FanFic: Archilles_ (Chapter 7: Lost Purpose) ***final chapte

[ChibiMyu]

Hello and welcome to my newest fan fic. This one will be a mix of PSO from both the GC and the DC consoles. If you are interested in reading my past fan fics, most of them can be found here: http://www.geocities.com/myutrumon/fic.html I have no idea how often I will add to this fic - it's the first one that I'm actually posting as I'm writing the pieces. I'm doing this in hopes of getting some "guest appearances" from other players, especially BA players (hint hint). Enjoy!


http://www.columbia.edu/~ncc2001/images/archficbanner2.jpg

Dedicated to those who created the great memories on Puck 9, Puck 11, and Miranda 7.

Prologue: Dreamcast's Nightmare
"Good morning, Archilles," Mrs. Beckett waved from the Guild counter.

"Good morning, Mrs. Becket," Archilles called back as he ran through the door out onto the star-lit streets of Pioneer 2. He ran past the medical center and the warp to the Principal's office, right up to the bank. A ramar was standing at the counter, waiting for the bank lady to get back with whatever items he had requested. Archilles got in line behind the ramar and glanced out at the skyway above. A hovercraft zoomed by overhead, its engines roaring, and then fading into the distance, replaced by silence.

Tap, tap, tap. The ramar shifted uneasily, and then began drumming on the counter again. Tap, tap, tap. "What are you looking at?" the ramar growled.

"Nothing," Archilles replied quickly. He tried to nonchalantly shrug and go back to observing the near-empty skyway, but the ramar did not go back to tapping on the counter.

"Well you had to have been looking at something," the ramar snickered. "What were you looking at?"

"The skyway," Archilles answered, turning back to get a better look at the ramar. He had red spiked hair, and wore a black uniform along with a not-so-friendly face.

"Excuse me, sir," the bank lady interrupted, appearing from somewhere within the storeroom. "I have your items." She smiled, placing the items she was carrying on the counter for the ramar to pick up. "A/ Needle +99, Red Ring, Elenor mag, Double Cannon 0/0/0/60, saber, pole, psy armor..."

"Thank you," the ramar replied gruffly. He quickly snatched up the contents and stashed them in his pack as he walked away from the counter.

"Next, please."

Archilles stepped forward to make his request, but the ramar gave him one final funny look as he did. "Hi, I'd like my Usashu, Hunter Wall, and Yamigarasu, please."

"Ok, one moment."

Archilles watched as the bank lady disappeared somewhere in the back room and again wondered why the traffic was so light. He turned his head to see if there was any news posted on the large monitor, but as he did, he found himself feeling lightheaded. He rubbed his head, brushing some stray strands of stringy black hair out of his face, but the whole world went black instead.



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<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ChibiMyu on 2003-08-10 17:49 ]</font>

[ChibiMyu]

bonus material: fan art (http://www.geocities.com/myutrumon/archgc.html) http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif

...

"Youlla, Youlla, come look. I think she's waking up."

"Wow, Mylla. I think your new high level resta really works."

"Yes, I do too."

"Are you ok?"

Archilles opened his eyes and blinked. A fonewm stood above him, blocking the skyway.

"Are you ok, Miss NOL?"

"What did you just call me?" Asked Archilles, sitting up. A fonewearl rushed to his side and tried to stop him from standing, but Archilles stood up anyway.

"NOL, that's your name, right?" the fonewm asked.

Archilles gave a puzzled look, glancing at the fonwm, and then the fonewearl, and then the fonewm again. Both of them wore purple outfits and large hats covering their short white hair. "You're... twins?"

"Yes," the fonewearl and fonewm replied in unison.

"Wow," Archilles replied with a sigh. "For a minute I though I was seeing double."

"Are you sure that you are alright, Miss NOL?"

"Why do you keep calling me that?" Archilles mumbled, brushing a golden blond lock of hair out of his face. Blond??? Archilles darted over to the shop window to look at his reflection in the mirror, but a bright-eyed little girl in a blue hunewearl's outfit stared back. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!"

[M_BlackHawk]

ROFLMAO! Man, do I ever feel sorry for that poor schmuck. Great fic, Myu..keep it up.

later

M_BlackHawk.

[DukeElrond]

Quick, Arch, pull out your VMU! @_@;;

Hehe. *can't wait to see more*

[ChibiMyu]

yay... feedback! ^_^ here's more:

Chapter 1: Another bad HU-day
Pi pi! Pi pi! Pi pi! Clunk! The alarm clock crashed to the floor. Pi pi! Pi pi! Pi pi!

BANG BANG BANG!!!

Pi pi! Pi pi! Pi pi!

"Argh... no... NOL... ugh..." Archilles rolled over and out of the bed, causing another thud to add to the racket.

Pi pi! BANG! BANG! Pi BANG! pi!

"Mmph... I'M COMING!" Archilles shouted. He crossed the room and pressed the panel on the wall, causing the thin metal door to slide open. A tall and muscular humar in black stood outside the door holding a coffee mug. "Yes?" Archilles asked.

Pi pi! Pi pi! Pi pi!

"Do you mind turning off your alarm clock in the morning when you first wake up?" the humar asked in an unpleasant tone.

Pi pi! Pi pi! Pi pi!

