Chapter Text
Leo finds multi-wave fights like this satisfying. Slice down his opponents, tastefully lead them on so he can kill them in the shape of a dick, make knowing glances at the audience members who realize what he’s done. Carefully put a finger to his beak to shoosh them about it as they struggle to contain their giggles.
He smiles at the crowd, feeling as if he is watching himself three inches from behind his head. He’s not a real person. But fake people can have a little bit of fun and make dick jokes. He’s dealing with five of the weird looking bug things, when a sixth pops out of the ground and begins heading for Leo. He pushes the horde of five to the side with his odachi and kicks the bugoid so hard it’s head flies off into the stands. The audience screams in horror and delight. Leo thinks to himself suck on that Big Mama.
He jumps up on a half wall, sheathing his sword as he looks down at the bugoids who hiss and crawl after him. He leaps across to a hole in a wall, rolling to keep the momentum and pulling out his odachi. He now has the bugoids split, a smaller group coming from each side of the wall. He slashes them down, kicking them up onto his shoulder to join his totally non-dick shaped pile.
The announcer bird shows up on screen, who seems to be hiding the fact that he knows that the pile of bugoids is dick shaped, announcing that Leonardo has beat the previous record for surviving bugoid waves, set by the last champion Lou Jitsu. Leo grins wildly, his heart beating in his chest. He’s better than Lou Jitsu. He can't help but feel glee every time he's told that. He points his odachi at the scantrons, shouting “YOU HEAR THAT BATTLE NEXUS!”
The crowd roars at his voice, red petals falling from the stands as they hear him loud and clear. He’s surrounded by cheering and people that hang on to his every word, they love him, they really do.
As commemoration for this event, the tank bugoid is called up from the depths, one armored claw pulling itself up from the ground to have another join it. It’s head is extremely small compared to the rest of the body, meaning a smaller hitbox for headshots. Leo feels himself become a little bit more fake.
He wins naturally. He successfully hides his limp until the doors close behind him. His knee sends sharp pains whenever he puts pressure on it or bent it the wrong way, really he's just tired of his knee complaining. Knee is acting up because apparently it’s fair that a giant bug gets wind powers. Dr. Bibo is already waiting, holding a bonesaw in his offhand just casually. Y’know, as reputable doctors are known to do.
Leo collapses onto the couch, holding his leg up in the air, and says dramatically “Are we finally getting rid of it, doc?”
Bibo stands there for a minute, before looking at the bonesaw in hand. “No, no. This isn’t for you.” He stashes it away into his purse.
Leo curiously tilts his head at Bibo, not expecting an answer but asking “Whose it for then?”
Bibo boops Leo on the tip of his beak, earning him a little playful nip. Bibo retracts his finger just in time, grunting his disapproval “Nuh-uh, problem child. This is not something you should concern yourself with.”
Leo rolls his eyes, propping his head on his hand as Bibo sits next to him. Bibo hums to himself as he inspects Leo’s knee. A little reddened around the edges, probably inflamed from the change in air pressure. Leo says “Can’t you just give me an anti-inflammatory and be done with it?”
Bibo looks at Leo, though Leo can’t discern much from behind the gasmask. Once upon a time Bibo was creepy. Now Leo knows that Bibo’s first name is Bibo. Bibo tilts Leo’s chin up with a gloved hand, pondering his neck. “You can still talk. What joy. ” He says deadpan.
Leo blows a raspberry at him, and Bibo chuckles. “Yes, an anti-inflammatory it will be. It will be later acting, so it should begin working after you return to your cell.”
Bibo pulls out a syringe and pulls out the anti-inflammatory medication. Leo says “You could just give me a pill.”
“It is a mercy to your kidneys.” Bibo says, flicking the air bubbles out of the medication.
Bibo announces “Warning.” as he injects the medication.
