Ninja Turtles Times of Change

**Ok, I know it's been a while since I posted anything (try 2 years maybe), but I have reasons. 1: as I've written on my homepage, I get writer's block alot; 2: even though I know exactly how I want to finish off Leo's Reflection, nothing sounds right when I put it on paper, and I don't want to post anything that doesn't sound right; and 3: I'm in the middle of a university degree and busy with revision, fieldwork etc.**

**Until I'm happy with the next chapter of Leo's Reflection, I'm afraid that story won't be completed. In the mean time, I did manage to write this little number instead. It should be alright on it's own, but I might expand on it if I feel like adding another chapter. This is basically my interpretation of the turtles' origin in the 2012 'verse. Hope you enjoy it :)**

**Disclaimer: TMNT belongs to Eastman and Laird, and now Nickelodeon.**

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'Perhaps,' thought Hamato Yoshi to himself as he parried another blow, 'this wasn't a good idea.' His suspicions about the man he followed had led him into the battle he was now facing. Cornered in the middle of a dark alley, he was being attacked by a group of men in suits, all of them looking exactly the same. Were they perhaps brothers?

Yoshi didn't have time to ponder this, as one of his opponents tried to strike him again, and he was forced to awkwardly dodge the attack. As a ninja, he was used to fights like this, and under different circumstances, he would have had no problem defeating these men. But this time, he was also trying to protect the jaw of turtle hatchlings he'd bought earlier, which meant he could only fight with one arm.

Luckily, he'd managed to take down two of the men, who now lay on the ground a few metres away. But the turtles and his current position were making it difficult to defeat the two remaining. As they advanced, backing Yoshi into a wall, he felt his back hit something other than brick. Momentarily glancing up, he realised he was directly beneath a fire escape, which gave him an idea. Jumping, he managed to grab a railing with his free hand and, shifting his weight, quickly propelled himself foward over the heads of the two men. As he landed, he immediately spun round and lashed out at one of the men with his leg. This forced the man back, causing him to collide with his partner and sending them both crashing into the wall, dropping the canister he held in the process.

the canister was briefly projected into the air, before smashing into Yoshi and shattering, covering him in a strange, luminous ooze. Out of reflex, he brought both his hands up to protect his face, dropping the turtles onto the ground at his feet. Yoshi only remembered them when he heard the sound of more glass breaking. Looking down, he saw the four hatchlings lying helpless in the broken remains of their jar, as some of the ooze fell onto them from his body in large droplets.

Concerned that the infants were hurt, Yoshi bent down to pick them up and check for injuries from their fall. But as he reached for them, he was suddenly overtaken with a wave of intense pain, causing him to collapse by their side. Crying out, he curled in on himself in an unconscious attempt to protect himself from the pain. It felt as though his blood was boiling within him, and as if he were being stabbed with hundreds of tiny blades. Forcing his eyes open a little, he saw the turtles shaking on the ground beside him; no doubt they too were suffering from this strange attack. But there was nothing Yoshi could do for them, as a fresh wave of pain came over him, making him clench his eyes shut and cry out again. Through this agony, he was vaguely aware of the sound of tearing fabric, and briefly thought he could feel something protruding from his back...

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Yoshi guessed he had passed out at some point, because when he opened his eyes again, the first thing he noticed was that the men were nowhere to be seen. they must have woken up and left in the time he was unconscious.

He also noticed that the alley was darker than it was before, as was the sky above. It was night now. Groaning in pain, which had thankfully been reduced to a dull ache, Yoshi closed his eyes, intending to rest and recover some more. Before he could surrenter his consciousness however, he was stirred by a gentle prodding at his left cheek. Groaning again, he reluctantly opened hsi eyes again and glanced to the left. What he was a round, green face with brown eyes very close to his face.

Jumping up in shock, Yoshi tried to crawl back, away from the green face, but was tripped up by something on the ground, causing him to fall back and hit his head on the alley wall. Wincing, he brought a hand up to rub at where it had been hit. As he did so, he was shocked to discover two things: 1, his hair was now much shorter than it had been before he passed out, and 2, he could feel two large protrusions on the top of his head.

"What?" he gasped. Realising something was wrong, he quickly looket at his other arm, finding it to be covered in a coat of fine brown hair...or fur. It was then he noticed that his legs, which for some reason were now trouserless, were also covered in fur, as was his shirtless torso. Slowly his hand away from what he assumed were his own ears, he carefully felt the rest of this face. His nose and jaw seemed to have elongated, feeling almost like a rodent's head, and his eyebrows were thicker and more bristled than before. And, of course, his face was covered in fur.

Dropping his hands to his sides, Yoshi struggled to comprehend what had happened to him. How could this have happened? He had defeinitely been normal before, when he had fought the men in suits, and couldn't thing of how that would have resulted in such a change, Nothing came to mind, except for...

'The ooze!' he realised. The canister had broken against him, dousing him in that bizarre fluid. It was the last thing he'd come into contact with before passing out, and was most likely what had caused him to change.

Of course, that led to another question; what exactly had that ooze done to him? It was safe to say he wasn't human anymore. What human had a rodent's head and fur all over their body? Also, what had happened to the men he had fought?

As he pondered these questions, Yoshi felt something nudge his leg, reminding him of the green face that had shocked him before. Steeling himself for what he might find, he slowly brought his gaze to the ground before him.

What he found was a large, baby-sized turtle sitting as a human toddler would, staring up at him with round, brown eyes. At first Yoshi was confused at what he saw, before remembering the hatchlings he'd bought. Reaching out, he carefully picked up the small reptile, bringing it closer to his face. Could this really be one of his turtles? They had been covered in ooze like him...

Cradling the turtle as he would a baby, Yoshi got up and began to look for the other turtles, careful not to step on the broken glass around him.

