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Some TMNT stuff was always meant for grownups. |
Solicit[]
Prepare for the rags-to-revenge story of the ultimate ronin. Returned forever changed by a maddening ordeal beyond imagining, betrayed by all around him, and no longer with the Foot Clan, Shredder will quest deep into New York’s criminal underworld as a former protege has formed their own rival clan with sinister plans for the city. In his deadly mission for vengeance, enemies both old and new will brutally discover what defiance will bring them at the end of the Shredder’s blades.
Appearing in #1[]
Major characters[]
Minor characters[]
- Darkwater
- Wesley Knight
- Young (debut)
Species[]
Locations[]
- New York City
- Darkwater headquarters
- Brooklyn
Objects and vehicles[]
Synopsis[]
An older man, wearing a cloak, approaches a building in Brooklyn. Adjacent to the building sits a New York Refuse truck. A man in a garbage collector’s uniform is holding two bags of garbage and complains about their assignment to watch a walk-up in Brooklyn for two weeks instead of an assignment to watch a beach in Barbados. His partner inside the truck reminds him that they’re saving the world. The interior of the truck is full of monitoring equipment, proving that it is actually a Darkwater surveillance vehicle. The man in the truck tells the other, an Agent Young, that a vagrant is blocking the camera and says to get rid of him. The cloaked man has a finger over the tiny camera. Addressing the cloaked figure as "Granddad", Agent Young asks what he's doing. "Granddad", who is actually Oroku Saki, removes his finger and replies that he's going home. He turns and leaves, so Agent Young enters the truck, where his partner informs him that the man is entering the building they are surveilling.
Tearing apart the boards at the building’s entrance, Saki enters. Dozens of lit candles are scattered around the floor and on either side of the staircase. Mounted on the wall at the top of the short flight of stairs is the Foot Clan emblem, but it is inverted. Two men, wrapped in bandages from head to toe, guard stairs to the right and left. The same inverted symbol is painted on their bandage wrapped faces. Saki demands to know who they are. Neither men respond other than to draw their swords and attack.
Saki uses the broken board he’s holding to fend off the first attacker. He puts the man through the staircase banister and then dodges the other’s sword. When Saki looks at the man, he sees a roomful of worms surrounding him. Shouting about “worms”, Saki leaps at the man and quickly defeats him. Though neither man is in a condition to answer, Saki still asks what they are doing in his house. He takes one of the katanas and examines it, making a sound of disgust at the condition of the blade.
As Saki enters a large, open room at the top of one of the stairs, he sees three more guards, all aiming arrows at him. One of them tells him he should not have come there, as this is a sacred place. Saki laughs in derision and then uses his newly acquired sword to knock aside two of the arrows. He charges and the third man unleashes his arrow, which strikes Saki’s shoulder. He stops long enough to pull out the arrow, seeing worms all around as he holds the arrow aloft. Then he informs the men that there is no such thing as a sacred place. The three archers bring their yumi to bear again, and a second later, two of them go flying through the window. They hit the top of the refuse truck, startling the two agents inside. One of them decides to call this in, because he’s certain this is no longer an observe and report assignment anymore.
With the third archer bloody and motionless on the floor, Saki climbs yet another set of stairs. Entering another large room, he finds himself confronted by yet more armed men. Saki fingers the blade on his sword and announces that it has evidently not been sharpened today. He tells them that if they had respected their blades, their deaths would hurt less. With this, he attacks, moving quickly around the room and just as quickly destroying his enemies. One of the men throws shuriken at Saki, and all three of the metal weapons find their mark in Saki’s back. He drops to his knees with a grunt of pain, and then swiftly rises to deal death to the final man.
Staring down at his crumpled foes, Saki passes the bloody blade of his katana through the crook of his elbow to clean it. A woman enters the room and says that they thought this place abandoned and forgotten, so they filled it with love and light. Then she tells Saki that he’s supposed to be dead. He replies that where he’s been is so much worse than hell. The woman says that she can see it as she has been granted gifts. She can see where he came there from, how far he’s traveled to return, and everything it cost him. She goes on to say that he could rest here; he could join them and share in their protection. Saki asks if she thinks her priests were protected.
