Spyke stared down the other medafighter, a kid with sunglasses and a red jacket. He jammed his finger down on the transport button. "Transport Krosserdog!" He called, the trail of light balling out into a green orb, Krosserdogs dark blue body gleaming, freshly polished and oiled. Spyke slid on the Hopmart fleece he had taken off at work when the store had been hot, now the evening was starting to chill. He let out a breath, which clouded up into mist before dissipating. Krosserdogs medal was inserted, and the medabot raised his guns in an experienced fashion.

"Aheh, what kind of medabot is THAT?" The younger medafighter snorted. "It looks like an old pile of junk." Spykes mouth curled into an irritated scowl.

"I don't mind you picking a fight with me kid." He snapped, checking the time quickly. He always got challenged to a fight because he was still so low ranked. People mistook his low ranking for weakness, but he wasn't the dumb inexperienced kid he had been…He was usually just too busy to worry about it anymore. "But don't make fun of his body." Krosserdog raised his guns a little more. "He's a little sensitive…might take a shot at you." Spyke chuckled. Same immature trash talker.

"Whatever." The rival medafighter pressed the transport button on his own green medawatch. Emitting the same orb of green light, producing a handsome looking green and black DOG type. It's medal was inserted with a soft click and the medafighter drew back, wrist raised to mouth to give commands. "You ready Canine?"

"Always." The green medabot raised his arms to match Krosserdog's fighting pose, two glinting black arm cannons mounted on smooth dual coloured arms, a slim torso with black and green two toned stripes, sturdy dark grey legs with double pivot joints and long clawed feet. The whole body topped off with a streamlined green head with long black ears that jutted backwards, a black visor and the trademark of the DOG type medabot, a red sensor on the chin.

The wind kicked up, scattering papers and litter across the road above the riverbank. A few interested school kid's stopped to watch.

"I hereby declare this a submission robattle! " A sudden voice called, Spyke and the younger medafighter looked around for the source. One of the observers suddenly threw off their uniform, revealing Mister Referee, who ran down the steep bank. The other students stared in shock. Spyke sighed, Mister Referee tried too hard these days. "I will be acting as your referee, me Mister Referee, today's match is Spykes Krosserdog versus Maxwells Canine…Medafighters ready?"

"YEAH!" The shorter medafighter called, pulling a confident grin, low rankers were an easy win and worth just as many points! This would be CAKE. Spyke nodded almost regretfully.

"Aren't I always?"

"Okay then, medabots, ROBATTTLE."

"Canine, fire!" The green medabot started blasting, spraying grass and dirt everywhere, several hits making their mark on Krosserdogs torso, Spykes medawatch calmly issued a warning. Spyke thought for a second.

"Krosserdog, left!" The blue medabot threw himself sideways, firing out several shots that slammed into the other DOG type, making it reel backwards. "Focus on keeping it's arms down." Spyke ordered.

"Right." Krosserdog raised both arms, flares of sparks reeling from the guns, long calculated shots aimed square at Canines arms. The smaller medabot made a sound of annoyance at the damage being banged into it's parts. His medafighter made the same irritated noise. The smaller sleeker medabot looked to his medafighter for direction.

"Canine, pull away!" Canine turned on his heel flicking itself right towards the water, whipping it's body around to take aim. "now fire!" Canine shot into action, it's duel guns blazing, Krosserdog raised an arm to help shield his optics from the shots. The sound of ringing metal sliced into the air as Spykes medawatch started speaking up again. Spyke gritted his teeth. Krosserdog went to lower his arms to get aim, a barrage of laser shots dented his helmet.

"Krosserdog, keep focused." Krosserdog chose his aim, waiting for Canine to lower one arm and raise the other to stop his guns from overheating. "Now!" Krosserdog twisted his body, both arms raised in an instant, a healthy boom snapping in succession from each arm, sending sparks flying from Canines once again, forcing the less powerful medabot to keeps it's arms down, his medafighter glared at Spyke, baring teeth.

