Disclaimer: Everything is ©Wizet & Nexon. I'm just using everything of theirs to weave my story. :o Oh, and credits to maplesim for the names of the weapons.

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Chapter two.

The initiation.

Aria.

I'm out of my cage, and I feel so strange.

Like a blind man seeing light for the first time.

Like a songbird out of it's cage.

Freedom feels different.

Not bad, but just… different.

The induction.

I blinked drowsily at the overwhelming light, before rubbing my eyes and focusing on my surroundings. Lots of kids were in the grandly decorated lobby, all starting to wake up like me, but only a couple were wandering around. There were dozens of high-levelled people stationed around the place, alert, as if waiting for someone to escape or attack. I fumbled around in my robes for my communicator, then gaped at it as it simply went crazy. All of my buddies appeared for second, then they simply disappeared. Then they appeared again, but half was missing. I tried to pinpoint my location, but my map screen was blank.

Where the heck was I? I thought about throwing the pocket-sized fancy computer at the wall, but decided against it. There was always time to throw a fit later.

'Welcome, to the Hacker's Academy for the Villainously Educated and Notorious, known to the students as HAVEN. I am the headmaster- Master Caesar. All of you have been tested positive for Hackinium, and have passed our little tests.'

The raven-haired man headmaster smiled, and I shivered. He was dangerous, with crackling hack energy around him. Not someone you'd like to cross. He waved his hand at the darkened stage at the front of the room.

'I will spare you any long-winded speech that I may have prepared. After all, pictures do paint a thousand words.'

He clapped his hands sharply and vanished in a flash of swirling energy. Dramatic, much?

Then the stage lit up, and the show begun.

Dozens of Crimson Balrogs circled in the spherical stage, contained by destructive hack energy. The sphere-like stage now glowed a light blue, occasionally tainted dark by the black energy balls that the Balrogs threw. Then a mage appeared in a swirl of tainted energy, clutching a frightened looking dragon knight. The dragon knight looked out of place, with eyes of pure terror and mortal looks, instead of unreadable turquoise eyes and inhuman beauty.

'This is what a normal person can do.'

The voice had changed- from the headmaster's mellow tones, to a lilting and melodious voice. Another sign of a hacker. I looked on at the dragon knight in horror, while my fingernails embedded crescent-shaped marks in my palm.

He tried to weave through and duck from the energy balls that the Crimson Balrogs threw at him but his armor soon became cracked from the strain. Blood flowed in a gentle stream from his mouth when he was head butted in the gut. All of us heard a loud crack when an energy ball connected with his shoulder.

And none of us could block out his agonizing screams.

'And this is what we can do.'

The mage teleported forward, and raised what I recognized as a dimon wand. He sang out a single, beautiful sound.

Glacies furor.

Ice fury.

I grimaced- must be the hacker part of me responding. The soft pulsating light of the sphere intensified into blazing eye-piercing light, but I could see through it with no pain at all.

Thousands upon thousands of ice shards swirled dangerously around the mage, and each shard grew elongated spikes until it resembled a minesweeper. My eyes widened as the mage spoke again, conjuring more shards of ice with a quick flick of his wrist.

Pressum.

Strike them down.

The shards charged into the hearts of the Crimson Balrogs, and soon there were seventeen neat piles of carcasses surrounding the ice mage, each pile with at least three dead Crimson Balrogs. A few 'ewwws' and 'that was so cool' came from the crowd, but otherwise everyone remained silent.

On top of the largest pile lay the dead dragon knight, with his omega spear stained with his own blood. He didn't even have a chance to land a blow on the Balrogs.

I felt sick- I wanted to retch, but I also wanted to run screaming from this place. Normal schools didn't murder people in front of kids. In fact, I was pretty surprised when everyone didn't go running for their lives. Didn't the fact that we might be next occur to them?

But this was a school for hackers, after all.

So I remained silent for the next two hours, watching as fire poison arch mages slaughtered a sphereful of people in two seconds flat. I watched as they set buildings on fire while the humans inside tried to stop it with water. Water seemed to have no effect on the dark flames.

I watched as clerics, no, priests controlled monsters with just a sound command, and bit back cries of shock as they destroyed the very meaning of our healing nature- by reversing the healing process. It was gruesome. Every healing the human had ever taken was reversed, and suddenly the flesh tore open, ribs were simultaneously cracked, and arms were torn off.

A simple blob of ice grew inside a person's body until the spikes poked out, covered in blood. Night Lords produced clones that killed straight alongside them, one against ten soon became thirty against zero. Bandits threw random junk and exploded them, producing higher damage than any amount of mesos dropped.

