Hmm...
I mean...
That Layer chick's pretty hot, so I'll go with her. Without any sound, the game freezes up again, and I hear a different ghoulish laugh before it goes black. What's so funny anyway, game?
My screen shows me Sky Lagoon, the opening stage from X4. That blue, glossy "READY" sign slides past the screen as some announcer shouts the word and everything. In fact, this looks exactly like X4, only now this "Layer" person teleports down in some purple aura instead of Zero. Even the text box looks the same, and here's what I read before I can play:
"LAYER
Huh?
Where am I...?
I don't recall
ever going to a
place like this..."
She's equipped with this sword that looks sorta like Zero's saber, but thinner. Right off the bat, I have some questions; if she even plays like him, then why is X's music playing? Did the skyscrapers in the background always have "FÏRCORP" on them? What about the lack of enemies in the stage? As I effortlessly slash through every wall, I don't see that...giant green guy. I forgot his name. In this straight path, the debris I made from those walls are the only signs of explosions from this level. Although I'm approaching the boss door, I don't see millions of them at once. It "unscrews" itself to let me in, and the person at the end of the room is...Iris? What's she doing here?
When the purple-ish door closes behind me, the music quickly fades out. A large generator with a green hue towers behind both reploids, sharing their stillness. Iris has her eyes closed, facing the door with both her arms folded like she's in deep thought.
"Hey, you...
Do you have any idea
about where we are
right now?"
Layer asks, yet there's no response from Iris. She's still standing there, undisturbed. Nothing happens for a few seconds until Layer speaks to her again:
"Um...can you hear
me? I just asked
you about our
whereabouts?"
Again, nothing happens before Layer slowly walks to Iris. As soon as she starts to move toward the other side of the room, this TV static began to play quietly. It got louder with each second, reaching its peak when Layer gets to the middle. Trust me when I say this static got loud. My laptop sounds like a volcano erupting in my ears, making Layer stop to hold both "ears" in her hands.
"No wonder you can't
hear me! W-would you
turn that down!?"
She demands while her sprite partly shakes in place. Iris opens her eyes when her text gets off the screen, which stops the static. Her pupils are completely red with pitch black covering the rest of her eyes. Layer looks up in disbelief and drops her arms. She remains hunched over when Iris, now called "IRIS?", gives her an answer:
"You ask too many
questions. I think
it's my turn to ask
you something.
Wanna play a
game?"
...What? Does the one I'm playing right now not count? Isn't that dumb...
Layer blankly stares at Iris before the sound of pages flipping cuts the screen to black. I then hear something soft hit the pages, making the sounds come to a halt.
"No, wait, not that one." A woman blurts out. More sounds of pages flipping play through my speakers, being stopped by a light, similarly sounding jab.
"Not that one, either." The same woman says before the next set of page flipping. Another jab stops them.
"...Nope." She sighs, then the screen fades into the same cutscene from before, only now it's in 3D. Iris has a large, brown leather book in her hands titled "GAME LEDGER" on the front, having her eyes glued to the pages. She grabs one side and sifts through them with her thumb, closes her eyes, then opens them when she stabs the paper with her index finger.
"Seriously?! No! Does anyone even play that..." Iris rabbles to herself, offended. She stops to look up at Layer almost sympathetically. "Give me a moment, will ya?" Iris immediately goes back to her book, flipping and stopping it the same way. "Nah."
Cut to scenes of Layer standing straight, adjusting her posture as more page flipping ensues. One moment she's checking her saber, the next moment she's tapping her foot at the same time these hefty, mechanical stomping noises play. Between all the "no"s that Iris was throwing out, Layer's appearance began to change by the fifth scene. Her hair began to form a shade of gray at its ends, and there were faint wrinkles near the bottom of her frown. Three scenes later, the gray on her hair blends past her scalp, and the marionette lines on her mouth are visible. Layer's beginning to lean forward, her saber's blade tip against the floor while she cups the pommel in one hand. Iris is still flipping through her book, still saying all the "no"s in the world.
