MrBLUE's TMNT
Chapter 1: To the Surface, Part 1
In New York City, there were criminals everywhere. Street gangs, smugglers, and killers. These were all public knowledge, but, the police were unable to keep up due to corruption among their ranks and genuinely dedicated officers being few and far between.
However, the heroes of this story are NOT public knowledge. Hidden underground in an abandoned subway station from human eyes was a family of six. Why were they hiding, you ask? Well, while they walked, talked, and overall behaved like humans, they actually weren't humans at all. A majority of them were actually turtles.
On this particular day, four of the turtles were sparring each other in groups of two. In one group was a moderately tall, slender turtle armed with twin wooden katanas and a short, but, still in good shape turtle armed with twin nunchucks. In the other group was a rather large, muscular turtle armed with sais and a tall, scrawny turtle wearing glasses armed with a bo. All four of them wore red bandannas with eye holes, knee pads, elbow pads, bandages wrapped around their ankles, wrists, and fingers. Their hands only had three fingers each while their feet had the same number of toes. Over seeing their sparring match was a large brown-furred humanoid rat wearing a traditional Japanese men's kimono.
"Hajime," the rat said.
The nunchuck armed turtle charged towards the sword-wielding one, spinning his nunchucks with incredible speed as he did so. "Michelangelo is on the move!" he said confidently.
The sword-wielding turtle dodged the shorter turtle and waited for an opening. "You can't get me, Leonardo. I'm too fast for you!" The nunchuck turtle, Michelangelo, moved around in a frantic and erratic manner to catch his sparring partner off guard, only for him to strike him in the stomach with his wooden swords when he got close enough. Michelangelo collapsed from the strike.
"What was that about being too fast for me?" said the sword-wielding turtle, Leonardo.
"Good one, Leo," conceded Michelangelo in a strained voice.
Michelangelo got up and walked over to the other side of the room and sat down to watch the others spar.
"Put down the staff, Donatello," the muscular turtle said. "And nobody gets hurt."
The turtle with the bo, Donatello, was skeptical. "Last time you said that, Raphael," he said. "You ended up hurting me anyway."
The muscular sai-wielding turtle, Raphael, shrugged. "Well, less than I would have," he said.
"Right…" Donatello said dryly before he began charging at Raphael. Donatello swung his staff at his sparring partner's head, who dodged it effortlessly before grabbing the staff and pulling it out of his hands before breaking it in half. Donatello was slightly intimidated. "Should've dropped the staff?"
Raphael smirked. "Should have dropped the staff." He then used the broken staff pieces and makeshift clubs to comically bonk Donatello on the head before proceeding to do the same on his shell.
"Alright, alright!" Donatello said. "You win, you win!" Raphael stopped his attack and dropped the broken weapon. Donatello took a seat next to Michelangelo.
"Lost another staff, Donnie?" Michelangelo said. "That's rough."
Donatello then remarked with a comment about his weapon. "Well, I wield a wooden stick, while you guys get katanas, sais, and nunchucks that can be tonfas or a kusarigama. I can't even use my extra staff heads during training."
"Too bad there's no such thing as a metal staff. Otherwise, you wouldn't have this problem," Michelangelo said. Donatello was about to reply, only for him to realize he never thought about getting a metal staff before and chose not to say anything.
Meanwhile, Leonardo and Raphael were paired up as sparring partners. "May the best turtle win," Leonardo said.
"I plan to," Raphael replied.
Both drew their weapons and charged at each other. Leonardo used a crossing slash attack that Raphael blocked with one of his sai. Raphael then used his other sai to catch Leonardo's wrist. However, Leonardo twisted his wrist in a way to get it out of the sai and then let go of his swords before quickly using a sweeping kick to knock Raphael down. Leonardo then pounced on his sparring partner like a leopard and put him in a body lock, restraining him.
"Yame!" the rat said.
Leonardo let go, releasing Raphael. They got up and Raphael (albeit reluctantly) nodded to Leo in a respectful way to congratulate him on winning. They both took kneeling positions beside Donatello and Michelangelo as the rat stepped forward.
"You have done well, my sons. And for once, this did not escalate into a ridiculous brawl," the rat congratulated. The four turtles nervously chuckled in response.
"Geez," Raphael said. "You get way into training like five times and your sensei holds it against you forever."
"Actually, it was six," Donatello corrected. "I've kept count."
"I still can't believe I lost," Raphael said. "I'm the best brawler here."
"This is about self-improvement, Raphael," the rat said. "It is not a competition."
