"Aim and fire. Aim and…FIRE!" Ridley blasts the cyberdactyl smiling wide as the strike lands and it returns to its base form. Holding their gauntlet up to capture the glitch Ridley's smile fades as it zooms past them. "Hey!"
"Mitch Williams. Nice to beat you." Mitch says looking smug as his gauntlet is loaded with xp.
"Mitch! You griefer, that was Ridley's target!" Miko yells at her boyfriend, furious he stole a glitch from her favorite modder.
She's cute when she's angry. Can she still be a sugar plum when she's this red? Mitch thinks, not caring about the new tech, but focusing on how Miko's hair was slightly frizzy and how red her cheeks were. "Uh, Ridley? Oh, that little weirdo you bought in off the street." Mitch smirks knowing his words would anger his girlfriend further.
"Hey! Who are you to—" Ridley exclaims angrily only to be cut off by Miko.
"Hey, they're our friend." Miko glares at her boyfriend giving him a look that says he'll be paying for this later. No one gets to be mean to Ridleycraft and their awesomeness.
"Yea, and they're part of the team now." Five says backing her up.
"Well congratulations tiny," Mitch claps as he walks towards the new tech and his girlfriend. Patting Ridley on the shoulder Mitch smirks as Miko bares her teeth at him and hisses. Mitch is doing his best not to laugh at her antics. "You just joined the most pathetic team on glitch tech leaderboards."
"We're not pathetic."
"You're right, Miko." You're not. Not even close. Mitch softens his gaze for a second hoping she's not taking anything he says seriously. "Sixth place isn't pathetic, it's hopeless." Mitch says, pulling up the leaderboard while eyeing Miko. He frowns as he notices her expression has real anger in it. "You'd need to catch double your daily average to beat my capture score." Walking away from the other techs while laughing Mitch gets into his truck. "Buh—boosh!" He shouts before taking off. She's not really mad is she? She should know by now that it's just to keep up appearances with the others. But what if she is. Mitch groans, hating that he's worried about whether Miko is truly upset with him. He quickly pulls out his phone after putting the van on autopilot and texts her, 'hope you're not mad. Milkshakes at that new restaurant later? My treat.' He hits send, but doesn't get a reply. Sighing he goes about his day and doesn't hear or see her again until he walks back into HQ. "Oh what are you slackers looking at?" He asks, hearing everyone clapping. Lifting his head he sees his girlfriend giggling and hugging the new baby tech with a smile on her face and her partner looking excited.
"Here it comes, watch Mitch's face." Five says to Miko and Ridley as Mitch freezes mid step.
"Huh? My score…" the surprise only stays on Mitch's face for a few seconds before Ridley is in front of him
"Ha! Eat it, hotshot. Your score just got ganked by team Ridley." The modder yells victoriously.
"Good for you." Mitch says unphased, "almost…too good to be true." Knowing something was off, he still offers the new tech his hand to shake. When Ridley grabs it Mitch pulls them closer, "I don't know what you had to do to earn that impossible score, but if you can look me in the eye and tell me it was a clean win, then I guess I was wrong about you." Mitch says his eyes are flitting to Five and his girlfriend. He can already tell that it somehow wasn't, by the nervousness written on their faces. Especially Miko as she was bad at hiding her feelings.
"Oh it was clean. Clean and so delicious." Ridley smirks getting closer to Mitch.
"Okay then, congratulations." Mitch says eyeing Miko one last time before walking off.
"Five we just pwned Mitch Williams. Why doesn't this feel better?" Miko asks but knows she's feeling guilty about lying to her boyfriend. Maybe we went too far. Sure Mitch can be a jerk, but he's got mad skills and earned his score.
"That look on his face…not the one I expected." Five says before Ridley disagrees with them. It quickly becomes a verbal match and Ridley reveals their true intention was only to get a gauntlet. Soon all of HQ is on lockdown from a containment breach.
"Oh, what is going on in there? Come on, open up, you stupid door." Mitch groans as he continues blasting the shielded door.
"Hey hotshot. You want your top score back? I need backup." Ridley says after opening the door and staring down the older boy.
Mitch has to hold himself back from laughing and clears his throat, " me? Backup a noob? Oh come on." he says as he flicks Ridley's hair. Damn Miko really is rubbing off on me.
"I may be new around here, but trust me, sport… I'm no newbie." Ridley says, pulling Mitch down by his vest.
Mitch frowns, but raises an eyebrow. Miko sure knows how to pick 'em.
"Hey glitches!" Ridley yells as Mitch portals them inside.
"Ridley?!" And Mitch?! Miko yells seeing them ride in on horn.
"Get away from my friends! Now Mitch!" Ridley yells while blasting glitches.
"With pleasure." He says launching himself off of horn and landing a mega punch that sends a shockwave depixelating a large amount of glitches. The techs along with Ridley fight the glitches as Phil fixes the containment problem.
"Okay this is the part where someone yells hold onto something." Phil yells giving them a heads up before all the glitches are sucked back in.
As everyone moves Mitch ends up grabbing Miko and pulling her with him behind the wall. She smiles at her boyfriend as he keeps his arm around her. Once the glitches are contained she runs over to Five and Ridley. After everything was settled they all end up in Phil's office
Miko is devastated as Phil tells them they have to memory wipe Ridley. "I can't just wipe their memory."
"Oh you won't have too." Mitch says from his spot leaning against the doorway. He knew it would be tough for Miko since she really had a soft spot for the little modder. And Mitch had some respect for Ridley's skills after the upgrades he'd received from them. "Let me do the honors, hmm?" Mitch leads Ridley outside away from his girlfriend and boss. "You've got some amazing tricks up those sleeves of yours, pumpkin. But you're not ready to be a tech… yet." Mitch says and opens a portal for Ridley. "You've got potential so I'm gonna take a risk and bet on you. Don't cause any more trouble for us, besides I quite like this upgrade." Plus Miko is fond of you.
"Huh?" Ridley says, astonished that he's not gonna do the memory wipe.
"Well don't just stand there! Do you want me to change my mind? Go on, scat you little weirdo."
Ridley smiles and hugs Mitch before he shoves them through the portal. As he walks back in he only sees Miko sitting on Phil's desk with her head down. Mitch sighs and walks over to her. "You okay?"
She just shakes her head.
Mitch debates on telling her that he hadn't wiped her little friend's memory but decides against it for now. "Come on. We're clocking out and going on a date. And I'm not taking no for an answer."
Miko lifts her head and smiles at him, hugging him tightly. Mitch kisses the top of her head before letting her go, heading towards the door.
"Thanks Williams." Miko says and leaves first so they don't get caught.