Sunday, 1 December 2001.
Meanwhile, at almost the same time, the Bakudan Boys had gathered inside Sawada's house.
Sawada stood in the doorway of his room and stared at the three idiots who had somehow made themselves comfortable before he even finished complaining. Rikki was already sitting directly in front of the television, Sakaki had stolen one of Sawada's pillows, and Kumogi was inspecting the snacks on the table as though they belonged to him.
Sawada released a long sigh. "Guys… why is it always my house whenever we want to hang out?"
Kumogi grinned while grabbing a handful of snacks. "Because your room is the most normal one. Compared to Rikki and Sakaki's rooms? Ugh."
Rikki immediately looked offended. "Compared to the shithole you have, my room is a five-star hotel."
Kumogi stopped chewing. "What did you say?"
"I said your room looks like somebody lost a war inside it."
"Fuck you!"
Sakaki laughed from the floor. "Come on, Sawada. We're ZAGE boys now, heh? Of course we need to hang out at your house."
Sawada slowly stared at him. "And where is the goddamn logic in that?"
"There isn't any."
"Exactly."
The four of them had known each other long before any of them worked at ZAGE. Years ago, they were simply four noisy regulars at Bakudan Arcades, spending ridiculous amounts of time and money competing against each games.
Eventually, people around the arcade started calling them the Bakudan Boys.
The name stuck.
And somehow, after all those years of wasting afternoons inside arcades, all four of them had ended up working at ZAGE.
That fact still amused Sawada sometimes..
They were still idiots arguing over games.
Rikki suddenly grabbed one of the ZEPS 3 controllers. "Enough talking. Let's play Team Buddies. This is going to be co-op hell. Hehehe… I'm destroying all of you."
Sakaki immediately pointed toward him. "Bullshit. If you three don't gang up on me, I'll definitely win. But I already know you bastards are going to team up against me."
Kumogi laughed. "Why would we gang up on you?"
"Because you always do!"
Sawada groaned. "Because you spend the first five minutes screaming about how good you are."
"That is called confidence."
"That is called being annoying."
Sawada walked toward the shelf and pulled out his newly purchased copy of Team Buddies.
He looked at the other three hopeless bastards sitting comfortably inside his room. "You guys really came into my house to play using my disc too?"
Rikki laughed. "Come on, Sawada! It's half-price anyway. We have ZAGE employee benefits!"
Kumogi casually picked his nose. "Yeah. Don't be stingy. You'll get old faster."
Rikki nodded seriously. "For once, I agree with the tall bastard."
Kumogi immediately turned toward him. "WHO IS THE TALL BASTARD?!"
Sawada closed his eyes.
He briefly considered throwing all three of them outside.
Instead, he inserted the Team Buddies disc into his ZEPS 3.
Within moments, the television displayed the colourful ZAGE logo before transitioning into the game's opening animation. Small round-headed characters ran across the screen carrying ridiculous weapons while explosions, vehicles, boxes, and colourful environments filled the background.
The Bakudan Boys immediately became quieter.
Not completely quiet.
That was impossible.
But quiet enough to actually watch.
Rikki leaned forward. "Ohhh… this looks fun."
"You said that before even playing," Sawada replied.
"I can feel it."
"That is not how reviewing games works."
The main menu appeared, and Sawada selected Multiplayer.
Four-player split-screen.
Each of them quickly selected a different team colour before entering one of the larger battle maps.
The first few minutes were surprisingly calm.
Mostly because none of them understood what the hell they were doing.
"What are these boxes for?" Kumogi asked while moving his Buddy around.
Sawada had already read some of the manual. "Stack them."
"Why?"
"Just fucking stack them."
Kumogi began collecting the normal coloured boxes scattered across the map and carrying them toward his base. Team Buddies revolved around gathering these boxes and stacking them on pads to create equipment, weapons, vehicles, or additional Buddies.
The number and combination of boxes determined what was created.
A small stack could produce simple weapons.
Larger stacks could create heavier equipment.
Certain arrangements created vehicles.
And creating new Buddies allowed players to expand their little army before sending them into battle.
At first, everyone experimented.
Then Rikki understood the system.
That was when everything immediately became worse.
"Ohhh…"
Sawada heard the tone in his voice.
He turned toward Rikki's screen.
Rikki had already built a large box stack.
"Wait."
A heavy weapon spawned.
Rikki started laughing.
"Hehehehehe."
Sawada pointed at him. "Don't."
Rikki immediately turned his Buddy toward Kumogi's base.
Kumogi was peacefully attempting to create a vehicle.
"Wait, which stack makes the jeep again?"
A stream of heavy fire suddenly slammed into his base.
