DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) - A light to heavy leveled, physical activity-requiring video game, which needs a thin, plastic dance pad controller to be plugged into the system (ie: Playstation) and set flat on the floor in front of the screen, and the participant to stand on this pad, using their feet to press the "arrow" buttons (which are printed on the dance pad) in sync with those "arrows" which appear on the screen in a rolling fashion, to the beat of the music.

(Hopefully my own explanation of the acronym DDR works for most.)

The DDR games have been around forever and I conceived this story while playing the game recently during my mid-day workout. ;)

This is just a fun two-chapter short originally conceived as one chapter. It's also my first fan fic here or anywhere. Enjoy! :)

"DDR with a Punch!"

Chapter 1 - Are you Game?

The lair door slammed shut.

"Guys! Check it out!" Michelangelo held up a large, thin, plastic shape in the air by its long black cord.

Donatello, walking forward, tilted his head curiously at the object. "What is it?"

Raphael, who was stretched out on the couch, raised his brows in frustration, putting his comic book down.

"Sheesh, Mikey, ya know we don't have any more room for your junk."

Mikey lowered the white plastic object, frowning. "It's not junk, Raph."

He passed by the couch to stand in the center of the room, proclaiming ecstatically to his brothers, "Do you even know what kinda' gold I just scored?! WE scored?!"

He strode over to the big screen TV in the main room, and set the object down in front of it, turning it carefully for a moment until he had it laying flat and seemingly in the right position.

His audience watched him with puzzled looks; Raph shaking his head in disapproval.

It was then that Leonardo noticed the other item in Mikey's possession. "Uh, Michelangelo? What's under your arm?"

"Oh! Hey Donny!" Ignoring Leo's question, he stood again and walked past him to set a rectangular, black box into his other brother's hands.

"Can Mr. Fix-it work his magic?", Mikey wiggled his eyebrows up at Don, grinning widely. "It's got a few glitches."

Don took the box gingerly, turning it over as he examined it. "I am guessing that this is a game system of some kind..."

"Yep!", Mikey squealed excitedly, clenching his hands together in anticipation as Raphael stood up from the couch with a loud grunt.

"I dunno. I have to figure out what's wrong with it first, in order to fix it. But I'm sure I can.", Don replied as he ran his hand along the backside of the device.

"That's great!" Mike motioned to his brothers with his 'finger-guns' firing off imagination bullets. "You guys have no idea how much fun we're about to have!"

He darted past Donatello, disappearing into the kitchen. "Let me know when you hit the jackpot, bro!"

Don stared down at the box, then at Leo and Raph. The sound of the microwave starting up could be heard from the other room, followed soon by the smell of cooking mozzarella.

Leonardo walked toward him, "You know what this means? He'll be spending even more time playing video games. And Master Splinter is already unhappy enough at his recent lapse in training."

"Not to mention, I'm getting the unpleasant feeling that he wants us to play with him.", Raph added.

Donatello started walking toward his room, "Well, it's not like we never play vids together...and I'm curious to see what the big deal is."

Raphael motioned his head toward the entertainment center, "He didn't even say what game it is we're playing, or what in the hell that plastic napkin over there is supposed to be about."

Leonardo turned his head to look at it as well, and then decided to do a better investigation. Raph silently began to follow him with his thumbs hanging casually from his belt at his sides.

Retreating to his room, Donatello began his task, keeping the door open and an ear out for the others.

From the kitchen, his mouth full of food, Mikey shouted, "You guys getting excited yet?!"

Raph and Leo's eyes crossed for a second as they stood over the square, plastic sheet trying to figure out what the colorful arrows and symbols printed on the white surface meant.

"Hey, Mikey! Where'd you find this thing?", Raph yelled back.

Coming back into the main room with a slice of pepperoni pizza in one hand and a glass of root-beer in the other, "In a used-games store. It came with the dance pad - that's that thing right there you're looking at - a game and a system...PS2 they called it. The system was kinda broken though, so they threw it in for free." Mikey idly began stepping on the plastic pad with his large feet, pretending to be playing the game.

Leo's voice became stern, "Michelangelo..."

Mikey was beginning to hum one the game's dance tunes as he took a sip of his cold drink.

"How much did this cost...before they added the freebie?"

Mikey replied, still humming, "It was all free. I traded a couple of my old games and one of my systems for it."

Raph and Leo looked at each other in surprise. Mikey, seeing this, stopped what he was doing and nodded his head smugly. "Didn't think I had any brains when it came to games, eh bros? Heh."

Raphael replied with a crooked smirk, snorting, "Yeah. Not really."

"Hey, guys. It should work now..." Donatello had re-entered the room and was walking toward the screen with a handful of cables in his hands.

Mikey hurriedly set his food down on the coffee table and rushed back to the TV, his face gleaming, "Ohhh Donny boy, I knew you could do it!"

Don slid the TV away from the wall and began hooking the cables up into it and into the back of the system box while the others watched. In a minute, Don appeared to be done, sliding the TV back into its spot. He knelt down in front of the game system, plugging the dance pad into it, and hit the power button on the TV first, followed by the system's.

An adventurous and promising theme song played for a moment as the TV screen began to glow with the system's title screen.

"YEEHAW!", Mikey shouted, jumping up, and giving Don a huge, crushing hug. "You're my best friend, Donny."

Grinning like a crazy bandit, Mikey pulled the game out from under his belt and slipped it into the game system, then stood back as it loaded.

Raph, Leo, and Don watched with their arms crossed as the chaotically, visually colorful intro began and the game announcer's voice piped in energetically, "Dance Dance Revolution Max 2!".

Raph lifted a brow as Leo smirked lightly; their intrigue growing as they watched.

Mikey stepped forward to stand in the middle of the dance pad, hitting a few symbols on it to get the game going. Rubbing his hands eagerly together and stretching his legs in an athletic manner, he waited as the song selection screen came up. A cheerful, energetic tune played while he flipped through his choices quickly.

Leo whispered to Don with an incredulous glance, "You'd think he'd played this before..."

In a handful of seconds, he hit his first song choice and suddenly became a flurry of foot motion, stepping on the pad's arrows skillfully as they scrolled up on the screen.

It seemed easy enough.

And then Mikey missed an arrow.

"Ooh! Looks like you screwed that one up, Mikey!" Raph jeered with a huge grin.

Leo bit his lip, trying not to comment...yet.

Mikey kept going, keeping his "health" meter up with every success, knowing he'd lose the game if it dropped too low. The game announcer's voice cheered him on with every arrow he hit right.

"Left, Right, Up, Up, Right...Split!...Down...", Don bobbed his head to the rhythm, speaking in a soft voice as his eyes followed the arrows, his feet subconsciously starting to mimic Mikey's.

"Hey Raph! Wanna try?!", Mikey huffed as his feet hit another good combo and then missed the next one. "Damn!"

"Maybe..." Raph stepped closer. "How about I punch you every time you miss one of those things?"

"Common Raph...", Leo tried to keep a chuckle in.

Mikey surprised them when he replied, "Great idea! It'll be good training!"

Raph's eyes and grin widened as he slammed a fist into his open palm, "Well, all right then!"

...

Chapter 2 to conclude! DDR with a Punch! - "When DDR Attacks!"