- Not to be confused with Ripplings.
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Some TMNT stuff was always meant for grownups. |
The Rippling is one of three short stories in Tales of the TMNT volume 2 issue 20.
Appearing in The Rippling[]
Major characters[]
Minor characters[]
- Fishermen
Species[]
- Humans
- Mutant turtles
- Shark (illusion)
Locations[]
- Ethiopia
- New York City
- Hudson River
- Underwater turtle village (illusion)
Objects and vehicles[]
Plot[]
The Turtles paddle a pair of two-seater kayaks onto the Hudson River on a moonlit night. Michelangelo stands up to look out over the water and Raphael fusses at him for not paddling. Mikey sees something round and shiny in the water and dives in to see what it is, thinking it to only be about twenty feet down. However, he finds that it is farther away than he thought and keeps swimming downwards.
Mikey suddenly finds himself in a dry tunnel and wonders where all the water went. Very shortly he finds that the tunnel opens out on a city full of Turtle people. They greet him warmly, telling him they’ve been expecting him and welcome him home. A big party is thrown in his honor and he sits down to a pizza buffet with all the other Turtles.
In the kayaks on the water’s surface, Mikey’s three brothers are becoming concerned. Raph decides to go find him and Leonardo goes with him. The pair swim down and see an unconscious Mikey floating nearby. Leo grabs him and hauls him towards the surface, but Raph see something glowing below him and swims down to investigate.
He quickly sees that it’s a skull and then notices there are thousands of skeletons strewn around the bottom of the river. Freaked out, he races to the surface and asks if his brothers saw that. Then he notices they are gone. Raph looks around to see the city in shambles and the Statue of Liberty in a state of decay with vines growing all over her. As he’s wondering what is going on, he spots a shark coming up behind him and starts swimming. The shark is gigantic and opens its mouth wide, preparing to swallow Raph, who can’t outswim the creature.
Raph is snapped out of it when Donatello smacks him on the head. When Raph mutters that he thought they were dead, Don tells him to calm down and asks what he saw. Raph tells his story and as Mikey helps him into the kayak, he says that’s not what he saw. He insists he saw a city of Turtle-people. They start to argue about it, but Leo tells them to calm down. He says the only thing tying this together is the glowing object they all saw. Leo believes the object must make them see things. He decides to clear his mind, believing that if he empties his head, the thing won’t affect him and he can get to the bottom of this.
Leo dives in and swims to the bottom where he discovers that the glowing thing is a conquistador’s helmet. As he approaches it, Leo has a vision of a native placing a curse on the helmet, dooming the evil one’s spirit to live in his helmet for eternity. A voice from the helmet begs for Leo to destroy it and give him peace. Drawing his sword, Leo slashes the helmet into pieces.
Meanwhile, Mikey has been telling the story of his visit to the Turtle-people city. Leo surfaces and informs them his mission was accomplished and that he destroyed the helmet. The others want to know what he’s talking about. Leo said the helmet made them see their own individual mindsets. Mike is happy, so he saw happy. Raph is… that brother tells Leo to shut up. Then Don asks how Leo knows it was destroyed because it might have made him see what it was he wanted. Leo replies that whatever it was, it’s gone now. Don hopes so.
Later, off the coast of Ethiopia a trio of fishermen are trying to catch fish in a net. If they don’t catch anything, they worry their families will go hungry tonight. Suddenly, one of them sees something glowing in the water. He dives in and finds a crucifix on a chain below. Then he sees a huge school of fish swimming towards him and smiles.
The End?
See also[]
- Comic gallery
- Comic transcript