Mini Prologue:

"Hey, Aryn, look what I got!" I teased my sister while waving two tickets.

"Hey, Azalea, go away." she mocked.

"Why? This is your early birthday present. It cost me 300 dollars to get these, all because you were too lazy to tell me you wanted 'em" I loved my twin, but sometimes it felt like she was a lost cause.

"What are they?" she eyed them suspiciously.

"Tickets to the beta test of SAO. I only found out today that you wanted one, and they gave away accounts yesterday. I had to buy 'em off a black market dealer guy!" I explained.

"Really!" her interest piqued. She loved stuff like this.

"Yup! We'll work together to dominate the game." I said. Aryn always wanted people to know her name. This would be a chance. If only I had known my gift would take the course it did. I will never regret anything more than that day. She claims it's not my fault. She says will get out of this together. But I'm not sure we will.

Chapter 1

(12 weeks after prologue)

"Did you hear? They are officially launching SAO!" I heard one of my classmates screech. Everyone knew my sister and I were beta testers. They also knew that not playing the game had taken a toll on us. For the month in between the beta test and the official release, I had been irritable and cranky. I couldn't jump as high, run as fast, or even see as well. Wearing glasses in real life had caused me to use my skill points on observation in the beta test. Many people thought it was useless, but I speak from experience; it makes a huge difference. It's easier to follow the monsters movements and detect patterns. Sometimes I'll find an ultra-rare item just sitting on the ground, because no one else could see it. Aryn, on the other hand, was renowned in the game for her incredible HP. She had little strength, and only a little bit above average agility. But because of her HP and agility, no one could hit her, and if they did, it wouldn't matter. She was practically invincible. Because of our bizarre, heavily upgraded abilities, we frequented the front lines. Thank Goodness I couldn't upgrade my hearing in real life. The constant stream of questions about game play was getting annoying. I had an announcement to make. "Everybody," I began, "Aryn and I don't need a party. There is a class for beginning players being run by beta-testers right outside of The Town of Beginning. Attend that, and you'll be fine. You will find other members looking for parties there." the members of my class didn't look so happy, I think I heard one call me an un-desirable name, but they got the message. Aryn was not being nearly as polite. When asking if we'd join their party, Aryn met them with a cold glare and a smirk. "Find me after two days of game play. Make it to level 15 by then, and we'll welcome you." she'd say. This request was, in course, impossible. She was only leading them to two days of dying over and over again trying to level up quickly. As the chatter in our class died down, Aryn and I sat down at our desks. A boring lecture about the properties of matter ensued.

• {Just a line break} •

"I can't wait! My mom bought me special armor. She's one of the game engineers!" Tyler bragged. He did it constantly. Everyone in the school knew; His mom was a software engineer. Everyone also knew that no one cared. Except Tyler. We lived close to each other, so Aryn, Tyler, and I all walked home together.

"I'll see you in the front lines then, right?" I questioned, aiming a glance at Aryn. He wasn't any better than everyone else. There was no way he could fight the front lines without a good amount of experience. I personally recommend LV 10 at least, and that's for the LV 1 boss. I know the beta testers would begin at LV 1 too, but we could level up quicker.

"Of Course! Don't worry; you ladies can just hide behind me. I'll protect y- Oww!" he screeched as Aryn landed a well-aimed kick. I don't think Tyler will ever have children. As Tyler recovered, I shot another glance at Aryn.

"Good one." I complimented

"Thank you" Aryn looked smug.

"What the heck was that for? You can't just kick people there!" Tyler screeched.

"Don't be sexist." She replied "If anyone needs to hide, it will be you. No doubt your special armor will attract monsters." She replied as we turned away from Tyler onto our driveway. I opened the door and ran for my room. Everything was set up. I checked the time. School had let out early, so it was only 12:45. We still had 15 minutes until the game was accessible.

"We have some time. Let's make a plan." I suggested. She thought for a moment, and then replied.

