Haha, please dont hate me for writing this little plot bunny that has been in my head for the last month instead of working on one of my current stories! Tell me if it's any good though! :)

Yoshi Hamato looked down at his two sons lovingly. He was proud of his boys. He knew the death of their mother could not be easy for them, but they stayed positive and happy, doing as they were told and sticking with their training. He knew from the presents they brought him, mostly bugs and flowers, that they had been trying to cheer their father up over the past month. Yoshi knew he had no time to mourn, Teng Shen would reprimand him for it. No. He had to take care of his sons. They deserved the best.

That was why he had brought them to this pet shop. Wanting to reward them for their good behavior over the past month, the Japanese man told his sons they could each have a small pet. At the moment, both of the boys were pressed up against a large aquarium tank, staring at the red-eared sliders that were resting on a floating dock near, exposing their hard bodies to the warm rays of the heating lamp above it. Yoshi was currently holding a rat that had caught his eye. The brown and white creature had seemed lonely to him, being the only rat left unsold, and now was perched upon his shoulder, reaching up and sniffing the coal-black hair on his head.

"Father?" the older of the two boys suddenly called out, breaking his gaze from the tank to stare at Yoshi with his dazzling dark blue eyes.

"Yes, Leonardo?" Yoshi replied, reaching down to mess with his son's black hair. In fact, not only the color of his hair, but everything about his son was inherited from his father. He felt warm remembering how Teng Shen would always call Leonardo "A mini Yoshi".

"Can I have one of these?" the four-year old boy asked, pointing at the tank. At the question, his younger son peeled himself away from the glass he was pressed against to stare at Yoshi with emerald eyes, something he had inherited from his mother along with his dark brown hair. It was obvious that Raphael had the same question the way his eyes sparkled. He watched as Leonardo and Raphael folded their hands under their chins and stared at their father, their eyes growing wider and wider. Yoshi recognized this move as his son's patented 'puppy dog eyes attack'. The single father let out a false sigh, making his sons glance nervously at each other.

"Only if you promise to take care of them." he said with a smile. Both of his boys instantly squealed, slamming themselves into their father's muscular legs that were hidden under his casual loose blue jeans. Yoshi laughed, calling for the clerk to come help them gather their new pets. The woman behind the counter a few feet away was the one who joined them, smiling brightly down at the two children.

"Alright, so which ones do you want?" asked the woman whose name tag, Yoshi read, said Deborah.

"This one!" Raphael shouted, pointing at the largest of the turtles in the tank. All of the turtles were small, the one his brunette son picked out only being three inches in length, but it was still the biggest.

"Oh! Good!" Deborah exclaimed, assembling a brown cardboard box that had handles and air holes, "That one has been here the longest, he just turned a year old sometime last month." The blonde woman reached bare handed into the tank and pulled out the turtle out, avoiding the clawed toes as the terrapin kicked the air in an attempt to escape. She carefully set it into the box, laughing at Raphael as he bounced up and down in excitement.

"My turtle is stwong!" the boy said proudly, "He bigger dan all dah rest!" Yoshi nodded with a smile, it was just like his youngest to want the strongest looking animal. It was not uncommon for his son to out-muscle the other children at the dojo Yoshi ran, or for his hotheaded son to get angry and defeat even some of the older children during sparring sessions. He could quite easily say that his son was obsessed with power, or at least, being stronger than the next strongest person.

Yoshi turned to his eldest son, who was carefully surveying the tank once more. Slowly, Leonardo raised a finger and pointed at the smallest and brightest colored turtle in the tank.

"That one, the small one." he said to Deborah. Yoshi chuckled at this as well. Leonardo was always watching out for the little ones at the dojo, showing them the correct posture for their kata or bandaging up sprained ankles or other injuries caused by Raphael when they occurred.

"Ah, that little guy?" Deborah asked, pointing at the small turtle and picking it up when the black-haired boy nodded. "He's the last of our hatchlings that were incubated in this very store!" the woman explained, "They were hatched last week, on August 8th. The little ones go fast, you were lucky to get one!" Leonardo grinned at the comment, obviously feeling as if he'd chosen the most special turtle. Deborah let Leonardo tap the turtle on the head, watching it retract into its shell instantly and giggling with amusement before packing it away.

Yoshi thanked the woman as she secured the box together and headed for the cash register. She rang them up and smiled at the excited boys as she handed the box carrying the turtles to their father.

