s2.e7

The Game

            The elementary school tradition of giving cute cards to every classmate was near its end, but those in the group were hardly participating, at least mentally. Their minds were on the game and their eyes were on the clock, each second slower than usual.           

            “Jason!” Ash’s voice broke through to him on her third or fourth try. “Hey, take your card! Sheesh, you guys are all on a different planet today.”

            “O-oh…” Jace stuttered and took one of her Clarissa Explains it All cards, which featured a snarky remark from the teen—and a lollipop taped to the back. “Thanks.”

            For a moment, he thought it was just for him, until he saw everyone else already had a copy. Still, it was signed, and Ash’s handwriting was divine. He smiled and gave her one of his Street Sharks cards in return, which she added to her growing stack.

            “Why do we still do this?” Jared complained as he played with his ‘gifts’ in his hands like they were playing cards. “Are we pretending that we all love each other?”

            Colin, looking through his collection and gagging a bit when he saw Tamatha and Trudy’s extra-cute Lisa Frank cards, replied, “Yeah, but I always kind of liked it.”

            “Because you already do a lot of card collecting,” Arthur said.

            “I guess so. It’s kind of like you’re getting little bits of everyone’s personality, or just something to remember them by… It’s not the worst thing, is all I’m saying.”

            “I’m just gonna toss all these in a few days, after the candy’s gone” Jared said. “I mean, some of them are funny, but why bother keeping them around, right?”

            “Could today go any slower?” Wessy moaned and wiped his hands over his face.

            “Chill out,” Sadie said as she passed by and dropped Tiny Toon Adventures cards on Jace and Wessy’s desks. “Don’t stress about the game all day. It’ll drive you crazy.”

            “These look vintage,” Arthur said as he studied his Buster Bunny card.

            “Dug ‘em out of my closet. I think I had some left over from second grade.”

            “Be mine…” Wessy read off his card, which showed the pet-loving girl Elmyra squeezing to death the cat Furball. “Do you really want me to be yours, Sadie?”

            “Nah, but I do want to get my hands around your neck sometimes.”

            “Uh… See, this is why I don’t like your scary side.”

            Park, who was looking chipper today, finally arrived at their desks and handed out his cards, which sounded like they were making a splash in the class. They could see why: they were high-quality prints on sturdy cardstock, depicting multi-colored, artistic hearts. Each was different from one another—and uniquely, they had no text at all.

            “Whoa, these are cool,” Colin said. “Did you print these out yourself?”

            “Yeah,” Park replied. “Haru made them for her tenth-grade class, and said I could pass them out, as well. She’s something of an artist.”

            “Nice…” Millie said and slid hers into a card sleeve within the binder she had brought to store her collection. “No monetary value in ten years, but nice to look at.”

            Park grumbled. “Be weird all you want, but she could be famous one day.”

            “Anyway,” Ms. Porter’s lesson reached their ears again, after having already gone on for a good ten minutes, “the real Saint Valentine was killed in 269 A.D. for his beliefs, but it wasn’t until the 14^th century that we began to associate his legacy with all that lovey-dovey stuff. Oh, and his skull is displayed in a church in Rome…”

            “Cool,” Felicity exclaimed. “This holiday just got a little better.”

            “Ah…” Ms. Porter adjusted her glasses. “But let’s just focus on the romantic part of the day. Candy for you guys, and… maybe a nice evening out for your parents.”

            Tamatha raised her hand. “Ms. Porter? Do you have a date tonight?”

            She blushed a little and Jace couldn’t help but sink into his chair.

            “W-well… Maybe.” She grinned awkwardly. “Maybe a little one…”

            This garnered some noises and instant gossip from a few of the girls in the class, while the boys couldn’t care less. Or were even a touch envious.

            “Yo, Jason?” Wessy prodded him. “You feeling okay?”

            “Not really. I feel a little barfy all of a sudden.”

            “Yeah. I’m nervous about the tourney, too.”

            “Don’t forget your silver ticket,” Wes said as Jace stepped out of the car door in front of King Arcade’s main gate. “And good luck out there. Oh, and these, too.”

            Once Jace had grabbed the special foil event entry ticket, Wes handed over a couple quarters for a payphone in case of emergencies. His nephew got one more look at his fancy-for-him dinner jacket, and another waft of cologne hit his nose.

            “I still can’t believe that you’re dating your freaking teacher.”

            “It’s just one dinner date. I need positive social interactions with other adults sometimes, too. My stockbroker doesn’t count. Do your best, try to have fun.”

            He drove off, and Jace walked into the park, flashing his ticket on the way. While King Arcade was normally open until seven, today it had been emptied out by five, turning it into a big playground for the day’s special visitors. There were twelve teams of kids and tweens gathered up in the entry plaza, along with a few parents and friends. Zach seemed to be having a pep talk with the team alongside Colin, and Arthur was near the tournament staff, with his dad who was showing him the park lighting controls.

            “Hey, everyone!” a twenty-something employee greeted the participants as Jace joined his team, his voice on the nearby speakers. “This is the first annual King Arcade Laser Chase! My name is Bailey, and I’m here to make sure you all have a good, safe time. Before we begin, we have to go through a few ground rules and get you suited up.”

            “Suited up?” Gavin wondered aloud, and then asked Bailey, “Hey, how long will this take? We all want to get to the shooting! My team’s been prepping for weeks.”

            “Now hold on, little dude. We gotta wait for the sun to set, anyway—the lasers work a lot better when sunlight can’t mess ‘em up. We just need twenty minutes or so to go over the rules, and get you cool boys and girls in your safety gear.”

            Bailey signaled to his little helpers, who began to file into the plaza with boxes full of knee and elbow pads, helmets with chin straps, and the bulky laser gun-vest sets themselves. The kids suddenly looked less than thrilled about this being a whole thing.

            “Ugh, they didn’t say anything about all the safety gear,” Celeste grumbled.

            “This is why I gave up on skateboarding,” Sadie added. “Mom and Dad made me dress up like I was going off to war. Oh well… We just have to make the best of it.”

            “That’s the spirit,” Wessy told his team. “We can totally win this thing!”

