The cold coming from the air conditioners rushes down from the vents lovated directly above the entrance making Six shrieks and Julia giggles at her friend's response.
They step into an aisle with a hologram of a red pirate battle ship with a jollyroger made up of two white remotes in place of crossbones and a black skull with both eyes blacked out but the retinas glowing red and fading every few seconds.
As they walk passed the entrance, a sensor on the wall flashes green and a cuboid, metallic drone on wheels rolls up in front of them.
It speaks in a monotonous high pitched voice
"Welcome to "redship arcade, what era of gaming would you like to experience?"
It says as it projects nine numbers with roman numerals from I to IX.
The lights in the room flicker and Six looks back again.
Julia pulls her hand.
"Relax, the dreaded airconditioner isn't coming to get you."
Six is flustered as she looks back to her.
And selects the era labelled III, the white walls of the aisle change to a black and green grid and 3d print arcade machines lining fhe walls, each machine has a videogame character one side as well as the title of the game on the other.
"I love this game...eight used to play it all the time but he said we were too yiung to play."
"...and that stopped you? "
She looks around with a cheeky smile before responding.
"Nope, five and I playef it while he and Zane were sleeping. He still doesn't know. "
The robot rolls up beside them, Julia places her credit card in the sensor in its head and one of its edges gives way and releases ten coins.
They both face the cabinet monitor resting their hannds on the joysticks attached to the cwbinet as the word "Fight!" appears on the screen they both start striking the buttons, getting fully engrossed.
After each game both their scores are placed on a leaderboard on screen showing only three letters of their name, "Jul" and "Cec" respectively arranged as second and third on the leaderboard behind a name "Rox".
After exhausting most of the coins, a hand slams against the top of the cabinet breaking their focus.
They both look up at a taller woman with a tattoo of a green kirin extending drom her shoulder down to her arm, she's wearing in a black t shirt and jeans.
"You guys are good at this game."
Six ignores her and keeps playing but Julia's face is fixated on the woman.
"I..uh...I..."
Six looks to her friend confused.
"You good?"
"That's Roxanne."
"And she is..."
"Winner of EVO 2020 up till date."
She whispers
"What is EVO?"
Six whispers back.
"It's basically an internationa fighting game competition, oh and she's the head of the leaderboard on this game.
"Oh..."
"You guys done talking about me?"
She looks back at the woman rubbing the back of her neck and a shy grin.
"I'm sorry about that.".
"It's cool, I just saw you guys really enjoying this game and wanted to know if you'd like to hang out."
"Yes!" Julia blurts out before covering hwr mouth.
"Smooth." Six comments
They walk out of the aisle, someone walks passed with the text on the back of the short:
"N.E.X.Ts shouldn't breathe A.E.R."
"Wow, what an asshole."
Six remarks.
"Yeah, I need one of those shirts."
Roxanne responds. "They're just a bunch of freaks, am I right?"
Six is about to say something but Julia covers her mouth.
"You know what, I'm feeling under the weather,maybe we can do this later."
She holds Six's arm and they walk away.
"You didn't have to do that."
"You and Zane are my best friends, I won't let anyone disrespect you guys like that."
As they walk to the exit, a white mist fogs the entrance.
"What the...?"
A green verical line emerges from the smoke, Six senses something coming and pushes Julia out of the way just as aperson, slim in a grey body leathersuit with a ninja mask with a green visor where the eye slits are, he swings akatana eith a green edge but they're just barely able to evade the person.
The person drops a small sphere which generates an A.E.R. dome around the entire building.
Six struggles to activate her ability but Julia grabs her and they run deeper in the mall.
Five armed men appear around the man.
"Put your hands where we can see them!"
"Why? It won't help you."
Gren verical lines are emitted from his visor ,zigzagging all around the room.
"Tag..."
He leans forward and in an instant he moves at superhuman speed following the lines and outpacing the bullets, swinging his katana and leaving spaltters of blood where the men were standing.
"Now, where was I?"
He speeds forward into the mall and the fog follows from.
A femine voice speaks to him from the fog.
The person within the fog is wearing a collar glowing gold.
"Didn't the boss say to be discreet?"
"Yeah, I discretely wasted those guys. "
"I just don't want to want to mess up this mission, ya know?"
"Stay out of my way, hide my presence and we'll be fine."
"Yer suit has limited power,let me smoke em out, partner."
"That's not the importance."
"I don't follow."
"Our mission isn't to hunt down those girls, it's to draw out that old coot."
"How do we know he'll be here?"
"He's been keeping tabs on the girl, maybe she's his kid, who knows? Besides,he's a saint, he'll probably notice the commotion and come here anyway."
The people in the mall start to panic, running towards the main entrance including Roxanne.
Julia notices this and stands in front of them.
"Stop! That's where the mercenaries acane from, it's to dangerous to go that way!"
The crowd starts muttering, looking around for other exits.
"Liar! I know that girl, she's a N.E.X.T sympathizer. She's probably working with the mercanaries."
"What? No, I..."
The crowd pushes her out of the way and runs past her towarss the entrance.
Six puts her hand on Julia's shoulder.
"You did your part, let's get ouraelves outta here."
"No."
"What do you mean no?"
"Yeah they're misguided but that doesn't mean they have to get slaughtered."
Six sighs, putting her hand over her mouth, thinking.
"I guess you're right, but there's an A.E.R field and there's no way for us to escape."
"The one dressed like a ninja, I remember him dropping something that probably emitted the field.
"If we can get back to the entrance, we can disable it."
"But what about when the mercenaries come after us.
Julia pauses for a moment then looks behind her.
"I have an idea..."
The ninja and fog speed through shopping aisles until they see the crowd rushing back to the entrance.
"Ah, more pigs for the slaughter. "
As his visor emits a straight line towards them, a small robot rolls towards them and the room atound them changes to mimic an arcade.
From behind one of the cabinets,.Julia leaps out with a fire extinguisher in hand, raising it above her head, the ninja catches her by the neck but Six tackles him, allowing julia to slam the cylinder against the top of his head.
He violently throws them off,pulling out his sword, cursing in chinese as he rushes to them. A bright golden light catches the ninja off guard.
They both run out, find the device and smash it with the fire extinguisher.
Six uses her her ability and renders the ninja unconscious but the fog starts to flow around them. The smoke starts to flow into Six's nose making it hard to breathe but another A.E.R field appears and makes the smoke fade immediately.
Goldsmith is holding an A.E.R device and is walking towarss six with tears in his eyes when out of mowhere, the red mask appears holding her by the neck, and Decagon holding a blade to Julia's neck.
"Just do as we say and neither of them dies..."
A gold door appears in the wall beside him.
"Walk."
He wants to move forward but coughs blood and ends up following their instructions.