Rather than respond, the woman takes a defensive stance and signals him forward. The two run towards each other and with a quick backhand, the woman knocks the sword from Saki’s hand. She then strikes his temple with two fingers, shocking him and dropping him to his knees. As she circles around him, she says that he doesn’t remember her. She served under him for many years, from when she was a girl. She tells him of a cherished memory from once during training when he corrected her elbow position. Then she tells him he had seemed like a God, but that he never repaid any of their worship, not even with his notice. She delivers a kick to his side, before kicking him and telling him he’s nothing but meat; worm-riddled meat. Before she can do anything else, a bright light shines through the windows.
A trio of armed Darkwater agents swing through the windows, shouting for everyone to get down. They see Saki start to move and tell him to stay down. A pair of them hold their weapons on Saki and ask the third if he has eyes on the target, but after a search, he states that they are gone.
Later, at Darkwater headquarters, Colonel Wesley Knight chews out Agent Young. As he indicates Saki, who is now in an interrogation room wearing shackles, Knight demands to know how the terrorist death cult Young was assigned to observe have now vanished and also know they were being surveilled. Young claims that it was all because of the crazy old geezer. It appears he single-handedly killed everyone in the place. He won’t answer questions, just mutters in English and Japanese about bugs and betrayal. Young says that he’ll eventually break. A new arrival informs Young that she wouldn’t test the man’s patience. She asks if he doesn’t know who it is in there wearing cuffs that can’t hold him? The only reason anyone in the building is alive is because he’s allowing it.
The woman enters the interrogation room, calling Saki by name and introducing herself as Agent Alda Avon. She informs him that he’s in a Darkwater facility. Avon tells him she’s on loan from the Earth Protection Force. It is her job to know all about people and things like him. Avon places a picture of the woman Saki fought on the table and tells him her name is Ria, who also goes by the title “The Mourner”. Surveillance has indicated the Mourner has been acquiring exotic components to assemble some sort of extradimensional bomb. That can’t allow that to happen.
Avon goes on to talk about Ria’s history with the Foot Clan and then proceeds to count off Saki’s various offenses, reminding him he’s still on Interpol’s most wanted list. Just when it seemed like the city was his for the taking, Saki vanished. Then he appeared today and ruined months of interagency reconnaissance. Now that he’s in custody, most of those agencies would be happy to keep him here and throw away the key. Saki finally speaks, guessing that she wants his help to track down this “Mourner”. They don’t know why she wears the Foot’s symbol debased. They don’t know anything about this bomb and they think he may hold the answers. Which perhaps he does.
Saki wants to know what Avon is going to offer him in return for his help. She has to know his freedom won’t be enough and she’s unlikely to appeal to his sense of civic duty. Avon replies that she was going to offer him the chance to restore his honor and track down this pupil who defeated him in single combat. Saki seems to think on this and Avon tells him she’s studied him. She asks what brought him here; so low, and asks where he’s been. Saki only responds to say he'd like to bathe.
Standing in a shower, Saki’s mind fills with images of worms. He leaves the shower and uses a straight razor to cut his hair. When he is done, he steps into the room where Avon and Knight are waiting and tells them the clothing they provided is acceptable. Knight tells him it’s only the undersuit he’s wearing and indicates an exo-suit. He says their lab put it together for Saki by utilizing parts of his armor confiscated during raids of the Foot over the years. Avon says that the suit has all of the bells and whistles – strength enhancement, an 18-foot vertical leap, impact absorption that can take high-velocity fire. Saki murmurs something about “more Gods” and then says if not the Pantheon, then their own technological genius. He proceeds to rip into the exo-suit, saying that their need to worship disgusts him. Saki takes the helmet from the exo-suit and says he will show them, just as he will show this “Mourner”. He slides his hands into the Tekkō-kagi as he talks about all the false splendors such as ‘honor’, ‘ancestors’, ‘magic’, and ‘technology’. When such manipulations are ripped away, there is nothing left they can rely on. Saki dons the helmet as he says that there is nothing except flesh and blood – and the cold certainty of the blade.