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Draxum extends one hand, and Donnie doesn’t say anything as he hands him a tube with a green, fluorescent liquid. Draxum looks at it, raising an eyebrow.
“Are you sure this is the fluid I asked you?”
“According to the guy that sold it to us, it is.” Donnie pulls the goggles over his eyes, looking at the machine in front of him. “And it’s not like we have the luxury to ask witches for the stuff.”
“Ah, yes,” Draxum says with amusement, “I forgot that you were banned from Witch Town.”
“Says the man banned from the entire Mystic City.” Donnie counters quickly, ignoring Draxum as he keeps working on the machine in front of him. “Now, do you wanna help me or should I tell Dr. Feelings to come up with another bonding experience ?”
Draxum opens his mouth, but after some seconds he just groans, his voice quiet.
“I’d rather not.”
“Then help me with this. If my calculations are correct, which they are ninety nine percent of the time, I could use the mystic fluid as a refrigerator connecting it to the machines, like you said you had in the lab.”
“Hey, is Mikey okay with Draxum toying with mystic mumbo jumbo?”
The softshell turtle and the goat man look towards Leo, who’s currently playing a game in Donnie’s PC, eyes glued to the screen. Donnie sighs and removes his goggles.
“Leo, I thought I made it clear that you could only stay if you stayed quiet.”
“I’m just—” Leo makes a sound, almost smashing the keyboard as he continues to play. “I’m just saying! Mikey made very clear that he didn’t want Draxum near anything mystic again!”
“And he also said that me and Draxum should have a bonding experience ” Donnie says, using his fingers to add the quotes. “This is a bonding experience, so he can’t complain.”
“You know he will.”
“Not if you stay quiet.”
While the turtle brothers keep bickering, Draxum approaches Leo, looking at the screen in utter confusion.
“What is even happening in this device?”
“What, the game?” Leo glances quickly at Draxum before focusing on the screen again. “It’s just Resident Evil 4. You know, a classic, one of the best videogames ever made?”
Draxum squints his eyes a bit, flinching a bit when he sees a human suplex a man to the ground, his head exploding on contact. Draxum is about to speak when he sees the previously suplexed human grow tentacles where his head was.
“Wait, are humans supposed to have tentacles?”
Leo snorts. “What? Of course not, it’s just-look, this is just a game. You know, it’s not real.”
“Oh, I see.” Draxum says as he nods. “So is a work on fiction where you can control the character?”
“Yeah, basically.” Donnie then points towards his machine. “Now, if we may continue with our—”
“And how does this interactivity work?” Draxum continues, while Donnie just looks bored at him. “Do you input direct commands somehow?”
“You, uh, use the controller?” Leo answers, clearly confused. “Or, well, mouse and keyboard if it’s a PC game.”
“I see…”
Draxum gets a little closer, and points towards the screen with his free hand, Leo making an annoyed sound.
“So what kind of fiction is this…” Draxum whispers as the character on screen shoots at others. “Why is he attacking civilians?”
“I mean, they’re a cult.” Leo says as he swats away Draxum’s finger. “Look, you play as Leon S. Kennedy, who’s tasked with rescuing the daughter of the president of the United States.”
“And she got taken by… this cult?”
“Yep!” Leo whispers a nice as he shoots one of the enemies’ knees, the enemy stumbling down and leaving them vulnerable to another suplex. “But the good thing is that the game knows the plot is kinda stupid, so presents everything with this yeah this is stupid but also cool vibe?”
Draxum makes a sound in agreement, and Donnie gets up towards him.
“Please don’t ask him more about the game, or he won’t shut up about it.”
Leo scoffs. “It’s not my fault that this game is perfect, Donald.”
“Yeah, right.” Donnie counters, crossing his arms. “Listen, I also love it, but I don’t get why you keep playing it when you’ve completed literally everything.”
“Because it’s fun, duh.” Leo smirks when he barely avoids an attack. “You should try to have fun sometime, Dee.”
“Excuse you, but I have plenty of fun with my experiments.” Donnie says as he lowers his voice a bit. “For example, the one Draxum and I were currently doing!”
