A/N:

This chapter is late, because I spent quite some time trying to wrangle with AO3's limited hmtl to bring you the wonders of the Phantom Tech Reports Online Forum in full HGTV! I apologize, but we shouldn't have that issue going forward because the workskin is complete! You all on FFN are missing it! So an extra sorry to my fans over here.

Thanks everyone for being patient. Chapter 8 is on schedule at least.

Chapter Summary:

Valerie and Danny begin working together to take down the malfunctioning tech. In their civilian lives, they get some time to hang out as teens.

Chapter Specific Warnings:

Online Bullying, Online Misogyny, Coarse Language, Accidental Misgendering(of a newly animate object)

Chapter Title:

Camaraderie: A spirit of familiarity and closeness

Compete(ition): To be in battle or in a rivalry with another for the same thing, position, or reward; to contend

5:53pm October 28th, 2005

The forums flooded with reports of tech coming to life and menacing the populace of her hometown with spraying liquids and attempted murder. Vending machines, cars, trucks, laptops, gaming consoles, cell phones, kitchen gadgets, alarm clocks, anything and everything electronic in Amity seemed susceptible to waking up and wiggling around. Not everything that came to life ended up being violent. So, now the website had two areas on the forums to separate 'docile' from 'aggressive' tech, but they hadn't changed the submission forms yet.

It all still lacked a pattern. Some pieces of equipment came to life calm and friendly. Others, despite sharing a make and model, were aggressive and homicidal. The forums buzzed with speculation about the nature of the outbreak, the reasons behind certain types of behaviors, the few people with a large number of electronic 'wigglers' as they were now being called, and all betwixt and between.

She'd set up one of her boards, pushing her Phantom one to the other side of the room, trying to make sense of the calamity befalling the reviving rust belt city. A quick exchange with the website owner, someone calling themselves 'Technomage', gave her access to the backdoor to analyze the data herself. Not that she didn't trust their work specifically, she just didn't trust the work of anyone who wasn't her. She frowned down at the printouts, strung up against a map on her wall, as she tried to discover if there were clusters of animation locations or if that was random too. Hours of eye watering squinting at tiny font and color coded pages, neck craned in awkward positions, and she was no closer to a solution. She flipped open her phone as it buzzed with a scowl. It did that all the time now. Even with the city divided in half, between her and Amity's famous protector, her hands were full.

She looked up at her wall again. The string, photos, and pages reminded her of scenes from movies with paranoid conspiracy nuts. Luckily, her dad knew she was a visualizer and didn't take her walls being covered in new floppy paper as a sign of her going bonkers, but she was starting to doubt her own sanity as the case gnawed at her mind. She tossed her cell phone back onto her desk and closed her eyes once more, trying to make the cluster of information coalesce into sense. The only thing she and 'Technomage' agreed on was that the tech coming to life involved people's favorites. Every sewing machine, washer, or Xbuddy proved that. But, since not everything was connected to the internet or even had chips inside to infect, her data collaborator was at as much of a loss as her.

Phantom said nothing had ghost energy. Her own scans agreed. But, without a supernatural explanation, neither she nor 'Technomage' could come up with a mundane one. It couldn't be a virus, a cyberattack, or even remote control. She sighed and picked up the phone as it danced its way across her desk. This time, it was a series of texts informing her of some commotion on the forums. She shouldn't have agreed to be an admin. This shit is tedious.

Most of the scuffles on the website involved her fans and Phantom's punching it out in polling contests to decide who was the best protector of Amity Park. The website had been live for a little over 24 hours, and every Tim, Dick, and Dash in town was squatting on the forums to defend their favorite hero. You'd think, with the machine plague carrying on, they'd have better things to do. Apparently, nothing made a better distraction than screaming at someone else over the internet. This held especially true when heeding the drums of war for your ghost hunting fav.

