***

to sleep

is restful 

after the pain of
                  erasure

so you give to the
                   darkness
                   
    and you wait for the pain to
                   
           f a  d   e     a    w     a      y
                     
but soon you realize 
                     that the darkness
                                       is not restful and
so you reach out                                          the pain stays
                 from the dark 
but your                       towards
         power                         the light
               falls                             with all your
                     away                                      strength
                          into
                               the 
until you almost fade away         eternal 
completely and you must struggle           night
to retain enough of your self to stay            faster
aware of yourself lost in a world of sleep               and
and you must find another way to overcome the forces         faster
arrayed against you

even if that means 

defying

the
heavens

***

At first glance, the night appeared to be as peaceful as they got in
this part of Japan.  The sky was clear, the moon was out, the
ever-present traffic was at a low ebb.  But, if one looked closer, one
could sense a certain uneasiness in the air.  For those with eyes to
see, the level of mystic energy in the area was frighteningly high. 
What was worse, much of that energy was being harnessed by the forces of
chaos, in the form of system bugs.  One would think that beings who
thrived on such chaos, such as demons, would be having a field day.

The agent of hell assigned to this area, however, had more important
things on her mind...

***

"DAMMIT!"

The demon Mara slammed her hands on the console, face contorted with
anger.  "Why can't I get past this?" she grumbled to herself.  She
grabbed the controls and hit the activation button, to make another
attempt.

Colors and pictures played across the screen, casting Mara's face in a
devilish glow.  She worked the controls like one possessed, hammering
buttons as if she were trying to break them.  For a moment, Mara's face
grew triumphant, as she sensed victory approaching --

-- until a stunning reversal throw knocked the last bit of endurance
from her ninja character's power bar.  The words "GAME OVER" flashed on
the screen, as Sarah Bryant's smug digitally rendered face said, "Maybe
I should hold back a little, huh?"

Mara again smashed her hands against the Virtua Fighter 4 machine,
frustration evident in every move she made.  She was about to hit the
"start" button one more time, when a small voice piped up from beside
the screen.

"Mistress Mara?" the voice called.

"What is it now, Senbei?" Mara snarled.  "You're supposed to serve me,
not annoy me!"  She glared at the little demon cowering with fear at the
foot of the game machine.  Mara suddenly noticed that Senbei seemed to
be terrified.  "What's gotten into you?  You're supposed to be all
happy-happy, aren't you?"

Senbei pointed a shaky finger towards the center of the room. 
"Something's coming..."

Mara looked up from the console, to where Senbei was pointing.  Although
there were no lights on in the dilapidated game center she called home,
something was beginning to glow there.  "Oh...SH --"

Before Mara could do anything about it, the dim glow burst into a
brilliant sphere of light.  The shock wave knocked aside the video games
around it, clearing an open space on the floor.  As the globe settled
and began to fade, Mara could make out five forms landing on the floor. 
Arguing.

"Well, we seem to have gotten here all right, wherever here is.  Did you
remember to mask our trail?" said a woman's voice.

"Somewhat," another woman replied.  Mara's eyes flared as she recognized
that voice.

"What do you mean, 'somewhat?'" said the first voice.  There was the
sound of someone stumbling.

"Be careful," a man said.  "There's a lot of big boxy things laying
around."

"Can anyone find the lights?" yet another female voice asked
plaintively.

Mara silently made her way over and around the fallen game machines,
towards the wall.

The second voice replied again.  "Well, Peorth, you know that those bugs
are attracted to magic.  The best I could do was to spread out our
trail, and make our destination a place that already had a magic aura
around it."

The first voice -- Peorth? -- sounded shocked.  "What?  You mean you
took us into an unknown magically charged environment?  Do you realize
how dangerous this might be?"

"Well, actually, this isn't exactly 'unknown' --"

Mara finally reached the light switch, and slammed it on.  As her
uninvited guests blinked in the sudden light, she screamed, "WHAT THE
HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE!?"

"Oh, um, hi, Mara..." Urd said, sheepishly.

***

Megumi helped Keiichi up from where he had fallen over one of the
overturned game machines.  "Are you okay?" she asked.

"Uh, yeah, I guess, considering..." Keiichi responded, dusting himself
off.  "Where are we?"

