.Hack//Escape
Chapter 2: Exploration 27th Dec 2003
The characters and plot in this story are copyrighted by the author. However the concept of 'The World' is not. I take no credit for this; the credit belongs to Bandai Entertainment who used the concept in the animation series .Hack//Sign, .Hack//Dusk and .Hack//Liminality. (Pronounced Dot Hack)
For those of you who have never watched any of Dot Hack before I suggest you read the excerpt about it from the official site that I included with chapter 1.
My heart was fluttering with excitement as the login process began. I couldn't remember what it was like to walk among people without the constant threat of being hurt mentally or physically but I knew one thing for sure, I was looking forward to it! I reached the character name and type select screen. I decided to choose my character type first. The headset scanned my eyes to determine my age, and then it brought up all of the fourteen year old characters that were available. There were thousands to choose from; swordsman, assassins, sorcerers and the list went on and on. As I scrolled through all of the different types one character caught my eye, it was a sorcerer with blond hair and blue eyes, dressed in a green robe with a long staff which had a large blue orb at the end of it. I didn't know why it caught my eye until I realized, it reminded me of Kevin! Well, except the eyes of course, Kevin's eyes were a hypnotic green while this guy had sparkling blue ones. I read the description below the picture of the character as the picture of the sorcerer looked at me and smiled every now and again:
Sorcerer Type F. 14 years old, male, blond hair blue eyes Weapon: Caster Staff This character is not designed for melee fighting but instead uses magic to achieve his goals. The caster staff that this character wields can be used as a weapon but it is recommended that it is used only to channel and perform feats of magic because extensive use of the staff as a club will cause the orb to weaken and as a result, the magical power of the staff will decrease. This particular wizard specializes in ice magic which includes releasing blasts of ice from his staff, forming impenetrable walls of ice that cannot be broken, summoning an ice guardian to fight his battles, and once a high level is obtained, can even change the weather patterns around him to create a massive blizzard which can leave even the most formidable foes frozen and unable to move while the harsh gales of the blizzard attacks them, causing them to loose health. Current amount of people using this character: 76 Beginning Attributes: Health - 62, Mana - 92
Wow! This character sounds awesome, he's the one! There are apparently millions of people that play in The World so seventy-six other people that look exactly like me isn't too bad. As I selected him the picture of him winked at me and pointed at the enter name section Hmmm..., a character name, I really hadn't thought about what to call myself at all. I can't use my real name of course because those who know me already who play in The World would continue their never ending degradation of my soul and alert others to my orientation, causing them to participate in killing me from the inside as well. I needed another name; what's a good name for a sorcerer who uses ice attacks? How about Articus? Sounds corny but it's better than my real name. I pressed the ENTER key, made sure that my headset was on properly and braced myself for my first trip into the world.
The room went black around me and I screamed as I began to fall through the floor. Colors swirled around me as I fell, I suddenly lurched forward and then my surroundings suddenly came into focus. I was standing in some sort of a town square, as I looked around I noticed that I was holding the staff that I had seen in the character description in my left hand and was wearing green robes that covered my entire body. I ran my hand through my hair, it was different, I moved over towards a river that was in the town and looked at my reflection. I no longer had brown hair, it was now blond, and it looked good! As I scanned the town I noticed that the river went right down the middle dividing the town into two and a bridge connecting both sides was in the middle of the town which had people walking back and forth on it while other people were on boats that sailed up and down the river. Everybody as far as the eye could see was holding some sort of weapon, I saw people with daggers, katars, swords and staffs, all just walking around talking and interacting with each other like there was nothing unusual about everybody being armed.
I decided to start walking towards the bridge to get a better look at the entire town. As I walked I felt nervous, thanks to my Dad I hadn't had the chance to walk in crowds at all during the past year. I sighed to myself as I remembered again for the ten thousandth time what had happened a year ago and how it had changed my life for the worse. As I approached the bridge I heard a voice behind me that jumped me out of my thoughts,
"Well, well, what do we have here?"
I turned and looked at the source of the voice. It was a teenager, I guessed fifteen years old with short brown hair and blue eyes. He had a wide grin on his face and a massive sword on his back. He was surrounded by five other people, all boys. They all were swordsmen except of one who had a staff, which obviously made him a sorcerer, just like me. The boy who spoke was easily the biggest one in the group, the next tallest being about three inches shorter than him. Two of the swordsmen were using identical characters; they looked about my age, had short jet black hair, brown eyes, massive swords in their hands and also had wide grins on their faces. The other swordsman was the smallest in the group; he looked around twelve, had long blond hair which came down to his ears with hazel eyes and had a large scowl on his face as he held his sword, which was as tall as him, in his hand. The sorcerer had blue robes on and a hood over his head, a staff with a blue orb on the end just like mine, and he had green eyes which were staring intently in my direction. He was giving me a penetrating stare which made me feel uncomfortable, it felt like he was reading my mind.
