Raphael: Mutant Apocalypse

Raphael: Mutant Apocalypse
Season 5, Episode 11-14
Airdate	September 2017
Writter	Kevin Eastman
Director	Alan Wan
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Prev. Kagayakei! Kintaro	Next The Crypt of Dracula

Plot

Somewhere in an alternate future, the earth was hit by the detonation of a massive Mutagen Bomb, which disrupted the ecosphere and completely changed the world as we know it. The earth turned into a single sand-covered wasteland. Humanity was completely extinguished, and only the mutants were tough and adaptive enough to survive in the twisted environment. Through this apocalyptic world, Raphael, whose memories of his former life after the explosion of the bomb are only misty for him, and Donatello, trapped in a robotic shell, as the seemingly only survivors of their family in the Shellraiser, constantly fighting for bare survival.

The survival of the two will one day be put to a hard test, however, by Verminator Rex and his plunderers, the Honey Badger Ravagers, who discovered and tracked them. They attack the two Turtles after they have pitched their night camp, and overpower Raphael, who is keeps vigil. Instead of killing or robbing him immediately, Verminator Rex asks him about a girl and a map; Raphael, impulsive as always, answers this question with his fist and is beaten up by the Ravagers. A help call to Donatello turns the tide, but Raphael and Donatello then notice a huge horde of Ravagers, which is gaining strength, and can escape after a wild chase with scarce distress.

The next morning they reach the ruins of an old resting place. While Donatello is in his resting phase, Raphael is searching for suitable supplies there, but is attacked by a meerkat mutant and is put out of combat with a electro-pole. When Raphael awakens again from his impotence, the mutant, along with the Shellraiser has disappeared. Raphael drags himself through the desert, but then reaches the end of his strength and collapses, then unexpectedly is picked up by Donatello, who has overpowered the mutant in the meantime and has recaptured the Shellraiser again. Raphael is still quite nauseous about the theft by the mutant, and he is willing to put them in trouble, but Donatello convinces him to accept the unwanted passenger, and so they continue their journey.

When Donatello realizes during the journey that they are approaching a dangerous region called "The Impossible Desert," the young mutant, named Mira, explains that she was on her way there when she met the Turtles. Her goal, as she explained to them, is the oasis, a piece of grassland, of which only myths and legends are known. When the troop stops a bit later at an abandoned gas station, Mira frees herself from her shackles and engulfs Raphael in a duel. Raphael overwhelms her quickly, but just as he wants to leave her behind, Mira tries to explain to him that there is another turtle in the Impossible Desert. Raphael gives her no faith and continues the journey, but soon afterwards they are forced to stop by a new ambush of the Honey Badger Ravagers. Verminator Rex calls on him and Donatello to surrender the Shellraiser, which Raphael refuses; The Ravagers then go over to attack.

Raphael breaks through the ring of Ravagers and escapes across the desert, but their opponents turn out to be very stubborn persecutors. But just as the situation for the two Turtles became dangerous, they get unexpected support from Mira, who was able to free herself from her shackles before Raphael's departure and was in the bottom of the Shellraisers hanging as a blind passenger. When she finds herself in between Verminator Rex, the Ravager discover a map tattooed on her arm and recognizes her as the girl he was looking for. Since the Turtles still do not want to be captured, the Ravagers use their largest combat vehicle against them. Verminator Rex tries to steal the Shellraiser but is thrown on board by Mira and Raphael, and by sacrificing a fuel keg, Donatello succeeds in destroying the enemy vehicle.

After they have stopped to repair the damage to the Shellraiser, Raphael and Donatello express their respect to Mira and take it with them. Mira tells them that the Turtle in the Impossible Desert is a hermit who knows the way to the Oasis and is known as the "Holy Chalupa". When this name is mentioned, Raphael and Donatello are surprised, for among the Turtles only one has ever made use of these words: their youngest brother, Michelangelo!

In the hope that the hermit "Holy Chalupa" could actually be their long lost brother Michelangelo, Raphael, Donatello and Mira continue their journey towards the impossible desert. Mira is mainly interested in finding the legendary Oasis, to which she can lead the map, which is tattooed on her arm; and only the Holy Chalupa is able to identify the drawing.

However, in order to find there way, the three friends must take an extremely dangerous path, because the impossible desert consists of a huge drifting sand surface, which is only interrupted by some rocky platforms and ruins of the fallen human civilization. Raphael dares to drive through, but the drift sands is far more treacherous than expected, as the rock slabs that he drives over, begin to sink in the sand due to the weight of the Shellraiser. Only by escaping to the front and to the remains of a highway can the friends just escape danger. Only a little later, however, the car is caught by an phenomenon that moves through the sand at unimaginable speed and is brought to a standstill.