Leo starts to hit the keys faster, moving the mouse around at almost impossible speeds, Draxum looking at the screen with confusion clear in his face as explosions and gunshots and Spanish screams happen.
“But don’t you think you’d have more fun if you were able to finish a level on hard move without gettinghitevenonce!”
Donnie gives him a look as he sees Leo kill the last enemy on the level, his brother’s face morphing into a big smile.
“Nailed it!”
Leo pumps his fist to the air, but he doesn’t notice it go straight to where Draxum’s hand is, colliding and sending the flask flying into the air.
“The liquid!”
Donnie extends the arms from his battle shell towards the tiny container, at the same time that Draxum summons some vines to grab it, both things colliding and getting tangled.
Leo can see in slow motion the flask turning around, the liquid starting to fall down. He stretches his arm as fast as he can to try and grab it, and like a bad comedy sketch Draxum tries the same, both hands hitting the flask and sending it flying towards the screen of Donnie’s PC.
“No!” Donnie screams in panic as the flask breaks, all the liquid tainting the screen.
“No, Dee, don’t worry,” Leo laughs a bit panicked as he reaches with a hand, “I’m sure we can—”
“Don’t touch it!” Draxum says, but he’s not quick enough to stop Leo, his hand touching the PC screen.
The moment Leo touches it he feels his entire body shake, like a tiny bolt of electricity coursed through him. He retracts his arms quickly and looks confused as he sees his arms still touching the screen… and suddenly flash in and out of existence like it’s a ghost.
“What the—”
“Leo!”
Leo turns around just to see Donnie reach out, trying to grab his arm, and instead the brothers and Draxum see Donnie’s hand trespass Leo’s arms like he’s not even there.
Leo sees the world around him tremble and shake, flashing back and forth, forcing him to close his eyes. He hears Draxum and Donnie but he can’t understand them, like they’re talking trough a filter. Leo can’t even understand his own voice when he tries to talk, no matter how loud he screams.
And suddenly, the world around him disappears.
Leo isn’t sure if he’s even awake, considering he doesn’t feel his body.
He assumes it must be there, like a vague sensation telling him that of course he still has all his limbs in place, and yet he’s unable to open his eyes, nothing but darkness enveloping him.
Suddenly, Leo can feel his face. And it hurts.
“Agh…”
Leo’s starts to feel his body again, everything in pain like he just ran a marathon. He slowly opens his eyes, having to close them again when he feels the sun hitting him in the face.
“...Wait.”
Leo opens them again, and looks around. He’s not in the lair.
“Hold on a second—” Leo tries to get up, his legs failing him and almost making him fall to the dirt. He looks around, his face morphing into clear confusion when he finds out he’s in a forest.
“Okay, Leo, calm yourself. Let’s think this through.”
Leo finally gets up, and cleans up his pants.
“Okay, so I was in the—”
Leo stops, and looks down to himself. He’s wearing jeans and boots. He then notices his arms, and turns around, seeing he’s wearing a brown jacket too.
“...No, the being in a forest part is weirder.” Leo whispers after being in silence. “I was in Donnie’s lab, and something hit the screen, and then I cleaned it…”
As he talks to himself he wonders around, trying to guess where he’s supposed to be. He can’t find anything specific, and even though he feels like the place is very familiar he’s unable to say why.
That’s when he hears them.
Leo turns his head towards the noise, and he closes his eyes. After a few seconds he hears voices, but they’re not talking in English, but in Spanish.
“Detrás de ti, imbécil. ”
Leo whips his head around quickly, making a sound when he notices the human looking angry at him.
“O-oh, I’m so sorry, fellow human!” Leo clears his throat, trying to calm his nerves. “You see, I’m a bit lost! By any chance have you seen any of my brothers around?”
Leo raises his eyebrows, but the man doesn’t answer and just stands there.
“You know, brothers? Hermanos ?” Leo starts to gesticulate with his hands. “One of them is like, así de pequeño ? And the other…. Grande ! Like this!”
