“Shit, don’t tell me you brought me here to talk to this cop.” Gabriel replied.

“Gabriel Estrada you are under arrest. Thanks Kristen.” Jaese said as he pushed past her.

“I didn’t do shit so fuck off man. You saw those guys beat the shit out of me too.” Gabriel said, stepping back.

“What gu-”

“Jaese stop, I didn’t bring you here to arrest him. Darith why did you bring him here?” Kristen asked while grabbing Jaese’s sleeve.

“What the heck is going on?” Elise asked confused.

“Yeah what she said.” Jacob chimed in. “Wait a second, Liana?” He said surprised as he looked at her.

“Hi.” She smiled and waved awkwardly.

“He knows something about the cop killers. I only want to take him in for questioning.” Jaese replied.

“I don’t know shit.” Gabriel shouted back. “The only reason I’m here is ‘cause this kid said he’d tell me what's goin’ on.”

“Is that true?” Jaese turned to Darith, who stood in the middle of the argument. Darith glanced between the adults, his friend Jacob, and the pretty girl Elise, all staring at him, he could feel his palms getting sweaty.

“Darith, I’m sorry for bringing him, it’s just…” Kristen said apologetically. He looked at her, then the others, all eyes were on him, but he couldn’t think of what to say, the best way to handle the situation.

“Pretend you’re the raid leader, like you did in the desert.” Liana whispered to him. Darith locked eyes with her, then nodded and took a deep breath.

“Okay, listen up.” He said as confidently as he could. “You’re all here because you’ve been affected by the same thing, in one way or another. Except you Elise... There is a game. I don’t know where it came from or how it started, but once you are invited, you can become your game character and change your appearance. This game character can level up and train skills and gain abilities, and enter a fantasy world to fight monsters. That part is great, and it's a lot of fun. Liana here is normally in a wheelchair, but because she has a game character body, she is able to walk around.”

“You’re Liana from the hospital?” Jaese turned to her in disbelief, and she nodded.

“The problem is that you can also use the powers of your character in the real world. And a lot of bad people have been doing it. The game has something called City Guards, that I thought were supposed to protect the world from players. It says that if the city guards catch you revealing the game to non-players, it’ll take you out of the game.”

“The city guard, they the guys in black suits?” Gabriel asked.

“Yeah, that’s them.”

“They don’t do shit.”

“I’ve realized that it's really easy to avoid them, the only purpose they apparently serve seems to be to protect the game, not people. All the City Guards do is reverse the damage caused by the game and erase people’s memory of it.” Darith said.

“Assume I believe all of this is true, how do I stop people like that? The guy I met, he shot ice and killed 5 officers, and bullets wouldn’t hurt him at all.” Jaese asked.

“You can’t… unless you’re a part of the game. If you aren’t, the only chance is to find a City Guard to protect you.”

“I’ve seen some crazy shit the last few days, but if what you’re sayin’ is true, you’re part of the game, right?” Gabriel asked, and Darith nodded. “Prove it.” Darith turned to Liana and she shrugged.

“Restore!” She shouted, and the green circle formed in front of her, illuminating the hall before it shot light to Darith and surrounded him.

“Holy shit!” Jacob shouted.

“Whoa!” Elise flinched.

“What the fuck…” Gabriel said with wide eyes.

“Get back!” Jaese called out as he pulled Kristen with him away from Liana.

“It’s fine… it’s a healing spell.” Darith replied calmly. “The guy who killed the officers and robbed the bank, he tried to kill you in the hospital yesterday. Liana and I stopped him and gave him a game over, so he’s no longer a part of the game.”

“Who was it?” Jaese asked while regaining his composure.

“I don’t know… a guy named Thomas. He doesn’t remember anything though. Once you die in the game you go back to a normal life, you lose your memory of ever playing…” Darith then turned to Jacob, and the two locked eyes. “Once you get game over you can’t be reinvited. That’s what happened to you Jacob, you were in Ryan’s party.”

“Shit, seriously?” Jacob said in disbelief, scratching his head as if trying to remember something, as Gabriel looked to him with guilt.

“You jumped in to protect me at the club, you don’t remember at all?” Gabriel asked him.

“No…”

“The same guy that game over’d Jacob, he killed your little brother?” Darith asked, Gabriel turned and nodded.

“More than thirty others, and that’s only that we know of.” Jaese added.

“This is crazy weird and all, but what does this have to do with me?” Elise asked. “I’m starting to think that whole dance thing was a lie.”

“It wasn’t, I wanted you to come because I can invite 3 more people to the game. At first I thought it might be better to invite people really good at gaming, but when I thought about how you already have skills that can translate well in the game world, and that you wanted to help people… I thought maybe you’d make the perfect party member.”

