Ahh, another month, another chapter. This one's just going to be a ton of explaining and...stuff.

As always, I don't own any of Gaia; I'm just writing this for fun.

Chapter theme: "Wasteland" -Two Steps From Hell

3

Aftermath

"The Animated aren't just monsters in n MMO. For that matter, Gaia is more than just a website. It's all real."

They were in Rosalyn's living room, either sprawled on the furniture or sitting on the floor. Marcia was sitting cross-legged on the floor against the couch Kira was sprawled over. Currently, said math wiz was flopped face-down, but Marcia didn't doubt that she was paying attention. She was good at that.

Ordinarily, being at a friend's house in the middle of the school day would've bothered her, but right now it didn't. Probably because the whole reason they were currently gathered in Rosalyn's living room was because of the monsters—the Animated—that had started attacking the high school.

And none of them were in a hurry to head back.

"Them" in this case consisted of herself, Kira Daile, Rosalyn Tourniquet, Laurenciel Hades, Riley Callahan and three Shards. Said "Shards"—they still hadn't gotten around to explaining what Shards were—went by the names Amria Fasaka, Hunter Rhys, and Sahara Li. The one doing the explaining was the red-haired dark elf, Amria. Hunter, a blue-haired vampire was sitting on the arm of the big squishy chair Riley had claimed, sipping at a root beer. Sahara, the white—literally—skinned blonde was sitting cross-legged in the computer chair she'd pulled over. Amria had taken the space on the couch that wasn't taken up by the blob known as Kira.

"Wait." Laurenciel held up a hand. "How real? Like, other universes? Magical worlds?"

Amria shifted. "…sort of." She replied. "Gaia is a world of its own, one that exists within the Internet. It may have started out as just a website, but by now it's more than that. It's a world of its own, with all the same dynamics of this one. You could think of it as the digital universe being a mirror for this one."

Laurenciel shook his head. "Kira, you sure we're not having some communal dream or something? This seems like what your brain would cook up."

"Pretty sure it's not a dream." Kira's reply was muffled by having her face in the pillow.

"How d'you know that?"

"Because if it was then I'm pretty sure I'd have come up with something better than demon buzz saws and evil pee bubbles."

Marcia snickered as Rosalyn made an "ewugh" sounds. Hunter snorted into his root beer. Amria leaned back and crossed her arms, a smile flickering on the dark elf's face before returning to seriousness. "The whole 'digital universe' thing will take longer to explain than we've got right now. The bare basics are that the Animated are more than an MMO. Gaia's real, and while there's similarities between website Gaia and real Gaia, there's more than a few differences between the two. One is that the Animated crisis is a helluva lot worse; there's almost no contact between the towns, and people are dying. Another is the Null."

"The Null?" That was Riley.

Amria nodded. "Null Energy is…odd. It's a form of magical energy, but somehow it exists both in the real world and in the digital. It's how we, the Shards, can exist here. It's also how your Rings have a physical form and why they change your appearance when you activate them. And it's what's created the Animated.

"Long story short, Null Energy usually flows at a pretty regular rate; not too little, not too much. But now, something's gotten it all blocked up and it's started overflowing, and until now that overflow has been limited to Gaia. Something's opened a peephole in that barrier between the real and the digital, and now the Animated are taking form here."

"They're bleeding through."

"That's about it," Hunter confirmed. "You can think of us Shards as…pieces of Gaia. Bits of that world, given a physical form so we can interact with and guide you."

"Or just annoy the piss out of each other." Sahara deadpanned.

"Anyway," Amira shot the other two a look. "The Null overflow is bleeding through to here. Ordinarily you'd think that would even it out on our end, but instead it's exacerbating it. If it's not checked soon, or the hole in reality closed, the overflow will even start creating new Animated here."

Rosalyn groaned. "Fan-fucking-tastic." She banged the back of her head against the couch cushion. "What, exactly, is Null Energy?"

The dark elf leaned back, crossing her arms. "In short? Magic. I may be a digital elf, but I'm still an elf." She shrugged. "Or, something similar to magical energy, anyway. It can be used by mages, but on its own it's kind of…well, toxic. Not a ton of fun to mess with. Using it on its own is risky; you're just as likely to blow yourself to bits as you are to accomplish what you're trying.

