It sat right in front of JoyCity Plaza’s twenty-foot Gundam statue, and when it had first risen from the immovable black stone, it had knocked the giant mobile suit sideways to where it now rested drunkenly against the mall’s south escalators. Takao was inside Kiyoshis Playland, wearing out the Tekken 7 cabinet. He had his initials entered in 9 of the top 15 slots and he wasn’t going to rest until he had them all. Best of all, he was doing it with the character of King, the sluggish wrestler. Nobody had game like Takao did using King. Let the drones play as Kazuya or Paul—simple characters for simple minds, with slow thumbs. Last year his mission had been Street Fighter and Zangief; next year who knew? The toy store was empty, everyone wanting to be outside in the plaza where they could see the weird glowing gate. Takao figured it was aliens. They would probably all be zapped to oblivion by death rays within the next few hours, which was why he was so determined to leave behind his legacy and own the Tekken scoreboard.
What do You think about The Gates: An Apocalyptic Novel?