"Master Splinter, you said that you had good news to tell us after the match?" Leonardo asked.
"Indeed," the rat, whose name was Splinter, said. "As does your mother."
"Mom?!" Michelangelo said. "I totally forgot I'm helping her with lunch today!" He hurriedly ran to the kitchen.
"I suppose the announcement can wait after lunch," Master Splinter said.
During lunch, Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Master Splinter were eating a lunch of algae and worms prepared by Michelangelo and an older female turtle wearing a white woman's kimono.
"I know this isn't an ideal food source," the female turtle said. "But, we have to work with what we have."
"At this point, I think my taste buds are immune to the grossness," Raphael said, holding up a worm with chopsticks.
"Anyone want seconds?" Michelangelo asked. "We have plenty of algae and worms."
"We're good," the Turtles said at the same time.
"Then, I guess that means nobody has any room left for… cake!" Michelangelo said as he took out a large cake made out of algae.
"It really is a cake," Donatello observed.
"Made of… algae," Leonardo said before a worm crawled across it. "And worms…"
"What's the frosting made of?" Raphael asked.
"That's a question best left unanswered," the female turtle said. "Happy Mutation Day!"
"Happy Mutation Day!" all the turtles said at the same time.
"Ah, yes," Splinter said nostalgically as he held up an empty and shattered glass canister. "It was on this day fifteen years ago that you four were hatched and our collective lives were changed forever."
[Fifteen years ago…]
Splinter and the female turtle were living in the sewers as ordinary animals.
"Elisabetta and I were living in the sewers," Splinter narrated. "As Elisabetta had limited mobility as a turtle, I foraged food for the both of us. One day, Elisabetta laid four eggs."
"That was us," Michelangelo said.
"Yes," Splinter said. "Don't interrupt."
The female turtle laid four eggs and guarded them.
"For a few days," Splinter continued narrating. "I made sure to keep Elisabetta and your eggs safe. Then, on the day you hatched, it happened."
As the eggs hatched, a canister of green ooze fell through a storm drain and shattered upon impact with the floor, splattering the female turtle and her hatchlings just as Splinter arrived.
"Upon seeing what happened, I quickly began cleaning off the ooze covering all of you. In my efforts to do so, some of it got on me as well. The ooze changed us all. We became larger, stronger, and more intelligent. Within a year, the four of you were the size of human infants. We could tell that you were becoming more intelligent as well, but, nothing could have prepared us for what happened next."
"Mama," one of the infant turtles said to the female turtle.
"More words followed. Once you were all old enough to walk, I began teaching you the art of Ninjutsu, which I had learned from my own master, Hamato Yoshi."
[Present Day…]
Donatello was confused. "Master, you never talk about this 'master' of yours. If you were just an ordinary rat, how did you have a master at the time?" he asked.
"That is a story for another time. But, now it is time for that announcement I was speaking of earlier," Splinter said. "After much debate, your mother and I have decided to allow you to go to the surface."
The four brothers almost fell out of their seats from surprise. "We can finally go above ground?!" Raphael said.
"Yes," the female turtle said. "However, there are conditions we must put in place."
"1. You must stay in the shadows and avoid humans at all costs, meaning you can only go out at night. 2. Do not start any fights. 3. Beware of the bathrooms, as they are not clean. 4. Always stick together. And finally, 5. You must come back after an hour," Master Splinter explained.
One of those rules sticks out like a sore thumb, Donatello thought. And how can we start fights if we're avoiding humans?
That night, the turtles grabbed their weapons, Leonardo replacing his wooden katanas in favor of metal ones. Donatello grabbed a satchel that he slung over his shoulders along with a new wooden bo. Michelangelo grabbed a skateboard that he found while exploring the sewers once and Raphael simply chose to stick with just his sais.
"That should do it," Leonardo said. "Remember, we come back in an hour."
The turtles nodded and all four of them climbed up the ladder and opened the manhole cover. After making sure the coast was clear, they finally saw the surface for the first time in 15 years (outside of television). Before them was a large city with various lights from different buildings.
"Good thing we chose a manhole that led to an alleyway. Otherwise, we would have broken rule number one right away," Donatello said.
Leonardo looked from side to side out the edge of the alleyway. "The coast is clear," he told his brothers. They quickly ran across the street and found a fire escape leading to the rooftops.