"Let's meet at the clock in beginner's town. I know there was a weapons and armor shop nearby, so we can get equipment. The game has some different features this time too. There aren't any bargain stores or rip off stores in the first two Towns, so we don't have to shop around. Equipment costs the same no matter where you go."

"If we go train in GreenFire Forest we can get money and special items. We'll level up faster too!" I mentioned.

"Okay, hurry, it's almost 12:00, meet you in-game!" She said. I looked up. She was already gone. I walked in my room and put on my nerve-gear and laid down. Suddenly I was flying through space. After the title screen and a little details I won't mention, I found myself in a familiar plaza. As my feet touched the ground, I took off running. Dashing through the streets, I headed towards the clock tower. As I neared my destination, I saw Aryn. She hadn't changed her appearance from the beta test. Same wine red eyes and black hair. Not to mention, she was still a beast tamer, and had kept her white wolf. We took the chance to look as different from each other as possible, so I had white hair and green eyes. I was still a beast tamer, and I had a black dragon.

"I found you!" I said, stating the obvious.

"Really? I hadn't noticed" she replied sarcastically. She handed a sword and armor to me. "You took too long. They only had one kind of armor and one kind of sword for an agility-based beast tamer." she explained, answering both of my questions.

"Let's go train"

• {It's me again!}•

As I put an end to another pig in GreenFire Forest, Aryn started making a strange noise. I can only describe it as a sort of squeal.

"What is it?" I asked, concerned.

"The boar was holding 250 cor! We're rich!" She exclaimed.

"You had me worried for a second There that something was wrong, like we couldn't log out or something. Don't make that noise." I told her.

"Let's go back to t-" she was cut off by the sound of a huge bell ringing in the distance. We exchanged glances. Suddenly, we were back at the plaza of Beginners Town. I looked at Aryn for an answer. She looked at me, hoping for the same thing. Lots of people were in the plaza, dazed and confused. Suddenly, a piece of the sky turned red. The word error was written on it. As the sky filled with red, panic spread. Red goop leaked from in between the pieces of sky, forming a large glob, which morphed into a giant GM... with no face. As the figure explained that we wouldn't be able to get out, the plaza was filled with muttering, crying, and sounds of utter despair. I turned to look at Aryn. I couldn't control my body, and I was shaking. I could feel tears streaming down my face. Aryn, of course, had her hand on the hilt of her Sword, and looked more angry than terrified. As the atmosphere returned to normal, she grabbed my hand, and ran. I kept muttering and sobbing. After running for some time, I realized where we were headed.

"Take off your armor." Aryn ordered as we stopped. We took off our armor, un-equipped our swords, and took the armor off our pets. While I had been wallowing in despair, Aryn had brought us to an armory.

"This place sells the best armor in town. We have enough money from killing those boars to buy expensive armor. We didn't use many of our potions, so we don't need to restock. We'll leave town early tomorrow morning. We'll stay in an inn, and we can talk then, okay?" I could only nod.

Suddenly, something crossed my mind. "What about Tyler?" I blurted. Aryn looked at me sadly, and replied "Did you see that statue we stood next to? With the names of the deceased?"

"No..." I couldn't believe it...

"Tyler's mom pulled of the nerve gear."

She said solemnly. We had stood next to Tyler only five hours ago. Now he was dead.

• {I'm sorry if you're named Tyler} •

We left the Inn. It had cost us one cor, which was pretty cheap. The money in this game is pretty simple.

