The New World

The year was 20086 FL. The city streets were damp and covered in muck. Two figures stood alone in an empty alleyway, hardly affected by the falling rain. The two were a man and a woman, each with only a single friend in the world. This world was far different than the one in which they had been raised. Here, you couldn't trust anyone and everyone was out to get you.

"Are you sure it's safe here?" The woman asked.

"Hardly," The man replied. "They're bound to catch up soon."

"Then what are we doing standing around? Shouldn't we keep on running?"

The man said nothing. He didn't want to tell her why they had stopped.

"Answer me, damn it! What ar-"

A gunshot cut her off mid sentence. She looked down at the bullet wound in her stomach.

"I'm sorry. I really am." The man said. The concealed gun fell from his jacket. "I wish there was some other way. For what it's worth..."

A red flash at the edge of his sight warned him of danger. He spun around just quick enough to see a masked figure lunge forward with a sword. The blade must have been rather thin, as it easily slid between the man's ribs puncturing on of his lungs. His eyes slowly drifted upwards not focusing on the sky, but rather on the green rectangle that seemed to hang in mid-air.

A segment of it had vanished, leaving about half of it left. As the man with the mask removed his sword, the rest of the bar began to recede. Blood poured from the open wound. the man would have made a sound if he could, but was unable. He collapsed, falling face first into the wet ground.

When the bar had nearly completely run out it turned yellow, and then red. The man's blood began to form a pool beneath his corpse. The masked man looked at him and then at his female companion.

"It's a shame. I would have liked to hear her scream," he said, sounding disappointed. "Oh well. All that really matters is that you're both dead. That's two less we have to worry about."

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The woman slowly opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was the grey sky. It stopped raining? She began to remember what had happened. She looked up at the green bar in the air. A fragment was missing, and a light blue light around the edges was almost completely gone. Within a few seconds it faded away and she found herself able to move.

The woman stood up and practically instantly noticed the body on the ground not to far from her. She walked over slowly, though the coat and the blood told her everything. She rolled him over, and though what she saw wasn't surprising, she covered her mouth to keep from screaming. It was beginning to make sense. The gun he had shot her with didn't contain bullets, but rather something to knock her out and make her appear dead. He had just saved her life at the cost of his own.

Of course, nobility was all well and good, but she hated him for it in a way. Now she was all alone in an unfamiliar and hostile land. She was wondering what to do next, when suddenly she noticed the glint of a small round object on the ground. She picked it up.

It looked similar to an old coin. It seemed weathered and worn, but had words written on it that were clear and easy to read. "Revivisco Lapidem Ardentem"

Is this like a video game world?

Yeah, like virtual reality.

Cool

Yep.

20091 FL.

Logan was laying down on the beach, staring out at the sea. It was impossible to see very far out because a fog always obscured the view. Every now and then Logan would catch glimpses of buildings, but he wondered if his mind was just playing tricks on him. He had been in this world so long that he wouldn't be surprised if it starting affecting his mind. Approaching footsteps broke him from his thoughts.

"Excuse me sir, but you aren't allowed to be here."

"Whatever do you mean?" Logan asked, looking up at the speaker. It was a rather tall man with a white mask. They were carrying a rather thin looking sword, and Logan wagered it could easily tear through muscle.

"This beach is private property. I don't care how you got here, but if you don't leave, I'll have no choice but to-"

Logan got up. "You clearly don't realize who you're talking to; if you did you wouldn't be making threats."

The man didn't really care much for the way Logan spoke to him. "Just get out of here before-"

"Before what?" Logan rudely interrupted. "To be honest, I'm surprised you haven't attacked yet, given your reputation and all."

"You cocky b*st*rd." The man swung for Logan's throat, but it was a rather slow attack, and Logan easily avoided it. The man swung downward with full force, clearly intent on splitting Logan's head open. His sword didn't find its mark however; Logan was far too quick. He rolled out of the way and reached his hand into his pocket, pulling out a small dagger.

