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Gray dropped into his desk chair and cracked open his cola, the satisfying hiss of carbonation mixing with the gentle hum of his gaming PC. He'd spent way too much money building the thing, but at least it booted up fast enough that he didn't have to sit around waiting to use it. His white headset settled comfortably over his ears, the blue LEDs probably making him look ridiculous, but nobody was around to see except—
"My darling Gray looks so cool when he's gaming!" Juvia's voice drifted from the doorway where she was attempting to wrestle a dining room chair through the door frame.
He pretended not to hear her, clicking into R.E.P.O's main menu. The game's creepy audio filled his headset—all weird industrial noises and robot sounds that he'd gotten used to after playing with Elfman and Loke earlier in the week. It was actually pretty fun once you got past the bizarre graphics.
Setting up the lobby was easy enough. Getting his friends to actually join without causing a technical disaster? That was going to be the real challenge.
He proceeded to host a game and sent out invites to his friends who he expected were awaiting it on their respective PCs. The game only allowed six players so he had asked around in advance to see who was interested.
Of course Natsu was. Convincing him to use a computer was the harder part as the guy preferred consoles. The thought had Gray rolling his eyes. Natsu pointed out he'd just use his far more academic brother's PC.
Next on the list was Erza who seemed intrigued by the suggestion. She quizzed him a lot on the game and once Gray explained that yes, she could kill the enemies, she was all for it. As far as he knew, she was going to head over to Jellal's and borrow his PC for the evening.
Naturally, he had to include Juvia unless he wanted to deal with the fallout from not asking, despite the fact that she didn't play video games or own a PC. No, instead, she was happy for the offer and was currently in the process of grabbing a dining room chair to drag into his room to watch him play.
Before he could ask anyone else, Natsu had jumped the gun on that and went and asked Lucy. Gray wasn't entirely sure she'd enjoy it, given the last horror movie Natsu had them watch had her hiding under blankets. Nonetheless, she was joining them too.
Next was Gajeel, who had overheard them talking about the game and essentially invited himself and Levy who normally preferred to spend her free time reading than gaming.
That made six of them.
Gray started to send out the invites.
Natsu was already online and joined first, which was honestly impressive considering he was borrowing Zeref's computer and probably had no idea what half the buttons did.
"Yo! The graphics on this game look weird, kinda retro," Natsu's voice crackled through the chat, accompanied by the aggressive sound of someone mashing keys like they were trying to break them.
"Dude, put your headset on so we don't hear everything going on in the background." Gray winced as more random clicking sounds assaulted his ears.
"Gimme a sec, this is Zeref's PC, I dunno how it works."
Gray sighed and leaned back in his chair. This was going to take forever. At least Juvia had managed to get her chair positioned next to him and was now settling in with the kind of smile that suggested she was more interested in watching him than the actual game.
It was then that Levy connected, her gentle voice joining in on the chaotic background shuffling from Natsu.
Levy joined next, her voice a welcome change from Natsu's chaos. "Oh hey. Oh— what is going on?"
"He needs a headset or he's not playing," Gray stated firmly.
"I heard that!" Natsu bellowed, apparently still using the computer's built-in microphone and probably waking up half the neighborhood.
Lucy's cheerful voice joined the mess. "Hey guys! The audio is a bit much— Natsu, what are you doing?"
"Looking for a headset!"
"Check the edge of the desk."
There was some shuffling, then Natsu's triumphant "Found it!" followed by blissful silence as he finally got his audio sorted out.
Gray rubbed his forehead. "Finally."
"How did you know where it was, Lucy?" Levy asked, her voice carrying a teasing note.
"I've been to Natsu's house enough times to know where everything is," Lucy replied matter-of-factly.
"So who are we waiting for now?" Natsu cut in, clearly ready to move on from that topic.
"Erza and Gajeel," Gray answered, watching two empty slots in the lobby.
"Gajeel might be a little late," Levy said quickly. "Said he was doing some things first."
"And how come only you know that, Levy?" Lucy's voice had turned sly.
"Because, um—" Levy started to stammer.
"Can't we play some rounds without them? These little robot head things look really weird—" Natsu interrupted, apparently already poking around the character selection screen.
