.Hack/Aftermath

Phase 5

Investigation

"Oh. My. God. Its KITE!" Mika exclaimed before shaking his hand. "I'm shaking Kite's hand… I'm touching him!" Her eyes were wide as she tried to take everything in.

"Hey guys." Kite waved. "I know the Keywords for the next dungeon. You said you've been to Beta, chosen, hopeless, nothingness. Right? Well the next is Lambda Resurrecting Confused Judgment."

"Isn't that where we fought that weird thing that was running from us?" Blackrose put a hand to her hip. "That plate thing?"

"Yes. It is." Kite nodded. "Mika. If you're ready, we'll all go with you. We'll have teams of three. Me, Blackrose, and Balmung in one team. Bear, Mimiru, and Crim in another… Then that leaves Claire, and you." He pointed to everyone as he said their names. "Is that ok?"

"Yeah. I'm level 15… I should be alright… I know spells and items and such…" Mika suddenly became really worried… what would happen if her character died?

"Don't worry. I'm level 40." Claire grabbed her spear. "There's more than enough of us to defend you Mika." She smirked.

"Yes but what if we get separated? Will Mika be strong enough with just one team member? Is she good enough?" Balmung rolled his eyes.

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"You won't be strong enough! You've got no skill at this game!" a kid laughed at Rebecca. He was wearing a vest and holding a gun from a laser tag game.

"I do too!" Rebecca stomped, grabbing a vest. "Even if I have to fight your team with only another member. I'll win… I know I can."

"HA! Don't make me laugh." Another grabbed his chest for a moment. "You think you're good enough to take us all on? What, just cause you put your heart into this, you'll win?"

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"I will win…" Mika muttered and balled her fists. "I won't lose." Her whispers caught Kite's attention. "I'll show you…"

"Hold on Mika. Who are you talking to?" Kite walked over and put a hand to her shoulder, snapping her back to reality.

"No one… just… its nothing." Mika looked at Kite and smiled. She was going to do everything she could for them.

"Don't mind Balmung. He's just rude most of the time." Blackrose giggled. "Mika, we'll leave monsters for you and Claire to fight. Ok?"

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Topic: Aftermath Part 2

Author: Lios

We are sorry to have postponed the Event. It has been restarted, and all bugs have been fixed.

Reply:

Author: Roy

You may notice white noise and discoloration in the special fields and dungeons. Don't worry, this will not affect you, or your save file as it has been put there to simulate what it was like trying to play on these fields when they were infected. Thank you for playing 'the world'.

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"A new post…" Bear looked up. "Huh. They've officially reopened the fields. Wonder why…" he put a hand to his chin. "I mean why didn't they reopen sooner…"

"Who knows?" Mimiru shrugged. "are we ready to go or not?"

"We should really plan out our course of action before we get moving… So we'll head to the dungeon, Collect the new virus core… … Does that sound good?" Kite looked around at the others. They nodded in agreement. "Good. Lets go!"

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"Finally. They're moving." Lios put a hand to his head.

"You're really into this you know… You should lighten up, Because I thought you did that 6 months ago." Roy chuckled and leaned back in his seat. Roy was a blade master, he looked like he was wearing a suit of armor, but had no helmet, and his sword was glowing blue, with the Cc corp. logo on the blade.

"Shut up! I just don't want another Net Crisis on our hands. We all experienced it, and I'm sure we all don't want it happening again." Lios growled deeply.

"We are better prepared… if that would make you happy." Umiyichan looked up, and the black bar over his eyes wiggled as if it sat on his nose.

"I've done my research, and trust me, if another problem breaks out, we can easily deal with it…" A voice came from a now materializing doorway to the room. A man stepped in with silver hair that came to his chin. His eyes were as blue as could be, and his face had a look to it that practically said 'I should be a model. DAMN I'm handsome'. He wore a long red coat that came to his ankles, a black vest and black pants. His boots were brown with several buckles that crossed the top of em. His sword that sat on his back was long and slick, coming from a dragons mouth that was part of the hilt.

"Yes, you used to be a hacker… That's why." Lios snuffed and made a slurping sound. Roy, Linda, and Umiyichan looked at each other, and tried not to laugh. "I'm drinking coffee!" Lios' face contorted in anger.

"Wow… You really do need to lighten up Lios… Look, I'm sorry I'm late, I thought Claire was covering for me…" The new person sighed and put a hand on his hip.

"Drache… Your wife doesn't count…. Ok? I don't know why we made this man a system administrator." Lios shook his head and tried not to yell at them.

"Because I know the system inside and out." Drache smirked.

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"It's just like the last one." Mika ran forward and turned on the spot, extending her hand to let a string of randomly generated numbers, letters, and symbols floated through her hand. "What's wrong with it?"

"They were never really able to fix it…" Balmung folded his arms with a look that told everyone he thought she shoulda known that. "So we just sealed off access to the 7 fields and dungeons."

"Weren't there eight phases though?" Mika tilted her head, and several long bangs fell before her face. "Where did you fight the last one?"

