The Freak Seeker is the comic in the fifty-fourth issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Appearing in The Freak Seeker[]
Major characters[]
- Donatello
- Leonardo
- Michelangelo
- Raphael
- Ringmistress (debut)
Minor characters[]
- Leatherhead
- Mondo Gecko (debut)
- Robot clowns
- Tyler Rockwell (debut)
- Slash (debut)
Locations[]
- New York City
- Carnival of Creeps
Objects and vehicles[]
- Bō
- Crystal of Gally-Gaar
- Katana
- Kusarigama
- Nunchaku
- Sai
Synopsis[]
Open on a circus hawker welcoming people to the main show – the Carnival of Creeps. He tells them they will behold creatures whose very existence has caused scientists around the world to explode with shock. The hawker announces that this will be their last night in New York City. Suddenly money is tossed into his hawker tray and a box of popcorn vanishes. The hawker turns and sees a trail of popcorn heading into the tent.
Inside, beneath the stands, Michelangelo is munching on popcorn. He’s sneaked out of the lair by himself in order to watch the show. He’s arrived just as the show nears its end. The Ringmistress describes the exhibition she’s just shown the audience; the monkey-man lifting a refrigerator with just the power of his mind and the lizard-boy skateboard through hoops of fire blindfolded.
She now tells them to behold the very mightiest of their monsters to perform a feat of strength she calls ‘The One-Handed Carriage Cascade of Death!’. This involves the creatures juggling five automobiles while doing 100 one-handed push-ups. Mikey’s eyes go wide as the creatures step into the light and he sees Leatherhead, Slash, Mondo Gecko and Tyler Rockwell.
Mikey continues to crunch on popcorn, wondering aloud what the Mighty Mutanimals are doing here. He thinks that it’s very possible something weird is going on and he should go and talk to Leo. Suddenly he’s grabbed from behind by a trio of clowns who drag him before the Ringmistress. One of the clowns tells her they caught the young mutant sneaking around and they thought she might wish to add him to her collection. She examines Mikey, telling him that the circus has travelled to a hundred different dimensions but none of them have provided her with such a rich harvest of freaks. She decides Mikey will be perfect for their tour of the water dimension of Amphibia.
The clowns continue holding Mikey as she imagines the headline ‘Turtilicus! The Aquatic Goon Immune to Doom!’, billing him as an escape artist. They’ll tie him up in chains, lock him in a safe then fire the safe out of a cannon. Mikey snorts and says that’s exactly what Raph said he’d do next time he caught him messing with this action figures.
Ringmistress spins around and announces that first she must empty his mind with the Crystal of Gally-Gaar. She presses the crystal on the end of her cane against Mikey’s forehead, telling him to let it drain him of all resistance, until his head is free of thought, until his well is hers.
Meanwhile, the other Turtles are outside the main tent looking for Mikey. Donatello thinks they are risking being seen themselves by going after him and believes Mikey couldn’t possibly get into trouble. He adds that it’s just a circus and it’s not as if it’s hiding some kind of dark and evil secret. Raphael tells him it’s a creepy circus full of clowns and freaks and of course it’s hiding some kind of dark, evil secret. Leonardo tells them to hold it down because he can hear something. All three Turtles peer through a slightly open flight on the side of the tent.
Ringmistress says that the turtle creature appears to be immune to the mind-draining effects of the Crystal. She complains that it was supposed to turn him into a drooling idiot. While she’s speaking, Mikey is trying to get popcorn away from one of the clowns. Ringmistress snatches the box of popcorn away from him, stating that Mikey’s head was clearly empty to begin with. As she wanders away eating popcorn, Mikey shouts at her for eating in front of him and wants to know what kind of monster she is. Ringmistress says she’s the kind who has no use for one as brainless as him. She orders the clowns to dispose of him and to do so quickly because they must depart for the inter-dimensional highway before someone comes looking for him.
The clowns are closing in on Mikey when one of them gets it’s robotic head knocked off by Donnie’s bō staff. Leo orders them to let their brother go and one of the clowns tells them to come and get him. The Turtles leap into the fight and Raph starts laughing. Don asks him to stop because he’s getting creeped out and Raph apologizes, saying watching these bozos fight is probably the first time a clown has made him laugh.
Watching from nearby, Ringmistress decides she’ll need a tougher distraction for the Turtles if she’s going to get the circus back on the road. She lifts the Crystal and calls her ‘pets’ to her. There is a loud rumbling sound and suddenly the Mutanimals arrive. As they attack the Turtles, Don calls out that they’ve been hypnotized and they must try not to hurt them. The Turtles duck, dive and block strikes while trying not to injure their friends. Don asks were the Ringmistress went because the crystal on the end of her cane is the key to everything. Mikey says that he’s on it and races from the tent. Outside is another building with a sign reading “Crazy Maze of Mirrors”.
Inside the Maze of Mirrors, the Ringmistress laments not being able to add the Turtles to her circus. But as it is, she’s already collected creatures from across the multiverse and that nothing can stop her from collecting more. She then notices in her viewing screen that Mikey has entered the mirror-maze, but is unconcerned because the thinks he won’t find his way through in time.
However, Mikey is following the scent of hot buttered toffee popcorn. In the control room, the Ringmistress is munching on popcorn as she sets a course for the inter-dimensional superhighway. She is about to connect the Crystal of Gally-Gaar to the controls when Mikey’s kusarigama sickle strikes the crystal and shatters it. Ringmistress screams at him for destroying her crystal and everything that she’s built with it.
A computer voice announces that a space/time fracture has been detected. This sets all of the creatures in her collection free. A swirling vortex opens, sucking all of the creatures into it in order to return them to their dimension of origin. Ringmistress is also being pulled and for a moment manages to hold on to the giant crystal in the center of the room, but soon the pull is too strong and she enters the vortex.
Mikey is also fighting the pull of the vortex as the computer states that the circus is now collapsing into the dimensional vortex. As Mikey loses his hold, his arm is suddenly grabbed by Leatherhead. He looks down and sees that Slash is still firmly planted on the ground, holding Mondo Gecko’s legs, who in turn is holding Rockwell, who has a grip on Don’s legs. The other two turtles are next, with Raph clinging to Leatherhead’s foot.
All of the circus buildings fly up into the vortex and then it snaps shut. Everyone falls back to the ground. Leatherhead thanks Mikey, saying without him, the Mighty Mutanimals would have spent eternity doing tricks. The wind blows a flyer into Mikey’s face and he takes a look at it, then excitedly calls out to his brothers. The flyer says that Doctor Sinister’s Hypnotism Horrorshow is going to be in town next week. Mikey begs his brothers to let him go and see it. Receiving no answer, he turns and sees his brothers charging at him.