Origin

The Turtles' story begins in a pet store where they, Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo, were purchased by a young boy. On the way home from the pet shop there was a fateful accident. A blind man was crossing the road when a truck labeled "T.C.R.I." almost ran him down. A young man behind the boy with the Turtles ran out to save the blind man, bumping the boy with the Turtles and knocking the jar from his hands. The jar broke when it landed in the gutter, and the Turtles were washed down a sewer drainage grate. As the truck saw the people in the street, the driver swerved; the back doors of the truck were not secured and flew open. A container of green radioactive goo fell out and was subsequently washed down the drain with the baby turtles. The turtles landed safely, until the jar of goo fell beside them, coating them with it's contents. Moments later a rat came across the babies, and he gathered them up in a can. He didn't realize he was coating himself with the green goo as he gathered them up. In very little time, the rat and turtles evolved and mutated into anthropomorphic beings with intelligence and emotion rivaling humans. Their mutation near completion, and educated, the rat named the Turtles after Renaissance artists; we learn his name was Splinter- and a pet of a ninja master Hamato Yoshi. For the next fifteen years, Splinter raised and instructed the young turtle boys in the martial arts for both avenging his murdered master and survival. The rest is history.