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Some TMNT stuff was always meant for grownups. |
- Tales of the TMNT, volume 2
- Previous: Not Forgotten/Transcript
- Next: The Worms of Madness, part 1/Transcript
- Mirage Chronology
- Previous: The Survival Game/Transcript
- Next: The Passing/Transcript
Frontispiece[]
(Leonardo meditating by a pond) [...You would be proud, Master, at how good I'm getting at one of your most difficult lessons...] [...The lesson of the bittern. The ability to be so calm and centered as to be one with nature...] [...While at the same time being able to have a dialogue with it.] [And although I realize that this isn't exactly what you meant by dialogue, Master, I can't help but to think of you and to share one of your many adventures.] [And so, little ones...] [Let me tell you a story...] |
Page 1[]
[Fifteen minutes ago...] HAHAHAHAHA! |
Page 2[]
Donatello "♪𝅘𝅥𝅯♩♪♩♩♪" "We're back, soaked, the turtle of a gazillion gadgets..." Raphael "...Neglected to pack raincoats." Don "Dudes! Wait'll you see the goods Raph and I scarfed at that junkyard over on Delancey and --" Don "-- Hey, what's going on?" Michelangelo "Uh... I don't know, exactly." Leonardo "Master Splinter..." Don "How long has he been like this?" Mike "Six, maybe seven hours." Don "What?! And... He's... Levitating?" Don "... I didn't know Master Splinter could levitate." Leo "He can't. Something's seriously messed up here." Leo "We can't get him out of his trance." |
Page 3[]
[Ten hours earlier...] SNFF! Hamato Splinter "I feel your presence..." Splinter "Show yourself." Splinter "?!" |
Page 4[]
Splinter "Evil!" Splinter "You will not harm my sons...!" FSZZTT! Splinter "Hai!" Splinter "Most ingenious." |
Page 5[]
Splinter "Too ingenious...!" Splinter "Oooof!" |
Page 6[]
Splinter "There..." Splinter "Now... Tell me who you are, intruder... And what it is that you want." Myzoko "I am... The same thing that I want from you..." Myzoko "...Your death!" HAHAHAHAHA! Splinter "Death itself? I think not. More likely a mystic warrior of some sort..." Splinter "... Quite possibly belonging to the Foot..." Splinter "... And thereby heralding..." Splinter "...A day I long feared would come." |
Page 7[]
[Eight hours earlier...] Splinter "I know that you're there, Michelangelo." Michelangelo "How did you know, Master? I was practicing the art of invisibility..." Mike "... And doing a pretty darn good job if ya ask me." Splinter "Well done visually, yes..." Splinter "...But I could hear your stomach growling." Splinter "Please, make yourself some breakfast, Michelangelo..." Splinter "... Then bring me a pot of extra strong green tea... And tell your brothers that this is a day off from your studies... And not to disturb me for the rest of the day." Splinter "And that goes for you too, my son." Mike "Okay, Sensei." |
Page 8[]
[Seven hours earlier...] Don "We'll catch you later, Leo. We're gonna check out that abandoned junkyard over on the Lower East Side." Leo "Fine. Just be careful and stay underground as much as possible, and remember to stick to the shadows when you're on the surface. And Raphael..." Leo "... Try not to do anything we'll all regret later." Raph "Okay, Mommy." KAPPA Cola TOOL Splinter "I believe I now know all that I need to know in order to deal with this intruder..." Splinter "...I pray that I do. There is no room for failure." |
Page 9[]
Splinter "I am ninja." Splinter "I am ready." Splinter "It is time." "Time to relax the corporeality. Slow it down. Push it aside..." "Time to gather the consciousness, focus it at its center, at the mind's eye..." "...As pure thought..." "...And then to send oneself out upon the sea of consciousness..." "...To seek the residual energy trails that mark all our passings..." |
Page 10[]
"...To seek out the trail left behind by the mystic intruder..." "...A trail that lies beyond the works and monuments of man, beyond the physical plane..." "...In the realm of the senses that lie beyond the five known to most, through doors opened only by a few, and entered by fewer still..." "...The world of the mystic." Myzoko "Eh?" |
