A/N : Gotta give thanks for the reviews. I wasn't sure if anyone would ever read this. So Thank ya much, and have fun with this little chapter! It's explain some things left out from the Previous chapter, to some extent
Chapter2: Data, Data Everywhere
The Heavy Axe approached the data bug G&b1#n slowly. He let out a heavy sigh as he looked around for any other user lurking about. When he decided it was clear, he gave yet another sigh. "Data Bugs…Even though I made this as a test subject, there just a pain to track and drain…if only there was an easier way?"
There was the sound of keys being pounded. "Ok enter password, starting data drain procedures, and…" He looked in the direction of the data bug and pointed his axe at it.
"Good-bye." He announced as a series of data streams engulfed the goblin, the fragment of the virus was dragged out of the Goblin's body and into the Heavy Axe's Hand.
When the Goblin was normal he cased a Juk kruz spell to finish it off. He Finally turned his attention to the six people he captured. He looked at them for a second before he was struck with an idea.
The Heavy Axe quickly used Restorations to heal the people. " Soo…" He started but was stopped he Za'Afiel charging him head on. In mere seconds Za'Afiel was swinging his spear, and missing ever hit.
The Heavy Axe got tired and typed some code at his terminal. The Same streams of data swarmed Za'Afiel, and once they unraveled Za'Afiel's weapon was down graded to an Iron Spear. Za'Afiel then fell to the ground and crawled into a ball, and started shaking.
"Like I was saying. He'll be fine. I used an advanced controlled data draining program. He's lucky. If it was the natural data drain, he'd be in a coma. So...anyway. I'll drain anymore of ya if you try that stunt." The Heavy Axe swung his Axe over his shoulder.
Azriel was scratching his head, not sure if this was part of the game, but he went along with it. "So Mr. Heavy Axe Sir? You got a reason to be bothering us?" Azriel asked to try and answer his own curiosity.
The Heavy Axe snickered. "Now, now, now. That's not what you say to your captor, but if you want Gate Out. No one's stoppin' ya." He grinned looking around at each of the six.
So each of the group tried to Gate out but found that the command was grayed out. They were stuck in there with the loon. He 'drained Za'Afiel's data, and was rewritten to basic level and inventory.
Azriel looked back at the Heavy Axe. "Ok, this isn't part of the game. So what's the big deal?"
InuAcosta scratched his. "Hold it! This guy's a hacker?! I can't believe my-" Dante quickly smacked InuAcosta in the back of his head.
"Your just getting that? Man you need to get your head out your-"
"Hold your tongues! I'm no joke! I have important work." Said the Heavy Axe. " Now I'm goin' to do a quick analysis of each of your character data." Again the sound of pounding keys rang. " Ok we have 4 level 1s, 1 level 29, and 1 level35. I think it'll be better to downgrade you two."
He pointed his Axe at the two Wave Masters. He yet again perform a data drain. The Data strands engulfed the duo stripping them of there level and items. When they emerged, they both had lv.1 Cypress wands.
Now everyone one was level 1, and no threat to him. He was struck by an idea. The Heavy Axe dropped his axe folded his arms and smiled pleasantly. "Your all going to do me a favor. If you want to, or not."
The six users huddled up into a circle and started to discuss the matter at hand.
"Yo, Za'Afiel. We have no other choice. We rush him head on all six of us. Our best bet of getting out of here is a Game Over." Azriel planned amongst the group.
Za'Afiel shook his head. "No dice kiddo. Who knows what he could do even if we game it here. What's to say he won't follow us when we log back in?" His friends agreed with Za'Afiel.
"Well people." Interrupted InuAcosta. " We should here him out. Who knows there might be somethin' in it for us." Dante agreed with InuAcosta, and so did Za'Afiel and his group. "So we'll here him out. You never know if he'll give us rare iteams."
The group broke up and stood side by side one another.
"Ok. What are your terms?" Asked Azriel.
The Heavy Axe smiled. "First thing first. My intro. My name is Maxell. I'm a hacker in a secret guild, if that's what you wanna call it. Recently me and some friends of mine got our hand on some of the data from the Pluto's Kiss virus, that at one time, or another infected "The World", we screwed up." He scratched his head chuckling a little. "I want you to basically run around and delete infected areas, or something close to it. Think of yourselves as unofficial quarantine team. Let's leave it at that."
The Six huddled back into there circle. Azriel had his complaints, as did Za'Afiel.
"Let's take it. At least it'll be an adventure." Said Za'Afiel, but Azriel wasn't liking the plan.
"There's something wrong here. He's a hacker! WE can't diverse with hackers. How can we trust him?"
Azriel had made an important point, but Maxell was offering the RPG adventure of a life time.
They broke back into there line. To announce there decision. "Ok" said Za'afiel. "We'll do it."
Maxell smiled. "You never had a choice. This is the name of the game. It's Data Drain. I'm going to give you each the power to drain data form objects, users, monsters, what ever. BUT there's a catch! None of you are to leave "The World" until your done." He grinned. "Okay?"
Again there was another added term, but they desired an adventure, and there it was.
Za'Afiel looked around to see nods and Azriel shaking his head. "Ok we agree, but explain this 'Data Drain' Maxell?"
Maxell nodded. "Of course! It's simple. Go to skill sub menu and select Data Drain, also your personal infection percentage with a fail proof color code. Green-good, Yellow - Caution, Red - Danger. You can lower infection by beating monsters without the use of Data Drain. Yes you can drain normal monsters to get virus cores, items, and rare items. I'll modify your characters so you can perform Data Drain."
