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The young woman brushed her hair in preparation for the night. Her plan would go into play tonight…literally. She had spent months carefully planning every detail of this plan and her mind reeled as she finished getting herself ready. Once her hair was finished and her makeup was applied, she gathered the essentials. It was only a short time later that she walked out into the brisk air of the evening.

Mare began to place candles in a large circle, under the light of a full moon. Adorning her neck with beads and flowers, she placed a small, plastic case in the center of the circle. Smiling widely, to herself, she sprinkled scented oils around the outside of the circle. Next, her hands grasped a dark red rose and her two concert tickets. She began to slowly walk around the outside of the circle and then, she began to chant…

“Moon above and ground below, make these Backstreet Boys begin to show, the closeness that they once possessed, in a game that will cause distress. Waters rush and stars shine bright, help me set these Boys right. They’ve fallen apart and broken my heart. May this game become their world; O, power around me, make these events unfurl. Using all the love, to each other, they show, make these things be so!”

Her voice broke into a loud cackle as she danced with her hands raised in the air. Lightning began to streak across the sky, as the wind began to swirl around her ankles. Every candle’s flame blew out and thunder rattled through the air. Mare’s hair whipped in the wind as she stood still and looked up to the rain that had begun to pour. She giggled to herself, as she picked up the game.

“I have to redo my hair now,” she smirked, “but it will all be worth it when they become a group again. The Boys will be back together and even fan fiction will go back to the way it should be! Oh goodness, I only have an hour before the concert starts!”

Mare used that hour wisely, preparing herself, again, for the concert. Her lips formed a wicked grin as she walked in to the arena and up to her front row seat. She was a bit late, and the opening act was about over…it wouldn’t be long, now. After watching, only, one song, the openers left the stage and the crowd roared for the Boys. Mare’s delight overwhelmed her as she thought about this being the last concert, with only four of them.

“In due time,” she whispered, “everyone will love to have you back, Kevin.”

The crowd surged as the opening song blared through the arena. Howie, Brian, AJ and Nick all appeared on the stage, hyped and full of energy. Oh, how they would need that energy. Her eyes followed Nick, he was the next step in her plan. Nick was the one, who would start the game and end up being the lead…oh yes, she could picture him battling to save his friends in an alternate reality. A smile played on her lips, as she thought of Nick being a hero and a very cute one, at that.

Continuing to watch the concert, she waited for just the right moment. The concert was almost over when she took the change. Carefully throwing the game, it landed at Nick’s feet. Mare saw the twinkle in his eye, as he picked it up. Oh, this was too easy. He was such a sucker for video games. Now, the concert was coming to a close and she worked her way out, of the arena, with the crowd.

Mare went home and crawled into her bed, with a smirk on her lips. Meanwhile, the Backstreet Boys arrived at Kevin’s house. Kristin greeted them, at the door, with Mason in her arms. Kevin smiled, as he came up behind her.

“Hey Kev, can I hook up my system? A fan threw this game onstage and I wanna check it out!” Nick hugged Kevin and batted his eyelashes.

“You mean to tell me,” Kevin put a hand on his hip and cocked an eyebrow, “that you come here to visit me and all you want to do is play video games?”

“Pleeeeeeeeeeeese?”

“Fine, go,” Kevin sighed. Nick got his system hooked up in 2 minutes flat and was about to put the game in, when he heard someone come in the room.

“Hey,” AJ greeted. “Kris made snacks.” He held up a pizza roll.

“Oooo! I am so on that,” Nick rubbed his belly. He handed AJ the game as he headed out of the room.

“Why are you…Nick? Whatever…” AJ looked down at the game. He traced his finger over the cover, “Hmmm, it could be interesting.” He shrugged his shoulders and placed the game into the system. The sound, of the game starting, filled the room and AJ watched the screen flash. Bending down, his fingers wrapped around the controller.

**WIZZ**

“What the…?”

**SNAP**

“…fuck?” AJ looked around, frantically. He was surrounded by darkness. “Where the hell am I? What the fuck man?!?” Trudging forward, he slowly opened the only door he saw.

“AJ? Where did you…aw and you left the game on,” Nick looked at the screen as he reached for the controller. “Strange. HEY GUYS! THE MAIN CHARACTER LOOKS LIKE….”

**WIZZ**

**SNAP**

“What the? AJ? It’s really you? How did we…what’s going on?”

