Anonymous reviews have been turned off due to a bot spamming the comments -_- the joy

Also sorry about the long pause between updates- school and such has been taking precedence but holidays are coming up so I'll hopefully be able to finish this soon :)

Anyways on with the story!

Kurt

They'd taken the news well, even though it wasn't the whole truth.

Of course he couldn't dwell on that now, when you were hanging from the side of a fairly unstable Stack with a IOI drone hovering nearby you tended not to think of much. He barely moved, knowing that if the drone turned in his direction its infra-red camera would detect him no matter how well his natural camouflage worked.

He was starting to wish he had stayed in and slept instead of going out in an attempt to steal some more tech, his gloves had started short circuiting and he wasn't prepared to be at any more a disadvantage inside the OASIS. A voice in the back of his head chirped that he had already grown addicted, that he should cut it out now while he still could.

He shooed the thought away, and began crawling across the unstable structure as quietly as he could, holding his small bag of wires and circuits close to his chest. He dropped down to the level below him, swinging on a pipe to a balcony which he crawled beneath. Holding his breath as the IOI drone whirred past, he turned to the small window across from him, and froze.

A small child stood gaping, loose clothing three sizes too big, the visor clutched in her hand almost comically large.

"Shhh" he whispered quietly, attempting a weak grin as he crawled away, he heard her faintly whisper 'wow' as he teleported. He had a small smirk on his face until he reached his home, where he set about the tedious task of repairing the IOI gloves.

Parzival

"So...do you think he was telling the truth?" H asked, leaning back into the couch. Nightcrawler had left a little over an hour ago, and that hour had been spent largely in silence as they browsed through files and audio clips from Halliday's journals.

"It's gotta be a spell, some sort of armour or enchantment" he answered, "Maybe something to do with the swords"

H snorted, "Dude you know that's not it" he flicked the screen he was viewing closed, "It was like he poofed out of the OASIS and back in"

He turned to H, "You believe him?", he let out a short laugh expecting H to respond in kind, "Stuff like that isn't possible outside of the OASIS, the whole reason the OASIS was built was because the outside sucked!"

"Keeping an open mind man" H said, "I mean people thought something like the OASIS was impossible, people thought the 'end of the world as we know it' was impossible"

"Yeah well we've got nothing to go off except Nightcrawler's word, and we barely know the guy" he argued, "Anyway, I'm logging off, see you tomorrow H"

"See you then Parzival" H's hulking avatar yawned, and both figures dissipated.

H

She sat in bed, her visor and gloves resting on the table beside her. Her room was small, but fit a bed comfortably with a bit of room to spare, which was more than what most people got. Though she was tired, she couldn't help but think about what Nightcrawler had told them, and Parzival's reluctance to accept it as fact even if he appeared to do so to the blue avatars face.

Truth be told, the thought of something almost magical occurring outside the OASIS made her feel hopeful, younger in a way. Like when she believed in the tooth-fairy, until times got too tough and her parents had to drop the charade. Not to say she wasn't skeptical, after all the OASIS was a place of smoke and mirrors and you could be fooled into thinking something was an ally until they turned on you in the middle of battle.

She turned away from where the visor sat watching her, begging her to go back, to be H instead of Helen.

Her eyes slowly closed, and she slipped away into dreams where the fought on Planet Doom, fearless and unbeatable.

But not as H, but as Helen.

Kurt

He hissed as a small spark burnt jumped across the glove. The work was fiddly, delicate, and definitely not meant to be messed with by someone with only three fingers per hand and minimal knowledge on circuitry. Nevertheless, his memory served him well from his days observing them assembling the gloves, and though the smaller parts took numerous tries to get right he eventually finished. With the last piece sealed over, and with the intent only to rest his eyes, he fell asleep over his work where it was scattered across the floor.

That morning his joints ached, and it took over an hour of slowly moving and stretching before he felt back to his normal state. He took his time, eating his fill, before moving towards the visor.

H and Parzival would still be okay with his power a day after telling them...right?

A little jumpy and filler-y but it's something,

I do have a plan for the next chapter...sorta

anyway hope you enjoyed this, there may be another chapter up tomorrow or in a few weeks once holidays start

Thank you to everyone who has stuck around :D