Chapter Fifteen: Life's A Game...

"... and i play with Hacks enabled" >:D "Games are more fun that way" :3

-emperorwolf.

the game announced the battlefield [Dreary Deluge]
Captin Canis, Genix, Brigadeer Bow-Wow, and Masterwlf spawned into a rainy forest, each of them took out their weapons, all handguns, except for masterwlf, who had a rapier.
they looked around eagerly, searching for invincible 01.
"now... where are you hiding?" Genix wondered.

"oh, like i'm gonna tell you."

they looked all around them, but still failed to find the white canine.
"split up," Captain Canis suggested "we'll find 'im easier that way."
Genix nodded to Brigadeer Bow-Wow, and they split off from the group.
masterwlf turned "good luck, nephew."
and then, Captain Canis was left alone.
"okay," he taunted "come on out whitey..."

"really? 'whitey'? do you realise how racist that sounds?"

"don't care right now, now show yourself..." Captain Canis tauntingly challenged him, but collin's avatar stayed hidden. he couldn't see him on screen or on the Navi, it was like he wasn't even close by, but the lupine-canine had a feeling that wasn't true.
"c'mon... stop hiding!"

"ah, but if i don't hide, you'll find me, and i don't want that, do i?"

he groaned "no fair! why're you so good at hiding?!"

again, his reply came with an added playful tone "well, i have played before."

the voice of masterwlf's user crackled through "AARGH! why????? why, evil glassy-wall-thing? why you kill me?"
Genix and Brigadeer Bow-Wow came rushing back to their comrade.
the fully armoured canine groaned "he took out masterwlf with enlightened's skills. he's better than i thought he was at this..."
the military german shepherd barked dismissively "still, he's not winning."

"oh, yes... I am."

it was at that moment that kevin's avatar was defeated instantly, as Invincible 01 dropped out of the treetops above them and broke the character's neck as he landed on it.
he leapt from the corpse and narrowly missed kicking Genix in the head.
but as he touched back down, he stopped moving.
"hey... (sniff sniff) is it me, or is something burning?"

---

collin looked up at the ghasts, and repeated the question "do you smell something burning?"
kevin and oriado gasped "Dinner!!"

they ran back upstairs, and collin sighed "oh well, rematch another time?"
bailey smiled and began petting collin's back with a thumb "sure, i guess so."
they logged out and heard Oriado groaning and then kevin cursing in Firish from the second floor.
"ji Zochoq Medag!!"
collin chuckled "guess they must'a burned it."
bailey lifted collin from the cushion and placed him up on his right shoulder "yep, ji zochoq medag means: it's... swearword... burnt" he chuckled
collin snickered "ah, just another day in paradise, no?"
bailey smiled broadly "yep, both my dads aren't great at cooking, just our luck, huh?"
the little white wolf sighed, and leaned back against bailey's neck
"hey, doesn't your school do a parents day tomorrow?"
bailey hummed "... oh yeah..."
"told them yet?"
"no..."
"well, you kinda have to."
"okay," bailey submitted "i will after dinner."

