In today's society, technology reigns everything.

With high technology quickly developing at a rapid speed, the human race benefits from the success that scientists and engineers research and builds. Buildings that can withstand a hurricane storm, diet pills that helps you lose the excess weight, and so on. And of course, with more of these technological advances, the human race grows lazier.

It's not necessarily a bad thing, with the advances people have discovered, but shutting yourself in from the world and glued to your computer isn't really a good thing.

For teens all around the universe, it's important to hit what's hot and avoid what's not. The current craze for popularity are online hangouts with MMO games. With the advance on technology, it is possible to enter the games through a headset that converges your mind into the avatar and walk around inside the game. It is made possible to experience a different world than your own, but there is a timer on the headsets to help avoid the person developing a mindset that reality is not needed. There are also many types of hangouts. From Mooze to TinierMe, and then one of the most popular websites such as GaiaOnline.

GaiaOnline, according to their website description, is more than just an online hangout. It's a world populated with millions of people gathering to chat, play games, watch movies, and show off their creativity through customized avatars, profiles, and journals.

It has become one of the most frequent websites to be visited, with thousands visiting every day.

A whirl of blue light glowed, and a male Gaian stepped out of it, adjusting the red beanie that cramped against his white horns on his head. He wore a black button shirt with white cuffs that was buttoned up to show his muscular chest, white gloves, a red bag that slung across his shoulders, black pants with black straps that overlapped into an 'x' at the front, and blue shoes. His face held a playful grin, a blue upside down triangle over his right eye. His username was too long to be repeated through conversations, so he simply went by as Creepy. He had been participating with Gaia for a while, and today, he was going to try the MMO game, zOMG! again.

The first time Creepy had played it, he struggled to understand the controls while using the headset. There were no controllers to hold onto in the real world, just your mind. He lost quite badly, but was thankful that he couldn't really feel anything as those Lawn Gnomes and Pinwheel Flamingos beat him to the game over title screen.

Creepy arrived at the front gates of Barton Town, the only town you could enter in the beginning of the game, and looked around, wondering if his friend had arrived before him. "She said she would meet me here at ten in the morning." Creepy sighed, before remembering that his friend more than likely had a different time zone than he had. "I forgot to ask her! Crud, what if she got here before I did, or maybe she'll come late!?"

"You really shouldn't speak out loud, Creepy-kun."

Immediately, he looked up, spying a female Gaian lazily sitting up on the nearby tree's sturdy branch. With a smile, and her pink eyes with white heart shaped pupils that you could purchase for your Gaian, the girl hopped down from the tree and landed next to her flustered friend. Instantly, he noticed her new outfit. Her bob cut black hair and pale skin, to the open black jacket with the big sleeves that dwarfed her arms, the visible black strapless bra and underwear, to the black thigh high stockings and silver slippers and the black rabbit ears that perched on top of her head. It wasn't like Bunny to wear such an outfit, but a tiny voice in the back of Creepy's head told him it didn't mind one bit.

Bunny waved with her big sleeves at Creepy, obviously happy to see him. "Creepy! Hi, how are you? I can't wait to go adventuring with you for the next hour."

"Right. So how to I play? I heard a long while ago, you could play by clicking a mouse. But I guess you can't anymore," Creepy sighed as Bunny hummed thoughtfully. If he could trust anyone at the moment, it would be Bunny, even if they had just met a few weeks ago in a forum in the Chatter Box. It had been about an Anon, an anonymous gifter, named Antler Anon. He had been gifted a few wonderful items by that anonymous benefactor, and so did Bunny. Creepy didn't know exactly what Bunny received, but if he had gotten a wish list item from Antler Anon, then Bunny probably did as well. "I want to collect some items and recipe pages in The Village Greens. It's been so boring in Gaia I've been looking to do some Alchemy."

"Aw, don't do Alchemy. It would be cheaper to buy the finished product than make it. But back to the task at hand, you want to learn how to use the zOMG rings, right?" Bunny asked as she pulled her sleeve up to reveal a ring on each of her fingers. Each one of the five had an interesting design on them, but he didn't know what they were for. "You got some rings too, didn't you, Creepy-kun? One of the rings in the beginning helps you summon out a machine gun, and the other one is to heal yourself. As you go through the monsters in this area, you can find more rings. But nothing really good. Still, these two beginning rings are essential to start your adventure in zOMG!, Creepy-kun."

