Absolute Beginners
by
Deborah J. Brown

.Hack is copyrighted to Bandai Entertainment. I'm just playing in it.

Author's Note: This is an Alternate Universe fic in the sense that while I'm trying to keep as true to the original storyline as possible, I have something happen that may not be the case in the original story. I like getting reviews here, but in general all response comments will be put on my LJ. (You can find that by following my webpage link in my user information, since the Pit screws up HTML entirely.) You don't have to be a member to comment there, though I do screen all anonymous posts.

A Tale of Two Twin Blades

Newbies.

There were times when A20 wondered where they all came from. Every week there were more and more of them, running around the World acting like children. Bumbling their way through dungeons and complaining bitterly that they weren't finding any treasure worth keeping. Not to mention whining when their character had been killed for the umpteenth time and they had forgotten to save their game.

Still, once, not so very long ago, A20 had been a newbie herself. She'd started playing just because other members of her class were doing it and hadn't found it all that much fun. Then another player - a Heavy Blade named Mimiru - had taught her how to play properly. Since then, A20 had come to enjoy the game, leveling up her character and learning the ins and outs of dungeon crawling. Not to mention the pleasures of grunty racing. The mini-game, added in the newest version of the World, gave her something to do between jogging through miles of twisted and all too similar passages. She'd yet to beat Balmung, said to be the tops in every server available, but she could usually keep her score up in the top five.

A20 had to admit that it was Mimiru's patience with what had to have been a particularly aggravating newbie that had allowed her to reach this point. She'd kept her character going for over half a year and was now thirtieth level - quite an achievement considering she only got a few hours a week to play. Admittedly, the character wasn't much to look at, with its childish size, generally low stats and fairly bland choice of colors, but she was rather proud of it, even keeping the stupid name that she'd chosen way back when she hadn't really cared what she was doing. In some ways both design and name were an embarrassment to her, but she'd decided to regard them as a reminder of what she'd once been like. It was because of that that she tried to be helpful to the more clueful newbies, teaching them some of the ways of the World so that they could have fun playing, rather than give up in disgust.

Her latest project, however, was testing her patience. She'd found him dragging himself out of a Spring of Myst a few days earlier and had taken the bedraggled Twin Blade under her wing. She had to admit that it was probably an error in judgment on her part. Anyone going by the name of the semi-legendary Player Killer, Sora, and using S0R4TEHGR8 for a member address, most likely wasn't interested in playing for the sheer fun of the game.

No, it was far more likely that he - or she, one never knew - had joined simply to make a nuisance of themselves, even choosing a character design that was near twin to his hero. Probably was terribly disappointed to find out they changed the game to prevent Player Killers, too. It occurred to her that the real Sora had probably quit in disgust over that. She'd been one of the few who could claim to have actually played with him and it seemed to her that that was the sort of thing he'd do. She'd heard rumors of him over in Lambda Server, but as far as she could tell, he'd quit some time ago. Certainly he'd not answered any of her flashmails before the version change caused her to lose his member address.

Ordinarily A20 would have paid attention to the obvious danger signs of name and member address and avoided this one like the plague. She'd nearly done so in fact, but the lost way the newbie had reacted to everything around him, from grunties to grunty food to the way he'd run from something so weak as a goblin had made her change her mind. This one needed help and while he was about as annoying as her little brothers she doubted anyone else was going to show him the ropes.

She just hoped she wouldn't regret it.

.oOo.

Sora sat on the fence and watched the girl feeding the latest in a long sequence of grunties. His companion had a fascination with the things that came entirely too close to obsession for his tastes, particularly since it meant hanging around the grunty compound and - worst of all - smelling the little nuisances. He would have liked to have a long talk with the game designers - his father included - who'd thought it was a good idea to include body odor as an attribute.

It was weird, though. The whole body odor thing didn't seem to disturb A20, who seemed to consider it a challenge to get the attribute just right. She always had been a trifle obsessive, even back in the old days before Sora had gotten himself involved with Old Lady Morgana and stuck - for entirely too long - in the weapon of one of Her tools. Granted, Sora had only played with A20 for a game or two then and that only because the silly girl had just handed him her Member Address when he'd asked for it. Sora had nearly fainted dead with shock over anyone stupid enough to do that. She'd even gone and done it again after rescuing him from that stupid puddle he'd fallen into, apparently either not recognizing him or not believing that he was the real Sora. It was more likely the latter - his character design hadn't changed, after all. He was still green haired, scarred on the face and among the taller characters in the game.

All things considered, though, it was probably a good thing she didn't know who he was. His experience with Skeith had left Sora drained. His experience points had dropped to zero and he had had nothing in his inventory to heal him. Some instinct had told him that this would be a very bad time to be killed. His thoughts were still muddled, however, and he couldn't quite lay a finger on why there was a problem. It had to do with how he thought of himself, though. A niggling confusion over what he ought to look like over his current form. Oh, his shape was right, he knew it was right. And wrong. Very, very wrong. Why?

