.hack Solstice Series II Insignia

[Ubiquity]

Recently, CC Corp and some of it'smembers had worked to get a new server online that seemed to draw the Lrago to it. it was called Eta though it only seemed to have one location to go to at the time; Insane Forbidden Void. The area was recently off limits until the latest event along with the ongoing Lrago Invasion apparently so most people knew nothing about it at all. Invasion. This area was apparently one of the largest in "The World", though theoretically, the amount of space and number of places inside were nearly limitless. Even so there was not lawfulness for that many spaces to be watched over and with the Lrago now trying to take over, things were only going to get worse unless there was quite a bit of change.

Eta Insane Forbidden Void was made as an area of purposely fragmented space., with data anomalies inside at random intervals for the surrealism of a place that was an enigma. This area was huge,as it was actually a multi-stage area with increasing difficulty, but also decreasing from level, as there were supposedly 500, though as it had only been accessible for a week, nobody had even gotten nearly that far. it made sense since a lot of people ended up getting killed by a Lrago or a group of them and losing levels before they got any further.

On the first level which was just as large and wast as its other floors, which were made up in different kinds of data and elements from dungeon levels to forests, to barren wastelands. of course all of these were just loaded with monsters, a lot of them Lrago which of course got there because they really wanted to and NOT because CC Corp had anything to to with it.. As the new super quest, Eta was a server that only contained on the Insane Forbidden Void as the server itself had a root town with shops and the like, but then right off that was the twisted world that was vastly unexplored and full of raw data to be tampered with, though surely with awful repercussions.

-----
On the first level, there were clashes going on between players, monsters and a combination of players and monsters, as in "The World Solstice" monsters at times were extremely smart AI that fought along side players. A large monster shaped like that of a flying snail and lion with red furred shoulders crept up near a figure, and raised its claw to strike and take out the figure. There was a ripping noise and then a flash which was so bright that any players nearby would have turned away. A bit of smoke had collected from whatever had gone on in that short instant.

The creature stood tall......and fell into three pieces, disintegrating into data. "That was lame, "Boa floated off.........

[)-(The Anomaly)-(]

The creature stood tall......and fell into three pieces, disintegrating into data. "That was lame, "Boa floated off........

Vex smiled to himself and took his time. The monsters before him were wolk-like in appearance. Never having seen creature such as these before he assumed they much have been those Lrago that Boa had told him about. It wouldn't be difficult at all to dispatch them, and yet, that's why he hadn't shot them yet. Letting them get a little too close was the key to enjoying ones self in the World. Besides, he was all about close ranged combat. The wolf-like creatures were within a meter of him, surrounding him on almost every side. Five seconds... Vex though pulling out Judgment. The barrel glistened silver even through there was no light hitting it. It was designed to appear in mint condition no matter what the situation. With a flourish, he aimed and then, he let out exactly seven bullets to counter all of the rabid dogs. At first, it looked as if the bullets would be too small to do anything, but upon contact with the skin of the dog like creatures, they seemed to self destruct in a sense. The holes in the creatues looked more like they were made by high speed bowling balls shot out of cannons. Vex's enemies dropped to the ground and vanished in a flurry of numbers and coding.

A few groups of other players around him looked on in awe, especially the newbies. Vex didn't mind the attention. he was used to it after all.

"It's only just started Boa." Vex said, holstering Judgment once again. "Besides, you're aim in the early stages shouldn't be to take down the enemy, it should be to do it in style." He said. turning around, he shrugged his shoulders a bit, the black cloak fluttering a bit as he did so. "So Boa, was there any particular reason for calling me here, or was it a mere whim?" asked Vex, folding his arms and smiling at her, though it wasn't totally visible due to the scarf. Around him other players went about their business as usual. A boy near him using a greatsword was struggling with one of the wolf like creatures. Vex wondered if he should help.

[nate_shuuya29]

Nataku Oei walked down a road in the forest. He was walking through the Eta servber, one of the weirder areas of the Server. He was passing under a large tree when an animal screeched and jumped out. It was a large gorilla, about 7 feet tall. It's arms were long and the knuckles had large spikes coming out of them. The Apes eyes were glowing red and it was looking directly at Nataku.

