Chapter 8- Resemblances
Carl held up the copy of Alien Warfare 3: Operation Space Hell, eager to play with his friend. Joey gazed at the front cover of the box, his mouth drooling with awe. Ignoring the mature rating at the bottom right, he marveled at the cover, pondering about the adventures of the main character in the game in hopes to accord with the actual gameplay. The main character was muscular, armed with a plasma rifle in his left hand. He shot the weapon at the masses of aliens in front of him. Aliens were poised behind him in a destroyed city environment with burning flames. The bright blue flash of the weapon being fired repelled the warlike aliens as they backed away to their deaths. The alien killer had a cool buzz cut along his head. The scarring alien bodies were reflected in his sunglasses. With his dog tag, army uniform, and tight black boots stepping on a dead alien carcass on which he fired his weapon from informed the players that he was from the army or some form of high rank or stature, or even a super soldier. His teeth gritted as he held the trigger of his weapon. His backpack held even more weapons, a rocket launcher, an assault rifle, a machine gun, and a chainsaw, only a few of the weapons acquired across the game. In the background, three UFOs were firing their death rays on exploding skyscrapers. Two smaller alien jets joined in the fray alongside them and strafed the buildings with weaker firepower. The two children also saw the design of the title as awesome as what was on the cover. The "Alien" was generally green, fitting the theme of aliens in general right next to "Warfare" in a grey, metallic fashion. The three was at the far right of the cover in a blue, Roman numeral font. Joey marveled at the game's cover, almost resorting to drool on it. "Carl, this is awesome! How did you get your hands on this? I've been obsessed about it for a week already, and my parents will never give it to me." "I have my methods. I bought it online through my mom's credit card. I also got this free alien stalker action figure with purchase," Carl said as he held up the figurine. "Let's play already, shall we," Carl said as he carefully removed the disc from its box and slipped it into the Playboy 360 system. Joey was gripped witnessing the game being put in, as if he were witnessing a holy intervention of a game of such awesome caliber enter the realm of the Playboy 360, complete with its actions, movement, power, weapons, explosions, aliens, vehicles, coming into play following from the Playboy 360 load up screen. A voice over shouted the name of the game's company and not mentioning any other names of the other companies assisting in its development, "Presented by Atomic Joy Entertainment." The logo of the company burst into a powerful, massive, breathtaking atomic explosion before disappearing into the black void of the T.V. screen, and the game began. The startup screen showed a fleet of massive saucer like ships hovering above a city. Hatches opened in the ships, releasing smaller craft and aliens descending on the humans below. The populace was quickly terrified, as strange reptilian beasts chased after the humans as if they were moose being preying on by wolves. Lasers racked the buildings, killing the people inside as well as people in the surrounding area. Rocket-like alien fighters deployed from the cruiser ships dived on the humans and opened fire with their plasma cannons, strafing the crowds as they went to massacre by the dozens. Soldiers that were sent to dispel the situation were easily overwhelmed by the alien hordes. Dogfights of fighter jets and the alien fighter ships lasted in the skies above the city. Tanks were assaulted by legions of aliens on foot, in hovering battle tanks, and bipedal giant robots. It was an all-out war. A helicopter gunship suddenly appeared in the skies overhead. It opened fired on one of the robots with its two machine guns, but the spray of bullets did little to sufficiently damage the mechanical beast. The machine fired a burst of plasma from its rear cannons and heavily damaged one of the plane's two rotors. A shadow jumped off of the rotor-flaming ship within seconds of it crashing headlong into the war machine, destroying it. That shadow was later revealed to be the main character. He fell to the ground unharmed to be visible by three of the alien troopers near to him and shot them one by one with his shotgun. He dodged the oncoming alien blaster fire with ease and ran at them whilst mowing them down with his machine gun. He punched one of the aliens in the head, his hand covered in green blood as the dying body fell to the war-torn ground. One of the hovering battle tanks attacking the troops was blown to smithereens when the man implanted a grenade near the fuselage of the craft. He grabbed a rocket launcher from one of the dead soldiers and fired its rocket at an alien fighter strafing the ground with its plasma cannons, shooting it down into the wreckage of a building and proceeding to stab its wounded pilot to death. As he walked along the battlefield, he saw a new wave of reinforcements coming in the distance. The alien carriers accompanied by several of their fighters appeared on the horizon, deploying troops and turrets on the battlefield to secure territory. One of the aliens clad in a slightly different armor than his cohorts who presumably led the strike force saw the single soldier from a few meters away and roared, signaling his comrades to attack him. Several merciless aliens before their commander roared in unison before charging at him. Their fighter-craft that escorted their carriers boosted to the legions and quickly hovered down until they were positioned on the single soldier in front of their machinery. He smiled as he prepared to load his guns and open fire at the alien hordes. The title screen came up, Joey's mind blown. The first opening mission was the same as the area in the opening. Carl and Joey both played together from there, playing through the many missions of protecting towns and cities from the alien hordes and assaulting their forces and strongholds in occupied areas. The lights were off and the speakers were high. Joey was disgusted at the violence, but he refrained within a few minutes, as his eyes were literally glued to the action. After about two hours, he was dead tired, and Carl's mom shouted at them to go to bed. They finally went to bed, with both boys sound asleep. Joey was unknown of Carl's fantasies as he snored from across the bed. As he was fast asleep, it became clear that his mind again was in control of the violent outcomes of his fantasies.