Leo closes his eyes for the brief moment of injection, not wanting to see the syringe break through his scales. He doesn’t know if Bibo notices or cares. Bibo takes a breath of relief as if he was the one getting a shot. He rummages through his bag. “Anyways, you want to hear about the news, I assume.”
“Yes, please tell me what’s happening outside of my little shell.” Leo says.
Bibo pulls out a blue bandaid and puts it on Leo’s knee. “I’m sure you mean cell.”
“No, I don't Beebs.” Leo says with a grin.
Bibo looks at Leo with almost disappointment. “I will take your spleen one day.”
“And what a fine day it will be. Now give me the goss.” Leo beckons.
Bibo shakes his head, setting Leo’s leg down. “I don’t have a vomeronasal organ, it’s the nose behind your teeth as a reminder. I’m not planning on getting one anytime soon. I do not want to smell the nerve gas, personally.”
“What does your nerve gas smell like anyways?” Leo asks, handing Bibo his arm.
Bibo cleans a gash on Leo’s shoulder “I’m unsure. People haven’t exactly been around to tell me.”
“I could tell you.” Leo says as Bibo applies numbing ointment to the surrounding area.
“Leo, you would be paralyzed instantly.” Bibo says sternly though fondly, pulling a needle and thread out of his purse.
“I’m built differently though, you said so yourself.” Leo looks away as Bibo begins to stitch him up.
Bibo speaks “I’m unsure if your healing factor would lead to your being immune to my gasses,” his voice turns threatening “ if I hear a fart joke from you, I will embroider my name into your skin,” back to sweet and professional “,and Leonardo if it were really up to me I would’ve pinned you up on my wall already.”
It’s stuff like that that makes Mikey think Bibo’s going to dismember him one day. But Bibo’s been the best doctor Leo’s ever had, so Leo thinks it’d only be fair to give him his arm or something. “Wouldn’t my shell get in the way?” Leo asks, looking away from the stitching process.
“Oh you would have to be separated from your shell, that needs to go right next to you so I’d see all the delightful patterns.” Bibo explains.
Bibo knots up the stitch and says “Oh, that reminds me! I’ve heard that Big Mama has another turtle.”
Suddenly, Leo feels very very fake. Bibo's not supposed to know that. He’s a thousand miles behind himself, he can barely register himself as being there. He mentally stakes himself to the ground, pulling himself to ask in his normal voice “Oh, my. What have you heard?”
Bibo holds out a hand for Leo’s other arm and Leo gives it to him “Well, not much. There’s lots of hearsay and drama because people can tell that you and Big Mama bicker for a living. But I don’t think she’d replace you for anything. Anywho, they couldn’t get a picture so they had somebody draw one.”
“How did they figure out about this supposed mystery turtle?” Leo asks
“Oh, there’s a bunch of different stories.” Bibo waves his hand dismissively “It all honestly sounds a little yellow around the gills to me. But the one that sounds more realistic to me is that a person tried to infiltrate The Nexus and happened upon one mean, green, attack turtle.”
They did have a lockdown a few days ago, characteristic of an infiltration. Leo looks at Bibo “You sure it wasn’t just me having a fit?”
“From all the pictures, no it doesn’t look like you. Though it does look enough like you that I am surprised. I thought you were unique enough to not have such a thing.” Bibo says.
What the fuck does he mean by that? Leo laughs, adding a shade of envy to his tone, “What, did they have hair?”
Bibo shakes his head “No. They had spots. And strange markings on their plastron.”
Leo is going to have a long, long talk about this with Big Mama. Bibo patches up another cut on Leo and Leo stands up. “Are you all done?” Bibo asks politely, still sitting on the couch.
“Yeah.” Leo says stretching “Wanna go back to my cell and hallucinate myself to sleep.”
“I could give you a sleep aid.” Bibo offers.
“Nah, I doubt it’d work much on me.” Leo says, though his fear is that it would work too well.
Bibo shrugs, packing himself up. “Well take care.”
Bibo professionally pats Leo on the shoulder “I do have the rights to your body after you die. So try not to get too mutilated.”
