A YJA Moment - Splinter

There lived a rat, but one very extraordinary rodent.  His ancestors were granted sentience from a fragment of the same alien meteorite which uplifted the primates of Gorilla City.  While playing in his forest, he was caught in a rainstorm and was flushed away in the flood that followed.

The young rat would surely have perished if he hadn't been rescued by a young man named Hamato Yoshi.  Yoshi was a famed assassin for The Hand and was attempting to escape his own demise at the hands of the League of Shadows, whose regional overseer he had just murdered.  After escaping the Dark Archer Malcolm Merlyn, he returned to his home in New York and made the rat, whom he named Splinter, his pet.

For many years Splinter served as the beloved pet for Master Yoshi, who had risen in the ranks of the Hand to become one of the leaders of the Eastern Seaboard. Possessing an eidetic memory, Splinter learned the arts of Ninjitsu through watching his owner and students practice.  Soon his knowledge rivaled that of the greatest shadow warrior in The Hand.

Oroku Saki was one of Yoshi's former students, who had risen within the ranks of the Hand.  His ambition knew no bounds and he chafed under the rules and codes of honor of the leadership.  During an argument between Saki and Yoshi, the fight broke out which destroyed the dojo and set Splinter free. Saki slew his old master and took his place as a Ninja Master.

The young rat escaped into the sewers where he lived for many months, feeding on refuse that he found.  During one such foray for food, he was dowsed by radioactive chemicals that had seeped into the drains from an accident on the road far above him.  This Mutagens changed Splinter, granting him an anthropomorphic shape.  They also altered four young turtles as well.

Now mutated into a humanoid form, Splinter took the four turtles as his charges, keeping them safe and teaching them the ways of Ninjitsu.  After years of training, he has set them on a new path, discovering their origins and seeking vengeance for the death of Hamato Yoshi.