"What the hell?" said Riley. "What kind of event was that?" He turned around and faced the others.

"They swarmed out of nowhere," said Red Shotgun.

"Was it an invasion event? I've never seen zombies like that in Sigil Online," said Brenda, whose paragon name was Crossbolt. She wielded a steel crossbow resting on her shoulder. She was a girl with blonde hair down to her mid-back with gray denim pants and a black long-sleeved blouse with a ruffled hem. She looked to be around the same age as Riley.

"A hundred credits says that it was one of the new monster players," said Erica. She had dark skin and looked to be in her late twenties, early thirties. She wore a black skirt and an olive-green corset, along with a black jacket with neon-green trim. She lifted her hands and slowly retracted the vines from around the sheets of stone encompassing them.

"Did anyone get hit?" asked Red Shotgun.

"Yeah, Chase did," said Laura. The copy maker held out her hand and one by one, she absorbed her duplicates.

"Where is he?" asked Riley.

"I'm over here," came a man's voice.

Riley stepped between several of the gathered players. Some had already started heading back into the bunker, now that the threat was over. Most of his friends remained outside.

Riley caught sight of the man he was looking for, seated against the side of the bunker. He had dark skin and wore gray slacks. He had on a black blazer with a white shirt. As part of Chase's powers, he had a single cybernetic eye in the right socket of his skull. The eye had a silvery metallic glint with green lines running through it, that then coursed down through the man's body, like neon-green veins.

Riley also spotted Carla beside him. She had bright pink hair and a blue zipped-up jacket. She had black pants and loomed to be of native American descent. With a moment's concentration, she created a green lotus out of thin air and let it fall to Chase.

The lotus fell and dissolved into a green glow as it was absorbed by Chase's body.

Chase's hand was up in the air, his eyes staring at something unseen. This was a telltale sign that the other player had his status-screen opened, and he was probably checking his ailments.

"Doesn't look like it's going away," he said. "It's really sapping my stats."

"Well you shouldn't have gotten hit, dummy," Carla murmured. She turned her head to Laura, who had walked up beside Riley. "Laura, you got any strong curative items?"

Laura thought for a moment. "I might, lemme head inside and check my storage. Be back in a minute. Make sure everyone else is in good condition." With that, Laura walked over to the bunker doors and went inside.

"Riley, you still wearing that curative belt?" asked Carla. "See if you can heal him."

"Right, good thinking," said Riley. "Nobody ever gets poisoned or diseased, so I never get to use it." He walked over and looked between Carla and Chase. "Well, I'm going to volunteer you for offering your essence," said Riley as he aimed his palm at Carla and launched his spike at her exposed arm. A moment later, the spike shot out and lodged about half an inch into her arm, causing a tiny bit of damage to her health.

"Yeah yeah, fight's over, I'll just heal myself," said Carla.

The glowing multi-colored essence rushed towards Riley's hand, streaking almost like a rainbow. For a paragon with the name 'Chromatic Lotus,' he didn't expect anything less from Carla's essence.

Riley's eyes took on the glow of a myriad of colors, but he didn't hesitate to launch the glob of essence at the seated Chase. The liquid smacked into his chest and was absorbed through his clothes and into his body.

Chase kept an eye on his status screen as the seconds passed by. He shook his head. "Nothing," he said. "Must be too strong for the belt to cure."

"This belt is useless," Riley grumbled. "Think I'll replace it as soon as I see anything remotely better."

"Maybe we can talk about trading belts later," said Chase. "I could always have half my bots on healing duty...but I'd rather stay a damage dealer. We'll have to see what works out the best. You looked like you were having fun with your new weapon."

Riley nodded. "Yeah, I could get used to being a melee damager. And with all the stay-alive items I've collected, I won't be too squishy if something tries fighting me. But I won't be causing as much damage as the rest of you, sadly. I really want to find a new item that'll boost my damage output."

