A Fist Full Of Quarters

These days, arcades were viewed as a type of relic from long ago. Back when not everyone could afford a Nintendo and the Internet was still in its infancy. As such, people would flock to arcades in droves to waste away the afternoon playing Pac-Man or Street Fighter or whatever happened to be there that day.

That said, arcades still existed. You just needed to know where to look...or convince the right people to bring them back. The latter of the two seeming to be what was happening here today, as someone had taken an old run-down store on a street corner and turned it into something...a little more flashy.

The sign on the front was made up of groupings of old video game sprites like the ones from Space Invaders, Final Fight, Donkey Kong, and so on with big letters spelling out "Gamers' Paradise" in trippy space-style fonts. Almost overnight the place had showed up and it was already getting a faithful following, especially for the deal: Five dollars to get in and you could play whatever games you wanted for as long as you wanted.

A certain alien superhero had been swept up in the craze too, "Aurora, today is a good day..." Alan remarked as he sat next to his friend on a nearby rooftop, all smiles, "It took hours of searching on the internet but we finally found ourselves a bonafide arcade just like the olden days. Now what yo-" He stopped himself at noticing her looking rather concerned, "...What's wrong?"

"Hmm?" She glanced over at him, "Oh, nothing. Maybe I'm overthinking this but...I don't know, it just seems a little too convenient that this place shows up here and already people are acting like it's the greatest thing since grilled chicken on pizza...we should get some later by the way."

The former human took a moment to consider her words...usually she was the one getting overly excited about stuff and he was the one reining her in, "...You might have a point, but then again, lots of things have taken off almost overnight," He patted her on the shoulder, "Besides, even if there's some terrible truth waiting for us, I'm sure we can handle it together."

"Alan..." Aurora just smiled and nodded, "Yeah, I suppose you're right."

The two dropped off and fused back into Alan's civilian identity and got in line as people filed in while depositing their money into some sort of drone just outside the door who would then remotely slide open the door so they could get in.

There was an air of boredom as Pyrrha laid on her back, staring up at the sky. Earth, this lush and beautiful planet was the first place Pyrrha had discovered after waking up in this universe. From the brief encounters she had with humans, to the very few friends she had made since coming here, things seemed great. But to Pyrrha there was still more to be desired. She had yet to visit all of this world and had yet to discover all it had to offer. So why was she here? Why was she sitting on a rooftop with her gaze towards the heavens.

To put it simply, Pyrrha was contemplating if there were any more planets like this out there in the universe. If she really wanted to, she could take off right now. She could go amongst the stars and find those planets. But now she felt chained to Earth, but not in a bad way mind you. There were people here who liked her enough to bring her into there lives. It was something that Pyrrha had never truly experienced before. So while she had the desire to venture out into the great unknown, she’d keep her feet firmly planted on the ground and turn her attention to what Earth had to offer.

*So what exactly do I do?* The young alien thought to herself, placing a finger top her lips as she thought about all the activities Jake had told her about. There were far to many for her to recall all at once. She even tried listing them off, using her fingers to keep track but that got a bit complicated and overwhelming for her. Rather than sit here and waste more time thinking about what to do, Pyrrha would just do. Floating gently down to the sidewalk below, ignoring the sudden gasps from passersby, the young Aeteran would begin looking about.

It wouldn’t be very long in her journey down the sidewalk that something would catch the girls eye. A large crowd had formed not to far from where she was. The numerous people huddled together, packed tight like sardines in a can, all clamoring to get inside this one building. Pyrrha was intrigued by this as she hadn’t seen such a mob before. What really gripped her was the strange banner outside the building and the oddly rhythmic and almost trance like music coming from within. So not knowing any better, the alien girl positioned herself at the back of the line and waited to see what happened.

A number of people, upon seeing Pyrrha's design, raised an eyebrow or stared for a bit, but didn't say anything. Either they didn't want to be rude or they had seen stranger things and thus felt no need to comment. The drone out front certainly wasn't judging either as at least one or two people ahead of Pyrrha had colorful mohawks and piercings.

Alan was just in front of Pyrrha and thus was first to get to the door. He paid his money and was about to go in when the machine spoke up, "I'm sorry, Miss, but I can't let you in until you pay the fee."

Maybe Alan was in too much of a good mood, or he didn't want someone to be left out. Either way, he whipped out another five dollars, "It's ok. I'll pay." He stuffed the money into the drone's deposit box, nodded to the lady with a smile and headed inside with the door remaining open for her.

