<strong>Chapter 1/2:  The Stray / Lessons Learned</strong><br/><em>Raph/April vs. Michelangelo</em><br/><em>Leonardo vs. Splinter</em><br/><br/><div class="floatleft">(http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/350/1/b/mikey_by_jennyverse-d8a4qi5.jpg)</div>"And I'm wailin' on this thing. I mean, all three party members fighting tooth and nail, me in the back using Long Shot every hit, sparing no health positions whatsoever! And BAM, dead every time. That's when I figured out the side quests actually MEAN something in this game! You have to do them to level and actually cause some damage with the bosses. I think there's a metaphor for life somewhere in that. Raph?"  The girl turned, thinking her brother's silence meant he'd ducked off down an ally.  Apparently the silence only meant he wasn't paying attention.  Of course Michelangelo assumed it was because he didn't hear her.  "I said side quests are a metaphor for life! Right?!"  She grinned, her green lips turning up into a happy expression.  Under the brown fedora, her orange eye mask was the only other piece of disguising face wear.  The rest of her voluptuous form was covered in a worn tan trench coat.   Being a walking, talking turtle wasn't something the group ever wanted to advertise.<br/><br/>It had been years since Mistress Splinter, a similarly mutated rat, had discovered and raised them from four innocent baby turtles.  Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael were trained to be expert ninja and to only use their skills to help those in need.  This evening on the streets of New York was just such a time.  There was a loud clatter from around the corner and shouts were heard echoing back to the pair.<br/><br/>"H-hey, did you hear that? Sounds like trouble."  Mikey looked tentatively down the alley, then back at her older brother.  She wasn't a coward by far, but it helped to know he was around to have her soft, round behind in a time of need.<br/><br/><br/><hr/><div class="floatleft">(http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/352/3/2/splinter_by_jennyverse-d8a97sl.jpg)</div>"CHEESE-AND-RICE!! OOF!"  Mistress Splinter, a five-foot rat woman in a purple kimono, fell to her bottom as one of her clawed feel lost purchase on the floor of the family's sewer lair.  She watched as a skateboard rolled away innocently.  "Grr.. Michelangelo.."  Her frown quickly turned up into a smile as she chuckled.  "That's my little Mikey. Always leaving her toys around."  She shook her head and stood, straightening her gown and setting out again for the kitchen.<br/><br/>Splinter was a quiet sort.  She rarely raised her voice or got angry unless it came to the safety of her children in either case.  After finding the four little turtles in the sewers that faithful day, she knew all her love would be stolen by them.  After making a much-needed pot of green tea, the girl went back to her meditations.  She sat cross-legged and closed her eyes in the den, thinking on all the silly antics her boys and girls had gotten up to over the years.