Neon Knights
"Huh," Anna stood still with her hands on her hips, looking up at the buzzing neon sign above their heads. "An arcade. In Arcadia. Heh," she chuckled. "That's kinda funny."
"An Arcadian arcade," Elsa mused. "Should we check it out?"
They were both currently standing on a busy sidewalk in Little Japan outside of the Neon Knights arcade. The evening was still young, but already, people were hustling and bustling as the work day came to an end and the weekend began.
Anna nodded eagerly and took Elsa's hand. "This I gotta see," she said. "I wonder if they got pachinko."
"Pachinko?" Elsa asked as they crossed the sidewalk.
"Yeah, pachinko! It's sort of like pinball, but with some gambling involved."
"Pinball."
"Uh-huh. There was this place I went to pretty often in New York. Lost a bunch of credits there, but it was a good time."
"Losing credits doesn't sound like fun," Elsa frowned.
"Well, no, but the top prize was this badass laser rifle called the Killstar. Never did win it," Anna sighed whimsically as they passed through the entrance to the arcade. "Anyhoo. Let's take a look around."
Elsa smiled happily and together, she and Anna wandered their way through the arcade, examining all the games and entertainment available. Other patrons were milling around with drinks in their hands, gathered around tables and booths, while children were running from one machine to the next.
There were all the standard arcade games that were rigged to extract as many credits from the patrons as possible. Claw machines were filled with stuffed toys, shooting galleries were filled with caricaturized targets of American soldiers, beanbag tosses and skee-ball aisles were laid side by side, as were an assortment of others.
"Oh!" Elsa pointed at a claw machine filled with stuffed animals. "I want to try this one."
"That thing?" Anna asked. "Those things are a scam, everybody knows that. You sure you don't want to try any of the other ones first?"
"Of course," Elsa went up to an unoccupied claw machine and raised her omni-pad to transfer some credits. "I'm going to win you one of these stuffed animals."
Anna rolled her eyes and couldn't help but smile as she went along with Elsa. "Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you," she leaned against the side of the machine and crossed her arms. "Go on then. Give her your best shot."
The claw machine beeped and chirped with melodious notes as it came to life. Elsa grasped the controls and took a second to get acquainted with them. All the while, Anna watched on in amusement.
"So," Elsa flashed a grin at Anna. "Which one would you like?"
"Uh... hmm, good question," Anna looked through the glass into the pit of the claw machine filled with stuffed animals. "That fuzzy brown one. With the pointy antlers. What is that, a deer? A moose? An... elk? I'm just naming animals with antlers. An antelope? Doesn't even matter anyway. They're all extinct."
"I believe it's a reindeer."
"A reindeer. Okay. Get me that reindeer."
Elsa nodded and gripped the controls. Her tongue poked out of the corner of her mouth and her brows narrowed in focus. When she eventually had the claw settled above the reindeer, she dropped it in and caught nothing.
The machine reset the claw, played a sad violin tune, and told her to try again.
"Told you it was a scam," Anna chuckled.
"I can do this," Elsa manipulated the controls once more. "That was just for practice."
"Mmhmm. You get two more tries."
"Shh, quiet. I need to focus."
As Elsa repeated the process, the claw was placed over the reindeer and dropped. This time, it managed to pick it up by the legs and carry it a short way before falling just outside of the prize bucket.
"Close," Anna laughed. "But no tamale."
Elsa frowned and sighed. "There's a technique to this," she said. "I'm getting the hang of it."
Again, the claw was dropped and the reindeer was picked up. This time, it didn't even make it off the pile of stuffed animals when the claw was retracted.
The machine played another sad tune and told her that she was out of luck.
"No quips," Elsa held up a finger and cut off Anna before she could speak.
"Did I say anything?" Anna held up her hands submissively.
"I'm trying."
"I didn't say anything!"
Elsa paid some more credits and got the machine started again. It took several more tries, and a few dozen of her credits, but eventually, she got the reindeer right where she wanted it. The claw held the reindeer right above the prize bucket and it should have been a straight shot in.
"This is it," Elsa muttered as she leaned down to get a better angle. "All I need to do is- oh," she dropped the reindeer and it landed on the edge of the prize bucket, getting stuck.
Anna blew a raspberry. "And you're O for three," she said. "Got another one in you or do you wanna call it quits?"
Elsa tensed her jaw and scowled.
"I mean, toy or no toy, this is the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me, so I wouldn't hold it against you if you-"
In irritation, Elsa kicked the machine with a light amount of force, causing the reindeer to wobble slightly into the prize bucket. Then, a spark entered her eyes as a conspiratorial grin spread across her face. She took a quick look around and then knelt to examine the bottom of the machine.
"Uh, Elsa?" Anna looked down to see what she was doing. "What, you looking for more credits down there or something?"
"Keep an eye out," Elsa gave the machine an experimental push and then gripped it from the bottom.
"What are you doing?"
"Just keep an eye out."
Catching on, Anna grinned and then cleared her throat. She whistled a casual tune as she stepped forward and blocked what Elsa was doing from view by passersby. Meanwhile, Elsa easily lifted up the entire claw machine and tilted it to the side somewhat, knocking the reindeer right into the prize bucket. When that was done, she quickly set it down, stood up, brushed off her hands, and retrieved their new stuffed animal.
"Here," Elsa smiled as she handed the reindeer to Anna. "For you."
"Aww, thank you," Anna accepted her gift and gave Elsa a quick kiss on the lips. "You're the best super powered girlfriend a girl could ask for."
"It's nothing," Elsa smiled more widely as she extended her hand. "Shall we?"
"We shall," Anna took her hand and once more, they set off through the arcade.
They tried a few more games, a few rounds of pachinko included, and continued on their way. Eventually, another game caught their eyes, which was a shooting gallery. Children and adults alike were taking aim with air-powered pellet pistols – a bit old-fashioned for their time – and were shooting at miniature targets across the lineup.
Hanging above the lineup behind the counter were more stuffed animals. Some small and some large.
"Hold up a minute," Anna stopped to examine the gallery. "Now this is a game I know I'm good at."
A bored looking, pimply faced teenager was manning the gallery, leaning off to the side as he texted on his omni-pad. He barely glanced up when Anna and Elsa approached.
"Hey, kid," Anna pointed at the targets. "How much for a round?"
"Huh?" the teenager looked up at Anna and cleared his throat. "Uh, five credits."
Anna gestured towards the stuffed animals. "And what do I gotta do to get one of those?"
"Four out of six for a small prize," the teenager replied. "Six out of six for a big prize. Most people can't shoot straight though, especially on moving targets, but whatever."
"Hmph, alright," Anna looked at Elsa. "Which one do you want, babe?"
Elsa tapped her chin in thought and then pointed to one in particular. "That one," she smiled excitedly. "The horse."
"The horsey it is," Anna handed her reindeer to Elsa, then approached the lineup. "Start her up."
She transferred the credits to the teenager, then inspected the air pistol while the countdown timer started. It was a six-shot revolver, similar to Anna's own hand cannon, and was loaded with little plastic pellets.
