Before we begin, I'd like to thank the users who made this fanfiction possible: Unbreakable Josuke Higashikata, The Dimensional Reader, Steel Tishu, and Dead stroke360. They (and myself) are the founding members of the roleplay forum that inspired this entire fic. Round of applause for them all, especially The Dimensional Reader, this fic's godfather ;)
Y'know, there have been so many times in our history when the human race was nearing extinction. The Black Plague, two World Wars, natural disasters galore, and don't even get me started on nukes. Seriously, every nuclear bomb needs to be destroyed immediately. I see no use in them. Anyway, the way I see it, no species can survive forever. There are natural, rational ways for us to go.
Still, these days, I'm not surprised that sentient coconuts and pineapples have made deals with extraterrestrials to engage in a massive food-group war, slowly starving humanity when they're not being attacked by UFOs.
Oh, and some rouge scientist has "accidentally" unleashed a Walking Dead scenario, making the extra-dimensional freezer where I live the safest place on Earth.
On top of all that, Dimen snapped again and is creating what basically amounts to a civil war within the only group that can solve all these flipping problems.
And here's the icing on the cake: they're making a movie about emojis, of all things. I ask you.
Yeah, it's a typical week for the Rewind Gang.
Oh my gosh, I nearly forgot to introduce myself. Where are my manners? My name is Erin, and I'm a Character - Sarah's Protagonist, card-carrying member of the Rewind Gang, Representative for Logic Energy, and sole permanent resident of the Deep Freeze. I'm one of the few sane people in this world - most say I'm logical, which I personally think fits somewhat better. And I can tell you are really confused right now. Don't worry, all will be explained in due time. Let me tell you how all this began - with a bunch of kids with way too much time on their hands...
"Mike, what are you doing?!" Mike looked up from his desktop to find his friend Sarah, with a bag of library books over her shoulder, standing over him with a horrified expression on her face. He hadn't expected her to have found him so soon - he'd barely had time to set up his machine, including the Traits of Strength, Spirit, Friendliness, Randomness, and Logic, even with the help of their friend Jacob. How she'd gotten past Keegan, a new friend who had added to the little adventure notebook the group wrote in constantly (using alternate versions of themselves) and was currently playing GTA in the next room, he'd never know.
"Having fun with our Characters," Mike decided to say. "Duh."
"Dude, you didn't tell me about this?" Jacob sighed from behind Sarah, holding drinks for the group.
Mike shrugged, "Sorry, Jacob. You were doing your duty by unintentionally distracting Sarah. Thanks for getting everyone's drinks, you two, by the way."
"Oh, no problem," said Sarah, grabbing some of the drinks from Jacob, leaving him with his lemonade and giving Mike a glass of coconut milk and taking a sip of her water before spitting it out all over the monitor once she saw what was on it. Four kids, each with an uncanny resemblance to one of the group members, in a white expanse. The only other object there was a single orange press-button, from which streams of blue light came floating out. The streams seemed to gravitate towards each of the kids, turning deep green when they touched the unconscious boy, icy blue for the girl, lemon yellow and rainbow for the other two boys. The conscious kids looked confused and terrified. "Mike, undo this right now!" Sarah snapped. "We don't know what could happen if you-"
"Too late," Mike interrupted. "It's already been done."
Rubbing his palms together, Jacob added, "This is gonna be awesome..."
Mike turned again towards Sarah. "See? Jacob sees the genius in my plan."
"And your plan is..." Sarah crossed her arms expectantly.
Mike explained, "It's basically an updated version of the notebook - a little more high-tech, though. They're gonna need these traits here if they're going to survive it."
"Fair enough, just so long as you split the traits evenly."
"I promise," swore Mike, holding out his pinkie for a swear. Sarah had just hooked her own pinkie with him when the girl spoke up, in a voice similar to Sarah's. "Who are those?" she inquired.
"Flip, they can hear us!" said Sarah in a panic.
Mike's eyes widened. "Cool! Just as planned."
The realization of exactly what Mike was doing dawned on Sarah. "Mike, you didn't," she said softly.
"Sarah... I did."
"Link is gonna kill you," Sarah predicted, referencing the older girl who ran the Study Hall period where the writing took place.
"She won't, so relax," Mike assured Sarah. "Anyway..." He began to type out a message wit an attatched keyboard. The words appeared behind the Characters: CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN FOR A NEW EXPERIMENT I HAVE BEEN WORKING ON. THIS IS PROJECT R, OR AS I LIKE TO CALL IT, THE REWIND PROJECT. ANY QUESTIONS BEFORE WE BEGIN?
"I have a lot of questions, but I'll save them for later," said Jacob's Character.
Sarah's character, on the other hand, immediately asked, "What happened to us, where are we, why are we here, and who are those voices?" She then added, "I gotta say, I like the girl best. Sarah, was it?"