2 bronzes to a silver, 2 silvers to a cor. A bronze is about 3 real life dollars. However, 12 dollars for a room is incredibly cheap in real life. However, inn rooms were unlimited here, so the price drops considerably. Good weapons can cost up to 3000 cor, or 36,000 dollars, which is insanely expensive. However, we weren't at that level yet. The best we could even use at LV 3 was only about 50 bronze a piece. When compared to food or lodgings, weapons are the real expense. Armor is similar. We still have some money left from killing those wolves, so we bought some breakfast. Beginning Town only sells bread like items, so we had rolls. In the streets, new players were still panicking. I wonder how many of these people we know. How many of their lives mattered to us? My sister had insisted that we leave town alone. She said that some people probably already left, and that others would leave soon. We had to go along, or we'd run out of money and there wouldn't be anything left to kill either. I knew leveling up was important, so I followed her. But the guilty parts of me didn't care. It was selfish, and others would die. But that didn't stop my feet. In this situation, beating the game was the primary goal. Everything else was not really as important. Not just for us, but for everyone. My sister kept telling me that we were subjecting ourselves to a greater risk by taking on strong monsters and fighting at the front lines. She had somehow remained cool-headed while I had turned into a shaking, sobbing, and helpless blob of tears. My sister had kept her head, while I had gone nuts. I think that's why god made us twins. I taught Aryn how to enjoy the happy times, and she kept me alive during crisis. We were entirely different, except for the dark grey hair and indigo eyes. I knew I would be dead without her, and that these people had no Aryn. I couldn't help but feel awful. Whispering a short prayer for them, I looked forward at my sister and sped up a little. If we were going to survive, I needed to stop depending on her so much. We left town, and headed for the next town. Any monster that crossed our paths was killed before it could land a shot.

•{Coming up: The shoe-fire}•

We got to the next town around noon.

"Let's get some lunch and then take a break." Aryn said.

"Do we need to eat?" I felt compelled to ask. She was the expert.

"No, but I'm not used to not eating yet, and food is cheap." She admitted.

We headed towards a store, and surveyed the menu. This town offered not only bread, but meat as well! I looked for the cheapest thing on the menu, until I heard my sister whisper

" Get whatever you want, I'm getting the most expensive thing they have."

I decided on a Spicy Roast Boar Sandwich, while she ordered a Seared Wolf Sub. Her wolf, Ilia, didn't like this very much. She sniffed the sandwich, and then gave Aryn this look. It clearly said 'You dirty Cannibal!' My dragon, Syran, on the other hand, wasn't as hesitant. Pets in the game didn't eat, but that didn't stop her from trying. As we walked to a park in the center of town and sat down, I gave both pets a small piece of my sandwich. As they promptly spit it out, I saw a little message pop up.

"Congratulations! Ilia and Syran have learned 'Fire Breath'" I read. As I finished telling Aryn, I saw Syran cough. And fire came out of her mouth. Onto my shoe.

"Ahhhh! Put it out! Put it out!" I yelled.

"Stop drop and roll!" Aryn joked. As I looked at my shoe, I realized the shoe was still on fire, but it wasn't burning. I, against the sane part of my minds will, stuck my finger in the tiny shoe-fire. It didn't hurt. I tried to snuff out the fire with my hand, but it didn't work. Another message popped up. It said "Congratulations! Azalea has learned a new skill". But my shoe-fire didn't go out.

"Ish tha thin eva gonna go out?" Aryn asked, her mouth full of sandwich. We were answered when another message popped up. I read it aloud.

"Congratulations! Azalea has learned 'Never-Ending Shoe-Fire.'"

I stared for a second.

"Is this a joke?" I asked no one in particular. After a few moments, Aryn fell over and started laughing. A passer-by stared at my shoe. Aryn found this hilarious too. Trying to ease the poor guy's fears (and make Aryn laugh some more) I yelled

"Don't worry, My shoe does that."

The man just stared, and then ran away. I thought for a moment, then pulled up my menu. Aside from scaring people, did this skill do anything? As I flipped through the skill dictionary, I found it.

"Never-Ending Shoe-Fire"

'Extremely rare skill. Fire only harms enemies, and won't catch anything except enemies on fire. The fire cannot be put out, and will remain on whatever shoe you wear, even if you change shoes. The shoe-fire will appear on your feet if you decide not to wear shoes. It is part of our three skill line of gag skills. 1 player(s) has this skill.'

I read out loud. I found myself saying

"Are you serious?"

Aryn finally stopped laughing. She noticed a couple staring and pointing at my shoe.