Kumogi froze.
His unfinished structure exploded.
He slowly turned toward Rikki.
Rikki was already laughing like a lunatic.
"HAHAHAHA!"
"RIKKI, YOU BASTARD!"
Kumogi immediately abandoned everything and charged toward him.
"I WAS BUILDING SOMETHING!"
"That sounds like your problem!"
"You damn fuck!"
Within seconds, the peaceful learning phase was over.
Team Buddies became war.
Sawada tried to remain neutral for approximately thirty seconds before Sakaki attacked one of his resource areas.
Sawada stared at his screen. "Sakaki."
"What?"
"Why are you stealing my boxes?"
"I found them."
"They are literally inside my base!"
"Still found them."
Sawada immediately grabbed a weapon.
"Fine."
Sakaki started laughing. "Wait, wait, wait—"
Sawada opened fire.
The entire room erupted.
Rikki was fighting Kumogi.
Sawada was chasing Sakaki.
Sakaki was trying to steal boxes while escaping.
Kumogi had somehow hijacked one of Rikki's vehicles.
"HEY!" Rikki shouted. "THAT'S MINE!"
"Not anymore!"
"GET OUT!"
"No!"
The four split screens became pure chaos.
Then they discovered the Unique Boxes.
These were different from the normal boxes scattered throughout the map.
Each Unique Box possessed a special theme and could alter whatever was created from the stack.
Sawada found the first one.
It was pale blue and covered in frost-like markings.
He stared at it.
"What the hell is this?"
Rikki briefly looked toward his screen. "Unique Box?"
The four of them stopped fighting for perhaps three seconds.
Sawada carried the Frost Box toward his base.
He stacked it together with several normal weapon boxes.
The creation pad activated.
A strange blue weapon appeared.
Sawada picked it up.
The weapon name appeared on-screen.
FROZEN GUN
Everyone immediately reacted.
"OHHHH!"
Sawada aimed toward the nearest enemy Buddy and fired.
A blast of icy energy struck the target.
The Buddy froze completely.
Sawada's eyes widened.
"No way."
Rikki started laughing. "HAHA! SHOOT KUMOGI!"
"WHY ME?!"
Sawada immediately shot Kumogi.
His Buddy froze solid.
"SAWADA!"
Sawada nearly fell backward laughing. "HAHAHAHA!"
Kumogi furiously moved the controls while his character remained trapped inside ice. "YOU FUCKER! WAIT UNTIL I GET OUT!"
Sawada fired again.
The ice timer reset.
Kumogi stared at the television in disbelief.
"You piece of shit."
Even Sakaki was laughing now.
But the Frost Box had another use.
When combined within a Buddy-creation stack, instead of producing an ordinary Buddy, it created a special one.
Sawada experimented again.
Several boxes stacked together.
The machine activated.
A pale-blue character emerged.
FROZEN BUDDY
The Frozen Buddy possessed resistance against ice attacks and carried its own frost-themed equipment.
Rikki immediately leaned closer. "Wait. So Unique Boxes change the Buddies too?"
Sawada nodded slowly. "Looks like it."
That changed everything.
Now nobody cared about winning.
At least temporarily.
They wanted to find more Unique Boxes.
The map contained several kinds hidden across different areas.
Rikki discovered an explosive-themed box.
He stacked it with weapon boxes.
The result was a strange launcher that fired projectiles which split into several smaller explosions after impact.
His face immediately became dangerous.
"Oh…"
Sawada sighed. "We are fucked."
Rikki fired it directly into Sakaki's base.
The explosion destroyed several structures.
Sakaki screamed. "WHY?!"
"I needed to test it!"
"TEST IT ON YOUR OWN BASE!"
"That would be stupid!"
Kumogi found another Unique Box with an electrical symbol.
He used it to create an electric Buddy capable of temporarily stunning enemy units and disabling vehicles.
The moment he discovered what it could do, he immediately hunted Rikki.
Rikki was driving one of the larger vehicles when Kumogi's electric attack struck it.
The vehicle stopped completely.
Rikki stared.
"No."
Kumogi smiled.
"No, no, no."
Kumogi approached slowly.
"Remember my vehicle?"
"Come on, bro."
"You destroyed it."
"That was twenty minutes ago!"
"I remember."
"LET IT GO!"
Kumogi destroyed the vehicle.
Rikki screamed.
Sawada and Sakaki were laughing so hard they almost stopped playing.
The Unique Box system turned every match into experimentation.
Some special boxes modified weapons.
Others changed vehicles.
Some created Buddies with completely different abilities.
The combinations became increasingly ridiculous when multiple Unique Boxes appeared in larger stacks.
