Author's Notes 24/10/03:

Hey readers! I know this isn't my other TMNT story, or any of my other stories, but this bunny has been hopping around for a long minute and it needed to be written so I could get some sleep. I say this, but I was up and have finished the first two chapters and I am nearly done with the third. So, you'll get at least three chapters before I'm off into the ether again.

This is an alternate universe with a very O. O. C Michelangelo. But I'm hoping Chapter One kind of gives you an understanding of why he's like that. The Hamatos' abuse is a little more severe than my other turtle story, but not something heinous or graphic so don't worry!

Below are the notes for the alternate universe. It's not very long but it does have the information needed for everything to begin making sense right off the back, rather than just as it goes on with the different chapters, including the different orders of the episodes I needed to put things in a timeline leading up to the main part of the story.

I hope you enjoy, let me know your thoughts if you're willing and please no flames! I don't need to be told that I'm writing everyone wrong, and I should jump off a cliff for butchering someone's favorite character- real possibility, I've seen things like that written in comments on some of my favorite stories and like, if you don't like it, just say: 'not my cup of tea' and Frick off. I just know it sucks and probably hurts to get those kind of hate messages. The warning is there.

So, just constructive criticism please. Thank you!

Disclaimer: I don't own TMNT or its characters. I make no money; this is just for fun.

Alternate Universe Notes:

Mutants appear more human, including hair and five fingers and toes on each hand and foot. They just have some key characteristics of whatever they were mutated from. Think the cat people from FFXIV or the beast people from Twisted Wonderland, only with the animals they're mutated from.

Examples:

1- The turtles have skin in different shades of green, patches of scales, the nictitating membrane over their eyes, and their shells and plastron are sleeker. It acts like a soft body armor but with more protection and not as pronounced. Think body suit thin, but Kevlar strength like one of Batman's suits.

2- Splinter has dark gray and brown skin with rat ears, tail, sharp teeth, claws, and a thin patch of fur along different parts of his body (This won't be super detailed)

3- Bradford/Rahzar, dark gray skin, dog/ wolf ears, tail, whisker marks, fangs, claws, unnaturally high body temperature.

4- Tiger Claw, dark orange skin with black stripes, tiger ears, tail, whisker marks, claws, and fangs.

Shredder more resembles the 1987 version. Karai is his biological daughter. The fall out between Shredder and Splinter is different, but similar... The dynamic of the Foot Clan and its hierarchy is also different. There's more comradery and friendship between them. They follow Shredder out of respect and genuine loyalty, not fear.

There was no Kraang invasion when they were 16, more on that in the story.

The Purple Dragons are the ones from 2003 with Hun. Sorry but the 2012 P. Ds were really just... Sad to me. I liked the 2003 ones as they were more of a very real threat as a gang.

This story is set more in the 2012 series due to the plot I'm trying to lay out. So, we'll get some episodes from the series, but things are going to be really different.

And I won't have them in the same order, some things need to be- for my story- before or after a certain part of the series. Below is a bit of an example.

These episodes, up to the 'New Friend, Old Enemy' episode mostly go as they do in canon, but without any parts involving the Foot Clan, such as the Casey Jones episode. That is the Purple Dragons and some of the villainous mutants we've already met unrelated to the Foot Clan or the Shredder. The first appearance of the Foot Clan will be the episode with Chris Bradford.

The Rise of the Turtles 1&2

Turtle Temper

Baxter Stockman

Metalhead

The Good, the Bad, the Casey Jones- no Foot Bots

Monkey Brains

Leatherhead

Pulverizer

New Friend, Old Enemy: Where canon goes mostly out the door to be replaced.

Thank you!

Summary:

The Hamatos, members of the Lotus Clan, are adults now. Two decades old, and still as tight knit and connected. Still fighting to protect their beloved home and city.

The Foot Clan have been laying low for half a year, but they still have the Kraang, the Purple Dragons, and the occasional villainous mutant or thug causing problems.

What none of the Lotus Clan are expecting is that Michelangelo is actually a part of the Foot Clan! And not just a grunt, but an elite among even the elite! And it's time for him to return to his real home.

And when the truth is revealed, the Lotus Clan are left reeling. They hadn't seen this coming.

"Well, I'd make a poor spy if you did see it coming."

It hurts.

While the Lotus Clan tries to figure out what led to this, the Shredder's Lieutenant returns to the side of his true leader and comrades.

What plans are in the making? What storm is on the horizon that everyone will be facing? What happens next?

The Reason it Happens

Michelangelo Hamato was known as the happy, go-lucky, and goofy one of the Lotus Clan. He never took anything seriously if it wasn't comic books or video games. He wasn't very bright despite the orange he wore. And you would think he didn't know what a mop was if you looked in his room.

His fellow clan members believed he could take their training more seriously as well. He was a nuisance. He was annoying. He was your typical youngest brother. He was as one dimensional as it came.

But that was all a mask that he had been wearing since they were five and Splinter started training them. It wasn't his choice, and he grew up hating and resenting the others for forcing him into it.

How did they force him into behaving as a one-dimensional annoyance? Simple. Growing up, they were all they had. They didn't know the rest of the world outside the television they had gotten a couple years before when they were three.

And somehow, the older three got it in their heads that being older than him meant they were supposed to be better than him. And if they weren't, Michelangelo was the one punished. And being even more isolated than they already were, well it wasn't something little five-year-old Michelangelo could handle. Especially not then.

For Leonardo, it began when training did. It began when Michelangelo proved to be a natural at what they were learning. As the eldest, Leonardo had been under the assumption that he was going to be the best. That he was going to be better than all of them.

