Word for Word

AN: Hey, CCA here! I've noticed that there aren't really too many fanfictions that actually go into detail on the events leading up to, including, and after the turtles' mutation. I'm here to fix that. Enjoy the fanfiction, as I had fun writing it! ^^ I also edited some things, like certain character details, and did some research to make it more accurate and realistic. Beatrice O'Neil is April's mother, and she works at the pet store (I based her personality off of my friend Hope). The Kraang kidnap her after Yoshi/Splinter has his encounter with them. Also, in case you haven't already guessed, this is the 2012 series. HATERS GONNA HATE, TUTRLES GONNA TURT, QUACK. If you aren't a fan of the 2012 series of TMNT, I suggest you get out now before you rage-flame and make me flame you back. So there will be 6 chapters: one for each of the turtles, Hamato/Splinter, and Beatrice. Yes, I know, a little overboard, but I want to cover all of their POV's to make sure I supply everyone with all the info they need on how each person/mutant felt on the whole situation.

Don't worry, I'll get back to April and the Beast, just that this will be a little faster in writing. I need to rewatch the movie to continue on for AatB.

DISCLAIMER: Do I LOOK like a couple of middle-aged men with awesome ideas? No, I look like a vertically challenged female freshman with awesome fanfiction powers. Now, read my story or BEGONE!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~CCA~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 1: The Rat Master

Hamato Yoshi strolled down the New York City street in late October, absentmindedly meandering as he was lost to his memories. It almost seemed as if the fire still engulfed him, his wife and child screaming in agony as his former friend, Oroku Saki stalked off in his sick pleasure of revenge as his mind wandered back to the August day his life in Japan ended. Yoshi blinked out of the memory, finding himself in front of one of the several pet shops on Myrtle Ave. Looking at the sign, he saw that the name of the shop was Bob's Tropical Pet Center Inc. He stared a few moments at the sign on the window, declaring to the world, 'TURTLES 4 SALE' as if it was the best thing on the planet. He stared a few moments longer before finally deciding once more to move on. As he walked on, one of the workers had noticed him staring at the sign. Her nametag read Bea O'Neil. "Excuse me, sir. Would you like to look at our other animals? We don't have just turtles, you know." The ginger woman pointed out as she carried a sack of hamster bedding into the shop. Yoshi, against his better judgment, followed the woman into the store and glanced around at the variety of animals.

As he passed a cage of rats, he wrinkled his nose slightly. He had honestly never been really fond of any rodents in general, knowing of how they must gnaw in order to shorten their ever growing teeth. There were several tanks in the back. One or two of said tanks held snakes or spiders. His eye caught the turtle tank. There was a single turtle in there, clearly an adult, and four eggs lay nestled close to it, slightly buried. A mother and her little clutch of children. One of the eggs seemed to be quivering slightly. "That's a wood turtle. They're common around this area, so there's no issue of having them as pets." The redhead informed him as he watched the egg twitch. The other three eggs had started following suit, one after the other. He walked closer to watch, awed at the spectacle. The egg that had been quivering first showed several cracks, and the tiny head of the baby poked out, making barely audible chirping noises. The egg adjacent to it followed moments after, the cries of the hatchlings combining into a quiet melody of wonder. Several minutes later, the third turtle broke out of the egg and joined the tiny chorus. The last egg quivered a little more then stopped, as if taking a rest. After several slightly tense moments, the egg shook harder than before and the final turtle burst out, joining its siblings in the song they sang out of joy for being in the world at last. Warmth filled his heart at the sight of new lives entering the world. A grin, unbidden, graced Hamato Yoshi's face as the youngest turtle seemed to smile as it crawled around the tank. "You're lucky, sir." the redhead commented, catching Hamato by surprise. "The other customers have been coming all day to see the eggs hatch."

Hamato didn't respond as the second-hatched turtle began to head-butt its older brother meekly. Hamato merely reached in and gently lifted the offender away and on the other side of the tank, next to the third-hatched. The second-hatched chirped in surprise and promptly attempted to bite Hamato. The third-hatched pushed its sibling's head away from Hamato's finger. Not knowing what possessed him, he asked a question that he had no clue of knowing that it would change his life forever. "Can I get them?" he asked, turning to the redhead as the newborn's antics continued. "No, they're just there for show." she retorted sarcastically. "Which ones do you want?" she asked, more seriously this time. Hamato looked back at the turtles, trying to decide which one of the four to get, subconsciously biting his lip as he did so. "Could I take all of them?" he continued after several minutes of debate. "Sure. Just don't come crying to me when they turn out to be too much." She answered, joking once more at the end of her statement. She brought over a shallow, flat-bottomed fishbowl of sorts, the bottom already layered with sterilized dirt made for certain pet environments. One by one, he lifted each turtle and gently lowered it into the fishbowl. "All male; well, what do you know?" she commented, raising an eyebrow. "How can you tell the difference between the two genders?" Hamato asked out of curiosity. "Well, see how their plastrons are domed inwards? That's called conclave, and most male turtles have that as a distinguishing feature between genders." She explained, picking up the smallest one and flipping it— him— over to trace the plastron in a means to show the Japanese man what she meant. Hamato grunted his understanding as the woman gently placed the turtle back in the fishbowl, forgetting to flip him back over onto his stomach. The turtle didn't seem to mind as it rocked on its back, chirping joyfully and seeming to be thoroughly enjoying it, the pseudo-smile still present on his face. He went up to the counter and made the transaction with the cashier, also planning to buy lettuce for them before he got home.

