"An arcade?" Jack Frost frowned in concentration, pondering the matter.
"Yeah!" Jamie bounced up and down in excitement, brown eyes shining. "I've never been to it! I mean, I just heard about it recently,
but it's apparently really close to here! And really popular, too."
Jack leaned on his staff. "And I take it you want to go."
Jamie nodded exuberantly. "I can get some money from my mom and we could go today."
"We?" Jack's dark eyebrows disappeared into his hair. "You want me to go?"
"Well...yeah..."
"Why don't you get one of your friends to go with you?"
Jamie shuffled his feet. "They're around all the time. You're not."
Well, there it was. The guilt. Jack sighed and felt his will crumbling. It was true he didn't spend a lot of time in Burgess during fall and spring, and was completely absent during summer. It was early spring now, so he'd only be around for a couple more days, a week at most, before taking off for the north.
So Jamie just wanted to spend time with him? That was...new. Jack wasn't exactly used to people wanting to be around him. When had he become so soft? He blamed Baby Tooth. She was pushing his tolerance for cute things to ridiculous levels. He really did have a soft spot for Jamie, too, sort of a younger sibling type of thing. Or a really good friend he just happened to babysit a lot.
He sighed. "Go ask your mom."
"YES!" Jamie fist-pumped the air and dashed off into his home, nearly tripping over his sister Sophie as he went. Jack sighed again and kneeled down to the little blonde girl's level. He ruffled her messy, tangled hair and smiled softly when she squealed, "Cold! Cold!"
"Your brother's kind of crazy, you know that, Soph?"
She grinned and clapped her hands. "Jamie is crazyyy!"
"That's right, little lady. You grow up to be sane, okay? One of you has to." The winter spirit's smile widened and he pulled his hand back as Jamie came pounding down the porch steps again.
"Mom said it was okay!" he announced, "She gave me money, too."
"Great." Jack stood and brushed off his pants. "So where is this place?"
"Down a few blocks, so it's a bit of a walk," Jamie answered. He turned to his sister and said, "Soph, go inside, okay? I'm not gonna be here to watch out for you."
The toddler stuck her tongue out at her brother but otherwise obliged, climbing the stairs one at a time before she and Abby the greyhound disappeared through the kitchen door.
"Alright then," Jack said, adjusting his grip on his staff. "Let's get going."
"This is the place?"
"Yep."
"Litwack's Family Fun Center?"
"Uh-huh."
"Doesn't look like much."
"I guess not. But it's supposed to be really fun." Jamie eyed the building critically. "It seems like there are a lot of kids inside, doesn't it?"
Jack shrugged. "I suppose. Can't really tell from out here."
"We'll just have to go in then," the younger boy replied.
"That was the original intention for this expedition," Jack quipped mildly.
Jamie nodded. "Let's go in." He led the way, and Jack rolled his eyes to the grey sky before following after.
The arcade was packed full of children and machines of all sorts and sizes. Jamie could hardly believe it; it by far surpassed his expectations. Jack came to a halt beside him and looked around curiously.
"Wow. This is insane."
"No kidding." Jamie let out a huff of breath. "Hey Jack, have you ever actually been in an arcade before? 'Cause I haven't."
"I haven't either, but I've been around long enough to have watched them spring up. Hey Jamie, you should probably talk quietly while we're in here. You don't want the other kids thinking you're crazy, do you?"
Jamie blinked. "So none of these guys—" he gestured around the large, open room, "—can see you? None?"
"Afraid not. And trust me, I know this for sure." Jack sighed heavily, sending his snowy bangs flying upwards. "Anyway, you wanna get started? How much money did your mom give you?"
Jamie grinned broadly. "Like five dollars in quarters. Let's look around a bit first." The two wandered around the area, examining the many consoles. There was a Tapper's set up right between Street Fighter and Star Wars. In the center of the room closest to the door there was a massive shooter game called Hero's Duty. A line around that game could be seen and various kids were taking bets over how long the players could last in a particular level.
