Riptide: Well, after a long sabbatical…
Cyte: Sabbatical my ass! You were lazy!
Riptide: Ehem, er, well, we return triumphant with a new chapter!
Cyte: (Looks at review counter.) You have a loose definition of triumphant, don't you?
Riptide: (Listens to crickets chirping in the background.) Damn, it has been a bit, hasn't it? Mucho thanks to all the people (3) who read this and said it wasn't complete crap. Unfortunately, various things interfered with this posting (I.E. school, track practice, BPA competition and prep, mid-terms, and a renewed addiction to this story's namesake, to name a few.) Now that things have settled down a bit, I bring you this chapter and pass the buck to my cohort, Cyte, who has far less to do with his time than me.
If only we can drag him away from Diablo II long enough to type…
Cyte: Just one more Meph run, I promise…
Riptide: …So, with no further ado, Teh Collaborators present…
Dot Hack Diablo
Written By Riptide and Cyte
Chapter Two:Descent
RiptideZero (TehFemmeFatale) has joined the game. Diablo's minions grow stronger.
Jagger hurled another dagger at Corpsefire, dropping the zombie for what must have been the umpteenth time that hour. He had just gotten back from David's house, and now the events of the night before seemed even stranger than they were before. He suspected that the answers might lie inside the very cave he had just conquered, but so far his search had been fruitless. Then the sound of quiet footsteps caught his attention, and he turned to see another player, apparently an assassin, turn the corner behind him. It was his immediate notion to go ahead and leave for the next game, but remembering what Den-David had told him about online etiquette, so he figuratively sat back while waiting on his guest to speak.
The mage-killer walked up to Jagger and cocked her head to the side. "Jeez, you clear an area fast, Sean. You could have at least left me a couple zombies to deal with."
Jagger's muscles clenched in both worlds. "How do you know my…" he quickly assessed the assassin's demeanor: right hand casually slung onto her hip; confident, mocking smile; hair different from the default model, slightly longer but tied back into a ponytail. It was the hairstyle that seemed faintly familiar…
"Allison?" Jagger breathed a sigh of relief. "For a second there I thought you were…never mind."
Allison, otherwise known as RiptideZero, furrowed her brow for a moment at some sub-tone in his voice, but overlooked it and continued her inspection of his character. "Well, well. It seems that somebody's been power-leveling. You're at level six, but you haven't gone any further than the Blood Moor, have you?" When he nodded to the affirmative, she laughed. "I'm impressed, but what do you say we move on? With your level, we could probably take on Blood Raven easy." She sent him a party invite, which he quickly accepted.
"…Allison, is it cool if I do one more Den run? I'm just about to level, and there something else I'm trying to do."
The assassin looked curious. "Why here? Den runs aren't any good for items or experience." She hesitated, and then continued. "And by the way, we should probably start using our character names while we're playing. Don't want to have any Internet stalkers."
Jagger's expression hardened. "I want to know what happened to David here last night. I think the answers are here, but I can't get the event to trigger again. It must be that event that…put David out of commission."
Riptide's eyebrows quirked again. "What do you mean, did his character drop? David should have been able to log right back in."
Jagger looked at her in confusion. "What are you saying? Did you mother tell you last night? I called her as soon as it happened." When Riptide shook her head, he looked away, a heaviness settling back on his shoulders. "I guess I see why she didn't say anything; it must have been tougher on her then I thought it would be." Jagger's massive bulk settled down to the cave floor, prompting Riptide to do the same.
"Jagger, stop cutting corners, what's going on?"
"Alli, David's in Memorial Hospital. He's been in a coma for nearly twenty-four hours now."
Riptide waited, as if expecting him to add 'Just kidding!' after a beat. But when Jagger said nothing else and began to walk out of the cave, she exploded.
"David's in the hospital, maybe dying because of this game, and you're back here playing! What the hell are you thinking?!"
"Because nobody believed me, damnit!" he roared in return, causing Riptide to leap back in shock. Calming himself, he continued. "After David told me to leave the game, I called his house to find out if he had been able to beat that monster. No one answered the phone. I called his cell phone; he practically sleeps with the thing. No answer there either. I logged back in and sent him a message on D-mail. Nothing! So I jumped up and ran to his house, four miles at a full run." Jagger paused here; his entire body overcome with tremors. "Do you know what I found? David, sprawled across his office floor, his computer still running and everything. He was lying in the same position as his corpse on the screen."
Riptide gasped, then took a tentative step forward to put a hand on his shoulder. "Sean…"
"You know what the doctors and the police did when I told them all this? They laughed. Said not to get my little games mixed up with real life. Real kind of them, huh?"
