Outcasts

Disclaimer: I deny any ownership of any adolescent transformed shadow warrior chelonians.

Chapter Four – Purely Scientific

Being an outcast didn't really bother me; I had been one for so long that I knew no other way of life. Even in my own family I was fully aware of my outcast nature.

I always knew that I wasn't quite like any of my brothers, as similar as we were our individuality set us apart even from each other.

We had many of the same attributes and qualities and yet our personalities were each distinctive and unique.

I recall in my youth that I just wanted to know the whys and how of things so much that I must have driven our Master to the point of distraction. I was the first to realize that our father as wise as he was didn't have the answer to everything.

When I learned to read I realized a door had been opened to me and began to read any thing I could get my hands on, I might not fully understand all that I read but it was a start.

Quite contrary to my brothers beliefs, that I was hatched from the egg with a screwdriver in one hand and a how to manual in the other, I had to learn as anyone would through a series of trial and error and finding out what really worked best.

Though I suppose I did have a rather natural knack when it came to electronic gadgets and an inquisitive nature, my most enjoyable toys being any thing that Splinter hauled back from his scavenging trips that were either electrical, or battery operated. By fiddling with these finds I could eventually get them working.

However I was to find out later that there was nothing I hated more then being stumped by a problem that seemed so out of my grasp of knowledge simply because we didn't have the right equipment.

Consequently I learned early on to think outside of the box, one could not be satisfied with the old mentality of 'this is how we've always done things' it is those who push the envelope, those who are willing to head off in new directions that would get somewhere in life. They were the ones who became important.

Of course my thirst for knowledge made me seem even more an outsider to my brothers, they never seemed to understand that I was happy doing what I wanted immersing myself in books while they played tag or hide an go seek. They ridiculed and teased me and finally gave up asking me to join them.

So it was that even in my very youth I was different and I grew used to it long before we even realized how unique we truly were in our world.

I couldn't even fit into our ninja lessons. I had no desire to hurt any one and didn't care much for sparring. My attitude in the dojo earned me the nickname of wimp from Raphael on more than one occasion.

Splinter strongly disagreed with my brother's views telling all of us that ninja valued all life. Even the life of the enemy which they battled, seeing the enemy not so much as an evil to be destroyed, but rather misguided and needing to be shown the error of his ways.

" In all things there is a balance" he counselled, " So what one gives one will receive."

There was nothing wrong in being a pacifist, but what I had to realize was that while fighting might not always be the answer, sometimes it might be the only option that we had left to protect ourselves with. It was an option we were to use only when all else had failed us.

So I learned to balance my ninja training with the other things that I longed to learn and my brothers seemed content to let me walk a path that was separate from theirs.

I was always secretly amused when one of my brothers would berate my intelligence and then only a short time later come to me to fix some toy.

As we grew older they came to accept that having a geek for a brother wasn't that bad, for they were relying on me far more often to come up with ideas to make our home more comfortable or to get us past the high security systems we would have to sneak past now and again on missions.

My need to learn to face challenges and find new ways of doing thins was finally paying off so that by our teens my brother had started to give me a grudging respect and when they called me some name it was usually done so in a friendly way.

When Splinter finally told us the truth of our world and how different we were even from humans and why it was so important for us to train and use our skills, I realized then, that all of us were outcasts.

Splinter told us that we could not be accepted by society and so would be forced to live all of our lives, a part of the human world and yet cut off from it. This was probably harder on my brothers then myself.

I just longed to find out more about what made us outcasts in the first place, why were we so unique from any other sentient being. Truly humans were intelligent they had made great progress and many achievements, they might actually be willing to look upon something like us as equals to themselves.

It was only wishful thinking though, for the more I learned the more I realized that what had made us so unique could also be our downfall.

Perhaps in a different age in time we could have hoped for better. Such as the old days on Earth when man was more connected to his roots and knowledge of his world was limited would have been a far better time for my brother's and I to be accepted.

However what made us what we are could not have existed in those days.

Still there were many people long ago who believed that the world rested on the back of a giant turtle. We probably would have been accepted as the great turtle god in those times, and have to be appeased to some degree. Especially with how superstitious people were in those times when tragic occurrences were often put as the gods being angered.

Instead we came into a world and a time when humans seem almost as fearful of the world around them as their ancestors did in spite of all the progress they have made. Of course some of that progress that has helped humans has done almost as much to terrorise them.

Take for instance nuclear energy, it could be useful or damaging and humans have somehow decided to use it in both manners, not even stopping to consider the consequences of doing so.

