An unpleasant sensation ran across the mind and body, it was distant at first, like waking from a bad dream, or a nightmare. It all seemed so unreal at first, thoughts fragmented and floating through the darkness, intangible and yet somehow still there. The discomfort grew though, spreading across the body, becoming all to real as the piercing white glare of light entered blurry vision. Struggling up onto gloved hands thing began to clear, the world came into focus, and the unfamiliarity came to attention. This place was not home, and hadn't home been the sorroundings just seconds ago? No, the light, the pulling, then darkness. No telling how much time had passed since that strange event, nor what the sorroundings were now. This was so strange, where on earth could this place be? Standing slowly, a hand came around to pull a tattered brown cloak about chilled shoulders.

"Ah, you're awake." Came a voice from behind, forcing attention towards it. The voice was soft, but filtered, as if through a speaker or other electronic device. This was in fact a partial reality. The voice came from a young woman, composed entirely of streams of data, her unblinking eyes watching very carefully. "Well? Aren't you going to say something?" Arms crossed beneath her chest as the one she addressed merely stared blankly at her through a sheet of black hair. There was a hint of color to it though, crimson, brought out by the light of the room enough to be noticed. Moments passed as an obvious frown formed on her holographic lips. "You don't talk much do you?" A sigh finished the question which was more of a statement as she walked to the one addressed, garbed in that ratty brown cloak. It was impossible to tell what lay beneath the cloak, male or female. And the one before her didn't speak, all it did was expose a shoulder to her, a tattoo on the pale flesh of Death itself. "So, I guess I should just call you Death, or perhaps the Dead One?"

A curt nod sealed the deal and the Dead One took a step towards the woman of data who merely motioned to the entire area they were within. "I'm sure you have many questions but to be blunt, we have much to do and little time to do it in." Placing a finger to her holographic cheek, the girl turned and motioned for the Dead One to follow. "Put short, you are in a video game, this is the hub, a place between game realms. In here, the tools you would normally use in a game are very VERY real. You must use them to help defeat a glitch in the system."

The Dead One stepped up next to the holographic woman, the pair of them in a room full of doors.

"These are gateways to different game dimensions. Something has entered the games to make them unbeatable, the Hero's are losing and may be destroyed soon if someone doesn't fix these problems. That is why you are here." She finished as a door marked X4 slid open. "Take the tools you have brought with you and enter that door. Time is of the essence."

The Dead One barely had time to blink before everything went dark and it found itself in the middle of a wasteland, gear strapped to it's form. A pack had been slun gover it's shoulder, stuffed with food and other assorted essentials. Hooked to it's hip was a playstation portable, the screen glowing vibrantly.Wrapped around the right wrist was a black sony controller, and in it's right hand was the pitch black Silent Scope multi function rifle. Averting it's ice blue gaze to the sorroundings the Dead One noted it was a robot graveyard. Bodyparts were strewn about, littering the area and giving off a mettalic odor as the melted wires fizzled every now and then.

"IRIS!" A deep voice called out, whirling the Dead One around to catch sight of a girl in a strangely colored military dress laying on the ground, completely unconcious as a rather large mechanical dragon stalked towards her. The one who had called out to her was a strange man indeed. He wore the oddest red armor, bronze hair cascading from the back of his helmet all the way to the ground. Kind of weird for a soldier. In his left hand was a shimmering green energy sword which was furiously slashing away at the mechanical dragon, yet to no avail.

Leaning on the rifle, the Dead One pondered trying out some of these 'game powers' it had been granted. If the tools were real, that mean the controller was real. And if the controller functioned properly in games, that meant in this one the square button would ignite an energy saber through the gun. Gunblade....That was a crappy idea. Shaking it's head the Dead One raised the Sniper Rifle and took aim, right eye of the mechanical dragon was the target. With a smirk beneath the cloak, it pulled the trigger.

OOC: Not much, but SOMEONE had to get this thing moving.

