AUTHORS NOTE: Wow, I've actually updated. This is what happens when I'm grounded with nothing to do. Anyways, so here you go. Thanks to everybody who reviewed; I really appreciate it. This is where Lani's story really begins. I still don't own Dance Dance Revolution or any of the songs/lyrics, though I might like to. Hope ya'll like it.
 (K)

Chapitre 1

"Go Lani!"

I grinned, but didn't turn around. My eyes remained glued to the screen, feasting on the arrows, unblinking. I sang breathlessly to myself as my feet followed:

I've been searching in the woods,
And high up on the hills
Just to find – to find my samurai
Someone who won't regret
To keep me in his net
Yes I need – I need my samurai.

A chorus of voices from the crowd behind me joined in.

Ay yi yi, I'm your little butterfly
Green, black and blue
Make the colors in the sky
Ay yi yi I'm your little butterfly
Green, black and blue
Make the colors in the sky.

I stumbled, missed a step, but kept going, not bothering to keep singing. One GOOD wouldn't kill me, but it showed I was becoming careless. I twisted my lips into my war face, familiar to the people I traveled with.

The song ended. I blinked and caught my breath, waiting hungrily for my grade.

"Ooh…nice. A. Way to go, Lan!" Kris joined me on the pad, swinging her nimble gymnast legs over the bar.

I punched her shoulder. "Don't gimme that. You couldn't do any better."

Kris shook her head, sending her blonde locks swirling around her heart-shaped face. "Seriously, Lani. You missed the AA by more than 20 DP. What do you call that? You're good for nothing!" She winked.

"Lay off, Kris. You know she hates the oni steps. And it's not like Lani ever forces you to play Captain Jack."

My heart skipped a beat at the voice, but I stopped myself from turning around as quickly as I wanted to.

"Yeah – thank God. But that's an entirely different story. If she insists on playing that sissy song, she may as well take on the hardest steps. Who invited you here anyways, Carter?"

"It's a free country, Desandres. I'll come as I wish." He flicked Kris on her sweat-framed forehead. She swatted his hand away and took the cue to step down.

Carter stepped up on the pad, slurping from his lemon slushie and dropping his tokens one by one into the slot. "I'm getting out of shape, anyhow. What has it been – two days? Long time to go without arrow-stomping, right Lani?" He winked at me over his shoulder.

"You better have a couple coins for me there, too. What, you think you can just show up in the middle of our practice session?" I protested, cocking an eyebrow. Such was our routine.

"But of course, my dear. I was just – Whoops! Looks like I dropped one." He feigned an attempt to feel for the token under the pad. "Got an extra one?"

I rolled my eyes and dug in my jean pocket for a spare coin. "Hurry! Ten seconds!" Carter announced, jeering as the machine beeped warnings at us.

My hand hit start the instant my coin was accepted. Carter stuck his tongue out at me. I stuck mine at him.

"Oh sure – never mind I've been waiting in line for what now, ten minutes?" Kris whined from her perch atop the right-side speaker.

"Don't the talented players get some kind of seniority over the noobs?" Carter shot back.

Kris shut up. Although it was true, she detested the word. After years of despising Dance Dance Revolution, she gave it a try some three weeks ago. She was still a basic/light player, but she had taken to the Dance Points scoring system quickly, being the math whiz she is. Carter and I had never been sure of what was holding her back; it certainly wasn't her physical abilities, and she was a Step Mania maniac, so her coordination wasn't to blame. I was sure it'd only be a couple more days of practice, but Carter thought her to be eternally cursed.

Carter, on the other hand, began DDRing a year ago. Though I had been playing for nearly three years before that, he became a rival of mine within his first week. Completely bypassing the trick (or standard, rather) level, he quickly gained a reputation as the best DDRer in the city. This frustrated me some at first, but after a year of him outscoring me at every song in every match, I'd grown used to it. The only drawback to Carter's instant DDR success was his ignorance of the older versions. He knew what I had told him, but he had never played anything before 7th mix. He was good at Extreme, our machine of habit, but severely handicapped in that he detested 5th mix. 5th was my favorite, and he knew this, but nothing I said could convince him to play it – or even set foot on its stage.

He stretched his arms over his head and leaned to each side. "Gosh, all this pent-up energy! Gimme a run for my money, Lani! Let's go…Cartoon Heroes!" His hand came down on his select button with determined force.

I let a puff of hot air escape my nose as I caught the select button to hold for mods. "You hate this song. I hate this song."

His eyebrows furrowed in attempt to keep a serious face. "Did I say anything about not hating it? No, I didn't think so." He scrolled over to 2x speed, grinning like a moron. "There's no rule that says I can't play a song I hate."