In fact people of this day and age are almost as superstitious as their ancestors, only now instead of praying to their gods and finding ways to appease them they had become virtual slaves to the very machines they had built.

Sure now a days you would be hard pressed to find someone who would fear that you would sail off the end of the world or that the volcano god would wake from his slumber and wreck havoc on your village.

But you would see people worried about a co-worker or student in a school that could snap and go on a vicious rampage, the threat of attacks, the fear of any number of things that still held humans firmly in its grasp as it did of old.

True scientist had debunked all the old fears but humans had replaced those fears with newer ones.

There was also a big problem with the whole world of science in itself, facts logic were of utmost importance. Even things that couldn't be explained by modern science had to be a hoax if a logical reason couldn't be given.

The scientist of today had to place things into categories or lists. Had to define things by what they knew, give them something they couldn't explain and they would have to research and study it just so they could have the answers.

A scientist might scoff at a religious persons faith and yet too many times science has failed only for miracles to occur. The unexplained often remains just that, proving the best thing a scientist could really have in his favour is an open mind.

If we were found I have no doubt that scientist the world over would be battling for the rights to pick us apart piece by piece if only to reveal the answers of who and what we were.

Only I have a feeling that the answers they got on us wouldn't be the ones they might appreciate. I doubt even the fact that we were intelligent would mean anything to them. How many highly intelligent animals are kept in zoos, or are being studied even at this very minute?

Apes, pigs, dolphins, whales and numerous other animals have proven intelligence to man and yet humans seem to have no worries about exploiting them. So why would a mutant turtle be any different?

In the grand scheme of things reptiles are not known for their intelligence, yet even a turtle can learn things.

I recalled reading in some book about a sea turtle that was in some aquarium it would often bite the fingers of the handler. One time the handler hauled the turtle out and hit its shell with a rolled up newspaper making a loud noise, but by no means injuring the turtle. It didn't stop the turtle from biting rather when ever it bit it would go crashing around the tank to avoid another instance of being hauled out and smacked.

I figured that turtle had to have some Raphael in it, to remain so obstinate in its behaviour.

In fact if there was any thing I was sure of was that if there was anything worse, then mans inhumanity to man, it had to be man's flagrant disregard for all walks of life that thrived on this world.

We really didn't stand a chance the odds were against us before we even started.

What scared me even more was the simple knowledge that no matter how skilled we were in avoiding detection, sooner or later something was bound to go against us.

There is so many chances we must take in our life, so many risks that we have to face and there is no way we could ever hope to win them all.

The longer you play the higher chance you have of losing big, no matter how much you have won before.

It was just simple numbers. Luck and coincidence combined with skill could only do so much for so long against the odds but sooner or later you would have to lose and big.

When it came time for us to lose big, and I didn't doubt that there would be such a day, I had to wonder how bad it would be for all of us.

Sure we had lost some in our life but nothing really of momentous importance and I had a feeling that the time for it would come because even Splinter had taught us that in all things there was a balance.

I had seen that this is as true as many of his other teachings so I know that sooner or later the odds will go against us and the scales will tip.

In that time Leo's guidance might only be able to do so much, Mike's optimism and jokes could ease tension and fear but it won't help us out of the situation and Ralph's anger will only be a detriment to us all.

As outcasts we didn't stand a chance, yet due to our situation we couldn't help to be accepted either, we couldn't even hope for citizenship in spite of the bill of rights claiming that we were all equal.

The bill of rights didn't cover mutants.

Besides the haves, and the have- nots split the world and society itself. Those that have didn't need to worry about life because they had the ends to the means, money and prestige was power. Those who were poor and had little were trudged on and forgotten about. Cast aside and ridiculed looked down upon by their fellow man.

An outcast could expect very little help other then the occasional hand out. Their lot was to struggle continuously just to stay alive.

It was clear then when things turned against us that my skill and knowledge might be the only thing that could spare us all.

I didn't know if it would be enough, when I had nothing else to buy our safety and security but I knew an outcast had to use what skills they possessed to their advantage.

While I might not be close to my family they are all I have and in the end if we outcast don't stick together those who seek our demise will only devour us.

The End.

Author's Note: Outcasts was born from a character sketch I wrote up on each of the boys. While writing it I used thoughts images views from the many areas of TMNT's over the years, comics, cartoons and movies. Plus my own views of how I see each one of them

With each of the turtles being so different from the other, each is bound to hide their isolation or outcast state in a different way. Thus this story was born. Thanks all for the reviews.

Ramica