Opening Pandora's Box

48th Floor Lindearth

"Yes, this will do nicely." Orion said staring down at crudely made metal armor and helmet

"You sure you don't want me to reinforce it?" Lisbeth asked twirling a hammer in her hand.

"Nah it's just for show and identification, won't be getting hit by anyone." Orion replied back confidently, in response Lisbeth gave him a skeptical look.

"Whatever you say... but don't come back crying when you have holes in your body." Pointing to the workshop Lisbeth added. "So! What are we going to do with her?"

I could kill her and all this would go away. Orion thought darkly. "Maybe we can send her to jail?"

"But aren't you going to break everyone out?" After a pause she continued with a meaningful look on her face. "I think you should bring her to the job and let her redeem herself."

"Lis you have a heart of gold and a soft spot for broken people but that is just out of the question, she tried to kill me." Then the other person that tried to kill him, Orion tried to explain his take on the issue. "I know, I know I brought Kirito with me on the last job but this one is much more important than-"

"Getting an ore for me?" Lisbeth asked with what Orion saw as a hint of anger emitting from her posture.

"Well, th-that was an important job too but you know what? I think Sanitator probably wants this job, in fact I will ask him and-"

"He will say no." Sanitator said as he climbed down the stairs to investigate the commotion. "As much as I would love to go and let criminal run around free... work has been piling up, and that takes priority."

"You see?" Lisbeth said. "You got to give her a chance."

"So she can stab a knife at my back? Sure that sounds fantastic!"

Lisbeth not taking joke as Orion planned glared at him, and with that look the weak willed killer sighed deeply and admitted defeat.

"Alright I will go talk to her, and 'if' she wants to come then I will bring her along."

Escaping from the shop as fast as he could, Orion opened the door workshop door and quickly closed it behind him, with a plan already formulating on his mind on how to get his way without Lisbeth being none the wiser. In front of him was Yamada, the sickle wielder who hours ago tried to kill him, still tied to the workbench but for some strange reason appeared to be quite happy to see him.

Approaching the workbench, Orion grabbed his butter knife and cut the girl loose.

"Alright, listen very carefully, I am only going to say this once."

"You threatened me and Lis, and more importantly you tried to kill me... usually I would have killed you a long time ago for any of that." Orion pointed the butter knife at the girl's neck.

"But since Lis believes in, I am going to give you a chance to get out of here before I change my mind about not murdering little girls." Orion sheathed his knife and put on his serious face to further convey the message."

"Now scram." He said hoping that the girl would take the hint and run.

"No" The girl said simply as he stared Orion right in the eye without blinking.

And with that single word, his serious expression changed to that of disbelief. "What? Come on... you are free! What can you possible want?"

"The stone would help." Yamada answered as she jumped off the table and strolled around the shop.

Sighing deeply Orion said. "Don't have it... even if I do I won't hand it over... why do you want it so badly anyway? Lose a family member or a friend?"

Yamada looked at him with a curious expression. "No, why would I need to lose a family member or a friend?"

Tilting his head in curiosity Orion asked carefully. "You do know what the stone is for right?"

"Isn't it a gem that's worth a lot of col?" Yamada replied with a sincere voice and an excited face.

Orion mentally banged his head against the wall. She doesn't know what the stone is!

*cough* "That doesn't change the fact that I don't have the stone." He said, wondering how he could use this information to his advantage or he should keep it to himself.

"Well I heard your plan... I know what you are going to do and I think you could use some help."

Not from you. "I will have to pass up on that offer, by the way, time's up and I ll be back in five minutes. If you are not gone by then I can't promise you anything." Orion waved his hand in goodbye as he walked up to the shop door, turning his back on Yamada.

"Alright fine! I ll talk to you later! You second rate blacksmith!"

"What?! Who are you calling second rate!" Looking behind his shoulder to give the girl a piece of his mind, Orion found only empty space where he saw the girl was moments ago.

That was fast but at least she is gone. With a smile he opened the door, and yelled. "Sanitator! When did you check the ropes?! She escaped!"


First Floor Starting Town

*Knock knock* The sound vibrated spread throughout the house, and footsteps could of someone approaching the door could be heard.

"Who's there?" A male voice inside the door responded.

"A dashingly handsome prince who came to rescue a princess."

"What?"

"Just open the door." And with a click, the door unlocked and opened revealing a rather grumpy looking old man, whose face lightened up as he saw his visitor.

