Donatello Hamato's Laboratory

The **laboratory of Donatello Hamato**, formerly the **lair of the Hamato Clan**, is a recurring location in *Mutant Ninja Turtles Gaiden*. It was the home of Hamato Splinter and his adopted sons and ninjutsu students Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo and Donatello. It is located in an abandoned area of the sewers under Brooklyn, New York City. Originally the home to the entire family, it is now home only to Donatello, who has turned the entire lair into his lab.

## History

From the Mirage TMNT continuity, this is actually the family's second sewer lair. Their first lair under Manhattan was partially destroyed and abandoned in Volume 1 Issue 2 when it was discovered by Baxter Stockman's Mousers, when the turtles were 15 years old. It would not be permanently lived in by anyone again for at least two years. The turtles moved into their new friend April O'Neil's Second Time Around building, later joined by Splinter, where they lived for over a year. After the building was destroyed by the Shredder's resurgent Foot Clan, the turtles, Splinter and April moved with Casey Jones to the Jones Farm in Northampton, Massachusetts, where they all lived together for at least another whole year. After the turtles killed Oroku Saki during the Return to New York arc, they and Splinter moved into a new sewer lair, and gave what was left of their first lair to Leatherhead for him to live in. The new lair is the Hamato Lair at the beginning of *MNT Gaiden*. Although in Mirage this lair's borough location is never specific, in *MNT Gaiden* it is located under the borough of Brooklyn, where most of the story's New York City scenes are set.

In the Prologue, the turtles are 17 years old. Eikichi Gotoh anonymously drops a package into the sewer, where it is eventually discovered by Splinter. The package is addressed to Splinter's long-dead human master Hamato Yoshi, and contains the Tōtsuka Sword and some Japanese scrolls. Splinter stores the package in his room in the lair. His sons Michelangelo and Raphael sneak into his room to sneak a peek at the package's contents, the Curse of Yamata-no-Orochi first infects Raph, and the Prologue's story unfolds from there.

After Splinter dies helping Leonardo destroy the Tōtsuka Sword, the rest of the family quickly disintegrates. Leo leaves immediately for Japan to learn more about the sword and its curse, but also in deep shame at his role in the family's tragedy. Mikey also leaves the very same day, moving in with April and wanting to leave his old life behind. According to Chapter 3: *Broken Brotherhood - Burden from "Back Then"*, Raph and his brother Donatello share the lair alone for a little while longer, until Raph's worsening temper and Donnie's descent into madness create too much friction between them, and Raph moves out into his own lair, leaving Donnie alone in what remains of the family's lair.

Donatello becomes an antisocial hermit, converting the entire lair into a laboratory for his research, inventions and experiments; from this point on, he refers to the entire location as his "lab." According to Chapter 19: *Fragments of Truth Inside His Mind*, Donnie had long ago set up a secret cloning lab in the lair's lower reaches that not even the rest of his family knows about. There, he clones Splinter, but the clone is flawed and dies; Donnie keeps the clone's skeleton in a tank, where it actually serves as an effective vessel for the Yamata-no-Orochi in the same way the Tōtsuka Sword previously had. To improve his cloning technology, Donnie starts making many clones of himself, one after another, which are secretly chained up and fed the corpses of previous clones.

In Chapter 18: *A Little Deeper in Donatello's World* and Chapter 19: *Fragments of Truth Inside His Mind*, the lair is discovered by NYPD officer Tony Howard in his investigations of mutant appearances in New York City. But Donatello discovers Howard there and savagely murders him to protect his secrets.