All rights go to Nickelodeon and Eastman/Laird. This is another AU of the 2012 series, it will be quite different from my Kasai story. One, Susan and Kate (John's wife and daughter) do not exist in this version. Two, certain events in Kasai will happen at much faster pace (such as Kasai's mutation and him being pansexual). Three, John's backstory and attitude will change slightly. And four, character dynamics will change between certain people. Warning: Violence, language, dark themes, sexual references, nudity, and canon changes. Enjoy.
The life of John Kasai has been complicated, to say the least.
He was a 35-year-old Caucasian male who was born on August 15th, 1977, and raised in Osaka, Japan. He never knew his parents, as they were both killed when he was a newborn. He found out later that his mother died in childbirth and his father was murdered in a drive-by-shooting. With no parents or family in general, he was sent to a local orphanage as a baby and stayed there until he was 18.
Being white in a country that was nearly 100% Japanese was going to be a problem for John. At school, he was picked on, bullied, and became an outcast. At the orphanage, it wasn't much better, as no one wanted to be around him or talk to him. John essentially had to raise himself and he became very bitter at the world because of it. That bitterness turned into aggression and John needed an outlet to release that aggression.
At 14 years of age, he found it in the form of a ninja clan known the Foot Clan. Ninjutsu was something John was always interested in. The weapons, the hiding in the shadows, the overall badassness. Entering that world was the one dream John truly had and he was determined to make that dream a reality when he entered world-famous celebrity Chris Bradford's dojo.
The training was rough and that's putting it lightly. Scratches, cuts, bruises, broken bones, John went through it all and after months of this, John was accepted into the Foot Clan by Oroku Saki himself.
When John joined the Clan, it became his entire life. He became the most dedicated member in the Foot Clan's history. He went up the ranks from an entry level Foot soldier to Saki's second-in-command in only 3 years, faster than anyone in the history of the Clan. John's aggression translated well to the world of ninjutsu, as he quickly developed a reputation for his brutal, precise strikes on his enemies.
In 1997, an incident revolving a dispute between Oroku Saki and Hamato Yoshi (Saki's best friend) resulted in the death of Tang Shen (the love interest of both men) and Saki taking Tang Shen's baby (whose name would change from Miwa to Karai) away from Hamato Yoshi as an act of revenge. Saki then went through a rebirth, renaming himself as 'The Shredder', and donning the Kuro Kabuto to hide his scarred face from the dispute.
John thought that Shredder would want him to find Yoshi and kill him, but he didn't. To Shredder, he had taken everything away from Yoshi and Yoshi's broken spirit would kill him eventually, so he chose not to do a manhunt. Instead, he decided to build up a team. A supergroup known as the Foot Elite, which would consist of what he deemed the best of the best of the best. A collection of individuals who were strong on their own and unstoppable together. Shredder would spend the next two years picking and choosing who would form this team.
Naturally, John was Shredder's first pick and over time he found out who the rest of his Foot Elite teammates were.
The 2nd member was Chris Bradford, which John saw coming from a mile away. He was an American world-famous celebrity/marital artist who had known Shredder for years. He started as a child actor and eventually got his own cartoon, the fan-favorite Chris Bradford's 2 Ruff Krew, and starred in a number of movies, even getting into major franchises like Jurassic Park, Rush Hour, and X-Men. He even did some voice work for SpongeBob SquarePants. When he wasn't doing Hollywood projects, he was a main name in the criminal underworld and he made sure he got respect, even if he had to beat it out of people.
The 3rd member was Xever Montes. He was from Brazil and had a reputation for being a master thief. For years, he was never caught and never taken down, until one day, when his luck ran out after he tried to steal a briefcase filled with cash. He went to prison and was bailed out by Shredder himself. Shredder soon made him a Foot Elite member and after a bit of tension between him, Bradford, and John, the three got along quite well.
Then things got interesting with the 4th member. Takeshi, aka Tiger Claw. Unlike John, Bradford, or Xever, he wasn't a human. He was a mutant. A mutant tiger from Japan, who Shredder described as the "most feared assassin in all of Asia". He was mutated as a child, when he and his sister went through what they thought was a magic door. This door led to them being mutated and experimented on by some aliens that called themselves Kraang. They eventually escaped but were shunned by their family and went to join the circus, before becoming assassins in the criminal underworld. Unfortunately, the siblings had a falling out and their fight cost Takeshi his tail. A few months after the falling out, Takeshi met with Shredder, who found him worthy enough to join the Elite. Takeshi's attitude clashed with the rest of his teammates, but he grew to tolerate and even appreciate them, as they were the closest thing he had to friends or family.