Anna rolled her shoulders, picked up the air pistol and settled into a shooting stance. Off to the side, Elsa stood back and watched on. When the countdown reached zero, the starter bell rang and the targets began to move side to side quickly.
In a flash, Anna raised her air pistol and drawing on her muscle memory, she quickly shot down six of the targets in rapid succession. The other patrons at the shooting gallery gasped in awe, while Elsa giggled to herself in amusement.
"Six out of six," Anna blew pretend smoke off the end of the barrel on the pistol "The pretty horse, please," she looked at Elsa and smirked. "For the pretty lady."
Elsa bounced up and down and clapped.
"That was nice shooting, lady," the teenager said as he reached up and retrieved the horse. "Were you a soldier or something?"
"No," Anna shook her head as she accepted her prize. "I'm just a regular, normal, everyday schmuck."
"Well then, how'd you get those scars?" the teenager asked. "Sorry. That's rude. I didn't mean-"
"It's fine," Anna made a dismissive gesture. "It was a, uh... car accident," she lied. "Nasty one. Long story."
"Oh, okay, cool," the teenager nodded. "If you're looking for something more exciting, I'd check out the combat simulator."
"Combat simulator?" Elsa perked up.
"Yeah, augmented reality and all that stuff," the teenager pointed across the arcade. "Head that way."
"Thanks, kid," Anna turned around and held out the stuffed horse to Elsa.
"And thank you," Elsa gave Anna a quick kiss on the cheek and the pair went off after exchanging their prizes.
They made their way through the arcade towards the combat simulator, which was a large, square room which was completely sealed with only one way in or out. A queue had formed outside, but on the nearby holo-televisions, live footage from inside the combat simulator was playing.
The interior of the room was filled with various platforms and pieces of cover, all of which could be changed to emulate different landscapes and arenas. The walls were lined with more screens to provide backdrop images. Currently, there were two people inside the room, fighting against hordes of virtual enemies.
Cracks of gunfire and booms of explosions could be heard outside. Spectating crowds cheered whenever a deadly display of skill was shown, and booed whenever the combatants performed poorly.
"Wow," Anna's fingers tensed in anticipation as she watched the live feeds. "This is more exciting."
Even if all the visceral blood and gore being shed on screen wasn't real, and that nobody was getting hurt, she realized then and there that she hadn't actually killed anyone ever since setting foot in Arcadia. Violence, which was a daily occurrence in New York, had been turned into an idle pastime in Arcadia.
That realization gave Anna a disconcerting feeling in perhaps a good or bad way.
"It does seem more like our speed," Elsa said, hugging her stuffed horse. "Do you want to- oh. Wait up!"
Anna was already bouncing away eagerly to join the queue. When she reached the end, Elsa joined her at her side and they patiently waited as it inched forward. Eventually, they reached a section with display cases full of prizes to be won.
Among them, there was the usual plethora of weaponry and cyberware, along with arcade tokens that could be cashed in for credits. However, the prize that caught Anna's eye the most were two shiny katanas and their sheaths, sitting on the highest rack inside the display case. One had a dark red blade and the other had a dark blue blade. Both were equally razor sharp and stylishly lethal.
"Woah, mama," Anna's eyes widened with wonder as she put both hands on the glass and looked up at the gleaming swords. "That's Ronin gear. I know it when I see it."
"Hmm," Elsa looked up and examined them. "Kitsunebi thermal katana and Yuki-Onna cryo katana," she read their labels out loud. "They are certainly beautiful weapons."
"That's putting it lightly. Those things are sexy! And look at that! Only five hundred thousand points!"
"Those are the top prizes."
"Yeah, and I want them. For each of us!"
"Do you even know how to use a katana?"
"Do you? Wait, don't answer that."
Their conversation caught the ears of a couple in front of them, so they turned around to regard Anna and Elsa. One of them was tall and the other was short.
"Are you guys talking about those samurai swords?" the tall man asked.
"Yeah, what's it to you?" Anna replied.
"Ain't ever been anybody who could get that much points," the short man said. "Not even Billy Bluehand, and he has the top score. He did that by himself too. Legendary solo merc. If anyone could ever win those swords, it was him. But he died a while ago."
"What's his score?" Elsa asked.
"Up there," the tall man pointed to a sign that hung above the entrance to the combat simulator. "Been there for a long time, and there hasn't ever been another merc like ol' Bluehand."
Anna and Elsa both looked up, seeing the sign that held the top score. It was stuck at four hundred ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred ninety-nine points.
Elsa glanced over to Anna, and again, she saw that look on her face that she just couldn't say no to. "Fine," she sighed. "But let's just see how it works first, and then decide."
Anna nodded eagerly and bounced on the heels of her feet.
As they waited in the queue, a service android went up and down handing out datapads with a set of rules, regulations, and waivers to sign for all prospective combatants. Anna skimmed through while Elsa read the thing top to bottom before signing.
In short, the way it functioned was that combatants could enter as solos or pairs. Each combatant could bring their own weaponry – which Anna and Elsa already had – provided the live ammunition was replaced with blank ammunition to prevent damage to the combat simulator's infrastructure. The technology made it so that any rounds shot from firearms had their trajectories calculated and their points of impact simulated to make it appear as real and authentic as possible.
There were three difficulty levels; easy, medium, hard, and very hard, offering higher point multipliers as it went up. Additionally, each difficulty came with a pain editor so if a combatant took damage, it would register a pain response. Easy came with no simulated pain, and very hard came with realistic simulated pain.
In short, if lethal trauma was sustained, it would certainly feel that way even if they wouldn't actually die. In that event, the game was simply ended.
Then, there were also game modifiers to make it more easy or more difficult. These included infinite ammo or no ammo pickups, bonus health or no health regeneration, elite enemies and boss rounds or basic minions and waves of hordes, and so on and so forth. Each modifier added additional point multipliers.
Finally, when it came to enemies to kill, of that there was no shortage. A slew of cannon fodder was on offer for virtual slaughtering, ranging from basic soldiers and gangers, to more exotic and fantastical foes like zombies, aliens, pirates, robots, demons, and more.
When they reached the entrance, there was another bored looking teenager manning the front terminal. This time, she had been tiredly reciting the same corporate greetings, safety warnings, and legalese over and over. By the time Anna and Elsa approached her, she had clearly mentally checked out.
"Welcome to the combat simulator," the teenager said miserably as she chewed on a piece of bubblegum. "Is this your first time here?"
"It is," Elsa nodded.
"And we've signed all that legal waiver crap," Anna handed over the datapad.
"Great," the teenager sighed. "Are you renting weapons or did you bring your own?"
"Brought our own," Anna said.
The teenager typed in some information at her terminal. "Now, what combat package are you interested in?"
"The hardest one," Anna said easily. "Toughest one you can throw at us."
"Most first timers want to do the easy stuff," the teenager said. "People looking to blow off steam and kill things with no consequences. Are you sure?"
