Chapter 5

You couldn't miss the Gamer's Lounge, it was a two story tall building shaped like an ancient video game controller, Gabriel thought he remembered his Grandpa Danny's old friend Mr. Foley saying it was an Atari controller. Gabriel and Anna turned Human and went in. Some soft rock music was playing inside while various people sat at tables with Virtual Reality helmets on, while other people ate various snacks and drinks. Gabriel and Anna waited in line and eventually got to the front. "I'll have a banana Greek yogurt and green tea," Anna asked, "Just a Mello Yello," Gabriel ordered and the server gave them their food. Gabriel found an unoccupied table and sat down. He swiped his credit card on the helmet and ordered an hour's worth of playtime online. "Tell me if you need anything Anna," Gabriel told his little sister, who nodded and had another spoonful of yogurt.

He chose a game called 'Battle of Byronia', where he could be a cyborg soldier battling evil aliens called the Aristos. There were five classes, the Foot Soldier, Dragoon, Marine, Flyer, and Spy, Gabriel chose the Flyer. Advantages for the Flyer: high speed and dodging capabilities and long range laser hands, Disadvantages for the Flyer: low defense and no close quarters fighting capabilities. Gabriel then found himself on a battlefield with aliens of all shapes and sizes shooting at cyborgs. Cyber-Gabriel took off to the skies and blasted at the Aristos foot soldiers that looked like purple bearded lizard men. He then spotted a black tank with three rotating cannons about to plow through some cyborg soldiers and blasted it away, then started dodging the foot soldiers' return fire. "Gabriel?" he heard someone say in the game and realized it was Lucas. "Hey man, what are you?" Gabriel asked. "I'm the Dragoon whose but you saved taking out that tank," Cyber-Lucas told him, then Gabriel spotted him, he just used his rocket launcher to take out an Aristos aircraft that he hadn't seen. "Not bad Lucas," Gabriel heard a third voice say and realized that it was Mike. Cyber-Mike was a Foot Soldier with two machine guns, blasting away at Aristos foot soldiers and carving a large chunk of them out of the cyber battlefield.

"Watch this," Cyber-Gabriel told them, then flew low and grabbed an Aristos grenade then threw it at an Aristos aircraft that looked like a blue flying squid, destroying it then pulled up and took out three more in front of him. "Alright guys, let's take them out!" Cyber-Mike yelled and Cyber-Gabriel stayed with his friends' avatars on the battlefield, advancing through the Aristos hoards. "If we can reach their base, we win!" Lucas yelled as he spotted a large maroon tower on the cyber battlefield. Cyber-Gabriel tried to fly low again to throw back a grenade but a grenade exploded in front of him, blinding him and making him fly out of control. "Gabriel pull up!" he heard Cyber Lucas yell and he flew straight up and crashed into an Aristos aircraft. "That had to hurt," Cyber-Mike said. "You have no idea," Cyber-Gabriel groaned, that crash took out half his health; he was down to 10%. Cyber-Gabriel blasted away the Aristos aircraft and grabbed an intact cannon and attached it to himself. "Now it's a party!" Cyber-Mike yelled then grabbed a working cannon from a tank and blasted away. The three friends were within ten feet on the cyber battlefield of the Aristos base when Cyber-Lucas screamed. Cyber-Gabriel could only watch as his friend was run through with a sword and quickly avenged him, then felt a missile hit him in the back and was out.

Gabriel in real life grabbed his phone and texted Lucas, "Where are you?" Lucas texted back, "I'm near the snack bar with Mike, he's still on!" Gabriel put his helmet back on and watched as Mike blasted away at surrounding Aristos foot soldiers as he crawled to the base. He then turned around and shot the base! A blaring horn sounded in the real world and Gabriel heard a voice yell, "WWWIIIINNNNNNNEEEEERRRRR! MIKE PI IS THE FIRST WINNER OF 'BATTLE OF BYRONIA'!" A large hologram turned on from the ceiling showing Mike and Lucas as the manager of the Gamer's Lounge, an average black man whose hair was in a ponytail wearing a purple polo shirt and jeans, stepped up to them. "Mike Pi," the manager said, "You are the first winner of 'Battle of Byronia' and for your achievement, I would like to present a $1000 Gift Card, and a refund for the money you spent today. You're awesome man!"

