Avilien

Trading places

A litre of water and some rest saw Luke and Lance back to their training. Luke tested other mechanics he had thought of while letting Lance get the hang of switching, a tough process for him to do now that he tried it with the shield. Nagori, who had done nothing except watch people fight on the internet with Avilien classes, sat bolt upright in her chair with her face close to the monitor.

Notification after notification started to ping on her screen. The noise, not loud enough to grab the attention of the sword-wielding boys, attracted both Anna and Cissy. The first notification was about thousands of players hitting level twenty all across the globe, some of them even local, in the next few towns over. Others were of emerging Avilien monsters. These two pieces of news had the girls startled and worried, but the third caused each heart to race.

Navigating to the main Avilien site on the internet, where it maintained a countdown timer for Avilien, they saw it had sped up. No longer did they have over ten hours; there was as little as three hours remaining. At 8:00 p.m., everyone in the world would be transported to Avilien. Four o'clock on Sunday morning was the original allotted time for the update. Never before had the timer altered.

"We don't have much time left to get Nate...and if we leave when night falls, we have an hour, or maybe even half an hour at best. Why has the timer decreased and what is with these weird monsters appearing, giving out insane XP?" Nagori, with quick fingers, typed as fast as she could searching through all of her information sites.

"No point in even going after Nate anymore, since having a beta class won't do anything special for us. It's useless," said Anna.

"Lance made the call and Lance keeps his word. If he says we go out and help the redhead, then we go out and help. If he says we stay—which he won't—then we stay. Cissy, how are your parents?" Asked Nagori.

"They are fine, thanks to Lance and Red's help. They boarded themselves up in the house. They didn't go to work, thank God, and are hiding out. At least my parents are not like your dad, Nagori. They understand a little of what is going on and they know to use their own names when they get to the other side. Although they think I've lost it, they can't deny a lot of strange events are happening over the news and in town."

"Hey sisters and Lanna, what's happening?" Brit had woken up and kicked Lance's monitor over, causing a clatter.

"You do realise we all hate you, right?" Anna asked as she stared Brit down like an old-fashioned Wild West duel.

"I'm bored and hungry so if you want to fight, then let's go." Brit yawned and drew her sword, making Anna retreat several paces.

"Can you put the flaming sword away? Something serious is going on here. And just for the record, I like Brit." Nagori gave Brit a cheeky smile.

"Little sister! I like you, too." Brit leaped towards Nagori and gave her a big hug.

"Kind of grown on me, too," said Cissy in a quieter voice, so Brit didn't hug the life out of her.

Ready to call the two boys over, Nagori held her words as a loud girlish scream filled the air, emanating from the sofa. Mr.Aldwin woke and wasn't pleased to find an orange fur ball on his chest, or a cat on his legs. He even removed his GTs before screaming to see if what he witnessed wasn't just an augment. Quinn smiled at his master and tried to make himself look more appealing by holding his tiny hands together and giving a curt bow. He tried so hard to be friendly towards Mr. Aldwin, who had none of it. Nebs, reading the situation better, bolted off Mr. Aldwin as panic and fear struck the old man. With one swing of his clunky fist, he sent Quinn soaring across the room and into the fridge.