Hello there folks! How's it going? I'm back with the sixteenth chapter of "Log On"! I have a REALLY good feeling that I'm going to hit 100,000 words this time, so wish me luck, okay?

Before I begin, I've decided to make a WIDDLE announcement:

FICS YOU REALLY SHOULD BE READING after YOU FINISH READING MINE!111oneoneoneeleven

New World Legend by SailorStar165: This cute fic stars Ryo-Oki, a cameo in "Log On!". She's out to save "The World" with the power of the Twilight Bracelet! The story is a little lighter in spirit then mine, so if you ever tired of the "blah blah drama drama blah blah" and want a little more comedy, definitely check out this story. This fic is already going really well with fifteen or so chapters updated. Check out the prequel too, Twilight Angel.

Dothack:Chosen by megafan505 – This fic stars a diamond in the rough teen named Akira who's been given the power of the Silver Moon, along with his girlfriend, Natsume, who has the power of the Golden Sun! This fic includes cameos from "Twilight Angel" and "Log On!" so be sure to check it out! It's a new fic that's already been going great guns! The structure is very much like this fic, so if you like this fic, I bet you'll like "Chosen". Also, keep an eye out for appearances from Kalen, our favorite Dark Prince Hacker!

Dot Hack: Curse by Kite1793 – This story stars yet ANOTHER group of hackers all with hacker powers, and the leader of their band is Kite! (Kee-tay) Not the Kite (Kyt) you know, but Kite (Kee-tay), a Wavemaster who's won a copy of "The World" for free (furr-ee)! When he meets up with new friends, things go funky when they meet up with evil hackers and the friends are forced to save the day! It's already got nine chapters up, and an original character made by myself shows up! No Log On cameos though :D

Cybernetic Ephiphany by Steeple333 - This story is about Morganna coming to "The World" disguised as a player. It's quite interesting, and since Steeple-chan is a good reviewer of mine, I thought it fair to advertisethe fic in this story. Morganna meets a lot of new player friendsand there is said to soon be a cameo by a character based off of Moyotu! Please be sure to check it out!

Anyway, enough friendly advertising.

Please don't forget to review! This chapter is going to be a LOT of fun, I can tell it!

Log On! – Chapter 16 – Dekai Joins the Fray

"Hold on a sec!" Chikoro shouted as she rose from her sitting position that she had been stuck in for the past half an hour. The entire group was sitting in the Net Slums after their experience with the Prism Ryu Books, and were now listening to Kalen and Wiseman's discussion. "You're saying Prisma, the Prisma that gave us these rings, is actually a virus?"

"Not a virus," Wiseman said calmly. "An Anti-God. Much more dangerous that any regular breed virus."

"This makes no sense," Orizo said, looking up from his spot and holding up his hand guard and showing them his left pointer finger. His blue ring was still stuck to it firmly. "Prisma gave us these rings. It's because of her that we were able to defeat the Prism Players."

"If what you're saying is true," Tiyra said, "then Prisma would be on the side of the Prism Players, wouldn't she? Not the Prism Hackers."

"It is pretty strange," Kalen nodded. "And I'm having trouble believing it myself, but Wiseman seems pretty convinced."

"I have good premise," Wiseman said sternly.

"I agree," Sersen nodded to the stern wavemaster. "Liesel Wearing, writer of that epitaph, hated Harald for choosing Emma over her. It's only natural that she would seek revenge."

"And that revenge was manifested as Prisma?" Zaiten asked, and Sersen nodded. Zaiten sighed, rising to his feet. "I refuse to believe such slander against such an honorable miss as Prisma."

"What's wrong, Vizota?" Iam asked her indigo-clad friend, who was currently holding her arms and looking forlorn. Barai had the same sort of expression on his face. "You look upset."

"I think…" Vizota began, and then gave a large gulp. "Wiseman…he's right! Barai and I ran into this horrible room…and I could tell…"

"That the room was filled with Prisma's energy," Barai finished his partner's sentence. "Prisma made that room. It was full of corpses…disembodied corpses."

The group looked at one another, and Chikoro gave a small squeal. They all were starting to look scared. Wiseman stared at Kalen, and Kalen shook his head. "Sorry W-Man, I'm just not convinced."

"One, please refrain from calling me that. Two," Wiseman stared at Kalen sternly, "what more evidence do you need? A threatening epitaph, a dark history, and now this? I see that the Prism Wave is part of Prisma."

"My mother always told me," Kalen, rising up into the air and typing a few things on his floating keyboard, said to Wiseman. "That not all is as it appears. You have to dig deeper."

"Relying on advice from your mom isn't exactly scientific…" Iam said, sweatdropping slightly. "But I agree with Kalen. Prisma has been helping us all the way. We can't just assume she's evil because her creator had an evil intention."

"Hey Iam!" Gabriella stood up, looking firmly at the violet haired Longarm. "I'm with you on this one! I'm not one to turn my back on a friend that easy before I hear the other side of the story from her own mouth!"

There was a pause, and then the group of ten began to smile and nod. Achean rose to his feet, nodding. "Right."

"We should find Prisma and ask her," Orizo insisted, clenching his left fist. "We'll see what she has to say! That's the only way to be sure of why she gave us these powers!"

Wiseman sighed, and shook his head. "If you are certain, I see that I have no purpose in the situation except to help you."

"Really, you'll help?" Kalen asked, smiling. "Thanks W-Man!"

"I'll do some program digging," Wiseman told the ten Prism Hackers, ignoring Kalen. "Find the roots of Prisma and find out where she resides. I'll also do my best to find any irregular pulses of illegal programming. That will be the beginning of our Phases."

