A_Polished_Scyther
New member
- Pronoun
- he/him
Co-written by @A_Polished_Scyther and @M0lot0v97.
The first in a series of stories set in a world where in place of the Pokemon we're familiar with, Mankind coexists alongside a fully sapient, humanoid race of monsters known colloquially as "Pokemorphs". In today's story, a Grovyle and a Gengar try to find a way to pass the time on a boring Friday evening, and the former is introduced to the latter's favorite hobbies in the form of an old game she's saved from her childhood. And a humorously flawed one at that.
Rated PG-13 at the most due to scattered use of moderate language and one or two lewd jokes.
Critique welcome and very much appreciated.
Also, illustration coming soon.
"If you or a loved one were living in the state of Hawaii in 2016 and have suffered injury or death as a result of the Aether Foundation's experiments, you may be entitled to financial compensation."
"With temperatures expected to be in the 100's for the coming week, many are expressing concern that the upcoming heatwave may be-"
"-Best known for her lead role as the half-Human Vulpix in the 2007 Sci-Fi television series, Human actress Deidre White has congratulated her former co-star on her decision to enter rehab following the Scyther's recent-"
"Amid widespread condemnation from both the international community and the other members of The Pantheon, representatives from the Holy British Empire have denied the Holy Regency of the Twin Knights' involvement in the failed plot to assassinate the alleged descendant of King Polvora III, who is best known for his forced abdication following the-"
"-ONE DAY LOVE WILL FIND YOU! BREAK THOSE CHAINS THAT BIND YOU-!"
"-For a 1971 Dodge Viper, you're looking at upwards of $45,000 assuming you can find one in decent shape-"
"-HAWTHORNE VS. BLUMENTHAL, COMING JULY 12TH AT THE BLACK CITY STADIUM! ORDER TICKETS TODAY!"
"I have to kill fast, and bullets are too slow!"
"-We can't stay here, Ashton! Those... things are still after us!"
"Oh god, don't tell me they're remaking Carnage Necropolis..." Sighed a female Gengar, sinking further into the couch as she rolled her light red eyes.
"Yes they are, Jackie. Yes they are." Replied a male Grovyle, ceasing his seemingly endless channel surfing as he sets the remote down on the coffee table, clearly bored out of his mind. "Believe me, I was as shocked as you are. There is no way in it's going to be the same without John Carpenter and James Cameron, though from what I heard the latter actually gave it his seal of approval."
"Oh please, Miles..." Jackie waved her hand. "If the last two Terminator films are anything to go by, Cameron will put his stamp of approval on anything as long as he gets paid for it."
"I swear, he should have just kept the rights and stopped making any movies after the second one."
"Hehehehe-" Jackie chuckled to herself. "Ahhhh, the near-universal rule of movie franchises. First installment's good, second one's even better, and then the third causes the whole thing to collapse like the global economy did after the war. But hey, unlike the World Wars, we can pretend that only the first two happened!"
“Yeah, tell that to my Dad.” Miles quietly chuckled. Looking over at the screen again. “...Well, better a remake than an unnecessary sequel either no one asked for. Remember the remake of “The Blackheart of Kanto?”"
“The 1980 version or the 2018 version?”
“The former.” He clarified.
“Oh yeah! I like that version better.” Jackie gave a smile. Looking at Miles and sightly swaying side to side for a moment. “Having the actor from the original 1964 movie come back to play the Protag as the Old Man in the last part of it was genius. Man…” She said while shaking her head with a smaller smirk. “If I had a nickel for every time Kevin McCarthy played a role as a young man in an old horror flick, only to reprise his role as an older version of his character in a remake; I’d have two nickels. Which, I know isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice.”
“Can’t argue with what works!”
The two share a laugh as they continued to watch some TV. Hoping for some sort of stimulation, the two would keep searching for anything worth viewing. Surprise, surprise. Everything was either a rerun of a movie having no right to be on this many times, preachy shows, the occasional Jewelry/Antique programming that targeted old folk, or endless advertisements. Miles’ face remained unchanged as he had hoped to find something. Jackie on the other hand was losing interest quickly. Her black pupils rising up to her head as she flicked at her tuft of hair.
“Okay, this is getting annoying.” Commented Jackie. Rolling her shoulders and reaching for her drink on the coffee table. She gives it a swirl before taking a sip. “Well, I don’t think we’re gonna find anything on TV today. We’ve got the day to relax, so why don’t we try something different?”
“Like what?” Asked the Grovyle with a tilt of his head.
Jackie took a moment to think with her finger on her chin. With a snap of her fingers, the Gengar Woman got up from the couch and walked over to the stand under the TV. Bending down to grab something, she would reach into a compartment and pull out two controllers. “Why don’t we try a little something different?” Jackie says with a smile. Holding two Gamecube controllers in her hands. “Been a while since I’ve used this. But it should still work.”
Miles looked on in surprise. While he knew she was fond of games, he didn’t know she would have those. With a look of curiosity, he looked back at her face. “Oh! I thought you were more of a modern gaming person."
Modern? Jackie briefly thought to herself, before remembering that the 2000's were two whole decades ago. God, she was starting to feel old, and she was only 26. “Eh, sorta. I just play what I think doesn’t suck. S’worked out for me so far! Why don’t we give it a shot?” The excitement in Jackie’s voice grew. However, she would notice that Miles had a reluctant look on his face. This causing her ears to droop slightly. “...What’s wrong?”
“I...don’t know much about video games. I never had time, nor was I allowed to really play many of them growing up. Violin practice and all that...”
