Chapter 1: Mutants Arise, Part 1
"New York City seems like any other city. You may know us for stuff like Broadway, The Statue of Liberty, and Pizza. But like many things in life, you have to look beneath the surface and you find a world you won't believe actually exists."
-x-
Deep in the NY sewers lurked something very unexpected.
Sitting in the center of a large room was a large humanoid black cat with white markings and green eyes. She wore a dark navy blue houmongi with a pale green willow leaves pattern, and a richly brocaded obi secured the relatively simple kimono at her waist. This cat is known by the name 'Master Shard'.
She sits alone in the middle of a large dark room. Her black plume tail twitched beneath the hem of the kimono as she lit a small candle.
"Remember, to be a true ninja you must become one with the shadows. Darkness gives the ninja power, while light reveals the ninja's presence." Shard explained as she held out the candle.
"Now, can anyone extinguish this flame without revealing yourselves?" She challenged anyone who could hear her.
From the darkness, a figure wielding a bō staff sneaks towards Shard and then leaps into the attacks.
Shard sensed him coming and pulled the candle away at the last moment, making the attacker miss and slam straight into the wall.
She approaches the down assailant, revealing him to be a large green humanoid turtle wearing ninja gear and a purple headband.
Shard kneeled to the turtle's level to look him in the eye. "You were too noisy, Donatello." She explains to the now-named Donatello what he did wrong.
"I'll make a note to work on that," Donnie noted.
While she was down, someone else sneaked behind her. This person then pulled out a pair of hand fans and prepared to strike.
But before she could strike, Shard wrapped her tail around the attacker's legs and knocked them to the ground.
This attacker is a female humanoid purple Viper wearing a green headband and dresses like a Kunoichi.
"Never take too long to strike, Hiyuu," Shard informed the downed Viper.
"I'll be ready next time," Hiyyu promised.
Then a second turtle wearing an orange headband wielding nunchucks jumps out from the shadows to get the candle.
Only for Shard to jump away and dodge him.
"W-whoa . . . ow!" The turtle groaned after he accidentally slammed into Donatello.
"Don't be so clumsy, Michelangelo," Shard tells Mikey.
"Uhh… Best 2 out of 3…" Mikey shrugged.
But in a split second, she throws the candle in the air and catches it with her tail. Shard did this to catch the blade of a Bisentō polearm with her bare hands!
She then knocks the wielder off her feet with a sweeping leg kick.
Revealing a second Viper physically identical to Hiyuu but with green scales, dressed in a red Kunoichi outfit and wearing a yellow headband.
"You can't be predictable, Niki." She tells the snake.
"Sigh… Alright." Niki groaned.
She then ducked as a turtle with a red headband and welding Sai's leaps over her.
The turtle lands and turns behind him to see Shard rise and take several steps back.
He tries rushing her again, only for Shard to drop to her knees, and trip Raph with her stick. Making him go sliding into Donny and Mikey.
She then stands up and faces the group.
"Poor choice, Raphael." She advised me.
Raph for his part only growls in anger.
Then a third Viper with aqua blue scales wearing a magenta headband and a blue Kunoichi outfit appeared behind her wielding Kama blades, ready to attack.
But when Shard turned around, the Viper hesitated, allowing Shard to grab the Viper and throw her over her shoulders.
"Miwa, hesitating in a battle can be very dangerous." She explains to Miwa.
"I'm sorry…" Miwa apologizes, promising to do better next time.
Unbeknownst to them, one final turtle with a blue headband with twin Katana was clinging to pipes overhead waiting for the perfect opportunity.
With the others taken out, now was his time to strike. He jumps down, slicing the candle in half with his swords, and catching the top part of his katana. He then blows out the candle, passing the test.
With that, Shard switches the lights on.
"Well done, Leonardo." She congregates him.
The others clapped for Leo too, except for Raph. "Teacher's pet…" He growled.
"Ninja drop out..." Leo barked back as he tossed the candle at Raph who caught it.
Raph squishes the candle. Donnie and Mikey lean towards each other, making provocative noises as Raph rushes angrily at Leo.
Upon seeing that, the others could only sit back and watch.
"Here we go again…" The sisters muttered to themselves, already used to seeing Raph go on another meltdown at this point.
But Shard stops them by putting her stick between Leo and Raph to stop them.
"That's enough, my sons!" She demands that they stop fighting each other.
After that episode, the seven reptilian ninjas-in-training were sitting in a line in front of Shard.
"My children, if any of you are to become true ninjas, you must work harder and stay focused. The path in life we were given will not be an easy one. If the outside world learns about us, it can put us all in danger." Shard explained.
"The seven of you are different in ways people above would never understand. To survive, you must master these skills I teach you." She adds. "Ninjutsu, Powers of stealth and secrecy..."