            Zach crossed his arms and grinned. “At least I don’t have to wear that crap.”

            Nearby, Wes pulled into Captain Salty, the closest nice-ish restaurant to the park; close enough to hear the screams of the Red Demon riders, if it were running. He was glad that Ms. Porter had agreed to meet him here, as it kept Jace within reach should he need anything. He went inside knowing that it would be difficult to put all his focus on the get-together—but he did want to try and enjoy it.

            He patted down his hair and fixed his sleeves as he went past the hostess stand and spotted Ms. Porter in the back, waving to him. The place was packed full of couples of all ages on their Valentine’s dinners, the lights turned down for atmosphere. Salty had a bit of a 1960s jet set travelers’ vibe, and the restaurant went way back to when it was still next to a military base and served soldiers. The place had several original porthole aquariums in its wooden panel walls, with a variety of colorful fish inside.

            “Hey, you showed up,” she said once Wes had slid into his side of the booth.

            “Of course… You haven’t had, like, guys ditch you in the past, right?”

            She just smiled nervously and nudged her glasses. A waiter came by and dropped off the menus, at which point the mood music playing on the speakers filtered into Wes’ ears. He knew how this would have to end tonight, no matter what, for everyone’s sake, but he did at least want to give her something better than what she must’ve gotten in the original timeline. If, of course, she had even found someone to have dinner with at all.

            “Hm…” Wes pondered over the menu. “So, they do have a few chicken dinners. I didn’t know if you were into seafood at all. I guess I should’ve asked.”

            “It’s all right. I like this place. But I usually just get a salad.”

            “So… no fish? The glazed salmon is really good here. Mild.”

            “Ah, well, I don’t really know yet.” She blinked and poked her glasses again. “I grew up in Kansas, so we mostly just had catfish… But I did like some catfish.”

             “I had no idea… I just realized, I don’t even know your first name.”

            “Oh, did I not give it to you? That’s the thing about working in a school, I guess. You’re just used to being called ‘Ms. Porter’. ‘Ms. Porter, can I use the bathroom? Ms. Porter, Delilah’s messing with my hair again. Ms. Porter…'” She stopped, faked a cough, looked embarrassed, and revealed to Wes, “Chamomile. My name’s Chamomile.”

            “That’s… That’s nice. I’ve never known anyone named after an herbal tea.”

            She laughed. “But my friends can just call me Cee. Cee-Tea if we’re really close.”

            “Heh… Oh,” Wes turned to the waiter, “I’ll have a Coke… Actually, just water’s fine. I think we’ll need a few more minutes to decide the rest.”

            “Do you have sweet tea?” Ms. Porter asked. Once the waiter had left to take care of their drinks, she turned back to Wes. “I swear, I’m not actually all about tea…”

            As Wes thought about what to say next, they overheard a pair of chatty, happy adults laughing along with another pair at two nearby tables.

            “Hey, it doesn’t matter if my kid wins or not—if the park can keep him out of our hair for an hour, it was worth the entry fee,” a dad said, to more laughter.

            “I’m just not sure I like the idea of my Dierdre running around with a laser gun,” a concerned mom replied. “Couldn’t they do something else? Like the kids do on that Wild and Crazy Kids show? She just insists on playing with some manner of weaponry.”

            “I don’t see any harm in it,” the other dad said. “They know it’s all in fun.”

            “Hey, any chance that’s why we’re eating here?” Ms. Porter asked Wes.

            “Well, I, uh…” Wes scratched at his neck. “Yeah, actually. Jason’s out there, playing with his friends. They trained, and came up with strategies, so…”

            “Hm.” She smiled. “You really like him, don’t you?”

            “He’s kind of the most important person in my life right now, yeah.”

            “Aww… And he made friends so quickly, for someone who only just came to the school this year. Although… I’m a little worried if the others will remember him.”

            “What do you mean? He seems like a pretty memorable kid.”

            “Well, yes—and smart, too. But he was sick on the day we had our class photo taken and missed it. Now yearbook photos are coming up. I wouldn’t want him to miss that, too. Ah,” another glasses nudge, “sorry. I turned this into a parent-teacher thing.”

            “Isn’t that kind of what this is already?”

            She laughed again and took a moment to recompose. “It’s just nice to meet new people sometimes and share a dinner together. I left everything behind when I moved from a small Kansas town to Royal Valley. It’s still strange to me, how you can be in a big city and surrounded by people, and yet you can feel lonely and disconnected.”

            “But I’m sure all your students think you’re the best teacher they ever had.”

            Always modest, she replied, “Oh, n-no. No way. I’m not even in their top five.”

            “Just wait. They’ll look back and realize it when they’re older. You’ll see.”

            Back at the park, with two minutes left on the clock to find their places, the group arrived at the Swirl Twirl mixer ride. Like most of the attractions, it had been fenced off and was considered out of bounds—but it still had a flag marker, indicating that it was one of the available twenty-four bases where teams had to be at the game’s start, or risk an instant loss. Park staff were everywhere to keep an eye on things, but otherwise the kids would soon have the run of the place, at least for the next half-hour.

            As one of the numerous nearby digital tickers counted down to the start of the tournament, at six on the dot, Wessy grumbled and tugged at his chinstrap again.

            “This was a lot cooler in my mind,” he told the others. “I mean, all the rides are blocked off! I wanted to shoot my laser guns from a bumper car, or at the top of the Ferris wheel… And what’s… with…” he looked at his knee and elbow pads, “all this?”

            “Colin said we look like space marines,” Jared replied. “He thought it was cool.”

            “They’re called lawsuits, Wes,” Sadie said. “The park isn’t going to let us bounce off the machinery and not wear all this stuff that keeps us from getting hurt.”

            Wessy asked, “What was that guy saying about the three-hit stuff? I wasn’t paying attention. He was annoying. Sounded like a summer camp counselor or something.”

            “I went on a Disney cruise last year with my parents. It had ‘director’ guys that sounded like that, always trying to get you to dance or party or whatever.”

            “Whoa, you went on a cruise, Sadie?” Celeste exclaimed.

