Prologue

SAO has been taken over by a new company who has assured them that nothing has changed since the original (aside from not being able to leave).

Kirito and Asuna are facing a masked man in the Town of Beginnings. He wore a black cloak and all black armor under it. How he got all that before even getting in the fields, no one knew. No one knew how he even logged onto the servers either.

"Who are you?" Asuna asked the masked man as she stood in front of the paralyzed Kirito. "What do you want?"

The man took off his mask and revealed an old face. "What I wanted before." He got behind her and quickly paralyzed her with a quick slash from his blade.

"Mom, Dad," Alice said. "I'm home." She went to her room and got changed from her school uniform into her normal clothes. She was wearing a white tank top with a red miniskirt and red boots. Her long, light brown hair flowed down her back and over her shoulders. When she finished changing she saw a strange helmet on her bed. It looked kind of like a motorcycle helmet, but was more mechanical.

Alice brought it downstairs and set it on the counter, figuring her dad would know what it was and what to do with it. She was about to open the fridge when she saw a note on it. The note read: I have your parents in SAO. If you want to see them again enter the game on the counter by 7:30 PM. I do not expect you to believe me, so here's some convincing. Attached was a picture of her parents chained in a cage. The signature was a coffin with eyes, a mouth, and an arm.

"What?" She was frantic. Her parents told her never to go into Virtual MMOs so she knew this was real, but what was SAO? She had heard the name when her parents were talking about old stuff, but when she asked they just said it was nothing.

She went to Dicey Café to talk with someone she thought could help.

"Alice!" Andrew cheered when he saw Alice. He is a tall, dark-skinned man and very muscular. His baldhead couldn't make an attempt to hide the earrings on his left ear. He was wearing a white shirt and his pants were hidden behind the booth he was wiping down. "How are you?"

"I need to ask you something," Alice said. "It's about something called SAO. I've heard my mom and dad talking about it, but they never tell me anything, and all I get on Google are player names for Sword Art Online."

"Alice, I'd love to help, I really would, but your parents asked me not to talk about that stuff with you."

She took out the picture of her parents in a cage, without saying a word.

"Like I said, I can't help you with this, but I think I do know someone who can."

"Who?"

"His name's Ryotaro Tsubui. He was one of your Dad's best friends for a while."

"Yeah my Dad has mentioned him before, but he said they lost contact when he moved to America."

"That's what he said? I'm not surprised he told you they lost contact, but I am surprised that he said he moved. The truth is he stopped talking to him after you were born."

"Why?"

"Ryotaro had a small problem with alcohol. He wasn't an alcoholic, but he got drunk at serious times. He wasn't an alcoholic, but he is now so be prepared. Losing Kazuto was just enough to push him over the edge."

"Do you know where he lives?"

"In the apartment upstairs. I gotta warn you, he hasn't cleaned it in a while."

"Thank you so much!" Alice said as she hugged Andrew across the counter.

She opened the door the stairwell and about halfway up she got the overwhelming smell of old alcohol. She knocked on the door and there was no answer. A good five minutes of knocking went by before the guy opened the door.

He had a patchy red beard and a red headband with one thick yellow stripe and one thin. He had a little hair sticking straight up from his headband. He was wearing a stained white tank top and a pair of boxer shorts.

"Who the hell are you?" He asked while pointing a half-full bottle of beer at Alice.

"My name is Alice Kirigaya," Alice said while doing her best not the let the overwhelming alcohol-breath bother her. "I am the daughter of Kazuto Kirigaya and Asuna Kirigaya. I need your help on something called SAO."

"Why do you want to know about SAO? It was just two years of my life wasted."

"Please, my parents have been kidnapped and taken there."

"Okay." If he wasn't drunk he probably would have shut the door in Alice's face. "Come in." His room was only lit a TV. From what Alice could see there was a desk with a bunch of empty beer and wine bottles. His bed was not at all made and probably hadn't been for weeks. "SAO was an MMO. This was the one that everyone wanted, but only 10,000 people got a copy. Me, your mom, your dad, and Agil were one of the few who got a copy."

"Wait, who's Agil?"

