(A/N) sorry this took so long, I totally forgot about this story and I've been super busy, but hey I've graduated now so I can devote more time to my fanfics! Hope it's enjoyed.
Well that was a total failure. Haseo thought bitterly to himself as he logged into The World. His paper had gotten finished. But, naturally, the printer would "crap out" on him when he printed it out, and he wouldn't discover its mistake until after he had already turned his paper in and got it back to see how incoherent and screwed the faulty printer had made his paper. The good side to this is he didn't totally fail the assignment, only because the first two pages were fine. The teacher did not see fit to cut him any slack because he had had all week to finish this assignment, and therefore had a week to catch and correct the mistake or find a residence whose printer worked properly.
"Aw, to hell with it!" the rogue mumbled to himself. The familiar, gentle tones of Mac Anu's root town filled his headset. Normally he would wander around town, and eventually make his way to his favourite setting spot. He started off to do just that when…
"Howdy Haseo! How're you today?" Came a chipper voice from behind him that both elated and annoyed him, "Oh yeah, you heard anything from Yata lately?"
"Hey Kuhn. I guess I'm alright." Haseo paused a moment before continuing, "Actually, Yata hasn't made any attempt to contact me at all. I'm confused about this advanced AIDA strain."
"Yeah, you and me both... I thought we wiped all that stuff out of here... Well, from what I've been told by Pi, Yata's researching it right now and trying to figure out just what the hell this is." Kuhn sighed after he finished his statement. Haseo had nothing to say to that. It tweaked his already short fuse that he felt Yata was withholding information.
"Yeah…"
"So, anyway, Haseo, didn't we have a date today?" Kuhn chuckled.
Haseo sighed, "Oh yeah. I almost forgot. Sorry, I've been totally swamped today."
"Hm, its ok. Let's just get started on it right now." Kuhn and Haseo set off for the stand where you registered and completed quests. The NPC addressed they needed another member in their party.
"Oh yeah! Haseo," Kuhn turned to face the rogue, "I didn't have any luck finding anyone. What about you?"
"Well, Endrance said yesterday he'd join us. I don't know where he is, though."
"I'm here, Haseo…" Endrance appeared behind the younger player, right on cue. It was rather disturbing to Haseo how the man knew when it was appropriate for him to show up, "sorry I was… occupied…"
"It's fine, as long as you showed up, it doesn't really matter how late you were." Kuhn chuckled and re-registered the three-member party. Haseo watched the brandier out of the corner of his eye; something about the man seemed off, and distracted. Unknown to Haseo, the watched brandier kept a crimson eye on the little rogue, as he knew something terrible was in store for all of them… and he had a feeling that it would all begin with this quest.
The objective of this mission was pretty simple: locate and kill the boss, and then bring back the special, one-time only item for the reward. The three made their way to the Chaos Gate, entered the keywords and warped to a gloomy field. "Alright!" Kuhn said in his usual, happy and confident tone, "the boss is normally on an island secluded to itself. So…" Kuhn looked up at the map overhead, then sweatdropped and signed unhappily, "every area is an island to itself. That narrows it down."
Haseo chuckled, "Like they'd make it that easy, Kuhn. They only reserve the really obvious quests for newbies. The harder the quest, the greater the bounty."
Endrance scanned the area, "…does no one find it peculiar that we are the only party in this area…?"
"Hrm… you gotta point there, Endrance…" Kuhn's smile faded and he stepped back to take in the area around him.
"We'll worry about that later." Haseo thought it to be strange, too, but he did recall there were some special events that only one party was allowed in the area at a time, "right now we need to focus on our main objective."
"I believe the most logical thing to do is to split up, so as to complete the area faster. When one of us locates the boss, we simply quick mail each other." Endrance stated the obvious, as he often did, while he stroked his hair absent mindedly, still scanning the area lazily.
Kuhn nodded in agreement, "Couldn'ta said it better myself." Haseo shrugged 'whatever' and separated from the Brandier and the Steam Gunner in search of the boss. As each of them explored, they couldn't fail to take into account the absence of monsters. Normally, a special event area had at least one monster as a way to weaken the party before the final fight… but this area had none…
Eh, whatever. Haseo thought to himself as he kicked a tree and a fat yellow chim chim fell out and scurried around him before it was kicked in the rear. The chim chim squeaked and vanished and Haseo's chim count went up. He wasn't worried about this mission, but he had an annoying tug in his chest that would just not let him be.