The young man with orange tentacles on his back, stood nearby. His arms were crossed against his chest as he looked around. The tendrils had receded to a bulb-like shape. "What are we doing now?" he asked, his voice less than enthusiastic. "We going to—"

A woman's voice cut him off. "Damn, I got hit too," said Marcella, a woman who worked at the Bunker. She had bright purple hair and darker skin. Her nails and eyes seemed to have a subtle purple glow about them as well.  "Chase is right, this ailment is no joke. I'm barely going to be able to use my powers with this disease. I'm at about twenty percent capacity? This is really strong. Says it lasts for eight hours."

"Yeah, I noticed that too," said Chase.

"I doubt I have much," said Seth."But let me check my storage too, I might've held onto something that can cure it." With that, the white-haired player dashed into the bunker.

Riley couldn't help but smile. Seth definitely had an interest in Marcella. It was blatantly obvious; not that he ever tried hiding it, of course.

"Is it contagious?" asked Amber Impaler. "How'd you get infected? Did one of em bite you, or scratch you? Or just touch you? Did you touch any of the blood?"

Riley shook his head as Amber pestered Marcella with questions.

"I um...one of them got in close and swiped at me and snagged my arm," said Marcella. "So, I'm going to guess that they have to cause damage to you, in order to infect you."

"I brushed up against one of them when I was fighting," said Todd, who was moving his hands and retracting the concrete sheets back into the ground. The sound of grating stone could be heard all around them as he lowered the barricades. "But I don't have any detriments. So I bet Marcella's right." Todd was a stout man with short-cut black hair and thick arms. He wore a torso-fitting black shirt and blue denim pants.

"Do we know for sure if this was some game-induced event, or a hellion?" asked Riley. "Did anyone see a monster?"

"Red and Green were on their way here," said Chase. "Everyone else was inside. Then, all of a sudden, Red comes in and tells us there's zombies everywhere. We all came outside to get some experience and maybe some loot, and things just kept getting worse as more of them flooded into the area."

"Yeah, there sure wasn't any loot from those things," Brenda grumbled. "And I doubt we got much experience for killing them."

As everyone continued to converse about what had caused the situation, Laura came through the bunker doors. She walked over to Chase, and without a word, she stuck his shoulder with a syringe.

"What're you sticking me with?" he asked.

"Should cure most ailments. It's all I got," said Laura, as she watched the red liquid in the vial empty into Chase's arm.

"Kinda weird for a half-cyberized player to get infected by a disease," said Amber. "You'd think you'd have higher resistances, or something.

"I don't think things work that way," said Chase. "Buuut, it looks like that did the trick, thanks Laura." With that, Chase dispersed his status screen and stood up. "Now I need to eat something to regain the lost portions of stamina."

Todd and Erica finished deconstructing their makeshift defensive dome, which let them now see the area around them. Red and black ichor covered their surroundings. It was on the nearby structures, and all throughout the streets.

"Eugh, I'm starting to wish they hadn't enhanced the sense of smell in this game," said Brenda, whose arm was now covering her nose.

"It shouldn't last too long," said Chase. "But we might as well head inside, don't you think?"

"You all go ahead," said Red Shotgun. "Melter and I will patrol the area, make sure nothing else is going on. We'll be back in ten minutes at the latest." The red haired woman looked to Riley. "Can you head up the building and take a look around before we head out? If there's other players around engaged with leftover zombies, I'd like to help em."

"Uhh," Riley murmured at first, before he remembered his ring that let him climb any surface. "Right, sure thing!" Riley turned and headed to the side of Bunker 7. He placed his hands to the wall and slowly climbed up, as if his fingertips could easily get a handhold by just pressing to the wall itself.

"Alright," said Laura. "Everyone else, let's head inside and get things started. Riley! Join us when you get back down," she called up to Riley, before looking to Red and Green. "Don't take too long, we've got work to do after the guild creation."

"We won't be long," said Red.

Through it all, Laura had become the de facto leader of the group. Among the group, she had the most connections to everyone. She knew Red and her friends, as well as Snow and her people. She'd also been the one to encounter Riley, and had already been loosely familiar with Seth's group. It made sense for her to take charge of things, when she already seemed to be a natural leader, despite how she never voiced wanting to lead a guild, until everyone started saying how much it'd make sense to do so.

