Yes, it's me again –grin-. I got the idea for this story as I watched .hacksign, so... yeah. It's not a crossover, but it's heavily influenced by .hack. Oh heck, here's a summary, since I obviously can't do proper introductions -smacks self-:

Seto Kaiba wanted everything in his virtual world to be perfect. It would revolutionize the way people thought about video games, taking them a step further into an unexplored realm, into a world that exists, but doesn't. But what if it's too real? As he immerses himself into the game, a strange character appears to him, merging the two dimensions of reality and digital together, all the while reminding him about what is real and what is not. Seto changes his perspective constantly, trying to figure out who this person is and how they even got into the system without a username, making them impossible to track. Who is this person, and why have they hacked into VirtuVenture to "play" with the mind of Seto Kaiba?

Hmn. Not bad shrug You decide! I'm pretty excited about this one. Read on if you will, and be sure to comment! (oh, and for the record, I know nothing of how virtual reality works, so I am doing my best to research and keep the basic facts straight ;))

Chapter 1

--Key pad: A. Activate special ability 6--

--D-pad: focus energy left, left, up, down--

-- First control: strike 2, 3, 4, 5, critical hit, critical hit, miss—dodge--

--Final Blow—K.O.--

The giant dragon gave a mighty bellow and fell to its side, its black scales tearing through the ground like tissue paper. A tall man stalked toward the crumpled form, kneeling down upon one knee to look it straight on as the fiery redness in its eye began to flicker, and he gave a satisfied grin. Straightening up again, he sheathed the small katana he had been using, not bothering to wipe off the blue-black blood smeared upon it.

"It's not dead yet," he growled in a deep voice.

His silvery hair blew about his face in a soft, false wind, and his crystalline eyes narrowed as he made a mental note about its fragrance and texture, not liking it at all. The beast began to twitch slightly as it lost more blood through the many wounds punctured into its skin, its breathing raspy and uneven—this was the state it needed to be in for the man's power to work.

From the air he caught up a long, sleek staff of cherry wood, its crest set with a deep blue crystal the size of a fist; immediately it glowed with a blinding light as he raised it above his head. A loud humming filled the air around it, and he brought it down sharply in front of him to point it at the dragon's form, letting out a loud cry.

"Withdraw!"

The landscape around the figures paled as a radiant beam of energy shot out of the gem and struck the dying creature in the side. It did not move nor make any noise, and the spell caster murmured a strange language underneath his breath; the hands in the other dimension made their move.

--Keyboard: HTML code #4056 --

--Password: - - - - - --

--Reconfigure base formula? Y --

--Structure AB monster: CODE HKLT6O7 --

The black dragon gave a mighty roar and its body flailed, the ray of light from the staff piercing the vital part of its data. The man gave a wide smirk as the change took effect, but just as quickly cursed as the frantic movements froze in midair, the thrashing tail appearing some 6 feet to the right of where it was supposed to be attached. His grip on the staff tightened, but the dragon's body only got worse, the outline becoming fuzzy and out of focus and its roars distorting so badly they sounded like scratches upon a chalkboard. A sudden loud, booming voice echoed from the heavens, and everything in the landscape froze and greyed.

Calmly, the character lowered his weapon and tilted his head up to gaze at the sky.

"There was a data overload, sir. We must do an emergency shut down," it said.

Giving somewhat of a frustrated sigh, the man fazed out of the scene. In the other dimension, the owner of the voice approached someone standing in the middle of an empty, cold room.

"The CPU was not able to keep up with the changes in the data stream—"

"Why not?" The person standing before him spoke sharply, taking off a head mount to reveal a pair of piercing blue eyes.

The man jumped a bit. "We think the reason came from within the database itself; your character's withdraw ability needs to be developed further before we can test it again, Kaiba-sama," he said, bowing slightly.

"I certainly hope you all know that this will not delay that release of this system to the public," the CEO shot at the employees seated behind a window looking down on the room; a few nodded, the glow from their monitors shining off the metallic equipment behind them. His eyes fell back to his main assistant. "And you will send me a notification of any significant changes, as well as an hourly update. Got it, Robun?"

"Yes, Kaiba-sama."

