Chapter 4

Amidst the sapphire clouds rolling in the sky, a flaming ball of rock hurtled towards the pillars of a stronghold where various voices could be heard.

"GET OUT!"

Seconds later the castle didn't exist anymore. Troops of Medusa's dark army closed around the wreckage and examined the rubble for any sign of movement.

"Sir, I don't think they survived!" one of the bat like creatures said to its commander.

"Good, however I want two scouts to remain behind just in case, we don't want Medusa thinking I'm incapable of killing a few mortals."

The minion saluted and turned around to a group of Primids lurking at a distance to the main army. The creature known as Zergu walked up to the red Primid who was the leader of the bunch.

"I want you to leave 5 Primids behind to make sure that there really are no survivors. If Medusa even hears about any mistakes not only will my commander be grilled for being terrible at his job, I will get killed so It's in my best...I mean, your best interest to kill any survivors..."

Zergu paused for a few moments, thinking about what he just said. All the others could do was stare at him in shock.

"That's not to say I think he's terrible at his job. No...no...no he's a great commander really," Zergu put up his hands as if he had just made a mistake, "Don't pay any attention to what I just said."

He breathed a sigh of relief and walked away as the red Primid started organising his group. In a few moments the army started leaving, the group of Primids at the back of the army walked oddly staying away from the Greap's and their incredibly sharp blades. Five Primids did stay behind; two giant Primids, two metal Primids and the red commander Primid.

"Alright boys, it looks like we're staying here for another hour, by then the army should have broken through the gates of Palutena's palace and victory will be ours!"

The Primids did an awkward cheer and positioned themselves for a long wait.

"Ugh...the NPC's talk a lot don't they?"

"Shh...they might hear you, and we need to figure out a plan, we can't stay under all this rubble until they leave. You heard the Primid; we would have failed the mission by then."

The first voice grew louder, "Oh come one...you don't think they can hear us, do you?"

"Shut Up!" Three voices said in unison.

"Who said that?" the Primid commander turned around and started walking towards the rubble looking for the source of the noise. "We have you surrounded!"

"Oh...I was wrong then, sorry..."

"Ugh...now what will we do?"

"I guess we can fight our way out?"

"Yea let's do that!"

"OK, 3...2...1..."

"Go!"

"Hey, I was going to say that!"

"Just come on out and fight!"

The Primid confused by all the talking had summoned the other four Primids and they had put themselves in a fighting stance. All of a sudden a small explosion pushed the 5 Primids away, when the smoke cleared a group of players were standing ready for action.

"Get them!" the Primid commander screamed.

As one of the Metal Primids, who didn't get pushed back as far, reached the first player, the screen changed into Smash Mode and the battle begun. The first player, dressed in a rough black and silver jacket, used her claw like hands to strike the first Primid. She jumped over the Primid with her black wings, giving her extra lift, to quickly scope the area. A giant Primid came close to attacking her when the next player jumped in.

"Careful Dominic, we wouldn't want you to get squashed now, would we?" a smartly dressed human appeared from behind the big Primid and knocked it over with a light kick.

"How many times do I have to tell you Prime, stop making little people jokes!" the girl almost screamed causing the nearby avatars to grasp their ears.

This gave an opportunity for another player to come in; however this player was on all fours, sprinting as fast as her legs would allow her.

"Seriously, stop shouting Dominic. My ears hurt and I think I'm starting to get a migraine."

The short white wolf pup with her one red paw paused to look at the giant Primids life and did something no one really expected her to do. The pup consumed the whole Primid and laid a blue box in its place.

"Girl, that is nasty!" a Cornerian male, walked into the battle area, dusting his jacket off.

He grabbed a pair of blasters and quickly took down one of the metal Primids. Using the opportunity to check the opponent's levels he wasn't shocked to see that they were even stronger than the mini-boss from the first mission. That alone was enough to warrant him making a mental note to find more information about the levelling system in this game.

"Guys, these Primids are level 9; even my upgraded blasters can't beat them in one hit. Be careful."

"You don't need to tell me twice!" Dominic said, jumping onto the giant Primid and causing it to topple over with a quick slash attack.

The rest of the battle was over before any of the players noticed.

"So what now?" the Cornerian asked.

"Simple, really...we go to the meeting point and wait for another group." Prime answered quietly

"And where is this point?" Dominic asked.

"How about just over there..." Kitori said, pointing with her paw just ahead of the group.

As she pointed a waypoint lit up for the others to see, one of the smarter functions this game had to offer. Some players had even reported that the game could create temporary waypoints by just describing the location over the microphone. The four looked on ahead to see a dip in the landscape where the road split into two, another group of players were already down there waiting for something to happen.

"Quick, before another group comes and pairs with them!"

Prime started sprinting off, only to be closely followed by the rest of his party. The group didn't come across any other enemies on the short trek down the hill to the crossroads. Prime was the first person to greet the other players.

"Hello, I'm Prime. Are you waiting to team up and finish this map?"

"Yes we are, you took your time!" a girl replied. "I'm Eclypse by the way, now can we skip intros and just get on with this?"

The rest of the party caught up in time to catch Eclypse' remark

"What's her problem?" Kitori asked.

