Nick slowed the A-Wing to a halt, before gently touching down on the surface of Neonoir. The brightly coloured fluorescent lights lit up the dark streets of the sprawling cyberpunk style city. Nick opened the cockpit of his ship and climbed out, catching a glimpse of his avatar in the windshield as he did so. For all intensive purposes, it wasn't too different from his school one back on Ludus, apart from a few small details so that he wasn't instantly recognisable. He was slightly taller, with different coloured eyes, and his hair was a much more obvious silver. The name tag floating a few inches above him read—

"Thaimes?" A voice asked from behind him. Nick turned around to see a familiar younger teenager standing behind him. If anything, the only thing about Hunter that had changed, apart from his name, which now read Reaperdog49, was that he had a layer of thin brown chin scruff, and the smallest hints of a scar at the base of his neck, leading onto his shoulder under his armour.

"Hunter?" Nick asked. The other boy nodded. Nick removed his lightsaber from his inventory, and clipped it to one of the several leather belts running around his waist and chest. Functionally, most of the belts didn't do anything. But they looked cool, so he kept them. "We should head to the Globe. See if we recognise anyone." The pair set off through the city.

Neonoir was named after the genre of film, placing classic Noir film techniques and ideals in a modern and contemporary setting, and it showed. The buildings were tall, with bright pink and green lights casting distinct shadows on the sidewalk as avatars and NPC's made their way through the grimy streets. Occasionally the flash of a spell or a blaster weapon would appear in the distance, seeing as how the planet was in a 'dual' zone, allowing the use of both magic and technology. Few people bothered to pay any attention to the two refugees, apart from the occasional artificial homeless man asking for change. Eventually, the pair made it to their destination.

The Distracted Globe was, as the name suggested, a globe, inside an out. As soon as you stepped through the front doors, the gravity is changed so that no matter where you walked, you'll always be upright. For two people entering it for the first time, it was quite an experience.

Originally, the Globe was a high profile club, but after an attack from I.O.I during the hunt for Hallidays egg, their rules had become a little more relaxed. Now, nearly anyone was able to enter, although there wasn't many that wanted to anymore.

"See anyone you from Ludus?" Hunter asked. Nick searched through the crowd of various avatars, a diverse mixture of humans, aliens and magical creatures. Many danced in the famous anti-gravity dance floor, spinning and floating around in the large, glowing orb of coloured light. Finally, Nicks eyes rested on a tall young man, with long blonde hair, with the name tag The19 floating above his head.

"That guy." He whispered, pointing to him. The pair wound their way over, and Nick tapped the man on the shoulder. "Hey," he muttered, leaning against the bar, "You're the guy that sent the email right?"

The19 surveyed him. "Who wants to know?"

Nick nodded his head towards Hunter. "We made it off Ludus."

The man's eyes widened slightly. "You... You mean someone else actually—"

Before he could finish, a very tall figure in a large hood stepped in beside them, and slammed his hand on the bar. "A pan-galactic-gargle-blaster, stat." He snapped at the barman, who, after a moment of hesitation, quickly made the glowing blue cocktail, and handed it to him. The man leant back on the bar, and sipped from the martini glass under his hood.

"Oh," The19 said quickly, "Vin- Sorry Morte, this is..." He scanned Nicks name tag, "Thaimes and Reaperdog. They made it off Ludus." Nick reached out to stretch Morte's hand, but the man didn't return the gesture. "Thaimes, this is Morte, and I'm Riley."

"No you're not." Morte said quickly. All three of them turned to him. "You're not Riley12. Not anymore. I don't care what any of your real names are, but I tell you who does. The media, who are swarming this place. And if the hackers can destroy Ludus, they can access media coverage. Half of our conversations are probably being recorded. So no names from Ludus. Out here, you're your avatar only."

They all stared at him for a moment. "I think you're being a little paranoid there." Nick said, raising an eyebrow.

"Am I?" Morte asked, taking another sip of his drink. "I just stopped four reporters on my way to the bar. In fact, Nineteen turn your tag off."

"That's what you're referring to me as now?" The19 raised an eyebrow.

"Yes. End of story."

Nick stood there awkwardly for a while. "The guy has a point." Said a voice from behind him. He jumped, wheeling around to see Hunter, who he'd almost forgotten about. "I mean, you know the whole deal with Parzival and all. Maybe we should just use our avatar names... Thaimes."

Nick stood there for a moment, lost for words. "I suppose you're right H- Reaper..." He turned back to the others, only to watch The19 turn his name tag off.

"Excuse me." Said a deep, Russian voice from behind them. All four young men turned around. A muscular man, with bandoleers strapped across his chest, stood there, stroking a thick ginger beard. "You are from Ludus, no? The one that sent the email. I escaped from there."

"Really?" The19  asked. "You go to Ludus?"

The Russian man looked down at his avatar. "My avatar is a little... Misleading."

"No kidding." Morte muttered under his breath. "Well, I'm Morte, this is Nineteen, Thaimes and Reaper." He gestured to the others. "And you are?"

The man's gamer tag appeared above his head. "GingerNinja." He read aloud. He didn't appear much like a ninja at all, more like a living tank.

