The Wizard (incomplete) (bi-weekly writing challenge #2)

The commando comes across a gap nearly four times the length of his own body. At
the bottom lies an empty, black void of death. He hesitates, knowing full well that an army of
armed men are on his tail. He takes a leap of faith across the chasm, realizing far too late that
he had underestimated how far the gap really was. He falls, with no chance of survival.
 "Dammit." I mumble to myself, averting my eyes from the game over screen.
 It was the first day of spring break, a lengthy span of free time that I had fully intended
to spend ironing out my Super Alien Commando skills. However, I'm currently at a road block. In
level 2, there's a gap that I just can't seem to get across, no matter how I approach it.
 My Dad swings open the door to my room. "Are ya winnin', son?" He asks
nonchalantly, completely ignoring the massive "GAME OVER" text boldly plastered on the
screen.
 "Not really, it looks like I'm stuck again." I groan dejectedly.
 "Well, I've got to go to work."
 "But you're off today, aren't you?"
 Dad awkwardly rubs the back of his neck. "I got called in. Sounds pretty rough, but
they'll only keep me in for a half-shift. I'll be back around dinner time."
 "What about lunch?"
 "You'll have to fend for yourself. I left a twenty on the counter, if you want to grab
something from the gas station. Anyway, I've got to go."
 "Alright, see you later, Dad." I smile, waving him goodbye.
 "See ya!" He salutes, before leaving.
 I tried another run of Super Alien Commando, only to die at the relatively easy miniboss
that shows up moments before the leap of faith. Humiliated, I tossed the plastic controller onto
my bed, and shut the console down.
 Frustrated with my lack of skill, and hungry for lunch, I decided to head over to the gas
station convenience store a few blocks away from my house. I grabbed the twenty off of the
counter, stuffed it inside my pocket, and opened the front door.
 "Oh hey, lil' guy." A woman cheerfully called out to me. It was Miss Kafele, the landlord
of the apartment I lived in. She was a monstergirl, but she wasn't a bad person at all. She used
to buy ice cream for me all the time when I was little. Right now, she was pacing back and forth
alongside the edge of the community pool. She seemed distressed about something.
 "Hi, Miss Kafele." I replied with a smile.
 "Oh! Hi. Where's your dad?” She quizzed. “Also, you really shouldn't be wandering
around without an adult, y'know. It's dangerous."
 "I'm old enough to handle myself. Besides, I'm only going to the gas station. And my
Dad's at work."
 “Oh, he's just working. Phew.” Kafele sighed. “Don't talk to strangers, okay?”
“Mm-hmm.” I hummed. “Why do you seem so upset?”
 “It's just... work-related things. My boss has been acting weird. It's kind of stressing me
out.”
 I paused for a moment to wonder just how weird Kafele's boss must be, if she could
stress someone like Kafele out. “'Kay.” I mumbled, walking off toward the convenience store.
 I walked for about twenty-minutes down the busy street in front of the apartments,
before arriving at my destination. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a flier that had been
taped to the window. It was a simple, black-and-white ad, with clip-art of a wizard's hat at the
bottom right corner. It read:
 ARE YOU A GAMER IN DISTRESS? CALL 1-800-HEY-WZRD FOR TIPS, TRICKS,
STRATEGIES AND MORE! $1 PER TIP, DEBIT OR CREDIT. ALL CARDS ACCEPTED. CALL
NOW! NOW OFFERING PERSONAL COACHING, $5 PER HOUR. CASH OK!!!

-THE WIZARD

 I took a picture of the ad, and went inside the convenience store.
 The elderly cashier recognized me, and waved. “'Ey, sonny. Long time no see.” He
whistled through his teeth.
 “Hi, Mister Brahn.”
 “Glad ta see yer out an' about. My daughter's been real cooped up these days.” He
smiles, before helping the next customer.
 I pick up a chicken sandwich, a small bag of chips, and a can of soda. After waiting in
line for roughly five minutes, Mr. Brahn quickly rings up my order. It was only six dollars, leaving
me with fourteen dollars to spend however I wanted.
 I quickly head back to the apartment to enjoy my food. I watched Super Alien
Commando's Demo Mode as I scarfed down the chicken sandwich. Surprisingly, there is a
demo that starts in level 2, but quickly gets swarmed by infantry, as if the game suddenly forgot
how to shoot.
 Obsessed with finding the solution, I did the one thing most kids my age would never
do in a thousand years: I read the manual. There were no special commands, secret power-ups,
or even passwords that could help me cross the dreaded Level 2 Chasm. It was starting to feel
like I was never meant to finish this game.