"Canine, roll sideways and give him a taste of his own medicine." The green medabot obeyed, dipping sideways raising it's arms and aiming swiftly at Krosserdog, hitting a few shots. Spykes medawatch let him know that Krosserdogs arm parts were taking damage. Krosserdog tilted a little, feeling his body start to seize up, he forced himself to stand straight. Canine was a speedy medabot, it dipped sideways again, letting out a series of shots that ricocheted off Krosserdogs parts with a sickening twang that made Spyke grit his teeth. He blinked, drawing his attention to his medawatch, quirking a brow at the numbers his medawatch were telling him. Krosserdog was taking a lot of hits…but…

"His guns aren't as strong as yours Krosserdog." Spyke said simply. "Move forward. It's time to show this puppy what you can really do!" Krosserdog nodded in compliance, he barely felt the little pea shooters this medabot was packing. He ran forward, ignoring the scuffs forming on his armour. The rival medafighter stared unsurely as Krosserdog took a hold of the younger medabots arm, using his weight to knock the other DOG type backwards, Canine tottered back and forth with the force.

"Canine!"

"Krosserdog, finish it." Spyke called, he heard the students behind him mumbling about how strange it looked, a DOG type moving like a hand to hand fighter. They had a really strange robattle style. He watched as Krosserdog took a hold of the green opponents arm, giving an almighty shove, a massive clunk as Canine struck the ground sideways. Canines body shuddered with the sudden impact, then the medal popped out. Maxwell stared at his medabot for a second, not quite processing what he'd just seen. A DOG type fighting like an MKY type. Spyke knew first hand that a Dogs head part didn't like striking the ground.

"Function ceased, the winner is Krosserdog!" Mister Referee called, Krosserdog let out a relieved noise, his joints felt suddenly very stiff. Spyke grinned at him before turning his attention to the preteen who was gathering up his medal and sliding it into his medawatch.

"That's what you get for messing with me kid." Spyke bragged, he was no Ikki, but he won his fair share of robattles when they came up. Nothing but experience

"Yeah, yeah…." Maxwell grumbled, getting to the joyless task of handing over a medapart, a spare head part. Stalking off to lick his wounds. Mister Referee dashed off, apparently to another robattle, and the students lost interest in Spyke and Krosserdog. The blue DOG was about to speak when a sudden blast of noise came from the medafighters pocket, he reached in and pulled out a phone, snapping it open quickly.

"Hallo?" He greeted, Krosserdog watched, might be Samantha, she often called around this time, sending Spyke here and there to robattle if there was a need. "Oh…Hey Mom…..AH, sorry, I'll be home in a minute." Spyke lowered the phone, letting out a humourless laugh, letting the phone slide back into his pocket. "We'd better get going."

"Okay, Spyke." Krosserdog said loyally. Spyke went to keep walking, and Krosserdog followed. Pausing only at the deep creaking noise of his leg parts. He stopped, Spyke turning to see what was up.

"You okay Krosserdog?"

"I think my parts are seizing again." He said. Spyke frowned, leaning down to inspect. Krosserdogs arm joints were starting to drip with oil, and the carbon muscle strands in his legs had warmed up, causing them to expand and slow the medabot down. He must have lost a lot of coolant during that robattle. Spyke patted the head of his partner apologetically.

"I'm sorry, I keep forgetting how old you are." He said frowning. "I'll fix you up after I do my chores...promise." Krosserdog nodded, he was the only one out of all his generation to have his old body. They continued walking, Spyke slowing his pace so the DOG type could keep up. They chatted about how the robattle had gone, Spyke went on to explain how work had been, then they arrived at the gate of their home. Spyke jogged inside, Krosserdog following.

"Spyke, honey is that you?"

"Yes Mom." Spyke called, already half way up stairs. "I'm sorry I'm late, I had to robattle."

"Well hurry up and get changed, we have a lot of work to do!" Krosserdog listened as Spyke almost tripped on the stairs and closed the door. Spykes mother, a skinny woman with long hair tied back into a ponytail blinked as Kroserdog wandered into the kitchen. "Krosserdog." She greeted. Noticing the slow limping stride Krosserdog was carrying himself with. "That body of yours is getting worse and worse." She frowned. "And I needed your help today too…oh well, Chainzaw will just have to." She said. Getting back to her cooking.

"What exactly is it you needed?" Krosserdog asked politely.

"I want Spyke to get rid of some boxes from the roof space." She said, tasting her soup. "The boxes are quite heavy and you know how clumsy he is."

"Oh….I see."

"A few of them are already in the living room." She said. Eyes starting to trail from the medabot to the floor. "Krosserdog you're leaking your medabot blood all over the floor!"

