Okay guys! Here's the next installment. I'm pushing this out half-complete, actually. I decided to cut the chapter in half and get the rest of the characters in the next two chapters or so. But yeah. I don't have anything really to say right now, so enjoy!

The Nightmare Realm

Chapter 1

A 17 year old teen sat just inside the 'Welcome to Tutorial Town' sign, meticulously sharpening his scythe with a whetstone. It wasn't a particularly large whetstone. Rather, it was smaller than the blocks that were usually sold, a handheld whetstone. It took him longer to sharpen his scythe than it usually would that way, but the grit was fine, and he didn't complain.

He was wearing a grey undershirt and blue jeans under a heavy looking dark green chest plate that covered his shoulders and upper arms, as well as his chest and most of his stomach. A few other pieces of armor lay beside him - thick shin guards, obviously meant to defend against almost anything, and a pair of wrist guards that didn't impede the hands.

His helmet - also dark green - covered most of his head, but left the face free, and what showed of his dark brown hair hung just barely over his blue eyes. Enough to probably be annoying, but probably not enough to impede on his vision too much. What showed of his skin was tan, which was a result of his time out in the sun, training.

But now, it was getting late in real life, and his mother would probably yell at him if he didn't log off soon. It was also turning dark. Darkness wasn't a good thing in the Nightmare Realm Server, as most of its Beta Testers had found out. On the first night - not counting the night they arrived, he had gotten into a tough scrap with a few Pokemon.

Pokemon were both Hostile and Unhostile Monsters, depending on the Species. Rattata was a mostly Unhostile Monster, being that they were so small. However, their evolution, Raticate, was both. It was Unhostile alone, but in a pack, they were ferociously Hostile.

He stood, swinging his scythe. He clipped it onto his back, remembering to have it hanging blade to the ground, and pole butt in the air. He adjusted it so the pole wouldn't slide when he was running - that would be a disaster, not to mention probably deadly.

Mew logged in

Kuro logged in

He looked briefly at the notifications, before shrugging. He was about to raise his hand, to bring up the log off screen, when he heard the mad dash of feet running through Tutorial Town. Intrigued, he headed towards the source.

When he got there, he sighed in annoyance. What was happening before his eyes right now, was yet another bug in the Solitude system. The Beta Tester named Mew dashed along the roofs of houses, being tracked by a Staraptor in the air.

Hostile Pokemon weren't able to get into Towns and Cities, seeing as those places were supposed to be safe places where you could rest, relax, get a bite to eat, etc. However, this was a recently discovered bug – a worrisome and annoying one at that. Now that Hostile Pokemon could actually get into Towns and Cities, most Testers tried to sneak in undetected. But it seemed that Mew this time wasn't so lucky.

He watched her for a few minutes. He had not had a chance to properly meet her yet, so this was a good time to observe her abilities. She was tan skinned, with a rather thin build. She couldn't have much Strength, then. Probably a good thing for him, but not for her.

Her black braid flew out behind her as she leapt onto another roof. She hadn't noticed him yet, either – low Perception, or just too distracted? He couldn't tell. She was wearing the basic light armor of the game – Leather armor that covered the upper chest, but left the stomach exposed, along with leather gauntlets.

She also wore a light blue sleeved shirt, that made it easy for him to track her movements, as well as tan cargo pants. If she was going for the assassin or rogue character, she would probably have to get a darker, more neutral colored shirt. He snorted.

When the Staraptor let out an ear piercing shriek and dived at her, she rolled to one side, letting its beak strike the shingles of the roof. Drawing her short swords, she jabbed at its eyes, before leaping back a few paces. The Staraptor shrieked in fury, and that's when he decided to intervene.

"Down here," He called calmly, unclipping his scythe from his back. She looked down, before dropping from a low point on the roof to the cobbled street, dusting off her shoulder when she landed.

"Finally," she growled. "You've sure been standing there staring at me long enough. Chaos, right? Well, put that scythe of yours to use, and defeat the dang thing already!"

So she had noticed him. Oh well. Chaos sighed, bringing the scythe blade in front of him. The Staraptor finally took note of him, and recognizing him as the more dangerous enemy, took a dive. But Chaos was ready.

He bent his knees ever so slightly, letting the scythe tip touch the ground. When the Staraptor was roughly eight or so feet away, he twisted his body around, letting his arms whip the scythe around and then over his body, nailing it precisely in the head. The tip dug into the road. The Staraptor let out one last dying shriek, before exploding into pixels.

Congratulations! You leveled up!

Chaos nodded, clicking away the level up screen. Behind him, he heard the quiet rasp of steel against steel. He turned around, to see Mew putting away her swords. An awkward silence fell between them.

Mew cleared her throat. "Well... Thank you, I suppose." She gave Chaos a curt nod, and walked away quickly.

Chaos watched her leave wordlessly. He remembered that he had left his armor lying on the bench he had been sitting on earlier, and hurried back to the spot to retrieve it.

Five minutes later, he had attached the last piece of armor to his body, and straightened. His scythe was lying on the ground, and he re-clipped it onto his back again. Finally, he raised his hand, ready to log out.

He found the button easily – it was always last on the main menu pull up screen. He clicked on it, and waited.