A dark knight's dragon roar extended outside it's range, killing a huge map full of monsters instead of only a small part. Marksmen and Bowmasters shot people full of arrows at point blank range, instead of knocking them back, fire and ice not just killing, but spreading across the ground at breakneck speed. There was even a kid dressed as a beginner, his club doing more then eleven digits of damage.

It was sick.

But I couldn't look away.

Because it was a glimpse into my future.

Zack.

I once said

Anything was better than my old life.

After I've seen my 'anything'

I'm not so sure.

The Class.

Running away from two boneheads was not my idea of fun. Being cornered by two maniacs was not my idea of fun. Being kidnapped and treated to a visual of what the megalomaniacs could do… well. That wasn't fun either. And being forced to get into a classroom with five other kids I know nothing of? I had never been to school for even an hour in my life. I had no intention of starting either.

'You will remain in this class for the next six years. You have all been sorted by ability, class, and your test results.'

The ice mage's gaze swept across the room. I sensed one of the girls- a cleric with green eyes squirm uncomfortably. Maybe she wasn't one for being scrutinized.

'I am Arai, your classmaster. You will not be seeing much of me. Your teachers will report to me each week, stating your progress. I do not teach any of you, but you will know your teachers soon.' Then he stood up and waved his blue marine while softly whistling a sound.

Expositus.

Open.

A dark spark jumped out from the tip of his blue marine and enlarged until it became something resembling a dark hole, with stray sparks dancing around it.

'Enter. It leads to the weapons and armor chamber.'

The youngest of our class was a fire poison mage. She was very pretty, with large blue eyes and light-coloured skin. Her slightly wavy raven hair fell to her waist, and she had a fringe covering her eyebrows. She looked around eight years old.

What the hell was she doing here, where the people murdered others right in front of your eyes? Oh yes, I'm forgetting something. Wasn't there a kid who was amongst the crowd burnt by the fire mages?

She stepped straight into the portal without any sign of apprehension, while the rest of us proceeded more gingerly. It didn't feel strange or anything- it was just like stepping through a door… into a place covered in weapons, literally. I looked around, greeted by bookshelf-like rows of weapons. A table was stacked with stars, including crystal ilbis and hwabis and I made a beeline for it as my bandit classmate inspected the daggers nearby.

'Take as much as you wish- your inventory slots have been upgraded to limitless. If you by chance have any request, the academy will provide. Armors are in the other room.'

Holy… I had only ever thrown kumbis, and now I was the proud owner of twenty crystal ilbis, with insane hacked damage.

'You may choose any equipment or armor you wish. They have been altered so that anyone of any level may wear or use them.'

Our classmaster's dulcet voice darkened.

'However, should any mortal attempt to bend them to their will, they will immediately dissolve into hackinium acid.'

My heart dropped as I ran my fingers over the Raven Claws. So this was it, huh? You kill people for us and we give you fancy stuff. The school motto was 'destroy limitations' after all. I guess they called humans limitations, because I've never seen so many people massacred in such a short time. I quickly selected a Night Raven's Claw, and headed over to the armor room. I felt uneasy- this was a little too easy. What was the catch?

'Also, please select any specific Nexon clothes you want. Touch them with the index finger of your weapon hand for two seconds first. You will need them, should you ever be sent outside on a mission or for training. Refrain from anything too outrageous. Everything else will be sent to your room later on.'

Nexon clothes? Only the rich people wore them… They were sold at extravagant prices, and the merchants could afford to splash out. Maybe to hackers, nothing was considered 'expense'. All they had to do was the take the free market by storm and steal everything. I started feeling sick now- all of this stuff was stained by invisible blood. But I didn't want to appear strange, so I ignored my emotions.

After picking a red Katinas, I headed over to pick the other parts of my armor, including a zakum helm and a dragon necklace. I tapped for a transparent hat, a dark shirt with a white tie, some ripped dark jeans and a pair of Black Air Trainers.

'Now that you have acquired your equipment, please return through this portal.'

'Zack of Kerning.' Why the heck did they keep reminding me of where I was born? 'Assassin, of level thirty-two.' Arai, or classmaster as we had to call him, scanned down the list. My best guess was a list of who we were.

'Your training will include the ultimate increase of speed, hiding, star bombs, location training , assassin training and…' his brow furrowed, as if he couldn't understand what he was reading. 'Sense-trailing.'