"I don't know how you can make that face, Sora," A20 commented as she watched her pet transform in size. "Most character graphics aren't so expressive. Did you get the expansion pack? I didn't think it included that sort of code."

Sora shrugged. This wasn't the first time A20 had mentioned an expansion pack. "Could be," he answered agreeably, then choked as the first wave of odor hit him. "That's awful. Did you have to make it stink like that?"

Turning on him, A20 put her hands on her hips and glared. Well, sort of glared. The trouble with the character icons all about him was that it was really difficult to read their feelings from expressionless features and - in the case of those not using the goggle/microphone combinations - near emotionless voices. "Sora, I realize you don't like grunties but aren't you overdoing the joke? It's not like you can really smell it, after all. Even if you have the goggles they don't include odor."

He stared at her, blankly, for several moments. Then, "Oh… Sorry. Yeah, I guess it is a stupid joke," he agreed hurriedly. He was beginning to realize that, if there was a joke, it wasn't a funny one. Not a funny one at all.

And it was on him.

.oOo.

Sora was being awfully quiet, an unusual state for him, A20 thought wryly. "Well, that's it for my food items," she told him. "I'll need to find some more if I want to get this fellow up to full speed. Shall we head to the next dungeon?"

No answer. A20 coughed, tempted to use her controller to guide her character over to where Sora's was and poke him. If there'd been a point to doing so, she would have, but the game didn't have any options that let you get someone's attention that way anymore. Instead she sent him a Flash Mail. ¦EARTH TO SORA? You still there or did you go off to the bathroom without telling me?¦

The character piece sat up straight, waving its arms as if startled. "You don't have to shout!" Not for the first time A20 wished she could afford the new goggles. Watching the characters through the monitor always made the images look like something on some rather badly animated children's show. The goggles would have at least made Sora's antics look more like that of a person, rather than a cockroach flailing around. A better monitor would help, too.

That expansion pack must be nice, though. It lets him do so many things the rest of us can't. It made Sora's character act more realistically, allowed him to do things like perch on rails. And fall in Springs of Myst, she reminded herself. There had to be some bugs in the system still, because she couldn't see that as being a particularly desirable addition to the game. Unless, of course, it was there to provide a disadvantage to players who, otherwise, had the unfair benefit of an ability to go into areas of the game the rest of the players couldn't enter. Still, it'd be nice to be able to make my character do a face fault or something right now. He's such a ridiculous nuisance sometimes.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to zone out on you. I was… distracted… by something." That was another thing about the expansion pack that A20 envied. The ability to make one's character sound like a normal human being. Most of the players who bothered with the sound option on their game had to make do with artificially generated voices that sounded as fake as they really were. Sora sounded human, so much so that it was hard to believe that the computer was taking his typed in text and turning it into speech. It even managed inflections. Or is he using the microphone? Even that tended to sound wrong, though, the filter changing the voice mechanizing it too much.

Returning to her previous thought, A20 gestured back towards the Gate. "Wanna go delving now? I gotta get some more grunty food, anyway."

The green-haired character piece cocked its head, then nodded. "Okay. Any place special? I made it to tenth level last time we went out. I think I could handle a twelfth level dungeon, if you don't mind slumming."

A20 grinned as she typed, "I told you before, I don't care about leveling up the way you seem to. Got all your heal items? And did you remember to get some higher level weapons?"

An odd expression crossed Sora's character's face and he looked down at the katar attached to his wrists. "I'm… not ready to give these up," he said softly. "Sorry. I went through a lot for them."

With a shrug that she wished she could express through the program, A20 answered, "Well, if that's what you want. I just think that you'd want something that does more damage more frequently. The death spell isn't usually all that special in those lower level weapons." She wished he hadn't blocked her from checking his inventory. She worried sometimes that he wasn't properly equipped, seeming to rely on both his expansion pack's special abilities and on healing items rather than trying to get stronger weapons and better spells. His knives, especially, were a big concern. They had to be Assassin Blades - far too low-level weaponry for any dungeon higher than fifth level - even with the death spell. Still, it was his choice, after all. "Okay. Let's go then. You can choose the field. Just remember, I need some mushrooms so try to choose an environment where we'll find them."

He saluted. "Will do, my fearless leader!"

.oOoOoOo.

The bladed arm swung over Sora's head, forcing him to leap backwards and out of the way. It was getting easier to dodge attacks, much to his relief. His old skills were returning to him, though in a much different way than before. Then it had been a matter of finger dexterity. Now his entire body was coming into play, responding in ways that his real body never could have. He winced as the monster he was fighting got a good shot in, then spun on one hand and sliced through its carapace, sending black smoke up around the thing's body as the Death spell took effect and dropped its hit points to nearly nothing.

