Some of you might recognize a few of the games and potentially movies referenced in this chapter. See how many you can find.
Featured music:
1. Twist My Hips from Shake it Up
"How is this possible?!" Padme wondered out loud. "How could Tech do this and not appear clavatized?"
"Mariverde must've reprogrammed one of her mariclavas to hold onto Tech, and then reveal the full effect later." Gabby said. "That might be why he was acting weird this morning too."
"Well, what do we do?" Lamenta said.
"The only thing we can do." Qui-Gon said. "We have to play the game and we have to win!"
"Well, what's the first level?" Carmine asked.
Suddenly, everyone found themselves in a whole new world. At least the two sets of twins, as well as Padme and Caroline did. There was a blue sky with puffy clouds, and there were blocks of many colors, and all around there were all kinds of obstacles.
"Why does this look familiar?" Anakin said, scratching his head.
"We've played this game before! It's Mario Party." Boba said. "Omega and I know this game inside and out."
"Speaking of playing with the other kids," said Omega, looking around. "Where are the others?"
Meanwhile, the others found themselves in some kind of purple room with a huge screen and a bunch of controllers.
"Where are we?" Gabby wondered out loud. "Hello?"
All she got was her own echo in response.
"Well, looks like there are two echoes in here." Lamenta said.
"Not the time for jokes." Echo said.
"Look! The others are on a screen." Kara said.
Suddenly, Gamer appeared on the screen.
"Welcome to your first challenge," said Gamer. "In this game, only a selection of you will be in a game, while the rest of you play the controls. But, if you lose all of your avatar's lives, they will be disqualified, and the moment there are more avatars than players, you will be under new control. Choose your avatars and press A on all your controllers to begin play."
And the screen changed again to show a new version of Mario Party called Super Star Jedi.
"Okay, we have eight of us," said Kara. "And six of us are in the game. Which of us should go first."
"Gabriella, Lamenta, are you two familiar with this game?" Shmi asked.
"Yes! Boba and I have played it loads of times." Gabby said.
"I've been to a lot of arcades while traveling with my parents." Lamenta said. "This one is one of my favorites."
"Then you two definitely need to play." Kara said. "Any other volunteers?"
"I'm in." said Hunter, grabbing a controller.
"Both my boys are in there," said Shmi. "I'm playing too."
"Me too!" Echo said.
"Then I'll be the final player." Kara said.
So, then, all the dressed up players were on the screen for the controllers to choose their avatar.
"I got dibs on Mommy!" Gabby said. "Or... Princess Peach? You know what I mean."
Echo chose Boba dressed as Yoshi as his avatar. Shmi took Anakin, Kara took Carmine, Lamenta took her mom, and that left Hunter with Omega.
With all the avatars chosen, everyone started to play the game. The goal of this game, to make it to the castle at the end of the level. But, they had to avoid various enemies and obstacles along the way.
"Game on!" Gabby said.
And so, the level began.
Padme, however, was shocked when she found herself running forward against her will.
"Whoa!" Padme exclaimed.
"What the- Yikes!" Anakin exclaimed feeling himself moving too. "What's happening?!"
Carmine also found himself jumping in a rather odd way.
"Why are we moving like this?" Omega said, jumping in a flip.
"It's like I'm being controlled!" Boba said, flipping and landing roughly on his rear on a block. "Ouch!"
"Gamer must be controlling us." Caroline said, jumping onto a goomba, a little angry mushroom-like creature.
Outside the game...
"It's not Gamer." Lamenta called. "It's us!"
But no one inside the game answered.
"I don't think they can hear us!" Kara said. "Gamer must be doing this to make them think he's controlling them."
And that theory was proven as the players on-screen tried to resist certain movements.
The players' efforts were in vain as they kept jumping and dodging a lot of things. Balls of fire coming at them, cute turtles that got into their shells and rolled really fast if you bounced on them twice, and some with wings too!
"Aw, those turtles are so cute!" Carmine said, but he got too close and...
"Uncle Carmine, don't!" the younger twins exclaimed.
Too late.
Carmine's whole body started to flicker and he dropped dead.
"Oh no!" Kara and the other players exclaimed.
But then Carmine popped back up fine.
"I'm okay!" Carmine said.
