pinball wizard // xander-valentine

[crest2]

Danny always had to win. It applied to everything in life; as winning was his main goal. If you win at everything, you become a hero. Those were immortal words of Mother Earth, and would always apply to everything. Including pinball. Man, pinball was time consuming. Damn, it must have taken Danny months to perfect his skills. He always played on any free day, in fact, Mother Earth had an old machine installed in the basement of their Headquarters. It was a secret addiction though, after all, Danny needed to keep up his appearance. Pinball was something he did on the side, and he could vouch that he was a pinball wizard.

Of course, in reality, he was only mediocre. But so what. The game was awfully addicting, in fact, Danny found himself just cherishing the sounds of the machine sometimes. Wait, was that normal? Danny didn't know. But no matter, he'd listen to the bangs and clinks and clongs all night. But of course, Danny had a reason to be here. Oh, how unfortunate. Yes, there was someone he was meeting here tonight, and although originally the meeting was supposed to take place in the restaurant section of the large building, Danny ignored it and went to the arcade. It looked cooler there anyway.

Well, another try was in store. He had lost miserably this time, and although he probably should stop (this was eating his funds) Danny didn't feel like it. So there he sat, eyes locked on to his game. Meeting? What meeting? Danny didn't remember anything like that anymore. He was here alone tonight, if he remembers correctly.
Just him and the pinball machine.

[faust]

Olivine City Xander hadn’t been here in a while it was a nice change of place even if he was here to meet with someone from Nox. The place really had changed for the worst sadly. As soon as he stepped off of the dock someone tried to mug him. It ended up with the mugger being shot into the ocean by a Shadow ball from his Cofagrigus. It was a rather funny sight to behold, yet as he rounded the corner another mugger came after him this time he had he had his Houndour leave a nice imprint of it’s teeth upon the mugger posterior and most likely a burn pattern from it’s fire fang.

The moment Xander walked into the cafe he noticed how empty it was compared to normal. The only person he saw was a little kid at a pinball machine intensely staring at it while he played. Oh please no don’t tell me I was called to have a meeting with this kid. Xander stepped away and looked around for anyone else, but after doing a quick look around the entire cafe the kid was the only one in there.

Xander stood near the kid and watched him play for a bit. If he really is my contact what is he doing here shouldn’t he be at the restaurant part of the cafe? So playing pinball is more important than a meeting with a fellow Nox agent huh? Xander raised his left hand and focussed his thoughts at the small metal ball moving around in the machine. The metal ball just stopped in mid action right in the middle of the board and hovered there. “Not as much fun if it isn’t moving is it?”

[crest2]

Oh yeah, you bet! New high score! Well, for Danny....but not the machine. Yeah. Some expert had obviously been here before, or the game had been rigged, as the high score was a whopping 7,359,911. That was a lot. Too much, almost. Danny knew this game was hacked, after all, why would he, the pinball wizard, being getting such low scores?! It didn't make any sense, but the game was addicting and Danny didn't stop.

Four tickets. Danny could get...... a piece of gum, a rubber spider, or a sticker for his shirt. His face was now creased sadly, as he put another coin in the machine and started again. This was the game. Danny was standing there, looking intently upon the machine. His hands were moving fast as he twisted, pulled and pushed, listening to the pleasuring sounds as he went about. This was his best round so far, Danny was well aware. He was going to beat the high score, get 500 tickets, and buy that Slippin' Slide on the top row. Yeah. That would show the world just how powerful he could be.

The ball stopped, and Danny kicked the machine as hard as he possibly could, making it shake and make odd noises. It was unfair, the ball just stopping in the middle of the board and.....hovering? Danny could swear that the metal ball was levitating it the air, after all, the game was built at a slant. The ball would roll in the middle of the board. Then he heard a voice, the voice. Oh yeaaah....he was supposed to meet someone here, wasn't he?

But this guy had stopped his game. No one stops Danny's pinball. Especially when he's doing so well. "What. The. Hell!?" Danny asked loudly and angrily, while turning to face the man. "I was doing so well, freak."

[faust]

Xander just looked at the boy with a small frown across his face. He wanted to smack the kid across his face for his comment and the fact that he had come all this way for a meeting yet it seemed that this kid only wanted to play pinball. Xander couldn’t help but to notice the score on the pinball machine. It was pitifully low. Xander took a step back and started to laugh at the sight of it. “Hehehehehehe that score is what you call doing good? It’s so low i’s pathetic. Hahahahaha.” Xander leaned back against another pinball machine and continued to laugh for a bit more.

Still leaning against the pinball machine Xander eventually stops laughing at the kid’s score. “Ok ok ok I think i’m done for now, but now really lets get this meeting over with kid I want to go back home.” Xander took out a small bag filled with jelly beans and ate some waiting for this kid to talk or at least say something. Xander didn’t know that the moment he started to laugh the pinball fell back down and started to act normally.

[crest2]

This is no way to talk to the pinball wizard. He was a genius, pinball-wise, and academic-wise. This man had no right to barge in and stop his pinball game, he wanted to finish and beat the high score on the machine. Pitifully low? No his score was good, he was the pinball wizard. The pinball wizard has the best score in the entire world! Or he would....soon! He'd beat the high score, he could guarantee it. Watch out, POO. That guy was going down. Unfortunately, the pinball was still floating, but he was registering time points! The score was slowly climbing, but then-

It fell. F*ck.

But wait! His score! It was there! Ranked third on the high score screen. The pinball wizard strikes again! The scores now read:
POO---7,359,911
OLD---1,013,578
WIZ---998,877

His name would live forever in history. The WIZ has become a legend. The best pinball player in the universe. Danny would forever live in this machine as the WIZ, but he still wouldn't stop. No, he needed to beat POO. Ruin POO. Destroy POO. "Pathetic, huh? Take a look. Top three, freak." Danny spoke coldly, dragging out the word freak for extra emphasis. A psychic. Danny had heard of them in books, but never actually believed in them. It was crazy that a person could move things with their mind, and Danny thought that the ability of telekinesis should have to do with intelligence. That way, he might be able to achieve it.

"I agree, freak." Danny taunted, face woven into an eternal smirk. "We should get this over with as soon as possible, freak." He wouldn't stop. If this was the way to get to this guy, Danny wouldn't stop. Pathetic score? Danny wouldn't take that today. No, he'd make this man regret ever saying it. Jelly beans, freak? Are you six, freak? Pathetic, freak."

[faust]

Xander looked at the boy with a rather annoyed look on his face this was the exact reason why he hated little kids they always think there so funny and smart. Xander really didn’t want to deal with this child anymore. It would be down right enjoyable to punch this kid right in his face and watch him cry, but that would get me nowhere. Xander gave Danny his cold and devilish smiled as he reached into his coat and pulled out two bars of chocolate. He tossed one at Danny and gave him a smile. “Normally I would of hit you, but right now I just want to get home so be a good little boy and tell what Nox needed me to know so I can get out of here.”

Xander took the wrapping off of the chocolate bar he didn’t give to Danny and took a bite out of the chocolate. If there was one thing that always put him in a good mood it was sweets. All someone really needed to ever bribe Xander was the right amount of sugar. It was his one weakness and he wouldn’t even try to overcome it. After all there was nothing wrong with having a sweet tooth even if it could eventually lead to him spilling secrets about Nox.

What Xander wasn't telling Danny is that he was going to get him back for those comments. Xander saw that Danny seemed to really care about his high score. It would be a shame that Xander would end up breaking the pinball machine after the so called meeting was over.