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The Duel is the comic in the fifty-eighth issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Appearing in The Duel[]

Major characters[]

Minor characters[]

Locations[]

Objects and vehicles[]

Synopsis[]

The Turtles are in the midst of a fight with the Purple Dragons inside a rubber duck factory, where they were trying to steal chemicals. Raphael is becoming angrier by the second, because he finds the quacking sound made by the ducks as they step on them to be extra annoying. With a roar, Raph punches Sid’s jaw so hard it knocks him right out.

Leonardo tells him to cool it and to remember Master Splinter when he’s teaching meditation: ‘To be calm in the heart of a storm is to see your way through it.’ Hun arrives to hear this and says that to him it sounds as though their master eats too many fortune cookies.

Fuming, Raph stomps towards him, ignoring Leo who tries to stop him. Raph leaps at Hun’s face, trying to kick him, but the man steps aside and then laughs. He tells Raph that his anger only makes it easier to humiliate him. Eyes on fire, Raph calls Hun out, saying he’ll fight him one-on-one right now. Outside, a bullhorn announces the arrival of the police and Hun says now might not be the time for a duel. If, however, Raph still wants to teach him a lesson, he knows the perfect place. He tells Raph to follow him.

Two police officers enter the building, one with her gun drawn. However, the only people inside are the unconscious Purple Dragons. From the rafters, Leo, Donatello and Michelangelo watch as the police deal with the situation. Then Mikey calls his brothers’ attention to the fact that Raph and Hun have vanished.

Raph and Hun have entered a factory building with a sign on the outside which says “Fox Robotics”. Raph tells Hun he better not be pulling some sort of trick because he can’t wait much longer before kicking his butt. Hun promises no tricks, since he looks forward to teach Raph a lesson he can take home to his master. Once they reach a large, empty room in the factory, they face off. Hun promises they will not be disturbed here and Raph asks where here is anyway.

Suddenly bright lights flash on all around the room and every exit slams shut. A computerized voice announces “Test Subjects Detected!” and that all exits are sealed. It then says it is scanning the test subjects’ heart rate. Raph turns on Hun for saying there would be no tricks, but Hun doesn’t know what’s happening. He says the last time he was here, the facility was abandoned.

The computerized voice registers that their heart rates have risen and that the test subjects are highly aggressive, so it is programming a suitable attack pattern. A door slides open next to them to reveal heavily armed robots. Raph identifies them as Elite Footbots and guesses that Shredder must have refitted the place as a factory and that the room they’re in must be their training ground. This seems to be proven when the computer states that the combat examination will commence.

As Raph slashes the head off of a robot, he sees that Hun has leaped to another side of the room and asks if the man is running away. Hun assures him he’s not, but that he merely wanted to get a better view of Raph’s fighting style. Then he comments that it’s very amusing as Raph stabs a robot in the head. Raph growls and tells him that he hopes Hun brought his space-suit because when he’s done with the robots, he’s kicking Hun’s butt to the moon. The computer reads an increase in aggression and orders all units to strengthen their attacks.

Meanwhile, the other Turtles have followed Hun’s footprints to the factory. Leo hears noises inside and tries opening a door, but it is locked. Mikey calls Don and Leo’s attention overhead to several flying devices, which Don says are security drones. He suggests they back away slowly to think things through since there are a lot of them. Mikey tries talking to one and asking if they’ve seen their brother; an angry green dude with big muscles and no sense of humor. The drones immediately begin firing lasers at them. Don tells Leo they have to take out the drones before they can get into the building.

Inside the factory, Raph is raging and taking out robots two at a time. He can’t figure out why they all seem to be coming after him, when Hun is only fighting one at a time. Hun tells him it’s because the robots are in training mode and maybe they’ve been programmed to focus on the weakest target. Raph starts to make an angry comeback, but gets wacked on the head. Sitting on the floor, rubbing his head, Raph hears the computer instruct all units to strengthen attacks until the primary target is fully subdued.

Raph suddenly realizes that the robots are concentrating their attacks on the most aggressive target and that’s him. He leaps away from a group of them who are about to attack and tells himself that the angrier he gets, the harder these things are going to try and put him down. If he’s going to beat the training program, he’ll need some peace of mind. Raph puts away his sai, closes his eyes and folds his hands in front of him. Hun wants to know what he’s doing and Raph says it’s called meditating.

Focusing on his breathing, Raph ignores the Footbots that have surrounded him as he visualizes a temple on a mountain. The computer detects the change in the target’s heart rate and recalculates the threat level. Outside, the other Turtles are destroying security drones as quickly as they can and Leo shouts at Donnie that they need the door open now. Don is using the blade of his naginata to try to pry the door open and snaps that yelling at him won’t help him open the door any faster.

Inside, the computer concludes that the target presents no hostile actions to which the Footbots can respond and that Raph is no longer a threat. It instructs the robots to concentrate on the new hostile target and they turn towards Hun. Raph’s eyes open as he concludes that Leo was right, to be calm in the heart of a storm is to see your way through it. At that point, he draws his weapons and plows through nearly a dozen Footbots at once.

The outer door suddenly crashes open as Raph’s brothers arrive, shouting that it will be okay and they have his back. They look up to see a very calm Raph standing before them, with dozens of broken robots on the floor behind him. Leo asks him if he’s okay and Raph says he’s doing great. He also apologizes for letting his attitude get the better of him back in the warehouse. Hun walks up then and asks if he’s forgetting something, which is that they came to the factory to fight to prove which of them is the best. He tries to provoke Raph by calling his master an idiot and saying he’s afraid he’ll be shamed in front of his brothers. Leo quickly reaches for Raph, who tells him it’s okay – he knows how good he is and has nothing to prove to this two-bit creep.

Hun’s anger starts to rise as he watches the Turtles walk out of the building, ignoring him completely. With a shout, he backhands the wall, hitting a set of controls by accident. The computer re-seals the exits and commences the second combat exam, much to Hun’s dismay. His shout of “No!” can be heard all of the way outside. Mikey leans towards Don and asks if Raph is going to be this chill forever. Don says he doubts it, especially once he finds out Mikey put hot sauce in his shower gel.

See also[]

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