"My Character is logical, like I envisioned her," Sarah observed. "Glad you haven't corrupted her with Randomness yet."
Jacob added, "Mine is a man of few words, just like me."
"We have to focus, guys!" Mike snapped. "Why am I the one telling you this?" The keyboard again: YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN. YOUR'E IN A WHITE VOID. 'CAUSE YOU WERE CHOSEN. AND THE VOICES ARE YOUR NARRATORS. SARAH IS YOUR NARRATOR, FOR EXAMPLE, ERIN. JACOB HAS JACOB... YOU REALLY NEED A NEW NAME. YOURS TRULY HAS MICHAEL. THE NAME IS MIKE, BY THE WAY.
"Okay, okay, I'll call him Jake. There. Happy?"
"Very. It's confusing calling both of you Jacob."
"Guys... they are waiting..."
"Oh yeah." Keyboard: ALL WILL BE EXPLAINED SOON ENOUGH. ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS PRESS THE BUTTON...WELL, MICHAEL FIRST. THEN THE TWO OF YOU WILL DO IT. KEEGAN...EH...HE'LL DO IT LATER.
"Really, dude?!" The real-life Keegan called from his position on the neighboring couch. "Do me a solid! I was about to beat the mission!"
"Nope," said Mike firmly. "I said to be ready for when it happens. I never told you to redo the entire game while Sarah went to the library."
"Ugh...fine. I will do it later."
"Boys..." Sarah performed a facepalm and shook her head.
"What did I do?" asked Jacob innocently. "I was drinking my lemonade." Onscreen, Michael looked at the other Characters as if to say, They're weird.
"This is not how I expected to be spending my day..." Jake mused.
Erin urged Michael, "Well, what are you waiting for? Push it!" Michael sighed, shuffled over to the button, and pushed it. As soon as he made contact, Mike lunged over and pressed some buttons on his machine, knocking his glass over in the process. More blue light exploded from both the button and the machine, overpowering Michael and sending him high into the air before he dropped heavily to the ground. He lay there, eye simply twitching.
"Oops... I think I overdid it." Mike admitted as Jacob began to fix the machine.
"Mike!" snapped Sarah as she observed the Traits. "You literally gave him 1% of Logic! The plan was to split it evenly! You promised!"
"I know!" Mike responded. "I don't know... oh."
"Oh what?" said Sarah, arms crossed.
"My coconut milk..." Mike realized. "It spilled..."
Sarah noted the spilled drink and made a face. "Ugh. Sticky. Hopefully Michael is okay."
"Name him something like Reader now," Jacob suggested, looking up from the machine, "because I don't think he'll want to be Michael."
"Fine. Jacob, you fixed the machine?"
"Ready for another go." Jacob patted the metal box proudly.
"Okay. Next up is..." Mike started typing again: JAKE! YOU'RE NEXT. DON'T WORRY, WE FIXED THE BUG. Onscreen, watched by an apprehensive Erin, Jake pushed the button. No visible effects came forth, and the Trait bars all lowered the same amount. PERFECT! NO ERRORS THERE! NEXT UP IS ERIN!
Sarah tapped Mike on the shoulder. "Mike..." she said nervously, "what are we gonna do with the excess Logic energy?"
Mike ignored her. Sarah wasn't going to be happy when she found out his plans, so probably best to keep them secret for as long as possible.
"Mike?"
"I got this," said Mike, turning towards his friend briefly. Onscreen, a grimacing Erin pressed the button. Another flash of blue light emitted from both the button and the machine, but Erin was launched into the air more slowly than Mike had been, and landed more softly next to -
"Oi! The name's Reader now." The Character smirked at the real-life kids, holding up a peace sign made from two fingers.
"Mike," said Sarah with barely-restrained rage. "What the flip did you just do?"
"I handled it," Mike shrugged.
"By overcharging Erin."
"Yeah." Sarah didn't respond to this, but reached into her book bag, pulling out a large mythology book.
"Sarah..." said Mike with a quiver in his voice. "What are you doing with that book?"
The girl raised the book.
"Now let's talk about this..."
Sarah prepared to bring down the book, and Mike screamed and ran from his seat in a panic. Sarah ran after him, shouting, "Get back here!"
"While they kill each other..." Jacob muttered under his breath as he typed out a message of his own: Hey there. Jacob here. Press the button to activate the Rewind.
Onscreen, Reader nodded, then helped Erin up and asked, "You two ready?"
Jake nodded. Erin stammered, "I... I hope so."
"I know you're ready," Reader smirked at Jake. "Let's... Rewind." He pushed the button, which emitted a gentle glow that eventually turned erratic and engulfed everything.
The screen went black.