>>>~~~~<<<
While Paul Stones was not a man of his word, he returned to the game store around midnight as Lea requested. However, he wasn’t coming unprepared or alone. There were plenty of benefits to having an unscrupulous and powerful father, and having a group of thugs on speed dial was but one of many. The guys had always helped out Paul and his father when someone was “disrespectful” to them, and they were more than willing to scare the shit out of a couple of girls. Besides, Paul wasn’t stupid. It was obvious Lea was trying to lure him into a trap and jump him with her own thugs to complete the humiliation from earlier today.
Paul and his goons arrived to find the game store dead quiet, only the faintest light from the second-floor window betraying that someone was inside. Paul didn’t like this one bit, but he was surprised the trap hadn’t been sprung yet. No matter, he was ready, and so were his boys.
“I’m gonna go say hello,” Paul told his thugs. “When you get the signal, go wild,” he held up his phone. The text message screen was open, and he had a text ready to be sent with the press of his finger. The boys nodded and grinned, eager for a fight.
Paul slid inside the game store, the darkened first floor had none of the charm it had during the day. It was just too damn quiet for Paul’s taste. He preferred a little noise, it kept the place alive. Now, the only scrap of life was that faint light from above and the almost inaudible but oddly familiar music rolling down the stairs.
Paul marched up the stairs with a swagger in his step and a chill up his spine. He was getting really sick of that freaky sensation Lea gave him. It’d be so wonderful when he finally turned the tables, but all good things in due time. At the top of the stairs, Paul found the arcade area had been rearranged a bit, and a new cabinet was placed near the center of the room. Or rather, new wasn’t the right word. It was another “Team-W vs. The Favor Crusaders” game, but the decals on its sides were a little different and more faded. Lea was right in front of it, fiddling with the debug menu.
“How kind of you to finally join me, Mr. Stones,” Lea didn’t even look back, “I was afraid you’d turned tail and run.”
“Please, I’m not afraid of you,” Paul snorted. He couldn’t believe it, she was serious about the rematch. Either that or she has a flair for the dramatic and has fully committed to the bit. “What’s with the old machine?”
“This is why we needed to wait until midnight. I had to call in some favors to get it delivered in time,” Lea finally turned around and grinned. “It’s an older version, but it’ll more than do. After all, you aren’t allowed to touch the cabinet that’s already here.”
“Whatever,” Paul rolled his eyes, “how did you convince the owner to let you do this?”
“I didn’t. He has no idea this is happening,” the blonde admitted.
“Is that so?” All the alarm bells in Paul’s head went off all at once. He reached into his pocket, ready to send the text. Lea’s thugs should be coming out any minute now, right?
“I’m just finishing the set-up,” Lea continued to fiddle with the debug menu, “turning off the round timer, enabling a few bonus features, you know.” No, Paul didn’t know, and he didn’t care to find out.
‘Just be cool,’ Paul assured himself, ‘playing along with her little game could be a good distraction while I signal the boys. Then we can play a different game called ‘Why you don’t fuck with Paul Stones,’ and we’ll see who’s humiliated then.’
“Step right up, Mr. Stones. I set the game to free play, no need for quarters this time,” Lea chuckled.
“Fine, fine,” Paul stepped up to the arcade cabinet, taking his place on the left side like earlier that day. As he settled in, he noted that this old version of Team-W vs. The Favor Crusaders had its noticeable differences from what he knew. The character select was ordered a little differently, and some of the menu elements looked choppier in places, but it was otherwise the same. His eyes lingered on Human Hurricane in the selection screen, debating if it was worth going for the infinite combo for style points. ‘Nah, I won’t have the time anyway.’
“Hmm, hmm,” Lea hummed as she selected Hendrix as her first character and looked at Paul who hadn’t touched the control stick yet.
‘Could she be any more predictable and obvious?’ Paul sighed as he selected Terror Tyrant out of habit, but once Lea looked away, he quickly reached into his pocket to signal his goons. It was time for some revenge.
