People sprinted out of school for the weekend, some holding umbrellas, others having their hoods on, while some simple chose to enjoy the rain that came down upon them, each drop more refreshing than the last. James, in particular, was one of the three people out of a thousand who stared up at the gray sky with no sweatshirt, no jacket, but rather just a regular short-sleeved shirt. His jeans were soggy from the rain that continued to drench them. In his pocket was his cell phone with a waterproof cover. James’ hair was wet from the rain, drooping down over his eyes and making him push it out of the way every few seconds. He chose to walk home today, instead of taking the bus, just to enjoy the rain and save himself the trouble of finding a seat that wasn’t next to a few choice kids that tended to annoy him.

His house was maybe half a mile away, a little more, maybe a little less than what he thought. He walked home a few times a week, but lately, he had been doing it five days out of the week. He sighed and stuffed both of his hands into his pockets, moving forward under the trees so he didn’t freeze his arms off with the cold rain that bit at him with a thirst for skin. He started in a light jog, grabbing at the sides of his backpack in order for it not to hit his back every time he took a step. Then, he started in a full-out sprint, charging off and taking a sharp right turn into his neighborhood. A lot of people were closing their blinds and taking in the trash that they had left out for the morning. He started to jog for a minute more and then slowed down into a walk, taking slow, deep breaths and watching the leaves spin down to the ground below him. He moved forward across the wet grass and moved on, his light feet moving across the lawn and then hitting the driveway. He put the garage code in. 1, 2, 3, 4, and then he clicked the button that opened the door. They had never bothered to change it; it wasn’t like anyone enjoyed breaking into their house and stealing…there hadn’t been a robbery in years.

The boy started to whistle as he walked through the empty garage and let his backpack slide off his back and then slipped his shoes off. He opened the door and threw the backpack to the side of the laundry basket before stretching and sliding across the wood floor into the kitchen. No one was home, as usual; his mom and dad were at work. He had a bit of homework that weekend, but instead, he chose to not do it, but instead try and relax a bit until he really felt the need for it. He really couldn’t do homework on Fridays when he knew they had a three-day weekend. He slid across the floor again, this time in the direction of the stairs. He looked to the right into the living room, at his cat that lounged about, its eyes open and staring in the direction of him. He gave a light smile back and moved up the steps, using his hand a bit to speed up the process of going up.

He turned and moved up the remaining steps before turning a quick right in the direction of his room. The house was quite nowadays, after his brother had gone off to college. He would’ve been going to college, but he had kind of…yeah. He really didn’t like to think about that. He opened the door to his room and slid it shut, looking at the bed and then at his messy desk full of magazines and junk that needed to be thrown away. He frowned and picked up an empty bag of chips and a soda can, staring at them awkwardly. He scowled as he smelled it and then threw them into the trashcan. Ugh. He had such bad habits for this stuff.

He picked up some of the magazines and manuals he had been using lately, throwing them into his bookcase without another thought before taking a seat into the chair and rolling in. He stared at the screen for a moment and clicked on the ‘You have one new e-mail!’ message that popped up. It was actually more of a flash-mail to him, but it didn’t matter. He had chosen for them to be sent to his e-mail too, just in case he hadn’t decided to log in that day or something. It was, obviously enough, from Sen, and had been sent an hour or two before. He started to read:

So there was his message. The boy immediately grabbed the headset and slipped it on, not bothering to mess with the clips or any other kinks you could adjust. He could only hope she wouldn’t be mad at his late entrance; it had been about two hours since the message had been sent. He grabbed the controller and let his fingers glide over it, clicking on the appropriate buttons to start up the game. He put it down and let his fingers dance across the laptop keyboard, hitting the keys in a quick dance. Then, once it confirmed that, he picked up the controller and waited. It was go time, at last.

Golden rings showered down in the middle of Mac Anu, revealing the Fist Fighter known as Shenmock in ‘The World’. It had taken a bit of time to get him this far with things, but he was now level twenty-six, feeling stronger than ever and standing out of the crowds as someone to stay away from. He didn’t care, though, as he wasn’t going to pick on any new players; those that did were pathetic. The boy stretched his arms, revealing his blue jacket along with a bit of new equipment he had achieved in his last adventure. He yawned once and then moved off into the crowd of people. He still had to get used to standing out amongst everybody as a higher-level player, but he knew he’d get used to it in time. He walked across the bridge, his cloak billowing behind him in a professional manner, as if he was the king of the world, or ‘The World’. He laughed lightly to himself at his own stupid joke before sliding into the shadows.

