 
G.U.

The Challenger

Part 1 of Book 1

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By Layne Franks

SMASH WORDS EDITION

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PUBLISHED BY:

Layne Franks on Smashwords

Copyright © 2016 by Layne Franks

All rights reserved.

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CHAPTER 1

To the kid reading these uncontrollable words I write down at this very moment (BEWARE!). So, just a fair warning to the person that's reading this, this story can end up in a totally different place from where it started off, all that your about to read is true—or use to be any ways—right now, I live in an underground city, under another world that I was told from a very young age, that the world above us, the people who live there, never liked us, and so, all of my kind all helped make a city underground. This is not a City of Ember story, I promise you, we are way over there kind of technology. We live in a city where every one I know plays these video games. Video games are our life and our only way of living like the people above us.

From the very beginning, when I could learn to think straight, all I wanted to do—see or think about was the world above us. I wondered what the people would think of us now, it's been sixteen years since our city was built, maybe they changed there attitude about us. The only thing I didn't really get was, we don't look any different from the people above us, we look exactly like them, we talk like them, and every thing else. I guess the only reason was because we were known as aliens to them. We never did any harm to them, there the ones that made fun of us, making up these weird stories about us taking over there planet, and our bodies were these ugly green creatures with two big black eyes and an antenna on our heads as we talked like robots saying "Take me to your leader." Come on people!

Your probably also wondering, do aliens have genders, and if I'm an alien writing this what gender am I? Well, we do have genders, just like humans, male and female, I (if your all wondering... probably not) am a fifteen year old girl, my name is Halo, and yes I am named after my dad's favorite video game in his days. Almost all of us are named after video games—or video game characters. But since my dad and mom were born in the world above us, they kept regular names, my mom, Tina, and my dad, Carl. We don't have a last name, that's another thing about us "aliens" we don't have last names.

I am an only child of the family, and since I am an only child, I can choose to be anything I want to be—job wise—we all start at the age of fifteen, or depending on if our parents want us to start a little earlier, fourteen.

Examples of what jobs to choose from:

(If you're an only child.)

Game Watcher (GW) Game Tester (GT) Game Makers (GM) Game Seller (GS) and a Game Actor (GA).

There are rules for what your children can do, depending on how many you have, a first or second child gets to choose from the ones above I have just given you, a middle child gets the lowest jobs,

Examples: Librarian or Plummer—and if you had really high grades—a School Teacher

And if you were the fourth, fifth or sixth child you had to do what your parents wanted you to be. One time someone had asked in my class about if someone had twins, what jobs would the twins get, but the teacher had replied, that for some reason, our race (us the aliens.) can't produce twins.

Some day, The Challenger, will come out (I was so excited then!) I wanted to be a GT (Game Tester) the only problem was; only the best of the best of the GT's were chosen to play the game.

The Challenger, is a virtual reality game, and its not the first time someone made one either, actually it's the third game like it, only one person has been able to figure how to do it, and that's the king of all of us, his name is, Aladdin. His first virtual reality game came out three years ago called, Knights Quest, where you got to choose to be a knight and fight off the dragon keeping the princess in the castle, then killing the evil king and queen, and all that other fun stuff.

Then his second game was, Robo Quest, where you were a regular human trying to survive the robot apocalypse, and find the scanner to shut off all the robots for good.

Then finally, The Challenger came was soon to be released. The game was unknown of what you had to do, the only thing that's making me all crazy over it is because, there are only a handful of GT's picked for the game, and the ones who finish the game, complete it, you can be the first in sixteen years to see the world above. And I want to be one of them—

"Halo!" a voice yelled from downstairs, it was my mom, and I was so engrossed in writing in my journal that my pencil had snapped right in half from gripping it so hard, I shouldn't be serious when writing, but whenever I talk about the game, The Challenger, I am always into deep thought, I wanted be one of those handful of people so bad, and see the outside world, that's all I have ever wanted.

Finally after gritting my teeth from frustration, I yell back "Yes mom!"

"You need to get ready for work!" my mom yelled back,

I lied that I had already gotten a job, another rule for the alien families was the kids don't have to tell there parents where they work, but that doesn't mean parents cant know, they could fined out easily, but today I wouldn't have to lie any more. I was going to finally get a job.

"Ugh-" I groaned, the rolled off of my Hover Bed until I collapsed on my back, I was still in my pajamas and my hair was probably in a mess, my eyes were bloodshot from staying up all night as I wrote in my paper journal. I look up at the light above me—a naked light bulb hanging from the cement wall. I didn't want to got to work today once I choose my job, why even go?—wait, that's right, I need to earn my ticket to get to be one of those people who get to be in, The Challenger.

After I got up and done my long blonde hair in a pony tail, washed my face with cold water, and changed into my work cloths—which was a one piece silver suit with a zipper in the back that went all the way to my chin—I went downstairs to meat my mom at the table where my breakfast was waiting for me, which was a cereal that always tasted like sour apple when the milk was added.

"I think I'll pass on breakfast." I said as my mom looked up from her bowl; she had dropped her spoon on the table.

"Ar-Are you sure, Halo, I mean, today can be a longer day for you." she said, picking her spoon back up and wiping it with her napkin.

I nodded and placed my palm on the door, after a second a scanner scanned my hand, the door clicked and opened outwards, "I'm fine, if I'm hungry I can just eat at the cafeteria."

"Oh ok, have a goo-" her voice was drowned out be the door hissing and shutting closed behind me. I took in a deep breath of fresh air—or underground air—which wasn't really that bad, the world above us might have better smelling air, but for today, today was a perfect day.

As I skipped across the street with a bright smile on my face, kids played with baseballs and threw them across the street as the kid in the middle tried to catch it. The school bell would be ringing pretty soon, I was so glad I didn't have to go to school any more, I had a job—was going to have a job soon—and soon someday, I can buy my own house and live any way or any where I wanted to.

The place I was heading for was actually the place where I got to pick where I wanted to work. It was a big silver building that almost blended in the cement wall in back of it, and in the front it was a tall sign that read, Job Applications.

As I walked inside the building, into a bright silver room with a pearl white floor and a cement ceiling, almost right in front of me was the lady in a one piece silver suit like me, her black hair was done in a bun, and her teeth were perfectly straight as she smiled at me, as I walked up to her, I thought to myself, if she lost the makeup she would look prettier.

"Hello Halo." she said with a slight giggle, making little dimples show on her cheeks, "Ready to pick your job finally?"

I nod smiling widely, "Yes ma'am, I would like to be a GT."

The lady—Zelda was her name, she was one of the few people who wanted to change there name that had to do with a game, and this is kind of ironic but the boy she dates is named, Link, and no he didn't change his name like Zelda, he had this name in the above world—since she was behind a desk, she opened a drawer and pulled out a GT fill out sheet, she handed it to me with a pen and closed the drawer back to home.

The fill out was almost like a contract, but asked me to fill out my height, weight, eye color, male or female, and a bunch of other stuff I don't need to mention.

As I filled this all out, Zelda said mentioned, "You know, you're the third person today in a row who wanted to be a GT."

I look up from my work, "Really? Were they from my class?" Zelda use to my school teacher when I was fourteen, then there was some huge mix up and Aladdin made her switch jobs.

"I think so, there was that boy whose bald with a spider web design on his forehead, I think his name was from a Street Fighter game, or something."

"I think his name is Street Fighter" I chuckled, and went back to my fill out.

"Yes, sorry for my rotten mind today, I couldn't even put my makeup on properly today." I grin still looking down as a filled out the paper (No kidding.)

"Its ok, and who was the other person?"

"I think her name was, Bumblebee?"

"From the Transformers family?"

Zelda nodded, "Yes, doesn't she have a twin?"

I frown and hand her my fill out, "No, the twin died a couple years ago. They were so excited to, they were the first twins, but one of them had to die from some disease."

"Oh..." as she looked over my paper, her dimples showed again on her bright white cheeks, "Great, thank you Halo, and here is your pass." she handed me a black card with two silver letters on the top, GT, and right as I touched the card with my finger tips, almost immediately my name showed up in tiny silver letters below the GT sign.

"Thank you, Zelda, hope you have a great day."

"You to, and try not to mess with any one there today, every one is all cranky because they want to be in that new game Aladdin made, The Challenger." I look at her weird for a split second, and then hurriedly change it into a little smile,

"Ill make sure not to get on there bad side." and walked passed her desk to look for the elevator. As I walk up to the elevator, I am almost confused on how to open the doors, there was no buttons for up or down, just a sign that said, Elevator. But as I look closer, in the middle of the two doors there was a black arrow pointing down, right below that is a black line—a slot for my pass!

Once I slip my card inside the slot, my card vanishes inside the elevator for a second, and then another second later the card comes back out, once I take the card back into my hands, the elevator starts to speak.

"Welcome, Halo, please step inside." the voice was so robotic like, I was almost tempted to say back in the best robot voice I could "Thank you." But I just let it go and walked inside the pearl white box.

"Thank you." said the elevator instead, and the doors shut themselves. I only had to wait a few seconds until the doors reopened. That was fast—and weird—I never even felt the elevator move, or jolt up or down as—I think—started to move to my destination.

* * *

I walked out into a cement room full of young people, testing games on computers, some had there phones out playing some new Pokémon Go 100 game, then there were some others sitting on couches as they played on a flat screen with box like controllers.

The weird thing was, nobody noticed me walk by them, they all looked grumpy—just like Zelda had said downstairs—as I walked farther inside the room, I found a wall with a big sign above with the words, Schedule, and a familiar person was before it, it was Bumblebee!

"Hey!" I shouted an ran after her, the girl with long red hair past her lower back smiled and opened her arms out towards me.

"Hey you!" we hugged and laughed, and giggled a little until I finally pulled away.

"Zelda told me you signed up to be a GT, is it fun?" Bumblebee just shrugged her shoulders.

"I guess it is. Getting to play all the new games before they come out is kind of awesome, I was just seeing what other game I had to test next." I looked over her shoulder, the schedule had all the GT's name from the beginning of the alphabet, as I watched a little bit, some times the game names would change into some other game, and a boy or girl would come up to the schedule and walk back to either a table of phones, or a couch-and sometimes a room full of kids next door.

"How does it work?" I finally ask Bumblebee after finding my name; Bumblebee pointed at my name then dragged her finger across it, an anime game showed up.

Dragon Catchers, flat screen game.

"So once you go over to a flat screen that's not occupied, you slide your card in, the game shows up and you test it."

"How do I know when I'm done testing it?"

"The game will freeze, and in red letters it will say 'Testing Complete, return to schedule' "

"... and you keep doing this until the schedule says were done for the day?"

Bumblebee nodded, "Yep, that's as far as I know."

"Ok, thanks." I spin on my heels, I was so exited, and I couldn't help it as I walked by the GT's, wondering if there would be anyone playing, The Challenger, but I guess it cant be tested until the day comes when people are chosen to test it. I wonder when that would be, I thought to myself.

At the right far corner of the room was an empty couch and a controller and a flat screen almost as big as me, I walked over to that one and slipped my card inside a tiny box below the screen, once my card disappeared the screen lit up with a picture of, Dragon Catchers.

I sat on the couch and took the controller in my hands—in my school all we really learned about was how to make video games and how to test them, so all of us were pros at this kind of stuff, some were better than others.

The first thing I had to do in the game was make my avatar.

Dragon Slayer was my only choice for the game, so I pressed one of the buttons on the box controller and my next was, male or female. Well of course female, doesn't my pass tell this thing that I'm a female?... actually, never mind, I know some friends in school who were girls and chose boy avatars for some games they tested for fun, so I guess it just depends, but I chose female any ways.

Hair color: Blonde

Eye Color: Blue

I was surprised they didn't ask for a height and size.

Weapons: ???

My choices was many types of swords, I guess since I'm a GT this game lists every single sword in the game without getting higher up in levels, so there was even Greek and Roman swords like the Gladius.

So I just chose a Gladius and an axe.

Then I chose my armor which was just a simple knight armor you see in every day movies with knights in them.

Then the game began with my character talking to a king, it almost reminded me of Dragon Quest, the virtual reality game made by Aladdin.

After skipping a twenty minute long conversation with the king, I was given a tiny container for dragon tears, which the queen needed for a cure for whatever sickness she had. And since this was an anime game, my character had to be dressed inappropriately—which was disgusting in my mind—because if your going to see the king, at least wear something under a see through dress.

This was so far a really good graphic game—minus the part with the see through dress—as I met the home town Wizard, his magic to teleport me to the dragons layer looked like it actually popped out of the screen, and now that I think of it, the people actually looked like real people! So this is what the GA's are paid to do, that's so cool! But did my character really need to dress in that awful way—ok maybe I should stop talking about that part, just by looking at it once already burned a picture in my mind forever.

After about ten minutes of being inside a cave full of lava and trying to fend off giant lizards with tongues that were slick with poison, someone tapped on my shoulder, I jumped a little and accidentally pressing a button on the controller making my avatar slice with its sword and kill the last lizard instantly.

I pause the game and turn around quickly, "Yes."

It was a boy about my, but since I never seen him in my class before he might be a year older than me or so, "Sorry, um, what game is that?" he was actually kind of cute, his black hair was in spike in the front, and his face was almost perfect except for a scar across his left eye.

"I-I think it's called, Dragon Catchers... why?"

"Oh just wondering. I never seen that good of avatars that actually look real!" how could this boy not know? Doesn't he know that there GA's, or is this one of those people who act like a moron in front of girls to get there numbers.

Finally I say, "There called GA's, Game Actors" he nodded once, and then pointed over my shoulder.

"How did you get so far into the game already?"

"I'm a Game Tester, that's what happens, I play the highest levels and test them... for you know, glitches and stuff?" is this kid really that stupid, and why is he in the GT center if he doesn't know anything about what I'm doing. "Look, if you need help with something just tell me, but if you don't I got to get back to work." I didn't want to be rude, but if that's what it takes to get this guy off my back, so be it.

"Oh ok, I'm sorry for annoying you, but I have no idea what to do when I am a GT." I look him up and down, and then see he is holding a black pass just like mine in his hand.

"There's a schedule in the back of the room, find your name and swipe it with your hand and then it will tell you what game to play and what to play it with."

"Thanks."

"Welcome." as he spun on his heels and headed for the back of the room, I noticed how he walked, he wasn't walking with a limp, but it looked like his legs were trying to give out on him.

I shrug my shoulders, must be how he walks every day, but the weird thing was, I ever seen him before, yes there is about 5,000 or less people living in our city, but you pretty much know every body. But I have never in my life come across this person.

As I turn around and continue my game, I think about that scar across his eye, where did he get it from? Was it a birth mark, or was it caused by an accident, our city is pretty much peaceful, no violence is ever heard, but that doesn't mean kids get in fights, but I don't think there has ever been a killing.

Then the boss fight came up on the game, I was to capture the dragon, and try not to kill it, bring it back to the king and some how make the dragon cry—onions will probably do get the job done.

When the dragon came out from its shell looking thing, the dragon almost looked real like the people, but since there's no such thing as dragons, this thing was animated so I can tell, but it wasn't that bad, I almost believed it was real at first, almost.

I waited for my avatar to get its health up, and then unsheathed my axe, it had lower strength than my sword but I didn't want to use my sword and then only thing I had left was an axe.

The first thing the dragon did—like all the dragons did in every game I played so far with dragons in it—It sprayed out its fire from its opened mouth, I twisted my avatar around to let the back of my armor take the beating since I had no time to take cover. Since noise is not allowed to come out of the speakers when playing games in the GT room, a close up of my poor characters face filled the screen, blood tears ran down my avatars face and into her mouth, as the armor slowly melted off my avatar's body, the camera refocused on the whole seen, my avatar was found face down, I had five hearts at the bottom to show my health, all of the hearts except a quarter of one was still left red, I wasn't dead yet but it was going to take a while for my character to move. Good thing I didn't have my sword out it would have probably melted away. My axe was nowhere to be seen, so it must have melted with my character's armor.

The dragon started to step forward, its red scaly flesh glistened with the help of the orange lava that surrounded it—it opened its mouth again. I was afraid it was about to spray out fire again, but all that happened was dark gray smoke billowed out from its mouth and nostrils.

"Come on, get up!" I couldn't believe I was yelling at a game I was testing. I mean, so far this game was lame, it wasn't even anime style, except the see through dress part, but there was absolutely nothing different from this game then any other game I played. I mean this anime isn't really a cartoon, the people are real but they call this an anime? Maybe because the GA's act like anime characters from time to time I guess.

But before I could even get my avatar back up and running the screen froze and red letters suddenly appeared in front of my screen that read: Testing complete, return to schedule.

Well... that was a complete waste of time, the game absolutely sucked! When I turned my head to look at the clock which was on my wrist watch, I nearly blurted out, "I spent two hours or more of my life playing this game!"

I grunt and reach for my pass which reappeared under the flat screen, then I slowly walked toward the schedule, as I did I found that boy who tapped me on the shoulder looking over the names.

"Hey, did you find your name?"

The boy turned around, his eyes sparkled. "Yeah, I found my name. I was just looking for my next game to test."

"You already finished testing one game?!" I asked surprised,

He nodded, "Yeah, this will be my third game to test today." I stop in my tracks, how is that possible? Testing games usually have to take up to at last two or more hours. "How many games have you done?"

It took me a second to think of were I was, and what he asked me, but I finally answered,

"That anime game, Dragon Catchers, but that's been my first one so far, it wasn't even an anime, except maybe for how the characters and acted, and what they dressed in."

"Yeah, I have played games like that before, they say there an anime, but it's really just the acting they base it off of." ((You completely make no sense bro.)

"Which games have you tested?"

"PG100, and that one game that's always glitching, called S.O.E."

"What's that?"

"S.O.E. also known as Spies of Earth, its about two teens going back in time where these aliens are trying to destroy Mount Rushmore, its pretty cool story, until it starts to glitch at that one part when Jonathan is kidnapped by an alien." I gulp at the mention of "alien" this kid says it like he's not even one, or he just doesn't care about what were called, and that its just a game.

"If you know so much about games, why do you ask me those dumb questions?"

"About the game you were playing?"

I nod, putting my hands on my hips as I waited for his answer.

"I've never seen a game like that, with the characters looking so real I mean, but this is my first time here."

"No way!" that can't be.

He started to chuckle and cross his arms, "It's true, I was held back from getting a job, I'm sixteen right now, I was supposed to start at fifteen or fourteen, but never got around to it."

"And Aladdin didn't do anything about it?!"

"Yeah, I know, that's weird, he is usually pretty antsy about those things, but no this time." this cant be true, he had to be lying, either Aladdin doesn't know at all or this kid is just lying about his age or something.

* * *

The day passed on, after testing PG100, and a couple of names I was to bored to mention right now, but one of the oddest things happened to me after work as I was walking back to my home.

The boy with the scar on his face—I wish I knew his name so I could stop calling him "boy"—had pinned me by my arms as I was walked in an alley, I almost cried out if it wasn't for his hand covering my mouth,

"Shhh don't make a sound." he whispered in my ear, I did as he said, I don't know why. Then I heard the two voices in the back ground.

"Where did he go!" yelled out a voice, it was an echo so I couldn't really tell how his voice sounded, except the only detail I knew was that the voice belonged to a male voice.

"Not again, Aladdin won't be happy!" yelled out a different voice this time, as it echoed our way, scar boy had gotten to comfortable and laid his head against my shoulder, he was shivering and I could smell the sweat odor coming from his body.

Finally I heard scuffling of feet and nothing was heard, after a full minute scar boy let go of me. "Sorry I had to do that to you; I'm trying not to get caught"

"Wha-What did you do."

"I stole something."

"FROM ALADDIN!"

"Yes-No-Never mind, now keep it down... Ill show you if you want."

I cross my arms over my chest and wait; the kid reached behind his back then pulled out a black handgun.

"You stole a gun!" my heart beat quickened, what in the world.