---

Ciril rubbed the lenses of his glasses with a cloth as he sat upon the couch at buki-size, trying to remove a blurry spot on the lens he'd noticed.
virlan ran laps around the coffee table, as they were discouraged from playing outside in the Giki district, they'd comprimised by getting their excersize indoors, easy considering how huge the apartment was to a Buki, so it was normal for virlan, and all Ciril had to do was shrink down to Buki size.
not that they didn't also enjoy a few intersize games from time to time.
the soft thumping of his brother's paws was getting annoying in its quick repetition at the moment, though.
"Vir, can you stop that for a bit?"
the sound of his brother's exhausted panting echoed up from the floor "okay... i'm... tired... anyway..."
ciril rolled his eyes and sighed "c'mon, come up here," he suggested "i've got juice."
virlan's panting sounded more laboured, and he coughed "i'm... i'm too (cough) too tired to... climb."
ciril put his glasses back over his eyes, but having failed to remove the blur, he adjusted them with a groan.
"okay, hang on a minute, let me just..."
Ciril concentrated on the small organ just below his Appendix, feeling a chill seep out of it into his bloodstream, and when it reached his brain another sensation was released, this time, a tingling coursed through him, and the air surrounding his body trembled, and finally he grew to Giki size along with everything he was wearing.
he leaned over the edge of the couch and let virlan climb aboard his paw. "alright, going up."
he made elevator noises as he raised his paw from the floor and gently deposited his brother beside his thigh.
"juice's over on the pillow." he pointed over at the pillow on the other side of the couch where a little grey bottle lay.
virlan still sounded exhausted "could you...?"
"oh, fine, if you're gonna be so lazy." he playfully teased him.
he stretched over and carefully grabbed the bottle and handed it to his brother "you can have it all if you want. mum forgot i don't like Greynid again."
virlan twisted off the cap and chugged the grey-coloured fruit juice greatfully.
ciril sighed and shrunk down again, and resumed trying to unblur his lens.
and then their father walked in and leaned over the top of the couch "hey boys!"
"hi dad."
"you two thought of anything you wanna do over the festival days?"
virlan sighed contentedly "i wanna go on the ferris wheel with you, dad!"
benson sighed sadly, and his ears folded "sorry... but it's in Gentiki this year..."
virlan moaned annoyedly "just once i wish it could be in Virada! gentiki doesn't have a single fun festival ride..."
ciril nodded "i even heard that Fira Deralo's got awesome festival stuff."
"too bad it's a one-size continent." benson mentioned
"yeah... when it's their turn we won't be able to go."
"why?" virlan asked, confused "it's just me and mum that can't go, isn't it?"
benson gently patted virlan on the head "it means we wouldn't go without you two."
ciril sniffed at the air and frowned "hey... where's mum?"
the giant fox stood up straight and his green eye glowed while he sniffed for her scent, but he growled and stopped shortly after "i don't know how... but she's gone!"

---

lily wasn't sure where she was or how she'd gotten here, but it definitely wasn't home.
she tried her phone, but there was no signal at all, furthermore, it seemed to suddenly go dead.
"where the hell am i?"
she looked every way possible, but there was nothing but azure fog surrounding her, frustrated, she called out "WILL SOMEONE TELL ME WHERE I AM?!"

"may i?" asked an omnidirectional voice with an odd nobility to it.

"er... okay..." she replied, but truth be told, she wasn't totally sure the voice could be trusted.
"then i shall, madam... but first, introductions. i am called by many names, but i prefer 'Jeraqi', and i am the one who brought you here... and your name, madam?"
"Elilabetha. wait, you brought me here? send me back, then!"
"i cannot."
"why?!"
"it is not possible, this place can only be entered, it cannot be exited, that is why i am here. i am trapped by my gods for a crime i did not commit."
"what...? and seriously, WHERE IS HERE?!"
the voice seemed confused "where? my tomb, of course, an endless space between space and time, a dimension that is both seperate, and interlinked with your own."
lily gasped, that explanation sounded like another place she knew, the theory only reinforced by the monotone shading beneath her footpaws.
"is this... the grey room?"
the fog parted briefly to reveal a humanoid with large scaly wings on his back, and two curved horns potruding from his head, which was covered in short, white hair, and his eyes were a striking vermillion.
in all honesty, he resembled some kind of dragon-man.
"that is one name for it, yes."
it suddely dawned upon her who she was talking to.
"you're... you're the first G-Soldier... Elzunace... aren't you?"
the odd humanoid smiled at her "yes... and i am finally ready to be remanifested."
he turned and started walking away "keep an ear out for my name, madam, and we will meet again."

the last words she heard before she lost consiousness were unsettling.

"it is time to awaken the true homunculi on XlenAri."

---

-meanwhile, on a drilling platform somewhere off the coast of Virada-

the violent vibrations from deep below had set the place on evac, and everyone was scrambling for the lifeboats as fast as they could.
the alert had been sounded when the oil drill had reportedly struck some unknown matter, and had become damaged, but what really scared everyone was that the matter was now rising up out of the seafloor, it was going to destroy the platform as it surfaced.
and sure enough, it did.
metal was shred and broken mercilessly as the mysterious mass rose up and tore the oil platform apart.
but what the mass was... that defied belief.
out of the sea, and rising into the sky, was a massive island adorned with a glittering, tiny city.
and it wasn't 'tiny' as in it was a small city, it was huge, but every structure on it was ten times smaller than anything they had on the mainland!
it was a city for Homunculi!

(Next Chapter: the secret society of the Homunculus island... revealed!)