Kara turned to Katie, "Have you ever played this game before?"

Katie shrugged, "I'm not sure. What is it called?"

"It's called Crossforce."

"I think I might have heard of it before. It sounds very familiar..."

John grinned, "Let's start it up so you can see if you've ever seen or heard of this game before."

She grinned in return, "Sounds good to me! Let's start it up!"

John turned on the console and waited patiently for it to start up. He turned to the group once more, "What do you guys want to talk about as we wait for it to fully turn on?"

"Anything really," Katie replied, "How was everyone's day today?"

"In all honesty, it was boring without you, Katie," Kara replied as she turned to her, "We didn't know what to do. We have been trying to do different things to get rid of our boredom, and nothing has worked so far. We've missed you a lot, Katie."

Katie laughed softly.

Kara's eyebrow raised slightly, "What's so funny?"

Her laugh slowly came to a stop, "Nothing. I just think it's strange how you guys were bored when I was at the hospital, waiting to be released, and to be healed enough to be able to walk and do whatever I want. I didn't add much to this little group that we have. It would have been the same whether or not I had met you guys."

John shook his head, "No, I doubt it would be. That's something that we all can agree on without a doubt."

There was "Mhm, for sure," coming out of Kara and Jonah as they agreed with John full heartedly.

"But how would it be? How do I add that extra flavor or spice to this group? To this family that I walked in to. What difference does it make for you all? What do you see that I can't?"

John smiled, "I see..." he tried acting like a fortune telling, just to make her laugh, "I see someone who... flaps their wings like birds and says, "I'm a chicken with a face of a monkey cow", and who dances like crazy just to be herself everyday, and enjoy times with friends."

She blinked slightly, then fell off a chair and started laughing.

Kara giggled, "Are you okay?" her giggle slowly progressed into a contagious laugh.

"Y-Yes!" tears of joy running down her cheeks. She couldn't stop, it was too contagious for her to stop. "It feels like I've been poisoned with laughing gas, or something that involves laughing gas."

"Doesn't the dentist give out laughing gas to you if you are getting your teeth pulled or something?" Thomas asked as he stared at John and the three girls, with lost eyes.

"I think so," Nick replied as he turned to stare at the girls as well, which made him chuckle slightly. He heard a loud noise behind him. When he turned, he noticed that the conscol was finally up and running, "Oh! Hey guys, ready to start the game?"

"Of course!" Kara cheered, "When are we not ready?"

The group laughed, then silence. Once the game started, John passed controllers for the whole group so they could all join in on the fun. They all thanked him as soon as they chose to start a new game.

"How do you play this?" Katie asked, "I mean, with the buttons and which to press for what. If that makes sense..."

John nodded, "Yeah, that makes sense. Here, I'll help you figure all of this out if you would like."

She smiled, "I would like that. Thank you."

He chuckled, "Don't thank me yet. I haven't even helped you yet."

She giggled softly at his comment, "I know. I am just thanking you for wanting to be willing to help me through this."

He gently patted her back, "I'm just messing with you."

und with me, it's really fun," she added quickly, "You should try it sometime when you get the chance."

He grinned, "Alright then. I will."

He sat by her as he started showing her what controls what, and what she needed to press to control it. When he was finished, Katie nodded, "Do you understand all of that? Or even remember everything I just said? I would be impressed if you did."

Katie nodded, "I... think so...? Let me just repeat it back to you for clarification if that is alright with you."

"Of course. Go right ahead."

"So the X button is reload, A is to jump, B is to punch, Y is to switch weapons, right trigger is shooting weapons, left trigger is to throw grenades, and is there anything else?"

"No, not really. You basically got it all covered."

"Awesome! Let's get this going."

"Alright," John got the character section ready, "Alright, you can choose or create your character now."

Everyone decided to create their own character. The siblings normally chosen to play as someone that was actually cannon and part of the series, so that's who they ended up choosing.