“Yeah, it’s me, alright. What kind of messed up game is this, Nick? I think that we’re like…in the game!”

“Is that even possible?” they both entered through the door AJ had opened. A loud ‘whoosh’ surrounded them.

“Aaw, man, fuck this shit!” AJ looked down at his new outfit. Shinny red, baggy pants and combat boots…no shirt…gun halters over his shoulders with loaded guns hanging by his side. “Talk about a bad flashback to early Backstreet.”

“These outfits weren’t cool then and they are even worse now!” Nick looked at his own outfit…shiny blue, baggy pants with similar boots, a tight white t-shirt and a matching shiny blue jacket. Instead of having the gun halter around his shoulders, he had guns strapped to his the sides of his legs.

“This is seriously messed up!” AJ looked around at the virtual room they were in. There wasn’t much to it, pretty plain in fact.

**SNAP**

“Hi Howie,” Nick looked up at the, very, perplexed man.

“What the heck is going on?” Howie questioned, looking over the other two men, and then over himself. He was wearing the same shiny red pants and boots with no shirt, but an open, matching, jacket and a machine gun over his shoulder. “Why am I wearing this outfit? Someone has some ‘splainin to do!”

“We don’t know, D. All we know is that we are in the game…Nick’s, dumb, fan thrown, game.”

“Hey! Don’t blame me for this! You are the one who started the game up!”

“You would have, if Kris didn’t make food!” AJ shoved Nick’s shoulder.

“STOP!” Howie stomped his foot. “We need to figure out how to get out of this game. Now, think, what do we do?”

“There’s nothing in this room…not even a door…what can we do?” Nick lifted an eyebrow as he fiddled with one of his guns. *POW* “Holy shit! That fucker’s real!” Nick jumped, after firing the gun at the floor.

“Great,” AJ scoffed as he examined the black whole that the gun caused in the floor. “That’s just what we need. I hope we have a lot of lives, in this game.”

“Let’s get one thing straight…we are not playing through this game! We have to find a way out of here!” Howie stepped up, pointing his finger at the others.

**SNAP**

“BRIAN!” Nick, practically, lunged at his friend. “Thank goodness you are here!”

“Why in the heck am I wearing our old wardrobe? Wait a tick! Is that…is this…oh my goodness! I am not wearing a gun! No! I don’t like guns!”

“Oh man up, church boy,” AJ rolled his eyes. “You’re in a video game…you’re gonna need that gun, besides…it’s technically a flame thrower!”

“Oh dear, flame throwers are dangerous,” Brian countered.

“No fucking shit,” AJ shook his head. “That’s how it’s gonna protect your ass.”

“Stop it, already,” Howie sighed.

“I bet that we’re gonna have to sit and wait, until Kevin gets here,” Nick slid down, to the floor. “I wonder how long that will take.”

“Kevin? Why do you think he has to be here?” Brian questioned, trying to adjust the white wife beater that was buckling under the strap, of the flame thrower.

“Well, we can’t go any further, right now,” Nick shrugged. “It stands to reason that it’s because not all the players are here.”

“Kevin won’t play video games though,” Howie countered.

“Yeah, but he can never resist the urge to pick up after me, right? So, I’m sure he’ll find the game system all spread out and on. He’ll be agitated that I left it like that and POOF he’ll join us.” Nick snickered.

“He never could resist cleaning up after you,” Brian chuckled. Sure enough, as four of the Backstreet Boys sat in a video game, the eldest stumbled upon the abandoned game system.

“NICKOLAS GENE CARTER!” Kevin screamed. “How many times…I swear…in my house…and he’s just visiting! Oh that boy…” the man mumbled under his breath as he kicked one of the cords. “I’m not going to do it, this time!”

“What is taking him so long?” Howie paced. “He should have picked it up, by now!”

“I think this is the longest he’s ever gone without picking up after me,” Nick sighed.

“He always has the shittiest timing!” AJ snapped, running his fingers through his hair. “Damnit, Kevin!”

“Huh?” Kevin’s ear picked up on his name as he walked past the living room. “Nick’s stuff is still on the floor? Did they all go to bed or something?” Kevin walked into the room. Glancing at the screen, something caught his eye. Leaning closer, he studied the image, “That guy looks like Nick…and…Howie? AJ? There’s Brian, too. Nice, the fan must have made a BSB video game. Naturally, I got left out,” he huffed as he shut off the TV.

