Omura Jaima stood a good three inches above most of his classmates. His blond hair, pulled perpetually into a ponytail, set him further apart from a group of brunettes and raven haired young men. Even though girls typically had a wide array of hair colors to choose from at their school, Jaima still managed to stand out while there.
The arcade, however, was different. Plenty of students were there, which kept his uniform from being conspicuous. Plenty of other boys who weren't likely to go to a school as disciplined as his were there as well, which kept his hair from being conspicuous. Much of his younger free time had been spent here, and he had become a fixture. It was where he'd met his unlikely first and best friend, Amano.
It was also the beginning of a rivalry that had lasted to the present day, in which Amano would constantly try to beat Jaima in driving games and fail miserably. Though their competitions had become less and less as school demanded more of their time, Amano usually found a way to trick Jaima into taking time to defend his crown. It was usually when a new game came out. This was the reason that Amano had dragged Jaima, whining and complaining, to the biggest arcade in town.
"Look, Omura," Amano said, one brow raising in amusement. "One, you haven't spent any time with your best buddy since you got that job," he said, putting on a sad tone while draping his arm around Jaima's shoulders. "Two, you owe me for crushing my spirit last time-"
"I told you not to turn left on that track. It's not my fault that you got so bogged down that I lapped you."
"Three times?" Amano grumbled, but was hiding a grin. "Three, midterms are done, so chances are Mizuno won't be studying, either." He pointed at a large kiosk. "There's four."
The kiosk in question was one of twenty, all lined up in two rows of five. Each one housed a screen and a seat, with controls in between. The controls consisted of a joystick coming from the ground, mounted on a long metal pipe, with a trigger, two toggle switches, a red button covered by a clear plastic cover, and another, smaller pad that moved in eight directions. The front of the joystick had a hand guard, giving it a more realistic feel. Next to the seat of the console was a throttle with two buttons and its own trigger. As Jaima examined the controls, the screen flashed its logo: Galaxy Trek Wars.
"It's a space game."
Amano chuckled evilly. "Yeah, all that studying with Mizuno sure is paying off." Jaima shot him a glare, but said nothing. "Yes, Omura, it's a space game. It is also our session's challenge."
"We always race. I like racing games. There's no shooting."
"Mario Kart."
"OK, there's very little shooting."
"Spy Hunter."
Jaima rolled his eyes. "You can't even play that against each other."
"You still managed to make me crash."Amano leaned against the cabinet, smirking. "Yes, we usually race. However, since my spirit was so crushed last time, I need a new game. One I have a chance to beat you with."
"It wasn't that bad."
Amano raised his brows. "You lapped me three times."
"Yeah, I remember."
"You did the last lap in reverse, jerk!"
Jaima laughed. "OK, so I was a little mean with that one." Jaima shook his head. "Fine. I can assume you've spent the last week 'training' like last time?" He raised his brow, smirking back at his friend.
"Two weeks. You're toast."
"Swell. Give me a little bit to get used to the controls." Jaima climbed into the cockpit like cabinet and put his hands on the controls. The screen scrolled through various displays, from a game play demonstration to the Galaxy Trek Wars logo, and finally instructions. Amano leaned in, watching Jaima.
"OK, there's some features you need to know. You have to pick a code name first. All ten games are linked up, so sometimes you'll see another player. You can offer a team up by targeting the player and clicking the left toggle down on the joystick. We'll team up after I kick your butt." Amano pointed to the screen, which was showing the game play demo. "There's your radar. Enemies are red, teammates are blue, you're green. They have something in the game called 'friendly fire'. You can damage your teammate, but not as much as if you hit an enemy."
He began pointing to the different controls. "OK, on the joystick, the left toggle is for requesting a team. Doesn't matter which way you flick it, whoever is highlighted will be asked to team with you. If you're asked to team, it'll put a message up on your screen, and you just flick the toggle, you don't have to have a target. The hat here," he said, pointing to the 4-way pad, "let's you set power to shields, weapons, and engines. There's three levels each, and setting one to level three makes it so that the other two are level two. If you set two to level one, then two can be level three. Up goes through the forward shield levels, down goes through the rear shield levels, left does the weapon levels, and right does the engine levels."