Nataku sighed and drew his long sword at his hip. He held it in his right hand and looked directly at the Gorilla's eyes. The gorilla rushed at Nataku and Nataku flipped over the gorilla, which continued on and slammed into a large oak tree. The tree cracked and fell over under the Gorilla's weight. The Gorilla turned around slowly, and before he was all the way around Nataku jumped on his back and stabbed his sword into the spine of the Gorilla.

The gorilla roared and thrashed around and started trying to punch nataku with his fists. Nataku jumped off the Gorilla and stood across from him. The gorilla turned around, blood falling from his back. His eyes were blazing as he rushed at Nataku again. Nataku spun out of the way, slashing an arm off as he went. He spun around and drove the sword through the Gorilla's back. The gorilla disappeared as the sword went in, and experience points appeared above Nataku, "I'd have expected that Lrago to have been a bigger challenge."

Nataku continued through the forest until he came onto a group of people, two just standing there, and a third kid fighting off a Lrago with a great sword.

[Ubiquity]

Boa looked down at Vex and laughed, "Are you slow?? You didn't even kill any Lrago, those are just monsters that are new to this server." She pointed to the beast that the boy was battling. "HE is fighting a Lrago, you can tell because the wolf has the tell tale marks on its body and the other monsters around here do not." She stepped closer to Vex and eyed him. You always seem to think you are damn cool, but really you are such a little kid at heart, I can't stand it half the time." Before Boa said more, she went to take out the Lrago, but it was too late for the other player. He was killed as she moved closer.

Boa felt data swarming and looked up, only to see am blast of lightning slam into the Lrago from every side. "What??" Boa looked over to see a lion like creature on all fours apparently casting a spell on the Lrago. it wasn't down but had taken quite a bit of damage......

Absolution looked u and trotted forward on its legs and then up to the group. "Why didn't you help that guy?? Why??"

[)-(The Anomaly)-(]

"My, my," Vex said shrugging. "You guys are really getting a kick out of picking on me today aren't ya. Personally I would be thankful I only irritate you half of the time. That's like a record in my case." He said shrugging and adjusting his cloak a little bit. " Besides, I acknowledge the fact that i'm childish. Indeed, I relish the characteristic." It was true that Vex and Boa were friends, or at least something close to it, but it seemed that they were prone to argue. It was just one of those things, not much harm often came of it. Vex looked at the spot where the boy lay, his body gray and lifeless, seconds later evaporating into code. It wasn't that Vex didn't want to help the boy. He wasn't that heartless. Vex couldn't think of a batter reason that he wasn't totally focused. Sure if the boy had held out a few more seconds, Vex would have had snapped his mind into gear and charged in, but it seemed that things weren't destined to play out that way.

"Well, I'm sorry. I guess, I spaced." Vex said mildly uncharacteristically to the newcomer, feeling genuinely sorry. Still, he wasn't going to gripe about it. "I'm new to this Lrago thing Boa, and don't give me that 'are you slow' rubbish." He said, looking back at Boa; his eyes serious even though he was smiling. "I am totally prepared..."

Meanwhile, the actual wolf-like Lrago stood up, though it was covered in burns and injuries. Vex didn't spend extra time deliberating this time. He took out justice and send three bullet it's way. The creature jumped to the side and dodged them. Then it began to rush towards him. It was indeed quite fast. Not as fast as Vex himself of course. Once the dog was near him, Vex jumped. Soaring over the dog, he spun in the air. He let out only one bullet this time, and it did it's customary explosion on impact.

"Ha bullseye," Vex said looking smugly at Boa over his shoulder. "See, not a thing to worry about." There was a small cloud of smoke obscuring the obviously dead body of the lrago. He turned back to Boa, and then suddenly, something large and heavy swooped in on him from the side. It was growling. "Damnit. Me and my ego!" He said under his breath as he felt the Lrago's warm and smelly breathing upon his neck and saw the large fangs that rested in it's mouth. The Lrago reared it's head and was about to chomp his face off when: BANG BANG BANG!! Three holes opened up in the creature's back. The wolf let out a cry of pain and fell off of him, turning gray and beginning to turning into the little fragments of data. Vex stood up and dusted himself off Holstering Judgment. Turning to Boa he said, "Don't say a word."

