The Red Wand
Chapter I: The Terror of Death
(Play Bleach: On the Precipice of Defeat.)
Serpent of Lore, One Week Later…
The Guild Master of Raven floated down to meet the group that had just entered.
"Oh good, you're all here."
The Epitaph User of Skeith, Haseo, spoke first.
"What's up Yata? Your e-mail sounded pretty urgent."
"It is. I believe this matter concerns all of us, myself included, as Epitaph Users."
"Master Yata…what are you talking about?"
"Two days ago, I received a report. Apparently, starting since last week, there have been bug reports about a strange Boss class monster that had the ability to wipe out human characters in a single blow."
Endrance scoffed. "Then they were simply too weak to be playing in such a field."
"That's not all…the field…used to be a Beast Statue field."
Kuhn spoke this time. "So an admin changed the field designation, it happens sometimes right?"
"True…but no administer had touched that field in the last two months. It changed on its own."
Bo, who was in control today, put in his thoughts. "So…it's a bug?"
"More than that…not only can this Boss wipe out characters in a single blow…but there have been reports of characters re-logging in, and having somehow been degraded anywhere from one, to as many as twenty levels."
That caused everyone to pause.
"Ok…that does sound like a problem…"
"It gets better."
Pai sighed.
"Apparently this boss is invincible as well. Reports state that even when they did manage to land enough hits to kill it, its health just went back to full every time."
Ovan put in. "So…it's a data bug."
"We aren't sure. It could be that, it could be a simple glitch in the system…or perhaps even AIDA remnants."
Haseo responded. "Well that would definitely suck."
Yata couldn't help but let out a small chuckle, the youth's antics growing on him. "Indeed it would."
"So lemme guess, you want a few of us to go check it out for you, right?"
"Actually…I propose we all go."
Atoli spoke. "A-all of us? Even you?"
"Indeed. I believe it would be a good opportunity to…stretch my legs, so to speak."
Aina, who had taken to playing whenever her elder brother did, tugged on Ovan's jacket. "Ne, onii-chan, can I come too?"
Ovan seemed to stare at his little sister for a while, puzzling the question in his mind. He turned to Haseo. "What do you think Haseo? Should we let her come?"
"I've got no problem with it; you've been leveling with her right?"
"Every now and then…"
"Hey, Yata, what's the area level?"
"Roughly ninety."
"Mou…I'm only eighty-two…"
"Let her come Ovan. We'll all be there to keep an eye on her anyway right? I mean, she wouldn't be fighting the boss or anything, plus…"
Haseo opened up his menu, grabbing an item for just an occasion like this. He targeted Aina, and selected 'Gift.' "Here ya go squirt."
Aina looked at the new item she acquired. A level eighty accessory that had a very special customization. "Oooh! A Train Earring! Arigato, Haseo-nii!"
Ovan looked at Haseo, slightly surprised. "A Train Earring? Whatever for?"
"Well, she's kinda low level for the area, but because of that, all she'd have to do is just sit back and let one of us deal with the monsters, and she'll get extra EXP to help her level enough to balance things out quicker. Is that a problem?"
"Oh, no, I'm just surprised you had one of those lying around."
"I've got a few of the items needed to customize one of those. I don't need them that much anyway."
Yata cleared his throat. "Very well, if we're done here…"
Kuhn had a question. "Hey…Yata…what's this Boss look like?"
"I've not seen it myself, but reports say that it looks like a demon made out of levitating stones, holding a Red Wand."
Red wand…now why does that sound so familiar?
Haseo put in. "Not much of a description."
"Let's get going!"
The group made their way to the Chaos Gate in Mac Anu. Haseo had his party consisting of Atoli, and Endrance, with him as Leader. Yata picked leader of his group, which held Kuhn and Pai. Ovan was leader for his, holding his sister, Aina, and Bo.
"Alright Yata, what were the Area Words?"
"The Area Words were: Delta: Chosen Hopeless Nothingness."
Kuhn paused for a moment. That sounds REALLY familiar…
The three leaders finalized the area location, a bright, sunny spring field. They all hit Warp, and the three groups vanished in blue light.