"Shut up! Don't judge us just 'cause her shoe is on fire! What's wrong with you?" She yelled. The couple ran away, and she chuckled again. We finished our sandwiches, and opened a map. Since the town was nearly empty, we were able to do this out in the open. We didn't want to be targeted by thieves. Not to mention my shoe. We decided to go training in the nearby valleys. Filled with level 5 monsters, Shadow Valley was not a place for level 1 players, but we knew what we were doing. Our technique involved me targeting and kicking gnomes while our pets breathed fire on them. After they were blazing, Aryn would pop up and finish them off. After a day of training, our pets were level 2, we were level 2, and my skill was level 3, resulting in a hotter, brighter, and bigger flame. Still, only the tip of my shoe was on fire. I suspect it will have to level up completely before covering my whole foot.

• {Fast-Forward, A lot} •

The front-liners were holding a meeting in the fourth town. No one could find the level 1 boss. This, of course, was an issue, because we had to kill it to get to the next level. As we walked into the meeting place, a few people stared at me. Most front-liners knew the tale of my shoe-fire, but a lot of them still weren't used to it. We quickly sat down, and after a minute or so, a man in blue with blue hair, Diabel, walked to the center of the area. He announced that a party had found the boss, and told us to form parties. Me and Aryn had already formed a partnership, so we sat together, unmoving. As I wondered if it was okay for us to only is a pair, not a party of six, a man with orange hair jumped down. He began to blame the deaths of 2000 players on the beta-testers, and demanded compensation. I could only look down, while Aryn began to twitch. She was about to attack the man when another guy stepped up. He confronted the orange haired one and told him about the guide book. As both men sat down, Diabel resumed his speech. He mentioned the newest issue of the guide-book, and then talked about Illfang the Kobold Lord. He assigned groups to attack in a pattern to kill the boss. After realizing that one party of six and two groups of two were left, he told us to attack the boss's minion. While the other pair and team (and Aryn) didn't look happy, I was thrilled. Only one of the main parties would get exp. and items. The little parties that killed off the sentinels would get exp., items, and money. It would be less valuable, but it was better than getting nothing after all that work. The group dispersed, but we soon realized that everyone was headed to the same place, the inn. Most of the group stayed at a small park in front of the nicest inn in town and drank, while a few people (who couldn't drink because they were too young) split off and headed towards the inn, or sat outside and thought. Aryn and I rented a room for the night. While she ranted about how inns were getting more and more expensive as we moved from town to town (Which they were, it had cost 10 gold this time), I closed the windows. With the windows open, people could hear us, or break in. I sat down on the bed and took of my shoes. My foot was still on fire, but I had gotten used to it.

"What are you doing?" Aryn asked curiously. I had started rummaging through my bag.

"The thing I miss most," I started," Is painting my nails. I know it's stupid, but I feel less me-like now. I got a recipe from a girl we trained with, and bought some stuff. I'm painting my nails."

Aryn looked a little puzzled, and then smiled.

"You gotta do what you gotta do. I hope you don't mind that I bought some stuff to make a Big Mac with." she said. I would have been angry, but I done the same thing. But she was right. In this unfamiliar world, we had to do things we did before, or we'll go crazy. I decided to just shake my head. As I took out the monster jelly and boar horn enamel, Aryn began making her Big Mac. She had more than enough ingredients, and made two more Big Macs. She gave two to Syran and Ilia, and wolfed down her own. I could see why the game gave her a wolf. Syran stared at hers, and then looked curiously at me. I had Aryn mix the ingredients with her high cooking skill (Which applied to not only food, but anything that must be mixed [Mine hadn't gotten better since the beginning of the 'game']). Putting the stuff into a bottle, I proceeded to paint my nails blue. Happy with the results, I laid back. I saw Aryn staring at me. I could tell she was having trouble not laughing. I still had Syran's and my armor equipped, and she had begun nudging me and aiming puffs of fire at me. We had realized that the fire didn't hurt us, and never started another never-ending fire again, so this didn't particularly worry me. I took off our armor, and opened my menu.