The six users turned black with green lines going horizontally across there entire bodies.
Maxell stood still as he typed on his terminal. They stood there for close to ten minutes.
Then Maxell announced with pride. "Finish! Wait a sec for your characters to reboot."
Each of the character regained there appearances for one minor detail. Each one wore a pendent with a unique symbol around there necks. Maxell stood smiling. Proud of his work. "Now kiddies I'll leave you with on extra tid-bit of info. Those are data pendants. There not all reliable. They change shape when a enemy virus protection program breaks for a small period of time. Those weapons can perform the Data Drain." He started to trail off. "If I could only find 'her' and get my hands on one of those bracelets. Oh well…" He waved as he left them with a final word. "You can contact me at: Delta : Hidden, Forbidden, Holy Ground. Bye!"
With that Maxell gated out, leaving a confused group of people. The each stared at their pendants with even more confusion. The six then looked over each others pendants.
Iofiel loved the new character addition. "These are sooo cool! I'm mean; think about it. Rare weapons at our finger tips. We'll rack up in cash in no time!"
Makatiel shook his head disapprovingly. " No…" He said keeping to himself.
InuAcosta was fiddling around with his wondering the full possibilities of the Data Drain.
Each user had there own idea of how to do thing. Za'Afiel and his group gated out, back to the root town. At the root town they continued to the Chaos gate in search of a low area to get them back to there former glory.
On the other hand Azriel's group gated to the root town, and said there "byes" and "see you tomorrow!" But as they tried to log out a message displayed across there screen.
"Warning to are attempting a non-executable action. Please try at another time."
The next thing they tried was to remove their goggles form there heads, but couldn't feel their faces. They then check with each other to see if there friends had the same problem.
There they were standing in a triangle staring at one another, in shock. All of them guessed what happened. They couldn't log out. This freaked them out.
"Dudes, not cool. I'm stuck here?!" InuAcosta replied to a non-existent question. He was ranting and raving until Dante smacked him over the head.
"Okay there has to be a logical reason we can't log out. We just have to think about it." Azriel said trying to keep his cool.
"The hell there is. That bastard Maxell did this! He's a F-" Dante was stopped by InuAcosta.
"This is no time to be ranting. He said we could find him at; Delta: Hidden, Forbidden, Holy Ground. I say he find him and have him fix this!"
Azriel nodded in agreement. "Yeah let bring the fight to his door step."
The trio went to the Chaos Gate and Typed in the Keywords. Delta: Hidden, Forbidden, Holy Ground, but as the name suggest a message display.
"Due to technical Difficulties the area you are trying to access, is not assessable at this time."
There faces were struck with terror. They had no answers and no means of getting them.
"Oh…Sh-"
"Hold your tongue there Ms. Dante." Azriel caught her before she just erupted into a string of profanity. "We need a place to camp out. An area we could call our own. I wonder if Za'Afiel and his gang had the same problem." He said stroking his chin.
"Well guys. I think we should walk around to see if anything popped up on the board."
This was a rare thing indeed; InuAcosta with a good idea that didn't involve a series of police reports.
They scattered each one talking to other user to here if anything new had happen.
Azriel was about to give up hope until he heard a group talking about a mysterious keyword that popped up on the board.
"Hey did you here?"
"Here what?"
"About the new Sever, and Keyword."
"Naw. I rarely ever read the board. So what's it about?"
"Ok here it is. There's a New Sever, Its supposedly called 'Civilization'. Weird, cause its not a Greek letter. They say it appeared out of nowhere, and it even has the CC Corp. on there toes. There's only 1 key word there. Civ: Great, Destroyer's, Destruction. The root town is called. "Crimson Rains." Odd right, but that's not the strange part. No one can access the Chaos gate keyword, or the shops."
"Yeah. That is strange."
"Wanna check it out?"
"Sure."
That's when Azriel saw the two users walking around the corner. There were two ordinary characters. A simple Twin Blade, and a Simple Blade Master, both Female.
Azriel had his lead now all he needed was friends. He waited at the Chaos gate awaiting there arrival. When they got there they both came up with nothing interesting.
Azriel approached the chaos gate and selected 'other servers', but found none were operational, and the mysterious sever 'Civilization' wasn't on the list.
Azriel told Dante and InuAcosta of what he heard, but was baffled by the event that just happened.
"Why is everything so weird!" Azriel shouted, but at the same time Za'Afiel and his party appear after there leveling session. They were surprised to find Azriel and his group still logged on.
"So the Azriel deiced to stick to the game for a while, and flee?" Za'Afiel mocked.
Azriel shoot Za'Afiel a stare that would have killed a man. "Have you tried logging out?" He said gritting his teeth.
Za'Afiel shook his head. "No, of course not, "The World" is my life! I'll be on for a good hour more. Why?"
"Just try it. You'll not be disappointed." Azriel said regaining his calm.
So the Fallen Messengers attempted to log out, but was hit with the same message.
"What you do you our data?!" Za'Afiel said enraged.
Azriel shook his head. "Nothing. Maxell did, and bother trying those keywords there were a dud. We've been…" Azriel couldn't find the words to explain the events that had enveloped them this day. "But one things for sure. We need to find Maxell."
Next Chapter: Strike Thy Gate's of Despair
