“Oh, well, sweet. Good luck. Anyway, you guys should register before it fills up. There’s already nine of us, and they want to limit it to sixteen.”
He takes them over to the registration table and they all get signed up. They then walk around and watch other people play practice games. Ted pulls Michael aside to talk to him, while Steve and Sarah continue to watch the other players.
“So what’s the deal with Maria? Is she in love with you, or some shit?” Ted asks, condescendingly.
“Uhh, well, no. I mean, I guess she just wanted to help me out… you know.” Michael struggles with his explanation. He knows that Ted doesn’t want to believe he had sex with Maria. How was he supposed to explain it?
“I just don’t get it, Mike. What does a beautiful girl like her possibly have to gain from helping you. She must be trying to trick you, or something. I’d stay away from her if I were you.” Ted warns.
That thought has crossed Michael’s mind; even he was somewhat suspicious at first. But at the same time, Maria’s been nothing but kind to him, she’s helped him open up more, and, on top of that, she’s given him the most mind-blowing sex ever — twice. Frankly, he doesn’t even care at this point.
“Yeah, I dunno, Ted… either way, I don’t really give a shit. It’s just nice to spend time with her,” he explains.
“I guess,” Ted mumbles.
Over the next twenty to thirty minutes, a handful of people come into the store and register. They now have the sixteen people they need, and are ready to begin the tournament. So the tournament organizer seeds the brackets and starts to announce the match-ups for the first round. And wouldn’t you know it, Michael’s name is the first called. Ted is seventh. Sarah is tenth. And Steven is sixteenth. There’s only four TVs that can be played on at any one time, which means that half the field has to wait, (at least during the first round.) So Steve and Sarah will both be sitting out until a spot opens up.
Michael takes his seat at TV #1, and Ted sits way on the other side at TV #4. All the other players, who are currently competing, also take their seats, and then the tournament organizer shouts, “Good luck!”, as the first eight players begin their matches.
Michael navigates through the game menu, and then ***********s the space ranger as his character. His opponent then picks the warrior. Perfect, he says to himself. Michael has a lot of practice against the warrior, since that’s what Steve mostly plays. They *********** the stage, and begin their match.
Michael quickly fires off two shots from his laser gun, and leaps forward towards his opponent. The blasts hit him just as he approaches, stunning him for only a moment. Michael grabs him, and throws him forward, jumping towards him once again. This time, he runs pass him, and grabs him from the other side, and does a rolling throw, launching him off the platform. He jumps off the side after him, and stomps on him, sending him hurdling down, into the lava pit below. He then air-hops and grabs the side of the platform and pulls himself to safely. One life down, and two to go. “Too easy,” Michael thinks to himself.
Ted’s opponent suffers a similar fate. He quickly, and effortlessly disposes of him, and claims his first victory. Both Michael and Ted wrap up their games in just under three minutes total. The two of them meet up at the registration table to record their wins.
“So, how’d your game go?” asks Mike.
“Oh you know, I pressed a few buttons, and counted the tiles on the ceiling. You?”
Michael laughs. “Yeah, same here.” He looks around the room. “I don’t recognize anyone. Does this place have regulars?”
“Yeah, this is like the sixth time I’ve played here, and I’ve notice there are mostly all the same people, give or take a few unknowns. Scott is the one you’ve gotta watch out for. He’s pretty good,” Ted explains. “But as far as everyone else goes, nothing to be too worried about, just don’t play stupid, and you’ll do fine.”
Suddenly the whole room erupts with people screaming, and cheering, and loud roars of excitement. They both quickly glance over to see a bunch of people gathered around one particular spot, getting all riled up.
“What the hell is going on over there?” Ted exclaims.
They walk over to get a closer look, and to their total shock, they see Sarah playing — well. She’s up two lives over her opponent, and only one kill away from victory. Michael and Ted’s jaws drop as they watch her play. She skillfully performs a series of impressive tricks, and combos, juggling her opponent, and pushing him towards the edge. She then does a vanish, followed by a reverse vanish, making him attack the wrong way. His back is now turned to her, and she kicks him over the side.
It’s not over yet though; her opponent then turns towards the platform, and shoots out a grapple, hooking it onto the ledge. He uses it to launch himself upwards towards her. However, Sarah reacts with amazing speed, and dives off the side, suiciding into him, causing them both to fall to their death. The games ends 3-1.
Sarah throws her fist up, and leaps out of her chair, celebrating her first victory. The crowd goes nuts.
“What the f– fuck!!” Michael shouts.
“H-oh shit!” Ted exclaims.
Right then, Steve runs over and sweeps Sarah off her feet, and they kiss in a passionate, loving embrace. Ted and Michael’s eyes open even wider, as they both do a double-take.
“W-w-what? — Did I miss something?” Michael stutters. First he witnesses his sister playing the game at an expert level, and now he sees her and his best friend making out together. The whole idea of it was too much for his mind to grasp right now. For at least ten whole seconds, he could not comprehend anything that was going on around him.
“Uhhhh…” Ted just stares.
Michael’s chest then starts to rapidly heave back and forth as he becomes giddy and somewhat hysterical. “W-w-what the hell is going on here!” He laughs. “I must be losing my mind…”
Just then, he feels a light tapping on his shoulder.
“Are you Michael-san?” a squeaky voice asks.
He turns around and sees this short, bubbly looking girl, with rectangular glasses, and a somewhat sprightly looking expression, while wearing an over-sized scarf, and multicolored flip-flops.
“Uh yep,” he responds, trying to squeeze enough room inside his already shorted-out brain for one more oddity.
“It’s you and me in round two, let’s do this!” she yips, as her eyes fire up, and she launches her index finger forward, in an eccentric manner.
“Uhh… Oh! Right! Yeah, you must be…uhhh…,” he looks over at the board with the names of the players written on it, “…uhhh, Natalie?” He looks back at her for confirmation.
“That’s right, Michael-san. You and me are scheduled to battle, so let’s get to it,” she enthusiastically shouts.
Michael laughs, “okay,” thinking that this girl is a bit strange. They both go over and get set up.
“Are you ready, Michael-san?”
“I’m ready.”
The game begins, and Natalie immediately starts to charge up a fireball. Michael quickly runs in close, and tries and knock it out of her hand before it can finish, but she stores the energy, and rolls out of the way.