.hack//etc. - an epic fanfiction
Prologue - Unofficial Beta Testers
Setting - 6 months before the official U.S./Canada release of "The World"
Dulles International Airport, Washington D.C. - Private Arrivals Sector
The normal rustle and bustle of an airport in the middle of the day was absent at that particular section of Dulles Airport. Save for two
employees standing near an empy coffee vendor stand chatting about how lucky they were to be assigned to the private section monitoring arrivals.
Random announcements about improperly parked cars, changes in baggage claim locations, and last calls for flight boardings were normal. It was the
scraping of suitcase wheels, crying babies, loud talking and excited greetings exchanged between arriving family members and friends that were
missing from this area that contributed to it's tranquility. This portion of the airport was reserved to corporations and industry flights and were restricted
to commercial airliners and passengers. The two employees, whos names were Rick Hayes and Alicia Garner, were jubilant because the schedule they
received containing the expected arrivals that day was empty except for one arrival from Tokyo, Japan. Rick, a thin, dark-haired guy, flashed a wide
grin when he heard the familiar roar of airplane turbines just outside the terminal, and pumped his fists into the air with an exaggerated shout of joy.
"And the rest of the day belongs to complete relaxation," he yelled obnoxiously, stripping the area of it's tranquil scene for a short moment.
Alicia chuckled under her breath and winked in response to Rick, before turning away from him to scan the area. What she was looking for was their
associate, KJ Valdez, who had been sitting in the very small waiting area with his legs propped up and his music playing in his headphones while staring
out the window the last she had noted him. He was always very garrolous and usually kept a smile on her face, but today he seemed distant and quiet.
It made her feel a bit akward and whenever she thought about i,t it felt all the more unsettling. She wasn't hard to worry, however.
"What?" Rick asked, noticing her sudden shift in facial expression and following her eyes around the room. Rick ran his fingers through his
rough brown hair quickly before asking again. "What's your problem?"
Alicia's lips parted, yet no sound escaped before she had returned her gaze to Rick and made complete contact with him. "Uh.. nothing. I was
actually looking for KJ."
"Well..." Rick looked around as well for their work partner only to spot him standing in a corner near one of the large windows, one hand thrust
into his pocket while the other held his Nextel to his ear. Rick shook his head and laughed. "Looks like he's talking with her again. There's nobody else
he would be."
Alicia rolled her eyes and expelled a sigh of disgust before about facing and relieving herself of the sight. Rick laughed again. A gesture he
was repeating more and more.
"Someone's getting the J word again," he poked. Alicia turned and pushed Rick backwards easily with her open palms. Rick stumbled back
into a row of bolted chairs. Alicia rolled her eyes, sighed heavily in disgust again, and stormed off toward the bathroom. Rick nodded as she walked
away melodramatically.
"See! See! That's why you're acting all mad!" he shouted after her.
Alicia raised her middle finger at him and shouted back without turning. "No, I'm getting all mad because you're being a dick!" Rick winced
sarcastically. "Ooh, nice shot." However at that time, he had suddenly become more occupied with the fact that his fruit stripes gum was running out of
flavor, which drained the pleasant look from his face.
"They don't make this stuff like they used to." With a groan, he grasped the arm rest on the chair Alicia had pushed him into, and pulled himself
upwards. He headed towards the nearby escalator while fumbling in his back pocket for his wallet. He hummed a beat while blindly riding the moving
stairway towards the next floor to buy himself a new pack of gum, leaving the private sector floor empty except for KJ, who looked up finally to survey
the situation.
"Perfect. I got it from here," he whispered into his cellular phone. He ended the call without waiting for a response, and sprinted towards the
exit door that lead outside. Descending down the stairs, he couldn't successfully repress a smile. At the bottom of the stairway, however, he regained
his composure and pushed the door out from him, exiting to the much louder area outside where the cargo was being unloaded from the large carrier jet
that had landed moments prior with a large shipment brought in from Tokyo. KJ lifted his cell once more and held it close to his mouth, cupping a hand
over it to make sure the person on the other end could hear him. A man in an orange shirt waved at him from a cargo hauling truck in the distance, that
was heading in his direction, and KJ pressed his index finger hard on the two way button on his phone.