She put the forum out of her mind and prepared to go on patrol. Her Friday evenings sat at the intersection of busy and boring most of the time, but fighting all of Amity's tech left her feeling worse about it than usual. She double-checked her suit, and her room, making sure everything was as organized as possible. Battling to keep her room from devolving into a mess of wrinkled paper and empty coffee mugs took up what remained of her free time this week. Satisfied nothing more could be done, she shoved her flip phone into a manifested pocket on her suit, and opened her bedroom door. "Daddy, I'm heading out for patrol."

"Ok, sweet pea, but be careful. I saw on the news that some bigger electronics are on the move."

"Where?"

"Near Beverley's and over by Thomasville."

"Ah, that's Phantom's territory." She leaned around the corner with a frown, taking in the concerned wrinkle to her dad's brow. "He's got it. Unless he calls and says he doesn't. So you don't have to worry about me tangling with any of that."

"Oh, you divided up the city? Which areas are yours?"

She walked a little closer, and projected the map with her claimed neighborhoods. "It's mostly the stuff near home and the Nasty Burger. I did grab the school and Main though. Phantom's got downtown."

"I can see that…" He trailed off, eyes flicking over the contents of the hologram, a bigger frown on his face. "It looks like he took the lion's share of Amity proper."

She shrugged, "Wouldn't want to deprive him of his little obsession."

"Right." He blinked, looking away from the hologram and down at her, "You'll have to explain how that works to me sometime, honey. Ghost stuff just doesn't click for me the way it does for you."

"Maybe this weekend if I get some time. It might be a good idea for you to know more about it, since I've got that truce with Phantom." She saw the look on his face and waved him off, "Just until the machines in this town remember to be inanimate again. But, if I'm gonna work with him, I'd want you to know how ghosts like him think. It'll make it easier to predict his behavior in case something happens."

"Like?"

"Well, since he's technically my, ugh, ally, if I get injured he might try to get in contact with you. I'd rather you not deal with a ghost when you don't know how they act, especially one as strong as Phantom."

"That makes sense. Why don't you catch me up on ghost theory tomorrow?" His smile warmed her heart, and she realized they hadn't hung out at all this month. At least we'll remedy that tomorrow. Her goodbyes said, she headed back to her bedroom window and jumped onto the fire escape, buffered from the cold by the gentle warmth of her armor. The warming function in the upgrade was another bonus. It'd always been good, now, it kept her at the perfect temperature, no sweating or shivering at all.

A message notification popped up on her visor, courtesy of the connection to her cell, this time a text from Danny. He'd previously given up talking to her, or had gotten busy himself when Sophomore year started, but had picked up again this week. They hadn't chatted much, just catching up on school gossip and trading opinions about the machine plague, but she'd felt a rush of tender ache the moment his first text came through on Wednesday. She'd missed his stupid humor and stupider taste in memes. After this is over, she thought, giving the command to open the text, I'll have to see him in person more often. Maybe she'd get her desire sooner than she'd thought, because the message was an invite to arcade time with the gang at Chester & Buster this Sunday.

She thought through the invitation as she navigated to the first incident closest to her. She didn't have work. She'd been on top of her homework, despite everything, and could finish her essay for English this evening or tomorrow. She loved the food there, and it'd felt like a lifetime since she'd played some video games. It was even in the afternoon, well before patrol, so she'd have time to go and come back. She hovered over the location of the incident, taking in the dancing movement of the Easy Bake with distant interest. With a thought, she sent back her RSVP, and floated closer to the ground. "Hey there, what seems to be the issue?" She said to the little girl watching the oven with amazement.

"My Easy Bake is a wiggler now!" She smiled up at her, eyes shining bronze in the setting sunlight.

"Mm hm, it does seem to be. Is it being naughty?"

"Nope," the child shook her head and pointed towards its door, "it's making me cookies. But mommy says I can't eat any of them because it might be poisonous."

"Is your mommy the one who sent the message about the new wiggly friend?"

"Yeah." The girl pouted, eyes growing big and watery, "she said she was gonna call you to take it away! But it's nice. It hasn't done anything. Please, Ms. Huntress, can't I keep it?"