            “Yeah, last summer. I told you about that, remember? Anyway, that guy said your vest can take three hits before you’re out of the game. This isn’t freeze tag. You can die.”

            “Don’t say stuff like that, Sadie,” Jared sighed. “I’m nervous enough, worried about getting in last place…” He looked up at the nearest ticker to see that they had thirty seconds until the start of the game. “Wait, can you take three hits all at once?”

            “He said you get two seconds of ‘invincibility’ to find cover,” Jace replied, and thinking about online gaming and the importance of good spawn points, looked around and asked, “We’re not near another team, right? We don’t want to get shot right away.”

            The others turned about to make sure—and it looked like they were in the clear; few kids wanted to start in the park’s tiny-tyke area. As Celeste was looking off into the distance, Jared was the first to notice something in her back pocket, sticking up under her baggy shirt. He reached to grab it, but pulled his hand back at the last moment.

            Celeste turned around and glared at him. “Did you just try to touch my butt?”

            Sadie snorted and Jared turned red in the face and stuttered, “N-no… I—I was just wondering what you have in your pocket. I swear… Don’t hit me.”

            “Oh, that?” She reached back, pulled out her slingshot, and showed it off. “I had to bring old trusty for luck. It’s not like I can use it, but, still, I wanted it on me.”

            “Don’t let the staff guys see that,” Sadie cautioned. “It might get us disqualified.”

            “Great…” Jared moaned as the clock ticked down past ten and he readied his big laser rifle. “One more thing to worry about. And we don’t even have walkies to chat.”

            “Crap, that’s right!” Wes replied. “How are we s’posed to communicate?”

            “We’ll just have to stick together and play our best,” Sadie told everyone, as deep bass beats played through the speakers for the final three seconds. “Let’s do this—”

            She and the others were startled by the start of the game. Blaring techno music rattled the rides as nightclub lights projected rotating stars on the ground. A second set of lights illuminated the section of the park in green, indicating that the zone was active.

            “This is it, everyone!” Bailey’s voice came through just above the generic EDM. “Go play and win! The last team standing or the one with the most points after thirty minutes takes home the prize! But be careful out there.”

            “Ugh! What is this music?” Jared complained, his hands over his ears.

            “I can barely hear!” Celeste shouted. “How do we give directions over this crap?”

            Wessy replied, “Forget it, we gotta move. Do your best, shoot everyone else!”

            They ran off, with Jace following behind them. He, too, was a bit aggravated about no walkie-talkies and music that drowned out any chance at strategizing on the fly; it would be like joining an online team full of randos without microphones. Not that he was terribly surprised; e-sports weren’t around yet, and the organizers of the event must have just seen this all as a “cool fun time for the kids,” pro-strats be damned.

            Even so, shortly after it began they basically ambushed a group of younger participants near the VirtuaVenture theater, who didn’t look like they were even remotely taking the game as seriously as Wessy’s team. Each of the third-graders took one or two hits before they managed to scramble away into the cover of some hedges.

            Celeste laughed, her rifle resting on her shoulder. “I almost felt bad about that.”

            “Kinda cathartic, though,” Sadie added. “Like winning a rap battle.”

            “I don’t like the noises these guns make,” Jared replied, examining his weapon. “I don’t really need to hear some sci-fi pew-pew from the cheap speaker.”

            “C’mon, did you see me?” Celeste exclaimed jubilantly and fired her gun into the air. “I must’a got three or four hits! Aw, dude, thanks for putting me on the team, Wes.”

            He turned ever-so-slightly pink in the face and replied, “Yeah, no… problem.”

            Jace suddenly felt the back of his vest vibrate, indicating that he’d been hit. The sensation freaked him out for a moment before his gamer reflexes took over. As his immunity wore off, he hit the ground and got behind the nearby Wizard Rocker statue.

            “Jace, you okay—” Wessy then noticed the enemy team, “crud!”

            He ducked and returned fire messily, Sadie got behind a bench, Jared took a hit of his own before he could find cover, and Celeste just stood there and fearlessly shot back. Jace peeked out, aimed, and fired out five shots—three of which hit three different targets. Jared and Celeste also connected their invisible beams with some vests, at which point the enemy engagers got behind the horses and other creatures of the carousel.

            “Jason!” Wessy shouted. “You got magic aim, too, my guy!”

            “Did ya see ‘em?” Sadie asked from her bench. “I think that was Wright’s crew!”

            “Wright? Robby?” Jared called out, keeping his rifle trained on the horses. “That you guys? What’d you do, follow us? You really want to do this?”

            “Thought we could take you out early!” Wright called back from behind cover.

            “By surprise, you mean,” Wessy said. “Hey, let’s not fight each other until we’re the last two teams! That way someone from our class has a better chance at winning!”

            “Yeah, back off now, and we’ll totally let you go!” Sadie added.

            “Lemme think. I forgot to ask—who’s that girl with you?” Wright wondered.

            “Celeste. Remember her? From kindergarten?”

            “All grown up into a major ass-kicker,” she said of herself, still out in the open.

            “You bet any money on this game, Wright?” Jared scoffed. “That why you wanna take us out? Hey, back off and go lose to some other team. We got places to be.”

            “Let’s just fall back and head west,” Sadie suggested. “We’re wasting time.”

            Team Captain Wessy was indecisive—so the standoff lasted until another loud event interrupted it. The green lights suddenly turned to blinking orange, and the local music switched to “imminent danger” rhythmic beats. They all looked around, confused.

            “Oh no!” one of the presiding staff members shouted like a high-schooler in a drama club as he waved his arms. “You gotta get out of here! This zone is collapsing!”

            “Already?” Jared grumbled. “We just started.”

            “They’re gonna herd us into a small pen as fast as they can,” Celeste surmised. “Gotta make it ‘exciting,’ don’t they? No time for sneaking around playing it smart.”

            The group looked at Wright and Robby’s team again to see the five of them running off, towards the east side where the Galaxy Hub and Red Demon resided. Wessy’s squad took a few shots at their back vests, but the lasers were out of range.

