Hang On! We're Doing Maintainence!

A Maplestory one-shot fanfic with a slight Wizard101 crossover

This is a story I conceived of while waiting for Nexon to finish maintainence due to some STUPID Gachapon glitch which gave people stupid items, where they were compensating everyone who used Gachaperriot during the glitch period. While I was waiting impatiently for them to fix the dang thing and bring the servers back up, I began to wonder... what happens to the NPCs you meet(and fight) while the game is down for maintainence? This was born.

I don't own Maplestory or its characters - those are the property of the South Korean companies known as Nexon and Wizet. Enjoy and leave feedback.

WARNING: Rated PG-13 for mild profanity.

BANG BANG BANG! CREAAAAAK!

The guy in the white hat with a W on it sighed in relief and wiped his sweaty brow, looking at the giant clown-shaped UFO catcher. "Welp, that's the Henesys Gachaperriot fixed."

A female wearing glasses and a similar hat approached. "Done here, Mark?"

"Yep, Jill," said the guy, turning to her and smiling. "Gachaperriot's fixed here."

"Good," said Jill, nodding. "Man, seriously, it's a good thing Wizet banishes the adventurers for 'maintainence' periods every so often or we'd NEVER get anything done. I mean, seriously, do you know how many idiots sit in the town square 24/7 and chat text? I bet poor Chief Stan and Camilla would go postal and pull out a chainsaw to turn them into red mist if we didn't have these break periods!"

"You think they got it bad?" laughed Mark. "You should see the Item Scrooge in the Free Market. He complained last night about so many adventurers standing in Free Market and yelling 'S Cubic Blades 100 M' all day, he was threatening to quit his job! At least we got the Gachapon machine here fixed, though I'm glad I'm not the one who has to shell out the cash to compensate every adventurer who got burned by the glitchy machine by getting a crap item. Man, I wish they'd check the warranty on these things, they've been out since 2003!"

"To be honest, do you really want that?" asked Jill, smirking. "If we didn't have crises like this often, we wouldn't have as many 'maintainence periods', and then the NPCs would get REALLY angry, they'd stage a revolt!"

"Yikes," said Mark. "I'd hate to see Orchid and Gellimer revolt. After what Gellimer pulled off in the Black Heaven Update, I'd hate to run into him in a dark alley, sheesh! If he got burned out, I think the real world would be in serious danger!"

Jill patted his cheek. "You see my point? We NEED these maintainences or we'd never get any vacation breaks. The adventurers would be here 24/7 all year round, and our bosses would have such a hard time getting events to coordinate it'd be insane." She pulled out her cell phone and called up a number. "Yo, Max, how'd the Gachaperriot in Perion doing?"

"Fine," said a voice on the other end. "I checked with the others - they're coming along nicely. It'll only be an hour before we can bring the adventurers back."

"Well, better alert the Black Crew and Boss Crew that they'll need to be back in their places before the hour's up, ready to fight more Level 250 adventurers," laughed Jill.

"Gotcha," said Max. "I think the Black Crew is having tea at Hilla's place in Azwan right now. I'll go Hyper Teleport over there once I make sure Gachaperriot here isn't gonna glitch again."

"Do that," said Jill. "Jill out." She hung up and stretched. "Man it's nice to have a break."

"We're the lucky ones," said Mark, smiling. "We only need to be behind the scenes, we don't ever show up in-game. I pity the Black Crew... they have to get defeated over and over again to give the adventurers their loot and experience."

"I feel bad for Lotus, having to die over and over again the Black Heaven episodes," said Jill. "Oh well, Maple World is making a ton of NX profit off those guys, so it's a mixed blessing."

=9=

In the temple of Azwan, deep in the inner sanctum, a group of people were having some tea and cookies while watching reruns of Malcolm in the Middle.

"He he he," said Arkarium. "I really enjoy that part."

"You and your low humor standards," scoffed Hilla.

"Well, in my line of work, you have to have low standards," said the ancient demon wizard with a cobra sprouting from his back. "You try being happy after having to get your ass beaten to black Friday and back by those idiot Level 250 noobs!"

"Yo, try being defeated by a wimpy Level 120 noob sometime," sneered Hilla, shattering her tea cup. "Oh great, I ruined another tea cup. Thanks a lot, grey-beard."

"Now now," said Francis, taking a sip from his cup. "We shouldn't fight."

"Easy to say coming from a wimp," sneered Arkarium.

"Hey! I'm not like that in real life, yo!" said Francis, removing his hood to reveal a very handsome face with blue eyes. "I only act like a love-crazy loser who plays with dolls because that's what everyone expects of me! I need this job to support my anime fix!"

