"So I said.. ‘Say that and stay fashionable!’ " Chuckled a Old man to a another old sprite. " Yeah Jed.. You got him there…but what I want…." He began to reply when a loud explosion boomed though the air.

"What the Hell!" Said the sprite as he stood up from the park bench and looked towards where the explosion had come from and saw the Principal Office left side had a hole in it and black smoke bellowing out. Three figures flew out of it at brake neck speed, heading towards the park.

" What’s going on?" he asked to no one unparticular. The three figures on the Hover boards where being chased by two CPU’s in a car. The figures flew over head, they had no where to run to, but there weren’t planing on hiding.

" Hey! So. going to ditch these guys or what?" Cried out a woman on a hover board right behind the guy leading in front.

" Yeah… but who says we can’t have a little fun?" he replied. A blue streak of laser fire zipped by his head. " Ok.. Funs over… Head for the tear from the blast!" he shouted back and the trio split off into different directions.

The Leader on the other hand stopped and turned towards to CPU. " Giving up?" came a voice over the P.A.

" No.. Just buying time for my friends" he replied and fell backwards off his board. The CPU dived down after him, But as He was about to hit the ground, the board caught him, and he zipped off, the Car on the other hand, not moving as quickly as the Hover board, smashes into the ground, exploding into a thousand pieces.

The Figures met up around the portal. " Like falling off an Analog." Said the leader. " Yeah, yeah.. Just open the portal." Said the second woman.

" Your time of the month or something?" he replied as he removed the small computer and opened a portal from the tear. " No.. These cases are heavy!" she said as the two flew in, Taking on last look around he entered.

The trio landed on the rocky, rust colored ground of the System they called " Hell’s Backyard", Since it was never given a name by the government and was nothing more the rocky mountains and flat barren land.. They looked up at the large Grey craft that stood in front of them. This was home, an old Viral Elimination battle Cruiser. The Ramp was lowered and 4 people came out, all human. Three of, which were wearing heavy overcoats to keep them, protected from the system’s harsh envioment. They took the large Silver Cases that where attached loosely to the Hover boards and ran inside quickly.

" Gee’s.. a your welcome would be nice" said the leader. " Yeah well… you better get in there and get some order to the chaos." Said the woman on his left, as she adjusted the same black duster he wore. He nodded and the trio flew into the Ship.

" Only 150 vials? This won’t last long!" Cried out a man, appearing to be in his late 60’s. " It will if we take it when we need it.. Thus.. I will be giving ration…" said the guy, who lead the trio. " But Jeff! Come on man…" Said a woman.

" Listen! If you don’t like it.. I’ll open a portal and you can fend for yourself!" he yelled. They knew that this man, known as Jeff Freeman, would do it. The group of 25 people backed away from the three cases. " That’s what I thought…." He began and looked to the woman who was in a hurry to get to the portal.

" Jane… one vial each.. Two vials tonight.." he looked back to the group. " That all you get till the end of the month." There was a moan, but all knew that this had to last. The woman handed Jeff a vial, he turned and left, heading for his room.

The Door hissed Shut as he tossed the heavy duster on the bed, and removed his glasses and laid them on the desk, where he sat and placed his pistol next the glasses. Holding the vial of blue liquid in his hand he looked at it for a moment before pressing the sides of the cap, letting three small needles pop out. With a sigh he ran his right hand behind his head, searching for something, he pushed his hair aside and found the neural plug and placed the tips of the needles it, turning the vial so the needles lined up with the, small holes around the edge, then as the aligned he pushed them in, in a moment of pain, the liquid shot into his head through the needles, as soon as it was finished it hissed and he pulled it out and tossed it a crossed the room where it shattered. It felt like sculling hot water was being poured through his head, but Jeff knew as well as the others, if he wanted to live to see the end of this. He would have to have O.R.S at least one ever two weeks. When he was younger, as with the others, he could go years without the stuff, now. It was weeks.

His released his balled up hands and looked at them. The Old skin was rapidly being pulled tighter against the muscles and bones and in a few moments, he looked as he had when he found out what he was, a young man. Well, looked like one anyways. He let out a heavy sigh and shook his head, he slide the small metal case which held his laptop towards him, he tapped the icon on the top and it flipped open, giving him two Vid-windows, one a screen the other a keyboard. He tapped a few keys and he was in the Ships mainframe. He leaned back in his chair and thought a minute, before he tapped a key and the ships database screen appeared. When a knock came on his door, and it hissed open, Jeff quickly taped the close icon and the computer shut down, returning to its small metal case form.

" Oh.. Sorry sir, didn’t mean to bother you" said a young teen voice. Jeff turned his chair to look at the young man. This was the result of the last hybrid project, but unlike the others, when he was created, he was given a heavy overdose of O.R.S and he never grew taller then a teen of 17, even though his real age is believed to be about 50.