"What the hell are you staring at buddy?" The biggest one asked as he began to walk towards my direction. Oh great, I haven't been in this place two minutes and I already have a gang of kids wanting to hurt me. Maybe this world was just like the real one after all. Maybe I was emitting some sort of gay signal that could be picked up by every homophobic kid around me. My heart began to speed up as I realized I didn't know any spells to defend myself, dammit! I knew I should have read the manual! I gripped my staff and swung it trying to scare them off, thinking at least I could club them with it if worst came to worst. The kid stopped as I swung my staff, he looked me right in the eye and then he and the rest of the group broke into fits of laughter!
"Sorry man", he said between gales of laughter, "that was so funny." I waited for an explanation while he and the rest of the group kept on laughing. Once he had finally stopped he stuck out his hand introducing himself.
"The names David, this is John, Isaac, Adam and Peter", pointing to the twin characters, the little kid and the sorcerer respectively. "I take it you haven't read the manual yet?"
"How do you know that?" I asked.
"Because, there is no fighting allowed in a town area, and in case you haven't noticed my friend, this is a town area", he said grinning. This kid seemed nice enough, but, call it paranoia, but I could detect a hint of evil behind that smile. I had encountered my fair share of bully's during the year and I could sense a smile that was hiding evil intentions a mile away.
"If you want a fight then we'll have to transport to another location outside a town, otherwise we'll get in trouble", he said with that suspicious grin still covering his face.
"By who?"
"The Scarlet Knights", he said in a tone like he though I was a complete idiot, maybe I was?
"Who are they?"
"Sigh, they are basically the police force that is hired by the CC Corporation, who is the company that designed and constructed the world by the way. They carry out orders for the CC Company and punish any users that break the rules; I suggest you read the manual when you get the chance so that you know them all."
"Ah, ok, thanks for the advice", I replied, geez, this kid really knows his stuff. I looked down at my feet, unsure of what to say to them all when I noticed four bottles attached to my belt, two red and two blue, I picked a red one out of my belt.
"What are these?" I asked.
"That my friend, is a health potion, it can be used to replenish your characters heath when it is at a dangerously low level. Your body will flash red when that happens. The blue potions are used to replenish your mana pool; you'll know when to use that when you can't cast any spells. If you run out of potions you can buy them in town form the shop or find them in chests outside town", he said, that menacing grin never leaving his face.
"Thanks David, so what do you guys do when you are in The World?" I asked.
"We normally just chill out, go kill some monsters or help Adam collect items, he's an item collector, which is someone who spends most of their time in The World collecting rare items that can be bought in shops or found in chests"
"Where are all of these chests and what do you mean by killing monsters?" I asked while mentally kicking myself for the tenth time for not reading the manual.
"Sigh, I tell you what, you can come out with us tomorrow outside town and fight monsters, it will be much better for you than me actually explaining everything to you. In case you haven't noticed, Peter here is a sorcerer as well; he can teach you how to cast spells. By the way, what is your name?"
"It's J..., Articus" I stuttered.
"Articus huh?" he said as his grin widened. "I see, obviously a fake name, do you know what I reckon about characters with fake names?"
"No", I replied nervously, my heart rate increasing again.
He leaned his head towards mine until our foreheads were nearly touching and said with a gleam in his eye "They either take the game too seriously, or they have something to hide."
This kid was seriously freaking me out, as much as he had helped me during the last five minutes I found myself starting to seriously dislike him. "Well, I plan to play The World pretty seriously you know?" I replied with a nervous tone.
"Indeed, well Articus, do you know anybody else in the world yet?"
"No", I replied.
"Well, you can hang out with us today then until you log out", he said with a superior smirk on his face for some reason.
"Ok, thanks David" This kid was so sure of himself it was downright intimidating.
So I spent the next hour and a half hanging out with my new 'friends'. It felt so strange, hanging out with other kids my age after spending a year in the dark, socially. They just messed around the town area; the rest of the gang didn't seem to even acknowledge that I was even there. David made an effort to talk to me and smile at me every now and again and Peter looked at me with those piercing eyes every now and again but that was it. As I sat back and watched them I couldn't help but check them out, they were all super cute. Hey, I'm gay so I'm allowed to notice these things! However every time I noticed this I firmly reminded myself what had happened with Kevin and restrained myself from admiring them for too long, no reason for me to mess up my existence in this world too. Who knows, in real life they could weigh three hundred pounds, the headset can detect your age when you select a character but it cannot detect your looks or body build. As I looked around I noticed that everybody around me had perfect facial features and their bodies were all built to perfection, I bet with myself that at least ninety percent people are completely different in real life, body- build wise anyways, looks can be deceiving, especially in this world.
