(Notice #1: This is my first story, so please give some constructive criticism when you finish the first chapteralthough it is very, very long. Moreover, please do not rush to the ending, or you will spoil the chapter's ending for yourself.)
The Grand DDR Tournament
Chapter: I
"Stop that kid now!"
A kid with a brown cap and jacket was running in the empty streets of Tokyo. It was a stormy night exactly at 7:00 PM. He kept running and running, hoping to findsome one to take himtothe airport tolose the two agents that have been chasing him for the last six months. Oh, how he remembered how this long, laborious chase began. At that time, he knew he had no choice but to take it. The kid knows it was the best for Japan and the world. He kept pushing himself forward, knowing that he had to anyway or he will face horrible consequences of his actions. A white bus stopped at a bus stop. That was his chance. The kid rushed faster into the bus stop to the bus. When the doors were closed, he made it in time just to bang on the doors. The bus driver looked at him and point at his watch.
"Please, I have to get on! I'll pay ten yen just to get on!"
The doors of the bus opened and with a jump, the kid was in. Quickly, he forked up his ten yen that he promised to the bus driver. The bus driver then turned to him.
"Where do you want to go?"
"To the airport, and step on it!"
The bus driver pulled on the lever and the doors closed. The kid jumped over the pole to the seat and the bus speeded away from the bus stop. The two agents then begin to chase the bus that the kid was riding in. He looked out of the window and saw them. One of the agents looked at the other.
"We can't lose him this time!"
"Do you have any ideas?"
The kid looked at the first agent with the long black cape and black shades. He doesn't know him very well as the second one but he hope that his biggest fear is not true about him. He closed the window and sat back down. The kid pulled his hat down to cover his eyes.
"This is going to be a long ride..."
In a long hallway of an unknown base, another man was running away with a crystal key around his neck. Frightened by the alarm, he frantically looked around the place while running. Oblivious of his location, he took out a card and places it on the ground. With a quick short chant, a ray of ice came toward the empty space that was behind him. After it covered the space with an icy wall, the ray split in two, covering the other spaces. When it was finished, the ray simply disappeared and the card floated back up to his pocket. Then he took out a long metal pole and bashed it against the huge metal door. He kept banging and banging. A flash of light was emitted from the first wall of ice. The man stopped to look at the light and that is when it happened. The wall of ice collapsed, creating shards of ice darts that was coming toward him. With the pole, he created a barrier by swinging it quickly in circles. When all the shards were deflected, the man turned back around and took out another card and sticks it on the door. He took a step back and yelled the words. The card then emitted a red flash and it created an explosion, knocking the metal door down. The man turned around and yelled:
"Kauri, now!"
A white pentagram appeared in the middle of the floor and a young girl appeared. She was wearing a red dress holding a white book. Kauri looked up at the man and asked:
"Brother, is it time?"
"Yes, it is that time!"
Kauri opened the book and sat on her knees in the middle of the pentagram, reading the text aloud. While she was reading, the man took out another card and held it up toward the room in front of him with the busted metal door.
"This is the day of unforgivable times of time itself. This is that day in which we should look up, not down. The day, in which our flowers should bloom, not wilt, the sun will rise, not set, and our love for each other grows, not dwindles. And so I read this out loud to plea for your help to lead us home!"
The card that the man was holding up released a beam, destroying everything in its path. Few seconds later, the beam evaporated and the girl stood back up while the man puts up the card. Both then ran through the room with the destroyed defense systems. When they made it at the end of the room, they saw him. He looked down at them with a frown.
"You! You was responsible for our departure from our home!"
The man looked up at the figure that was standing in the platform with a small microchip that was in the case in front of them and that is when he made that discovery.
"It was you all along?"
He looked at his clothing just to be sure. Brown cap and the brown jacket that he was wearing confirmed that fact. The figure looked at them also and the necklace that the man was wearing that have brought him memories...
"Wake up kid, I don't got all day!"
The kid awakens from his sleep and look out from the bus driver's window. For a while, he thinks about that strange dream that he just had. Did it have a point or was it telling him a part about his past? When his mind was back on the two agents however, he rushed out of the bus and ran inside the airport. While he was running, he turned around to see if he lost the two agents. Fortunately, he did...for now! When he entered the airport, he saw a recognizable person that he knew for a long timeand rushed toward that person that was sitting down, brushing her dark, long, blue hair, waiting on her flight. He stopped beside her and asked:
"May I go with you to thegrand tournament?"
"Do you play DDR?"
"Yes I do. I need to go this time so please, spare me some yen."
"Okay, show me your moves by battling me in a PA match."
"And if I win, I can go with you?"
"Yes you can, if my boyfriend approves."
"Your boyfriend?"
"Yes, my boyfriend paid for my trip. We suppose to go together, but I think that we have room for one more, if my boyfriend minds."
"Alright, first the match then I'll ask."
"That is if you win."