Hearing this came as a shock to Jackie. A confused expression forms on her face as she asks. “But...you played Puyo Puyo Tetris when we were in College. You seemed like you knew what you were doing.”
“I do, I do. And I very much enjoyed it.” Miles spoke timidly with a hand behind his head. “It reminded me of the puzzles that I tended to play with in what little spare time I had between practice sessions. Those building blocks that you have to arrange in a certain way in order to complete the shape. The game you mentioned played to my strengths and I felt like I was in my element.” He looked down and his demeanor shifted. “I don’t know if I’d be good at anything else.”
Putting the controllers down on the table, Jackie comes over to Miles and leans in towards him. She knew Miles was still trying to adapt to what people normally do. Though a rather intelligent man, he had some trouble expanding out of his horizons. Jackie spoke calmly and with a tender disposition. “Miles, it’s okay to be nervous. I just thought we could try something a little different. The work week's over, we got plenty of time to do stuff, we just finished our order for that suit- We can do whatever we want.” Looking over at his elbow, she taps it a couple of times to get his attention. Miles looks over at her and into her eyes as she finally takes a seat next to him. “We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.” Shifting her shoulders from side to side for a moment to relax, Jackie gives him a warm grin. “I know you missed out a lot in your childhood. I thought I could help with that by sharing mine with you. Besides, I have a feeling you’ll be the one kicking my ass at this. Especially if we get to a certain game near and dear to my heart.”
Miles was hesitant at first. Unsure if he was going to be anything other than awkward to see play a game. But after a few seconds however, he gave Jackie a hint of a warm smile of his own, his sullen demeanor improving slightly from her words. Especially once she brought up the possibility of him kicking her ass in a video game, the thought of that made him chuckle, as unlikely as it was. "Heh, thank you... I guess it wouldn't hurt to try-" He quickly scratched the back of his head. "So what did you have in mind here?"
"Oh! Lots of things-" Jackie turned to face the television once more, reaching her hand out as her eyes began to glow and several cases levitated into it using Confusion. Spreading the handful of boxes out on the couch between her and Miles, she would start listing off the games she had picked out. "Mad-Nectric 2: Stryke's Revenge, Destroy all Monsters, League Master 3D: The Nothern Wind, League Master 3D: The Clash of Light and Shadow, Super Smash Bros: Melee, Rogue Squadron... take your pick!"
Miles eyed the cover for Mad-Nectric 2, something which prominently displayed a Manectric clad in some eye-bleedingly colorful 90's clothing that made him look like he came straight out of a time warp from when the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was still airing new episodes, something that briefly called to mind a fighter in the League he managed to catch on TV a few days ago, all while being in some elaborate pose the Grovyle was sure would be anatomically impossible without breaking at least fourteen different bones. In the background sat what appeared to be a discolored Scyther or Scizor of some kind, one which had a black exoskeleton and silver scales, and also what appeared to be red eyeliner or some kind of war paint underneath his purple eyes. As if Miles wrists weren't already starting to bleed from the design that utterly reeked of late-90's to early-2000's edge, he possessed a pair of impractically long scythes that he swore were as long as he was tall, and wore an obnoxious leather trenchcoat adorned with more chains and zippers than a Mega-Evolved Banette working in the back area of a Gentlemen's Club. Seriously, who in their right mind designed this? He thought, before opening his mouth and speaking, intrigued. "How about this one?"
"Oh! I was hoping we could start with this one. It's a must-play and a classic." Jackie opened the case and took the somewhat bright blue disc out, her eyes glowing with the activation of Confusion once more as the disc levitated back towards the cabinet and inserted itself in a white console. "Well, assuming you can get past the cheesy dialogue and voice acting, but that's honestly part of the charm!" She gave him a playful smirk as the game began to load up, handing Miles a controller off the table, tapping her bare feet on the floor as she waits.
"Wait, aren't you going to grab a controller too?" Miles asked, glancing to his side and cocking an eyebrow in confusion.
"In due time, Miles... In due time. For now, let's get down to business!"
As the game's introduction began to play, the two would be greeted by the overhead sights of a mid-day cityscape, animated in what looked to be some kind of low-to-mid budget anime style. The scene cuts to a shot of several humans and monsters sitting at an outdoor table at a restaurant, all casually enjoying their food. After a few seconds, one man's glass would begin to shake, followed by the table... and eventually, everyone would look to the sky in panic as the sun would become blotted out by something unseen. Panning upwards, the camera would reveal the culprit to be none other than a massive airship slowly flying in, readying the impractically massive amount of guns it has scattered across its hull and firing them into the city as a series of hangar doors would open along the top and sides of the ship, causing the hail of gunfire to be joined by a seemingly endless wave of fighters that are now pouring out and helping lay waste to the city. One now engulfed in explosions, flames, and the constant screaming of countless civilians.
"Holy shit-!" Miles would exclaim, not taking his eyes off the screen but quickly asking Jackie something. "Just what the hell is that?!"
"Sssshhh-! You'll find out in a second-" Jackie quickly shushes him and leans in.
Cutting to some random building off in the distance, they see a distinctly colorful shoe fill the camera frame for a brief moment before the camera quickly pans upwards to reveal the serious face of a Manectric overlooking all this chaos, one wearing a baseball cap that he turns backwards before getting into some kind of stance. With a sudden surge of silver electricity, the Manectric would leap off the rooftop as a soar of vaguely heroic-sounding rock music begins to play in the background, somehow landing flawlessly on the ground in front of several advancing robotic troops as Japanese lyrics began to play.
