I ducked and rested my back against the cold cement tile on the far side of the pool house, reloading my sniper rifle and checking my remaining ammo.

7 Regular Ammo.

1 Pulse Ammo.

"There isn't any end to them!" I shouted, keeping myself from peeking around the corner of the house, watching the enemy bullets spray around the sidewalk and fence beside me.

"Pretty sure that's literally true," Graz said. He had climbed on top of the pool house and was laying prone behind a rooftop shrub, picking the enemy soldiers off one-by-one with skill I expected but was still impressed by. "I think they are all NPCs and whoever sent them here just keeps spawning more."

"Great," I finished loading my gun, now out of extra ammo except my Pulse round, and I wouldn't waste that on some lowly NPCs. "Regardless of how that is even possible, what's our plan?"

"We still need to get to your roof."

I looked to my left. The house was about ten feet away. If I rolled and was fast, I might be able to make it.

"Cover me then," I said.

"Already on it." One shot, one digitally enhanced soldier yelled out as he died.

I took a deep breath, held my rifle right to my shoulder, and leapt out towards the house, ducking into a roll, feeling something akin to a boost as my Agility stat allowed me to make the distance. Shots zoomed passed me, shattering tile and brick along my path. I touched the edge of my house and activated a grapple item, sending a single green nylon rope from the point of my touch to the roof.

"You read my mind," Graz shouted, a smile in his voice.

I grabbed onto the line and willed myself upwards, the nylon fabric almost magnetically pulling me through the air towards my roof. As I looked down while zooming upwards, I watched with appreciation as Graz jumped from the pool house, performing an aerial maneuver that almost seemed to slow time, as he fired three shots at contorted angles that all hit their marks perfectly. He landed on the line, one hand gripping it tight with the other still firing.

"Damn you're impressive," I thought out loud.

"What was that?" he shouted up at me?

"Uhh nothing!" I reached the ledge of the roof and hurriedly pulled myself on top of it, immediately looking down and providing cover for Graz, who was now taking the full heat from all enemy soldiers.

I wasn't sure how, but I felt as though I could...

So, I activated my skill, "Paint in Red", firing a smoke grenade in the same motion.

Normally I'd be out of smoke grenades, but this was part of the skill.

The black smoke blossomed out from the ground, enveloping the enemy soldiers in a thicker-than-normal haze. The soldiers wouldn't be able to see me or Graz.

But I could see them.

Each enemy was highlighted in a bright neon red, easily visible even through the smoke. I fired, taking down one after another, their aim sporadic and wild in the confusion.

"I think they're hitting each other!" Graz said with a laugh as he landed beside me. He quickly ran to the center of the roof, his eyes turning blue as he sifted through his menu.

"What are you looking for?" I yelled, picking off the last few red dots lingering in the smoke, the remainder of my ammo gone along with them. For a moment it looked like we had won.

Then the helicopters came.

Dozens of them, in formation and heading directly at us fast, flying straight over the Sacramento skyline, black shapes against the blazing fire of a western sunset.

"Shit. Reinforcements incoming. How is this happening? Where are the police or at least the National Guard!?"

"No idea. I'm not sure this world is exactly the one we are used to."

"You think?!!"

We looked at each other for a second. I smiled and Graz shook his head.

"Summon, Belias"

The air grew thick and icy, a cloud of steam suddenly erupting from each breath that I took. A gust of wind almost knocked me to the floor, pressing against me. I pried my eyes upwards to look at Graz, but he stood calmly, almost a proud look upon his face, eyes above him. I followed his gaze, lifting a chilled hand to block the sun's last setting attempt to blind me.

A massive, Frost Dragon was coming straight down toward us, wings spreading ice and snow in its wake.

Belias came to a hover a couple dozen feet above us, turning and looking at the oncoming helicopters with sapphire eyes. It opened its mouth revealing fangs the size of my head, encased entirely in thick, Ice crystal. A bolt of frost shot out from its throat, rippling through off into the horizon, disintegrating a wave of helicopters in an instant. Their remains came tumbling down on top of a suburb that I hoped was as empty as the rest of the world suddenly seemed to be.

Belias landed and Graz quickly reached up, pulling himself atop the great ice beast and patting its neck.

I checked my menu, seeing the levels appear above both of their heads through my now-blued eyes.

Belias - Level 92

Graz Black - Level ??

The Black kept his level private, one of CCO's most discussed mysteries, both by Tournament announcers and posters in the official forums. I was still impressed that no employees with access to his data had even leaked it.

"You gonna stand there and stare at me with googly eyes, or are you gonna hop on my good friend here?"