[nate_shuuya29]

Nataku walked out of the forest to the small group of people, and a...... whatever that talking thing was. He smiled and waved his hand when the injured Lrago attacked and the guy put it down. He walked up to them and thought, 'they must be hacked PC's too. Interesting. Nataku stepped up from the west and said, "Interesting group we have here, Boa. Guess somethings going down. And guess CCCorp. has come up with some weird new monsters to fight, including these Lragos, and whose you're large friend there?" He points at the weird PC. He must have been a PC cause he certainly acted like a person instead of a program. Nataku had a thought and found he was just PKing wasn't a big hit in this game, otherwise That guy looked like he might be one of the best. Though of course Boa would also be up there.

Nataku smiled and crossed his arms as he waited for a response. He noticed the surrounding area wasz kind of desertish and dry, nothing like where he had just come from. The boy who had just died at the hands of a Lrago was large, of course he was to wield a great sword. His army seemed to stick out, cause it was bright, where his skin was dark. It was sad, he'd now be dropped a few levels, or so CCCorp. said would happen. He wondered what really happened to them.

[Ubiquity]

Absolution turned around at the comment, and just gave the player a dirty look, as dirty a look as his face could manage. It looked more like a snarl than anything else an animal might do.

"I am nobody's friend, so I dunno what the hell you are talking about, but whatever." He looked passive, but was staring at the players body that for some reason still hadn't been taken away by a data stream. Boa walked over and looked down, but didn't say anything to Vex, or any of the others, she just looked closely at Absolution and was amused that he had a player that actually had a powerful appearance rather than a makeshift human one.

Boa pointed at Vex, a way she usually got his attention, but then changed her mind and looked at Nataku. Before she asked her question however, Absolution did it for her. "Why are you backtracking?? This is the first level and you just came from the forest area that leads to the second floor of this place." His words rang with truth, but other than the obvious he didn't say any more than that.

"Hmm, Absolution is it?? Thanks for clearing that up for us, but nobody asked you anything."

He roared at her, actually causing Boa to step back in defense, "Shut the hell up bitch, who asked for a response from you!?!?!" He roared again, and then as if nothing happened, trotted off into the distance, making his way towards the forest part of the level.

"Well I umm, " Boa smiled, "That was harsh, so what are you guys all going to do?? I think I am going to go a bit further I won't say here all day."

[)-(The Anomaly)-(]

Vex actually ignored the dirty look that Absolution gave him, or rather he pretended to. Instead, he whistled a happy little song, mostly to tick off the mutt. Dusting himself off he looked about for more prey, though not going too far away so that he could still hear the conversation between Boa and the dog. Vex couldn't quite put his head around the dog's attitude. Sure, Vex was a douche bag himself, but he had civility...most of the time. Okay so he had his own moments of rudeness. Maybe Absolution had a reason for his hostility. Or perhaps, the World was much more than a game to him. Some people did take the place much more seriously than others.

As he thought about this, something rustled under a mound of powdery dirt and sand. Vex didn't seem to notice. He was too preoccupied listening to Boa and Ab talk. Ab was being rude, as was expected. Vex crept up behind Boa and cleared his throat to speak. "You should be much more gentlemanly in the presence of a lady friend." he shouted after Absolution as the wolfish creature walked ahead, though it wasn't said half as seriously as it could have been. Stepping to the side so that he was standing about a foot to Boa's right, he looked to Boa.

"Well B you called me, so apparently I'm following you." He said smiling. Again, something rustled underneath that same patch of dirt, and then, a similar rumbling occurred under another pile of sand that rested in the midst of several lower level players. In fact, players seemed to be stepping over the lightly shaking ground and not noticing it. Vex only saw some of the shaking from the corner of his eyes. Deciding that it would be a good idea to keep an eye on this phenomena, he took out Justice and held it in a casual manner. The way he held it however, allowed him to see the reflection of the shaking earth pile in the gun's barrel. "Besides, I'm eager to explore the rest of this place." He said as if nothing was troubling him.

[nate_shuuya29]

Nataku smiled and laughed as Absolution ran away, "Wow, Boa, like always you can scare a mman away, even if he's only part man." He gave a dazzling smile when he finished. He then opened his arms stretching, "Well, i'm here cause i thought somethin was goin down, plus i was bored. You always have interesting things happenin Boa, so i'll follow ya to." Nataku saw Vex draw his guns and heard the rustling in the dirt, and put out his right hand, ready to call up his guns at anytime.

