My eyes snapped open as, on instinct, my arm slammed down on the buzzing alarm clock next to my head. Groaning, I sat up slowly, groggy from a lack of sleep after staying up too late on my phone. My room was pitch black, not a window in it to let in any sunlight. Then again, at six o'clock in the morning, it wasn't like there was much sunlight at all to wake up to.

Immediately, I reached out and blindly grabbed my phone from the same spot on the nightstand that I always left it before going to sleep at night. Turning it on, I immediately cringed, but instead of adjusting the brightness I stared into the blinding light like some kind of masochist until my eyes adjusted. I didn't expect many notifications, but force of habit made me check it every morning anyway. Other than a few notifications from Facebook and Twitter, the only thing noteworthy to me was a notification from my game stating that my stamina had been restored. Life was all in the tiny victories.

Somehow, ten minutes were already down the drain after some scrolling through my profile on Facebook. Mentally beating myself, I kicked back my covers, hissing silently as cold air raced up my shorts before letting it all out in a breath. Still stiff with sleep, I reluctantly stood up from my bed and flicked on the lights. Still, nothing special was revealed. My room was mostly empty, my bed against one wall with a nightstand and lamp on one side, a desk which was more a storage for miscellaneous junk than proper use stuck against the adjacent wall. There were some shelves on the wall opposite to the desk, but other than a trophy for second place in a school reading competition, a picture which was so dusty it was no longer visible, and an old stuffed wolf toy, it was populated by only dust bunnies. Sad to say, the rest of my apartment wasn't much more to look at, despite how much time I spent sulking around it.

My phone buzzed in my hand, and I looked down, a little surprised. Turning the screen back on, I swiped it open to a new message from "Rogue Goddess":

Morning, baby. I know I should be asleep right now and you'll yell at me for being up, but I know you're up and wanted to wish you a good day at work. I'm super proud of you! 3 Keep working hard.

I consider myself a hard egg to crack, but the text made me smile as I shot back a quick reply before walking out of my room and straight to the bathroom to take care of business.

Once I was finished, I walked into the kitchen/dining room. I never ate breakfast, but sometimes I liked to stare in the fridge and pretend there was food in it. Once I was done drooling, I went through the cupboards until I found a box of Pop-Tarts. Tearing open the foil, I pulled one out and held it in my mouth as I walked into the living room, which was openly connected to the kitchen/dining room. It was the only room in the house which had any view of the outside, with a balcony I'd never been bold enough to stand on overlooking a cracked street that was always busy with careless drivers and a beautiful view of the plain, brick apartment building on the other side of the street. Picking up the remote, I turned on the TV, at first playing the last of Adult Swim, but deciding to be a mature, responsible adult and turn on the news to make sure the world wasn't ending just yet.

Sitting down on the two-seat sofa, I munched on my Pop-Tarts as I sent back a reply:

Thanks, beautiful. You always know how to bring some light to my day. But you really should try to get some sleep. It's well past three over there. You need your beauty rest. :(

I hit send, then swept down on the screen and clicked on the game notification. Immediately, blaring music played in my face, nearly making me yelp in surprise as I quickly turned the volume down to zero. No matter how many times, every morning it always caught me off guard. Letting the news play in the background, I loaded my game up. I didn't have much time, so I just collected my daily rewards and did a couple quick quests. I smiled inwardly as I noticed I had twenty orbs now. I had most of the heroes in the game, save some of the rarer and limited ones, but summoning new ones was always a thrill. I'd save it for later though.

Exiting back out of the game, I stood up from the couch and went back to my room, putting on my work uniform. My day job was at Long John Silver's, the only place I could land a job at since the manager was an acquaintance of my mom's. It was ridiculous having to rely on my mother to land a job at 20, but it was work and I needed the money.

