#labequipment

Chapter 1: The Found Experiment

Art by me! (It’s not the best but I’m learning I may replace this later)

Rated: Teen and Up Audiences

Warnings: Trauma captivity, non-consensual experimentation, violence, emotional/psychological abuse, recovery from trauma, and moments of intense emotional struggle. This is a Dark romance, so please read at your discretion. Remember to drink water and take care of yourself!

Summery: She was never meant to be found. The Kraang have spent years protecting one of their darkest secrets: Project 87—a teenage girl raised in a laboratory, stripped of her name, and mutated for a purpose no one was ever supposed to uncover. When the Turtles rescue her, they unknowingly become the target of the Kraang’s greatest obsession. Given the name Pink by the family that refuses to leave her behind, she is suddenly thrown into a world she was never allowed to experience. As the turtles teach her what it truly means to live instead of simply survive, an unexpected bond begins to grow between Pink and Donatello. Love built through the shadows of trauma and moments in the lab. Donnie finds himself caring for a girl who was only supposed to be a simple rescue mission. As the truth behind Project 87 comes to light, Pink and Donnie must fight not only for their future, but for the chance to choose one of their own.

Can love change fate?

You can read it here or on AO3 if you prefer!

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“How much of who we become is decided by where we begin? If the world only ever taught us to survive... who teaches us how to live? Or maybe the better question is this: Can love really change fate?” --------------------------------------------------------- It was night, and the buzzing of monitors could be heard as Donatello worked. The night had started with him working on the shellraiser, but somewhere along the way, he found himself sitting at his desk working on his computer. He slid a hand down his face; he could practically feel his eye bags forming.

Insomnia was not fun.

That was his excuse anyway. The real truth was simply that he got lost in his projects. He always relished in the quiet that the lair brought after a nightly patrol. Everything had been quiet lately as far as crime around the city; they only really had the purple dragons to deal with every now and then.

This meant that he and his brothers were cooped up in the lair more often, with little to do.

A bored turtle is never a good turtle.

This meant that, more often than not, Dr. Prankenstein would strike at random times, and Raph's outbursts would be more frequent.

Truth is, they were all antsy.

As much as he loved his brothers, sometimes it was just good to get away from them. Less trouble meant less pressure for solutions. This also meant he had gathered more free time to work on projects that had been put off. Hints as to why he is in the situation he is now.

Awake.

When he should be asleep.

What time was it again?

That was his last thought before a buzzing sounded from the other side of the lab. A white sphere on his shelf that had done nothing but collect dust for months was now pulsing with purple circles.

This could only mean one thing: The Kraang.

Donnie jumped out of his chair and made it across his lab quicker than Mikey could eat a whole jelly bean pizza- and that’s saying something.

He quickly grabbed the vibrating sphere and hooked it up to his computer. He had already cracked the kraangs encryption early on, so translating had become second nature for his device. Only this time he was getting fragments of what he normally would have gotten.

He took a breath.

"Guys—come look at this. Now."

Donnie's voice echoed from his lab. He cringed as his voice cracked. Apparently, his voice had gone to sleep too.

The other turtles had gathered fairly quickly. Leo walked in like he had been up for hours while Raph's sleepy body took heavy steps towards Donnie's and his computer, but not before crossing his arms and making it apparent that he did NOT want to be awake. Mikey was the last to enter the lab. His body slouched as he walked, and his eyes remained closed.

“Donnie, this better be a life-or-death emergency or I'm going to use your gap tooth as a bottle opener.”

Raph's voice was gruff from sleep. Donnie would have rolled his eyes if it weren’t for the situation.

“First of all-don’t dis the gap- second of all, yes, it is an emergency! The kraang orb is going crazy!”

He paused before gesturing to his computer.

“I ran diagnostics on it for any known locations where they could be active but.. there's something..new here..Every translation in my database is coming up dry. I'm only getting fragments of conversation.”

This seemed to grab Leo's attention because he perked up. He shuffled closer to Donnie and his computer so that way he could have a better view of the screen.

Leo crossed his arms. "So... they don't want us finding it."

"Exactly," Donnie said. "Which means we should."

You could hear knuckles cracking from a now very awake Raph.

“Well, why didn’t you say so? Finally, some action! I was getting sick of sleeping anyway.”

A very loud yawn came from Mikey as he stretched his arms outward.

“… Man, do the kraang ever sleep? Like they don’t care about a turtle's beauty rest. My shell is gonna be so stiff tomorrow.”

Leo was already walking towards the exit of the lab.

“No time for sleep, Mikey. The kraang have been quiet for months- if they are surfacing now..That means they are planning something massive- or have been.”

Nobody argued with that.

Everyone geared up and made their way into the shell raiser.

Their goal was simple: get in, grab data, sabotage if possible, and get out. Just another stealth op.

They didn't expect the security to be so thick.