"So, where we goin anywyas? I mean CCCorp. added some interesting beasts in the forest, but they are not that strong." Nataku walked over to the two and looked into the forest where Absolution had just run off to. He put his left hand in his pocket and started walking forward, he didn't care where they went, he just wanted to get going.

[Flower]

Another restless night had passed, and yet Anenome sat in her chair, awaiting the seven-thrity alarm to ring so she could start her day. True, she could have spend the past six hours playing The World rather than wait for a stupid alarm to ring, however her mother had caught her the other night, and this time she feigned sleep when her mother checked up on her.

She could no longer sleep like the average human could; all she needed was three to five hours tops (even that was generous). She was much more athletic, though her appetite lessened, and her vision was a perfect twenty-twenty, rendering her long forgotten glasses useless as they lay on the nightstand, now only a decoration.

The girl rolled a bit of her dark, black hair around her finger, much like a familiar character once did in a game. As her thoughts rolled onto her friend, she frowned a bit to herself. She admitted she hadn't been playing recently, but that was because Largo activity had lessened and final exams had now arrived.

Clicking her tongue as the clock reached seven twenty nine, she rolled her eyes and shut the alarm off, jumping out of her chair. Changing out of her pajamas into a clean, baby blue tank top with some mavy blue sweatpants, she jogged down the stairs as her mother had started making coffee.

"My, you're up early." she told her daughter, though she seemed pleased.

Throwing on a smile, Anenome sat in her chair across from where her mother stood. "I made sure I was well rested." she replied.

"Your finals start next week." her mother reminded her as she sat. "You already know what your father and I expect."

Due to her little 'transformation', her memory had been blurred out a bit, surprisingly. However, for the past few nights she had been studying, so all the information stayed fresh, at least. ''Of course." she nodded, standing up. "I think I'll go study a little more; I want to stay in tip-top shape."

Smiling proudly at her daughter, her mother nodded, and Anenome darted up the stairs at once. Quickly hopping onto her computer and putting on her HMD, she took a deep breath as she logged into her character.

----

Ananome opened her eyes, blinking a few times to get a good view. She was in the same root town that she had met Boa long ago (or at least, what seemed like long ago). She smiled, and took a seat on the fountain. Not much to do--at least, until word spreads of a Largo attack.

[Deathsight44]

"He walked amongst the many citizens of the root town, feeling out of place. A red ant amongst black ants. A dog in a room of cats. A white guy in the ghetto. He was ok with this though, knowing that unlike the many people around him, he himself was the greatest of them all..." Creed spoke, speaking slightly to himself, though it sounded more as if he were narrating his own life.

Though indeed what he had been saying seemed arrogant, in some aspects, it helled truth to itself. Though some gave him strange looks (to his own thought, them being looks of observing his so thought "greatness"), others gave him glares, dirty looks of despise. He had become a slightly well known hacker in The World, most from The WOrld v1 recognizing this because of his famed spear, The Spear of Wotan, which was once the symbol of the famed Cobalt Knights, giving one the power of an administrator, even though his seemed different from the original copy, holding a red orb near the blade at the end of it.

He had no interest in others oppinions though, as for now, he had only one goal. Before he had logged on, he had discovered quite a few on the BBS about the lrago event that was currently occuring, as well as hearing much news of a great amount of players that were being killed and losing levels. He obviously knew that there was something up with them. For most monsters, if he actually wanted to win, then he could one hit kill them, using the spears power to delete them from the game itself. The Lrago were different though. They seemed to be outside of the games reach, and it was in that, where The World had finally found a way to impress him...

This did not matter much to Creed though. "At that moment, he stopped, spotting a beauty sitting by the fountain. His heart jumped, as usual went his eyes layed upon women of her type, as he began to approach her" he narrated, following as he had said, as he began to walk towards the girl. "Excuse me ma'am, but might you be waiting for a friend?" he asked her, hoping to see if he might be able to make a move.

[Neku99]

Gabriel was almost finished doing cleaning up on his computer. He couldn't wait till he could log in and play the world. Five minutes later he finished all the cleaning up and decided to log in. But before he could open 'The World' a the computer prompted him about a new e-mail so he quickly opened it wondering what it might contain.

From: Anonymous

Yoh 'The World' people heard of the Lrago's yet? Supposedly they are very powerful monsters and when you get killed bye one your level will go down a hefty amount. Creepy huh? So if yah ever find one run! Unless you wanna get killed!?


