Solicit[]
The universe’s greatest criminal organization has been made aware of a new planet to exploit: the primitive backwater known as Earth! Before the Pantheon can move in and start profiting, though, they must get the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles out of their way. Kidnapping and ensnaring the Turtles in a brainwashing simulation seems easy enough… until Mikey manages to break free. Now all he has to do is rescue his brothers from the Pantheon’s influence, figure out where they’ve been taken, and find a way to send these career criminals packing… No biggie, right? This is the end of the arc, so be sure you don’t miss the finale of the Pantheon’s introduction to Saturday Morning Adventures!
Appearing in Enter the Pantheon, part 2[]
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Synopsis[]
Surrounded by the Pantheon, Michelangelo guesses that he wasn’t supposed to break free of the simulation they’d placed him in. He asks if that means they’re so impressed that they’re going to give up. Old Hob replies that there is no chance and orders the others to get him. Michelangelo avoids Drako’s tail and dodges aside as Manmoth charges, causing the giant mammoth to slam into the wall. Rat Queen flies at him feet first, but he catches her tail and flings her into Golgotha. Old Hob grows impatient and tells Aka to give him a shout. She starts to protest because the room is small and the others are in the way, but he tells her to do it anyway.
Aka unleashes a loud shriek that causes everyone to cover their ears in pain. Michelangelo realizes he can’t stop the Pantheon by himself and has to set his brothers free. He calls out to Aka and taunts her about singing a different song. Standing in front of the Mental-Conditioning Machine chambers, he sticks his tongue out at her and tells her to let him have it. Old Hob starts to warn her, but he’s too late as she shrieks loudly enough to break the glass on the chambers holding the other Turtles. Dazed, the Turtles sit up and Donatello asks what happened because he was working with the Pantheon on a new technology. Michelangelo tells him he wasn’t and that they need to run. As laser blasts start going off around them, Leonardo says it’s time to vanish. He quickly tosses some smoke pellets and then the Turtles vanish. As the smoke clears Old Hob reminds the others that they’re in a pocket dimension and they can’t have gotten far.
The Turtles gather outside of The Citadel and Michelangelo proceeds to explain that the Pantheon tricked them so they could brainwash them into helping them take over Earth. He says that they were placed in simulations so that they wouldn’t notice the Pantheon was messing with their heads. Raphael asks how he figured it out and Michelangelo says that in the simulation, none of them had ever heard of pizza. Leonardo muses that Earth does have a strategic value to an intergalactic criminal. Krang would have given up trying to conquer the planet a long time ago if it wasn’t. Then he wonders aloud how to stop them.
Donatello points out that they’re in another dimension, which means the Pantheon has a dimensional portal. If they can destroy that, it will mess up their plans until they can build a new one, which can take a while. Raphael says they have no idea where it is, to which Donatello replies that they will comb every each of the place until they find it. Michelangelo reminds them that the place is massive. Then Leonardo has an idea to make their enemies lead them right to the portal.
Inside, Golgotha manipulates a control panel as he, Old Hob and Scratch look at a huge monitor displaying a diagram of The Citadel. Old Hob wants to know where the Turtles are, but Golgotha doesn’t know, as the building is so large. Turning to Scratch, Old Hob tells him to send their robotic minions out to help with the search. When Scratch tells him that’s impossible, Old Hob grabs him by the shirt front in anger at having been told no. Scratch quickly adds that the minions’ software is being updated and they are offline. Golgotha calls out that he found them in the warehouse. On the screen are Michelangelo and Raphael, making faces and waving at the security camera. Old Hob tells him to direct the others to the warehouse and then prep the backup brainwashing machine.
Just as Raphael is wondering how long they have to keep mugging for the security camera, the Pantheon members arrive. Rat Queen spots them, calling out that there are only two Turtles. Old Hob says to catch them and they’ll get the other two later. The Pantheon members try to catch the Turtles, but Michelangelo and Raphael avoid them. Michelangelo let’s drop that all they have to do is keep them busy while the other Turtles locate their portal and call in the cavalry. Old Hob shouts for Aka, Rat Queen and Drako to head for the transport chamber and stop the other Turtles, while he and Manmoth stay behind to catch the remaining Turtles, but Raphael tosses a smoke bomb. Manmoth blows away the smoke, but when it clears, the Turtles have vanished.
