"K.O!"

"Alright!" Kate said. 

Theo sighed and said "Not again. How many times do you have to beat me?" 

"36 times." Kate responded. 

"Fine, how about a different game? Oh! I know, how about Call of Responsibility?" Theo said. 

"Too hard." Kate said. 

"Legend of Zorldo?" Theo asked. 

"Singleplayer, dummy." Said Kate. 

"How about a new game? Let's go to the store." Theo said.

On the way to the store, Kate had to use the bathroom. While waiting for her, Theo was pulled aside by a strange man. 

"Hey. Do you like games? Try one called Reality Check. It's brand new…" said the strange man before disappearing.

Kate came out of the bathroom and they continued to make their way to the store. Once inside, they began their search for a new game to play. 

Eventually, Kate found one and said "How about this one? It's called Super Marley Bros." 

"Nah. How about this one called Terrarium?" Theo said. 

They still couldn't agree on a game. Back at Calibre Cave, Theo was writing up some reports and decided to take a break. He jumped on the couch and noticed a game to his left. It was labeled as Reality Check. The same name the weird guy had told him earlier. Bored out of his mind, Theo decided to pop it in and give it a try. What a mistake that was. As the game booted up Theo felt uneasy. 

"Something doesn't feel right." He said. 

He looked down at his feet and they were semi-transparent and slowly being sucked into the game system! In an instant, he was gone. Or was he?

"Theo. Theo? Where are you, dummy?" Kate called out around the cave. 

It was no use though. He wasn't in the cave anymore. He wasn't in the real world anymore. He was now in the virtual world.

"Ungh. Wha-what happened…" Theo groaned. 

Everywhere he looked was filled with pixels and strange characters. 

"Look. Another one…" a voice said. 

Whispers were going around and some said "Another one fell for the trap." 

Another said, "Better tell the boss about the new guy." 

Theo called out to them saying "Hey can someone help me? How do I get out of here?" 

Then someone began making their way over to Theo. Those around him greeted him as if he was their leader. 

He stopped in front of Theo and explained "You are forever stuck here with the rest of us." 

The people revealed themselves to be human and the man continued, "We have all met the same fate as you. We played that..that STUPID game! He tricked us and now we are stuck here for all eternity." 

Theo asked, "So there's really no way out?" 

"Well, there is one way. You must beat the game." The man answered. 

"Has anyone else beat it?" Inquired Theo. 

"No. The farthest we got was the fourth stage. We believe there's only one more after it but no one has made it farther than that." The man sadly said. 

Theo thought for a while and then said "I will beat this game. And that is a promise." 

All of the people gasped and whispered amongst each other. 

The man said "Do not take this task lightly. It is very dangerous to go alone. Here, take this." 

The man gave Theo a sword and off Theo went to beat the game. The first stage was a simple one. Just defeat the lowly enemies to move forward. Once, Theo succeeded he was teleported to the second stage and was presented with a series of puzzles to complete. It took some time, but he eventually did it and was sent to the third stage. This time, he had to use a series of items that would help him progress to the end all while trying to dodge gunfire. Theo made it through the first three stages easily. However, coming upon the fourth stage, it became super hard. So hard in fact that it was like the developer purposely made it impossible. Somehow Theo had to simultaneously defeat waves of monsters and cast an enchantment to open the exit and taking any damage would reset the enchantment. Theo tried and tried for what felt like an eon. He was at his wit's end until he could no longer even stand. It seemed to him that his life was finally going to come to an end. 

He whispered to himself "I'm sorry I never said this, but...Kate. If you could somehow hear me...I...Lo…." 

He fell over having run out of strength. Just then, someone jumped in front of him. 

"Hang in there! You better not die on me 'cause I am so not in the mood!" Kate exclaimed.

30 minutes ago…

"Theo? Where are you? My dad really needs that recent report." Kate said. 

"Ooh. I'm gonna kick his butt when I find him. Hey, what's that game?" Kate said having noticed the game Reality Check on the coffee table. 

She picked it up and, not wanting to play anything else, popped it into the console and turned it on. Just like Theo she slowly started to get sucked into the game. When she awoke, the man from before was standing before her.

 "Wow. Two in one day. That hasn't happened since that time with the wombats." Said the man. 

Kate thought for a moment and realized that Theo must be in here. 

She asked, "Did a boy enter into this world recently?" 

"Why yes. I think he called himself Thomas. Or was it Timothy?" 

Kate said "Theo?!" 

"Ah yes, that was it. If you are looking for him he began the journey to beat the game and leave this world." The man explained. 

"Thanks, I gotta find him fast." She said before quickly making her way through the stages.

 When she arrived at stage four, she saw Theo in trouble on the ground near death. Kate immediately jumped in front of him and started to defend him while he recovered. 

"H-hey. Were you curious about the game too?" Theo questioned. 

"Shut up. Now's not the time to ask questions. How do we beat this stage?" Kate demanded. 

"One of us has to cast an enchantment to open the exit while another has to defend the one casting." Theo responded. 

"Alright I'll defend and you cast, ok? Gimme your sword." Kate concluded. 

So Kate began to hold off the mob of enemies while Theo cast the enchantment. When the exit finally opened they ran through as fast as they could and what they saw on the other side was unbelievable. The last stage was the boss stage. However, it was a very special one. This boss stage was able identify past enemies and create a virtual version of them. What they saw across the stage five room was none other than a virtually made Cauterizer. 

Jokingly Theo said, "Well I suppose I'm due to kick your butt again." 

And thus the boss battle ensued. There were shards of ice flying through the air, balls of fire being thrown, and, for some reason, fish flopping on the ground. 

"Hey, what's with the fish Kate?" Said Theo. 

"I'm hungry! Sorry for being starved! Sheesh." She exclaimed. 

"Ah, so that's why you're grumpy today." Theo concluded.

After several fish, a couple of stabs to the heart, and an hour later they defeated the virtual Cauterizer. The game started to turn them into pixels as they were transported back into the real world. All of the people that were stuck started disappearing one by one and Kate and Theo were thrust back into the cave. The game in the console burst into flames and Kate quickly grabbed a fire extinguisher to put it out. All the people that were trapped in the game were now standing around Calibre cave. With the help of Slinky, they managed to help them all find their way back to where they belonged. After that, Kate went off to Slinkdonalds to satisfy her dying hunger.

"Well, now that that's over there's only one thing left to do." Theo told himself. 

He walked into one of the testing rooms in the cave and completely destroyed the game so that no one else would fall victim to it. However, they were unknowingly being observed playing the game and the observer was sent a message of completion when they beat the game.

The observer said to himself "Ehehehe. I see. So, they are so much more talented than I thought. Hm, I'm feeling very good today. In fact, I am just itching to do some killing. Perhaps one of them will be able to scratch my itch..."