"it's not blood, it's oil." Spyke said as he walked back into the kitchen in his dark blue T-shirt and Jeans, a pair of socks that had stains from previous oil spills. "You should know that by now."

"I don't care what it is, I want you to clean it up immediately." She lifted some kitchen roll and handed it to her son forcefully. "Then get to work sorting out what you want to keep from those boxes in the living room."

"Fiine." Spyke moaned, pulling a long strip and folding it, leaning down to his partner. "Let me patch him up first." He said, motioning for Krosserdog to raise his arm, he complied, watching as Spyke tied the absorbant paper around the joint. He felt a small sense of joy in that instant. No matter what happened, Spyke was always there to piece him back together. "Come on Krosserdog, I bet I can find your old Cyandog parts in one of those boxes!" Spyke said, starting to mop up the litle pools of oil before tossing the soiled paper towels into the bin and dashing off, Krosserdog winced as Spyke managed to slip on the wooden floor.

"You okay?"

"Yes!" Spyke slurred. Krosserdog started following, wandering into the living room, a few big boxes that had been set out last night, old things from the roofspace. Krosserdog watched as Spyke opened one box, then the other. "AH. I knew they'd be in here." Spyke said, pulling out the old Cyandog arm. "They're all rusted tight…"

"Oh."

"Oh man, there's so much stuff in here!" Krosserdog wandered over, peering into the box, a variety of old toys where in there, his old Cyandog parts and some of his very first medaparts, a Garddog body that was probably antique by now. Krosserdog dipped his head, easing his hand out and brushing the aged metal of his old parts.

"What will you do with these Spyke?" He asked casually, feeling a twinge of sadness run through his circuits. He suddenly felt very old and battered.

"I dunno, maybe sell them or scrap them." Krosserdog raised his head, seeing Spyke looking at a teddybear with a distracted stare. He remembered that bear. Spyke had taken it everywhere when Krosserdog had first been on the scene, Samantha would steal it and make him cry. She had a short bob back then. Spyke glanced to his medabot, raising his eyebrows. "What else would I do with them?"

"I don't know." Krosserdog dismissed.

"They're really retro, people collect them these days."

"I know." Spyke set the little ragged bear aside, and Krosserdog watched as Spyke lifted a few old magazines. Old medabot magazines with notes circled from when they'd been working on their technique. Krosserdog looked to the second box, prying one of the flaps open, greeted by the soft marshmallow colours of baby toys. Krosserdog lifted a dog shaped rattle, shaking it gently. He felt a small amount of terror as he struggled to hear the comforting tinkle of the beads.

"What you got there Krosser?" Spyke asked, setting down the magazines beside the bear, getting into a comfy sitting position. Krosserdog raised the rattle. Spyke blinked. "An old rattle?"

"You played with this when you were a baby?" Spyke smiled unsurely.

"Yeah, I think my Gramma got it for me." Spyke said, running a hand through his hair before taking a hold of the little dog shaped piece of plastic. Krosserdog studied this carefully. "I don't know why my parents kept it."

"Why wouldn't they?"

"Well…people just throw things like this away." Spyke said. Plopping the rattle back into the box and tugging out a small plush dog. This certainly explained a lot… "It's just old, and I'm too big for it." Krosserdog perked up.

"Too old…" Krosserdog glanced away. Was that what happened when your medafighter got too big for you…they put you in a box and stored you away for years before pawning you off? He felt his fist clench.

"What's the matter Krosserdog?"

"It's nothing." Spyke looked unconvinced, but not willing to start a big tug of war with his own medabot. He went back into the box, his hand hitting something leathery, a dusty book with golden writing that said 'Happy Memories' Spyke blew some dust off before using his slim fingers to open the front cover, eyeing the photographs inside, he smiled softly, skimming through each but the smile started to fade, and he eyeballed Krosserdog, The medabot had taken hold of a baby blanket and was considering it like his grandmother looked at the controls of a TV remote. Krosserdog became aware of the stare and turned his dulling red visor towards his medafighter.

"Spyke?" He asked curiously.

"Yeah Krosserdog?"

Krosserdog glanced towards the blanket, setting it aside. "…nothing." Spyke raised a brow, he hated being tense with Krosserdog. They went on sorting the boxes out for a while. Spyke made a small pile of things that he wanted t keep. Krosserdogs old parts could be sold on and many of his baby toys…well his parents could figure it out.

