Jaboon

        Donatello kneeled next to his younger brother’s bed and gently dabbed at his fevered brow with a wet washcloth. He’d been watching over the youngest mutant all night since Mikey became violently ill after dinner. Donnie’s eye ridges knitted together as he set the washcloth back into the basin of water next to him. He leaned against Mikey’s bed and rested his chin on his folded arms. He was exhausted from a long day of training and working in his lab, but didn’t want to leave his ailing brother alone.         “Donnie?” Mikey rasped out into the dark room.        Donnie jolted upright, realizi

        Master Splinter stood at the island counter in their kitchen, scooping algae and worms onto plates for his sons. The disgusting green goo and wiggling worms made his stomach churn as he prepared their meal. For five years he’d been eating algae and worms with his sons, to ensure their health and satisfy their turtle nutritional needs, but he desperately missed the home cooked Japanese food his deceased wife Tang Shen used to make for dinner.        As he spooned the dollops of food onto their plates, his oldest son, Leonardo, stood behind him and twirled his bald, pink tail as if it were a jump rope. Master Splinter chuckled a

        “Mikey, it’s my turn!” Raphael narrowed his eyes and attempted to yank the yellow dump truck away from the smaller, freckled turtle.        “No Waphie! It’s my tuwn wiff the dump twuck! You just had it!” Michelangelo pouted, stomping his right foot and pulling the truck back towards his plastron.        “Let go, Mikey!” Raphael grunted and slapped Michelangelo’s arm painfully.        The younger turtle released the toy, letting his arms drop to his sides as tears welled up in his sky blue eyes. Michelangelo threw his head back and wailed loudly. Raphael ignored the crying while

        Master Splinter sat at the kitchen table with his paws wrapped around a dark green, chipped teacup. It had been a father’s day present from Raphael when he was 6-years-old. During the Kraang’s invasion of the lair, the teacup fell out of the cabinet and miraculously only chipped rather than shattering like the majority of their belongings.        Instead of drowning like he presumed his fate would be after his faceoff with the Shredder, Master Splinter woke up on a sewer platform several sectors away from the lair. He’d been happily surprised to find Karai watching over him and tending to his ribboned arm. As wonder

        Mikey stood in front of Master Splinter’s shrine, staring at the photograph of his father when he was human with his deceased wife, Tang Shen, and infant daughter, Miwa. Mikey frowned and stretching up on tiptoe, gently brushed his first finger across the glass. His frown deepened and he took the picture off the shelf. Quietly, he crept towards the tree that grew in their dojo. He leaned his carapace against the trunk and studied the image of his father in the moonlight that filtered in from the grates above.        Before Donnie offered to return Master Splinter to human form with the r

        It was the night before Halloween and the boys had insisted on watching scary movies to get in the spirit for the most haunted day of the year. Master Splinter had purchased several classic horror films online for the boys to indulge in, using his personal banking account that he still had from his days as a human. He warned them not to keep watching if they thought they were too scary. He didn’t want any bed wetting if they had nightmares.         He had stayed up with them for the first two movies, Dracula and Nosferatu, but had retired to his bedroom claiming he was tired. Donnie didn’t want to admit he found the movi

       It had started out like any other normal day. The five-year-old mutant turtles had woken up early for morning ninjutsu practice, thanks to Leo getting everybody out of bed on time, despite the grumbling from his younger brothers. After training, which had included performing previous learned katas and ending with some sparring, Master Splinter made breakfast. So far they had only ever eaten algae and worms, but he had looked into other foods that turtles were known to eat and decided to surprise his sons that day.        When the boys sat down at the table, he placed a bowl of algae and worms i

     “Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!”       Master Splinter looked up from his book, All About Turtles, to see his four two-year-old sons running into the living room towards him. “What is it my sons?”      “Whose awe we?” Mikey giggled and pointed to the red mask he was wearing instead of his usual orange.       Master Splinter chuckled when he realized what they meant. “Did you all switch masks to confuse me?”      The boys all grinned up at him, trying to stifle their giggles behind their small hands. Even though they ha

       “Again,” Leo barked angrily.        They’d been training for hours in the dojo. They were all sweating profusely and their legs felt like jelly from repeating so many katas. His brothers stared at him warily. Leo’s shoulders were tensed and his mouth was set in a thin line. They knew he was stressed about their most recent run in with the Foot and had been acting uptight and moody since. It was really starting to grate on Raph’s nerves.        “No Leo, not again,” Raph growled, tossing his sai’s behind him and lunged at the young leader. “I’m done with your shit Leo.”