The Rat King Gambit is a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (comic strip), published in various syndicated U.S. newspapers. This comic strip ran from March 16, 1992 to February 18, 1993.
Appearing in The Rat King Gambit[]
Major characters[]
Minor characters[]
- April O'Neil
- Foot Soldiers (debut)
- Santa Claus (debut)
Species[]
Locations[]
Objects and vehicles[]
- Bō
- Katana
- Krang's spaceship
- Nunchaku
- Rat King’s flute
- Sai
Summary[]
The Turtles walks through the sewer tunnels, heading towards the lair. They have been away from home for a while and are sure that Splinter has missed them. Michaelangelo complains that he missed every episode of “Ophrah” and wonders what Earth-altering topics have been discussed. A quick shift shows Splinter inside the lair, watching “Ophrah”. Then Raphael says Master Splinter is probably out combing the neighborhood searching for them right now. A look into the lair shows Splinter watching “Love Connection” on television.
When the Turtles reach the entrance to the lair, they discover that the door is locked, and no one thought to bring the key. Leonardo says they’ll have to break down the door and the racket they make takes Splinter away from the TV show “Studs”. He reaches for the door as the Turtles prepare to slam into it. They do so and manage to smash into Splinter as he pulls the door open. Apologizing, they tell him they didn’t realize he was home, and he asks where else he would be. When they reply they thought he’d be out looking for them, he tells them he would have missed an episode of “The Simpsons”.
Splinter tells them that now that they are home, they can begin their training again. He hands over brooms and mops and tells them to make the trash in their home disappear. While they are cleaning, Mike tells Donatello that he’s worried about Splinter because all he does is watch TV all day while they clean up the mess he’s made. On television, an image of the Rat King appears. He is saying “follow me, vote for me”. Splinter’s eyes twirl in a hypnotic trance as he murmurs “I hear and obey”. Raph wonders how one rat could have made such a mess and then hears Splinter on the phone ordering seventy-four triple-cheese pizzas, a bucket of mayonnaise and a diet cola.
A week passes, the lair is cleaned up, and the Turtles note that Splinter has spent the entire time glued to the TV, like he’s got some kind of spell cast on him. On the television, Rat King is urging the people of America to hear him, that he’s the leader the country needs, and they must vote for him. He then tells them to listen as he plays his flute. The turtles think the sound is awful and then Don tells Leo he’s watching Splinter watching the horrible video. Don tries to ask Splinter what’s wrong, but his father tells them to begone because they are disrupting the Rat King’s message.
The Turtles go off to discuss the situation. Rat King tells his loyal followers to come to him, to join his army of the oppressed, and together they will overthrow the corrupt bureaucracy. Splinter murmurs that he hears and will obey. Rat King then calls “cut” and when the camera is off, he gloats that when the mammals arrive, they will dispose of them and only the rats will rule New York City. When he’s back on the air, he repeats his message, and people all over the city fall under his spell and start to gather at Rat King’s warehouse. Signs drape the interior, all calling for Rat King to be President.
Raphael notices that Splinter has gone missing. They do not realize he’s been brainwashed by Rat King and is on his way to the warehouse. Raph sits down and starts watching Rat King’s TV show and when Don asks why, Raph says it’s the only thing on TV. Raph is soon joined by his brothers. After a while, Leo notices that they are just staring at the TV the way Splinter was. He wants to turn it off but ends up just joining them again. They finally manage to leave the TV and call for help from April O'Neil, but she doesn’t answer the phone. It turns out that she, too, has fallen victim to Rat King’s mind-control.
Rat King addresses the growing crowd, telling them they will rule New York. Splinter and April find each other and both vow to vote for Rat King, but they don’t know why. In the lair, Leo tells his brothers to gear up so they can find Splinter and April and learn what the Rat King is up to. Meanwhile, Rat King is gloating that his warehouse is filled to capacity, so now he can serve the poisoned hors d’oeuvers.
Don learns from the TV that Rat King is having his pep rally in the old cheese factory downtown and that it’s a really big place. The Turtles set out to solve the mystery of how Rat King could influence so many people with his bizarre musical campaigning scheme. At the warehouse, Rat King tells his followers that it’s time to celebrate and tells them to join him in a repast. In an aside, he hopes the poison will be fast-acting, because he doesn’t like to see living things suffer, including humans.
The Turtles reach the ladder that leads up from the sewers to the warehouse. Leo climbs up first and struggles to push open the trap door above him, just as Rat King tells everyone to devour their cheese balls on the count of three. He begins to count, but Splinter tells April he’s not eating the cheese balls because there is no mayonnaise. Just before Rat King says three, Leo forces the door open, flinging Rat King into the air because he was standing on it. Dazed, Rat King starts muttering about the poisoned cheese balls, so Leo grabs the microphone and tells the crowd not to eat them. After the crowd disperses, the Turtles disable the hypno-music maker and TV cameras. Splinter and April assist the people in returning home, and then Splinter rejoins his sons, who have completely wrapped Rat King in bandages to await the police. The mutant family returns to the sewers to head home.