“Let’s go to bed, honey.”

“Coming, Kris. I just have to pick up after Nick,” Kevin sighed as he finally reached down to pick up the controller.

**SNAP**

“Well, it’s about god damn fucking time,” AJ snapped as Kevin’s eyes grew wide.

“Glad you could join us. I knew you couldn’t resist picking up after me. Except, it’s not really my fault, this time.”

“What is going on? God, what are we wearing?!?!?” Kevin looked at the outfits with disgust. His pants were red and his t-shirt sleeves were ripped off. “Do I even want to know?”

“HELLO BOYS!” a voice boomed through their virtual reality.

“See? I told you everything would start happening after Kevin got here,” Nick smirked with satisfaction.

“Shut up,” Howie barked, with annoyance.

“LET THE GAME BEGIN!” the voice boomed, again. “COMPLETE EACH LEVAL AND WIN THE GAME…IF YOU WANT TO…LIVE!!!”

“Oh great, that’s nice,” Brian crossed his arms.

“What the heck is going on?” Kevin asked, looking at the others. Their attention was diverted as a black swirl appeared and spun, in the air. They watched it swirl, until it formed a door.

“We all got sucked into the damn game, Kevin. Hello?!? Honestly, how hard was that to figure out? I need a cigarette,” AJ patted his pockets, in search of his smokes. “Damnit!”

“Haha, no smokes for you!” Nick teased. He walked towards the door and tried to open it. “Why won’t it open?”

“Try pulling, Nick,” Brian rolled his eyes as he took over. “Um…it’s stuck.”

“Good grief. Move over,” Kevin walked up and tried the knob, without luck. Howie gave it a, useless, shot too.

“Perfect. We’re supposed to play but we can’t…” AJ opened the door, with ease and turned to look at the others, with a cocked eyebrow. “Okay…you guys can’t open the door.”

“How did you do that?” Nick asked, as they walked into the next room. Gun fire started immediately. “SHIT!” Nick and AJ crouched down and immediately started firing back, as the others scampered behind a wall.

“Come on, lazy asses, get to shooting,” AJ ordered. “Dude, I totally mutilated that guy!”

“Over there!” Nick shouted, pointing to a new group of guys coming their way.

“Go around that way, Nick. I’ll hold them back, while you take up the back side,” AJ bit his bottom lip as he shot one after another.

“Come on, Brian,” Nick grabbed Brian’s shirt collar and drug him along. “Stay low.”

“Oh, this is not good.”

“Suck it up Brian, unless you wanna loose a life,” Nick huffed as they snuck behind a stack of crates.

“Howie! Go to the left. Watch that door, nothing has come out of that one, yet. Shoot at the first sign of movement,” AJ instructed as he quickly reloaded.

“What? I don’t know how to play these games!”

“Shoot anything that’s not a Backstreet Boy, Howie. How hard is that?” AJ scoffed, as he did a tuck and roll, across the floor. “Kevin. Cover me!” AJ shouted as he ran straight toward five ‘bad guys’, shooting fiercely.

“We’re clear over here, J,” Nick called.

“Here, too,” Howie turned back to the others.

“What now? There’s two doors,” Kevin walked up to the others. “I can’t believe this. We’re already killing stuff.”

“That’s what you do, in video games,” Nick smirked.

“On the first level?” Howie asked.

“No,” AJ rolled his eyes, “normally the first level is spent frolicking in a field of daisies, in the sunshine, singing the Sound of Music, with a pink poodle, and collecting little fuzzy bunnies to bring home for your mommy. YES you fucking kill shit in the first damn level! Shit, Howie.” Sarcasm dripped from AJ’s voice.

“Okay, sorry. This is a little different than Mario Cart,” Howie put his hand up in defense.

“Let’s just get on with this, already,” Brian sighed. “How tough do you think this will be?”

“I don’t know. Looks like this game could get pretty intense,” Nick shrugged.

“So,” Kevin cut back in, “which door? Left or right?”
Chapter End Notes:
If you want the Boys to go through the door on the left, you will go to chapter 2A (which will be written by AJsKellyMouse).
But, if you want the Boys to go throught the door on the right, you will go to chapter 2B (which will be written by rebellious_one).