I felt inspired recently, and wanted to go back and do my first fic justice. I wanted to write something and just decided to rewrite it. I believe I came up with idea back when I was around 14 or 15 years old. I haven't written anything in awhile, and this is reminding me how much I missed it.

I'm tired of the unexplained transporting to video game route. Enjoy the mystery and intrigue I put on my version of the concept. You'll find out more about it as the story progresses. Plus if I ever finish this fic it has the setting already in place for a prequel.

Disclaimer: I don't Final Fantasy. I'm just butchering it for our entertainment.

Title: A New Way to Play

Chapter One: The New Game Console

"Steve, you have no idea have much it really sucks over here!" The teen yanked the phone away from his ear. Steve ran a hand through his tousled auburn hair at his friend's ongoing melodramatic laments. He sighed rolling his green eyes knowing that his friend could not see it. You think that the guy you used to wrestle around in the dirt would thrive in the great outdoors. Nope, still whining like a baby after fifteen long minutes. "Well, I'd like to see you after you had all your underwear used as a bear chew toy!"

Did he say that out loud? He began sniggering as he registered what was just said. "You know what? I would've loved to see you after that little episode. Tell me are you enjoying the bears attempt at high end fashion or are you going commando?"

"FUCK YOU, KNIGHT!" Immediately following that little statement Steve could hear a reprimand from a woman's voice over the phone. "Sorry mom…"

Steve imitated his friend's apologetic tone and added, "I know you don't want me to promise that to guys because I know how much you want grandchildren, but I can't help how I feel."

"You are a bastard!" This time the reply has hissed at a lower volume. It didn't help Steve in the least to control his chuckles. "You are getting it when I get back. This time I'll wipe the floor with you. There's a reason why I'm MVP."

"Whatever! You can't wipe nothing except maybe that bear drool off your ass!" The answering growl was music to his ears. "Besides being named Michael Victor Porter does not make you MVP." They laughed at the old joke for a bit before the teen changed the topic. "Did I tell you what happened last week?"

"Oh yeah, you mentioned that your aunt was coming over for a visit."

"Step aunt. She and my mom are nothing alike. I didn't even know I had an aunt." Steve threw himself down on his blue-striped bed. "Aunt Sophia is a total snob from France. I think she was hiding from an ex-boyfriend or something when she came over to visit. You should have seen my mom's face when she was talking on the phone. It was like she was reliving some horrific childhood memories.

"That bad?"

"Words cannot describe the horrors. I think my mom tried to strangle her with the garden hose at one point. Unfortunately dad was close by and stopped mom. She then sort of got drunk and blew up the living room."

"Shit!"

"Oh no wait I haven't gotten to it yet. She also blew up my PS2, the TV, part of the wall, and her cat. Dear old auntie just happened to dump her wine on all the electronics when she got a little to personal with the TV trying to get her cat that was hiding under it."

"That's rough buddy."

"Are you quoting that Avatar cartoon?"

"Uh…no?" Mike sounded guilty for some reason. "So what are you doing now that everyone is gone for the summer and your entertainment is dead?"

"Contemplating suicide. Just dig me back up when you get back from your little camping trip."

"This is lame. What we need is-"

"ARRRRGH!" The cry was very high-pitched and barely heard over the sound of Steve's bedroom door slamming open. Suddenly there was a very nimble, acrobatic, seven year old launching himself at the red head on the bed.

Not even startled the teen caught the boy by his stomach with his feet, and using his momentum chucked him across the room towards his armchair stacked with his dirty laundry. It was a good thing he never picked up after himself, or there wouldn't be any cushion. The maneuver resulted in green eyed teen to flip over his head off the bed and onto his feet in one movement.

The little boy landed headfirst into the pile, his back hitting the back of the chair with his legs in the air over it. The force sent the chair tipping towards the wall, but using the same agileness Steve had shown he kicked the wall sending the chair back onto the ground with a slam as he tumbled off and onto his feet as well. Steve smirked when he noticed his little brother sporting his favorite boxers on his head. He started chuckling as he watched the shuddering dark haired boy peeled said article from his person. However he stopped abruptly when he noticed that he had lost ownership of his cell phone.

"Hey Mike, it's me James!" The boy chirped into the newly liberated phone. His green eyes the same shade as his brother's sparkled mischievously, but while his lit up the elder's darkened in anger. "Forget getting my brother a souvenir. You should just bring me back something."

