Author's Note: I included two OCs, but they aren't there to be Mary Sues. There aren't going to be any pairings, they are just there to add to the story. I hope you enjoy it!

Beep. Beep. Bloop. Beep.

The usual sounds of video games could be heard wafting from the play room of the Wammy House. Matt sat in one corner of the room playing the brand new Playstation 2 that Roger had bought for all the kids. Not that many of the kids actually bothered to play it. It had been purchased four days ago, and Matt was the one on it most of the time, which wasn't very surprising to anybody. Mello knew exactly where to go to find his friend.

"Hey, Matt, d'you know what happened to the last of the chocolate?"

Matt shrugged, not taking his eyes off of the television screen. "You ate it?"

"No. There were a couple bars there earlier but I just went to get some and they are all gone."

"Maybe somebody else ate them. They are there to share you know."

"Right. Because you know all about sharing." Mello grumbled, watching Matt hog the Playstation. Okay, so he could understand somebody taking one bar, but two? He had run out of his own personal stash and figured he would just take one from the kitchen. There was usually always a chocolate bar or two in the kitchen, but the one time he needed some, they were all gone. Figures.

"Aw c'mon Tidus! Don't be such a wuss! You're gonna lose your girl if you don't take action now. Oh, look, too late, she kissed the other guy, nice job. No bow-chika-bow-wow for you."

Mello rolled his eyes. Matt was the only person he knew that talked to his video games. He was about to ask his friend to come with him to the store to get some chocolate, but realized he wasn't going to be able to drag him away from the new game system. He sighed. "I'm going to go ge-"

"Awww man! Somebody's already playing it!"

The blonde turned around when he heard a female's voice, cutting his sentence short. Two girls were standing in the doorway. One of the girls, a redhead whose hair reached the middle of her back, was pouting- he presumed she was the one who wanted to play the Playstation. The auburn-haired girl standing next to her was holding a jar of strawberry jam, dipping something into it. Mello realized the something she was dipping into the jam was chocolate.

"You are the one who took the last of the chocolate!"

The girl blinked. "Yeah? Your point?"

"That was supposed to me mine!"

"Really now? I didn't see your name anywhere on it..." she said, looking over the wrapper as if trying to find a name written on it.

Mello seethed. "Well...you should have...I wanted...Grah! I'm going to buy more chocolate." He stomped past the pair, grumbling to himself.

The girl turned back to her friend. "Well, Scarlet, since somebody is already on it, you'll have to come back later. Why don't we head to the library? I need a new book to read."

"But I wanted to play Kingdom Hearts! It was getting so good! Right now, Riku is getting help from the evil Maleficent to save Kairi! But Sora is trying to save Kairi too and they got into this fight-"

"You can play after, the game isn't going anywhere. Let's go."

"I'll just wait until he's done. Somebody else might take it before I get back. You can go to the library if you want, Alone, I'll be here."

Alone sighed as Scarlett took a seat in one of the chairs. "I was going to show you one of the books I read recently that was really good and I think you'll like."

The redhead shrugged. "I'll check it out after. Not like the library is going anywhere." She turned her attention to the boy playing the Playstation. "Hey, um...are you going to be done anytime soon?"

Matt still didn't take his eyes off of the screen. "I guess I can be. I gotta find a save point first, though." He hadn't really planned on getting off, but he also hadn't expected anybody else to want it. Figuring he had been playing for three hours already, he couldn't really say no.

"No problem." Scarlet grinned and turned to her friend. "See? All I had to do was ask."

Taking a seat beside Scarlet with a sigh, Alone continued munching on her snack and became interested with the dice on the table next to the chair. With one hand holding her chocolate, she began stacking the dice with her other hand, making sure they were perfectly aligned before placing another on top.

A jingle sounded from the television and a message popped up saying that the game had successfully been saved. The disc inside the game system stopped spinning as it was turned off, the small light going from green to red indicating that the console was still plugged in, but in stand-by mode.

Scarlet hopped down from the chair as Matt stood up. Putting Final Fantasy X back in it's case, she pulled out Kingdom Hearts.

"Uh...Scarlet, right?" Matt asked, watching her switch the games. "Do you play games often?"

"Mhmm. Why?"

"How good are you?"

Scarlet shrugged. "Good enough, I guess. Since Alone doesn't play video games, I've only played by myself, and fighting against computers is a lot different than playing with actual people."