Katie smiled as she created hers similar to her. She had brown hair like Katie, brown eyes. For clothes, she gave the girl a jacket, t-shirt, jeans, and flats. When she was finished, she was able to choose if she had makeup or not. She also got to choose if she had powers, or anything that she could carry. She chose to have light makeup, and a bag that went halfway around her. She smiled as she pressed the A button, and finished.

John created his character to be someone like him as well, but it was a little difficult finding parts of him that he had. He found blonde hair, and the closest thing he found for his golden brown eyes were light brown eyes. It took him awhile to actually find golden brown for his eyes. For clothes, he wore a t-shirt, and baggy jeans that weren't pulled down like how some men did it. He wore sports shoes.

Kara chose a female with dirty blonde hair, hazel eyes, a t-shirt, baggy pants, and tennis shoes. She left her character without makeup. She gave her character with magic, and a weapon or two. She searched for anything else that she would like to have, but she wasn't sure what else to choose.

Nick chose a character that had light brown hair, and light brown eyes. He gave his character a long sleeve shirt, jeans, guy sandals, and looked around for things that interested him. He chose a knife, and two default weapons.

Maggie chose a girl who was a dirty blonde with blue eyes, wishing that this fiction character was her in real life. She never liked her appearance, and wish she could look different and more beautiful. She chose to look fancy by placing a blood red dress with black high heels. Her lipstick was as red as her dress. Maggie did that on purpose, so it would match. She then wore gold jewelry and a black scarf to create the finishing touches.

Thomas chose someone who had black hair, grey eyes, a scar on his right eye, and all black for everything else. He grinned, "My guy looks awesome," he then looked at everyone else's characters. "All of your characters look awesome!" He smiled as everyone was ready to play.
"Alright, is everyone ready?" John asked as he smiled at the group.

They all nodded as John started the game. When the game started, their first mission arrived.

"I have a solution."

"Thank goodness."

"It involves fire."

"Absolutely not."

A conversation was the first thing that they listened to as they saw the first cutscene. It involved two women walking and whispering to each other. They were hiding, but Katie didn't know what for. It was a mystery for her only. The siblings had played this game; at least part of it since it was still a new game that they bought recently. Though they knew what happened during the beginning of the game.

Katie stared at it with so much intent, that she wasn't listening to anything else around her.

"What's more relaxing than setting something on fire?"

"A lot of things!"

"But it's more relaxing than seeing our enemies destroy everything we've worked for and love. Why should we not set this thing on fire with them in it? It would make our job a whole lot easier, don't you think?" One of the women had black hair, and the other one had medium brown hair. The one that kept saying that they should burn the building was the black haired woman. The one with the brown hair was trying to convince the other lady to not do what she was wanting to do.

The girl with brown hair sighed in frustration, "Let's just get this over with. I have a date that I still need to get to."

"Your date can wait. We need to finish this mission if we don't we fail, and we both know exactly will happen if we let them win."

"I know..." she sighed once more, "It's just... I want to be able to live a normal life for once. Without any worries, and without any stress of having to save the world."

"Don't worry, we'll get that day sooner or later."

"I hope it's really soon if it does happen to us, and all other heroes."

As they continued on, something or someone had gotten in their way.

"Why, hello there ladies. Mind if I join in on the fun?" The man didn't seem to attack them, but both girls seemed annoyed by this man.

They both rolled their eyes as they continued on with their mission.

"What's wrong? Is it something that I said?"

The black haired lately replied to him, "You know what? Just shut up! Why are you even hear? This isn't you mission. This is ours, not yours. So why don't you scaddle on down and leave us be. We don't need you right now, bye bye."

The man looked offended, "Wow, harsh are we? What's with the attitude? What did I say to make you this way? Can't I join my favorite friends on an adventurous mission? Is that so wrong?"

Katie started feeling like the characters. She felt excluded at times, and she also felt like she had someone she "worked with" so she wasn't alone at the same time. She smiled slightly as she was interested in what they were playing so far.

As they continued the game, the trio continued on through their mission with ease. They fought monsters and all different sorts of beasts. When they finally arrived at their destination, they paused to a complete stop.