"The product is being delivered right to me," he relayed with a smile. As the man on the cargo hauler stopped in front of him, he looked
upwards at the plane before them. "Why thank you..." he said under his breath. On the side of the plane was a big logo that read. "CC Corporation."
Several minutes later, KJ picked up a large suitcase at a predetermined baggage claim and wheeled it out the front door of the airport while humming the
tune to "I've Got The Whole World In My Hands."
* * *
As KJ drove, he divided his attention between the road and an address book, mostly at the expense of the road. The address book obviously did not
belong to him from the frustrated look on his face as he thumbed through it. "I said, give me that."
He threw the book into the lap of the young man in the passenger seat with a gesture that was definitely meant to be aggressive. He flipped
through the address book, a thick leather-bound and well-worn book of good quality, written in a neat hand. Every space was filled with names and
e-mail addresses, a good number of them crossed out and reentered with new addresses. Recognizing some of those names and addresses along
with his own, the young man, who's name was Devon, realized that, for the most part, those changes were evasive maneuvers. It was necessary to
change a master e-mail account occasionally when a hacker becomes sloppy or finds him or herself at a risk of being caught. Devon's finger lazily
trailed over the letters of his name in the book, which of course was not his real alias, but the identity he used when hacking, Kuja. KJ caught his
acquaintance taking his time, and jerked on the brakes lightly to snap him out of it. Devon gasped and fumbled the address book in his fingers, struggling
to keep hold of it. "Jesus!"
KJ didn't even blink, and kept his stoic expression as he focused on the road. Martial arts had fostered within KJ a great sense of control and
an excellent command of his temper. Indicatively, this was the likely reason very few people had ever really seen KJ upset. Most arguments really didn't
involve KJ at all, and those that occured near him usually were cut short by his firm intervention. The young Korean man was well respected by most of
his colleagues either out of fear, indifference, or a combination of both. At five foot ten, with a muscular build and a firm, strenuous gaze when focused,
his presence and glowering stare was often enough to halt any tough guy and make them reevaluate their actions before speaking out with anything
obnoxious. That was just the kind of effect KJ had on his surroundings. KJ never let anyone forget what he was trained in. Everywhere he went he
wore his loose black training sweatpants, and either a white t-shirt or a wifebeater. It was only in a working environment outside of his underground
procedures that he dressed differently. KJ didn't flinch when Devon broke the silence again a good minute after he had tapped the breaks. "Here, this is
it."
When KJ didn't respond, Devon cleared his throat and began again. "Trent Gillespe, 14254 Eagle Crest Drive--" Devon's words trailed off at the
end of the address, and KJ picked up that he was reading more into the description on the page. His intuitions were verified when Devon continued.
"Wait, I"m pretty sure that it's in a gated community off of Summerlin."
Devon paused for a moment, and then rattled off a long string of complaints dealing with poor directions and "I knew this would happen"s,
accompanied by some light cursing. His ranting was stopped when KJ turned onto Summerlin after nearly running a red light, the tires of his Hummer
screetching as he turned through the intersection.
"Reach into the backseat and grab my briefcase," he instructed. Devon hesitated, but proceeded, turning back around with the briefcase in his
lap before gesturing for KJ for an explanation. All he earned was more instructions.
"Open it and in one of the small pockets you'll see a yellow laminated card, hand it to me." Devon again complied, and when he pulled the card
out, a warm smile spread across his face before he even finished it. Once he did, he passed it to KJ who promptly placed it in the windshield of his car.
The card was a visitors parking sticker, which would earn them entry into the gated community with relative ease. As they pulled up to the checkpoint
entry gate, KJ switched off his hi-beams out of courtesy, and pressed a button on his door, lowernig his window so he could speak with the attendant.
The attendant was a worn old man who looked to be nearly 75 years of age. Much to KJ's stomach's dismay, the outside of his mouth was
coated with a white, chalky substance that partially resembled powdered donut residue, yet also reminded him of the look someone had when they had
just awoke after having drooled profusely throughout the night.
"Evening," the old gentleman greeted them, to which KJ nodded his head and replied with the same.
"Visiting Trent Gillespe."
