Nothing up his Sleeve! is the comic in the twenty-ninth issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Appearing in Nothing up his Sleeve![]
Major characters[]
Locations[]
- New York City
- Jewelry store
- Lair
- Xemnar's apartment
Objects and vehicles[]
Synopsis[]
On a New York City street, a pair of pedestrians discuss a magician they’ve just seen. Barry is upset about the magician pulling a flower out of his nose, but his buddy tells him to let it go. Barry says that the magician had better not be in front of Shaner’s Pizza the next time they walk past.
The Turtles are on a rooftop overlooking the street and hear the conversation. Michelangelo is excited and wants to see the magician, but Leonardo says absolutely not because they’re out patrolling. Mikey gives him puppy eyes and begs, saying since the magician is outside, they can watch from the rooftops. Of course, Leo gives in.
They run across rooftops as they head for Shaner’s Pizza. Raphael complains that he hates magicians, but there is no stopping Mikey. Soon they are atop the pizza parlor watching the magician entertain a group of people. The magician grabs a man’s arm because he needs a volunteer and then asks the man for the time. When the man looks at his wrist, he discovers that his watch is gone. The magician then asks if he’s sure and checks the man’s pockets where he ”discovers” the watch. The man is amazed at the trick, not realizing that the magician has stolen his wallet.
Mikey is amazed at the trick, but Donatello turns to Leo and asks if he just saw what happened, which he did. Leo proceeds to disillusion Mikey about the magician, explaining that the guy’s a pickpocket. At that point the magician bids the crowd a farewell and vanishes in a puff of smoke. Mikey thinks it was magic, but Raphael spots the magician ducking down an alley. The man he robbed discovers the loss of his wallet.
As the magician races down the alley, he brags to himself that he’ll be back in Vegas in no time. Suddenly a cloud of smoke surrounds him and he thinks he’s dropped a smoke pellet – until he finds himself facing the Turtles. He calls them tortoises, but Don quickly corrects him and then Raph tells the man that they saw him steal the wallet. The magician asks if he wants a cut of his profits and Raph says they want him to give it back. Tossing a deck of cards at Raph, the magician says no, so Raph grabs him.
What he finds himself holding though is a mask, as it turns out the magician is not human, but a mutant white rabbit. Mikey calls him a Sorcerabbit, but the rabbit says that he is Xemnar the Magnificent. Leo calls for his brothers to surround the rabbit, but Xemnar springs over them and onto a rooftop. Raph quickly throws a shuriken, which slices through the straps on Xemnar’s duffel bag and the rabbit key chain attached to it.
The bag falls and Xemnar calls out for his lucky charm. Raph catches the bag and holds up the keychain and tells Xemnar to come and get it. Xemnar chooses to escape rather than fighting. Once he’s gone, the Turtles open the duffel and discover that it’s filled with stolen wallets. Don can’t understand why Xemnar was more concerned over the loss of the rabbit key chain. Since the wallets have ID cards, the Turtles spend the rest of the night returning stolen property.
In his apartment, Xemnar tells his pet parrot that he worked hard for the stolen money and was planning on returning to Vegas. He knows he can get more money, but what about his lucky charm? Thurston the parrot squawks and Xemnar sits down with the newspaper, musing aloud that he supposes he could get another that might even be better. He opens the paper and has an idea.
Several days later the newspapers begin reporting the crime spree of a man in a bunny mask. Don is frustrated because he has run a dozen scenarios and still can’t predict when Xemnar is going to strike next. Mikey steps into Don’s lab and announces that he knows what they should do – fight fire with fire. And by fire he means magic and steps forward to show that he is wearing a pointed hat and wizard’s cloak.
Leo tells Mikey to be serious, that they can’t fight Xemnar if they can’t find him. He then asks Don if the places he’s robbed have anything in common. Next to them, Mikey holds up an ordinary ball and proceeds to do a magic trick to make the ball disappear. His brothers are ignoring him, even as Mikey explains that the ball was in his sleeve and that he wiggled his fingers so they’d look at them and not notice where the ball went.
Mikey tells them that he thought the ball was one place when it was really in another. This finally draws Leo’s attention, who announces that Mikey is a genius and that he’s found the answer. Don wants an explanation and Leo says that they’re looking where Xemnar wants them to look. He compares magicians to ninja, explaining that both use misdirection. Since the newspapers say the police are concentrating on the upper west side, that’s exactly where Xemnar’s not going to be. Don decides to try the opposite direction and check the lower east side. He and Leo begin to check the list of possibilities.
The next night, Xemnar has broken into a jewelry store. He finds a little jeweled rabbit and pronounces it just like his old one, but with diamonds. Xemnar is about to steal the rest of the jewelry when the Turtles drop into the store from the skylight. He can’t believe they’ve found him and ducks and dodges to avoid their attacks as they explain how they knew he’d use misdirection.
Raph says they saw the same article in the paper that he did about the jeweled bunny and knew Xemnar couldn’t stay away. Xemnar says Raph makes him sound so predictable, but did he predict that he was going to escape again by using his jumping ability. He leaps for the skylight, thinking he’ll get away, but discovers Mikey is up there waiting for him. Xemnar falls back into the store and is knocked out cold.
When he wakes a few minutes later, he is tied up. Don tells him that he should have remembered that there were four of them and Raph adds that he should have figured they’d be expecting him to make a jump for that skylight. Leo says that to be fair, they are sorry about the fall. Mikey tells Xemnar that he bets he wishes he was into escape magic because then they could call him Hare-y Houdini.