"Uh-huh..." Matt thought for a moment. "Well then, want to find out just how good you really are?"

"Oh?" Scarlet pulled back from putting Kingdom Hearts into the system, eyebrow raised. "What exactly do you mean by that?"

"Play against me. Though, I doubt you will be able to beat me, I am really good."

A smirk formed on the girl's lips. "Bring it on."

When Mello had returned with a new supply of chocolate, he saw not one, but two redheads sitting in front of the television playing video games. "There's two of them?! As if one wasn't enough!"

Scarlet turned around. "Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"

"You're getting killed, you know." Matt said, elbowing Scarlet.

"Ack!" She immediately turned her attention back to the game. "You could have stopped them for me. We are on the same team."

Any hope Mello had of getting Matt away from the video games shattered. Seeing somebody else on the Playstation made him think that Matt would actually have to give it up for a while and find something else to do while the girl took a turn, but just the opposite had happened: instead of taking turns, they were playing co-op. The blonde plopped himself down in a chair and ripped open a bar of chocolate. "Great. Just great."

"Excuse me, Mello, you are sitting on candy wrappers."

Mello jumped up and Alone grabbed the candy wrappers from the chair. After she had finished stacking the dice, she had begun busying herself with cleaning up and organizing the play room. People sure were messy, and she couldn't stand to see toys scattered about and things where they didn't belong.

"How did you know my name?" Mello asked, giving the girl a sharp glare. He didn't remember ever telling her his name. He certainly didn't know hers.

"You are in my writing class. I remember names easily. I'm Alone. The one playing with Matt is Scarlet."

"Aaaah! Nooo! Get up! Get up! Get up! Phew." Scarlet suddenly yelled, eyes still on the television.

Mello stood corrected: Matt wasn't the only one who talked to his games. "I have a feeling we are going to have to physically pull them away from the television. Unless you just want to leave them there all night."

A sudden crunching sound drew everyone's attention to the other side of the room. Three boys stood around a smaller boy, one of them stomping on an action figure while the other two laughed.

"Aren't you a little old to be playing with dolls?"

"What's the matter? You have no real friends so you have to play with toys?"

The three roared with laughter. Alone fumed. Putting down the deck of cards she had been intending to put away, she stomped over to the boys. "Why don't you all go pick on somebody your own size? Leave him alone!"

The boy that had been stomping on the toy stopped laughing, turning to Alone. "Oh yeah? And what are you going to do about it? Are you going to take on all three of us? You're just a girl!" He stood as tall as he could, looking down on Alone, trying to intimidate her. Alone, however, didn't back down, her green eyes fixed on the taller boy as she glared back.

"Are you so low that you would fight a girl?" Mello walked up to the group, snapping off a piece of chocolate with his teeth.

"You gonna stand up for her?" The boy said, rolling up his sleeve. He appeared to be the leader of the group, as the other two just stood back, watching and trying to look tough.

"Get out of here, you worthless scum." Mello said, not intimidated in the least. In fact, he looked more dangerous than any of the three bullies. At this point, Matt and Scarlet had paused their game and run over.

"Why you!" The boy let a punch fly. Unfortunately for him, he missed Mello as the blonde dodged, then retaliated with his own punch, catching the bully on the side of his face. He was ready to attack again when Matt grabbed him and held him back.

"Hey, calm down, Mel! These guys aren't worth getting in trouble over!"

Mello struggled to break free of Matt's grasp. "Let me go, Matt! These guys need to be taught a lesson!"

Matt refused to let his friend go. "Roger will take care of them, don't get into trouble because of losers like them."

The three boys glared. The first boy kicked the remains of the toy aside, looking back at the small boy sitting on the ground. "See ya later, shrimp!" He laughed again as he left the room.

"Tch. Cowards." Mello growled. They came across somebody tougher, and ran away. Typical bullies.

Alone kneeled down beside the white-haired boy. "Are you okay?"

The boy nodded. "I'm fine. I'm used to it." He picked up the remains of his action figure. The thing was busted beyond repair. Though he acted as if it were no big deal, it wasn't hard to tell he was upset.

Scarlet frowned. "That's not something you should be used to."

"You didn't have to do that, but thank you." The boy said. Though he was talking to all of them, his dark eyes were on Mello.

"I didn't do it to help you, Near, I just don't like bullies." Mello sneered.

