Monstrous growls sounded out from all directions of the warehouse, startling all inside.
Crouched down, Ghost couldn't hear anything.
He was trapped in a state of shock, holding Wolverine's lifeless body in his arms.
"You took my place, taking hundreds if not thousands of bullets over the course of five minutes, and I could only watch! I was just too powerless to do anything the entire time! Damn it all!"
He punched the concrete floor, leaving a massive web of cracks. The desks collapsed inwards in this state of instability, the Xbox Code Eden consoles, 8k monitors, and premium gaming chairs meeting their tragic ends.
From Ghost's eyes, tears of blood streamed down his face as he unleashed a bestial roar in his madness.
"GHOST! GHOST!"
Captain Price gasped in shock, dolphin diving onto the floor as a inhuman arm, covered in what appeared to be carapace, shot out from the wall behind him, "Fuck! Why the hell are there zombies here?"
Roach jumped not in fear but excitement, but as the figure revealed more of its body, he frowned in disappointment, "They... They aren't the rad zombies from Call of Duty. No, they are the shitty aliens from Rainbow Six Extraction! This fucking sucks!"
Lil' Ghani and the Afghan soldiers shrieked in dismay, running rampantly to reinforce the warehouse.
"Ah, Shit! Those fuckers have returned!"
"Board the goddamn windows! Quick!"
While several voices cried out in desperation, it was one voice in particular that reached Ghost.
"You've got to always go back in time if you want to move forward."
"Go... back in time... to move forward...?"
Ghost muttered softly, looking up to meet one man's eyes.
It was Snoop Dog.
Their eyes aligned like fated stars and a hand reached down like that of a god's, breaking him free from his benightment and offering him support. It was a gesture of simplicity, but a touching one at that.
"A hand? To help me?" Ghost sniffled in disbelief.
The last time he had been so damaged and hurt... was with his dear friends, Hoah Nill and Delexi. In his moment of hurt, they abandoned him with faceless text messages.
Snoop Dog flashed a brilliant smile and whispered, "Go ahead and take my hand, Mandrew. I know you've been through a lot, but I'm here for you."
Ghost couldn't hold it anymore, letting out all his sorrows in one heart-rending cry; without even realizing it, he reached for that hand.
As their hands touched, Snoop Dog's eyes glimmered with a mysterious sparkle and Ghost's vision twisted into a strange distortion.
***
Mandrew's eyes snapped open, finding himself in a familiar room.
It was his old apartment; he lay tucked under the warm blankets of his bed.
"I'm back home? Was that all really just a dream?"
As Mandrew listened to his own voice, he realized something was seriously wrong here.
"Why is my voice so high-pitched?"
It was almost like... he went back in time?
"Mandrew! Hey! Mandrew!!!" a voice suddenly called out.
"Huh?! Who's there?"
Mandrew shouted in alarm, looking off to the left where a gaming headset entered his sight.
Getting up from his bed and reaching for his mic, he realized his body proportions were actually that of a normal human's.
"I don't understand... is this real or a dream?" he asked aloud while placing the headset upon his head cautiously, "Hey, who is this?"
"Who is this? C'mon, man! You're not seriously doing cocaine again, right?" the voice said in displeasure and continued, "Tch, I can't believe you. Just forget I asked. Anyways, it's me—Hoah Nill. Remember now, right?"
"Huh? What? No, no, of course not. I'm over that. Wait—" Mandrew froze, "I... I don't do cocaine, so what are you even talking about? No... This is all just a dream... That explains why you're here, Hoah and why I'm not so... bulky...."
"A dream...? What the fuck are you on about, dude!?"
"You... You wouldn't understand even if I told you, so why should I bother?"
Another voice abruptly cut in, "Uh, guys? How about we just play some Rocket League?"
It was Delexi.
"Yeah," Hoah Nill hurriedly agreed, "Let's just play Rocket League and lose like always. Sounds like soooo much fun!"
"Hoah, I'm sorry, okay?" Mandrew sighed, holding in his frustrations, "I don't know what's up with you, but we can get past this, okay?"
"Get past this? We always lose because you are too busy snorting cocaine to feel a little bit of euphoria."
"Hoah, let off a bit...." Delexi mumbled, "Let's just play a 3v3 like old times, okay?"
The party chat was silent, except for a quiet snorting sound coming from Mandrew's mic.
Mandrew hadn't even realized when, but he had bent his microphone in towards his nose, snorting a line of cocaine off of it.
"You're... You're fucking doing it again!"
Hoah cried in disbelief, his microphone muting briefly.
When he finally unmuted it, Delexi and Mandrew could hear a harsh coughing coming from Hoah's mic as he started sparking heavily.
"Hoah, dude, you're the one sparking."
"Yeah, it's annoying in the mic, isn't it?"
"Why is it like this? Can't the two of you just shut the fuck up!?"
Delexi yelled out, unable to control his sorrow, to which he received no reply.
Eventually, they found a game. And to no surprise, they lost.
"Fuck this shitty game, man! I'm retiring."
Mandrew closed out of the game in his growing frustration, expecting any other match to be a flop like this one.
Rocket League sucked.
It was filled with sweaty tryhards.
There was no sense of accomplishment even when you managed to snag a win.
Fuck this game.
"Mandrew, dude, c'mon! Get back on here, we're gonna make a threes team, dude!" Hoah Nill laughed in a laid-back manner, fried out of his mind.
"Yeah, we only got one game in!" Delexi reinforced.
"No, I'm sick and tired of this same old shit!"
"Dude! We. Are. Making. A. Threes. Team. DUDE!" Hoah repeated with emphasis.
"A threes team? Count me in!" Mandrew smiled back, loading up Rocket League as he joined their game.
And together, the three of them went on a streak of wins.
***
Ghost's eyes snapped open as he took in the disastrous scene that was his surroundings.
The warehouse had fallen apart and Ghost's friends, allies, enemies—they were all engaged in a hellish scene where they fought against shitty aliens from the shitty Rainbow Six Extraction.
Except for Snoop Dog who was naturally still holding Ghost's hand.
"Do you feel better now?" he calmly asked.
Mandrew looked him in the eyes with newfound resolution.
"Yeah. I do feel better.. And I know what needs to be done now!"
"Good, so let's first get the hell out of this hell, man! Since I'm already here, I might as well join you on this mission of yours."
Notification: Snoop Dog joined the team.
"Ahh! Get it off me! Get it off me!" a voice cried out, pleading with shrill cries of desperation.
It wasn't just any voice—it was Roach's!