Raindrops the size of quaters pounded the window panes of his house, as numerous as the ants crawling around inside of the Earth. A fork of lightening illuminated the already lit house even more so then before, a loud rumble of thunder causing the group of friends to twitch, each one startled, each one to proud to actually show their surprise.
It was Ericks birthday today, the twenty-eighth of July, and he had planned to take his brand new car that he recieved from his parents out for a test drive, his friends included...all until all of the non-commercial vehicles had been called off the road. Erick, Daniel, Tony, and Douglas shuffled back inside, the only light at the end of the tunnel being that Erick still had presents from his friends to open. Well, it was a light for him...for the remainder of them, it was still dark.
Daniel cracked his knuckles and ran his hand through his shoulder length hair, his slight facial stubble making him look older that his real age, which was a few weeks away from being sixteen. Wearing baggy khaki pants and a hunter green button down shirt, he wasn't all that fancy. It didn't matter to him though, for in a span of a few more weeks after his birthday, would be the one year anniversary with him and his girlfriend Stephanie, and she liked the way he looked, so that was all that DID matter. Tony glanced at the gifts for a moment, his eyes gleaming because of his small framed glasses. He always called himself fat, though everyone else just shook their heads, saying such lines as, "Compared to most Italians...your skinny", or , "Shut the hell up...your not fat dumbass". Maybe his brother was to blame, for he degraded Tony at all possible times. Shifting on his feet, he situated his dark blue shirt with a humerous cartoon only avid video game players would unstand, emblazened on the chest.
Douglas, the comidical one, bounced into the room, his trademark red and grey hooded sweat shirt STILL on. He always wore that sweater, even in weather that made his hair plaster to his head with sweat. No one really knew why, and most gave up on trying to. Sighing, Erick pushed up his small framed glasses, his dark green eyes flecked with blue and a light brown, marking him out of place, as well as his friends, in this new place most people called, "Neo Japan".
Ericks parents, as well as all of his friends', moved across the world in search of better jobs, after the economical decline in the US, which was partially due to the computer virus called Pluto's Kiss...which of course, caused a large amount of trouble.
"Im itching to play my damn game...", groaned Tony, obviously speaking of, "The World", this plantets most popular game of all time.
Played on the computer, the user would wear a pair of special goggles, more like a headset that the said name, and gloves, which sent wires to be clipped on certain parts of the users body. When accessed, the player would find himself in a virtual world so real, that it was almost as if the digital reality was truely, "The World", and reality was the game. Over half the population of the true world played this game..
Erick sighed...All of his friends played the game, each one vowing to not enlighten the others on who they were in the world. It was another life to them, one which Erick wasnt included in due to the fact that he did not own the game. Well, saying that none of them knew each other wasn't completely true, what with Daniel being a rather popular 'hacker' known as Atlas NynE. He of course, knew who all of them were in "The World", and they knew him...but that was all. Tony cleared his throat at Ericks expression, and motioned to the table with his eyes.
"Well, open your presents bitch, I'm hungry and you need to start cooking me dinner", said Daniel with a wry smirk. Erick grinned slightly, a shook his head in reply as he picked up the nearest box. Slowly tearing off the paper to mock both Tony and Daniel, a plane cardboard box was revealed. Raising an eyebrow, he peered inside.
Inside, lay a set of five small compact dics, smaller then the old audio CD's that his parents fondly listened to when nostalgia kicked in. Each one of those five discs had a differant, breath taking digital landscape painted on its surface, golden letters reading, "The World" on each one. With shaking arms, he enveloped all of his attending friends in a bear like hug, muttering constantly, "Awesome...awesome..."
Once his friends were realeased, he opened the other boxes to find the needed equipment to play "The World", and a disc that Daniel grinned at and said, "I'll show you how to use that later...".
After eating some cake and ice cream, still tradition, even in Japan, everyone said their goodbyes, donned some sort of waterproof clothing, and ran down the street to their perspective houses. Even with the "waterproof" jackets, they were still soaked after a few miserable seconds...good thing they lived only a block or two away.
Since all of the non-commercial vehicles had been recalled off the roads, he would have the whole night to himself....So, taking the boxes containing his gifts upstairs, he stationed himself in front of his computer.
Inserting all five of the dics into their said drives, the program self-activated, causing the monitor to shift to blackness...a simple sentence on the screen reading, "Insert glove and goggle plugs". And he did so, donning the headseat soon after he slid on the gloves. Maybe when he read that message, he should have turned his back, maybe the events that would unfold this very night would have never happened...then again, maybe Erick's life would have had no meaning...