"Phases?" Iam asked. "The ones mentioned in the Epitaph you mean?"

"Yes," Wiseman nodded. "The Phases are the beginnings of the Prism Wave. I suggest that you train up and get ready for the fights." He turned his back on the Prism Hackers and Gated Out. "They won't be easy."

With that, the man was gone, and only the ten of them and Kalen were left. Kalen turned to them, smiling. "All right then, I'll help Wiseman out with tracking down the Phases. If I find any info, I'll e-mail you guys right away, got that?"

"Thanks Kalen," Iam smiled, standing up and nodding at the black hacker. "We'll be in touch."

"Speaking of which…" Kalen turned to the group and suddenly looked stern. "What did she say to you?"

"Who?" Iam asked.

"Prisma," Kalen said, and the group looked at one another. "When you opened the Prism Ryu books, what happened?"

Iam sighed…then looked up. "Well…"

"Find the Prism Bracelet Holder…"

The team gasped as they heard a voice in their ear. They looked up to see none other then Prisma standing above them, looking calm and serene. She was speaking slowly and softly, surrounded by the three books. "Find the Prism Bracelet Holder," she repeated. "You must find the Warrior of the Prism."

"What do you mean?" Iam called. "We don't understand!"

"Find the wielder of Prisma's power…" she said. "Give the Prism Bracelet Holder your strength. You are my Knights…this is your duty."

"I see," Kalen said, his eyes narrowing. "This is…quite an upset."

"What do you mean?" Gabriella asked, annoyed. "You're not making much sense, you know that?"

"It seems, that there is one more Prism Hacker," Kalen told them. Their eyes widened as they saw the dark hacker become extremely anxious in appearance. "One more hacker that holds more power then all of you together."

"The Prism Bracelet holder is another Prism hacker?" Chikoro asked, biting her thumb. "But who is it?"

"It's your job to find him or her," Kalen said sternly, turning to the ten. "You're to be the Prism Bracelet holder's knights."

"That gives us absolutely no clue as to where to start searching!" Gabriella snapped. "It could be anyone!"

"Look, Prisma wouldn't just have you search with nowhere to go," Kalen assured them. "Just sit tight. Everything will work out in the end, I assure you."

"Easy for you to say…" grumbled Gabriella.

"Now, I'm afraid you've overstayed your welcome," smiled Kalen. The group looked up to see him typing on his computer. "I'm not evicting you out of the Net Slums."

"Huh?"

"Bye guys! Good luck!" smiled Kalen, waving. He hit the "enter" button on his board, and the ten were whisked away in a flurry of golden rings.

"THAT JERK!" Chikoro exclaimed as the ten found themselves now in Mac Anu of the Delta server. "He just kicked us out!"

"This is troublesome," Zaiten nodded to his friends. "We have no clues as to the identity of this individual."

"What individual?"

The group jumped three feet as they heard a voice from behind them. They turned around to see eleven people staring at them with odd expressions. "Mirielle-san!" Zaiten smiled at the cute Wavemaster who had spoken. "A pleasure to see you again. Did you receive my mail message about the Tyrannical Breastplate I found last week?"

"You bet Zai-Zai!" Mirielle cooed, grinning. "I can't wait to get my grimy mits on it!"

"I forgot…I sold it…" Zaiten cried, looking over at Chikoro, who was whistling innocently. "To pay for our home."

"Hey!" Chikoro huffed, turning back to Zaiten. "I got you some money back didn't I? You should be happy that I was able to sacrifice that floor space!"

"You cut the house in half…" Zaiten told her. "But the selling price was a fraction of the buying price."

"Huh?" Iam looked over at the others and smiled. "Hotaru! BlackRose!"

BlackRose and Hotaru smiled at Iam and waved. "What's up?" BlackRose asked. "It's great to see you again."

"H-hello Iam-san," Hotaru bowed to Iam. "Prize Grunty is doing wonderfully, by the way."

"Glad to hear it," Iam smiled. She looked over at the last group and gave another great smile. "Ryo-oki! And it's that guy from the contest…Myu?"

"That's Ryu!" Ryu barked, blushing. "My name's not a cat noise! How annoying."

"We've had some bad run ins with the word 'Ryu'," Orizo sighed, shaking his white haired head. "Anyway, who's your friend?"

"This is Mia," Ryo-Oki introduced her friend. "You know her, right? We met at the game store."

"Oh, hi!" Tiyra waved to the group. "You don't know us, do you? I'm Tiyra, this is Sersen, and Vizota and Barai."

"Other ring holders?" Ryo-Oki asked, stepping forward. "Pleased to meet you. But not so pleased to see the pervert here…" She glanced over at Shugo, who frowned back at her.

"I am NOT a pervert!" he barked. "At least don't embarrass me in front of other people…"

"You're the administrator from those events…" Chikoro murmured, pointing to Balmung, who had folded his wings and was looking quite regal. "Balmung-san?"

"I am he," he nodded, smiling at the ten. "I'm pleased to meet you as a player, instead of as an administrator."

"Oh, and guys," Iam smiled and pointed to Shugo's group. "You haven't met these guys yet. This is Shugo, Rena, Ouka, and Hotaru. Hotaru and I won the Grunty Jousting event together."

"Pleased to meet you," Ouka smiled, shrugging her shoulders and pushing her bangs out of her eyes.

"Our pleasure," Sersen smiled, only to have Tiyra hit him over the head. "Hey! What was that for?"

"That'll teach you to flirt over the internet!"

"You're just jealous because your boobs aren't as big as hers!"

"ARRGHH! EAT THIS!"

"MAKE ME, BITCH!"

