When Michelle opened her eyes, she didn't recognize her surroundings at first. There were three boys sitting in chairs facing a round table, who were probably just as confused as she were. Then she figured it out. This was the throne room for the Yellow Guild Hall. She was sitting on her throne. The weird thing was that she never recalled logging into Deep Ground. First things first, she needed to figure out what was going on.

"Ahem, excuse me, do any of you know what's going on?" Michelle asked the three boys, who then turned to look at her as if she were an alien from another planet. 

"_Umm.... no_," one of the boys said. "_Wait, this is.... the Guild Hall._" 

"_What the hell?_" another boy said. "_How the hell did we get here? And why am I not wearing my Shinobi outfit?_"

The moment the boy asked that, Michelle realized that she wasn't wearing her Avatar outfit either. She was in her school uniform. Things started to take a turn for the worse there. She quickly got off her chair and tried to use Shukuchi, only to run a few feet before tripping on her own two feet and falling face first into the ground. "Ow..." she said as she pushed herself off the ground, rubbing her face. It was then that a message appeared on her Interface, as well as on the boys' Interfaces. Michelle opened the message, hoping to find answers.

**Greetings Players of Deep Ground Online. From your standpoint, you may be wondering many things. Allow me then, to enlighten you of your situation. In short, you are now placed within the Deep Ground Program indefinitely. However, as you also may notice, you are each stripped of your Player Avatars and their abilities. Also take note that your Private Messaging systems among one another are no longer functional. In short, you are completely human and trapped within this world. The game is simple; your minds in the living world are still connected to your chips. However, I have made some rather amusing enhancements. If you die in Deep Ground, a lethal electrical charge will be sent to your brain. You will die instantly. Why have I done this? That too is simple in itself. You people are so….interesting. Please have fun with this new addition to the Deep Ground experience.**

**-Silver Jester**

Oh no.

Trapped in the game, without her powers? What was she going to do? How would she survive? She sat down on the ground and clutched her head with both hands, bringing her knees closer to her. She was trapped. She was going to die. These poisonous thoughts crept into the brain and drained her of all hope. She was only a 14-year-old girl. She didn't deserve death, not like this. Death, death, death, death-

One of the boys grabbed Michelle by the shoulders and began shaking her, thus shaking her out of her thoughts. "_Hey, don't wimp out on us, Star,_" he said. "_We've all gotten the message, and there's no point in panicking. We need order. I'm Force, that's Enigma, and that's Brick,_" gesturing to himself and the others. "_We need to keep our cool, and figure this out, alright? We'll get out of here alive. It'll take more than some stupid chip in our brain to kill any of us._"

Slowly but surely, Michelle began to calm down. Force was right. She would survive. All she needed to do was figure out what the hell was going on. "Thanks, I needed that," she said to Force, glad for his support. Now calm, she got up from the ground and said, "We should go see what's going on outside. There'll be others who will be panicking, if they're not already." The three advisors nodded, then followed her to the entrance.