            “Change of plans,” Wessy said. “We’ll go south first instead. We might not make it out of the zone going the other way, and—” he stopped and looked around, to see the rest of his team already running off without him. “Hey, wait up!”

            “Get your head out of Bullet Water mode, Wes!” Jared shouted back to him. “We’re not scrunching up behind bushes thinking up epic plays here, dude!”

            Wessy sighed and ran to Jace, waiting for him at the rear. They fled the zone just before the lights turned red, taking it out of the game and turning the park into a donut with a big bite out of it; to get to the east, where the final battles would likely go down, they’d have to circle the park or cut through the center village—a probable death trap.

             They entered the south portion cautiously upon seeing a three-way firefight going on near the Space Warp dome, which was lit up in a typical laser-light show that, while fitting, no one was paying attention to at the moment. The group piled up near the Video Land store and waited by a corner until the other teams’ eyes were elsewhere.

            “We can get in a surprise attack against all of them and rack up the points,” Jared said. “I mean, unless Wes just wants to sneak around and get to the Demon…”

            “We do need points,” Sadie replied. “We can’t just rely on being the last team standing. Wouldn’t be much of a win, anyway. But I guess it’s his choice.”

            “Um…” Wessy thought for a second. “Let’s… see if we can take anyone out.”

            “More fun that way,” Celeste agreed and readied her rifle.

            They took combat stances and were about to go get into the thick of it—when Gavin and his team showed up, running and gunning as they emerged from the Game Joust arena where they must’ve been hiding in wait. They employed the same semi-professional maneuvers and steady aim that they had brought to Bullet Water.

            “Ugh, look at those guys,” Jared complained. “They take this stuff more seriously than we do. They even use hand signals! Crazy-scary…”

            “We can’t go toe-to-toe with them here, or we’ll get wiped out,” Sadie replied, watching Gavin and his goons finish off a team of nine-year-olds by a fountain, who all looked shocked that they were just retired. “Maybe we sneak by instead?”

            Jace, wanting to feel more involved, suggested, “If his team takes some hits here, maybe we can finish them off later. We could aim for the Boardwalk, find some cover.”

            “It’s your choice, cap’,” Sadie told Wessy. “Don’t over-think it. Just pick.”

            “Ummm…” Wessy thought again. “Yeah, all right. Let’s just get out of here.”

            They nodded to one another and headed off cautiously, making their way across the zone in plain sight, hoping that if they didn’t open fire on the other teams—now six in all—they wouldn’t make themselves targets and be forced to join the chaos.

            “Careful, stay quiet…” Wessy said, leading the others across the grounds while dozens of laser rifles and vests made their shooting and impact sounds.

            Once they were sneaking behind Gavin, they could hear him shouting orders over the music, “D’, sustained fire on those kids by the vending machines. T’, watch your flank, man! You’re wide open. Stu! You’re good, keep up the fire. Janny—”

            “I told you to stop calling me that!” she snapped while unleashing a laser barrage.

            “Uh, you’re good, too. Don’t let any of ‘em advance. Looks like they’re all turning their attention to us. We must be pissing them off!” Gavin said with a laugh.

            Jared, fixated on the six-way battle that was shifting into a five-on-one attempt to take down the elite squad on the scene, stopped watching where he was going and tripped over the side of the fountain. His bulky equipment shielded him from impact, but made it tough for him to get back to his feet in time to get away. Gavin heard the noise, turned around as his team kept firing everywhere else, and grinned deviously.

            “Jaaared, buddy. Welcome to the battle arena. It’s where the fun’s goin’ down.”

            “Jared!” Wessy exclaimed, and then turned back to help him up.

            Gavin got a shot in while Jared was cowering, almost point blank. His vest’s speakers went off, indicating a hit and bringing him down to the last of his health.

            “Not cool, man!” Wessy said angrily and shot at Gavin, giving Jared a chance to scuttle away and get behind the fountain barrier for cover. “Everyone, take ‘em out!”

            Celeste, Sadie, and Jace rushed in and opened fire, missing a second hit on Gavin who ducked behind the other side of the fountain, but getting the others in the back.

            “The heck?” Stu yelled out and flipped around with the others. “Gavin, where’d they come from? Ugh, Terror! Help me with these guys!”

            He joined in with attacking their attackers, while Dierdre, Gavin, and Janice kept the other teams in check with more suppressing fire. A short, intense gunfight erupted, with Stu and Terror both taking a hit, and Sadie, Celeste, and Wessy all soaking up some damage as well. Both teams might have taken even more punishment, until they realized that everyone else had stopped firing. They paused the hostilities to investigate.

            “Whoa, hey, kids! Don’t shoot!” a guy dressed as Wizard Rocker said as he sauntered right through the battlefield, his arms raised. “Got a little war goin’ on here, don’t ya? I’m just passin’ through, on my way to the virtual world!”

            “The hell’s this?” Gavin grumbled listlessly. “Does the staff think this is a game?”

            Celeste used the momentary distraction to go over and help Jared, who was starting to look freaked out that he was on his last bit of health, to his feet

            “Man, the adults here just don’t care,” Wessy muttered. “I say we shoot at him.”

            “By the way, kids!” Wizard Rocker said as he made his exit. “You’re outta time!”

            With that, the lights in the area began blinking orange, and the warning beats sent the survivors of the skirmish scattering in all directions. Wessy, Sadie, and Jace ran to the Boardwalk, which seemed to be a safe zone—but in the confusion, Celeste and Jared went the other way, toward the park entrance. As some other kids who had no intention of starting another firefight so soon ran past him, Wessy stopped near the balloon-shoot stall and looked for the rest of his team. He soon found them, waving from the Ghosts and Freaks castle. Then the lights turned red and the zone collapsed, cutting them off.

            “Ahh… great,” Wessy huffed. “Now we’re dead. We already lost.”

            Sadie tried to reassure him, “Calm down. We just need to regroup near the Demon or the Hub. They’ll find us. Well, maybe just Celeste will… But, hey—almost no one else came this way. We play smart, and we can make it. Right, Jace?”

            He had no idea, but nodded and raised his rifle. By this point, he was actually worried about losing; he was truly invested, and it no longer had anything to do with Wes’ long-winded plans. He hadn’t been this excited about anything in a long while.