Jaima's head started to swim. "Um... OK..."
Amano grinned. "The red button with the plastic cover is for missiles. They probably just did the plastic cover to make it look cool," Amano said, anticipating Jaima's question. "The right toggle is to target. You'll notice both toggles go right back to the center. Pull back to go up, push forward to go down. You roll by twisting the stick in the direction you want to roll."
Amano moved to the other side, and pointed to the throttle. "OK, the trigger sets off countermeasures to missiles. The top button is for boost. You can't hold it down, it's for quick boosts, and you'll blow out the berylium sphere. The other button re orients the ship if you're upside down or something. Twist the throttle, and you'll move sideways. That is the coolest thing." Amano grinned at Jaima. "Any questions?"
"You know this is just a game, right?"
Amano smirked and climbed into the cockpit next to Jaima's. "I'll let you get a hang of the controls before you explode in a fiery ball of hellish glory. You have five minutes," he cackled, rubbing his hands together.
"Amano, you've been playing for two weeks!" Jaima sighed. "Give me more time."
Amano looked over at Jaima and smiled sheepishly. "Can't. There's a gang that comes in every day and dominates every machine for hours. We've only got an hour before they show up."
"Great. Bullies."
"Space age bullies!"
Jaima scowled. "'Cause that's so much better." He put in his tokens and started the game.
The outline of the cockpit appeared on the screen, and then an overlay with letters faded in. He selected a call sign letter by letter: CERES.
As he entered the game, he was alone in a field of stars. His radar showed a yellow blip, but as he turned to view it he was attacked by a second yellow blip. He managed to limp away, scowling. "Oi, Amano, are you Alipes? Someone attacked me while I was figuring out who that was."
"I'm not Alipes, Jaima." As Amano spoke, Jaime exploded. The message flashed on his screen, "Ceres has been defeated by Phobos."
"Five minutes my ass," Jaima cried as Amano cackled. They continued to fly, ignoring or avoiding Alipes, who seemed content to clear the non player ships that inhabited the field.
As they flew, Amano destroyed Jaima's ship twice, and once Jaima went into what he thought was a debris field. Amano stopped outside of it, and it wasn't until the first explosion happened that Jaima realized his mistake and tried to fly out. Amano's voice sounded through his concentration. "Do you really want to hit each and every mine, Jaima?"
"Shut up. They must be magnetic or something," Jaima growled, clenching his teeth on a swear word when he finally exploded.
"One ship left, Jaima. Why not admit defeat now?" Amano began flying in lazy loops, allowing Jaima to sneak in behind him.
Jaima blew him up with a vengeance. Amano laughed and respawned his ship.
Now, however, there were more player ships in the area, and Amano began to sweat. "Aw, crap. They're here."
Jaima peeked out of his cabinet to see a rough, skinny looking boy leaning against Amano's cabinet. His arms were crossed, and he chewed gum loudly, casting intimidating looks at the cabinet's occupant. Outside his own cabinet was a larger boy, glaring intently at Jaima. At first he was intimidated, but he simply went back to flying. In a distance, toward the further corner of the area with the space game's networked machines came a strident, fairly familiar sounding voice.
"My friend is playing right now! Wait your turn!"
The words made him more determined to keep playing, despite the fact that he had one ship left. Designations like "Wolf", "Dragon", and "Razor" appeared, putting fourteen more opponents on the screen. Instead of concentrating on blowing them up, Jaima began dodging and flying erratically.
ALIPES WISHES TO FORM A SQUADRON. DO YOU ACCEPT?
The words crawled just above Jaima's radar, and as he thumbed the left toggle, he watched Amano's ship explode. Amano cursed and stood up, glaring nose to nose with the thin boy grinning at him.
"You yanked my joystick, dick!"