"But…I do have one question," Orizo said, looking over at the boy in the middle of BlackRose and Balmung. He looked exactly like Shugo, only slightly taller and his smile was a little smaller then Shugo's grin. "Who are you?"

The boy looked up and smiled at him. "Oh, I'm Kite. Pleased to meet you."

"The legendary hero Kite?" Tiyra asked, her eyes wide. "I can't believe it! You guys are the .hackers!"

"That's us," BlackRose smiled. "It's kind of weird that we all ended up here, though."

"Who are the .hackers?" Iam asked, looking at Tiyra and Sersen.

"Only the most legendary players ever," Sersen grinned. "They solved "The World's" 'Final Mystery' five years ago. Ever since then, they've been so famous it's astounding."

"Can you Data Drain too?" Chikoro asked Kite, and he gave her a surprised glance. He smiled and nodded.

"Yeah. I've got Aura's bracelet," he lifted up his wrist, and Chikoro frowned. "You can't see it, but it's there. How did you know?"

"So Ryo-Oki's not the only one with a bracelet?" Gabriella asked, poking her head up to have a look at Kite's wrist.

"Hey! I've got a bracelet too!" Shugo huffed, holding up his wrist to reveal a golden bracelet on his wrist. "We're part of the .hackers too, you know!"

"I had no idea…" Iam murmured. "Hey! What if Prisma meant one of them?"

"What do you mean 'Prisma' and 'one of them'?" Shugo asked, raising an eyebrow. "Who's Prisma?"

"I do not think so," Zaiten shook his head. "These people, if like Ryo-Oki, hold the power of Aura's bracelet, not Prisma's. None of them are the 'Prism Bracelet Wielder'."

"You guys seem to know more about Aura then you let on!" BlackRose said, frowning. "Mind explaining to us what's going on? Why did Kite's bracelet start glowing all of a sudden? How'd we all end up here?"

"The bracelets haven't stopped glowing," Ryo-Oki said, lifting up her now glowing bracelet. Shugo and Kite raised their wrists and the gang saw that a green data bracelet was indeed on Kite's wrist, now glowing along with the other two. "What's going on?"

"Maybe it's a reaction to Prisma's manifestation?" Vizota suggested, and Achean nodded in agreement.

"Right."

"Guys," Iam stepped forward. "We're looking for our own bracelet holder, 'The Prism Bracelet Wielder'. You guys wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

"Well, it's not us," Shugo shook his head, tapping his foot. "We're Aura's warriors, not this Prisma's."

"Do you think their reaction is some sort of homing device for our bracelet?" Barai asked, and the gang looked up, surprised. "Maybe the reaction will get stronger as we get closer."

"It's worth a shot!" Iam nodded, smiling at the three groups. "Guys, if your bracelets start to react even more then usual, message us immediately and make sure you stop any player nearby! Your bracelets might be some sort of metal detector for our suspect!"

"Okay," Ryo-Oki said. "We'll keep a good look out. Let's go check out the Root Towns guys!"

"We were just leveling," Ryu complained, frowning. "I'm not going after some stupid player without some compensation."

"Whatever, we don't need you," Ryo-Oki stuck out her tongue and walked towards the Chaos Gate with Mia. Ryu sighed and followed.

"Whatever, it's not like I have anything better to do," he grumbled, and the three disappeared in a flurry of golden rings.

"We'll be sure to keep an eye out Zai-Zai!" Mirielle assured her friend. "We'll find the bracelet holder in no time!"

"Thank you Mirielle-san," Zaiten bowed to Mirielle, and she bowed back as her group walked over to the Chaos Gate and also disappeared to another area. She followed them, waving to Zaiten as she warped away.

"We shall search as well," Balmung assured the ten. "Obviously, there is something going on underneath the fabric of "The World". We'll be sure to keep our eyes ready."

"Yeah! You can't count on us, Iam!" BlackRose assured her, giving her the "thumb's up" sign. "We'll find that bracelet holder!"

"Goodbye," Kite said with a smile. He turned around and his party headed towards the Chaos Gate. In a moment, they were gone, leaving the ten alone in Mac Anu.

"Now what?" Tiyra asked.

"I know!" Chikoro grinned. "Let's go back to our house! We need to finish putting in all that new furniture I bought!"

"A house?" Iam asked, raising an eyebrow. "You bought us a house? That's a lot of GP!"

"Oh, Zaiten here paid for some of it," Chikoro told them, and Zaiten frowned.

"I paid for all of it…"

"It turns out that we made it too big," Chikoro frowned. "I thought that it would be perfect, but…"

"This is perfect!" cooed Chikoro as she put another picture up. "But something has been bugging me…"

"What might be that which is 'bugging' you Chikoro-sama?" Zaiten asked the blonde wavemaster.

"I thought it would be a lot bigger," Chikoro said, frowning. "This house is really small."

True, for 100x80, which, Zaiten would guess, would be extremely large, the house was relatively small. Only around 20x20, he'd say. He looked around, searching for something, until he finally found a pamphlet on the floor near the doorway. He picked it up and began to read. "Your Home will not appear to scale at first. Please activate your home's size by saying "Enhance". All furniture will be--"

"ENHANCE!" Chikoro shouted into the room, and the two of them felt themselves being sucked into a void, centered at the ceiling of the room.

They were spat out, and both of them gasped as they saw what was in front of them.

"Ch-Chi-Chikoro-sama!"

Sama…sama…sama…

"This house is gargantuan!"

Gargantuan…gargantuan…

"Okay…so maybe it is a LITTLE big…" Chikoro admitted, looking at the huge room that stood in front of them. It was so large, it could have been a gymnasium. It had high ceilings, and everything they said echoed.