"No, its not real, there's no such things as guns any more down here, this is a BB gun." its true, guns are illegal down here, and no one has the smarts to build one either, the only thing close to a gun we have are BB guns, but those are expensive here.

"Why did you steal that?"

"Cant tell you." then he put it back where he got it from behind him then wiped his sweaty head with his arm. "Y-You won't tell any one would you?"

"Not unless you tell me why you stole a plastic BB gun!" I tapped my unsteady feet on the ground, I wasn't gonna leave or let him leave without him telling me what was going on. His eyes gave away alot; I knew he could see what I was thinking.

"It's a secret though."

"I can keep secrets..." I actually never had someone tell me a secret in my whole life, I had friends with problems yes, but every body always kept to themselves. I grin a little and he smiles back.

"Fine, I'll tell you tonight."

"How do I know your not gonna run away?"

He looked at me like I was telling a joke. "You're serious, where else would I go?"

"Good point, where do you want me to meet you up at?"

He thought for a second and leaned against the alley wall in back of him. "How about the junk yard?"

"But were not allowed at night."

"Then come right before it closes, come at... ten thirty, that would be thirty minutes before they close."

"How about if they notice that we didn't come out after they close?"

"Oh, they won't notice." he shrugged, then like we had never met before he started to walk away, but I quickly grabbed his elbow and yanked him back towards me.

"Wait a second, what's your name, scar boy!?" I heard him chuckle under his breath, but he never turned around as he gave me an answer,

"Well, I'm called Grand Theft Auto, or Grand Theft, or just Auto, but my dad calls me GTA."

"Ok, GTA." I let go of his arm, and still with his back facing me I tell him my name, "I'm Halo, and we better not get caught."

GTA shook his head and started to walked away again, I watched him leave until he turned out of the alley—he's a weird boy, he can be really rude at sometimes, but I don't think that's really him—I can tell in his eyes, something is hurting him inside, but what?

CHAPTER 2

After coming home full of energy, I almost ran into my mom who was carrying our dinner, pasta.

"I'm so sorry mom, here." I bend down to pick up the pan but my mom catches my hand.

"Its fine hun, just let our cleaner get it." I almost forgot about the new cleaner we got a few days ago, in a split second a disk that hovered three inches from the ground hovered in the middle of the pasta mess, two tubes came out and started to vacuum the pasta.

"I'm sorry mom."

"Its ok, I made an extra one like always, why the rush?"

"Just work and all..."

"You met someone?!" my moms face brightened up, I blushed a light red and moved my hair behind my ear.

"MOM! Of course I did."

She grinned, "Who's the lucky boy?"

I roll my eyes and chuckle, "I mean, I meat people every day,"

She frowned, and bit her lower lip, "Oh... sorry,"

"No, its ok, sorry I ran into you," and ran up to my room, I know I shouldn't have left her hanging like that but, that was kind of embarrassing for her to ask if I met someone I liked, I mean I didn't... right?

I practically stayed in my room the whole time—except when it was dinner time—until it was almost ten, and it would take me about twenty minutes to run over there, I'll be a little bit early but it wouldn't hurt. I couldn't be sure of myself if I was exited about what GTA was about to show me, or just exited to have a friend that invited me somewhere for once.

After washing my face in cold water to keep me awake for a little bit if I some how—accidentally—dozed off. Then I found a black one piece zip up suit, and combed my hair into a long braid pony tail. I opened my window at the very back of my room, nobody had backyards so the street was always around every single house, as I looked down, there was a pole on the right side of the window that would send me down all the way to the ground, but the only problem was, was getting back up, I have no idea if I would have enough strength to pull me up the building if I ran back, so I would have to go to the front door, chancing that I wouldn't get caught.

As I slid down the pole and almost face planted—If it wasn't for my hands from stopping the fall, I would have a really banged up my nose by now—I ran as fast as I could at first, breathing out of my nose as I did so I wouldn't have my lungs beating against my rib cage from taking in to much air, but about five minutes later I stopped to take a breath in the alley way where GTA had stopped me, I bent down so my hands were resting on my knee caps, and my knees were half way bent. I thought about what GTA was trying to do with that BB gun. I tried to buy a BB gun one time, but my mom said to wait until the prices went lower, I knew they wouldn't but still took my moms advise, I don't think my mom liked guns, so she probably wanted me to forget I ever wanted to buy one, so I did forget and I never really thought about getting one after that. But I was still kind of confused why I wasn't so mad at GTA for stealing one.

I looked in back of me for some odd reason, I kind of felt like someone was following me, which is not uncommon, since it might be a guard looking for suspicious people. Then I ran without skipping a beat, but half-ran half-jogged over to my finale destination without stopping this time.

* * *

The junkyard was a place where all of our trash was dumped, but it was also regularly sorted through, there was the trash section, the metals section, the electronics section, and then the bottles and cans section. I went here once on a school field trip, when we got there all the kids had to go through the electronics and find an old game and hopefully find a way to play it, then we did a report at the end of the week on how far we had got in the game, how our games are better than the games we found—and different other things that are just boring to even mention right now. (Sorry I do that a lot, so get use to it!)

As I walked past the metal buzzing electric gates, the smell almost hit me immediately, I wanted to say it smelled like rotten flesh but I have no idea what that smells like so I'm just gonna say it smelled like something I never smelled before—which is true. Told you this story can end up in a weird place.

My nose was pretty much use to the smell as I went up to the little white booth up ahead, a very muscular man sat in an uncomfortable looking chair, he looked serious at first when I saw him, but his face looked like someone took a hammer to it, I almost felt bad for the guy.

"Uh," I clear my throat, "Sorry, I-I was supposed to meet..."

"Auto?" said the man as he swished side-by-side in his chair, "He said he was having someone meet him here, but he didn't say a girl." the man was weird; his blue eyes looked over my face for a second, and then looked down at my chest. I suddenly started to feel naked.

I took in a breath, ready to be rude if I needed to, "Just tell me where he is."

"Well... where he's always at, the metals or the electronics, but he said to meet him at the metals."

I nod as my "Thank you." and walk toward the sign that was written in dark black letters, METALS.

The metals section was practically different things, sizes and shapes of metal smashed into a bumpy wave, at least a hundred feet wide in a circle, it was made this way so people could sort through all the metals easier. I wonder why GTA wanted me to meet him at this part of the junk yard. I didn't see him yet though, I look down at my wrist watch, five minutes till, and GTA is probably one of those who wait till the very last second to show up.

* * *

I was wrong, he was ten minutes late, I didn't see any sign of the BB gun yet, so it must have been in his back pocket, he was in a silver one piece suit, but what was really weird was he wore a black coat over it—so the gun could be in there. He was also carrying a backpack in his two hands, when he dropped it by my feet; I heard a loud clang and the sound of metal scrapping against metal.

"Well," I tap my foot on the ground, trying to star at his scared eyes seriously-which was hard. "Where were you, I even got here early?"

He shrugged and didn't seem to care, "Sorry, I didn't know you were so interested."

"I'm always interested." I point out, "Especially, what happened with your eye."

The boys mouth dropped for as second then he closed it and felt his scar, "I don't really talk about it."

I nod, "I understand."

* * *

After the place closed, it was all lit with hanging lights that were held by pipes above us. Nobody came in to look for us which was good, except GTA said, "We still need to watch out for the security,"

We walked where the bottles and cans were and he set up three targets on the ground and walked backwards counting his steps, we were about thirty feet away. He took out his gun from his black pocket and aimed at a can, I looked at the targets first and just a second passes and all three of the cans went down.

I look at the gun in astonishment, not even a sound was made! "Wow! Can that actually kill someone?"

He shook his head "Maybe if you shot them through the eyes, it's a CO2, I only have three CO2 containers left though." He frowns and looks down at his work.

"How many did you buy?"

"One free one came with the gun, I stole it when it was in the package still, and I bought five more, but just one of them costs five dollars."

"Just five of them cost twenty-five dollars." That's crazy!

"Well, its gonna be worth it when I make it into something else, want to try?" he hands me the BB gun, and I look all around it, there was a trigger at the bottom, but the trigger guard was missing, he must have snapped it off.

"Why is the trigger guard missing?" I ask as I point at one of the falling cans with it.

"I'm trying to make a stalk for it out of the piece of wood" he pulls out a piece of wood that was already crafted into a stalk, "But since the trigger guard felt kind of weird when I set it up, I snapped it off."

Not really listening to his answer, I pressed the trigger all the way down, but all I did was knock the dirt around the targets and create miniature dust storms about two inches high, but I didn't even hit the stupid cans down.

"How do you even aim this thing?" I finally give up and sit my butt on the dirty ground, not really caring if I was getting my one piece suit dirty.

"Here!" he snatches the gun from my hand rudely, but I didn't even care telling him so. "You aim that piece of plastic at the end of the barrel." He pointed to the spot, "Between these two plastic things." I like the way he said things, like he doesn't know what they're called. He aims at the cans again, pulls the trigger, the can that was tipped on its side didn't move, but a second hole was shown in the middle of it and a little dust storm was made in back of it.

My eyes go wide; he acts like he's been shooting a BB gun for years, how...?

He hands the gun back and goes back to whatever he was doing, as I look down at the gun in my lap—my jaw still hanging down, and I bet my eyes were as big as saucers, I probably looked like some kind of freaked out Manga/Anime character—I watch what he pulls out of his backpack, a black hose about three feet long, but super skinny, the hole was about as big as my pinky.

"What's that for?" I ask when I finally close my mouth, and then run over it with my saliva tongue so I didn't talk with such a desert dry mouth.

The boy scratches his wounded eye, then looks at me and straitens up. "Well, it's for my project. I was going to show you today, but with you asking so many questions, I might not even connect the hose."

"...and, why do you need to connect a hose to the BB gun?"

He rolled his eyes, but then I see him smile, where did GTA get his weirdness from? He is so complicated!

"Uh, hello?!" GTA was waving his hand in front of my face; I didn't notice I was staring at his eye again.

My jaw starts to drop, but I quickly give him a smile, and a girlish giggle, "Oh-Oh, I'm sorry, I was just thinking about what hoses were used for..." I'm so stupid (YOU IDIOT THAT WAS SO LAME!)

He blinked a couple of times, which made me blush a deep red. "Ok, yeah, well," he bends down to pick up tire pump—one of those you use for bicycles—It was all black but the little needle was missing, "I have two of these, I'm gonna connect the hose to the hole." he points to the end where the air was supposed to release. "Then I'm gonna cut a hole in the middle of my second one, place a plastic pipe barley inside the hole, glue it. Then I was going to put a hole in the middle of the first one..." and he went on and on and on, until he finally took in a breath, probably just noticed I was staring off into space again. "...Your not even listening to me are you?"

I shake my head trying to snap out of my daze. "Nope, but it does sound interesting." I wince at my reply, but his smile turns into a grin, surprising, usually people would get mad for not remembering a word they said.

"Its ok, I wanted to bore you on purpose, I do it to my dad all the time."

* * *

As he tinkered with his BB gun project, I sat around and watched him work, my eyes could never look away from his scar—who knows how much time passed—he stood up strait and he frowned, then looked down at a wrist watch I never noticed on his arm. "Its getting late and I don't want it to be completely dark when we walk back home, lights shut off in about thirty minutes, we can meet tomorrow?" I was surprised; he actually wanted me to meet him again.

I couldn't help myself and pretty much nodded my head off my neck. "Yeah, sure I would love to, I guess I'll see you at work?" he smiled, and bent back down. I walked away without him saying goodbye, or waving to me. I wonder why I never seen him before around my city—I can't believe I'm writing this, but I can't wait to see him tomorrow!

CHAPTER 3

Today I actually played a real anime game—no GA's were in it this time—It was a perfect anime game for me if I wanted to buy it, but did it have to be so raunchy? I won't go into details, but do these GM's who make these animes have to be like that one series 'La Blue Girl' come on, that's just disgusting.

My character was a girl—obviously—and she's an Elf, she was dressed up in an all green dress that went to her knee caps—I tried to pick the one that showed less skin—I had a leaf crown on my head that glowed blue every once in a while, and my feet were barefoot, when I walked—I should say floated, since in this game, Elf's don't walk for some odd reason—over to my first meeting with the Elf king, he gave me two options:

A. Fight the princess of the mermaids to claim her thrown and marry the prince.

B. Complete the quest to become a True Elf.

A true Elf is where they grow wings and fly around wherever they want, as long as they want; get a book of all the spells throughout the game (Which cost 1,000 coins just for one spell. And you only get coins when you complete quests in the game, which there all super hard, and very few.) and it was pretty cool in the beginning, but you have to do so much just to gain the kings trust for some reason, and you need to make a guild and whatever. The game would be better if Aladdin made it into a Virtual Reality game, but like I said, this game is an anime, so its pretty raunchy, I wouldn't trust my kids with this one any time, even if they grew to adults, it's a no, no.

Suddenly, my couch moved and made me nearly drop my controller.

"Zelda!" I pause the game to give her a quick hug, then I pull away fast to look at her face, the make up was off, and I was right about her face, it did look prettier without it, but she didn't look so good, her face was pale and I could tell she was trying her best to put on her best face. Maybe she was sick and that's why I didn't see her downstairs this morning.

"Hey, Halo, mind if I sit here?"

I shake my head, "N-No, not at all, what's up?"

She looked down at her hands, "I-I-" she paused for a second, "It's a secret, and I know I can trust you, but remember that new game Aladdin is going to put out soon?"

I nod, "Of course, who doesn't know?"

"Ok, well Aladdin gave me a message this morning in my mail, and he picked me to be one of the players in The Challenger."

"What!" but why did she look so sick then? And she's not even a GT.

"Yes, now keep it down." Zelda looked around, so far nobody noticed, including Bumblebee who was testing PG100 again—she loves to burst into other peoples conversations, especially if there secrets. "But there's only one problem, the game comes out tomorrow and today they pick there players, and I am very, very sick." she covered her mouth with her left hand suddenly and started to cough, after she cleared her throat, her eyes were watery but still spoke with a strong clear voice, "I told him, so he said to choose one of my students to take the empty space-" she paused again and stared at me.

At first I waited for her to answer, then I replayed on what she had just said, 'he said to choose one of my students to take the empty space'. I shake my head and close my eyes as fast as I could to make sure I was going to wake up from this weird dream I was having, but when I opened them again, I was still here, this was actually happening.

"Zelda, are you serious?!" I gulp in a huge breath of air, my face hurt so bad, and started to turn red. I thought I was going to explode red punch juice every where at any moment. "You ca-I mean, me, why me?"

"Because you're different."

I roll my eyes, "Well duh, were all different except for the alien part, now tell me the reason!" then it was my time to stare at her, she was getting paler and she started to cough into her hand again, she was really sick, and I was asking way to many questions as usual. "I'm sorry, I-I just don't know why me, out of so many other students."

Zelda felt my cheek with her hand she didn't cough onto yet. "Oh, Halo, It wasn't that hard, you see, he had two names on the lists, I didn't tell you the whole story. He gave me two names, one of them was you, and someone named GTA."

I froze, it seemed every one stopped moving in my eyes except for Zelda, she blinked a few time, and caressed my cheek with her hand. "Are you ok Halo?"

I didn't answer—I didn't want to—there was two names Aladdin had written down, and that was me and GTA. He must have had copies of all of our records, but that would be a lot of reading. Just two names, but there was also a handful of people that were supposed to go into The Challenger as well, GTA must of known this to, now I know why he was so nice to me, he probably got a letter to saying 'be friends with that weirdo girl, Halo, you probably don't know her, but be kind to her'. But that wouldn't make sense either, because, he doesn't show any sign of being annoyed—or he is just really good at acting—and maybe I'm just going to over board with this.

After helping Zelda with the elevator and helped her walk to her Floating Cycle (Which is a scooter that hovers off of the ground about a foot.) I went back up, but when I pressed play on the game, the red words showed up to notify me that my testing was complete, I didn't even get to do a boss fight!

I shrug my shoulders and don't complain. I then walk back to the schedule, my next game was a sniper game called: Mr. and Mrs. Sniper.

This game was played on a phone, so I went to an unoccupied room full of phones and picked one up and scanned my pass across the screen to turn it on. When I started to walk out and the game started to download, I pumped into two familiar faces; I smiled at first, but suddenly was super jealous. It was Bumblebee and GTA, and Bumblebee was holding his hand.

My face was blank and I never looked up from the moment. "Uh..."

"Oh, hey Halo!" Bumblebee blushed, and so did GTA. "We were looking for you."

Then GTA interrupted, "Well, actually I was, so thank you, Bee, for-" suddenly, his words were completed by a loud crack as Bumblebee slammed her foot on his. "OUCH!"

She giggles "Hehe, your boyfriend is really funny." she releases his hand and hugs me fiercely. "Sorry for holding his hand, but I couldn't help myself." I shook my head to clear my trance and quickly hugged her back before she pulled away.

"How did you know who to ask?" I suddenly question GTA how weird it was for him to ask my friend, out of all these people in the room.

He shakes his foot a little and says, "Well, I seen you two talk here and there, so I just asked." oh, ok, well that's understandable, and every one notices Bumblebee, she's like that one beauty queen who doesn't care if she's noticed or not, but she doesn't go after every boy she sees, but does she really have to go after GTA?

"Well?" I tap my foot on the ground waiting for him to tell me why he was looking for me.

The boy reached in his pocket and pulled out a white envelope, "My dad told me to give this to you." he said, "But he said to read it when you get home." I take the note from his hand as he walks away, when I turn the note over to see who it was from, again it seemed like the whole world froze, and it was Aladdin's name, but that can only mean!

I look up to find GTA gone, he was nowhere in sight, except Bumblebee peeking over my shoulder, "What's that?" I quickly put it in my pocket,

"Oh, just a note his dad wrote to me."

She stuck out her tongue. "That better not be what I'm thinking it is..." I look at her and blink a few times.

"Uh... I hope not, I never met his dad before."

She nodded and giggled, "Yeah, sure, sure, well I got to go test one of Aladdin's old games, I guess he made a new map in Robo Quest, and so a few of us are going inside to check it out." then she twisted on her heels and left me by myself to think about what had just happened, and what GTA said. He said his father gave me this note to read at home, and Aladdin wrote it, that means Aladdin is GTA's father.

My heart rate was going up, my heart beating faster, and faster, so Auto must have told his father about me, and I never knew Aladdin had a son, nobody knew. From what I have heard, Aladdin wasn't even married.

I had to think about this later, I had to hurry up with work today so I can read the note—wait! How about I read it now?

I reach into my pocket—but Aladdin told Auto to read it at home, it must be important so he must not want any one to know what he was telling me—I look around to see if anyone was looking at me weird for staring at the ground for who knows how long, and I looked again for GTA, but he was still nowhere in sight. Bumblebee had just walked into another room with a group of boys, and I could see her blush about a dozen times, they were probably commenting on her.

I shrug off whatever was holding me down by the shoulders and look for a couch or a chair to sit on so I can hurry up and test, Mr. and Mrs. Sniper, then the rest of the games so I can hurry up to read that stupid note that almost made me have a heart attack by noticing who had written it.

* * *

I ran back home with a burst of unknown energy, I couldn't wait to read what was inside the envelope, it could be bad news, maybe he was telling me he picked someone else instead of me, maybe Zelda picked someone else, No she wouldn't go back on her word, and she acted like she never knew Auto, well no one did until now, she probably didn't know he was Aladdin's son, or did she?

"Hello Halo." my mom hugged me right when I busted through the door, I hugged back.

"Hey mom, I have something really exiting to tell you!"

She pulls away but grips my shoulders, her face was bright with excitement, "What is it, tell me, I was praying this morning, I felt something wonderful about you." Yeah, my mom is religious, I am to, I use to hate wearing these one piece suits, but we had no choice, every one had to wear them, sometimes I wish I could wear skirts and dresses like my mom use to.

"I-I can't tell you right now, but once I read this letter, I can tell you."

"Letter, what letter?!"

I reach into my pocket and pull the white envelope out. "Aladdin gave me this, but I have to read it by myself, sorry..."

