Strawberry's Adventure Chapter 1: Prologue
Author's Note: Welcome to my story :) This is the same character from my other story, but don't worry, you don't have to read that one to understand this one. This story comes before that story anyway. Also if you did read that story, I want you to forget all you know about it for the time being (I don't want people to constantly compare this story to Once Upon a Fairytale. Also, I decided to change Strawberry's age so it'll be closer to Felix/Ralph/Turbo's age instead of the SR racers). There is a reason I posted this story today, exactly one month from November 2, but you'll find out soon enough ;) Anyway, enjoy chapter 1! Also, there will be very minimal main characters in this first chapter, but I promise they'll come in soon enough.
1987…
Mr. Litwak opened up the doors of his popular arcade as the clock chimed at eight o'clock in the morning.
'Right on-time.' He thought to himself as he opened the doors the same time he did for the past five years. He wasn't ever a minute late.
"Come in kids." Mr. Litwak replied excitedly as usual. He always enjoyed seeing the kids' joyful faces as they entered his arcade.
As soon as the kids enter, the kids rushed over to their favorite games and line up for their turn.
Almost immediately, there was a line at three most popular games.
The newly plugged in game Berry Picking became an instantaneous hit. It was the first game Mr. Litwak bought that was targeted for girl gamers. Even though it was popular among girls and boys, the game's colorful setting with all girls as characters showed that the game was made to get girls' attentions towards playing video games.
The kid who went over to the newest of the three popular games put in two quarters and stared at the screen as the game started.
On the screen, there were three long bushes in a vertical row. Off to the side there was a young girl. Her long light pink hair was tied back in pigtails. She wore a pink dress with two pockets full of regenerating strawberries. She had bright pink eyes and a pink heart under her left eye.
"Let's go berry picking!" She shouted joyfully as she hoped over to the bush in the front row of the game.
Before anything else, the game's announcer started talking as a countdown appeared on the screen.
"In 3…
…2…
…1…
…Go!"
A few berries started to grow on the bushes as the time limit started. The player moved Strawberry with joystick as berries started to grow and appear. The gamer made Strawberry pick the berries as fast as could, which resulted in him going to the next level. More berries appeared level after level. There were normal berries to start with, then came the power-up berries and bad berries. The kid continued to intensely play the game as another kid was intensely playing another popular game in the arcade.
That other gamer was playing as Turbo racing around the circular track of Turbotime. Currently, Turbo was in first place with all his competitors far behind him. He was smiling big as he got ready for another win as usual.
As the others did their jobs, Felix was fixing windows with his magic gold hammer. The gamer playing Fix it Felix jr. was on level seven out of an infinite amount of levels.
Everything in the arcade was great. None of the characters thought anything bad was going to happen. They all thought everything was going to stay just the way they were; perfect. But boy, were they wrong.
10 years later, 1997...
"The arcade is closed!" A video game character near the front of the arcade shouted. All the video game characters disbanded from their assigned posts. After a long day of work, it was finally closing time.
In Berry Picking...
It was the end of the day and all the character were finishing up from the previous game. A girl with blue wavy hair wearing an apron handed the main character the cake she won from the last game of the day.
Taking the cake off the girl's hands, the main girl smiled and said to her friend, "Thank you, Blueberry."
"Here's you go, Strawberry." Blueberry replied in a bored tone of voice.
"Blueberry, are you okay?" Strawberry asked concerned about her best friend.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Blueberry answered, waving her coworker off.
Even though Blueberry appeared to be telling the truth, Strawberry knew her better than to believe the act..
"Blueberry, I know something's bothering you. You know you can tell me anything."
'I don't know if I should tell her…she might not like it. I guess I'll tell her; it's not like I have a choice.'
"Strawberry," She choked her words out. "You're not going to like hearing this."
"What?" Strawberry asked confused.
"Well..." Blueberry started, trying to figure out how she wanted to word her statement. She took a deep breath. "You know it's not fair."
"What's not fair?" Strawberry questioned.
Blueberry turned around. She couldn't face Strawberry while she said her true thoughts out loud to her. It would break her heart.
"It's not fair how you have everything."
"I don't have everything." Strawberry argued.
"No." Blueberry argued in response as she turned around to bravely face the game's main character. "You have followers, a big house and even have the biggest role of the game. I never get noticed because players never play me or even think of me as anything other than a NPC. But you, you're the main star of this game. If you make even a small mistake, our whole game will be affected. But me, nothing I'd ever do would affect the game. If I was the main character of this game, I wouldn't be as worried about losing my home every day because of a tiny stupid act you do. If I was the main character, all the gamers would know that I do more work than everyone thinks I do! They probably don't even know my name. I can't stand you and how you get everything you ever want. I wouldn't be your friend if I had as choice in the matter! I'm only you're friend because I have to be." She yelled angrily.
"I thought we were friends." Strawberry muttered confused as tears started to form in her eyes. It was a serious matter if Strawberry was crying. She never cried.
Blueberry said angrily, "Strawberry, you know I'm only your friend because I'm programmed to be, like everyone else here!"
Now, for the first time ever, Strawberry was crying. She was always happy. No one ever saw her without a grin on her face. For her to start crying was like the end of the world.
Strawberry wiped away her streaming tears. Before leaving, she added one last sentence to Blueberry.
"I can prove to you that I can have real friends. Just you wait and see. I promise that I'll get an actual friend no matter how long it takes."
Then, she ran away from who she thought was her friend.