LITTLE big…LITTLE big…

"How can we make it smaller?" Chikoro asked, flipping through a few papers in the mailbox of the house. "Aha! To increase or decrease house space, simply input the desired size into your control panel located right above the mail box!"

Chikoro looked up and opened a small panel just above the mailbox. "Okay…select decrease. Now what?"

"At least cut it in half!" Zaiten urged her. "This is huge!"

"Okay, okay!" Chikoro sighed. "50x40…enter!"

The house made a whirling noise, and the next thing the two knew, they were standing in the exact same spot, only in a much smaller house. Chikoro frowned. "My dream house is gone!"

"This is plenty large!" Zaiten told her. "What is our sell back price?"

"Oh…100,000 GP…" Chikoro said, taking out the bag of GP. "Shouldn't it be 500,000 GP?"

"The selling price is much smaller then the buying price…" Zaiten cried. "My poor GP was wasted…"

"Oh well, now that we've got more GP, let's go shopping for some more furniture!" Chikoro giggled, running out the door. Zaiten looked after her, his jaw resting comfortably on the floor, his pockets quite empty.

"So, I spent a bit of it--"

"Three fourths of it…"

"On more furniture!" Chikoro grinned. "And now we need your help setting it up! Our house is called 'Midnight Ring'! It's perfect, a dream home!"

"I guess it'll be cool to have a house," Iam smiled at the group. "Let's go and set it up, shall we?"

"CHIKORO! This is a huge pile of furniture!"

"Well we didn't have time to set it all up after it got reset by the enhancement…" Chikoro frowned, pulling out a rug from the mile high pile of furniture of which she had bought. "The house will look great once we stuff it with all this furniture. Now, I think this rug should go under the coffee table, what do you think?"

"Coffee table?" Orizo asked, looking in the pile. "Where's that?"

"Near the bottom," Chikoro said, waving her hand as if dismissing the matter. She put the rug down in the middle of the room and smile. "Okay, next piece! Orizo-sama, since you're so strong, you and the guys can set up the meeting table in the next room!"

"Let me…" Gabriella sighed, walking over to the meeting table and picking it up with one hand. The group gasped, their eyes wide. "My strength stat is pretty high. Online characters, remember?"

They nodded and began to take out the furniture to deposit in the room. Iam started by hanging plants and placing stools around the room. Orizo and Zaiten set up the coffee table and chairs. Tiyra and Sersen moved the sofa to the front of the coffee table, and Gabriella and Achean started to set up –

"A poker table?" Gabriella asked, looking at Chikoro, who simply whistled innocently.

"This is going a lot faster then I thought it would," Vizota commented, smiling as she hung a painting of a Grunty on the left wall. "It's really starting to come together, isn't it?"

"You're right," Barai smiled, putting a whicker chair near the coffee table. "It's awesome to have a house like this."

"It's not just a house!" Chikoro said, clenching her fist passionately. "It's our base of operations! The big HQ!"

"Whatever," Iam sweatdropped, stuffing a potted plant into a corner. "Hey, do you guys know if these plants wilt?"

"They're just pixels," Gabriella told her. "Stop asking stupid questions."

"Ow!" Iam said, backing up.

"It wasn't a diss…" Gabriella narrowed her eyes.

"Not you," Iam told her. "Something just elbowed me in the side! I'm taking off my headset to check. AFK."

Mai shook her hair out as she lifted her headset off her eyes. She looked around for whatever had elbowed her, but saw no one. "Mom? Dad?"

She stood up and walked towards her door, looking out into the hall to see if anyone was in it. She saw no one, and turned back towards her computer to see the culprit.

"Shizuma!"

"Huh?" Shizuma turned around, his brown hair frazzled and matted. "Oh…hi Mai!" he said nervously. "What's up?"

"What are you doing at my computer?" Mai asked, frowning and walking over to her little brother, who was currently seated in front of her computer. "And what's in that bag?"

Shizuma looked down at his hand to see that he still had the "Start Button" plastic bag in his hand. He grinned at her. "Umm…toothpaste?"

"Since when does a game store sell toothpaste?" Mai asked angrily. "Shizuma, move over. I'm playing with my friends."

"But look Mai!" Shizuma pleaded with her and took out a box from the bag. Mai looked at it and frowned.

On the box was "The World" logo, and underneath it in golden letters were the words "Plus Pack". "You bought a Plus Pack?" she asked. "Forget it Shizuma, you're not playing my game."

"I spent my own money and everything!" Shizuma said. "You can't stop me from playing!"

"It's MY computer and MY game," she retorted, narrowing her eyebrows. "And I'm saying you can't play!"

"I'm telling Dad!" Shizuma told his big sister, jumping from the chair and running out of the room, Mai on his heels.

"Shizuma!" Mai called after her brother as he ran down the stairs towards his father, who was currently working on some papers at the dinner table.

"Dad!" Shizuma said, and their father looked up, his blond hair smoothed down as if he had just come home from work. "Dad, Mai won't let me play her game!"

"It's MY game," Mai argued. "And I don't want him playing it!"

"I bought a Plus Pack and everything!" Shizuma told his father, holding up the box. "With my own allowance! C'mon, Dad!"

"He'll only ruin it!" Mai said.

"Will not!"

"Will too! You'll just follow me around and be annoying!"

"Will not!"

"Okay, that is enough," their father said, and the two immediately quieted down at his tone. "Mai, you're fifteen years old. I'd expect you to be more mature about this."

Mai frowned and Shizuma grinned.

"And Shizuma, you should try to work out your problem before running to me," their father said, and Mai returned the grin that Shizuma had just given her. "But, as I see it, Mai, I think you should let Shizuma play."

