Prologue

My name is Leonardo. We made a wrong turn somewhere and now we're caught our backs to the wall in this trash strewn alley. Barring the way out are fifteen members of the Purple Dragons, the toughest street gang on the East Side. The only way they'll let us out of here is if we're dead. I hold my katana in a relaxed ready position. To my left, Donatello and Michelangelo follow suit with staff and nunchaku, Raphael guards my right side… I sense his body quivering with tense energy, waiting to be triggered into a savage, slashing release.

"You're dead freaks! Nobody messes with Purple Dragons!" a man shouts. "You kids should had just stayed home playing your ninja-games. But now that you have seen us, we have no other choice than eliminate you…" another man says, tapping a long pipe against his hand.

"Who are you calling a kid?!" Raph shouts and attacks the man. After he had made his move, we have no other choice than engage ourselves in to the battle.

Chapter 1: A whole new world

"I'm so bored…" a short boy, with freckles and curly, light orange hair, complained. "Then fight with me" a little bit taller, black haired teenager said while hitting a punching bag. "No! I don't want to fight with you!" short boy shouted. "What, are you scared of losing Mikey? Well, it's unavoidable though… Your lost that is…" the black haired boy teased.

"Raph, do you always have to pick a fight?" a blue eyed blonde said. He was called Leonardo. "Do I? Geez, I don't know… " Raph answered and kicked the sack. "It was a rhetorical question…" Leo sighed. "What's a rhetorical question?" Mikey asked.

A brown haired tall boy raised his head behind a vehicle that he was building. "Well, a rhetorical question is a question that…" he started to explain but was interrupted by Mikey's words: "Wait, Don! It… Seems like I'm not interested in it anymore"

"Argh, it's so boring!" Raph shouted and kicked so hard that the bag broke. "Hey! How many times do I have to tell you to quit breaking the punching bags? It's the third one on this week… " Donatello complained. "I think I'm heading out…" Raphael said.

"Wait a minute… You're not going anywhere. We're not allowed to leave this place without master Splinter's permission" Leo said. "Argh, quit being so goody-goody. What's the big deal anyways? It's not like I'm going to go over-ground, I'm just going to walk around the sewers, that's all…" Raph said and put a red mask on.

"Wait… I'm coming with you" Leo said and put his mask on as well. "What?!" Raph shouted a little bit surprised. "First you say that we're not allowed to go anywhere and now you're coming with me? I don't even need company…" Raph added. "If I let you go alone, you definitely would go over-ground" Leo said.

"Che, what's the big deal with the over-ground anyways?" Raph snarled."Not this again…"Don sighed. "You already know why. In order to be free, we have to stay hidden" Leo said. "Free? You call THIS freedom?" Raph shouted. "Ever since we were born we were forced to practice ninjutsu daily…" Raph said and was interrupted by Leo's words: "I thought you loved fighting"

"THAT'S NOT THE POINT!" Raphael shouted. "Geez, calm down dude" Mikey said opening a potato chip package. Raph glared Mikey who, just in case, took a cover behind the sofa. "I was saying… We're held down here like prisoners. Maybe if Master Splinter hadn't "saved" us we didn't have to live like this" Raph said bitterly.

"So you would prefer living as a laboratory rat?" Leo asked. "No! But do you really think that we'll be captured and brought back in the laboratory as soon as we left the sewers?" Raph said. "Well… We might get captured sooner or later…" Leo said.

"That's just a coward talk. If somebody tries to capture us, we just have to kick their asses" Raph said. "But sensei told us that we're not ready yet" Leo said. "We're goddamn fifteen already! We're not kids anymore!" Raphael shouted.

"Then quit acting like one!" Leo yelled back. "I'm out of here…" Raph said and run away. "Wait, you're not going anywhere!" Leo shouted and followed his brother. "Leave me alone already!" Raph shouted and threw a sai towards Leo. Leo countered it with his swords.

"Raphael! Leonardo! Where do you think you are going!?" a voice shouted. At the end of the tunnel, there was a man standing in the shadows. Raph gnashed his teeth. "Sensei" Leo shouted surprised. Their master walked towards them and as he became closer, Raphael turned his eyes away.

The left side of the man's face was covered with bandage. He was holding a walking stick on his left hand, which was pitch-black. As if it had been burned in to a coal. The man had long, thin, black beard. "I thought that I have told you not to leave the lair without my permission" Splinter said.

