"Wha-How did you read my DP on wakeup?!" Damian exclaimed, gobsmacked.
"Because you keep using DPs on wakeup," Ryan said bluntly.
"Oh, sweet! I have a parry!" Damian gushed.
"It even goes through command grabs?!" Ryan uttered, shocked.
"Maybe you shouldn't be wasting your Ki meter on blockstring?" Ryan suggested.
"Maybe you should stop blocking so much," Damian grumbled.
"Well, there's also this thing called a throw, you know."
"I see the devs have yet to patch infinite corner combos..." Ryan muttered.
"You're just jealous of my fast learning," Damian responded, grinning.
"Yeah, fast learning at how to be cheap."
"Ohhhh no no no no! Please! Mercy!"
Ryan just let out an overexaggerated evil laugh as he continued the combo into his super.
"Too late, buddy! That's what you get for being a spammer! Hahahahahahahahah!"
"Aaaaaagh!"
"Player 1 wins!" the announcer exclaimed. The screen currently displayed Psycho Lotus posing victoriously, with a "Continue?" message counting down at the bottom. Ryan and Damian, meanwhile, stood there hunched over, sweating and breathing heavily.
"Well, that was fun," Ryan said in between pants, satisfied at his victory. "If a lot of hard work physically."
"Dude, what is your secret?!" Damian asked in a bewildered tone. "You just started playing this game and you're already doing combos!"
Ryan shrugged.
"Observation, experimentation, prior experience with similar games, seeing what works and what doesn't..." he explained. "That kind of stuff."
Damian slumped his shoulders.
"Geez, you're way out of my league..." he mumbled. "Okay, let's go do something else now. I'm tired."
Sahara raised an eyebrow, visibly confused.
"Dude, you only played one game," she uttered.
"Hey, lay off him," Ryan shot back, surprising Sahara. "He's not the only one who's exhausted."
The witch in training just shrugged.
"Alright, whatever you guys say," she muttered, thinking, Oh lord, we've got two Damians now.
A lone bleeding-heart pigeon flew through the sky over the plaza before coming to rest on a telephone pole close by. Its head jerked around in different directions, as if it were looking for something. It -- or rather, he -- was.
The pigeon's eyes eventually landed on the door to the arcade, now opening, as Damian, Ryan, and the rest of the former's surface friend group walked out of the building and strolled through the marketplace.
The pigeon took the next few seconds to stare intently at Damian as his eyes narrowed in a look of malicious glee as pondered what he was going to do next, before flying away and descending into a nearby alley.
YOU ARE READING
Zoophobia: Alternative
FanfictionThere exists a story. A story of a young woman looking to make her way in the world as a guidance counselor. In her quest for vocational fulfillment, she moves to a place unlike any she has visited before. This is NOT that story. Enter Ryan Walker...
