You decide on "Battle on the Seven Seas," figuring you haven't played this one in a while and it's a bad idea to get rusty in the Arena. You register and walk over to join the rest of tonight's warriors deep in the pit. As you look through the crowd, you see the usual assortment of gang members talking trash and flirting with any woman who comes close to the Pit. Beyond them, you see two friends and rivals, Richard "Kaiser" Brown and Haley "Gaia" Bright.
Of German decent, Kaiser first walked into Jerry's when you were both sixteen, and you two met at "Time Crisis 3," you played Alan Dunaway and he played Wesely Lambert. At the end of the game, your scores were extremely close, you beat him by only thirty-seven points, and neither of your health gauges reach zero. After that, you competed at the other "Time Crisis" games and any other games you could compete at, and in the end, the wins kept going back and forth between you two. During a later conversation, you learned he's been gaming for about as long as you have and has dedicated roughly as much time to gaming as you have. Since his arrival in your life, he's been one of your biggest rivals and best friends, but it always makes the game that much more interesting.
Gaia has always reminded the sexists that girls could game just as well as guys, if not better. You first met Gaia here at the Arena, you two were entered in different games and were just down in the Pit, though she'll say it was during an after game drink. While most of the warriors were taunting their competition, you noticed Gaia just stretching and meditating. Between that and her win, which you managed to catch the end of, you decided to talk to her, and learned she's been gaming since she was ten, she's currently twenty, she spends her time before Arena matches psyching herself up, and has a natural talent for gaming, making her one of the top thirty gamers of the Arena, number one among the women warriors, despite the fact that she's spent less time gaming than all of the other warriors. Despite her efforts to destroy sexism in gaming, her odds are always placed slightly higher than usual because of her tits, she's a large C-cup and every so often her boobs makes it hard for her to move her arms.
Since Gaia would try to kill you if you interrupt her pre-game psych up, you decide to go hang with Kaiser until the game starts. Once you reach him, Kaiser starts, "So, , you're here tonight. Hope you entered 'Coliseum' cause I ain't had an exciting win in an eternity."
"Nah, 'Battle on the Seven Seas,' need to keep my skills sharp in that one. Lucky for you, because I'd humiliate you in any of tonight's games."
"Oh ho ho, someone came here believin fairy tales." After a brief pause, you two break out in laughter and high five each other before he asks, "How ya been, haven't seen ya in a while?"
"Pretty good, considering I haven't played a new decent game in a while. You?"
"Bout the same. Hey, be careful and keep an eye open, Psycho and Badger entered 'Battle on the Seven Seas.'" There's news you could have done without, Ian "Psycho" and Jeff "Badger" Steel are twin brothers and always play dirty. Psycho plays the bait to foolish warriors, and Badger plays the sniper lurking in the shadows. Even if you dodge Badger's attack, Psycho always closes in while Badger distracts you, so you either die without knowing how Badger killed you or give yourself false hope to let Psycho come right at you. And if they lose, the winner damn well better not be going home alone, because those two apes have no problem attacking anyone even outside the game.
"Thanks for the heads up, man. By the way, you know what game Gaia entered?"
"'Seven Seas,' she's the one who asked me to tip everyone in it off. I need to see who else is goin gladiator tonight. Later."
"Later," you say as you realize you should do the same if the Steel twins are playing. You mingle until 11:30, game time, and learn that Gaia and the Steels are the only real threats of the night. At 11:30 promptly, you here Jerry's voice say, "Ladies and gentlemen, betting has closed and the games are beginning. Please sit back and choose a monitor as our warriors battle it out." Upon hearing this, the warriors head to their respective gates, awaiting Jerry to announce their game and call them out. While we get in place, Jerry continues, "First off, is our team of gladiators, heading out to the 'Coliseum!'" As the gate opens to let the first team of warriors out, you and Kaiser throw each other a good luck nod as the crowd applauds for them.
"Alright, gladiators, get hooked in and comfortable. Next up, our tactical and scurvy ridden pirate captains will duke it out, cutlass to cutlass, pistol to pistol, crew to crew, and ship to ship, in a 'Battle on the Seven Seas.'" As your gate rises, the crowd once again cheers you out, and you wave and occasionally nod your head to the crowd. You grab a seat next to Gaia, and lip, "kick some ass," to her, to which she lips, "you too." You take a seat in the chair and begin strapping yourself in, oblivious to everything else around you, including Jerry's announcements.
Once all four groups are strapped in and ready, Jerry calls out, "Alright, our warriors are ready and waiting for me. So, LET THE GAMES BEGIN!" As usual, Jerry's command signals the ground crew to fire up the game, and the world around you disappears as you get sucked into the virtual world you've chosen. |