Day Off
(by Sailor Taichichi Vegeta)
Just more good clean fun, like 'Silly Take!' and 'Pizza from the Black Lagoon!'
Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah. –Oh wait. I don't own Chuck E. Cheese's or Jurassic Park, either.^_^
Korin sat in the air car and watched the scenery below them.
"Are we there yet?" he asked.
"Not yet," said Yajirobe.
The two were taking a brief holiday. Over the past few days, Korin had been becoming rather dissatisfied with his duties as a guardian. So he and Yajirobe had gotten into the air car and driven off for a day of fun.
Presently Yajirobe brought the car down in a small suburban area. He drove past houses and shops as he seemed to be looking for something.
"How close are we now?" asked Korin.
"We're almost there," replied Yajirobe. He directed the car into a modest shopping center, found a parking space, and got out.
"Okay, we're here."
Korin surveyed his surroundings in confusion. "Yajirobe, I don't mean to be rude, but where is here?"
"Here." Yajirobe led them up to a shop and opened the door to-
"Chuck E. Cheese's?" Korin couldn't believe his eyes. He'd been expecting an exciting day of-well, something- but here he was, inside of a children's playroom! For all its childishness, it was somewhat well-planned: on the right was a large slide attached to a colorful jungle gym, with a small room full of balls. Beyond that was an area for toddlers, which contained a few little games and an even smaller 'ball room'. On the left side was a bunch of games; some skill, some video. Directly in front of them was a long counter, behind which sat an assortment of little prizes, some wrapped baked goods, and a salad bar which had several large flies buzzing around it. Off to the right of the counter was some sort of darkened showroom, which contained a multitude of booths and tables. More booths lined the perimeter of the room. Close to the counter there were five large, boxlike machines. One was an ice cream vendor; the other four were indiscernible. Television monitors displaying short cartoons hung from various points in the ceiling.
All in all, it was not exactly his type of place.
"You have got to be kidding."
"Aw, give it a chance," said Yajirobe as he took a piece of paper from his gi.
"What is that for?"
"You'll see." He walked up to the counter and greeted the girl there.
"Hello," she said. "How may I help you today?"
"I'd like to get some tokens for this report card," said Yajirobe as he handed her the piece of paper.
She examined it. "All A's. Very good. That means you get-" she counted out some brass coins-"eighteen tokens. Here you are."
"Eighteen? Boo yeah! Thanks." Yajirobe led them to a nearby booth and separated the tokens into two even piles. He gave half to Korin and pocketed the rest. "Okay. Now go have fun."
Korin glanced at the huge slide. It was crawling with kids. A small boy sat on the ground, wailing and clutching a bruised knee-didn't look very fun at all. The game side of the place wasn't as crowded.
Korin walked up to one of the games. It appeared to be some sort of mole-bashing game that consisted of six brightly-colored sharks. There was no hammer; it was the type of bashing game you had to use your hands for. A neon sign on the left side of the game read 'Your Score'-0. Another sign on the right side read 'High Score'-21.
May as well try it, thought Korin. He inserted one of his tokens and got ready to play. Smacking left and right with lightning-quick paws, he soon discovered that the game was easy, but the sharks' heads were quite painful for anyone to hit out at with their bare hands for very long.
In the end, Korin wound up with a new high score of 41. Six tickets came out of a small slot on the game.
Six tickets for six sharks. Not bad for a beginner. But a bit low for a score of 41-kind of a disappointment, come to think of it.
"Hey Korin! Come here!" Yajirobe beckoned from a device that appeared to be somewhere between a virtual-reality game and a wrecked Jeep. On the sides was written "Jurassic Park."
"Wanna play?"
"What's this?" asked Korin. He'd read the book and seen the movie, but this was completely new to him.
"It's a 'Jurassic Park' riding game for two players. I need your help."
"Okay." They sat down inside the 'car' and each inserted one token. Nothing happened.
"What happened?" asked Korin. "Is it broken?"
"Nope. We just need to put in one more. See?"-he indicated the small signal at the bottom of the screen that read "½ Credit."
Both players put in another token. The game began. The goal was to get off of an island inhabited by ferocious dinosaurs.
"Isn't this fun?" asked Yajirobe as he shot at a Tyrannosaurus rex.
"My controller's broken," complained Korin. "See? It keeps sticking to the top of the screen, no matter how I move it."
They got scratched up by some Velociraptors and wound up being trampled by a herd of angry Triceratops. Yajirobe put in two more tokens.
"Are you gonna play again?" he asked. Korin shook his head.
"No, you go on," he said.
Yajirobe continued to play by himself. The game progressed from a partially submerged road, to a cypress forest, to a jumble of huge feet. Yajirobe took it all in stride and did a great job, although he had to keep putting in tokens.
