Something was ringing in Greg's head. It was loud, high pitched, and repeated steadily in intervals of three. Beep-Beep -Beep... Beep-Beep-Beep. Was in the middle of a strange dream about school or something, and his vision blurred, then darkened. He realized the source of the sound when he opened his eyes. It was his alarm clock, and it read 7:30 am.

Greg groaned a bit before slapping the snooze. Pulling his defiant body from the comforts of his bed, he dragged himself into the bathroom to wash away the sleep. Once his face met the blast of warm steamy water, his brain kicked into high gear and he started to feel more awake. He looked in the mirror to see his reflection staring back at him with his blue and green heterochromic eyes.

Once he finished drying off, the sweet smell of maple syrup engulfed his nostrils and he knew what his breakfast was.

"Good morning dude." came an energetic voice from across the kitchen.

"Mornin' bro" Greg yawned.

"i made pancakes and bacon. Feel free to dig in. Also, Morgan and Kyle are on their way to grab a bite and then we can head out." He smiled.

"Okay. Say what panel should we visit first?" Greg asked.

"Well, this is our 5th year at PAX East, so i was thinking of looking for the new panels first. Hey, don't you play that Phone game 'Puzzle & Dragons'?"

Greg nodded.

"Well, i heard that they're gonna have a panel there. We should check it out!"

"Good idea Dan. Maybe we'll even get a special in -game prize for checking out the stand."

"Yeah! They might give out some TAMADRAs or even whole monsters! Hopefully they can give out some hefty magic stone bundles... I want to be ready for god-fest!" Dan gushed.

IF you didn't already figure it out, Greg, Dan, Morgan, and her step brother Kyle all play the hit i-OS and Android game: Puzzle& Dragons. Its a popular mobile game concept combining grid based puzzles with dungeon-crawling RPG elements. The game has been out for nearly 3 years and by this point, the four friends are well into the 200 ranks. In fact, Greg holds the top spot at rank 223, followed by Morgan at 218, her Step brother Kyle is a solid rank 215, and holding the lowest rank of the group at rank 209 is Dan. They make it a habit to play the game for at least an hour everyday, unless they agree to meet up to watch one or more of them to tackle one of the Descend events. Greg, being the highest rank among the circle, has accomplished a feat of owning all but one of the variations of Hera. The only one he is missing is the water attribute version: Hera-Is.

"Greg, are you gonna hit the next God-Fest?" Dan asked.

He shook his head "No way man. I have enough gods to be happy right now. With the PAX East magic stones coming in the mail and Hera-Is descending on Sunday, I'm going to save up my stones. Just in case i need a revival. Last time I had to buy a stone pack... Against my better judgment... And blew off half of them. I used a standard god team led by Awoken Deity Odin. With a friend's max leveled Awoken Phantom God Odin. This time, however, I will be using my new god team. Even while I'm still using Blue Odin, I have a bunch of light attribute monsters, most of which are also half wood attribute. I'm going to use what i like to call 'Shining Forest technique'."

"Ooh... Sounds interesting... Elaborate." Dan leaned closer.

"Well, Odin is my leader for the attack boost and HP boost for God type monsters. My subs are Doumyou Guardian Genbu, Meimei, who i have for Two pronged attack and her skill she turns all orbs into light, dark and wood orbs. Next i have Godly knight of the sky Verche, for his Two pronged attack, and his skill which turns all dark orbs into light orbs. Third sub is Awoken Athens. She has a Two pronged attack and a resistance to blinding attacks. Nothing worse than not seeing the orbs onscreen. Her leader skill boosts the power of wood and light orbs onscreen. Last, i have Heavenly Herald Archangel. She has an Auto heal awoken skill of 100hp per turn, and a recover bind Awoken skill. She's basically our healer. The plan is to use the two pronged attack skills to deal massive chunks of damage to all the preliminary floors and make it to the boss. That's when Shining Forest kicks in. I activate Genbu's skill, creating wood light and dark orbs. Then convert the dark orbs into light orbs. Next up, Athens boosts all the orbs onscreen, and after that's been set up, i try to alternate the orbs in a way to get at least two 4 orb matched with light and/or wood. Best of all... Hera-Is is a water/dark monster... So my team will deal quadruple damage to her! Just in case, I'll have a bunch of stones in case the Chaos Devil Dragon causes me any problems, but hopefully he should be a pushover at this point. So... What do you think?"