"These Rings," she held up her hand, showing one ring on each finger, including the thumb. "Bypass all of that. They're artifacts that Johnny Gambino, Edmund, and Brennivin cooked up. These buggers can harness Null Energy and direct it into a spell-like attack at the Animated, without harming the wearer, as the Null doesn't technically come in contact with the user. Which is really good, because attacks formed from Null Energy seem to be what has the most effect against the Animated."

"And the Animated are…basically, inanimate objects that got pumped full of Null Energy?"

"Pretty much." Amria pushed one of Kira's feet off her lap. "Some are less…I guess you could say conscious than others, but they're all pretty violent. Again, some are nastier than others; for example, fluffs aren't as deadly as Alarmskeeters, and trust me when I say you do not want to meet a Flying Giftbox. They look pretty, but I'm pretty sure they're from Hell."

"Noted…." Marcia looked to Rosalyn, who was shifting uncomfortably. "How is it that this Null stuff exists in the Internet?"

The three Shards exchanged a look, then shrugged. "No idea." Hunter said. "Only that it does, and it's probably what's responsible for the rift between the real and digital worlds."

"I guess this isn't something that's going to go away on its own, is it?" Riley sighed.

Amria shook her head. "Nope. Wish it was. On the upside, there's been Shards plopped down all over the world, to seek out Gaians and hopefully help solve the Animated problem on both ends. Who knows, with more heads working on this, we may find a solution that much faster."

"Provided they don't think you're cosplayers who're high on bath salts or something," Kira said, pulling herself into a less-sprawled, semi-sitting position. "They'll probably call the cops and tell them to bring the guys in white coats."

Riley put a hand to her ear, her pinky and thumb sticking out to imitate a telephone receiver. "Hello, 9-1-1? Yes, I'm being attacked by my toaster and a pissed-off microwave, could you send some cops? Oh, and make sure they're armed with these magical rings, bullets won't work on angry appliances."

The others snorted out laughs, including the three Shards. "Hopefully that won't happen." Hunter said. "Like Amria said, we're looking for Gaian's who're familiar with zOMG and willing to accept the possibility that this is all real."

"Cross fingers…." Marcia frowned as Rosalyn shifted again, the witch biting her lower lip. "Roz, something wrong?"

"Don't call me that," Rosalyn replied, crossing her arms. She glanced to the kitchen window before letting out a breath and standing. "Is…it possible to use Null Energy for a spell?"

Hunter sucked in a breath through his teeth, and Amria stiffened. "Technically…but then there's the issue you run into when you're not using Rings, or some other device. Mage staffs tend to be more than just a magical focus or and excuse to look cool. Which, admittedly, they do look pretty badass."

Rosalyn nodded. "Right…but theoretically, it's possible?"

"Yeah, just not a good idea."

"And you said that the Animated were cropping up due to some sort of hole or rip or whatever in reality, right?"

"Yeah."

It took a moment for it to process, but when it did Macia facepalmed. Behind her, Kira groaned and asked, "Roz…what did you do?"

"Why're you assuming it was me?!"

"Because you don't always think things through before you do them."

Rosalyn gave her a dirty look. "Just come on…and promise not to scream when you see what I mean." She nodded to the back door. "C'mon…it's in the backyard."

The girl let the group out into the aforementioned backyard, Kira grumbling something about having more bruises in more places than should be humanly possible behind Marcia. When they saw the grass, Marcia could see why Rosalyn was looking so uncomfortable.

Sitting there, smack in the middle of the backyard, was a burned-away patch of ground, surrounded by turned-purple grass. And the bare patch was still smoking.

Hunter groaned. Sahara facepalmed. Laurenciel made a sound that reminded Marcia of a dying frog. Amria pinched her nose and moaned, "Oh my god."

Admittedly, Marcia didn't know much about magic, but even she could tell that a smoking hole in the middle of a ring of purple grass was not a good thing. She refrained from pointing this out to the others, as their expressions showed their thoughts clearly enough. Beside her, Kira gave Rosalyn an incredulous look.

"Roz…what the bloody hell did you DO?!"