Here's chapter 2! Sorry it's a bit late. I ended up having to write 3,000 word short story about triumph and I don't know if I did it correctly. But oh well. I tried. Anyway, some of the dialogue was taken from the anime and I changed some lines here and there. So...

DISCLAIMER! Do I own SAO? Of course not, do you want a cookie? I don't happen to have any...

Chapter 2: l

She couldn't stop shaking as she ran home when she heard the news spread like wild fire. Two hundred and thirteen people passed away and over nine thousand had been trapped inside Sword Art Online, the exact game her brother was given and most likely being played right now.

She reached the gate of her home and fumbled with the lock, desperately hoping her brother was just sleeping as always. A whole thirty seconds passed by the time she unlocked the gate. Making a mad dash for the door, she jammed her house key in the lock and opened the door, rushing inside.

She ran up the stairs and stopped at the door to her brother's room. Taking a deep breath, she slammed open the door.

"Onii-chan!" she cried as she ran over to her brother's side. Just when she was about to touch his hand, she froze. Her brother was sleeping no doubt, but the Nerve Gear around his head gave it all away.

"Suguha!" She whirled around and saw her mother rushing into the room. She moved away from her brother as her mother quickly came over to check if he was alright.

"Okasan," Suguha said, fear evident in her voice. Her mother didn't look up as she checked the "sleeping" teen.

"He's going to fine, right?" Suguha asked. Her voice shook. Her mother looked over to her and smiled sadly.

"I don't know, Suguha." she said, taking Suguha's hand into her own. "I don't know."

._._._._._.

"Forced Teleportation?" Klein exclaimed as he quickly looked around. He knew immediately where he was. He was in the plaza of the Starting City. It wasn't only him and Kirito; there were thousands other players. And, by the looks of it, about all ten thousand.

He almost fell when the sudden weight of Kirito leaned against him. He looked down and saw Kirito had blacked out. How? He didn't know. Worried, he shook Kirito.

"Oi, oi! Wake up, Kirito!" said Klein, hoping the young man would get up. Kirito stirred slightly, and slowly pushed himself away from Klein.

"W-what happened?" He slurred. Klein didn't get the chance to answer as the sky suddenly became red with the word "warning" appearing in several cell plates. Leaking out of the sky came out a red substance that seemed very close to blood, all gathering at a single place in midair.

"What is that...?" Klein muttered as Kirito forced himself to get up. By the time he stood straight, a large hooded figure appeared above the plaza. The players below started up at the figure.

"Is that the Game Master?" asked someone close by.

"Where's his face?" asked another.

"Is this some kind of event?"

Questions and questions could be heard in every direction. Klein and Kirito said nothing as they continued to look up. Suddenly, the hooded figure raised his hands.

"Players, welcome to my world. My name is Akihiko Kayaba. Currently, I am the only person able to control this world." introduced the hooded figure. Kirito tensed and Klein took no notice of his friend's reaction.

"I am sure that you have all noticed the absence of the logout button on the menu screen." continued Kayaba. "However, this is not an error. This is all part of the game. A feature of Sword Art Online. I repeat, this not an error but a feature of SAO."

"A-a feature...?" Klein asked. Kirito grabbed his left arm on reflex as he felt dread become a stone in his throat.

Kayaba continued on. "You cannot log out of SAO on your own and neither can the people outside will be able to shut down or remove the NerveGear. If anyone on the outside does either of this, the transmitter inside the NerveGear will emit a strong amount of microwave radiation, wrecking your brain and killing you instantly."

Many players erupted into more questions.

"What is he saying?"

"Is this some kind of joke?"

"Oh, come on! Enough already. That can't be true."

Klein looked over to Kirito. "Hey, what's he talking about? He must be crazy. Right, Kirito?"

Kirito didn't look at Klein but stared into space. "No, Klein, he's right. The transceiver's microwave signals are like a microwave oven. If the limiter is cut off, then our brains get fried..."

"Why not cut off the power?" Klein asked. Kirito shook his head.

"Can't do that." he answered as he tightened his grip around his arm. "The NerveGear has an internal battery."

Klein had a look of disbelief before he shook his head. "But that's messed up! What's going on here?!"

"Unfortunately, the friends and family members of many players did not heed the warning. As a result, 213 players have been permanently removed from both Aincrad and the real world." Kayaba announced. Klein and Kirito stared back at Kayaba with wide eyes.

"Two hundred and thirteen players?" Kirito breathed out as he felt shock add in with his dread. Klein shook his head.

"I don't believe this. I don't believe this at all!" Klein yelled. Many other players shouted their disbelief with him. Many screens appeared around Kayaba's form as he continued on.

"What I'm showing you is the many news organizations across the world that are reporting on this incident and the unfortunate deaths. And now, you no longer have to worry about the danger of someone removing your NerveGear."

Kirito's eyes scanned the screens. Several were about those who died and the warnings that are blinking desperately. But just one caught his eye. It displayed a mother holding her crying daughter outside the yellow tape that surrounded a house. Kirito recognized the setting immediately.

That was his home. The place he had trouble just going up and down the stairs. The place where his sister would constantly pester him. He nearly reached out to his mother and sister. He wanted to wake up and tell them that he was alright.

But he knew he couldn't. Kayaba's voice drew him back to reality.

"Please relax and enjoy the game." he said his amusement in his voice. "But, keep in mind, you can no longer be revived in this game. Once your hit points reaches zero, your avatar will be erased, along with your life."

Silence swept over the crowd of players.

