Nervous and a little apprehensive I pace around the shop picking, up items and fiddling with them. Janelle watches eyebrow raised as she pets the fuzz ball. Turns out the fuzz ball isn't actually a fuzz ball at all. It's a small robot named Gidget. Janelle put it together using some spare parts and keeps it as a pet.

It also double as a fuzzy pelt to pet when you're anxious, or in Janelle's case, trying not to throw things at me.

"Are you planning on turning every dial in the shop? Maybe I should get you some buttons from the back and let you click on them for a bit."

The device in my hands spins as I set it down, its gears wound up tightly.

"Sorry about that," I reply.

"Are you sure they're going to be able to help us?"

"Yea."

"That's pretty confident of you. Isn't it only the four of you?"

"Yea. But we've done a lot with just the four of us."

"What do you mean?"

"As a team we've been able to take on some major," I pause and wonder. What would they be called? Raids? Quests? Adventures?

A knock comes from the door before I can answer.

"They're here."

Janelle rolls her eyes and sets Gidget down. It scurries off into the back of the shop.

"You gonna open the door?" She asks.

The handle jostles as I reach for it but jerk back when another knock comes. Janelle sighs and starts to head towards the door. Before she can get to it, I reach out and open the it.

Outside I see a tall, slim figure wearing a black helmet with an eight-bit expression. Its jacket has silver shoulders and pulsing neon lines following the zipper on each side. A large sword handle juts out from behind their helmet and I can see the blade is almost to the ground.

"Carrots!" They exclaim, the voice tinny and distorted.

"Alex?" I ask.

The face changes to ^_^ and he says, "Who else?"

All the nervous energy inside me bursts out in a fit of laughter.

Between gasps of air and wiping my tears I see two other people. A huge mech suit with no head and arms that are down to it's knees. The blackened metal shines like a suit of armor. It's like a massive suit of armor without a helmet, if the armor was for a gorilla.

Next to the mech is a slender girl with a floating orb over her left shoulder. Her hair is a pulled up into large curls that climb like a mohawk in the middle and drape down her left side. Rich satin reds at her root travel down to a deep purple at the tips. The right side of her head is trimmed down to a soft fuzz. Her skin is a light chocolate color that makes her ice blue eyes pop.

"What's with you?" Asks Alex, his face a large question mark.

Catching my breath I put a hand on his shoulder to steady myself, "Seriously? You went with the Dubstep helmet?"

Alex's face changes to a XD and he replies, "Bigger, better, faster, stronger."

We both burst out into laughter at that.

A weight is lifted off my chest. I hadn't even realized I felt like this. The last few days of gameplay and life in general have been stressful beyond belief. But when I see the goofy emotes on Alex's face and hear him bring up one of the songs we would belt out during raids, it all melts away. This whole VR with it's strange smells and pain levels is just a game again.

Behind Alex, the large mech suit starts to shift and turn in on itself. Within a few seconds, it's the size of a small pen and a white and orange cat, that I hadn't noticed, tucks it away into their inventory.

"Let's get inside. We're still in the Red Zone," says the cat as they head for the door. Definitely Butes.

A hint of berries wafts past me as Suki follows, her hair bouncing. I can't help but admire her outfit. Dark olive green cargo pants with a sash belt cling to her hip and hang low with a large applicator of some sort holstered on her thigh. Her loose fitting top has the Altera logo and old school shoulder pads frame her greyish jacket.

Alex smacks my shoulder with a ;} on his screen as he walks past me. I blush and follow after them.

Inside the shop Alex is like a kid in a candy store as he picks up and examines everything he can get his hands on. Gidget comes out of the back room and jumps on to the counter near him. Alex then tries to pick up Gidget, but it scurries off. Butes scolds him and Suki sets down the item she's holding. A smile is stuck to my face as I watch them all interact. There is a part of me that really wishes I had gone with them from the start.

The thought brings everything I've been through and I realize that I didn't actually choose anything that's happened so far. It's like I've been thrust into this whole thing head first without ever having a choice in any of it. My whole, 'doing it my way', was turning out to be more of a, 'do it how the universe wants you to'.

Lost in my thoughts, I miss the initial exchange between Butes and Janelle. Until I overhear Janelle asking, "Who sent you to the Terminals? I need a name!"

"We don't have to tell you anything!" replies Butes, her ears drawn back.

"There is no way anyone else has the access codes to get you through without setting off the defenses! Did you go in guns blazing like idiots?"