            Adult Wes, thankful that he wasn’t developing any actual romantic feelings for his teacher, was rather enjoying his date by the time the food arrived. He couldn’t convince her to try fish, so she got the blackened chicken with goat cheese. But his brown sugar glazed salmon was just as good as it would be in another twenty-five years.

            “Sometimes it’s like the kids live in their own little world,” Ms. Porter mused as she twirled a slice of chicken to cool it. “Always chatting about ‘epic weekend plans’ or video game rumors, like that kind of news is the biggest thing to happen in their lives.”

            “Don’t you remember what it’s like, being young?” Wes cut off a piece of salmon and ate it. “Time moves slower, everything is new and great. Kids have their own lore.”

            “Their own… lore? Mm, I don’t know. It’s different in a big city. Everything moves so quickly, and everyone’s so connected to the rest of the world. If you wanted to have fun in Russel, you got on your bike and went somewhere with your friends.”

            “Like the local five and dime? The nightly sock hop?”

            She laughed, nearly choking on her food. “I didn’t grow up in the 50s! Sheesh.”

            The restaurant speakers moved onto their next song, playing a piece of smooth new wave music from the 80s that Wes knew well. As soon as that first “ah-ha-ha-ha-haaa” hit Ms. Porter’s ears, she perked up, smiled, and, of course, nudged her glasses.

            “Oh, I love this song. It used to play all the time on radio when I was in college.”

            “Hey, the 80s had some classic sounds. True is definitely one of them…”

            “I mean, most Americans can’t even name another Spandau Ballet song, but I… kind of, maybe own their whole discography? Also, one of my friends at school who teaches kindergarten uses this song to put her kids to sleep for nap time…”

            “Nap time. Why don’t you get to have those anymore when you’re older?”

            “Mm, hm-hm-hm-hmm…” She hummed, closed her eyes, and then took Wes by surprise when she placed her hand on his left one, resting on the table. “Why do I find it hard, to write the next line… Sounds like you know your music, Nick.”

            “Ah, heh… y-yeah…” He looked at his hand, sweating under her palm.

            Just pull it back… he thought. Sure, it’ll be rude and hurt her feelings, but you can’t…

            “Oh,” she noticed what she had done and did it instead, “sorry about that.”

            “It’s okay. Easy song to get lost in,” he said and gladly went back to cutting fish.

            His inner monologue yelled at him, don’t make me fall in love with you, damn it!

            “Ugh, crap,” Wessy grumbled as the three of them went through the Boardwalk, keeping an eye out for any kids trying to ambush them from the little alleys between all the fairground-style stalls. “This place is a zone, too. Bet it’s about to turn orange.”

            “Then we better hurry through here,” Sadie replied. “C’mon, pick up the pace.”

            “You doing okay back there, Jason?” Wessy asked, turning around as they walked. “You don’t always have much to say.”

            He nodded and kept watchful. “I’m fine. Just keep an eye on the… rear.”

            “Rear…” Wessy grunted like Butthead. “Um, yeah. Keep doing that.”

            Actually, Jace wasn’t feeling that fine. He had seen several strange shadows in the corner of his eye within the stalls pop in and out while they traversed the eerily quiet thoroughfare, and he felt like he was being watched. After briefly totally losing himself in the game, he suddenly felt like a time traveler walking a tightrope again.

            Wishing he had a flashlight, he began looking in each stall they passed, but since their lights were off, he could only barely make out the dark shapes of the individual game objects. But, just before the Boardwalk exit, he could’ve sworn that he saw something retract organically near a balloon-popping stand, moving like a tentacle.

            “Wes, look. It’s Wright and Robby,” Sadie reported, diverting Jace’s attention before he had the chance to try and investigate the anomaly.

            They slowed their stride and snuck in closer, watching as the two—the rest of their team nowhere in sight—left the cover of the circus-themed Boardwalk entrance gate, fired a few shots into the eastern part of the park, and then returned to cover.

            “We could totally take them out right now,” Wessy whispered and aimed his rifle.

            “Would you feel good about that?” Sadie whispered back.

            “After their trash-talking earlier? Kinda. And we’ve barely made any points yet.”

            “Maybe they’d join us for a bit, if we ask real nice. We’re down two, remember?”

            “Oh, all right. Fine. But keep your gun on ‘em.”

            “Dang it, Wright. How’d we end up doing this bad?” Robby audibly complained. “I thought I’d be a better shot with some sci-fi laser rifle.”

            “Let’s just focus on getting some points and avoiding, like, ninth place, okay?”

            Upon getting closer, the trio saw what they were doing: taking potshots at the newest firefight going on near the Demon and the Hub, trying to scrape up a score.

            “Yo,” Wessy said to them, his and Sadie’s rifles aiming right at their vests.

            Once they both flipped around, Wright let out a frustrated sigh and muttered, “Fine. Just get it over with. We both only have one health left, anyway.”

            “Pump your brakes, hotshot. What happened to the rest of your team?”

            “We made the dumb mistake of going through here and got ambushed. Took care of the enemy, but we lost everyone else. So, yeah. Thanks to us, you made it here. Our three buddies? I dunno, probably drinking soda at the entrance, waiting for us.”

            “Want a chance for some payback?” Sadie offered. “Or at least a higher finish?”

            “What are you saying?” Robby wondered.

            “We can’t promise we won’t shoot you accidentally,” Wessy said. “Buuut… We might give you a chance to get into third or second if you help us out.”

            “Got a plan, Wes?” Sadie asked him.

            Jace, watching the firefight out in the plaza intensify as two more surviving teams from other collapsed zones joined in, had to wonder if this was about where and when his uncle’s squad met their end originally—and if anyone got separated back then, too.

            “Kinda…” Wessy replied. “But I don’t know if it’ll work. Maybe it’s just stupid.”

            “More stupid than going out into that mess and losing in five seconds?” Wright asked him, just as the local lights turned orange. “Well. No choice now.”