"No idea," said Megumi.  "Ahh...Peorth, do you know where we are?"

Peorth was carefully observing the conversation between Urd and Mara. 
Without turning, she replied, "We are in the abode of a demon."

"You mean THAT's a demon?" said Sayoko, looking at Mara in disbelief.

Megumi also looked in that direction, and found herself agreeing with
Sayoko.  Far from appearing demonic, Mara seemed to be a normal-looking
blond haired woman.  Instead of sporting horns, tail, and other
stereotypical "demonic" gear, Mara was wearing cutoffs and a t-shirt. 
The only thing out of the ordinary was the odd, symmetrical markings on
her forehead, and the double triangles above each cheek bone.  And
perhaps the small fangs.

Megumi turned her attention to the argument between Urd and Mara.  *On
the other hand,* Megumi thought to herself, *they seem to be arguing
like they've done it before.*  Out loud, she asked Peorth, "Do
they...know each other?"

"Oh, yes.  For a long time, now."  Peorth smiled.  "They practically
grew up together.  I think we are in no immediate danger from Mara...but
keep your guard up."

"How dare you just pop in here like this?" shouted Mara.  "I had
everything arranged perfectly, dammit, and you just --"

"Now just calm down for a minute, Mara," Urd said.  "We need to hide for
a minute, to find a place where we can get the bugs off our backs --"

"Bugs?  What are you talking about?"  Mara began to wave her arms at the
scattered, wrecked machines laying about.  "You wrecked my entire
set-up!  Just wait until I tell your mother about this --"

"Somehow I think that the Daimakaicho will be more interested in YOUR
activities of late," Urd said, in a suddenly cool voice.

"Daimakaicho...Hell has a chairman of the board?" Megumi whispered to
Peorth.

Peorth seemed to be surprised by what Mara and Urd had just said. 
However, this wasn't evidenced in her whispered reply. "Of course.  The
bureaucracy of the netherworld is the basis upon which all earthly
organizations are modeled."

Megumi could only nod.  That made a lot of sense.  However, from what
Mara and Urd had said, she got the impression that this "Daimakaicho"
was Urd's....  *I think I'll save that question for later,* Megumi
silently decided.

Urd was continuing in that cool voice.  "After all, Hild-sama must have
sent you here for a reason.  I'm sure that she will be so pleased that
you've managed to successfully...set up a video arcade.  If my memory
serves me correctly, I'm fairly certain that this wouldn't be on her
high-priority list."

From the sudden expression of fear on Mara's face, Megumi could tell
that Urd's words had struck home.  Fascinated, she paid close attention
as, before Mara could utter a word in defense, Urd continued.

"And, you've been so...absorbed in this game center, you haven't even
been paying attention to what's going on right outside!," Urd said,
gesturing towards a window.  "Why, even ordinary humans are starting to
sense the chaos in the air!"  With that, Urd pointed back at Keiichi,
Sayoko, and Megumi.

Sayoko leaned towards Megumi.  "Hey, I think we had a little help in
this "sensing the chaos" thing," she muttered.  Keiichi nodded in
agreement.

"Hush, she's on a roll," said Megumi.

Peorth turned to them and said, "Let's hope she doesn't stay on that
roll too long.  It's only a matter of time before the system bugs track
us down."

"How?  I thought you hid our trail!" said Keiichi.

"They are drawn to magic," replied Peorth.  "Even if we hadn't come
here, given enough time they would have sought this place out."

Sayoko, glad to finally hear some explanations, asked, "Why is that? 
What are those things, anyway?"

"They are the physical manifestations of errors in the program governing
your reality.  They feed on magical energy, converting it from order
into chaos...."  Peorth trailed off, then changed the subject.  "Where
can we obtain non-magical transport?" she asked.

Confused by the explanation, Sayoko ignored the question.  "Program? 
Governing reality?  I'm sorry I asked."

All eyes returned to where Urd and Mara were continuing their argument. 
Urd seemed to be winning.  "I knew that you had been assigned here," Urd
said, "and I've been waiting for you to make your move, but you haven't
done anything at all!  What is your assignment, anyway?"

"If you must know, it was to separate your sister and her boyfriend over
there!" Mara shouted in response.  "But you all seemed to be doing a
damned good job of it without my help!"

