.hack//SIGN Fan Fiction ❯ !nF3ct!0N C0mp13t3 ❯ {Infection} ( Chapter 1 )

Title: !nF3ct!0N C0mp13t3

Rating: R

Pairing: KuhnxHaseo

Warnings: graphic gay sex, oral, masturbation, voyeurism, language

Summary: Due to a mysterious AIDA's infection, Ryou and Kasumi become their PCs in The World. Multi-chapter, KuhnxHaseo slash {Spoilers for all games}

Disclaimer: I own nothing. ALTHOUGH I WISH I DID. *Is arrested*

Author's Note: First multi-chapter I'm attempting. I hope I can write this all the way through. 8D

Yes, this is somewhat of a love story... with smut, angst, and adventure. Please R&R, let me know how it's going. I'll appreciate any suggestions you may have.

As always I'm my own beta, and although I strive for perfect grammar some little things get away from me. Sorry. {This is set around the beginning of the Sage Palace Tournament, but Haseo already has Xth Form. It also won't follow the storyline very closely, but will incorporate events from all of the .hack series.}

 

Login.One//{Infected}

 

Σ Unseen Alien Elf Animal

 

Haseo was walking through a forest dungeon, not so much trying to level than to just look at the graphics around him. Sometimes the sheer beauty of the simulated world he'd come to love and hate at the same time overwhelmed him, and he'd just have to warp to one of the Lost Grounds or prettier dungeons to enjoy the scenery. It also helped him think hard, something he seemed to need to do on a regular basis these days. AIDA was spreading because of Sakaki's efforts and Yata was missing, both online and in the real world.

 

The Rogue stopped in one of the more leafy areas of the dungeon and sat down, watching the wind blow the leaves off the trees and sending them spiralling towards the ground. "God Yata. Where are you?" he wondered aloud, leaning back and looking up at the sunlight-dappled trees.

 

"I've been wondering that myself lately," said a voice. Haseo started and looked towards the source of the voice, narrowing his eyes against the glare. Pi appeared in the doorway, pink pigtails shifting slightly in the wind. She came over and sat down next to him.

 

"Listen, Haseo. I really appreciate you... well... being co-operative. I'm awfully stressed right now, and it really takes a lot of the strain off, knowing I can trust you to stay safe and not do anything stupid for the time being." Haseo wasn't sure as to whether this was a compliment or a very roundabout insult to his personality. Deciding it was the former, he replied, "I can't say that I'm feeling much better. Yata's disappearance really shook me up. I mean, I never really liked the guy, but he really was our pillar of strength and our main access to what's going on. Other than you, I suppose."

 

Pi smiled slightly and touched his arm before getting up. “Oh, that's right. I have something for you. Yata had thought it might come in handy, what with the AIDA problem worsening.” Pi used an item and Haseo got a message on his screen, saying “You and anyone in your party are now exempt from the three people in a party rule in the case of Data Drain Awakening.”

 

"I should log out and continue my search for Master Yata. But... try to still have a good time in the World and don't forget the reason normal players still log on every day. Don't forget your love of this world, okay?" Just before the Tribal Grappler warped out, Haseo said, "Pi?"

 

"Yes?"

 

"...Thanks."

 

Haseo finished the dungeon relatively quickly afterwards, levelling once just before he reached the Beast Temple. As he was about to enter, he got a short mail from Kuhn. "Haseo. I need your help. Come to the Outer Dungeons as soon as you can."

 

Θ Hidden Forbidden Hades

 

Forgetting his reward, the Rogue warped out of the area and headed to the Wailing Capital: Wald Uberlisterin. Opening the fault in data, he warped through it and into the Outer Dungeon, where Kuhn was waiting beside the Chaos Gate.

 

"I came as quickly as I could. What's wrong?"

 

Kuhn looked at him gravely. "There are more forum reports of AIDA appearing in areas. There are two more Lost Ones because of it, both innocent players!" The Gunner looked down, hands fisted at his sides. "I can't believe... I'M SO USELESS."

 

Haseo stared at Kuhn's shaking form. This wasn't like the usually upbeat Kuhn he knew at all. "Look, it's not going to do you any good to blame yourself for this. It's no one's fault but-"

 

"IT WAS SILABUS AND GASPARD!" the gunner choked out. "And I couldn't... I couldn't save them." Haseo's facial features went blank for a moment, processing the information.

 

“...no. GOD DAMMIT, NO!” Haseo's legs gave way and he fell to his knees, shuddering with fury. “I will kill Sakaki. I'LL RIP HIM LIMB FROM LIMB. ILL-”

 

“And I'll help,” Kuhn said quietly.

