Heroes In A Half Shell

Heroes In A Half Shell is a two-part episode which includes the first two episodes of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Heroes In A Half Shell (TV Series idea).

Synopsis
The Turtles learn their origin and set out to get revenge on the Shredder…

Major Characters:

 * Leonardo
 * Donatello
 * Raphael
 * Michelangelo
 * Splinter
 * Shredder

Minor Characters:

 * The Purple Dragons


 * Bebop and Rocksteady
 * The Shredder Elite (Shiva Shredder, Claw Shredder & Mini Shredder)
 * Hamato Yoshi (Flashback)
 * Tang Shen (Flashback)
 * Oroku Nagi (Flashback)

Heroes In A Half Shell, part 1
The episode begins with a bank robbery. The thiefs are the Purple Dragon gand led by Beabop and Rocksteady. The Dragons escape with the money and head to an alleyway where four strangers await them. The four strangers appear to be green, wearing masks and calling themselves - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The turtles mop the alleyway with the gang, but then a group of some ninjas attacks them. The turtles manage to escape, but so do the other ninjas, leaving all the money to the police which arrives shortly after the brothers disappear into the night.

They return to the storm drain - or so do Leonardo calls their lair. The TMNT tell their master what happened to them, about the street gang they had stopped and the ninjas they fought. When Splinter learns about the other ninjas he decides to tell his sons about their origin story or at least the part he knows of it. He tells them that he was an ordinary rat.

As it begins thirty years ago in Japan. Splinter's master Hamato Yoshi is a member of the Foot Clan. Yoshi had a bitter rivalry with a fellow clan member, Oroku Nagi. They competed fiercely in all things. They both fell in love with a beautiful girl named Tang Shen, but she loved only one of them in return: Splinter's Master, Yoshi. Nagi became extremely jealous and one night in a fit of rage he went to Tang Shen's home and demanded that she love only him. She refused, and Nagi began to beat her. Just then, Yoshi came upon them, and in a fit of red rage he slew Nagi. This was a shameful act in the eyes of the Foot Clan, as one member must never kill another. Yoshi had two choices: he could take his own life in ritual suicide and hope for honor in the next life, or he could flee the Clan and attempt to start a new life. Master Yoshi decided on the latter, and fled to New York City with Tang Shen, Splinter, and a few possessions. He started his own martial arts school and all went well for years. Fifteen years after Nagi's death in Japan, his brother Saki had sworn vengeance against Yoshi. His anger pushed him to become a premiere ninja in the Foot, and as a reward for his hard work and diligence, the Clan sent him to New York City to lead the Big Apple's branch of ninjas. Saki recognized this as his opportunity to reap his revenge against Hamato Yoshi and slay him. Anguished over the death of his Master, Splinter fled to the alleys and lived off of garbage scraps. Until the day when a TCRI truck drove by, and a strange canister flew out of its hold. The container struck a young man in the head, bounced off of the pavement and smashed into a boy's aquarium filled with turtles. The shattered glass, canister and turtles all fell into an open manhole cover, dropping into the murky sewer below. The metal container held some strange chemical, and when it hit the floor of the sewer it broke, bathing the turtles in its glowing ooze. Splinter, curious, went to see what had become of the turtles. He collected them into a coffee can and cleaned the goo off of them as best he could. The next day the wise rat found that he and the turtles were mutating... becoming more human-like with each passing day! Eventually the turtles spoke, and Splinter began to set his own plan for vengeance into motion. He began training the turtles in the art of ninjitsu that he had learned from Hamato Yoshi. He named each turtle after a famous Renaissance artist, whose names he had found in an old book forsaken in the sewer.

After learning about their origin the brothers already know what they should do - to avenge master Yoshi and kill the evil Shredder. At this time Oroku Saki was a town councilor and that's the perfect cover for him and his illegal work. That knowledge of him helps the turtles to track him down. It appears that he's living on the top of a skyscraper in downtown Manhattan where he has a house (on the top of the building)! Difficult task for the turtles but they manage to find a way in. Unfortunately the building appears to be full of Foot Clan members and that's actually their HQ. The brothers make their way to the next floor where they discover a genetic lab where three mutants await them...

Heroes In A Half Shell, part 2
The turtles must find a way to destroy the Shredder clones as they still need to reach the top of the building in order to face the Shredder and defeat him. While Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo distract the three mutants, Donatello finds a way to destroy the clones, he cut some wires and puts them into the spilled water. It gives short circuit and fries the freaks making them explode. The brothers continue to climb the floors but just one floor under the Shredder's appartment there's a trap hallway. The four mutants manage to make their way through it and reach the top floor where the Shredder awaits them in his battle armor. The Shredder learns that they were sent to destroy him as a revenge for Hamato Yoshi and that intrigues him. How four turtles were raised and trained so one day they can defeat him whitout really knownig nothing about him. Their fight continues quite long as he counters every attack and then strikes deadly. However, in the end he is stabbed by Leonardo's katana and is presumed dead.

The turtles return to their lair and tell Splinter about the fight and how they have won. Their master is relieved and proud. However, back at the Foot HQ the Shredder takes a breath once more...

Trivia

 * The first two episodes for the series
 * Adapted from TMNT Classics #1 and the three-part Return To New York book
 * Adapted from the TMNT 2k3 Series episodes Things Change & Return To New York
 * Adapted from the TMNT 2k12 Series episode Return To New York
 * Adapted from the comic book - TMNT The Dawn Of The Ninja