I looked at him as if he had asked me to kidnap King Gobbledygook from Fluffland, Marshmallow Palace.

'Aria of Ellinia. Cleric, of level forty-one. Your training shall include reverse healing,' I noticed her pretty face twist into a grimace. Obviously, our previous visual experience with that wasn't very pleasant. 'Paralysis, Herbology, cleric training, energy draining, and vibe sensing.'

Her eyebrows rose at the last part. Vibe sensing? What the heck was that? This entire thing was insane.

'Xan of Korean Folk Town. Bandit, of level thirty-eight. You training entails bandit training, manipulation, telepathy, gravity control, scamming, and past-touching.'

The lessons seem to be seriously random and I had never even heard of most of the stuff. Past-touching?

'Io of Orbis. Huntress of level thirty-four. Your training comprises of Flectomancy, or the making of artifacts, huntress training, shield training, elemental studies, engineering, and monsterancy. '

'Neri of Mu Lung. Spearman of level forty-five. Your training shall be advanced tactics, terramancy, refining, manipulation, spearman training, and instinctual training.'

'Elyian Tasaire. Fire-poison mage of level fifty. Your training shall be pyromancy, herbology, advanced fire-poison training, echolocation, monsterancy and body borrowing '

I mentally reeled- six special classes, not counting the normal hack lessons. I felt slightly disgruntled when Arai reeled off the levels. I was the oldest in the class and the weakest, whereas the youngest kid was the strongest.

'And this will be your most important possession. Its name is Mindbot, version 7.'

Arai picked up a small circular device with a glossy dark shell. He flipped it open, revealing a screen enveloping the upper half of the device completely. In the bottom part was a single key, instead of the little keyboard we had in our communicators. Arai smiled briefly before explaining.

'The Mindbot is fiendishly difficult to use, as the creators intended it to serve as mental training as well. The person who holds this device simply sends a thought to it, and it shall appear on this single key. It also obeys voice commands.'

Arai turned the device to the front, and pointed at the strange silver symbol.

'This symbol is the Traditional Chinese character for evil.' He looked at all of us squarely in the eyes.

'We are not evil, and we never will be. What we do to humans is what they would do to us, and what they have tried to do to us.' His eyes narrowed. 'We have been persecuted for being born with our powers since the first of our kind.'

Then he wiped the dark look from his face, and gestured at the symbol again.

'But the creators thought it'd be nice to give humans something to talk about. It's primary function is to turn the device on, and to enlarge it if you so desire.'

He demonstrated for us, and also taught us how to search for our textbooks and timetable. It was like a communicator of sorts with a buddy list, search function, and a messaging device, but upgraded by hacks. As usual, it had a self-destruct.

'Let a mortal touch the symbol and his arms shall be eaten away.'

Did they have to add a gory touch to everything?

'Now that that's over with, I might as well explain to you how things work around here.'

The ice mage perched on the desk.

'Like I said earlier, you won't be seeing much of me. Your core master is Rikir Sylvanio of Ludibrium, a level 113 ranger. He'll be more of a classmaster than I will be, I suppose.'

Hell yeah. I don't want a smooth-talking hacker guy to teach us almost everyday for the next six years. Even if he was pretty kind and all.

Xan.

I don't feel guilty.

I don't feel hate.

But isn't hacking

Just a little wrong?

I've seen what they can do.

And truly, I'm not surprised

If the humans want to kill us

Because they're afraid

That we will turn on them.

Justified fear.

The connecting.

Well, this was fucking awkward. Our classmaster had 'kindly' decided to 'leave us to our own devices' for two hours. He had also not very subtly hinted that it would be wise to interact with the guys we'd be spending the rest of our six years with, and that there were very high chances that we'd be a permanent team. I looked around.

A weak assassin, a bimbo huntress, a cleric who didn't want to meet anyone's gaze, a warrior who screamed 'STRONG AND SILENT', and a fire mage kid who just sat there looking like a china doll. Why was I always in the rubbish team?

'What're we going to call ourselves?' The annoying huntress from earlier was clearly bursting with excitement. Maybe her bimbo brain forgot about the several hundred people massacred for our entertainment.

I leaned back on my chair and put my feet on the table, ignoring the dirty looks that she shot at me. She'd be easy to rile. The corners of my mouth twisted up into a smile.

'How about KHITNOH?'

'Kitno?' She glared at me suspiciously. My my, I musn't have offered her a very good first impression. I smirked at her.

'K-H-I-T-N-O-H. Killing Humans In The Name Of Hackers.'

