OPEN THE DOOR

WRITTEN BY: TERICON

Shanon was in her world now.

Drifting through the warm, weightless expanse of colors and shapes, Shanon spread her limbs wide and took in a deep breath of freedom. The nondescript shapes began to take form, transmorphing into faces. The faces belonged to people that she knew, people that were in her life. They sang compliments, praise and encouragement. None could wait to please the girl. For the first time in her life, Shanon felt that she belonged somewhere. She felt accepted, and before she knew it, she was smiling.

Suddenly, the loud and annoying tone of Shanon's alarm clock pierced her dream and pulled her from perfection. She now lay in bed, wrapped in white bedsheets from a night of tossing and turning. The air in her room smelled so stale, and the bright yellow light that shone through her window scorched her retenas. Slowly, withdrawing an arm from the entangling bedsheets, Shannon rubbed the crust from her eye and yawned. Only then did she reach over to her digital clock to deactivate the alarm. She looked about. The room suddenly seemed so small. Shannon wasn't the claustrophobic type, but it almost seemed that the walls had closed in about a foot on all sides.

"Shannon, are you goanna sleep all day?" That voice belonged to her mother, a difficult woman to live with since her husband dissapeared. The girl rolled out of bed, stumbleing past her computer desk and toward the heavy wooden door. For a moment the door refused to open, clinging to its frame with diligance. Finally, after one final thrust, the thing burst open, granting her permission to exit the cell.

Down the hall, she could see her two sisters sitting at the dining room table, dressed for school and consuming cold cerial. She paused for a moment to observe the two, to take in the innocence of Alicia as the seventh-grader sought after the elusive marshmallos in her bowl while her elder sister, Shadow the Seinior, chewed on a spoonful of banana nut flakes. The serene image, illuminated by golden dawn light, accompanied by an anchor reading off the local news on a twelve-inch screen, struck Shannon as the most peaceful scene she had witnessed in months. As she reflected on this, she remained oblivious to her own surroundings.

"Shannon!" Whirling around, the girl was now face to face with her mother, who looked less than pleased. "Stop wasting time and get yourself a shower. Now!"

Too distressed to even concider a reply, she darted to the bathroom and executed the command given her. A short while afterward, she was back in the hallway, dressed in the uniform of her highschool. The inornate dark blue jacket, the white button-up shirt underneath, the light blue plaid patern on her skirt...all had become so routine in her third year of highschool that she hardly even noticed the uniform at all. Her sister wore it, too, and actually managed to look good in it. Before envy could creep in and darken her mood further, she made haste to the kitchen where she poured herself her own bowl of cerial.

The kitchen was empty now, aside from the news anchor on the television. In the living room, which branched off from the kitchen, Shannon saw her mother sitting on the couch, ciggarette in hand, watching the very same program with a blank expression. The ciggarette was lit, but unsmoked. The ashes fell unchecked to the grey carpet below as a line of smoke led to a thin cloud of carbon monoxide that lingered near the ceiling. The circles under her mother's eyes worried Shannon quite a bit, but there just wasn't anything that could be done. Perhaps Shadow was right when she remarked that their mother was losing her mind bit by bit every day. The very thought sent shivers down the girl's spine.

Five minutes later, all three girls left the building, the youngest heading for her school bus and the other two walking to their highschool, which was just about four blocks up the street. They trudged up the hill in total silence. The sound of their shoes hitting the sidewalk and the engine of the occasional passing car were the only disterbances in the still of morning. Shannon longed to talk with her sister, to let out all that she had pent up inside, to vent all of the emotion that was eating her alive, but she dared not. Asking someone else to forget their own problems and listen to your own was an unbelievably selfish thing to do. Shadow certainly had her fair share of problems, and none of them were Shannon's business. With this in mind, she continued her walk in silence.

Before she knew it, she was in class. Her first period class was Trigonometry, which was just about the worst choice of all her classes for first period. Math should never be practiced before noon, she would always think to herself, but there was no helping it. The descision was out of her hands. Her pen fought to catch up with the teacher's scrawlings on the board, taking down as much as she could into her notes. It always seemed that the teacher stood directly in front of anything Shannon needed to copy, however, and when she had only two more lines left to transcribe, the formula was erased.

