Dream Team

By KikyoTheHedgehog/TrueBlueFlames
Sonic The Hedgehog, Shadow The Hedgehog, Silver The Hedgehog, Blaze The Cat and all other official characters used/mentioned are © of SEGA/Sonic Team.
Ash, Kikyo, Ashlynn, Jack and all other fan-characters/OCs used are © KikyoTheHedgehog/TrueBlueFlames and/or her friends

Chapter 1: Login

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!" A small female fox exclaimed as she rode home on her custom made Extreme Gear Wings, which resembled a small pair of angel wings. Sections of the Wings glowed a soft purple, her favorite color, which brightened slightly as she gained speed. The Wings floated, but somehow stayed connected, over a small device strapped to her back kind of like a backpack; a belt over each shoulder, but there was also one around her ribs, as well.

The Gear was controlled by a device on her head resembling a headband, which, in a way, read her mind and did what she wanted it to. Above the headband floated, but still somehow stayed connected, a device resembling a halo. This, too had portions that glowed a soft purple. The halo automatically projects a shield around her, if she were to collide with somebody or something, to protect her.

Aside from her Gear, the fox wore a white jacket with various creatures from a videogame all over it, which looked to be a size or two too big for her, a black and white striped polo shirt with buttons half way down the front – the first two or three buttons being undone, a pair of dark blue skinny jeans, and a pair of black boots that went up mid-calf; Her signature outfit.

She had the coloring of a typical fox, reddish-brown making up most of her fur color, with a white muzzle, chest and belly, and tip of her tail, and black ears, hands, feet and a jagged ring where red meets white on her tail. She also had blonde hair, which was originally a light brown, but on a whim she decided to dye it several weeks before and decided to keep it that way. She also had expressive brown eyes.

The fox, in her excitement, clutched a plastic bag to her chest, grinning from ear to ear. She got the game she'd so been looking forward to for the past two years: Dream Haven, a game for the virtual reality helmet – the Nerv - that came out two years prior. As soon as the helmet was released, the game was announced to arrive on a date two years from then. Despite it's name, it wasn't some girly game. It was an action/adventure game filled with quests, monsters and seemingly endless levels to complete to beat the game.. And the best part? It was an MMORPG – a Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game.

She couldn't wait to start playing! Zooming through the city to get to her house, she couldn't help but wonder what class she'd be given, as the game chooses for you before you build your avatar, and who she'd meet and what kind of adventures she'd go on. The more she thought about it, the more excited she got. Why, she hadn't been this excited over a game since Pokemon World had been released on the Nerv!

Immediately upon getting home, she ran inside, being sure to lock the door behind her, and texted a picture of the beautiful cover of the game to several of her friends saying "I got it!" within moments of hitting send, she got replies from several friends saying "So did I! See you in-game!"

Squealing, she ran to her room with her phone and game in hand. Several things were obvious from her room: She liked videogames, she liked anime, and she liked to draw. She pulled the Nerv off the shelf she kept it, and a bunch of other videogame systems, on, and went over to her bed. She plugged the helmet in so the battery wouldn't die on her while she was playing, and picked up the game case. She grinned, staring at it.

The coloring was soft and serene looking, while the cover itself was a picture of a small group of characters fighting a huge, black minotaur with glowing red eyes, wielding a huge axe. Oh, how she couldn't wait to level up enough and take on the minotaur on the cover.. Unable to stand it anymore, she quickly, but carefully, took the tiny game disk out of the case and put it into the disk reader. She eagerly put the helmet on and layed down on her bed, booting up the game.

After the helmet scanned her, she was in a digital blue room, floating in the center. A holographic screen floated in front of her. "Input username.." She read aloud as she typed, "A-R-T-S-Y-F-O-X.. ArtsyFox." She grinned as she hit enter and the screen changed to the avatar creator. She quickly made her avatar look as much like her as she could, spare the clothes. The clothes she would have fun with, oh yes.

She chose a long jacket that went down to her knees, made it white, and added a hood with extensions specifically made for her ears, and dark pink triangular markings around the bottoms of the sleeves and jacket, and the edge of the hood. She also chose a bikini-like armor top, made it white, and added material from the bottom that went down to her waist, making it more like a tanktop, and added gold markings on the edges. For bottoms, she chose wisely. She chose a white, pleated skirt and added gold markings. She also chose a pair of short-shorts to wear under it. And for shoes, she chose a pair of knee-high boots, keeping up with her color scheme, and white thigh-high socks.

Pleased with her designs, she pressed "Create me!" with a grin and an excited giggle. Data swirled around her as she changed into her avatar, and in a flash, she found herself standing under a tall, shady oak tree in a large town. The town looked perfect. Absolutely and utterly perfect.

