#poor splinter

The thing weirds the 12 boys out the most about this universe is how different Splinter is. They're used to a wise, strict and stoic Sensei, which is very much not what Rise Splinter is. Turned his back on his family, ran off to seek fame and fortune as the actor Lou Jitsu (tho he's intent on keeping that a secret from his boys), and is still running from his past, not to mention his somewhat unconventional methods of training… Yep, nothing like the Splinter they knew.

When they describe their Sensei to him he goes: "Huh, he sounds exactly like my Jiji." Which of course is followed by the terrible realisation that there is a version of him that grew up to become exactly like his grandfather. This is how Splinter ends up on the floor, loudly and dramatically lamenting while pleading his kids to tell him he's still cool! He's still cool right? He isn't becoming his grandfather right? RIGHT!?

Naturally the tots try their best to reassure him, but we all know how brutally honest kids can be... Like, he's their dad, of course they think he's the coolest! Tho it would be cooler if he was a tiger instead of a rat. And he is kinda out of shape and lazy. And he does get cranky and yell a lot too. And maybe he could bath more often? Or at least change his robe?

Ten minutes should have been more than enough. Then ten turned to fifteen and Splinter started to worry. When sirens started to sound off in the streets below, he could felt as if he had swallowed his heart and it was still beating while still in his stomach. His being churned with a cold nausea as scenarios ran his mind into a painful war zone.

“April…?” Splinter peered over the wall, his twitching nose betraying his anxiety. It stopped just in front of a pizzeria and the rescuers ran in with a stretcher. Then like a speeding bullet, out they came with an unconscious young girl held on the carrier between them. “APRIL!”

His immediate reaction was to run out to his daughter's aid. He had slung almost the entirety of his body over the wall before his mind could catch up to the actions of his body. There were so many people down there. New Yorkers watching and whispering as they watched the poor girl be taken away into the wailing vehicle. Splinter watched helplessly as it drove away. 

Slow as if he were made of stone, he pulled himself to hide behind the wall once more and curled into a tight ball to hide in the shadow. It was barely big enough to hide him anymore and quickly being eaten away by the sun, but it was enough for now. He couldn’t catch up. Even if he gage it his all and ran himself to the ground. He was old. He wasn’t Yoshi anymore, and this definitely wasn’t a movie.

She was going to a hospital. She was going to get help there and return to him when she was better. But she couldn’t do that if she didn’t know where he was! That’s how he justified him laying there helpless and silently brewing in his hurricane of self-hatred. He just had to hide and wait, like he’d done for fourteen years. Why, then, did this time feel so agonizingly impossible?

The sun hurt. It stung his eyes and almost seemed to burn his sensitive pink skin. He felt uncomfortable in the very fur covering his body. In all of fourteen years in this body, he could count the amount of times he’d been exposed to direct sunlight on two paws. He would be able to move a lot faster come night, without the sun to burn and blind him. If she didn’t returned by then, he told himself that he would go find her. It couldn’t be so hard, and he’d certainly had similar trials of difficult endeavors. For now, however, he was so tired mentally and physically that he just wanted to sleep. His family would be okay… they were okay… they were okay…

He couldn’t have been in that state for very long before he heard a faint, familiar hum. He rubbed his ears and silently cursed tinnitus before sliding his paws to his eyes for additional shelter. A second of thought later, he recognized that it wasn’t tinnitus— it was familiar to him in a different way.

“Blue…?” He lifted his paws from his muzzle and squinted up at two shadows staring down at him.

“Pops!”

Splinter grunted as the smaller of the shadows ran and scooped him up, powerful arms crushing him in a hug.

“Orange!” Hugged the box turtle in turn, “Blue!”

Splinter closed his eyes and gave a content sigh as Blue hugged both him and Orange.

“Dad. You okay?”

“Yes, I am fine. Oh, my boys…” Splinter teared up as he brought his paws to both of his sons’ cheeks and stroked them gently. 

Blue let his cheek be pet a moment longer before taking Splinter’s paw in his hand with gentle rubs of his thumb on the rat's palm. 

“Dad— where’s April? We thought she’d be with you.”

Splinter’s ears perked up slightly, but then quickly fell in response to the question. “I… she was. I don’t know what happened…”

“Do you know where she is?” Blue asked, his voice still happy and calm as he addressed the old rat, “I mean, she’s probably better off than us in the city, you know with this whole… situation.” 

“She… went to get food.” Splinter explained softly, then quickly changed the subject. “Where are your brothers? Where are Red and Purple?”

“Relax. They’re safe I promise.” Blue reassured with a pat to Splinter’s shoulder. “They’re… in the sewer. And Raph’s all patched up. We can go meet them after April gets back.”

“Did she just leave her bat here…?” Orange picked open the engraved bat and frowned as he turned it around in his hand. “She never leaves her bat… she loves this thing!”

“Not like she could bring it into a sushi bar, Miguel. Not even a skeevy burger joint would let her bring in a weapon! Probably safer to leave it here with dad anyway. When do you think she’ll be back? Cause we got a quad squad of angry Shrek’s on our shell that mean business and are even uglier than Raph.”

“What?” Splinter said sharply. “What Shrek’s?”

Blue hummed while he considered his words, and then said, “Eh, long story. So April?”

“She… I don’t know what happened. The ambulance took her…”

“What?” Blue’s cheery voice quickly shifted down an octave and Blue’s grip on his fathers shoulder tightened.

“Omigosh!”

“Is she okay?”

“I don’t know— she was fine when she left here.”

“How long ago?” Blue interjected sharply, “How long ago did they take her?”

“I don’t know, maybe twenty minutes?” Splinter estimated. 

“Then she’d be at the hospital right now…” Blue put his odachi to his forehead to keep the sun out of his eyes as he looked around the city, “Closest hospital is… that one!” He pointed to a distant building that Splinter could barely make out. “I think. You stay here, pops. Mikey and I will go check on April.”

“None of you are going anywhere.”

At the new voice, Splinter felt his fur stand on end. He tried to push past Blue and Orange to put himself between them and whatever the massive four yokai were— big like Red, with an odd assortment of trinkets hanging from them like Orange usually had. Splinter see the outlines of shells— big, bulky shells. Kappa maybe? They were a bit oversized from the ones he was used to seeing in the Hidden City…

“Oh come on! Not these guys again!” Orange groaned. “I thought we gots rid of you!

“Pops, it's cool.” Blue said quickly, drawing Splinter from his thoughts of monsters. “They’re just egotistical show offs. Dad, meet the other turtles. Other turtles, my dad.”

One of the shorter shadows crouched down and offered a three-fingered hand. “Sorry to startle you, but your sons here have caused me and my brothers some trouble.”

As Splinter focused on the yokai’s face, he could start to make out the color of a blue mask and green skin. Other turtles? Splinter grunted, but accepted the hand. It was rough and callused from years of hard training and blistering skin, and the grip itself was firm.