[hider=The Day Before][center][b][u]A Few Hours Ago[/b][/u][/center]

Smitten Kitten eyes widen as Corpse Collector drew her gun. She knew that she wouldn't be able to face Corpse Collector down alone, and without a friend at that, so Smitten Kitten ran for it. She threw a Fire Rune at Corpse Collector's feet, hoping that it would damage her and give Smitten Kitten some room to run. She didn't want to drag out a fight in the Black City, since the last thing she needed was for the Ebony Strykers to start fighting her too.

Corpse Collector grimaced as the sudden explosion caught her off guard. Thinking fast, she brought down the ends of her umbrella as the fiery display became absorbed, giving off a faint orange glow to it. The Hacker took one look at it before smirking.

"Hey this thing's pretty nifty, right? Wonder what happens if I do this!"

With a thrust of her hand, Corpse Collector reeled back and released the Fire Rune right back at Smitten Kitten. As the runes landed right in front of Smitten Kitten's path, Corpse Collector leap forward in pursuit of her prey.

Smitten Kitten though that she'd been able to escape, but somehow Corpse Collector shot a fire ball right in front of Smitten Kitten. It hit her pretty hard, but she still had more than half her health left. She didn't want to know how much damage she could take however. Looking back Smitten Kitten saw Corpse Collector come at her. [i]"Dang it! I can't let her kill me, but I need answers!"[/i]

Thinking fast, Smitten Kitten readied her Warp Runes. One on the roof of a building below her, and another right behind her. When Corpse Collector was just about to land on her, Smitten Kitten stepped back onto the Warp Rune and appeared on the other rune below. Smitten Kitten needed to first get out of the Black City, and if Corpse Collector keeps following, figure out a way to trap her and get her to start telling her what she wants to know about the king's deaths.

"The hell?"

Corpse Collector halted as Smitten Kitten warped right out of her line of sight and landed who knows where. Sighing in annoyance, she twirled her umbrella once before brandishing her gun once more.

"Yeah, I remember your little trick too. Well, kinda. You're too bust just watching me get grilled back then so I can't say for sure."

Looking around, she grinned menacingly when she discovered the other Player from a lower level from her. Twirling her gun, she fired off a few warning rounds that completely missed Smitten Kitten. Frowning at the horrible seemingly inaccuracy of the weapon, she chose to jump down and continue the chase.

"No taunts or anything like that? Man, I thought you were more of a pain than the others. Still not a jerk like that Arms Slave though for stealing my freaking gun."

Smitten Kitten continued to Warp from roof to roof. She lacked the health or acrobatics to safely land a far distance, despite being a cat-like avatar. But she knew that she needed to save her Warp Runes, or else they'd enter a very lengthy cool down state right when she needed it the most.

As the little girl kept running, she did notice that Corpse Collector wasn't teleporting to her, nor was her accuracy insane like before. Smitten Kitten guessed that Corpse Collector wasn't hacking, but that only made her want to know what exactly happened with Corpse Collector and why she was back. Soon Smitten Kitten saw a promising area; a ruined looking warehouse of some sort. There didn't seem to be any players near by, so Smitten Kitten leap down to the street, close enough that she didn't have to deal with fall damage, and ran for the warehouse. Once inside her mind quickly formulated a plan to ensnare Corpse Collector.

"You little...get back here and fight!"

Well, her irrational behavior and brash manner of speaking hadn't changed at all. Indeed, the looks may have been different but this was still the same childish Corpse Collector. Focusing her mind, she concentrated a certain ability of hers...and promptly teleported inside the warehouse.

Landing with a hard thud, she skidded to a halt with her boots before looking on towards the approaching Smitten Kitten. A look of annoyance flashed across her face though, and she did not use her flicker-type move again. Perhaps she couldn't and it had a cool-down period like any other Avatar Ability?