"...Aladdin" she jumped up and down laughing, "Then this has to be important, and ok I understand Aladdin's business is not for every one. I'll have dinner ready when you come back down!" I nod and hurry up to my room.

I slam my door behind me without even thinking and start to tear into the envelope, the letter was written on a yellow colored piece of paper.

Dear GT (Game Tester) Halo,

You probably already found out from Zelda before you have read this that she has picked you as a player in my new game, the Challenger. Unlike my other virtual reality games, instead of using a pair of glasses, we use a cylinder that's under a pool of water. You will be able to ask questions later when you are picked up. You may be confused why I picked Zelda first to be a player in the game, well I am not only picking a handful of people who work as GT's, but from all the stations that has to do with games, GT's, GA's, GM's, etcetera. I know you are different Halo, so is GTA (Grand Theft Auto) my son, when you enter the game from the very start, never leave his side.

At 10:00 PM, today you will look in your mail box and find a golden pass, a suit your going to need to wear immediately, you must sleep in it, but don't take a shower in it, you may not take it off until the people who pick you up say so, this suit is made to make you ready for what lies ahead in the game.

Eat and drink up, your going to need your strength for this since it might take more than a month to accomplish. If you are one of the winners in the game then you will win a suit, instead of when I said there was only one suit available, there is actually five suits, this information is classified to every one else around you, do not tell any family and friends a word I have written down on this piece of paper. Destroy this immediately.

~Aladdin.

I gulp in a breath of fresh air—how weird—did Aladdin just say to keep close to GTA at all times when I enter the game?

I was so excited to tell my mom and Bumblebee about what has happened to me, but Aladdin had specifically said not to. I sigh and read the words a few times more before crumpling it into a ball in my fist.

* * *

At10:00 PM I walked out to my mail box, I never ate dinner with my mom, and the good thing was my dad wasn't back from his work yet, I rarely got to see him now these days. I reached inside the silver box and the first thing my hand touched was the suit, I looked at the outside, it turned different colors, gold and green and blue, then over and over again with the same pattern. The inside had black skinny wires inside, which I have never seen in a one piece suit before.

Then I found the golden pass next, my name was spelled on the surface in big black letters, and the only thing different from this pass than my black one, was it didn't have no black strip where the scanner scans it.

I walked inside, running up to my room, but before I could close to my room door my mom suddenly appeared in front of me, making me drop my suit and pass, my multicolored suit landed on my golden pass, and before my mom could notice I used my heel to kick the two things in back of me and slide it under my Hover Bed.

"Hey mom, about that good news..."

My mom suddenly interrupted, "...What happened?" she had worry on her face, her eyes were wide and I could tell she was about to cry.

So to keep that from happening I put on my best smile and pull her into a hug. "Mom, its fine, its actually good news, but Aladdin said I couldn't tell anyone."

My mom was stiff for a second, but she breathed slowly and wrapped her arms around me. "Oh ok, I was so worried, you could have told me this during dinner."

"But I didn't want to worry you." I sadly point out.

"Ah, who cares if I worry, we always get over it sometime, but come on, I put your food in the Floater Fridge, its warming up still, and you don't need to tell me a thing!" she pinched my cheek a little with her thumb and finger, then broke up the hug and went into the kitchen.

I sigh in relief that she wasn't mad, sad or scared, that was a good thing. I turn around as I shut my door behind me and pick up the things I had slide under my Hover Bed and started to put on my new suit.

CHAPTER 4

"Well, here it is." GTA showed me his finished product, the two pumps connected just by a plastic pipe in the middle of both of them, and the skinny black hose was connected to one of the pumps and also a small hole was drilled on top of the barrel of the gun and the hose was glued to that hole.

We were at the cans and bottles section again, and my suit kept on distracting me when my suit turned colors, so far, GTA hasn't asked about it yet. I look over his project, "Looks good, so what is it supposed to do?"

"When the top pump is pulled back, the one on the bottom will fill up with air, the BB is right next to the hole I drilled, once I release the top pump plunger, it will release its air, that air will combine when I pulled the trigger at the same time, if this works, I can actually make a BB gun pierce through several pieces of wood—or even better—metal!"

My jaw suddenly dropped, my eyes felt like they were turning white. "Y-You mean you a-a-actually made a gun out of a BB gun?!"

His eyes turn dark and starts to chuckle under his breath. "Of course not, it's just a project."

He was lying, he was making this type of BB gun for a reason, was he going to kill someone, is that why he wants me along, he's gonna tell me what he plans on making, and then kill me?

I take a step back and close my mouth. "Auto, watch where you point that thing!" he was actually pointing it at the ground at his side; he looked at me oddly but shrugged. "If it makes you feel any better, Aladdin knows what I'm making, and he is actually the one who told me to make one that can pierce through wood or kill a small animal."

"Does he know you stole the BB gun?"

"Uh..." he reached in back of him and grabbed his neck as his face blushed, "Hehe, no—not really..."

"But you do know you are pretty close to making a gun—were aliens we are smart, but we have pretty much stuck to games for almost all of our lives, nobody has even been able to re-create a gun," I point at the BB gun project, "That is close to a gun—really close."

GTA winced from my words and released his hand from his neck to hold the gun and pumps with both hands, but he didn't show any sign that he was too hurt by them; he looked like he understood what I was saying.

"Ill be careful with it, that's why I trusted you from the very beginning, my dad said to meet this one person in the GT's room, and it was you, and he said to trust you... so I am." he smiled, showing his perfect teeth which made him look funny, I had to cover my mouth from laughing but I couldn't help my face as it turned pink.

We stared at each other for a couple seconds until he finally said, "You want to shoot it first?"

I think for a second—tempted—but then I shake my head. "No, it's your project, and I don't want that thing to blow up in my face if it does."

He gets down on his stomach and points the BB gun at its target, which is a glass bottle this time, behind is a thick piece of wood. When he sits there for a couple a seconds he says, "Actually, I'm going to need someone to help hold the plunger on the pump back."

"Are you..." I breathe slowly, and stomp my way over to him, then lay on my stomach next to him.

He tells me what to do and says on the count of three, release the plunger and step back as fast as I could, or just cover my face if anything happened.

Auto licks his lips and squints down the barrel and at the target, and starts his counting, "One... two... three!"

I release the plunger immediately and cover my face, I heard a loud, ZIP! I had no idea if that was sound of failure or success, when I get the nerve to look up, GTA was still aiming the gun, when I looked at the target the glass bottle had shattered.

Suddenly Auto jumps up onto his feet to get a closer look at the piece of wood, I walk up to him as he looks over the piece of wood, "What the heck, that's weird," he says smoothing his hand over the splintery surface, "there should be a hole in the wood."

"So... It worked?" I ask looking over his shoulder, and Auto nodded.

"It worked, but I heard the sound of the BB, did you here it?—of course you did, but there isn't a hole to prove it!"

"Maybe the BB hit the glass and rebounded?" I say trying to act smart, to me I'm only good at game testing, not BB bullet crap.

"Maybe, I'll have to shoot it again." he puts the wood back on the ground, I look down at myself as my suit suddenly flashed blue—which reminded me.

"Hey, so you never told me that Aladdin was your father!"

"Is my father..." he corrected, "...and the only reason I didn't tell you was because he said not to until I gave you that letter."

"Yeah... interesting letter..."

GTA chuckled, and then dusted his hands on his one piece suit pants, "Yeah, sometimes I don't get how he writes, it's almost like he writes backwards."

"So do you know why he gave me the letter?"

He nodded and walked past me to pick up his gun and pumps, "Of course, I was the one who told him about you, so he chose you."

I blush red and cover my face so he doesn't notice, "And why did you tell him about me?"

"I saw you play a game and looked over your recordings you send to Zelda at the end of the day, you not only tell us how good or bad the game is, but the details of the character you use and how he or she reacts in the game."

"I hate animes, I think I nearly turned blind on that one dragon slaying game."

"Oh, anime is way worse than that..."

I hold up my hand that was covering my face. "Please, spare me the details, a friend already showed me an episode of the 'La Blue Girl' and I pretty much threw up on her phone."

He sticks his tongue out at me and making his eyes squint, "Your friend as in, Bumblebee?"

I shake my head, "Of course not, this is a different friend who's into 'stuff' "

"Ah, I understand." he rolls his eyes and puts his things in his backpack which is not to far from where he was laying down.

I look around the place as my suit shines gold, "I think I should head back—get some rest for tomorrow."

"Yeah, me to."

I stop breathing, "Y-You to?!—but didn't Zelda pick me?!"

"Yeah, but he's Aladdin, and it's his game, he can add whoever he wants, it was sort of like a test, if Zelda picked the person she didn't know or teach, then he would know you weren't special."

I look at him oddly, "Aladdin's weird, because that makes absolutely no sense..."

"That's what I said, but he's like you, he just shrugs or stares at me like I just came back from the dead."

"I do not stare at you like that!" I suddenly can't help but blush in front of him.

"Well, maybe..."

I stomp a foot on the ground which makes him laugh and bend over, "I-I'm just kidding sweetheart, but sometimes he reminds me of you!"

"You have only known me for barley two days—and wait, did you call me sweetheart?"

"Oh, come on aren't we friends?"

I shrug "I guess."

He rolls his eyes, and picks up his backpack and swings it over his shoulder.

"Want me to walk you home?"

"Oh now you suggest it?!"

"Well..." he scratches the back of his head, "I wasn't really in the mood yesterday, and so can I?"

I shake my head "Nah, I'm good."

"Please." If I wasn't so fascinated with his face, I wouldn't be seeing his eyes turn to bright sparkles then into the puppy eyes.

I couldn't help but say it, "Fine, let's hurry up then!"

* * *

As me and Auto walked shoulder to shoulder, I wondered what had made him so un-happy yesterday, I mean, he wasn't really showing it. "So, why were you upset yesterday?"

He seemed to be surprised by my question because he almost tripped on the curb of the side walk, if it wasn't for me slinging my arm through his, he might have ruined his eye and face a lot more.

He blushed from embarrassment which made me almost blush, but I kept my face low.

"I-I, me and my father had a discussion about the new game, The Challenger."

I nod waiting for him to keep going as he took in a breath, "...and...?"

"And, I helped him make it; the only thing is... he made it with my mom's memory."

I stop in my tracks, we were in front of my one of my friends' house, Bideo Geemu, meaning, video gamer, in Japanese, but some people call her Geemu.

"What! how is that-"

"Wait." GTA looked around us, then up ahead, "I would rather we talk somewhere else, did we pass that one alley where I pumped into you the other day yet?"

"No it's just up ahead." I point ahead of us.

* * *

As we walked into the middle of the alley he started again but kept his voice very low since his voice might echo off the walls of the alley. "Ok, so the game is made from my moms memories—and also mine—It was made this way because my dad barley remembered anything about the world above us," Auto points up with his finger, I could barley see it since the lights up on the city ceiling were dimming, we had at least twenty or so minutes until lights out. "Well, my dad decided to put us 'aliens' underground and started building a city. When he found out she was—not only was she very sick, she was pregnant."

"You...?" which it was obvious—unless he had a twin, which would make the first alien family to have twins that survived.

"Yep, me, so as my mom was dying down here, he kept her and I a secret from every one, and slowly downloaded her memories into a—what he calls a Chest. Then he used my memory for the knowledge..."

"Why not use his for that?"

"Well, that was the weird thing; he can make the most complicated games, but when it comes to weapons, he comes to me."

"That's... odd, it still doesn't make since."

"Actually, it kind of does, because he always talked about him being a religious family, and his parents wouldn't let them go outside for anything, they had there church in there house."

"So it was up to his wife's-sorry, your mom's memories to put the scenery in The Challenger but what about you? You said he needed you for knowledge, like as in weapons or something?!"

He slowly nodded, "Yes."

"But why?!"

"Because... because, I lived in the outside world with my uncle, and he made weapons, I lived up there almost my whole life, until a week ago." he closed his eyes and looked away.

"There's a way out?!" I suddenly blurt out, and then cover my mouth with my two hands. There's another way out instead of the game?

Auto tensed, and his shoulders fell and he leaned his head against the wall in front of him, through gritted teeth he said, "No, Aladdin was having difficulties down here so he sent a few suits up to where I lived, the exit collapsed on top of the suits, and a whole town from the world above was destroyed from the collapse... I was on my way to my fathers when it happened... that's how..." he turned around and pointed at his eye "...That's how I got this!"

I take his face in my hands and kiss his scar, tears were dripping from his face and now since I moved him closer they dropped onto my glowing suit, I took him into a hug, my hands going under his backpack and feeling his suited back, he didn't tense this time, he wrapped his arms around my waist and hugged me back.

I patted his back softly. "It's ok..." I wanted to say sorry but couldn't get myself to say a word. I know he's holding back some things, like why his dad wanted to make the suits when there still was a way out, so far all I know is that Aladdin lied to all of us.

We stayed like that for a while, until he let go and wiped his face with his sleeve, I smiled, and he smiled back.

Then I heard loud foot steps coming towards us, they were echoing off the walls, but there were coming from two separate directions, I could tell that much.

But now, before any of us could think of what was about to happen, a rough hand seized me by the arm and pulled me towards its body, I gave off a loud whelp which echoed off the walls, I herd Auto grunt and looked up right when I saw a tall man slam GTA's back into the wall in back of him.

"Ahhh!" I heard his backpack give off a loud, Crack! As it hit up against wall and his back, and from the sound of it, his BB gun project sounded destroyed.

"Nooo-!" he tried to cry out as his hands shot for the attackers throat, but he was stopped with a slap in the face and a huge hand covered his whole face, Auto clawed at the mans hand and suddenly the attacker threw him to the ground, again if it wasn't for Autos hands, he would have face planted.

Suddenly my captor's hands went lower then my arms; until his one hand landed somewhere I didn't want it. My eyes went wide. Please God, I prayed to myself. Don't let this man do to me what I am thinking he is about to do.

Then as the other man took GTA into a bear hug, I saw the two letters on the heart of his one piece suit, WG (Watch Guards).

The man—who seized me—smells of unclean clothes, his breath smelled sour and nasty, it was pretty close to what I smelled at the dump. "There, there girly, do move away, or you'll loose more than your cloths," I know this voice, these must be the two guards who were chasing after Auto when he ran into me the second time we met.

The guy—I decided to call bear, since he looked liked one; especially his face—looked over at us saying, "No, we don't want that on our record."

"Come on." Smelly says. I felt his other hand go up into my hair, was he smelling it?!

Bear looks at GTA's face, as a grin spreads across his, "Well, what do you know—we caught the boy who stole your gun." Bear chuckled, "It must be in his backpack."

"Wait!" Auto struggled against Bears grip, "I'll give it to you if-"

But Bear already snatched the backpack off of GTA's shoulders and pushed him back to the ground, he tried to stop him from searching his bag but all Bear had to do was swat him away like a fly.

Smelly chuckled, his one hand suddenly went between my legs, I started to shake and my suit flashed green and my captor suddenly grinned down at me and made me look up into his face—the green light made his teeth look like he had just got done eating crap. I had to close my eyes before the smell from his deathly breath started to sting my eyes.

Please, I began my prayer again. Please God, I beg you!

I heard the beginning of the sirens; both guards look up, "Crap, I forgot!" Bear said, then the lights through out the whole city, went out.

CHAPTER 5

Sorry if my writing gets kind of sloppy as I quickly jot this down, I was so scared and probably peed my suit—oh I hope I didn't ruin this flashing suit for tomorrow!

I heard both men curse, but I knew, this was my only chance, after my suit flashed blue, I used by knee to cheat shot Smelly in back of me, he howled in pain and almost bent onto my body but I slid away and put my hands out before I smacked face first into the alley wall.

Then I heard a loud thump, and Bear yell out beside me—GTA must have found the opportunity himself—and if it wasn't for my suit when it flashed its gold color he would have never saw me, he had put his already zipped up backpack over his shoulders and pulled me with him.

"Come on before they both recover!"

I almost tripped over Smelly' fallen body, he still gripped his parts and I wish I could see his face when he cried.

I had to show us the way to my house first, I thought about going to the front door first, but I couldn't freak my mom out, I was with a partially cute boy (Sarcasm intended.) and I probably smelled like sweat, and what made it worse was that she was religious, she would think so many things, and probably send Auto to jail for what she thought he had done to me. (Why am I writing this part down?!)

He climb up the pole first, but we had to time it right with my flashing suit, right when my suit flashed a color he would climb up until it went out, then stop, and then wait for my suit to flash again. I was right behind him.

I almost slipped when my hands felt the surface of my window board but Auto caught my arm, "Gotcha sweetheart."

I blushed and took his arm with my free hand, "T-Thank you."

He nods and helps me threw the window, and since my Hover Bed was next to the window we both flopped on top of it in a pile of limbs. I breathed slowly, and couldn't help but hug him close to me, we were safe now.

He hugs me back but only with one arm, I was on top of him and my face was buried in his chest and I just laid there, like it was normal, breathing in deep breaths, but I had to get up and quietly get off his body and then walk over to my pad and pencil to write what had happened a few minutes ago and what happened at the dump.

When I'm done writing I put the pad and pencil in my closet and walk towards him. Auto had been watching me the whole time, and every once in a while I would turn my head from writing to look at him and give him a weird look, but that only made his grin wider.

He was still on my Hover Bed, his back against the wall, his feet hanging off the bed, and his hands on his lap. "I hope you're not staying here long." I whisper to him sitting on the farther side of the bed as I hug my knees up to my chin.

He shakes his head and whispers back, "Of course not, my dad would kill me, and I got to get ready for tomorrow any ways."

"Why don't you have a suit like me?"

"That flashes?"

I nod, "Yeah, don't you have to get ready?"

He shrugs, "This suit is a double layer," he unzips his suit, and he was right, there suddenly his suit flashed gold the same exact time mine did. Then he zipped it back up, and got up onto his knees. "I should go now, my dad will be worried, and the guards will probably tell about what happened to them in the alley—minus a few details... but good thing that they don't know I'm his son." He gave me a soldier salute and started to climb out my window.

I quickly grab his arm as his knee goes out the window, "Wait!" I tried to keep my voice as low as possible. "Tell me why your dad thinks I am special, and why he wants me near you all the time."

He tensed for a bit, and looked down out the window and whispered to me, "Well, because I trust you..."

"That makes no sense." I scowl.

"Because... you know how parents can't ask there kids who they work for and it can be the same for parents?"

I nodded understanding.

"Your dad... well, your dad is like his right hand man-trusts him with almost every thing he's involved in." my face goes pale, and an old memory was triggered.

* * *

My dad was reaching for the front door, but I had woken up early to see him—I was six years old.

"Daddy!" I crashed into his leg and hugged it fiercely, I loved him so much and I know he loved me. But something was off about him that day, he reached down and took me by the arm and released my grip—happiness never left my face—when he picked me up and looked into my eyes, I seen anger in his.

"Don't you see Halo-this family, this city is suffering! You go through out the house and streets like it's a world made of gold, rainbows and unicorns!" my little body froze, my eyes went down to his throat, his suit wasn't zipped all the way and I seen a letter burned on his skin on his chest, there was more to the burned tattoo but it was all I can make out, it was a letter written in cursive, A.

A for, Aladdin, I knew that now. My dad had set me down on the Hover Couch softly after I said, "Daddy, you got an owie on your chest!" he zipped up his suit and left. He never left his suit open like that again.

* * *

"Are you alright?" suddenly we weren't by the window no more, we were on the ground, and his face was inches from mine, I could see the worry in his eyes it almost made me cry, I never in my life had a memory triggered this bad before.

"I-I am alright..." I finally say, and then lift myself up with my hands. "...I'm alright, just really bad... memories I guess."

He nods and holds me by the shoulders. "You think you will be alright for tomorrow? It's gonna be a big day, I know my dad is gonna need to run some tests on you and-"

"Tests?" I ask with a questioning look, "What tests?"