Leo stretches his arms as wide as he can, but he lets them drop when he sees the man starting to walk towards him, an angry look on his face.
“Largo de aquí, extranjero. ”
Leo laughs nervously, walking backwards. “Wow, okay dude, you should chill a bit. I’m pretty sure we can—”
Leo then hears something else, and when he looks down he sees the man is dragging a pitchfork around, the entire thing rusty and covered in what Leo can only hope is dirt. The man throws it at him, Leo ducking out of the way, the deadly item grazing past him and getting stuck in a tree behind him.
“Wow, chill! You can’t just go throwing those around!”
The man groans and walks towards the pitchfork, retrieving it. Leo takes some more steps backwards, but he stops when he hears more people behind him. Turning around, he notices another man and a woman, this time carrying sickles. The woman points at him before screaming, her voice coming out hoarse.
“Maten al forastero! ”
Leo stops dead in his tracks. “Wait. Forastero ?”
The man with the sickle throws it at him, Leo avoiding it by rolling away. His mind starts to think of an explanation, but Leo shakes his head.
“The clothes, the weird villagers throwing stuff around, and this… weird brown Instagram filter on my vision! It can only mean that…”
“Leo, duck!”
Leo does as he’s told out of instinct and avoids the pitchfork, the item instead hitting a man behind him, who screams in pain. Leo gets out of there, looking around.
“Donnie! Where are you?!”
“I’m at the lair!” Donnie speaks, but his voice doesn’t come from any precise location, sounding like he’s literally in Leo’s brain. “You got into the game!”
“Which means that the mutagen really was good.” Draxum says before sighing. “And we threw it all away. What a waste.”
Leo jumps to some high branches on a tree nearby, the villagers throwing their gardening tools at him. His voice comes out panicked as he ducks another pitchfork, this one hitting the tree just right beside him.
“Okay, can you talk about that when I’m not getting chased around the woods!?”
“Okay, listen,” Donnie’s voice rings again from his brain, “we can see you on the screen and your stats and stuff, but we can’t actually control you. Nothing works.”
“Wait, you can see the HUD? Do I have any weapons?”
Leo gulps when he sees another man, with a bag on his head and carrying a chainsaw, getting dangerously close to the three where he’s in.
“Donnie!?”
“You don’t have anything on you!”
“Then what am I supposed to do!?” Leo screams as the man starts the chainsaw and hits the tree, Leo having to grab himself to avoid falling when the entire thing starts to shake. His mind is racing a million thoughts, but suddenly Draxum’s voice appears, cutting all of them.
“Well, if he got inside and replaced the playable character, then he should be the one to control himself.”
“That… could be.” Donnie mutters.
Leo screams when the tree starts to shake harder. “Guys, how about helping me!?”
Donnie makes a sound before talking. “Leo, think that you’re still playing. Think about selecting a weapon in your inventory!”
“What?! I’m gonna get turned into a hamburger!”
“Focus, Leo!”
Leo closes his eyes even as the tree shakes harder. He imagines how he was playing before. He opens the inventory, and then he selects the gun.
Suddenly, he feels a weight on his hand. He opens his eyes and—
“Holy shit, it worked.” Leo whispers, looking with wide eyes at the weapon he’s holding, heavier than he expected.
Suddenly the tree starts to fall, and as he hears Donnie scream something Leo jumps down below, using the chainsaw man’s head as a trampoline to get further away with another jump, rolling when he touches the ground. He points the gun towards the three people in front of him, all of them growling at him. Draxum’s voice appeas on his mind, clearly confused.
“Do you know how to use a gun?”
“I know how to play this game.” Leo says, putting one of his fingers on the trigger, barely fitting. “That should be enough, right?”
“I don’t think so.”
The woman starts to run towards him when Leo presses the trigger, shooting at her. He almost drops the gun from the sudden jerk the thing makes, and has to force himself to grip it tighter. The shot hits the woman in the leg, making her fall to the ground with a thud.
Leo points towards another man and shoots again, the man dropping to this knees. Leo smirks and runs towards him, Donnie screaming.