"Prove it," sneered the boy, snapping his gum and climbing into the cockpit of his ersatz space ship. Amano slouched over to Jaima's cabinet, pointedly getting between Jaima and the larger boy waiting.
"I'm next, jerkwad," growled the boy. Amano fiddled with a token.
"I'm talkin' with my friend," growled Amano, putting his hand near, but not on, the coin slot. Predictably, the large thug pushed Amano, and Jaima heard a click.
"Look what you made me do!" Amano stood, except he wasn't angry. He grinned maliciously at the larger boy. "I dropped my token."
"You did that on purpose!"
"Prove it," sneered Amano, staying between Jaima and the boy. Both of them squared off, but the Manager clearing his throat kept it from being a confrontation.
Three more lives appeared on Jaima's indicator.
Jaima made his way to his new partner, who was being harried by three ships. Alipes was dodging gracefully, which seemed to be infuriating the three that were giving chase. Jaima locked target on one and hit their ship in the engines with a missile. Luckily, he'd put maximum power to both engines and weapons, leaving his shields weak. The missile went through and destroyed the engines, causing the ship to explode.
He hit the booster and dashed past the other two ships, twisting the throttle and warning the other two off with shots across their bows. Like the one he'd destroyed, their shields were set to their lowest point, and Jaima, who'd kept all of his settings at the second level, managed to do damage before they veered off.
There was now breathing room, but not much.
"I wish there was a way to talk to each other."
"I'll see if I can find out who it is," Amano turned to go, but the larger boy was in the way.
"Tell your friend to move. He's got three lives that he shouldn't have."
Jaima cleared his throat. "I'm still on my last legitimate life, and I'm staying until my credits are used up. If you have a problem, take it up with the manager." He noticed Amano looking at him in something close to awe, but didn't say anything. His mouth was dry and his throat tight. "I've got a partner, and I'm not letting them down."
"He's got a partner!" The thug straightened, calling to his friends.
"So does this one," screeched a girl. "And her friend won't budge!"
"Take 'em out!" With those words, a swarm of fighters came after the pair. Jaima's eyes widened.
"Hey, Phobos, is there a machine available? We're going to need help."
Amano leaned in close. "Um... I slipped you my last token, buddy. Besides, I think their all being used now."
Jaima quickly took stock. "Eight to two." He sighed, defeated. "It's a fun game, too."
Red flashes came from Jaima's left, and he gripped the joystick. With a set of his jaw, he yanked up and out, his partner pulling away in a mirrored arc. The ships that were attacking flew past them. Alipes twisted in a seemingly impossible turn and blasted at the shields of the left attacker. Jaima's ship turned more slowly, but he was able to get another missile lock and send it a bright trail from his launcher to the nose of the second attacker. Both exploded at the same time.
"Holy crap!" Three different voices cried the expletive out at the same time, and only one was Amano's. There was, however, no time to see who was who. All of the gang seemed to have teamed together, leaving himself and Alipes alone against them. They seemed to universally favor brute force to defense, and that was what was saving Jaima. He toggled his shields to maximum in the rear, then, after some thought, also toggled up his engines. The Mysterious Alipes seemed to be relying more on her maneuverability than shields.
On the screen, Ceres and Alipes began picking off targets of opportunity, with Jaima switching power to weapons temporarily to blow though weakened shields, then switching back before he was attacked again. Alipes took advantage of the confusion this caused, firing from beneath or above, usually disabling the ship attacking Ceres and leaving it stranded in space.
Jaima had lost track of time, lost track of everything outside of the game, until Amano hissed next to him, "Have you been holding out, man?" He said it in a whisper, eyeing the ever present gang member on the other side of the cabinet.
"Can't talk right now," warned Jaima, but Amano shook his head.
"You're out flying them. You've never played this game before?"
Jaima shrugged, lining up a shot before spinning to the left to avoid an unlocked missile, which nearly took out his target anyway.
"Watch it!"
"Stay outta my way!"
