Private Finished Double Dragon Competitive Co-op

Alexis blinked at Destra's growls. Was he annoyed that he lost or just annoyed at the game in general? Not that it really made a lot of difference. It was so tempting to poke at Destra and ask why he was growling at a video game.

But Alexis didn't do that. Not because he didn't want to or because he was afraid of angering Destra- the other boy seemed to get annoyed with Alexis enough anyway that it wouldn't have mattered. No, he was legitimately trying to be cooperative so he nodded. "Fine, no reason to talk about it anyway. Let's play..." He trailed off as he looked around the arcade.

Rosen too looked around and started pointing at game after game and boasting about how fun they were and how cool they were to play in co-op mode. Alexis felt like he was a little to enthusiastic but his suggestions were pretty helpful so he offered a fist bump to him.... maybe a little bit harder than necessary but not enough to hurt. Two of the games he had pointed out looked like good options but ultimately he chose not to pick the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles one. "Ok then, this one over here isn't bad I guess. Aliens vs Predator." Actually he had played that particular game a few times before. Never as one of the cyborg people- only as one of the two predator characters. Alexis wished he could have played as one of the aliens instead though.

He walked up to the player 2 spot and waited to put his coins in until Destra was ready.

Alexis put his coins in right after Destra did and got ready. "We have to do better on this one for sure. Kinda wish we could be the aliens instead though."

They both were intensely focused on the game. It didn't seem like enemies were hitting them randomly even though it looked like they would miss like had happened in the last game. They made it through a few levels before things started to get tense. A few times one of them was low on health and almost dead but they managed to keep squeezing though the levels by the skin of their teeth. They even managed to beat the first boss and crawl their way through the next few levels before reaching the next boss.

It was tough- the dam thing was rolling around all over and dropping in other smaller aliens to surround them. They were doing well though and with each of them at about a third health the boss looked like it was about to die- and then the power to the whole arcade flickered and the machine began rebooting. Their run was completely lost.

"Fuck! We were so close. Why the hell did the power even flicker? It's not even storming or anything." It was Alexis who had started the growling that time and he looked around at the various machines. A few of them were rebooting too but a lot just seemed to be working fine. Maybe they were just unlucky. Stupid game. "Ugh, guess we tied that one or something."

Rosen looked at Destra and Alexis, a little concerned that they were going to get angry enough to break something or quit the challenge. "Well, guess it really is you two against the games. Don't give up now," Rosen said as he was trying to cheer them on a bit.

"If this keeps up i'll need to fight someone. Why's playing games so damn frustrating? It's worse than playing hangman was. Let's just get this done."

Alexis glanced over where Destra was looking and saw the regalis destroying at the game. Making the two of them looks like idiots. He looked over at Rosen, who just shrugged, before returning his attention to Destra. "Wait.. did you just tell him. The dude playing the Avengers game to 'Avenge' you. Really?" He snorted.

He did however walk over a little closer to see how the game was played by someone who apparently knew how to play.

"Hey, look both of you are annoyed at the games instead of each other. I think it's turning out pretty well, all things considered," said Rosen as he put some money in a claw machine while the other two figured out what game to play next.

Alexis wasn't sure whether Destra had intended to make a joke by using the term "avenge" or not. But, he guessed it really didn't matter. There was no reason to bring it up any further. The kid was definitely far better at the game than they had been. "I guess. He's way past where we were," Alexis admitted.

Alexis might have laughed at Destra's regalis telling him not to suck but Destra was clearly not the only one struggling against the stupid arcade machines. Probably why Alexis looked as frustrated as Destra sounded. To his credit though, he clearly hadn't used his ability to expel is emotions. "Why the fuck would I tell people about these damn games handing us our asses? Far as i'm concerned we just say who won and leave out the rest."

He followed Destra over to the next game. It was promising. He had handled guns before, though it had been quite a while and his family tended to use more up close and personal type weapons when they could. Maybe that would give him some help to not suck at this game? "I'm checking the damn plug and shit before we start playing," he said as he actually walked around to look at the back of the machine. With their luck the plug would just fall out of the wall or some crazy shit like that.

Sure enough, the plug was sticking out just a tiny bit from the outlet. Not enough to shut off power but... Alexis knelt down and reach behind the machine to push it back firmly into the outlet. He didn't even think about how painful it could have been if he had been shocked doing that. "Ok, now we finish this." He walked back to the player 1 spot and put his coins in.

Alexis enjoyed fighting. It was really simple. Whether he was winning or losing, deep down in his core he enjoyed it either way. That said, fighting alongside Destra felt better than fighting against him. Not enough to make him all sappy and gross, but it was noticeable. And a little frustrating. Rosen had been freaking right about the two of them cooperating.

However, Destra was on the warpath. The dragon was blasting every zombie as fast as he could see them. Alexis was doing his best but he was having trouble coming close to Destra's sheer numbers as a lot of the time Destra was already blasting all the zombies before Alexis could shoot them. It didn't help that someone must have gotten some sticky crap on the player 1 gun so every once in a while the trigger just got stuck and he had to flick it back out with his finger. His score wasn't abysmal but it was nowhere near Destra's.

Alexis was really frustrated. To the point where the urge to turn off his emotions was so high he very nearly just stopped in the middle of the game to concentrate and turn them off. But then he would have lost and had Destra growling at him to stop using his power like that. The point of this was to show Rosen that he could be cooperative.

He took several deep breaths and tried to clear his mind a little. Without using the emotions expelling ability. It wasn't perfect, but it was enough to keep him from doing something really stupid and ruining the challenge.

Destra won the final round, no question. "You're mad? I want to punch one of these machines. Or all of them-" He was interrupted by Rosen's hand slapping down on his shoulder and Alexis very nearly snapped at the guy before stopping himself and just grumbling instead.

"So, feeling more cooperative than you were before the challenge started?" He was mostly asking Alexis but he hadn't specified it really.