"I'm sorry Sensei. I just tried to stop Raph" Leo said bowing down. "Raphael…?" Master Splinter said with a demanding tone. "You're expecting me to apologize? Too bad, I'm not even sorry…" Raphael said frustrated. "Raph!" Leo shouted.

"Raphael, what's wrong? You're not acting like yourself…" Splinter said calmly. Raphael opened his mouth ready to shout again but then closed it and said: "No, I'm acting like myself, I'm just not acting like you want me to be…". He tried to walk away but Splinter took his hand and raised it on the air. "You're coming with me" Splinter said and dragged the disinclined teenager with him.

"Raphie is going to be scolded" Mikey sang jeeringly. "Mikey, you're going to be so dead…." Raph hissed. Master Splinter glanced at Raph who just turned his eyes away. Master Splinter led Raphael in Splinter's room, which looked a lot like the ones in Japanese houses. Master ordered Raph to sit on the one of the cushions on the floor and started making tea. When Master had finished, he gave a cup of tea to Raph.

"I always hated this stuff" Raphael said. "You seem to hate a lot of stuff" Splinter said, almost laughing. "Is there something that you want to talk about?" Splinter asked. Raphael remained silent. To avoid conversation he drank a little of the tea, even though it was bitter and tea leaves felt disgusting in the mouth.

After a short silence master Splinter asked: "Have you calmed down?" "Calm down? As if I could…" Raphael said but his voice had already become calm. It was almost like there was some kind of calming drug in the tea.

"Tell me. What is it that's haunting you?" Splinter asked. "I… It's no use, I know what's your answer anyways… " Raphael mumbled. "In that case, it wouldn't do any harm to say it aloud" Splinter said. Raphael took a deep breath.

"I want to go outside! Not in the sewers but outside as the over-ground. I think I'll turn crazy if I'm hold down here any longer…" Raphael said. Master Splinter had a stern expression on his face. "You're dismissed" he said. Raphael was a little bit puzzled. Did Sensei get mad at him? Raphael was petrified but after he noticed Splinter staring at him he quickly got up and bowed. Then he left the room.

"Did you get some kind of punishment?" Mikey asked jeeringly. "Yes, I was made to drink tea" Raph said sarcastically but instead of jumping down on Michelangelo's throat he just sat on the floor, his back against one of the pillars.

"Geez, Raph is being moody again, is it already that time of the month?" Mikey said as if whispering it to Leo. Raph threw his remaining sai towards Mikey. A few curls of Mikey's hair fell on the floor. Mikey's face had turned white. "Yep, definitely that time of the month" Leonardo said nonchalantly.

"My sons… I have something to talk about" Splinter said, coming out of his room. They all went Splinter's room and sat on the cushions. Other three seemed a little bit curious but Raphael seemed like he wasn't even going to listen what their master was going to tell them.

"As you already know, you four are genetically modified humans, born and raised in the laboratory until I came and took you with me. They made some kind of tests on you and probably would still be doing them if you hadn't run away with me. You still have the serial numbers tattooed on your right hand" Splinter said.

Raph looked at his hand where he could clearly see a text written on dark red letters: "TS-01". There was "HC-01" on Leo's hand, "BA-01" on Don's and "CS-02" on Mikey's.

"The man who was leading this whole project is called the Shredder. But he is known with yet another name… Oroku Saki" Splinter said. "Sound like some kind of food for me… "Mikey said. Leo and Don hushed to him, Raphael still seemed uninterested.

"The story begins from Japan. Oroku Saki and I were training under the same teacher, the leader of the foot clan. We both also fell in love with the same woman, the leader's daughter Tang Shen. I thought was lucky when she chose me. Oroku Saki was filled with rage.

However, Tang Shen's father had his own plans for his daughter. He told us that the one who would become clan's leader was also the one to have the right to marry his daughter. He gave us one year to practice on our own. After the year had passed we were supposed to have a match against each other to decide the next leader and Tang Shen's husband.

Oroku Saki and I agreed on this. But Tang Shun did not. In the end, we ended up running away together, Tang Shen and I. But on the day of the match, I returned the foot clan's residence. I fought long battle against Oroku Saki. Our power, speed, stamina, they were all equal. After we had fought non-stop during two days and nights the Master ordered us to stop. He told us that he was very impressed of us both and offered a compromise: the other one got his daughter, the other the clan.