Before they had a chance to climb it, a pizza delivery guy on a moped spotted them and, in a state of panic, drove off faster, accidentally causing a pizza box to slide off the top of the stack. "We better not tell Splinter or Mom about that," Raphael said. He shuddered. "Especially not mom."
Michelangelo eyed the pizza box curiously, but, decided to leave it be as he followed his brothers up the fire escape. Once on the rooftops, the brothers did various parkour moves as they jumped from one rooftop to the next. They eventually stopped when they found themselves at a corner of the street. Looking below, they saw a teenage human girl with red hair in a yellow shirt, blue shorts, and black leggings and shoes accompanied by an adult man with balding red hair and facial hair.
"More humans," Donatello said. "We better be careful this time."
"Yeah. We'll wait until they are out of sight and then-"
Before Leo could continue, the two humans were surrounded by a group of thugs with outdated fashion sense and leather jackets with purple dragons on the back.
"Ganging up on people?" Raphael commented. "I say we even the odds."
"Splinter was very clear. We are supposed to avoid humans at all costs. And bathrooms," Leonardo said.
"I found a little loophole," Raphael said before throwing one of his sais at a streetlight. "They don't see us, it's like we never went near them."
Leo thought about it for a second and decided it was the best option. He took out some throwing stars and threw them at the other street lights, covering the street in darkness.
With the street darkened, the turtles jumped into action. Leonardo struck two thugs with the blunt ends of his katanas on the way down while Donatello took out a third with his staff. Michelangelo jumped down and used his skateboard to ride towards another thug and knock him down with a swing of his nunchucks. Raphael picked up one thug and threw him at the others.
"Donnie, lead the two humans away from the fight!" Leo called out.
"Got it!" Donatello said. He grabbed the hands of the two humans and led them away from the fight.
"Whoever you are," the girl said. "Thank you."
"Don't thank me yet," Donnie said. Soon, he and the humans were safe. Unfortunately, Donnie didn't notice that he was in broad moonlight, giving the humans a good look at him.
"Umm… are you wearing an animatronic costume?" the human man asked, somewhat nervously.
Donatello realized he was visible. "Uhh… yes. We're… superhero cosplayers," he said unconvincingly.
Just then, two husky yet muscular thugs, one caucasian with blonde hair and the other African Americans with a purple Mohawk, wearing the same leather jackets as the other street thugs, walked towards them.
"*Snort* Check out the stupid costume on this geek, Rocksteady. Looks like a crappy comic book character," the Mohawk thug said.
Donatello reached into his satchel and attached a blunt cylinder to one end of his bo, making it look like a hammer.
"You guys better stay back. This staff isn't just for show," he said. The blonde thug pulled out an aluminum bat and the other equipped some brass knuckles. Donatello spun his hammer staff around to deflect strikes with the bat before hammering the foot of the mohawk thug.
"Ow! My foot!" the Mohawk thug shouted. While he was distracted, Donatello used his staff to knock both thugs out.
Back with the others, they manage to knock out the remaining thugs easily. For good measure, they make sure to tie them up. Just as they finish, they hear a police siren approaching.
"We better make like a tree and leave!" Michelangelo said. The other two nodded and the three of them left just as the police closed in.
Meanwhile, Donatello tied up the thugs he dealt with and lifted a manhole cover.
"It's best to forget you saw me," he told the humans.
"Are you kidding?" the girl said. "How could we forget seeing that?"
"If too many humans know about us, it might cause panic," Donatello said as he lowered himself. "Besides, it's not like anyone would believe you if you said you were saved by a teenage mutant ninja turtle."
"Panic?" the adult human said. "You want to see panic, try being the one who has to explain this!"
"Let's go, Donatello!" Leo's voice echoed from beneath the manhole before Donnie covered it up.
"Donatello?" the girl questioned.
"We need to get back home, April," the human adult said.
Unknown to them, Donatello overheard them.
"Our hour's almost up," Leonardo said. "We have to get back to the lair."
Donatello quickly cleared his head and followed his brothers to their home. They made it just in time.
"So, you actually came back on time. I'm impressed," Master Splinter said. "Though, I'm rather curious why Donatello has his hammerhead attachment on his bo."
Everyone looked at Donatello, who nervously chuckled. "Would you believe we encountered a roach and I decided to deal with it?" Master Splinter cocked his eyebrow in response. "That's a no."
"Elisabetta," Splinter said. "I believe you may have to persuade your sons to tell us what happened."
The four brothers winced in fear as Elisabetta, their mother, entered the room with a stern look.
"You boys wouldn't lie to your mother, would you?" she said.
