Hello Fanfiction! This is our first story for Sword Art Online. I say our because this is a co-op story with my girlfriend who is really into SAO and wanted help to write about it. Just to clarify a few things, we're going based off the anime and we're going to be using SAO: Infinity Moment to get the last 25 floors of Aincrad. We won't include Sinon or Leafa as this just breaks the timeline of the story (The one we're going for anyway). We would include Hollow Fragment but we feel like that adds too much to the story. We will not be using ALO in this story because we didn't particularly enjoy that part. Anyway, that's the basis for the story. So, without further ado, let's get started.

It might have taken a while, but I finally got the game that I've been waiting years for, Sword Art Online. It was announced two years ago, and I was able to be a part of the beta test that was held just a few months ago. This basically guaranteed me a copy of the game, but I didn't want to be the only person to play this game, so I brought two more copies, one for my younger cousin and one for my girlfriend. It was almost midnight in America, and the servers were about to launch. I was finishing a skype call with my cousin and my girlfriend so that we could link up in SAO when we make the jump.

"I can't wait to start the game. Is it as good as you say cousin?" My cousin is 13 years old and he always looked up to me as a brother. He was around five feet six inches tall and had short, black hair, brown eyes, and dark brown skin.

"Oh, you bet it is cousin. The game has so much depth to it, it's almost like we are living a separate life in the game." Over the past decade, games have gotten more and more real. Virtual reality was becoming a big thing. However, when it began it wasn't as immersive as we would want it to be. We still had to worry about real world obstacles and that meant that we couldn't have a lot of open world games where you can explore. Well, technically you could, but you were using a controller to walk around instead of doing all the walking yourself. With the creation of the Nervegear, however, it makes it so that you are completely immersed in the game you are playing. It's like it separates your mind from your body and you are taken to a virtual world. It's an amazing feeling when you are playing.

"We should get the friend requests out of the way now so that it will be easier to meet with each other when we go in." The game requires you to set up an account before you start. You could add friends and chat with them without actually being in the game. I'm not very good at remembering things so I wrote my username and password on a piece of paper and put it on my drawer.

"Ok what are your names again?" My girlfriend is 17 years old with ocean blue eyes, long, blonde hair, and light skin. She has flawless skin and is about five feet ten inches.

"Mine is ragman." (I know I used my name as the OC's avatar name. I'm not good with coming up with names ok) I'm 17 years old with brown eyes, short, black hair, and golden brown skin. I have a scar on my left eye from a fight I got into when I was younger. I'm pretty tall, around six feet to be exact.

"I'm DominatorDj" My cousin always used that as his name for anything, which didn't surprise me.

"Mine is Nina. I'm sending a request to you guys now."

"Are you sure you should use your real life nickname as your avatar name?" I asked her. To be honest, I'm surprised that no one took that name. Maybe it's so simple that no one would think to use it.

"No one knows that." For now, at least, but people might figure out that it is her real nickname. I'll let it slide though. The notification came up on my window, notifying me that I had two friend requests. I accepted them both and took a look at the time, it was 11:58.

"Guys we should get ready. Servers go live in a few minutes."

"OK!" Both of them said at the same time with eagerness in their voice. Almost instantly after that, they disconnected from the chat and I was left staring at my wallpaper. An old picture of me and my parents together, smiling happily at with an amusement park in the background. I smiled as I saw the picture and then went to get my Nervegear. I didn't know how long we would be on so I plugged it into the charger next to my bed and put it on. The battery with the charging symbol on it and the time, 11:59, were the only two things I could see. I laid down on the bed, waiting for the time to hit 12:00. It seemed like minutes waiting but it changed to 12:00, so I closed my eyes and said the two words that would begin my journey.

"Link Start!" The streams of colors rushed passed my eyes and the system did its check of my five senses. After putting in my username and password, the title screen of sword art online covered my eyes. I was then met with the character customization screen. I didn't make a lot of changes to my character, as the game reads your face and shows you what you look like as the base model. The only change that I made to my character was that I covered the scar on my eye. Though it would make me look tough in game, it carries too many memories that I don't want to get into details about. DJ and Nina are the only two people that know the story behind it, and I wish to keep it that way. As soon as my character was done I hit enter and I was teleported into Aincrad, the first floor, Town of Beginnings. As soon as I got in I flicked my hand down and I went to my friends list to see if the others were online. Both had a red light next to their name which meant that they were offline.

