Tiana could hear a voice calling to her. At first, she thought it was the voice of her daddy. When she opens her eyes, she realizes that it wasn't him. It was Tapper, lightly shaking her body.
"Tiana. Tiana, wake up."
Tiana yawns, and sits up. She looks around, and remembers where she was, rubbing her eyes.
"The arcade is about to open soon. I hate to push you out, but…"
"I understand. I'm very grateful for your help." Tiana replies. She gets out of bed, and stands up. She stretches and yawns again. She pulls out her mirror, and checks herself.
She notices that her hair is messier than usual, which isn't saying much. Her hair was messy a lot, and no matter how much she or anyone else tried to straighten it, it always looked like she had bedhead. As she typically does, she ignores it and puts her mirror back in a pocket on her dress. She brushes off any wrinkles on her apron, and starts to walk to the front door.
"Good luck." Tapper hollers to her she leaves. Tiana stops, and turns back at Tapper.
"Thank you for your hospitality." Tiana replies as she walks out. She takes the ride back, and is about to walk to Game Central Station. She didn't expect it again when Surge appeared.
"Name." He stops himself when he looks down to see Tiana. You again?!" Surge replies with a slightly frustrated tone.
"Sorry, I accidentally slept at Tapper's. I should head back to my game now."
"Don't let it happen again."
He lets her pass, and she walks to the chairs in the center of the Station. She sat down, and looked around at all of the games left to explore.
"Which one should I check out next? Something more exciting sounds good." She slowly scans left and right, reading all of the names of the games silently to herself. She stops her eyes at a certain game title. "Hero's Duty? Sounds interesting."
She looks at the entrance for a way in. There's no way that Surge Protector will let her in if she's spotted. She has to find her own way in.
She notices a bunch of burley dudes in black and red armor lining up. They definitely look like soldiers. Now's her chance. Tiana rushes over to the big line, and crouches. Since there were so many soldiers, and they were so big, she could easily crawl past them to get in.
She does just that, and starts to pass them from the sides. Crawling under them would let them know she was there, and she'd get spotted. Tiana was thinking to herself as she crawled.
"Man, my dress sucks when it comes to crawling. She soon makes it past undetected. She walks towards the carrier, and stops to think. "I don't have any card keys or way to tell this thing to move. From what it looks like, only certain people can get this thing running." She looks closer at the transport.
She says in her thoughts, "Hmm… this transport machine doesn't have wheels and isn't attached to the ground. If I cling to the underside, no one would ever notice I'm there. Then, I just jump back up and I'm in." She looks closer at the bottom side, and notices sparks of electricity, zapping the bottom. "Yikes! That electricity looks dangerous! It's what's keeping it hovering."
She turns around and notices that almost all of the soldiers are through the gate. She's running out of time. "It's my only chance. I just have to be careful."
As the soldiers approach, she leaps to the underside and waits. After a minute or so (Tiana's not good at keeping track of time), it starts moving, and Tiana keeps her grip carefully. A few bolts almost zap her, and she quickly moves before she's hit. Soon, the vehicle stops, and she can hear the sound of heavy footsteps getting quieter.
She continues to listen until the footsteps are too distant to hear.
Tiana jumps up, and looks around. No one else is there. Her plan worked, but barely. Tiana notes to herself to not do that again.
She runs in, and ends up in a cool looking base. Though, it's kinda dark for Tiana to see. From the look of it, there are only two colors seen: Black and Red. That must be their favorite colors. Tiana pulls out her mirror once again. First thing she noticed; her bunny cap will always be with her. Instead, she focuses on her clothes. This time, she's wearing something that Tiana finds interesting.
She's wearing a thin shirtless outfit with a lighter red color to it. There's a white plus on the chest of her uniform. She has a bandage around her right arm, and when she looks down, she realizes that there are bandages around her ankles as well. She's wearing light red sandals as well. She has a cream colored pouch around her waist. She feels something heavy on her back. She turns around to see a small black backpack strapped around her shoulders. She decides to open it up, and dig through it. She finds a needle with pink liquid in it, a water bottle, bandages, cottonballs, bandaids, and more supplies. That's when she realizes she became a medic.
