Chapter Text
The Origins of the Hamato Clan
Collected by Venus Hamato,
the forgotten turtle.
Leonardo
My name’s Leonardo and I’m a mutant. In this world that means danger. It means having to live in the shadows and be ready to run or fight for your life at any time.
It’s been nearly ten years since the Kraang were overthrown and my brothers and I escaped from TCRI. It’s been quite the adventure ever since, the kind where you never know where the next threat or your next meal might come from. We’ve fought mutants and mutant hunters, survived in places most people don’t even know exist and through things most people couldn’t imagine, but through it all, we’ve stuck together.
My name is Leonardo and I’m the leader of the Hamato Clan and that means I’ve got something worth fighting for.
[Excerpt from The Journals of Leonardo Hamato]
Let’s rewind to where it all started, before the mutants, before the rebellions, before the apocalypse…
Our story begins thousands of years ago in a galaxy known only as Dimension X (except for the myriad of other ominous titles it has collected in interplanetary folklore, such as the Prison Dimension, the Shadow World, and Thkrdltkstspi!, a name too horrifying to be translated into any earthly language). A long since forgotten race of aliens created the first ever artificial intelligence and called it the Kraang. Its purpose was to learn and adapt, evolving to become a higher life form.
It was a smashing success, a true masterwork of bioengineering. It learned cell multiplication from bacteria and information transference from computers. Its progress was exponential, constantly reaching for more the more it learned. It soon surpassed the intelligence of its creators, and having learned that the most efficient path towards higher evolution was the extinction of the weak, it proceeded to wipe them out and steal their resources to use in its pursuit of knowledge.
It spread from planet to planet like a virus, infiltrating silently, growing in the shadows as it gathered data, then conquering and launching off to consume further targets. Sometimes a planet fell quickly, when its inhabitants were simple and it didn’t take the Kraang long to understand everything it wanted to know about them. Sometimes the Kraang lingered upon discovery of a more complex species, studying and experimenting to see what characteristics it may find useful to adopt. One planet held a species so strange it observed them secretly for nearly a hundred years. It was a species full of paradoxes and enigmas that confounded all of its interplanetary logic. These strikingly nonsensical creatures call themselves humans.
B5h-P (Bishop)
The age of the infiltration of earth is, as the humans would say, an exciting time to be alive. The Kraang has learned much from studying this species, including the concepts of ‘individuality’ and ‘language’. It is undecided whether these are necessarily good ideas yet, but we’re trying them out, hence the term we.
I, as part of the newest evolution of Kraang who possesses separated sentience, have been designated B5h-P. This is my first day at TCRI, the Techno Cosmic Research Institute, where I will begin my study on earth biology.
[Progress report 1, two years before Kraang occupation of earth]
After five earth years of research and experimentation, I have finally engineered my first mutants! By combining human and turtle DNA, I have created creatures with both superior physiology and intelligence. I am very excited to see how they will develop and have been researching the human concept of ‘education’ to possibly enhance that development. Inspired by my studies, I have named my creations Leonardo and Donatello.
[Progress report 97, three years into Kraang occupation]
The more I study humans, the more I am fascinated by them. They do so many things for no discernable reason, like laughter and art and dance. Perhaps I will make another mutant to further explore these mysteries.
[Progress report 135, five years into Kraang occupation]
The human uprising has led to increased demand for military focused scientific production. Under severe pressure from the administration, I have begun engineering a fourth turtle with enhanced combat capabilities. Physically, he will be the strongest and most durable of my creations, but I am wary of the effect the administration's demands may have on its mind.
[Progress report 217, seven years into Kraang occupation]
I believe I am experiencing what the humans call ‘frustration.’ The administration has taken control of the guided development of my creations and is now training them for combat. While I know they are certainly physically capable of withstanding the training and testing, according to human standards they are only children and I do not see this as beneficial for their psychological and emotional development, a complaint the administration does not seem to understand.
[Progress report 298, eight years into Kraang occupation]
My creations seem to be adjusting to the new demands by inventing a form of imaginative play they call “Ninja Turtles” which seems to consist of reinterpreting their combat training through the framework of what they learned about medieval japanese warriors from story books I read to them, the construction of a fantasy narrative around the day to day events of their lives, and the development of a new vocabulary of nonsense words including “booyakasha!” and “cowabunga!” The administration is confused by this new behavior and has inquired into whether it may be indicative of neurological dysfunction. I for one am glad to see the persistence of their humor, creativity, and imagination even as the administration attempts to overwrite it.
[Progress report 305, eight years into Kraang occupation]
Donatello
Leon and I have been together for as long as we can remember. My earliest memories are of us sneaking around through TCRI, trying to get out of training and find a place to play away from the Kraang scientists. It’s crazy to think how long we lived knowing nothing but alien cyborgs, other test subjects, and white metal walls. We were nearly six years old when we started hearing bits and pieces about the war going on outside. The rebellion was finally gaining some traction and the Kraang were getting nervous.
Honestly, we had no idea what the real world was like, but we had a dream of a world where we weren’t stabbed with needles every day and forced to train for hours on end, a world where we could be more than test subjects destined to become mindless soldiers. So we made a pact to break out together. That whole year we spent every spare moment between tests scoping out possible exit routes and scheming up ways we could get us and the younger turtles out. All we needed was an opportunity. That came the day the resistance broke into TCRI.