'Where are they?' I thought to myself as I took a quick walk around town. The servers just launched and already there are so many people here. Some were trying to form parties; others were hitting on girls. Some were just trying to find their way around. Because I was in the beta test I knew where to go, but I wanted to wait for the others to arrive before I started. So I found a bench to sit on and just waited. It took a few minutes but I saw the status next to their names change from red to green. I tried to see who spawned in and sure enough they were right in the middle of town. DJ changed his appearance to make him appear more mature than he really is. Nina didn't change much of her character other than the fact that she changed her hair from blonde to pink, which didn't surprise me, she liked changing her hair color.

"Over here guys!" I yelled towards them. They looked in my direction and walked over to me. "What took you so long?"

"I had to do that calibration test." DJ said.

"Same here and I have to admit I felt weird doing it." The calibration test is something that you have to do when you first start the Nervegear. It makes you touch your body a few times, feeling yourself a little bit. I can see why Nina said she felt weird toing it. She doesn't lack any size up there, if you know what I mean.

"Where do we go?" DJ asked me.

"Don't be so eager, you guys have to learn a bit about the game first."

"We can learn as we go. Just tell us where we can fight some monsters." My cousin is always so eager to play a game that he doesn't take the time to learn it first. This isn't a new FPS game with similar controls as any other. This is a completely different game, one that the two of them have never played before.

"Ok then, the fields are out this way. Follow me." I turned away and started walking out of town.

"Wait a sec, how come you have a sword and we don't?" Nina asked while pointing at my sheathed beginner's sword. Neither of them had a clue as to how to equip a sword. I don't even think they know how to open their menu.

"Oh now you want to learn how to play." DJ just scoffed at me and then turned away from me, as if he was frustrated with me. "First off you open your menu by moving your arm down like this." I moved my arm in a downward motion which, in turn, opened my menu. They followed my movement exactly and their menus came up. It scared Nina a bit though as she gasped when she saw it appear in front of her. "At the top you will see an icon that looks like a single person. If you tap it, a side menu will open with three sections: Equipment, Items, and skills. To equip your sword, go to Equipment and select the beginner's sword." They were following along as I was speaking. "When you do that, three icons will pop up, a 'play' button, a dash button, and an X button. Press the 'play' button to equip, the dash to unequip, and X to discard." The two of them followed my instructions and within no time they both had a sheathed sword at their side. DJ immediately pulled his out and started swinging it around.

"This is cool, I feel the grip of it and even its weight." He swung his sword some more until he nearly hit someone.

"Hey DJ be careful. You shouldn't hit other people. You can hurt; even kill other people in this game. Although we are in a safe zone so no one can get hurt, but people might think you are attacking them and will challenge you to a duel." DJ stopped swinging his sword and sheathed it. I went to the submenu that had an icon of two people. Three text popped up, guild, friends, and party. I went to party and chose start party. After that I went to invite players, then friends, then I put a checkmark next to their names and hit the blue button. On cue, both of them had a notification bubble flashing in front of them. They both tapped it and read the description on the screen in front of them. They then both hit the blue button to accept my party invite. When they did that both of their names appeared below mine with their HP bars under them. Nina took notice of this and she asked me a question.

"What happens when you die?" She asked nervously.

"In the beta a black screen would appear with the red letters 'you are dead'. You were then given an option to spawn with a penalty or wait for someone to revive you. I was playing with someone all the time so I never had to spawn with a penalty. I don't even know what the penalty is."

"Who'd you play with?"

"Someone named Kirito. We both were adamant solo players, but we found common ground and started to party up whenever we played. I wonder if he got the full game?" I was going to search his name up but DJ got impatient.

"Alright we got the gist of it, let's go fight some beasts." I just laughed a bit and closed my menu.

"Alright, follow me then." I started to head out of town towards the open green fields. There we could get some fighting done.

On the way there we saw multiple shops and players, everything seemed to be working like a busy town. When we arrived at the fields we all paused to take in the sights. The graphics were so real, a little bit more polished than the beta. The fields were a true grassy green with individual pieces of grass. The world seemed so alive with a real-time day-night cycle. Of course, since this game was made in Japan, and the fact it has only one server, they only use Japan's time for the day-night cycle. Even though it's midnight where we live, it's the exact opposite in Japan. The sun is shining bright with a few clouds blocking it every few seconds. You want attention to detail, SAO is the game that does it extremely well.

After roaming in the fields for a few minutes we encountered a boar. The lowest level monster in the game, yet can still kill someone who isn't familiar with the fighting system. DJ, as eager as he is, charges head on toward the boar. He unsheathed his sword and swung it as hard as he could. Unfortunately, he didn't do too much damage to the boar and the boar countered his attack. DJ got knocked back and his HP bar took a hit.

