Into a World of Darkness

by FieryPhoenixGirl119

AU! Inside pegasus' virtual world event Seto Kaiba meets a strange white priestess, deciding to team up with her, they must explore this twisted mythical world to save the worlds kids from the evil demon overlord Akuma

1. Chapter 1

A/N: okay everyone, welcome to Into A World Of Darkness, this first chapter i wrote a few YEARS ago when I was very bad at this writing thing, where it leaves off here is when me and Fairylilly teamed up and it improves by 500 I promise, if you want you can skip this if you think it will discourage you from reading the rest of the story, oh and each border of : means that the POV is changing

"Well Noah, nice going, right when I start to think that there's no way you can possibly screw something else up, you go and do it"

"Well Noah, nice going, right when I start to think that there's no way you can possibly screw something else up, you go and do it"
"I don't seem to understand what you are talking about, unlike you, I dont make mistakes, so it must have been something you did"
"Noah, I dont have the password to your e-mail account, how the heck would I have gotten in and opened that e-mail with the virus in it?"
"I dont know, but knowing you, you probably got jealous of my greatness to you and did something for payback"
"Whatever, I have about 1200 computers to run anti-virus on, if you will excuse me" seto said, wanting so bad to give Noah a piece of his mind for that last comment.
"You go do that, and while you're out, get me a latte"
"Sure, in my spare time" he said, rolling his eyes as he walked out the office door.
He had had enough with his step-brothers stupidity and lack of common sense. 2 months ago, he spilled coffee on a laptop that had just about all of the company's data on it, data, that in-fact, he had spent the past 3 straight days without sleep gathering; and now, he had opened an otherwise suspicious e-mail and know a killer virus was running through ever single computer hooked into the network.
He finally got back to his station, only to have many angry employees, shoving work orders, requests, and laptops into your face. This was so not your day.
xxxx

2 days later
You let yourself fall back into your king-sized bed without any effort, you needed sleep, and those 16 cups of straight coffee weren't helping in the least.
Then you heard a tone ring out from your personal computer, telling you that you had mail. The only thing that made you stand on your weary feet and check your mail was the simple fact that you had kept the number of people that knew your e-mail was at an extreme minimum.
You selected the new message that had the subject: invite on it. This is what it read:
Greetings seto,
In gratitude to your most appreciated assistance with the programming of our software for the virtual technology a few years back, we are happy to invite you to come here to San Francisco with a friend, and be one of first to enter the virtual world in the grand initiation ceremony, if you agree to come, reservations and tickets are already reserved, just reply back to us. Remember, we will be honored to have your presence at the ceremony.
M.Pegasus
Ceo of Industrial Illusions.

Seto continued to think about it, there was no reason he really should not go, and besides, he had plenty of vacation time, and with what he saw from the programming of this game, he didn't want to miss it. Besides, it might teach that conceited step-brother of his to appreciate him more, though even that is unlikely. He smirked as he selected the 'reply' button at the top of the screen and sent back the message, confirming that he was coming. And he already chose who the 'friend' he was bringing with him was going to be.

Even across the globe, news of this assumed 'ultimate game' had leaked out (as it usually does) and there was a certain young CEO that was being pestered by her even younger sister about it.
"C'mon Gwen, everyone I know is going to be there!"
"We've been over this a million times lucky, I know you, and you're up to something"
"Why are you always accusing me of being up to something?!"
"Ugh, I don't know, maybe because you always are"
"Hmph" lucky growled as she grabbed a magazine and plopped down on the couch in her sisters' office in the skyscraper.
Then the phone rang.
"Yes mr.keyman, I do have those prints right here" Gwen said into the receiver as she scrambled through all the papers, searching for those darn prints.
Business as usual, that is, until he came in.
"No mr.keyman, I won't sell you out to one of your rivals, you know me better than that" she tensed as she argued with the affiliate when Jason came over and stood behind her, holding her close to him.
"yes, I will fax them right over to you, what was your number again-hold on a minute-Jason, knock it off!" she hissed at him as he kissed her up her neck, but when he didn't stop right off, she shoved her hand into his face, pushing him away. It worked.
"don't worry then, I'll get them to you a.s.a.p, goodbye mr.keyman" she said as she hung up the phone and turned on her heels, ready to whack Jason with a nearby folder, though lucky kind of wanted to hand her the stapler, just to make it more fun.
As Gwen turned around, Jason gently grabbed her by her shoulders and pulled her into a loose hug, then the mooching fest began all over gain.
"Ugh, get a room you sickos" lucky yelled as she left the office, being sure to slam the door behind her.
Jason only tightened his grip as Gwen groaned into his chest, trying to get some tension out.
"Rough day?"
"What would ever give you that idea?"
"Wild guess"
"ugh, let's see, I have 5 different corporations breathing down my neck for designs, I'm a month behind in paperwork, all thanks to your little vacation thing you talked me into, and to top it off, 'lucky the persistent' won't stop irritating the living crud out of me about letting her go to that stupid game that apparently 'everyone's' going into"
"hmm, well, here's my idea, you tell those other corporations where to put it, you 'accidentally' shred those papers, and as for the orange-haired wonder, well, show her whose the boss, better yet, lock her in her room, it would give us more 'us' time"
"Sounds tempting, especially the last one, but sadly, it's against the law"
"I'll tell you what should be against the law, having to put up with the little terror, including during that banquet you're holding next week"
"Don't remind me"

"Jeremy, are you okay?" Mr. Burns asked
"Hmm? Oh ya, I'm fine" he said, looking up from his painting for the first time in about three hours.
Well, everyone has already left, and I'm about to lock up the room"
"Oh, sorry, I just lost track of time"
"no need to apologize, you aren't he first pupil of mine to get caught up in thier own wonderous art, speaking of which, may I see what you've been working so tirelessly on?"
"if you dont mind sir, I'd rather not, can I go home now?"
"go ahead, I'm sure your parents are worried about you" mr.burns said, smiling warmly.
"I wish" Jeremy mumbled as he ran down the schools halls and out the door.
Jeremy sighed as he took the crumpled up picture in his hand and tossed it into the trash. Thats all it was. Trash.
He shoved his hands into his sweaters pockets and walked on home, today had been as usual. Very bad.
It wasn't humanly possible for this day to get any worse.
boom
Spoke too soon.
The sky lit up with lightining as rain poured down, soaking him through his clothes.
"Great, home's only 9 blocks away" he thought to himself, rolling his eyes; there just had to be something out to get him.
He didn't bother running home, he had done that once, resulted in a skinned knee and twisted ankle. So walking was the unanimous choice.
about 45 minutes later
He had somehow made it home, with no blood or broken bones, that is.
He grabbed the doorknob, locked.
Lovely, just lovely.
He tried some of the windows around the house, all the same, were locked. He went around the back of the house and grabbed onto a vine covered flower fence thing, never did catch the name of it. All he knew was that it led up to the roof, where his bedroom window was, now hopefully he hadn't been an idiot and locked it the last time he had used it.
'I'm an idiot' he gave up as he tried pullign the window up, unsuccessfully. There was only one other option. Jake's room.
Gotta do what you gotta do.
You crawled your way on the slippery roof and wedged your fingers under the plastic of the window.
Just my luck. Open.
You lifted the window up and crawled, ok, more like slipped, in. you hit the floor with a thud, the plan was to get in, run like heck to your room, and hopefully, jake wont notice.
"where have you been all this time?" asked a deeper voice in the room. You winced.
"nowhere jake"
"whatever" he said dissintrested, reading his magazine.
You reached to open his door, ready to just get into your room, take a shower, and sleep the night away.
"I wouldn't go in there if I were you" a warning voice said from the corner of the room.
"why?"
"a certain friend of yours is waiting for you"
"groan what is he doing here?!"
"mom and dad are on a business trip, and they hired him, ok, not really hired, he willingly volunteered, to babysit you"
You winced at the thought, if there was open thing you didn't want, or need right now, it was cade messing with you.
You looked back over your shoulder, there was only one way out of this.
"what?"asked an annoyed jake when he sensed you staring at him.
"fine, use my shower, but use any of my stuff in there and you are so dead"
"fine, ok, jeez"
Soon you were in the shower, sure it was quite a mess in there, but heck, who cared?
Meanwhile, while you showered off, your brother was amusing himself by searching through your backpack.
"hmm, books, soggy paper, homework-"
"ever heard of privacy"
"ever heard of being thankful I dont throw you to cade while our in a towel?!"
You went silent for awhile.
"well, thats the end of that" he said as he threw the magazine aside, just now noticing that you were still there.
"now what"
"jake, can i-"
"whatever" he snorted, not really caring as you grabbed some of his clothes (they're baggy, but better than a towel)
Then jakes cell rang.
(phone conversation, might get confusing)
"what do you wanted? Yes, for the umpteenth time, I'll be there, now I'm not standing you up, whatever, bye" he hung up.
"where are you going?"
"some virtual game thing the guys were going to, wont let me forget"
"you're gonna leave me alone with that freak?!"
"why not?"
"jake" you strung out in a begging sort of way.
"what, you want me to take a nothing like you just so you can get into the way? No."
"but jake"
Then one of those evil smirks came to him, you didn't know what it was for, but it couldn't be good.
"how about this, if I take you, you must become my personal 'maid' for one year, which includes my chores, cleaning my room, and taking care of sid"
You looked shakily over at sid, jakes pet scorpion, the thing was big, black, venomous, and just didn't like you, but it beat being with cade.
"deal"
You ended up sleeping in jakes room that night to avoid cade, you slept on the floor, that is, but it was worth it.
Now only to survive the next several days.