"Yeah, I know all that, I just want to know how to use them." The Gaian said before noticing the annoyed look on Bunny's face. Pouting, Bunny held her hand out, the machine gun ring glowing.

Glancing at Creepy with a pouty face, Bunny mumbled, "You just think of the ring and it works. It's that easy." A large minigun materialized from the ring and with a hand in the air, Bunny pointed at the Pinwheel Flamingo that wasn't too far away. "Fire!"

Ratatatatatatatata-!

The bullets hit the bird and it shuddered before exploding into a flurry of gold coins. The second they hit the ground, they disappeared and the gun disappeared as well. Creepy looked on in amazement, staring at Bunny and her fire power.

"That's so cool!"

Bunny crossed her arms and turned to Creepy, "Let's get started. We have less than an hour away to turn you into an expert."

"Yes, of course!"

"Thanks so much, Bunny. Think you can meet up with me again anytime soon?"

After an hour worth of hunting down monsters, learning about the advantages of the rings and the disadvantages, as well as collecting recipes and such, they were almost at the time limit the helmet set for them. Creepy rubbed the back of his neck, staring at the rings on his gloved fingers, smiling at the new knowledge he gained. Despite not being a big fan of the zOMG! MMO game that the website offered, Creepy was delighted that Bunny had taught him the ropes of where to get what and which monster gave the most gold. He never knew that the female NPC at the ranch gave free gold at all. Bunny really was a veteran of the game, Creepy nodded at the fact, staring at the teen Gaian in front of him.

Bunny glanced at Creepy, her machine gun disappearing into the zOMG! ring on her index finger, vibrant pink eyes almost burning into his memory. She looked up at the realistic, dark cloudy skies of the Village Greens. "If you don't mind the same time like today next week, then it's okay with me."

"Until then. I'll message you after this." Creepy smiled happily at his friend and held out a finger, a blue holographic circle appearing at the fingertip before turning into a list of options. He scrolled down as Bunny lazily watched, probably thinking of logging out like he was soon. "Maybe we can do some GoFusion-eeh...?"

Zzt. Zzt, zzt.

He trailed off as he stared at his hand that suddenly glitches along with the holographic list, watching it glitch in and out with loud static noises. The ground and the area around them glitches in and out and Bunny and Creepy looked around, beginning to panic.

"What's going on?"

"Log out! Now!"

The list disappeared and the flitching of the area around them stopped. Creepy protectively stepped closer to the nervous Bunny, holding a finger out to summon the list. Nothing came out. What...?

"Oh...Oh no..." Creepy glanced over, seeing Bunny back away, shaking her head.

"Bunny?"

"Creepy, watch out! Behind you-!"

Before he could even jump out of the way, the surprisingly strong neck of the many common Pinwheel Flamingos stalking the Green Gardens struck against his side like a heavy club, tossing him away and out of arms reach from Bunny, who screamed in terror. Creepy tumbled against the green grass, letting out a startle cry as he grasped at his sore hip. Wait... Pain? He felt pain? Inside a game? But...how? The dull throbbing of the hideous pain that shouldn't even occur zeroed in on his realization. It was the flitching fault.

"Creepy!" His eyes widened and he glanced back, spying the flamingo turning its body around slowly before picking up speed and then whirled into a blur of pink, ready to attack his defenseless friend. On instinct, he held out his hand to summon out his machine gun from his ring to shoot the monster down, but he let out a shocked gasp, finding his rings missing from his gloved fingers.

"No...Way..." He shakily whispered out as the flamingo shot out, striking into the girl's bare stomach, and he watched helplessly as she curled in, letting out a choking scream, before the flamingo jumped back, causing the girl to fall to the ground and writhe in pain. "BUNNY!" He could see her health bar reach the yellow zone. If she was hit one more time…

The flamingo flapped its pink wings, stepping towards the girl to finish the job.

"BUNNY!"

(To be continued)