 

“HOW DARE HE TAKE THE WORLD AWAY FROM THEM! IT WAS... IT WAS...” his voice cracked and he couldn't continue, and just sat there, sobbing. “I promised to keep them safe.” Haseo was surprised to see a pair of strong arms wrapping around him, pulling him close to a yellow clothed body. The younger boy cried into the other's shoulder for what seemed like hours, clutching Kuhn's shirt as if it was the only thing left in the world.

 

After Haseo's sobs had quieted to an occasional hiccup, Kuhn spoke, still not releasing his grip on his friend. “I know it's not fair, but we have to stay strong. We can't break down like we just did. For all the Lost Ones... and for Pi, we can't be weak.” They sat in silence for a minute.

 

“Yeah. We'll get `em back, won't we?” Saying this seemed to snap Haseo back to reality, and he immediately detached himself from the other male, muttering an apology and blushing bright red.

 

“Now you're talking.” Kuhn grinned and got up, surveying his surroundings. “What do you say to getting our butts over to this AIDA hotspot?”

 

Haseo smiled a fanged smile and flexed his fingers. “I hope Sakaki's there. I'd like to have a few words with him,” he muttered dangerously, glaring at an Outer Bug floating over in the corner.

 

They warped out of the Outer Dungeon and back to Dol Dona, where they restocked and made the necessary preparations, both being extra cautious and maxing out their inventory levels just in case. Even though the field was at least ten levels beneath them, they had a feeling it wasn't going to be a normal area by any means.

 

Θ Galloping Aster's Dagger

 

As soon as the two entered the area, noise appeared everywhere, signalling data faults all around the place.

 

“Why hasn't anyone reported this area to CC Corp?” asked Kuhn, staring at the starry data streams floating by in the midst of the static. “Gimme a hand with this, will ya?” Haseo muttered, using Skeith to hack into the faults in the area. Kuhn used Magus as well, and soon the white noise disappeared altogether.

 

“This is a pretty heavily corrupted area. We should be careful,” said Kuhn, dodging a passing bit of binary code as if it was going to bite him.

 

The rogue nodded in agreement and looked at his map, running towards the nearest enemies with Kuhn in tow. The monsters were criminally easy, and it didn't take them long to clear most of the field.

 

“All that's left is the boss, and not a sign of AIDA,” Haseo said triumphantly, kicking a treasure chest and earning a surprisingly high level reward for his effort.

 

“Don't get too cocky yet,” Kuhn warned, smiling in spite of his tone of voice. They traversed a few more land masses (and kicked a Sleipnir while they were at it), and found the massive tree stump shaped boss easily.

 

“Here's the boss. This'll be a piece of cake.”

 

As soon as Haseo ran in, he realised there was something seriously wrong with the boss. It was bigger than any other Forest King he'd ever fought, and chunks of data were missing from its massive body, exposing the binary code within. Its hit points were also displaying oddly, where the max points should have been it just showed as !#0$*!&. It stared at him, growling menacingly.

 

“Hey, Kuhn? I think we should get out of here.” The gunner nodded and used a smoke screen, but the barrier around them stayed strong. Black dots began to appear around the monster, entering through the data faults in its body and patching them.

 

“What's wrong with it?” spluttered Kuhn, looking at it with wide eyes.

 

“Endrance once told me about monsters like this. He used to play as a character named Elk seven years ago, and that cat on his shoulder's name was Mia, who had been his best friend in The World R:1. Something weird happened to her, and when he came back to The World in R:2, AIDA masqueraded as Mia, tricking him into believing that was really her consciousness. The monsters seven years ago that terrorized The World were the Eight Phases of the Cursed Wave; our Epitaphs. When battling them, their hit points would be infinite until you could do a Protect Break, which would allow you to Data Drain them and get their hit points down to a normal level.”

 

“So what you're saying is...”

 

“We have to Data Drain it. Boost our morale level as fast as you can so we can hit Awakening.”

 

“But we don't have a third party member.”

 

“Pi gave me a hack this morning that overrides the three party members rule of Data Drain Awakening. She said Yata had told her it might be useful.”

 

“Man, they sure don't call him the Prophet for nothing,” the gunner snorted. Haseo laughed, and then motioned for his friend to follow him. Kuhn nodded then ran at the Forest King which was strangely docile for a monster, especially an AIDA infected one. It was almost leisurely as it half heartedly swiped at Kuhn and Haseo with a massive foot, scattering clumps of dirt every which way.