And if a mutant tiger wasn't enough, the 5th and 6th members of the Elite were mutants too. A mutant warthog named Bebop (real name: Anton Zeck) and a mutant rhinoceros named Rocksteady (real name: Ivan Steranko). These two had very similar paths in life. They grew up in broken households, dealing with neglectful/abusive parents, had a difficult time in school, and ended up running away from home. While homeless, they met each other, and they immediately hit it off. They joined several small gangs before they too had an incident that caused them to get mutated. These two were BFFs and they did everything together, which made the rest of the Foot Elite wonder if they were gay for each other. It turned out that Bebop and Rocksteady classified themselves as "platonic soulmates", meaning they loved each other but they weren't IN LOVE with each other. To the rest of the Elite, they initially came off as crude and annoying but over time, they got along well with everybody.
The 7th member of the Elite was the most unique out of all of them because he wasn't a fighter. He wasn't muscular or athletic, but what he lacked in the physical department, he made up for in the intelligence department. This man was Baxter Stockman. Born a child prodigy, he sped through the education system and graduated college when he was only 13 years old, thanks to his brilliant mind (he could've graduated much sooner but he chose not to). Unfortunately, not too many people respected him and suffered a ton of emotional abuse from his peers and even his parents. Because of this, Stockman became distant from everyone and poured all his time into robotics and genetics. He was working at TCRI, studying a substance known as mutagen, when he met Shredder, who offered him to work for the Foot Clan and be part of the Foot Elite.
Now the team was set. John Kasai, Chris Bradford, Xever Montes, Takeshi, Bebop, Rocksteady, and Baxter Stockman. A group of individuals with different backgrounds, races, ethnicities, beliefs, opinions, and personalities.
Initially, things were a mess. Shredder assigned John to be the leader of the Elite, even though he was one of the youngest members of the group. Stockman's non-existent combat skills and more introverted nature made him a bit of a joke amongst the group. Once they knew that Stockman could create dangerous and deadly weapons, the joke talk stopped right then and there. The group didn't have much chemistry or cohesion in the early goings, and it looked like Shredder's plan would be a failure.
But failure wasn't in Shedder's vocabulary.
Shredder forced the 7 to spend more time together, understand each other and know each other's strengths and weaknesses. This worked to a certain extent, as the 7's chemistry improved, and they actually grew to like each other. Progress was slow but it was happening.
But then in 1999, John's life changed dramatically. During a mission, John ended up getting severely injured via a rigged room of explosives. Shredder was worried that John would die, so he made the reckless call to inject mutagen into his bloodstream. Stockman was hesitant about Shredder's idea, but he ultimately went with it and injected mutagen into John's blood.
One would think this action would be a total disaster. But it wasn't. Within 20 seconds of mutagen entering John's system, he instantly woke up and ended up gaining abilities no one saw coming. Thanks to the mutagen, John now had the power of both flight and teleportation, which made me even more of a threat than he already was. Not to mention, his mental and physical abilities were enhanced to superhuman levels and he was now immune to any disease or poison known to man. In other words, the mutagen made John the closest thing to a physical god.
With John's new mutant abilities, the Foot Elite quickly made everyone in the criminal underworld their bitch. If anyone tried to go against them, the Elite made sure that they would regret it. In addition, John now had to urge to use his powers for his own benefit and he would go after and kill as many wealthy elites as he could. He would take their money, causing his bank account to skyrocket from a few million dollars to a few BILLION dollars in a space of a few years. But to John, it wasn't just about the money. It was about getting rid of the worst of humanity (rapists, pedophiles, abusers, greedy bastards, etc.) and made John's job even more enjoyable.
Now, John considered his Foot Elite teammates to be his brothers. They were open with each other about everything, and their chemistry ended up being greater than what Shredder expected. They were the only people on planet Earth that John truly cared about.
Well, except one other person.
John's husband, Brock.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter. This story will last around 15 chapters. The backstory of John is mostly the same from the original version, but with several changes and tweaks. The biggest change will be John having a husband instead of his wife, Susan. The next chapter will be all about Brock and his relationship with John and their dynamic will be quite different from John's dynamic with Susan in the original story. Also, I'm working on a ton of stories right now (one-shots, old stories, new stories), so stay tuned for more updates. Other than that, I hope you all have a wonderful day. Bye for now and stay safe.