.hack//LIMINALITY Fan Fiction / .hack//SIGN Fan Fiction ❯ .hack//CHECK ❯ Showdown ( Chapter 31 )

Chapter 31 // Showdown

 

. . .

 

“Huh? Your cheek... It moved...”

 

. . .

 

In the blowing snow, a mass of player characters surrounded the five figures on all sides. The five figures, Deacon Blue, Stan, Naomi, Fang and Nash stood back to back, weapons at the ready, and staring at the multitudes that stood before them.

 

“So...”, began Jack, “I guess this means that one way or the other, this is the last we'll see of you.”

“Yep.”, replied Swan, “Though, there is one more thing I've been meaning to do...”

 

Nash began to apply Speed Charms to the party. “What is that?” she asked.

“Oh... You'll see soon enough. It would be a shame to spoil the mood...”, replied Swan.

 

“Uh-huh. Look, we're gonna start kicking your ass now.”, said Stan.

“Very well.”, Swan snapped his fingers, and the player characters readied their stances.

 

Naomi whispered, “Remember the plan.”

 

. . .

 

A man rushed into the sphere, mumbling to himself, “This is bad... This is bad... This is bad...” He leaned on the railing. Staring at the hologram of the five in the center of the sphere, he shouted, “THE DR CANNONS WILL NOT FUNCTION! THEY'VE BEEN BLOCKED, OR SOMETHING! THERE'S NOTHING WE CAN DO! WE'RE SCREWED!”

 

. . .

 

The five looked into the sky. “WHAT?!”, shouted Stan, “Did he just say what I think he said?!”

“I think he just said what you thought he said.”, replied Deacon Blue.

“He said we're screwed...”, said Fang, “What are we gonna do, man, what are we gonna do?!”

“Hmmm... Well, we can't gate out...”, said Stan.

Nash used a Flash Bomb... Nothing happened.

“OH GOD, IT'S NOT WORKING!”, panicked Nash.

“Calm down, people...”, said Deacon Blue, “We're far from screwed.”

Naomi turned to Fang, “That's it. I won't date a wuss.”

Fang hanged his head.

“The question still hasn't been answered.”, said Stan, “What are we gonna do?”

“Remember the Impossible event?”, said Deacon Blue.

“Yeah.”, said Naomi.

“Same plan here.”

“Um... Wait a second,” said Nash, “what exactly happened during this `Impossible event'?”

“You'll catch on.”, said Stan.

“On three.”, said Deacon Blue, “One.”

“Two.”, said Stan.

“Three.”, said Naomi.

 

“TASTE THE FUNKY MONKEY!”, shouted Stan, Naomi, and Deacon Blue as they vaulted into the throng of player characters.

 

“Eh?!”, said Nash and Fang. Some player characters had made their way to them. Nash unloaded a quick punch, punch, kick combo on one, and knocked the player character into several others. The player characters disappeared.

 

. . .

 

Deacon Blue brought his blade down on a player character as he landed. He then swung his blade in a wide arc, and took out several other surrounding characters. One of the characters lunged at him. Deacon Blue plunged his blade into the character, swung it around to take out several other approaching characters, and launched the character into the distance.

 

. . .

 

“Duplicate!”, shouted Naomi, and a double appeared. Naomi landed, and swept a character. She continued the spin, and slashed another. The double landed, and hopped over her to kick a player character that was approaching her from behind. The two Naomi spun in to slash two other player characters.

 

. . .

 

Stan twirled his spear about him taking out many of the player characters that approached. He brought his spear around, and eliminated another character. He began to run further into the mob, stabbing and slashing characters all of the way.

 

. . .

 

Nash jumped in, and dodged a punch by ducking it. She dodged the assault of another player character, and unleashed a short combo on yet another character. Fang launched some throwing daggers at the characters Nash had dodged. Nash looked into the distance to see Swan. Nash knocked some more player characters out of the way. “Fang! Now!”, shouted the woman.

 

Fang began to spin in place rapidly. “Hyper Maelstrom!” Thousands of daggers and shuriken filled the air, and pierced through many of the reanimated characters in a wide area. As characters began to fall and vanish around him, Nash ran straight towards Swan.

 

. . .

 

“What the hell?!”, said a man at a computer.

“What?”

“The DR cannons... They're arming...”

“That's great.”

“. . .”

“Uh-oh... What?”

“It's aimed at Nash.”

“We've got an emergency here!”

 

. . .

 

Nash dashed in and delivered an uppercut to Swan's mid-section, sending him upwards. 500.

 

Swan smiled.*Thuck, thuck, thuck* 500. Fang had thrown three daggers into his chest, but Swan was still smiling.

 

“Focus Maelstrom!” Suddenly, with extremely quick movements, Fang began to throw numerous daggers directly at Swan. The daggers pierced Swan all over, but he still smiled.

 

. . .

 

“****! WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING!”

“Contact in three, two...”

 

. . .

 

“One.”, said Swan

 

A bright yellow beam shot from the sky, and hit Nash directly. Nash began to scream.

 

. . .

 

Bonner screamed at the top of his lungs. A horrible, bloodcurdling scream. All of his muscles seemed to tense as he vibrated in his seat, when suddenly, the screaming stopped.

 

Shelly ran to Bonner after seeing what had happened on the hologram displayed in the middle of the sphere. “He's not breathing!”, she shouted.

 

A man in a white coat leaned against the wall, covered his face, and said, “****, now it's really hit the fan. Dammit!” He turned to a man at a computer. “Just what the hell happened?!”