Chapter Text
“Boom! In yo face, Howard!”
Randy reveled in his new high score, slapping a hand against the cabinet, elbowing his best friend, and pushing him just a little closer to the screen. He’d bested Howard’s poor attempt at taking his number one spot by over seven full rounds, an accomplishment that Howard did not want to recognize.
“Wow, round eighteen, what a surprise.”
“Hey, you said it, not me,” Randy gloated, “But for future reference, maybe you wanna throw an uppercut once in a while.”
“Jim Paine caught me off guard!” Howard snapped, “It happened to the shoob the game’s named after!”
“Sure, that’s what they all say, pal.”
“Oh, it is on!” Howard said, pushing Randy out of the way and dumping a quarter in the machine, “Throw an uppercut… I’ll show you uppercuts…”
“You know what, I’mma go get some nachos. Take all the time you need, I’m sure you’ll have this in the bag by the time I get back.”
“Yeah, I will. And Cunningham?”
“Yeah, what?” Randy chuckled.
“If I beat you, again, those nachos are mine!”
As if that was ever gonna happen. Howard looked back at the game to find he’d lost in the first round while he wasn’t paying attention. Naturally, he freaked, giving Randy plenty to laugh about as he made his way to the Food Hole on the other side of the building.
“Yo Greg, get me a large basket of nachos,” Randy said, leaning against and slapping a five on the countertop, “And make sure they’re extra cheesy.”
Greg nodded, and went off to the back. Randy opted to look back at his best friend’s floundering, unable to wipe the cocky smile off his face. Someone had stopped to watch him, but it didn’t seem to be improving his gameplay. If anything, he seemed to be doing worse.
When Greg returned with the nachos, Randy triumphantly accepted them, and strode back to the cabinet, at which point he got a somewhat better look at the observer. It was a girl, he could tell as much from her voice as she picked apart every flaw in Howard’s strategy. Aside from that and her ridiculous height, everything else about her was obscured. The Game Hole was dim enough without her hoody and baggy pants obscuring every identifiable part of her.
Nevertheless, Randy would never pass up an opportunity to mess with Howard a bit.
“Bruce hoodie,” He said, shoving a few nachos into his mouth, “You play this game before?”
“Box-In? Nope,” The girl responded, “But it doesn’t take a genius to know that you can’t beat Speed Slicker with fingers that slow.”
Howard got knocked down. His yelps of frustration never got old, and apparently, this mystery girl agreed. Randy’s laugh lasted way longer than hers, though, giving her plenty of time to recognize him.
“Hey, you’re that guy on the scoreboards, aren’t you?” She asked, “Randy, right?”
“You know it! Look, don’t worry too much about Howard, he’s nowhere near good enough to beat me more than once.”
“Shut it, Cunningham!” Howard shouted, “You’re throwing me off my game!”
“Face it Howard, you ain’t never beating my score, and you ain’t never getting these nachos!”
The second those words left his mouth, Howard’s hand slipped. He missed the dodge, took a blow to the face, and fell to the mat.
“ Oh, come on!! ”
“Hey, you did good,” Randy said, “But let’s face it, we all saw that coming.”
“I didn’t!”
Randy and Howard’s usual back-and-forth was cut short, as the mystery girl started laughing in their faces.
“You’re kidding, right?” She said.
“I would’ve beaten him if-!”
“That’s just it!” She exclaimed, interrupting Howard, “You’ve beaten him before? With that performance?”
“Technically, I let him win,” Randy mumbled.
“Isn’t that what they all say?”
“Yeah, Cunningham, isn’t that what they all say?” Howard added.
“Who’s side are you on?” Randy asked, “You know what, she’s never played this before… Back away from the controls, Howard.”
“What? Why?”
“Because the easiest way to prove how skilled we- but mostly I am, is to let this girl wonk up this game.”
“That doesn’t make any sense!”
“Hey, it works on you.”
“That’s… You know what, that’s fair,” Howard turned to her, “Mystery girl, what’s your name?”
“Jenny,” She said.
She pulled a pair of gloved hands out of her pockets, and cracked- Or, moreso, creaked- Her knuckles. She shoved Howard out of the way, threw a quarter in, and placed her hands on the controls with the slightest hint of a smirk.
“Now watch and learn, boys.”
Randy couldn’t hold back a laugh.
“‘Watch and learn.’ Like she’s gonna-”
Ding ding ding ding!
“Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new champion!”
She’d made it to round six. Then seven. Eight. Ten. Twelve.
A small crowd had gathered by the time she passed round thirty, and by round forty, Greg himself took notice. She kept going at it for over an hour, sweeping each fight with little to no effort.
At round ninety-nine, she took her hands off the controls, and went down to a stallion rush.
The game ended. The scoreboard loaded. JEN scrolled to the top. She’d bypassed RND by thousands of points, so many the score overflowed multiple times over.
She glanced up at the board posted above the cabinet. Then, back at the crowd, just long enough for Greg to snap her picture for the leaderboard. She locked her eyes with Randy’s. Her dead, glassy, creepy eyes.
“Looks like someone’s gonna have to change that,” She said, before grabbing his nachos, “Let me take those off your hands. They’ve gotta be stale by now.”
She walked right past the crowd, and left the Game Hole, the entire crowd, save Randy, Howard, and of course, Greg, following after her.