Pyrrha wasn’t entirely sure how this whole thing worked. She still wasn’t sure why so many people had gathered to line up outside this building. The young alien just rolled with whatever seemed to be going on. So when the people in front of her stepped forward, she did as well. While her mind might have been filled with intrigue and excitement, it wasn’t enough to distract her from the odd stare here or there. Did she really look that strange? Feeling slightly self conscious, the girl would run her hands across the scales on her cheeks.

Quickly getting over the feeling of being singled out for her appearance, Pyrrha would perk up as it was her turn to reach the door. As much as she might have been interested in the building and whatever was inside that drew so much attention, she was intrigued by the machine hovering outside the door. At first she tilted her head in confusion when it spoke to her. But then she quickly let her curiosity get the better of her. The young Aeteran would begin to circle around the drone, studying it in its entirety. “Oh! You can speak?!” She’d say, circling around the bot.

“HEY! LETS GO! WE AINT GOT ALL NIGHT. YOU GOIN IN OR WHAT!?” Someone would shout from the group that had formed behind her. “The entrance fee is Five dollars. If you don’t intend to pay then please step aside.” the drone would state. Pyrrha once again tilted her head. Was that the funny looking green paper Jake had given to her on their first encounter? Before she could react, the person who had been in line before her, leaned back and paid her fee. Cupping the sides of her face in surprise and awe, Pyrrha rushed into the building, mainly so she could catch up to the kind person.

Quickly catching up to them, Pyrrha would snatch their hand and cup in hers. “I don’t even know you, but you did a kind thing! Thank you kind person!” Having been in such a rush to catch up to the kind patron, Pyrrha had completely ignored the reason she even came here. But in there brief seconds it would no doubt take the person to respond, the blaring music bombarded Pyrrha’s ears. Her gaze would shift from the guy, they lit up just as much as all the flashing lights of the arcade machines. What was this place? She was definitely keen to find out.

Alan didn't really think much of his good deed. After all, it wasn't like he was strapped for cash. However, it appeared said act meant a lot to the other girl as he found his hand being shaken by her quite fiercely, causing him to turn red in the cheeks, "Uh...thanks. It honestly wasn't a big deal for me. Besides, in this crazy world of ours, we gotta do all we can to help each other."

Aurora only giggled mischievously, "Well, well, partner, it seems you got yet another girl interested in you. Perhaps we should start keeping a logbook?" Alan decided to bite his tongue.

Instead, his gaze wandered to the scales on the girl's face...for all of three seconds as he quickly turned his eyes elsewhere so as not to be rude. Man, first impressions were hard sometimes. "I'm Alan, by the way. I kinda arrived in this town about a day or two ago when I heard of this place..."

He then saw her attention being drawn to the music and the flashy lights, to which he smiled warmly, "I'm guessing this must be your first time here, huh? Well, take your time and drink it all in..." All along the walls were games of all sorts from fighting games to puzzle games, even shooters and platformers. There was even a staircase leading up to a second floor with more games and there was even several pinball machines along with at least one crane game that guaranteed a prize with every round...

...Whether that was actually true or not was another story.

Pyrrha’s attention would turn back to the kind person who got her inside this wondrous place. “Ooh Alan, I haven’t met one of those yet! Im Pyrrha, pleasure to meet you!” she said finally letting go of his hand. Spinning around to look at all the machines Pyrrha continued to speak. “What is all of this? I’ve never seen anything like it.” She quickly leapt over to once of the machines, two people were using it, and their play had amassed a small crowd. The young alien’s eyes trailed to the screen and lit up as she saw to little figures dancing about.

She’d let out a shocked gasp as one of the characters on the screen threw his hands forward, unleashing a blue orb. “Hey, I can do that to!” she cheered. A few people in the crowd gave her a strange look, but their gazes returned to the screen. The figures on the screen continued to move about,throwing out intriguing and interesting attacks. Things Pyrrha would have to totally try out later. Her attention was quickly drawn away from the street fighter machine and over to another crowd that seemed to be cheering loudly.

“Ooh what’s going on over there?” she’d remark to herself before brushing past the crowd watching the two fight. Pyrrha would quickly encounter the loud group. They made it impossible for the curious Aeteran to see what merited such praise. This at first irritated her, then she remembered she could fly. Slowly rising over the group, Pyrrha could see an individual flailing about. The screen on this machine displayed a bunch of arrows facing in different directions and featured blaring loud music. Completely lost as to what any of these things were, Pyrrha decided to ground herself and wonder around the place a bit more, letting her curiosity guide her.