Josh was lowered from the healing beam moments later to see Logan, Matt, and Lance had already been healed and were discussing what had happened in the last few moments of the movie. Lance was just finishing explaining the car chase and the ensuing battle when Josh came over.

“Sounds like you guys were very lucky the Creeper didn’t go right to killing” Matt said “It’s a shame about Ashley” Josh felt his heart sink at the mention of his fallen team member, the look in her eyes as she passed away would haunt his memories.

“What happened with you guys?” Lance asked, mostly to change the subject.

“We had entered the barn and found Abuya and that mage both heavily injured” Logan began “Seems like the Creeper either had been following them or was transported close to their location when the mission changed. He attacked as soon as they got within the city.”

“So, his cloaking ability allowed him to enter the city after all” Lance mused “how come he didn’t use it to sneak up on us?”

“We misunderstood what God meant by cloaking ability” the team leader explained “It wasn’t a form of invisibility, instead it was some form of electromagnetic shield that kept him from being seen on cameras”

“Interesting so it still might’ve been an option to just get to a highly populated area. The Creeper might not have risked trying to hunt down a large crowd.”

“That would’ve been harder than we’d expect” Logan explained “the world we were in had some kind of pandemic going on”

“Zombies?” Josh asked.

“No just some virus similar to the flu” Matt answered “The country was under a lockdown order with no large crowds allowed”

“A perfect time for a monster to hunt down a few individuals” Logan finished with a nod.

It was at this point the team noticed Gwen, who had the most serious injuries was down from the healing beam and was currently vigorously making out with someone the newbies hadn’t seen before. He was a tall and muscular man with salt and pepper hair. They could just make out a beard on his face though most of it was hidden by Gwen.

“That is Hector,” Matt explained when he saw the newbies looking “He is Gwen’s human creation”

“What is a human creation?” Josh asked though he was having a hard time looking away from the couple.

“God gives one to everyone who enters the lobby” Logan explained “They are real humans, with personalities and stats. They can grow and live just like any other person and you can create them to be anything you want.”

“The most common choice is to make a lover” Matt said motioning towards Gwen who had now been picked up by Hector and was making their way to a series of doors. While still locked together Hector managed to open one of the doors and a young child ran out before the couple entered and shut the door behind them.

“Daddy!” the young girl shouted as she ran towards the group. Josh was stunned for a moment as the previous information had just sunk in and now a young child was present. He stared incredulously as the girl jumped into Logan’s arms.

“Don’t give me that look” Logan said with a glare “this is my daughter Robin” The child couldn’t have been older than 9 with long blonde hair and wore a green shirt with paint stains covering it.

“Hi, I’m Robin” the child waved at the stepbrothers and began to look around “where’s Uncle Toby?” The question caused the energy of the group to drop further and Logan knelt so he was eye level with his daughter.

“Toby decided to stay in the movie this time” he said carefully, looking at Josh and Lance as if daring them to say otherwise.

The young girl let out a disappointed groan “He promised we could play again. This is just like Aunt Veronica” Logan visibly flinched at the name but quickly went back to smiling

“Yes but they’ll come back one day” he said with resolve in his voice “for right now why don’t you head back to the room and I’ll come play with you soon”

“Ok” Robin said then looked at the two newbies and with a deeper voice added “Show these two wimps how things work around here” Logan and Matt burst into laughter at the imitation. The young girl then ran to another one of the doors and left the lobby.

“So that’s your daughter?” Lance asked

“It’s a long story” Logan said with a sigh “I suppose you both have earned the right to know my story”

“You can talk in my room” Matt offered and led the way to another door. It led to a modest living room area that had two couches and a coffee table in the center. Several potted plants were spread across the room and a kitchen could be seen through a doorway. Matt made his way into the kitchen area while the others took seats around the coffee table.

“Let’s start with where I come from” Logan said looking across at the two teenagers.

“I grew up in an extremely poor neighborhood, neither of my parents wanted me or took much time to care for me after I was old enough to take care of myself. Like most kids in my situation the only way to get anything was to steal it or to steal enough to buy it. Most of my teenage years were spent in juvie and I had no plan to stop. Not until I met Emily in school.” The tension fell from his shoulders as the dragonslayer spoke her name, and a loving smile spread across his face.

“She changed me, not by forcing me to stop what I was doing but making me want to do better for her. I stopped getting in trouble and even got a part time job at a locksmith. Then she told me she was pregnant, and I was ecstatic. My boss offered me a full time position as long as I graduated and I was just set to make it. I was set to start making a real life for myself and my unborn child, but it didn’t last. Her father was a useless drunk with a terrible temper and did not like the idea of her having a baby. In a drunken rage he threw Emily down a flight of stairs, she must’ve hit her head pretty hard on the way down she was dead before she hit the floor.”