Bibo leaves. One of the guards gasp “What the fuck is up with him?”
Leo laughs a bit nervously “You get used to it.”
“And this is the only doctor you like?” The guard says, exasperated
Leo smiles charmingly “He’s good at what he does. Plus I’m like, seventy percent sure he just says shit.”
“That’s not very sure.” The guard says, concerned.
“It’s sure enough.” Leo takes off his bloodied shirt and throws it at the guard.
Leo steps into the shower and begins planning his next moves. He punches the wall, cracks running up the porcelain. He’s terrified, the press knows about Mikey and they will eat him alive. He’s angry that Big Mama didn’t tell him; he had to find out during his gossip session with Bibo. He can’t let Big Mama know what Bibo told him. She probably wanted it to be kept a secret from him. Leo can say he overheard it from the guards. No, he needs to visit Mikey first, figure out how Mikey got exposed, then go to Big Mama after and say that he guessed it all from that situation. It’s a reasonable lie that effectively gets Big Mama off of Bibo’s back.
“Your hour’s up.” A guard says gruffly.
Leo turns off the shower, dries himself off and holds out a hand for his clothes. He dresses himself in the shower, same as yesterday, denim jacket with hoodie. He wraps up all of the injuries in white bandages, pulling it off as more of a fashion choice than an injury to his brother. He takes his phone and shoes, throwing on a pair of blue converse before walking out of the winner’s room with guards trailing behind him. What is he going to say to Big Mama? A part of him wants to go in and yell about the press knowing about Mikey. This would pull on the emotional heart strings, but Leo is not Big Mama’s favorite. He would have to stay in control of his emotions in order to get the information he needs. Maybe, if he’s lucky, she’ll be in good spirits to tell him information outright.
The first thing Leo notices is that there are six guards outside of Mikey’s room. Grounded? He’ll have to ask what Mikey did, maybe its involved with him being discovered. The guards let him in uncontested, and Leo sees Mikey going through an aerial silk routine. “Gimme a minute, I’m almost done.” Mikey says, six feet off the ground.
Leo climbs one of the ladders built into the wall, flipping himself onto a hammock. He looks up at the vent cover, seeing thick, uneven, caulking around it. Sealed vents, more guard activity. Leo looks behind him, to see that the tv has been removed entirely. This situation reeks of Mikey being grounded. For what, is the question?
Well, Leo has a vague idea. He passively watches Mikey twirl and twist in incredible ways, before climbing up his silks and jumping to the hammock above Leo. “Did they look for your stashes?” He asks
Mikey scoffs “Oh, you bet they did. Apparently, medkits and snack stashes are a privilege that can be taken away. Psh, they underestimate me.”
“Do you know what you did?” Leo asks, stretching his bad leg out to relax.
Mikey hangs his head off the hammock “Yeah, but Mama told me not to tell you.”
A red flag. Mikey leaps to the hammock adjacent to Leo, so they can face each other and talk normally. His legs kick as he sits off the hammock “Which I actually agree with. Because you would freak out about it and I don’t want you to freak out.”
Leo grins “Oh please, Miguel, I never freak out.”
Mikey throws a stuffed animal at Leo “Oh please, when I broke my leg you nearly had a heart attack.”
“Ah, but I did defeat the creature that harmed you.” Leo says melodramatically.
“Remind me, was that gravity or the floor?” Mikey grins.
“Gravity, the floor was an innocent bystander that did nothing wrong. I did fly that one time.” Leo declares.
Mikey bursts into a fit of giggles. “Yeah, you most certainly did. Now come on, I want to draw in the nest.”
Naturally. Leo climbs down and makes his way over to the conjoined couches known as the nest. Blankets plop down from above, followed by Mikey. He wraps his arms around Leo and nuzzles into his chest. Normally, Leo is filled with warmth at the motion, but now all he feels is dread. He cannot let anyone know of this, he cannot let anyone hurt his little brother.
