<@Dreol> [Henry Intro Session] <@Dreol> [You have come to New York to compete at Ubercon! The largest multi- genre video game competition in the world. You and your family flew in Thursday Night. Early on Friday Henry and Rob approach the convention center and see a mass of people all gathered outside; some of them are cosplaying as various video game characters, or anime characters, or just in creepy goth outfits, because somehow that's related?] <@Dreol> [You are scheduled to participate in the Pokemon tournament which will take place at Noon and is scheduled to run for 2 hours.] <@Dreol> [You, of course, are expected to use your own Pokemon in the competition and they must be checked for legality beforehand.] <@Dreol> [The registration line is a 3 hour wait but you got there early so when you get through it's 10 AM. Once you get inside you are assaulted with a barrage of lights and sounds from all around. Stalls are set up where new games are being shown ala E3 or TGS. There is a section where dealers are selling rare games, or plushies or anything video game related that people might want.] <@Dreol> [most of the floor, however, is taken up by countless huge competition stations being set up.] <@Dreol> [Begin] * Henry gawks a bit. "Holy crap lookit all that dad!" Then, spying the rare games section he tugs on his dad's sleave. "I wanna see if they've got any pandora's disks!" <@Dreol> [Rob is tugged over and follows Henry and chuckles. "Alright, alright..." And he follows Henry over to the stand. "What are these Pandora Disk things, anyway?"] * Henry grins and rolls his eyes. "They're special CDs for Monster Rancher! It's the only way to get some of them!" <@Dreol> [Rob continues to look sort of blindly through the stacks of discs. "Ah! Okay... so what do they look like?"] Uh, the're all different, but they should say something about Monster Rancher on the front. * Henry heads straight for the M section and looks there. <@Dreol> [Somewhere hidden in the "M" section Henry finds a couple Pandora Disks, there are a couple of magazine ones for around $30 because of the stupid con mark-up and in the "Import" section is one imported japanese one for $250.] * Henry 's jaw drops, first from actually finding one, and then farther when he sees the price. "Hey Dad! Hey Dad! If I win could you get me this? It's super extra rare!" <@Dreol> [Rob looks over Henry's shoulder and his eyes widen. "Uh... Well I don't know... We'll see. If you win I'll definitely buy you something, though."] * Henry slumps a bit and puts the disk back, but he recovers. "I'm gonna make sure you remember that! My Pokemon are unstoppable!" <@Dreol> [Rob laughs and nods. "Alright. Hey you want to get some lunch? There's got to be a place around here to eat." He looks around and then decides to check his map. "Yeah, there's a concession area."] Sure! <@Dreol> [Rob heads on over towards the concession area, and pauses at some point in the maze of Dealers a bit confused, then he walks through a sort of cage of T-Shirts and ends up at a seating area. "Aha! Here we are. What do you want?" There are hotdogs, nachos, some questionable looking pizza, and soft pretzels. Also a variet of soda.] * Henry looks at the sign over the consession stand. "Howabout a hotdog anda Coke?" <@Dreol> [Rob nods. "Sure thing." He heads up to the register. "Uh yes, Can I get a hotdog, a pretzel and two cokes?" The lady nods and gets the food. Rob heads over to find a table and sit down. "So what's your strategy in this tournament thing, Henry?"] Well, it's two on two fights so for the first round I want two of my fastest Pokemon out, the absolute fastest to use Sunny Day, and then my second fastest to Soloar Beam everything with a STAB... which should do a lot of damage to the other guy's Pokemon, but it's also gonna KO my fastest. So I'll replace it with something that can't be hurt by that attack. After that it depends on what the other guy's using. And then in the second round I'll completely change elements. <@Dreol> [Rob nods as if he knows what Henry is talking about. "Wow, well that sounds great." He finishes up his hotdog and sips on the coke. "So is there anything else you want to do around here?"] <@Dreol> [It's currently 11:20 but Rob hasn't noticed yet.] * Henry checks his watch to find out the time. "I think we should go find where the tournament is happening." <@Dreol> [Rob looks at his watch. "Oh! Yeah. Okay." He stands up and waits for Henry. The tournament, by the way, is in the east wing of the convention center.] * Henry stands up and pulls his DS out of his pocket for eleventh time that morning, just to reassure himself that it's still there. After he puts it away he grins at his dad. "Okay!" <@Dreol> [Rob watches his map as he heads out of the dealer's room. "Wow, this place is huge. Are people really this into video games?"] Yep! Thousands of people from aaaall over the world came her just to play video games! And I'm gonna beat all the ones between thirteen and eightteen who came to play Pokemon! <@Dreol> [Rob laughs. "Well I have faith in you." They eventually arrive at the arena for Pokemon. It's a huge arena with statues of certain pokemon outside it and a bunch of teenagers standing around outside with DSes. The competition will start in twenty minutes, but the spectators can go in now. "Well I'm going to go find a seat. You'll be okay out here?"] I'll be fine Dad! Cheer me on! <@Dreol> [Rob nods and smiles "Good luck!" and he heads inside. Meanwhile, outside everyone is looking into their DSes to make sure everything is set up correctly.] * Henry powers his on