A/N I keep coming up with some weird ideas in my head for this story and I have no idea what I am going to do really. It is amazing and awful at the same time.

If you are wondering why I skipped the beta in the last chapter, just know that I have my reasons, I can't say more than that without giving out spoilers.

If anyone has any suggestions feel free to post them.

To the Guest who asked. Firstly I decided to have Kayaba be the one to show up in every game, does this mean he is the one and only game master? I don't know I guess you will have to find out. Second, The Final Generation is loosely based off the series The Darkest Minds.

Anyways onto chapter four, More Than a Game.


Last Time

Toxic and Argo had went around SAO seeing the differences between the official release and the beta. Once they got back to the starting place and were talking about the differences all of the players started getting teleported there. Once Toxic saw this he picked Argo up and placed her on his shoulders.

The sky suddenly started turning red and a red goo started seeping through and forming together. After a little bit the goo formed into a giant robed figure.

"Welcome everyone to Sword Art Online, I am Kayaba Akihiko, and you are all trapped in my world."

Everyone was talking now and some people were yelling.

"As you have noticed by now the log out button is not in your menu."

Toxic quickly checked as well as several others in the crowd. He was right there was no log out button.

"This is not a bug or a glitch, this is a feature of Sword Art Online. You are not allowed to log out and if anyone from the outside tries to take off your headgear it will send a microwave pulse frying your brain."

Toxic wasn't sure if it could really do that, but he didn't want to find out.

"The only way to leave is to clear all 100 levels of Aincrad. Once at least one person does this I will allow everyone to leave."

Toxic as well as most of the beta testers knew that would take a while.

"Now for some extra knowledge. If you die in the game you die in real life. Once you reach level 15 you will gain the powers you would have gained in The Final Generation. If you need proof that you will die if you remove the head gear, here."

He pulled up several screens showing various news channels covering stories of people having their brains fried by the headgear being removed.

"Also I have a gift for everyone."

Everyone checked their inventories and took out the new item causing anyone who had customized their looks to look like their true selves.

"With that I will be going."

Before he could leave Toxic jumped on top of the fountain in the beginning area.

"Wait! When we complete this game are we allowed to move on to another game and help them complete it?"

The figure seemed surprised by the question.

"If that is what you want then I will allow it. Though you will not be able to choose the game. Now if that is all I will be leaving"

With that the figure dissipated and the sky returned to normal. While everyone was panicking Toxic took off leaving out of town.

"Where are we going Toxic?" Argo asked.

"We need to head to the next town and get some better weapons quickly. Normally taking a while to get them would be okay, but I can't take the chance of sub par players getting them. We can use them more efficiently. Also I need you to be investing more points into personality, finesse, and luck. You can be the more sneaky and as you said my eyes and ears while I can be the offensive one."

Argo just tapped his head in understanding as they continued running. He quickly took down the weak enemies as he ran, allowing Argo to get the last hit if possible.


After Kayaba Left From SAO - Muse and Raven

Both Muse and Raven had decided on both becoming Undine since they were both supportive types and so they could be near each other from the start. After they had surveyed everything and compared the differences between the official release and the beta the sky turned red and a giant robed figure appeared above their town.

"Welcome everyone to Alfheim Online, I am Kayaba Akihiko, and you are all trapped in my world."

This caused hysteria among many people and Muse and Raven looked at each other.

"As some of you have noticed there is no log out button in your menu. This is not a bug or a glitch, this is a feature of Alfheim Online The only way to log out is to complete the game."

Many people checked to see if there was a log out button, including Muse and Raven.

"If someone on the outside takes your headgear off your brain will be fried by a microwave pulse. For proof of this look at these."

Giant screens with videos of news channels covering stories of people's brains being fried appeared in the air.

"The only way to clear the game is to get to the top of the giant tree in the center of the map. This will prove more difficult than you think."

Everyone was dealing with it better than SAO since it shouldn't be to hard.

"Now for some bonus knowledge. If you die in the game you die in real life. And once you reach level 15 you will gain the powers you would have gained in The Final Generation."

Now that changed things. Not being able to die would make people play more defensively and make things take longer.

"Also before I go, you should know that if another of the games is completed the people of that game can choose to be randomly sent to another game to help everyone. You can thank Mr. tall, dark, and handsome for this."

A video of Toxic asking his question popped up making both Muse and Raven smile.

