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On the day of the tournament, a fine summer day on a Saturday, the arcade was ablaze with chatter. A small crowd gathered around the cabinets and tables, composed of kids, teenagers, curious adults and those overseeing the tournament. The crowd even spilled out onto the sidewalk, trying to have a look in since the place was not exactly spacious. James and the three boys were all admittedly nervous, having done everything they could to keep up their practice within their age groups, as well as the fact they had a secret weapon to unleash, who made absolutely sure that no one could see enough of him. His hood was covered enough so he could only be seen from directly in front, his hands were covered in fingerless gloves to give the illusion his claws were part of it, and his tail had been strapped against his back with a belt, slightly painfully so. He was also given a small spare backpack by Tommy to cover the occasional tell-tale bulge of his weapons underneath. Tommy however noted something unusual about the event. "Huh...those Street Sharks didn't turn up." James merely shrugged nonchalantly. "Maybe they thought they had better things to do than play kid's games, right?" "Heh yeah. Well, more power to us, an' no cheaters right?" "Uhhh, what about James here?" said Jack lowly. "Just cuz he's a li'l older than us don't mean he's better than us," argued Tommy, "he's just got skills. My dad can't play these and he's older than me." "Ehh, guess so." With that small debate of technicalities out of the way, the four strided up to the register, where sat two thin bespectacled men with balding patches handling it all, sharing the pallour of an accountant. "Team name?" Tommy put his fist dominantly down onto the desk, holding all four of their permission slips within it, signatures scribbled upon them. "We're Team Shoryuken!" "Ahhh alright, how do you spell that?" "Uh..." Roy piped up excitably to spell it out. "S-H-O-R-Y-U-K-E-N!" "E...N...alright. Names and ages?" "Tommy Bassett, twelve." "Roy O'Brien, eight!" "Jack Krzystofferson, eleven." "..." "Uhhh James?" "Uh?" "Tell 'em yer name." "James Campbell," murmured the raptor without confidence. "...hmmm..."

The judges looked up at the strangely tall member of the group, a thickly hooded character with what appeared to be a dinosaur mask, easily reaching 5'10''. "How old are you James?" "Uhh-" "It's okay James," said Tommy, "you can tell 'em." "F-fifteen." The older men looked surprised, blinking behind their spectacles. "Really?! You're pretty big for your age." "Giantism." "No need to be shy James, you can tell us anything." "U-u-um..." "Actually," said Tommy, "he's got kind of a problem." "Oh?" "Yeah he has uh...Asperger's?" "...ohhhh." "Yeah he doesn't like people seeing him so he...kinda dresses up to feel safer, but he's our friend and we really wanna have him with us cuz he's a good player an-" "Okay okay..." The two judges looked at each other, one more confused than the other but eventually nodding and signing them down after taking their permission slips. They approved of their entry, and gave the four individual name tags to clip on their clothes. "Take a seat and wait for your names to be called up." "Thanks!" The four walked away barely able to hold their excitement as they sat down at a reserved spot, looking at the three other teams around them also waiting for their turn. "I can't believe we're in!" cheered Tommy. "I know," squealed Roy, "this is gonna be SO COOL!" "So all I gotta do here," asked James cautiously, "is keep my head down and play and keep my cool?" "Yep, it's gonna take long." Tommy was clearly confident as his position of leader. "We only got like two kinds of games here to play, shootin' and fightin'!" "But we got two shooters with Galaga and Xevious," said Jack. "Yeah but all shooters are the same, yer still flyin' and shootin', I read up on how it works, we just play Galaga, then Street Fighter, and win!" "And the only thing that matters is if at least one of us wins in our age group." "Right." Jack and Tommy brofisted confidently, waiting for the tournament to properly begin. Ten minutes later, one of the judges stood up to announce: "Ladies and gentlemen. The tournament is now starting. Contestants, when your team name has been said, please be ready to attend to your chosen cabinets with the appropriate matching colour of your tags. First up, the under 10s category for Galaga. Team Thunderstrike and Team Shoryuken, please step forward." "That's you Roy!" urged Tommy. The young puffy lad steeled himself with a slurp of cola and gave a stern thumbs up to his crew before marching over to his appointed Galaga cabinet. Roy's team colour was blue while his rival, a brown-haired shorter lad, was green. They stood at their cabinets, which were spaced out far enough to avoid interference.