No, Shannon thought in desperation, now I'll never know how to complete the formula! A student raised her hand.

"Um, Mrs. Turkelle, I didn't get the last bit of what you wrote."

"Then get it from another student," the teacher snapped, "and do not interrupt my lesson again unless you have a legitimate question!"

The lesson continued as Shannon stared at her incomplete notes. I can't ask someone else for the notes. It would be too much trouble. Besides, what might they think of me? They'll probably laugh at me for not being able to keep up. I hate school.... While she pursued this train of thought, however, a new formula had been written on the board. She gasped and began scrawling the thing down as fast as she could, but it was too late. She barely got the first line when the entire thing was erased. It almost seemed as though this place was designed to destroy her.

Somehow, she had survived her mathematics class and now entered the english classroom. Immediately after roll was called, the teacher demanded his homework, causing Shannon to once again gasp. Damn! I didn't do my homework! I spent all evening on the computer! How could I be so stupid? What a pathetic little-

She looked up. She was now face-to-face with her teacher, who had his hand extended. Oh, how will I explain this to him? I can't tell him that I didn't do it! What do I do?

"Your homework, Miss Grey," the teacher demanded in his commanding voice.

"I...uh...lost it. I'm sorry...."

The teacher made a grunting noise, then moved on to the student behind her. She lowered her head. Great, now everyone thinks I'm stupid. How could someone lose their homework? I'll bet he saw right through my lie. He knows that I didn't do it. What a moron I am. As she was sulking, she didn't hear the student behind her give a similar excuse for not having the homework, nor did she hear the other four students in the class that didn't complete theirs. In her mind, she was the only one at fault. Everyone seemed to be good at school but her, as though she didn't fit in. I never fit in, Shannon thought, biting back the tears. Everyone else is so much better at life than I am. I never know what to do. I can't even manage to get my homework done for the next day. Just how stupid am I? What a disgrace I must be to mom....

She survived until lunch, which she spent at a table by herself. Behind her, she could hear another table full of people burst out into laughter, and she couldn't help but to think that they were laughing at her. The food was poorly cooked, cold and too expensive. The soda can had ice in it, and none dared to even near the milk. Whenever she looked up from her tray, it seemed that one or more people were staring at her, then would return their heads to their friends and laugh. What a joke I've become, she thought. Some days I wish I had never been born.

Gym class came later on, which was always the most embarassing experience of the day. She was completely inept at any kind of sport, and she wasn't in good shape to boot. People would openly complain when she screwed up, and every time her team lost, she blamed herself. This day they were to run a mile, a task that she had failed. Once again, she did not notice that others failed as well, and that she had only failed by a mere ten seconds. To her, she was the worst athlete in the entire school, and the retest was just there to rub it in. As she looked up at the school, the sun shone on the windows, making it impossible to see in. She knew that they were there, though. She knew that every window was filled with her peers, pointing, laughing, mocking her every move. She looked away and wiped the tears from her eyes. They can't see me cry, she thought. If they do, then it's all over.

Weeks later, the three o' clock bell rang, signaling the end of an extraordinarily long day of school. Rubbing her temples as she exited the building, Shannon decided that seven hours was far too long a time to ceaslessly feed information into genarally unwilling minds. Her feet skidded along the unkempt sidewalks, kicking little pieces of gravel ahead of her and occasionally into Shadow's shoes, who walked ahead of her. Somehow, she had managed to become completely sore and mentally exhausted after preforming the seemingly simple task of learning. This always seemed to baffle the girl, but at this point it had become the norm and therefore undeserving of thought.

Within, the three sisters settled back into house life with relative ease. Alicia played her cutesy games as her mother "watched," Shadow vanished into her room, returning only when hungry, and Shannon went directly for her computer. Still in her uniform, she clicked on her desk fan and booted up her usual escape from reality: Hoss: Omega.

The game was an online teamplay first person shooter. Omega was an expansion for the original game, which involved fighting under the banner of one of several nations. The Omega story took place about a decade later, in a distant future. A spaceship full of scavenger aliens decided that they wanted to prey on the planet Earth, so they deployed a device that emitted a constant psionic ray at the planet's surface. The ray gradually effected the minds of the planet's inhabitants, making them paranoid and agressive. After two months of exposure, all nations fell and Earth was run by hundreds of territorial gangs. The people of Earth were in a constant state of war, batteling over territory and preemptively striking the gangs near them. In a few years, humanity will kill itself off. It's only a matter of time.