"Now, I have a gift for everyone, check your inventories."

Everyone did as he said and pulled out a mirror that changed all of their appearances to their real bodies.

"And with that I will be going, good luck."

Kayaba dissipated and the sky returned to normal.

It didn't take long for the situation to sink and for a lot of people to freak out.


After Kayaba Left AHO - Ares and Death

Once Ares and Death got into the game they started looking out for changes that had happened since the end of the beta.

The world of Story Book of Horrors was a dark one to say the least. It had eternal nightfall and the moon changed it's phase every eight hours. The starting city itself looked like a version of 1800's England.

Also while the game wasn't extremely hard, the amount of gore and blood could definitely take its toll on someone. While in the beta no one could figure out what the end goal of the game was. What most people did was go out and hunt or do missions for various high ranking crime syndicates.

The missions were very odd. Unlike most MMO's the same one usually couldn't be repeated, but multiple people could take it at once. The reason for this is that most missions were assassination type missions. There were even some torturing type missions you could get if you wanted.

The classes you could choose from were Vampire, Werewolf, Incubus/Succubus, Banshee, Demon, Asura, Troll, Goblin, and the most dangerous class to play being Exorcist. Exorcist were the strongest class, but they were also in the most danger since they had to fight against the other classes most of the time.

Ares and Death had decided on being Asuras so they could grow six arms for a certain amount of time. The amount of time increased with their level and their amount of mana. (If you are wondering what the fuck an Asura is just look up the game Asuras Wrath. The main character is an Asura. Or the Asura Path of Pain from Naruto he is based off of an Asura.)

While they were talking about the changes they had noticed and debating what time they should leave, the sky started turning red and red goo started dripping from the sky.

It slowly formed together into a large robed figure.

"Hello and welcome everyone, I am Kayaba Akihiko, and you are trapped in my world of Story Book of Horrors."

Of course this got the usual reaction from a lot of the players, but more of them than the other games remained calm since this was a much more mature title.

"Don't bother trying to log out you have no feature labeled as such in your menu. This is not a bug or a glitch as some of you are hoping this is a feature of all of these MMO's."

This caused quite a few more people to freak out and Ares and Death looked at each other.

"Also if someone from the outside tries to take the headgear off and log you out your brain will be fried from a microwave pulse. For further proof of this look at all of these."

Several giant screens appeared in the air showing various news channels covering various stories of people's brains being fried. Seeing this caused most of the players to either scream, breakdown, or cry.

"The only way to log out is to clear the game, and you are all probably wondering how you do that. I will give you a hint."

Everyone who hadn't had a mental breakdown was now paying very close attention.

"What you seek to destroy claims to be the destroyer of evil, but throughout history they have been shown to be the embodiment of evil. You must destroy all that have also shown this."

Now that was an odd clue, but some sort of clue was better than none.

"Now for some extra information. You will gain the powers you would have in The Final Generation at level 15. Also if you think you can just throw yourself a things, think again. If your health ever reaches zero in the game, you die in real life."

Now that caused some pandemonium among the players.

"Everything is not bad though, you will eventually be receiving some help courtesy of this young gentlemen."

When Ares and Death saw the clip of Toxic they high-fived for some god damn reason.

"Now before I go I have a gift for everyone, look in your inventories."

Everyone did and soon everyone was changing into their real life bodies.

"Now your petty facades have been destroyed, and with that I will say my farewell."

Kayaba dissipated into the air and Ares and Death looked at each other trying to figure a plan out.


After Kayaba Left SBH - Monkey and Angel

The world of The Final Generation was an interesting one to say the least. The starting city looked similar to what an outpost would in a post apocalyptic world, but it wasn't in a desert it was in the ruins of a destroyed city.

Another odd thing was there wasn't any real kind of customizing once you started the game aside from appearance. No one even the beta testers didn't know why since they had never gotten powers in the beta either.

Aside from that the main enemies in the game were all robots. None of them had guns of any kind, except for maybe shooting knives or darts, most everyone figured it was because they couldn't waste power.

Aside from those things it seemed like a fairly normal MMO all things considered.

While Monkey and Angel talked about the changes they noticed from the beta the sky suddenly completely cleared before turning red. As everyone looked up towards the sky red goo started dripping from the sky and forming together.

After two minutes of this a giant robed figure formed from the goo.