"But now you've lost a life." Boba said. "You can't touch enemies, no matter how cute they are. One touch, and-"
That was when another goomba came seemingly from out of nowhere, and now Boba lost a life.
"Great, now I'm down a life too."
"Jump!" Omega exclaimed, and everyone found themselves quickly jumping as some kind of bullets with faces came at them. Anakin, of course, cheered when he got 50 points for jumping on it, booting it right out of the game.
"Take that, enemy!" Anakin boasted.
Everyone kept moving their players and having them jump over things, run across bridges that fell the moment you stepped on them, dodging and jumping on enemies, swinging on ropes, and swimming underwater. To Boba's great surprise, he didn't turn into a merman, yet he and everyone else could still breathe underwater. But in this level, they had to dodge squids, urchins, and even some cute little red and white fish. Except, they didn't go without losing a few lives.
Caroline lost a life when she fell into a pit, Omega lost two lives in the water when a bunch of squids came at her, and Padme lost a life by getting hit by a speeding koopa shell.
Suddenly, as the group was running, a white flag with a red mushroom appeared.
"What's that?" Carmine asked.
"That flag means we're halfway to winning!" Omega smiled. "We just have to-"
Suddenly, everyone was hit with an enormous ball of fire like it had just come from a fire breathing dragon. And because Omega only had one life left...
"OH NO!"
Omega screamed as a big purple vortex came down and started to suck her away.
"Hang on, Omega!" Boba exclaimed.
Boba quickly grabbed his sister's hands and desperately tried to pull her out, and Hunter tried to help her run or jump, but found he literally had no control of her movements anymore. The others tried to help get Omega out, but the vortex was too strong! And Omega screamed again as she was sucked in and disappeared.
"Omega!" Everyone exclaimed.
"Where'd she go?!" Padme panicked.
Omega screamed as she was pulled through what looked like some digital tunnel or something. She had no idea where this tunnel was taking her or why, nor did she have any clue how long she would be stuck in this tunnel.
"MOM! DAD! SOMEONE HELP!" Omega screamed.
Suddenly, Omega found herself falling from the sky and landing in the seat of what looked like a jeep.
"Huh? Where am I?"
Omega looked at herself and found herself dressed in a khaki shirt and skirt, combat boots, and a pith helmet.
Suddenly, the ground started to shake. Omega looked down to see a puddle of water on the ground, and it was rippling. Then, a huge shadow appeared behind Omega. Omega looked behind her very slowly and saw... A T-Rex!
The T-Rex unleashed a mighty roar and Omega screamed. She didn't know how to drive a real vehicle, but she didn't care. She turned the key quickly and stomped on the gas to get the vehicle moving away from the T-Rex! Of course, the dinosaur started to chase after her.
"SOMEONE! ANYONE! HELP ME!" Omega screamed. "CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?"
Meanwhile, the others were down one player, and none of them could exit the game to find out if Omega was okay.
"There's only one thing we can do," said Qui-Gon. "We have to win the game."
"Let's keep going." Gabby said, making Padme move again, and the others quickly started maneuvering their avatars to get them to the flag that would end the level. Except...
A giant fireball suddenly filled the screen, and everyone lost a life.
"What the heck?!" Anakin exclaimed.
And then, everyone looked up and froze when they saw a huge turtle-like beast with spikes on his shell and big red eyebrows that had everyone screaming.
"What is that thing?!" Padme said.
"Something to run from!" Anakin said, everyone else taking that as their cue to run for their lives.
Everyone's controller had them running from this beast and dodging fire balls, heading in the direction from where they started, and now almost all of them only had one life left. Anakin was the only one who still had two.
"Boba, you've played this game. Do you know this guy?" Anakin asked.
"That's Bowser! Really bad dude, but he's not supposed to be in this level. He's supposed to be at the boss level."
"Mariverde must be changing the rules of the games to make it impossible for us to win." Padme said. "Like carnival games."
"How is he usually defeated in the game?" Anakin asked.
"I don't know, I've never beat that level before." Boba said.
"But I have." Gabby said, maneuvering her mom some more until she was ahead of the others. She remembered seeing a bridge of blocks earlier in the game, so she got Padme moving towards it as Bowser started jumping.
