It's Just a Game
Just another on the fly story of mine, any and all games that may get mentioned in this story are copyright of thier respective owners, who ever they may be. Usual legal jargin applys. Enjoy! =]
It's Just a Game
- * * "Yo, lazy! Get up!" Chris didn't even move as the pillow flumped into his face. "What time is it?" came the muffled reply. "Saturday." Underneath the pillow Chris opened his eyes into darkness, he sat up in bed and the pillow flipped off of his muzzle. Not caring about the blinding daylight that was streaming through his window and stinging his eyes he ripped open his wardrobe and pushed aside hangar after hangar untill he found the clothes he was after. His gaming day outfit. Saturday was gaming day, every saturday Chris and his room-mate Steve would spend the entire day playing video games, they had done so ever since they were kids. And with the new gaming sytem they had just purchased, Gaming Day was set to become a whole lot better. Chris almost kicked down his door in his anticipation of his favourite day, he rushed out into the kitchen of the two man apartment and rushed right past Steve who was making his neighbourhood famous bacon sandwichs. Without even looking up he simply called behind him. "Here boy!" Steve laughed as a well aimed kick planted straight into his ass and handed over the sandwich to his room mate, he often teased Chris with comments about his being an Anthro Wolf, but Chris never minded. Mostly because he could always get his own back through mocking Steve's lack of height. Chris was a jet black anthro wolf, with a patch of greyish white fur that ran along the top of his head and down the back of his neck, making him look like he had hair. He had a reasonably toned body and a nervous twitch in his tail that made it contantly swish around. Sometimes he wondered if he was really part clothes-brush. His eyes were a gentle blue and he always wore black clothes. Chris hurled the bacon sandwich down his throat and looked over impatiently at his human room-mate. Steve was some what vertically challenged with medium length blond hair and blue eyes, he often wore a DragonForce shirt of some kind and was of a medium build. Steve finished up his meal and looked over at Chris. "Ok, you ready?" he asked, enjoying his friends child like impatience. "Name one time I've not been ready." came the reply, with a bite of excited ennoyance. Without another word the two walked over to the opposite end of the apartment and toward the new gaming system that had purchased last weekend. The The X-Station 64 was the peak of gaming technology, and virtual reality made ultimate. It could place the user into any game they desired, and make them live it for themselves. Chris and Steve took a seat in the gaming chairs, resembeling something out of the Matrix and laid thier heads back onto the sensor matrix. Chris felt two small metal bars slide up the sides of his lupine skull and waited for the system to activate. Suddenly everything went blank, the world was gone, he couldn't see, taste, smell, hear or feel anything. All he could do was think his own thoughts as he saw a blank, black canvas where his vision should be. Just as suddenly the world came back, only this time he was standing in a dull grey square metallic room, next to Steve, who was looking paniced. "What the hell was that!?" he yelled out at his friend. "Well......." Chris paused as he thought of best how to answer. "Best guess is that it was the system bringing us into the game, it can't really let us play it if our senses are still in the real world, huh?" "Yeah I guess, so what now" "Dunno." Chris shrugged. As though in answer to the question a large screen materialised out of nowhere on the dull wall. And a loud yet gentle female voice spoke out as the same words were subtitled on the screen. "Welcome." Chris and Steve merely stared blankly. "Initiating first time running sequence. As this is the first time of playing, would you like to play a full game, or a sample?" the disembodied voice enquired politely. "Whats the difference?" Chris and Steve asked simaltanously. "Sample play allows new users to become used to using the system. This is reccomended so that first time users do not become disorientated during play." the voice replied, speaking in an unusually gentle tone. Chris took the initiative and spoke out. "Sample play it is." "Thank you." The voice confirmed the selection, as the words Thank you vanished from a screen a large list of tiny text filled the screen completely and started scrolling upwards, revealing more text. "Please select the game you wish to play." the female voice asked politely. Chris and Steve both approached the screen to better examine the list, gazing in awe at the sheer amount of games contained within the list. "They've got everything from Pong to Super Smash Bros." Steve said matter of factly. "I wonder how many there are...?" he asked allowed. The female voice came back to life. "Total catalogued games: 1,375,650." "Wow." Chris said impressed at the memory capacities of the gaming system. Time passed in silence as the two friends examined the list, trying to come up with a selection that they could agree on. The voice spoke out again. "A selection can be made at random if desired." Chris looked over at Steve. "Random?" he asked. "Random." he confirmed. "Initiating random selection" The voice spoke, a few seconds past. "Selection complete. In game weapons or items can be selected through visualisation of the item within the mind. Further information is available by the verbal command "System Info.", Initialising Game" the voice finished and the screen went blank. Nothing happened for a few moments as the two friends just looked at each other and waited. Suddenly the metallic room faded to a dark and black world. Just as suddenly as the darkness had appeared it vanished, to be replaced by a vivid green jungle. Both players looked around in awe. "Jesus. This is so real." Steve said. Chris nodded slowly in agreement. The whole thing was beyond description, he could feel the moisture in the air and smell the various odours of the dense jungle. He could even feel the grass inbetween his paws. "Where are we?" Steve asked in mild concern. "Um..." Chris