A/N: Okay. I should explain my absence. School started back up a few weeks ago and it is beginning to get a lot more difficult for me to sit down and write out a new chapter for you guys. It's especially hard when I'm busy worrying about my grades and school work and I can't sit down and properly write out a good chapter that actually relates to the story itself and is of some sort of quality. Also I want to apologize for this chapter since it's a sorry excuse for a chapter especially after a long wait like this one.

I wasn't planning on posting this chapter today because I was going to write out a few more chapters and then uploading them all at once as a sort of sorry-I've-been-gone-for-so-long gift, but since my writing time has dwindled down even further and this is the only chapter I have written out right now I thought I would just post it to show you guys that I am still in fact, deeply invested in this story and this is starting to turn into a run-on sentence.

So just a heads up, the next time I update won't be for some time and when I do I'll have a nice bunch of chapters for you guys! (I might even just finish the story and post it up when I'm done.)

Okay now to get to why you guys are here; the chapter!

EDIT: Yikes! Sorry about that! Thank you to everyone who told me that I accidentally posted the wrong chapter! Fixed it and here is the real chapter!

Amalgamating Flesh & Pixels

Chapter 7:

Just a Glimpse at Reality

"Tooth!" We all said in unison, save for little Sandman who had an '!' above his head.

Bunny tossed me back my staff as we all ran towards the direction of the distressed yells, Sandman on what looked like a golden cloud, Bunny was on foot, and I used my staff.

"I will try and stop it from front!" North yelled at us as we took off. I had no idea what he meant by that, but there wasn't time to look back and ask.

Tooth was trapped within the rib cage of from what I could see something that looked like a black horse. And he was moving fast. We were just a couple meters away from it and I aimed my staff at the stallion and was about to shoot before Bunny just about knocked it out my hands.

I glared at him, "What the he-"

"You might hit Tooth!" He yelled at me before I even finished.

"I'm just going to slow it down!" I yelled back him and before he could say anything else I shot. I hit it and it went down hard, sliding against the ground until it finally came to a stop. We ran up to it surrounding the frozen corpse.

North joined us a few seconds after, he let out a breathless laugh, "I transported in wrong location."

I took the end of my staff and brought it down on the cage encasing Tooth, cracking it open. Tooth was curled up in in the cavity, shivering. Once she felt the sunlight her feathers perked up and she looked up at us.

"Jack!" She jumped out and wrapped her arms around my neck in a tight hug. She looked over at Sandman who was standing beside me and gave him a bright smile and he returned it with a smile of his own. "You guys saved me!"

I could hear Bunny and North talking somewhere behind me, but I didn't turn to look because my attention was on Sandman and Tooth and that would just be rude if I just left.

"That doesn't look like any monsta that roams 'round these parts." Bunny said.

"Manny was right." North.

They continued talking, but they got quieter and I couldn't make out what they were saying as Tooth's excited chatter became louder.

Now, what could they possibly be talking about all super secretly?

I logged off after I promised Tooth that I would at least think about the offer, but from what she said earlier I didn't seem to have much of a choice. And even after I promised North that I would meet with them tomorrow he still threatened me about what he would do if I didn't come.

I gasped as I took the headset off and leaned back against the wall (I should really invest in a computer chair) as I stared at the ceiling.

"What have I gotten myself into?" I tiredly asked the dark nothingness around me.

The next morning, well a few hours after I logged out of The Game, I woke myself up and found out that I never even got into my bed and decided the hard-wood floor was a better option. An option that I very quickly learned wasn't the best option.

Glancing at the holograph blue digital numbers that sat beside my head I got up, my back sore like hell, grabbed whatever clothes I could find that didn't smell weird, and dragged myself downstairs to get ready.

A cold shower later, something I didn't mind because I find cold showers wake me up faster plus I think they feel nice not that I don't enjoy a good hot shower every now and then either, I went through the cabinets in the kitchen scouring for something to eat. Nothing, as per usual. I just grabbed the last Popsicle in the freezer. Do Popsicles expire? I should really buy some (real) food. And get a job.

Which reminds me; laundry day. I put the wrapper clad frozen treat in my mouth, ran back upstairs and grabbed the large white sack full of clothes in the corner, tying the drawstrings tightly I tossed it over my shoulder and went back downstairs. I tossed it beside the front door as I ran back into the kitchen to grab a Credit Card off the counter after quickly glancing at the remaining credits left on them.

While passing the mirror that sat near the door I thought about attempting to fix my hair, but decided against it letting little tufts of brown hair stick up. I thought it looked nice and in the end isn't my opinion the only one that matters? I grabbed my blue sweatshirt on my way out.