"Excuse me...do you mind picking something alre-" Layer gets interrupted by the final page stab, cutting the screen to black. The words "FOUND ONE" fade into the middle, and an ominous warbling sound plays alongside it. Each letter looks like those magazine cut-outs, but in 16-bit this time.
I don't know why, but I feel like the nightmare has just begun...
Two halves of FÏR's logo come slamming into the middle of the screen with a compressed "thud" sound. Underneath the complete version reads "Is this your first time playing 'Super Star Stacker'?" in white, and underneath that is two options, "Yes" and "No". I'm kinda insulted that a red circle is hovering behind "Yes" by default, but I swallow my pride and select it anyway.
Iris sits on a director's chair, megaphone in hand with some sunglasses on. To her left was a empty, black rectangle that has some cutesy creatures in the background surrounding Layer. Everything was drawn in this pastel, child-like artstyle, but in 16-bit graphics and the detail that came with it at the same time.
Y'know, for a nightmare that's just beginning, I didn't think it would look like this...
"OK, loser. Today I'll teach you how to play the game I picked out." Iris says while some similarly cutesy yet repetitive music plays in the background. Hey, you think you can call me loser in that text box above you and get away with it!?
"It's like those matching games, but with these critters." Showing up inside the rectangle are a bunch of blocks with stars on them. Between these blocks are three animals; a hamster with orange spots, a purple owl, and a blue fish with big lips. Another stupid fish beside a star block comes down in the top opening of the rectangle, down the middle.
"Just match one critter beside the same one, rack up chains, etc." Iris speaks into her megaphone as the blocks break two by two. A twinke sound plays before some stars fall in random spots. All those blocks dissapear and make way for a new set.
"Oh yeah. Those stars. That's how you make chains." Iris states as she rests her hand on one cheek, frowning. Two purple owls descend from the middle, then drop near the right where there's the same critter. "But only if those stars line up in a row with the same critter." She adds. That one move led to the entire lower section of blocks to break down, with nearly two dozens of stars coming right after.
"One more thing, and here's the fun part. For me, hopefully." Iris flashes a smile when a new set of blocks appear. Now it's almost completely filled out aside from a small section in the middle. "If any of those blocks reach the very top of the section shown..." The block-critter sets lower into the middle while Iris reaches behind her seat. Right before the last set of blocks jam the opening, Iris whips out what looks like Zero's saber and slashes at Layer when a loud crashing noise plays. Two columns of skulls show up in place of the center critter-block collection, and Iris' sunglasses fly off her face to show a manic expression.
"...I think you can fill in the rest. Now let's get a move on already!" She says, leaving behind a slash mark in place of Layer's image. A pitiful sounding jingle plays before the screen goes black again.
An un-aged Layer and a creepy Iris face each other in a bright looking field, where all the hills look like candy and the grass right above them have pixel flowers on them. They're both in the middle of the screen, with two rectangles on each side that fill up with the blocks from before. Behind them were the portraits of each character, Layer on the left and Iris on the right. A red "WARNING" sign flashes slowly while a siren blares five times. After the fifth time, each letter from the sign retracts and I see texts boxes from before saying these:
"LAYER
Why are you doing
this? You haven't
given me any
answers.
IRIS?
It's simple. You're
in the way of
something greater
than you'll ever be.
Our plans don't
involve Mavericks
like you sticking
around.
LAYER
M-Maverick? How
absurd...All I've
done is help aid
Hunters with
Mavericks in the
past.
IRIS?
We don't need
your "aid" anymore.
Just thinking about
it pisses me off...
LAYER
OK, what do you
really want? Is
this about
something else?
IRIS?
No! I want you to
drop dead already!
Now fight me!
A soft timer begins to tick after the text boxes stop covering the lower section of the screen. When its third count strikes, a small "GO!" in green pops up in both of our rectangles. Star blocks begin to fall from the top of them, the ones on Iris' side moving by themselves. I take my time and match two animals per drop, while the CPU is moving sporadically from slow to fast. Neither of us are getting the most combos like Iris said, but I noticed that whenever we match one or two sets of critters, the character on that side lowers themselves and vibrates, as if they're charging up for something. They either jump up and give their respective player another row of blocks, or they go into this different animation where they're about to attack the other.