"Hello and welcome everyone to The Final Generation, I am Kayaba Akihiko, and you are all trapped in the world."

Cliche screams and shouts were heard from all over.

"There is no log out button in your menu, this is not any bug or glitch of any kind, this is a feature of the new VRMMO's. You are not allowed to log out."

Even more screams and shouts and now some people were crying, fucking pansies.

"You cannot be logged out and if someone tries to remove your headgear from the outside and force log you out your brain will be fried by a microwave pulse. For further proof of this look at these."

Once people saw the news stories some stopped screaming, whether it was because they toughened up or passed out we will never know.

"The only way to log out of the game is to complete it by overthrowing the world government of this world. But after going through the other MMO's I have decided it will be in your best interest to wait a while. You will eventually be receiving help, and you can thank sleek and slender here."

Some of the girls swooned over Toxic and Monkey and Angel were smiling like crazy.

"Now for some other information. Once you reach level 15 you will gain your powers, you will have no idea what they will be or what will happen when you get them until then. And if you die in the game, you die in real life."

Most people focused on the first piece of info, but Monkey took notice of the first. That explained why they never had powers in the beta. They never actually were allowed to go to level 15 they stopped once fully leveled through level 14.

"Now that I am done I shall be going, remember you should probably wait on reinforcements, but you do not have to."

With that Kayaba dissipated and the sky returned to normal.


Back With Toxic and Argo - Right After Kayaba finished with The Final Generation

They had finally reached the second town after almost two hours of constant running and Toxic was level three and Argo was almost to level three as well. Once they were in the town Toxic slowed down slightly.

"Hey Argo send a friend request to me and a request to sync are inventories. It will be easier to have them synced."

Argo tapped his head in understanding and quickly found those options sending the request to Toxic. He quickly accepted them.

"Okay now invite me to a party with you."

She did just that and they were now in a party.

"Good, now check are inventories and tell me what we have so far."

It took her a few minutes before she finally was finished checking it all.

"We have eight boar tusk, eleven boar hides, twelve wolf fangs, nine wolf pelts, fifteen slabs of pork, and about 12,000 credits."

Toxic just nodded thinking about what they had. It was a good start if nothing else.

"Okay we will grab the quests for the weapons we need now, do you remember where your's is?"

She tapped his head once for yes and he stopped and took her off his shoulders placing her on the ground.

"Okay be quick and grab the quest, hopefully it still gives the same thing. Don't let anyone who might look like a player see you, I doubt anyone else is here yet, but we can't be to careful. Meet me at the west side of town."

She nodded and quickly ran off into the shadows. Toxic ran his hand through his hair while trying to remember the location of his quest giver. It took him almost five minutes to remember.

"Oh yes it was the potion vendor I believe."

He quickly ran off to find her and get the quest. It took him a little bit longer than expected because her shop had been moved he walked up to her stall.

"Hello, do you have a quest for me?"

She smiled and nodded before he received a quest notification. It asked him to collect five ginseng herbs and he would receive either a serrated long-sword or a studded bo staff. He quickly accepted the quest and ran off to meet up with Argo. It took about ten minutes to get there.

Once he got there he looked around for her.

"It might have taken her a little longer because her quest was somewhere different."

He decided to sit down against a building and wait.

After waiting for thirty minutes he was starting to worry so he stood up. As he was about to start looking he saw something coming out of the shadows of the alley close to him.

"Sorry Toxic, I had to go around a group of guys and it took longer than I expected."

Toxic walked up to her and put her on his shoulders.

"Its fine I'm just glad you are safe. So what do you need for your quest?"

"Five Midnight Wolf pelts. They group around ginseng herbs during the night."

"Well that's convenient, I need five ginseng herbs for my quest."

With that they head off into the woods looking looking for the herbs and wolves. At first they weren't sure how to find them until they heard howling and quickly headed towards it.

Once they reached it they saw a pack of five, black wolves surrounding some glowing herbs near a pond.

"They look like they won't be easy. I really only have one idea." Toxic said.

"What would that be?" Argo asked.

"Do you have any poison knives?"

"Yes I bought some while I was out just in case."

Toxic took her and placed her on the ground.

"Okay hide in the shadows and I'm going to go in, while they are focused on me hit each one of them with a poison knife. I don't like it very much either, but people will start showing up to get the weapons as well and we can't waste time."

