Disclaimer: I don't own anyone from the .Hack series or Bandai. So don't sue me!
.Hack//Penetration
By ZEROChapter One: The Mysterious Player
"Seems a little too quiet. Something's not right." The mysterious player knew a magic portal had opened. He turned around to see a Lamia Hunter and Armored Shogun. "Well, it's time to play." The mysterious player took out his weapon and charged forward, hacking up both creatures at once. "That's over and done with. Time to gate out of here. I must see the one known as Kite." The player gated out of the field.
Elsewhere, Kite, along with BlackRose and Sanjuro, were having problems of their own. They were up against a pair of Red Scissors and another pair of Goil Menhirs. They fought hard, but their efforts were to no avail. Every time they killed a Red Scissor, the Goil Menhir revived it. When they killed a Goil Menhir, the other one brought it back. "Come on guys, we have to think of something. Wait, I got it!" Kite rushed up to a Goil Menhir and continuously slashed it. His attacks weren't doing that much. "Everyone, Operation Union Battle!" Sanjuro and BlackRose rushed to Kite's aid and they continuously slashed the Menhir. It soon reached Protect Break status. "Everyone, Operation Recover!" Now he didn't have to worry about his party members killing the Menhir. Kite seized this chance and was getting ready to Data Drain the Menhir. The usual thing happened. The bracelet started getting active and then re-wrote the Menhir's data. He didn't care about the item. He then proceeded on taking out the other Menhir. They successfully took out the Red Scissors and finally the Hebinyoro (data drained form of a Goil Menhir).
"Ugh, that hurt. Let's gate out of here and return to Dun Loireag." Kite listened to BlackRose's suggestion and gated out. "Let's do this again sometime. See ya later." Kite watched BlackRose log out of The World.
"I gotta do the same. See ya." Sanjuro gated out as well.
Kite was headed towards Elf's Haven when he heard a sound following him. He looked behind him, expecting to see someone. No one was there. He continued towards Elf's Haven and stored all his unnecessary items, armor, and weapons. He proceeded towards the Chaos Gate when he heard the same sound. He turned around and still saw nothing.
"Behind you."
Kite turned around once more to see someone was indeed following him. "It's about time I got your attention. I've been waiting for you."
"Who are you?"
"Allow me to introduce myself. I am ZERO. I'm here to help you."
"What for? I'm just playing a game. I don't need your help."
"Sure you don't. You think I don't know about Orca? I read your message on the board right before it was deleted. I also know about your bracelet and your power to Data Drain. I've seen it with my eyes. Remember when you opened the Book of Twilights? I was at that place. I watched from above."
"If that's the case, what are the keywords?"
"The keywords are Δ: Hidden, Forbidden, Holy Ground. Ya thought I didn't know about you? I know everything."
"How can you know all that? Who are you? Better yet, what are you?"
"I'm a hacker, one who is very well known. You should know me."
"I don't, honestly. Who are you?"
"I can't give you my real name. If you want to know, I'm the one who started Pluto's Kiss. I'm that boy. I was a young hacker back then when I started the event. I found something no other hacker has found. I swore I would never use my hacking skills, but I developed them incase I needed to help someone, such as yourself."
"I see now. So what's your class?"
"Well, to tell you the truth, I'm a cross between three classes. I'm a Blademaster, Heavy Blade, and a Twin Blade."
"How's that? Oh, I almost forgot that you're a hacker."
"That's one thing you should keep in mind. Now, I have a favor to ask you. I need at least one of every Virus Core. That means getting Virus Cores A-Z. If you do that, I can help you find out about Orca. Even I do not know what the CC Corporation is doing. I have a feeling that it isn't good. Here's my member address. Call me when you're going to get some Virus Cores."
ZERO was leaving when he got a message from Kite.
"So, you were planning on getting these cores after all. Very well, let's go.
They headed to θ: Collapsed, Momentary, Spiral. Kite remembered fighting a Data Bugged Woodstock. Kite didn't have time to fight the monsters on the field, so he used the Grunty Flute to summon one of his Grunties. The Iron Grunty came to his aid. Kite and ZERO got on the Grunty and rode off into the dungeon. When they reached the dungeon, the entrance suddenly closed behind them.
"What's going on? Why'd they close the entrance?"
"Seems a silly System Administrator was out of the question. They want us dead. Very well, let's proceed forward."
Every room they entered, the door closed behind them. Luckily, ZERO had hacked beforehand and had gotten a map of the dungeon. They proceeded forward and found a Magic Portal. It began to expand and revealed a Noisy Wisp and a Phantom Wing.
"Huh, easy. This won't even take a minute."