"Who are you calling idiots?" Butes ears twitch.

Suki's eyes dart to me and back to Butes.

"What access codes?" I cut in.

"The terminals all have security access codes for entry. If you don't have the keys, you set off all the defenses and it becomes a hundred times harder to get into the Central System to do anything! I need to know who's sending people into the Terminals!"

Alex looks at me with a ? on his display when I ask, "Can you share the mission with me?"

The details come up on my display after a moment.

Mission: Access Hajima Terminal Station

Description: Janelle has asked you to access the Hajima Terminal Station to retrieve critical data for her research. The Station is heavily guarded. It is recommended that you bring at least five people with you.

Reward: 10000 dims, Item of your choice

Options ...

Janelle scowls as I look at her with a confused sideways glance.

"What's with you? Who asked them to do this?"

"You did," I reply.

"I did what?"

"You're the one that sent them on the mission."

"She's not the same Janelle," Butes cuts in.

"The Janelle we spoke with kinda looks like this one, but she's... different," Suki adds.

"What do you mean?" I prompt.

Suki goes on to explain how they managed to get the mission. It was actually a series of chained missions and this is the latest phase. Prior to this, the other Janelle had asked them to gather data fragments from thugs in the Red Zone around Hajima and some of the abandoned sites outside the city. The more she describes, the more our Janelle asks about what they found and where they went. Mid way through the conversation Gidget jumps into Janelle's arms to soothe her. With each answer Suki gives, Janelle's strokes get more and more intense, until Gidget jumps out of her arms.

"This isn't possible!" Janelle exclaims.

"What's going on?" Alex asks putting down a shield emitter.

"How can there be someone else out there with MY name asking you to do the same things that I've been doing to gather all my data? Eden!"

"Yes Janelle," says Eden through the speakers.

"Is there another version of you running on this shard?"

"Yes."

"How many other branches are running?"

"This information is currently not available."

Janelle slams her hand on the counter sending Gidget into the back room.

"You need to get to the Terminal Station," Janelle says through gritted teeth.

"What are you talking about?" I ask.

"There is someone else out there trying to override Eden and get her running on the system. You need to make sure you don't let them."

"We don't have to do anything," Butes replies before I can say anything. "Nova, Damage, let's go."

"What?"

"Huh?"

Alex and Suki are both just as confused by her response as I am.

"We have our mission to complete. If this is a race to who's first, then we're going to be the ones to do it."

"Burk," Alex starts but Butes raises a paw and he goes silent.

"We've been working on this chain for over a week now. There is no way we can just drop it. Besides, Carrots has this well under control. Right?" Her two toned eyes glare at me and I mouth a protest but nothing comes out.

"Let's go."

"Wait!" I finally get the words to form.

"Wait for what? You?" Butes tail puffs up. "Wait for you to level up? To leave us for the last week so you can do what? Not even get to CR 5?"

"It's not like that."

"Like what? It's not exactly like I told you it would be?"

Despite her size, she's still menacing as she stomps towards me and jumps on the counter, "You wanted to do your whole Citizen thing and explore the game yourself. Now you're CR is crazy low and you want our help with your little mission. You realize that each CR is like ten levels in Altera? You're thirty levels behind us! You said you wouldn't let this happen and yet here we are. Saving you. Again!"

"You don't even know what's been going on!" I protest.

"You're right, I don't. And who's fault is that? You could've messaged us, you could've reached out before. You've had over a week! You didn't even meet up with us when you were offline to see how things were going. You just did your school stuff and jumped right back in!"

"I had to finished my work and I..."

"What? You what!? Didn't want to play with us?"

"What?"

"Don't act dumb. We know. You didn't want to play with us anymore."

"It's not like that."

"No, it's not like that. You're right. You didn't want to play with me."

The anxiety I felt leave me before smacks right into my chest, this time ten times worse.

"I get it. This has nothing to do with Alex or Suki, it's all because of me. You don't want to be around me anymore. Well guess what. You don't have to." Butes looks at Suki and Alex then stares into the distance and vanishes into a cloud of voxels.

"Butes," I call out but she's already gone.

Suki walks up to me and puts a hand on my shoulder, "I'll talk with her."

With that Suki vanishes into a cloud as well.

"You still need to get to the Terminal," Janelle says from behind me.

"You really think that's the first thing on my mind right now?" I snap back.

A shock rips through me and I fall to the floor convulsing.

[Janelle hits you for 10 points of physical damage]