It had been two weeks already, it had gone by slowly, but it was finally here, and 2 certain brothers were having a hard time getting to the airport to make it to their flight, the reason: evil alarm clocks.

"Mo, when we get back remind me to strangle you for not setting your alarm" seto said as he ran out the doors of the mansion to the waiting car.

"Hey, its not my fault, someone here just couldn't keep himself from fixing that one last laptop last night that took three hours"

"Look who's talking, I told you to pack last night while I was working but did you listen? No."

"Oh shut up and lets get going" mokuba said as he jumped into the vehicle, trying to change the subject before the blame fell on him.

2 hrs. Later

"seto, why did you bring me along on this thing anyway? Dont get me wrong, I'm happy to go, but the scenery at this point in kind of crappy" mokuba said with his arms crossed, looking out the hummer's window, staring at the encouraging sight of dead-stopped traffic."

"Would you rather spend the next three weeks alone with Noah? I'm sure he would have found lots for you to do around there"

"Hmph, do I have to answer? I remember what happened last time, he had me doing paperwork that he should have been doing, I still have writer's cramp from that"

"Ha-ha" seto mocked.

"Oh be quiet, the airports not that far away"

about 45 min later

"As you were saying about the airport?"

"Oh shut up, were almost to the garages"

By the time they found one of those confounded parking spaces, grabbed their bags, got into the actual airport building, and made it the counter, they made it just in time.

To be too late.

"And there goes our flight" mokuba said as he watched the large plane taking off into the rising sun.

"Just for the record, I'm blaming you"

Mokuba was about to open his mouth to protest, but a large man dressed in black, kind of like a security guard, walked up to them.

"Are you two those kids master Pegasus wanted?"

"Who wants to know?"

"I have special orders form him, you two will be taken on his private jet"

And with that, they were walked to an empty part of the airport, and taken to the craft.

"Not bad, considering that we missed our flight and all"

"Hmph"

It was then that they felt the jet begin to start to take off, and within seconds, they were airborne.

Looks like things had worked out, and now they were both headed straight for San Francisco, sure it was probably an all-day flight, but that wasn't so bad, was it?

oh great, several hours of not being able to move...this oughta be fun

Lucky stood at the door of her bedroom, her stomach doing flips. She had never gone against her sisters rules, and now, not only was she sneaking out of the place she called home, but it was the fact that she knew she would never return here again. A little drastic she knew, but she knew herself all too well, and she knew that once her and her older brother were reunited, there would be no separating them ever again, the only reason Gwen had been able to get them apart in the first place was because both she and Ty were asleep, and Gwen took her chance and grabbed Lucky and took her away with her, all lucky herself remembered was waking up in a strange place, on an entirely different continent than that of her brother.

She shook herself out of the memory, if her plan were to work, she would have to leave now, before the maids made their usual rounds and checked up on her, and the fact that she was missing would be known.

She crept down the stairs, being careful of every noise she made, there was no room for mistakes in this, and no room for wasted time either, so her multi-tasking skills were tested as she made her way to the huge double doors of the mansion.

She turned the doorknob slightly, planning on only opening the door barely enough for her to squeeze through, as she cracked it open, she could fell the cold air hit her face, this was it, she was going to make it out of this prison and into her brother's arms.

bam

"going somewhere?" asked a deeper voice that lucky had come to hate, his hand pressed up higher on the door, shutting it right in her face.

"Well not anymore" she replied as she turned around and trodded up the stairs again.

"Oh come on Luck, you wouldnt have gotten far anyway, how were you planning on getting pass the locked gates? And even if you did, by the time you got past them, Gwen would have figured out your little plan and you would be back in here, again, just give up"

"And how would an 'intelligent' creature like yourself go about getting out of here?" she mocked.

"Ha-ha, nice try, up the stairs, now"

"One of these days, I'll make it out, and then I will be able to shove it in your face that even you couldnt stop me"

"That'll be the day"

So, her plan failed and she was back at square one, well, maybe we would have to try something a bit unexpected?

"And where do you think you're going?" he demanded when she turned down the wrong hall that lead straight to Gwen's room, she didn't even answer him as she went straight into her room and closed the door behind herself.

She walked straight into the room, were Gwen was.

Was sleeping, that is.

"Rise and shine, its a beautiful morning" lucky chanted as she pulled the curtains open, not even noticing the fact that is now raining.

"If that's your idea of beautiful, I'd hate to see your glamorous" Gwen moaned as she turned around, trying to get back to sleep.

"Gwen, you cant get back to sleep, you have to go in today" lucky said cheerily, as she pounced on the bed, trying to play it normal.

"No, I cant get back to sleep because of your bouncing" she murmured while covering her head with a pillow.

"You'll thank me later"

"Much later"

"Oh come on, dont be that way, you know you are just dying to get into that office and get started on that mountain of paperwork"

"That's it; you are officially out of my will"

"Promise?"

"Har-har-har, now get up, I need to get going"

Nothing like some good old sarcasm to get Gwen awake in the morning.

It wasn't long before the three of you were in the limo, on your way to the imposing skyscraper.

She was determined to get her chance, she would make it out, and better yet, Gwen would approve of it, all she had to do was wait for the right moment...

Jeremy's eyes slowly opened as his sleep was disturbed, it took him a moment to come to his full senses, it was then that he realized that someone was picking him up, he couldn't tell who it was, everything seemed blurry from the sleep still being in his eyes. But it only took a moment to register that who it was holding him wasn't his biggest current concern.

He couldn't breathe.

His natural reaction took over and he gasped for precious air, making him jolt in the arms of whoever it was still holding him. He could hear a deep noise around him, a constant ringing type of noise he couldn't tell what it was or what it meant, all his mind was processing was that he had no air, and it was sending his system into a panic. All the noises he heard now were all muffled, and the bright lights all around him were going by quickly. His head leaned to the side as he lost energy and strength fighting for life and all the colors around him began to swirl, his chest and body were greatly exhausted by the struggle for air, and a strange feeling behind his eyes came, a hard, stinging feeling, and with it came his vision dimming from all around, until he felt it all, the panic in his mind, the pain all over his body, the crushed feeling of his head, it all faded away, as his body made one last desperate gasp for oxygen before it gave up, what will happen to him now is no longer in his own hands.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x+x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

small black eyes opened quickly as Jeremy felt himself awaking, he was laying on his back, his limbs stretched out to their extent, he leaned forward to find himself in a place known only in that of movies or fiction books.

The sky was a dark, gloomy gray, there was no sign of life anywhere he looked, a few dead, shriveled up trees here and there, but everything about this place screamed 'death', he stood up straight and looked around, nothing there, no one anywhere. There was a slight breeze blowing through, but it went nearly unnoticed by the boy. He could feel his heart skipping beats as his eyes continued to search the barren land.

He was at a lost as to what to do, until he saw something over the next hill.

Dust rising.

And lots of it. Something, or someone, was coming at him, and coming fast, he turned to run but was jerked back by an unknown force as the field that had been right there was suddenly gone, leaving in its place a gaping hole, a great, deep hole, stretching as far as he could see to his left and right. He made the mistake of panicking, feeling his breath quicken and he heard himself begin to make a strangled wheezing noise, the lightheaded feeling coming to him. he tried to do what the doctors said to do to help when he was having an attack and lay down flat, but when he leaned back, he felt something grab him, keeping him from moving, he looked up and saw a familiar face staring back down at him, his eyes becoming wide when he saw him.

"c-cade?"

Cade made a grimace before pulling Jeremy up by his neck and pushing him over the edge of the abyss

The feeling of falling and suffocating a the same time was too much, he freaked out, and as it all seemed to real, it was over in less than a split second.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x+x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"he's waking up" Jeremy heard a nearby voice comment as the child opened his weary eyes, glancing around, the brightness of the white walls stinging his eyes.

"everything seems to be in check, be sure and give his guardians his prescriptions, and as for you" the doctor raised his voice, directing his attention at Jeremy directly.

"you keep track of your inhaler better, we almost lost you there for a moment, go ahead and tell his visitors that they can come see him, he can go ahead and go home tonight"

The black haired boy nodded slightly, tilting his head forward to let the nurse take the breathing mask off.

'who would be here to see me?' Jeremy asked himself

'mom and dad are out of town and Jake hates hospitals, that leaves- oh no'

"Jeremy, are you ok?" a male voice asked with concern.

"I'm ok Cade, please, can I just go home?"

"of course, I'll go and sign the papers and we'll be on our way" the man said smiling gently and he rubbed Jeremy's hand, personally, Jeremy hated any contact whatsoever with Cade, but as of right now, he was his only way home, and he decided to go along with it until he got there so he could go lock himself in his room or something until morning.

The drugs they had put him on to ease the pain on his chest, but left him quite out-of-it, he didn't recall details of going home at all, all he vaguely remembered was loud voices arguing, being carried upstairs in his room, and falling asleep soon after.

"Are we there yet?" the youngest of the Kaiba brothers asked as Seto and he rode through the streets of the city in a private escort limo.

"For the forty-third time mokuba, 'N'-'O', no"

"But we've been driving for forever"

"Its only been fifteen minutes since we left the airport, just relax and take a handful of chill pills already, we will get there soon enough"

Mokuba crossed his arms and grunted at his older brother, this was suppose to be an unforgettable event for all major gamers everywhere and all Seto could tell him was to 'chill'? How irritating.

Finally they turned a corner into a gated area where a huge building with the words Industrial Illusions Gaming World Headquarters in large neon lights on the top. After a security check the limo was let in and it made its way to a mostly full parking garage.

