//------------------------------// // Ch. 1: "Lambda: Bottomless Soul Kaleidoscope" // Story: .hack//Secrets of Equestria // by Hallowedsoul //------------------------------// Chapter One “Lambda: Bottomless Soul Kaleidoscope” Rosemary, MuSeiryu and Haruka all stood at the entrance of the dungeon. The monsters here were tough, easily five levels above Rosemary’s, but she wasn’t worried about being defeated since MuSeiryu was keeping them all alive with his healing magic. Name: Rose Levins Avatar Name: Rosemary Class: Twin Blade Level: 20 Avatar Height: 5’0’’ Avatar Eye Color: Crimson Avatar Hair Color: Raven-Black “Well…” She said, glancing at the elite players standing next to her “We found the dungeon. What now?” The Wavemaster smiled and pushed his avatar’s glasses further up his nose. It was completely unnecessary, but he felt it made him look really cool when he did it at the right moment. “Now it’s time to show your stuff, Rosie.” He replied and brought up his interface. Name: Jack Harvey Avatar Name: MuSeiryu Class: Wavemaster Level: 60 Avatar Height: 6’3’’ Avatar Eye Color: Emerald Avatar Hair Color: Red Rose heard the tone signifying that MuSeiryu wanted to give her some items and she accepted the potions he offered her. Once it was done, her companions turned expectant gazes to her, waiting for her to make the transition into the dungeon, but Rose took a moment to reflect. She’d joined the Fireflies because she was new to the whole MMO-thing but didn’t want to try and get into the bigger Guilds, mostly because of those she’d read about those Guilds and what they required of their members just turned her away. She'd found the Fireflies when a member invited her to join them at their Guild Hall, which was really just an empty building in Mac Anu that they used as a gathering place to just hang out and chat. What really made her want to join the Guild was that when she’d entered, every Guild Member present walked up to her and greeted her warmly, with a few even giving their Member Addresses. Later she found that the Guild had its very own forum board and at the very top of it was a topic that said “Introducing Rosemary: Let’s Welcome Her to the Guild!” it was locked about a week after she joined, but nearly every one of the fifty or so members had greeted her. She’d never felt so welcome in real life, where most everyone kind of ignored her, especially in school. However her biggest surprise came when a virtual legend, the Heir of Jordan aka MuSeiryu, sent her his Member Address with a message saying she was welcome to invite him to a party whenever she wanted now that she was a part of the Guild. Needless to say, she ended up geeking to her parents for half an hour because she’d read all about the Wavemaster who’d single-handedly conquered the Tower of Jordan event, which was a one-hundred floor dungeon crawl with an ungodly powerful boss monster at the very bottom. In short, she was a huge fan. She just wished she could go back in time and change her class to Wavemaster to be more like him. “Hellooo, World to Rosemary!” Her other companion, a Heavy Blade named Haruka, sang while waving a hand in front of Rose’s face “If ya needed to go AFK for a bit, ya should’ve just said something, Rosie!” Name: Sarah Irving Avatar Name: Haruka Class: Heavy Blade Level: 42 Avatar Height: 5’10’’ Avatar Eye Color: Golden, Cat’s Eye Orbs Avatar Hair Color: Pink Extra: Cat Ear and Cat Tail accessories installed “Oh, yeah.” Rose replied, thanking God that the blush on her face couldn’t be seen in-game “I’m ready, let’s go.” They raised their weapons high and cried their Guild's slogan "Fireflies light up the Night!" before heading inside to tackle the dungeon. It was a challenging crawl for Rose, since it was higher in level than her, but the companions she’d brought with her made sure nothing got out of hand, with MuSeiryu using healing and status effect spells and Haruka keeping the tougher monsters in check. “Staccato!” Rose cried out and tore into the boss monster with a flurry of strikes, watching in triumph as its HP finally hit zero and it fell over dead, disintegrating into the game world. “Great job, Rosemary!” MuSeiryu exclaimed, giving her a thumbs up “The Gott Statue’s up ahead; let’s grab it and gate out.” “Yeah, time to check out the phat lewts, Rosie!” Haruka chirped and the three of them headed into the next room. There it was, the whole reason they were there. That one chest sitting in front of the statue, full to bursting with who knew what kind of rare