Title: Saving Grace
Characters: Hamato Yoshi/Splinter
Word Count: 753 (this chapter)
Warnings: None
Summary: A series of one shots and possible short chapter stories based on themes. This chapter: Hamato Yoshi finds a reason to live after his mutation.
Disclaimer: Don't own them. Not for profit. Just for fun.
Introduce: Bring into use or operation for the first time.
Reintroduce: Bring into existence again.
Yoshi had stayed in the alley longer than what was safe. He had lain prostrate, eyes clenched shut long after the pain had subsided. He didn't understand what the glowing substance had done to him, but he knew it had changed him greatly. If he was completely honest, he didn't want to move because he was afraid of what he would see, what his reflection would be. But the sounds of a city waking up drove him to get off the wet ground.
The puddle beneath him was shallow and muddy. Even so, he could see the snout that protruded from his face, the cone shaped ears that twitched with every new sound. He didn't need the water to know that whatever was flicking around his feet was attached to him. Yoshi stood to his feet and looked down over his fur covered body. A rat. He was a rat.
Disgust surged through Yoshi, coupled by intense anger. What had he done to deserve this? The world had taken his life, Tang Shen, his daughter. He had fled to America, searching for a way to move on. He had hoped to disappear in the teeming mass of New York. Instead he had been spit out, a monster, no longer able to slide by on the edges of society.
Yoshi had stayed in the alley longer than what was safe. The world was moving and if he didn't hide, he would be found and pursued. In the despair that clouded around him, Yoshi could only think of one place he could go; the sewers.
For a normal person, the man hole covers were too heavy to move. Proper equipment was needed in order to access the sewers. But Yoshi quickly discovered that his new form had more strength than he had thought. It was quite simple to gain entrance to the dark abyss.
Just as he was about to disappear through the open man hole, Yoshi caught sight of a pair of eyes. As he had lain there he had heard faint rustling, but had attributed it to a cat digging through the garbage. Now that he could see the eyes that peered out at him, he knew it had been no cat. Though frightened, the grey orbs stared out of the darkness with intelligence. They drew back slightly when they realized they had been seen, but continued to stare out.
In the creature's shifting, Yoshi had caught a glimpse of green around the eyes. His apprehension disappearing, Yoshi called. "Come here." he winced at the growl of his voice as it came through his unfamiliar snout. The eyes drew back in alarm, nearly out of sight. Yoshi tried again, this time holding out his hand. "It's all right, little one. You can come here."
To his surprise, the eyes multiplied, a startling green set joined the first, wary. The first pair crept forward slowly as two more joined, making it four pairs of eyes in the darkness. Yoshi watched in amusement as a green three fingered hand, then an arm, and finally the head revealed itsself to the world. The creature crawled further forward and Yoshi held back as gasp as he saw the hard plates that lined its back. It was a turtle.
During his mutation, Yoshi had forgotten all about the four turtles that he had dropped. He would have assumed that they had wandered away. Yet here they were, alive and had apparently changed like him. One by one they edged into the light. Blank faces focused on him. Four of them. Four mutated turtles who would now need to be taken care of. He could not, in good conscious, just leave them to die.
Yoshi reached out to the foremost one, the creature who had first seen him. It drew back a little from his hand and he paused. Then, to his surprise, the creature's tiny hands grasped his. They gazed at each other and Yoshi saw past the blank stare and saw a child. A child that had reached out to him when nobody else would.
With sight blurring from sudden tears, Yoshi saw the four turtles clearly. They were his saving grace, given when he thought the world had forsaken him. And as a truck careened past, and the alarmed turtles all pressed close, Yoshi's broken heart opened. He gathered the four in his arms and slipped into the sewers.