"Hey", a voice said, startling me out of my thoughts. It was Peter who had now moved beside me. "You do know what type of sorcerer you are, don't you?" He asked.
"Yeah, Ice", I replied.
"Yeah, that's right, same here. You see, sorcerers with the same colored orbs on their staffs are the same type. Anybody you see with a blue orb uses ice spells", he said with a smile, finally becoming the second person in this group to at least smile in my direction. "Tomorrow I'll show you how to use your basic spells, I love ice spells, they are awesome, but you'll only have one at the moment though. But don't worry, I'll tell you how to get more spells as well."
"Uh, thanks", was all I could say.
"Meet me at the Portal, it's at the far end of town, you need to go there to transport you to other places in The World, try and be there at four o'clock. I gotta go now; I'll see ya then,"
"Ok, thanks Peter", I replied.
"No probs man, see ya later everybody."
He got up as the rest of the group said their goodbyes. You know, out of all the guys in their group, Peter seemed the friendliest, even if he was quieter than all of the others. He walked a few paces, then raised his staff in the air and said "Logout." A few seconds later he disappeared, I decided that I had better do the same before my Dad came home.
"Fucking fags", grumbled David out of nowhere.
"W...w...what?" I stuttered, paranoid that I had been found out. Was I that obvious?
"Look at them, bunch of fuckin homos", he said, pointing to a group of people walking this way.
As they walked closer I got a better look at them, the two people up the front were obviously a couple because they were holding hands even while copping disapproving looks from passers by. They both looked about fifteen, both had brown hair that came down to their ears and one had blue eyes while the other had hazel. One was wielding a pair of daggers that were attached to his belt and the other had two katars attached to both of his hands. Although they were having death stares shot at them from every direction I envied them, envied them that they could be so comfortable with their sexuality that they could express it like this in public. As the next two walked by I guessed that they were a couple too, but it looked like they didn't have the confidence of the first two. They both walked timidly next to each other, brushing their hands together when they thought no one was watching. They both looked around my age, they both had blond hair but one of them had a military like cut with green eyes while the other had long hair that came down to his ears and had sparkling blue eyes, the short haired boy was a swordsman while the long haired one was a sorcerer who wielded a staff with a silver orb on the end, I began to wonder what spells he used with a silver orbed staff when I noticed HIM. The final boy was the one that really caught my eye; he shuffled along behind the group staring at the ground never once daring to let his eyes look up. He looked around my age with brown hair that came down to his ears and covered his beautiful blue eyes while he looked down, and he was a sorcerer wielding staff with a blue orb just like mine meaning he was an ice sorcerer. God, I have no idea why but I couldn't take my eyes off him, it seemed like I had known him all of my life. But why? Why is he so attractive to me, he was just like everyone else in the world, perfect build and perfect facial features. Maybe it was the fact that he was so timid and shy like me, whatever it was it was urging me to walk over and introduce myself to him. I remember this feeling, it was the same feeling I felt the first time I saw Kevin, and it felt good, like I finally had something to look forward to.
"Fucking homos, fuck off you sick fucks", well, David certainly has a way with words! The rest of the group followed his lead, all yelling insults at them. All five of them looked over at us and glared at David, all except the boy on the end who just looked at us sadly for a moment and then moved his eyes back downward and kept shuffling forward. As they walked away I felt a deep urge in me to hop up and run over to the last boy and comfort him, tell him that it's alright to be gay, but I quickly suppressed the urge, not wanting to spoil my reputation in this world.
"Fuck, they always come walking through here, pisses me right off", David grumbled.
"You know them?" I asked, hoping to get some information on the last boy.
"Yeah, I used to hang around with the front two, until they started going all queer that is. Now when I see them outside of town I always challenge them to a fight."
"Why?" I asked.
He looked at me like I was growing a third head or something. "Because they're fags man, queer, gay however you want to label it. It's just the same if I met any fags out in the real world, I would challenge them to a fight and beat the fuck out of them for being so fucking queer. Anybody who sucks dick is on top of my people to fuck up list, and I make sure I really fuck them up good." He said, no longer hiding the evil inside of him with his grin. This still hadn't gotten me any further in information about that last kid so I decided to chance it,
"What was the name of that last kid?" I asked timidly.
"Michael, why?" David replied.
"It's just that he looked really sad, I was just wondering what was wrong."
"He's a homo, that's what's wrong, and who cares anyway?"
