Disclaimer: I do own the 3-volume set, .hack/legend of the twilight, on which much of this story is based, and I am watching the anime, .hack/SIGN. I don't own the 4 .hack PS2 games (they're almost impossible to buy right now); but, I did play some of the third one. This story is simply my imagination taking a small journey...

.hack/DAWN

by: theoaktree

Mike Smit sat in front of his computer, nervously clutching his covetted headset. Ever since he had found out that his friend Freddy Mercer had gotten one and had let him try walking around in the World for a few minutes, he had yearned for one of his own. Since it had been almost the only thing he'd talked about for the month following, his family had had no problem figuring out what to get him for his twelfth birthday. Although it had been the only gift he had received, due to the high cost of both it and the associated software bundle, he was more than satisfied.

A little before seven, he put the headset on and adjusted the fit so that it would be comfortable. He started the game so that he could be properly logged in by seven, when Freddy had said he was getting on. The ALTIMIT screen appeared, he selected 'new user' and entered 'Mike' into the user name. Since it came back that that one was taken, he tried 'Mike123'. 'Mike127' ended up being acceptable, and he entered a password as required.

He then got to select his character type, and, after some consideration, chose 'wavemaster' because it sounded cool. There then followed the gender and wardrobe selections, as well as body markings. What are those for? he wondered. That all done, he was taken to the desktop, where he immediately picked the icon 'World'. Let's see, he thought. Freddy told me to take the Chaos Gate to the Delta Server. Alright...

He materialized in the root town, Appalachia, which was on the Upsilon Server that serviced the whole of Eastern Canada as well as New England. The first thing he did was to inspect himself to see how he made out. Although he'd experienced being in the World at Freddy's, he was still surprised at how real it felt. Freddy had explained that the headset was able to somehow tap into the brain. Mike had no idea; but, it worked great.

Now, what to do? He clutched his staff tensely as he looked around. "Excuse me," he said to a passerby. "Where's the Chaos Gate?" The young man snickered and pointed behind him. Mike turned around and felt very foolish as he discovered that he'd been put down right in front of it. It took him a few moments to figure out how to work the gate, as people came and went around him. Once he found 'Delta', he was on his way, and Mac Anu, City of Water, soon materialized around him. Suddenly it dawned on him that he would have no idea what Freddy would look like here, and he scanned around a bit hopelessly. Hm, he thought, now I see what the body markings are for. There are only so many character types; so, the marks help tell people apart. Spotting a number of people who appeared to be waiting off to one side, he approached them.

"Freddy?"

"Mike! Over here!" A guy further around the square was waving a substantial axe in the air.

Mike waved his staff, the one with the ball that floated mysteriously in its head, and trotted over. "Hey, Freddy!"

"I was going to take you to Bursting Passed Over Aqua Field, cause it's real easy; but, then I remembered you should buy a few healing items first. Let's go to the Item Shop."

Mike could only afford a small number of potions and fortune wires (used to safely spring the traps on some of the treasure chests) to start with; but, Freddy assured him that would be plenty. They then formed a proper party and headed back to the Gate. Freddy selected the keywords and Mac Anu dissolved.

Mike found himself in a large black room with a white glowing floor, and standing in front of him was a girl. She looked to be around six years old, with flowing red hair and a long white robe. He didn't recognize the character class; but, then, what did he know? And where was Freddy?

"Mike127, will you look for my teddy?"

"Your teddy? ... I guess. Where'd you lose it?"

"I didn't lose it, silly! You're supposed to look for it."

"Oh. Is this like a quest?"

"Yes, a quest. Mommy asked me to look for a helper. Will you help, and look for my teddy?"

"Uh... alright, I s'pose."

She skipped forward and gave him a little kiss on the cheek. "Thank you, Mike127!"

Suddenly, the room dissolved, to be replaced by a twilit plain dotted with some windmills and other structures. There was a glowing thing that looked like spinning rings off to one side behind Freddy's character.

"Where'd you go?" Freddy asked. "You were supposed to be right with me."

"I don' know. This girl asked me to look for her teddy."

"What girl? Did you get her member address?"

"Don' know. I didn't recognize her, and I never thought of addresses."