"We're sure," Elsa said.
"Getting shot or stabbed will really feel like getting shot or stabbed," the teenager said.
Anna and Elsa glanced at each other, then looked back at the teenager. "I think we can handle it," they both said at the same time.
After all, getting shot and stabbed were things they had already experienced before.
"Whatever," the teenager continued typing. "If you say so."
"Those swords in the display case," Anna started. "How do we win them?"
"Kill enough bad guys, rack up enough points," the teenager replied. "Anyway, select the modifiers you want on that screen," she pointed to a nearby holo-display. "Maps and game modes are there too."
After mulling over their options, Anna and Elsa selected the hardest difficulty. On top of that, they decided on no ammo pickups, no health regeneration, no radar, and no quick-hacks to make it as challenging as possible. For maps and enemy selection, they couldn't decide on any of them, so they opted for the randomizer.
When all was said and done, they finalized their game mode and paid their entry fee.
"You're all set," the teenager finished typing and lazily inspected her fingernails. "The Monimus Entertainment corp would like to remind all combatants that we are not liable for any damages, both physical and psychological, or permanent injury up to and including death," she finished her recitation and pointed down a corridor. "Locker room and armory are that way. Get set and whenever you're ready, insert these shards and step into the simulator room," she passed two data shards through the receptacle.
Anna and Elsa gathered up the shards, and then made their way down the corridor. There, they stashed their stuffed animals in a locker, then went over to the armory to load up their firearms with blank rounds. They wouldn't be able to find any extra inside, as per the modifier they set, so when they ran out of ammunition, they would have to scavenge the battlefield.
"Ooh, my fingers are twitching," Anna stuffed the pockets of her long coat with as many bullets as she could carry. "Ready?"
Elsa inserted a magazine into her sidearm, racked the slide, and tested the sights. "Ready," she nodded and held up the data shard. "Time to jack in."
With that, they inserted the shards into the chip slots inside their heads. It took a few seconds to synchronize with the game systems, but once it was fully optimized, a new heads-up display in their field of vision. They saw their own health bars, as well as ammo counters for their respective firearms.
"Cool," Anna giggled as she looked around herself, with everything she was seeing, hearing, and feeling altered and enhanced through digital means.
Now fully armed and ready, they stepped out of the locker room and into the main simulator floor. At first, it appeared to be a massive, empty space. Then, panels in the walls and floor started opening up and things were moving around. Pieces of landscape were being moved into position, as were pieces of cover, vantage points, and killing zones.
Soon enough, the room had been transformed into what appeared to be an ancient tomb of sorts.
Next, an automated voice spoke out.
… … …
Level One: Tomb Tussle
Starting in three... two... one. Start!
"Wait," Elsa looked around in confusion. "We don't even know who we're supposed to be-"
A second later, the bullets started flying. Gunmen were materializing from thin air all over the tomb. Health bars appeared over their heads, as well as nameplates that indicated they were mercenaries belonging to some generic private military company.
Additionally, the speaker system started blasting a sweeping orchestral score to set the mood. Bombastic brass horns blared out, while powerful percussion sections and stimulating strings accompanied the soundtrack.
"I think we got a pretty good idea now!" Anna pushed Elsa along as they ducked behind a fallen pillar for cover. "Game's started. Let's kick their virtual asses!" she peeked out and fired her hand cannon at the closest targets she could see.
The rounds flew out and struck two of the mercenaries in their center mass, dropping them instantly. When their corpses hit the floor, they burst into a shower of bright neon sparks and a number floated above, indicating the point value of the kills.
However, two more mercenaries instantly spawned in, taking their place and refilling their ranks.
Elsa leaned out from her side of the cover and squeezed off some rounds with her sidearm, killing a few more mercenaries. "This is very realistic!" she ducked back into cover to speak to Anna. "It's impressive!"
"I know, right?" Anna laughed as she dropped a mercenary with a headshot. "Cool! You get extra points if you shoot them in the head!"
On and on they went, dropping foe after foe with their guns as the onslaught continued. With each kill, their point total steadily climbed upward. Outside, the live feeds were showing their battle to a crowd of enraptured spectators.
More and more waves of mercenaries began to swarm their position, forcing Anna and Elsa to relocate when their cover was compromised.
"This is getting a little hairy," Anna ran ahead with Elsa to reach some higher ground. "Things are little intense, but I think we can- ow!" she yelped when she caught a bullet in her leg. "Damn, they shot me with their stupid fake bullets!"
The health bar above Anna's head flashed and dropped by a small increment. While she sustained no physical wound, the hot flash of pain lingered.
"Are you okay?" Elsa dragged Anna to her position and quickly inspected her leg, finding that nothing was there. "Oh, you're fine."
"I sure don't feel fine," Anna hissed as she rubbed her leg. "Ouch, that smarts!"
"They did say it would hurt like the real thing."
"I know, I just thought it was a marketing spiel. I didn't think it would be this bad."
"Anna, sweetie, I need to focus right now," Elsa dumped her magazine into a heavily armored mercenary. "Can you stop complaining for a minute?"
"Complaining?" Anna casually caught a grenade that was thrown between them and lobbed it back.
The thing detonated a moment later, blowing apart a group of mercenaries and earning a multi-kill medal along with a bunch of points.
"Complaining! Me!" Anna continued. "No, never. I'm so happy about getting shot! Getting shot is my favorite!" she leaned out and roasted a few mercenaries with the flamethrower mounted on her cybernetic arm.
"We're about to be surrounded, Anna!" Elsa reloaded her sidearm and popped out of cover to return fire. "Do you really think this is the best time to be sarcastic?!"
"No!" Anna said sarcastically.
The firefight raged on and on they fought. Together, they killed dozens of mercenaries and there was no sign of them slowing down. Eventually, their guns weren't killing fast enough, so they switched tactics.
A shotgunner rushed at Elsa and she jumped out, did a somersault, landed behind him, and snapped his neck. Then, she scooped up his weapon and began blasting apart her foes as she charged forward.
Meanwhile, Anna sprung out from her hiding spot, shot out her grappling hook to ensnare the assault rifle held in a mercenary's hands, and yanked it out. She retracted the cable and the weapon flew straight into her grip. At the same time, the mercenary was thrown off balance and he stumbled forward. Anna closed the distance and clotheslined him with her cybernetic arm.
"Ha! Grappling hook!" Anna laughed as she dropped another two mercenaries under some automatic gunfire. "I told you it would come in handy!"
"That's great!" Elsa racked the pump on her shotgun and eviscerated a mercenary in front of her. "Now, can you please- ow! Ow!" she flinched when a bullet struck her in the shoulder.
Anna looked over to assess Elsa's condition. "Are you good?"
"Yeah... yeah, I'm good," Elsa patted her shoulder and gave a thumbs up.
"Pretty annoying, getting shot, isn't it?"
"Not as much as you complaining!"
