Anything in italics is action text, which means that something\'s either happening of someone or a setting is being described.

 

Person: Text is the format I use to show that a character is saying something

 

Chapter 8: Gatherings of Necessity

 

Oscar stares up into the sky. He has on a hard hat and yellow shirt and leans lazily against a shovel. Iricryo, wearing a similar outfit, walks up to Oscar and slaps him back into reality.

Iricryo: Come on! It\'s all your fault we have to do this! So now get back to work!

 

Oscar: Sorry, was just taking a break. We\'ve been at this for almost 7 straight hours without one.

 

Iricryo: I haven\'t got a break either, so get your lazy ass back to work!

 

Oscar: Hey, don\'t yell at me! If Rook didn\'t take sympathy for me not knowing the rules we would have been executed!

 

Iricryo: If it wasn\'t for you, I would never have been in trouble in the first place!

 

Rook watches the two bicker got a little longer, before finally getting back to work. Katherine approaches him.

Katherine: Rook, what are you still doing here?

 

Rook: I\'m always a little amazed at the type of people who end up grouping up in this game, or that people even group up at all.

 

Katherine: And why\'s that?

 

Rook: With such a large cash reward offered in a game that seems to promote anarchy and individualism, it never ceases to amaze me that so many people actually managed to group up together, to gain enough trust among almost complete strangers to accomplish goals. The Militia formed among people who all wanted to create fairness and balance in the game and allow order in the cities, guilds have begun to pop up all over the game, and we\'ve seen many small groups of players who become friends and begin to out together.

 

Katherine: They don\'t exactly seem to be friendly to me.

 

Rook: Well I think they\'re just starting to like each other. Kind of makes me jealous, you know, I work for the Militia but it\'s not a cozy little group of friends, and I\'ll never get to adventure, really. I\'ll just sit in the cities and enforce order till close to the end of the game when there is no longer a need for us.

 

Katherine: Well now I\'m offended! You don\'t consider me a friend!?

 

Rook: Not what I meant, exactly. It\'s that the Militia is bound together by friendship or any kind of kinship, it\'s a gathering of necessity. Sadly, it seems that this gathering of necessity is quite a bit stronger than any group bound by friendship. Kind of makes you wonder if there any other gatherings of necessity forming around the world that might stand to cause problems for us.

 

Katherine: Well, as interesting as all this is, we\'ve got work to do. Let\'s go.

 

Rook: Yeah, yeah, I\'m coming.

 

The scene flashes out and flashes to a sky view of an area in a vast desert. The desert is vast and empty except for one small dot. The scene zooms in slightly closer to the dot and it reveals 11 shadowy human figures sitting in chairs around one large table. The scene flashes up to a front view of each character as they speak.

Austin W is tall and skinny, and through his expression it can be hold he\'s a bit of a nerd. He wears a one-piece full body armor with outstretched shoulder pads (the shape resembles Saiyan Armor from DBZ). The armor is decorated with many weird symbols and shapes.

Austin W: When is he supposed to get here? I have more important things I could be doing then waiting around for him.

 

A title flashes under him reading, "Austin W, Specialty: Finding and Exploiting Glitches."

Jack is relatively short, with dark, straight hair going down to his neck all around and parted in front of his face to both sides. His physique is unimpressive. He wears black slacks and a black shirt with a white vest over, the vest unzipped, and black gloves and buckled black shoes. He has a small earring on his right ear in the shape of a shield. He has a sword holster on each side.

Jack: Like what, searching for more overlooks in the games programming? The moderators always step in and fix any glitch you abuse, anyway.

 

A title flashes under him reading, "Jack Houser, Specialty: Unknown."

 

Austin W: I get enough use of them before they do. Either way, I really don\'t have time to be waiting out in the middle of nowhere.

 

Jack: My brother will be here soon, I\'m sure. And I\'m positive he\'s got some reasonable explanation for gathering us. Or at least he better. I\'ve got no problems killing off his character if he\'s just wasting our time.

 

Will: I\'ve got first dibs on killing that bastard if there\'s no reason for us waiting here!

 

A title flashes under him reading "William, Specialty: Power and Destruction using Brute Force."

William is tall and husky, with dark, half-plate armor and a horned helm that goes down over his eyes. Long hair comes down from the helm. He has scruffy moustache and a goatee. His eyes are constantly darting, paranoid, and his face is constantly twisted in an expression of anger. On each hand are long, sharp clawed gloves.

Will: I don\'t like to be dicked around with! Huh?

 

He barely jumps out of the way as Osmond bashes his giant halberd into the table and through the chair he was sitting on.

Osmond is the shortest member there, just shorter than Jack. He dresses light and casually, in brown clothes that could almost be mistaken for rags, and has short, messy, blond hair. He is always smiling smugly, with a sense of satisfaction that he is better than everyone. He always carries around his giant Halberd, which is almost twice as big as he is.

Osmond: Heh, not bad. Looks like you are truly worthy of my company.

 

A title flashes under him reading "Osmond Tyler, Specialty: Halberd Mastery."

Will: Little idiot! I will tear you to shreds!

 

Osmond: Hubba?

Will goes to assault him but Jack blocks the way.

Jack: Come on, just try to bear with his stupidity for a little longer, my brother won\'t be much longer.

 

Osmond: How about you, then, Jack?

 

He swings down on Jack, who pulls a decorative, black bladed sword out of one of the two holsters to his side and blocks the attack.

Jack: Hey, quit it you douche! Do you want to be killed?

 

Osmond: Oh, yeah, douche, nice comeback.

 

Jack: (sweat drop) It wasn\'t meant to be a comeback...

 

Kyler: Come on, guys, can\'t we just stop this fighting and be piece? I mean, there really isn\'t a reason to be fighting right now.