"If we can just get him to jump on that..."
The gamers moved their characters all around, seeing what Gabby was getting at. It took a few tries, but eventually they got Bowser to jump onto the bridge. Unfortunately, they lost Caroline in the process.
"Mommy!" Lamenta exclaimed.
But at least with Bowser gone, they could move their characters toward the flag, and they made it!
YOU WIN! appeared on the screen in big orange letters and fireworks appeared on the screen.
Gamer reappeared as everyone except Caroline and Omega appeared in the same room together again.
"Congratulations, you have made it past level 1." Gamer said. "You have lost two players, however you can get them back by either ending play by saying 'Mariverde has won' or, continue the game and risk it all. If you win, you will all be freed."
"We take the next challenge." Qui-Gon said.
Meanwhile, Caroline found herself trapped in another game, and quickly found herself in a jeep being driven by none other than...
"Omega?!" Caroline exclaimed.
"Aunt Caroline! Help!" Omega screamed, trying desperately not to crash the vehicle as a T-Rex was coming after them.
"Give me the wheel!"
Caroline moved Omega to another seat and took the wheel.
"Explanation, now!" Caroline said.
"I don't know where we are now!" Omega said. "But these dinosaurs keep popping everywhere!"
Caroline saw there were guns in the back seat.
"This looks like one of those games where you shoot the enemy! Omega, you have to grab the gun and shoot these dinos until we can win this game or someone can rescue us!"
Meanwhile, the others were still playing other games in the arcade.
"Yes!" Comedia cheered. "Finally, it's mine!"
Comedia was so happy as she finally got the seahorse plush out from the prize hatch. It took four tries, but she got the prize she wanted.
Goldie and her grandfather were playing a game of Air Hockey, finding it to be a lot of fun, and Garrett and Mariposa were playing on another air hockey table.
"Looks like I won." Mariposa laughed.
"That's the fifth time in a row!" Garrett exclaimed, throwing his paddle down in frustration.
"Daddy, it's only a game." Goldie laughed.
"Oh yeah!" Wrecker exclaimed, having beat his high score on the Whac-a-Mole.
Mona, however, was trying to win this game called Pac-Man, but kept dying.
"Aww! I got dead again!" Mona whined. "This game stinks!"
"You just need more practice, that's all." Magenta said.
Just then, Comedia's phone rang, so she answered it.
"Hello? Oh, hi, Myra."
"Comedia, where are you? I didn't see you at homeroom or on the way to first period." Myra said.
"I thought school was cancelled today." Comedia was confused.
"What made you think that? Where are you?"
"I'm at the Kate & Buster's Arcade on Naboo." Comedia said. "We all got a message saying school was cancelled. Same for Windy Falls."
"Well, school wasn't cancelled." Myra said. "Which means..."
Comedia froze at that.
"It's a trap!" Comedia said. "Where's the royal family?!"
Comedia ran to the back of the arcade, or started to anyway, when she suddenly heard two cries for help at one of the dinosaur themed games.
"Someone help us!" Omega screamed.
Comedia gasped. And then she screamed for everyone to come to where she was.
"Everyone, you have to see this!"
Everyone heard Comedia and came over to the same game, which had everyone shocked.
"Omega! Caroline! What are you doing in there?" Mariposa asked.
"Mariverde clavatized Tech!" Omega said.
"What?!" Everyone said.
"It's true!" Caroline said. "She's trapped the entire family, as well as Hunter, Crosshair, and Echo in the VR game. If they lose three lives, they get booted to another game apparently! But we don't know how to get out."
"Gamer said we wouldn't be set free unless we win the game."
"We have to get them out of there!" Goldie said, going over to the game herself.
Goldie pressed a button that was supposed to open the chambers, and it did, but everyone had some kind of green and black helmets on their heads and they all appeared in some kind of trance.
"Uh, I think we have a problem here." Goldie said. "I don't know how to get them out."
"Why don't we just pull the helmets off their heads?" Wrecker said, about to pull the helmet off Qui-Gon's head.
"No, Wrecker!" Garrett said, stopping him. "We can't do that! This is techno-magic. It's connected directly to their brains at this point. If we don't disconnect them properly, it could damage their brains."