My phone buzzed, but I didn't think to check it as I walked out of the apartment and walked down two flights of stairs to the ground floor. My bike was behind the reception desk, the manager of the apartments generous enough to let me keep it inside, knowing how the local community was. Pulling it around from behind the desk, I walked it out the doors of the apartments and onto the deserted sidewalk. Shivering slightly in the chilly morning air, I hopped on the bike and began peddling to work. It was a long ride by bike, but it was cheaper than a car and more reliable than public transport, and it was all that was keeping me in shape, so I dealt with it.

By the time I made it to Long John Silver's, it was 7:27 on the dot. I finally remembered to check my messages, but it was just a reminder to have a good day and a promise to sleep from Rogue Goddess. That was my nickname for my girlfriend in Washington, inspired by her reputation in our shared gaming interest. She wasn't quite as "pro" as me, but her dumb luck in it was enough to make even me fumble. Then again, I made Arthur look like a serial lottery winner with my luck.

Double-chaining my bike behind the restaurant, I took the back way in. Fortunately it didn't open until eight, so there were no people to deal with yet. That is, customers. Obnoxious coworkers were still a problem. Fortunately, there was only one idiot on today's shift, and he was always late anyway.

"Morning, sunshine. You're here early, for once," chirped a perky voice as I walked in. A pretty blonde girl stepped into my view. She wore the standard uniform—like we all did, duh—and wore only as much makeup as code would allow. Her long hair was done up in a ponytail and stuck out from the back of her cap. Normally she would have to put it in a net, but she usually worked the register so no one picked on her for it.

"Morning, Kat. Can't be late everyday, can I?" I grunted in answer, glancing down at her shiny, gold employee-of-the-month name tag with the name Kathryn emblazoned on it.

"Well, you're always more on time than you-know-who, at least," she snorted, rolling her eyes, but a playful grin stayed plastered on her face. "Of course, you still arrived just late enough to not have to go through inventory. Lucky you. Was it by chance? Or devious design?"

"Nothing like that. If I could plan that many steps ahead, you wouldn't get employee-of-the-month every month," I grumbled, walking passed her. "Well, I can't have missed all the fun stuff. Last shift never cleans up properly. I'm sure there's plenty of sticky pop stains on the floor and hush puppies under the booths. I'll get the mop."

"I've got the broom," Kat said in response.

Work was never anything special. Once in awhile, a robbery would happen to liven things up, though no one ever robbed a fast food place. For the most part, it was just screwing around between customers and prepping orders before they could be made. In the morning, it was usually just Kathryn, the other guy, and myself working. Mornings were slow, and we punched out right after lunch rush. It was only six hour days, four or five days a week, but it was mildly invigorating. It was something between long binges on video games, at least.

Partway through cleaning up, Kat spoke up. "Hey, lonesome? What's the game that you've been obsessing over lately? Isn't it called Fire Emblem Heroes or something like that? I looked into it a little last night. You always drone on about it, and I got curious and read some stuff online about it."

I wasn't quite sure what my answer was, but it was some half-hearted answer like, "Oh yeah?" while I was focusing on a nasty spot where someone had managed to grind french fries into the tile.

"Yeah. Can't say I could keep up with it. Guess I'm just more of a Candy Crush girl," she said with a light laugh. "I found something else, though. Apparently, they're adding a live arena or something like that, and to kick it off they're picking thirty-two random players to go to LA for a huge tournament of some kind. Did you hear about that?"

My reply could have been real snarky. The news was a week and a half old, and it was all that the entire community could talk about. Something like this was huge, and it was all anyone on any social media platform that played could talk about. However, thirty-two candidates weren't good odds when the number of players who had downloaded the game was in the millions.

"Yeah, I heard about that," I said, shrugging as I kept on working. "It would be nice to get a crack at it, but I doubt I'd get picked. I'll just stick to casual play for now."

"I wouldn't call spending every spare penny you earn 'casual play,'" she remarked. Sighing, she shook her head. "Shouldn't you be saving at least a little? I thought you had a girlfriend waiting for you across the country or something. She's been waiting for you for two years now, hasn't she? It isn't fair to make her wait any longer over a dumb game."