Delta Server: Chosen Hopeless Nothingness
The three groups appeared near the platform, as per the norm. They all looked around carefully. Haseo noted.
"Well…nothing looks out of place…"
Atoli jumped in. "I'll check the map!"
Scanning the map she noted that the boss symbol was two islands ahead…neither one holding any treasure chests, or hills.
"That's odd."
Haseo turned. "What is?"
Pai spoke. "I agree…this map…its empty. The only thing on it is the boss symbol…and a few Chim Harvesting areas."
"Yata?"
"Don't look at me; I'm just as lost as you are."
Surprising all of them, Aina was the one who spoke next.
"Why don't we just go and see what's there?"
Ovan smiled at his little sister. "I do believe you're right my dear. Let us go observe this 'Boss.'"
And so, the group made their way across the islands, occasionally kicking a tree to let Aina run around chasing the Chim Chims for fun. Finally, they reached the last island. Atoli was the first to note.
"Nothing's here."
Endrance scoffed. "This place is boring…no monsters, no treasure chests…and now, no Boss? What a waste of time…"
Pai couldn't accept it. "That's strange…the boss symbol is right in front of us…but nothing's there."
Aina walked ahead when nobody was looking. She saw something glittering on the ground.
"What's this?"
That one statement caused the Infinity Eight to flinch. They all whirled around as one, but Kuhn was the first to speak.
"Aina, no!"
She touched the glowing object…and the strange tuning fork sound was heard. Her eyes widened, she remembered that noise.
"Uh-oh…"
Suddenly, the area became discolored. Moments after the color returned, a strange vortex appeared in the sky.
From within the vortex, leapt out a strange looking creature. It was made entirely from multiple floating rocks, arranged to look like a human. Strange eye patterns were on each of the rocks, with three going vertically down its middle. In its right hand was a large red cross shaped staff.
But what really threw them for a loop was its head. Its head looked like someone had drilled three random holes in it for a face, along with a ring connected to it that looked like horns.
Upon seeing the monster, Ovan became worried for his sister.
"Aina! Run!"
(Play .hack Infection: Phase 1: Skeith)
The girl couldn't move. She was paralyzed with fear, just like on that day when Ovan was overcome by that AIDA.
She didn't need to though. The beast drew its staff across its chest, and then swatted the little girl away like a fly. She flew backwards, right into Haseo's chest. Suddenly, a green aura surrounded her, and then shattered like glass. This caused all of them to gasp. The beast raised its arm, and motioned for the girl. She floated up out of Haseo's reach. They all drew their weapons, intent on saving her…but it need not be. The beast drew her close…and seemed to stare at her for a while. Then it waved its hand, and the aura repaired itself, and he sent her back to Haseo, who immediately handed her over to Ovan.
Kuhn had other ideas however. He finally recalled why all these descriptions, and the area name sounded familiar to him. He saw red.
"You…you…BASTARD!"
He charged at the beast, Weapon drawn, and swinging towards it. The beast seemed to shimmer, and glide out of the way of the attack, just before it collided.
Pai yelled out to him. "Kuhn! What the hell are you doing?"
His response puzzled them.
"You…you're the one who hurt Mai!" He kept swinging wildly, his emotions completely out of control. "You put me into a god-damn coma! You almost killed me!"
That's when it clicked for Yata. "No…could it be?"
Of course, since he said this out loud, everyone turned to him…well everyone barring Haseo and Endrance. Haseo went to back Kuhn up…and well, wherever Haseo goes, Endrance goes.
"Master Yata?"
"I think I know what this beast is now."
Saku took over. "Well don't just stand there! Tell us!"
"This beast…is the original form…of Skeith."
"WHAT?!"
"Wait, Kuhn, you were one of the coma victims seven years ago?"
"That's right…this damn bastard…he attacked my girlfriend and I seven years ago…in these very area words! He data drained us both! Knocked us into a coma…but she woke up…she somehow woke up first. For six months…I was unconscious, stuck in this damn game. Back then…I wanted to become stronger than the Descendants of Fianna…but now…I just want to kill this damn thing!"
