John watched from the side as Aisha and Jim plated the video game with cries of excitement and glee. He had always thought that Ctarl-Ctarls were evil creatures, born only to make terrans miserable or dead. To John, there was no greater evil in the world then Sara and Hojoma. They had been cruel and viscous to such an extent that rumors spread of how the whole race was that way. John couldn’t remember seeing ether ever smile, unless someone was screaming or begging. They were wicked in a way that is only seen in fairytales with witches and big bad wolfs, only in this case the story was real and instead of a big bad wolf, there was a big bad cat.

“Another victory for meeeeeeeee!” Jumping to her feet, Aisha gave her version of a victory dance with involved her thrusting her hips up and jumping around. In a few years, all that bouncing and jiggling would give John a nosebleed, but now it only made him smile at seeing the joy on Aisha’s face. Where he had come from happiness had been in low amounts and was to be treasured every time a bit was shown.

“No fair, Aisha. You shoved me right before doing your finishing attack,” Jim complained as Aisha refused to stop her victory dance.

“All’s fair in love, war and video games, kid,” Aisha said with anther leap into the air. Jumping around like a mad woman was one of the things Aisha loved to do in victory, it was just her way of saying, ‘LOOK AT ME! I’M GREAT! YAAAAHHH FOR ME’.

“Don’t call me a kid.” Now it was John’s turn to laugh. The scene in front of him seemed so odd, it was just funny. A young terran playing around with a full-grown Ctarl-Ctarl was something John never thought he would see. His past misconceptions about the feline race were being destroyed the more and more he watched Jim and Aisha. They fit together so well that it seemed that they were related or something. As odd as it sounded, John could definitely see theses two as brother and sister. There love for each other was obvious and John doubted that anything on this world or the next could ever ruin it for them. It made John feel happy, but also deep inside he felt anger. Jim and him were in the same boat, no parents, no family, no childhood. Yet, Jim had a roof over his head, a surrogate family that loved him, intelligence, talent and most of all a big sister like Aisha; it was just not fair.

“Your turn,” Aisha said while handing the second controller to John.

“Huh?” John replayed as he took the controller. He had been lost in thought and missed what Aisha was saying. Jim had gotten up from his seat and Aisha was looking at him impatiently. Realizing that he was supposed to take on the winner, John took his seat next to Aisha and ignored the height and size difference of the cat sitting next to him.

“Okay punk, I’m goin to go easy on you because it’s your first time, but don’t expect this Ctarl-Ctarl to cuddle you. I win and nothing sort of Armageddon can stop me.” John nodded eagerly, he fumbled withy the controller until he was holding it in the right way.

Round one

With a press of the start button the game was on and then it was over.

“I won?” John said looking at his character standing over Aisha’s in disbelief. He had just done what he memorized Jim doing only faster and he won.

“He won?” Jim and Aisha said in shock. Grinning unnervingly, Aisha gripped the controller hard until it snapped in two. Pulling it out of the consol, she plugged in a new one and looked at John.

“Beginners luck.” Was all she said as the game started anew. This time the rightful champion would win.

Round two

“Nice job,” Jim smiled as he patted John on the shoulder. He had never seen anyone beat Aisha twice in a row and it was interesting to see how Aisha would react. Jim tried not to be cruel, but seeing that irritated twitch in Aisha’s eye just gave him the giggles. Aisha was plugging in a new controller after cracking the second one. They were lucky that they had so many controllers, after that botched job to recover stolen electronics and only found controllers, they had decided to keep the find instead of telling the guy who hired them that they had only found a small piece of the stolen shipment.

“One more time,” Aisha growled as the game was on.

Round three

“What the hell is wrong with me!?” Aisha screamed while ramming her head into the controller. Before John or Jim could say a word, she put in a fresh controller and started the fourth round.

Round twenty-six

“Maybe we can try a new game?” John said as the sweat started to trickle down his forehead. His sweat wasn’t from playing the game, but rather the furious growling that Aisha was doing as she lost her twenty sixth consecutive loss.

“Yah, you’d like that wouldn’t you. Beat me at another game so you can prove your better then me.” Aisha grabbed John by his collar and lifted him up like a sack of potatoes. Pulling him close to her foaming face, she ripped into him with her words.

“You pesky little bug think you’re so better then me, well your not. I eat your kind for breakfast every day and defecate you in the afternoon. You are nothing but a tiny insignificant piece of meat and you are not ever going to be even half as good as me. I am the predator and you are the prey, got it you tiny little mouse boy?” She came out of her rant to hear Jim yelling something.

“Put him down. You’re scaring him!” Aisha let go of John and he feel to the floor. He looked at Aisha with wide eyes and tears. Before anything could be said, he dashed out the door. Jim followed, but not before glaring at Aisha crossly.

“What have I done?” Aisha asked herself as she fell to her knees.