Chapter 41: Arcade Date
Friday Night...
"Alright Kappei. Are you ready to lose?"
"No way Emma! I'll definitely gonna get a high score and beat you in this game!"
The scene then reveals the couple at the arcade for another date. It's now nighttime and they're just getting warmed up at the dance game machine known as Dance Dance Revolution. "You played this before did you?" He asked.
"You bet! During our time at the WNA Academy, I would often use this machine to practice my dance moves and get the high score!" She told him.
"Nice! Let's get competitive. In a friendly way." Kappei then slotted 2 tokens in the machine for 2 players. A selection of pop songs appeared on screen as Emma keyed in about 3 songs.
Background music is being played as Kappei and Emma readied their feet on the dance floor which has arrows on it. "All I gotta do...is to step and dance on them when they come down on screen..." Kappei thought and the game begins!
On screen, arrows pointing left, right, up and down descended down as Kappei and Emma began their dancing. "Oh yeah! I got the grooves! I got the moves! And I got the style!" Emma cheered and her feet sure can tap the pads quick and easy.
On the other hand, Kappei struggles with speed as he couldn't keep up with Emma's pace. He also tends to look at the screen and the pads and wow, his score is as crappy as that one time he got an F in his test at the WNA Academy years ago.
"Kappei. Don't focus on your steps so much. Focus on the game and let the rhythm guide you." Emma advised him as she got down and used her hands and feet a bit and is standing again. First round is over and she won it.
Second one is on and with that, "Alright...just focus on what is coming." Kappei then closed his eyes memorizing the pads. Once the music plays and the arrows appeared, "Let's dance!" Kappei watched his footwork as his eyes are glued to the screen. He danced his very best and likewise Emma and a few minutes later, "Yes! Now I beat you!" Kappei cheered and she smiled. "One more round left Kappei. Let's give it our all!"
"I sure learnt from the best." He replied and they got ready, the last round begins and they got serious in their dance moves!
Okay, the dancing was fun and in the end, Emma won and Kappei's happy for her as they hi-5 each other. So after the Dance Dance Revolution game, they went to try out other arcade games. They played a few shooting games like the House of the Dead series, Time Crisis series and a sniper game where Kappei gave it a shot but was terrible at hitting the targets and lost easily. For the other shooting games, they did good and after a stage or level, they lost their game lives.
Next, they tried a skee-ball game where balls are rolled on a lane and up, an inclined lane and over some ball hump to land on some holes for high scores. Kappei rolled a ball and it went inside a hole that's worth 100 points. Emma went next and her ball went inside a hole worth 1000 points!
"Nice shot!" Kappei told her as he rolled the last ball and it too landed on the 1000 point hole!
"Same goes for you too!" Emma told him and they hi-5 each other. Kappei then slotted another token with 3 more balls rolling out. They played a few more times scoring many points and tickets.
After that, they tried out the Space Invader game. Kappei went first and got a high score after some time. Emma gave it a shot and, "YEAH! I beat your high score!"
"Alright. I'll treat you to a drink after the fun." He told her as she snuggled close to him.
Then, they hit the air hockey table and they had fun sending the puck onto each other as they laughed and tried to defend their goals. It sure was fun and in the end, Kappei won with a score of 5-4. "Great game." Emma walked to him and pulled him in for a kiss.
"Score!" Kappei thought as they went to the pinball machine and gamed for a while. "Double score!" Kappei cheered because he beat his girlfriend's score and she smooched him again.
And finally, the claw machines. These are the devious and tricky things to deal with caution as Kappei used the claw and grabbed a stuffed toy but once it rises up, the toy suddenly dropped. "Crap." He exclaimed as he slotted another token. Emma watched as he tries his second attempt. Same thing. "So frustrating! Even that elderly couple over there won many prizes for reasons unknown!" Kappei pointed to his left and there, an elderly couple are seen gaming on the claw machine and what the juice, they won a total of 20 prizes.
"Unbelievable...how lucky can they get?" Emma wondered as Kappei tried another time but failed. And then, 6 more times but epic fail to the point that he wanted to smash the machine but cooled down.
"That was close. If he'd go berserk, he'll be forced to compensate with real money instead of school credits." Emma thought and then, had an idea. She went to him and whispered these 2 words. "Inner Peace."
"Huh...that's what they said in the movie 2 days ago..." Kappei thought so for the 10th time, he gave it a shot. "Inner peace." He then controlled the claw and it grabbed a Hello Kitty stuffed toy. He then controlled it carefully but it dropped. "Oh come on..." He groaned but then, the toy bounced off another and, "DING! DING! DING!"
"You won! You won!" Emma cheered hugging her boyfriend as he smiled. "Thanks to your words." He then took the toy out and gave it to her. She loved it as they smiled and continued their arcade fun.
After an hour of rip roaring fun...
"That's a lot of tickets we won!" Emma cheered and Kappei has the pile in the basket while Emma holds onto the stuffed Hello Kitty toy that her boyfriend won for her at the claw machine. Hugging it, "It's so cute!"
"Glad you loved it." He told her.
"I'm never gonna forget this." She replied kissing him on the cheek as they went to the counter and there, they can select a wide variety of prizes to be claimed and it depends on the number of tickets they earned from some of the arcade games they played. Since they won a lot, they claimed the following prizes. A glow-in-the-dark scream mask, a ninja comic book, a box of chocolate bars, darts with a dartboard, 2 water guns, 2 sunglasses and a couple more prizes.
It now cuts to outside as Kappei and Emma left the arcade with the prizes. "Ting Ting goes there often to play the dance game." said Emma.
"Archie often goes there for the racing simulation games and Slick hangs around at some drum kit game." said Kappei as he looked around for a moment. "I'm suppose to treat you for a drink right?"
"Of course you silly boy. How about a strawberry flavoured milkshake for me?" Emma replied with a bit of joking.
"Good. Milkshakes' on me then! I'll be buying coffee flavour." Kappei declared as Emma cheered and they went to get some.
Ah...those good old days where I often visit the arcades to scout and observe the games. My favourite are the ones with guns. I do remember trying them out and killed zombies and enemy soldiers.
Yeah, I'm into gaming and it's so much fun to challenge myself in beating levels and getting high scores. And I refer to not only arcade games but also PC and console games.
Character of the Chapter
Name: Dedrick
Profile
As easygoing and sociable guy from Singapore, Dedrick knows what is cool, what is uncool and what is so dope! He has a tendency to take shortcuts which surprisingly gives him perfect punctuality. Yeah, he's never late in anything and likes to collect Lego in his free time and play video games. He also has an older brother studying in the same school as him.
Awakened Power: Portal
Dedrick's awakened power allows him to create 2 portals. One is for going in and the other is for going out. He can create them at the same location or 2 different locations as long as he remembers the name and description. He can also create them above and below.
When portal is active, he can go in and out which explains his perfect punctuality and can send his opponents in an infinite loop by going through the portals endlessly without stopping and he finishes them off at the right timing. This only works if the portals are facing each other and are positioned above and below. He can also redirect range attacks using them to flank his opponents with his power by opening a portal to let the attack pass through and open another to allow the attack to emerge out and boom, the enemy is down and flanked.
Another use is to transport supplies and visit places in a short amount of time like the mall.