So, a bit of a backstory to this fanfic; I had the first dozen chapters written. Unfortunately, I lost them. All of them. So I'm stuck rewriting the whole thing, which may or may not be a bad thing, but it's frustrating nonetheless.

This is an idea that was first born back when I was in high school, back when Gaia still had zOMG running. I had the files hanging around on my computer for years, fiddling with them off-and-on. I'd intended on putting it up on here for a while, but somewhere along the lines, between switching computers and keeping everything backed up on flash drives, I managed to lose everything I'd written. Which royally irks me. And I haven't been able to find them.

So, yeah, the story's getting a rewrite. Some of the usernames in this story are actual usernames on Gaia, used with their owners' permission. I make no claim to anything mentioned in this fanfic, I'm only playing in the world and stirring up trouble for fun.

Music for this chapter: "Mayhem"-Halestorm

1

Animated

Kira Daile was taking notes in NJROTC when she heard the first knocks on the window.

The classroom was on the second floor, so it wouldn't have been the first time a bird flew into the window; once, after Friday PT, one of the boys was sticking his head out a window to try to cool off, and ended up with a pigeon in his face. The side-effect had been that the bird had then gotten into the classroom.

Looking back, it was funny. When it happened, not so much.

But this time it wasn't a bird. It was…something scrabbling at the glass, as if it were trying to get in.

Kira glanced away from the screen as one of her classmates asked a question to see what was making the scrabbling sound. Sure enough, it wasn't a bird. It was….

Well, Kira wasn't sure what it was.

At first glance, it looked to Kira like one of the monsters from zOMG; a giant, mechanical mosquito—an Alarmskeeter, in the game. But that was a game, an MMO she and her friends traipsed around in, causing all sorts of destruction.

Maybe it's someone playing around with remote-controlled stuff? Laurenciel likes fiddling with drones and RC stuff…. Kira watched the skeeter crawl over the glass, and frowned when it was joined by another.

Is someone pulling a prank?

Kira turned her attention back to the lesson, doodling in her notebook almost as much as she took notes. The skeeter kept on ticking at the glass.

XXX

Rosalyn Tourniquet wished Kira was there. Or Laurenciel. Both of them could wrap their heads around math a lot better than her.

So, when the teacher called on her to ask what came next in the algebra problem, her brain was all tied up in knots and she had no idea what to say.

Rosalyn sunk back in her chair as the rest of the class snickered around her. Despite her classroom performance being atrocious, her grades were actually decent; she credited that to being friends with a couple of math whizzes. When it came to notes, forget it. Tests were nearly as bad. It was her homework scores that were keeping her afloat.

I'm going to track down Kira after class and follow her home. She'll be able to make sense of this crap and help me with homework. Dammit, why couldn't ROTC be next hour? Why did she have to go for honors algebra? Why not regular? Kira Daile's logic confused Rosalyn; she often announced that she hated math, yet she insisted on taking honors math courses.

Well, at least next hour was English. She and Kira and Marcia all shared the class, and probably the coolest teacher in the school. With any luck, she could get an explanation that didn't sound like gibberish.

Rosalyn plunked her head down onto her folded arms. No sense in trying to make sense of it now; it'd just make her headache worse.

"Ewww! Something smells like pee!"

Rosalyn groaned. Really? Really? The dumb jokes start now?

Gods, help me.

"Tamisha, you're imagining it."

"No, I'm not! Something outside smells like someone took a piss!"

Well, it wouldn't be the first time someone in this school got high and forgot what the bathroom was for. Eugh…I'm never using that stairwell again.

"EEEEE! Mr. Crawford! There's pee under the door!"

The shriek made Rosalyn lift her head. She crinkled her nose; much to her displeasure, her classmate was right, it smelled like pee.

Aw, man. Who's high on what now?

Mr. Crawford sighed and put the marker down, shaking his head. "Stay in your seats, I'll deal with it." He said, exasperated. He'd call for security, but who knows if one of the security guards would get there. The teacher opened the door, saying, "Okay, kids, prank's over. You're going to the offiAAGGGH!"

He'd opened the door to a cluster of…living plungers. With bubbles of yellow stuff—pee, eugh—on the bottoms. The smell of urine hit Rosalyn's nose full-force, and she gagged; it stunk worse than the litter box last week, when her sister had been supposed to take care of it. As bad as it smelled, the teacher had it worse; the moment he'd opened the door, the plungers attacked, soon leaving his face a bloody wreck. And then they turned their attack on the classroom.

Predictably, her classmates screamed.

