Maria’s Favor to a Geek – Chapter 5

Michael and Sarah go back inside the store, and join the others. Once the commotion dies down, and they get things organized, they sit down to play out the next round. Being that it’s semi-finals, from this point on, all matches are first to five.

It’s Michael vs Ted, and Sarah vs Scott. What’s left of the crowd gather behind them, and watch both games at once. Each of the four players select their characters, and begin.

Michael and Ted play together all the time, and are very attuned to each other’s play styles. They are about evenly matched, and either one of them could win. But Sarah on the other hand, has only played average level opponents in the tournament, and now faces one of the best players in town.

Her game starts, and Scott jumps right into action. He charges straight at her, full-force, but then he instantly stops, and stands right in front of her. Sarah walks right into his trap, and kicks, expecting to hit him, but instead he is just perfectly our of reach, and her attack hits nothing but air. Scott steps in the moment that the damage area from her foot leaves, and he smashes her, hard.

“Ooohhh!!” the crowd cringes.

She goes flying across the stage, and lands just shy of the edge. She quickly stands back up only to get slammed again, sending her over the side. This normally wouldn’t be a huge deal, but Scott doesn’t let up for even a second. He follows her off the side, and stomps her down, while jumping back up at the same time. Not even ten seconds have gone by since the match began, and she was already down one life. She now realizes the true extent of how difficult someone, who has really mastered the game, can be.

“Pphhff! Wow, nice try, cunt! You almost had me,” Scott remarks. Michael sits just a foot a away, playing his own match, and overhears Scott’s insult to his sister. It strikes his nerves a bit, but he just snuffs it off as harmless gaming banter.

Sarah respawns, and takes a deep breath, trying not to lose her focus. She has a few tricks up her sleeve also, and goes to set up a trap of her own. She approaches Scott, but keeps her distance. Once he’s exactly where she wants him, she jumps up and throws shurikens. As expected he dodge them, taking a step back. Then, attempting a glitch in the game, she performs her vanish at the exact moment she touches back down on the ground, and it causes her to reappear all the way onto the other side of the stage. She goes to do this, but before the technique even finishes, Scott turns around and starts to charge a powerful attack.

“Oh no…” she says to herself. Before it even happens, she knows what’s about to go down. Right when she pops up on the other side, Scott releases his attack, and deals a massive critical blow. She goes flying way off the side, and can’t possibly make it back.

“Tphh! Dumb bitch! Actually trying that lame trick on me?! I’m insulted! HA!! Wow! You’re so terrible at this game!” Scott is relentless with his verbal assaults. And again, Michael overhears this, and cringes with anger.

Sarah respawns, and at this point she doesn’t know what to do. If he knows about that glitch, then surely he must know about every game mechanic. It’s just going to have to come down to perfect timing and straight up combat.

Meanwhile, right beside them, Michael and Ted have been combating their own match. They’ve each taken a life, and continue to play on even ground. Being that they know each other so well, it’s difficult for either one of them to get any kind of major lead. Michael fires off several lasers, slowly pushing Ted towards the edge. Once he has no more room to move, Michael leaps into action, and approaches whilst firing one more laser, timing, so that it hits at the exact moment he gets there, giving him a free hit.

Then he hears Scott’s voice again. “You’re fucking garbage, just quit already, you stupid cunt!” Michael’s fingers slip on his controller, and he messes up the combo. Ted immediately reacts and punishes Michael for his error, and gets another kill.

“Jesus fuck!” Michael exclaims. “Hey buddy! That’s my sister you’re talking to!”

“Fuck off, asshole! Mind your own fucking match!” Scortt responds. This makes Michael so furious, that his hands start to shake.

Meanwhile Scott has Sarah on the ropes, and she struggles just to even defend herself. He has her up in the air, and won’t even let her die gracefully. Her damage is already at maximum, and he can kill her at any moment, but instead he just toys with her, keeping her alive for his own entertainment. Eventually she gets tired of it, and just sets her game controller down on the floor, and folds her arms.

“Yeah, that’s right, bitch, you just lay back while I finish raping the shit of you. You useless… little… p–” His words gets cut short as Michael’s fist slams into the side of Scott’s head. Everyone in the room gasps, and then they all start yelling. Michael and Scott both grab onto each other’s shirt, and swing hard punches into each other’s face. The whole place becomes totally chaotic with everyone screaming, and jumping around. The store owner has to come over, and yell at them.

“HAAY!! ENOUGH!! HEY!! THE TWO OF YOU — GET THE FUCK OUT!! RIGHT NOW!!” He comes in and breaks them up, and tells everyone to shut up. He grabs Michael by the arm, and pulls him away towards the door. And he looks back at Scott and points for him to come. “You too!! Let’s go!! Get out!! Both of you!! There’ll be no fighting in this store!!” They both get disqualified from the tournament and are banned from the store. Most of the people watching just continue to chatter noisily, laughing, and going on about what had just happened.

Both Ted and Sarah are freaked out; they’ve never seen Michael like this before.