A red Cybunny with short red hair that matched her ruff stepped out of a small yellow tent with a few peach-colored patches sewn onto it.

"AAA, no one is going to play a game about your successes," Lulu said smugly, adjusting the khaki hat on her head. "The game idea that I'm coming up with is going to be so much better than yours anyway."

"What's it about, dressing up?" AAA asked. "Those games are the easiest of all." He took his red-and-blue glasses off (which he claimed made things look 3-D) and cleaned them on his shirt. "Also, since when do you make a game over buying Neocash clothes?" he finished, placing the glasses back on his long Blumaroo nose.

"I do get interested in games sometimes, and how would you know what it's about?" Lulu asked, removing her backpack and digging through it. "You're always too busy working on your game to even care about mine."

"Fine, tell me what it's about," AAA said, glancing at Lulu's backpack.

"It's still just a prototype," Lulu said, pulling out a small device that was covered in little flower stickers. "I don't think the leaders here at Camp Wannamakeagame will approve of it yet, since there are still a few bugs that I need to work out."

"Let me see it," AAA said, reaching a hand over to grab the machine.

"No, it's not done yet!" Lulu said a little too loudly, attracting the attention of various other campers, who all started to leave what they were doing and find out what was going on.

The two cousins fought over the machine, AAA completely abandoning his game components on the ground and only caring about what Lulu held in her paws.

"Fight, fight, fight!" the campers around them cheered, attracting the attention of the leaders in the camp.

"What are you doing?" one leader, a striped Ixi, shouted.

Both Lulu and AAA pressed a large red button at once. The campers went quiet, and the leaders all stopped dead in their tracks in shock.

AAA and Lulu began to rise in the air, surrounded by a red light, until they both just vanished.

The campers stared in awe at the spot where the Games Master and his cousin had just been standing.

"AAAAAAUUUUUGGGGHHHH!"

AAA and Lulu plummeted down toward the hard ground, both of them landing with a loud thud.

"Where are we?" AAA asked immediately, jumping up. "Where is all of my gaming equipment, and the other campers who always enjoy listening to my superior gaming knowledge?"

Lulu, for once, didn't come up with any wisecracks. She was too busy staring her machine down, pressing a few buttons and twisting a few knobs. She looked extremely focused and tremendously agitated.

"Lulu, where did you take us?" AAA demanded.

"I didn't take us anywhere!" Lulu blurted out. "Remember when you pressed that big red button on my machine?"

"You pressed it, too!" AAA exclaimed, stomping his foot on the ground and acting very childish.

"I did not," Lulu said calmly. "But I did warn you that the game had a few glitches, and now with your carelessness trying to fight me for my controller, you've activated the biggest one."

"What, little pink Unis with flashy silver armor are going to prance up to us on what looks like an abandoned wasteland?" AAA asked, looking up at the Unis who were slowly coming toward them. "What part of Neopia is this?"

"You're not in Neopia," Lulu said, standing up.

"What do you mean?"

"AAA, welcome to my prototype game..."

"How do we get out?" he asked quietly, his gaze back on the approaching Unis. Their armor glittered with a strange sort of beauty, the metal reflecting what little light was found in the wasteland.

"That's just it... we have to beat the game. The biggest glitch is that there is no way out unless we are--" she gulped visibly, "winners."

AAA just shook his head and stood his ground as the herd of Unis surrounded them, their eyes bright with excitement.

"Contenders!" they all chorused, their wings quivering and flapping. "Finally!"

"Lulu... what sort of game is this, exactly?" AAA asked his cousin as the Unis cantered around them, their shining hooves tearing up the moist dirt and coarse grass that seemed to make up the entire wasteland.

Lulu smiled sheepishly at her cousin as the biggest Uni approached with her head held high...

"We have," Lulu said, shivering only slightly. However, AAA, behind her, was quaking in his boots as he mumbled a quiet yes.

"Yes!" the Unis all shouted. They all cheered.

"Thank you for challenging," the largest Uni said. "You have no idea how long it has been since we've had contenders."

Lulu turned to AAA as the Unis and they began to walk along the wasteland. Excited chitters about the contenders were arising, and the Unis seemed to prance excitedly every time Lulu or AAA looked at one of them.

"Sorry I didn't tell you what kind of game this was earlier," Lulu said, nodding at AAA. "The Unis didn't really make it clear, did they?"

"No, not really," AAA said, still shaking, but not quite as much. "All they asked was if we were contenders, thanked us for challenging, and began walking us to somewhere that I don't know yet."

