???’s PoV

She had awoken. How long had it been since Earth needed her protection? Millennia? Eons? She didn't know.

But something disturbed the fabric of reality. Someone had broken the one rule of the maker. Looking around she found her brothers and sisters waking up next to her.

She only hoped that this time the taint hadn't spread as much as the last.

Jim's POV

Looking around the beautiful landscape Jim wondered if there was any urgency in restoring his memory. So far his short life was rather nice. Sitting on the deck and scratching behind Fluffy’s ears he wondered if he should even bother.

Sighing he knew that wouldn't happen. The yearning for knowledge seemed to be a weakness of his. When he was flying the airship his mind constantly asked questions. How fast could he make it go? How deep a dive can it recover from? How many different maneuvers can he come up with?

He thirsted for answers to interesting questions. And the most interesting question of them all seemed to be “Why did I lose my memory?”

Yet he had the ability to mute it for now because the solution seemed inevitable. There didn’t seem to be any large obstacles that would block his path from recovering his memory. Jim didn't know if the three artifacts could return his memory for certain, yet for some unknown reason he had confidence it would.

With another few head rubs to his new yet old companions, he waited patiently for his friends to return.

Milly’s PoV

Milly looked at her phone angrily. How could her people care so little for her poor freezer! Seriously the damn little amateurs. This was the perfect time to make a profit! One of the things she hated about her new entourage was that they all focused way too much on planning.

There was a plan for researching optimal growth patterns. They planned on how to market the potions with catch phrases and jingles. They made plans to make more plans. Seriously there were even plans for giving potions away for free to some sort of childrens hospital for something called publicity. As far as she could tell this “publicity” amounted to giving it away for free.

Who would give something away for free? The only plan she liked was the one that projected profit, but it was always drawn up in terms of years. She wanted money now! And all of them acted like they had never seen a monster attack for some reason.

A monster attack was going on and none of them saw the potential opportunity for profit! After she went back in her apartment she grabbed a backpack and then started making her way to the compound. Milly had only seen one monster attack on Jacksberg in her life, but it had been one of the most profitable days ever recorded at the shop.

That was so many years ago now, but she remembered the lesson. When people were desperate, they would pay more! Not only that but they wouldn’t care about going through the right and proper channels. People who had been reluctant before would now be eager and thankful.

This time it was not going to be a track through the desert. All she had to do was make it to her work place, and she was much better armed this time! Milly reassuringly patted the vials she had hooked to her custom belt.

Before she left she defiantly yelled out “Milly will not be centipede food this time! You just wait and see!”

Then she started out in a light jog towards her workplace.

Charlotte’s PoV

Waking up she realized some parts of her seemed to hurt. She was surprised that she had fallen asleep in a chair. While it was a comfy chair even if she stayed up late, she almost always made it to her bed.

And then she realized why she was so uncomfortable. She still had the helmet on from last night. Loosening the chin strap she took the device off. While she stood up she felt something was.. Different. Charlotte couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

Coffee. Coffee would help. Turning around she went upstairs, and that is when she saw that little notification that was in the corner of her eye.

Successful Installation of DM2! Would you like to play? Y/N

What in the world? Oh no. No no no no.

Then Gwen called down from above “Charlotte, are you down here?”

In an automatic response she said “Yes.”

And then her vision faded. When her sight returned she was in a dimly lit building.

An ominous voice said “Choose.”

Then from below the ground three different types of weapons emerged. Frantically she looked to find anything that would let her out of this place, but there was none. Then hopefully she looked around the corners of her vision but there was nothing helpful.

On the bottom left corner of her vision she could see a readout that displayed health and armor. Then on the bottom right she could see ammo counts and weapons. But that was it. Wait how do you hit ESC? That should bring up the menu!

Charlotte said “ESC.”

Nothing.

“Control-Alt-Delete”

Still nothing.

“Stop Program.”

“Halt.”

Wait. If this was a game what about cheat codes? Did they work?

“Rain of guns and ammo.”

To her surprise the cheat code worked! She now had every gun in the game with full ammunition.

What about god mode? Saying the code out loud she got an error.

“God Mode is not supported in this version. Health and armor increased to maximum values.”

What? Not supported in this version? What kind of shoddy work doesn’t have god mode in an FPS? Still if she could not get out she was a lot more comfortable like this than going out with one of the crappy starter guns and no defense.

Maybe it would let her use ESC once she had selected a weapon? She chose one at random and then was instantly teleported. The ominous voice said “Get to the checkpoint to complete the level.”

As she looked she realized in horror where she was. This was the neighborhood where her brother lived. The spot where she ended up was about as far away as one could get and still be in the same neighborhood. Why was she here? Then she saw a bright blue glow in that direction. Again she tried everything she could think of to exit the game but nothing worked.

Cautiously she started heading towards the blue glow. It was so quiet. Then she heard something russell and looked to see a familiar red being with spiky protrusions all over the creature’s body. Instantly she thought "shotgun" and the weapon appeared in her hands. Without hesitation she shot the abomination. In fascination she saw the green blood leak out of the creature.

The next hour played out very similarly. However once she did get hit by their fire and it made a small dent in her armor value. Eventually she made it to her brothers house.

Knocking at the door she waited patiently. So far she hadn’t seen anyone. Was this all a game, or was this real? She wasn’t sure.

Finally the door opened and she saw her brother. With relief she dropped the weapon and embraced him. Her brother asked “What the hell is going on out there?”

Charlotte winced. Stupid. Why had she clicked that file? Seriously what was she thinking. Charlotte already knew Jim had a connection to a world that had been a game, and she mindlessly clicked on it.

