Hello everyone, this is your favorite lazy fruit Cherry here, and I wanna thank you guys for taking the time to check out my FIRST, yes FIRST, fanfic story. :D Well, on this account at least… Crazy ish happened to my old one, to the point were I couldn't sign into my account, and had to make a new one… But fresh starts are not all that bad, opens more windows as my mum says :3 Anyways I would love to present to you chapter 1 of one of my most cherished anime in a LONG time… If your a big SAO fan like me, you already know it has 3 seasons, one currently going on RIGHT NOW, which is the incredibly awesome sauce, GGO! I'm telling you guys now, check out the original anime, you will be blown away by not only the art design, and the intense story, but also all the cute moments and gestures in it! Enough of my rambling, to the disclaimer!—
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN SONIC AND CO. THEY BELONG TO SEGA. I ALSO DO NOT OWN SWORD ART ONLINE(SAO)… On to the story XD —
In 2022, humanity has finally created a complete virtual environment… In Mobius, the newest and most anticipated MMO is on its edge of finally being released…
Somewhere in Mobius…
"It's time for this week's MMO stream. We began with
a promotional video. Was this the day of last week's launch? What were all these people waiting in line for?
Sword Art Online!"
"The people at the front of the line waited about 3 days prior to launch. Amazing! Or is this just what any real gamer would do?"
"On today's MMO Stream, we'll be covering the internationally famous Sword Art Online, AKA SAO! To be honest, none of the NerveGear software released so far has really taken advantage of the hardware."
"Sonic…"
"Yeah, it's all sucked. But SAO was made by the NerveGear inventor, Ivo Robotnik, and it's a long-awaited VR MMORPG. I can't wait! The beta testers all said it was incredible!"
"I'm off to practice…"
"I wanted a copy so bad! It sold out online in seconds. And as you saw hardcore fans bout all the store—"
Click.
The computer monitor suddenly shut off, leaving a black screen. Slowly a semi-short hedgehog got up from his comfy computer chair, glancing over at his digital clock, stating in detail that it was 6/11/2022, 12:56am. The figure walked over to his bed picking up a strange looking helmet with blinking lights and a distinctive black color with tinted shades. He picked up a wire that was connected to the strange helmet and plugged it into a nearby outlet, placing the helmet on his head, throwing himself on top of his bed.
The hedgehog blinked a couple of times, the time reading 12:59 now, he squinted his eyes, and smirked cockily. The time on the strange helmet passed, now reading 1:00. The hedgehog blinked once more, his eyes gleaming, and in an instant, he shouted, "Link Start!" Suddenly the bedroom he was once in slowly started to diteriate, turning into a white nothing-less, colorful streams of light appearing out of no-where almost 3D, until a setting of options popped up, and then a log in hub. A username and password was typed in, logging in the user named Sonni, Welcoming the player to the World of SAO.
The hedgehog blinked once more, opening his eyes to a different world, to be precise he was looking at a brick wall. the suppose player Sonni looked down at his virtual feet and hands. He then clenched his fist, smirking once more. He turned around and looked at himself in a nearby window.
There in front of the window stood a tall, tanned male hedgehog, with sky blue quills that reached to his ankles. His eyes were a dark chocolate-brown, with 2 silver piercings on his right ear. He had on a pair of black fingerless gloves, and a matching vest like shirt with a dark blue sword bag wrapped around his chest. But the most odd thing about him was his bright red future like shoes with white and gold trimmings on them. His smirk grew to a smile, a toothy one matter-of-factly.
He clenched his fist tighter.
"I'm back in this world!"
With that stated more and more players began to spawn in, the entire area filling up with laughter and chatter. Fireworks began shooting into the sky, revealing a large oddly shaped diamond structure floating mid-air in the sky, its dark iron type material shinning in the virtual sun.
Sonni's P.O.V.
I kept on running, rounding corners, and dodging other players as I made my way through the vast market of the SAO world. I rounded another corner till I heard someone calling me. I halted to a stop, looking over my shoulder to see a tall guy with some crazy pink hair walking towards me.