Then come the plot twists. For one, the alien spaceship encountered some mechanical problems and crashlanded on the planet, where they too fell victim to their own device. Gradually, they intermixed with the gangs, but most rejected them and refused to trust any of the outsiders. Also, the location of the orbital device was determined and the information stolen by spies of each gang on Earth. A single rocket ship, armed to the teeth with explosives, should be able to knock the device out of orbit and save all of humanity. The problem is that most technology had been scrapped to produce single-man weaponry, and thus the parts to this rocket will not be easy to find. Each gang competes to build such a rocket, unable to cooperate even for salvation's sake, and constantly rob each other of their parts. In the end, the manual read, no gang is able to produce a rocket ship and all of humanity degenerates into paranoid killing machines.

That's the story, anyway. The game itself involed little else than team battle, capture the flag, and "vip" type matches. So why not play something like Tribes or Counterstrike? Hoss had more of the community aspect built into it. Gangs were easy to establish and communication, in and out of game, was reletively simple.

Shannon dawned her headset and dove into the game. Suddenly, she stood in a bombed-out museum. She held a rifle in her gloved hands and the light, red and white armor she wore proudly displayed the gang's red cross logo...the logo of the Medics. As she ran to the resupply depot, her hands grasped the nearest CD and inserted it into the drive. The game was cracked to run without the CD, and so Shannon took advantage of this and blasted the weak to pieces to her favorite music. This time, it was the Nine Inch Nails fragile remix album.

"Alright, let's give them Redblades hell, Medics!" This voice was that of the gang's leader, Seditive Love. "Parl, Kinks and So0o0oth, you're on defense. Rag and Zenith will guard the resupply. Ford, you and Zooom will probe the enemy base for weaknesses, and the rest of you are to gather in the entry hall for our first assault. Light AP and no explosives. Pack light, people. I doubt we'll live long out there."

A new voice crackled to life, the voice of Crimsin Shade. "Raven and Razanth, you're with me."

"Got it," replied the latter, who adjusted the volume on her headset's output as she spoke. Her headset ran through a small piece of equipment on her desk which allowed her to adjust input and output levels, as well as distort her own voice as she saw fit, although she almost never used that feature.

Something was different about the level since she was last there. "Hey Sedi," Razanth called, "what happened to the resupply point? Has it moved?"

"It hasn't moved far. It's closer to the east wing now." It took about fifteen seconds before she got her reply. The wait wasn't due to lag; both players were broadcasting at high bandwith. When a player sends a message to a specific individual, one of eight lights on the bottom of the screen begins to flash. This feature is in place to protect a player from recieving messages from multiple players at once. It's like putting them on hold; their message will sit there on the bar until the corresponding key (f5 to f12) is pressed. When that happens, the message is played just as it was recorded. This overrides universal chat, where voice messages are enqued and played in the order they were sent with no pause in between. When too many messages are enqued, a sound plays to warn players that they won't be able to speak out loud until some of the messages play themselves through.

In this case, she was messaging the leader, who was fairly busy at the beginning of the game. She passed him, in fact, as she went for the resupply. His armor was custom-designed to resemble full plate mail, the Medics embelum proudly displayed on the breastplate of the armor, as well as the non-functional shield attached to his left arm. He stood there, rifle in hand, still at the same point he had spawned in at. He would remain there until he was finnished giving orders and fielding questions, then he would join the gathering crowd in the entry hall.

Razanth turned her rifle in for a pair of semi-automatics and a light EMP grenade. Her character was proficient with light arms and Nano Virii (defensive hacking), and both weapons were the most potent that still fell under the "light arms" category. With her new armament, she sped down the stairway (greeting Parlureal as she passed) and began to frantically search for Crimsin Shade. Sure enough, he stood at the head of the pack with Raven. His spiked, red hair stood out in a sea of helmeted soldiers, and the ornimental broadsword strapped to his back caught the light from the gigantic, shattered windows, creating a nearly blinding lense flare effect.

"What's the plan, Crim" Razanth asked as she came to stand by him.