Logan’s voice cracked and he lowered his head. At this point Matt came in with several mugs of hot chocolate and placed them on the table. He had a sad look on his face and put a hand on the leader’s shoulder clearly, he had heard this story before.

“That bastard went into hiding after that” Logan spoke after a moment of silence, “but I found him. Moron only went a few miles away to a cheap motel and I found him. I killed him. That bastard tried to barricade himself in his room, but I busted in and made him pay. Don’t remember how exactly. He dared to say her name while asking for mercy and I lost my mind.” The dragonslayer was slowly tensing up as he spoke but stopped when the mug he was holding began to crack. His shoulders dropped as he let out a defeated sigh.

“Must’ve made enough noise to scare the neighboring rooms cause next thing I remember was being handcuffed by the police and thrown in a cop car, soaked in blood. I didn’t even try to fight the charges; I had no reason to even want to be out of jail. They hit me with the maximum sentence, and I was off to jail. Spent the next four years behind bars just waiting to die. Would get into a lot of fights but I couldn’t help fighting back, none of those weaklings could take me on. It was one day after I was locked away in solitary confinement that things changed. Robin showed up. She was just there in the cell with me, a little girl who wanted to hear a story. After that day she was always in my cell when I came back. I stopped fighting, instead I would spend my days talking to her, telling her about the world, reading her stories. You’d be surprised how many children’s books are in a jail library. Three years passed like this, and I got the chance to go on a computer. Which brought me here”

Logan stopped once more and took a sip of his cooling beverage. Josh turned to Lance with a concerned look, his stepbrother continued to look at the team leader with an analytical gaze. Neither had taken the mug in front of them.

“I know she wasn’t really there” Logan broke the silence with a chuckle “I had some kind of breakdown and started hallucinating”

“She’s here now though” Matt added

“Yes, she is” the leader said with a warm smile “When I came to the lobby the first time and heard about the free human creation all I could think about was her and God created her.”

“She’s really your daughter?” Lance asked.

“I’m not sure how the genetics and all that work but she’s the girl I was raising in the jail” Logan said seriously “She remembers our time there and remembers my promise. My promise that we would one day be free together and live happily traveling the world”

“So, these creations can have memories installed in them” Lance mused to himself.

A silence fell over the group as Matt and Logan let the stepbrothers digest the story.

"She helped me" Logan said suddenly "just like her mother. She gave me the strength to keep moving forward and better myself. If I didn't have her I wouldn't have survived my first few missions"

"That's the point of the human creations," Matt added "to help people deal with the trauma in this world,"

"I'm going to take her back" Logan said resoloutly "take her to the real world and make sure she lives a happy life. I hope you two will help me"

He locked eyes with Lance and the Josh, holding the latter's gaze a little longer.

"No one can survive this world alone" the leader continued "I know you may not like how I handle things but I have to do whatever it takes to survive, for her"

Josh looked at Logan carefully, this was the first time he felt he was actually seeing the leader. This wasn't a cold blooded killer or a tyrant who felt only the strong should survive. This was a father who would do anything to make sure his daughter had a happy life. Could this be someone he was willing to follow?

"I'm willing to work with you," Lance said "I may never have the power you display but I will help with the team's strategy in every movie,"

All eyes were on Josh now.

"I have resolved myself to survive in this world no matter what" Josh began "but I am not willing to lose all of my ethics to do so. I will work with you but we will work on tactics that don't require sacrificing Innocents"

Logan met Josh's eyes and he could see the fire in the teens gaze. This wasn't something he would back down on.

"Very well" the leader said after a moment "I'm more than willing to listen to any improvements to our tactics as long as they don't endanger the team too much"

The young man reached over and offered his hand to Josh who shook it. Team West America now had five veterans.

The moment was cut short as a knocking came at the door. Matt opened the door to reveal Gwen who was still in the process of brushing her disheveled hair.

“Hey, you guys ready to discuss exchanges?” She asked with an extremely upbeat attitude.

“Let’s save the exchanges for tomorrow” Logan said rising from the couch “I want to go relax with Robin. You two can look through the exchange systems but don’t get anything until tomorrow”

“Come on guys” Gwen said waving over Josh and Lance “I’ll show you how it works”

Logan went into the room that Robin had entered earlier while Gwen led the newbies under the giant sphere of light that was God. She explained to just close their eyes and think about accessing the exchange system to get into it. Four options appeared in the newbies minds: Scientific, Magic, Support, Entertainment.