"Then, how do we get them out?" Susy said. "I know how to work a sound system, but this looks a little more complicated."
"We're going to need more help with this." Garrett said. "Comedia, Magenta, go the Jedi Temple and get help, Citrus, head to the Naboo Palace and find my technical equipment. Everyone else, someone needs to make sure Omega and Caroline stay safe. Someone has to play the game and try to win. If winning a game will get them out, chances are winning whichever game they're trapped in should get them out. Now, that game only takes two players."
"I wanna play!" Wrecker said.
"Okay, who else?"
"That's my daughter-in-law." Susy said. "I'll play too."
So, while Susy and Wrecker went to play the dinosaur game, the others went to do their jobs. Garrett managed to find a control panel with the wires and circuits that made the game work.
"What are you gonna do, Daddy?" Mona asked.
"I'm going to try to hack into the game to see if I can disconnect the royal family manually. With the right adjustments, I can find a spell that will bring everyone back into the real world, and hopefully de-clavatize Tech."
Garrett's hypothesis was that Mariverde clavatized Tech's tablet after he put it down, and then when he picked it up, she hypnotized him so he would lure everyone to the arcade to trap them before going full-on with the clavatization.
"What if you can't?"
"Let's not think that way. But in the chance I can't free them, let's hope everyone who's still trapped has the skills to win the game."
The second game was a spy game, in which Qui-Gon and Shmi were placed as the master spy and his hot lady. In this game, they had to uncover the bad guys and diffuse a bomb before time was up. But obviously, Mariverde did not account for Shmi being good at card games, or that game with the item hidden under a cup that was moved around with others. Just because most of Shmi's slave work involved cleaning didn't mean she didn't learn a trick or two from watching Watto and his buddies betting on different games. Pod races weren't the only game Watto gambled on.
Then, Qui-Gon diffused the bomb and won the game very quickly.
"You've made it passed the second game rather quickly. Now the hardest game you will all face."
And then, everyone found themselves placed in what looked like a dance studio of some kind.
"Welcome to Let's Dance."
"Dancing?" Crosshair seemed nervous about this game.
"In this game, you will be selected at random for a dance number, to which if you receive at least a B rating, you will proceed to the next level. If you do not, then you will be booted from the game. There will be ten levels to this game. First player will now be selected."
A spotlight flashed on each individual, all of them starting out red to build suspense. And then, one light flashed white to select the first player. And player one was... Gabby.
Gabby stepped up to the dance floor in front of a big screen, where the song and dance routine was chosen for her, unlike when she played the game in the real world.
"No fair! I don't even get to choose what dance I get to do?" Gabby whined.
And then, Gabby was happy when she saw what dance routine she got. Twist My Hips (from "Shake It Up").
"Ooh! I love this one!" Gabby exclaimed.
The avatar came up onto the screen, then a countdown came. Three...two...one... DANCE! and the song started to play.
Gabby knew this dance by heart; it was her favorite dance to play whenever she played her dance games. Sometimes, she even danced it when she wasn't playing, and later she taught her friends at a dance party.
Everyone watched in anticipation as Gabby seemed so in sync with the game, getting every movement on the beat. And before she knew it, she got an A rating at the end of the song.
"You have passed the first level," said Gamer. "However, to pass this next level, you must do that same dance again, this time in a duet."
"A duet?" said everyone.
"No problem," said Gabby. "Boba, you and I have done it as a duet loads of times, remember?"
"However, your dance partner will be selected at random." Gamer said.
"No fair!" Boba said.
The spotlights came again, and the white one shined on... Crosshair.
"Why me?!" Crosshair said.
"Don't worry, Crosshair." Gabby said. "I'm sure you'll do great. This is a fairly simple dance routine. You just gotta follow the movements on the screen."
Except, it wasn't just the routine itself that had Crosshair worried. He didn't let anyone know, but he had a little secret he was embarrassed about.
"Crosshair, what's wrong?" Gabby said.
Usually, with Crosshair, facial expressions were a little hard to read. But, Gabby and the others could tell something was bothering him.
"Nothing. I...I just..." Crosshair, for what seemed like the first time, seemed afraid.
"Crosshair, whatever's wrong, you can tell us." Lamenta said. "We won't laugh at you, if that's what you're worried about."
