A bed. A real bed… Jim stared at it. His bed. They'd left Arcadia and spent several months moving at the pace of walking troll, then got to New Jersey and had to help rebuild a home…

And then the Wards, well their beds weren't bad, but they weren't your bed.

Jim sat down on it. If was springy and firm enough for him and…

"Hey!" Claire said, running up and just jumping onto the bed, bouncing up and town to test the spring. "They got great beds, didn't they?"

"Man, I missed this," Jim said, falling back.

"Not just you, Claire said, mirroring him. "Remember how I just stated sleeping in my armor…"

"Yeah," Jim said. "And did you see the kitchen? We can make lunch again."

"I thought you liked the lunch at school," Claire said.

"Well, you know, for school," Jim replied. "You'll have to help me out on tasting the ingredients…

"Oh?" Claire said. She ended up on top of Jim, her chin resting on one arm. "I think I can do that." She paused. "Hey, you know what? We're open capes! So we can invite Ann and the rest here, if we want to have… I dunno, game night?"

"And the Wards," Jim said. "But… I'd better ask Miss Militia if there's any extra policies about that."

"Isn't…"

"I'm not asking Director Piggot or Armsmaster if we can have a party!" Jim said. "He's always busy and she's like… A female version of Senor Uhl." Jim glared. "Do you know after the third time I sent my report in, she had someone type it for her? My writing wasn't that bad."

"Not according to Senor Uhl!" Claire sing-songed

"Game night would be good," Jim said. "I haven't had one of those since Tobes and I…" He trailed off.

"I know," Claire replied. "I called my folks every night when we were on the road, and now… but there were other people there and they know we weren't killed, so we just have to get back." She kissed Jim.

After a while, they stopped and she rolled onto the side of the bed. "And since Mr. Blinky isn't going to be able to get us up this morning, I'd better get to bed."

Jim grinned. The PRT had provided Blinky with a set up for his four hands, and instructions in how to use it. Blinky hadn't left the Internet since then. He was busily looking for evidence of trolls…

That and he'd discovered TVtropes. Jim had a feeling it'd be a while before he came up for air.

"Well," Jim said. "We're also off of our stand down at the wards, so maybe everything will get back to normal. I mean, at least as normal as it gets for being part of a magical conflict before we got tossed into another world."

"Normal is overrated," Claire said as kissed Jim and headed for her bedroom. "See you tomorrow!"

"Night, Claire."

"Foul Troll! The Horde has terrorized this shopping center for far too long!"

Really? Jim had no idea why they'd picked this shopping center, especially when the Wards had been just down the street.

More importantly, Uber and Leet were on the list of people that the Wards could fight, especially if nobody else was around…

Right now, Leet was dressed as a wizard who kept calling himself Khadgar, and Uber was wearing absolutely ridiculous armor, with giant pauldrons and a glowing sword. Around them, they had a horde (well about twenty) of extras dressed as blue and silver knights who had smashed open the windows of the jewelry stores and were pulling jewelry out, shouting about "Get the mana crystals, for the Alliance!"

"Vista, open up the exits so people can get out!" that was Carlos. Uber and Leet had done something to the shopping center doors, closing the security grills.

Fortunately, not many people seemed to be afraid of them. One kid was whining as his mom dragged him to the doors that Vista had expanded.

"But Mom, it's just Uber and Leet! It's not like they can win!"

Ouch. You know, even I can feel the burn from that.

Fortunately, his mom knew better. Leet raised that staff, which was just this ornate monstrosity and sent a bolt of frost at Kid Win, he dodged, but misjudged his speed and nearly hit a pillar, dropping to the ground and shooting back with his pistols.

Then he spun it around and pointed at Jim. "Varian! Stop the troll knight and I will defeat his allies! FOR THE ALLIANCE!"

"Really?" Claire said as she popped out of a portal. "Aegis! The stores are clear. I got the people to the parking lots!"

"Good," Carlos said. "We're short so let's end this as fast as we can."

"Right," Chris said as he popped back up, shooting at the gang with his spark pistols. Some of them had bows that were firing some kind of arrow that created clouds of smoke where they hit, but Chris was keeping them busy, while Missy was now free to corral some of them in a cage of warped space.