struggled to answer. "Well were in a game... Probably a recent one..." he looked around the jungle. With his supierior vision he could see things that Steve missed. The jungle was amazingly detailed. Snakes were slivering through the long grass and fungi was growing on a nearby hollow log. A rabbit hopped lazily along in the distance. It then struck Chris that this jungle looked suprisingly familliar. "If I were to actually put this place somewhere..." he said slowly. "I would say that we are somewhere in Sokrovenno forest." he finished with a laugh. "From Metal Gear Solid 3?" Steve enquired disbelivingly. "Come on, there's gotta be a load of games with a jungle like this." As if on cue, a bright green parrot fluttered down from the sky and settled on the nearby hollowed out log. Both of the players looked at it. The parrot looked back at them before saying in a cooing voice. "Hello, hello." "Um..." Chris looked nervously back at the parrot. "Hello?" The parrot seemed to smile in a friendly way at both of them. Before squawking out. "Grandpa! Grandpa!" The parrot suddenly took off at top speed, flying inbetween both of the friends. Dodging back from the speeding parrot, Chris looked nervously at Steve. "Ok, this IS Sokrovenno!" he yelled nervously. "Whats the worst that could happen?" Steve replied. With a forced note of calm in his voice. "Oh come on! Don't you remember who you fight here in MGS3!? You played this game like 3 days ago." A few seconds of silence past, Chris could actually see the dawning conclusion on Steve's face. The simple Jack Sparrow esqe word was the only reply he gave. "Bugger." As Steve spoke a rifle shot rang out and reverbarated through the jungle. Chris suddenly screamed out in pain as something penetrated his leg with the force of a bullet. Instinctivly both began to run, but Chris grabbed Steve by the back of the shirt on his way past him and yanked him back off to the left, as the pain had struck him in the right side of his leg. Both of them dived behind the huge rock face of a cliff and ran several yards untill they were completely surrounded by high walls from both sides. Chris looked down at his leg, as did Steve, and sticking out of it was a 2 inch long, very thin syringe. He reached down and seized it with his paw, pulling it slowly out and throwing it to the floor, he couldn't believe how much it hurt. "Well this is definitly not good." Steve said examining the small hole in his friends leg as a tiny amount of blood seeped out of it. "Ya don't say!" Chris retorted. "I've just been shot by a fricking tranquilizer! What the hell are we gonna do!?" "Alright, calm down." Steve said loudly, trying to take control of the situation. "It's just a game remember so your not really hurt. And as for what were going to do. Were going to hunt that old fart down and kill him." "How? We don't have any... weapons." Chris said slowly, remembering the computers advice about weapons from back inside the metallic room. Chris held out his hands as though holding something and closed his eyes visualising his desired weapon within his mind. "Woah!" he heard Steve's exclaimation, and knew why, he had felt the weapon materialise in his hands. Chris opened his eyes and examined the Sniper Rifle he was now holding. It was perfectly detailed, and looked as realistic as the jungle and the animals living in it. If it wasn't for the fact that he knew he was in a game, he would have thought it was a real weapon. Despite the pain lingering in his leg Chris managed to smile. "This is too cool." he said in awe of his new toy. Steve had caught on, as when Chris looked up from his distraction, Steve was holding a sawn-off M37 Shotgun. Steve simply smiled and walked by, patting his Wolf friend on the head. "Lets go hunting." he smiled happily. A few hours later, Chris had managed to make his way to the top of one of the semi-huge cliffs that made up the dense jungle. He stopped every now and then, when he had made sure that he couldn't be harmed by his ancient adversary to take in the simulation he was in. It was amazing at how real it felt, it was exactly like the real world. Chris laid down in the long grass that grew atop the cliff. Trying to camoflague his black fur against the grass so that he could not be seen by his enemy. Chris looked down the scope of his rifle, scanning the scenery for The End, the father of "modern" sniping. As he cast his view over the forest floor, in the hope that his quarry might be moving to a new sniper position, Chris sat up slightly as a new combatant had entered the forest. Making his way slowly through the jungle floor, advancing slowly in order to spot any threats, was Big Boss, the protaganist of the game on other systems. As Chris watched the soon-to-be hero his lupine vision caught a glint of light in a patch of long grass. Raising his rifle back up to gaze down the scope he moved the sights up to the place he had seen the reflection, and sure enough he saw The End, taking careful aim at Big Boss. Chris aimed carefully and holding his breath, slowly squeezed the trigger. The deafening shot rang out through the jungle and Big Boss leapt immeadiatly into the Close-Quaters-Combat stance, knife at the ready. Chris however watched down his scope as The End was thrown back by the force of the bullet ripping into his torso. The End looked up from the scope and directly at Chris, who aimed to take another shot, but by the time he had refocused the scope he was watching The End sprint with the speed of an olympic athlete away from his former position, Chris was cursing under his breath when he saw Steve leap out from behind a tree, he had snuck up to the old snipers position and was waiting for the time to strike. As soon as The End drew close, Steve leapt out, lowered his shotgun and fired directly into The End's stomach. Chris smiled as the Jungle faded away with his rifle, and both he and Steve were stood once again in the dull grey metallic room, facing the screen yet again. "Game complete. Congratulations." The computer voice said kindly. "Would you like to play another game?" Chris and Steve looked at each other, smiling over thier victory before looking back to the screen and yelling out at the same time. "Hell yeah!"