"I think that's up to your mommy." She leaned down to both scan the oven and get a closer look. True to the girl's claims, there were cookies inside the hot oven, and like every other wiggler, it had no ghost energy. "Let me talk to your mom, maybe we can work something out." She waved her away from the oven and walked towards the front door to the house. Her efforts to shoo her away only lasted as long as she was 'watching', her visor showing the child rushing to poke at the device the minute she turned around. She tried not to laugh as she gave a few raps on the door, waiting for someone to answer.

"Oh, thank God you're here! My daughter's toy oven just popped to life and started moving around the house. I put it in the front yard, because I didn't know what else to do, and then I sent a report. This was really fast…" she looked around Valerie, her eyes going wide when she caught sight of her child. "Erica no! You get away from that vile thing this instant, young lady!"

"Ma'am, I don't think this one is dangerous."

"It...you don't?" She pushed around Huntress, making a beeline for her giggling child. "I thought all of them were attacking people?"

"We'd thought so too, but now that the website is up, we're getting plenty of reports about docile tech. Only a small portion of them seem to be aggressive. I took a look, and I think your daughter's toy is one of the calm ones." She watched as relief flooded the woman's face, the wrinkles on her brow and the pinched pull to her lips easing.

"That's wonderful news! When it started up, I got so worried it would harm us." She stopped to peer down into the front of the oven, "is this baking cookies? Where did it get the dough?"

"I fed it some Ringhome dough! It said it was hungry mommy."

"Honey, I told you not to put anything inside of it…" The older woman looked frustrated, looking into the inside of the swaying toy. "How is it baking anything at all? It's not plugged in."

"The animated machines don't seem to require electricity to function." Valerie joined them by the bright pink and yellow toy, watching it sedately dance on the front lawn.

"Then...what's powering them?" The mother leaned away from the door, watching her daughter dance in time with the moving toy.

"Undetermined. Maybe whatever is making them move is giving them energy as well." She gave the oven one last scan as another alert flashed in her visor. The forums again. "You can submit an update to your report if it becomes hostile. Otherwise, I say just enjoy the cookies."

"It's not emitting fumes or radioactivity or something?"

"No ma'am. It's just baking cookies, chocolate chip ones." She smiled and summoned her board, moving a few inches off the ground.

"Cool! I love your board Ms. Huntress," the girl stopped dancing with the oven long enough to comment, "and your new suit." She added after another moment to think.

"Thanks. I like them too," she told Erica, and then turned towards her mother. "If anything changes, let me know immediately, and I'll be back. Otherwise, just keep it...in the backyard. That way, it can't escape but isn't in the house in case it goes feral." She flew up a few more meters, and chuckled when the child below asked if they could buy a dog house for the oven to sleep outside.

She pulled up the forum report, taking in the ridiculous argument taking place.

Huntressfan444:

Just look at the clearance rate! Objectively, Red Huntress is the better hunter. She's faster, more efficient, and more trustworthy.

GhostTeenReignsSupreme:

Pluh-eaze! Did the Huntress save us when we got pulled into the Zone? Did she stop that weather ghost? How about saving us from that plant monster who took over our brains? She's like the Sparrow to Phantom's Night Creature, a cute little assistant.

Huntressfan444:

It's not like she's just 'helping out' noa dipshit. She's the one leading the charge!

ChillKid14:

Yeah! Phantom's been really slacking. We had to fight off our own lawnmower because he was too busy doing fuck knows somewhere else.

GhostTeenReignsSupreme:

Just because you're too much of a pussy to handle a weed-wacker, doesn't mean that's Phantom's fault. He was busy at the mall, stopping that riot after every cash machine started dumping money everywhere. That's the fourth one he's stopped btw. I don't see Hoetress doing that!

ChillKid14:

Real mature assmunch. Just start up on the misogyny.

GhostTeenReignsSupreme:

What do you care loser? Are you a girl too? Is that why you couldn't handle a little push lawnmower?

ChillKid14:

Go fuck yourself! Maybe spend less time squatting on the forum with Phantom's dick in your mouth. Don't you have something better to do than glaze him all day?

GhostTeenReignsSupreme:

You're just mad I like the superior hunter.