"Trollhunter, you take Uber. Shadowdancer, you and I will take Leet," Carlos said.

Jim just took a tremendous leap that put him directly in front of Uber.

"Foul beast! You face no ordinary knight!"

Jim rolled his eyes. "Can you even see in that get up? I mean, your shoulder pads pretty much make it impossible to see to the right or left—"

"Don't make me break character!" Uber grumbled. "Now die! For the Alliance."

Eclipse met the sword and Jim suddenly found himself dodging back. Uber had been rated as someone who could gain skill in various techniques, if he focused on them, and he'd evidently been focusing on his sword work. Jim was barely able to avoid the blade as it came curving in and was on the defensive.

"Hah!" Uber said.

"Gack!" that was from Leet. Carlos had grabbed the staff and Leet had done something that now had the Ward encased in a block of ice, but Carlos was still holding onto the staff and Claire opened a portal between Leet and the Ward, and kicked him in the stomach as she came out of the portal. Let abandoned the staff, scrambling back as Clair advanced on him, hands glowing with energy.

"F-foul sorceress! What vile price did the Horde offer you to turn on your own people!"

Well, I gotta give him credit for staying in character, Jim thought as he dodged another sword blow, jumping back about ten feet. Uber came forward, nearly stumbling and…

What the hell? His footwork was absolute crap. Jim had been better than that, two weeks after he'd become the Trollhunter. How could he be good at…

Right. Powers.

But now Jim knew what to do. He charged, raising Eclipse over his head, and Uber confirmed Jim's suspicions as he raised his own sword. He was using the technique and it was a good technique—but an expert would have realized that there was no way someone of Uber's size and strength could carry off a block like that. Not against Jim. But as Jim descended, he pulled his stroke, holding Uber but not crushing him, and then dropped down and swept Uber's legs out from under him.

The petty criminal scrambled to his feet, the sword flying out of his hands, all of his grace gone.

"You—what sorcery is this! How can you defeat King Varian Wrynn!"

"Lots of practice!" Jim said, kicking the glowing sword away from him. First rule of fighting Uber and Leet, he'd been told. Keep their tech as far away from you, your fellow wards, and any innocent bystanders as possible.

"Khadgar! We have been betrayed!" Uber shouted.

"I—ooff!" Leet said. "I understand!" Claire had him cornered.

"Why don't you just surrender?" Claire asked.

"Surrender! The Alliance! Never! HEARTHSTONE!" With that, suddenly Uber and Leet were surrounded in swirling green energy. Claire backed off, her hands raised protectively, but moments later, they were gone.

As were about half of their soldiers. The others were looking at their belts, smacking them with looks of confusion.

Carlos got out of the collapsing ice block and turned to look at the now nervous group.

"We can fight, or you can just wait for the BBPD."

They decided to wait.

"According to Armsmaster, the teleporter was also hooked up to the loot bags they'd been using, but something failed, so none of the jewelry was actually taken." Kid Win grinned as they sat in the Wards quarters, the big whiteboard up. There wasn't much on the "What went wrong" side.

"Why don't they open a theme park?" Claire wondered.

"You want kids wandering around Uber and Leet stuff?" Missy asked.

"Well…" Then Dennis grinned. "What we do is we tell Piggot, that the best way to stop them from annoying her is to have Armsmaster work with them, to make certain their stuff works!"

"Armsmaster?" Chris asked.

"Yeah! See, he's the straight guy who has to fix everything. Then we stream the story of them driving him mad, especially when Leet works on his bike, and we all get rich!"

"And the part where he hunts us all down?" Missy asked.

"We'll stand together!" Dennis said.

"You'll stand together," Claire replied. "We girls are exercising the better part of valor." She stuck her fist out and Missy lightly tapped it.

Moments later, they got the mask warning, and after that, the door opened, as Armsmaster and Miss Militia walked in.

"I have finished examining Leet's staff," Armsmaster started. "And it—" He paused. "Is something funny, Clockblocker?"

"No…Um no sir, just happy that you're… Working with Leet."

