As a heads up, the intro will be coming tonight! [@vietmyke] Needs to post his CS and we'll be good to good. I am sincerely hoping that with us in a small group (a trusted one, no less~) we won't hit a lot of snags with inactivity and such. :3 I want to give a big thank you for you folks for sticking with this. As a treat, I have enclosed the prologue to my Corrected and Connected novel which I've been working on in my many workshops in college. It is set in London, as opposed to Tokyo but there will be a reason for that and I'd be more than happy to share more details of the world state and how things ended up as "utopian" as they are now. There will also be something called Unification Day, which is the day in which all hell and strife ended and we entered a new era. I've been accused of setting this all "too close" to the year we're in now but it's done on purpose so fuck em. I was also discouraged to use the abbreviations but I probably will in final edits for myself and all. Look forward to the intro, it is going to be very familiar to the previous one so I'm tweaking my old intro, so feel free to do the same. In the meantime, you're free to read this, as I think it may help us get back in the moooood~ [hider=Prologue] [b]Prologue Friday the 12’th of December, 2025 9:37 in the morning[/b] Only a slim fraction of studious students and pestering clouds of mist occupied the lawn in front of Merton College of Oxford University. James had his back to the aged buildings and had found momentary solitude beside the River Cherwell that snaked southward away from where celebrations were undoubtedly underway in the dormitories. “Professor Cantrell, your hiding spot shouldn’t be so predictable, it defeats the purpose.” A woman’s playful voice broke the wintery silence, followed by the rustling of bushes which flung droplets of dew against the merlot colored jacket of Sasha Tyler. Her pale eyes matched the overcast sky above the pair of co-workers who now stood face to face. “Coming all the way up on the M40 to get you, gets quite stale after the ninety-third time. I was stuck behind two caravans at one point, I seriously considered ending it all. You would think people would give up such tired traditions and stop being eyesores that slow everyone else down. Although, even with Unification Day upon us, the motorways weren’t horribly congested.” She contended and gave her hood tug, it fell back to reveal her shoulder length wavy hair and a thin silver necklace with an amphora dangling against her bare collarbones. As a fashion blogger and co-owner of one of the most popular online stores, Sasha was dedicated to not only looking posh, but writing high quality content for anyone to savor and crave. “Not everyone it seems, there are some students who’d much rather spend time studying than go down to the pub.” James pointed out as the pair made their way across the lawn towards the sparsely filled car park of sleek cars. Upon their approach, the car unlocked itself and opened its doors for the two approaching occupants. “I have tried encouraging them to take a break and enjoy themselves-“ “You?” Sasha cut him off as they got inside the vehicle, which promptly buckled them up and turned on the heater for them. “You’re the last person I’d hire to inspire tomfoolery.” She let out a dry laugh as her black BMW made its way out of the quaint scholarly cove and back onto the M40. “As much as I wanted to hit the stores in NYC today to finish my Christmas shopping, I don’t hate that we’re spending Unification Day together. The three of us hadn’t been notified by work in a few days and I was beginning to wonder if Hackers were the sort to adhere to holidays but then again, we had our hands full last New Year’s Eve.” “Ah yes, my mother wanted to know how I got my black eye, broken nose and broken ankle.” James lamented, thinking back to that massive battle. “Someday she’s going to stop kindly stop accepting my lies and demand the truth.” “My parents worry too, James. You’re not the only one who has to lie, keep up a fabricated double life and risk their life for an invisible cause. But what we’re doing is right, what we’re doing is justice.” Sasha said as she looked at him, her hands leaving the steering wheel as she reached over and placed her left hand on his shoulder while her right hand curled around her necklace, a graduation gift her parents had given her when she got out of high school. “Besides, our injuries aren’t as taxing as they used to be. Remember being a kid and hitting your elbow? The pain, the scar, the healing would take days but now it only takes hours. We’re lucky and I’m proud to be able to protect these people so the most they have to worry about, is a scrape and not being killed or infected with some hyper-virus created by