She lowered her head in submission and darted into the shadows. Toxic turned to the wolves who had finally noticed he was there.

Toxic slammed the staff onto the ground gaining their attention they slowly started walking towards him and slowly circled him.

He looked around and when the first wolf attacked he knocked it back. He did this for several minutes, playing defensively and allowing Argo poison each of them. Now that all of them were slowed he started fighting offensively.

While he was taking them out a larger wolf was sneaking up on Argo.

Once Toxic took the last one down he looked over at Argo and was about to tell her to come out when he noticed the large wolf that Argo was staring at. Quickly thinking he threw his staff up and kicked it at the wolf impaling it through a tree.

He walked over to Argo and helped her up.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes I'm fine."

She seemed a little upset about being a burden so he ruffled her hair.

"Hey perk up, we just started the game so of course your skills aren't very high."

She smiled at him and held up her arms to be picked up. He did and then he walked over to grab the ginseng root.

"There now we can get our weapons. Did we get anything else from the wolves aside from their pelts?"

She quickly checked their inventories as he ran towards the town.

"It seems like we got some Midnight Fangs, I don't think they were in the beta."

"They're probably smithing items, we can look into them later. Also we should look into are levels once we have a place to stay for the night."

She just tapped his head in acknowledgement.

"Where was your quest at?"

She pointed in the direction for him and they quickly came to a blacksmith. Toxic quickly handed him the five pelts and took the serrated daggers handing them to Argo before heading towards the potion vendor.

"Check and make sure they are like they were in the beta."

She did and read the stats and description.

"Yes they do. Caused enemies to bleed with each hit slowly stacking damage over time. Bleed last thirty seconds."

Toxic just nodded, that was good. He was worried the weapons would be different or just not as good. It took less than five minutes to reach the potion vendor who he handed the ginseng to and chose the staff.

He walked away twirling it around making sure it was like he remembered.

"Is it like the beta version?"

"The outside is, but the real thing that matters is,"

He grabbed both ends of the staff and pulled it apart turning it into two bastardized short swords.

"This. Yeah it looks like its exactly how I remember."

He put it together and looked at it for a moment. It looked like a normal staff on the outside aside from the 1 feet of studded metal on the end.

"Okay now that we have our weapons we can rest at an inn. I don't know if we need to sleep, but we can find out."

They walked slowly this time, not in as much of a rush anymore. As they walked he felt Argo rest her chin on his head.

"Toxic, why do you think Kayaba trapped everyone in their games?"

Toxic sighed and patted her on the head.

"Honestly I couldn't tell you. He might have a God Complex, maybe he has an inferiority complex, maybe its a combination of various things, or maybe he just felt like it. I have a hard time understanding others as it is, so understanding someone I've never really met is nigh impossible."

"Why did you bring me with you, you could do so much more without me?"

Toxic was slightly surprised by the question.

"It is more useful to have someone else to be your eyes and ears so I don't have to worry as much about those skills. Aside from that I could never live with myself if I left you on your on."

Argo didn't respond and within a few minutes they were at an inn. Toxic walked up to the lady at the counter.

"Hello, I need a two bed room."

"Okay, that will be 500 credits a night."

Toxic handed the money over and then headed to their room. Once inside he placed Argo on her bed.

"Okay let's look at our stats now."

They both looked at their stats screen, both of them were level three so they had 20 attribute points, but they both had a message on their screens.

For Toxic it said "Based on your real life mind and body you are given plus 30 points to Intelligence and plus 15 points to Willpower and Personality."

For Argo it said "Based on your real life mind and body you are given plus 30 points to Finesse and plus 15 points to Luck and Personality."

"Well that is interesting," Argo commented.

Toxic couldn't help but agree, normally you started out with 20 points in everything. Considering this he put 5 points into Athletics and Endurance and 10 points into Vitality.

Argo put 10 points into Athletics and 5 points into Endurance and Athletics.

Both of them just stood there allowing their bodies to adjust.

"That still feels really weird," Argo said after a few minutes.

Adding attribute points had even felt strange in the beta, but that had felt slightly different.

"What are we going to do tomorrow, Toxic?"

He sat down on his bed and thought about it, he had been so focused on today he hadn't put to much thought into it.

