You groaned waking up on a cot the dark haired guy looking over you with a dark scowl.

"Oh go lighten up Golden boy." You groan out hiding your head before getting slammed against the wall.

"Who the HELL do you think you are!?" He demanded as you see all the flashes of his memories  and he can see yours since he's gripping you pretty hard. He almost immediately lets go.

"Y-you were there... with her." He muttered in bewilderment as you massaged your sore spot.

"Congratulations you've seen something I can't remember myself. And by her... you mean Lucinia correct?" You ask after letting out some bitterness. Masa nodded and you sighed.

"Look I've been living a seemingly normal life for the past two-ish months to my knowledge. And now I have a distinct feeling there's a gap in my memory that I can't remember. But, they, she can help. Tari is unique. I can tell her memory is severely spliced... but it doesn't seem to be by her hands." You say looking at the leader sympathetically.

"How can I be sure that they're good?" He asks a tad annoyed but more scared than anything.

"One chance. One game. If she succeeds they're in." You offer. He sighs but nods.

"Fine, but if she loses you both leave." he growled out leaving you alone in the room. Soon a younger woman came to your room anxious.

"You were there? With my sister?" She asked looking at you on the verge of tears.

"You must be Sofia." You say. "I didn't see her personally but out of the memories I've witnessed, she did seem to try and talk herself out of it for your sake." You say looking to try and comfort her which didn't exactly work.

"What was she doing?" She asked a bit more angry. You lean back shocked at the mood swing.

"Uh most likely, trying to get improvements? I think that's why I was there." You say trying to defuse the situation. It worked like oil and water and she began to bawl but she embraced you.

"She didn't need to! She was perfect the way she was!" She wailed. You held her and pet her head as everyone else was back at the door most giving you glares at first but as soon as sofia pulled away she thanked you.

"Thanks for letting me let it all out." She said wiping tears from her eyes.

"Hey it's ok to, don't let anyone tell you otherwise." You say smiling encouragingly. She giggled before calming the others especially Lamar.

"I went to him to gets some answers. I hope you let her in Masa." She said.

"Not yet, but he had a good idea to test her skills." Masa replied pointing at you. "One game against me if she wins they join if she loses they're out." To which the others looked at you in bewilderment.

"Don't ask." You mutter as Tari agreed to the terms. The others grumbled about Masa and you being hard on her but put it aside to set them up in the popular first person shooter "BATTLE BLAZE". all the while you get Lamar to recount what happened on the way to the headquarters making Masa feel a bit generous to the bluenette.

At first Masa wipes the floor with tari. Masa calls a quick break for Sofia to check Tari's meta runner arm out. They found it pretty standard with one weird button which was pressed at the little sprites behest. The last thing you heard while heading in was Tari's gasp before you found yourself in a sandy arena in tactile gear and a pistol.

"Tari must've jumped into a game." You mutter taking cover as a bullet whizzed by and you had an idea.

"AAAAAAAAAUGH! I NEED A MEDIC BAG!" You yell crouching into a dark corner where your tag clipped into the crates took aim and waited.

And your little plan worked when Masa passed by the edge right into a headshot. You chuckled as you were soon under a desk behind the gang where you proceeded to break down in laughter.

"How'd you do that?!" They asked incredulously as you regained composure and your breath.

"Where she goes I follow." You say pointing to Tari. "Might be a side effect of what happened at that lab." You say getting up. Masa sighed.

"We meant that spot, it was invented by..." he started noting your appearance.

"Me? Yeah it's the best troll spot in the game." You say checking on Tari as she came out of the game with Theo since Masa had gotten in another round as you explained yourself. Masa sighed again.

"Congratulations you three. Welcome to MD-5." He said. "But you have a lot to learn." He said but before he could continue Theo glitched.

"Uh oh." You say kneeling with Tari to check on him.

-Meanwhile at what should be a crime scene-

Belle and Br/N walk into an abandoned and decimated lab. They look around with flashlights and Belle begins to get annoyed with the lack of anything helpful.

"Hey, calm down Belle, there's a lot of room to cover." He says soothingly gently putting a hand on her shoulder. She relaxed a bit at his touch but angrily kicks a box into machinery out of frustration. Before another word could be said something scuttled across the floor freed from its machine prison.

"What's that?" She asked picking it up revealing it to be a cracked memory card.

"Hopefully there's enough unaffected data we can salvage from this post whatever exploded in this place." He said looking around and noticing a logo on the wall. "Belle look!" He said gently turning her attention as she put in her pocket. Her jaw dropped at the logo on the wall.

"What. The. Hell." She said near breathless as they both looked at a very familiar technological blue jay wing.

————-
Hey sorry for the wait on this chapter. Life came at me fast and well here we are chapter/episode 5 done.
Hopefully the next one doesn't take as long to do.

Until next

-Time