            “You guys come with me to the park entrance to see if we can meet up with Jared and Celeste,” Wessy said and pointed to the south. “And Sadie and Jace… You’re both good at sneaking around. See if you can get into a good hiding place by the Hub, and wait for us to come back. Maybe… we can sandwich in everyone while they aren’t looking. What was that old saying? Something about a barrel fish…”

            “I get it,” Sadie replied. “We could really rack up the points that way.”

            “Me and… Sadie?” Jace asked. “Just the two of us?”

            “What? You got a problem with that? I’m not gonna get you back for the prank call right here, ya know. You are a good shot, Jason. When you do shoot.”

            He blushed a little and didn’t know what to say.

            “If we aren’t back in a few minutes, join the battle without us,” Wessy ordered.

            They then fled the Boardwalk, right before it died, and split off into two groups just out of the gate, with Jace following Sadie to the closed-up Galaxy Hub.

            Still trying to avoid a big firefight, they snuck-sped-walked past the mural of all the park characters and managed to get behind a large breaker box to take a breather.

            “Wes sure comes up with some strange plans,” Sadie said and peeked around the corner. “This is the second big battle we’ve seen, and he’d rather just sneak about.”

            “M-must be all those years of water gun games…” Jace replied. “All he thinks about is some bigger strategy, instead of actually just going out and having… fun?”

            “That what you call this?” she asked as another team get eliminated. “The park staff didn’t even give us all enough cover to work with. Wes setting up some two-sided sneak attack might actually be the only thing that keeps us alive and gets us points. Or maybe he is just crazy. But, I mean, it’s a disgrace. Spraying and praying, that’s all it is.”

            After another second, Sadie took off again and Jace followed. They were able to reach the metallic outer shell of Galaxy Hub and into safety without getting noticed.

            “Back of the building looks clear,” Sadie reported. “I say we go around it. I’m pretty sure there’s a good spot on the other side where we can wait for the others.”

            “You think about strategy a lot, don’t you? Does Wes ever give you a shot?”

            “At what? Leading?” she replied as they crept along the back of the Hub, making sure there were no other kids hiding. “I’m on my own most of the time. I come up with strats, but they’re all just for me, in my head. I even hid in a pond once! Then we won.”

            “Wow, that’s, uh… Pretty extreme.”

            Jace heard Sadie laugh about the incident, and he turned away from checking their backs for a moment to see. She did look like she was having a good time, but…

            There was a tendril floating in space right behind her, black as ink, with one end coming out of a void; the other, in the shape of an eye, was staring at him. He recalled the things that Wes had told him about the “time eyes” that once haunted him. Worried for Sadie and unsure if she could see it, Jace was prepared to grab her hand and get her out of the area. What was even worse: he felt some presence behind him, too.

            “Sadie!” he shouted and his legs moved without him thinking about it.

            He grabbed her hand and tried to run, but was surprised by her strength when she kept anchored in place and yanked her hand out of his grasp.

            The move tripped him up and brought him crashing to the ground. He scuttled about like a crab until he was looking up at her. Rifle on her shoulder, she looked mad.

            “What the heck, Jason? One thing I really don’t like is being grabbed.” She saw his sudden look of terror and asked, “What are you freaking out about? Hey, are you—”

            He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. It was as if there were a solid black octopus hovering behind her, with more than a dozen sharp, thin strands of arms that writhed about and had several angular, lightning-shaped joints. Without warning, they had burst forward, wrapped around Sadie, and began lifting her into the air.

            “W-w-what’s going on?!” she shouted and suffered an instant panic attack. “Let go! Who’s grabbing me? Stop it!” She looked down and was seemingly able to see the nightmarish appendages, which only frightened her more. “Put me down! No! N-no…”

            She looked very dizzy for a moment, and then, overwhelmed by the inexplicable situation she found herself in, suddenly fainted. Jace, too afraid to move, was certain that those things were about to pull her into the void they sprang from. Instead, they stopped moving. Then they lowered her back to the ground, let go, and retreated back into the darkness beyond time and space at the speed of sound, cracking like whips.

            Greatly concerned for Sadie, he rushed over and propped her up against the backside of the Hub. She was just barely cognizant, murmuring something about giant spiders. He didn’t want to just leave her there, but knew he couldn’t possibly carry her to safety. His only real choice was to forget the game and call Wes for help.

            He took off, running as fast as he could, his destination the lone payphone on the other side of the building, near the arcade entrance. But he came to a sudden stop when several dozen more arms and eyes burst out from thin air in front of him, and immediately twisted about until they formed the words, “BEHIND YOU”.

            Hesitant to take advice from the thing that must’ve tried to grab him but snared Sadie instead, Jace nevertheless turned around just in time to see a time cop slide down the building’s shell-shaped roof. The cyborg police officer made impact just feet away with a hefty thump and turned to Jace, his much more powerful laser rifle in hand.

            Bewildered and stupefied by the events of the last minute, Jace wasn’t sure what to do—except raise his own rifle and fire at the time cop’s bionic eyes before he shot first or took out his time-cuffs, or whatever he had on him. Surprisingly, the toy gun’s invisible light seemed to overload the cop’s visual sensors. As he stumbled back and covered his eyes, Jace took off again—and made sure he still had quarters in his pocket.

            “… Anyway, those are the basics about my family,” Ms. Porter concluded once their empty plates had been taken away. “What about you? Where’d you grow up?”

            Wes had cooked up an entire backstory for his alter ego, but before he could delve into it, his cell phone rang. Ms. Porter looked surprised when he took it out.

            “You… have a cell phone? Aren’t those things pretty expensive?”

            “Er, yeah. H-hold on, I gotta take this. Sorry,” he said and left the table.

            He went into the hallway that led to the bathroom doors and answered, “Jace?”

            After some heavy breaths, his nephew tried to calm down, but couldn’t get all the panic out of his voice as he told Wes, “I saw it. They’re here! They’re all here!”

            “Slow down, kid. Tell me what’s going on. Did something happen at the game?”

            “Time cops… At least one of them. A-and… the eyes. Your time eye things are all over the place! And these arms came out and… T-they grabbed Sadie!”

            Wes felt his heart skip a beat. “Sadie? Is she okay?”