The wait wasn't long. "Make sure they don't deploy that sentry gun they always seem to have right off the bat." His gaze left the archway that lead to the open battlefield and fell on her character. "You know, my offer still stands."

Shannon hesitated, her finger hovering above the final hotkey in the communication menu. "I...you have enough to do as it is, Crim."

Two lights flashed on the bottom of the screen, indicating that someone else wished to have a word with the girl on top of Crimsin Shade's reply. The interruption was from Ragnorokette. "Hey Raza, where's the resupply gone?"

"A little slow, aren't we," Shannon commented, then Razanth explained where the depot had been moved. That out of the way, she returned to her previous conversation.

"I've got more time on my hands than you can imagine," was Crimsin Shade's response.

"I don't want to trouble you."

"It's no problem. I've done models before. You just look so plain in that default model."

"It gets the job done." Razanth noticed the gang leader approaching the group and wrapped things up. "Thank you for the offer, but I'm alright right now."

"Okay, but don't hesitate to ask if you change your mind." The moment his voice cut out, Seditive Love ran out in front of the pack and screamed a battlecry that must have had more than one person tossing their headsets to the ground. At full speed, a dozzen troops in red and white armor poured out of the entrance, waving varying firearms in the air as they did. Moments later, a thick hailstorm of enemy fire hit them dead on, scattering the group into small teams. Crimsin Shade led the way as Razanth and Raven trailed behind, their lack of equipment causing them to practically reach escape velocity and fly over the dusty hills between the two structures. Morters were visible in the grey sky, leaving a trail of dirty smoke as they soared toward their targets. More than one exploded in mid air, raining bomblets to the earth below.

And sure enough, three Redblades equipped with wrenches surrounded a large piece of equipment atop a hill near the enemy base's entrance. Two soldiers guarded the crew, equipped with the dual shoulder-mounted miniguns that comprised the devistating Main Gigulm, as well as a rocket launcher each. The odds were against the light assault squad, but this failed to bother Shannon. She was in her element now, doing the one thing that she was good at in life. Her confidance was boosted, her doubt ebbed. Although she was too engrossed in the game to notice, the improperly closed door was released from its frame and creaked open.

As the three approached, the guards leveled their weapons, firing few rockets and landing zero. Once in range, the scouts let loose a volley of bullets in exchange for the chain-fed glaser rounds of the Main Gigulms. Razanth was barely able to toss her EMP grenade at the nearly-complete sentry gun before she bit the dust, respawning back in the base. The other two followed shortly, and when all was said and done, two engeneers lay dead, the machine broken until repaired, and all three medics ready for more.

Hours slipped by as the combat continued until Razanth found herself in the basement of the Redblades' base, kneeling behind a crate with an online acquaintance, Kael Grey. Razanth, using nothing but a single, civilian-issue assault rifle, plugged away at the enemy defenders.

"You must have had one hell of a day," Kael observed as she fired a half-dozzen rounds from her pistols.

"Why would you say that," Razanth replied, scoring a head shot on one of her more unfortunate opponents.

"You're not one for a stand-up fight, that's why. You're always zipping this way and that, hitting hard and running, ambushing, sneaking around..."

Razanth turned to view the default female skin of her ally. "You know," she said, "I hadn't realized it until just now, but your voice sounds awfly familiar."

"Does it really," the other asked as she scanned the battlefield, weapons held outward.

"Yeah. Are you on TV or something?"

"It's probably just-" Kael paused to drop a Redblade. "-the connection."

Shannon shrugged, then went back to shooting. "I wouldn't say that I had a bad day..."

"But your day was less than pleasant?"

Shannon sighed into her microphone. "My life is less than pleasant."

Kael chuckled. "I don't think anyone likes their life, Raz."

"That's not it...it's just..."

The voice of Shannon's mother pierced both her door and the headphones. "Dinner!"

"Ah, damn. I gotta go."

"That's alright," Kael said. "Just one thing."

"What's that?"

"Could you run out and act as a decoy while I get a little closer?"

Shannon laughed, then replied, "sure thing, Kael." She leapt over the crate and ran straight ahead, vaguely aware of her ally as she ran off to the side. Razanth rounded a crate and unloaded on the two gangsters behind it, killing one before taking a shotgun to the face, then a barrage of several other things to the back. Shannon quit the game, closed the program, then, placing the headset on her chair, made to leave. The door had closed again, and took the usual ammount of coersion for it to give her permission to leave.

