Chapter 5: The Final Frontier
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We all stared dumbfounded at Serah. She entered us in a laser tag tournament while we were wondering how to earn more money. She looked at us with a face of curiosity as she asked, “Well, what were we supposed to do? Besides, how does one burn through seven hundred dollars so fast?”
That was a good question. How DID we go through that much, that fast? I turned to look at Luis and Merille, both of them doing that “innocent” whistle.
When I saw them do that, I deadpanned, “You blew it on more than just necessities, didn’t you.”
Merille was the first to crack, “Well, sorry but I just had to get Dishonored and a couple of PSN cards.”
Following Merille’s confession, Luis admitted, “Well, I did get something for myself... An iPad.”
When they told us what they did, both Serah and I shouted, “You two are such idiots!”
As I walked into the arcade, I said in frustration, “Thanks to Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum here, we got to put the rest of our budget on chance!”
The arcade itself was pretty big. The first floor had a large concession stand that had a popcorn machine, a pizza oven, along with other things usually associated with a concession stand. There were also a few vending machines next to an open archway that led to a room full of arcade machines. Across from that was another open archway that led to a room all about laser tag. There was also a set of stairs near us that led up to the second floor of the building. Also, the ceiling had a space theme, keeping true to the name of the place.
We walked to the clerk at the concession stand and as we approached him, I asked, "Hey, when does the tournament start?"
The clerk glanced at us before taking a quick look on the computer, "Well, let's see... You're the one entered as Vinyl Scratch, right?"
I took a look at Serah who said, "Well, it was easier to just put our names down as who we are now instead of our actual names. That's why I'll be listed as Redheart, and you'll be listed as Vinyl."
I turned back to the clerk and said, "Yeah. Vinyl Scratch."
The clerk checked the computer and said, "Well, you'll be in the second match of the first round on the Blue Team along with your friends. The tournament itself doesn't start for a little while, so you have time to relax and play a few games before then."
After thanking the clerk for the information, we walked into the room with the arcade machines. There were so many different games, we were wondering which one we should play. Along the wall, they had the classics like Pac-Man, Galaga, Space Invaders, Mortal Kombat, Pong, Donkey Kong, along with others. Around the center, they had more modern games like Pump It Up: Exceed, Cruising USA, Time Crisis, Guitar Hero, some First-Person Shooters, and other racing games. Behind that were games like Air Hockey, those Basketball games where you throw the ball into the hoop, and skee ball.
We split up to play different games, and I wandered off to the Pump It Up: Exceed machine. It was like Dance Dance Revolution, but this one was the one that had the arrows on the corners with a button on the center. Before becoming Vinyl, this was one of my favorite games to play as it had a great song selection and, in my opinion, was just all around better than than DDR. I hopped onto the dance pad and levitated a couple of quarters from my wallet into the machine.
I was too busy focusing on the game starting up that I didn't notice another pair of quarters be inserted into the machine. It wasn't until I heard the sound for another player joining in that I looked to see who it was. He was about six feet tall, lanky, and had short, brown hair. He wore glasses with a black plastic frame, and wore a white, long sleeved shirt with a brown jacket and jeans. In short, he looked like David Tennant, only younger.
"Well now, it seems that Vinyl herself is a fan of Doctor Who. Now that is a surprise to me," he said with a chuckle.
I glanced down at my shirt before looking back up to him, "Well, yeah. Doctor Who is pretty awesome... Especially the most recent doctor, Matt Smith."
"Well, anyway, nice to meet you Vinyl. I'm Tom Baker."
I laughed at the irony of his name. He was a fan of Doctor Who, he looked like the Tenth Doctor, and shared the same name of the Fourth Doctor. Though I didn't get a chance to reply back as the game finally got to the song selection menu and before I did anything, I set the game so that I played on three times the normal speed. I then went to the K-Pop selection of songs and picked my favorite song in the entire game.
Tom Baker seemed impressed as he said, " Ah. 'Hot' by 1TYM. Nice song choice there. "
As the song started up, I noticed it was actually pretty easy for me to get the hang of this game in my new body. It startled me how many of the notes I was getting. It just felt natural to me as I found the rhythm of the song.
While we were dancing, Tom had asked me, "So, how long has it been since you were transformed into Vinyl?"
When he made that comment, it caught me off guard as it came so suddenly. I was curious as to how that question came up so suddenly, "I woke up today like this, actually. Though I gotta ask, why the sudden question?"
He continued to play the game as he stated, "Well, my eight year old sister had transformed into one of those characters today as well."
