"No!"
Joey swung his controller wildly, the virtual sword barely able to follow it. Ned's easily parried and poked a weak point in his character's armor, ending the duel. For the umpteenth time, a disappointed set of notes played and "DEFEAT" was written across his vision while Ned's character did a victory pose.
He pulled off the VR headset and glared at Ned, who was still wearing his.
"How do you manage to win? Every. Single. Time? Didn't you pick this stuff up as soon as I did?"
Ned pulled off the goggles with a sheepish grin on his face.
"I guess I'm just better than you." Then the cheeky brat stuck his tongue out.
Joey heaved a sigh and flopped on Ned's bed, making sure not to squish anything. It had been almost two weeks since his last talk with Achilles and life was still normal. Okay, not normal. Nothing was normal anymore now that he had a Miracle. He'd gone to see Hank and a few other friends a couple days ago since he was well enough to do so and they had all finished finals early. One of them gave Joey a friendly backslap, which he hadn't been expecting.
The resulting impact sent him tumbling over, barely able to catch himself before his face hit the floor. It probably wouldn't have hurt him even if he'd crushed his nose, but he wanted to remain normal as long as possible. Even then, they'd fussed over him way too much, making sure he hadn't gotten knee bruises or anything.
Nope. No knee bruises. Because apparently his body was able to deal with any impact. Part of him was tempted to test how far it would go by asking someone to punch him in the face as hard as they could, but his accomplice would then be in on the Miracle. Depending on who it was, they might try to change his mind about being a superhero.
Joey dropped his head into his hands. He could probably trust Ned, but the last thing that kid needed was to be dragged into something ridiculous. The boy in question gave Joey a poke.
"Want to quit for now?"
"While you're ahead?" Joey laughed. "Never." He pulled on the headset again and prepared for the next match.
"I don't think I can stop being ahead at this point," Ned sighed. True, the score was 14-0. And true, Ned was way better at this. But Joey wanted to goof off with his brother a little bit more.
When Ned was ready, the countdown began. It was weird having the game consume his entire vision, but Joey didn't regret going half-in on this VR thing with Ned. They'd both had some money saved up and when Ned proposed the VR as a way to make sure Joey could move while playing games, even their parents (who thought video games were a waste of time) agreed it was a good idea. They'd even offered to pay for part of it.
"Last match and then I gotta go to bed," Ned said. "Unlike you, I have school tomorrow."
"Sure thing. Sucks to be you." Joey held his 'sword' steady, waiting for Ned to make the first move.
He did. A quick thrust that almost ended things then and there. Joey managed to dodge and make a wide swing, which Ned ducked under. The sword probably should have cut off half his character's ridiculously spiky hair, but the virtual Ned stayed the same.
Swing. Parry. Swing. Parry. Joey could tell Ned was going easy on him since he could deal with everything that was happening on-screen. Either that or he was learning the rhythms of VR swordfighting, but he seriously doubted it.
"If you're going to give me a pity win, just beat me to a pulp already," Joey growled. Ned obliged. In five seconds flat, the DEFEAT fanfare was ringing again.
They powered off the game, took off their headsets and set them side-by-side on Ned's shelf.
"To be fair, you asked me to kick your butt that last time," Ned said with a grin.
"I know," Joey groaned. "Sometimes I really don't like you."
"I have an essay to work on tomorrow, but on Saturday we should start that co-op game I told you about. It came out yesterday."
"Sounds good, kid. And co-op means you can't kick my butt, right?" Ned laughed.
"Not unless we turn on friendly fire. Which for that one really shouldn't be a feature."
Joey shook his head as he left Ned to get some sleep for tomorrow. He wandered back to his room and sat at his desk. Again, he was hyper-aware of the paper in the bottom drawer, where it was supposed to disappear from existence. Of course matter didn't work like that, but he'd at least hoped he'd forget about it.
For some reason he couldn't forget how Achilles had talked, as if him becoming Jumper was an inevitability, no matter how much Joey hated the idea. Frustration bubbled in him. Didn't he get to make his own choices?
Deciding to forget about it all, Joey headed to bed. Maybe tomorrow he'd be able to escape that nagging in his head.