One by one, the players on the street slowly went inside, Riley ascended the wall of the bunker. The wind began to whip around a bit more freely, the higher he went. The first floor was the main part of the bunker, but above it, were offices and apartments. Most of the cityscape was filled with apartment-like structures, to give the city a more filled-in appearance.

Riley climbed up a good seven stories, before reaching the roof. He hoisted himself up and sat on the edge of the stone railing. He looked down at the streets below and into some of the nearby alleys. The ground was still littered with red and black, and from his current vantage, it looked like some sort of macabre painting. He didn't see any movement, NPCs, or players. The area around the bunker seemed pretty...dead.

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He turned around and descended the side of the building. It took him less than a minute to get to the bottom, where Red and Green were waiting.

"You see anything up there?" Red asked.

"Nothing," said Riley. "Just the bloody remains of those zombies. I doubt you'll find anything out there, but it might be worth a look around."

"Alright, we'll be back in a few," said Red, who reached over and patted Green's arm. "Let's get going, don't wanna hold everyone up too much, but I wanna take a look around."

"Right behind you," said Green.

With that, the two women headed up the street at a run.

Riley turned and opened one of the heavy doors to the bunker. The music was still playing inside, and people who weren't part of his core group of friends, were already seated in their usual spots around the lounge area.

Marcella was at the right side wall, where a large vault door was inlaid into the wall itself. "Lemme finalize permissions on the door," she said as she reached out and touched the handle. A screen would appear before her, that only she could see. She tapped in the air for about half a minute, before stepping away. "All yours, Laura."

"Thanks," Laura said as she walked over.

"So this is going to instance us off from the rest of the building?" asked Carla, whose hands were on her hips as she stared at the door.

"Yep," said Marcella. "The owners gave me rights to set permissions, and you guys are paid up to use it. We'll setup a new lease contract for the room, once you form the guild."

"You decide if you're gonna join us?" asked Chase.

"I might as well," she responded. "If you guys don't have any requirements for attendance. I love monster hunting, but I like taking it easy, too. Working here at the bunker really suits me."

"I can understand that," said Chase. "And regardless, we'd be happy to have you."

Just then, Seth came up from the stairwell that led down to the player-owned apartments. "Sorry Marcella, but I've got nothing to cure ailments, unless it was freezing or fire."

Marcella turned to him and shot him a smile. "Don't worry about. I'll just let it fade naturally after the eight hours, but I guess I'll have to sit out the after-guild-creation activities."

Seth frowned and sighed. "Damn, I was looking forward to you joining us. Your powers are fun to watch."

Marcella winked at him. "Is that the only reason you wanted me around?"

Seth's lips curled even more. His hand lifted as he scratched at the side of his scalp. "Ah, well. You know..." he spoke, without actually saying much of anything.

Laura took hold of the thick metal lever on the vault door. She pulled it up, causing a large metal 'thunk' to sound from inside.

"This door is serious business," she murmured as she pulled it open, showing off the room within.

Chase, Carla, and the newly arrived Riley, all leaned to the right, to look into the room as it was revealed.

A large wooden square table was the only furniture, save for the chairs around it. The table was easily four times as big as any of the ones in the bunker's common area, and even possessed a fresh pine scent. It could easily seat twenty-five or so people.

Laura pulled the door fully open and peered in. "Yeah, I think that'll do for now," she said as her lips curled, seeing the room for the first time. It wasn't much, but it would be the first room they owned as a guild. Once the guild was formed, that is.

"Let's start heading in," said Chase.

"Right," said Laura, who stepped to the side and turned to face the gathered group of players. "Everyone take a seat so we can get this started."

One by one, everyone filed in.

Riley lingered back near Laura.

"Aaron isn't coming, is he?" she asked.