"here, you're going to need this" Seto commented as he tossed a piece of plastic with a cord wrapped tightly around it at Mokuba, he unwrapped it and hung the guest I.D card around his neck, it had the company logo and a barcode on it for opening doors and whatnot.

The driver popped the truck so that his passengers could get their luggage and other belongings, as he checked his car over and wrote out a form with gas mileage and other things for company policy purposes.

"now mokuba, remember, there are some pretty weird people who will be here that helped work on this thing, and by weird, and mean geeks, so whatever you do, dont bring up and kind of comic character or I can guarantee you that one of them will give you an incredibly long and supernaturally boring lecture on the history of that entire series, and if you get caught in any dull situation, just take your camera out and take a picture, the flash will stun them long enough for you to make a clean getaway" he said dryly as he draped his pack over his shoulder as Mokuba giggled at the comment.

"anyone in particular I should look out for?" he asked as he took his luggage out of the trunk as well.

"well, there's this one guy with curly hair and thick rimmed glasses, Donny, hes nice and all but the warning is doubled when it comes to the comic book thing, and then theres Neal, tall toothpick with a wiry sense of humor to match, now, who am I forgetting?-"

"HEY GUYS LOOK WHOS FINALLY SHOWED UP, ITS THE GOTH BOY!" a male voice shouted behind them suddenly and didnt give enough warning before Seto was practically tackled by 3 other guys, 2 of which fit the older brothers description of them.

"human-contact" Seto's eye twitched as he struggled to stand with their weight on him

"hey. Check it out, its a little dude, aren't you gonna introduce us gothy?" Neal asked as he tried to keep seto in a playful choke hold but failed to do so.

"ok, 1) call my 'gothy' or 'goth boy' ever again and I will kill you, use my powers as a genius to bring you back, then kill you again, 2) thats Mokuba, my brother"

"ah, well, nice to meet you little dude, I'm Neal, and this is Donny Donny waves and says hi, and this is Toby Toby does the same, so, did you guys just get here or what?"

"ya, we just were getting our stuff out of the car" Mokuba answered them, Seto standing behind him being his more unsocial self.

"well then, I guess were gonna have to give you the grand tour, weve been here for days now, and everyones all pumped up over the event, come on, well go introduce you to everyone, I know it will help you in your in-game challenges to know some Gamesters" Neal explained as he grabbed the youngest Kaiba's hand and walked off with him, Donny following and Toby staying behind with Seto to talk about technical matters with some computers they were having trouble with.

(-.-)(-.-)(-.-)(-.-) Kirby dance :D

Neal opened the door to a large room, filled with people, computers, and tables of food and snacks for all of them.

"these are all the people who helped design and make this happen, some will be out here monitoring the systems while some of us are reporting how things are going inside the actual virtual world" Mokuba nodded as he looked around, some of these pc's were on tables, desks, even some laptops on the floor could be seen, wires everywhere and the electrical outlets were all full.

Neal turned out and led Mokuba to another room down the hall, this one was mostly empty and filled with clay statues and pictures, sketches, paints, and many, many other supplies.

"this is where the gifted artists brought their imaginations into physical being, there, I think theres a painting your brother did, with a model to match, ya, there it is, over there" he said pointing over to the left, Mokuba walked over and looked at it, the painting was of a troll-like creature, the detail seemed so real like as of it was about to jump out at you, and the sculpture was of the same troll, in the same pose, holding a spear-like weapon that even had the detail of tribal looking art on it, so, this was what Seto defined as nothing much when he had asked him about what all he had done? Figures.

"WILL ALL THE GAMESTERS AND THEIR GUESTS PLEASE MAKE THEIR WAY TO THE MAIN CONFERENCE ROOM, MASTER PEGASUS IS WAITIGN THERE WITH AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT, THAT IS ALL" came over the intercom in a loud, booming voice.

"That's our cue, c'mon, I'll help you find your brother and we can all head there together" Neal said smiling as he walked down the hall back to the room with all the people in it.

"So, you get the grand tour?" Donny asked as he slipped his laptop into his bag and exited the room.

"yep, where's seto?"

"I think he and Toby already went to the conference room, so, the old man has something to say huh? By the way, if he mentions something about a power surge, I swear it wasn't me"

The group all headed down the long hallway together and entered the elevator, Neal pressing the button for the 42nd floor.

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-X

"ok all, as mentioned before I have a little announcement, due to some remarkable work by our gifted technicians, the virtual world is now up and running!"

everyone cheers

"and to make things better, the pods are now ready to start porting people to our creation, so the main question here is, WHO WANTS TO GO IN FIRST?!" Pegasus yelled the last part, all of the 'gamesters' cheering and howling, all wanting to go a.s.a.p.

about an hour later

The remarkably huge warehouse that all the gamesters that had wanted to go in the virtual world were taken to was, like mentioned before, huge, these sci-fi looking machines lined every wall that didn't have advanced computers crowding it, literally, there were hundreds of these things, and now they were being opened and a person was entering each one. Some of the gamesters had signed their names on their chosen pods, Mokuba noticed some even signing each others.

"you ready Mokuba?" Seto asked as he activated two pods near the rear of the warehouse, making sure he and Mokuba were next to each other. The glass tops opened and he sat himself inside, his little brother following suit.

"Seto, are you sure these are safe?" he asked, now that it was all happening, all his excitement had turned to unease.

"would I ever make you do anything I ever thought wasn't totally and completely harmless?"

"true" he said before lights started flickering and changing colours, smoke blowing out for a dramatic effect, the lids to the pods all closing at the same time, it was like being in a movie, it was like nothing he had ever seen or been through.

Heck, it was just plain awesome.

Lucky looked up at the clock on the wall in her sister's office, 8:27, the doors to the New York gaming center open at 9, not much time to trick Gwen into letting you go, but perhaps you wouldn't need to do anything, the day will play itself out, and everything will work out fine?

Doubt it.

You had to do something and you had to do it now. You stood from the chair you had been sitting sideways in and walked out the office door.

"Where you headed?" your older sister asked, not raising her head form her laptop and papers.

"Like you care"

"Of course I care what happens to you lucky" she said in a 'responsible-adult-like-voice'

"I took a pretty large insurance policy out on you so if I should stop making payments be sure and give me a heads up, k?" she joked, now we all know where Lucky got her sense of sarcasm from.

"har-har-har, I'll be on the roof" lucky closed the door after her, she wasn't in a mood to come up with snappy comments today, she was headed to the roof alright, basically because that's where she got her best cell phone reception, and there was a certain meeting her 'loving' older sister had with some board executives she was about to move up a few hours, that oughta keep Gwen busy.

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-X

The cruel deed done, she made her way to the snack machine and swiped her id card in front of the scanner, pressing D5 and B7 for some snickers and a bag of cheese-its, she would need a good energy boost to go through with her plan, it involved her having to run really far, really fast, and by far I mean about half a mile from where Modern Designs HQ was located and by fast I mean fast enough that Gwen didn't see you leave and Jason wasn't around to try and stop you, speaking of which, where is he-

Lucky opens door to Gwen's office and shuts it quickly seeing what is happening inside

"Found him" she made her way to the employees break room, taking her precious time to walk down the hall and eat her snacks simultaneously, muttering something about the image being burnt into her mind forever and how her gag reflex was officially exercised.

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-X

'3-2-1- and cue the CEO' lucky thought mentally, standing near the door to the main office, staring at her watch, no sooner had she finished that Gwen came running out of the room, she had apparently just gotten the message about the surprise meeting she had arranged (for the record, Lucky can do a very good imitation of the secretary, it was easy to fool them) and was running for the conference room in high heels, might I add Jason peeking his head out of the door, his hair a mess and shirt all wrinkly.

Ick.

With that part of her diabolical plan done, now it was time to go downstairs, make it through those front doors, avoid all cameras, and run like heck. But first, time to play dumb with a dummy.

"Where do you think you're going brat?" Jason ordered, very pissed that his and Gwen's spit-swapping session was rudely interrupted.

"Down to get a smoothie, my god, don't you have something better to do than irritate me all the time?!"

"Nope, and don't even think about making an escape plan, I know, and all the guards know not to let you go anywhere to that stupid game event"

"And if I don't heed your warning?"

"I have your ipod held hostage, and its pretty long drop from the roof to the very hard street."

"Whatever, I'll be back later, don't hold your breath, then again, on second thought, hold your breath" she yelled back, slamming the door behind her.

"I hope she chokes on the straw and suffocates so I can dance on her grave", he muttered, fingering the ipod in his hand.

She went down to the bottom floor, where the smoothie machine was (what can I say, there's lots of those machines around the building, lucky had a lot to do with that)

But instead of turning left to the room, she made a sharp right, to the parking garage.

Hiding form the cameras was easy, just duck and swerve behind a few cars and she was almost home free, and when the exit was in sight, all the cameras, cars, smoothies, guards, sister's and their boyfriends behind her, she made a run for it-

-and got caught by the arm by a hidden guard.

sigh" ok, fine, you got me"

"Ms. Rightbane, where were you going that you would be that careful to sneak around like that? It's been a fun 5 minutes following you, but still, I want to know."

She knew that voice; it belonged to Mark Brenton, a long-time employee of Modern Designs, as well as a long-time friend of the family.

Lucky kept her head down, suddenly she was ashamed, not that she was going to disobey a clear order from Gwen, but that she got caught, and by Mark Brenton?! Of all people?! The same Mark Brenton that trips over his own feet- constantly-; the same Mark Brenton that got into a fight with a soda machine, and lost; the same Mark Brenton that- oh forget it.

