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“No! Leonardo!!” Leo looked up sharply from his book. He could recognise a genuinely distressed call from one of his brothers anywhere, and that hadn’t been one. Still, he was unable to ignore it when any of them called his name. “What’s wrong, Mikey?” Michelangelo flopped back dramatically on the couch, his GameDude momentarily discarded on the cushions beside him in his theatrics. “He was so young!” Mikey wailed. Leo raised a brow, despite himself. “Uh, Mikey…? You ok, bud?” Giving up on his reading, the eldest brother discarded his book on the arm of his chair and padded over to the couch. Michelangelo finally responded as he picked up his video game console again, though Leo couldn’t be sure if Mikey was talking to him or the screen. “Don’t worry, Leo; I’ll avenge you!” “…What?” Leo leaned over his brother’s shoulder and noticed a familiar game and soundtrack playing on the screen. “Pokémon?” he asked, even more confused now as to why his brother had called out his name. The last he knew, there wasn’t a character called ‘Leonardo’ in the series. Then again, he wasn’t exactly well-versed with the franchise. “Yeah dude, look!” Mikey turned his screen so Leo could see it better. He appeared to be in the middle of a turn-based battle against another opponent. “I’ve got a whole ninja team of us! It all started when I caught a shiny Squirtle, and I realised it would evolve up into a shiny Blastoise!” “Uh…,” Leo was desperately trying to keep up, but his knowledge of the game began and ended with the base starters and the most famous characters. At least he knew that a ‘Squirtle’ was a small, cutesy turtle-based monster. “Shiny Blastoise is purple, Leo!” Mikey huffed, as if his older brother should know that already, “And there’s only one purple turtle I know of. Ok, well, two if you count our clones from the future, but they’re the same turtle. …Not really, but sort of? Whatever, I’m counting it.” He opened the tab for his Pokémon team, thumbing over the one named ‘Donatello’. A big, purple turtle – with what looked like gun turrets on its shell – popped up on the screen. As Mikey scrolled through the list of names, a different coloured turtle monster appeared to replace the last. “Once I had Donnie, I had to get the rest of the family. See? I’ve got a Turtonator for Raph, a Carracosta for you, and a Grotle for me. Little Michelangelo keeps trying to evolve into a Torterra, but I won’t let him.” “Um, why not?” Leo was growing ever more lost. The words Mikey was throwing around meant nothing to him. Still, this was something his brother was enthusiastic about, so he tried to be supportive. “Because, then he wouldn’t match my colour scheme!” Mikey rolled his eyes, melodramatically, “Keep up, bro!” “R-right,” Leo was already teased mercilessly by his brothers for ‘mothering’ them. He didn’t want them to start calling him ‘Grandma’ for his lack of pop culture knowledge. “I’m surprised there’s that many turtle characters to choose from.” “I know, right? Finally, the video game rep we deserve!” Leo noticed there were two more names in the team, and pointed over Mikey’s shoulder at them, “Who are the others, then?” “We can’t have the turtles without Master Splinter!” Mikey said, looking very pleased with himself as he brought a large, fat rat onto the screen. Leo read the title ‘Raticate’ under the rat monster’s name. “And, to round out the team, I figured a Feraligatr would suit Leatherhead perfectly!” Leo wasn’t sure the big alligator monster was much of a match for their mutant friend, but then, none of the characters really looked like any of them. Still, it made his little brother happy, and as far as Mikey’s schemes went, this one was remarkably tame. No one was likely to get accidentally hurt or enraged. Let him have his fun. “Well, make sure you kick the other team’s shell for me, Mikey,” Leo clapped his brother on the shoulder as he turned back to his book. “Will do, Grandma-nardo!” Mikey cheekily quipped back. Leo’s head whipped round to glare at his little brother, but Michelangelo already had his beak back in his game.