There was no response from Riptide's avatar for several moments, and for an instant Jagger thought that she had thrown down her controller and left in disgust without even bothering to leave the game. He was just about to move on when Riptide spoke up.
"You said that Corpsefire was the last thing you killed when it happened."
Jagger blinked. "Yeah, that's right."
"Well, you weren't alone when it happened. David was with you. Make another game and I'll go through it with you, in case it takes two people to trigger the event."
"But if it happens again…" Jagger began to protest, not wanting to directly insult his headstrong companion. However, he greatly underestimated Riptide's ability to read between the lines.
"Ok, now I have to go, because otherwise you'll go and try to fight whatever it was that put David in the hospital. And then you'll be right next to him. Let's not go through that twice, okay?"
Jagger's pride took a fair hit at that, mainly because she was probably right. "So, what's your plan, then?"
"Take a screenshot?" she suggested innocently. Jagger's pride threw in the towel.
"Alright. The next game is rookie14, password rookie."
"You've done this fourteen times and gotten nothing?"
"Well, there were these…" Jagger offered, and suddenly a small heap of rares appeared on the ground. "There were more, but I had to sell some of them to make room for the rest. And there were some things Den-David said to give to you."
At the moment, Riptide was appraising the strange weapon David had left for her. She nodded in approval and equipped it along with some leather armor and boots. Looking back at him, Riptide fired of a confident grin. "So, you ready?"
Jagger pumped a fist in the air. "Alright, let's go!"
Unbeknownst to the fresh alliance, a third person had entered the game and quietly observed the entire incident. No message had heralded his arrival, and no listing for him appeared in the party screen. He walked around the corner just as Jagger and Riptide disappeared from the world, his gaunt, skeletal features highlighted with a strange but subtle glee.
"Well," the figure muttered, "the game just got much more interesting."
"After all, what is Lord Kite without his Lady Blackrose?"
Riptide effortlessly ducked under a swipe from Corpsefire and with a near air of boredom stabbed her wrist blade into its gut, felling the zombie with a full Tiger Strike. "Hmm, level up." She commented dryly before going silent to allocate her skill and stat points. Meanwhile, Jagger sat against a rock, shaking his head. "That's six more runs, and nothing happens. There has to be some easier way to go about this!"
Suddenly a new voice came up from behind the pair of adventurers, both leaping into defensive stances before realizing it was simply another player and not a missed monster. Something very close to alarm was ringing in Jagger's ears, but he hesitated to speak until he had pinpointed the cause. Riptide, having recovered from her surprise, lowered her blade and began to step forward past Jagger to greet the new arrival.
"Sorry, you startled us there. Hold on just a second, I'll send an invite."
"Rip, wait." Jagger ordered with an urgency that surprised the assassin. "How did you get into this game?
The figure casually stepped forward, revealing his class to be a necromancer. Ignoring Jagger's demand, he instead focused on the fallen unique before him. "You know," the necromancer stated sardonically, "you should be more careful what you wish for." One eye turned up to meet Jagger's with an eerie sort of glee. "You never know who might be the one to deliver it to you."
"Hold on a sec." Riptide murmured shakily, stepping cautiously back to Jagger's position. Her grip on her weapon tightened. "That guy, his level shows up on the menu as double x! He must be a serious hacker!" Jagger grimaced at the implications of this. If the player before them was skilled enough to alter the game code in such a fashion, little sanctions like the level restriction on player killing would be nothing. And with both of them being under level nine, they would have no way to fight back.
The hacker seemed to read some of this in Jagger's face, as he smiled wickedly and made a dismissive gesture. "Don't worry, a direct attack on the two of you wouldn't be even mildly interesting. Too quick. However…" Materializing a wand from nowhere, he jabbed at Corpsefire's body, immediately reviving the zombie. "I believe that Lister would be too great a challenge for you as of now, and again the battle wouldn't be long enough for any sort of amusement. This one, on the other hand, should be more than enough to keep you…amused. Fare thee well." With those parting words, the necromancer walked from the room, quickly followed by a familiar line of text.
#y&# (w0110##!Dr$0) has left the world. Diablo's minions weaken.
"So, we just have to stomp that ugly thing again? Fine!" Riptide snapped before lunging forward and slamming into Corpsefire with a series of vicious claw attack. She then jumped back, hesitated, and then attacked again, building up a tiger strike before striking. Jagger's eyes widened in shock as Riptide jumped back again, her weapons hanging loosely beside her. "What…what is this?" she gasped, a mingling of fear and confusion shining on her features.
"Jagger, I can't deal it any damage! It's like it's health is infinite…it won't die!"
"…No…not again…."
End Chapter Two