Behind Hero's Duty was a large console colored a bright, saccharine shade of pink. The name Sugar Rush was written in large teal letters on the side. This seemed to be the most popular game in the entire arcade, as there was a large crowd gathered around to watch the races. Jamie was surprised to see a decent number of boys lining up to play as well; it seemed to be a really girly game, but whatever. He returned his attention to finding a game for himself and Jack.
He felt a tap on his shoulder and whirled around, finding himself face to face with a middle-aged man in a striped shirt and bearing a nametag that read Stan D. Litwack. The owner, he assumed.
"You alright there, kiddo?" the man asked Jamie, smiling kindly.
Jamie nodded. "Yeah. I'm just looking for something to play."
Mr. Litwack frowned slightly. "Are you alone? Do you have any friends with you?"
"Yeee—uh, no." Jamie cut himself off when Jack nudged him in the ribs and muttered, "Bad idea to say anything about me, kid." The boy coughed awkwardly. "No, I'm by myself. I've never been here before."
The aged man patted him on the shoulder. "Alright, well, I'll help you out. Let's find a single-player that doesn't have a very big line."
He led Jamie, and Jack by extension, towards the far wall of the arcade where a bunch of retro games from the eighties were set up.
Mr. Litwack hummed. "Looks like Felix and Ralph are having a slow day today." He gestured towards an empty blue console with the words Fix-It Felix, Jr. emblazoned in large letters. "That game's become one of the most popular lately, I'm surprised nobody's playing.
It's probably because of the new level the kids unlocked in Sugar Rush yesterday; everybody wants to watch that." He turned to Jamie, "You want to give Felix a try?"
Jamie glanced at Jack, who shrugged carelessly, and replied, "Uh, sure."
"I'll leave you to it, then." With one final, kindly smile, Mr. Litwack clapped Jamie on the shoulder once more and walked off to talk with a pair of boys at Astro Race, barely missing walking through Jack, who sidestepped out of the way to avoid being passed through.
"He's pretty cool," Jack commented.
"Uh-huh," Jamie agreed, inserting a quarter into the console slot. "So I think the point of this is to dodge the falling stuff and fix the building."
"Sounds about right."
The two fell silent as the game began. They watched the opening cutscene, which showed a large man with wild brown hair getting booted out of his forest and going on a rampage against the apartment building that replaced it.
Jack raised a questioning eyebrow. "They destroyed his home and tossed him in a dump; of course he's going to be upset about it. I'm
not entirely certain this Ralph guy's in the wrong here."
"Just makes for a good game, I guess," Jamie supposed. "Oh, it's starting!"
Ralph began climbing around the building, smashing the windows and glass doors before perching himself on the roof. He pounded the bricks with his massive fists, sending them plummeting to the ground. The NPCs cried out, "Fix it, Felix!" and the player character, a tiny little guy with a gold hammer and bright smile, showed up with an exuberant, "I can fix it!"
"And no one else can, apparently," Jack snorted. "Whoa, watch out!"
Jamie jerked the joystick to the left, barely avoiding a falling brick. He jumped up a few ledges and brought the hammer down, successfully repairing a row of windows. One of the NPCs called out, "Yoo-hoo!" and left a pie on the windowsill.
"Am I supposed to get that?"
"How should I know? I think you should, just to be on the safe side."
Jamie yelped as he dodged another chunk of falling debris and battled his way to the windowsill, scooping up the pie with a sigh of relief. Felix flashed gold and, with unreal speed, he sped across the screen fixing everything in sight.
Jamie and Jack cheered and slapped hands when the words "Level complete!" flashed across the screen.
"Good job, kiddo," Jack congratulated.
"Thanks, but I think that it was really easy because it was only the first level." Jamie laughed, "Hey Jack, do you wanna try?"
The winter spirit backtracked so quickly it was almost comical. "Wait, what? No, I've never ever done anything like this, I'd completely fail and lose your points—"
"I don't care about that," Jamie grinned, "Go on and try it."
Jack sighed. "I really don't think this is a good idea, but if you insist...hold this." He passed his staff to Jamie and hesitantly took hold of the controller. "Walk me through this, kid. I just press the red button to use the hammer, right?"
