DotHack: Rejoinder
A DotHack fanfiction by Renfro Calhoun

Disclaimer: Project .Hack and attached concepts are property of Bandai and Cyber Connect. They are used without permission, but with the utmost respect.

Notes: And now we get ourselves to the plot, or at least the start of it. It's worth mentioning that while I have the specifics down in my head, putting them to print is something entirely different - and thus, I'm shooting for no more than 30 chapters, averaging about 7-8 pages each in Word (variable depending on what's going on that chapter), but that's a rough estimate at this point. However, I can guarantee fairly regular updates, at least once a week. It's strange; I was holding off writing this for so long because I was worried I wouldn't be able to keep to a schedule, but I'm feeling pretty good about this, and I can't really explain why.

Writing's a weird, weird beast sometimes. Anyhow, on to the chapter!

Just Business
"As soon as you recharge, we'll spring the portal."

Stolls nodded to Kite, his eyes on the portal in question: an assortment of glowing, enruned golden rings, suspended off the ground and spinning along several invisible axes. No different than the countless others they had faced on their way to the large central cavern, this one was distinct by the boss monster they knew it held - evidenced by telltale wisps of purple smoke coming from the doorway of the room before.

Predictably, the trip through the dungeon was largely uneventful. The lizardmen attacked in large numbers, and with various weapons and spells, but the trio of adventurers had little trouble keeping them in check. Treasure boxes were looted and pots were smashed, but they made no real effort to hunt down every last chest, or open every portal. The boss was their only real draw, and at least two of the team had a vested interest in dusting it quickly.

Dean watched his MP meter, and spoke into his mic as it maxed out. "All right, ready when you guys are."

Orca hefted his blade and cautiously approached the portal, the only visible source of light in the chamber. "Let's do this," he said to himself, and then stepped close enough to trigger the portal to open.

Kite and Stolls joined him, Kite by his side and the Wavemaster several feet behind both of them. The rings spun faster and glowed brighter, seeming to draw energy from the air around them; tiny sparks gathered and coalesced within the portal, and a tiny mechanical humming began, quickly growing louder. The light and noise intensified, obfuscating the boss monster's form as its outline appeared within the rings - colossal, bulky and humanoid. With a flash and bang the rings vanished, leaving only the monster and its newfound adversaries.

Stolls scrunched up his face in disappointment. "A golem? That's it?? I thought your friend said this thing was unique!"

True enough, the massive stone golem - a gigantic, manlike creature carved out of rock itself, with no facial features or any distinguishing traits beyond mobility and two very large fists - was not an uncommon creature for boss encounters. Not that this kept the golem from stomping slowly towards the three players, fists raised to do battle.

Orca grimaced. "He did! I don't understand!"

The golem focused its attention on Orca, the ground shaking with each weighty step. "Let's destroy it anyway, we'll ask him about it later!" shouted Kite.

"Fine by me!" the Blademaster shot back. Readying his sword, he ran forward and tumbled off to one side as the golem took a swing; its fist pounded mightily on the ground, leaving a large dent where Orca had been standing. A painfully sharp scraping rang out as Orca racked his sword through the monster's leg, tearing out a respectable chunk of rock.

Kite reared back and prepared to strike, but froze up as he got a look at the golem's data on his display. An all-too-familiar sense of uneasiness suddenly punched into his gut; a Pavlovian response to something that most definitely should not be. Where the words 'Stone Golem' should have been, alongside the usual health indicator, the Twin Blade saw only a scrambled name and a series of random numbers and symbols: asterisk, seven, dollar sign and zero, over zero-two-X-pound sign. Gibberish; and technically invulnerable gibberish.

The scream that tore from his throat was almost drowned out by the roar of a fireball from Stolls. "Data bug!"

Orca heard his friend's cry, and spun around to watch the monster carefully. To his horror, he saw the wound he just made close right back up; polygons and sprites were twisted and blurred out as the monster was healed within seconds. A shiver ran down the spine of his player, a memory of more than one encounter with other creatures that could do the same thing. Data Bugs: corrupted monsters that could not normally be defeated, save through the efforts of a hacker.