Huntressfan444:

GhostTeenReignsSupreme: 1,117 posts

It's been 30 hours, you freak. Get a life!

This was why she hated forum admin duty. Every person involved was a hopeless, terminally online loser. She suspended the GhostTeen account for an hour, and ChillKid too for good measure. Maybe some time in timeout would make them relax. She flew to the next incident, this time hovering over the scene of a group of RC cars racing each other around someone's backyard. A quick talk with the owner proved it was another harmless animation, and she moved on.

Another message on her visor, this time from Phantom, who she shared admin duties with.

"GhostTeenReignsSupreme made another account." It read. Great. What was she supposed to do about that? She said as much in her message back. Then:

"I'm getting Technomage to IP ban them for two hours. They're annoying, but we still can't leave Amity residents without the ability to report dangerous activity."

She agreed, but told him he should do something about his fans.

"I have as much control as you do... So, how's patrol?"

He'd taken to messaging her through the DM system set up for the admins to talk behind the scenes. She didn't...hate it. It made it easy to coordinate, and having someone to talk to on patrol made it go faster. Additionally, they could share notes in real time about the most effective ways to take down tech. All in all, the interactions rated neutral on her Annoyance Scale. She pulled up the voice to text functionality in her suit, talking felt more natural than 'thinking' things back.

"Nothing on my end. An Easy Bake and a couple RC cars, a wiggling PDA, a kitchen mixer. The dude at that last stop liked it, actually. He said it'd been helping a ton since he had a house party to prepare for. I would not like to go to a party with a living stand mixer."

"I don't know. If it's calm, it might be a neat conversation point. Did he name it? A lot of the calm ones I've seen have had names."

"Not sure, I didn't ask. If it's docile, I have other incidents to check out, you know? Maybe we should change the submission form so they can check off if it's hostile or not?"

"Not the worst idea. It would save us time. My patrol is shit, by the way, since you forgot to ask."

"I didn't forget. I was still talking about mine."

"Your boring, normal patrol with the cute toys and the happy baker?"

"What's your evening been like, Phantom?"

"The car wash came to life."

"That sounds brutal?" She stopped over the roof of a group of buildings near Nasty Burger, checking her reports for new incidents. It was quieter in her patrol areas, if the flashing alerts in the green of Phantom's were any indication.

"It's a good 35 outside, and it's spraying water everywhere. I'm fine, immune to the cold and all, but there were shivering humans all over the place. It was also spraying...hot wax? People get that on cars, apparently."

"It repels precipitation and dust to make the wash last longer."

"I know nothing of cars."

"I guess you might not, since you died before you could drive one." The messages stopped for a few minutes, and she wondered if she'd overstepped. She avoided mentioning some obvious facts about the ghost teen, since he got weirdly huffy, but figuring out what was off limits and what he'd brush off was frustrating. Like the living tech, there wasn't a discernible pattern.

Sometimes, she could joke about him being dead, and he'd laugh back. Others, he'd scowl and ignore her for a few minutes, like he was doing now. She could laugh about fast food and mention her favorite items, but she'd mention Nasty Burger or some other place, and sometimes he'd go quiet and look distant. Ghosts were supposed to be simple-minded! It should not be this hard to predict what bothered him. And yet, here she was, once again having upset him, even though late during yesterday's patrol he'd joked about being too short to see over the steering wheel. She wished she had something to take notes in, and then her visor jotted down her observations and stray thoughts without her intending to summon that function. She hadn't known it existed. Maybe it hadn't until she'd thought about it. She was finding more and more it could do things like that. It was handy…and uncanny.

"Sorry for dropping off for like twenty minutes; the refrigerators at Shop-N-Save on Magnolia all came to life."

"What's the worst they could do?"

"They kept trying to grab live animals and uh...store them inside? It was weird. I pulled so many squirrels out of those things."

"Wow. Was it the meat freezers?"

"Yeah actually! ... Oh. That's grim."

"They probably would have attacked anything meat-like."

"No, wait, who eats squirrel?"