"We should spend the next two or three days leveling, depending on how well we do. After that you should spend a few days getting information and building up your reputation as an information broker. Hopefully people in the Town of Beginnings grabbed the Player Guides. While you do that I'll be out looking for materials to upgrade are weapons. They might not go past plus 5 like the Anneal Blade, but the effects make up for that."

She nodded and took off her cloak before laying down.

"Goodnight Toxic."

"Goodnight Argo."


Four Days Later

Toxic and Argo had spent the last three days leveling and acquiring items and after the third day Toxic felt like they were leveled enough so Argo could start building up her reputation as a info broker.

Toxic was currently in the woods killing different enemies looking for materials to upgrade Argo and his weapons. He was slightly worried about Argo since she didn't have much reputation so some idiots might bother her, but he'd just have to trust her.

As far as he knew in every one of the VRMMO's you could upgrade weapons by collecting certain materials and taking them to a smith. The catch was that it could fail and was more likely the higher you upgrade it. Also at these early levels you could only upgrade weapons to plus 5. That was why the Anneal Blade was so sought after, it was one of the very few weapons on the first level you could upgrade to plus 10. He didn't really want it though since it didn't have very much range and he preferred weapons such as staffs that required two hands, but not because of strength, but more for control purposes.

As he killed the last normal wolf in the area he decided to head into the city and check on Argo, they should be able to upgrade both of their weapons 3 times.

Since you could get a new skill every five levels, once Argo and himself had reached level five they both got the skill Tracking, which allowed you to get a general idea of quest objective locations and where your party members were.

Toxic quickly went through the menu and chose the Tracking skill causing his eyes to appear green to anyone who looked and he saw the world with a green glow. He saw where Argo was and it looked like it was near the cent of town so he slowly started walking there.

He preferred to walk with his bo staff behind his neck and put your arms over it, it just felt comfortable even if he never saw anyone walk like that, everyone always seemed so stiff and stressed. If he had Argo on his shoulders then he would just let it sit in her lap which got them a couple of weird looks, but he didn't care.

He walked into the center of town and saw Argo.


With Argo A Few Minutes Earlier

Argo had been seeing if anyone wanted to know something in the game for money and she had been doing fairly well when four players walked up to her.

They were the same guys from the Arc Net who had been trying to take her stuff. When they noticed who she was they all walked up to her.

"Well if it isn't the little rat girl. Where's your knight in shining armor? Did he leave you for a better girl?"

Argo had always been self conscious of her birth marks that looked like whiskers on her face. She had been happy that none of the SDS had bothered her about it.

"No he's out getting materials. He'll be back soon."

The minions seemed slightly scared by this, but the leader just snorted.

"Yeah right, you're probably just saying that because he left you all alone."

Argo looked really mad at this, Toxic wouldn't leave her, would he? She had been questioning why he would keep her around and she still didn't understand it.

"Now give us all of your stuff or else will force you to duel us."

Now Argo was a little worried until her eyes widened confusing all of them.

All of the punks were confused until the leader and the guy to his left felt arms around them and they looked to see who it was.

"How is it going guys?"

Yeah, it was Toxic himself.

"You treating Argo here nicely?"

All of them looked nervous now.

"Of course we were just talking, that's all," the leader said.

"Well that's good I hate for something to get started over a misunderstanding."

"Yeah that'd be bad. Come on guys we should get going."

With that they all started leaving. While they were leaving Toxic looked around at all the people, most of them looked ashamed of not helping. He couldn't really blame them though, they were just looking out for themselves.

Once they were gone he helped Argo up and ruffled her hair.

"You okay Argo?"

She nodded and looked a little sad. Toxic layed his staff down and knelt in front of her.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

He lifted her chin so she would look at him.

"I'm just scared that you're going to leave me or not come back one day."

"Come on I'm not going anywhere without you I promise. Now stiffen that upper lip little soldier."

(Bonus points to anyone who can tell me who I got that from. I will give you all a hint. It is a song and is one of the few songs this artist has ever made that doesn't contain a single curse word.)

He smiled at her and she smiled back. He stood up and placed her on his shoulders. He placed the staff in her lap before he started walking.

"Now with what we've collected we should be able to upgrade our weapons some. How much money did you manage to get today?"

"I got about 20,000 or so. I could have got a bit more, but those guys came around."

She sounded a little upset.

"Hey its fine, 20,000 is pretty good for your first day. I wasn't expecting to much since people like to know you can get the info before paying for it."

