I do not own Sword Art Online.

A.N.: This is not the first story. If you are reading this and haven't read "Cheater" yet, read that first.


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Michael took a steadying breath, looking through the scope of his sniper rifle, ignoring the feeling of blood running down his face. Behemoth and a group of Laughing Coffin members, including one sniper, were guarding the city's gate. There were several destroyed dune buggies not far from the gate, where Sinon had been attacked, but there was no sign of Sinon.

"Where would you go," Michael breathed, scanning the desert.

An idea occurred to him. He knew exactly where she'd go if she meant to hide somewhere where only he would find her. He put his rifle away, wiping his face to satisfy himself that the blood wasn't real, then crawled back down the sand dune and started running across the desert, careful to keep out of the sniper's sight. Finally, he slowed to a stop, watching the cave where he, Kirito, and Sinon had hidden during BoB. There was no sign of life, but Michael knew that Sinon wasn't dumb enough to leave anything obvious. He did, however, see what he was looking for. Tiny rock chips were arranged on the floor of the cave to look like a bow. Anyone else would overlook it, probably even Death Gun. But Michael knew exactly what it was. He silently ran to the mouth of the cave, drawing his knife. Then, he stepped inside, ducking under a stream of bullets and darting forward, avoiding still more and grabbing the player by the armor, putting the knife to his throat as his gun pressed to Michael's stomach.

"Yamikaze," Michael growled. "I take the fact that you haven't shot me yet to mean you're not Laughing Coffin."

"How'd you find us?" Yamikaze snarled.

"It's alright, Yamikaze," Sinon said stepping out from behind the boulder, using the wall to support herself since her leg was missing just above the knee. "He's the one we've been waiting for. This is Michael."

Yamikaze lowered his gun and Michael put his knife away, hurrying over to Sinon, hugging her as she hugged him back.

"I thought I'd lost you," Michael breathed.

"It was close," Sinon admitted. "Yamikaze showed up in time to save me but I lost my leg. It should have healed by now, but it's not."

Michael opened a binary code window and began typing. Then, he closed it and Sinon's leg reappeared. She sighed, leaning against his chest and smiling.

"Thank you for coming after me," Sinon smiled. "But...what about the virus?"

"Kirito and Agil are working on it from outside," Michael said. "We're going to work on it from in here."

Sinon smiled and nodded and Michael opened his menu. Sure enough, the logout option was gone, but there was a new one. They could switch games.

"When did that show up?" Michael asked.

"I...don't know," Sinon admitted. "It wasn't there when this began."

"Alright," Michael nodded. "Let's head over to ALfheim. At least there you can't be killed before you even know they're there."

"True," Sinon nodded.

"ALfheim?" Yamikaze blinked before groaning. "I fucking hate fantasy games."

"Well, you better learn to love them real fast," Michael stated. "You're coming with us."

Before he could transfer, a message alert appeared. He opened the message and his eyes widened.

"Michael, it's Yuuki. I saw you were online. I don't know why you came back but HELP! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !"

Michael looked to Sinon who nodded and they all transferred over. The moment they arrived, Michael hacked Yamikaze's new Imp avatar, raising its stats to what his GGO avatar had had, then giving him the cloak Michael had been wearing up until they had gotten to the treasure room in the cave with the Fatal Scythes, along with a pair of defense boots and gloves and a one handed sword. He then hacked the game again, giving Yamikaze a dark purple shield that had high stats.

"Thanks," Yamikaze said. "I'll have you teach me how to play later. You have friends to save, right?"

Michael nodded and extended his winds as Sinon did the same.

"Run straight that way and you'll reach a town," Michael said pointing. "Go to the inn, it'll have a picture of a bed. Once inside, you can't be hurt. Just in case though, sit somewhere where you can easily get away if you're attacked. And keep a careful eye out. We'll meet you there in a bit."

And with that, Michael and Sinon flew off. As they got into the air, Strea and Yui appeared on Michael's shoulders both looking very serious.

"Laughing Coffin is a lot larger than you thought," Yui said. "And they're dangerous. Inn's are still safe but cities aren't."

"I figured," Michael nodded. "Can you two lead us to Yuuki and the others?"

"They're at Mommy and Daddy's house," Yui stated.

"Alright, thanks," Michael said, he and Sinon turning and flying toward New Aincrad as fast as they could.

After about eight minutes, they landed in a field where the Sleeping Knights, minus Siune, were fighting dozens of Salamanders. Each Salamander was dressed like the usual Salamander soldier but with Laughing Coffin insignias on their shields.

"Well well," Michael growled, landing beside Yuuki. "Laugh Coffin has an army."

"Hey, isn't that..." one of the Salamanders spoke up.

"It's him!" another shouted. "It's the freak with the living shadow!"

"Really?" Michael sighed. "That's what I'm being called now? Come on. Even Klein got a title."

The Salamanders began to back away and Michael sighed, holding out his hand. Everyone's shadows all shot out from under them, forming into the massive shadow creature behind the Salamanders. They turned toward it and its right arm swept through them, smashing half of them through the air where they died on impact with the ground.