Lucky keeping her head down for so long gave him all the answer he needed, he felt bad for lucky, she had told him about her plan over a month ago, when she bet he wasn't listening, but he had been, he knew it was cruel of Gwen to keep her and her brother apart, its been over a year for the love of God! He took in a deep breath and exhaled it loudly, what he was about to do would probably get him fired, but this was Lucky, he had known her for years, and deep inside his heart, he knew it was right.

"Go on"

"What?!"

"Go on, get oughta here, scat, it's 8:52, you'll need to run fast to make it there in time"

"But why-"

"Don't know really, was hoping that deep inside that active and very imaginative mind of yours you would know"

"Mr.Brenton, there's only 3 things I know right now, 1) I'm SO happy we're friends, 2) I can't thank you enough." She said in a cute voice before running off.

"I thought you said there were 3 things?" he yelled after her

"there are, but you'll figure it out later" she answered him, not slowing her pace as she ran for the center, a smile gracing her lips as she ran on, the 3rd thing making her laugh on the inside.

'I don't have an ipod, but Gwen does'

"so, today is the day the event starts" Jeremy commented as he put the new sand in Jake's scorpion's freshly cleaned cage, Jake himself laying on his bed, reading some magazine.

"Umhmm" Jake fingered through the paper, he wasn't really paying all that much attention to Jeremy, heck, if it wasn't for the fact that he was doing his chores for him he would leave the brat here for Cade to do with as he pleased.

Jeremy carefully opened the plastic lid on the container holding Venom (scorpion's name, corny I know) and tipped it gently, allowing the small arachnid (yes, scorpions are apart of the arachnid family, I had a test in biology on it) into his glass tank to bask in the heat light and kill some unfortunate critter for his dinner. The younger brother left the room, sliding the gloves off his hands and tossing them into the dirty clothes hamper, time for shower, school, then if all went well, to the gaming center. He quickly made his way into the shower, the water waking him up fully. Usually he would enjoy this but he couldn't shake a weird feeling in the pit of his stomach that made his insides turn, that made him shiver under the hot water, the feeling that he was being watched.

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-X

"JEREMY, YOU HAVE 15 SECONDS TO GET DOWN HERE BEFORE YOUR BUS LEAVES" his mother called, she herself grabbing her briefcase to go off to work, Jeremy ran down the stairs and made for the door.

"Forgetting something?" she asked, sipping her coffee.

"My backpack, I'll get it" he ran back up the stairs, meeting Jake (who shoved him hard into the wall as he passed by, just to be irritating) halfway up. It was a busy day, dad was gone on military duty, and mom was going to a realtor's conference downtown and would be gone for awhile, possibly overnight. The boy grabbed his yellow backpack that was by the door and ran back down the stairs.

"Bye mom!" he yelled as he headed straight for the door

"You missed your bus"

"I'll walk"

"Better run or you'll be late"

"Fine mom, I'll see you later"

"and remember, all important numbers are on the fridge and Cade will be around if you need anything" she said planting a kiss on his head before letting him go to run to school, a disgusted look on his face, and believe me, it wasn't because of the kiss either.

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-X

"let's see, I get stuck doing Jake's chores, take too long in the shower, late too school, AND it smells like someone's been burning their trash out here or something, things can't possibly get any worse' Jeremy thought to himself as he ran down the street, some black smoke layered all around, making it hard to breathe for normal people, and nearly impossible for someone with asthma, like him, for instance. He pulled his backpack off his shoulder and dug into it for his inhaler so he could breathe well again, but amongst all the papers, pens, and very heavy books all crammed into it, he couldn't find it. The school was only a block or 2 away, he could make it, let's just hope that today wasn't Wednesday, aka, run-laps-around-the-field-in-95-degree-geat-for-coach-day.

2 hrs later

Ever have one of those days where you want to take a picture and say: this totally cannot be happening? Well, Jeremy was having one of those days, let's see, it's Wednesday, its 99 degrees outside, the water/refreshment machine is out of order, and its the last day of school (good thing) and all the other kids, in their excitement, really pissed off coach today (bad thing, really bad thing) so now it was his turn to take it out on this new bunch of kids, so for a 'end of school celebration' thing, 15 laps, around the track field, loser does 100 push-ups.

Guess who lost?

X-x-x-x-x x-x-x-x-x-x-x-X

Fifteen..gasp for air

Sixteengrasp for air

Seven- collapses on the hot cement

"oh come on you little woose, get back up and start over, this time, to one hundred and fifty, now move it!" coach yelled, blowing his whistle in a high pitch at the end.

"Coach, please, I lost my inhaler and I can hardly breath, can't you go easy on me, you know, like let me off this once, or better yet drive a dagger through my head?"

"Let's see you use that energy used for working your smart little mouth into doing pushups until school lets out, plus detention time!"

"Coach Kentmore!" a lady dressed in a dark blue suit said in an angry voice, stepping right up to the coach and Jeremy, the later of which was still laid out on the ground, eyes closed and panting.

"Please explain why you are out here with only one pupil in this blazing heat while everyone else is inside?!"

"Well ma'am, he is too lazy to finish the course in the required time, so he has to pay"

"Nonsense, little boy, get inside and get a drink from the cafeteria, I'm sure your teacher is wondering where you are, I'm going to have a little chat with FORMER coach Kentmore" her voice was serious, even Kentmore flinched, but Jeremy stayed right where he was, but the two adults didn't notice.

"Honestly Brutice, I don't know where you get your terrible attitude towards children and why you think that they are just little animals that you can push around"

"in my defense, one, they are small little animals, monsters really, and two, if you like the little runts so much, why don't you go and try to make them run track or play dodge ball, they're so whiney, 'it hurts', 'I don't feel good' well you know what! I'm sick of it!"

"You will not raise your voice at me Brutice Kent- hey, little boy, I said you could go already" your voice dropping a few decibels when she realized that Jeremy was still there.

But no response was given from him.

"Little boy?" she asked again, this time tapping his shoulder, when no noise or response came, she rolled him over.

"Oh my god, he passed out!"

"Pathetic little-"

"KENTMORE!" the principal leaned him up with one hand while dialing for the school nurse on her cell with another.

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-X

He woke up with a head-splitting headache and weird feeling skin. There was an ice-pack on his head and someone had taken his shoes off.

"Ah, you're awake, how are you feeling" a nice-looking lady with brown hair in a bun and a nurse I.D tag on her shirt.

"My head hurts" Jeremy said as his voice caught, holding his hand to his head.

"Here, take these pills, they will help your head" she handed him a small cup with 2 tablets in it and another cup with nice cold filtered water in it. He took the water then the medicine, laying back down afterwards, the papers beneath him making a weird crunching sound.

"Do we need to call your house?"

"Uh, no, no, definitely not, umm, can I just go back to class?"

"Wait for the meds to kick in and then you can go, but please, take it easy, I saw your record and you had a bad attack recently, it seems you keep on misplacing your inhaler?"

"Yes, I'm sorry, I don't know why it keeps happening; I just..lose it"

"Well I don't care if you tie it around your neck, you don't ever lose it again, you hear?"

"Yes ma'am"

"Good, now scoot, it's 4:30 and I bet you're missing some celebration cake" she said with a smile, opening the door for him.

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-X

On further inspection of his backpack on his walk home, he found that his inhaler wasn't even there, and he distinctively remembered putting it in there last night.

"Where could it have gone?" he asked himself as he opened the front door and went up the stairs, arm still shuffling through his bag.

"Looking for something?" a deep, older males voice asked that made Jeremy's eyes go wide.

"Cade?" he looked up, and beholds, Cade was standing propped up against the wall, the inhaler grasped in his bigger hand.

"Cade, why did you take it, I passed out today, something seriously could have happened!?"

"Oh chill out, you know I wouldn't hurt you on purpose" Cade walked up to Jeremy, until he had him pinned against the wall.

"I could never hurt you, my love" he whispered into Jeremy's ear, whose eyes were darting from side to side, trying to find some sort of escape or excuse from this.

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-X

"Hey, Jake's here" a teen with baggy everything and hair covering his eyes said in a low, flat voice.

Jake parked his motor bike on the curb, getting off as his girlfriend Sydney came up to him, wrapping her arms around him as they shared a long, deep kiss.

"So, we all ready to go or what? I wanna get in line before the crowds show up" Blake grabbed up his skateboard and motioned toward the large building across the street.

The gaming center.

"You have my pass right sweety?" Sydney asked, snuggling her face into his neck, Blake standing nearby making gag hand signs.

"Of course" he pulled a few small papers out of his back pocket.

"One for you, one for me, and the last is for- Jeremy" he disregarded it and seemed as though he would throw it away like useless trash without a second thought.

"Jakey, we can't go without him, aren't you supposed to be watching him?" she asked, pulling away from Jake and giving him the look.

"Technically no, Cade's there with him, he'll be fine"

"Jeremy? Alone with Cade? I wouldn't trust him to keep his hands off a poisonous reptile if it meant he could get a rush out of it, and didn't you say you made some sort of deal with your brother about it? Something to do with your chores?" her hands on her hips.

"Oh please, can we just forget about it and go to enjoy ourselves?"

Sydney glares at him

"okay, fine, sheesh, I'll go get him"

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-X

Cade had Jeremy's arms pinned and had his other hand under his shirt, lightly touching his fingertips to the child's skin.

"C-cade, stop, please, I have to go somewhere, just let me go"

He got his answer when Cade wrapped his other arm around Jeremy's waist, bringing their bodies closer.

But it was all cut short -thank god- when the front door slammed open and the Smith-middle-child was heard yelling up the stairs.