"But…how can that thing exist…when Haseo's AVATAR is Skeith?!"
"I don't know…perhaps Skeith's data was even more fragmented than we thought?"
They all turned to watch the three battle Skeith. It was evading roughly all of their attacks.
"Dammit! It's just like before…nothing works!"
That's when it made its move. It slammed the staff to the ground, and then pointed at the three of them. The group outside of the battle saw how the three were transported to an empty void. On their screens, the word "Indignation" appeared.
From beneath the three a large purple glyph appeared. From the four points of the edges of the glyph, four arcing beams of light fired into the sky. Clouds rolled in, with lightning racing through them. Suddenly, there was a flash, and a blast of thunder, as a gigantic purple-and-white lightning bolt shot from the sky to the ground, exploding upon the three.
Endrance and Haseo were sent flying back towards the group.
"D-Dammit! What the hell was that?!"
"It…took our health…down to one…"
"And our SP down to zero!"
Kuhn tried to get up…when suddenly he was yanked into the air. His arms shot from his sides, as if he were hanging by chains. The Original Skeith floated in front of him. It looked him over just like it did Aina. However…it seemed to find what it was looking for. The staff appeared behind Kuhn, making it look as if he were being crucified. He struggled weakly, but to no avail.
Saku and Atoli tried readying spells, Ovan pulled out his gun to attempt to stop Skeith, but it swung its giant arm and a wave of force knocked the group to the ground. It raised its hand to Kuhn, who knew what was coming next. A ring of light appeared on its arm, turning into the Twilight Bracelet. Five appendages grew from it, and all pointed at Kuhn. Immediately, they fired bands of raw data at the Steam Gunner. The data all converged to his chest, causing him to let out a quite manly scream in pain. A green aura of light appeared around him, then shattered. However, the pieces reformed in the palm of Skeith's hand, becoming a small glowing ball of green energy, which flew into its body.
Kuhn dropped to the ground, and Skeith picked up its staff.
Surprisingly, Kuhn started to rise, as the beast floated away. The others ran to him, the two mages of the group casting healing spells on him. He got up, holding his left arm to his side, for he landed on it. They all watched as the staff vanished in a red glow of light. Skeith began to flicker…and then exploded, random pieces of its data floating to Haseo, and connecting to his character. From where Skeith once stood, the body of a player appeared, slowly floating to the ground. Next to it appeared the form of a little girl in a black dress, with bright pink hair.
"Pink? My hair was BLACK last I remember it! Well…come to think of it I wasn't a little girl either."
The Infinity Eight, plus a newly awakened Aina slowly walked to where the two landed. The body began to stir.
"Ugh…my head…"
The PC opened his eyes and saw a strangely dressed little girl with pink hair standing over him. Below his sight was the other group. He and Haseo spoke at the same time.
"Who the hell are you?"
The little girl smiled.
"Just call me…Morgan."
First Chapter Get! Yes, I can write better fight scenes than this, but I'm tired, I needed to get the chapter out of my head before inspiration faded. Interesting little twist no? I won't include ALL of the Infinity Eight in EVERY chapter…mostly just Haseo, Ovan, and Atoli, with Aina thrown in. But they'll show up once in a while again too. Was Endrance portrayed correctly in this chapter? He talks very…sophisticatedly…so it's kinda hard to get his speech patterns down.
YinYangWhiteTiger: I THINK this chapter answers your question. A few…guests will show up as well soon.
Yamimaru: We'll have to see. Morgana…doesn't look anything like she should at the moment, and you'll find out why later. As for the Haseo Sora theory…well, I remember seeing somewhere that Haseo's character KNEW Sora…but not that his Real Life self WAS Sora…especially since in the Terminal Disk, Jun stated that they tried getting Sora to play the Epitaph PC for Skeith, and he didn't match.
Jimbo86: This chapter should answer your question.
Azure Euphoria: Heh, glad you think it's cool. Please do check out my Harry Potter fic…it seems to be popular…
Well, that's all for now. Don't expect updates like this regularly…but I can promise that when Volume 2 comes out in US, not long after that there will probably be a FLOOD of updates for this fic. Large ones as well.
Enjoy!