"What?" Mai asked, her mouth wide open from shock. "But Dad--"

"I bought my own headset too!" Shizuma said, pointing to his room. "It's in my room! And my own controller! I wouldn't bother you at all!"

"Will too! Just sitting next to you would bother me!"

"If we wore the headset, it wouldn't even be split screen vision!" Shizuma insisted. "So I wouldn't spy on you!"

"Mai, it seems that Shizuma's brought up quite a few good arguments to play the game," their father told her. Mai's face was as red as her character's armor. She was angry that her father couldn't see her side of the argument!

"Dad! The game's dangerous!" she blurted out and her father chuckled.

"Mai," he said, looking at her with an amused expression, "I doubt that an online game is 'dangerous'. Everything will be fine, I assure you." Mai frowned, her face growing redder. She could feel tears coming to her eyes.

"Fine, whatever!" Mai shouted, running up the stairs. "See if I care!" With that, she slammed her door, walking into her room and running into her closet. She looked through the hangers of clothes until she found what she was looking for.

It was Shizuma's scarf that had been her birthday present. She took the scarf, held it in her hands, and ripped it clean in two, throwing it in the waste basket. Mai frowned, "He deserved it."

"Mai! I'm here to set up my character!" Shizuma said, running through the door, a wide smile on his face, the plus pack, headset, and controller in his hands.

"I need to log out," she said simply, sitting back down and putting on her headset. "Get yourself a chair."

"Guys, I have to log," Iam said to the group. The house was now completely set up, and it actually looked quite nice. Earth tones covered the house, and it seemed Chikoro had paid for beige paint to go with the hardwood floor. "Shizuma needs to make his character."

"Your little brother?" Orizo asked. "He's going to play?"

"You don't sound happy," Barai grinned. "Don't want little bro doing your thing huh? My older brother is the same way."

"He'll just be annoying!" Iam snapped, making the others twitch slightly. "You don't get it. Shizuma is totally annoying. He's the worst little brother in the world. And soon, he's going to be the worst little brother in "The World."."

"I don't see the difference…"

"Gabriella, it's a play on words."

"Anyway, I'm logging out," Iam said, bringing up her menu and selecting "Log Out". "See you guys later."

"Ready?" Mai asked her brother. The two were now seated next to one another, looking at the main menu. Shizuma had already gotten a chair from his room and was now seated next to Mai, the mouse in his hand. "Okay, select "register"."

"Okay," Shizuma nodded, clicking on "Register". He was brought to another screen that read "WELCOME TO THE WORLD". Shizuma cycled through the tutorials and Mai sat back in her chair, bored and still angry. Finally, he got to the character creation screen. "Now what Mai?" he asked, flicking his mouse around the screen.

"Okay, first pick your gender," she told him. "Want to be a girl?"

"No," Shizuma said, frowning angrily. He selected "male" and was taken to a list of class options. "Classes…which should I pick?" His cursor hovered over each of the classes, reading the descriptions, but when he got to "Long Arm", Mai immediately intervened.

"You can't have that class."

"Why not?" Shizuma asked. "It looks cool."

"That's my class," Mai told him sternly. "You can't pick that one."

"Maybe I will pick it, just to make you mad," Shizuma grinned, and Mai frowned.

"You better not, or I'll delete your character…" she frowned.

"You can't if you don't know my password!" Shizuma shot back, and Mai stared him down.

"Pick a class. I want to get back on."

"Long Arm is lame anyway. Spears are weird." Shizuma returned to the screen and once again examined each of the classes. "What's this one?"

"Wavemaster. They're wizards."

"Can they fight?"

"No, they're pretty weak," Mai told him. Shizuma frowned.

"I don't want to be weak," he said, and went down to the next class. "What about Heavy Blades?"

"They're really strong," she told him, and Shizuma smiled. "But they're kind of slow, just to warn you." Shizuma once again frowned.

"What about this one?" he asked, clicking on the next class. "Twin Blade?"

Mai frowned, thinking about Hiromi. "You can't have that one either. My best friend has that class."

"So?" Shizuma asked. "I like it. I get two swords instead of one, and I'm really fast. It's awesome. I'm picking this one."

"You can't," Mai told him sternly.

"I'm picking it," Shizuma said, clicking on the class. Mai growled, wishing she could shred her little brother's hair right now. He moved onto designs. "Okay…which design is best?"

Shizuma skirted down through the designs, eagerly looking for the best one. Mai wasn't paying much attention until her brother nudged her and made her look at the screen. "What do you think of this one?" he asked.

The character had messy hair that stuck out at odd ends. On his forehead was a headband, and his cheeks had two sharp markings on them. The character wore a shirt with a wide circular cut that revealed the collar bone. The shirt had short sleeves, much like a tee shirt, and also had two belts that crossed the chest over the shirt and hooked onto the belt on the pants he was wearing. He wore loose pants that were stuffed into black boots. His hands had baggy gloves, and on his hips were two sheathes where daggers sat. "What do you think?" Shizuma asked.

"It's great," Mai assured him. "Now color it."

Shizuma went to the "color scheme" option and quickly began to color the character. The character's shirt was teal with a white trim, while his pants were white with teal trim. The boots were black, and the baggy gloves were brown. The belts crossing his chest were brown as well, and his headband was a teal as were the marks on his face. The character's hair, however, was a shocking shade of orange, much like Achean.

"It looks fine," Mai told him. "Now you have to name him."

Shizuma sat in front of the computer, frowning at the "Name" box. His hands went over to the keyboard, but he pulled back, still thinking. Mai was starting to get extremely annoyed. "Just pick a name, already."