She leaned forward placing her chin on his head.

"If you say so."

"Oh yeah if you don't mind I've been meaning to ask you where you live Argo?"

Argo seemed slightly surprised by the question.

"I use to live in Japan, but three years ago my father had to move to Los Angeles for business. I've been living there ever since. Why do you ask?"

"I was just wondering because you look Asian, but you speak English very well."

"What about you Toxic, where do you live?"

"That is a very long story, I'll tell you the full version later, but the short version is I live in New York City."

"Oh okay, do all of SDS live there?"

"Yeah we just started living there recently. Isn't this the player blacksmith?"

Argo looked up at the store and nodded. Toxic ducked through the door and walked inside.

Right after they walked in a pink haired girl walked in from the back.

"Hello, welcome to Lisbeth's Blacksmith shop."

She looked up to the strange sight of Toxic with Argo on his shoulders.

"Hey," Argo decided to speak first.

They were all just kind of looking at each other for a moment.

"Yeah so what do you need?"

Toxic grabbed his staff and Argo handed him her daggers to place on the counter.

"We need both of these upgraded 3 times. Can you do it?"

"I could, but you'd be better off going to an NPC blacksmith at this point."

"No, we'd rather have you do it so that someone besides us can get some benefit from it even if it fails. If an NPC does it was pointless if it fails," Argo answered.

Lisbeth was surprised by this, but wasn't going to turn them down.

"Okay, but sorry in advance if it doesn't work. Do you have the materials?"

Toxic quickly went through his inventory to find what she needed and handed them to her.

"Will these be enough?"

She quickly looked over all of them before nodding.

"This should be plenty to upgrade both 3 times. Again apologies if it doesn't work."

Toxic and Argo just waved it off.

"I'm sure you'll do fine," Toxic said.

Argo smiled at her and Lisbeth smiled back. Maybe she could do it.

She quickly got to work upgrading both of them three times each.

"I did it, amazing."

Toxic handed Argo her daggers and grabbed his staff and briefly twirled it before placing it back in Argo's lap.

"I knew you could. Now how much for the upgrades."

"I usually charge 2,000 per an upgrade, but since you had six done I'll only charge 10,000."

Toxic quickly grabbed some money from his inventory and handed it to her. She looked surprised when she looked inside.

"This is 15,000, you don't have to pay that much."

"It is fine. That's how much the other blacksmiths would have charged even if it failed so I owe at least that much."

Lisbeth looked like she wanted to argue, but Toxic wouldn't have it.

"Fine, I won't argue. Is that everything you need?"

"For now, we might need something later."

"Well you are welcome back anytime."

Toxic nodded before he walked out, before he was out Argo looked back at Lisbeth.

"Bye Liz see you later."

Argo waved at her and Liz waved back. Once they were gone Liz sighed.

"Well they were interesting and kind of nice."


Three Days Later

Toxic had told Argo to spread word of a meeting going on in the town of beginnings to take on the first floor boss that would be taking place in a week. While she was doing that he was heading over to Liz's. They had already gotten their weapons to plus 5 the day before.

He walked inside and saw her sitting at the counter. When she saw Toxic she stood up and smiled.

"Hey Toxic how are you? Where is Argo?"

"I'm fine and she's spreading word of the meeting to take on the first floor boss in a week. We were going to head out to the first city later today and were wondering if you wanted to come."

Liz thought about it for a moment.

"I think I'll stay around here for a little bit and then go to the second floor once the boss is cleared."

"Okay I was just going to offer. I'll see you later Liz be careful."

As he walked out she responded.

"You to and take care of Argo."

He just waved back at her and walked out into the street. He activated tracking and looked around for where Argo would be. He finally spotted a trail leading to roughly the center of town and started heading that way.

Once he arrived in the center of town he saw Argo talking to some people. He walked over to them.

Argo didn't notice Toxic so he picked her up and placed her on his shoulders surprising the people she was talking to and her.

"Oh hey Toxic, I was just talking to Klein here and his friends about the meeting."

Toxic looked at Klein who was around 21 and had red hair and some scruff on his face. He had three friends with him.

"Toxic? You wouldn't happen to be... no there's no way its the same one."

Toxic raised an eyebrow before realizing what he was talking about.

"Oh you're wondering if I'm Toxic the leader of the Seven Deadly Sins. Yes, yes I am."