Out of the corner of her eye, Megumi noticed her brother wince at that
statement.  He sat back down on the floor and put his hands to his head.

Megumi knelt down next to him and said, "Keiichi...try not to think
about it, that will just make it worse."

Peorth's gaze snapped towards the windows.  "Too late," she murmured. 
"Get up," she said in a louder voice, "we must move, quickly."

A horrible thought occurred to Megumi.  "Wait...if the bugs feed on
magic, then all those lightning bolts, and that wall of fire --"

"The barrier wasn't directed at them.  But the Urd bolts, they will have
absorbed those, and used them...."

Urd was just about to deliver a stinging response to Mara's latest
comment when the scanner hanging from her belt suddenly began to wail,
urgently sounding an alarm.  She took a brief glance at the readout,
then looked again in shock at the hundreds of traces registered on it. 
"How...?"

"You see why you're still only a Goddess Second Class?" crowed Mara,
triumphantly.  "What did you expect, throwing Urd bolts at system bugs? 
Didn't you remember that it would cause them to multiply?"

Urd didn't waste any time with a reply.  She quickly turned back to her
companions and said, "Where?"

Megumi, remembering Peorth's earlier question, said, "The Motor Club!"

"Right."  Urd grabbed Megumi and Keiichi by the hand.  "Mara, if I were
you, I'd get out of here as fast as I could."  Urd then turned towards
one of the few video game machines still working, and leapt through the
screen, taking Megumi and Keiichi with her.  At the same time, Peorth
grabbed Sayoko and left through a security camera mounted in a corner
near the ceiling.

Mara found herself shouting to an empty room.  "And don't you think that
I won't tell your mom about all this!" she finished.  "Hey, Senbei, why
don't you go follow them and make sure that something goes wrong --
Senbei?"

"Senbei took Urd's advice, Mara."

Mara jumped back in surprise, almost falling over some debris.  The
voice seemed to come from everywhere, yet Mara was certain that she was
the only one in the room.  But the voice seemed very familiar....

"Maybe you should consider it too."

The voice was calm, yet Mara could sense great power behind it.  It was
accompanied by a rumbling sound, as of energy slowly building to a peak.

"Have you been away so long that you no longer recognize my voice?"

Suddenly, Mara realized who the voice belonged to.  "HILD-SAMA!"  Mara
fell to her knees, groveling.  "I'msorryI'msorryI'm sorry--"

"Oh, do get up.  You really don't have time for this," Hild's voice
commanded.

"Aahh, Hild-sama, I, um, have some information --"

"No need, Mara.  After all, I've been observing my daughter's situation
for some time now."

"You mean --"

"We'll discuss the punishment for your inactivity later, Mara."

"But I--"

"I really do think you should take my daughter's advice.  While you
still can."  Hild's voice sounded amused, even as it faded away.

Mara took note of the fact that, even though the Daimakaicho's presence
was gone, the rumbling continued.  Frowning, she looked out the windows,
noticing for the first time that a large number of small white objects
seemed to be approaching at high speed.

"Ah, hell," Mara muttered, as she took herself away.

***

Sayoko found herself stumbling around in darkness for the second time
that evening.  "Hey, hello?  Where are we now?"

Peorth's voice came from the darkness.  "Find us a vehicle, quickly. 
The bugs were right behind us.  We may have only moments."

Following a vague mental image of the Motor Club's clubhouse, Sayoko
found the lights.  "Okay, now Keiichi, this is your club, where do you
keep --"

Sayoko abruptly stopped speaking.  Turning on the lights revealed Peorth
standing by the door...and no one else.

***

Urd and Megumi both managed to land on their feet, but Keiichi, who
hadn't had the chance to travel this way before, hit the floor hard. 
Megumi rushed to his side and said, "Keiichi, are you all right?"

"Yeah, just got the wind knocked out of me...hey, this isn't the Motor
Club!"  Keiichi sat up and looked around in confusion.  Instead of the
familiar, cramped, disorganized clubhouse, they found themselves in some
sort of martial arts dojo, lit by flickering torches.  The raised
fighting area that they were in was surrounded by a decorative wooden
barrier.  And standing at the other side of the ring was a tall blond
woman, wearing a skin-tight blue outfit, her hair in a big ponytail.

