Disclaimer: As will all of my stories I own none of this. sob It's not fair! I want to but I can't. Everything here with the exception of Kai and Viper are property of Bandai and Cyber Connect 2. Kai and Viper are my creations. evil grin

Authors Note: I would like to thank my fellow writer, best friend, gamer and otaku SoaringSonicFox for giving me the list of all the Servers and their root towns.

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Lurking in the shadows of Mac Anu's darkest alleyways, a lone figure stood watching the activity that accompanied the near dusk hours in The World. As like others there were a plethora of players saving their games millions of times for fear of a data loss, buying scrolls and armor for the currant ones they had were too weak or out of style, chatting with friends or in some cases family, or simply trading with others. Many a time he had been witness to a trade that seemed helpful for one however once the other party left the player found that they just traded their Level: 34 Wavemaster weapon for a Level: 12 Twin Blade weapon that caused more harm then good to the person that equipped it. He laughed at their stupidity, wondering why they don't bother to check the item before the trade to see if it is even worth it like many others did.
Hm... this is becoming tiresome. he thought slightly annoyed; Where is he? I've been here much longer then I should be.True... watching others did keep him occupied for a while but he was unable to do it for long periods of time. He yearned, his weapons yearned, for that thrill, that... addiction of killing the countless creatures in The World. "Plus the occasional player." he said under his breath. There have been hundreds of times where he was able to lure a player to an area that was at least twice the level they were and watch with an evil smirk he or she as they called out for help as they were destroyed before his very eyes. Then, without alerting the player or the worthless administrators he took all of their items and money to make himself stronger then pulled up his menu and accessed the 'Gate Out' function to continue his work. There was this one time he encountered a problem because he lured a player from the Gamma Server and that particular player, a Twin Blader in red, did not die. After seeing this he decided that it would be best to lure players from the Delta Server that was populated mostly by newbies and the occasional veteran helping their friend or gaining easy experience points.
"Looks like you waited. And I thought patience was not one of your strong points." The man looked up to find that his partner had finally showed up.
"Where the hell were you?" he replied to his greeting, ignoring the comment about patience.
"I sent you mail. It said that I was going to be late. I swear I did. Wait... did you even check?"
Looking up slightly he saw that his friend was indeed right and he had about 3 unread messages. One was from him, the others.. well why bother reading them. He's been threatened by the administrators so many times that he just deletes anything from them that comes his way. There was one other that was from a friend who, like he, was considered an outcast which was odd becasue Wavemasters were in high demand for their ability to cast Repth and other healing spells more because of their extremely high SP count. He made a mental note to contact him before he turned back to his partner.
"I don't bother to check it unless I have nothing to do. Waste of time and energy." actually that was a lie. All he had to do was flick his eyes up towards the sky and the mail would display it's self. "Now stop complaining about me. Do you have what I asked for?"
"Depends if you have what it costs." He snapped back. Something was agitating him which wasn't anything new actually but still, when he was annoyed it proved difficult to get what he wanted from him.
"Listen Kai, I told you before to watch your temper. The admin are already pissed at us so let's not make it worse by starting a fight right here in Mac Anu alright?!" the man replied stepping darker into the shadows. He looked around and found that someone was watching them. It was a player that was different from the rest because she wasn't human but rather a cat. Her blue fur seemed to absorb the fading sunlight and her sword reflected the water running through Mac Anu. The man was just about to tell her off when a Wavemaster came up to her, started talking and walked of with her to the Chaos Gate.
"Know them?" Kai asked, obviously seeing his friend's interest.
"No I don't know them." replied the man "You know I value my solitude. You are the only person on here I actually acknowledge on a friendly level."
"Sound like a personal problem." Kai said smirking.
"You really piss me off Kai. And I'm sick of it. When you wake up let me know how much you liked it."
"When I wake up? What the hell are you talking about?" replied Kai slightly scared.
The man looked at Kai for a moment, then reached into his belt and brought out a small relic not much larger then a bell on the neck of a Grunty. He threw it at his partner which on contact sent out a small puff of dust. This dust, called by some as Twilight Dust, would send a code through the person's data stream and into a receiver that was built into each of the virtual reality goggles that are used by players. Inside these goggles are small jets that aim towards the eyes of the player with out their knowledge. Once the receiver get's the signal it releases a small spray into the players eyes that causes amnesia, balance problems and, if the dose is high enough, coma. The most wonderful thing about the jets is that only the top people at ALTMIT and those chosen few who have hacked into their system know about them. Viper was one of those hackers who was able to use 'The World' as a cover to enter their system and was able to rewrite the data in his own character that allowed him not only to be immune to the Twilight Dust, but could produce the cause of it at will. He had to use it more then he wanted whenever his partner either got to cocky for their own good, as what happened now, or when they were paranoid as to Viper's true intentions. No one he has used it on has survived and the doctors who examined those who were subjected to the full blast, were unable to explain the cause and simply blamed ALTMIT and 'The World' for it.
Walking off from his former partners convulsing body he smiled an evil grin humming the song 'Another One Bites The Dust' under his breath. "If I've told people once, I've told them a million times. Don't mess with Viper or you'll get bit." he said to himself. Walking up to the Chaos Gate he pulled up his menu, sent a quick mail to his friend and left The World hoping that tomorrow he could find another willing participant to assist him.

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I hope that the reviews I get will be good because this is my first time attempting a .hack story. I don't really care whether or not I get good reviews or flames but as long as I get some. Honest opinions please.