Within the Games: Part One

     Now, what you need to know about Marine is that she is a true gamer who enjoys a good video game. Marine is always in the search for a challenge. She’s a tom-boy who loves adventures. What’s so new about the Zafara?

     As she started a new game, a Blumaroo named AAA walked by.

     (Just in case if you don’t know who AAA is, he is in charge of challenging you in beating his high score in new game every month. He also makes the Game Room on Neopets famous with the Daily Dare.)

     “You really love that game, now do you?” AAA asked Marine. Marine paused her game and turned toward AAA.

     “Yeah, yeah, I do! It’s my favorite game!” Marine replied.

     “Ever since that game came out, you’ve been coming in here and been playing it nonstop!” said AAA.

     “I do come here every day, now do I?” remarked Marine.

     “Yeah! I mean I’ve NEVER seen anyone play one game so often!”

     “Wait a minute... you’re AAA right?”

     “That’s my name! Daily Dare host and gamer extraordinaire!” AAA replied happily.

      “Well, I... I uh...,” Marine gasped with amazement. She always admired AAA for his beyond amazing scores. She always wanted to be like him. Getting insane scores that created Neopia history and being famous for her favorite activity: game playing.

     “I... I like your glasses.” She sighed because right when she said it, she felt horribly embarrassed and felt very stupid after all the comments she could have chosen and what she DID choose.

     “Well... uh... thank you?” AAA replied with an odd look in his eye as he adjusted his 3D glasses held together by a single strand of duct tape.

     “Sorry... that was VERY awkward...” quietly sighed Marine.

     “It’s okay! We all have those... uh...”

     “Dingy moments?”

     “Heheheh... yeah. Dingy moments...”

     AAA was slowly forming a slow smile on his face he was slyly trailing off and forming a sly gleam in his eyes. Marine knew far too well what that meant.

     “Oh boy, I think I know what you’re going to do now!”

     “And what’s that?”

     “You’re going to...”

     “CHALLENGE YOU TO SHENKUU WARRIOR 2!!!” AAA exclaimed. He had his nose in the air, as if he knew he would win.

     “HA! BRING IT ON, BOUNCY BOY!!!” replied Marine. She accepted AAA’s challenge, but she didn’t exactly think it through.

     They played for what seemed to be about an hour. They were playing the highest score wins. AAA scored 100,000 points. Marine scored 340,000 points. She had no idea that she would win, more specifically crush him.

     “YAY!!! I WIN!!!” She beamed.

     “I lost...,” AAA thought he was going to cry. He got crushed by a stranger. But... she may be worthy to... to...

     “What’s your name?” AAA asked, still bummed out that he lost.

     “Marine. Marine Khia,” answered Marine.

     “Anyway, I want to ask you something, Marine.”

     “And that may be?”

     “Is this the ONLY game you like?”

     “Well, I mean it’s not the ONLY game I like,” replied Marine. “To be blunt honest, I love all the games! Sometimes, I love the video games here so much, I wish... I wish...”

     “You wish what?”

     “Oh,” thought AAA. “what does she wish for? What does she mean?”

     “I wish I could actually be IN the game! See through the character’s eyes! Fly through the skies like that princess in Shenkuu Warrior 2!” Marine pointed excitedly at the game screen at the frozen princess in the middle of flying up to a cloud.

     “You wish you were in the game?” AAA asked quizzically.

     “This may just be the person I need!!!” AAA thought again.

     “Yeah, but I know it’s wishful and very foolish thinking, but I just think it’s pretty cool to think about. If I could be in an arcade game once, just once, I would be the happiest Zafara alive!”

     It was Marine’s lifelong dream to be in a video game. As you know, that would be the ultimate adventure, and you now know how Marine loves adventures!

     “Say...”

     “What?” Marine asked.

     “You can actually help me with something that can make all of these games tons more adrenaline rushing then they already are!” replied AAA happily.

     “Sure! I currently have nothing on my agenda today, so what I help you with?”

     AAA looked to see if anyone was watching them talk to each other.

     “Follow me,” AAA whispered quietly.

     AAA tip-toed slowly and quietly and Marine just as quietly followed him. He and Marine stopped at a black, mysterious door. He took out a large ring of keys from his front pocket and found the key he was looking for. He unlocked the door with the key that was equally mysterious as the door. AAA slowly creaked the door opened and walked in. Marine followed. She didn’t know what to think. She entered the dimly lit room that had an old office desk in the corner, a recliner, an old pinball machine, and a mysterious object covered by a curtain and surrounded by a bunch of tools, gears, and what looked like blueprints for what looked like a computer device.

     “What is this place?” Marine finally asked.

     “It’s my private office. This is where I go when the Game Room gets too crowded and chaotic during the day.”

     “Whoa! What is THAT?” Marine gasped as she was pointing at the curtained object in the middle of AAA’s office.