The blond woman looked at them, seeming to take their measure.  "So
you're my  opponents...won't you go easy on me?" she said with a wink. 
Despite her meek-sounding words, she looked ready to give them a serious
beating.

Urd looked at her two companions.

Megumi held out her hands and shrugged.

Keiichi said, "I never play these fighting games."

Urd looked back at Sarah Bryant of Virtua Fighter fame and considered
for a moment.  *Two gaming newbies -- and myself, of course,* she
thought, *against a video game character...and I just used a lot of
energy pulling them through a teleport.  Not that we got anywhere.*  Her
eyes narrowed.

Keiichi, realizing what he had just said, began to take more notice of
his surroundings.  "Hey, wait a minute, where are we?  How did we get
into an arcade game?"

"Come on!" said Sarah, looking somewhat impatient.

"Well," said Megumi, "there was a wave of system bugs coming, right? 
Could they have done this?"

"It's possible...." said Urd, trailing off uncertainly.  *But I thought
we got away before they could get close enough.  Hmm.*

From out of nowhere, an announcer's voice said, "Ready!"  The same word
appeared in glowing golden letters above the ring.  Urd quickly
unclipped her scanner from her belt and handed it to a bemused Keiichi. 
She gave her glasses to a somewhat less dazed Megumi.

"I can take care of Miss Bryant for a while.  You two look for a way
out, and hurry!"

As Megumi shrugged and put on the glasses, Keiichi said, "What do you
mean, 'a way out?'"

Urd strode forward and assumed a fighting stance.  "A way out of this
reality."

The announcer's voice came again.  "Fight!"

***

The only vehicle in the Auto Club's workshop that wasn't in the middle
of being customized or cannibalized was an old Suzuki Alto that Sayoko
didn't want to be caught dead in.  Still, a car was a car, and Sayoko
thought that if she hunched down enough, no one would notice that she
was riding in such a tiny, underpowered little go-cart type vehicle. 
Still, there weren't any other options, so she went into the clubhouse
to find the keys.

Peorth was on the phone, talking rapidly.  "No, they never came out...I
can't sense a trace of them anywhere near here."  The voice on the other
end squawked in protest, loud enough for Sayoko to hear.  Peorth tried
to calm the other person down.  "All right, Skuld, all right...but it
doesn't do us any good to go flying off the handle, yes?"  There were
more aggravated noises.  "Yes, I know.  But if they aren't here, it
stands to reason that they might be up there, so if you could just do a
quick scan...oh, you've been constantly monitoring us, what, don't you
trust me?...oh, Urd, right....What?  That can't be good...What can we
do?  Well, we keep looking for a way to close the portal, right?...Yes,
I know that they could be in trouble, but until we find out where they
are, we can't do anything about it, can we?...Oh, really?  That might
not be good, either.  Okay, I'll look into finding them here, you see if
you can't shut down that portal...  Right."

Peorth put the phone down and turned to Sayoko.  "It seems that the
danger has eased for the moment.  Have you found us a vehicle?"

"Um, yes...what do you mean, 'the danger has eased?'  Where did everyone
else go?"

"I'm not sure.  Skuld says that they've lost track of them."  Peorth's
eyes went unfocused for a moment, as if she were looking into a
different plane.  "Hmm.  I still can't sense them either.  However," she
continued, "that wave of bugs seems to have disappeared, too."

"What?  Where did..." Sayoko shook her head in confusion.

Peorth let her gaze return to the mortal plane.  "If we're lucky," she
responded, "Urd managed to get Keiichi to a shielded location.  Without
their focus point, the bugs might have just dissipated."

If anything, that made Sayoko even more confused.  "Focus point?  You
mean that those...things...are attracted to Keiichi?"

"But of course!  And don't try to tell me you aren't, either!" Peorth
said, mischeviously.  Caught off-guard by the non-sequitur, Sayoko
blushed.

"Anyway," Peorth continued, "if we're unlucky...."  Her voice trailed
off.

There was a brief moment of silence, broken by Sayoko shouting, "WHAT?"

Peorth was unruffled.  "If we are unlucky, then wherever Urd, Keiichi,
and Megumi went, the bugs followed.  We must search the area and
investigate, to see which is the case.  Where is the vehicle?"

