.hack/OMEGA

Chapter 2

Introduction-Ikardis

I know you have not played The World in a long time, but I have something that you may want to look into. Your long time rival, Sorma the Winged Knight, grows stronger by day. Will you allow that to happen? Will you allow your ENEMY to become better than you? He did win by chance in the War of the Alphas Event, but that does not mean you can't regain your pride.

Sorma is indeed the strongest at the moment, but when you come and meet me, I will give you a present that will more than provide a challenge to the Winged Knight.

I await your reply with the utmost interest.

Signed, a friend

"Humph, Sorma… This woman doesn't know a thing about me! Sending me the same e-mails over and over…if anything, she is a stalker. But…Sorma did win by chance…and I know I want to know what that present is." The man in his mid twenties looked to a headset hooked up to his computer with various buttons and joysticks surrounding it. Collecting dust was all it had been doing for a few months now. "I can't resist a chance to beat up Sorma!" And with that, he jumped into his chair in front of the computer, and slipped on the headset.

Username: Ikardis

Password: - - - - - - - - - - -

Server: Omega

Searching…………..

The World program detected.

Connecting………………

Internet service detected.

Searching for server: Omega………………

Server not detected. Server seems to not exist. Please check your spelling and try again.

The man leaned back in his chair, resting his folded hands on the top of his head. "I knew I had never heard of that server for a reason. The chick was pulling my leg. Man, women stalkers suck. Getting your hopes up, and everything…well, all women do that, but- What is this?"

Redirecting………

Omega server detected. Fill in the blank to continue: "Signed,"

"Wha'd she do! Lead me to some CC Corp Only server? Bah, women!" His hands had fallen to his lap where his right hand's fingers drummed on his knee. That hand soon went to the mouse, and he brought up the e-mail. "Simple enough, I guess," he whispered to himself, reading it over. He typed in, "a friend."

Entering the Omega server……

The Twin Blade took a step away from the Chaos Gate as the rings spiraled up from his body. He looked around at the field he was in, not sure what to expect. "Thousands upon thousands of fields, and this is the one they protect?" he asked out loud. No one is around, so what should he care?

The field was miles of woods that look like they had been hit by an inferno that burned everything in its path. There wasn't any birds chirping, no gentle breezes swooshing, no bright sunlight to warm your face; this wasn't a happy field.

"Guess it is time to explore. The stalker chick said she'd be in the center field." Ikardis shrugged. A blade from each forearm swung forward to their extended positions when he did so; when Ikardis' weapons of choice were resting, they were pointed backwards and aligned with his arms. The blade style was scythe-like, but the blades themselves were far too long and too straight to be for a scythe. Ikardis began hacking very easily through tree trunk and branches. At his level, it wouldn't take much to just punch or kick down each tree. Then again, he was choosing to cut down the trees when he could have just walked around each tree, but this was Ikardis…reason was not given to him at birth.

When he got into the center field, he noticed it was, well, a field. The charred trees were cleared out. Grass up to the knees whipped at you, as you would walk. Only now could you even notice the breeze that blew through. It would be a grand sight, but it wasn't anything Ikardis hadn't seen, and it was certainly not worth the secrecy.

"She better come soon. I'm not patient enough for this."

"So I noticed with the trees," spoke the voice of a woman.

Ikardis spun around. His eyes searched in the woods, tree limbs, anywhere that a player could be. "Are you the one who has been sending me the messages?" he called out into the air.

"The same, yes. I called forth your assistance, because Sorma is to become a problem soon."

"Show yourself, so that we can talk!"

"Me being beside you is not important, Knight. Now listen, Sorma defeated you in the War of the Alphas, correct? Do you want to regain your honor or not?"

"Of course I do!" Ikardis pointed one of his blades up into the sky, now knowing that was where the voice was. "But the problem is that I don't know why you want to help a guy like me get rid of a nice, caring, gently guy like Sorma," as this was said, Ikardis wanted to spit, but held it in.

There was a long pause before the woman spoke up. "My reasons are my own," she whispered. It was indeed a whisper, but the great, loud voice still boomed across the field.

"A guy like Sorma tends to seek out hackers, and then PKs them. You a hacker wanting revenge?" With the whole server incident, the voice being a hacker was plausible.

She ignored his questions, changing the subject. "I will give you two weapons of great power to seek out Sorma, and beat him. In return, you listen to the few orders I give you."

The second sentence was tuned out; Ikardis only heard what he wanted. "Simple enough." Once he stopped talking, Ikardis noticed that his blades had begun to glow. The left blade began to glow red while the right blade glowed a dark purple. Letterings of an ancient look to it appeared on the center of each blade, glowing a bright white. Once the purples, reds, and whites stopped emitting from the blades, Ikardis looked shook his head in disappointment. His head flung upwards to the sky. "These are the weapons of great power! My old weapons with a few odd letters engraved?"

"Have more faith in me. The left blade grants you the magic capabilities of a Wavemaster. The right blade is much more to my liking."

"What does the right blade do then?"

"Viral infection. Once you bring down an enemy's Hit Points with the left blade, finish with the right blade, and the enemy will be infected with a virus of my own making. Now, for my part of the bargain."

Ikardis eyes narrowed. "What do you want?"

"Nothing really. Simply make sure to defeat every enemy with the Infected blade. If you really want to, don't use the Infected blade at all until you get to Sorma. Once you have Sorma on his knees, stab with the right blade. That is all I want."

"There is no fine print to this contract?" Ikardis was suspicious of her. He wasn't ever going to trust her, but he was going to show some respect to her…with hopes that he may get more weapons.

"Do as I ask, and you and I won't have problems in the future."

"Good then! And so day one of Sorma search begins!" The two blades swung back into their rested positions against his forearm, and Ikardis turned to walk back to the Chaos Gate…, but stopped. He had to find one thing out first. His head went back up to the sky. "I hope I don't have to call you 'friend' all the time. Give me a name."

There was hesitation in the woman's tone, but she replied a few moments later with: "They call me Morgonna."