All of the group were just starring. Klein finally spoke up.

"Wow, really. Man you are a fucking legend. Are you going to be helping take on the first boss?"

"That is the plan. Are you four coming to the meeting in a week?"

"We were debating it before, but knowing you're coming we definitely come now."

Klein held out his hand and Toxic shook it.

"Good, any help is welcomed. See you in a week Klein."

"Yeah you to."

With that they separated.

"Do you want to go ahead and head to the Town of Beginnings or wait till tomorrow?"

Argo leaned forward and thought about it.

"Let's go ahead and go there. We don't really have anything to do here anyways."

Toxic just shrugged and started walking that way, not in near as much of a hurry as last time.

"Toxic, do you have any siblings?"

Toxic seemed to go rigid at the question.

"No, except for Monkey who I consider a brother. I'll tell you the full story later, but just not now."

Argo just nodded and leaned forward resting.

After about thirty minutes he could tell she had fallen asleep causing him to smile slightly.


1 Week Later - The Meeting

The place where everyone was meeting was at what looked like an ancient amphitheater. Toxic had talked to someone he knew from the beta the day before named Diabel who had agreed to be the person overseeing the meeting.

As he sat on the top row of seats he looked around at the people. There was probably close to fifty people in the stands. He recognized a few of them such as Klein and his group, Agil a part time merchant he met in the beta, and Diabel who was at the very front standing in front of everyone.

Diabel was a fairly tall blue haired man at about 5'10" and was playing a shield and sword style. Agil was a tall man at about 6'2" and was one of the few black people he saw in the game, even though his appearance was intimidating he was usually pretty nice and tried to help new players.

"Welcome everyone, as some of the more experienced players we are obliged to show the others that this game is beatable. Is that agreeable?"

Soon everyone shouted yes.

"Good, my name is Diabel. A scouting party has discovered the lair of the boss room."

This got a lot of people talking.

"We need to defeat the boss to show people this game is beatable. Once we do more people will start helping out and we can clear the game much quicker."

Everyone in the audience agreed with him.

"Good then to start everyone divide into parties."

While everyone was getting into parties Argo was looking around and spotted someone by them self.

"Hey Toxic can she be in our party at least for this fight?"

Toxic looked over at this person before shrugging.

"Send her an invite."

Argo smiled before sending the person an invite. After a few seconds the person looked around and Argo waved at her. The mystery girl shyly waved back and accepted the invite.

"Good now that everyone is in their parties we..."

Before he could finish someone interrupted him.

"Just a second!"

Everyone looked up to see a guy with orange hair who quickly jumped down the seats to stand next to Diabel.

"My name is Kibaou. And before we do the boss fight I want to say something."

A lot of the people were wondering what he wanted to stay.

"Some of you here need to apologize to the two thousand who have died so far."

(Half the time and twice as many people so it evens out. If you never watched Sword Art Online then in SAO there was 10,000 people instead of 20,000 like I have and it took a month to have the meeting instead of two weeks.)

"Kibaou are you talking about the beta testers?" Diabel asked.

"Of course I am. The day this all started the beta testers left us newbies here and took off to get all of the good loot. I think they should apologize and give up all of their loot to us."

At this Agil stood up from his spot and walked down to where Diabel and Kibaou were.

"So you are saying all of the beta testers should apologize and give up everything they have acquired since the beginning of the game? Did I leave anything out?"

Kibaou stared at him for a second before responding.

"No that is correct."

Agil turned to the crowd pulling out a small book.

"This is a player guide that was given out by the vendors all over the first level. The information in here was provided by beta testers. In fact the four beta testers who provided the most information to this are here right now. They are Diabel, Toxic, Argo, and myself," he said pointing at the respective people.

Everyone looked at all of the people who he pointed at. Diabel stepped up at this.

"On top of that this meeting was organized by Argo and Toxic up there."

Toxic just sat there and raised an eyebrow and Argo waved at everyone who looked up at them.

"Why would you do that?" Kibaou asked Toxic.

Toxic looked at him for a second before answering.

"Many reasons. It is easier to clear the game with more people, I want to clear this as soon as possible, and I don't really want unnecessary killing of people. Take your pick of the reason."

Kibaou just huffed and sat down on the stands. Agil quickly sat back down where he was.

Diabel held up a guide book.

