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Some TMNT stuff really isn't for little kids. |
Leonardo is traveling the world in search of peace. All the adventures – good and bad-he’s had with his brothers have taken their toll, and he is seeking a new way to exist, leaving the life of New York far behind. On the banks of the Ganges, he has found a turtle colony that shows him a simpler way to be, but even these turtles have their foes. Leo can fend off the poachers easily, protecting his temporary home, but what will he do when a deadlier enemy comes searching for him?
Appearing in The Way of the Ganges Mud Turtle[]
Major characters[]
Minor characters[]
- Indian citizens
- Michelangelo
- Raphael
Species[]
Locations[]
Objects and vehicles[]
Synopsis[]
Leonardo kneels next to a fire he’s built on the banks of the Ganges River. He narrates that he has been there for nine months and that it has been said that one’s life is incomplete until you’ve bathed at least once in the river, as it is said these sacred waters bring salvation. He has not found salvation. As he narrates, he tosses the remains of turtles into the fire. Leo’s shell sports numerous arrows and shurikens.
Nine months earlier. In a city in India which sits on the banks of the Ganges River, people hold two separate funerals. Leo narrates that it is an everyday occurrence. The bodies are cremated and their half-burned remains wind up washing into the river. Over the years, the softshell turtles that live along the Ganges delta have developed a taste for the bodies and can strip a corpse clean in a matter of hours. Leo hopes this is true, as he’s come there to find these turtles and feed them something that has died.
After months of meditating on every aspect of his being, Leo still finds himself feeling lost. He’s decided to seek enlightenment on the Ganges, in the one place on the planet where the dead find eternal redemption… in the gullet of a turtle. Leo locates a group of turtles and prostrates himself before them, head on the sand. He introduces himself, humbly asking to be able to commune with them. As he speaks, the turtles walk right past him and enter the water. Stating that he understands, Leo proceeds to bury his katanas in the woods near the water. These turtles, he says, may eat the dead, but they do not kill them. Thus, the first lesson begins. Leo sits cross-legged on the sand, contemplating this teaching, which he knows well. He waits patiently for the next lesson, through the day, the night, a rain storm and even the rising tide which nearly reaches up to his neck.
One night, Leo lays on the sand. He has lost track of how many days he’s waited only for the turtles to never acknowledge him. They come out of the water and one walks right up to him. It bites his finger and returns to the water. Leo gives up, saying these turtles might as well be his brothers because they have a lot in common. None of them want him around. He came seeking direction, he came to be seen. Then suddenly, he gets his wish as a pair of poachers arrive, nets in hand.
Leo watches from a spot in a tree as they capture some of the turtles in their net. He wonders about himself; he’s not a man, but not truly a turtle. Once he at least had brothers who were like him, a master, a mission, but now he’s not more rotting filth floating down the river. At that thought, he leaps. The second lesson.
Cut to Leo again seated on the beach, with the turtles roaming all around him. He states that they meditate together. The poachers don’t come anymore and it has been months since Leo has had to make a fist. He feels that he is getting close to some primal level of enlightenment. He feels the scab of his old self sloughing away. Leo makes the decision to stay there forever, to give himself wholly to being a turtle. This decision was made yesterday.
Today he stands next to the fire, then turns to the remaining turtles, who have started to feed on the the Foot Ninja littering the beach. He tells the turtles there is no time for that. Everyone needs to get into the water. Leo says the ninja are not dead anyway, despite how much they deserve to be. Meanwhile, a trio of Foot helicopters fly over the river. A pilot conveys that the scout team has made contact and tells all units to converge.
Leo watches the turtles escape into the river and bids them goodbye. Then he turns to enter the woods, stripping off his garments as he moves. His thoughts are on the things he sought; peace, enlightenment, purification. He hasn’t found them and is now forced to go in search of something else. As the helicopters converge on his location and more Foot Ninja lower themselves onto the beach, Leonardo retrieves his katana. He is pulling the swords out of the dirt as the ninjas surround him. Leo says that if they have come seeking salvation, there is no path to it, except through him. And the only salvation he has to offer, is made of high-carbon steel.
Four minutes, thirty seconds later. The Foot Ninja who had him surrounded are now sprawled on the ground around Leo. He looks up at a helicopter from which smoke billows. Leo’s thoughts turn inward again, to how one reaches a point in life where the path they’ve been walking suddenly disappears beneath them, leaving them to forge a new way through the wilderness. He thought he was doing that here, but it seems that sometimes the only way forward it to go back the way you came. Here end the lessons.
Leo walks towards the beach, leaving behind numerous dead Foot Ninja and one downed helicopter. The smoking helicopter has landed. In the water, a Foot Ninja struggles and calls for help because he can’t swim. Leo enters the water, grabs the man by the back of his shirt and pulls him out of the water. As he drags the man towards the helicopter, Leo thinks on how he’s been here waiting for the right moment to cleanse himself in these waters, but now when he looks back, all he sees is a filthy river. He smashes the man’s face against the console and the onboard computer recognizes his facial ID. Leo then tosses the man back into the water and engages the helicopter auto pilot. He is asked to state mission status and Leo replies that the objective has been achieved. He then says to proceed to next target.
The helicopter lifts off and he is told he is now proceeding to Tokyo, Japan. Leo thinks that he was looking for salvation in the wrong place. The grace to be found here wasn’t for him. He looks down at the river bank as numerous turtles return to the beach. Leo realizes that because he came to these shores, there are now more turtles along the Ganges than ever. There is more salvation to come, one bite at a time.
Tokyo. Michelangelo’s apartment. As Foot helicopters hover outside, inside Michelangelo and Raphael continue to fight. Raph tries to tell Mikey that he came to help him, but Mikey is too angry. He yells for Raph to look around, to see that he’s doing just fine and that’s no thanks to him, to any of them. Raph says he doesn’t look fine, he looks beat to hell and he smells. As he kicks Mikey, Raph asks if they can please focus on the real issue. The Foot Clan ninjas suddenly want to kill them again. He calls Mikey ‘brother’, which only angers him more. Mikey says he doesn’t get to call him that anymore and that Raph is just jealous they came for him first. Raph corrects him by telling him that they came for him in prison three days ago. While they are fighting, a half-dozen Foot Ninja look around at each other, clearly confused.
As the two brothers grapple on the floor, Mikey starts to accuse Raph of lying, and then it sinks in that Raph said he was in prison. Just then the Foot yell “death to the Hamatos!” and attack. The Turtles turn their attention to the Foot and Mikey tells Raph they are trying to kill him. Raph says they’re trying to kill both of them, to which Mikey replies that they are trying to kill him harder. While they battle, Mikey gets a chance to elbow Raph in the back of the head and his brother congratulates him on the sucker punch. Mikey says he likes it, and Raph tells him he’s going to get them both killed. Their argument is interrupted when someone shouts “Shells!”.
Both Mikey and Raph leap out of the way as a helicopter comes crashing into the apartment. Debris, some of it on fire, is scattered everywhere and Foot Ninja are underneath most of it. Mikey laments the destruction of his apartment and Raph asks if he’s okay. Elbowing Raph in the face, Mikey answers yes and Raph begins to threaten him when they are both told to stop it. Looking behind them, they see Leonardo, standing atop the debris. Mikey complains that the jerks are multiplying. Raph asks if Leo is there to tell them how this never would have happened if they’d just listened to him.
Leo tells his brothers that they don’t have time for this and that more Foot Clan soldiers are on the move. Mikey waves dismissively and says he can handle the rest, but Leo says that they don’t understand. The Foot are not coming here. They found Donnie. Their brother is in big trouble.