It seemed longer than usual to get to the hideout. He wanted to same some cool name, but he knew that they didn’t have one. They were just a group of miscreants, people who did other people’s dirty work for them and then came back to do more of that dirty work. It wasn’t exactly something that every player would hope for; just doing things with people you had never met before, but in his opinion, it was all good fun when you got to know the people you worked with. Today he’d get to know Sen better, the girl who always seemed to have her blade somewhere near his neck, which was not a good thing in every case. He wondered if Kai would be there with her, lingering about with that stupid piece of wheat in his mouth, or would he get to see Zen in there preparing for one of his own missions? He never knew what he did, but he was always gone whenever they were there. What could he be doing that was so time consuming? Well, he was the head guy, after all…

He moved to the left, still lost in thought. Sen would be training him in stealth today; his class was actually built for that kind of stuff. He could only wonder what kind of stealth they would be doing. Sticking to the trees was obviously one of them that she wouldn’t teach, as that was a simple one. Maybe going underground in some way could be an option? He had no freaking clue how he could do that without using up all of his spell points and making a racket in the process, but that was a possibility. There was blending in with your surroundings by wearing some kind of camouflage. Then…what else was there? There wasn’t a lot other than being quiet and gliding across the ground on silent feet. She would be teaching him to be silent, he was guessing, because things like stealth were actually pretty easy. It would likely be a mission like yesterday, where he’d be required to surprise someone and finish it not with a fight, but with stealth by hitting him and then disappearing. That was only possible in the middle of an ever-thickening mist or in a forest…yeah, one of those two.

He turned again and then veered to the left. He turned the knob and opened it into the candle-lighten room, where Sen sat, lounging lazily in a chair. She looked to him. ”You’re late,” she said, yet it wasn’t a snarl or anything harsh. It was more of a ‘You’re late, come on, get ready, we have to go soon’ kind of one. He shrugged and gave her a half-smile. She shrugged back as if nothing was wrong and then jumped up off the chair and moved into one of the rooms. Surprisingly enough, she hadn’t bothered to change; she must’ve been out doing something else like a dungeon adventure while he was gone. The boy moved into his own room that Kai had told him about and pulled on the clothes. In thirty seconds, he was out in his uniform, his cloak wound tightly around him to protect anyone from seeing it. His new dark brown hair from the spray she had given him shot up in a spiky-like format that he slightly enjoyed looking at now. He was starting to respect these people a little better with each day. That was always a good sign.

She was out probably ten seconds before him, already stretching and touching her bare toes. She looked up at him, a smile plastering her expression. ”Okay, I gave most of the basics in my flash-mail. We’re doing stealth today and our mission is really to just…kill the guy. I don’t know what’s that going to do to him, but it’ll hopefully scare his pants off from the look of us.” She pulled a blade out and smacked it against her palm. The sound it gave off echoed around the room. ”We’ll be going to a forest-type area with a lot of trees, so for us, it’ll be quite easy to surprise him. When we attack, we attack and disappear before he can catch any sight of us. Got it?” Shenmock gave a silent nod. ”Good.”

She slipped on a cloak, ran a finger through her blonde hair, and then towards the door, Shenmock behind him, his mouth open for a quick question. ”So, Sen? Would you rate your training harder or easier than Kai’s? His was tough, I guess, and I didn’t get the full throttle of it. So?” His voice was clear and calm, not shaky like how his voice usually came out. They were learning to straighten and toughen him up a bit. They weren’t in a life-threatening situation, sure, but he still wanted to know whether or not it’d be some kind of torture chamber for him.