"Aw, shit!" growled Stolls, watching as the golem recovered quickly from the impact of the fireball. "Can you still drain these things?!"

"Yeah, I've- whoa!" Kite leapt back, dodging a wide overhead swing from the golem. The golem's fist lodged partially into the floor, allowing Kite to recover and score three quick hits. "Yeah, I got the copy from Aura! We just need to damage it enough!"

"I'm on it!" came Orca's shouted reply as he launched himself back at the golem. More nails-on-chalkboards as his sword tore deeply into the left leg again and again.

The Wavemaster twirled his staff and bellowed loudly, gesturing to the stone monstrosity. Gusts of magical wind ruffled his robe and hair as a series of lightning bolts formed out of thin air; they leapt and struck their target unerringly, blowing huge holes into its chest. Apparently angered, the golem responded with surprising speed as it swatted both Kite and Orca back several paces in one wide blow, too wide for either to dodge.

Kite slid backwards, barely keeping his balance, and charged forward again. The golem reached up and grabbed its shoulder, and to the Twin Blade's horror it ripped a chunk of rock out of its own body with a sickeningly loud crack. Its 'head' trained on the aqua-haired fighter, the golem flung the rock blindly at Orca as it swung at Kite again, apparently unhindered by the missing body part.

The rock was grazed by another fireball as it soared straight at the giant's head, exploding violently on contact. Orca dodged the stone thrown at him effortlessly and ducked under the enemy's free arm, scoring multiple punishing hits to the leg and waist with remarkable ease.

Missing chunks of stone were quickly replaced, but the golem was clearly outmatched by its high-level opponents. Sure enough, the monster withstood less than a minute of solid beating before a translucent green orb suddenly and briefly appeared around the monster , the words 'Protect Break' imprinted in the air above it; certainly not meant to be an in-game graphic, at least in the normal run of things.

Kite acted the second the orb appeared, sheathing his weapons and rearing back with one arm outstretched. As he flattened his palm outward and braced his arm, spinning, man-sized shards of crystal formed around his wrist and angled towards the target; the shards, the Bracelet's true form, a lingering facsimile of the item which started it all. He grit his teeth and pushed forward, and with a strangled mechanical roar the bracelet complied. Lines of raw code lashed out from the shards like chains, latching onto the monster. The lines pulsed and stretched, pumping maleovlent information into the corrupted monster.

Around them, the field flashed and scrambled, a startling but ultimately harmless graphical effect that the other two players had long since grown used to, along with the rest of the process.

Despite their situation, Stolls couldn't stop himself from thinking, Is it just me, or does he kinda look like Mega Man when he's doing that?

A weighty, bass-heavy boom as the lines broke away and shattered; the golem looked to shrink to around half its original size, appearing like its more common, non-boss variant. The Blademaster nodded in approval, noting that its name and health gauges were back to normal. "All right, let's take it down!" he shouted, charging the golem once more.

Kite paused for a second as he saw the monster's true hit points, wondering why a supposed boss monster had less than either player. He then joined the attack, and between the two of them the monster was torn to ribbons. Stolls barely had time to snap off a single healing spell before the golem unceremoniously collapsed to the floor, crumbling apart at the joints and fading away to dust.

The melee was over, text bars over each of their heads attesting to experience gained. Behind them, the stone slab covering the only doorway grinded noisily as it slid into the ground.

Experience of another kind came into play as Orca spoke up. "What just happened?" he asked, visibly confused. "That was a normal monster."

"Obviously," said Stolls, stepping towards the center of the cavern. "Question is - or are, I should say - how did it get bugged, and what was it doing here?"

"It's strange," Kite murmured pensively. "It didn't seem like a regular data bug..."

A light, echoing female voice spoke from a darkened corner. "That such things could ever be 'regular', speaks as much of The World..."

All eyes and weapons turned, watching as a young woman in loose, dark blue clothes stepped from the shadows. She trod lightly, soft black shoes making little noise on the stone floor; her slacks and gi hid her seemingly slender figure well, and the twin swords in her hands gave away her class.

