.Dot Hack (World Channel)

The World (Amalgam)

Chapter One; The birth of two lions paw

New Game? (Yes)
Creating Profile...
Create Character... (Blademaster)
Name...(Sights)
Logging in...
Welcome to the World!

"Whoa...are you seeing this?" I ask, fitting the glasses upon my face, my eyes deceived by the world and sounds around me. Stone road under my virtual feet, the chirping of virtual birds, the quiet but steady stream of water running under the mound like bridge, and a spinning blue gate behind me...this is (Welcome to Root Town, Mac Anu) Mac Anu apparently, the aqua capital according to the title popping up before my eyes.

"Im not there yet, still finishing up my character. >< hold your horses" I hear, a voice from behind me, laying against a couch, pillow set behind a woman's back, with a pair of identical orange tinted glasses over her eyes.

Create Character...(Longarm)
Name...(Naomi_Drake)
Logging in...
Welcome to the World!

"Jesus its bright, the sun actually feels likes it glaring" She said, her character raising her hand to cover her eyes from the virtual sun. Taking a few steps forward, she turns, her long brown hair partly covering a pair of bright green eyes, as she looks upon me, a smile on her face as she reads the name above my character. "Sights? a bit different than usual" She said, taking a moment to look at my character, light gray armor with white lining over plain chain mail, a white symbol resembling an "h" on my left shoulder. Chin length hair, dark brown, swept back and parted near the front somewhat to partially cover one of my bright blue eyes. Suddenly she jerks her head down, gazing at her mostly green apparel, light cape like cloak covered by upper torso armor, a darker forest green color.

I smile, my eyes preoccupied as I fiddle around with the menu options, the settings passing my by eyes as I select game settings.

Audio Options...(Yes)
Character Voices On?...(Yes)

"What do you think?" She says, as she suddenly twirls, my eyes focusing on her as the menu fades away. I smile, partly because of the child like giddiness she exhibited, the other because of the sudden change in pitch, her character suddenly coming to life, with a voice all her own.

"I think its great Naomi" I say, as I caught her name in bright white letters above her, a bit hard to read with the constant twirling. I happened to catch a bright orange tattoo on her right cheek, almost like an upside down y with a dot underneath, god only knows whether it had any real significance, but it looked nice.

A few moments after helping her set up the character voices, her eyes widened at the sounds coming out of my virtual mouth. A bright and wide smile followed afterwards as she threw her arms up in the air, a flash of gold light suddenly bursting bright from her finger tips as a long pole like spear appeared in her hands. Surprised by the sudden change in weight above her, Naomi looked up and gave out a small gasp. "Longarm seems to be making a lot more sense now..." Bringing down the weapon, she inspected it closely, before jerking her hands down, the spear disappearing in a similar light show of gold. "^^ this is fun!" She said, myself focused on an attempt to bring out my own weapon, looking behind me to make sure I wouldn't accidentally injure anyone as I made a swift motion with my right arm, extending it horizontally as a thin long sword appeared in my hand, bright and gleaming silver. "Sweet" I said as I turned it about its hilt and dropped my arm, allowing the blade to disappear back to the storage place of my virtual backpack.

A short walk about the aqua capital and a peek at the merchandise in the stores on each corner, and we were ready to make our way to a field and get our hands dirty. "So how do we do that again?" I asked, Naomi's hands behind her head as we walked back to the spot we had emerged, figuring it was the best place to start off. As we stood there, looking over the menu, a giant of a man, dressed in rust brown armor ran towards teh gate behind us, uttering a string of words which together seemed like they made no coherent sense. Just like that, the man was gone, disappearing in a wave of light and sound. "I guess its a teleportation gate of some sort, like a central hub or something" I said, the two of us walking towards it, suddenly a menu popping before our eyes with 3 wheels of words side by side. "I guess these are the words we choose from." Naomi said, as I stepped back and made sure to set us up as a team, sending Naomi an invite. "Nearly forgot to do that...I knew reading the booklet was good for something" I said with a laugh as I proceeded back to the gate.

Invite pending...(Check)
Accept invite to "Sights" party? (Yes)
Sights' Member Address added to Flash Mail list...

"Ok...so which words should we pick?" I asked, flicking passed the first wheel of words, around twenty in total it would seem, I supposed we would gain more as we went along.

Chaos Gate...
Please select area field destination...

"How about this?" Naomi asked, as her word choices appeared in front of me, a smile following after as I nodded, and with a press of a button, our characters recited the words in unison.

"Bursting Momentary Melody!"

With that a ping sounded off from the gate as our virtual bodies where transported in a flash of blue, white and golden light to the field of our own choice.

(Real World Events follow below)

Welcome to OOC news, I am Jonathan Smith...
And I am Jane Pearson...

On the news tonight we have updated news coverage of another coma victim, making this the seventh of a string of induced comas within the passed three weeks.