Oroku Saki was asked first which one he would prefer. I was afraid that he was going to choose Tang Shen but he quickly blurted out that he wanted to be the leader of the clan. The Master asked me if I was fine with this. I was more than delighted. I told him that it was more than okay with it" Splinter told.

"Excuse me Sensei but… Why are you telling us about your ex-girlfriend?" Mikey asked. "Let me finish this, then you'll surely understand…" Splinter said smiling a little.

"Tang Shen and I continued our love-filled life without hearing even a word about the foot clan or Shredder for years. Tang Shen was pregnant, about to give birth soon. One day Oroku Saki came to see us. I sensed immediately that something was off with him. I thought that he had changed somehow and soon I realized the thing that was bothering me wasn't that he looked different. No, in fact he looked exactly the same that he did seven years ago. It was like he hadn't aged even a day after our last meeting.

When he talked with us he was polite and friendly. He told us that they had some kind of mission in North and decided to come to see us on the way there. He soon left saying he was in a hurry. We naively supposed that he really was on the mission some elsewhere.

Next day, when I came back home from work I found out that our house was burned down. I couldn't find Tang Shen anywhere, neither dead nor alive. But when I was digging up the remains of our house I found a shuriken with the foot clan's mark on it. I hurried back to the foot clan's headquarters, only to find its burned remains.

Then I was sure about something that I had suspected for a while back then: Oroku Saki was behind all of this. Thus I started the search for him and my wife. It took three years until for me to find out where they were: a small research centre in New York.

I broke into the research centre. I went through their research notes trying to find a clue of Tang Shen. But I was interrupted and had to run away. During my escape there was an accident in one of the labs. The explosion caused some weird liquid to burst over me. I tried to wipe it off as soon as possible. The explosion had also caused a wall to collapse. In the room behind the collapsed wall, I heard crying.

I went to that room and found four children none of them over two years old. One of them, the smallest one, was crying furiously" Splinter said and Raph said: "Mikey. Definitely Mikey". "Heey…." Mikey said offended.

"It really was Michelangelo…. One of them, the biggest one was trying to hold him. The other two were also gathered around them, trembling, about to cry. Without thinking, I grabbed all of them and escaped in to the sewers. There tried to wash the liquid properly off but noticed that it had changed me. In those parts where the liquid had touched my skin, it had turned black. And my left eye, it was… Well…" Splinter said and undid the bandage covering his left eye. He opened his eye. It was glowing red. There wasn't sclera, iris or pupil in his eye. It was just all red.

"After I had recovered from the shock, I decided to keep the left side of my face hidden so I wouldn't scare you. I also realized that I still had some research notes hidden on my sleeves. I didn't have time to read them back then because I had to quickly find us a safe hideout.

So I wandered around with you. After walking in the sewers two days, we accidentally found this place. I begun to make this place look more like a home. I was also busy to taking care of you. It seemed that you didn't have any names so I named you after famous renaissance artists. After the things had settled down a little, I found the research notes again.

I read them and found out many things about you. You weren't normal humans. Your genes were modified and they weren't only human genes. The liquid that had turned me like this… This liquid had always been part of you. The liquid is called "the blood of the fallen star". I'm not sure what it is but I think it might be real blood. Blood of some creature that I have never heard before.

There were notes about some test subjects familiar to you. Some of the test subjects had been marked "dead", "failure" even as "eliminated". There was also some information about their mothers. And among them, there was a file of Tang Shen.

She was marked as dead. It seemed like she had died about a year ago after giving a birth for a child. It wasn't our child and because that child on the file was marked as her first, I could only assume that our child was also dead.

After reading all the files, I burned them all. I have gained a lot of knowledge from those notes. And realized that it was too dangerous for you to live among other humans. The Shredder would find you sooner or later and you needed to be ready when that time comes. If I had let you to live freely on the surface, it wouldn't have taken even a week him to find you" Splinter said.

"We never asked to LIVE there, just go there once in a while… You go there all the time and nobody has caught you" Raph said. "Let's assume that you won't get captured if you spent only a little time over-ground. But what do you think would happen if you were let out there?" Splinter asked.

"Umm… Probably we would want to go there again. More often and spent more time there. Without Sensei around. And maybe after a while some of us would start saying stuff like "Why are we the only ones living like this?" "I want a normal life." "I'm going to live up there, go to high school and get some friends" and then probably run away and sooner or later the Shredder would find us and either kill or capture us" Don said.