Stone brick paths and roads lead all over the town, to various shops and resturaunts and concession stands selling trinkets or snacks.. Patches of grass either contained large oak trees, or beautiful wild flowers or bushes.. The town was neat and expertly layed out and designed with utmost care. Far, far in front of her, she could see the gate that lead to a path outside the town.

Around her, people slowly started warping into the game, eagerly opening up their menus and checking everything out. Ash grinned, and sat against the tree, opening up her menu as well and taking a look. Friends list. Messages. Inventory. Abilities. Party. Equipped Items. And finally, Quests, and of course, the log out button. She opened quests first, the icon beside it was flashing. Apparently, familiarizing yourself with the menus was the very first quest you get, the reward being 5,000 Dream Points to get all the players started. Ash grinned, going into her Friends List. Many of them were online, creating their avatars at the moment.

She then went into Messages, as the mail icon was flashing. "Dear ArtsyFox," She read quietly to herself, "Thank you for joining the wonderful world of Dream Haven. We hope you enjoy your stay! – The Development Team"
"Aw, well that's nice! They welcome you to the game!" She giggled, going back out and into Abilities, to see what class she'd been given. She gasped softly, her tail starting to wag. "A Mage!" she exclaimed, her eyes lighting up with joy. "Oh, perfect!"

She grinned, looking over her abilities. "Fire, level one. Melee, level one." She said quietly, the two abilities having EXP bars beside them, "Only two? That's.. Kinda odd.. Hm.. What weapon do I have?" She went out and into her Inventory. "Ooooh, a staff!" She opened up it's stats, blinking in surprise. "One star in melee and one star in magic.. They start mages off with staffs capable of both attack types? Wow." She then equipped the staff, a silver staff with a large blue crystal orb held by a dragon claw at the tip appearing on her back.

She smiled, going into equipped items to see what she had on her. Surprisingly, it showed her clothes, along with her staff. "So you can get new clothes in the game. Okay, cool. Time to expirament.." She clicked her shoes, and then "Unequip", and her boots vanished from her feet. She blinked. "Okay, so you can walk around barefoot? This game is pretty realistic.. I hope it doesn't pull a SAO.."

She then put her boots back on and closed the menu, standing and stretching. By now there were hundreds, possibly thousands of people in the game. She looked around at everybody around her, not recognizing any faces or anything that would indicate one of her friends. "Guess I'll find them eventually." She sighed, her ear twitching. It was then that she noticed a group of three nearby, who were talking and seeming very confused. The fox tilted her head a bit, watching for a moment, before walking over to them.

One was a black hedgehog with quills that pointed straight up like spikes. He had red eyes, and red ring markings around his quills, and he wore a dark-grey t-shirt, a black leather jacket, dark blue jeans and combat boots. He also had on gloves with metal over the knuckles. He gave Ash a feeling of intimidation, and looked to be the most fearsome of the three. Could he be a Brawler? She wondered, looking to the next one.

The next one was a white hedgehog with long quills that nearly touched the floor, and amber eyes. He had on a soft blue t-shirt and blue-jeans, and a pair of striped boots. He looked to be the least intimidating one of the three, and seemed to be the type that would rather snuggle you than fight. There wasn't any indication on him of what class he could be.

The third.. Looked very familiar to Ash. It was a soft purple cat that gave off the air of nobility, and felt as fierce at the black hedgehog. She had long purple hair, which was tied up in a pony-tail, and amber eyes. She wore a long, darker purple than her fur jacket that fanned out a bit at her waist and had dark pink accents along the edges, and white pants with heeled boots in the same colors as her jacket. There was a sword on her back, indicating she was a Swordswoman. Ash blinked. This person must really like Princess Blaze, to model their avatar after her.. That, or they just look a lot like her. Knowing Mobius, it wouldn't surprise me if it were the latter.. There's a lot of look-alikes here. She thought.

The three turned to the fox as she walked up, and the white hedgehog was the one to talk. "Oh, hello!" His voice sounded so familiar. It was.. Sweet and light hearted sounding, and slightly scratchy. He sounded pretty young, possibly around 16 or 17.

"Hi there." Ash smiled, "I noticed you guys seem a bit.. Confused. Can I help?"

"Do you play games like these often?" It was the cat who spoke this time. She sounded familiar, as well. Her voice carried the sound of nobility and power, while it was also somewhat soft and dignified. She sounded around maybe 17 or 18.

Ash nodded. "I do. Are you guys new to the genre?"

"New to games is more like it." The white hedgehog replied, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. "We all thought we'd try this game out, together.. But we have absolutely no idea what to do.."