Amano muttered something about holding out, and Jaima shook his head. "It's probably Alipes, Amano. She's an amazing flyer." Amano snorted, but blinked. "Hey. I think you guys are making progress." Sure enough, there were less red marks on the radar. "Some of them are getting out and hovering around their friends." Jaima saw the red flashes indicating he was being his and dove his ship, watching as the distinctive color of Alipes' ship flew over him, guns blazing. He flipped coming in behind the attacker who'd been harrying her and sent enough lasers into the enemy ship's shield to force it to veer off.
Slowly, or perhaps quickly, Jaima couldn't be sure, the numbers dwindled. Finally there were three left. From the cries of the gang who'd been eliminated, they were on their last lives. But Ceres and Alipes were also faltering. Both were out of missiles, and Ceres' engine was damaged, while Alipes had taken a lot of damage to her shields. The three ships seemed to be a lot more stable, and flew in a formation that hadn't been evident in the chaotic furball that combat had turned into.
Alipes broke, pulling back as the enemies came on. Jaima watched in growing frustration as her dot moved further and further from his.
"There's a red thingy coming toward the green thingy." Amano's voice was tinged with amusement and resignation.
"Huh?"
"There's a red thingy coming toward the green thingy." He stopped to swallow. "I think you're the green thingy..."
Jaima reacted on instinct, diving and hitting his booster. He looped toward Alipes, rolling the ship to keep the missile off his trail as long as possible. That was how he noticed where she was heading.
"Oh, you're brilliant," he muttered, firing his countermeasures to force the missile off course.
Alipes' ship began to return, at a steady pace, unlike the frantic one she used to get there. Jaima spun his ship around before they met in space, getting in front of her. He toggled his forward shields to maximum, robbing his rear shields and weapons of power, and matched her pace.
The three ships approached and, as soon as they were in firing range, began firing. Alipes kept her ship as closely behind Ceres, which was taking the brunt of the damage. The thug outside Jaima's cabinet began to laugh.
"Idiot. Didn't you know that once they get through your shields, they'll rip you to shreds?"
Jaima actually grinned. "Nah, I guess I didn't realize that. Just like they don't realize," he nodded down to the radar, indicating the yellow specks behind Alipes' ship, "her ship is trailing mines."
In a smooth motion, Jaima boosted and turned, at the same time as Alipes did. The boost broke the simulated magnetic pull from the mines, leaving them on a course toward the three ships. All three of the players left screamed, and the mines detonated against their shields and hulls. Two blew up. The third followed when Alipes and Ceres fired from above and below it respectively.
The game stopped, the entire arcade, it seemed, washed in silence, before a high pitched, laughing voice crowed out, "Ami, you did it!" The arcade erupted into cheers from people who's gathered to watch, as well as more muffled protests.
"Ami..?" Jaima stood out of his cabinet blinking. There, at the opposite corner, was Usagi Tsukino, excitedly hugging a girl with short blue hair.
"Holy crap, that's Mizuno!" Amano laughed as Ami's face appeared from behind one of Usagi's pigtails, blushing and smiling. She looked, saw Jaima, and her eyes widened, opening further when he gave her a thumbs up.
A/N: Yeah, I know. "What's this got to do with anything"? Well... some of these little known facts may come out later. Also, I know Ami has played video games in the past, and was good at them, in at least one of the earlier episodes.
A lot of the lines came from Galaxy Quest. I couldn't help myself.
If it's too cheesy for you, I apologize. If it's too detailed about the game itself, I felt I had to do that because it was so clear in my head. In fact, this entire plot wouldn't leave me alone, having been in my head since just after The Watcher. I'm glad I could get it out.
Alipes is another name for the Roman God Mercury. Ceres is the name of one of the dwarf planets in the solar system. No, it isn't meant to imply that Jaima has planetary scout powers, he picked it because he and Ami were studying astronomy (sometime). Phobos is the name of a moon of Mars, which means Terror. Amano picked it because he plays DooM.
Thanks, as usual, to RadiantBeam, who encouraged. (I'm still waiting for your sequel, RB!)
R&R, but no flames, they tickle.