"...as it does of you," she finished, her narrow face unflinching, her violet eyes piercing and analytical. A thin black veil covered her face from the nose down, pulled tight enough to reveal her lips as she spoke. "I trust you have encountered such things before? And often?"

"What's it to you?" Stolls asked, distrust in his tone.

The woman put away her weapons and flicked back a lock of her short, auburn hair. "Be at peace, gentlemen," she said, her voice carrying a slight arch. "I am not your enemy."

Kite hesitantly followed her lead, a distinct uneasiness settling in his stomach. Something's not right, he thought to himself. Offline, Hiroshi reached for the keyboard and tapped a function key, starting a video recording. He immediately wished he'd started one when the bug first appeared.

Orca lowered his sword, but did not sheath it. "Have you been here the whole time?"

"You may call me 'Poet'. That is my handle, after all," she said simply, somewhat flippantly. "And to answer your question, I was recharging off in the corner. I didn't have time to trigger the portal before you arrived, and kept back when I saw what it was. I apologize if I startled you."

"Do you know something about this data bug?" Kite asked.

Poet slowly stepped towards the group, raising a hand to indicate she meant no harm. "This one, no. I know of them, however. I was recently attacked by a similar monster which could not be killed, and I only survived by fleeing."

"How did you know one would be here?"

She shook her head. "I didn't. I heard instead that this field held a boss monster, on which they were testing a new class."

"So you heard about it too," said Orca.

"Yes. I made an inquiry to one of the admins, and had little else to do while waiting for a reply."

The Wavemaster narrowed his eyes. "Is that so."

Throwing a quick, even glance at Stolls, Poet bowed her head slightly. "You don't trust me. I understand. After all, what are the odds that the very field containing such a monster would be visited by two legendary players? Players who have faced and bested such monsters in the past?"

Kite and Orca exchanged looks, while Stolls was unmoved. "Come now," Poet said with a faint chuckle, "do you think there are many in The World who wouldn't know the names Kite and Orca? Your reputation precedes you, gentlemen, though I can't say the same for your doubting friend here."

"Ask about my other name," the Wavemaster said dryly.

The female fighter cast an appraising gaze over him. "Quite," she muttered to herself, a brow raised in curiosity. "In any event, I do not seek to pry, but you can see why I might be interested to learn more about these... things."

"Us too," said Orca, his jaw clenching for a second, a touch of fear crossing his face. "We thought the data bugs were all gone."

"They should be," said Kite, concerned. His stomach, still not settled, grew more turbulent at the thought of more bugs in The World. "Something is seriously wrong here."

Stolls frowned. "We'd better email Lios about this. I'll try and get ahold of him after I log off."

"A wise decision," said Poet. Turning to Kite, she then added, "I don't remember the field where I encountered mine offhand, but I can check my history at the gate and send you a message when I find it. If you're interested in searching it yourself, that is."

The Twin Blade looked at each of his companions, gauging their opinions. Orca's face was less than readable, save a lingering worry written on his creased brow. Stolls', by contrast, was a sturdy mask of suspicion, confusion and exhaustion. As Kite watched, the Wavemaster's eyes twitched and shut, and Stolls brought up a hand to stifle a yawn.

Well... I guess it can't hard to check it out. Someone may even have mentioned it on the boards. "All right," he said, breaking the awkward silence. "Let me know which field it is, and I'll look into it as soon as I can."

"Of course. Permit me to send you my member address; I'd like to help, if I may."

At this, a box of text popped up on Kite's HUD, displaying the address in question. As if by reflex he selected the option to accept and automatically reciprocate. A small smile graced the female Twin Blade's hidden lips as she received his message.

"Thank you very much," Poet bowed her head deeply. "I will send you the field keywords as soon as I acquire them."

With that, Poet gated out of the dungeon, leaving the three male players alone in the cavern.

"I don't like this," Stolls grumbled, staring at the spot where Poet had been standing.

"What's to like?" Orca countered. "I'm going to get ahold of Balmung and see if he knows anything. I don't think this was a coincidence."