The young girl skipped merrily down the street without a care in the world it seemed, her platinum white hair catching glances from people going about their daily business. She waved the plastic bag around in her hand without thought and several time she almost hit a passer by in the head with it.

Some minutes later arrived home, raced into the kitchen, grabbed a bag of potato chips and a bottle of drink and raced up stairs to her room, with the bag full of games she had purchased at the local game shop.

A pig pen almost seemed cleaner then her room was at the moment. Clothes were laying all over the place, games were piled up around her entertainment system, posters of different game characters were up on the wall and there was a cabinet that held a wide range collection of Final Fantasy character statues within its glass sliding doors. There were empty chip packets and half finished bowls of cereal laying amongst the piles of games and instruction booklets and game guide books.

She sat herself down in her bean bag in front of the tv and switched it on, revealing a paused game screen. She happily resumed the game she had started the moment she had woken up, and she wouldn’t have left the house had she not gotten a call to inform her that the games she’d ordered in had arrived at the store, of course she had ended up buying four more games then she had intended to when she got there. She was an avid gamer and anybody that knew her, knew that.

Nearly an hour had ticked away when she heard the faint sound of the door bell over the music of the game. For a few seconds she managed to ignore it, but whoever it was must have been able to hear the tv and kept on pushing the door bell. Reluctantly she paused the game again and hurried downstairs to see who it was.

She threw open the door and said to the man who was standing there. “What do yah want?!”

“Hi, I’m a sales representative for…..” that was as far as he got before he was forced to duck to avoid the umbrella that seemingly appeared magically in Faith’s hands and smashed into the side of the door frame. “What the hell are you doing?!”

“You’re an agent for the evil Genma!! DIE!!!” she screamed and swung the umbrella again, barely missing the man once again.

Quickly the man jumped back from the front porch and was soon running down the street like his life depended on it, dropping a pamphlet on the ground at Faith’s feet. Curious, she picked it up and gasped in horror at what was on the front. The Sony Playstation symbol. She suddenly jumped down from the front porch and almost ran after the sales representative.

“No! Wait! Come back!” she cried. “I thought you were a agent of the forces of darkness!”

It was no use though, he was nothing more then a black spec in the distance now and Faith sunk to her knee’s in despair. Eventually she dragged herself back inside and went back up to her room, her mind racing over all the possibilities as to what the salesman could have been selling. Soon though she was playing her game again and her mind drifted away from the thoughts about the man.

A few minutes later she jumped up and pumped her hand into the air as she gave whoop of joy at completing the shooting mini game in Final Fantasy X-2, with which she was using the special Yuna ‘Guns’ made especially for the ill-fated game that so many disliked..

“Yeah take that you stupid mons…… ACK!!” she gave a startled cry as she stumbled backwards over the bean bag chair, landing hard on her ass with her legs up in the air in an embarrassing looking way. “Owwie” she grumbled pathetically, trying to sit up properly.

As she was busy trying to sit up, she didn’t take note of the fact that her television was glowing brightly, and then, before she could react she was sucked into the tv. She let out a scream as she found herself tumbling head over heels through a vortex of light. She could feel the light racing through her body, filling her with a warmth like she had never known before, if she’d had a choice, she maybe would have chosen to remain within the white light. But abruptly the feeling of warmth ended and her feet touch solid ground, the sudden gravity caused her to collapse to her knee’s.

A couple of minutes later she managed to gather her wits about her and stood up, her body was still shaking though, not that she paid much attention to it as she looked around the room she found herself in. It was a large room that included a bed positioned against one wall, there was gym equipment spread neatly around the room, a lounge and a kitchen. She silently wondered where the bathroom was……..

“Welcome” she spun around at the sudden voice. What she saw was the face of a woman on a large monitor screen on the wall. The face of the woman had fine asian features, and jade green eyes with black hair. For a split second Faith had thought the voice was that of a real woman, but then she took note of the unmistakable sound tone the was electronic.

“What’s going on where am I?”

”You’re in….”

”Who are you?”

“I’m….”

“What are you?”

