this is a tmnt one shot based on my mushy old dad...reviews aappreciated...
the old rat walked through the tunnels of the sewer...he looked around the wide space of what was once a subway terminal, it was empty and dark...they were deep underground and the way that had lead to the surface was now blocked off...they would be safe here...
Splinter reached down to the crate he was carrying and lifted up the towel he had placed over it...inside his precious cargo was intact,the five soft turtle eggs laying on the strips of cloth rocked back and forth,soon,they would hatch...
3 days earlier...
baxter stockmans hands shook as he gathered his supplies into the bag...he had to get out fast before the FBI got there...
He had miscalculated ...genetic experimentation with animal/human DNA was completely illegal... The fact that he had actually succeeded in creating something, was tantamount to a death warrant... But he couldn't destroy his work...all his life he had worked for this one result...they were his treasures...they were perfect hybrids...the mutagen had been a mistake... It was too unstable...and usually the host died...but,now he had perfected his method...
And he had created five of them...
Stockman laughed as he carefully placed the eggs into the sports bag he had brought...they were no match for his intelligence... Once these creatures were fully grown...he would -
Suddenly the spot lights from a helicopter shown in through the window...Baxter ran to the panel on the wall of his lab and interned a complex code into the computer...then,he turned and stepped into the small storage room where they kept the lab coats...
Seconds later the special operation squads came pouring into the building...but they were too late...Baxter stockman was gone...
The air was cold,in central park the trees had already turned red,their leaves were scattered over the grass and crunched beneith his feet...
Baxter kept glancing back over his shoulder...the streets were roped off ...helicopters flew overhead...their spot lights running across the ground under them...he'd never make it like this...the bag was too bulky,and made him too conspicuous... If he tried to run he might jostle the eggs too much and kill the life inside them...there was only one way...leave them here,and come back for them later once things quieted down...
Baxter stepped into the bushes off of the path...quickly he sat down the bag and covered it with dirt and leaves...the eggs would stay warm and safe here...he would come back to this spot tomorrow...
Baxter checked to see that the coast was clear before he darted out into the open and dissapeared into the dark...
Keno rode his scooter along the side of the street...his finger tapped rythmaticly on the handle bars as his head phones blasted Deadmau5 music into his ears...he glanced down at his wristwatch ...
3:45
Damn!he was gunna be late...keno sped up the scooter and zipped off down the sidewalk...their was so much traffic on the road he decided to take a shortcut though central park ...
Pizza delivery...this is what he got for skipping high school...
He had just passed by the sports bag when he saw it...skidding to a stop he turned around and went back to investigate...approached the bag cautiously, as though he were afraid it might suddenly expload...
There were three possibilities...
1-the sac was full of drugs,in which case he was going to get back on the skooter and forget he was ever here...
2-it was full of bank robber money ,in which case he would take it and go to mexico...
3-it was full of some kids sweaty old socks...
Keno made sure no one was around ,before hecrouched down beside the bag...it was a nice ,expensive sport sac,with a Nike swish along the side,holding his breath,he opened it and peered around inside...
Because stockman had covered the eggs in a black cloth,and keno was in a hurry and was nervous,he didn't notice them and thought the bag was empty...grabbing up the sack ,he got back on his scooter and sped off through the park...
"Your late...im not paying for those..." The young lady stared at him out of her red glasses,she might have been pretty,if her mouthdidn't turn down like that on the corners...keno tried to put on the charm...
"Well,of coarse you shouldn't pay ,its late ,by what?a whole 5 minutes?"
He glanced down at her name tag ,
"Elizabeth,thats a lovely name,just like the queen ,anyway ,lizzy ,can i call you lizzy?heres the thing,i'm gunna lose my job if my boss finds out about this,I'd pay the tab myself if I had the money,its just everything I make hast to go to the rent on my moms apartment,Dad died last year and I'm the only one bringing in the dough,is there anyway you could maybe cut me a break?its only 5 minutes, the pizza ain't even cold...what do ya say?"
Keno gave her his best and most persuasive smile...
She raised her eyebrow..."I hear 20 hard luck cases a day...and I'll tell you right now,I've heard a lot better than that..."
He got fired...
On the way home that night,keno drove past a restaurant where a pretty little waitress worked,she had red hair and bright laughing eyes,he was so busy staring at her that he ran off the road and wrecked his scooter...he ended up with a broken wrist and by the time the ambulance arrived ,the waitress had given him her phone number...keno went to the hospital ,thinking that all in all it had been a pretty good day...so what if he didn't have a job,he had a girlfriend...
In all the madness no one noticed the sack full of turtle eggs fall down a grate and into the sewer ,after keno's wreck...
The water washed the eggs out of the Nike bag ,and together they floated downstream...they traveled deep into the tunnels ,swirling and bobbing until they came to rest in a little pocket in the river way,and it was here ,that splinter lived...
The old rat didn't remember how he had come to be...all he knew was that he was alive,and intelligent and different from the other rodents that scurried around down here...he slept in a nest made of old rags and cardboard,he ate whatever food he could find that had some how fallen down from the world of humans...he didn't like meat...and ,since bread and vegetables were scarce,he was very lean and thin...however the things that made his bleak life worth living,were the many books he had found...silently in the dim green light of the sewer ,splinter had taught himself to read and to speak...among his small collection were 4 books,Masters of the renaissance ,The Art Of War,tender is the night ,and the lord of the flies ...