Anna gasped in offense, but before she could retort, a grenade whistled through the air and detonated between them. The explosion sent them both flying away from each other, taking a sizable chunk out of their health. When the smoke cleared, Elsa was now on the lower ground in the central killing zone, while Anna was still above in their vantage point.
The waves of minions had thinned out, but now, the boss round had begun. Two heavily armed and armored brutes had arrived on the scene. One wore a full helmet with a carving of a skull over the face and wielded a minigun. The other wore a ballistic mask with a yellow smiley painted and wielded a grenade launcher.
The nameplates on their health bars indicated that they were Scalpel and Torch.
"Oh, shit," Anna studied their observation, then hurried to the edge and found Elsa below.
Elsa was stumbling to her feet, still disoriented by the explosion. Stunned and dazed as she was, she didn't notice when Scalpel spooled up his minigun and the spinning barrels audibly whirred.
"Not good," Anna looked up at the ceiling and took a few steps back before charging right towards the edge. "Elsaaaa!" she cried out.
She leapt off and flew through the air, launching her grappling hook and attaching it the ceiling. Falling, gravity took her arc downwards right towards Elsa.
Just before Elsa was torn apart by the lead storm, Anna intercepted her, caught her by the waist, then swung upwards on the momentum. They both screamed as they reached the apex of their arc where Anna detached the grappling hook and they landed in a heap on top of each other.
"Whew," Elsa looked up at Anna and smiled. "Nice save."
Anna stared in awe at the grappling hook launcher in her arm. "This thing pays for itself!"
More grenades whistled through the air from above. Anna pulled Elsa to her feet and the pair took off running. As they went, they took potshots at Scalpel and Torch with their scavenged guns wherever they could, gradually plinking away at their health. However, just as they were working in concert, so too were their foes.
Torch continually rained down grenades from above, compromising any cover that Anna and Elsa found, forcing them into the open. Scalpel continually unleashed a deluge of bullets from his minigun when they were exposed and vulnerable.
Elsa targeted the ammunition belt on Scalpel's minigun with her shotgun, snapping the thing apart which forced him to stop shooting. "We aren't doing enough damage," she said, loading in new shells. "We need to get close."
Anna squeezed off a burst of rounds, hitting Torch's grenade pack on his back and scoring a critical hit. "I know!" she replied. "I have an idea!"
"Does it involve your grappling hook?"
"Of course it does!"
While Scalpel and Torch were briefly stunned, Anna shot out her grappling hook and embedded it in the wall above them. Then, she grabbed Elsa by the waist with her other hand and together, they zipped off the ground and through the air. As they closed the distance towards their foes, they split up.
Anna flew towards Torch and landed on top of him, striking him with her feet. Then, as he was knocked onto his back, she unleashed a concentrated jet of flame straight into his face.
At the same time, Elsa tackled into Scalpel and landed upright on his chest. Standing above her grounded foe, she unloaded her shotgun into his face.
Scalpel and Torch both died with seconds of each other, and their corpses exploded into sparks of light and color. Anna and Elsa each earned a hefty sum of points for their highly stylized, joint boss takedown. Additionally, the weapons that the bosses carried were made available for pickup.
Just in time too, for the final bonus wave of mercenaries was spawning in.
"Oh, hello," Anna knelt down and picked up the grenade launcher. "Look at that. They're even lining up for us."
"They're just excited," Elsa picked up the minigun and spun up the barrels.
With a nod and a smirk, Anna and Elsa hefted their new weapons and began their slaughter. The mercenaries before them were no match as they were shredded apart by a combined assault of grenades raining down from above and a lead best spewing a torrent of bullets. Explosions were going off everywhere, bullets were flying all around, and panicked mercenaries were shouting and screaming.
"Raaaaaaaggghhh!" Anna roared as she fired grenade after grenade. "Yeah! Haha!" she started to cackle like a madwoman with murderous glee.
Elsa on the other hand was far more composed. Her face was a mask of fierce grit, but the small smirk tugging the corner of her lips suggested she was also enjoying herself immensely.
All the while, their foes continued to drop like flies. Their point total flew upwards as the body count was racked higher and higher. Eventually, when their weapons ran out of ammunition and the smoke cleared, there was nothing left to kill.
And at that, the first level ended. Fireworks went off and a scoreboard displayed their point totals so far. With their difficulty and game modifiers, they were already well on the way to earning the top prizes.
"Whoo!" Anna clapped and cheered. "That was awesome! You were badass, Elsa!"
Elsa casually brushed off her shoulders. "So were you," she said. "We make a pretty good team."
"Hell yeah, we do," Anna held up her hand for a high five. "Gimme some."
Elsa high fived Anna and they giggled goofily together.
The simulator room was now reconfiguring itself and clearing the area to prepare for the next level. First, the scavenged weapons that they had picked up vanished from their hands and their health bars refilled. Then, the bunker complex around them disappeared as the randomizer selected the new map, loading in a fantasy battlefield of some sort.
Anna and Elsa now stood on a grassy field, littered with dozens and dozens of corpses. It was nighttime, the moon was high in the sky, and the snow blanketing the ground was stained red all over. In the distance, there was a castle under siege.
"I wonder where we are now?" Elsa asked, examining the scenery.
"Beats me," Anna shrugged.
"It looks like we're in medieval times."
"Medieval times? What's the worst they could throw at us then?"
In response to her question, the automated voice announced the next level.
… … …
Level Two: Medieval Massacre.
Starting in three... two... one. Start!
Then, a clamor of hungry moans and snarls sounded off across the distance.
Anna and Elsa spun around. From the other end of the battlefield, there was a host of shambling corpses charging straight at them. Their eyes were glowing blue with magical energy. Their bodies bore all manner of wounds, and some looked to be in the advanced stages of decay while others were more recently slain. In their hands, they held crude weaponry.
The soundtrack changed, and now an aggressive heavy metal song was playing that heralded impending doom.
"Zombies?" Anna sighed and shook her head. "Zombies are so overdone."
"No, no, those are wights," Elsa pointed at their nameplates. "See?"
"Wights? What's the difference?"
"In some genres of fantasy, wights are magically reanimated corpses. Zombies are often made from a virus or a disease, at least as far as their most common depictions are in popular culture."
"Okay, nerd," Anna picked up a spiked mace she found on the ground. "Let's do this thing."
"Right behind you," Elsa found a two-handed battle-axe she liked and hoisted it on her shoulder.
Wasting no further time, the pair gave a mighty war cry as they rushed forward to meet the army of the dead head on.
Just as they were about to clash against each other, Anna broke up the front of the undead wave by igniting her flamethrower and sweeping it around in a wide arc. She laid down a wall of fire in front of them to serve as a breakwater against the tide of wights.
Having created a narrow chokepoint, they were able to take their time as the wights trickled in through the wall of fire. Anna bashed one wight in the face with her mace, then smashed another one apart. Elsa swung her battle-axe around easily with her enhanced strength, cleaving apart multiple wights at once.
Arms and legs were chopped off. Heads were sliced in two or caved in. Torsos were completely halved or broken into gory, meaty pieces. Foul black blood spilled all over the snow, and everywhere Anna and Elsa walked, they left more and more slain wights in their wake.
