A few minutes after putting out the fire and trying to make sure Hoku didn’t die from a potential heart attack, if that was even possible, the crew made it inside the Last Lotus building for a much deserved break. Everyone was exhausted including the siblings despite the fact that they were just playing a virtual reality game and not actually driving away from the cops in real life. The excitement of the event alone caused them to grow tired and probably took a few years off of Varians life span.

In the real world the four siblings were gathered around the kitchen table with fast food bags layered about. Their fast food delivery had arrived a minute ago and the four were trying to have a decent break at the moment but Carmens mind still stirred in deep thought. She wasn’t really in the mood for a break and was chowing down her food like her life depended on it so she can go back to mystery solving.

“Dude calm down. You’re gonna choke if you keep eating like that,” warned Enola who looked at her twin like she was insane.

Carmen finished her chicken sandwich in a few bites and struggled to swallow it before suceeding and coughing her lungs out for a moment. Once she finally composed herself she quickly went to wah her hands before rushing over to her white board titled “Mystery Map” and continued her investigation. The other three looked at each other in mutual concern for their sibling and went over to Carmen.

“Carmen. You know you can take a break right? That board isn’t gonna go anywere in the morning,” reminded Varian as he gestured to the white board filled to the brim with notes and sketches from Carmens drawing book. Most of the drawings were of their new friends while others were of the mech Pantheon and a weird eye symbol.

“I don’t need a break. I need answers! Somewhere in this mess of a board is the truth about what happened back at the academy! The sooner we solve it the sooner we can fix everything!,” exclaimed Carmen.

“No offense but do we really wanna solve this? I get it that what happened back at the school with the secret hallway and Satoshi was…weird- but I thought our mission was about defeating Killian. Not solving whatever reason the virtual cops has with I don’t know - trying to arrest us?!”

“Varian has a point. Messing with the cops was fun but we went to the academy to get pilots for the new mech so we defeat the big bad guy. That is a whole different goal than rescuing a guy from the secret government and escaping the FBI. Besides I doubt they would be an issue in the future. If they were they would be have to be watching our every move or something,” spoke Inez.

Suddenly Carmens eyes grew wide in realization as she started to process what her sister just said. The other three knew that look on her face meant that the gears in her brain were working over drive again. Carmen went to the white board and took off an image that had an eye symbol on it and showed it to the rest.

“Do you guys remember this symbol?,” asked Carmen.

“Uh yeah it was on the jackets of the cops back at the academy,” responded Enola.

“Yeah it is but I didn’t design those government officials in the sim and neither did i design this symbol. But do you guys remember seeing it anywhere else?”

The rest took a moment to remember were else they might have seen the strange eye symbol before Varians eyes lit up in realization.

“Oh yeah it’s a symbol from the IT department from the Cybrim company!,” answered Varian.

“Yeah and it’s the same company that owns Holo Haven, the very virtual reality system that I built my world in. If what I theorize is right that means that the cops we met at the academy weren’t glitches but rather VR users from the company itself,” explained Carmen as she started to piece the mystery together bit by bit in her head.

“Well why the fuck would they be in your world?! It’s not like we did anything illegal,” asked Enola, curiously.

“Do you think they went there to deal with Killian? They may have found out about him being a glitch or something,” suggested Inez.

“I doubt it actually. I never filled a maintenance complaint with the company. And anyways we verified earlier that Killian might not be a glitch at all,” responded Carmen before a horrifying idea dawned on her.

“What if nothing in my world has to do with a glitch but rather about the company?”

The team paused at the answer as they contemplated the possibility of it.

“If I may intervene a bit in this conversation?,” asked Satoshi from the screen on the laptop that was settled on the kitchen table. The virtual world was still running on Carmen’s laptop in order for her to make sure that her new friends- that she barely found out a few hours ago were actually virtual ghosts- were doing okay.

“Go ahead Satoshi. You got the floor,” said Carmen as she motioned for him to proceed.

“Why don’t we talk about this somewhere more peaceful. All of us are exhausted and stressed about this. I don’t think there’s any harm in having fun for a bit,” he suggested.