He was sitting along the edge of the cement devider that stuck up out of the water,looking at the pictures of art in his renaissance book,when he noticed the round white eggs spiraling around in a small whirlpool... Gripping the cement with his clawed feet ,splinter reached for them and fished all five out of the water...
They were just beginning to get cold,and whatever was inside them ,struggled and squirmed in their desperate search for warmth...splinter didn't know why he did it,but he placed the eggs inside his tattered robes next to his furr,and then jumped back to his nest...he knew about birds eggs,that to keep them alive you must keep them warm and dry,so he rummaged around among his belongings and lifted out an old crate,this he filled with wood chips and cardboard ,then as a finishing touch he grabbed up some peaces of cloth he used for a blanket and arranged them so that it would keep each individual egg warm and safe...and then,he brought out his five round treasures... Each one looked a bit different,the first was small and oval shaped,it moved around the most when he sat it down in its spot...the next was a deep cream color,with a white spot at the top,it hardly moved when he sat it down...the third was very large,and filled the rats whole hand,it was heavy too,carefully splinter loward it into the box,
The fourth was smooth ,and perfectly round,he held it up to the light for a moment,and could just make out a shape,
And then it dissapeared once again...the old rat smiled and blinked his suddenly wet eyes,as he placed it next to its brothers...
The last egg was compleatly different from the others...its shell was hard,and the color a deep bruised red,across the side of it was a line,a crack,not enough to hurt the thing inside ,but enough to make splinter worry,he took the most care with this one and gave it the softest bed in the crate...then he sat back and observed his handy work...he felt a warm pleasant feeling in his chest...
The water continued to rise...finally ,the wisened old rat had no choice...he had to move to another place...somewhere that was in no danger of flooding...someplace that would be safe for his small ,strange new family...
That night ,splinter gathered up his books and his eggs and started up the tunnel...
He found a good spot in an abandoned subway station,it was elivated so the water wouldn't reach them here...
Splinter found a warm corner to make his bed in ,he arranged the rags and stacked up his books ...
His paws were sore ,so even though he was hungry and didn't have any food he decided to just go to sleep and worry about it tomorrow... He'd gone for a week on an empty stomach once...
Leaning back against the stone wall ,splinter picked up the crate and lifted the towel...
A pair of inquisitive blue eyes were staring back at him...
For a moment splinter was too surprised to speak...the turtle was incredibly small,its shell was still soft,the old rat marvled at how unafraid the hatchling was,perhaps it was because he didn't know any better...
"Hello little one..."
Reaching out he gently stroked the turtles head,the baby stared up at him curiously...
"What will I call you?you should have a name..."
The old rat layed his hand on the towel and watched as the tiny new creature crawled up into his palm...
"Your not afraid are you?"
Splinter smiled,"this world is a bad place ,I value courage wherever I see it...even from a little new born turtle like you...you need a name...a good name..."
Yoshi thought for a moment,his eyes strayed over to the art book lying beneith the rest of the stack...
He reached up and tapped his finger against his chin...
Finally he nodded...
"You are Leonardo...Hamato Leonardo...my eldest son..."
Splinter closed his hand around Leonardo to keep him warm ,and then looked down at the other eggs...
Two more were hatching...
The old rat held Leonardo in one hand,carful to keep him from getting cold,and waited patiently for his other children to break free of what had been their home ...
The biggest egg hatched first...all at once the soft shell had torn,and a fat baby turtle,much larger than Leonardo
Came out ,it glared up at the new world it found itself in and seemed not at all pleased with it...angrily it stomped out of its shell ,and stared up at splinter...almost instantly its eyes softened...
The old rat reached out and picked him up,this turtle was a lovely deep green,whereas Leonardo was almost gray...his beak was thick ,but still soft like his shell...
Splinter thought of the strong,beautifull paintings in his art book...
"Raphael...your name is Raphael..."
He smiled and looked down at his second son...
When he looked back in the crate,his third child had already hatched...
This one was a speckled mint color,with swift clever brown eyes,cocking its head ,it observed him with an intelligence one so young should not have possessed...splinter had already chosen his name...
"Donatello.."
Donatello crawled to the edge of the crate and to yoshis utter astonishment ,stood up on two legs like a human...he fell over a second later but the fact remained he had stood...
It was then ,in that moment splinter realized the monumental change that had just come into his life...
Leonardo and Raphael were both fighting with each other in his hand,he had to set them back down in the crate while he removed the egg shells,and rearranged the still unhatched eggs...he was worried about that cracked one...
As the hours passed splinter cared for Donatello,Leonardo and Raphael,and every so often he would anxiously lift the towel covering the other two eggs and turn them so that they wouldn't lay for too long on any one side...
Leonardos eyes never left the old rats face,if splinter smiled,he smiled,if splinter frowned ,he frowned,
While Donny and Raph rolled around the strips of cloth that made up their nest,Leo sat perched on top of yoshis knee...
All through that night splinter stayed up ,sometimes he would pick up the still ,bruise colored egg and put his ear to it,to see if he could hear a heart beat,he would hold it up to the light,he saw a dark place in its center,but it didn't move...his other children fell asleep one by one,and still he sat there,his stomach a twisted knot...holding the egg...
He had never seen the creature inside ,and yet he already loved ...in fact,he almost loved it more than the others...a great ,deep sadness welled up inside him...the silence of their new home ,the darkness,he felt the walls closing in around him...
What if it was dead?
Deep underground there was no light and day...only darkness...splinter had one small lantern ,inside he lit a candle and as the wax slowly dripped out onto the ground ,splinter fell asleep...