They were steadily making their way through the battlefield, but the further they pressed, the more their flanks became exposed. By now, Anna and Elsa were wading into the thick of the army of the dead, surrounded on all sides by hissing corpses. Even so, they continued pushing towards the castle at the other end.
Elsa ducked beneath the swing of a sword and retaliated by carving open the offending wight. "How are you doing, Anna?" she asked over the chaos of battle. "Still having fun?"
"Yeah, doing great!" Anna punched a wight in the face so hard she pushed her metal fist through the back of their head. "Wow, these guys really come apart like cotton candy!"
By this point, they had killed so many wights that they were forming a hill of bodies. Anna and Elsa stood at the top, hacking and slashing, ripping and tearing all the while.
To clear a lane, Anna unleashed a torrent of fire from her cybernetic arm and kept pouring it on until her flamethrower overheated. Afterward, she resumed bludgeoning her foes to death with her mace. Behind, Elsa picked up a wight, held it above her head, and then ripped it in half at the waist.
On that bloody hill they fought, back-to-back, as the army of the dead continued swarming in. The body count kept piling up, the score kept climbing up, and they kept on killing. Eventually, the horde of undead was vanquished and a brief calm settled over the battlefield.
"Oh, man," Anna panted heavily as she looked around. "That was intense. Think that's all of them."
Elsa was just about to reply when a shadow swooped over their heads. A second later, an ear-splitting screech pierced the silence as a winged creature announced its arrival. The second boss round had started.
"What the fuck is that thing?!" Anna pointed at a flying reptilian creature with two wings and two legs. "A dragon! That's a motherfucking dragon! We're fighting a goddamn dragon!"
"Wyvern," Elsa replied.
"What?"
"It's a wyvern. Dragons have four legs. Wyverns only have two."
"Well, excuuuuse me for not knowing the minutiae of-"
The wyvern screeched and came in for an attack run, stretching out its claws right towards Anna. Just before she was snatched up, Elsa tackled her and they both fell out of reach. Missing its prey, the wyvern screeched again angrily and flew away, turning to make another pass.
"What the fuck are we supposed to do against that thing?!" Anna exclaimed, drawing her hand cannon and shooting at it. "It's too fast and we don't have enough bullets!"
As if on cue, two shining powerups appeared at different spots on the battlefield. One was near the center by a burning wagon. The other was atop the castle walls.
Another screech warned them of an incoming attack. Just as the wyvern was about to pass overhead, it hacked up a globule of acid and spat it out.
Elsa saw it coming and wrapped her arms around Anna, rolling off the hill of corpses and back down to the battlefield. Just as they evaded the danger, the acid splashed into the piled corpses and melted them down to the bone. The two women tumbled head over heels until they came to a stop at the base of the hill where Elsa straddled Anna's waist.
"This is one pretty crazy game, huh?" Anna grinned.
"I feel like we've done crazier things," Elsa got up and helped Anna to her feet. "Those two powerups are in different places, so we'll have to split up."
"Good idea," Anna nodded, gauging the distance between each one. "That lizard can't chase both of us. I'll go for the one on the walls, you head for the one by the wagon?"
"Agreed."
"Okay, let's move. Quick kiss for luck?"
Elsa acquiesced and the pair shared a quick peck on the lips. After that, they both took off running in different directions.
"Try not to get eaten!" Anna yelled as she sprinted towards the walls.
"You too!" Elsa replied as she sprinted towards the center of the battlefield.
Instead of chasing down one of them, the wyvern broke off its attack and landed on top of a tall tower overlooking the castle walls. It was unreachable in its current position, so the wyvern switched tactics by raining down acid from above. At the same time, a new wave of wights spawned in.
While Elsa was securing the first powerup, Anna was making her way to the base of the walls. Once she reached it, she ascended to the top using her grappling hook, then ran along the length of the battlements to reach the second powerup.
Along the way, she struck a wight with her mace here and kicked another one off the walls there. When she got to the powerup, she reached out with her hand.
"Here we go, come to mama," Anna said as swirling light enveloped her body.
A moment later, her heads-up display reported that she had temporarily gained access to new abilities. Crackling, frosty mist emanated from her hands and her body was wrapped in a layer of protective ice armor.
"What is this?" Anna looked at her own body and marveled at it. "Ice magic. I got ice magic!" she thrust one hand out and immediately released a torrent of icicles. "Badass!"
Her celebration was cut short when a glob of acid smacked into the ground near her, catching her in the radius. It was only a glancing blow, cushioned by her armor, but the caustic burn shaved off more health from Anna.
"Are you kidding?!" Anna retaliated by shooting back some icy spears. "Don't spit acid at me!"
They exchanged blows from range, and Anna dodged and weaved while whittling down the wyvern's health. Eventually, she did enough damage to force the wyvern into taking wing once more. Now momentarily clear of danger at the moment, she decided to regroup with Elsa.
Across the way, Elsa hadn't yet reached the powerup because she was currently doing battle with a pair of undead trolls. One was already slain, and she was standing atop its corpse as she fended off the other two.
Leaping into action, Anna jumped down from the walls. There on, she charged across the battlefield to reach Elsa, easily slaying any wight that came across her path. When she closed in, one of the trolls spotted her coming and pulled back its fist to ready a blow. Anna frosted over her metal fist until and built up an icy charge.
They threw out their fists at the same time, crashing right into each other with the force of an avalanche. On impact, Anna's frozen fist created a detonation of ice that shattered the troll into thousands of frosty splinters.
In the meantime, Elsa dodged to the side to avoid being crushed by the other troll's club. Next, she jumped up and held her battle-axe aloft over her head. As she came down, she brought the axe crashing straight into the troll's face with all of her strength, chopping it in half down the middle.
With a brief moment to talk, Anna and Elsa regarded each other.
"Anna... what is that?" Elsa pointed at the mist coming off from her.
"Ice magic!" Anna smiled cheerfully. "Pretty cool, right? Check this out. Icicle assault! Snap freeze! Glacial blast! Frost grenade!" she listed off her abilities and demonstrated each one in turn, tearing up her surroundings.
"That is cool," Elsa said, looking a bit jealous. "What is this one then?" she turned to the powerup in front of her and reached out towards it.
The same swirling light appeared over Elsa's body and seconds later, a bow materialized in her hand and a quiver full of arrows materialized on her back.
"A bow and arrow?" Anna snorted. "What the hell are you supposed to do with a bow and arrow?"
"That's a little underwhelming," Elsa frowned. "I was hoping for something a bit more substantial after seeing yours," she nocked an arrow to the bowstring and held it back.
However, when she released the arrow, it flew out like a rocket and became a flaming projectile. It struck the face of a boulder and blew a large chunk out of it.
"Oh, heh, look at that," Anna chuckled. "Magical bow and arrow."