'They only like me because they have to? I don't want them to be forced to like me or be forced to be my friends. I want an actual true friend who likes me for me. It may not be instantaneous, but I know I will find one.' She was slightly starting to get back to her normal happy self.
She had hope. If her coworkers still wanted to be friends when they weren't force to, she would let them be her friends. But until enough time passed for them to make up their minds, Strawberry would have to go somewhere new. A place where she could meet new people; with one who might be her friend.
She walked up to the giant strawberry of her house, and went up to the door.
"Oh, I forgot. The key!" She muttered as she facepalmed herself. She just remembered that she didn't have the key to unlock the front door.
She walked over to the side of her house, where there were many bushes of fruit. She stopped in her footsteps once she reached the second bush. The bush was covered with strawberries. Strawberry pushed the bush's branches aside to see a key lying on the dirt-filled ground.
"There you are." Strawberry replied successful as she grabbed the big golden key for her house.
Strawberry returned back to the front of her house and placed the key inside the keyhole and turned it to reveal the fruity inside.
The first room of the house was the living room. To the left side of the room was the kitchen.
In the living room, there was a pink couch that set in front of a small TV. Next to the couch was an end table. On another side of the living room, there was a soft chair with a lamp sitting nearby.
Strawberry closed the front door gently behind her and let out a deep sigh.
"What am I going to need?" She asked herself aloud.
'Obviously strawberries!' Strawberry immediately thought in response. She shook her head. 'I mean I could take strawberries. But, I mean taking things I need, things that I can't part with.'
Strawberry looked around her house in search for items that she absolutely needed.
After some wandering around the house, Strawberry gathered up everything she needed and plopped it onto her pink bed.
So far, she had packed a strawberry-scented pillow, a framed photo of all of the members of Berry Picking, a couple of pink dresses that matched her current dress and a butt-load of berries, mostly strawberries.
"I think this will do." Strawberry replied, placing her hands on her hips in a satisfied manner.
She threw a pink messenger bag on the bed and stuffed all the things she needed inside.
'Blueberry may say that I don't have any 'real friends', but she's wrong. I'll go find myself some real honest true friends. I mean really, how hard can it be?'
As soon as Strawberry finished stuffing her bag with necessities, she zipped it up tight and placed it on her shoulder.
"I guess I'm ready." Strawberry muttered as she inched nervously to the wooden door that led out of her room.
"I'm sure going to miss it here." Strawberry whispered sadly. She slowly reached for the door handle and turned it.
"Goodbye room." She spoke aloud while she walked out of her room and into the hallway.
Strawberry walked through the hallway and towards the front door.
'This might be the last time I get to be here.'
She closed her eyes. She knew she was going to have to face this sooner or later. Not in a million years would she have guessed it would today. Was she going to keep her group of fake friends or find someone who actually wanted to be her friend?
"Goodbye." She replied sadly as she turned the golden doorknob and opened the door.
She closed her eyes as tears started to form in the corners of her eyes. She seriously was going to miss her home.
She rubbed her eyes and sniffled. 'This is my quest; I have no choice but to complete it. I have to find at least one friend who'll actually care about me, even if it's the last thing I do.'
Strawberry turned around to catch one last glance of her house and left. Then, she quickly scurried through the game until she reached the exit.
She hopped onto the colorful train and started to hum the game's theme music. She didn't want to think about all the things she just left behind in her game. Fortunately, it did somewhat calm her down.
'I need to find some true friends, then. It might take me years, but I will do it.' She thought with a smile. She was happy to know that she was going to get some friends. But, she still didn't completely understand why the other characters in Berry Picking weren't her friends.
'I don't know.' She thought with a shrug in response. 'Maybe Blueberry's right about that. I don't know for sure. But I do know that I'll find friends and then, I can prove her wrong.'
The train stopped at the end of the outlet and Strawberry got off.
'Here I go.' She encouraged herself as she walked into the busy station.
Beep
Beep
A holographic blue man holding a clipboard appeared out of the blue.
"Name?" He asked.
Strawberry was confused, she never saw this man ever before. Who was he?
"Strawberry." She answered before she asked the stranger her initial question. "Who are you?"
"Just a Surge Protector doing my job." He replied, carelessly. "Now, what game are you from?" He asked, going down the list on his clipboard.
"But...why'd you stop me? You never stopped me before." She questioned confused.
"Game?" He asked impatiently.
"Berry Picking."
As the Surge Protector wrote down the responses on his clipboard, he decided to finally answer Strawberry's question. "I didn't use to stop main game characters or protagonists before. But ever since some suspicious activity occurred, it's required protocol."
Strawberry barely even understood what he meant, but she decided to not ask any questions, she had a place she needed to go to soon.
"...And last thing, where you heading?" He asked.
Strawberry shrugged her shoulders in a childish manner. "I don't know yet. I'll probably go somewhere soon though."
With a nod, the Surge Protector disappeared.
'Now, what to do now...?' Strawberry pondered. 'I guess I'll go around and see what game I'll go to now.' With a shrug, she started to wander around the station.
'No...no...no...' She thought to herself as she passed by multiple games. She wanted to find something new, but not too new. Also a game with something she could do, but also something different.
She continued walking, rejecting games while doing so until she read one game's title and stopped.
The title read 'The Great Cave Adventure'.
'Maybe this game will work. It depends on the concept of the game and if the characters allow me to join or not. But, that sounds fun.'
She took a deep breath and walked inside the game, otherwise known as her new home.
Author's Note: Hope you liked chapter 1. The main characters will start to come in the next chapter(at least more major characters) . Lastly, please Review :)