I've updated! Dammit, I've tryed uploading this so many times, but one way or anouther, my edits get deleted. TT Well, here's the Reader Review:

xeno: Yep, she will have an encounter soon, maybe the next chapter.

SkeletalWings: Yeah, the purpose of a prolouge is to usually flesh out the story, or to make it easier for the reader to read the story.

quitelacking: Yay! Thanks. Thanks for all the lovely AIM chats

Inva4der T4k: Well, here's the next chap!

Chaos009: Thank you! She's quite interesting, and I hope to flesh her out as a character.

Katreda: Yeah, Morgana. Obachan. And... I'm on someone's favorites! OO I'm so happy. YwY

kitedragon: Well, Obachan is still developing, thus the anger problem. Plus, there's still... complications in her core programming. But that's anouther chapter Anyway, The World always seemed pretty user-friendly, so... ; Anyway, Obachan's level depends on who's in her party. It flutucates. After all, she's not there to level up...

re Weird: Here it is! I still expect a review, y'know. D

Banshou: See, child neglect is over! ;;; I'm open to any critiques, y'know...

Tenko: Yay! Thanks for the compliments on my descriptions! I'm glad Obachan is in character.

Disclaimer: I, in no possible way, own any of the .hack franchise.

1010101

Chapter 3: Vagabond

"I talked to my teachers." Nezumi said as he and Morgana were leaning against the Mac Anu bridge one day. It was early evening, late afternoon, according to Morgana's internal atomic clock, and Nezumi ran into her about an hour ago. Nezumi invited her for small talk, watching the digital river flow.

"What about?" Morgana asked, running her gloved hand over the sanded wood grain. Does it feel this way outside? She wondered idly. Morgana allowed herself the luxury to be idle now and then.

"About the girls who are teasing me." Nezumi replied almost airily.

"And?"

Nezumi smiled, "They were rather surprised, and I'm not sure if all of them quite believed me, but it's a start. I'm in no rush."

Morgana sighed a little, "You're too gentle." She said.

"Better too gentle then not gentle enough, right?" Nezumi flashed his brand of wicked grin.

"…"

Nezumi took her silence as a sign to continue. "Say, if you have a cat, is it better to treat it like spun glass, or to roughhouse with it?"

"…The former."

"Yes. I think it's a shame that there isn't more kindness nowadays." Nezumi looked up at the sky with a nostalgic gaze.

"…" Kindness…

"Oiiiiii! Morgana-chaaaaaaaan!"

Both Nezumi and Morgana looked toward the origin of the yell (along with a number of passersby). Lory was running toward the bridge, weaving through the crowds.

"Morgana-chan!" Lory said as she stood before her, "Hey, a friend and I need a third party member for an event, do you want to come?"

"Well…" Morgana looked over to Nezumi.

"Oh, don't mind me, Morgana-dono. Go and have fun." Nezumi smiled.

"Oh, you're with her?" Lory said, just noticing him, "Am I interrupting anything? I can go get someone else…" she scuffed the toe or her boot against the wooden planks.

"It's no trouble at all, is it, Morgana-dono?" Nezumi faced Morgana, smiling.

"No."

"See? Go ahead to your event." He smiled and bowed.

"Ah, sugoi ne!" Lory said, clapping her hands together "Didn't catch your name, though. Atashi wa Lory desu!"

"My name is Nezumi. It's a pleasure to meet you, Lory-dono."

"Aww, you're cute " Lory said, "But we really should be going to the event now. Bye bye, Nezumi-kun! Come on, Morgana-chan." Lory waved goodbye at Nezumi while pulling Morgana to the Chaos Gate. However, Morgana jerked her hand out of Lory's grip, but followed at a normal pace.

"The words are Delta, Mystifying, Troublesome, Puzzle Card." Lory said.

The field of Delta, Mystifying, Troublesome, Puzzle Card looked like an ordinary lava field. Scattered around the field were groups of players, standing in groups or hanging around the giant broken weapons. All of the Twilight Onions had been stripped bare, whether because of the event or by players, it can't be certain. The tall dungeon loomed to the northeast of the warp-in point.

Lory and Morgana materialized into the field, largely unnoticed by other players. However, a Long Arm ran up to them. She had an indigo bob to the nape of her neck, and her ice blue eyes were cornered by blue spirals, which continued on her arms and made a ring on her leg. Her greaves and gauntlets were silver, while the rest of her clothes were white, lined with orange. She swung around her double-sided spear onto her shoulder like a baseball bat.

"Shake-chan!" Lory waved as the Long Arm got closer.

"Lory-chan!" Shake said in a Kansai accent, "Did ya get our third member?"

"Yep: Morgana-chan." Lory said, gesturing to Morgana.

"Pleased to meet you." Morgana said.

Shake smiled broadly, "Well, didn't 'cha pick up a polite one. Nice ta meet ya, I'm Shake-chan."

"Let's go to the event, ne?" Lory said once the introductions were made.

"Yeah!" Shake said as Lory added them both to her party.

The party ran across the steaming lava to the tall dungeon. Some players watched the party run toward the dungeon, but just as quickly lost interest.

This type of field sported a gallery dungeon. While the one in Purifying Quintessential Scent had been a soft shade of blue, the one at Mystifying Troublesome Puzzle Card was a soft red, with chessboard floors. The tapestries and flags hung here and there were a deep magenta, with matching carpets. The first hallway was unadorned, as the entrance usually was. A Fairy's Orb revealed that the mapping option wasn't allowed. "I guess we'll just follow our instincts." Shake said excitedly.

The next room was also a hallway, and the door was blocked by a (relatively speaking) large monster. This was unusual, as nearly all monsters only emerged from unopened portals. Stranger still, the monster, a sphinx, didn't attack. She smiled at the approaching party and said,

"Answer my question correctly, and ye shall not be harmed.