Pretty soon, they'd reached the fourth (and last) level. Yajirobe drove through the headquarters building and headed for the main gate.
"Wow, you're good," breathed an attendant, who'd been watching them. "I've never seen anybody make it this far."
Suddenly, the vehicle turned around.
"What's going on now?" asked Korin. "I thought we beat it."
Just then, another huge T. rex came out of some trees.
"Come on, Yajirobe," urged Korin as he watched his friend shoot. "We can do it."
"You mean I can do it," said Yajirobe. "You didn't really do anything."
The T. rex fell over. There was a momentary lull.
"I guess that's it," said Korin.
As he spoke, two more T. rex appeared. Yajirobe started shooting again, but his health was low.
"I don't know if I can finish these guys!" he cried.
"I'm gonna try again!" shouted Korin. He popped in two more tokens and grabbed his controller. His cursor remained in the top right corner of the screen.
"Quit messin' around, man!" called Yajirobe. "We're both dying here!"
"I'm trying!" insisted Korin, moving his controller around wildly. Suddenly, a blue line of fire appeared next to the red one shooting at the T. rex.
"Hey Korin, you're doing it! Keep your controller pointed downwards."
"Okay."
Together, the friends defeated the final boss(es). The screen showed a helicopter flying away, and credits started to roll. A cheer went up from the small crowd watching.
"Yeah! We did it!" Korin slapped his friend high-five and got up to find a new game.
He walked over to a wall that was mostly filled up with games that resembled bowling up a slope with nine balls. After waiting for a kid to move, Korin put in a token and waited for something to happen.
"That's skee-ball," said Yajirobe, who had decided to play also. "What you do is roll the ball up the hill like this." He put a token into the game next to Korin's. Nine balls rolled down from a slot in the game. Yajirobe picked one up and rolled it up the slope. It went into a small hole near the top. "A 100! Boo yeah! That's what you do."
Korin started to roll his balls. He wound up with a 230.
"Not bad," said Yajirobe.
"What's the high score?" asked Korin. His friend pointed to a sign high up on the wall.
"450. If you score that high, you get the tickets up there." The sign currently said 218.
"I don't know if I can get that high, seeing as how I'm just starting out," said Korin. "But I'll do my best." He rolled a few more games.
"Hey, wanna go head-to head?" asked Yajirobe.
"Okay," said Korin. They finished with the smallest possible difference between their scores; Yajirobe got a 280 and Korin scored 270.
"Boo yeah! Beat that!" grinned the pudgy warrior.
"I don't mind," said Korin. "I did my best, and I set a new high score for myself. Besides, I think I'll see if I can't set another high score on that shark bashing game."
He did; the sign read '61' when he finished. Six tickets slid out.
"Six tickets still?" Korin gave up trying to understand why the game would rip him off after he'd worked so hard. Blowing on his now-sore paws, he returned to the skee-ball area and concentrated on beating a 270.
Yajirobe showed up with more tokens. He gave half to Korin.
"Thanks," said Korin. "Where'd you get these?"
"I showed them another report card. I'm gonna go and find the bathroom."
"Okay. I'll be right here."
Something was beginning to get to the 800-year old cat as he played. Perhaps it was the excited laughter of so many kids. Or the air, full of the smell of various pleasure-bringing junk foods. Or maybe it was just Korin himself, rediscovering his inner kitten. At any rate, he began to feel happier and happier, with any irritability shown at being brought here diminishing rather quickly. As a result, when a random two-year old chibi staggered up to him and seized one of his balls, instead of showing any anger, Korin merely grabbed the ball back and squeaked out in a friendly two-year old voice, "No no no! I not finished yet!"
Yajirobe came over. "I heard you going on like a mouse over here. What happened?"
"Nothing," said Korin. "I used up all of my tokens. What now?"
"Well, we can get a ticket voucher and cash 'em in, or just plain leave."
"I've looked over there and I don't really want anything. I guess I'll just get a voucher and come back some other time."
Yajirobe directed Korin to one of the four strange machines he'd noticed earlier. It read "Ticket Muncher."
"What you do," explained Yajirobe, "is to feed your tickets into that slot. Then, when you finish, you press that button and get your voucher."
Korin did as he was told. A chomping noise came out of the machine as the tickets went in. Korin pressed the red button. Out slid a piece of paper which read: 155 Tickets.
"155 tickets," said Yajirobe. "That's great. I only got 109. You ready to go?"
"Yeah," said Korin. The two headed for the door.
"So did you have fun?" asked Yajirobe as they went to the car.
Korin's reply was one of complete contentment.
"Boo yeah!"
The End