a .hack//SIGN fanfic

[Clawn]

Chapter 1

Eriald, the newest and largest server in The World. A floating island, rimmed with forests and swamplands, and in the center is a huge plateau. The forests and swamps are teeming with monsters and treasure. The plateau, on the other hand, is a relatively large, flat surface. Except for the cities and occasional field, the platau is devoid of life. It is in one of these cities that Clawn is lost.

"Meet me at Pardic Tower" Clawn muttered to himself. Now if only his best friend, Locklear, had mentioned where this Pardic tower was. Luckily, a more skilled player had lent him directions. Now all he had to do was look for a spire with a swirling red sphere floating above it. Clawn's hazel eyes scanned the city streets, all he could see, though, were streetside vendors and the glimmer of steel by the weapons shop. His short, spikey, teal hair brushed against the hilt of the large greatsword resting against his back as he swished his hed from side to side, hoping to spot the tower. Already, he was 25 minutes late, the alarm clock in his room beeped, make that 30 minutes late. He quikened his pace, despite the aches he felt. His legs were fine, the dark green cloth that made up his pants were almost weightless and flapped against his legs, but the fact that chainmail and leather are very durable was starting to lose its glammer. Now, Clawn simply wished to be rid of such debilatating armor. Suddenly, as he turned a corner into the city square, the tower finally revealed itself to him. Right next to it stood the familiar, staff bearing figure of Locklear. The fading sunlight made the man's robe seem to dance with color, despite the fact that in reality it was a simple blue wavemaster's robe.
"You're late!" shouted Locklear.
"Sorry! I got lost thanks to SOMEONE not giving me DIRECTIONS!" hollared Clawn as he rushed to meet his friend.

End Chapter 1

[Clawn]

Chapter 2

Clawn rushed up to his long-time friend, Locklear. They had met in the world by chance when fighting a particularly tricky boss, and had been friends ever since. "Its not MY fault you didn't think to get a MAP of the newest server!" Locklear shouted, running a hand through his short, yellow hair.
"I thought YOU would have sent me one when you saw that I wasn't on ti-"WHACK!
Clawn was cut off by Locklear's wooden staff smacking him on his head. The staff itself was almost a work of art, the symbols that were etched onto it's deep, red surface seemed to flow around the staff, making it seem alive. It had a 6 cm. large spherical, purple gem embedded in the top of it, the wood growing up around it.
"I did send you a map, didn't you check your e-mail?" Locklear said while rolling his bright, blue eyes.
At this, Clawn's voice faltered. "Ya'know, there's a funny story about that..."
Locklear sighed. "You know that if you keep forgetting to do these things, one day you're gonna forget something really important."
Clawn muttered. "I know, I know, but what's done is done, right?" he said, a faint smile returning to his face.
"I guess so..." Locklear trailed off, staring at his friend. Clawn always seemed forget to do something or other, but he's too lazy to get organized. Ah well, that's Clawn for you, right?
"Anyways, why is it that you wanted me to meet you here, so late at night?" Clawn said, becoming serious again.
"There is someone I want you to meet." came Locklear's short reply.
"Why this late?" Clawn wasn't so sure about this.
"It wouldn't be so late if you'd gotten here when I asked." Locklear rolled his eyes at his friend.
Clawn frowned and said, "Let's just go meet this guy you wanted me to meet."
"Follow me." and with that, Locklear was off, racing through the maze of streets at breakneck speed.
"WAIT UP!!!" Clawn yelled after his speedy friend, "Why are you running so fast!?"
"We're late, in case you haven't figured that out!" Locklear called back to him.
"But I thought we were going to meet this guy at the Pardic Tower!" Clawn said in dismay.
"And what gave you that idea?" Locklear chuckled. "We have to take a special warp gate to get to where he hangs out."
"And where would that be?" asked Clawn sarcastically, he was getting annoyed.
"Right here." Locklear said, coming to an abrupt halt that made his robes fly out in all directions. Clawn noticed they had stopped in a rather shabby corner of the city, where most of the populous was made up of cheaters and hackers. They were standing atop a large building, and right there in the middle of the tiled roof was a warpgate, just a regular warpgate, the only thing special about it seemed to be its location.
"Where is this supposed to take us?" asked Clawn, still not to sure about this ordeal.
"Just go in." said Locklear. "Its not gonna bite you!"
"If you say so..." Clawn slowly walked towards the warpgate. Locklear followed him as he stepped in.
'You'll see' thought Locklear grimly, 'You'll see.'