She shrugged and turned after sliding her hood on. He slid on his own. ”Sure, I guess. I try my best to straighten you up and make you a bit harder to scare. I’m thinking with this kind of outfit, you’ll scare someone’s pants off if you come right behind him and they turn around. That’s not what we’re aiming for, so…” She went silent as they walked off into the crowds, dodging through them and doing their best to stay hidden. Usually, it’d be an uneventful experience, but surprisingly enough, the boy was bumped into, and unlike Kai, Sen wasn’t there to grab him and pull him back up. He hit the ground, his hood sliding off. He got up and pulled it back on before anyone else could notice. Sen shoved him forward without another word. He could only hope that no one he had passed by this afternoon noticed him…

The two were in the Theta server a second later, in the beautiful city of Dun Louriug, which rose over the clouds and looked oh-so beautiful around them. Grass hung out and grunties grazed in their distinctive sheds out at the main shop for buying grunties. There wasn’t much to do there, but Sen managed to wait a minute to let him absorb his surroundings for a bit. He took a breath in, let it out, and then the two were off on their mission, Shenmock a bit freaked, while Sen smiling the whole way. Oh, this would be so much fun for the two of them.

The field seemed damp; it was just the thing he didn’t need after the murky day at school. He just watched the window and watched the clouds as they lingered over their school, casting its long shadow over them and letting the thunder crackle about in the air. It was the same here, but not as damp and the thunder was far in the distance. Water dripped down from the center of leaves, hitting the grass and then coming down into the soil where it disappeared from their view. Sen stood by his side, one ear to the forest, the other to the other half. She turned around and did her best to listen for anybody moving around. Trees were scattered about, long ones with roots that came across the grass and stretched out until the roots were intertwined with other trees’ roots. The boy let his cloak slide off, revealing the silver armor and his dark, asphalt-colored sleeveless shirt. He stretched, pulled the turtleneck a bit, and touched his toes as if to emphasize that this was an easy assignment, when it wasn’t.

She stopped and twitched. ”He’s not far off. I think he’s an archer, by the sound of things, so it should be easy unless someone gets loud.” She gave a light laugh as if it was not a big deal, but he could only stare awkwardly at him. ”Instead of me doing it and finishing it off for you or something easy like that, you’ll be the one doing things around here. More or less, we’re trying to kill him without him noticing us. He’ll probably have the idea of an evil ninja in mind, so don’t make a sound, less he’ll know that it’s just a regular player aiming to scare his pants off so he’ll stop hacking into the game.” She shrugged. ”This is something I do on a regular basis, maybe three or four times a week, so I know what to do. For this exercise, we’ll be sticking to the trees and making things a bit easy.” She listened again and grabbed him before leading him in the direction of a tree that hung over the pathway. She jumped in with ease and landed on it before helping him up into it.

She crouched and looked in the direction of where she heard him coming. ”Now, upon my signal, you’ll move in. Make a move and you’ll be dead before you know it. He should have his guard off, so if you grab him, you’re done for the day. I’ll be in there before you know it.” She started across the branch, crawling like a squirrel before launching herself off the other branch. She looked back. ”Now, get ready for your plan of attack. I’d suggest using the vines around here for advantage. If he doesn’t come under one, wait and try later. If he leaves, well, we’ll find him.” With that, she disappeared, her body moving off and disappearing behind the brush. He stared for a second and then shook his head slowly.

The boy moved silently across until he was sure his opponent would see him on the branch above. At that point, he stepped back a few feet and hid in the underbrush, slipping on the mask as he did so and keeping one eye open so he could see if the man would be coming anytime soon. For now, he could only think of what would happen and how he would do it. There was a vine dead in the middle of it, unsurprisingly enough, but he couldn’t risk going for it and then coming out. It would take too much time and he might be spotted. Then again, she’d give him the whistle once he was near, so…

Shenmock moved across the branch, snatched the vine, and inched back all in a second. He still wasn’t exactly sure how he would do it. Once he spotted him, he’d need Sen’s help to make things a bit easier on him. If he just jumped off, he’d break the vine in a second. If she helped him down a bit, she could still get there in time to finish the job. The boy crouched over and stared through in the direction of where she had disappeared in. He saw the branches rustling over there; he knew it was likely Sen, but he sure couldn’t take any chances in this situation. He pulled back and hid himself the best he could in the brush. Light footsteps and then she was there, crouching down and looking at him with a tilt of her head.

