"At last, we meet again, my rival," Ace said as he confronted his arch rival, James.
"Pfft, rival is giving yourself way too much credit, Ace," James replied, wearing a black trenchcoat and with a lollipop in his mouth that only served to make him look tougher and a bit cockier to fit the typical cocky rival archetype. "You're comparing yourself to me, Ace? Ha, you're not even good enough to be a second rate clone of me."
"You talk a lot of smack for someone on the wrong side of the law, James," Ace retorted.
"The law?" James scoffed. "Don't humor me with your talk of the law. You and I are on the same side. The only difference is that I won't let the arcane antiquated laws of mankind get in the way of achieving true justice."
"You aren't a judge," Ace shot back, "nor are you a juror."
"No," James said coldly, "but I am an executioner and I won't let you get in the way of justice!"
"I can't let you go through with this, James," Ace said.
Creating a spirit sword, James tossed Ace a regular katana as he said "Then face me and see if you can stop me. I won't kill you because I can tell that you are an honorable man, but I can't let you obstruct justice."
Ace caught the sword and immediately charged at James, who steadily wielded his spirit sword and prepared for the fierce battle ahead of him.
"Darnit darnit darnit, what comes next?" Rita asked herself as she sat in front of her typewriter on a quiet Saturday in a mostly empty house.
She was in the process of writing her latest book, a cyberpunk action novel and had reached her first major fight scene that wasn't a flat out curb stomp. There was so much that went into writing a scene like this: keeping the tension high, using descriptive terms that grabbed and kept the reader's attention, letting the emotions run high. It was all a gargantuan task. Of course, like any author worth their salt can tell you, no writer was ever safe from suffering from writer's block and for Rita, this came at the worst possible time. It wasn't so much a case of she couldn't think of what came next so much as it was a case where she couldn't figure out what words to put on paper. No matter how much she tried to force herself to think, she couldn't find the right words.
"Come on Rita," she said to herself, "Think think think!"
As Rita grew frustrated, in the living room she heard her two sons in the middle of an intense gaming session, catching her attention.
"Come on Lio, pick up the slack!" Lincoln said as the two fought off hordes of zombies.
"I need a revive! I need a revive!" Lio frantically shouted as his character fired his pistol.
"You're down again?!" Lincoln asked incredulously.
"How many times do I have to tell you?" Lio asked in response. "I'm not very good at this game!"
"You're not very good at a lot of games, but you shouldn't let that stop you from trying," Lincoln gave Lio some encouragement, "and besides, you did really good at 106% Crash 4."
"Fair point," Lio said as Lincoln revived his character. "Okay, I'm all good to go. I'll try not to die."
Rita was curious as to what her sons were talking about as she continued to eavesdrop. Maybe listening to them bicker could help to give her inspiration for her book. After all, Lincoln and Lio were the ones who'd inspired the characters of Ace and James respectively. It felt like it had been a while since Rita had spent time with her sons, owing to the fact that she'd been busy with work and was often too tired once she got home.
"Oh yeah, insta-kill!" Lincoln cheered as he and Lio proceeded to mow down a row of zombies as Lio got a little too excited and shouted his standard Kiai of "Muda muda muda!" while massacring the undead masses.
"There ya go," Lincoln complimented him, "now you're starting to get the hang of it."
"Thanks nii-san," Lio said, smiling at Lincoln's compliment.
"Hmm…" Rita thought to herself, "maybe I should take a break from writing this book. I can always come back to it later." Rita looked into the living room and watched Lincoln and Lio sitting in front of the TV. "Besides, it has been a while since I've had the chance to spend time with Lincoln and Lio."
"Hahaha, take that undead ghoul!" Lincoln laughed.
"貧弱貧弱 (weaklings!)" Lio shouted, "君わ僕をたおす断るができると思いましたか! (Did you think that you could beat us?!)"
The twins high fived each other in celebration as they prepared to move on to the next round when their mother stepped into the room.
"Hey boys!" She greeted them. "Whatcha up to?"
"Hi mom!" The boys replied with Lincoln telling her "We're just playing the new Zombie Slayer video game."
"Zombie Slayer?" Rita asked.
"Yeah," Lio said with Lincoln explaining "It's a first person shooter that spans across 14 different maps and pits the players against round after round of different zombies."
"Oh, that sounds… neat," Rita said, prompting Lio to say "It's an alright game, but it's really easy to die in."
"If you're not trying that is," Lincoln said, shooting a teasing glance at Lio.
"Hey, would you like to give it a shot?" Lio asked, handing his mom the controller.