As usual, all were present at the table but Shadow, who preferred to show her face hours later to scavenge the leftovers before dissapearing into the darkness again. Not that the food itself was anything special. On each plate rested a rather small pile of macaroni and cheese, accompanyed by a slab of processed "mystery meat." As Shannon consumed her meal, greatful for every bite despite the lack of both quality and quantity, she took a look around the area. The the kitchen television played a rerun of an old sitcom while the livingroom set played a more recent program. Homework and textbooks were scattered all over the coffee table, floor and couch, along with a variety of games and manuals.

Shannon's mother sat silently, nibbling her dinner down with a tired expression. The silence was broken when the energetic Alicia finnished her meal.

"May I have seconds, please," the girl asked.

"No," the mother replied coldly.

"But...but the Persons-"

"I said no! Now clean up that mess in the livingroom!" If it was one thing she hated, it was the Persons. They were the next door neighbors, and would frequently invite Alicia over to play with their daughter. Most of the time she agreed, but she couldn't stand how kind they were, how comfortably they lived, how normal their lives were, how functional their family was...it was jealousy, which can't be helped, but Shannon's mother was not well. The Person's enraged her, and although she was apreciative of how they took Alicia off of her hands for a few hours a night, she would otherwise kill them as soon as think of them.

Hanging her head, Alicia left the table and collected her papers. Shannon was next to finnish, who stood but did not leave the table. "Mom," she began.

"What?" snapped the deranged woman, refusing to look away from her plate of food.

A moment of silence, then, "you...you used to be kind."

Her mother continued to eat.

"Before Dad left...you were yourself. You're not now."

Her mother continued to eat.

"I...just wanted you to know that we want you back...the old you..."

Her fork froze halfway to her mouth, but only for a moment. She continued her meal as though Shannon weren't there, and soon she wasn't. By the time she got back, the game was over. The Medics had been victorious, due to two heavily armed soldiers sneaking into the Redblades' base and camping near the spawn points, then the resupply depot. Without their supplies, the opposing gang was forced to fight back with the shoddy rifle the game starts you with and a light frag grenade. It had been close up to that point, but then vivtory was assured. A happy ending.

Shannon changed into her night clothes and lay still on her bed, staring at the crack in the plaster of her ceiling. A happy ending, Shannon thought. There are no happy endings.



The next day started just like all the rest, the air of futility thicker than usual. Shannon thought aimlessly as she ate her cold cerial, reflecting on random occurances and musing over vagrant thoughts. She pondered her mathematics class, mulled over her tactics for destroying heavy gun emplacements, and even concidered her options for importing more cute games for her little sister's upcoming birthday. The last thought that crossed her mind on the way out the door, however, was how pointless her life had gotten. Living by routine alone was beginning to get to her, and she longed for some kind of change, for better or for worse.

Once again, she walked to school with her sister. The silence was deafening to the point that Shannon could barely stand it. Mentally crossing her fingers, she spoke to Shadow for the first time in over a year.

"Sis," Shannon tested.

There was a short period of silence, then, "I'm called sis?"

"Well...Shadow...what is it you do in your room all day?"

Shadow let out a single chuckle. "Why the sudden interest? Has the curiosity eaten away at you so much that it's overridden the social barrior that you perceive exists between us?"

It was Shannon's turn to hesitate. "If...if you don't want to tell me it's okay."

"I watch over those in need. I provide an outlet for those who have abandoned all hope in life. I spend time with those who need human interaction the most."

"I...uh...I see...." Not even sure if the answer was worth the effort, she was at least glad to have spoken with her sister. At least things hadn't dissolved between the two of them to the point that communication was impossible. Maybe in the future, Shanon concidered, we can talk more.

Directly after lunch came Shannon's Computer Concepts class. Even at her level of confidence, she was certain that she knew her way around a computer. That, combined with the fact that she also took a C++ programming course this year guarenteed a near-perfect grade in this class. The only reason she took it was that this year the school had decided to make it a required course, one that even the seinors had to take to graduate. It was a waste of an elective, but at least she knew what she was doing.

