Author's Notes: Thanks all my wonderful reviewers! All...5...of you! That's okay, more will pile in! . I'm glad you all at least moderately like the story! Do I make you want to read more?
SwampFox: Thanks! I'm glad you like the couple! They've grown on me too!
Akiko The Fox Demon: I'll do my best!
Uber Flare: Sorry, that was my mistake not to mention that this fic takes place after the game and Beta is a new server I've created myself. I'm sorry, that was my mistake! I'm glad you like the fic though!
FeralCats: I hope you continue to read more!
Final Genesis: Ahhh I love you man! Always reviewing! You're my hero! I hope to get 5 stars this time! OO
Okay! Now! Onto the chapter!
Mai ran out of her mother's car, threw her backpack to the ground and sprinted into her room to turn on the computer. As it booted up she giggled about what she would do before 5:30. "I have to get to level 3 before Hiromi comes on!" she smiled, "That way we'll be the same level!"
She quickly logged into "The World".
Iam materialized in front of the blue portal, just like last time and looked around at the town. To tell herself the truth, she hadn't even seen the town when she was leveling with Orizo, she had just killed some enemies and leveled. She decided to go meet some people.
As she passed she realized this was the town of "Mac Anu" a root town. Next to her was a man that saved your progress. She smiled and quickly ran over to him.
"I'd like to save please," she told him and the man nodded. He quickly saved her game and she smiled, "Now if I die I won't lose my level right?" the man nodded once more. It started to creep Iam out so she decided to go meet some actual players.
"Hello!" she smiled and went up to a large heavy-axe, "I'm I--"
"Wanna trade?" he asked her.
"Umm...I only have one item," she told him, "I just wanted to say hello..."
"Oh," he grunted, "Hi." With that he walked off with his wave master friend muttering about "weird" players.
"Jerk..." Iam sighed as she walked onto the bridge in the center of the town.
"Tell me about it," Iam heard a voice from behind her and she turned around. A girl was there, a heavy blade girl. She had a gigantic sword on her back that could have sliced the bridge in two if that was programmed into it. Her armor was white. A white tank top that ended before her navel and a white pair of tight pants. Tight white armbands and tall white boots completed the look along with red trim on everything. Her hair was a light red as well and it fell to about her mid back. A white headband that fitted over her head kept the hair in place. Her skin was light with red stripes on her face. She smiled and waved, "Hey!"
"Uh...h-hey!" Iam waved to the girl and they met mid-way on the bridge. "I'm Iam, only level 2, just a newbie, I've only been adventuring once, I'm waiting for my friend, I'm a long arm, what are you?!" she said this all very fast, blushing at the ever smiling girl.
"I'm Moyotu," she laughed, "A level 5 Heavy Blade, I'm pretty new too." Iam smiled slightly, she felt comfortable around the girl, she had a warm aura around her. "I'm not waiting for anyone...hey," she put her fist into her other hand, "When's your friend coming?"
"Umm...5:30," Iam told her and Moyotu nodded.
"How about we go fight some stuff? I know a great area!" she smiled, "We can be friends!"
"Iam!" A voice called to her and Iam looked around and saw Orizo running towards her. It wasn't 5:30 yet was it? She wondered what he was doing here.
"Oh, this is my friend Orizo," she smiled and introduced him, "This is Moyotu, Orizo, a heavy blade."
"Pleased to meetcha!" she bowed, the sword almost coming off her back. "I was just talking to Iam here, how would you like to go adventuring?"
"Well that's what I came to do," Orizo gruffly said, not acting very friendly. "What's your member address?"
"55334225," Moyotu recited and Iam and Orizo jotted it down and Moyotu was added onto their friends list. "Okay! What are yours?" They recited their member addresses and Moyotu paused as her player added them. "C'mon, let's go to my favorite area!"
The two followed Moyotu threw the town and as they walked Iam turned to Orizo, "Whatcha doing on so early? You weren't trying to level up without me were you?"
Orizo blushed, "Hey I could say the same for you!"
"I guess you're right," Iam giggled and stuck out her tongue.
"We're here!" Moyotu smiled as they reached the blue portal, "I'll enter the keywords! This is my favorite area in the entire world!"
She paused and entered the keywords and the party was warped away instantly.
The area was very pretty. It was orange, and looked like leaves from autumn trees had fallen on the ground. "Okay! We're here, now let's fight!" Moyotu pumped her fist, "Look! A portal!"