Riley shook his head. "No, I think he's happier doing what he's doing. I think he also feels that he'd make us more of a target, if he hung out with us too much. There's also his shop that he has to deal with, and the friends he's made in his area."

"I figured that'd be the case," said Laura. "He's a nice guy, and it's nice to have him around at times, but I definitely get the feel that he's on edge around us."

Riley and Laura watched as the last person passed by to enter the vault room.

"After you," said Riley, gesturing to the room.

"Let's do this," Laura said with a smile. She went into the room, noticing that the seat closest to the door was still available. She sat down and looked at the assembled players, as Riley took a seat nearby.

All in all, there were fifteen people there, including herself, but excluding Red and Green. Once the other two paragons joined them, they'd be seventeen strong.

"Glad everyone could make it, despite the ordeal we just went through," said Laura, speaking to everyone at the table. "Red and Green will be with us shortly, but it looks like everyone else is here." Laura gestured over to Marcella. "And everyone knows Marcella, but she's decided to join us as well, being our seventeenth member."

Several claps were heard around the table, causing Marcella to smirk. "Can't guarantee how useful I'll be to you all, but I'm happy to join up with you," she said.

Laura turned her head and looked to the open vault door. She wasn't sure how long it'd take Red to come back, but she could at least get some minor discussion topics out of the way. She looked back to everyone in the room.

"So, next topic on the list," said Laura. "Communications. Up until now, we've only been able to speak to each other in shouting range. Once we form a guild, we'll have access to the communicator devices that got put in with the last patch."

"Bout time we got something like that," Snow grumbled. She was a paragon with the power over snow, sleet, and ice. She had tanned skin and short frosty-blue hair. She wore blue pants and a white blouse. She was seated between Constructor, who was always dressed in a nice gray suit, and Shell, who had shorter red hair and very pale skin.

"Agreed," said Laura. "I'm sure plenty of people in the community were complaining, despite how the developers told us that they wanted a system that prevents spam. So, guild-based communicators is what we get. Essentially, they're cellphones. So, nothing special going on there."

Laura then thought for a moment, as her eyes scanned the gathered players. "Oh! And of course, let's congratulate Todd on hitting paragon the other day. I think I lost a hundred credits on that bet, sadly. I was rooting for Erica hitting tier-two first."

Several people clapped, while a few laughed.

"Congrats Todd," said Chase.

"My money was on Erica too," Carla huffed.

"Now you can tank!" said Seth, prodding Todd's arm from beside him.

"Thanks, thanks," said Todd with a loose smile. Despite the congratulations, he found himself meekly looking over to Erica.

"Don't worry, I'll get paragon soon and totally be better at everything again," Erica teased.

Todd chuckled.

"And of course, I'd like to remind everyone how Seth is still considered a cheater, for going with a pact power," Laura said with a small fake cough into her arm.

"Hey! I thought we were passed that?" said Seth.

"Buying pact powers is totally cheating," said Laura. "You have at least another month of us complaining about it, especially since you already hit tier-two, and before me!"

"I wish pacts were around when I first started," said Snow. "But I'm happy with the powers I have."

"Hey, I still get a ton of detriments to some of my stats, because of my powers, thank you very much," said Seth, trying to defend himself as best he could.

Laura rolled her eyes. "Yeah yeah," she murmured. "Let's see, what else to talk about before Red and Green get here."

"What's the plan for after the creation?" asked constructor, the middle-aged man with a nice suite, beside Snow.

Laura looked over to him. "We've been in discussion with several other guilds in the area, who are all part of an alliance. They formed it when the monster-players in the city started causing trouble. We're coordinating patrols and raids with them, to help keep the city clear of nests. So we're going to break into teams and coordinate a strike on a nearby nest. At least, where we think a nest probably is."

"Sounds good," said Constructor. "This hellions expansion has really pushed me to change up how I use my powers."

"Same for a lot of us," said Shell, the younger man with red hair, who sat on the other side of snow.

There were several nods of agreement around the room.