The sixteen year old lunged at James. "BRAT!"

"BYE, MIKE!"

James hung up the phone and booked it out of the room with his brother following close behind. There were several crashes as they slid across the wooden floor. When James reached the top of the stairs, he threw himself onto the banister and slid down perfectly balanced. Steve with a larger frame didn't bother and just leapt down the steps four steps at a time.

The red head almost caught up until James noticed his plight and leapt off the banister and scampered into the kitchen. Steve followed with a roar, but stopped short as he almost pelted into his mother who was holding James by the seat of his pants almost a foot or two in the air. The red headed woman was not wearing her happy face.

"Honestly it's like I can't leave you two alone for a few minutes." The woman mused eyeing her two ruffled sons. "Does anyone want to explain or can we start acting civil without cart wheeling and somersaulting off the walls? You know it annoys your father."

Her eldest just shrugged his shoulders sheepishly in apology, while James just grinned flailing his arms and legs wildly from his airborne position. His mother just smiled warmly lifted him higher and then lower, and soon the boy was making airplane noises with his arms spread out. Apparently their apologies were accepted as their mom tossed the mail she was carrying in her other hand onto the kitchen counter to help James execute more elaborate airplane maneuvers. The teen pulled out a bar stool and sat at the counter.

Finally she returned her boy to the earth, and asked "Darling, since you have so much energy, can you help me set the table?" The dark head bobbled once as he went off to his task, and their mother went to check the oven. "Oh, Stephen, there's going to be a demonstration at the gymnasium in a few days. Danny was going to do the parallel bars but he pulled something, and I don't think he's going to be recovered enough by then."

"Sure, it's not like I have a lot to do." Idly he began to sort through the mail as his mom went through preparing the rest of their dinner.

Every once in awhile she would dump something that she wanted delivered to the table into James' arms as he walked by. She never took her eyes off whatever task she was doing even as she pushed a plate that was falling back onto the pile in James' arms. It was all done without missing a beat. Steve called it her Mom senses, but his friends' opinion differed. His friends always said it was a surreal experience coming over, and seeing them use amazing body coordination and sometimes ignore gravity.

His mom was a gymnastic teacher and it has been awhile since Steve's been on the bar or on the floor at her gymnasium. Steve hasn't been to his mom's gymnasium lately because there was new girl attending classes. Practicing gymnastics did have a way of conditioning one's body, and it was like that girl never seen an athletic male body in her life. Let's just say that Steve has had the most awkward moments of his life in those few lessons then he had most of his life. Hopefully the girl wasn't disciplined and dropped the class.

His dad on the other hand was the only person in the household that like to keep both feet on the ground. It would probably surprise most of his students if they knew that their reserved professor had married a much younger woman who actually tumbled right into his life. It was a source of constant amusement to his mom, since both of the boys seemed to inherit her agileness, grace, recklessness, and being adrenaline junkies. Even James at only seven was turning to be a prodigy at it.

Just as Steve was about to throw an advertisement in the junk mail pile his eye caught just what it was advertising. His eyebrows nearly touched his hairline. Those were some seriously cheap game systems and all for the promotional grand opening. It seemed like Pete's Gaming Software was opening in the area. Mentally crunching the numbers in his head he found that he could afford it himself. He absently noted that the thing was addressed to him. A large grin spread across his face as he let out a loud whoop. The loud sound startled James so badly that it was only thanks to his mom's fast reflexes that the glasses didn't break.

There it was nestled between the coffee shop and a clock shop. The shop had the appearance of being new, so much in fact that Steve doubted that they were opened. The sign was even finished yet, but Steve could see that it was going to read Pete's Gaming Software. The windows were still a little dirty, but at least the windows were fully opened. Walking closer to the said windows he peered into the store and dully noted that the merchandise was partly unpacked. Just what was he getting himself into? The place really looked unprofessional, and they had already sent out its flyers for their opening.

He sighed and squaring his shoulders walked through the doors. The door squeaked loudly, and immediately a head popped out from the back room. "A delivery?" The man pushed adjusted his square glasses quickly as if in disbelief, and then after a moment he smiled and a lanky body emerged from behind the wall. He didn't seem to be that old probably a few years older than Steve himself, but for a moment Steve had thought he was older. Maybe it was the beard he was growing or the heavy lens of his glasses, but the one thing that really threw him off was that the guy was wearing a black turtleneck even though it was summer. His whole appearance made him more cut out to be next door at the coffee shop reading poetry or something, instead of at a video game store.

