Chapter 1
"…Well that happened." A blonde, tall man wrung his wrists awkwardly as he watched part of his opponents' home crack off and tumble into the ravine next to it. The game fixed most damage but that…might take some forgiveness. He chuckled as he gave an apologetic, toothy grin at the young woman he was fighting.
Maple was beyond irritated. This was NOT how she wanted to start their week at the arcade. However, she was well aware that the 'show' had to go on. A death match on the first game of the day, though! That wasn't supposed to be so common, they weren't a melee game!. And this kid really had no idea how to control her.
Dawn, the blonde man, simply watched Maple as buttons were mashed and her movements became almost completely, well, immobilizing and ineffective.
Maybe if he got her a game over, she'd forgive him for her Clan's fortress?
"Ooops." Lindsay Moppet adjusted her glasses sheepishly.
'AND THE AUTUMN CLAN WAS NO MORE,' the screen read in gory letters.
Game over. Darn. She had waited outside so she could play it first too! Being that it was new, it was pretty popular.
"C'mon! My turn!" A boy about her age with blonde, side-sweeping hair nudged her gently out of the way.
"Yeah, yeah, Doug. No mockery please."
"Uh, right. I think mockery is in order. You went up against the easiest clan, according to the manual. Right Mr. Litwak?" Doug's face tilted toward the older arcade owner's direction.
Litwak looked up from the machine parts he had been sorting at the counter and adjusted his glasses as he spoke. "Well, that's what the new manual says."
Doug looked smugly at Lindsay. "Shut up. I bet you can't beat all of 'em in story mode." She rolled her eyes.
"Challenge accepted!" Doug replied enthusiastically as he scrolled through the menu to reach Story Mode. "Hm…which Clan should I use?"
"Well," Mr. Litwick walked over to join his regulars at the new game, "Keep in mind that you will play as the clan leader. At least I think. That's what the guy who sold it to me said."
As he was circling through the selectable Clans, Doug looked back at him. "Wait, you buy games that you don't know everything about?" That didn't seem to…financially sound.
"Sometimes you just have to take chances in life." Litwak seemed to smile a little, as if he knew something they didn't. "Knew nothing about that Dancing Revolution game, or Felix," his head gestured to the aforementioned games, "…but sometimes they can surprise you in ways you didn't expect. Like my Nana."
Litwak really liked that Nana joke. Lindsay and Doug humored him with smiles, but returned to discussing the game, quickly.
"Uh, Spring Clan?"
"Euuugh." Doug made a face. "The leader's way too foppish and…blonde."
"I'm Blonde."
"My point exactly."
"You're blonde."
He quickly continued. "Summer clan?" Lindsay smirked a little.
"The guy's a freakin' giant! And he's got one killer beard," he continued.
Lindsay made a face. "Looks mean to me. Autumn Clan?"
"You just picked that one because it has a token chick leader."
"She has cool glass powers!"
"Laaaaame."
"Winter Clan?"
"That…it's a kid." Doug blinked. Oh, well…cool. If the kid didn't look so creepy. And one eye-less…
"Hm, interesting." Lindsay started to read about the Winter Clan before Doug squished that idea.
"Naw, Summer! Best season!"
Litwak just watched the young gamers with interest.
Burns motioned to his three captains. "Come! We have been chosen!" the heavily armored vampire shouted in his thick Russian accent. Three rugged fellows followed him to their starting point, armor and weapons clinking and clanking all the way to their home base.
Maple had regenerated into the neutral base—where players selected characters and got exposition—not too long ago. "Oaawwo. Shucks, Dawn, that hurt!" Sure, she was fine NOW, but Dawn had a way of staking people through the head, rather than the heart. Sure, it felt like you were suffocating when your chest had a big-ass hole in it, but it was a lot less painful than have her skull crushed. At least, she thought so.
