[center][b][u]Moon Rider-Black King[/center][/b][/u] [i]"Moon Rider, the guest of honor has arrived."[/i] The Black King glanced in the direction of her Hall’s entrance, seeing a massively armored truck in the distance along with what appeared to be two players standing nearby as well. Narrowing her eyes, she focused on one of them-what appeared to be a female-before blinking once or twice. The female player….had vanished from sight. Just like that…she knew for certain that someone as high a Level as her was not prone to such cheap illusions. No…no it had to be the work of hacking within the Deep Ground Program. The thought of her potential enemy-because who else could it have been-fleeing from her own fortress earned a confident grin to her lips. Soon, all of Faded City would eventually learn to fear the return of her Guild. Before she knew it however, more invited guests had finally made themselves known to her. A player with Free Runner hovering over their status walked up to jollily greet her, and she leaned in to answer his words. “Greetings Free Runner. And welcome to the Ebony-“ A yellow flash made her pause, and she soon found herself looking at the newly arrived form of the Yellow King herself. “….Strykers. Yes, I know of your status Shooting Star. If I remember correctly from memory, you’re fairly new to the business of leading Guilds.” She looked at the both of them, Shooting Star and Free Runner, with an obviously pleased look. “I take it you both want to join my Guild? Although in your case Yellow King, I assume you just wanna know what I’m really up to, right?” A rumbling suddenly began to shake the very foundation of her blackened Kingdom, and Moon Rider looked up at the ceiling, expecting the arrival of more players. However, it was to her great surprise to witness a very familiar form. In the span of a few seconds, the White King herself, White terror, had landed directly in front of her throne and peered into her face. Any aura of hospitality was dispersed at once, and the air seemed to become just a bit colder around the black-paned glass. Moon Rider stared right back at the mask of her eternal rival, the grip on her sheathed blade gracefully releasing the weapon and resting the weapon’s edge gently onto White Terror’s shoulder. The fluid motion was so fast, that anyone who had chosen that time to blink would have missed the moment all together. [i] “Sorry about the ceiling, but hey, now you have a skylight, Blackie~"[/i] Moon Rider tensed by a mere fraction, the only indicator of her negative emotional output showing. “White King,” she began icily. “When I relayed my message to all of Deep Ground, I suppose I really should have accounted for someone as loathing as yourself to grace my presence.” She stared daggers into White Terror’s concealed face, the grip on her black katana never faltering and her gaze never wavering. “What do you want? I’m sure you didn’t take the time to visit me of all people for a quick reunion, right?” An amused grin creased the Black King’s lips. “What, you’re not thinking of actually joining my Guild are you?” [i]"My, my. We've got four Kings here. Maybe five, if OJ decides to get his ass down here. Anyways, I don't think we've ever met before. If it's not obvious already, I'm the Blue King. Nice to meet you, Yellow and Blackie."[/i] If the Black King was suspicious at first, then now she was on red alert. Not just one or two, but four other Kings were now circling in her territory: Blue, Yellow, White, and Orange. Orange. The title almost made her vomit in disgust. “You brought him here too?” Her voice stung with venom as she directed the question at the White King. Now there was no doubt in her mind that those two had come to destroy her plans even before fruition. Heaven forbid if the Red King showed up next; Moon Rider could very much do without the headache of keeping up with that fruitcake. For a long moment, Moon Rider said nothing, only letting the encompassing silence engulf them all, waiting for the moment to strike…. [center][b]Attention! Attention! All players will be forcefully logged out of Deep Ground Online due to internal errors and damages! Attention! Attention! All players will be forcefully logged out immediately![/center][/b] The black glass of Moon Rider’s fortress of solitude suddenly became stained with blaring red lights as large warning text began to flash over all regions of Faded City. Moon Rider lowered her weapon at the White King and looked around in confusion. All players, regardless of Level or location, were now being forced out of the game. [i]"Is the monster problem that bad or is this just one of those chat circles?" Oh you must be that Black King I heard about?"[/i] Only now noticing the other player to join the Hall, Moon Rider gave him a nod of recognition. “Welcome Undertaker. I apologize for the abrupt end to our meeting, but I can assure you that this is the work of the rising Dissolutions.” The fact that she was able to remain calm at a time like this was remarkable. Feeling the familiar tugs pulling her mind back to the waking world, the Black King gave White Terror one more glare. And then, something impossible occurred between the two of them. Something that would no doubt leave even the indifferent White Terror surprised at her boldness. “Meet me in the real world,” she told her with no expression. “Don’t bring anyone else.” Soon enough, the entire area of the Black Kingdom had become nothing but numbers and digits, having returned to the World Interface. --- [u][center][b]Corpse Collector[/center][/b][/u] “Uh…no, I guess you could say that I’m not here for that. Hehehe, not at all.” The Corpse Collector’s usual carefree attitude was suddenly infringed upon at the sight of the massive fortress before them. The sheer resonance coming off from the buildings was enough to make the player with no status chuckle nervously. “Um , well..