Rosalyn backed herself up against a wall, her binder clutched in her hands like a shield. Wait, hang on…Peelungers! They look like Peelungers! She didn't play zOMG much—Kira and Laurenciel and Ash were more into it—but she'd run around in the game a couple times, mostly when one of her friends were having trouble with a quest.

Despite the fact that these were real people getting attacked by what was supposed to be a bunch of very virtual monsters, Rosalyn groaned.

Of everything that could attack, why plungers? Why did it have to be plungers?!

Beside her, glass broke. Rosalyn looked. Oh, son of a—

XXX

—BITCH!

Laurenciel swore as the latest baseball bat shattered. He'd gone through three already, since the oversized, metal mosquitoes had started attacking. PE was outside today, and so far it was turning out to be a bad idea. Normally, softball day wasn't so bad; they got to be outside, Laurenciel got to hit things (mainly, the ball), get some fresh air, and sometimes get a laugh at of some of his dumber classmates.

Today was not one of those days.

Some of said classmates were hiding—or trying to. Others were running around screaming as they were being chased by the giant metal mosquitoes. Some of the smarter ones were trying to get inside, sometimes helping a classmate who'd been injured by one of the skeeters. A few were on the ground and unmoving…worryingly so. And even fewer were attempting to fight off the flying, evil, metal insects with baseball bats and rocks.

It wasn't going well.

With most of his class erring on the screamy side of clueless, Laurenciel was not about to mention what the attackers reminded him way too much of; Alarmskeeters from zOMG. There'd been a story on the news a couple nights ago about these things attacking, and the cops had been acting as if they were very cruel pranks being played by someone with the bad combination of imagination, twisted sense of humor, and technological know-how.

Now that he was facing off against so many skeeters himself, he wasn't believing the cops on the news anymore.

He grabbed another baseball bat and swung it at an Alarmskeeter going for a running, screaming girl. The bat hit the skeeter with a loud CLANG, bringing the monster's attention from the girl to him.

Several other Alarmskeeters were drawn by the sound. Crap. Should've thought that through a little better.

Well…thinking stuff through was one of Rosalyn's talents. Apparently after four years, she hadn't rubbed off on him as much as he thought.

The skeeters hovered in front of him for several moments, apparently eyeing him as if he were a meal. Instinctively he held his breath, hoping that the fact that they weren't attacking him meant they weren't going to attack.

Two more joined the hovering group. Laurenciel's eyes flicked from one skeeter to the next. Half a dozen…Maybe they're not as trigger-happy as in the game?

Suddenly, all six of them let out a mechanical screech and rushed him. Apparently, not. Laurenciel yelled and swung wildly at the skeeters as they attacked, but the giant metal bugs were faster and deadlier than him. The yelling turned to screaming that was a mix of anger and pain, and maybe a little bit of fear.

Crap, crap crap crap. I hope they aren't in the school, I hope someone knows what's going on! He felt his bat connect several times, but it wasn't appearing to do anything. At the same time, his arms and face were scored with cuts and gashes; the Alarmskeeters' natural weapons were a lot more effective on him than his bat was on them.

The thought he'd been trying to ignore bubbled to the surface; I'm gonna die.

Laurenciel barely dodged one of the skeeters making a jab for his stomach; he got a gash for his trouble. Behind him, he felt heat, and smelled something burning.

"Hey, kid! Get outta the way, unless you wanna be fried along with these things!"

Laurenciel ducked, throwing himself out of the way. Right after him came a fireball that engulfed the attacking Alarmskeeters. Wiping blood from a gash over his eye, he looked behind him to the source of the ball of fiery death.

The guy was holding a ball of fire in one hand, grinning. His hair was blonde, eyes brown, and was wearing a flame-patterned shirt and cargo pants. The mini fireball he was holding was being conjured by one of the rings on his fingers. "You're lookin' a little wore for wear, bud. Tell me; how seriously do you want to fight these things?"

XXX

Kira clutched rifle shape in her hands like it was a staff. The glass from the windows lay in pieces on the floor, and the desks that hadn't been bent and broken in the surprise attack were being used as a barricade between the teenagers and the Alarmskeeters. She heard screaming from outside; it wasn't a good sign. There were more monsters in the halls—Kira didn't know what else was in the school, but apparently it was as friendly as the Alarmskeeters in the ROTC classroom.

To her classmates' credit, they were surprisingly composed. Commander had gotten the initial panic under control and gotten the kids protected and the door barricaded. The classroom's size meant that only a few skeeters could be in there at a time, and so far two were in pieces on the floor. For the first time Kira was very glad the rifle shapes weighed almost fifteen pounds.