ZERO rushed forward and, in one slash, had slain the two creatures…or so he thought. Oddly enough, they arose with full health. To make matters worse, they were Data Bugged.
"This just makes things even more interesting. Guess I'll have to pull out my special."
ZERO flanked around the Phantom Wing and performed Deathbringer. Instead of reaching Protect Break, it was a different status called Attack Break.
"Okay, here it is. Data Override!"
The gauntlets ZERO wore started to emit a black luster. ZERO held out his hands and then put them at his waist. Afterwards, he thrust his hands forward, which shot out a burst of a dark light. The attack was clearly a hit.
"Kite, now's your chance!"
Kite seized this chance and used his best skill, the Data Drain. As usual, the bracelet activated and drained the creature and Kite gained an item. The Phantom Wing was now just a regular Phantom Wing. ZERO and Kite slashed it at the same exact time, slaying the moth.
"It's not over yet. We still have to deal with this Noisy Wisp. I'll leave it to you…unless you need my help."
"Heh, I've dealt with tougher creatures."
Kite got behind the Noisy Wisp and used Staccato and then followed it up with the infamous Tiger Claw. It reached the usual Protect Break. Kite was about to Data Drain it before ZERO stopped him.
"Let me take care of this one. Data Drain!"
ZERO's gauntlets revealed the bracelet on each wrist. ZERO thrust his arms forward and the two bracelets became one. Then, a bright blue beam shot forward and made a direct hit with the Noisy Wisp. After the attack, the creature turned into an Odoro, a pathetic, small ghost head. ZERO slashed it once and killed it.
"I didn't know you could Data Drain and that other thing. What did you call it?"
"Data Override."
"Right. Um…what does it do?"
"It makes sure that its victim cannot attack whatsoever. Come on, we got 5 more rooms to go before we fight another monster."
(5 rooms later)
"Kite, you ready? I'm not going to activate the portal if you can't stand it."
"No, I'm ready. Let's go!"
They rushed forward to the Magic Portal. Inside contained the Data Bugged Woodstock. Despite ZERO's overwhelming strength, he was unable to get the creature to the Attack Break status, let alone the Protect Break status. They fought hard and well. Kite had wrung out all his SP on using Staccato and Tiger Claw, not to mention Gale of Swords. To make matters worse, both players were out of Mage's Soul and anything that restored SP.
"This has to work. My only chance is that I make a successful Elemental Hit. Okay, here it is. Gan Drive!"
To his surprise, the attack worked and everything went planned. However, it was not on Protect Break status or Attack Break status. It was one called Absorb Break.
"Kite, pay attention. I only do this occasionally. Data Load!"
It was similar to the Data Drain ZERO performed. However, the finishing was different. First, the bracelets activated. Then, he thrust his hands forward to merge the two bracelets into one. The next thing that happened was totally different. The bracelet started to revolve counter-clockwise and created what seemed to be a vortex. It sucked the creature in and the Data was distributed evenly through ZERO's character. Afterwards, Kite heard ZERO cry out and earsplitting scream of pain. Warily, ZERO got up. His body started looking fuzzy for a bit then adjusted.
"What just happened?"
"That's the Data Load. I absorb the enemy's data and even gain all possible items. However, that also includes the virus. I need to take the vaccine later or the virus will spread and utterly destroy this character and kill me in real life. It's similar to your Data Drain. It causes a viral infection to spread every time you perform that skill. Unlike my infection, yours is not curable by any ordinary vaccine. You see, if you take the vaccine, you will lose the power to Data Drain. You cannot afford to lose it."
"Are there any more techniques you can do?"
"That's about it unless you can get me every Virus Core. If you do, there is one final move…the Data Blaze. It overloads the target by making it absorb unnecessary and meaningless data. Speaking of Virus Cores, do you have any more? All I have is the Virus Core Q that I just Data Loaded. Do you have Virus Cores A-C? I remember that you collected those types of Virus Cores. I'll trade you for ten Golden Grunties, 10 Silver Scarabs, and 10 Thunder Torques. Well, agreed?"
"Ya, thanks! :-) I really appreciate it. Now, where do we go now?"
"From here on, we'll go our own separate ways. Should you need me or find any Virus Cores, contact me. Farewell Kite. I'm glad that we were able to meet."
ZERO used a Sprite Ocarina to get out of the dungeon and probably gated out to Dun Loireag. From there, he probably logged out of "The World." Kite still was confused exactly what ZERO's motives were. He wasn't sure if he could trust him, but he knew that he had to rely on him in the future.
To Be Continued…
Kite posts a message on the board about ZERO. Not surprisingly, Mia knows everything about him. They even get a visit from him. His target is Virus Core N and guess who's accompanying him.