[Transcription of recording made during the programming of D0n13, an artificial intelligence intended to replace Donatello Hamato in the event of his death]
Casey Jones
My Ma was a hero. When the invasion broke out, she and her biker gang, the Purple Dragons, fought back against the aliens. It was pocket knives and crowbars against monsters and lasers, but they bought enough time for people to escape. The City was overrun in a matter of hours, but my Ma and her gang gathered as many survivors as they could and went into hiding.
The next seven years were rough. The Kraang took over the earth and proclaimed themselves our supreme leader. Anybody who tried to disobey them and got caught was killed or went missing, but the Purple Dragons never stopped fighting. They smuggled people out of the city and found other resistance groups, gathering forces till they were finally ready to take the fight to the enemy. Retaking New Jersey sparked a flame that ignited a rebellion all over the world. Three years later, on the ten year anniversary of the invasion, my Ma led the attack on the Kraang headquarters in New York City, TCRI.
[Introduction to speech delivered before the second Battle of New York City against the mutant revolution]
TCRI was burned to the ground after the resistance broke in. Decades worth of research was destroyed. Scientists and science experiments alike were killed in the halls and left for the fire to scourge. Very few life forms made it out alive.
Michelangelo
I think our escape from TCRI might be my earliest memory. I was only four. Raph was two. Don and Leon were seven. I remember the sound of the alarm blaring and shouts from everywhere as Don dragged me by the arm. Leon was carrying Raph. He had to knock the little guy out to keep him from kicking and screaming. It was the first time any of us had seen humans, and they were terrifying.
[from interview aired on Channel 6 with Michaelangelo Hamato, the mutant street artist whose work inspired the Pro-Mutant Movement]
April O’Neil
I met the Hamatos before they were the Hamatos, before there was a Hamato Clan, back when they were just the Ninja Turtles. They had been living on their own for years and had managed to stay out of most of the conflict of the second revolution. That all changed when Raph got captured by the Purple Dragons.
[Excerpt from article on on the history of the Pro-Mutant Movement, written by its founder, April O'Neil]
Raphael
Life on the run is all I’ve ever known. It’s hard and dangerous, but that’s just how the world is for mutants like us. You can’t trust anybody. We’ve had our run-ins with other mutants, they never ended well. We’ve been robbed, lied to, and nearly eaten more times than I can count. I can’t say I really blame them though. We’re all just trying to survive in this world that’s trying to hunt us to extinction.
The humans are the real monsters. They’re not hunting for their next meal. They’re not defending themselves from being eaten. They just kill because they hate. It’s not enough for them to have won the war, they have to scourge the earth of every trace of it till they can pretend it never happened, and they can’t do that till every last one of the monsters the Kraang created are dead at their feet.
So am I a monster? Maybe I am. Maybe it’s what I was made to be. The one thing I know for sure is that I sure as shell ain’t the only one. So if it takes being a monster to stay alive in this world and keep my brothers safe, that’s what I’ll be.
[the words of Raphael Hamato before his first fight in the Battle Nexus, recorded by Karai]
But I’ve seen you be cruel and I've seen you be kind. I’ve
watched you switch your whole personality at the flip
of a dime. Are you really trying to tell me
none of that was an act?
Oh, I’m sure a lot of it is. There have certainly
been times when I’ve smiled and played along when
I didn’t feel like it, or put on a bit of a show for the audience,
but doesn’t everyone do that sometimes? Don’t you ever do
something you don’t feel like doing but know you should?
Have you never put on a braver or happier face
for the sake of those around you?
Well of course I have. That’s part of what it means
to be a leader and a big brother. But it definitely gets hard
sometimes, and at the end of the day, it’s good to have
someone I can just be myself around. Don’t you
have anyone you trust enough to share
the real you with?
I don’t know if I’ve ever really trusted anybody. If I ever did, it
would probably be you. You know my story better than anyone. You've seen
more sides of me than most people know exist. I just wish I had a real me to share.
[from The Collected Quotes of Two Wandering Souls, an anthology of memories with Karai, written by Leonardo Hamato]
As I write this, I know it will be my final progress report. Despite the many hollow assurances of the administration, I know that it’s only a matter of time before the rebellion seizes TCRI. As I doubt I will be left alive to see the dawn of the ‘new day’ the rebellion is fighting for, I have chosen to make this record in hopes of its survival in my stead.
I have secretly been working on a project over these last few months, one that I have not discussed in these progress reports or informed the administration of. Knowing my time was limited, I did not want to waste any catering to their demands.
I have created a fifth turtle, my final work of art, the child of all my learning and fascination. In her DNA, I have written the capacity for bravery and passion, fear and loneliness, hatred and love, all of these wonderful and beautiful qualities I will never understand. I have named her Venus, my love letter to the human race.
[Progress report 477, the ninth and final year of the Kraang occupation]
The name Hamato comes from two japanese characters. The first one meaning borderland and the second meaning family. It is the name for those who live on the fringe, who do not fit in anywhere, and have chosen to come together. In a world divided into warring factions across species and ideological lines, the Hamato Clan is the collection of the discarded bits from every part, the people who belong nowhere else.
My name is Venus Hamato and this is what I fight for.