As he walked down the street, a man in a suit roughly bumped into him, almost knocking the turtles out of his hands. He turned to protest, but noticed details about the man that seemed… rather off. The man had too expressionless of a face, and most people that wear suits were mainly office workers, and they would all be at work around this time, meaning it was far too late for the man to be a commuter. Without going over the decision, he followed the immaculate man until the man turned down an alley. Using the ninjitsu he'd learned since he was a teenager, he hid around the corner. There was another man that looked exactly like the first, only this one was carrying a glowing blue-green substance. Hamato tried to shuffle forward to hear what the men were saying in their monotone voices, but froze as he heard a loud, almost ear-splitting SKEEE! He looked down, lifting his foot, only to find a rat run out from under his foot. The men had obviously heard the rat and had turned to the source: him.

"Go no further." The man demanded. "This place is a place where you are not allowed to be in this place." The other man continued in the exact same voice. Something very wrong was going on here, especially with that ooze. "We have been seen in this place by you," Another man carried on as he snuck up behind him with a fourth virtual clone. "So this is not the place that will be left by you." the final man finished their strange speech, and all four pounced in on him at once. Immediately, his ninja instincts kicked in and he dealt a knee-blow into the stomach of one of the men, causing him to double over and crumple. Another, he elbowed in the chest, then whacked in the face with the back of his hand. That one crumpled as well. He used a spinning back kick on a third one, but decided to only punch the final one in the face. The one holding the canister of ooze. The canister was thrown into the air in a narrow arc, and smashed on Hamato's back as he turned around in an attempt to shield the turtles from the strange substance. He gasped in shock as it seemed to burn into his skin, and he involuntarily dropped the fishbowl that the terrapins were in, causing the glass to smash and deposited the reptiles in ooze that had pooled on the ground at Hamato's feet. His vision blurred as he felt his body change shape and the furious fire of his transformation spread to encompass his whole body. After what felt like an eternity to him, he passed out as the pain of his transformation wore off. He only hoped he had hallucinated when he had seen the turtles transform in a manner similar to his.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~TIMESKIP~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When he awoke again, it was nighttime; he was met by four pairs of eyes with varying degrees of concern and curiosity, though he couldn't see who exactly the eyes belonged to that well. He blinked his eyes several times to clear his vision. What he saw had caused him to clumsily right himself into a sitting position and scramble backwards. The owners of the eyes were none other than the four turtles he had bought the previous day. They'd been mutated, and now resembled human infants… somewhat. Their beaks were still prominent on their chubby faces, but he suspected that they would grow out into normal, human-like mouths. He examined each turtle in turn, to discern which was which.

The first one he laid eyes on was clearly the youngest as he was the tiniest of the turtles. There was only childish innocence in those large, sky-blue eyes, and the dimples on his chubby, almost-lime green cheeks only stood out more with the slight, pearly grin on his face, showing off the little freckles adorning his cheekbones. All in all, this child was absolutely adorable in all senses of the word. The freckled turtle boy babbled a bit, then cocked his head, almost as if asking, Is there something on my face?

Hamato turned to the next one, whom he assumed was one of the older children. This one had untrusting emerald eyes and skin slightly darker than his younger brother's. A scowl sat on this one's face, and his lower lip was slightly exaggerated. On the left side of his plastron, his shell was chipped; Hamato winced inwardly at the sight, realizing the child had most likely acquired the chip from when he'd dropped them. It would stand to reason that at least one of the children wouldn't trust him very much at first.

The next child, he didn't know whether he was the second youngest or the eldest. This child had olive green skin and was slightly paler than the youngest. This child possessed a pair of deep mahogany eyes that seemed to let the world know he was smarter than they thought he was. His mouth was slightly agape, revealing the gap in his teeth. Either that was a missing tooth that would grow back in, or it was diastema, like Hamato had had when he was younger before he had gotten braces.

The last child was clearly the eldest, placing the prior child at second-youngest. This child had the darkest skin out of the four, and his eyes were narrower as well, reminiscent of the eye shape most Japanese people possessed. This child had blue eyes, much like the youngest; however, the eldest's eyes were more of a blue-gray than a clear sky-blue like the youngest had. This didn't mean that they were any less piercing. The eldest child analyzed him skeptically, as if wondering what to make of him. Hamato supposed that he was imposing, no doubt about it.

He extended a hand to the eldest, but noticed something different about his hand; instead of the five fingers he was used to, he now had four long, slender, almost scaly fingers. The 'scalyness' of his skin continued up to his elbow, where actual fur grew. He inspected the rest of his body, finding it covered with more fur that was mostly the same color as the gap-toothed child's eyes, other than the black accents and the white patch on his chest and belly. His other hand and both legs were in a similar state to the first he had found the one he'd extended to the children in: almost-scaly, pink skin that was furless up to his elbow/knee. He now had a tail that was bare of any fur as well, traditional of any rat. Then, it hit home. He was a rat. He would've panicked if it weren't for the children in front of him. How had he not noticed this until now?! He supposed that he had been too focused on the children to notice the state he was in.

He made a move to get up, but the freckled child wailed loudly and clung to Hamato's leg. The intelligent one quickly followed suit with his other leg, clutching tightly with a strength most adults thought children weren't capable of possessing. Hamato grumbled a little, settling back on his haunches, keeping his eyes on the four children that had clearly chosen him to see as their father figure for whatever reason their young minds had concocted. The gap-toothed child had let go, but the freckled one had begun to nuzzle Hamato's leg with his cheek, making high-pitched keening noises that made the now-rat's ears twitch. Hamato tentatively patted the child's head and was surprised by how smooth and warm freckle-face's skin was against his mammalian hand. The whining stopped, and the youngest of the four looked up at Yoshi with his huge, blue eyes. That single look melted Yoshi's heart and made the final decision he had been wavering on.

He would care for these children as if they were his own and teach them what he could of the outside world. He would become the father that they needed, as he had been unwittingly been given a second chance at having a family. He wouldn't mess up this time, either.