A/N: Thanks for all the reviews, everyone! I'm really excited about this story, and it's nice to see other people excited about it, as well. I hope this, and future, chapter(s) meets expectations.

And to answer gaby: Yes, the rest of the Core Four will be included in this story, but I can't promise they will show up for quite a few chapters.


"This is it," He said, as they came to the entrance of the game. "This is my game."

Calhoun nodded. "I thought so."

"You know it?"

"We call this Ground Zero."

"What does that mean?"

"It means," She started, refilling her gun as a slight precaution. She'd never been here on her own before. The placed was deemed uninhabitable just a couple months ago. She had no idea people still lived there.

"This is where the cybugs first hit that Mod-forsaken day over a year ago. We're still not sure how it happened, considering the cybugs are features from our game, but we can tell by the damage left that it began here."

She ducked under a piece of fallen ceiling. "Honestly, it's a miracle it's still upright." She wanted to add how miraculous it was that he was still alive, but she figured he already knew that.

They began walking. Thankfully, the barrier was still down. Sometimes the power short-circuited and things, such as game barriers, went in and out at random.

The walk was quiet. She was used to this. The man beside her obviously was not. He cleared his throat. "So, w-what's your name?"

She didn't look at him. Didn't even blink. "Calhoun."

He considered this. "Is that your first or last name?"

She hesitated, but only for a moment. "Last." She spoke up again, before he had a chance to question it. "What about you? You got a name?"

"Felix," He smiled.

"What makes you so sure of that?"

He coughed, directing her eyesight down to him. He was pointing at the name tag sewn onto his shirt. It easily read "Felix". Now how did she miss that? She continued on, Felix trailing behind.

"Is it uncommon for game characters to remember their names?"

"Yes," Calhoun said, her gun light continuing to survey the scene. She could tell by the quiet that he was waiting for more. "Common thoughts or memories like names or faces were the first to go when the virus took over."

"So, do you only know your last name from a nameplate of sorts, like me?"

She felt defensive for a moment, or perhaps she wasn't used to this much talking, so it just spilled out. "I remember my whole name."

Felix could tell by her tone that she had no intention of telling it to him, but he marveled anyway. "Why do you think that is?"

She stopped walking for a moment and sighed. "I'm not sure. I have this theory. See, unlike most people, I locked my full name away, only giving it to people I could really trust. So, when the virus hit and started sweeping everyone's minds, it took mostly only surface memories. And due to my different mindset, left my name completely alone."

Felix looked as if his head hurt. A side-effect to not only the virus, but probably his glitching, too.

Looking up again, Calhoun breathed in. She really wanted to search the area without Felix, but she didn't like the idea of leaving him behind. Especially not in his condition.

As Calhoun continued swinging her gun from side to side, the flashlight focusing on plenty of square shaped items, too beyond repair to be recognizable anymore, they happened upon a house beside a large mountain of broken red bricks.

She gestured her gun at the shack. "This your place?"

He shrugged. "It is now, I guess."

"What does that mean?"

"Seeing how this is my game, I'm pretty sure I used to live somewhere way up there." He pointed to a run down building behind her. Judging by it's stature, the only accessible floors now looked to be the ground and first, but even they were pretty questionable.

He sighed at the building for a moment, before turning around and heading inside the shack that was pretty rundown itself. But at least it looked a bit more habitable.

She followed him inside, though a bit more cautiously.

He was already sitting on a large, dirty, old sofa when she entered.

"It isn't much, but I like to call it home," Felix said, smiling at the large interior. "I feel comfortable here."

Comfort. This was a foreign feeling to Calhoun, not having felt it ever since the dark days began.

She knew she must have felt it before. In fact, she herself felt something when she glanced around the house, but she couldn't place the feeling. Perhaps it was comfort, but she could never be sure.

She suddenly felt more cautious. Not of just her body, but her heart, as well. She had caged it many months ago, when she watched several of her fellow soldiers die trying to save this blasted arcade. She gave up on hope, comfort, life, and any other sort of good feeling a long time ago.

Felix was messing with the sofa, drawing imaginary shapes on the fabric, when she returned from her thoughts.

"I think I knew the person who lived here," he said, so softly, Calhoun wasn't even sure he was speaking to her. "I think they were my friend."

Calhoun didn't like this conversation. She didn't like this house. She didn't like the feeling of comfort she was sure this place was bringing.

She quickly changed the subject, not even trying to be subtle. "You keep saying this is your game. What makes you think that?"

Felix hopped up. "Mostly because of this." He headed over to the corner of the shack and held out a golden item. "I think it's a weapon of some sort."

Calhoun studied weapons of all kinds, so she easily identified it. "Yeah, it's a hammer." Not a battle hammer, of course. More of a common household hammer, used for building or fixing things. Not exactly something that made you the hero of a game. "What makes you so sure it's yours?"

"All I know is, I was clutching this when I finally woke up, almost as if I was protecting someone or something with it."

Calhoun carefully took the hammer from Felix and studied it. It was heavy, most definitely made of the gold color it portrayed. Still, even with it's weight, she doubt it could have done any real damage to a cybug.

She handed the hammer back, quickly noting how his entire body seemed to stay whole, barely glitching when he held the hammer at its base. She shook off the thought, figuring it was nothing.

"Where were you when you finally woke up?"

Felix thought about this for a moment. "I can show you, if you'd like."

She gave a curt nod as a response and followed him outside the house. After walking for about five minutes in silence, Calhoun looked down and spotted the item he brought along with him. "You didn't need to bring that with you, you know. Just seems like an unnecessary weight to carry around."

He stopped short and twisted his arm around to get a good look at it. "What do you mean?"

"The hammer," She said. "It's clearly made of pure gold, which makes it pretty heavy."

Felix's face showed genuine confusion. He tossed the hammer up on the air and caught it a couple times. She noticed the slight flash she had seen before each time he caught it, but continued to shake it off, blaming it on not enough sleep.

Finally, he shrugged, flashing her another smile. "Feels pretty light to me."