"Andrew downstairs. Anyway, the guy who created the game made it so no one could leave until the game was beaten, and if you died in the game, you died in real life. We were stuck in there with no way out. That was, until your dad came along. He was the greatest swordsman out there. He found the final boss and defeated it all on his own. He got us out, but Asuna was still trapped in another game. He went in by himself to get her and met up with your Aunt Sugu. She got some other players to help, and they rescued your mom. After that they continued to play, got married in real life, had you," He chugged the rest of the beer and smashed the now empty bottle on another bottle, "and stopped talking to me!"

"Well, thank you for this," Alice said when she had recovered from the shock of the smash. "Do you know where I can get a copy of SAO?"

"There's one being released in an hour. I think Andrew got an early release though."

"Really?" She didn't wait for an answer before running downstairs.

"Can I borrow your copy of SAO?" She asked Andrew.

"Alice, I promised your parents I would never let you play video games. But if I were to leave the game out here with my NerveGear," he said as he put the game on the booth, "and went to go get you a Coke from downstairs it wouldn't be my fault."

"Thanks, but I have a NerveGear already. Bye!" Alice said as she took the game.

Six thirty. Alice thought. Still got some time. No! I need to do this now! "Link start!"

Two boys were playing Mario Baseball. They both loved VRMMOs, but it was nice to get back to the older stuff too. They weren't always able to afford new games, so they grew up with their father's old games.

The boy on the left was obviously older. He was taller, had bigger muscles, and more chiseled features. He was wearing a white sweater and baggy grey sweat pants. He was shaved, but there were strands here and there that had escaped the blades.

The younger one wasn't much better at shaving, but the hair was mostly his sideburns or neck. He was wearing a black t-shirt and shorts even though it was 60° Fahrenheit. He had the same black hair and brown eyes as his brother.

The game had just ended with the younger brother winning with because the older one accidently threw to the wrong base. They were screaming at each other and about to start brawling when their dog came in. The dog was a mutt, and all they could tell from looking at it was that it had some lab and Catahoula. He had a lab face with a shorter nose and that tuft of fur on his chest that Catahoulas have. He was light tan on the top and outer side of his legs and white on the bottom and inner. He had one brown eye and one light blue eye.

He got between the two brothers and started growling at the older one. He had always favored the younger.

"Newman!" the younger one shouted, causing the dog to stop growling. He grabbed his collar and guided him away.

The older brother stepped closer toward the younger. "Good job, Nick."

"Thanks, Dan." Usually this would become a brawl, but today was special.

"You're really doing this, huh?"

"Yeah."

"I'm surprised you'd risk your own life—"

"I'm not. People got trapped once, it can't happen again, not even with a NerveGear."

"Whatever. I'm more surprised you'd risk Newman too."

"He can't play games with us here," he went over and rubbed the dog's belly, "but there's a chance he can in Aincrad."

"Looks like you'd better get going." The clock read half past three PM.

"Yeah."

They drove listening to Nick's CD which consisted mostly of Linkin Park. Newman was in the back.

Dan dropped him off and said, "Come back safe." Which was the closest he was ever going to get to "I love you, bro."

"Don't worry, I will."

Nick waited outside the office in the hallway. He sat in a chair petting Newman until a woman came out and told him to come inside.

"It's time, Newman." Nick said.

Nick went in and got set up with a NerveGear, just like his dog who had one specially made for him.

"Now you know the game you're going to be playing?" Asked the woman who told them to come in.

"Here it is," Nick held up two copies of Sword Art Online.

"Thank you," said the woman as she took the games. "Remember, if this works people all across the world will be able to enjoy gaming with their pets."

"Okay, buddy." Nick told Newman as he rubbed his belly. "You have my scent so he'll know it's me?"

"It's in his NerveGear. Your avatar has your scent. Only he will smell it, so he will know not to attack you."

"You remember our condition?" Nick knew about what happened during the last SAO and even though he was scared of it happening again, he's always wanted the real deal, not just the ALfheim remake.

"If you get trapped both of you are to be kept alive." The woman didn't believe that anything would happen.

He put on his NerveGear and said, "Link start!"

A brunette with brown eyes was walking into Dicey Café when she saw a familiar face. The brunette wore a pink sweater that failed to show off her curves and a pair of jeans. She had freckles that were perfectly placed to complement her features. She also had a purple handbag.

