Relationships in the Workplace

...Who Needs Enemies

Their hang out after work was far from over. After they had filled their stomachs, they went to a local arcade that has everything from video games, to VR, to bowling, to more physical activities. Nidia and Mayve separated themselves from Mano and Ari. They were headed to play some mini golf as they soon were out of sight. Excitedly Mano rushes over to the V.R portion of the arcade seeing there was a tournament going on. Ari was right there next to him as she caught glimpses of zombie game ending. 

The name of a team flashed across the screen showing they were the winners. "Let's sign up!" he went over to the tablet outside the V.R environment to register themselves. "What name are we going to go with?" she asks while leaning on him watching Mano fill the information in. He grinned having an idea, "Manari. Does that sound good?" She repeated the name and caught on, "Is that going to be our ship name now?" Her cheeks had a slight tint of pink finding that cute. He nods pecking her cheek with a kiss. 

It was their turn now to battle it out. They were going to have 3 rounds, one round for each game, as the staff instructed them how to wear the headset, vest, hands, and shoe sensors. They had their headset on by the time they heard their challengers come in and receive the same instructions. "Alright teams! Everyone ready?" one of the staffers asks everyone in the room. Everyone shouted their confirmations as the staffer spoke into their headset microphone announcing to whatever audience they may have, "It's team Manari v.s. team Lidom." 

The virtual worlds loaded up and game one was going to be a military shooter. They had 6minutes to score the most kills between enemy a.i and the opposite team. Mano was getting hype with the simple idea that there's more to do then to just focus on the enemy team. A countdown started as they were loaded into a abandoned apartment complex with a park area outside.

3

2

1

GO!

Mano and Ari were loaded in separately, he was inside the building while she was in the park area. "Ari do you hear me?" he asks just to make sure their microphones were working. "Yep, you're coming in loud and a clear" she says as she studies her surroundings. Right in front of her was a yellow slide with chunks missing. She then looked at the ten story apartment complex next to her location from the base all the way to the top. "I'm guessing you're inside?" she asks when an explosion went off in front of her. "SH*T!" she jumped and ran behind the slide looking for cover.  The sound of many footsteps and general programmed talk rung, "Enemy found!" 

Mano heard the commotion and asks, "I'm guessing the npc's found you?" The sound of metal rolling across the floor echoed down the hall he was walking down on. "What is...?" when it came to view, he noticed it was a grenade without the pin. "OH!" he threw himself into a nearby room just in time as the grenade blew up. He however didn't hear the chatter of A.I so he tenses up, "I think I've ran into one of the players..." He spoke in almost a whisper to Ari. 

She was in the middle of a gunfight with the npcs. She took a couple of them down as she thanked video game logic for making the slide viable cover. When she thought she was in the clear to move closer to get better shots the sound of a sniper was let out. It hit her arm causing her to use the first thing she could see, a dumpster, as cover. "I think i did too... " she looked down at where the bullet hit her then back up. "I didn't see any of the npcs carrying snipers"

That's when Mano heard a male voice, "Hey! Thanks for yapping. Made it a lot easier to find you." Thanks to the players comment Mano now realizes that the game had proximity chat enabled, but why did his voice sound familiar? Mano annoyed with finding that out midgame he studied the level. He saw that his heads up display was showing that he could trigger a event with the windows. He got an idea, "How about you come in here and show me how you are with a gun bud!" He heard the male laugh, but it was getting closer and closer until... NOW!