.hack/PRESENT

Disclaimer: I do not own .hack

Wow, it's about 3:10 AM right now. This is the first time I wrote 2 fanfic chapters in the same day. Anyway… continuing on…

CHAPTER 5: DISCOVERY

A-20 appeared at the Chaos Gate.

"Hi Kite. Hm? Oh, I didn't know Mimiru was joining us."

"Wha? Mimiru? My name is Blackrose. Don't mistaken me for that copier!"

"Uh, so where should we go?" Kite stepped in, trying to prevent Blackrose from releasing another fit on the subject.

"Ooo! I know! Come with me!" A-20 said as she typed in a few words. The trio found themselves in a dark dismal field with monsters at level 99 surrounding them and magic portals every few feet away from each other. "Oops… uh, I accidentally mixed one of the words… heh heh…" A-20 said, poking her two index fingers together.

"What! We can't take on all of these!" Blackrose yelled, getting her most powerful sword from her inventory ready for defense. Kite equipped the level 99 rare Sin of Hades blades and got in his twinblade fighter's stance.

"We can't gate out with monsters around. We'll just have to fight our way through this."

"Alright then." Blackrose got into her heavyblade fighter's stance. "I got your back on this."

"Okay. Are you ready A-20?"

"Um… could you revive me first?"

"HUH?" Kite and Blackrose said in unison. They looked to see that A-20 had already lost her HP and become a ghost.

"What! You're dead already!" Blackrose shouted.

"Sorry. I kinda ran ahead…" A-20 said. Kite used a resurrect on her and she ran between the other two players and equipped her level 1 Amateur Blades. "Okay, I'm ready to get 'em!"

"You sure it was a good idea to bring this kid?" Blackrose whispered to Kite.

"Well, we had no one left to call." The blue-haired twinblade had already begun to attack the many monsters surrounding the group. A-20 and Blackrose ran toward the monsters in the opposite direction of Kite. Many dragon type monsters and golem monsters had appeared from magic portals and the players had to endure the annoyance of having to be immobilized by every magic attack from the enemy mages.

"Ugh… there's too many to fight! RAH!" Blackrose took another swing at a golem.

"Ha-YAH! Let's head…RAH!… to the dungeon!… UGH!… We'll be safe from the there. HA!" Kite said while defending against multiple strikes from floating swords monsters.

The trio managed to make it to the dungeon's entrance room. The stopped to use Phal Repth spells to recover all their HP.

"Um… sorry, but could you…" began the ghost of A-20.

"Sigh…" Blackrose used another resurrect on A-20 which brought her out of the blue transparent form.

"Hm?" Kite turned around to face the entryway to the next room. "There's something in the next room and it's heading this way!" he got into his twinblade stance as he kept ready to attack.

"Ready!" 'I hope I don't die again' A-20 thought.

"I'll take 'em" Said Blackrose. As they all got ready, a large shadowed figure appeared.

"Friends! I…." The figure began to speak when Kite performed Evil Twin attack, Blackrose used Vak Divider, and A-20 hit the figure with Tiger Claws technique and knocked it over its feet. "OW! AH! Wait! Cease your attacks! I am no a monster! OW! AH!"

"HUH?" Blackrose said, getting a better view at what they attacked.

"Piros? What are you doing here?" Kite asked, looking down at the axe-wielder they just beat up.

"Ah, he of fair eyes. I was looking for my two other allies that I accompanied in search for the Special Spring of Myst. Marlo had told me he saw them enter this high level area, so here I am now."

A-20 poked at Blackrose's arm. "Is he a friend of yours?"

"Well, in my case, I wouldn't call him a friend." Blackrose whispered to the younger twinblade. She was going to continue talking until something grabbed her, drew her back, and before she knew it, two blades where drawn to her neck. "Huh? What the hell!"

"You're that heavyblade, Blackrose, aren't you?" A green-haired twinblade said.

"Unhand the one in distress, evil blade weilder!" Piros yelled.

"Wha? Sora? What are you doing?" Kite said as he turned around to face the ninja based character.

"You know this guy?" Blackrose asked.

"Yeah. Helba gave me his member address along with Tsukasa's and Subaru's shortly after the whole incident with the Wave."

"Ah, Kite! Good to see you again." Sora said.

"I heard about you from Mimiru and Tsukasa. You're some sort of player killer." Blackrose said with an angry look.

"Bingo. Now, if you wouldn't mind, please give me your member address. I like to meet all my friends personally rather than having to see them when my other allies are the only one who can contact them."

"Ha, I'd rather get killed now then give my member address to you!"

"Blackrose?" Kite said suddenly.