“What are you doing!?”
“I wanna try something!”
When Leo gets close he imagines he’s playing the game, and like his body moves on autopilot, he grabs the man and suplexes him, the ground shaking from the impact.
“Yes! It worked!” Leo exclaims excited, dodging the villager with the chainsaw as he swings it at him. Donnie speaks as Leo shoots at the chainsaw man.
“Don’t do something so reckless never again, Leo!”
“But it was impressive, wasn’t it?”
Leo dodges some more attacks and shoots, but the gun makes an empty sound.
“Oh, no.”
Leo ducks another attack and jumps backwards, hiding behind a tree. He breathes for a second and starts to recharge his weapon, having to roll away when the man attacks again, the chainsaw cutting the tree in one swoop.
“No tienes lugar aquí! ”
“Yeah, yeah, you keep saying that.” Leo says with confidence, reloading and shooting the man in the head, making him stumble.
Leo then quickly runs towards him before doing a dropkick, the chainsaw falling to the ground as the man is sent backwards, colliding against a nearby tree and slumping to the ground. As Leo nods to himself, he hears Draxum.
“You sound a bit too excited about being around shooting at people.” Leo hears a chuckle, Draxum sounding amused. “Maybe you did end up with a bit of the warrior instincts I tried to inplant you?”
Leo shakes his head. “Nuh, uh. Violence is cool in videogames, not in real life.”
“Leo,” Donnie says, “we literally fight villains in our real life.”
Leo grumbles a bit. “Oh, you know what I mean.”
Draxum looks towards you and rolls his eyes, coughing a bit before trying to speak again.
“Well, to be honest—” Draxum starts, but is interrupted by Donnie.
“Wait, Leo, there’s something behind you?”
“Huh?”
Confused, Leo turns around and looks at the never-ending woods. He scans with patience, but—
“I don’t see anything,” he says squinting his eyes, “except these 2005 graphics, my lord. This game could really use some saturation and colors.”
Draxum talks as well, and Leo almost think he sounds worried.
“Donnie is right. There is something further up.”
Leo squints his eyes, but after a few seconds he shrugs.
“No, I can’t see anything. Are you sure the screen isn’t just dirty?”
Donnie sighs. “Listen, it’s not the screen, there’s really—” Donnie makes a sound, catching Leo off guard. “Is running towards you! Get out of there!”
Leo takes a step backwards, looking around like crazy, but he doesn’t see the enemy.
“He’s getting closer!”
Suddenly, Leo hears someone running. He looks a bit lower, and sees the leaves in front of him getting stepped on at high speed, closer and closer. He grabs his gun and shoots, and a creature appears in front of him, swinging.
Leo ducks but receives a kick to the face. He grunts as his body rolls, but he quickly recovers and gets up. The creature, looking like a weird hybrid between a human and a white lizard, looks angrily at him and growls, before disappearing again.
Leo looks worried as he scans the forest, walking backwards with his gun raised.
“This doesn’t make sense.” He whips his head towards a noise, finding nothing. “That enemy should be later in the game, not this early.”
“The mutagen may have acted in unpredictable ways.” Draxum states. “Its use is to work with inorganic materials, but considering this is an interactivity device…”
“Well, we still need to get me out of here!”
Leo hears something and immediately jumps out of the way, the creature attacking and cracking the ground below. Leo shoots at it but it’s like it doesn’t faze it. It runs straight towards him and Leo avoids more attacks, but eventually the creature grabs him with his tail and throws him towards a nearby tree.
Leo hears Draxum and Donnie talk to him but their voices are out of focus. He barely has time to roll away from the creature, the gun slipping out of his hold. The creature disappears again as Leo gets up, coughing.
Donnie speaks, clearly worried. “Okay, listen, if you’re in the game and it’s glitched like this, we need to find a way to get you out of there. Like, now.”
“Isn’t there a people with job specialized in that?” Draxum asks. “Sorting out the glitches?”
