2. NOAH

"Hey there, you new?" I blinked. No one was in front of me, so where'd the voice come from? I was standing in front of a large spinning ring that hovered a few feet off the ground. Players kept running up to it and disappearing. It must have been some sort of transportation device. I turned my attention back to finding out where the voice came from. I tried moving the left joystick, but instead of turning the camera to the right, the entire screen moved forward.

"Use the second left button on the top of the controller to change your view. My guess is it'll be easier to see that way. " There it was again.

"Well, guess it wouldn't hurt to try." I pressed the second left button and suddenly I could see my character in front of me, as well as see a sea of people running to and from the ring. Only one person stood still other than me.

"My name's Noah." His voice came through my speakers, clear as a bell. I managed to turn my character to face him using the key pad above the left joystick. I suddenly noticed the chat box in the bottom corner of the screen, so I set the controller down and typed a quick reply in.

I'm Midori

"Lemme guess, you don't have any goggles." I frowned. I could literally hear the smirk in his voice.

Screw you; I haven't gone out to get any yet… XP

"Well, anyways, we should get away from the Chaos Gate. Follow me." His character turned and ran down a flight of steps into the town, before stopping and turning around.

"You don't know how to move yet do you?" Even though he was far enough away where he should have had to shout for me to hear, when he talked it sounded like he was right next to me. I could hear him sigh and I guessed he was rolling his eyes at me.

Heaven forbid…

"Just use the left joystick or the keypad to move." I managed to get my character moving, and ran up beside him.

How's that?

"Perfect." His avatar smiled, and then turned toward the bridge. There were a few players strolling aimlessly or chatting with other players. I made a mental note to go out and get a pair of those goggles soon. It was going to be much harder to play if I had to key everything I wanted to say manually.

"This your first time playing?"

Yep. Why are you helping me?

"If you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly a player made for physical combat." I switched back to the first camera mode to have a good look at his character. He had light aqua colored hair that stuck out at weird angles in the back and deep green eyes. He was dressed in a dark green vest with a high collar and brown fingerless gloves that stopped at his wrist. Each arm had three green hexagon tattoos on the upper part of the arm. His pants were the same color as his shirt, with the same light green hexagons as the ones on his arms, printed on them. Under his right eye there was an outline of a blue triangle.

You a Wavemaster?

He made his avatar nod. "Only I don't use staffs. Well sometimes I do, but that's when I'm in a pinch and need some extra spells."

I nodded, myself, but my avatar just stood there.

Oh. So what's that got to do w/ me again?

"After you get hand on how to play, you could become a valuable teammate. Blademasters are good party members for Wavemasters."

Party members?

"It's when you team up with other people to go on quests or try and defeat dungeons that would normally be to dangerous for a single player to handle. Being in a party with someone stronger than you is a nice way to level up quickly."

Am I in a party with you right now?

"Not exactly. You need this first." A window popped up onto my screen.

YOU NOW HAVE NOAH'S MEMBER ADRESS.

"Whenever you'd like to form a party with me or anyone else, ask for their member address. Or give them yours. That way, you can converse with just those in your party and exchange emails."

Nice. Thanx :D

"You really need to get a headset…"

XP I'll bike to GS tomorrow

"I'll show you how to fight monsters tomorrow then. Trust me, in a fight there's no time to type messages."

Okay, what can you teach me until I get one?

He paused for a moment, probably thinking. "You know how to target stuff, right?"

Yep

"Do you know how to look through menus?"

No

"Okay, hit the triangle button…"

"So do you think you'll be ready to go out to a field tomorrow?" Both Noah and I were sitting at the edge of the river that flowed through the center of Mac Anu. He'd made sure to teach me enough of the character actions, but keeping up with all of the information he was throwing at me was making my head swim.

I might need a refresher course tomorrow…

He laughed, a clear, happy sound through my speakers. "Well, don't worry. It'll get easier the more you play."

I sure hope so

"I have to log out, my mom's yelling at me to finish homework…" His avatar frowned and he ran towards the Chaos Gate, "I'll see you tomorrow," he turned and waved. His avatar disappeared in rings of light.

"Might as well log out myself." I said selecting LOG OUT from the main menu. I stopped by the boards glancing through some of the posts, stopping at one in particular.

"What the hell?"

"COMA"