The Turtle King, Part Two is the second issue for volume 2 of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Saturday Morning Adventures.
Solicit[]
The Rat King has gained the ability to control the Ninja Turtles! He's ordered Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo to go on a crime spree to benefit the rodents of the city while forcing Donatello to search for a way to return the Rat King's original powers. Things look grim for our heroes, but this is the second part of a two-part story so you know they're going to reverse the Rat King's control and put things right! The nostalgia-fueled Saturday morning-inspired adventures of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles continue in "The Turtle King, Part Two"!
Appearing in Part Two[]
Major characters[]
Minor characters[]
- Krang
- Police officers
- Shredder
- Vernon Fenwick
Species[]
- Disembodied brain
- Human
- Mutant rat
- Mutant turtle
- Rat
Locations[]
Objects, vehicles and weapons[]
- Bō
- Bubble Walker
- Cheapskates
- Comlink
- Katana
- Nunchaku
- Psychological warfare enhanced battle suit
- Sai
- Stun gun
- Turtlecom
- Turtle Line
Synopsis[]
After April O'Neil’s Channel 6 action recap of Part One, the story opens on an abandoned warehouse where Shredder meets up with Krang. Shredder tells him that he’s been working on a plan to get the Technodrome back and then shows Krang the meteorite that he stole from TCRI. The meteorite landed in ancient Japan and its other half was used to forge a legendary blade that was said to cut through reality itself. This doesn’t sound familiar to Krang and he decides to examine the rock and gets excited when his sensors go wild.
Meanwhile, the Rat King is on a city street with three of his new Turtle minions. He orders them break into Maison de Fromage, so Leonardo uses the weapons in his battle suit to blast through the glass window of the store. Then Michelangelo and Raphael get to work taking hunks of cheese from the store and tossing them to the rats who have arrived on scene. This thrills Rat King, who knew the rats would show up. Rat King praises the Turtles for doing so well and then asks if they are ready to do bigger things. Leo replies that they are ready to stand and serve.
In the lair, April and Splinter watch Vernon Fenwick’s report on the miscreants dressed as giant rodents. April is displeased because it should have been her story, but Donatello, who is working to enhance her stun gun, says they’ll make it up to her. He tests the stun gun and the strength of the blast surprises him. April wants to know what he did and Don says he made a modification that will allow him to zap the other Turtles from a distance. Splinter thinks that is an excellent plan and asks when they will leave. Don starts to tell him he can’t go, but Splinter explains that he knows the strength of the Rat King’s abilities and would not let his son face that alone. He asks how Don with find his brothers and Don says that they all still have their Turtlecoms, which he can track.
Elsewhere, the Rat King has led the Turtles into a subway tunnel. He tells the confused Turtles that above them is the Hudson River and they will use the weapons in their suits to blast through the wall of the unfinished tunnel to the river above. This will cause a flood that will destroy parts of the human infrastructure and drive the rodents to the surface. Between the massive damage and the influx of rats, the citizenry will get the message to leave peacefully. He orders them to fire, and all three Turtles open up with their weapons on the tunnel ceiling. Riding through the tunnels on a pair of cheapskates, Splinter and Don feel the shockwaves and realize they’d better hurry.
An excited Rat King urges the Turtles to press on but suddenly Leo feels that what they are doing is wrong. Rat King grabs him and asks how he dares to defy him. Believing Leo is trying to pit wills with him, Rat King starts to focus the full weight of his mental power on the Turtle. As he is doing this, Splinter leaps and delivers a kick to Rat King’s chest which throws the man backwards. Rat King is surprised to see him, certain that Splinter would not be brave enough to face him again. Splinter tells him that when he first took control of his will, he had to use a musical instrument to do so. Though he had no way of knowing if Rat King still had that tool, the Turtles are his sons and nothing he could ever threaten Splinter with would frighten him into letting the man take them away.
Still mind-controlled, Mikey starts to attack Splinter, but Don hits him with the stun gun. This knocks Mikey flat and brings him back to his senses. Leo opens fire on Don, calling him a traitor and Raph leaps at the genius. Don turns quickly and zaps Raph, which stops him from having the urge to do whatever Rat King orders. Don then tries to zap Leo, but his brother jumps out of the way, so Don asks the other two to help him.
Rat King and Splinter are still battling. Rat King realizes that Don somehow slipped from his mind-control and that Splinter is meant to be a distraction. As he grapples with Splinter, Rat King concentrates on the Turtles and manages to bring all four under his control again. Raph fires on Splinter, who backflips out of the way. Don tells his brothers to be careful, because Splinter is too fast and they might hit the Rat King. They decide to use just their ninja skills to fight their master, but even combined, the four don’t have the skill to defeat them. As he battles them, Splinter says that he believes, given enough time, that given time their will would prove greater than the Rat King’s. As they do not have that kind of time, something almost as good will have to be done. With this, he slips under Don’s bō to grab the stun gun from his belt. Splinter turns and blasts Rat King with the stun gun. This lays Rat King out flat and ends his mind-control over the Turtles.
Mikey uses his Turtle Line to tie up the unconscious Rat King while Don examines the part of the tunnel his brothers had started to blast. They did some damage, but he says it doesn’t look like they got close enough to the riverbed to bring millions of gallons of water rushing in. Don says they need to alert the authorities so they can start repairs and when he’s hit in the face by a big splash of water, he adds that they need to tell them to hurry.
The next day, April appears on television doing a broadcast on Rat King’s arrest for trying to flood the transit tunnels. Watching the report from the comfort of the couch in the lair, Mikey says they were lucky and Leo agrees that they almost messed up big-time. Splinter tells them that one cannot prepare for the unexpected and cannot avoid making mistakes when it comes. They can but learn from those mistakes and grow wiser. Raph then reminds them they need to take those rat suits back to Professor McGuffin at TCRI and tell him what happened. He hopes the Professor will forgive them. Leo says that he hopes so too, otherwise they might not know what Shredder was stealing last night. Mikey is surprised all of that happened only last night because to him it felt like a month ago.
Epilogue. In a cell at the City Jail, Rat King shouts that they can’t keep him there. The details of his arrest, he says, were circumstantial. He has a law degree, he reminds them. Though he yells to be let out, he is ignored and realizes it’s no use. The electricity affected his powers again and he can’t even summon the Turtles. A loud squeak draws his attention down to the floor and he sees a rat there, holding a ring of keys. This brings a wide grin to Rat King’s face.