They didn't expect such heavy surveillance on one section of the lower levels.

To say droids were everywhere is an understatement.

They had to hide in a maintenance closet while a group of droids passed.

Mikey took the opportunity to reference Donnie's comment about a Kraang birthday party from years ago.

As they made it to the lower levels of the Kraang laboratory, everyone began to notice something was off.

It started subtly.

Mikey found half-melted IV bags and broken restraints in a disposal room.

Raph saw scorch marks on the walls- it looked like the kraangs gun blasts.

It wasn’t abnormal for the kraang to hold prisoners, but what was strange was that they normally held their prisoners on one of the upper levels.

There was so many droids walking past that a simple stealth op had become near impossible. Thank goodness the kraang never thought to look above them.

Then Leo spotted something. A door. Reinforced.

"They're hiding something in there”

That was all it took for Raph to slam his sai into the door.

When the turtles busted through the door, it was like the world paused. White walls.

a bright medical light.

Several tables lined with rows of medical equipment.

And in the center of it all, an operating table with a girl in the center of it.

The sight alone was bone-chilling.

The girl lay strapped down, arms splayed, chest rising in shallow breaths. There were sensors pressed against her bare skin, one sensor pulsing on her stomach. The Thin medical gown she wore only covered what was necessary. You could see years of scarring, some new, some old. The number of wires hooked up to her was enough to light up a mini apartment.

She blinked slowly. Not asleep—but far from awake.

You could hear medical machines beep in tune with her heart rate.

Everything caught up to Donnie like a punch to the face. It seemed to do the same for Leo because he dropped into grim stillness before readying his swords.

"Change of plan. We don't leave without her."

Every turtle set into motion as the kraang in the room began to attack.

By now they knew the routine.

Alarms began screeching, notifying more kraang.

Donnie made his way to the operating table. He ducked as a plasma bolt shot over his head. “Great, just what we needed- more kraang!”

You could hear steal aganst steal and various war cries. Mikey did a spinning drop kick to several kraang bots. Raph slammed two kraang heads together with brute force. Leo sliced through several kraang droids by pure skill alone.

All while Donnie worked carefully to detach medical equipment from a girl who looked to have survived years of torment.

Eventually, the girl was free from her binds and Donnie carefully lifted the girl. Somewhere along the line of taking out various IVs and detaching the kraang's tech, she passed out. Somewhere along the line kraang had stopped rushing in.

That only meant another wave would come in minutes- maybe less.

Donnie lifted the girl in his arms.

“I GOT HER WE NEED TO GO- NOW!”

“Raph clear us a path!”

“Don’t have to tell me twice!”

They reached a lower corridor where pipes burst and water leaked from the walls, unstable but navigable.

"She looks so small..." Mikey worried openly as he ran alongside Donnie, watching his back for kraang.

Donnie held her tighter as they took a sharp turn. "She's still alive.”

Eventually, everyone made it out of the lab. The shellraiser was parked exactly where they had left it.

The ride home was a blur as Donnie entered the medbay. His mind was already racing for what he would need:

He set the girl on the bed and immediately began raiding the cabinets for medical equipment.

Gause.

Iv.

He looked at the girl on the bed.

She would need stitches.

Donnie wasn’t sure how long it had been. It was enough that his brothers had left him alone after the initial crisis. One by one, everyone had drifted back to their own room.

Leo was the last.

He only went to bed because he insisted that he would take over after he woke up. The med bay had settled into a calm. The rhythmic hum of machines had become Donnie’s music while he scribbled notes on the desk.

His eyes, every now and then, would drift towards the girl. She hadn't moved since they brought her in. She looked a lot better than she did. Now there were bandages around her arms and torso. She was cleaned of any grime and dried blood.

Donnie knew he should sleep. That she probably wouldn’t even be up for a while.

Still.

Nobody deserved to wake up alone in an unfamiliar place.

One of her cat-like ears twitched once. The sharp inhale the girl made ripped Donnie from his thoughts. The girl on the cot shifted with wide eyes- her breathing already shallow.

"Hey—whoa. It's okay," Donnie said gently, standing slowly, palms open. "You're safe. No Kraang here."

The girl looked around the room with wide eyes before landing on Donnie.

"You're in a safe place. My name's Donatello. I helped get you out."

She opened her mouth, but no sound came. Just a dry rasp.

"Here," he said softly, placing a water bottle nearby. "If you want it. No pressure."

She looked at the bottle, then at him. Slowly, she reached for it. almost waiting to see if Donnie would take it away from her.

He didn’t.

She finally grabbed the water. Quick. Drank. Coughed. Drank again. She finished the whole bottle.

Donnie slowly stepped closer to the cot.

The girl winced as she tried to move away.

“Hey- its okay.” Donnie whispered as he held his arms up again. “ My brothers and I found you in one of the Kraang labs..you were strapped to a table..it looked like some sort of DNA extraction, but that’s all I know…”

“What's your name?”

