Prologue

In a busy Street in New York City, a young boy clutched a jar containing five baby turtles. Vehicles raced past him as pedestrians ducked and dived to avoid crashing into each other. Just a typical Saturday afternoon. He came to a crossing, where a gathering of people waited for the green signal to continue. But a blind man came pushing through, and before anyone could stop him, he stepped into the road. Women screamed as a goods vehicle came storming around the corner. A teenage boy next to the young one suddenly pushed out too, causing the latter to drop his jar of turtles, which rolled into a sewer opening under the kerb. The former quickly pulled the blind man back whilst the truck swerved, causing its back doors to fly open. Several canisters fell across the street, one following the jar of turtles. The jar had smashed on the dry edge of the sewer stream, and now the canister shattered on top of the turtles, knocking one into the rushing water. A rat, curious about the noise, scurried towards the commotion. His eye caught a small green and purple object in the water before it dropped into the collection pool. Thinking nothing of it, he continued towards the sound source when he came across four turtles, covered in neon purple ooze. He stepped cautiously before picking one up. The small creature smiled, before shaking its head and spraying the rat with the bright substance. The rat frowned, before collecting the turtles in a discarded coffee jar next to them and hauling the now empty canister underneath his arm. Feeling sorry for them, he decided to take them back to his burrow. As he settled them into the hay that acted as his bed, he wondered what exactly he should do with the infants. And as they slept soundly, he smiled, before a concerning thought poked at him. "Was that another one I saw before in the water?" He pondered for a moment, feeling sad, for the creature must have surely drowned, before settling himself down to sleep.