By Leia Fee
Byers hit play on the VCR then backed away. He edged Langly and Frohike further into the corners of the couch to make room for him to sit down. The picture on the screen crackled slightly then cleared to reveal an archaic looking bank of computers. Langly hooted in derision and Frohike reached across the back of the couch to swat him.
"Hey I used to use one of those."
After a moment the shot pulled back to reveal a young woman tapping at the mainframe.
"Ah, there's the girlie," Langly commented needlessly.
"The first one was cuter."
"Frohike!" Byers protested.
"Face doesn't think so," Langly smirked as the shot cut away again to a cozy little tryst.
"Naaa," Frohike shook his head. "These little clippy bits at the beginning never show you what's really going happen."
"Hey you guys started without me!" Jimmy wandered in with a tray of nachos and dips. He frowned at the helicopter on the screen. "Hey Byers, man, is this the right tape? Looks more like Airwolf."
"Jimmy." For once Byers sounded slightly exasperated. "It's the right tape. That's the bad guys' helicopter."
"Yeah the tatty one held together with gaffer tape and spot welding will be the A-Team's."
"Frohike!"
"What?
Like it wasn't obvious?"
The ensuring squabble and rearranging of furniture, so that everyone could reach
the food and Jimmy had somewhere to sit, drowned out most of the credit sequence
and there was a chorus of ‘shh' as the music died away.
+
"What's with the date and time subtitles, man? Makes it look like a home movie."
"Shut up, Langly. They're building tension."
"Oh yeah I'm really worried."
"Shh."
"The A-Team are hiding out in a sports shop?"
"Yeah, at 5am according to those subtitles."
From the screen Hannibal commented, "Come on, Face. The three of us have had some great vacations--"
The rest of the line was lost in Langly's yelp. "Oh yeah, can't you just picture it!"
"Hold on." Jimmy was frowning again. "Three of them? They leave Murdock behind when they go on vacation? That's mean."
"Jimmy..."
"Well it is."
"He's got a point, Langly." Unexpectedly Frohike chimed in in support. "I mean they break him out of the nuthouse almost every episode anyway."
The onscreen arrival of the military police and the ensuing fight scene ended the debate and brought everyone's attention back to the TV.
"Does anyone else have the urge to shout ‘He's behind you'?" Frohike asked.
"I think that MP secretly wanted to be a stuntman."
Jimmy was apparently still trying to
follow the plot.
"Ohh the girlie knows the other girlie."
"The cute one."
"Frohike!"
"The plot thickens."
"Oh poor thing her car's been shot."
"Well it's not likely to be the last time."
"Face is on the pull."
"Again with the subtitles!"
The comments flew faster and louder until the television itself was almost drowned out entirely.
"Will you guys lay off!" Byers was starting to sound thoroughly fraught.
Langly smirked.
"Just commenting."
"I feel another fight scene coming on."
Frohike was proved right a few moments later as Face was flung over a balcony.
"Ouch." Frohike commented.
"Splash," Langly corrected. "There's always a handy pool in these things."
+
"And here we go with the dodgy accents and bad disguises."
"I thought posing as repairmen was pretty clever." Jimmy looked crestfallen.
Langly stared at him. "How many repairmen do you see walking around with half of Fort Knox hanging round their neck?"
"Shh." Frohike swatted at Langly again. "Here's the smug bad guy."
"Oh they're going to be lethally sarcastic at him."
"He has got the snazzy armed chopper though."
"The A-Team have got a better pilot though." Jimmy was grinning at the screen totally absorbed and ignoring the sniping from Langly and Frohike. Next to him, Byers' grin was nearly as broad.
+
"Great, more dodgy accents."
"Told you they were going to end up with the tatty helicopter."
"B.A. won't like that."
"Oh they'll find him an acetylene torch to play with."
"DIY helicopter armaments..."
"Told you."
"Gaffer tape!" Langly yelled. "You've seen this before."
"Maybe."
"You have."
Frohike grinned and shrugged.
+
Jimmy gave an excited yelp as the helicopter chase started. Langly laughed.
"Oh now they're stuck--you can't shoot out the tyres on a helicopter."
"Haven't they used this footage before?"
"Will you two shut up!" Byers finally wailed in frustration as, onscreen the enemy helicopter hit the cliff and burst into flames.
"And still the bad guys escape with only a sore head!"
"Guys!"
"What's up, Byers?" Langly and Frohike both grinned at him.
Byers sighed and shook his head.
"You got another ep?" Langly asked, still grinning broadly.
Byers laughed.
"Absolutely."