Restart Round Two: Part 1

          It had been two weeks since our first mission, and our arrival into the game. Upon returning from our failed attempt at retrieving the amulet (Because a different group of players retrieved it before us), Devin and I went to a nearby Inn to have some kind of shelter to stay at while we were stuck here. I requested a second room because I felt uncomfortable with having to stay stuck with my OC "24/7" so to speak. I wasn't afraid he'd kill me in my sleep or anything like that. I mean, I designed him so that he wouldn't sleep. For reasons only he and I knew of.. During that time, of course, my OC didn't know I had knowledge of this.

          Anyhow, during our spare time, Devin and I would scout out and do quests for a bit of cash. We'd split it 50/50 to use it either for supplies or equipment, and maybe save some to ourselves for other personal items. For example, Devin was missing his plush friend so much, I helped him build a temporary friend. Definitely helped maintain his insanity. I could hear him laughing in the other room as he talked to the little creature.

          I got things for myself too, like after we got back from the forest adventure I bought parchments of paper and some pens and paper. I was more of an avid artist if anything, so I figured I could pass my free time by drawing pictures. Though it helped little with my imagination juices.. It seemed to be more of an emotional release. I mean, aside from the random cartoon characters I have created, I would seem to always draw pictures of my family. Now, I may not be the best at realism, but when I drew those pictures, I seemed to have drawn them with every great detail.

          This would always bring me to tears, crying in my bed. I would draw them every night before bed, and early in the morning before I went into town with Devin, I'd keep quiet so that my OC couldn't hear me, he was to distracted with his doll anyhow.

          For this particular day turned out a little differently. The night before, Devin and I had been out much later than usual, finishing up a quest of ours. So I got to my room later and drew a few pictures like usual. When I got up, I did my usual drawings.. And a bit of crying, like usual, unaware that it was a few minutes off schedule.

          Devin would knock on the door just as I was calming down, but this time I was more or less in the middle of my depressed state. So it wasn't hard for him to catch it when he knocked.

      "sSsyNessTra? aRe yOu cRyiNg?" he asked through the door.

          I quickly tried to wipe my tears away and quiet myself, telling him that I was alright, but it was to late. He picked the lock on my door and walked in, I quickly sank my head in my pillow so that he wouldn't see.

          He moved over towards me then stopped. I herd the ruffling sounds of paper, so I assumed he noticed the picture I had drawn of my family, labeled and everything.

          "iSss thIss yoUr fAmilY?" He asked, I nodded my head.

          There was silence for a few minutes before I felt something small rub against my side. I turned back to see a pair of large sparkling red eyes looking up at me.. Devin must have converted into his feline form in order to comfort me. Girls love small adorable animals right?

          I smiled a little and sniffled, scooping the little OC in my arms and sat up. I kissed his little kitten form and snuggled my cheek against his soft fur.

          "T-thanks Devin.." I stuttered, petting him along his back gently.

          He let out a cute meow and purred, making me giggle.

          Suddenly the voice recorded audio sounded, "Attention! Attention! Everybody needs to head to the Tavern! We have an important announcement!"

          I looked up, "S-seems it took them l-long enough.." I managed to say before getting up off the bed.

          I glanced down at Devin, "You gonna change back now?" I asked, only to get a small meow, "Right, takes ya a little bit. Okay fine. You can change back in the tavern. Should be enough time before we get there." I smiled a little wider as I carried Devin down towards the Tavern for our next mission, hopefully we'd be able to successfully finish it this time.

          As I entered the tavern, I found that many of the tables were empty, 'Are we missing some people?' I thought, then quickly disregarded it, maybe they were just running late. I picked a table to sit down at and placed Devin in the chair beside me.

          This time - instead of the dark elf from before - a short, pale man in a dark tan trenchcoat stood before us, a playful smile on his face and a clipboard in his hand. "Huh, the intercom system is deliciously easy to hack into." He mused, looking up at the ceiling before turning to the audience. He seemed to have noticed several of the gamers had gone missing from the last mission and looked down at his clipboard. "Before I give out the fun stuff, some news. Yeah, Team Epsilon never made it back. No clue what happened there. Also, Drakmanka and Vicks Magnolia weren't found by their team. Also, if Vagrant, Exe, and Synestra could see me after this that'd be nice."