 Then, I remembered. Reluctantly pulling out my phone, I called the number of the one
person who could possibly have the answer to this horrible riddle. The Wizard. I dialed the
number, expecting to hear a grizzled old man tell me about a magic sword I would need to draw
from the highest mountain in order to slay the dark lord. That, or a fat dude.
 “Hello~! This is the Wizard. Need some help with a game?” A deep, yet soft female
voice answered.
 “Umm, h-hi.” I muttered, unsure of what to make of my situation. A girl? The Wizard?
Do girls even play video games? It seemed so obvious, but I had never thought of it before.
 “Yes?” The Wizard solicited expectantly.
“Umm, I need some help with Super Alien Commando.”
 “Well, you might need to hand the phone over to a parent, so I can accept the
payment.”
 “I have fourteen dollars.”
 “Umm... ok?”
 “For the coaching.”
 “Oh, right! I forgot I put that on there. Can you give me the address?”
 I told her the address to my apartment.
 “Alright, so it's...” She repeated my address back to me.
 “Yes.” I muttered nervously. It had just dawned on me that I was inviting a stranger
over to my house.
 I heard a gust of wind rattle the windows. “Alright, I'm here.”
 “What?”
 “I'm a wizard. We can move pretty fast, y'know?” She giggled awkwardly into the
phone. “Go ahead and open the door.”
 “Right.” I cautiously made my way over to the front door, and gently pulled it open,
keeping the chain lock shut.
 On the other side of the door was a pastel-tan woman, older than I was, but definitely
younger than my dad. Bright, green eyes glowed through the crack in the door, beaming down
on me like an angry god of the forest. Her waist-length, frazzled and curly orange hair gently
swayed in the afternoon breeze. She carried a gnarled, cherry wood staff, and wore a loose
emerald-green dress that covered much of her figure, and her similarly green, pointed hat made
her stand around twice my height. She wore dark-green slippers, and at her feet was a charred
circle with a pattern of shapes inside of it.
 “Wow, you're young.” She remarked. “Are you sure you don't need to be supervised?
I'm technically a monster, y'know.”
 “A monster?” I repeated, hiding myself behind the door.
 “Not in that way! I just practice magic as a hobby, so I have to call myself one.”
 “Really?”
 “Really.”
 I slid the chain lock off of the door, and let her inside.
 “So, you need help with Super Alien Commando, right? That's an old one.” She
smirked.
 “It's my dad's old console. We don't really have enough money to afford a new one.” I
explained nervously.
“No, I like older games. Super Alien Commando is actually one of my faves. So, where
is it?”
 “Over here.” I said, leading her to my bedroom. I took a seat on the bed, and picked up
the controller. “So, there's this jump that I can't make on the second level, and-”
 “Are you talking about the one near the waterfall?” She quickly interjects.
 “Y-yeah. I guess it's supposed to be a tough spot?”
 “Actually, it's impossible if you're on easy mode.”
 “Why's that?”
 “'Cause the developers wanted you to play it on normal or higher.”
 “That doesn't make any sense! Why make an easy mode, if it's impossible?”
 “They wanted players to get good.” She smiles smugly. “Of course, this is a coaching
session, so I can show you the ropes.”
 “Alright, then-”
 “Uh-uh-uh! I don't do this for free.”
 “Right.” I muttered, reaching into my pocket for one of the five dollar bills. I awkwardly
pull it out, and hand it over. She quickly snatches it from my hand, and tucks it under her hat.
 “Okay! You've got one hour.” She announces, taking a seat close to me on the bed. For
some reason, she smells like cake.

 Reluctantly, I make the switch to the “normal” difficulty, and start the game. I get
completely crushed before I'm even halfway through the first level. I unconsciously let out a
defeated sigh.
 “Wanna see how a pro does it?” The Wizard offers, cracking her knuckles.
 I agree, and hand her the controller. She starts the game, and immediately loses a life.
“Ugh, I'm too used to playing on my PVM.” She groans.
 “What's a PVM?”
 “Just a super-cool tv. You'll understand how cool they are when you start to get good.”
 On her second life, she manages to clear the first stage without taking a single hit. This
was especially impressive, considering the first boss's bullets have this wavy pattern to them,
making them incredibly difficult to dodge. At least, it was difficult for me.
 The Wizard resets the console, and hands me the controller again.
 “Huh?” I stammer, looking at her, bewildered. “That was a perfectly good run.”
 “Yeah, but you're not here to watch me play games. I'm gonna teach you how to do
that.”
 I nod, start a new game, and brace myself for impact. Immediately, three soldiers rush me from the right side of the screen. I blast through them, and continue forward.
 “On that cliff, right below you, there's a 1-up. Just blast the rock at the edge.”
