★ Mimete ★

Mimete nearly fell RIGHT OFF THE STOOL.

She had no opportunity to savor her win against Eudial. The wavy-haired teenager had been ready to gloat, completely prepared to lord her success over her former coworker, but that feeling of satisfaction was swept right out from under her. How could she consider herself a winner if she didn't actually win? Her only consolation was that she had managed a hand better than Eudial's, but it was only good enough. It wasn't the best! Mimete's goal had been to completely obliterate her red-haired opponent at this game, proving once and for all that she, Mimete, was the most talented of the Witches 5!

How could she declare her superiority when she lost to a faceless player...!

"It's not faiiiiiiiiiiiiiir!" the lab-coated girl whined, her wide tangerine eyes filling with tears that bubbled over and rolled down her cheeks.

This was supposed to be a victory, but instead she felt like a failure!

All of her money was gone! And she was still trapped here in this virtual casino. They'd probably put up a big sign with her face on it, emblazoned with the fact that she was the biggest loser. How could she walk around this place ever again and look the bots who worked here in the eye? They'd repeat their same tired old lines, but Mimete just knew that they'd be judging her. They'd be thinking about this game, where she lost so spectacularly, each and every time she walked by. She couldn't bear that kind of humiliation!

It wasn't supposed to be like this at all!

Mimete wiped away tears from behind the round lenses of her glasses and turned to look coldly at Eudial.

"I still beat you," she pouted, but she didn't feel very triumphant about it.

She almost wanted to suggest a brief truce. Temporary.

But she was pretty sure that if they worked together they could... take care of... Player 3.

Even though Mimete had come in second she was not rejoicing or bragging, which struck Eudial as odd. In fact, the girl's victory statement hardly seemed triumphant. But Eudial could not blame her for it. She too felt pretty humiliated losing their personal competition to some seemingly brainless bot, who simply waltzed on in out of nowhere and took all of their coins! Eudial then caught Mimete's glance. It was cold and pouty as usual, but something about it seemed different.

That look in her eye... Eudial's gaze lingered thoughtfully on the crying teenager. Could it be that the girl was suggesting a temporary truce? Eudial looked back at Player 3, who still did not seem excited about winning.

...That actually wouldn't be such a bad idea.

As Eudial leaned forward to make the suggestion, something strange caught her attention: a slight rumbling of the table and a faint flicker. The redhead glanced over at Mimete, wondering if the phenomena had been a part of her imagination. However, she did not need to wait long for her unspoken question to answer itself.

All around them, the casino started to flicker and distort in random patterns...and for some reason, none of the bots or other players noticed. The area's data was then drawn away in swift streams of pixels, including the precious pile of coins from Eudial and Mimete's table, which crumbled to a fine dust before blowing away. Neither of the witches had a chance to react to the loss, for an even stranger phenomenon occurred. All of gray players suddenly teleported from the area in a single bright flash of light, including loathed Player 3. Eudial sighed in slight exasperation. So much for their revenge, she thought to herself bitterly. Still, the red-haired scientist couldn't help but wonder why only she and Mimete were unaffected by whatever was happening in the now nearly vacant casino.

Out of nowhere a little blue bot approached the duo during one of its routine inspections of the area, offering them a friendly greeting. “WELCOME, PLAYERS! TODAY IS YOUR LUCKY D—ƒU‚ÈŽd‘‚‚‚·‚邽‚¢‚—E”Þ‚Ì‚±‚Æ‚ðl‚¦‚é‚Æ–é‚à–°‚ê‚Ü‚¹‚ñN‚ç‚Ì‘¾—z‚͔ނɉEƒTƒEƒ“ƒ·‚—E”Þ‚ª“oê‚¢‚Ü‚·‚—EVɍ›‚êÑ‹¶Šì—•‘‚‚Ü‚µ‚½‚—E”Þ‚Ì‘€‚èlŒ`‚É·‚«‚Ü‚­‚Á‚Ä‚¢‚Ü‚‚hƒ‚[ƒh‚Ŕނ̐º‚΂©‚è•È‚肽`ƒ{ƒ‚¤ˆµ‚Äׂɂ ‚é‚à.”

Alarmed, Eudial jumped away from the table and the bot. “What is happening!?” she asked Mimete, whipping her head from side to side. The room filled with strange garbled frequencies emitted by the none other than the casino bots, who all seemed to be...twitching? Eudial brought her hands over her ears to protect herself from the grating noise. Pixel by pixel the blue bots vanished before the two witches' eyes and were replaced by another kind of digital entity: the blocky, golden bot.

“This domain name associated with the website Pokerpals[dot]com has been seized pursuant to an order issued by a U.S. District Court,” the metallic bots announced in unison as they assembled a large banner-like wall of an eagle bearing the U.S. Coat of Arms.

When Eudial tried to walk toward them, she and Mimete were immediately booted out of the area into an void of meaningless data with a handful of the smaller golden bots.

“GREAT. NOW WHAT?” Eudial screamed.

“This domain name associated with the website Pokerpals[dot]com has been seized pursuant to an order issued by a U.S. District Court,” one of the golden bots repeated in response to the woman's question.

★ Mimete ★

As the flickering subsided, the orange-haired teenager stood there, staring at the emptiness around her. The casino was gone. Her home was gone. The bots that had been her friends, they were gone, too! Now those formerly-cheerful forms all stood there, looking like a small army, repeating the same phrase regardless of what question they were asked. It hurt her to see them like this... it was an affront to their former cuteness and pep!

She hadn't been able to answer Eudial before, because she didn't really understand what was going on. Now, as that chorus of bots continued to echo the same statement, an idea was starting to dawn on her.

Mimete pushed her glasses up her nose, shuffled her hips for a moment, and took off running. Her lavender high heels made the going slow and awkward, combined with her lack of coordination, but she kept her eyes narrowed and focused on the distance. After only a few minutes she was huffing for breath, as out of shape as always. She halted, hands on her knees, gasping for air, then took a look around her.

She was barely inches from where she had started.

Mimete dropped her to her knees, bawling massive tears that dripped down her cheeks and onto her white labcoat.

"WE'RE TRAPPED HERE!" she wailed.

How could they both be so unlucky?!?!