End Chapter 2


(P.S.-I know the update came reeeeeeeeaaaaaally late, but that was because school started and suddenly I had a lot of work to do, so I couldn't be typing all the time. I'll try to keep a timely update this time. ^_^)

[The-Beautiful-Roses]

That is pretty good, it seems as if lock is up to something bad. >.<

[Locklear904]

Go Clawn! Thanks for using my name!

[Clawn]

Chapter 3

Clawn stepped into the warpgate and suddenly everything went dark. Almost instantly after the darkness came, there was a blinding flash of white light and a sensation of falling, into an endless depth. And then, as suddenly as it had all started, the World came flooding back into view. The first thing Clawn noticed as he stepped away from the warpgate was the vastness of the place. The seemingly infinite plain stretched as far as the eye could see, underneath a cloudless sky that showed a slowly setting sun and two crescent moons, slivers of white in a sky of purple. Scattered here and there were boulders the size of small cars, their shadows stretched across the sea of grass.

"Wow, Locklear, what is this place." asked Clawn
Locklear stepped forward from the warpgate he had just come through. "That doesn't matter right now, just follow me." He sped off, leaping from boulder to boulder.
"Do you always have to be in such a hurry?" Clawn sighed in exasperation.
"I'm always in a hurry because you're always LATE!" Locklear hollared back to his friend.
"Yeah, well, um, that's not my fault, you see, there was this thing I had to do and..." Clawn searched for a comeback.
"Just forget it." said Locklear as he launched from yet another boulder.

They moved in relative silence after that. Until, slowly appearing on the horizen, a rock formation came into view. There were about forty or so large, rectangular boulders standing straight up in a circle. In the center of the circle, there was a single tree, it's leaves waxy and dark green, while its pure white flowers were in full bloom. As they drew nearer to the circle, a figure became visibe under the tree.

The man stood straight with long, black hair and a tattered, brown cloak covering all of his body save his head, arms, and lower legs. All of his visible body had light armor. His arms and shoulders seemed to gleam in the dwindling sunlight due to the quality of his armor. His shins were guarded with plates of metal that seemed to be integrated into his black clothing. On either of the man's wrists were footlong, retractable blades. The guy would've seemed like any other twinblade(if not a little bit mysterious) except that his eyes were grey and pupilless. Locklear finally stopped as he entered the ring of boulders and walked up to the man. Clawn followed, cautious of this strange man.

"Clawn, this is who I wanted you to meet. His name is Masa." Locklear explained as they walked towards the man.
"Why doesn't he have pupils?" asked Clawn.
"He doesn't like it when people know what he's thinking."
"Oh." Clawn replied, still a little confused, but satisfied for the time being.

When they reached Masa, he spoke. "Hello, Locklear. I assume this is Clawn?"
"Hey, Masa. Yeah, this is him."
"Nice to meet you, Clawn." Masa extended a hand.
Clawn took it in his own and shook it. "Nice to meet you too, Masa."
Locklear cleared his throat as he started to speak again. "I've brought us all together because I have a proposition for you. As you've probably heard, the new server, known as Eriald, is hosting a tournament that will take place in a week. A three man party is needed to enter, I thought we could team up and enter it. There's a prize for the victors, a rare item and 30,000 gp will be given to each member of the three man party." As he finished stating his idea, he looked at both Clawn and Masa. "Well, what do you think?"
"I think we should go for it!" shouted Clawn as a fire gleamed in his eyes at the promise of a rare (and most likely expensive) item.
"I think its not such a bad idea." Masa said, a slight smile crossing his face. "At least, the experience points would be good."
"It's decided then, we'll enter the tournament." said Locklear in a decisive tone. "Let's meet at the East Gate tomorrow at 5:30 for some training to see what works best for us."
"I'll be there." said Masa.
"Me too." Clawn added.
"Well, its late now, so I'll see you guys then. Good night." Locklear said as he logged out.
"Same here, see you tomorrow, Clawn." Masa's form disapeared from view as he too logged out.
After Locklear and Masa had left, Clawn checked his e-mail, and believe it or not, Locklear's map was there. 'That's weird' thought Clawn as he checked the map. 'This place isn't listed anywhere on the map, there's nothing but forests, swamps, and that plateau.' Clawn heard his alarm clock beep again. 'It really is late, better get off before I become an insomniac' thought Clawn as he closed his e-mail. 'I wonder what Masa will be like, I guess I'll find out tomorrow.' Clawn logged out.

End Chapter 3

[Locklear904]

Keep writing!Keep writing!

[The-Beautiful-Roses]

It seems nice so far.

[The-Beautiful-Roses]

When are you going to get the next part of your story done?