“Hey!”
Turning, your eyes brightened and you grinned at the sight of your friend, who went by the name MechaGirl. Lifting a hand, you waved at her, and waited for her to catch up to you. Dressed in her usual black skirt and white tank, she looked just as she usually did every time you met up with her.
“Hey MG,” you said, embracing her in a large hug. “I haven't seen you in awhile! Why haven't you been logging on?”
“Sorry,” she apologized, flashing you a quick apologetic smile. “Actually, though, I have been logging on, just into a different channel.”
“I haven't seen your user name listed on the 'online list' for any of the channels though. There's no way I could have missed you either, since I'm nearly always on,” you furrowed your brows together, a confused look overtaking your features. Putting your hands on your hips, you leaned forward. “Have you been setting your status to permanently offline to avoid me?”
She looked surprised for a moment, before shaking her head and waving her hands in front of you. “No, no! That's not it! I have been online, but I've been-”
She was immediately cut short when a echo-y, distant voice that seemed to have an omnipotent source interrupted her.
“Time for dinner!”
MG blinked, staring upwards towards the sky, before looking back at you.
“Eh, sorry,” you sighed, a small pout adorning your features, “That was my mom.”
“It's no problem. You'll be on later, right? I have something really exciting to tell you!”
At the prospect of something exciting to do, you brightened up considerably again. “Ooh! What is it?”
MG only smiled. “You'll find that out later when you log back on! I don't want to ruin the surprise.”
“Awww.” Once more, you pouted, but didn't argue. That girl was stubborn, and was good at keeping secrets; there was no way you'd be able to convince her to tell you. “Okay, I'll see you in a few. The usual place?”
She nodded. “Yep, the usual.” Lifting her wrist, she pushed a small red button on a band she wore across her wrist. When she looked up, she waved before her form faded out of view, completely disappearing after a moment.
After she was gone, you did the same. All was dark for a few minutes, before you opened your eyes.
“(Name)! Hurry up, everyone's waiting for you!”
“I'll be down in a sec, mom!” you called back, lifting the helmet you wearing from your head off. The orange tint from the goggles on the helmet remained in your eyesight even after you had taken the helmet off, a sign that you had been logged in for way too long. To be honest, your eyesight was normally always orange tinted from how long you usually spent logged on. You had become accustomed to it.
Taking a few minutes to unstrap yourself from the game seat and take off the gloves and boots required to play, you made sure to check that you were probably logged out before heading downstairs. When you got downstairs, you smiled at your family who was already sitting at the dinner table with full plates in front of them.
“Hey everyone,” you greeted, taking your own seat.
Your mother shot you a disapproving look. “You know, it's not healthy to be on that... thing all the time.”
“It's not a thing, it's VirtuaX, mom,” you corrected, then continued passionately, “It's the best thing to have ever been invented! You just don't realize how awesome it is.” Picking up a fork/spoon, you began to dig into the (favorite food) your mother had prepared for dinner at a rapid pace.
“You still spend too much time on it. Don't think that just because you've graduated a few years early, that it gives you the right to be on that all the time. I'm starting to regret even buying it for you,” she took a bite of her own food, chewing it like a normal person would, unlike you.
“Oh, leave the girl alone,” your father said, eyes on the small TV set up in the dining room. He was watching some kind of game show, and didn't seem to be too focused on the conversation at all. “Let her have her fun while her childhood lasts. At least she isn't doing drugs, or going out with a boyfriend and getting pregnant.” Suddenly, he turned to give you a suspicious look. “You're not, are you.”
This made you both groan and blush. “Yeah, dad, I'm going to log onto VirtuaX, get a virtual boyfriend, get virtually pregnant, and raise a virtual family.”
“(Name)!”
Your father chuckled and shook his head, turning back to the television. Meanwhile, you wiped your mouth off with a napkin and stood from your seat, immediately heading back towards the stairs that leaded to your room.
“(Name), just where are you going?”
“I'm done eating already,” you said without stopping, taking the steps a few at a time. Sure enough, your plate had been emptied in the short amount of time you had been sitting down there.
Loudly, your mother groaned. “That girl....”
It only took a few minutes for you to strap yourself back in, turn the VirtuaX machine on, and log back on. When you did log back on, you immediately teleported yourself to the place you were supposed to meet up with MechaGirl. The meeting place was a small wooded area, with a tiny pond and waterfall right in the center of it. It was a rather beautiful place, despite only being virtual. That never stopped you and MG from marveling at it's beauty, though. If only you could find a place like this near where you lived.
Just as you expected, when you arrived there, MG was sitting on a large rock at the edge of the pond, her legs folded up against her chest.
“Okay, what's this big surprise?!” you asked excitedly, sneaking up behind her and almost causing her to fall into the pond.
“Agh! Don't do that!” she said, placing a hand over her heart.
Sheepishly, you scratched the back of your head. “Sorry. But really, what's this surprise?”
