AN: Chapter 5! Thanks for reading, guys! Please review and correct me when I royally screw up, kay? Kay.
CHAPTER 5: What the Flock?
Tobias and I ran through the West exit of the courtyard as quickly as we could, turning North at the first alleyway we saw. We had to get to the next town as soon as possible so we could get strong quickly. First town quests are good and all, but they don't do much for you at a certain level. Now that we were level 5, the idea of staying in this town is downright laughable after the events in the opening cerimony.
Running down the alley, the sounds of our footsteps echoing through the quiet, we kept an eye on our maps to gauge our distance to the North Gate of the Town of Beginnings. The sound of arguing made me slow my run into a slow, paced walk. I wanted to avoid a fight if at all possible. I threw my right fist in the air, curving my elbow at a 90 degree angle, signalling Tobias to stop. I halted my walk and listened.
"We should fly away now, the risk of getting into confrontation here is too high! Who cares if they see us?" The voice was female, sounding full of leadership and fear.
"Max, trust me, letting the players in this game see our wings is a seriously bad move. To beat a game like this, we need allies. And we can't get those if people use us for our flight, or try to kill us out of jealousy." A boy's voice retorted, "We should walk from here to the next town over. Iggy and I are strong enough to protect all of us from the monsters between here and there."
The voices were coming from just ahead, I glanced back at Tobias to make sure he had heard the conversation, and gave him another hand sign signaling to move foward at a normal walking pace.
"Gazzy! Allies? Really? Who do you propose we go talk to? 'Oh hi! We are just a flock of noobs in this game, wanna help us? we totally don't have wings.'" A different female voice responded to the boy. I stopped, crouched in the shadow next to a building on the left side of the alley and motioned for Tobias to join me.
The bickering continued as Tobias crouched next to me, "What's up?" he whispered in the low voice we use when stealthing.
"I recognized the second girl's voice. These people are the group from the armor shop before...I guess they have some veterans in their group after all..." I replied in the same hushed voice. He nodded, trusting that I could remember the voice of a girl I had heard one sentence from. "Should we approach them? If what they say about having a flying skill is true...they could make for good friends..."
"Or maybe they are just crazy and we should avoid them at all costs," Tobias whispered in a firm voice. "But it's up to you. They can't hurt us in this safe zone anyway." He remained crouched just behind me, awaiting my command.
"Let's go say hi."
The flock stood in a small open area surrounded by fences on the side of an alleyway, The Gasman, Sky and Maximum were arguing about how to best proceed after recieving some very disturbing news. It seemed that Iggy and Gazzy were correct about ending up in a video game, and the flock's worst fears were realized when Akihiko Kayaba, creator of Sword Art Online, confirmed that the game was a trap.
Fang stood on the edge of the clearing, silently watching the argument, awaiting the group's decision. His black clothes rendering him nearly invisible against the shaded building, he watched as Nudge and Iggy discussed the wonders of matching colors on the other side of the clearing.
Suddenly one of the side gates opened and two players entered the opening, Fang noted the way they held themselves. The first to come in was a shorter athletic kind of boy, he couldn't have been any older than 17, with a young, narrow face and light brown hair. His eyes, dark brown, glanced around at the flock in a calculating kind of way. The man behind him was a larger, stocky person with dark black hair and peircing green eyes. He stood in a defensive stance behind the boy, almost like a bodyguard.
"Hail, friends! I am Rilos and this is my brother Tobias. We heard some yelling, we just wanted to make sure everybody was alright," he grinned and glanced around awkwardly as the flock stared at him. He crossed his arms and leaned to his right, "Don't everybody talk at once, I only have so much brainpower." He laughed and the man behind him tensed up.
"Hello, Rilos. Tobias. We could actually use some advice," Angel stepped forward from behind Max and approached the boy. Max took a step forward, and opened her mouth to protest. "It's fine Max. Something about this guy tells me he doesn't want to hurt us. Besides, this kinda solves our situation," Angel turned to look at Rilos, who had raised a brow in curiousity, "what would you do if you had a powerful, unique skill? Hide it, or use it when you needed to?"
Max stepped forward and got in front of Angel, "Ok, no. That's too much. We don't even know these people, sweety. How can we trust them?" Max never took her eyes from the Rilos boy, wary of his intentions.
"Well, little one, I would probably hide it. There are many people in the gaming community who would seek to abuse that skill. So whatever skill it is that y'all hide, keep it that way." The boy said, grinning past Max at Angel. Gazzy laughed in response to Rilos' comment.
"See, Max? I told you. I like this guy. He knows what's up!" Gazzy pushed passed Max and held out his hand. "My name is Gasman, the Gasman, but you can call me Gazzy. How do you feel about explosives?" Rilos' grin grew larger as he took Gazzy's hand and shook it firmly.
"Chemical or Atomic?" Rilos asked, causing Gazzy and Iggy to widen their gazes at the boy. Fang noticed that the boy seemed to be hiding something, becuase the man behind him was still in a tense postition. But before the discussion about explosions could go any further, Fang revealed himself from the shadows.
"What do you want, kid?" A guy dressed in black slid into exsistance from the shadows, causing me to flinch. How did I not see him? His glare was peircing, and his dark eyes were unyeilding.
"Kid? Really? I'm 19, guy. And I want to help, just like I said," I crossed my arms as well and narrowed my eyes at the calculating shadow. "What makes you think otherwise, shadowboy?" Tobias stirred behind me and I heard a whisper in my ear.
"Don't. We don't know what they are capable of, and we don't need enemies here. Be smart and get one of them to add us and let's book it. We've already lost time." I nodded in agreement and looked back to the blond kid, Gazzy.
"Gasman, was it?" The kid nodded at me,"why don't you add Tobias and me as friends? If you guys ever need help, send me a message, ok? We are both very strong fighters and willing to help."
Gazzy nodded, despite the girl, Max's, and shadowboy's glares; Tobias and I turned away and left the way we came. Just before we did so, I turned back and winked at Max. "See ya, Maxi."
AN: If the Max Ride characters seem a little OOC, it's because they are. I'm pairing a couple of the Flock members with some of my characters, and in order for that to make sense I had to increase the Flock's ages. They are all four years older. So the oldest members are 19. If that's too weird, I'm sorry.