"Don't ask, we are still trying to find out ourselves." Another person replied as the two groups initiated the double party feature, trading basic info with each other.

"So how do we go about and finish this?" Lucas asked, studying his new allies.

"Since the road splits in two, I guess we need two teams to go down each road." Matt answered, "also one road leads to a long ranged weapon. I'm guessing the lower road will and should be used by projectile people, stat bonuses and all that."

The group considered this and eventually split into two. However, since both parties didn't want to part from their original groups, Lucas and the rest of his team took the high path that would lead directly to the main army, whilst the others took the lower path to the weapon.

"Don't you think it would be better if we followed the advice of that player...um, Matt I think his name was?" asked Dominic.

"It was a valid point, however I don't trust them. Maybe their trying to split us up and PK our divided group. Did you not see that one guy, Lucas, he has an orange emblem on his profile?"

The others paused for a moment; none of them had even noticed what Prime pointed out. The group followed the path they were on and encountered three small groups of Primids. These were easily enough taken care of; however the last group dropped an item that surprised everyone.

"What's this?" Kitori asked out loud.

The group gathered around her to see a Level 3 Class Item called Heavens Descent. The item in question looked like a weapon of sorts however there was no blade to call it a sword; neither did it have any sort of holster to say that it was a gun. The description was also bare featuring nothing but three question marks. In fact the only thing they did notice was that the weapon had the Star Fox symbol next to it's name.

"I have no clue," the Cornerian replied.

"Since when did you ever have a clue Fang?" Kitori chuckled, causing the others to scoff slightly.

"Hey it's McShane to you! Anyway it seems only Space class characters can use this item so I'm calling dibs on it." there was no complaint from the others as Fang quickly added the item to his inventory.

A message appeared on Primes chat box making him moan slightly.

"Hey guys, the others are in position and are waiting for us to start out part. I think we need to hurry here."

Whilst the group made their way to the next checkpoint where the long range weapon was situated, Prime quickly sent a message back saying they would start shortly. The group arrived at the weapon that now looked more like a cannon, noticing that there was only room for one player to operate it, the group designated Fang as his class meant that the stat boost's would ensure some damage bonuses. Climbing into the cannon, Fang noticed several things about his view point. For one, he couldn't see his team mates anymore and secondly he was looking through a scope towards the main army nearing Palutena's Palace. The palace was situated on a sloped hill surrounded by rocky boundaries that players would most likely not be able to climb. There was also one path that the army could take leading to the palace which greatly slowed down the group and diminished the number of soldiers able to walk in a row. Fang also spotted the other group of players on a small rise above the army, moving silently with them waiting to strike.

"Prime can you still hear me?"

"Yep!"

"Send a message to the other group and relay the following. Wait until the second blast before attacking and don't move towards the back of the army unless you want to be bombarded with cannon fire."

"Alright, just typing...and sent!"

"Cool, thanks. I'm attacking now!"

The first shot from the cannon sailed through the air and missed the army by meters. However this halted all movement and gave the opportunity for the other group to get ready.

"Firing second shot now!"

The second shot hit the first three rows of the army, wiping them out completely. After this the players charged and started attacking aggressively. With a reload time of five seconds, Fang was able to keep a constant bombardment at the back of the huge army where some rather huge monsters were slowly making their way to the gates. The players surrounding the cannon were taking time to relax when a cut scene stopped them. The air quickly became dark as lightning struck the ground in three places. From those spots, metallic beings formed. They greatly resembled Captain Falcon, however their bodies were silver in colour rather than the bright colours that the F-Zero racers usually wore. Each one pointed at a different player and gained a fighting stance. The scene ended and a new objective appeared.

ENDLESS FIGHT – HOLD ENEMY BACK UNTILL ARMY IS DEFEATED

"Do we really have to fight endlessly?" Kitori complained, attempting to attack the Silver Falcon clone.

The swipe attack hit directly across the enemy's chest however it did little to push him back. Looking at the level of the enemy, Kitori noticed that the enemy was called a Bi-Tech Uni. It was also Level 1.

"Just Level 1?" the female choked out slightly frustrated.

"Are you saying we are fighting a single Level 1 enemy and our attacks are doing nothing?" Prime pondered.

Dominic was having a slightly easier job with Bi-Tech Uni then the others and was able to KO the enemy once; however it simply returned to the stage and continued fighting like nothing happened.

"Um...McShane, hurry up and win already! We're not going to last that long against these enemies."

"Huh?" Fang replied not noticing that his friends were fighting. "Oh, you're fighting back there. Well I can report that the army is half defeated. Also my shots are being limited; I only have 5 cannonballs left before I can't help anymore. I'll be using it for one of them giant metal Primids that refuse to go down quickly."

The other group of players were having a slightly easier time dealing with the Primids until a Level 2 Bi-Tech Uni landed in between the group causing them to fall over from the shockwave of the landing. This time the enemy had a life bar and was facing a group of players. Having only one shot left, Fang aimed carefully at Bi-Tech Uni and hoped that the others players would have the sense to move in time.

It was at this time that a huge electrical surge disrupted the whole game and caused the players to blank out.

