Author's Note:

Hello sir/Madam, I see you have made the fatal error of trying to read one of my stories. There is no hope, all of the exits have been sealed off, there is no escape… hey… where are you going?! I said there was no escape! Get back here you coooowaaard!

So… I bet you're wondering where the hell this idea came from? Well… I don't blame you for wondering that, as from what I can tell, no one's done this before. Well… here's the thing.

The origins of this idea came from me having a half awake conversation with myself one morning, noticing that four of my original character's personalities aligned perfectly with the heroes in a half shell, which made me think "What if they BECAME the turtles?!" which lead to me considering how a different origin would affect the dynamic between the turtles, Splinter, or even their enemies and villains… and the idea evolved into "what if the turtles were humans first?" and thus, this story was born.

However, as I mentioned before, this kind of concept hasn't really been done, not in the way I'm doing it at least. Usually stories like this lead into typical "character X in high school" narratives and have them staying human for the duration, and as funny as the idea of a human Michelangelo being menaced by the horrible Coach Shredder in gym class dodge ball is, that's exactly not my cup to tea.

So me having an anxiety disorder and worrying about stupid things, decided to shelve the idea out of fear of it not being received well. That and there were other, unfinished stories I had that people wanted me to continue. But after attempting and failing to do so (I'm sorry, I can't write things out of obligation like that) I decided, what the hell? The worst that's gonna happen is I get a few mean comments and I'll be able to say I at least tried it.

So here we are.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles belongs to Viacom, who is not me, if I was, YouTube's copyright system wouldn't have been messed up beyond repair (Look it up if you don't get the joke) I'm just some loser nobody who writes stupid stories on the internet. If you seriously think this is an official work you need to get your head examined… me thinks you're a bit lost.

The only things I own are the human identities of the turtles (who, if you're familiar with my work, you may recognize some names)

Enough of this absurdly long author's note you won't even read, onto the show!

Prologue:

"Okay freak, on your feet,"

Sadly this has become a common fixture in my existence, long since deprived of my basic humanity… both in how I am treated, and how I appear. A freak accident had cost me the last thing Oroku Saki had left me with… my own humanity… my own identity…

This lab… I have grown far more familiar with it than I ever wanted to, I've lost count of the days I've spent trapped here like the very animal who's visage I now resembled.

A rat…

The very creatures that brought medieval Europe to it's knees with the black plague, I'm sure if Saki could see me now he would laugh, and call my new form fitting. The face that stared back at me in the mirror was not Hamato Yoshi, former husband and father, but of a rodent, of vermin, a twisted monster crafted by science gone wrong.

But I refused to allow myself to be broken, I will not lose the only thing I have left, my mind. It would be all too easy to let madness take me, to allow my situation to destroy me, twist me into a cackling, broken monster. But I will not have it! I will not allow myself to be destroyed, troubled perhaps, but never destroyed, bent, but not broken.

The guards I had grown so accustomed to lead me down a sterile hall, empty cells lined it's walls, meant to house other potential test subjects, or freak accidents like myself. StockGen was the company responsible, I knew little of the company, from what I've gathered from overheard conversations they were a robotics and genetic research company with deep pockets and military contracts.

I also knew what it wanted from me, they wanted to study the mutagen that turned me into this rodent like monster. They had no intentions on curing me, despite my attempts to strong arm them into doing so, there was little someone like me could hold over something that held all of the cards after all. All they cared about was the data they acquired from me…

I was lead back to my cell, there was a digital name plate at the front, "Subject 737: Splinter" it read, Splinter being the name these heartless people insisted on calling me, as if even allowing me to retain my human name was too much humanity to give something like me.

I felt the cold barrel of the guard's rifle poke my back, "Inside the cell!" the guard barked at me. Once inside the doors were closed behind me, and I was left in this sterile, pure white room. The room was maddening to live in, if I didn't know better I would assume it was intentional, designed to break it's occupant's very spirit.

The room was quiet, save for the gentle humming of the facility's equipment, I could hear faint radio chatter from one of the guard's radios, "Copy that," the guard replied, "Looks like you've got some company coming rat boy," the guard said to me, "Four teenagers got hit with the ooze in a car accident," he explained.

I said nothing, I knew the guard was just trying to upset me, as a former father though, I was instinctively bothered by the image of mere children being exposed to that damn mutagen, and being stuck here like I was. But I will not break… I will not break.

"So what are the poor suckers now? Rats? Flies?" One guard asked the other.

"Higher ups say they're turtles," he replied.

"Heh, poor bastards, can't imagine lugging a shell around everywhere," the first guard laughed.

"Come on, they should be arriving soon, we need to be there for transport and lock up," the second guard said, and I heard their footsteps moving away from my cell.

I tried to calm myself down, they were strangers, I shouldn't let this get to me like I am. But still… it wasn't right… such young souls, forced into twisted bodies and robbed of their futures in the name of science and cover ups.

Minutes passed, and I began to hear footsteps draw closer, moving past my own cell but stopping at the one next to it. "Get in the cell freak!" I heard a guard yell, followed by some footsteps and the sound of the automatic cell door shutting.

A moment of silence passed, before suddenly I heard a loud screaming of a curse word accompanied by a slamming on the wall. It must have been one of those teenagers, clearly not taking his mutation or confinement well. I debated talking to him, but even if he could hear me, I doubt I could be much help.

We were both trapped here… but if I could help it… this would not remain our fate for long…

A/N: Just as an aside, figuring out which archive to post this to was a trying experience, TMNT has like... three different vaguely defined archives where people just post whatever to, so I decided on the cartoon one since those are were most of the inspirations for this universe came from. Even Spider-Man's many archives have clear distinctions from one another.

Also, feel free to post any suggestions, ideas, etc in the reviews if you have them, except for "stop writing fanfiction", as if I haven't heard THAT one five hundred times this week... pfft!