10

Some time passed before anything else worthy of storytelling happened again. It seems that the Sixers and the High Five were all stuck on the directions to finding the Jade Key. I was a little happy about this. This meant my cousin was still safe, and that there would be no attempt at any murder for the time being.

I received another invitation to Morrow's 73rd birthday party. I decided to go. It was the only kind of social contact I would have. I was busier than ever working for IOI now that I had no business guarding the Copper Key on Ludus. I still saw Aech in the combat arenas from now on, but we never talked. He didn't even know I used to be I-r0k. Other than that though, like I already mentioned, IOI was the only thing I was preoccupied with these days. I looked at the score board every once in a while, but the board remained the same.

The party was at ten PM OST, which meant that it would already be the next day in Japan. I would have to be ready by ten forty five in the morning if I wanted to go. That was no problem. I'd already gone to his globe once, so I knew it was located in Sector Sixteen on Neonoir. I wondered if he had invited the High Five? Something told me that he probably had. But would they show up? This was a PVP zone where both magic and technology worked. Risky business if you ask me. But who am I kidding? Wade was the biggest idiot I've ever seen.

I showed up to Morrow's birthday party dressed like Edward Elric. No one paid attention to me, as this show wasn't very popular. I was the only geek that seemed to be obsessed with it. So I was relatively safe. It wasn't hard to spot Parzival and Art3mis at all. There was a booth in the center of the giant zero gravity sphere with R2D2 as the DJ.

Parzival was the biggest idiot I have ever seen. I know, I keep saying that and it's mean, but holy shit, dude! He was so fucking stupid. He was in the most elaborately decked out DeLorean I have ever seen. He made a giant entrance. People gave him everything from death threats, to sexual harassment. He handled himself well, though. I noticed the dude was dressed exactly like Peter Weller. What a dumbass. Not for dressing like that, but for making an entrance. Come to think of it, he was a dumbass for showing up at all.

I walked back into the club, and ducked back into a hiding place among the people at the bar. I ordered endless virtual drinks, just to keep busy, and keep an eye on Parzival. Art3mis showed up a while later, but she didn't make as much of an entrance as he had. She was after all, second place. People weren't after her as much as they were after Parzival. Which made me wonder if the news that they were here had hit the feeds yet.

I checked a few just to make sure I was or wasn't right. I was. The feeds were buzzing with the news that they were both here. I moaned. I took off my visor and went to my computer to look at the Sixers' feed. It didn't take me long to find out what I needed to find out.

There was tons of avatars gearing up to go to the sector and get those two. Especially since Sorrento found out that Parzival was alive. The chief Ooologist was pissed off. I have never seen anyone so mad. I had to warn Og somehow.

I went back to my OASIS console, and sent out an important email. I got a reply back within five minutes. Og knew what was going down, and he was ready for it. I breathed a sigh of relief. Hopefully no one would get hurt. … Or at least…, no one important.

I don't know how long I had been gone, but when I went back to my seat at the bar, Art3mis and Parzival were dancing. The R2D2 had vanished from the DJ booth, and was replaced by Og. I smiled. He was able to see everything from his position at the center of the zero gravity sphere. We would be all right, I'm sure.

Just as I looked back at the couple of high five Gunters, I saw them start up a dance that involved two colorful blobs orbiting each other. Soon, the whole dance floor was a mass of color and swirling shapes. I just stared. Had I virtually just taken a hit of acid from the bar? No. This was kind of cool. I wished I had a date to do this with. I still stared. Og started up another track when the current one ended, and this time it was a slow one.

Parzival and Art3mis formed back into themselves, and so did all the other avatars. As the slow song started, people started to pair off. Soon, the whole dance floor was full of couples, and all the singles were heading to the bar to get more drinks. I, on the other hand, was nervous as all hell. I stood up off the stool I was on, and started to rub my hands together. I sighed as the slow Cindi Lauper song played. What would Og do if the Sixers showed up? My stomach was in knots.

"Sir, would you like another drink?" asked one of the NPC's at the bar. I tell you, Og and James Halliday were geniuses! These pretty bar girls actually interacted with the avatars.

Suddenly, there was a thundering boom. I gasped. I looked around to see what was happening. For a while, I didn't see anything, until I looked up and then I saw it.

There was rubble falling onto the dance floor, and the avatars were all scattering and screaming. Sixers had blasted through the top of the dome where we were all partying. Oh my goodness, the chaos that followed afterword's was the most fantastical thing I had ever seen. I got scared, before I remembered that I was jacked into the OASIS, and none of this could actually hurt my real person.

Sixers were all over the dance floor firing blaster pistols at everyone in sight. They just kept pouring into the club through the hole they had blasted through the top of the dome. I gasped. I had lost track of Art3mis and Parzival. Oh shit!

It didn't take me long to find them. The fire the Sixers had rained down was mostly directed at the two avatars at the center of the dance floor. The club's clientele split into two different groups. One group went for the exits, and the other group stayed to fight with the Sixer army. Everyone was armed to the teeth. I was suddenly locked into battle with a Sixer.

It didn't take me long to win the battle. But this happened the whole time as I tried to make my way over to the center of the group to help Art3mis and Parzival. I couldn't believe they had actually showed up. And what the hell was Ogden up to? I had warned him that they were coming. Why wasn't he doing anything? Just then, it happened.

The booth in the center of the dance floor cracked open, and there was a shout. Og looked really pissed off.

"You jerks think you can crash my birthday party?!" he shouted. This was heard all over the club, since he still wore his mic.

The fighting stopped long enough for all the fighters to look in his direction. In the instance, Og shot out red light from his hands which wound around in various directions. The red light somehow avoided all the innocent avatars, and only hit the Sixers. Every single Sixer was eliminated in that instant. I just stared. I had the same expression I had had when watching all the blobs dance on the floor a while ago. I just stared. "Nobody busts into my joint uninvited!" Og's voice broke through my thoughts as I stared at the place where all the Sixers had just been.