"Who are you?" the brown haired lady asked curiously, but with a firm frustrated determination.

"I am the Great and Powerful Ephraim Highmore."

"Never heard of him."

"You should have, I'm famous."

"You apparently aren't as famous as you presume that you are."

"You must be one of those few that are never updated to any type of information."

"You never come up in the news, and for your information, I actually do update myself with the news."

He was silent as the girl with black hair punched the man in the face, which shocked him. The fought had officially started. They fought recklessly, and for awhile. All four of them were able to play as one of the characters. Katie was the lady with the black hair, Kara was the brown haired lady, John was the villain, and Nick as the man that annoyed the girls constantly. He wasn't happy about that much, but he dealt with it.

They continued as the battle went on.

"You're going down, Nick!" John called out to his brother, smirking playfully, "We're going to beat you old mean!"

Nick chuckled, "I'm not that old! I'm only a year older than you are."

"I know, but you'll still old. You say it yourself sometimes."

"Eh, that's true I guess."

"You guess?" his smirk only grew wider.

"Haha!" Kara replied as they defeated their enemy.

Nick rolled his eyes playfully at his best friend as they continued on with the mission.

The game continued on with the mission until it was finally over.

"We must get going," the black haired lady replied to her allies. She glanced at them as she stared at their enemy. She found a nametag on her and it read his name. She glanced at him for a long while. She glared at the man as she kicked his body hard. She felt like doing that to the next to her. She felt a hand placed on her shoulder, "Zaff Black, would you please stop touching me?"

"Why my dear? I'm just here, being someone who is supportive and a friend."

"Supportive? What do you need to support me with? I'm not emotionally damaged, and I'm not physically hurt. So why do you need to support me?"

"I don't mean it like that. I am just here as a friend. If that bothers you, I will stop bothering you about it."

"Thank you. We need to go now. I've just got reports that they captured and secured in some place near him."

They started leaving the building as the screen turned pitch black. Then they waited for it to load, and the game showed itself once more. When the game was shown, it showed their characters, plus the other three. They were playing as their own characters.

"Yay!" Katie replied as they all laughed.

"We're here sir." the man replied as he was with the two other ladies, "What's the problem."

The man turned to face them with a swift motion in his feet. He nodded at them, "Yes, as you all may know, there has been an incident where this man is popular human theft. As you have probably heard, there had been a small girl that has been captured, and she is very important. We will try to rescue others as well, but she is our main focus. She is the daughter of our president. If we rescue her, we will be rewarded."

"Did you bribe the man in rewarding us?" the brown haired lady questioned as she crossed her arms.

"No. He offered it to us. As much as I kept repeating that he doesn't need to give us a reward, he insisted, not budging to what he believed."

"That's nice of him either way." the black haired girl replied.

Their boss nodded as he continued, "I need you three to be the search party for this girl. Though is a condition that I promised to make. You must go along. If you don't this man will start shooting children one by one until they are all gone from him."

"What would you like us to do?"

"I would like you three go your separate ways. So he will not harm the children. But we have a time limit as well. He gave us up to two days to find them. If you all don't, he has the same agreement for all deals he has made."

"But... isn't this man dead? We killed him, didn't we?" the brown haired girl asked.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean that he worked along. He has a group that he created, and they want their revenge on you three."

"He sounds desperate."

"Oh, he is. Just like we are. I have specific assignments for you three as you go alone," he turned to Zaff, "Zaff, I need you to be the one in charge of this mission. The new recruits will be the ones going on this important mission. You three will be distractions for them as they enter the building. Is that clear?"

The seven of them nodded as they were briefed on more of their assignments, then they were sent off to finish this battle once and for all. The game time skipped them getting closer to the building to go to their positions. The four of them acted like they didn't know each other when they did bump into each other. Once John's character walked inside, Katie's character went in, then Nick's, then Kara's, Thomas', and lastly Maggie. As everyone was in, still separated.