Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Mysterious Green Slime Seeps Out of the NYC Sewer System

Turtle Power may officially be taking over New York City, as a mysterious green ooze was seen emerging from a manhole cover this morning.

The ooze was spotted near the World Trade Center and people immediately made the connection to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

For anyone unfamiliar with the lore of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the story involved four turtles living underground in the NYC sewer system who transformed into pizza-loving humanoids after being exposed to radioactive green ooze.

Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael, and Donatello spend their days in the plumbing while coming out to fight bad guys and occasionally pull off a most triumphant dance number with Vanilla Ice.

Sadly, it turns out there is a perfectly logical explanation for the green ooze and that it is not, in fact, evidence that turtles trained in martial arts are here to protect us.

"This is water full of green dye," reader-added context explained on X. "Plumbers frequently use harmless, fluorescent green dye to detect leaks in plumbing and sewage systems."

In fact, this is not the first time this year that the eerie liquid has been spotted underneath NYC. In March, a subway rider posted a picture of a neon-green puddle in a subway stop to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.