Digital Disaster
Chapter 1

A figure crouched down in the middle of a poorly lit hallway. One of the lights on the ceiling flickered on and off while the rest were dark, either shot out or just dead bulbs. The figure was dressed in some sort of paramilitary gear, black pants, shirt and tactical vest. He set his gun down by his foot and closed his brown eyes.

"Get up Ace," he said to himself as he looked at the blood stained hallway. "Get up and get out of here."

Ace looked up slowly, hearing a low moan echoed off of the wall and around the corner. He closed his eyes for a moment, running his hand through his messy brown hair. He had but a few minutes to react before the source of the moan would be upon him.

"This is insane…" he muttered as he reached for the hand gun, but it wasn't there. His eyes widened as the source of the moan, a tattered human figure lurched towards him. The creature fell face forward as Ace crawled backwards. It reached out and grabbed his boot, looking at him with white dead eyes.

"Aaaaaccceee" it moaned out, dragging its self closer to him. Ace kicked at the creature's head, struggling to free his foot from its grasp. It moaned out his name once again as he pulled its self up onto his leg.

"Aaace…Ace….Mr. Chambers!" the monster yelled before sinking its teeth into his leg….

"Ahhh!" he yelled out as his eyes shot open. He looked around for a second and blinked. No, he wasn't in a poorly lit hall. He wasn't being attacked by a creature…he was sitting in the back of his last period history class. Before him was teacher, Mrs. Jacoby. She had her arms crossed over her chest and glared at the boy from behind her thinly framed glasses.

"Perhaps you'd like to tell us what we were just discussing Mr. Chambers," she said in her usual stern voice. Ace looked up and smiled innocently.

"Well, Uhm…" he hesitated, stalling a bit as he looked at the blackboard. "Uhm, World War two…" he said after a minute. Jacoby looked at him, then at the board. It wasn't spelled out there but subtle hints were written, such as Appeasement, and Chamberlain. She frowned and shook her head.

"You should pay attention Ace. Anyway…" she said, turning her back to Ace and walking back towards the front of the room. Ace sighed and tugged a bit on his tie, unbuttoning the top button on his light blue shirt. He looked around at the students in the class. He knew most of their names since it was a smallish school, a Catholic High School in New York City but there was this girl, this quiet girl in the front of the class. She seemed to look at Ace a little longer than the rest of the class, but it mostly was an annoyed look. Ace looked back at her and smiled. She seemed a bit surprised and turned around quickly.

"Hey, you dreaming over there bud?" a familiar voice said, coming from Ace's left. He looked over at his buddy, Nathan.

"Yeeeeah, thanks for warning me that Jacoby was coming," he grumbled as Nathan smiled proudly. He was taller than Ace, around 6'3 or so with short spiky black hair.

"Oh well, it was a good laugh. So, tomorrow morning, wanna head down to the lounge and play some pool? Kaze and Lee will be there…"

"Nah, I got class" Ace whispered back as Jacoby turned to look at the class. The two boys in the back quickly looked down at their notebooks, pretending to take some notes.

"What? That religion class? Aw come on, skip it…" Nathan begged, poking Ace in the arm with his pen.

"I can't" Ace hissed. "I actually like the teacher and, it's more of an ethics class than religion plus, there's a test.."

"Bah!" Nathan grumbled. Ace chuckled and looked back at the girl in the front of the room. All he could see was the back of her head, and her hair. She had straight brown hair which went down just past her back. Argh, what's her name? I mean, there aren't that many kids in this school and we've been here for a few months…why can't I remember the name? Ace though as he sighed and looked at Nathan. Of course Nathan was busy on his phone, sending a text message or something. But it didn't matter. He needed his attention. So, Ace tore out a piece of paper, crumbled it into a ball and threw it at Nathan, hitting him right in his head. Nathan looked over at Ace.

"Hey, see that girl in the front of the first row?" Ace asked.

"You mean Amanda?" Nathan asked, raising an eyebrow as the bell rang. Jacoby sighed as the class started packing up.

"Amanda…yeah, that's it! Wow ok brain fart. Well, see ya later and all that." Ace said, grabbing his book and rising to his feet. He looked over at Amanda, she was taking her time, packing up slowly, un like the rest of the class. Heck, half of them were out the door already, into the crowded hall. He sighed lightly and walked over to her.

"Hi Amanda," Ace said, catching her a bit off guard.