I fully turned around, getting a good look at him. Judging by his tail, and his lack of ears, I thought he was probably an echidna or something around those lines. I kinda questioned it a little though, due to the fact echidnas usually had dread-locks, not spiky hair. Along with his crazy due, he had matching pink eyes with a hint of purple in them. He had on brown leather gloves, with matching leather boots, and a matching leather belt. He also had a bandanna on which was a crimson red. The weirdest thing about this guy was that weird upside down crescent on his chest… really weird.
"Me?" The guy slouched over catching his breath, kinda dramatically if you ask me. Once he finally composed himself, he spoke up, his breath still hitching.
"You move like you've been here before… You were in the beta test right!? By the way your freakin fast, I mean REALLY fast…"
"Uhh Y-Yeah…"
"Today's kinda my first day, and well I'm not nessacarily a guy who asks random people for help, but I mean you're a freakin beta tester! Practically a master of this game, right? So, can you show me the basics?" The guy finally stood up straight with a sincere look planted on his face.
"U-Umm…" I stuttered not really knowing what to say. I scratched the back of my head, pacing back a little.
The guy suddenly clasped his hands together, giving the puppy eyes, pouting,"Please I'm begging you!"
He looked up abruptly, pointing at himself with his thumb."My names Klent, but my friends call me Knux since it sounds cooler, ya'know?" He gave me the quirky eyes and smiled real big.
Hmmph. I stiffened a little, keeping in a chuckle. This guy seemed alright. I perked up a bit, placing my hand on my side, my other arm swinging loosely.
"I'm Sonni, pronounced like that TV company Sony, people get confused sometimes." I sweat-droped cause sadly it was the truth… I thought it was a pretty simple name…
"Nice to meet'cha! Sooo, can u help me?" He scratched the back of his head, his right hand out.
I smirked, chuckling to myself. He looked at me for a moment, wondering what I was laughing about. I averted my eyes to him taking his hand and shaking it.
"Sure, why not?" I stated cockily, a cheesy grin plastered on my face.
Floor 1: Town of beginnings, West Field… Normal P.O.V.
"OOooof!" The pink echidna screeched in pain as you flew through the air, landing on the grassy patch.
"Right in the friggin crotch! Oooooohhh!" He cupped his are between his legs in pain as he rocked back and forth beads of tears forming at the corners of his eyes.
"Don't tell me he hit you that hard." Sonni glanced over at the blueish grayish looking beast that kinda looked like Pumba from the Lion King, but with a scary exterior.
"I thought you were pretty tough by the looks of you, but I guess I was wrong…" Sonni snickered out-loud, causing the echidna to immediately get up, wiping off the beads of tears with one sift wipe of his arm. His face was now crimson, embarrassed for making himself look like a wuss in front of a beta.
"Another thing, you do realize that you don't actually feel pain in here, right?" Sonni raised his brow, his lips forming into a straight line.
The pink echidna then realized this, blushing even more if possible. "Oh yeah… I totally forgot. Force of habit I guess…" He then adjusted his bandanna, chuckling nervously.
"I told you, what's important is your initial motion input." The sky blue hedgehog glanced over at Knux's health bar, watching the small green diamond hovering aimlessly over his head. He then took a look at his health bar, which was already in the yellow zone, due to his low-level.
The pink echidna sighed in frustration and despair. He eyed the Pumba wanna be up and down, slumping his shoulders over.
"I get that… it's just the god damn pig thing keeps on squirming around, how am I suppose to do ANYTHING with him if he's like that…?" He slumped further down, grumbling some curse words under his breath.
The blue hedgehog crouched down to the grass, and picked up a random stone. He flicked it in the air, and caught i. The stone was now gleaming a bright pink, making a charging sound while being held. "If you do the motion input right… you can activate a sword skill."
And with that said Sonni through the stone, which flew through the leaving a pinkish red streak until hitting the Pumba's butt, leaving a small pink circle on one of his cheeks.
"The system will ensure that the technique connects."
The Pumba was now staring at the two guys, angry for the strike on him, he began preparing to charge at them. Knux, looked at the beast carefully, the health bar nearly down to red.
"Motion input… Motion input…" He then pulled out a small dagger like sword out of his leather belt, and held it up in a guarding way. Sonni did the same but with a small white broad sword. He was a good couple of feet away from the beast, calmly staring at it.
"How should I put it?"
