Issue #18: Mondo Metal

The Turtles and April managed to travel from the Amazon Mouth around the coast of Brazil and up the Carribean. After their adventures with Man Ray, they sailed further north into the Gulf of Mexico. The dolphins alerted Man Ray of danger in the ocean far away, so he left the others at the Louisiana coast. Days of traveling north by train, the Turtles and April finally arrived in New York City... home.

From the trainyard, they headed to a sewer access tunnel in Manhattan. It was good to be home, and they seemed to be in familiar territory. From the distance, music could be heard in the air... rock music. They continued on, all the while coming closer and closer to Shredder's old hideout. The waste barrels that had mutated Scumbug and Wyrm and the souped up Foot soldier that Michaelangelo trashed (Issue 10) all told them that they were traveling in the right direction. The music, too, kept getting louder and louder. It was coming from Shredder's abandoned lair.

The Turtles decided to investigate. What they found was surprising... a teenage metal band was practicing in the halls of what was once a top-secret labratory. As the band finished up, Candy, a blue-haired youth, doted on the lead guitarist's "raw power." Showing off, Mondo jumped around blasting the amps at full volume... all the while, his pet gecko sitting on his shoulder. The raw power was a bit too much for the circuit breaker, which shorted out and doused everyone in darkness.

Several whirrs and clicks made it seem as though the emergency generators were attempting to come on, but in fact it was a fleet of beefy Foot bots... all surrounding the kids. It was time for some action.

As the Turtles and April did their duty, Candy and Mondo rushed to a closet to hide. But before they reached it, Mondo was pounded by a soldier and Candy was taken hostage. As everyone focused on the soldier's next move, Mondo got to his feet. But he had been knocked head first into several barrels of radioactive chemicals -- mutagen.

Immediately, Mondo began transforming into a cross-mutation of the animal he'd most recently been with... his pet gecko. The Turtles and April finished off the other soldiers as the newly christened Mondo Gecko and Michaelangelo followed Candy's abductor to a nearby construction site. High up on the 20th floor, Mondo used his skateboarding tactics to knock the soldier off the ledge. Candy was saved, but couldn't deal with her boyfriend's new look.

"Ever had one of those days?"