"Wait, I know these lyrics!" Miles interjected as he watched the Manectric dispose of the robotic troops with a simple raising of his hand, enveloping them in a single Thunderbolt that caused them to burst into a series of fiery explosions before swiftly breaking out into a sprint, running down the street and fighting his way through armies of the various invading foes with seemingly little effort through a combination of attacks and acrobatics.
"You do?" Jackie asked, puzzled, before remembering that while Miles was raised in America, he had at least one Japanese parent and potentially spoke at least some of the language. "Never understood why they didn't dub this song in english for the American release, now that I think of it-"
"The song's from someone else's perspective, and goes on to talk about how this person, seemingly "Mad-Nectric" over here gives them courage in life because of how they can continue to bravely go on despite the world coming apart around them both. And now here he is, saving the world one more time. Or something along the lines of that, at least... my Japanese isn't perfect."
The scene shows Mad-Nectric landing atop one of the fighter jets, laying his palm flat on the metallic surface as the aircraft becomes enveloped in some kind of blue, electrified glow. With that, the jet seems to abruptly change course and head towards the massive airship. The camera briefly changes perspective to that of a rangefinder with Mad-Nectric's jet in view, before cutting to the silhouettes of two figures in what appears to be the darkened control room; one human, and the other a draconic monster of some kind. One of the figures points a shadowed hand outwards, and as if on command the guns on the ship begin to open fire on the jet, which the Manectric dodges through a series of strafes and rolls, firing back on the ship with the aircraft's own weaponry and leaving a trail of explosions along his path. How is he even able to stay on that thing? Miles thinks to himself, confused, but no less amused by what he's seeing.
Eventually, the jet comes to an abrupt landing in some kind of hangar, the Manectric leaping off the skidding aircraft and coming to halt in a large corridor alight in flames, at the end of which lies a descending freight elevator. Atop which sits the same Human and Monster as before, now no longer cloaked in shadow and revealed to be some kind of stereotypical Einstein-lookalike Mad Scientist with a cybernetic left eye and the Scyther from the box art, who's looking as edgy as ever. Mad-Nectric grins and gets into a fighting pose as the corners of the camera split off into a series of shots of various other people Miles doesn't quite recognize, though from the looks of it they must be friends of his. All of them bearing the same determined grin. With that, the screen would fade to white as the song ends and a title card pops up.
"MAD-NECTRIC 2: STRYKE'S REVENGE." A voice boomed from the television's speakers, also said by Miles and Jackie in unison. Below that was a smaller string of text reading "Deluxe Edition".
Miles blinked as he tried to process the information that was just given to him. ""Mad-Nectric 2: Stryke's Revenge - Deluxe Edition." Just who was responsible for that mouthful?"
"Oh, we just call it DX instead of Deluxe." Interjected Jackie, pulling both her legs up on the couch as her ears perked in excitement.
"But... both have two syllables. Neither one's faster to say." Miles blinked in confusion, going through a series of menus and selecting an unused save file.
“True, but DX is much more iconic. That and that’s what the Devs called it following a panel.” Hearing this, Miles murmured in acknowledgement. Jackie looked towards him, tilting her head towards the screen to get Miles to advance to the character select screen. Of which, there was only one playable character at the moment. Spinning the character wheel to see differently colored question marks. Finally stopping at the Manectric running in place.
“So, Mad-Nectric. What is he about exactly?” Asked Miles as he waits to select.
“Mad-Nectric’s the Main Character, obviously!” Jackie quickly chuckled and cleared her throat. “Honestly, it’s surprising finding anyone who doesn’t know him. To answer the question though, that’s Maddison the Manectric. He started out as an Electrike in the 90’s on the Sega Genesis called “The Rad Mad Lad.” He’s supposed to be this High Energy Hero... quite literally! An environmentalist, he uses his powers to face off against the evil Prof. Industol. A guy who wants to rule the world with an army of robots.” Jackie scratches behind her ear and smirks. “You know, in Japan they called him “Maddison the Mighty.” But America and Europe looked at the name and thought “Maddison’s a dweeb’s name, we’re changing the title name!” And it worked out pretty well! Funnily enough, they didn’t actually change the character’s name.”
Miles nodded on and continued to look at the screen. Fiddling with the controls and accidentally moving back a screen. “Feels a little strange that they would change the name of the game but not the Main Character. If Maddison really is a “dweeb” name.”
“It’s go time!” Shouted Mad-Nectric from the screen upon being selected. Doing a slow pose before giving a thumbs up. The scene would swap back to that of the airship's hangar from before, except this time rendered in low-poly early-2000's graphics instead of the animation it was minutes ago. Jackie and Miles could see the same duo descending the elevator and stepping in front of Maddison.
"You blasted dog! You've meddled in our plans for the last time, Mad-Nectric!" Spoke Professor Industol, his mouth moving inconsistently with his voice lines. Something which, along with the cheesy dialogue, got a chuckle out of Miles as he gripped the controller a bit tighter, readying himself for when the cutscene would end.
"You might need to get your circuits checked, Doc. 'Cause it seems like every time you try one of these little schemes of yours, I end up blowing you-!"
"ENOUGH!" The Professor interrupted.
"Ahahahahahaha-! Okay... okay! This... this has to be a joke, right? Because there's no way he just said that in a kid's game." Miles couldn't help but laugh at the innuendo-ridden statement from Maddison, doubling over slightly and missing more of the cutscene from his fit of laughter.
"Funny enough, that's actually a result of a bug! Hahahahaha-" Jackie couldn't help but begin laughing herself. "Because of some poorly-coded timing in this cutscene, Maddison's line never has a chance to finish playing before Industol's is supposed to, resulting in this... rather infamous scene that got patched out in the PC release. It's actually become something of a meme among the fandom in the years since."