I closed my menu and although normally as Valys, the great beast would have terrified me, as my "Connected" self Phoenix, I had none of those qualms. Even though I had been afraid of heights since I was little, I felt nothing but excitement.

I ran forward and leaped upwards, sliding my rifle onto my back, grabbing onto Graz's outstretched hand and swinging myself behind him, wrapping arms around his waist. I tightened my rifle strap and my grip, not sure if dropping it would cause me to lose it or if it would simply unequip and end up back in my inventory. There were still so many things that I needed to test in this world. Which reality would reign supreme, my normal reality?

Or Cyber Clash Online.

My stomach fell as Belias lifted off the roof in a sudden burst of incredible speed, massive wings slamming downwards, then spreading so far as to block out all my vision.

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"Alright Belias, take us southwest. Inputting coordinates now."

In the bottom-left corner of my vision, I saw the numbers appear, indicating their target location.

San Francisco.

"Where are we going in SF?" I had to yell, as the sound of the wind rushing past us grew too fierce for me to even hear the words coming out of my own mouth.

I opened my menu, connecting to party chat.

"Where are we going?" I asked again.

"To the only place where they won't find us."

Behind us more enemy helicopters had come to the fray, but they were too late. The speed of their propellers couldn't even come close to that of Belias. I had to close my eyes to keep my stomach from churning. We soared upwards leaving my home behind.

Eventually Belias came to the desired altitude and began to straighten out, allowing me to slowly open my eyes. I felt my jaw drop.

We had broken through a sea of clouds and although the Sun had finally decided to leave us, I could still see.

For the lightning lit our path.

Flashes of light illuminated the sky, as the clouds were littered with countless bolts of electricity. Moving, channeling, extending their electric fingers into the night sky beneath the us. It was the most beautiful and terrifying thing I had ever seen.

"Graz..."

"I know."

I pulled my eyes away from the sight and looked at him. His powerful blue eyes glowed and flashed in sync with the storm, as he calmly stared into its depths.

"CCO has nothing on this," he finally said after a few minutes of silence, only shattered by the thunder and ripples of electricity. "The clouds there were always programmed and never changed. This... this is something else."

I tried to remember the young boy who was really in there, but couldn't see passed the rough, powerful exterior that this Graz Black portrayed. Perhaps he was like me, confident and strong while connected but unsure and scared while his normal self. But then, he had come to save me prior to Connecting...

"So...," I began, feeling bad about breaking the illusion that the storm seemed to cast upon us. "What do you think is happening here?"

Graz kept silent for a minute before responding, cranking his neck to the left, then right. I heard the pop and suddenly had the urge to do the same.

"Somehow CCO, or at least our abilities and characters have come into the real world. I'm not sure what that means entirely, but so far there are only three of us that I know of."

"How long have... Wait... Three of us?"

Graz chuckled. "Yep. And I've been here just as long as you. Difference is, we were prepared for it."

I didn't understand. How could he have prepared for something like this?

"Prepared? What do you mean?" A bolt of lightning lit the sky around us, causing me to grip Graz tighter. "And how did you even know to find me?"

"That item you found? The one you used before all of this? We've been tracking that for months."

The unknown orb... from that last quest. I had almost forgotten about all of that, it was as if the memory was a blur that tried to run every time I tried to focus on it.

"The Orb of Unification. Mostly considered a myth but recently hackers were able to uncover hints to it in the source code. Hackers who spend their time on the same forum where your clan first heard about the quest to obtain it."

A private message from an anonymous poster, sent to Jumba and verified by Six...

"I... used it somehow."

"Which was the part we weren't prepared for. There weren't any references on how to use it, nor which classes even could. I had expected to be able to find you first."

"Sorry. Gamma Dragon and all. Didn't have much of a choice."

"You fought a Gamma Dragon?"

"Well... more like poked one."

Graz laughed and shook his head.

"Anyways. No point in worrying about that. We are where we are and have to deal with whatever comes. As the ancient Roman Emperor said, "What stands in the way becomes the way.""

I liked that. I hadn't read much on ancient philosophy but always appreciated that which I heard.

"So we have our gear, our abilities, our stats, and some sort of connection, as we can use different chat lines."

"There are also enemy NPCs and creatures, as you've seen." Graz patted Belias, who growled softly in reply. "That's a happy growl, not a mad one."

I smiled and rubbed the side of Belias myself, feeling the cold scales beneath my fingers. It all felt so real, far more accurate than it ever had while online through my VR headset.

"But who is controlling the NPCs? Why are they after me?"

Graz took a deep breath. "That, we're going to have to find out. Guess you're stuck with me for a while until we do."

"Well, considering you're the only person around that isn't trying to kill me, I'll count myself lucky to not be alone."