"Huh?" Rita replied. "I don't know, I don't exactly get video games. They're not really my thing."
"Don't worry, mom," Lincoln assured her, "it's real easy. I'll show you the ropes."
"Well, if you insist," Rita said as she accepted the controller. "So what does this button do?" She asked as her character accidentally killed Lincoln's character with a headshot. "Oops."
"You're already off to a good start," Lio complimented her with a laugh.
"Yeah, but next time try to shoot the zombies instead of me," Lincoln said before pausing the game and going into the settings screen. "That's funny, I could've sworn that I turned friendly fire off."
"Now how do I aim?" Rita asked as she held down the fire button, causing her to shoot bullets everywhere.
"Left trigger! Left trigger!" Lincoln shouted as his character dropped to the ground in a prone position to avoid getting shot again.
"Oh, I see," Rita said as she pushed down on the left trigger to activate her aiming. "I think that I might be able to get the hang of this eventually."
Rita heard a pained groan as a zombie snuck up behind her character. Startled and taken off guard, Rita panicked and fired a bullet right into the zombie's skull, turning it from a walking corpse to a regular corpse.
"Nice shot mom, you got him!" Lio cheered her on. "Way to go!"
"I did?" Rita asked before the realization kicked in, "I did it! Yes!"
"Don't get too comfortable," Lincoln advised her as he killed a zombie that had attempted to sneak up on her. "There are more zombies coming, think fast!"
Rita obliged and quickly started taking aim at any zombie she saw approaching her and Lincoln. Her aim and accuracy weren't the best, but she was getting the hang of the game quicker than anyone had expected. Even Lincoln was surprised by how quick she'd picked up on things and unlike Lio, so far Rita hadn't been knocked down even once. Quite the contrary in fact, there came a point where Rita had to revive Lincoln.
"Mom, I'm down," Lincoln said, "I need help!"
"All of you get away from my son!" Rita yelled as she mowed down a group of zombies that had surrounded Lincoln before reviving him.
"Wow, mom's even better at this game than I am," Lio observed, prompting a little teasing from Lincoln.
"To be fair, that's not a very high bar to surpass," he said.
"くそくらえ(Screw you!)" Lio replied.
"Now now, boys," Rita said, "settle down. Mama's got some zombies to slay!"
"I'm surprised that you don't think that this game is too violent," Lincoln said, knowing that his words would likely come back to bite him.
"Well if I'm being honest, this game is too cartoony for me to take it too seriously," Rita said, "Now if you were playing something like Connecticut Chainsaw Celebration, we'd definitely be having a long talk."
"Heheh, right," Lincoln chuckled nervously as he remembered the copy of Connecticut Chainsaw Celebration that he had hidden under the twins' bunk bed.
"I didn't think that you'd have this much fun playing," Lio said, "after all, you're the one who said video games aren't your style."
"Well if it makes my two little boys happy, I don't mind pressing a few buttons and killing a few zombies," Rita said as she put down the controller and pinched both Lincoln and Lio's cheeks.
"Mooooooom," the twins said, blushing in embarrassment.
"We're not 5 years old anymore," Lincoln said.
"I don't care how old you are," Rita replied, "you two will always be my little boys."
Lincoln was thankful that none of his friends were around to see or hear that. Lio on the other hand was blushing and internally purring like a cat.
"Maybe for now," Lincoln said, "but one day I'll be known as the greatest performer and comic book artist known to man!"
"And one day I shall be known as The King of Manga!" Lio proclaimed triumphantly with the two twins standing to their feet and raising their hands in the air as they placed one foot on the coffee table.
"And you'll still be my precious boys," Rita told them once again. "And besides, who do you think you get your creativity from anyways?"
After a few more rounds of zombie slaying, Rita and Lincoln's game came to a close.
"Phew!" Rita said, "that was pretty fun, wouldn't you say?"
"Yeah, that was a blast," Lincoln agreed as he got up and cracked his neck to relieve tension.
"What about you, Lio?" Rita asked, "Are you sure that you don't want to play a few rounds of Zombie Slayer with your mom?"
"Thanks," Lio said, "but I'm going to have to say no to that. I'm really not good at this game and I'd only slow you down."
"Okay," Rita accepted, knowing that her son's interests were more suited towards drawing and writing than video games "I won't pester you."
"I still had fun watching you play though," Lio said, "it was awesome seeing you kick zombie butt! Are you sure you haven't played that game before?"
"Never even so much as touched it," Rita confirmed.
"You could've fooled me," Lincoln said, "you played like a natural."
"Yeah, it was funny watching you save Lincoln's butt!" Lio laughed. "Like, what was it, five times?!"
