I own nothing related to TMNT. I am writing this solely on the premise of fun and enjoyment for those who read it. I OWN NOTHING.

Enjoy.

I look down from the tree I was standing in, watching the woods with wary eyes. Tonight it was quiet, my woods did not need the Night Watcher. I looked down at my fingers, only three, and all green. I sighed, and wrapped my cloak tighter around my body to cover the shell on my back and my grass green skin.

I was a mutant. A freak.

My life had been easier when I was little...

I sighed, and the memories came flashing back unheeded. When I was five, a little non-mutant with long black hair and bright green eyes, human in every aspect, I had gone swimming in a green pool. It had been around Halloween and I had thought Daddy had dyed it green for the holiday, I remembered a turtle had been swimming with me, and I had thought he was funny. He had a funny looking shell. It's weird how some memories are never forgotten and others are. I thought with a sad smile. I remembered Mommy rushing out and screaming something "Toxic!" and pulling me out, and after washing me off had sent me to bed.

That night I mutated.

I grew green skin, a large shell emerged on my back, and suddenly I only had three fingers. When my parents saw me they screamed, and I had to run away. Everywhere I went I had been rejected, and when I turned seven I eventually resorted to living in a forest.

That's where I met her.

It started late one afternoon when a preteen had run into my sorta forest home. She was being chased by some bullies, and one had a gun. I hadn't wanted to join in on the struggle, but the girl had been outnumbered and that hadn't seemed fair. I had slipped down the tree I had been sitting in clumsily and attacked the boys. Usually just being seen made people run away, but this time I had to fight. I hadn't been very good, but I was much stronger than them even though they had been older.

It had probably been my mutated genes. I thought, looking back at my forest, keeping my eyes open. My mind drifted back. I must have been a bit of a warrior, because I made them leave. I didn't see them again; that was a good thing. The girl had told me thanks, and she told me that her name was April. I had smiled timidly in response and told her my name was Esperanza, but people called me Espe. I also remembered telling her that although I looked a little weird I was a good girl. She had laughed and told me weirdoes were always nice people, that her best friend was a bit of a weirdo actually. She had asked me if I had a place to stay, and when I told her the forest she put her foot down and said "Oh no you're not!"

April told me about her family's farm house and told me I should go there immediately. Somehow she convinced her parents they should go their too and April hid me in her family's camper and we all went up. While April was at the farmhouse we had a lot of fun, we played and I felt like a normal seven year old. April made a cake and celebrated my eighth birthday with me, and we played and laughed a lot. She had to leave, but she came up every summer until I turned ten. April didn't come that summer, but men in black did. I was scared, and they shipped me down to South America. They put me in a big laboratory with men in white coats who tested on me and cut into me for experiments.

I didn't like them.

One day I broke free and ran away into a huge forest, bigger than any forest I had ever seen. The men with the white coats tried to find me, but the forest was so big they never did. I trained myself to fight the men in white if they ever found me, they never did. I kept training, I wouldn't let the men in white or black ever hurt me again. I kept moving from forest to forest just to be sure, and I always moved in the dead of night. I wasn't in the lab long, I celebrated my eleventh birthday in a tree, but that year would haunt me forever. The forest I found for my 11th birthday was the one I'd come to call home. The forest I had been in was filled with bandits. I had hidden up in a tree to watch as they came and raided villages and left the people desperate and in need of help. The bandits hurt the villagers, and I didn't like that. Not one bit.

So I did what any self respecting mutant would do, I decided to fight back.

I slipped down from my tree and stood against them. Somehow I beat them, and I had beaten them ever since. The village I had saved that night called me their 'Protector' and a while after that when I was still fighting for them I came to be known as the Night Watcher. They never met me, and I had never met them but we each knew we were friends without ever truly meeting. My life was lonely sometimes, but the forest never leaves you feeling lonely. Well, at least mine doesn't. My forest is my best friend. It warns me of coming people, and I keep it safe. We're perfect for each other. I closed my eyes as the forest filled my with peace, and then I felt something. My eyes snapped open as I heard a branch snap and I looked at the ground floor warily. Someone had entered my woods, and they weren't here to see the trees.

Bandits.

My eyes wide open, my body tense and ready to spring, I got ready to jump.

"Is this a good idea boss?" One of the bandits asked carefully.

"What about the Night Watcher?" Another whispered.

"A fairy tale." The boss of the group snapped. I clenched my jaw in annoyance. I was not a fairy tale. And these whack jobs weren't going to have sweet dreams once I was done.

"But-"

"It's just a legend!" The boss exploded. I sighed. He was so going to regret that. I got that I was called a fairy tale, who would believe they had been beaten up by a mutant turtle? But being called a fairy tale, that implies you aren't real, and my punches would care to disagree. I grabbed the vine beside me and swung down into the bandits, kicking as I swung back and forth on the vine. I dropped my rope and began punching and kicking, not very good punches and kicks, but strong enough that after a few minutes the bandits were out.

Almost all of them.

The boss refused to sleep.

"I am real. Not just a story to tell children so they feel safe at night. The Night Watcher is real." I whispered in his ear, before whacking him on his head. I tied them together with a vine and dragged them toward the village, leaving the locals to decide their fate. I had never, would ever, kill anybody. And even as a mutant, that would never change.

I looked up at the stars, wishing to go home. Would Mommy even want me seeing how I looked? Daddy told me he'd love me no matter how I looked, but he had screamed when he saw my mutated form. No, they probably wouldn't have me back. They'd have the little boy they always wanted and start their family over again. But I did want to go home, back to America. Just for a few days... I smiled, and made my planes to go home.