"Don't forget to come back and tell me what you named them!" she said as Yoshi handed Deborah the rat that had moved from his shoulder to the top of his head. She took the rodent hurriedly, "Ah, sorry, it seems like Splinter here likes you!" she jumped and almost dropped the rodent as it squeaked and wriggled violently in her hands. Deborah seemed to pause for a moment, her mahogany eyes glinting with mischief. "You know... I've been trying to sell Splinter here for ages, with no dice. He gets all flustered when someone tries to pick him up. Why don't you take him?"

"Oh, no, miss." Yoshi exclaimed, "We have spent enough money as it is, and-"

"Free of charge, buddy!" Deborah interrupted, thrusting the rat out. Splinter immediately reached out and latched onto Yoshi's white button up shirt, squirming out of Deborah's hands and racing up his chest to sit on Yoshi's wide shoulder. Yoshi could only laugh. The rat had seemed to take a liking to him, and if his sons could enjoy the company of a pet, why couldn't he?

"Alright, then." Yoshi said, bowing slightly to the woman behind the counter, his sons imitating the motion, "We thank you for your graciousness." With that, Deborah saw them to the door, happily telling them what they needed to take care of their new pets and to come back when they had money to buy some proper housing for them. Carrying the box in one hand, rat on one shoulder, and holding Raphael's hand in the other, the three family members made their way out to the streets.

Their apartment was quite a few blocks down, and it was an overcast day, but this did not hamper Yoshi's good mood as he listened quietly to his two boy's excited talks of turtle racing and swimming competitions, zoning out only to think of what he needed to accommodate their new housemates.

Yoshi and company had just crossed their eighth cross walk when he noticed three suspicious men carrying a small black box into a dark alley. Yoshi will not be able to figure out what it was for years to come, but something felt off about the three unnervingly identical men. He looked down at his sons, releasing Raphael's hand and signaling with two fingers for them to remain quiet. His boys nodded, knowing exactly what their father meant.

He looked around, finding that the area around them was completely emptied of people, which was what he would expect. They had been taking a quiet, mostly secluded way back to their home through the back streets of New York City. Yoshi motioned his sons towards a brick wall that was shrouded in shadows. Leonardo and Raphael silently stalked over to it, hiding themselves in the darkness as they watched their father near the alley, not realizing he still had a rat on his shoulder and a box of turtles in one hand.

Rounding the corner into the dark alley, Yoshi was surprised to see one of the men had completely lifted a heavy manhole cover and was holding it above his head as another man had opened the black box and removed a glowing canister from it, twisting off its cap and moving to pour whatever the blue glowing chemical was down into the sewers below. The third man holding a weapon Yoshi had not spotted before was the one who had noticed the spying man.

"That which is known as a human must stop doing what is called hiding." The man said in a monotone voice, pointing his weapon in the direction of the shadow Yoshi was currently hiding in. Realizing the man was asking for a surrender, Yoshi leapt from the shadows, taking the steely faced man by surprise and slapping away the weapon. At this point Yoshi realized he was carrying the box with the turtles in it and tossed it gently to the side, hoping the turtles would not be rattled too much. He used his now free hand to punch the man in the side, gasping in pain at the metallic hardness that met his fist. The man seemed unfazed and threw a punch back at Yoshi, who leapt to the side and used his legs to barrel himself into the one holding the manhole cover. Instantly the man fell over from the force, dropping the heavy metal circle on top of himself. When the man fell the manhole cover pinning his right leg. Yoshi found it unnerving that the man did not scream out in pain, that there was no blood, and that sparks seemed to be coming from the man's crushed limb, but had no time to think about such things.

With one man incapacitated, Yoshi turned to the one with the glowing canister, only to realize that he was gone.

"NO! Let go ah Leo!" Came the bone chilling scream behind him. Yoshi whipped around to see Raphael kicking and screaming while dangling from one man's firm grasp around his tiny wrist. The other man had Leonardo by the throat, moving to pour the chemicals he had in one hand onto his son.

"Get away from my SONS!" Yoshi yelled in his Japanese accent as he lunged at the men, tapping into his taijutsu skills and quickly breaking the arm that was holding his son at the elbow. The arm sparked, just like the other man's leg, and Yoshi's eldest son was released. Pushing the man back with as much force as he could muster up, Yoshi swooped down and gathered his gasping son into his arms and kicked the man holding the younger son in the face. Raphael was quickly released, and Yoshi shoved Leonardo towards him.