Hackers.” The car continued to drive on its own while she swiped over her cell phone’s hologram library and uploaded a book to appear on the windshield in a semi-transparent format so she could drive and do some reading. James on the other hand, pulled out a hardcopy of a book and focused on it instead. - - - What would normally have been a two hour ride twenty years ago, was a mere twenty minute dash along the motorway due to the efficient engineering advances. Driving was no longer dull and grating, but intelligent, smooth and stylish. The car Sasha was piloting had been obtained thanks to the government’s early Christmas bonus and she was loving the new features like Driver Scanner which would periodically scan the driver’s retina, internal body temperature, heart rate and other neurological patterns in order to automatically adjust the car’s seat position, temperature, tint of windows, mirror positions and other intricate settings. As they neared the bakery where their third and final co-worker was frosting cakes or baking cookies, the car automatically turned the radio’s volume down and turned off the reading application in front of the passengers, having taken a cue from its driver. “Grab him, will you?” Sasha nudged James as she stopped the car in front of the bakery, having long forsaken the quest to find parking in the middle of London and instead relied upon the use of human pigeons like James or Devon. From inside Vicarious, an elderly women had just finished placing an order of Unification Day themed pastries with the symbolic large circle containing three smaller circles inside it, in the typical white buttercream color. Behind the counter, a man with blond hair was closing the lid of a white box, his tongue tracing the top edge of his lips as if taping it were a perilous task that only he could conquer. Beside him, a woman with thick rim glasses was tending to the next order with a smile, not needing to concentrate as hard as her friend. James stepped inside and quickly closed the door behind him to ward off the drizzly breeze outside. “Come on, mate, Sasha’s outside waiting.” Devon glanced toward Jen who waved at James and motioned for Devon to take off. Devon gave her a toothy smile and pulled off his apron, which listed him as: Devon Marlow, Head Pastry Chef, and hopped over the counter. He gave Jen an apologetic shrug and then dashed out the door and into the car with James following behind in a more orderly manner, holding the door open to the man who had just picked up the order Devon had finished. “After knowing you two years, I still don’t get it. You can shoot waves of lightning and fire at a dozen viruses, but you can’t get your license, come on James!” Devon taunted his mate as Sasha merged back into the morning traffic. “I refuse to Log In with you until you’ve proven you’ve got the balls to get behind the wheel of a fearsome Vauxhall Corsa.” He folded his arms across his chest in personal protest. “Did you guys have any plans for Unification Day? I was going to close up early and grab a drink with Jen but it seems the Government has other plans.” He huffed, lips pouting. “I had plans to meet up with some students who are struggling in class and use the day off to get them up to speed.” James replied and looked out the window which turned from smoky black to transparent. Dropping his expression, Devon finally shed his bubbly exterior as they neared their place of employment. “You teach Biochemical Engineering and Compatible Life Support Syncing, I don’t blame them for falling behind.” He gave a shrug. “Given our microchips have been mandatory for nearly a decade, people need to understand them and once they do, they can improve.” James said flatly. - - - The car pulled up to a curb and a man in a black suit with white opaque wraparound sunglasses opened the driver’s door, causing the twenty-four year old’s arms to unfold. “There’s never any traffic at the London Headquarters, doesn’t strike you as weird?” Devon mumbled and opened his door and got out behind James. “What’s weird is that you never bring over any cupcakes, not even on my birthday.” Sasha said as she handed the man in the suit her keys, a routine which had developed over the past four and a half years of her working for the Government as a Corrector, under a secret organization which maintained the order of online activity. A Corrector prevented identity theft, digital larceny, murder and other criminal acts. Correctors were the invisible line of defense that the world unknowingly trusted to keep them and their personal information safe. “I would even settle for week old cupcakes.” Sasha begged as the trio headed up the steps and into their second job. Inside, there was a crescent shaped reception desk and a single hallway leading back