Hi everyone! Guess who got pulled into another Hardy Boys crossover for her good friend Bookdancer? This will be a five chapter, 13k+ fic. It is finished, and I am in the middle of editing it right now, so more chapters will be coming soon.
For those of you HB fans who have not read or seen Sword Art Online, you can read this without that knowledge. None of the characters from that series/show are main characters in this fic (besides Agil, who managed to sneak into a main side character spot when I let my guard down, but he does get introduced). Any other characters who appear here (and they do exist, because this follows the SAO timeline so closely it's actually canon compliant) also get introductions. Any vocabulary and events are also described within the fic, with a few exceptions that are defined in the end notes. If you find one I missed, please let me know so I can fix it. Thanks, and enjoy!
WARNINGS:
- This is not a happy fic. They are teens fighting in a death game, and that is made very clear. I have included happy moments scattered around to break up the sadness, but there is a reason my beta repeatedly sent me crying emojis. Please keep that in mind.
- Language: typical of both teenage boys and soldiers.
- Gore: canon typical of SAO and the Hardy Boys.
- Canon character deaths for both SAO and the Hardy Boys (this takes place soon after Iola's death, and goes into detail about the way Joe deals with his grief).
I do not own the Hardy Boys or Sword Art Online.
Chapter One: Trapped in Aincrad
The Hardy Boys had managed, thanks to a case that took them to Japan, to snag not just one, but two copies of the new Sword Art Online game. Since then, they may have gone overboard in preparation. But then again, as Joe had said, they were the Hardy Boys! They couldn't just not match, Frank thought as he eagerly went through the motions of creating his character.
With that in mind, Frank picked out his outfit - black cargo pants with a red t-shirt, which as Joe put it, "went along with his brown eyes and hair to create a fiery image, it's definitely your colour, trust me on this, Frank," and would also go well with the blue t-shirt Joe picked out to match his "gorgeous eyes." Again, Joe's words, not Frank's. Once upon a time it would have been usual, but recently… Frank sighed, shaking the thought from his mind. That was why they had waited for SAO in the first place: to escape from real life and recent events; to try and heal. He wouldn't need to worry soon, hopefully.
Frank grinned wryly - or at least, he would have if he wasn't currently paralysed under his gear and not actually in possession of a body at the moment, though he had already designed one that resembled himself. He would never not worry about his little brother, that just wasn't possible with all that they got up to. And so, with the previous knowledge that Joe would pick the hand and a half sword for "aesthetics, Frank," Frank himself picked a wooden bō staff inlaid with carbon steel. Joe's sword would allow him to fight one-handed, which would make it easier for him to transfer his fencing skills, while also letting him use both hands if he needed to deal a stronger blow. Despite the whole thing with "aesthetics", Frank actually thought it was a smart choice for him, with one exception - it meant Joe would be fighting up close. Eventually, the elder brother would want a bow and arrows to be able to defend his brother from a distance. Until then, he would go the route proven time and time again - stick close to Joe's side, so that when he inevitably required help, there was no distance to cross. The staff would let him do that, as well as effectively keep enemies at a distance while he checked on his brother - not to mention it went perfectly with his martial art skills.
It didn't matter, Frank mused as whirling lights sent him to the SAO world, that this world was only virtual and no harm could come to them. He'd be ready to defend his brother in any world.
Frank appeared next to a large fountain in what looked like a town centre. A huge crowd bustled with excitement around him, some people chattering with neighbours while others rushed away. Even as Frank watched, three more people appeared out of thin air. His eyes lit up as he recognised one. "J- Orion!" he called, weaving his way around a man in a red bandana and an imposing woman to reach his brother's side.
The blonde man - like Frank, his chosen avatar greatly resembled his actual body - laughed and pulled his older brother into a short hug. "Theseus!" he greeted with a grin, a teasing lilt to his voice.
"Don't start," Frank rolled his eyes, "we chose our names together."
"Yeah, but you're the nerd who suggested we use the names of Poseidon's demigod sons."
"Famous brothers!" the elder Hardy boy protested - though admittedly not that much. He hadn't seen his younger brother so genuinely happy in months, so even if it came at his own expense, he would take it gladly (and ignore the constant reminder Joe had given himself with the name "Orion").
Joe just snorted and began moving towards the fields in the distance, saying, "Let's see what we can actually do."
With an identical snort, Frank followed.