Raphael, Donatello and Mira evacuate the Shellraiser and try to get to safety, but the unknown creature picks up the the pursuit and catches up with Raphael. Before it can devour the turtle, the monster is whipped back by a strange figure. This person turns out to be Michelangelo, and the monster, which had almost eaten Raphael, is none other than his old (and now very grown up) lap animal Chompy. The three Turtle brothers celebrate their reunion, and after that, Michelangelo brings them to his home-a still standing restaurant of a Mexican version of Antonio's Pizza-Rama-where there is also a reunion with ice cream kitty. There Michelangelo immediately throws a reunion party, but when the language comes to the last of their brothers, Leonardo, he can only tell Raphael and Donatello that Leonardo was in the midst of the epicenter of the mutagenic explosion and must therefore have perished with it. Then Mira shows him the map on her arm, and Michelangelo immediately recognizes it as a map to the Oasis, which he himself made, but subsequently lost in a tattoo shop.

However, Verminator Rex has not remained idle; to get Mira and the map into his hands, he has entered into an alliance with the leader of the Scale Tail Clan , Imperius Reptilicus. With the reptilian mutants as reinforcements, he picks up again the trail of his fugitive enemies and pursues them to the restaurant, in which he breaks with his allies and demands Mira's surrender. There is a fight in the restaurant, and the four friends defend themselves to the best of their ability; but in the end they can not prevent Mira from being caught and carried away by the ravagers. Raphael snatches a motorbike from a straggler and pursues the escaping looters. Verminator Rex sends some of the Scale Tails against him, but Raphael hijacks their cars. One of the Scale Tails then fires a rocket at him; Raphael dodges the projectile, but the rocket hits the restaurant and blows the building to pieces. Full of rage about the recent loss of his family, Raphael now goes into full attack mode, but his mobile base is destroyed by Reptilicus.

The Ravager retreat to the fortress of the Scale Tails, where Mira is thrown into a cell; but the Ravagers cannot decipher the map, and Mira refuses to cooperate with them. Later in the night Raphael, who has survived his accident, sneaks into the complex and takes Mira out of her cell. Unfortunately, however, one of the guards he has done on the way regains consciousness and triggers the general alarm; the two are quickly overwhelmed by the growing predominance of their enemies and are brought to a battle arena in the fortress, where as punishment for his invasion, Raphael must serve as an involuntary participant in a cruel gladiatorial game...

Meanwhile, it turns out that the other Turtles are not dead. As if by a miracle, Michelangelo and Donatello have survived the destruction of Antonio and are dug out of the sand by Chompy. Raphael and Mira are taken to the arena of the Scale Tail Fortress, where Raphael is thrown on an island in a sewage ditch to compete in a duel against Imperius Reptilicus. Verminator Rex, however, also interferes in the duel, in order to not miss the pleasure of being able to process Raphael personally into minced meat. The two leaders join together and attack Raphael, which only a withered branch was left as his only weapon. He is subdued by the two in the first round and is sunk into the ditch, but aware that Mira needs his help, he dives back up and defeats the two Ravager bosses. Meanwhile, the rest of the team follow the trail of the Ravagers and break into the fortress, only to witness. that their help is no longer needed and Raphael is chosen as the new leader by the cheering crowd of Scale Tails and Honey Badgers! Together with their new comrades, the Turtles form a convoy, with which they immediately continue their search for the oasis.

Verminator Rex, however, cannot accept his defeat, but makes himself up and informs his leader, the great Maximus Kong , and tells him of the existence of the map that Mira carries with her. He picks up the search convoy as they work through a canyon labyrinth, and asks for Miras's publication. When Raphael refuses this, Maximus attacks her with his mighty warfare vehicle and begins to decimate the turtles' Ravager escort with the help of Verminator Rex and his Synthezoids - crew.

To take up the fight with them, Raphael splits up his squad: while he pushing himself on Maximus, Mira's contender Verminator Rex is to be turned off, and Donatello and Michelangelo take care of the Synthezoids. Raphael switches the Shellraiser to self destruction, which inflicts serious damage on Maximus's war wagon, enters the vehicle and works up to Maximus. This is Raphael's challenge, but it proves to be very difficult and too tough for a quick victory. At the end of a hard blow exchange, Raphael can beat the helmet off of his head; but the shock is great, when he recognizes Maximus Kong as the last missing member of his family, Leonardo! He tries desperately to talk to his brother; but Leonardo's mind is clouded, and although Raphael's words begin to show effect, he continues his attacks on him. Finally, he grabs Raphael firmly in his grip and in his mental conflict hurls him from his car, before the vehicle crashed on a rock wall.

With the end of this violent Chase, Michelangelo and Donatello now learn that their lost brother is still alive, and in their presence, Leonardo regains his memories and his clear mind. The others turtles wonder what happen to him. Raph told Leo that the last time they saw him, he was caught in the mutagen blast. Leo remebers how it happened . He remembered pushing his brothers to safety before getting hit. He mutated into a giant freak but now he was back. Reunited, and with Mira's map in their hands, they now find the legendary oasis, an old reservoir with clean water and dense forest all around, and found their new family in the last paradise on Earth.

At the end, the younger versions of themselves took a picture with their father until the episode ends.