…maybe I should…….bye now!” Without a second thought of priority or ambition, the Corpse Collector phased away in mere seconds. A new type of ability? Or perhaps she was exploiting some specific coding of D.G.P. itself? Whatever the case, it didn’t last long, as the blonde girl soon found herself in the middle of a barren field not too far away from the looming black monolith. Carefully choking to make sure no one present was around, her innocent smile soon dropped completely. “That….that bitch! That bitch saw me! She [b]saw[/b] me! And what the hell was that, me? Why the [b]fuck[/b] was I so scared? It’s just….ahh! No wait….calm down…just, I dunno, take slow breathes….just slow breathes and….and think….think how fun it is to take other people’s stuff and….and….hehe…” As the deluded girl spoke in mutters to herself along with her tantrum, numerous portals began to spawn all around the map of Deep Ground. Before long, endless waves upon waves of the Dissolution NPCs began to flood and crowd each area. Every Hall, every battlefield, every Kingdom, until…. --- [u][center][b]The Real World[/center][/b][/u] It was precisely one hour since every player in the world had been kicked out of Deep Ground Online. The entire school, or at least those who chose to actually stay in class to play the online game, were either annoyed at the inconvenience, depressed at the lack of any real hobby to practice, or just plain confused at the whole thing. But then, that was to be expected. These thoughts passed through the head of a rushed [url=http://safebooru.org/images/1143/8714a62ebd213405746a562eeb266b7d2e12b724.jpg]student[/url] half-walking, half-dashing towards the school’s mainframe. With long black hair that appeared just a bit too messy for her, a pair of prim glasses, and an expression that had no time for slackers, the School President of Purple Crown Academy had little time to put the entire population of youth at ease. How utterly annoying….why the hell did this have to happen now? She sighed while closing her eyes, having memorized her path to the Student Council Office many times over by now. As she passed by the hallways, several students turned to stare at her. Ignoring them, she eventually made it to the closed off space and entered without hesitation. To be fair, they had good reason to stare at their School President. Aside from the fact that the girl excelled in academics-not to mention that she was actually quite the looker-the famed Yoshino Tsgumi was also reported to be the only student in the entire Academy to have direct contact with Black King herself in the real world. Rumor soon turned into truth, and since then many have pondered and attempted to guess the relationship between the two. It was no secret that Yoshino served as a public representative in the outside world for Black King, but was it that simple? Some said she’s really Black King's long lost sister. Others claim that she was Black King’s personal servant. And still, there were some well deserved nut jobs out there that swore that Yoshino Tsgumi was actually Black King herself in plain view. Of course, that was just ridiculous; everyone knew that the School President absolutely hated video games. Regardless, it had been quite some time since she had to represent her client publicly like this. Sitting in her own personal head chair, Yoshino released another weary sigh as she connected to the World Interface and mentally prepared herself for the message she was to deliver. Very soon….there. Her voice and image would now connect to everyone who had ever linked to Deep Ground Online still eligible to play. Not bad for someone who could barely play a simple game of Go-Fish. [b]Attention all students of Purple Crown Academy and of the World Interface. Please, do not be alarmed by the sudden technical difficulties we are enduring right now. Our team is investigating the matter thoroughly and it appears that it was only a massive lag caused by an influx of enemy NPCs. Deep Ground Online will be functional again in the following day.”[/b] Well that caused some relief. [b]“And now, a message from the Black King. She deeply apologizes for the missed opportunity for the majority of you in meeting her. However, she states that for all of those who pledge allegiance to the Ebony Strykers, the next Guild meeting shall be tomorrow within the Black Kingdom, the same as today. And….the Black King has made her first orders to her new Guild. She desires for all of her followers to hunt down and bring her the player known as Corpse Collector to Black Kingdom as soon as possible. That is all. Thank you for your time and patience. Oh…and welcome to the Ebony Strykers.”[/b] Without a moment of pause, Tsugmi’s message promptly ended.