"Orion! Ah so good to see you, come in quick the army catch you if you are here." Zek without waiting for an answer grabbed Orion's hand and dragged him into his home.

"Nah they would never expect to see me down here." The visitor commented as he was sucked inside the house.

Entering the small room filled with books, scrolls and occasional papers littered on the floor, Orion watched his step as he followed his host, taking care not to step on anything.

Orion looking at the mess around him smiled. "Lot of books you got here, trying to become a historian of Aincrad? Now that reality has given you the boot?"

"Hahaha, maybe... one thing that this game has done relatively well on was its lore..." Zek gestured to a seat with his hand and Orion sat down while his host paced the room, to his right through a window he could see players and NPC walking around interacting with each other in the central plaza.

It seems like it was only yesterday when Akihiko Kayaba announced his sick game there... can't believe it has already been over a year. Orion thought as he pretended to listen by responding with occasional nods and agreements.

"...Of course, no one reads it... well aside from occasional nosy information broker but even then they grow tired of it quickly."

"Find anything interesting?" Orion asked politely to prove that he was listening attentively. The professor answered his question by walking up to a large oak bookshelf and pulling out several volumes from it.

"Though I can't determine if they are true or not there are very interesting stories here, for instance this book is about a young warrior who topples down a god with his twin blade." Zek said showing him a black book, with two swords drawn on the cover.

"I don't suppose there is a book about a talented orange player?"

"Well... I don't think I have anything like that." Looking at Orion's disappointed face, Zek quickly showed him a different book. "But how about the Siren? A beautiful woman who plays the harp to manipulate others?"

"Sorry Zek but those fairy tales sound very dull." Orion said waving his hands dismissively.

"Hmph" Expressing his disappointment Zek returned the books to their shelf. "So what brings you to my humble house, if not for my tales?"

"What I can't visit an old friend?" Orion said putting up a sheepish face. "Enough about me what are you up to?"

"Knowing you I am sure you didn't just come to 'visit' an old friend, god knows you had plenty of time to visit me after I was released..."

"What?! I sent you a lot of messages afterwards! And even sent you that golden fork I found." Orion said remembering all the odd bits of items that he had sent over through the courier.

"Don't try to put a spin on it, not visiting is still means no visit, but since you asked so nicely... I got a job with the Aincrad Observer. I mean it's not writing essays or books but some newspaper writing does keep my mind afloat, and it pays the bills."

"I see... You wouldn't happen to know the name of the fine gentlemen who runs that place would you?"

"Of course I know him, he's name is ZIrai, nice young man, actually gives a dam about the things I say, reviews my work too."

"Sounds like an interesting guy, I'll pay him a visit next..."

With a hand full of gold in my hand to make him sing to any tune I tell him to.

"...but before I do that, I have to ask for a small favor."

"Of course... what is it." Zek took a seat and gave Orion his full attention.

"I want you to give a speech, to get people really excited about something." Orion said with a serious expression that replaced his previously cheerful one.

"A speech? About what? To whom? Where?!" Zek almost sprung from his seat, his voice unable to control his curiosity and excitement.

"About the army, to a group of people that has a potential to be an angry mob. As for the location, it will be right here in this fair city." Orion answered with a shrewd smile.

After a pause to make his statement sound dramatic pointed out across the window. "To be exact... where all of this began, the central plaza of the Starting City."


Two days later. Outskirts of the Starting City

Sitting on top of the tree just outside the starting city and its area of crime prevention code, Orion took out the daily paper from his inventory and read the front page story with interest.

"Army official claims innocence against the recent rumor"

Scrolling down past the headlines, the newspaper reported:

"After yesterday's accusation of the army's corruption and the poor treatment that prisoners were facing in the black Iron castle by the this paper yesterday. The Aincrad liberation forces responded to these accusations through head warden Galug of Black Iron Castle, who had this to say. "The rumors against the treatment of our prisoners are far from true. In fact some may consider that these prisoners are receiving better treatment...""

Excellent indeed. Orion thought, remembering the puke he had to eat in prison, before continuing to read.

"...than what is being paid for by our generous taxpaying players."

Opps you shouldn't have mentioned that last part, people are not going to be pleased for being 'generous' taxpayers, when it is an open secret that taxes are really an extortion. Orion smiled darkly, then turned around and spoke to the tree branch next to him.

"I figured you'd stop by sooner or later." Hearing the rustle of the leaves above him, Orion waited for a moment before Yamada materialized from thin air grinning at him. "You must have ridiculously high hiding level to have stayed hidden for this long."