"The suits help us get use to what were about to face in the game, so we have to eat and drink as much as we can, and our body will test every thing that's going on in our bones, blood stream-stuff like that and once the cylinder we go into-"

"What's this cylinder your dad mentioned; he said instead of glasses this time, it's a cylinder underwater?"

He opened his mouth to speak, but lightly chuckled. "Just wait till tomorrow when you're picked up, they'll tell you every thing they can, and if any things left out that you want to know, just come to me when we see each other again."

I smile and kiss his scared eye. "Ok, don't run into any guards, especially those two we left back in the alley."

He blushed from my kiss, but it was a sort of blush that I knew meant he was happy.

Before he left from the window, he looked back as his legs dangled out; he winked at me saying, "I can't wait to see you tomorrow." and left.

That's funny, I thought. Didn't I say that the last time I had left him at the dump?
CHAPTER 6

"Are you ready Halo?" asked two females in a purple one piece suits, they were in front of a Hover Van that looked like a kidnapper car, two ladies were sent to pick me up, one of them—the one who just spoke to me—had her zipper down so that little of her chest was showing. She had long red hair, and the other girl who looked more mature—she had beautiful black hair like Bumblebee's.

I nod my head. "I didn't need to pack did I?"

"Oh no," said the one showing cleavage, her voice was sweet and caring. "All you'll need is yourself and your pass."

"Ok." I look up to my mom, she was in front of our house, when the two ladies showed up, I had to tell her why they were here so she wouldn't worry, when I shook hands with them they said to say why I was being picked up anyways, my dad even gave me a hug before I left, it almost broke my heart.

I give the one—without cleavage showing—my golden pass, after she scanned it with her wrist watch a light turned green both on the pass and watch, then she handed it to me back.

"Ok. Now your suit will be flashing green instead of three colors." She said then they walked me over to the back of the van.

The back two doors automatically opened and I was surprised no one was in it, there was a chair right when you walk in, then a chair facing that right in front of it, and then there was the driver's seat.

"You sit in the very back one." Said the one with red hair, so I did, then she sat in the chair in front of me, and the girl with beautiful black hair was the driver. I heard the doors slam shut behind me automatically, I was forced to stare straight ahead at the girl in front of me—still trying to avoid her chest.

As the hover van started up its light humming, the girl in front crossed her hands across her lap and smiled. "I'm Cherry by the way and that up there is Gwen."

"You sound like you both have regular names." I say just noticing how their names didn't sound like games or characters.

"Of course, we were born up with the humans, then came down here," Cherry rolled her eyes. "It's so much peaceful down here and we don't have to worry about homeless people wanting get someone laid."

"Excuse me?" I gasp, surprised she was so outspoken about things—such as being laid by some homeless person. What is a homeless person any ways?

"Oh!" she jumped up on her seat and giggled, "Teehee, sorry forgot you were here, and so let's start off with-got any questions?"

"Yeah, what was it like without the... um, laid, lusting homeless people?"

Suddenly Gwen starts to chuckle hysterically. "Hun, not those kinds of questions."

"Then..." I think about the letter Aladdin wrote me, I start off with the first thing he told me. "So I heard that this game doesn't use glasses like in his other games Aladdin makes, why is that?"

"Well, first you didn't hear it, you read it. But good question, he is using cylinders this time-well this game is so advanced than his other virtual reality games, you feel every thing."

"Is it big enough so you can move your hands around, like when we walk-our feet will be move up and down, so how does that work?"

"Oh... I don't know, never thought of that," She turned her head back to the driver, "Gwen, got a say to that?"

I looked up at the middle mirror, I could see Gwen's eye go to the road, and then the middle mirror, for a whole second, our eyes met. "I don't think so, because the cylinders are pretty big, but if you were punching or fighting something, your fists and legs would be broken from the sudden blows against the inside of the cylinder-so no, there's no moving around inside of it."

Cherry turned her head back to me. "Any more questions?"

I nod, "Why are the cylinders under water?"

"Easy question, since there is so much inside those cylinders, its constantly running so much electricity-what makes it worse is that we need both AC and heating for the subjects inside, it makes the person in the game feel cold when its winter, or scorching hot when your in a desert. So we put these under a pool to keep them cool and don't blow up either of the subjects." She paused when my jaw dropped, "...and don't worry, this game had to be tested a million times before launch, we even have to test it again right before you go in-we won't, only Aladdin is allowed to test his games."

Why, this was more complicated than I thought. (It's more complicated when I'm trying to remember this crap while writing it down!)

"Anything else?" Cherry asked with a giggle.

I shake my head, no.

"Ok, can I see your left arm please?"

I looked at her for a second—confused of what she was about to do—then I did as I was told. Cherry reached behind her back with her right hand and took hold of my arm with her left. She then pulled out a needle and a tube connected to a clear plastic sack.

"W-What's that for!" I gulp nervously.

"It's a blood test, just stay still ok?" and she pierced the needle threw my green flashing suit, piercing my skin; I saw the blood go up through the clear tube to the clear sack, filling up with my own blood.

I look down, "Can I ask one more question?"

"Yes, of course, ask many as you want until we get to our-" suddenly the engine of the Hover Van stopped—we had arrived, darn it.

"How many people were chosen to play in the game? I also heard-saw, I mean, that he chose from GM's, GA's and more people than just from one group."

She smiled and took the needle and sack into her hands. "There are ten people, which are Aladdin's way of saying-a hand full of people, lucky for you, your one of them."

The back doors suddenly opened and I walked out, with Cherry following behind me with my pack of blood. Then the van zoomed off to its next destination. I finally looked up toward a tall building which was at the farthest side of the city—which no one is allowed to trespass in—the building was so high, it nearly touched the ceiling wall that's supposed to be our sky, and the words ALADDIN, were made up in the middle of the building by mirror-like glass, COOL!

"Come on sweetie, kids are waiting inside." Cherry urged me forward.

"Already?" I groan a bit, clearing my throat at the same time.

"Yep, sorry, you were the last on our list, as Gwen gets us lunch-me and her I mean, and I drop off your test pack, I'll be off." She gave me a bright smile as her eyes closed for a split second, her chest popped out even more, my face flushed and I had to turn away—unfortunately about this place, I had to walk up so many stairs, yay me. (That was a sarcastic tone I used by the way.)

"... Ok," I told my self, and got my self in a running stance. "I can do this-heck stairs are the only thing I eat for breakfast,-or my snack...right?" I started to dash up the stairs, leaving a still happy, big breasted, hot red head behind me in the invisible dust I made up in my mind.

I had to wait before two big metal doors for Cherry to slowly walk up the stairs, we were late, and she didn't care, why can't I be like her?

The big doors opened when a scanner told me to hold out my pass, then a blue scanner beam scanned both the golden pass and Cherry, then we walked inside, we entered the building, the doors slowly opening and bright white light flashing before my eyes, making them dance with black stars. After my eyes adjusted I seen that Cherry already was ahead of me and went to a separate room, there was also about nine kids total waiting there, looking at me in the far back, all except two—no three!—had there arms crossed, and there faces red.

I nervously put my arms behind my back, putting on a good grin and walked inside, the big silent doors closing behind me. Starch white naked statues were on either side of the building, some of them either covered themselves with there hands, or objects such as a pillar covered them. The three people who weren't looking at me like a death wish were Bumblebee, GTA, and surprisingly my old friend Bideo Geemu—or Geemu for short.

Geemu was the quickest one to give me a hug, she had on a green flashing suit like me, which was super tight against her body, and I could feel each of her parts touching mine, I don't think she wore any underclothes. Ugh, same old Geemu.

"Hello, Halo, long time no see?" she giggled against my neck, I heard other people grumble mean words under there breathes but avoided there faces from us, she twirled her body around, then my body collided with another familiar face, Bumblebee. Soon we were just a bunch of young girls clinging on to each other, giggling as our bodies touched like we were born this way.

"Hey guys!" I squeak with delight.

"Dang," suddenly I felt a hand on my left side, "You got bigger." Geemu giggled and squeezed a few times. "IM IN LOVE!"

I hear a chuckle from GTA as he walks over and separates us, I think he was chuckling nervously about Geemu, I hope.

"Hey, sweetheart." I see Bumblebees jaw drop and Geemu's face turn red.

"Hey, Auto." When we separate I look as his flash suit, he wears a green one just like me, and then I look at Bumblebee's, and she wears gold.

"You guys look so cute in your flash suits!" I clap my hands together.

"You look hot." Geemu winks at me while blushing, her chest popping out showing off what she wants all the perverted kids to see. I look in back at other kids in flash suits, there mouths were still dropped as if they couldn't control them. Well they better or else they might catch a fly—or worse, catch my fists as I rip them off.

"So what now?" I ask stepping in front, when I gave the ugly kids a glare, they shut there mouths and started to talk to each other like nothing happened.

Auto says, "Since you're here-and the last person who was picked up this morning, Aladdin should be notifying people now who there teams are going to be."

"Teams!" me and the girls look at him and say at the same time confused. "How do they choose?"

"Well, more like groups, so since I'm his-" Auto's eyes widen and bends down to cough, it gives me a second to relies why he did so, he almost said he is Aladdin's son. Then he straitens and says sorry then keeps going. "I mean, were all in groups of what our flash suits are, me and Halo are green." He points to both of our suits, "That means were in group green, and then Bumblebee is with the gold and Geemu is-I believe that's your name, is with us."

"No!" suddenly Geemu smashed him to the floor, "I want you to be on my team baby." And it took both me and Bumblebee to pry her off fast before anything else happened, "NO, he's mine!" she giggled as we did so.

Auto chuckles nervously, his face flushed. "I already said you were with us, not with another group."

As we dusted our selves off—which there was no dust, just a reaction—that's when the suited people in hazmat looking type suits came in from three ways, gold suit came from in front of the group, a blue one on our right, green on our left.

"Welcome." said the golden hazmat suit, which had a clear female voice, I wouldn't have known if she was a female if it wasn't for her voice because her face couldn't be seen cause of the shaded plastic that covered her face on the suit. "Welcome to the launch of The Challenger, the creator, Aladdin, sadly couldn't attend today-still checking on the game cylinders to double check on any mistakes he might have made." The kids all around us—In front of us—erupted in applause, whistling, jumping, and clapping until the golden hazmat female shushed them with a hand raised in the air. "Silence!"

Golden suit then begun again with her speech, "You will all be separated into three groups, gold flash suits with me, green over there." She pointed to the green hazmat suit, "Then blue over here." she pointed again to the blue person. "No questions shall be asked, since question time was supposed to be taken in the Hover Vans-SO!" her voice got meaner with every word—or it sounded like it. "We will start with one group at a time; gold will go first, so follow me."

A few of the kids look at each other, some said goodbye, good luck, a slap on the back, some of them spoke some Japanese to each other—we all had to learn a few words but none of us were required to take it in as a language to use every day.

Since there was ten of us altogether, there would be three people for each group except one will have four, and as the golden flash suits went, there was only three that left, which was two boys and Bumblebee, when she went after her little group—after giving me one last hug to me, Geemu and even Auto—she pushed the two boys away from her to stand right beside the golden hazmat suited female.

Geemu turned to me. "Yo, Halo, what do you think there doing in there?"

I shrug my shoulders and turn my eyes toward Auto, he looks at me but shakes his head slowly with an, I don't know, face. He had already said too much, if he acts like he knows what's going to go on next, hell would break loose on—not only Geemu—but the other kids around us.

Finally I answer, "Nah, who cares. I can't wait to get into the game though!"

"Yeah, I can't wait to see your avatar when you get in the game." Geemu winked, she always acted weird around me for some reason, she likes guys, but her way of liking a guy is to act...yeah. (I hope you know what I mean.)

"...and you hot stuff." she walked over to Auto who was paying attention to the little group of kids left in the room, one of them—a boy in a green suit—he was kind of bald, with a spider web design on the side of his head—was walking toward us.

As Geemu hugged Auto into a death hug, the boy took out his hand, "Yo-Or Hey, whatever, I'm Street Fighter, or Fighter for short, I'm a green flash suit to." Are you stupid Fighter, I'm not color blind!

Wait, wasn't this that other kid Zelda was talking about who wanted to be a GT when I picked out my job the other day?

He was kind of cute, don't get me wrong, but he had a weird way about him, that glint in his eyes gave me the chills.

I shook his outstretched hand and smiled with my teeth, I probably looked awful. "I'm Halo, and these two are, Bideo Geemu, and GTA."

"Geemu, I don't want to...UGH-" suddenly both of the female and male bodies went to the floor, Geemu screamed with laughter.

"So cute!" she giggled and licked at Autos ear, this time the boy—Er, I mean Fighter—helped me pry her off, Fighter got her left arm and pulled her away on the count of three, Geemu spat at his feet.

"PERVERT!" she screamed like a demon and crawled towards me, then took me down to kneel next to her so she can whisper in my ear, "Boys weird, I don't like." She gave him the death stare.

I shake my head, the boy helped Auto up onto his feet. "I'm Fighter." He said.

They shook hands, "I'm Auto, looks like there are only four of us." Then he looks around at the rest of the kids, now there were three blue flash suits, and they were already having a little huddle circle and having a happy group reunion.

I get up with Geemu on wobbly feet as she hooks her arm into mine, "Don't leave me love!" she hides her face behind my back as we both wobbled over to the boys.

"Guys," I say as I finally made it over, "Like Geemu was saying, what do you think might happen to us when we go-OUCH!" Geemu had sunk her teeth into my back; I pushed her to the ground. "What the heck, Geemu!"

"Teeheehee, sorry Halo, you smell good this morning." She smiled so cutely I groaned and turned around trying to look disgusted, I don't ever remembering her acting this bad, but she always acted so perverted.

"Are you gonna take that." said Fighter, looking amused which ticked me off even more, (What a dumb nut. I hate writing his character in this story!)

"Of course she is." Auto slaps the back of his head playfully as he chuckled, which made me blush, what a nice guy, and if I could say scars could turn you on, I would say it was Auto's scar on his eye, the way it wrinkled when he smiled and laughed.

Geemu grabbed a hold of me again lifting her left leg behind her back, "Were best friends, why she-she wouldn't know I'm so weird around her." (What did I just write?)

Both of the boys jaws drop to the ground, there eyes turning white—am I just imagining things again?

"Come on, not so loud Geemu." I grumble under my breath.

"ATTENCHIOION!" we all turn toward the voice, Geemu pushing away from me—finally—then the green hazmat suited person with a—also a female voice—yelled out that the green group was next.

Was I really ready for this?

I shrugged off those little words off my shoulders, of course I had to be ready, or else I wouldn't have wanted to test this game out to get a chance to see the outside world.

OH MY! I almost forgot about that, how could I? (Ever since I heard about this game, The Challenger, I never ever forgot about what might lay ahead of me, I actually didn't think I was going to be picked to do this though.)

As we walked threw the door ahead of us, we finally entered a room with more color—well; it was gray instead of white.

The door closed behind us and the female under the suit took off her helmet, and I was surprised Geemu didn't lust after her, she was strikingly hot! Her face was sort of round, , her brown eyes looked like they belonged to an anime show or on a manga cover. And her hair was a cute silky black, but this time I thought it put Bumblebee's hair to shame.

"OK so first things first, the next room will be a room where I will measure your height, weight, how long you have eaten or drank. If any means necessary, we will have a quiet early lunch. Oh and I'm Neko" God, even her voice sounded gorgeous.

Both of the boys—every one was to my right—Auto had his face in the crook of his elbow blushing and Fighter was nervously scratching his head, but surprisingly Geemu looked disgusted and planted her hands on her hips.

"You sound gay." said Geemu which surprised me and wanted to slap her mouth.

"Thank you, anything else?"

"Hmph." Geemu gave her the chin and nose up and stomped her foot down like a child. I heard Fighter cough and Auto's mouth was agape. Amazing come back, I guess.

"Neko," I clear my throat, "What's next?" I ask looking up at the gorgeous woman.

She looked at me with a cute smile, "Hmm? Oh yeah, I'll be looking at each of your blood tests, I'm gonna check out your machines to see if there ready for us." She put the hazmat helmet back on; I wonder why she needed it?

Auto asked first, which kind of surprised me, "Miss Neko, why do you wear a hazmat suit?"

If I could see threw the tinted plastic, This is what I imagined her face to be doing, she blinked for a few seconds, probably wondering why he was asking this question, then she smiled again. "It's because you're only supposed to know me."

"We know what you said." said Fighter chiming in. "Just tell us why a hazmat suit?"

"Well... lets just say, Aladdin is using really toxic things for the cylinders, that's another reason why the machines get so hot they can blow up, its kind of weird how he figured a way how to use wires, computer chips, brains, and liquids to make a video game machine."

I nod, it kind of made since, but, "Why don't we get to wear them?"

"That's because the pool water your going to enter kills all of that out, we put something in the water to kill it, but it doesn't cause any damage to alien skin, actually what we put in the water might even melt a regular humans flesh clean off!"

I gulp, good thing I'm not pretending to be a human.

"Oh, and one more thing... Halo?"

"Y-Yes...?"

"Your father, he says hi and he loves you, he wishes that you weren't picked for this but it was part of the deal he made with Aladdin, he says he is sorry and good luck."

Then the hazmat suited female spins on here heels and leaves out of the gray room, leaving us inside.

Fighter broke the silence by clapping his hands, "Well, I don't know about you guys, but I can't wait to kick some butt in that game!"

Auto started to chuckle and used the wall for support, leaning with his back he stared at me, but if it wasn't for Geemu suddenly blocking my vision, he would have saw me blush redder than a tomato.

"Hey, Halo, stop staring at that boy." She winked, and waved her hands in front of me, "Hey eyes up hear!"

I roll my eyes, "It's been a long time Geemu-but please, stop this crap."

"Ouch." Fighter winced, "Geemu, watch out, she has something still growing that's probably bigger than her-" then a hear a crack, Geemu steps out of my view to see Fighter clutching his foot, Auto grinned up at me as his foot was being placed back down.

"Dude-seriously, she's not your type." Auto shakes his head with a disgusted look on his face.

"I wasn't even complimenting on her, dummy," Fighter shook his fist at Auto, but it wasn't scaring him much as it was supposed to. "I'm saying she has a big growing hurtful mouth."

"Oh, she is still growing." Geemu agreed with a nod, but I think she was talking about something else, "Fighter, you pervert stay away from my loveis!" suddenly she launched herself like a mad Mario Bros' character at Fighter and knocked him off his feet.

"Ew-Ew-Ew, EW!" Geemu begun to nail him down between her legs. "You're a nasty boy!"

"Ew you! You're not wearing any underclothes!"

Geemu blushes but keeps him pinned down. "Thanks for the comment, but it's better if you stay away from my lovies!"

"Fine, get off!" he grunts loudly trying to pry his arms out of her hands.

Auto looks up at me again, with a look that says, should we interfere?

I shrug my shoulders, my eyes more focused on his scare, I dunno should we?

After a minute or two, Geemu was moving her body up slowly with her legs , going higher and higher until me and Auto finally had to pry her off of him, then Geemu clung to Auto's arm and nuzzled her face into his neck, "I love you."

He looked at me and blushed; I think he kind of likes her, even though she acts that way.

I helped Fighter onto his feet, "Thanks babe." He grinned,

"Any time." Then walk back to my side of the wall. (I should have smacked that dumb nut!)

The back door to the gray room suddenly busted open, and then a hazmat suit came barging in with a clip board, if it wasn't for Neko's voice, I wouldn't have noticed, even though she still wore the same suit. "Well, were gonna give you these options first, you can either strip down, or wear these under cloth things."

"WHAT?!" I suddenly burst, "What for? Are these for our tests?"

"No, Aladdin skipped the tests this time, all he really wanted was blood samples, so you gonna strip or wear these?" changing his mind so fast? How does he do that!

She suddenly flings a pair white underwear and bras at me and Geemu, then two pairs of white underwear at the boys.

"Um..." I looked at Fighter, he was staring and the boy's underwear on the floor with a shocked look, but he picks them up.