Elsewhere, the wyvern returned to the battlefield and the second phase of the boss fight began. It flew high up into the night sky until it blotted out the moon, and then it folded its wings over its body. The wyvern turned straight down towards the earth and plummeted towards them. Before it smacked into the ground, it stretched out its wings, hovering overhead as it buffeted Anna and Elsa with strong gusts of wind.
Anna made an ice wall to shield them. Elsa nocked an arrow and pulled back the bowstring. However, before they could counterattack, the wyvern landed in front of them and swept out its tail. Their ice wall was smashed to pieces and Anna was struck in her side, sending her flying away.
She tumbled and rolled over, grunting and cursing in pain until she eventually came to a rest. Shakily, she got to her feet and saw that her health had dropped below half.
Meanwhile, Elsa was peppering the wyvern with arrows as fast she could release them. "Anna?" she called out. "Anna! Anna!"
"Elsa, what?!" Anna shook off her daze. "I just got hit upside the head by a dragon. Would you please stop yelling at me?!"
"Wyvern!"
"Whatever!"
"Are you going to help me or not?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming."
Getting back into the fight, Anna ran back to Elsa to assist her in defeating the wyvern. While it was grounded for the time being, Anna used her ice magic while Elsa let loose with enchanted flaming arrows. In retaliation, the wyvern continually hacked up acid, swiped its tail, or lunged forward with its gnashing teeth, forcing them to remain on the move.
Still, they steadily chipped away at the wyvern's health until it was below half, by which point it took to the skies once more.
"Ugh, stupid thing just won't die," Anna lobbed a frost grenade and detonated it in mid-air, barely catching the wyvern in the blast radius. "Any ideas?"
Elsa took careful aim as she held an arrow at the ready, making sure to lead her target before letting it fly. "We don't have much time left on these powerups," she released the arrow and only grazed the wyvern's soft underbelly. "We need to take it down with a combined attack. You didn't use your supermove yet, did you?"
"Supermove? We have supermoves?"
"Mine is charged up. There should be an indicator on your heads-up display."
Anna examined the information on her heads-up display and found that she had unlocked a final ability over the duration of their fight. "Oh, I do," she said. "Blade barrage. Ooh, hoo hoo."
The wyvern made a wide turn and was now flying straight towards the pair. They had to act fast, for their powerups would soon expire.
"It's coming our way," Elsa pointed. "We only have one shot at this."
"Then we'd better make it count," Anna rolled her shoulders and winded up her cybernetic arm. "Can't afford to miss, so it has to be right on top of us."
With only seconds left, they prepared their respective supers. Anna formed a fan of icy knives between her fingers on both of her hands. Elsa nocked an arrow and held back the bowstring until it hummed with energy and became a dazzling lance of light.
Above, coming straight their way, the wyvern reared back its head as it prepared to unleash a downpour of acid. Another few seconds passed and then, a brief window of opportunity presented itself.
"Now!" Elsa shouted, unleashing her arrow.
"Take this, you dragon piece of shit!" Anna threw out her blade barrage.
"Wyvern! You can see it right there on its name!"
"Dragon, wyvern, fucking flying fucking lizard!"
First, Elsa's arrow split into three smaller homing projectiles. Each one struck the wyvern in a weak spot. One it's eye, one it's underbelly, and one straight down it's gullet. Second, the flurry of knives that Anna threw out pierced and impaled the wyvern in several places all over its body, shredding the wings in particular.
The wyvern screeched and howled in pain as it was finally defeated. It descended from the skies as a bloodied corpse and smacked into the ground, carving a deep gouge through the earth until it came to a stop just in front of Anna and Elsa. Then, like all the others, it turned into a colorful show of lights and sparks as the point total climbed ever higher.
"That wasn't so bad," Anna looked at her hands and noticed that she had lost her magic. "Oh, bummer. My powerup is gone."
"So is mine," Elsa said, looking at her empty hands. "But we beat the level."
"We did. Teamwork!" Anna raised both of her hands for a high-ten.
Again, the pair clapped their hands together.
With two levels down, the simulator room was reconfiguring itself once more. While the stage was being set, Anna and Elsa observed their surroundings.
However, something was off.
A few of the digital backdrop panels were glitching, flashing through other scenes or simply showing dead screens full of static. Additionally, the visual feed of their heads-up display was also malfunctioning, showing multiple error messages. The speaker system was spitting out garbled speech, and soon, the simulator room started to spark and stutter in several places.
Then, the most curious thing happened next.
In the middle of the room, there formed a shimmering slice of light no thicker than the width of a blade; a rift in the space-time continuum. A window had opened up, hanging in mid-air, and it looked almost like a portal into another dimension.
But that wasn't what was most disconcerting.
Standing on the other side of that portal were two women who looked just like Anna and Elsa. Their surroundings were completely different, they were dressed completely different, but despite all that, Anna and Elsa looked exactly the same as their interdimensional counterparts.
The other Anna wore a wolf pelt cloak on top of leather and chainmail armor. The other Elsa wore elegant robes that were pure white.
For just a moment, they locked eyes with each other. And then, just as quickly as it happened, the portal closed, the rift sealed, and the simulator room returned to normal once more.
"What the hell was that about?" Anna asked.
Elsa shrugged. "Must have been some kind of glitch with the simulator," she said. "I don't see any more error messages."
"Weird. Those two women... it was like looking into a mirror."
"It was. I'm not sure what happened, but it seems like it's over now."
Neither of them got the chance to ponder over what they just saw much longer, for the simulator room completed its transition. Anna and Elsa now stood in the lobby of a generic megacorporation headquarters.
Then, the automated voice returned and announced the final level.
… … …
Level Three: Corpo Clash
Starting in three... two... one. Start!
Unlike with the start of the first two levels, powerups were made available right away. Anna and Elsa would need them too, for this was the toughest level yet.
Immediately as the game began, waves of enemies spawned in. However, it seemed that the randomizer had glitched as well, for instead of creating just one enemy type, it created a mishmash of several.
Hordes of humanoid creatures spawned in. They were one part synthetic, made of cold steel, cyberware, and twisted machinery. Their other parts were organic, made of agonized flesh, rending claws, and ripping teeth. On their backs were leathery wings, and on their faces were deathly and demonic visages.
The soundtrack switched to a fast-paced, violent, synthwave beat to set the killing mood.
"What are these guys supposed to be?" Anna asked. "Some kind of... evil meat demon cyborgs?"
"As good a name as any," Elsa said.
"We really know how to have a good time, don't we?"
"We do."
"Oh, boy," Anna cracked her knuckles. "Here I go killing again."
They went for the powerups and attained them in short order. In Elsa's hands, a drum-fed machine gun featuring a smart targeting system and loaded with airburst micromissiles materialized; a promotional item provided courtesy of ArmaRex. In Anna's hands, a shoulder-mounted heavy weapon dubbed the arc lance materialized; another promotional item provided courtesy of Ronin.
As soon as they acquired their new weapons, the horde of demonic cyborgs closed in on them from all sides. With a firm nod to each other, Anna and Elsa stood back-to-back as they started to mow them down.