Meanwhile, a fly starts buzzing around Mikey's head and he starts trying to grab it. Miwa silently giggled watching her brother's antics.
"You must become Kage… Shadow Warriors, and never let our secrets be discovered by the outside world." Shard finishes up, just as Mikey slaps hands together overfly.
"Do I make myself clear?" She asked her children if they were paying attention.
"Yes… Master Shard." They all replied.
-x-
Later that night, the adopted family sat in the kitchen. All are eating platefuls of noodles.
As they ate, Mikey then pulled out a pot and kept stirring its contents.
"Hey guys, there's a little more ramen left if anyone wants it. Anybody? Anybody?" Mikey offered, but the others weren't interested.
"No, thanks." Leo declined.
"I already got my fill," Hiyuu added.
"I'm good," Raph noted.
"Me too." Niki agreed.
"You can have it, Mikey." Miwa offered.
"Yeah, it's all yours." Donnie agreed.
Mikey looked a little down but remembered something. "Well, I guess no one left room for...cake!" He says as he pulls out a big green cake.
"Whoa!" The others were taken by surprise by Mikey's surprise cake.
"It is a cake!" Donnie says shocked.
"When did you have the time to make this?!" Niki asked surprised.
But Raph took a closer look at the 'cake'. "It is made of… fish… noodles… and…algae." He notes realizing what it actually was made of, making the others move back in disgust.
"What's the frosting made out of?" Leo asked.
"You don't wanna know…" Mikey hesitates to answer.
"Well, Mikelangelo, though we are all flattered by your surprise, sadly we'll have to decline to eat your cake." Hiyuu decided.
"Sorry… Mikey." Miwa apologized.
"Either way… Happy Mutation Day!" Mikey announced.
"Happy Mutation Day!" The others also cheered.
Shard smiled recalling the day they became a family. "Ah, yes… Fifteen years ago today, our lives changed forever and we became the unlikeliest of families."
Shard then went into the other room and came back holding an empty glass canister.
"And it was all thanks to the mysterious substance in this canister that, in a way, gave birth to us all." She explained.
Mikey smiles, grabs the canister, and hugs it efficiently. "Hey, Dad."
With all the celebration, Leo decided to bring up something that he had meant to ask his mother.
"So… Sensei, now that we're fifteen, I think we're finally ready to go up to the surface, don't you?" He asked.
Shard sighed. "Yes..."
The siblings all cheered in excitement.
"…and no." Revealing her true answer.
They all slumped down in disappointment and voiced complaints.
"Seriously, mother!" Hiyuu complained.
"Oh, man, come on." Mikey wines.
"That's not fair…" Miwa pouts.
"Lame." Leo groans.
"I hate when she does that." Raph rolled his eyes.
"Now… hold on guys, maybe Master Shard had a good reason not to." Niki voiced reasonable doubt.
"Your sister is correct… It is not that I think less of all of you, the opposite actually. You have all grown powerful, but you are still young. You lack the maturity to use your skills wisely." She explains her reasoning.
"Hey! We are plenty mature, Sensei." Mikey argued.
"Yeah…" Miwa agreed and she gave Mikey a high five.
Then the room became quiet as everyone stared at the two.
"Please my children, do not make me remind you of the LAST time you all snuck up to the surface…" Shard recalled. "Without my permission, I must add."
Mikey and Miwa recalled THAT incident.
"But, Mom… that was years ago…" Miwa argued.
"Yeah Sensei, it wasn't our fault that Kevin guy went crazy with his Quirk, turned himself into a monster, and demolished the 39th Street Bridge," Mikey added.
"And it would have been worse if it hadn't been for Kevin's friends and those transforming twins," Miwa recalled.
"Plus we've learned and grown a lot since then…" Mikey assured his mother.
The others stared at Mikey who just went quiet and sat back down.
Donnie decided to speak up. "Actually, Mickey has a point, people on the surface have superpowers called Quirks."
"I've read that currently over 85% of the human population have one and statistically of those people had 'Mutant' quirks, so theoretically we can just pass ourselves off as those kinds of 'Mutant' instead of actual Mutants" Donnie theorized.
Shard sighs at her son's hopeful belief. "Donatello, I appreciate your hopeful view of our situation. Like many things in this life, answers are not as simple as you like to believe, moving around on the surface is not the problem. The problem is people who get too close will find out what we are. How they react is what worries me."
She then turned to her children and let something that bothered her for years.
"I've never told you this because I feared you would look at the people above with hatred and contempt. Even though these days, Mutants are treated well. But, there are still places where Mutants are oppressed. Back in Japan, there are places where Mutants are tortured and killed just because of how they look." Shard explained then turned to look at her daughters.
"There were many times where your father and I had to save several of those Mutants…" She recalled one incident in Japan, where she and Yoshi had saved a young boy with multiple arms from a lynching mob, among them was the boy's OWN family!