"Yeah, not me", I said while pushing out a fake laugh despite the enormous sinking feeling in my stomach. I really disliked David, but as long as I don't expose myself in this world, I'm sure that I'm pretty safe around him. I'll just have to ease up on the perving, that's all. God, that's gonna take some effort; it's like an involuntary reaction now!
"Well man, we're gonna cruise, make sure you meet Peter at the portal at four", David said with a yawn.
"Ok, see ya David," I replied.
"Call me Dave, see ya", the rest of the group followed him and he flashed me his grin for the last time before they all logged out at the same time.
I decided to stay on for a bit longer to gather my thoughts. Oh who am I kidding? I want to sit here and think about Michael, God, he is so cute it is amazing, I wish I had gone up and talked to him but it would have cost me so much, but would it have been worth it? Probably, I sighed to myself as I thought about him. Then that sinking feeling returned as I thought about all the insults Dave and the others had thrown at their group, the feeling increased as I realized that Michael probably thought that I was participating in the insults as well. I sighed again as I got up to log out, well, my first day in the world had it's good and bad occurrences, I just hope that in the future there will more good than bad. I lifted my staff up remembering how the others logged out and said "Logout", a few moments passed as my surroundings faded to black as I began to fly upwards, a few moments later and after experiencing the swirling colors again I found myself in my chair at my computer. I took my headset off and decided to get some dinner; I just hoped Dad wasn't home yet.
I looked at my alarm clock as I left my room, hmmm... it was five past six, and I'd better hurry if I want to get dinner without meeting Dad. I ran into the kitchen and began to make myself some sandwiches, I needed to defrost the bread, and I chucked it in the microwave to speed it up. I began to daydream while I waited. What else would I dream about? Sigh, Michael, my beautiful brown haired blue eyed angel. I giggled to myself when I realized that in the real world, this was a description of me except the angel part, I'm not that vain! I wonder what Michael looked like in the real world, even if he was the ugliest boy ever I wouldn't care, there was something other than looks that attracted me to him, but it would be awesome if he was really, really cute though, hehehe!.
"Sigh, Michael", I said out loud without knowing. I nearly died of shock when I felt a hand grasp me on the back of my neck.
"What?" A voice asked. Shit! It was my Dad, he must have snuck in, he always does that now so he thinks he can catch me if I have any boys over this practice of his is hopeless of course because of his rules which haven't allowed me to make any friends at all let alone boyfriends! I couldn't think of anything to say, my brain was frozen, it always happens when my Dad is around; the fear he creates stops my whole body from functioning properly.
"What did you just say?" He asked, his tone of voice rising.
"Ummm... Michelle", I decided to lie and see if he would buy it.
Bang! He didn't buy it I realized as I felt a fist connect with my back, causing my whole body to spasm with pain which made me drop to the ground.
"Get up, GET UP YOU LITTLE PANSY! I heard you say Michael, who is he?" He growled.
"A friend, just a friend", I cried as the pain from his punch slowly coursed through my body.
"A likely story", bang! "I bet", bang! "He's one", bang! "Of your little", bang! "Faggot friends." Four punches were delivered to my body during that sentence. He then delivered a punch to my stomach to finish off. "Now get the fuck back upstairs, you can come down and have dinner when you promise me you're not an unnatural abomination anymore!"
I continued my tears as I walked up the stairs, it was no use, even if I lied and said I wasn't gay he wouldn't buy it and I would just receive another beating. Oh well, I was thinking of turning in early anyway. I locked my door, no need to receive another beating; I decided to access The World again before I went to bed, maybe something in there could help improve my mood at the moment. I put on the headset and logged in.
Ah... I just realized another advantage of The World, my injuries from my Dads beating were gone, they only applied in the real world. I know this may sound pathetic of me but at the moment I prefer The World over the real world, I know it's not real but The World doesn't hate me or continually attack me with brutal physical and mental bombardments, it's a welcome change for me. I sighed to myself and looked up to admire the view of the town. Suddenly I saw a familiar brown haired, blue eyed sorcerer come into view, it was Michael! And he was running through the town. I contemplated running after him but what would I say? Hello Michael I'm the guy that sat next to Dave today when he was giving you shit? No, I'm gonna log out instead and go fighting monsters with Dave and the others tomorrow after school.
Five minutes later I was in my bed; as soon as I logged out I felt my injuries again. I groaned in pain as I got into bed and pulled the sheets over me. It was only about two minutes later that I found myself asleep, dreaming of a shy, cute, brown haired, blue eyed sorcerer...
-{BM}-
End of Chapter 2, Chapter 3 coming very soon! Thanks for all the great comments so far everyone!