"The rules are simple. Each of you have a single continue and only three lives in which to go as far as possible in Galaga. When all three lives are used, your score will be recorded and you return to your team. Good luck." The two boys were handed a quarter each and readily shoved it into the slot, before firing up their ships. The arcade turned quieter to let the two boys focus. Both of them were evenly matched at their age with rapid-fire fingers and well-honed hand-eye coordination. In fact, it was almost like they mirrored each other by the way they played, all over the screen and reacting at the last minute whenever they saw a laser shot from the corner of their eye. It was during the end of the second stage that things turned more hectic. Roy lost his first life, fingers tensing up as well as the hearts of his friends. Shortly after, the rival lost his. It soon became a race for who would outlast the other, violent little twitches from small hands flicking the ship back and forth across the screen desperate to stay alive, slowly becoming less offensive and more defensive. The rival lost his second life in stage 4, but Roy soon lost his just before stage 5 started. By a startling coincidence, both of them died on the same stage around the same time due to a particularly difficult formation of fighters that messed up their coordination. Roy however was a tiny bit faster and just eked out ahead of his rival by 200 points, throwing up his hands at the death of his final life much to the cheers of the crowd and his team who he returned to. "Dude that was awesome!" shouted Tommy. "Really?!" "Totally, you're gonna help us win this fer sure, we're gonna make it all the way to Fourside no problem!" "YES, I knew we could do it!" "Hey hey now," said James a little more solemnly, "We still got our turns next, and then there's the fighting tournament...not that we're not gonna ROCK THIS JOINT, right!?"

The boys high-fived each other excitably in response, as the other two teams' youngest players headed up to duke it out in the virtual space, who were now named as Team Awesome-atic and Team Death Strike. When their turns were done, the highest scorer was announced to be Jimmy Ortega from Team Death Strike who managed to reach stage 9. After that, the 10-13 age group was announced and Jack's turn was up. James was then tempted to ask Tommy upon realising something. "Hey, how come Jack's going and you aren't?" "Well he's better than me, and I wanna make sure we get those points." "Right but...if there's like three age groups, why is there four of us?" "Backup player, in case one of us gets sick or something." "Aaaah...but, what if say Roy was sick, who's gonna replace him?" "Whoever's the youngest after him!" "...that's...not really a good rule for the age groups." "Yeah it is kinda stupid, grown-ups are like that thinking kids just change all a sudden every year." "Pfft yeah." "OH you got that Transformers lunchbox I gave ya Roy?" "Yep, still got it!" "Is it all packed an' ready to go?" "And well hidden so nobody can touch it!" "Cool, I got my Swat Kats one ready too." The three turned to Jack, who had been playing longer than Roy, somewhere around stage 9 with two lives and climbing against his rival who only had one. Jack, as always, had been more cautious about where to shoot, making sure not to take any risks compared to his more reckless rival from Team Awesome-atic, who soon found his own end at stage 11 after quite a lucky streak. Jack however did not rely on luck, and found himself at the end of his pixellated starfight right at the start of stage 13, satisfied that he had outlasted his rival and returning to his table with a grin. "Wooooow Jack, stage twelve, that's so cool!" shouted Roy jubilantly. "Heh, could have gotten further but got hit around stage seven when I didn't focus." "That don't matter," said Tommy, "Cuz yer doing great. Now it's up to you James." The pressure was now on the non-human, who smirked hesitantly before steeling himself up with youthful enthusiasm. "Hellz yeah, just leave it to me." James braced himself for his turn in the 14-17 group, when the rest of the 10-13 year olds were done of whom Jack was the highest scorer, barely pushing past Team Lightningstrike's Harry Dutasta much to their joy. Soon, it was James' turn, after Team Awesome-atic and Lightningstrike had their turn. Stepping up to the foray, slightly uncomfortable from his tail being held against his body, he readied himself upon the Galaga cabinet, against his rival from Team Death Strike, a black teenager who was confused as hell about his opponent. "The hell you wearin' all those clothes for, this ain't Halloween!" "I'm cold," murmured the raptor blankly. "In SUMMER?" "Hypersensitive, can I play Galaga now?" The quarters were handed out, and the game was on.

