A New Generation
By and ©
Elendil Star-Lover
An explanation follows the story
I always feel good in The World. No real reason, I suppose. Maybe I just like being an adult. And powerful. And rich. And popular.
And feared.
Popular may not be quite right. Sure, I have a lot of member addresses, but I just take them. My name is all over the message board, though. I remember when I was in the coma, before my bestest best friend Kite let me go from Morganna's prison. They were looking for me.
I guess I make things interesting!
What? You haven't heard of me? You make me sad! You go read the message board, right now! I'm all over it, I tell you! I am Sora, the Player Killer.
Want to be friends?
Goodie! You can sit there and watch me play. I'm dancing in the dungeon right now. I wonder if I can get dizzy in The World? Everything else seems pretty real. That wavemaster, Tsukasa can feel pain. Sometimes he can feel it, even now, that it's all over.
That was weird. You remember that, right? Pluto Again? This virus thingy—an AIDA—artificially intelligent data anomaly—they're calling it now—tried to take over The World and was doing all kinds of bad stuff. She called herself Morganna and was putting people in comas.
That is something even I won't do!
She—that's what her minions were supposed to call her—almost succeeded, but there was Tsukasa and Mimiru and Bear and Crim and BT and Kite and BlackRose and…
Well, anyway, I was told I was in a coma, too, but I don't remember that. I don't remember much of anything. I was a bit busy being She's—Morganna's—slave and trying to stop Kite. That stupid Maha, too. I remember that well, this burning indignation that Maha should take another form and find another wavemaster pet…but that's another story.
Anyway, I said I am a player killer. That means I hunt players instead of monsters. Well, I do hunt monsters. I have to. It's how I level up!
Players are more exciting, though. The monsters are predictable. They do as they're programmed.
Bo-ring!
Not players. Players think and reason and know how to exceed their programmed potential, because they have no programming!
I take trophies, too. Their member addresses. I have more member addresses than most people see players in a root town!
I'm playing right now. Not hunting, just waiting, in Theta Hidden Forbidden Wavemaster's pre-Gott chamber room, waiting for the cat player. She wanted to speak to me about something, silly kitty. I hope she left her token wavemasters behind. Those little brats can be annoying!
They're strong, though. Elk is a wuss and Tsukasa is strong, but freakishly mean. I should try PKing them one day and see how I do. Bet they can't beat me!
"Greetings, Skeith," she says, before she steps out of the shadows, long-legged, pantsless, and rabbit-eared.
I'm perched on top of the column, wedged in between it and the wall, and when I watch her step from the shadows, I drop down behind her, grab her from behind, and hold one of my blades to her neck.
"Macha," I say, smiling. "I told you not to call me that, silly kitty!"
Macha—Mia—laughs and smiles, "Old habits die hard, they say. And I have nine lives."
"So it would seem," I grin back. "You must really have a thing for tattooed wavemasters. I don't think you didn't notice how much Elk looks like Tsukasa, but without the bad attitude?"
"Elk's a cute kid," she responds. "He needed a guide and I was there. Now would you please get off of me?"
I let her go and stretch, holding my hands high above my head before folding them behind my head.
"So…uh…" I mutter, nonchalantly. "The similar outfits didn't make a difference?"
She grins at me and winks.
Speaking of which…
"I thought you told Kite and Elk you couldn't remember anything since just after you met Elk?"
Mia shrugs, "Some things I think are kinder if they don't know."
"Is that why you neglected to tell Elk about The Boy? Or Tsukasa about Elk?" Then I look around, pretending to stare at one of the torches lining the walls, and mutter, "Though why Morganna never called him 'The Girl'…"
"I asked once, just after I met him," she says. "It had to do with Tsukasa picking a male character. Morganna gets confused, too, just like the rest of us AIDA."
I drop my arms back to my sides and look at her, showing some rare seriousness.
"Is there something you wanted to tell me?" I ask.
She shakes her head solemnly. "I just wanted to ask if you felt anything…strange lately."
Tricky, tricky, tricky! Hmm…I wonder what she means by that. There has been something, but the others defeated Morganna, didn't they? Then again, Kite took Tsukasa and I to some of the dungeons afterward, and there were Data Bugs…and he was able to Data Drain them…and there's been something, but I've been busy. Final exams, you know.