“What?” Donnie groans. “No, we need to get Leo out.” He stays quiet a second before Leo hears a snap of fingers. “Okay, Leo, try to continue playing. If you reach the end of the game you should get out, right?”
Leo looks to the sky, scratching his bruised arm. “Do you really think that?”
“Eh… I think we don’t have much else to work with.” Donnie clarifies, and Leo groans. “Now come on, you need to reach the village, right?”
“Yep.”
Leo goes towards his gun and picks it up. Looking around he eventually finds that on the ground there’s a more or less visible path, and he thanks that the game is well designed so he won’t get lost.
After walking a bit he stops the village. Knowing this too well, Leo grabs his gun with both hands and enters, getting ready to fight the horde that is supposed to happen. He walks further and further, careful to look everywhere for the first enemy to start the fight…
...Except, that never happens. Leo looks bored to nothing in particular, putting a hand on his hip.
“Oh, come on! How am I supposed to finish this game if the most amazing first fight in the videogame doesn’t start!?”
Leo kicks the ground as Donnie speaks. “There must be a way to skip this, right? Haven’t speedrunners found it?”
Leo shakes his head. “Not that I’m aware. But maybe that has changed since last time. How about you—”
The tallest building in the area suddenly explodes, and Leo has to move quickly to avoid getting crushed by some flying chucks of the thing. He looks up, and up, and up until he realizes that he’s facing the giant statue of one of the main enemies, Ramón Salazar.
The statue looks down on him. Leo gulps.
“Uh, oh.”
The statue starts to walk, and Leo wastes no time running away from the thing, knowing full well how quick it ends up running. Draxum’s voice appears in his head.
“Is that a giant statue?”
“Wait, why is that statue there!?” Donnie screams, and Leo screams back even as the statue continues to chase him.
“I told you this thing is bugged! Get me out of here!”
Leo sees the invisible creature that was chasing him before jump straight towards him, and he ducks below it just in time to avoid getting tackled. He glances backwards just in time to see the thing screech and try to jump again, only to end up getting squashed by one of the giant feet of the statue.
Leo quickens his pace even more, looking panicked around until he spots a river nearby. Even as he feels the ground tremble more and more, he manages to jumps just in time to avoid getting plastered, closing his eyes and stiffening his body when he feels the cold water swallow him.
A few seconds later, Leo’s body plummets straight down, and he feels himself land on something cold. He coughs and opens his eyes, his vision clearing out until he sees himself in…
“You’re on the minecart section now!?” Donnie screams incredulous. “This is surreal. Leo, shoot at the wood!”
Leo looks around, panicking when he doesn’t find his gun anywhere. He closes his eyes and imagines the inventory: open it up, grab the weapon, select it—
This time his hands feel much heavier, and when he opens his eyes he sees a shotgun. He can’t help the sigh of relief that he lets out, hugging it close to his chest as he speaks softly.
“Oh, you and me back together! There’s no challenge that we can’t—”
“The wood, Leo!”
Leo quickly points the barrel of the gun to the front, where panels of wood are blocking the tracks. Leo presses the trigger and feels his entire body shake with the powerful blast, the wood in front being utterly destroyed as the cart continues forward at full speed.
“Oh yeah, baby! This is the power I needed!”
Leo hears Donnie sigh, and when he talks again his voice is a bit more relaxed. “Remember there’s enemies around here. Keep and eye on—”
“Relax, Dee.” Leo states, smirking as he moves the shotgun between his hands. “I got this!”
Donnie sighs irritated again, but doesn’t comment more as Leo continues his tourist attraction of terrors. As Donnie said there’s enemies near the tracks waiting to ambush the player, but Leo is able to dispatch them with ease, feeling a rush of empowerment thanks to his favorite weapon being in his hands.
All that ends, however, when the scenario suddenly changes.
“Wait, what?” Is all that Leo manages to say before the tracks suddenly end, Leo falling face first into a room. He groans as he gets up, and scrambles to get up when he sees there’s just the faintest of metal grids saving him from falling to literal lava.
Leo’s mind quickly plays all the levels in his head, but it doesn’t take longer than a second when he sees the two monsters in front of him. He hears Donnie whisper.
