The person across from Mia was a little girl floating in the air. She had two bright red circles on both cheeks and small beady eyes and an innocent smile. The girl clearly looked younger than Jack, and by a decent amount too.
She was a brunette and also had tiny white wings on her back. However, they were more for appearances rather than anything else. They weren't exactly the most aerodynamic things but did occasionally flutter to match the floating.
The girl let out a little giggle.
"Hi there! My name is Anna!"
Mia's mouth remained agape for a little while, but she did compose herself fairly quickly.
"Ah, my name is Mia. May I ask who you are and how you got here?"
Anna tilted her head to the side.
"Eh? I just told you! It's Anna! And why shouldn't I be here? This is my testing ground!"
Mia leaned back ever so slightly while her eyes widened.
"What? You're the game master?"
Anna crossed her arms and pouted a bit.
"Well, yeah! Who else can just waltz into someone else's testing ground just like that? But that's not important!"
She held up a finger right in front of Mia.
"You! I don't remember seeing you before, how did you get so good at my game? Did someone leak out a copy without me knowing?"
In response, Mia hurriedly waved her hands in front of her.
"No, no, I've never seen it before. But I've played a lot of similar games, so I get the general idea behind them."
Anna flailed her arms up and down in excitement.
"Wow! You beat me just from your previous experience? How much have you practiced before?"
Mia let out an awkward laugh while blushing slightly.
"Well, I was able to get most of the attack patterns from watching the others, so it wasn't fully that. If I didn't know at least how some of the moves worked, then I wouldn't have been able to find anything!"
Anna threw herself forth, hugging Mia with full force.
"I like you! I like you a lot! Want to play more games with me?"
Mia's eyelid twitched. She felt a little aggrieved, as saying both yes or no didn't sound too good. In the first place, participating in these games usually meant that at least your cards were at stake if not your life.
But as cute and cuddly as Anna looked, Mia didn't forget that she was apparently a gamemaster. While she didn't really understand what that meant, it still was enough for her to know that it wasn't worth messing with the seemingly innocent girl. Mia was rather afraid of the consequences that came with rejecting such an offer.
In the end, she felt herself paralyzed as a ton of regret for winning washed over her. Though it was too late now.
In the end, while Anna was confused by the silent treatment, Jack spoke up with a wide smile.
"Why don't you accept it, Mia? Are you embarrassed because of how good you are? But that makes no sense! You should be proud of that!"
Mia pursed her lips and muttered to herself.
"You're not supposed to be the one reassuring me."
Anna put a finger on her chin and let out a cute gasp.
"Oh! So that's why. Don't be embarrassed about something like that! Please, I just want to have fun and play with you, alright?"
At this point, Mia slowly nodded. It would be too hard to give any other answer.
"A-Alright. But preferably games that don't risk my life, if that's not too much to ask."
Anna let out a small laugh.
"Huh? Oh, there won't be any rewards or punishments. I'm not allowed to do too much of that outside of the testing grounds anyway."
Jessica blinked a few times.
"Too much?"
Anna ignored her and pulled out what looked like a Gameboy, something from the retro era. She handed it over with a smile.
"As long as you have this with you, then you'll always be able to play games with me! You can try it right now."
Mia's eyes widened as she took the Gameboy gracefully with both hands. There was a hint of excitement on her face.
"W-Woah. I never thought I'd see one of these so soon. Does it have Pixelmon?"
Anna pouted and held out her hands helplessly.
"If I could put that on there, I would've. But for some reason, we're not allowed to port games from outside!"
Mia let out a small sigh while pressing the power button.
"That's such a shame... I was feeling the urge to play some classics, but I guess it can't be helped. Anyway, how does it work?"
As the Gameboy powered on, Anna giggled.
"Hello!"
"Hello!"
Right after she spoke, a similar digitalized voice came from the Gameboy. Mia looked down and saw that there was a simple face that mirrored Anna's expressions.
"Wow, that's kinda cool. But I thought you wanted to play games?"
