Obscure Bad Dudes reference aside, I hope you get a nostalgic little chuckle out of seeing my new War Wolf icon made into an old school NES game cover. Couldn't resist. And, a story to go with it!

Thanks to Sonicality for the fantastic piece!

-

All was quiet in the Decker Security Innovations highrise, reflecting that silent stretch of time between 5:00 and 8:00 PM when Erica Decker and Janet O'Connell left behind the work day and cherished several hours of downtime to eat, relax, and mentally prepare for the night ahead as War Wolf and Spectra. Or, at least, all was relatively quiet. As usual, Erica could hear the digital cacophony of video game sound effects and music wafting down the hall from Janet's room to her own, where she sat up in bed reading. It didn't bother her that much. The scientific journal on advanced thermodynamics lying open in her hands was engrossing enough to block out most distractions.

But what caught her attention wasn't the noise, but the distant familiarity of it. Rough, old blips and beeps and classic MIDI music. The kinds of sounds her old games from the 80s made.

Figuring her eyes could use a rest from the small text anyway, Erica stood and made her way down the penthouse hallway to Janet's room. A far cry from the clean, spartan décor of her own room, Janet's was more akin to a college girl's dorm room, with clothes strewn everywhere, a bright plush rug, posters all over the wall nick nacks covering every surface, and a purple bedspread crumpled up on the mattress. The lioness herself sat cross legged on her computer chair, playing a game with the aid of a USB controller. Erica stepped in and peered at the screen, amused by the old style pixelated graphics like her old Nintendo games.

But she then cocked an eyebrow at the very familiar color scheme on the main character, who was punching and kicking other little pixelated characters. “Jan...what game is that?”

Janet jumped a little and glanced back before returning to her game. “Oh, hey, thought you were off reading your technobabble.”

“Thermodynamics.”

“Right, technobabble.”

“Is that...me?”

Janet chuckled and hit Escape to bring up a menu, which also showed the game's title to be War Wolf: Grant City Guardian. “Awesome, huh? An indie developer put up a Kickstarter for a retro style video game based off us. It got funded and he just released a demo for donators, which includes yours truly. And check this out, one of the stretch goals was to add two player support with Player 2 controlling Spectra, which officially makes the game the best game ever. Here.” She held up a second controller. “Wanna play with yourself?”

Erica rolled her eyes. “You were waiting for me to come in here just so you could say that, weren't you.”

“Maybe. Come on, it'll be fun. It won't be like Call of Duty, there's no firearm or military stuff for you to be annoyingly anal about.”

With a sigh, Erica sat on the edge of the bed and took the controller. With the push of a button, the pixelated versions of their superhero selves were beating up a seemingly endless slew of thugs as they moved left to right through an urban landscape. The controls were familiar enough and reminded Erica of her childhood, playing old beat em ups like Double Dragon with her father, who was a good sport at trying to grasp that newfangled technology his daughter was into. Soon, they came to a boss fight and the music ramped up. Erica couldn't help but chuckle a bit at the retro representation of Sandstalker, who leapt around the screen, lashing out with her whip, handgun, and nets.

“See?” Janet said with a cheeky smirk once Sandstalker fell and the Stage Complete screen popped up along with victory music. “You didn't have to go through that whole song and dance of counter-hunting Sandstalker to beat her, all you had to do was kick her in the stomach 27 times.”

“Silly me.”

The next level brought them to a factory setting to go after a Marelli smuggling ring, but the fight with Sandstalker had drained their health and they were both defeated within several minutes. Erica scoffed as a screen popped up showing War Wolf wrapped in chains, a time bomb in front of her counting down, with an urgent “Continue? 9...8...7...” counting down. She pressed Start, but the timer kept going. She realized Janet also had to press Start, but wasn't doing so.

“Um...Jan?”

“Yeah?”

“Push Start.”

“But I wanna see what happens.”

“I'm willing to bet the bomb blows up and I die.”

“Probably.” Janet tried to hide a giggle as the counter reached zero. Sure enough, the bomb exploded in a bright orange flash and the words “Game Over” materialized on the screen. “Oh, look, you were right. Nice effect, eh?”

“You just let me blow up.”

“Yeah, but...pretty explosion.”

“Nice to know you have your priorities straight.”

Janet giggled. “Aw, you know I'd never let you blow up in real life. Unless it was a really cool bomb.”

“Thanks.”

After once more making their way back to the factory stage – and Janet mercifully saving War Wolf's life this time when they got KO'd again – they completed the demo by taking down the boss of the level, Carla Marelli. Janet gave a little cheer and exalted, “Wasn't that great? So awesome to see ourselves in a video game.” She jovially read aloud the closing text on the screen in a triumphant tone. “Thank you for playing the demo of War Wolf: Grant City Guardian. Your donations have made this game and future updates possible, including more levels, more bosses, and more features. Can you save Grant City from such legendary foes as Sandstalker and Violetta? Look for more content soon and more adventures for War Wolf and her loyal side....kick....Spectra.....”

Janet's voice deflated into an annoyed deadpan and ended with a peeved frown, her eyes shooting daggers at the word “sidekick” on the monitor. Several seconds of dead silence passed and she looked over to see Erica's muzzle twisted in a barely repressed grin.

“Really?” Janet huffed. “This is what makes you crack a bloody smile?”

Erica placed her controller on the desk and stood, heading for the door. “Come on, time to get ready. Warm up spar in fifteen minutes.”

“Yeah, yeah, fine.”

“I expect a better attitude out of my loyal sidekick.”

A steelight ball careened toward the doorway, but Erica had already disappeared into the hall.

-

War Wolf, Spectra, Marellis, and Grant City belong to me
Sandstalker jointly owned between myself and  wolfrider
Cover design done by  sonicality
Pixel War Wolf done by  anthony
Nintendo obviously did not put their seal of approval on this or endorse it in any way, awesome as that would've been. All logos belong to them.