"Um... sure thing," Archilles coughed, looking up at the humar. "I was just doing that now. Sorry to disturb you." He quickly ran over to the bedside to dig the yellow rag rappy alarm clock out of the sheets. Pi pi! Pi pi! Pi-

The humar in the doorway shook his head and walked down the hall back to his apartment.

Archilles piled the bed sheets back on the bed and then got up to close the door. He would have to make his own bed later, since he didn't have the money to afford an android. The rag rappy clock on the nightstand read 301 beats. He was supposed to be at the Hunter's Guild by 315 beats... not much time left. Archilles quickly tossed an insta-breakfast into the photon cooker and pulled a clean green hunter's uniform out of the closet. Then he switched on the computer panel by the kitchen table to check for any messages while he ate, but the panel flashed brightly for a moment before sparking, causing all the photon powered devices in the room to shut down. "Great," Archilles taunted the stalled photon cooked. "Monomate for breakfast again!"

17 beats later...

"Arch, you're late again!" Clay groaned as Archilles materialized into the Hunters' Guild. "You know you won't get enough meseta to pay for tuition at the Academy if you keep missing all the good quests. Fortunately, I reserved one for you. Hurry up, let's go!" The humar in brown dragged Archilles over to the line by the counter.

"I had this weird dream last night..." Archilles began. "About a guild lady named Mrs. Beckett..."

"Who's Mrs. Beckett?" Clay frowned, checking his watch. "Never mind, I'll ask you later. I have a quest to do."

"Aren't you coming on this one?"

"Nah. It's a one-man quest. I'll catch you later. Bye Arch!"

Archilles watched as Clay jogged over to the transporter to show the guard his id, but then the guild lady tapped him on shoulder.

"Excuse me.. Mr... uh. I need your guild information."

"Underscore. Archilles Underscore, section id Purplenum, Mir7-Ant8, Guild card E46046784."

The guild lady furiously punched the information into the consol and handed Archilles a quest log.

"Thanks." Archilles took the quest log and read it with interest. It was a mission to Ragol. "Bring back a greedy landlord? Okay..." Archilles walked out of the guild room still reading the paper. He glanced in the direction of the bank, but decided to skip going there since he already had his equipment - a saber, frame, mag, and some monomates. What more could you need? It was his first mission to Ragol, but lots of other hunters had brought back great stories of finding rare weapons and easily slaying monsters. "Forest 1, please," Archilles told the guard. The guard nodded and let Archilles enter the transporter. Archilles watched as Pioneer 2 faded away to be replaced by greenery and natural sunlight.

When the transport was complete, Archilles stood in an open ring surrounded by pale gray rocks and soft green shrubbery, all under the blanket of more green leaves and bright blue sky. Archilles stepped onto the grass, amazed as a few moths few out of his way and resettled next to the remains of an empty crate. It had been so long, hadn't it? He walked over to the crate to inspect it, but whatever had been in it was taken. An empty message pack also lay crushed on the floor, apparently stepped on. Entering the next room, Archilles found more broken boxes and a strange red stain on the floor. Blood? The strange thing about photon weapons was that sometimes they left marks on their prey, but other times they didn't. Some of it depended on how you yielded the weapon, and there might also be outside factors involved, like in the battle simulators. Everyone always came out of the battle simulators in one piece, but the same couldn't be said for hildebears. There had been an interesting force weapon at the trade convention called a hildebear's cane...

Clunk! Something came flying out of the sky.

"Ow!"

Archilles rubbed his head; half expecting to find his hair turned yellow, or at least covered with yellow feathers from a falling rag rappy, but the next thing to catch his attention was the shiny metal capsule that had landed on the floor. Archilles picked it up to get a better look, but then he heard the rifle click behind him.

"Drop it!"

Archilles instinctively dropped the capsule and raised his hands. The capsule hit the floor with a soft clunk, but Archilles still didn't flinch. Instead he turned around to face a short and chubby humar pointing a rifle at him.

"What do you want?" Archilles asked as calmly as he could.

"Get off my land!" chubby replied, wrinkling his nose. "I put these capsules here to mark the new land I claimed, and now everyone wants to take it away from me. Well I'll tell you this: you aren't going to!"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Archilles replied. "I was just sent here to bring back some greedy landlord that got into some trouble. I had no idea what the capsules were for."

"GREEDY LANDLORD?!" chubby exploded, misfiring his gun. The bullet struck a rock near Archilles feet. "I'll show you greedy landlord, and trouble. GET OUT OF HERE!"

Archilles dashed through the forest, heading for the transporter as fast as he could. The chubby humar chased after him, firing more wild rifle shots. One of them zinged right passed his head and collided with a tree while another went straight through the transporter and disappeared. Archilles dove for the transporter and transported right as another bullet flew through the air above him.

"Why you annoying little-"

The chubby humar's voice faded away to be replaced by the steady sound of Pioneer 2 traffic. Hover crafts whizzed by overhead and the guard by the transporter gave Archilles a concerned look.

"You ok, buddy?"

Archilles stood up and nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine."

The guard kept staring.

"Why do you ask?" Archilles looked down to make sure that he didn't have any bullet holes in his suit.

"This," the guard replied, holding up a photon bullet. "It's not every day that you see these things come flying out of the transporter."

Archilles stared at the bullet. Its photon glow was starting to fade, but as long as it maintained its green color, it could be destructive. That bullet almost hit me...