"Take your brother and hide!" The father of two demanded his sons. Raphael took ahold of his brother, shaking fiercely but nodding at his father's firm order.

"Sensei!" Raphael said shrilly before he moved towards the shadows, "Turdles!" Yoshi nodded subconsciously as he turned to face the men behind him, who had gathered themselves and were advancing. The Japanese man avoided a skull crushing punch that landed into the brick behind him, leaving a deep imprint of a fist in the building's side. Ducking low, Yoshi tumbled over to the overturned box laying to the side, grunting in frustration at seeing it opened, its occupants crawling away from it.

"Father!" a panicked voice screamed from behind. Yoshi turned only a fraction of a second late. Glowing blue ooze was suddenly covering him along with the turtles beside him and the rat on his shoulder. The chemicals burned through his clothing and scorched his skin. Yoshi let out an agonized cry as his flesh felt like it was melting away from his bones.

"Kraang must use this moment to escape. The plan which is the plan Kraang has come to this place to complete in this place is now compromised." One of the men said robotically to the other, who nodded and gathered up their remaining triplet and rushed out of the area, their disappearance as mysterious as their entrance.

Yoshi screamed as his joints buckled under him, laying on his side and huffing harshly. Leonardo and Raphael rushed up beside him, both of them crying and calling out in terror to their incapacitated father. Yoshi looked up at them, raising his hands in front of him to motion them to stay back. He didn't want any of the chemicals to get onto his boys, even if it had seemed to soak into his skin already. Once he held up his hands, he gasped at the condition they were in. His fingers seemed to be elongating, burning as if on fire as they did so, and Yoshi could see long, dark brown hairs growing from the back of his hands. He clenched his teeth as pain shot through his spine, down to his sciatic nerve. He turned his head in pain as the nerves in his neck spasmed, just in time to see the turtles that had been splashed by the chemicals begin to grow rapidly, their arms and legs stretching and turning into human-like appendages, though they retained their terrapin form. But this was not his biggest concern at the moment.

"Sen...sei?" Leonardo asked, stepping away from Yoshi with a terrified expression. Raphael grabbed onto Leonardo's shirt, moving to hide behind his big brother and trembling terribly. At first, Yoshi assumed his sons were afraid of him, for he could tell his appearance was changing by the way his face was stretching out before him. When he heard an otherworldly screech from on his shoulder though, he knew what his sons were afraid of.

The rodent that had been sitting on his shoulder suddenly sprung towards Yoshi's boys, blue goop, that had not been absorbed into the creature's skin like it had his, dripping from its sides as its lips peeled back to reveal razor-sharp yellow teeth. Splinter's neck suddenly elongated, snapping its head forwards and causing Leonardo to scream and jump back, pushing his little brother away from the creature. The rat let out a long hiss, it's neck twisting around like a serpent as it neared its prey. The rat's eyes were growing, bulging out of its skull sickeningly as it clamped its jaws together, snapping at the two boys.

"No!" Yoshi managed to get out as he reached out with a clawed (well, that was new) hand and pulled on the rodent's tail, yanking the deformed creature sideways and smacking it into a wall. A sickening crack filled the air as the rat's head hit hard brick. Splinter went limp, only twitching momentarily before going still forever.

Yoshi also went limp, relief flooding through his muscles and bones as the pain that was coursing through him suddenly ceased to plague him. He laid on the cold pavement of the alley, reaching up to rub his face in exhaustion. Through his fingers he could feel coarse hair all over his face, and he could see the long snout protruding from it as well, covered in brown, black, and white hairs and... Whiskers?

"Father?" Leonardo quietly broke Yoshi's fascination with his changed form. His now brown eyes fell upon the young child, whose features were riddled with fear and uncertainty. The slight tremble in his oldest son's voice broke his heart into a thousand pieces.

What had he gotten them into?

Before Yoshi could give any comforting words to his boys, the wail of an infant filled the air. Leonardo and Raphael immediately looked to their left, at the source of the crying. Exhausted at that moment, Yoshi found himself unable to look in the direction that Raphael had suddenly run off in. The younger boy seemed to have forgotten his fear that consumed him only moments ago.

"My turdle got bigger!" he heard the younger son yelp excitedly. Instantly, Yoshi's mind flashed back to the mutated rodent that had attacked his sons only moments before. Fearing the same ravenous mutation had happened to the turtles that had been exposed to the chemicals, Yoshi managed to flip himself over, about to yell out at Raphael to stay away from the animals. What he saw stopped the words from forming.