"I am great company, after all. But first we need to get to San Fran and see Rio."

"Rio? Who is he? I thought you were the lone Black Wolf, solo player extraordinaire."

"Behind every great solo player, is a Rio."

"Is that so?"

"You'll see."

I caught the corner of Graz's lips curl into a smile and squeezed tighter just in time as Belias began to descend.

"Hold tight, not sure how this part will be in the real world."

"Great. Could have done a test run first don't you think?"

"No time. Besides, then I'd miss this."

"Miss wha... Ohhhh shit!"

Belias dipped into a dive and plummeted to the earth, tearing through the clouds at a speed that rattled my cheeks and covered my face in a mess of twisted hair. I couldn't scream, I couldn't see, I couldn't do anything but hold onto Graz and hope that Belias knew how to land when an actual atmosphere had to be considered. I bit down hard and dug my fingers into Graz's ribs.

And just like that, Belias slowed, pressing my body into Graz who took the brunt of the G-force. I dared to open my eyes and saw that we had descended past the layer of the storm and were coming down onto the San Francisco bay.

And there were people.

The city in the bay was lit up like normal, with lines of traffic and car lights into the distance. Billboards flashed displaying upcoming basketball games and I even thought I could make out a Giants baseball game being played in the distance.

"Woah." Graz said, as he guided Belias down towards the coast.

"Are they real?"

"I guess so? Rio didn't tell me anything about this."

"You haven't seen him yet?"

"No, I came to you first thing."

I wasn't sure what to think about that but simply nodded, taking it all in stride. "But then where were the people in Sacramento?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Graz replied, dipping Belias down to slowly glide across the ocean water. I realized he was keeping low to avoid anyone noticing the giant Frost Dragon. "Rio will know."

"Can't you just add him to our group chat?"

"He doesn't play CCO."

"Oh..."

"Yeah," Graz aimed Belias across the beach, which was fortunately empty, and towards a small pier. "He's more of a watcher than a player."

We came to the base of the big pier, with white paint peeling and barnacles covering the giant wooden beams that sunk down into the ocean and sand. Belias landed and Graz hopped off, reaching out a hand to help me swing down onto the sandy beach behind him.

"We're going to have to walk the rest of the way. No point in causing a commotion with people thinking Godzilla has come to attack them."

"Didn't Godzilla only attack Japan?"

"Yeah well... San Francisco."

"No explanation needed."

"Thanks boy, you did well. I owe you another one." Graz patted Belias and slid his hand down the icy scales. Belias lifted his chin proudly and slowly disappeared back into lines of code, leaving massive footprints behind.

"Too bad the waves will likely wash those away. Would be a riot to see someone discover them."

I shook my head, not hiding my smile well, and we took off, climbing up the stairs and onto the streets of the city in the bay.

At first, we jogged at a fast pace, eventually slowing down and joining the rest of the city's night life in a casual walk. Graz and I both unequipped our weapons, realizing that the not-so-subtle rifles would draw unwanted attention. I was relieved to see that it had returned to my inventory and hadn't just disappeared.

People walked by and we didn't get more than a casual glance or two. They seemed real, though so too had the soldiers that attacked my house. How was I supposed to know?

Take a deep breath Phoenix... Let's wait to see what this Rio guy has to say.

Phoenix. I realized that I thought of myself by that name instead of Valys. Odd.

Eventually Graz led us into an alley way, the last place I had expected to be tonight, or any night for that matter. We stopped in front of a silver sliding door with a camera above it, pointing directly at us.

Graz looked up at it and smiled, waving enthusiastically.

"Ummm, care to explain what two avatars from CCO are doing outside of my HQ?" came a voice with a Spanish accent from somewhere on the camera. It appeared to have some sort of speaker. "Is there a convention I hadn't heard about? No that can't be it. I hear about all of the conventions."

"It happened. We were too late."

The camera moved and zoomed in on me.

"Oh it's her. Well damn."

"Damn," Graz agreed with a nod.

"Care to explain?" I asked.

Graz just shrugged.

After a few seconds the door slowly began to rise, sliding up like a garage door but somehow, I knew it was something much sturdier.

A man slid out on a wheelchair, with light brown skin and a shaved head. He smiled; the whiteness of his teeth barely visible behind a well-groomed beard.

"Valys," Graz said, raising an open hand to the man. "This is Rio. You've spoken to him before."

"No, I haven't. What are you saying?"

Graz smiled with some amount of pity.

"Rio here is the one who sent your clan that anonymous message."

I should have connected the dots right away and felt embarrassed that I hadn't.

"He's the hacker who discovered the quest..."

Rio flipped his wrist out in a theatrical motion and bowed his head.

"At your service."