"God DAMN!" Jack Winston shouted, using the butt of his rifle to club his way through the thick growth of vines and branches. "Where the hell are we?"
"Relax, Jack." Rachel said from behind him. "At least we know where we're going."
"Wherever that is." Sam shouted from the back, still fighting his way through the last thicket.
Jack sighed, helping Rachel through the hole he created. It could be worse.
2 Days Earlier
God, that movie was terrible. Jack thought to himself as he exited the theater. Sam and Rachel had decided to stay, for whatever reason, so here he was, with a pocket full of popcorn money and the better part of an hour to waste.
Spotting the arcade, Jack shrugged and walked inside. Hell, an afternoon with House of the Dead was always worth it. After exchanging his cash for quarters, he walked to the back, where instead of seeing the familiar light gun shooter, there was nothing but blank space.
"Oh, hey Jack." One of the managers said, recognizing the semi-regular. "Yeah, we had to move House. It's near the front, if you still want to play it."
"Why'd you move it?" Jack asked.
"Oh, some new game Howard ordered. Some prototype or something, got it on the cheap because the company went belly-up. Only a few cabinets were made."
"Really?" Jack asked, his interest rising. "When are you putting it in?"
"Right now, as a matter of fact. Wanna lend a hand?"
"Sure." Jack replied. Walking to the back with the manager, he helped him load the massive cabinet onto a hand truck and wheeled it over. After a few minutes of plugging it in and checking the connections, the manager left Jack to his own devices.
"Mystic Quest?" Jack looked at the title. "Someone wasn't very creative." Still, the game looked interesting. After putting in his quarters, he pressed start.
"Someone went a bit crazy with the character creation." He said to himself. Each option had dozens of modifiers, ranging from major things like class and equipment to seemingly inconsequential things like hair color. Spotting a "Random Character" option, Jack was tempted to move the cursor over to it, but instead decided to try to recreate himself. After all, the one thing he did have today was time.
After a quarter of an hour, Jack felt he was ready. To his delight, the game allowed certain antique firearms as main weapons, and Jack had wasted no time in selecting for himself the Winchester Rifle and a Cavalry Saber as primary and secondary weapons, respectively. While the magic options did look somewhat interesting, Jack decided to forgo them in exchange for a few other traits.
"Hey, thought we'd find you in here."
Jack turned around. "I thought you said the movie wasn't that bad?" He said, grinning.
"Unfortunatly, it was." Sam, Jack's best friend, replied.
"I was about to kill the guy in the projector booth." Rachel said, walking up from behind Jack. "So what are you doing?"
"Oh, just trying out this new game." Jack said. "It's got one hell of a character creation. I haven't even started it yet!"
"Hey, can we jump in?" Sam asked, pointing at the cabinet. "Looks like they're room for three more."
"Sure, just grab some quarters." Jack replied. "If you can, try to keep customization short. I want to try this thing out."
Sam and Rachel each took a place, popping in their quarters and causing the wide screen to separate into three parts. Rachel took a bit of time with her character, creating an elven mage but not much after that. Sam just hit random.
"Alright, we ready?" Jack asked. "Let's go." He moved the cursor to start.
Now
"I am going to kill the person who created this damn game." Jack growled as he used his saber to cut through the brush.
"Leave some for me." Sam shouted from the rear. He was now a female fox-girl, with duel swords and vibrant read hair. He had spent most of the first day relearning to walk, and even now was unsteady on his pawed feet. "Random" had not been kind to him.
For her part, Rachel was doing alright. Waking up six inches taller with a more vibrant figure had been a bit of a shock, but she recovered fairly quickly. What had nearly smacked her back down was the discovery of her magical talent, which Sam seemed to posses in limited qualities as well.
Jack was nothing but himself, and the best off for it. While his clothing had changed to a more ragged Civil War-ish outfit, complete with kepi hat, everything else had remained the same. Being the only one to retain all cognitive function, he had been serving as de facto scout and leader for the past two days, managing to provide a wild boar as dinner with his Winchester.
"How much farther?" he asked Rachel. For some reason, she had woken up this morning knowing that someone else had entered the game, and where to find them, leading them on this quest.
"Not much." She said, sounding unsure.
"Alright, we'll try to get a bit farther, and then we'll rest a bit." Jack said, trying to sound decisive. In reality, he was barely holding on, valiantly trying not to crack under the pressure. Clutching his rifle reassuringly, he trudged forward as Rachel helped Sam get through a particularly maddening thicket.
Slowly, the air grew thick and heavy with fog, obscuring visibility to a scant few feet.
"Slow down, guys." Jack said, waiting for them to catch up. "I don't want anyone to get lost in this fog."
"Ah, shit." Sam said as soon as they caught up. Turning around, Jack saw why.
The forest ended, thank God, but unfortunately only a few feet later a sheer cliff face rose up into the mist. Sighing, Jack sat down on a rock, trying to think.
He didn't have to for long. A loud, high pitched scream filled the air, and Jack sprung up looking for the source. Rachel did the same, but Sam just stared right up into the sky. Jack followed her gaze, and saw a dark figure plunging through the mist. It twisted and flopped down through the sky, desperately trying to spread out its arms. It succeeded at the last second, and Jack stared amazed as a naked girl with wings for arms flew directly above them, then crashed into the forest. Shouldering his rifle, Jack ran to go meet the unlucky bastard.
