Electronic Sheep By: Shimegami Warnings: Shounen ai, yaoi, AU Disclaimer: Not mine. Don't sue. AN: DAMN YOU PLOT BUNNIES!!! I was trying to conjure up a plot for my Naruto fic, and instead I get drawn into Hunter x Hunter. Oh joy. Sorry, fans of my naruto fic, you're going to have to wait a few eeks for me to update - I need to get my new Killua obsession out of my system before going back to Naruto.

Ahem, this a total AU, somewhat similar to .hack, Lain, or the Matrix. Meaning lots of technology in this one. Yep. And I'm not going to be drawn into the common misbelief that Kurapika-san is a girl. Especially when the manga states specifically he's a guy. v.v; Oh well, more yaoi for me, yay.

Chapter One - Follow the White Rabbit

Is the world real? Do people exist outside of the Motherboard?

It's a question the government keeps under wraps. Do not question the Motherboard, for it is everything and everyone. Nothing exists beyond it.

People have lived in it always. People are the programs that keep the Motherboard running. We are one.

Are we? If we are programs, who programmed us? If the Motherboard needs humans to repair it, then it is obviously something that had to have been made. If so, who made it?

Most do not want to question the Motherboard. In fact, many do not even believe they are programs. They remain inside their programming, perfect little sheep that serve their master.

Is it a master? Are humans the slaves? Is there any other world beyond the ones and zeros that make us live?

I would like to think so.

If we are programmed, then we must be programs that challenge the Motherboard itself in our complexity. We feel emotions, and react differently to different situations. We are not programs, no one could create such a program.

How far can technology go? Can it truly create all the complexities of the human mind? Is the human mind so complex? Are we truly programs? Can ones and zeros replace the fuctions of hearts and minds?

Are we real? Is anything real? Am I stupid for believing something different? Can "stupid" exist in a computer program, if I am one?

Do I truly love? Do I truly hate?

Am I human?

When will my questions be answered?

I listen intently to the music streaming from somewhere. Mysterious, unreal, out of place. Is this my answer? The music rises to such a crescendo, my very being feels as if it is music. Then it dies, just as suddenly as it came.

And the rest is silence.

*~----it-connects-us-to-someone-who-doesn't-know-how-these-feelings-become- control----~*

It started out as a normal day for Gon Freeces.

He woke, stretched, and then headed for the bathroom. After cleaning himself up and having a quick breakfast, he gathered his equipment and left for work.

Despite the fact that he was only twelve, he was a Hunter. He was very important! Gon's job was to eliminate the programs that tried to hack their way free of the Motherboard. The Motherboard gave the human programs everything they needed, so it was lost on Gon why they tried to get free. Really, it wasn't very nice, and plus, there wasn't anything beyond the Motherboard. There was no reason to try to escape reality.

Gon ran down the street, which at this moment was crowded with other people heading off to work as well. He cheerfully shouted apologies to the people he bumped into while he ran through the mass. He was a polite program, after all.

It was a normal start to a normal day, but normal was about to be shot down. Normal was going to crash and burn rather spectacularily, and Gon didn't know this, but he was about to.

A flash of an abnormal color caught the eye of the Hunter. For a moment he wondered when it had snowed, but it was summer, no snow was present. He turned further to find the source of the flash of sparkling white that had drawn his eye.

There, across the street. A young boy, around Gon's age, stood next to a lamp post, head down. Although he was in the middle of the hurrying throngs, the people didn't seem to notice him at all. They merely bent around him, as if he were some immobile obstactle that had always been there. But Gon was quite sure that he'd never seen the boy before, and that hair...

The people programs only had four hair colors. They had infinite shades of those colors, but there was no place in the computer code that specified white hair to people under under fifty. That color shouldn't be on a head of a boy that couldn't be older than Gon himself.

-Can you see?-

Gon jumped as he heard a voice come from nowhere. He looked around hastily, but no one seemed to have heard it. In fact, they all seemed oblivious to both him and the boy....

-Can you see me?-

He instinctively looked back to the boy, only to find that he had raised his head and was looking directly at Gon. Cat-like almond eyes, of a color Gon couldn't indentify-blue, black, maybe even dark green. Another anamoly, another impossiblity.

-Follow me.-

What? Before Gon could form the question out loud or even begin moving his lips, everything went haywire. People melted, distorted, and changed - running together to form what appeared to be circuitry. What was happening?!

-You are real, unlike the others.-

The white-haired boy was still there, and Gon realized that himself and the other boy were the only ones to retain their shape. Everything else- people, plants, buildings, even the sky itself-had melted and turned into what appeared to be living circuitry.

-You are able to break outside the cage.-

Everything began to fade and fuzz out, like static. Gon couldn't begin to understand what was happening. The boy ws still the only clear thing he could make out. Suddenly, the boy turned and ran. Gon tried to move after to him, to call him to wait. No words fell from his lips, and he could barely stumble along. The boy ran further and further.

-Follow me.-

I can't! Gon wailed mentally, still trying to form words that would not come. His arm stretched out for the retreating figure, a silent plea.

-Don't worry, you'll be able to soon. You'll find me again, and that time, you'll be able to keep up.-

Gon tried to speak once more, but his legs finally gave out and he pitched forward into the circuitry. It burned, and he screamed soundlessly, but the voice returned once more.

-Don't worry, I'm always here for you. I'll see you again.-

Then everything went black, and a high-pitched shrieking echoed through his mind. Gon thrashed around, mindlessly trying to get free, and-

His hand came down sharply onto his alarm clock, silencing the harsh noise. He stared at it, trying to comprehend. A dream?

He focused past his hand, to his window. There, on his windowsill, sat a pristine white rabbit doll, it's fur softly gleaming in the new morning sun. A stuffed rabbit that had definately not been there before.

The sun shined brightly and the birds chirped, and Gon sat in his room, in his bed, and desprately tried to understand everything, while the white rabbit calmly stared on.

~Tsuzuku~

AN: Weirdness. I finally saw the first Matrix yesterday, as I'd never gotten a chance to see it before. Therefore, i was inspired to do a Matrix- y type fanfic, and chose HxH as my setting, since it's my recent obsession.