 

The two began hacking away at it, trying their best to dodge the tiny black circles of AIDA and binary code that came off whenever it was hit. The infinite hit points changed, but still stayed weird characters and numbers. Haseo took an opportunity to Rengeki, raising their morale bar significantly. The monster was barely putting up a fight at all, occasionally swinging a foot in their general direction but otherwise seemingly unphased by their attacks. Kuhn used Dust Bullet, doing tons of would-be damage but only really taking another few pieces of code out of it. Their morale gauge was quickly full after a few more minutes of relentless Rengekis and skills, so Haseo activated his avatar.

 

As he took the data from the Forest King, he noticed something was off. It wasn't the usual data streams flowing into his PC; these ones had black dots infused with them, corrupting the data. Haseo tried to stop the transfer, but it was already complete. Once the screen went back to normal, a message appeared:

 

{ !nF3ct!0N C0mp13t3 }

 

The rogue stared at the bright red words until they faded off the screen. “...no.”

 

 

Ryou tried to move, but his hands were frozen, clutching the controller in a death grip. He tried to scream for help, but black was taking over his vision, clouding his mind. He fell off his chair, landing hard on the floor of his room. “AI....DA.....”

 

 

Kuhn stared at Haseo's motionless body. “Hey, Haseo? Are you alright? Answer me, damnit!”

 

After Haseo had stopped responding, the gunner had defended him as best as he could, defeating the Forest King quickly. Even though it had 10000HP after being Data Drained, AIDA was gone and its Attack and Defence stats were the same as a level 100 monster. Even when the barrier around them had disappeared, his friend had stayed still and unmoving. Kuhn cautiously used a Health Potion, and although Haseo's stats went up accordingly, he stayed frozen.

 

Kuhn was about to short mail Pi for help, but his friend stirred, moaning and clutching his head.

 

“Fuck, how long was I out?” As the rogue's eyes adjusted to the light in the field and he was able to see his surroundings, his eyes widened. As Kuhn watched quizzically, Haseo sat back and emitted a horrified squeak, taking off his PC's gloves and touching the fabric of his shirt. “K-Kuhn?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“I... I'm in the game.”

 

“I know you are. So am I.” The gunner was giving his friend one of those looks that always said, “Okay, you have two seconds to explain yourself before I call the men in white coats.”

 

“No, I mean I... I can smell things. I can smell the air here. I can feel the cloth and metal of Haseo's outfit. I can't see anything but this. There's no screen around this, no map, just... reality.” He seemed to think for a moment, and when he held out his hand a Health Potion appeared in it. “See, I can access my inventory. But only if I think about what I want out of there.”

 

“But-“

 

“When I Data Drained that monster, AIDA was inside it. In the Data Stream. Instead of saying I got a Virus Core, a message in big red letters popped up, and Infection Complete was written in 1337. See Kuhn? This is AIDA's next big experiment.”

 

“But that's impossible!”

 

Haseo got up and walked over to where Kuhn was standing. “I wouldn't be able to take my shirt off if I wasn't now outside some parameters of the game, now would I?” The rogue peeled off the tight fitting shirt and threw it to the side. He was very skinny, yet his abs and pecs were perfectly defined.

 

`They certainly can do wonders with bump mapping these days,' thought Kuhn absently.

 

“You know, this must be what it feels like to be an AI.” Haseo ran over to the edge of the lake and jumped in, armor and all. He was able to swim out to the middle of the lake and back, usual boundaries of the lake edge gone.

 

“This is AWESOME!” he laughed, splashing some water in his friend's direction. “I've always wanted to swim in one of these.”

 

“Haseo, I think we should be careful. I don't know whether what you absorbed into your PC was all of it in the area.” Kuhn looked around warily, but the field seemed to be functioning properly and no dots could be seen.

“Yeah, I think it's gone for now. Can I just stay and swim a bit longer? It's been ages.”

 

“Well... okay.” The gunner made his PC sit down at the edge of the lake and smiled inwardly at Haseo's enthusiasm. The kid was really starting to grow on him.

 

The rogue could swim like a fish, and it seemed as though he'd been born in the water. After swimming another few laps, he got out and shook himself off like some kind of dog. Then he sat down beside Kuhn, stroking the grass absently while staring at the Crest Gun off in the distance.

 

“Hey, you know... you don't have to put on a fake smile because of me.”

 

“Hmm?”

 

“Your smile. It's... well, it's sad. If you've got something on your mind, tell me.”

 

Startled at Haseo's words, Kuhn replied, “I'm just worried, I guess. Silabus and Gaspard are Lost Ones because of AIDA. Because we haven't done anything yet! And now you're stuck in the game; hell, you're living in it. How in the world are we supposed to fix all this?”

