Skygate
Chapter One
"Oh, sorry mate!" said Alek as he rushed by someone walking in the opposite direction. He had turned a quick corner and nearly ran over the poor guy. Alek didn't have time to slow down though, as he had less than 5 minutes to get to the local gaming store. Today was the day that the Apollo Virtual Immersion System, or AVIS as most people called it, came out for public puschase. AVIS was a set of virtual reality gear that would put you inside whatever world game developers could make for you, which right now the only game that would be availiable was called SkyGate. It was a typical MMORPG, with the objectives being to open the 10 gates of the world and progress through the levels within. It sounded amazing, and Alek was not going to miss out on getting it today. He had saved up all month to be able to purchase the whole set. Of course his parents didn't approve, but they said they would allow it if he saved up enough to buy a set for his little sister too.
"Wait up, Alek! You're going too fast!" said Sophia, his 9 year old sibling. Trying desperatley to catch up to her older brother.
Alek sighed and slowed down a little. "Okay, but hurry, I don't want to have to come back tomorrow." Alek had school earlier that day, and his teachers made him stay after to do some make-up work. By the time he had finished, it was almost store closing time for the local gaming center. Sophia ran up to him, and grabbed his hand.
"Carry me on your shoulders! You're strong, aren't you big brother?" She tugged at his hand and smiled. Alek thought about it for a second. It would get them there faster, even if he would be out of breath by the time they actually made it.
"Fine, but you better hold on tight." He crouched down and let Sophia climb up.
"Yay! Go fast, okay?" She wrapped her arms around his neck, and Alek took off at full sprint. He dashed between people, and sprinted down the block. He checked his watch, and saw that he only had 3 minutes until closing time. He could make it though, at this pace.
Finally, Alek turned one last corner and saw the store sitting across the street. He looked both ways, and then ran across to the front door. The chime above the door rung as he entered. Sophia slid of his back, and walked up to the huge AVIS display sitting in the middle of the store.
"You're just in time young man, I've got one more left just for you. Special edition though, so it's a little more expensive than the normal set." Said a large man walking from the back of the store. Excitement welled up within Alek as he realized he had made it on time. He didn't mind spending the extra cash on a limited edition one either.
"Awesome! Thank you so much! I-" Alek stopped as he looked at his sister, who was mindlessy wandering around the store. His parents wouldn't let him play until his sister had a set too. The rule didn't make sense either, she didn't even want to play the game. He looked up at the shopkeeper, "Allright, I'll take it, but... Do you think you could check one more time for me? I'd like to purchase one for my sister as well."
The large man sighed and waved his hand as he returned to the back of the store. Alek heard the sound of shuffling, and boxes being pushed around. Sophia came over to himwhile he was waiting.
"Are we going to be able to play, big brother?" She looked up at him with a worried look. "I'm sorry if I slowed you down..." He just smiled at her and ruffled up her light bown hair.
"It's okay, I think they have everything we need." She smiled and hugged him. Alek turned and saw the shopkeeper come out with two large boxes. One had all sorts of pictures on it and the other was just plain white.
"Okay, so I looked in the back and I found one more, but it's from the Beta tests that were done a few months ago. Works just fine, but is just a little heavier and bulkier." Alek nodded at the man, and took the boxes out of his hands.
"We'll take it." He handed the lighter of the two boxes to Sophia. He would probably have to end up using the Beta gear, since she was much smaller than him. They checked out at the register and left the store. As they walked home, Alek tried to explain the game to his sister.
"See, Skygate is a world where you get to be whoever you want to be. You can grow stronger, tame monsters, and even help others. Everything feels real, even though its just a game." Alek had watched all of the videos put out by the streaming Beta testers. He had already decided that he would go for the warrior class. Light armor, and quick attacks. He wondered how many people were going to play the game tonight when the servers opened up. He was anxious and had no idea what it was going to feel like to be in another world.
"So... Can I have a pet?" Asked Sophia.
"Mhm, anything you want, but you have to take care of it." Replied Alek. After walking for awhile, they finally made it back to the house. Alek rushed in, with Sophia right behind him. His parents were sitting on the couch in the living room.
"Hey so did you get whatever it was you wanted?" Said his mom.
"Yeah!" Said Alek, "They even had a special edition one left."
"And you got one for your sister too, right?"
Sophia came around the corner and held out her box. "I got one too!"
"Allright, you guys can go play, but only for an hour okay? It's getting late, its almost your bedtime."
