Kaden Jannsen, Aven Lengell; Sagaro Mall Floor 5 -> Basement
*tap* *tap* *tap* Rhythmically pressing the button, Aven shot his missiles toward the enemy aliens. This was a much better game, and having an audience somehow helped. It calmed him down, pushed him to show off and do more than he ever could have expected. He was already past his previous score, and he had more lives than would be shown on screen. Sure, it was mean to not die, to not let his student have a chance, but there was no way he was giving up his streak simply to be nice to someone. Anyway, he had been nice; he had shown the student (he couldn't waste the energy searching for a name) some tricks: the timing of the waves, the different types of enemies and how points worked for them, the usage of the tractor beam to get a double ship. Wasn't it worth it simply to sit there and watch a master at work? He'd get his chance, and until then, he'd be entranced by Aven's prowess at the game. Sure, Aven couldn't look over now, but he was sure that student was already sitting mesmerized. It made perfect sense. He was already nearing a million, and there was no sign of him faltering any time soon. This would be the day he beat the high score, even if ACE had beaten him by over two million... He'd show him not to mess with AWL anymore... *tap* *tap* *tap*
Kaden watched as Aven flew through the game, killing enemy after enemy, missing few if any of his shots, each attack going where it was supposed to, each enemy dying soon after arriving on screen, the timing perfected to make getting maximum points easy. This was truly a master at work. Kaden was getting drawn into the game just by watching, and ideas kept flowing into his head. Why not make a character so entranced by a game that he was eventually absorbed into it, became a part of the world, began to live in the world he was so enamored of? Why not make a futuristic world where gaming was just a part of everyday life, maybe where everyday life took place, a virtual reality world that had replaced the Earth when it had gone to ruin? Why not make a book about space battles, about a man saving his planet, the galaxy even, from hostile alien invasion? Or even just document the travels of a character traveling through space? And with space comes the connected idea of time. So time travel? That could be very fun to write, and would it be backward or forward? Where would the character be going and why? How would changes in the normal order of things affect the "present day" time? Would things be automatically corrected? Would it just be impossible? Would it be as if in the history that we know it, the time-travel person was already there, even if he himself didn't know it? Or would the changes actually affect things? And how greatly? Would there be some measures to stop people from changing the future, or some way the fix the changes? Hmm... that could be an interesting thing to do, making it so- Suddenly, he was drawn from his reverie by a loud noise, a bell tolling repeatedly, sounding throughout the entire mall. He glanced at the game, surprised that it was already over a million, but it made sense, since he hadn't been bothered by Aven to go and take his turn. He felt bad about missing out on finishing the game, but he had a job to do, and he wasn't going to be late to this one.
Glancing at the clock to make sure it truly read 9:00 pm, Kaden got up from his seat. "I'm truly sorry, but I have to go now. There's something that I need to buy, and then I need to go home. Maybe we can do this game another day? Good luck!" Aven didn't so much as glance at him, but it seemed like he gave a slight nod. At any rate, Kaden simply walked quickly out of the arcade and walked toward the escalator. Remembering a few hours ago, he changed his mind and took the long way to the basement: the elevator. He pressed the button and waited, watching as the number slid down to the basement (down? Yes, it truly was going down...) and then paused before going up, stopping at 3 and then stopping again at 5. There was another person on the elevator, and he was still going up, it seemed. The elevator went up two floors and stopped at the seventh, letting the man off. In the meantime, Kaden continued sketching in his sketchpad and waited for the elevator to begin its plunge to the bottom. There seemed to be stops on every floor now, but Kaden stepped out finally into the basement along with a few others, checking the number he was searching for once more before closing his pad: JS-878.
As he was about to go searching the cars, he noticed a boy standing in the lot on his phone, looking confused and for some reason slightly out of place. It was Lucas, the student council president, and luckily he hadn't seen him yet. How would Kaden explain what he was doing here? What could he use as a cover before the car left? As he searched around for a suitable hiding place, he noticed a familiar-sounding license plate: JS-878, between 8ST-3N0 and Y6-84Z. Luckily, it was behind Lucas, so he wouldn't see him if he went there, but it was safest to wait until he was gone. An idea popped into his head, and he moved to 8ST-3N0 and sat down in front of the dark green convertible, leaning back against it as he opened his sketchpad and began drawing while paying close attention to the movements of Lucas. And from here, he could hear the last few words said over the phone. "...in the parking lot." So he was here for a reason? Kaden continued to listen to the conversation as he drew absentmindedly, building his alibi for being here and keeping watch on his target at the same time. He would find a time to slip in the package if at all possible, but he would not fail this mission, no matter what. Now he just had to wait for Lucas to go away and do whatever he needed to do...