All characters mentioned from the Bloody Roar series are copyright their respective owners.
"So it released the bug guy, so what?" Alex asked over the phone.
"So!? This is serious, man!" Scott had been panicky since he saw that Stun was out of the game about two hours ago.
"How is it serious?"
"Do you know how he keeps himself alive?"
"No."
"He needs blood."
"You mean like a vampire?"
"You could say that." Scott turned to a turned on tv in the living room. The news was on. "Alex, turn to channel five."
"Okay."
Scott walked into the living room and turned up the volume on the tv.
The reporter had a confused look on his face. "There was a rather bizarre incident just outside of the local mall earlier today. A group of three men stole several hundred dollars from select stores in the mall, but were apprehended just outside by a large blue man. Witnesses claim that the men tried to escape, but the man chased them down and proceeded to bite their necks."
A flustered-looking woman's face appeared on the screen. "He cornered all three of them over there." She pointed towards a corner outside the mall which was covered in blood. "He picked them up one by one, bit their necks, and sucked them dry."
"When she says that they were sucked dry," The reporter cut in, "She is not kidding. When the bodies of the robbers were taken in for analysis there was hardly any blood left inside their bodies. As for the mysterious blue man, some regard him as a hero for stopping the robbers, but others see him as a threat to people's safety since he killed them. Police are searching for him at this very moment and we will be sure to inform you, the viewers, when more information is available."
Scott shut off the tv and picked the phone up again. "I don't believe it." He said in a monotone voice.
"Me neither." Alex responded in the same way.
A beep could be heard over the line.
"Hold on, I have another call." Scott said. He pressed a button on the phone. "Hello?"
"Hi Scott." It was Kenji.
"Kenji? How did you get my number?"
"I used something called the phonebook."
"Oh…right. Well, what is it?"
"Uriko and I are heading to the mall with a few friends and we were wondering if you wanted to join us."
"Wait, you're going to the mall? What about that robbery…and the murders?"
"What about them?"
"Don't you see some kind of danger in going to the mall after people were killed there?"
"No, because unlike those guys we don't plan on robbing people any time soon."
"Ugh, alright. Where should I meet you?"
"Just meet us at the rear entrance."
"Okay. Bye." I hung up the phone, wondering who exactly these "friends" would be.
The mall was surprisingly busy considering that there had been a murder or three. I had to park at the back of the lot and walk the rest of the way to the entrance. I didn't see Kenji right away, but he was probably inside since it was pretty cold that day.
I wonder who he was talking about when he said friends, I thought to myself as I got to the doors. Standing in front of them were two police officers. They asked me a couple questions and made sure I wasn't carrying any kind of weapon before they let me enter the mall. I looked around and saw Kenji standing near a large fountain. I was keeping my jacket on, not because I was cold, but because I had pit stains the size of basketballs. So sue me, I get nervous around people from video games that are capable of ripping me to shreds.
I snuck up behind Kenji and said in a low voice, "I'm here."
Kenji grabbed me by the throat and spun around to see who it was. When he saw it was me he let go of me. "You shouldn't sneak up on people like that." He told me.
"It's what I do." I replied with a shrug. Holy crap, he's as fast as ever, I thought. I then looked around and asked, "So where are these friends you were talking about?"
"Turn around." He said.
I turned and saw almost half of the Primal Fury cast standing behind me. "GAH! You scared the crap out of me!" I gasped. In truth they almost did scare the crap out of me, but that's something you really didn't need to know.
Kenji continued talking. "Scott, you already know Alice and Uriko. This is Yugo, Jane, Alan, Jenny, and Long."
I smiled nervously and said hi. I had been nervous before but I was particularly nervous about Jane, since she was both my favorite character from the game and capable of pretty much anything as far as pain and suffering goes.
"Where should we go first?" I asked.
Everyone said something different, so we decided to split up and meet later. Yugo, Alice, Alan, and Jenny all went to the west side of the mall where an abnormal amount of clothing stores were (actually, I think Alice and Jenny were just dragging the two of them that way). Uriko, Kenji, myself, and for some reason Long and Jane came with us towards the east side, which consisted of electronics, books, and a few remote athletics stores. Long and Jane looked like they were heading towards a book store, but I could see an arcade directly across from it.