I'm not sure which is true; me getting the hang of this or the combos happening by themselves. It gets to a point where underneath both characters, there's a flashing sign that says "SPECIAL ATTACK READY" when I get to matching six critters in a row. Curious, I press some buttons across my keyboard to see what does what, even though I'm still using my arrow keys to move.
So, the spacebar does nothing...The enter key does nothing...
When I press the "P" key, I hear two loud, compressed bangs before some new background music plays. It's a lot more hopeful and twinkly sounding. Looking up, I see Iris with her head in her hands, hunched over on her knees. Layer looks the same as when I started, but my section has this awkward tower of blocks and critters in the middle. Iris' board is two thirds filled up, minus the middle two blocks. With more confidence, I drop each set of blocks onto the tower I have, gradually getting rid of it. Between each two or three-match combo I make, I look back to the right and see that the CPU isn't moving. Their blocks are just falling down the middle at the default speed. My board looks uneven, but the blocks are low enough that I don't die. For now, it's seeming like two or three-fers.
...Until the music goes back to the song I was hearing earlier. Somehow, the CPU gets a ten-match combo out of nowhere, making my board rise that many levels. An even louder slamming sound plays as I watch Layer fall to Iris' saber. She struggles to keep herself up using her two hands while Iris towers over her. Her portrait from X4 shows up on the right, but she's glaring at Layer with those black and red eyes. On top of that, her face has these curved, black-ish lines above them, barely visible due to her claw bangs. Layer frowns weakly to the left, bruised and scratched in the same art style. Underneath them are more dialogue boxes that have this exchange:
"IRIS?
Down and out
already. I should've
expected this much
from the second
best choice.
LAYER
What...are you...
IRIS?
Enough, you tin can.
I'll let you off
with one last piece
of information.
The weak and spine-
less Iris you knew
is long gone. Say
hello to the new and
improved ' '.
From what I checked,
you're scheduled to
die now.
LAYER
D-damn...You'd...
never-
Layer begins to flicker in this almost white color. Several explosions go off around her, and her body has these yellow and blue lines coming out of it. The screen fades to white, and with its blinding light comes a final explosion sound and a blood-curdling scream. As the screen fades back in, Iris now-uh,
...Sorry, Iris.APK now stands beside an empty space, idling like nothing happened. Even the space where Layer had her blocks in is now totally black. I hear the same jingle that was at the end of the tutorial, then ... does a victory pose!? She raises both her arms and points her right one straight to its respective side. One of her knees are slightly bent with her left arm positioned like she's in the middle of a bicep curl. With her head down, she beams up and the screen goes black faster than it did white.
Right away, I see the screen where you get a new weapon in X4, but the logo for the game is replaced by that "féhr" thing I saw when I booted up the game. takes on a stance similar to Zero's from that game, and I hear someone say "You got...L-knuckle!" alongside the same "weapon get" music, too! There's even the same text from those kind of screens over her sprite! Now that I look at it, her sprite has a different color scheme, outside of the eyes and scars. It's a combination of purple, white and black instead of the usual colors she wears. Before I can process anything that happened, a text box shows up with this to say:
"L-KNUCKLE
Wow...this feels
amazing...
With this, I can
grab enemy
projectiles and
toss 'em right back
in their face!
But I know I
can't grab
everything..."
Next I see a screen with four options: "SAVE", "CONTINUE WITHOUT SAVING", "SAVE, THEN QUIT", and "QUIT WITHOUT SAVING". My hand flies to the arrow keys to select the second last one, and I get to another screen with some empty slots. Wasn't there another slot that already had data on it? It isn't here anymore, and the screen is totally different. Saving in slot 1, there's a purple "L" with the current play time and nothing else. Now that the game closes down into my desktop, I slam my chromebook shut and stare off into the nearest corner of my room.
What...happened?
...Did I win?