“SHUT UP!!” the face of the woman suddenly shouted, causing Faith to jump in alarm. The electronic face took a couple of seconds to recompose itself before it continued any further. “Now, if you’ll let me finish a sentence, I will answer your question, understand?”

Faith simply nodded her head with the look of a scolded child on her face.

“Good. Now first things first. You are in the Hub, a place between game realms…”

“Game realms?” Faith suddenly asked, her ears almost perking up at the sound of her favorite past time. “What do you mean game realms?”

“Yes” the electronic woman said with waning patience. “You have been chosen to defend and save the game worlds from a strange corruption that has entered the worlds. It is your duty now to use all the skills you have to defend those worlds and return them to working order, and these, will be your tools.”

As soon as the words left the woman’s electronic mouth, stuff started to appear on Faith. First it was a shoulder slung PS2 carry bag, then on her hip a leather holster case appeared with a PSP inside it. Faith’s attention was quickly diverted by the white PS2 controller attached to left forearm by a strap, and then finally, on her thighs appeared two more holsters, that held a gun in each of them, both identical. When she undid the holsters and pulled them out she found that they were ‘Yuna’ guns.

“Whoa cool, these actually look…..” at that moment she pulled the triggers and dual shot fired out and smashed into the wall. Faith’s eyes when wide and she stared at the guns in shock and amazement.

“Real?” Yes, they are real, and they will be your weapons when you go into the game worlds. And never forget that your controller also gives you certain abilities that you will be able to make use of, and don’t forget either to use you hand held, it will be necessary to use it often I believe” the woman told her.

“You mean I actually get to visit game worlds?” Faith asked in stunned awe.

“That's what I just said” growled the woman.

“Um… what do I call you?” Faith asked.

The woman sighed. “If you must call me something, then you may call me Elli.”

“Ok, so where do I start Elli?” the young gamer asked with rising enthusiasm.

Suddenly a circle of boxes appeared around Elli, each had the game case cover of a game she knew on them.

“I took the liberty of selecting some worlds you may wish to start with” Elli explained calmly as she slowly scrolled through the games, giving Faith just enough time to see what the game was.

“Stop!” Faith suddenly said excitedly and pushed her finger against the screen. “That one, definitely that one!”

“Just step through that door over there” Elli said and turned her head in the direction she wanted Faith to look as a door appeared on the wall. “However before you go, heed this warning, using save points is crucial, never forget that.”

“Well duh” Faith replied, speaking as if it was the most stupidest thing she had ever heard, and then without a second more of hesitation she ran to the door, opened it and stepped through it, the door closing behind her.

Elli frowned and sighed in irritation. “I almost hope she gets herself killed.’


Faith skidded to a stop as she passed through the door and appeared in the game realm. She was standing a grassy plain that stretched for as far as the eye could see with clumps of forests here and there. There was no doubt in her mind that she had made it to the world she was after.

She went to start walking off when she heard a deep feral growl. She turned her head around and saw three big foot looking beasts come rushing out from a clump of forest that was behind her. They were Wendigo’s, foul tempered beasts. She screamed and with lightning speed un-holstered her guns and started firing. In her sudden panic the shots went wild and only one shot landed, hitting one of the beasts dead center in the head. Even as it was running, the head of Wendigo exploded into data, letting momentum carry the body until it pitched forward and rolled a couple of feet.

The other two just kept on coming though, not caring about the fate of their comrade as they charged towards their prey. Faith kept on firing blindly, but none of her shots came even close as she started to run away from them, firing back over her shoulder. She almost didn’t hear the sound of powerful engines over the roar of her guns. She snapped her head up and her eyes went wide with shock and utter awe at what she was seeing.

As it passed over head the loading bay of the Ragnarok opened up she saw a figure leap from it. She saw strip of glowing blue light as it the figured descended towards her and then the figure landed between the two beasts and two rapid slashes he destroyed the monsters in one go, their bodies bursting into data as he did.

Faith stood there just staring at him. One of her hero’s.

Squall….