"It's tougher then it looks!" Shizuma snapped, and Mai didn't say anything in response, knowing that her little brother was right. A name was important, especially in "The World". She herself had thought for awhile before picking "Iam". "Okay, I've got one."

Shizuma stretched his hands and moved them over to the keyboard. He rested his fingers down and typed out "Dekai". He then hit "okay".

"Dekai?" Mai asked, raising an eyebrow. "Why that name?"

"He's one of my favorite characters on Mecha Samurai," Shizuma grinned, and Mai facefaulted. Leave it to a child to name his character after a robot on a kid's show. "Great! The name isn't taken!" he smiled and clicked "Next" to proceed. "I think I'm ready now."

"Okay, now click 'return to menu'," Mai told him, and Shizuma did as he was told. The screen was blank for a few seconds until it returned to the menu screen, where Mai frowned to see that there were two half screens for "The World". On the left side, her side, were the words "Player: Iam". On Shizuma's side were the words "Player: Dekai". "Man, this bites," Mai said, plugging in her controller. Shizuma plugged in his as well, as well as his headset. "Okay, now you've got your character, go and have fun with your friends or whatever."

"You're not even going to show me how to play?" Shizuma asked, a cross expression on his face.

"No," Mai shook her head. "It's not hard. Figure it out yourself."

"C'mon Mai! I'll tell Dad!"

Mai growled as she put on her headset. "Fine, fine! Meet me at the Chaos Gate in Mac Anu. You'll start there automatically, so just don't move."

"Okay!" Shizuma smiled, obviously enjoying himself. He put on his headset and both he and his sister grasped their controllers. They both moved their cursors until they were hovering over "Log In" and pressed the enter button.

'One more chapter…'

Iam materialized in front of the Chaos Gate in Mac Anu. Because she had logged out in her new home, she had rematerialized in Mac Anu instead of Dun Loireag. She looked around, but saw no sign of her little brother's character.

"Man, I bet he's having problems already," Iam sighed, shaking her head. "How annoying."

"Oh! Hi Mai!"

Iam looked up to see none other then Dekai running towards her from a group of players. He had a broad grin on his face and was holding up a pair of Level One blades that were an improvement over his class. "Dekai!" Iam scolded. "Call me Iam here, got that? And I'll call you 'Dekai', okay?"

"Oh, okay Iam," Dekai nodded, running up to his sister and standing next to her. Iam frowned to see that Dekai was the same height as her character.

"I told you not to move," Iam reminded him.

"Sorry, I was just talking to those people over there!" Dekai pointed to a Wavemaster and a Heavy Blade, who were now walking away. "They like Mecha Samurai too! And they gave me these blades they found in a dungeon!"

Iam couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy at Dekai's quick way of making friends. Leave it to a kid to be blunt. "Did you get their member addresses?"

"Oh! Yeah!" Dekai nodded. "They told me how to do it, so you don't have to teach me that. I'm going to get lots of addresses. How many do you have?"

"Sixteen," Iam said, lying slightly. She had her nine friends, Ryo-Oki, BlackRose, Hotaru, and Moyotu. That technically made thirteen, but she decided that exaggerating slightly wouldn't hurt anyone.

"I'm going to get even more then you!" Dekai grinned. "I've already got three!"

"There were only two people over there," Iam said.

"I'm going to get yours, right?" he asked, and Iam paused. She sighed, but knew that if she didn't yield her member address to Dekai, he would only pester her until she did.

"All right, all right. Mine's 57434432," she told him reluctantly, and Dekai paused as his player added the address.

"Mine's 59341989," he said, grinning. "I'm going to change my e-mail address and put that in there."

"It's too long, you'll never remember it," said Iam sternly as she added Dekai to her friend's list. His picture popped up, and Iam scowled at the smiling orange haired boy that was now a member of her party list. "But that means I have fourteen now."

"I thought you said you had sixteen before."

"Right! I meant seventeen," she said, blushing slightly.

"Okay, now let's form a party!" Dekai said, clenching his fist in excitement. "And go fight monsters!"

"How come you already know so much?" Iam asked.

"I've been reading the manuals ever since you got the game," Dekai shrugged, smiling. "I know a lot."

"Then why are you having me show you how to play?" Iam shouted, severely annoyed.

"It never hurts to have some real practice!" said Dekai. "And who better to do it with then my big sister?"

"Fine, whatever," Iam growled. This sucks. Won't he just go off with his new friends and his new blades? "I'm sending you an invite."

In a moment after the Flash Mail was sent out, Dekai had joined Iam's party. Although their numbers didn't exactly match, Dekai being only level 1 and Iam being level 29, Dekai didn't complain. "Let's go to a super tough area!"

"No thanks," Iam shook her head. "We're going to a level 1 area so you can get the hang of things."

"All right, but at least let me pick it," Dekai frowned, walking forward. Iam sighed as her little brother filtered through the areas, taking forever to pick a good one. "Okay, how about Δ Bright Fading Sword?

"Level?"

"One."

"Really?"

"Yes."

Iam checked the area and saw that it was indeed level one. Although she was surprised, she didn't let it show as she selected the area. "All right, let's get this over with."

The two materialized in a Wood Elemental area, covered with trees and blowing grass. Iam guessed that many newbie areas were set to the peaceful environments as to not freak new players out off the bat. "Okay," Iam said to her younger brother. "Now, find a yellow portal and we'll fight."

"I know, I know," Dekai nodded, grinning and looking around. "Let's head…" he paused, searching around until finally pointing west, "that way!" With that, Dekai sprinted off, Iam doing her best to keep up.