Both of the two older players easily strided ahead of the younger players by their better focus, for the most part at least. James did all he could to focus, eyes burning into the screen as he watched out for lasers, moving his ship back and forth while firing as fast as he possibly could, but not consecutively. He timed his shots out in small rapid-fire bursts so as not to confuse his own shots with the enemy's. He briefly remembered what Sarah had said about assault rifles, how most idiots would hold down the trigger and fire insanely all over the place, not realising the recoil was too strong to control and that short bursts were more effective. He then also remembered his own idiotic mistake of such back on the dinosaur island. He snapped out of his thinking when in stage 5, a boss enemy flew down and sucked him into its tractor beam, literally taking away his first life as an individual off-colour copy of his ship, much to the gasping horror of his team. Steeling himself, he blanked out his mind and went full-on automatic, focusing purely on the game, laser shots back and forth, the entire world around him ceasing to exist. Murmurs died out from his ears, hearing nothing but BOW-BOW-BOW incessantly flickering between high and low pitch. Volleys of sound firing back and forth, across the infinite space of a pixellated universe. Time passed of its own accord around him as stage numbers rose before him like elevator floors. Stage 10. 12. 15. Every new number he passed, his fingers tensed up that little bit more. He didn't even know if his rival was still playing, his breathing turning ragged with occasional grinding teeth hidden under his hood. Another laser hit around stage 17, another gasp from his team. Now he had to get serious. He started to feel true sweat from his body, the clothes not helping matters as his reptilian anatomy countered with its absorption of warmth. 19. 21. Nothing was stopping him, the enemies turned faster, repeating patterns which James only just realised. They kept repeating patterns, again and again, the same formations every several stages, but faster.

His memory started flicking his hand instinctively, knowing where enemies would come from now, watching laser shots, firing and dodging to shoot back. A brief flash of imagination made him believe he was in that ship, almost dead, trying to survive against the immeasurably ruthless infinite horde of space insects or whatever the hell they were. 23. 24. 26. He stopped remembering what stage he was on around stage 21, panting on the screen, mouth slightly agape, gloved fingers slickening with sweat before his adrenaline slipped, and he was gunned down at last. At stage 29. Turning towards his team, they cheered and whooped with the crowd, amazed at how far he had reached, clearly beating the rest of the "slightly" similarly-aged participants. The raptor kept his head down and went back to his team, keeping up the act well as they showered him with praise. "James you were AWESOME, I can't believe you-" "NO TOUCHING!" Tommy flinched back from hugging James. "...o-okay sorry." James murmured his next words while trying to contain his excitement. "...sorry have to keep up the act but yeah I totally killed them all!" The three kids laughed and cheered all the more for the success of their secret weapon, especially when James Campbell was announced the highest scorer of his age group by far, smiling happily. For once in his life, he was being showered with adoration. And damn did it feel good. "It's not over yet!" warned Tommy. "Now you gotta deal with the fighting part!" "Oh cra-ack yeah." "So who ya gonna pick?" "Uhhhhh let's stick with Ken, I'll play it safe for you guys just so we get IN the tournament." "Good, thanks. Jack?" "I'll be Chun-Li," said the taller of the three, "but don't you wanna play?" "Nah I'm feelin' a li'l off today, you do it, you're totally better than me." "Uh...kay." "Okay, Roy, I know yer not too good with Street Fighter so-" "I'll be okay don' worry," assured the youngest, "besides, we got James here to win it fer us!" "Hey now don't pin this on me," said James with hands up, "this is a different game altogether!" "But you can do it!" said Roy with burning hope, "you just got to!" "I will I will, just...not too much pressure alright guys?" The fighting tournament had slightly different rules of course. One single Super Street Fighter II Turbo arcade cabinet was used, pitting the contestants against each other. From what James could gather, the fighting part of the tournament was the real decider to see who amongst each age group was the best, taking the scores from the Galaga game and adding the Street Fighter scores to them. Of course, this was made all the more interesting by the fact that a score could only be obtained by the winner of each round. The same order came up for under 10s and Roy stepped up against Thunderstrike. Roy picked Ryu, sticking to what he knew, while Thunderstrike picked Fei Long. Despite Roy's great ease in initiating Hadoukens and Shoryukens, he clearly had no strategy, attacking, attacking and attacking again with all of his might, even pulling off the classic spin-kick move known as the Tatsumaki-Senpukyaku now and again.

