more abandoned labs. But he was determined.
Recently he accidentally eavesdropped a conversation between two of his classmates. Well, not really eavesdropped, because the were talking on definitely lounder volume than most of the class and Donnie just happened to be sitting behind them. They were talking about some older lab in the farthest corner of the school that no one really visited.
And who would pass on such an opportunity for a new quiet workplace? Definitely not the Donatello Hamato.
With self-made goggles on his eyes he scanned the area slowly making way further and further into the dark corridor carefull not to make to many sounds. He's never been to this part of the school so navigating there was quiet a challenge with how many turns and doors were along the way. Seriously, they at least could have given them a layout of the building at the beginning of the year.
Reaching the end of the hall, Donnie stopped in his tracks. Rays of yellowish light filtered through a small window in the last doors falling on the greyish floor.
Maybe... someone just forgot to turn of the light earlier before leaving? No, janitors always check it after everyone leave.
No matter with how many excuses Donnie's been trying to come up with there was no other explanation.
Someone already was there.
Sudden wave of anxiety washed over Donnie as he reached to pull lightly at the end of his purple mask. Were those this guys talking about the lab in his class? That would make sense. But for some reason he had a feeling that it wasn't them.
After the moment of paralyzation, Donatello began making steady steps ahead. Stopping before the door he exhaled shakly not knowing he was holding his breath. Being as quiet as he could, he listened to the hushed voice from the inside of the room.
"Yeah, yeah I know I was a little bit to reckless." said the voice with quiet whine. Donnie guessed the person that voice belong to was talking through the phone, because he couldn't detect any other presence beside them. "But what could I do when he just suddenly trow a wHOLE BENCH-"
The voice stopped. He heard the sound of several papers being picked up and stuffed in a drawer. The sound of his heart was louder than the stapes coming out of the lab. Just as Donnie started to think of an escape plan he heard the voice again - this time more nervous.
"I think that someone-" they were cut off by the person they were talking to. How could they know that he was here? "But what if it's- Can you stop interrupting me for a second? What should I do?"
And this was the moment Donatello decided it's time for him to go. No matter who that person was or how they knew he was here he didn't want to be spotted, and in the worst case scenario reported to the teachers. He never will get detention like his twin (Leo was almost always in detention and Donnie certainly didn't want to deal with being in one room with his brother at the same time for so long). It's not like Donnie have never done something that would put him in so called 'after-class prison'. He just never got caught like his dumb-dumb brother(s - every one of them got it at least once).
Maybe he could just threaten them to not tell anyone?
...what they were doing here in the first place?
Lost in his head Donnie failed to notice a shadow slowly approaching the door. With one quick motion the door opened revealing the mysterious person from the not-so-abandoned lab.
For a few first seconds both of them were just standing staring at each other. It was so quiet (and probably as awkward).
As he lifted his goggles of his face, Donatello watched them with a strange kind of disappointment seeing that they were just some random normal student. They had [s/c] skin mostly covered by dark clothing in which the most signifying thing was the colorfull jacket (that gave him the sense of deja vu for some unknown reason). One of their hands was tightly wrapped around the strap of the cross body bag. Donatello noticed several pins, patches and keychains from different types of media on it. He could even recognize most of them (especially that one pin wit Atomic Lass on it).
"Uh, I was just leaving so-" they started talking startling Donnie a little. "-could you just... pretend you never saw anything?”
The mysterious person said nervously darting their eyes at everything but on him and just now he looked at their face. Even in the dark he could see every bigger and smaller detail, his own eyes jumping from the shiny [e/c] eyes to nose and lips and even to tiny scars scaterred on their skin. Scars huh?...
"Oh..." they breathed out finally laying eyes on him. "Turtle."
Donnie sudently felt a pang of irritation.
"Yes, excellent observation. I am in fact a type of reptilian, to be exact a one from the Trionychidae family." he responded totally not sarcastic.