“You want to invite me to join you in this game?” Elise said, taken aback.

“Y-yeah. I need help. I don’t want the game to end, because it has so much potential to be fun, and it let Liana walk out of her wheelchair, who knows what else it can do. But at the same time, I can’t let bad players run wild without doing something about it. So I wanted to invite people that will help me stop them.” Darith said, looking at Elise but then turning between the others.

“And I can’t rejoin?” Jacob asked.

“No, sorry…” Darith replied hesitantly. “Both of you, you lost someone because of this game.” He looked between Jaese and Gabriel. “But inviting you, it’s risky. I don’t know what sort of people you guys will be once you get strong in this game. If I bring you into my party, you both have to promise to follow all of my rules, I’ll be the leader, okay?” Darith said, looking at the two of them.

“You’ll help me take out Tai, right?” Gabriel asked.

“As soon as possible.” Darith replied.

“Alright, I’ll follow your rules.” Gabriel said, holding his hand out, to which Darith shook it.

“You didn’t even ask him what the rules were.” Jaese said.

“Don’t care, as long as I get revenge for my lil bro. And it sounds like this is gonna be my only way to do it.” Gabriel replied.

“This is crazy.” Jaese said, rubbing his hands through his hair. “You’re saying people acting as game characters are going through the city causing all this damage, killing people? And the only way for me to start catching them is if I agree to your rules?” Jaese asked. Darith nodded.

“What are your rules.” Jaese asked.

“One, you always listen to my instructions. I’m the leader. I know you guys are older than me, and you’re good at different things, but for a party to succeed, everyone has to work together. Two, no using the game powers on non-players, no matter what. Don’t use them to do any bad things at all. And Three, follow the game rules, you’ll get those after I invite you… that’s basically it, I uh, if I come up with more rules you’ll have to follow those too.” Darith shrugged at Liana and she gave him a thumbs up.

“What about arresting these guys after they’re out of the game?” Jaese asked.

“You won’t have any proof, the City Guard removes it, and the player won’t even remember what they did.” Darith replied.

“So after we beat Tai and his boys, I’m supposed to just let him walk away, ‘cause he’ll forget what he did?” Gabriel said angrily.

“This game sounds twisted yo. Messed with my head, messing with everyone’s head.” Jacob said.

“It’s got some downsides, that's why I want your help to make it better. You either agree with my rules or you don’t.” Darith replied, looking between them. Out of things to say, he let out a big breath of air. It went silent for a moment, but you could almost hear the brains on everyone in the room as they worked through what Darith had said.

“Was this the dance thing you were talking about? A place I can dance as much as I want?” Elise replied. Darith nodded. “Okay... I’m in. I’ll help you out in this game. I already ran away from home anyway.” Elise shrugged. “Worst thing that’ll happen is that I forget about the game right? I still don’t get how my dancing is supposed to help you though.”

“I… can’t think of a reason to say no…” Jaese hesitated.

“My son has a good heart. And he’s really talented at games. He wants the same thing as you.” Kristen smiled, then looked to Darith. “Darith, about what we talked about… I think I’ve made my choice. Helping these people and playing this game seems more important than school, but you have to promise to always keep me updated okay? I want to know you’re safe at least once a day.” Kristen replied.

“O-okay.”

“Rule number 4, make sure Kristen knows Darith is safe every day!” Liana said jokingly. No one laughed, but Darith smiled at his mom and Liana.

“Okay, you guys ready?” Darith asked Elise, Gabriel and Jaese, they all nodded.

“I invite Jaese, Gabriel and Elise to join my party.” Darith said, and simultaneously there were three dings on their phones. Each reached into different pockets to pull them out and saw the invitation prompt. “Read the rules carefully, then we’ll work on your characters.”

“This could probably take awhile.” Liana whispered to Kristen.

“I’ll order Pizza.” Kristen said as she pulled out her phone.

Five minutes went by, the group made their way into the living room and all took seats. Kristen had brought a few chairs from the dining table to accommodate the extra bodies. Jacob was leaning over Elise’s shoulder to read her screen.

“So what race should I pick?” Jaese asked as he was glancing through the stats.

“Right, our group right now consists of me, a magic damage dealer, and Liana, a healer. So what we’re missing is a tank and more damage dealers. It depends on what sort of fighting you are most capable of though.”

“Tank?” Elise asked.

“Someone who gets the attention of the enemy and absorbs the damage.” Liana replied.

“Since you are really good at dancing, I thought you could use your abilities as a rogue type class, moving around fast and using melee weapons.” Darith said to Elise.