"Oh hi Ace…"

"Hey, uhm, did you do the reading for class tomorrow?" he asked as Nathan stepped up behind Ace, leaning against the wall.

"Yeah, why? Do you need the pages or something?" she asked with a cheerful tone and smile. Ace nodded and scratched the back of his head. He looked down at the girl and smiled. She was dressed in the uniform, same as every other girl, white dress shirt and a khaki skirt. He found himself looking into her chestnut brown eyes for a moment before he shook his head and chuckled.

"I do, if you could give them to me…that would be awesome," Ace said as he stood there a little nervously now. But Amanda just smiled at him and opened up her notebook looking for the assignment. She stopped on the page and looked up at him.

"Here ya go. It's due tomorrow so, good luck." Amanda smiled as she glanced up at the clock. "Oh hey, sorry. I have to go," she said as she grabbed her books and bag. She smiled at Ace and his friend as she left. Nathan just looked at Ace and shook his head.

"What was that for?" Ace asked

"Nothing, nothing…." Nathan chuckled as he put his arm around Ace's shoulder and led the boy out of the class room and into the hall way of the school. There, Ace and Nathan met up with the others in their group, Kaze and Lee. Kaze was a little shorter than Ace with light brown spiky hair. He had thinly framed glasses and his tie was around his head…like some head band. Lee was the tallest in the group. The blond boy crossed his arms over his chest at the arrival of Ace and Nathan.

"So what's the plan guys?" Lee asked, as he looked around at the others.

"Dunno…" Kaze muttered and looked over at Nathan and Ace.

"I got to go…I'll catch you guys later and all," Ace replied.

"Bah!" Nathan grumbled again as Amanda walked by the group of guys. Ace caught sight of her and turned to smile, but she just walked past them all, vanishing into the stairwell.

"Oh what was that?" Lee asked with a smirk. "That girl is so weird! She never talks to anyone or anything. Like, some anti-social lil nerd."

"Yeah, Amanda Dracoanas…I don't think she's ever talked to anyone in all the years we've been here," Kaze added as the three of them chuckled. Ace sort of narrowed his eyes and took a step back.

"Not cool, you don't even know her." He said as he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket to check the time. The digits on the front read 2:20 pm " I'll see you later…" he grumbled while walking into the stairwell.

About an hour later, Ace stood outside of his home. There were no cars in the driveway, which was a good sign really. No one was home. He sighed and walked up the driveway, opening the front door and stepping into his house. Ace darted up the stairs, closed the door to his room and propped open his laptop, booting it up. While it did its thing, he changed out of his uniform into what he normally wore. He freed his dragon pendant and displayed it proudly over his black t-shirt. He slipped on a pair of jeans and took a seat at his desk just as it signed him onto one of the messengers. Before he could even scan the list, and IM window popped up. The message belonged to his internet friend and RP buddy, Dragon girl…at least that's what he called her. He smiled at the message and typed up his reply.

Dragon-Tamer: Draggy hey! glomps

XDragon: nuzzleshey there dragon girl. how are ya?

Dragon-Tamer: fine, you?

XDragon: eh… no complaints. just relaxing and all that. its good though, no ones home so I got time to my self.

Ace smiled contently as he leaned back in his chair, turning on some music in the background. It was nice to have the house so quiet, with only the sounds of rock music bouncing off the walls, as opposed to the usual.

Dragon-Tamer: nice. Wanna continue where we left off?

XDragon: I'd love to, but I got so much reading to do for this class tomorrow hehe just figured out what the assignment was today.

Dragon-Tamer: tsk tsk, bum :P I just have a test tomorrow morning.

Ace looked tilted his head to the side. He knew they had discussed tests and such before and they always seemed to have them on the same day…

XDragon: I try, I try. Hey, can I ask you something? Where did you say you went to school?

Dragon-Tamer: umm Holy Trinity why? o.o

XDragon: …really?! No way! Me too! You mean…after talking for months we actually go to the same school?

Dragon-Tamer: ' guess so.

XDragon: maybe I know you, whats your name? Mine's Ace

Dragon-Tamer has signed out

Ace blinked at the computer and moaned out in frustration, slamming his head on the desk.

"Aw come on, who is she?" he sighed as his computer beeped again. He looked up to see a message from the girl. So he clicked on it.

Dragon-Tamer: sorry it likes to kick me off. Uhm...I'm Amanda…o.o

Ace looked at the words on the screen for a minute a bit in shock. He had been talking to this girl for months, RPing together and all that and she was the very same girl who was in most of his classes and never spoke to anyone….

