I'm back! Sorry it took me so long to update, but I've finally decided where to go with this story. I've rewritten the first chapter to work with that, but I'll probably rewrite it again later. Enjoy

I knelt at the edge of dojo, watching my brothers kneel in preparation for their duels. Leo was against Mikey, and Raph faced Donnie. I felt bad for my genius brother - he'd just barely gotten his new Bo after Raph broke it the last time. Something told me this wouldn't end well.

Leo and Mikey's duel began first. Thy watched each other for a moment, then charged.

"Oh yeah! Michelangelo is on the move!" Mikey laughed as he twirled his nunchucks. Leo swung his katanas, but was unable to hit the younger turtle.

"I'm here, I'm there, I can be anywhere!" Mikey grinned at Leo. He dodged another strike. "How can you stop what you can't even see?" He charged at Leo.

Leo watched him come, then reversed his katana so the hilt thumped into Mikey's stomach. "Like that?" He asked.

Mikey gagged and held up a finger. "Good one Leo," he rasped. He came to sit next to me, and we watched Donnie and Raph's duel begin.

Donnie twirled his staff several times. Raph stared at him, unimpressed, and twisted his head from side to side with a crack. Then he grinned evilly at Donnie. "Put down the staff, and no one gets hurt."

Donnie lowered his staff slightly. "Uh, you said that last time, Raph. And then you hurt me."

"Yeah, but not as much as I would've," Raph said, shrugging.

"Yeah, right." Donnie raised his staff and twirled it, charging at Raph. Raph dodged each blow . Donnie lifted his staff to strike, and found his hands inexplicably empty. He looked up.

Raph grinned, leaning on the staff. Then he twirled it and broke it neatly across his knee. Donnie stared at him worriedly.

"Should've dropped the staff?"

Raph twirled the bits of broken wood like they were his sais and grinned evily. "Should've dropped the staff." He ran toward Donnie and started hitting him on the shell with the bits of wood. Donnie covered his head and knelt down.

"Okay, I'm down, I'm down!"

Leo stepped forward and caught Raph's attention. Donnie came over to sit next to us, and Mikey stuck his tongue out. Donnie glared. Without looking away from my oldest brothers, I thumped them both on their heads. They both glared at me. Raph dropped his bits of wood.

Raph and Leo knelt, facing each other. They got slowly to their feet, ready to battle. Leo said something in Japanese. "Whatever you say," Raph replied.

Leo swung one katana around and pointed it at Raph. Raph unsheathed his sais and twirled them. They charged, and Leo's sword locked with Raph's sais. They came apart, and charged again, swinging and dodging. Raph fell on his back, but jumped up again. Their weapons locked, and Leo twisted his sword slightly. One of Raph's sais flew at me. I ducked with a little squeak. The two ninjas attacked again. It wasn't clear what happened, but suddenly Leo's sword clattered to the ground. Raph caught Leo's wrist with his remaining sai, grabbed his elbow, and flipped Leo to the ground. Raph stood over Leo. "Nice try," he said smugly. Leo rubbed his wrist and groaned softly.

"Yame!" Master Splinter came into the dojo. Raph and Leo came to kneel next to us, and Master Splinter walked along the line. "You all did very well," he praised us.

"But I did better," Raph said smugly. Leo glared at him.

"This is about self improvement, Raphael, not about winning and losing," Master Splinter scolded.

"I know, Sensei." Raph put his hands behind his head. "But, they lost...and I won."

Sensei jabbed a pressure point on Raphs neck, and he quickly shouted, "But what's really important is that we all did our best. Good job everyone!" Sensei let go, and Raph dropped his hands to the ground. Sensei chuckled.

After training, we had dinner: algae and worms again. Yuck. I prodded it unhappily with my chopsticks. This was so nasty, it had to be healthy. Mikey leaned over, stirring his pot.

"There's a little more algae and worms left if anyone wants it! Anybody? Anybody?"

We quickly looked at our plates. "No thanks."

"I'm good."

"All yours."

"Ick. No."

"Well then I guess no one left room for cake!" Mikey produced a slimy looking green cake and set in front of us.

"It is a cake!" Donnie said wonderingly.

"Made of...algae," Raph said unhappily. A worm crawled across the surface. "And worms."

Leo pointed at it. "What's the frosting made out of?"

Mikey pulled the cake back. "You don't wanna know. Happy mutation day!"

"Happy mutation day!" We chorused.

"Ah, yes. Fifteen years ago today our lives changed forever, and we became the unlikeliest of families," Sensei said with a smile. Mikey and I jumped to his side.

"Tell us the story, Master Splinter!" I begged.

"Please!" Mikey added.