Out of nowhere, Morte swore loudly, reaching up covering his mouth, which was the only thing noticeable below his hood. "What?" Nineteen yelled, looking around the Globe. Morte reached out, and a holographic screen appeared in front of his face. A news feed he'd been monitoring. He spun the screen around so the others could read it. The head line itself was enough to send shivers down their spines.

"Ludus Destroyed. Thousands of Students: Dead."

"How could they die?" Reaper asked, pushing past Thaimes to get a better look at the screen. "You can't die on Ludus, it's a no PVP zone. You said so." He glanced at Nick.

"Yeah," Morte muttered, "But most planets don't trap their players in the atmosphere and then blow up either."

"Whoever these hackers are, they need to be caught." GingerNinja grunted.

"I second that." Nineteen sighed. "We just gotta hope that they're caught before they attack somewhere el—"

The door to the distracted Globe blew open, and the sound of gunshots from both blasters and bullet weapons filled the air. Avatars screamed, running around in panic a dozen men in regular painted Guy Fawkes masks charged in from the smoke, showering bullets in all directions. A large amount of avatars switched into armour and drew their weapons, but not before half their numbers were mowed down, their avatars quickly fading, leaving their items floating above the ground.

"We have to get out of here." Thaimes muttered.

"You think?" Reaper whispered from beside him. They all drew their weapons. Thaimes raised his lightsaber in a defensive stance. Reaper pulled out what appeared to be a crossbow with an axe blade attached. Riley drew his bow and notched and arrow, red light and smoke bleeding off into the air around the tips. Morte drew his pole and presses a button, allowing a holographic scythe blade to shoot out from one end, and GingerNinja took two Tron-disks from holsters on his back.

"I say we go for the door." The Russian man muttered. Then, without warning, he threw out a disk, slicing one of the attackers head cleans off. Their body fell to the ground, and their mask and gun hovered a few inches above the ground. Ginger raced forwards, holding out his hand as he ran past, the coins and items flying towards it and entering his inventory.

"Well that's just great." Nineteen muttered. He looked at Morte. "Could you go any further with the goth-y Grim Reaper vibe?"

"Shut up."

Nineteen shrugged, and fired an arrow at the attacker blocking the way between him and the exit. The projectile sailed straight into the man's neck, and he fell to the ground instantly, the young man grabbing his credits and mask as he ran past.

Eventually, the five of them exited the globe one by one, only to find the others waiting for them outside. "Ev-everyone just hand one of your contact cards to me." Nineteen panted. "I can make a private chat room, and we can think of a plan there, deal?" They all nodded, and handed their contact cards to him. "Good." He nodded, placing them in his inventory. "Everybody get to your ships and... Go where ever you need to go. We'll contact you." He nodded at Morte. The group spilt up, running off towards their individual spacecraft.

Morte threw his miniaturised DeLorien on the ground, and watched it grow to full size. "Come on," he muttered to Nineteen as he opened the gull wing door and sat down in the drivers seat, "I'll give you a ride to the TARDIS. It's hidden well enough, we can hold the chat session from there." The other man agreed, and Morte converted the car into hover mode, before taking off to find the sky scraper the TARDIS was parked on.

* * *

Nineteen appeared inside a recreation of the living room space from the mid 2000's TV show, The Big Bang Theory. He sat down on the large sofa, just as Morte arrived. In a few moments, the others had responded to their invites, and appeared on the room. "Nice digs." Reaper nodded, sitting down on one of the chairs.

"Thanks." Nineteen muttered distractedly, counting the heads of everyone in the room. "Great, everyone's here." He stood up, clapping his hands together.

"What exactly are we here for again?" Ninja asked, poking a model rocket.

"Well," Nineteen said, pulling over a whiteboard from the corner of a room, and pulling out a marker, "These hackers attacked Ludus, right?" He wrote that down on the board as they all nodded. "And then, as soon as we sent out a message to meet at the Distracted Globe, they attacked there, right?" He wrote the name of the bar on the whiteboard. "I think, they're tracking us down, because we escaped Ludus."

"Or," Thaimes suggested, "They've just attacked two of the most famous places in the OASIS."

The others murmured in agreement. "It's a bit of a coincidence that they did it when we were there though, wasn't it?" Nineteen asked. "I mean, Morte said there were reporters looking for us, maybe the hackers were too."

"Only one way to find out." Ninja said, taking out one of his disks and turning it over in his hands. "We send new email to new planet. Wait and see if anyone comes."

"That's... Actually a really good idea." Morte agreed from the sofa he was laying across. "I severely underestimated you."

"Don't make the same mistake twice." The Russian nodded, replacing his weapon in its holster. Nineteens' avatar froze for a few seconds, writing out an email in the real world. Then, he unfroze, just as a message appeared in everyone's inbox, telling survivors of Ludus to now meet at some random planet he had picked from the map of the OASIS.

"Sent to everyone, again." Nineteen confirmed. "So, the question now is who's going to come with me to see if they turn up?"

Morte shrugged unenthusiastically. "I probably shouldn't." Thaimes admitted. "I'm gonna need to log out of the OASIS as soon as I hit my home base anyway."