          I jerked up surprised, 'Am I in some kind of trouble or something..? D-did... Did I do something wrong?' were the first two questions to pop into mind.

          The man threw his clipboard off to the side, it burst into a series of binary code upon hitting the wall before the digital dust faded away. "So get this, that bracelet Team Alpha graciously got back for us? Yeah, the pendulum can detect meta-game areas. That's right, we might have a way home with the thing... but we ran into a little snag."

          As he talked, his hands were constantly making gestures to support his words, giving him anxious body language. "See, we popped open one of these portals but uh... it didn't quite lead where we thought. Instead of something familiar we got this factory, a defense mechanism to the game. It creates these machines that can glitch up the game and started spewing them out once we opened the portal." He revealed.

          However, his grin never left his face. "But this is where the fun part begins. See, we need you guys to shut it down. The best part? You've got some choices." He started explaining, summoning three orbs in front of him. One showed the primary factory area, another a basement area filled with odd machines, and the third a kind of control room. "Take your pick. You can target the conveyor belts, the mainframe, or the power generator. Course all three will be guarded and the place will be locked up the moment anyone gets any clue that your around, not to mention the computer has a "Mother Brain" protecting it, but there's really no need to worry."

          "Post Script: John Spence is trollbait and Eli is on his way to being one of my favorite OC here." After a few moments of silence, a fellow trench coat being held back from shooting someone, and the sounds of another teenager failing to hold in laughter he rolled his eyes and let out an amused sigh. "Well ya gonna sit there like a buncha slowpokes? Let's get moving!" At which point part of the floor raised high enough for him to strike a captain's pose, pointing his finger out and summoning confetti cannons behind him to shoot in the general direction of the crowd. "Oh, and remember to grab a buddy. The place is pretty dangerous and the game IS based on teamwork, so yeah."

          I groaned, "We gotta find new partners now? Nyah! I wasn't even accustomed to ones I had before! Not to mention I lost a pair of 'em.. Oh! W-wait. I gotta go see that guy don't I.." I sighed, "I'll be right back Devin,"

          I got up and walked over to the man in the dark trench coat, "U-um, excuse me? Uh, you said wanted to see me.. R-right? M-my name's Synestra."

          "Ah yes, Synestra. I wanted to give you something." he rummaged around in his pocket for something before pulling out a small flash drive and handing it to me, "I believe this might help you and your team down in the factory. This little guy has the ability to hack into anything it's plugged into. So use it well."

          "Sooo, I-I'm not in trouble?"

          "No, of course not dear. Now run along now and get going. The sooner you guys shut that place down the better."

          I nodded before heading back to my partner. Devin had already reverted back to his original form and was waiting for me. Once he saw me approaching, he stood up and waved at me with a a small smile on his face.

          "sssSo, whAt he waNt wiTh Ya?" he asked.

          I held up the flash drive, "He just wanted to give me this. Said we'd need it for our mission in the factory."

          "pFft. liKe wE neEd a liTtle GizzZmo tO helP sSaVe oUr aSsSs."

          "You never know.." I mumbled.

          "heY, nOw doN't gO aCtiNg aLl gLum aGain dEarYy. hErE, hoW bOut wE go oUtsSide fOr sSsoMe frEsSh aiR?" he suggested.

          Not waiting for an answer, he grabbed my hand and led me outside.

          "H-hey wait a minute," I said as I was dragged out, "We should be looking for partners to help us.. In the... Fact..ory..." my pace in speech slowed as Devin brought me in close to his body and hugged me. After a moment or two, he pulled back and I looked up at him.

          "You neEd-" Devin began, but his voice cracked a little. He quickly cleared his throat, smiling a little in embarrassment, before trying again, "You need a confidencce boossst," he said. 

