After running errands and meeting Nova, the brothers head back home which is in the sewers. But since they were later than usual, they had to sneak in quietly so they couldn't get caught. They sneak in the dark looking around their surroundings.

"Everybody be quiet!" Leo shushed his brothers.

"You be quiet!"

"I'm literally whispering, I can not be more quiet."

"I'll make white noises-"

"Mikey, stop!"

"Shh-"

"Dude, that makes it louder!" But then all of a sudden someone turned on a lamp light causing the brothers to yelp in shock. In the living room sitting on a chair was Splinter, their rat dad, and he was pretty worried. "Boys, where have you been? I've been freaking out!" The four turtles placed down the groceries from their hands overlapping each other with excuses hoping he would buy it, but it only made Splinter more suspicious as they started walking to their room.

"Wait a second..." Splinter spoke which makes the four turtles freeze and turn to face their dad, "You said you would go shopping then come right back. Where were you?"

Donnie, Mikey, and Raph were mummering trying to think of more excuses. But Leo on the other hand, couldn't take it to lie to his dad so he decided to tell the truth. "Look we're really sorry Splinter, some of the guys wanted to see a movie and I tried talking them out of it and then we met this girl and-"

"LEO!" His brothers exclaimed shocked that he just spilled their secret. "WHAT!? You watch a movie with the humans?" Splinter exclaims as he hopped out of his chair and then made a bleh noise when he finishes his sentence just thinking about humans.

"You ratted us out!" Mikey said to Leo while Raph face palmed and Donnie had his arms crossed shaking his head, not happy with his older brother. But Splinter didn't like what Mikey said, "Hey! Don't use that word that way." He pointed with a stern look on his face.

The three brothers look at Mikey amused at what he said, "I mean it's 2023." Leo spoke.

"Sorry dad." Mikey said feeling bad for what he said.

"And who is this girl you met?" Splinter questioned wanting to know who his sons met. Now it was Raph's turn to speak up, "It's okay dad, she's not a human. Her name is Nova and she's a mutant like us." He explained.

"Yeah, Nova's a cool mutant, she likes us!" Donnie agreed which made Raph smile.

"Hmm I see, but you still disobeyed by watching a movie with the humans."

"It wasn't that big of a deal! We just watched a movie and came back, we're fine!" Donnie said.

"Hmm you forgot, huh? You don't remember why humans are disgusting monsters? Why they're dangerous? Why they're gonna milk us, for our blood?" The four turtle brothers cringed in disgust when their father mentioned that, did he really had to bring that up?

"We don't even have nipples!" Raph exclaimed annoyed.

"You know what? I'm gonna tell the story again!" Splinter said so he can remind them of why humans are dangerous. But the brothers start panicking since they heard this story so many times that they don't want to hear it again.

"No!"

"I get a year older every time!" Mikey exclaimed.

"Just for that, I'm telling the long version." Splinter said.

"No, no, no!" Donnie protested which made Splinter chuckle, ready to tell their backstory and how they came to be.

~Flashback~

"It all started 15 years ago. I was a young rat in my 20s." It was a sunny day around the neighboring of the city, by the trash cans are filled with a few rats and one of them being Splinter looks over to a rat digging food in the trash can and decides to say hello. "Look at me! I was so cute! I was on top of the world." However, once Splinter waved hello to the other rat it turned around hissing at him before running off with the food in it's hands leaving Splinter alone with his head down in shame while two other rats were fighting over food.

"No, I was the bottom of the world. It was terrible! Nobody liked me, I had no friends." The scene then changes and a racoon with rabies hisses at Splinter as it's eyes went huge, making Splinter run across the street...only to be met with a barking dog. "Racoons didn't like me, dog didn't like me." And then it shows Splinter running out of a restaurant, with an angry human chasing after him with a broom.

"You know who hate me the most? Humans!" Splinter seems disgusted just saying the word, as his younger rat self runs and hides in a hole in the wall.