"I won't report you this time, but if that happens again, they might revoke your Hunter's Licence."

"Thanks..." Archilles mumbled, trudging back to the Hunters' Guild to cancel his quest. The lady at the desk smiled as he came in, but the smile faded into a frown as Archilles handed her back the quest log.

"What happened?" the guild lady asked in a mocking tone. "Was it more difficult than you imagined? If you aren't going to complete our quests, I suggest that you don't come back again!"

[DukeElrond]

*wants a rappy alarm clock* *_*!!

I like the way you portrayed the guild lady's attitude. I get that feeling from a lot of p2 people. o.o;;

[ChibiMyu]

Chapter 2: The BA N00b.
"Arch, what happened?" Clay groaned. "Chair, please." A translucent yellow chair materialized behind Clay, allowing him to sit down in the Antares 8 lobby.

Archilles sat down in his purple chair and sighed. "I told you, I went on the quest and the landlord I was supposed to bring back attacked me."

"Ha! Now that's a good one. Sometimes I really wonder about those quests. It's a mystery how so many people go down to Ragol and get into trouble. Then the guild sends someone else down, who also gets into trouble as well."

"Yeah, Archilles agreed. "Got any alternative ideas on how to make some quick money? Preferably safe ones."

Clay chuckled again. "Quick, yes. Safe, that depends."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"How safe to you consider BA?"

"Battle mode?" Archilles gasped. "Money, yes, but that's not quick or easy. The only way you get money from it is if you win a tournament, and that's nearly impossible. People train for months and they still don't have the skill."

"Well it's worth a shot, isn't it? For all we know, you could already have the knack."

"Well..."

"Just try it," Clay urged, standing up. The yellow chair vanished as he went over to the guild counter. "Here, try this one, Arch. It's called 'BA3 n00bs'."

Archilles stepped up to the guild counter and read the names of the people within the game. "Source, Xenakis, and Dark Topaz? I don't know any of these people..."

"Aw, please, just try it. They look like n00bs."

"Fine." Archilles selected the team off the guild list and transported into the game. Three symbol chats promptly greeted him.

"Are you ready, everybody?" Source asked.

"Yes, let's go, Source," Dark Topaz replied. He promptly stopped running around the display in the middle of the guild room and went over by the counter, immediately followed by Xenakis.

Archilles hesitated by the door for a moment. "I think I should get my weapons first..."

"You don't need your weps, n00b!" Source cried. "Come on, let's go."

Archilles walked over to the guild counter and the Source gave the guild man the request to load the simulator.

[M_BlackHawk]

lol! Rule 3? 10-1 says that the 3 battle n00bs are all h4x0rs. ^_- I kinda feel sorry for that poor schmuck.

later

M_BlackHawk

[DukeElrond]

I think you're doing an excellent job writing this fic -- the conversations between characters and your descriptions of the surroundings are very well done.

*is looking forward to reading more* ^_^

[Vantamiath]

So far, so good. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

[geewj]

Hehe, 10$ says Arch is about to get owned big time.

[ChibiMyu]

Intermission: When Utopia Froze Over
Archilles looked around and read the name of the lobby. Miranda 7. It was much smaller than the regular lobbies, and had two transporters instead of one. Some hunters stood off to the side talking, and another few were running around the guild counter in circles or waiting in line to join a team. One of the humars running around in circles was clearly a battler. His black ponytail bobbed up and down as he chased after another black racast who gave a mechanical laugh before displaying a 2-d image of a dancing panda.

"Why are you running around the guild?" Archilles questioned them.

The humar shrugged and went on running, but the racast gave another chuckle. "I made a bet, and if I run around the lobby 1000 times, I'll get a free hamburger mag."

A tall blonde fonewearl shook her head. "And you're actually taking the offer? It's just a big waste of time. Just pretend you speak Japanese and go do the new quest yourself."

Suddenly a midget humar entered the room. "Ole! > Everybody."

">_>"

"<_<"

">_>"

"Knock it off," a humar in white called from the corner of the room before going back to his conversation with a hunewearl, also in white, and another humar in purple. All three of them laughed. A hunewearl with blue hair and another racaseal in black also entered the room.

"I'm going to go do 27 more HS runs... almost to level 184..."

"Barta owns you!"

"Anyone got a spread needle?"

"N00b!"

":o"

":l"

"Omg, they haX0red Oberon!"

At the last comment, the room fell unnaturally silent. Everyone froze in place as if someone had pressed the pause button.

BUUUUUUUZZZZZZ!!!

The timer went off as the battle simulator materialized. Archilles stood still for a moment, staring at the unfamiliar room. It had two parallel walls and two boxes at each end. "Wow..."

"Yeah, that loading took a while," Xenakis' voice sounded over a loudspeaker. "There must have been some lag again."

No one else gave a further reply, so Archilles shrugged and walked over to the first set of boxes. They held a saber and a frame. He equipped them both, and proceeded to the second set of boxes, but then there was the soft 'thwnk' of an active warp. Someone else was in the room. Archilles crept up to the edge of one wall as quietly as possible, and slowly peeked around the corner. Nothing. Thwack! Two green daggers erupted out of nowhere and clawed at Archilles' back. Archilles spun around in an attempt to attack with his saber, but someone tripped him as he did. He quickly rolled over and got up to attack again, but that was quickly countered by another wave of burning pain, this time from a foie. Archilles fell to the floor again, his vision turning red. Death? And there was that humar in black raiding the other two boxes...

