-Amber’s POV-

-An Hour Later-

“Yeah!!” Nova waves her controller in excitement as the boss her and Mimi were kicking the shit out of finally goes down.

Rin and Nico’s polite clapping struggles to be heard over Myla and Mimi hushed cheering. I’m about to join in, when a clink and a series of scratching noises come from the wall behind me.

Feeling a strange chill down my spine, I quickly look over at Myla, getting a concerned expression in return. Another few clicks and the sound of metal on drywall cause Sarah to perk up.

Standing up and stretching, Nova turns down to Bee.

“Hey, you mind taking over for me? I’m going to the kitchen to make something.” She offers the controller to Bee.

Bee takes it, smiling. Before Nova starts walking, Rin also gets up “I’ll join you, just in case....” they trail off.

Nova and Rin walk to the kitchen, discussing what they might be able to “throw together” as Nova puts it. As their voices fade, the noises start again, this time louder. Confused and slightly disturbed, I turn towards the noise and freeze in terror. Right there, less than two meters away and hanging off of the ceiling on a thin cable, is a tiny mechanical spider. Its body is made of small metal strips, welded together to form a creepy exoskeleton. The only solid bit is a thin silver stripe down its back. We both sit perfectly still, staring at each other. I quickly glance at the others and to my horror I appear to be the only one who has noticed this thing.

“Hey, anyone want any… thing…” Nova turns around and starts to call out to the others, but stops once she notices the spider.

Ignoring the confused looks of the others, Nova fixates on the intruder. Even with her shades on, I can see the cogs in her head turning.

Mimi cuts through the silence “Nova? Nova! What are you-?” She follows Nova’s gaze and spots the machine herself. Everyone else in the room does the same while Nova silently walks over to her bed. Never breaking eye contact, she reaches under the bed.

Taking the initiative Mimi gets up and begins to approach the little freak, closely followed by Bee.

“Uh, Mimi? I wouldn’t approach it if I were you… they may be small, but they are dangerous!” Helena warns.

Mimi gets closer and starts to reach out “But it’s so cute! I’m sure something this adorable is perfectly-“

As Mimi is about to touch it, the spider extends two blunt metal prongs with a loud grinding sound.

“NOT FRIENDLY!!” Mimi shrieks and pulls back her hand.

White hot bolts of electricity arc between the prongs as it leaps at Mimi. While Mimi’s lightning-fast squirrel reflexes kick in with a dodge, Bee is not as fast and gets a shoulder full of electricity. She yelps and falls into Mimi. Taking this as a victory, the machine continues its hate campaign towards me and Myla.

My worry for Bee is quickly replaced by arachnophobia-based terror, driving me up onto the back of the couch while yelling nonsensical, swear-filled sentences. Following my panic, everyone else starts to react in their own way. Still holding Bee, Mimi yells “REVENGE!!” and uses the classic ‘whatever random crap is in reach’ attack. The stapler, deck of cards, and shoe all miss completely. Looking around, Myla sees the shoe as an ‘okay enough’ weapon and scrambles to pick it up. Her swings are powerful and fast, but the horror on eight legs is faster.

“Get back here ya wee shite!!” Myla’s shouts finally wake up Nico, who had somehow slept to this point.

Just as Rin is preparing to join in on the commotion, Nova finally emerges from under the bed, an odd cylindrical device held in her hand. She twists both ends in opposite directions and tosses it at the creature. It rolls to a stop in front of it and makes a few anti-climactic zaps and sparks. As Nova runs to close range and tries to pick it up, both of Nova’s mothers burst out of nowhere. Sarah tries to hit it with a rolled-up sheet of paper, only to miss and narrowly avoid getting struck by Helena’s broom.

“Oh my gosh, sorry sweetie!” Helena brings the broom back up, whacking Nova in the face.

“Owww, really Mom!? Again!?” Nova shoves the broom away.

“Sorry Novie! And for last time too…” Helena clutches the broom close to her, backing away.

As the group starts to somewhat gather our collective composure and form up around the machine, it makes another ear-piercing grinding noise and scuttles into a floor vent.

A massive sigh of relief follows its retreat. As everyone takes a moment to figure out what just hit us, Nova rubs her bristle scratched face and stares down at the device with what can best be described as the expression of a disappointed mother. A little concerned, I walk up behind her.

“Hey” I gently poke her spine, triggering a small but noticeable shiver ”You ok?”

“Kinda, that isn’t really how I thought my first encounter with a mecha-arachnid would go. I was also hoping this would work this time.”

