Chapter Text
Uzi snickered to herself as she prepared the stage, setting a large foldable table in her bedroom while N and V watched from the side. N for his part is watching with curiosity in his bright yellow eyes while V stared blankly at her cell phone as she texted. The three were set for a game night with their friends, proposed by N for fun and upped the ante on by V who thought having a betting pool would make things interesting. So the trio would serve as a Team 1 while Lizzy, Thad, and whatever poor sap they string along would form Team 2.
As the Worker Drone set a few canisters of oil at the table, V called out without looking up, "Liz' should be here about now." Not a moment later, a knock is heard from the front door of the Doorman residence.
From behind the walls, Uzi could vaguely hear the muffled voice of her father speaking to the visitors. She yelled out, "Let them in Dad!"
A muffled "Okay!" came through the wall as inaudible muttering came from the visitors. After a moment, Lizzy and Thad both walked through Uzi's bedroom door and entered.
N waved, "Hi Thad! Hi Lizzy!"
"Nice to see ya', N-and-M's!" Thad shot a finger gun at N whilst Lizzy ignored the tallest drone, instead walking over to V.
"Sup bestie," Lizzy offered a fist bump which V met with a lazy hand.
Uzi scrutinized them, only nodding back to a greeting from Thad and glaring at Lizzy (who completely ignored her). Waiting only a few seconds, she called out, "So where's your teammate, think you could beat us with just the two of you?"
As all of the drones sat at the table, Thad and Lizzy left a seat between them empty. The popular girl flicked her ponytail in the air, "Oh, they're here. They just want to make an entrance because they're a diva like V."
While V gave an offended "hey!", Lizzy playfully waved her off while snapping her fingers at Thad. He eagerly smirked and began to rapidly smack his fingers on the table like a pseudo drum. Hiding away from sight from inside the room, someone sighed and began to walk into view.
The pigtailed newcomer stepped around with an unamused look on her face while the trio of Uzi, N, and V yelled out in surprise. "J!?"
Thad stopped his drumming and waved his hands, "Tada! Our ticket to victory!"
J raised an eyebrow at him before taking her seat at the table, shooting a look at Lizzy beside her, "For the record, the entrance wasn't my idea."
Lizzy rolled her eyes, "Oh c'mon, don't be a diva about being a diva. The best girl of the night deserves a little spotlight."
J tilted her head up and thought about it, "You know what, sure. I can accept that."
V sputtered from her seat, "Lizzy!?"
The cheerleader reached over the table, grabbing V's hand and affectionately patted it, "Chill bestie, you're still #1 to me." They smiled for a moment before Lizzy jumped back to her chair and crossed her arms, "Of course, having the objective #1 player on my team is what's important."
Uzi's eye twitched, darting her eyes between the three of them, to N and V in confusion, then back to J, "What!? How!? WHY!? You hate Worker Drones!"
J scoffed, "Oh please, that was the old me back when I thought we were actually doing something good for humanity. Ever since...." She cringed at the thought, "everything...I've decided to relax a bit."
N tilted his head, "That's nice, J...but how did, you know...?"
Thad raised his hand, "Oh, it was the night all of you went into that creepy bunker. Things started to get crazy and fly into the air, then Uzi's dad found us and..."
J landed on the ground gracefully, twirling the keys to Tessa's ship on her finger as she contacted her boss. Her eyes shot over to the dark abyss behind her, "Ride's good to go, boss. Just say..." As she locked the ship with a BEEP, J paused as she heard the sound of something approaching.
When she looked up, her face was met with the backend of a school bus.
"Agh!!"
"And that's how we met."
Lizzy sighed, "Well that and we had a totes cool fight but then afterward we became new besties. No offense, #1 bestie."
J shot out, "Correction, you attempted to start a fight, missed with your flashy toy, then got knocked out by my EMP weapon. If it wasn't for the purple twerp's weird father stepping in to fight next, you might've been dead before you even hit the ground."
Thad scratched the side of his head, "Right...did we do good against you though?"
With a hum, J replied, "Well you did fire a shot at me as opposed to running and dying. I suppose by literal definition, the both of you did better than average."
"Yes! Score for team us!" Thad gave a thumbs up to Lizzy who merely shrugged at his energetic response.
Turning to Uzi and her former squad, J continued, "What happened next was simple. That old man was able to stall long enough for the pair of dimwits to wake up, shortly after N and V pop up to inform me of what happened with Tes-CYN. Then the both of them took my keys to fly off and save the universe or whatever. I hung around and had nothing better to do."