"Hey, if the bugs are gone, can't you just teleport wherever it is
you're going?"

"Best not to push our luck."

Sayoko found and took the keys from a hook on the wall.  "Here you go,
then...and if you could just drop me off at my apartment, I think I've
got to rest for a while...."  *with a stiff drink or two,* she mentally
finished.

Peorth looked Sayoko in the eye.  "I know that you have been overwhelmed
by the events of the past day, Sayoko, but I am afraid that I will need
your help for a while longer."

Sayoko sat down on a nearby stool.  "...what do you mean?" she said,
trying to mentally brace herself for whatever would happen next.

"I will have to continue to scan the area for any clues as to where our
friends are," explained Peorth.

"So..."

"You're driving."

Sayoko sighed.

***

Megumi had put on the glasses, and was surprised to see symbols
streaming across her field of view.  *Wow, LCD!  I wonder how it's
powered...there doesn't seem to be any batteries...*  That train of
thought was interrupted by a more important one:  *Um, how do I make
these work?*

As soon as she finished that thought, the symbols disappeared, to be
replaced by text.

**NEW USER DETECTED: MORTAL
**STAND BY: SWITCHING INPUT/OUTPUT MODE

**Welcome to SkuldOS 10.2i!
  Please input scan criteria:_

Megumi blinked a few times, and then said out loud, "I want to find a
way out of here."

**Err1085: Scan criteria too broad
  --please define search term "here"

Puzzled, Megumi looked around.  She looked up just in time to see Urd
finish a complicated throw maneuver, landing her opponent on the mat
with a room-shaking thump.  The unseen announcer shouted, "K.O.!"

Urd turned to them and asked, "Any luck?"  Both Megumi and Keiichi shook
their heads.  In the meantime, Sarah had made a miraculous recovery, and
was waiting for round two to start.  Urd said, "Keep trying," as she
returned to her ready position.

"Hey, Kei-chan," said Megumi, "how are you doing?"

Keiichi looked up.  "I can't read this...it's not Japanese, it's not
English, I'm not sure it's a language..."

Megumi turned her attention back to the fight.  This time, Miss Bryant
seemed to be doing much better, holding her own against the attacks Urd
was throwing at her.  Looking at Urd, Megumi suddenly recalled what she
had said before the fight began.

Re-focusing on the text floating before her eyes, Megumi said, "I want
to find a way out of this reality."

**Scan criteria valid.  Initiating scan:......
  Current reality:  null/pocket dimension
  Exit Parameters:  all
  Scan complete.  Displaying results:

All of a sudden, the wooden barrier around the ring began to shimmer in
false colors.  Megumi looked closer, but she couldn't discern anything
that looked like a door or an exit.  "Um, Urd?"

Urd turned to Megumi.  "Have you found somethi-urk!"  At that momentary
distraction, Sarah Bryant caught her across the face with a vicious
roundhouse kick, slamming Urd into the side of the ring.

"K.O.!" shouted the announcer again.

Megumi and Keiichi ran over to Urd.  "Hey, are you all right?"  said
Keiichi.

Urd sprang lightly to her feet, showing no lingering effects from being
slammed face first into a wall and a floor.  "Yeah, no problem.  This
isn't one of those bloody fighting games, thank goodness.  Have you
found an exit?"

"I'm not sure," said Megumi.  "It looks like I've found something, but I
can't figure it out."

"Here, let me take a look," Urd said, taking the glasses back from
Megumi, while pushing Keiichi towards the center of the ring.  "Keiichi,
you take over for me."

"Round Three.  Fight!" said the announcer.

Taking no notice of Keiichi's frantic screaming and running around, Urd
looked at the readout on her glasses.  "I see what you mean, Megumi.  I
think it means that if we can just break through anywhere along this
barrier," she said, rapping her knuckles against said barrier, "we'll be
out.  But how do we get through..."

Wordlessly, Megumi tapped Urd on the shoulder and pointed to the other
side of the ring, where Keiichi was not having a good time.  Sarah had
him up against the side, and was pummeling him with repeated blows.  Her
final shot was hard enough to blast Keiichi through the wall surrounding
the ring.  As he fell, senseless, to the floor, the announcer shouted,
"Ring out!"