"I still haven't distributed my skill points from training earlier today. Where should I put them?" I turned to Aryn. She knew about this kind of thing.

"Observation, agility, and HP." She replied. "The boss might drop un-seeable items and we can pick them up after everyone leaves, and agility and HP will help dispatch his minions quickly, earning us more stuff."

Her explanation made sense, so I split up most of my skill points into those categories. I couldn't help but mention that I was two skill points away from upgrading my hearing skill to the point where I could hear through doors, but after calling me sketchy, Aryn said to upgrade that too. You see, I wasn't planning on using it often, but I was not the only one with such a skill. This way we could hear whether or not someone was eavesdropping on us. We weren't paranoid, but we were two of the 20% population of females, 15% of whom were older than 30. Criminals ran rampid in this game due to the lack of police and government, and Aryn and I were also beta testers, the most hated players of the 'game'. We were practically PK-er bait. We didn't brag about that, but we still wanted to be safe. After deciding my skills, Aryn and I started our nightly walk through other-world lane. In the third town, a group of people controlled the town. Every resident was a former front liner who had given up, and decided they liked this world better anyways. We were almost swayed by them, until I mentioned our family. We realized what was happening, and got out of that town quickly. It was like the Town of the Lotus Eaters. I mean, the town was literally named Lotus Town, claiming it was because the mayor liked flowers. Once you go there, the words of the residents make you think the world you left behind isn't worth the risk, and they all wish to live in this one. Travelers avoid the town. To avoid the same mindset and give us something to fight for, every night me and Aryn talk about what we'll do when we get back home.

"I'm going to call all my friends, and everyone I know, and all the players I met, and we'll have a party, and we can eat ice cream together." I said, not making much sense. What can I say, I was thinking of ice cream!

"I want," Aryn began, "to eat five big macs while watching anime." She said.

"Big macs. Real Deep." I said.

"Yaahh... Sorry." she replied.

"I think it's pretty late. Let's go to sleep." I yawned. After putting on a pair of low-stat, particularly comfy clothes, I flicked of the lights and curled up in my bed. I could already hear Aryn snore as Syran landed next to me. As I drifted off to sleep, I thanked god Aryn was still alive. I made Aryn upgrade her armor a lot so she wouldn't die. It really is my fault that we're here.

• {Good Night} •

When we left the hotel, everyone was still asleep. I wanted to buy better armor and weapons before we faced the boss. We had never fought with these people, and if they couldn't fight the boss, I wanted to escape alive. The best armor was expensive, but we could afford it with the money we had gotten training yesterday. Once we had all our armor, we walked back to the park. We greeted the other pair, team E, a boy and a girl (a couple?), and sat down. Pulling out two buns and a few pet treats, Aryn sighed.

"A little nervous?" I asked.

"It's our first boss..." Aryn replied.

"We'll only be fighting the sentinels, we'll be fine. You can have my bun tomorrow if anyone is injured." I told her. Ilia nuzzled her hand to reinforce the message. Or ask for another treat. Whatever floats your boat. As the last member of our misfit army woke up, we had another meeting. Diabel reviewed the plan again, and we headed for the Level One Boss: Illfang the Kobold Lord.

•{Weeeee!}•

As I decapitated another Kobold Sentinel with my flaming sword, I noticed the main party was having some trouble. The other party of two was taking out sentinels, but paused as they too noticed the trouble.

"Stand back! I'll Go!" Diabel yelled. He must be trying to get the rare item. However, as he went to attack, Illfang began to use a no-dachi. The first boss with that weapon had been level 54. This man had no chance. As Illfang catapulted himself into the air, the boy from team E yelled

"No! Jump back as fast as you can!"