“Oh, it’s the giants.”
“Yep.” Leo says, looking to the two humanoid giant monsters in front of him. He grips his hand tight—
He looks down with panic. His trusted, precious, loyal to the end shotgun has literally disappeared from the face of the earth.
“Oh, you have to be kidding me!”
The two giants scream and starts to chase Leo, who quickly jumps to the top of some plank woods, a zipline in place. He knows that he’s supposed to defeat the two of them and the big door at the far end of the room will open, but he doesn’t know to do it without weapons.
“Leo!” Donnie says suddenly, talking without stopping. “I checked some speedruns, and here you’re able to glitch trough the ground! You can try that—”
“Wouldn’t that destabilize the interactive story even more?” Draxum interrupts. “The connector liquid has already caused unprecedented situations according to you, and if Leo tries something dangerous—”
“What do you propose then, Draxum?” Donnie screams back. “It’s not like we can do anything from here, and I don’t want my brother messing around in there more than necessary!”
One of the giants goes to smash the plank woods Leo’s currently in, and he manages to use the zipline to get away.
“I agree with Donnie! This is fun when it’s through a screen, not when I’m risking my shell, thank you very much!”
Leo lands safely on the other side, his eyes quickly catching something glistening on the ground near him. As he gets close, he realizes it’s a grenade launcher.
“Okay, this is something.”
The giants attack Leo again, but he dodges them easily thanks to his speed.
“Donnie, tell me where the bounds glitch is! I’ll move around and you scream when you spot it!”
“Got it.”
Leo runs to the grenade launcher and picks it up. As he continues to avoid the attacks he makes sure to move around the entire arena, and eventually Donnie makes a sound.
“There!” As Leo stops dead in his tracks, he points a finger to the front of him. “That’s the place! Get out of there!”
Leo breathes deep, and starts to run towards it, pointing the grenade launcher.
“I hope this works, Dee!”
Leo shoots the grenades to the spot, smoke filling the entire area. When he feels an attack getting too close for comfort Leo rolls towards the smoke. He hears the punch collide with the metal grid, but when he looks up he finds himself on the ceiling of a destroyed castle.
“Hello, comrade.”
Leo turns around and sees Jack Krauser, one of the player character’s past companions, turned traitor in this game. The man is buff as hell, a fact clearly visible thanks to his lack of shirt. He man jumps from his upwards position to the ground, his boots making a thud as he lands. He looks upwards and smirks towards Leo, at the same time his right arm transforms into some kind of blade made of flesh.
“Eugh.” Donnie says, and Leo grimaces.
Krauser wastes no time running towards him, Leo avoiding his attacks. The man screams at him, his voice filled with pure joy.
“You are going to die here, but I know you’ll at least give me a good fight!”
Suddenly someone shoots from above, and Krauser is forced to back away from Leo. When he looks up, he sees Ada Wong, the secret agent wearing a red dress, smiling back.
“Hi there, handsome.”
“Is that woman wearing high heels?” Leo hears Draxum ask. “In the middle of a mission?”
“She’s a spy and takes no crap from anyone.” Donnie rectifies. Leo is about to tell him that Ada is way cooler than Draxum could ever wish to be when the woman throws something at Leo’s feet.
“Use this to finish Saddler.” She then raises his gun, looking at Krauser. “I’ll take care of this little trouble of yours.”
“Saddler?” Leo asks, and at that moment the entire ground shakes below him. He looks back and at the border of the ceiling a monster emerges, an amalgamation of tentacles and spider-legs holding a mass of flesh. Leo holds back a puke.
“Yep, that’s him.” Donnie says matter of factly. “Leo, kill that thing and finish this.”
“Already on it!”
Leo scrambles to grab the rocket launcher, but Saddler uses one of the tentacles to send it flying away. Leo ducks one attack and then another, but Saddler grabs him by the ankle, throwing Leo to the ground and sending him flying. He manages to grab himself in the opposite wall of the castle, quickly climbing back up. He sees Saddler start to move towards him, grabbing the rocket launcher. Leo groans as he looks around, stopping when he spots in the distance a row of old cannons.
