.Hack/Aftermath

Phase 2

Infection

"Great… and I thought that with the new updates Sever crashes wouldn't happen anymore." Lios grabbed his head. "We'll have to shut it down…"

"But we Still have one player walking around… How odd…" the man in the maids outfit smirked, the black bar still hovering over his eyes. "Her name is Rebecca. Her character's name is Mika Sorano… she's the one who received that special wavemaster look. You know?" he looked over at Lios.

"Hello?" Mika's voice echoed around Carmina Gadelica… how she got here she wasn't sure… all she did was go up to the gate and say the name and then she was there… "Anyone here?" she looked around. "why's no one around? Did they see that thing too?"

"Why can't we force her offline? Umiyichan (Umi-e-chan). Call for Roy and Linda… Get their asses online." Lios ordered.

"Sure thing Lios." Umiyichan smiled and turned his back to Lios, putting his hand to his head, obviously using a phone in real life. "After this… I'm going to … damn. The phones down… Well then, I'll just see to our little friend." Then he disappeared with a pop.

Mika pouted and whimpered, sitting down on a bench. "This sucks… what if I'm stuck like this…?"

"Hello there Mika." Umiyichan appeared next to her, sitting on the bench. He looked over at her with his smile.

Mika leapt up and screamed in fear, then blinked in surprise. "You're that… the one who… Are you with System Administration?" She asked, pointing a shaken finger at him. "You must be…"

"Yes," he nodded. "I am." He then stood up, cupping his hands in front of his chest. "Can you please log out for us?"

"What? I can't. I already tried… nothing happens… when I put my hands to my face I don't feel my Nero goggles… Its like… this is where I live…" Mika explained sadly. "If I could log out, I would… because I wanted to eat when I was done with that first dungeon, and now I don't want to…"

If Umiyichan had eyes, he woulda perked his eyebrows. "I see. Well then, do not worry. Everything should be restored soon." He bowed. "good day Mika. We wish you well." Then he disappeared.

"Well? Any luck?" Lois asked as his co worker appeared. "… Apparently not. She's still logged in… I managed to get Roy, he's going to get Linda and their coming over here to log in directly."

"We'll have to monitor Mika… she's an interesting one…" Umiyichan smiled oddly. "So I'll need a computer to do so…"

Mika sat down on a bench at the grunty ranch. It'd been an hour or so since everything came back online, and she was taking the time to raise a Grunty she had been working to grow into an adult. The small baby sat in her lap, smiling and wiggling while it made a cute 'whrrrrrr' sound like the motor in a kids toy. She giggled when he did that, which normally meant he was hungry. So she pulled out a small blue carrot and put it in front of him.

"Hey. Aren't you that Wavemaster?"

Mika leaned her head back to look at the person talking to her. It was a Long arm, with silver hair that flowed to her waist. She had shallow blue eyes, and her bluish skirt went to her ankles, with a cut on both outsides of her legs, up to her thighs so she could move. A metal plate over her chest had a white mark on it that looked like it was a star. Her shirt, white as well, was adorned with a couple of blue jewels, and a belt around the end of her sleeve, just above the elbow, closed her sleeve. She had gray metal boots on that disappeared into her skirt, but they just stopped halfway up her shins. Various buckles leading in a row up the front helped to keep them on. She smiled.

"… There's a lot of wavemasters in the game…" Mika responded sadly, then looked to her grunty, who was happily chewing on his carrot.

"I mean the one who won that event? You were the, I think 10,000th Japanese person to log on with a wavemaster. It was something like that." The woman leaned her spear against the fence and sat on the bench with Mika. "You guys have terrible luck…" she smiled. "first there was Tsukasa…"

"Yeah. I know… I was only a kid when that happened, but I heard and read about it…" Mika sighed sadly. "Why me…?"

"Where were you! We looked all over damn it! It's your first day and you show up late?" Lios roared.

"Sorry… My computer didn't seem to want to boot up today… It was having trouble doing so…" The new employee's character walked in slowly, his armor clinked with a bluish hum.

"Well next time, why don't you try logging on half an hour before you should be on? Instead of 5 minutes before?" Roy offered. "I mean… If people got word that… You… showed up late for work… People might not look at Balmung of the Azure sky the same way again."

"You're not like Kinoch… I'm glad." Mika smiled. "He attacked me when I went to that first dungeon. I guess he's playing a Pvp server…"

"Don't worry. You're not playing one. He can't hurt you. But I am, so if he shows his face, I'll just get rid of him. That's the only reason I play pvp. I kill those who Pk." The woman told Mika. "By the way, I'm Claire."

"You pk pkers?" Mika blinked and seemed to get a head ache from thinking about it. "But you only do it to those who are bothering others?"

"Yeah, if I meet someone on pvp who's actually doing something, like leveling up, or hunting down a rare item, I'll leave them alone. If you've seen me on the boards… …"

Claire's Hunting service.

Author: Claire

Are you Tired of being attacked when you're trying to level up? Or when you finally beat a hard monster, and a guy just backstabs you, making you lose all that you worked so hard to get in that dungeon? Well Fear no more! Claire is here, and I'll happily get rid of any pests you got floating around your back.

"So how far did you get in the event? I heard that the servers shut down… And that a wavemaster stayed here… even after the game cut service to everyone…" Claire looked over at Mika.

"I got to the end of the first dungeon. Then I ran into some… Monster… it wielded a red wand… and it looked like it was made of rocks…" Mika then told her about how she met Umiyichan, and learned she was trapped.

"Really… So now what?" Claire asked.

"I want to finish this event. Maybe that will help me… I did get this from the first dungeon." Mika pulled out the Virus core and held it up for Claire to see. "I have a lot of time to get going… I just need people to help, incase there are monsters, or Kinoch comes back."

"Well I'll tell my boss I've got some bad flu. Then I can use my sick days to help you. But after that… you're on your own." Claire sighed. "So. You wanna head out?"

"I don't know the keywords for the next dungeon…" Mika hung her head.

"But I know people who do. Lets go to Mac Anu. I'll call them and get them to come over." Claire gave a thumbs up, then added Mika to her party.

They logged into Mac Anu, and Claire walked away from the gate, put a hand on her hip and looked like she was calling someone. Mika wandered over to the Recorder and he started to save her game.

Mika's thoughts began to wander, thinking about when she first started the game… a friend referred her and when she stepped in… she was so excited. She had an original character… she was Unique. This world was new to her and she'd uncover anything she could, beat any monster with a band of friends behind her to heal her and fight with her. Friends she could trust, and fall in love with. Friends that she would avenge if killed by something. This was going to be the best thing Ever!

She could stand someplace and say "Someone famous was standing at this spot when they thought 'I wonder if anyone famous stood here'" If she was lucky, she would run into the legend Balmung. Not only had he beaten One Sin, but helped kite defeat the 8 phases. It was so exciting… but now…

"HEY! There you are!" Claire leapt down the steps and landed next to Mika. "Ready to go?"

Mika nodded and walked over to the Chaos gate. "Where are we going again?" she inquired, looking at Claire, who was saving her game as well. Mika sighed, then perked up when Claire rushed over.

"We're going to Alpha, Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground!" Claire called out, both of them disappeared from Alpha server, and then appeared on the pathway to a large, spooky cathedral. "here we are."

Mika looked it over, then started to walk up to it. "I can… sense something… there's a lot of information trapped in here…" Mika then bolted for the doors, grabbing onto the large handles and pulling the doors open. "SOMETHINGS IN HERE!"