But without strategy, he was no match for Fei Long's violent Rekkuu Kyaku, a furious leaping long-range kick that was soon the counter for everytime Roy tried to shoot a fireball, only to meet the burning upwards kick of Shien Kyaku that would wreck his day. Roy won no rounds, and walked away absolutely defeated, slinking back to the table. His friends looked at him sympathetically, the boy in utter shame as he nursed his head with his hands. They decided to say nothing more as Team Thunderstrike's Lemuel Bernstein won the under 10s. Next it was Jack's turn to save the day with his Chun-Li versus Team Awesome-atic's Zangief. Already Tommy was fearful of the match up. "Awww maaaaan." "What?" asked James. "I HATE Zangief and T. Hawk, wrestlers are the worst cuz they just GRAB you all the time." Jack was not intimidated however, as he opened up with a blue fireball Kikouken before rushing in for the kill with a good old-fashioned Hyakuretsu Kyaku. The muscular 16-bit thighs of Chun-Li fired all over the muscular Russian's face with brutal force, before he tried to grab her, failing as Jack backed off. Zangief closed in, ready to grab once again only to receive a Spinning Bird Kick to the stomach, knocking him back hard enough. But the pixellated wrestler countered with his own spinning move, the Double Lariat, bashing Chun-Li's face helplessly back and forth. Jack was unfazed and merely rushed in for more kicking attacks, when disaster struck in the form of an Atomic Suplex. Grabbed and slammed, twice into the ground. With half his health down, Jack readily knocked down the enemy's health with Kikoukens before his big gambit, the Senretsu Kyaku. One thing the older lad could do that the younger Roy could not, was being able to initiate super moves, especially with his favourite fighter who soon pummelled the everloving shit out of Zangief's burly physique. With shadowy blurring kicks, it soon ended the match. Overall, Jack won both rounds, but he was never above 75% of his health. With confidence restored to the team, to the point that Roy managed to look up with a weak but apologetic smile, it was down to James once again, who was not entirely sure that he could be just as good in fighting as he was with shooters. Nevertheless, when his turn came, he stepped up eagerly.

Naturally, like he said, he picked Ken, whereas his opponent of Team Deathstrike chose Balrog, a sturdy-looking boxer in blue clothes. Readying himself for a good fight, he shot out a hadouken to make the opponent guard, before leaping in forwards to attack. His rival was not too fooled however, as demonstrated by the Dash Upper that slammed his boxing glove squarely into Ken's chest. James steadied himself as he gauged the opponent out, letting him come closer after getting an early blow in, readily making a spinning kick to counter Balrog's Dash Straight, a charging straight jab attack. Taking no chances now that he was in close, the raptor easily sweeped out a one-two punch-kick, before a Shoryuken slammed the boxer against the ropes. His rival was undaunted and merely continued to fight back, managing to knock out Ken with a Dash Ground Straight, a sneakily low punching attack that James did not expect. But quickly managing to get back up in order to surprise Balrog with several unique roundhouse kicks, he countered with a stream of furious kicking combos, before a finishing Tatsumaki Senpukyaku spinning kick. Round 1 to the raptor. The second round made things even more fierce, as his opponent came in with furiously strong attacks, including a dirty Buffalo Headbutt that smashed James backwards hard quick enough to cancel his moves. He knew that he had to make this work, he started getting more risky as he got a feel out for Balrog's area of control, jumping over his speedy thrusts and sending a mighty Shoryuken from behind, brutally uppercutting the back. But not brutal enough to stop Balrog from turning around and sending out a furious Crazy Buffalo attack.

The furious blend of jabs and uppers surprised James even moreso, but he backed away, not even risking a Hadouken for fear of getting caught in the terrible hurricane of punches. Sadly he caught himself in the last three punches when he tried to escape by leaping over. But he had his own plan. Feeling he was ready at last, the raptor waited for Balrog to come close, trying to hide his grin of expectation. There came a jab, then came his spinning kick, and finally the mighty Shoryuu Reppa, a double-Shoryuken with furiously burning fists that absolutely destroyed Balrog. The crowd soon heard the finalised synthesised cry of defeat. James headed back to his table, victorious as the judges counted up the points that remained. Even with the fact he had won a handy victory, much to the cheering of the indeterminate crowd, he had to remember that just because he won, did not mean his team won. The points would show that from his technique and ability to avoid being hit, as well as time left on the game's clock. The points were tallied up. The crowd went silent. Roy, Jack, James and Tommy all held their breath in expectation along with every other youngster in the teams. The officious pencil-pushing judge soon noted up the scores, before announcing drolly: "The winners of the Onett division are...Team Thunderstrike and Team Shoryuken."