"JEREMY GET YOUR BUTT DOWN HERE NOW!!"

Cade covered Jeremy's mouth with one hand to try and fool Jake, but he knew better.

"AND CADE I SWEAR IF YOUR HOLDING HIM BACK I WILL COME UP THERE AND KICK YOUR-"

Jeremy struggled away from Cade and flew down the staircase, past Jake and out the door, glad to be out of there, as soon as Jake got back he had his helmet on and they were riding at top speed to town, about a half-an-hour later, they were all on their way, their passes being checked by the workers and their pods being readied.

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-back at the house-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-X

Cade was in a foul mood he had been so close and it had been snatched away at the last moment. He slammed his fist into the dresser, the towers of papers and old homework flying everywhere. His anger venting out, he finally calmed down enough to realize that he'd might as well clean up the mess he had made. As he stacked the scattered papers back on their spot on the desk, he noticed a paper with some sort of advertisement that caught his eye.

It was the poster for the Gaming event.

An evil Glint was in his eye as he realized how this was where they had gone and how he was going to get his love back to him, and this time, no one could so rudely interrupt him.

A flash of light and the feel of a soft breeze on his arm signalled that they had been successfully teleported into the virtual world. Mokuba looked around at the vast scenery in-front of him, his eyes wide in awe; it all looked so real, heck, what he was thinking, it was real.

"The graphics team really knew what they were doing" Seto commented, he also was taking a moment to take it all in.

"Well, enough of that" Seto turned around and began walking in an opposite direction, sticking an earpiece in his ear.

"Wha? Wait, what's that?" mokuba inquired, catching up to his older brother

"Lets me talk to the people on the outside, tell them if there are in problems here"

"Problems, what kind of problems?"

"Well things in the game not doing their job, like birds flying without flapping their wings, stuff being out of place, that sort of stuff"

"Ah"

Seto took a small object out of his pocket and pressed the air in front of him, and a screen opened up out of nowhere, normally this kind of stuff would cause anyone's jaw to drop, but virtual world, anything can happen right?

"now to get into some real armor and we can start exploring this world in style" Seto touched numerous screens, each responding to his fingers, and with a few taps later, a flash of bright yellow-ish light surrounded Seto, and when it subsided, he was wearing completely different (other than it being dark-colored) clothing, like something out of a ninja movie, and a little green bar on the screen came up on the virtual screen.

"What's that?" mokuba asked pointing to the green bar.

"Health points, the better armor you have the more you get"

"Oh, I see"

"I'll get you your change soon enough, but first I need to go check some things first" he said as he started walking into a shadowy place, it was only then that they had walked straight up to a jungle where they had been on an open plain only minutes before; the sounds of birds and wild animals screaming loud into the morning sky.

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-X

The pods had just begun their closing phase when Gwen and Jason ran into the gaming center.

"I CANNOT BELIEVE you let her just get by you!" Gwen was furious, looking for her orange-haired sister by sweeping her eyes over the room. "And you owe me a new Ipod!!"

"it's not my fault the brat gets crafty little ideas and schemes, she takes on after you" Gwen didn't even bother glaring at him, she had to find Lucky before the event started, finally she saw a familiar face inside of a pod.

"You!" Gwen yelled at a worker there

"Get her out of this right now!"

"I'm sorry ma'am, but we can't, once they're in there they're in for a good couple of hours"

"Grah! There's no time for that!"

"Well, as far as I can see there's only one way to go about this Gwen" Jason had come up with one of his rare good ideas.

"instead of taking her out and making her life hell, why don't we go in and see what it's like- I mean, go in and make her miserable"

Gwen stare at her younger sibling behind the glass of the pod, clinching her fists in anger that someone dared to go against her direct orders, that anger turned into a longing to punish her sister.

"Fine, we go in"

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-X

Jeremy was kinda nervous when he lay down in the machine; he had never done anything like this before, but of course, neither had anyone else in the room. The lights turned of and were suddenly replaced by multi-colored spinning lights on the sides of the pods, Jeremy felt himself getting kind of drowsy as he closed his eyes, and felt himself go through a tingling sensation as he was being ported.

Cade had to hurry to get a pod for himself, but he couldn't help but stop and stare at Jeremy when he ran by the pod he was in, he looked so peaceful when he was asleep, like a little angel, cade swore to himself he would se that same face again, except he would be right next to his love when he did.

The man ran on to a nearby open pod and jumped in, he made it just in time for the glass lid to close and he was on his way.

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-X

People cleared the way and backed up against the wall as Amanda walked by, she was well known around here, and they all had reason to fear her. She found a pod that no one was currently in, near, or around. And chances were that it would stay that way.

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-X

Back at control, everything was in order; hundreds of little stat boards were coming up on the huge computer screen that covered the wall.

Neal pressed down a button and talked into a headset he had on his head.

"ROLE CALL" he ordered, sounding all important

"M. Kent, check!"

"T.Greft, check!"

"P.Sherman, check!"

"L.Kelly! check!"

"A.Griffon, check!"

"L.Bagnall, check!"

"S.Kaiba, check!"

20 or so more people later

"We can hear you all, loud and clear, system online and so far no mistakes, congratulate yourselves, WE DID IT!" everyone in the real world and the virtual one let up a loud cheer of celebration as right then, hundrends of thousands of people were being teleported into a world of their own making

Mokuba looked down and tightened his hold around Seto's waist, they were hundreds of feet in the air, riding on a huge black riding dragon and needless to say, it was kinda nerve-racking to think about what happens if you slip off. Seto noticed how his little brother was scared and got an idea, using the chains hooked to the metal object around the dragons head, he made it land on solid ground.

"come around me" he turned and put his arm around mokuba so he could without falling off, even when it was on the ground the dragon was tall enough to cause bad injury if you were to lose your footing and fall.

Mokuba climbed around Seto and leaned back into him when the dragon jumped into the air and opened its enormous leathery wings, catching air under them to rise to the sky, it was much easier to bear now that he had something behind him for stability.

"where are we going?" he had to yell for his older brother to hear him over the wind the dragon was making.

"to a village, there are some ruins in it that Toby told me about that I need to check for any errors"

The ground beneath them was moving so fast that if you tried to stare at and follow any one object, there was a good chance you'd get whiplash. Finally the tops of some buildings could be seen, when they got closer mokuba could see that the buildings were large poles of wood with animal skins stretched over them. Gave it an 'out in the wilderness' look.

"what's the name of this place?" he asked as he looked around, the locals that weren't staring at the dragon and its riders were busily working to gather supplies, from chopping wood to picking berries.

"DryWood village"

"funny name"

"I think all the good names were already taken when they created this place."

"it shows, so, where do we put the dragon?" mokuba asked as he jumped to the ground when the dragon laid down to relieve itself of its passengers. But Seto didn't have to answer because as soon as they were off of it's back it jumped back into the air and

Disappeared?

"what the-"

"that's how it goes away, all I have to do is call for it and it will reappear" Seto explained as he walked toward the town, mokuba following.

mokuba realized something he needed to ask, just in case.

"what happens when a player needs to leave the game, like an emergency or something?"

"simple, they bring up one of those panels I had earlier and request to leave the game"

"how?"

"they all get briefed on it when they enter into the world, and stay by my side, who knows what might be in here"

"mokuba, seto, funny to see you here!" a higher-than-normal pitched male voice could be heard from behind them.

"oh no, hell no" seto grumbled as his eyes shadowed over, his body becoming as stiff as a board.

Lucky slowly opened her eyes, not knowing what to expect from this new world, and what she saw made her jaw drop.

It was beautiful; there were green trees everywhere and a lake with a small waterfall that had water that was so clear that she could see colorful fish swimming on the other side from where she stood. She was about to see how cold the water was (for curiosity purposes of course) when she heard a moan from behind her. She turned sharply to see where the noise had come from when she saw several people, kids her age mostly, laying on the ground like she had just been. She stepped toward one to see if he was 'here' yet when a right flash of light illuminated the patch of grass next to her and another teen appeared out of thin air. At first it surprised her, but she quickly figured it in her mind that that was how they would all end up getting there.

She took a moment to look around and fully take in all her surroundings, but all she could see were trees, being resourceful, she climbed up the rocks leading up to the top of the small waterfall and looked around, now being able to see above the foilage. From where she stood she could see the roofs of what looked like civilization, and where there were people, there would be someone to help her find Ty. Jumping down she made a full run for the city, there was a path from where she and the others were to her destination, so all the plants, vines, and potentially dangerous creatures could be avoided. There was an old looking wood sign posted on the side of the road, it read: 'Old Tree City mile '

"Old Tree? That's a weird name" Lucky thought to herself, kind of outloud, as she continued running down the path.

When she came to the city gates, she looked up and around at the extreme details used in decorating, this looked like some sort of medieval trade town from a book or a movie, it all looked so real, it even felt real when she placed her hand on a wood carving on a wall and felt its cold curves and corners of the design (a shield with a sword going straight down it and two axes on each side, with some sort of symbol in the middle, use your own imaginations) she continued to walk into the town, the small of dirt replaced with the stench of too many sweaty people being crowded in too small an area, it was kind of like ammonia, but that could have easily been from the cow that was now relieving itself in the middle of the street.

Eww.

"are you from the outside world" a deep voice form behind Lucky asked, making her jump in surprise.

"uhhI guess so.why?" she turned to see a tall man wearing a mail suit of armor and the same crest that she had been feeling on earlier was engraved on his chest piece.

"then you must come with me" he said, making a gesture

"sorry, but I don't go anywhere with complete strangers" she folded her arms and stood her ground, she had been trained for times like this, and it wasn't the first time she ever had to use it either.