Acting fast, Smitten Kitten actually continued to run towards Corpse Collector, but took out a small object; a Buckler. Or more accurately, a pot lid. It was considered a joke item even for low level players, but it was also the only shield that Smitten Kitten could use since she lacked a Brawler's regular strength. Still, on it's own the pot lid couldn't even be used to deflect a thrown rock. At least not without enchantments.

The first thing after Smitten kitten took out her pot lid was put a Warp Rune on it's surface. Now anything that touched the surface of the shield would be Warped away. The second thing she did was create a Sticky Rune on what looked to be a hole in the ground. Wasn't even a bit hole, but it was just large enough to hide Smitten Kitten. Or stuff Corpse Collector into. And lastly, one more Warp Rune, on the ceiling above the hole.

Smitten Kitten didn't know how many bullets Corpse Collector could shoot before she needed to reload or the full abilities of her umbrella, but even so the little girl charged at Corpse Collector without fear. All she needed to do was touch Corpse Collector with her Warp Rune, and she was certain it would be her victory.

"Oh, so you wanna die after all?"

Corpse Collector raised her gun and fired off the Death Penalty II for a total of three shots, confident that each of her bullets would make direct contact due to the rapidly decreasing distance. Therefor, it was to her great outrage when the gun's bullets all seemed to miss the approaching form of Smitten Kitten.

"Oh come the fuck on!"

Not being bothered by a long-ranged assault, the Hacker Player extend a short blade out of the end of her umbrella and charged forward with every intent to slice her enemy into ribbons.

As Corpse Collector charged with her weaponized umbrella, Smitten Kitten pounced. It took ever bit of focus she had, but Smitten Kitten was able to parry Corpse Collector's blow with her umbrella. Once she was past the umbrella's threat range, Smitten Kitten reared the pot lid back and punched Corpse Collector with it. For a measly 1% health damage, if even that.

Virtually unaffected y the pitiful scratch damage, Corpse Collector gave off a perplexed look.

"Um...the fuc-"

But than the Warp Rune went off. Just as soon as the Rune touched Corpse Collector, her body was Warped from her current location to the Wrap Rune on the ceiling. But given that there was no footholds or any other object for her to grab onto, Corpse Collector was sent on a free fall strait down into the hole. And once she landed in it, she triggered the Sticky Rune, which would keep her trapped. Normally it would just stick people's feet to the ground, but unless Corpse Collector had insane agility, she'd fall right on her back or face, and onto the Sticky Rune.

"Shit!"

Twirling her body around, Corpse Collect was able to maneuver nimble enough to turn herself over and land perfectly on her feet. Doing so, she rose up to dust off her dress. Giggling at Smitten Kitten's obvious failure, she twirled her bladed umbrella before leaping to bring about the killing blow.

"Bye, bye Kitty! I-wait..."

She moved forward a little, than a lot, and then struggled. She could move one leg but why...turning back at the Sticky Rune, the Hacker couldn't believe her luck. She had misjudged the distance needed to avoid the trap entirely, and so had managed to miss it for the most part. "Most part" didn't quite cut it though, as her left leg was still very much caught.

She wasn't going anywhere, not unless she'd willingly cut off that leg.

"Goddamnit!"

Such a foul mouth for a pretty face.

Smitten Kitten let out a sign of relief as her trap worked. Smitten Kitten than moved the location of the Warp Rune on the ceiling to another location, and as Corpse Collector continued to struggle fruitlessly out of the trap, Smitten Kitten disarmed her of her weapons and the umbrella. Once she was certain that Corpse Collector had no more weapons on her person, Smitten Kitten gave the hacker a stern look. "Now I want you to answer my questions. How are you back in Deep Ground? How did you get your hacking abilities? And who killed the other four of the colored kings?"

"Yeah. Sure. Maybe I could answer those questions, which by the way I already told you I don't [i]know[/i], or I can tell you to screw off. So screw off already," the Corpse Collector said with a frown.

"As for my hacking...well that's my little secret!"