The one she saw was Gerome Mills, the son of the Dicey Café owner. He was wearing a dark blue t-shirt with a pair of sweat pants. Gerome was built like his father, same muscles and facial features, but he was still a little smaller. He didn't look happy.

"You okay, Gerome?" The girl asked, sitting down next to him at the table.

"Huh," Gerome was lost in thought. "Oh, hey Liz. Yeah, I'm fine."

"I can tell when something's wrong with you." Liz could always just sense when something was wrong, but he was so distant that it never made a difference.

"Nothing's wrong, I'm just tired." That was always his excuse.

"What is it?"

"He's mad at me because I forgot where I put my copy of SAO." Said Gerome's dad, Andrew, as he brought them both Cokes. "And I told him I would let him test it out."

"Well then I have good news for you." She went into her bag and pulled out two copies of the game. "I got myself an extra copy as a backup, but I can let you use it for now."

"Really?" He almost knocked over his dad getting up.

"For now. Wanna go hook it up?"

"Yeah. You go home and I'll get on and find you when you get online."

"Before you go," Andrew interrupted, "I have something to give your mom. Wait here for a minute?"

"Sure thing."

Gerome was so excited he was about to leave her there alone, but he turned around and saw a sad look on her face. "Are you okay?

She stood up and said, "It's just, well, what do you think of me as?" She felt her face get red as she asked the question, and it didn't help that he was more than a head taller than her.

Gerome knew what she meant, and he always wanted to ask her the same thing. Instead of answering with words, he showed it by kissing her. Neither knew how long the kiss lasted, and it only ended because Andrew came back with a picture. It was of their younger versions of their parents and a few other people, most Liz and Gerome knew, standing together near a banner that said "CONGRATULATIONS".

"There'll be plenty of time for that later," he said, snapping both of the teens out of their trance, "but you know how your mom gets if you make her wait."

"Right," Liz said, shaking her head. "See you guys later.

Liz walked back to her house with a spring in her step the entire way. When she got home she gave her mom, Rika Shinozaki, the picture and asked where the AmuSphere was.

"Did you get me the extra copy?" Her mom asked. Liz was about to say no when her mom said, "At least you got a kiss out of it."

"Wh-wh, I mean, how did you know?"

"Andrew called."

Liz blushed and asked, "So why'd you ask if I got an extra copy?"

"I wanted to see if you were going to tell the truth, Elizabeth, but I should have known better. You always lie when it comes to your relationships. Now go, I put the AmuSphere on your bed." She kissed her daughter on the top of the head.

"Thanks." She almost tripped running up the stairs.

She hastily hooked up all of the wires and got into the bed. "Link start!"

Gerome was in his room looking at the picture of the SAO Survivor Party. He saw Asuna and Kazuto when they were only about his age. There were other faces that he didn't recognize, some he thought either moved away or had passed on by now, but seeing how happy all of them were in the café always made him want to have that one day. He didn't want to keep Liz waiting, so he put in the game and set laid down on his bed. Before he could say, "Link start," his dad knocked on the door.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey," Gerome took off the AmuSphere.

"I know you hate when I get involved in your relationships, but this is important."

"I know she is, Dad."

"I'm sure you do, but just hear me out. Liz is the daughter of one of my really close friends, and this is a high school relationship. There's a chance—it's a small chance, but it's still a chance—that you two will last, but it's almost certain you won't. I don't wanna see either of you get hurt, and if you hurt her, Rika is gonna hurt me." Gerome laughed at the thought of Rika causing his father, who towered over her, even slight pain. "But even if she wasn't gonna hurt me, I don't want you to hurt Liz. I want you to promise me right now that if this doesn't last, you'll let Liz down gently."

"Don't worry, Dad, I promise I'll be good to her."

"Then go get her."

After his dad left, Gerome got comfortable once more and said, "Link start!"

This is the first story I've done a prologue for, and I feel that it could be the first chapter, but it isn't is because the rest will be in first person from Nick's point of view. I try to get things right, but if you notice something wrong (aside from the fight in the Safe Zone, that was intentional) please leave it in the Reviews or PM me (I usually fix things in reviews faster, though) and I will try to fix it as soon as I am able to. Please also leave anything else like comments, constructive criticism, etc. in the reviews too. Thanks for reading!