Anna smiled confidently before snapping.
"Just watch."
As her voice repeated, the Gameboy screen suddenly showed two different characters on both ends. Awfully similar to the game that they just played. Anna pointed to the screen and began explaining things.
"You can change your weapon if you want by choosing a different suit. There also won't be any of those suits that won't be effective if they are the same, so don't worry about that."
Mia nodded a few times while holding onto her chin.
"Say, if you weren't allowed to port games from the outside, then where did this one come from?"
Anna puffed out her chest proudly, though it looked more cute than anything else.
"Heh. I was the one that programmed it!"
Mia got quite excited.
"What? Really?! I always wanted to do that, but I was too lazy to ever finish it..."
In the end, they began playing each other in the game and continued talking rather excitedly. The two of them appeared to forget that Jack and Jessica were even in the room next to them, though they didn't mind, just watching with a small smile.
Eventually, Mia remembered that there was more than just the two, and let out an embarrassed gasp.
"Ah, right! S-Sorry to keep you guys waiting."
Jessica waved her hand dismissively.
"No need to worry about us. It wasn't that long."
Jack was starry-eyed.
"C-Could I play too?"
Anna puffed up her cheeks, clearly not too keen on the idea.
"Well... if it's only here and there. I gave it to her so that she could play, not you, ok?"
Jack rapidly nodded with both fists in front of his face.
"Ok! Ok!"
Anna pouted a little.
"Well... I'm not really supposed to keep you guys for too much longer, so I guess I should give the rewards out."
She flicked her hand, which caused the computers in front of the three to begin printing cards. Each of them got a 5 and a 6. On the computer screen, a large card rapidly cycled between numbers varying from 2 to 7.
Anna let out a soft whistle while holding up two fingers.
"I'm not really supposed to do this, but nobody really cares."
She pointed her finger, and the card for Mia stopped cycling, freezing onto the 7 of clubs. Anna winked after giggling.
"A small treat from me."
Mia looked over at Anna with surprise as the card printed out.
"A-Ah... Thank you."
A few moments later, the card landed on a 5 for Jack, while it was a 2 for Jessica. She had a bitter smile as she got the worst result, but wasn't too hung up on it. Anna waved rather enthusiastically.
"Bye bye!"
The three waved back before they were suddenly teleported out once more. The bright shining neon lights dimmed as the whole thing started sinking into the ground, leaving them in the empty cave once more.
After a few seconds of silence, Mia scratched her neck.
"Well, now we all have 7's to take the promotion mission, but there's no rush. We could still try to get a few more cards whether it's for the mission itself or to buy something special from the shop."
She looked between the two of them while gently tapping her fingers together.
"Um, would it be too inconvenient to set up the camp right now?"
From how Mia looked at the Gameboy, it was clear that she wanted to play. Jack blinked a few times before nodding.
"Alright!"
He opened his black deck and summoned Seedy, who got rather excited and looked around, ready to fight an enemy. Though his bloodlust was quickly quelled when Jack rubbed his head.
"It's time to set up camp, Seedy!"
Mia smiled wryly, thinking there was no point in summoning him out to just rest, but didn't question that. As for Seedy himself, he seemed rather excited at the prospect, clapping its vines together before scooping up Jack in his vines and bundling them around until only his head stuck out.
Jack let out a small sigh, surprised at how warm it felt.
"Oooh! Did you make me a bed, Seedy?"
In response, Seedy nodded rather rapidly. Seeing all this, Mia took a deep breath.
"Will that... be alright?"
Jessica waved her hand dismissively.
"It should be fine. I imagine it would actually be safer like that than in the tent."
Mia shyly brushed a lock of hair over her ear.
"So it will only be the two of us..."
The meaning of that comment brushed off Jessica as the two of them went inside of the tent. Mia played games for a little while with Anna, but played pretty quietly, with only the sounds of clacking controls. Eventually, she ended up going to sleep as well.
Though unbeknownst to them, a light in the distance gradually came closer.