Frowning at Corpse Collector, Smitten Kitten picked up a rock and put a sticky rune around it. Than she chucked it at Corpse Collector's head. Even if the hacker caught it, the rock would stick onto her hand or where else it'll land. It did pitiful damage, but it still hurt as much as getting a rock thrown at you normally would. "There are plenty of rocks around here and I can use my Sticky Runes as much as I need do. Now tell me how you got your hacking abilities, and how you came back to Deep Ground!" Smitten Kitten threw another rock right at Corpse Collector's bladder.

"Ow! Hey, watch it!"

Corpse Collector tried to shake over that rock that had found itself plastered right to her head. The large lump of hardened mineral, dirt, and...er, rock, were a definite stand out from his mismatched colored hair. She was in the prospect of rolling her eyes to the worded threats when she felt a sharp sting from...a lower region.

"Ahh! You fucking hag! Why the hell should I tell you anything...."

Her voice lowered down as she realized something. The familiar smirk rose onto her lips again and a light twinkled in her eye. The cool-down for her flickering ability had finally worn off, and she chuckled darkly, not caring in the slightest if there was a rock stuck to her...best no to finish that sentence. At once her body began to flicker out as she began to transport herself.

"Later loser!"

The sound of flesh being pierced rang out in the abandoned warehouse. Corpse Collector's eyes widened as she trailed downwards to see...a bladed stream of platinum energy run right through her chest. At once, the blade was viciously ripped out as Corpse Collector fell forward.

"S-Son of a bit-"

She landed on the ground. Dead. Her body began to dissipate, signalling the tell-tale sign of a recently defeated Player. However, something was off. Instead of the normal bundle of EXP crystals, Corpse Collector instead faded away into a blank static. EXP still remained behind, but this Player death seemed...unnatural.

[b]"You should be thanking me little one. As she was now, there was no natural way for that EXP to appear as it does now. That should be enough to level you up, yes Smitten Kitten?[/b]

Standing before Smitten Kitten, the presumed owner of that energy blade, was a masked man with piercing golden eyes. His Player status read [b]Enemy NPC[/b], yet his Avatar name read [b]Silver Jester[/b].

Smitten Kitten simply wasn't sure what to think now. When Corpse Collector died, she was going to throw a Fire Rune to possibly catch her in the fiery blast. Smitten Kitten would survive since she set off her own explosion, though it might have killed Corpse Collector, thus making her lose a suspect on this case. However someone else killed Corpse Collector. A... Avatar? Smitten Kitten couldn't really wrap her mind with this person. His name was Silver Jester, and yet instead of a class it simply read "Enemy NPC". "What... Are you some sort of AI for the Ebony Strykers?" She wasn't sure why she was asking, she doubt the AI could actually understand her question. Advanced as they are, there was only so much an NPC could do. 

Still, the fact that it was able to kill Corpse Collector in a single backstab made it clear to Smitten Kitten that he was a strong opponent. He'll likely be able to resist her Befriend ability, so she wasn't going to bother to use it. If he was going to be hostile however, she had her Fire Rune ready, and he was standing right on top of her Sticky Runes too.

[b]"The Ebony Strykers? Please, do not associate me with mere children. Ah, you think I'm an AI, yes? One powerful enough to resist your Befriend ability. Will this put your mind to ease?"[/b]

The Jester seemed to have an uncanny ability of deducing just what she was thinking. Or maybe he was actually her mind? Impossible. No ability existed where another Player could do so. Unless of course, he was a Hacker himself. The man's Player status soon changed, going from [b]Enemy NPC[/b] to [b]Player Avatar[/b].

"Does that make you more comfortable in my presence? I came only do discuss certain matters with you...Hibiki Toho. A shame though...are you not going to collect the Corpse Collector's EXP? I thought you wanted to level up? I understand though. It makes sense that you'd feel cheated after discovering you fought nothing but a mere copy."[/b]

Once again, none of this made any sense. Silver Jester wasn't part of the Ebony Strykers, apparently knew her Avatar Abilities, and was definitely a hacker. Changing his titles did nothing to ease her mind. If anything, it made her even more tense. However she knew that even if she could fire off ten of her Fire Runes at the Silver Jester, if he's really a hacker, none of the damage would go through and all she would do is collapse the building onto herself. By this point all her skills had cool down, so she canceled her Fire Rune and just looked at the stranger.