On the other side, A20 gave a triumphant cry as the monster fell to her blades. "That one was hard," she said, the mechanical tone of her voice hiding the satisfaction Sora knew she felt at winning this battle. It was the last one for this area, meaning the treasure was theirs for the taking. He paused, closing his eyes and visualizing the map that had formed in his head when A20 had used the fairy orb back at the entrance to the level. A20 was apparently checking her map, too, because she turned and pointed. "That way. Three rooms back. We could have avoided this fight if we'd gone around the other way, you know."

The last remnants of the monster disappeared, releasing the experience points it contained. To Sora, it was like a breath of fresh air, especially since the surge of energy was enough to level him up to eleven. "Sure," he agreed, "But then I wouldn't get the experience. I need that more than I need the treasure." He surreptitiously took a dose of healing potion to soothe the pain of his injuries. A20 didn't like his habit of trying to keep his wounds to the minimum, feeling that it wasted potions that might be needed later. She'd be particularly aggravated now if she caught him at it. With no monsters left in the dungeon, he could have waited for the teleport back to the Server to heal him.

In theory, Sora agreed with A20's advice. A regular player could afford to be less considerate of their character's needs. Could afford to wander around an empty dungeon with barely a hit point to their name and never have to worry about it. As long as they didn't go back outside they'd never have to fight again. Even if there were a monster right on top of the dungeon entrance, fast action would get them out of the field before it could touch them.

The trouble was, Sora was no longer dealing with a character that was separate from himself. It hadn't been until A20 had growled at him for complaining about grunty stink that he'd really understood it, but every instinct had warned him of the danger even before that. He wasn't sure exactly how it had happened but being freed of Skeith hadn't resolved his problems for him, just changed them. Like that wavemaster, Tsukasa, Sora was now trapped in the World quite literally. He didn't know how, or why, nor did he care - not right now. He had to survive, had to get leveled up as quickly and as much as possible. Before Morgana realized he was still around and came after him. Later he could try to work out why he was trapped and find his way out. I hope.

Walking through the other rooms, destroying as many of the regenerating boxes and vases and similar items on the way as he could, Sora reflected that - aside from the realization that he hadn't seen his family in what seemed forever - his new status was sort of fun. Being hurt in fights wasn't good, but he now had abilities that no one else in The World possessed. He could feel the weather in the outside field; taste the things growing out there; hear sounds that other players probably never noticed; even go places no one else could. He never tired, never had to eat, never had to sleep.

As a sword struck him down before he could reach the Gott Statue and its treasure he reflected that there was one real disadvantage. He could die here.

.oOo.

"What in the…" A20 stared at the Heavy Blade who'd just struck her partner down. A movement at the edge of her screen warned her and she leapt aside just barely in time to avoid an axe wielded by a female character whose design was oddly familiar. Hurriedly she typed, "Who are you? Stop that!" Behind her, the doors slammed shut on the room.

The pair were silent as they approached her and it dawned on her that they intended to take her down as well. Which ought to be impossible. They had to be hackers, using some sort of cheat codes to break the rules of The World that prevented Player Killers. She struck at them uselessly. The cheat, whatever it was, didn't make the pair vulnerable to her attack.

"A…20… help…" Sora's voice came over her speaker through flash mail, scared, sounding like one of her brothers when he'd gotten himself into more trouble than usual. "Resurrect me.. Please." It occurred to A20 that there wasn't much point to using a resurrect potion. He wouldn't be able to stop these two. It'd be better to escape the only other way possible.. She reached for her off switch, saying as much in response and got a terrified scream from Sora in response. "NO! PLEASE… I'll die. Please help me!"

She hesitated. The kid was being stupid but maybe he needed to learn that there were some things he couldn't fight. Things like cheating jerks who thought it was funny to take out low level players for the sheer merry hell of it. Like Sora's namesake, for that matter. She tossed a resurrect spell his way, then dodged a blow from the Heavy Blade, only to have her character lose almost half her hit points to the Heavy Axe.

Sora's character rose to its feet, swaying. "Leave her alone." His tone was cold and hard, oddly mature compared to its usual cheerful tone. "Go away. Go away before I hurt you." There was surprising confidence in his voice, as if he knew something no one else did.

One of the cheaters laughed. "Kid, you don't have a clue, do you?" She struck at him but missed as Sora made a series of impossible somersaults out of the way. "Hello. Do we have a fellow hacker here? Not a very good one, I think."

