Chapter 29: High Score!
Note: Reminder, all the franchise mentioned in this chapter belong to their creators. I don't own them at all. Seriously.
The next day which is Saturday...
"Huey, why did I accompany you to this?"
"Louie, it's not gonna take long. We'll get some video games to add in our collection and game on it!"
The 2 of them are cycling their way to some store. "A store where they sell comic books, cards used for gaming, video games of all kinds and uses to any game system, board games, vehicle, aircraft, navy, cybernetic, robotic and organic models from the various franchise like Command n Conquer, Red Alert, StarCraft, Warhammer 40K, action figures from the Marvel and DC Comics, Gransazers, Justirisers, Ryukendo, Transformers and many more to come!" Huey stated. "Looks a bit boring. Well, this morning I learnt a move called the thrust kick from the janitor." Louie thought as he and his older brother arrived only to, "HEY! THIEF!" They watched as a random teen came out with stolen video games and the owner who's a pig came out but had breathing difficulties. "He has asthma." Huey realized as he and Louie walked to him. "You okay sir?" Louie asked. "No! I got robbed by this kid! He snatched 3 video games and darted off!" The owner explained. "Listen, I'll pay you 5 bucks and you can choose a video game of your choice for free."
"You got a deal! I'll be back in a minute!" Louie changed directions and cycled off. "Louie, wait!" Huey called out to him but he's gone already.
And a minute later, "I got the stolen goods!" Louie rode back and passed them to the owner. "Oh thanks!" He paid him his 5 dollars as, "I wonder what happened to the thief?" Huey asked.
It cuts to an alleyway as, "That jerk...threw a firecracker! Ow...I don't feel so...good."
Now back to them, they entered the store and, "Melvin!" Louie recognized as the penguin turned to see them. "Salutations Huey and Louie! What brings you here?" He asked politely. "We're just getting some new video games." Huey replied. "You?" Louie asked. "I was browsing a few Marvel Comic books and after that, I'll be heading down to the basement for the clique gathering." Melvin replied. "Clique gathering? You nerds also hang out here? I thought the school library is your main turf?" A surprised Huey asked. "Ha! Ha! All the cliques here have their main turf but they have other turfs around the city that serves as their outposts. The Duckburg Intellectual Hobbies Store is the outpost for us nerds." Melvin explained with additional info. "And Mr Podolak is Algernon's uncle."
"I see...haven't heard from Algernon for a long while." said Louie. "Well, he still pisses on his pants at wrong timings and from being bullied." said Melvin as Louie facepalm himself. "By the way, are you guys interested to check out the gathering? Don't worry, leave the talking to me." Melvin requested with assistance. "Heh, let's see how good it is." Louie replied. "Hmmm...I calculate we won't be long. It doesn't hurt to check it out." Huey thought and, "We're in!"
"Great!" Melvin then went to the counter. "Hope you don't mind but we would like access to the basement please?" He asked Mr Podolak. "Sure!" He replied as he opened up a board that enables him to leave his counter as the trio went in and entered the basement via a door behind the counter.
Down there...
"A flight of stairs down to the underground dungeon where all of us squires and knights fight for victory through cards and arcade machines." Melvin explained with roleplaying as they finally reached the basement. There, several nerds are watching 2 nerds consisting of a duck named Tyson and a bluejay named Kervin in a card game.
"I sacrifice Neo Bug(1800/1700) to tribute summon Saber Beetle(2400/1600) in attack position!" Tyson declared as he switched his monster card to the level 6 one sending the level 4 monster to the graveyard. "Here's the equip magic card, Armour with Laser Cannon! 700 plus 2400 equals 3100 attack points!" Tyson declared. "Oh shit." said Kervin. "Entering battle phase and when my Saber Beetle attacks a defence position monster, it inflicts piercing damage! Now go and destroy his Great White(1600/800)!" Tyson ordered as damage calculation took place. "Kervin took 2300 damage from the piercing damage and loses the match. Tyson wins!" Bucky declared as everyone oh in excitement. Tyson was pleased as "Whoa! Is that Yu-Gi-Oh?!" Louie exclaimed. "It's been years since Uncle Scrooge made this game public!" Huey exclaimed back. "I know right? That one adventure where he went to that universe, met the King of Games, had fun with him and got all the monster, magic and trap cards! All of them!" Louie recalled. (Go and read chapters 7 and 8 about the card game and stuff from my Best Friends story)
As they talked about it, "Salutations!" Melvin greeted his friends when, "Who are those people?" A nerd asked. "Stand your ground Logan, they come in peace. Matter of fact, they've come to hang out with us." Melvin told Logan. "So what? They can't join our gathering!" Logan replied as most of the nerds agreed with him but Bucky thought of something else. "Give them a chance guys. Let's see how good their video gaming skills are. In other words, see if they can beat our high scores." He suggested. "Besides, I owe Louie Duck for helping me." Algernon added. "He was one of my buyers in the stinkbombs." Francois added.
Louie was pleased that some of the nerds remembered him as, "Fine. We'll give them the chance. Choose one of the arcade machines and show us your gaming skills." Kervin stated in agreement. "I'll go first." Huey stated as he went to some Space Invader arcade machine and got his hands ready. "Brian, give him a token." Melvin ordered. The yak nerd, Brian nodded and handed Huey a token. "You only have one chance to beat the current high score of this game." He advised Huey. "Oh yeah. Let's game on!" Huey replied and the game is on as the first level is displayed along with the spaceship and the army of aliens all in pixelated form. Huey smiled as he went into focus mode into shooting down the aliens and dodging their attacks. All watched in awe as Huey expertly finished many levels. "Wow. Not bad for a newbie." A koala nerd named Levi exclaimed as Huey moved to the next level and there, he lost a life. "Okay...I better up my game!" Every level finished becomes more difficult but Huey gamed on and hard all the way until, "One life left!" Tyson exclaimed. "Good. Let's make the most of it." Huey declared as his hands went into overdrive mode controlling the joystick and the button as in the screen, the ship kept shooting and dodging as the alien attacks are becoming more berserk. This goes on until finally, the screen reads: "GAME OVER!"