The girl hesitated on the cot.

Donnie swallowed before smiling softly. "That's okay. We've got time."

Donnie turned to make his way back towards the desk. The girl softened as she looked down at herself.

Clean.

Bandages.

Soft blanket.

"You passed out when we took you out.. Your vitals were unstable, but you're recovering…you don’t have to say anything right now. Just rest its late.”

As Donnie sat at the desk, he felt the girl staring; eventually, she fell asleep, her body too exhausted to stay awake.

Donnie looked up at the ceiling from where he was writing, then at the girl on the bed.

Her pink hair spilled across the pillow as she breathed softly.

“What a weird night.” He muttered to himself.

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Look at this lil sketch I made last Monday in my notebook in lab class for my report

Labozon Tri-Gas CO₂ Incubator delivers precise cell culture incubation with a 160 L chamber, RT+5 to 60°C control, and accurate CO₂/O₂ regulation.

An air jacket with 90°C steam sterilization and moist heat decontamination works with an LCD touch screen, USB storage, CO2/O2 sensors, and a microcomputer display. A 3L water reservoir, HEPA filtration, gas valves, shelves, and alarms help maintain clean conditions.

Metallurgical Microscope Definition: What It Is and Why It Exists

A metallurgical microscope is an optical instrument designed specifically for the examination of opaque samples, primarily metals, alloys, ceramics, and composite materials, that cannot be viewed by transmitted light. Unlike biological microscopes, which pass light through a transparent or translucent specimen, a metallurgical microscope directs light onto the surface of the sample and collects the reflected image through the objective lens.

This reflected-light design, known as ‘episcopic’ or ‘incident’ illumination, is the defining feature of the metallurgical microscope definition. It enables direct examination of polished metal sections, fractured surfaces, coatings, and welds, revealing grain boundaries, phase distributions, inclusion content, and surface defects that are invisible to the naked eye and inaccessible to transmitted-light instruments.

SCOPE OF USE: The metallurgical microscope is the primary instrument for metallographic analysis: the science of preparing and examining the internal structure of metals. It sits at the intersection of quality control, failure analysis, and materials development across manufacturing, aerospace, automotive, foundry, and research settings.

Metallurgical Microscope Working Principle

The metallurgical microscope’s working principle centres on reflected light microscopy. A light source — typically a halogen or LED lamp — directs illumination through a beam splitter or half-mirror positioned within the microscope body. The beam splitter redirects the light downward through the objective lens and onto the polished sample surface.

The light reflects from the surface and travels back up through the objective, through the beam splitter (which now transmits a portion of the reflected beam), and into the eyepiece or camera system. The objective lens magnifies the surface features; the eyepiece provides additional magnification. The total magnification is the product of the objective magnification and the eyepiece magnification.

Fison’s metallurgical microscopes support four illumination modes that expand what can be observed at the sample surface:

Brightfield — standard reflected illumination, reveals surface topography and grain boundaries on polished sections

Darkfield — oblique illumination that highlights surface scratches, pits, inclusions, and surface relief features not visible in brightfield

Phase contrast — enhances contrast between phases of similar reflectivity, useful for soft metals and multi-phase alloys

Polarisation — identifies anisotropic materials, reveals grain orientation, and distinguishes between crystalline phases

Metallurgical Microscope Parts: What Each Component Does

Understanding the functional role of each component helps in selecting the appropriate configuration and maintaining the instrument correctly. The key metallurgical microscope parts are:

Objective lens: the primary magnification element. Fison’s range includes Plan Achromatic objectives from 4x to 100x (working distances from 17.8 mm at 4x to 0.7 mm at 40x). Higher magnification objectives have shorter working distances and require a finely polished sample surface

Nosepiece: the rotating turret that holds multiple objectives and allows rapid magnification changes without refocusing the sample

Viewing head: Fison metallurgical microscopes include binocular and trinocular Siedentopf-type heads with 30° inclination and 48–75 mm interpupillary adjustment, accommodating extended observation sessions

Beam splitter / half-mirror: the optical element that directs illumination downward and transmits the reflected image upward, central to the reflected-light working principle

Mechanical stage: the X-Y translatable platform that holds the sample and enables systematic surface scanning

Coaxial coarse and fine focus: allows controlled focus adjustment at the sub-micron level required for high-magnification metallographic observation

Illumination system: LED or halogen lamp with field diaphragm and aperture diaphragm controls for optimising contrast and depth of field

OPTICAL SYSTEM NOTE: Fison offers both finite and infinite optical system configurations. Infinite optical systems allow accessories such as polarisers, DIC prisms, and camera adapters to be inserted into the optical path without introducing focus shift — a significant advantage for multi-mode metallographic setups.