It pounds rock into gravel
Repeated again and again
Renewed by the moon
Its name inspires Zen."

"Tricky…" Shake said.

'The Moon? Sleep? No…' Morgana thought. Aloud, she said, "What does the moon do?"

"Well, it changes phases…" Lory said, "and… I know! Controls waves! The answer is 'wave'!"

"Correct." The sphinx said, pacing out of the way. The party continued through the dungeon. It was rather straight forward, but they passed a number of red Chaos Gates, but they did not activate. "Maybe if we didn't answer correctly?" Shake remarked. Soon enough, there was another sphinx when they went down a set of stairs. This monster said,

"A place of stability
Though weathered and dull
Supporting the windcatcher
Ulysses' siren pole."

"Huh?" Lory aptly said.

"Ulysses…" Morgana's remark hung in the air.

"Ulysses is the hero in the Greek poet Homer's epic poems, The Iliad, and The Odyssey. He also goes by Odysseus." Shake replied.

"He is? I've never read it." Lory said, a tad sheepishly, "So what's a siren?"

"Hehe, adults don't know everything, huh? " Shake said, grinning, "Anywho, Odysseus meets with sirens – a monster that sings really pretty and lures sailors to crash on their rocks – and he warns his sailors. But he orders them to tie him to the mast, so he can hear."

"A mast is the answer, then?" Lory said.

"Correct." Shake and the sphinx behind her chimed.

101010101

"The end of disaster
A hard word to tell
It's human to do
The place where the sick dwell."

"…I'm totally lost." Shake said.

"Me too." Lory said.

"It's 'er'"

"Huh?" the two women said in unison.

"The answer is 'er'." Morgana repeated as the sphinx said "Correct"

"How'd ya get that, Morgana-chan?" Shake said.

"The end of the word 'diaster' is 'er'. 'A hard word to tell', people say 'er' when they're thinking. It is human to 'err'. The last one refers to the Emergency Room, or ER."

"Wow, too hard for an old lady like me. ;P" Lory said, pinching the bridge of her nose and shaking her head.

"No way ;)" Shake said, "I'm just a 16-year-old kid in high school, but ya ain't no old lady."

"True. 26 is anything but old. " Lory laughed as they made their way down to the next floor.

After a few room's silence, Shake broke it by asking, "By the way, Morgana-chan, how old are ya?"

"Oh, well..." Morgana paused. She existed for only a few years, a small child in human terms. But she had a higher mental capacity for the most part. Morgana was trying to think of a convincing age, but Lory interrupted her thoughts with "If you don't want to say, it's alright."

"Yeah, that's right." Shake chimed in.

"Thank you. Those questions are difficult to answer." Morgana said, which was true enough.

"I can understand." Shake said consolably, "There can be really weird people, sometimes. Once a middle aged guy came onto me! Just a block away from school!"

"Kyaa, no way, that's creepy!" Lory squealed girlishly, "What'd you do?"

"I told him to get lost, and when he didn't, I punched him." She imitated the motion in the air.

"Sounds… painful." Morgana added.

"Well, he was bad news, and he wouldn't leave me alone. But listen, listen!" Shake grinned, "I punched him just as my older brother was getting off of work! Now he thinks I'm violent. O"

"That's because you are. ¬w¬" Lory said, grinning and playfully pushing Shake's arm.

"Oi, I seem to recall when I had to restrain ya from PKing those two creeps. ¬x¬"

"Well, it's not like you can get hurt by a game. ;"

At this comment, before she could stop herself, Morgana said, "That's not true."

"Eh?" Shake and Lory said at the same time, "What do ya mean?" Shake asked.

"Well…" if Morgana was hesitant, she took care not to show it, "Emotion damage. Even if you're not hurt physically, the intent is still there."

"Yes, that true." Lory said, "It is important to consider others' feelings."

Eventually, the three-woman party reached the last room, where a another, larger sphinx was standing. When the trio stepped up, the sphinz said,

"The answer to the riddles three
Is the one that can defeat me."

With this, red words, "BATTLE MODE" appeared at the top of theirs screens, and the sphinx started attacking them. Morgana took her place as healer, while Shake and Lory started attacking the monster. However, even though there was "Magic Tol." next to the monster's name, their physical attacks seemed to have no effect. They both went through all of there offensive skills and spells, but none worked. "Wait, the riddle!" Lory said, "That's the answer!"

"The answer from the riddles?" Shake said, dodging a strike from the sphinx, "they were…"

"Er, wave, and mast!" Lory shouted.

There was a pause as they both were healed after a Fire spell. "Wavemaster!" Lory shouted.

"That is me!" Morgana said for the first time, "Out of the way!"

"But there's a Magic Tol!" Shake said as she and Lory stepped aside.

"Then I'll attack it." Morgana flipped onto her hands and used the floor to thrust a kick at the sphinx. Red numbers appeared, "8940"; an instant kill.

A chest appeared with the resulting silence.

"Wow, that was a good event." Lory said.

"Yeah; It played off of people's assumptions." Shake said.

"…" Morgana opened the chest and lifted the items inside. There was a Wavemaster-only item called Magnolia Gloves, along with two hand items called Thebes' Savior.

"Morgana-chan, why don't you take the Wavemaster gloves, and we'll take the other two?" Lory suggested.

"All right. Thank you." Morgana replied, equipping the Magnolia Gloves.

end chapter 3>

"sugoi ne!" cool!
"Atashi wa Lory desu!" "atashi" is a corruption of "watashi", a polite way of saying "I". This says "I'm Lory."

And after 5 attempts, I load! Mwahaha! Anyway, please don't hesitate to drop a review! Also, is being stupid, so I can't add spaces...