Just Desserts

It had only been a few hours since they had downloaded Mech Breaker 4, but Joshua had already gotten the hang of the differences between it and 3. The best thing about it was his favorite character was back, with an awesome new finisher to boot.

Tenay had only been recently introduced to fighter genre video games, but she was hooked from day one, even if she wasn't that good. In Mech Breaker 3, she at least had a chance with the playable alaerin characters that had been introduced to add appeal, but between the 'brokeness' Joshua claimed they had, and the human's own skill at the game, they had been fairly evenly matched.

This was not the case in 4, however. They had 'balanced' the alaerin characters' speed with that of the human mech defenses so that, despite how often and quickly she could hit and dodge, Joshua's mech character could take it and then some.

"Nnngh! Noooo!" she'd whine, "Nonono! Duck! Duck! Yes! No!" she'd cry as her character barrel-rolled behind a building for cover from Joshua's beam gun.

"Yah ha-ha! Take that! And that! I think you remember -this- bad boy?" he smirked broadly as he hit the 'next weapon' button. His mech reared its beam rifle momentarily and the barrel flipped over, changing into a yellow-tipped energy spear. He then dashed forward and lanced the weapon into the building, making contact with Tenay's avatar and sending the almost real-looking player-character tumbling away.

"Damn it! Up! Up! Okay, let's try..." Tenay input her own weapon change command, switching from her rapid, low-power twin energy pistols, to the sticky grenades she had become fond of in the previous game. "Haha! You know what this means!" she'd declare in glee, feeling the tides turning. With the press of a button, she loosed her attack.

"Huh?!" came Tenay as she watched her character aim for the heavens and hurl it at a 60 degree angle, making it sail over Joshua's mech.

"Bahahahaha! They changed up Segiki's sticky grenades to be anti-air!" Josh informed, practically rolling in laughter, "On the bright side, you can have her throw them on the ground in front of you to disrupt opponents from charging at her," he smirked again, having been following the spoilers for the past several months since it had been announced.

"Wha?! That's stupid!" she growled, watching Josh switch his weapon back to long-range and start firing on her.

Ducking behind another building, Tenay tried to figure out her tactics. She had speed and the ability to dodge relatively well, but her most powerful attack was now useless to her. She still had her close-range weapon, but she didn't know how useful that would be this time around.

Deciding she had nothing to lose, she switched over and started side-stepping around Josh's character clockwise. He'd try to shoot at her, but fortunately the in-game energy weapons weren't realistically fast and she could just manage to avoid them.

Josh watched Tenay hesitantly. She had drawn Segiki's sword, and that could be a problem for him. According to the spoilers, Segiki had the ability to defend against ranged beam weapons with it in this game. Not an issue most of the time since most of the other mech's used solid-round weapons and missiles, but Josh's character, Bander Mk. II, had been around since the first game to fill the niche of energy weapons that could bypass most special defenses. If Tenay had been more skilled, or even knowledgable of the sword's defensive abilities, he probably would have a much more difficult time. He decided to play it cool, and not let her in on that little detail just yet.

"Ohh, you wanna bring it in close? Well then, I can respect that," He'd say smoothly, switching back to the energy spear. At least this way he still had some range to work with.

Tenay was a little suspicious of his sudden change in attitude, but at least she didn't have to worry about being rained on by his gun fire. She took a determined breath and slammed her analog stick towards her opponent, sending Segiki in to a full on charge with her sword at the ready.

Josh stood his ground with his spear at the ready. He still had advantage in range, so as soon she came in close...There! He gave the controls a roll with his thumbs and hit the strong attack button, heaving the spear over his mech's head and then coming in to cleave it down. He could hear and see Tenay button mash to try anything that might work when suddenly, Segiki rolled to her side, still closing in on Bander and avoided the interception entirely. Their jaws were still half way to the floor when she lept to her feet, giving a rising slash to Josh's character and knocked him away.

Neither had spoken in the split second that followed, but Tenay managed to regain her senses almost imperceptively faster than Josh, and went in for the kill. Both of them had only the smallest bit of health left on their health bars, but if she was quick enough, if she could make it to him right -now-...

With a spin and a sweep of his spear, Josh used his defensive move to get up from being prone. It wasn't that damaging, but it caused Tenay's character to flinch as the contact area hit her ankle. With the split second window of opportunity, he grabbed Segiki by the arm and triggered his throw, watching in anticipation as Bander reached around, grabbed her by the back of the head, and brought her way down with a face plant to the rubble below.

"K.O!" the game declared, giving a slow motion replay of the recovery and successive face plant of Tenay's character.

"Yeah!! That's how it's done! Uh huh, uh huh!" Joshua stood up on the coffee table, going into a victory dance, wireless controller in hand.

Tenay gave a heavy sigh and let her controller go. Seven straight losses. She'd need to really learn the game at this rate to have a chance against Joshua. Speaking of whom, he had yet to finish his celebration.

"7-0! 7-0! Seven! Oh! I got you so baaaad! hahaha!" the young man clearly had become drunk from the sudden turn of events and remained on his victory high, "You never saw that coming! Haven't even figured out the grab-breaks!"

Now the thirty-six foot tall alaerin was becoming annoyed. Being happy he'd won was one thing, but now he was outright gloating. She stared at him with a sour face.

"Aww, what's a matter Tenay? You'll get another chance! But now it's still 7-0!" he performed the oddest spasms of dance moves she'd ever seen, and her patience was running thin.

Finally, she'd had enough. She grabbed him around his waist and abdomen, and immediately his cheer turned to abrupt fear.

"Wh-whoa! Tenay, c-calm down! It's j-just a game..." he'd say cowering back in her grasp.

The alaerin glowered at him, but then it eased in to a thoughtful smirk, "Oh, I know. Don't worry, you know I'd never hurt you~" she chuckled ominously, "I was just thinking I should take a shower, but I can't leave little Gitun unattended. You can look after her, right?" her smirk widened into a malevolent smile.

The human in hand shrank back, "Wh-what? N-n-no! Not Gitun! Don't leave her alone with me! No, please! I...I'll shut up! I'll never gloat again! I'll play a different character I'm no good with and you'll probably beat me!" he pleaded, starting to struggle in her grasp in futility.

"Aww, but Gitun loves her little Joshywa. You know she won't hurt you~" she giggles, standing up and walking off, Josh in hand, to the next room where the alaerin toddler was playing with her toys.
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Nabulu opened the door to her house, dropping off her binder of work on the shelf in the hall. It had been a pleasant day, work having been rather layed back today. She felt rather in the mood for a nice, sweet snack.

Striding down the hall, she heard the shower on. 'Tenay,' she thought, 'but where's Joshua? Didn't he come over today?' The mother chuckled as she believed where he was, 'Ahh, girls will be girls,' she'd think, shaking her head softly.

entering the kitchen, the started for the fridge, then stopped suddenly and made a double-take to the dining table. there seemed to be a pile of things she did not remember being like that before. Condiment containers and a small boxes stacked together to form a barricade or something. She took a few curious steps closer when she heard a rustling and from the back came Joshua, with a toy bouncy ball in his hands, ready to throw it.

He looked up to her for split-second of anxiety, then looked immensely relieved. Glancing around for a moment first, she looked to him, puzzled.

"Joshua...How did you get on the table?"

Evidently not having heard her, the human looked around nervously over the edge of the table, then up to her, "I-is she still down there?"