"If I'm not back in fifteen minutes, keep waiting." I told the group as I walked towards the arcade. I admit I was a little surprised when Uriko and Kenji followed me in. "I have twenty dollars with me, so we can get 60 tokens, that's twenty a piece. Sound good?" They nodded in agreement as I fed the money into the change machine. I gave each of them their tokens and the three of us split up. I could see Jane (or should I say Shina? Meh, who cares?) and Long in the book store across from us. Somehow I never saw her as a person who was into books, but then again I only knew these people from a video game.
I was heading towards the back of the arcade when I spotted Kenji at a Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance machine. As I walked by I chuckled a little at the idea of a person from a fighting game playing a fighting game. From what I saw, though, he was kicking ass with Scorpion.
Uriko was at the opposite end of the arcade, ripping it up on the Dance Dance Revolution machine. For some reason I wasn't surprised that she would be good at that game.
I went towards my usual wing of the arcade; the place where they kept all of the shooting games and, for some reason, Mo-Cap Boxing, which was one of my personal favorites for both exercise and, against the easier opponents, relieving stress. Seeing as how I was a bit off what with the guys who got sucked dry by Stun, I went straight to Mo-Cap Boxing.
I put in a few tokens and picked up the "boxing gloves" from the console and got in a fighting stance under the sensors that could read my movement. The first opponent went the same way it always did; a few quick dodges and jabs, plus the always-fun 30-punch rush followed by the KO. I continued on to the second opponent. When I knocked him down for the first time I felt like I was being watched. I turned around and saw Shina standing behind me. What do you know? I was right.
"Get bored of looking at books with Long?" I asked.
"Well, I'm not as much of a book-worm as he can be." She replied.
"No shit." I said as I turned back towards the screen. My opponent had gotten up and was about to hit me with a left hook, but I dodged just in time to nail him in the stomach.
"You should try this sometime." I told her over my shoulder, keeping my eyes on the screen. "It's quite a workout." I KO'd my opponent with an uppercut. I offered the "gloves" to Shina.
"Sorry, but I prefer the real thing." She said, cracking her knuckles. She then gave me a strange look. "Aren't you a little old for video games?"
"Only the ones with Sesame Street characters in them." I answered. Though I couldn't see her, I knew that Shina rolled her eyes at my remark. By that time I had knocked out the second opponent and made my way to the third. Kenji, who had apparently played through and beaten Deadly Alliance by then, was now watching me along with Shina.
"Can't you use kicks at all?" Kenji asked me.
"Look at the game title." I told him, pointing to the word 'Boxing'. "Until they come out with Mo-Cap Karate or anything like that it's all punches."
In the middle of my smart-ass comment the game had proceeded to the next opponent and knocked me out while I was talking to Kenji.
"DAMMIT!" I screamed as I threw the gloves down. Kenji and Jane both burst into laughter on the spot. "Oh, sure, it's funny to you!"
"No, actually it's hilarious!" Jane choked out in between laughs.
This was definitely not the first impression I had hoped to make on her.
"Nice work, dumbass!" A voice called from my right. It was none other than Jack Farthie, in the right place at the wrong time.
"Hello, Jack." I muttered. "Don't you have a ribbon you should be twirling about now?"
"HEY! IT'S A VIBRANT METHOD OF DANCE THAT ECHOES FROM THE DEPTHS OF A PERSON'S SOUL!" Jack screamed as he punched me in the jaw.
"Ha!" I screamed back. "I can still feel a tooth you haven't chipped!"
"Well let's see if I can change that!" He lunged at me again, but I managed to avoid it and nailed him in the stomach.
"Is that…all…you got?" He wheezed.
"Break it up!" The manager had come out from one of his backroom hidey-holes and now stood between the two of us. "I want both of you out of my arcade! NOW!" He promptly shoved both of us out, mumbling something about kids these days and violent video games.
"I'll deal with you later." Jack told me as he walked away. He stopped and turned back to me. "And I know it was you that syruped my car!"
I was about to yell something back to him, but a stabbing pain in my jaw prevented me from doing so. "Ah fink ah 'eed a ge'ift." I said…or rather tried to say.
"Anyone understand what the hell he just said?" Jane asked.
"I think he said he needs a dentist." Kenji guessed.
I pointed to Kenji to indicate that he was right and quickly ran for my car. Great, I thought, Just when things start to go well Jack had to step in. I hope something very bad happens to him…like getting hit by a truck…or something. That's pretty bad…