and checks again that he's got all the right pokemon with all the right items and in the right slots. <@Dreol> [About 10 minutes later a man comes out in a shirt with a Nintendo logo and an "Uberstaff" badge. "Alright, guys. If you're ready they're telling me you can head on in and get set up."] <@Dreol> [The rest of the competition nervously stands up and heads into the arena.] * Henry shuts his DS and follows the crowd. <@Dreol> [Once inside there are 16 stations set up to plug a DS in and get paired up with another competitor. There are giant monitors that project each competitors screen to the audience.] * Henry stands near the edge for a bit, trying to see his dad in the stands, but the lights make that pretty much impossible. So he picks the third machine from the right and stands in front of it waiting for the pokemon check. <@Dreol> [a few judges move around and look at everyone's pokemon. One gets to Henry's and askes him to open each one's statistics screen. Once that looks satisfactory they move on.] <@Dreol> [Finally the Nintendo rep from earlier comes out. "Alright, let the fight begin." Henry is placed up against someone whose character's name is Villia.] <@Dreol> [She tosses out a Snorlax, and a Spiritomb] * Henry nods to himself as his Castform and Jumpluff shouldn't have any problems at all with the going first plan, but the Snorlax will probably survive the first round. <@Dreol> [The Snorlax does survive the first round, but Henry manages to win over with a couple good hits and a winning strategy. The rest of the fight she's slightly more unlucky, on the weakness scale and while she tries to plan to cover her weaknesses, Henry's versatility outwins her and he, in fact, finishes a little early for the round.] <@Dreol> [As he has a little break between rounds of combat Henry has time to notice as the giant monitor outside clicks on to reveal two men in a press box] <@Dreol> [The one on the left, the monitor claims his name is Alex, has stiffly parted dark hair, is thin and has glasses. The one on the right looks like he just got out of a J-rock concert or is trying to cosplay someone from Kindgom Hearts II. His hair is combed back in huge spikes, his name is Jason.] <@Dreol> "Welcome to Ubercon 2009, I'm Alex Thompson." <@Dreol> "And I'm Jason Moore. It's been a big year in competitive gaming and this is going to be a very exciting competition, some newcomers this year look very promising." <@Dreol> "Yes, but a lot of returning competitors here as well. I saw Gregory Stevens, last year's winner of the Soul Calibur tournament and asked him if he thought he would be able to defend his title. He said that he would certainly try but every year the gaming community gets more skilled and he wishes his competitors luck." <@Dreol> "What a great guy, I love Greg. Anyway, there are a few competitors you won't be seeing this year. Richard Williams has been the victim of an unfortunate deli-slicer injury and cannot compete in the Dynasty Warriors tournament this year." <@Dreol> "Right, and Nate Walsh was banned from Ubercon last year after getting in a heated argument and punching a judge who ruled that his pokemon were illegally obtained." <@Dreol> "Gerard Peterson, the current Halo champion disappeared a month ago during the competition at Shutocon and hasn't been heard from since. <@Dreol> "And finally Renee Fielding who is last years winner of the Final Fantasy competition with her amazing 3 hour run through the supposed 6 hour demo of Final Fantasy XIII that Squarenix presented us, has said that she is quitting competitive gaming to take up a career in game design." <@Dreol> "Maybe she'll be here next year as a developer." <@Dreol> "We can hope. In any case a very exciting year." <@Dreol> [The TV fades out to just displaying the Ubercon logo.] * Henry takes a step back from the machine and looks around at the rest of the competition, wondering who he's going to face next. <@Dreol> [Well after the first round of combat is over the second round begins. Henry is pitted up against someone named Tristonus, who gives him a bit more trouble. He seems to favor tanks and so Henry has a harder time bringing him down and even loses a couple pokemon. In the end, though, the victory belongs to Henry and he moves on to the semi-final round.] * Henry makes a mental note that his annoyance pokemon are going to need more HP for the next competition, but is elated by his sqeaking through anyway! <@Dreol> [The semi-finals run a bit longer than the finals. Henry is up against Kultor and his match is reminiscent of an old western shootout with both he and his opponent favoring sweepers and speed being the deciding factor. In the end it becomes Henry's victory once again with minimal losses and he is pushed onto the finals against someone named Zellux.] <@Dreol> [Henry's fight against Zellux starts with Henry beating out one of his opponent's two pokemon, but then he loses both to a buffed up AOE. It doesn't look so good but eventually Henry manages to debuff his opponents accuracy enough to survive through until it is just one on one, at the last attack from Henry where it looks like he is victorious, the screen freezes.] <@Dreol> [Of course a second later it's obvious that everyone has stopped screaming and the whole world seems frozen.] Wha? Hey! How... What's going on? <@Dreol> [At that the world seems to melt away leaving him in a black void.] <@Dreol> [After a moment the darkness is eaten away by a dim light and Henry finds himself standing on a stone floor in the middle of, what appears to be, nothingness.] <@Dreol> [Session End.]