Seeing just how excited you were, she decided to forget about how you had scared her and grinned. “It's about where I've been all this time. There's this secret channel that was created, and-”
“A secret channel? No way! I've already discovered all the ones the company has made! I've been to every single channel they've created. Don't tell me they created another one and I didn't know?!”
Out of nowhere, she produced a wrench and hit you on the head with it.
“Ouch!” You rubbed the top of your head gingerly, wincing at the spot on your head that was already beginning to swell. “Just because this isn't the real world doesn't mean that didn't hurt!”
Ignoring you, she cleared her throat and continued with what she was previously was saying. “No, the thing about this channel is that it's user created. The creators call it Channel: Amestris.”
At this, your eyes widened. “User created? B-but... I thought that wasn't possible! I even tried to create one but wasn't able to do it! How-? No! Who created it?”
Though you were both excited, you were a little disappointed. You were known all across the VirtuaX channels for being the best at all the technical things, able to hack into some of the channel settings and make them however you want. If someone wanted orange grass? You could make that possible. A purple sky? You bet! You could even create your own landscapes and areas in the channels. That amusement park in the third channel room was all your doing. And that water park in the fifth channel? You had made that. Technically, this was violating the terms of service of VirtuaX, but you were always able to do all of this undetected.
“Calm down! I'm going to take you to meet them in a little bit. But that's where I've been all this time,” she explained. “It's great! Better than the company-made channels, that's for sure. When we get there, I'll show you why.”
“What's this guy's user name?” you asked curiously.
“The channel was created by two brothers,” MG said, “Two close friends of mine on and offline. Their user names are Not_A_Shrimp and TinMan[2]. Come on, the entrance to the channel is behind the waterfall.”
With a grin on your face, you followed MG to the channel entrance, intent on getting some answers on just how these two brothers managed to create their own channel... because you were totally going to kick their butts for figuring it out before you did. D<
At the VirtuaX Control Base
“I'm going to take a break in a few minutes. That okay with you, David?” A man in his early thirties said to the man sitting next to him. Around them were various machines and others at work stations just as they were, monitoring every aspect of VirtuaX to make sure things ran smoothly. These were the team of engineers who designed the program and equipment, and were the ones to fix any glitches and prevent server malfunctions.
“Sure, fine.” The man named David said, his eyes monitoring a computer screen in front of him as he flipped a few switches on a switchboard next to it. “I'm just fixing this glitch in channel 6. Somehow the grass ended up purple. Can you give me a hand with the glitch in channel 9 when you get back, Robert? Somehow a replica of the Statue of Liberty showed up there.”
“Third time this week, isn't it?” Robert grinned, taking a sip from a cup of coffee that had been sitting on his desk. “I wonder who's doing it.”
“Don't seem so amused,” David gave him a disapproving look. “As soon as I find out who's been doing this, I'll be sure to ban their user connection.”
Robert rolled his eyes. “I doubt you'll find the person. They're cleaning up their tracks too well for that. Besides, whoever it is isn't hurting anything. I don't see the problem.” Shaking his head, Robert set his coffee mug down and stood up. “I'll be back in a few.”
He turned, but as he did so, he bumped into his coffee mugged and spilled it over his control board.
“Shit!” his eyes widened, and he stepped back away from his desk as sparks began to fly up around it. The coffee had spilt onto his control board.
“Hurry, someone switch the channels off, before the server goes out!” David called urgently, and another engineer stood up, pulling down a lever on a nearby wall. Immediately, all of the control boards and computers in the room shut off, and the lights flickered several times.
“What the hell happened?” Someone in the room asked, and Robert licked his lips nervously.
“Someone just log on to one of the workers stations and check the status of the channels!” David demanded, and Robert rushed from the room to do so, all the while muttering, “Damn it!” under his breath.
A few minutes later he returned, looking thoroughly worried.
“What is it?” someone in the room asked.
“I... can't log in at all. The only thing that happens is a jolt of electricity is sent through my body. The server completely crashed, it seems. No one will be able to log in.”
“...what about the people who are already logged on? Will they be kicked off?”
Robert was silent for a moment, exchanging looks with his partner David. “I... don't know.”
“Wait, MG?”
Just as MechaGirl was about to pass through the channel portal behind the waterfall, she stopped to turn and look at you. “What is it?”
“Did you feel that just now?”
She frowned, looking confused. “Feel what?”
After a moment, you shook your head. “Never mind.”
She shrugged and turned back around, stepping through the channel portal. For a moment, you looked around curiously, suddenly feeling a little worried.
“I must be imagining things,” you sighed and shook your head to clear it. Then, you stepped through the portal quickly so that you could catch up with MG. “....I hope....”
[1] In case you can't figure this out, the 'channels' are like each little individual world you can log into on the VirtuaX machine.
[2] I got these user names from Sonicrocksmysocks (at deviantArt). These were Ed and Al's screen names on Full Metal Meets AOL.
