Long ago, in a town just like your own. There was a Mall similar to the one in your hometown. A place where the Elderly, Adults, Teenagers, and children alike all come together to do their general shopping or even socialize. By day, the mall was hustling and bustling with people of all ages to get about their day and chase the next big sale on clothes, electronics, or even the newest smartphone…..
……..But when night falls on the Mall and the Security guards lock up for the night…..something wondrous happens….
As the guard finishes locking up and the janitor finishes his nightly cleaning……the gates that close the stores off from the rest of the mall suddenly unlock and open up once more. But one specific store opens up full of life and wonderment. The store known as ‘Mr. Wonder’s Toyland’ began to stir and breathe to life as each toy began to come to life.
One of the front window display toys, a dragon Action figure from the ‘Dragon Rangers’ playset began to look out and see there were no people in sight….
“ALL CLEAR! THEY ARE ALL GONE!” He said in a scratchy voice, but he accidentally opened his mouth too wide and accidentally fired off his fireball projectile piece.
“Oops…Can someone get that?” The toy dragon asked, a little embarrassed.
After his announcement. The toys in the store all began to move and go about their business.
We see a group of ‘Rainbow Bears’ running around playing tag. A Red Bear with a Heart on its belly immediately tagged a Green Bear with a clover on its belly.
Meanwhile, a group of ‘Doughboy Jack’ action figures were doing a series of military exercises while Doughboy Jack himself was leading his team of commandos in the drill.
Then we see a group of Penny Stockings going about their day in their extra small dreamhouse packed to the brim with all their accessories…..each sold separately.
They all lived together in this toy store to do one thing and one thing only, to wait for the child that they could fill with joy and imaginative wonderment. Every day adults would bring their children to let them choose one of them…and once they are chosen they are given the highest honor a toy could give ... .imaginative freedom to a child.
But on this night…..there was something different in the air…..something sinister yet foreboding. The reason why this feeling began to simmer across the toys in Mr. Wonder’s Toyland was because of the new store that opened across the Mall. It had only opened a few days ago and children and teenagers have been going in and out of it every single day……but none of them are walking out with anything aside from the occasional cup of soda or slice of pizza. Even after closing time whatever was in this store remained on and without the hustle and bustle of the mall goers of the day…they can hear repeated ‘Beeps’ and ‘Boops’ that you would hear from dialing a phone.
A few brave toys decided to leave their store to go investigate what made this store so popular. These four brave toys that decided to go were some of the bravest from all of their clusters and had traveled across this great mall…..
The Stretchy and Bendable, Noodle Neddy! Able to stretch his whole body and still come back together!
The yet-to-be-adopted Cauliflower Child, Wally! With hugs that can break the stuffing out of any stuffed animal!
The majestic Loveable Horsie, Chroma Jumper! With speeds matching a real horse and a majestic and brushable mane to boot!
Then finally the Leader of the group, the Man of Action himself, Duke Danger, the King of the Galaxy armed with his mighty Axe of Legends!
Duke Danger and Co all walked towards the entrance of this new store….they couldn't get a good look at the store's name from far away, but now that they were at the front of the entrance….they saw that the name was called….’ Arcade’
“Now what kind of name is that? ‘Ark-aide’ That doesn’t even sound like a real word!” Said Chroma Jumper with an unimpressed yet mocking tone.
“I agree, my glittery-maned associate! The name does not seem to imply the sale of any goods at all! I don’t even see a cash register!” Noodle Ned declared as he stretched his head a little closer to the sign.
“Oooh! Maybe they sell curvy things and even bandages for boo-boos!” Replied Wally with a near cutesy baby voice. He pressed his face against the glass windows to try and get a better look inside.
“Enough! We don’t know what friend or foe we will meet in this place, so everyone stays on your toes and hooves!” Said Duke Danger as he took the first step inside, the rest looked at one another and nodded.
The second they all took their first steps inside the arcade, they were immediately hit with a sudden blast of cold air from the air conditioning unit right above them. They all looked down and saw they were no longer standing on hard marble floors, instead, they transitioned to now standing on a rough, black carpet with various neon-colored shapes imprinted into it. In certain spots, it felt like it was slightly sticky as if someone spilled something on it.
The four walked deeper inside and saw there were multiple rows of…..giant boxy cabinets with TVs on the inside and decorated with buttons on the front of them, and a ton of these strange cabinets had labels on the front.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Noodle Neddy saw one titled ‘Grumpy Bear’ and saw on the screen a bear throwing barrels of honey down a series of ramps while a lumberjack ran up the ramps to stop him.
Wally climbed up right on top of one of the cabinets and looked down at one of the cabinets screens, this particular cabinet was called Galaxy Rangers! He saw a small white spaceship similar to the ones hanging from the ceiling of their home store, shooting...little white peas at the other meaner-looking spaceships.
Chroma Jumper looked at another cabinet called ‘Barista!’ and saw a man sliding cups of hot coffee down a series of tables to a series of cranky businessmen.