The result was that Leonardo's world views didn't align with reality. That his pride was hurt. And he despised Michelangelo at that moment. He gave Michelangelo the cold shoulder when Splinter wasn't around, and he encouraged the other two to do the same.

When a week later Michelangelo made several mistakes, bemoaning his beginner's luck being gone, Leonardo's views were returned to his expectations and his pride restored. They stopped ignoring him after that.

For Raphael, it began with Michelangelo himself and Raphael's own temper. Whenever Michelangelo couldn't sit still or would speak a mile a minute- Raphael would get annoyed. Whenever Michelangelo was so still, he could be mistaken for a statue, or he was so silent you would forget he was there- Raphael got angry. Whenever Michelangelo asked a pointed question or stated something obvious that Raphael missed- Raphael would see red.

The results? Well, that was when Raphael began to smack Michelangelo about the head. It was around then that Raphael would chase the youngest around, infuriated by the other staying just out of his reach. When that happened, the next smack or spar would be several times worse.

Michelangelo learned to let Raphael catch him after a decent chase. Raphael's punishments for him afterward weren't as bad.

It began later, for Donatello. They were seven or eight and the brainy turtle found the youngest reading a psychology text that Splinter had gotten for him a week before. Donatello had struggled to read or understand the bigger words. And there Michelangelo was, reading those same words quietly to himself. But Donatello, with his slightly better hearing, could hear that Michelangelo was reading them without any problems. It all sounded just like it was supposed to.

The result of that? Donatello had taken the book from him and stated that the book was at a higher reading level than Michelangelo's own. Then he proceeded to lecture Michelangelo about taking his books without permission. That was when Donatello's comments about Michelangelo's 'lacking intelligence' began. Probably out of his own insecurities and jealousy.

Still, Michelangelo never touched Donatello's books after that. And never breached any intellectual subjects with any of them. It didn't stop them from constantly making those comments though.

As for Splinter, Michelangelo isn't sure when, exactly, he stopped seeing him as his father. Maybe it was the constant comments on how Michelangelo could be better. The constant comparison of him to the other three.

Maybe it was when Splinter didn't bother to reprimand any of them for their words or actions against him. When he was slapped around or spars were taken too far. And Splinter remained silent.

Or maybe, it was when he gave them their roles and left Michelangelo with the worst role that guaranteed his future as despised and loathed by everyone else. Left him to be taken for granted and ensured that he could never advance as a person.

Gave him the role of 'the family's light' whose sole purpose was to be bright and cheerful and kept the others from going down the darker paths. A role the others merely saw as an annoyance or something that held them back. The role no one wanted. The role that was considered useless.

The one role that required you to never reveal your darker emotions, because you would be considered wrong. It was the ticking time bomb of a role.

Michelangelo had to wonder to himself, if he was there to keep the others from walking the darker path, then who was to keep him from choosing it?

And Michelangelo has to wonder, when Splinter assigned it to him, if he ever considered the possibility of the 'light' venturing the path of darkness willingly. Whether he even considered that the one chosen to be the light, would align better with the darkness.

There was 'Mikey' who was a cheerful, bright, joyous person who put everyone before himself. Believed to love his 'family' unconditionally. Who was dumb, pathetic, and useless to that very family.

Then there was Michelangelo. A resentful, angry, bitter turtle when it came to the clan. Who had spent years working and reworking every possible plan or idea he could think of to bring about the Lotus Clan's downfall in the most devastating way possible.

That was the real him. But they wouldn't know the truth or the pain he had spent years hiding just to get something that even slightly resembled peaceful. Just to not be punished with isolation.

Then they turned 15 and a whole new world opened up to them. And with it, endless possibilities for his own plans. Of course they had 'made' a couple of human friends.

And 'Mikey' adored both April and Casey. Had been devastated when April chose to leave them when she learned the role they had played in her father's mutation. Had rejoiced when she came back. Had enjoyed having Casey around to hang out with.

Michelangelo barely tolerated April, even if she was the one who had handed him the best revenge he could have against the Lotus Clan. Even though he enjoyed her constant game of red rover when it came to Donatello and Casey's affections.

Personally, he was routing for Casey, the only one of that entire group he even liked. Not enough to not go forth with his plans, but he was the most tolerable. Michelangelo rather liked how Casey kept Raphael distracted most of the time. It meant less work or pain for himself.

As for what April gave him to ensure the fall of the Lotus Clan? Chris Bradford on 'My Friends' only three months after they had turned 15, only a month after Casey had joined the little clan as a friend.

One of the elites in the Shredder's clan. A man Splinter had discussed before when the four had begged to know who the woman in the photo was and what had happened to her when they were ten.

The one who would grant him the fall of the Hamatos on a silver platter. And all Michelangelo had to do? Become a spy and renounce the Hamato name.

And really, Michelangelo would have given him more if he had asked. Because for him, this was the best way to get back at the Hamatos. His so-called family that treated him like a prop to elevate their own statuses.

He never thought that a revenge fueled betrayal could be so satisfying. It was better, knowing that none of them had seen it coming.

Which really, was their arrogance and entitlement so profound that they thought Michelangelo was always going to just sit back and accept their abuse?

Was he just that good of an actor?

Hm.

He thinks, in the end, it's a little bit of both that ensures the plan goes as well as it does. And how wonderful a feeling it is.

Author's Note: And there is our first chapter which works as more of a prologue. Even if it doesn't say that. I hope you enjoyed it, and I'm sorry it's so short. I'm hoping they'll pick up in length as the story continues. Until the next chapter.