She was one of the half dozen students standing as defense with the teacher. The room was a mess; desks were strewn everywhere, glass crunched underfoot, and the projector was in bits. The screen was shredded, and Kira's arm was bleeding. The Alarmskeeters in zOMG were violent, but these real-life versions were giving her a whole new opinion of them.

Suddenly, Gaia's MMO didn't look as fun as it had been last night.

"How's that 911 call doing?!"

"Uhh, they've got calls coming in all over town. Apparently these things are everywhere!"

The teacher looked like he wanted to scream. "Tell them to get their backsides in gear! The high school is being attacked! If the police don't think that's a priority, they've got problems!"

Kira repressed a snort. She wasn't entirely sure if the police department didn't have a few potheads on the force….

Her train of thought was interrupted by the sound of cracking wood. "Scheiss…." She hissed before she could catch herself.

"Travis, Daile, Williams, all of you, get to the desks; the Senior Chief and I are going to draw their attention. I want you to get the rest of the class out of here and to safety. When I say run, start running."

Kira didn't want to argue that tone. She backed up as the wood of the door started to splinter. She was gripping the rifle shape in her hand so tight her knuckles were turning white. The NSIs were taking on the Alarmskeeters with military effectiveness, but it was taking too long to destroy even just one of them.

And she could hear the buzzing of who knew how many more outside.

The door gave way with a loud crack and a crash; the classroom was flooded with skeeters and gross little monsters Kira recognized as Peelungers. Next to her, she heard Travis let out a squeak of fear; these…Animated seemed to be endless.

The Peelungers joined the Alarmskeeters in attacking the classroom. Barely audible in the din she heard Commander yell "Move!" and Kira fell into a makeshift formation with her fellow upperclassmen, around the other cadets, and ran.

The hallway was chaos. Within seconds of exiting the room Kira and her classmates were set upon by skeeters and plungers, and she wished more than ever she'd been able to afford continuing aikido. They moved slowly, beating away the Animated as they made for a stairwell. If they could get to it, secure it, then hopefully….

"All of you get down!"

Kira whirled as a student—no, a young man, only a few yeas older than Kira, about college-age—drew a pair of guns out of thin air. Her eyes widened as she saw what he meant to do, and screamed for her classmate to duck. She didn't wait to see if they had, just hit the deck.

A breath later she heard gunfire and metallic shrieks and squelches as the Alarmskeeters and Peelungers were caught in the spray. The plungers popped and fell to pieces, and the skeeters fell to the ground as smoking hunks of bullethole-ridden metal. She heard a ringing sound nearby and felt a wave of cool wash over her; at the same time, the cuts on her hands and arms glowed softly aqua and healed.

The young man trotted over to them and started helping students up, making sure they were okay. "You need to leave. All of you are in danger; get to safety, don't go outside. It'll be worse out there."

"What's happening?" That was Williams.

"I wish I could explain. Just…find a bathroom, another classroom, someplace without the Animated and barricade yourselves there. I promise, help is coming, just get out of here!"

"What's the Animated?" Reinard this time.

The man looked like he wanted to punch something. "Just—go! Get OUT OF HERE!"

"The cops are—"

"Fighting these off about as effectively as they can, which isn't that well. They won't be here for a while, which is why I'm here." He rolled his eyes. "Damn…before I do this, sorry in advance." He raised his hand and one of the rings on his hand activated, and a wave of electricity washed through the floor, stunning Kira's classmates.

Kira whirled on the man. "What. The. Hells. Did you do?!"

The man looked as surprised as she felt. "That didn't knock you unconscious?"

Kira spread her hands. "No shit, Sherlock." She snapped. "Now, what did you do to my classmates?!"

The man ran a hand through his hair. It was trimmed short and dark brown. He wore black-rimmed glasses, was clean-shaven, and had pale blue eyes. He was wearing a white dress shirt tucked into black jeans; what Kira categorized as "office shoes"; a silver wristwatch, and had a black messenger bag slung over one shoulder. And on each of his fingers was a ring.

"Damn…that ring was supposed to stun anyone—apart from the user, of course—in its activation radius and ward Animated away. You should be out cold with the rest of your classmates." He said, eyeing her. "By the way, you can put down the gun, I'm not going to hurt you."

Kira's grip tightened. "Yeah…I think I'll keep it, if you don't mind. You just knocked out a bunch of people around me." She said. "I guess what comes next is one of those 'I did that for their protection' speels?"

"More or less," The man sighed. "Okay, so since you're not going to put down the bludgeon, let's try introductions. I'm Maxwell. I'm what's called a Shard."

Kira peered at the man. "…Kira." She looked him over. He looked like a textbook nerd, apart from the rings on his fingers. "What's a Shard?"