"Man, Jackie... if the rest of the game's like this I'm probably going to die of laughter before its over."
"If you thought you could beat me as easily as last time... THEN PREPARUH YOURSELF-" The two looked back to the screen to see the Scyther from before readying his impractically large blades, getting into a combat stance of his own. His somewhat raspy voice having some kind of accent neither one could pin their fingers on. With a quick guitar riff, the screen would warp and fade into the game itself. And so, the fight would commence.
Haphazardly, Miles charges towards Stryke and gets backhanded swiftly. Causing Maddison to lose two green balls of energy in the process. Panicking from being hurt, Miles ran around before jumping up and dashing towards the Scyther once again. The boss leaning forward to extend both his blades and slash downwards. Being touched by them caused Mad-Nectric to fall onto the ground. “No- Augh…!” He reaches out and says weakly before fading consciousness. One life down, one more to go.
“Wait, what just happened? Did I lose already?” Miles spoke with confusion. Pressing a few buttons in response.
“Hahaha… Yeah, this happened to me too the first time.” She smiled and let out a small chuckle. “Stryke’s this games first attempt at teasing the audience for charging in without a plan, ironically the complete opposite of how easy he was to fight in the last game. You gotta catch him off guard. Important since after you successfully hit him, you need a different strategy to hit him the next time.”
"Wait, just who is Stryke anyway?"
"Oh, he's basically Mad-Nectric's typical edgy antihero rival. One who debuted working as a new member of the Professor's team in the last game, and after his defeat he's taken it... rather personally." She softly chuckles to herself again. "If I had a nickel for every time this character archetype appeared in any piece of media, let alone from Japan, I'd be a millionaire."
"Hah! You and me both..." Miles eyes eventually narrowed as the fight began again, one of the first things he noticed this time around were the same floating green energy balls scattered around the boss' "arena". He made sure to collect these before he even thought of approaching Stryke again. The Scyther took a step back, and swung his left arm as he leapt forward at Maddison, with Miles managing to get him to jump out of the way just in time. Quickly pressing a series of buttons on his controller before hitting the Right Trigger, something that caused the Manectric on screen to spark up and take a decently-sized chunk out of Stryke's health bar as he yelled out "I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS!" in the game's typical canned voice acting.
"I got him! And... that did that much damage?" Miles was surprised. "That was about a third of his health bar right there!"
"Careful." Jackie said, "That was one of Mad-Nectric's moves! But using those too much will burn out your reserves, and at this early in the game you're pretty much history if those run out and you can't find any PP to restore them with." She exclaimed, getting excited from watching Miles learn to play.
Miles' brow furrowed in seriousness, gripping his controller tighter. Now, the real fight begins... "Recharge. Dodge. Attack. Repeat... looks like I have this figured out."
"Now you're getting it!"
For the next several minutes, Miles would do just that. Grab the spheres, dodge whatever bullshit attack Stryke threw at Mad-Nectric, attack him with one of his moves (to varying success), and repeat. He wasn't sure if it was because of the adrenaline pumping through his veins, but as the boss battle would grow more intense, Miles senses would heighten, and he would suddenly become aware of his situation in greater detail. His reflexes grew sharper, allowing him to dodge Stryke with less and less effort than before, to the point where the action barely registered as anything more than muscle memory on his part.
It's at this point where he also became aware of the fact Jackie was now sitting behind him, ever-increasingly leaning into his back. Something with soothed his nerves in spite of how Mad-Nectric had run out of PP for his attacks.
He can feel her soft fur against his smooth scales.
He can feel the way her hands rested on his stomach.
He can feel her heartbeat.
Finally, when the game seemingly glitches out and Stryke is caught on a piece of map geometry, stuck in an endless repeat of "I CAN'T- I CAN'T- I CAN'T-" as Miles rapidly drained his health bar by spamming whatever attacks he was still capable of, that the boss fight officially ended and Jackie pulls him into a spine-crushing victory hug. "YES!" The Gengar practically squealed in delight, excited that Miles had beaten the boss, pulling Miles backwards in doing so.
"W-Whoa- H-Hey!" Miles exclaimed as he accidentally fell back onto the couch with Jackie, both of them laughing in celebration. "Man....that was hard, and also the most fun I've probably had in a while on a day like this!"
"Phew..." Jackie let out a sigh. "I'm glad it was! You're a lot better at playing this than you might think. Especially for someone who really hadn't touched a video game that much before."
"Well, I did cheese him at the end there. Hehe-" Miles quietly interjected, nervously laughing to himself for a moment.
Jackie's smile grew a lot bigger now, and a soft blush formed on her face. "You call it cheesing, I call it intelligence. So... Haha- Which one do you wanna play after this?"
“Actually… I wanted to know if it was okay if we could keep going with this one. This is honestly really interesting! If- Erm…” The Grovyle spoke timidly, his eyes darting away for a moment. “If that’s alright with you.”
“Miles, the whole point of this was to see what you liked and what you didn’t. This is all new territory to you, so I wanted to make sure I start off easy. If you wanna keep playing, I’d be happy to watch you play some more!”
Hearing her say that caused the plant gecko-raptor’s heart to beat quicker than before. His face lighting up with glee. Both from seeing her this enthusiastic, and trying something new. Focusing back on the game, they were now sitting in some kind of forested area.
“Oh… Damn, we missed the cutscene.” Jackie lamented.
Miles murmured in disappointment. In response, Jackie placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Don’t worry, sweetie. We’ll see it on Youtube. Trust me, it’s hilarious!”