”He’s on his way…and I guess I realized I’ll need to be here. You can’t do mission impossible alone, can you?” She laughed, but he couldn’t see if her expression was a sad laugh or the type you’d get when you knew the mission was going to be a success. He still had the vine in one hand and while hiding, had managed to tie it. She could easily throw him and hang him from there, but in this situation, she was using him as someone who would come down and make things quick. ”Once he comes close enough to the branch, we’ll inch down and I’ll help you go down. If it snaps, I’ll do my best to conceal you, but if I can’t in time, I’m guessing we’re just going to have to make ourselves known…” She didn’t seem too happy with that kind of thing, but her voice was calm enough that he was assured that she wouldn’t do anything like that.

There were quiet footsteps that he could hear, and from the sound of things, they were slow. He peered through the bushes to see a man holding his bow up, prepared for anything that came by. He had chestnut brown hair and gentle golden eyes. He wore a long, amber cloak that seemed too long for him, along with a skirt and jacket equipped. He looked like a true RPGer, but for some people, that seemed a bit too weird. He moved forward, pointed his arrow up at their tree, stopped for a second, and then moved on. He didn’t let out a sigh of relief, but rather inched quietly to the branch at the top of his shoulder from Sen. He moved gently across the branch and for a second, he thought he’d make it, but then there was that small twitch that broke his cover.

Sen grabbed him in an instant and wrenched him back as an arrow whizzed past him and thumped into a tree. Sen’s hand had slid under his mask and was now covering his mouth as a yelp managed to escape from him. She took a deep, quiet breath, waited for a second, and then pushed him forward as the man turned around to the other tree and looked up, muttering something unintelligent to himself. Sen, without a word, grabbed the vine, nodded to him, and let him slowly come down from the tree. It felt too much like some kind of video game where you…wait, this was a video game, after all. They were just copying the concept, a good concept at that. The man had his back turned to him and was about to turn around when Shenmock’s arms wrapped around his neck and squeezed hard.

The man let out a low groan and dropped his bow, wheezing and struggling about for a moment. Sen was down on the ground, hardly a noise following. She twirled her blade once and then let it come forward and gouge into his flesh three times, three stabs, and then be pulled back to rest at her side as the man dropped to the ground, face planting on the ground and muttering something else that was unintelligent. His character data dematerialized a second later and so they were left to wait for a second. Sen sighed and slid off her mask. ”You still need to work on those occasional yelps of surprise. Your balance could do better, but that’ll have to come with time.” She shook her head slowly. ”But, we did complete the mission and go unnoticed by the enemy, so I’ll say that you did that much right. Anyways, let’s head back to the Theta server so we can head to a place like this. I don’t like the idea of staying here; he’s likely to be back soon in order to recover the levels or anything he’s lost.”

He shrugged and slid off his own, giving a half-smile just for her sake. ”Balance is something that everyone has to work on, I guess. I tried my best, but I guess I have to get rid of those. I’m getting stronger, but old habits stay strong. That isn’t exactly a good thing, is it?” She shook her head and crossed her arms. ”After a bit of training, sure.” He sighed and relaxed his muscles that had managed to tense up when they had almost been spotted.

”Don’t worry, I’ll smack you into shape. Just know, though…when it comes to that stuff, I tend not to show any mercy in things. I think you’ll find you’re going to hate vines once you’re done.” Golden rings enveloped her. All he could remember at that point was the cold smile that she wore on her face, that cold, cold smile that annoyed him in ways that he really thought not possible.

Oh gosh, this wasn’t going to be good.

Great, more training.

It seemed that every time he made even made a twitch in a quest, they’d bring him out to another mission in order to train them. Unless he had done something completely perfect like dove in, killed the guy in seconds, and then jumped back into the tree without another word. That was likely the only way he could’ve gotten out of it, but he just had to do it every time he completed something. Sure, he had done it before and slightly enjoyed fighting Kai, but he really wasn’t all too happy with the fact that she said ‘You’re really not going to like vines after this’. That was not a good sign and in fact, he was almost tempted to sign off when they had been in the Theta server. Sure, she’d get extremely angry at him and he might’ve been kicked out, but he would’ve escaped all the troubles of getting smacked with the flat of a blade. The boy, now alone in the forest, pulled off his cloak once again, revealing his silver armor and tight pants. He put one hand on his hip while the other slid down near where his pocket was. He looked up to where the sunlight slid through and reflected off his hair.