The [h/c] haired teen stared at him in shock not knowing what to say for the first few seconds. Donnie was just about to start going on a rant on the topic of different species of turtles when they opened their mouth.
"Fancy way of saying you're a softshell turtle but okay." they muttered to themselves. "What I meant was, you're one of the turtle brothers. For so many yokai and mutants going to this school, you guys are the most recognizable." the teen started lightly bouncing on the heels of their feet before adding. "And we have at least four classes together every day."
Huh, that was a surprise. The turtle never noticed them in class before. Then again, he never pays attention to other students unless they're doing projects, which requires having a partner, or they are talking about something that catches Donnie's attention.
"I am not a bit surprised that my intellect is so recognizable among my peers and many others." he proclaimed with confidence. "However, now I'm more intrigued about what someone like you is doing in a school lab at 11:53 p.m."
Donatello rised one of his drawn eyebrows looking at them suspiciously. Small bead of sweat rolled down their neck.
"Well, I..." bright eyes shifting from his face to the ground and again on him. They cursed internally to themselves for not being able to hold eye contact for long enough to not appear suspicious. "I have permission form a teacher to use this lab."
"Why and which teacher would get you an access to-"
"What are you doing here though?" the more human one of the pair, swiftly avoiding the topic, tilted their head curiously.
It was his turn to sweat.
"I may have heard about an unoccupied lab and simply thought that such a place couldn't go to waste." the purple turtle pointed his tree fingered hand at the entrance to the room, hiding the other in the pocket of his hoodie.
"Understandable." they nodded at his reasoning. "Though, could you not tell anyone about it?"
"Why is that? I thought that you had permission form the teacher." Donnie questioned.
The teen scratched lightly their arm.
"Well, I do have a permission form Mr. Stark." they send him knowing look.
Oh, that made sense. Mr. Stark was known to be genius but rather... nonchalant teacher, which caused him to appear ignorant and selfish (being rich certainty did not help erase this assumptions). However, that wasn't true at all. He just cared in his own unique ways like, in this case, providing the workplace for one of his students. Although, he didn't really conducted any lessons, anyone in school could cusually talk to him about anything school- or no school-related. Mr. Stark was just kinda there if someone needed him.
So, in conclusion, a permission from him specifically isn't very reliable for other teachers.
Donatello hummed to himself, thinking for the most profitable solution.
"Let's make a deal." he requested firmly. "I won't inform any of the authorities of this university, which could get you and Mr. Stark in trouble, and you will give me an access to also use this lab. Of course, I won't interfere with your work and I expect to you do the same with mine."
[e/c]-eyed teen went silent, thinking expression on their face. The deal was pretty fair, they really didn't want to get them and the teacher in trouble, and letting him work in the lab shouldn't be a problem. Except, it was risky. He could find out.
But maybe they just need to hide their things a little better.
"Okay."
"I don't think you want to get into unnecessary trouble- wait, what?"
"I'm okay with that arrangement. I mean, I won't lose anything on that and I don't mind sharing." they shrugged, extending their hand. "So, deal? Oh, I'm y/n Parker by the way."
The turtle stared intensely at their opened palm not moving neither of his own. Instead, from under his purple hoodie appeared a metal limb reminding the other teen of spider legs. It grabbed their hand and firmly shook it.
"It's a deal then, y/n Parker."
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Donnie ever so often found himself spending time in the lab. He observed that the class was much bigger on the inside that he thought. It also had an equipment that the turtle couldn't find in any other place in school. They were clearly bought or constructed by y/n (which the latter he was doubtful of).
Speaking about the teen, although Donnie never was really interested in his peers, he sometimes caught them walking somewhere in the back of his mind. They never stayed for long, only leaving unanswered questions that lingered in his brain later. He could learn nothing from the brief conversations they had every time they were switching turns in the laboratory. Or even when they started making small talks during the day in school (which he kind of enjoyed, because the turtle rarely had any classes with his brothers due to being on different profiles). What he could learn, however, was that with the level of sarcasm and jokes they could almost match his. Almost. Which made every exchange of words interesting.