"A for effort." said Huey and his high score? 30100. "Whoa! You beat Noah's score of 28870!" Tyson exclaimed as behind, the second year nerd just shrugged his shoulders and, "Dumb luck." He mumbled as Louie decided to make his move. He chose the Pac Man arcade game as Brian handed him a token. "This, is gonna be a-maze-ing." He joked as he slotted the token in and the game begins!
On the screen is a maze with pac dots and 4 power pellets. On the centre are 4 ghosts. Red, pink, blue and orange. Below them, a yellow circle appeared and Louie controlled it's movement eating pac dots and avoiding ghosts. When it eats a power pellet, the ghosts turn blue and it chased them to eat them and gain points. But the eyes will go back to their turf and respawn from there. Also, a type of fruit will appear at it's starting point from just now. Louie had his fun as he completed the first level. "And it ate so many ghosts!" He added referring to Pac Man as the next level begins.
6 levels later...
"Level 7 and only one life left, let's go!" Louie thought as already, the game also becomes more difficult just like the Space Invader one. Louie focused on eating pac dots and power pellets and the ghosts are more tenacious in their movement. Louie tried to avoid them as much as he can but, "NOOOOOO!" Game over but, "Ha! I beat your high school Dais!" He cheered. The nerds all amazed at their gaming skills as comments filled the basement.
"Those guys are cool!"
"Wow! I never thought they can game so well!"
"Damn! They should hang out with us more often!"
And even better, Bucky approached Louie and revealed something to him. "I always say I'll give my bottle rocket launcher to anyone who can beat Dais' high score! Here, take it along with this electronic!" He then took out the 3 barrelled weapon which was loaded already and the size of a sawed-off shotgun and the electronic and gave them to Louie. "Even better than I expected!" Louie thought in satisfaction as Bucky did some explanation. "This weapon fires bottle rockets. Packs a lot of punch but accuracy is terrible. One out of the 3 bottle rockets fired will launch straight while the other 2 will randomly launch onto other directions. After you fire all 3 of them, you have to reload another supply of fresh ammo to continue firing." Bucky explained. "Gotcha. I'll make the most of it." Louie replied as he also looked at the electronic. "The janitor will appreciate this and teach me a new move soon enough." He thought as, "Who wants another round of Yu-Gi-Oh?" Algernon asked as the nerds crowded around as already, Dais and Noah started the card game.
2 hours later...
"That was fun. Even though we spent a lot of time down there but it was so worth it." said Huey as he, Louie and Melvin left the basement. "C'mon Hue. Let's get the games we want especially for my case, I get to choose one for free." Louie reminded him as they started browsing through while Melvin waited by drinking soda.
After a while, "We have what we came for. Let's go." said Huey as the trio left when Louie got a text message. "Heh. Lena. She wants to show us something. Drop by at Lana's house asap." Louie told them for ever since the formation of the Besties Clique, Louie started a chat group for himself and the members. "interesting, the fair maiden has something to show us since she was with those 2 music maidens. Onward!" Melvin stated with roleplaying as they got on their bikes and cycled off.
At Lana's house...
"This is her house alright." said Huey. "Yeah. 2 garages sandwiching her main home. One for the rides and other for-" Louie's words were cut by some rock music being played from the garage on the right. Already, the other members of the clique just arrived. "Alright. I don't have for this but why did Lena ask us to come here?" Gosalyn asked as the group entered the front yard only for one of the garage doors to open and, "Lena!" Webby cheered running to her friend as the others went to check out what's going on and, "I came all the way here to see you guys in a band?" Ingrid asked. "Not just that. It's time we rock and roll in the upcoming Winter Talent Show!" said Lana as she jammed on her electric guitar one time. "That's right! We're so gonna win first prize! Mark my words peeps!" Luna cheered spinning her drumsticks. "Definitely. We passed the tryouts so far and now, performance live onstage on that day itself!" Lena cheered along.
"Whoa..." All exclaimed. "I nearly forgot all about it! I heard the prize is gonna be big!" said Cornelius. "And I heard so many people from the Band Kids, Rockers and Hip-Hops clique participating." said Shard. "I know right? Every talent show, these 3 cliques war with one another through this." said Duncan. While the chat goes on among the group, Dewey was watching them as he set his eyes on Lena, Lana and Luna. "One thing's for sure, they're not the only ones participating." He thought with a smile as he gazed at Webby who brought up something. "So Lana, what's the name of your all female rock band?" Lana was stunned for a moment. "Okay. They did not prepare for this. Ouch." said Leticia. "Uh..." Lana tried to think of a band name but no idea. "You girls got any?" She asked. "No clue." Luna replied but Lena just smirked. "I think I know a solution." She then winked at the readers.
Of course she did. Lena could use a hand out here. So listen up! You guys can have fun and help give the girls a band name for their all female rock band so that they can make a name in the upcoming Winter Talent Show!
Yes, it's also the next chapter that I'll be working on and also, I feel so honoured to find out this story has reached more than 10000 views in nearly 6 months! Wow, this was thrilling! I never thought this story is becoming a hit but still, a long way to go to work on the plot and the fun. I even used old school references and nostalgia like the video games Huey and Louie gamed on. Not to mention I could use these 2 brothers to hang out at least.
So, who's participating? Who's gonna win? Find out in the next chapter! Woo-hoo!