.hack//LIMINALITY Fan Fiction / .hack//SIGN Fan Fiction ❯ .hack//CHECK ❯ Invite ( Chapter 24 )

Chapter 24 // Invite

. . .

"... I'm trying my best to stall for time. I know you may not be able to hear me, but I love you. Why did I become a senator? Why did I sell my soul? Why am I desperate? Simple. To save the man I love. And, that's why I'm still here. I'll protect you with this. It's not much, and neither am I, but it's all I have. All I need. I'll give it all I am, darling..."

. . .

A short, bearded man sits behind a counter near the far wall. On the wooden walls within the small place are autographed pictures of celebrities of times past. A giant oven, with only a couple of pizzas inside, hums as the shelves within rotate. A delivery man in a heavy coat sits at a table in front of an empty, insulated pizza case tapping his finger on the tabletop. Eating at the only other table in the modest-looking restaurant was Jack, Tiffany, and Danny.

"Mmpfgh!", said Jack as he took a bite of his slice of sausage pizza. "Good stuff. Who knew they had pizza this good in a hole-in-the-wall..." He used his free hand to type on his laptop.

Tiffany finished chewing. "Around here, holes-in-the-wall are the only places to get the decent stuff.", she said.

"HEY! I'm right here!", said the bearded man behind the counter. They all looked at him, then continued to eat.

"Say, Jack," began Danny, "You've been on that laptop since we got here. What are you doing?"

"Analyzing some data.", replied Jack.

"Oh?", said Tiffany.

"Mastah Pimp works quick. The info I needed had been e-mailed to me by the time I reached McDonald's.", he took another bite of his slice.

"So you've had it that long? Why didn't you say anything?", asked Danny.

"He works quick, but is notorious for not giving you everything. I'm just checking his work..."

"I see...", said Tiffany.

"But, this isn't like him. Everything seems to be here, and then some..."

Danny scooted his chair around to see the screen. "Huh? Whatcha got?", he asked. Tiffany leaned to see the screen.

"Well, according to this, our mystery man has a name: Jason Saint. Looks like he's in his late forties. He was a rookie in the Marines until he received a life-threatening injury during an armed conflict years ago. That's when he volunteered for the project. For a while, it seemed that he was doing fine. Until he inexplicably fell into a coma. Since then, he's been in a military hospital in Nevada."

"What now?", asked Danny, "Do we go to Nevada and pull the plug?"

"That would be difficult considering that he's in a MILITARY hospital. We wouldn't even get through the front door...", replied Tiffany.

"She's right. Also, according to this, it looks like the funding for project 'Swan' is running low. Shouldn't last more than another week at the most...", said Jack. "It looks like it should have run out years ago, but someone kept diverting funds into the project."

"Who?", asked the bearded man at the counter. The three looked at him for a brief second, and looked back at the screen. Jack pecked a couple of keys.

"Holy...", he began, "Senator Christine Williams."

Tiffany and Danny looked at Jack in surprise.

"Do... Do you know what we have here?", asked Jack, "Considering that this is an election year, we're holding 'Instant Win-Quick' for whomever is going to run against her."

"Um, hold on a second," said Danny, "How could she divert the funds? Do they have that kind of power?"

"Well, looking at this, it would seem that she had to extort, bribe, and even sleep her way into funding the project. What we hold could potentially ruin the political careers of at least half of all of the high-ranking politicians in the country...", said Jack.

"Just how deep does this go?", asked Tiffany.

"Looks like it stops just short of the President.", replied Jack.

"WHOA! Oh my god! That deep?! Is our democracy a farce?!", exclaimed the bearded man at the counter. Tiffany, Danny, and Jack angrily looked at the man.

The delivery man leaned in, and said, "Hey, you guys care to join our group? We've been looking for a way to take down 'The Man' for a while..."

"NO!", they all replied.

The delivery man leaned back, and continued to tap his finger on the tabletop.

"Why all of the trouble to insure the success of that one project?", asked Danny.

"That's here, too...", Jack pecked a couple more keys. "Hmmm... Well, isn't this simple?"

"What?"

"They're married."

"Weird.", said Tiffany.

"Okay...", said Danny, "That's nice and all, but that doesn't explain how or why our psychopathic, comatose friend can kill us!"

"Well, it looks like that's what this random data is for... Wait a second... These are player surveillance logs!", said Jack as he began to type frenetically, "Okay... We just run this here, and..."

The screen went black for a second. Suddenly, an image flashed across the screen. A lone Heavy Blade in gray clothing ran across the screen. "Hmm... Which way should I go?", said the white-haired Heavy Blade as he came to a cross area. He appeared to be in a dungeon. "That way." He went left. "If my research is right, then something should happen right about... Now!" Out of nowhere, a girl with white hair in loose, white clothing shot past him. He watched as she vanished into the dead end at the other side of the cross area. Without warning, something huge, humanoid in shape and holding a giant red wand-like object, whizzed past, knocking the Heavy Blade to the floor. It also vanished into the dead end. "Hmmm... The Phases must be a constant. Same Phase... So, it must be using a different character..."

. . .

"'Phase'?", asked Tiffany.

"I'm not too keen on the particulars, but from what I've read, Phases were part of some poem called 'The Epitaph of Twilight', or something.", explained Jack, "Now, this is just a rumor, but it has been said that there was an AI or something that somehow created 'Phases'. Judging by the appearance of that thing, it seems that it's the Phase referred to as 'Skeith'."