"As a new guild in the city," said Laura. "We'll try and create strong ties to the other guilds, and work towards joining their alliance. It'll help the city, and it'll help us. Part of that, will be to keep the city clear of nests and roaming monster players. Of course, we also want to keep up our usual regular-monster hunting."

"Do we have any plans for some of the NPC and low-level player features?" asked Brenda, who sat on the other side of Riley, with her crossbow set on the table in front of her.

"Uhh, which ones?" asked Laura.

"Well, there's the new stuff they did with guilds and player-housing," said Brenda.

"Yeah, we won't be able to afford our own place for a while," said Laura. "But you're talking about how some of the bigger guilds are essentially giving new players a place to store their items and valuables, which are owned by the guild, but if the player dies, they still have their stuff, right?"

"That's what Warcry and her guild are doing now," said Riley.

"Yeah, that and the power-loan system," said Brenda.

"Power loan?" asked Amber.

"Power loaning is a new feature from the expansion," said Laura. "Guilds can buy special equipment to give non-powered players, special powers. Usually it's simple stuff, like fireballs, or lasers coming from your hands. It only lasts for a specific duration, like a day or week, but it lets some of the more well-off guilds, a method of recruiting non-powered players, to help them fill their ranks and get the new players leveled."

"Makes sense, bet it's expensive," Amber murmured.

Laura nodded. "Yeah, most of that stuff is out of our reach for a while, until we collect more funds. We're going to have to work out a tax system for that as well, one that doesn't detriment any of us too badly. But we can save that for later."

"Did we decide on a name?" asked Blue Mist, a younger gentleman with blue hair who had mostly kept quiet until now. Blue Mist tended to keep to himself, and usually only spoke up if he felt it was really necessary.

"We did!" said Laura. "We will be known as The Bunker Brawlers, or BBs for short."

"I still hate it," Amber grumbled to himself.

"You've hated every suggestion that was made," said Carla. "I think it's good."

"I think it's ok," said Snow with a shrug. "But names are hard to come up with."

"I think it fits," said Seth.

"Well, not all of us are from Bunker 7 as our start location," said Parviz, the portal-maker that Riley and Laura had become familiar with after a particularly bad invasion event. Parviz had half-blue and half-red hair, split down the center. He wore a red shirt and a pair of blue pants.

"But we're at a bunker now," said Shell, the pale redhead. "Better than some of the other suggestions."

"Well, we had a vote," said Laura. "And you all voted, except for Marcella, sorry Marcella, but Bunker Brawlers won by five votes, so...that's what we're going to be."

"Fine, fine," Amber murmured. "I guess the name sorta makes sense."

Red's knuckles rasped against the vault door. "You guys create it yet?" she asked, walking in with Green behind her.

"Nope, you're just in time," Laura spoke, glancing back to the last two arrivals. "Close the door, and we can wrap this up."

Red glanced back, but Green Melter was already pulling the door shut with a resounding loud 'thunk.'

The two women grabbed adjacent available seats and relaxed into them.

"I think that's it. Communicators, guild perks, the name, guild politics with other guilds...and the attack we're about to make," said Laura.

"Sounds good, let's get this going," said Red.

"How does it work?" asked Riley.

"Like this," said Laura. She reached out and tapped the table twice with a single digit. When she did, a screen appeared before her, that only she could see. Her eyes scanned the screen before her and tapped at different times. She then took about half a minute to tap out something rather long, probably the name of the guild itself. With a final press of her finger, numerous holographic images appeared in front of everyone.

Riley looked at the one before him. It read "Guild Invitation From: The Bunker Brawlers." Below the message, were two buttons. One read 'accept' the other, 'decline.'

"First!" Carla said, and immediately pressed 'accept.'

One by one, everyone at the table pressed 'accept.' Riley reached up and pressed the button as well. When he did, the message 'Thanks for joining!' appeared. Several seconds later, the screen dissipated.

"And that's seventeen," said Laura. She slowly rose from her seat and looked around the room, a smile on her lips. "Congrats everyone. We've just formed, The Bunker Brawlers."