<span style="color: #FFFF00">A small two tailed bipeldal vulpine walked towards the room he had been summoned into by what he thought to be his fellow Mobians. He knew in an instant that this was not the case, as the woman there was not Mobian. For some reason there was a huge teddy bear with stiches and a very ferocious looking body standing next to her. "Don't worry little fox!" the girl said with a nasty sneer, "Tibbers won't kill you... today. the Game Master has requested your presence. I don't see why he didn't choose me! I could have done <span style="font-style: italic">way</span> more damage anyways. you know where to go."<br/><br/>Tails Prower nodded. A voice came from the shadows. "Alright Annie, you've made your point. now let's go. we've got a Tournament to get to."<br/><br/>With that, Annie nodded once and left, Tibbers following her. Tails gulped. Why was he chosen? it WAS an honor, but this was bad in his book. he began walking towrds the location agreed on by NPCs, and was soon in the Game Master's castle.<br/><br/>The Castle was much nicer and more modern than the Overseer's fortress had been. Then again, Tails hadn't existed to see the Fortress, so that didn't matter to him. He was soon in front of the Game Master himself. "You called Sir?" he asked.<br/><br/>"Drop the formalities, Mr. Prower! I am giving you a chance at life after all! Call me GM." The man said with a freindly confident tone and a wave of his hand. Tails knew not to refuse this man's goodwill, but in the pit of his stomach, he was very nervous. GM continued. "I bet you are wondering why you are here?" he asked. The two tailed fox knew EXACTLY why he was there. It was as if this GM person was forcing confidence onto him by saying to drop formalities, then using formality against him to win him over. he went along with it. nothing much you can do against your creator, he reasoned. "Why is it you called for me?" he asked, hoping that he was dead wrong.<br/><br/>"To turn the wheels of planning into vehicles of action." The GM said, with a smile that boasted utmost confidence. Tails nodded, not wanting to point out that his life-giver had just evaded the question in a way.<br/><br/>"Take this, and may you bring back good tidings." the GM said, walking to a large chest of drawers and removing a red marble. Tails nodded, then asked what had been bugging him from the time Annie had told him to come here.<br/><br/>"Am I the first?" he asked meekly, aware that he was overstepping his boundries. The Game Master's face flinched for a moment, then went back to being a confident smile. "No. There was another, but I will say no more. now go!"<br/><br/>Tails crushed the Red Orb in his hands and suddenly felt very drowsy. he fell to the floor, but somehow felt a soft surface and curled up clutching his tails as the glass shattered around him.</span><br/><br/><br/><span style="color: #BF00FF">Garsot felt himself rustle out of his slumber as a sudden warmth began to pulsate on his feet. He ignored it at first but then could almost swear he was hearing something breathe slightly within the room. He looked around the room for anything that was there but was barely able to see anything beyond the tip of his nose. He closed his eyes and counted to five, then opened them up hoping it would help his vision adjust to the darkness, which did not help very much. Listening intently to the silence, he could still hear what sounded like something breathing, as if the thing was sleeping. <br/><br/>"Great...mind still playing games with me. I swear, whatever was given to me is making me go insane," rubbing his eyes as he sat up, noticing there was something at his feet. His stomach turned as he barely saw the silhouette of some kind of animal. Not wanting to risk waking it and having it attack him, Garsot stayed perfectly still and quiet, trying to make out what exactly it was that snuggled up right against him. "This old building must be full of raccoons or squirrels and I happen to let one come right up to me. Surprised it didn't claw my eyes out while I was sleeping," the image of a raccoon scratching up his face danced in his head for several minutes. He was unsure what his next action should be, "Do I try to get rid of it and risk sturring it into attack, or do I just let it sleep and hope it doesn't maul me whenever it decides to finish nap time?" Having spent a lot of times among wild animals, he knew it was better to not wake something mid sleep as sleep is a very precious thing in the wild and when it is interupted, the snoozer is usually pretty enraged and often frightened into attack. With this, he decided it would be best to wait for it to finish its nap on its own, and he laid himself back down, heart racing at the anticipation of when this thing finally comes to.</span><br/><br/><br/><span style="color: #FFFF00">Tails turned over in his sleep. "No Sonic... stop dancing with my tools! Must... fix... banana..." he muttered in his slumbering state. A shifting movement underneath him disturbed his dream, and he sat up with a start. Rubbing his eyes, he looked around, his natural animalistic night vision taking effect after a few dark moments. "Oh my!" he exclaimed. "Sorry for sitting on your feet... Umm? Sorry, I didn't catch your name?"