Old Hob contacts Golgotha and tells him of the Turtles’ escape. He wants Golgotha to tap back into the security feeds and find them. The Pantheon quickly rush back towards the transport chamber, unaware that Donatello and Leonardo are watching them. Don congratulates his brother on tricking their enemies into showing them where to go. Using his turtlecom, Leo sends Mikey and Raph a silent ping and says as soon as they ping back, he’ll tell them where they are and they can go from there.
Aka, Rat Queen and Drako reach the transport chamber and are surprised that the Turtles aren’t there. Drako says they lied to them and must have another plan. Two turtle lines spin out from the shadows to wrap around Drako, tying him up. The Turtles inform him they didn’t lie, they always meant to come here. Mikey thanks them for showing them the way. Rat Queen is impressed at their trickery because she didn’t think the heroes had that in them. Leo tells her they are ninjas and outthinking opponents is part of the job. Aka quickly contacts Old Hob to let him know the Turtles are in the transport chamber. Drako breaks the ropes binding him and says Hob better hurry because he can’t promise the Turtles will be alive if he takes his time getting there. Drako charges at Mikey, who pulls his body into his shell and hits the dragon in the stomach. Aka prepares to incapacitate them with a scream, but Rat Queen stops her, reminding her she can’t do that in here of all places. If she damages the equipment, they’ll all be trapped in the pocket dimension.
Don overhears this and thinks that it’s perfect they only have the one way out. He heads for the controls and tells his brothers to cover him. Manmoth smashes a hole in the wall so that he and Old Hob can join the fight. Raph wonders how he heard Donatello, and Manmoth reminds him his ears aren’t just for show. Taking off his mask, Raph waves it at Manmoth, who charges. Meanwhile, Leo is using his katana to deflect Old Hob’s laser fire. Old Hob tells him that they don’t understand their place in the grand scheme of things. Leo slashes his gun and says they understand their place just fine… they are the good guys. Rat Queen and Aka dart towards Raph from both sides. Rat Queen says there are no good guys, only people who haven’t found their price yet. Aka tells him they could be rich. Raph leaps at the last second and the pair crash into each other. He comments that he’s never heard anything so cynical, and he lives in New York.
Mikey clambers onto Manmoth’s shoulders and uses the mammoth’s own headband to cover his eyes. While avoiding Old Hob’s slashing claws, Leo calls out to ask Donatello how it’s coming. Don tells him he almost has it and the portal isn’t the same as the one in the lair. Hanging onto Manmoth’s tusks, Mikey tells him to go faster, because Manmoth is getting real angry. Suddenly, Don realizes his mistake regarding the portal’s polarity and rectifies the problem. The portal window opens and Raphael recognizes the location shown as Waltzy’s Junkyard. Rat Queen springs at Raph, saying the Turtles don’t realize how formidable the Pantheon is. Using his bō to pole vault into the portal, Don tells her that she might be right, but he thinks they’ll be too busy trying to keep their dimensional portal from blowing up to bother with the Turtles.
Aka races to the controls as the Turtles enter the portal. She shouts that Don wasn’t lying and the system is set to overload. Aka urges the others to get through the portal, but they are too late as the system explodes. Rat Queen finds that the controls are completely fried and says they’ll be stuck there until they can fix it, which could take years. Aka then notices that Hob is missing.
In the junkyard, the Turtles are celebrating their return to Earth, though Raph wishes Don had gotten them someplace closer to home. Don replies that the portal was complicated and they are lucky they didn’t wind up somewhere in the Midwest. Leo says all that matters is they stopped the villains from achieving their nefarious goals and Raph makes fun of him for talking like that. Don says Leo may be dramatic, but he’s not wrong. The Pantheon had Dimension X-level technology and they don’t need another headache in their lives. Luckily, he caused enough damage that they won’t cause trouble for Earth for a long time. Mikey suggests they celebrate with pizza. None of them realize that Old Hob, who followed them through the portal, is listening in.