 

“You're not in it alone. You've got all of us Epitaph Users at your side, and we're all doing the best we can.” Haseo awkwardly slung a comforting arm around his friend's shoulders, unused to this kind of closeness with someone.

 

“Thanks.” Kuhn shot him a sincere smile this time, and Haseo couldn't help but grin back.

 

The two got up and made their way back towards the Chaos Gate, kicking a few Chim Chims on the way back.

 

“WHOA! When I get a Chim Sphere, it tickles!”

 

If anything, the kid was cute as hell. Kuhn always found that lately, he couldn't help but feel happy when he was around Haseo. The rogue seemed to have gotten so much more carefree and confidant, it was like a breath of fresh air. Sure, he liked Pi and the others. But Haseo had become the friend he never had in The World. He could have fun and be himself around him, which was a rare occurrence these days.

 

Inside, the gunner was surprised at how easily Haseo had gotten used to his situation. Kuhn knew that he, himself would still have been lying on the grass and telling himself it was all just a bad dream. He turned around to survey the area once more. Just as he determined it clear, something moved in the corner of his eye, to Haseo's right. AIDA was moving along the ground in a patch of black, looking almost stealthy as it approached the rogue.

 

“HASEO! LOOK OUT!”

 

The younger turned to look at Kuhn, just in time to miss seeing AIDA spring up and hurtle towards him.

 

`It's come to finish the job. I WON'T LET YOU BECOME A LOST ONE!' He pushed Haseo out of the way, taking the bubbles square in the chest. He coughed once, a few black spheres escaping his lips before collapsing on the soft grass.

 

 

Kasumi toppled off his perch on the stool in his office, falling hard like a rag doll. He didn't even try to call for help. No one was around to hear. He reached for the cordless phone he'd left resting on the floor and pressed “TALK” then dialled 911 before blacking out.

 

 

“Kuhn? KUHN?”

 

The gunner felt as though someone had dropped an anvil on his head. Massaging his temple, he sat up slowly, looking around. Haseo was looking at him expectantly, orangey orbs wide with fear and concern.

 

“You okay?”

 

“Unhh... yeah, I guess.” He breathed in the sweet smelling air, definitely different from the stuffy hot air in his office. “I'm still trying to wrap my mind around this whole concept. I mean... how could this become reality? Even though it may be reality for the AIs and data, how could this become a place of flesh and blood?”

 

“I don't know.” Haseo offered a hand to pull him up.

 

Kuhn accepted the gloved hand that was offered and stood up, dusting off his costume slowly, exploring the coarse fabric of his outfit. “I can't believe I can actually feel things in the game now. I can feel Kuhn. It's not my body... kind of feels, you know, wrong.”

 

“Like it's another guy you're touching? Yeah. Fuckin' weird.”

 

They reached the Chaos Gate and warped out and back to Dol Dona, where they contacted Pi then continued to Raven.

 

@Home: Raven

 

“YOU TWO ARE WHAT?” screeched Pi, nearly deafening the other two in the room.

 

“We got attacked by a weird AIDA infected monster. When I Data Drained it, AIDA got into my PC and somehow trapped my consciousness inside.”

 

“Why did you not call for reinforcements?” Pi growled.

 

“We couldn't get out of the batt—” Kuhn stopped when the tribal grappler glared at him. “Oh. I forgot you could send short mails during battle.” He looked sheepish.

 

“It's not like we were really thinking about much but how to beat the damn thing at the time. Give us a break,” Haseo said, coming to Kuhn's defence.

 

“Haseo! Do you know how serious this is?” Pi said sternly, fixating him with one of her “serious stares.”

 

“Yeah, well. You don't have to go around getting angry about what we can't change! Past is past, now can we think of a way to reverse this?”

 

Pi glared at him for a minute before sagging, sitting down on the steps to the Serpent of Lore with her head in her hands.

 

“I just don't know what to do anymore. Yata is missing, and you two are out of commission, we're missing the Rebirth... We're never going to get anything done at this rate.”

 

It seemed that Haseo had reached his emotional tolerance level for the day, and just stood there, aghast. Kuhn seemed frozen as well, not quite knowing what to do. This was Pi, for chrissake. These kinds of things just didn't happen to her.

 

“...Pi?”

 

“I'll talk to CC Corp about making some special arrangements for the two of you. Until then, just stay in Canard's @Home.” Her voice sounded a little shaky, and before either of the males could react, she'd warped out.

 

“I guess we ought to make our way to Tartarga.”

 

@Home: Canard

 

“What the hell are we supposed to do here?”