" No Richard, you’re not bothering me. I see you got your ration." He stated noting the face that he looked like a teenager and not like a short old man. " Yes sir, but that’s not what I came here for."

" And the reason you came?" he asked. The young man, or so he appeared walked in and leaned against the wall.

" There is talk on about attacking the Unknown’s base, and making us…normal." He said, with a slight pitch of fear in his voice. " Hmm.. Well if it will put you mind at ease.. We are… but not now.. We haven’t got the firepower to take it out." He said calmly, even though he wasn’t happy to be attacking such a well-defended installation.

" But Sir.. Attacking such an outpost would be…" He couldn’t finish his sentence, because a louder voice boomed out.

" Warning… Incoming Game… Warning… Incoming Game ".

The two old men look at each other before darting out of the room to the bridge of the Craft. " Please don’t tell me what I think that is!" yelled Jeff to Jenny, his second in command. " Alright.. I won’t tell you it’s a game Cube!" She replied.

The Bridge room was in a panic. Since humans came into the Metaverse games had been a thing past, Guess this time, someone didn’t think before installing one. " Get the engines online and move us.." he boomed.

" Um Jeff…" she began. " Do it!" he yelled. The Ships engines may have been down since the battle that left them here, but he hoped they had been fixed enough to move then a few feet out of the way of the cube.

The voice still boomed out its message of death. The Ship Struggled to move, its aged engines ran hot to lift the 100-ton object a few feet. The Game cube came closer and closer to them,

" Full power! Burn them out if we have to.. I’ll be damned if I’m going to be nullified by a god damn game!" he yelled. The Ship moved off the ground a few feet and moved slowly forward. And set down 30 feet from where it once stood, and as if by luck if nothing else, the cube missed the ship by a few inches. It hit the ground and the entire earth shook from it’s landing.

" Well.. I know what Matrix and AndrAIa must have felt each time they heard that sound," said Jenny. " Yeah.. But they had one thing we don’t" replied Jeff. " That is?" "Icons…"

" Game Over " Cried out the voice and the Cube shot out of the system, but not without doing damage. The ground where it his was a smoldering hole, but the remainder of the project from long past didn’t care about that. Two of there fellow brother’s and sister’s had been out side the ship when the cube hit, and needless to say.. They won, but still lost.

" How long till we get online?" asked Jeff. Tom, the lead service engineer, shook his head. " Three, four weeks at least ". " Make it two " replied Jeff and left the bridge.

" Doesn’t anyone around here know how to knock?" Asked Jeff as Jenny walked in. " I know how.. But would you have let me in?" . " No.". " Thought so" she said and sat on Jeff’s bed.

" Make yourself at home…" he replied sarcastically. " Alright.." she said with a happy tone in her voice and kicked off her boots and laid on his bed. " If your looking for a promotion.. That ain’t the way to get it". She smiled back at him and pulled the pillow behind her head.

" So Jeff.. What’s with all the being alone lately.. I mean.. Sure you’re a government project made killer like the rest of us.. But at least you can socialize now and then.". For as long as Jeff had known Jenny, she had always been one for bad jokes and pointing out people faults.

Since Jeff had some many, she picked mostly on his way of being alone at the worst times. " Thinking" he said softly. " Ki’ace and Ki’eva?" she asked. Jeff nodded slowly in return.

" I said a few months at max.. Here it’s been two years.". " Yeah care for that Zed don’t you?" she asked, but hit a cord. " I…" began Jeff. Jeff did care much about Ki’ace, Not love to put it in a word, but more of a very strong brother sister relationship.

" I… owe her a lot Jenny.." " Like what?" " My soul"

The room started to grow quite as the Court left for the day, but it left a few people. Namely Ki’ace, sitting on her throne, bored as all hell. The aides came from there small room near the back wall to begin to tend to Ki’ace. Not looking up from the ground, her eyes half open, She gave them a clear order, not in words, but in a long, strong, growl. They backed off and left silently.

" My Queen.. This is not healthy, for the last week…" Came a voice from behind her. " Jacale.. Leave now.. or I’m going to rip out your heart with a spoon" she said, in a voice of unpleasantness.

He nodded and walked to the entrance flap before stopping and looking back. " Why a spoon my queen?". She looked up and gave him a look of power. " Because it will hurt more!". With that he left and she was left alone.

Sitting alone on her throne she let out a sigh, her mind began to wander," Uneasy hangs the head of power" she said softly. But as she took a deep breath her throat was being grabbed from behind, In a quick catlike movement she took the attackers hand and bit into it, and stood. Tossing the figure over her shoulder, it landed in the row of pillows that the court sat on and bounced a few times, before letting out a laugh.

