In retrospect, there were better places to go than Miami, Florida for Spring Break. But Naomi and Trick were making the best of it.

It was only Tuesday after all. Trick had gone through a small growth spurt since the winter and he now wore his hair a little more stylishly. The once notorious prankster had changed into a model student since the case with the Jeds and the divine beings of Christmas at Memmelsruhe. He hadn’t touched a case or a prank in months and had been spending more time with Naomi. Naomi had remained much the same, except she was letting her hair grow out and had fashioned into a mohawk. She intended to grow it long, which Trick was honestly curious how that was going to work out. Her My Little Pony shirt clashed terribly with it, but Naomi being who she was didn’t care a negative fig what others thought of her appearance.

Trick and Naomi had gone for the week-long break to meet up with some old pals of Naomi’s, who wanted to give them a taste of the college dream, by being near where all of the action was on the beach. The two guys had however done nothing more than challenge them to a relentless barrage of video game competitions. Naomi easily held her own against the two older boys, but this kind of stuff wasn’t Trick’s forte. He could play a game for an hour or two before he grew bored.

As Reggie, the chubby, bearded African American, and Phineas, the creepily mustached Irish American, ganged up on and clobbered him in Super Smash Brothers, Trick allowed his thoughts to wander back to the people he had been with in Memmelsruhe. He and Naomi had both made leaps and bounds in moving on, but what they had seen had still haunted them if they weren’t preoccupied. Cameron was lost in some other dimension, fighting the Mother Jed, an incomprehensible and evil being who was fleeing from an even greater threat! Agent Stacey Miles, the bossy, blonde haired FBI agent had broken her leg and had to take time off to recover. Trick’s mother, Agent Susan Brown had been transferred to another unit briefly while Agent Howard “Sphinx” Conturbatio had been sent off on a special operation.

Currently, the Q Files were closed for investigation after the last case they had been on. The bizarre office within the Federal Bureau of Investigations that actually operated like the thriller, mystery series the X Files, to solve crimes everyone else thought unsolvable, because of their crazy and supernatural circumstances. Trick and Naomi had been a part of three cases in half a year’s time and helped resolve all of them. The first was a series of kidnappings by vengeful teens using vampires and werewolves from another dimension. The second case had been of beings from another world using a family’s entertainment as a portal to escape to Earth from the same war that the Mother Jed had been fleeing. That particular adventure had come to a head in a movie theater as velociraptors had broken through the silver screen. And there had been Memmelsruhe…

Trick was happy to put all of that behind him, even if his life had become more boring since then. Sankt Nikolaus had told him he had not been living up to his potential. Yes, that’s right, he had seen and talked to a real version of Santa Claus! Since then, he had become the boy his parents and teachers had wanted him to be. It looked like he would be going into his last year of high school as a student poised to take the top tiere of his graduating class! If only living up to his potential wasn’t so… boring! Maybe it was just his perspective on the matter.

And it wasn’t just boring, but Trick also felt like something was missing. That was part of the reason why he hung around Naomi more, even if they sniped at each other. They had shared three crazy, improbable adventures together! Surely she was feeling the same. Right? Hopefully they could help each other out.

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In any case, with the Q Files closed, he wondered what the Agents Conturbatio and Miles were up to. Especially the Sphinx! His mother confided in him that it was an operation that was deep undercover in some nature. He had gone completely dark, and even certain public records of him had disappeared.

“Come on Patrick, get your head in the game,” Reggie complained. “It’s no fun if I can clobber you with Jiggypuff! JIGGLYPUFF! Of all characters, and in under ten seconds!”

“Right, sorry,” Trick apologized.

“It’s no use mate,” Phineas said, staring at the screen intently. He laid the Irish accent on thick, which Naomi had said was not even his real voice. “The lad’s just not into this. He wants to be out there drinking and licking whip cream off the lasses out on the beach! And here with your girlfriend, too!”

Trick and Naomi shared a look. They weren’t dating and hated it when other people insisted that they were. With that shared look, Naomi communicated to him that she understood that he was getting lost in thought. Who knew before this that raised eyebrows could mean so much?

“Well, I was hoping to get in trouble at more parties,” Trick admitted, half joking.

“Then you want to go to the big parties at the end of the week, mate! That’s what we’re doing. Lying low, and waiting for the real fun to start. No reason blowing good cash before the main events!”

“And you’re not just saying that because you can’t get a date, Phineas,” Naomi jabbed. “You have to find a girl all partied out and smashed to make your move?”

Trick and Reggie laughed at that. Phineas wasn’t too pleased.

“Not at all lass! It’s only common sense and good Spring Break etiquette!”

“But there isn’t supposed to be etiquette during Spring Break,” Trick pointed out.

“Then you won’t mind me throwing your lousy Cloud hide off the platform, will you,” Phineas sneered as he used Luigi to toss Trick’s character off the screen.

Naomi then snuck up from behind and used Captain Falcon’s signature “Falcon Punch!” punch to send Luigi soaring. With that, both Trick and Phineas were taken out of the match.

“And now I get rid of Jigglypoop,” Naomi growled, as she chased Reggie’s character all over the map, finally snatching him up and body slamming him into oblivion.

The match still continued as Reggie had one more stock life, making him and Naomi equal. The two displayed their master prowess by duking it out into high damage percentages. Namoi finally took Jigglypuff into a hold, jumped off the platform, then kicked up, sending Reggie downward and out the game.

GAME!

“You know, if we played with items again, I think it would be more fun,” Trick suggested.

“Boo! That’s for noobs,” Reggie whined.

“Come on guys,” Naomi said stubbornly. “If you want to keep playing, let’s make it at least a little interesting for Trick.”

“What!? And we should cradle him more by doing unlimited stock,” Phineas sneered.

Trick sighed, “No reason to roll out the red carpet for me guys. I just thought it would be something fun to do.”

“Don’t worry, already on it,” Naomi informed him. “You might just want to use a character who requires a little less finesse than Cloud to operate.”

Right then, a shockwave rattled through the apartment. To Trick, it felt like everything turned grey for a second. As if life reverted to black and white television before snapping back to crisp color and high definition.

The smell of old pizza, dirty laundry, and dust evaporated. Everything suddenly got very bright and loud. Trick blinked his eyes and discovered he was standing next to Naomi and the guys. Right before them was a large character board and a set options. A massive, white gloved hand floated down and a booming voice rattled their teeth as it spoke.

“Welcome Contenders! Choose your characters!”

“Oh crap… We’re stuck in another game,” Trick muttered.

Naomi slugged him in the arm. “You weren’t stuck in the last one! This is your first time, and that was my line!”

Reggie and Phineas looked dumbfounded as the hand spoke again, “You will play a tournament style game! To the Death!”