     “Oh, that! I was hoping you’d ask that! This was why I took you in here! Marine, I give you...”

     AAA pulled down the curtain from the mysterious item.

     “The Cyber-Port 2000! It’s a machine that can teleport you inside any game in the Game Room! Would you believe that you are the only person that has seen it?”

     “Really? Cool! Does anyone else know about this? Not see... but know?” Marine exclaimed.

     “No, you’re the only one. I can never let anyone know about this... This is a crazy device; I still have kinks to work out. Someone can get seriously hurt with this thing and someone else may take it the wrong way! And what will happen if people figured that out, huh? I’d be on the Neopian Times the next morning, that’s what would happen! But,” said AAA, “I can trust you.... You don’t seem like the type who would just give away secrets.”

     “Wait... what about your little sister Abigail? Wouldn’t she know about it if ANYONE?” Marine asked.

     “Well, I actually DID try to tell her. She thought that I was crazy and was making up stories. She teased me by saying I had Floppy Tongue and couldn’t talk right...” mumbled AAA.

     “Well, my friend Margo had Floppy Tongue before! She couldn’t talk right for a week!” Marine tried to joke around with AAA, but it was futile.

     She coughed and quickly changed the subject.

     “And as for me?”

     “You took this really seriously... a little more seriously than I could have. And I invented it! You actually seem excited about it! I mean, that’s what I like about you. You have... potential for this project. I like you...”

     “Oh! Well, thanks!”

      “*cough*, *cough*. So anyway,” AAA said with an awkward tone. “I’ve been working on this baby for years, but the problem is I need a tester to try it out, and that’s where you come in! The problem is, it’s very dangerous, but it can be fun. Would you be interested?” asked AAA.

      Marine had an amazed look in her eye. She was off into her own universe. It finally happened. Marine’s wish came true... and all she had to do was go to the Game Room and do her daily routine. She never had any idea it was that easy... she would have never known....

     “Wow,” thought Marine. “I can’t believe this! This is amazing! Good thing I woke up this morning! HAHAHAHA! If I knew it was this easy, well... I would have been created SO much earlier! HAHAHAHAHA!”

     “Hello? Marine?” AAA snapped his fingers in front of her face. He then started waving his hand in front of her face to the fact that snapping was fruitless. “Yoohoo! Marine! Come back to Neopia!”

     Marine snapped out of her universe and came back to Neopia.

     “Are you kidding? I’d love to! I’d love to try the Cyber-Port 2000 NOW!” she replied with excitement.

      AAA hesitated with a surprised look on his face. “What did you say?”

     “I want to do it now!” repeated Marine.

     “Wow, really? But I still have some kinks to work out first! I was thinking of calling you in about five years or-”

     “I wanna try it! I wanna try it!” interrupted Marine with anticipation as she was scrambling toward the Cyber-Port 2000.

     “I’m warning you... it can be dangerous!”

     “Is this the Power button?” asked Marine while pressing the button on the side of the machine.

     “Well, yes, but the game will be completely different than what it appears on the screen!” AAA answered with a nervous tone.

     “So, do you step on this platform to get in the game?” Marine stepped on the platform and looked up at the large screen with a list of hundreds of games over the platform.

     “Yeah, but you may never return! You might VANISH! Maybe FOREVER!!!!!”

     “Is this where you choose which game you want to be in?” Marine got on her tiptoes and touched the screen. She scrolled down the list to find Shenkuu Warrior 2. She pressed the green button that said “PLAY” under the screen. Suddenly, a flash of rainbow colors burst from the platform where Marine was standing.

     “Marine! Stop! This is unsafe business! You might get hurt! Or worse!”

     “HAHAHAHA!!! This tickles!” Marine giggled as lights of electricity started to gently rub against her, at the point where it actually started to tickle her.

     “Marine! PLEASE stop!”

     “Oooooooh! Pretty colors!” Marine said as she was disappearing into the array of light.

     “Marine!”

      “Shenkuu Warrior 2, here I come!” she yelled before she vanished. Pops and whirrs came from the machine. The sounds of fast spinning gears and the buzz of the electrical circuits in the machine pervaded the room.

     “MARINE!!!!” screamed AAA.

     A large, immense flash of light burst forth into the room. AAA covered his eyes due to the brightness.

     The noises of the Cyber-Port 2000 were getting louder and louder. And Marine was becoming less and less visible. She was being teleported to the forever changing world of cyberspace.

     The noises and the light was getting to the point where it was beginning to scare AAA. When the lights and the noises were at their fullest, suddenly the madness stopped, leaving the room as dimly lit and mysteriously quiet as it was before.

     AAA opened his eyes to see if she was still there. But she wasn’t.

     She was gone.

     “Oh no! Marine! What have I done?”

To be continued...