disclaimer; .hack is not my property i do not own it in any shape of form.
.hack/moonlight
This story is set in .hack's "the world" when there was no idea about the powers of the "key of the twightlight", which was considered by many to be a myth. During this time speical events were held every month or so, with marvelous prizes going to the winning party or solo player.
It was on one of these events when a part known as the "class of 4" begun a quest to search every corner of the world looking for what became known as the "storehouse". but when "class of 4" became the only party to find the storehouse it became evident something was not quite right...
A couple of weeks after the event 3 of the "class of 4"s player decided to split up and became solo's, the 4th seemed to never log in again. Ofcourse this was the only information available, word of mouth being so unrelyable, gossip which was blown out of all purportion surrounded the mystery of how such close freingds so suddenly parted ways.
Night reviewed his information again, passing his eyes across scrolls before him, which he neatly rolled up and held out before him, the edges of which began to unravel like a thread from a rope, little ones and zeros spiralling off into nothing. He loved a good mystery it was nights aim in the world to unlock all the secrets he could in "the world". The massive size of "the world" and the number of players on it meant that he might never get bored again, theres was so much to do but so little time...
"Hail there" said a bassy voice below him, night jumped with shock having been so engrossed in his own mind he hadn't noticed the arrival of the other player, however jumping with shock had not been a good idea, so fragilly balanced on the tip of that gaint mushroom was he that now he began to slide down its slick surface, his fingers scraped at the soft flesh trying to halt the enevitable drop. Night's hands no longer floundered as he realised it was useless but instead push himself off the surface as he reached the edge, landing neatly on the ground before him.
Angered by the disruption he drew his two long twised blades that extened from his arms with an audible click. Assuming his characters normal battle stance his eyes locked on the player before him.
"Nice landing" the man said laughing, the axe on his back swinging with each jolt of his gut, a heavy axeman he was solidly built maybe a little fatter than most, but that could be the armour he wore. A pale blue in colour with gliph markings across the shoulders and by the heart. His character must of taken ages to program thought Night, knowing how long it took him to program his. He was two feet taller than nights character with half his face covered by armour plate, so that only the eyes were clearly visible.
"What do you want?" Night said sharply, his arms shaking slightly with anger.
The man stopped laughing and looked serious "Now, dont be like that, i was merly being polite".
"A polite person would of made his presence known sooner" Night countered roughly, night had a real dislike for heavy axemen, he felt that they had no grace or style in their movements and most seemed to be arrogent because of their size.
"Well now i guess you right about that," he absconded into a big sweep with his arm and bowed a little to Night. " i apallogise."
Night relaxed more, The axeman seeming to have a chivelrous nature so would not attack but Night knew how appearances could be deceptive on the net, so he didn't retract his blades.
"Apallogy accepted" Night said dismissively then turned to go.
"Wait" he said gruffly, "my names Kaisel. Kaisel the Embossed". Night stopped moving, Night hated giving out his name but since the man had been curtious, he supposed it would be only right to answer him.
"I am Night the Moonlight Guardian" Night blades retracted just as the spining glowing hoops signalled his gate out from the field.
Kaisel looked at the spot where the twin blade...Night was it...had stood. He reconised him from somewhere but where. Night had worn dark red longsleeved top with a loose black waitcoat on top his trousers caught short at the shins, obviously to give him more mobility. His blades must of been rare because they had had a faint black trail as he moved, hed never seen blades like those before that seeminingly retracted into the players arm, this lead Kaisel to believe that to gain such an item he was either a hacker or very powerful. A good alley either way, for it was never a good idea to upset a hacker. Then he snapped out of his daze, he realised it was the face that had seemed so familiar to him, the jet black spikey hair and the cold blue eyes. He looks soo much like...no he couldn't think about that just now. Besides there were differances on Nights left cheek was a dark red gliph, that seemed almost burned into the flesh and on the back of his waistcoat was an image of an eclipse, there was also another of this image on his waist coat over his heart.
Kaisel thought he better keep an eye out for that one.