Maxwell let out a breath. His clothes looked familiar, but Kira couldn't quite place from where. Granted, the sort of outfit he was wearing wasn't exactly uncommon. "A Shard is…well, a piece of Gaia—"

Kira's eye twitched. "The website?"

"Yes. Let me finish." He held up a hand. "A Shard is…well, a part of Gaia, taken a physical form." He held his arms out to his sides. "It's hard to explain. Kind of like if you were trying to explain to someone from another planet what a human was."

"You look human."

Maxwell looked to the ceiling. "Goddamn it, Gambino, why did you have to drop me near one of the inquisitive ones? Why couldn't it have been someone screaming their head off?"

"Oy! I'm right here!" Kira snapped. "This isn't a dream, right? I didn't play too much zOMG before bed and I'm now dreaming I'm in the game?"

Maxwell shook his head as he looked back to her. "You play the MMO, then." He said. He nodded to the chaos around them. "So you know what the Animated are." A muscle worked in his jaw for a moment before he continued. "What's your username on Gaia?"

Kira frowned. The Animated seemed to be ignoring them—for now, at least. From set of the man's stance, he was familiar with fighting the Animated; he was relaxed, but balanced in such a way that Kira didn't doubt that he could snap into action at a moment's notice. He'd mentioned Gambino; had he meant Johnny Gambino, the NPC? Was he a 'Shard' too?

"Shadows10000."

Recognition lit in Maxwell's eyes. "I've met you." He said. "Do you remember the tutorial in zOMG?"

It clicked in Kira's head. "You're that NPC!" She said. "The guy on the subway!"

Maxwell nodded. "The guy you get your first rings from." He opened his bag and pulled out a small box and tossed it to her. "I guess it's fitting that I'm the one to give you that, then." He held up his hand and twiddled one of the fingers. "This ring should have knocked you out, but I'll bet your familiarity with Gaia is what kept you conscious. Edmund and Johnny warned us that might happen."

Kira released the rifle shape with one hand to catch the box. It was black, and fit comfortably in the palm of her hand. The G-Corp insignia was on the lid. "What's this?"

"Your Rings." Maxwell said. "Before we—me and a group of other Shards—were sent here, Johnny and Edmund warned us that Stunner—that ring I used to knock out your classmates—might not work on everybody. Specifically, that the people who play zOMG on a regular basis may not be affected. We were given those, in case we ran into any of you guys."

"So you're saying the fact that I play zOMG is why I'm immune to Stunner." Kira said. "Can't you guys just fight the Animated yourselves?"

Maxwell shrugged. "There's not enough of us." He explained. "It takes a lot of energy to bring one of us Shards into being here. Believe it or not, the Internet is a universe all its own." He pointed to the box Kira held in her hand. "Every Gaian who plays zOMG has one of those assigned to them. It contains a PDA and all the rings they have in the game. We Shards were sent here with the primary purpose of tracking down any zOMG players and get their Rings to them, and teach them how to fight in the real world."

Kira let the hand still holding the rifle shape fall, lowering the rifle to order arms. "If we already know how to play zOMG, why do you need to teach us how to fight?"

Maxwell glanced to the side as several Alarmskeeters screeched. "The Animated in the real world are a lot more dangerous than online." He said. "In the game, if you're killed you get sent to the Null Chamber to recover hit points, before heading back out. If you're killed here, there's no such safeguard." Another screech, closer this time. "Damn…the effect will be wearing off soon." He stepped towards her and put a hand on her shoulder. "This time the fight's real. If you die, you won't respawn. I'm going to activate Stunner again to try and buy your classmates some more time before heading back into the fight, but I'll ask you this first; are you willing to fight?"

Kira looked from the box in her hand to Maxwell. The look in his eyes was steady; hard, but not uncaring. And at the same time, she saw the request for help.

Until now she'd only acted stuff like this out with her friends in LARP. That had been imaginary. A world that was a helluva lot better than this one, one where Kira and her friends weren't oddballs, but ballsy adventurers.

But this wasn't LARP. This wasn't a game. This was real, and if she was killed she was really dead.

Goosebumps ran up Kira's arms. They weren't from fear. She shot Maxwell a shit-eating grin.

"Hell yes."

As I said before, some of the usernames that pop up in here will belong to real people on Gaia, and I've gotten the Gaians' permission to use them. So far none of those have shown up so far, but when they do here is where I'll put the little thanks for letting me borrow their username for the fic ^^.

I hope you all are going to enjoy this romp. As always, read, rate, review and subscribe if you enjoy it! I'll try and have at least one chapter of Reality Bytes every other month. A bit of a longer wait, but one that I hope will pay off!

~Hikari Hellion