"The guide also tells us about the first boss. His name is Illfang the Kobold Lord. He has an axe and buckler. He has four health bars and once he hits red he changes to a talwar and his attack patterns change. He is also guarded by Ruin Kobold Sentinels."

He closed the book and put it away.

"Lastly, if you get an item you keep it, Exp goes to the party that kills the boss, and gold will be distributed equally. With that we will be leaving at 10 in the morning."

With that everyone got up to leave.


The Following Morning

Toxic and Argo were walking near the back of the group next to girl named Asuna. They only knew that because they were in the same party.

"Since we are a smaller party we are going to be taking down the sentinels. You and Argo are going to attack them after I parry their strikes so they are vulnerable."

Asuna nodded at the plan and they walked silently. It took them roughly an hour to clear through the dungeon and they finally reached the boss room.

They stopped at the boss door and Diabel turned to everyone.

"Okay everyone we know the plan. Parties A, B, and C are going to be the main fighters against the boss and D, E, and F take down the sentinels."

They all agreed and Diabel pushed the door open. The room lit up and Illfang the Kobold Lord jumped down into the center of the room and his minions materialized. Illfang was a giant, fat, red dog demon and his sentinels were smaller versions with armor.

"A, B, and C charge!" Diabel yelled.

A ran up and blocked his first swing while B and C attacked him.

"D, E, and F protect us from the sentinels."

Toxic parried two sentinels and Asuna and Argo destroyed them.

This continued for several minutes before his health went into the red and he threw away his axe and shield.

"I'll take him from here guys," Diabel said.

Toxic looked over and saw Diabel about to take the boss down. Normally he wouldn't have been worried because Diabel could pretty easily finish him.

That being if had a talwar, but he didn't. As Diabel got close to the boss Toxic realized this.

"Diabel that isn't a talwar, its a no-dachi."

Before Diabel could retreat he was hit once by the boss, halving his health. The boss was about to finish it when it got a sword to the shoulder courtesy of Toxic.

"Damn ugly mutt."

Toxic kicked the other half of his staff towards Illfang hitting his other shoulder and immobilizing his arms.

"Argo!"

"Got it."

Argo jumped up beside Toxic and he kicked right at her feet sending her flying towards the boss. She shot passed him taking his head off and killing him.

"You okay Argo?" Toxic asked slightly worried.

"Yeah I'm fine."

Toxic nodded and ran up to Diabel and helped him up.

"Thanks Toxic, you and Argo saved my life."

"Think nothing of it, but we should remember that enemies attack patterns and weapons could be changed."

Diabel nodded and everyone started cheering and the congratulation message that appeared.

Argo and Asuna came up and he ruffled their hair.

"Good work Argo and Asuna."

They both blushed slightly. Toxic picked Argo up and placed her on his shoulders, grabbing his staff and putting it back together.

He held his hand towards Asuna.

"It was good working with you Asuna."

"Working?"

She shook it before he answered.

"I don't work well in large groups. I can do more like this. You'll see me around though and remember if you get offered a position in a guild from a trustworthy person, accept."

(If you are wondering why I didn't do the whole Asuna didn't notice the names thing it is very simple. It is fucking stupid. She was, in the first episodes at least, a complete and utter bad ass, if she didn't notice the names it would make sense in the later episodes, but early on it wouldn't.)

She smiled at him as he turned around and started walking up the steps to the second floor. He kicked her out of the party as he walked.

She looked at little sad and Diabel noticed.

"Don't worry he'll be fine. Back in the beta he was soloing the front lines, and as far as I know he never died. Now at least he's got someone to watch his back."

Asuna was surprised to hear that.

"How far did you get?"

Agil walked up and pointed at Toxic as he walked through the door to the next floor.

"Because of that guy right there we managed to get to the fifth floor in 10 days."

Asuna looked at Diabel who just nodded.

"Don't worry about him, if anyone is going to complete this game, it'll be Toxic and Argo."


A/N So how was it? I know already another chapter, what is this insanity? Well bad news time. The chapters will be a little bit slower because I have to go back to school Monday from Thanksgiving break. Don't worry I'll still be here, just will take a little more time.

Remember if you have any suggestions for any of the characters' special skills or powers feel free to post them and if I use them I'll give you credit.

If you have any other suggestions I am more than welcome to new ideas.

Until next time,

ToxicMeltdown Out.