Soon the boxes were gone, and Krosserdog might of frowned if he'd had more facial expression. Spyke was eating with his family, and Krosserdog was resting to let his joints slowly stop their relentless ache. He wondered if ache was the right word. He didn't have much of a chance to consider it as Spyke suddenly threw open the bedroom door.

"We need to go, Sam needs some help at the park." The blue medabot stood to attention, his legs felt weak and unsteady.

"What's wrong?"

"She just needs a third medafighter." Spyke was throwing on his coat. and then slid Krosserdogs medal into his old medawatch. Taking off and apologising to his parents for running out. Pounding pavement eagerly and skidding to a halt at the park. Samantha stood defiantly against some another girl Spyke didn't recognise. Sloan waved to him cheerfully and the skinny teenager skipped over to them with glee.

"It's about time he got here." Samantha's rival said snidely. She was tall, and wore the same uniform as Sam did. She was joined by two other girls. One wearing a leather jacket and the other was chewing some gum with disinterest. "now I get to teach you a lesson for showing me up yesterday."

"You make it sound like I was even trying to." Samantha played idly with her long brown hair and allowed herself a detestable smile. "Problem?"

"Shut up and robattle, Short-stuff." The six med fighters got to work transporting their medabots, the three rivals had medabots Spyke would have called 'girly' They each matched too, slim pink frames each with a cannon mounted on their arms and white and gold decoration.

"….Expensive." Sloan mused as he transported Totalizers body, an updated version of his older one with thicker armour and a powerful giga laser that needed both arms to operate properly. Totalizer flexed his military green arms a little. His optical visor glinting golden in the sunlight.

"Gaudy more like." Samantha answered dryly, as she leaned down to pop Peppercats medal in, The CAT type had been upgraded too, stronger legs and claws fingers that extended and acted like barbed whips. A long tail that had been idly decorated with a piece of ribbon. Spyke transported Krosserdog at the same time, and Samantha cocked a brow at him, the girls opposite smirked maliciously.

"What kind of dopey looking medabot is THAT?' The leader chortled. Krosserdog paused and looked to Spyke for reassurance.

"You idiot, I thought you were upgrading him!" Samantha growled, taking a hold of the taller boys collar and yanking hard enough to make him stumble.

"Krosserdog works just fine." Spyke reassured. "isn't that right buddy?" Krosserdog didn't respond, instead a massive puddle of oil began to seep from his leg parts. Samantha shot Spyke a warning glare. "Just fine." He reassured smiling nervously. He became aware that Ikki and Erika were watching now.

"You can't robattle in that condition…Krosserdogs parts are all beaten up." Ikki mumbled, his face a mask of indifference. Metabee nodded in agreement.

"I can robattle...just you watch." Krosserdog stated sounding less impressive out loud than he did in his own head and he found only a little strength from his loyalty. Peppercat and Totalizer shared a worried glance.

"Whatever, it makes our lives easier." The tall girl in the private school uniform chirped.

"This is madness." Ikki commented, as he flopped down onto the grass, Erika followed suit, her camera at the ready. "Reminds me of old times." Erika chuckled and nodded in agreement.

"Krosserdog looks all kinds of messed up!" Metabee chided. "I'd never robattle for you if you left my parts like that."

"At least Krosserdog is loyal, unlike somebody I know." Krosserdog tuned out the ensuing bickering between the KBT and his medafghter,

"Then it's agreed!" Mister Referees voice called from somewhere in the distance. "I hereby declare this a submission robattle between The Screws Gang and Riverview Swans Academy." The Referee dived onto the scene, leaping onto one of the swings, soaring like an eagle into the air an elegant flip and then face planting into the ground.

The medafighters barely even noticed.

"Medafighters ready?" There was a collective nod. "ROBATTLE."

"Peppercat, get behind them, let's see if these dolls can keep you in their sights!" Samantha commanded, the CATacknowledged with a graceful jump and a flip, using her barbed claws to hook into one of the pink medabots, a surge of electricity caused the air to rumble and sizzle.

"Aplomb, counter attack!" Samantha's red headed rival snapped, her eyes fixed on the brunette with a viciousness that Samantha wasn't scared to send right back. The pink Medabot whipped it's arms out despite the surges of electricity coursing through it's delicate body, two shots were fired and Peppercat reeled backwards, smashing into the ground as Totalizer's armour pinged and twanged with the sparks of lazar fire, His own weapon started to heat up and he locked onto his target.

