As everyone walked in the sewers towards the turtle's lair, the brothers introduced themselves.
"I'm Leonardo, and these are my brothers, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo." Explained Leo.
"Astonishing. You are named after famous renaissance artists." Said Lei.
"So, old man, how did you even know where your student is? Or how you knew he was kicking our shells?" Asked Raphael.
"I have sort of a sixth sense whenever something unexpected is happening to my pupil." Answered Lei.
"And how is it you can easily trust us? Don't our appearances frighten you?" Questioned Don.
"You are not the first things I have seen that are not normal in our world. I have seen many things that would be considered "odd"." Replied Lei.
Mikey turned to Chen.
"What about you Dragon dude? Where did you come from? How's this guy you're karate teacher?" Asked Mikey.
"He is actually my Kung Fu master. And I know you all have questions, but all will be answered once we see your master." Replied Chen.
"Agreed. Better to hear the full story with everyone hearing in." Agreed Leo.
Back in the Lair, the mutant rat called Splinter was watching his soap operas in the living room when the door to the entrance opened.
"Ah my sons! Tell me, did you.." Splinter said before he saw Lei and Chen, though his eyes focused mainly on the blue dragon.
"My sons? What is the meaning of this?!" Asked the sensei.
"Master, they mean no harm. This dragon is the same vigilante that's been causing the Triads trouble for the last few days." Leo said.
"And kicked our shells!" Added Mikey.
The blue dragon and his Sifu stepped forward in front of the ninjutsu master and bowed.
"I am Chen, and this is my kung Fu master, Lei. I humbly apologize for the damage I caused to your sons." Said Chen.
"And we understand you all have questions and we will answer them with the best of our abilities." Lei said.
Splinter held in chin in thought. He wanted to know who this mysterious man dragon is.
"Very well. I am Splinter. My sons, let us prepare some drinks for our guests. And let us talk in the living room." Commanded Splinter.
Everyone settled in the living room, with their own drinks. Mikey, Don, and Raph got hot chocolate, while Splinter, Leo, Lei, and Chen got tea.
"So tell us, how did you five came to be?" Asked Lei.
Splinter smiled as he began to tell his story.
"Long ago, I was just an ordinary rat living in the sewers and searching the alleyways for food when I witnessed an accident. A young boy was waiting to cross the street and was carrying a glass jar, containing four pet infant turtles. An old blind man was crossing the street, when he was almost run down by a large truck. Luckily a young man rushed to save him but caused the boy to drop the jar which shattered. As the truck swerved, a metal canister bounced out into the road and as it did, the turtles were swept away to the gutter into the sewers. The canister followed and smashed over them releasing a glowing ooze which covered their bodies. I took pity and gathered them up in a coffee can and took them to my burrow. The next morning, I awoke to find the turtles have doubled in size. The ooze have affected their growth. The ooze had affected me too, making me larger and more intelligent. In the next few weeks they followed me everywhere except above ground. I raised them as my own. I knew surface was a dangerous place and that the people would not understand us. I was amazed that young turtles began to walk on two legs, but I was even more surprised when one of them spoke, my name. And soon they were all speaking. As the years pass by, I trained my sons in the art of Ninjutsu, the secret art of Invisibility and power and taught them all I knew of this world."
"Amazing story!" Said Chen.
"Agreed, my student. An astonishing tale indeed." Said Lei.
"Now tell us, young warrior, where do you come from?" Asked Splinter.
"Well, I wasn't always like this. I was originally human." Said Chen.
The turtles and their sensei were shocked. This dragon was once human?
"My real name is Chen Lung though my friends used to call me Ben. I was born in 1988, on the year of the Dragon. When I was six, my mother passed away of an illness, so I was mostly raised my father. He was a Kung Fu master and taught in a Kung Fu school. He sometimes fought in street brawls to earn extra money. He taught me the basics of Kung Fu and taught me some dragon and Shaolin techniques." Chen explained as he took out a photo of him and his father from his small bag on his pants to pass it around the turtles and Splinter.
"Which explains why our shells are handed to us." Commented Don.
"Yeah, you sound really skilled." Said Leo.
"Indeed. Martial Arts is my passion. I aimed to be a Kung Fu teacher myself and open my own school. I had friends in high school who also had a talent for martial arts. There was Sam Wong, a practitioner of Drunken Fist and Tai Chi, but his favorite pastimes are reading and wood carving. Then there was Jet Chan, the school football player and my friendly rival. He uses Tiger and Leopard style Kung Fu. And finally, there was Maggie Ling, the most beautiful and compassionate girl I met. She was a dancer who practiced Eagle Claw and Crane Style. We all attended the same martial arts school, and were the best in our class. We were called the 4 Stars and given personal titles by our teachers. Sam was nicknamed the Tortoise, Jet was the Tiger, Maggie was the Phoenix, and I was called the Dragon." Explained Chen as he pulled out another photo.
In it was a young Asian man in a blue uniform, an overweight man in a black uniform, a muscular man in a white uniform, and a beautiful long haired woman in a red uniform smiling proudly at the camera.
"That's me in the blue uniform." Said Chen.
"You must've been like siblings." Commented Leo.
"In a way we were. But with Maggie, it was deeper than friendship. We were, an item." Said Chen as he looked down sadly as a tear came down.
"What happened? How did you even become a dragon in the first place?" Asked Don.