I saw her slowly start to turn crimson, her pale skin with visible splotches of red. Xan 1 – Annoying huntress 0.

'You no like? How about OGYI? Oh god, you're irritating? If you prefer, I-'

'Stop it; you're the one who's being irritating here.' Ooh, the cleric can't bear to let the huntress suffering in silence. I must have hit her in the soft center that all clerics are rumored to have. She turned to me, her green eyes flashing.

'She's right, we can't just be known as 'the class'. Personally, I'd rather have a name representing us, not just be known as Arai's brats.'

The assassin seemed to become more interested now that little miss cleric was involved. He stood up and leaned against the table.

'A name? Like we're a merry band of um.' He scratched his head. 'Hackers?'

Well, wasn't he bright. And he was supposed to be the eldest.

'How about… the Light?'

I snorted. Just how clichéd did it come? The assassin turned to me and smiled.

'How bad can it be?'

I began counting my fingers as I listed the reasons why we couldn't be called 'the Light'.

'One- we're hackers. Like the damn fancy new communicator's symbol, we're basically evil.' I caught the indignant look on his face. 'No matter what our classmaster says. Two. We aren't in some comic book here- this is real life, and hell, is it screwed up or what? Three-…'

'Okay okay, I get it.' The 'sin grinned, backing off. Another uncomfortable silence settled over us again, only to be broken by our own little fire mage.

'Zaxine.'

All of us turned to look at the little girl in surprise. I'd assumed that she was going to turn into some stuck-up little princess once the teacher's back was turned, being the only one with a family and all. As much as I hated to admit it, she was also the strongest as well.

'It's unique.' She regarded me indifferently. I shrugged to show my lack of opinion. 'It represents all of us.' At the huntress' blank look, she signed and began to explain.

'Z-a-x-i-n-e. Zack, Aria, Xan, Io, Neri, Elyian. Our names by age order.'

I contemplated it. It was pretty good I supposed. At least better than 'the Light', though I honestly thought that Khitnoh was much more appropriate.

'Zak-zine…'

The warrior hadn't said a thing until now. He looked around and smiled at the fire kid. Mind you- his definition of smile was the corner of his lips turning up slightly for a couple of seconds. He looked coolly at us, as if challenging us to argue about the name. The huntress grinned and a goofy smile spread across her face. She waved what I recognized as a Dragon Shiner Bow in the air enthusiastically.

'To the beginning of the Zaxines!'

Maybe this was a signal to join in and do something. I stared blankly as the assassin, no wait, Zack, held out his insane-looking claw. The cleric girl delicately held her blade-looking Doomsday staff beside it, barely touching it, and looked at me.

'Hurry up, Xan.'

It clicked. I kicked myself (in the metaphorical sense) and held out my Dusk Raven's beak, making it so it touched both of their weapons. We all ended up in a close circle, balancing each of our weapons.

'It's a perfect fit.' The cleric girl wondered, a head cocked to one side in puzzlement. I studied the circle of weapons carefully, with the unsettling feeling that I was getting into something more deeply than I knew. And I probably wouldn't be getting out of it.

'To us.'

We echoed the huntress' words, and leant back on the now scattered desks. We regarded each other in mild curiosity, like a dog getting to know its family. Okay, maybe that wasn't such a good example.

I shifted uncomfortably, and the cleric sensed my discomfort. She poked me with the edge of her staff lightly.

'Hey, what's wrong?'

Sheepishly, I asked the question.

'We won't be sharing blood anytime soon, right? I've never liked the smell of blood. And blood rituals… they aren't actually my thing.'

The rest of the group contemplated this in silence, making me feel more tense every second.

'No, Xan. I think we'll draw the line at blood.'

Always good to know. Couldn't be sure nowadays, what with hackers running rampant, killing here and there. I stiffened as I heard footsteps outside the door, and someone muttering to himself. The door flung open, and a ranger strode in, and threw his laptop-sized Mindbot on the table. He surveyed the room, and grinned.

'Why hello, kiddies. Welcome to the start of your six years of hell. Now turn on your mindbots and search for Hacker Sociology 101. The name's Rikir Sylvanio. I'm gonna be your core lesson master. Now move those desks, brats. '

Zack.

I'm not a dog.

I'm not loyal to my 'masters'

But I'm loyal to my friends.

Class: Hacker Sociology 101.

'What do you mean we don't have to eat?'

'I mean, you don't have to eat. How is that not blindingly obvious, Zackykins?'