"The last phase, Corbienk, we fought in Lia Fail. It just appeared when we were getting ready to fight." Kite popped his knuckles and picked up both of his twin blades.

"I wonder If Ghosts of data will show up here as well." Crim spoke out loud. "Wouldn't it be cool to see Kite fighting the next phase?"

"MIKA NO!" Claire reached out, and this attracted everyone's attention, as they now saw Mika take another step towards a monster gate. "Stop right there!"

"Its fake. Don't worry. We managed to copy over the monster gates that normally spawn monsters." Balmung began to walk forward, ignoring the quick flashes of white noise and discoloration that they 'programmed' into the field. "So its safe to get close to it…"

But he thought wrong, as a data bugged hellhound emerged from the gate. Everyone took in a deep breath, Balmung jumped back, and everyone got their weapons ready. Strangely, the dog didn't notice Mika. It just growled and hunched down, staring the group down.

"What's this?" Mika picked up one of the green hexagons, to everyone's amazement. The monster didn't even notice the data break, or Mika. It didn't have time to really, seeing as Kite data drained the monster, and Balmung cut it down the middle. The dog roared and faded from sight, along with the green object Mika had picked up.

"How did that happen? MIKA! WHAT DID YOU DO TO THE REWRITE!" Balmung rushed over and grabbed the wavemaster by the collar, hoisting her into the air. He snarled, ignoring her whimpers. "What did you do!"

"Let her go! She didn't do anything!" Bear pointed his sword to Balmung, tapping him on the shoulder with it. "She is different now… There's a chance that the system changed once she found that crystal…"

"If only someone else had found it… I hate glitches." Balmung let go of Mika. "She got a special character skin, and then came here. So its all her fault…"

"She didn't do anything wrong. It's not her fault and you know it Balmung." Kite growled. "Do you and your friends want to see us help Mika or let her be trapped here and possibly die in the real world?"

Balmung snorted and turned for the dungeon. It was soon apparent that something had changed in the system, Because only when Mika approached a gate, did the monsters appear. But it didn't take much to allow a data drain. The monsters always ignored her, but never really moved from their spot, they stood where they appeared and growled at the group. This wasn't much of a hindrance to the plan, just a little annoying at times…

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"So you're the Drache we've heard so much about…" Linda rolled her head and popped her neck, leaning against her spear. "You not only saw the key of the twilight… But you were data drained."

"Yeah. After the data drain, when I woke up, I decided to work for the guys I had been pissing off." Drache chuckled lightly. "Now it seems the only one I made angry was Lios."

"It's a good thing that Silver Knight guy never caught you. He woulda gotten rid of you really easily." Roy took a bite of the air, then nodded. "Sammish." He said with his mouth full of food in real life. "lunssh."

Drache nodded. "He did try to get me, but I did beat him in a fight. I actually did it fair as well. That's the sad part. He did fight well, If I didn't have healing potions, he actually would have won." He then shrugged and retold to them the fight with Silver Knight…

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"It's the Third floor… So this is it then?" Crim asked as he received a heal from Mika. "Please let it be…"

"Yes. Its right through there." Kite pointed to the purple flames slowly coming out of the ground of the doorway across from them. "After this, we should head back to the cathedral." He walked forward and into the gate, disappearing from sight.

"Are you Ready Mika?" Claire asked, now standing alone with the wavemaster. "We'll all be here for you if things go badly…"

Mika nodded. "Yes. But I… I wanna go home. I'm scared." She buried her face into Claire's dress. "I just want this to end."

"Don't worry. It'll be ok Mika. I promise… let's go into the gate." Claire tried to reassure Mika, and then led her into the gateway for the last room…

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Topic: NEW CLASSES!

Author: Drache

Guess what? New classes! With the new expansion of "the world" we introduce a new class. No I won't tell you what it is. Sorry. But the name of the new class is … well, classified! Even on the box it doesn't tell you. You'll have to buy the expansion, and the information of the class will be emailed to you, so will the information about what you can do with your new upgrade. Thanks for Playing 'The World'!

End Phase 5

((holy crap. I'm so so so so so sorry about the long delay between chapters… I've started my senior year, and… well the second nine weeks has just started, and I'm still having trouble getting my schedule together, cause I'm always doing stuff and almost never have time to type. Sure I'm often online at night, and I should type then, but I'm often busy even then, trying to figure out what to do with a webcomic I'm working on.

If you've been waiting for this, or the next chapter of S-cry-ed or Inuyasha, then I'm sorry, I am working on them though. So don't worry. They will be posted at some point. You'll be notified if you put me on your author alert thing… you know, tells you when a new chapter is up. That thing. Well, thanks for waiting, I'm glad you all like what I'm typing. Its good to know I have fans . Again, sorry for the delay, and if you're looking for some original stuff of mine, Look for "Serenade of the Stars" in fiction press. Serenade is my baby, and I love her. Sure Its only typed chapter 2. but I started book 2 in writing. It's going so well and I love it to death. It's worth the time to read it I think. And I got some poems on there. don't expect any more poems… I suck at writing them. alright. Well, time to end my rant. Bye.))