“How about this?” Lea stated as she chose her second character, Human Hurricane.
‘And here it is,’ Paul couldn’t resist the urge to laugh. ‘She’s not going to jump me, she just wanted to show off. She’s clearly some rich, idiot girl with too much time on her hands. How freaking naïve does she have to be to meet me alone at night with nobody else around or even aware of what’s happening?’ Paul moved to select The Truth to keep up his charade but listened carefully for the telltale sign of his boys storming the place. Yet, all he heard was the door downstairs softly opening.
“Ooh, company,” Lea laughed. Paul turned back towards the stairs, but ascending them was not his thugs, but Alice dusting off her hands.
“Apologies, my Lady, I was slightly delayed,” Alice apologized to Lea.
“What’s she doing here?” Paul demanded to know.
“I’m here to make sure nothing uncouth happens to my lady,” Alice answered. “You’re not exactly a trustworthy man.”
“I guess you got me there,” Paul admitted, “but you’ll be sorry very soon.”
“If you mean your thugs waiting outside,” Alice replied, “they won’t be joining us tonight.” Her eyes narrowed, and Paul felt his stomach drop.
“What are you talking about?” Paul couldn’t believe the words coming out of this woman’s mouth.
“Was I being too vague?” Alice mocked him. “Let me be clear, they won’t be here to help you tonight or ever again.”
“You better start talking sense, or I’m going to-!” Paul threatened.
“Save your empty threats,” Alice scoffed. “You’ve already arrived to this game. It’s too late to back out.”
“I told you we’d be playing for higher stakes,” Lea chimed in, “and now it’s time to play a real game, a True Game. And there will be more than just your arcade cred on the line.”
“You’re insane,” Paul snapped and moved to escape the situation, but as he glanced back at the stairs, he noticed they were now covered in a thick, black fog. Something beyond sinister was afoot, and no matter how hard he tried, Paul couldn’t bring himself to approach the eerie mist. “If you think I’m just going to stand around and let you fuck with me-”
“You’d best play along, Mr. Stones, unless you wish to join your thugs right now,” Alice threatened. Considering how she almost broke his hand earlier, Paul determined he didn’t want to mess with her and, against his better judgment, decided to hear them out.
“Now that you’re willing to listen let me explain the rules,” Lea traced her finger across the arcade machine’s controls. “We’ll play a best of three, but with increased danger…” Paul noticed the fog had begun to creep around their feet and surround the arcade machine. “…now every hit our characters take, we’ll feel. Their pain is our pain.”
‘She’s insane. She’s acting like this is a twisted horror movie,’ Paul thought, but the more he looked at her, the more that look in her eyes told she wasn’t lying, and since when were they golden? “Quit trying to scare me, let’s just get this started.” He retook his position and selected his last character.
The match began as the machine called out, “Terror Tyrant and The Truth vs Hendrix and Human Hurricane.” The same character introductions from earlier today played out on the screen, but Paul couldn’t help but notice the change in ambiance and circumstance made the dialogue and animations he’d seen countless times seem almost darkly comedic. As though your favorite song was playing while a violent thug held a gun to your head.
Paul deliberately held back on the control stick, intending to start this match defensively. He wouldn’t make the mistake of giving Lea an opening again. Alas, her assault came and he immediately knew her earlier declarations were not the empty threats of a delusional madwoman. Even as Paul successfully blocked her high and low attacks, each pixel of chip damage felt like pins and needles across his body. Like the sensation you get when a limb falls asleep but times a thousand and spread randomly across your body. Finally, the discomfort became too great, and he lost grip of the stick, and then it got painful.
“Don’t lose focus now,” Lea laughed as Paul became wide open to her combo. Every unblocked attack Paul took felt like he was getting struck with punches that could shatter bone. Mainly because, for all intents and purposes, he was. The pain eventually knocked him off his feet and sent him crashing to the ground, but even flat on his back, he shared the sensations of Terror Tyrant, who was currently being air-juggled. The dissonance made Paul dizzy, so much so he barely heard the sound of his first character being knocked out.