"I had one friend, he was a cockroach. We got along very well, his name was Kevin." Splinter was at peace by the staircase eating his piece of food he had found, looking down at the cockroach he mentioned as Kevin. Splinter reached out his hand holding the piece of food offering it to the cockroach. Kevin took interest as he was about to crawl over to take it only to be stepped on by a human walking by. Splinter's eyes widened before looking to the side and leaning in to eat him. "And then, I ate him."

Thunder is heard outside as rain is pouring through a sewer grate, Splinter enters looking for someplace dry and once he made it down, his eyes landed on four baby turtles covered with some strange goo. "One day, everything changed..." One of the baby turtles looks at Splinter and starts crawling up towards him making babbling noises. Splinter grabs a piece of a hot dog left on the ground growling at the baby turtle to stay away. However, it remained unfazed as it kept crawling towards him and nuzzled it's head into his leg making cute churr noises. Splinter then patted the baby turtle on the head realizing that it didn't want to hurt him. "You was the first things I met that didn't want to kill me or eat me."

"I couldn't just leave you there..." Young Splinter drags the container with the turtles in it towards a safe place in the sewers.

"You was covered in this ooze, that someone dumped in the sewers. Whatever this OOZE was, it transformed us." Splinter looks to see that some of the ooze accidentally got onto his paw and it absorbed into his skin. Then it started to change him, his body started to grow taller and his head turned from tiny to big as he let out a scream...only to realize the transformation stopped. He looks at his new body in amazement.

"Because I was older, I became older rat man. You guys was just babies so you stayed baby turtle creatures. If you think about it, it couldn't make more sense." The turtle tots run and jumped around Splinter, using his arms as monkey bars running around all over the place. Raph jumps on a metal pipe giggling, Mikey and Leo climb across only to fall but still they were giggling. Donnie was still on the ground beside Splinter holding a pair of glasses in his hands before putting on his face, cooing in amazement since he could see better.

"It was weird, but, we became a family." Splinter then turns on a record player playing a song as the little turtle tots were dancing in the room happy as can be. The scene then changes to Splinter eating a box of Chinese food before Mikey pulls on his tail letting him know that he and his brothers were hungry. They then start eating pizza for the first time while Splinter watches them with a smile. They then start playing around in the lair, taking a bath only for Raph to fall asleep and knock his brothers like domino pieces, and then Splinter puts them to sleep relieved. But before he could go to bed, he heard a noise only to see Raph with a scared look on his face wanting to sleep with his dad, which made the whole family sleep together.

It then shows Splinter walking through the sewers with the turtle tots playing in the puddles before they stop, looking up at some bright lights. Out of curiosity, Leo pulls Splinter's tail pointing up to the human world. "You were obsessed with the human world. So I decided to give it a shot."

Splinter is shown lifting the manhole cover grate moving it aside before picking up his turtle children as well, walking out of the alleyway as the four turtles stared with awe and amazement to the beautiful bright lights and colors. Being picked up by their father walking through the crowd staring at everything around them with peaceful atmosphere. But it doesn't take long before Splinter bumps into someone.

"Oh I am so sorry, excuse me-" But then the women looks at the baby turtles who had silly smiles while Splinter grinned nervously. "It didn't go well..."

"OH MY GOD! IT'S A RAT MAN!" The woman exclaimed drawing more attention from people as crowded around to get a closer look. One of the guys didn't seem afraid as he walks up to Splinter, "It's not a rat man. It's just a bad Mickey Mouse costume." He tugs on Splinter's ears, and then he gasps and scrambles away in fear. "It's real! I touched it!"

People growl in anger in disgust as they start throwing stuff at Splinter and shouting to kill him. Poor Splinter tries to get away only to trip resulting to dropping his sons and little Mikey rolls on the street. With panic, Splinter grabs the rest of his sons and rushes toward Mikey and grabs him just in time before getting hit by a bus. He looks down at his sons only for them to coo with smiles on their faces. But the people were still trting to kill them so Splinter rushed into an alleyway and back into the sewers.

"That day I promised to never let you get hurt, ever again. I needed to find a way to unlock the ancient secrets of ninjitsu. How to turn a body into a weapon of death...and I found it." Splinter then starts to train the turtles and over the years, their skills grew stronger and they improved so well.