She did look at the EXP from Corpse Collector, but figuring that it came from the Silver Jester, Smitten Kitten didn't trust it. For all she knew, it could actually take away her levels. When he mentioned her name, her real name, Smitten Kitten got right back to the defensive, with two Fire Runes in her hand. "Who... What are you? What do you know about that Corpse Collector? No... Actually, I don't need to know about her. But I'm certain that you have a hand in the kings death, didn't you? And I bet you also were the one who gave Corpse Collector, the original one, her hacking powers, am I right?"

It was too convenient for this Silver Jester to show up out of the blue to save Smitten Kitten. She guessed that he was just here to clean up one of his own messes, though at this point Corpse Collector was nothing more than a point of interest. Smitten Kitten wanted to know about the king's murder and how it related to the Black Guild, and she was sure that this Silver Mask knew the answers. And while Smitten Kitten knew her attacks wouldn't work on him, she still prepared to blow him up with her Fire Runes. 

"Who are you, how did you give Corpse Collector her hacking powers, and what do you know about the deaths of the White, Red, Orange, and Green King?"

The Jester narrowed his eyes, the only indication of his apparent amusement.

[b]"Oh? You assume that [i]I[/i] was the one who gave Corpse Collector the means to hack Deep Ground so profusely? How arrogant of you to assume so...that's why you people are so...interesting....so what if I did?"[/b]

The Jester tilted his head in curiosity, genuinely awaiting for her answer to him

[b]"I'm sure you may also know me as the Masked Man of rumor. How appropriate, yes? As for the murders of the Kings...why, isn't that obvious as well? It's clear that the Black King herself committed such terrible crimes against her fellow human. Tragic...even more so when you consider what they did to poor Corpse Collector, my most promising customer."[/b]

The Masked Man glanced down at the same spot the Hacker Player's body had faded away from.

[b]"What you saw just now was not the real Corpse Collector. Rather, she is a figment of data, one of several, copied by the Black Guild. A clone or a shadow if you will; the real Corpse Collector remains bound in the real world. These make-shift copies are...representations of herself...before she met me. Do you understand, Smitten Kitten?"[/b]

"The only thing I need to understand is that you're avoiding my questions! I already told you I don't care about Corpse Collector anymore! And I don't need to know about rumors! I want to know just who you, Silver Jester, are, how you gave Corpse Collector her hacking powers, and what your involvement with the king's deaths are! And don't bother lying to me!"

Smitten Kitten roared with fire in her eyes as hot as the Fire Runes in her hands. She had no fear against the Silver Jester, just growing irritated at his attempts to change the subject.

"The Black King... I know she's ruthless, but even she wouldn't kill the other kings! And you call Corpse Collector your customer. I don't know what that means, but I can guess that you didn't just sell her the illegally modified weapons."

[b]"How I gave her the powers? Irrelevant. Who am I? I suppose I could tell you that I am God...but that would be horribly cliche. I am no one...and I don't want to be anyone. Will that suffice for your burning curiosity?"[/b]

Silver Jester remained calm throughout her little spectacle of defiance, only chuckling at how aggressive she was soon becoming.

[b]"Are you implying that I did something more regarding Corpse Collector? What ignorance. She wanted power, and I simply provided. Is that enough for you? Or do you still doubt my words as truth?"[/b]

"What I want to know is how. Deep Ground is a very well developed and protected system. It takes very special people to be able to 'hack' into it, and most of those people probably work for Deep Ground already. So what I want to know is why you would give Corpse Collector such power, and how you did it so I can stop it form happening again!"

Honestly, Smitten Kitten wasn't really sure if she could get anything else from this guy. While it was obvious that he was no mere player, either he was really dumb, or was just getting on her nerves. Maybe it was both.

