Strength in Numbers is the comic in the twenty-first issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Appearing in Strength in Numbers[]
Major characters[]
Minor characters[]
- Ice Cream Kitty (debut)
- Kirby O'Neil (debut)
- Splinter
Locations[]
- New York City
- Docks
- Kraang facility
- Oil Refinery
- Old Train Station
- Playground
- Lair
Objects and vehicles[]
Synopsis[]
Standing atop a roof, the Turtles wait for Pigeon Pete to bring them some promised information. Michelangelo holds up a bag of bread saying exchanging bread for intel is a sweet deal. The word ‘bread’ immediately brings Pigeon Pete, who knocks Mikey down and stands on him.
Pete tells them he flew over a The Kraang facility and saw them building a giant device with all sorts of blinking lights. Leonardo requests to know where he saw this and Pete tells him it was an the old train station, the one that used to sell pretzels. He says Kraang were everywhere. Then Pete has second thoughts and can’t remember if it was there he saw them, or at the docks, playground or oil refinery. He was busy flying around looking for bread and can’t remember the exact location.
Splitting up, the Turtle team takes separate locations, staying in touch with their T-Phones. At the abandoned train station, Raphael complains that he feels they are wasting their time. Donatello, at the docks, actually agrees with Raph and also thinks splitting up was a bad idea because whoever finds the Kraang will be outnumbered. At the oil refinery, Leo tells them it’s the only lead they have. Mikey is at the playground and expresses his opinion that Pete isn’t all there and might even have some kind of bread-related problem.
Don says that he’s agreeing with Mikey when he’s suddenly surrounded by Kraang. He shouts that information to his brothers, but at that same moment, Kraang also appear at Mikey’s and Raph’s locations. Leo is the only one who is still alone. The three Turtles are completely overrun by Kraang and soon Leo can’t get in touch with any of them.
At the lair loud noises draw Splinter’s attention and he finds Leo searching for something in a stack of boxes. Splinter asks what Leo is doing and where his brothers are. Leo says he made a bad call by splitting up the team and now the others have been captured by the Kraang. He explains that he can track them with the T-Phone, but he can’t rescue them by himself. Leo had hoped that Don had some weapons he could use. Splinter tells him that a team needs a leader and a leader needs a team. What Leo requires isn’t weapons, but allies.
Leo stops to think about this. Casey and April are on a school fieldtrip, so he has to figure out who is left. Soon Leo is on a rooftop with his newly assembled team. He explains the situation and tells them they are the only ones he can trust. Then he asks if they are with him and waits for an answer from Kirby O'Neil, Pigeon Pete and Ice Cream Kitty. Though not enthusiastic, they agree.
Armed Kraang guards stand at the door to their base, reminding each other to keep watch. Suddenly Pete flies past them, drawing their attention and curiosity. The Kraang decided to investigate and chase after Pete, whereupon Leo, with Ice Cream Kitty in a cooler, jumps down from the ledge above the door. He calls Mr. O’Neil and reports he’s at the door ready for the code. Using Donnie’s decoder device, Mr. O’Neil reads off a string of numbers and Leo gets the door open.
Entering the base, Leo follows Mr. O’Neil’s directions on where the other Turtles will be located. He then tells Mr. O’Neil to head out to rendezvous with Pete on the rooftop at 34th. Leo soon finds his brothers locked in a containment cell behind a high voltage energy field which protects the entry. Don explains that it could take hours to decode the Kraang security algorithms to deactivate it.
Mikey suggest using the password “Kraang” but Leo has other ideas and holds up Ice Cream Kitty. Suddenly Pete appears behind Leo, who shouts at him that he was supposed to meet Mr. O’Neil. Then a group of Kraang arrive, determined to capture the remaining Turtle. Pete takes off and Leo throws Ice Cream Kitty at the cell’s control panel.
Ice Cream Kitty bounces off of the panel, leaving a blob of ice cream behind which shorts out the controls. The security field opens and the captured Turtles escape. As they fight the Kraang, Leo calls out for them to leave, but Don stops them because he’s spotted the machine Pete saw. It turns out to be a wormhole engine, the biggest Don has ever seen.
Raph observes that the device has four power lines and says to take them all out. Don grabs his shoulder to stop him, explaining that as soon as one is cut, the energy surge from the other three will fry them all. Leo tells them that they’ll have to cut all four at the same time. Don isn’t sure, saying that if one of them is even a fraction of a second out of sync they’re fried.
They go with Leo’s plan and cut all four lines simultaneously. The machine starts to beep loudly and Raph asks what they do now, to which Leo responds that they run. Running from the building, the Turtles make it outside just as the machine explodes.
At the rooftop rendezvous, Raph admits that Leo and his backup team did okay. Mikey laments having been replaced by a cat made out of ice cream. Leo thanks his friends for their help and Pete says as long as there’s bread, they’ll always be together. When Don tells him they’re out of bread, Pete takes off.
Mr. O’Neil says he has to go too and that it’s probably safer at home, though he was happy to help. Mikey then recaps the night as a valuable lesson for all, mentioning the word ‘bread’ in his speech. Pete immediately returns and tackles Mikey, who starts yelling that he doesn’t have any bread. Leo is just happy to have his “A” team back.