Black Magic - Untold Tales of the TMNT

SYNOPSIS
In the aftermath of the epic City At War incident, the criminal element of New York City is stirring. With the Foot Clan either in hiding or reformed by Karai, the various gangs and other criminal organizations make their moves against each other, as they vie for territorial control. Amidst this wave of violence, a new and potentially far more dangerous problem is spreading through the city at an alarming rate – a new drug known as Black Magic…

We open in the ER of a downtown hospital. Casey Jones has is storming through the hallways, ignoring the doctors and nurses trying to stop him. He’s furious. He finally arrives in a small room, where a young girl lies and a familiar face awaits, but before we can even guess who it is, Casey has slammed him against the wall. It’s Sid (from “Cousin Sid” - this however is a no-go, as Sid is appearing in new stories direct from Pete) and the girl is his younger sister Amy. Demanding to know how she got like this, Casey presses Sid hard for answers – ones he’s extremely reluctant to give. As it turns out she experimented with Black Magic and wound up overdosing. Torn between disappointment and love for his younger cousin, Casey swears he’s going to get whoever’s responsible and turns to the Turtles for help.

The Turtles agree to help, but warn that Casey will be on his own for a lot of this, as the Turtles don’t want to risk getting too involved with the gang problems, fearing their involvement may make things worse, just as it did with the Foot Clan. Don says he’ll stay and dig up whatever information he can on Black Magic. Casey, Raph and Mike head out and begin pressing local dealers and thugs for information, turning over whatever stone they can, eventually finding themselves Hell’s Kitchen, where they arrange to “meet” with a dealer named The Doctor (“because he’s got what you need…”). Pretending to be representatives of the “Kappa” gang, Casey, Mike and Raph are lead to an abandoned building where The Doctor runs his operations, but with Raph and Mike in disguises they can’t take off, they are refused entry. Raph tells Casey that they’ll “wait” for him outside, Casey agrees and is led inside.

The Turtles sneak to the roof of the building so they can keep an eye on things, and Casey tries to negotiate some sort of deal with The Doctor (in reality, he’s trying to get the Doctor alone so he can dish out some justice). Little does he know that The Doctor is suspicious of Casey and leads him into a closed room, out of view of the Turtles. Raph and Mike watch as Casey disappears through a door with The Doctor, but when The Doctor comes back out alone some time later, the duo realise something’s gone wrong. They contact Don and let him know what’s going on, who responds with some interesting info about Black Magic: when combined with another substance in exact measurements, it creates what is effectively a “zombi” drug, shutting off certain brain functions, and making those affected by the concoction totally subservient to those who give it to them.

Mike and Raph spring into action, chasing down Casey, dealing with The Doctor’s goons along the way and eventually find themselves in a massive underground area connecting to the sewers, where crates of Black Magic are being stored. Somewhere else down there, Casey has awoken to find himself in a sort of ritual chamber, bound in a fashion similar to those in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and confronted by a Haitian man with a tattoo of a skull on his face. The skullfaced man is going to force the zombi drug on Casey and just when things look bad, the Turtles bust in and interrupt the ritual. A brief battle breaks out, and the skullfaced man throws the mixture in Casey’s face. The dosage doesn’t seem like enough to completely affect him, but Casey reacts nonetheless, and Mike and Raph decide to grab Casey and get the hell out, setting fire to the crates of drugs as they do.

They arrive back at the lair, where Don has prepared a makeshift antidote using common pharmaceuticals. Casey recovers and although disappointed that the skullfaced man got away, the fact that the Black Magic cache was destroyed and that they know who’s behind it fills them with a sense of accomplishment. For now, Black Magic is no longer a threat.