‘Fuck, fuck, fuck,’ Paul cursed as he tried to get to his feet. He didn’t think any of his bones were actually broken, but it certainly felt like it. Even as Paul managed to stand up, his body was beset by contradictory sensations, insisting he was simultaneously fine and in the worst pain of his life. By the time he could waddle all two feet back to the cabinet, the first round was already over, and Lea had beaten him with another perfect.
“Believe now?” Lea looked at him smugly. He half-expected her to lick her lips in sick enjoyment of his pain.
“This isn’t over,” Paul managed to say through the pain.
The second round began without delay, and Paul remained on the defensive, even more so than in the last round. He couldn’t risk taking a single hit, lest he be crippled with pain again, and blocking won’t be enough as the sting from chip damage would cause him to lose focus. Lea began her assault with Hendrix again, and Paul immediately felt the pins and needles. Lucky for him, he was far more prepared for it this time and still a little numb from before, so he could manage for a little while at least. But he was still on borrowed time and wouldn’t have a chance to counterattack.
‘Damn it, there must be something I can do,’ Paul glanced at Lea. She was completely in the zone, her attention exclusively on the game. ‘If only I…wait…if the pain is real then who said the fighting can’t be too?’ Paul grinned evilly as he raised his leg. “Don’t lose focus now,” he echoed as he kicked Lea in the side, sending the petite woman to the ground. Paul wasted no time and input his own combo to attack Lea’s now defenseless character. Lea spasmed on the ground as Paul worked on his free KO. When Lea finally managed to rise to her feet, Hendrix was reduced to no life, and her next character was about to enter the game.
“My, my, how clever you must think you are,” Lea spat blood from her mouth, which she wiped away with a small handkerchief. Despite clear signs of physical abuse all over her body, Lea seemed more surprised than anything.
“I’m not one to brag,” Paul pretended he would let her retake her controls before quickly kicking at her again. Lea scrambled for the controls and mashed all the attack buttons simultaneously as Paul’s kick collided with her side. Paul’s kick bounced off her as though she were protected by an invisible force. “The hell?”
“Advancing guard, you know, pushblock?” Lea smirked.
“You stupid bi-!” Paul screamed as he moved to slug her, but Lea countered by attacking his defenseless character in-game. Her second character had hit the stage. Human Hurricane was here, and he lived up to his name. He looked as if one had taken an active hurricane and attached five tornados as a head, arms, and legs, then shrunk it to human size, all wrapped up in a loose coat and bandages. So, Paul was in for a world of pain when he felt a fist with all the strength of the roaring typhoon strike him.
“Now, how’d it go again? j.lp, j.mp, j.lk, u.hp, land > repeat?[1]” Lea muttered as she subjected Paul to the Human Hurricane infinite. Paul was left spinning more than his character and after what felt like an instant (although that might have just been Paul blacking out), Terror Tyrant was sent packing once again.
“I…blaaag!” Paul tried to regain his senses but lost his lunch instead. His final character was coming in, and it’d be only a matter of seconds before he was subjected to that pain again.
“I guess this is where we say goodbye,” Lea chuckled.
“Never!” Paul roared, grabbed her head, and smashed it into the screen, which somehow didn’t shatter. He continued slamming Lea’s face straight down, mashing his attack buttons. After an excruciatingly long stretch of time, he took the round. It was a sloppy win, but a win was a win. “Take that! You even still conscious?” Paul sneered.
Lea’s face rose up from the screen. It was bloodied but unmoved. “Ready for the final round?” She broke into a smile. Her tenacity disturbed Paul, but he brushed it off as he was in pure survival mode now. Any sense of pride or fair play (what little was there) was thrown out the window. If he could get her like this twice more, he’d win. Otherwise, he didn’t like his chances of living through another two infinites.