Archilles materialized in a different room. The pain was completely gone, washed away by the simulator. He stood up again. Behind him was a large window displaying other parts of the spaceship. It would have been nice to get a better look, but then there was the thwnk. Xenakis materialized to the right of the window and began to fire his handgun. Three green bullets whizzed across the room and hit the wall as Archilles ducked behind it, only to run into a warp. Thwnk!

The new room had white walls with large screens displaying pictures from Ragol. Archilles broke into a run, eager to find a place to wait in ambush, but then the delsaber materialized. Thwnk! Dark Topaz stepped out from behind a wall at the other end of the room, still holding the remains of a confuse trap.

"Hiya," Dark Topaz waved. "Don't enter the c-bringer room unless you feel like meeting a very confused headless horseman. Hehe."

Archilles charged toward Dark Topaz with his saber, but Dark backed up and pulled out a different trap.

"Chill out," Dark grinned, setting off the freeze trap with gifoie. Both Archilles and Dark became frozen in simulated blocks of ice, but the delsaber behind them only got hit with the gifoie. Then Dark broke free and took the warp out. "Enjoy your dinner, Mr. Delsaber!" The agitated delsaber looked hungrily at the frozen Archilles.

[Zeebo]

continue... I was enjoying reading that..

[ChibiMyu]

Chapter 3: Battle Lessons

"So, how did it go?" Clay asked as Archilles materialized in the lobby.

"I hate delsabers."

"Ouch. Don't worry Arch; you just need practice. Maybe we can get you a trainer."

"And where am I supposed to get the money for that? I don't want to BA anymore... my back hurts too." Archilles marched toward the warp to leave the lobby.

"Arch!" Clay shouted, blocking Archilles from entering the warp. "You can't just play one game and give up."

"I hardly consider getting eaten alive by a delsaber a 'game', nor a job." Archilles tried to walk around Clay, but then a different voice spoke.

"Excuse me."

Archilles turned around. It was a dark fomarl with golden-yellow hair. Something about her looked familiar.

"My name is DS," she explained. "I frequently play battle mode. I could train you if you'd like."

Archilles blinked. "Ok."

"I'll make a game. Team name: ?SPECIAL WEAPON."

The fomarl went up to the guild and vanished. Archilles followed a few seconds later.

"Ok, are you ready?" DS asked.

Archilles nodded and walked over to the guild, but then Xenakis entered the game.

"Hiya." Xenakis strolled over to the guild counter to greet the other two hunters. Then he reached into the side pocket of his yellow and gray hunter uniform and pulled out two guild cards. "I need some practice. Mind if I join you?"

DS and Archilles accepted the guild cards and gave him their own.

"Ok, but don't start fighting right away," said DS. "We're going to train, so meet me in the grass assassin room."

"Ok."

DS registered with the guild counter, setting up the quest. The battle simulator loaded, the counter reached 0 again, and the battle began.

Archilles materialized into a room with a large window and warps at each end. He remembered seeing this room before... and one of the warps led to the grass assassin room, but he didn't remember which one. He walked up to the right warp and paused. No, this doesn't feel right. Instead he cracked open the two boxes by the warp, and then walked over to the warp left of the window. Thwnk!

Archilles appeared in the grass assassin room. Success! Was he the first one to reach it? He walked over to the wall to see if anyone was standing behind it, but then a freeze trap exploded directly in front of him. The block of ice formed and stung with its familiar paralyzing chill. Then DS appeared from behind the wall.

"Just like on Ragol, you have to be prepared for any type of trap attack. Anyone can set them here, including non-androids. Ice traps are the easiest to handle, so let them be your friends, not your enemies. You can learn to escape their frozen prisons quickly, and you can also use the shock of the cold to revive you when you become confused."

"Ok," Archilles nodded. He reached into his back pocket like he had seen the others do, and pulled out a confuse trap. DS set it off with gifoie, sending both of them into waves of dizziness. Then Archilles closed his eyes and pulled out a freeze trap, casting zonde to set it off. The freeze trap froze both of them, but Archilles didn't let the parlaying cold take over. Instead he concentrated on breaking free and the ice shattered and melted into nothingness.

Then Xenakis warped in. "Cool trick."

"Did you see that, Xen"?

"Yes."

"Ok," DS continued, handing Archilles a saber. "Now I want Arch to trip Xen with his saber and then go for the kill while he's down."

Archilles gulped, taking the saber. "Um, ok."

Xenakis took a step back, ready to dodge, but Archilles stepped forward and slammed the saber through Xenakis' leg, tripping him. Xenakis crashed to the floor, letting out a yelp. Archilles proceeded to stab him with his saber while he was down, but then Xenakis jumped back up, unharmed. Archilles backed away in amazement.

"How did you do that?" Archilles cried. "You should either be declared dead and revived by the simulator, or at least on the floor howling in a lot of pain!"

"It's a rule in the simulator," DS explained. "Remember, this is supposed to be a sport and method of combat training, not a merciless killing spree. Any time an opponent is knocked down, they are permitted time to get up if they have the strength left. If they cannot get up, they are declared 'dead', and points are awarded to the last person who attacked them."