"Hyah!" Dekai slashed his daggers as two Goblins ran towards the group. Iam sliced one with her spear, killing it in one blow. She, saying that she had done her part, simply watched Dekai finish off the other goblins. As the last monster fell to the ground, Dekai jumped into the air. "Oh yeah! Owned!"

"Any newbie can take down those monsters," Iam had to restrain herself from rolling her eyes. "C'mon, we'll fight until you hit level 2, and then I'm going back to play with my friends."

But Dekai wasn't paying attention. He was already on the next Golden portal, killing more monsters and gaining more exp. Iam looked after him, slightly annoyed that her little brother wasn't at least getting flustered by her remarks. But, reluctantly, she followed, killing off monsters if Dekai ever got into trouble.

But, truth be told, Dekai was a natural at "The World". He obviously had been reading Iam's player manuals more then she thought. He knew how many levels the dungeons had, where he could monsters, and the difference between Risky and Normal treasure. In fact, he was so at home with the game, Iam would have assumed that he wasn't even a newbie.

"All right, next is the Gott Statue, right?" Dekai asked, smiling.

"Yeah, whatever," Iam sighed. "Let's just go, all right?"

"Thanks for showing me around," Dekai said as the two collected the treasure from the Gott Statue. "I really owe you one. When I'm a super strong hero, I'll do something for you."

"Don't count on it," Iam snapped. "Okay, I'm using a Sprite Ocarina. I'm bored of this."

"I helped you out," Iam told her younger brother as the two materialized back in Mac Anu. "I'm going to my house now."

"You've got a house?" Dekai asked, eyes as wide as saucers. "Can I see it? Can I get my own house?"

"It's not just mine," Iam told her brother, blushing slightly. "I share it with my nine friends."

"So it's like a college pad?" Dekai asked, smiling. "That's so cool! I'm going to get for Sora, Minoru, Kaoru and me!"

"They're expensive," Iam told her brother. "Over one million GP." This was actually another exaggeration. Only Chikoro's dream home that was big enough to house four elephants cost that much, but a decent sized home did cost over 400,000 GP. And Mac Anu was the cheapest residential area.

"I'll just raise one million GP then!" Dekai grinned fiercely, obviously motivated. "Just watch! I'll have a house by tomorrow!"

"Have fun with that," Iam said in a monotone voice. "I'm going to go now." With that, the girl turned on her heel into the residential area. Dekai didn't follow her, instead he ran down the stairs of the town and began to talk to a Blademaster and a Twin Blade, asking about joining his party.

Iam scowled after Dekai as she walked into the residential area. "Good riddance. How annoying…" she muttered as she walked through the streets, looking for Midnight Ring.

"Iam! You're back!" Orizo exclaimed as Iam walked in the door. She looked around to see the house was now completely decorated, and her nine friends were sitting on the sofas and chairs, looking quite comfortable. Orizo had gotten up from his chair, smiling as his best friend came through the door.

"How did the excursion with little bro go?" Barai asked, grinning and scratching his chin with his thumb.

"Horribly," Iam growled, sitting down in the only free chair in the room. "He's so annoying, I swear."

"What did he do?" Orizo asked, sitting back down.

"Well…" Iam began, "nothing really. Just being there, really."

"I'm the baby of the family!" Chikoro grinned, sticking out her tongue. "My two older brothers are in college but still live at home. Mutsohito always hogs the shower, and Noriyuki is usually gone working part time jobs."

"I have one younger sister," Gabriella said. "But you already knew that," she laughed, looking at Iam, Orizo, Zaiten, and Chikoro. "Her name's Kaori, and she's thirteen. Kind of annoying, but we get along fine."

"I've got two younger brothers and two older sisters," laughed Vizota. "Can you believe that? Ryoichi, the baby, he's in his first year of Junior High School, and Takuma's in his third year of Junior High. Mieko's twenty-two and goes to a college in Hokkaido. Sonomi's twenty four and engaged."

"My older brother, Oniji, is eight years older then me," Barai said. "He's married and works a desk job. We're kind of opposites, and don't talk much."

"I'm an only child…" Achean said slowly. "I've got some cousins though, but I like being alone in the family."

"How did I guess?" Iam smiled.

"I myself am also an only child," Zaiten said dramatically, rising to his feet. "I am the only heir to Hibiki Games. My father said that a second heir would complicate things. We might initiate a war over my father's company!"

"That's a little over the top…" Tiyra laughed slightly. "I've got one older brother. I absolutely adore him. Taka-chan is great." She blushed as everyone looked at her. "That's short for Takahiro."

"Three brothers before me," Sersen smiled. "Listen to this: Keiji, Keiki, and Keisuke."

"Woah!" Iam gasped. "How'd they ever keep them straight? They all start with "kei"."

"My father's name was 'Kei' you see," Sersen told them. "He passed away just before Keiji was born. Plane crash. My mother decided to name us all after him."

"What's your name then…?" Chikoro asked, only to receive a hit over the head from Iam.

"Get some netiquette! Don't ask that!" Iam scolded her, then quickly changed the subject by looking at Orizo. "What about you, Orizo? Do you have any siblings?"

Orizo had remained silent for the entire conversation, and, when Iam talked to him, he was taken aback and fidgeted slightly. "Oh, me?" he shook his head. "I-I'm an only child."

"You don't know how lucky you are," Iam sighed, leaning back in her chair. "Oh well, at least Dekai is out of my hair now."

"Don't say that," Vizota said. "He could be listening."