He stretched lazily the headed on toward the dungeon a good fight was just what he needed to clear his head, So trudging off in the direction he set about his calculations on how much money he had left on the server.
"Im skint" he said to himself as he walked "i wonder when the next event is..."
His breath caught, he contiuned the rest of his trip with out a word.
Night arrived in the city of water in a second, quickly rushing to record his progress, he liked to keep up certain appearances. He had a quick chat with the recorder to see if there was any new gossip or anything of interest but "no, not much" was his answer.
He had a little time left before he needed to log off so went shopping round the small stalls in the street, he bought a new sprite ocareina and a couple of trap wires since he had used a few. He tried to trade for a book some one was offering but he didnt have enough "burning oil"s or "pure water"s. All in all, his shopping trip was a bit of a bust, so dissapointed he made his way back to a choas gate. Just as he reached the gate Kaisel gate'd in. "Oh! hello there" he said cheerily as night approached, "you left before i could give you this.." Holding out his hand the sever delivered his member address to Night.
"thanks" he said so sourly, which sent Kaisel into fits of laughter again, Night just couldnt work out what was funny..
"listen, you dont need to use it. Just if your bored one day and want to go have a bit of fun." Kaisel said plesantly as he walked past him.
Night gave a slow smile now that his face couldnt be seen.
"sure it wont be too much for you?" night said teasingly.
"on the contary, i just dont want you falling off of anymore mushrooms" Kaisel countered slyly, chukling to himself.
When Kaisel started to turn to say more, he just caught the flicker of gold as Night logged out.
"Well guess thats all i can do for now..." He said absently.
Kaisel stood for a few moments more, well... until a noob came in and ran into him, cause it wasnt looking where it was going.
Kaisel really didnt have the patience to be around noobs, he knew most older players took at least one under their wing just to help them get going, it apparntley was a bit off a buzz, to watch your own student pummel a monster on their own with no help, but he just couldnt see the point to it, himself.
Kaisel preferred to go about with more experienced and skilled players, maybe, he realised he himself was acting like a noob. It gave him somethign to mull over before he gated to a new dungeon in search of an old friend. Things werent always easy Kaisel thought as he went to the old haunt, his messages had gone unreplied and he wasnt sure if any one would turn up, still one had to have at least a little hope. This earth dungeon was a favourite of theirs in the old days, man Kaisel thought its only been two months , the net has a funny way of altering time to those how become part of it. The stone walls were familiar patterned in strange markings, the meeting point was in the first chamber in b1 of Theta Expansive Truths Ringing Ears. It was an out of the way place peferect for the "class of 4's" little meetings.
"So Kaisel...atttepmting to regroup those that are lost?" said a figure in the shadow filled corridor.
Smiling lightly Kaisel turns to him and replies gentley "Not all of us are lost Brant, only one of us"
Brant sweeps out of the shadows "Cail isnt coming, she sent me a mail before i left"
"Is she still upset with me?" Kaisel's smile was lost at the mention of his old freind.
"she's just upset in genral, still feverishly searching for him.." his voice caught must as Kaisels did, but kaisel new Brant would not of been as badly effected as Cail. "ive told her to rest for weeks, but she wont. she thinks weve given up on him.."
"Have we?" Kaisel asked morbidly.
"Of course not, were just waiting for some kind of clue" Brant said quickly and more heatedly than kaisel had ever heard him.
"ive maybe found us a new ally, he might be able to help" Kaisel didnt look at Brant.
"Cail wont be happy about that" He said evenly.
"i know thats why i called this little get together" Kaisel was being limited and he knew it. "its just that i dont know much about this character, i thought id get in touch with you all before i got to know him better."
Brant put his hand to his chin, thinking obviously."Get to know him first, then contact us again. I'll make sure Cail attends next meeting."
Kaisel nodded, glad that they all might find some way of having peace after all this time.
"Agreed" Kaisel stood tall, gave is freind a little salute, then watched as both he and Brant gated out at the same time.
end of chapter 1; the meeting
let me know what you think.
i know its short but its been ages since ive written.