"Husky!"

"FISH!"

"Mudkip!"

"Quentin!"

Four voices pierced through the sleepiness of a nearby town, each in search of the same person, though using different names. The normally quiet village quickly snapped out of its tranquil trance as the owners of those voice trampled in as noisy as a herd of cattle. Residents peered out of the windows of their small yet cozy wooden homes, only to be met with panicked faces and worried expressions. Older residents of the town rolled their eyes at the display; the seven youngest residents were always obnoxiously loud and destructive. A wooden door at the opposite corner of the village opened slightly, as the person, or rather creature inside had only faintly heard the chorus calling for him. That quickly changed, though, as the voices grew louder and stronger in magnitude, reverberating towards him. The same door was suddenly swung ajar as HuksyMudkipz, with a very confused look on his face. He knew exactly who was calling his name, and it was never a good thing when they did. The last time such a thing had occurred, Deadlox had found himself some TNT and decided to take the opportunity to try to blast his way to the Aether. The farthest he got was a mountain, where he was stuck for three consecutive days. It would only make sense to prepare for the worst when Sky, Deadlox, BajanCanadian and ASFJerome came running up to his doorstep. He had wanted to go to the lake today, too. He walked out of his house and onto the gravel road that poked and prodded at his softer feet, and waited before seeing them jog up to him, faces red.

"What did you do?" he asked, hoping yet knowing he was going to regret it. The four stopped abruptly in front of him, coughing. They weren't exactly the most agile of the bunch with maybe the exception of Jerome, but even him with all his bacca strength and shape was out of breath. When they recovered, they looked at him for a few seconds, saying nothing, before erupting into a conundrum of possible explanations.

"There was this crazy jump map we tried out-"

"-a cave with an entire city in it!"

"When we realized Seto wasn't at his tower we-"

"Our headsets broke and we were trapped in this tiny-"

"Will everyone be quiet so I can actually know what the problem is!" his monotone voice chided, silencing them once more. Looking at them again, he asked, "Ty, what's going on?" The brunette was quiet at first, as if thinking something over, and then replied,

"I have no idea." Husky fought the urge to smack his flipper onto his blue and orange face. Jerome and Mitch were just fidgeting around while Sky was just sort of shocked at Ty's response. He asked again in a trying manner,

"Adam, what's going on?" To which said person's face lightened up, as if given verbal permission to talk all he wanted. At least he would get some answers this time. Hopefully.

"We were trying out this new parkour course in a Glitch Zone, and Ty was running a little late. After about ten minutes, he messaged me, saying that he had a surprise or something. Him and Seto both showed up, which was strange because I thought Seto didn't like parkour. Anyway, after a while and a lot of jumping, we all made it to the top, minus Seto. When the whole thing blew up, Mitch thought he might have left early, so we went to his tower to find him." He took a breath to continue, meanwhile everyone else felt the true urgency except for Husky, who couldn't have picked a worse candidate to relay the news if he had tried. Oh well, here we go again. "He wasn't around the tower, though it was pink, and Jerome went inside to look for him. Turns out we was there, but he had left, and all that was inside was this journal thing that we may or may not have accidentally read. Jerome called us over because he'd found blood stains or something like that. The tower collapsed on us, knocked out this guy-," He elbowed Ty, and continued, "before we were attacked-"

"Sky!" Mitch said, but it was too late; everyone had heard. Turning back to look at him again, Deadlox asked,

"Attacked? What happened? Why didn't you guys tell me?!" He said, slight anger revealing itself in his tone. Husky only looked confused, trying to make sense of Adam's fast-flowing mouth. "Who were they? Did anyone get hurt?" he quickly added, concern filling him. The three looked awkwardly at each other, before Jerome jumped in and said,

"It was pretty quick, and we fought them off. That was when the earthquake started-" This time, Husky interrupted, clearly done processing the first bit of the wild tale.

"Wait, stop. Who attacked you? Random people just don't pop out of no where, right?" This time, Sky came to Jerome's defense, desperately trying to fill in the loose blanks without sounding crazy.

