.hack//LIMINALITY Fan Fiction / .hack//SIGN Fan Fiction ❯ .hack//CHECK ❯ Trouble ( Chapter 21 )

Chapter 21 // Trouble

. . .

"Seeing him there like that..."

"What?"

"Makes me wonder if he's already given up."

"Huh?"

"Is he fighting? Why is he fighting? What is he fighting for?"

"Hmph...."

"What?"

"If we knew those answers for ourselves... For our own situations... We just might give up as well."

"Are you suggesting that we're better off not knowing?"

"I'm flat-out saying it."

. . .

8:30am. Tiffany awakes, staring at the ceiling. What do I do now?, she thought, The Scramble's a crime scene, so it won't be open today. No work. Well, Jack could be awake by now... He's off of work 'cause he's called in sick. Danny... He's a celebrity, and he didn't even tell us... You think you know a guy... New patch and server today. Wonder what the new city will be like. My character has a new look. I kinda liked the old look, but the new look is growing on me... Thanks to the new look, I now have a stalker. God, I hate Fang. How could I have given him my member address...? It wasn't the look, he would have stalked me regardless... I really, really hate that man... She reached behind her onto her night stand, retrieved an old, uneaten candy bar, and unwrapped it. I also hate that Swan character. . .

She sprang from her bed. SWAN! That's right! Jack said that he had some information. She rushed to her computer to check her e-mail.

. . .

"Hey, Tiff, Dan, this is Jack.

Yeah. I'm off to see the new server. Meet me there."

. . .

"Huh?", said Tiffany. She fitted her VR goggles over her head, and logged on.

. . .

Upon inspection of the Chaos Gate, Naomi found that the Rena Server was indeed available for use, and left for it immediately.

. . .

Naomi found herself on a cliff edge staring at a vast ocean. A quick survey of the area revealed that almost every player of World III had staked out a piece of the cliff, and was staring at the ocean.

"HEY, NAOMI!", shouted a voice. It was Deacon Blue's voice.

"Over here!", shouted Stan.

Naomi ran to where they sat, and sat down herself.

"Welcome back. You look nice.", commented Deacon, "So that was your prize?"

"More or less.", replied Naomi, "What's going on here?"

"Oh, that's right. You've never seen one of these.", said Deacon, "This is the future site of a Root Town."

"Yeah.", said Stan, "It's one of those things World III players try not to miss. Which is why I blew off my shoot today."

"What?", asked Naomi.

"Yeah. But it's not a problem.", Stan answered, "Besides, with the media coverage of that little incident yesterday, and the fact that the tabloids are hyping that I could've been dead yesterday, all I had to do was say 'I can't work like this', and I got the day off."

"This will be the third one I've seen.", said Deacon, "The first was on the Balmung server, and the second was on the Mimiru server. I missed the one on the Natsume server, though."

"Deac, you said you found some info on Swan. What'd you find out?", inquired Naomi.

"Almost everything.", said Deacon. "It turns out that I was approaching this all wrong. Instead of checking records to see who was behind his account, I should've checked to see who was footing the bill for his account. And, I did."

"So, who's paying for the account?", asked Stan.

"Uncle Sam."

"What?"

"That alone made it that much easier to track Swan down.", continued Deacon, "Remember when the World I servers closed for good? Well, that was just the legitimate World I servers. That didn't stop people with private servers from operating the game. Since pirate servers are indeed illegal, they had to keep said operations a secret. However, these private servers tend to have more lax security than the real deal. So, it was just a matter of finding out who Swan is. And, that's where the shocker comes into play."

"This is getting interesting...", said Naomi.

"'Swan' was the name of a military project.", said Deacon, "Around the time of the early period of the millennium, they started experimenting with bio-technology. One of these experiments was to see if they could connect the human brain to the internet. The reason for doing this was for soldiers to have information at their beck and call at all times. Another experiment was for a complex AI called 'Dao-shi', and yet another experiment was for a system called 'Jiang-shi'. Project Swan was the combination of all three experiments. However, There were two other projects. Project 'Duck' was to see if they could integrate two of the experiments (namely Dao-shi and Jiang-shi), and Project 'Goose' was the initial experiment for the brain-internet connection thing."