"No, we can't, flame brain. Everyone needs to join the lobby first, they can't join midway."
"Hey, why'd you keep calling me that, man?"
"Because you somehow keep starting small fires in chem class," Gray muttered. "I'm tired of having to evacuate the room nearly every damn time."
"Whatever, you keep turning up the air con and making it cold as shit. You're basically a walking icicle," Natsu shot back.
Gray was about to fire back when Erza's voice cut through the lobby like a sword through butter.
"Good evening."
The effect was immediate. Gray's mouth snapped shut and Natsu went dead silent.
"Hey Erza," Lucy said brightly, apparently immune to Erza's intimidation factor. "How's Jellal's PC working out for you?"
"It seems to be working well enough. He was curious what I was doing and slightly protective of it while I was trying to download the game."
"Huh, why?"
"I'm not sure—something about not installing viruses again."
"Yeah, you don't want to do that," Levy said.
"Those two behaving?" Erza asked, and Gray could practically feel her pointed look through the screen.
"Eh, mostly," Lucy replied.
"Good."
"How long was Gajeel going to be again, Levy?" Natsu asked, his impatience creeping back in.
"He didn't say."
"Oh, you can pick a color for the little robot thing?" Lucy suddenly exclaimed. "I choose pink!"
Gray watched her avatar turn bright pink. He'd already picked white for his—clean and simple.
"Sweet, I'm gonna be red," Natsu announced, clicking frantically through the color options.
"Red is my color." Erza's avatar immediately shifted to crimson.
"What, no fair, I had dibs on it first!" Gray could see Natsu's avatar frantically cycling through colors as he inspected all of them. "I wanna be— never mind, I'm picking black instead."
Levy went with orange just as the final player slot filled and Gajeel's gruff voice joined them.
"Hey."
"Hey!" Levy responded immediately, a little too enthusiastically. "All ready to play now?"
"Yeah... This game looks weird as hell."
"That's what I said," Natsu agreed.
Gray straightened up in his chair. Beside him, Juvia had settled in with her chin propped on her hand, looking perfectly content to watch whatever was about to unfold.
"Okay, guys, listen up. So we're going to be thrown straight in and we have to extract as much loot as possible, alright? There'll be a couple of monsters at the start but it won't be too bad."
"Yeah, yeah, let's play already," Natsu grumbled, his impatience bleeding through the headset. Gray was absolutely certain Natsu was going to die within the first five minutes.
"Fine, figure it out as you go, I guess," he said, hitting the start button.
The loading screen appeared with ominous text: Level 1 – Headman Manor
"Well," Gray muttered, "this should be interesting."
The level came into view as all their characters loaded into the truck, the darkness of the room ahead of them inviting them to come explore.
"Why the hell am I purple?" Gajeel asked loudly over everyone, his little avatar's mouth flapping open and shut rapidly in time with his voice.
"You didn't pick a color," Levy said. "And I don't think it really matters."
"How do I move?" Natsu asked.
"Use WASD to move," Gray answered quickly.
"Huh?"
"You'll figure it out," Gray replied with no interest in staying in the truck for the rest of the round trying to teach Natsu how to use a keyboard.
"Oh, it's really easy to move with those keys," Lucy said, surprised as her character began bouncing around.
"I wanna see the monsters!" Natsu's avatar took off into the darkness ahead of them.
"Natsu, wait—" Lucy said before her little avatar turned to look at theirs, unsure what to do.
Gray sighed into his headset. "This is exactly what I expected."
Gray's avatar walked into the first room, the loud sound of the first extraction activating already having happened thanks to Natsu taking off into the level.
The faded interior of a house was reminiscent of something haunted with old furniture and claustrophobic spaces. The whole level had an orange hue to it and the music was enough to have you on edge in places.
He indicated to the platform at their feet. "We gotta find loot and bring it to this. All the items have value and we need to meet the quota the platform wants. The more, the better."
"Sounds simple enough," Levy replied. "What's that cart thing for?"
Her avatar ran over to the hovering metal container and jumped inside of it, her head flapping along.
"We put the loot in there – like small bits of loot. The big stuff we need to bring back here and that's usually a two- or three-person job to begin with."
