Fic: Glitch (Comfortember)

[csi_sanders1129]

Title: Glitch
Chapters: 1/1
Author:csi_sanders1129
Genre: Friendship. Humor.
Ratings: K+
Word Count: 964
Pairings/Characters: Ethan, Benny, Sarah, Rory, Erica.
Synopsis: In which Ethan, Benny and Rory are looking forward to playing a new video game but there are some unforeseen problems.
Comments: Written for Comfortember 2020, Prompt: Blanket Fort. Comments and kudos would be awesome. Enjoy!

"Do I even want to know?"

Ethan and Benny look up at Sarah in unison, momentarily distracted from the construction of the massive blanket fort presently taking up most of the Morgan living room. They exchange glances, and Ethan decides that, "No, you probably don't."

She eyes the pile of construction materials still in need of a place and opts to take her babysitting duty seriously, even if they're not the one's she's supposed to be babysitting. "Tell me anyway."

"Super Ninja Pirate Raiders V came out today," Benny says, as if that explains everything.

"And…?"

"And," Ethan takes over, as Benny spreads out another layer of pillows around the base of what could now rightly be considered a blanket castle, rather than a fort. "We do this every time they release a new game. It's tradition. We stay up all night and order pizza and eat junk food and build a blanket fort and play until we can't keep our eyes open anymore."

Sarah is not impressed. "So, basically what you two do every Friday night just with a blanket fort?"

Ethan considers this comparison for a moment before he nods in agreement, "…Yes."

Benny's cell phone dings with an incoming message, and he grabs it up eagerly, "That should be Rory with the food," he says, but then he's frowning down at the device. "Or… not? Rory says there's an actual Super Ninja Pirate Raider on Main Street. What?" He shows Ethan and Sarah the picture Rory attached as proof (correctly predicting that they wouldn't believe him otherwise) of a near exact replica of one of the characters from the game walking through the plate glass windows of the coffee shop.

"Sounds like a publicity stunt or something," Sarah attempts a rational explanation.

The boys, perhaps willing to overlook this monster of the week shenanigan in favor of playing their game, seem to agree with her. Benny powers up the game, but as soon as he does, another Super Ninja Pirate Raider materializes out of thin air, waving a katana around with wild abandon as Benny and Ethan frantically dodge out of the way of its peg-legged onslaught.

Sarah acts quickly, disarming the Super Ninja Pirate Raider with a swift kick. She shoves the video game character into the coat closet in the hallway and barricades it shut. "Just a guess – that hasn't happened with any of the other games in the series?"

Benny and Ethan emphatically shake their heads.

"Must be a new feature,"

But the Super Ninja Pirate Raider isn't done yet. It bangs on the door, desperate to escape.

"What do we do now?"

No one has an answer.

Sarah's phone rings, then, and she tosses it to Ethan, too busy with holding the door shut to answer the call herself. It's Erica on the other end of the line and Ethan puts it on speaker.

"Hey, so if you're babysitting at Ethan's, tell the idiots not to play the new Super Ninja pirate Raiders games unless they want to fight an actual one," she says, out of breath herself.

"Wouldn't be speaking from experience, would you?" Benny asks, fully prepared to tease her for playing a game she made fun of them for looking forward to at lunch earlier today.

Sarah, though, has a more pertinent question: "How do we get rid of it?"

"Bad news for you boys," Erica continues, "Break the game and it'll disappear. Figured that out when I threw it into my TV."

"What? No!" Ethan protests. "I saved up all summer for that. My parents will kill me."

"Your call, but I'd say tall, dark, and eye-patch in here also wants to kill you."

Before Ethan can decide his fate, Jane appears. She approaches the game system, pops out the disc and snaps it clean in half without the least bit of hesitation. Abruptly, the noise from the coat closet stops. "Would you guys keep it down?" She rolls her eyes and grumbles under her breath, "Boys. Ugh."

The boys both stare after her as she walks away. "Did she just-"

"Save your butts?" Sarah cuts in, "Yes. She did."

"That's not what I was going to say," Ethan starts, just as Rory arrives with a knock on the door, pizza boxes and bags of snacks in hand. Benny swings it open and invites him in, "Did you guys get my message? Apparently there was some weird glitch with the game. They're telling everyone not to play."

"Is there still a Mega Pirate Ninja on Main Street?" Sarah asks, unsure if she needs to be worried about dealing with an army of the things.

"It's Super Ninja Pirates, by the way, but no. All clear."

With a sigh of relief, Sarah sinks to the floor in front of the empty closet. "Good."

"Unless you wanted to play Super Ninja Pirate Raiders V, at least," Benny mopes, holding the shattered remnants of the game in his hands. "We could play Super Ninja Pirate Raiders IV, I guess," he concedes, then a little louder, for Erica who is still on speaker, "Feel free to join us, if you want."

There's a momentary pause and then, "I still think Super Ninja Pirate Raiders III is superior, but I guess I can play a few rounds with you losers."

Five minutes later and the five of them are all crowded into Ethan and Benny's fantastically comfortable blanket castle, surrounded by snacks and drinks and pizza (and, for those who require it, blood). They've divided into teams, girls versus boys (which is fair because two of the boys are human and thus have human reflexes, laughable in comparison to vampire reflexes) and they're all passionately cheering their sides on as the battle rages on screen, where it belongs.