But despite their friendly and teaseful nature, Donnatello was convinced they were hiding something.
He even made a list of what he found suspicious. It mainly contained things like:
- the fact that they never wanted to tell the purple turtle what exactly they were doing in the lab and always perfectly covered any evidence of teen being there,
- y/n was also avoiding certain topics, like, what connects them to Mr. Star or why they were just randomly disappearing from school,
- and the colorful jacket, which Donnie still found weirdly familiar.
And after a long internal discussion with himself, Donatello decided today was the day he will find out the truth.
That's why he was now searching every drawer in the laboratory for any kind of clues. Today, for some unknown reason, y/n hurriedly left seconds after he opened the door, throwing a quick 'hi', before disappearing around the corner. Therefore, Donnie decided it was excellent time to pull on a little investigation.
Shuffling through the papers scattered on the table, his dark eyes scanned every bit of information on them. However, they seemed to be encrypted, making it difficult for the turtle to understand exactly what was written on them. When he was starting to get irritated, he spotted, under all the other paper sheets, something what looked like a blueprint of unknown mechanics. Small device in the shape that reminded him of a tear, was drawn with precision. Every little detail was carefully described, from how the parts were made, to in what way they need to be put together.
Donnie could probably analyze it for hours and lost himself in the vortex of work, but what most cached his attention was what was on the other side of the paper.
A recipe for web fluid with a 'Synthetic Webbing' written in the top left corner of the page.
"Salicylic acid, toulene, methanol, carbon tetrachloride, potassium carbonate, and ethyl acetate, huh..." he read out loud. "What would they need to create a webbing like that for? Judging by its structure it needs to be load-bearing and strong, hold with extreme amounts of tension and stress, yet have a little stretch to it."
The most important thing he could recall now, was that spiders were able to produce sticky thread, using it to create webs. Which, somehow, was the missing puzzle piece that he yet needed to put in the right place.
What exactly spiders have to do with that-
"Wait a minute." Donnie mumbled to himself.
In the New York City was one particular spider that everyone recognized - Spiderman. The faceless hero, in the black and [f/c] suit with a jacket thrown over the shoulders, protecting the city from any danger. The turtle himself was never really as interested in superhero as his brothers, but because of them he knew more overall informations.
Rubbing his chin, Donatello looked around the lab trying to put all those informations together. His eyes, however, landed on familiar colorful piece of clothing left hanging loosely on the chair back.
Suddenly, with wide open eyes, his stomach twisted uncomfortably giving him this weird feeling of dread and realisation. Quickly he stuffed the rest of the papers in the drawers trying not to accidentally rip them. Seconds later, the door to the lab opened revealing [h/c] haired student.
"Sorry, Donatello, I just forgot my-" they halted seeing the blueprint in turtles three-fingered hand.
He felt his heart stopped beating for a moment before he was able to speak.
"You were in a hurry and left couple of things, so I thought I would offer my assistance and clean up! Yeah..." the purple turtle explained tugging at the end of his mask. "Although, I may have accidentally get to know the content of one of your projects, which leads me to the question. What is the purpose to create artificial web-"
"Cosplay!" they expressed loudly, surprising him and themselves. "I mean- yeah, I just wanted to make, uh, Spiderman's cosplay! For convention! Yup, that's right."
The teen nodded with a smile, not knowing who they're trying to convince more, him or themselves. Donnie only rises his eyebrow.
Unfortunately (or fortunately), both of them were terrible at lying.
"So, are you..."
"Yeah, well..."
Both students were staring at each other uncomfortably.
"I'm assuming that Mr. Stark knows about that, and that's why he let you use this lab?"
"Well, actually, I was there before and he caught me while I was testing the web." they explained, scratching their arm. "He helped me with the whole... hero thing, I guess."
Donnie nodded, still being lost somewhere in his head.