The man flipped very slowly through a clipboard which KJ presumed to be a large list of the residents, and their location information. Devon
tapped his fingers lightly along the arm of his door, his palms growing sweaty from an unnecessary feeling of worry. Since they had pulled up, he
hadn't looked away from gazing out of his own window. Luckily for him, he didn't have to deal with the putrid look of the attendants mouth. After what
seemed like an eternity to KJ's gag reflexes, the man let out a slow "Aha!", and issued KJ and Devon a 'goodnight' farewell and bid them on their way
after raising the gate for them to pass. KJ uttered a long held 'Ugh', and the two continued down the dark paths until their reached their destination. The
large hummer was parked on the side of the raod adjacent to Trent's driveway, which was currently filled with 4 cars. Devon exited the vehicle and
continued into the large house which their friend Trent used as a summer condo, while KJ changed into what he called 'comfortable.'
Moments later, KJ, dressed in his signature black sweatpants and white wifebeater, a thin black jacket covering it, opened the door to the
house and wheeled in the suitcase that he had picked up from the baggage claim. KJ was greeted with the sight of a very comfortable looking
condominium, the initial room serving a simple hallway that showcased two entirely unused rooms that seemed to be incorporated only for decoration.
To his left was what could have been a dining room, only everything in it seemed too decorative for him to consider used. The room to the right simply
contained a well positioned piano and a bookshelf housing what he made out in the dim light to be encyclopedias and National Geographic magazines.
As he exited the hallway, he came upon the kitchen to the left, which extended out into the slightly lower elevated living room. The living room looked to
be their place of operation. It was accented by a moderately sized circular table with 6 comfortable chairs positioned around it. In front of all but one
chair sat a laptop computer, each belonging to a different person in their little group. Along the walls of the room, situated about 6 feet back from the
table were couches, on which most of the people were seated. All of them were staring up at KJ excitedly.
From behind KJ, Devon called out with his head buried in the refrigerator. "Someone was supposed to bring soda. Where the hell are the
drinks?" He found the answer to his question before anyone was allowed time for a response, and he continued. "Oh, nevermind. Anyone want one?"
The only response came from Trent, an affirmative. A girl who looked to be around nineteen was lying lazily on the sofa with her legs propped
up on one of the chairs in front of her. IN he left hand she held a bud light that was almost full, and a light smile accented her cream colored face.
Indirectly ignoring Devon, she gestured for KJ to unload the suitcase onto the table, to which KJ averted his gaze to politely check for Trent's response.
Trent nodded, and KJ pressed down the extended handle on the suitcase before lifting it onto the large circular precipice. From the suitcase, KJ
removed one of two large white plastic bags.
Devon walked up from behind KJ, tossing a Coca Cola over him and into Trent's hands, before closing the suitcase again and putting it on the
ground. KJ removed a box from the large white bag one at a time, tossing each one to a different person around the table.
"Finally, we can get to work," the girl sighed. She had gotten up from her comfortable position on the couch and repositioned herself in the
chair her feet were rested in previously. Her fingers ran along the front of the box as she read the description on the back of it.
"Kira, did you bring the Visors in from your car?" another girl asked from across the table as she pulled open the box with her fingers, careful
not to rip anything in the process. Her eyes were trained on the box, yet her attention was shared with Kira, who now sat her beer down on the table
next to her laptop. After swallowing another sip, she returned with a short-breathed 'Yup.'
Without being asked, the male figure in the chair left of the girl who returned to carefully prying apart her product, rose and left the room. It
was obvious to those in the room that he was going to retrieve the visors from wherever Kira had placed them.
After prying the packaging open, the girl let out a breath that she hadn't realized she'd been holding, and removed the large CD case from
within, cradling it in her hands as if it were a long lost ancient relic that she had devoted her entire life to searching for. Trent dropped a palm on the top
of her head and calmply patted her as if calming a small child.
"No, Natali. The World isn't the messiah," he poked. Natali closed her eyes before placing the CD case calmly on the table and replying.
"Actually, Trent," her eyes opened again, and she looked up at him, meeting his gaze with an unsettling one of her own. "I was thinking just the
opposite.
To Chapter 1