... And waited.

And waited.

Finally, a screen came up, but not the one Chaos expected.

We are not able to log you out at this time. Please wait for a few minutes, then try again.

Chaos frowned, then shrugged. It must be another bug Solitude was experiencing. Nothing like this had ever happened before, so this was also a bit worrisome. Nonetheless, he could try again in half an hour or so, and for now, he could rest in an NPC Inn in Tutorial Town.

He trudged deeper into the town, looking for a cheap inn. They were all rather cheap, actually, compared to the other towns, but he was a bit of a hog with his saved money.

Chaos sighed and went on his way, alone as usual.

Blade slammed his sword, currently Daylight Dream, into the Houndour's side, finishing it off quickly. He grinned at Twi, his team partner, as he sheathed his sword.

"That was quick," he said cheerfully, patting Twi on the shoulder. "Honestly, I didn't know Houndour lived near the City of Short Beginnings, but hey, good EXP for us!"

Twi smiled amusedly at his friend's cheer. When he had first logged into the game, he had a relative idea of what he was doing. He gained EXP, did Quests, got some better armor, got killed a few times. Always respawned in Tutorial Town, for some buggy reason, but that was alright.

He figured he could get along on his own – his original intention was to make it out to the Infernal Regions as quickly as possible, to get at all the powerful Pokemon and Legendary Quests there. He never made it that far.

He kept on getting killed by the many extremely Hostile Monsters there, lots of high evolution Pokemon. But then he met Blade.

Blade was... Different. He was somewhat willing to talk first, instead of killing on site. He was a lot more cheerful than the other people he had met, by far. He was both serious, yet happy go lucky, and sometimes sarcastic, even.

But that didn't matter to Twi. Blade was willing to listen, and eventually, they decided to team up. After all, two heads were better than one, and four eyes were better than two. They were also both from the United States, as they had learned, although Blade had been reluctant to reveal any more. Twi understood.

He wondered what kind of unique customizations Blade had been given. Compared to himself, he had a much more grand scheme of an outfit.

Blade wore a form fitting long sleeved black shirt, with some kind of ancient rune patterns on it. Currently, his brown woolen short sleeve jacket was hanging off a branch, place carefully so the white fur wouldn't stain and the hood wouldn't catch on anything.

He also had baggy pants and boots, made of some sort of animal skin. Twi couldn't tell what. His belts – crossed into a fashionable X, shifted every time he moved, and somewhat reminded him of Sora, from Kingdom Hearts. Although, the practical bags hanging off of them different from the uniform Sora wore.

As well as his clothing, Blade had a lot of accessories as well. An abnormal number of them, actually. An army green, digital watch on his right wrist, a blue bandana wrapped around his head, and a scarf. His armor was very basic in comparison, however.

Shin and forearm guards, as well as a leather chest plate, were the most basic of armor you could actually obtain in the game. It was weak, and was easily pierceable, but armor nonetheless. However, he, Twi, had much better armor compared to Blade. ... Not to brag, of course.

In comparison, Twi wore a grey hoodie with a blue t-shirt under it, as well as black shorts, and dark green and grey shoes. All in all, very basic. But his armor was the best part.

Circuitry lined his outfit, his hoodie, his shorts, even his shoes. Basically, he could turn his clothing into armor, with the circuitry that ran through his outfit. He wasn't quite sure how he did it, but... It was more of an instinctual thing than anything, unable to be explained by mere words alone.

... But the point was, they made a half decent team together. At least, he hadn't died since. ... The Raticate swarm didn't count.

"Twi? You still awake?" Blade waved his hand in front of Twi's face, an amused grin on his face.

Twi blinked, before half smiling at Blade. "Yeah," he said, clearing his throat. "Let's go. The City of Short Beginnings, here we come!" He headed down the path, as Blade grabbed his jacket and ran after him.

Kuro ran through the burnt, empty field, hearing the howling roar of the Pokemon Ursaring chasing her. It ran towards her, slashing its claws in the air, mouth frothing in fury.

She huffed, turning around quickly. Her reddish-brown hair fluttered out behind her, flying every which way. Her tan skin shone with sweat in the surprisingly soft moonlight, as she drew her weapons, her cloak flying back.

In her left hand, she drew a small dagger, a crescent moon knife. In her right hand, she held a blade similar to a Jakotsuto, or, in easier terms, a broadsword. However, it had many segments, held together by pins.

As the Ursaring drew closer, Kuro drew her right arm back, before swinging the sword in a horizontal arc in front of her. The pins came loose, and the segments extended, letting the sword easily slash at the Ursaring. It roared in pain and surprised, and rallied itself up for another charge.

Kuro frowned, whipping the sword around again. This time, the attack was more successful, and the Usraring exploded into many digital bits.

She smiled thinly at the amount of EXP she had gained from fighting it. She flicked her wrist again, making the sword revert back to a single, solid blade. She sheathed both weapons, pulled her cloak around her, and continued on her way.

I hope you like your characters, guys. I think I portrayed them okay... Eh... I dunno, really. See what you guys think. The next chapter will hopefully be out before I leave for the weekend, but no promises. I'll try my best. Review, please!