"We have to get out of here!" one shouted and they all sprouted wings, turning to fly away.

Just as they rose into the air, the shadow creature shrunk down into Michael's Fatal Scythe who flew around in front of them, making them all stop, staring at it in fear.

"What is that thing!?" someone shouted.

"That," Michael said, flying up behind them, "is my newest minion. It's called a Fatal Scythe. Personally, I'm not too fond of it. but it is rather strong so."

Three of the Salamanders turned, flying at him as the rest flew at the Fatal Scythe. Michael snorted in amusement, slashing the first Salamander's lance aside then splitting him open before tossing his sword into the air, catching the next two lances. Then, he smashed the two Salamanders into each other before catching his sword and slashing both, killing them. They, like the others that had died before them, caught fire like they were turning into a Remain Light then simply disappeared. Michael looked at the Fatal Scythe as its scythe split the last Salamander and it faded as the Salamander burned away.

Michael landed with the others and sighed.

"Well that was easy," Michael sighed. "

"Did Klein really get a title?" Sinon asked surprised.

"Yeah, the Phantom Swordsman," Michael grumbled. "And I'm still just the freak with the living shadow."

"If you want a title, make on up," Jun suggested.

"I used my own name for my player ID," Michael said. "I'm not creative in any way."

"Why not go with the shadow thing and your weapon like any average gamer?" Yuuki asked. "Shadow Blade sounds pretty cool."

"Shadow Blade?" Michael asked. "I suppose. But now how the hell do I make people know that title?"

"Carve it into the side of New Aincrad or something," Jun suggested.

"That's a terrible idea," Sinon said. "And this is a stupid conversation in light of recent events. Michael, isn't there something important we're supposed to be doing?"

"Good point," Michael said hacking open a portal to his field. "Come on. We'll be safe here."

They all went through, the Sleeping Knights and Yui staring at the field in awe while Michael closed the portal and sat under the tree with Sinon, opening a screen that turned into a video call to Kirito's phone.

"Michael?" Kirito blinked before smiling. "You found her. That's good. How are things?"

"Bad," Michael said. "Laughing Coffin has an army in ALfheim, GGO, and probably a lot of other games as well. We saved Yuuki and the others, and I don't think Siune is online, thank God. Someone should call her and tell her Yuuki and the others are alright and with me. How are things going with the virus?"

"It's mutated," Kirito said. "It linked all of the different VRMMOs together. Apparently, you can now switch between them at will and keep your avatar."

"Explains a little bit," Michael nodded. "If Behemoth finds out that second part, ALfheim Online is going to get a whole lot more dangerous."

Sinon nodded an agreement as Kirito shook his head.

"Someone tried to take their weapons from GGO to ALfheim but the guns wouldn't work," Kirito reported. "Someone else took swords to GGO, however, and they worked fine."

"Good," Michael smirked. "I prefer these to that Photon Sword anyway."

"I agree," Kirito grinned. "Where are you?"

"It's my own little Virtual World," Michael said. "I have firewalls designed by myself and run by Strea protecting it so for now it should be safe from other payers that my or Sinon don't specifically let in. It'll be our base of operations while we're trying to solve this."

"Alright," Kirito nodded. "Listen, now that you can help, we need a scan of the Virus's core programming in order to be able to figure out how to stop it."

"I'll send one right away," Strea spoke up, sitting on Michael's shoulder.

"Hey, is Yui there?"

"I'm here Daddy!" Yui said flying up in front of the camera.

"Good," Kirito smiled, visibly relaxing as Asuna joined him, also relaxing and smiling.

"Mommy!" Yui smiled.

"Hey Yui," Asuna smiled. "Are you okay?"

"I'm okay," Yui smiled. "Me and Strea are going to help with the firewall around the field and with finding a way to stop the virus. So I'm not going to be in any danger any time soon."

"Good," Asuna smiled. "Yuuki's there too, right?"

"Of course," Michael nodded. "Her and the rest of the Sleeping Knights. Well, except Siune. Anyway, I should go. I have to start working on the Virus problem. Kirito, I'm linking your laptop and Agil's to my terminal. That way we can work on the solution without having to talk over the phone like this."

"Alright," Kirito nodded. "Good luck."

"Thanks," Michael nodded.

Just as the video call ended, an alert screen opened in front of Daniel. He opened it and his eyes widened.

"What?" Sinon asked.

"The Virus has infected the Cardinal System," Yui said. "It just gave itself full control of the Virtual World through ALfheim Online."

"Meaning?" Sinon asked.

"Meaning, there are no longer separate games," Michael said. "Just different parts of one. You'll see when we go out to gather any players who aren't Laughing Coffin tomorrow."

Sinon nodded and curled up against Michael who wrapped his arms around her and smiled, in spite of the situation. Then, he and Sinon drifted off to sleep, the others, minus Yui and Strea, doing the same.


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