The class had the entire week to complete a project that took Shannon less than a day to do herself, so she was able to goof off as the other students worked away at their routine task. At the beginning of the year she had installed Hoss: Omega onto her designated computer and hid it deep in the hard drive, but she dared not play it. What she was able to do was view games in a small, closable window and chat in the game's lobby, but any level of participation higher than that would get her caught.

It was in the lobby that she saw someone she knew. Shannon double-clicked on the individual's name and began to type. "Kael? What are you doing on?"

Kael Grey replied. "I got bored, so I signed on. Shouldn't you be in school?"

"I am. I'm in a stupid computer class right now."

"Well, regardless of what you think of the class, you should concentrate on the lesson and not on a chatroom."

"There's no lesson today. I'm fine." Shannon hid the window just in time as the teacher passed by her computer in the back of the room. Once it was safe, she reopened the window to see Kael's reply.

"So how's today treating you?"

"Not good. I had to read in front of the whole class. It was so embarassing!"

"I'm sure you did fine. Reading's not like the usual school stuff like problem solving and memorization. All you have to do is not stumble your way through it and everything's alright."

"You're so smart, Kael! I'll bet you didn't have any problems in school."

"Everyone has problems with school, including me. Look, I gotta go, but I'll catch up with you tonight." With that, Kael Grey logged out.

The rest of the day went by as it usually did: slowly and painfully. When the three o' clock bell finally rang, she couldn't wait to rush out of school as fast as possible. She left in such a hurry that she hadn't waited for Shadow to show up. Everyone has problems with school, Shannon remembered. No, I'll bet Kael was just being nice to me. She always knows what to say. A block later, the thought hit her. However, Kael is too smart to have to lie to someone to make them feel better. This had her completely confused, so much so that she didn't remember entering her home, nor did she recall sitting down and loading Hoss.

She had arrived just in time. Her gang was preparing for a capture the flag game and were moments from locking in when Shannon arrived. They threw her onto the roster at the last moment, then the game began. She found herself standing in the middle of a road running through a very trashy slum. The houses looked to be comprised of pure sheet metal and were all one-room homes. Some of the structures were riddled with bullet holes or had gaping holes blasted out of them with some kind of explosive. One building on either side of the level contained the flag, and two buildings relatively near each flag were divoted to resupply.

Seditive Love took control of the gang and began to issue out orders. "Today we fight the Sidewinders. If you thought the Redblades were big on defence, these guys'll make it difficult for us to even locate their base. The good news is that they're mostly snipers over there, which means our own base defences should be able to repell them. The resupply sergeant is Zenith and the secretary of defence is Kinky Safety, so don't bug me when you can get your answers through them. The commanders of the Recon Squad, Light Assault Force, Code Ten and the Red Cross are PH1, Crimsin Shade, Nanako and Core, respectively. We probe now, we attack in five. Get ready."

Razanth first hit up the resupply for her usual pair of submachine pistols and an EMP grenade, then sought out her commander. The entire gang seemed to be present for this game, as there were nearly thirty Medics involved in this match...more than she had ever seen before. However, when she had reached the Light Assault Force outside the blasted remains of a third world shelter, she was dissapointed. Crimsin Shade stood atop the rubble, and behind him stood Raven, Saven and D3d-1. Kael Grey was not present.

"Kael missed the bus on this one," Crimsin Shade said to the group using the lowest level of universal chat, which only effected those within "earshot."

"I barely made it myself," Razanth remarked. "She not get out of work yet or something?"

"Something like that. I do admit that I don't know what she does for a living."

"5h32 4 5k00l grrl," D3d-1 put in, his typed-out text appearing above his head. "tld m3 t3h 0th3r d4j. pR0ll7 n0t c0m3 h0m3 j3t."

"Right," Crimsin Shade said, probably shaking his head in real life by the sound of his voice. "Well, let's move out. Stay close, and scatter if we're ambushed. Remember: snipers and heavy patrols. That's what we're up against."

"You fight these guys before, Crim," Saven said as they moved. From what Shannon knew, she was a business woman in Australia.

"Only once as a Medic, but several times before that."

"Has your team ever won?" This question came from Razanth.

Crimsin Shade laughed. "No, but let's work on that today, shall we?" The party was silent the rest of the way, so as not to attract the attention of any outsiders. There was a way to speak with multiple people without using universal chat, but it involved personally messaging multiple people at once and was not a built in feature of the game. You had to install a patch from a third party source. If nothing else, it took the players out of the game. Speaking to others should alert others to your presense, and to defy that would introduce a certain amount of unrealism that was unacceptable by most.