~Flashback Ends~

"We thought we needed the human world, but we only needed each other. That's why I'm so strict, you know? You boys are all I got, and you're all I'll ever have." Splinter finishes as his sons were now sitting down on chairs to listen to their dad. "You don't know that..." Mikey spoke softly while fidgeting with a ninja star in his hand as he glanced at his father.

Splinter gives Mikey a deadpan expression, "I do! You know other mutants my age? It's a really small pool...there's no app to meet other mutant ladies! Trust me, I check every day."

"Yeah, that's true." Leo murmured and his brother murmured as well.

"Look, I really don't want to do this," Splinter rubs his forehead and let's out a heavy sigh before looking at the four turtles, "No leave sewer for one month."

"Seriously-" Mikey starts, but is interrupted by Splinter, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I made up my mind. That's it I'm done."

Raph's eyes widened a little, he promised Nova that he would see her tomorrow and he didn't want to break that promise to her. "But dad, I promised Nova I would see her tomorrow. Can I least tell her that-" But Splinter cuts him off, "No Raph, being grounded means you can't see your new friend. I told you my mind is made up."

Raph didn't take it well cause he felt like he broke a promise to Nova, and now he was mad with Leo. "This sucks." He growls as he hit his hands on the table before getting up.

"Hey, Raph...come on-" Leo tries to get him to come back.

"Shut up Leo." He says with a grumble as Mikey and Donnie got up as well.

"Mikey?" Mikey doesn't respond as he keeps walking with a sad look on his face. Donnie walks past Leo with an angry look on his face, "Was it worth it Mr. Leader?" Leo looks at Splinter who just looked away before putting his head down guilty and heading to their room. Silence filled the air as the brothers laid in their beds looking at their phones. The awkward silence still filled the air until Mikey decided to speak up.

"Hey guys? If we weren't monsters that were shunned by society and we could actually do what we wanted? What would you guys do?"

Donnie puts his phone down and looks up at Mikey from his tent, "I mean if I'm being honest...I'd just be normal."

Raph sighs and puts his phone down on his chest, "Yeah, like go to high school?"

"Maybe get a girlfriend? Go to prom?" Leo adds hesitantly. Donnie scoffs from his tent, "With your rizz not likely. And thanks to you we can't see Nova tomorrow cause were grounded."

"Yeah, I was actually looking forward to seeing her..." Mikey said sadly.

"I-I just gotta get out of this sewer man! I mean...I like you guys and all, but I simply cannot live a happy life knowing your faces are the last things I'm gonna see before I die. I just want to go out into the world and make friends who have cooler vibes, like Nova..." Raph fazed out a little when he finishes his sentence.

"Well uh-guess what guys? It's never gonna happen, and will see Nova again when were ungrounded so...can we stop making a big deal out of it." Donnie sighs and puts his headphones on to listen to music. Meanwhile Raph was laying in his bed thinking about Nova, so he pulled up his contacts towards chat and decided to text her.

Meanwhile, near an abandoned warehouse, the lizard girl was making her bed since she forgot to earlier. But while she was doing it, Nova was smiling since she thought of meeting her new friends tomorrow. Then she heard her phone and she pulled it out to check what it was...and she saw that Raph texted her. With a huge smile Nova sat down and pushed on the notification to read what he said. But once it pulled up, her smile turned into a puzzled look.

Raph (Hothead): I can't see u tomorrow, me and my bros got grounded by dad cause Mr. Leader snitched us out

Nova was a little surprised, they got grounded? Maybe they snuck out when they weren't supposed too, she texted back.

Me: How long?

Raph (Hothead): For a month. Sorry I can't see u :(

Nova felt a mixture of many emotions in that moment. She was really sad since she wasn't going to see them, but she understood why though. So with a small but sad smile, she texted...

Me: It's okay, I understand. Hope to see you again soon :)

...

Raph (Hothead): Me too 3

After that, Nova sighed and out her phone before cuddling herself up in her blankets. She looked out the window seeing the lights of the beautiful city before her eyes slowly closed and she drifted off to sleep.

Here's Chapter 3! Updates might be a little slow cause of school and me going to my dad's every other week. Enjoy it! ^V^

~TMNTFanGirl2245