Kuhn hummed to himself happily while he teleported around the area. This map was littered with little islands, making it especially difficult to keep track of where you had been unless you kept a tab in real life, which he normally did. He actually had a thick storage of maps he had made and kept incase he ever needed them again. They had all the secrets to the area, where the best items were, how to avoid each monster… These were the tips he would share with newbies and even use himself if he felt the urge. He smiled. Today had been a good day for him, and he felt it would just get better as it went on. Screw Haseo and Endrance's constant pessimism, he was going to be happy to day, by god.
Endrance sighed and dragged his blade along behind him, leaving a thin line in the dirt. If he were able to keep his head out of the clouds today he would be able to see the small pieces of ground he tilled up float into the sky and glitch into nothingness. Today had not been a good day for him… then again, when was it ever. Only when he was with Haseo did his life have meaning. Normally he was nothing more than a hermit too afraid to leave his home, let alone his room.
"asdfjkl;" Endrance's character said in the text box that appeared on the chat screen window.
Haseo made a "wtf" face, and Kuhn chuckled and replied with "awesome Endrance you've finally opened up to the world of spamming!"
Endrance grumbled in real life and took his kitten off the keyboard, setting it in his lap. He didn't feel like explaining to them that it was Ryou being curious about the clacking of the keys. He never felt like explaining anything, it was so much simpler to just be silent and accept whatever came…
He trudged on in silence before coming to another crystal that would transport him to the other islands around him. He tapped it boredly and was transported to an island far off. The Brandier turned around, confused that he could no longer see the land he was on.. Or any surrounding continents. His map was blank, aside from the small circle he now stood on. Endrance absorbed his surroundings quickly, since there was so little to take in. There was a tree in the middle of the continent, and that was all that was to be had.
Where is the monster…? He thought to himself in annoyance. Did he really just waste an entire hour looking for nothing? One may ask how does a hermit waste any time at all. To him, all time was wasted when he was not speaking directly to Haseo. Worse yet, he was stuck here. He would have to gate out and try to reenter in order to be off this small prison of land. If he did that then they would be disqualified, and even if that were to slide by, he would not be able to go back into the area until the quest was over, still leaving the other two members of the party to not be given the reward they so deserved.
Endrance signed a long sign and plopped down near the edge of the island. He sat with his cheek resting against his hand, arm propped up on one knee. His slouched and unrefined sitting style detracted from the regal appearance of his character. He laid his sword beside him, as it was of no use to him right now. Closing his eyes, he sent a quick mail to Haseo stating he was 'stranded and unable to come to his aid if he was needed, and for that he was truly sorry'.
Haseo opened with window back up to the area he was in when a short mail alert pinged into his ears. The Rogue was looking for a full map of the area online, and to no avail, this area was too new for anyone to post a cheat code or a full and detailed map. He clicked into it and read it, then growled in his throat. He hated it when Endrance apologized like that, it made him feel like he was viewed as a vengeful slave driver. Haseo sent a shortmail in reply asking where Endrance was. Haseo drummed his fingers on his desk, waiting for a reply. It was strange to see the game Haseo miming him, since he was drumming on thin air. Endrance always took so long in his replies, even when they were incredibly short sometimes they would take up to fifteen minutes just for a short 'yes' or 'no'.
The chiming sound of a reply filled Haseo's ears and he grumbled at its length.
'I don't know.'
Of course you don't. Haseo sighed to himself and changed his course of action. If the party was separated they would be unable to participate in the boss fight, so as much as it was a pain in his ass, he left the area he was searching and went to find Endrance. Luckily, Kuhn was close to where Haseo was so at least he wasn't lost, too.
"So Endrance wandered off again?" Kuhn chuckled and folded his arms over his chest, "Ah this place ain't that big. How hard can it be to find a six foot purple pillar in the middle of a puce green landscape?"
"…" Haseo smirked after a moment, "eh, yeah. C'mon." The two party members headed in the northern direction, the only direction still left available since there was nothing on the eastern side of the map.
They trekked on, searching various islands and always getting accidentally split up. Occasionally they would be hit with random "sa;kdjfoaq1928" spam from Endrance.
Kuhn stopped and looked up at the sky, "Haseo, do you think he left? I mean we've kinda been everywhere. There's no where left on my map."
Haseo sighed, "I know, Kuhn, but we would have been alerted-" he stopped to read the interrupting spam, "we would have been alerted if he had left the area cause we would have been gated out."
"Maybe his character glitched and fell through the ground? That's happened to me before."
"Yeah maybe. We still have to keep looking and who knows maybe Endrance has already found the boss and is waiting for us to kick its ass."
Kuhn chuckled, "Knowing him he's probably bored it to death with his monotone drone about Haseo's awesomeness."