“The first two categories are pretty obvious” Gwen explained “They cover sci-fi and magic items respectfully. Entertainment is also pretty self-explanatory, it holds items like drugs, alcohol, movies, anything that’s fun.”

“What about support?” Lance asked.

“That option holds the largest variety” the gamer answered “It has regular support items like antidotes and potions but also genetic mutations and full body enhancements. Usually newbies would be limited on only getting a few sci-fi items and a lot of stat increases but since we earned a lot in the last movie, I’d recommend a mutation or full enhancement”

Josh nodded at the recommendation, he had forgotten they told them while in the movie world they could use points to increase stats, almost like a video game. He took a moment to look over his stats.

Cell Vitality: 96 Immunization: 101 Intelligence: 91

Mental Capacity: 89 Muscle Density 112 Reaction Speed: 107

Overall, Josh was happy with his stats, according to Gwen 100 was the average for a typical person and his reflected his years of exercise and sports. He had never excelled in school, so his low mental stats didn’t surprise him, he was sure his stepbrother was way ahead of him in that regard. Beneath the stats were his point total and rank rewards.

9000 points 1C rank reward

6000 came from the team score of positive three multiplied by 2000 plus the 2000 points from killing an enemy team member which also gave the Rank C reward. The extra thousand points was the standard reward for completing a movie. This was a lot of points to have after one movie and with the rank reward it gave Josh an extremely large area of possibilities, but he knew it would go fast. Just upgrading a stat by one cost ten points. Gwen was right in suggesting a mutation or body enhancement, they gave more stats for the price and added some great benefits like magic or powers.

Josh tried to look through the system, but it seemed to be a never-ending list and he was growing tired. Lance didn’t look like he had any interest in stopping so Josh bid the two goodnight and made his way to one of the empty rooms. As he was told by Gwen imagining his room at home created a perfect replica when he opened the door. The familiar environment put his mind at ease and the teenager moved without thinking across the room and collapsed onto his bed, within seconds he was asleep.

Lance and Gwen stood beneath God each focusing on their own searches. They stayed like that for a few moments after Josh left before Lance broke the silence.

“Could you explain your unique potential to me?” He asked suddenly. He had searched for the abilities she had shown and found that he couldn’t exchange for them.

“Sure” Gwen said opening her eyes “You’re familiar with The Gamer Manhwa correct?”

“I am though I’m not caught up” Lance admitted, he stopped after a couple hundred chapters planning on binge reading the rest after a few months of updates.

“Well in that world the main force Gaia sometimes gives people abilities based on their personalities and experiences” Gwen elaborated “God decided that I fit the requirements that if I was born into that world I would have gained an ability similar to the main character’s”

“You would have been the Gamer?” the teen questioned.

“Something like that” Gwen shrugged “It’s not extremely clear but it means I can exchange for skills that otherwise would require the full Gamer enhancement.” Lance was able to find that one in the system, it cost a S rank reward and 60000 points, but it gave all the powers of the Gamer which anyone would say is worth the cost.

“I’m limited to skills shown in the manhwa but that still gives me a lot of options”

"What other unique potentials have you come across?" The teen questioned.

"I haven't seen any others besides the ghostman" Gwen answered "though Logan mentioned someone who had potential similar to a clan from the Naruto world"

“Doesn’t that seem a bit unfair” Lance mused.

“Not really” Gwen said with a shrug “No more than someone with military experience coming in or someone trained from a young age with a weapon or martial arts. God brings all types into this world some just have a higher chance to survive than others”

“If Josh or I had a unique potential would we be alerted of it or would we have to find it on our own” Lance questioned

“You would be alerted when you first contacted God plus my observe skill would give me that information” the gamer answered “If that’s all I think I’m going to go to bed for now. Let’s talk more tomorrow, I’m excited to see what you’ll exchange for.” With that Gwen made her way to her room and left Lance on his own.

The teen was disappointed that he didn’t have a unique potential, but he didn’t let it keep him down. Instead he searched for a specific type of abilities, it took him awhile to search through, but he found a few that he wanted. A rush of excitement ran through him as he looked at these options. To get what he wanted was well out of his price range right now, but he had ideas on how to reach them soon. He could not hold it back and a manic laugh escaped his mouth. If anyone were with him in the lobby at that moment, they’d feel a chill run down their spine as they looked at the vicious smile that came across the teen’s face. He had plans and nothing was going to get in the way of them.