"The only way to get out of this game is to clear the game. To clear all one hundred floors. Right now you are on floor one. Make your way through the dungeons and defeat every floor boss to reach the top. Defeat the final boss on the hundredth floor, and you will clear the game."

Everyone began to talk amongst themselves about how ridicules the whole thing was. Kirito swallowed.

"Clear all one hundred floors?" Klein asked. "That's impossible! None of the beta testers made it anywhere close to that far!"

"And lastly," Kayaba continued, "I have a gift for you in your item storage. Please go right ahead."

Without a second thought, Kirito opened up his game menu and opened his item storage. "A mirror?"

He tapped on the mirror and it appeared before him in his hand. He looked at the mirror and only saw his game avatar. A blinding white light beside Kirito made him look over.

Klein's voice was yelling out in shock. He was surrounded by the white light. Like a chain reaction, everyone else around Kirito was engulfed by the white light. Soon after, he too became engulfed by the light.

Three seconds later, Kirito immediately noticed that everything seemed slightly taller. Foot steps sounded behind him as a voice that sounded like Klein asked him a question.

"You okay, Kirito?"

Kirito turned around to answer. "A-ah, yeah...wait, who are you?"

A young-ish man stood before him with his eyes wide and confused.

"And who are you?" the man asked. Kirito immediately held up the mirror in his hands to his face. He expected to see his game avatar staring back at him but instead he saw himself. A black haired fifteen year old with black eyes; his skin pale from the lack of going out into the sun.

Kirito realized he was looking at himself. He lowed the mirror and looked around as the other players also had their appearance change. Some were accusing others for lying about their gender or age.

"So that means..." Kirito trailed off as he looked at the man in front of him. He raised a finger at him. "You're Klein?!"

"You're Kirito?!" Klein exclaimed at the same time as he did the same thing. "How?" He lowered his arm. Kirito did the same.

"That scan...must be what happened..." he answered. "The NerveGear traces your entire face with its high-density sensor. That's how it knows what your face looks like. But our height and weight?"

"When we first used the NerveGear, we had to calibrate it. Remember? You had to touch your body all over..." Klein said. Kirito grabbed his left arm again.

"That makes sense. That must have got to be how it got that data." he said as he looked down.

"But why?" Klein asked as he grabbed his head in confusion. "Why is this happening to us?!"

"I have a feeling Kayaba will tell us soon." Kirito answered as he looked up at the hooded figure once again.

"All of you must be wondering why. Why would Akihiko Kayaba, the creator of Sword Art Online and the NerveGear, do all of this? One of my goals has already been reached. I wanted to create my own world that I can observe and admire. That is partially why I created Sword Art Online." Kayaba explained. "And now, it has been done. This ends the welcome tutorial for the official Sword Art Online launch. I wish every player the best of luck."

With that note, the hooded figure regressed back to its liquid form and returned to the fake sky. In that second the sky became normal again, the colors of sun set taking over. Every player stood rooted to their spot, dead silent. For a full ten seconds no one uttered a word.

Kirito only tightened his grip around his arm and bit the back of his lip. He knew that this virtual reality suddenly became every players' reality whether they wanted it or not. And he knew that Akihiko Kayaba, the genius who created the NerveGear and a virtual reality environment, did not lie about reaching one of his goals. But Kirito never expected Kayaba to literally trap 10,000 players into a death game. Not once had that thought even came in mind.

A loud scream made Kirito look up. The whole plaza exploded into screams of horror and defiance. He felt his head begin to spin as the screams and yells continued on. Quickly, he grabbed Klein's wrist.

"Let's get out of here!" Kirito yelled over the screams. Klein only nodded and allowed Kirito to lead him out of the plaza and to a random alley.

"Klein, we need to head to the next town. If we don't go now, then the whole area will be over hunted by other players." Kirito said as he released his hand from Klein's wrist. "If it's just us, we can make it."

Klein blinked. "Just us? Wait, Kirito, I still got friends out there. I'm pretty darn sure that they're scared right now. I can't leave them behind."

Kirito bit the back of his bottom lip. He could handle having one person with him but with any more than that he was sure-

Klein's hand rested on Kirito's shoulder. "Relax will ya?" he said as he gave Kirito's shoulder a light squeeze. "You're shaking."

Kirito forced himself to calm down as he closed his eyes and took deep breaths. After a couple seconds, he spoke in a more calmer tone.

"But I can't protect all of you guys." he said as he guiltily looked up at Klein.

"You don't have to," Klein stressed. He let go of Kirito and ran a hand through his red hair. "We can handle ourselves. And besides, you gave me all those tips. I'm sure I can help."

Kirito shook his head, half to disagree with Klein and half to ease the head ache coming on. "This is real, Klein. This isn't some kind of game anymore."

He cringed when the pain in his head grew. With effort, he strained to focus on Klein. He saw Klein's mouth moving but he couldn't make out the words. He placed a hand on his head. At that moment, Kirito realized that something was going wrong. He isn't supposed to feel any pain in this game but yet he could feel the stinging ache in his left leg and the heavy cloud of drowsiness that always stayed with him in real world.

Then suddenly, his world became black and a machine operated voice of a woman echoed in his head.

"SYSTEM COLLABORATION AT 1 PERCENT."

And now, it goes AU! Yup, I will be somewhat following the story line. And there will be no OCs because they are completely unstable to be in a SAO fan fiction like this one. There will be OOCness especially from Kirito. So, tell me what you guys think! And...Thank you to Reeves-san and DragonBlaze66 for reviewing last chapter! and all those who favorited and followed this story!

-CloudyLightning