The final round began with but a single difference. Lea immediately input the command to switch Hendrix out and brought in Human Hurricane. Paul barely noticed, as he tried to attack Lea in real life again, but his opponent was ready for him this time. She held her control stick back, and just like with the advancing guard, the regular block negated Paul’s real-life attacks. With an easy win off the table for the moment, Paul switched Terror Tyrant into the back row to preserve his best character. The Truth would be good enough for now.
“Bad move,” Lea smiled, had Human Hurricane dash in to attack The Truth, and subjected Paul to another infinite combo. Paul assumed this was what it was like to be trapped in a hurricane or tornado in real life. The wind picks you off the ground, the smallest things spin through the air so fast they hit you like bullets, and the unceremonious thud back to the ground when it’s all over.
“No, no, no, no,” Paul muttered as he wobbled on his feet, left even bloodier than Lea was. It was match point, and he was down to his last character. Paul didn’t know what would happen if he lost the set but assumed it was tantamount to death. Between the ringing of his ears and the last rush of adrenaline, he had an epiphany. If real life reflected the game now, then there was one thing Lea couldn’t block against.
“Ready to face oblivion?” Lea inquired as she prepared to finish the game.
“Raaagghh!” Paul jumped onto Lea and grabbed her throat, forcing her to the ground. “Let’s see how funny you are now, you stupid bitch!” Paul spat in her face as he strangled her.
“Is this really the only way you know how to talk to women?” Lea laughed despite her windpipe being crushed.
“Shut up! Stop acting like you know everything!” Paul tried to slam her head into the ground. He’d win this match one way or another.
“Nope,” she kneed him in the balls, sending Paul rolling away. Lea laughed at his pain while seemingly paralyzed on the floor.
“You think this is funny?” Paul struggled back to his feet. He considered stomping on her, but the blinding pain in his crotch made it hard to lift his legs. That woman knew exactly where to hit to cause as much pain as possible. Besides, Terror Tyrant would do far more damage than he ever could. “Let’s see you laugh now,” Paul jumped back onto the cabinet and slammed out his own combo. TT didn’t have an infinite, but he did have a touch-of-death combo, which was easy to do when your opponent was literally on the floor.
“Now this is finally getting fun,” Lea rose from the floor as Paul finished off Human Hurricane. If Lea had seemed injured before, now she looked like she had dragged herself out of a multi-car pile-up. Yet, she walked up to the cabinet and inputted a complex button combo, completely unfazed by her current state.
“What even are you?” Paul looked at her like she was the devil made flesh. Which wouldn’t be too surprising to him by now. Regardless, he needed to do this. It was his Terror Tyrant vs Lea’s Hendrix, a matchup he’d lost twice before, but he couldn’t afford to this time. He had TT rush in to finish it, but right as Hendrix hit the screen, Lea finished her input, and the whole cabinet lit up. When the light faded, Hendrix was gone, replaced by something else. It was undoubtedly a feminine figure and had the same build and hairstyle, but whatever it was, it wasn’t human. It appeared more like a candy-coated demon with eyes that had no soul, only malice.
“You know all those spooky rumors about old games, like, say, a haunted character or secret?” Lea began. “This is one of those. The secret Hendrix code that transforms her into her alter ego. Mr. Stones, meet Carmel, the candy demon.”
“Ridiculous!” Paul tried to go on the offensive, but it was no use. Carmel was just Hendrix but faster and stronger, and he already struggled against the latter. He again tried to punch out Lea, hoping to eke out an advantage, but now Lea’s skin was soft and sticky. He felt like he was punching taffy or gum, and Lea was even less affected by his blows than before.
“Eyes on the prize, Mr. Stones,” Lea fought back, releasing a furious combo that made her prior assaults look quaint by comparison. Paul had never seen someone play so fast, even at tournaments. It was like she had been toying with him this whole time. He was forced to watch as his health bar was whittled down to the last sliver, and Paul could feel the life leaving his body. Defeat was imminent, so he needed to focus on a comeback.
