It was a stakeout at the old, abandoned Retro Arcade. Dormant for years, the old building was a collage of broken and boarded windows, graffiti painted walls, and rusted out fixtures. But Elastacy had received a tip that something nefarious was afoot, that petty criminals had set up shop inside. For three nights the hero had staked out the place, laying in wait at a cafe across the street. It was on the third night, after four too many coffees, that it happened.
From her vantage point, Elastacy observed light leaking out from parts of the boarded up windows. Within seconds she was up and dashing across the street, her last coffee long forgotten. The parking lot of the old arcade was deserted, forcing the hero to dash through the open to get to the building. She slid up against the exterior wall, pausing to prep herself for entry. But as she waited, Elastacy began to hear something that confused her. The sound of music, generated from dozens of arcade cabinets, seeped out of the building.
The Retro Arcade had been closed for years, the machines at this point should no longer be functional. But the situation contradicted the expectation, which put the hero on edge. There was something seriously wrong here, and now it was up to our stretchy hero to find out why. The woman crept up to the front door and tried the handle. It was unlocked. Tossing caution to the wind the hero cracked the door of the building and slipped inside. Elastacy was immediately blinded and deafened by music and strobe lights, both a shock to the hero’s system that was still adjusted to the stillness outside. She shied backwards into the wall, struggling just to function in the space.
“Oh, ha ha!” a weird laughter rang out from deep within the arcade. The hero knew she wasn’t alone, that she could not sit idle here at the door. She forced herself to get up, to become accustom to the loud noises and bright lights, before focusing in on where the voice had come from. The hero’s sight finally returned, allowing her to finally take in the space around her. The arcade was not decrepit and in disrepair, but fully functional with dozens of arcade machines roaring around her. This would be impossible to do for some just run of the mill criminal, but someone special could do it.
The hero took off into the arcade, moving just slow enough to stay silent. The game cabinets loomed over her, seemingly larger than they should have been. They hemmed her in, making it seem that she was running through a small maze, but with blaring lights and sounds. Every corner looked the same, and the hero slowly became disoriented in the space that seemed larger than possible. She started to get concerned as she took her tenth or twelfth corner in the maze, but was relieved to have finally found an opening at the end of the path. Elastacy went for it.
The maze ended, leading to a small corner of the arcade that was set up as a two lane bowling alley. The hero walked up to one of the lanes, inspecting it for more differences like the machines found in the maze.
“Nope, just a normal looking bowling alley” Elastacy said aloud, having long forgotten that she was trying to be sneaky. This was it, there was nobody else here. Maybe she was just hearing tings, maybe she was just alone. The was what she thought before she felt a foot plant in the base of her back before sending her flying down the alleyway.
“EEP!” the heroine cried out as she flew through the air before crashing into the hard wooden boards of the bowling lane. Elastacy didn’t seem to slow down on impact however, the well waxed panels like a sheet of ice to the hero. The pins were rushing towards her, fast. She only had enough time to throw up her hands in a meager defense.
THUMPTSHT
Elastacy slammed into the back of the bowling lane in a pile of limbs and pins. A moan escaped her lips, probably caused by hitting more than a few of the pins with her head. Not that she was going to be given a chance to recover, as the mechanisms surrounding her hummed to life. Belts and arms swung into action, moving pins and debris out of the lane, which included the hero. She could barely struggle as one arm took hold of her and jammed her into a tube at the back of the machine. It was dark back here, too dark for Elastacy to see as she was pushed completely into the pipe.
‘Crap’ Elastacy whispered to herself as she tried to free herself from her predicament, only to find herself to well jammed to move. As if sensing her problem, a small belt whirred to life underneath her, snagging at her belly. Only there was one small problem, it was going the wrong way. The hero’s belly was being dragged down the tube, but her back was stilled pressed to the top of the tunnel. The belt didn’t give up however, instead roaming the hero down the length of the tube, balling her up and compressing her with each inch she rolled.
THOH
A weird puff of air announced Elastacy arrived as she was spit out of the ball return tube and back into the arcade, before she collided with a bright pink sphere of equal size with a sharp ‘Clack’
“Well, well, if it isn’t the rubbery hero coming to stop me” a male voice echoed out. A man stepped up to the hero’s view, staring down at her with disinterest. He was a tall, slender man, outfitted in a bright blue suit and tie, accented with a stupidly tall top hat of a similar color. “Looks like someone wanted to interrupt my fun. Well that would not be idea, not after I worked so hard to get this place back up and running. Since you are here, miss Elastacy, how about you join me for a few games?”
“Mphf, mphf” it was all Elastacy could muster in response. She didn’t like where this was going, but could do nothing to stop it. The man took position at the end of the lane, wrapping his hand around the balled up hero. He swung, throwing Elastacy gliding down the waxed up lane. Spinning, she flew towards the pins crashing into them with a satisfying crack before being returned back to her captor. “Well this is a surprise, you do make a surprisingly good bowling ball. But bowling has never been my game of choice. Maybe we should try one of the more interesting games. What do you say?”