"Ah," Archilles mused. "But what about enemies like delsabers who will attack you when frozen?"

"That's still part of the game," DS replied. "The battle simulators give you unpredictable real opponents, but it also throws predictable artificial intelligence at you. You lose more points for being outsmarted by AI than if you were killed by other participants. You can also manipulate the AI to sabotage other players and bring down their scores, but you do not get personal points for this. The key to becoming good in battle is to think fast and improvise with the resources you have. Remember that."

The timer reached zero as DS concluded her speech, ending the battle. Then the simulator vanished and everyone was transported back into the lobby.

"That was a very good demonstration, DS. Thank you," said Archilles. "DS?"

Xenakis looked around the empty lobby in confusion. "I don't see her... Maybe she left for lunch?"

"Maybe."

"Want to go eat lunch? I know of this great place called the 'Rag Rappy Cafe?'"

"Sure."


Two figures stood in a dark room, staring at the various monitors showing the different BA rooms. One of the figures abruptly pointed at one of the dimly flickering screens.

"What about that one?"

The other figure shook his head. "No. I was thinking about that one, but it won't work. The simulator next to it is used too much."

The first figure's head turned a fraction on an inch to stare at monitor showing the simulator next to it. "Who are those people in there?" he asked, pointing at the screen. The screen showed an unfamiliar humar in green attacking a humar in gray while a fomarl watched them.

"I don't know. He's new."

"Ah, excellent. He could be one of the first to witness our new project, ah yes.."




<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ChibiMyu on 2003-05-04 17:56 ]</font>

[DukeElrond]

I like the way you explain the invincibility delay in that part. *is looking forward to reading more* ^_^;;

[ChibiMyu]

Chapter 4: It's a BA World.
"I'll bet you 500 meseta that I could beat Omni."

"N00b! You can't even beat that new guy, Ryo."

"Ryo?! He's not new!"

"He isn't?"

"No."

"Then who is he?"

"..."

"Where's Eddie?"

"He went to get food."

The humar came out of the ice-cream shop across the street and walked back to the picnic tables under the overhang of the Rag Rappy Caf? A fairly large group of hunters occupied two of the gleaming metallic-white tables. He walked over to one of the tables, handing one of the two ice-cream cones to Divine-Slash, and began to eat the other one himself.

"Thanks." Divine-Slash took the ice cream cone.

"Where's my ice-cream?" PurpleBliss enquired.

"They didn't have double-chocolate chip brownie," Vision replied.

"What??? No brownie?! No way! I have to see this for myself," PurpleBliss cried in amazement. The hunewearl in purple stood up and marched across the street to the ice-cream shop.

"I'm going to get another Nar Lily salad," Xenakis announced, also getting up.

"Wait," Vision called. "We need more napkins. The weather is warm today and this ice-cream is starting to get messy."

Divine-Slash gave Vision a funny look. "Pioneer 2 has climate control."

"Sure," Xenakis answered. "I'll get napkins. Anyone else want anything?"

"Are you and Arch going to the tournament tonight?" a fonewearl at the other table shouted.

"No," Xenakis shook his head. "Krayana and I are going to see 'Lord of the Rico'. It comes out today." The fonewearl didn't question any further, so Xenakis walked into the caf? A few more familiar faces stood in line, waiting for their orders to be processed, but Xenakis walked over to the side counter. A pile of napkins stood next to the telescreen, so he reached over to grab a few, glancing at the screen as he did so. News scrolled by as it always did: Mimas living quarters being remodeled... Del Lily sighting in Cave 2 causes controversy... Battle Simulator 3 malfunction nearly kills fomar... "Whoa!" Xenakis reread the last news item before it slid off the screen.

"What's up?" Auron asked, walking past with a lunch tray. He looked at the screen and frowned.

"Someone almost got killed in BA 3."

"Wow, really? Wasn't Arch doing some BA3 today?"

Xenakis nodded slowly. "Yeah... I hope he's ok. The news said that it was a fomar that got hurt, not a humar."

Elsewhere...
Del room. Thwnk! Hildebear room. Thwnk! Grass assassin room. Thwnk! Archilles chased the ramar across the rule 3 simulator, ignoring the simple mail. Five whole minutes left, but both of them were showing the obvious signs of a hard fight as the two green blurs darted through the rooms. Jou took the warp on the right side of the grass assassin room, landing in the shark room.

"Turn around and fight," Archilles screamed, thrusting his saber forward, but Jou dodged to the side and warped again. The Chaos Bringer room - enter or not? Think fast. Thwnk! Archilles materialized into the darkest room of the simulator, reflexively equipping his handgun to freeze any confuse traps. None. Archilles stood still for a moment, so as not to alert the chaos bringer that lurked on the other side of the room. The room was quiet... too quiet. There were no footsteps or an agitated chaos bringer to indicate that Jou had chosen to warp again. Good, now they could fight the next round. Archilles crept toward the wall as quietly as possible in hopes of the element of surprise, but as the three photon bullets shot past, he knew it was not so. Archilles instinctively ducked out of range, and searched for a target to foie or zonde. The bolt of lightening came down from somewhere in the air above and struck Jou, who fell to the floor. Then Archilles rushed to wall Jou had been hiding behind and took cover on the other size.

"Stupid resta," came the mutter, followed by the click of some healing potion.