"You gonna fight me with that?" The masked man chuckled. His laughter was cut off as the knife flew through the air and embedded itself in his neck. Suddenly he couldn't breathe. Before he could even move Logan pulled the knife out and slit his opponent's throat. The man fell to the ground, obviously dead.

Logan stuck two fingers in the hole where the dagger had hit the man's throat and examined the blood. Using it he drew an X over each of the eye-holes on the mask. From far away it looked as if the man's eyes had become X's, like some sort of cartoon character.

Logan knew that whoever saw this body would know he was here. He added the man's sword to his own inventory, after all, he wouldn't be needing it. While in his inventory Logan pulled out a mask similar to the one his foe wore, but black. He put it on and went on his way. He knew he couldn't stick around any longer and he had wasted too much time staring at the ocean anyways.

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Yeah, so the characters from last chapter need names...

Richard?

Richard you say? What about the female character?

Serena LaMessa. Where did that name come from.

Well. That is certainly a name.

Yes it is.

Yep

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"Are you finally ready?" A voice asked. Logan recognized that the voice belong to Lucy, his teammate who was in charge of the technical stuff.

"Yeah, I just got a little sidetracked is all." Logan said, eager to start the mission.

"Whatever." Lucy replied. "Just remember, you're here to find it and get out, no killing people."

"Got it." Logan said, though in truth he couldn't wait to use his new sword.

"What are you waiting for then?"

Logan made his way to the large building, the many fences and gates surrounding it proving useless against him. The ones that he couldn't climb he simply unlocked or cut through. before long he was standing in front of the building.

"Alright, now you have to get inside. Oddly enough, there aren't a lot of guards outside, almost as if they weren't expecting a night attack. Anyways, the best way to get in would be..."

Logan wasn't listening. He was too busy slashing away at the locks of the entrance to notice what Lucy was saying. He was using a sword with a serrated edge, which easily tore through the chains and locks.  The locks fell to the ground and Logan looked at the man who guarding the entrance, wondering if it was right to leave him alive. As he entered the building, Logan noticed that there were quite a few security cameras. He knew he wouldn't be able to get much further with them there without getting noticed. He checked his inventory for a bow or some other ranged weapon to take them out while they weren't focused on him.

He found a collection of throwing knives, but wondered if it was really efficient. While he was looking through his inventory he noticed two guards, each armed with a rifle, rounding a corner and heading towards him. They seemed too distracted by their conversation to notice him, and he decided to kill them both before they got close enough to notice him.

"Bloody hell, woman! You were supposed to warn me about stuff like that." Logan snapped at Lucy, but there was no response. He wondered if something had happened, but knew he had to go ahead with the mission. With no one to stop him he realized he could do this mission his way.
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The entrance guard slowly came to. He quickly noticed that the entrance he was guarding had been forced open. This probably meant that someone had broken in, but wouldn't there be an alarm. He wondered if that was a sign that whoever was inside hadn't been caught. As the guard came in he noticed that there were two other guards laying on the ground, probably asleep. He noticed that there masks were drawn on, indicating that whoever was in here had seen them asleep. The entrance guard went to shake them awake, but as he got closer he saw that they each had a hole in their throat. Realizing what had happened he took off toward the control room. They had to be warned that someone had broken in.

On his way to the control room, the first thing he noticed was that the wires on all of the security cameras had been cut. And then he noticed the bodies. They littered the halls, more often in pieces than not, each with paint on their mask. He increased his pace, knowing how serious this way, but soon saw something that made him freeze in his tracks. A pile of corpses was stacked against a wall, some of them trailing blood as if they had been dragged over. Above it he saw red writing.

"Have a nice day
                               -The black demon"

He stood there in shock for a moment before running down the hall as fast as he could. The bodies seemed to stop after a while, showing that the demon wasn't headed towards the control room after all. When the entrance guard reached the door he threw it open.

The men in the control room seemed to be sitting there peaceful until the door was suddenly thrown open, making them all jump.