"He's got a headset on too," Iam scoffed. "And so what if he does hear me? I don't care… He annoyed me so much today! And Dad took his side on it! I got so mad I--" she stopped mid sentence and trailed off as she thought about the scarf that she had ripped up earlier that day. Iam didn't admit it, but she felt slightly guilty. After all, her brother had bought that present with his own money and he had actually picked it out himself. To destroy that present just to vent out some silly frustrations on her brother was, "Childish…" she murmured.

"I know he's childish, but he's only twelve," Orizo said, smiling. Iam looked up, paused, and then nodded. "Anyway, let's not talk about your brother. Let's talk about the Prism Bracelet Wielder."

"Right," Iam nodded, sitting forward in her chair. "None of us have received messages, have we?"

"No, not yet," Chikoro shook her head.

"But Wiseman is probably going to be messaging us soon," Sersen told them. "He said he'd do some digging, so we should be on the lookout."

A small "ding" echoed through the room, and nine of the ten Prism Hackers looked up over Iam's head as a small piece of mail popped up above her head. "It's a message!" she gasped. "I'm going to read it, one second." She selected the mail and her e-mail browser came up.

The message wasn't from Wiseman, but from Kalen. It read very simply:

Iam –

The ten of you need to meet me in Dun Loireag ASAP. There's a problem.

Kalen

"It's from Kalen," Iam said, shutting off the e-mail and returning to the game. "We have to head to Dun Loireag, stat."

"What for?" Gabriella asked as the ten got up to head to the door.

"He just said 'there's a problem'," Iam explained. "I don't know anything more."

"What kind of problem?" Tiyra asked as the ten left the house and began to walk swiftly through the streets of the residential area. "Did he find the Prism Bracelet Wielder?"

"I don't know," Iam shook her head. "But it seems like bad news."

"Well then we've got no choice," Barai said, grabbing his bow and breaking into a run. "We've got to get there as soon a possible!"

"Guys, you made it."

Ten sets of golden rings appeared near the Chaos Gate of Dun Loireag. Emerging from them were the ten Prism Hackers, facing their hacker friend, Kalen, who was currently typing on his keyboard. "Kalen, what's the matter?" Chikoro asked, her eyebrows high in an anxious stare.

Kalen stopped typing, levitated his keyboard behind him and looked at them. "We have a problem."

"You told us that," Gabriella snapped. "What else?"

"What's the problem?" Vizota asked.

"You guys officially have a predator," Kalen said, and the ten widened their eyes. "Not the Prism Players. The system is actually after you."

"You mean the administrators?" Sersen asked, extending his claws. "You're joking! They're trying to delete us?"

"No way," Kalen smirked. "Those fools don't have the power to delete your characters. No, this predator is much stronger then any administrator, for sure."

"What could be possibly after us?" Iam asked. "Especially in the system?"

Kalen paused, as if thinking of what to say in response. Finally, he opened his mouth to speak. "Do you guys know about virus protection software?"

There was an odd pause as the ten looked at each other. It was a rather odd thing to bring up at the time, but slowly Achean spoke. "Yeah, so?"

"Virus Protection software deletes any files that have any of the following," Kalen said, raising three fingers. "If it has a virus, it's of course deleted." He lowered his ring finger. "If it has a risk for a virus, it's deleted." He lowered his middle finger. "And the last one is what you guys are to the system."

"Pray, what are we?" Zaiten asked.

"Foreign," Kalen finished coldly. "Your rings are foreign to the system. The virus protection sees you as a possible threat."

"We're the target of virus protection software?" Gabriella asked loudly. "What the hell are we supposed to do to stop an entire program?"

"What is the virus protection?" Iam asked Kalen, and he turned to her. "Does…does it have a name?"

"Yes," Kalen nodded gravely, his dark goggles shining as he spoke. "Cubia."

Kalen –

I have bad news. In my research, I found an energy surge that I haven't seen for five years. It seems that "The World" has picked up on our ten hackers.

That's right. Cubia's back. Its job is to destroy any abnormalities in "The World", and it seems the Knights count as abnormalities. I can only assume that the ten of them are in extreme danger at the moment.

You very well know that Cubia and Kite's bracelet, the bracelet of the Twilight, are one and the same. Cubia is infested with the divine power of Aura the same as Kite. Which is probably why, now that Aura is the Goddess of the system, Cubia has left all those with the bracelet of the Twilight be.

But it seems Aura isn't going to or can't dictate to Cubia not to attack the Prism knights. It's gathering energy. The attack will definitely come soon.

Destroying Kite's bracelet again is not an option, and I suggest you don't inform him of this. If I know my friend, he will undoubtedly sacrifice the bracelet for those ten. If the Prism Knights fall, he might be our last chance against the Prism Wave.

Not all hope is lost, though. I've found another way, put into the system by Prisma. An Anti-Cubia, of whom I have named X-Cubia. X-Cubia is directly manifested of Prism energy, but is currently in hibernation. I see no hope of waking X-Cubia as our team is now.

A bit ago, you messaged me about the Prism Bracelet Wielder. I have a feeling that he or she is our only hope for waking X-Cubia. So tell those ten this:

They have a limited amount of time. Find the Prism Bracelet wielder as soon as possible. Without him or her, Cubia will constantly hunt the Prism Knights until they are destroyed.

I'll explain the details of the battle to you later. I still have a few kinks to work out, and as soon as I'm finished, I'll send you a message.

Good luck,

Wiseman

The End of the chapter! I hope you all liked that one! Oh, and if you have any ideas about what's coming up, please don't give it away in a review! I don't want to ruin the story for other people!

Speaking of reviews, don't forget to leave one! I would REALLY appreciate one after all of my hard work! Thanks again for your support, and let's hope for 100,000 words!

Until then,

Ciao for now!