"Is it really so wrong to want stuff like that?" Raph said. "I'm kinda starting to agree with Raphie" Mikey said. "I always wondered what it was like: to go school, hang around with friends and see all the other stuff I have seen only in television with my own eyes… And eat all those delicious looking foods…" Mikey said.

"Mikey, I thought you hated studying" Don said. "Yeah but going to school doesn't equal studying. It's about making friends, eating school lunch and…" Mikey said. "… In your case: getting your head dunked it the toilet" Raph scorned. Mickey glared him.

"ANYWAYS" Splinter started his sentence. They all quieted down. "I think you're starting to get old enough to go up. But because it's too dangerous us all go there at the same time, I'll go there with two of you at time. You're still not allowed to go there alone" Splinter said.

"So… We're going there tonight?" Raph asked. "No, not tonight" Splinter said. "You're dismissed" he said. The boys left the room.

"Wow, I can't wait to see what's it like out there…." Mikey said. "Haven't you already seen it in the television?" Don asked. "Yeah but didn't you say yourself that I'm not supposed to believe in everything that I see on television? " Mikey said.

"Well then… I'm going to sleep" Raphael said and yawned. "Sleep…? It's not even eight yet…" Leo said. "Splinter's story made me sleepy…" Raph said before slamming the door of his room closed. "Hey… Is it only me or is Raph acting fishy?" Leo asked.

When the night had fallen and it seemed like everybody had gone to sleep, Raph stealthy opened his room's door and looked around. Nobody was in the living room. Because leaving trough the main entrance would have made too much voice, he decided to take another road.

There was an underwater passage that led in their lair. The only disadvantage was, obviously, getting wet. Raphael didn't really mind of getting wet. He sneaked around, picked his sai that was lying on the floor, and then headed to the pool. He checked out if the way was clear. Nobody was on the sight.

He continued ahead and found his other sai. He continued sneaking. He thought that going up through the nearest manhole wouldn't be such a good idea so he continued a little bit further. After walking a while, there was a smaller fairway on his right. He decided to follow it instead of the bigger one, which continued straight towards.

It was dark so he couldn't see much ahead of him. A few meters before the manhole, he could see the stairs. It also seemed like there was a passage going across the one he was walking right now. "Ha, I did it…" Raph said triumphantly and hurried to the stairs. But before getting on them, he felt his feet being swept off.

Raphael did a forward roll and got back on his feet. He thought that he still could reach the stairs but suddenly a flashlight was lit. Raphael's eyes were already used in the darkness so the sudden bright light hurt his eyes.

"Okay, the playtime is over Raph" Leo said. He was still pointing at Raph with the flashlight. Raph threw his sai on the flashlight, causing it to break down. At that moment, he was pushed down by somebody and yet another flashlight was lit.

Raph lied against the ground hold there by Mikey. "Ewewew… He's wet…" Mikey said. "So you came through the waterway after all…" Don said pointing him with a flashlight. "Through the waterway, deciding not to choose the nearest manhole, walking straight until finding this smaller passage and then turning right. When reaching the stairs, you would become hasty and wouldn't be able to notice Leo until you got…." Don explained.

"Gee, want a cookie or something? Okay, you guys won, I lost, just let me get up… I feel slightly disgusted having Mikey lying over me" Raph interrupted. "Ah but in that case you would…." Don started explain another of his anticipations. "Okay I promise I don't do that thing either, whatever it is…. " Rafael said.

"Can we trust him? Or should we just tie him up like we originally planned?" Don asked. "Well… I guess he already knows that there's no way escaping from us…" Leo said. "Yes yes, I swear I won't go near to that manhole again" Raph said. "Mikey… Release him…" Leo said.

Raph got up, picked his sai and said: "You really should guard that manhole though… I might betray your trust and use it after all". The other three automatically started to guard it. Raph calmly walked away. When he was a half way of the tunnel, Don suddenly realized something: "Wait a second… Shouldn't we be following him?"

After that all four of them begun to ran. Leo got the end of the passage quick enough to see his brother to going up through a manhole. "Well… At least he did keep his word..." Mikey said. "Argh! Why that guy have to be so impatient!" Leo shouted frustrated.

"Should we go after him?" Don asked. "Like we had any other choices… Just… Let's not to let anybody see us…" Leo said. "Yeah and if Splinter catches us, we'll just blame it all on Raph" Mikey said. Leo glared him. "What? It is his fault after all" Mikey said but couldn't hide his excitement.

