The hallways of OASIS Public School #1789, were empty. As its name suggested, it wasn't any different from an of the other thousands of schools located on Ludus Two. There was, of course, the thousands of schools on Ludus One, but after the deal with the Copper Key, you were going to be hard pressed to find any students still using schools there. A few minutes before the first bell rang, the first avatar materialised in the hallway in front of his locker. Then, another appeared. Then another. Soon, the hallways were filled with students, all milling about awkwardly. What else they do in a high school?

Another avatar appeared in front of his locker. The small floating name tag above his head read Nick6. He wasn't a huge fan of the name, seeing as how he was so far down the line of Nicks, but it wasn't too bad. He grabbed a few items and textbooks from his locker, along with a lightsaber, and a Star Trek phaser, before dumping them in his inventory.

His avatar was about average height and weight, with sliver hair, and a strong jawed face. He wasn't anything too special, especially compared to some of the other avatars running around out there, but he didn't need to be. No one at Ludus knew who he was once he got out into the rest of the OASIS, and as far as he knew, no one cared.

"Hey there, Sixer." A voice chuckled from his right. Nick closed the door, and came face to face with Hunter3. Hunter was a well built young man, and a few years younger then Nick, roughly fourteen. Or at least, inside the OASIS. No one could be sure who anyone else really was outside the virtual world.

Under most circumstances, Nick wouldn't have been friends with someone three years younger then him. But, Hunter shared the locker beside his. The kid had looked so lost on his first day at the school, and Nick couldn't blame him. So, the pair had bonded. They were the only things keeping each other sane in the hell that was high school.

"Excuse me." Muttered a taller boy, with a black hoodie pulled low over his face, who pushed Nick out of the way as he dodged through the flood of moving students.

"Excuse yourself." Nick grumbled at him, turning back to Hunter. "So, what's up this morning?"

* * *

Riley12 leant against his locker, watching as students flooded past, hurrying to get to wherever they decided to go. It's not as if there was anywhere fun to go on a plant covered in schools. He pushed a long strand of beach blonde hair out of his face, and adjusted the pile of books in his arm. A large, muscular teen about his age, with curly red hair, barrels last, knocking his books to the ground. "Hey, watch it!" Riley yelled out, but the redhead was quickly lost in the crowd.

Riley stooped down to pick up his books, but stood back up as he noticed a pair of worn out old sneakers stop in front of him. "Morning." The young man said, pulling off his hood and revealing his greasy black hair.

Riley leant back against the locker, placing his books in his inventory. Vincent1 stood in front of him, placing his hands in the pockets of his tattered black sweatshirt. "Morning Vince." The pair were about the same height and build, both tall and lanky, though Riley proudly stood slightly taller then Vincent. "Ready for another day of hell?"

"You have no idea." Vincent drawled, falling against the locker, in a completely unenthused movement. The bell rang around them, and the small social groups began moving towards their individual classes. Everything was going along as normal. Until the entire back half of the school blew up.

* * *

Nick swore loudly, lurching forwards off his locker. "What was that?" He yelled to Hunter over the screams of students, flooding away from the explosion.

Hunter searched around, panicking. "Do you think anyone got hurt?"

"Course not." Nick grabbed his friends wrist and pulled him along in the crowd of people. "No one can die on Ludus, it's a non-PVP zone." Hunter nodded, but he didn't seem convinced. "Come on, if some idiots found a way to get a bomb onto Ludus, I'm not sticking around." The pair burst out into the car park.

It wasn't at all like a regular car park. It couldn't be. To leave the car park, meant you needed to leave the atmosphere, and a ship like that didn't come cheap. Never the less, every space was filled with all manner of space ships, from X-Wings, to NASA moon landers, to Firefly-class shuttles. Luckily, one of those was Nicks.

He pulled Hunter across the asphalt towards his A-Wing, his favourite of the small fighters from Star Wars. "What about everyone else?" He yelled over the noise.

Nick shook his head. "It's a only a two man ship, they can get themselves out of here! I'll drive, you take the gunners spot in the back." Unwillingly, Hunter clambered into the back of the ship, and Nick kicked the vehicle into gear, the engine humming to itself as the ship took off from the ground. A few of the others ships had started to leave as well, manned by haphazard groups of people in an attempt to leave the planet. It wasn't until they were up in air, that they noticed what was happening behind them...

