“War Games”

Character(s): Nosedive, Wildwing, and Tanya
Rating: PG
Warning: Blood
Extended Word Count: 242 (I lost the original version.)

Wildwing scowled at the crimson on his brother’s arm, ensnaring Wildwing in a desperate debate: to pull his brother out or let Nosedive die by Dragaunus’s hands.

Strapped to a seat with a transparent visor over his vacant eyes, Nosedive pounded the console keys. Though Wildwing knelt in front of the boy, the teen didn’t notice. His mind was captive in a world of chaos and death, too similar to the Puckworld invasion to be coincidental. Dragaunus had interceded.

Wildwing gripped his brother’s knee in hopes that Nosedive felt him, though it was impossible.

“I can’t override it,” Tanya whispered brokenly, “and the game is too real.” She needn’t mention the blood or finish her thought. Wildwing knew. If she pulled Nosedive out of the game so suddenly, the backlash of being jolted from his “reality” would result in a trauma too great for his mind to handle.

Nosedive cried out suddenly, fighting an enemy Wildwing couldn’t. Blood soaked his shoulder, and Wildwing decided he wouldn’t let Dragaunus win. If his brother was going to die, it would be his hand.

He ripped off the visor.

Nosedive’s eyes fluttered into reality; he fought against the restraints.

Grabbing Nosedive’s face, he forced the boy to look at him. “Nosedive!”

The wildness in his eyes was tamed, and Nosedive slumped against his brother. “I knew you’d come,” he murmured tiredly.

“Always.” Realizing Nosedive would live, Wildwing vowed, “You are never playing video games again.”