It was very cold.

The thickness in the atmosphere around the players almost chocked their senses into submission. The feeling of one's very soul merging with a continuing stream of nothingness brought peace to the hearts of the player, if only for a moment. Death's hand was caressing the thread of fate that allowed these players to meet together and fight for one cause. Or in other words, the internet had gone haywire.

"What happened?" I asked, waking up from what felt like an eternal sleep.

Attempting to open my eyes, I saw nothing. That is to say all around me was the void of a powerful invisible force restricting my ability to see properly. I tried speaking, my voice echoing around me. The feeling of fear slowly creeping into my mind, infecting my sense of logic and defying my ability to think straight.

A voice, a sound, a figure.

For some reason I felt as if someone else was there. The presence of a powerful force all around me. My body screamed at me, telling me that we weren't safe and it was time to leave.

"What is happening?" I whispered, wondering why I was able to breathe let alone live in this void.

A flash of light emanated from behind me as I tried to turn around, however before I could fully see the source of light, my sight disappeared again.

"LUCAS!"

"HEY WAKE UP!"

"Geez...this guy's such an annoyance..."

I groaned, the voices of familiar people slowly waking him up.

Did I just fall asleep?

Perhaps I was expecting something else to happen, but when I opened my eyes to see the computer screen I couldn't help but feel disappointed.

"Hey...guys, did everyone else experience some weird vision or something?" I asked quietly, making the others gasp in anticipation.

"Seriously...does this always happen to you?" Kitori asked, her somewhat annoyed tone was perfectly replicated by the expression on her avatars face.

It was then that I just realised we were back in the quest hall, most likely because the quest had been finished.

"The others told us about your little episode last time," Eclypse added, "although now that we know you're ok can we move from here...it's a bit crowded?"

Just looking around, it was indeed true that there were tons of players in small groups waiting for one person or another so that they could start their quests. The amount of players in this one area alone caused a slowdown in-game and the area became slightly lag prone. It didn't take long for the group to travel to a quieter location. The new area they found was an Animal Crossing inspired map called Leafy Park. The group found a fountain with a statue of certain mole and decided to sit around it. I became curious why the other group of players that had joined us halfway through the quest was still here. However as soon as I asked the others seemed to either moan, gasp or chuckle.

"Noob," one of the voices said.

I was unsure who it was, but their tone sounded friendly enough that I just rolled my eyes and let it go.

"Haven't you noticed?" Matt said

"You've got all our loot!" Prime finished.

With a quick check of my inventory I confirmed what the others were saying. Under one of the taps in my inventory called Quest Items there was an slot that had the image of a bag, a question mark and piles of gold surrounding it. I clicked on the item and a window popped up asking if I wanted to share the loot now or later. Highlighting the "Now button" I decided to repeat the question I had asked earlier.

"Um...before I share the loot, I asked something before; did anyone else see something weird back there when everything went black?"

This time is was Dominic who answered.

"Are you sure you're not epileptic? All that happened was the game window went black and a flash of random textures appeared on screen before going back to normal. We finished the quest literally seconds later. "

As Dominic explained the group remained silent, all mentally coming up with their own theories about what had happened, then Reece spoke up.

"Well...Creed has been quite silent since you apparently woke up."

The system interpreted Reece's words and moved the avatars of everyone in the group to face Creed, he was thinking to himself, not paying attention to what was happening.

"I'm right next to him," Eclypse spoke out, "He's perfectly fine..."

"Actually...about that..." Creed said, his sudden low voice caused everyone to jump slightly. " I think I saw something too. There was this voice of sorts, very robotic and I was in a field of blue lights zipping about in a futuristic sense. The voice said that the chosen people are not all here yet. It also said something about an offering to something called HASEM ATARND. At least that's what I think it said. I'm not sure; maybe I just blanked out for a moment and imagined it?"

Creed chuckled a bit, seemingly trying to reassure himself that he imagined it.

"Seriously, that is enough," Kitori burst out. "All this supernatural, glitch, whatever nonsense is really getting on my nerves!"

Prime cut in to stop anything from developing further.

"Maybe Kitori is right. Just share the loot so we can separate, it's starting to get late where I am so I want to call it quits for today."

I sighed, quickly pressing the button to share the loot. A sound alerted the players that new items had dropped into their inventories. Also a few of the people around me had just gained enough experience to level up. After checking my own inventory I saw a new item called the Scope Glasses. It's item description stated it allowed a user to see further than before.

"Scope Glasses...I guess that's somewhat useful." I murmured aloud.

I quickly double tapped the screen of my phone, checking the time. Although it was early for the average MMO player I decided that it was late enough for me and that I needed the sleep, especially if I wanted to get a full day's worth of questing done tomorrow. Letting the others talk about their new items and unlocked abilities, I typed a message to all the nearby players, making sure to send friend request's so that I could find them again. I then quickly shut off the game, rushing through all the things I needed to do before I slept. Even before my head hit the pillow I knew that I wouldn't be able to stop thinking about the world of smash. It was strange indeed, I knew that I already had a strange attraction for the game, was it addiction? I couldn't say, but I would have to venture back into the online world of Smash if I wanted answers.