"Me neither. I'll contact Lios after I log out." The Wavemaster gave another muted yawn, this time with arms stretched wide overhead. "Mmm... and then I'm getting some sleep. And when I wake up, I hope to god I find out this is all some kind of misunderstanding; the kind they can fix easily."

"Yeah... I hope so too," said Kite, chewing idly on his lip.

Orca sighed. "Balmung's not on right now, so I think I'll log off too. Say hi to BlackRose for me."

BlackRose. The name hit through his ears like a gunshot, as he'd nearly forgotten they were to meet soon. He barely heard his own halfhearted farewell to his friends as they left the party and teleported out of the dungeon. Dizzying questions and emotions flooded his mind, not the least of which was, How do I tell her about this? I told her it was finally over... and Orca, too... everybody. What's happening?

Alone, Kite found no solace, and not even the pretense of an answer. His thoughts, despondent, led to nowhere useful. He swallowed, cleared his throat, and started to rifle through his own inventory. Procuring a sprite ocarina, he confirmed his choice and, with a simple tone audible only to him, the cavern around him began to melt and fade away.

In the blackness of a loading screen, Hiroshi straightened his posture and took a deep breath. All right, relax. Calm down, Hiro. We've all been through this before, this and much worse. You're not alone in this. You've got Yasu, and Akira, and Dean. We can do this. We don't know what it is now, but we will. Just stay calm, okay?

His mental encouragement helped a touch. The tension in his stomach had yet to give, but his resolve was bolstered with the knowledge of experience; the fact that he had indeed faced much worse, and with much less.

He smiled, just a little, as the city of Dun Loireag started to appear before him. It'll be all right, somehow, he assured himself.

The chime of a message, however, brought him back to earlier thoughts, of separation and parting ways and moving on; thoughts that were not so easily dispelled with a simple pick-me-up.

From: BlackRose "Hey! I'm on Lambda Server, meet me by the grunty farm!"

She cleared her throat and pursed her lips, forcing air between them in a cruel mockery of a whistle. Try as she may, no position of lips, teeth and tongue seemed to do the trick, to turn a simple exhalation into a high-pitched noise. A stupid, silly little thing, and yet she found herself vexed by this inability.

Ugh, forget it, she silently grumbled, leaning back against the stone wall that lined the street-slash-bridge beneath her.

The warrior looked only a few days into her teens, which wasn't far from the truth. Pinks, purples and reds dominated her outfit and attire: the pink, her short, unkempt hair, blowing wildly in a strong breeze from across the bay; the red, the few spiky scraps of armor that strategically covered her slight chest, thin hips and arms from the elbows down; the purple, rose-patterned leggings, pulled tight against her tanned, tattooed skin. Her high boots and the ridiculously massive sword over her shoulder shared various shades of white, in stark contrast to the rest of her outlandish outfit.

A spear-wielding character ran past her, stopping to very obviously take a brief, closer look at the Heavy Blade fighter. She had but to throw him a curt glare to send him scampering off.

Pervert. There were times when the player wished she could add more equipment to her character's appearance.

The server hub around her was gradually shifting to night, digital sun setting over the roofs of tall, brick-and-mortar buildings; tenements, shops, and background filler. Lights popped on in windows near and far, while streetlights began to shine upon the main broadway that held the server's gate . The city's shops, too, lit up for the evening, propping up magical torches and lanterns alongside their stalls. The last glimmers of sunlight bounced dimly off the surface of the water, the sun's unblinking eye slowly drooping shut.

BlackRose gazed straight up at the orange and purple sky above her, hearing a trio of footsteps dash past her to the nearby grunty pens; a farm for cowlike creatures capable of carrying adventures in the field, if properly raised.

I never did mess with that too much without Kite. She leveled her gaze, glanced up the street, and smiled. And speaking of which...

"Hey, BlackRose!" the short, aqua-haired Twin Blade called as he jogged over to her, a smile on his face as well.

The Heavy Blade stood up and started towards him, her smile growing. As he reached her, the two parted arms and embraced, hugging each other tightly. "Hey, you," she replied in a faux-casual voice.

