Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2003 23:15:03 +1000
From: BM
Subject: .Hack//Escape Chapter 2

.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!