Chapter Text
There once was a man named Hamato Yoshi.
I say once, for he is no longer one. He had a run in with mysterious men in an alley, and accidently got covered in a green, slime-like substance that took his human form away from him. He kept his wits and human posture; but his appearance was now one of a rat.
He wasn’t the only one changed by the substance. He had just bought four baby turtles from a nearby pet shop, when he saw the strange men go into the alleyway.
Those turtles were also affected by the goo as well; gaining human attributes (similar to those of newborns), but keeping their turtles shells and turtle-like appearance.
These four mutated turtles would become Yoshi’s adoptive sons. He had lost his previous family, and now he had a chance to start all over again. He named these new sons after some of his favorite renaissance artists: Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo. He loved these sons dearly. One could say he loved them more than life itself.
Although he had had encountered great dangers in the past involving his new family and the surface world, he couldn’t just leave them alone in their makeshift home in the sewers while he was off on supply runs for their basic necessities. They were too young for that. So, against his better judgement, he would oftentimes bring his sons with him on his trips to the surface; instructing them to stay close to him and stay out of the sight of the humans. And for the most part, it was a sound decision. The boys were always close by and never went to far from their sensei. They stayed out of sight of the humans, kept quiet, and were even helpful with finding things for both their survival and entertainment.
One day, when the boys were about 5, Hamato Yoshi (now going by Master Splinter) made a bold choice. He brought them to an old and abandoned playground; one surrounded by old and abandoned buildings. It was out of the sight of humans on the street and had a lot of room for his boys to play in. He told his sons to stay withing the area while he went to look for things they needed; to which the four sons all agreed to. Satisfied with this answer, Splinter left them to continue the trip.
This was the first mistake.
Once their sensei had departed, the four brothers debated on what to do. They could play on the playground equipment, but it was too old and rusty to work properly and would only last them so long. And they didn’t bring anything from home to play with instead. The youngest of the four brothers, wearing an orange mask and going by Mikey, suggested the game of Hide and Seek. With the game being simple enough to play and seemingly nothing better to do here, they all agreed.
Now it was a question of who was going to be it. The brother in the red mask, Raph, said he wanted to be it. The other brothers objected; saying it wasn’t fair when he was it. He was too good at seeking and would gloat about it. Raph tried to persuade his brothers otherwise; saying how he would go easy and count to 15 instead of 10. After some debate amongst the four brothers, and the increasing desire to start the game, the others gave in and let Raph be it. He turned his back to his brothers, covered his eyes, and started counting.
“1………. 2………. 3……….”
The other three scattered in all directions, trying to find a place to hide where the seeker couldn’t find them; or at least not for a long time. They had to make it a good place too, since Raph was it.
This is where the second mistake happened.
You see, the other three brothers (Leo, Donnie, & Mikey) didn’t quite stay exactly in the playground. There weren’t enough places to hide there, so they thought a bit outside the box. There were paths and alleys that lead to more hiding places; and the more places there are to hide, the better chance you have to win the game. And besides, if you’re able to retrace your steps back to where you were, you aren’t lost, are you? So, if they ever got board of waiting in their hiding place (or the noticed dawn was coming), then they could just come back to the abandoned playground whenever they wanted to. And if they didn’t see anybody there (or dawn was arriving), they knew their way home like the back of their hand! There was seemingly no problem in this logic.
It was a risk. Too much of a risk. A risk that would cost the family 10 of being separated from each other; and many more of trying to fix it to the way it was…