a/n: two-word prompt from the lovely Flynne: "spatula" and "midnight". challenge accepted.
"It happens at midnight," Don said, pulling the microphone piece over his mouth. "Not one minute before."
Mikey chuckled. He was leaning backwards on the seat, one leg crossed over the other as his foot bounced in the air.
"Relax. We got this." But despite his cheer, he'd been glancing at the screen every few seconds, eyes flickering over strings of numbers and words.
Don grumbled, clearly not sharing in his brother's confidence. "Focus, Mikey! We only get one shot at this!"
"I know, I know," Michelangelo groaned. He dropped his foot and rolled the chair forward, pulling his keyboard closer. "I'm good. I'm focused."
"Leo?" Don called.
"In position," came the reply through the headset. "Raph's here with me."
"This is stupid," Raphael added.
"Raph, don't talk that way about yourself!"
"Don't make me come home and whack you, sidelines-boy!"
"Guys," Leonardo chided. "One minute to midnight. Everyone get ready."
"I'm glad someone is taking this seriously," Donatello huffed, kneading his eyes. Mikey was glad, because it meant Don couldn't see him roll his. "We're ready, Leo. Waiting on the bogey to drop. I can see you on the map – how's your flank looking?"
"Clear. Raph took a beating earlier, but we took care of them all."
"Would've been more fun if I could stab 'em."
"Ten seconds," Mikey said, cracking his knuckles.
"Move in." Pearls of sweat formed on Donatello's forehead as he watched the screen and panned his camera forward. Suddenly, he saw it: a behemoth lizard dropping from the sky right in front of his brothers, its hide thick with black scales and maw filled with jagged teeth.
"Go!" he shouted, his fingers rapidly flying over the keys. Mikey gave a yelp of surprise to his right, the frantic patter of the keyboard telling Don that he was doing the same.
"Don, they're gonna get torn apart!"
"No they aren't," he grit out. "That's what we're here for."
Despite his words, Don felt the sweat drip down his temple as he tracked the fight. Leo and Raph were expertly dodging in and out of range, landing their hits and withdrawing before their enemy could get a swing in. Leo even managed to cleave its tail off, and Raph took advantage of the ensuing chaos to take an eye out.
Unfortunately, the second injury didn't stun it as long – the creature reared a thick arm and backhanded Raphael across the field, their brother landing in the dirt like a sack of bricks.
"Raph's down!" Mikey shouted in alarm, just as Leo muttered the same thing into Don's ear.
"Get him back up," Don said. "I'm a little busy here!"
"Hold on," came Leo's strained reply. "It doesn't have much fight left in it. Stay back; I'm going in for the kill."
"Are you insane, Leo?" Don yelled. "You're going to ruin this whole op!"
"It can't know you're here! Stand down!" Leo snarled back.
Raph growled into his microphone with a loud puff of air. "Whatever. Don't mind me, just bleedin' to death."
Donatello was aware of Mike obediently drawing back from the computer; with no other choice, he reluctantly did the same. He gnawed on his finger as he watched Leo streak forward, dive into a roll underneath the monster's belly, and plunge his weapon inside.
Roaring in pain, the beast fell back, legs sprawling in the air. Then it disappeared in a grand cloud of smoke, and silence fell over the battlefield.
"Piece of cake," Leo said.
"Yyyyyyyes!" Don leapt up from his chair, sending it spinning in circles behind him. "Just look at all that experience! Level 135, here I come!"
Raphael sighed. "Yeah, you're a freakin' penthouse. Can one of you come get me off the floor now?"
"Coming!" The grin in Mikey's voice was audible as he returned to the keyboard and started down the hill. "Sorry, Raphie. The range on this revival spell sucks."
Don's own smile was threatening to split his face as he, too, retrieved his chair and followed Michelangelo. "That's for game balance. It would be too easy if support characters could cast out of aggro range. I guess you made the right call after all, Leo."
"I try."
"So why did we have to do this at midnight, anyway?" Mikey asked. "Doesn't this boss respawn every half hour?"
"Yes, but only the one that spawns at midnight drops the Sylmander Liver, which is the last item I need for this Chef Planter quest."
Mike groaned. "Ugh, so not looking forward to doing that one. What's the reward?"
"A Splatula!"
"A what?" Raph growled.
"A Splatula," Don repeated eagerly. "It's a special, Tier 9 Greatsword. Plus eight to defense, one hundred and fifty fire damage per second, and increases the rate of food-based drops! It'll make the rest of Planter's quests a breeze!"
It was quiet for several seconds, during which time Don took the opportunity to loot the golden treasure chest left behind by the Sylmander's corpse. He cheered happily when the liver appeared in his inventory.
"You're kiddin' me." Raph's voice sounded too stunned for anger. "You harassed me and Leo into learning how to play this stupid online game, kicked us out of the lair, and then made us bother April about using her extra rigs… so we could help you win a spatula?"
Mikey sniggered as he took his turn looting. "A spatula with plus eight defense, Raph!"
There was an audible groan over the line and a sharp beat of static that probably indicated that Raph had just thrown his headset somewhere.
"A spatula is not a sword," Leo added, somewhat tersely, before both his headset and character logged off.
Don blinked. "What's their problem? They didn't even loot!"
Hiding his laughter behind his hand, Mikey watched Raph's character begin to perform an idle dance animation. "Guess we'll just have to help them do this again later!"