"How did I not do anything."

"Well there is a something in this game called sword skills. Right now there is only one and that is slash."

"How do you use it?"

"It's not too difficult. There is an initial motion that you have to do, when you do that, you will feel the skill start to take effect. Once you feel it, just drive your attack into your opponent and the system will do the rest." He looked a little confused when I said that but he just got into a stance and started to wind up his sword. When he did, his sword started glowing and he charged into the boar, slicing his side, and causing his HP bar to empty. The boar disappeared into blue triangles and DJ got a little victory screen which shows the EXP, items and Col (money) he got. Also, because we're in a party, we all get a little experience from that kill as well.

"Wow that was so cool." DJ said looking at his victory screen. "I must be pretty strong if I was able to take that thing down on its own." He gave us a cocky smile. I just had to let him know the truth.

"While it's true you did good for your first time, that boar is the weakest enemy in the game." To prove my point, I gestured my arm in a 'look around you' motion. Around us were multiple boars. Some were just spawning in. he looked dismayed.

"That fight was more difficult than I thought it would be. And the fact that you just said that a boar is the weakest enemy in the game does not help with that." Me and Nina chuckled at how distraught he was.

We all continued to farm boars for EXP and Col. We got items too but they were just boar meat which is a D-class food item. It gave us a little bit more col at the end of the day but it wasn't the best award to get for a fight. It was about 6 in the morning (or 6 in the afternoon in Japan) before we felt satisfied for our first go around. We all got an upgraded iron sword, and I bought a shield because I like to protect people. It's been who I am for a while. The downside to having a shield in this game is that it lowers your agility, which affects how many times you attack. It also brings your evasiveness to zero so you can't dodge anything. On the contrary though, you gain a lot of defense and you can block attacks. Which in my opinion makes up for the loss of evasiveness. I recommended one to DJ and Nina but DJ said that it looks weird and Nina liked the idea of being evasive. We were just about done and was going to log off to get some sleep.

"That was fun cuz. We have to do this again soon." DJ said with an excited look on his face.

"We're on break, so we can play whenever." He seemed to enjoy that answer.

"Now how do you log off?" Nina asked me.

"Oh that's easy, just open the menu and on the bottom you'll find a gear. Tap it on the bottom you'll see…" I couldn't finish my sentence because as I was going through the motions myself I couldn't find the logout button. The others could tell that something was wrong through my confused look.

"What's wrong?" Nina asked.

"The logout button isn't here. There's no logout button." I was wondering what could've happened to cause this. Is it a bug, a server issue, is it intended? I couldn't think of any reason as to why this would happen. I thought that if others have found it that the game would just shut down to fix it, but the game launched six hours ago and there has been no sign of anything about to take place.

"How do we leave then?" She asked.

"The only other way to leave the game is by having someone else take off the Nervegear. Once you put it on, your mind and your body are disconnected from each other and you can't move a single muscle in the real world." They grew more worried when I said that. Both of them looked like they were on the verge of panicking. I couldn't do that, I had to tell them something good. "The dev's are probably going to shut the server down and forcefully log us out in order to fix the bug." They looked a little more relax but not by much. Then, out of nowhere, we hear the loud dinging of a bell. It's ear splitting loud. I looked over to DJ and Nina who were covering their ears and trying to say something but I couldn't hear them over the sound of the bells. After a few rings, the ringing stopped and we had a few moments of quiet before we were teleported to the main plaza of the Town of Beginnings. It wasn't just us either. I think the whole player population is in the plaza right now. Nina and DJ came up close to me. Nina grabbed my arm rather tightly, I could tell she was nervous.

"What's going on?" DJ asked along with numerous others that's here right now.

"I wish I knew." Just when I said that a red bubble came around us all with a bunch of warnings on it. Then a thick, red liquid started seeping into the bubble. It started to form into a ball which then formed into a huge guy wearing a cape. If I didn't know any better, I'd say it was the second coming. The person in the cape then spoke.

"Hello players. Welcome to the world of Sword Art Online. My name is Akihiko Kayaba, the lead developer of SAO. I wanted to explain a few things before you truly start your journey in Aincrad." People in the crowd started panicking a bit, I don't blame them. The way Kayaba said truly sent a shiver down my spine. "First order of business, some of you have noticed a lack of a logout button from the menu. I can assure you that this is not a defect. I repeat, this is not a defect. This is the way SAO is to be played."

"What does he mean?" Nina asked me nervously.

"I don't know, but I think we're about to find out."