The first in a series of stories set in a world where in place of the Pokemon we're familiar with, Mankind coexists alongside a fully sapient, humanoid race of monsters known colloquially as "Pokemorphs". In today's story, a Grovyle and a Gengar try to find a way to pass the time on a boring Friday evening, and the former is introduced to the latter's favorite hobbies in the form of an old game she's saved from her childhood. And a humorously flawed one at that.
Rated PG-13 at the most due to scattered use of moderate language and one or two lewd jokes.
Critique welcome and very much appreciated.
Also, illustration coming soon.
===
"If you or a loved one were living in the state of Hawaii in 2016 and have suffered injury or death as a result of the Aether Foundation's experiments, you may be entitled to financial compensation."
"With temperatures expected to be in the 100's for the coming week, many are expressing concern that the upcoming heatwave may be-"
"-Best known for her lead role as the half-Human Vulpix in the 2007 Sci-Fi television series, Human actress Deidre White has congratulated her former co-star on her decision to enter rehab following the Scyther's recent-"
"Amid widespread condemnation from both the international community and the other members of The Pantheon, representatives from the Holy British Empire have denied the Holy Regency of the Twin Knights' involvement in the failed plot to assassinate the alleged descendant of King Polvora III, who is best known for his forced abdication following the-"
"-ONE DAY LOVE WILL FIND YOU! BREAK THOSE CHAINS THAT BIND YOU-!"
"-For a 1971 Dodge Viper, you're looking at upwards of $45,000 assuming you can find one in decent shape-"
"-HAWTHORNE VS. BLUMENTHAL, COMING JULY 12TH AT THE BLACK CITY STADIUM! ORDER TICKETS TODAY!"
"I have to kill fast, and bullets are too slow!"
"-We can't stay here, Ashton! Those... things are still after us!"
"Oh god, don't tell me they're remaking Carnage Necropolis..." Sighed a female Gengar, sinking further into the couch as she rolled her light red eyes.
"Yes they are, Jackie. Yes they are." Replied a male Grovyle, ceasing his seemingly endless channel surfing as he sets the remote down on the coffee table, clearly bored out of his mind. "Believe me, I was as shocked as you are. There is no way in it's going to be the same without John Carpenter and James Cameron, though from what I heard the latter actually gave it his seal of approval."
"Oh please, Miles..." Jackie waved her hand. "If the last two Terminator films are anything to go by, Cameron will put his stamp of approval on anything as long as he gets paid for it."
"I swear, he should have just kept the rights and stopped making any movies after the second one."
"Hehehehe-" Jackie chuckled to herself. "Ahhhh, the near-universal rule of movie franchises. First installment's good, second one's even better, and then the third causes the whole thing to collapse like the global economy did after the war. But hey, unlike the World Wars, we can pretend that only the first two happened!"
“Yeah, tell that to my Dad.” Miles quietly chuckled. Looking over at the screen again. “...Well, better a remake than an unnecessary sequel either no one asked for. Remember the remake of “The Blackheart of Kanto?”"
“The 1980 version or the 2018 version?”
“The former.” He clarified.
“Oh yeah! I like that version better.” Jackie gave a smile. Looking at Miles and sightly swaying side to side for a moment. “Having the actor from the original 1964 movie come back to play the Protag as the Old Man in the last part of it was genius. Man…” She said while shaking her head with a smaller smirk. “If I had a nickel for every time Kevin McCarthy played a role as a young man in an old horror flick, only to reprise his role as an older version of his character in a remake; I’d have two nickels. Which, I know isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice.”
“Can’t argue with what works!”
The two share a laugh as they continued to watch some TV. Hoping for some sort of stimulation, the two would keep searching for anything worth viewing. Surprise, surprise. Everything was either a rerun of a movie having no right to be on this many times, preachy shows, the occasional Jewelry/Antique programming that targeted old folk, or endless advertisements. Miles’ face remained unchanged as he had hoped to find something. Jackie on the other hand was losing interest quickly. Her black pupils rising up to her head as she flicked at her tuft of hair.
“Okay, this is getting annoying.” Commented Jackie. Rolling her shoulders and reaching for her drink on the coffee table. She gives it a swirl before taking a sip. “Well, I don’t think we’re gonna find anything on TV today. We’ve got the day to relax, so why don’t we try something different?”
“Like what?” Asked the Grovyle with a tilt of his head.
Jackie took a moment to think with her finger on her chin. With a snap of her fingers, the Gengar Woman got up from the couch and walked over to the stand under the TV. Bending down to grab something, she would reach into a compartment and pull out two controllers. “Why don’t we try a little something different?” Jackie says with a smile. Holding two Gamecube controllers in her hands. “Been a while since I’ve used this. But it should still work.”
Miles looked on in surprise. While he knew she was fond of games, he didn’t know she would have those. With a look of curiosity, he looked back at her face. “Oh! I thought you were more of a modern gaming person."
Modern? Jackie briefly thought to herself, before remembering that the 2000's were two whole decades ago. God, she was starting to feel old, and she was only 26. “Eh, sorta. I just play what I think doesn’t suck. S’worked out for me so far! Why don’t we give it a shot?” The excitement in Jackie’s voice grew. However, she would notice that Miles had a reluctant look on his face. This causing her ears to droop slightly. “...What’s wrong?”
“I...don’t know much about video games. I never had time, nor was I allowed to really play many of them growing up. Violin practice and all that...”
Hearing this came as a shock to Jackie. A confused expression forms on her face as she asks. “But...you played Puyo Puyo Tetris when we were in College. You seemed like you knew what you were doing.”