The group traveled around, fighting lots of monster and Moyotu remained peppy for the entire thing. Luckily, she had the "Repth" spell so they could heal themselves and Orizo had plenty of Health Drinks. Moyotu was an extremely cheerful person and Iam was already happy they were friends.
"Hey! I think we got all the portals out here!" Moyotu cheered, "Let's head to the dungeon!"
"Okay!" Iam nodded, more aware of "The World" jargon now, "Let's go!"
"But before we do," Moyotu smiled, "What do you guys think of my outfit?"
It was an odd question to ask. It's not like Moyotu could change it even if they did like it, but Iam nodded anyway, "Uhh...yeah, it's cute!"
"Hmm...I don't like it much," Moyotu sighed, "I think I'll change."
"Bu-but you--" Iam started but was amazed to see that in a split second, Moyotu's outfit changed colors from red, to black, to yellow and then into a different armor set until it went back to white. "How did you do that?!"
Orizo's eyes were wide with fear, "The-there's no way a regular player could do that..."
"Well I'm not a regular player," Moyotu grinned.
"You-you're," Orizo pointed accusingly at her, "You're a hacker! A cheater!"
"Cheating sounds so devious," Moyotu smiled, "I prefer getting ahead."
"Bu-but all she did was change her clothes, that's not so awful right?!" Iam put herself between the two, "It's not hurting anyone!"
"But I can do more than that!" Moyotu smiled and then paused, "Check my stats."
Iam went to the party menu and gasped to see that Moyotu was now level 99 and had 9,999,999,999 GP. She laughed haughtily, "Isn't that funny?! With just a few flicks of the keyboard I can make myself the best player in "The World." While some stupid people work so hard to level their characters! How stupid!"
"Bu-but...but that's not right!" Iam insisted to her friend, "You should stop right now!"
"It's perfectly fine, no big deal," Moyotu raised her eyebrows, "In fact, I'm offering you guys the chance to learn how..."
"Never!" Orizo stated, unsheathing his blades, "We'll never cheat like you!"
"Don't cross me..." she warned, drawing her blade.
"Orizo...we can't win against her," Iam whispered, "She can completely max her stats..."
"Oh don't worry," Moyotu cackled, "I'm not going to fight you! I don't fight my friends!" She smiled and bowed, "But you know..." she became very dark, "Now that you know my secret...I can't let you escape..." Her cheerful air returned and she waved to them, "Bye bye!" With that, she gated out...
"W-wait!" Iam called, but saw Orizo's hand on her shoulder.
"Just forget her okay?" he shook his head, "There's nothing more she can do, let's just forget we ever knew her, okay?"
"But...but she was...so nice..." Iam whimpered.
"Get over her," he coldly stated and walked toward the dungeon, "There's nothing she can do now..."
The two traveled threw the dungeon, destroying enemies and collecting exp, but Iam didn't seem as enthusiastic as before. She didn't talk much, only thinking about Moyotu. Finally, they got to the third level of the dungeon and were about to make their way into the next room.
"Hey Iam..." Orizo pointed to something near the door and Iam looked down. It was a lot of purple mist... "What's that?"
"Maybe an event?" she asked and he nodded.
"That's got to be it..." he nodded as if trying to reassure himself more than Iam, "Let's head on in..."
"Right," she told him and the two ran into the room.
"Orizo!" Iam pointed in front of her once they had reached the room and Orizo noticed the giant green scaly dragon thing with light green flakes all over it. Numbers surrounding it, it looked menacing. And next to it...was Moyotu...
"Moyotu!" Iam shouted to her and Moyotu smiled.
"Do you like him?" she asked, "I made him myself. He's a data-bug you see..." she smiled, "With infinite HP..."
"Iam! Shut off your console!" Orizo called to her and she nodded. Her player fiddled with the button on her computer, but it wouldn't shut off, "It's not going off!"
"Damn...me neither..." Orizo took out his blades, "We'll have to fight it!"
"But it has infinite HP!" Iam insisted, "How can we fight that?!"
"Have fun," Moyotu blew them a kiss, "Consider this a farewell from the Prism Players..."
"Prism what?" Orizo asked, but Moyotu had already gated out. "Dammit! What are we gonna do?!"
"Orizo, it's coming!" Iam screeched as the green dragon flew towards them and hit Iam back, "Ow!" she screamed.