"How exactly did this... happened? What I mean is, I noticed that you posess only certain aspects of a spider, like, being able to attach yourself to different surfaces." the turtle trailed off ready to go on a rant. "However, you need to fabricate the webs yourself, so, I'm assuming that means your body can not produce them itself-"
"Donatello, as much as I would like to listen to your genius talk, I'm afraid I don't have many answers for you." they hold up their hands in defensive manner and dropped their [e/c] eyes to the floor trying to avoid his gaze. "Besides, it's not really interesting story. I was bitten by radioactive spider and started sticking to random things. That really freaked me out. But I guess I just grown up to accept that now I have weird superpowers."
"What about being a hero? Why-"
"Can you not tell anyone?" they cut him off hastily while focusing up on him again with pleading look. "I know I can't really force you to do that, but maybe there is something I could do? I can't really think of anything I could offer though... It's easier and safer when less people know..."
He began to think, wondering what he might possibly want from them. What might they have that Donnie couldn't construct himself? Or what information they possessed that could satisfy him? For a brief second he even thought of organising a meet-up for his brothers who certainly would be delighted to converse with a hero, but quickly dismissed the idea realizing that it would led to questions how he was able to meet Spiderman in the first place.
However, maybe there was something that Donatello would be interested in...
"How about this," he started clasping his hands together. "For exchange of my silence, you will provide me with informations on your whole hero life, including the topics like, what style of fighting do you have, what your enemies are like, how exactly does your tech works, and so on. I would also like to help you advance your inventions, because for what I see there is still room for improvement."
y/n just stare at him dumbfounded, trying to process all the information he threw at them. That was kinda a lot. Didn't Donnie said sometime before that he wasn't interested in superheros or any of that kind of stuff? They still could clearly recall that one time in class, when group of people were talking about Spiderman, saying that the hero must have some cool magic stuff helping him fight, and the purple turtle lould expressing that it had to do something with technology and not non-existing magic. Then he proceeded to dismiss the need of having a so called superhero, saying he had better solutions in terms of improving the city's safety.
It's almost like he wanted to...-
"Are you saying that you wanna be some kind of my tech support?" they smirked suddenly feeling smug. "You're asking for much there, turtle boy. You should know it's not really the safest job."
The [h/c] haired teen furrowed their brows saying the last sentence in sceptical tone. The last thing they wanted was to put another person in unnecessary danger.
"Must you have put it like that?" Donnie rolled his eyes at the silly title. Then he put on a more serious face. "I am aware of the risk this request might bring with it. Nonetheless, I have my own reasons of doing that. Also, I may or may not took a pity on you and simply thought you could require a little assistance."
"Assistance? Me? Please, I am very well organized with everything-"
"Why were you in hurry earlier?" he asked crossing his arms while lifting one of his drawn eyebrows.
Their eyes widened in realisation.
"Oh, shit- aunt is so gonna kill me." the young hero said hurriedly and darted to the door in such speed that even the blue hedgehog would be jealous of.
"I think you forgot something." Donatello lifted their colorful jacket of the chair and extended his arm towards them.
The teen hastily turned around, grabbed the jacket and again speeded of to the exit.
"Thanks Donatello, see you tomorrow!"
"You can just call be Donnie or whatever. And try not to fall of the stairs!" he shouted after them not expecting any answer.
Despite that, he could hear a distant 'Bye, Donnie!' accompanied by sound of running.
The purple turtle stood on the center of the lab a little longer.
"Sigh. How this dumb-dumb is even alive..."
This is going to be interesting, wouldn't it?
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Sooo here is first chapter! I hope you liked it bc I'm kinda excited about writing it
Anyway, as it is written in the description, this fic is originally posted on tumblr so any updates and additional informations will be posted there
However, fan arts and comics I'll probably post on wattpad as well
If you want to read it on ao3 I'll be posting there too (link will be on my tumblr)
That's all! If you want to leave a comment then feel free to do so! I like reading them(≡^∇^≡)
Have a great day/night, bye~
- ghost