"Ballabile, take out that gun before he has a chance to charge it." The gum chewer with the short blue hair squealed, Sloan allowed himself a grin.

"I'm trying!" The medabot hissed back, just as Totalizer made an indifferent noise and he fired off his weapon, causing the air to turn to ozone and blew the smaller medabot off her feet and crashing into a heap a few metres away.

Peppercat got to her feet and locked her claws back into place, diving without instruction back at her aggressor, Aplomb did likewise, and the two femmebots collided with an unhealthy shriek, a spark of electricity and gunfire as the two medabots danced around each other. A chunk of pink armour was dislodged and Peppercat launched herself into the air, claws extending down, the air crackled ruthlessly emphasised only by the sound of Totalizers weapon charging with a low steady drone.

"Couru, take that piece of garbage out as soon as possible." The Leather jacket girl grumbled, she folded her arms. Spyke frowned his medawatch rose to his mouth. She grinned so idly that it caused a surge of anger to run down his spine.

"My pleasure." The third medabot said, Krosserdogs arm aimed curtly but the medabot was already on him, her gun inches from his torso, Krosserdog struggled to process her speed before he flew backwards, shards of armour crashing around him as he fell, fresh oil pooling around the wounded area, The DOG used one arm to force himself up, the other medabot slammed into him, her knee clashing with his head part, he felt his sight flicker, ones and zeros breaking into static then a fuzzy image returned to him, a large crack of black and white down one side.

Krosserdog struggled to his feet, they were shaking. He was so old. Too old. The pink medabot tilted her head part he looked into her optics, they were beautiful and green and they dimmed dangerously.

"I don't like you…" She said gently. "You're ugly." Krosserdog pulled himself together, hearing the comforting sound of Totalizer's gun going off somewhere behind him reminded him he wasn't alone. A flurry of pink armour shards fell around him like rain.

"I'm not really warming up to you either." He said back. "And it's not because you're ugly."

"Krosserdog don't just stand there, you have to slow her down, NOW." Spyke said, but the voice coming through his transceiver was crackled and disjointed….that was a bad sign. "Can you hear me?"

"Barely." Krosserdog whipped his arm up and fired, the pink medabots optics widened as his shot bounced off her head plate, forcing her backwards. A split appeared in her detailed paintwork. The femme looked astonished for a second before her optics lit up furiously.

"My face!" She snarled and lunged towards him, a few small steps and she was beside him, her gun hovering by his side for what seemed like an eternity to the DOG type, until his world snapped out of focus again and another chunk of his blue bodywork had gone missing, the dribble of oil had become a river. He heard Metabee shout something to him, but he didn't catch it.

Why wasn't Spyke saying anything? He glanced around to make visual contact and realised that the medafighter WAS saying something…but he was too far away to hear it, and his communication chip had failed. The old DOG type felt defeated. Suddenly all he wanted was to drop down and not get up again. This old body couldn't handle any more.

"I think it's time we put your little dog down." The medafighter in leather spat. "Then I'll move onto the kitty cat." Spyke glanced towards Peppercat and Totalizer, both were doing their best not to hit each other in an effort to stop the agile pink medabot, they collided comically as the pink medabot back-flipped aside.

Samantha glared at Sloan who could only shrug apologetically.

"Give us a second to deal with this little pest and we'll be right with you Buddy." Totalizer called over to the DOG, but when no response came he paused. "Krosser?"

What happened next surprised the laid back turtle type medabot, Krosserdog raised his guns with shaky determination and then.

Click.

Nothing happened.

Krosserdog looked wearily to his gun barrel, "I think I misfired."

"I noticed." BANG, Couru slammed her foot into him and he stumbled backwards. He chanced a look to Spyke, he looked heartbroken, and slumped to his knees in defeat. Krosserdog clenched his fist. There was nothing either of them could do now. The blue medabot steadied his stance and aimed his second gun, there was a spark and a small bang, then smoke dribbled from the gun barrel. His red optical visor dimmed in realisation.