"And if there were people willing to do that to natural Mutants, it scares me to imagine what they would do to real Mutants." She finished her reasoning.
The room became silent as the kids tried to process all this new info until Raph spoke up.
"So…. Your answer is still no, Sensei?" He asked.
"Yes… and no… The lesson I'm trying to teach is that wisdom comes from experience and with time and age." Shard added.
Hiyuu hearing that recalled an earlier lesson their mother had given them. "But mother, didn't you also say that experience comes from making mistakes and learning from them?"
"Well… yes…" Shard admitted.
Donnie realized what his sister was doing. "Ah, I see! So in order for us to gain wisdom, we have to make more mistakes. So we should go."
"What! No..." Shard argued.
"And yes?" Mikey added.
"NO!" Shard shouts in frustration.
"Oh...!" Donnie realized.
Leo then decided to step in. "Sensei, we all know you're trying to protect us, we understand. But the others are right, we can't spend our whole lives hiding down here."
Shard looked down, still a little hesitant.
Mikey sighed and whispered to Leo. "This is going nowhere, Leo. looks like we need to bring in the BIG GUNS…." He advised.
As much as he did want to, Leo was forced to agree. He signals the others to initiate the 'Big Guns'.
Shard looked confused at first, until the Vipers dropped to their knees and begged her to go with huge sparkling eyes.
If there is one thing the reptilian siblings know about their mom, is to never let her near Catnip…
The other is her weakness against her daughter's puppy eyes.
Shard tried to fight back, but slowly but surely. Her defensive barrier finally shattered.
Seeing that her children were not going to relent, she was left with no other option. "Alright! You may go tonight." She admitted defeat.
Hearing that, they all cheered in victory.
"High three!" Mikey shouts at them all high-fived.
Shard sighed. "Perhaps I taught them too well…" She thought to herself.
-x-
Later-
An old cartoon called 'Space Heroes' was playing on the TV.
"Mr. Crankshaw! Status report!" Captain Ryan requested.
"Status?! I'll give you the status! We're gonna blow up in two seconds!" Crankshaw panicked before Ryan slaps him.
"Thank you, Captain." Crankshaw seemingly calmed down after that.
Back in the living room, Leo begins quoting along with the show.
"Gentleman, I have a bold and daring plan. There's no time for hesitation. My orders must be carried out without question!" Leo and Captain Ryan said at the same time, while Raph rolled his eyes and Niki watched.
"Aye, sir." Crankshaw saluted.
"You know this show is stupid, right?" Raph asked.
"Come on, Raph. He just having fun." Niki defended. "Even Leo needs to wind down somehow."
She then leaned in and whispered to Raph. "Besides, It's better than having him nagging about training."
"Guess you're right, But the show's still dumb," Raph grumbled.
"Niki got a point, Raph. Space Heroes is a great show and Captain Ryan is a great hero. Someday, I am gonna be just like him." Leo assured.
"Well, you do like to hear yourself talk, so you're on your way." Raph heckled.
Then the other came into the room with supplies.
"Hey guys what are you sitting around for? It's go time!" Mikey shouted.
The group prepares to go up to the surface with their weapons as Shard stands by the front entrance of their home.
"My children, You are about to enter a strange and hostile world. You must maintain awareness at all times." She advises them.
"Aye, Sensei!" They promised her.
As they were about to leave, Shard called out. "Stay in the shadows!"
"Aye, Sensei!" They promised her, again.
"Don't talk to strangers!" Shard called out again.
"Aye, Sensei…!" They promised her, getting a little annoyed.
"Everyone is a stranger!" Shard shouted again.
"Aye, Sensei…" They groaned.
"Oh! And make sure you go before you leave. The restrooms up there are filthy." Shard requested.
"MOM!" They shouted.
"Sorry, just making sure you were aware, my children." She apologies.
As they walked away.
"One last thing!" Shard added. "Stay safe and good luck, my children."
The group smiled and went off to see the city above.
"I am so pumped!" Raph noted.
"I've never been so excited for anything before." Miwa cheered
"Surface time!" Mikey cheered.
Oh, this is gonna be epic!" Donnie added.
As they left, Shard realized she had forgotten to tell her children something important. "Wait! Don't forget to look both ways before crossing the street!"
But they were already gone…
TBC…
Author's note: Let me know what you think and as always. Constructive criticism is allowed. Trolling is not.
Next Chapter: Mutants Arise, Part 2
The 'incident' Shard mentioned will the revealed in the upcoming 'Kevin 11' chapter in my Omni-Heroes story.
I did say that this is in the same universe as that story.
Also if you read and watch MHA, You will quickly realize who the multi-armed boy Shen and Yoshi saved in the past was.
Next time, the reptiles head to the surface, explore the sights, taste the cuisine, and get to 'know' some locals.
So until next time. AutoHunter, Rolling out of the hunt.