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Chapter 35: High Score


The Tower of Doom

Level 1

The elevator ground to a halt, its metal doors slowly sliding open with a soft creak. One by one, the five occupants squeezed their way out of the cramped space, stepping into a somewhat large room, with a flat, dark blue carpeted floor and black painted walls, decorated with stars of various colors.

Darkstalker sighed, relieved to be out of that cramped elevator, and took in his surroundings. To his left was a small collection of round tables, shiny dark red cushions situated around each. A steaming pizza sat atop one of them, seemingly fresh out of the oven. Ahead of him was a large assortment of arcade games, archaic compared to the ones he'd seen in other timelines, but just as bright, gaudy, and loud. To his right was a prize counter, with large plushies and toys hung up on the wall, and a familiar looking NightWing standing behind the counter.

"Oh, Winnie! What are you doing here?" Hidden asked, walking over to the prize counter. The other three followed close behind, marveling at the new location as they went, leaving Darkstalker standing by the now closed elevator.

Winnifred narrowed his eyes at the approaching SandWing disapprovingly. "It's Winnifred. And if you think you will receive any help from me in this challenge, then you are sorely mistaken." he began, as Hidden rested his foretalons on the counter. "I am simply here to observe."

"Just didn't expect to see you again so soon, is all." Hidden replied. "But...you said you're a guide, right? So isn't it your job to...you know...guide us?"

"You have all of the information you need at your disposal." Winnifred explained. "Now go on! You won't get any further speaking with me."

Hidden turned, he, Xavier and Ricky strolling over to the arcade games while Reggie walked his metal dragon suit towards the dining area.

"What's his deal anyway?" Darkstalker heard Xavier ask Hidden quietly, eliciting an annoyed glance from Winnifred. Hidden shrugged in response.

Darkstalker leaned against the back wall of the arcade, next to the shiny steel elevator doors, watching the trio of dragons disappear into the rows of arcade games. He wished the elevator doors would open back up again, and it would carry him out of this place, though he knew that wasn't going to happen. He'd made his decision, and now he had to live with it.

"This place is so much like Neon Dunes!" he heard Ricky fondly say.

"Yeah, except it's smaller, less crowded, and doesn't smell like puke." Hidden replied, "Hey Darkstalker! You gonna help us out or what?!"

Darkstalker sighed. He certainly didn't feel like stepping into the cluster of bright, noisy games with those three. But if it'll get us out of here faster…. he thought, as he slowly began to make his way to the arcade games.

"Hey, guys! Look at this!" Reggie shouted from the dining area. Darkstalker paused, halfway to the arcade games, and turned to join the others around the table with the freshly made pizza sitting atop it.

"See." Reggie said, pointing a metal claw at one of the steamy slices of pizza. Hidden reached down, sticking his claws into the thick coating of cheese, and pulled out a small slip of white paper.

"High score." he read aloud, as Ricky, Xavier, and Reggie leaned in for a closer look.

"I also found this." Reggie continued, passing Hidden a small, gold painted coin, when it slipped out of the Reggie-tron's metal talon, falling beneath the table. Hidden groaned, reaching down to pick up the token, and paused, examining it and the slip of paper carefully, lost in thought.

"W-What is it?" Xavier asked, but Hidden didn't reply. Instead, he made a beeline for the arcade games, inspecting each and every individual one. The others followed close behind, even Darkstalker, who was slightly curious as to what the SandWing had figured out. Once he'd checked every game, Hidden silently turned around, and walked back to one game in particular, a confident grin on his face.

"Super Pinball Space Cadet…." Xavier read aloud, inspecting the space themed machine curiously. "What about it?"

"Reggie, you only found the one token, right?" Hidden asked. The metal dragon nodded its head.

"Right, so assuming that the slip of paper is a clue, which it likely is, then it is most likely asking us to achieve a high score on one of these games." Hidden explained, "Most of the machines here give out tickets or prizes, and have no high score system, and of the remaining games that do, only one can be played with a single token." He gestured toward the pinball machine, grinning excitedly.

"You didn't just pick this one because you're good at pinball, did you?" Xavier asked skeptically, pacing about to examine the other high score based machines.