"Yeah," Lulu said, brushing a strand of her red hair out of her face. "Well, I can tell you what kind of game it is now, can't I?"

"Please do," AAA said. "I want to get back to Neopia where everyone absolutely adores me and thinks of me as no mere contender for a game like this."

"What do you mean, 'a game like this'?" Lulu asked sharply. "I haven't told you what kind of game it is yet."

"Fine, what kind of game is it?" AAA asked.

"AAA, this is a..."

AAA smirked. "Is that all? No sweat. Just wait till you see my stylin' moves. Up, up, down, down, left, right..."

Lulu shook her head. "No, that won't work here. I've been experimenting with a whole new haptic interface."

AAA favored her with a practiced look of nonchalance, desperately hoping his cousin wouldn't realize he didn't understand at all.

"You don't control the moves with buttons," she continued. "You move in real space, and your virtual self moves in the game. But now we're in the game, so--"

"So we have to dance," AAA interjected. "For real. Well, for what passes for real. Well, how bad can it be? What kinds of moves did you program?"

Lulu's eyes narrowed as she imagined the options. "Waltzes, foxtrots, quickstep, swing, polka, rumba, tango, you name it."

AAA's eyes widened. "Wait a minute. Those are all ballroom dances."

"Well, I like ballroom dancing, so that's where I started. I was trying to program an algorithm to score interpretive dance, and that's when the glitches began."

A bead of sweat rolled down the gangly Blumaroo's brow. "No, no. Don't you see? In order to win, we have to dance... together."

Lulu stopped in her tracks.

Suddenly the air was filled with bubbles and the sound of a trumpet. A dapper mutant Uni stepped forward, dressed to the nines in a formal tuxedo with a hooves-free microphone resting in a special collar around his neck. "Ladies and gentlemen! All contenders, take your places! The first competition will start momentarily."

From no apparent source, the sound of big band music swelled around them. As the music played, it became obvious that the first dance would be a...

"Yum! Where are the chips?" she said, then giggled.

"Well, I know where the dip is," AAA said, forming a little smile himself.

"Just try not to get eliminated," Lulu said as the two began to move to the music. "You know, it isn't much different than one of your video games if you think about it like one; stick with me."

"What do you know about dancing, other than you like to watch it?" AAA asked, trying to keep up with the energetic Cybunny.

"I created the game. Obviously I did my research." She smiled as she led her cousin across the floor. The mutant Uni looked at them with harsh eyes, waiting for a reason to eliminate them from the competition.

"You know, this isn't the most perfect place for a dance competition," AAA said as his feet kicked dirt into the air, causing him to stifle a sneeze.

"I was working on it," Lulu said, shrugging nervously as she tried not to stumble. Lulu and AAA were playing it safe when they noticed that some of the other Unis dancing were twirling their partners in the air. The Blumaroo looked at his cousin, the look on her face saying it all.

"No, no, no, I am not doing that," he whispered, shaking his head feverishly.

"Aristotle, do it now!" she said behind gritted teeth, desperately trying to wow the announcer. Sighing, AAA began to lift Lulu in the air, when...

"What was that?" Lulu hissed.

"One of the dancers smacked me with its tail!" AAA said. He and Lulu glanced at the mutant Uni judge, who glared back but said nothing.

"Never mind," Lulu said. "Let's try again."

AAA successfully swept his cousin into the air, her ponytail whirling, and set her lightly back down on her feet. She gave him a relieved grin and he couldn't help but grin back... until another dancer swept up behind them, bumping his shoulder into Lulu. Lulu staggered, and it was only careful footwork that kept her from falling on her tail.

"See?" AAA said, carefully sweeping her away from the Uni. "Did you program the other dancers to cheat, or what?"

"Y-yes," Lulu said, "but not on this level! It's for later levels, to increase the difficulty! This is only Level One, and they aren't supposed to start cheating until at least Level Eight!"

"Wait a minute," AAA said. "How many levels are there in this game, anyway?"

"Twelve," Lulu admitted. "I guess moving the cheating up to Level One is one of the bugs..."

At that moment, the band's music reached its final flourish and then ended. Lulu and AAA stopped and stared as a huge glowing rectangle faded into view, floating in midair. All around them, the dancers seemed to have frozen in place.

"Scoreboard?" AAA asked.

"Scoreboard," Lulu confirmed. They watched, holding their breaths, as the names of competitors and their scores slowly appeared.