“I do, I do. And I very much enjoyed it.” Miles spoke timidly with a hand behind his head. “It reminded me of the puzzles that I tended to play with in what little spare time I had between practice sessions. Those building blocks that you have to arrange in a certain way in order to complete the shape. The game you mentioned played to my strengths and I felt like I was in my element.” He looked down and his demeanor shifted. “I don’t know if I’d be good at anything else.”
Putting the controllers down on the table, Jackie comes over to Miles and leans in towards him. She knew Miles was still trying to adapt to what people normally do. Though a rather intelligent man, he had some trouble expanding out of his horizons. Jackie spoke calmly and with a tender disposition. “Miles, it’s okay to be nervous. I just thought we could try something a little different. The work week's over, we got plenty of time to do stuff, we just finished our order for that suit- We can do whatever we want.” Looking over at his elbow, she taps it a couple of times to get his attention. Miles looks over at her and into her eyes as she finally takes a seat next to him. “We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.” Shifting her shoulders from side to side for a moment to relax, Jackie gives him a warm grin. “I know you missed out a lot in your childhood. I thought I could help with that by sharing mine with you. Besides, I have a feeling you’ll be the one kicking my ass at this. Especially if we get to a certain game near and dear to my heart.”
Miles was hesitant at first. Unsure if he was going to be anything other than awkward to see play a game. But after a few seconds however, he gave Jackie a hint of a warm smile of his own, his sullen demeanor improving slightly from her words. Especially once she brought up the possibility of him kicking her ass in a video game, the thought of that made him chuckle, as unlikely as it was. "Heh, thank you... I guess it wouldn't hurt to try-" He quickly scratched the back of his head. "So what did you have in mind here?"
"Oh! Lots of things-" Jackie turned to face the television once more, reaching her hand out as her eyes began to glow and several cases levitated into it using Confusion. Spreading the handful of boxes out on the couch between her and Miles, she would start listing off the games she had picked out. "Mad-Nectric 2: Stryke's Revenge, Destroy all Monsters, League Master 3D: The Nothern Wind, League Master 3D: The Clash of Light and Shadow, Super Smash Bros: Melee, Rogue Squadron... take your pick!"
Miles eyed the cover for Mad-Nectric 2, something which prominently displayed a Manectric clad in some eye-bleedingly colorful 90's clothing that made him look like he came straight out of a time warp from when the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was still airing new episodes, something that briefly called to mind a fighter in the League he managed to catch on TV a few days ago, all while being in some elaborate pose the Grovyle was sure would be anatomically impossible without breaking at least fourteen different bones. In the background sat what appeared to be a discolored Scyther or Scizor of some kind, one which had a black exoskeleton and silver scales, and also what appeared to be red eyeliner or some kind of war paint underneath his purple eyes. As if Miles wrists weren't already starting to bleed from the design that utterly reeked of late-90's to early-2000's edge, he possessed a pair of impractically long scythes that he swore were as long as he was tall, and wore an obnoxious leather trenchcoat adorned with more chains and zippers than a Mega-Evolved Banette working in the back area of a Gentlemen's Club. Seriously, who in their right mind designed this? He thought, before opening his mouth and speaking, intrigued. "How about this one?"
"Oh! I was hoping we could start with this one. It's a must-play and a classic." Jackie opened the case and took the somewhat bright blue disc out, her eyes glowing with the activation of Confusion once more as the disc levitated back towards the cabinet and inserted itself in a white console. "Well, assuming you can get past the cheesy dialogue and voice acting, but that's honestly part of the charm!" She gave him a playful smirk as the game began to load up, handing Miles a controller off the table, tapping her bare feet on the floor as she waits.
"Wait, aren't you going to grab a controller too?" Miles asked, glancing to his side and cocking an eyebrow in confusion.
"In due time, Miles... In due time. For now, let's get down to business!"
As the game's introduction began to play, the two would be greeted by the overhead sights of a mid-day cityscape, animated in what looked to be some kind of low-to-mid budget anime style. The scene cuts to a shot of several humans and monsters sitting at an outdoor table at a restaurant, all casually enjoying their food. After a few seconds, one man's glass would begin to shake, followed by the table... and eventually, everyone would look to the sky in panic as the sun would become blotted out by something unseen. Panning upwards, the camera would reveal the culprit to be none other than a massive airship slowly flying in, readying the impractically massive amount of guns it has scattered across its hull and firing them into the city as a series of hangar doors would open along the top and sides of the ship, causing the hail of gunfire to be joined by a seemingly endless wave of fighters that are now pouring out and helping lay waste to the city. One now engulfed in explosions, flames, and the constant screaming of countless civilians.
"Holy shit-!" Miles would exclaim, not taking his eyes off the screen but quickly asking Jackie something. "Just what the hell is that?!"
"Sssshhh-! You'll find out in a second-" Jackie quickly shushes him and leans in.
Cutting to some random building off in the distance, they see a distinctly colorful shoe fill the camera frame for a brief moment before the camera quickly pans upwards to reveal the serious face of a Manectric overlooking all this chaos, one wearing a baseball cap that he turns backwards before getting into some kind of stance. With a sudden surge of silver electricity, the Manectric would leap off the rooftop as a soar of vaguely heroic-sounding rock music begins to play in the background, somehow landing flawlessly on the ground in front of several advancing robotic troops as Japanese lyrics began to play.