" Damn! Almost!" said a laughing, happy, Female voice.

" Close.. But you should have held my head closer to the throne in order to keep me from moving." Replied the leader of Clan Tu’nani. Ki’eva stood up and adjusted the straps of her dress. " Yeah, yeah…." She began, but Ki’ace cut her off as she asked a very blunt question.

" Why aren’t you in school? Does Ju’lle know your out?". " She does… I not there.. So I think she will notice." She replied. At 18 years old, Human years of course, Ki’eva was now the most wild and reckless one in the village, and now was spending most of her time hacking.

" Listen Sis.. I got this e-mail this morning…" she began. " And how did you get mail? We are cut off from the Web and net" she replied. " Look at the code…" said Ki’eva, removing the data pad from her side bag and tossing it to Ki’ace. She turned it on and he eyes went from half shut to completely open, her mouth dropped. " Guess he ain’t dead…" Said Ki’eva with a " I told you so" look on her face. " This real?". " As real as you and me Sis .. I ran every program I had, it’s From Jeff.. And it looks like he’s coming back."

Jeff pulled down the edge of his hat as he slipped his shades on. " I want this thing fully online when I get back, and I want all of them to be ready to move out." He said to Ryan.

" Jenny will still be in charge, but you know her memory" he finished. Ryan nodded and walked off. The portal flashed open and Jeff looked up at the sky and hoped that the AGP that they fixed would hold. On that note, he stepped into the portal, and left "Hell’s back yard."

As before, the entire Zed army greeted him, they didn’t attack this time.. It was night in the system as they lead him to the main tent, where most of the council of the village was, eating dinner. A Very tall and very strong looking Zed stopped him as he entered the tent.

" No…. Weapons…. Leave., leave…here" he said, very slowly. Not wanting to cause a scene and since it made sense, he opened his Duster, the Zed looked at what he had before reaching in and removing his guns.

" Heavy.. Firepower " he said softly. Placing the custom double barrel energy shotgun, on the table. Two pistols, a small knife. Following it, four clips for the pistols, and four shotgun rounds.

" That all?" it said. " Well unless you going to strip search me.. Then yeah that’s all." Replied Jeff. The Zed behind him began to remove Jeff’s duster.

"I was kidding! Alright!" he yelled and pulled the duster back on. The "security " Zed led Jeff to Ki’ace, who are normal was sitting on throne. As Jeff was slowly lead forward to Ki’ace, she stood, the long part of her skirt fell to her feet, as she looked down at Jeff. Jeff stood quietly, as not to upset the strong mood in the tent, one of silence, and one of almost pure unknown.

Ki’ace took a few steps forward, her now stood in front of Jeff, even off her platform, she still was taller then him. She looked at him, into his almost demonic green eyes, then the sound of a sharp slap. Jeff was now rubbing his cheek, and the population of the tent all but left, aside from a few bodyguard type Zed’s.

" Is this gonna be a theme with all the women I met after a time?" he asked. But Ki’ace just returned to her throne, and crossed her legs, she stared at him with her powerful eyes. " Give me one decent reason why I shouldn’t have my guards slag you were you stand?" she said calmly.

" Because you have one, or else you wouldn’t have let me get this far."

" Well I could have let you get this far just so I could slap you, and your lucky I’m only going to do that." She said, a tone of anger seeming to seep into her voice.

Jeff thought for a moment, he didn’t really need to, but he wanted to make sure he worded this right.

" Your not sure rather to slap me, or hug me.." he said calmly, very assure of his question. Ki’ace grinned, as she stood, walking to him, she leaned her head against his.

" I’m the leader of this Village, I can do what I wan…." She began when a boom rang out, turning the attention of the human the Zed. "Expecting guests?" Asked Jeff as the two, almost as one being, darted out of the tent.

The two arrived with the rest of the Zed army to a portal, which had open in the same spot as Jeff’s. Jeff tried to reach for his weapon, only to remember he had been disarmed. The portal flashed and out dropped it passenger. Jeff moaned as the person slowly stood. " You can stand down guys, I guess she with me…" Said Jeff made his way through the Zed army to the woman.

" You can’t follow orders can you?" he said in her "Commander" tone. Jenny looked at him, and placed her hands on her him.

" And not get a chance to met Ki’ace and Ki’eva, no I cant, you gotta problem with that Jeff?" She snapped back.

" Jeff, who is this?" asked Ki’ace as she made her way to the front. Jenny looked at Ki’ace, and Ki’ace to her, no sooner then they looked at one another, then aura seemed to fill the air. One nether of them liked.

" Ki’ace, meet Jenny Lockheart, my second in command." Said Jeff, almost reluctantly. Nether of the ladies offered their hands in friendship, this was a bad start.