Mikey complains that they saved New York and instead of celebrating, they just go home. Leo tells them they need to practice their ninja skills, but the others just want to watch TV. He finally gets Donatello to spar with him. However, when Don gets knocked down, he calls for a timeout and then bops Leo when his brother starts fussing that there are no timeouts while sparring. Leo gets angry and says Don cheated because he hit him during a timeout. It happens a few more times and Don reminds Leo that Splinter said to always be prepared. That’s when Leo socks him. They go back to sparring and Splinter interrupts to ask where their brothers are. Raph and Mike are supposed to be sparring in the next room, but they are ordering pizza instead. Splinter tells Leo to fetch his brothers because he’s made an important discovery.
Once Splinter has all four Turtles gathered together, he tells them he examined the flute that Rat King used to hypnotize people and found a clue that links him to their most notorious nemesis. There is a small computer chip located in the flute, a chip that enabled the villain to tap into the bend the will of his victims. The technology is so advanced that Splinter believes it could only be produced by two beings. He tells the Turtles that Krang and the Shredder have returned.
Splinter hands the flute over to Donatello and tells him to analyze it for any clues that will help them track down Shredder and Krang. Then Splinter looks around for Michaelangelo, but he’s gone to watch game shows. Shredder appears on the TV screen to tell the Turtles that they’ve ruined his plans for the last time, and they should prepare to die. Suddenly, the screen fizzes and pops and wavy lines appear. Krang starts fussing that the equipment is wearing out and he and Shredder begin arguing. They call each other names without realizing that they are transmitting again. After a while they figure out, they’ve been on air the whole time, so Shredder once more delivers his message of death.
As all of this goes on, Don is running experiments on the flute, even accidently causing an explosion. He finally calls out to the others that after dozens of hours he’s finally learned where their enemies are concealing themselves. Mikey peeks around the corner to tell Don to hurry up because they’re off to battle the Shredder on the roof of that cheese factory. A chagrined Don wishes that he was the party dude. Splinter tells his sons that they must be prepared for their fight with the Shredder and that it could be a dangerous trap. He tells them to use this time to meditate, because to have a free body, they must have a free mind. Instead of meditating though, Don starts working on his computer so he can figure out how the flute works, thinking he can hypnotize Shredder. The tapping of his keyboard annoys Leonardo, who is in his room trying to meditate.
Krang and Shredder have continued to argue. Shredder learns that Krang doesn’t have a plan and is supposed to be the brains of their partnership. Krang calls him a motormouth for challenging the Turtles to meet him tonight. Finally, Krang comes up with a plan, though Shredder doesn’t like it. He walks out dressed in feathers with a giant duck bill strapped to his helmet. He asks Krang if he’s sure that the pre-historic duckbilled platypus is a turtle’s natural enemy. Shredder refuses to believe that a giant platypus disguise is going to frighten the Turtles into submission. Krang says that if he’s right, they’ll win effortlessly, and isn’t it worth a chance? Shredder responds with a “quack, quack”.
Splinter calls his sons together, and after some false starts, the group finally heads out to the meeting with Shredder. Walking through the tunnels, they reach a dark area and Leo runs into something. He doesn’t see the giant Foot Soldier looming over him and starts walking only to bash into the Foot Soldier again. Finally, there’s enough light for him to look up and see a very big problem. The giant Foot Soldier bonks him on the head and Raph calls for the other Turtles to attack. One by one, the giant Foot Soldier bonks them too. At Splinter suggestion, they try using teamwork, but only get bonked again. Splinter faces off with the giant Foot Soldier and breaks his walking stick over its head. His sons come back to consciousness in time to see Splinter get bonked.
Angry, the Turtles all leap on the giant Foot Soldier. Krang watches on a monitor and is pleased at what he sees. The fight with the giant Foot Soldier lasts a while, until the Turtles decide to flee into a tunnel to regroup. They race into the tunnel with the giant Foot Soldier chasing them and end up in a dead-end room. Fortunately, the giant Foot Soldier is too large to follow and gets stuck in the tunnel entrance. Unfortunately, he’s blocking their only escape route. Splinter asks Leo, Don and Raph for ideas and Mikey starts ranting because his father didn’t ask him. Don comes up with a plan and everyone but Mike huddles together. They start whispering and Mike says he hates when they do that. His brothers turn to inform him that he’s going to be a decoy, which sets him off again.