"Wait, I know these lyrics!" Miles interjected as he watched the Manectric dispose of the robotic troops with a simple raising of his hand, enveloping them in a single Thunderbolt that caused them to burst into a series of fiery explosions before swiftly breaking out into a sprint, running down the street and fighting his way through armies of the various invading foes with seemingly little effort through a combination of attacks and acrobatics.
"You do?" Jackie asked, puzzled, before remembering that while Miles was raised in America, he had at least one Japanese parent and potentially spoke at least some of the language. "Never understood why they didn't dub this song in english for the American release, now that I think of it-"
"The song's from someone else's perspective, and goes on to talk about how this person, seemingly "Mad-Nectric" over here gives them courage in life because of how they can continue to bravely go on despite the world coming apart around them both. And now here he is, saving the world one more time. Or something along the lines of that, at least... my Japanese isn't perfect."
The scene shows Mad-Nectric landing atop one of the fighter jets, laying his palm flat on the metallic surface as the aircraft becomes enveloped in some kind of blue, electrified glow. With that, the jet seems to abruptly change course and head towards the massive airship. The camera briefly changes perspective to that of a rangefinder with Mad-Nectric's jet in view, before cutting to the silhouettes of two figures in what appears to be the darkened control room; one human, and the other a draconic monster of some kind. One of the figures points a shadowed hand outwards, and as if on command the guns on the ship begin to open fire on the jet, which the Manectric dodges through a series of strafes and rolls, firing back on the ship with the aircraft's own weaponry and leaving a trail of explosions along his path. How is he even able to stay on that thing? Miles thinks to himself, confused, but no less amused by what he's seeing.
Eventually, the jet comes to an abrupt landing in some kind of hangar, the Manectric leaping off the skidding aircraft and coming to halt in a large corridor alight in flames, at the end of which lies a descending freight elevator. Atop which sits the same Human and Monster as before, now no longer cloaked in shadow and revealed to be some kind of stereotypical Einstein-lookalike Mad Scientist with a cybernetic left eye and the Scyther from the box art, who's looking as edgy as ever. Mad-Nectric grins and gets into a fighting pose as the corners of the camera split off into a series of shots of various other people Miles doesn't quite recognize, though from the looks of it they must be friends of his. All of them bearing the same determined grin. With that, the screen would fade to white as the song ends and a title card pops up.
"MAD-NECTRIC 2: STRYKE'S REVENGE." A voice boomed from the television's speakers, also said by Miles and Jackie in unison. Below that was a smaller string of text reading "Deluxe Edition".
Miles blinked as he tried to process the information that was just given to him. ""Mad-Nectric 2: Stryke's Revenge - Deluxe Edition." Just who was responsible for that mouthful?"
"Oh, we just call it DX instead of Deluxe." Interjected Jackie, pulling both her legs up on the couch as her ears perked in excitement.
"But... both have two syllables. Neither one's faster to say." Miles blinked in confusion, going through a series of menus and selecting an unused save file.
“True, but DX is much more iconic. That and that’s what the Devs called it following a panel.” Hearing this, Miles murmured in acknowledgement. Jackie looked towards him, tilting her head towards the screen to get Miles to advance to the character select screen. Of which, there was only one playable character at the moment. Spinning the character wheel to see differently colored question marks. Finally stopping at the Manectric running in place.
“So, Mad-Nectric. What is he about exactly?” Asked Miles as he waits to select.
“Mad-Nectric’s the Main Character, obviously!” Jackie quickly chuckled and cleared her throat. “Honestly, it’s surprising finding anyone who doesn’t know him. To answer the question though, that’s Maddison the Manectric. He started out as an Electrike in the 90’s on the Sega Genesis called “The Rad Mad Lad.” He’s supposed to be this High Energy Hero... quite literally! An environmentalist, he uses his powers to face off against the evil Prof. Industol. A guy who wants to rule the world with an army of robots.” Jackie scratches behind her ear and smirks. “You know, in Japan they called him “Maddison the Mighty.” But America and Europe looked at the name and thought “Maddison’s a dweeb’s name, we’re changing the title name!” And it worked out pretty well! Funnily enough, they didn’t actually change the character’s name.”
Miles nodded on and continued to look at the screen. Fiddling with the controls and accidentally moving back a screen. “Feels a little strange that they would change the name of the game but not the Main Character. If Maddison really is a “dweeb” name.”
“It’s go time!” Shouted Mad-Nectric from the screen upon being selected. Doing a slow pose before giving a thumbs up. The scene would swap back to that of the airship's hangar from before, except this time rendered in low-poly early-2000's graphics instead of the animation it was minutes ago. Jackie and Miles could see the same duo descending the elevator and stepping in front of Maddison.
"You blasted dog! You've meddled in our plans for the last time, Mad-Nectric!" Spoke Professor Industol, his mouth moving inconsistently with his voice lines. Something which, along with the cheesy dialogue, got a chuckle out of Miles as he gripped the controller a bit tighter, readying himself for when the cutscene would end.
"You might need to get your circuits checked, Doc. 'Cause it seems like every time you try one of these little schemes of yours, I end up blowing you-!"
"ENOUGH!" The Professor interrupted.
"Ahahahahahaha-! Okay... okay! This... this has to be a joke, right? Because there's no way he just said that in a kid's game." Miles couldn't help but laugh at the innuendo-ridden statement from Maddison, doubling over slightly and missing more of the cutscene from his fit of laughter.
"Funny enough, that's actually a result of a bug! Hahahahaha-" Jackie couldn't help but begin laughing herself. "Because of some poorly-coded timing in this cutscene, Maddison's line never has a chance to finish playing before Industol's is supposed to, resulting in this... rather infamous scene that got patched out in the PC release. It's actually become something of a meme among the fandom in the years since."
