"So, what's next?" I asked as Scott, Mary, Sarah, and I walked into the main vending area for beginners.

"Well, since you already got a weapon you can either use the money you looted from the Splices earlier and buy some ammo, or you can go get another weapon. Your choice." Mary said. I nodded and walked over to the ammo machine where a weird voice shot out of the machine. It sounded as if it was a very sloppy version of the Spanish language.

I bought some shells for my shotgun that Scott gave me earlier and some bullets for my pistol. While I was over there decided to tape the flashlight to my shotgun. After purchasing the munitions from the machine I walked over to the place that upgrades my weapon. I shrugged as I placed my shotgun into the machine. I chose the semi-auto function because I remembered what happened back in the beginning. I walked back to the group that awaited me near yet another vending machine.

"You done? Okay, now you've got to choose which plasmid you want to spec." Mary explained.

"And where do I do that?" I asked as Mary pointed to the machine they where standing next to.

"Everyone starts out with a little ADAM, just enough for their first plasmid." Mary explained.

"Well, if we're going to be running together which ones do you guys got?" I asked.

"I've got Telekinesis." Mary said.

"As for me I got Lightning bolt." Scott said as his veins in his hand light up with a blue light as electricity periodically shot from his hands.

"And I got Frost Blast." Sarah said. I nodded and looked at the menu that displayed in front of me. Put the vial of ADAM into the machine and it displayed just enough to purchase one plasmid.

"Remember, once you choose one you can't go back." Scott reminded. I nodded and thought hard on what I should get. I pressed the button for the Incinerate! plasmid. A jar of red liquid was given to me along with a needle and all.

"Very nice choice. Okay, so you put the needle into the tube that is already inside you." Scott said as I looked down at my arm and noticed that indeed there was a tube that lead into my arm already.

'I guess it's there to stop the "stabbing the needle into the arm" deal.' I thought as I filled the injector with the red liquid.

"Will my DNA change like Jacks did in the first BioShock?" I asked as I placed the needle into the tube.

"No, the game makers where kind enough to take that out of it." Sarah said as I shrugged and pushed the red liquid into my system.

As soon as it was all inside me I started to feel like my arm was on fire. I began to stagger as my veins began to turn bright red.

"What's going on!" I shouted as I hit my back to the wall. I looked down at my arms and saw only a bright light. I was in so much pain that I just wanted to peel the skin from my body to allow the heat building inside me to escape from this burning body. I looked up at my friends, they all simply looking at me in disbelief as I slumped to the ground, passing out.

XxXxX

I went to help, but was held back by Scott.

"What are you doing? Dan needs our help!" I shouted as he was now siting against the wall, blood was running from his fingertips. Dan looked up at us with eyes the made us all stop. His irises of his eyes where shining a bright white color.

"If you touch him you will catch on fire. I have no idea why this is happening, but look at the ground underneath him." Scott said as I looked away from his eyes and at the floor.

I gasped at what I saw. The rug underneath Dan was being burnt to a crisp as he was now officially passed out. Heat waves lifted from his heated body as I now ran to his side. I placed a frozen hand to Dan's head in hopes of cooling him down.

Finally after a while of keeping a frozen hand on his forehead, Dan finally began to stir.

XxXxX

I awoke to the feeling of something really cold on my head. I opened my eyes to see Sarah's frozen hand o my forehead. She smiled at me when I awoke and I returned the favor as Scott held out a hand for me to grab. I accepted the offer and stood up.

"Thanks for the help, Sarah." I said as I looked at Scott and Mary. "I thought they took out the DNA changing stage?"

"They did, I have no idea why, but for some reason your DNA still changed." Scott said as he handed me a mirror from the ground. I looked at myself and found that the only difference was the color of m eyes. Instead of the brown like they my real eyes are, they are crimson red.

"Well, now that that's over, lets go do some missions." Mary suggested.

"Okay, what are going to do?" Sarah asked.

"I got the perfect objective. Let me share with you guys." Scott said as he messaged us a mission over the Web.

"Mission shared. Accept?" our radios asked.

"Yes." we all said in unison.

"Mission accepted." our radios said.

"Is it an easy one?" Sarah asked.

"You joined the wrong server if you expect any of the missions here to be easy." Scott said with a laugh. I grinned as Sarah's cheeks seemed to puff out.

"Ok, what are we supposed to do?" Mary asked.

"We are to go into the store known as 'Molly's Toy Store'. There we must turn off the power to the building. This will allow us to move threw the building unseen by the security cameras seeing us. Once there we will steal a few limited edition dolls for this mans daughter. We will meet the man in Maldov's Square." Scott said.

"Have you ran this before?" I asked.

"Nope. Nobody has. Things on this server is weird." Scott said. I seems that Scott has played this game many times before.

"How so?"

"On other servers it runs just like World of Warcraft where they run the same quests or missions from the same people over and over and over. Here, things change and new missions appear that nobody has done. This is why this is considered the hardest server. A combination between new missions, stronger and smarter AI, real life damage to character, and the Lurker always roaming around makes it harder for you to live." Scott explained.

"Is there any other reasons?" I asked as I sighed in grief. Why me?

"Sure there is, but that's for another time. Lets go do this mission. The man is offering a hefty price for these dolls." Scott said as he walked off.

"Follow the leader I suppose." Mary said.

The three of us followed Scott down to the end of the hall whee a big read sign that said 'Be Safe or Beware'.

"This is the end of the safe zone. From here on out we've got to be careful." Scott warned.

"How far away is this place?" Sarah asked.

"Not too far. This is the closest mission to this area, so it shouldn't take too long." Scott replied as they took their first steps into the danger zone.

XxXxX

Silent and dark eyes watched as the group of four crept down the hallway towards their objective. A Leadhead Splicer would attack them every now and then, but they would quickly dispose of it quickly as they would only attack one by one. As any starting area should.