"It's not like that," I replied, though it came barely above a whisper. No, it was nothing like that… In fact, I had been waiting for exactly this day.

Work went the same as any other day. Hours of filling the same orders of fried fish and hush puppies, and hours more of cleaning spilled drinks and replacing orders. By the time I arrived home at a little before five in the afternoon, I was beat. But where I was going next, it didn't matter how tired I was in the real world.

Walking over to the couch, I sat down and turned the TV on, turning the volume down low. Powering up Fire Emblem Heroes on my phone, I picked up a device similar to the Oculus Rift which was specially made by Nintendo for their mobile gaming market. Syncing it to my phone, I pulled it over my head, leaned back, and enjoyed the ride into the world of gaming.

I closed my eyes, and when I opened them again, I was in a different world, a different body. I was no longer in the dank, grey city of Saginaw. I was in a bright, vibrant town of buildings of all colors and designs. Other people, some like me, others not, all ventured the town. To the north was a large colosseum like an arena, to the south was a great tower, to the west was the Dragons Gate, and along the eastern horizon a beautiful, blue sea stretched out for eternity. Various shops also populated the square, primarily the orb shop, the feather shop, and the shards and crystals shop. There were others as well, but those three always were the busiest.

I switched into third person mode, which was always odd to do in a virtual reality. Panning around my avatar, I nodded to myself in contentment. Most players made their avatars flashy and bright, but I kept it simple. My avatar faintly resembled myself with a square torso and a large skull, but he was more polished. There wasn't a bit of fat on him, and his arms and legs were strong but not bulging. A patch of black hair covered his chin, with a stubbly shadow on his cheeks and lip, but his neck and the rest of his body were smooth, pale flesh. He wore a leather coat over a black shirt, and black jeans with a pair of combat boots. Studded, fingerless gloves covered my hands, and a tether with silver spikes hung from my left hip, but other than that I didn't care to accessorize overly much. After all, I was only a Summoner. It was the Heroes who did the real work.

"You made me wait," a deep, British voice growled in annoyance.

Switching back into first person, I looked up at a man dressed in full plate armor and a crown that stood before me. Zephiel, The Liberator, my strongest and most trusted Hero. He also led my arena defense team while I was away, one which was rivaled by few other than my fellow "whales."

"It's not like I told you to wait. I'm sure that defending our spot in the arena has kept you busy?" I said without flinching despite the imposing figure that he was. I was his master by all terms, so it wasn't like he was any threat to me or my well being. Aside from that, it was only virtual reality, not the real world.

The man scowled, but dipped his head. "Three enemy Summoners attempted to break our line, and three Summoners fell to their knees before us. Our strength is yet unparalleled."

"Say that again when you're up against a Heavy Spear with no one to guide you," I snorted, walking by him to the Dragons Gate. "Is Catty online yet? She promised to meet me once I was out of work."

"I am not privy to knowledge of the activities of other Summoners," came the expected, curt response. "You should request that from Feh. If she is here, I suspect she would be training."

"Training Tower. Right. She did just summon a couple new Heroes," I mused, recalling her excitement when she summoned Sigurd and Takumi, two truly remarkable Heroes. "I think we should try catching up to her. Zephiel, gather Alm, Brave Lucina, Julia, and Takumi for me and have them meet me at the tower. We're going to speed run up to the ninth."

"As you command." The king bowed to me and turned before vanishing. I could tell he didn't appreciate being my little bitch, but then that was what he got for being my favorite. Sighing, I looked back at the ten floor-high tower. The ninth floor was the highest floor in the tower, starting with the basic floor and then working from one on up, and was also where the strongest foes to train against were at. Most of the tower was filled with generic units with unremarkable skills, but the ninth floor was ridiculous without a decent team and strategy.

Walking wasn't necessary in this world, one could simply will themself between the market, arena, tower, and gate, but I took my time strolling over to the tower. Waiting for me at its entrance, punctual as always, was a green-haired swordsman, a blue-haired lancer, an anemic looking girl, and an Eastern prince with a bow. They were some of my other favorites, and though they didn't have perfect synergy, for a simple tower run they would do.

