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Some TMNT stuff really isn't for little kids. |
Solicit[]
Leonardo stumbles across an underground fight ring in Mutant Town that caters to both humans and mutants. When Casey Jones convinces Leo to join in, he's startled to find that one of his opponents is someone of grave importance to him!
Appearing in #123[]
Major characters[]
- Carmen (debut)
- Casey Jones
- Leonardo
- Sheena
- Winny (debut)
Minor characters[]
- Alopex
- Donatello
- Fugitoid (on-screen)
- Hamato sons (flashback only)
- Harold Lilja
- Jay
- Jennika
- Jo
- Klunk
- Lita
- Michelangelo
- Mona Lisa
- Mushroom
- Old Hob
- Pepperoni
- Raphael
- Shredder (flashback only)
- Splinter (flashback only)
- Tamra (debut)
- Tang Shen (flashback only)
- Zanna
- Zink
Locations[]
Synopsis[]
Raphael is helping Leonardo in his rooftop greenhouse, and Raph talks about how he actually enjoys growing plants and how he always felt like he could be a farmer or something similar. He pitches his idea to Leo about opening up a number of greenhouses across Mutant Town, but is suddenly pulled away by Alopex for recreational activities.
A despondent Leo goes and lights a candle, then is reminded of his relative loneliness when he passes each room - Al and Raph sit on a couch while Pepperoni "attacks" him, Mike,Mona and Jay play a board game together, Don chats with Honeycutt and Harold over video conferencing, and Jennika talks to Sheena over the phone while hanging out with her bandmate Jo. He takes off to hop across some rooftops to clear his head (where, incidentally, he passes a bunch more groupings in the city), and spots the unlikely duo of Casey Jones and Sheena in a crowd.
Approaching his friends, he asks what's going on, and Casey introduces him to a fight club. The venue is populated by the local mutants and some humans that were apparently "underground" when the mutagen bomb detonated and didn't get mutated. The club's propietor, a mutant mouse named Winny, approaches Leo and mistakes him for a pirate. Afte explaining who he is, Winny tries to convince him to participate in a fight. As Casey goes to start his own match, Sheena provides more context for Leo, telling him that this is a friendly fight club - everyone for the most part gets along, nobody gets seriously injured, and it's a way for some denizens to make some cash.
Casey begins his fight against Tamra "the Terror", and Leo and Sheena continue talking about the club. Initially, Sheena didn't want Jenny to know about it, but she begins to wonder that, since they have similar backgrounds, if she'd be okay with it. Sheena, for her part, shows up mostly to test out her training. Casey defeats Tamra, and helps his opponent up. Casey and Sheena finally convince Leo to fight, and Winny introduces him as the "Turtle Terminator". His opponent is Carmen "the Conqueror", and Leo recalls the future Lita telling him that Carmen was to be an important figure in his life.
Carmen and Leo fight, and although she gets in some good licks, Leo is triumphant. Carmen asks him how she got those moves, and he says he can teach her at the dōjō. Carmen accepts.
After the fights, Leo offers to have him and Casey walk Sheena home, and she declines, saying that she has enough training to handle herself, and nobody wants to mess with a Splinter Clan sensei's girlfriend anyway. As Casey and Leo depart together, Casey asks how Raph is (other than being a "cop"); Leo says he's well, but inquires why he and Casey have not been as close as they once were. Casye says with Al, the dōjō, and responsibilities, Raph never seems to have time for him. Furthermore, between Splinter and his dad's deaths and the mutagen bomb, everything just came crashing down for him in terms of stress. Leo responds about how since Splinter's death, since he filled the role for him, Leo never was able to find friends or social groups for himself and he feels like an outcast in his own home. Leo gets philosophical about his need to be responsible as the eldest and "leader" and how he feels like perhaps his own relationship needs can't be met until his needs of safety can, and he feels like he can't fulfill either right now.
Casey and Leo then interrupt a mugging in progress, and save the victim. Leo tells one of the muggers that he can come to the dōjō to channel his anger, before both of them take off. Casey and Leo approach the wall, and Casey departs to the other side, while Leo goes back to his own home.
Leo returns to the dōjō and sees his family in their own social pairings again, but has a more positive look at them. As he goes to put a blanket on Al, Raph, and Pepperoni, who have dozed off on the couch, he hears Lita and the weasels outside playing. He tells them that it's late and they have about five more minutes to play while he dresses down before bedtime. After Leo departs, Hob approaches, and despite Lita's attempt at intimidating him, he sticks around long enough to convince the weasels to go with him, leaving a worried Lita behind.
See also[]
Trivia[]
- This issue was originally scheduled to be released on November 24, 2021 but was delayed.