Kite laughed a bit and loosened his hold on her. "How are you tonight?"

She did likewise, letting her hands linger a bit with his before falling to her sides; a small gesture, but most certainly intentional. Self-conscious around others, the Heavy Blade couldn't help but relax in the presence of her friend.

Boyfriend, her thoughts corrected. Her offline self giggled, careful not to let the action carry through to her character. "Pretty good, thanks. And you? How'd things go with Orca and Stolls?"

To her surprise, the boy's expression fell a bit; still good-natured, but no longer cheerful. "W-well," he stammered, trailing off awkwardly.

BlackRose blinked, curious and puzzled. "What's the matter? You did say you were going to check out that boss monster, were you? And that Dean was in town again?"

"Yeah... it's just..." Kite gulped, looking at his feet for a second before meeting her gaze. With unusual weight and worry to his words, he said, "BlackRose... we ran into a data bug."

Two words and an awkward phrase; evidence of a baffling and frightening mystery that tied them both to the game, that put them on the same path. Two words, and it all came back. Akira, the player, shivered despite the slightly humid air of her bedroom, and the action duplicated itself on her character. "A... a-are you sure??" she asked, almost begged, her mind pulled in several directions, none of them welcome.

"We destroyed it," said Kite, with an implicit 'but' in his tone. "Then we found another player, and she said she saw one too."

"Another one?" BlackRose gasped, even as a tiny portion of her bristled at the word 'she'. The Heavy Blade quickly gathered her scattered thoughts, and came up with questions almost instantly. "What happened? Did someone mention it on the boards? Were you guys okay? Did you tell the admins about this??"

"It's okay, it's okay," he tried to assure her, "we were fine. Dean said he'd contact Lios after he left, and this other player said she sent a message to the admins too. But we don't know what's going on. Balmung said the monster was a test boss for a new class."

"I heard about that, too," said BlackRose. "I... I can't believe it, though. I thought they were all gone."

Kite glanced to his left, nervously avoiding her eyes. "So did we. I'm waiting to hear where the other bug was spotted, and to hear back from Lios or the others."

Her own worries condensed and compacted deep inside her, and through sheer will she forced out anger instead of fear. "Damn it!" she hissed. "Are they ever going to get this stupid game working right?!"

The Twin Blade sighed, saying nothing. "Stupid... stupid," she repeated to herself. Her player's hands held onto the controller tightly, knuckles white and palms slick with sweat. "Doesn't make any sense."

Hiroshi recognized her outbursts as his own thoughts, given voice. "I know," he weakly commiserated.

"What do we," she began, but then corrected herself with an air of frustration. "Right, we don't know what to do."

"BlackRose," he said quietly, looking up again.

The female warrior tightened her fists, drawing a shaky breath. The very beginnings of tears started to sting the corners of her player's eyes. Kazu... no, not again. It won't happen again. Not again!

"Hey..."

Not again! It was over... we said it was over!

"Akira?" Hiroshi tried, softly.

She sniffed, exhaled. "We said it was over," she whispered.

Kite's chin quivered, just barely. "I know."

Akira sniffed again, locking eyes with the player within Kite. "Hiro..."

She almost didn't notice his hands touching hers. The Heavy Blade gently slid her hands up his arms and gripped the Twin Blade's vest, as if to anchor herself to him. "Will it be okay?" she asked in a small voice, expecting to 'feel' his arms wrap around her.

She was not disappointed. "It will," he repeated, tightening his hold on her. "Trust me."

The girl let out a small, contented noise. The boy sounded short on confidence, and she could tell he wasn't telling her everything that was on his mind. Still, she knew there was much more to him than words alone, and knew she could count on her companion and partner. "I do," she murmured, resting her head on his shoulder. More than you know, Hiro.

-

From: FMoritsu
To: DStollis
Subj: Warning

Things are more complicated than you know. I don't know what this business is with the data bugs, but I know what it may be related to. Come by my office tomorrow, I can tell you more in person.

- Lios

P.S. Prepare to arm yourself, if you aren't already.