"Whatever. Let's go kick some monster butt!" Freddy turned toward the glowing rings and pointed his axe at them. "We can start at that portal."

"Yeah!"

Mike sat on a hill overlooking the dungeon of Lamda Great Solitary Melody Field, thinking about things. He'd just finished eliminating the monsters in the field so they wouldn't bother him, and he hoped fervently that no-one would come here for a while. He needed to think, to process some stuff, and, with Freddy off on a doctor's appointment for much of the afternoon, he felt free to indulge in some introspection.

He'd been playing now for some three months, and he and Freddy had achieved a pretty strong level, able to take on all but the toughest dungeons. He'd collected all the rare items he could find information about, and even a few that had only been mentioned in rumours on the message boards.

Now he sat on this hill, a bit jaded, and in danger of becoming totally bored of it all

Why had he wanted to play here in the first place? Oh, and what about that girl's teddy? He had been watching for it, even checking down empty corridors, taking time that Freddy would rather have used elsewhere, but with no luck. He hoped guiltily that the girl wouldn't come asking only to end up disappointed in him.

Hm. He'd wanted to play because, deep down, he believed he could be someone special, a hero or something; but, he was finding that he was just another player among millions. Bleagh! Lying back in the grass, he looked up at the virtual sky. It was a weird lilac colour, although this wasn't really that unusual in a world that sported occasional trees with blue leaves, or the odd lake of gold water. Some of the programmers had strange senses of humour. Mike could still remember his shock the first time he found the air in one water-element dungeon populated by little green fish that moved around as if they were swimming in water; but, that was all getting pretty old hat.

"Hey, how come there's no field monsters?"

Mike looked up to see a party of three standing in front of him.

"Oh," he responded, "I got rid of them so they wouldn't bug me."

"Crap. Uh... I suppose you cleaned out the dungeon too?"

"Nah."

"No?"

"Nope. It's still good."

"Well, let's get going then!" The party headed to the entrance cave and disappeared inside.

Mike lay back down. That had been simple; but, his dilemma was not so easily disposed of. How was he supposed to do something that was really meaningful here? It's not like he could rescue fair maidens (if he'd wanted to... eww! Girls!). And he'd run into plenty of them who could whip his gaming butt. Gah!

"Why are you not doing something?"

That voice! Mike sat bolt upright, and nearly banged heads with the girl whose teddy he'd been looking for all this time. "Uh, hi... Sorry I couldn't find your teddy..." She was holding a toy bear in her left hand.

"Close your mouth, silly. I never asked you to find it."

"What?" Mike scrambled backwards to restore his personal space. "But you said..."

"I told you to look for it. And you did."

"Oh... Okay."

"Now, why aren't you doing something?"

"Er, I guess I'm bored."

"Bored?" She hesitated. "'Bore, transitive verb, from the Anglo-Saxon 'borian'; to pierce or perforate to make a round hole in.' No, you don't seem to have a hole in you. 'To weary by tedious repetition. To tire by dullness.' Oh, you find the World wearisome and dull?"

"Wha...! Who are you?"

"My name is Zephyr. I am a non-player character made by the creator."

"You work for CC Corp?" This was the company responsible for maintaining the World.

"No, CC Corp is not the creator. Aura is. She is my mother."

"Alright." Weird.

"Why are you bored?"

"Well, like, I'm just doing all the same old stuff all the time."

"You are wearied by the tedious repetition, then?"

"Uh, yeah, sort of."

"What do you wish to do?"

"I don' know. Something special, like heroes do."

"I have met players that others call heroes. 'Hero, noun; a person of distinguished bravery; a person reverenced and idealized; the principal figure in a work of fiction.' Is that the sort of player you wish to be, Mike127?"

"Well, I'd sure like to do brave stuff." Mike thought he liked the sound of 'reverenced and idealized', but suspected that that was dumb.

"You have proved yourself faithful by looking for my teddy; so, go to Sigma Lonely Primitive Sea of Sand Field and find the virus that is lying dormant somewhere in there. The Cobalt Knights have not been able to detect it yet."

That sounded interesting. "Can I take Freddy in my party?"

"Freddy?"

"Huh? Oh, right, user name. MercedesX"

"Yes, take him if you wish." She dissolved and was gone.