A weapon might gain elemental effects.
A Buddy might become specialised for defence, speed, explosives, or ranged combat.
Even the Bakudan Boys could tell almost immediately that Zaboru had probably gone insane while expanding the system.
Sawada stared at another strange box. "How many of these things are there?"
Sakaki shrugged. "Probably too many."
"That means somebody at work had to balance all this shit."
Rikki laughed. "Poor bastards thank god i'm not goddamn developers."
Sawada looked at him. "We work at the same company."
"Still poor bastards."
Eventually, they stopped experimenting peacefully and returned to trying to murder each other.
Rikki created heavy weapons whenever possible.
Kumogi became obsessed with vehicles.
Sakaki developed the irritating habit of sneaking around other bases and stealing boxes instead of gathering his own.
Sawada became increasingly defensive, building stronger Buddies and using Unique Boxes to protect his resource areas.
Their personalities naturally created completely different playstyles.
It also created endless arguments.
"Sakaki! Give my box back!"
"No!"
"I literally watched you take it!"
"Then you should've stopped me!"
"YOU WERE MY ALLY!"
"Temporary alliance."
"We formed it thirty seconds ago!"
"Things change."
Meanwhile, Rikki suddenly attacked both of them.
"HAHAHA! DIE!"
Sawada stared toward his screen. "WHY ARE YOU ATTACKING US?!"
"You guys looked distracted."
Kumogi, who had been quietly building another vehicle, immediately drove straight into Rikki's forces.
"IDIOT! LOOK BEHIND YOU!"
Rikki turned.
"Oh shit."
The vehicle smashed through several of his Buddies.
Rikki screamed.
By that point, none of them even remembered who was supposed to be winning.
Every new box became an excuse to experiment.
Every newly created weapon became an excuse to shoot somebody.
Every vehicle existed primarily to be stolen by Kumogi.
Every alliance lasted less than five minutes.
At one point, Sawada, Rikki, and Kumogi finally agreed to attack Sakaki together.
Sakaki immediately noticed all three coloured teams approaching his base.
He stared at the television.
Then at his friends.
"You fucking bastards."
Sawada smiled. "You predicted this."
"I WAS JOKING!"
Rikki laughed. "Too late!"
Kumogi shouted, "GET HIM!"
Three armies charged simultaneously.
Sakaki desperately defended his base using everything available.
Unique weapons fired from different directions.
Vehicles collided.
Frozen Buddies slowed attackers.
Explosions filled the screen.
Tiny colourful characters screamed while running across the battlefield.
For several minutes, Sawada's room became louder than Bakudan Arcades had ever been.
"LEFT!"
"WHO FROZE ME?!"
"RIKKI, STOP SHOOTING YOUR OWN TEAM!"
"IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!"
"YOU DID IT THREE TIMES!"
"KUMOGI, THAT IS MY VEHICLE!"
"IT'S OUR VEHICLE!"
"WE AREN'T EVEN ALLIES!"
"THEN IT'S MY VEHICLE!"
Sakaki somehow survived the first attack.
He stood up from the floor and raised both arms triumphantly. "HAHA! FUCK YOU ALL!"
Then one stray explosive projectile flew across the map and hit his final structure.
His base exploded.
The room became silent.
Sakaki stared at the screen.
Rikki slowly looked toward him.
"That was me."
Sakaki threw a pillow.
The room immediately descended into another kind of battle.
Several minutes later, all four of them were exhausted from laughing.
Sawada leaned backward against his bed, controller resting on his stomach. "Okay…"
Rikki was still laughing. "Again."
"What?"
"Again."
Kumogi nodded immediately. "Different map."
Sakaki pointed toward them. "And this time none of you are allowed to gang up on me."
Sawada sighed. "We're absolutely going to gang up on you."
"Fuck you."
Yet Sakaki was already pressing the button to continue.
Sawada looked at the television while the next Team Buddies map loaded.
Colourful Buddies appeared again.
Boxes dropped across the battlefield.
Somewhere on the map, several Unique Boxes were already waiting to be discovered.
Sawada smiled.
Now they were adults.
All four worked for ZAGE.
They had salaries, responsibilities, development schedules, and careers but who cares they still have blast anyway.
Rikki leaned forward with an evil grin. "Hehehe… this time I'm winning."
Kumogi immediately replied, "Shut the fuck up."
Sakaki laughed.
Sawada picked up his controller again.
"Fine."
The next match began.
And within thirty seconds, somebody was already screaming.
Team Buddies had successfully turned the Bakudan Boys into chaos incarnate again.
Not that they had ever really stopped being ones.
To be continued.
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