But Duke Danger himself felt very uneasy about this whole thing….why would children spend all their time here when they could have someone like him, Wally, Chroma Jumper, or Noodle Neddy to keep them happy and entertained for years to come when they are only here for an hour at best? He looked up and saw one of the cabinets in front of him titled ‘Meteors’ he saw on the all-black screen a tiny triangle blasting away at various roughly made rocks ... then the screen flashed a foreboding text…..
then the screen flashed a foreboding text [https://img.wattpad.com/aaf426b662e7872571dda80d7d51a6cdfc68b859/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f65355054326952547730674b68673d3d2d313338373830303737392e313738623438643035343833366462323336373133363237333731392e706e67?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
“Coin?” He was puzzled. Why did this….thing need a coin to play? Was it a simple heads or tails machine?
Duke Danger looked down and saw slightly under the cabinet was a quarter. He kneeled and grabbed it. He looked at the quarter, then back at the cabinet….in his gut, he wondered, should he be doing this?
But there he felt a rubbery hand on his plastic shoulder. He looked to his right and saw Noodle Ned giving him a look of reassurance.
“Let us find out together, old friend…..” Said Noodle Ned.
“Yeah! Whatever the big whoop is, let's find out and we can one-up these dumb-looking boxes!”
“You’re right…..Wally….will you do the honors?” Duke Danger asked as he handed Wally the quarter. He was the only one tall enough to reach the coin slot.
“Yeah! Let's show these dumb boxes who’s boss!” Wally said as he grabbed the quarter……he pushed it into the coin slot.
But then…..the Meteors cabinet played a small chiptune jingle…and all of the arcade cabinets shut down at once causing the four toys to get ready for whatever was about to happen…..but then ...the Meteors cabinet screen flickered back to life…this time the screens text was an eerie red color. The text slowly scrawled along the screen.
image [https://img.wattpad.com/0d8da81eeb0cec54c62faa8e366e462e2e77cba2/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f434f5a69385a695f636a4f4d76673d3d2d313338373830303737392e313738623438663261356330343338663839313239343031343935342e706e67?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
Then all the cabinet's screens all started to flicker all at once! Glowing So brightly that they couldn't make out what was on the screen anymore! But suddenly, bursting out of the Meteors cabinet screen was now that same white ship now floating a... [https://img.wattpad.com/2584795b32df02d6c7a802eeef5c4548d8c90735/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f365344725f36326147394c316a673d3d2d313338373830303737392e313738623438663466353464623063373639303639313238373738302e706e67?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
Then all the cabinet’s screens started to flicker all at once! Glowing So brightly that they couldn't make out what was on the screen anymore! But suddenly, bursting out of the Meteors cabinet screen was now that same white ship floating around the arcade right above them!
Noodle Ned immediately tried to latch on and grab the little spaceship! But it immediately turned and started blasting its little white cubes right at the four toys! One shot managed to hit Duke Danger in the right arm! Detaching it clean off! He picked up his arm and yelled to the rest of his friends
“RUN!”
They all urgently made a mad dash for the front door. As this happened characters from the inside of all the other cabinets began to emerge from their cabinet screens. Every one of them doing what they can to slow the four down!
The Grumpy bear threw a barrel of honey right at Wally and he became stuck in pixelated viscosity!
“Wally!” Chroma jumper shouted as she tried to pull him out! But then a pixelated tongue wrapped around her as she saw a frog that came out from the ‘Toadie’ Cabinet pull her right in and trap her in its mouth!
Noodle Neddy tried to run up to save her, but Duke Danger immediately grabbed him with his left arm and shouted “There's nothing we can do! We need to warn the others!” Noodle Ned looked at Duke Danger, and saw a different-looking cabinet with a glass box on top of it….its metal flap opened on the bottom,,, and a three-pronged claw shot out aiming to grab Duke Danger, but at the last second, he grabbed him and threw him as far as he could to the front door. Duke Danger quickly stood back up and saw this Noodle Ned getting dragged into the machine with the three-pronged claw and back into the metal flap. Inside the glass box, he saw him being violently squeezed but could see Noodle Ned signal him to RUN! JUST GO!
Duke Danger ran to the front door but the Arcade doors closed down before he could get out…..courtesy of a pixelated man wearing a gray gi and a purple belt!
Duke Danger knew this was the time to fight…so he dropped his detached right arm and used his left arm to raise his axe high and swung it down onto the head of the karate man……but it did nothing but phase clean through them…..
“Oh no……” Duke Danger whispered as he realized….he couldn't hurt them….he couldn't even touch them…
“Challange Accepted! Said the Karate man in a pixelated voice. The Karate Man took the position, his whole pixelated body glowed a bright blue….and with one spinning uppercut he detached the head of Duke Danger completely…. His body fell to its knees…then hit the ground.
As Duke Danger’s head fell on the ground mere seconds after his body did…all the pixel beings returned to their arcade cabinets. They began to play like normal again….but the Meteors Cabinet said something on its screen….
image [https://img.wattpad.com/fda2d595f98a6e9502069f4393586ccb2a81ff09/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f66375973626b7964767a6f5a74673d3d2d313338373830303737392e313738623438666630383036363730313536333334303836303931322e706e67?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
This was only the Beginning [https://img.wattpad.com/54e1b262e52277525936bc117d095a4a935f4310/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f5673545f774779333778445379773d3d2d313338373830303737392e31373862343930326330363939353431353531333333393634372e706e67?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
This was only the Beginning….The Rise of the Arcadians.