A wave of gifoie came swarming out of the wall, forcing Archilles to back away, and back out into handgun range. Well at least he hadn't found a rifle. The bullets came whizzing past again, but Archilles returned fire, sending another hail of photons in the direction of the wall. Two of the bullets bounced off the wall, but the crack of an evading shield was heard on the third. Silence. Then Jou jumped out from behind the wall to take better aim, causing Archilles to reflexively fire another round, but instead of firing back, Jou cast a foie. Archilles stopped firing his gun to move to the side, but it was too late. The foie slammed into him head on, taking at least half of his strength.

THUD!

"Ow!" Archilles instinctively stood up again, ready to fight back, but the blinding effect from the foie seemed worse than usual. He staggered across the room, heading for another wall to hide behind, but then the crack of the handgun sounded again. The humar fell to the floor - and stayed there. Jou stood behind the wall, daring not to move in case it was a trick, but he knew that anyone who stayed down on the ground that long should already be revived by the simulator. The last ten seconds of the battle ticked by in silence. Then the timer went off, but Archilles still did not rise.

"Arch?"

Silence.

"Archilles?"

...

"Arch?!"

[DukeElrond]

Oh, no. @_@;; Poor Arch. x.o;;

Cool post! ^_^;; *is looking forward to reading more* *_*;;

[Vantamiath]

Wow arch your fic is coming along great. Im enjoying all the sweet BAer cameos you're throwing in (like my RAmar Jou in that sweet last chapter) and I like how you explain the battles.

Sweet fic and sorry it took me so long to get off my arse and catch up with the story.

Looking forward to more arch! http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

[ChibiMyu]

Chapter 5: A Night at the Movies

Xenakis quietly stepped out of the hospital room and closed the door softly behind him. Then he turned to face the other occupants in the waiting room.

"Is he going to be ok?" asked Krayana, the hunewearl in white.

Xenakis nodded. "The nurse said that he should be released by tomorrow morning."

"I guess he's not going to the tournament tonight... or the movies," Krayana sighed.

"I'm so sorry this all happened," Jou spoke grimly. "I feel like it's all my fault."

"I wouldn't worry too much," Krayana replied. "At least no one was killed and now the BA operators can look into a possible safety issue that could have cost someone their life."

Jou shifted uneasily as he moved aside to let a volunteer nurse pass by, but instead the nurse stopped in front of the group. "Miss Krayana is right," the volunteer nurse spoke up. She was still dressed in her black fomarl robe and her bright magenta hair peeked through her cap, adding color to the warm smile on her face and causing the grim group to look up at her.

"Ami!" Krayana rushed forward and hugged the fomarl. "Long time no see!"

Ami's smile widened. "Ah, you remembered. Your friend Jou will also be happy to know that the results from the BA logs and our medical scans also show that indeed it's not Jou's fault that Archilles' injuries go beyond the simulation. On the downside, it looks as if someone did tamper with the simulator's safety controls."

"Do they have any idea who?" asked Xenakis.

Ami shook her head.

"They should cancel the tournament tonight," Krayana mused. "I hope they catch who did this soon."


The rusty metal door swung open with a loud creek and light temporarily poured into the monitor room until it squeaked shut again.

"He didn't die."

"No."

The figure sitting by the screens thrust one metallic finger towards the off switch, flicking it so violently that a piece of the metal switch broke off. The figure by the door cringed slightly, but said nothing.

"It's a shame. Is the tournament still on for tonight?"

"Yes."

"Good. Are you ready?"

"Yes."

"Excellent."


Meteor cudgel clashed with Black King Bar as the thunderous clouds raged overhead, shaking Ragol with their violent blinding bolts.

"Give up," the blond humar snarled.

"Never!"

The hunewearl blocked the humar's next attack, followed by another that sent the humar's BKB flying over the edge of the cliff.

"Please! Have mercy!" The humar shrieked, gazing over the edge of the cliff in horror.

The hunewearl looked hard at the humar through her bright green eyes. Then the wind picked up, tugging at her bright green hair and causing her to look up at the sky. "The sky has already been stained crimson by the blood you shed, but I am not the one to carry out its judgment."

The humar looked around in confusion, but then the beam of light shot down from the sky above. A circle of light touched the ground and swirled around him, and then he was gone.

"To be continued..."

Mumbling and applause began to trickle through the theater as the lights came back on and people got up from their seats.

"Good movie," Krayana commented, dropping the empty popcorn bucket into the recycling can.

"Yes," Xenakis agreed. "I can't believe that they made it a cliffhanger though."

"Speaking of cliffhangers, I wonder how the battle tournament went."

"Me too." Xenakis reached into the side pocket of his formal blue fomar robes and pulled out his humar guild card file to search for someone to mail. Xenakis' real name was actually Duke Elrond, but he preferred using the alias "Xenakis" in BA games. While Xenakis was busy mailing, Krayana stepped over to the news panel to see if it gave any information on the tournament. Nothing.

"$D says that some guy named Ercuos Grims won the tournament," Xenakis announced after a few moments.

"Who?" Krayana frowned.

"I don't know. $D doesn't know either."

"That's strange."

"Yeah..."




<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ChibiMyu on 2003-07-22 21:24 ]</font>

[Vantamiath]

Keep it up Arch, it's coming along really good.

(Apalogizes to Xen again) ^_^;;

I like how you told the movie part--for a second there I thought dupers were battling it out on Ragol!