"Nothing special today," I told the team of princes and princesses. "We're making our way up to the ninth as quickly as possible. With any luck, we'll find who we're looking for long before we get there. This will be good training for you four as well, so don't slack off. The extra SP and HM never hurts."

The team nodded, though of course they likely didn't understand half of it. Ordering Heroes didn't require verbal commands, but sometimes I just liked to hear myself speak. Nodding them along, they entered the tower, with me following close behind. Up until the sixth or seventh floor I knew I could trust them to act on their own, but after that point the enemies would be too strong to trust the finicky AI of Fire Emblem Heroes.

As expected, of course, it was roughly upon reaching the seventh that I had to take over command. Despite it, beating the enemy teams was cake. The team leader on the seventh was a Lon'qu with a horrible randomly generated skillset, and the eighth was led by Fae, who couldn't have stood up to Alm if she wanted to. What surprised me most was that Catty wasn't on any of the previous floors, meaning she could only be on the ninth.

"Alright, keep on your toes!" I called to my Heroes. "This next battle will be a bit more tricky! I don't want to have a single casualty."

"Right!" they chanted back without missing a beat. Of course, it didn't really affect much in an RPG where numbers determined everything, and I had the advantage in almost every battle. Just one boon to being so dedicated to my sport.

Across the battlefield, my foes spawned in. I bit my cheek as I saw who I was up against. Reinhardt, Nowi, Lyn, and Brave Ike all appeared before me, and no less looking over their skills, they would be troublesome foes. Troublesome, yet not unworkable. This was the most wide and open map of them all, with nowhere for my enemies to hide from me.

Battling in Fire Emblem Heroes was simple. Every map was a six by eight grid, with the starting locations of units dependent upon the map. This one was from the CH2-5 story mode battle. Gridding the map like it was a game of Battleship, the starting locations of Reinhardt, Nowi, Lyn, and Brave Ike were B2, B3, B4, and B5, accordingly. My units were in the the same columns, but in row G. I organized them so Julia was directly across from Reinhardt, with Takumi to her right. Alm held the opposing end to Brave Ike, and Brave Lucina was between him and Takumi, offering the whole team the buffs her lance and C Skill offered.

For my first turn, I ordered the units to hold, allowing the enemy to approach instead. On the enemy turn, they acted exactly as I expected them to. Nowi didn't move, instead buffing Reinhardt with Rally Defense. Immediately, the Blue Cavalier charged straight for Julia and attacked her. His special Dire Thunder tome dealt two hits automatically, but against Julia each barely scathed her and she countered with a one-shot kill. Her Fury damaged her as a penalty, hurting her more than the actual attack did. Brave Ike and and Lyn moved forward, though they switched sides so Ike was now across from Lucina, a disadvantage but not one I was concerned with.

My turn came, and I moved Julia forward, but kept her just out of the enemy's range. On my silent command, Alm marched forward two tiles, putting him in range of Lyn and I positioned Lucina behind him, safe from the enemy Ike but still close enough to offer her buffs. Takumi came up next to Alm, his Close Counter making me more than bold enough to run him up on the enemy units. The enemy turn came, and I watched them fall one by one. Automatically, Lyn attacked Alm, dealing a moderate amount of damage to him, but in the long run, she fell to him. Even the Brave Mercenary, when he entered combat with Alm, couldn't survive as his Dragon Fang activated, KOing him in one shot. Nowi miserably advanced, but when my turn came, it was Julia who made short work of the poor child.

"They just don't make tower units like they used to," I sighed with a shrug, walking forward as trumpets blared in victory, a screen appearing in front of me displaying my loot. I swiped it aside, not caring about the small prize. No, who I was looking for was waiting for me, her heroes right beside her.

"Took you long enough, Prince Charming," the woman giggled, watching me with cat-like eyes.