"Hillbillies?" She shrugged before she remembered he couldn't see her. "I'm not sure these things have enough intelligence to consider things like that. It knew it was a 'meat freezer' so it tried to grab fresh meat. It attacked birds too, I bet." She snickered when he confirmed it did. "See? It was just indiscriminate. Anything humans could eat, it wanted to freeze."

"That's gross. I'd say they had to disinfect them, but uh, they were in too many pieces by the time I was done with them to be used."

"Figures." She glanced up as another incident report came in, and she made her way towards it. "Sounds like you've been getting the worst of it. At least, looks like it from the reports flashing on your color of the patrol zones." She took in the new message about forum nonsense with a roll of her eyes, and noticed the newest incident involved another residential area. "I'll be back in a second; I've got to take a look at this."

"Just as well, because the car dealership downtown just reported three of their SUVs are tearing through the area. I'll catch up with you later, Huntress."

The message chat disappeared in a blink, and she took off in earnest towards the newest spot. Bantering with the ghost boy had improved her mood. Even if he kept disproving some of her assumptions about him, that just gave her more data to work with. With enough time, she'd figure him out. She hummed her favorite tune off the newest Humpty-Dumpty album, pulling to a stop over the home in the report. Standing outside, looking deeply bored, was Jessie Colbert from work. "What seems to be the problem?" she called, floating down towards the other teen.

"Nothing much, my dad just made me send in a report."

"Yeah? What's alive?" She watched her thumb over her shoulder, pointing towards the open porch door behind her.

"The television's gone and become a wiggler. It's playing sports."

"How do you figure it's animated? Don't TVs usually play sports?"

"Sure, but not the fancy satellite soccer games from Europe. Whole thing is playing in Spanish. It's the home game for the national team of Spain, but I think it's a rerun."

"I'm guessing no satellite hook up?"

"Nope." Jessie leaned against the front post of the porch, looking no more engaged with the conversation than when it started. "It's not doing nothing else, just giving us free access to HBO and Showtime and foreign sports. I told my pa we should just enjoy the free entertainment, but he says he feels bad 'stealing' programming we ain't paid for." She pulled out her phone when it vibrated, tapping a quick text back. "He's not home right now, but you can go inside and take a look. I'm babysitting my bratty younger brothers. They're the reason it's playing soccer right now. They love it, both of 'ems on their school's team." She turned around, motioning to follow her inside.

Val did, putting away her board, and walking inside the brick two-story house. The two of them dodged around sports equipment: balls, bats, gloves, shin guards, and cleats, to end up in the living room. There, the television was indeed playing soccer from a channel with a foreign logo she'd never seen. "Hey boys, how's it going?"

"It's great! This is the one from two weeks ago, and I really wanted to see how Fernandez set up the penalty kick that won them the game."

"It's just sitting here showing sports?"

"Nah," one of them said, pointing to the screen, "it plays whatever we ask. Mom asked to watch that mafia drama show her friends are all talking about on the channel we don't get. She's at Marlene's right now."

"Our aunt's place," Jessie supplied, looking down at her phone. "So, uh, are you gonna zap it?"

"Your TV?"

"Yeah," she looked up then, expression showing the most emotion she'd managed all interaction, "with whatever fancy doodad you got what'll make it be unalive again."

"Can it wait until after this game?"

"I don't have anything that will do that," she said, frowning at the 50in TV. "If it's hostile, me or Phantom will blast it into bits. Otherwise, we just leave them be. Until we have a real cure, there's no point in destroying perfectly good machines. Uh, you're stuck with free premium cable until we figure out a real solution?"

"Hell yes!" The taller of Jessie's two brothers hopped off the couch, running into the kitchen. "I'm gonna pop some popcorn and tell it to let us watch the movie channel after the game finishes."

"Does it just change the channel when you ask?"

"It also flashes symbols and letters. It said its name is Robert and that it loves us."

"Uh...that's…" She trailed off, looking at Jessie, who shrugged and went back to her phone.

"If you ain't gotta blast it and can't turn it off, then I guess I'll text my parents about it. And yeah, it did say its name was Robert." A loud horn noise came out of the TV, drawing everyone's attention to the screen. It then flashed the Mars symbol and a frowning emoji, before it went back to the soccer game.