"Oh yeah, you're the one who has an obsession with Cardcaptor Sakura," giggled Hilla.

"Cut the crap, Hilla," said Orchid. "Francis is a nice guy."

"Is that why you two are secretly dating even though everyone thinks he's stalking you?" said the witch of Azwan, cackling.

"Kururu!" said Pink Bean, slamming his headphones over his ears angrily.

"Can it," said Magnus, removing his horns and wiping them clean. "We all have our reasons for being here, acting like villains... well, Orchid did turn heel..."

"Hey, I didn't mind turning against the Black Wings, it was a fun epic role - the villianous ex-leader of the Black Wings turning traitor and joining the Alliance!" Orchid smirked. "Besides, you get killed over and over again."

"Like I care," said Magnus, snorting. "Like Francis, I need the work. I'm sure none of us are here for having fun." He looked at Arkarium. "Seriously, dude, do you have to wear that snake out of work?"

"Nagini is not a snake, he's my sidekick!" snapped the wizard. The cobra hissed. "He likes ridinjg on my back!"

"NAGINI?!" laughed Hilla. "You named your serpent after VOLDEMORT'S PET?!"

"Hey, I like Harry Potter, don't judge," sneered Arkarium. "And why is Pink here? Isn't she with the Boss Crew?"

"Yeah, but last period she accidentally plugged herself into Zakum's rear end and got him all pissed off," sighed Magnus. "So she's hanging with us until the heat cools down and Horntail and Vellum have lifted the bounty on her."

"Fine, but if she started singing, I'm out," said Arkarium.

Just then, a holographic image of a Wizet admin appeared. "Hey guys, Max here. Maintainence is almost complete, the Gachaperriots are almost fixed, so you'd better get back to work in twenty. That's all." The hologram vanished.

Lotus sighed. "Well, the party's over. Time to get back to being a doomed zombie again." He turned to Gellimer, who was on a laptop. "Gelly, let's... wait, what are you playing?"

"N-N-Nothing!" said Gellimer, trying to close his laptop. Unfortunately, he forgot that Lotus had psychic powers and forced it back open. "I have a perfectly good explanation for this..."

"What, let me see!" said Hilla. Everyone but Pink Bean, who was still jamming to her headset, crowded around the laptop. "OH. MY. GOD. IS THAT...!?"

"YOU'RE PLAYING WIZARD101?!" screamed Orchid in horror.

"I... I can explain!" said the mad scientist, sweating bullets.

"If it comes out that a Maplestory actor is playing a KingsIsle Game..." muttered Magnus. "Wait... are you the only one?"

"Uh..." Gellimer cringed his fists. "Okay, forgive me everyone... Oz and Grendel the Really Old play it too. They're helping me get my Balance through Mooshu."

Hilla laughed. "This is fresh! Who knew a Magician would be playing a game about wizards?"

"This is researching the competition!" said Gellimer in protest. "It's not like... I like playing as a Level 37 Sorcerer..." He blushed and hung his head.

"It's okay, old man," said Francis, patting Gellimer's shoulder. "We all have dirty little secrets. But we need to get back to work." He sighed. "Back to being a love-crazed loser who uses puppets to manipulate monsters... and getting my ass kicked by heroes."

Orchid kissed his cheek. "Relax, darling. You can look forward to a nice sexy time with me next maintainence period - I heard they're going to update the Sengoku classes so they might shut Maple World down during that update."

Francis blushed and embraced her. "I can't wait."

"Seriously, get a room," muttered Lotus. "Right now, we have to get back to our stations."

Gellimer sighed and shut off his laptop. "And I was just getting to Crimson Fields too!"

Meanwhile, in another dimension...

Lydia Greyrose shook her head as found her fellow Ravenwood Professor huddled over a computer. "Caught you at last, Cyrus Drake!"

The tall bald professor bolted up and turned his chair. "I-It's not what you think!"

"Playing Maplestory isn't what I think?" said the fairy Thaumaturge, clicking her tongue. "What class are you?"

"K-Kanna..." mumbled Cyrus, turning his head. "But they are down for maintainence."

"Good, you need to remember that we have to set an example," said Lydia. "After all, if the students got wind of a professor playing a game about adventurers in another world, they might stop training and just play the game instead of protecting the Spiral, and then where would be? Dead at the hands of Malistaire, that's where! Or do you not worry about how your brother is doing?"

Cyrus blushed. "I... I didn't mean..."

"Seriously... Maplestory?" grumbled the ice fairy, who flitted out of the Myth School.

[END]