"then allow me to introduce myself, I'm Garneth Rivers, I'm a knight of the city of Old Wood, assigned to help the young, old, endangered, sick, and to escort all newcomers into our world to the town center square, where further instructions of how to live and thrive here will be given by one of the creators"

"creators?"

"those who made us, who thought us up, made us, and gave us all life"

"oh, ok, where too?" he smiled as he led her down the street to a much nicer district, where the smell of flowers and herbs filled the air, kind of like when lucky would open the kitchen window that sat above the rose garden, where she would throw salad scraps to a turtle she called Scooter that came around every day.

"here we are, and good luck my lady" he half bowed and walked away to find more 'newcomers' to bring here.

"lady? Whatever" she was now in a crowd of teenagers, all talking among themselves, but they all stopped and turned their heads to the center immediately when light flashed and a figure was now standing on a podium.

"Attention Everyone! Welcome to the new world!" the figure yelled, lucky could now see the person fully, it was a girl, looked in her early 20's, wearing a 2 piece outfit with a dark blue bottom dress with a slit up the side of one leg, and a top shirt that wrapped tightly around her sides, but didnt cover her shoulders at all, along with a lot of gold jewelry all over her.

"my name is Elina, I am a Gamemaster over this region, I am here to explain to you all what your purpose here is and how to function here.."

She went on and on, Lucky only listen to the interesting parts, but kinda only half-listened to the other stuff, finally she finished with:

"if any of you wish to here any of that over again, just take your commuting watches and select the option for needing a gamemaster, I'll get to you as soon as I can, and speaking of your watches-" she opened hers up and sent a signal to the outside control room, instantly there were a hundred red glows all over the crowd, as each and every one now ha done of these things on their wrists. Lucky stared hers over, looking at it from top to bottom, deciding to fool around with the controls later.

"-now, go out there and have some fun, I'll be happy to hear any and all of your questions" she dismissed them with a wave of her and as she dematerialized and vanished. The crowd of people instantly chattering excitedly as others got into groups and started leaving. Lucky was still looking at her device when someone stood right infront of her.

"Lucky Rightbane"

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-X

(Gwen and Jason POV)

"ugh, I'm already sick of this stupid world with its stupid trees and its stupid animals" Jason complained as he tried to keep up with Gwen.

"oh stop your whining, your just angry that you fought a crab and lost"

"lost?! I won! I even have a trophy to prove it" he stated proudly, half wincing as he lifted his hand up, and lo and behold, an entire crab claw was still hooked to the skin of his finger.

"stomping on it until its claw comes off and it starts chasing you in circles does not count as winning you moron" Gwen let go of a tree branch she had pushed back as she walked past it, it went flying back and hit Jason in the chest, making the crab pincer fall off and land somewhere in the bushes.

"whatever, hey, is that a town?" he pointed over to the right, and by the looks of it if they made a good jog for it, they could make it there in about 5 minutes.

"let's go, the sooner I catch that miserable little brat the sooner I can haul her butt back to the mansion where I will be putting in those torture chambers you suggested" she said half jokingly, half seriously as she made a straight way to the city, climbing over large roots and fallen trees, it took slightly longer than she had wanted it to, but when they got there, they didn't find lucky, but they did see a crowd of teens and kids all listening to some chick talking about something. If Lucky were around she would probably be here, they figured as much, and the looked around for her, standing on an elevated part of the wall to get a better view point.

They couldn't see anyone resembling her sibling until the woman vanished and the people started spreading out and leaving.

"hey!, there she is I see her!" Jason yelled to Gwen as he made a run for her. Lucky had her back turned to him and was talking to someone neither of them recognized, but when Jason reached out to grab her shoulder to spin her around and give her hell, she, like that girl form the podium, vanished, along with whoever it was she was talking to.

"what the-" Gwen started as Jason lost his balance and fell to the stone ground where the smell of urine was the strongest.

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-X

(Lucky POV and rewind about 15 seconds)

"Lucky Rightbane?" a male voice asked as lucky looked up to see who had asked for her.

"yes?"

"my name is Tobi, I'm a game master, your brother has requested that I take you to him"

"what? Ty? Really?!"

"yes, are you ready to go?"

"yes! Of course"

"okay, now dont be scared, this will only tingle for a second" he opened the commuter up and pressed a button, lucky felt a warm light come between her and Tobi as she was blinded for only a second, and when she opened her eyes she squealed (yes you read it right, Lucky squealed) in delight when she saw who else was there, running up into his arms, getting a huge, tight hug.

"Ty!!"

Jeremy looked up at the massive boat infront of him in awe and disbelief

"this is ours?"

"no, it's m-i-n-e" Jake corrected him in a snobby way

"remind me again, how did you get it again?"

"its first come first serve, I was first, duh"

"but how are you gonna work it?"

"its something called a crew you moron, it comes with the ship, speaking of which, youre the cabin boy"

"the what?"

"cabin boy: person that does whatever the captain he points to himself tells him to, so get your butt up there and grab a mop"

"but-"

"or I could just leave you on the dock where someone I see would be more than happy to take you" he pointed behind Jeremy-

Right at cade. Who was several yards away. Jeremy's eyes widened as he ran up the ramp into the ship and inside the cabin.

"that was easy" Jake muttered as he and the last of the crew made their way up the ramp and took their positions.

Jeremy held unto the wall tightly as the ship rocked back and forth, leaving the dock, and heading out into the open sea. He felt so nervous, what was gonna happen? What would they do? Where would they go? Would cade catch up with them? All he could do was scrub floors and wait for time to tell him his destiny in this new world.

elsewhere

'ah Jeremy, my love, you can try and run from me but it is pointless, no matter where you go, what you do, I will always be there behind you, and once I catch you, I swear, you will never escape from me'

Cade stood at the stern of his ship he had just signed for at the dockmaster's office. He looked over his shoulder of his crew, they were about 15 of them in all, some young, some old, all in sea-weathered clothing and skins.

"well, what are you waiting for! We have a ship to find!" he barked out the order as they all scurried to obey

'and a precious treasure to steal' he said to himself as he smirked, soon Jeremy would be his, all his.

back at Jake's ship

"you are pathetic you know that?" Jake leaned against the side of the cabin wall, Jeremy leaned over the railing, it had only been a few hours since they left the docks and he was already seasick.

"Jake, leave him alone, he can't help it" Sydney walked by, embracing Jake in a hug.

Jeremy puked up the last of his lunch, still feeling dizzy he tried to catch his footing, having to feel along the wall to get back into the cabin.

"barf in my cabin and I swear jeremy I will cut you to pieces and throw you overboard!"

"you have nothing to worry about, I think I threw my actual stomach up that time"

The crew all poked fun at Jeremy for being queasy on the ship, picking on him and calling him names like landlubber and such.

He leaned against the wall on the inside of the ship, he slid down the side and sat on the floor, resting his head on his knees.

"god, I'm already sick of this"

"that's an understatement" he looked up to see Sydney standing there

"what you want Sydney?" he asked in a polite manner.

"nothing from you, but I do want you to know to just hang in there, I'll talk to Jake, all I know is with you hurling your cookies over the side of the ship like that just won't do, maybe he'll let you off at the next port, who know's, maybe you'll find your way there on land"

The thought of being alone scared Jeremy, but he couldn't decide what was worse, throwing up and being picked on, or being alone..of course, with Cade on the prowl, he'd never really be alone, would he?

Jeremy sighed as he stood up (with Sydney's help) and picked up a scrubbing rag, he got down on the floor (he was less nauseated that way) and began cleaning it thoroughly

Mokuba listened in disinterest at Noah's bragging about how he hacked Seto's email account and found out about the game. Seto was sitting on the bench next to him, he head planted into the tabletop.

"I just want to know why you guys would leave me behind to go have all the fun yourselves?" He complained, sipping more of the drink they had bought from a town merchant.

"Must have slipped our minds" Mokuba said in a sarcastic voice that Noah totally bought.

"I'm going to go get another drink, if I'm not back in 5 minutes it's because I've slit my wrists" Seto said bluntly as he stood up and walked from the table.

Mokuba sighed as he watched Seto walk away, this was supposed to be 'Seto and Mokuba' time, not 'Seto, Mokuba, and irritating stepbrother Noah' time.

"So, I heard in the briefing that the hot chick gave that we're supposed to all have certain he raises two fingers on each hand and does the quote sign gifting and talents, any idea what ours are?" he spoke into his glass, finishing off his beverage.

Mokuba shook his head.

"No clue, Seto's supposed to show me more about it later"

"Speaking of the great depression, where is he? I need another drink" he set it down on the table, just in time for Seto to get back and have it shoved at him, Seto took the wordless order and walked off to go get the glass filled again, giving Noah an irritated glare as he walked back off.

"Though Noah, seriously, who's going to take care of the company if you're gone? Gozuboro is retired"

"I made a few calls and he's going to come back and see how my company is doing without him there"

"uh huh right" Mokuba rolled his eyes, truth was, Noah didn't do any of the work, and the company wasn't 'his', it belonged to the three of them, just Seto and he did all the work and Noah got all the credit and the fame.

"Well finally I was about to die of dehydration you slacker" Noah took the drink from Seto's hand as he sat down.

"Oh, for shame" your real older brother commented as he sat back down, now acting completely normal, as if Noah wasn't even there.

"Now, I'd figure with you being some sort of power in this world and me being your superior, I would get yawns a few benefits yawns and head starts to nod as in some cheats and stuff-he rests his head on the tabletop, snoring lightly

Mokuba smirked at Seto who stood up and dumped the rest of Noah's drink into the grass, Mokuba stood with him and both came onto either side of him.