‘Maybe I can counter with a super?’ Paul struggled to input the basic command, but his fingers had grown cold and shaky. Was it the pain, his nerves, or was he really dying?
“You know, the fun thing about Hendrix,” Lea talked to Paul casually, “in the game’s lore, she can only turn inanimate objects into candy. It keeps her ability cutesy and limited. Carmel has no such limitation.”
‘Why is she telling me this?’ Paul could feel the dread returning, that now familiar chill up his spine froze him to his very core.
“I just wanted to give you fair warning before I did this,” Lea replied to his thought as she inputted Carmel’s ultimate. The candy demon rushed at Paul’s battered character and grabbed him. With a touch and flash of light, he was turned into a life-sized candy statue, and Carmel began to eat it. Like a ravenous animal, she ripped into her candyfied foe, devouring it piece by piece.
‘Can’t…’ Paul felt a wave of cognitive dissonance like he was a ghost in his own body. All his sensations began to slip away as if his nerve endings were disappearing.
The match ended with Carmel completely devouring her foe, each bite more gruesome than the last, more like a scene from a horror movie than a fighting game. The screen flashed, and the round ended with the announcement, “Carmel Win!”
“Good game,” Lea smirked as she turned to the empty space beside her and laughed.
“My Lady,” Alice shook her head nearby, “he was a total asshole and creep, but I still think you took far too much pleasure in punishing him.”
“There’s nothing wrong with enjoying the little things in life, Alice,” Lea replied. Alice sighed and began to wipe the blood off Lea’s face.
“Lady Leadren, you mustn’t play with your food so much. Not only did he hurt you, he actually got close to winning,” Alice warned.
“Please, it’s called acting, Alice, there’d be no fun if I just stomped him into the dirt again,” Leadren rolled her eyes.
“You concern me sometimes, my Lady,” Alice continued to clean off the blood.
“Oh, what do you know?” Leadren huffed. “I just made this place much more pleasant to be. It could make a nice Sunday haunt when I’m bored and need something to do.”
“This store is closed on Sunday, my Lady,” Alice revealed.
“What?” Leadren was taken aback. “Oh poo, all this for nothing. Whatever, I’ll just make room on my weekdays then. Wednesday should be fine.”
“But you have meetings with the council and our employers on Wednesday, my Lady,” Alice reminded her.
“Screw the council,” Leadren sauntered off. “Alice, make a note of this. Remind me to donate this machine to the game store later. Oh, and to send my condolences to Paul Sr. when his son is declared missing. I’m thinking a bread basket…no wait, candy…rock candy, hahaha.” Leadren laughed to herself as the two of them exited the game store and disappeared into the night.
[1] A no-prize to whoever can guess what this combo (which I shamelessly copied from the SuperCombo Wiki) is reference to.
>>>~~~~<<<
Never accept a challenge when you don't know the stakes beforehand.
Author's Note: Another story done, this one took me quite a bit longer than usual, although the length probably gave that away. This was a rare opportunity to both geek out about a topic, and make a horror spin on it. Although, the true reason I started this story was to pilot an idea for an ongoing segment, like with the previous Mary Brown story. You know, something to write in addition to Maid in Fantasy, although less story and continuity heavy.
Honestly, I've been trying to conceive ideas for Alice and Leadren for a while, I'm sure if you dig into my archives on this blog you can find stories featuring prototypes of their character concept. I have at least two featuring Alice, although at that point she's more like Leadren. Maybe this will finally be the prototype that flings me into the a proper series, but it's hard to say. It usually takes many iterations over years before I'm happy with a concept for an ongoing story (Maid in Fantasy is a rare exception).
Overall, I'm happy with this tale, and I hope inspiration for a continuation comes to me soon.
Until next time, Read, Comment and Enjoy.
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