"I don't cheat," Sora growled. "I don't have to. I never have. Everything I am, I earned, fair and square." His tone held a note of rage that was all the more intense for its quietness. Then, to A20's astonishment, she found him standing beside her character, his arm sweeping around its body and flinging it up onto a piece of statuary, out of reach of the Heavy Blade that was still trying to get her. "Stay there," he ordered, and the impossibility of the situation caused her to freeze in position, hands dropping away from her controller.

"Don't hack? Give me a break, kid. There's no way you could do something like that without hacking." The Heavy Axe swung her weapon only to jerk backwards as Sora used her as a prop, leaping over her and coming up behind. "Hey! Wait…."

Then Sora's arms were wrapped around the character and his blades cut downwards. A20 gasped, shocked, as both they, and Sora himself, began to glow bright red. Her speakers rang with a high pitched note that seemed to strike straight through her brain.

.oOo.

Sora gasped as the energy flowed into him, the shock of it chilling his rage at being called a hacker. A sound, a single brilliant note of a bell or a giant gong, filled his ears. Red light filled his eyes. He could feel his opponent's body begin to fade, could feel her mind and his melding together. He was beginning to see her memories, to read every selfish envious little thought. He could take it. Could take it all and steal her very Self away. Like Skeith used to steal the lives of those who accidentally came between him and his chosen prey.

Like he had been stolen.

The realization hit him as her voice echoed in his ear, sounding like another voice only too long ago. "…no…please…wait…" His own words, when Morgana had drained his mind from him, had stolen his self and implanted it into Skeith's wand. He could do the same to this girl. He wanted to. Her life force was increasing his, leveling him up so quickly that it was all he could do not to scream in ecstasy. He was nearly fortieth level already and still climbing.

He wanted to take everything of her and be as bad as Morgana. He couldn't. It was one thing to Player Kill in a world where the victim only had to log in again, losing only what they hadn't saved. It was another thing entirely to kill someone for real. Mom and Dad would be real mad at me if I did that.

Stepping back, dropping the barely conscious character, Sora moved towards the other hacker, lowering his head and looking at the character from beneath his bangs. "Would you like to be next? Log out or I'll do to you what I just did to her." It was an empty threat - Sora never wanted to do another Drain like that again - but he had some experience in intimidation tactics and he could see by the way the character icon was backing away that he'd scared the player. Too, he could certainly defend himself now. He'd sucked out enough levels from the female character as to be over halfway to the highest level possible.

Suddenly the two hackers disappeared and the door to the room crashed open. Sora took several deep breaths, savoring the taste of the virtual air. A part of him wondered how it was that he had a sense of smell, being essentially a program, but he decided not to think about it until he had to. Right now he had other troubles.

Going over to the Gott statue, Sora opened the chest and picked up the treasure it contained. A Spiral Edge, yellow candy and one of those stupid Grunty statues. "I'll take the candy, A20. You can have the rest," he called. No answer. He sighed, looking over his shoulder at the girl dropping down from the piece of architecture where she'd been placed. "You're going to be difficult, aren't you?"

"You're cheating. You're hacking into the system. You have to be. You know how much trouble you could get into? Hacking's a capitol crime!"

.oOo.

Sora's icon stalked over to A20's, silent, assured, moving in that easy way that made the character seem like a real person. Then his eyes scanned the room, searching for something, finally settling on gazing directly towards her monitor screen. Ignoring her character piece, he spoke to her, as if he knew exactly where she was. "I," he said quietly, tone cold and angry, red eyes narrowing as they gazed up at her, "don't like being called a cheat."

"But that's what you are. You can't do that sort of thing without hacking." She put her thumb on her off switch again, preparing to get out of the area the quickest way she knew how. She wasn't sure why she hesitated. Something in those eyes made her hesitate. Emotion, in a face that ought to be unable to show any reaction. Pain. I don't understand.

He turned away, then. "I don't cheat," he said again. "Cheating's a bad thing.." His tone, and the odd phrasing, startled her. Once again she was reminded of her little brothers. "I'm a troublemaker. I admit it. I can make systems do things that the programmers never meant them to. I find the loopholes in the rules and I use them. But I'm not a cheater. Why won't anyone ever believe me?" The last words were plaintive, said more to himself than to A20.

"Sora…."

"I'm sorry, A20. I wouldn't have done it at all, but they would have killed me. I can't afford to be killed right now. Not if you bailed out on me." Green hair fell forward around the character piece's scarred face as he took out an object that A20 was startled to recognize as the no longer used graphic for a Sprite Ocarina. A moment later they were standing at the entrance to the dungeon and another moment later they'd gated back to Delta Server. "Don't forget to save," Sora told her. "You're always leaving that for last." He broke the connection that made them a party and gated back out quickly.

His last words before he disappeared left her speechless. "I wish I could save."

To Be Continued….