Crosshair sighed and spat it out.
"I can't dance." Crosshair said.
"What do you mean you can't dance?" Anakin said.
Crosshair gave Anakin a look.
"Have you ever seen me dancing at parties?"
Everyone else thought back to the many parties they'd thrown or attended over the last year or so. At a lot of those parties, dancing of some sort was done, but Crosshair usually just stood in the corner and didn't dance.
"Crosshair, you don't have to be afraid to dance." Gabby said. "It's a lot of fun. And everyone had their own way of doing it."
"Clearly you've never seen me. I'm terrible."
"I'm sure you're not that bad."
Crosshair reluctantly tried moving in what was probably(?) a dance to demonstrate, but no one could tell if he was dancing or needed to go to the bathroom.
"Does your stomach hurt, Crosshair?" Boba asked.
"Boba!" Padme scolded.
"See?" Crosshair sighed.
"Now, Crosshair. Clearly, neither of us have a choice in this matter of dancing." Gabby said. "Look, we have to win this if we wanna get out. So, I'm gonna teach you some movements to help."
So, Gabby had Crosshair stand beside her while she started to teach him each of the basic movements of the dance they would do.
"Just watch and then do what I do. We'll take it step by step." Gabby said, and she did each movement as she said it. "First, twist your hips three times like this. Then, pump your fists up like this. Elbows in, and seesaw. Jump up, arms cross down, swerve and dip."
Crosshair tried to mimic each movement, but seemed to have a little trouble.
"Okay, that was good for a start." Gabby said. "Try it with me this time."
So, this time, Crosshair looked at Gabby and mirrored her movements the best she could, this time a little bit better, but he still felt discouraged.
"Ugh! I just can't do it." Crosshair groaned.
"Not with that attitude. Come on, Crosshair. I know you can do it." Gabby said. Then she had an idea. "Think of it like being on target. You have to mirror the avatar's movements, so think of following their movements like following your target, and your body as your weapon."
"Are all players ready?" Gamer said.
"We're ready." Gabby said. But Crosshair wasn't so sure.
3...2...1... DANCE!
The music began and the two players had to begin moving immediately.
The energy's in that full
Feel the beat, don't be so careful
Everybody here looks so beautiful
In the light, when we move, it's imperial
Gabby was super confident in her movements, but Crosshair seemed a little stiff in his.
"Come on, Crosshair! You can do better than that!" Echo said.
"You can do it!" Lamenta said.
Do you feel this? Do you feel that?
Did you take some? Did you get back?
Are you ready to move it, move it?
'Cause I'm ready to lose it, lose it
So let it flow (hey)
Get up out on the flo' (hey)
If you take it slow
Well, I'm-a ready to go so watch me, watch me
"Here it comes!" Gabby announced, and then came the most important movements of the dance.
I twist my hips (watch me)
I pump my fist (watch me)
I move like this (watch me)
Whirl (watch me), whirl (watch me)
I pout my lips (hey, watch me)
I swerve and dip (hey, watch me)
I slide and switch (hey, watch me)
Whirl (watch me), whirl (watch me), yo
Each movement, Crosshair watched the avatar and did his best to mimic the movements. And to his great surprise, he got two gold stars for how he did that movement. Everyone kept cheering the two on, and Crosshair slowly started to get better and better at this particular dance at least. And little by little, they soon reached the big finish of the second level of dancing.
"Alright!" Gabby cheered.
"You guys did it!" Lamenta said.
Gabby high-fived Crosshair, something he didn't normally do, but he made an exception for this victorious moment. Except, that moment of victory was changed when Gabby suddenly started to glitch.
"What the-?!" Anakin gasped.
"Uh, Mommy?" Gabby got worried when she felt herself glitching more. And then she started to glitch and glitch until she... disappeared.
"GABBY!" Everyone screamed.
"Oh no! What happened?" Lamenta said, worried about her cousin.
"I have no idea." Anakin said, cracking his knuckles. "But I'm gonna find out."
"Gamer!" Padme knocked her fist on the screen. "What did you do with my baby?"
"She has exceeded her number of turns and has been sent to another realm." Gamer said. "For now, the next dancers shall be selected."