XDragon: Amanda….Dracoanas?

Dragon-Tamer: nods

He for one was stunned that this girl was Amanda Dracoanas. It seemed to make sense though, from the few times he had spoken with Amanda, she was sweet and 'dragon girl' as he had dubbed her was the very same.

XDragon: wow…uhm that's really awesome, we should hang out or something..maybe have lunch together?

Dragon-Tamer: o.o r-really?

XDragon: ; well…if you want to….I…

Ace cringed as he heard a car pull up the drive way. His parents were home, a little early for them, since well…the sun was up and all. He moved slowly over to his window and looked down as his dad, a middle aged balding man stepped out of the car. He slammed the door and just glared at the passenger side where mom was sitting. Ace couldn't tell but it looked like she was just sitting there with her head down in shame.

"Worth-less cunt. How could you lost the stuff like that? It cost me a hundred-fucking dollars!" his father yelled as he punched the storm door to their house. "Get out of the fuckng car! Get the Fuck out of the car!" he yelled as he pulled the drive door open and crawled into it.

"No! Leave me the fuck alone!" his mother yelled back. Both voices easily overpowered the music he had playing in his room.

Ace closed his eyes, clenching is fist doing all he could to stay quiet and not fall into the predictable pattern that occurred when ever his poor excuse for a father was unable to get his fix. As the yelling grew louder outside, Ace opened his eyes again, catching view of the conversation he was having with Amanda.

Dragon-Tamer: yeah…that would be nic

Dragon-Tamer: Ace? Draggy? You there?

XDragon: yeah…

The door to the house slammed open and soon after, the muffled sounds of his parents screaming could be heard through his door. Ace just closed his eyes, slowly forming a fist with one of his hands…he needed to do something, he wasn't just going to sit here, not today...

XDragon: listen, uhm, can I come over and study? I…I can't be here anymore

Dragon-Tamer: o.o uhm…

XDragon: I'll explain later…please? I really need to get out of here…

He sighed looking at the computer screen, waiting for her reply. Yes, it was a bit odd of him to ask, after all, he just found out she was Amanda Dracoanas. But, he had talked to her before about this event, and he doubted Nathan and the others would understand.

Dragon-Tamer: I guess…my address is 54-15 Birch St.

XDragon: I owe you one, you have no idea…ok I'll be there soon…gotta go.

(XDragon has signed out)

Ace closed his laptop, picked it up and dropped it in his backpack. He sighed as he opened the window towards the back roof and set his bag against the wall. Could he really do this? He had to…The muffled screaming of the two was only increased as he opened his door. Ace slowly walked down the stairs, his fists clenched tightly…

A bit later in the afternoon, Ace stood outside Amanda's front door. It had started to rain on his walk over, and he was soaked from head to toe. His shirt was ripped around the collar and he just looked crushed, down and beaten. He cast his eyes up as Amanda opened the door and gasped a bit.

"Ace, are you ok?" she asked as her eyes widened at his appearance. The boy stood there as the rain fell on him, casting his eyes back down towards the ground. Water dripped slowly off of his hair as he reached under his shirt and handed her his bag.

"Hold this please…" he muttered and just stood there. Amanda took the bag and set it down gently by her door frame.

"Please, come inside. You're going to get sick out there like that…" she said reaching out and lightly tugging him inside. Ace allowed himself to be tugged and stepped into her house, standing as a puddle formed under him. Amanda frowned and walked off for a moment, coming back with a few towels. She handed them to Ace who took them and smiled a bit.

"Thanks," he said as he rubbed his hair and face with the towel. He winced as he pressed the towel too hard against his cheek. That was going to bruise later. He looked up at Amanda, just to smile and say thank you, but he found himself quickly looking her over. She was wearing a black t-shirt with a red dragon on it, a pair of cargo jeans and a Chinese dragon pendant around her neck. "Uhm, you wouldn't happen to have a change of clothes, would you?"

Amanda nodded slowly and took the soaked towel from Ace. "My dad has clothes, he's taller than you, but I'm sure you can manage. Just wait here k?" She smiled before turning away from Ace and turning around a corner. As she left, Ace reached into his pocket and pulled out his dragon pendant and chain, at least what was left of the chain. He looked at it, touching the red stone the dragon was holding in his claws. He had bought the pendant for his birthday the previous year with some money he had taken from his parents. They never noticed, they were too baked and drunk to remember his seventeenth birthday. Heck it was a miracle he was even in Holy Trinity HS. But he was, mostly thanks to the money his grandpa had left him when he passed on…

"Here ya go. My dad doesn't have anything cool so…these will have to do. I can put your shirt and pants in the dryer if you'd like." Amanda said with a pleasant smile.