"What is it?" The commander asked. "Can't you see how busy we are?"

"There's an intruder!" The guard exclaimed, "It's the Black Demon!"

"Impossible. If that's the case he must be here for it."

"Why did you say 'it' like that? There's no time for dramatic effect! If we don't do something now-"

"I know, I know." The commander said. "I guess we really have no choice. It is far too important. Activate the self-destruct."

One of the men sitting in front of the control panel nodded and typed some things into his keyboard. A large countdown appeared on the monitor, and then on the monitors of all of the computers in the facility.
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Logan figured what he was looking for was probably inside the locked door before him. It looked important, and if it was really in there then the door would probably have some sort of magic on it. Logan chanted a spell and a wave of mist washed over the door, dispelling the various curses and hexes placed on it. Logan then chopped the door in half with his new sword. It fell apart, like a door would never do in real life. Logan entered the room to find it mostly empty, with a young woman tied up in the corner.

She took one look at him and began to panic.

"It's you! You're here to kill me, aren't you?!?"

Logan sighed, wondering why everyone thought he was some maniacal murderer. He walked over to the woman slowly and sliced through the ropes that bound her.

"I'm not going to kill you, I just want to know where it is."

"Look, for the last time, I don't have it!"

Logan blinked. "I never said you had it."

"Sure, you didn't, but every last one of you that's come in here has."

Logan turned away from her and headed for the door. "I'm not with them, and I know that it's here somewhere. If it isn't in this room then I guess I'll have to keep looking."

The woman stood up. "Wait." she said, stopping Logan in his tracks. "Before you go, tell me one thing. Why did you kill him?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Why did you kill Richard?!?" The girl asked, though it sounded less like a question and more like a shout.

Logan didn't answer. He could hear her crying, but he honestly didn't remember killing anyone named Richard.

"What did he ever do to you?" The girl asked through her tears.

Logan was about to say that he didn't know who this Richard person was, but a mechanical voice interrupted him.

"Self-destruct activated. All personnel must evacuate immediately."

Logan looked back at the girl, who was already starting to panic, and without thinking grabbed her by the wrist and took off down the hall. He had no idea how long the self-destruct timer had, and there wasn't a loud countdown like one would expect. He was just glad that all of the people he ran into were the ones he had encountered before, all corpses now.

It didn't register that the girl he was escorting out of the building had probably never seen corpses like these before, and that the only logical assumption she could make was that he was the one who killed them. Before long they were outside and Logan simply hacked through the gates with his sword as if they were jungle vines, not stopping until they reached an empty field far away from the building.

I guess that's it. The mission has failed. Logan thought, reaching into his pocket and pulling out six stones. He threw them to the ground and they formed a circle. He walked towards it, but a growling sound made him stop. He looked in the direction it came from, but a black shape quickly moved out of his view. He realized that it was nighttime now and cursed himself for getting distracted at the beach earlier.

He shoved the girl toward the circle of stones and readied his sword.

"Go now. I'll hold it off."

"But why..."

"Because only one person can teleport at a time and it takes a while for the stones to recharge."

"No, I mean, why did you save me? You killed all of them, so why not me?"

Logan said nothing. The beast in the darkness growled again and stalked closer to the two. The girl didn't move, just stood there, waiting for an answer.

"I'll explain later, just go now!"

She could tell that he was serious and stepped into the circle of stones. They began to glow faintly. The beast in the shadows leapt at her, but before it could hit her there was a bright flash of blue light, and when it faded the girl was gone, leaving the beast very confused. With its original target gone, it turned its attention to Logan.

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There was a burst of light and Logan looked around, taking in the familiar sight of his HQ. After taking a quick look around his gaze landed on Lucy. She was standing over the girl who Logan had just rescued, who had somehow managed to get tied up again.

"What's going on here?"

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So yeah. It just occurred to me that this part is longer than it should have been somehow.

Nice! Hope there's more.

There probably will be.