Return (Part 1)

The next morning...

Jay, Rodrick, and Cidney were eating breakfast. Jay ate some scrambled eggs, Rodrick ate some grilled cheese, and Cidney had some waffles.

"Dad, is Jay living with us from now on?" Cidney asked since it felt really awkward for some reason. Jay had a gloomy expression, Rodrick was stuffing his face with grilled cheese with a conflicted look on his face... it was really awkward that she was just smiling there and eating her breakfast happily.

"I don't think that's a good idea. I feel as if I am taking advantage of the kindness you've shown me yesterday." Jay said as he looked at Rodrick.

"Don't worry. You can live here as long as you want. Besides, where will you live if you go out there? I haven't even told you about the different places in this new Earth." While Rodrick said this, he was trying to think of something to make Jay stay here and feel at home.

"Does it matter if you tell me? Didn't Jayson tell us that everything will return back to the way it was after he closes the dimensional gateways here in Earth?" Jay said as finished eating his eggs and requested for another serving.

Rodrick snapped his fingers causing a new plate filled with scrambled eggs to appear in front of Jay.

"You know that you can ask for anything else besides scrambled eggs right?" Cidney said and wondered what Jay was going through, stuffing himself with scrambled eggs with a gloomy face.

"By the way, how are you feeling so far?" Jay asked Cidney as he ate.

"Physically, I am fine. But my memories from the game are still a bit blurry. And I can also use my abilities! Watch this..." Cidney suddenly stood up from her seat and she grabbed a dining knife.

"Flicker Blade!"

Cidney exclaimed as she stabbed the air. It looked as if Cidney was holding three dining knives in her hand.

"Want to see a better version of it?" Jay said as he also stood up and grabbed the dining knife in Cidney's hand.

"Flicker Blade!"

When Jay stabbed the air, the dining knife suddenly disappeared from his hand and a lot of stabbing sounds reverberated through the air. After the stabbing sounds were gone, the dining knife reappeared in Jay's hand.

"Woah..." Cidney had her eyes wide open as she looked at Jay. She was really amazed by what she saw. Even Rodrick stopped stuffing his face with grilled cheese since his mouth was wide open from shock.

"You still have your abilities from the game? How?!!" Rodrick asked Jay and controlled himself from getting too excited.

"Well, the truth is..."

Before anything else, Jay told Rodrick and Cidney that the DATOF incident wasn't actually people getting stuck in a virtual game, but instead, in another dimension. He also told them about the stuff Hellson once told him about how this worked and what would happen if someone died in that dimension.

"Then, how come you still have your memories when you woke up?" Cidney asked since she did not have any of her memories when she woke up from her coma.

"The truth is... I don't know either. My memories, abilities, and even my physical body is the same as the one in that dimension." Jay said as he took of his shirt and showed them his well-toned body.

"Jay, what other abilities do you have besides the knife thingy?" Rodrick asked and was expecting Jay to perform some kind of show regarding his abilities.

"I'm not sure if every of my abilities will work or if there will be side effects, so..." Jay tried his best to back out from doing some kind of ability show, but seeing the expectant looks on Cidney and Rodrick's faces, he sighed and decided to test it out.

"Regular Chicken Form..." Jay said softly as he transformed into his normal chicken form, the one where he looked like a human sized chicken.

"What the..." Rodrick and Cidney were shocked when they saw Jay transforming into a huge chicken and for some reason, they suddenly felt the urge to laugh.

Jay tried his best to act like a chicken to amuse the two.

"Bawk!"

After speaking in chicken language, Jay used his right wing and pretended to grab something from his belly. The thing he was actually doing was creating an egg 'come out' from his belly.

When Rodrick and Cidney saw Jay taking out an egg, they started laughing and Rodrick smacked Jay lightly on his head.

"Oi! Stop messing with us and show us your real abilities!"

"Fine, fine..." Jay returned to his human form and decided to use Phase Rush. He targeted any object he saw in the kitchen and the dining room. May it be the tables, chairs, counters, etc. It looked as if he was teleporting besides these objects.

"Most of my abilities affect a large area so it's impossible for me to attempt using it here." Jay said as he stopped using Phase Rush the moment he used it to get back to his original spot.