Near twirled his hair. "I see." It was quiet for a moment before Near spoke again. "It's getting late. We should probably retire to our rooms for the night."

Nobody else seemed to have noticed the room had emptied out. The five were now the only ones left in the room. Scarlett looked up at the clock on the wall. "Nine forty-five already? Wow. I didn't realize it was so late. We'd better hurry and finish with our game." She ran back to the Playstation, Matt trailing after her.

The kids were all expected to be in bed no later than ten o'clock. It was a rule Roger, the current head of the Wammy House, made sure to enforce. It was vital that the kids all got their proper rest. Most went to bed without question, but there were some that, without a definite bed time, would stay up all night and sleep through the entire morning. Matt had once gotten in trouble for playing video games all night long. When he didn't show up to class, Roger went to check on him to make sure he wasn't sick. When he discovered the boy was sleeping with a Gameboy in his hands and no signs of illness, Matt's Gameboy had been taken away from him for three days. Those were a long three days for him, even more so for Mello, who had to put up with him. Of course, Matt had never done that again.

As Scarlet went to pick up her controller, the light in the room flickered. "What was that?"

Near looked up at the light on the ceiling. "Perhaps the light bulb is burning out." For a moment, it seemed everything was fine, but the group was soon emerged in darkness as the electricity went out.

"No! Not before we get a chance to save! Darn it!"

Matt sighed. "There goes my high score."

"Well, that's that." Alone said. "I guess it's time we all head to bed. Um...that's if we can find our way out of the room first."

"OW!" Mello's voice rang out in the darkness. "Near, you brat! You tripped me!"

"You knew I was here, Mello. It's your fault for not paying attention." Near responded, his voice calm.

"Who am I touching?" Matt's voice was followed by a loud slap. "Ow...what was that for?!"

"That was me you were grabbing!" Alone yelled. "Keep your hands to yourself!"

"Oh. Heh heh...sorry." Matt chuckled, only to be slapped again. "Ow!"

"Don't laugh about it!"

"How are we going to find our way around now? Wait for somebody to come with a flashlight or something?" Scarlet asked, not moving from her spot.

"We can get out on our own. It would probably best for us to all hold on to each other so we don't cause any more trouble. Alone, can you find my hand?"

Alone hadn't even noticed Near had made his way beside her. Reaching out, she felt around the dark until she came in contact with a hand. "Is this you?"

"Yes. Now, somebody grab Alone's other hand, and continue that until we are all together."

Following Alone's voice, Scarlet found her friend's hand, in turn grabbing Mello's, while Matt took up the rear. Now forming a human chain, Near led them all out of the playroom and into the hall. The only light came from the soft rays of moonlight shining through the windows, the stained-glass leaving ghostly rainbow patterns on the floor. It didn't do much to help light the halls up.

"This place looks so creepy in the dark like this." Scarlet muttered. Though the orphanage usually had a warm, homey feel to it, it seemed like a totally different place in the extreme darkness. "Let's hurry and find the way to our rooms."

"Hey, what's that? Look at that door over there." Mello asked, pointing to the far end of the hall despite the fact nobody could actually see his movement. A very faint, unnatural glow was leaking from beneath a door.

Alone looked around until she found what Mello was talking about. "I don't know. In fact, I didn't even know there was a door there."

Now curious, Mello started walking in the direction of the glow, the others following. Near sighed, not much interested in whatever it was, but followed along anyway. As they got closer, they realized that there wasn't even a door there. The glow looked as if it were coming from beneath the wall. Letting go of Scarlet's and Matt's hands, Mello began feeling around, trying to find a doorknob, only to discover there was none. "What the hell? I know there is something there, but I can't find a doorknob or anything! I can't even feel any cracks!"

Soon, Mello, Alone, and Matt were all feeling the wall, trying to find out where the glow was coming from. Scarlet began looking around the area, wondering if there was something else that could be causing the glow. He hand landed on an old-fashioned candleholder sticking out of the wall. Though there were several along the walls of the Wammy House, none of them were actually used anymore, they simply were left for decoration. On a whim, Scarlet began tugging at it slightly. She thought she felt it move, and tugged harder. Unexpectedly, the candleholder pulled back, almost causing Scarlet to fall over. She almost panicked, thinking she had broken it, but when she realized it was still attached to the wall, she was relieved.