Megumi ran to the gap in the wall to see if her brother was all right. 
Urd followed, pausing to take a cheap shot at Sarah as she was crowing
about her victory.  "Stupid video game character..."

Before she could join Megumi and Keiichi, the words "Challenger comes!"
appeared over the ring.  From out of nowhere stepped Shun Di, a slightly
sozzled old man who looked to be a master of the "Drunken Fist" style of
fighting.  Urd had the presence of mind to snatch the flask from his
belt before hopping out of the ring.

***

As Urd's feet touched the ground, the three of them suddenly found
themselves standing outside, in what appeared to be an office complex.

"Did we make it out?" asked Megumi, gazing around the scenery in
confusion.

Keiichi stood up, experimentally flexing his limbs.  Apparently, he was
no worse for wear from the beating he had just received.  However, he
was also mystified by their location.  At first, it seemed like a
generic office campus, which could have been anywhere in the world. 
However, as they tried to scan the horizon, they couldn't help but
notice that the ground curved up and over their heads, coming back down
behind them.

As he was looking around, Keiichi spotted a flatbed trailer sitting a
short distance away.  On the flatbed was what appeared to be a gigantic
humanoid shape, covered with a tarp.  "I think I've seen this before,"
he pondered out loud.  "Maybe on TV, once...."

"We're in 'Mobile Suit Gundam DX,'" stated Urd, as she pointed off into
the distance.  There were several large, green, armored figures
approaching, carrying massive weapons.  She began to scan the area for
another exit.  "It'll probably be quicker if I find the way out, so you
two have to hold them off."

"I can try...but I'm not really got at this game either," said Keiichi.

"Are there any games you ARE good at?" Urd said with a grin.  "Don't
worry, I don't think we're in real danger -- after all, you didn't
suffer any permanent damage from Virtua Fighter, did you?"

"I got dibs on the Gundam!" shouted Megumi, running for the flatbed.

"Hey, no fair, I saw it first!" replied Keiichi, also running in that
general direction.

***

Any thoughts of Sayoko escaping notice while driving a vehicle that was
only a few steps up from a go-cart were dashed when, while caught at a
stoplight, her cousin Aoshima pulled up alongside her in one of his
convertibles.  What was even worse was that he was with three of his
cronies from the Nekomi Four Wheels Club.

And, just to add insult to injury, once they saw the goddess in the
passenger seat, they completely forgot about her.  Of course, the fact
that Peorth had cast some sort of spell, somehow causing Aoshima and his
cronies to forget that they were there at all, helped mollify things
somewhat.

After that, though, the journey was uneventful, if not downright boring.
 Peorth was concentrating so hard on sensing...whatever it was she was
sensing, that it appeared as if she was in a trance.  The only
indication that she was at all cognizant of the real world was the
occasional directions she would give, which Sayoko would then follow.

Sayoko let another self-conscious sigh escape from her lips.  *Bad
enough to be forced to drive this POS little k-car,* she thought, *but
to be forced to drive it aimlessly around town, where anyone could see,
and by some sort of woman with the oddest fashion sense--*

"I heard that," murmured Peorth.

Sayoko turned red.

"Anyway, we seem to have arrived," Peorth continued in a more
conversational tone.  "Park here."

Sayoko was surprised to see that they had returned to Mara's arcade.  As
she looked up at the building, she noted that all of the windows, and
much of the wall, seemed to have been blown in.

Peorth walked towards the door.  "Impressive, yes?  After a wave of bugs
like this place must have taken, I'm surprised that the walls are still
standing."

Sayoko followed Peorth, asking, "But what are we doing back here?  We
were trying to get away from here, weren't we?"

"I'm not sure that our friends actually left this place," Peorth
replied, stopping to stare up at the shattered facade.  "And if the bugs
came...well, let's check it out."

Inside, they found the arcade in even more disarray than when they had
left.  The lights were out, there was water dripping from a broken
sprinkler system, and one wall of the room was completely open to the
night air.

There was a crash from behind them.  Peorth spun around, one hand thrust
into the air, glowing with power.  "Who's there!" she shouted.

"Hey, shouldn't I be the one asking that question -- oh, it's you,"
replied a somewhat dispirited voice.  From out of the shadows stepped
Mara, looking a bit worse for wear.  "What do you want now?"

