Warren separated off from the other Shades after
breakfast and caught the bus over to the mall. He hadn’t been to QQ PewPew in
over a year but now he had no other options. By the end of his rookie year
playing Movers and Shakers as a pro he had purchased the laptop that he had
lost in the crash. The arcade was as dark as he remembered it. It had moved
locations within the mall recently and hadn’t yet accumulated the baked in nerd
stink. He checked the M.A.S. twitter feed for updates and saw that they were
still on schedule. He found Arthur behind the counter, like always. He owned QQ
PewPew and had yet to miss a day in the nearly twenty years it had existed.
Arthur looked up from his classic gray Gameboy. When he saw warren he smiled
ear to ear.
“Well if it isn’t Uneven Bubbler! How you doing
Warren?” Arthur asked, putting his Gameboy down and coming to the front side of
the counter. Warren wasn’t used to hearing his gamer tag in person and looked
around the room, no one noticed. “So how’s the game?” Arthur asked.
Warren shrank a little. “It’s why I’m here actually. I
have a tournament in less than half an hour and I need a place to play.” He
asked.
Arthur nodded and made his way to the back of the
store. “Of course. Let me set you up in the back”
Warren followed him to an
open computer in the back corner. He pulled out his wallet and Arthur held up
his hand to deny. ”Your money is no good here my friend.” He smiled again
heading back to the front counter and his Gameboy.
Warren was logged in and ready to play. He had just
lost his noise canceling headphones along with his laptop, but the café wasn’t
crowded and Arthur had turned the music down. His clock showed one minute to
the start of his first game, his opponent and the commentators Id’s appeared in
the chat window.
“I want to play a game” a kid asked coming into the
store.
“Well we’ve plenty of those kid. What are you
interested it?” Arthur asked.
Warren’s game was about to start but he couldn’t help
looking up at the front where Arthur was talking to the new kid. What he saw
made his blood run cold. It wasn’t a kid at all. It was Hexa Decimal. He didn’t
know why Arthur couldn’t see him but he knew his friend was in danger. He
ducked his head down low and slid his glasses on. “Step into shade” he
whispered to himself. He felt the suit materialize around him and watched as
the helmets heads up display lit up in his visor.
Arthur was leading Hexa Decimal around the shop
showing him the reclining chairs and giant screen TV’s playing ads for the
games that were available.
“Arthur get away from that thing!” Warren’s disguised voice
surprised him a little. “Go! Now!” he yelled.
Arthur looked at Hexa Decimal, the illusion shattered
and Arthur panicked, ran and dove behind the safety of his counter.
Decimal turned to face off against the Evergreen
Shade. “Well if it isn’t a Shade of Justice! Why so blue Evergreen?” Hexa
Decimal launched himself at Evergreen and they traded blow after blow in the
cramped quarters of the store. Evergreen used the layout of the shop and to maneuver
their fight away from Arthur was still hiding behind the counter. Hexa Decimal
realized this and made a dash for the counter. He was stopped and dragged to
the ground by Evergreen’s vine whips wrapping around his ankles. Hexa’s screen
face disappeared and was replaced with a cartoon hypnotic swirl. He turned to
face Evergreen. “I can help you, you know.” The hypnotic swirl spun faster as
Evergreen sank under Hexa’s control. The vine whips loosened and Hexa Stood up.
“I can share your pain with the entire world!” Hexa shouted as Evergreen just
wavered back and forth under Hexa’s spell.
Hexa drew a large orange glowing sigil in the air. He scribbled
zeros, ones and ancient ruins around the outside of it. When he had completed
the spell the sigil increased in brightness until Evergreen was forced to look
away from it. He heard the sound of shattering glass and everything went dark.
Warren awoke to Arthur shaking him. The lights in the
shop were out. He sat up and Arthur looked out at the rest of the mall. “Whatever
that thing was, it knocked out the power and maybe more. I’ve got some
flashlights under the counter.” He said feeling his way back to the front
counter.
Warren pulled his phone out of his pocket and tried to
activate it, but it too had died. “Arthur, I'm sorry man but I gotta go.” He
said grabbing his back pack, stumbling over his chair and then feeling his way
out of the nearly pitch black hallway.
Arthur stood back from under the counter with the
flashlights. “Warren!” Warren stopped at the entrance of the store and turned
around. Arthur tossed him a flashlight. “You’ll need this.” Arthur said and tossed
him one of the flashlights.
Warren turned it on and took a look down the main mall
walkway. “Thanks Arthur, for everything.”
He made his way out into the hall.