"Right, and the blue button to jump. It's starting now, move to the left."
Jack obliged, frowning in concentration. "What now?"
"Jump up to the ledge," Jamie instructed. "No, Jack, it's the blue button—"
"This is pointless—"
"You can do it! Just do what I tell you!"
Jamie could just barely hear the older boy mumble, "...three hundred years and this is what I amount to..." He suppressed a laugh, feeling slightly guilty at finding amusement in Jack's frustration.
"Okay," Jamie said as Jack managed to repair a window, "Now you just have to—"
A brick landed square on Felix's head, effectively braining the small man, and he went through his death animation. GAME OVER lit the screen. Jack swore loudly, to Jamie's surprise, and in his irritation accidentally sent a tendril of frost from his hand to the joystick to inside the console.
The two boys stumbled back, Jack raising his hands defensively, and watched as the screen flickered and glitched on and off. After a few tense moments, it finally returned back to normal, and they both let out a heavy sigh of relief.
"...Whoops," Jack deadpanned. "Maybe we should be done with this one for today."
Jamie swallowed nervously. "Uh. Yeah. Good idea."
He handed Jack's staff back to its owner and the two boys turned their backs on Fix-It Felix, Jr., trying to keep the guilty looks off their faces as they joined the Sugar Rush line.
"Arcade's closed! We're all good!"
As soon as Yuni's announcement rang out, everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief and hurried to begin their after-hours activities. Game Central Station was soon packed with characters travelling to other games to visit friends, and it was difficult to move more than three feet before running into someone else.
Vanellope was lucky she was so tiny. She moved easily between a group from Dance Dance Revolution and Darth Vader from Star Wars. She wasn't entirely sure what he was doing talking to Dr. Robotnik, but whatever, she had bigger things to deal with. She bounced passed the surge protector, who had long since given up trying to tell her to calm down whilst inside the station, and boarded the train for Fix-It Felix, Jr.
A few minutes later, she arrived at their old-timey station and hopped off the train. Niceland seemed pretty busy right now, work having just ended and all, but locating who she was looking for wasn't difficult.
Vanellope snuck up behind the large, overall-clad man with the wild hair and, taking advantage of the element of surprise, took a running leap and jumped onto his shoulders.
Ralph exclaimed in surprise and turned his head to look at the little girl, who was laughing like a hyena.
"I gotcha!" Vanellope gloated, clambering into a sitting position. "Come on, come on, we have plans tonight! Is Hammer Guy around?"
Ralph chuckled. "Calm down, princess. Felix went to pick up Calhoun from Hero's Duty." Vanellope, as per usual, snorted at the name, but Ralph ignored her and continued, "We're going to meet them in the family level at Tapper's, remember?"
Vanellope nodded. "I remember. Taffyta wanted to have a rematch because I beat her again today, but I told her I have stuff to do."
She rolled her hazel eyes and looked around the game. "How come it's so crazy here right now?"
He began walking towards the train, Vanellope balanced carefully on his shoulder. "Some circuits got fried earlier. I'll tell you about it when we sit down and meet the others; it's kind of a crazy story."
A few minutes later, they were going through the station again and making their way towards Tappers, where a family level had recently been added. It had become so popular that Tapper had needed everyone to make reservations before they came to eat, as he was the only sort of restaurant game in the entire arcade, with the exception of a dessert shop in the corner next to Pac-Man. Vanellope had wanted to try it, not usually getting the chance to eat anything that wasn't diabetic and coated in calories. Ralph had agreed, and somehow Felix had gotten on board with Calhoun.
It was funny how the group's dynamic (because they were a group now, a very diverse one) worked out. Felix and Calhoun, since they had married, took on a sort of parental role for Vanellope despite the younger girl being the princess-slash-president in her own game. Ralph wasn't sure where he fit in the mix. He definitely did fit in, he just wasn't sure what his exact role was. Maybe a sort of older brother or uncle to Vanellope. In the end, the wrecker had simply stopped trying to explain it to himself. His relationship with the little girl was just too complex to sum up into any single epithet.