Page 11[]
Myzoko "Old soul... You dare?" Myzoko "You dare face me? You dare risk being cut off forever from your rat body? You chance absolute annihilation of the self?" Splinter "I do." Myzoko "Then follow me... Old fool." "And I do..." "...Through dimensions of monstrous, hopeless souls..." "...Past creatures that challenged the definition of life itself, abominations I wish never to have glimpsed." "It was obvious that the mystic was trying to exhaust and frighten me, to defeat me through shock and..." |
Page 12[]
"... The unexpected." [One hours ago...] Splinter "?" Splinter "?!" |
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Page 14[]
Splinter "?" Splinter "!" |
Page 15[]
SHOOOM! Myzoko "You were warned, little rat. You shouldn't have taken my challenge..." Myzoko "Your spirit wasn't strong enough... Your skills in the mystical realms but a novice's." Myzoko "Calm yourself and prepare for the end..." Myzoko "...As I bring about the dissolution..." Myzoko "...Of your very life essence." |
Page 16[]
Splinter "Little rats, you mean." Splinter "Thank you for the idea." Myzoko "It matters not what form you take..." Myzoko "...Your defeat is as inevitable as--" Splinter "--As inevitable as what, intruder? As the rain?" Myzoko "?" |
Page 17[]
Myzoko "What the--?!" Myzoko "Resourceful little..." THOOM! Myzoko "I shall not underestimate you again!" |
Page 18[]
[One minute ago...] Don "How long has he been like this?" Mike "Six, maybe seven hours." Don "What?! And... He's... Levitating." Don "I didn't know Splinter could levitate." Leo "He can't. Something's seriously messed up here." "Now." Myzoko "Well, rat? Show yourself. Or is it that your mystical knowledge is so slight..." Myzoko "... That you cannot separate yourself from the earth?" |
Page 19[]
SHZZAKK! Splinter "Slight? My mystical knowledge?" Splinter "I am hardly a novice here. I am neither inept nor afraid..." Splinter "In fact, I might even go so far as to say that I am..." Splinter "...Enjoying this." |
Page 20 & 21[]
Myzoko "It is not possible - no one can master such mystical skills as quickly as you have...!" Myzoko "And your style of ninjitsu - it is like that practiced by the Foot Clan." Myzoko "But you are no Foot..." Splinter "I am Splinter, villain. I long ago chose light over darkness..." Splinter "...Unlike you. You are Foot... For a darkness such as yours is hard to hide..." |
Page 22[]
KRAK! Splinter "...So ancient and repugnant..." Splinter "...So morally twisted..." Splinter "...That it can never rise from the dark depths of its own making." Splinter "Evil is a choice. A weak choice..." Splinter "... For it is always easier to choose evil over good." Splinter "But evil is only as strong as one's willingness to surrender to it." |
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Splinter "And surrender..." Splinter "... Surrender is something..." Splinter "...I shall never do!" KRA-KOOMM! |
Page 24[]
Myzoko "Uuunnnn..." Sunflower SEEDS SHELLED Elderly Foot Mystic "Myzoko was a fool ..." Elderly Foot Mystic "... To so challenge the rat." Male Foot Mystic "It is the right of the initiate to choose his final ordeal." Myzoko "No... Don't... I beg you." Female Foot Mystic "One day... We must challenge the rat...!" Female Foot Mystic "One day..." Female Foot Mystic "...But not today." |
Page 25[]
Myzoko "No... Don't... I beg you." Splinter "But... I do nothing." Myzoko "It wasn't enough... To give them my life..." Myzoko "...They had to take it as well." Myzoko "You... Were a most worthy foe. Farewell." Splinter "Go in peace." |
Page 26[]
Turtle "Master Splinter!" Leo "Master! You really had us worried..." Leo "... You've been in some sort of trance for hours..." Mike "Yeah, and your eyes were all freaky white and you were levitating and shtuff." Splinter "Levitating..? Indeed... How interesting." Leo "Are you all right, Sensei?" Splinter "Yes, Leonardo, just a bit tired... And very hungry." Mike "You rest, Master. I'll make you dinner." Splinter "Thank you, Michelangelo. But please, one request..." Splinter "...Nothing with seeds." [-FIN-] |