But these deadly eyes has its sights set on a single target, the said target has an interesting condition that sets it apart from the rest. The man that was stalking quickly grinned aknowing grin and disappeared into the dark chasms that make up Rapture.

XxXxX

After killing a few Splicers the group of four finally made it to the building. At this point they where all standing outside the store. I looked behind me and into a dark store of the large mall like area.

"Did you see something?" Sarah asked. I shook my head and sighed.

"Nah, just felt like something was watching me." I said as an eerie chill went down my spine.

"It's probably nothing." Mary said with a slap on my back.

"Yeah you're probably right." I responded.

"All right! Is everyone ready?" Scott announced.

"Yup!" Sarah said for everybody.

"Then lets get moving." Scott said as we quietly moved into the store. The lights where on as we moved from aisle to aisle, clearing out the area of any Splicers. I moved up to what looked to be a closet. I swung the door open and looked at what was inside. I jumped back at what I saw.

A man had pointed a double barrel shotgun into his mouth and pulled the trigger. The contents of the inside of his head where scattered all over the wall as the dried blood indicated it has been there for a while. Writing was scribbled into the blood.

'WE WILL BE REBORN' the writing said as I shook my head and grabbed the shotgun that sat inside the dead mans mouth. Dried blood covered end of the barrel as my shotgun disappeared as I picked up the other shotgun. I loaded it with some shells that where in the mans pocket and walked out of the closet while changing to my old shotgun. Mary was waiting for me on the outside of the closet.

"I see you found something of use in there. Well, lets get moving, were about to turn off the lights." Mary said as I followed her towards the stairs. The generator latch was next to the stairs that went upstairs to the next floor. Sarah had her hand on the latch.

"Okay, lets do this." Scott said as Sarah pulled the latch. The entire place went dark in the blink of the eye. The only lights that appeared where the red emergency lights on the ground floor. I flipped the switch on the flashlight illuminating the area.

"Alright, since your the only one with a light, we'll hold off the Splicers that will come here in a few minutes while you get the dolls on the second floor." Scott said. It was obvious Scott was the leader of our group since he's played this game longer then us.

"Don't you think he'll need some backup? Maybe I should go with him." Sarah offered.

"No, we'll need you here. Besides, Dan can handle himself." Scott said. I nodded and ran up the stairs to get the dolls.

XxXxX

Once at the top of the stairs, I leaned around the corner and pointed my shotgun down the hallway. I noticed there weren't any emergency lights like on the first story as I slowly walked down the hallway. An office door could be seen at the end of the hallway.

'That must be where the dolls are.' I thought as I ran to the door. There weren't any other doors in the hallway, so it must be it. I noticed the security cams lining the wall where all turned off due to the power being off.

I finally reached the door at the end of the long hall when I heard shots being fired from the floor below. I was pulling the door open when I heard a crackling over the radio.

"Hurry up Dan! We need you back down here with those dolls so we can turn the power back on!" Scott shouted over the radio. As soon as the door was open I slipped inside. There was a large window that had light coming into it from the signs of the outside stores in the mall. The room was large with a single desk on the other side room. A large leather chair was on the other side of the desk while a small wooden chair sat in the center of the room. The leather chair was turned away from me, but leaning on the side of the desks where two boxes that contained the limited edition dolls.

I lowered my weapon as the only entrance to the room was the door behind me, but once I reached the chair in the center of the room the large leather chair turned, revealing a man with a black trench coat and a black mobster hat.

I lifted my weapon and aimed my shotgun at the man, but he lifted his and my shotgun was pulled towards him. He shut the light on my shotgun and leaned it against the wall.

"Please do not pull out any of your other weapons, I only wish to talk." The man said in a polite tone. I stood looking at him as if he were tricking me. He sounded to be around my age.

"How can I trust you?" I asked.

"You can't until you try." the shady man said. I stared long and hard at the man as I sighed and grabbed the chair and walked to the front of the desk.

"Would you please turn off your radio." the man said. I turned off my radio while trying to see his face, but the angle of the light made it impossible to see his face.

"Now what do you want to talk about?" I asked.

"Your name is Dan, correct?" He asked.

"How do you know my name?" I asked, shocked that he knew my name.

"I know a lot of things, but something has interested me. Tell me, you underwent a DNA change am I correct?"

"Yes, but you still haven't answered my question."

"In due time. But, your only change was the color of your eyes? How interesting. Do you have any idea what that means?" the man asked.

"No, what does it mean?"

"It means that you are able to spec in plasmids, all of them."

I was petrified, Scott told me that if someone spec's in only plasmids, then you will start to deform.

"But Scott told me that-"

"Scott doesn't know anything. He thinks, no, wants to think he knows everything, but in reality he doesn't know much at all."

"But, how do you know so much about this? I thought only a select few are chosen to spec in plasmids."

"There is no 'select few' when it comes to specing plasmids."

"Then how am I able to spec in plasmids when I'm not supposed to?"

"It's a glitch in the system. Those who undergo the DNA change are able to spec in plasmids are simply a system glitch, those who change after the first injection will look like a Splicer, but if you change the first time and don't look any different then you're a glitch. Once the game creators find out about you they will ask you to restart your account and if you don't then they will kill you until your five lives are up and it will restart for you."

I sat, throwing his words around in my head until I had one simple question.

"Who are you?"

The man sighed at leaned back against the chair. I stared at where is eyes should be and began to wonder if he was going to answer me. The man leaned forward to where the light was shining against his hat. The man slowly took off his hat. The hat revealed a 21 year old face with tan skin and white hair. His eyes where a crimson red just like mine.

"I'm the one known as the Lurker and I'm a glitch, just like you."