When Raph first came out of the manhole, he saw a messy back alley with trash lying around everywhere. "This isn't really what I was expecting…" he said and looked around a little. He noticed that it would be fairly easy to climb on one of those buildings.

Just a little bit before reaching the top, he heard the manhole being opened again. "They decided to follow me huh?" Raph thought. When he got on the top he looked around again. The city's lights were glimmering like billions of diamonds. There was a strong gasoline's smell in the air and a small, chilly wind was blowing.

"Heh, better continue before they catch me" Raph said and jumped on the nearest house's roof. Then he ascended on the ground and sneaked around the streets. In one alley, he saw some very suspicious looking guys. He decided to spy them.

The guys were loading a van. There were some men simply guarding the van while other's carried stuff in. Suddenly Raph felt a hand on his shoulder. "We're going home…." Leo said. "No, wait, look…" Raph said and pointed out the guys loading the van.

"That symbol… I have heard of them… They are the Purple Dragons, the toughest street gang around here…" Leo said. "Leo, what are…" Don said but Leo hushed on him. Don looked at men too. "Hey did you already find Raph!?" Mikey shouted merrily. "Mikey, hush" all the other three said but it was already too late.

"Who's there?" one of the men shouted. "Let's run!" Leo said. They ran away and the men were following them. Soon they realized that they had reached dead end.

All four stood their backs on the wall. They all took their fighting positions. When the men saw who they were chasing, they burst in to laughter. "Haha, some brats wearing ninja costumes…. How cute" a man said. "At least we're cute. Unlike you, I've never seen anything uglier than your face and it's something considering that I live with Mikey" Raph mocked.

The man's smile was worn off. He gave a sign with his hand other's to get ready for a battle. The brothers stood still, ready to attack.

"You're dead freaks! Nobody messes with Purple Dragons!" a man shouted. "You kids should had just stayed home playing your ninja-games. But now that you have seen us, we have no other choice than eliminate you…" another man said, tapping a long pipe against his hand.

"Who are you calling a kid?!" Raph shouted and attacked the man. After he had made his move, the others had no other choice than engage themselves in to the battle.

"Wow, my first time fighting against this many opponent" Raph said smacked one of the men on face. Another one was trying to hit him from behind but Raph dodged him with flip, causing the men crash on each other.

Mean while, Leonardo was surrounded by three men, one of them holding a knife, and the other two had some kind of pipes in their hands. After few seconds all three men were lying on the ground unconscious. Mikey was doing his best dodging the men attacking him and Donatello was knocking out ones attacking on Mikey.

After ten minutes, all the fifteen Purple Dragons were lying on the ground. "Heh, they weren't so tough after all" Raph laughed and kicked one of them. Suddenly he got a hit on his head.

"Ouch… What was that for…" Raph said rubbing his head. "For being a selfish, immature jerk" Leo said. "Thanks?" Raph said. "Argh, let's just go home already" Leo said. They searched the nearest manhole and made sure that nobody was able to see them. Then they went through it and returned home.

"Should we use the waterway or front door?" Don asked. "I don't care, let's just go inside already" Raph said shaking. "I don't really want to get wet but it's possible that Sensei wakes up when we open the door" Don said.

"Oh you don't have to worry about that, he won't" a voice behind them said. "You can't know that for sure, in fact the possib…" Don objected but after recognizing the voice his face turned pale. He slowly turned around as did all his brothers. Master Splinter had been sitting behind of them the whole time.

"Uh… Good evening… I mean night… I mean….Small hours Sensei!" Mikey said trying to sound cheerful. "Explain yourselves" Splinter said. "Umm… You see… Raph…." Mikey started. "Raph?" Splinter asked glaring at Raph. "A….I…" Raph stammered trying to make up something but ended up sneezing and shivering. He blushed as embarrassed and covered his face with his hand to hide it.

"Raphie-boy here has a weird habit to walk in his sleep and go on midnight swimming while he's on it " Mikey said. "Mikey, that's not helping" Raph said and punched him. "Raph's right… I think Master already knows what happened…" Leo said and begun to explain what had happened.

After hearing their story the sensei remained silent. "Uh, can we go to sleep now?" Mikey asked hopefully. Splinter smiled. "No" he answered continuing: "Your punishment is going to be some intensive training from here until next evening".

After the training was over they all were so tired that they just fell asleep on the training room's floor. Master Splinter smiled a little while covering them with blankets. "I guess they won't try to sneak up any time soon…" Master Splinter thought.