Mikey curls up underneath Leo’s arm, and pulls out his ipad. Leo guesses that Mama already locked out netflix with parental controls. Leo puts his chin on Mikey’s head, halfway chilling out as he watches Mikey sketch and grumble about the entire drawing process. He remembers that he needs to tell the guards that he’s going to be meeting with Big Mama, so he feigns needing to go the the bathroom, and instead opens the front door, mumbling to the guards “Appointment with Big Mama after.”
Leo returns to the nest, and Mikey eyes him but cuddles up just fine. Occasionally Mikey asks for Leo’s opinion on things, even though Leo knows nothing about visual art. He can perform, but he knows nothing about things like color theory or lineweight. Mikey has explained it to him a thousand times over, and a thousand times over it goes straight through Leo’s tympanum. He likes having Mikey explain things though, seeing the passion expressed as Mikey rambles about things like cool and warm grays.
The anxiety of the press eventually takes a backseat through the sheer force of Michelangelo’s smiles and thinly veiled grumbling. Mikey hears Leo’s stomach growls, and hops up into the rafters to toss down a bag of chips. Leo takes them, snacking as Mikey paces, walking over the furniture as he does so, complaining about a proxy anime that was obviously not the main thing he was upset about. The character in the anime even got grounded. Leo watches amusedly, never tired of his brother's antics. Guards file into the room, and Mikey groans “Ugh! Can’t you guys at least knock!”
The guards confiscate the empty chip bag, gesturing for Mikey to step off of the side table. Mikey groans and Leo shrugs “Welp. See you in a few days, Miguel.”
Mikey hugs a goodbye to Leo before he’s escorted out of Michael’s room. Thankfully, it seems like Leo’s request for a meeting with Big Mama was granted, as he’s being guided to her office. His hands are cuffed together before they push him into the office.
She’s in her human form, a rare sight for the battle nexus. She must be stuck doing business calls. He tilts his head up as he says ”Sup.”
Big Mama has her legs crossed over each other, leaning back in her chair. She smiles softly “Hello, Leonardo. What brings you here, this fine evening.”
“My brother’s grounded.” Leo states.
Big Mama’s face remains neutral. It’s an obvious fact, of course Leo would know this. Leo states “He snuck out again, didn’t he?”
The corners of her mouth quirk up, she always appreciated Leo’s observance. “What makes you think that?”
“The haste of the caulking. You were worried he was going to sneak out again.”
Big Mama sighs, smiling fondly “He complained about it, didn’t he?”
Leo chuckles “You have no idea.”
Big Mama gestures for Leo to continue, knowing that it’s not the end of the conversation. “Well, continue on flim-flamming my dear champion.”
“He said you didn’t want me to know about what happened.” Leo says, gesturing with his limited ability “He agreed with you this time around.”
“Which implies something that you’re not fond of.” Big Mama guesses.
“The bandaids in his trash can implies something even worse.” Leo says.
“Please, we both know that he likes emulating your appearance.” Big Mama excuses.
“His blankets have been washed recently, out of schedule mind you, which is unusual." Which also indicates that he bled enough for it to get on his blankets "He had a fight with you recently, didn’t he?” Leo asks.
Big Mama waves dismissively “He always gets irritated when he’s grounded.”
Leo points out “But he understands fair process. He understands what he is and isn’t supposed to do. I’d dare wager that he disagrees with what you grounded him for.”
Big Mama raises an eyebrow “So you want him sneaking out of the complex?”
A blatant attempt to get him riled up. Leo replies “We both agree it’s good for him to exercise a degree of rebellion. Best for him to cook, rather than starting fights with the guards.”
A miniscule furrow of the eyebrows, Leo latches onto it “He did get into a fight didn’t he? One he thought was justified.”
