Zodiacs Undercover

Chapter 9: Virtual World, Stage 1

Well, here we go! 

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Stage One / Environment : Moonrock Islands

"I'm stuck with you two again?" Aries deadpanned. She stared at her two companions, who happened to be Taurus and Aquarius. (we'll start with these guys since they're my favorite trio)

"You don't have to sound that annoyed," Aquarius said, looking around at their environment. Taurus was too busy in awe, hardly believing that they were really in a virtual world to pay attention. They were in a place that apparently was made up of several floating rock islands. They were on one of the floating rocky islands standing in a grassy plain. 

"You guys basically stayed the same," Aries noted, giving them a once-over. "Though I note that Taurus has cut his bangs slightly, good boy!" She gave them a second look. "Oh boy, they're even more innocent than I remembered!" 

Aquarius gave Taurus a dazzling smile. "It'll be hard to resist you anything now." 

Taurus hid his face in embarrassment. Ah, this was exactly the reason why I let my hair grow so long in the first place... 

"So what are we supposed to do?" Aries asked. "I mean, is somebody gonna tell us our quest or...?" 

As if on cue Ursa's voice rang out from a small revolving golden ball floating near them. "Hi! Can you hear me?" She waited until they said 'yes' before continuing. "Welcome to Virtual World. You three are currently in the 'Moonrock Islands' part of the world. Your quest will appear soon-until then, just wander around and enjoy the scenery! Also, when you do a quest only one of you can quest at a time, as Level One is the easiest. And you may also have to defeat other creatures before you can get to the 'Big Boss'. 

"Your gifts should have also appeared by now, though I won't be providing any explanation, apologies. Your Arms Inventory should have also appeared. Good luck and don't die!" 

The golden ball vanished. 

"Soooooooooo," Aries broke the silence. "I guess this is real. And we should definitely try and find our gifts. They should be awesome... I hope." 

They looked in their Arms Inventory and found their gifts. 

Aries held up a small, round, bloodred item. It was kind of like a sphere just slightly flatter. "What the heck is this thing?" She bounced it around in her palms. "A bomb?" 

Aquarius drew out a knife. It was very pretty and suited him, with a marbled silver handle and a sharp and slender blade marbled light blue-gray, and white and also glowing white slightly. "And why'd she give me another knife? Not that this one isn't beautifully suited for me, but I already have one and can copy them easily." He turned to Taurus. "What'd you get?" 

Taurus was also confused. In between his palms circled a small, animalistic thing. When he tried to catch it darted away and to his surprise lengthed and grew into... what was it exactly? It looked like it was mainly made out of grey smoke, with bloodred claws and spine.

"Taurus?" 

Unknowest to Taurus, both of his companions couldn't see the creature, so basically it looked like Taurus was looking up into thin air. "What are you?" Its face seemingly split into a fanged smile before it faded away. 

"Oi, buddy, what's up?" 

Taurus jolted back to reality as Aries's brash voice cut in. They were both looking at him-one with confusion and impatience, the other with also confusion and repressed concern. "Ah, sorry..." 

Aries grinned. "S'okay. So, what's your 'gift'? Hopefully it'll be easier to understand than ours are." 

"I don't know," Taurus admitted. "It vanished."