</span><br/><br/><br/><span style="color: #BF00FF">"Di...did it just talk?" Garsot jolted back up into a sitting position as he again tried to make out whatever it was that was in the dark. He sat in silence for a few minutes, almost certain that he was just hearing things and did not want to say something and risk having it attack him, "But something definitely talked." Garsot watched as the shadowy figure sat up and rubbed his eyes before speaking again, this time clearly to him. "My name? You want to know my name? Its uhh, Garsot." He could not believe he just said that to this creature. Sure being in the mountains he had gotten acquainted with the local wildlife, but the conversations were usually one sided and not expectant of any sort of verbal response. Yet, just now, it felt as if he knew that, whatever is in the room with him, it was somehow able to do that exact thing...or his mind is continuing to run him through the ringer. Either way, he was going to give it a try, "Who are you?"</span><br/><br/><br/><span style="color: #FFFF00">"I'm Miles Prower, but my friends call me Tails." The vulpine answered cheerfully. At that moment, his stomach growled. This was a first for him. As an NPC, he shouldn't need to eat at all, but he was indeed hungry.<br/><br/>"You wouldn't happen to know where to get something to eat, would you?" He asked Garsot. Might as well get on with it now that he was here, he reasoned.</span><br/><br/><br/><span style="color: #BF00FF">Tails? Garsot thought to himself as he pondered the name and voice, surely recognizing the name but not believing that he had actually heard it. "Not Tails from the Sonic games Tails is it?" He asked in a low whisper as if he did not even want to say anything like that out loud. As he waited for a response he heard the growling of a hungry stomach and then the question on possibly something to eat.<br/><br/>"Well I have a couple things to snack on that I scrounged from the woods on the way here. Its not much, but it should be able to hold you over for a little bit, depending on the last time you ate." He went to the bag and dumped out all the contents within, which consisted mostly of assorted tree nuts, seeds, and berries, enough to create a small pile on the bed where he was sitting. He took an acorn from the pile and used a rock from his bag to break it apart on the floor and ate the meat of the nut. "Sorry if its not what you are used to eating, its all I got." He was surprised at how easily it was for him to communicate from a fictional character, but surely this was all just the same dream somehow, so he was okay with that.</span><br/><br/><br/><span style="color: #FFFF00">Tails smiled and picked up a few berries, sniffing at them curiously. After all, he hadn't ever really needed to eat, so this was strange to him. Biting into one, he smiled and a contented growl escaped his throat. "Thanks, Mister Garsot! That was delicious!"<br/><br/>The two tailed kit reached behind him and pulled from seemingly nowhere a wrench. At the look he got, he smiled. "Guess you've never heard of hammerspce before, huh? Think of it like Arcomovani's inventory without a limit on how much I can carry." he hopped off of the bed and turned to Garsot. "C'mon, While we wait for the Game to reset I'll give you a ride in the Tornado X!"</span><br/><br/><br/><span style="color: #BF00FF">Still having trouble seeing much in the dark, Garsot can hear the being he accepted as Tails was eating some of the food followed what seemed like a satisfied growl, hopefully meaning it enjoyed it. "You're welcome. Sorry I don't have much to offer you. Glad you liked it though." He himself picked up a berry and ate it, agreeing that it was in fact delicious, even though it had been days since he picked them, the cold keeping them fresh.<br/><br/>Watching the wrench get pulled out, Garsot could not help but be astonished by what he just witnessed, and after hearing the explanation he had to crack a joke, "Heh kinda sounds like Santa Claus' bag." He got up with Tails and was wondered at the thought of flying but then shook his head, "Game? How do you know about the game?"</span><br/><br/><br/><span style="color: #FFFF00">A look of panic set across Tails' features. <span style="font-style: italic">~"Was I supposed to let him know that? What do I do if GM finds out? Thank god we're in the dark! I really should have kept my mouth shut!"~</span> he thought frantically. What he said out loud was, "Well I just logged out, so I figured you played it too."</span><br/><br/><br/><span style="color: #BF00FF">"A fictional character plays a virtual reality game....." he looked at the direction of Tails with a suspecting gaze, "This dream makes no sense whatsoever." With that he scooped up what was left of the assorted food into his bag and stuck his hand out into the darkness. "Well it is nice to meet you Mr. Prower, I say we take up your offer of flying in the Tornado X."</span><br/><br/><br/><span style="color: #FFFF00">Tails laughed as the man he now knew to be Garsot say it was a nonsensical dream. "You still think you're dreaming?" he cackled. Stopping, he smiled. "Well, granted I did just appear out of nowhere in your house. But still, it's like you've never played a videogame before!" Shaking his head, he started to walk towards the door. "C'mon, the Tornado's this way!"<br/><br/>When they got to the house's (impressively large) garage, tails ran over to his pride and joy, and again from the place he called "Hammerspace" he pulled a set of keys. the plane made a loud beep somewhat akin to a car door opener when it is activated, and the cockpit slid open, revealing three seats in a line with the pilot controls at the foremost one. "Bet you've never seen a plane this fancy, huh?" tails asked, smiling at Garsot's open mouth. Climbing aboard, he strapped in. "Well, what're we waiting for? Get in!"</span><br/><br/><br/><span style="color: #BF00FF">Garsot was still pretty skeptical about the whole experience being real, but he was beginning to think it was much more than a dream. He had never had a dream where he had so much free will over his own actions and never actually 'felt' the dreams. Maybe this was in fact real? "Well, I definitely never played a game so...'realistic' before. I mean I have my own ideas of where virtual reality will go, but had no idea that it was something already happening. Then again, I've been basically living under a rock for a while now and technology does move pretty fast."