The Mansion of Crossroads

"Oh look mommy, it seems that godzilla is fighting King Kong in a death match in the land down under? Bets? Fiffty bucks on the atomic laz0R breathing dragon." The little girl took out a large- to large for a child- amount of cash in her purple jacket pocket, throwing it on top of the X-Box.

Lia stared at the screen and saw the huge ape battling a dragon like creature. She supposed these were "godzilla" and "king kong." "Wait, what? Bets? No, we are not going to bet on a fight." She picked up the 50 and handed it back to Hunter. Lia then sat back down on the couch and brought up her omni tool to go through the human extran-wait no, they called it the internet, of course Zel had to interrupt with his own commentary when the AI took note of what the news was broadcasting.
"I would have to agree with you." the AI said as it simultaneously browsed the internet in search of usable data.

John's Mondeo was proving to be better than he had expected. His moved nicely, was spacious and looked at least half-decent. On the backseat, which couldn't be currently seen, were more than two dozen shopping bags. On the passenger seat, beside his weapon, were three smaller, thinner plastic bags. Inside them lay a collection of full flimsy aluminium trays and a six pack of Pepsi.

He finished the slow, winding journey up the mountain side, pulling up as close as possible to the front entrance of the mansion. He stopped the car, grabbed his key from the ignition and opened the driver side door. The officer stretched upon leaving the vehicle, before closing the door and walking towards the other door on his side of the car. He reached inside the car and brought out two slightly heavy bags. Each went into his right hand, as his left reached for three more. With roughly equal amounts of weight in each hand, he moved up the steps to the door. The door was nudged open enough by Sheppard's knee, allowing him inside.

"Someone come help get these bags or we ain't going to have any food..." John called out, carrying on to the kitchen, "Or a soldier with a working spine."

"So, Nova, did you ever regret that choice of yours? To become a ghost, I mean." The little girl slide herself around, much like one of those spiny chairs McDonalds sometimes had, and looked Nova in the eye, her normal smile gone. It was a geniune look of caring and concern.

Nova frowned at the young girl slightly. Puzzled, she shifted in her seat as she asked, "How do you know who I am and what I have done?"

"You're a terran ghost. November Annabella is your name, I think...." The little girl smiled, looking up at Nova, otherwise known as Novemeber. A pretty cool name, but no name was as cool as her real name.

Nova arched an eyebrow. " "November Annabelle", huh? What else do you know about me that I don't?"

How much memory had she lost over the years? How much of her past had she forgotten or had been erased?

"Dunno. Not much for Starcraft, but you are right I guess. So, what do you wanna do now? This is Earth, after all. All humans started here. It's the homeworld, which is awesomesauce." The little girl kept a large smile plastered on her face now, the care and concern on her previous expression gone.

Nova - or November, to use her original name, as the girl had pointed out - shrugged. "I'm not sure-"

She snapped her fingers. "Wait a second, what is this "Starcraft" you are talking about?"

"Starcraft is the videogame you're from. Ask Lia about it; she's the one with the internet to look it up with. Like I said, I'm not really into it Nova." Pepsi jumped up, walked over to the x-box, (After saving, of course) and removed Mass Effect. She then took out Space Marine from a little bag chock full of video game violence, and inserted it into the x-box.

"Dakka. You need moar of it. No exceptions."

Starting to become increasingly curious, Nova queried again. "And where can I find this ... "Lia"?"

Lia looked back at Nova as the little girl sat down to play her game. "That's me."

Noting the Quarian, Nova stood up from the cair as she added, "You wouldn't happen to be familiar with a .... video game called "StarCraft", perchance?"

"Well, a warm welcome indeed. Andrew, would you mind snatching the pizza off the balcony? A wonder it isn't soaking wet." Aya stepped inside the house, stretching. There was a missed call, they'd have to check that.

Andrew lifted his arm to allow Aya access into the mansion, before stepping back outside to grab the pizzas on the porch, bringing it back inside. He set it on the table, and saw Aya looking at the telephone. "You check that while I let everyone know food is here?"

"Sure, I guess." Aya sat down next to the phone, listening at a few missed calls. One about the pizza, another about how they were supposed to be at the airport an hour ago. That being said, they were late as it was (Government asses moving back their leave time) and they should at least enjoy themselves for a short period of time. Brea opted to tell the group after they had aten about the phone call, then literally set out that second. It wasn't like they had anything they could pack anyway...

"Myslef, no, but I will see what I can find. Just give me a moment." Before she could do anything, a screen popped up with information on Starcraft appeared on the omni tool. The Quarian glared at the tool, "...or not. Come here and sit down and you can read this."

Nova nodded and took a seat beside the Quarian, trying to read the paragraphs of text tat flashed up on the Quarian's omni-tool. It was mainly development infomation and general gameplay info.

"Character background. I need to see that." she added to Lia.

"Alright then." Andrew walked out of the room Aya was in, traversing the Mansion until he found the room Nova, Lia, and the little girl were in.

"Hey, we've got food in the Kitchen if you guys want some."

Pepsi looked up from her video game, scowling.

"After this level, numbnuts. I need to kill things right now."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Aya leaned against the door, waiting on everyone to eat. She really didn't like the mood of things, they needed to hurry up, and eat. That being said, what Nova and Lia were doing was serious buisness, most certainly.

Before Lia could touch the omni tool, the screen changed to show characters, more specifically, information on Nova at the center. Lia let out an exasperated sigh, "Zel, stop trying to show off." She showed Nova the information, this time the screen showed Nova's biography.

Nova quickly skimmed through what looked like a biography of her history and, for a moment, she looked crestfallen as se asked Lia, "Can .... can I have a copy of this infomation?"

Lia nodded, "Sure..." She glanced around in search of some way to get the information printed for Nova. She noticed Noble Six with a-what were they called? Computer. There must be some way to print. If that was so, "Zel, can you find some way to put this page on paper? There must be something around here?" Without so much as a response, the AI had a nearby wireless printer that the Quarian has failed to notice began to make noise as it printed the page out. "There is your information."

Nova nodded and muttered in thanks as she took the three pieces of paper from the printer and sat back down in the lounge again, silently reading te text to herself.

"WOULD YOU PEOPLE SHUT UP? I'M TRYING TO PRESTIGE HERE! MY GAWD." Pepsi had put in Black Ops (How Gold time had been entered in so quickly, and the game updated was apparantly unknown) and was currently raping some campers with a M16, because the M16 was so good at CQC in Black Ops.