 

A title flashes under him reading "Kyler X, Specialty: Passive Charms."

Kyler is a tall, white-boy rocker, wearing baggy clothes and chains, his top grey with a black hoody that\'s always up. Messy hair covers most of his facial features. He carries around a large, electric guitar, which he is always strumming.

Osmond: Point being?

 

Will: Point being that if you don\'t quit assaulting people we will crush your head into the ground and drive that sword so far up your ass it will being coming out your mouth!

 

Ryan: Come on, guys, if you want to settle something do it like men! Arm wrestle!

 

A title flashes under him reading "Ryan, Specialty: Brutally Charged Magic."

 

Ryan is large and massive. Besides being the tallest member of the group, he is also the most bulky, being incredibly muscular. He doesn\'t wear a shirt, and wears black boxing shorts. He has short, red, military cut hair. He carries a staff around on his back by a small string.

 

Jack: (Sweat drop) Uh, no thanks there, buddy.

 

Ryan: Come on! One of you has to be man enough to try to arm wrestle me!

 

He flexes in a variety of different poses, showing off his muscles.

Jaime: I might take you up on that. Depends, can I use any technological upgrades for it?

 

A title flashes under him reading, "Jaime, Specialty: Technology."

 

Jaime is short and stout, with a dark, Hispanic complexion. He wears goggles and a large, bulky, mechanical suit and white gloves. He has a short, fuzzy layer of black hair and a small beard stubble.

 

Ryan: Of course not! It\'s got to be a battle of pure muscle!

 

Jaime: That\'s boring. There\'s no point to that.

 

Maggie: Maybe to prove your manliness, Jaime?

 

A title flashes under her reading, "Maggie, Specialty: Ice Combat."

 

Maggie is short and tender looking, wearing long, decorative dark red robes. She has short, neat blond hair and plenty of jewelry. She wears small, thin glasses. Her appearance is kept flawless and frail looking.

Ryan: That\'s right! Pure proof of manly muscle!

 

He flexes again.

 

Osmond: You call that manly? You don\'t even have a giant sword.

 

Maggie: Giant swords are just compensation.

 

Osmond: Huh, for what?

 

Maggie: (Sweat Drop) You\'re not really that stupid, are you?

 

Austin K: True manliness is the path of the wolf, anyway. You all know that.

 

A title flashes under him reading, "Austin K, Specialty: Animalistic Powers."

Austin K is tall with an outdoorsman-type build. He has lots of scruffy brown hair and leather armor with a wolf insignia on the back. His teeth are sharper than normal, almost like fangs. His appearance is messy and unkempt.

Austin K: Worship the moon like the wolf. That\'s how you need to live your life.

 

Jack: A little obsessed with that kind of stuff, aren\'t you?

 

Austin K: Maybe, but it\'s a worthy obsession. And it has made me quite powerful in this game, so you shouldn\'t doubt it.

 

Osmond: Powerful, huh? Want to test that?

 

James: God, why are you guys still letting Osmond talk? Will, can you just kill him already?

 

A title flashes under him reading, "James D. McComb, Specialty: Ranged Holy Abilities."

James is tall and sleek. He dresses in full black light leather clothes and a dark pair of thin sunglasses. He has long, light hair. On his back he carries around a large crossbow that\'s almost as large as he is. The crossbow is designed so its shape closer represents a cross than a crossbow.

 

Will: Do you think you can tell me what to do!?

 

James doesn\'t even seem effected by Will\'s anger.

 

James: Just offering up a suggestion that would be mutually beneficial, that\'s all.

 

Austin W: Does anyone even have a clue why we\'re waiting here? We receive a message from this guy, Jack\'s brother, telling us to meet all the way out in the middle of nowhere with no mention why. And for some reason we all decided to go.

 

James: Well, I guess it sounded exciting, so everyone decided to go. Me? I\'m looking for certain person, and this guy claims to have, "information." If any of that information can aid me on my search, this wait will be worthwhile.

 

Jack looks behind him to the final member of the group, who is sitting a lit bit disconnected from the rest of them.

Jack: You okay there, Timmy? You\'re being awfully quiet.

 

A sign flashes under him, "Timothy, Specialty: Unknown."

Timmy is large and stout, a pleasantly plump individual. He has messy, dirty blond hair with bangs that come down just above his eyes. He wears brownish robes with the arms carefully removed. Instead, on his arms there are long, thin strings that go up the length of his arms, starting somewhere under his robes and going down to his hands where they gather together to form makeshift gloves.

Timmy: I\'m enjoying this chance to contemplate things, actually. I\'ve been fighting so much lately I haven\'t had a good chance to think.

Jack: Think about what? What\'s there to think about?

 

Timmy: A lot, when you think about it. This game is shrouded in secrets, and I intend to discover them, before it is too late.

 

Maggie: Too late? Hm, taking the game a little seriously, don\'t you think?

 

Timmy: Well, someone has to.

 

Will: Are you suggesting I don\'t take this game seriously!?

 

Kyler: So much yelling...

 

Austin W: Indeed, we are surrounded by idiots.

 

Will: Who are you calling - huh?

 

Phil approaches the group through the desert, originally shrouded in shadows, but becoming clear as he gets near.

Phil: Good, you all decided to come.

 

A title flashes under him reading, "Phil-domo, Specialty: Unknown."

 

Phil is tall with an unimpressive build. He wears white, light armor that looks very flimsy. He has short, neat, black hair. He wears a thin pair of glasses that always seem to glare up in the light. On his back he carries around a medium sized staff with a blue glow at the front end. He also has a sword which is sheathed at his side.

 

Phil: If you\'re all done being idiots, we can get started.

 

Osmond: Uh, I\'ve still got more.

 

Everyone glares at him angrily.

Osmond: Never mind, go on.