She was watching. He was sure of it. She would watch his every move and when he thought he found her or something, she’d jump in, tackle him, and then hang him from a vine. He turned around, only to find a sea of trees and leaves rolling about in the breeze. For a second, he watched as they went and then he whirled around in the direction of where he heard movement. He knew she was going to take the sound of leaves moving across the grass to his advantage. He saw the slightest shape over there…aha! He moved forward eagerly, yet he was still cautious enough that he tried to swing from the branches in order to move away from the ground. He moved forward and crouched down. There was a single strand of blonde hair waving about in the air. It was moving to the right, so she’d obviously be in that direction.

He shook his head slowly and moved to the left, only for something to squeeze around his leg. He was wrenched up immediately and then stopped once he was about six feet off the ground. ”What the…?!” he muttered, looking up at the tree above him. She landed in front of him, graceful as ever, and laughed at the sight of him. He growled in response, only to get the flat of her blade smacked across his mask, making it rattle for a moment and then coming back to its normal position. He couldn’t help but give off a sigh. ”You win, I lose,” he said straightly. She put her hands on her hips and stepped back.

”There aren’t going to be strikes in this game, nor any lessons. You’ll be using stealth to catch me and if you make the slightest sound to give yourself away, you’ll find my blade at your neck like before. This isn’t going to be anything like Kai’s, no teachings, no power crap, but rather stealth and how you’re going to execute it.” She shrugged carelessly. ”But, even if you do catch me, you won’t exactly be able to beat me. Only if I feel that you’ve passed…it could be twenty minutes from now, it could be an hour, or it could be anything above or under that.” With that, she jumped, grabbed onto the branch, and cut the vine that held him. He hit the ground with a brief thump! and then get off, rubbing at his head and looking in the direction in which she had left in.

This time she was obviously giving him a bit of slack by letting him hide some place. Yet he still didn’t know what good hiding places there were in the forest. He didn’t really think there would be any particular branches he could hide on and if he was supposed to be speedy and silent, he’d go slower than her, probably not even long enough to catch her without revealing himself! He scratched his head impatiently and grabbed onto the branch. If he gave himself away, she’d immediately act, and if she gave himself away, he’d immediately act. The problem was, they never knew if it was a trap or not. For all he knew, she was just taking a perch on the nearest branch and holding a vine down there. It was completely obvious the time before, but he was sure now she would either cover it or do something to make it harder to get out of…something like that. Using spells to win was out of the question, due to the fact that it would give himself and his position away, not to mention he’d get some lecture from someone…it was only necessary in close calls.

Shenmock looked up and launched himself up to the branch she had once been on. He stood on it for a second, trying to look for any pattern she left, and then veered to the west. If he had any luck, he might find a hiding place without encountering her, but if she was going all sorts of strange ways, she would obviously find him eventually. On the way, though, he did his best to work on being silent and sticking to the base of the trees instead of the outsides of it. Going on the outside was more fragile and would make more noise, while the sturdier of the branches would obviously make less to no noise at all. It was common sense, really, but it was common sense he bothered to actually listen to.

The boy hit the base of a tree and touched the bark with his toes, letting the rest of the body slide into place after it. It was slower, but it sure made things quieter for him. He held a gloved hand to his ear and listened for anything that would come, but only heard nothing. It was either she was right behind him about to swing a sword at him or she wasn’t anywhere near. He turned around, looked up to the branch that loomed above with nothing but a squirrel on it, and then turned, moving forward onto the edge of a branch and bouncing harmlessly off of it. Not a leaf danced off of it; he was starting to get a bit used to it. Just as long as he didn’t put all of his weight into it, he’d be fine. The former long arm looked to the right and then to the left before leaping off and hitting another branch. He was more keeping a lookout rather than hiding; he knew she’d already seen him by now since he had been moving around for about a minute or two, but right now, he was just trying to keep a good eye out for her. If she came in to attack, he’d counter with something. He was sure of it.