The small beast charged at Sonni, but he dodged it with a swift move to the right, then turning around to block another charge from the scary Pumba.
"Add a slight pause, and where you feel the skill begin to activate, let it explode."
Knux looked to his side at nothing, thinking to himself really quick.
"Explode?" He repeated to himself.
He then gasped, feeling an intense urge in his body. His legs began to move on their own and positioned themselves in a fighting stance. Knux held his dagger-like sword over his shoulder, feeling his weapon charge up, with a shimmering gold light.
Sonni smirked, releasing his block on the Pumba beast, kicking it, making it go horns first at Knux, squealing in anger.
Knux grunted, gripping his sword tighter, charging it faster. He then bolted towards the beast, his sword flinging him, piercing the Pumba in a head on collision, the sword spiraling out golden rays. It seemed as if the world had paused for a moment, as the system registered the kill, dropping the beast's health to zero, the creäture disappearing into small fragments, then disappearing into thin air.
Knux looked back at the killing, and had a surprised look on his face till a results bar popped up, giving him the xp he earned and his results. Knux smiled widely, clenching his fists tightly.
"All right!" The pink echidna fist-pumped the air, his cheeks tinted with a faint pink.
"Congrats." Sonni walked over to the gleeful echidna and raised his hand.
Knux raised his, the two doing a friendly high-five, a victory in Klent's eyes.
"Although…" Sonni retreated his sword back into the blue sword bag latched over him, sighing.
"That boar's about as weak as slimes in other games."
Knux looked at Sonni shocked. "Seriously!? I thought it was a mid-level boss or something."
"Of course not." Sonni snickered.
The two glanced over at a small hill, that re-spawned three more boars, who began grazing at the grass.
"Hey, if there are sword-skills, then there's gotta be other ones like blacksmithing and stuff, right?" Knux started swinging his dagger around, trying to resemble some type of sword skill.
"Yeah, I've heard there are an unlimited number if skills. However there's no magic."
Knux began charging his dagger again, but this time it gave off a reddish pink color, that made an identical charging sound such as before.
"An RPG without magic?" He scoffed, clutching the handle of the dagger tighter.
"That's a bold decision!" He then released the charge by swinging his blade swiftly, letting out a large streak of pink lightning like power, illuminating the sky.
The pink echidna started squealing and hugging himself, as he was proud of what he had learned to do.
Spnni smiled at this, his same cocky yet calm attitude still in play. "Isn't it more fun to move your body as you fight? You feel more into it."
Knux turned to face Sonni, his spiky hair flicking at his movement. "Your definitely right on that, Blue."
Sonni than cracked his knuckles, stretching his back.
"Alright then, let's head out to the next one." He gave Knux a wink with a thumbs-up.
Knux fist-pumped the air again, his dagger like sword shinning in the sun light."Yeah, let's keep going!"
Knux breathed in the virtual air, exhaling with a smile on his lips.
The two have gone at it till the sun had set, the skies mixed with oranges and reds, a beautiful sight, especially with the light reflecting off the water.
"I still can't believe it, no matter how many times I see it, there were in a game. Whoever made it is a friggin genius. It's honestly gorgeous."
Sonni chuckled."You make a big deal outta everything don't cha?"
"Hey, don't judge, heh heh heh. This is my first full dive!"
"Then that means this is your first time playing a game with NetGear?"
"Well, pretty much. I rushed out to buy this gear so I can play SAO. I was really lucky to get one of the ten thousand copies. You know, when you think bout it."
Knux's smile transferred to a smug one. Chuckling in the process. "But you were WAY more lucky, getting to be a beta tester and all. I heard only a thousand people got to do it."
"Heh heh, I guess so…" Sonni rubbed his head, having an emotionless face on.
"Hey, how far did you get in the beta?"
"Over a couple of months, I only got to Floor 8. This time though, it'll only take a month." Sonni smiled cockily this time, confident of his statement.
"To be honest, during the beta, SAO was all I thought about, day and night. In this world, a single blade can take you anywhere you want to go."
Sonni's face began to deepen to a more serious tone, along with his voice. "This is a virtual world, but I feel more alive here than I do in the real one." Sonni, then replaced that serious tone with cheerful smile again. He looked back at Knux who was sitting on the grass, enjoying the view.