          My eyes widened a little as his voice seemed to sound... Normal now, aside from the hissing of his S's of course. "W-wha??" was all I was able to manage.

          "Confidencce," he repeated, "You need to feel confident that you'll ssseE you're family again.. They're sstill alive.. aren't they?" I nodded slowly in reply.

          He smiled, "Then you have nothing to fear. Jussst build up that confidenccce ssslowly and you'll be fine. Now, I'd ssay we sstart by having you recruit our partnerss thiss time. Ssso how bout the firssst person you ssee that comess out, that doessn't have a partner pairing, will be the one you talk to. Kay? Go~!"

          He tossed me back towards the door, spinning me around a little as he did so, just as the door opened.

          I was fumbling with my footing a little until I bumped into something, more specifically, someone, and I was sent falling down on my rear.

          "Oof. Ouch. I-I'm so sorry." I said on instinct before looking up at the person I'd hit. I stiffened, the creature before me was extremely tall. He looked pretty skinny too, aside from his chest area and shoulders. He was a very dark shade of grey, though his face was pitch black, and his eyes were disproportional, his left being larger than his right. He had one of the creepiest smiles I had ever seen too, and he was carrying a huge double bladed scythe. It's not hard to admit that I was terrifyingly intimidated by this character.

          "That's quiet alright dear," the creature replied, "Just make sure you watch where you're going next time, hmm?"

          I was to nervous to move or reply, and I'm sure my OC noticed this too because he came to my aid and helped me up.

          "That wasss my fault actually," Devin replied, "Little misss twirly needsss to get sssome new danccce sshoess."

          "...Wha?.. I-I'm not wearing dance shoes.." I managed to reply.

          "Exactly my point!" Devin exclaimed, then looked back up at the imp, "Anywaysss, very ssorry about that."

          "It's fine. I've already accepted the girls apology, no need for repetition." the beings smile, seeming to grow even wider.

          Devin smiled back at him, it seemed like he was intrigued by this guy, "Ssso are you with one of thossse 'gamersss' from the tavern?"

          "Why yes I am." he replied, "My partner seems to have run ahead of me, but he'll be back. We still need to find team members to join our group."

          "Ha! Well that makesss thiss easy then. We're looking for sssome teamatesss too." Devin said with a grin.

          "Well what a coincidence then hmm? So would you like to join Nathan and I?"

          "Sure!" Devin replied, clearly not even considering asking me for my approval. And to think earlier he looked like he actually cared about me. Not a very common side to see from him apparently.

          "Wonderful. Now, allow me to introduce myself.. I don't really have a name, so you can simply call me Mr. Smiles."

          "Nice to meetcha' Smiles," Devin chuckled, "The name'ss Devin the Inssane. Devin for ssshort. And thisss here iss my partner Sssynesstra."

          I waved a little at him, but couldn't seem to find the courage to even say a simple 'hi'.

          "Alright then, now that we've all made acquaintance, let's go meet up with my partner now, shall we?"

          Mr. Smiles led Devin and I off towards a slightly tan skinned, taller than me by one inch, guy. He had messy brown hair and though he had a plain white t-shirt, blue jeans and steel toed boots, his gear was pretty intense. His chest had metal plating that kind of reminds me of the padding used in football, and it was equipped with quite the arsenal of weapons.

          "You certainly like to run off whenever we are required to look for teammates." Smiles said to his partner to grab his attention, "Fortunately for you I was able to find some.. Again."

          Nathan looked over at Devin and I... Then kind of just kept his gaze on me, his face turning a small shade of red. "Um.. Hello," he said.

          It felt pretty awkward for me, so I looked away shyly, blushing a little in embarrassment. Though this time I was able to say "Hello.."

          Both Devin and Mr. Smiles grinned devilishly at this, probably knowing that I was way to young for this guy, but it's not the first time people thought I was older than my actual age. Heck, one time a beer seller asked if I was old enough to drink. So apparently I looked the part. Sure that was real life, but my avatar seemed to be having a similar reaction. I could tell right away that this team was going to be one heck of a show.