The girl stood up, put her brush down, and led the kid to a DDR Extreme machine that was near the exit. She gave him three game tokens and entered her tokens in first. Then the kid entered his tokens in. When both pressed the green button at the same time, the machine greeted them with its own greeting. After the two have chosen for the mode of play, they were asked for their difficulty level. The kid looked at her and asked her this:
"Which mode do I have to play in?"
"I usually play in standard mode, so we go to standard mode first."
"So, you're picking the first two stages and I can pick the last stage, right?"
"We can do it like that."
Both of them chosen the standard difficulty and after the how to play screen have passed, the girl pressed both of the arrows twice to put the songs in alphabet order and pressed the right arrow to the J section and moved the cursor to the song, 'Jane Jana'.
"Do you use modifiers?"
"I used the modifiers once in a while playing in standard."
"Well, this song will be played using the 1.5 speed mod. Is that okay?"
"Yes, that would be fine."
The girl was somewhat shocked when he told her that he usedthe modifiers, but she did not show it. She pressed and held the green button that was in the middle of the arrows to make the conformation and to choose the mod. After they have chose the mod, the kid and the girl pressed the green button to begin the first match. In an instant, people gathered around the machine to watch them play. At the beginning, both was doing fine. The girl and the kid had the same combo number of ninety-two when they made it near to the middle of the song. They weren't stomping on the dance pad and the number just kept going higher and higher. At the end however, both missed the last arrow except that the rate for the kid was good and the girl was almost. When the score was up, the girl won the first round by a mere margin. The girl has one hundred thirty five perfects and forty-two greats while the kid have one hundred thirty two perfects and forty-four greats. People who where watching the game was happy that they passed. She looked at the kid with her light blue eyes.
"Hey you're good for a kid."
"I'm sixteen."
"You don't look sixteen."
"I get that all the time. I can prove it to you later."
Both kept talking about age until the timer reaches zero. That is when the scoreboard closes and the song selection screen appears again. The girl went to the num. section and selected '321 Stars'. With a single press of the button, the screen disappears and the song begins. Again, they were doing fine, having the same number of combos until the girl missed the down freeze arrow by letting it go early by accident, leaving her with fourteen O.K. ratings on the freeze arrows at the end of the song. Unbelievably, the kid had more perfects that the girl. In fact, he even made a higher rating that her with an AA, one rating higher than the girl had did, regardless the fact that they have the same max combo. With that fact, she looked at the kid and got suspicious.
"Are you sure you're not thirteen?"
"I'm telling you, I'm sixteen."
"Okay, pick your song."
The kid stepped off the dance platform and move the cursor to the D section and pressed the green button. Under that section, he moves it to 'Drop the Bomb' and get back on the platform. The girl looked at him with a smile.
"Hey do you mind that I play this on heavy?"
Pressing the down arrow twice, the kid's difficultly moved up to heavy.
"Okay, let's do that, but we're keeping the 1.5 mod on."
Reluctantly but not showing any feeling, the girl moved her difficulty to heavy also. The kid then pressed the green button. Many people began to leave now because of the recent announcement of a plane ready to take off, but that is even better for the two. The song begins and the two played away their final round. Outside the airport, the two agents were sitting down on the bench. The second agent looked at the first one who is looking down at the floor.
"Don't worry too much, we'll catch him."
The first agent looked at him with a straight face. In that instant, the second agent knew that he should not have say that.
"Kite, we've been chasing this guy for six months straight and you're telling me that."
"I thought he's a kid."
"No, he looks more like a kid. Rarely, people think that he is at least thirteen but in truth, he is sixteen."
"Then how did he end up looking like one?"
"Hey, he's just short. Back at the feudal ages, most people probably were about the same height as him. However, people should realize that he's older when they hear his voice."
"Okay, then why are we chasing him in the first place?"
"He has the special project with him. With it, there is no telling which DDR machine that he will put it in during the grand tournament. If he put it on the wrong one, there will be a great disaster."
"But what do the DDR machines and the tournamenthad to do with the project?"
The first agent sighed and from his jacket's pocket, he took out a crumbled memo that is wet from the rain. He unfolds it and gives it to Kite. While he was reading it, the first agent explained:
"That was a memo from the assistant administrator. He warned everybody earlier about possible threats that the project may create with its value. However, nobody did not know that the creator of that project was the assistant administrator the administrator himself and because of that fact was not present in time before it was stolen, many of the agents slacked off on guarding it."
"Uh, but I still don't get it. What does the project's value have to do with the machines?"
"When the project is added to a machine's main drive, it will add another mode to it for tournaments onlyand enhance the performance. However, because many of the machines have been outdated, the mode that came with that project may cause a dangerous portal to open, damaging the world that is parallel to us."
"Do you know what versions of the machines that is capable of this power?"
"DDR Max, DDR Max 2, and DDR Extreme should have no problem with the project because their main drive have been updated under the assistant administrator's orders before they were released to the public, but I can not say the same to the older versions of the game."
"Wait, so what is the world that is parallel to this world?"
"I can not tell you, that is classified information."
Kite looked at the memo again and looked at the window that was behind him.
"Hey is that the kid going with that girl?"