“Okay, that sounds pretty cool, so what race should I pick for that?” She asked.

“Well, Nemothynes are tiny, and Elves are pretty agile, or you could go with Human. The downside of changing races is you’ll get a new body that you’ll have to get used to.” Darith said.

“Okay, I’ll keep it all the same.”

“Pretty white girl wants to stay pretty.” Gabriel mumbled under his breath as he flicked through his screen. Elise threw him an angry glare, then flicked around with some of her facial features, then clicked finished.

“Wait yo!” Jacob called out, seeing what she had done.

“Wait, you can’t change it!” Darith tried to stop her, but it was too late, a huge bright light enveloped the entire room, and once it was gone, Elise was laying with her eyes closed on the couch. She had a giant X scar across the middle of her face, the center being on her nose, and blue streaks in her blonde hair. When the light faded, everyone turned to look, while Jacob smacked his hand to his forehead.

“She still looks pretty though.” Liana commented

“Is she okay?” Jaese asked worriedly as he stood up.

“She’s fine, she’ll wake up in a second.” Darith reassured him. He eyed in his peripheral vision that underneath Liana’s name, he could now see Elise as a level 1. “What are you good at, Jaese?” Darith asked him.

“I, uh… well I have basic martial arts training from the academy. I’m a good shot too.”

“And you Gabriel?”

“I use my fists.”

“Do you know any fighting styles or anything like that?” Darith asked.

“Nah, I just hit them harder than they hit me. Does the trick.” Gabriel replied, intimidating Darith slightly as he eyed the size of his muscles.

“How about you act as our tank, you take the attention of enemies and we support you.” Darith replied.

“Sounds fine to me. I wanna be the big dude though.” He said as he turned his phone screen towards Darith to show the Orc character Gabriel had selected. In the time they’d been talking Gabriel customized the orc to look nothing like himself, but toned down the orc skin color to match that of his own. It looked as though it was just a larger human with a bigger than usual jaw and large teeth jutting out of its mouth. No hair, gigantic muscles, and angry looking eyes.

“Th-that’s pretty good. Just remember the City Guard won’t want to see you in the real world.”

“Business as usual then.” Gabriel said while eyeing Jaese, then hit the accept button, and another bright flash filled the room. Afterwards, Gabriel could be seen in his orc body in a chair beside the tv.

“Wicked.” Jacob said as he looked at him. Seconds later the chair broke under his weight, causing several gasps, but Gabriel didn’t wake up.

“Seriously?” Kristen said as she looked to Darith, and he just shrugged.

“Uh, right, Jaese. I don’t think there are guns, but there’s things like bows, or crossbows probably. You should go with Elf and we can figure out how you can use a ranged weapon in the game world.” Darith said.

“Got it.” He replied, flicking around the screen a bit. “Here goes nothing.” He took a deep breath, then hit the accept button, and the third and final flash filled the room. When the light was gone it left behind a taller Jaese with pointy ears and much longer, silkier brown hair, not unlike Liana’s. The three were now quiet, all with their eyes closed, laying around the room.

“Darith we did it, we got a party! It’s perfect!” Liana shouted excitedly as she jumped up for joy, and it was contagious, he got a big smile on his face as well.

“I just hope they’ll listen and follow the rules.”

“Man this sucks yo. Can you find a way to revive me or some shit?” Jacob asked.

“Y-yeah, I’ll look into it, I promise.” Darith replied. Just then the doorbell rang.

“Oooh Pizza.” Kristen said, running the door.

“What are we going to do first?” Liana asked excitedly.

“Well we gotta teach them the basics, then level up. There’s still a lot of things I want to figure out, like where to spend gold and get better equipment, but now that we can play nonstop it shouldn’t be too hard.” Darith replied excitedly as Kristen came back with two pizza boxes. She plopped them down on the table and opened them, to which each of them grabbed a slice.

“I smell pizza.” Elise moaned as she opened her eyes slowly, sitting up and looking around. “What happened?”

“You entered the game.” Darith smiled as he pointed at her scar. She ran her hand over her face to feel it, then stood up in panic.

“Where’s your bathroom?” She asked. He pointed to it and she ran in, looking in the mirror. “Oh shit, I didn’t think it was real! Is this permanent?” She came out after looking.

“N-no, you can switch it back, it’s like an extra body. Look.” Darith said, trying to calm her down. He transformed into his Nemothyne form.

“Wha- you’re one of the animal people. Oh my god you’re so cute!” Elise said excitedly as she walked forward and stroked his ear, and his face went red.

