“Watch out! It's coming back!” She cried, “And I don't have my dagger anymore!”
Sea Moor at this point began to scream and yell a mess of indecipherable words and tried to pull himself free.
Caw! Caw! A bird responded from the sky.
It came down and flew toward Donny and kept its eyes trained on Donny. It watched with wide, bright, curious eyes that made Donny relax.
The bird itself had beautiful green feathers that were lined along the wings and eyes with gold and a silver line down its back. It was still staring when the sand began to churn again indicating the worm's return. The worm resurfaced and aimed itself toward Donny.
But Donny still felt calm even as everyone called out warnings to him telling him to get out of the way. But he still watched the bird, even as it raised its wings and began to glow a blinding light that forced Donny to turn his head.
“That's very peculiar.” Professor Unknown said as Charles walked in with two young boys in his arms.
“What is?” Charles asked.
“Set them on the beds.” Unknown ordered, “The same flux in the data stream as before.”
Charles set the two unconscious boys on the beds then walked over to his father and sat in the chair that stood next to him.
“What does it mean?”
“Anything. A mistake in the program, a program file added recently that still hasn't fully adapted, or, worst case, the 'connection' is already working.”
“Which do you think it is?”
Unknown rubbed his chin with his good hand feeling the stubble that was growing from his skin. He sighed, “My best guess is that it is a mistake in the game. If it was a connection it might be more random or even more organized. This only happens when the players are first in real danger.”
“What happens after it?” Charles asked then looked at the two boys lying behind them.
“After that I lose more contact with them.” he pointed to the screen, “See. I can only see everything they have to use, but once it's over I can't see what they acquire, like it is now.” The screen flickered slightly as if refreshing itself and when it finished the names and inventories of the players vanished.
“That's not all; I can't monitor their brain waves for the most part now, so if I want to see them I have to see an older scan, not new ones.”
“Can you fix it?” Charles asked.
“I have been trying, but my quick solutions include shutting it down. I can't do that with them still inside, especially with Sharon's mental link.
Charles looked back at the two boys who looked almost like they were sleeping.
“What happened to them?” Charles asked.
“I don't know, one moment they were fine, the next... gone.”
Donny felt the sensation of water on his back when the light receded finally. He realized he was lying on his back in a puddle of shallow water that seemed to hug him. The sky had lost its color and stretched over him as a soft, white sheet.
He sat up surprised that the water did not soak his clothes or stick to his skin. There was nothing at all around them, just a white sky and a shallow lake for the ground.
“Am I dead?” Donny asked looking around. Someone made a small sound behind him and Donny saw that everyone, but Sea Moor, the bird, and the creature, were there with him as well.
Everyone was standing now throwing their gazes left then right taking in the pure white world they were now in.
“Sharon, where are we?” John asked.
“Sharon looked at them then replied, “I don't know. I don't remember any programs like this.”
A single drop of water. That's what they heard echo over them through the air. Donny turned toward where he thought the sound came from but still didn't see anything.
A figure began to appear in the distance and in a second it became a woman standing not far from them.
She was incredibly beautiful, with her glowing, perfect skin, slender figure, a darker white dress, and her golden copper hair that hung over her shoulders, cascading down her back. Donny was literally speechless as he gazed upon this women, the woman in front of them who watched them with her own golden green eyes that seemed to search every corner of their very souls, studying them.
She came closer, seemingly gliding over the water that stood still under her feet and said, in the most harmonious voice Donny had ever heard, “You are not from here. Am I correct?”
Donny shivered for a second, her voice washing over him. He felt his mind stop as the sweet sounds began to work on the gears on his mind. Donny was the sailor to this siren as she called out to him.
Bobby nodded but didn't speak, probably feeling the same.
“There is a special power hidden inside each of you. One that can only be wielded by the one who is in harmony with it. Would you like to embody that power in the form of a weapon?”
She didn't wait for a reply instead quickly saying, “I am Regalia. I am the bird that transported you to this place. I will forge your new weapons from your elemental souls.”
“Our...souls?” John whispered, too stunned to speak.
“Yes. You each have a special power unique to only yourselves. Now relax.” She said as she raised her hands up leveling with her head. Her dress hardly moved.
Donny had no trouble relaxing, even as he felt a gentle tug on his body, then his skin began to emitting a light yellow aura.
A quick scan showed that everyone else was glowing as well, only in different colors. Bobby gave off a soft blue, Sean had a yellow aura as well but a sharper, more radiant shade, John had a blackish aura around him, and Sharon had a strange fusion of colors.
Before long the aura began to shift and tickle his skin, beginning to slide off his body and collecting in a sphere hovering out in front joining the four other colored circles of light.
The spheres began to float around Regalia and formed a semi-circle around her head from fingertip to fingertip. She began chanting some strange words and the orbs began to morph and become more solid.
When she finished chanting she began to sing, her voice again washing over Donny melting his thoughts as the orbs, more solid now, returned to their origins and hovered in front just in arms length.
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