Ch 1. A Prologue and a Half

"Where are Carrie and Zach? I told them to be here by noon!" A teenager in white jeans and a green sweater vest clenched his black hair out of stress. As Jace paced around the somewhat messy living room, his brown eyes were fuming with anger for the two friends that were late for the event of the summer.

"Calm down Jace." The stressed out boy felt the hand of one of his best friends, Elle, upon his shoulder. It didn't grasp, but placed itself lightly. "I'm sure those two are just running late, that's all." Elle placed her hand under Jace's chin and turned his head towards her. "You get stressed out so easily."

"I expected this from Carrie," Jace started saying in his usual stern tone. He then turned his body towards Elle so that he was fully facing her. She had short brown hair, blue eyes, and was wearing a tight blue shirt and short jean shorts. It was a surprise she liked videogames so much, being as beautiful as tidy as she was. "But Zach, he is always—"

"I'm here."

Jace and Elle turned around to see Zach standing in front of the front door. The short-haired blonde was wearing his usual attire—A brown shirt with a picture and words, and skinny jeans. "Hope you don't mind; I let myself in."

Jace looked at his friend that just arrived, wondering how he came in without either of them noticing. "Um yeah," Jace stuttered out. But he quickly regained his composure and continued, "That's all fine by me."

"Zach, when did you get here?" Elle asked while shaking off her blank expression. "We didn't even hear you!"

"I got here when Captain America," Zach pointed a Jace. The black haired teenager crossed his arms and glared back; Elle just giggled a bit (this nickname had officially been given to Jace because he was such a tight…you know, all the time), "started whining about Carrie and I being late. I guess his cries drowned out the slamming of the door."

"I was not crying!" Jace, almost shouting, said in as dignified a manner he could. Jace isn't one to yell. "I was just expressing—"

"Yourself in a manner that's more open than usual. We know," Elle interrupted Jace (as you can see, this is something Jace says on a daily basis). "You do it far too often for my taste. You know that's what thoughts are for, because no one can hear them."

"I agree with her Mr. Stars 'n Stripes." Zach said with a smirk.

Jace rolled his eyes for what seemed like an eternity. He then started to ask, "Whatever. You know where Carrie is Zach?"

"No, why would I? I could really care less for the buffoo—"

"I'm here lady and gents!" A red head with a short-sleeved, grey hoodie and brown shorts skidded through the front door with his hands up in a V-shape, making quite the flamboyant entrance. He then proceeded to stand upright, like a normal person would, and turned to Zach, "How was my entrance?"

"You were a little late, friend."

"Damn it. Really thought that this would be it, the perfect entrance!" The red head, whose name was Carrie, started pouting.

"You'll get your star entrance someday Ginger," Elle said with sarcasm as she was patting Carrie on the back (Ginger was the nickname Elle made up for Carrie; only she uses it). "Someday."

Jace looked at the ridiculous seen and rolled his eyes once again. "So," The sweater vested boy started walking towards Carrie, whom was still being comforted by Elle; Zach was standing a short distance away from the two. "Why were you late Carrie? I told you to be at my house at noon yet you decide to come three minutes late. Three minutes! Those three minutes could very well cost us—"

"Aw c'mon Jace!" Carrie shooed Elle away from him. "I did a lot better than usual, and usual is at least half and hour! You know I'd never let you down Steve Rogers," The red head nudged the now scolding Jace. "I'd never let you down for something as important as this, at least."

"I don't want to hear it," the tight…you know, replied in his stern tone, even sterner than usual. "If we want to finish by midnight, I suggest we get started, now." Jace then motioned his three friends over to the basement.

"Ok," Elle started saying. "I came over because you said that we playing some Path of Radiance, but why are we holding notebooks and pens? You know I'm not much of a note taker when it's summertime (in fact, she wasn't all that great of a note taker during school time either, but somehow managed to get A's and B's). What are we doing?" Everyone but Jace was sitting on a chair, confused.

"I'm with her," Carrie and Zach spoke in unison. They looked at each other awkwardly, then the blonde motioned for Carrie to speak for the both of them. "What the fu—I mean, heck, are we doing (Carrie remembered that his tight…you know, friend wasn't a fan of swearing, though he got away with saying damn)?"

Jace smiled at his clueless gang. "We indeed are playing Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance Elle." Jace held the copy up in his left hand, as his right was occupied with a Gamecube controller. "But we're going to do something a little different."

"Oooh! This sounds exciting!" Elle clapped her hands together like a little girl.

"Please, Elle, let me finish." The girl just stared at the oppressive teenager named Jace. "Each of us are going to control one character, and only one character. The reason I gave everyone notepads was so that we could make moves without the other people's knowledge." Everyone stared blankly at Jace, still not know how it would work.

Jace huffed a sigh, and then continued explaining. "To move, you'll write down something like 1 left 3 down, and that's where we'll move your unit, understand?"

Everyone had either a look of mischief, excitement, or an impressed look. "This is gonna be good," Carrie rubbed his hands together, as he was the one with a look of mischief. "Do we get to pick who we are now?"

"Yeah," Zach said lazily. "I wanna get started."

"Me too!" Elle squealed in a higher pitch.

"Yes, yes, yes. We'll be picking now. I'll be Ike since he's required in every chapter. You're next Elle."

"Well," The brunette was thinking as she scratched her head, "I don't want us to be left without a healer, so I pick Mist. Girl power!" Elle raised a fist in love of her gender.