The first agent stood up and looked at the window to see if it was. The kid was indeed with the girl with the dark blue hair and blue eyes. The girl was wearing a light brown heavy coat. By the looks of it, they are talking to each other. When they were finished, the first agent looked back at Kite.
"Let's go back to HQ."
"But are we going to get him?"
"I got a better plan. We're going to take a private plane to New York City to go to the Time Square DDR Tournament."
"Wait a minute, how did you know that they're going there?"
"I can read people's lips well. Therefore, instead of waiting in line to get into one, we could go now. If we leave on time, we should arrive before they do. Besides, he wanted to enter the tournament."
"But, what if the location of the tournament have changed at the last minute? What will we do then?"
"Leave that to me."
With that, the first agent took out a card and whispered a spell. While he was doing so, Kite wondered why did the assistant chose this code name for him, but that did not matter now. In an instant, both of the agents disappeared to HQ. Inside the first-class airplane that have already took off that the kid was on with the girl, the kid was sitting by the window, while the girl's boyfriend sat in the middle and the girl on the other end.
"I've never met a kid who is good at playing at DDR."
"I still think you should've beat him. After all, he's thirteen."
"He told me that he's sixteen."
"Bah, don't listen to him. All kids lie about their age, even in online."
"You're no different."
"Hey, you did it too."
"With my father's consent."
"Hey, did you ever get this kid's name?"
The girl looked back at the kid. He was asleep with his hat down that was covering his eyes.
"He's sleep."
"I just hope that he'll do a good job during the tournament. Speaking of which, which mode does he usually play in?"
"He said that he could play standard really well. I just hope that he could pass some of the hard songs in this tournament as well."
"Can he play on heavy?"
"He totally owned me on the last round of our PA match. That kid nearly made a perfect rating. I found it hard to believe that a kid could be this good. So I am going to assume that he's a heavy player."
"You're serious."
"Yeah, and I took a picture of his score to prove it."
The girl took out her cell phone and opened it. Then she went under pictures and showed him his score. It was hard to believe, but the score does not lie. The score showed that the kid was only three perfects away for a perfect score. The boyfriend had no words to describe it but then he just thought of something.
"Hey, that's an easy seven footer. Anybody could at least make a score like that."
"But, he's a kid. If he can get a AA rating from seven or lower footers, imagine what he could do when he's a teen."
"Good point, but you told me that he was sixteen."
"But you don't believe me."
"I know I don't, but I afraid that even his appearance could be deceiving."
"Ditto."
The boyfriend sat back on his seat and joined the boy. Before he fell asleep, the girl woke him up and asked him why was he going asleep. He told her that this plane is a one-way trip, so he is going asleep to save some energy for the tournament. While the boys were sleeping, the girl was looking outside. On the left wing on the airplane, however, she saw something bizarre. A person dressed as a clown was sitting on the wing. Oddly, the clown turned toward the girl and put a finger over his mouth. She could tell the staff of this airplane that a crazy person was on the wing, but the girl decided to play along and be quiet about this. On the rest of the trip that the boys slept in, the girl was very perceptive. She was listening to conversations of other people that will be in this first time big DDR tournament. Many people said that this tournament will be using DDR Extreme, but some people said that DDR Max 2 would be the machine that the host will use. On the other hand, according to few people, a newer version of DDR that have not ever been released to the public might be used. What really concerned her is the level of these people might be on. She knew that she only started playing last year in Tokyo, after she met her pen pal from Japan via E-mail. The highest level she could play is seven in heavy mode. She knew that she could not pass any eight footers yet, because last time she tried her luck, she failed miserably. Few hours later, she saw a black jet passing by. Recognizing the logo on the jet, she can safely assume that this tournament will be an outstanding one with that company sponsoring or judging the tournament. She knew that the company is the one that is responsible for the upgrades of the DDR machines and that they were on their way to Time Square to the grandtournament...
(Notice #2: All right, I am going to save some misery by stopping the story here. By just looking and rereading it myself, this must've took you at least thirty minutes or less just to get to this point, that is if you did not rush on to the ending. If the characters in this story confuse you, let me help you on that also. The main character and the two agents are from the video 'Gemom Screams' in the US arcade version of DDR Extreme, but you can also find the main character in 'The Legend of Max' and the first agent in 'Trip Machine Survivor'. You should see them at the very beginning of the song of the two. For the second agent, you must look at the near end of the video of 'Gemom Screams' in the US arcade version of DDR Extreme where you see the first agent is chasing the main character on a hill. Behind the first agent, you should see the second one that I am referring to as Kite, because I do not know the names of any of the three. For the girl, you must look at the video of 'ever snow' in the US arcade version of DDR Extreme, but I think that could be found on other arcade versions. You should see her on the beginning of the song also. If you look closely, you could see that she is a playable character also in some versions of the game and as for the clown, refer to the song 'A' in the US arcade or home version of DDR Extreme. The other characters that I did not mention in this paragraph are not in any video of any song in DDR at all. I will work on chapter two very soon. Ta-ta for now!)