Picking the laundry sack up I opened the front door and stepped outside into the chilly morning air. I tossed the sack off to the side and slammed shut the door, jiggling the handle and door roughly making sure that it was 'locked'.

I didn't have a house key, and since the house was so old the door would only open if you opened it a certain way (which involved shaking the holy hell out of it and throwing your body weight into it). The house was basically a rickety old shed with an attic (my room). It was wooden and old and was barely standing up on its own, but hey it does the job.

Besides, its condition wasn't why I chose this place as my new home. I chose it because of where it was located; it sat near this long river that ran through the city. The house was at the edge of a scrapyard that a boat would come by and drop off a new load of metal every few weeks. I liked rummaging through piles of scraps to find anything that could be useful. Living here had its perks and the metal was certainly one of them. When I found this place a few years ago I used some of the scrap metal to connect to the nearby generators so I could get free electricity and water. I love having advanced classes even though they are a pain in the ass sometimes.

So all in all, the fog sucked in the mornings, and as long as I stayed out of the boat workers way they wouldn't tell anyone I was living there, I got a gorgeous view of the sunset and a marvelous, not to mention useful, scrapheap (if you knew what you were looking for), and I got free utilities. What wasn't there to love?

After making sure the door was shut I picked up the laundry bag and began to trek down the dirt road white sack in hand.

I bet you're wondering. Jack, why are you living all on your lonesome? Well, I'll tell you. For starters, I'm 18 I can legally live on my own so stop questioning my authority. And two, my mom and sister died. I won't get all sob story on you guys because when it's something you've lived with for quite some time you unwillingly get used to it.

My dad was never around so there isn't much to say about him. My sister was really sick, something she was born with. It was inherited from our mother who was just as equally sick, but was able to manage her whole life. My sister's body was too weak and frail to stay healthy so eventually it just shut down. About a year later my mom's body finally gave up as well and died when I was 16. Since then I've just been running around trying to find a place to stay, you know safe from the powers of nature and stuff like that. It was pretty difficult at first since I can't hold a job for very long (the managers never seem to like me but that could be because of numerous reasons that I won't go into) and it just seems easier to just steal some random by passer's Credit Card.

I quickly slipped on my sweatshirt as I walked and opened up my frozen breakfast and ate it on the way. Thank goodness I was used to eating these things otherwise it would have sucked to eat on such a cold day.

I tossed the white wrapper into a nearby trash bin once I made it to the shuttle bus station. The enclosed room wasn't packed which is why I came here so early. I shoved my hands into my sweatshirt pockets, not at all bothered by the cold weather and laughed silently to myself as I watched as anyone else who came to take the bus shiver from the cold air.

I liked the cold.

Maybe I am sort of like a Jack Frost.

It never really bothered me even when I was a kid. In fact, I always looked forward to the wintery season and snow. But it was heading toward the end of the season now so spring is going to come and take its place. Not that many people cared about the seasons anymore nowadays anyway.

Then I thought back to The Game. Toothiana, Sandman, North, and Bunny.

Pfft. No one believed in those guys anymore. The Tooth Fairy, Sandman, Easter Bunny, and Santa Claus I mean. Parents always let out that they didn't really exist and next thing you know the believers are pretty much extinct. As childish as it seemed I liked to still keep the magic flowing and believe in them, even though throughout the hundreds of years the stories have existed no one could ever actually say they really saw them besides some old sweaty guy in a suit. Shame.

Bunny…

He was a Guardian? Even if I had already known they existed besides believing in them like some fairytale, I still find it hard to believe how Bunny would agree to go along with such a childish idea, something that seems like something I would do. And I never even knew it either.

How long had he been a part of that? Years? Even all the way back to when I first met him? Was that how they kept it a secret; never told anyone who they were since no one even knew who or what The Guardians even looked like just knew that they existed. When did the rumor (well not so much a rumor anymore I guess) get around that a group of players like them were even running around?

The Guardians have been running around like any other player and no one thought any different of them.

Well, I'll admit it was a pretty good. It kept them inconspicuous. You never heard about anything amazing about them on The Board. All you really read about them were rumors. What people thought they looked like, whatever big great thing everyone thought they accomplished, when really, they probably never even did any of that stuff. No one knew. Not that I knew any better, all I knew was that they were The Guardians. Not what they did or are doing that made them so notorious in the first place.

I should ask them that. And they better tell me if they expect me to join whatever the hell they are and whatever they do.

Besides if North is Santa Claus, Toothiana the Tooth Fairy, and Sandman as the, well, Sandman, then that makes Bunny the Easter Bunny. Just the thought of it makes a laugh bubble in my throat, which I had to hide with a cough. I need to send him a friendly message regarding this information.

Ugh, I don't know anything about them and yet I am about to disembark on some sort of adventure with them.

Seems like something I'd do.