"'Skeith'?", said Danny, "What kind of name - ...?"

"Shh! Something's happening.", said Jack as he pointed to the screen.

. . .

The screen went blank for a split second. The Heavy Blade was standing in front of the white haired girl. She handed him a book. "... Can bring salvation or destruction..." was heard. Just then, Skeith appeared. The Heavy Blade was being lifted into the air by an unseen force as Skeith extended his right arm. Then, a familiar-looking spiral of parallel lines shot from the Phase's arm and stabbed the man's body. The Heavy Blade fell to the ground, and lay there lifeless for a couple of seconds. After staggering to his feet, the man opened the book immediately. The screen went white as the man began to cackle.

When the picture had returned, Swan, now clothed in red, had thrust a giant mysterious-looking sword through Skeith. Green hexagons flew off of the Phase as the Heavy Blade's right arm began to shine. "DATA DRAIN!", shouted the Heavy Blade. A spiral of multicolored, parallel lines shot from his arm and pierced Skeith. The screen went white again.

When the picture had returned again, Swan was alone, standing in a void of white space. "Morganna!", he shouted, "The jig is up! I've destroyed all of your little tin soldiers! You know what I want! You know what I've come for!" He paused, and started to laugh, "I've come to assimilate you!"

A woman's voice sounded, "What makes you think you can do that?"

"Come, now... You're an AI. There's no use in playing dumb. You know that you can't defeat me. I've beaten badder AI's than you. Come on out!"

Just then, a swirl of light appeared in front of Swan. He readied his stance and said, "Let's dance!"

. . .

"Jack?", asked Tiffany.

"What?"

"Is there some kind of explanation for what we've just seen?"

Jack typed frantically. "Let's see...", he said, "Not a thing. But, we can draw some conclusions."

"What?", asked Tiffany.

"Well, first, we can conclude that Swan did beat 'Morganna' because he's still around causing trouble.", explained Jack, "Second, we can conclude that Saint was in a coma prior to the events we've just witnessed..."

"Why is that?", asked Danny.

"Well, if what I've read about 'Data Drain' is correct, the way it worked relied somewhat on the consciousness of the target. When we play the game, our consciousness is divided between the real world, and The World III. This is where it all begins to blur into gray. However, our 'friend' has no consciousness in the real world which is why he was able to shrug off being 'Data Drained'. So, to him, it's just as simple as black and white..."

"In English?", said Danny.

"He was already in a coma, so he couldn't be put into one."

"Oh. So, like, why is it that his 'Data Drain' can kill people instead of simply putting them into comas?"

"I was getting to that.", said Jack, "We can also conclude that he's taken over the AI 'Dao-shi'. Remember what I was telling you about the 'first function, second function' thing? Well, it turns out that I got the order of those mixed up. When the AI was first thought up, it's only function was to create corpse puppets. However, the government didn't seem to be buying it, so he added another function to it; the 'healing function'. However, in terms of the amount of time spent, this 'healing function' was comparatively trivial, and can truly be considered a secondary function. First and foremost, The AI 'Dao-shi' was always meant to be a killer, and I'm guessing that under Saint's direction, the 'Data Drain' ability was modified by the AI to become lethal."

Tiffany picked up another slice of pizza. "So, that's what we're dealing with? Why is he doing all of this?", she asked.

Jack powered down his laptop. "That I don't know.", he said.

Suddenly, several cell phone chimes could be heard. The three quickly grabbed their cell phones, and answered.

"Hello?"

"Carter here."

"This is Willows."

A gruff, eerie voice giggled on the other end. "Hello... Let's play a game... I believe we'll call it 'Duck, Duck, Goose'!"

Jack, Tiffany, and Danny looked at each other, as the man hung-up. "Cyber café, now.", said Jack as he shoveled his laptop into his backpack, and tossed some money on the table.

"But, the nearest one is downtown!", said Tiffany.

"WHAT?", said Jack, "In my hometown, you can't walk a mile without tripping over one." He and Tiffany grabbed their coats, and bolted to the door.

"Come on, Danny! Let's go!", shouted Tiffany.

Danny was already at the door, when he paused, ran back to the table, grabbed the last of the pizza, and ran out of the door.

. . .

Wurzelstadt. A lone figure floats in the clear daytime sky above. His white hair and loose red clothing blew in the high winds while his cold, gray eyes surveyed the multitude below him.

"Time to liven things up around here...", said Swan. He raised his sword. "BREAKING WAVE!" He swung his sword, releasing a giant, sweeping wave of energy. Green hexagons filled the air as the energy pulse made its way through the root town. At the far edge of the root town, the wave had stopped. "WHAT?!", exclaimed Swan in disbelief.

Standing with his heavy cane raised against the wave was Mastah Pimp. With a simple motion, he had neutralized the wave.

"I see that the crickets are out.", said Swan.

"Cheep, cheep, mother #&$%er.", replied Mastah Pimp. He waved his cane and a golden aura formed around him.

. . .

The expressway. Cars were backed-up as far as the eye could see. "COME ON!!", shouted Tiffany.

"This sucks.", said Danny as he finished another slice of pizza.

"Hey, Dan, hand me a slice, won't you?", asked Jack as he extended his arm behind him to the back seat.

"Er, I can't... That was the last piece.", replied Danny.

"THERE WAS JUST OVER HALF OF THE PIZZA LEFT!", shouted Tiffany.

"Um, sorry...", said Danny in a sheepish manner.