Mello, Alone and Matt jumped back as the wall they were touching suddenly began to move, soundlessly sliding aside, opening the way to a small staircase, the faint glow now illuminating the immediate area. Their mouths dropped open and they turned to Scarlet, who was still holding onto the candleholder, a similar look of disbelief on her face.

"Did you...just open it by tugging on the candleholder?" Mello asked, receiving a nod in response. "I'm not sure what is worse: the fact that you even tried that, or the fact that it actually worked."

"Let's see what's down there!" Matt said excitedly. "Maybe it's a secret lair or something!"

Mello raised an eyebrow. "Matt, what would a secret lair be doing in the Wammy House?"

"Why would it be so hidden with pulling on the candleholder being the only way to open it? Only secret hideouts have that kind of thing."

"Yeah, in movies. We aren't in a movie. But I guess I am a bit curious as to what is down there..."

"So let's go!" Without another word, Matt began making his way down the narrow staircase.

"This could get us into big trouble." Near said, twirling his hair and gazing down the staircase.

Mello rolled his eyes. "Oh, who cares. Stay here then. Hey Matt, wait up!"

"Let's just see what's down there. We can come right back up." Alone said, following after Mello. "C'mon, Scarlet!"

Scarlet nodded, finally letting go of the secret lever to follow the others. Seconds after releasing the candleholder, the door began to shut. Everyone turned around, watching Near slip in at the last second and the door slide closed.

"I hope there is a way back out..." Scarlet gulped.

"If there was a way in, there's gotta be a way out." Alone said. "At least we can see now."

The same glow that had been shining from underneath the door illuminated the staircase, leading them into a large room. Various gadgets were scattered about. The glow was coming from a lightbulb hanging from the ceiling, though the source of energy was unknown since the entire house was in a blackout. The room appeared to belong to an inventor of some sort.

"Do you think this was Watari's room? He is an inventor." Mello guessed, picking up some kind of small robot toy.

"He left an awful lot of stuff behind." Alone said, amazed at the number of various gizmos and gadgets strewn about. Some of the stuff looked unfinished, making her wonder why they hadn't either been thrown out or completed.

"Hey, look at this!" Matt was standing at the far end of the room, pulling aside large, black curtains that had obviously been there to keep something hidden. Behind the curtains were several large pods, big enough for an adult to lay in. Wires ran from each of them to a small, square device in the center.

Scarlet bent down to get a closer look at the device the pods were encircling. "It looks like a game system." Pressing down on a cover on the top opened it up, revealing a disc set inside. "Yep, definitely looks like a game system."

The others were now gathered around as well, inspecting the strange console. "What's it for?" Alone asked.

Matt pressed the button labeled "on". The bottom of the device glowed with a faint blue light as the disc inside began spinning.

"Okay...so where are the controllers?" Mello asked, not seeing anything resembling a controller attached.

"Maybe it's those pods?" Matt asked, walking over to one of them. He pressed a button, opening the clear cover and climbed inside. "There are buttons in this thing. Hey, maybe it's some kind of virtual reality type thing! I bet that if we lay in these, we can play games just with our minds!"

"You can't be serious." Mello said looking into one of the pods. "That's crazy."

"No, it'd be awesome! It would be like you were actually in the game! Let's try it out!"

"Don't you think it's stored away and hidden for a reason?" Alone said, skeptical. "What if it doesn't work right?"

Matt shrugged. "What's the worst that could happen? If it doesn't work, then we'll just forget about it. It's not like laying in one of these things is going to kill us."

Scarlet opened one of the pods and got in herself. "Well, might as well give it a try. Like Matt said, what's the worst that could happen? Besides, it's' comfortable in here! I guess it's made so you won't be interrupted while you play. I'd like to have one of these things to sit in while I play games."

Following suit, Mello hopped in the pod to the left of Matt's. "This better be fun. Maybe I'll get lucky and it will be a shooting game or something."

"C'mon, Alone, Near, we'll all try it. The more players, the better!" Matt said, poking his head out.

Alone sighed. "I don't really like this idea, but I guess I'll try. Somebody's got to be there in case you all get carried away."

After Alone and Near had settled in their own pods, Matt looked around at the few buttons. "Well, at least the controls are obvious. Everybody ready? Let's go!"

The group proceeded to close their pods, each of them pressing their button labeled "initiate". A buzzing noise filled the room as the pods' inhabitants closed their eyes, all appearing to fall into a slumber.