Metallurgical Microscope Types: Upright vs Inverted

The two primary metallurgical microscope types are upright (or erect) and inverted configurations, distinguished by the position of the objective lens relative to the sample.

Optical Metallurgical Microscope (Upright)

In an upright metallurgical microscope, the objective lens is positioned above the sample, which sits on a stage below the objective. This is the standard configuration for laboratory metallographic work. The sample is placed, polished face up, on the stage; the objective descends to the working distance, and the operator focuses on the surface features.

Fison upright models feature a heavy base and robust frame construction for vibration-resistant observation — a requirement for high-magnification work where stage vibration at 100x produces visible image movement. The optical metallurgical microscope in upright configuration is the standard tool for quality control labs, foundry inspection, and teaching applications.

Inverted Metallurgical Microscope

In an inverted metallurgical microscope, the objective lens is positioned below the stage, looking upward at the underside of the sample. The sample is placed, polished face down, on the stage aperture. This configuration offers two practical advantages: large or heavy samples — cast billets, thick plates, and engine components — sit stably on the stage by gravity without clamping, and long-working-distance objectives have more physical clearance when approaching the sample from below.

The inverted metallurgical microscope is the preferred configuration for industrial quality control involving bulk samples and for research applications requiring large sample stages. It is also commonly used in foundry and casting analysis where samples are heavy and irregular in shape.

Metallurgical Microscope Uses Across Industries

The metallurgical microscope is used in materials science, manufacturing quality control, failure analysis, and academic research. The common thread is the need to examine the internal microstructure of opaque materials at magnifications from 40x to 1000x.

Grain size measurement — grain boundary visibility at 100–400x allows ASTM E112 grain size number determination, a standard QC parameter for steels and aluminium alloys

Phase identification — multi-phase alloys such as dual-phase steels, cast irons, and titanium alloys require phase distribution mapping to verify heat treatment outcomes

Inclusion rating — non-metallic inclusions (oxides, sulphides, silicates) are quantified per ASTM E45 or ISO 4967 at 100x under brightfield and darkfield

Coating thickness measurement — cross-section examination of plated, coated, or carburised components at 200–500x

Weld inspection — heat-affected zone width, fusion line integrity, and weld metal microstructure examination per AWS and ISO welding standards

Failure analysis — fracture surface examination, fatigue crack propagation assessment, and corrosion pit characterisation

Academic and research applications — phase transformation studies, solidification structure analysis, and new alloy development

Metallurgical Microscope with Image Analyzer: From Visual to Quantitative

A metallurgical microscope with an image analyser integrates a digital camera mounted on the trinocular port with image analysis software to convert visual microstructure observations into quantitative measurements. This combination changes the instrument from a qualitative observation tool into a quantitative analytical platform.

Common measurements performed with a metallurgical microscope with image analyser include automatic grain size calculation per ASTM E112, phase area fraction measurement, inclusion type and distribution mapping, coating layer thickness with calibrated measurement tools, and surface roughness profiling from cross-section images.

The camera adapter on Fison’s trinocular head models connects standard C-mount cameras, allowing integration with third-party image analysis software or Fison’s recommended camera and analysis packages. This trinocular configuration allows simultaneous eyepiece observation and camera capture without optical switching.

Fison Metallurgical Microscope Range

Fison’s metallurgical microscope range covers both upright and inverted configurations with finite and infinite optical system options, supporting brightfield, darkfield, phase contrast, and polarisation illumination modes.

Optical Systems

Finite · Infinite optical system

Configurations

Upright (optical metallurgical microscope) · Inverted metallurgical microscope

Illumination Modes

Brightfield · Darkfield · Phase contrast · Polarisation

Objective Range

4x / 10x / 20x / 40x / 100x (Plan Achromatic, ∞ corrected)

Viewing Head

Binocular · Trinocular (Siedentopf, 30° inclined, 48–75 mm IPD)

Camera Integration

Trinocular port for C-mount camera (image analyzer compatible)

Sample Types

Metals, alloys, ceramics, composites, coatings, welds

Applications

Metallographic analysis, QC, failure analysis, research

For full model specifications and to enquire about Fison’s metallurgical microscope range, visit https://www.fison.com/metallurgical-microscopes.

Conclusion

A metallurgical microscope is the primary instrument for making the internal structure of metals and alloys visible — from grain boundaries and phase distributions to inclusions and coating layers. The metallurgical microscope’s working principle of reflected-light episcopic illumination, combined with brightfield, darkfield, phase contrast, and polarisation modes, gives the instrument a range of observational capability that no other single laboratory instrument matches for opaque material examination.

Choosing between an upright optical metallurgical microscope and an inverted metallurgical microscope depends on sample size, weight, and the workflow of the laboratory. Integrating a metallurgical microscope with image analyser capability converts qualitative observations into quantitative data that meets ASTM and ISO reporting standards.