"Nice move with the sleep stuff"

"Hey, being a game master does have its benefits"

"What we going to do with him, we can't just leave him here"

"Sure we can, it's easy"

"Seto" Mokuba grumbled

"Fine I'll put him in the Inn, but after that we're leaving this town"

"Where will we go?"

"Away. Far away."

Mokuba helped Seto lift Noah up and take him to a place with a sign that read: "Menlo's Silver Fin Inn"

"Seriously, where do they get these names from?" Mokuba joked as they left a few minutes later, leaving their blue-haired step-brother behind them.

Seto led Mokuba to right outside of the town where he re-summoned his riding dragon.

"Can we go see those ruins now? I bet it will be cooler at night"

"ok fine but stay close to me, like I said before, you don't know what might jump out at you" Seto lifted his little brother up onto the dragons back and seated him right in front of him, Mokuba felt the rush of cool air hit his face as the giant reptile leaped into the air and the sensation of flight kicked in.

Dragon riding gives you a feeling that you will never forget, the smell, the chills, that terrible feeling you get when you land and its over, like roller coasters, they end all too quickly.

Mokuba sadly watched the behemoth fade away as Seto dismissed it, the thick forest now facing them and civilization miles away.

They still had a few hours of daylight left by the looks of it, and Mokuba wanted to make the best of it, he grabbed Seto's hand and pulled him along the path to the ancient ruins.

(Inside the ruins)

This was incredible, this place looked so old, so real, it felt so old, so real, it even smelled- well actually the smell was terrible, is was the stench of old, real (real dust, that is) and dead mixed together, which was the same smell as a elevator filled with those old geezers from Kaiba Corp.

Mokuba's fingers brushed a stone tablet, and surprisingly enough it didnt shatter, apparently they wanted this to last through the abuse of the gamers would put it through.

"We should go, it's getting late"

"Go where?" Mokuba asked curiously, walking beside his brother while looking up at him.

"I was thinking maybe a campout tonight, just the two of us, what do ya think?" Seto actually said in a cheerful manner, the effects of Noah's obnoxious presence obviously had left his mind.

"Sure!" Mokuba ran the rest of the way out of the ruins, tapping his foot while waiting for Seto, who took his precious time; just too playfully torture his little brother.

Soon enough (with a little game master magic of course) they had a fire built and a place to rest, and as of now they were staring up at a star filled sky, it seems that they put the same star system as the real world into the virtual one, either way, it was breath-taking.

"Seto, why did they do this?" Mokuba asked, his back on the ground and his arms cushioning his head.

"Do what?"

"Make this entire world? I know it's probably making lots of profit for them, but still, you know what I mean"

"I don't know why Pegasus decided to create this masterpiece of a land, and I'm sure money did have something to do with it- he pauses for a moment but I don't know the overall reason for it"

"Hmm" Mokuba closed his eyes for a moment, taking it all in, but the silence was broken when a loud noise was heard in the forest.

Seto stood to his feet, drawing his weapon out, staring into the forest, searching for the disturbance.

"Seto, what is-?"

"Shush mokie"

Mokuba rolled onto his stomach and stared into the forest with his brother, both completely unaware of the approaching danger.

Seto's pov

I stood there with my battle sword drawn, this was a dangerous area, I knew I should have taken Mokuba to a lower leveled area, but this was a pretty cool area and he wanted to go, so- there's the noise again! I strain my eyes, and catch a glimpse of something that sent shivers up my spine, 2 glowing red eyes, with black slits in them, but I only saw it for a moment then it disappeared.

After a moment I let my sword drop, no sooner had I let my guard down when I hear Mokuba's panicked yell for me

"Seto!"

Lucky was still holding tightly to her brother's torso, he basically carried her around everywhere, and by everywhere, I mean everywhere around the military camp, because within the tiem he got ehre and was able to find a game master, Ty had somehow managed to become the commanding general over hundreds of soldiers, who were real people, here to enjoy the game.

"Lucky, don't you want to get down now?"

Lucky paused for a moment before simply saying 'nope'.

"So, how did Gwen react to you coming?"

"what she doesn't know won't piss her off Ty" her brother sighed as he sat down, Lucky finally letting him go as she sat next to him, resting her head on his shoulder.

"I have a feeling I'm going to be getting a very angry phonecall when we get back." But he smiled as he looked back down at his younger sibling.

"but heck, let her be mad, this will all be well worth Gwen's wrath" he hugged Lucky close to him, they sat there silently for awhile before Lucky perked up.

"Ty, why do I fell different in this world?" she leaned up, looking out at the beautiful scenery in front of them.

"what do you mean by different?"

"well, I don't know, its like there's something on the inside of me that just wants to jump out, I can feel it all over, especially when it tingles in my hands" she held her hand up to look at it, it seemed perfectly normal, then why was there an itching on the inside of it?

"you know what, you might have special powers"

"what?"

"I heard some of the guys talking about it to that Toby guy while he was here, apparently everyone here was randomly gifted with some sort of ability, maybe you got one too"

"is he still here?"

"I'm pretty sure he left after he ported you here Luck"

"aww, well, then how do I know if I have powers?" like any 12 yr old, she was eager to know if she had super powers like those cool people in cartoons.

"I don't know, maybe it will just come to you"

Lucky slumped down, she had gotten so eager just to hear 'maybe it will come to you', that automatically meant that it wouldn't happen for a long time.

"can we go explore the woods? Please Ty?" at first her big brother was about to say no, but heck, this was the first time he'd seen her in how long? 1? Maybe 2 years? Besides, this was a military fortress, what could possibly go wrong while he was gone?

"ok, let's go" he stood up and they walked through the building and out to the rec. yard, there was a gate there that would grant them access to the woods.

later

"wow, it all looks so real" Lucky stared at a river crab as it walked in a side-ways motion in the water, and scurried into the underwater roots of a one of the many trees that were bordering the lake.

Her attention was drawn away when she heard the scream-like noises of a bird, she looked up to see 2 little birds, and a larger falcon circling them, ready to kill them then their young babies.

"no!" Lucky yelled aloud, as she reached her hand up, hoping maybe a noise will distract that bigger bully-bird for abit, but when she extended her arm, the tingling in her palm got worse, much worse, a flash of orange light filled the space and a shrill cry could be heard.

"LUCKY!" Ty yelled when he saw the flash, it was watching a single firework in slow motion, it came from Lucky's hand and was shooting straight like an arrow, the force of whatever had happened pushed his little sister to the hard ground as the globe of bright red/orange light kept to its path, streaking through midair until it hit something solid which it just did.

Lucky stood to her feet, seeing what she had done, the birds and their babies were safe, but on the ground a few yards from the tree it had been haunting was the burnt-to-a-crisp remains of what WAS a falcon.

Still amazed by what she had done, Lucky looked form one hand to another, her body suddenly feeling much more tired than a few seconds ago. She breathed in and out deeply, only some smoke stains on her hands were the change that they had endured, Ty came up behind her and spun her around, checking her over, making sure she wasn't hurt in any way, shape, or form. But while he stressed and toiled over her, Lucky looked up to the fried bird then back down to her hands.

"That. Was. Awesome"

at the gaming headquarters

"everything running smoothly?" a passing overseer asked as she walked by, resting her hand on the back of Neal's chair.

"so far so good, all the GM's have turned in their reports in a timely manner and all systems are working fine"

"good to hear, keep up the good work"

"thanks Kat, can you grab me another coffee?" he asked, listing his empty cup up over his shoulder.

She took it with a sarcastic smirk and left to go to the break room before anyone else asked a favor of her, she decided to play a trick on Neal and began pouring the decaf into his Styrofoam cup, using the shoe of her right leg to scratch the back of her left, at this point she was debating whether or not to spit a luge into it when there was a commotion on the other side of the door, she ran out the door with cup in hand to see many people running back and forth, all talking loudly, trying to yell over each other.

"Neal, what's wrong?!"

"W-we don't know, everything just crashed, we've lost all contact to them!"

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-X

back to Seto and Mokuba

Mokuba lost his breath as he turned over to see the huge monster standing over him, in his adrenaline rush he saw the sword come down slowly enough for him to roll over and dodge it.

"Mokuba!" Seto yelled as he practically jumped over him, his fighting sword drawn, ready to fight.

In one swing the monster swung it's large arm towards Seto to swipe him, causing Seto to duck and roll, swinging his long sword out trying to cut at the monsters legs to make it fall forward so he and Mokuba could escape, but all the sword did was making a loud clanging noise against the hard scales that laced it's legs. Oh no now he left Mokuba up against that creature alone! Mokuba had finally gotten to his feet and paralysed to his spot, watching as the creature moved slowly but with great power behind each movement which sent chills of fear up Mokuba's spine. What was he to do? Seto didn't give him any weapons yet to defend himself with. "Mokuba! DUCK!" He heard Seto's voice yell again, as he swung his sword again clanging against the metal of the monster's sword with great force, causing a great shuddering pain to go through Seto's hands, making him cringe in agony where as the monster didn't even flinch. It just simply took the chance to swipe Seto aside like a child with a rag doll, causing pain to course through Seto's back as he crashed into the trees that they had camped near by. "Seto! Seto I'm coming!" Seto heard his brother cry out, as he desperately ran to his older brother. "M-Mokuba s-stay back!" Seto cried out trying to protect his only family from such a furious creature. He had no clue who designed this beast, but it was sure built for great physical strength.