"It was in 2010. My father and I were just at the movie theater seeing a martial arts flick. We decided to take a shortcut in an alley to reach home, but Triad thugs were waiting for us. Turns out my father used to work for them and betrayed them when he stole something from them. And the gangsters wanted revenge and the location of the stolen item. We tried to fight back, but some of our foes had guns, one shot me in the arm while another shot my father in both his legs, subduing us. We were taken to the docks were we met their leader who, Qin Lao interrogated us. I did not know anything, and my father refused to answer only saying that he will never have it again. Losing his patience Qin took out a sword and stabbed me through the heart while my father watched, then ordered one of his men to shoot him in the head and kick him into the water. I remember the bastard Lao then remove his blade from my chest and slice across my throat. And ordered his men to toss me to the sea." Explained Chen with a mix of anger and sadness in his voice.
The turtles and their master were appalled by this. Leo and Raph looked furious, Mikey and Don looked sickened, and Splinter looked uncomfortable. Lei just looked down with a sad look.
"As I sank in the waters, I felt a chill that was rapidly increasing. It felt as if I was being encased in an icy tomb as my vision faded. When I woke up it turns out I really was incased in a ice cocoon that floated to the surface. It wasn't long before I broke out of my icy tomb and swam to shore. I remember looking into the water and discovering I'm no longer human, and roaring into the sky out of frustration. That's when my master found me." Said Chen as he gestured to Lei.
"Indeed. I found him in despair of his new appearance and the loss of his father and snuck him into my home. Where I have been training him to take revenge on the Triads ever since. And another thing, I am not only his master, but I am also his uncle." Lei revealed.
This fact made the turtles and rat gap.
"I was not surprised at my nephew's tragic transformation, however, as this sort of thing happened before. You see long ago in ancient China, four great warriors battled a great evil who threatened to throw the world out of balance, but were no match for their enemies might and fell in battle. But the gods were impressed by their willingness to stand their ground even in defeat and so gave them a second chance, and new forms with great powers to defeat this foe and safeguard China as the Four Stars until their deaths. But according to legend, the Four Stars will be reincarnated into their descendants to combat a great evil and save the world from darkness once again. And Chen here is one of those Stars, the Blue Dragon. The other three are the White Tiger, Red Phoenix, and the Black Tortoise." Explained Lei.
"Wow! That's amazing! Four Kung Fu badasses who came back from the dead to become even more powerful badasses!?" Said an astonished Mikey.
"And the Four Stars have incredible elemental powers. Each Star has his or her own element but can sometimes command two or more elements at a time. My pupil here for example has Cryokenesis, the power of ice." Explained Lei.
"Yeah we kinda found out about that when he encased his arms in ice to block a sword strike from Leo." Said Don.
"And the Four Stars honed their abilities by studying scrolls such as these. Chen recently stole this from a Triad warehouse. He is currently trying to master the power of water." Said Lei as he pulled out the water scroll from his pocket and gave it to Splinter who opened it and read its contents.
"Interesting. And there are others you say?" Said Splinter as he handed back the scroll.
"Yes, such as the Art of Air, the Book of Fire, the Tome of Metal, Path of Earth and so forth." Lei Explained.
"And where are the other three Stars?" Asked Leo.
"We don't know. They might not even be reborn yet." Answered Chen.
"Neither do we know why the Triads want the scrolls. But it is rumored that their leader Qin Lao is no ordinary man." Added Lei.
"This is serious. We will help you in any way we can. And we're sorry your loss." Said Leo.
"I'd like to have five minutes to whack those sons of bitches who did you and your pops dragon man, so I'm in." Said Raph.
"Those thugs are in for the shellshock of their lives!" Announced Mikey.
"Ditto! And before you go, we'd like to give you one of our shell cells to keep in touch." Said Don as he took out a shell cell and gave it to Chen.
"Thank you, we best get going now. My uncle opens his restaurant early in the morning." Said Chen as he and his uncle got up.
"It was a pleasure meeting you all." Said Lei as he and his nephew bowed.
"The pleasure is all ours." Said Splinter bowing back.
The turtles and Splinter watched as they left the lair.
"You know bros, the dragon man is pretty cool. Even though he kicked our shells." Said Mikey.
"Yeah he's ok. The only reason I trust him is because if they were our enemies they would've killed us when we first fought." Said Raph.
"The Triads are becoming even more dangerous each day. Even more so than the Purple Dragons now that the Foot have gone into hiding. We'll need someone like that dragon against those thugs." Said Donnie.
"Your right Donnie, the Triads are becoming a big threat not just to Chinatown but to all of Manhattan. And Chen is already proven to be a friend and we have the same interests." Said Leo.
"Indeed Leonardo, he is already a valuable ally given his skills in Kung Fu and elemental abilities. But this leader of the Triads, this Qin Lao is said to be a very dangerous man, something inhuman. We must study this new foe. Meditate on this, I will." Said Splinter as he retreated to his quarters.
The turtles then went to do their activities around the lair.
In an alley way in Chinatown a manhole opened and Lei and Chen came out.
"That stench, I'm in desperate need of a shower." Said a sighing Chen who was complaining of the sewer stench.
"As am I, nephew. These clothes need washing too." Said Lei as he sniffed his clothes. "We must split up. I'll take the streets." Lei said.
"I will take the rooftops, see you home, uncle." Said Chen before the dragon jumped to the roof and hopped towards home.
However, unknown to them a figure was watching them from a distance on top of a water tower. It was wearing a trench coat and a large sun hat. I wore orange gloves and yellow scarf around their head revealing only bright red eyes.
"Can it be?" The figure said in a feminine voice before she jumped high from the water tower.
Wow that was such a long chapter!
The turtles and Splinter finally talked to Chen and Lei and learned about his origins and have agreed to help him put an end to the triads.
But who was that mysterious figure at the very end? Well it's for me to know you to figure out!
This is MergingEmperor7, bowing out.