The battle between Crimson Viper, Jill Valentine and Phoenix Wright versus Wolverine, She-Hulk and Storm was legendary, but spending a whole year away from video games did not do Themis any favors. In the meantime Artie had practiced and polished her skills, bridging the gap between them. The match was far from a redo of their childhood ones, with Artie coming out of the best of three on top. And the best of five. And the double or nothing. In the final match Themis had to resort to heckling to get the upper hand, but even throwing herself at her sister and pinning her down was not enough to inch out the win. Defeat stung, with Themis used to easily dominating her sister. But it had been fun, neither girl had laughed so much in a very long time.
Time passed as they went through Themis’ game collection, shifting through Street Fighter IV, Red Dead Redemption and Uncharted 2, awakening beautiful childhood memories in the process. In the end they settled on Rock Band 3, neither girl feeling much like having a rematch on a different fighting game. Instead they combed through Themis’ house in search of the controllers, in hopes they were still working. They found them in Themis’ second bedroom that she used as a storage area,a little worse for wear than she remembered them but they still worked. Themis almost teared up to see them spray painted black and marked with the circle-A in red, the mark of the band she and her sister dreamed about starting once they got older. The realisation that playing actual instruments was much harder than a video game was a bitter pill to swallow for both of them, and the dreams of rock stardom were put to rest. Still, it didn’t cost them anything to pretend.
Artie got behind her drums as Themis picked up the lead guitar. The button sequences to set the game up and start it were ingrained into her muscle memory, even though they hadn’t played that game in years. And they simply rocked out. Just like the old times. They went through their childhood favourites; Slipknot, Def Leppard, Paramore and Queens of the Stone Age. Playing like mad until their arms refused to cooperate and sweat dripped down from their brows. The impromptu concert came to a sudden end when Artie’s phone rang and they had to pause for her to take the call.
“Hey, what’s up?” she asked the other side. “Yeah? Got it. Cool, I’ll let her know.”
She hung up and looked at Themis. “That was Odin,” she said. “Hof in thirty. I got to call the others.”
“Will you give me a ride this time?” Themis teased her with a cocked eyebrow.
“My dearest sister, in the club and by blood?” Artie said, with a grin. “How could I refuse?”
“Cool. I’ll get dressed then.”
She turned the game off and walked to her room. She heard her sister make calls from the living room as she threw an outfit on, digging on her bottomless supply of t-shirts and skinny jeans. She went with a red top black bottom combo, the jeans rattling suspiciously as she put them on. In the pockets she found a couple dollars, some more condoms and a tablet of antibiotics that she had been prescribed more than five years ago for a stupid infection that went away on its own. Everything had been washed off by multiple cleanings, including the coins. Themis wondered if that counted as money burning, and if it could get her in trouble. As far as stupid ways to break the law went, that had to be one of the stupidest. Finally, she put her kutte on and went out, just as Artie was wrapping up a call to Minhua.
“Dinah okay?” she asked her sister, as they prepared to depart.
“Oh, she’s okay alright.” Artie grinned. “If by ‘okay’ you mean stuck on the shitter, blasting out of both ends.”
The women snickered and exited the apartment, Themis locking it on her way out. She has probably forgotten some window open, like she always did, but she didn’t care enough to go back in to check. She didn’t have anything of value anyway. Her beaten down PS3 had become obsolete a decade ago, her TV was old school, the type that needed at least two people to carry, and as far as money was concerned, if they could find even a single US dollar in her whole living space then they were entitled to it. Besides, it was a small town and few people were stupid enough to bust the home of a club member.
Artie’s black Road King was parked right outside the front of the building. It was the 2015 model, Themis recalled her sister drooling over it whenever they flipped through that old catalogue she had swindled out of old man Rossi’s car dealership when they were younger. His daughter and heir to be, Donnie, had kicked Themis’ ass over it, one of the few times she recalled ever losing a fight. Both Adamou girls were banned for life from the establishment, and while Donnie had mellowed out over the years the ban had not been lifted.
The bike was Artie’s dream ride, the one she fantasized about through the years. Not to mention the time Themis had caught her taking the catalogue with her as she locked herself in the bathroom to rub one off. To be fair they couldn’t afford an internet connection until a couple years ago, porn was hard to come by and the catalogue featured many buxom, spunky models splayed out with their bits practically hanging out of their tiny shorts. But it was still funnier for Themis to believe her sister jerked off to motorcycles, and Occam’s razor could suck her.
She grabbed the spare helmet from the saddle bag and climbed behind her sister for the second time in as many days. She should have her own bike by now, and she was sure there was some club bylaw that would require her to get penalised. But she was a special case, and the rest of the club would agree. Still, there was a hint of humiliation in riding pillion, even though the pride she felt for her sister drowned it out. She should get her own bike ASAP. Plus it wasn't that Artie was a bad driver, but there was a reason Themis got her license on the first try and Artie didn’t.