Erza's avatar moved forward, heading towards the wide open door of the next room. "I think I understand— How do we defeat the monsters?"
"It's kinda hard at level 1," Gray answered. "We don't have any weapons yet so it's easier to just avoid them."
"Works for me!" Lucy said.
It was then that a piercing screech echoed through the game.
"W-What was that?" Lucy asked, backing her character back towards the ship.
"It sounds like a Robe – a big monster that will chase you if it sees you. It makes that sound," Gray answered.
"I don't like the sound of that," Levy answered.
Gajeel's avatar walked into the next room. "Relax shrimp, it's gonna be fine."
"But why did it make that sound just now?" Erza asked curiously.
Gray sighed. "Because flame brain took off into the level and probably walked right into it. I bet he's dead and is watching us from spectator mode."
"He can do that?" Lucy asked.
"It's what happens when you die," Gray answered. "So, flame brain, if you are dead and can hear me. You're an idiot."
"Can we bring him back?" Lucy's avatar stopped moving entirely, hope evident in her voice.
Gray continued looting, his character methodically checking each bookshelf. "Yeah, but not on this level until the end. On other levels, we'll just throw his body on the extraction points with loot and it'll res him."
"Okay," Lucy replied, gingerly following him out.
Gray felt his arm be nudged and he looked over at Juvia, briefly muting his headset and lifting it to the side of his head so he could hear her.
"Lucy's robot is awfully close to yours," Juvia said, pointing at their avatars on his screen. "It makes me nervous."
Gray rolled his eyes. "It's fine. She's just nervous about going into the level."
He pulled his headset back on and unmuted himself. "Lucy, why don't you go with Erza and find some stuff to put on the extraction. If the monster comes, just hide under a table, alright?"
"Right," Lucy replied, unsure.
"Let's look together, Lu," Levy said, her avatar bobbing along into the next room.
"If you push the cart and take it with you, you can load it up as you go," Gray reminded them as he headed into the next room, Erza choosing to follow him.
GRAY AND ERZA
Their avatars moved through the cramped layout—Gray methodically checking corners while Erza's character swept each room with military precision, even in a game.
"I've yet to see any monsters," Erza said as her avatar looked around the latest room they were in.
"Like I said, there's not many here," Gray replied. "But see there's a big glass box with a rhino in it."
"A what?" Erza asked as Gray's avatar ran over to it – an item just as he described, although the rhino was more of a small statue and not an actual rhino. "Oh, I see."
"We need to take it to the extraction point – it's bulky so be careful."
Erza lifted it, the item moving slowly as it hovered in mid air in front of her. "It's difficult to see anything now."
"I know, just do your best."
Gray moved his avatar into the room, spotting small items that he could take that would easily fit in the cart once the girls were done with it.
CRASH.
Gray could guess what happened.
Erza smashed the rhino.
LUCY AND LEVY
Meanwhile, in two rooms over, Lucy and Levy had got to work inspecting the nooks and crannies for things, cheering each other on when they found anything.
"What's that?" Lucy asked as Levy's avatar approached the cart with something.
"Looks like some kind of monkey toy," Levy said as she carefully placed it in the cart.
Seconds later, Lucy found a bright green and most likely radioactive plate.
"Better not drop it," she said to no one in particular as she carried it to the cart.
Levy let out a small clap. "We found four things already. Not too bad and nothing has killed us yet."
She spoke too soon.
Moments later, a group of what looked like animated murderous garden gnomes ran into the room, tiny and swinging little weapons at them.
"Ah, what the heck are they!" Levy asked as she bounced around, trying to get away from them.
"I don't know!" Lucy said, diving under a table but finding it pointless as the gnomes, small enough to fit, followed her under and started hitting her, chipping away at her health.
"Ow, ow, ow," Lucy said, running out. It was then that the gnomes turned and headed straight for the cart and started hitting their finds, the value of each hit decreasing rapidly.
"Oh no you don't!" Lucy said, annoyed at them putting her and Levy's hard work to shame and attempted to grab one, finding that it succeeded and now with an angry gnome in her grasp, flung it.
The gnome smashed and the two caught on to what to do.