            “Yeah, but… I d-don’t know what’s going on. You need to get over here! I think the laser rifles mess with their eyes or something, so… maybe try to find one.”

            “Okay, buddy. I’m on my way. Just don’t be alone. Stay around other people.”

            After Jace hung up, Wes pocketed his phone and hurried back with his wallet and a fifty-dollar bill already out, which he dropped on the table.

            “Nick? Something wrong?” Ms. Porter asked upon noticing his worried look.

            “I’m really sorry, but I have to go. It was a great dinner, you’re great and you deserve someone also great. It’s just… right now, Jason has to come first.”

            “Did something happen to him? Is he okay?”

             “Uh, yeah, he’s fine. His team just lost really badly and he’s pretty upset. He’s a sensitive kid.” Wes remembered what was about to happen and checked his watch; she maybe still had time to get home before the traffic lights went out and made the trip tougher. “You better get going. Traffic might be bad when the game gets out.”

            “Oh, geez. How big is that tournament? Um, well… It was a nice dinner.”

            Wes tried to put on a nice smile to assure her that it, in fact, was nice. “Hey, I’ll call you sometime, okay? This isn’t goodbye just yet. Have a good night.”

            “You too…” she sighed and picked up the money. “Thanks for the night out.”

            Worried for Jace, he raced out. And hoped her last date didn’t end the same way.

            Jace, curled up on the ground under the payphone by the Hub’s doors to make himself less of a target, got to his feet and hung up. The big battle was still going on, and two more teams had just joined in. He was too nervous to shoot straight, but knew it was still a good idea to stay around others. Of course, if no one had eyes on him, what good would that do? Time tentacles could still show up and drag him into the void while no one was shooting at him, so it was in his best interest to participate.

            Fortunately, he wasn’t alone for long. Looking like she had just woken up, Sadie stumbled into the entrance area, where the building shell provided some good cover.

            “Did I… seriously just faint?” she moaned dizzily. “Ugh… what happened?”

            “Uh… uh…” Jace tried to come up with something. “It was… Insectus. The bug mascot? Y-yeah… He crept up behind you and picked you up to scare you.”

            “Are you kidding…? Ick.” She brought her arms in close and visibly shuddered. “His arms were like spider legs. They let someone like that work here? Ugh. Hey, don’t tell the others, okay?” She composed herself a bit and gazed out at the battlefield. “They haven’t shown up yet? You know… this is actually a decent place to shoot from.”

            “Um, Sadie, you didn’t see any new mascots on the way over, right? Like… ones that might look like robots, or cops, or… cop robots?”

            “Huh? No. It was empty back there. Wait, did you run off and leave me alone?”

            Before he had the chance to come up with a bad excuse, they saw Wessy appear on the other side of the area—with Celeste, Jared, Wright, and Robby, all of them still alive and kicking. They quickly spotted Sadie and Jace, signaled to them, and then got into position at one end of the Red Demon’s security fence, into good cover.

            “Anyway, time to try Wes’ crazy plan,” Sadie said and readied her rifle.

            Wessy signaled a second time, and all seven of them across the two sides opened fire, Jace’s aim still unsteady from worry. Even so, they began to rack up the points. It took a solid minute before the other teams realized that they were taking hits from a bunch of unseen laser rifles. By the time some of the other kids noticed their sneaky foes, Team Wessy had already added a good chunk of digits to their score.

            Sadie asked as she kept up the fire, “Wonder where Gavin’s squad is. Their loss!”

            Trying to get his focus back on the game, Jace was glad to see the plan working.

            Then the lights in the area turned orange, and all hell broke loose.

            Wes came to a skidding stop close to the park entrance, his car’s front tires coming to a rest on the sidewalk. Unconcerned with parking violations, he ran through the gate and into the grand plaza at the front. Other parents, disappointed eliminated teams, and their friends were munching the provided pizza and sipping soda as mascots danced and chatted them up, or posed for pictures. Zach, Arthur, and Colin, off by one of the fold-out tables, looked happy that none of their friends had shown up yet.

            While none of the staff was looking, Wes grabbed one of the laser rifles from the collection table and ran to the zig-zagging walkway that would lead to the Red Demon area, where Jace was waiting. Once he saw that the path was lit in red as the loud techno music entered into his senses, the day all began to come back to him in full.

            “Gah, this generic electronic trash…” he grumbled as he took a moment to catch his breath near some character statues. “They just had to blast it, didn’t they?”

            He heard rustling in the fake jungle foliage surrounding the path, and then found himself surrounded by three ambushing time cops, already reaching for their rifles.

            In no mood for their crap, he grunted, “Man… Screw you guys.”

            Relying on Jace’s advice, and more confident about his aim at this point—after having visited a shooting range a couple times, not that he’d ever tell Jace—he opened fire and managed to hit two of the cops in the eye with laser beams, overloading their cyborg eyes momentarily. The third cop, however, managed to get a shot off, and Wes was certain that he had just been hit by his much more powerful laser rifle.

            Once he realized he was alive, because the shot had just barely missed him and hit the ground instead, he turned and saw a glowing red sword sticking out of the robot officer’s torso, paralyzing him. Warren retracted the blade and emerged from the greenery, fully suited up for combat after a long break from the fray.

            “I was trying to keep my distance today,” his digitized voice explained after the cop hit the ground and his auto-portal home appeared. “But he still ended up in trouble. Go find him—I’ll be right behind you,” he promised and wiped oil off his sword.

            Wes didn’t waste time with questions, leaving Warren grateful for that and ready to contend with the other two cops, who regained their sight and started shooting at the ninja even as Wes shoved his way by. Sounds of heavy laser fire behind him, he ran into the east side of the park, expecting to hear speakers sputter out impacts from toy guns.

            But the space between the arcade station and the big red rollercoaster was nearly empty. Discarded vests and laser rifles littered the ground as red lights cast the few remaining kids in a dull crimson glow. Those that stayed were commiserating with their teams, after what must have been a stampede toward the path to the center village.

