"Are you crazy?" Leonardo asked Raph as he put April's limp body on the sofa in the Turtles' den.
A lot of people seemed to be asking Raphael that these days. For once, he was certain that he was not.
"Why?" Leonardo asked.
"Why? Oh, I don't know. I thought we should redecorate - you know, a couple of throw cushions, a TV news reporter...What do you think? Anyway, she got jumped in the subway. I had to bring her here."
Splinter entered the room. All arguing stopped. Splinter took one look at April's wounds and began issuing orders. "Herb jar. Cold washcloth. Pillow."
The Turtles scurried into action. Splinter sat next to April to take care of her.
April's eyes fluttered open. There, in front of her, was a four-foot-tall rat and four giant turtles standing on their hind legs and wearing strange outfits. She did the most logical thing she could think of. She screamed.
"Ahhhhhhh!"
"Hi," Michelangelo said. He was always friendly.
"Ahhhhhhhhh!" She gasped for breath and then began babbling. She thought she was dead.
She tried to stand up and run away. Splinter tried to calm her. She couldn't believe she was hearing a rat - a giant rat - talk.
"It's really quite simple, Miss O'Neil," Splinter began.
April was too weak and too confused to protest. She sat back down and listened to Splinter's story.
Once Splinter had been a normal rat living in Japan, where he was the pet of a ninja master named Yoshi. He had learned all about ninja by mimicking Yoshi's movements. When Yoshi had had to leave Japan, they'd come to America and eventually Splinter had had to fend for himself.
"One day I saw an old blind man crossing the street, unaware of the truck barrelling down upon him. It swerved to avoid him. It was loaded with metal canisters of weird chemicals. One of them bounced off the truck. There was a little boy on the pavement, holding a glass jar. In the jar were four baby turtles-"
"That was us!" Michelangelo interrupted.
"Shhhh!" his brothers said. This was their favourite story. It told where they'd come from.
Splinter continued. "The canister smashed into the jar and then crashed onto the street. Both the jar and the canister broke. Soon the little turtles were covered with a glowing ooze flowing out of the canister. The little boy's mother wouldn't let him touch them. When they'd gone, I put the little turtles in an old coffee jar and brought them to my home here in the sewer. When I woke up the next morning, the jar was tipped over - for the turtles had doubled in size! I, too, was growing. My body grew, but my brain grew even more. I got smarter and smarter as they got bigger and bigger.
"Soon they began to stand upright, copying my every movement. I was amazed at how intelligent they seemed, but I was even more amazed when they began speaking! They were almost as smart as I was. I could teach them everything I had learned from my master Yoshi. And when it came time to name them, I took a copy of a Renaissance art book that I had found in a storm drain. Now, I would like you to meet Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael."
Each turtle bowed as Splinter introduced him.
"Get real!" April said.