Smashing up all the gnomes.
GAJEEL
In the furthest room from spawn, Gajeel wrestled with a massive harp, trying to maneuver it through a doorway barely wide enough for his character. He'd picked up the game mechanics fast—too bad the physics engine wasn't cooperating. The harp's golden frame scraped against the digital doorframe with each attempt.
It had a huge price tag on it and he was going to win the whole level with it.
He switched positions, choosing to try and pull the harp through instead.
"Come on, you stupid piece of-" he said angrily as the harp fell over, its value sliced in half.
"What the hell?!" He yelled in frustration.
Then a familiar shriek came from behind him.
His screen switched to a third person view of a great big robed figure blowing his character up as soon as it touched him and Natsu's laughter at his untimely death.
"What the hell just happened?!" Gajeel said angrily, although only Natsu could hear him.
"That thing got you too and you didn't even see it," Natsu said, amused.
ERZA
Not far from where Gajeel had just died, Erza heard the shriek and was on the defensive. She dropped the next item she had been carrying, smashing it on the ground much to Gray's disappointment.
She wanted to size up her foe.
She turned a corner, down a tight corridor and… nothing.
Silence.
What she saw was a large harp on the ground, stuck halfway through a doorway and a small little bot – or rather, the head of one. Purple in color.
"Huh?" She said, picking it up. "Is this Gajeel?"
Recalling what Gray had said earlier, she decided to head back with it, unaware that she was now being followed.
NATSU AND GAJEEL
Gajeel was currently yelling at Natsu, who was laughing his head off at Gajeel's untimely death.
"I almost had that damn harp," Gajeel said through clenched teeth.
Natsu was still laughing.
"Shut up already!"
"But that was funny as hell- you had no idea what hit you!" Natsu said. "Oh! What's Gray doing?"
Natsu had figured out spectator mode quite easily. Click the mouse button. That was it. He changed perspectives multiple times. He'd hoped Gray would get killed after calling him an idiot but no dice there.
He watched as Gray was carefully trying to carry a vase through a tight corridor, clearly heading for the cart. He'd seen Lucy and Levy do that, chatting away and laughed whenever they kept getting assaulted by gnomes.
"Who cares what he's doing?" Gajeel replied. "Erza's carrying me back I think."
"She is? Why hasn't anyone got me back yet?!" Natsu exclaimed, switching through multiple perspectives again, hoping to spot his little robot head.
"Ha! She's being stalked too," Gajeel said, chuckling to himself.
"Shit, really?" Natsu went to view Erza with a devilish grin on his face, loving the fact that Erza was about to get her comeuppance. The robed figure was silently following her, but hadn't caught up to her yet.
"C'mon, c'mon," Natsu said desperately.
"It's game over if we all die, you know?" Gajeel reminded him.
"Yeah, but look, the thing almost has her!"
"Yeah, whatever," Gajeel said, evidently not paying attention.
LUCY AND LEVY
"Should we push this thing back now?" Lucy asked, admiring their haul.
"I don't see why not," Levy replied and headed back the way they came with the cart.
Until Levy stopped suddenly. "Hey, I think we missed something."
"Huh?"
"Over there by that bookshelf."
Lucy's screen made an ominous sound, creeping her out a little as she honed in on what Levy was talking about. "It looks like Natsu's bot."
She picked it up, the little black head silent.
"Didn't Gray say we could resurrect him at the start," Levy asked.
"Yeah, do I have to carry him there?"
"I think you could just put him in the cart," Levy said nonchalantly and Lucy dumped him in.
"Oh, well that makes it easier."
"He's watching us, right?" Levy asked as she turned a corner with the cart.
"Natsu? Apparently so. Any of us I think."
Then the loud shriek came again as Lucy screeched.
GRAY
"Not again," he mumbled upon hearing the Robe's familiar sound. "We're going to wipe at this rate."
Juvia inched forward, her eyes watching with curious interest. "So what happens if everyone dies?"
"We fight to the death in an arena."
"That sounds terrifying but you have my full faith that you will win, my love," Juvia replied as Gray shrugged off her compliment.
"Well as long as I throw Natsu off the platform, I don't really care who wins it," Gray replied as he moved his character into the next room.