"Who the heck is this!?" Gabriel started. "How'd he get my e-mail? sheesh"

By the looks of the e-mail...It's not just me who got this eh hhmmm. Gabriel then deleted it and thought i was just spam but still bearing in mind the Lrago. He has been hearing stories about these creatures and like the e-mail said if you get killed your level will go down. Still Gabriel was just glad he hadn't encounter one so far. Gabriel clicked the button and there he went to the Delta Server.
______________________________

Username: Renji
Password: *****

..........loading..........

______________________________

Renji materialized at the foot of the chaos gate, revealing his elegant black attire and slender body. Around him were players talking and having conversations but he didn't mind them, his mind was set to just slaking by and if ever find some new friend who would want some adventuring. Renji wasn't the solo player type. He thought that playing solo just ruins the 'Multiplayer' in 'MMORPG' so yeah.

"Ack! I'm out of GP! I really need to hunt some more...but I need to find some new companions," Renji murmured as walked to the crowds of people. Finding a nice spot to get some recruiting per say. Well he ended up waiting beside a guild shop stand. "And now just the waiting." He sat down and laid his back behind a wall and like he said, just the waiting.

[Ubiquity]

Boa didn't know what the hell was going on, but she could see that there ws something wrong with the data on the first level they were on. The ground was vibrating ever so slightly, just enough that nobody would really see it unless they were viewing the data that built the place. "Whoa that means." Boa figured it was a bad idea to really mention it, but it seemed that Vex could sense the shaking.

"Pay attention Vex, we don't need to deal with a lot of problems from you or anybody else." Boa was always like this to the guy, it was just her way of being a bitchy friend to him. The vibrations increased, but then they started to die down again, so Boa stopped thinking on the subject, making her way to the edge of the clearing where the forest stretch ahead and sooner than later level two's entrance would show itself.

Inside the forest, Absolution trotted along and moved through the thick brush that was in his way at times, but he saw some new annoying features that were apparently part of the event. "Stupid hp trees." They weren't monsters, but there were thick trees and patches of vines that needed to be attacked and destroyed to pass them, ans some of these clearly had high HP values. "How annoying." He burned through a tree with a fire spell that was fairly weak, but the tree was wood, so it did extra damage as he moved on.

The grounded rumbled violently, "Huh??" His eyes darted around only to see other players that were moving through the forest to continue on the supposed five hundred floor dungeon. "Well never mind then.' The lion moved past a couple of players whom were obviously engaged in a PK battle battle or something close to it as the players were NOT monsters.

That was when the giant Lrago Monkey dropped from the tree above Absolution. "shit..."

[nate_shuuya29]

The rumbling of the earth had gotten Nataku's attention, because the bass seemed to vibrate his game visor and controller. It startled him at first, as the shaking began to lessen he could see The World was normal, or comparitvely normal in this area. Nataku followed next to Vex, "So, I'm Nataku, how did you meet Boa?" Nataku's voice rang out like soft windchimes, kind of girly for a guy, but it suited Nataku.

He followed beside Vex as they approached the entrance to the second level, and even stronger monsters, when another bigger, and stronger, earthquake shook The World, the whole entire area of data around them seemed to blur out and then come back into focus. Nataku stood still, not moving, otherwise he might fall over into the dirt.

[Ubiquity]

"I don't think so." Absolution drew his weapons and quickly drove them forward to stop an assault from the Lrago Gorilla that was attacking him. Both of the event blades blurred as did Absolution's body while a flurry of slashes seemed to be used. The Lrago staggered back, its body not even looking as if it was fazed, but then its' life dropped as if a large chunk had been taken at once. 'That's right, I am too fast for you." Each of the slashes unleashed by both keyblades had caused damage after they had hit, causing a separation of data in the sequencing.

The Lrago still rampaged, punching Absolution in the top of his head, causing him to do a rather epic face plant into the ground.

"Ow, that hurt. MeAni Zot." His chakram spun around a few times, also hitting the Lrago and knocking it away to a spot on the ground that lit up with a roaring noise. A claw shaped slab of bones ripped through teh ground and slashed at the Lrago Gorilla, causing it to rear back and then bound toward Absolution, but instead of attack, it ran past him, killing another player as it charged whom was too stupid to heal herself while traveling.

"Hm, it is going out of the forest it seems."