*waits for more*



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Vantamiath on 2003-06-20 22:31 ]</font>

[ChibiMyu]

Chapter 6: Pwned!!!

"That is strange," Archilles replied. He walked over to Antares 8's guild counter and scrolled through the list of games. "I've never heard of a Ecruos Grims. $D, are you sure you heard him right?"

$DMoney stood by the side of the counter and shrugged. His shoulders barely reached the countertop - he was a midget humar who also loved the color green, but his skills were not to be taken lightly. "I battled him myself."

Xenakis pointed out a BA6 HU 1 on 1 game at the bottom of the list. "Look, Arch, he's in there."

Archilles looked at the listing and nodded. "He's alone. Mind if I take him 1 on 1?"

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Xenakis asked in concern. "Did you really want to BA after what happened last time? The nurse said that you should rest for a few days."

"I feel up to it," Archilles replied. He approached the nearest guild lady and gave her his request. Xenakis and $Dmoney watched as he walked over to the transporter and vanished.

"I hope everything goes ok," Xenakis murmured.
-----

"Hello," Archilles called his usual battle greeting as he materialized into the Hunter's Guild.

"Hello," a small voice called over from the Hunter's Guild counter. Archilles peeked around the spinning decorative column in the middle of the room to see who had answered. There stood a short humar no taller than $D, wearing in a bright white uniform with red trim. His hair was also dyed a deep red to match the trim on his uniform, not to mention his shining redria badge. "About time someone got here," he added. "Are you ready?"

Archilles blinked in surprise and nodded. "Sure, ok." He paused. "Hey, you're the one who won that tourney last night, aren't you?"

Ecruos Grims grinned like a little kid who had just learned how to ride his hover bike. "Yup," he answered proudly, then tapping his foot impatiently. "Can we go now?"

"Heh, ok," Archilles replied.

They both approached the guild man to request their battle, and the game began to load.

5... 4... 3... 2... 1... GO!

Archilles took a breath of the quiet simulator air and swiftly dashed out into the middle of the room to get the appropriate boxes. Loud crashes rang out through the simulator as he broke them open one by one and picked up the contents. At the same time he also watched for movement from across the bright blue beams, wondering where his opponent was. He quickly snatched up the handgun and the slicer from the last two boxes, and then slid back behind the wall. There he took a better look at his weapons: mechgun, wand, partisan, shot, and of course handgun and slicer. He immediately dropped the wand behind the lock to the gate, positioning it so that only the green photon showed, and then took his position behind the wall and waited.

...

The silence seemed to last an eternity as the clock slowly counted down. Where was Ecruos? Archilles gripped his handgun tightly, and after mustering the courage, took a peek around the shorter wall, revealing that Ecruos had not opened the two boxes containing the slicer and handgun on his side. "N00b," Archilles thought. "Is this some new strategy he?s using?" Archilles glanced over at the lock to the gate again to make sure that the red barrier was still intact. It was. This piece of information gave him a temporary sense of relief.

Tap tap tap CRUNCH CRACK SMASH!!!

Boxes. Archilles spun around and fired his handgun, hitting Ecruos in the stomach as he bent down to pick up the handgun.

"Ow!" Ecruos screamed as the photon bullets knocked him over. He lay on the floor for a moment, and just when Archilles thought he was going to "die" and respawn, Ecruos leapt up again and extended his arm in the proper stance to cast rafoie. "NO FAIR!" he screamed.

Archilles ducked behind the wall and rolled away in hope of some protection. The air shrieked with a high pitch wail, immediately followed by a blinding flash of light blinding both of their vision for moments after. Archilles blinked, aware of the burnt smell that hung in the air, but he was still alive and relatively unharmed. On the other side of the wall and the blue beams, Ecruos let out a series of curses as he stared at the broken weapon crate in front of him. The rafoie had targeted the box instead of Archilles, revealing a slicer. Archilles chuckled at the neophyte's error.

"ARGH!!! STUPID SLICER!!!" Without thinking, Ecruos kicked the slicer under the blue beams in Archilles' direction. The slicer hit the wall and an arm immediately shot out, grabbing it, and then hurling it back at Ecruos. Ecruos blinked at the oncoming object, not understanding the quick movements. The green blade whistled through the air, slicing at Ecruos' arm. More screams of pain and panic rang out through the battlefield as Ecruos dropped to the floor before the simulator took him to respawn again.

Archilles ducked behind the short wall just before Ecruos finished respawning, hoping that he wouldn't notice. And he didn't. Ecruos cautiously approached the wall, still believing that he was on his own side of the field. An ice trap exploded right as Ecruos peeked around the corner, followed by a wave of gifoie and a blast of foie. Completely stunned, Ecruos didn't even attempt to break out of the ice, so Archilles equipped his brand and finished him off. And the fight continued until the clock reached 0...

"Good game."

"Good game."

Archilles helped the dazed Ecruos to his feet, who was still recovering from a collision with a complete round of photon bullets from Archilles' mechguns. Then they shook hands.

"You were awesome," Ecruos blurted out.

"Thank you," Archilles hesitantly accepted the compliment. He paused for a moment before asking the question that had been dwelling in his mind ever since the first kill. "How did you win last night's tournament?"

