Robo Rumble! is the comic in the thirty-fourth issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Appearing in Robo Rumble![]
Major characters[]
Minor characters[]
Locations[]
- New York City
- Warehouse
Objects and vehicles[]
Synopsis[]
Smashing through a window into one of Stockman-Fly’s warehouses, the Turtles plow into his filing cabinets on their way to a fight with Footbots. Stockman is incensed that they ruined his filing system and urges the Footbots to destroy them. Leonardo tells his brothers to watch the window so that Stockman doesn’t escape and then yells at Michelangelo to stop playing games on his T-Phone. Mikey insists he’s multi-tasking, using one hand to play the game while he spins his nunchaku and smacks Footbots with the other.
Mikey completes Robo-X level 42 and saves his progress, delighted with himself. Then Donatello shouts for them to look up and Raphael sees that Stockman is getting away, along with some kind of gizmo. Angry, Don snatches the T-Phone away from Mikey, saying that he’s been addicted to the stupid robot game for weeks. Behind them, Leo is bounding up a pile of crates towards the window where Stockman made his escape.
At the top, Leo throws a shuriken and knocks the blue colored device out of Stockman’s hands. Stockman calls it his “cyber-chip” as it falls. The cyber-chip falls on top of an ice cream truck and suddenly the truck comes to life. A computerized voice says its reconfiguration is complete and that it is acquiring its target. From the rooftop of the warehouse, Don notes that Stockman may have actually been onto something this time. The cyber-chip appears to be capable of bringing machines to life and turning them into “War-Bots”. However, Raph finds it hilarious and bursts out laughing that it’s the stupidest looking war-bot he’s ever seen.
Just then the ice-cream truck/war-bot acquires its target – which is Raphael. It fires freezing cold ice cream from its sugar cone and hits the Turtle right in his face. His face encased in pink ice, Raph is still laughing as Don checks on him.
Deciding that Raph will be fine, Leo leads the other Turtles off the rooftop, determined to take down the war-bot before it can do any real damage. Don advises destroying the chip because that should deactivate the war-bot. They dodge ice-cream cannonballs as they try to get close and Leo finally lands on top of its head where the cyber-chip is located. He finds out that it’s protected by some kind of force-field and he can’t smash it. He opts to use his katana to try to pry it loose and finally manages to do so, only to have the cyber-chip flip high into the air.
Leaping down to join his brothers, Raph announces that his head’s thawed but he’s upset that the fun is over. However, Don missed catching the cyber-chip and yells to his brothers that they need to get it before it attaches to the nearby vending machine. Mikey is delighted at the idea of a robot that fires candy and cheese puffs, but when Leo tries to grab the cyber-chip it bounces past the vending machine and towards a group of porta-potties. Everyone freaks out and they run into the street to stop it, but are nearly plowed down by an approaching firetruck.
The cyber-chip bounces off the street and onto the undercarriage of the firetruck. It immediately transforms the firetruck into a giant war-bot with firehose arms, much to the dismay of the Turtles. Don begins to expound on the ways this could be really bad, such as how a modern firetruck can carry a thousand gallons of pressurized water. Raph stops him mid-speech when he announces he’s going to tear the thing into scrap. Leo quickly points out that they can’t attack because there are firefighters trapped inside the truck.
Leo comes up with a plan to distract the truck, but before he can finish, all four firehoses blast the Turtles with a spray of water that smashes them into the side of a building. They quickly duck down behind a dumpster and Raph points out that they’ll be drowned before they even get near the cyber-chip. Don swiftly draws their attention upwards to Stockman, who is controlling the war-bot with some kind of joypad.
This gives Don an idea. He tells his brothers to watch their backs and keep the war-bot occupied. They leap into action, jumping and dodging to avoid being sprayed again. While they are doing that, Don is searching through fallen ice-cream truck bot. Raph tells him to hurry because they are fighting a losing battle. Don finally finds what he was looking for – a radio unit. He then plugs it into Mikey’s T-Phone and tries to decide the best way to modify the signal.
The other Turtles are struggling as the water bursts keep knocking them over. Leo shouts for Raph to look out, but his brother doesn’t move fast enough and the firetruck war-bot stomps down on him. Leo rushes to try to save Raph, who can’t lift the foot off of him. Don yells to Mikey as he tosses the T-Phone to him, telling the younger Turtle that he’s upgraded the device and its now hooked up to the war-bot. He tells Mikey to start gaming again, which thrills Mikey immensely.
Mikey starts playing and the war-bot’s foot lifts off of Raph. It takes Mikey a minute to get the hang of maneuvering the war-bot, but soon he’s in control, much to Stockman’s consternation. Mikey turns the firehoses on Stockman and blasts him out of the sky, but then the controls stop working. Don realizes that the signal booster he added to the T-Phone is causing the cyber-chip to overheat.
The firetruck war-bot begins running down the street and shouting for assistance. Suddenly the cyber-chip explodes and the firetruck war-bot collapses. Leo is happy they could take it out without harming the firefighters or being seen by them. They take off and Stockman throws away his controller as he wonders how Shredder would feel about the shark-cannon he’s been working on.
On a nearby rooftop, the Turtles observe the street below. Raph says they did a good night’s work and it’s time to retreat into the shadows. Mikey is still messing with his T-Phone and abruptly shouts that something is horribly wrong - all of his saved games have been deleted. Don apologizes and explains he needed the memory for the upgrade. Mikey slumps over, totally dejected, and Don reminds him they have other games back at the lair. Leo grins and says his Knight has to be level 15 by now. Raph scowls and calls them all nerds.