Elsa held down the trigger of her machine gun and fired from the waist. The smart targeting system eliminated the need to aim entirely. Each micromissile fired became a self-guided homing projectile that aggressively tracked their targets. The airburst feature made them detonate just before they impacted, resulting in gory, meaty explosions as Elsa pulverized her foes.
Anna hefted the arc lance on her shoulder and built up a deadly charge. Electricity crackled from the business end of the weapon and when the charge was at full capacity, it was released. A bolt of energy cracked off and struck the nearest cyborg. Then, like a lightning conductor, electricity bounced from one cyborg to the next in a rapid chain reaction, completely obliterating them into steaming piles of viscera.
Waves and waves of cyborgs crashed upon the pair, but they stood firm against the tide. A few of the cyborgs took to the air on their demonic wings, returning fire from above with their own energy weapons.
"Get down from there!" Anna ensnared one with her grappling hook, dragged it down to the floor in front of her, then crushed its skull beneath her boot. "Who else wants- oof!" she got tackled from the side by two more cyborgs and was pinned down.
Elsa used the butt end of her machine gun to smack a cyborg in the face, after which she ripped of its wings with her bare hands and kicked it away. When she turned around and saw Anna's current predicament, she rushed to her aid.
Anna was entangled in a scuffle, punching and kicking her way to get free.
Elsa arrived and pulled one cyborg off of her, finishing it off by plunging her hand into its chest and ripping out the heart.
"Aha! Haha!" Anna extracted herself from the grip of the other cyborg, then trapped it in a chokehold. "Not so tough now, are ya?" she pulled out a length of cable for her grappling hook and wrapped it around the cyborg's throat.
She then sawed back and forth, slicing through metal and flesh until eventually, she completely decapitated the cyborg.
Elsa helped Anna to her feet, and once more, they hoisted their respective weapons and got back to killing. When the last wave of enemies was destroyed, predictably, the boss round began.
At the other end of the lobby, an elevator dinged and the doors opened. A moment later, out stepped the final boss.
It was a man with long, jet-black hair and a stubbly beard. Over his eyes, he wore a pair of aviator sunglasses. Over his chest, he wore a ballistic vest. Slung over his back was an electric guitar. His left arm up to the shoulder was cybernetic, plated in dark blue metal. In his right hand, he held an impressive hand cannon similar to the one that Anna owned.
A health bar appeared over his head, as did his name.
He was Billy Bluehand, the legendary solo merc himself. Long after his death, his digitized ghost continued to haunt Arcadia.
"Well, would you look at this," Billy stepped out of the elevator. "Two gonk-brained mercs, trying to steal my glory. If you want to make it out of here alive, then you gotta beat me! And nobody has ever beaten Billy fuckin' Bluehand!"
With his hand cannon, he took aim at Anna and started blasting in her direction. With his cybernetic arm, he aimed it at Elsa as a wrist-mounted submachine gun popped out. Immediately, the air was filled with a volley of bullets.
Anna and Elsa were forced to run away from each other in order to divide Billy's focus. As Anna ran up to a second story landing, Elsa flanked to the left and dove into a koi pond for cover.
Billy was now in the center of the lobby, pausing to reload his weapons. While he was vulnerable, Anna launched her grappling hook at Billy to try and unbalance him. However, he easily caught it and held it in front of his face.
"Nice try, punk," Billy wrapped the cable around his cybernetic arm, then he yanked Anna out of cover.
"Oh, shit," Anna yelped as she was thrown to the ground.
Before Billy unloaded on her, Elsa popped up and let loose with her machinegun. Just as quickly, Billy looked in Elsa's direction and uploaded a quick-hack targeting the optic sensors in her cybernetic eyes.
"I can't see!" Elsa looked around blindly as her optic sensors rebooted. "He's using quick-hacks!"
"He can use quick-hacks but we can't?" Anna detached the grappling hook cable from her arm and got back to her feet. "That's not fair!"
"My house, my rules," Billy laughed. "Welcome to the afterlife, motherfuckers!"
"Fuck you!" Anna readied her arc lance and charged it up.
Just as she unleashed it, Billy dodged at the last possible second. The bolt of lightning struck a pillar, blowing it into chunks.
"Ugh, are you kidding me?" Anna repositioned herself to dodge a volley of return fire and slid behind a new piece of cover.
Once Elsa's optics rebooted, she resumed her offensive against Billy. Forced to backpedal, Billy fired back where he could, sustaining minor injuries in the process which dropped his health bar slightly.
From where Anna was now, she had the higher ground above Billy. She pressed her advantage and tried to zap him, but again, he dodged out of the way. In response, he raised his cybernetic arm and switched out his gadgets, opting for a miniature projectile launcher which spat out a bundle of bombs.
Several spherical explosive charges landed near Anna, so she quickly got up and ran towards the edge of the landing. Elsa was down below, still in the koi pond. She had seen and heard all the ruckus, so she looked up to see Anna heading her way.
"Elsa!" Anna cried out as she vaulted the railing and jumped off. "Catch me! Catchmecatchmecatchme!"
As she sailed through the air, the bombs detonated, enveloping the entire second floor landing in a massive fireball just as Anna cleared the explosion. Gravity took her back down right towards Elsa, who looked up and had her arms open and at the ready to catch her.
"Oof!" Anna grunted as she landed into Elsa's arms. "Thanks."
"Thank me later," Elsa set Anna on her feet and pointed at Billy. "We need to kill him!"
"Fuck this noise," Billy put away his weapons and reached for his electric guitar. "Let's see if this old rockerboy still has some songs left in him!" he started shredding a nasty riff as he aggressively headbanged.
Earsplitting punk rock music filled the interior of the lobby. The bass was so loud it shook the walls, ceiling, and floor. The noise was made deafening thanks to two large speakers that appeared at opposite sides of the lobby.
"Agh, god!" Anna covered her ears and shut her eyes.
Elsa was similarly concussed, but more than that, Billy's rock music was setting an active debuff which steadily drained their health. If they didn't end this boss fight soon, they would lose the game.
"The speakers!" Elsa pointed. "The speakers are his source of power. We need to turn them off!"
At the center of the lobby, Billy was prancing all around as he continued to thrash. "I don't think it's loud enough!" he yelled. "Let's turn it up some more! Let's do some fuckin' damage!"
The music increased in volume enough to the point that the vibrations were visible as they rippled through the air. The health drain affects doubled.
Billy started to sing, unleashing all of his anger, hatred, and spite into a microphone as he continued to strum his guitar. Then, as he added more bombastic flair to his movements, the end of his guitar spat out a geyser of blue flame which he aimed at Anna and Elsa.
Before they were swallowed by the inferno, Anna stepped in front of Elsa and countered with a blast of heat from her own flamethrower. The two flames – raging red and blazing blue – clashed against each other and battled for dominance. The force was so intense that Anna had to support her cybernetic arm with her free hand.
"Go!" Anna shouted to Elsa. "Deal with those speakers! I'll keep him busy!"
