Hamato Yoshi dashed through the sewers, shredder and his army of foot following him not too far behind, making a sharp left at a fork in the tunnels he unfortunately misplaced his footing, slipping and landing in strange goop that had an unhealthy green glow to it. Hearing shredder and his men not far behind Yoshi quickly divided into a small crevasse in the wall, he stayed silent as about a dozen foot passed by, the sound of shredder's armor drew ever closer, Yoshi held his breath as the armored man stopped at the opening of the crack he was hiding in, however the man simply knelt down slowly standing back up holding a turtle, much larger than it should be, almost looking like a baby boy with a shell, shredder looked at the creature suspiciously before finally electing to take it with him.
Once completely out of sight, Yoshi emerged from the crack, admittedly he felt more than a little off, slightly ill even, pushing it aside as just nerves he looked at the place shredder had taken the turtle from, it looked as though nothing else was there just a pile of discarded twigs and muck, but then the muck did something it shouldn't, it moved, baffled by the event yoshi drew closer, investigating the pile, it moved again, quickly scooping away the dirt, as he did so his eyes widened in shock, beneath the pile lay three more of the creatures, each looking innocent and defenseless,
"you poor things" he gasped, shooing away the rats that had gathered and collecting the three goop covered youngsters in his arms. Yoshi scowled at the thought that shredder has just taken the brother of these three,
"come I will look after you" he whispered carrying the three off to a safer place.
After a while of walking aimlessly through the sewage, he eventually found what looked to be an abandoned subway station, not ideal but it would do, creating a makeshift bed, hamato yoshi fell into an uneasy slumber. When he woke, Yoshi felt, particulier, his face felt longer and his whole body harrier, he eased open his eyes and glanced down at his arms, he gasped, this couldn't be right, his arms were covered in fur, as was the rest of his body, he realized he had a long snout, tail and even large ears, physically he looked like a giant rat,
'it must be a bad dream' he thought to himself, this couldn't be happening, he tried nipping his arm, nothing. Yoshi quickly scanned the surroundings, the three turtles lay where he had left them, yet they had grown significantly in size, now looking more like tots, even having distinct features, one was lanky all balled up as small as he could make himself, his mouth slightly open to reveal a small gap in his teeth, next to him lay a smaller turtle, his body infected with freckles, leaving one last boy, his body much bulkier in size, his face scrunched up in a form of scowl. After much deliberation and self questioning, Yoshi came to two conclusions, one: this was no dream, two: he would have to take it upon himself to care for these youngsters, and hopefully someday find their brother, if he still lived.
Years slowly passed and the three tots soon grew to be children, for some reason they had adapted to calling Yoshi Splinter not long after they started talking, for reasons Yoshi just couldn't grasp, though he had a hunch it had something to do with the comic that they read incessantly. Also much to his dismay, splinter had managed to confuse the boys on many occasion, often mistaking one for the other, to solve this problem he decided to baptize them with some coloured rags from around the station and name the boys at last, he also thought it would be a good idea to rename the boys after his wife's favorite artists in her memory. Approaching the three who sat cheerfully in a circle playing some bored game,
"boys" he interrupted, gaining their attention,
"yes splinter" they replied almost in unison
"I have a gift for you" he spoke and watched as their eyes lit up with curiosity and they waited patiently for him to continue
"for you, Michelangelo, an orange mask, to show playfulness, and joy" he handed his youngest son the orange rag, as the boy jumped with joy,
"yea im mich-an-lo" he tried pronouncing the name unfortunately failing, splinter chuckled as he moved on
"for you Donatello, a purple mask, to show intelligence and creativity" Splinter handed his second youngest turtle the cloth
"Thank you splinter" he replied humbly
"and finally Raphael, a red mask to show courage and strength" handing his eldest the last cloth piece
"thanks" Raphael huffed taking the red fabric and tying it around his eyes
Now the three where easily distinguishable and had names to be called by, on occasion Splinter would go and look for the lost son, however his efforts were in vain, constantly coming back empty handed, this didn't stop him from caring for the boys he had, when they were eight he decided it was a good time to start teaching them the ways of the ninja and ninjitsu, out of fear his enemy would return. Much time passed and the young turtles where now teens, each bearing their own colourful personality, Michelangelo, always so energetic unfortunately never putting any of that energy into his training, Donatello, tended to engrose himself in his experiments and projects often locked away in his lab overthinking every little detail, and Raphael, rebellious and hot headed, he often struggled to control his anger, yet when his brothers needed him he would put everything aside to help, which is why he is leader of the trio.