Each of the coma victims were last scene or were found playing the newest version of the popular worldwide game phenomenon known simply as "The World" by CC Corporation. This seventh case adds only to the controversy of whether the use of the new model of virtual glasses for added world immersion, or the overall development of the game has any role to play in this newest case and likewise the other 6th who, apart from one victim have no prior history of mental illness or coma sessions and are spread amongst three continents.
This is a dire situation for CC Corp, who in early 2012-2013 versions of the game where similarly accused of a wave of coma induced attacks which wreaked havoc across multiple countries. In the end, a large worldwide phenomenon of catastrophic electronic/magnetic failures were to blame following a couple of unusually powerful solar flares during the coma attacks and in the days and weeks prior.

The head president of CC Corp has issued out this response following the string of questioning and pressure from both the media and concerned citizens following this understandably alarming pattern.

"We are currently issuing a personal investigation to root out any possible effects that our product may be having mentally or in anyway physically with our players. We will be working closely with the doctors and specialists to determine the causes of the coma and the stable conditions of the victims so as to best identify the underlining cause and rule out any involvement of our own, all in the interest in finding a solution for these unfortunate people and their families."

In other news...(Voice trails on)

(Back in the game)

The flash of light faded from our eyes as a gentle breeze swept across a field of green and purple grass, the landscape of the field similarly colored and accentuated by rising stone formations, appearing somewhat like obelisks, each covered with unknown patterns in colors such as orange, pink and green.

A fine layer of dew covered the fields of grass, flattened underneath our feet as we headed around, looking for nothing in particular. "Well this looks pretty neat I would say" I said, turning around as I walked backwards, facing Naomi on her left as she seemed preoccupied with a small light blue circle on the upper right of her view, a map or compass of sorts.
"It seems there is a large structure over this way, it could be the entrance to a dungeon." She said as we picked up our pace and began to jog towards the destination on our virtual mini map. Suddenly a large buzz rang out from our left, causing us to stop and jerk our heads left, our eyes gazing upon a large insect bird hybrid, its name displayed with a bright red colored font, "Weeping Wasp Condor"

Moving our hands in a swift fashion, our weapons suddenly appeared in our hands, gripped tightly as the flash of gold light faded, we were ready for combat, almost instinctively as our eyes focused on the threatening beast ahead.

The beast swooped down, its five glowing red eyes focused on us, its gleaming sharp stinger poised to strike. Holding my blade with both hands, hilt gripped tight, I ran towards the buzzing terror ahead, hoping to land a strike on its large stinger, effectively reducing at least one major threat, of course the beast still had a short but razor sharp beak. Land a strike I did, and the resounding clang caused my eyes to widen and my sword to vibrate fiercely and fall to the ground with a thud. "Metal like stinger, >< of course" My astonishment was short lived however, as the beast jutted right and I found myself pushing against this hulk of a bug brained bird...bug. Pushed flat unto the ground, my hands gripped upon the sharp stinger, I focused on moving the stinger away from my chest and face, with no luck as the monster's weight, even if partially suspended was far more than I could barely move. "Naomi, I could use some help!" I yelled out, Naomi already ahead of me as she flicked past the screens on her ability list, attempting to find at least one move that could help out in this unfortunate predicament.

"Abilities...spells...what is this about? Vak d...shoots a fire...Good enough. Vak Dom!" She yelled as a swirl of fire burst from her open palm, forming a tight ball as it flew out towards the beast, severely burning the left side of its face and causing it to rise up and move several yards back in pain.

Rolling away towards my right, I picked up my blade and looked at the gruesome burn upon the now three eyed beast, glancing quickly at Naomi who shrugged with just as much surprise as I had. "Right...Abilities...spells...sweet!" I said as I pointed toward the beast, my arm outstretched, blade gleaming in the bright virtual light. "Rai Don!" I cried out as a sudden bolt of lightning struck down, piercing down the right side of the bleeding buzzard, ripping a hole through its strong flapping wings, causing it to lower in altitude and burn slightly.
Looking under its name, we could see a bar, a life bar it seems drop down to a bright red, causing us both to smile as we launched forward and catching the beast off guard, drove our weapons through and across its body, my blade through its side, her spear straight through its half burned tried face. A final piercing cry and the beast faded away, with a box appearing on the grass below, next to some singed portions, a cause of our spells.

Leaning down, Naomi placed her hand upon the box and swung it open, revealing a scroll and some pieces of gold coins. "First win of the day" She said happily, turning towards me as she chucked the scroll towards me, sealed with a sign that seemed to indicate it was a possible earth spell. Deciding it would be best saved or another occasion, I gripped the scroll, causing it to vanish in a glow of gold, just as the money disappeared into Naomi's pack. "Lets move forward" She said, as we both kept our weapons close, wary of the next gruesome guest to make our acquaintance.

Rushing past the fields of green and purple, we find the large structure, apparently just over a rising hill north of our location, and we pick up the pace, climbing up the mound and gazing at the large building, a rather large burrow heading down at an angle. The burrow was adorned with what looked like the relic of a large beast, much larger than we had faced, its skeletal remains housing the entrance, with its large white skull serving as the doorway. Walking down the purple streaked mound, my eyes scanned the large empty eyes as we both took our first cautious steps passed the remaining monster's teeth, and down into the dungeon below.