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"That's right, come to Daddy."

A cocky smirk was spread wide across Alrik Rey's face as he watched one of the enemy forces attempt to sneak their way into a side entrance. Little did the opposition know, but he'd set out his bear trap and concussion mine under the last step of the stairwell and both weapons lay in wait of the unsuspecting approacher to, well, approach.

The blonde teenager inched closer to the computer screen as he stared intently to the game in front of him. He'd promised his mother that he'd go to the library, but while she assumed he was there to study, she assumed wrong. Very wrong.

Instead, thanks to some trusty tools he had hidden away in his messenger bag and the fact the librarian was some aging old overweight biddy who hated getting out of her chair, he'd managed to land the computer in the last aisle, farthest away from any prying eye of the authorities. There, he gizmo'd and gadget'd his way into hooking up the computer and downloading a cracked copy of his favorite game of the month: Overwatch.

The sparkle in his eye faded as a giant, ironclad geriatric character appeared at the top of the stairwell and triggered his trap. He detonated his mine just moments later, to no avail. The ironclad, knightly looking character had already thrown up his force field shield and had sustained hardly any damage.

"Aw man, c'mon."

Eyes widened as the same character suddenly took notice of Alrik's small, gangly Australian character and began swinging his obnoxiously long hammer. Seconds later and Alrik was throwing his mouse down and shaking his fist at the computer monitor, which flashed a recap of his most recent death.

"NOT FAIR!!!"

An eyebrow rose as he stared at the blue haired invader, the teenager jumping in front of his view just as his respawn timer ended. Had it not been for the fact that his team had been losing horribly anyways and it was Quick Play instead of Competitive, he might have been miffed. Instead, he found himself amused at the idea that someone didn't know what Overwatch was.

Pft. What a girl thing to say, asking what OW was.

"That's Junkrat." His finger moved out to point at the character she was addressing. "He's my favorite - mostly because he's the best, but mostly if there's someone decent around to heal him when he's blowing stuff up."

Side-eyeing the girl, Alrik suddenly developed an idea.

"You don't happen to actually play games, do you?"

After all, girls made for the best healers.

His eyebrows rose and he gave her a smirk. "We'll see about that."

Scooting back in his chair, he motioned for her to take his spot, his hands grabbing the back of her seat and forcibly sliding her into his spot while he swiveled his own into the neighboring computer's place.

"You can practice against AI's while I upload onto this computer. Don't worry, you won't be playing competitive so it's not like you could ruin my stats or anything."

A single finger waggled in the direction for her to click before his focus dropped on the keyboard in front of him. Whipping out a USB from his keychain, a few keystrokes and a stolen access code for the internet later and he was busy downloading a cracked version of the game from his favorite torrent site. "I got my sis an account, but she never plays it so I can use hers and we can play together."

Glancing back, he gave the stranger a grin, his tone getting more excited with the idea. "And since she's low leveled, I bet we'll get tossed in against some nooblets too. This'll be awesome."

"Zarya, huh? Not quite a healer...but she's good."

He glanced over onto her screen to spy on what she was doing, the disappointment laced in his voice. She wasn't half bad, honestly, though her trigger finger was a little overzealous when it came to the pew pew'ing. It was clear she was a beginner at this game but hey, he was good enough to do enough damage for two people so they should be decent, right? Of course.

"Okay," he continued, clicking a few buttons until a horizontal banner popped across her screen. "That's me inviting you to a group. Accept it and I'll queue us up."

He tapped his mouse three times until she hit the correct button and then with a flourish, he clicked a few more things until they were put into a match against six strangers with four unknown users as their own partners.

"If you want Zarya, you'd better click it - FAST!!"

His own username - GameMaster99 - had quickly snatched up his favorite explosives expert and he watched as one by one the characters were chosen on their screen. "Oh man, we've got a Mercy and a Winston. With you as Zarya, this is gonna be a great offense!"

Alrik was already sharing her enthusiasm after the win, but not nearly quite as vocal as his new, blue haired friend. Still, it was kind of adorkable, how excited she was getting over such an easy win. She wasn't a half bad tank - he was sure he could do better, of course - but for a first timer, he'd give her credit the credit she was due.

"That was a nice ult, back there." He commended her, clicking his way towards re-queuing them. Well, that is, until he saw the sour expression of the elderly librarian as she struggled to make her way out from behind her desk and head in their direction. Guess he wasn't the only one who noticed Blue Dork's little excited outburst.

"Scram - now," he hissed, scrambling to shut down and delete the programs from the computer, or at least destroy enough of the evidence that it wouldn't link back to him. His hands slapped the keys on his computer before leaning over to do the same to hers while the blue haired girl grabbed her belongings and darted around the corner of the table.

Grabbing his keyring and his backpack, Alrik managed to make it exactly two feet before the aging librarian snatched hold of the back of his shirt collar.

"Mister Rey, I believe it's been exactly two weeks since I last had to call your sister and report you for meddling with the library equipment."


Well, he thought glumly to himself, it was fun while it lasted.