"There they are!" Vanellope announced, pointing ahead to the entrance of Tapper's. Sure enough, Felix and his towering wife Sergeant Tamera Calhoun were standing beside the train. Calhoun was dressed casually; Tapper had explicitly told her that her armor freaked out the other patrons and she was advised against bringing in heavy firearms. That didn't stop her from keeping a pistol strapped to her side at all times, however.
They all greeted each other cheerfully and headed into the restaurant, which was already packed, and took their seats. Tapper quickly took their orders and rushed off to tend to his other customers.
"So how was everyone's day?" Felix asked.
"Awesome!" Vanellope grinned broadly. "I win pretty much every time I get picked!" She laughed. "Taffyta gets so upset, even if we're like best friends now. I think she's just gotten used to winning too much."
"Someday you're going to lose too, so don't you get too used to winning," Calhoun said sternly.
"Yeah, yeah, you say that all the time." The little girl stuck out her tongue and took a long drink from her chocolate milk.
"Our day was kind of weird, now that I think about it," Ralph frowned, exchanging a glance with Felix. "There was this strange kid who came in."
Calhoun's blonde eyebrows knitted together. "Strange how?"
"Hmm..." Felix considered the question. "Well, he was all by himself, but kept talking as though someone else was there."
"That's right," Ralph nodded. "Like an imaginary friend or something. And then he started playing, still talking to air, and then he let up for a moment."
"The weird part is, even when he let go of the controls, I kept moving around and fixing things and then..." Felix shuddered.
"Everything got cold, and the lights in our game flickered on and off."
Vanellope had been listening with wide eyes and spoke up, "What do you mean it got cold? Like winter cold?"
"Yeah, like that, which makes no sense because there isn't any winter in our game." Ralph's breath rushed out. "After that, the lights stopped flickering and he looked really embarrassed, said something like, 'Let's go,' to nobody and just left."
"Well, some kids do have imaginary friends," Calhoun pointed out.
"Yes, but the thing is, he really talked to it as though it were there," Felix replied. "He'd pause like there was a response, then keep talking."
Vanellope's dark head tilted to one side. "I think I saw a kid by himself when he passed by Sugar Rush. What did he look like?"
"Kinda short, with brown hair and eyes," Ralph answered. "He was wearing a red and blue vest."
She clapped her hands together. "Hey, I did see him!" Then, frowning in confusion, she added, "What are you guys talking about? He wasn't alone. There was some kind of funky teenager with him."
The three adults stared at her in surprise.
"Someone...else?"
"Yeah. He looked weird." Vanellope tapped her chin, "Umm... he had white hair, and really blue eyes and was wearing a hoodie like mine. Also, he carried this stick around. I dunno why. And when Litwack talked to the kid in front of my game, he didn't even see this other guy. It was like he was invisible."
The table fell silent for a long moment.
"So..." Ralph struggled to make sense of the situation. "There was another person with the weird kid. Nobody else could see him but
you. This person...was invisible?"
"Not just me," Vanellope corrected. "I talked to Taffyta and Jubileena afterwards and they said they saw him too."
There was another long pause, then Felix pushed his food away. "I'm sorry, I'm can't eat at the moment."
Ralph shook his head. "This is messed up. Nothing makes sense right now."
"Suit yourself," Calhoun shrugged, stealing a handful of her husband's fries. "I'm going to eat all of this myself."
"Aren't you freaked out by this at all?" Ralph gaped at the woman, who rolled her eyes and brushed her bangs out of her face.
"I fight shapeshifting insects for a living. Not a lot can faze this soldier."
"That's cool," Vanellope giggled. "I think this whole thing is awesome. I feel like I'm a part of some secret club."
They let the incident drop after that, as it had very much shaken Felix and Ralph, but the next time she saw the strange boy and his invisible friend walk into the arcade, Vanellope caught the mysterious teenager's eye and waved.
The look of total surprise on his face was worth it.
Deleted this a long time ago. It's back now. Please don't ask me to continue it.