"I'm going in covered ladies if its fine be you." He winks at me and Geemu.

Then Auto and me picked up our things from the floor.

We all then looked at Geemu, she looked around at all of us—she was the only one that didn't pick of hers from the floor. "What?"

"Ok, Geemu you can strip near the pool, come on, we will all change there to." said the green suited Neko, then spun around on her heels again, we all had no choice but to follow her this time.

CHAPTER 7

After yelling at the boys to look away when we entered the pool room, me and Geemu both stripped down, but I was the one putting underclothes on, but not Geemu, she said she didn't mind if I looked at her. (*ROLLS EYES* COME ON GEEMU!)

Fighter groaned, "Come on Halo and Geemoka-"

"Geemu, dumb nut!" Geemu corrected, and that made me grin, she despised Fighter—or was this her other way of not showing who she really liked? Interesting if I'm right.

"Oh whatever, if you're naked, get in the stupid pool already so I can change!" he yelled back with irritation is his voice.

I almost turned around to smack Fighter if it wasn't for Auto's chuckle, "Come on dude, there two hot chicks who want privacy."

Suddenly I think, "Um, Neko, I thought we needed to where our flash suits the whole time?"

"The suits are made so when you eat or drink while wearing it, it is kept inside your body longer, making you live longer without food or water when your inside The Challenger, Now go ahead!" said Neko giving the word. The room was white we were in, after walking through what seemed like a maze, she stopped us in front of a door that said, Pool Rooms, I guess there as five cylinders under the pool, one for each of us, the fifth one was for Neko.

Neko—as the boys were still turned—had taken off her suit, exposing a lot of perfect white skin; she was in a red two piece swimsuit. I thought she needed to wear the suit because of the chemicals or whatever?

Then, without letting Neko telling us again, me and Geemu both dived in the pool, I never swam before, but Neko had told us what positon to be in when diving, all we needed to do was dive as far as we can, then kick with our feet while were holding our breath, and then try to grab hold of a cylinder.

Geemu had made it ahead of me, it looked as if she had done this before a million times before, but of course she hadn't.

Finally my eyes cleared to see through the clear water, right at the very bottom of a nine foot deep pool, was indeed five cylinders, they were all white and taller than I was, each cylinder was a dark black. Neko had also told us one will automatically open when our skin touches it. As I kicked with my feet, Geemu already got the one to the far right; I got the one in the middle.

Almost immediately once the pads of my fingers touched the top, the cylinder opened—Neko also said the inside is made so when you open it under water it's all water proof, when I shut it closed with my body inside, the cylinder will force all the water from the inside to go out where it belonged in the pool, after that, that's when the magic happened.

When I forced my door closed, that's when I see three more body's dive then cause huge mushroom clouds of bubbles in the pool, the boys and Neko joined us.

The cylinder lid sealed shut, I still held my breath but I had used so much energy already I thought my lungs were about to burst, but come on, I need to be strong for this thing, if water kills me, I'll lose easily to this game.

The inside of it was all black, but when my soft skin touched the soft pads below, I thought I was already in heaven. Aladdin really did know how to make people comfortable during a game.

The water was already being forced out by some tiny tubes that approached me from all around, all of them just inches from touching my skin.

When the cylinder was completely out of water, the tiny tubes retracted back to their homes, and the machine began to hum, it felt hotter now, or was it just me getting excited?

Now all I had to do was concentrate on nothing for just a second. Just like Neko said, I felt like darkness took over me and I felt nothing as the tiny wires hooked up to my body, I only knew this because Neko had to tell me what would happen if I did feel anything weird on my body, it was part of the plan.

"Guys?" suddenly Neko's beautiful voice erupted in my eardrums, but I kept myself calm, "OK, who made it?"

I heard a few chuckles from all around me.

First was Auto's voice, "I hear yeah, I made it."

"Same!" said Fighter, I could hear the excitement in his voice, I was surprised I didn't hear it from Auto's to, he sounded kind of depressed.

"Made it lovies!" said Geemu. "And is it just me, or do I feel like my breasts just got bigger?"

"It's just you." Neko said, "Anyways, every one relaxed?"

We all answered at the same time, "Yeah!"

"Ok, now it's going to take a couple of seconds for the cylinders to reboot, but keep your eyes closed, when I say 'Now' that means we all breath out slowly, that will tell the machine were ready."

"Wow!" Fighter chuckled, "It's that sensitive?"

"Yes, now shut up and relax!" Neko groaned loudly which made me do the same thing.

"I am-I am doll face, or goddess whatever!" Fighter shouted with more excitement.

"If I didn't have orders to follow, I would run at you and rip off your gorgeous face with what I'm wearing!" Neko yelled back.

"At least I'll die staring at you." And if I could see both of Neko's and Fighter's face, he would wink, and Neko would have blushed bright red!

"Stop ticking her off moron!" interrupted Geemu, "Even though she sounds gay, I still want to protect hot women!"

"Please, spare me of your perverted mined!" Auto yelled out with a disgusted tone.

"Guys!" I forgot Auto was even part of our group almost, "Let's get on with it, and I'm ready for the signal, Neko."

"Ok, thank you GTA... NOW!"

I let go of all the breath I had, and was holding almost throughout this conversation, I could hear through the speakers around me as my groups breaths being freed, it was calming me down surprisingly, and it made me even relax even more, I even forget what Neko said about wires snaking up my exposed body.

* * *

"Mommy!" I scream running down from my room, I was about five-years-old, running around with no cloths on again, my little feet hitting the floor making little, patter-patt-patt, sounds as it slapped the hard wooden floor.

My mom turned around, she was carrying our one piece suits we had worn for three days strait and she finally had enough energy to take them out to clean them. My mom was sick at the time with a sickness I still don't know what till this day, but it nearly killed my mom, and all I cared was about her being happy.

"Hey, you little angel, put those cloths back on!" she giggled.

I stop just a couple feet and whip my hair back, smiling childishly. "I don't wanna-come chase me!" as I giggle and stomped my feet, and waited for her to launch herself at me. But my mom smiled sadly, her face was still deathly pale.

"Please, I don't want any one seeing you, I-"

"MOMMY!" I scream at the top of my lungs, and I hugged her knees and pleaded, "Pweeeeeeese!"

She rolled her eyes chuckling then mimicked me, "Pweeeeese, put your cloths on for me, and then I'll chase you."

I laughed and nodded, "Okie, promise?"

"Promise... now wake up."

I look up at her, and pulled away frightened. "Mommy?" her face changed into someone else's that was so... alien to me, but also familiar, it was a male's face I could tell that much.

"Hey there, it's ok, were in the game now." He said in a sweet soothing voice, he bent down, putting the cloths next to him as he caressed my cheek with his soft hand. "Its time to wake up sweetie, the game has started."

* * *

It wasn't a dream no more, I opened my eyes for real this time, and four familiar faces surrounded me, Neko, Fighter, Geemu and GTA.

"Are you ok?" Neko asked, her voice and face changed, but she wasn't wearing her bra or bottoms, instead she wore blue jeans with tiny tears at the thighs and knee-caps and a red short sleeved T-shirt. How did she get the clothes?

Then I look at Geemu, she wears the exact same thing, and Fighter and Auto wear white button up shirts with the sleeves rolled up to there elbows, and then they both wore black pants with shiny black dress shoes.

I reached down, afraid that I was still in the underclothes Neko gave me, but when I felt myself, I felt a very soft material under my skin—a shirt—I looked down at myself, I was dressed up just like Geemu and Neko, instead of shiny dress shoes like the boys wore, we girls wore white tennis shoes—I believe there called.

"Where am I?" I asked looking around; the place was full of green, plants sprouted all around us, which were so tall they touched the blue ceiling above us. Was that supposed to be the sky?

Neko answered as her hand went above her head. "We're in the, The Challenger, we made it finally."

I groan and look up at the boys faces, both were smiling happily, Fighter winked when he notice me staring at them.

"Do you feel ok babe?" Geemu asked as she held my right hand. "You worried us."

Every one nodded agreeing with her. "Yea." said Auto, "You just didn't wake up, we found you next to us, and your breathing was kind of off."

"What could have happened?" I ask curiously, "Do you think the machine tried to blow up or something?"

"No, dear, no, maybe some water was trapped inside the machine still-but it wouldn't have killed you-but at least you're ok!"

I nod, "C-Can you help me up?" Neko takes me by the left arm as Geemu takes my right. Pulling me up I almost fell forward. I wasn't use to being in the game yet, my body felt like I had lost a hundred pounds!

"Whoa! I feel lighter; did the machine get my body weight wrong?" I giggle and try to get a hold of myself from laughing out loud like a weirdo.

"No, in the game your about 28 kilograms, very light." Neko answered.

"Why?" asked Fighter, crossing his arms over his chest. "Why are we supposed to be so light in the game?"

"All I heard was Aladdin told me, but its for fighting-it helps us to move our body's a lot more and maneuver, so we can dodge attacks more easily."

"So this is an action game?" I ask, looking around my surroundings, all I could still see was tall plants, green, green, and more green.

"It's almost like a steam punk." She answered and turned me around to face her. "So it's a mix of old and new, which means guns and swords." (Did she know what steam punk meant?)

"Guns?!" Fighter's eye brows rose up higher. "How the heck did he get those in a game?"

"That's a first." Geemu said eyeing Auto's body.

"Yes." said Neko, "Guns, but this game is made as if you're first learning how to use one, if you shoot it wrong, you could end up breaking your wrist."

"Like I'm gonna do that when I get one, I'll be super careful." Then he smiled like a ugly monkey. "...and maybe extra dangerous when it comes to wining a suit to the above world."

"But guns are also super expensive." She pointed out.

Fighter uncrossed his arms, "What! We have to pay?"

"Of course." she said this as if we were supposed to know this already.

I look at Auto, he's been watching me almost the whole time, this conversation has been reminding me of what he has been trying to make a BB gun into, his dad wanted him to have a project, and told him to do that, but why? I still couldn't figure that out.

"What do we do next?" Auto had suddenly stepped backwards to touch the brown part of the tall plant with his palm and lean against it for support. "Do we go to a village or something to level up like other games?"

Neko turned to him and nodded, "Yes, that's correct-although this is my first time, Aladdin gave me a lot of homework to this game, but I will only be here for such short time." Neko looked around, "We should have menus, but it's gonna take me a sec to figure that out, so lets just walk in a direction."

As we starting walking through the green, as Neko tried to figure out how to find a menu. She told us a little about where we were supposed to be, "From what this game is based off of, this part were in is called the Center Forest. Those tall sticks that are brown all around and that have those green bush things up top, those are trees, and the green bush things are called leaves."

"Are they eatable?" Geemu asked looking up at the beautiful view of the so called 'trees'.

"No, I'm afraid not." Neko frowned and set her chin on her left hand and looked at her right. "Aladdin is gonna be so mad, when he figures out I forgot how to do this part." She muttered under her breath.

I was between the two boys—Fighter on my right, Auto on my left, then it was Geemu and then Neko was on Fighters right.

I take a little peek to look up and Auto's face, he seemed to be thinking, his brows were forward, his mouth was clinched which made his veins pop out of his neck—it made me think how this game was so detailed and real. This was amazing!

"GOT IT!" we all suddenly stopped before a big huge tree, the trunk—that's what Neko called the brow part of the tree—was as thicker than mine and Geemu's waist combined!

We all turned our heads toward Neko, there was a huge square screen that was completely white in front of her, the screen had on the left had a few tabs with names I didn't care to read yet.

"How did you do that!" all of us ask, surrounding her.

"Ok, ok, put your right hand in front of you." We all do as she says. "Ok, now grip it into a fist, and twist it clock wise."

Suddenly, the same exact screen showed up before mine, and every one else's eyes, it was completely white, and the screen went from my collarbone to the top of my head. The tabs on the right were: Character/Avatar, Map, Notes, Items, Skills, Stunts, Equipment, Camera, Coin/Money

"Why is there a skill tab?" I ask, looking up at Neko. She looked up from her screen, it looked like she was looking at white, maybe she can only see what she's looking at?

"What do you mean? Oh, yes, it's for back flips, and stuff." She says with a confused look on her face.

Auto mumbles as he looks at his screen, "So... how about if I know how to back flip in the real world, cant I do it here to?"

He shakes her head, "No, Aladdin made it to where were first learning how to fight, and defend our selves."

Auto corrected her with, "You mean back flips are 'Stunts' not 'Skills'" why didn't he say that in the first place?

"Uh, yes, thanks for the save." Neko mumbled shaking her head.

"That sucks." Fighter groans, when he twisted his wrist counter clock wise, his menu disappeared. I looked over my tabs again, there was one called notes, so I pressed on that and a screen with lines going across every few centimeters showed up with a keyboard at the very bottom of the screen. I smiled; this could be my new journal.

As Neko followed her map, I started to rewrite what I hadn't written yet in my other journal back at home; the sun was starting to go down I noticed, I wonder if this is what it looked like in the world above.

"Is there a watch in one of the tabs?" I ask, but I click out of notes, and click on the items tab, and just like I hoped, a few item tabs appeared.

Wrist Watch

Flashlight

I click on wrist watch, and close my menu. I look down at my left wrist and a black watch with the time showed.

"It's getting kind of late." I say, looking up at the sun next. "How far is this place?"

Neko closes her menu and so does the others with just the turn of there wrists. When I looked over my group every one had wrist watches.

She pointed ahead of us. "Just past those bushes, the town is called, Sentā meaning, Center, in Japanese."

Geemu giggled, "Why is it a Japanese name?"

"Because Aladdin is from Japan." answered Auto.

Neko turned her head, her eyes were wide. "How did you know that?"

I gulp, oh crap.

But Auto took this completely calm. He shrugged his shoulders. "Kind of figured, doesn't he have to write a book guide to his games? So then he will have to write a little about himself. Also we all have to know a few words in Japanese in school."

"You must like to read more than you play, I'm surprised." She said.

Once we pashed the green bushes that made my legs itch like crazy! In front of us, just like she said, looked like a tall building with many glass windows every few feet away from each other. Neko called it a hotel.

"So, what's this place called we're in now?" Geemu asks looking up towards the tallest of the trees.

"This place is called the Center Forest, I told you that already!" Neko answers frustrated.

"So were in the center of the game?" I ask.

"No, not exactly. The map is actually shaped sort of like a tear drop. We're closer to the round part. As we get higher up in levels I think there will be more towns created, but the map won't get bigger."

"Cool." Geemu says bored and rolls her eyes.

"How big is the map-or the game map or whatever you call this world?"

"Aladdin never named the world a name for some reason, but this place is probably as big as our underground city."

"How much does it cost to stay here?" I ask Neko pointing towards the hotel, as we started to walk inside the building—outside it looked like a haunted mansion—but inside was a red carpet leading up to a rose wood desk with a young lady waiting in a black suit. The walls were white and the furniture was a mix of black and brown, which was odd.

"From the maps on my menu, Aladdin set the price on beds in a room, so it depends, if we get two beds and two rooms; it's going to take all I've got." Neko frowned.

"How much do we get?" asks Fighter looking at the odd furniture.

"We all get five thousand each." She answers with a grunt.

Auto whistles, "Wow...that's not much."

Neko nods, "Exactly. Now if I were you, I would save to get armor, weapons and HP level ups."

"You mean health potions." Geemu corrects her.

"Yes."

* * *

We got two rooms next to each other, both had two beds, they were so comfortable it felt like I was inside the cylinder again, and it did cost 5,000, but it was only enough for a few days.

Neko had every one meet on mine and Geemu' and her room, all the girls got one room, the boys got the other.

"Now, just a few things to inform you, you might already know this but this might take even longer than a month to complete. It will take a few days for the game to reset its time to regular time in our city, maybe one or two days. I'm only here for three days to train you how to fight and find items etcetera."

"Wait!" Fighter jumps up from a chair in the room—me and Auto, Geemu and Neko were on the bed to the very left of the room, facing him. "Why do you get to train us? Isn't this your first time in the game?"

"Yes, but Aladdin leveled me up to 5 levels. I will know enough to teach you the basics, and level you up to 5 levels as well. Starting tomorrow were all gonna buy armor and weapons, then I'll start practicing with some computers, hopefully by the third day, I'll know enough-any questions?"

Fighter was the first to raise his hand, "You said something about levels, is that how we defeat the game, defeating all the levels?"

"Yes and no. You will get higher in levels but it's for strength, skills and weapons. But there are thousands and thousands of levels in the game."

"So..." Auto gets up and walks towards the only window in the room. "Then how do we beat this game?"

"Which ever team finds The Challenger and defeats him, but the only way to find him is by defeating all the other bosses first."

Geemu hums to herself and leans back on the bed. "Sounds complicated."

I nod and look down at her, "Of course. What's a game like this if it isn't complicated? Because this is a once in a life time thing for us... I mean, I never seen the outside world before, and I am even surprised Aladdin is letting us up there after so many years!"

"Yeah," Auto turns around and leans against the wall next to the window with his arms crossed. I doubt he was even listening; he looked as if he was in a different world than us right now.

Fighter suddenly groans, "When do we eat? I never you can be so hungry in a game."

"Wait! You can eat in here?" I look up at him.

Neko nods and looks at Fighter, "If your hungry just go to a restraint somewhere in town, but I'm just warning you, it's gonna take money, and you wont have good levels for your armor or weapons if you do that."

"Dang it!" Fighter clutches the armrests on his seat until his knuckles turn white.

* * *

After the boys left to there room, I decided to take a bath, just to see how it would feel.

As I stripped and walked inside and sat down in the bathtub, the warm water soaked up my body. I thought of what I got myself into, how I was picked to be in the game because Aladdin trusted my dad so much. I wonder how Zelda was doing, last time I saw her she was really sick.

I looked down at my body, this game seemed so real, but yet at the same time... it didn't.

As I took my time in the bath, I started to write down what had happened the last thirty minutes or so in my notes on the menu. After an hour of writing I dried myself and clicked on the character tab. A full naked body of me with its arm spread out was shown, on the top right corner there was a box with letters inside that said, clothes.

Once I clicked on it, my menu disappeared and I suddenly felt the fabric of my clothes re-appear onto my body. When I looked on the ground to see if my clothes I had stripped out of were still there, they weren't and these clothes I had just put on felt dry and clean. At least I don't have to clean my clothes when there dirty.

When I walked into my room from the bathroom, both Neko and Geemu had stripped to there underwear, both were typing something on there menus—Geemu was on the right bed and Neko was on the left.

I lay down next to Geemu but made sure not to get to close, and closed my eyes, not caring to get underneath the covers, my body felt great as if my soul had found a new body to live in. The last thing I wrote in my notes—and I repeated the words in my mind before drifting off—was, today was the best day in my entire life.

CHAPTER 8

As I was checking my notes for spelling errors—I was now in my underclothes and on my bed—Geemu suddenly walked out of the shower naked, and sat down next to me on the bed—Neko had went out to find a training sword, she figured out after searching for cheap swords on her menu, that a training sword was free, so she got dressed and left me with Geemu, the boys were supposed to be here any minute now.

"W-What are you doing!" I squeak jumping up on the bed a little, I clicked out of notes, saving my new work and shutting off automatically. "You're all wet!"

She rolls her eyes at me and looks me in the eyes, I didn't like that look. "Come on babe, its not like you haven't seen a naked girl before."

"But your wet and getting the sheets soaked!"

I push her by the shoulders but she refused to move and knocked my hands away with her arms. "Oh come on, doesn't it turn you on!"

I shake my head and groan, why does she have to be so disgusting.

The knock on the door made me jump from the bed and immediately search my menu for my clothes. "Crap, did they have to come early."

"Who?"

"Auto and Fighter!" at the mention of Auto's name her face blushed bright red.

"I don't mind Auto... but not Fighter."

Once we both got dressed by clicking the tab on our naked characters, I opened the door while brushing my hair back from my face.

