This choice: Team J3/3LZ vs Team MEGATORCH • Go Back...Chapter #8Team J3/3LZ vs Team MEGATORCH by: Mr.Domino   "J3/3LZ?" Peter said, saying each letter of the admittingly strange 'band' name out loud, "How do you even say that? Phonetically, I mean."
"Oh! I've seen names like that before. It's, um, kinda K-Pop sounding" Lindsey said, tilting her head in thought as she stared at the name, "Um, kinda looks a bit like L337-speak...Hmm" She pondered.
"What the hell is L337-speak?"
"Oh, it's like gamer-speak. No one really uses it anymore except to be obnoxious. Was sort of a 'early Internet' thing. Hackers used it a lot before it went mainstream and then people just used it to seem like they were smarter than they really were. You just take numbers that look like letters and stick 'em into words. You can have a lot of fun trolling people who don't know it" Lindsey said absent-mindedly. And then realized she was being stared at for her burst of knowledge and let loose a giggle, "But, ummm, I only know about 'cuz some of my older gamer friends talk about it on Discord. What's it say Eugene?"
"Wha? Uh, right...Well, looks to me like someone was trying to spell..." Eugene furrowed his brow in concentration as he tried to remember his L337, "I think it's supposed to say 'Jewels'?"
"Oooh, what kind?"
Eugene just gave Lindsey a shrug.
"Well, whatever. At least the BEST team got the COOLEST name!" Peter said enthusiatically. He really did like the name, it was just the right level of ridiculous and heavily reminded him of one of one of the first movies he'd ever seen: This is Spinal Tap. He kind of felt like he should make a t-shirt the next chance he got into town, over at the 'hippy' shop.
Judy, however, was less than impressed with the name.
"Megatorch" She sad flatly, crossing her arms under her large breasts and giving Peter a 'really?' look.
"No no babe, you gotta get into it. MEGATORCH!" Peter yelled, and distortion crackled through the TV speakers as the group grabbed their ears.
"Like, ow?" Lindsey said, giving Peter a look of her own, to which he simply grinned sheepishly.
"Sorry! So I wonder what kind of songs we're going to get? This thing is from the 80s right? So...Are we looking at Classic Rock or bad pop music or something?" The muscled athlete scratched his chin with the back end of the microphone as he started at the retro-styled screen.
"Please don't let it be 'classic' Country music. The only half-way acceptable stuff is the 90s Garth Brooks stuff" Judy muttered.
"Well we won't know until we start playing so..." Eugene gave Lindsey a soft nudge with the end of his microphone, and his perky team-mate pretended to explode (with a giggle) before clicking the button on the bottom of her mic twice. The two band names turned opposing colors; J3/3LZ in blue and MEGATORCH in a fitting red as the machine beeped...and blue light began glowing from the inside of Eugene and Lindsey's microphones as a red light burned to life inside of Peter and Judy's. The four students looked at their microphones and then back at the TV as the game began to speak and text began to scroll by on the TV screen itself.
"TEAM NAMES CHOSEN. WELCOME TO MORPHMANJI MUSIC.
THE GOAL OF THE GAME IS TO GAIN 190,084 POINTS ACROSS FIVE ROUNDS OF SONGS.
ROUNDS CONSIST OF THREE SONGS FOR EACH TEAM.
AT THE END OF EACH ROUND BOTH TEAMS WILL COMPETE IN A BATTLE OF THE BANDS.
POINTS ARE AWARDED FOR EACH SONG COMPLETED.
POINTS ARE SUBTRACTED FROM EACH TEAM APPEARANCE FOR MISTAKES.
PERFORMANCE COUNTS TOWARDS POINT TOTALS.
TEAMS THAT WIN EACH ROUND CAN CHANGE THEIR NAMES.
TEAMS THAT LOSE MUST STAY REMAIN WITH THE SAME NAME.
AT THE END OF THE GAME.THE BAND WITH THE MOST POINTS AND BATTLE OF THE BANDS VICTORIES WILL BE DECLARED THE VICTOR AND GIVEN A COPY OF THEIR PERFORMANCE VIA LASER DISC.
LOSING BANDS WILL BE SENT BACK TO THE GARAGE TO TRY AGAIN.
CLICK TWICE TO CONTINUE"
The game spoke the words as they appeared on the screen in a very 'active typing' sort of way, as if someone was communicating to them in real time rather than a programmed message, but the four friends didn't seem to notice the slight delay between each word.
"Seems simple enough. Actually seems a lot like that old game...Guitar Hero? Or Rock Band? But I wonder what it meant by 'Losers have points subtracted from appearance?" Eugene had only played those old games once or twice on a friend's old PS2.
"Or umm, Dance Dance Revolution? Ooh, I wonder if the game has that? That one is SUPER fun with the right partner" Lindsey said, curling an arm around Eugene's leg and the geek tried not to gulp too loudly with nervousness, his own question forgotten as she leaned against his ambulatory limb.
"I'e never played either of those. But what does it mean 'Losers get sent back to the garage'?" Judy wondered, staring at the words on the screen.
"It's probably just there for flavor, Jude. You know, 'all bands start out in their garage', probably just means the band that loses the game" Peter said with an unconcerned yawn.
Judy shrugged. The logic made sense, she'd seen plenty of cover bands in basements and in garages in the past couple of years, so it clearly just had to be whoever programmed the game being clever.
"Hey guys?" Eugene asked as he read over the directions one more time, "What do you think it means by "Losing team gets points subtracted from their appearance?"
But Lindsey had already clicked her button.
"GAME STARTED. SELECTING STARTING TEAM" The game announced, and a white box began flashing between the two team names on the TV, moving in random order as the game began to count down from five.
"Here we go!" Lindsey giggled in excitement as the timer clicked down to zero, the box stopping on...  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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