Haseo shot a playful glare at his friend, "C'mon, Kuhn."
They resumed making their way further north until they came in contact with some badly injured ground. Haseo's face fell, "Oh no."
Kuhn followed his gaze. Their monitors in real life flashed and glitched like they normally did in an infected area, "We need to find Endrance. Now. Haseo, you take that crystal and tell me where it goes, I'll do the same with that one. If these don't go no where, we're pretty much screwed."
Haseo nodded, "Right."
He touched the crystal and was taken to an island separate from everything else, Kuhn appearing at his side. There was no returner crystals to the previous landmass.
"Hello, Haseo."
Haseo turned, "Endrance." He signed inwardly in relief. He was afraid he was going to find His comatose character. Kuhn narrowed his eyes and scanned the area before him. Something was not right. The sky began to grow darker. Changing weather patterns were still in beta at CC Corp.
"Wow, that's pretty cool. I guess they really spiffed it up for a bonus area huh?" Haseo chuckled.
"Uh.. Yeah." Kuhn mirrored the chuckle emptily.
You know, little kiddies shouldn't ever play outside…. When it's raining… A figure jumped down from the tree, the ground they touched turning into a piled mass of infected ground. They stood upright and rested their hand on their hip, cocking their head, You'd think they'd close this area by now, I mean its just going downhill. Look at this! The figure lifted their foot and shook off the ground that stuck to their feet.
"Why the hell are you?" Kuhn said demandingly. This was not a boss, no boss had yet to have such a human form, "Are you an AIDA?"
AIDA…? THAT'S what you call it now? The figure chuckled in their throat, That's epic. Please, don't try to be funny because you just aren't. The figure merged back into their shadows and vanished. Enough talk.
Haseo banged on his monitor in real life, it was glitching out so badly that he could not see the screen. Eventually it went totally black, as did Kuhn's.
Haseo slumped in his seat and waited for his computer to turn back on. His heart was racing, his mind was currently paralyzed with what just happened.
Kuhn rested his elbows on his table and rubbed his temples while waiting for his screen to resume normalcy. There was another bug they needed to weed out.
Haseo returned to Mac Anu, thoroughly pissed off. Kuhn appeared beside him a few seconds later.
"So I'm going to talk to Yata and Pi about it. Haseo, see if you can get a list of what players signed up for the event so we can ask what they saw. We need to make sure no one was put into a coma. Mail me when you get any information and I'll do the same." Kuhn said and then vanished to their home.
Haseo nodded and leaned against the walls of the building. He asked a few players across from him and none of them seemed to know what he was talking about, some of them dashing off to sign up for this event.
"Huh… that's weird… normally everyone knows about events the week before… eh, they're probably newbies." He shrugged then something dawned on him. He had not heard from Endrance yet. His heart sank, fearing something happened to his loyal Brandier.
User: Haseo
User: Endrance
Subject: What the hell.
Endrance, where the hell are you. I'm getting really worried about you, especially after what just happened.
Haseo's heart lept when his mail alert pinged right afterwards, only to be let down that it was information from Kuhn.
User: Kuhn
User: Haseo
Subject: AIDA.
It's a bad situation, Haseo... this is really bad.
This AIDA isn't even detectible by CC corp. We're tracking it without Avatars...
something about this doesn't make sense...
Anything on your end?
User: Haseo
User: Kuhn
Subject: RE: AIDA
No, I don't have anything yet. The people I've asked looked at me like I was an idiot.
Nothing made sense last time. At least we have the Azure guardians for information, if we can ever find em again, that is.
There was a long pause in a reply from Kuhn. Haseo waited impatiently and was rewarded with a shortmail, finally.
User: Kuhn
User: Haseo
Subject: RE: AIDA
Keep looking. Someone has got to know something.
I'm having Silabus ask around too.
I'd forgotten about the Guardians, try getting ahold of Kite. If anyone would know anything it would be him.
I've gotta go meet with Yata. I'll mail you after and tell you what I've found out. Later, Haseo.
Haseo pushed himself from the wall and continued waiting for a reply from Endrance. It had been a half hour now. He was about to leave to go see some other members of the home when he was greeted with:
User: Endrance
User: Haseo
Subject: RE: What the hell.
…something is wrong, Haseo...
/ delta: hidden forbidden holy ground…/
The Rogue was going to send him a reply back, but figured that would just take another half hour and by the time he received the message it would be irrelevant. He warped to the familiar area after checking his inventory.
Haseo arrived at the Cathedral... and what he saw defied every possibility of 'The World'... Something he had seen before, but not to this extreme level.
"This is..."
-end chapter 2-