* * *

"That's not good." Vincent said almost calmly as the explosion rang out, and smoke filled the halls.

Riley looked from his friend, to the fire at the other end. "That's uh... Someone's just gotten a bomb off the market haven't they? That's not... Dangerous, is it?"

Vincent shrugged. "No idea, but I sure as hell don't feel like sticking around here to find out." The tall figure started off down the hall, weaving his way through the crowd. Riley raced after him.

"Hey, wait up!" He called out, grabbing Vincent's hoodie just as they exited the building among the hordes of panicking students flooding towards the teleporters off campus. "You're never gonna make it to one of those in time." Vincent fished around in his inventory for a moment, and pulled out a small Hot Wheels style car. A replica of the Back to the Future DeLorien. "That can't go in open space for more then a few miles." Riley hissed, nodding at the shrunken car.

Vincent groaned. "What do you care?"

"You're my friend," Riley shrugged, dragging the other boy towards the car park, "Besides, I've got a better ride."

Vincent started to struggle, but eventually gave up. "Did it ever occur to you maybe I don't want you to know who I am outside of Lud—" He was cut off as Riley stopped in front of Doctor Who's TARDIS.

He pulled a key from his inventory, unlocked the blue door, and shoved Vincent inside. "Get in." He muttered, racing past and sprinting towards the control panel. The interior was modelled after the TARDIS owned twelfth incarnation of the character, played by Peter Capaldi. Of course, the TARDIS, couldn't just dematerialise inside the atmosphere of Ludus. So, Riley simply took off from the ground, flying up towards the sky.

Vincent almost fell out of the open door as the police box took off, his hand flailing out and grabbing the doorframe at the last second. Riley raced across to help him back in. As he did so, the two boys noticed something hurtling through the sky's beside them. A girl their age sped through air on a broomstick, her red hair going crazy in the wind behind her. Her expression grew graver the closer they got to space.

"Need a lift?" Riley yelled over the noise of the rushing wind. The girl looked over at them, panicked. Riley extended a hand. The girl did the same, but couldn't reach. Riley nodded at Vincent, before leaning as far out the TARDIS as possible, his friend grabbing his arm at the last minute to stop him falling. Riley grabbed the young woman's hand, the together the two boys pulled her into the TARDIS, were Riley quickly ran to slow their ascent.

The girl sat on the metal floor, clutching her broomstick on one hand, and the railing in the other, gasping for breath, her name tag reading Anitia2. Meanwhile, Vincent stood up, looking back at the school behind them. "Guys..." Riley approached, and Anitia stuck her head nervously out the door. The TARDIS slowed to a halt, as the three teenagers watched the gigantic hologram appear over the school.

A giant, floating image flickered into life, a masked man looming over the burning school. The figure wore a black Guy Fauks mask, with a large, green painted on Joker smile, and an H painted across the forehead. "Not even Ludus is safe," a distorted voice boomed over the school, "Not from us. For we usher in a new age in the OASIS." The hologram shut off, and the school below flickered slightly, before it completely disappeared. In fact, every school on the planet disappeared. Simply vanished into thin air.

Just as they did, the TARDIS broke the planets atmosphere, and the three inside watched as a shimmering blue force field flashed into life around the entire planet, blocking all but a few ships from breaking into open space. Those that didn't, simply crashed into the blue light, and exploded, their pilots falling back to the surface of the planet.

"W-what just happened?" Anitia panted, looking up at the other two.

"I..." Riley muttered. "I..." He was at a loss for words.

"I'd say it's pretty obvious." Vincent said gravely. "The OASIS has just been hacked."

The others stared at him, all three not knowing what to say. "Well what do we do now?" Riley blurted out. "W-we can't just leave this—"

"Oh yes we can." Anitia started, but Vincent cut her off.

"Send out a message. A distress signal, anything. To everyone. The OASIS has to know what's going on. And say for anyone who made it off Ludus alive,  to meet at... At the Distracted Globe. You know, the club that Ogden Morrow owns? We'll be leaving the sector soon, so it should go through." He pulled his hood back over his face. "Prepare for your avatars to be revealed."