"Oh shut up Lio!" Lincoln shot back.
"Not so funny when the shoe's on the other foot, is it?" Lio asked.
"Lio, stop making fun of your brother," Rita told him, to which Lio replied "Yes mom."
"You may underestimate me now," Lincoln said with a smirk, "but you'll soon learn just how savvy I truly am."
"Careful Lincoln," Lio said, returning Lincoln's smirk, "pride goes before a fall and you wouldn't want to suffer a sheer heart attack, now would you?"
The two twins smiled deviously at one another before dashing off. The two of them quickly returned, dressed in their respective Full Deck personas. Lincoln was dressed, of course, as Ace Savvy whilst Lio was dressed in his cowl as the Sheer Heart Attack.
"For mother's honour, I challenge you to a duel!" Lio said, taking up an exaggerated over the top pose.
"You cannot fight for mom's honour!" Lincoln declared. "I'm fighting for mom's honour, me!"
"You dare dispute my claim of fighting for mother's honour?" Lio exclaimed in an over the top voice as Rita giggled watching her sons do their roleplay. "Now it is imperative that I defeat you, Ace!"
"You challenge me to a duel, Mortal Kombat ensues!" Lincoln replied.
"Lincoln," Rita admonished him.
"Fine," Lincoln said, "regular combat ensues."
"Then let us take our dispute outside into the combat zone so that we may settle this conflict!" Lio said.
"I'm right behind you!" Lincoln said, following Lio outside and into the backyard with Rita right behind him.
"Be careful boys," she said, "don't hurt yourselves fighting for me!"
"So it all comes down to this?" Lincoln said as he and Lio menacingly circled one another to square up.
"Did you come to duel or did you come to talk?" Lio replied.
"The same can be said of you," Lincoln answered back.
Lio picked up two sticks off of the ground and tossed one to Lincoln, shouting "Then face me Ace Savvy and see if you can overcome the Sheer Heart Attack!"
"Your wish shall be obliged!" Lincoln said before charging at Lio. "You shall never defeat me!" He shouted as he and Lio's sticks clashed.
"Much confidence you have, Ace," Lio said with a wink and a nod, "but it'll take more than arrogance to defeat yours truly!"
"Oh please," Lincoln scoffed, "I've mastered over 13 different martial arts. Your pitiful dueling skills are no match for my hand to hand prowess!"
Lio blocked a strike from Lincoln and shouted "Too lame! Too lame!" before attempting to hit Lincoln in the stomach.
"And you're too slow!" Lincoln retorted as he dodged and swiftly moved behind Lio, who jumped out of the way of a sword strike.
"Not so fast, Ace!" Lio said before attempting to sweep Lincoln's leg out from underneath him. "I won't be fooled so easily!"
"And neither will I!" Lincoln retorted, leaping over Lio's leg sweep and attempting to hit the latter beneath the chin at the same time that the latter attempted the same. "Hmm, it would appear that I underestimated you, Heart Attack."
"And perhaps I underestimated you, Savvy," Lio said, "I can see now that you have more than one trick up your sleeve."
"You are truly a worthy adversary," Lincoln complimented Lio, who repeated the compliment back at him.
"However, this battle is not over!" Lio declared. "I will prove that I am the best son and that I am worthy of protecting her honour!"
"In your dreams!" Lincoln retorted as the two broke away once again.
The twins readied their sticks and prepared to charge at each other once again, all the while yelling at the top of their lungs.
"FOR MOM!" The two of them yelled, only a mere seconds away from clashing before they heard Rita scream "Ahhh! Help! Help me!"
Lincoln and Lio ceased their clash and looked to the back door, where Rita was hanging out of the door frame before suddenly running inside the house.
"Mom!" The twins cried before quickly dashing inside.
"Don't worry mom, we'll save you!" Lio said, turning to Lincoln and saying "It would appear that in a time like this, a truce is in order."
"If it means rescuing our mom, then I shall gladly put aside any differences I have with you!" Lincoln said proudly as they ran inside.
"Mom! Mom!" Lio shouted. "Where are you?!"
The boys heard footsteps going up that stairs and quickly reached the only reasonable conclusion.
"Hurry Heart Attack!" Lincoln urged Lio, "The kidnappers have taken Mom upstairs!"
"I'm right behind you, Ace!" Lio said, following his brother and the cries of "Help!" upstairs. "Hang on Mom, we're coming!"
Once they were upstairs, the cries for "help" came to a halt, causing the twins to stop in confusion.
"Wh-Where do we look?" Lio asked, looking around the top floor and the multiple different rooms.