"I'm a medic? Cool."
Suddenly, she hears a voice over an intercom. "Quarter alert, this is not a drill."
Tiana smirks. "Time to shine." She looks around, and sees the soldiers lining up. She plays along, and lines up as well.
Meanwhile, Moppet Girl walks over to Hero's Duty again. "It's been a while. Maybe the game is better than I remember." She puts in coins, and listens to the beginning like last time:
"On a planet with no name, a top secret experiment has gone horribly wrong."
Back in the game, Tiana checks her backpack again for everything required. She checks it all off, and puts it back in. She suddenly hears a woman's voice.
"Alright," She starts. Everyone stands upright when she speaks. Tiana continues to follow along. "now listen up, 'cause I'm only gonna say this once. Fear is a four letter word, ladies. You wanna go pee pee in your big boy slacks, keep it to yourself."
"Oh, snap!" She shouts out loud. Luckily, no one heard her. She covers her mouth anyways.
"It's make your mama's proud time!" The woman finishes.
"First Person Shooter, coming through!" A soldier shouts. Tiana stands aside and watches as a screen on wheels with hands makes its way to the front.
"The person I'm gonna protect." Tiana even surprises herself that she knew that.
The screen displays a countdown, and when it reaches zero, Moppet Girl appears on screen.
"We are humanity's last hope." The woman says to the FPS. "Our mission: destroy all Cybugs. You ready rookie? Let's find out."
The doors finally open, and on the outside, it's pure chaos. Cybugs fly everywhere and lightning strikes from the sky.
"Whoa… awesome!" Tiana squeals. She realizes how much she stuck out, and made her voice deeper, though it wasn't any better. "Let's rock."
The other soldiers charge out to battle and Tiana follows. The other soldiers fire their laser blasters, and Tiana sticks by one of them closely. She dodges Cybugs, and jumps over them. She dodges another one about to hit her.
"Cybugs, 4 O'clock! Take 'em down, rookie." The woman exclaims as the FPS fires at the robotic bugs. She misses one of them, and it hits the FPS right in the face.
"You're injured!" The woman shouts.
"Press the start button to call me!" Tiana exclaims.
"What? I don't…" The woman says, and the start button is pressed.
"Here, let me help you. Hold them off!" Tiana steps in front of the FPS and wraps bandages around it. "There you go! Kick some CyButt!"
"I don't remember that last time I played this game." Moppet Girl says as Tiana heals her FPS.
To the woman's surprise, the FPS recovered health. "You can't recover health in this game. What's going on?" She says in her thoughts.
The FPS continues onward, shooting the creatures in its path. The FPS reaches the door.
"Alright ladies, the kitten whiskers and tickle fights stop now. The entrance to the lab is straight ahead." The woman continues his spiel to the FPS.
The doors begin to open, and even more CyBugs appear.
"Take them out!" The woman shouts.
The FPS continues to attack the CyBugs that fly at her. Moppet Girl takes them out one by one. The CyBugs are coming faster than the FPS is shooting. It takes another hit.
"Say the word, and I'll be there!" Tiana exclaims.
Moppet Girl goes to push the button, but she's attacked again. She tries to fight back, and takes another hit. The FPS is down to one life.
"This isn't good!" Tiana says, avoiding attack from the CyBugs.
Moppet Girl pushes the button this time, calling Taina.
"I'm here! Stay with me!" The FPS stops again, and Tiana starts healing it. However, a CyBug gets in the way, and slashes Tiana in the back before she could finish "Ow!" She falls to the ground, leaving the FPS open.
The CyBug lunges at the screen, and ends the game.
"Game Over" A voice says from the game.
"Even with a medic, this game is hard." Moppet Girl says as she leaves, putting the gun controller back.