"Okay!" They both said as they turned around and rushed up the stairs to the room. They opened the boxes and took out all of the equipment. His was very plain compared to hers, and as the shopkeeper had said earlier, it was a lot heavier. Alek put on all of his equipment, and helped Sophia put on hers. Included in the set was a helmet, gloves, a vest, and what looked like a pair of socks with sensors all over them. You wouldnt have to move while playing though, everything would be sent through your nervous system to mimic real actions. With all of their gear on, they sat down at the computer and connected the systems to the game. A SkyGate welcome screen popped up, letting them know that they could lower the visors built into the helmets. Alek looked over at sophia, who was smiling big. She looked up at him.
"You ready, big brother?" He smiled at her and nodded. This was it. The moment he had been waiting for. They lowered their visors together and the sysem began to calibrate. Whirring and clicking sounds vibrated all over their bodies. After a couple of minutes of this a completed message popped up. The screens inside the helmet went dark. Alek's stomach was nervously turning over with anticipation. Alek felt his sister's hand grab his. She was probably more nervous than him.
A flash of bright white light erupted on the screen, and then it felt like he was flying througha rainbow of colors all around him. He looked over at Sophia, who was flying next to him, and saw that she didnt have any gear on. He looked down at himself, and realized that he didnt either. They smiled at each other and shot forward through the colorful sky. There was another flash of light and then nothing. Alek touched down on the invisible ground below. Suddenly, the colors around them began to swirl and take shape. A beautiful world began to form around them, and before they knew it, they were standing in the middle of a field of bright purple flowers, on the top of a small hill. Alek could feel a light breeze brushing up against his face, and smell the wonderful aroma that the flowers let off.
They were here. They had made it.
SkyGate.
SkyGate
Chapter Two
Alek and Sophia watched as beams of light from the sky materialized other players to the area, until the whole hill was full of people of all different shapes and sizes. Everyone started with the same basic gear and equipment. Alek looked down at Sophia, who was crouched down and smelling one of the bright purple flowers around them. There wasn't as many people as Alek had imagined there would be, but he also remembered seeing something about not everyone starting in the same area so that the game had no danger of lagging.
"Alek... It smells so real! It smells like a flower!" She pushed the petals up close to her nose and breathed in deeply. Alek didn't need to do the same to know what she was talking about. The smell of flowers in the air was very strong.
"Yeah it does, doesn't it?" He smiled at her and looked around at some of the other players who were taking out their starter weapons. He remembered going over the list of commands in the manual before he put on the gear. Alek reached foward and swiped his hand downwards, and a floating menu appeared in the air.
"Whats that, big brother?" said Sophia, who was now standing next to him.
"It's your main menu for the game. It shows what items you have and what level you are."
"Like... This?" Sophia reached foward and swiped her hand down like Alek had, and a floating white menu appeared before her too. Alek showed her how to navigate though the options, and equip her weapons. He went through his own menu and equipped the small sword and shield that everyone had recieved. They materialized in his hands and he felt the weight of the items pulling on his arms. In almost every way, this didn't even feel like a game. Everything felt so real, it was astonishing.
As Alek was showing Sophia how to use the weapons, another player with dark black hair came over to them.
"Hey! Welcome to SkyGate. Isn't this amazing?" He was shorter than Alek, but he looked like he had a little more muscle."The name's Damien, and it's nice to meet you." He held out his hand and smiled.
Alek shook his hand and smiled back. "My name's Alek, and this is my sister, Sophia." Sophia waved at Damien, and hid behind Alek just a little. She had always been a little shy around new people. When Alek thought about it, this game could probably help her a lot when it came to her bashfulness.
"Hey Sophia, you don't need to be afraid, I'm a friend." said Damien, peeking around Alek. She blushed and looked away. "Ah well, I was never really good with ladies." He sighed and looked at Alek. "Well, I know we've just begun, but would you like to be in a party with me? I'm not very good at RPG's, so I figured I might as well make some friends, and maybe we can help each other you know?"
Alek thought about it for a moment and nodded his head. "How do you do that again?" Alek brought up his menu and Damien showed them how to add people to a party.
"Great!" said Damien, "This is going to be so fun. The world is amazing. Want to go do some exploring?"
"Sure." Replied Alek, "We should head towards that town over there." Alek pointed down the hill to a small vilage nestled inbetween some trees. When he looked at it, a text bubble popped up in the air and it read "Shaded Pines". He could also see his own health bar, and the time in the upper left hand corner. He and Sophia weren't going to be able to stay for too long, but they had a little time to start navigating the world.
"Yeah that sounds good!", Said Damien excitedly, "Maybe we can get something better than this lame starter gear..." He began to march off in the direction of the town.
Alek looked down at Sophia, who came out from behind him as soon as Damien left. "What do you think? You ready to go on an adventure?"