"Well, I could help ya out!" Ash smiled, and opened up her menu. "First, open your menus and familiarize yourselves with them, learn what abilities you have, and your classes. And accept my party invite." With a couple of button presses, she sent the three friend and party requests. And that was when she got a "Quest Complete!" notification and her Dream Points went from 0 to 5,000.

The three opened their menus and did as she said. Ash looked at their usernames, blinking. "So.. Your usernames.. Are.. AbsoluteDreams.." She looked at the white hedgehog when she said it, and then to the purple cat, "BlazingFlames.." and then to the black hedgehog who had yet to speak, "And.. TheUltimate..?"

The three nodded simultaneously.

The cat looked to Ash. "And what should we call you?"

"Oh, my actual name is Ashlee, but, I prefer to be called Ash." The fox replied with a smile.

"Alright then, Ash." BlazingFlames nodded, "So, what should we do first?"

"First, we need to level up. But before that, what classes are you guys?" Ash asked, tilting her head a bit. "BlazingFlames is obviously a Swordswoman.. I think TheUltimate is a Brawler.. But I have no idea what AbsoluteDreams is."

"It's kinda funny how well our classes fit us." AbsoluteDreams chuckled, "I'm a Mage."

"Perfect." Ash smiled, "Alright, equip your staff, and then lets head out to that field over there and hunt for monsters."

AbsoluteDreams nodded and equipped his staff, the four then heading out to the field. It was a long path that led somewhere away from the town, but until they explored, they'd have no idea where it went. So, that's just what they did. And half way up the path, a wolf appeared from nowhere. The wolf howled, and then the rest of it's pack came to back it up.

"Oh crap.. Long range attacks if possible, guys! There's too many for up close combat!" Ash said, everybody either grabbing their weapons or getting into a battle stance. It was then that the battle began. Ten to four.

"We're too outnumbered.. It's no use!" AbsoluteDreams cried, unleashing a barrage of fire balls on the pack of wolves. Ash's ear twitched, and she glanced over at him. He.. Sounds like Silver. That's why he sounds familiar! I heard it when he said "It's no use!" She thought, and a wolf took advantage of her distraction, sneaking past the fireballs and tackling her to the ground, snarling. Ash yelped in surprise, and struggled to get it off of her, the wolf biting and snapping at her arms as she tried to block it's attack.

And then suddenly, the wolf was flung off of her with a yelp. Ash blinked and sat up, a gloved hand being held out to her. She took the black hedgehog's hand and he helped her up. "You alright?" He asked quietly, keeping an eye on the wolves. His voice being smooth and deep, and extremely familiar to the fox. Ash nodded a bit, her ears twitching. "Y-Yeah.. I think so. Jeeze.. It took me down to half health, though.." That voice.. I'd know that voice anywhere.. He sounds like Shadow.. She thought, But I need him to talk more, for me to be sure.. "Thank you for saving me."

The hedgehog shrugged, and suddenly shoved her out of the way, punching the wolf that had lunged for them, sending it flying into a wall and evaporating, the wolf having been defeated. H-He's so strong! He sent that wolf flying a good fifteen feet, and if that wall hadn't have been there, it would have kept going! Ash thought, eyes wide in shock.

This battle went on for maybe 10 minutes, and by the time it was over, they had all leveled up twice. Apparently party members all gain the same amount of EXP when an enemy is defeated, making leveling up easier and faster. The wolves had also dropped four healing potions, one for each of the group.

As the last wolf fell, the sounds of a crowd yelling came from the town. The group looked at each other. "What in the world?" BlazingFlames muttered, before the four ran for the town. Upon entering, they saw a large black figure in the sky, like a hologram.

"Hello, players, and welcome to Dream Haven!" The hologram greeted, it's voice, for some reason, made Ash want to punch somebody. It also sounded very familiar to her.. Somewhat scratchy, male, mischevious, higher pitched.. "I hope you all like the game so far.. Hehe.. If you look to your menus, you'll notice that a very important feature is now missing."

All around, people were opening up their menus. And as soon as they realized what was missing, "What the hell?!"'s and "What's going on?!"'s and various other things erupted from the crowd. Having to see what it was for herself, Ash opened her menu and took a look. It was then that she saw it.. Or, rather.. Didn't see it. The Log Out button was gone. "No.. No no no no no no!" She yelped, "This can't be happening! This can't be happening! They're pulling a SAO!"

"Hehe.. I see you all have seen it now." The voice snickered, "You are all now stuck inside the game~ Your only way out is to defeat the final boss.. And if you happen to die here.. Your body in the real world will die as well. Good luck." With that, the hologram vanished, and the town erupted into chaos and mass panic.