"Hey beautiful!" it was Fighter; he winked at me and gave me a huge hug. My face flushed as my hands were griped by my sides awkwardly, I didn't know what to do, was I supposed to hug him back...?

Once he finally broke away he tried to hug Geemu who was waiting impatiently behind me.

"Hey-" he opened his arms and tried to force a bear hug on her, but she slammed her heel on his foot.

"Out of my way perv!" and she tackled Auto to the floor while giggling.

"Geemu!" He chuckled and seemed to be enjoying himself while trying to get her off, then the most surprising thing happened, Geemu suddenly smashed her lips against his, his eyes open wide as if they might explode from his sockets.

I lunged at my friends ripping her off of his body. "Geemu what the heck?!"

"What? He's not your boyfriend." In the corner of my eye I saw Auto use his sleeve to wipe his mouth, but he had the same shocked look on his face. It all happened so fast.

"You can't just push a man down and start making out!" I yell at her while shaking her shoulders as if to break her from whatever controlled her to kiss him. "What are you thinking?"

"Hey, its ok, she was just having fun." Fighter put a hand on my shoulder to stop me from shaking her so violently.

I turn around and push him away with my arms. "Don't touch me!"

Auto staggers to his feet, suddenly snapping out of his daze, he tries to say something to me but I rush away from him and walk inside the room and flop on my bed face down, smothering my face in the heavenly pillow. I wasn't mad about Geemu kissing Auto for some reason, but did she have to go crawl all over on him every chance she gets?

Every one else came in a few seconds later, Auto took the chair this time and the other two took the other bed and lay down. I stared up at the ceiling for who knows how long until Neko showed up with a bright smiling face.

"Ok every one, I got us each training swords, so open your menus and wait for the notification to show up." She opened her menu as we did the same thing, a few seconds later a notification popped up on my screen wanting to know if I wanted to accept the training sword from Neko, I pressed accept.

"It didn't show up in my 'equipment' tab." Fighter frowned down at his menu.

Neko answers, "Its in your skills tab, it's only a training sword so it doesn't kill anything."

I press my skills tab and another tab about an inch big, at the very top appears a picture of the training sword was shown; it was all made out of a stick of bamboo. The tab was called: Kendo, Level 0.

"I never knew there was such thing as level 0." I snort at Geemu's remark, and then click on the tab. My menu disappears and a 114cm Kendo appears in my right hand.

I twirl it in my hand as if I used it a thousand times before. "It feels so real." I tell myself.

Auto gets up from his chair and looks his over a few times. "I thought we were gonna train with armor on and with real swords?"

Neko shrugged, "These were cheaper-actually free, so going this way is better, and some of you might not like to use swords-you never know if you choose axes or daggers instead."

"You mean we can use more than just swords?"

"Yes, there are also daggers and axes, knives and scythes, guns-"

"Guns!" Fighter jumps up with his Kendo raised. "I got to get one of those."

Neko rolled her eyes, "Didn't we talk about this? There expensive in this game!"

He scratches the back of his head with his free hand, "I still want one."

"Where are we training?" asks Geemu. Good question.

"Were training in a level 1 area." said Neko starting to walk out the door, her Kendo hadn't showed up yet tough, was she going to attack us without one? I wonder.

"Level 1!" Fighter shouts running after her as we all follow behind them slowly. "I thought we were on level 0?"

"The training area is in level 1, we wont be fighting anything ye-first we train, then we move on from there."

I think for a moment, so far we haven't seen any of the other people inside the game yet, I wonder. "Are the other people in groups, blue and gold, gonna be here?"

Neko stops in her tracks, right before opening the doors to outside of the hotel, the sunlight blared out of the doors and into our eyes, it was such a beautiful day in the, The Challenger.

"It depends, they might have trained yesterday, or they might have done it early this morning-but what I was told is only one group is aloud in the training area, so it's first come, first serve I guess."

"Huh?" Geemu scratches her head with the handle of her Kendo in confusion.

"Aladdin wants all the groups to train separately!" Neko finally answers and opens her menu; I'm guessing she was probably looking at the maps again. "Ok, the training area is about a mile away, hopefully were by our selves because I'm not in the mood for waiting."

"We can beat them to death with our sticks!" Fighter chuckles as he lifts his training sword in the air. "Go group green!"

Auto snorts, "That was lame dude. If were gonna beat this thing, at least call us by something catchy."

"Ok, alright. GO CATCHY!"

I shake my head, and whisper in Geemu's ear, "Moron."

She giggled and nodded her head, "I told you he's a loner, cant wait to beat the crap out of him in training!"

"Eh, you can't underestimate your enemy's by how stupid they are stupid can mean crazy-crazy good." I point out and look up at the sun. I don't know if I wanted to see the real world or stay here in this game. It felt so real, did the world above my city... look like this? Then I remembered what GTA said, this game was based off of his and his moms memories, both of them lived in the world above. Maybe I'll get a chance to ask him about it when were done training or something today.

A few minutes later we approach an arena looking thing—it was all dark grey and the pillars looked chipped, it looked so ancient like it might collapse very soon. But it's a game, so I wouldn't worry about that, things like this are made to hold for ever.

As we walked inside, past a red carpet, the arena was almost plain, except for a couple computer avatars lifting weights. I bet these computers did the same all day in the game; I wonder how they made every thing so real! (I keep saying this, I know, its pretty obvious though, its based off of Auto's and his moms memories so I shouldn't be surprised how detailed the whole thing is.)

As we got in the middle of the arena/training area, Neko finally took out her own Kendo and twirled it between her fingers, passing it back and forth between her two hands.

"Ok, every one, get in a stance-your first strike hitting my stick will show up in either your skills or whatever tab-and you will be bumped up to a level one." Neko finally gripped her Kendo by the handle with her right hand and stood on her heels.

I raised my Kendo using both of my hands to grip the handle, with a single drop of sweat rolling from the back of my neck, and down my back. I charged her.

"AAAH!" I screamed without thinking, calling on all of my strength to this one level 1 skill attack. With the Kendo in front of me—what was supposed to be the blade was starting to shine a bright yellow, but I didn't stop—Neko grinned at my sudden movement and didn't seem frightened from my courage.

The sound of bamboo against bamboo sounded like a paddle against a child's butt when they get spanked. Neko had changed her footing and side stepped, but I quickly recovered and spun around on the balls of my feet and raised my Kendo again.

"Good, good strike," Neko nodded at me, then turned around to every one else, "Who's next?"

My shoulder tensed, that was it for me I knew it, but why was I so tense. But after a few breaths and after every one took there strike to get up to a level 1, I looked at my skill, a 'One Hit Strike' suddenly showed up with a level 1 on the side of it.

"Good work every one. But I must say I was surprised that you, Halo, had the guts to go first."

I look up offended. "Wh-What the heck does that mean!" I grip the handle of my Kendo hard, hoping to snap the handle.

"Now, now, I was only meaning... that I thought Fighter or Auto would attack first."

My face seemed to be blank, I blinked a few times and shook my head and groaned, "Just because I'm a girl... doesn't mean I don't have the guts to attack someone!"

"I didn't mean that-"

"SHUT UP!" I yell, and raise my Kendo over my head. "Shut up before I snap this over your head!"

Neko chuckled looking like she was actually having fun, Auto cleared his throat, "Uh, come on guys lets not-"

"Come Halo," Neko came forward, walking deathly slow towards me, I looked up at Auto, he shook his head no, but I nodded to him which made him madder and shake his head in frustration and turn away from me.

I rushed forward at her, screaming at the top of my lungs again, my Kendo blade turning yellow, my feet kicking up gravel and dirt behind me in a straight cloud-like line.

"DIE!" I slash here and there but every time she just blocked my blows, SLASH! CRACK! WACK!

But then as I slashed once more and I backed away, not even out of breath, I heaved out heavy breaths but it was all for show. I just figured out I was using my same attack on her over and over without being able to change it. Maybe if I can just change it into another blow, but when I rushed forward thinking of an attack, I swung, wanting to aim for her legs, but instead it came for her head again like always, it was like I couldn't control my sword! I needed a new skill to change my blows!

But how...?

"Come on dear. I'm a level five; even if you do get another skill with the Kendo, it doesn't mean I can't block it!"

Dang it! I forgot Aladdin bumped her up to a level 5. I had no choice, I shook my head, and what was I doing really? And even if she does tick me off, she's only here for today's training, and then I can get the real thing instead of this... giant stick!

I put down my Kendo and give my best smile. "Don't worry I'm done."

As I walked back to one of the benches on the side to rest—I actually felt like I could run five marathons in one day—Auto watched me with wide eyes; even Fighter was trying to cough his laughs out. But it was plain; I was stupid for even taking on a stupid challenge, what was I even thinking! (Yeah, to this day, I still have no idea why I attacked her like that...)

At the end of today—In the game since the time still wasn't level with the real worlds time yet—we all got booted up to level 5, and then we all got to face off with Neko one-by-one we all went in for the kill, but the Kendo's were so stupid they wouldn't drop here HP one wink! (Oh yeah, we also figured out how HP works, when you get hit by an enemy or by someone with a weapon, your HP suddenly shows up in the top left of your eye sit, the bar is about five inches wide.) But then Neko told us as we went back to our rooms that since we were in the training arena we couldn't die, only your HP bar was able to show up but it wouldn't go down.

"So..." Neko said lying on her bed with her head laying on her palms, "We could either get your armor and weapons today, or tomorrow."

"I'm starving!" cried Fighter as he looked out the window, then turned around and kicked GTA out of the chair.

"Hey, you jerk!" but he just quickly got up and sat between me and Geemu on our bed. Geemu's face turned bright red and started to squeeze him tight with her arms.

"I told you, go waste your money on food!" Neko groaned and turned on her side. "And I want to get my rest, so you got three minutes to decide, today or tomorrow."

"What's the difference?" I ask.

"If we get them today, then tomorrow we will go face off our first boss. If we don't today, then tomorrow I'll just leave you guys."

"That makes no since!" Fighter slumped back in his chair, his legs sagging down to the floor, making the chair as if it was actually consuming him, making him look smaller.

"The black smith is in an area called, Ejji, or Edge, in Japanese."

"Again, Japanese?" Auto push Geemu off and laid down on the bed once again, which was a mistake, Geemu planted her whole body on top of his, wrapping her arms around his back, "Ugh...WHY ME!"

"You're cute when you blush babe." Geemu giggle and kissed his cheek. I rolled my eyes and tried to avoid the scene by focusing on Neko's back.

"How far is it to Ejji?"

Neko shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe about half a days walk."

"Aren't there taxies in this game?" I ask.

"Again, it takes money."

"Ok, so that means we have to travel right now on foot, on empty stomachs, to Ejji in the dark?"

Neko nodded. "Yep" she popped the "P" like her bubblegum bubble popped in her face.

Auto raised his hand, "I'm in." then Geemu pushed is hand down and squeezed tighter, "Eeeech, GEEMU!"

"Teehee, yes baby?" she giggled and buried her face in his chest.

"AIR!" he wheezed in pain and frustration.

Fighter groaned and starting to stair at the ceiling with a bored expression on his face. "This is making me sick. Let's just hurry up and get some stuff. I mean, will I die from not eating?"

Neko sat up and put a hand under her chin and closed her eyes, her face and eyes were scrunched up as if she was thinking. "Hmmm... Maybe, I don't know, but our HP bars would have gone down already though if it was."

I nod and rip Geemu off Auto's poor body by wrapping my arms around her rib cage.

"Ok!" suddenly she tore away from my grasp and jumped up in the air clapping like a child. "Lets go, lets go! I'm cant wait to check out some of that sexy armor girls use to wear back in the days when women fought in battles-They always showed off a lot of skin."

Fighter's eyes opened wide opened—suddenly looking interested—but then he grinned. "Can't wait to see it."

Geemu paused and turned around to face him, they stared at each other for a moment, then suddenly her foot connected to the part between his legs.

"YEOUCH!" making a bad rat-like squeak as if it was being strangled to death.

All of us—except Fighter—start to laugh historically, he definitely deserved that.

"I need those, seriously!" he winced.

"And you seriously need to get some good armor that protects that part of yours... if its still there." She points and crosses her arms over her chest looking happy about what she had just done.

Neko dragged herself off the bed still laughing. "Guys, guys, lets get going. If we start now, we can probably catch a night cab somewhere out of town."

"I thought you said they cost money?" I asked stretching my legs by wiggling them one at a time.

"They do, but if it's out of city limits we can steal one, and have less chances of getting caught by any guards protecting the area." (I never seen any guards in this town yet though.)

Auto got up from the bed and hid behind my back from a love lusting Geemu. "A-Aren't we gonna still need weapons-or a skill or something to drive or even steal a cab?"

Neko put her hands on her hips, "The cabs here are driven by horse's genius."

"There aren't human cars or Hover Vans here?"

She shook her head, "Nope. This world made by Aladdin was made-like I said, steam punk like. Where old mixes in with new, we don't really have electronics here, we got electricity, weapons of any kind-but no cars, cell phones, and other things along those lines." (Well, we got watches, are those along those lines?)

Fighter scratched his head confused as he gingerly got up on his two shaking knees and feet. "What a load full of crap-but still cool game!"

"Friggin awesome." Auto said as if trying to correct him.

"But..." Neko held up a finger. "We are going into higher levels as we go on. And once were out of city limits, that's when our group appears on TV in the real world."

"WHAT?!" we all yell at Neko. She doesn't even look surprised?

"Well, how do you think Aladdin is gonna get his moneys worth out of this game? I mean he's not gonna sell this one out for every one to buy. So he's putting it on live when were out on city limits...where the real action begins."

Dang it! I wanted to spend some alone time with Auto to ask questions about the world above. But even with Geemu hitting on him like this, and she barley stayed an inch away from him. I never get a chance to speak with him alone.

* * *

We were about five minutes from city limits—I was writing in my notes on my menu—Geemu was getting a piggy back ride from a red faced GTA. Neko and Fighter were chatting up a storm on a plan to steal a cab. (We couldn't kill with our Kendo's but we can still whack them unconscious I guess. But what if the cab drivers have weapons?) The weird thing again, was why was this smith place all the way in a different area? Why not in Sentā?

"Woah, get down!" suddenly a body collided with mine as Neko's voice rang out. The body was Fighter's and his body pretty much flattened me like a pancake.

"What the heck-" but Fighter's hand moved over my mouth cutting off my swear word. We were behind a pile of rocks and the grass all around us was all green and kind of damp. After a couple seconds of hearing silent breathing coming from our group. I heard the sound of horse's hooves, Clop! Clop! Clop! Clop!

So we were already were outside of city limits, I was so engrossed in my writing that those five minutes I mentioned went by in a second!

"Get ready gang." whispered Neko, "Get those Kendo's out. When you here my voice, then run out like hell had just broken loose!" then she left after getting her Kendo out.

Clop! Clop! Clop! Clop! Went the horses hooves, Fighter was still on top of me and it was already pitch dark now, when I looked to my right Geemu was on top of Auto, but there were two flashlights by there sides still turned on, but facing there body's so it could hide some of the light.

Clop! Clop! Screeeech! A terrible sound spilt into my eardrums, like this world was cracking up in the middle, reading to swallow us up.

"NOW!" I heard Neko's voice call out and I used my knees to get under Fighter's stomach to push him off.

Quickly but with sweaty and shaky hands I clicked to tab for my Kendo to appear in my right hand. Auto ran after me as he finally ripped Geemu off his body, then Geemu and Fighter followed behind us, but a little slower.

The cab was a solid black box, with two stallions in front. Neko was beating the crap out of a dude on the ground with her Kendo like a mad woman, like she was blood thirsty and crazy—she loves this game to much.

I look around for more attackers, and then I notice on top of the carriage a man dressed in a white shirt with tares and blood oozing from his shoulders and stomach.

I went for him, but as I raised my Kendo to slam it against his ugly skull, he pulled out a handgun from his waist band fast as a snake striking its prey. Crap.

I ducked my head as a shot was fired, his hand rocked back and the muzzle of the gun had a flam appear for just a split second. My shoulder hit the carriage and I heard the mans feet unsteadily try to balance his body.

I heard Auto cry out and he jumped up to the man on top of the carriage with his Kendo raised, another shot rang out and I heard a loud grunt escape from my friends lips, but I seen a bright yellow flash of light and a loud, CRACK! As his Kendo met a body part of our attacker.

Two down, how many to go?

I pushed myself off the carriage and held out my Kendo in front of me with two hands, waiting for another attack. But nothing, only two body's, one on the ground which was beneath Neko's feet, the other one on top of the cab with Auto.

"Are you alright?!" I yell up to him, Auto turned around and he nodded, but his face looked deathly pale, and blood was oozing from a wound in his left shoulder. "God, get down here!"

"A-Are there any more-more attackers?" even his voice sounded like death was trying to over take him.

I felt Geemu's hand on my shoulder. "Babe, are you ok!" she yelled up to him with worry in her voice.

"I'm fine Geemu!" then he put his Kendo back in his menu, and hopped down onto the ground from the top of the cab like nothing was wrong with him.

Geemu and I rushed for him, Fighter started to laugh and smacked Neko on the shoulder playfully, ignoring us. "Dang girl, my chick can beat the crap out of a dude. How did you stop the cab in the middle of the road?"

I suddenly look at Neko, her eyes were as big as saucers and she pulled her shirt down, it was kind of high up showing her perfect stomach. (Did she just do what I thought she just did?)

"Um... it was n-nothing." She stuttered then kicked the guy's body on the ground out of the horse's path. As Fighter and Neko got up and she took the reins which were on the seats next to two bright shining torches which was the only light for them to see, me and Geemu walked in the cab with Auto in our arms.

There were two comfy looking long seats on both sides of the cab facing each other; we took the one in the very back. After fighting for a few minutes on who's lap Auto's head gets to lay on—and I won (I didn't trust Auto's head in Geemu's lap, who knows what might happen if I accidentally fall asleep.) I started to tend to his wound, the skin around the bullet hole was hard and black, his face started to sweat bullets, but he kept his eyes open and he never stopped looking between me and Geemu. I wonder if he likes her.

"Halo, you're unfair!" Geemu huffed and crossed her arms under her chest, making her look bigger as Auto's eyes went to her.

"Well, you're nasty. I don't trust you." I stick my tongue out at her which makes her gasp.

"Babe, I would never cheat on you-just because I like some other guy, doesn't mean I'm cheating."

"Were not even together."

"What! You d-dumped me!?"

I roll my eyes and look down at GTA's wound. All I could do was clean the blood with my saliva and use pieces of his shirt to keep pressure on it. I look at his HP from time to time which is in front of his face—Instead of a full green bar, it was now orange—a quarter of the bar was missing.

Don't die on me; I said to myself. We just started to get in the fight. That's when I remembered what Neko told us, she said once we were out of city limits, we were on TV. I wonder if the men we just fought had cameras in there eyes or mouth or something so they could record our every move. Or were they in rocks, plants and insects?

Auto smiled up at me, noticing the worried look on my face. "I'm not gonna die if your wondering."

I shake my head, and blush. "Oh, shut up, I know you aren't."

"You were thinking it weren't you sweetheart?"

Geemu slapped my shoulder with her hand and got in my face. "Stop flirting with him blondie! I still don't know why you dumped me but that doesn't mean you get to have a guy right away."

"Was she always like this?" Auto asks looking up to avoid both mine and Geemu's eyes.

"Not really, she just got worse." I give her the death glare.

She gasped again and sat back on her side of the seat. "At least I stopped watching that crap like La Blue Girl and stuff."

"Well, I hope so-or else I wouldn't be letting you near me right now."

"Oh whatever, stop acting like we never kissed or something!"

Auto's head suddenly bobbed up from my lap. "WHAT!?"

"She's kidding." I say.

"But we were so close though." Geemu smiled and tried to hide her face behind her arm.

"Not even!"

"Yes."

I groan and lean my head back giving up.

GTA's go from me to Geemu again, back and forth. "Ok... so you didn't do anything... weird together!"