The group continued, weaving in and out of buildings, entering through front doors, exiting through holes in the walls or through tunnels in the ground. At times, they were forced to cross an open street, but they were so fast that none were attacked, if seen at all. The deeper they got into enemy territory, however, the riskier travel got. Then, there was a message over the universal chat circit. It was from Ford, who sounded like a thirteen-year-old boy.

"I've found their base! It's between a red shack that's totally intact and a yellow one that has a big hole on the left and a bunch of bullet holes on the right."

Seditive Love came on, heavy metal music audible in the background. "What does the flag building look like itself and how's it guarded?"

"Their building is the same as ours is...brown and rusted, no roof. They've got three guys armed to the teeth patrolling the street outside, and there's one guard inside that I can see. Looks like a chick with a Main Gigulm and a flame thrower."

Shannon was certain that more than one player cursed at that description. Both of those weapons were ideal in close quarters, so inside the tiny shack in a place where someone had to make physical contact with the flag, which was right next to the guardian mentioned...the task seemed impossible. There was a pause in the communication, probably due to the gang leader discussing the situation with the other officers. Soon, however, the silence was broken.

"Alright," Crimsin Shade began. "We've got work to do. Word is that Code Ten is practically on top of them, but there's no way in hell that they're goanna get the flag and leave with their lives. Recon isn't equipped for a raid, so the duty is ours. CT is to distract their defenses, which should be enough to divert the three soldiers outside and any others that might have been out of sight at the time. What we'll do is send Raz and Dead over the back wall while me and Saven take the front door. If the former gets the flag, you both are to exit through the front door and take the same backroads we did to escape. If me or Saven get it, we'll jump the wall and do the same. Everyone clear?"

All answered in the afirmative and they set off immediately. The march to their destination was very serious and silent, but a noise from outside pulled Shannon from her fantasy world and back into reality. She lifted up her left earpiece and heard the noise again.

"Sha-nnon," her sister Alicia called, followed by another loud pound at her door.

"What is it, Alicia? I'm busy now."

"Do you know where Shadow is? She didn't come home yet."

"No, sorry." Then, she remembered. "Oh, wait. I think I remember there being some drama meeting after school today. That's probably where she is."

"Thank you," Alicia sang in her precious, angelic voice. Suddenly, her headset came to life.

"Something wrong, Raz?" The group was ahead of her, staring back at where she stood.

"Sorry," Razanth said. "I'll catch up. I'm sorry." The mood gradually returned to the girl, and she was once again in the slums, holding her trusty SMGs ready, on what was very possably going to be a suicide mission. She knew that she could take it on, though. It seemed so easy that nothing could possably foil their plan.

Upon arriving at the Sidewinders' street, they saw the carnage of both heavy assault forces colliding. Absurd explosions and constant, bass machinegun fire were audible as they neared the shack. With the Dead One at her side, Razanth silently and carefully made her way to the roof of one of the shacks then, on her hands and knees, crawled over to the flag room. The defender stood there alone, her massive weapons pointed at the doorway.

"We go in five seconds at my signal," Crimsin Shade told the group over the team's universal chat. "Do the counting yourselves. Ready? Now!"

Razanth got to two when she saw D3d-1 toss a grenade into the flag room. She quickly looked to him just in time to see the text above his head, reading: "tRu5t m3." The next moment, the grenade went off. The flag guard looked up to see where the grenade had come from, but once she saw the two on the roof, she noticed the two entering through the doorway and recalibrated. At this time both D3d-1 and Razanth leapt down and made a run for the flag. The other two sidestepped the door and were blasted to smitherines, outmatched by their opponent, while behind the guard's back the two from above slid past. Razanth took up the flag, forcing her to holster her weapons, and both flew from the shack.

The Medics ran as fast as possible. Razanth lead the way, ducking in and out of obstacles and using her speed to avoid flack from behind while D3d-1 attempted to distract the pursuers with his machine pistol. For those who have never had the pleasure of performing a flag run, this is the time that your talent becomes evident to all. It is possible to cover for poor skill most of the time, but the moment you hold that flag in your hands, you become the target of every member of the opposing force. Your ability to beat the odds and return with the flag was the true measurement of a talented player. Shannon would notmally dread being put on the spot in this fashion, but things were different in the game world. Her confidence shot to record levels as she sidestepped missiles and bullets alike. Nothing could prevent her from completing the run.