"No. Though I'll admit, it is a nice coincidence."

"So...do we play it?" Ricky asked, leaning down for a closer look at the array of tracks and bumpers beneath the thin sheet of glass.

Hidden held up the token, it's golden surface scratched and dulled, rocking it between his claws. "Might as well, unless you have any better ideas."

Hidden turned to each of the others, Ricky, Xavier and Reggie each shaking their heads, and Darkstalker turning to head back to the elevator. It wasn't like they needed his help to play pinball, and he'd much rather stand where it was slightly less noisy.

He rounded the corner of a crane game, the sound of Hidden slipping the token into the pinball machine barely audible over the cacophony of the other games, and froze.

It seemed to happen in the blink of an eye, less than that even. The noisy arcade was gone, replaced by a wide, flat chamber. The floor was slippery, and the room was slightly slanted, causing Darkstalker to lose his balance and begin sliding down towards a dark chute at the lower end. He quickly grabbed hold of a wide, circular column, only to be abruptly thrust back, sliding across the chamber until he was finally able to regain his balance.

Wh-Where am I? What happened?! he thought, the nodes on his body starting to glow as he began to panic. He quickly noticed that Ricky, Xavier and Reggie were in the chamber alongside him, looking equally confused and frightened, and a quick look up immediately revealed what had happened to them.

"Guys? Guys! What the moons are you doing in there!" Hidden shouted, his giant head staring down at them from beyond the glass screen of the pinball machine. Darkstalker felt himself tense up at the sight of the gargantuan SandWing.

"I-I dunno...one second we were standing next to you, and the next…." Xavier began, but he was cut off by a loud snap. A giant metal ball, about as tall as Darkstalker was, launched out from behind one of the chamber's walls, bouncing off of a couple bumpers before careening down towards the four of them. Darkstalker dove out of the way, just as the oversized pinball flew past them and into one of the paddles, a quick button press by Hidden sending it flying right back at them.

"Hidden! Cut it out! You're going to kill us!" Xavier shouted, just as the pinball came rushing past him.

"I can't! I've gotta get more than a million points to beat the high score, and it only gave me one ball!" Hidden shouted back, his voice echoing through the machine. "Winnie said we can't get killed here though, so uh…."

Darkstalker rolled out of the way as the pinball came bouncing back once again, rapidly scanning the machine for a safe place to take cover. He scrambled over to the upper region of the cabinet, a mess of metal tracks hanging all about, and a stylized rocket ship towering above him. Yet no matter where he went, the pinball always seemed to come for him, and the others were clearly suffering from the same issue as well.

"This is insane! But, in a bad way." He heard Reggie shout over the crashing and banging of the pinball against the bumpers.

Darkstalker gritted his teeth, and spread his wings, attempting to take to the air and hover safely above the mayhem. Yet no matter how much he tried, he couldn't seem to build up any force beneath his wings, and could only manage short hops across the slippery floor.

Great, my wings don't work. What next…. he thought bitterly, turning to see the pinball launching up from the paddles towards him once again. I should've flown off in one of the shuttles when I had the chance.

He stepped to the side, spinning around and slamming his tail into the pinball in frustration. Pain shot up through his tail, but he hardly cared, watching the pinball veer off to the side and up one of the curved ramps, it's trajectory altered by his impact. The pinball bounced about on a small upper level, a few brief chimes sounding off as points began racking up, and Darkstalker noticed the faces of the others staring at him.

"What?" he asked, his sore tail swishing behind him.

"Hey, Dark? Could you do that again?" he heard Hidden ask from above. Darkstalker shot him an annoyed glance, and Xavier quickly stepped in as the pinball began its descent.

"Ricky and I can handle the cutes, and Reggie can uh...he can guide the ball towards us." Xavier began, quickly coordinating the others before the next volley, "And Darkstalker…."

"I'll guard the chute." Darkstalker stated, already walking down between the two paddles at the lower end of the machine. He turned around, watching the other three take their positions, Xavier casting him a concerned glance, as the pinball neared the bumpers once again.

Whap!