Mike took the platinum colored card and held it up for the camera to see. Gabriel ran up to him and said, "Wow, I didn't think you'd get that!" "I know right!?" Mike excitedly yelled. "Man, $1000, you could play like 500 hours with it!" Lucas said, rubbing his head at the thought. "I'm set for the whole year, that's for sure," Mike said as he started to walk out. "Oh wait!" Gabriel said, "I forgot Anna!" Lucas sighed at this, "Man, smooth move Brother of the Year." "Up yours," Gabriel said back then ran back to his table to see Anna was playing a game too. "Oh thank God," Gabriel sighed in relief. "Hi Gabriel," Anna said. "Hey Sis….what are you playing?" Gabriel asked. "Skull Splatter 5000," Anna said with a wicked grin. "WHAT!" Gabriel yelled. Anna started laughing at him and Gabriel growled, "What are you really playing? And how are you paying for it?"

Anna then told him, "Just some puzzle games, and you left your credit card here." Gabriel's jaw dropped at this as Anna handed him back his credit card. Gabriel's phone beeped and he saw that Lucas texted him, "You coming?" Gabriel turned to his sister and asked, "How much more time do you got?" "Twenty more minutes," Anna told him. Gabriel texted to Lucas, "Tell me where you're going and I'll catch up, Anna's playing a game, she's got 20 more minutes left." Lucas texted back, "See you at the Lore Room, we're meeting Lily and Abby there." "See you there," Gabriel texted back and sat waiting for Anna to finish her game.

Anna finally finished her game, Gabriel and she went Ghost and flew to the Lore Room, a bookstore/coffee shop where Abby and Lisa liked to hang out sometimes. They reached it and Gabriel headed straight for the comics section where he spotted Mike, Lucas, and Lisa reading the latest Oni Tantei manga, it was a series about a half-demon detective in New York during various eras, last volume he read was set in the 1950's. "So, how's John Gath doing now?" Gabriel asked. Lisa stopped reading and said, "He's battling this one wizard holding kids hostage trying to open a portal to Tartarus, the year is 1958 in this one." "Awesome, where's Abby?" Gabriel asked. "She's at the Shop, reading her new C.S. Lewis book," Lisa told him. "Thanks," Gabriel told her and saw Anna reading Sailor Moon. "Can you guys watch my sister?" he asked his friends. "Only for a few minutes, don't take too long with Abby," Mike warned him. "I won't," Gabriel promised and headed to see Abby.

He saw her at a table, wearing a short denim skirt and brown boots with a green turtleneck, reading her book and sipping a hot peppermint chocolate. Gabriel came over and said, "Hey Babe." "Hey Gabriel, I think I finally found a book you'd read," she told him. "I've read plenty of books," Gabriel said. "Not recently," she pointed out. Gabriel thought about that and nodded in agreement, "So, which one are you reading now?" he asked her. "I'm reading, The Screwtape Letters, it's about this demon named Screwape teaching his nephew Wormwood how to tempt people to Hell through letters, it's pretty interesting." "I think Michael has a copy of that," Gabriel said, "Which chapter are you on?" So Gabriel and Abby talked for a few minutes, then he got a text from his parents, "We need to talk." "Huh, this looks serious, I'll see you later Abs," Gabriel told his girlfriend and she gave him a small peck on the cheek as he went to Anna. He bought her the manga she was reading and they both went Ghost and flew home.

Once they got there he saw his parents in the living room looking at his Dad's laptop. Michael was already there looking nervous and their parents looked serious. "What's wrong?" Anna asked. Their Mom answered, "The Purifiers sent a transmission ten minutes ago, and this is it." She then typed on the laptop to activate its holograph function and the image of a tall man in black with a blue hood and the symbol of a hand crushing a ghost appeared. "The so-called halfas and their puppet government think that they have beaten us. You cannot defeat the Purifiers, our sacred mission cannot fail. We will cleanse this world of all ghosts and the half-ghosts starting tomorrow. All humans with clear minds know how necessary this is to ensure the survival of the human race, the half-ghosts are too powerful for the governments to defeat, and they are blind to the danger they possess. We know what they are capable of, and we will stop the future oppressors of mankind before they make their move. To the half-ghosts, submit yourselves to us for the sake of the world, or we will show no mercy to those who stand in our way. You have been warned."