The Game Cafe in Marvel and DC

32 – The Journeys of the Players

So, with those three projects underway, I focused back on my Customers.

This was the first time my store had ever been full, with every computer being occupied, and I had two new customers, or to be exact, two new players.

Frank Castle, the Punisher, and Bruce Wayne, the Batman.

Two vigilantes.

One that kills, and one refuses to.

One that's poor, and one that's rich.

Yet, both have suffered immensely and try to do some good for the world, albeit in different yet similar ways.

Batman was playing Infamous, while Frank was going through Fallout.

Both took to the games nearly instantly, their experiences making them formidable foes in the games.

Batman, who occupied Cole's body and could use his powers, was nearly impossible to beat, as he could move far faster than any human, survive far more grievous injuries, and use Cole's powers in countless ways to stun, bind, or knock out any opponent.

Meanwhile, Frank was roaming the wasteland, using the skills he obtained throughout his life to easily take out any threat that neared him.

His marksmanship made him a threat to anything living in the wasteland, not to mention the other skills he honed from his time in the military.

It was surprising how quickly Frank and Batman adjusted to their roles and new 'gifts.'

Frank had already made plenty of progress, having only died twice, while Batman had died multiple times when he first started from the firearms that seemed to be common among the criminals of the city.

As for the criminal trio, Ivy has slowly been making her way across the wasteland, finding it incredibly difficult due to her no longer having access to her powers and being all that good with a gun.

Harley was, of course, having fun causing chaos in her Project Zomboid world, having finally died after biting off more than she could chew, however, as I expected, this only increased the fervor and chaos she ensued upon the zombies of the city. Her chaos has actually caused the few reaming of humanity in the area to flee, thinking the city was too dangerous to survive in.

Meanwhile, Selina was having a blast at being Cole, still following the story, but also taking part in some side projects, ones she would commonly do in Gotham, those side projects being that of what she could steal and how valuable the items would be.

Zeke's poor rooftop home quickly became covered in previous historical and cultural artifacts from different time periods ranging from as early as before civilization to as late as objects not even past a hundred years of age.

Of course, because of the current quartine that was placed over the city, the objects didn't have any value, so, she also began stealing from the countless gangs that had formed due to the chaos swamping the city.

So, she stole guns, ammo, food, medicine, whatever she knew would be valuable to the city's denizens, and began selling them through key people she bribed.

Because of this, she was quickly able to become quite the crime lord, Utilizing her new resources, she formed her own gang and waged war with the Reapers, the Dust Men, and the First Sons.

Of course with her gang being new, the other gangs thought she would be an easy target, but boy were they wrong.

Not only did her new powers make her even more dangerous, but she also had the side of the people and the home-ground advantage.

Any gang banger that entered her territory would find that it was a death trap, with every man, woman, and child aggressively kicking them out, or straight out killing them.

How did she accomplish this, you may ask?

Simple, she used her sudden wealth to arm and feed those in her territory.

She set up soup kitchens to provide filling meals, created jobs, set up guards, and so much more.

Her work made Cole seem like a Great Leader, one that accidentally ended up creating an entire resistance movement to take back the city from the gangs, which she didn't reject.

So, with the help of the people and the use of her powers, she took back the city district by district, and eventually her gang was the largest and strongest, with her people of course utilizing any weapons they obtained from the opposing gangs, which served only to increase her people's strength.

And, without her consent, it became named 'The Resistance.'

Cliche in her opinion, but if it served to bring more people to her side, she was all for it, though she was certainly no hero, and she never acted like one.

Everything she did only served to help her, though she was too proud to admit that she felt 'good' doing so many good deeds.

After all, there were reasons she helped Bruce from time to time, sometimes even working directly with him.

Meanwhile, the four men playing Project Zomboid were slowly clearing out the city of Riverside, going house by house, block by block.

It wasn't exactly effective, since Zombies from other areas would just wander into any area they cleared.

They were armed with various weapons and sports gear that provided moderate protection against the Zombies.

Of course, they had died quite a few times now, all of them but Volkov that is, the others however, died a great many times as they got used to fighting the fearless and unrelenting undead.

They typically died from being swarmed or trapped by the Zombies, since they lacked firearms, bows, or any other long-ranged weapon that left melee weaponry as their sole offensive option other than using the very environment around them like Harley was doing.

Once they died, they had to make a new 'Characer' so to speak, meaning they'd have to rechoose an Occupation and find their way back seeing as they'd be randomly spawned somewhere in whatever town or city they selected.

One of them even went as far as to make the stupid mistake of choosing an occupation with a gun and they used the gun, firing off a round that every zombie within miles heard...

Safe to say that due to that man's actions, all of the Zombies in the town or city migrated to the side of the city the man was at, which also just so happened to be near where they had set up base.

Of course, that particular man got quite a few angry looks from his acquaintances, who happened to be nowhere near the base and got caught up in the migrating horde.

And lastly, there was Kyle, my most loyal customer who came in daily to play Fallout.

To be frank, I was growing a bit worried about the man.

With the amount of time he's been spending in the game, he was far older than he looked, probably reaching his late 50s in his mental age, while his body remained that of a man in his early 20s.

That's right, he's probably lived longer in Fallout than he has in reality, which concerned me.

Not only because his time in the game was changing him at a fundamental level, but also because, it seemed like he never wanted to leave, not anymore.

At this rate, I may need to stage an intervention and more than likely set a daily time limit any one customer can spend in the game.

Other than that, the progress at which he moved was astonishing.

He was at the late stage of the game, and unfortunately, kept dying and having to replay and work to get all the way back to where he died, only for the cycle to repeat.

He was having serious issues with the Enclave, having trouble obtaining any weapon that could effectively go through their power armor, with his only real success being that of a lot of explosives or plasma and energy weapons.

However, with each death, he was able to go back and fix any mistakes he made and improve his abilities. One time he even fully specked into a lucky bomber, which lasted for a few hours, that is until his luck ran out, and he died.

But, at this rate, he'd eventually make it through and move onto one of the 'Newer' fallout games, Fallout 1, 2, Tactics, and Brotherhood were the older games of the franchise, with 3, New Vegas, 4, and 76 being the newer additions to the series.

I hadn't added Tactics, Brotherhood of Steel, or 76 as of yet, though that could change in the future.

Don't get me wrong, all Fallout Games had their flaws, but that doesn't mean I couldn't fix them.

I just think Kyle needed a break to be honest.

He's become desensitized to killing, he has the instincts of a killer and soldier, the skills of countless professions, and hundreds of deaths on his shoulders.

The question was, how would an addict react to his obsession being taken away?