"Please tell me you're the one who was delivering the shelves! We've been trying to track down those deliveries all day." The man then took a closer look at Steve and finally noticed that no delivery man would be dressed so casually nor be that young. "Wait a second what are you doing here?

"Wha?" Steve was taken aback. Well this was turning out to be odd. "Err… I was hoping to get a look at your game systems."

"Of course that's what we all hope for people who come in here look for, but we don't open till Monday."

Steve ran a hand through his hair frustrated. This was getting confusing according to the flyer it said that the store was already opened. He quickly pulled the flyer out and handed it to Jack whose eyebrows nearly touched his hairline as he read it.

"I want to know why you are sending these out if you aren't opened yet." Steve demanded as he watched Jack clean his glasses and peer closer at the logo as if he could prove it authenticity.

"This can't be right." The lanky man started towards the back ignoring the teen's suspicious question, his face had lost all color. "This can't have been sent we haven't even finished designing it."

Steve forgot his earlier suspicion this was proving to be more interesting. With nothing better to do and wanting to get to the bottom of it he followed the man to the back. He walked into an office that reflected the state of the rest of the store. It was more or less half unpacked and Steve had to wonder at the wisdom of letting some important looking documents lie scattered about.

"Jack, you finished the flyers? Good job, man! I was going to finish it sometime in the next two days, but I guess I don't have to worry about that now. I knew I made a good choice when I hired you." A voice rumbled behind the desk there was no one in the chair and for a moment the red head blinked several times not comprehending. Was the desk praising the older teen?

A sigh brought his attention to Jack who appeared to be addressing the desk, "Uncle Pete, I didn't realize making a good choice translated in you were too lazy to hire help in time for the opening of your store. Remember I'm only here till your shop is set up and you finally hire your own people." The older teen chided his voice laced in his obvious frustration that was apparent in his stance.

There was a snort and Steve heard the sounds of papers being shuffled. Abruptly a large hand appeared from behind the desk and more or less smacked a pile of papers onto the only clear space that had existed on the desk. "I was never very organized that's why I asked for your help, but do you have to sound so stuffy about it? You're young. You have plenty of time to be stuffy later in life, and besides if you act like you have a rod up your ass all the time you might scare the customers. I'm so stiffy! Kids, if you want to be stiffy like me just stick a rod up your butt. Because being stiffy is nifty."

The lanky man's nostrils flared and he made a small noise in his throat but other than that didn't show any other response to his uncle's comment. "If you must know I wasn't picking up your slack. There's a kid here out front..." Steve coughed rather conspicuously and Jack corrected himself. "...here in your office who has just informed me that someone sent this to his house. This flyer in your store's name. Advertising your merchandise. Stating that Pete's Gaming software has just opened."

"Wha-?!" That response was coupled with a dull thud as the whole desk rocked forward and shortly followed by a string of half coherent murmurs. Jack dragged a hand slowly down his face. The older man seemed unaware that the action tugged his features down making him quite a sight, and despite the seriousness of mysterious, ghostly game advertisements Steve couldn't help it as he almost choked on a snort before he was lost in laughter at that whole scene in front of him. Perhaps a guy sighing and making faces at a cursing, bucking desk would do that to anyone.

"So I guess you failed to get to the 'being stiffy is nifty' line before you brought him in here?"

"So let me get this straight?" Pete was once again seated properly behind his desk comparing the flyer that Steve brought in to the one he was working on. Pete was a big powerfully looking man. It seemed odd that he was running a video game store as he looked like someone you expect to be a the gym working out most of their time. "This was sent to your house yesterday?" Steve nodded wearily he felt like they went through this fifty times already. Jack rolled his eyes in sympathy. "The letter was sent in our address and everything. It looks like it mentions everything I want mentioned except..." The man let his words trail off as he drummed his thick fingers on the desk. The thuds echoed loudly in the room. "Tell me are you this Stephen Knight that it's addressed to?"

Steve raised an eyebrow at that question. "Yes, is there a problem with that?"

The man paled and he began shuffling through his numerous piles of papers while Steve wondered if there was anything odd about what he just said. Finally he seemed to find what he was looking for under a Mario paperweight on the floor. He checked the paper that he just dug out. "Dear Lord, it's the same name."