Joe jumped out of the way of the charging boar with a yelp, the tusk swinging wide of his stomach. As he fell on his ass, Frank burst out laughing. Joe shot him a glare, leapt to his feet, and turned to face the boar again. Frank sobered instantly. While he knew nothing would actually happen if Joe was hurt or even killed within the game, his instincts refused to listen. Heart beating faster, blood pounding in his ears, he choked out, "Joe, wait -!" just as the boar charged once more. He belatedly realised he'd called his brother by his real name in the heat of his panic, something he'd have to work on changing, but he didn't have time to do more than that. Instead, Frank rushed forward as the boar burst into bright pixels, only momentarily hiding the red line across Joe's side. Even as the younger Hardy boy had pierced the boar through with his sword, the boar's tusk had scored him. As they both watched, the green box denoting Joe's health dipped until it rested just outside the yellow.
Frank let him have a minute, then gently asked, "Orion?" Joe hummed and blinked once in response, and that was when Frank realised Joe hadn't been watching his own health. His eyes were still on where the boar had died, and with a burst of painful understanding, Frank remembered the last time his little brother had seen something explode. "Joe?" he asked, voice even softer than before as he rested a hand on his brother's shoulder and hoped the use of his real name would get through to him.
Joe turned to look at him, blue eyes somehow wide and pained even when, physically, they didn't exist at all. That didn't matter. The emotional pain did, and - "Does that hurt?" Frank nodded towards the red, pixelated wound.
Joe blinked again, but shook his head and gave a small smile. "Naw, nothing hurts here, remember?" He didn't put much effort into the smile, and Frank didn't know if that made it better or worse. He did know they needed to talk about it, though.
"Joe, you don't have to pretend," Frank began, hoping his voice sounded soft but firm.
Maybe it did, but his little brother ignored it, giving a laugh as he said, "I'll take a healing potion if that'll make you feel better, you big worrywart; everyone starts out with some, remember?"
The laugh hurt worse than the smile, and Frank shook his head. Going through the motions on his own dash quickly, instructions from the manual clear in his memory, he handed Joe the potion and sat down on the grass. Now Joe frowned, but after looking around to make sure they were alone and there were no more boars nearby, he downed the potion and sat across from Frank. They watched his health climb back up to one hundred percent silently. When it finished, Frank didn't bother holding his punches. He'd been holding them for months now, but since his previous methods obviously weren't working, he was done with them.
"You miss Iola," he stated, and Joe's eyes widened - with shock, Frank figured, mixed with anger - before they lowered in grief.
"Wouldn't you?" he muttered, before his eyes widened again.
"You don't mean that," Frank hypothesised. "I may miss her less than you, but I do miss her, and you know that. All of Bayport misses her. She was sweet and kind and going places, and we all knew it." Joe opened his mouth, but Frank ignored him. His brother needed to hear this; the fact he'd chosen the name of Poseidon's son who was the infamous lover of Artemis was all the proof he needed. The fact Frank had had to force Joe to give up the name Theseus said even more - "come on, Joe, Theseus is the thinker, you have to let me have him," refusing to say "I won't let you take the name of the man who abandoned his lover, I won't let you do that to yourself." Now, he closely watched his brother as he said, "Iola is dead, and you loved her, and her death was not your fault. It was no one's fault but the man who killed her, and you caught him. You caught him, Joe, you avenged her, and now you have to let her go."
The corner of Joe's mouth wobbled as he fought back tears, and his voice was hoarse as if he'd already been crying when he said, "It's not that easy, Frank. You can't just tell me that and expect me to believe it. On some level, I know you're right. I know you're right, and I know Iola would," his voice cracked, "would want me to live for both of us, but I just keep seeing her and the car and -" the tears interrupted whatever Joe would have said next, and as he broke Frank caught him. Effortlessly, with seventeen years of practice, Frank caught his little brother in his arms, pulled him to himself, and held him as he cried. He said nothing, because he had nothing Joe wanted to hear that hadn't been said already, that couldn't be said with the hand threading through his hair and rubbing his back.
Joe wasn't sure how long he lay there in Frank's arms. When he eventually shifted, growing cold as the artificial sun began to go down and his face numb from crying, his brother helped him to his feet.
"Let's go to the town centre, yeah?" Frank asked. "We can pick up those fingerless gloves you were eying, don't think I didn't see you doing that."
Joe gave a laugh at that, a small smile working its way onto his lips. "Fashion, dear brother, is something even nerds like you must understand," he teased. Frank laughed in return, and smiled back. He was glad, Joe knew, to see him feeling better. And the best part was, it wasn't even faked. Something about this place - the fact it was virtual, that it was close to his real body but not quite, that no one else besides Frank knew who he really was - felt freeing. Joe felt better now than he had in a long time. Apparently, he had needed that cry for awhile, needed to hear the words Frank said. He had needed to confront reality, and what better place than a virtual one?