Peorth relaxed her defensive stance, although she kept the glowing hand
up for some illumination.  "We're trying to find out where Urd, Keiichi,
and Megumi went.  I don't suppose you --"

"I just got back here myself.  And even if I did know what happened to
them, what makes you think I'd tell you?"  Mara appeared to be building
back into full rant mode.

Sayoko, taking no notice of Mara, had noticed a flickering glow from one
corner of the arcade.  Against her better judgement, she had decided to
see what it was.  "Hey, Peorth -- come here, quick!"

Ignoring Mara's cries of "Pay attention to me when I'm ranting at you!"
Peorth hurried to Sayoko's side.  Sayoko was staring at a game machine
which by some miracle was still working.  It was some sort of giant
robot fighting game --

***

"I always wondered how they controlled these things with only two
levers," muttered Keiichi.  He lined up the crosshairs and hit the
trigger.  The shoulder-mounted main cannons of the Guntank fired twin
beams of energy, a bit wide of the target, but still kicking up an
impressive amount of dirt and debris.

"Less talk, more shooting," advised Megumi, dropping a Zaku with a
well-timed shot from her beam rifle.

Urd broke in on the com to say, "That goes for both of you."  She
frowned, widening her scan area.  "I don't know why this is taking so --
KEIICHI!  LOOK OUT!"

"What?"  Keiichi's next words were drowned out by static, as he was
caught in a crossfire.  The torso of the Guntank blew apart in a
spectacular pyrotechnic display.

"Keiichi!"

"Kei-chan!"

One of the mechs that had taken out the Guntank brought its guns to bear
on Megumi's Gundam.  Caught by surprise, she desperately tried to swing
her shield around in time to at least deflect the shot.

Suddenly, twin blasts erupted from behind Megumi, taking out the Zaku
aiming at her Gundam.  "You called?" asked Keiichi.

Megumi screamed, "Kei-chan, are you all right?"

"Yeah, this is a video game after all."

"How can you be taking this so calmly?"

"I have no idea.  There's been so much weird stuff lately...I mean, how
could --"  Keiichi's words were again cut off by static, as his new
Guntank took a critical hit and was knocked over.

This time, Megumi was ready.  Before the second Zaku could turn her way,
she had hit it with enough shots to destroy it.  "Okay,
Keiichi...Keiichi?"

Instead of disappearing, like the destroyed mecha usually did, the
remains of Keiichi's new Guntank just lay there where it fell.  Megumi
saw a somewhat surprised-looking Urd helping Keiichi out of the damaged
cockpit.

"This isn't supposed to happen..." said Urd.  Keiichi, somewhat the
worse for wear, just held his head and moaned.

"Urd!"  Megumi's voice came from the scanner that Urd was still holding.
 "Scan the bad guys!"

"Why?"

"I think I saw a bug!"

Keiichi looked up at that.  "What are these 'bugs' you two keep talking
about, anyway?"

Urd ignored him, as her scanner confirmed what Megumi had spotted. 
"We've got to get out of here right now!"

***

"We've got to get them out of there!" Peorth shouted, causing Mara to
hurry over to see what was going on.

"But...but...how did they get in there in the first place?" Sayoko
wondered out loud.

"No time for that now!  See if you can help them," Peorth said.  She
turned to Mara and ordered, "Quick, help me move that other game next to
this one --"

"Why?"  Mara had planted her fists on her hips in a defiant pose.

Peorth leveled a steely glare at Mara.  "If you think this place looks
bad now," she said, menacingly, "wait until I'm through with it." 
Around Peorth's feet, vines had begun to grow, their roots loosening the
carpet and weakening the floor.

Mara took note of this.  "What makes you think I give a rat's ass about
this place?"

"You came back, didn't you?"  Peorth's vines continued their slow
growth.  "Besides, do you really want to see Urd get hurt?"

"Well, I...uh...DAMMIT!"

"I knew you'd see things my way."  Peorth smiled as she moved to the
other side of the game machine.  "Let's plug this into the same socket
that the Gundam game is using."

"Why?  What will that do?" asked Mara, as she struggled with the
machine.

"Well, it does seem to be the only power point in this whole
establishment that is functional, yes?"