The siblings thought about his suggestion for a moment before turning to look at Carmen who became the groups de-facto leader at this point besides Satoshi. Maybe they do deserve a break. And Carmen just knows were to have it.

A billion stars shine in the night sky but are out shined by the lights of the downtown city center skyscrapers that lay just beyond the Trinity park bridge. Laughter and loud chatter can be heard coming from the customers of an Italian restaurant titled “Roccos Italian Restaurant” near the parking lot of the park. The restaurant was packed with people that night but a group of young adults could be seen at one of the tables in the restaurants patio which was mostly empty. That said group Carmen and her siblings as well as a few hologram people that were their virtual friends.

In a technological advanced society holograms have become a normality and Carmen was able to use some of her spare invention parts in her bedroom to create handheld holograms that could project their friends into the real world. There was already a device that does the same thing for phone calls called “The HoloCall” which was of course invented by the same company that wants them dead- Cybrim. It had become popular ever since its release two years ago so nobody questioned the siblings friends being hologram projections which was perfect. They definitely didn’t want anybody to know about the truth about their friends being well- virtual ghosts.

The group appeared to be celebrating their victory against the company as they wore party hats and their table had confetti all over it. Everybody were either happily chatting with each other, eating, or were currently seeing who could chug a full soda can the fastest. The shortest person of the group, a 19 year old girl named Carmen, was the only one just enjoying their time watching the rest have fun as she recorded everything on her camera.

“You do know that you guys are going to regret drinking that much soda in the morning right” reminded Carmen as she watched her friends Hoku, Laren, and her twin sister Enola compete each other in a soda drinking contest. The trio just shrugged without a care as they continued their small competition leading Carmen to shake her head with amusement.

“Can’t believe it’s only been a few hours since we met. Almost felt like it happened a year ago to be honest. I’m happy we managed to grow as much as we had in such a short time,” said Satoshi with mild surprise as he continued to eat his tacos. Satoshi was the oldest member of the group being 23 when he was alive but he felt more like a proud dad due to the fact he got to watch his brother meet a group of incredible people.

“Aww Satoshi is your proud dad coming out again?” asked Varian as he stopped playing a game on his phone.

“No…maybe,” responded Satoshi as he looked away embarrassed with his cheeks a bit flushed.

The group smiled at their designated team leader who was trying to hide his face in embarrassment. Carmen patted his shoulder in comfort.

“There there captain. It’s okay. I’m proud of all of us too. Never knew I would have long time friends like this a year ago to be honest so this is worth getting emotional over. That’s what I like to believe,” reassured Carmen which caused Satoshi to look at her with a surprised face.

“Really?,” asked Satoshi curiously which Carmen responded to by nodding.

“Yup! Didn’t have much friends in school and when I graduated high school I lost all the ones since we had to grow up and move on with life. Can’t believe that making a video game would lead to this,” explained Carmen before gesturing to the rest.

“Well video games do bring people together. And even if the way we met was- not really great- I’m not really complaining. It was pretty fun,” said Laren with a grin as he wrapped his arm around his boyfriends shoulder. Keito just chuckled a bit.

“Yeah especially the part were Laren acted like he was an agent for the FBI and proceeded to fall on his ass a moment later. Now that was worth it,” said Keito with a smug look as Laren turned to him with an offended face that was clearly exaggerated.

“Well we did kind of acted like we were all secret agents when we first played it. We can’t deny that it was fun as hell when we did the car chase near the end of the game,” said Enola with a huge grin after finishing her third soda can.

“The fact you made that game in a few weeks in impressive Carmen. The art you made for it was incredible,” praised Leilani, the mom friend of the group, which made Carmen smile with pride.

“Thank you Leilani. But I think the best part of all of this was the fact I got to meet you guys. Even if my meeting with you all had a company messing everything up behind the scenes I think we made it out alright. We make a really good team,” said Carmen with a smile.

“That is the most cheesiest thing I heard today but I can’t deny the fact that it was really sweet of you to say,” said Piers, the prodigy academic of the group.

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” said Carmen slightly amused.