The boy slid off the branch and hit the ground without a sound. He let his hands fall to the side and then heard the rustle of leaves and a bush rustling behind him. The bush wasn’t very apparent, but he was sure that she was hiding in it, waiting for him. It was quite a good way, but still, if you listened hard enough, you heard the bush rustling a bit more than the grass. He turned on his toe and leaned forward carelessly, staring in the direction of the bush. He took a step forward and looked closer at it, listening to the rustle of it. Then, he turned around, sighed, and then moved forward, jumping into the bushes to hit a…stick?

A soft laugh and then a blade was at his throat. He groaned, satisfying her taste for annoyance in his tone. ”One more thing for stealth. Distractions. It can be somebody else or even just a stick, like what I just used. You kind of barged and probably would’ve caught me just as I was coming at you, but then all you found was a stick. Too bad, so sad.” She pressed it closer to his neck playfully, letting the blood soak up and stain his black turtleneck. Sweat beaded down from the side of his brow and hit his cheek before dripping under the mask and hitting the grass below them. She ran a finger down the back of his armor, licked her lips, and disappeared once again, leaving him to turn around and stare into the now-empty forest.

So, so far she had caught him with a simple trap and this time she had used a stick as a distraction. That was two strikes for him and it was likely that she would fed up if he had dozens more, but still, she could’ve killed him a dozen times over by now. He stood there, motionless, trying to think before he jumped and grabbed onto an opening in the tree. He pulled himself from there and leaned against the trunk lazily, one of his legs hanging down to the side while the other was stretched out over the branch. He took a deep breath and let hot air come back into his character’s face, letting more sweat bead down the side of his forehead. So, she was using traps on him, huh? The boy ran a finger over a burly arm, squeezed them for a second, and then set off into the forest once again.

He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do now. Just searching around aimlessly was stupid, but finding a good hiding spot really needed that… He crouched on a branch, letting his fingers curl around the sides before he launched himself to the ground, where he turned again to look at the path through the forest. Vines were scattered about before they led into the dungeon, coming over each other and leading into the passageway. He was tempted to go in, but sighed instead. Shenmock moved across the grass in the middle of the path before veering off to the right and moving through a few bushes before landing in a small clearing, about six feet in length and width. With that, he scratched his head and with one finger, made his own little diagram of the forest. He circled a small spot in the middle, frowned, and then with his best thought, circled another one as Sen’s location.

”Okay, now if she’s heading towards me to try and trap me, she’ll obviously come past a place in this immediate area,” he muttered. He made a straight line across it and then looked up before moving up into the nearest tree. I’ve got to be quick with this. If she’s coming in the direction I think, I should be heading in her direction. If I can find a good place for a trap or an ambush, I might be able to clear this. The boy danced across a tree and launched himself off into another tree. They were all so big and so easy to jump off of…he was just happy that he had managed to avoid all the monster portals so far.

He had his hopes up for surprising the girl by just coming at her head on. For now, he’d just have to move on and once he heard her, he’d make his move. The boy grabbed onto a branch and spun once before landing on it, his bare feet firm on it. His ear twitched. Something was coming; for all he knew it could be a squirrel or a bird, but he was almost sure it was Sen. Yet an idea came to mind at that point. He couldn’t hide in this area. She was the stealthy one here, but maybe, he didn’t need stealth at this point. He needed surprise in order to beat her. Stealth was like saying to tip-toe forward and grab her, but she wasn’t going to be caught like that. Surprise was on his side in this situation, so he’d have to execute it well.

The boy jumped, doing his best to not make a sound even in his excitement, hit the opposite branch, and barreled forward in the direction of the form coming forward from the other tree. There was the slightest gasp from her direction and then a bam! as Shenmock tackled her head on, bringing her down to the ground an instant later, his arms wrapped around his neck in a choking position. They slid on the grass a few feet before stopping. The fist fighter gave a light laugh at how she snarled at him in response to what he did. For ten seconds, they were in that position and at any point in time when she’d attempt to move, he’d tug a bit on her turtleneck and chuckle softly.

”I’m sure you’d never do that in an actual mission, but I guess it really is the only way you could even catch me.” She gave a laugh and fidgeted a bit. Shenmock let go and slid back a bit, giving her some space for a while. She stood up immediately, stretched, and looked down at him. ”Still, I think you could’ve done better with your stealth. One more time and then we’ll head back. Maybe I’ll give you a small training exercise, but it really depends on how well you do in this last exercise. Same as before; just hope you can maybe touch me without making yourself known this time.” She ran a finger through her blonde hair, laughed lightly, and then she was off, as if there had been no conflict at all. He groaned. He didn’t want another exercise…but after this, he could maybe go home, relax a bit or something. The boy turned and let his bare feet slide across the grass. He stepped on a root and followed it to the base of a tree before grabbing onto the branch inches above his head and pulling himself up on it.