"Don't worry, it's not like I haven't saved in a while. Ugh!" Sora had held his blades closer to the heavy blade's neck.

"Now, now, you don't want to end up like your friend Orca, would you?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Oh c'mon! Isn't it obvious? Do you really think Balmung would kill Orca? No, of course not. He's innocent. I KILLED ORCA!" dramatic background music suddenly kicked in.

"YOU killed Orca?" Kite pointed at Sora.

"Why the hell would you do that?" Blackrose yelled.

"HA! Thou has located the real culprit!" Prios said.

"Oooo, what's in this treasure chest?" A-20 walked past Sora to open a treasure chest and get a healing potion to add to her inventory. Everyone in the room fell over anime-style.

"A-20! Were you even paying attention to what was happening?" Blackrose, who got free of Sora's grip, yelled at her.

"Huh? Oh! Uh… OH MY GOODNESS! HE IS THE ONE WHO KILLED…" A-20 began.

"It's too late for that now kiddo." Blackrose interrupted as she flung her broad sword over her shoulder.

"You! Green-haired scoundrel! Feel the wrath of Piros! For I will turn you in! The real Culprit!" Piros yelled at Sora.

"Oh Puh-leez. You couldn't catch me even if I were hopping on one foot."

"I will not be take any of your taunts or insults! Now! Prepare yourself!"

"That's only if you can catch me! BOING!" Sora leapt into the air and ran further into the dungeon.

"Stop! Get back here and fight me, Villian!" Piros said as he ran off in the same direction.

"Hm… I think with all this said, the monsters may be clear of the outer dungeon. We could gate out." Kite told both party members.

"Yeah, let's go. I'm getting tired of this place." Blackrose replied.

"This was a fun experience." A-20 said as she followed the two up the stairs onto the field and gated back to the root town.

Mistral was the first everyone saw as the appeared back at Mac Anu.

"Mistral! Where were you! I tried contacting you at least a million times!" Blackrose said to the wavemaster.

"Sorry, but I got caught up in some other business."

'At least she's out of her hyper-mode' "Well what kept you so busy that you haven't replied?"

"Lookie at what I caught!" Mistral tugged a rope to reveal Balmung, tied up with his wings clipped and a strap of duct tape was placed over his mouth.

"Balmung? Mistral, is this what you were doing the whole time?" Kite asked.

"Yep! He's wanted for Player Killing, so when I found out about the bounty, I devised a plan to catch him, and now I can turn him in and collect all that GP!"

"Um, sorry to say this, but Balmung isn't the one who…" Kite began to say.

"Uh…what he's saying is, Balmung isn't one who should be let free for this. C'mon, let's collect that reward!" Blackrose interrupted.

"YAHOO! We'll be rich!" Mistral said as she dragged along the tied up knight.

"But Blackrose, it was Sora who killed Orca!" Kite whispered into her ear.

"Yeah, but the bounty office doesn't know that, nowdo they?" Blackrose whispered back.

"Well, I can't argue with that…" Kite said, scratching the back of his head.

"Hey! C'mon you two! Or do I have to haul all that money out by myself?" Mistral yelled out to them from the bridge.

"We're coming!" Blackrose ran off to catch up.

"It's been fun playing with you two. I have to go, but I hope we meet again." A-20 stepped up to the Chaos Gate.

"Well, if something like this happens, I'll call you up again." Kite said, being his friendly self although he knew it would make things harder with her in the team.

"Okay! Bye!" A-20 waved as three golden rings surrounded her and she logged out. The second she logged out, another player logged in. One Kite could recognize anytime.

"Orca!"

"Hey, I finally logged back in after that incident a few days ago."

"Glad to see you back."

"So, anything good happen while I was away. Oh, and how's that search for the Spring coming along?"

"Well, can't say we had any luck."

"Ah, too bad. Well, I'll just round up my team again and….huh?" Orca saw a heading on a banner that was posted recently. It read "The player killer, Balmung of the Azure Sky has been caught thanks to the team of Mistral, Blackrose, and Kite. Balmung is now being charged with a fine of 1,000,000,000 GP and his penalty may even be as much as one month account banned."

"HEY! What the! Balmung didn't kill my character! It was that crazy ninja-like fellow!" Orca said as he ran off to clear some things. Kite stood by the chaos gate. He couldn't help but laugh at all the incidents that happened today.

NEXT CHAPTER: SEARCH CONTINUES

Preview: With the Player Killing issue cleared, Kite and the gang can finally concentrate on solving the mystery behind the Special Spring of Myst. Of course, they have no other leads other than the vague info that was given by Aura. Ah, but it seems Sora has a few things to say about all this…