"Like what?" I ask.
She leans back on the box behind her, sitting down and putting her hands on her knees, her back hunched. She looks old and weary like that. Well…weary.
"You were Skeith for a good while, Sora," she tells me. "Not quite as long as I was serving Morganna—"
"—As her spy—"
"—But still, you're bettering than nothing. There is no one else I can turn to."
"Not even your pet wavemasters?" I grin, and then pause. "Wait…you mean you've felt something?"
She looks at the expression on my face and almost laughs. "Six years and you haven't changed a bit, Sora."
I smile broadly, doing my best to chibify myself for her.
"Anyway," Mia says. "I also came to warn you. I do sense something on the horizon, a lot of things, but namely something you should watch out for."
"Like what?" I ask, boredly.
Like anything but Morganna could challenge me here. I have spent hours leveling up and powering up, coming in like a ghost and leaving just as quickly, hunting players instead of monsters. Sure, I don't have many friends here, just the other .Hackers, and most of them hate me, but I have fun.
"Someone is posing as you, Soar," she says. "Not as a player killer twinblade, one of the new models they've made, but he calls himself what you were once called."
I turn away, but glance back and raise an eyebrow. Strange, what she says. I feel the little prickle on the back of my neck that was my warning when I was Data Drained.
"What do you mean?" I ask. "Why do I need to watch out for him?"
Mia smiles and stands up, walking away, toward the Gott chamber. "You'll just have to see for yourself," she smiles.
"But!" I call, turning around and waving for her.
"Goodbye!" she answers, disappearing into the next room, where I hear the sound of a sprite ocarina playing.
I sigh and look down at my blades. If Morganna has returned, then it can't be a good thing. I had heard what she did to Mia…Maha…Macha, whatever she calls herself, sending her to watch The Boy, and then sending her as Mia to watch out for the one Aura would give the Bracelet to…
And now?
Morganna's hold is supposed to be gone, now. But I fought the Data Bugs myself! Could Mia/Maha/Macha still be She's agent?
I am contemplating this when I feel the blow from behind, sending me across the room. I land flat on my back against the wall, looking at a tall, lean figure in a belly shower top, a tribal tattoo around his belly button. He has leather straps across his chest and around his arms, under his tribal tattoos on his shoulders. His hair is light gray, red streaks running down his cheeks.
He walks to me and draws his weapon. I find myself staring at the butt end of something that looks like the offspring of a chainsaw that mated with a sword.
Suddenly, player killing doesn't seem so much fun!
On impulse, I cast GiAni Don and while he is frozen in place getting attacked, I jump away and lunge in from the side, trying to slice him from there, but the magic attack isn't that long and he breaks away just in time to grab me by the wrist—inches from hitting him—and throw me aside again. I use the wall as a springboard and jump behind him, but he casts a Ruk Zot and freezes me, my life points slowly draining away.
He leaps at me and I feel his blade slice through my chest, cutting out half my remaining life points, but not all. I look at him and growl, but he pulls out a pocket scroll, The Hangman, and my controls no longer respond.
He then walks toward me and knocks my feet out from under me, holding his chainblade (© Elendil Star-Lover) inches from my nose.
"Consider this a warning, player killer!" he hisses.
"Who are you?" I ask, marveling at such a person, a player killer to end all player killers. A saying goes here, I guess. I may not be the fastest gun in the west, but I'll show you where I shot him.
"Haseo," he replies. "The Terror of Death."
Game OverA/n:
If you google Haseo, .hack, you'll find a page on fan theories. I read it, and some of 'em are likely.
First thing I'd like to say, though: as far as I know (according to an article on GameSpot), Haseo is a Player Killer hunter. He hunts player killers. Though I have wondered if maybe he started out as a PK and then gets PKed and decided it wasn't so fun (When 'It' was born, the first thing 'It' saw was a PK…).
The thing that is born, though, I think is more likely Tri-Blade (Dark Kite).
I may do a few other short stories to express other ideas since doing research for this one has given me a number of ideas.
Terminology comes from my other .hack thing about Maha (spelling it that way, calling Tsukasa "The Boy"). Drop a few reviews and I might feel like updating it again!