"Secondly, there is no longer a way to revive someone in SAO. If you die in SAO, the microwave safety feature in the Nervegear will cut off and the microwaves will fry your brain and end your life." Have you ever heard 10,000 people gasp at once? Well that's what happened when Kayaba said that if we die in the game we die in real life.

"That's not right." DJ said.

"If someone tries to remove the Nervegear from your head, the safety feature will still become disabled and fry your brain anyway. I issued a warning to everyone in the real world, however, some people didn't heed it, and as a result there are 20 less players in SAO." Kayaba really thought of the common fail safes for this plan of his, but why? Why is he doing this? It sounds so farfetched that people didn't even take him seriously. And yet this is really happening. "The only way to leave SAO is to clear all 100 floors of Aincrad. Only then will everyone be logged out of SAO." That's the only way to get back home to the real world. We have to clear all 100 floors of Aincrad. I don't mind doing this, putting myself in harm's way for the sake of others. I just don't want DJ or Nina to have to go through this. The more I think about it, the more I wished I didn't buy this game for them. No matter how you look at it, I put them in this situation. "I left a gift in your item boxes, if everyone would please check their storage." Right on cue there was a notification button flashing in front of me and everyone else. When I tapped it there was a confirmation screen that said accept gift. I hit the blue circle to accept and spawning in my hands is a mirror.

'What's this for?' I wondered. My question was answered as everyone in the plaza started glowing. At first I thought we were all about to die but then everyone reappeared looking different.

"Cousin!" DJ was looking at me with his eyes widened. My eyes grew too when I saw DJ in his real life body. His skin color, height, body type, even facial features were an exact mirror to his real life image. Coming up next to him was Nina and, just like DJ, she's also in her real life form. And, putting the icing on the cake, I looked into the mirror to see me in my real life form, including the nasty scar on my left eye. The Nervegear scans your face which explains how it knows all the small details of my face. And I'm pretty sure that it got my height and body type through the calibration test that it makes you do. Looking around it disgusted me how many guys dressed up as girls in this game. I find it nauseating.

"This concludes the opening of Sword Art Online. I wish you all good luck in clearing all the floors of Aincrad." With that, Kayaba faded away, and the bubble disappeared as well. For a few moments, everyone just stood there, shocked with what Kayaba just said. Everyone was just letting what he said sink in. Then, the panic began.

"I can't stay here!"

"You can't do this to us!"

"I got a wife and kids!"

"I need to go home!" Everyone just started scrambling around town.

"Guys come with me." I called to Nina and DJ. I didn't even let them follow me at their will, I grabbed both of their arms and guided them to an alley.

"What are we going to do cuz?" I couldn't even look him in the eye.

"It's my fault."

"Huh?"

"IT'S MY FAULT!" I yelled to them causing them both to jump. "If it wasn't for me none of you would have to be here. Now we're trapped in this death game with no way out and it's all my fault." Nina just came to hug me.

"Don't blame yourself. This was our decision and we don't regret it. If you were here all alone I would probably try to get the game just to join you. I can't stand not being with you." When she said that I couldn't help but shed a few tears.

"She's right cuz, I love spending time with you. If you were trapped in here, I would've done the same thing as Nina and got the game to be with you. I need you cousin." I knew that DJ looked at me as a brother but I didn't think it was like that. If there's a silver lining to this situation, it's that I'm trapped in a video game with my cousin and girlfriend. That's something I will always be grateful for. I wiped my eyes and broke the hug.

"Thank you guys it means a lot that you're here with me." They both shot me a smile.

"Well what are we going to do now?" DJ asked me.

"We need to level up if we want to help clear the game. We all are a level 5 right now, which is good, but if everyone in the game is trying to get a high level to clear it then we need to move fast or the rest of the fields will be cleared and the good quests will be taken."

"Ok so where to?" Nina asked.

"To the next town over. Most players don't know how to get there, but I was in the beta test so I know exactly how to get there. We'll run into some boars and wolves along the way, but as long as we fight together we can make it through just fine." They nodded at me and gave me an excited look. They were ready for the challenge. "We ready to go?"

"Oh yeah cuz."

"Ready when you are love." With our goal in mind we ran out towards the fields. When we ran into our first boar we fought with amazing coordination. I took the hits while DJ and Nina dealt the damage. That boar stood no chance against us. As long as we stick together as a family, we will survive.

There's the first chapter of Family Survives, we hope you enjoyed it. We will update this as fast as we can. It's hard to get together when we are in different states. Transportation isn't an issue for me but for her it is. My schedule isn't the best either. That's the beauty of co-op stories though. More people equals more ideas which leads to long chapters. Anyway until next chapter this is ragmanthemadman, and his companion, signing off.