"SHUT UP! WE DIDN'T OK!" I was getting so agitated that I didn't notice the stupid cab hadn't even moved yet. "What's taking so long?!" I yell out the window, Auto jumps a little from my voice.

Fighter answered, "Neko is tying one of the horses down, and one of the ropes had broken off somehow!"

I grunt, "Great."

After a few more minutes of silence and the sound of horses hooves galloping out of control, the cab finally was beginning to move, good thing the seats were comfortable because the cab was not a smooth ride.

I opened my menu and typed more on my notes throughout the whole ride, not wanting to concentrate on Auto or Geemu. Auto would groan once in a while but I didn't really care right now, I was already on the part where we had our fight a few hours ago, I barley even felt the bumpy cab as I was engrossed in my story. I had to stop for a while since I was feeling kind of car sick—cab sick.

As I shut off my menu as it automatically saves my writing, I look out the window on my side. The sun was out again, and as I watched it rise slowly, I noticed how slow the day/night had been—so the game had figured out the regular hours in the real world finally. But what felt weird about this place, the world felt plain, all I saw was green grass, rocks and boulders, and dirt spots here or there. I wonder how the other groups were doing; I wonder why we haven't encountered them yet. Maybe they were spawned in different towns? So maybe we might meet one at this Ejji place!

Finally the cab stopped when I had somehow dozed off without thinking. When I looked out the window, we were surrounded by a small group of kids, but they were all familiar faces. Then my eyes widen—these were both groups gold and blue!

CHAPTER 9

"What's going on here?" I whisper to myself, why is every one still here?

Auto groaned from my lap and tried to get up to see why we stopped, but I gently pushed him down by the chest, making sure not to touch his wound as I did so.

Geemu suddenly got up and ran out of the cab and rushed to a person in the crowed, nobody tried to attack her as she collided with a girl's body—it was Bumblebee.

"BUMBLEBEE!" Geemu giggled and tackled her and hugged her fiercely, it was good to see her in her usual happy mood again.

"Hey Geemu!" Bumblebee giggled along with her as she fell backwards with Geemu on top. Bumblebee was dressed in armor, but it revealed a lot of skin, her suit was the same exact as Wonder Woman's suit, except it was yellow and black like the insect called a bumblebee—and it was made of some type of lightweight metal, but it did suit her well, it looked absolutely stunning on her!

I gently leaned Auto's chest and head up so I could get up and lay him back down on the seat, and it was barley even big enough for him.

I walked out of the cab shutting the door behind me, then both Fighter and Neko stepped down from the drivers seat, dust kicked up as both of them landed next to each other, then we all stared at the small crowed.

Then a man and a woman both stepped out of the crowed of kids, there weapons disappeared and I never got to see what they were, when the lady talked, her voice was awfully familiar.

"Neko, Aladdin has changed his mind... again" now I knew who these people were, they were the people in the hazmat suits for groups blue and gold! (They had to be, right?)

Neko stomped forward, she looked ticked. "What?! Why?!"

The woman shrugged her shoulders and smoothed back her perfect long green hair from her face, her eyes were a sky blue, her face was a little scrunched up and so was her eyes, she looked Chinese. Her blue armor covered her whole body tight, except her hands and neck, and it looked all like a one piece type, with gray stripes here and there.

The man was shorter than the women, but his blonde hair was in a nice fohawk, and his eyes a cute light green, he looked more like a soccer player, but his build almost reminded me of that one character in that old crappy movie The Hobbit. When his eyes turned towards me, dark butterflies fluttered in my stomach, (Ewwww!). He wasn't really wearing any armor, he had black boots that were made of leather from the looks of it, with black skater looking type pants that didn't fit in with the style he was trying to approach, the only armor on him that I could see was his chest plate and it was a dark gray, the straps went over the shoulders and I was guessing that there was also protection on his back.

Neko then looked around, here eyes widening a bit. "Um...Where's Bendo?" she asked.

"He left early." said the dude with the fohawk. (The creeper still had is eyes on me, I felt gross and wanted to cover myself. I could have sworn he had some ability to see through my clothes!)

"E-Early...?"

"Yes." said the young woman, putting on an annoyed voice. "He said that Aladdin sent him a request to lift out, so he's gone and left Edwin in charge." she pointed to the fohawk boy—Eddwin.

Geemu picked herself and the girl who is supposed to be a full blushed Bumblebee, onto her feet.

"Did you just say Eddwin?" Geemu chuckled and covered her mouth and walked towards me with her arm around Bumblebee's shoulder.

But both of them ignored her and the lady crossed her arms over her chest. "Where's your groups armor-Or should I ask where your other group member is. There was five of you right?"

Fighter pointed behind his shoulder with his thumb. "Got shot while trying to catch a cab, not dead yet..." he then looked at me, "Right?"

I nod, "Yeah, he's just resting now... I hope."

Neko stepped back. "Well, Kido, are you gonna tell me what's up?"

Kido nodded once. "Yes. Aladdin changed his mind about all of being separated and not seeing each others face without our hazmat's, and wants us all to team up on the next boss."

"How many did you guys defeat so far!"

Fighter stepped backed until his back hit against the cab. "Y-You mean you guys already defeated more than one boss?!"

Eddwin nodded then finally focused his nasty perverted looking eyes on Fighter, a slight grin on his lips showed as he said, "Of course, dude, you should have seen Level 2 boss, it was some hot chick and she didn't wear any clothe-" Kido's hand slapped the back of his head, the sound of the slap sounded like a .22 gun shot. Her level must be pretty high to make that kind of sound with just her bare hand.

Kido rolls her eyes for some odd reason like she was getting annoyed again. "We've beaten six bosses so far. But Aladdin says this time there is gonna be two bosses instead of one. My group, gold, has defeated three bosses, and group blue defeated three. I'm guessing that you came here for your armor?"

Me and Geemu nod Bumblebee brakes away from Geemu's hand and hugs me tight, "How far were you guys? We couldn't track your group on the map."

"We were in a place called, Sentā, or-" I started to say but Bumblebee mumbled,

"Center in Japanese, that was one of the places we thought that the level 7 boss might be."

Neko looked over at us and gave us a questioning look. "But, it's where the training area is, the arena, where did you guys train?"

Kido pointed up and made tiny circles in the air with it. "Around here," she said.

"How about that young dude in the cab, does he need help?" the questioning tone in Eddwin's voice almost made me jump in surprise, I almost forgot about GTA being in the cab suffering from a bullet wound.

"Y-Yeah..." I say and spun around on my heels accidentally making Bumblebee slip into the arms of Geemu again.

Neko, Eddwin and I walk to the cab together, I open the door to find Auto in the same place I left him, but his face looked paler, when I got closer to look at his face better, his HP level had gone down halfway.

"Oh crap!" I hurry and take him under the arm pits to lift him up higher, but Eddwin lifts him up close to his chest with both arms. "I got him."

"Th-Thanks." I thank him as I wipe my sweaty brow with my shirt.

With Auto in his hands it made Eddwin looked like a midget, as he walked through the little crowed of both groups blue and gold, me and the rest of group green followed behind until we came up to a small cottage. The door was a clear beautiful glass and it opened automatically, when we walked in, red words suddenly appeared before my face:

Warning! Trespasser! Do not enter without permission!

But then a request came up asking if I wanted access inside the cottage from Kido, I pressed accept, and hurriedly walked in with the others.

Eddwin took him into a room and laid him down on a soft looking bed covered with light blue sheets, then he opened up his menu and typed something on it, then once it disappeared a clear glass bottle with green liquid inside appeared in his right hand. Eddwin took the back of Auto's head gently into his left hand and put the bottle against his lips, and GTA began to gulp it down, almost immediately color appeared on his face again. Fighter pushed past me and walked beside the bed next to Eddwin looking down at Auto's body.

Once the bottle was empty Eddwin threw the bottle in back of him, the bottle shattered against the wall but the contents never hit the ground, instead all of it disintegrated.

"He's gonna be out for a while." said Kido tapping her heel lightly on the floor. "But, I'm guessing you all are hungry, I can tell how you were unable to carry him easily. I got some Crumb sandwiches back here."

I look at Neko and mouth, "Crumb sandwiches...?"

Neko shrugs and follows after her, when I walk back into the living room area, there was a brown leather couch facing a fire place, that's where Bumblebee and Geemu were playing a game of cards, and two blue chairs were on either side of the couch also facing the fire place.

I wonder where all the other groups were? I only saw three doors so far in the hallway labeled rooms, was this cottage only for high level people or something.

I sit down next to Bumblebee and watch there card game as I waited for Neko and Kido to show back up.

They show up about five minutes later, both had two sandwiches in there hands, and the crust looked kind of puffy.

"These." Kido said. "Are, Crumb sandwiches, in this game, there regular sandwiches but the crust is made from fried doe, there surprisingly good." she handed me and Bumblebee a round Crumb sandwich, and then Neko gave one of hers to Geemu.

"Thanks." we all thank her and start cramming them down our throats; I didn't notice how hungry I was till now. When I bit into the sandwich I was thinking of tasting the sour flavor of A.B. (Alien Butter, it's like peanut butter but tastes a lot more sour and its more liquid-like.) but instead of that taste, it was more crunchier, fresher and sweeter.

Once I gulped mine down I sat back on the couch and groaned with satisfaction. "Dang that filled me up and I haven't eaten for two days or so."

Neko smiled down at us and sat down on the chair closest to me. "Yeah, the game is very different with these things, these tastes just like a P.B. and J."

"Excuse me?"

"Sorry, the humans called it peanut butter and jelly. I haven't had one of those since I was a kid!"

"Was the food up there better than what we have?"

"Sometimes, but at least the humans are nice enough to give us food for the whole city."

My eyes widen and Bumblebee gulps and burps.

I open my mouth and turn around and give her a disgusted look. "Teehee, excuse me."

Then Geemu burped and she covered her mouth with a bright red face. "Oops sorry babe!"

I turn back around rolling my eyes, "So... the humans give us some food...?"

Both Neko and Kido nod. "Yep, the government wouldn't have let us all live underground without a supply for food-a big supply I might add!"

I was about to ask something else when I heard a door softly close in the hall, when I turn my head Eddwin walks out with a bright smile. "Well, his HP is back all the way up, we should let all of you guys get some rest. You get anything to eat?"

I nod, both Geemu and Bumblebee answer with a loud belch.

Eddwin grinned and nodded, "Yeah, the food is hecka better here! So if you want, the girls can bunk in my room."

Bumblebee and Geemu crash into me and hug me close. "NO! Not another pervert!"

The Hobbit boy blushed and waved his hands in front of him, "N-No, no not like that! I can sleep on the couch!"

Neko and Kido both laugh, Neko slaps her leg and gets up from her comfort seat. "Ok, ok, girls, there offering us there beds for a while, let us get a little bit of rest."

"How about or armor and weapons!" Geemu says, "I wanted to get some of that armor that shows the skin." She squeezes my arm tighter and buries her head in my stomach.

"Guys, get off!" but it's no use.

Kido answers Geemu, with a wave of her hand saying with a proud smile, "We have enough time, and we can't turn the orders from Aladdin around, and watch what you say about armor young lady. You're on TV, remember?"

"Crap." I mumble. (I almost forgot!)

Eddwin cracks his neck and yawns as he spreads his arms out. "Well, I think I'm gonna get a drink. Kido?"

Kido nodded with a sparkle gleam in her eyes. "Yes sir, cant turn that down."

My mouth almost drops to the floor and I blink a few times before saying, "What! You can drink to? H-How old are you?!"

He shrugs, "Sixteen, but it's a game, as long as you don't get caught in the game by guards or whatever, your all good."

"So... are you faking your identity?" asks Geemu with a lustful tone, her words tickled my stomach and Bumblebee was stopping the data blood flow in my shoulders, so a finally pry them off sending them tumbling onto each other on the floor.

"Hey!" Bumblebee cries out in pain and embarrassment.

"Babe! What the heck?!"

"I-I guess you can say that..." he blushes more and scratches the back of his neck with his hand nervously.

"Where's Fighter at?" I ask almost forgetting about him.

"O-Oh, you mean the guy who's still in the room? He said he was gonna sleep in that room with the dude."

I nod, "Yeah, that's surprising."

"I don't think he wants to sleep in a room with a woman...alone."

"Oh... right." I clear my throat from sudden embarrassment of not noticing that. (Now that I think of it, I wonder if I'm taking Fighter out to much, he looks like a pervert, but he doesn't act like one.)

Kido chuckles softly and slaps his back with a loud CRACK! "Come on lover boy, let's get that drink!"

"S-Sure." And they both walk out of the cottage, both laughing nervously.

I look around the place and get up to stretch out my arms. "Where is Eddwin's room?" I ask Neko who was starting to walk in the hall.

"I don't feel comfortable sleeping in a boy's room." Geemu says helping Bumblebee up.

Geemu hugs me from behind and buries her face into my back this time. Will she ever grow up to love a boy as she does me? Wait! Never mind, once Auto wakes up she will be all over him. Ugh!

"So... where is his room?" I ask again, as we walk down the hall together.

She shrugs, "I think there names show up at the top of the door."

"Will I get a warning for trespassing?" I groan a bit, I was now feeling so tired I could collapse where I was but I was craving something softer than hard wood floor.

"I don't think so, if he suggested that you guys sleep in his room, then he must have taken the security off."

I nod understanding, "Ok."

I look above the three rooms for names, and sure enough they do, the one at the very end was Kido's and the one next to Auto's room was Eddwin's.

I open the door slowly, and take a quick look inside as Neko keeps walking to go inside Kido's room. His place was pretty nice, nothing fancy, there was a nice wooden desk that was at the end of the small room, and above it was a window that was casting out sun rays from the sun outside. A bed was right next to it, the foot of the bed is up against the wall next to the door—that's how small this room was. The walls were a nice sea blue and the floor was carpet.

Geemu and Bumblebee grunted and peeked over my shoulders. "Please don't tell me that one of us is gonna sleep on the floor."

I shrug, "Fine, I'll sleep on the floor." And I do just that, I walk in the middle of the room and lay on the carpet, it was the softest carpet I had ever been on! I immediately felt like I was in heaven, the bed was probably better, but for now, this was great!

After closing and locking the door we all stripped and went to our places, Geemu and Bumblebee took the bed, Bumblebee's head was closer to the foot of it, and Geemu took the head. They didn't sleep under the covers which kind of bothered me because if Eddwin "Accidentally" comes into the room, he's gonna be blind for life.

Before closing my eyes I wrote in my notes for at least an hour, I stayed awake on purpose just to make sure Eddwin wanted to come in, but I didn't even here him come in from the cottage's front door, or either of them, all that filled my ears was the soft breathing of my friends sleeping in the bed and me typing. I wonder if there were cameras in the bedroom. Probably not, because that would be rude and not every one would want to see what teens were doing in the rooms, it wouldn't be kid friendly either, so I didn't have to worry about that part—cameras being in rooms I mean.

After closing out of notes I laid down with my hands behind my head and stared out the window, the sun rays felt warm against my avatar skin, but there had to be something special in the window because the sun didn't hurt my eyes like it's supposed to when you look at the sun outside in the game. Breathing out a sigh I turn on my side facing the bed and used my arms as a pillow, closing my eyes I drifted off slowly, before my mind became blank, I had one last thought. Can you have dreams inside this game?

CHAPTER 10

The knock on the door woke me up, I yawned and stretched out my arms—the sleep did help out with my strength though. I look at my watch; I had only been asleep for two hours. I finally climb up to my feet and unsteadily walk to the door and open it.

"Yeah?" I rub my eyes to take the sleep out of them.

"Hey!-Uh..." it was Eddwin, and when he looked over me his face suddenly turned bright red and covered his eyes with his hands, why was his nose bleeding?

Then I remember, I look down at my self, I forgot I was in my underwear! "Crap, sorry Eddwin!" I slam the door in his face and turn around and lean against the door. The racket I had just made woke both Geemu and Bumblebee up.

"Wha-" Geemu jumped off the bed and stood on her feet then helped Bumblebee up, "What happened...?"

"I-I...uh..." I gulp nervously, I thought I was about to throw up or cry!

Eddwin's voice shouted, "I'll be outside... God I'm so sorry!"

I wince and close my eyes, how embarrassing.

Both of my friend eyes open wide, there mouths agape. "Did you-Did you open that door wearing that!" they point at me.

I nod with my eyes still closed, "Y-Yes, how embarrassing..."

Geemu suddenly smirked, "Did he like it?"

"God, I hope not." I give her the death stair but my face couldn't hold it in that position for more than a second and I went back to breathing like I was about to deliver a baby.

Bumblebee pushed away from her and walked towards me opening her menu, her yellow and black armor suddenly appeared on her body. "I thought you said his name sounded Gaelic. So that would make him... gay right?"

Geemu nods, "Eh, I guess. But he might not be, but he can still have feelings for Halo."

"Why is it always you?" Bumblebee crosses her arms and looks down at me; I had opened my eyes just a little throughout the short conversation. I probably looked Chinese.

"W-What do you mean?" I stutter nervously.

"All the guys like you!" she pouted.

"They like you to, and remember the day when GTA gave me the note? I saw you go with those guys and you started to blush when they were talking to you."

Bumblebee blushes and stomps her foot like a kid having a tantrum. "Well-Well that was different; they were just more interested in if I was afraid to be in a room with all boys."

I roll my eyes and search my menu for my clothes, once me and Geemu dress I open the door and we all walk out. Geemu and Bumblebee sat one the couch and I headed outside where Eddwin was waiting for me.

When I close the door to the cottage and see him waiting with his back against the wall, I try to apologies, "Look... Eddwin, I didn't mean to open the door, I had just woken up and-"

"No, it's my fault, I shouldn't have knocked." He looked down at the ground with a disgusted look on his face, his nose wrinkling up.

"Well, your carpet is amaze balls, so I don't think I would have woken up any time soon."

He lightly chuckled and pushed off the wall with his foot, "Kido told me to show you guys where the town Smithy was."

I nod, "Ok, I'll go get them. Is Auto awake yet?"

He nods once and cracks his knuckles with Hobbit like hands. "Yep, before I went to wake you up, I found him on his bed wide awake, and told him to meet us out here after he ate his crumb sandwiches."

"Okie." I walk back into the cottage and tell both Geemu and Bumblebee we were gonna go get our armor, they both screamed excitedly and immediately ran out the door, after that Auto found me with a half eaten crumb sandwich in one hand, he tried gulping it down but instead he talked with a mouth full of crumb, "...Be right out."

I found Fighter sleeping on the floor inside the room Auto was in; he jumped right up onto his feet and ran out the door like he was waiting for me.

* * *

The walk to the town Smithy was the most beautiful walk I had ever been on, kids played outside with baseballs, girls played with rag dolls on the ground or on there porches—this place felt so real! Eddwin pointed in front of us saying, "That's the Edge of this world. If you get to close the wind will build up and drag you over the Edge."

"Wow!" I feel Auto's shoulder bump against mine, "Contest anyone?" he pointed to the Edge.

Geemu rolled her eyes and started to walk backwards facing me and Auto, "Fine, whoever lasts the longest I get to date."

Auto gulps, "N-Never mind."

"I'll date you." Fighter winks at Geemu, but she rolls her eyes at his comment. "Ewww. Never in your life."

"How are you feeling Auto, sorry I forgot to ask..." I looked down embarrassed how I had forgotten about him being shot.

He shrugs like it was no big deal, "Its ok. But I feel great! I got to get some of that healing stuff just in case."

"There probably expensive." I point out.

"Who cares?" Fighter turned his head toward us, "I mean-I want to live to get one of those suits to be up in the world above."

I nod, "Me to, but... why do we even need to wear suits to visit anyways?"

"Beats me. Maybe there's a sickness going on that we don't know about?"

Geemu chimed in, "Human cooties,"

Bumblebee hangs on my right arm with her two arms, her metal armor against my bare skin makes me shiver once or twice, I breathe in slowly to clear my mind and focus on the Edge of the world. I can see clouds building up like a huge wall; it almost looked like a wall of cotton candy.