With a final heave, Peorth and Mara had the the machine in position.  As
Mara plugged it in, Peorth turned to where Sayoko had seated herself in
front of the Gundam mashine.  "How are you doing?"

Sayoko looked up.  "Do either of you have a hundred-yen coin?  I left my
purse in the car."

***

Urd and Keiichi had found themselves a relatively safe spot by one of
the buildings.  Meanwhile, Megumi was doing her best to hold back the
bug-piloted green enemy mecha.  However, the Zaku were still advancing,
mainly due to sheer strength of numbers.  Fortunately, a number of them
were doing a lot of un-evil-enemy-mech-like activities.

Firing a sweep from her beam rifle, Megumi managed to knock over three
of the enemy mechs.  It wasn't a very difficult shot, as the three were
apparently playing leapfrog at the time.  Shaking her head at that,
Megumi paused for a moment to check on things.  "Hey, Urd!  Any ideas
yet?"

"Wow...you really are good at this game," mumbled Keiichi, who was still
a bit dazed.

Urd was relieved to finally see her scanner register a possible way out.
 "Megumi!  Blast the ground in front of this building!"

As Megumi took aim, Keiichi exclaimed, "Are you sure that's a good
idea?"

Megumi fired, repeatedly.  Instead of the ground opening to reveal,
well, more ground, a hole opened into a dark void, with scattered stars
here and there.  A wind began to blow, sucking everything into what was
apparently the void of space.

Urd grabbed Keiichi by the arm.  "Am I sure?  No.  Should I let that
stop me?"

"Well, yeeeeEEEEAAAAAAHHHH!"  Hauling him along, Urd took a flying leap
into the hole.  Megumi managed to drive the Gundam in after them.

The first thing that Keiichi noticed was that the stars winked out.  He
then realized that he couldn't sense anything anymore.  He could no
longer feel Urd's hand on his arm; in fact, he couldn't really tell if
he had an arm anymore.  Keiichi was starting to panic, when, on the
edges of his mind, he began to notice something calling out to him...

And then, in a rush, all of his senses came back to life.  Keiichi
opened his eyes, and saw Urd standing over him, concern written all over
her face.

"Oh, good, you're awake.  Can you stand?" said Urd, helping him sit up.

Keiichi blinked a couple of times, taking in his surroundings.  He was
sitting on a grassy strip beside a road, on the outskirts of some
nameless city.  There was a sportscar parked by the curb.  As he got to
his feet, Keiichi saw his sister, climing down from a tree that she had
apparently landed in.

Megumi said, "So, Urd, did we get out?  Or are we still in this game
world?"

Urd shook her head.  "Somehow, I don't think so."

"Have you figured out how we got here?" Megumi asked.  "Did the bugs
bring us here?"

"If the bugs brought us here," said Urd, "I think we would be having a
harder time keeping ahead of them."

Keiichi was not following this conversation, and he was getting tired of
it.  "Look, you two," he interjected, "enough is enough!  I've gone
through too much weird stuff today, and I'm way overdue for some kind of
explanation!"

Surprised, Megumi and Urd just looked at him.

Keiichi paused for breath, then dove back in.  "Okay, for example, where
are we, really?  What's with all this video game VR stuff?  And, what
are these bugs you're talking about?  Are they those white things that
were bouncing around all over the place back at home?  What are they
doing, anyway?"

Megumi glanced over at Urd, as if asking for permission.  Urd shrugged,
and replied, "Well, we can explain, but it's a long story.  I think we
should keep moving while we tell it to you, or else we might get some
unwanted visual aids."

Keiichi actually smiled.  "I think I can take care of that.  The keeping
moving part, that is."

Urd looked skeptical.  "What are you talking about?"

In response, Keiichi pointed up.  A logo had appeared in the sky, much
like the words had appeared over the Virtua Fighter ring.  Urd and
Megumi both stared at it.

The logo read:  "Ridge Racer Evolution."

Keiichi's grin had become positively feral.  "Now THIS game, I'm good
at."

***

Virtua Fighter 4 is copyright Sega-AM2/Sega, 2001, 2002. Mobile Suit
Gundam DX is copyright Bandai and Capcom, 2001. Ridge Racer is, IIRC,
copyright Namco.

What do you think?

Rob