Puppeteer (TMNT AU)

Prologue

The cold night air brushed over his cool skin, sending chills through his body, it warned of the coming winter. He sat atop the roof, looking down over the pollution-covered city, the soft light of a sun at dawn reflecting off of the glass on certain buildings. The chilling breeze ruffled his sapphire blue mask, making the azure flames on the tips suddenly jolt to life. Maybe it was a curse to be gifted with the color blue. It represents lots of things, but the ones that stand out the most to him are depression, calm and wisdom, all of which are normal traits of his personality, like the colors of all his siblings are.

Another chilling gust of wind ruffled his scarf. "Want to call it a day?" He asked, turning towards his younger brothers, and making the sapphire hood of his scarf fall off his forest-green head.

"Sure. Jonin will be mad if he finds out that his precious chunin was out after hours," Raph mocked, rolling his eyes. He wore a crimson mask, with orange-red flames rising off the tips and escalating to the middle of the mask, where they then faded out. Red to represent the blood he could spill, the rage.

"We're alone, we can call them by their names." Donnie pointed out. He wore a purple mask, and the flames on the tips were amethyst, representing mystery and creativity. Each flame was outlined in a thin violet, whereas Raph's were outlined in red and mine in black.

"Let's just get home. It's freezing!" Mikey complained. He wore an orange mask, with tangerine flames, outlined in gold, representing amusement, the unconventional, extroversion, energy and danger, and it was by far the most beautiful mask of the seven siblings.

"Mikey's right, come on guys." He said, jumping down the nearest fire escape. There was less warmth in the sewers, but that's how they traveled. The jonin, Master Splinter, sensei and father to seven children, insisted they not be seen, especially since the mutagen incident a few years back. But no one was allowed to talk about it, or think about it.

Leonardo wasn't the oldest, that role fell to Karai, she was human, the only of seven to not have been hit by mutagen, and she was seventeen years old. The second eldest was Jennika, she wore a yellow mask with peach-colored flames, outlined with a light sepia, representing betrayal, happiness, and deception. Leo was the third eldest, and first male born into the family. Then right after him was Venus, she wore a baby blue mask, braided and slowly degrading into white, representing trustworthiness and reliability. She'd chosen the mask herself. Raph or Raphael came right after. Then Donnie or Donatello, and after that Mikey or Michelangelo.

The age difference between us was the following; two years in between Karai and Jennika, one year between Jenny and Leo, six months between Leo and Venus, one year between Venus and Raph, two years between Raph and Donnie, and seven months between Donnie and Mikey. Mikey and Karai have a seven year age difference. It's as if Mikey was the turtle to declare that there would only ever be seven.

He jerked from his thoughts at the sudden cold that smacked him in the face. 'Great. The wind's picked up. Now we have to try not to fly away and be seen!' He groaned at the thought of traveling through that, but they really had no choice, unless they wanted to be seen.

"What now?" Raph asked, clearly irritated. "Now, we move." Leo glared at Raph, continuing ahead. "Whatever you say, chunin." Raph sneered, bowing. "Oh, save it," Leo was not dealing with Raph's attitude right now.

They mostly traveled in silence the rest of the way to their HQ. Column after column passed, and with each one he felt as if he grew another year. Going home would be nice for the warmth, but Raph was right, he'd have to explain to their father why they'd been out during the day. Only daylight ninja were allowed to do that, and he and the rest of the mutant ninjas qualified as more of the 'nighttime' ninja.

After a while, they reached an old building, but as they say, never judge a book by its cover. He pushed open the doors, and revealed a huge garden, the size of if not bigger than a football field, dotted with humans and mutants. Every one meter, a cement column that went up to the glass roof was placed, colored white, with vines twisting up around the side so perfectly, that it seemed they'd been placed there. At the far end, there was an ivory deck, on it was set a velvet, red chair, in which Master Splinter was seated. A dirt path with smooth white, and clean stones led up to it, and oak trees planted at an equal distance from each other formed a line towards the deck. The leaves were green all year-long, and they never littered the ground.

When the sun shone through the windows, everything was bathed in an orangey yellow glow. Small streams of clean water swerved around the trunks, and ended in the shallow moat surrounding the deck, with catfish swimming around, and lily pads dotting the top of the water. The roof arched into a triangle, and there was no trace of any dirt on them. On each side of the deck was a light brown door, with minty green vines covering everything but the golden handle.

"Greetings, my sons, welcome home," Splinter dipped his head as the quadruplet reached him. Leo bowed back, but his brothers headed for the doors. They were avoiding getting in trouble. Splinter waited until the others had left the garden, then turned to Leo. 'Here it is...I'm so dead.' Leo thought. "Leonardo, go join your siblings quickly, you'll be late for practice!" Splinter said, seeming confused as to why he was still there. Leo avoided signing in relief, and rather said "hai sensei," before rushing to training.

He opened the door on the left to his father, and entered a long hall. On the walls of the same side as the entrance, wooden columns were lined, with vines going up them, like the previous ones in the garden, spaced about every five feet from each other. Doors lined the walls opposite of the entrance doors, each door was wooden, like the entirety of the hall. Dorms for two people each lay behind the doors, and the stairs on either end of the hall led to a second floor, where the dojo and two extra rooms lay. The first was Splinter's, and the second had been for their mother before the-no, he couldn't think about it, it was forbidden.

He jumped the stairs two by two, passed the first door, slid open the shoji, and ended up in the dojo. As always, he was the first one there. He would just have to wait for the rest of his siblings to get there.

A.N. A little choppy, let me know what you think, and if you want me to continue! Thanks for reading! (Updated the size of the garden)