With great effort Seto struggled to get to his feet, holding up his sword ready to strike again and protect his little brother. "Request for instant evacuation immediately!" Seto demanded on his com link dodging another strike and finding himself standing in front of Mokuba. But there was nothing but static, what was going on? "Seto can't you get through?" Mokuba asked as you backed away making sure that he remained behind you. "No something wrong..." But before he could say anymore, Mokuba slipped and began to fall down a small ditch. "Mokuba!" But before Seto could even go after his younger sibling he was swiped to the side again, crashing into a wall of the ruins and that was when his entire world went black.

Mokuba watched with wide eyes as Seto's limp form fell to the ground, he took a few steps back before turning and running before the monsters attention was on him, but it was only seconds before something could be heard running behind him, all he could do was try and run faster, if he could only reach the entrance to the ruins he might be able to lose the creature, he rounded the corner and grabbed around the side of the open stone entrance, pulling himself around and in, he tried his best to run in the dark, but frankly, he was running into walls everywhere he turned, not helping the fact that he was panicking, he turned around and saw a eerie shadow fall into the room, he back into the corner and slid to the ground, grabbing his knees, trying not to make any noise, he closed his eyes and heard the near silent footsteps of the creature on the sand floor of the caverns, a deep breathing could be heard, and a terrible smell like week-old garbage filled Mokuba's nostrils , he had to hold back a gag as it came closer to his corner, now it was only inches away from him, why wasn't it attacking?

It was then that a terrible screech could be heard throughout the entire forest, the monster turned to leave the ancient place, giving one sweeping glance before running out and- taking flight?

The youngest Kaiba was much too scared to move form that spot, he stayed there in that position for a good 10 minutes (and eternity to someone who's as terrified as he was then) before sneaking out of the shelter and daring to go back to look for Seto.

He relied on moonlight to see his way back, no noises could be heard now, no yelling or unearthly screaming, no insects, birds, wolves, nothing. The pre-teen finally found where he and his older brother had been camping less than an hour before, everything was out of place and disordered, all that was left was a small bit of campfire, throwing an orange light across his face and all the nearby trees, he remembered the direction his brother had been thrown in and ran over to find him, but much to his horror, he was gone, the only thing left of him was the katana that laid to the side, it was shattered in the middle with blood staining what was left of its silver metal blade. What was he going to do? Where was Seto? What had happened?

The full moon lit up the sky, reflecting its large round self in the salty water that lapped gently as the sides of the creeking ship, the sound itself was a lullaby all its own.

Jake walked through the bed chambers, hammocks at each side of him, filled with the sleeping and tired bodies of his crew, all were dirty, smelly, and snoring very loudly as he made the count.

"17.18.19-"

He looked over at an empty hammock, number 20, aka: Jeremy's.

"where is that little brat" he muttered as he walked around the ship, silently searching for the his pain in the you-know-where. He finally came up to the top deck, where he heard a small snoring sound, he looked over to the left to see a pair of legs hanging over the edge of the top of where Jake's cabin was. A sly grin came to his face as a mean idea came to him, he walked stealthily over to the edge, he reached up to grab the child's leg and-

"ah!" Jeremy yelped as he was rudely awakened to a sensation of falling, when his mind finally registered it that he was in no immediate danger and that Jake was the cause of it, he made an irritated groaning sound as he realized that he was now standing up on his own two feet, well, Jake was kinda holding him up, laughing loudly at how Jeremy had squealed, Jeremy pushed himself away from him in frustration.

"aww come on runt you know that was funny, admit it" Jake pestered as he let him go.

"no. it wasn't. it was morbidly terrifying" Jeremy whined as he crossed his arms. Jake started laughing again.

"you are so cute when you pout" Jeremy's eyes widened as he and Jake turned around quickly, only proving who the voice belonged to.

"sigh what do you want Cade?" Cade's ship was only a yard away from rubbing up against Jake's, not only was it abit dangerous but also quite rude as well.

"well we recognized your vessel and decided to drop in to say hi" he said smugly, his crew busting their hides still doing work, this late at night. "well that, and I couldn't go long without saying hi to the love of my life" he grinned widely at Jeremy, who averted his gaze to elsewhere, not wanting to think about it at all.

"what do you really want cade, I know you didn't stalk us all the way out here just to make googly-eyes at the shrimp, speaking of which, you. To bed. Now." Jake stated as he playfully shoved Jeremy, who obeyed quickly and willingly, running down to the chambers and falling into his hammock, but not quite able to fall asleep.

back on deck

Cade had boarded the vessel and was now in Jake's cabin, the 2 men discussing a business proposition.

"so let me get this straight, you want me to take you on as a partner? Why? So you'll have easy access to go screw the kid?" Jake spat, he leaned back in his chair and folded his arms, it had been a long day and he was in no mood for Cade's perverted little games.

"no, that's just a handy perk, no, the real reason behind my little proposition is that, well, just look at the facts, 2 ships, 2 crews, 2 captains, twice as much in riches"

Jake closed his eyes for a moment, considering the pro's and con's of the arrangement.

"deal" he stated after thinking about it for awhile, he leaned forward and took Cade's hand in an agreement gesture

Seto opened his eyes slowly before leaning up into the sitting up position, he was in a dark – cage? There were several other people in there, from teens and children in the game, and some game characters that had been built in. Seto looked around, this place seemed familiar, he just couldn't pinpoint where he was exactly, as he was deep in thought trying to remember, the sounds of some of the younger kids screaming in terror jerked him back into reality, there was a large winged monster infront of the bars, just like the one that had taken him. The creature's eyes glowed with a sickly green tint to them, his pupils no more than snake-like slits. It was a demon.

It opened some sort of lock on the cage door and 3 more of the winged terrors appeared, each with huge blades and blood-stained swords gripped in their coarse-haired hands. One reached in and grabbed one of its captives, pulling the girl up to her feet, and pushing her past him, he reached for another and the message was sent across: stand up. Which they all did out of pure fear.

This place…..it was dark…like a cave…yet the only visible light source were red flames, probably magma crystals, Seto remembered Tobi telling him about the many different crystals and their functions, now if only he had paid more attention.

They were all guided down a path overlooking a deep pit, one of the teens froze when he looked down, turns out he had a fear of heights, and refused to walk another step on the dirt path. This presented no problem for the demons, they simply pushed him over the edge to his inevitable death, his screams echoed throughout the caverns, until a sickening thud was heard. Silence followed.

The row of captive humans walked steadily around the edge, not wanting to suffer the same fate, Seto kept an eye on these escorts, something was terribly wrong with the game, for starters, his connection to the outside was no more, these demons aren't supposed to even exist, and when someone 'died' in this virtual world, there was usually a flash of light as they were ported back to real life, when that kid hit the ground, there was no such light.

A shudder of intense fear ran up his spine. This was not a good situation to be in anymore, heck, wasn't good in the first place, this game had suddenly taken a much worse turn of events.

He could soon see where they were being led to, there was a sickish green/yellow light a ways ahead of them on their narrow path, howls and grunts of unknown creatures and demons could be heard.

There was just something in the atmosphere that made all the present humans aggressive, Seto didn't know why but he was beginning to feel and overwhelming urge to………to-

"BACK OFF!" he yelled at a nearby attendant, the only thing keeping his hands from being around this creatures throat were the chains on his wrists.

The rush of adrenaline made him oblivious to the fact that he wasn't alone in his rampage, another monster let out a rather loud squeal of pain as a mere child bit him on the leg. The demon grabbed the kid by the neck, meaning to end his virtual life, but all that did was fuel the rage of the now mob-like prisoners that went into an uproar.

Why were they being like this? So violent, so anxious, so………like their captors?

While the humans were making futile attempts at a revolt none of them noticed the tall winged figure step out onto a nearby balcony that overlooked the room, though no one could see his face it only took a simple look into one of one of his underlings directions to give a silent order, one by one the prisoners were brought out of the crowded center of the room, receiving either a nod- or no reaction at all.

The ones that got the nod of approval were forced from their fellow friends in the group and dragged struggling away with one or two of these much larger monsters at their side.

Two or three were carried away before one girl was brought forward, she received no nod, no gesture of any kind, she was flung, chains and all, into the collection of demons that were standing around the edges and walls of the room.

It was then that Seto realized what was going on, somehow, if you were considered desirable or worthwhile to the big guy on the balcony, you were taken away, your life assumable spared for his evil purposes, but if you weren't-

He was jerked out of his thoughts as he was grabbed by his shoulders and forced to look up at the one who seemed to be in charge around here.

After what seemed like an eternity the monsters head slowly rose, then fell.

Seto had gained approval.

He immediately found himself between two winged demons who were both at least over a foot taller than he was, but he was a bit more worried about where he was being taken rather than his escorts appearances.

They brought him to a place on the outside of the fortress, it was all dirt and dead trees as far as the eye could see, with an occasional torch or bonfire for light, and more of these vile creatures walking around disturbed piles and mounds of dirt, they were all chanting some unfamiliar tongue, as if they were placing a curse, or casting some wicked spell, even-……..…beginning a ritual.

He noticed that he wasn't the only one there as he recognized a few of the others from the previous room, his head was suddenly jerked back as a long-nailed shaman grabbed a fistful of his hair, a vulgarly terrible taste entered his mouth as a disgusting chunky liquid was forced to slide its slimy way down his throat, he tried to force it back up but the shaman proved to be physically stronger than he, after the last bit of the elixir was gone he was completely let go.

Immediately dropping to his knees, the goth boy felt very weak, weak and dizzy, his entire world fading from view as he slowly fell unconscious, the next person in the makeshift line falling to the ground to join in on the same fate.