I could only stare in horror as Diabel was hit and flew off to the side. Aryn, of course, began wiping out Ruin Kobold Sentinels so she could attack the boss. The monster jumped into the crowd, roaring. As Diabel burst into pixels, the boy from group e got up. The girl stood next to him, and as we fought of sentinels and they attacked Illfang, I finally recognized him as Kirito. That boy had single handedly made it two levels farther than us, and we made it to level 6. Kirito wasn't a legend among beta testers, but he did fight along-side us once during a unified attack on the level 2 boss, much like this one. He made it higher than anyone else. In the beta test, Aryn and I disliked him because he had taken away the spot of first. But now, I was filled with gratitude that he was saving these people. Even if he had left us the sentinels in favor of attacking Illfang. As Kirito and the other girl attacked, the rest of the group seemed to get back on their feet. When the two were hit, a bald African American man stepped up and led the army. As Kirito landed the last hit, the last of the Ruin Kobold Sentinels disappeared.

"We did it"s, "It's over!"s, and " For Diabel!" s erupted from the crowd. A 'Giant Congratulations' appeared overhead. Everything was great. We all cheered for Kirito, until the orange haired man yelled with grief.

"Why? Why did you let Diabel die?" The crowd quieted down.

"Let him die?" Kirito asked

"Of Course! You knew the technique the boss used. If you had told us that up front, he wouldn't have died!" the man yelled. Another man spoke up

"He must be a beta tester! That's how he knew all the bosses attack patterns! He knew, and he didn't tell us!"

The man continued.

"Other beta testers are here, too, right! Come Out!"

Everyone looked at each other with distrust. I looked back and forth. If someone didn't stop this soon, one or two beta testers might step up. And then get robbed or killed. As tensions rose, Kirito laughed. He got louder and louder. Everyone stopped and stared.

"A beta tester?" he said, getting up. "I wish you wouldn't compare me to those newbies."

"W-What!?" The orange haired man yelled.

"Most of the thousand beta testers were beginners who didn't even know how to level up. You guys are better than they are." He began to walk throughout the crowd. "But I'm not like them. I made it higher than anyone else in the beta test. The reason I knew the bosses skills is because I fought monsters with Katana skills on floors far above us. I know a lot more. Way more than any information broker."

"Show off." I muttered.

"W-What?" The orange haired man stuttered. "That's way worse than a beta tester. You're cheating! A cheater!" he yelled

"Yeah, a Cheater" one man yelled

"A beta tester and a Cheater...A beater!"

"A beater... I like it." Kirito said.

"That's right, I'm a beater. From now on, don't confuse me with those other testers." He put on The Cloak of Midnight. I knew he was right. He was far stronger than any normal tester. But he sure was being a jerk about it. I've never met Kirito personally, so I'm not sure if he's just trying to give everyone a common enemy, but still... He began to leave, and after speaking to the girl, Asuna, he exited the room. I was pretty anxious to get out of there before all the beta testers were burned at the stake, so I grabbed Aryn's hand and began to walk away. However, a man from the crowd stopped us

" Turn over your items." he said. A few others circled around us, and about half the group turned.

"What? Didn't Diabel say that whoever got an item kept it?" I asked. Aryn glared at the men around her.

The man who originally stopped us spoke.

" Yes, but no one except you got items, because we didn't land the last hit or kill any sentinels. That's not fair. You recognized the moves too, so you're beta testers."

Aryn couldn't take it anymore.

" You treated us like idiots 'cause you thought we were weaker than you. Then, because we were a pair of two you refused to give us a shot at the boss. You gave us the hard, unrewarding part and took the best place for yourselves. After that, if you want items, I hope you gave good observation, because you're not getting anything from us." As she finished, I broke from the circle and looked around. After finding a few items on the ground. I was joined by others. However, they couldn't see what I could see. As I picked up a large axe, the same man walked over and laughed. "Why don't you give that to me? You can barely lift it!" I resisted putting the axe in his head, and put it in my inventory instead. Ignoring the man, I called Aryn over, and we left.

Hi everyone, Its Rose Colored Sky. I've never done a long-term chapter story, so updates may be a little slow. Believe it or not, I did have another account with a few one shots, but I deleted them... Anyways, this story is really about my OCs Azalea and Aryn, but they will run across Kirito sometimes. If you guys find any errors, please let me know.