As I watched 'Bishop to Knight', I realised that the turtles are recognised members of society. They probably would have been during their lifetimes too, seeing as they were only about 18 at the end of the show (2003). A bit of research later, and this oneshot was born.

I guess you could even call this a follow up on Farewell, seeing as I mentioned that the turtles had found themselves turtle wives.

When I thought of the future, I never quite imagined it this way. I always pictured living in the sewers with my brothers for the remainder of my lifetime, taking on the position of the clan leader when our father passed on. I thought of seeing April and Casey's children, from birth to when their lines continued. In the furthest corner of my mind, I thought of the small possibility of us finding our lovers. All of those came true, and by the time we had reached our thirties, my brothers and I had wives, and soon children of our own, some teens, some younger. But we still wished for more. We wished that we didn't have to teach our children that the topside world was dangerous, that they should never go above the manhole covers (though all four of us knew that they had defied that rule entirely). We had trained them in the ways our father trained us, each now mastering their chosen weapon.

Yet we didn't want that.

We wanted safety for our family.

But we had lived through every attempt on our life, from thee Utrom Shredder to the H.A.T.E squad, we had battled it all. We knew how the human race treated us.

Until that day.

That day when Donnie and Samuel, his son of sixteen, were working in the lab-when they get a call on the computer. From the president no less. Now that would be an honour and all, if the president wasn't Bishop. He hadn't tried to kill us for a good ten years or so, but we were still understandably hostile to him. Next thing we knew, myself, my brothers and our wives are in a video conference while my son Yoshi is attempting to distract the children.

Except his twin.

Cobalt always did have his mother's curiosity, as well as shyness, hence why he hid behind the door. Bishop caught sight of him, and then we had to explain how all of us had had children, which then involved getting the other eight children in and introducing the president to them. It was an…interesting convocation to say the least, made more so with the fact that Carly wouldn't stop smiling and Olivia wouldn't stop frowning sceptically at Bishop, both having taken after their fathers.

Try and guess who.

Bishop proposed an idea to us. He was devising a plan, a new utopia here all alien races, mutants and humans could all live together in harmony. He was presenting it the next week, and wanted us to be his first showmen. He then said that the fact that we had children would help the situation, showing that we were just like humans, just...turtles.

At first we were worried, no one wanting to risk everything we had, but after a lot of discussion, online meetings and mini speeches, we eventually agreed. Our family would be the ambassadors for the first 'race' to ally with the Pan Galactic Alliance-mutants.

During the next week we all had to answer the many questions that our children asked. However, when it came to mine, I noticed that while Yoshi asked his fair share of questions, Cobalt stayed quieter than usual. Cobalt was a quiet child, having what Donnie had prescribed as selective mutism. In his whole life of seventeen years, I could count the amount of times that I had seen him speak on only my hands and feet (seeing as I have six fingers and four toes). Yet during the time between the arrangement and the presentation, he became withdrawn, barely seen by the family. Eventually I went over to talk to him. It only took around an hour, and most if that was him confessing what he had obviously kept inside. Turns out that he was worried that his younger cousins would attached to the human world, then not want to leave if it went horribly wrong.

You can never say that he is not my son.

I too had thought over the possibility of this becoming a nightmare, but more so on the likelihood of everyone leaving once we had our rights. Don and his wife Harriet would most likely join a science lab or something close. Mikey would probably become a famous chef, his wife Tina a well known artist. Raph...I wasn't sure what Raph would become. But I knew that he'd leave. He craved freedom, and his wife Jane would follow wherever he went. So imagine my surprise when they all requested a house together. It wasn't like we couldn't afford it, April had always given Donnie half the profits that she received from O'Neil tech, so we were far from poor. We would buy a house big enough for all eight adults and nine children, though both sets of twins, mine and Raph's eleven year old second borns-Kyle and Vince, stated that they would share. We started as a family, we would end as a family.

The day came quicker that expected and soon enough we were stood backstage. I observed my family. The adults were talking to each other, going over the details once again. Older siblings comforted their little brothers and sisters, fourteen year old Carly talking to eight year old Dylan, sixteen year old Samuel satisfying twelve Mary-Anne's questions. Even Yoshi was bringing Cobalt down from a panic attack that had formed when the latter saw how many people had gathered. His social anxiety always did get the best of him at the worst of times.

"You have seen pictures of our future allies, now let us meet some."

This was it.

"Let me introduce the ambassadors for the first allies of the PGA, mutants."

We gathered.

"The Hamato family."

We walked out. People gasped, media took photos, but they also cheered. They cheered what was previously thrown back in our faces, they cheered us for being mutants. We signed the agreement, we became allies, and one by one more mutants appeared above ground. We all merged into the human world-in our own ways.

Donnie was introduced as the co-creator of O'Neil tech, and Harriet soon helped. Mikey became one of New York, no-America's most famous chefs, and Tina's art was shown around the world. As for the not so famous of us, Raph and I both became police officers, heading our own team. My wife Sarah was instead drawn to the nursing side of life, and though she originally battled racism, she came out on top. Jane put her motet cycle skills to good use, and took a job at a nearby auto shop. Our children went to school, then moved on and found their own jobs. Though all of this, they never left our new house. I asked Yoshi why once, why they chose to stay instead of going off and enjoying the world. He replied to me with a sentence that I shall never forget.

They had everything right here.

Naturally at first we were sceptical at this new life, always looking over our shoulders, never trusting people until we knew everything about them. Then, one day, Cobalt came home ad introduced us to someone who we never expected.

A girlfriend.

He had met Jean in a cafe, and they had immediately clicked. She had not found his turtle appearance scary or revolting, for she was a mutant cat herself. When I saw my son open up his heart, not stutter when he talked, speak as if there were no boundaries-as if he held no disorder, I knew that this life would work.

We are the Hamato family.

American Citizens