Finally she said “I screwed up. I screwed up a lot.”

He ushered her in and said “Have you heard about the creature attacks? It’s all over the news.”

With a sinking sensation she asked “How widespread is it?”

“They're only popping up about 20 miles around the city.”

With hope she said “Are you sure? It’s not the entire Earth?”

He shook his head and said “No. But you look suspicious. Spit it out.”

Reluctantly she said “I may have caused a real life version of Doomed Earth II to happen.”

He blinked and said “Wow. They have been showing some of the bodies of those things on the news. They do look like them. How?”

Actually there was another thing she could ask him.

“How do you get to the menu? So you can quit in the game.”

“The escape key.”

No. Way. If escape worked when ESC didn’t she was going to be pissed.

She said “Escape.”

Both relieved and annoyed the menu came up.

Then the ominous voice came again and said “Are you ready for stage 2?”

She couldn’t hit quit fast enough. Her vision returned again and she was back inside her house. Gwen said “Are you okay? You seemed to have tripped when you came up the stairs. Maria took a look at you and she said you were fine.”

Charlotte nodded and got to her feet.

Seriously, if Jim ever came back to life she was going to give him a thrashing. Why did he not put more warning labels on his computer? And why the hell did escape work and ESC didn’t? Looking over at his dead body she wanted to kick it. Unfortunatly she was being mothered by Gwen right now.

Narrowing her eyes at the body she promised herself “Later.”

Special Agent Kerry’s PoV

Kerry was bleeding out and dying. It had been a crazy night. On the op to kill Jim they had lost a man immediately. The target's bodyguard had chopped up his man with a sword in a single swing. Not only that but the guy was impenetrable.

Even when focusing on killing their target the armor made light of their entire arsenal. Kerry had been briefed on the specs of the current man sized special armor that was so expensive. The comparison between the two sets of equipment was not even close. The armor they faced was leagues ahead of what the intel guys had briefed.

Still they had completed the mission. Rumor was that they had gotten the intel from a wealthy businessman. After adding that to a financial analysis and taking into consideration the build and body type they quickly found their target. All indications pointed towards their target being the one called Jim.

Kerry had been in the middle of debriefing his boss when they started getting frantic help requests from the local police. Reports were that criminals were actually fighting police in the street. Of course his boss gave him the go ahead and he took his team out. What they actually faced could only be described as a scene out of hell.

The creatures they faced were very durable and could shoot a projectile that could vaporize a foot's length into most materials. On the positive side they were slow and their ranged attack seemed to take a few seconds to recharge. His team had quickly realized that what they faced were not human.

But they were professionals. With teamwork they were easy to take down. Either catch them off guard or seek thick enough cover and then retaliate. However that tactic didn’t work well when they found themselves against three dozen. Any cover almost entirely disintegrated when they used a volley of attacks.

And now his team was dying alongside him. There was at least some satisfaction knowing that their killers were already dead. His vision was getting hazy when someone bent down and said “You want to live? I have a special offer just for you! And anyone else I can find.”

He chuckled and said “Right. Would be nice.”

Damn laughing hurt too much. Then he recognized the voice as female and she said “300 dollars and you will walk away as good as new!”

“What?”

“300 dollars. It’s a fair price and my goods are guaranteed!”

Focusing on the woman she had a determined looking smile. Seriously? Was he getting robbed on his deathbed? Not that the street was much of a death bed. He could just imagine his tombstone.

“Here lies Special Agent Kerry. He would have died from battle wounds, but then some mugger killed him for 300 dollars.”

Snorting he said “Come and get it. Wallets on my vest in my front right pocket.”

Greedily the woman snatched at his pocket and found it. Then she started counting the money. Oddly once she hit 300 she put the rest back in his wallet and returned it to his pocket.

Then she forcefully leaned his head back and jammed something into his mouth. He started coughing but she held his mouth closed.

After that she gave him a quick nod and said “Nice doing business with you! Names Milly! I have the best product for the best price around! Guaranteed!”

Then she moved over to another one of his men and said “Hey! You still alive! I have a great offer for you!”

Wow. Talk about a weird one. Then he started feeling better. Glancing down he saw the blood that was oozing out of his gut seemed to stop. Then his skin started knitting back together. Slack jawed he watched the process.

Then he heard the woman's voice again saying “Look I have a lot of customers. I don’t like working on credit.”

Looking over he saw her kneeling over his man and saying “You have 300 dollars? Cash. No plastic.”

Feeling better he got on his feet and limped over. Then she pointed to Kerry and said “See. It works! This is my last customer! See how not dead he looks! It’s worth it I swear!”

Kerry saw a vial in her hand that was identical to the one she had just shoved in his mouth. The woman found the man’s wallet and started counting in a familiar fashion. Again she put it back and then got his soldier to drink the vial.

She again said cheerily “Nice doing business with you! Names Milly! I have the best product for the best price around! Guaranteed!”

It was one of the oddest damn sights he had ever seen. It was like combining Mother Teresa with a used car salesman.

His soldier got to his feet and Kerry hobbled over to him. He asked “What the hell just happened Top?”

Kerry chuckled and said “I think we found someone with an angel and a demon in the same body.”

Then he saw someone rush her with an improvised club from a side street. Looks like there was the true mugger. Kerry tried to find his weapon but it was over before he could even act. She tossed a violet glowing vial at the man and he stopped in his tracks. A second later all that was left of the man was a red smeir on the pavement.

Without missing a beat she knelt next to someone else and gave her same chipper sales pitch.

Kerry gulped and said “maybe more so leaning to the demon side.”