"That would be great. You know something? You're really sweet, taking me in. You sure you're parents won't mind?" Ace asked as he took the clothes from her.

"N-no, I'm sure…" she said, casting her eyes down towards the ground. "You can go change in the bathroom. Second door on your left."

Ace sat on one end of the couch as the grandfather clock Amanda had in the living room struck six pm. He sighed, setting his book down on his lap and looking over at the girl at the other end. "Than you for this…" he said quietly, though there was no one else in the house, no one who could have heard him, other than Amanda.

The girl looked up from her laptop and brushed some of her hair behind her ear. She smiled a bit and looked back at Ace. "Oh, it's fine. It's good to have company sometimes. But, can I ask what happened?"

Company? Oh that's right, she mentioned once her parents are usually out of town. She keeps a really neat house. Nathan, Kaze and Lee would destroy mine if my parents ever left...which might not be a bad thing, he thought. Ace sighed and nodded. "Well, I snapped. My parents were arguing as I went down stairs and they both stopped when they caught sight of me. My mom told me to go back upstairs and my dad started insulting me, calling me a fag and how I should go…er and yeah so I yelled back, calling them both a waste of life and pitiful excuses for human beings, and then I…punched my dad in the face," Ace rubbing his arm. "It was a good hit but wasn't good enough, he grabbed my neck collar, ripped my chain off and my mom…she helped him. I don't know how I got out," he sighed rubbing his fingfer of the dragon pendant.

"Oh my gosh… Ace I'm so sorry to hear that," she gasped and scooted over on the couch patting his shoulder.

"It's ok, just…can I sleep here for the night. I really don't want to go home…well ever again."

"Yeah, If you want to. There's a spare room upstairs…but what are you going to do about .your uniform for school tomorrow? And clothes?" Amanda asked as her chestnut brown eyes met his. She blushed slightly as she glanced aside. Ace also blushed a bit and shrugged.

"I guess I'll just wake up early and climb in through the window to grab my stuff. Knowing my parent's they will be passed out cold. So, it's fine. You sure you're ok with me spending the night?"

"Sure! I mean, I won't be RPing now, since you're not on-line…" she giggled as she hopped off the couch. "So, uhm, would you like pizza for dinner?" she asked, walking into the kitchen.

"Sure, I got some cash in my jeans…which are in the dryer…" he grumbled as he leaned over and picked up Amanda's laptop. It was a model he had never seen before. There was no company logo on it, just some weird D with some dragon or dinosaur coming out of it. Either way, it was pretty impressive. He rested it on his lap and opened up the internet browser just going to check his e-mail. But a message window popped up, not addressed to Amanda, no it mentioned Ace by name.

Kronos: Do you wish to be stronger Ace? To have to power to end your suffering? I can help you…

He blinked, x'ing the conversation out and setting her laptop down. Something was weird there. No, everything was weird there. How did they know he had Amanda's laptop? How did they know anything about him?

"Pizza will be here in half an hour" Amanda called cheerfully from the kitchen.

"Can't wait. I'm hungry now just thinking about food." He admitted as his phone vibrated in his pocket. Ace reached into his pocket and flipped open his phone. He blinked slightly at the name of the sender, 'Kronos'.

Well that wasn't very nice to close out our conversation. But I can help you, make your life better. All you have to do is say 'ok'...

Ace red the message over and over, a little freaked out about it, but for some reason, he was comforted by it. He hit the reply button and typed out, 'ok' on his phone and hit reply. Nothing happened. Well, what did he expect? It was probably some chain letter or something. No big deal.

Amanda sat down on the couch and picked up her laptop. Ace looked over at her and scooted closer, looking at the screen. "Hey, uhm do you know anyone named Kronos?" he asked as he looked up from her screen.

Amanda nodded slowly. "I got a strange message from him or her the other day, asking me if I wanted my own dragon…" she smiled slightly and blushed. "so I figured it would be worth a shot…and still no dragon. Why?"

Ace sighed as he flipped his phone open again and showed her the text message. "Well, I was looking at your laptop and he messaged me asking if I wanted my life to be better…Something doesn't feel right about this."

To Be Continued...