He fould one of the other hatchlings close by, lying on its side amongst the glass. As he picked it up, the small turtle gave a tiny cry of pain. Concerned, Yoshi quickly looked the infant over, finding a small shard of glass lodged in its plastron, which he carefully removed. The wound itself wasn't deep, and there was very little blood, but the glass had left a sizable gash in the plastron. Soothing the crying turtle, he noted that this one had bright green eyes.

The third turtle would found crawling towards the road at the end of the alley. Yoshi was quick t pick up the little escapist before it got very far, not wanting it to get hurt. this turtle was slightly smaller than the other two, and had light blue eyes. He was also a lot feistier than the others, and made it difficult for Yoshi to hold all three of them as it continued to squirm.

It took a while longer to find the last turtle, Yoshi looked all over the alley, but there was no sign of the missing hatchling. After a while, he began to worry that something had happened to it. What if the men had taken it away for testing? Or perhaps an alley cat may have been out hunting earlier?

Just as he was beginning to panic, he heard something. The sound was so quiet it might not have been heard by anyone, but it seemed the ooze had somehow improved Yoshi's hearing enough for him to pick it up. It sounded like wimpering. Carefully placing the three turtles in an empty cardboard box he'd found, he moved to where the sound appeared to be coming from; a dumpster. Deciding there was no way for a baby turtle to actually get inside the dumpster, Yoshi instead bent down to look underneath. At first he couldn't see anything, but after a few moments he thought he could see something move by the alley wall. Praying he wa right, he got up and pulled the dumpster out of the way. Sure enough, huddled against the wall, was the wimpering form of the fourth turtle.

Yoshi couldn't help the relief that swept through him as he picked up the little hatchling. All of his turtles were safe. As he carried the baby back to the others, he noticed that it was shaking slightly from cold. He must of been behind that dumpster for a while. Rubbing a hand over the small carapace, he tried to give the infant some extra warmth. Im response, the turtle opened its eyes and looked up to Yoshi's face as if in thanks. He noted that its eyes were a slightly darker blue than the third.

Once all four turtles were together in the box, Yoshi sat down against the wall once more, trying to decide what to do about the infants now that he had found them. He couldn't leave four newly hatched turtles to fend for themselves, they would surely perish. But then, he didn't exactly have anywhere to help them. His home would be big enough for...

"Oh," he gasped softly, as realisation hit him. How could he possibly go home after what had happened? He wan't even human anymore! If anyone saw him, they would only panic and lock him away...and Kami knows what might happen to his turtles!

As the gravity of his situation hit him, Yoshi curled up and began to cry, allowing his dispaire to take over. Barely eight months ago, he had a wife and child, and had been living a peaceful life in Japan. But now, he had lost all of that, had been forced to emmigrate to New York, and now was without his own humanity.

He continued to weep even as he felt water droplets eginning to fall on his head. What difference should a little rain mke? He only moved from his position when he heard the unhappy noises coming from the box.

The little turtles were all wimpering and covering their heads, trying vainly to escape the rain that was quickly soaking them. The two with blue eyes looked to be close to tears.

Hesitantly, Yoshi reached into the box and began to slowly stroke the third one's beak, attempting to sooth it. The little hatchling leaned into the touch, before its siblings noticed and began to shuffle towards the hand. Yoshi soon found himself cradling the damp box in his lap with his left arm, using his right to comfort the four.

As he pondered what he sould do about his predicament, his newly improved hearing suddenly picked something up. Looking up sharply, Yoshi saw two figures by the mouth of the alley. Tensing, he first thought they might be the men he had fought earlier. Had they come back to finish him off? His fears were quickly disproved by a passing car. As it drove past, the headlights briefly lit up the men's faces, revealing them to be youngsters, perhaps students. Throgh the rain, he could make out that they were merely talking about some gig they had been to; there was no indication that they had seen him.

Although he hadn't been spotteed, Yoshi couldn't allow himself to relax. The men's presence only reminded him of his problem; the alley may be deep, but it wouldn't go on forever, and those youths could spot him at any moment. He had to find a way out of the alley and fast.

Looking up, he could see a loght through one of the windows a few floors up; the fire escape was not an option. As teh rain started to pick up, his search for an escape became more frantic, before he finally saw something that might work: a sewer lid, barely ten feet furthere into the alley. The sewers were hardly a nice place to go, but right now, Yohsi didn't have much coice.

After making sure that the turtles were calm, he cautiously moved over to the sewer lid, trying his best not to catch the youths' attention. Reaching his goal, he set his box down and lifted the lid as quietly as he could. Even in this rain, he expected himself to be caught when the rain scraped heavily over the floor. And yet, miraculously, the youths didn't react to it. The rain must be louder than he thought. Not wasting time, he brougt the box of turtles down into the thankfully dry sewer tunnel, only just remember to cover the lid again as he went.

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**Alright, there you have it. Before I leave, I have a small request to make. In addition to continuing Leo's Reflection, I've got a couple other ideas for fanfics that I'm considering writing. I can't decide which one I should go for, and the plot's aren't entirely finished yet, but I'd appreciate it if you could let me know which one you'd most like to read. The options are: **

**1: A new variation of Mona Lisa including pre and post-mutation (also the first fanfic that doesn't have Leo as the main turtle)**

**2: A cross over with WITCH (a comic and cartoon series about elemental beings and other worldly threats)**

**3: one of the turtles (and I'm not saying who) develops ice powers and has to learn to control their new skill and conquer their fears (I totally have Frozen on the brain right now)**

**All of these options are set in the 2012 'verse. If you'd be interested in any of these fics ever being posted, please let me know in your reviews. All flames will be used to warm my house at night.**

**Thanks for reading :)**

**AJ Tomb Raider**


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