Shawn tumbled across the mat and landed hard on his back, causing a short gasp under his breath. He closed his eyes and remained where he was, catching his breath as he felt the stinging pains in his arms and legs. He groaned when he felt a pair of hands pulling him up and over towards the corner of the ring, where Shawn quickly reversed the oncoming move with his leg connecting to the turnbuckle, sending him and his opponent down on the mat. Shawn caught his opponent standing up almost immediately and quickly tried to do the same, but the pain was so bad he laid there for a few minutes before kicking his legs in the air to recover lost time. He felt a rush of adrenaline as he walked over to his opponent and hit him hard across the chest, then aimed with punches to the head. His opponent reversed, however, and hit Shawn in the back, sending a shot of pain through his weak body. Then, without warning, his opponent turned him around and kicked him in the gut, grabbed his arms and placed his head below some knees. Before Shawn could react, his face hit the mat and his vision cleared.
Across the screen, the letters K.O. flashed and Triple H's music hit.
"No!" Shawn screamed as he threw down the controller. "I never win this game!"
"Now you owe me ten dollars." Hunter put down his controller and extended his hand.
"Give me one more chance," Shawn whined. "I know I can beat you this time."
"Shawn, we've played five games already and I beat you every time. I even beat you in the ladder match."
"That's because you used that chair shot to my head before I could grab the briefcase. And for the record, it was a TLC match."
Hunter chuckled and rubbed his sore fingers from pushing the buttons too hard. "I got you good that time."
Shawn sighed and dug in his pocket, silently extending the ten-dollar bill to Hunter, who took it with a smile and laid it on the floor next to him.
"You want another round, showstopper?" Hunter cocked an eyebrow.
Shawn smiled and grabbed his controller quickly, laughing as Hunter hit the main menu button and picked out his own character as Shawn picked out himself.
"Wanna make another bet?" Hunter chuckled as he grazed through the choices of superstars.
Shawn opened his mouth, but closed it quickly, not willing to give up another set of his money just yet.
"Um, well," Shawn began. "Maybe we should-"
"You're backing down? No way!" Hunter began laughing hard, doubling over on the floor.
"No, uh, I'm just not ready to-" Shawn looked at Hunter and felt a bit of shame, afraid to lose again. "Never! I'll never back down from this challenge!"
Shawn dug into his pocket and placed a five-dollar bill by the PlayStation system and quickly chose himself by pressing the X button. Hunter chose himself and looked over at Shawn, "Time to play the game. You pick this time."
"Cool." Shawn smiled and scrolled through the match selections and grinned when he picked the Ladder match. Hunter huffed and watched his computer graphic self walk down the ramp and towards the ring. Shawn waited patiently for his friend's long entrance to end, but he jumped quickly when something pounded against the door.
"I'll get it." Hunter said, then got up and walked towards the door. Shawn took the opportunity to skip the rest of Hunter's entrance and began laughing at his own.
Hunter answered the door and found two men on the other side, that of Ted Dibiase and Cody Rhodes.
"Hey, guys," Hunter said slowly. "What are you two doing up so late?"
"The question is what are you two doing playing loud music at 12:30 in the morning?" Ted asked, his arms across his chest.
Hunter looked towards the nearest window. "It's still dark out. Besides, we're having fun. Shawn and I placed a bet to see who can win the most games in a row."
"What game?" Cody glared.
Hunter sighed. "Come in and I'll show you."
Hunter walked towards the living room where Shawn was already playing against a still Triple H, causing Hunter to press the pause button on Shawn's controller and point a finger at him. Shawn frowned and stood up, stretching his legs. Hunter walked over to the counter and picked up a small object.
"See this? This is what we're playing."
Ted grabbed the small object and looked up at Hunter, confused. "Smackdown Vs Raw 2009?"
"Yeah!" Shawn screamed. "It's the best game in the whole wide world! It's better than D&D."
"D&D?" Cody looked just as confused as Ted.
"Dungeons and Dragons, comic book nerd," Hunter placed a hand on Cody's shoulder, but Cody shrugged away the touch and nodded at Ted, walking towards the door.
"Come on, Ted, let's get back to bed." Cody said.
Ted looked at the game in his hands and saw the box cover art. "Um...guys?"
"Yes?" Hunter and Shawn said together.
"Why are your faces on the cover? I thought they'd use Cena or Taker."
Shawn shrugged. "Probably because the people over at the game factory thought DX would be a better tag team to use than the same old superstars. But," He paused. "If you look at it, there's a slight mistake with my tan lines. Am I really that dark?"
Shawn began looking at his arms while Hunter said, "Yeah, and they photo shopped my nose."
Ted looked at the two friends in awe before he set the game cover on the floor. He cleared his throat. "You, uh, got any spare controllers?"
"What do you mean?" Shawn asked.
"I've never played a Smackdown Vs Raw game before. Can I play with you guys?"
Hunter and Shawn looked at each other before smiling and nodding.
"Sure, Ted," Hunter said, leading Ted to the spot where the controllers were. "We'll teach you how to play the game."
Cody looked at Ted and glared at the other two men before walking out the room, slamming the door behind him. The three men jumped a little, but let the actions slide as they all sat down in front of the big TV screen. Shawn handed Ted his controller and watched as Ted tried to figure out the order of the buttons.
"So," Ted shifted the controller from side to side. "Which buttons do you press?"
"The simple ones. X and the square." Shawn pointed out.
Ted looked at the screen and tried to win against the computer Triple H, but it was harder than he thought. Within ten minutes, Hunter won the game. Hunter cleared the throat and extended his hand.
"What?" Ted asked.
"You owe me twenty bucks."
"Twenty bucks?"
"We don't give lessons for free, kid."
Ted sighed and fumbled through his wallet and picked out a twenty-dollar bill. Hunter took it and placed it in his pocket. Shawn patted Ted on the back and said, "Maybe one day we both will beat the game."
"True. I'm going to bed. Goodnight." Ted said, walking towards the door.
"Goodnight, kid." Hunter said as Ted left the room, closing the door behind him.
When Ted was gone, Shawn went back to the game and started to play, but Hunter went into the bedroom and turned off the lights.
"Hunter?" Shawn called.
"I'm going to bed, too. It's late."
Shawn frowned. "Yeah, you're right."
Shawn pushed the button on the PlayStation and walked into the spare bedroom and shut off the lights and crawled under the covers. Before the two friends could fall asleep for good, sounds of chuckling in the living room woke them up.
Hunter got out of bed and peeked around the corner of the doorway and saw Hornswoggle messing with the money laying on the floor.
"Hey!" Hunter screamed. "Shawn, he's got your money!"