"Okay. Let us-" Just as Rodrick was about to say that they should first finish eating breakfast, the place suddenly shook violently, as if an earthquake occurred. But the strange thing was, the IronSpark Center was still in its Flying Fortress Mode.

"Cid, Jay, are you guys okay?" Rodrick said loudly as he activated his blue power ranger armor. When he saw Jay and Cidney nodding at him, he sighed in relief.

Rodrick was about to make a call when Jin suddenly barged in and had a panicked look on his face. Jin even had his black shades tilted sideways.

"Sir Rodrick! Emergency level 9! There are monsters attacking IronSpark!"

"WHAT?!!" Rodrick shouted loudly and grabbed Jin by his collar.

"How did this happen?!! IronSpark has ten protective barriers, a camouflaging function, and we are high up in the skies! WHAT HAPPENED?!!"

Just as Jin was about to answer, LJ suddenly appeared in front of everyone. He had blood all over his body and his soldier outfit had a lot of ripped parts.

"Shit... Look, I don't have much time so don't ask me the basic crap like how I got here. I have good news and bad news for everyone here." LJ was about to continue speaking, but he suddenly dropped on his knees.

Rodrick and Jay was about to help him, but LJ gestured them to stop and he continued speaking.

"The good news is, the four of you are alive and about to be transported to Ellthree. Bad news, this dimension will get devoured if we Gatekeepers fail to keep Korr out."

"Wait, what are you-" Rodrick asked in a panicked voice, but he did not even manage to finish his question before LJ threw some kind of microchip towards him, Jay, Jin, and Cidney.

The moment the microchip got attached to their chest, they suddenly disappeared into thin air.

At the same time this happened, LJ collapsed on the floor and hundreds of dark-violet colored spikes appeared all around his body. The spikes were stabbed mostly on his vital areas.

"Damn it... please don't tell me I will die just like this... I still haven't heard her voice..." LJ was about to pull the spikes off from his body but he failed to do so as he lost consciousness.

...

--- An Unknown Place

Jay, Rodrick, Cidney, and Jin were now in some kind of vast plains. While they looked around and wondered what the fuck just happened, they were also a bit mesmerized by the scenery.

The grass had an orange color, the skies were red, and there was a gigantic moon drifting across the skies.

"Damn. What the hell is it now?" Rodrick tried to use his phone, but the moment he did, it suddenly emitted some sparks and it exploded in his hand.

"The fuck! That costed me millions of Alliance Credits!" Rodrick exclaimed loudly.

Jin also tried to use his phone and even his tablet, but it ended up in the same way. It exploded in his hands.

"Shit, shit, shit..."

"Dad, what just happened..." Cidney mumbled softly as she hugged Rodrick and felt a bit scared for some reason.

Jay just stood silently and almost wanted to curse loudly. No matter how much he tried, why couldn't he just have a normal life? Is it too much to ask for?

~AWOOOOO!!!

Not even having enough time to react, a large pack of wolves suddenly rushed towards them and encircled the group. The wolves even had varying sizes and varying colors of fur. There was probably a hundred of them or so.

"Piss off dogs!" Rodrick shouted as his right hand suddenly turned into a plasma cannon and he aimed it at the wolves in front of him.

Just as things were about to get messy, a majestic and terrifying howl reverberated in the air.

~AWOOOOOO!!!

"Sir Rodrick..." Jin dropped on his knees as he pointed at something headed towards them. He almost pissed himself when he saw it.

It was a gigantic black wolf. If compared to the hills back on Earth, it could be said that this gigantic black wolf was the same in height.

As it slowly crept closer, the wolves encircling Jay and co. made way for it.

"I thought I smelled someone familiar..." The gigantic black wolf spoke in human tongue as it continued to move closer, until it was only a few meters away from Jay and the rest.

It then lowered its head so that it could directly look at them instead of looking down at them with lofty eyes.

"Chicken Hero... how come you're here? And where are my children? And those five others who were supposed to send you back?"

When Jay heard the black wolf calling him as the 'Chicken Hero,' and when he saw how it looked at him with its crimson eyes, he dropped on his knees and muttered to himself.

"I'm back here again... how..." Jay sweated crazily as his eyes were wide open and he placed his hands over his head. He tugged on his hair as his mind went into shambles with what happened.

It took him a day to return back to Earth. And it took him just another day to return here. What a twisted fate he had and he wondered if death would feel better than this.