goodies. Rose approached it tentatively before glancing at her companions, who urged her to open it. Upon opening it, she was disheartened to find that the rare item contained inside was a Blademaster weapon. “Well…” She said, examining the stats of the sword “Might make for a good trade, at least.” “Eh, the experience was nice, wasn’t it?” Haruka said and then gave Rose an excited look “Didja get a level at least?” “No, but I’m close.” Rose replied with a smile “About one hundred points or so.” “In that case, I’ve got another set of keywords lined up. Wanna try them out?” MuSeiryu asked and the other two considered it for a moment before nodding. Rose used a Sprite Ocarina and teleported them all out of the dungeon. However, upon appearing outside, they all noticed something different about the world they were in. “Hey, uh… didn’tcha say the keyword was for a sunny map, Mu?” Haruka asked as they all stared up at the roiling pitch-black clouds above them. “Yes it was.” He replied and Rose nodded. “It even said sunny when I put the keywords in.” She said, a hint of fear in her voice “M-maybe they’re just doing some kind of event o-or they’re trying out active weather patterns.” “The game doesn’t work like that, Rose.” MuSeiryu replied, still staring at the clouds “Certain aspects of the map are affected by what the weather is when it’s created, like Monster Elements or the items given to you at Springs of Myst.” As they spoke, the clouds suddenly began to rotate and the wind picked up steadily, threatening to knock them over. Or it would, if their avatars could register it; the only way Rose even knew the wind was getting stronger was because MuSeiryu’s robe flapped crazily in the gale. “H-hey, guys?” Haruka gulped nervously “Part of me thinks we should probably bounce from this map.” “I agree.” MuSeiryu said and turned to the Twin Blade “Rosemary, gate us out of here, now!” “O-okay, I’m on it!” She replied and brought up her interface. She hit the ‘Return to Root Town’ option, but was immediately met with an error message “It’s not working, something’s stopping us from leaving!” MuSeiryu and Haruka stared at her in stunned silence before the Wavemaster attempted to take as much charge as he could. “Haruka, Rosemary, remove your headsets and pull the plugs on your machine!” He snapped and Haruka gave him a pouty expression. “But I’ve got two hours of unsaved data I’m sitting on, Mu!” She whined but the Wavemaster merely glared at her and she sighed “Alright, but what about you?” “I’ll cut power as soon as I know you two are gone, now go!” He bellowed, but then Rosemary spoke up and what she said made them look at her in horror. “Um, guys? I can’t feel my controller anymore… or my headset, and this wind is starting to seem very real to me!” The other two Fireflies glanced at each other and paused a moment before terrified expressions came over their faces. “Mu, I can’t feel my stuff either!” Haruka cried out, her cat ears laying flat against her head and her tail whipping furiously in the wind. “Neither can I!” The Wavemaster responded. And then the earth beneath them began to crack and tear, chunks flying up into the vortex above them, which was spinning so furiously that it hurt Rose’s eyes to watch it. But then the ground beneath her shook violently and she fell forward, only to be immediately picked up by the wind. “AHH, help me!” She cried out and MuSeiryu’s hand shot out and grabbed her immediately, but then he was picked up with her. However their flight was interrupted by Haruka grabbing MuSeiryu and slamming her sword into the ground, anchoring them. “Hang on, guys, I gotcha!” She called out over the roaring winds. MuSeiryu attempted to pull Rosemary closer, but the winds were pulling at her with too much force. “Dammit!” He cursed and turned his attention to the Heavy Blade “Haru, try to pull us in, I’m not strong enough!” “I’m on it, just don’t let go!” She called back and began to tug on her companions. They made it about a couple of inches closer when they heard a sound that made them freeze in terror. There were a couple of tiny cracking noises, followed by the sound of shattering earth as Haruka’s sword was yanked forcefully from its post and the three of them screamed as they flew up into the vortex and disappeared. Almost immediately the vortex dissipated and the map was returned to its sunny, pristine condition, as though it had never happened in the first place. Even the earth showed no signs of having been damaged. Save for a small tear in the ground.