"I am not working with him. I am analyzing his technology." Dennis didn't say anything just nodded, his shoulders quivering.

"How did it work, sir?" Claire asked.

"By transferring heat from one area to another. Its method of functioning is unrelated to Leet's other… attempts."

"An abandoned house by the docks caught fire at the same time Leet started using his tools." Miss Militia didn't look happy.

Jim tensed. "Was anyone hurt?"

"No, fortunately," Armsmaster said. "But the end point was in an unsecured room so if anyone had come upon it…"

Jim winced. They just got a whole lot less funny. On the other hand, what did you expect from some thieves.

"So," Miss Militia said. "Since this was the first standard and authorized conflict you were involved in, what do you think, Jim?"

"Yeah, well…" Jim scratched his chin. "They're both really into their characters, so I think maybe console should be prepared to tell us what game they're cribbing from—so that we know what restrictions they'll be playing under."

"Good point," Armsmaster said. "But be careful—Uber and Leet are quite willing to drop out of 'character' if they feel threatened."

"Right, but their gear can't change," Carlos said.

As they got to the meeting, Jim glanced at Carlos. Good, he's getting back to normal. And they had a clean win even if they didn't capture them.

[hr][/hr]

"So Leet is holding this like, ridiculous staff," Claire told Ann and Vicky. "And when I kick him, he lands on his ass, like he never considered I might do that, and then starts telling me that mages aren't a melee class."

Jim was off with some of the boys, getting dragged into a game of basket ball, but Claire was happy to sit with her friends. Amy didn't tend to be that demonstrative, but her sister made up for both of them, and it was…

Nice, to have someone to remind her of Darcy and Mary.

"Eugh," Vicky said. "They're the worst. We ran into them once and they had like these "jump pads" and when I hit them, they sent me flying up until I could get out of the field."

"Not as bad as their Grand Theft Auto. I mean, driving through town and beating up prostitutes? Because it's a game?" Ann looked disgusted. "They're not funny and behind their games, they're just a pair of petty bullies."

"Gee, Ann, tell us what you really think," Vicky said.

"It's weird, isn't—"

"Sis!" the voice cut Claire off. She looked around and there was someone who looked about a year, maybe a little more, younger than her, wearing a new jacket.

"Excise me," Ann said. "Kenji, where the heck were you! Mom was worried!"

"I was doing some work!" Kenji said. "Got paid for it!" He showed off the jacket. "Like it?"

"Li—that's a two hundred dollar jacket!" Ann glared. "Mom had to work a double shift and you—"

"Hey, I helped her more than you did! I had three hundred left over, and I gave it to Mom!"

Claire glanced at Vicky. Five hundred dollars? Teens didn't make that much.

And evidently Ann agreed. She pushed Kenji away and started talking.

"… for the ABB right?"

"Who cares…"

"It was easy…"

They were getting louder and Claire wished that she was somewhere else. She hated listening to family arguments.

"So? So I got a job!" Kenji said. "Hey, it's better than telling everyone about how you're going to go to college, like some good little girl! But hey, you don't have to keep talking to me. Why don't you sit and have fun with your white friends! I bet they're just happy to have some Asian girl to show off!"

"That's… Kenji!" But her brother had turned and walked off.

Ann came back to them, sitting down, actually shaking a little bit.

"I…"

"It's okay," Claire said. Vicky didn't hover, sitting down on the other side.

"It's… he always had problems with the E88, because it's Winslow, but he never said anything like that. And he's been gone at night a lot… I mean, maybe someone's paying him to watch something." She glanced up at Vicky. "Right? Some old guy who really remembers what it was like coming from Kyushu."

"I…" Vicky paused. "Yeah. That could be it."

"I'd better go home. Maybe I can apologize to Kenji for blowing up. He just wanted to show off his new jacket… we don't get a lot of new clothes and sometimes people joke about it."

"Right…" Vicky said. "So, see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah." Ann's voice was distracted. "Yeah." As she got up and walked off, Claire and Vicky shared a concerned gaze.

Suddenly, Claire hoped that Jim would be done soon. The day wasn't as pleasant as it had been.