The CyBugs are called by the beacon light, being destroyed in it. Tiana has a hard time standing, as she holds her back. Then, she remembers she's a medic. She pulls out some bandages, and wraps it around her. The pain starts fading, and the wound heals up nicely. She goes to stand, but the woman picks her up. Now that they aren't in the midst of battle, Tiana can see the woman clearer, now. She has short, blond hair with cold, blue eyes. She wears black and red armor like everyone else, but hers is made thinner for what Tiana can guess is better aerodynamics. She wears orange lipstick, and has thick eyebrows. In this case it's thick, narrow eyebrows.
"Who the heck are you?" The woman asks.
"First, who are you?" Tiana asks.
"I'll ask the questions here! However, my name is Sergeant Calhoun."
"You have a first name, right?"
"That is information I certainly do not want to give to someone like you. The next thing I want to hear out of your mouth is answers and answers only. Got that?"
"Yes, mam!"
"Do you know the first rule of Hero's Duty?"
"Stick together, and work as a team?"
"Interesting answer, but you're wrong. Never mess with the First Person Shooter."
"I was just doing my job, madam. Healing the First Person Shooter when it's damaged is what I do. Would you prefer me to heal it from behind?"
"I'M asking the questions! Where are you from?"
"Not really a question, much. I'm from this game, silly!" She realized saying 'silly' didn't help on the lie.
"Look at you! You look younger than ten, you're wearing pink, you have big blue, cutesy eyes, and you wear that ridiculous bunny cap!"
"Okay, you're right. That was a terrible lie. But I can help! You saw that I can help!"
"I'll ask you again; where are you from?"
"I… I don't like to talk about it."
"That's not an answer!"
"I don't want to answer that."
"I'm not giving you an option!"
The other soldiers stand around and watch the two bicker. They turn to see if a Quarter Alert is going off, but nothing yet.
"I think this isn't the place for me. Way too strict." Tiana gets Calhoun to let her go.
"I won't allow you to leave." Calhoun replies.
"I'm sorry for wasting your time. I'll find somewhere else to live. Bye." Tiana continues to walk towards the exit.
"Take another step and I'll use lethal force, Game Jumper!" Calhoun screams.
Tiana freaks out at the sound of that, and takes off running. Calhoun pulls out her pistol and starts firing. Tiana dodges back and forth to avoid getting hit. She runs to the train. Calhoun starts taking off in pursuit. She turns to her soldiers before she leaves and leaves with one request:
"If a Quarter Alert goes off, one of you take my place. You know how it goes, and you know my lines."
"You're going after her?" One of them asks.
"After what happened with Ralph and Turbo, I won't it escalade again." Calhoun continues to run after Tiana. Tiana climbs aboard, and the doors close before she can get in. She grabs onto the side as it leaves. It gets to the other side, and Tiana rushes through the gate. She jumps over Surge's head as he appears, and keeps running. Calhoun passes by afterward.
"This ends now, Game Jumper!" Calhoun shouts as she passes by.
Surge Protector notices what she says. "I knew there was something up with that girl!"
Tiana quickly looks for another game to go into. Without much second thought, she rushes into one of the gates. "Sugar Rush! It'll have to do!"
Tiana gets an idea. She jumps high into the air, and Calhoun rushes into the docking area.
"Where'd you go, you-"
Tiana lands on Calhoun's head, and bends her knees. With all her might, she kicks Calhoun's face. She collapses to the ground with a thud, and stays down long enough for Tiana to climb aboard. She realizes it won't start.
"Someone need to be dropped off?" The person on the other side hollers.
"Yes! Activate it!" Tiana exclaims.
"No! Don't-" Calhoun couldn't stop the train from being started as it moves to the other side.
"Don't go into that game, or I swear I will tear you apart, pixel by pixel!" Calhoun threatens. She runs in anyways, and she calls the train back. "If I have to hunt you down in Sugar Rush, than so be it. History will not repeat itself."