Lulu's eyes widened. "It says..."

AAA's heart sunk.

"Out of 12!" Lulu exclaimed, her face lighting up with happiness.

The Blumaroo smiled, partly with relief, though mostly with surprise. "That's good?"

"Yes!" his cousin replied. "Only the worst couple is eliminated... the rest carry on to the next round!"

"Congrats, winners!" the mutant Uni announced. He then turned to the two who had come last. "ELIMINATED!" he roared dauntingly into his microphone.

A gaping hole opened in the ground, and the two tumbled down.

The "winners" found themselves rising up and up; the stage was moving higher and higer, to fill the gaping hole in the raised platform that was Level 2.

As they continued upward, Lulu stated, "The floor up there's wooden, but there's no walls; only skies. The losers will remain here while the winners go to Level 3... the platform will then tumble to earth." She paused. "Are you ready for a challenge?"

Her cousin smiled determinedly.

Upon their arrival, the string-heavy band began to play a 3/4 melody.

"Waltz," Lulu commented.

AAA nodded.

The mutant Uni announced the next level into the microphone. "Ladies and gentlemen! All contenders, take your places! The second competition will start momentarily..."

"This is it," Lulu muttered. "It's just us and those two other couples over there." Lulu gestured toward the two couples that had tried to trip them up back in Round One.

"We've made it this far," AAA said, smiling with confidence. "I think we can do it."

"We don't have a choice!" Lulu exclaimed. "We have to win this." She looked around nervously, waiting for the next to last track to play.

"If we win," Lulu said, "we go on to the finals. I haven't gotten that far with the programming, so anything could happen..."

AAA smiled. "You know, you made a pretty good game." Lulu looked up at her cousin in surprise.

"You mean it?" she asked. Her cousin nodded.

"Thanks," she said, smiling as she brushed her hair behind one of her ears.

"Now come on, let's dance!" AAA exclaimed as the music started to play once more...

Lulu and AAA gave this round their best, dancing like there was no tomorrow. They moved flawlessly together, looking more professional with each step.

The other competitors focused on their own routines, ignoring AAA and Lulu. They figured that, if they had only been skimping by in the previous rounds, then they'd have no chance at winning.

The music then faded out and the scoreboard began to rise.

"We won first!" Lulu and AAA exclaimed at the exact same moment.

As the platform began to rise to Level Twelve, the last remaining couple approached them.

"Congrats, you two!" the two Unis said with a smile. "You really know how to tango!"

"AAA! What's happening?!?" Lulu pointed toward the sky, which was now an ominous black.

"I bet it's a glitch! You said that you hadn't been able to program this yet, right? The game is probably trying to substitute other values in for those that aren't done."

The other competitors' pixels started to glitch, as well.

"Guess who's leaving the competition next?" they now smirked. "We'll do anything to win!"

"AAA, I don't like this."

"We've made it this far; a little glitch won't stop us!"

The music began; it sounded quite awful -- a mix between all of the previous melodies, since the game was not quite sure what to play.

Lulu and AAA still managed to perform well. They mixed moves to match the melodies.

AAA was about to toss his cousin when he felt the hooves of a competitor on his back, causing him to drop Lulu and hit the ground.

"AAA, help me!" Lulu cried.

She hung on to the small platform with one shaking paw...

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Lulu stretched out her other hand to grab AAA's, still clinging onto the edge.

"There's no way we're going to win this now," she lamented as she climbed back onto the platform. "We made it so far, too..."

"Not quite," AAA said. "It's not over yet. Come on, I've got a plan."

They started their dance again, switching styles in accordance with the music, spinning, leaping, and twirling. Their competitors, eyes wide at the sight of them up on their feet, made their way toward them.

Before they could smash into them, however, AAA stuck out an ankle, sending the Unis flying.

The first dancer fell off the platform immediately, plummeting into the darkness. The second hung onto the side, in the same position as Abigail just moments before.

The music stopped.

"Perfect," AAA whispered.

They were the only remaining couple on the dance floor, and by default, they had won.

The ground underneath their feet dissolved away, leaving them in utter darkness.

They landed on the ground, on grass, with surprised campers staring at them.

"We made it," Lulu gasped, clutching the side of her head. "Never again. I'm creating a new game -- I've had enough of dancing for a while now."

"I'm going back to my own game," AAA wheezed. "Level 273 is going to be about how I survived a dance competition."

The End