It was Ericks birthday today, the twenty-eighth of July, and he had planned to take his brand new car that he recieved from his parents out for a test drive, his friends included...all until all of the non-commercial vehicles had been called off the road. Erick, Daniel, Tony, and Douglas shuffled back inside, the only light at the end of the tunnel being that Erick still had presents from his friends to open. Well, it was a light for him...for the remainder of them, it was still dark.
Daniel cracked his knuckles and ran his hand through his shoulder length hair, his slight facial stubble making him look older that his real age, which was a few weeks away from being sixteen. Wearing baggy khaki pants and a hunter green button down shirt, he wasn't all that fancy. It didn't matter to him though, for in a span of a few more weeks after his birthday, would be the one year anniversary with him and his girlfriend Stephanie, and she liked the way he looked, so that was all that DID matter. Tony glanced at the gifts for a moment, his eyes gleaming because of his small framed glasses. He always called himself fat, though everyone else just shook their heads, saying such lines as, "Compared to most Italians...your skinny", or , "Shut the hell up...your not fat dumbass". Maybe his brother was to blame, for he degraded Tony at all possible times. Shifting on his feet, he situated his dark blue shirt with a humerous cartoon only avid video game players would unstand, emblazened on the chest.
Douglas, the comidical one, bounced into the room, his trademark red and grey hooded sweat shirt STILL on. He always wore that sweater, even in weather that made his hair plaster to his head with sweat. No one really knew why, and most gave up on trying to. Sighing, Erick pushed up his small framed glasses, his dark green eyes flecked with blue and a light brown, marking him out of place, as well as his friends, in this new place most people called, "Neo Japan".
Ericks parents, as well as all of his friends', moved across the world in search of better jobs, after the economical decline in the US, which was partially due to the computer virus called Pluto's Kiss...which of course, caused a large amount of trouble.
"Im itching to play my damn game...", groaned Tony, obviously speaking of, "The World", this plantets most popular game of all time.
Played on the computer, the user would wear a pair of special goggles, more like a headset that the said name, and gloves, which sent wires to be clipped on certain parts of the users body. When accessed, the player would find himself in a virtual world so real, that it was almost as if the digital reality was truely, "The World", and reality was the game. Over half the population of the true world played this game..
Erick sighed...All of his friends played the game, each one vowing to not enlighten the others on who they were in the world. It was another life to them, one which Erick wasnt included in due to the fact that he did not own the game. Well, saying that none of them knew each other wasn't completely true, what with Daniel being a rather popular 'hacker' known as Atlas NynE. He of course, knew who all of them were in "The World", and they knew him...but that was all. Tony cleared his throat at Ericks expression, and motioned to the table with his eyes.
"Well, open your presents bitch, I'm hungry and you need to start cooking me dinner", said Daniel with a wry smirk. Erick grinned slightly, a shook his head in reply as he picked up the nearest box. Slowly tearing off the paper to mock both Tony and Daniel, a plane cardboard box was revealed. Raising an eyebrow, he peered inside.
Inside, lay a set of five small compact dics, smaller then the old audio CD's that his parents fondly listened to when nostalgia kicked in. Each one of those five discs had a differant, breath taking digital landscape painted on its surface, golden letters reading, "The World" on each one. With shaking arms, he enveloped all of his attending friends in a bear like hug, muttering constantly, "Awesome...awesome..."
Once his friends were realeased, he opened the other boxes to find the needed equipment to play "The World", and a disc that Daniel grinned at and said, "I'll show you how to use that later...".
After eating some cake and ice cream, still tradition, even in Japan, everyone said their goodbyes, donned some sort of waterproof clothing, and ran down the street to their perspective houses. Even with the "waterproof" jackets, they were still soaked after a few miserable seconds...good thing they lived only a block or two away.
Since all of the non-commercial vehicles had been recalled off the roads, he would have the whole night to himself....So, taking the boxes containing his gifts upstairs, he stationed himself in front of his computer.
Inserting all five of the dics into their said drives, the program self-activated, causing the monitor to shift to blackness...a simple sentence on the screen reading, "Insert glove and goggle plugs". And he did so, donning the headseat soon after he slid on the gloves. Maybe when he read that message, he should have turned his back, maybe the events that would unfold this very night would have never happened...then again, maybe Erick's life would have had no meaning...