"It was!" Shalin replied, remembering how close she came to being on the podium; ollie morales had barely edged her out in points. "Wouldn't mind having a rematch against you sometime, but with different Pokémon!" Now was not the time for something as strenuous as a Pokémon battle. Perhaps for Shalin, it would be; some of the games in this section, she could play nearly the hardest content they had to offer.

Having been inside one of these arcades, specifically the Mauville branch, she had an idea how it would be laid out... and where she had to go so they could get money loaded onto their cards. Modern arcade machines were not coin operated; one loaded money onto a card, and that card would be used to add credits to the game. Though some old machines had coin slots, they had all been disabled in favor of this modern system.

After loading quite a bit of money onto the card, Shalin listened for the sound of bass speakers rumbling, which guided her to the rhythm hall. There were several kinds of cabinets there: one, a game with seven piano keys and a turntable. Another, nine colorful buttons in two rows. A third, six black and white buttons and two knobs. A particularly flashy one was shaped like a washing machine, with light sensors all over a vertically-oriented ring. The one that drew Shalin's attention the most was a four-panel game that was played with one's feet. Quite the crowd seemed to be around the game as a blonde lady seemed to be scoring well on a medium-level song. "What do you think, Genny? Any of them have your name?" Shalin asked, though her eyes shifted back to the dance cabinet. After all, it was the game she was most skilled at out of the bunch.

Perhaps not a rematch with the same Pokémon, but a good old-fashioned Pokémon battle would help both of them get closer to their team... and a little morbidly, prepare for the ensuing war. Now was not the time to think about it, though; they were there to have fun! "Yep, that's exactly it! Though I prefer to listen to the music instead of visually timing it."

The duo approached the cabinet, the Captain stopping to appreciate the current dancer's skills. "She's... quite good," Shalin pointed toward the blonde female playing alone, the player properly using the rail behind the four panels. That she took one hand off it when making moves across her body impressed her the most. A siren played from the machine as she finished her last song, a sign that she had earned an Extra Stage. The chart she had selected was mesmerizing to watch, the girl's steps matching the piano track's arpeggios exactly. It almost looked like she was drumming with her feet. "Wait, when did Perditus Paradisus get crossed over?" Shalin asked no one in particular.

As pleasant as the piano sounded, it was also intense. With it being her first song, she needed time to warm up. Tapping the up arrow twice in rapid succession, she dropped the chart difficulty from EXPERT to DIFFICULT... but even on that red-colored difficulty, the chart was rated high enough that it would show up in the early rounds of high-end tournaments. "I think I'd like to try the toughest chart for this song once I'm warmed up," she explained to Genny, "but not yet. The 14 should still be fun!"

Shalin made her selection and showed Genny around the options menu full of ways to customize her gameplay experience. There were options to increase or decrease the size of the arrows, the speed at which they scrolled, background opacity, and the like. "Speeding up the arrows gives you less time to react, but it spaces them out more and can make them easier to read. See that green number? That's what your scroll rate will be after your options are applied. Try setting it to about 300. See how you like it." Shalin's was close to double that, which would make her patterns zoom up the screen.

Once both had adjusted settings to their satisfaction, the first stage would begin. Were Genny to play on a lower difficulty, she might notice Shalin's chart starting before hers did.

The chart's opening was calm enough, until the lead piano kicked in and the Captain's footsteps sounded like a Ponyta's clacking hooves. A couple onlookers may have heckled her for using the rail behind her for balance, particularly on sections that required her to turn her body away from the screen, but her goal wasn't on looking smooth while playing. Her goal was to score. A collective groan sounded when Shalin dropped her first GREAT! judgment just before the interlude: their first and only break.

During the second half, the chart would grow more dense and tiring, the last ten seconds especially tiring. As the results screen came up, the girl snapped her finger. "Maaaaaan, I thought I was gonna sightread Perfect it. One lousy Great..." she huffed, taking a picture of the results screen with her phone before the game prompted them to pick their second stage. "Once I'm warmed up, I'd love to give the 17 a try. I can imagine how it goes already."

Switching to difficulty sort, Shalin opened up the LEVEL 15 folder and let Genny browse its contents. Of course, she was free to play on a lower difficulty if she wanted. "See if you can find something you like in here!" she gestured, the folder containing close to two hundred charts. Surely there would be a tune that made the orange-haired Ranger smile.

Perhaps REMO-CON's Condor?

Shalin smiled upon seeing Genny's selection. "This chart's super fun! Really technical, but fun," she said as a tech-dance beat, constantly swapping between standard and swing beats, blared through the speakers. "It has to be technical; you don't see a lot of 15s that have such a slow beat." She noticed how much her Ranger friend was dripping sweat, too. "You'll like it, too; the lowers are a lot easier." Cranking the difficulty up to CHALLENGE, it was one numeric level higher that she song she previously played. Most of the lowers were in the single digits, which would likely be far more comfortable for Genevieve Cromwell to play. If she struggled with the last song she played, this one was a full two levels lower on the same difficulty.

Shalin double-checked her options before kicking off the second stage. Just like before, her note chart started before Genny's. While it was not nearly as fast as the last song, it was far more technical, alternating between swing beats and standard beats. Within the first few notes, the patterns had already made her twist her body to the left, then to the right. Were the young Ranger to glance over, she would see at one point, Shalin's right foot was on the left panel, and her left foot on the right panel.

Even with all the ways the stepchart contorted and twisted Shalin's legs, she seemed to really be enjoying herself. The green "FULL COMBO" splash at the end made her smile, even though she had achieved a Perfect Full Combo on the song before. It was just satisfying to nail every single twist the chart had to offer. "Nice job!" Shalin complimented, offering Genny a high five as the song select wheel came up again, giving them roughly a minute and a half to choose the final track. "Normally, you get three songs per credit, but if you perform really well on your final song, you get an extra song!" That extra song would, of course, come with stipulations... such as a very strict life bar.

As she spun the wheel, a thought came into her mind. "Do you want to see the series' very first boss song? It's even older than I am!" Shalin offered with a sly smile on her face. She highlighted the track, the preview a driving HARDCORE TECHNO beat that fans of the series would instantly recognize.

There was very little trickery to this chart. It was all straightforward, with the exception where the notes (and the music itself) would completely stop for several seconds, forcing the players to either react to the notes starting up again, or more likely, simply have the timing memorized. Other than the one gimmick, it was dense and nonstop. Fitting for the very first song that pushed players to their limits over two decades ago.