I really should be updating my other stories, but I'm having so much fun with this one, I just had to do another chapter! My medical issues have turned into me being incredibly sick, so this chapter is just as rusty if not more so as the last chapter. Again, thank you for all the reviews, follows, and favorites, and enjoy the story!

I don't own them.

Gathering food with three small turtles would be no easy task. They were constantly pushing at and pulling away from each other, making a task as simple as picking them up take ages. It was because of this that the man considered himself lucky to have found a subway station with a fountain.

He was aware of turtle feeding habits, having owned a few terrapins in Japan. The pool was covered in algae, and worms surrounded the area. Turtles ate both of these in the wild, and he had no reason to believe they wouldn't eat it in their current state. The three were whining even as he leaned over the pool to gather the food, and as long as it had been since they had been fed, he was sure they would eat anything.

Being a man raised in etiquette, he made each turtle sit down before serving them. Granted, they had no plates or silverware, but he managed to keep things nicely separated. Almost as soon as the food was placed in front of them, the children began to eat, stuffing food into their mouths and moaning noise reminded him of another child he once knew. The thought made his heart ache, and that only intensified as he studied the turtles. They were so young, not even able to speak outside of a few repeated words, and they had already been through so much. He had at least been able to enjoy life for a few decades before it was destroyed, but they would spend their entire lives hiding.

He began to wonder if it was better to be a pet or to spend life like they would have to, leaning towards the former if only because as a pet, you wouldn't realize what was happening. Immersed in his thoughts, he didn't register a tugging on his fur until it rose to his sensitive whiskers.

Twitching his nose, he turned to see one of the turtles. His eyes were dark blue and had seemed so serious, even before the transformation had happened, and the man had begun to think of him as the oldest.

"Yes, child?" The turtle looked down at his hands, fidgeting before mumbling something indistinguishable. It was turtle-like in its churring, but it was also reminiscent of a baby's gibberish. The turtle looked up again, and it must have registered the confusion on the man's face, as it began to chatter again, gesturing at its brothers as he did.

The man moved his eyes to the other two. Their makeshift 'plates' were empty, as was the other's, but one area had algae pushed into it as thought were filling in a gap. The man quickly understood what they had done. Yes, they were children, but they were intelligent, and they had assumed he had forgotten to feed their brother. And now, they were asking where he was.

"He...isn't eating today." The turtle blinked slowly before nodding and running back to the others. He mumbled something, and they responded by picking up the saved food and stuffing in into their mouths.

The man knew he needed to name them. He couldn't continue calling them its, as they were so much more. He had a few names picked out when he bought them, but they seemed like names you would only give a pet, nothing you would give to someone who could actually understand what it meant. But, he mused, they could always go by nicknames. And it wasn't as though they would be meeting anyone else in their lifetimes. No, the names he had picked out would be fine.

Two of the brothers had begun to smear leftovers on each other's faces, and the man knew they would need a bath soon. He couldn't use the water here, as that would only make them dirtier, but they had to be cleaned. His apartment would still have running water, and he needed to pick a few things up anyway. Besides, the pet store wasn't far from his apartment, and he was planning to search for the other turtle. A glance at the ceiling told him the sun was going down, and he stood.

"Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo." The three looked up instantly, hands and faces covered in algae. The smallest cooed, poking himself in the face as if confirming that he was being spoken to. "Yes, you, Mikey." Mikey giggled, poking himself repeatedly. His green eyed brother glared at him, reaching out to slap his hand when he wouldn't stop. "Raphael." The man warned firmly before continuing his earlier statement. "We are going to..." Here he paused. He couldn't tell them they were going to get his brother in case they didn't find him, but he didn't feel right lying to them at such a young age. "We are going to get some supplies for our home. Leo, do you think you can walk so I can hold your brothers?"

"Le...oh?" The terrapin whispered, smiling and nodding. He stood, nudging his brothers with the edge of his foot until they followed suit. Before the man could make a move to pick them up, Leo poked him, churring again. Learning from before, the child launched into an explanation immediately, pointing at himself-'Le-oh', and his brothers-'Raf-el' and 'My-key-o', respectively. Then he pointed at the man, opening his mouth slightly.

"You want to know my name?" He had a name, once, but it didn't seem to fit him anymore. He wasn't the man he used to be, and a new name needed to go with that change. An old nickname floated to the front of his mind. "You may call me...Splinter."

Raphael made a noise, gesturing towards the spot they had set up for their missing brother. Splinter, beginning to understand them, sighed. "Your brother, when we find him, will be called Donatello."

"Done-tel-oh." Leo responded. Not be to outdone, his brothers quickly tried to say the name themselves, stuttering through it, but overall, succeeding.

"Yes," Splinter whispered. The three stared at his empty spot, bringing their eyes to Splinter's questioningly. "He...will be here soon." He held on to the last bit of hope he had that the fourth turtle had managed to stay hidden, making a silent wish that this hope not be empty. Ignoring his prior decision to keep their destination a secret, he scooped up the younger two. "In fact, we're going to find him now."

Freak held up the wriggling thing in his hand, scrunching his face up. This looked like what the beings gave him before, but he didn't remember them looking so unappetizing. However, he didn't have another option. The hard surface below and around him couldn't possibly be eaten, and so far, nothing else had revealed itself.

No, he was stuck with whatever this thing was. Perhaps it would've been easier for him to eat if it wasn't moving so much. Taking a deep breath, he dropped the thing into his mouth, choking as it slid directly down his throat. Coughing, he hit his chest a couple times. Once the thing went down, he whimpered, rubbing his neck.

Making a note to never drop it in like that again, Freak picked up another one, placing it on his tongue. The initial taste wasn't too bad, but the way the thing moved in his mouth nearly brought him to tears. Once he began to chew, this thought was lost as the taste hit him and he was caught in a gagging fit. Whining, he closed his eyes as he chewed, eventually managing to swallow the thing.

Rubbing at his tongue, he decided he was done. His stomach was still hurting, but it wasn't worth more disgust for the time being. Instead, he turned his attention to the pool of water in the center of his home. Water was good. He trusted water. Reaching his hands in, he scooped up a handful of the liquid. Ignoring the green tint, he poured the water into his mouth, swallowing it quickly.

This decision proved to be worse than his first one. The green slime slid down his throat, leaving a thick film in his mouth. The water itself tasted horrible, and he swore multiple somethings were moving inside of it.

The thought of those little tiny things filling his water was too much. Freak didn't even manage to lean over the water before vomiting, the contents of his stomach falling over his torso. Disgusted and exhausted, he fell down, choking. His stomach hurt more than it did when the ordeal started, and he still needed to look for the others. But he was so tired, and his stomach was making awful noises, and for now, he would sleep.