Leo smirks and takes a step backwards, before running at full speed towards them. Saddler attacks at him with his tentacles, but Leo scrambles away from them. At one point Saddler breaks one of the walls of a tower nearby and throws it towards Leo, who jumps straight towards one of the hole windows, and runs alongside the wall to reach the row of cannons.
Wasting no time he points one of them towards Saddler, the monster laughing, his voice coming out distorted.
“You fool. This is not one of your American movies!”
“Nope,” Leo says as he lines up the shot perfectly, “but it is a videogame, so—”
Leo finishes his statement shooting the weapon, a ball shooting straight towards Saddler, who is sent flying a couple of steps, using the tentacles to avoid falling down, grabbing the ground and walls of the building and making the entire thing start to crack. Donnie’s voice appears suddenly.
“The rocket launcher is just down below, Leo!”
Leo looks until he spots it, a faint glow in the distance. “I got it!”
He jumps below, even as the floor starts to fall apart, landing in safe spaces, trying to get close. Through the corner of his eye he spots another tentacle and jumps to avoid the attack, the entire floor finally collapsing.
As he’s falling, Leo stretches his arm, grabbing the rocket launcher. He quickly moves towards Saddler, the monster screaming and launching an attack towards him. Leo smirks, pressing the trigger.
“Smile for the camera, Saddler!”
The rocket impacts with Saddler’s face, and suddenly a white flash surrounds everything, Leo having to close his eyes.
“...o. Leo! Are you okay? Please tell me you’re not dead!”
Leo groans. His body hurts everywhere. He puts a hand over his eyes and speaks.
“I’m not dead.”
Donnie sighs relieved, a smile on his face, while Draxum scoffs.
“Thank god. If you had died your father would have made my life a nightmare.”
Leo separates his fingers a bit, squinting his eyes at Draxum. When the goat man sees him, his expression relaxes a bit, and he speaks with a softer tone.
“...But I knew you would make it out. You were never a failure, so there was no way you would lose to a simple… videogame.”
Donnie looks at him, blinking a bit.
“Wow. That almost sounded nice.”
Leo is about to speak when he notices two figures in the entrance to Donnie’s lab. Taking the hand out of his face, he sees that they’re Raph and Mikey, looking confused at them. Raph raises a hand and then lowers it.
“Uh,” the snapping turtle starts, looking between all of them, “we heard a loud crash, so…”
“What happened here?” Mikey interrupts, squinting his eyes at Draxum and Donnie. “You weren’t toying with mystic stuff, right?”
“Me?” Donnie points to his face. “Oh please, Mikey. When have I broken your trust?” Mikey opens his mouth but Donnie continues. “Exactly, never! We weren’t doing anything mystic, right Draxum?”
“Of course not.” Draxum looks around the room, eventually pointing towards the device he and Donnie were toying with. “Donnie was just showing me how he wanted to improve some of his technology.”
Mikey makes a sound, still squinting his eyes at them.
“Okay, then why is Leo on the floor looking half dead?”
Leo gets his head up a bit, looking at his younger brother. He shrugs as best as he can.
“An… intense gaming session.” He points towards the PC, who has a bit of smoke coming out of it. “You know how much I like Resident Evil 4.”
Mikey crosses his arms, and after some agonizing seconds where Leo is pretty Donnie and Draxum are gonna confess just from Mikey’s intense look, the youngest turtle eventually sighs loudly, turning around.
“Well, I’m gonna finish a cake soon.” Mikey says as he starts to walk away. “You’re welcome to come and grab a piece.”
With that, Mikey leaves them, and Raph excuses himself before following him down. Donnie sighs, and Leo laughs out of breath.
“Oh man, I’m so glad Ashley was bugged out or something. This would have been a nightmare with her on it.”
Draxum raises an eyebrow at him. “Ashley? Would that character cause such a hindrance?”
“Oh, goat man,” Leo says, raising a hand, “you have no idea.”