The teen wanted nothing more than to leave and pretend this whole thing didn't happened. Despite the allure of a cheap PS2 he felt he was getting in over his head. "Well... you can keep those, and I'll just be on my way. I don't think I need a game system since badly." Steve eased himself out of the chair.

"Wait! Hear me out this is important!"

"Err... I find it really hard to believe you. You've been overreacting to a flyer for the past half hour. You can spaz over that piece of paper and your nephew, Mr. Nifty Stiffy, can run your little store and I'll just buy a PS2 somewhere else... somewhere far away."

The man's deep voice lowered to a whisper. "Someone left a package in our shop to be picked up by one Stephen Knight."

"W-wha?" The red head stuttered oh-so-intelligently. This was the last thing he was expecting to hear, and with his slight hesitation the large man shoved him back into the wooden chair.

"Jack, close the windows and lock that door!" Even as he barked out the orders to the other room, Pete locked and closed all the windows in his office. A short while later Jack joined them in his office.

Once Pete was satisfied he cleared his throat his mood solemn. "Let me explain. I was not originally going to open my store here. I was going to go open it in the next town actually, but a series of strange events made that impossible. Shortly after that I was looking for a new place for my store. A real estate agent contacted me that this store was available for purchasing. I thought it was fine it's not that far to drive here from where I live.

I started ordering the merchandise and setting up the shop. Then that's where things got a little strange. A shipment came in, but along with it was another package from someone named Stephen Knight. The package included some type of game system and requested that we repaired and that he was going to be picking it up when it was finished. Course when I opened it, it didn't resemble any system I've ever seen. Then I noticed that it was sent from the same P.O. Box as the guy who sold me this place." Mike sighed looking weary. "Looking at you I don't think you're the one who sold me this place. You're just a kid."

"Well, maybe we have the same name? If he sold you this place doesn't he have some numbers on file from when this place was sold on file?" This whole situation seemed to be over the teen's head.

"I checked. All those numbers no longer work. I think there's something weird going on. There seems to be a fellow who has a lot of power to influence legal matters to force me to open my shop here, just so that there is a place for you to pick up this package. Let me tell you boy I don't like being used as a delivery boy."

"If it's like you say, then I wonder how this person knew that my aunt was going to blow up her cat and my PS2 last week."

Pete choked. "Blew up her cat?!"

"She was drunk at the time. I do remember that the cat's tail was on fire. I think when she spilled the wine it made it worse." In hindsight it was sort of funny. Steve started to laugh.

Jack smacked the younger teen up side the head. "Focus! We do not need to be hearing about your drunken aunt's hobbies." His rant was cut off when even his Uncle began to giggle, and that was an odd sight to see a man as large as him giggling like a little schoolgirl. "Uncle Peter!"

After a few moments they were finally able to pull themselves together, but not without a few exploding cat sound effects. "Alright back to what I was saying. Why would a guy go through all the trouble of getting this PS2 to you? Whatever the reason is I don't think it's all pure goodwill."

"I'm nothing special." Steve grudgingly muttered. "You don't think it's something as serious as that do you?"

"This whole thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth."

"Can I see this strange console?"

Pete frowned and messaged his temples as he thought it over. At long last he nodded at Jack who swept out of the room again. The big man fidgeted nervously, and his nervousness was making Steve nervous. It wasn't like the game system was going to bite him was it? A second later the lanky man was back and placing a box on the floor, and pulling the cardboard flaps open. Jack shifted through some of the packing material and pulled something warped up in even more protective material. He pulled it off and revealed a blocky thing of electronics. Steve stared at it curiously, and seeing the question is his gaze Pete answered.

"It came like that. Many of these parts are able to come off like a PS2 memory card." Pete then pulled apart a good portion of the box and showed him that it contained the game tray for disks. I tried it out you can play disk games here. I haven't checked all of it though."

The thing was very irregular in shape. Very blocky and there were quite a few open slots like it was missing some of it accessory items, but despite it's odd appearance Steve could tell where all the important parts were.

"Now we have a paper saying that you were going to be picking it up. I think this system is meant for you, but I have to ask you." Pete wrapped up the system drawing Steve's attention away from it. "Do you want to take the risk of taking it? This gift some guy out there went to a lot of trouble manipulating events to get it to you."

He thought about it biting the inside of his cheek. The whole thing seemed bizarre and weird, and most likely the stupid thing wouldn't work. His recklessness began to stir and affect his thinking. It wouldn't really hurt to take it would it. Steve really wanted to get to the bottom of it. "Sure why not. If this guy really wanted me to have that weird thing he would find some way to get it to me, if he has as much influence as you think."