A moment passes as Big Mama thinks of how to respond. Leo loves putting Mama on pause, but the anxiety of not knowing what she’s going to say next puts him on the edge of his seat. Big Mama narrows her eyes. “No use lying, you know too much. Ah, I'm so proud of how far you’ve come in the family business.” She clasps her hands together and smiles warmly “Our dearest Goldenberry’s relationship with the guards has improved, thank goodiness, and now he has the guards eating out of the palm of his hand. They snuck him into the kitchen and, well, you already know that we had an intruder a few days ago. He got into a bit of a tusslefuss, thankfully no major injuries as the intruder seemed to be keen on running away.”
Notably keeping the fact that the press knows about Mikey now conveniently absent. “What happened to the intruder?” Leo asks.
“Oh, we caught him. No biggie.” Big Mama replies matter of factly.
This was a lie. If they caught him, Mikey wouldn’t have been released to the press. “There’s going to be more.” Leo blurts, tense.
“There’s always going to be saboteurs when you’re at the tip top of the business.” Big Mama croons.
She stands up out of her chair, walking around her desk “No worries, my little blue, Mikey will remain safe. That’s part of the reason why I grounded him.”
She drapes her arms across his shoulders and pulls him into a hug, “I wouldn’t let anything happen to my little boys.”
Leo can’t exactly hug back, his hands being in cuffs. The hug lasts blissfully short, Big Mama pulling away and looking at Leo with an incurable fondness. “Now is there anything else you’re worried about?”
Leo’s mind is blank, he thought he could pull information from this, but Mikey actively not telling him things did hinder him and does Mikey even know he was exposed? Though Mikey doesn't know that in public statements, Leo doesn't have a brother. Of course Mikey doesnt know he was exposed! He doesn't know he's supposed to be secret! He can’t think of anything that he could blame for the press knowing about Mikey. He can’t put the fall on Bibo, he can’t blame the guards, and knowing Big Mama, she’s going to keep him out of any line of questioning from the press. So no parties for a while. He knows what happened now, but Big Mama won’t let his knowledge go so easily.
So he needs to organize a press conference himself. “I’m all good now, Mama.” Leo says.
“Good. Now go back to your room, I have business to deal with.” Big Mama says, retreating back to her desk.
He walks out of her office. The guards don’t bother taking off the cuffs, thinking that it makes transporting Leo easier. They walk him to his cell. He needs to talk about this with Mikey, but he’s not going to see him again for a few days. He wants closure to this entire situation right now but he needs to wait but waiting is killing him. He takes a deep breath. He’s learned how to wait for Mikey, for the fights and the excitement and being out of his dingy cell. They take off the cuffs and put him into his cell and Leo begins pacing.
Staging a press conference would also give him the valuable information of what the press is thinking about Mikey. Bibo isn’t exactly the voice of the people. He needs to rehearse. Now what are all the lies that he told the press already? Big Mama's paying him, no brother, (he told Draxum that Mikey's dead), mild mentions of childhood trauma, his living conditions. He can pretend not to be related to Mikey. He also lied about being friends with the guards. Okay, he just needs to rehearse. “Hello, fans- no. Audience of the battle nexus! Who wants a little bit more bloodshed. No, no.”
Okay, so he would climb the walls of the arena using the provided weapons, hang off the edge of the wall and say “Well, questions? Words? C’mon people, talk to me? This guy ain’t much of a talker is he?”
Not bad, a little desperate though. Try another version, make it smoother. “This guy ain’t much of a talker is he? I’m sure you can offer me a much better conversation?”
Okay that’s good, but it doesn’t guarantee information about Mikey though. He could just climb into the seats to talk to the folks after the battle, though Big Mama would’ve probably told the guards to keep a tighter hold on him. Or maybe she didn’t? He hates this about Big Mama, throughout all of his years of being a gladiator, a champion, he still has no idea what she’s going to do next for sure. He can quote Mikey word for word, he knows his little tics and habits and he still knows nothing about Big Mama. Even after all these years, she’s still leagues ahead of him, she’s still lying to him.
Leo punches the wall of his cell.