 

The two had been sitting on the richly carpeted staircase of Canard's @Home for at least an hour, and frankly, it was getting boring. Haseo groaned and lay back, stretched out along the small expanse of stairs. He'd removed most of his armor and stored it with Death Grunty, making things a lot more comfortable.

 

“We need to wait until Pi comes back with CC Corp's orders.”

 

“Well, what does she expect us to do here?”

 

Kuhn thought for a minute. “Beats me. Wanna go out to the bridge?”

 

“Anything's better than sitting here any longer.”

 

They walked out to the bridge and looked out of the windows, where they could see Mac Anu in the distance. “This game always did have unnaturally beautiful scenery.”

 

“Yeah. Sometimes... I just warp to Lost Grounds like Megin Fi and Indieglut Lugh just to enjoy the graphics,” said Haseo.

 

Kuhn stared at him incredulously, and Haseo blushed slightly, turning away. “I enjoy the beauty of this world just as much as anyone.”

 

“It's not a bad thing, I didn't mean to make it seem like it was. I just never pictured you as being someone who would enjoy The World like that.”

 

“There's a lot you don't know about me, Kuhn. I'll admit that I never really looked at The World until Shino showed me how. She opened my eyes to how beautiful this place can be. It may not be real, per se, but she taught me to see past the graphics and into the history and depth of the stories. I love this place. It has its dangers, but then again, doesn't the real world? We just have to fight to save the places and the people we love.”

 

“But now it's real. It's reality for both of us.”

 

“Yeah. In some ways, I guess you could say I wanted this to happen. Not to you, but to me. The World has become my home. It's my escape from all the bad in my life, where I can be someone amazing, someone people look up to.”

 

“Bad time at home?”

 

“I live by myself. My father hates me, and my mother is dead. Killed herself when I was 10.”

 

The gunner nearly cried at the depth of the pain in his friend's eyes. Haseo said it so emotionlessly it was scary, but he couldn't disguise how much it must hurt him.

 

“I'm-”

 

A short mail from Pi interrupted Kuhn. “We've set up a special area for the two of you. It's in the Theta server. Just go to Tartarga's Chaos Gate and enter the words: Θ Hidden Forbidden In Heat.”

 

“Hey, isn't that the Sugar Mansion: Sif Berg?” Kuhn asked when he short mailed Pi back.

 

“Yes. We've made it so you two can live in the mansion.”

 

Haseo grinned. “Wow! We're actually getting a whole area to ourselves!”

 

“Now we'll have to watch that we don't fall into the lava.”

 

Θ Hidden Forbidden In Heat

 

Haseo was furious. “DID THEY EVEN STOP TO CONSIDER HOW HOT THE LAVA WOULD MAKE THIS PLACE?”

 

“I short mailed Pi. They're working on some kind of steam powered air conditioner.”

 

The rogue face palmed. “Even while we're dying, they decide they'd like to keep with the theme of the game.”

 

The two males were lying on one of the couches in the front living room, stripped down to their boxers and cursing the fact that Pi had decided to lock them in for the time being, “Until CC Corp can analyse the problem and determine whether you're a threat or not.”

 

“Think they'll make any food for us? I'm hungry,” Kuhn moaned as his stomach growled loudly.

 

Haseo scrunched his face in the most adorable way, then a mango appeared in his hand.

 

“You carry these around?”

 

“I bought a few before we left. I thought it couldn't hurt.”

 

He tossed the Asian Mango to Kuhn, who ate it as quickly as he possibly could without choking himself.

 

“You know, this may not be too bad.”

 

“What, living in a place with a temperature akin to that of hell?”

 

“No. Being trapped in the game.”

 

Haseo nodded lazily and took another mango, this time eating it himself. Some of the juice dripped down his chin and onto his bare chest. Kuhn had the strangest urge to jump on Haseo and lick the juice off. Looking the boy over idly, he found he wanted to do a lot more than just lick him. The thoughts now going through Kuhn's mind brought a deep red blush to his cheeks, and the question he'd been ignoring ever since he met Haseo now popped up again. `Am I gay?'

Kuhn didn't have a problem with liking males, really. He just didn't like them in general, and he knew that. He'd never felt even remotely aroused by a boy before, but for some odd reason, Haseo made him hotter than he'd ever been for a girl. He was also the only person Kuhn had ever really thought about this way, and it scared him.

 

“Want another mango?”

 

Kuhn shook his head, still caught up in his thoughts.

 

Haseo ate the juicy fruit, this time grabbing a handkerchief and cleaning himself off.

 

“So uh... what do we do now?” the rogue asked after another half hour of silence.

 

Kuhn groaned inwardly. This was going to be a long night.