.Hack/Aftermath
Phase 1: The Beginning
DING DING DING!
The players of "The World" in Carmina Gadelica looked up to a balcony. On it, was an Oddly dressed middle aged looking man… who wore… a maids outfit. His eyes were covered by a black bar, and a little fairy sat on his shoulder. His hands were cupped before his chest, and a smile sat on his face.
"That you all for playing "The world" He giggled. "As you all know, its been about a year since the Net Crisis was ended by the .Hackers: Kite, Blackrose, and Balmung."
A lot of the players cheered, raising weapons, or whistling with pride. As typical of any group, someone screamed "KITE ROCKS!"
The man waited till the cheering died before he continued. "In honor of that, We will open the locked fields that have been the hot spot of topics on the boards. You may freely wander those fields, and marvel at the events that took place. Thank you all again." Then, he vanished.
Players scrambled around, gathering items and whatnot before rushing to the chaos gate. Within moments, all but one was gone.
A girl, with long white hair, blue eyes, and a pale complexion stood in the middle of Carmina in a long greenish dress. From her eyes, were red lines, going from above the eye, then over and about half way down her cheeks. She sighed. "I have no one to go with…"
"I'll go with you." A voice offered. It belonged to a twin blade, who looked like all the other twin blades. "I'm Kinoch. I'd gladly go with you to the fields if you'd like." He smirked.
"Really? Oh. My Name is Mika Sorano." She held out her hand and shook Kinoch's, giving him her member address. "Do you know where the first one is?"
"Yes. Its Beta, Chosen Hopeless Nothingness." Kinoch nodded. "Do you want to go now?"
"First I want to save my game…" Mika hurried over to the recorded, who jotted down what was needed. Then she wandered back over with a smile. "Ready."
They logged in, and Mika gasped, taking in everything she could. "Whats with this place? Its still broken up and showing the data."
"it must not have been repaired." Kinoch watched her, looking angry. "Why did you save?" he inquired.
"What?" Mika looked back. "Why did I save? What if something bad happened to me?"
"You know what I mean." Kinoch raised his blades. "You had to go and ruin everything by saving. Now I can't take much joy from this…" he looked rather angry.
"You're… a Player Killer…" Mika, if possible, was now paler than before. She trusted up her arms, spouting "Ah puih!" the spell for quickness. She burst away from Kinoch.
"I'LL STILL FIND YOU! YOU'RE PART OF MY PARTY! THE ONLY PLACE TO GO IS THE DUNGEON!" Kinoch screamed and then ran after Mika.
Mika had now reached the 5th floor of the dungeon, having weaved her way through with trusted fairy's orbs. She had noted there weren't monsters… which were good. But now… she was trapped… Alone, there was a door with purple flames infront of it… a boss lie beyond. One she knew she couldn't take on alone.
"There you are!" Kinoch breathed heavily as he entered the room. He twitched. "you've been a bad, bad girl Mika. Running away from me like that." He sighed. "I'm gonna have to… PUNISH YOU!" he leapt at the wavemaster, who fell backwards and rolled through the gate. It slammed shut in Kinoch's face. He growled and slammed his blades against the steel bars. "DAMN IT! YOU STUPID NEWBIE! I'LL GET YOU!" and he logged out.
Mika whimpered and opened her eyes. She was in a different field now… a large hunk of ground was beneath her, and several strips of green ran across it. Pieces of different fields floated around her, and sitting in the middle of the piece she stood on, was a hexagonal red object. She reached out, taking it within her hand. The hexagonal disc disappeared…
"You have obtained Virus Core Alpha." Appeared before her… but then… so did the beast known as Skeith… it was Ghost image though… see through. But it raised its staff, and struck at her. She went wide eyed again as her screen suddenly went snowy, and she was suddenly in Dun Loreiag.
"That… .. was odd…" she slowly sat up, holding her head. "I need a drink…" she reached up to take off her goggles… but felt her face. She blinked in confusion, feeling her head completely. "Why am I still…? Whats going on?" She got up and ran over to the recorder, who seemed to have trouble writing down her data.
"You must be having trouble with your internet." He said, managing to write down her information. "There… You should run some virus programs." He offered.
"Thanks. I'll consider." She ran over to the chaos gate and raised her arms. "Log out. Log out. Where's the Menu?" she whimpered, straining to do anything. "WHY CAN'T I LOG OUT?"
"Rebecca. Dinners ready." A girl's mom knocked on the door. "Rebecca?" she opened it, only to find her daughter slumped over in her chair, goggles knocked off, with her character standing before the Chaos gate. A message on screen said "Please Do Not Reset Terminal."
This woman… screamed.