Dan just sat in utter silence.

"Um... Don't you think you're over analyzing this?" he half laughed.

"Dan... This is the final Hera based monster i need until i have the entire set! I even got the Christmas version during the holidays! Plus, it'll be a shoe-in. I'm just making sure i am ready for the dungeon before it appears."

"Okay dude. It's your game. You do what you want." he smiled.

"Hey, what god monsters are you using?"

"Oh, I tend to use my Extant Red Dragon caller Sonia and a team of devil monsters like Hera-Ur and Belial for subs. I use a friend's Red Sonia leader for double the effects."

Greg nodded. "Not bad... Not bad at all. So I take it you're done using your Evangelion monster led attacker team?"

Dan flung his hands into the air. "GOD, NO! I would never stop using Asuka... She's my favorite monster!"

"Okay, okay... I just wanted to know."

"I won't use Asuka for some of the harder, descended dungeons like Zeus themed descends or other rare gods. I did use Asuka for Zhang Fei, since he only lets Physical and Attacker type teams enter his dungeon."

"I remember that! You were so hyped about nabbing him, since he was a Physical/attacker type. High Hp and High attack are definitely good perks..."

They continued to discuss our current player stats and monsters until a knock on the apartment door broke the rhythm.

Greg opened the front door and saw a tall red haired girl in a dark orange hooded sweatshirt and black skinny-jeans. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail but she left some hair untied to allow for bangs. She had vibrant blue eyes and she wore a single stud earring. Behind her was a slightly taller, far more muscular boy with a green winter coat on. His denim jeans had wet stains from the snow outside and his work boots were caked with snow. His hair was a long shaggy brown with uneven ends, but for some reason it worked on him. He also had a short chin beard and mustache. It was obvious he was late into college, while the other three were only sophomores.

"Hey guys! Come on in!" Dan bellowed from deep inside the apartment.

Morgan and Kyle began to take off some of their winter gear, like their gloves and boots. Morgan neatly placed her boots by the door with her gloves inside them, while Kyle quickly tossed them on the floor. He was a good guy, but he didn't have the best manners.

"Are you guys psyched for the Puzzle & Dragons PAX East event?"

"Of course Greg. Why wouldn't we?" Morgan replied.

Greg nodded and stuffed a bit of pancake into his mouth, followed by a wash of milk to help it down. Morgan grabbed a plate for herself and Kyle. He graciously accepted the dish and began to wolf down his breakfast.

"Whoa, Slow down there pal. You don't want heartburn do ya?" Dan laughed.

"Can't. We don't wanna be late." he quickly replied, whilst shoving more food in his choppers.

The three of them all laughed, followed by Kyle joining in. After they finished, Greg put on his coat after dropping his plate in the sink. Dan followed suit.

"Hey... Greg, i wanted to talk to you for a second..."

"What's up?"

Dan looked behind him, then returned to the conversation.

"You know exactly what I mean. It's Morgan."

Greg looked perplexed. "What about Morgan...?"

Dan looked at him smirking.

"Oh... Ooh... I don't know man..."

You can't avoid it forever. You know you like her. I'm pretty sure Kyle knows it too. Face it man... You have to ask her out at PAX."

Greg had been trying for quite some time now to ask Morgan about a serious relationship. They met in their Junior years at high school, both of them took the same art class and frequently helped each other out with projects. They started hanging out a lot during senior year. And when it came to apply for college, they applied to several schools, but the same school accepted both of them. They had taken the same courses throughout freshman year, and over time, they became best friends. Greg however, began to have stronger feelings once they started college. Kyle was born from a different mother than Morgan, but when Kyle's father died in a car accident years ago, and when Morgan's mom left her father after an affair, Morgan's father and Kyle's mother happened to meet in a coffee shop some 4 and a half years ago. The two hooked up, and that's when Kyle and Morgan became siblings. Dan and I were buddies throughout our entire school life. He was the first person i ever met in school who wasn't a total douche. We hung out at each others' house, we would sleep over on Saturdays and watch Anime on Cartoon Network's Toonami block, and... recently... they play Puzzle & Dragons together.

"We'll see how the day goes..." he finally blurted out.

Dan smiled. "I know it'll work out man. Just give it a shot."

They were all ready to head out, when Greg thought he heard someone calling out to him.

It almost sounded like... A warning...