"I-I don't know," Lincoln stammered, "should we maybe split up?"
"I don't know," Lio replied, "it might help us find Mom quicker, but we also might be running into a trap."
"Then what room should we tackle first?" Lincoln asked as the twins stood back to back like a couple of superheroes up against an entire rogues gallery.
"Should we do eeny meeny miney mo?" Lio asked.
"It's our safest best," Lincoln said before the duo started pointing at each door.
"Eeny meeny miney mo," They said, "I choose you, now let's go." Their fingers landed on Lana and Lola's room first.
"Alright, here goes nothing," Lincoln said before he and Lio kicked open the twins' door and began looking around. "It doesn't look like she's in here!"
"Are you sure?" Lio asked, "maybe we just need to move some of these animals in order to look around."
"The stuffed ones or the real ones?" Lincoln asked, to which Lio replied "Yes."
"Well where do we start?" Lincoln asked.
"Umm…" Lio said before the boys heard Rita once again yell "Help me, Ace Savvy! Help me, Sheer Heart Attack! You're my only hope!"
"We can't let Mom down," Lio said, "we have to save her!"
"Then follow my lead, Heart Attack," Lincoln said, "We'll make this rescue a piece of cake."
"Show yourself, villain and release our mother!" Lio shouted, "Your fate will be far more merciful should you reveal yourself now and end this charade!"
"You can't find me no matter how hard you try!" Said the "villain". "Give it up, heroes! You can't defeat me!"
"Oh yeah?" Lincoln challenged them, "well we'll show you who stands up on top. We'll kick your butt and save our mom from your wretched clutches!"
"Do your worst!" The "villain" growled before letting out an evil laugh before Rita yelled "Let me go, fowl fiend!"
"Linc- I mean, Ace!" Lio yelled as he pointed to their parents' bedroom at the end of the hallway. "The cries are coming from Mom and Dad's room!"
"Time to put this villain down for the count!" Lincoln declared before asking "Are you ready, Heart Attack?"
"We're on a mission to save our mom, of course I'm ready!" Lio replied, "Now let's go!"
Lincoln and Lio both charged into their parents room where they found nothing out of the ordinary except for someone sitting in the corner of the room with a blanket covering them with their back to the twins.
"Mom, is that you?" Lincoln asked.
"Don't worry, mom," Lio said, "Ace and I are here to save you!"
"Oh, I'm so glad that a pair of such brave dashing heroes have come to my rescue," Rita said from beneath the sheet.
The boys approached her before stopping in their tracks when they heard her let out another evil laugh and switch to the villain voice.
"Unfortunately for you, Ace Savvy and Sheer Heart Attack," Rita said as she stood up and turned around, revealing herself to be wearing a domino mask and a black cape, "you two have fallen right into my sinister trap! Now prepare to meet your doom at the hands of the powerful and almighty Poker Face!"
Before Lincoln and Lio could even take up a heroic battle stance, Rita grabbed them and tackled them onto the bed where she started tickling the twins.
"Ahahahahahaha!" The twins both broke into laughter with Lincoln saying "Hahahahahahaha She's heheheheheh trapped us hahah with her deadly tickle beam!"
"Whahahahat are wehehehe going to do heheheheheheheh?" Lio asked as he and Lincoln squirmed around on the bed, trying to get away, only for Rita to wrap an arm around both their waists to keep them in place and tickle them at the same time.
"Hahahahahaha I don't knohohohow hahahahaha," Lincoln said, struggling and trying to break free to no avail.
"There's nothing that you can do," Rita exclaimed, "except accept your defeat and prepare to be tickled to death!"
"She's too strong," Lio said between laughter, "I… can't… break free!"
"This might call…" Lincoln said between laughs, "for another… truce!"
"How… are we… going to… get out of this one, Ace?" Lio asked as he and Lincoln continued squirming around and trying to break free.
"Just… take my hand," Lincoln said, reaching out towards his brother.
"So weak!" Rita said, still keeping a tight hold on her sons. "I might spare you two heroes if you decide to give up and admit defeat."
"Hahahahahahaha Never!" The twins said in unison with Lincoln shouting "Heroes… never… ever… give up!"
"Hahahahahahaha Ace!" Lio yelled, "Ihihihi don't knohohow if I cahahahan hold on heheheheh much longer ahahahahaha!"
"Hehehehehehehe Heart Attack hahahahahaha grahahab my hand and hold on hahahahahaha tight!" Lincoln told him.
"Ohohohokay!" Lio said, following Lincoln's advice.
"Are you ready to give up?" Rita asked them before letting out another evil laugh. "Have the heroes had too much?"