"Sorry Robbie, I guess you're a boy too." The younger brother looked over at her, eyes sparkling. "That's a new suit, isn't it, Huntress?"

"It is. I just got an upgrade."

"It looks nice on you, Red. I mean, you're mostly not wearing red anymore, but it's good stuff." Jessie's eyes flicked over her body, settling on the darkened glass on her visor. "I wish my 'rents would let me wear something that hot."

"Oooo, you think it makes me look hot?" She stopped and spun around, posing for a few seconds. "Maybe I should take up modeling for some tech agency?"

"Maybe you should. You're the more photogenic of the two town heroes." Jessie smirked at her, banter reminding her a little of work.

"Thanks." She smiled, genuinely, and fought down the urge to lighten her visor. Jessie was nice, but they weren't friends. Those were liabilities. She looked back at the TV, took in the boy in the kitchen popping snacks, and checked this place off her list. "If it starts getting testy, update your report. I'll be back then."

"Not if you're gonna blast my pa's brand-new HD TV, you ain't. If it comes to that, we'll take care of it." A series of symbols frantically flashed across the TVs surface. "Don't worry, Robbie, you're a good boy. We won't do nothing bad to ya'." She smiled at the screen as it returned back to the game, and looked over at a confused Valerie. "What?"

"None of the other machines I've run into understood human speech...I don't think?"

"Ya' hear that, Robbie? You're special, extra smart!" The youngest Colbert sibling crowed from the couch, reaching over to grab a handful of the finished popcorn.

"Well, I'll be on my way." She said, backing out of the house, eyeing the 'smart' TV warily.

"Take care of yourself, Huntress. I know not every report is as tame as this one. Don't...over do it, girl." Jessie peered at her from the living room as she stood on the front porch, eyes a little too focused and knowing for her liking. With another wave goodbye, she took off from the porch, heading back towards Elmerton.

She checked her message notifications, nothing from Phantom. Hopefully, the SUVs weren't giving him too much trouble. If he failed, then she'd have to rush out and fix his mess. She was ready to go home. The board began traveling faster in that direction, picking up the longing in her thoughts. She checked the forum report. The two temporarily banned users were back, but better behaved this time. A check to the text thread with Danny proved no more interesting. He'd messaged about being excited to see her on Sunday, and nothing else.

Below his messages sat another dormant one, this time to Ellie. She'd gotten the halfa's number right before she'd left for the Zone. They'd texted, briefly, to establish contact and make sure she was surviving, but she hadn't texted since. The dead line dug into her as she landed on the fire escape outside of her bedroom. She leaned back against the metal railing, looking up at the sky peeking through the gap between her apartment building and the next, body buffeted from the chill by her suit. A thought brought up the thread, and in the spirit of a newfound interest in hanging out, she messaged her.

"Hey, there's kind of a disaster going on in Amity right now. I can't talk or hang much until it's over, but how about we catch up after that? Don't know when it'll be. I'll text when things calm down. Don't come here, though. I don't want you getting caught up in this mess." She sent it off before she could talk herself out of it, and opened the window to head inside.

It was a tantalizing promise, she realized, settling on the other side of the window frame. One that could only be fulfilled when this crisis got handled. It was a finish line. She glanced at her alarm clock, and put away her suit. She still had that English essay to finish… If she hurried, she'd be done with her essay in no time, and a much closer reward would be hers.

1:30pm October 30th, 2005

She stood, bouncing from one foot to the other in the dwindling afternoon light, feeling more naked without her armor than she'd felt in months. She pulled out her cell phone, checking the time, as clouds settled in front of the sun like a comfortable cat bathing in its afternoon rays. They hung, fluffy and pale gray, blotting out the heat, bringing brisk winds, and kicking up tiny snowflakes from the sidewalk. She leaned against the brick entrance, loitering to the right side, watching the cars on Main speed over the asphalt bumps meant to slow their passage. A glance up and down the street showed no other pedestrians, and she bit back a groan. She'd arrived on time, ten minutes early really, but she'd forgotten the rest of the teens in the group ran late.

