In one version of events, Hamato Yoshi and Oroku Saki faced each other in a climactic battle that ended in the death of Yoshi's wife Tang Shen.
This is not that version.
In this version, Yoshi perished at the hands of the man that would become The Shredder, leaving Tang Shen widowed and at his mercy. She manages to escape and finds herself in New York City, ready to start a new life, only for an unfortunate run-in with a suspicious trio to end with her being mutated into a cat and her pet turtles developing humanoid characteristics.
Now with a new family, Tang Shen — now Master Aspen — and her children are faced with a new enemy when they rescue a red-headed boy from a suspicious group of kidnappers.
Turtle Kittens (recently retitled New Dawn) is a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) fanfic by KawaiiNinja
, and can be read on Archive of Our Own here.
Turtle Kittens provides examples of:
- Adaptational Early Appearance:
- In the series, Casey Jones doesn't encounter any of the Hamato Clan until Season 2. Here, he tussles with Raphael and becomes their friend in what would have been the third episode.
- In the series, the Turtles meet Leatherhead 12 episodes in and Spike is mutated into Slash in the second season. Here, they meet both of them before meeting the Foot Clan.
- Adaptational Heroism: In canon, Slash went after Raph's brothers after mutating, and was never on good terms with the Turtles again. Here, he simply leaves them after mutating to go off on his own, and he and his team of mutants happily provide backup for the Hamato clan when they go to take on the Kraang.
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Because this is a Condensed Adaptation, many of the events that would have resulted in mutants or new enemies for the Turtles to face don't occur. Because of that, they're on better terms with several mutants, most notably those who join Slash's gang and help the Turtles fight the Kraang invasion of New York.
- Adaptational Villainy: While the 2012!Shredder might be a scumbag compared to other versions, here he's made a thousand times worse by drowning Miwa in a river for being Yoshi's daughter, then chaining up Tang Shen and raping her under the belief that killing her husband makes her his by right and that she will grow to love him eventually. When she escapes, he convinces her family that he was her husband so that she could not rely on them for help.
- Affectionate Nickname: Tang Shen had taken to calling the turtles her "kittens."
- The Aloner: When Spike is mutated into Slash, he immediately decides to go off on his own.
- Canon Welding: The events that introduce Casey Jones to Raphael and the Turtles better follow his introductory episode from the 2003 series than the 2012 one.
- Cassandra Truth: By preemptively calling them, the Shredder had alienated Tang Shen from her family by convincing them that he is her husband and that every awful thing happening to her is karma for disgraceful behavior, forcing her to escape to America with no help before he could come and retrieve her.
- Cat Folk: Tang Shen, upon exposure to mutagen, became a cat mutant.
- Compressed Adaptation: Certain events happen under a shorter time span (the turtles meeting Casey right after meeting August; Spike's mutation into Slash, the turtles meeting Leatherhead, the Kraang capturing and harvesting August's DNA, August's latent psychic abilities and mutagen being spread across the city all happen at around the same time), while others were outright omitted (facing Dr. Falco and Baxter Stockman, meeting Mr. Murikami, various other tertiary antagonists etc).
- Death by Adaptation:
- While Tang Shen took the killing blow meant for Yoshi in canon, here that killing blow reached its target, Yoshi bleeding out in her arms.
- While Shredder raised Miwa as Karai as revenge against her birth-father, here he drowned her while she was still an infant so that Tang Shen could "start fresh" with him.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: In canon, Super-Shredder was decapitated by Leo. Here, Master Aspen killed him with a kunai to the heart while he's still a regular human.
- Distressed Dude: August O'Neil is this by virtue of being a version of April.
- Expy: Lazuli, the human-like mutant with hydrokinetic powers, is based on Lapis Lazuli from Steven Universe.
- For Want Of A Nail:
- In canon, the Hamato Clan's Mutation Day was just any other day, the night the Turtles go to the surface for the first time being relatively peaceful before they try to save April. Here, it happened during Chinese New Year, the festival in Chinatown being the perfect cover for the mutants to blend in. Aspen also goes with them, unlike Splinter who stays in the lair.
- While in canon the turtles failed to rescue the O'Neils, only able to break-out April later, here they manage to rescue both of them when they first meet.
- The Foot Clan doesn't make their move until after the Turtles manage to successfully end The Kraang's occupation of New York.
- Gender Flip:
- While canon has all of the Turtles as boys, here Donatello and Michelangelo — renamed "Donnatella" and "Mikelangela" — are girls.
- Instead of April O'Neil, she is replaced with "August O'Neil".
- If I Can't Have You…: Shredder's attitude towards Tang Shen/Master Aspen. He's so determined to have her that he goes to great measures to destroy any life she starts that doesn't involve him (i.e. killing Yoshi and Miwa, lying to her parents so they'd disown her, threatening/attempting to kill the Turtles, etc).
- I Have Your Wife: Shredder forces Leo to call Master Aspen/Tang Shen to the fight by threatening to kill Mikelangela (and thus more or less holding the other Turtles hostage in the process).
- In Spite of a Nail:
- Even though he had won his battle to the death with Yoshi this time, Oroku Saki still winds up horribly disfigured in the fire.
- While Aspen lets the turtles choose their weapons, they all wind up wielding the same weapons as the ones Splinter chose for them in canon.
- Shredder still finds out about the Turtles through Bradford and their own carelessness, but while in canon Mikey outed himself willingly, here Bradford had been spying on them from a distance.
- Interspecies Adoption: Much like with canon Splinter, Master Aspen takes in the Turtles, and later acts as a Parental Substitute to August, Casey, and Lazuli.
- I Reject Your Reality: Despite the fact that Tang Shen told him off numerous times, Shredder still believes that Tang Shen is meant to be his. He spends the next fifteen years chasing after her, sending Bradford and other Foot Ninjas around the globe looking for any sign of her. Even after seeing that she's a cat mutant and calling her a freak, he still tries to get her to come with him.
- Kidnapped for Experimentation: The Kraang attempt this on August several times (much like in canon).
- Shipper on Deck:
- Mikey seems to be rooting for Donna and August.
- August for Leo and Lazuli.
- Spared by the Adaptation: While Tang Shen died in a killing blow meant for her husband in canon, here that killing blow meant for him landed and he bled out in her arms. Considering everything else that happens to her afterward, saying that Tang Shen was "spared" is being very generous.
- The Stations of the Canon: After fleeing to New York, Tang Shen's life plays out virtually the same as her husband Yoshi's in canon, though she is turned into a cat instead of a rat.
- Trauma Conga Line: Where to begin? After Tang Shen witnessed her brother-in-law kill her husband, he would go on to capture and rape her before revealing that he drowned her infant daughter. After escaping, she tries running to her family for support, only to reveal that the Shredder and convinced them that he was her husband and that she had disgraced them all, forcing Tang Shen to flee to New York alone. Before she could properly start over, she is then mutated by the Kraang by accident and is forced to flee.
- Would Hurt a Child: Shredder. He not only is willing to beat up and attempt to murder the Turtles just to get back at Tang Shen, but he drowned Miwa when she was a baby simply because she was Yoshi and Tang Shen's child.
- You Can't Go Home Again: Tang Shen ultimately goes to New York because her husband and child are dead, her home was burned down, and Shredder is looking for her (and alienated her from her parents). The fact that Yoshi had dreamed of going to New York to teach ninjutsu is ultimately what pushes her to go there. She keeps elements of her culture alive in New York by living near Chinatown (even after mutating) and building her and the Turtles' home to resemble Japanese houses.