<br/><br/>Willing to put aside his feelings of whether or not this was actually a dream, for now, he followed Tails to the garage and watched in awe as he pulled out some keys and unlocked a magnificent looking structure than he could only assume was the Tornado X that had been mentioned. "Wow, what a beauty," he commented before following Tails into the plane, strapping himself in and getting ready for take off. "Are you as good a pilot in real life as you are in your worlds?"</span><br/><br/><br/><span style="color: #FFFF00">"Wanna find out? I've got an idea. if you put that little blue orb in here..." Tails opened a small compartment on the dashboard. "I can shoot it into the stratosphere. Then manuever the plane to hit it before it hits the ground. That way we'll go straight back into the game, and the plane will come with us!" He grinned. "If you don't think I can do it, worse case scenario is you go into the game without me from that orb impacting the ground. So... whad'ya say?"</span><br/><br/><br/><span style="color: #BF00FF">"Well, this should be interesting." Garsot took out the small blue sphere and placed it into the compartment that Tails had opened, wondering just how well this was going to pan out for the two of them. "It's a pretty small target, I'll be mighty impressed if you actually hit it. That being said, I have full confidence in your abilities." He sat back and waited for the stunt to take place.</span><br/><br/><br/><span style="color: #FFFF00">Tails smiled. "Here we go!" he shouted, the plane shotting off down the thankfully <span style="font-style: italic">just</span> long enough driveway. when they took off, tails did a few barrel rolls just for fun. When they leveled out, he tipped the nose of the plane upward and hit a button on the dashboard. the Blue Orb shot into the sky at high velocity. tails immediately turned the thrusters to full power and followed the sphere's trajectory. when the orb started to fall, he followed it, causing them to nose dive. laughing at the panicked look Garsot had from how close the ground was, he hit the thrusters one last time and collided with the sphere, causing the shattering effect once more. The two occupants of the plane were now flying level towards a large arena. "Looks like we didn't get here in time for the tournaments." Tails said, noticing the score board say red versus blue. ironically, it actually WAS a team made up of Halo soldiers for the red team. thankfully that was not the case for blue.<br/><br/>"Want me to get us tickets to watch the fights?" he asked Garsot as they landed near the west entrance and he brought up his inventory, going to the "Transports" section of his list and storing the Tornado X for later use. Walking up to the entrance, he payed both thier fees with the gold nescessary for watching fights for a one day pass. 300G each to be exact. Walking over to the leaderboards, he said, "Looks like Red just lost. that pits blue against... pink next. let's find our seats!"<br/><br/>He walked into the arena's viewing rooms and sat down, motioning for Garsot to follow.</span><br/><br/><span style="color: #00FF00">__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</span><br/><br/>Back with the group JD shook his head. "If this was like SAO, Kirito wouldn't be a character to pick from. besides, wouldn't the Game Master figure out that approach wouldn't work if Kirito existed in his game?"<br/><br/>Suddenly a voice came from the side of the room, which seemed to have nothing there. "Please step out of the room. you will be transported to the buffing facility and will have two minutes to prepare yourselves. Good luck, players." And with that the door reopened.<br/><br/>"I really hope that was a recorded message!" JD said, stepping into a room with a holopad in the center. JD was wondering how to activate it when an image of none other than Cortana appeared above the surface. "Please note that while provoking your opponents is allowed, this arena will not allow intentional Flaming of other's abilities, teammate or otherwise. now, down to business. Jack, you will receive a supply of ten cement clay. Kirito, you will receive a component for an item I am sure you will want to craft later. The other components will be found at key points in the game, and several tournament booths will grant them to you."<br/><br/>JDizzle's face fell. Great. just because Kirito was a legend in the anime didn't mean he didn't need buffs when he could get them!<br/><br/>"Koopatrol, you will be allowed access to an elemental armor upgrade of your choice. the choices are as follows: fire, ice, earth, or electricity. Lucy, you will be given an outfit in the color and style of your choice that allows cloaking for fifteen seconds during a fight at the cost of 15MP per use. Rukia, you will not need anything as long as you use the swap pill before the match.If you emerge victoriously, you may keep these buffs and items. if you lose you will only gain the EXP points you earn. May the Game Master favor your abilities, and have a pleasant experience!"<br/><br/>Rukia/18 frowned. Another thing that meant she likely had no choice in whether or not to do it. taking the Swap pill, she swallowed it and another popped out of her throat. a blueish-white light enveloped her and when it was gone, Rukia stood there. No longer was she 18, but the original, Rukia Kuchiki was back. She smiled. "Yes! Finally back to my old self! Let's go kick some ass!"