This only slightly surprised me. It seemed that not even children were safe from transforming. Though, it did make me ask, "Exactly who did she become?"
He then said in an interested tone, "It's actually pretty surprising as to who she transformed into. She became her original character I made for her, a filly changeling named Copycat."
That was the thing that shocked me and caused me to screw up a bit on the game, "So, people have a possibility of transforming into OC's they made? And not just ponies, but other species from the show as well? Are you afraid that you would wind up in a pony body?"
He continued to be focused on the game as he said, "To answer your questions in order... Yes, it seems possible. And yes, by what my sis became, it's not just ponies, and no, not really. I'm not a fan of the show, as it seems to affect only those who have an interest in it. The only reason why I know so much is because one of my friends and my sister constantly talk about it."
The song had finally finished as we both performed a trick to finish up the round. By then, we had both gotten off of the machine, ending it early. By then, Luis and Merille had watched us perform and took over for us.
After they took over on the game, I had looked to Tom and asked, "So, do you plan on going to New York to find out what exactly is going on?"
He started to walk toward the area of the room that had air hockey tables as he said, "Yeah, but I kind of have no choice since I'm from New York. My family was just coming back from vacationing here in Mississippi when this transformation happened. In fact, I need to check up on her before that laser tag thing starts."
When we reached the air hockey tables, we saw a small figure hovering next to the air hockey table. I was able to immediately identify it as a changeling, though it had noticeable differences. For one, the mane was neck length and parted in the middle, though it was purple and had the little holes in the mane like Chysalis's hairstyle was. The eyes were a matching purple as well along with the insect-like wings. She wore a pink striped hoodie over herself, and the only reason I was able to see the wings was because there were holes for the wings to fit through.
As soon as she noticed Tom, she hovered over to him and gave him a big hug. To be honest, it looked adorable. She then quickly looked down at me and gave this big squee before hovering to me. She was much smaller than me, the top of her head reaching just below my chin.
"Vinyl is one of her favorite characters. She loves music and relates to Vinyl the most," said Tom as he looked at us. "By the way, this is my sister, Yuna."
She stared at me with glee before saying, "Hey! Did you enter that laser tag thingy too?"
The way she looked at me was probably the most adorable thing I've ever seen, so I said with a smug expression, "Yeah. I'm in the contest, and I'll be the one to win it!."
She giggled a lot before saying, "My big bro is going to be in it too, but I'll be cheering for you instead!"
Tom took that off guard as he complained, "You mean you won't be cheering for your own brother!?"
She went back to him and said, "Well, this is Vinyl. She's more important than you."
I couldn't help but laugh at that, "Kids sure say the darndest things."
It wasn't much longer before the we heard on the speakers that the laser tag tournament was about to start. As I followed Tom to the briefing room for the laser tag tournament, we met back up with Luis, Merille, and Serah. The guy running the tournament told us how it would be. The first round would be two matches of Red Team vs Blue Team, while the second round would be the winning teams against each other, and the final round would be the winning team in a free for all match until one person is left. We were each handed a paper that had the names of the participants and which team they would be on. Upon looking at my sheet, I noticed that Luis, Merille, and Serah were on the same team as me. It made me breathe a sigh of relief as it meant that we had a greater chance of winning should we get to the final round. Though at the same time, it made me more nervous as for if we lose one round, then we lose it all. We would all be on the Red Team in the second match. We were told that we can observe the first match if we headed upstairs to the observatory deck.
After we dispersed, Luis, Serah, Merille, and I headed straight to the observatory area on the second floor to check out what kind of area and people we would be dealing with. The second floor led to a room that had a few tables and chairs laid about the room. On the wall was a flat-screen TV that showed the scores of the teams during the match, and which player had the most points. It also showed a "kill count" and a "death count" as to how many times a player scored points and how many times a player was tagged by another player. Next to the TV was a door that led to the observatory deck itself. Finally, at the other end of the room were doors to restrooms.
I followed the others through the door to the observatory deck to watch the match. The area was pretty dark, but it had neon lights and fog throughout the arena. The arena was designed to look like that an enemy spaceship had just landed and that the area around it was a ruined science-fiction base. Put at seemingly random spots on the map were small mirrors designed to redirect lasers for strategic corner and stealthy shots. We saw two doors on opposite ends of the arena open up and noticed that participants had set themselves up in certain areas.
Thirty seconds later, we heard a robotic female voice say, "The wheel of fate is turning! The final battle will now commence! Three... Two... One... BEGIN!"