Meeting with Master Tina

Tammy led Philip and Emily into the street where the prospective final member of the crack squad she was assembling to free her cousins lived. She hadn't told them much about her friend Tina on the journey there, other than that she was lovely but a little full on. She hadn't revealed the identity of the person she had in mind to be Emily's master to her mother before heading out, since she knew she would have tried to veto the plan. It wasn't that Holly didn't like Tina, just that she saw her as a total loose cannon. In fairness, she kind of was. However, she was the only person Tammy completely trusted who also happened to be female and good at video games. She also knew for sure she would agree to help.

Most people wouldn't have pictured Tammy and Tina as natural friends, but they had been close since junior school. They probably bonded over being different to the other kids rather than similar to each other, but something about their contrasting characteristics also seemed to balance out nicely.

"Oh, hello Tammy!" Mrs Ramsay smiled cheerily as the trio arrived "She is up in her room. You three might get more sense out of her than I can when she is playing her games!"

"Tamsin-san!" Tina span around happily in her chair to greet her friend as she entered her gaming den "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"My friends and I actually have a pretty huge favour to ask you" Tammy started, still wondering how she was even going to begin to explain this "But it is going to sound pretty crazy"

"That's cool, I love crazy!" Tina grinned.

---

"Holy fuck, if this is real why are you only telling me now?" Tina wanted to know "I love magic and curses. A gaming themed curse sounds to good to be true!"

"It's not strictly a gaming themed curse" Tammy attempted to clarify, fearing she may not have explained herself very well "The masters can do practically anything they can think of to their girls, which is why it can be so dangerous. These guys have just gone in a very gamey direction with my cousins"

"So what. we kick their masters asses in the game and release them from the spell?" Tina assumed.

"No, not exactly. It's quite a lot more complicated than that and we are kind of adapting our plans on the fly" Philip decided to try and help his partner explain the inexplicable.

"Before we take this any further, I need proof it isn't a joke" Tina declared "The only reason I've even entertained this conversation up to this point is because I love Tamsin and she's never lied to me before. But at the same time I'm not fucking stupid. Maybe you two put her up to this, or she took a blow to the head or something"

"I think we can prove it pretty comprehensively" Tammy assured her "Philip, it's fine for you to give her a demonstration"

Philip nodded and removed his controller from his jacket pocket before hitting a couple of buttons. In an instant, his girlfriend was transformed.

"Holy fuck, that is amazing!" Tina looked like she could explode with excitement "And pretty fuckin' hot too!"

Philip them attempted to demonstrate "playing" with Tammy, but it was a fairly incompetent display with her pulling off a few simple punches and kicks, but nothing she couldn't have basically managed anyway.

"Dude, you need some serious coaching for this" Tina winced "I can help you with that"

"I'd certainly appreciate it. But for now it might be better if you try it for yourself" Philip urged her "You are going to be playing with Emily here"

"Oh, niiiice!" Tina's face lit up as she eyed the sexy blonde up and down.

"It will be a pleasure to work with you" Emily smiled as she handed over a controller her real master had mapped the Strip Fighter commands into shortly before they had left.

Tina eagerly hit the start button, and it was Emily's turn to transform.

"Okay, that's fucking hot too" Tina approved of Emily's new look "But I gotta ask, why not Cammy? She's blonde, British and more iconic that Maki?"

"I understand she was taken" Emily replied.

"Cool, well I can definitely work with you as Maki, but not with a fucking Switch controller" Tina swivelled back to her desk and passed over another one "This is my Razer Wolverine V3 Pro. If you want my best work, get yourself mapped onto that"

"No problem, I can have it done tonight. But do you want to just check everything is working okay on this one first?"

"Sure, I do wanna see how this looks when it's done properly. No offence, my dude"

"None taken, I can assure you" Philip chuckled.

Within seconds Emily was leaping about the room like a true ninja, fluidly pulling off special move after special move.

"Wow, she's a lot better than Carl or Martin, even with a controller she doesn't like" Philip raised his eyebrows as he spoke "Hopefully we can find ways to use that to our advantage"

"This is absolutely awesome, I'm so excited to be in on this!" Tina grinned as she handed the controller back "I'd love to get involved as one of the fighters too though. How do I get myself cursed?"

"Um...it's a family only curse" Tammy answered tactfully "But trust me, you don't want it"

"Why not if it can make me do crazy shit like that? All I have to do is find a like minded master to hook me up to a controller, right?"

"Um.." Tammy now wasn't sure what to say.

"Who put the curse on your family?" Tina enquired.

"Some witch from England hundreds of years ago" Emily attempted to shut down this line of thinking "I'm assuming she's long dead"

"If she can pull off a curse like that she can probably live for hundreds of years I bet, and I have family in England. Even if I can't track her down, there must be other witches out there. I have friends who might have contacts actually, I used to dabble in witchcraft myself when I was younger"

"Tina, please promise me you aren't going to try and get yourself cursed so you can be a Street Fighter character" Tammy pleaded.

"I can offer no such assurances" her friend answered "But I do promise to be completely discreet with your secret, of course"

"Okay, then I think we should probably let you get back to your actual game, Tina" Philip decided "Thank you so much for hearing us out and for all your help with this"

"Sure thing, just let me know whenever you need me for gaming, coaching or strategising generally. I'm a pretty good out of the box thinker!"

---

"She's not really going to try and get herself cursed is she Tammy?" Philip asked as they left.

"I'm pretty sure she's going to give it her best shot" Tammy answered with a shrug.

"I don't think she'll get very far" Emily tried to reassure them "She's a great find though, Tammy. A little eccentric but I like her, and her skills are awesome"

"Whereas mine are pitiful" Philip admitted "I need to take Tina up on her offer for coaching I think. I can't have Tammy losing every round"

"I really don't mind" his fighter consoled him with a stroke of his arm "You are good at so many other things, and the results don't actually matter"

"I'd better head home and get myself mapped to this snazzy new controller" Emily excused herself "I'll see you both soon!"

"So did you, er, want to come back to mine?" Philip asked Tammy a little bashfully.

"I would really love to, but I figured this evening I should head back home and see how Jessie is getting on. I hope she isn't getting too bored there with no clothes and no company"