Elsa nodded her understanding and took off running towards the nearest speakers. After ascending a staircase, she reached it and started looking for a plug. When she didn't find one, she punched it in frustration.
"How am I supposed to-" Elsa looked up and saw that the speaker had its own health bar, which was when it became obvious what had to be done. "Oh, of course. We're in a game, that's right," she took a few steps back and aimed her machine gun.
She emptied it into the speaker, blasting out large chunks as she tore it to pieces. When it finally came undone, the whole thing exploded and the noise of Billy's music noticeably dropped.
"One down," Elsa looked over to examine their situation.
Anna and Billy were still battling against each other, with Billy still thrashing, headbanging, and rocking out, wreaking complete havoc and carnage.
Wasting no further time, Elsa hurried over to the second speaker and dismantled it in short order. With that, the music finally stopped, the health drain effect ended, but Billy remained undaunted.
"Fine, you wanna keep playin' for time?" Billy stopped shredding his guitar and lit the whole thing on fire. "I don't need my tunes to kill you!" he gripped it by the neck and started swinging it around recklessly. "Come here!"
He charged straight at Elsa, and as he did, he became a blur of movement. He was dashing side to side as he closed the distance, flitting about thanks to his heavily cybernetically enhanced body.
Now that Elsa's machine gun was empty, she was forced to drop it as she resorted to fisticuffs. Billy roared as he swung his flaming guitar at her head, attempting to bludgeon her to death. Elsa dodged the flurry of attacks and for the next little while, the pair danced around each other as they traded blows.
Anna picked up her arc lance and was attempting to get lock on Billy, but he and Elsa were moving around each other too much that she couldn't get a clear shot. "Elsa!" she waved with her free hand. "Move! Get out of the way!"
"I'm trying!" Elsa ducked beneath an attack. "He's too fast!" she retaliated by shoving Billy away.
Billy stumbled, but regained his balance quickly. "Not close enough for ya?" he pointed above his head and launched a quick-hack, disabling the lighting system inside the lobby. "Let's turn this into a real mosh pit!"
His flaming guitar was extinguished and he vanished from sight as darkness enveloped everything. For a few tense seconds, Anna and Elsa went to each other's side as all became still and silent.
"Do you see him?" Elsa asked.
Anna squinted her eyes to see. "I can't see anything," she said. "Wait, did you hear-"
From the shadows, Billy suddenly emerged as his guitar was reignited. "Here's Billy!" he screamed as he swung it at Anna. "Yaaarggh!"
Anna only just managed to block the attack with her cybernetic arm and just as quickly as the attack came, Billy vanished once more.
"Hey, you bitch!" Anna released a burst of fire from her flamethrower to light up their surroundings, but found nothing. "Stop hiding!"
"I don't think he'll listen to you," Elsa said, pressing her back against Anna's.
"It was worth a try. We gotta stay back-to-back. He has to make a move sooner or later and when he does, we'll fuck him up."
"Good idea."
Anna and Elsa kept their backs pressed against each other as they slowly turned in a circle. Soon enough, a scuffle of noise caught their ears and Billy popped out of the shadows once more to try and catch them off guard. This time, they were ready for it, so they both sidestepped the attack and grappled with Billy.
Elsa struggled with the guitar in his hands while Anna trapped him into a headlock. Then, the lights came back on and everything became visible once more.
Having lost his advantage, Billy escaped the scuffle by raising his cybernetic arm, shooting out a grappling hook, and zipping up through the air. He landed on his feet back in the center of the lobby. Only now, he was missing something vital.
Elsa had wrested Billy's guitar from his grasp and now held it in her hands.
"Lost something?" Anna taunted.
"My axe! Shit!" Billy cursed. "Give me back my fuckin' axe!"
Elsa didn't reply. Instead, she started strumming the guitar. Since she didn't know how to play, the sound she produced was grating and abrasive, which apparently was Billy's weakness.
"No! My axe!" Billy dropped to his knees as he clutched his head in pain. "I just tuned her! You'll wear out the strings!"
"It's working!" Anna readied the arc lance. "Keep playing!"
Elsa plucked and pulled at the strings, deliberately producing an awful sound that was increasingly painful for Billy to hear.
"Argh!" Billy grunted in anguish. "Stop! Enough!"
Anna charged up the arc lance. "Looks like this is your swan song ol' Billy boy," she said. "See ya never, dickmuncher!" she released the bolt of lightning, striking Billy square in his chest.
Thunderstruck, Billy screamed in defeat as he was electrocuted and lit up from the inside out. His skeleton became visible beneath his skin as arcs of electricity were channeled throughout his body.
"Fuck you!" Billy roared, showing both of his middle fingers as his final act.
Then, his flesh peeled away and disintegrated, leaving only bare bones standing in his place. Even then, he held onto his death cry for a few moments longer before his skeleton toppled over and turned into a pile of ash. A second later, a shower of lights and color erupted from the ashes as a massive jackpot of points was awarded.
Fireworks were going off and triumphant music was playing. The simulator room returned to its default state and now, hanging above the center, there was a leaderboard which showed that Anna and Elsa had far surpassed Billy's old score.
They had won the game and were now the reigning champions.
"Whoo! Yeah!" Anna bounced up and down and clapped. "We did it, Elsa! We beat the game!"
Elsa observed Anna's giddy joy and smiled. "And set the new high score," she said. "That was fun."
"That was so awesome! Oh my god, wow! Best arcade game ever!"
A holo-display appeared nearby, congratulating them on their win and prompting them to input their names to put on the leaderboard.
"Oh, we can choose nicknames for ourselves," Elsa turned to Anna.
"Nicknames, huh?" Anna approached the display and started typing.
When she finished, they were two names entered as a pair at the top of the leaderboard. For herself, Anna had chosen the Red Baroness. For Elsa, she had chosen the Ice Queen.
"Oh, interesting," Elsa said. "I like it."
"I thought you would," Anna extended her hand towards Elsa. "Shall we?"
Elsa smiled and took Anna's hand. "We shall."
… … …
"There, that's perfect," Anna set her katana in the foam insert next to Elsa's.
She stood back and placed her hands on her hips, staring in appreciation at the prizes they had won from the arcade. After beating the high score in the combat simulator, they collected their shiny new swords and were happy to find out they were no ornamental display pieces, but actual deadly instruments.
"They are quite nice," Elsa said, standing next to Anna. "But I still like this more," she held up the stuffed horse.
Anna sighed in satisfaction. "Thought of name for it yet?"
"I'm not sure. What do you think?"
"Oh, what about... Horsey McHorseface?"
Elsa squinted at Anna.
"Pretty good name, huh?" Anna smirked.
Elsa rolled her eyes and shook her head. "You're a dork."
"Nuh uh, you are."
"You."
"No, you," Elsa turned around and walked out of the office, heading back to the bedroom.
"You!" Anna replied indignantly, following after her.
Back in the office, their new katanas gleamed in the dull light. Their polished blades hadn't seen use yet, but soon enough, they would.