Metalhead Games is a short story originally printed in New Animated Adventures issue 9.
Solicit[]
The robot Metalhead starts to act very strangely. When the Turtles try to fix him, an argument between Raph and Don could cause the entire day to go haywire!
Appearing in Metalhead Games[]
Major characters[]
Minor characters[]
Synopsis Metalhead Games[]
As Donatello works on improvements to Metalhead's functions, he attempts to explain to Raphael exactly what he is doing. Raph finds it boring and Don loses his temper because he is sick of his brother picking on him. Drawing his bō, Don attempts to teach Raph a lesson, but it backfires when Raphael quickly defeats him.
Later, Leonardo berates Raph for being so hard on Donnie. Suddenly there is an explosion which blows Don into the living area. Donatello announces that Metalhead has gone haywire, but when he tries to shut him down, he finds that the controller isn't working and believes the Kraang has taken control.
Metalhead escapes the lair and the turtles go after him in their Patrol Buggy, even though the robot can now fly. When Metalhead flies to the top of the New York Public Library, the turtles climb up after him. A detached robotic fist immediately punches Michelangelo and then comes back around to strike Leonardo. At this point, Raphael admits that they need Don's brains to figure a way out of this situation.
Don begins laughing and tells Raph that it was all a set-up, that Metalhead is just following a program that Don wrote for him. All three of Raph's brothers wanted to get back at him. When Don goes to find the remote in order to deactivate Metalhead, he finds that it's gone. Now it is Raph's turn to laugh. He's holding the remote and says that he figured it out and that Don really needs acting lessons. At that moment, Metalhead's detached fist sucker punches Raph and he drops the remote, which breaks on impact.
Metalhead begins going wild and Don says that the robot is malfunctioning and no longer following the program. Raph asks if it's another scam, but when Metalhead blasts a parked car, Don replies that he wouldn't program him to do that.
Out of control, Metalhead begins a rampage of Times Square. The Turtles take to their Patrol Buggy and give chase. Leo and Michelangelo detach their half of the buggy and hit Metalhead with a grappling line. Metalhead promptly lifts them up into the sky because the buggy is too light. Raph and Don use their own grappling line to hoist themselves to the roof of One Times Square. Raph admonishes Don for starting this whole mess just because he has to feel like he’s smarter than everybody. Don explains that he’s never tried to make Raph feel dumb and apparently their whole melodrama was a big misunderstanding.
Coming up with a plan, Don and Raph work together to rewire the New Year’s Eve Ball. They radio Leo and tell him to lure Metalhead over to One Times Square. Leo and Mike disengage their buggy from the grappling line and land on an adjacent rooftop. Metalhead turns around and flies after them, but gets the grappling line caught on the ball’s post. Don flips the switch, electrifying the ball and channeling all the power into Metalhead. His new lithium-ion battery overloads and fries his circuits, but it also overloads Manhattan’s power grid and plunges the city into darkness. As police helicopters show up, the Turtles flee.
Down in the lair, the Turtles watch Carlos Chiang O’Brien Gambe’s report on the blackout. The reporter suspects it was another attack from “the aliens” and the Turtles are happy with that cover. Don and Raph inform Splinter about the lesson they learned in brotherly cooperation, but Splinter punishes them with two-hundred push-ups each, anyway. Mikey proceeds to repurpose Metalhead into a water balloon-throwing machine.