Being the de facto leader of the group, Leonardo took it upon himself to explain what happened. The two parental figures listened carefully.
"I see. While I don't like that you fought anyone, I'm glad you chose to do it to protect someone else," their mother said calmly.
"However," Master Splinter said. "This girl and her father may have documented your existence. You must find them and make sure to erase evidence they may have of you."
"We don't even know where they live," Raph said. "How are we supposed to find them?"
"Sensei," Donatello said. "I heard that the girl's name is April. That might help narrow it down."
"How is that supposed to help?" Raphael asked.
"Simple, I'll just type her name into a search engine I've been designing and cross reference any April in the city, search for a picture of her, and-" Donatello saw everyone looking at him in confusion. "What?"
"What do you mean by 'search engine?'" Leonardo asked.
Donatello showed everyone into his room, which has been remade and remodeled into a makeshift laboratory with the only thing resembling a part of a bedroom being his bed and a bookshelf next to it.
"Where'd you get all this?" Michelangelo asked.
"Well, you know all those times I'd go off with that shopping cart?" Donatello said. "I'd go to a junkyard at the end of a sewer pipe and come back with any broken electronics or books I could find. How do you think I keep my brain in such good shape?"
"You're a turtle of hidden talents, Don," Leo said proudly. "So, you really think you can find that girl?"
"I'll sure try," Donnie said. He then took a seat at a crudely constructed but functional computer. On a search engine, he typed, "Aprils in New York City." He soon found a matching picture of the girl they encountered, April O'Neil.
"That's the one!" Mikey said excitedly.
"Now, I just need to find her address," Donnie said. He found it shortly. "There we go. Now, to print out a map leading to it."
A crude printer printed out a map of the city, with a X marking the destination of April's home.
"That's where we need to go," Donnie said.
Soon, the turtles arrived near April's apartment. However, they saw just on the streets was a strange van labeled TCRI.
"TCRI? What's that supposed to mean?" Mikey asked.
"Wait," Donatello said. "Doesn't that seem familiar to you?"
Leonardo thought for a moment and remembered the glass canister Splinter held before.
"TCRI! That's what was on the container with the ooze that mutated us!" he said aloud.
They then saw the two humans being forced into the van by nearly identical humans in business suits armed with strange devices that were clearly weapons.
"Jeez, can't these guys stay out of trouble for one night?!" Raphael said in an annoyed tone.
The turtles jumped in and challenged the armed humans.
"Halt villains!" Leonardo said. The other turtles rolled their eyes at Leo's cheesy line.
One human looked at the turtles. "Kraang, there appears to be a group of four creatures resembling the lifeform called 'turtles' before us. What is our next form of action?" he asked in a robotic voice.
"Open fire upon distractions," another said.
Before they had a chance to fire, Raphael jumped towards them and struck two in the stomach with the pommels of his sais, resulting in a strange clanging noise.
"'Clang'? Did you just go 'clang'?!" Raph said in disbelief. Leonardo charged forward and swung his sword at one of the men, resulting in him cutting one and the "man" to bleed sparks.
"These things aren't humans! They're robots!" he said. "Don't hold back against these things, guys!"
"Music to my ears." Raphael said, excitedly.
Hearing this, the turtles began fighting against the strange robots. Donatello fitted his staff with an ax head and cleaved at one robot before a strange brain-like creature crawled out.
"Eww! It's slimy!" Donatello squealed. Mikey ran over to another robot preparing to shoot its weapon and wrapped a nunchaku around its arm, making it aim at other robots. The weapon fired a plasma blast of other robots.
"Where are they getting their equipment?" Mikey said. "Mars?"
Leonardo saw a robot getting into the van and he jumped forward and cut the back door open. He saw several canisters identical to the one Splinter held earlier, all containing a glowing green ooze. He also noticed the two humans in handcuffs.
"Hold still," he told them. He attempted to cut their cuffs, but, discovered that his katanas could barely scratch them.
"Hey, you should try using one of their plasma guns. Its blast should be strong enough to break the chain, even on the lowest setting," the man said.
"Too dangerous," Leo said. "One wrong move and I could cause more harm than help."
The robot Leo knocked down kicked him out of the van into the other turtles. The remaining robots got into the van and drove away as a canister fell out the still-open door.
"Damn! They got away!" Raphael said, punching the ground in frustration.
As the turtles got up, they looked at the canister before them. Mikey picked it up. They all looked at it in concern as its glow illuminated the dark around them.
[To be Continued]