Holding onto each other hand in hand, Lincoln said to Lio "Alright, on the count of three, kick backwards."
"O-Okay," Lio agreed.
"One… two… three!" The twins counted before kicking backwards with all of their strength, pushing Rita onto her back. The two quickly broke free and moved out of Rita's grasp before grabbing they each grabbed a pillow.
"Now Heart Attack, we attack with everything we've got!" Lincoln said, "ready?"
"Ready!" Lio said before the two began unloading on Rita with the pillows. "Looks like the only one who'll be facing defeat today will be you, Poker Face!"
"Now give us back our mom!" Lincoln demanded as Rita giggled from the pillow attack.
"Alright, alright, you win!" Rita said, prompting the twins to let her up. "Curse you Ace Savvy and Sheer Heart Attack, you've once again foiled my magnificent plans! Have your mommy back, but we shall meet again!"
Rita removed her cape and mask and immediately expressed her gratitude for the two heroes who had "saved" her.
"Thank you for saving me, Ace! Thank you for saving me Heart Attack!" Rita said, "I owe you a debt of gratitude. Without you two, who knows what Poker Face would've done if you two hadn't come to my rescue?"
"No need to thank us," Lincoln said, he and Lio puffing out their chests as they posed heroically with Lio saying "It's all in a day's work. It's a gentleman's duty."
"Yes, but I did most of the work," Lincoln said, "Heart Attack here was about to surrender."
"So were you, Ace!" Lio retorted. "Don't act like you're so tough!"
"Boys, it doesn't matter who was about to give up or who did what," Rita said as she hugged her sons, "you're both my heroes."
"Thanks mom," the twins thanked her as they reciprocated her hug.
"Boy, that was fun," Rita said, "Now I see how you and Clyde have so much fun doing that."
"Yeah!" Lincoln said before all three parties' stomachs started to growl.
"Getting hungry?" Rita asked.
"Yeah," Lio answered, "I guess we were having so much fun that we forgot to eat."
"What do you say I order us some pizza for lunch?" Rita asked. "What kind of pizza do you want?"
"Meat lovers!" Lincoln answered with Lio simultaneously answering "Five cheese!"
"I'll order a half and half, got it," Rita said before heading downstairs to order the pizza.
"Man, today has been totally awesome!" Lio said. "I forgot how much fun it could be hanging out with Mom."
"Same," Lincoln agreed. "I wish that there was something we could do for her."
"Maybe there is," Lio said, getting an idea. "But it might call for another truce."
"Whatever you have in mind, I'm all for it!" Lincoln agreed with him and Lio shaking hands.
Thirty minutes later, Rita answered the door as the pizza man dropped off their delivery.
"Boys, the pizza is here!" Rita called them as she placed the pizza down on the table. She was a bit confused when the twins didn't come rushing downstairs like they usually would. "Lincoln? Lio?"
"We're coming," Lincoln answered before a few seconds later the two of them came downstairs with a piece of paper in their hands.
"What's that you've got there in your hands?" Rita asked.
"Just a little something we made for you," Lincoln said, wrapping an arm around Lio and clarifying "Both of us!"
"Oh?" Rita asked before the boys handed her a drawing. "Oh my gosh, this is beautiful!"
The drawing in question was a coloured comic book page that was drawn in a hybrid of American comic books and Japanese manga. The panels depicted Ace Savvy and Sheer Heart Attack fighting Poker Face and later defeating her with the final panel being the three of them all hugging.
"We've had so much fun today," Lio said, "so we wanted to make something for the best Mom in the world!"
"Awww, this is adorable!" Rita said, reading the mini comic over and over again, "you two are too sweet!"
The three of them ate their pizza before Lincoln went back to playing video games and Lio started working on his manga again. Rita meanwhile went back to writing her novel. She was sure that the rest of her children and her husband would be returning home soon, but it was nice that she got to spend much of today with her sons. Her case of writer's block had been thoroughly overcome and with her sons' drawing hanging over head, Rita had plenty of motivation when it came to finishing her novel.
"You and I might not get along, James," Ace said to his rival, "but we may have no choice but to if we want to defeat the bigger threat at hand."
"I agree Ace," James said, "but don't get overly sentimental. We shall call this truce for the greater good, but afterwards, we return to our ways."
"I wouldn't have it any other way, James," Ace said before the two of them leapt from the rooftops.
Although their bond initially appeared to be rather hostile towards one another, the truth of the matter was that the two were as close as brothers. Their methods may have differed, but each of them were the other's own best friend and nothing would ever change that.
END