"Fine, fine." I chose 1.5x dark and we rapid-fired our select buttons to exit at the bottom of the screen. "But we're both gonna regret this." He bounced happily from sensor to sensor as we waited for our first arrows to graze the screen.

Then we were off.Down, down, right, left-down, up-up; arrows shooting up the screen, our legs in a frenzy. In the back of my head I could feel a crowd gathering behind us once again. I smiled and gasped for air, jumping madly around the pad, devouring arrows.

Finally the song ended, and we both caught our breath as we waited for the judges' verdict. Carter, AA – 43 greats and a good. Me, A – 60 greats and a bunch of junk on the bottom. Not too embarrassing. My eyes met Carter's, and he raised his eyebrows. We both turned to an applauding crowd and bowed giddily.

Carter turned back to choose the next song, and I scanned the crowd for familiar faces. Joe, the arcade technician off-duty, and his girlfriend. Four guys I'd seen DDRing a couple times at the mall on the East Side of the city – Jeff, Mario, Rick, and Yeol; all standard players. The usual spectators, and another group of four that I didn't recognize. They pushed closer to the machine, led by a girl with flaming red hair. She noticed me staring and met me with green eyes. I sensed a bad aura coming off her.

"Not bad," she remarked. I opened my mouth to say thank you, but she poked Carter in the back. "But how well can you hold down your Unlimited?"

An evil grin spread across his face. "So you think you've got me pinned, eh? Well watch this." He clicked over to the alphabetical song sort and moved the cursor over M.

I elbowed him. "You know I can't pass this," I hissed.

He shrugged. "I must do what my audience commands."

I took a deep breath, and we cleared our mods. "Here goes nothing."

Carter doesn't believe in bar hugging, and I'm not a big fan either. But when the song is MaxX Unlimited, you do what you have to do to stay alive. By forty seconds in, I was glued to the bar as if my life depended on it. Which it did. In a way.

We hit the freeze and relaxed for a split-second. I heard a voice behind me say "1/16" with a laugh, but then I turned my attention back to song as the arrows started up again. Carter seemed fine, but I knew I was never going to make it through the next stream. All too quickly, my right ankle gave out and I stumbled, only for an instant, but it was enough. I missed four steps, and my life bar crashed. I gave up, watching Carter's screen while trying to regain my breath. His combo was still good. The lunatic.

Red Hair patted my back. "Nice try." She grinned. Nothing about those words sounded sincere at all, affirming my instincts. I definitely did not like this girl.

The song ended, Carter panted, and the crowd cheered. His was an A, borderline great attack. Mine, of course, a big fat E. I raised my eyebrows at Carter and bowed my head, defeated but still smiling.

"Very well done." Red Hair hopped onto the pad, hanging on both bars and leaning forward between us. "But you're going way faster than you have to. That's why your GA is so bad; you're 1/16 of a second too early on every step."

My blood boiled. "Thank you very much. Now please, remove yourself from the stage. We've got two more songs."

She made no motion. "And you missy, you just generally suck. Why didn't you go down? I bet you can't even make it through the standard."

I cringed. She didn't realize she was right. "I can almost do it."

She laughed, throwing her head back wildly. "Oh, you're not fooling anybody."

Now I was flat-out pissed off. "And you can do better?"

"Hon, I could beat your E with my eyes closed."

I stepped off the pad, gesturing dramatically in a sweeping bow. "Go right ahead."

She turned to Carter. "You up for an encore?" He was still panting, but he nodded. The girl hit select, holding for mods. "You might want to try 1.5x; I know you can read it, and it'll help your timing."

God, how I would'veloved to lopoff her legs with a chain saw. Somebody'd better not hand me a chainsaw.

Kris stood at my side. "Wow, what a bitch. You think she can do it?"

"No. There's no way. I've never seen her before. I bet this is the first time she's been out of her basement, away from her PS2. Carter will crush her, even though he's tired right now."

We fell silent, watching them go at it, unable to speak again until the song was over.

"Well Lani, I dunno; but I'm pretty sure she passed."

I struck her with my forearm. "Ya think?"

The whole crowd was silent as we waited for the letter grades to stop scrolling. Carter, A – a slightly betterA, too. Red Hair, AA. It felt like the whole arcade rose up in a cheer. I couldn't believe my eyes.

"Okay." Carter struggled to catch his breath, keeled over with his hands against his knees. "Who…the hell…are…you?"

Red Hair leaned back on the bar, panting. "The name's…Darcy, and this…these guys here are my band of…traveling arcade junkies." She pointed at the three other guys I didn't recognize one by one. "Jordan…Righty, and Shane."

Carter could only nod, swallowing deeply. "Nice to…meetcha."