Ecruos flashed his mischievous child-like grin again and laughed. "Oh, that? That was easy. I just followed the instructions my master gave me before the tournament."

"Your master?" Archilles asked, nearly raising an eyebrow in the classic logical newman manner.

Ecruos nodded. "Yup. I take classes at the Pwnzer BA school."

"Ah, cool." Archilles paused again.

Ecruos nodded and then looked around impatiently, as if he was late for a meeting. "Lobby please."

The simulator vanished and Archilles was transported to the Antares 8 lobby.




<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ChibiMyu on 2003-07-23 17:00 ]</font>

[DukeElrond]

I love it. ^_^;; You're doing an excellent job describing BA mode and the atmosphere of ant8/mir7. *_*;;

[ChibiMyu]

Thanks, Duke. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/anime1.gif

I just finished fxing the stupid smart quotes I missed last night. Meh... the notepad on Windows XP doesn't work like it does on 98. o.o;; I should be posting the next chapter before the weekend. And for anyone who wants to know why Ch 6 took so long, let's just say my harddrive went splat. (Back up your data people - I lost about two weeks worth of stuff.) I lost my PSOW fan fic entries because of that too. Fortunately, I still have most of my other fic, "Flow of Currents", and that should arrive on schedule - keeping in mind the fact that I never gave a release date in the first place. ^_~

[AUTO_]

W00t! Another good chapter, Arch. Sorry it took me so long to read it http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_frown.gif

btw...looking forward to your upcoming fic!

[ChibiMyu]

Chapter 7: Lost Purpose

Xenakis ran up to Archilles as he materialized into the lobby. "So, how did it go?"

"More like WHERE did he go?" Archilles frantically glanced around the lobby. A few frequent battlers were milling around the lobby in search of a game, but no Ecrous.

"Huh?"

"Ecrous requested to go to the lobby before we finished our conversation," Archilles explained. He quickly ran up to the guild counter and searched through the list of games. Ecrous Grims did not appear in any of them. "Rappies! I guess he went to take his battle lessons."

"Battle lessons?" asked Xenakis.

"Yes. Ecrous told me that he takes BA lessons at the Pwnzer BA school. Based on his skill level, I don't blame him."

"Hold up... how were his skills?"

"Terrible." Archilles mumbled, briefly going over the details of the fight. "We have to find a link to the address database."

Xenakis pointed over to the wall. "Over there."

"Thanks."

Archilles approached the console by the wall and furiously punched in the data to do a search on "Pwnerz BA". The screen flickered for a moment before the results came up.

<SEARCH RESULTS: 0 MATCH(ES)>

Archilles groaned in annoyance. "Darn, a dead end. I was almost sure that this would work."

Xenakis glanced at the screen and then pointed at a line of text. "You spelled 'Pwnzer' wrong."

"Oops." Archilles started a new search and retyped the text correctly.

<SEARCH RESULTS: 1 MATCH(ES)>
<Pwnzer's BA School of the Fighting Arts - Vega Block 8 - Contact GC#100228 for more information.>

"Ooo.. Success." Xenakis stared at the screen. "I'm guessing that you will be looking into this?"

"Yes."

"Like last time, be careful."

"I will."


A short figure entered the dark monitor room and slammed the door shut behind him. "They caught on. We have to change the plan." He briskly walked over to the figure seated in front of the monitor screens and stared.

The figure in front of the monitors nodded mechanically. Then he reached over and pressed the power button, turning the screens off.

The shorter figure shifted his weight in confusion. "Wha...?"

"As you said, they caught on. This project is over." The voice cackled.

"No, wait, we can still try something else," the shorter figure pleaded.

"You have failed."

"Please... let‘s try another plan, Acid."

The tall figure rose from his seat, towering over the shorter one. "I have other plans now."

Red light of a photon blade momentarily filled the room followed by a shrill scream. The saber swung clean through the shorter figure, and then the light went out. A soft click of the door closing echoed through the darkness, and then all was silent.


Archilles trudged along the sidewalk of the lower Vega district, glancing at the large billboard display for a new armor shop opening on Pioneer 2. "Free God/Battle unit with every purchase," it read. Vega was not thought of as highly as the upper income ships like Miranda and Celestite. It also had excessive problems with illegal activities such as "duping", but that was increasingly happening everywhere.

After going some ways, the small little sign on a shabby little corner appeared: "BA Training, 300 meseta." Archilles went up to the door and pressed the ringer cautiously. Silence. Then the door slowly creaked open and two glowing android eyes peeked out.

"Yes?" asked the metallic voice.

"I was interested in BA lessons," Archilles replied.

"We're closed, Go away." With that the door swung shut followed by the click of a lock.

Archilles stared at the closed door for a few minutes, and then slowly trudged away.

As long as they never messed with BA again, as long as they never messed with BA again...

It's never the end...

The End.

[DukeElrond]

*claps* Excellent fic! It was great! ^_^;;

I especially liked the Intermission, lol. XD

[ChibiMyu]

lol, thank you. ^_^

And now to go back to work on my next fic... stay tuned for "Flow of Currents" and a few other surprises...

[AUTO_]

On 2003-08-10 17:46, ChibiMyu wrote:
It's never the end...

The End.




*scratches head in confusion*

http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_lol.gif

Great job once again, Arch!

*Puts his pwnzer BA school-diploma in pocket*

Peace http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif