2 The Cutscene

It had been nearly a month since I came across that image of Azula. I showed it to her, but all I got was . . .

"I'm not worried. The devs have never killed off any main characters." she giggled. It was so cute, but she trusts the devs. Most of us normally do, except for Kyle (all the devs come up with crazy ideas every now and then, but Kyle is the king of ideas; he's the reason we have entire planet dedicated to crystals and deserts). She was busy adjusting some loose gears on a dragon's arm. "This new expansion is going to bring in a ton of new characters, tech and new dragons! So what if I have to be the damsel in distress?"

"But what if something goes wrong? You know there are crazies on the Internet who are threaten fanservice characters." I don't get players or in this case fake players. Our game is just afew years short of being ten years old and out of the blue these news articles started complaining about Azula's figure. Geeze, most of them haven't even played game! "I don't know what I would do if they got rid of you to make them happy!"

"I know, I know, but if they were going to pander to that group I'm pretty sure there wouldn't be ten new bikinis each year for the spring break and Independence events." Azula then changed into her bikini from the last Independence day event: blue bikini top with white stars and red short swimshorts with white stripes. Oh, and can't forget that large white star hair bow for her ponytail. That was a great in game event; Azula and I got to work the event items store together. Plus, our team won the surfing contest! "Not to mention the backlash from the Players if they changed either of us. We're both in the top 10 favorite characters."

"I still think that poll was rigged. You deserve higher than 3rd place, especially putting under Captain Sanchiez. I get he's the face of the Merc expansion, but . . . " I started, but Azula cut me off with a hug and changed back into her regular outfit. "I think it's the scar that puts the space pirate look over the top. I still think they should've gone with the bionic eye."

We laughed at that. Sandy as the Players call him is one part Han Solo, one part Jack Sparrow and with Squall Lionheart thrown in for good measure. He's not really a bad guy, just overated. He even says he's an overated emo pirate at virtually every bar in the game and people love him. I guess it's his brutal honesty. He says what alot of people think. "I guess you're right. At least we still have afew months until launch."

And as if I said the magic word, BOOM! The ominous music that plays everytime the Kaimyra attack became echoing thru the building. Azula looked over at me; last time we had Kaimyra attack music in the garage, hanger or scrap yard, the game had some kind of sound issues (the Kaimyra never attack this area). It was different this time; the pitch, how it started low and was getting louder by the second . . . Something was wrong.

Suddenly, one of the bay doors exploded and smoke filled the room. A Squadron of Kaimyra burst into the hanger. We both gasped. The soldiers were running on the catwalk and tried to surround us. I had to act fast. I took Azula's hand and we ran to the elevator. The door opened to figure with a darkened helmet and black cloaked flightsuit: it was a Kaimyran Commander.

We started to turn back, but I tripped. Azula started to come back for me, but the Commander motioned form the Kaimyran troops to take her. Azula struggled and screamed as they dragged her away thru the damaged bay door like in the concept art.

With all my might, I ran after them until I tripped again and could only watch as they flew off with her. All the anger and fear inside me built up and was released in my earth shattering scream. "AAZZUULAAAAA!!!"