"What's after those clouds?" I ask once Geemu turns back around facing the right direction.

Eddwin clears his throat and answers, "No one knows yet, but that's actually what a lot of groups blue and gold discuss. Some say that's where this world connected to another, but it's impossible."

"How did you know if you get to close the wind will blow you off?" I ask, looking up at him curiously.

"I was tied with a rope around my waist and some of the kids from groups blue and gold held the other end as I inspected it."

"Wow." I say with an un-amused tone. (Show off.)

Auto points to a small barn-like place near the Edge, there was a small orange light that reflected off the cotton candy-like clouds. "Is that a fire inside that house?"

"No, that's the town Smithy. The fireplace or whatever you call it-the fire is reflecting off the clouds."

"So there is a fire inside."

"Yeah, that's what I said." Eddwin ducked from a baseball a couple of kids threw over his head, the ball came straight toward us but Auto caught it and threw it back at the laughing kids.

"S-Sorry mister!" the oldest looking one yelled at us as he caught the ball with his bare hands.

Auto ignored the boy and focused on the conversation again. "But when I asked 'Is that a fire inside that house?' you said no."

"Whatever."

We walk closer to the Smithy until we hear loud a CLANK! CLANK! CLANK! Then see a buff man about 6'4 with a huge black beard hanging from his chin with bushy side burns—wearing a smith apron that's coated with ashes and dirt—his eyes were focused on a piece of metal that was glowing orange, he held it with huge tongs and used a big hammer to pound it against the giant anvil into whatever he was making. Every time the hammer met the orange metal, sparks flew.

Outside the shop was a big sign: Town Smithy,

Swords, 1,000 Coin a level.

Axes, 1,000 Coin a level

Daggers, 500 Coin a level.

Hammers, 500 Coin a level.

Guns, 10, 000 Coin a level.

Armor, 2,000 Coin a level.

Shields, 3,000 Coin a level.

Clothes, Coin Depends.

Special Requests, Coin Depends.

"Dang it!" Fighter cursed, "I need five-thousand more Coin for just a level 1 gun!"

Geemu thought out loud, "So every thing depends on the level, and let's say I get a level 5 dagger, is it gonna be two-thousand-five hundred Coin...?"

"Correct." said Eddwin nodding as he approached the black smith, he tapped on the buff mans shoulder before his hammer met the orange metal.

"Oh, S-Sorry 'bout that young lad." The smith chuckled—he had a teenage voice to him, it didn't suit him very well, but still sounded kind of manly I guess—and set the hammer down on the anvil on top of the orange metal piece, he wiped his hands on his apron and approached us with his hands behind his back. "How may I be of service young'uns?"

Geemu puts a finger on her lips looking at the big sign. "How much are bra's here?" Bumblebee suddenly jambs her elbow into her side and says sorry to the smith.

"Oh, it's all right ma'am. There five Coin each, and depending on your size." The smith grinned, he actually didn't even look that old, only the beard made his look oldman-ish, but if he shaved, he would probably look twenty years younger.

I look up at the sign again, ignoring the red faced smith as he looked over me a few times with his wondering eyes. If I wanted armor and a weapon they would need to be at least the same level, I wouldn't use a dagger, but maybe twin swords would be nice, but then I would have to split my level again. I really liked the feel of my Kendo in my hand, so I'll go with a sword and some armor.

"Sir-Mr. Smith or whatever your name is, I think I'm ready." I step forward a bit and pointed up at the sign, "...But what would be better for me, should I get higher armor or higher weapon level?" I ask looking up at him.

The man scratched his beard with one hand; the other was still behind his back. "It really just depends ma'am, some people like higher weapon level, it does more damage to the attacker, and others like to have higher levels for armor so they can last longer in a fight."

"I would go with higher level armor." Bumblebee said thinking out loud.

I nod agreeing, I look over at Eddwin but he just shrugs his shoulders.

"I think I'll get a level 1 sword, and level 2 armor."

"Want any thing to be on your sword?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, do you want the handle to look a certain way-or the blade? And what type of sword would you like."

I thought for a moment, and then ask Eddwin, "Eddwin, you have a sword right?"

"Yeah, but it's a really low level, its crap."

"But what is it?"

The smith started to chuckle and answered it for him, "He got a Katana, it was a level 1 but after his first battle, he came back to me with only the handle!"

Eddwin rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest huffing. "It snapped off the first strike I used."

"But you used such a high level strike!" the smith pointed out scratching his beard. "But ma'am, since Katana's is outdated these days I got so many in the back of my shop from when they were selling big, I'll give you my highest one for the same price as a level one sword!"

Both Auto's and Geemu's mouths drop. "W-Wait a sec! But this game has only been on for a few days, how can you act like it has been years you've been selling these things."

"Actually, Aladdin's been working on this game for years." Auto corrects her.

Fighter looks at him suspiciously, "How do you know that?"

The smith nodded, and interrupted, "Well anyway, nobody wants them any more, and I don't get it but people call them old fashion!"

"Ok, I'll take it." I say cheerfully.

"Great! How about a design for your armor?"

"A design?" I put my hand on my chin and look over Bumblebee's armor, she saw me staring at her and nodded closing her smiling she yelled, "We could be twins!"

"I look nothing like you, and I probably look goth in black and yellow."

"You look good in anything." Fighter adds in.

Auto cleared his throat. "Shut up dude."

I turn back to the smith and ask, "Do you have any tips, or pictures I could probably get some ideas from?"

"Yes ma'am, in the back of my shop, but let me get these others what they need before then, ok?"

I nod understanding; I walk over to fohawk boy and lean against the bench next to him. He looks over at me for a quick second, then back at the group.

Fighter goes next; first he asks if the smith had any guns that nobody used any more.

"Nope, every one here is gun crazy. Any gun is good for them."

"Dang it! Ok, how big are the daggers?"

"Anything longer than your elbow-I call a sword." The smith answered scratching his beard again, using different hands to scratch it back and forth. I wonder if he is nervous about something. Or just a habit he does when talking to people?

"Just go with a sword or an axe." Says Auto, "An axe probably suits you better."

"Ok, will it be more for a Coin for a Double Headed Battle Axe?"

Smith shakes his head no, switching to his left hand to scratch his side burns.

"Ok, what would be a perfect size?"

"Hmmm..." the smith walked closer to him and lifted up Fighter's arm, "About as long as your arm should be the right size. Is that ok."

"Yeah, sure, sure, you're the expert."

The smith shrugs but and walks back to the anvil, "What level?"

"Uh, make it a level 2."

"Ok, I'll ask you about armor after this young lady." He points to the girl next to him, Geemu smiles and walks up to the sign.

"H-How much damage does a dagger make?"

"Good question... I have a dagger in my back pocket," The smith reaches behind his back with his right hand and retrieves a silver dagger from his belt (Belt, not pocket, moron.) The dagger blade was almost as big as his arm, maybe a quarter shorter. "This is my third best weapon I made for myself. It's a level 50. It's so sharp that if you put it up to your skin from just an inch away it cuts. But I made this one special so it doesn't do that to me." The smith lightly chuckles as he tosses the blade in the air, almost hitting the ceiling, when it came back down, he caught it by the blade, flipped it once and caught it by the handle.

Fighter looks at the dagger closer, "You can make them as high as you want?"

"Of course...well sometimes, I'm a smith. But I can only attack people who try to kill me. I'm not aloud outside of town, so I can't fight any monsters. But I can't die either."

"What!" Fighter yells, and then groans, "You're so lucky."

Auto walks over to me looking bored and leans against the same desk as Geemu tells the smith what she wants.

"Well, how are you doing so far?" he asks raising his eyebrows at me a bit making his face kind of ugly.

I look at him confused, "What do you mean?"

"Like... the experience of the game, I never asked you."

"Oh, well I guess it's pretty cool. Actually awesome! But the action is kind of slow at coming to us."

He chuckled softly and looked down at his feet. "Yeah, but once the scenery gets bigger, and we get higher up in levels, then it's gonna come quicker. But you know what's kind of bothering me?"

"Huh?"

"How this is based off of our memories, because this is nothing like the world I have seen."

"Maybe its like you said, once the world gets bigger, maybe it will get more familiar?"

"You kid!" the smith turned around his menu had showed up, in front of his face, so I guess he was writing down our orders.

"Y-Yes sir!" Auto stood up straight.

"What would you like?"

"Uh... c-can I get a sword sir?"

"Type?"

"Uh, what do you call those knight swords in the fantasy stories?"

"There's a couple that I make, which I call a knights sword, details please?" he asked typing on his menu.

"Uh, well I guess what I'm thinking of is 'The Arming Sword also called knight's or knightly sword is a single handed cruciform sword of the Middle Ages. The swords have a small fuller, standard sized hilt and narrow blade' I read it in a book."

I giggle, "Neko was right, you read more than you play."

He turns to me and winks. "Of course sweetheart, I wouldn't be in this game if it wasn't for reading."

I clear my throat (Liar, your Aladdin's son, you would have made it no matter what.)

"The Arming Sword is gonna take a while for me to make, thanks for the details though. So are you trying to remake Excalibur or something?"

"Huh?" I ask confused.

"What's that?" both Fighter and fohawk boy ask.

"Its one of the strongest swords in the game, there's actually two or three of them. I can't make them of course there the highest level swords, but you have to defeat one of the last bosses to get one."

"The last boss?" Geemu steps forward hands behind her back, "How many are there?"

"Didn't Neko already answer that?" I say.

"I guess... don't remember." Auto shrugs.

"Anyways, keep going Mr. Smith." I urge him to keep on going with his story or whatever.

"My names Kelly, sorry I never told you yet..." he clears his throat from sudden embarrassment and puts his dagger through his belt, "Anyways. As I was saying, these two or three swords are called the swords of The Challenger, they say he made them himself and once he defeated a boss they were in his power, so he gave the strongest bosses these swords." The smith—Kelly—Itched his beard with both hands this time and closed his eyes as if trying to remember what he was trying to say next. "Y-Yes it's actually two swords, I am very sorry. Excalibur and Caliburn."

"Which one is the strongest?" Bumblebee asks as she leans against Geemu with her elbow on her shoulder.

"No one knows, I guess which ever boss has the highest level. But I have heard from around town Ejji that only one person is allowed to fight these bosses."

"NO WAY!" I groan, my head falling backwards until it hits a board on the table, I lift it back up to see level with Kelly's face.

"Yes ma'am, but that's what people say, I'm not saying it's true."

GTA looked around, he knew what every one was thinking, and one of us was going to face one of these bosses alone to get the sword. (Who was it going to be?)

Eddwin breaks the silence by clearing his throat and getting every one's eyes on him, "Are there orders close to being done?"

Kelly scratches his head. "Sorry, its gonna take me a while, and for those of you who want to look at some of my armor pictures and designs, there in the very back room. I'll start on the weapons now." Kelly points with his thumb over his shoulder pointing to a black metal door that had a wooden sign hanging from a rope on a door knob that said: Keep Out.

"... and you ma'am?" Kelly turned to me, "You're sword, Katana, will be in there to, it's going to be the highest level, if you don't like the design just let me know."

"Thanks Kelly." I smile as I walk for the metal door.

"No problem." He smiles back and heads back to his anvil and hammer. A few seconds later his hammer banging against the metal is heard.

I waited for everyone else to get closer then I opened the door; it was surprisingly easy to open, almost like a regular door but made of metal. I wonder how he made it so light. Does that have to do with levels to?

I gasp at the sight before me, swords were neatly pinned on the walls in the very back—there were mostly Katana's—and some had gold blades, black and even purple! I wonder how I was supposed to figure out the levels on them.

There was one big metal desk in the middle of the room with papers scattered across it and circling the desk on the ground, almost all of them had drawings of swords or armor.

I heard Fighter groan, getting inpatient behind me and finally push past me using his shoulder. "Dang it, I was hoping to steel a stupid gun!"

"You probably can't even take it out of the Smithy without paying for it." GTA pointed out, he turned his head looking towards Eddwin. "Right?"

He nods, "Yes, correct."

"How do you know?" Geemu asks as she pushes past me and heads for the metal desk.

"I tried to steel a gun." He lightly chuckles and then he also pushes past me, I head for the Katana's as every one else searches through all of the papers around and on top of the metal desk.

I clear my throat and touch one of the purple Katana's on the blade with my fingers delicately. "Eddwin, how do you figure out what levels these are?"

"Huh? Oh, you pick one up by the handle and it will tell you the level, damage etcetera..."

I nod, "Okie." I grip the one I was touching by the handle and lift it off of the peg it was on, suddenly the Katana felt super heavy and fell to the ground, piercing the dirt with its blade right next to my foot!

"Holy crap this things heavy!" I shriek jumping in the air and nearly pumping my head on the ceiling.

Eddwin and Auto rush over to see what happened as the others don't pay to much mind.

"What happened?!" Auto asks with worry in his voice, he looks down at the Katana then up at my face with worry.

"I tried holding the sword, but it felt like a ton!"

Eddwin gets on his knees and grips the handle, when he gripped it a brown square screen showed up in front of his face.

"What's it say?" I ask.

"It's only a level 5 Katana. But the purple sword is actually for killing, SIM, or Snake Monsters. The blade is made of ogre poison."

"Yuck," suddenly my mouth tastes funny. "What the heck is that?"

He shrugs, "Never heard of it, but this Katana is only used for those creatures I guess."

Auto gets on his knees and looks down at the blade closer. "So these Snake Monsters must be pretty bad if he made one just for those kinds of monsters."

Eddwin nods and climbs back onto his feet. "Yeah, my group was actually the one that defeated the level 1 boss, and it was a SIM. There actually half human half snake. Some of them could be half animal and half snake."

"Why was it so heavy for her?" Auto suddenly asks touching the purple blade, but he quickly flinched back as if it had cut him, but when he looked down at his hand, there was no sign of injury.

"Every sword or weapon that Kelly makes, he puts a spell on it so no one can use the item against him or try to steal it."

"I thought you said no one can take the item out of this place without paying for it."

"It's a game, genius. A glitch could happen or a hack." Eddwin rolls his eyes and looks over the other Katana's. "Instead of trying to pick the sword up this time, just grip the handles to check there levels."

I nod agreeing with him, "Okie."

"Need any help checking them?" Auto asks getting up on his feet.

"Nah, I got it." I started from the right side of the place, and worked my way over, until I reached the middle. "Huh, level 42." I think out loud.

"HALO! Oh my goodness, look at this armor!" Geemu ran over to me with a piece of paper and forced it into my hands. The drawing was made from pen it looked like, the figure was supposed to be a females body without the girls face. The female body was wearing an armored bra labeled red on the side with a black ink pen, then armor knee high leggings that were also labeled red, then a chainmail skirt. On the bottom right side of the page the smith had written what it was made of and what it was called. Chainmail Pixy/Barbarian skirt is made with bright aluminum rigs and is laced on the side with real leather straps.

"I don't think it will keep you safe from swords though." I frown, (And I definitely don't want to see her wearing it either.)

"Actually." Eddwin yells over from the other side of the room, he was next to the door with his arms crossed, he was watching me the whole time. "You would be surprised how little armor you wear can keep you safe-and the lighter the armor, the more you can move and dodge attacks."

"Then why does every one in group's blue and gold wear a lot of armor?" I ask.

"They want to stay alive till the end, but you can have more than one piece of armor, like if you were going on a date and you didn't want to be loaded down by all the wieght and look fancier, you get a nicer one that's lighter and you can take off easily."

"Less details please." Bumblebee mumbled as she looked over Auto's shoulders as he looked threw the papers on the ground next to the metal desk. Every time he looked at one longer than the others he threw aside; she would look closer and whisper in his ear.

Fighter picked a paper up and walked towards me. "Who would wear this?" I take the paper from his hands handing back Geemu's to her. The one that Fighter gave me showed a males body without a face, he was pretty much nude except for the lion cloth chainmail he was wearing to cover the detailed part.

"Ew." Geemu comments sticking out her tongue and closing her eyes. "Is Kelly into porn or something?"

I shrug my shoulders and hand the paper back to Fighter. I doubt it, or the parts on bodies would be more detailed."

After my friends went back to the papers I noticed how quiet it was, I haven't heard any noises outside the door, I wonder if this place is noise proof or if the smith had stopped banging his hammer?

I look back at the swords and go through the rest of them; the highest level sword was level 50, the blade was black, the handle was to but in the butt of it there was a bright red jewel forged inside of it. I decided to leave it as it is, it would also make Kelly's job a little easier without having to change a swords detail twice.

"You're so lucky you get a super high level Katana for the price of a level 1." Geemu comments as she props herself on the metal desk and lays down on her back while staring up at the ceiling.

"Then why didn't you ask for one?" I ask not looking around t her.

"I did, but he said it would be the price by the level." She muttered rolling her eyes again. "I think he likes you."

"He's a computer avatar." I point out, "That's just disgusting."

"But he could like you though." Auto says, he was now clutching a piece of paper in his hands and Bumblebee giggled as she wrapped her arms around him from the back.

I shrug and make a disgusted look when I turn back around to face the group. "I don't want to think about that. Ever."

Eddwin faced palmed and started a light chuckle that turned into a really awful fake laugh.

"What's so funny Eddy?" Auto asks with a questioning look on his face.

"O-Oh nothing." He rubbed his face, which made his face look redder. "Wait, did you just call me Eddy?"

"Weird." Geemu whimpers.

"I heard that." Eddy grumbles under his breath.

"Fighter, what's up, you look like you seen a naked girl?" all heads turn toward Fighter—he was leaning against the wall, his face was all red and his hands were in his pockets, but around the lips of his mouth he was foaming out bubbles!

"What the heck!" I squeak and jump up in the air, Eddwin is the last one to rush over to Fighter's side, Geemu was the one that almost bursted into tears first from worry, they might not like the guy but were all friends.

"Fighter!" Auto yelled clutching him by the shoulders with his hands.

"Get him laid down on the ground!" Eddwin yelled pushing us out of his way, then delicately laid the pale body of Fighter down on the floor, he started to shake like he was having a seizure and the foaming bubbles from his mouth were growing bigger, his face was red and turned deathly pale, and his eyes were big as saucers!

"What the heck is happening?!" Bumblebee screeched looking over our shoulders as she hugged her self.

"I don't know." was all Eddwin could say as he stripped Fighter of his shirt.

"Is this the games doing?" Geemu asked hugging me from behind suddenly as she buried her damp face into my back.

"Not so tight Geemu!" I gasp.

"S-Sorry babe." She let go slowly and walked over to Bumblebee and comforted her instead.

"Halo." A voice called in the background I couldn't make out clearly, the world around me started to spin, I felt like I was gonna throw up!

"HALO!" the voice yelled louder, I felt firm hands seize me by the shoulders and Auto's face became clear in my view. "Halo, listen to me."

I nod my head and wipe my face from the collecting sweat on my brow.

"Halo, go get Kelly and tell him we need some healing potions-and get Neko and Kido, HURRY!"

I run past Bumblebee and slam open the metal door, I opened it so hard that I could hear the hinges squeak and slam against the stopper, I heard a loud SNAP! Which meant I had broken something against the wall, but I didn't dare slow down, the sound of the smiths hammer banging against metal was heard once again as the blood started to rush to my head. I hope I wasn't about to black out, not now

"Kelly!" I scream, "Kelly." The banging noises from his hammer stop and he looks up with his hammer raised.

"What is it ma'am?"

"Something's wrong with our friend, he needs healing potions or something!"

His eyes open surprisingly wider and he drops his hammer onto the floor, CLANK! He rushes past me when I hear Fighter say, "Go with her!"

Kelly pushes past two girls coming from the room and he charges inside like his life depended on it.

"Fighter said to come with you." Geemu says, her eyes were blood shot from crying and she rushed to my side and took my hand in hers. "We got to get Neko and Kido."

I agree with them. And all of us girls rush off back to the cottage.

**End of Part One**