And for this level, Qui-Gon and Shmi were chosen for a duet. Except, the dance they had to do was to Timber, as in a country dance, one form of dance neither of them had a ton of experience with.
"Now I wish we'd taken the Caballos up on their offer to teach us country dancing." Shmi said, a little worried.
"Well, no use in regrets now." Qui-Gon said. "Let's dance."
Back in the arcade.
"Come on, Wrecker! Less muscle, more speed into it!" Susy said, shooting another raptor with Caroline as her avatar.
"How are you better at this game than me?" Wrecker said.
"I raised a teenage boy on my own and survived slavers for six years." Susy said. "It takes more than digital dinosaurs to ruffle my feathers."
"But you don't have feathers."
"Figure of speech."
Susy shot yet another raptor, and made it to the next level of the game. Just one more land to go, and they would win the game. Except, it was the hardest level yet!
Meanwhile, Citrus eventually arrived with Garrett's technical equipment.
"What are you gonna do, Garrett?" Citrus asked.
"Hopefully, get everyone out safely." Garrett said.
Garrett picked out some tools and a tablet, which he gave to Mona to hold and activate.
Mona got a little curious though as she held the tablet and Garrett plugged it into the game console. Mona saw a lot of coding on the game and patterns to them too that was connected to the virtual reality magic helmets that held everyone in the game. Garrett was busy with the wiring, and said not to interrupt him so he could concentrate. Curious, Mona hit a few keys and moved a few pieces of code around, and then all of a sudden, the game seemed to shut off and then turn back on.
"What happened?" Constantine said, seeing as the game's lights turned off.
"We must have blown a fuse." Garrett said. "Mona, you didn't touch any keys on the tablet, did you?"
"Um... maybe?" Mona said nervously.
And then, the chambers opened, and out came Qui-Gon, Anakin, Carmine, Padme, and Boba.
"Are you all okay?" Mariposa said, being one of many helping the others out.
"What happened?" Anakin said dizzily.
Garrett looked at the tablet, and was shocked with what he saw.
"Apparently, Mona cracked the code to hack into the system and get you out." Garrett said. He looked at his adopted daughter. "How did you do that?"
Mona shrugged.
"I don't know. I just looked at the code and moved some stuff around." she said.
"When you said you read a lot of books," said Padme. "Were any of them about computers?"
Mona thought back. "I think so. I just never thought I picked up a lot from them."
"But wait," said Mariposa. "Where are Omega, Caroline, Gabby, Shmi, Crosshair, Kara, Hunter, and Echo?"
"They got booted out of the game before you got us out." Padme said. "But we don't know where."
"But we do."
Mariposa showed Carmine and Padme the dinosaur game where Caroline and Omega were trapped.
"They're inside another game?!" Padme said. "Why would Gamer send them there?"
"Maybe because that game is really hard to win," said Goldie. "Cousin Miles told me about how he kept trying that same game, and the last island is impossible to win."
"Gamer must be rigging the games so we get trapped, so Mariverde can steal the crown jewels." Padme said.
"So, if Omega and Caroline are in this game," said Carmine. "That means the others must be trapped in one or more of the other games."
So, everyone quickly checked the other games to see where the rest of their friends were trapped. It turned out, Gabby and Crosshair were both trapped in the original Dance, Prance Revolution game, Shmi, Kara, and Echo were trapped in a game with spaceships that shot at digital bug-like characters, and they were the pilots. But where was Hunter?
"Help!" Hunter's voice called.
Mona looked around and found Hunter trapped in some kind of ball... in the crane machine?
"Hunter! He's in the crane machine!" Mona said. "Hunter! Can you hear me? Are you okay?"
"I can hear you, but I can't get out!" Hunter said.
"Don't worry, Hunter. I'll save you."
"But, Mona. Crane machines are one of the hardest, most rigged video games there are. These things are known for picking your pockets."
But, Mona didn't look like she cared.
"You saved me once. Now I'm gonna save you."
So, Mona entered some tokens, and began to maneuver the claw until she had it over the ball Hunter was trapped in. She hit the button, and the claw lowered. Except, it didn't even grab the ball. Instead, it grabbed a blue plush cow.
"Darn it!" Mona said.
"Hey, at least you won something." Hunter shrugged, trying to cheer Mona up.