His gloved hands trailed across the rough surface of the trunk and then came down to the bandages that had been recently put on his legs. Then he came up and touched the small tattoo that he had gotten, an X shape on it, yet it was only visible when he was in a mission. The boy tapped the armor that was connected to his glove and then pushed himself off the tree, launching himself to another, where he grabbed from it and swung from it and in the direction of the tree opposite from that one, as if he was in a playground. He liked the Tarzan feeling; everyone would, unless they were scared of falling down ten feet and hitting the ground on two feet without feeling your legs buckle under you.

Instead of jumping to another tree and making the same maneuver as he had before, he grabbed onto another branch and pulled himself up. For some reason, he didn’t like how his character handled jumping. He knew he had increased the height when he had modified his character a bit, but really, he hadn’t expected him to have trouble with the smallest of things. Instead, he thought it’d make things a bit easier for his character; being tall and having long, slender legs did help, didn’t it? Something like that… The boy grabbed onto the branch and pulled himself up again and then launched himself to the topmost branch. It was hard to keep his balance and get a good view of the area around him, but whoever said any of this was meant to be easy? The former long arm peered over the trees and looked at the endless sea of green leaves. There was so much to see and yet in every direction he looked, he always saw the same thing: a mix of chestnut brown and green, close to the color of his hair and eyes. He hadn’t noticed that until just now… He frowned. He couldn’t hear anything and he couldn’t see anything other than a few glints of the portals that hovered about.

The boy ducked down and slid off the branch before jumping off and landing on one far below. He crouched down, just in case it would make any major noise. It did make a bit of noise, but it wasn’t a whole lot to notice unless you were ten feet away from the immediate area. The boy twiddled his thumbs for a moment and then stepped back under the protection of the leaves. For now, all he could do was wait here for a while; it wasn’t that great of a hiding spot, something that anyone could do, but he was at least hidden in a place that was everywhere. Unless there were dozens of the same person, it’d be hard to find him until it was too late, or so he hoped. He snatched a leaf from the ground below him and stared at it for a moment before ripping it clear and half. He threw them both a way out of boredom and crouched in his perch.

It was ten minutes, maybe fifteen before he even saw the slightest movement again, and that was a squirrel racing through the forest in search of food. The boy, at that point, leaned back against the tree, keeping a good ear out and a close eye out for Sen. If she was to come, she’d obviously be avoiding the path; it was just a guess, but he expected that she had habits of straying away the original trail that most players passed through in order to get to the dungeon. Then, there was that noise, that one noise that made him jump for a second. It was the slightest rustle of a branch that was likely only yards away from his position, maybe even ten or so feet. He took in a deep breath, inched back, and held it as he looked to the position of Sen, who was looking about with a close eye.

Silently, he watched as she moved to his own branch. At that point, he had moved up to the upper branch without a sound and inched near the end. This was where it was all at; if he made a sound, she’d catch him, but if he was successful in not making a sound, he could catch her. He slid forward, looked down again at her position. She didn’t look up, though, as it was pretty obvious that it’d be much harder to move around and surprise someone when the branches were so fragile. With that, he jumped off, praying that she didn’t hear him as he came down. A shadow fell over her and before she could react, he was behind her. But, just to his unluckiness, she ducked before he could do anything and slid behind him, pulling up her blade and letting it curve around his neck. She breathed on his turtleneck and let her chin fall on his shoulder. She let the blade come a little further before letting it slide away.

”I expected that I would find you at one point. Of course, you used the element of surprise, but when you jump from a higher area, it requires more time and stealth to be able to even surprise your opponent in time. That was your mistake, but overall, you did well.” She relaxed a bit. ”Too bad we didn’t get too much time with the vines this time around. You should know that our next little training session should be a bit harder for you… Anyways, I don’t think you need that next lesson. Doubt you’ll ever use it in battle, so…” She laughed lightly and pulled off her mask before slapping him on the shoulder. ”Come on, kiddo, we’re heading back and giving our report on how well you did. Not sure if you’ll get any better by this, but you at least survived.” Golden rings descended and with that, she disappeared from his sight.