"And just who you are. I know you're not a player character. Or at least, you're definitely not someone from school. There's no way highschool kids could be this good at hacking. I also know you're lying about not having anything to do with the kings either. Moon Rider is ruthless and should be defeated, but even she wouldn't stoop so low as to kill anyone in real life. But I bet you would, and I want you to tell me why you did it and how!"

[b]"There you go again, assuming as always. You people are so...annoying."[/b]

The Jester shook his head in mock disappointment, his body already beginning to fade away from Smitten Kitten's sight.

[b]"I leave you with this Smitten Kitten. All of your answers will be revealed tomorrow morning. If you still feel dissatisfied by the results, then I suggest unto you only option. Find your precious Black King, Moon Rider. I'm sure she has all the answers."[/b]

His Avatar body began to phase away, though her left one final note of parting information.

[b]"Farewill Hibiki Toho. It was nice...chatting with you."[/b]

And then he was gone, as mysterious as he had came.

---

White Death was crusting through the Scarlet Harley territory when something came up. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. "Oh what!? Why did this happen!?" White Death knew she wouldn't get an answer, but by impulse she still shouted. For some reason or another Stalwart Bruiser, the White King, had disbanded the Ivory Masks. So many questions went through White Death's mind, mostly variations of why. She tried to think of an answer on her own, but all she could figure out was that maybe, whatever happened at the Green City was so massively bad for Stalwart Bruiser that he forced his guild to disband. "Oh hell. Are those Ebony Strykers really that bad?"

White Death wasn't sure what to do now. Since she wasn't part of the Ivory Masks, she had no reason to really help out against the Ebony Strykers. Still... She didn't exactly like them. Too powerful for her taste; it'll be too easy to just join up with them and let everyone else do the heavy lifting. At least when she was in the Ivory Masks, that sense of looming destruction kept them on their toes, made life interesting. But this... This was really anti-climactic. If they had been forced to disband after a great battle, maybe White Death could accept the defeat with honor. But this was disappointing. She had half a mind to find Stalwart Bruiser and demand answers from him. But instead, White Death simply parked her motocycle somewhere safe and logged off for the night. She was too tired right now to really get worked up about this. She'll figure out what to do in the morning.[/hider]

[hider=The New Day]

Hibiki weakly slammed the button on her alarm off. It was seven AM, just an hour or so before school started, which would give her ample time to wash up and make breakfast. After Silver Jester left her last night, Hibiki had also left Deep Ground to try to find some answers. She searched the form and found out many shocking things, such as the White Guild falling apart, the possibility that the Ebony Strykers were employing hackers, and the total destruction of the Green Guild city. Hibiki thought about what had happened and pondered what she could do. She knew that the Ebony Strykers were very powerful, powerful enough to wipe out an entire city in just a few hours. And from what she gleamed from other Ebony Strykers on the forums, the attack wasn't even Moon Rider's plan. The majority of them claim that the attack was simply a spontaneous decision made by one of the Ebony Strykers. This wasn't good news; they had the sheer power to wipe out a city on what amounts to a whim. Many of the forum goers claimed credit for the attack, but a few names stood out.

Arms Slave. He was there when Corpse Collector was defeated. Hibiki also remembered that Corpse Collector wanted to kill him, though after what the Silver Jester said, she figured that nothing was really going to come from Corpse Collector's threat. Still, Hibiki knew what Arms Slave was capable of. She guessed that he'll be an important character later in her investigation, one way or another. The other name that caught Hibiki's attention was Dark Wraith. She knew that Dark Wraith was the second in command of the Ebony Strykers, even though she was only level 6. Thinking long and hard about it, Hibiki was certain that Dark Wraith might be a hacker. What other reasons would Moon Rider allow someone so low level to be her second in command? Of course, Hibiki had no proof that Dark Wraith was a hacker. Not yet.