Lizzy smirked and held up her phone, "While I played on my phone, J spied on me. She wouldn't stop until I let her borrow it and play some games herself."
J blushed and looked away, "I haven't played a game in a long time, okay!? I was just bored."
Thad added, "Then we moved on to stuff like 'Heads Up!' and became buds over it."
V glared at J, "...Really?" Her former leader refused to stop looking at a wall, her visor flushing a brighter shade of yellow.
Uzi pinched her visor, took a deep breath in and put on a cocky smile, "Whatever, if I can beat her in a fight then I could beat her in a game too." From behind her seat, Uzi pulled out a plastic bowl and slammed it onto the table, "Now put in your entry fee."
One at a time, each drone in the group tossed in sets of batteries. A relatively common snack for Worker Drones, enjoying the crunchy texture and acidic flavor especially when cooked over a fire. There wasn't much need to bet with money so snacks would have to do. J frowned at the bowl only to feel a nudge on her arm, turning to see Thad handing her a pair of batteries. She rolled her eyes and tossed them in.
"Good," Uzi took the bowl and put it back behind her, "We're playing 5 games, best of 3 wins the whole prize bowl."
N and V shot each other nervous looks while J smirks.
"Now let the games begi-!"
Uzi stared blankly, looking on as J soaks in praise from Thad and Lizzy after winning them a third game in a row. Uno cards laid over the table, thrown on the table as J quickly emptied her hand and somehow managed to get Uzi to have over 20 cards. In fact, that's how the previous two games had been, with J easing a win for her team and finding ways to screw over Uzi.
N leaned over, "Yeah, J can be pretty intense with these games."
V commented, "If I'd known she was interested, I'd have been on Lizzy's team." She reached down and grabbed the bowl while Uzi's mind still tried to process what just happened, placing it on the table.
Lizzy opted to pick it up as her teammates got out of their chairs to leave, grabbing a small handful of batteries and tossing them at V. Lizzy winked at her bestie before leaving as well. When they closed the door behind them, they could hear Uzi shout out, "WHAT!?"
All three laughed to themselves, Thad more casually while J and Lizzy did it with more malicious glee. They exited out of the Doorman residence and walked through the Worker Drone bunker.
Thad smiled, "I know you're good J, but I didn't expect you to win that fast."
Lizzy nodded, pulling out her phone and swiping through it, "For realzies, I guess I didn't need to have V sneak a picture of the goth's game collection for your prep time."
The Disassembly Drone chuckled, "While I don't doubt my own skills, knowing what games she had available did give me plenty of time to study and create the best strategies for each one."
The sole male drone couldn't help but question, "How did you account for the luck-based games though?"
"Luck is for desperate losers."
Thad blinked, "That didn't answer my-..."
Lizzy cut in, "Anyway, who's up for some movies at my house? My dad's old and boring so he's got some good ones. Me and V have enjoyed a good horror movie or two, though that's more her style than mine."
"I'm down for that," Thad replied excitedly.
J started to tune them out, instead focusing on her victory over the cocky punk of a teenage Worker Drone and not about needing to find another place to spend her night all alone.
"What about you, J?" Thad's voice cut her thoughts off.
"...Huh?"
"Falling asleep out already?" Lizzy jokes, "I was asking what kind of things you watch for fun."
J blanked, "What I watch for....Wait, you two want me to come along?"
Lizzy and Thad glanced at each other, "Duh?/Totally!"
"Why?" J asked, "I already won that stupid competition and you got your junk, what do you need me for?"
Thad shrugged, "To hang out? I mean it's cool if you don't want to."
Lizzy smirked and rolled her eyes, "Is it that unbelievable that your friends want to hang out with you."
At that, J started to stutter, "F-Friends? But..."
Her hand was taken by Lizzy who began to pull her along, "Don't be a downer. C'mon, we'll pick a movie, then we can do each other's hair while Thad distracts himself by talking about football or something." Behind them, Thad looked on with amusement and followed with his hands behind his head.
While noticeably confused while being guided by Lizzy, J couldn't help the smile that came to her face. Her go-to was to be alone and do something actually important but this alien yet familiar feeling, to be wanted like this made her start to feel giddy inside.
It reminded her of a young girl in a dark mansion who needed a friend and in part, J embraced that feeling again.