Hearing that he was going to play with them, the red head slapped him on the shoulder with a grin then held out his hand. Grasping, Ethan allowed himself to be pulled out of his seat and put the journal back into his jacket pocket.

Walking over to the arcade machine, the three boys were all smiles until they reached a dilemma. Who would go first?

“Well, it’d be rude if we asked you to play then had you sit out. So~” The younger kid drawled out.

Looking from one to another, they both smirked. What else could possibly have been the solution, but some good ol’ fashion Rock, Paper, Scissors. The shorter one won, though considering how overly dramatic the red head was it must have been a normal occurrence.

Throwing a mischievous smirk, the boy walked up and chose his character. “Ready to lose?”

Oh it is on! Ethan looked over at who his opponent chose and thought ‘it couldn’t be more perfect.’

Moving the joystick, he chose the only option that should fight the other character. Scorpion.

A predatory smile broke out across Ethans face. If there is one thing he is certain to win in, it is a fighting game. That his victim decided on rival to his preferred character just made it all the more perfect for when he destroys him.

Round 1. Fight.

Immediately Scorpion charged his opponent, throwing out punches and kicks. Ethan had learned the timing on when a character is able to move, by waiting to the exact moment he is able to get in a few hits before the other player could even register the moves. Sadly his lead didn’t last long.

After taking his blows, Sub Zero slid underneath a punch and countered with a kick to the other ninjas back. Seeing an opportunity for a bit of revenge, the other boy performed the Ice Freeze combo to lock down Scorpions movement. Quickly Ethan was finding that his health was down to half.

Needing to get away he Teleported away, hoping that some distance will allow him to build up some momentum back. The blue clad fighter however did not allow it to be that easy. A fist of the pursuer was what ended this round in a loss.

“Aw, don’t worry. I’ll go easy if you just ask.” Ok this brat needs to be taught a lesson.

Round 2. Fight.

Unlike before, Scorpion jumped back. Predictably, the other character displayed an impatience that denoted his younger age. Ethan was hoping the other would fall to the classic pride of someone who managed to beat an older player, naturally they would want to press the attack. Show that it wasn’t a fluke.

Playing far more defensively, Ethan manipulated his character to block the more mundane hits and jump away from all the low blows. The kid was smart enough to know that jumping attacks would just leave him open. Ethan was happy to get in any hit he could, choosing to focus more on slowly chipping away at his enemy’s health.

Teleporting away behind Sub Zero, Scorpion managed to leave with half health while the opponent still had only a quarter taken away. However unlike last round, a spear was thrown from his hand and dragged the ninja to his position. “Get over here!”

Smirking to himself, Ethan let the kid have it. He moved his character to begin pummeling at the other, leaving no opening for a single move to be thrown. The blue ninja would get a few blocks and dodges, but the momentum was all held with the yellow fighter from hell.

“Thanks kid, couldn’t have done it without you agreeing to go easy on me.” So maybe he shouldn’t be snarking at a kid at least 5 years younger than him, but Ethan couldn’t help it. The kid really knew how to get under his skin with those snide comments of his.

Glowering at Ethan, the young ravenette refused to say a word. Though that didn’t last long when he heard some snickering off to the side. Whipping around to his friend, he turned the focus of his glare.

A slice of pizza in his hand that Ethan swore wasn’t there earlier, the red head just smirked while continuing to take slow, deliberate bites. Just to annoy the smaller boy.

Final Round. Fight.

Both of them quickly whirled back to the game, determined to end this. Both players went for the old fashioned, beat ‘em up quick n’ clean strategy. Neither player wanted the other to get enough distance to blindside them and pretty much resorted to a flurry of kicks and punches from both sides.

The red head zipped back and forth over each side from behind them, letting out a low whistle as he watched the blur of their hands furiously smack around the joystick and pushing buttons. Quiet whispers into the younger kids ears were met furious whispers of what essentially amounted to “shut it” and “leave me alone !”

Eventually Sub Zero went down with his opponent only barely managing to squeak out a victory, a sliver of health left on the screen. A smile on his face, Ethan shoved his arms up into the air as if he were trying to punch away the clouds covering the Gotham skyline. “WooHoo! Yeah, haha.”

“Don’t worry Richy, you can always buy me some more food to make yourself feels better.” The red head playfully shook his friend, Richy, while giving him some faux advice on how to overcome this devastating loss. Richy was about to rebuke his friend, but was interupted.

Finish Him.

Smirking over at the two friends, Ethan controlled his character to do the only thing appropriate for a Mortal Kombat victor. Scorpion moved back a step then ripped off his mask to reveal a white skull. Opening its mouth, the skull roared a stream of flames at the feet of the poor victim. The fire raged, the ninja screaming in pain through the machine until only a blackened skeleton remained and fell to the ground in a pile of ash.

Fatality. Scorpion Wins.

For a few seconds neither boys said anything until the taller one grasped both of Ethan’s shoulders and started shaking him. “What was that? How did you do it? Can every player do it? Tell me!”

Apparently they didn’t know about fatalities. Who knew? Really Ethan should have known considering that only Mortal Kombat 1 was in this pizzeria, but even then it wasn’t like that could have been any blatant indicator as there were definitely places that will keep old games to not waste money on replacing them constantly with the newest version.

“Uh, I read it in a forum. Every character has a finishing move that is different from each other and quite complicated. As the story went, on the first day of testing a kid managed to get it to work once but nobody believed him. The creators even played it off like he was crazy and that they didn’t know what he was talking about.” Fun fact, everything was true. Just with a few extra steps missing.

“Woah, awesome.” Immediately both of them abandoned any notion of playing another round with Ethan as they went to ‘work’ finding out the Fatality for each of the characters.

Shaking his head with a smirk, Ethan decided to leave. Seeing the two being so amazed and clueless about something as integral as a Fatality really hammered home how strange the cultural progression of DC is. In a world with the integration of alien tech and magic into civilian products, they are surprisingly behind in entertainment. Touch screens have exploded into the world, but Mortal Kombat 1 is ‘new?’ Nothing makes sense.

As he left two men watched him from a corner. A man with short brown hair and a slim build looked over to his companion. “I’m glad they were having fun.” He clearly knew what the kids were doing somehow.

The person opposite him rolled his eyes. “Barry, there wasn’t a need to spy on the kids playing an arcade game.”

Even as the handsome man, who any lady would instantly fall for, said that Barry just stared at him. “Bruce, are you alright? You of all people would be the last person that I would hear that from.”

This man wearing a flat cap covering his midnight black hair was Bruce Wayne, one of the most famous individuals in the entire world. He was wearing a rather simple disguise to come out in public like he was, dress like a normal man. It is surprising how much someone famous can go unnoticed when they just dress normally with a hat on. Most will only look and congratulate him on looking like the Wayne heir instead of actually thinking that it was the man himself.

“Yeah. Had Alfred run a facial recognition on everyone who entered within a mile of us. That kid is a recent orphan who has been living by himself about 5 miles from here and spends most of his time within his home. Only within the last week has this Ethan Lambert abandoned his routine. “

‘And he says that using super speed to watch out for the boys was overkill.’ Barry thought as he just stared incredulously at his friend. “Well regardless the Wally seems to like him. I’ve never seen him that excited of something not ‘work’ related.”

A nod was all the billionaire gave the young man. He was glad that Dick got to talk with another boy his age too. Bruce noted the boy, Ethan, talked about the game was as if whatever it was should have been common knowledge. Dick may be missing out on many things that average boys his age would know because of his hero work, but games were not one of them. Especially those that Wally took a liking to.

Interesting.