"But not the prize I wanted." Mona said. "I'm gonna try again."
Mona placed another token in the game and tried to grab Hunter again, but she got the claw in the wrong place again and won a big slinky spring instead. She tried again, and it grabbed a plush butterfly. She tried again,and it grabbed a ball, but not the ball she was aiming for. She played at least twelve more times, but only succeeded in grabbing toys. In other words, Mona was grabbing every prize except the one she wanted.
"AGH!" Mona groaned. She was getting frustrated. "Okay, one more try."
Except...
"Oh no! I'm out of tokens!" Mona said.
"Let me give it a go." Anakin said, placing one of his tokens into the machine and maneuvering the claw. This time, the claw did grab Hunter, but it dropped him.
"Ouch!" Hunter groaned.
"Sorry, Hunter! I'll try again."
So, Anakin tried again.
"That game is really hard, Anakin." Mona said. "But I kept grabbing every prize except him. I'm the worst gamer ever!"
"That's not true, Mona." Anakin said, not taking his eyes off the game. "You just need more practice. And to be fair, claw machines are one of the more advanced types of games. They cheat to keep you throwing money in, but there are tricks to winning if you look carefully enough. And hey, look at all the toys you won while trying to rescue Hunter."
But then, the claw dropped Hunter again. At least he was a little closer to the prize hatch. And then, Mona had an idea.
"Anakin, you can make things fly. Isn't that what Jedi do?" Mona said.
"No. Okay, yes, Jedi do make things fly sometimes with the Force." Anakin said. "But that would be cheating."
"Didn't you just say the game itself cheats? And it's not really cheating if we're rescuing Hunter, right?"
Anakin thought about it. Mona did have a point; Hunter was placed into that game against his will. So, what was the harm in trying?
Carefully, Anakin concentrated on the ball Hunter was trapped in, and he used the Force to make it move. The ball floated up and got closer and closer to the hatch, and before they knew it, the ball fell into the hatch.
"We got him!"
Anakin took the ball out of the hatch, and all of a sudden, it sparkled, and then Hunter was in Anakin's arms bridal style.
"Hunter!" Mona said, but then she giggled at the way Anakin was holding Hunter.
"Thank you for saving me, General Skywalker." Hunter said. "Now would you mind putting me down?"
"Sorry." Anakin put Hunter down, and Mona practically tackled the latter in a hug.
"Don't worry, kid. I'm alright." Hunter said.
"But I couldn't get you out."
Mona felt terrible that she couldn't free Hunter from the game. She wanted to be able to save him the way he saved her not that long ago, but it looked like she blew her chance.
"Hey, I'm not upset. You tried your best." Hunter said, ruffling Mona's hair. "And you already saved some of the others by hacking them out of the game."
"But the others are still trapped in other games." Mona said.
"Then we'd better get them out."
"I wonder what's taking Magenta and Comedia so long to get back here." Mariposa thought put loud.
"Has anyone seen Diamond?" Citrus said, looking around.
"Last time I saw her," said Mona. "She was at that game with the dots and ghosts."
Except, when Goldie took a look at the game Mona was talking about, she got concerned.
"Uh... Daddy? I think you might wanna see this." she said.
On Coruscant, everything seemed peaceful as could be in the city... until it wasn't.
In a red speeder, a Twi-lek man was driving as fast as he could in random directions across the city, and steered in various directions as he heard what sounded like a loud CHOMP! CHOMP! CHOMP! but... digital? He wasn't the only one though.
One police vehicle was being driven by Detective Divo, and he was surprised when his vehicle turned a brighter blue, and then at one point, it started to glow white and make these strange digital noises, and then a pair of cherries floated by and went right through his vehicle.
"What the-?"
And then he saw something much bigger that cause the officer to steer in the other direction and speed down the streets.
People were screaming as something huge sped through town, and whatever it was, it even had the Jedi running for their lives. Everyone was advised to stay indoors and not drive on the streets, as it appeared that was where the threat liked to feed.
"It looks like Mariverde's upgraded the game into the real world." Comedia said after she and Master Secura took shelter inside an electronics store.
"Does the royal family know about this?" Aayla asked.
"I don't know. But Sapphire's not gonna be happy about this, that's for sure."