Dawn gave her an exasperated look. She always seemed to forget that one of her clan's NPCs was the tutorial, story, and control explanation person. "Narratioooon!" he reminded urgently in his sing-songy fashion he often used.
"Right! Jezebel!" Maple hollered to an older vampire woman from her clan. Jezebel jumped as she awoke from a pleasant nap.
"O-oh, already! Programmers should've made me a young lady if they knew we were gonna be this busy!" The older woman stood up from her lounge chair, and brushed her old, gothic dress off and prepared for the crystal ball to appear with the image of an awaiting player. The crystal ball would then warp to Burns's Summer Bunker, and she could get some rest. At least, until the next player.
Goddammit.
Doug waited as the screen loaded. It had the picture of a castle stronghold, with bats flying in the background.
"You don't think this vampire game is related to Twilight's popularity do you?"
Doug didn't have to think. "Yes. Yes it is. But these vampires actually look hardcore."
The screen faded into a lightly light castle room with an old woman.
"Oh! Hello there! Are you a new vampire?" She seemed kindly enough. "You want to know a secret? I am as well. My name is Jezebel, of the Autumn Vampire Clan. I'm assuming you'll probably want to know about the clans and how their interactions work before you send your new clan into battle as their strategist."
"Should I just skip this stuff?" Doug asked Lindsay. She was too busy getting engrossed in what Jezebel was saying to pay attention to him. Doug shrugged and let it carry on. He didn't want to look like an idiot and get his ass whooped on the first level.
"Each of our clans has different territory, and different main holds. Be aware of the Spring Fields' bogs that can confuse you, Summer Mountains' occasional sunshine, Autumn Valley's strong winds, and Winter Tundra's icy hail. If you want to take territory, you must be sneaky. Use your three captains, who have their own specialties, to lead units of your invaders. Take out other vampire sentries, claim villages and holds as your own, and occasionally, you will have a death match."
Lindsay winced.
"This is when one Vampire Clan leader fights another for a territory. Engaging in battle is not a vampire strong suit, so likely this will only happen if you are detected.
I wish you victory, and a home blessing with your new clan. Good Luck, my fellow nightlings!"
The Crystal Ball warped to meet up with Burns and his captains.
"Alright, now I'm gonna nap again!" Jezebel waddled back over to her couch and fell asleep instantly. Maple was pretty sure she wouldn't sleep long. They had been busy their first week.
Dawn and Maple turned away and looked at each other. He looked at the young woman expectantly. She seemed rather lost. Oh dear. "….You do know that your Clan will be the first to defend territory, right?" he helpfully reminded.
"Right." It wasn't her fault she was programmed to be the newest, and therefore most inexperienced leader. "C'mon team, let's go. Cocoa, William, MJ."
A small blonde girl with pigtails put down the piano she had been holding up to show off. "Who's butts we kickin'?" She had a cat-like grin about her. If only her stature was as large as her ego.
"Summer's."
"Awww, right!" She pumped her fists, stoked for the next fight.
"Try to be sneaky, okay?" Maple winced. Cocoa had a bad habit of causing fights, rather than avoiding them as preferred. Cocoa usually listened to her but…sometimes she had rather selective hearing. Maple certainly felt protective of the girl—it was sorta in her programming, she had concluded. Cocoa seemed to view her in a 'cool older sister' sort of way, so Maple could only imagine that's what their creators had wanted.
MJ, a young adult, pushed back his braided, red hair and pulled out a wrench. He was a mild-mannered fellow who was good at repair. Thank the Night too, they would need him once they had a breather to fix up their castle. "Ready chief." He nodded in a manner that showed an amount of…respect toward his Clan leader. Other than the fact that she was built to be in such a position, Maple genuinely had no clue as to why.
However, William was her servant and father-figure combined. William was an older fellow who wore a suit to match his distinguished mustache, and was forever at her side unless she requested otherwise. "I am prepared, M'Lady."
Satisfied with everyone, Maple pulled their team out to defend their castle.