            After seeing that Jace and the others weren’t around, Wes headed towards the way out, the kids paying him no mind; maybe they figured he was just another weird mascot. Others didn’t see him because they were focused on the ground while moping, but he passed by Wright and Robby near the Ferris wheel and area exit and listened in.

            “Really thought we had a chance, man…” Wright said with a sigh, his sunglasses off as he wiped sweat off his forehead. “But that panic just… basically ended the game.”

            “It was crazy. I can’t believe there are only three teams left. Think Wes will win?”

            “Hope so, if it can’t be us. Sure was nice of him to give us a second chance.”

            Wes knew that this didn’t happen in the original timeline—his team didn’t even make it to the rush to the final battlefield before. Even so, he checked his watch and saw that there were only four minutes left until the blackout. No one was going to win, and that final battle would still be short-lived. If Jace had helped keep his team around for this long, then the evening was already a success. Now the kid just had to make it out.

            Wondering where all the staff were hiding as he raced down a path flanked by miniature houses, the village and both its fake and real market venues came into view, along with the sounds of desperate combat by the final three teams. Wes got a good but brief look at the battle. The team was still intact, and even Jared seemed to be having fun as he fired from the cover of a market stall. Gavin was on the opposite side of the zone, paired up only with that big kid. What’d he go by again? The Monster? The third team seemed to be composed of four eight-year-olds. Very serious eight-year-olds.

            He only got to see this for a moment before a large void erupted in from him, and out of it sprang a cosmic horror. A mass of tentacles, surrounded by time eyes, was reaching out, ready to wrap their cold black tendrils around him. He had a flashback to the time they nearly got him back in Vegas. Terrified, he now knew that he was so done with this version of the day. It was time to go back and plan a second attempt.

            He took out the worn old quartz Warren had given him, and pressed his thumb against the holographic button. After a tiny high-pitched whistle… nothing happened.

            He stared at the thing in his palm, cursed malfunctioning technology as he always did, and tried a second time. Again, nothing. The tentacles must have considered the quartz a threat anyway, as one of them suddenly whipped it right out of his hand. Once it dropped to the ground, a second tendril formed its tip into a spike and skewered it, shattering its outer shell. The quartz then began to shoot out blue sparks from its scar.

            “What are you doing?” Warren yelled and leapt down from a twelve-foot high miniature water tower. Once he started slashing away at the encroaching tentacles, he noticed the quartz, now going super-critical. “Idiot! I told you to never break that!”

            “T-those things damaged it! They went right after it!”

            “Damn it!” Warren grunted and sliced a tendril, its severed half splashing apart into magnetic fluid on the ground. “I’ll protect Jace! You have to get that thing far away from here, no matter what! Just… get it away from everyone else!”

            “But… how…” Wes mouthed and started looking around for a solution.

            His eyes fell onto Celeste, the closest kid near him, busy concentrating on her laser bursts from the side of a vending machine. In her back pocket was her slingshot. He thought of what he could do with it, and turned around to see the top of the Ferris wheel. It wasn’t running, but he could visualize the obvious solution in his head.

            “Hurry, Wes!” Warren urged him, his hands now full as he battled some sort of machine god from beyond the veil. “That thing could explode any minute!”

            “I’m sorry for always screwing everything up, kid…” Wes said; an admittance that must have come as something of a shock to the bossy time ninja.

            Wes shoved his way past him, narrowly maneuvered around the void that had torn space asunder, and stepped into the park’s village. He made eye contact with Jace as he took a pause in his team’s suppressing fire—giving him a look that communicated worry and regret. They had no time for words. He snagged Celeste’s prized weapon without her noticing, ran back, and grabbed the broken quartz on his way.

            “Yo, was that your dad?” Wessy asked Jace. “What’s he doing here?”

            “I… don’t know,” he replied, concerned about the expression he had given him.

            “Guys, concentrate!” Jared said. “We take down Gavin, and we basically win!”

            “I’m not sure about that,” Sadie argued. “That team of little kids is tough, too.”

            “H-hey!” Celeste exclaimed and patted her pocket. “Did I drop my slingshot!?”

            The quartz fizzing and trembling in his closed fist, getting hotter and shocking him more painfully by the second, Wes made it to the Ferris wheel and hit every switch he could think of on the control panel—the key having been left in the booth by some amateur staffer, luckily for him. Speaking of which, several park staff had finally taken notice and were running towards him, justifiably thinking he was some crazy dude.

            By the time they arrived, he was already in a giant rotating wheel going up at its maximum speed. Realizing that his life was really in danger, but hoping such an insane plan might actually work—and he’d have time to pull it off before some sort of time explosion destroyed all of his past, present, and future molecules, he loaded the dying quartz into Celeste’s slingshot as a prismatic rainbow fire began to burn inside of it. He’d never understand its technology, but anyone could see it was about go off.

            At the top of the Ferris wheel, he launched the violently vibrating quartz into the air high above the park. At its apex, it detonated into a multi-colored burst of light and distorted the surrounding air, causing it to reflect the ground below like a crumpled-up mirror. Within the complex mathematical folds of sky, he thought he could see all of the time periods of King Arcade at once. From barren desert, to military base, to the present time, and the far future when it had closed, and… another time and place entirely.

            The vortex collapsed into a singularity, just to re-explode into an even bigger and louder catastrophe, its chaotically loud eruption nearly deafening. The wheel shut down, as did the rest of the park before the city itself got hit. An invisible shock wave spread block by block, darkening street and building lights—but leaving vehicles unaffected. From his position, he got a good view of the event that would define local 1996 history.

            When this happened before, it began just as his mom was picking him up at the post-game pizza party. He remembered, because he could easily recall how upset he had been when she came and got him; pissed off enough to only eat a single slice.

            Everyone in Royal Valley should have witnessed the light show above, and maybe confused it for a special firework, but he didn’t remember seeing it. He’d “understand” if all the non-time-travelers couldn’t see it, just as they couldn’t see the horrible crap that came from the void, but he could not explain the explosion’s timing: 6:21 on the dot.

            He sunk down into the unmoving Ferris wheel car, and overwhelmed, muttered an appropriate reaction to the last five minutes, “What the hell just happened?”