Gaia Verse

I pulled my crimson scarf tighter over my face as the regulars started trickling in. I wondered at them. Since the Fiasco many of those stuck here had spent their days ‘drinking’ themselves into oblivion. Earning enough gold for later that night to try and ‘escape’, the drinks weren’t really alcohol, but more of a sublet way of telling people how strong you are which may be why people ended up in fights every night.

Others decided to go on missions and earn a living, or just pass the time by. We had long since given up hope that we would really escape from here. The few who had had died in the process. Everything we were was all in these virtual bodies; the physical had long since rotted away. They had only breathed, and with nothing moving our bodies had died piece by piece. When we found that out we gave up and started to ‘live’ in this world the creators made for us. I couldn’t help but think back to that kid in .Hack//--we were all like him.

Except this was Gaia, and there were more dangers now. Whoever had transported us or whatever had made the Animated real, and able to reproduce. It took a while for others to come back to Gaia after It. ‘It’ went by various names: the Event, Fiasco, so on and so forth. It started as an event to celebrate Gaia’s long existence, but it turned into a nightmare. The admin had assigned this event to a new admin member. With the return of magic for a small window of two years he was able to trap all we were and turn us into our avatars.

There were a few that died, unable to wrap their minds around what had happened. One of my friends among them. Whoever did this knew what he was doing big-picture wise but not in any other way. When we get struck by the Animated we bleed and could die, we aged but three times as slow as all others outside our world.

Billy came in howling about one thing or another, I felt like I was finally home. I had based myself here for a time, trying to do honest work like picking up trash and collecting bugs and working for the various shops when they needed help, but I grew restless—like I knew I would. My mind was not like the others; I adjusted and accepted the new world as soon as everything stopped spinning.

Some had been able to do that, but not many—it had taken them considerably longer to adjust and eventually accept their situation. Now I was many things. I, and others like me, saw the way our life stretched on for unidentifiable years. I had decided I wasn’t going to waste it all in this quiet town. I had bought all I needed and made myself into the best Jack-of-all-Trades I could be. I was well known in some of the darker circles the more criminal orientated peoples inhabited. I didn’t mind them, except when they thought they could get me killed on a simple mission when I learn one thing too many. I had already caused one crime family to fall, sending a message to the others.

“UUUUUUNAAAAA!!!?” Billy hollered in an off tune screech. “Is that Yooooooou?” I sighed and threw my drink outside the window behind me. I stood and made my way over.

“Hey, Ol’ Man,” I said. “You still kickin’? Or will the afterlife not take you?” That earned a howl of laughter from the old CP. The Pinhead that trapped us had given all the characters personalities as real as ours. I smiled behind my scarf. Every eye was upon me and I shrank inside, hating the spotlight. I was what I was because I hated direct attention, but all sense of decorum had to be set aside when Billy was involved.

He stumbled over and grabbed me ‘bout the shoulders into an awkward hug. A grin slipped across my face before being spirited away into the black box of my past.

“What,” he shouted. “My dear UUUUnnnna, brings-ou here?” I led him outside and slipped a needle full of Sober into his arm before setting him down to sit outside the Inn.

“A mission my dear old man,” I murmured crouching near him. “One I’m hoping you can help with.”

He groaned as the solution took effect. “Ugh. Well, now that me head’s all clear. What do ya need fer this mission o’ yers?” I smiled and hauled him to his feet and dragged him down an alley-way.

I sat him down on a pile of sturdy crates. I grimaced at my task and pulled out a dagger-like blade.

“Sorry, ain’t personal,” I murmured. He nodded and held out his arm. The tip dug in, drinking the information from the CP. Ten minutes later I put the blade back and helped him home.

I hated these missions—no point to them at all. I like infiltration, the stuff that challenged my natural abilities. Not the redundancy of downloading Intel.

As I reached the forests of the towns I leapt from tree to tree, dodging branches as I sped past. The ultimate adrenaline rush in this messed up excuse of a life, too soon I reached my destination.

There he sat, on that stupid little throne and looked so damn smug. My blood boiled in anger. The move was beautiful and almost imperceptible, but it was the reaction that was priceless. The blade had landed with barely a hair’s breadth from his crotch.

The shriek that filled the air calmed my blood down to a warning. I jumped lightly and with a flick of a practiced hand, decapitated the guard he had brought.

“I’m a firm believer in the idea that ‘three is a crowd’,” I murmured walking toward him. I could see the sweat pouring off of him.

“I never gave you an order to kill, you mangy street ra—” a knife was held at his throat.

“You commissioned me for one task with the agreement of my rules and my payment,” I hissed, eyes glittering with bloodlust. “You broke my rules and must pay the price.”

“WAIT! I can pay you,”

“Money does not fix every problem,” blood splattered the clearing as I slit his throat.

Rules were made to be followed, not broken.

I picked up the blade, tossing it from hand to hand—trying to plan my next move. Reaching a decision, I stuck the blade in my pack and headed home.