"Now then, want to hunt some more?"
Knux perked up, his fist clenched once more."Hell yeah! I'd love to, but I'm really hungry. I'm log gin out." Knux then placed his hand over his stomach, his face some-what exhausted.
"Eating food here only makes you think you're not hungry. It doesn't actually diminish your hunger… sadly." Sonni sweat-dropped getting a little hungry himself just talking about food. His mouth really watered a hot steamy chili dog with melty cheese on top. Now that sounded good.
He was snapped out of his small trance by Knux's voice chirping up."I already ordered a hot pizza for 5:30." Knux smirked proudly, as if he did something right.
"Not only do you exaggerate things, but your also really prepared. Strange mix."
"Heh heh, duh! Never know now-a-days! Well anyways, once I get some grub in my stomach, I'll log back in."
Sonni nodded understandingly.
"Hey, by the way, after this I'm meeting up with some people I know from another game. Want to friend them too?"
Sonic stuttered a bit, then looked down, again not really knowing what to say.
Knux noticed this, and waved his hands frantically."Of course you know, if you don't want to, that's okay. Just a friendly suggestion, thats all."
He smirked smugly."I'll introduce you another time." He winked at the blue hedgehog, giving hims thumbs-up just as he did to him when they were training.
"Yeah, sorry. Thanks."
"Hey, hey thats my line your robbin. I'll repay you sometime… mentally." Knux's walked over to the hedge patting him on the back. Thanks so much. I'll see you around."
Sonni looked down at the gloved hand being presented to him. his mouth was a small 'o'. He smiled again, this time more warmly. Extending his hand also, they shook, then configuring their hands into fists, bro-fisting(Like a true bro!3)
"If there's anything else you want to know, just tell me."
"Yeah, I'll do that."With their goody-bye shake done Knux walked off a little and waved a last good-bye before flinging his hand down-ward popping up 5 different icons with different icons. After rummaging through the buttons, he finally found what he was looking for, or what was supposed to be there…..?
"Huh."
Sonni turned around abruptly, facing his new friend, a confused look plastered on his face.
"There's no button to log out."
"Look closer."
Knux looked harder, squinting he's eyes even, but no luck.
"No, it's not there."
Sonni opened up his on profile to see for himself.
"Lets see it's suppose to be left of the menu ba—?
Sonni paused in confusion, dumb-founded at the missing log-out button.
"See it isn't there."
"No, your right, it isn't…"
"Well it is first day out of beta, I mean there's bound to be some bugs, am I right?" Knux, shrugged his shoulders, figuring that was the issue.
"I'm sure the server people are like, totally freaking out right now…" Knux laughed a little at that, envisioning they're worried faces and such.
"In a second, you will be, too. It's 5:25."
Knux's once giddy first turned to one of pure anger and sadness."What the hell!? You have got to be kicking me in the crotch! My poor pizza, gone, wasted! The horror!" He started screaming, and pulling at his spiky hair. Sonni just looked at him as if he was mad. He then sighed gingerly.
"Just call the Game Master. He's gotta fix it." He stated bluntly.
"I'm trying but it isn't working! It's still calling. Is there any other way to log out?"
Sonni shifted his head to the side, thinking deeply. A bead sweat slid gracefully down the side of his fore-head, as he finally perched up to talk.
"No, if a player wants to log themselves out, they have to go through the menu…"
"That's just bat-shit insane, there's just gotta be some other way…"
"Return! Log Out! Escape!" Knux started waving his arms violently, trying to do something that maybe might work in log gin himself out, but to no obvious avail.
The misty clouds started rolling in, blocking the virtual sun from letting its rays shine through, making the ground more eerie and darker.
"I told you. There wasn't an emergency logout in the manual, either."
"Your kidding right? Oh I got it! I'll just rip the NerveGear off my head…" The pink echidna began tugging at his head like theres no tomorrow, messing his spikes up terribly in the process.
Sonni sighed impatiently, getting a little worried."You can't. We can't move our real bodies. The NerveGear intercepts anything we tell our bodies to do here."
Sonni pointed his finger at the lower-mid part of his neck, referring the the NerveGear cable.