”Day two is over…guess I’ll head back for a while.”

Golden rings were always the main source of transportation when you left or you were on your way to a place, whether it be a root town or a field jammed with monster upon monster. A boy and a girl, Shenmock and Sen, had just left a field and were now wading through the crowds of Mac Anu in silence. The girl grabbed his wrist when they came into the crowds and dragged him through just in case he’d fall behind and get tripped in all of his clumsiness. He was frowning the whole way through and once they were across the bridge and into the alleys of Mac Anu, he pulled the hood off and gave her a cold glare. She gave a light smile in return, but rather ignored the glare and continued on in all of her sweetness. Not.

The boy couldn’t help but stare at the alleys at this point. He had never really bothered to look around, as his mind was so off at that point, but when they actually came through, he found that these parts were looted with all kinds of trash. Bricks were literally cracked in half and most of the buildings had lost most of their color. The usual crimson bricks were now gray and most of them had fallen out. All sorts of trash cans were scattered about with banana peels sticking out along with cracked glass bottles. It was all a mess here and yet whenever they came through, they never found anyone but each other in there. It was so strange to see so much litter and no culprit around. Was it a case, or was it just what CCCorporation wanted them to think? He didn’t bother to ask Sen, though, as he knew it was just something that was trying to mess with his head.

They turned right and then gave a sharp left to where the stained steel door was. Sen opened it without a word, closed it behind them, and then walked in and pulled off her cloak, throwing it into an open door. ”I’m logging out,” she stated, stretching her arms and touching her toes once. She yawned and pulled off the silver armor before throwing it along with her gloves in there with it. She gave a brief laugh for no apparent reason and then walked in. Shenmock walked into his own room and clipped off the cloak before changing into his own clothes and setting the others neatly in a pile in the corner on the room. He splashed some water on the spiky hair and watched as the sky blue color started to come in. He ran two hands and frizzed it up a bit before sighing and slipping on his boots and cloak.

He stepped out of the room and looked around. It was empty, meaning that Sen had already left. Then, a voice echoed from another room. ”Hey, Shen? Come on in here,” the gruff voice of Zen called out. He jumped for a second and then quickly walked in the direction of the door. He pulled it open and closed it behind him, revealing Zen’s own small room. It was a bit bigger than his with a small desk in the middle. He was in his uniform and looking at him with careful eyes. ”Take a seat, my boy,” he said calmly, motioning for him to sit down in a small chair before him. Shenmock couldn’t help but smile at how he took the game so seriously. He took a seat and leaned back, looking at him for a second.

”What is it you need, sir?” he asked in an all-too army type of voice. The boy twiddled his thumbs and watched Zen’s expression go from careful to happy-go-lucky.

”So, you’ve gone on two missions so far, yes? Kai and Sen both reported that you did pretty well for your first two missions. You didn’t do quite as well as both of them did in their first, but they were quite the players back then and still are now.” He leaned back in his chair and scratched his head. ”More or less, you’ll likely be doing this kind of thing for a while before you get to take on harder missions with both of them or just one. Just know that they’re not going to go easy on you and definitely not going to just let you win like that. They were both easy-going today and yesterday, but just be aware and have some good equipment before you take on your next one with them. Just be prepared and you’ll survive.” He gave a quick salute. ”Glad to have you with us, Shen,” he said before returning to looking through a few papers as if he worked at the place.

The boy took his leave and logged out without bothering to grab anything yet. He had money, sure, but he really didn’t want to at the moment. It was about time he did a few of his chores and got ready for dinner. They were going out tonight, after all, so he could at least look forward to a bit of relaxation. James closed the laptop and pulled off the headset, laughing lightly to himself. He might just enjoy this type of thing a bit more than he usually would. He’d just have to find out…

With that, James smiled and drifted off out of his room.

Fin~

Shenmock --> +1 Level - +Heavy Cestus - +Health Drink

I know you wanted Cent to grade it, but I had the time. I'm sure it won't stop him from reading it, no worries. =]