 I dive toward the cliff, firing several bullets into the ground. A 1-up flies out from the
earth, and I collect it. I manage to get through half of the stage, when the midboss shows up.
 “Duck in the right-hand corner. He can't hit you there.”
 I do as I'm told, and while the midboss tries to fire at me from every angle he can, he
just can't reach me. With a bit of patience, he runs into my line of fire enough times to perish.
 “Here comes the tough part. Just run through the baddies, until you reach the boss.”
 “Ignore them?”
 “Yeah. They're easier to dodge than they are to shoot.”
 I somehow weave my way around an army of footsoldiers, who run past the other edge
of the screen without even trying to take aim at me. It never occurred to me just how much
shooting could slow me down. Within thirty seconds, I'm at the first boss.
 “Alright, so there's a pattern here. First you duck, then you jump, then you duck again,
so on and so forth. When he's on the other side of the screen, you need to do the opposite. If he
stops while he's running toward the other side of the screen, he's probably going to jump, so just
wait it out.”
 “Okay.”
 I get hit a couple of times, but I manage to beat the first boss, as well as the first stage,
without losing a life. I raise my hands in celebration.
 Suddenly, The Wizard pulls me toward her in an awkward hug. “I'm so proud of you!”
She beamed, smothering me with her chest. Her faintly sweet scent became a suffocating,
saccharine odor up-close. It was like diving nose-first into freshly-baked pound cake.
 “Can't.... breathe.” I mumble into her dress.
 “Oops, sorry!” She releases me from her clutch. “You're actually my first coaching
client, so...”
 “It's fine.”
 It was now time to tackle level 2 on normal difficulty. It was far harder than the first
level, and I was struggling in several places, but I eventually managed to beat it. However, my
many, many failed attempts had emptied out my first hour of coaching. Excited, I handed her
another five-dollar bill, and we continued.
 After learning the ins and outs of the first two levels, I had a good grasp on the game's
mechanics. Dodging odd bullets, and learning when and where to take out enemies became
second nature to me. I could definitely tell that I was making The Wizard proud, which filled me
with a profound joy that I could hardly describe.
 I managed to tough it out through the third and fourth levels easily enough, but the fifth
and final level was an absolute nightmare. It consisted of three parts: A long trek up an icy
mountain, completely devoid of friction, followed by a mazelike underground tunnel filled with
mines and turrets, and ended with a final showdown with the game's villain, the Hivewitch.
The mountain was tricky, due to the narrow platforms and ice physics. There were
hardly any enemies, but the ones that were there could easily land a pot-shot on you, and send
you plummeting to your doom. At the second half of the level, a harsh wind would occasionally
shove your character in the opposite direction in which he was running. The Wizard showed me
that, if timed correctly, you could use this to get a burst of speed, allowing you to skip chunks of
the level at a time. The slippery handling made it difficult to control, so I only managed to pull it
off once in the three attempts made at the level.
 The underground tunnel was by far the worst the game had to offer. First, you had the
mines. They were completely invisible, and would explode if shot or stepped on. The explosion
would linger for a little bit, and would still hurt you if you walked inside of it. So, you had to take it
slow. Meanwhile, the game would randomly spawn turrets from the ceiling and walls to fire at
you, about once every five seconds. It was slow, and frustrating, but manageable if you had a
rhythm. What got really annoying however, was the lengthy maze of tunnels you would have to
navigate in order to reach the Hivequeen. There were six doors, three of which would be
randomly selected to have keys, while the others had minibosses from the past levels. If you
happened upon a miniboss, you had to defeat it before you could run back outside. The keys
could also only be carried one at a time to the Hivequeen's lair. I lost my second attempt at this
level by jumping into a mine that had not finished exploding.
 My third, and final attempt at this level died moments before reaching the Hivequeen,
due to a sneaky turret that fired off-screen as I was running to the door.
 “There goes your second hour.” The Wizard sighed.
 “And my money. Thanks for your the advice anyway, Miss Wizard.”
 The wizard tilted her hat forward, obscuring all of her face except a slightly crooked
smile. “Aww, that's a shame. But, there's a way you can pay without money.”
 “I don't have a credit card, either.”
 “Have you heard of a microtransaction?”
 “A what?”
 “It's when you exchange something little in real life, for something big in-game.
Normally, Game Genies are the type to do this, but I guess I can give it a try, just for you.” She
winks.
 “How does it work?”
 “First, you have to let me cast a spell on you.”
 “A spell?! Am I gonna turn into a frog?”
 “Nope! I'm just going to borrow some of your spirit energy.”
 “That sounds worse...”
 “It's nothing too bad. In fact, you might like it.”