Splinter sat, meditating in the dojo when a large crash sounded from the other room followed by many loud screams, sighing the old rat stood and went to see what all the commotion was about. He slid open the dojo doors and saw a large dogpile of turtles, Raph had Mikey in a headlock and Donnie was furiously trying to free his brother,
"what is going on here" splinter demanded, cracking his cane of the floor grabbing the attention of the three
"Mikey broke the arcade machine...again" Raph growled pointing to the device that had a skateboard sticking from it and sparks flying around the place
"I said I can fix it, just let Mikey go" Donnie complained tugging at his older siblings arm
"Raphael release Michelangelo" Splinter ordered as Raphs frown deepened
"are you kidden me!" he cried throwing Mikey to the ground and stomping over to Splinter, ignoring the pained cries behind him, "you'll not say nothin ta the swine who broke da dam game, but you'll quite happily start on me" Raph protested standing toe to toe with his sensei
"Michelangelo will get his own punishment" splinter said calmly, the two other brothers had wisely evacuated the room,
"no he wont, he never does" the red clad turtle yelled in frustration, throwing his arms up as he started to pace back and forth in front of Splinter, ranting on about how the treatment wasn't fair, "...It's just a load of bull shit" he finished only to have a wooden staff smash against his plastron causing him to keel over in pain,
"go to your room" the rat scolded as Raph lay hugging his stomach on the floor
"a-are you kidden me" he groaned as he pulled himself up
"NOW!"
Shredder held a disapproving stare, his son knelt before him requesting permission to leave on his own, until now he had never asked to leave, all missions and patrols had been left to his sister, who had insisted she was good enough and though Leonardo was just as good as Karai, Shredder was still reluctant to let him leave,
"please father, I can handle myself, you know I can, Karai has gone out many times, why can't I" the young turtle complained, looking up longingly at his father who sighed in defeat
"very well, but I want you back here by sunrise" he ordered, Leo's face immediately splitting into a smile, he quickly regained his composure
"thank you father" he said as calmly as possible, bowing and almost sprinting from the room.
He had been out less than one hour and already Leo was loving New York, the quiet night streets and endless stretch of rooftops, the best part however where the people he could beat up, during his time out Leo had came across many purple dragons, they had fallen out with the foot clan because they owed Shredder money, which Karai had gotten back. However for the most part he jumped from roof to roof, simply enjoying the freedom, until he heard a rather high pitched scream, Leo stopped, curiosity overpowering him as he decided to head towards it, with nothing better to do, hopefully it was something interesting.
Raph paced his room for what must have been the thousandth time, 'unbelievable' he thought to himself, kicking the nearby can, it must have been hours and Raph was going stir crazy, eroding a trench into the ground from hours of walking back and forth
"that's it" he groaned, stomping up to the door, the muffled sound of Mikey's show, Don would be in his lab so he wasn't a problem but passing splinter that would be a troublesome.
Slowly easing open the door, the flickering light of the TV danced on the floor before him, peering through the ajar door, Mikey sat, mesmerized but the moving images, slipping through the crack, Raph slowly creeping along the wall, the loud explosions on the TV masking all Sound he made, rolling past Donnie's lab door and leaping over the turn style, dashing down the subway tunnel and up to the surface world.
Hopping over the rooftops he ran from what must have been an armada of foot soldiers, quickly stopping Raph turned to face his attackers, they had been harassing a young lady who had been... Surprised to see Raph to say the least, by surprised he ment screaming her lungs out and killing Raph's ear's. He hadn't ran too far, just a few rooftop's, the soldiers had him surrounded
"you guys are just what I was looken for" he snarled spinning his Sai in his hands as the many foot headed toward him. The fight lasted less than twenty minutes, the soldiers practically sacrificing themselves to Raph's fury, he now stood alone, surrounded by unmoving bodies, panting his own breath visible in the cold night air.
"not bad, for a rookie" a voice sounded behind him, Raph spun quickly to face the source, but was only met with shadow's
"who's there, show ya self" he demanded, glaring at the inky blackness, only able to make out the outline of a person standing about ten feet away.
"give me one good reason to" the figure replied, Raph didn't need to see his face to know he had a smirk on his face only making him more angry.