I place a hand on her shoulder “Hey, you’ll get it to work next time!”

Nova’s expression softens “Nah, I know to never expect things to work.” She sighs “It was probably the voltage regulator this time.”

I try to think of something to take her mind off of it “Oh, by the way, did you and Rin think of something to make for dinner.”

Nova makes an exaggerated shrug “Well, since I’m not allowed to go near a pot of boiling water anymore (after last time), my idea for pasta’s out the window, Rin and I decided to make stove-top veggie burgers”

“Oooh, that sounds delicious~!”

She flashes a smile and reaches down to pick up her device “With Rin taking charge, it’ll definitely be.”

Nova opens a panel on her weird cylinder and walks back to the kitchen to help Rin as I walk back to the sofa and enjoy the rest of the get together.

-Later-

-Nova’s POV-

“Alright everyone! Food’s good to go!”

I turn to see Nova and Rin precariously balancing a bunch of veggie burgers on top of two stacks of plates. They place a burger on each plate and hand them out.

Everyone’s happily working their way through their burgers, except for Nova. She keeps starting and stopping her chewing and looks troubled. As I am chewing my last bites before I give what’s left to Nova. While she is usually eager to finish what we can’t, this time she seems to be too deep in thought to eat any more, simply staring down at her plate. Seeming to make up her mind, she looks up at Bee.

“Hey, Bee? Are you sure you’re ok?”

Bee turns to me, her expression becoming concerned, she places down her burger to free up her hands “U-M-M” she signs out the letters individually ”I think so.”

Mimi leans into the conversation “What do you mean?”

“Well…” Nova begins “Based on the color and size of the electrical arc, I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to be lethal…”

All the chatter in the room stops and everyone looks in our direction.

*You might have dropped that one too hard Nova…*

“W-well, I’m just interested in how your mostly unharmed after a pretty clean hit from that thing.”

Bee’s electric blue eyes meets Nova’s sunglasses, her sign language is a bit rushed and shaky now “As I said, I don’t know. It hurt like hell for a moment, then I was fine.”

Nova goes silent, I can see the LED’s switching on and off in her head

Her silent thinking is cut off by Mimi, who defensively points at her “Speaking of odd, you still haven’t taken off those sunglasses once! It’s been weeks!”

She the switches targets, pointing at me “And you’ve definitely seen her eyes by now!”

Caught off guard, I look to Nova for help. She gives a rather unhelpful shrug and subtle throat-chop gesture.

Pressed and panicked, the best I can do is mumble “Yeah, I have…”

Nova understandably face-palms as I realize that I just put myself in hotter water.

Mimi looks almost overjoyed “I knew it! What was the infection like!? Was it gross!?”

“N-no! Just a change in color…” Nova snorts, attracting attention back to herself and sealing her fate.

Mimi turns back to Nova with spine snapping speed “Then it should be fine to show us right!?!”

Bee hurries to finish her burger and swiftly goes to the kitchen to avoid crossfire, leaving Nova defenseless.

Nova scoots back, holding her hands up in front of her “U-um, m-maybe later!”

She looks at Rin for help, who seems to get the memo and stand up.

“Mimi.” Though Rin says this calmly, they position themself far above Mimi. Feeling Rin loom over her, Mimi freezes and slowly turns around.

“H-hey Rin, what’s up” Mimi shivers a bit as she tries to talk normally.

“I believe Nova and Amber are tired. It's probably about time we leave.” Rin looks around the rest of the room.

Bee emerges from the kitchen, knocks on a counter to grab everyone’s attention, and signs “Well, it’s been fun, but I should go. I’m really feeling the time…”

With that, she’s the first out. Myla hurriedly wakes up Nico and they follow close behind with their own goodbyes. After that it’s Sarah, Helena, and, with a bit of pouting and grumbling, Mimi. Rin goes up to the door, but instead of leaving they turn back to us.

“I got a glimpse of Nova’s eyes from the side.” They put a finger to their lips and wink “Don’t worry though, I’ll keep quiet~”

Rin giggles lightly as they step out, closing the door behind them.

Nova and I look at each other as she takes of her aviators. I notice an odd combination of light pink and black.

“Wasn’t that kinda…” she trails off.

“Yeah…”

After a second, we both shake it off and start cleaning up.

-Sometime later-

Nova yawns softly and curls up in her bed, cloaked in moonlight streaming through the window.

I can’t help but smile at the sight as I get into bed and close my eyes.

[Nova: You sure you're ok?]

[Amber: That was way too scary...]

[Nova: There, there...]