Ok, so this is the actual part one, since I called the first one prologue. Looking back I’m not sure why I did, but that’s how it went. I wrote this episode three times, and the first were thrown out. I revised this one a bit, and an almost satisfied with it. I may go back and revise it again later, but I think this is as best it’ll get. Oh and sorry, I lied, not a whole lot of MMO here, but it’s getting there! Sorry!

**** C:/Public Records/Zeo Crisis/001 ****

“So, what it is that you are telling me,” came the voice of an aged man as he rested behind his desk, “is that you failed to capture her?” slowly turning in his large black chair to face forward.

“Yes, sir,” replied a man, still unaware of the marks that had been left upon his brow. “She jumped through the window.”

“And you did not pursue her?” he asked, a flare of disappointment in his tone, striking fear in his henchman.

“Sir, she jumped from over a hundre-“

“You did not,” he repeated, “pursue her. Neither did you retrieve the terminal at which she worked.” he continued, shifting towards annoyance and anger.

“No sir, I did not,” he answered, hanging his head in failure.

“What are we going to do with you, Jadon? I give you the humble task of seeking out a woman and bringing her and what she has been doing to me, and yet you have returned with nothing in you hands but a knotted rope of defeat,” the old man went on, once again cool and calm. “I am sorry to say that it will hang you.”

“Please, no! I will not fail again! Give me another chance, please!” he cried, fighting for his life as two tall and muscular sentries took his arms and removed him from the room. Turning his chair back around, another figure emerged from the shadows.

“That was a little harsh, don’t you think?” came a high and piercing voice. “It was only his third mission.”

“Find her,” he said with the strictest of tones. “Do it fast and do it quiet. Five launches on time, but for now we will hold on Parasite.”

“Don’t worry father,” he answered with a chuckle and a long thin smirk. “I’m not as dumb as my brother.”

——————————————————–

The bright, pale sun crept back through Sydney’s window the next morning. Without opening an eye, she knew it was there and turned over, pulling the think warm blankets closer to her skin. A clock across the room began to sound an alarm, and she was defeated.

With a long groan, she pulled her tired body up from the bed and walked over to shut the noise off, dragging both feet as she went. She considered returning to her cozy mattress, as there was no one around to object. After a short debate with herself, though, it was decided to stay awake in case something needed her attention, and this plan had sparked a memory.

Sydney stepped over to her computer and pushed in a button on the tower. The various drives and fans jerked to life and began to harmonize with one another. Letters and numbers flashed over the monitor until the desktop was ready to reveal itself.

“E-Mail,” she announced in a loud yet tired voice, slurring a few of the syllables. Moments later a Red Snail began to march over the screen, stopping every now and then to survey its environment.

“E-Mail!” she shouted. “Stupid computer.”

At this the snail was frightened, but no one seemed to care. Thunderbird loaded on top of him and began to check for any new messages, but found nothing except for one, the same it had discovered last night before shutting down.

Looking at this, she gave a small frown and a sigh, hoping for more then just one. Checking the subject, it said “MapleStory v5.00”; the sender, “Abby B”.

“Great,” she spoke softly to herself. “A letter from my aunt and nothing from my friends. That makes,” pausing to think, “three weeks. At least it’s about Maple.”

Reaching out to the mouse, she opened the document and slowly it began to load. Reading again, more closely, she noticed that most of the email itself was an attached file, which Sydney assumed was another private game that had been developed in spare time by her aunt.

Dear Sydney,
The following is very important, but know now that you are not being forced into anything. I want you to think long and hard for yourself before accepting.