"hows about you just show me your ugly face so I can punch it" Raph growled, not at all in the mood to be playing games with some nobody,
"oh, I do like a challenge" the figure said, calmly emerging from the shadows,
Raph's eyes widened in shock, the person that stood before him was a turtle, just like him, slightly taller though, he wore black fighting tape from his ankles to his thighs and his wrists to his bicep, red tape attached shiny metal plates to his calf's, knees, forearm elbows and the top Half of his plastron, he had a small black belt with crimson pouches and a small sword attached, he wore a black bandana and two katanas hung on the back of his shell, finally engraved onto each shoulder plate was the foot symbol, of course this guy was foot scum, oh well just someone else for Raph to pound on.
The other turtle drew his katana, standing in a fighting stance waiting for Raph to make the first move, Raph adjusted his grip on his sai, charging at the soldier, he didnt move until Raph got close, he simply jumped out of the way, as Raph spun back round his sai was caught in the soldiers katana and flung across the roof, he held up his other sai just in time to block an attack, this guy was fast but Raph was stronger, pushing back the soldier, he tried to land an uppercut only succeeding in punching air and getting a fist in his gut, nearly the same spot splinter had hit, before he knew it Raph was on his shell with a heavy foot on his plastron and a sword at his throat,
"and here I thought you would be a challenge" the turtle sighed, sounding almost depressed, his face looking disappointed
"excuse me, I can beat ya to a pulp if you'd like" Raph growled trying to get up only to have the blade dig into his throat and the foot press down harder
"I think your forgetting your position here, Raphael" he spat Raph's name like a curse, glaring down at the enraged creature beneath his feet, Raph's face scrunched in confusion
"h-how do you know my name" he demanded, slowly stretching his arm to attempt to reach the discarded sai the lay inches away,
"my sister has told me many stories about you and your brothers" he simply stated, not easing the confused look on Raph's face, his katana still biting at the skin, allowing a small trail of red to slide down Raph's neck,
"don't tell me you mean that witch, Karai" at the mention of her, Raph received a firm punch in the face and a sharp pain in his arm causing him to cry out, looking the soldier had cut his arm, quite deeply and the sai kicked further away, well out of reach,
"don't you dare speak about her like that" the now furious soldier was centimeters from Raph's face
"well so-rry Mr sunshine" Raph muttered looking to the ground next to his face as the weight from his front was lifted, looking up the turtle was nowhere to be seen,
"hey sunny D, you could of at least told me ya name" he called out to what he assumed was nothing, yet he heard a voice, a few buildings over that didnt sound too happy
"Leonardo!" Raph smirked
"well 'Leonardo' next time you won't get lucky" he laughed, pronouncing the name in a mocking girly tone, collecting his sai from the roof before dashing home.
He got back to the station with one arm almost completely soaked in blood , the cut stung like hell, small trails of red had dried on his neck from the small scrape left there from the katana, he entered the main room and saw everyone waiting for him, someone must have found out he was gone and called April and Casey to help find him,
"oh my god, Raph what happened" April sqeeled covering her mouth with her hands
"just this foot guy" he tried to sound casual about the situation despite the growing pain in his arm
"dam bro, you let one guy do this to you, guess you're losing your touch" Mikey teased smirking at his older brother who glared back
"Raphael, you were supposed to be grounded" Splinters voice came from behind making Raph jump slightly,
"I know sensei but please listen, this guy he was like us, a turtle" Raph exclaimed as faces around the room looked at him like he was crazy,
"you're joking, you have to be" Donnie said almost in disbelief, as he fixed up Raphs arm
"Don how often do I joke" Raph looked seriously at Donnie who couldn't quite come up with words and just silently agreed, splinter however looked most surprised,
"d-do you know anything about him" it was rare their sensei stuttered, Raph had no idea what had him so surprised,
"uh he said he was karai's brother and his names Leonardo"
"wait, if Karai has a bro why is he a turtle and she ain't" Casey asked from way back at the couch, the question left everyone puzzled, except splinter who walked off to the dojo without saying a word, bearing a furious look on his face
"what's wrong master splinter" April asked worried, she got no reply as the dojo panels slammed shut, leaving everyone to talk amongst themselves about the situation.
"so, oroku saki, not only have you stolen my daughter, but also my son's, brother, I swear I will make you pay, even if it is with my last breath" splinter cursed quietly glaring at an old picture of his family whilst listening to the happy laughs of his new one in the room next door, this wasn't over.