Sighing, Kaiba pulled off the wired gloves covering his slender hands, handing them to Robun. "The force feedback needs to be worked on as well. The staff felt like a tube of cardboard." He unhooked a small computer chip from his belt, peering at it. "This seems to be ready, but we'll never really know until a backup sensor is needed." It was placed on top of the gloves.

"Niisama!" A short, black-haired boy raced out of an opened door and practically jumped onto his brother with his head monitor still on. The elder hunched a little bit but just as quickly pried the little boy off him and set him on his feet. "That was awesome!" he said excitedly, pulling off the head gear to grin at Kaiba. "I was watching the whole thing from the forest next to you; you really kicked that Red Eyes's butt!"

"Hn." Kaiba took his little brother by the shoulder and began to lead him out, smirking right back at him. "You don't have to say that every time, Mokuba. I hardly ever mention the battles you have anymore."

"So? I know I kick butt, too." The younger Kaiba brother laughed a little. "I still like watching you battle, Seto. And I'll always know which one you are because you made sure that your character had something to flare out in the back."

"What do you mean?" As they exited the large prototype lab, a large gust of wind greeted them, causing Seto's white trench coat to billow out even more.

"C'mon," said Mokuba. "Is there anything that you wear that doesn't have something long in the back that—"

"Hold on," Seto cut in, taking out his cell phone. He dialed the lab they had just left, simultaneously taking out the keys to his Mercedes-Benz SL500. "I want you to fix the wind in there, too," he said curtly to the other end before hanging up. "I have outfits that aren't like that," he said to Mokuba as they climbed in the sleek black car.

"Yeah, your pajamas," snickered the boy.

Seto closed his eyes for a moment. His little brother always seemed to find a way to get on his nerves while still retaining his adorable nature. "Will you be quiet if I take you out for ice cream?" he asked, shutting his door and starting the car.

"Maybe."

Seto chuckled and revved up the engines, knowing quite well that once his little brother got the ice cream, he'd be bouncing off the walls for a good hour or so until the sugar wore off.

Later on that night, Seto sat down heavily at his desk at home, having just put Mokuba to bed after watching 45 minutes of wrestling, complete with his brother's imitations with pillows. How people can watch that junk and enjoy it is beyond me, he thought bitterly to himself. Another email update was waiting for him when he opened up his account, and he merely glanced over it before deleting it, seeing the same thing. He was about to turn off the machine, but stopped as he heard another small beep.

He had another message, but it wasn't from the prototype lab, nor was it from any company that he recognized. Not only that, but it looked like it was from a single person. It couldn't be a virus or spam of any sort, as Seto knew that he had the most recent blockers and protection on his computer, most of which he himself had designed. The only thing it could be was a personal email from another person, something he hadn't gotten in nearly four years. Slightly perplexed, he opened up the letter.

"Mr. Kaiba,

I wanted to inform you that the release of VirtuVenture is highly anticipated; the minor flaws within it as of now can be easily fixed by your staff, and I am sure you will not delay the release date. I look forward to playing with you. Until next time,

Hack"

Seto's mouth opened slightly in confusion, his eyes narrowing at the screen. "How the hell did you get my email address?" he wondered aloud.

The sender box was empty, and he wasn't in the mood to track it. Deleting the message, he scoffed at the unoriginality of the name that the person had signed. "Hack. How stupid." Closing his laptop, he stretched, looking at the digital clock beside his bed to see that it was close to midnight.

He changed into some blue silk pants, leaving his chest bare. As he walked over to open up his window, he stopped and looked at himself in the mirror. Even though it was dark, he could still see the blue hue of his eyes through his brown hair; he looked a bit thin, but then again, he was 6'1 and kept in better shape than most 19 year olds. He focused more on the comfortable sleep ware, however, muttering slightly to himself. "They're not pajamas…"

It was still a bit windy outside, but the window was opened up anyway; Seto settled into bed, his mind straying to the random email again. Whoever this "Hack" person was… he obviously was just a waste of time. It seemed like the only real thing he knew about the new game was the name of it. The name—

Seto's brow furrowed. "…I haven't released the name to anyone yet."

So! Good, bad? Well whatever you think, lemme know through a review! I also did a quick sketch of Seto's character in the virtual world--there's a direct link in my profile because I'm too lazy to edit the story pictures webpage. Yeah! Hope you all like this story!