"It was this small band from an army, I think. They just threatened-" Once again, the Mudkip cut them off, pressing for more answers. What had they gotten themselves into? A war?!

"Threatened us? Does that mean the village is under attack? Should we get the village guard up and running again? If you guys angered another town again, we can't recover!" Shaking his head, Mitch replied slowly,

"They were just a bunch of outsiders, only slightly trained in attacking. We fought them off, earthquake, let's get on with it." A stunning and surprising comment, but it hit its mark, and allowed Adam to start talking again. Husky seemed to have accepted the explanation, but the look in Ty's eyes told Mitch it wasn't over yet. All because of some derpy squids. Taking what might be his last chance to finish his original story, Sky continued on,

"After the earthquake, we fell down into one of the holes and got trapped. We talked for a little bit, Ty woke up, and we escaped by pulling on some rocks." He excluded the bit about the amulet to avoid another controversy and long list of explanations. He could still feel it in his right pocket, pure gold. "That was when we saw one of the main reasons we ran all the way over here. We found a city, an entire city, underground." Finally finished, he felt a little pride, and allowed himself to exit the discussion and the sure flurry of questions that rapidly followed. Another second of painful silence chipped away, before Quentin groaned, and said,

"We're going to need a new village guard to investigate this. If there's any danger, we drop out, immediately." He said, putting careful emphasis on the word immediately. "But that's side tracking from the main purpose. What happened to Seto?" Some nervous laughter was coughed up, as Jerome glanced away from him, saying,

"We.. we don't actually know..." Quentin froze slightly, and let out a sigh; these four were digging themselves into a hole they couldn't get out of. If anything had happened to them, honor code stated that it was their fault, even if they had nothing to do with it. They all knew this, of course. Every kid that grew up in the village or in one with a similar set up was taught the honor code, sword drills, and basic attacks to ward off the monsters of the night. He was a slight exception, as he was newer to the town than most, and this stuff was only now being drilled into his head.

"We need to find him too. Honor code, remember? Anyway, let's go find Ian, probably at the bakery, and explain this mess to him. No matter what you got yourselves into, we're with you." He said reassuringly. Their faces relaxed; they had broken several rules today. Don't journey alone, never test the Glitch Zones, the list went on and on. For now it appeared as though they might be let off the hook, if the city proved to be worth investigating. The squids could be dealt with later. Nothing more truly had to be said; each member of the ever-expanding group simply looked at each other, and they all knew what had to be done. Being much more careful and considerate, they were much quieter walking down to Ian's house; Sky lead the way, and it was where he wanted to check first. No matter how much Ssundee loved cake, he wouldn't go that far from home. Quentin endured as sharp pieces of flint spiked against his sole, mentally cursing himself for not getting his grey shoes.

When they arrived at his house, only a few lanes down from where they had been, Mitch knocked, and everyone else stayed behind the fence. It was a forced habit, more or less. No one knew if he was in one of his little moods, and even the slightest notion could disturb him then. It was the main reason Ian didn't receive that many visitors, but they had learned to cope with it. Hesitantly, the door opened from the inside, revealing Mr. Sunglasses himself. He smiled slightly upon first glance, but he became more and more confused when he noticed their own expressions.

"...what's going on?" He asked hesitantly, unsure if he truly wanted to know. A collective groan arose from the guys, and they started to explain their story again. The only main difference was that somewhere along the way their attackers became ninjas. Deadlox still wasn't buying it, but it wasn't the time for him to bring it up. As creepy as it had seemed, he was eager to get back to the city and discover more about it, and why it had struck a chord in memories he thought were long-since forgotten. After the painfully long explanation ceased, Ssundee only nodded, as if this sort of thing happened all the time.

"We're going to need guards, or at least some other people to go with us." Sky said again. "There should be at least someone willing to come along, especially if we could cough up some sort of reward." The last part was said hastily, on account of none of them really having that much money or good except Ssundee, but that was another story. Deadlox cleared his throat, and announced, official-like,

"Let the recruiting begin."