It was as that thought crossed his mind that the fields abruptly disappeared, replaced by the town centre.
If the red warning signs and the giant black grim reaper figure weren't enough to put the Hardy Boys on guard, the panicked reactions around them would have done the trick. Unfortunately, unlike the 'System Announcement's and 'Warning's, which had some English mixed in, the news articles and the announcement itself were all in Japanese since that was the only SAO server that had been released so far. Joe was quickly distracted from this when people started selecting mirrors from their control screens and changed into other people. Nudging Frank, he did the same, only to be surprised when his reflection rippled, but mostly stayed the same. Frank - Theseus - did the same, then looked out at the panicking crowds in befuddlement. Around them, children collapsed crying, dozens darted away into the streets, and hundreds looked to be either in shock or lost. The reaper had disappeared, and the red tiles slid aside to reveal a darkening sky.
"J- Orion," Frank corrected himself, "I think the mirrors revealed everyone's true selves."
Joe nodded. "I think you're right, but that's not nearly enough to cause this much confusion and panic. No, this is something more… but what?"
Frank opened his mouth to answer - or rather, hopelessly speculate - when a purposely cleared throat startled them both. Joe, still on edge from his breakdown and the mystery around them, whirled to face the noise's source and instead stumbled back, stopped from falling by a familiar hand on his shoulder. Frank helped him find his balance and then stepped up beside him to greet the newcomer - a tall, bald and bearded black man with muscles that, quite frankly, made the younger Hardy Boy jealous.
"Hello," the stranger said in English. "My name is Agil, and I couldn't help but notice that you don't seem to know what's happening?"
Frank gave a small, self-deprecating smile. "You could say that. Orion and I don't speak Japanese, so…"
The stranger - Agil - visibly started. "But you managed to get SAO?"
Joe grinned, "Yeah, we were in Japan for a family trip when they came out. Can you tell us what that reaper dude said?"
Agil smiled back grimly. "Sure, kid. But let's find a place to eat first, ok? You'll want to be sitting for this anyway."
"Wait, wait, wait," Joe interrupted, holding up a hand to stop Agil. "So you're saying the guy who created this game is basically a mass murderer who trapped all of us in this virtual reality, that if anyone removes our NerveGear we die, and the only way to make it out alive is to finish the game, but if we try that we might die here, and if we die here we die for real?"
"That's it."
"That's…" Frank shook his head, speechless.
"You're telling me," Agil sighed, then studied them closer. "Say, how old did you say you boys are?"
"We didn't," Joe replied. "But I'm seventeen and Theseus is eighteen, and I can already see you getting protective, fantastic."
That startled a laugh out of the older man, who held up his hands in the universal 'no offense' gesture. "You're ten years younger than me and you don't speak the same language as everyone else, of course I'm worried. You don't have the time to learn through immersion, and it's not safe enough to just wing it. I just want to offer you a better chance at survival, that's all. And yes, you'll have to put up with me going all papa bear over your asses. Sue me."
Joe sighed, never eager to accept another protective presence in his life - Frank, his parents, Aunt Trudy, Chet, Biff, Nancy, oh look he already reached his second hand - but turned to Frank. He would follow his brother's lead.
"We'll die quickly without help…" the elder Hardy Boy said slowly. "And I would love another person to help keep Orion alive."
"Hey!" Joe protested, while Agil barked out a laugh.
"What did you have in mind?" Frank asked.
Later that night, as he and Frank lay in their own bodies in virtual beds, Joe thought to himself that no matter how much he liked this world, that hadn't meant he wanted to be stuck in it with ten thousand other people. And yet somehow that was what had happened. Though thankfully, Agil had found them and promised to stick by them, at least until they could communicate relatively well with everyone else. Sighing and turning over to stare at the hotel window, he looked up at the moon. His last thought before he fell asleep was whether or not the creator of SAO, as inventively creative as he obviously was behind the whole death game thing, had made the moon out of cheese.
- I have seen the show (SAO), but I haven't read the manga and I don't play regular video games. Any details here are drawn from the show, the wiki, fanfics I've read, and my own imagination. Apologies if it isn't entirely accurate.
- Some lines have been taken directly from the SAO anime. I've tried to use as few as possible, but if you recognise them, that's why.
Thank you for reading, and please review!
