Story Time

Loui quickly burst open the doors expecting a fight, but no one was waiting. Without a moment to question the oddity of a secret base not protecting every single room, Loui ran to the other side of the room to the next pair of doors. The room itself was the size of a basketball court and had nothing in it except for a medium-sized TV mounted in the middle of the right wall touching the ceiling. Before he could open it the doors flung open as a humanoid robot walked in, causing Loui to jump back. Bringing up his arms he shouted, “Okay you want to go? Let's go!” ready to do who knows what mostly relying on instinct and adrenaline, but was stopped as the robot raised its hand. “Before we begin, I would like to clarify: You are flesh, I am metal. This is not a fair fight,” stated the robot, “To even the odds I will be displaying my next move on the screen so you can act accordingly,” the robot said pointing back to the screen. Loui turned to view the screen which turned on and displayed.

Inspired by https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhpHbr19GWA Fighting Trousers.

Me, wearing my Fighting Trousers: *gets shot 100 times and does not die*

Bad Guy: H-how?

Me (encountering a demon): So you are a real demon?

Demon: Yes

Me: Okay, just one question.

Demon: yeah

Me: Did it hurt?

Demon: what?

Me: Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?

Lenard opened the bag of chips and dumped them into a bowl. He then brought it over to the couch where he and Michael were hanging out playing video games. 

“So what should we play?” asked Michael.

“I just got Demon Masquerade,” said Lenard.

“Sweet,” said Michael, selecting it. After an hour or two of playing and drinking the topic was on VIP bars. “I hate those stupid elite VIP bars. They have one for everyone now. I even heard from Damian that there is another "special" elite bar on the edge of town.”

“Who's allowed in?” burped Lenard.

“Magician's,” answered Michael, “Can you believe it? Damian said that in order to enter they had to pull off a small, but impressive magic trick. He saw a guy float an apple, a girl turned one dice into two, and someone turned a wand into a flower.”

“Dang,” said Lenard, taking a drink then sat there for a monument and stated, “I’m going to sneak in.”

Michael paused the game and turned to Lenard, “How?”

“Well… I don’t know,” said Lenard, “differently cheating” After that, they spoke about it for a little bit then switched to other topics for the rest of the night.

The next morning when Lenard woke up he had a foggy memory of the previous nights. Other than that his day went like any other day. Wake up, breakfast, school, work, home. When he got home, he went to play Demon Masquerade to see that they made it to the halfway point. Which reminded him of the previous night. Then set out to do homework. 

During homework time Lenard’s mind kept going to this supposed magician's elite bar and how much he wanted to see what was going on inside. After homework, he made a plan to cheat his way in. He got two gloves and put small hooks on the palms of each glove. Second, he got a small string and put hoops on both ends. Next, he got a cotton ball and pulled out some stings, then added it to the other string with hoops. Finally, he rigged a lighter to flicker when he flicked his wrists.

That weekend Lenard asked Michael where the bar was again and placed a bet of 50 dollars that he could get in. When he arrived there was a small line to get into what seemed like a dead bar on the outside. The people in front of him made light from nowhere, lighting around their hands, scaly hands, etc. While he wanted he attached the string to one glove.

When he got up the bouncer said, “Prove you can enter.” Lenard put his glove together attaching the string to both gloves, then pulled them apart. Next, he stealthily flicked his wrists starting it on fire from palm to palm. Finally, he smothered the fire between his palms getting rid of the evidence.

The bouncer looked at Lenard then said, “Go enough. You may enter,” moving aside to let Lenard enter the bar. It was way different from the outside, for one thing, they weren't all human. No, surely they were just in cosplay or something. He could not tell why they were dressed up, but there had to be a reason right? As he walked to get a drink he saw people do bigger and fancier tricks than outside, which seemed impossible to pull off, and drinks look like they were made of fire.

As he got to the bar, he noticed that it was run by a lizard female. No, a lizard custom it had to be, but even that still sounded weird. 

“Uh, hi. Can I get a beer?” asked Lenard.

The lizard custom girl said, “Hu, you must be new here. We don't sell beer or other non-magical alcohol. It’s quite a point of pride here ‘only magical food and drink.’ So what will it be?”

Lenard sat there for a moment not knowing what to do or what's going on before finally saying, “What do you recommend?” 

“Dragons breath,” said the girl, “definitely. It's a lot cheaper here than in other places.”

“I’ll take that then,” said Lenard, then the girl moved to make the drink grabbing things that he has never seen before. He pulled out his wallets then cash, “So how much is it?”

The girl sighed, “We only take delses,” then added, “You know what it's on the house. Welcome to Phoenix Ash," after seeing the confused look on Lenard's face. Lenard wondered what that meant they were in Ohio. He took the glass and downed it. When the girl noticed she tried to stop him, “No wait it's a-” and was cut off by fire coming from Lenard's mouth, pushing him into a man in a demon custom.

The demon custom man spilled his drink on a guy in a troll custom and from there it spiraled into an all-out brawl. Punching, kicking, and... chanting? Causing the bouncer to enter the fray. Fire, ice, and beings appeared and disappeared. Somehow the people dressed with wings got to the ceiling. The girl behind the bar ducked down then the bouncer suddenly turned into a golem. Is this real? Are those not customs? Is this real magic? What am I doing here? This is possibly the worst mistake in my life, Lenard figured.

Then a human girl appeared from behind the bar. She snapped then everyone and everything froze. Drinks in the air, a wolf guy jumping on a guy, everything except Lenard, “Okay who started this, when I-” she started but was cut off by Lenard.

“Sorry, that was me,” said Lenard and instantly thought "why did I do anything", the girl just stared in awe at him. Then everything fell.