And run they did, with every ounce of speed they could muster. Things went well for the first half of the trip, until Razanth looked to where her partner should have been and found a corpse. Desparate to preserve her life, she ducked out of the area blindly and ended up in the middle of a road. She stopped for a moment, realizing the mistake in her action just long enough for a Sidewinder to find her head in his sights.

The sound of the flag clattering to the ground echoed in Shannon's mind as she stared at the third person view of her character, lying dead in the slums. All the while, the same thought ran through her mind. The run failed...failed because of me. Her vision became blurred as she stared blankly at her monitor. Everything had lost its meaning. The only thing she could excel at ended in failure. I'm such a moron, she screamed in silence. I'm such an asshole. I lied to myself all this time, telling myself that I was good at this game. I lied to the others, who were tricked into trusting me. What a failure I am. What a worthless, pathetic excuse for a human being I've grown into.

Her hatred for herself was so deep, she didn't hear her allies calling out to her, requesting her participation in another run. She didn't hear any of the radio traffic at all, nor did she hear any of the in game sound effects. She was somewhat aware of the CD playing in her drive, but the music soon ended when the headset was torn from her head and tossed at the wall. Her face cradled in her hands, the tears began to flow. Exactly how long she cried there uncontrolably, none could say. In the very least, the game had ended and the chatroom was now open. Her tears dry, she simply slouched in the chair, feeling like a pathetic, discarded piece of trash in a gutter. A dialoge box opened, stating that another player wished to chat with her in private. Out of habit, Shannon clicked "yes," and a seperate chat window opened.

The other player was Kael Grey. "What's up? Sorry I missed the game. I just got back. How'd it go?"

Shannon typed slowly with shaking fingers. "We lost."

"That's what I figured from the sound of things."

"Sound?"

"Yeah. You alright in there? It sounds pretty serious."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"In your room. I heard crying. You okay? Want me to come over there?"

Shannon gasped and wiped the tears from her eyes. "Is this...Shadow?"

There was a slight, dramatic pause, then, "yeah, you got it."

"So all this time, Kael Grey was Shadow...Grey..."

"Heh. Let's not worry about that for now. Mind telling me what the matter is?"

"Nothing. I'm fine."

There was another pause. At first, Shannon was angered that her sister would make light her situation by purpousfully adding dramatic pauses for her own twisted pleasure, but she was mistaken. As it turned out, the reply just took that long to write. "Shannon," it read, "why do you think I started this masquerade in the first place? Ever since Dad left, you've been distant, almost completely unreachable. You always seem to be so well off, but that's only because you refuse to tell us when something is wrong. I knew I had to do something, so I registered with Hoss after you and plead my case to SL. I just wanted to comfort you. I just wanted to talk to you."

Shannon was now officially in shock. Her sister, whom presumably shut herself off from human contact on a daily basis, had in actuality spent every evening with Shannon without her knowing. She felt the tears welling up, but they weren't released until she read the next message on her screen. "It's not too late, Shannon. I can help you. We can all help you. All you have to do is open the door, Shannon. Just open the door, and I promise I'll try to find the strength that I couldn't this past year."

Standing slowly, Shannon was suddenly aware of a strength within herself that had been hidden for a very long time. The walls fell away, one by one, until all that stood in this open field was a door, the very same door that kept her seperate from the rest of the world, the door that told her she was inferior to her peers, that was all too eager to proclaim her limitations. She advanced toward the door. It felt like walking against a strong current, but progress was being made. She reached out her right hand and, stretching as far as she could, grasped the handle of the door and pulled. The door frame attempted to keep Shannon in, but could do little against the sheer power that the girl now had. The gateway was open. The barrior was broken and the light behind surrounded her in all of its beautiful radiance. For the first time since her father ran away, a genuine smile found Shannon's lips, and she was certain that all would work out in the end. She closed the program, stood and made her way to the door. Exactly what was on the other side, she couldn't guess. All she knew for certain was that she was no longer alone.


1