“Not today, Michael-san! HIYA!” She kicks at him, and he easily blocks it. Natalie gasps, “NO!! Hmph!! Go fireball!!” She releases the stored-up energy, and Michael again blocks it. He can’t help but crack a smile at how silly this girl is acting. They keep playing, and she continues to vocally announce all of her attacks, giving Michael time to react to all of them. At this point, he’s not even trying anymore, and is having way too much fun, just laughing about it.
However, after several minutes of getting nowhere, he decides it’s time to stop fooling around. Michael unleashes hell, and fury, and quickly takes her down.
“NYYOOOH!!” she screams as her character dies.
“Sorry, but we need to finish up our game, people are waiting.”
“Oh, okay, no more holding back then,” she says, instantly changing her tune.
Michael’s eyebrow raises. She respawns, and starts playing more serious. Immediately he could see an improvement in her play-style. She was much faster now, and a lot less predictable. She manages to put up a good battle, and Michael could see how she was able to get to where she was. However, Michael was in whole other league; way above her, and wouldn’t go down that easily. She manages to kill him only once during their whole match, but only because he wasn’t taking the game totally seriously at the time. He ends up taking the win 3-1.
“Awww nyyooohh…” Natalie mourns the death of her virtual character. “Good game.” She stands up, shakes Michael’s hand, and then skips playfully away to the front of the store. Michael can’t help but smile really big as he watches her caper off. This totally care-free person, carrying on as though nothing even happened.
“Took you long enough!” Ted shouts, as he slams his hand down on Michael’s shoulder, scaring the shit out of him.
“Oh shh–! Ted! Yeah, uhh, well, it was her fault. Where you watching that? What’s her deal?”
“Natalie? No fucking idea, man. She’s fucked in the head, or something. Don’t you recognize her from school?”
“No.”
“Are you kidding me? How do you not remember her. She’s the one who is always singing in Japanese, or whatever, and dancing around in the halls like a moron.”
“Ohhh right… Huh… weird. I never really noticed her before.”
“Anyway, looks like it’s you and me in the semi-finals. Gonna be sick! Let’s put on a good show. I wanna out-stage your sister, that shit was redicul…”
Michael walks off, mid sentence, not even paying any attention to him.
“…or, okay, whatever.”
Mike goes to the front of the store, and looks out the window. Ted follows him and asks him what’s he doing. “Hmm, she must’ve left.”
“Uhhh…” Ted murmurs, while giving him a dirty look.
Michael fumbles around in his pockets. “I’m going to go grab a coffee, do you want one?”
“No — I just had one.”
“Okay, I’ll be right back.” Michael leaves the store, and heads down the street about a block and a half to the coffee shop.
Meanwhile, back inside, where the action is about to get really serious, Steve sits down with Scott. The winner of their match will get to progress to the semi-finals. These are two very experienced players, and this match will be something to behold. A small crowd gathers around them as the game starts, including Sarah, who has already won her round two match, and enthusiastically cheers Steve on from the sidelines.
The in-game timer counts down to the start of the match, “3… 2… 1… FIGHT!” The two of them take immediate control, and jump around, cautiously approaching each other, trying not to get too close. Their spacing is amazing. They keep just enough distance between them to be safe, while still being close enough to launch attacks. It takes years of practice to master perfect movement and control at this level.
Neither of them have landed a single blow on the other yet. They continue to play cautiously, running in close, and running back out, trying to temp the other to attack. A player is most vulnerable right after attacking.
Scott runs past him a little too close, and tries to roll away. Steve swings his sword, and barely grazes him. Scott reacts with a low to the ground, wide attack, bouncing Steve up off the ground.
“Shit,” he shouts. Steve knows this is a bad position to be in.
Scott slams him forward, and immediately runs after him while he flies through the air. Before Steve can even hit the ground, he gets slammed again, sending him really far off the side. The crowd gasp, expecting it to be a kill. But Steve aims a shock wave attack in the opposite direction, launching himself back towards the platform. Everyone starts to cheer. Scott is waiting by the ledge, and the moment that Steve comes into range, Scott smashes him straight down, and into the fiery pit of death.
“Fuck!” Steve yells, angrily. That’s one life down.
“You got this, Steve! Hang in there!” Sarah shouts.
He respawns, and quickly gets back into action again. Scott was still damaged, so Steve uses this to his advantage. He runs straight into him and lets him attack. With a fresh life, it does very little damage, and so Steve is easily able to grabs onto him, and he tosses him over the side. Scott goes to air-hop and is met with Steve’s sword, which slashes him full-on, and he gets knocked way far away from the stage, with no possible way to make it back. This evens out the score, one for one. The crowd claps.
“WOOHOO!!” Sarah celebrates. “C’mon Steve!! You got this!!”
Scott respawns, and the fight continues, going back and forth for several minutes. They trade blows, and scrape each other up. They both get an additional point each, putting the scores at 2-2. The next point will take it. The crowd is sweating, and nervous as they watch. Both Steven and Scott are playing very cautiously. The room goes completely quiet — to the point that all you can hear is the sound of them mashing aggressively on their controllers. Buttons were being pressed, upward to six or seven times per second. It was very tense.
Everyone starts yelling and cheering again when Steve gets off a massive hit, sending Scott far off-stage. It was now like a reversal of the first kill, except Steve is now the one waiting by the ledge to deal the killing blow.
Scott slowly drops down below the side of the platform, and fires off a grapple. It hooks onto the ledge and Scott begins to pull himself up. This is Steve’s chance to end it right here and now. Scott launches himself up, and leaps right over Steve’s head, who just stands there, not moving. The crowd gasps. Scott safely lands back into the middle of the platform. No one can understand why Steve didn’t finish him off. Everyone turns their gaze away from the TV screen, and they look over to see Steve leaning forward in his chair, with his controller on the floor. He has his hand on his chest, and seems to be shaking.
“STEVE!!” Sarah screams, as she leaps over everyone. She runs right up to him, and places her hand on his shoulder, and crouches down in front of him. “What’s wrong?!” He starts to cough, and heaves his chest, gasping for air. “Oh no, Steve!” Her heart starts to pound as she has no idea what’s happening to him right now. She then helps pulls him up, and walks with him towards the center of the room. Everyone moves out of the way, and watched him with concern.