"Why yes Joe, I did get the NerveGear. How are you and the other two holding up?" I said over the telephone.

Joe's husky voice came from over the other end. "Well, Tyler and Nate are already inside Sword Art Online. I was just about ready to log in to see what it's like myself."

"Alright Joe. I'll see you inside."

"See you inside Andrew." He hung up the phone and I ended the call from my end. A young child, about 15, peeked in from around the corner. A NerveGear was in his hands, and as he came in, I grabbed him and threw him up to the ceiling.

He laughed and smiled as he soared through the air. As I set him down, I ran my fingers through his light brown hair. "Hey buddy. Did you have a good day at school?"

"Yeah! It was great! I'm not to thrilled about not knowing Swedish, but it's a great city and everyone in class is so friendly."

"How are those nightmares? Still having trouble sleeping after Mom passed away last November?"

"I still have nightmares." he said, his smile fading. He was obviously remembering how awful it was since our mother passed from cancer just last year. "But I'm glad I'm here with you big brother. After mom passed..." I saw a tear fall from his face.

"I know Matti. I know. All five of us were shooken when we heard the news of Mom's passing."

Flashback

I was just starting my junior year at Stockholm University, majoring in literature and art. I minored in graphic design. I was going to the pub after a devastating breakup with my ex girlfriend. I had met her in one of my graphic design classes before she moved to Japan. But, she had gotten an offer on a college experience far better than I would ever have. Her major was graphic design and she minored in computer engineering.

The phone call was from my youngest brother, Tyler. I hadn't heard from him in a while, and we had left off on some bad footing, but I picked up anyway. I figured he wanted to apologize for his incident that got me kicked out of school. But he didn't.

The first words I heard were: "Mom is dead!"

I had only had one or two drinks, but I felt like I had a hangover. My head hurt, I felt nauseous. And for the first time in what seemed like forever, a tear fell from my eye. The room began to spin, and standing up to leave didn't make it any better. I dropped my cellphone and fell backwards, hitting my head on the bar.

After coming to, I called Tyler back, and demanded details to our mother's untimely death. It was not murder, or suicide. Cancer had been in her system for a while, and they said that they detected it too late for treatment. Knowing mother, she died happily, seeing how her husband, Matti's dad, Herb had passed away six months before from a heart attack at age 61.

My mind wandered towards Mathiuas (Matti). I asked what happened to him, and what was going to happen to him. All Tyler said was, "I don't know Andrew. I haven't been in touch with Mathiaus for three years."

I took the first flight back to New York state, and back towards my childhood home. I found out from the neighbors that Matti was taken away by child services and was spending the night in the county's facility. I drove there as fast as I could in my car I had rented for the weekend. A 2012 Honda Civic. I hate Hondas, but I didn't have a choice.

After a long three day weekend, I had convinced child services that Matti wouldn't do any better in some foster parent's house than he would in jail. They supposed that I meant he should be in jail, but my irrational mind and impulsive behavior made me do something that I've been proud of since then. I opted to take him in myself, back at my apartment in Stockholm.

They thought I was crazy at first, but after I kept pushing the idea, they agreed, reluctantly.

End Flashback

I've been his gaurdian ever since.

"Andrew, you've seemed to zone out again." Matti said.

"I'm sorry Matti. It's just that I was day dreaming." I wiped my glasses as an excuse to look away from him. I faked a smile and looked back at him. "Are you ready for a family reunion little man?"

Matti suddenly smiled, for he had not seen Joe, Nathan, or Tyler since long before the incident of our mother's passing. "Yeah! I'm so excited!"

"Go over there and lay down on your bed Matti. I'm going to walk you through the first steps of your first VRMMORPG, okay." Matti did as I instructed, and laid down on his bed. I set the NerveGear on his head, and I said the words. "Link Start!" He was emersed. I talked him through his first challenge. The welcome screen.

"You're going to have to make a username and a password Matti. A username is something like a name people can call you that's not your real name, but your comfortable with it. Next is the password. Make it something only you can remember, something no one will figure out. Once you've got that, you should be able to make your avatar, and begin."

I watched as he remained silent for a moment. After a couple of minutes, I settled myself on my bed and put on my own NerveGear. When the link opened up, I had already had my account set up. A few of my friends had used NerveGear before and lent me this set for my own personal use.

Upon entering, I saw: Username: M3RcUR1

This had been my user name for many things since I turned 18. It stood for Mercury, or the planet closest to the sun. But in reality, I used it for the Roman God, Mercury, or Hermes in Greek Mythology. In my Graphic Design class, fellow classmates made fun of my username by sculpting me out of the element Mercury on their computers. I laughed mostly because if using my name was fueling their creative talents, then I don't care.

As I logged in, I found myself in the Town of Beginnings. A short man with long hair tapped me on the shoulder. Reading the username above his forehead, I grew aggitated. It read Matti2.

"Matti, your not supposed to use your real name!" I scolded him.

"But it's not my real name. You should know that." I looked at him, shocked at his statement. He'd been called Matti since birth, so I was surprised he knew his real name wasn't Matti.

It wasn't long before I saw a bulking figure on the opposite side of the courtyard talking with a few others. Their usernames each read, Allmoggedon, Vitrox, and Natsunon.

I grabbed Matti's hand and raced for the three. "Yo! Chilson trio!" They all looked at me. A smile crossed each of their faces. We all hugged and shared stories about the last few years, Allmoggedon (Joe) telling me about how his son was doing and about his latest love triangle. Natsunon (Nathan) was telling everyone about how his life was going and about his small manga store. Vitrox (Tyler) was telling us about how his little escapades with his friends back home, and how he'd almost got caught by the police.

We all decided to try this game out and we went hunting near the edge of the next town. It was fun having all five of us back together again. Just like when we were teenagers...

But it was getting late. Even though I didn't have classes the next day, I had a job to do and it was nearly time to get ready. I told everyone goodbye, and said that as long as our brothers were on, Matti could stay on with them.

But what I didn't expect was that when I tried to log out, there was no log out feature. I panicked and told the others to check and see if theirs worked. I thought maybe it was a glitch in the system, but when no one could log out, I knew there was trouble.

That's when we teleported back to the Town of Beginnings...