…
Minus that one big chuck from before.
There had been news around the Game Central Station of a new Halloween-themed game. Or something. Most everyone had shrugged it off. Holiday themed games usually didn't last so long. If they did though, great for them. Most of the game characters just felt that they might not make friends with the new characters unless they happened to meet them. But the greenhorns would have to take the initiative. Going into that world was not an option, especially since it was a Halloween themed game. It could be one of those piss-your-pants with actual real-world fear games, or a cutesy game. No way to tell right now, though.
It seemed as if everyone was willing to spread rumors about the place, though. Tapper had been passing information in and out about how the new residents were flame-related; on account of pac-man swearing on the deliciousness of cherries that he saw a burning figure engulfed in flames outside the place the first night. Although Tapper could tell a tale or two (or pass them around, for that matter), he always just saw it story-telling, ice-breaking, conversation starting. He rarely ever believed these tales unlike some denizens of the arcade community such as Princess Daisy, Ryu, and Link.
It's not like anyone had met the newbies yet, otherwise the rumors may have been more concerning. Until then, stories would fly, curiosity would be tickled, but no one would venture into the new location.
There was one character waiting impatiently to go try the place out, however.
"Gloyd just annoys the candy crap outta me lately!" Vanellope threw her arms up in the air dramatically. She had a habit of that. Not that Ralph or Felix minded, they thought it was pretty funny. Ralph had realized later, after the Turbo incident years ago that Vanellope had always shown some bossy and extravagant tendencies even before her royal identity had been rediscovered. It really was in her code. Not that they ever referred to her as 'Princess', despite these personality twerks of hers. 'Lady Snotface' maybe, but not Princess.
The night before the new game was set to be plugged in, Vanellope, Ralph, Felix and the Sergeant had decided to spend some time at Tappers, away from their own game's residents. Sometimes a change of pace was nice.
And lately, it was more often than sometimes.
Vanellope was needing a sounding board for her leadership ability more and more frequently, Felix had recently had a falling out in his friendship with Gene (which he needed Ralph and Tappers for), and Calhoun had eased up in her rigid, militaristic schedule over the years since she had married Felix, always ready to get away from Cy-Bug killing. She was still very much the Sergeant in personality, however; not that Felix minded. Ralph was really the only one who had things better than ever before. What with his new relationship with Mary and all.
She had been the first Nicelander to start the chain of 'Ralph-niceness' after his little adventure. The little lady could cook, but she actually had a lot more devilish humor than one might not expect. Of course, Gene was pissed.
"Aw, I'm sure he's just excited, poor fella! " Felix waved it off and sipped his milk. Despite the fact that Tammy could drink Beer, Felix couldn't stand the darn stuff.
"Well, yeah. But why is he so annoyyyyyiiiing about it? I keep telling him, 'NO, you have to wait to go there until we meet some residents! Why? Because I'm the President and I say so!' UGH."
"Yeah, he's the annoying, dramatic one," Ralph smirked, sipping his soda.
"Watch it, Stinkbrain. It kind of is hard trying to make sure none of the Sugar Rush residents do anything to stupid." Vanellope's nose crinkled. "Especially Candlehead." In spite of her name, that girl was not the brightest.
"We don't know what kind of world that game is," Calhoun-Fix-it spoke for the first time that night. "Unless your friend wants to be eaten alive like a baby in a basket floating on the Nile, he needs to wait."
Ralph briefly remembered adventuring into Hero's Duty without much preemptive into the kind of environment it was.
Yeah, that was not something he wanted to do again.
Seemed like the Sergeant remembered it too, unfortunately, because she turned and gave him a pointed look.
Ralph sighed and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well, that happened. Nothing we can do now."
"And, besides, that how we met dear," Felix placed a hand on top of his wife's. "There's always a silver lining!"
Tamora Calhoun merely snorted. There may have been a smile smile on her lips, though.
'There's always a silver lining…'