"And...?", said Stan.

"Project 'Goose' was a success, and Project 'Duck' was a success. However, Project 'Swan' is up in the air.", continued Deacon, "To understand why it failed, an explanation of Dao-shi and Jiang-shi is in order. Dao-shi is a highly advanced Artificial Intelligence system used in conjunction with Jiang-shi, which is a system of nano-machines. With out one, the other is worthless. Here's how it works, it's first function is to deaden the pain of wounds, and aid in the repair of damaged tissue. It's second function activates once the host body dies. The nano-machines gather mostly in the brain, and generate enough voltage to simulate a living body, and operate the body as if it is living. Using the AI, Dao-shi, the body then gets up and continues to fight for a brief period of time. So, in effect, it makes corpse puppets much like those of it's namesake."

"But, that still doesn't explain who Swan is.", said Stan.

"I was getting to that. Swan is a man in a coma in a military hospital, but beyond that, I don't know. I don't know his real name, or where the hospital is, or why if 'Duck' and 'Goose' succeeded did 'Swan' not succeed. But, hey, at least we know something about him which makes him a lot less dangerous.", said Deacon as he crossed his arms.

"You may want to reconsider that.", said Stan. "Remember Kyle and Cartwright?"

"Yeah...", said Naomi. She looked peeved.

"Swan got them."

"WHAT?", exclaimed Deacon, "They were World I characters!"

"Yeah, well tell that to Swan. I guess he's found a way around it.", said Stan.

"Crap. If this is true... We may need to contact 'him'.", said Deacon.

"Please tell me you're talking about Nash.", said Naomi.

"No. We have to enlist the services of the elite hacker, Mastah Pimp."

"Oh no...", she said as she buried her face into her hands.

Suddenly, a voice shouted, "Look! It's starting!"

Everyone averted his/her gaze to the expanse of sea before them. A mass of land rose from the water, and made the sea into nothing more than a river. Hills began to form, and grass began to grow. From the sky fell numerous cobblestones, and formed paths and roads. Wooden beams shot from the clouds, and lodged themselves into the ground. From the beams grew walls, and from the walls grew roofs. Trees instantaneously sprouted from the ground, and a water wheel attached itself to a building.

The result was a town filled with houses of the old German style. The walls were all shades of white with the wooden beams used for rectilinear exterior design.

Suddenly, all of the observers were teleported into the town. The yellow text:

WELCOME TO WURZELSTADT.

"Wow." said Deacon Blue, "This sure is a nice looking place." He looked around.

"Yeah.", said Naomi, "Let's just find Mastah Pimp, and get this over with."

A voice behind them yelled, "Top 'o the morning, $!%#&es! The Mastah Pimp is here! Celebrate the new town with some cyber action from the finest #%&s the World has to offer." Naomi, Deacon, and Stan looked behind them to see a fair-skinned man with orange hair, and his eyes were obscured by his shades. He carried a heavy-looking ornate wooden cane, and wore a black shirt, with a long-tailed, pinstriped, purple blazer draped over his shoulders with matching pants and hat. At the top of his hat was an audacious-looking yellow feather. He walked with an arrogant, rhythmic swagger, and talked with an Irish accent. Two female characters followed him. One of them, a Heavy Axeman, wore a tight-fitting red dress that was seemingly wrapped around her straight from a Saran Wrap package. She had reddish-brown hair, deep-brown eyes, and carried a Golden Axe. The other character was a Blade Master who wore a tight-fitting black leotard with thick, strategically placed leather belts, deep blue hair, and grey eyes. She carried a rather expensive looking sword.

". . . This is going to be trouble.", said Naomi.