She'd skipped her normal noon lunch, hoping to binge out on nachos and cheddar stuffed jalapeños with the rest of the group, and now her stomach grumbled like a motorcycle gunning it down the highway. She should have pre-gamed. She knew they were perpetually tardy, but now—

"Hey Val!" Danny's bright greeting drew her out of her hangry spiral. She peeked down at her cell as the three other teens jumped out of the Fenton GAV. Ok, they were less than five minutes late this time. That had to be a record.

"Hey Danny." She shoved her cell back into her pocket and pushed out of the shadow of the building, as a break in the cloud cover brought back the sun. "Sam, Tucker, how's it been?" She nodded at the other teens and watched Tucker pull out some meat jerky from his backpack.

"I'll be fine as soon as we get inside and order," he said around a mouth full of jerky, waving the stick in the hand opposite his omnipresent PDA. "I skipped second breakfast for this."

"What are you a hobbit?" Sam eyed him tiredly, taking in his choice in snacks with a scrunch to her nose. "Hi Valerie, I'm doing great, because I ate something with fiber in it for breakfast to keep me full."

"Nice try, veggie lover, but every Foley knows roughage only makes you hungrier."

"That's not—"

"Could we save the food talk until after we're nice and warm inside and looking at the menu?" She motioned to the dark glass behind her, pointing to the arcade's interior. In the golden light of the afternoon sun, she took in Danny's appearance, heavy jacket over thick winter pants, and felt a sense of unease settle over her.

They grouped up and walked towards the automatic doors. A warm rush of heated air greeted them as the doors opened, and she looked around Chester & Buster with excitement. They had a few new cabinets since she'd last made it out, and an entirely new section.

"That's the new 3-D headset stuff. It's like, seven tokens, but a lot of fun." Danny must have noticed the direction of her gaze, because he'd answered her question about the new section.

"Seven whole tokens? That's two race car rides!" She felt like she'd been ripped off, and she hadn't even put in money into the machines yet. They settled around a table near the back, far away from the draft that came in with every opening of the arcade's automatic doors. "Unless the tokens are cheaper than the last time I was here."

"Doubt it," Sam said, setting her spider backpack into the seat next to her, "prices only go up. That's what they said last time when we complained about the new price for their hot dogs."

"Speaking of, food everyone?" Danny said, passing the second menu on the table down in her direction. Valerie winced when she saw the new prices, wallet whimpering pitifully at the assault.

"I only brought—"

"No way, this is my treat." Danny interrupted, reaching into his wallet to pull out thirty bucks.

"Your parents do not pay you that much to do chores." She teased, still pulling out her own wallet from her purse.

"They do when I decontaminate all the jumpsuits."

"Oh dude, those are so gnarly. The last time you did that, you stank like latex and burning plastic-y sweetness for two days." Tucker stopped tapping at his PDA to look towards Danny with big sympathetic eyes.

"They have new chemicals. Less stink, longer process. But, I had the time."

"I'm not letting you pay for me." She poked Danny over where his ribs would be under the thick sweater he'd revealed after shedding his jacket.

"Just for food, then."

"Danny," she jumped when he grabbed her hand, skin almost hot.

"You're the one with the Nasty Burger job, just do us a solid next time we're in outside a rush." He sent her a winning smile, all sparkling eyes and cute dimples. She'd almost forgotten how she got dragged into his plans all the time before she'd stopped talking to him. That smile was lethal.

"Fine, Fenton, but this will not be a regular thing." The pout he sent her way really should have been annoying instead of cute. He was blatantly trying to manipulate her. It was sort of working. "Before you say it, I meant the paying part. If I have the time, I'll hang out again." There, no more pouting.

When he looked away to try and steal the paper menu from Tucker, she noticed how the lights bounced off his skin. Outside, he'd seemed ok, if already losing his summer tan, but the jacket had struck her as odd. Now, though, he was washed out, a pale that looked thin and limp instead of just wintery. Purple bruising under his eyes, more visible from the side, stood out against the bone white of his nose and cheeks, and his usually thick, full dark hair looked floppy and sad, weighed down by something. This close, she wondered if something was wrong, especially with how hot he'd felt. He'd been milky white since the start of Freshman year, but this took the cake. She frowned, and leaned closer as they passed the paper her way to pass to Sam, taking in the way the sweater hung off his shoulders instead of him filling it out. Had he lost weight?

"So, whatcha' want?" His bright blue eyes twinkled back at her, and it was like a spell was broken. He looked himself, if a little tired.

"Hm," she took a moment to peruse the menu, surreptitiously eyeing him a little more. Maybe she was just being paranoid. "I haven't had the ched' poppers in ages. That and a soda?"

"Come on Val, no hot dogs?"

"From here? That's begging for food poisoning. Those things are cheaper than 7/15 dogs."

"Not anymore, they changed suppliers." Sam spoke to her left, head down as she dug through her backpack for something inside.

"Well, maybe one?"

"Three it is!" He snatched the menu back, already heading to the counter to order. Stubborn, frustrating, sweet jerk.

"He's gonna get you chili fries too. He knows you like them," Tucker said, jumping out of his seat and heading for the counter.

"I hope you're actually hungry."

"I did skip lunch…" She smiled at Sam, thinking over how many tokens to buy. "You still like racing games?"

"I still like beating you at racing games." The other girl's smile was all teeth.

"You might like that, but we both know you'll only see the tailpipe of my racer." The boys returned, promising the food orders had all been placed. "Why don't we buy tokens now, so we can head right to the arcade after we eat?"

"Works for me," Danny dodged to the other side of Tucker, leaning over to whisper something in Sam's ear. She laughed and slapped his arm, and he skipped ahead of her, racing to the token counter. She took in the way the other girl's face lit up and the lightness to Danny's step.

"So, when did they finally start dating?"

"Haven't." Tucker tapped some things into his PDA, walking next to her, navigating by peripheral vision or echolocation, never could be sure with nerds like him.

"Still?" She watched the way Danny leaned into Sam, whispering something else that made them both giggle. Fenton could be clueless, but he couldn't be that clueless. "Have you considered just locking them in a closet until they figure it out?"

"Me and Jazz already tried it. It might have worked if Sam hadn't picked the lock in two minutes."

"Ouch. Should have accounted for her resourcefulness." They were nearly at the counter. She watched as a baggie of golden coins were handed to each of them. "Have you tried the Ceris shrine?"

"What?"

"Nothing." She'd thought better of it the moment it was out of her mouth. The last thing Tucker 'I'd date anyone' Foley needed was a magical way to guarantee dates. Or maybe he'd be useful? He was famously dateless. If the shrine could get him a date, maybe there was something supernatural about it.

"Why do you care?" He was whispering now, handing over his cash to the bored late-teens worker behind the counter. "It's not like you like Danny, right?"

"Quit fishing, Foley. It's nothing like that. I was just wondering how long you've been suffering watching those two dance around each other. It must be excruciating at this point." Tucker's answering frown did not surprise her. Denied gossip and the potential of drama, he shoved his own bag into his pocket.

"I'm just saying he's available. It's not a lost cause."

"I care about this, why?" She grabbed her own bag, raising an eyebrow at the other teen as they walked to rejoin the two ahead of them.

He opened his mouth, closed it, then settled on, "You're not as good at lying as you think you are, Valerie." With that, he jogged to make up the distance between them and the pair ahead, leaving her alone with her thoughts.

She watched Sam blush at something Danny had said, a compliment, a joke, and felt a gust of wind from outside ruffle her clothes and shoot up her spine. They made the cutest couple. She jogged to catch up with the group, determined to beat a few people at games before a week of patrols and schools wore her down.

A/N: Welcome to the bottom, dear reader! Thanks for sticking around with me for the last upload of the year! This fic continues on into the next year, with many more chapters to come. I hope you continue to join me! I'm in the Valentine's Core Exchange event that started this year. There's still time for you all to join as well, both platonic and romantic ships are welcome.

I'll see you all in the New Year!