Outside of a Park Inside of a Park

The second they crossed the gate, both girls woke up peacefully in their creepy cyberpunk barbershop chairs, the helmets lifting off their faces to reveal the refreshingly real-feeling physical world.

Katie poked her hand with her other hand. Her finger stopped at her palm. She breathed a happy sigh of relief. The sisters stood, stretched, and then, without skipping a beat, Frankie immediately began to look around the whole place in search of something.

“What’re you doing…?” Katie asked.

“Ah. There.”

The prideful young girl walked right up to one of the other guests who had just stood up. Katie followed, soon seeing who it was, though still horrified that her sister would decide to approach him.

“Not so sneaky in here, are ya?”

Maskless and sweaty, Anti looked down at his targets, both standing right in front of him. He was a tall white man somewhere in his early thirties but with the spiky hair of a teenager and a somewhat long face, with pronounced cheekbones. On this face he wore an accidental expression of defeatist disbelief. He couldn’t possibly have been more humiliated when the longer-haired of the terrorists burst out laughing at him.

“Frankie- Frankie what are we doing-“

“Wanna make a bet? Just kidding. Can’t force me here, huh pal?” The shorter-haired devil made a ballsy attempt on what remained of the man’s dignity, before strutting away, the entire rest of the marketing team soon waking up to watch equally helplessly as she went up to the front desk, each and every one of them having failed to catch the sisters yet again.

“I’ll kill them.” Anti declared blankly in abject shame.

“Congrats on beating our MASCOT!” The person running the counter had changed, now a short-and-stout, delightfully cheerful girl around their age. “You ran into some cheaters, is that right?”

“Uh… yeah, guess so… do we still get tokens for that?” After everything that happened today, Frankie’s anxiety was weaker than ever, even in the face of a cute girl.

“Well, you’re the victim here. So... policy is that we can make it up to you in one of two ways. The tokens you won weren’t real, but I could supply the equivalent amount to you, given the data shows you had nothing to do with rigging the system. Though, if you’d prefer- we could just make sure those cheaters get what they deserve, and call it at that.” She happily recited.

“You can’t do both?” Katie asked a little bluntly.

“No, sorry.” She goofily waved her hand. “Kidney never wants it to look like someone got too much of an advantage in the game. This is merely reparation so that you don’t go and complain. Think of it as a “We’re-so-sorry” gift.”

“We’ll take the tokens then.” Immediately answered Frankie, confident that she could beat the marketing team again anytime.

Soon, following the metallic sound of a dispenser, the pretty employee retrieved their bag from a back room, now far, far heavier than it once had been.

“Your leaving total is 1267 tokens! Have a wonderful day!”

“Thank you so much!” Katie chimed. The little sister smiled, and the winners prepared to leave.

“Oh!” The girl at the front desk suddenly shot in her high-pitched register, stopping them in their tracks. “Wait, I almost forgot! You were fighting Guile that whole time… you didn’t hear the announcement!”

“Announcement…?”

“Something really special is happening over at the park entrance! If you’re participating in the game, you’ll wanna head over to Kidney Road around…” she checked her watch. “Like, right now! Crap, I’m gonna see if someone can cover my shift… good luck!” She ran into the back room, never to be seen again.

Frankie looked at Katie, who in turn looked at Frankie. They both shrugged, and made their way back to the Universe Theater to reach the park entrance.