This Circle Isn't Really That Flat is the tenth issue of the second volume of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Saturday Morning Adventures. It is part two of the story arc, The Sword of Eddiku.
Solicit[]
Leonardo and Shredder are hurled through space and time when the Forever Blade is shattered! It’s up to the rest of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to finish the fight back in NYC and rescue their brother, in addition to keeping an eye out for the time breach they were warned about. Meanwhile, transported back to ancient Japan, Shredder has set his sights on a replacement sword! The Eddiku Trilogy continues in Saturday Morning Adventures!
Appearing in This Circle Isn't Really That Flat[]
Major characters[]
Minor characters[]
- Albert McGuffin
- April O'Neil (recap only)
- Eddiku Yuri
- Lord Hayao
- Krang
- Splinter
Species[]
- Disembodied brain
- Humans
- Interdimensional being
- Mutant rat
- Mutant turtle
Locations[]
- Feudal Japan
- Castle of Lord Hayao
- New York City
- Hall Science
- Techno Cosmic Research Institute
- Turtle Lair
Objects, vehicles, and weapons[]
- Bō
- Forever Sword
- Grappling hook
- Katana
- Nunchaku
- Sai
- Shuriken
- Time Scepter
- Transtemporal Dimensional Portal
Synopsis[]
Open on TCRI as Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo meet with Professor McGuffin. The Professor verifies that the piece of the shattered Forever Sword that they brought to him came from the stolen meteorite. However, he can’t understand how the ore could be smelted, let alone shattered when their tests had indicated it was all but indestructible. When Don tells him that the thief had access to otherdimensional technology, McGuffin says he’d love to meet him. Don replies that he really wouldn’t because the guy is worse than Chrome Dome.
All Raph wants to know is how to use the broken sword to get Leonardo back. Unfortunately, McGuffin can only detect a trace of an unidentifiable energy. To get enough power to cut through time and space, the sword’s energy would need to be fanned into a flame and he doesn’t know how to do that. Don asks for a copy of his information so he can verify the Professor’s findings. McGuffin hands over a messenger bag into which he’s placed the shards of the sword and the floppy discs with the information. Calling out their thanks, the Turtles leave TCRI.
Meanwhile, in Feudal Japan, Shredder and Leo are still facing off. Just as their fight starts again, an arrow whizzes between the pair, startling them. They see a group of Samurai on horseback and one of them addresses the “ninja”, demanding to know who he is and why he is fighting with a turtle spirit in the road. Shredder immediately lies and says that the Kappa ambushed him and stole him away when he tried to stop his evil plans. Leo calls him out on the lie, but the samurai shush them, stating they have no time for this. The person they are accompanying is Eddiku Yuri, who says that their master wanted the sword he made for him as soon as possible. Shredder recognizes his voice, remembering the ghost of Yuri that he had summoned weeks earlier. With this revelation, Shredder knows when in time they are and how he’ll get back home. He dashes away, vanishing in a heavily wooded area.
Leo tries to follow, but one of the samurai blocks his path with a lance. Shouting that Shredder is getting away, Leo slices the lance in half. A pair of arrows strike the ground at Leo’s feet, stopping him and the samurai tell him that he’s not getting away. He has made them late and he will have to explain that to Lord Hayao. As he fires off another arrow, Leo slices it in mid-air, but it was only a distraction so another of the men could hit him over the head and knock him out.
Having returned to the lair and his lab, Don is hard at work on the equipment he built to analyze alien energies. It has confirmed what McGuffin told them and so far, he hasn’t found a clue that the Professor missed. Michelangelo offers him encouragement not to give up. Suddenly, Renet appears, greeting them and announcing that she’s from the future. As she starts to introduce herself, Raph informs her that they’ve already met. Seeing that there are only three Turtles, Renet says that isn’t good and she’ll have to slide later in the timeline. Michelangelo quickly stops her, saying they need her help.
Renet tells them that she’s not really supposed to interfere, however, Raphael asks how it’s not interfering that she showed up with a vague warning the first time they met. Don then says all they want to know is what happened to Leonardo. When she hesitates, Raph asks if the thing she meant to warn them about is something all four of them deal with. She answers yes and he says that if she knows they get Leo back, then it isn’t interfering, it’s streamlining. This does the trick and she uses her Time Scepter to locate Leo in Feudal Japan. Raph asks if she can just zap him back, but this Renet can’t do because it would get her into trouble. Don wonders how they’ll get him back, since they don’t have a time machine sitting around. Renet winks and says that they actually do.
In Japan, Leo returns to consciousness with an aching head. He finds himself in a castle courtyard, tied up next to a bound Eddiku Yuri. Leo asks why he’s tied up too, because he thought the man was in charge. Yuri introduces himself, says he’s a master swordmaker and that he’s there because of Leo. He explains that he made a sword for Lord Hayao and it was his best work – it can even cut through the sky. However, when Hayao’s samurai brought them there, Lord Hayao worried that he might have offended the spirits by keeping the sword. Yuri has been tied up until they could question Leo.
Using a shuriken he has tucked into his belt Leo frees himself and then cuts Yuri loose. Before they can leave, Lord Hayao appears, accompanied by a pair of guards. Hayao asks Yuri if the sword he made is cursed. Yuri says no and that he would never. Hayao counters that the day he came to deliver it, a spirit appears. If the sword is not cursed, then the Kappa must be here to challenge him for the blade. Yuri tells Leo that he had to know a fight was coming, since they let him keep his swords.
Hayao attacks, but Leo blocks his sword strike and then kicks him in the jaw. When Hayao swings the Forever Sword at Leo, it opens a portal to a world of anthropomorphic samurai pigs. This makes Leo wonder how many of those magic swords there are. Hayao agrees, but suddenly Shredder interrupts to say it’s not magic, it’s alien science. Standing on the roof of the castle, Shredder swings a grappling hook and then uses it to snatch the sword out of Hayao’s hands. Holding the sword aloft, Shredder says that he knew the original sword disappeared from the castle, but never dreamed it was because he’d stolen it. Shredder announces his intention to return to his own time and conquer it. Leo disagrees, saying that even if it means he is stuck there, he isn’t letting Shredder get away with the sword. He leaps and attempts to use the sword breaking trick again, but this time it doesn’t work.
Shredder says that the first sword Leo destroyed was inferior, but with the original Forever Sword he will be unstoppable. He swiftly opens a time rift to the present and leaps through. Leo tries to pursue, but the rift closes. Then Hayao calls out that the cursed blade is gone and for Leo to leave as well. Leo starts to say he can’t, but Hayao tells him to look behind him. When Leo looks back, he sees an open portal window leading to the lair. Don tells him to hurry because the transtemporal dimensional portal won’t stay open long. Leo dashes through just in time. Hayao then tells Yuri that they need to discuss how he’ll replace the stolen sword.
Back home, Leo wants to know how they retrieved him. Mikey and Raph explain how Renet helped them, and Raph adds not to get excited about have a time machine because it was a pain in the shell to open the portal. When he says it’s a shame to have to do it again to stop Shredder, Leo tells them how Shredder found a better Forever Sword and used it to get home. He asks Renet if that was what she came to warn them about. Renet won’t answer that question though, because she has interfered enough. As she leaves, she says she’ll see them soon and that they need to focus on Shredder.
In Shredder and Krang’s hideout, the latter has taken readings from the Forever Sword. The readings, he says, are off the charts but he’s not detecting any alien technology. He asks where Shredder found it. Shredder states that’s not as important as what he’s going to do with it. He’s going to bring back the Technodrome.
Notes and trivia[]
- The primary cover is an homage to one of the home media covers of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III.