"I have already told you the story many times, Kameko and Michelangelo." It seemed to me he wanted to tell it, but was holding it back, waiting. Just like every mutation day I could remember. And just like last year:

"Please! Pleeease!" Mikey begged, going all puppy dog on Master Splinter.

Raph clapped a hand over Mikey's mouth. "Please. It's the only way to shut Mikey up."

"Very well then. Many years ago, when I was still human, I was leaving the pet store with four baby turtles." Master Splinter began.

"That was us!" Mikey said excitedly.

"Yes. Don't interrupt!" Master Splinter said sternly. "I passed a strange man on the street. Something felt...off about him. I decided to follow. I followed him into an alley, where I saw a second man holding a canister of something green. One the them said, 'Go no further! This is a place where you are not allowed to be in this place.' the other said, 'We have been seen in this place by you, so this is not a place that will be left by you!' They attacked me. I managed to fight them off, but as I did so the canister was knocked into the air. I dropped the baby turtles in it as I began to change. The turtles changed as well, and that was the beginning of our life together. It was the mysterious substance in this canister which, in a way, gave birth to us all." Master Splinter held up the canister.

Mikey grabbed it any hugged it. "Mom!"

We all stared at him. Then Leo turned to Master Splinter. "So, Sensei, now that we're fifteen," he said, putting a slight emphasis on the word, "and Kam is thirteen, I think we're finally ready to go up to the surface, don't you?"

Master Splinter nodded. "Yes..."

"Oh yeah!"

"...and no."

"Aww man!"

"Come on!"

"I hate when he does that!"

"You have grown powerful, but you are still young," Sensei explained. "Wisdom come with experience, and experience comes from making mistakes."

"Aha! So in order to gain the wisdom, we new to make the mistakes. So we can go!" Donnie exclaimed triumphantly.

"No."

"And...yes?" Donnie asked hopefully.

"No!" Sensei exclaimed. Donnie groaned.

"Sensei," Leo put in abruptly. "We know you're trying to protect us, but we can't spend our whole lives hiding down here." Sensei sighed and turned away, stroking his beard. Mikey made a quick gesture, and we all knelt down in front of him and did our best puppy dog eyes, just in time for him to see them. He sighed.

"You may go, tonight."

We all cheered, and Mikey shouted "Booyakasha! High three!" We all brought our hands together. Then we all scattered to do our own thing. I sat on the couch behind Leo, writing in my notebook while he watched Space Heroes. On screen, a badly drawn spaceship got hit by lasers or something. A guy, Captain Ryan I think, appeared.

"Mr. Crankshaw, status report!"

The screen switched to a young, panicking man. "Status? I'll give you the status! Were gonna blow up in three seconds!" He shrieked. He then got slapped by the captain. "Thank you captain."

The captain struck a pose, and Leo stood up, imitating him. He started to quote the show in perfect unison with the tv, without looking at the screen. "I have a bold and daring plan! There's no time for hesitation. My orders must be carried out without question."

"Aye sir!" A bunch of assorted crewmen, possibly put there just for that purpose, shouted.

"You know this show is stupid, right?" Raph put in from the corner where he was reading a comic.

Leo looked offended. "Space Heroes is a great show, and Captain Ryan is a great hero. Someday, I'm going to be just like him." He pretended to straighten an invisible tie.

"Well, you do like to hear yourself talk, so you're on your way." Raph kept reading.

"Hey Raph, of it'a so stupid, why are you almost always nearby when it's on tv?" I wondered suddenly.

"Yeah, why is that?" Leo asked, looking back at the show.

Raph was saved having to answer when Donnie and Mikey ran into the room and posed. "It's go time!" Mikey cheered. We all pulled out our weapons and did a few moves. I slashed and twirled my kamas a bit. Then I tucked them into my belt and ran into the kitchen to hear Splinter'a lecture.

"You are going up into a strange and hostile world. You must maintain awareness at all times." He began.

"Hai Sensei!" We chorused, turning to go.

"Remain in the shadows!"

"Hai Sensei!" We repeated.

"Don't talk to strangers!" I could feel a lecture coming.

"Hai Sensei," we said again.

"Everyone is a stranger!" We al turned to go before he could go into 'father mode'.

"Make sure you go before you leave, the restrooms up there are filthy!"

"Sensei!" We groaned.

He sighed. "Be safe, my children."

"Surface time!"

"This is gonna be epic!" We shouted various happy exclamations as we ran out, ignoring Sensei's cry of 'look both ways before crossing the street!'

Leo went first, pushing the man hole cover out of the way. We all followed him up. I looked around. We were in an alley. There was trash all over, graffiti on the wall, and a homeless guy asleep under a blanket. Then I saw the other end of the alley, the city lights shone in the night. Mikey voiced my thoughts as I stood there open mouthed.

"It's so beautiful."