He grinned when he found another item – a large vase. It was delicate and heavy, difficult and annoying to carry, even with upgrades. He preferred to put it in the cart if there was room.
He gently lifted it up and began trudging back to the starting room.
ERZA
Lucy's sudden shriek from beside her had her whirl her avatar around. "Lucy?"
"Run!" Lucy yelled out as Erza caught a glimpse of a pink semibot running back through a doorway and frantic whispers between her and who she assumed was Levy.
But it was because she spun around that she saw the robe as it let out its terrifying shriek.
Erza was caught off guard, but she wasn't going down without a fight.
"Take this!" She cried out and swung Gajeel's head at the Robe, hoping it would do something.
It did nothing.
It bounced off and rolled off to the side.
The Robe shrieked again and Erza's bot exploded as it came into contact with her.
NATSU, GAJEEL AND ERZA
Erza was assaulted by Natsu's laughter and Gajeel's ranting about his head rolling off in the dark.
"I was expecting to at least hurt it," Erza said.
"You think that thing will go after the others now?" Gajeel asked.
"I'm sure Levy will be fine," Erza replied slyly.
"Tch."
"Natsu, calm down, it wasn't that funny."
"Yeah it was-"
"I'll get it next time."
GRAY
Gray was having his little bot trudge on ahead with the vase, briefly bringing up his map and finding the cart icon on the display. He was determined to bring it back now after the shrieking of the robe yet again.
He followed the layout to the room and heard hushed whispers from the girls.
"Where are you guys?" He asked, slowly looking about.
"Under the tables," Levy replied quietly.
"Yeah, that monster is super scary," Lucy said.
"Well at least you're attempting to hide from it," Gray said as he nudged at his dead companions who had no choice but to observe the remainder of them in one room together. "It's not in here right now so we should just head back to the start."
"I would really appreciate that," Lucy said fearfully.
"I'll get the cart," Levy said, gently walking out from under the table and began dragging it.
"The start is only through that room," Gray said, having his bot slowly gesture towards the very same room that Erza had just died in.
"Okay," Levy replied nervously.
They all walked together, Lucy quickly spotting Erza's head and placing it in the cart.
Gray was glad to see Lucy getting the hang of the game mechanics. "Good, like I said, it doesn't matter on this level, but we should bring them back when we can for future reference – no matter how annoying one of them might be."
He swore he could hear Natsu's shouts from a few houses down from him.
"Are all the monsters that scary?" Lucy asked.
"Nah," Gray replied. "That one can get you easily though if you're not careful."
They all walked back into the starting room, the extraction waiting for them, the sad emoji face on the monitor expecting their quota of valuables.
"Just push the cart in," Gray said to Levy.
"But we didn't find Gajeel-"
"He'll be resurrected for the next map, don't worry," Gray assured her.
In tandem, Gray gently placed the vase and Levy pushed the cart as Lucy looked on. The extraction counted the loot before sounding an alarm and flashing approvingly.
"Right, now get back inside the truck," Gray commanded. "I'm surprised there was even enough loot there to pass the level."
Lucy didn't need to be told twice and ran into the truck whereas Levy chose to wait to see what would happen.
Sure enough, the extraction chute lowered and sucked up the items before another loud sound rang out and two bots, black and red popped out.
"We're alive!" Natsu announced loudly.
"And we passed the level," Erza said approvingly.
"Sweet, will the next level be harder? I wanna see more-"
"But you didn't even do anything, you just ran in and died," Gray said pointedly.
"Yeah, but I won't do that next time!"
Then the Robe's shriek was heard again.
Gray had forgotten to mention that monsters come to the truck after they complete the final extraction on a map.
He had to laugh much to Juvia's pleasure as the Robe lunged straight for Natsu, killing him instantly again.
Erza didn't mess about getting on the truck and neither did Gray, no matter how hilarious that was. He took the initiative to tell it to leave as the Robe turned and went for them.
And thankfully, the truck left without delay.
The loading screen came up and Natsu wasn't too happy about his second untimely death. Gray was already thinking that the next level was going to be a disaster with the addition of another monster.
But it was fun.