The storeowner sighed and shook his head, "I had a feeling you would say that. Fine, you can have it for free. One thing though." He paused making sure the teen was paying attention. "You'll be careful, and you'll tell me if anything else odd happens."

Steve nodded and the game console was placed back into the box and given back to him. Seeing as their discussion was over and Jack had once again began to open the windows, Steve turned to leave. He got as far as the doorway of Pete's office when the man spoke again.

"One more thing! You're a good kid if you ever need a job just give us a little visit. I could do with a little more non-stiffy human interaction."

Steve cracked a grin at that and Jack growled.

"I'm not STIFFY! Whatever that means?!"

Steve crashed onto his armchair after shoving his pile of dirty clothes to the floor. The teen was fresh out the shower and even he wouldn't sit in a pile of dirty clothes after that. He threw an arm over his tired green eyes. Since he was going to be filling in for Danny, Steve was making sure he was in top form. His mom seemed impressed with his performance, but he didn't have the heart to tell her that he was trying to distract himself of the mystery of the console.

Thinking of the console he glanced at it in the corner of his bedroom. It was still in the box where he placed it before he left to practice. Maybe now would be a good time to try it. His mom was taking James to a friend's house, and his dad was out seeing to the details for repairs for the living room.

He heaved himself to his feet and shuffled over to set up the game. Everything plugged in correctly even his PS2 controller worked. The red head hesitated, and then turned the thing on. Steve slowly let out a breath as nothing devastating happened. A quick glance out the window showed that it wasn't raining meteors.

Turning his attention back to the screen showed that it was prompting him to set the date and time. Well it wasn't that odd, but he did wonder if he was the first person to use the system. Spoke too soon, just what did it mean by time speed? His eyebrows knitted together in a frown. The options weren't offering him any clues; 1x, 2x, 5x, 10x and their negative counterparts. There wasn't a -1x strangely. He grunted and opted to just choose none.

Since he was using his old PS2 controller Steve decided he would play one of his PS2 games. He reached over and plucked out a game from the general location of where he kept his PS2 games. FFX, Steve hasn't played that in awhile. It had a good storyline, sad but good. It was less about big guns and sheer badass characters, instead focusing on the emotions of a world where mortality was truly fragile. Maybe that was why the religion was such a central role in the game. The disk was quickly inserted.

The teen grabbed his memory card when he noticed that there was something that resembled a memory card in one of the slots. He quickly placed his card into one of the slots, and then turned his attention to the card in the system already. Though to be honest it more resembled a slighter bulkier flash drive than a memory card. Trying to pull it out turned out to be a mistake.

"Ow!" Steve quickly pulled his hand back sticking his bleeding fingers into his mouth. A panel shut close as he pulled his hand away offering a quick glimpse of the sight of his blood covering the inner parts of the card. He takes it back. The game console does bite. It must've been playing docile at Pete's. He's going to get rabies. Can you get rabies from electronics? Would he get a virus?

His inner ramblings were broken off when the end of the rabid card folded open and revealed a small lens. The teenager's pride would not let himself admit that he shrieked when a light starting scanning him. Before he could further freak out a profile sheet popped up on the screen. Steve recognized himself in the picture, and before he could begin to read it another screen popped up.

SAVING…

"What the fuc-" The light started scanning again.

LOADING…

Suddenly Steve was feeling very lightheaded. He wobbled on his feet but found that he could not move from that spot. Then as opposed to everything going black instead everything went white; really really blindingly white. When the light show slowly faded from his retinas the green eyed teen found himself lying facedown on something translucent and glowing whitish blue. Picking himself up Steve found that he was now in a place up of more of those translucent blocks, floating glowing orbs, and endless black. This was worst than rabies, and he deeply regretted letting himself get bitten.

Hope you enjoyed it. Well review and tell me how it is. Forgive me if I'm out of practice. I was just so excited to start writing again. Tell me if it was too much real world action. I was just trying to flesh out Steve's background and character.

Btw the next chapter is already 2 pages written. I might get it up sometime in the next week.

ONE LAST THING: I know most of these self insert fics are well inserting yourself into your favorite games. Well just for the record I'm a girl, XX chromosome. So no calling me Steve, or I'll sic my rabid electronics on you.