"Prepare for the world to be changed." Riley muttered, darting back to the centre console. "No ones ever hacked the OASIS, not on this scale."

"Yeah, but surely they'll get caught." Anitia put in. "I mean, they're going to be caught, right?"

Riley shook his head. "I... I don't know. If they've got the power to do that... There's probably not much that can stop them." His avatar froze for a minute as he typed out and sent the email in the real world, before returning back to the OASIS. "Done." He checked one of the TARDIS screens. "Grab onto something, the exits gonna be a little—"

The whole TARDIS shook violently, the lights flickering, and the time rotor emitting what could only be described as a warning noise. Anitia was thrown forwards, her broomstick getting knocked from her hands as she slid forwards, and slammed her head into a post. She crumpled to the floor in a heap. After a moment, the console room stabilised, and Riley looked over from where he was hunched over the console. "You guys alright?"

It took him a moment to realise that the others appearance had changed. He himself looked relatively he same, though slightly more muscular. He was wearing segmented leather armour, with a large bow and quiver across his back, and a sword at his waist. The name tag now read THE19.

Vincent stood much taller now, at not far from seven feet. He wore grey jeans, and a long, black trench coat, with a large hood concealing his face in shadow. What appeared to be a long, mechanical metal staff sat on a sling across his back. His name tag now read M0rte, with a zero. The name quickly vanished, as Vincent turned his avatars display off.

Vincent slowly stepped towards towards Anitia, who lay in a heap on the ground. She also looked more or less the same, if slightly taller. She now wore a set of standard steel plate armour, and her name tag read Gingersnap345. She groaned as she sat upright. Vincent, or Morte, extended a hand. Anitia shrieked as five skeletal fingers extended towards her from beneath the long sleeve of the coat. Vincent sighed, and held out his other hand. Satisfied it was an actual human hand, she took it, and the young man pulled her to her feet. "Caught me off guard." She muttered, adjusting her armour.

"Whatever." The hooded figure grunted.

Riley turned to them. "Well, what now? Vin—"

"Don't call me that." His friend cut him off. After a few seconds, the name tag reappeared above his head. "Just... I prefer this." He waved upwards at the words above his head.

"Uh... Okay then, Morte... Any more ideas?"

Anitia cleared her throat. "Well um, as much as I want to figure out what's going on here, I need to leave. As in, leave the OASIS. I've been on here for... A while." She scratched the back of her neck. "I should reappear here when I'm back, so just... Fill me in. And thanks for, you know, not letting me die in the vacuum of space." Her avatar froze for a moment, before disappearing completely, leaving the others alone in the TARDIS.

Morte didn't move, and for a short while, Riley was scared he was going to log out too. Then, he slowly reached up and pulled back the hood, revealing a pale, skeletal looking face, with greasy dark hair, and pure black eyes. "We go to the Distracted Globe." He said quietly, glancing at Riley. "Someone else must have made it away from Ludus."

* * *

Nick leant back in the pilots chair of his A-Wing as they entered the cold emptiness of open space. He laughed. "Y-You still alive back there Hunter?" He asked, leaning over the chair to look back at the gunner position, where the teenager sat huddled up in the chair, like a startled animal.

"I, uh... Yep." He said quickly, only briefly glancing up from behind the chair.

Nick nodded, and leant back, staring out at the stars, debating which sector and planet to fly towards. Then, in the corner of his avatars vision, a small notification appeared. He opened the email, and scanned the message.

Ludus has fallen.
We don't know how, and many people there weren't able to make it out. This is a message to the media, Gregarious Simulations, and all those who made it out alive. This is something the world needs to know. The OASIS is in danger.

If anyone managed to escape Ludus before the force field went up, meet us at the bar at The Distracted Globe, located on Neonoir.

- The19

Nick scanned over it. He was glad he wasn't the one who had to send the message. But he was even more glad that someone did. "You ever been to The Distracted Globe?" He asked Hunter over his shoulder. The younger boy shook his head. "Me neither... Let's go."

Nick slammed his foot down on the accelerator, and the A-Wing sped off towards Neonoir...