“I know, isn’t he?” Liana joined in, stroking the other one. Elise then pulled back and felt her scar again.

“Well if it isn’t permanent… then, isn’t it badass? Don’t I look like a kick ass warrior lady?” She said as she walked back over to the mirror.

“Yeah totally.” Jacob said with a mouthful of pizza. A groan came from Gabriel on the ground as he opened his eyes and sat upright. He looked down at his body, and then stood up, his head nearly hitting the ceiling.

“Oh hell yeah.” He said as he started flexing and twisting his arms. He then eyed the pizza and looked to Kristen. “Do you mind if I eat a piece of pizza, ma’am?” Gabriel asked politely, his tone unlike anything he’d said before.

“Of course, help yourself.” Kristen replied, taken aback.

“Thank you ma’am.” He replied, and reached down to grab a slice. As he bit into it though Darith watched him struggle with his oddly shaped jaw. Seeing this though, Gabriel looked down at him confused. Darith’s head barely made it over Gabriel’s waistline .

“What’s with the fox ears, and where’d Darith go?” Gabriel asked.

“I’m Darith, this is my game character.” He replied in his little boy voice.

“Why’d you pick such a tiny one?” Gabriel asked.

“They’re good at magic.”

“If you say so.” He shrugged back. Finally came Jaese, rubbing his eyes as he looked around the room. He spotted Elise’s scar, the tiny Nemothyne, then the big orc. He stood up and felt off balance for a moment, not expecting to be as tall as he was. Then felt around his ears and his hair.

“Incredible. I’m really an elf.” He said to himself.

“You’re a pretty handsome elf too.” Kristen smiled.

“Thank you ma’am.” Jaese replied shyly.

“What’s with all the ma'am's. You guys are making me feel old.” Kristen sighed as she shook her head.

“Alright, let’s go smash Tai’s teeth in.” Gabriel said as he punched his left fist into his right hand.

“Whoa hold on, no way. Ryan said he was around level 90, you’re level 1. Just cause you have big muscles doesn’t mean you’ll be stronger than him, he’ll wipe the floor with us if we go now.” Darith replied. “First we have to level up and get stronger.”

“How do we do that?” Jaese asked.

“We’ll need to go into the game world and fight monsters, do quests, and train our stats and abilities.” Darith replied.

“What kind of monsters?” Elise said apprehensively.

“Stuff like spiders, crabs, wraiths, giant sand golems, you know, fantasy like monsters.”

“Are there Dragons too?” Jacob asked.

“We didn’t see one yet.” Liana replied.

“Let’s go then. How do we get there?” Gabriel asked.

“Slow down, first you need to learn the basics of how to play. Pick up your phones, I’ll teach you about all of the stats and interface commands. Take a seat and grab some pizza, cause it’s gonna take awhile.” Darith said as they all grabbed their phones. It took a good 30 minutes of Darith explaining each of the stats in detail after getting them to use the proper interface. He noted that all three of them had much higher starting stats than he did across the board.

Elise: Level 1 0/10 experience

Health: 100/100

Mana: 20/20

Endurance: 75/75

Strength: 10

Agility: 18

Intelligence: 6

Spirit: 9

Endurance: 13

Vitality: 9

Charisma: 10

Luck: 1

-------------------------------------

Jaese: Level 1 0/10 experience

Health: 100/100

Mana: 40/40

Endurance: 70/70

Strength: 15

Agility: 11

Intelligence: 10

Spirit: 12

Endurance: 12

Vitality: 10

Charisma: 12

Luck: 5

-------------------------------------

Gabriel: Level 1 0/10 experience

Health: 150/150

Mana: 25/25

Endurance: 75/75

Strength: 19

Agility: 9

Intelligence: 7

Spirit: 12

Endurance: 15

Vitality: 18

Charisma: 5

Luck: 1

Once they all got accustomed to the interface in their peripheral vision, they were able to pocket their phones and took out their starting armor. Each took turns in the bathroom changing into it until everyone was wearing similar looking clothing. Luckily only Gabriel had to destroy the clothes he’d been wearing in the process, as it had torn during the transformation into the orc.

“Alright, next I’m going to teach you the basic skills I’ve learned this far. They’ll start out as level 1 though.” As he said this, he noticed all three staring blankly at him. Kristen walked over and leaned into Darith’s ear.

“Maybe take a little break, I think they need time to process all this, just like I did.” She whispered. Darith nodded.

“Well, l-let’s stop for now and you guys get used to everything, We’ll take a 5 minute break.” Darith said, and the three let out sighs of relief. They began pressing buttons and reading things in their character menu, but to everyone else it looked like they were tapping thin air.