The brunette boy had picked up one of the obviously mutated turtles. The olive-green turtle that was being held was several times larger than it had previously been. It's limbs no longer resembled that of a normal red-eared slider, but were shaped like a human child's would. The reptile's feet had rounded out, no longer carrying webbing or claws as it had previously, and the feet on the upper arms had turned into hands, three stubby green digits coming from each. Even its face shape had started to form in a humanistic shape, though no human nose had grown. The turtle-child was quietly observing Raphael with curious mahogany eyes that suddenly reminded Yoshi of the woman from the pet store.

Raphael was beaming at the turtle, holding at arm's length, when Leonardo carefully stepped away from his father and moved towards the crying turtle that was lying on the ground. Yoshi pushed himself up, arms shaking as he did so, and observed the second mutated creature that his oldest son picked up. This turtle had formed much like the other, except for it being about half the size, and a lighter shade of lime green. Yoshi had the peculiar feeling he was looking at two young children, not mysterious mutated animals.

Leonardo hesitantly moved the infant turtle to his shoulder and patted its carapace. The crying halted abruptly, replaced by quiet sniffles and hiccups. It was a surreal, oddly peaceful moment for the Hamato family- young human children comforting and playing with infant mutated turtles in a dark alley after their father had been attacked by strange human triplets with inhuman strength and transformed into an unrecognizable beast.

That moment was shattered, though, by the blaring of a police siren nearby and red and blue light penetrating the darkness. Yoshi panicked for only a moment, realizing that someone had probably heard the skirmish and called the police. He was in no state to be seen by the local law enforcement, alongside bruised children and strange turtle babies.

"Leonardo, Raphael!" Yoshi snapped, gaining the attention of his sons instantly. He would have found it curious how his children still responded to his voice though his form was twisted beyond recognition if it were not for the situation at hand, "Come, we must flee to safety." The man mustered up the rest of his strength, looking around and spotting the only option they would have in this dead-end alley, "To the sewers."

At that, Yoshi pushed his sons towards the still exposed manhole. Leonardo wearily glanced at his father, the uncertainty riddling his features. Raphael, oddly enough, seemed unfazed by their father's new appearance.

"Sensei!" his passionate son complained when Yoshi told his son to set the turtle down and grab the rungs of the ladder leading into an ink black void below, "Can't jus leave him! Have to take him too!" The youngest son squeezed his turtle close to him, making the creature reach out involuntarily and push against his captor's face to escape the grasp.

"I will bring them down after you two have made it safety below." Yoshi reassured his youngest while gently prying the turtle child from his son's clutches, "Now, go!" Raphael nodded in defeat at his father's stern and flat tone. The youngster started carefully down the ladder, Leonardo close behind, having already handed over the smaller turtle.

"Father...?" the black-haired child said hesitantly, peeking just barely over the edge of the hole he had begun climbing into.

"It is still me, my son." Yoshi stated as soothingly as he could in the tight situation, "Please trust me, follow your brother." Leonardo nodded slowly, ducking down into the darkness. After his sons had descended a few feet, Yoshi adjusted his hold on the two turtles, moving the bigger one's arms around his neck so that it was latched onto him, and cradling the other in his right arm. Having seen the obvious intelligence and emotion in the two, Yoshi's instinct told him that these beings were no doubt sentient. Under no circumstances would he have left a human child alone in a back alley of New York, the same applied with these turtles.

Hearing voices behind him, Yoshi quickly worked his way down the manhole, moving the heavy cover with much effort back into place. He hurriedly moved down, finding his sons waiting for him at the base of the ladder.

"We must move my sons, it is not safe here." Yoshi told them, helping the olive turtle move into a more comfortable position in his arms.

"Are we goin home?" came Leonardo's weak voice. Yoshi gulped hard at the question. There was no way he, a giant furry beast, could carry four children, two of them mutant reptiles, into the fourth floor of an apartment building in a heavily populated area without being seen. He searched out for his son's hand in the dark, squeezing it with gentle yet firm reassurance.

"I am afraid we cannot return to our home just yet, Leonardo."

"Were will we go?"

"I don't know, but as long as you are with me, I will always find a way to protect you."

I just needed some relief from the writer's block, and this was the only thing on my mind! I plan on leaving this open until I get further on in my other TMNT story, but please! Let me know if you would like to see this continued! :)