Mass cheers came from the crowd, especially the two teams, the raptor trying his best not to squeal like a kid on Christmas Day, which was exactly what his team mates were doing, even the stoic Jack. They hugged and patted each other's backs, excited as hell, not paying attention to anybody else around them. "WE DID IT! WE DID IT!" crowed Roy, to which James replied with a tight hug: "HELL YES! HELL! YEEEEEEEEEEEEES!" Team Thunderstrike were the same as them, and the other two teams left in disgrace of themselves, complaining and kicking a bit, but ultimately accepting their defeat with as little humility as possible. The judges came to both tables after the crowd and contestants calmed down, with four tickets given to each team. "This will allow you to get into the Fourside Tournament. The permission slips we've received so there'll be no problem for you to come along to Fourside. Here's a layout of our route and a timetable. We'll be picking up the contestants in Twoson and Threed as well on the way, so providing there's no problems, everything will be fine and you will attend the tournament. You'll be staying at places overnight so make sure you have everything packed and ready for at least three days. We'll depart on Monday from the arcade at 10am." Understanding the plan, the four boys left and headed back to their treehouse to discuss their new plans, relieved and jubilant that the first part of their plan had worked so well. Sitting together in a small circle, they congratulated themselves happily so before they got down to business.

"Okay," began Tommy, "we managed to get into the entrants, that puts us up there as one of ten teams competing." "So what happens now?" asked James. "We got today and tomorrow to make sure everything is ready, especially Roy, then we get on that bus an' head on out to Fourside! Once we got a chance, we can look around the place, do some stuff, then get ourselves in for the tournament." Roy bashfully put up a hand, still shaking from the excitement. "B-but aren't we gonna-" "Course we're gonna do it Roy, that's why we signed up in the first place!" "H-hehe, sure! Course! ...thanks guys." "No problem, now we make sure everything's ready, you all know what to do. James, you don' have to prepare fer much, but I'm sure you can get yourself some food to take with ya." "Well I got a satchel to hold some stuff in, pretty empty actually." He examined his satchel to find that the only things he had in it were the crystal he took from Crocodile Isle, and one or two poultices that still remained. But only enough for a small wound or bruise. "Woah! What's THAT?!" Tommy pointed at the glistening bluish-white crystal, the size of the raptor's palm. "Ohhhh just something I stole from the aliens on my way out." "Is it worth anything!?" "Must be...but I dunno if anyone will take it on this planet, I just like having it. Like a good luck charm yanno?" "Ohhh...hehe cool!" Admiring its shine a little more, he closed up his satchel and decided that getting some spare food would be a good idea for the long trip. He knew how to steal from places, but he wanted to avoid doing such for the sake of not becoming a bad influence to his new friends. He soon asked: "So, what do we do now?" "We just make sure everything's ready," said Jack with a smile of relief, "keep our gaming skills sharp, get our stuff an' head on out Monday." "Your parents'll know right?" "Oh sure we'll tell 'em, they know about it, they're cool with it." "Hah, awesome. ...do adults here just not care or...?" "Yeaaaah they pretty much don't," said Tommy casually, "I mean it's not like nothing ever happens here or anything!" "Well 'cept for that meteor." "More like a comet really," corrected Tommy, "but yeah that's like a one-off but even then nobody really minds." "Sounds a pretty nice town here...well other than those Street Shark punks." And so, Team Shoryuken made sure that they were well-prepared for their upcoming exodus to the great city of Fourside. Tommy made sure he had all the tickets safe with him, being the sensible leader. Jack carried extra supplies, being the strongest and most thoughtful. Roy made absolutely positively sure he had everything he needed, being the youngest and most absent-minded. And James...stole some things that nobody would miss, which he put into his newly-obtained backpack, pondering on whether he should take it with him or not when he would eventually leave this world.