"I am thief remember?"

"I can't remember what you never tell me... so what you specialize in stalking?"

"No I am a cat burglar, but wait... what happened to 'if I see you again I will get violent' talk?"

With a smile Orion tossed the newspaper to the ground. "Nah, as long as you stay away from the shop I won't lay a hand on you. So what bring you to this tree branch?"

"To be honest, I wanted to see what you are about to do."

"Well you will see soon enough once the army patrol comes, but that's not too important. Though I am curious is why you told me that Lis was kidnapped when she really wasn't." With that said, Orion readied his hands for any sudden movements in case the young thief had answers in a physical form he did not approve of.

*Cough* "That was the only bluff I could come up with at the time." Yamada grinned. Little embarrassed by what he heard Orion relaxed and moved his hand away from his weapons.

"So... if that's the case, I could use a hand." Orion commented as he looked beneath the tree and saw a well armored army player walking beneath him.

Ah a lone guardsman, I guess army is really relaxed about patrolling the first floor, back in the day there used to be squads heading out of these places-

"I thought you didn't want any help." Yamada replied, breaking his mental train of thought.

"Well to be honest all you need to do is stand there and wave to that nice man." Orion pointed to the guard. "While you do that I am going to scare the crap out of him. After I get what I want, if you want you get to stab him with this." Orion said while handing her a small dagger tipped with sleeping poison.

Giving her suspicious look he added. "I want it back after this is done."

"Of course" Yamada replied with a grin, that did not seem entirely truthful.

Jumping and silently landing behind the guard with a roll, Orion stood up and wrapped his left arm around the guard's body then pointed a dagger at the guardsman's face to show him that he was in trouble.

"Stay calm, this is not a robbery." The guard unable to understand the situation froze and stood motionless.

"Good choice, now time let's send a message."

The guard misinterpreting the word message panicked. "I-I-I don't wan-nt to die! Please!"

"The other type of message, genius."

"What? Wh-who are you?" The guard continued to trembling with fear . "I-I don't know what you want b-but I am j-just a grunt!"

"Doesn't matter. You do what I say and you get a to walk but... if not my associate up there", Orion pointed to the orange cursor of Yamada, "will make sure you wake up on a hospital bed, dead."

"A-a-alright what do you want me to do?" Now fully understanding the situation the the guard's face paled, his leg now shaking with pure terror.

"Open up your menu, then go to the message function, no need to hurry we got all day."

The guard visible distressed, worked quickly while both of his hand shook like a cell phone on vibration. After a few seconds the guard stopped, waiting for further instructions.

"Now create a forward message so that it will be sent to all the members of the guild."

"D-done."

"Good now this is the hard part, write 'it's show time'."

The guardsman with a confused look on his face, typed out the message that was primed to be sent to the entire guild.

"Now send it." Orion said moving his dagger closer to the frightened player's neck as an extra incentive.

"Ok-okay it's sent! Please just let me go! I don't even know why you want me to type this?..." The guard stopped in mid-sentence as he slowly realized what or more exactly whose catchphrase he had just sent out to the entire army command. "It-it's show time? You-you-you are-"

"Ding ding ding we have winner, thanks for playing." Orion interrupted the guard and feeling satisfied, he signaled Yamada.

Moments later a small figure jumped from the tree branch, landed squarely on two feet, walked up to the guardsman and stabbed him in the chest.

After waiting a few seconds to ensure that poison had done its job. Orion released the limp body he was holding that immediately crumpled into the ground, snoring loudly.

To make sure that the guardsman was really sleeping, Orion kicked the guard twice and checked his work. "Good work Yamada."

"Now what?" she asked slipping the dagger Orion had given her into her inventory.

I hope you return that later. Orion thought as he saw the theft, but chose to ignore it for now and store the information in a dark corner of his mind for future use.

" 'Now' you wait here."

"What?! How are you going to do this without help?" Yamada said, her voice full of outrage and betrayal.

"Sometimes being an orange player means blending in with the greens, and right now..." Orion pointed to Yamada's orange cursor. "You can't do that, especially not with what I have planned."


A/N

Important note: Galug is just a reversed spelling of the Russian Gulag. The warden is in no way the bear man that I googled just now and found out about.

The next chapter will be released relatively soon, as the dialogues are already written. It will be done before Saturday.

Once again thank you for reading the chapter.

EDIT: OCT 31st Thank you NoCreativity for pointing out the error, it is now fixed! Or atleast I think so.