"Man, Jackie... if the rest of the game's like this I'm probably going to die of laughter before its over."
"If you thought you could beat me as easily as last time... THEN PREPARUH YOURSELF-" The two looked back to the screen to see the Scyther from before readying his impractically large blades, getting into a combat stance of his own. His somewhat raspy voice having some kind of accent neither one could pin their fingers on. With a quick guitar riff, the screen would warp and fade into the game itself. And so, the fight would commence.
Haphazardly, Miles charges towards Stryke and gets backhanded swiftly. Causing Maddison to lose two green balls of energy in the process. Panicking from being hurt, Miles ran around before jumping up and dashing towards the Scyther once again. The boss leaning forward to extend both his blades and slash downwards. Being touched by them caused Mad-Nectric to fall onto the ground. “No- Augh…!” He reaches out and says weakly before fading consciousness. One life down, one more to go.
“Wait, what just happened? Did I lose already?” Miles spoke with confusion. Pressing a few buttons in response.
“Hahaha… Yeah, this happened to me too the first time.” She smiled and let out a small chuckle. “Stryke’s this games first attempt at teasing the audience for charging in without a plan, ironically the complete opposite of how easy he was to fight in the last game. You gotta catch him off guard. Important since after you successfully hit him, you need a different strategy to hit him the next time.”
"Wait, just who is Stryke anyway?"
"Oh, he's basically Mad-Nectric's typical edgy antihero rival. One who debuted working as a new member of the Professor's team in the last game, and after his defeat he's taken it... rather personally." She softly chuckles to herself again. "If I had a nickel for every time this character archetype appeared in any piece of media, let alone from Japan, I'd be a millionaire."
"Hah! You and me both..." Miles eyes eventually narrowed as the fight began again, one of the first things he noticed this time around were the same floating green energy balls scattered around the boss' "arena". He made sure to collect these before he even thought of approaching Stryke again. The Scyther took a step back, and swung his left arm as he leapt forward at Maddison, with Miles managing to get him to jump out of the way just in time. Quickly pressing a series of buttons on his controller before hitting the Right Trigger, something that caused the Manectric on screen to spark up and take a decently-sized chunk out of Stryke's health bar as he yelled out "I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS!" in the game's typical canned voice acting.
"I got him! And... that did that much damage?" Miles was surprised. "That was about a third of his health bar right there!"
"Careful." Jackie said, "That was one of Mad-Nectric's moves! But using those too much will burn out your reserves, and at this early in the game you're pretty much history if those run out and you can't find any PP to restore them with." She exclaimed, getting excited from watching Miles learn to play.
Miles' brow furrowed in seriousness, gripping his controller tighter. Now, the real fight begins... "Recharge. Dodge. Attack. Repeat... looks like I have this figured out."
"Now you're getting it!"
For the next several minutes, Miles would do just that. Grab the spheres, dodge whatever bullshit attack Stryke threw at Mad-Nectric, attack him with one of his moves (to varying success), and repeat. He wasn't sure if it was because of the adrenaline pumping through his veins, but as the boss battle would grow more intense, Miles senses would heighten, and he would suddenly become aware of his situation in greater detail. His reflexes grew sharper, allowing him to dodge Stryke with less and less effort than before, to the point where the action barely registered as anything more than muscle memory on his part.
It's at this point where he also became aware of the fact Jackie was now sitting behind him, ever-increasingly leaning into his back. Something with soothed his nerves in spite of how Mad-Nectric had run out of PP for his attacks.
He can feel her soft fur against his smooth scales.
He can feel the way her hands rested on his stomach.
He can feel her heartbeat.
Finally, when the game seemingly glitches out and Stryke is caught on a piece of map geometry, stuck in an endless repeat of "I CAN'T- I CAN'T- I CAN'T-" as Miles rapidly drained his health bar by spamming whatever attacks he was still capable of, that the boss fight officially ended and Jackie pulls him into a spine-crushing victory hug. "YES!" The Gengar practically squealed in delight, excited that Miles had beaten the boss, pulling Miles backwards in doing so.
"W-Whoa- H-Hey!" Miles exclaimed as he accidentally fell back onto the couch with Jackie, both of them laughing in celebration. "Man....that was hard, and also the most fun I've probably had in a while on a day like this!"
"Phew..." Jackie let out a sigh. "I'm glad it was! You're a lot better at playing this than you might think. Especially for someone who really hadn't touched a video game that much before."
"Well, I did cheese him at the end there. Hehe-" Miles quietly interjected, nervously laughing to himself for a moment.
Jackie's smile grew a lot bigger now, and a soft blush formed on her face. "You call it cheesing, I call it intelligence. So... Haha- Which one do you wanna play after this?"
“Actually… I wanted to know if it was okay if we could keep going with this one. This is honestly really interesting! If- Erm…” The Grovyle spoke timidly, his eyes darting away for a moment. “If that’s alright with you.”
“Miles, the whole point of this was to see what you liked and what you didn’t. This is all new territory to you, so I wanted to make sure I start off easy. If you wanna keep playing, I’d be happy to watch you play some more!”
Hearing her say that caused the plant gecko-raptor’s heart to beat quicker than before. His face lighting up with glee. Both from seeing her this enthusiastic, and trying something new. Focusing back on the game, they were now sitting in some kind of forested area.
“Oh… Damn, we missed the cutscene.” Jackie lamented.
Miles murmured in disappointment. In response, Jackie placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Don’t worry, sweetie. We’ll see it on Youtube. Trust me, it’s hilarious!”
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