"Yeah, I've got my big brother to protect me, and he can beat anything!" With that, they took off after Damien. The grass crunching beneath their feet. Alek could feel the weight of his armor wearing down on him. This was going to take awhile to get used to. By then all the people that had been around him went in different directions. When they caught up to Felix, they saw that he had been stopped by a larger flower growing out from the ground. This flower looked the same as the others, despite its size, and the closed position of it's petals.
"Hey, what do you guys think of this?" Felix pointed his sword in the direction of the strange plant. Even though Alek was still a little ways away, it amost looked like the plant was... Breathing.
Alek walked up next to Felix. "I don't know, maybe we should go arou-"
"Ahhhhh!" Screamed Sophia. Alek and Felix turned around and saw Sophia suspended in the air by a large green vine. The vine was attatched to the large flower creature ahead of them, that had now opened its petals to reveal four rows of razor sharp teeth. Instantly, Aleks body seemed to tense up and react to the situation. He took out his sword, and could feel it almost pulsing in his hand, like it was ready and wanting to be used.
"I'll go for the beastie!" Said Felix, "You take care of Sophia!"Alek nodded and sprinted to where his sister was still suspended in the air.
"Just stay calm Sophia, I've got you!"
"Hurry!" Alek quickly rushed foward and slashed at the vine holding her. She fell from the air and landed on the ground with a *thump*.
"Ow, that hurt!" She stood up and rubbed her arm.
"Sorry! Are you okay?"
She nodded in response, "Yup! Go kill the scary flower monster!" Alek turned around and saw Felix dodging the now thorn-covered vines that were whippping at him.
He raised his shield and yelled over to Alek. "Are you just going to stand there and watch or are you guys going to help me?" He grinned and swiped his sword at an oncoming vine. Alek felt excitement well up within him as his sword begin to pulse again.
"Stay close," He said to Sophia, "But keep your shield up and don't get hurt okay?" Alek could see her health bar floating above her head, and saw that she had lost a little health in her fall. He turned and rushed to Felix, who had managed to cut off all of the whipping vines, and was now circling around the creature and dodging the mouth.
"How do you suppose we should take it down?" Said Felix over the growling sounds of the creature. "I can't seem to get in close enough to cut it at the stem!"
Alek held up his shield and pressed in close to the monster. The creature was busy trying to attack Felix. This was his moment! He pushed foward and wound up his arm for the killing blow. Just in that instant, the monster flipped over its position, and lunged at Alek. He was knocked to the ground by the force of the jaws clamping onto his now raised shield. It ripped his only means of defense from his hand, and began to crush it in its mouth. With a horrible *crunch* his shield was no more. While Alek watched his starting gear get swallowed he heard Felix yell and the monster reared back, and then fell to the ground. Its body remained there for a second, and then it burst into what looked like tiny particles of light, which seperated into the air, and traveled to each one of them. Alek could feel some sort of power welling up within him. A message appeared where the monster had stood, and it said "Congratulations! EXP earned: 450". The message dissapated, and a second message appeared "Items dropped: Violet Whip x1, Ledya Poison x 2"
"Ya-hoo!" Yelled Felix, rushing to the where the monster stood. "That was amazing! That felt so real!" His hand hovered over the accept items button on the message. He stopped and looked back at Alek.
"Go ahead! It's your kill, you deserve the items." Said Alek.
"Really?!" He smiled widely, and colleted the drops. Felix shifted through his inventory, and pulled out what looked like one of the vines that had been cut off of the monster. He had switched out his sword for the vine whip. He lashed out at the air with it, to get a feel for it, and smiled.
"Yup, I like this one. I think I'll hold onto it for a little bit." Said Felix.
Alek looked down at Sophia who was leaning against his leg. She seemed tired, and probably was. "See? We can protect you." He smiled.
"Of course you can, big brother. Your the strongest. You too." She said, pointing at Felix. "Big brother can we go home now? I'm getting tired."
"Yeah, I'll log you out, and go for a little longer okay?" Sophia pulled up her menu.
"How do you go through this again? I forgot." She said, with a confused look on her face.
"You just swipe your hand through the options, and it should be at the very bottom."
She cocked her head to the side while looking through the options. "I don't see it."
Alek sighed and looked over. "It should be.." As he looked all over her menu, he realised that there was no log out button. Felix waled over to where they were.
"Hey, you guys okay?" He sat down in the grass and looked up at them.
"Yeah.." Said Alek, "Were just trying to find the logout button and it seems to be missing."
"Well thats strange, let me check mine." Alek did the same and sure enough, the logout button was missing from the spot where it was supposed to be. "I dont know, maybe its a bug?" Shrugged Felix, closing his menu screen.
"Big brother, how are we going to go home?" She started to tear up and Alek knew that if he didn't figure out something fast, she was going to be very upset. They were trapped in this game.
They were trapped in this world.