"I'm sticking with him." Reaper jerked a thumb over at Thaimes.

"I guess that just leaves you and me." Ninja chuckled, walking over and patting Nineteens avatar on the back. "Should be a good fun trip. See you there." And with that, he logged out of the chat room.

"I suppose so." Nineteen muttered, looking at the others. I guess I'll start this back up when we learn something. Bye." He closed the chat room, and everyone was returned to where their avatars had been waiting.

Nineteen and Morte leant against the rails of the TARDIS interior. "I'm not sure about this man." Morte sighed. "This is... This is heavy."

Riley nodded. "Yep. But if there's a chance these people are after us, we need to find out. And more importantly, find out why." The pair sat there in silence for a minute.

"I've got a asteroid set up as a base not too far out from the the Firefly universe." Morte sighed. "I'll go shrink down the DeLorien and you can give me a lift." Nineteen didn't respond as his friend pushed open the TARDIS doors and stepped out onto the rooftop beside his car, overlooking the dark streets.

Morte turned around as he heard the TARDIS whirring into life, slowly taking off into the sky. "Hey!" He yelled, racing back across to try and catch it.

"Time is of the essence!" Nineteen called out the open door, before closing it.

Morte jumped up in an attempt to grab the ship, but it was just out of reach. "Come on man, you can't just fly off! You can't just leave me here stranded alone!" The ship stopped, and for a moment, he thought it was coming back for him. Then, the doors opened up, and a small, redheaded figure in armour was shoved out. Gingersnap354 screamed as she fell through the air and hit the concrete rooftop.

"That's not what I meant dammit!" Morte screamed at the ship as the doors closed, and the TARDIS dematerialised.

Gingersnap scrambled to her feet. "W-what going on?"

Morte glared at the spot the TARDIS had been for a moment, before going back and sitting on the hood of the DeLorien. "It's a long story." He grunted.

* * *

Thaimes avatars eyes slid open as he exited the chat room. He found himself sitting in the cockpit of his A-Wing, floating motionless in deep space. "Well that was... Inspiring." Reaper said from the gunners seat behind him. "Hearing that a group of hackers powerful enough to destroy a whole planet full of avatars might be hunting us." Thaimes grunted in response as he started the ships engine, and began towards the direction of his avatars base, a small planet he'd had custom built a few years ago.

"What was that?" Reaper asked after a few minutes.

Thaimes looked back at over his shoulder. "What do you mean?"

"I-I saw something." The teenager said quietly, as if afraid someone would overhear them. "I thought it was someone following us..."

"I think now you're being paranoid." The pilot chuckled, turning back to look for any sign of the planet. They'd just passed into the right sector. It was only a matter of time before they reached—

A ship flew out of nowhere to their right, firing at them. Reaper screamed, panicking in the back seat as Thaimes slammed his foot in the accelerator and sped away from the attacker, spinning and flipping in an attempt to dodge the oncoming fire. Just as Thaimes made it out of the line of fire, before something struck the back of the vehicle. The A-Wing veered off course, flying uncontrollably towards an unknown planet. As soon as they entered the zone around it the ships engines cut off. He'd entered a magic zone.

Both passengers screamed as the ship hurtled towards the ground, smoke billowing out behind them. Reaching across the cockpit, Thaimes slammed his fist down on a button, and a giant parachute flew from the rear of the ship, slowing it's decent... But not by enough.

The A-Wing crashed into the ground, ploughing up dirt and grass as it slid to a stop, it's inhabitants trapped beneath layers of dirt and metal...

* * *

Nineteen landed the TARDIS behind several trees on the planet he'd chosen. As soon as he opened the door, he found that Ninja was waiting for him outside. "Glad you could make it." The man said. "Come on." He began to move towards the tree line.

"Wait," Nineteen hissed. He fished in his inventory and produced a second TARDIS key, handing it to Ninja. "If you get into trouble, squeeze this, and the TARDIS will come to you."

Ninja smirked as they reached the tree line and peered out into the clearing the email told to meet at. "Won't be too useful... I'm always in trouble."

Nineteen went to smile back at him, but stopped, as a large, black and red painted space ship entered the atmosphere, and landed in the clearing. The cargo bay door feel open, and four men in the painted Guy Fawkes masks stepped out, an arsenal of weaponry in their hands. "Ready?" Nineteen whispered, equipping the painted mask, which appeared on his avatars face.

"As I'll ever be." Ninja answered, equipping his own collected mask. After looking around for a few moments, the as,we men turned around and retreated back into their ship. The two avatars crept forwards, trying to blend in with the group. However, as the doors closed, only Ninja was able to get inside the ship. The man glanced outside the large clear window in the cargo bay door, and in response, Nineteen held up the TARDIS key, and nodded. He watched as the ship took off, and left the planets atmosphere.

Cursing under his breath, Nineteen sprinted back to the TARDIS and threw himself against the console. He took off into the air and raced after the ship, intent on following it. He could see it on the monitoring screens around the time rotor. The TARDIS was getting closer... closer... closer...

The hackers ship glitched for a moment, and disappeared into the blackness of space...