Randy and Howard stood alone, stunned into silence. At least until Howard burst into laughter.
“I can’t believe it! She beat you Cunningham! She totally whooped your butt!”
“What the juice?!” Randy exclaimed, ignoring his best friend as he rolled on the floor, “Howard, did you see that?! There’s something up with that girl, I know it!”
“Yeah! She’s better than you!”
“I swear, something’s wonk about this… And I’m gonna find out what.”
~~~~~~~
Once Jenny lost the crowd and returned the disguise she borrowed, it was only a short flight to her home in Tremorton standing between her, and rubbing her accomplishment in Brad’s face.
She soared over the town, taking in the atmosphere of a place that hadn’t been invaded in just over a week. As such, it was in pristine condition, or about as pristine as you can get after a battle with the Cluster. It made it all the more noticeable, and all the less frightening, when she crashed through her own front door, and slid to a stop in the living room, mere micrometers from turning Brad into a pinkish stain on the carpet.
He didn’t even flinch.
“Well well, look who’s back,” He said sipping from a bottle of lukewarm, flat soda, “You ready to admit that I’m the best player this side of the states?”
“In your dreams, Brad,” Jenny replied.
Scanning her memory banks, Jenny grabbed a shot of her score, and of that Randy kid’s score. In a second, she printed two polaroids, and spat them at her friend’s face. There was a tense pause as he read over the two pictures covering his eyes.
“What?!” He exclaimed, “No way, you can’t just be good at everything!”
“You’re absolutely right,” Jenny replied, “Which is why the last thing you should’ve challenged the best processor on the planet to was a video game competition!”
“Well that’s not fair! You couldn’t, I dunno, underclock your cpu or something?”
“I don’t know, can you underclock your brain? ”
“…Touché…”
Brad grumbled something about tool-assisted somethings under his breath, before digging into his pocket, and handing her about seven bucks and a quarter.
“That is not what you promised.”
“It’s all I’ve got, gimme like, a week. Maybe two, actually.”
“Fine, but you’d better not cheap out on me this time.”
She pulled the rather disappointing loose change into a small compartment on her wrist, which sealed, leaving her arm free to extend upward and peel the photos off her friend’s face.
“It’s not my fault! Tuck and Sheldon made basically the same bet!”
“Maybe you just have a gambling problem,” Jenny suggested, “And how did they clear you out first if they made ‘basically the same’ bet?”
“Well, I think Tuck hypnotized me, and Sheldon put together a very convincing algorithm or something.”
“And you still went through with ours?”
“He also said it wouldn’t mean much if he ever got actual proof, which… He has now.”
Shockingly, this was one of the more reasonable excuses she’d ever heard come out of Brad’s mouth. Still, she couldn’t help but laugh a little at his complete lack of foresight. He took a half-hearted sip from his soda, gagged a little, and tossed it aside.
“The last of it was actually taken up by that thing the school just announced,” He added.
“An announcement?” Jenny asked, “What kind of-”
“Simply the most wonderful cultural excursion your school could have provided!”
Jenny jumped when her mom burst into the room. Brad couldn’t care less.
“Hey Missus Wakeman,” He said, “Sorry I waited around here so long.”
“Nonsense, Bradley,” She dismissed, handing him a sheet of paper, “You simply get back to your parents and show them the-”
“Uh, they already know.”
“…Ah… Then you’d best prepare immediately! The excursion is happening tomorrow!”
She shoved Brad out of the room, leaving Jenny totally confounded. By the time Brad was sufficiently shoved, and the door closed behind him, Jenny’s central processors had only just begun to run the information through her systems, and found that there was not enough of it to go around.
“Excursion?!” She exclaimed, “ Tomorrow?! ”
“Indeed, it was a sudden addition to the schedule,” Her mother explained, “The school only received the funding thanks to a generous donation from the boss of one of my friends in the scientific community. However, I believe it will be fantastic for you to experience a genuine field trip with your peers!”
“I guess you’re right. And I guess Brad’s going, too… Going where?”
“Why, to the very center of Japanese culture in the United States, dating all the way back to the Kamakura period, the city of Norrisville, Oklahoma!”
“…”
“You seem disappointed.”
“…I could just fly to Japan.”
“That’s not the point! I simply want you to get the full school experience, like you asked!”
“Well great, I get to go to some boring old town in the middle of nowhere.”
Her mother let out a frustrated sigh. After checking her glasses, rubbing her eyes, and rechecking what was obviously a permission slip, a thought seemed to slip over her expression.
“Oh, fine,” She said, “My colleague has requested you assist him in apprehending a ninja.”
That caught Jenny’s interest.
“A ninja? ”
“Yes, yes, stealthy, dressed in black, disappears in a puff of smoke, your classic ninja.”
“Well, I could beat Misty easy,” Jenny said with a smirk, “I think I can take out one ninja.”
“You lost that fight, dear.”
“Oh, whatever. I can beat a ninja.”
“I believe so as well. So, will you be attending?”
“…I guess.”
“Good! I already have a spare charger and batteries packed up in your room, so you don’t have to waste your last minutes at home dealing with it yourself.”
“Um, thank you mother.”
Jenny’s mom left the room with a somewhat satisfied, if a little less excited look on her face. As she did, a small byte of data flowed out of Jenny’s memory banks.
Norrisville… Why did that name seem so familiar?