"Seriously? So you're telling me we have to wait till they fix this bug? That's just retarded!?" Knux's temper began to rise a bit, as he was beginning to get worried and even a little scared.
Sonni placed his hand on his face, rubbing his temples.
"Or we would have to wait for someone to remove the NerveGear from us in the real world…"
"Oh man, I live alone…? What about you?"
"I have a mom and a sister, so I think they'll notice by dinnertime…"
Knux suddenly rammed himself on Sonni, an excited expression on his face."H-How old's your little sister?" He chirped.
"She's on a sports team, and she hates video games." Sonni started to back up slowly, heating up a bit.
"She has nothing to do with people like us…"
"That doesn't ,matte— "
Out of the blue, Sonni upper-cutter Knux's crotch with his knee, causing the echidna to fly backwards, landing on his tailbone on the grass. At first he started to whine in 'pain', but then realized that in SAO you don't feel pain.
"Riiiight, it doesn't hurt." He sat up, dosing himself off.
"More importantly, don't you find this weird?"
"Sure, I do. I mean we can't log out for peat's sake! But it is just a bug…"
Sonni looked up at the peachy sundown, the wind blowing his sky blue kills in a relaxing motion.
"It isn't just a bug. If we can't log out, that'll pose a serious problem for the game's future."
"Come, to think of it your right…"
"If they wanted to, they could just shut down the server and log everyone out… But there's not even an announcement…"
Kong. Kong. Kong.
The two animals perked up at the sudden ringing of the town bell. The clouds around them freakily started to move rapidly in a circular motion, making the world seem as if it was going in fast-forward.
The two then got teleported to the main spawn, where all the SAO players began in the start of the game. Sonni and Knux looked around in confusion seeing as more and more players were teleported to the same spot, everyone just as confused.
"A forced teleport?" Sonni thought aloud.
The bells ringing finally stopped, and looking around it had seemed as though EVERYONE who joined SAO was here. All of sudden everyone was looking up in the sky to see a strange red blinking shape. The shape suddenly expanded creating a dome of redness which read 'WARNING' and 'SYSTEM FAILURE' and such. Every gaped in awe, nobody had a single clue on what was going on.
Parts of the warnings began oozing out a thick red liquid that shifted and shifted creating a weird figure. When the ooze settled, it revealed a giant cloaked man in a heavily decorated robe, a ghost face, eeriness emitting from his body.
The large crowd of players began whispering saying things as such, "A game master?", "Why doesn't he have a face." And other really REALLY good questions.
The mysterious being raised his arms slowly in a dramatic way, his voice deep and echoing.
"Attention , players. Welcome to my world…"
Sonni stared at the huge figure, in shock, gawking,"My world?" He re-stated questionably.
"My name is Ivo Robotnik. As of this moment, I am the sole person who can control this world…"
The crowd awed in disbelief to be really hearing and seeing the creator of the popular MMO in person!
"I'm sure you've already noticed that the logout button is missing from the menu… But this is not a defect in the game."
"I repeat. This is not a defect in the game. It is a feature of SAO or Sword Art Online… You cannot log out of SAO yourselves, and no one from the outside can shut down or remove the NerveGear. Should this be attempted…"
"….The transmitter inside the NerveGear will emit a powerful microwave, destroying your brain and thus…."
"….ending your life."
Uh-oh it's the cursed Cliffhanger! ;D Sorry guys but I'm EXHAUSTED! I have just been typing this for almost 3 hours, no joke! Plus I'm getting really hungry… :( Anyways this ones the first chapy and I hope you enjoyed reading! Although I'm tired I still enjoyed typing this up for you guys! :3 And next chapy I'll give you a list of the characters in each chapter so the character set-up doesn't get confusing, so expect next chapy to have the basic character list, Oh and for future reference, I might need your help once the story prolongs… Im gonna need your OC'S so sorry… ;( Trust me I'm okay with using Archie characters, nut SAO has a variety of characters and not to mention once were done with season 1 were moving on to season 2 and then my favorite season of all GGO or Gun Gale Online, which only has 4 episodes out right now, big sad-face right there :( :( :( :( :( but any who, I hope you guys enjoyed, I'll see you next chapy, Love A Lazy Cherry~ 3