After freshening up Hibiki noticed that she had a message in her inbox. Looking at it she was shocked at the sender's name. "Silver Jester..." She looked at the message and held her breath as she read the message. 

[i][u]"After a whole month of living in constant fear and under the scrutiny of lowly threats, I stand before you as a brave brother at arms. I was there when it happened. I saw it all. How the Black King struck down the players in game...only for their real life bodies to subsequently perish soon after. There is no doubt; Moon Rider is the King murderer."[/i][/u]

Hibiki still couldn't believe this. There was just no way this could happen. The Black King killing players in game only for them to die in real life? That was some silly [i].hack[/i] stuff. That would happen in an anime. Surely it couldn't happen here... And seeing how Silver Jester never really gave her a strait answer yesterday, Hibiki didn't exactly believe everything he'd say.

[i][u]"I would have revealed this information sooner had it not been for the efforts of the Ebony Strkyers to repeatedly silence my knowledge forever. As you all may know, the Ebony Strykers have now utilized the illegal method of Hacking themselves, the most blatant example being the taming of Dissolutions witnessed by yesterday's battle."[/i][/u]

This Hibiki might actually believe. She was sure that the Ebony Strykers have hackers in their midst, and taming Dissolutions were certainly hacks. This made Hibiki wonder if Silver Jester was aligned with the Ebony Strykers. Nothing he would say would convince Hibiki that he wasn't some sort of super hacker. If there was anyone in the Ebony Strykers who could do something like tame Dissoutions, it would be him. But why would he be doing something like this, admitting that the Black Guild was hacking if he worked for them? It was either a very convoluted plan, or maybe the Silver Jester just didn't work with the Black Guild. There was so much she didn't know, she couldn't really cross out the possibilities

[u][i]"The real life identity of Moon Rider, the Black King...is none other than Michael Faye. Do what you must to maintain justice in our ever changing world."[/i][/u]. 

Now Hibiki certainly wasn't going to believe this. She doesn't know who Michael is, but Moon Rider is definitely female, and Michael sounds like a male name. There was no way a guy could have a female avatar. The only, slimmest evidence that might convince Hibiki that Michael was the Black King is if he was also a hacker. When you could manipulate the system however you wanted, playing as the opposite gender wasn't really too long of a shot.

And that's when Hibiki realized something. "Whoever if hacking Deep Ground... Must work there!" It was the only answer that made sense to Hibiki. Who better to mess with Deep Ground than someone who's job was to work on it? Sure knew that there were a few students at school who's families were involved with Deep Ground, or at least had family who worked there. Hibiki herself was one of those people. She could ask her parents what they knew about other families who supported and worked for Deep Ground. After that, Hibiki could narrow down the suspects to individual players. There was a lot to do today, but she was certain that she could begin as soon as lunch time.

As Hibiki made breakfast, she called her parents. She was going to crack this case.

---

Amy woke up around seven o'clock. It was a curse and blessing; she'd always wakes up at this time, but that's regardless if she had eight hours of sleep or just one. And she had fallen asleep late that night as she pulled an all nighter on the Deep Ground Forums. With Stalwart Bruiser no longer the White King, there was yet another power vacuum. Amy tried to do something to hold the guild together by throwing her lot in with some 9th Level Wizard, but by the time she woke up it seemed like some 9th Level Armsman had taken the lead. Amy decided that the Ivory Masks were pretty much over for her; she'd need to find a new guild to fight for.

And than there was a message. She already got a jist of what the contents where with a quick glance through the forum, and knew it was not good. Michael Faye is suppose to be the Black King, and the Black King could kill people in real life through the game, and she was employing hackers. But Amy didn't really care. This war ought to just say in Deep Ground, and if it really leaks over into the real world... It wouldn't be the first time Amy has gotten into a fight.

She'd talk to some people at school about what guild she should join seeing that the Ivory Masks were heading to hell in a hand basket. After washing up and eating breakfast, Amy packed her school things and headed to Purple Crown Academy. 

[/hider]