Synopsis: A boy discovers the threat of virtual reality.
Chapter one: Games are Fun
"Keep your eyes on the ball, Raivu," a smiling young woman said, as she paddled a ball toward the dark haired boy.
"Yeah, whatever," Raivu said, as he snapped a ball back at the black haired Woman.
The ball whizzed back and forth on the veridian table, lined with two stripes and a single black net. The ball was smacked with force, leaving an aura of red within a flash, before the color returned to the paddle. Raivu countered with a spin, his own sleek, black, paddle, crashed to the table. The ball bounced towards the opponent's paddle, then curved and bounced off the table.
"I win again, Akiou. Perfect game, you can't beat me," Raivu said, adding an air of coolness.
"What? I practiced so hard! How did I lose?"
"The game was decided the minute you challenged me. It's fate; you can't win against me," Raivu said.
"I'm going to reveal all your secrets, someday! Just you wait!"
"Go ahead," Raivu said, unruffled.
He pointed two of his fingers at Akiou's forehead.
"That is, if you know any. Do you know any secrets?"
"No, but..." Aikou stopped and fidgeted.
"That's what I thought," Raivu said after laughing.
As Raivu left, his shadow disappeared like a ninja of the night.
Aikou sulked back in the room, putting the table back to single-player mode.
"Someday," she said before she picked her paddle up again to practice for the next time she and Raivu would meet.
"If his ball comes here, I'll hit it like that..."
All night she worked pummeling her effigy of a friend, making plans about how she could beat him.
* * *
"Hey, Ahh-Choo-Choo247?" asked a character.
"Gesundheit" chuckled Ahh-Choo-Choo247.
"lol," said the character.
A blue print of letters spelled the name Ceer, after he had spoken. A smile broke across the face of the boy, Ceer, as he cracked another joke about Ahh-Choo-Choo's user name.
"These reality helmets really do increase the fun of game play," Ceer said, "Looks like they also increase the intensity. Watch out!"
Shallow minded mutants slowly crept along the vast regions of a small mountain. They gave a scream, as they jumped out at their victims, hoping that they would not fail at another meal.
Both characters whipped out their AK-47's and increased their efficiency.
"Just shoot their heads," Ahh-Choo-Choo247 said.
"No problem."
As the guns blazed through the mutants, blood was spilt, all around. Not a single bruise, was landed on the two.
As the Smoke cleared, Ahh-Choo-Choo anounced, "We're done for the day, Musou."
Ceer glared at him, for revealing Ceer's own identity, and said, "You don't happen to be on global chat, do you?"
Ahh-Choo-Choo turned around and said, "Uh-Oh!"
"We have to log out, NOW!" screamed Ceer.
He turned around and yelled, "OH NO! MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF FAN-MAIL HEADED OUR WAY!"
A mammoth swarm of letters broke through the air and was aimed at the two players.
"LOG OUT Commenced. Logging out."
The two characters disappeared, as the fan-mail passed through their pixellated appearances.
A splash of water, spread throughout the room as the two boys came out of a large capsule.
"Wow, those virtual reality games are pretty hard to administrate; people just keep sending out fan-mail," The younger boy said, his brown hair dripping wet.
The boys laughed as they dried their bodies.
"Looks like we're going to have to change our 'virtual names' again," The older boy said, as finished drying off his silver hair.
"Come on Musou, lets go kill some bugs," the younger boy said.
The boys took one last glance at the virtual reality machine, a glistening cylinder, full of water with wires meant to be attached to a person's nerves, making movement possible, before turning away and walking through the door.
* * *
As shadows manifested over land, the moon twinkled as it continued its awesome orbit around the earth. The stars glinted off in the background, painting the sky like a picture. Raivu lay on the roof watching the moon, slowly rise to its place in the sky. His dark hair disappeared, in the sky's majestic blanket, which covers half the earth, stretching its boundaries. Raivu yawned as he looked up into the blanket of darkness. He looked at all the stars, which seemed to fall past the earth, as it revolved. A figure manifested out of the darkness and presented itself to Raivu. A sleek hand pulled out a pistol and pointed at Raivu's head.
"You have to keep your friends close, Raivu, and your enemies, even closer," the figure said, its arms curling around the pistol.
"Nice try Musou. You can't scare me," Raivu said, coolly.
Musou almost fell over at the comment. He glared at Raivu with intense black eyes.
"Don't worry, I'm not on global chat, but it looks like you have changed your form, again."
Musou laughed as he told Raivu about the fan-mail attack.
As Musou finished the story, Raivu laughed and said, "Perhaps, you would like to join me as I perceive the 'virtual' stars?"
Musou sat down, his eyes glinting, under the contrast of the stars.
"Outside of this virtual world, the stars are real. Here, that is impossible. Why? Why do you lay here, instead of the real world? How come you would rather watch a fake imitation than what is already accessible in the real world?"
Raivu replied, "Reality will always be harsh and unforgiving. Here, the world is a total lie. Which would you choose, Musou?
Musou simply nodded and went again to watch the stars.
Chapter 2: Absol33t Rule
"How did you come up with such a unique design, Ceer?"
Sincerely, Rhodes the black magician
"Ouch! Reading all this fan mail is exhausting, along with the bug reports and reports of hacking. Sometimes I wish I hadn't become a system admin." Ceer complained.
"Why don't you take a break sir?"
Ceer turned around to see his intern, Benjamin, walking up to him. His features were somewhat distinct and masculine, however he had always acted childish. They were both the same age, but Ceer was an administrator because he happened to be friends with the child genius who made the Virtual Reality Machine. Ceer only had the idea of turning it into an mmorpg.
"Because if my fans desire it, it shall come," Ceer simply replied.
Benjamin groaned. This was the same response Ceer gave for everything. He loved Virtual Reality, especially the most famous mmorpg on it, Parallel Universe. He spent hours there more than he spent at home. Benjamin laughed at the thought of him having a wife and kids.
"Would they have a virtual marriage?" he thought, as he realized Ceer was listing down bugs and hackers that he was supposed to take care of.
"Wait, slow down!" Benjamin said, quickly scribbling down notes.
Chapter 3: A Real World Hacker
A newspaper from Raivu's hand slammed down onto a coffee table, startling his black Labrador, Night. He jumped onto the sofa and ran his hands through Night's soft hair.
"Guess what, Night?"
Night looked up at him with an oblivious look, but jumped onto the sofa to prove that he was paying attention.
"Apparently, someone's been stealing money from all the local banks in Belgium. It makes me angry that some criminal would rob banks just because he's too lazy to work. Stealing from the bank hurts everyone including that criminal.
I mean, now that the government and the bank are one entity, all businesses lose money if the bank does. My offspring companies are going to suffer because one guy got lazy. And you know what?"
Night's gave a serious look to Raivu, because he sensed Raivu's voice raising. As Raivu got angrier, Night's tail sneaked under his rump. At the sight of this, Raivu immediately stopped talking to give himself a moment to corrode his anger.
"I'm sorry Night. I shouldn't have yelled at you."
Night looked up and started wagging his tail again.
"Ah, Forget about that. I'll just order some pizza to lighten up this mood. By the way, there's no one in the house today, so you can bark all you want."
For once, Night was able to comprehend the words that came out of Raivu's mouth. And for the first time in two years, he barked like an excited puppy again.