The man didn’t wait for an answer, instead wandering into the maze of arcade cabinets. He went this way and that, seemingly knowing the exact route to take to get to his destination. The pair arrived in front of an older looking skeet ball machine. “Ah, a classic from my childhood, not that you would know that” the man extracted a quarter from his pocket and started the machine. Carnival music started tot play as wooden balls dropped into a slot on the box’s body. “Well Elastacy, lets see if this is our game of choice?”
‘Ha, I’m too big to fit’ thought the hero before she felt the error of her claims. Her captors’ hands pressed hard into the sides of her form, compressing her further down to an ovular shape. He repeated the move a few more times until he had a perfectly sized ball for the game at hand. ‘Not again’ was all she could think as she was sent spinning down the lane. Unlike the nicely waxed bowling lane, the skeet ball lane was dry and grippy, causing Elastacy to spin non stop down the lane. She hit the lips of the lane, flying into the air as she spun. The hero flew into one of the holes, rolling into the back end of the machine. Into the darkness she plunged, rolling through a few sets of tubes until she eventually came to a stop in the darkness.
‘Clack’
Something cracked into her back end.
‘Clack, Clack, Clack’
Things were piling up behind her, but she could not tell chat. The noises stopped, much to the concern of the blinded and molded hero. ‘Am I stuck?’ the thought drifted through her head, but suddenly the obstruction in front of her moved and she ended up rolling down the tube. A light appeared at the end of the tunnel, although the hero suspected this was not the end of her troubles. She rolled out the ball return, just to fund the man grabbing for her once more.
“Well, how was that? Nothing? I felt the same. It is rather boring to toy with you at a rate of one toss per game” he commented as he started to wander again. “I think I have the perfect game for the two of us, what do you say? Nothing again? Of course not” the hero’s captor took off with the hero once more, wandering once more till he found what he was looking for. As we walked he worked his hands, crushing the hero once more into an even smaller form.
“Now normally modifying the game is against the rules” he placed her, now small enough to fit between his finger and thumb, and placed Elastacy on the glass surface of the machine. She wasn’t sure what the game was going to be, but it definitely wasn’t going to be in her favor. Only the glass didn’t support her weight for long, as it suddenly seemed to lose substance. Elastacy fell into the new game, quickly stuck on a tight track as she stared at a dark plunger which stared her strait in her face. It slowly inched back, the creek of the metal spring signaling the tension it was being put under. The hero knew strait away what game she was in.
It was a pinball machine. Elastacy reminisced back to her younger days, watching the metal balls rocket around the cabinet. The thought however reminded her of how violent the machine was, making her nervous for what she was about to go through.
WHAM
The hero shot up and into the play field, strait away into a set of bumpers.
DING, DING, DING, DING
The bumpers rocketed her back and fourth at dizzying speeds before Elastacy suddenly found herself rocketing down the length of the game. She caught a glance of the man leaning over the machine as a flipper started to spin towards her.
THUD
The hero shot back up towards a second set of bumpers
DING, DING, DING, DING
Suddenly the heroine found herself riding a rail.
‘Multi Ball!’ the machine called out as the game field started to fill with other silver balls, bouncing this way and that. One of the balls collided with Elastacy, sending her back into the original set of bumpers.
DING, DING, DING
The bumpers threw the hero around, trapping her as the game continued. Each collision sending her into another until she popped free. Elastacy rolled back down the board, through the swarm of balls and right towards a flipper. It rose to meet her once more.
…
‘It missed!’ thought the heroine as she rolled passed the flipper. The balled up hero rolled into a trap hole at the bottom of the board. She fell, landing in a pile of other metal balls. Slowly, other ball began to fall, raining down from above until the hero was completely buried. It was only after the clacking of metal stopped that the hero realized the game had stopped. There was no more music and sounds to announce what was going on. Instead it was quiet, nothing more going on. A moment passed, then another. She expected the man to come retrieve her, but he was taking his time. Another minute, then five. Where was he?
---------------------------------------
The day was bright as Stacy wandered into the newly opened arcade. It was bustling with activity as kids and adults alike tried out the restored machines. Nobody knew who had restored the machines, but Stacy had an inkling of an idea. It had taken her hours to get out of the pinball machine, only to find that the arcade had been deserted. The cabinets no longer loomed and the place was no longer a maze. It was actually quite nice now that she wasn’t the one being played with.
It was after wandering a few of the isles that one of the machines caught her eye. It was a pinball machine, different from the one she had been trapped in but one that had a particular detail that caught the hero’s eye. It was labeled ‘Elastacy, the rubbery her’ and featured a cartoonish version of her and depicted scenes of her recent battles with evil doers. ‘Maybe the man wasn’t so bad’ she thought to herself as she crossed the room. But one thing was for sure, she hoped she wouldn't run into him again.