into the bowels of London’s HQ. The only thing standing between the public and any secrets, was a thin black metallic door frame with another man in a suit with red sunglasses standing in front of it. As soon as their microchips on the back of their necks were scanned and they were let past security, Sasha’s mood shifted. “There’s no such thing as a day off boys, let’s get to work.” The three Correctors made their way down the narrow hallway to the second door on their left and the guard outside scanned their microchips once more, before allowing admittance. Devon gave the man in the black suit with golden sunglasses a salute before the glass door slid shut behind the blond baker. In the room, there was a single round black marble table with three laptops with black large leather chairs in front of them. “The notification said we’ve got two viruses in the W-9-R coordinates.” James said as he took a seat and removed his cell phone from his slacks. “These hackers picked the wrong day to mess with us.” The other two took their usual seats and soon their procedures were finalized and they were ready to get to work. All it took to break the barrier between reality and the digital world, was a simple sync between their microchips, their government issued application and the internet. “See you guys on the other side.” Sasha sang and with a swipe of her finger, across her oval phone, her body went limp. James and Devon’s bodies also went limp and their consciousness were carried into the digital world and locked within their government issued avatars which granted them abilities to create magic out of code, create justice out of ruthlessness. - - - Four minutes later, a cyclone of glittering flames came barreling towards Sasha who dove out of the way. “Shit!” She yelled and rolled onto her back and put her hand to her left calf, fully aware the pain she felt would be even worse when she got home to her flat that night. She’d be lucky if the burns weren’t second degree, as those were still tricky to heal. Behind her, she heard her teammates urging her to hold down the two enemies who were thwarting their attacks thus far. Sasha rolled over and got to her feet and ran towards the fray, pulling her sword out as the boys moved out of the way. Letting out a grunt, she swung the white weapon, the ivory grip decorated with etching of roses and thrones, the blade a deep ruby. No longer did she wear her civilian clothes, but now had on tight grey body armor. Her ordinary brown hair was now the color of sapphire and pulled back into a long bow, as if it were a ribbon adoring a priceless gift. “Urkwia, get back!” James’s voice called out to the female knight who had a white shield strapped to her back. There was no time for her to get it and defend herself as one of the purple globs attacked her, sending out a barrage of poisonous shards. All she could do was raise an arm to deflect whatever she could. “Hideo, try freezing them!” She called out as she felt the toxins hit her flesh, burning her like acid. The scholar hailing from Oxford gave a nod and quickly flipped to a trusted freezing spell in his brown book and recited the spell as he extended his free hand toward the two piles of crap between their leader. “Duratus in aeternum!” With a quick motion, he froze both viruses and Sly ran over to Urkwia. He helped her up and took her back over to Hideo who was quickly trying to find a healing spell that would stop the infection from progression, as where the woman had been attacked, craters of dead skin were beginning to appear. “Um…” Healing in the Digital World was complicated and wouldn’t be as effective as Logging Off and getting medical attention but they often didn’t have that immediate luxury of stopping to lick their wounds when nefarious people were sending parades of complicated codes to kill people or rob banks. “Qualicumque dolor et curaret venenum.” With a wave of his fingers over the crouching knight, some of the holes were patched and the pain had gone from a six to a four, which meant she could still lead her team back into battle, because it wasn’t even close to being over. “Sly, why don’t you fashion us a static, continuous maze so we can trap these things and separate them?” Urkwia suggested as she got to her feet. They could trap one while getting rid of the other so that they wouldn’t get overwhelmed again. “Clearly these things like working together, I want us to change that.” She pulled her sword back out and put on a smirk. [/hider] Oh, and as a note our groups online for now are as follows: Genkai TalijaKey NeoAC vietmyke Krauxis [url=http://i.imgur.com/jdrNaqK.jpg]THIS[/url] is where we are now, as opposed to the town. [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VE6Y6rKifE]AND THIS[/url] is the music, piano~