Darkstalker didn't know how long he'd stood by the edge, his tail hanging over the abyssal chute at the end of the machine. The paddles whipped by, sending the pinball flying back up the machine as the other three carefully guided it down the highest point value routes.

Ping! Ping! Pong!

Darkstalker hadn't taken the time to consider the absurdity of his situation, and as he stood at the entrance to the bowels of the pinball machine, shrunken down to the size of a coin, it all started to sink in. Even when compared with all the other things he'd seen and experienced in his travels across the multiverse, this was easily one of the most ridiculous.

"Darkstalker, watch out!"

The sight of the pinball rolling straight towards him snapped Darkstalker out of his train of thought. He sprinted forward, slamming into the pinball with all of his might as he dug his talons into the slippery slope in an attempt to slow its descent. His rear talons were halfway over the edge of the chute, when the ball finally stopped rolling, and Darkstalker carefully rolled it back up a bit to give himself a little more space.

"Alright." he said through gritted teeth, energy surging through the cables draped across his body, small sparks of electricity seeping out of the nodes embedded in his talons.
Darkstalker pulled back his foretalons for a brief moment, and slammed them into the metal ball with tremendous force, sending it flying back up the machine, supercharged with electricity. It plowed past the many bumpers scattered about, and straight into an opening on the rocket ship, sparks flying upon impact. The lights within the machine flared up, some bursting as a surge of electricity flowed through them.

The pinball slowly rolled back out of the rocket, and straight back down towards Darkstalker. He readied himself to leap out of the way, but felt himself growing lightheaded after such a large burst of energy. His legs began to buckle, as the giant pinball readied to send him straight down into the chute, when a force slammed into the side of his body, sending him sliding over in front of one of the paddles.

Darkstalker squinted, seeing Xavier lying on the slippery floor beside him. "Woah, you...you alright Dark?" the RainWing asked.

Darkstalker grunted in response, struggling against his growing lightheadedness, when the interior of the pinball machine abruptly vanished, replaced by the rows of bright arcade games.

Darkstalker struggled to his feet, and the four of them gathered around Hidden and the pinball machine, staring at the high score display. The previous high score was a clean 1,000,000 points; theirs was 1,201,450.

"Easy!" Hidden exclaimed, slapping talons with Ricky, Xavier and Reggie. He turned to Darkstalker, who shook his head, stepping off to the side to regain his bearings.

"Well, that was an...interesting way of doing it."

The group turned to see Winnifred walking over to them, clearing his throat. "Anyhow, congratulations on beating the first challenge. Now if you would follow me…."

"Come on guys!" Hidden excitedly shouted, barreling past Winnifred with Ricky and Reggie right behind him. Xavier passed by next, casting the bow-tied NightWing an apologetic glance, leaving Darkstalker standing alone with him.

"I can see why you're so fed up with them. I can't imagine how you put up with their antics." Winnifred stated.

"Yeah, whatever." Darkstalker groaned, stepping past the spectacled NightWing to join the others by the elevator doors. The metal doors slowly slid open, Hidden turning to Darkstalker as the others stepped in.

"See, that wasn't so bad."

Darkstalker sighed. "How many more of these do we have to go through?"

"Dunno, but I'm sure the next one will be fun."

Hidden stepped into the crowded elevator, Darkstalker stepping in shortly thereafter, the elevator doors sliding shut as the arcade disappeared from view.


AN:

So just before I posted this, I got sidetracked looking back at all of the old stories that I had started writing and never finished. I was surprised at how decent my writing was back then, and it was cool to take a look at all of these old stories that never saw the light of day, and how they contributed to this one.

On another note, I've said before how I really hate asking for people to leave reviews. It feels like when YouTubers do the whole "Be sure to like and subscribe and leave a comment!" thing, which I personally try to avoid doing, as I believe in gaining attention through the merit of my story alone. That said, I do think it could help my confidence in writing this story if people told me what they think of it as it goes along. If you don't have anything to say, then don't feel pressured to leave a review, though I would really appreciate to hear your thoughts if you have some to share!

That said, the next chapter is one I've been waiting for for a long time. Stay tuned!