Then he collapsed, his energy reserves were leaking. His everything was leaking. Couru made her way over slowly. Getting ready to finish him off, her slim gun pressed against his head part. Krosserdog didn't even realise when Peppercat leapt onto the agile little gunner, came between the two of them and sent the last of the trio of femmebots into the oncoming onslaught of Totalizers heavy duty weapon.

Her medal drawer opened with a pinging noise.

"Function ceased, The Screws win." Mister Referee called. Samantha cast an eye over to the girls.

"I think I've made my point." She snapped. Ultimately too distracted by her old team-mate to worry about rubbing it in too much. Even if she had scored some choice medaparts. "I'll see you next week in practice." The brunette said dismissively as the three gathered up their medabots and stormed off in annoyance. Spyke finally came to his senses and struggled over to his medabot, who was still lying in a lifeless heap, his medal ejected.

"Holy Medaroly…" Ikki mumbled as he walked over and studied the damage from a respectable distance. "I've never seen so much damage before.'

"Dude." Metabee added.

"How could I let this happen?" Spyke yelped in a high pitched voice. Samantha frowned.

"I told you to get some new medaparts." She sighed and jammed her hands into her pockets. Spyke had gathered up his medabots broken pieces in his arms, tears dribbling down his face. "You're fired."

"BUT, BOSS."

"Until you do what I say and get Krosserdog a newer body you're of no use to me!" Samantha glanced away from the damaged DOG type to a concerned looking Peppercat. "Let's get going." Peppercat nodded and started to follow her. Sloan lifted the Monkey medal and handed it to his snivelling friend.

"That body was outdated anyway." Sloan shrugged, his large frame doing little to make Spyke feel better.

"I guess you're right." Spyke stood, shoving the medal into his pocket. "I'm going to go talk to Henry."

"Do you think we should help?" Erika asked, she was already going through her photographs of the robattle, and went about taking shots of the oil soaked earth while she was at it.

"I doubt we could." Ikki shrugged. Metabee nodded eagerly. Erika frowned. A few minutes later Spyke had the mangled old body of his medabot on the work table of the Hopmart and Henry looked over it sceptically.

"…Do you think you can fix it?"

"Fix it?" Henry scoffed. "I'd be lucky if I could make modern art out of it. What exactly did you do?" Spykes head thumped painfully against the counter and Henry rubbed the back of his neck. "Look, it was just a really old body…they wear out…..I was surprised it lasted like it did."

"I know." Spyke said meekly. He raised his medawatch and frowned. The teenager looked to Henry and considered his situation. "…don't suppose I get staff discount on a new DOG body?"

"Ten percent, like always." Henry said, laughing it all off and wiping his hands with a rag. Spyke forced a smile. "There are some really great models out this year too."

"The only reason I didn't change it sooner was because I was scared." He fidgeted with his medawatch, he suddenly felt childish and ashamed of himself. "Is that dumb?"

"A little." Spyke frowned. Henry didn;t seem to notice, only went back to work washing down the filthy worktable.

"I'm sorry Krosserdog." He finally spoke into the medawatch. He wasn't sure why the idea of changing Krosserdog over to a better body frightened him so much. He thought of all his old toys in the boxes back home and his heart sank. So many boxes.

[Don't worry about it, Spyke.] Krosserdog said, reliably and good natured as always. Spyke allowed himself a smile.

"What should I do with these old medaparts?" Henry asked, they'd been set out on newspaper to stop the desk from getting too messed up. Spyke hesitated.

[They're not worth keeping.] Krosserdog interjected. [As long as you still have my medal, that's all that counts.]

"Aww…Krosserdog." Spyke snivelled.

"I hate to break up the love fest, but my break ends soon." Henry grumbled. Kids and their toys. "You should take a look at the new dog type bodies so I can run one through for you. Unless you wanted a Monkey type body instead.'

Spyke nodded and picked himself up off his seat.

"Pffffht, That's a dumb idea, Henry." Henry rolled his eyes and went to work packing the destroyed medaparts into a box. Leaving them aside for the teenager to pick up later. No way Spyke would just forget about them.

The next day Spyke slid off the Hopmart fleece he had put on at work when the store had been cool, now the evening was starting to warm up and he tied it absently arounf his waist. He let out a breath, Krosserdogs medal was inserted into his new body, and the medabot raised his guns in an experienced fashion. The young rival medafighter grinned, assuming this would be an easy win.

The pair of them were glad that some things never changed.