Splinter tells Mike that he’s already proven that he can escape if he’s captured, because earlier he bit the giant Foot Soldier after he’d been grabbed. Mikey’s job is to distract the giant Foot Soldier while Raph ruptures the overhead pipe. Still griping, Mikey heads into the tunnel and Raph follows. He hears Mike shout and takes out his flashlight. The giant Foot Soldier has wrapped a hand around Mikey’s body and is holding on tight. Raph tells him to hang on and he’ll be done in a second.
Krang tells Shredder they’ll have to send more robots into the tunnels to free the giant Foot Soldiers. Shredder has vanished but returns to shove Krang into the Platypus outfit. Shredder then goes to gather a squadron of Foot Soldiers and sends them to free their fallen comrade. Meanwhile, Raph is trying to punch a hole in the pipe and Mikey is having a one-way conversation with the giant Foot Soldier to keep it distracted. The Foot Soldier army heads into the tunnel. Raph is still working on the pipe, but both Mikey and the giant Foot Soldier have fallen asleep.
The Foot Soldiers have reached the giant Foot Soldier and grab his legs to try pulling him loose. Raph starts fussing at Mikey to stop fooling around and get down, which aggravates Mike. The jiggling by the Foot Soldiers wakes the giant Foot Soldier and Mike bites his hand to get free. Raph manages to punch a hole in the pipe and sewage begins flowing out. Splinter says that soon the giant Foot Soldier will be slimy enough so they can push him out of the way.
Before they can do that, the pulling by the Foot Soldiers causes the giant Foot Soldier to finally pop loose. Krang starts to celebrate, but Shredder tells him to reevaluate because the giant is battling the other Foot Soldiers. The Turtles race through the tunnel and discover the Foot Soldiers all fighting with each other. They wait to see what the final outcome will be and at the end of the battle, the giant is still standing. Raph has had enough and rushes to attack. The robot is rocking back and forth and falls over… right on top of Raph. The other help him get free just as Splinter arrives. He congratulates them on their win, and they keep it to themselves that they had nothing to do with it.
Splinter says that now they can travel to their meeting with Shredder at the cheese factory. The sound of jingling comes from a side tunnel and the group prepares for another fight, but it’s only Santa Claus. He’s gotten lost in the sewers but says he can find his way out and wishes everyone a Merry Christmas. The Turtles break the fourth wall to wish everyone Happy Holidays.
Heading out again, the Turtles and Splinter reach a ladder that will lead to the ground floor of the factory. Once they reach the ground floor, and Splinter warns everyone to be prepared for anything. Elsewhere, Shredder and Krang are panicking because all of their robots are destroyed and they had planned to strap a bomb to one, have it dive onto the Turtles and then detonate the bomb. In the factory, Splinter has found an elevator, but Leonardo thinks elevators are too easy to booby-trap, so he states that they’ll take the ladder instead. They begin climbing and are nearly to the top when they realize Splinter is not with them.
Splinter has chosen to take the elevator because his feet are sore. The Turtles leap onto the rooftop, only to find that no one is there. Shredder and Krang see that the Turtles have arrived and still can’t decide what to do. Splinter realizes the elevator is slow. The Turtles keep themselves occupied by playing cards, though Leo wants to search for Shredder. The elevator stalls and stops, so Splinter has to climb out through the ceiling hatch and climb the rope to get to the roof.
Shredder and Krang confront the Turtles on the rooftop, and despite threatening them with a bomb, the Turtles charge. Splinter reaches the elevator door at the rooftop but struggles with trying to open it. Krang sees the Turtles coming at them and makes a quick exit, leaving Shredder to face them alone. Don tells Shredder that the concussion from the bomb will kill all of them, including him. Shredder says so be it. Soon the bomb will explode and bring the building down on top of them. Don replies that it will barely blow a twenty-foot diameter hole in the roof.
Splinter finally forces the elevator door open and startles Shredder, who drops the bomb down the elevator shaft. Leo says now he has no robots, no bomb and no Krang. Shredder says he’ll fetch the bomb and leaps into the shaft. A second later, the bomb explodes. They find his helmet and decide they should go down and try to help him. Don says there’s only one problem, the building is shaking and the bomb going down the elevator shaft is bringing the whole thing down.
Pointing out that they have no time to search for Shredder, Splinter says the building is not collapsing because of the bomb. He points out that a flying saucer is crashing into the rooftop. Mike yells that the only way to escape the collapsing building is to jump onto the flying saucer. They make the leap, but then realize they have to figure out a way inside because the saucer has changed course and is now headed toward outer space. Raph says he’s going to cut a door, but Don has found a door.
Elsewhere, Shredder is wrapped in bandages and is lying on a hospital bed. He vows that once his injuries are healed, he’s going to make the Turtles suffer for the indignities they’ve caused him. A nurse walks over to tell him it’s time to take his temperature and a scowling Shredder threatens to really make them pay.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The Santa Claus, Merry Christmas strip was printed in the December 25th edition of the syndicated newspapers.