A Termite-y Headache is the comic in the fortieth issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Appearing in A Termite-y Headache[]
Major characters[]
Minor characters[]
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Synopsis[]
In the yard near the O'Neil Farm in Northampton, Raphael, Donatello and Casey Jones are having a tag challenge. Raph is “it” and is gaining on Casey, who’s running for all he’s worth. Suddenly he trips on a dirt mound, knocking the top off in the process. Raph helps him up and tags him at the same time. Casey comments that was the biggest ant hill he’s ever seen, but Don corrects him to say it’s a termite mound. He’s so fascinated by the mound that Casey easily tags him.
The trio head back towards the house, where April O'Neil is waiting, and she asks if they had fun playing tag. Raph tells her it was training and Casey says he won. Don starts arguing with him that you can’t win at tag, but Casey is distracted because his leg itches. He pulls up his pants leg and finds four termites clinging to his skin. He knocks them off and when they fly up, he waves them away. Raph asks if they’re going to come inside and watch TV because there is an all day Crognard marathon playing. Don says he’ll catch up after he sets up an experiment.
Soon, Don is in the barn working with mutagen from a canister that was in the spaceship under the house. He dictates in a recorder the steps in his experiment, which includes leaving a batch simmering on low heat to bring up the temperature. Don intends to return in an hour or two and see what happens. He leaves the barn and the mutagen begins gurgling. It swiftly bubbles up and a blob of it bounces out of the test beaker and splatters on the ground, covering the four termites who were annoying Casey earlier.
All four termites rapidly mutate until they are human sized. They each represent a different cycle in the life of a termite: larvae, soldier, alate (winged), king. The mutation has also given them the ability to speak. Soldier wants to know what happened to them and how they got to be so big, but King believes it doesn’t matter as they’ve been given a change to strike a blow for the damage done to their colony. Alate just wants to go home and help rebuild. Larvae concurs, certain they can work even faster now. However, King is adamant to teach a lesson to the people who live at the farm and Larvae concedes that the sooner they help him the sooner they can get home.
The Turtles inside the house are startled from their TV watching by a loud noise outside and go to check it out. They find the side of the barn smashed and an army of giant termites – quickly named “Termite-Nators” by Michelangelo. The first to charge at the termites is Raphael, who strikes Soldier with his fist and then immediately regrets it as it was like hitting a rock. King rants that they just admitted to hitting rocks, that rocks never bother anyone and all they care about is destruction. Alate thinks he might be right as he lifts the tractor and then throws it at Donnie. Dodging the vehicle, Don moans that he just rebuilt the engine.
Mikey goes to strike Larvae with his nunchaku, but they are ineffective. Larvae asks him if he can eat them when Mikey is done. Raph manages to throw Soldier and Leonardo congratulates him, saying that the termites can’t match their skills. Don tells him the termites don’t need to because they’re stronger and can take more punishment. He also says they have time on their side, to which Leo responds that maybe he doesn’t tell them that while we’re fighting. Mikey tries punching Larvae in the gut, but his fists bounce off, and Larvae says that they don’t really want to fight. Mikey replies that they’re doing a terrible job of not fighting and Larvae punches him across the yard.
Leo orders Mikey to stop messing around. King admits they aren’t fighters, but they will still teach them a lesson. He lectures Leo that “you big things” never pay attention to what’s around them and they stepped on their home. Leo tries to tell him it was an accident as he steps back to avoid a punch and then teeters on his feet to avoid stomping on the termite mound behind him. King says they’ve been given a chance to teach them a lesson and that they’re going to do to the Turtles’ colony what was done to theirs.
Still backing away, Leo looks down and then tells King that he’d better look down too. King does so and sees that he’s stepped on the termite mound. He immediately drops to the ground and begins apologizing to the tiny termites. Then he realizes that accidents do happen and they were too hasty in their attack. He also apologizes to Leo for the damage they did to the barn and says since they are natural builders, the termites want to fix what they destroyed.
Leo is about to show him where the tools are when King says that isn’t necessary because there are plenty of trees and dirt around. This confuses Leo and King explains – as the other termites demonstrate – that they mix the chewed wood with spit and dirt. Shortly the hole in the barn has been patched and the termites take their leave. Leo glances at Raph and says he’s never been more grossed out. Raph counters by asking about the time Mikey ate moldy pizza with hair on it and Leo says he stands corrected. All of that talk has made Mikey think about lunch.