"Iam!" Orizo scowled and slashed at the dragon, "TAKE THIS!" His attacks did damage, but the gauge just kept saying (#&$( or something weird like that! "What are we gonna do?!"
"I dunno!" Iam cried, "Just keep hitting it!" she whacked it with her spear again and again and again, but it was no use, it just kept fighting! It couldn't be stopped!
"ARGGHH!" The dragon sprayed green fire all over Iam and her HP reduced to 0...
"Iam!"
All around her, the room was white... Clean white. Nothing around or below. Just white. She wasn't laying on anything, there was no floor. Iam fluttered open her eyes and saw a black spark over her head. "Who are you...?" she asked the spark, "Am I dead...? For real...?"
The black spark turned and came towards Iam. Soon, the black spark took shape, to form a girl with a long black dress and short scruffy black hair. Her eyes, a dark black shone brilliantly, and she smiled at Iam. "Hello..."
"Hello," Iam smiled, still on the ground, "Am I dead...?"
"No..." the girl smiled. "If you are...so is he..." she waved her head towards a figure next to Iam and Iam gasped to see it was Orizo.
"Orizo, wake up!" she told him.
"He won't..." the girl sighed, "Not until I give you this." She touched Iam's right pointer finger and Orizo's left and a warm sensation took over Iam. She felt the girl's light come over her and when she looked at where the girl had touched, a red ring lay on her finger.
She moved her head to see that Orizo had a blue ring on his left pointer finger as well.
"What...what are these?"
"Data Rings..." she told her, "They can Data Drain the Monster that is attacking you...and make him possible to defeat. It is an item with amazing possibilities..."
"Wh-who are you...?" Iam asked the girl and the girl only peacefully smiled and said,
"Prisma..."
A bright light shined in Iam's eyes and in a second, she was back in the room with the dragon.
Iam looked at her finger, the ring was still there, and Orizo was looking at his too, "What are these things?" he asked.
"I think I know," she nodded, "Just follow my lead, keep hitting it!"
"If you say so!" Orizo wailed on the dragon some more, along with Iam. They kept hitting, and hitting, still no damage being done. Iam managed to keep Orizo and herself alive with Health Drinks, but it seemed that the battle would have no end.
"Keep hitting!" she assured him and slashed her spear once more. Immediately, a green barrier around the monster broke and words above him said "Protect Break." "NOW!" she screamed, knowing the words, knowing how to defeat the monster. She grabbed Orizo's hand and held it to hers, their rings outstretched! Orizo nodded, as if he knew what to do.
They took a deep breath and screamed, "RED AND BLUE DATA DRAIN!"
Red and blue light shot from their rings and the monster's green flakes disappeared. His HP turned to normal!
"We did it!" Iam smiled.
"It's not over yet, get it!" Orizo called to her and she nodded.
The monster was relatively easy to defeat once they had data drained it. Iam finally destroyed it with a slash of her spear and it fell to the ground, motionless. "We...we did it..." she sighed and sat down, exhausted. She noticed a round ball at her feet and picked it up to see it was heavy. "What's this?"
"It looks like a core of some sort," Orizo picked it up from Iam's hand, "It's got an O incrusted in it..."
"Let's hold onto it...just in case..." Iam told him.
"Yeah, I'll take it," Orizo nodded and put the core into his bag. "Let's log out now, before Moyotu shows up again with a new one of those creeps."
"Right," Iam nodded and the two gated out to the town where they immediately logged off.
"That was scary!" Mai said, taking off her headset, "What WAS that thing? And Prisma too? Who is she anyway? And that strange ring..." Mai laid the headset down and pushed the OFF button on her computer with her right pointer finger.
Her...right...pointer...finger...
Still had a red ring on it. "What the hell?!" Mai screamed and tried to work the ring off, but it was impossible! It wouldn't come off!
"Honey," her mother opened the door, "You have a call from your friend Hiromi..."
"Thanks Mom!" Mai grabbed the phone and talked into the receiver, "Hiromi?!"
"Mai!" his voice came from the other end, "You're not going to believe this, when I shut off my computer my ring wa--"
"Still on?" Mai finished for him, "So is mine..."
"It won't come off! What's going on?!" he asked her.
"If only I knew Hiromi," she shook her head and thought about everything. Moyotu, the Prism Players, the strange rings, the data bug, and Prisma... "If only I knew..."
COMPLETE! Pretty short, but packed full of action! Are the colors too corny? I happen to like them myself
Again, R&R!