I clenched my teeth. The teacher was… different. As in uncouth, infuriating and sarcastic different. He'd given all of us sickly pet names, calling us his little 'muffins' and 'bunnies', and insulted Elyian by calling her his 'little pop princess'.

Ten minutes had passed since he told us he was going to train us for the rest of our time here. Now, ten minutes later, we were all silently fuming, threats of murder evident in our eyes. I'm not joking here.

He impatiently tapped the screen on which his Mindbot was projecting onto. Turns out Mindbot Teacher Version 7.1 Beta had more stuff. I studied the diagram, my brain struggling to memorize all of the facts and equations we'd covered.

'Of course, you will still have to eat while your hackinium is coming to terms with your now slightly less human body. In time you'll all be able to absorb energy from others, including humans and monsters if your mana is extremely depleted.'

I shuddered. Sucking the life force out of people isn't what I'd call charitable.

'After you're done with this school, my little brats, you can depend on hackinium for your source of survival.'

He keyed in a couple of commands into the Mindbot. A different diagram explaining the chemical make up of Hackinium flashed onto the screen. How they managed to do that, I have no idea.

'However, Hackinium is essentially a poison, so it will slowly poison your system. At the end of school, you will die.'

My eyes bugged out, and I slammed my hands on the table in frustration as I stood up.

'What the hell. I'm too young to die, damn it! And what you're saying is a lot of bullshit. No way in your dreams am I going to drop dead after 6 years with you, so you might as well take that idea and shove that up your a-'

I heard a chuckle interrupt me, as the bastard teleported behind me and forced me to sit down. He wagged his finger at me like a mother would at her naughty child, which infuriated me more than ever.

'Now now, Zachary. We aren't going to get anywhere by shouting naughty words and interrupting the grown ups. As I was saying, you will die once school ends. Technically, your heart will just stop… And the changes to your virtually indestructible body will be complete. Through the 6 years it takes after your hackinium has been awakened, you may be able to conceive your own little demons, but after…'

I groaned, allowing my head to join my arms on the desk. Who the heck cared about having children during the time period? I quickly calculated the age of my friends and myself at the end of the 6 years. Aria and I would be 19, Xan and Io would be 18, Neri would be 17, and Elyian would be 16.

We'd all be teenagers.

Ten days have passed since

The six have descended

Into the inhuman pit of the devil.

Higher knowledge is gained.

A scar for every page they turn.

A cut for anything they learn.

Each word, each skill

Must be paid

By humanity

And blood.

And no, Xan. You can't give them counterfeited mesos instead of blood.

Aria.

'… And the things I hate are Master Rikir, killing people, and um. Homework.'

Leaning back into the comfortable silk pillow, I let the chatter of others wash over me. We were having a meeting of sorts, which had transformed into a get-to-know-each-other session.

'I don't know if I can survive here anymore.' I whispered, hugging my knees. The others looked at me in surprise, obviously not expecting the resident cleric to go psycho. 'The kid I've been healing in my cleric class… Oh god, you should have seen his injuries.' I buried my head in my hands, my mind treating to me to his horrific burns and cuts.

Elyian placed a comforting hand on my shoulder, while the others murmured their sympathy. We had gotten closer through our herbology lessons, although she still scared me when she threatened to shove Nightlock down Rikir's throat.

'Aria, you shouldn't get too upset by that… This may just be the beginning.' I felt her restlessness and pity, and turned round to look at her.

'What d'you mean?'

She bit her lip.

'The people here aren't wasteful. That person would have been kidnapped, had the injuries inflicted on him, and given to you.' I nodded. 'As luck would have it, you have reversed healing classes and…'

Blood drained out of my face. 'You mean I have to...' The words were left hanging in the air, and Elyian nodded. Xan gave her a friendly clap on the back, which brought a growl from Neri. He withdrew his hand quickly.

'No need to be so morbid, kid.' He turned back to me.

'We've probably got lots more gory stuff to do.' He offered me a sympathetic smile. 'Lots of blood and guts, yeah?'

Xan was bloodthirsty, but he did have a point. No need to mope around now- look forward to oceans of blood and corpses! Ooh and aah as the people surrounding you talk about missions of stealing intelligence and murdering half of Ossyria! Gape like a tourist as people regularly trudge by you in blood-covered armour. There was one of our awkward moments again as we contemplated our future for the first time. I was no fortune-teller, but I'd say that our future was probably covered in crimson streaks, surrounded by decaying bodies.

'The bastard did mention that he might let us out for Ludibrium Party Quests when I'm level 35. That'd be a nice break.'

Always a silver lining, Zack. Always a silver lining.