"I'll pick next Fluffsalot (this was the name used when Elle started acting too girly)," Carrie stared at Elle, who realized she was acting like a little girl, then brought her shoulders in and looked down in despair. "I'll pick Boyd because he comes in early, and is the best, just like me." Carrie then did a tongue click; the others proceeded to rolling their eyes.

"Ok…Carrie." Despite how many times Jace had heard the Ginger say it, it unfortunately never got old. "Zach," he turned and faced the blonde who but a moment ago was spaced out, "who are you picking?"

"Hmm," Zach thought for a while (he is very intense thinker). Finally, Zach had a light bulb expression and held his finger up, "I'll pick Soren! He's pretty strong and comes in pretty early. As long as you and Carrie," he took a moment to glare at the two boys, "can protect me, I should be fine."

"Ok, cool. I'll try my best to not let you die," Jace nodded over to Zach. "Now, let's begin! Oh, I almost forgot, we'll do the play through on normal just because this is new to us." Seeing that his friends agreed, Jace turned around, pushed the power button on the black Gamecube, and then…

"Must I fight Boyd again father?" Ike pouted to his father, Greil, who could only grin at his whining son. "This is the fourth straight day I'll have to kick his rear end." Ike and the others with him were standing next to the dirt arena in the middle of the grassy field.

"Hey!" exclaimed the green-headed axe wielder named Boyd. "Those were narrow loses, NARROW! Besides, I was holding back the other days." He swung his practice axe over his shoulder.

"Sure you were holding back Mr. Tough Guy," The brunette now standing in front of Boyd named Mist had her arms crossed. "You just don't want to admit that my big brother is stronger than you."

"Now Mist," Greil put a hand on Mist's shoulder, looking down at her with a look that said, 'back off'. Mist got the message and put a little distance between her and Boyd. Greil then turned to his son. "I'll make you a deal son." Ike's eyes perked up to his father's face. The leader of the Greil Mercenaries stood more than 6 inches taller that Ike. "If you beat Boyd again today, I'll give you another chance to spar me."

"Really?" Ike's eyes were now glowing. "It's a deal father!"

"I thought you'd say that." Greil smiled, and then motioned for Boyd to go into the arena. Ike soon followed.

As soon as both combatants were in their fighting stances, Ike holding his blade above his head and Boyd simply letting the axe lean on his shoulder, Greil shouted, "Fight!"

"You're not winning this time Ike because I'm not holding back." Boyd said quietly. He decided to make the first move. The green-headed boy pulled the axe off his shoulder and gripped it with two hands. Boyd then yelled a battle cry and charged at Ike.

Okay now, Ike was thinking to himself, trying to remember all the advice his Greil gave him. Father said that when the opponent charges you, you either prepare to parry the blow or dodge it. Boyd's overconfident, but his blows feel like your getting hit by a brick wall. I'll have to dodge the blow! Boyd was upon the thinking Ike as he prepared his axe for a hit to the head. Ike moved just in time, and Boyd's axe hit dirt. Seeing Boyd recovering from the huge attack, Ike took the moment to slash as his opponent's side.

Boyd moved with the practice sword, feeling the pain in his side. The blow didn't faze him too much "If there's one thing the squirts got against me it's speed. I just have to hit him once and this battle's mine." Boyd picked up his axe and started swinging at Ike again. The blue haired mercenary barely dodged the blow. Body then swung again, and again, and this went on for a minute or two.

Finally, Boyd lifted his axe above his head, looking at the now slightly tired Ike. "I tired you out a bit didn't I, Ike?" To honest though, Boyd was panting a bit as well. "It's time to end this fight!" and with another battle cry, he swung the axe down.

I don't have time to dodge the blow! Ike panicked, but then quickly thought, I'll just have to chance the whether or not Boyd more worn out than I am. Ike then lifted his sword above his head with both hands.

The weapons clashed, and Ike's sword lowered from the impact, but he held his ground. He could slowly feel Boyd's axe giving way to its wielder's fatigue. After grunting, with a burst of strength, Ike pushed Boyd's axe off of him, leaving his opponent wide open for an attack.

"Let's end this, Kyaaa!" Ike shouted before swinging his blade at Boyd's stomach. The axe wielder grunted with pain and fell to the ground, unconscious.

"Boyd!" Mist shouted as she ran into the arena. She fell to her knees at the unconscious Boyd's side. She lifted his face towards her to see if he was awake, then scanned his body too make sure that he hadn't taken any major blows.

Greil came up behind his exhausted son and patted him on the shoulders. "Good job son. Ready to face me?"

"You've must be joking father! I'm exhausted! Could I take a small break before we spar?"

Greil looked at the weary Ike. "You don't get breaks on a mission Ike." But he knew that if he didn't rest, their spar would be pointless. "But I'll let you have one this time, just tell me when you're ready."

"Thank you father," Ike said graciously. He sat down in the middle of the arena where he ended his fight with Boyd. He wasn't holding back this time, but I won. Now I get to fight father again. Maybe, just maybe, if I beat him this time, he'll—Ike's train of thought was cut off as he heard someone laughing. He couldn't tell where it came from. It wasn't Mist or his father. And it definitely wasn't the unconscious Boyd.

Ike looked around for a second, and then quietly asked himself, "Who was that?"

Well, that was fun. This is my first story, so please review! Any criticism is welcome as it makes me strive to do better next time. I hope you enjoyed it!