Disclaimer: Same as always...yadda yadda
A/N III"MMMM BBBAAAACCCKKKK! XD So sorry everyone! As I know you're dying to see what happens next please ignore this little part and...
READ!
Chapter 64
Inside the car, everyone squeezed themselves into, was extremely quiet as they all stared at me with various expressions-Loli more so then the others.
I looked out the window for a while before sighing as I turned back to my companions.
"So what do you want to know first?" I asked softly, already having known that this conversation would have happened sooner or later.
I saw Zhou open his mouth to say something I just about cringed at, when Loli interrupted him.
"You said that Ying Bin was Long Dain's true murderer; what did you mean by that?"
I looked at her in slightly annoyance before asking bluntly, "Do you know Long Dian?"
"Of course, I know Long Dian! I've known him since I was eight years old! He's my Uncle!" Loli confessed, much to everyone's surprise at this news, and I was a little happy to see that the piece of news distracted Zhou from the question that I knew would come eventually.
"And you're what? 21-22 years old now?" I said bring everyone's attention back to me.
"Yeah, so what?" Loli asked defensively.
"In the 14 years that you've known Long Dian, only now have you started believing in his innocence?" I asked bluntly, staring at her. She flinched back like I had slapped her in the face and opened her mouth to retort back, but I had already pressed on.
"And in those 14 years, you instantly believed that Long Dian was the one doing illegal horrifying experiments on humans-believed a strange assistant who you knew nothing about personally? You believed the word of a stranger over your own Uncle? You, at first, started to believe in him only to turn around and suspect Long Dain again!" I glared at her before asking her again coldly, "Now I'll ask you again: Do. You. Know. Long Dian?"
When Loli couldn't look me in the eyes, I tsked softly as I shook my head at her. "I thought so..."
"What's the problem?" Wolf-bro asked softly, looking from Loli to me and back again.
"Long Dain had been accused my Second Life Company of doing live human experiments which involve sending someone into Second Life before trapping them there." I said bluntly, causing everyone to gasp in horror.
"But in reality it was Long Dain's assistant, Ying Bin who was the one doing the experiments under the disguise of being Long Dain." I continued as I looked out the window.
"Knowing that it would be the perfect crime as everyone would suspect Long Dain since..." Here I let my voice fade as I slid my eyes to Loli who was looking at me red eyed.
"Since Long Dain had no real family or friends to back up his innocence." I ended coldly.
"If so, then why are you so convinced otherwise, Prince?" Doll asked softly and I looked away from everyone to stare sightlessly out of the hover car. "I would think that you would have even less reason to believe of Long Dain's innocence, considering your situation with Dictator of Life... "
"...Cloud."
I slowly closed my eyes as Zhou spoke bring everyone's attention to him, "That man...Long Dain...It seems so long ago, but I will always recall the face of your Father."
"What? What?" Gui piped up jealously looking from Zhou to me and back again.
"Are you going to tell them the truth or shall I, Cloud?" Zhou asked softly, ignoring Gui.
I laughed humorlessly as I looked at him as I answered, "It's not your story to tell, Zhou, so don't even think you know everything."
"What's going on?!" Loli demanded angrily, not understanding what was going on. I saw several people nod their heads in agreement, looking confused. "What's this got to do with Long Dain?"
"My full name is Long Yun Yin." I said as I looked everyone in the eye. "Long Dian is my Father."
Tense silence filled the hover car as everyone gaped at me, stunned by my blunt statement.
"Now you know," I said softly before grimacing. "It has to be a nightmare that I find out today that I'm actually related to Lolidragon."
"HEY!" Loli protested as everyone snapped out of their shock to laugh in surprised laughter which I joined in with a grin.
"Now that I really look at you; you kinda do look like Loli." Wolf-bro said as he looked from my face to Loli's.
"Ain't it horrible?" I asked teasingly. "I didn't want to be related to a bull frog."
The tense atmosphere disappeared as everyone laughed at my small joke and Loli's puffed up face.
"But with all seriousness, Prince," Loli asked with the most serious face that I've ever seen her wear. "Are you really Long Dain's daughter?"
I smiled slightly before leaning towards her. "Father is a grizzly bear in the mornings and has to have 3 1/3 cups of extra sweet lemonade, read the newspaper upside down, and somehow put on his favorite pair of socks on his ears before he's even remote human."
Loli's eyes widen in realization that I was who I said I was and I laughed at her expression.
"Yes, Loli, we're cousins." I told her before my expression darkened slightly causing Loli to move back in nervousness.
"Which means as your cousin, I have more tormenting rights." I said with a large grin and Loli groaned, causing everyone to laugh at her.
"Prince, so you're…" Zui said, changing the topic now that, that crisis was over. "You're actually a girl."
I felt my heart skip a beat before calming myself down as I smiled and nodded.
"Is it so surprising?" I asked everyone with a smile. "It's not like I was really hiding the fact."
"Well, not in the end at least." I admitted when I got a raised eyebrow from Huan, Mei and Zhou.
"Ah… Doll didn't know that Prince-bro was actually Prince-sis." Doll admitted as she pursed her mouth in dissatisfaction, causing me to laugh.
"It's normal that you wouldn't have been able to tell, Doll. I'm so much like a boy in real life that unless you knew me personally you wouldn't have been able to see through the disguise." I told her while ruffling her hair playfully, cheering her up.
"Though what confuses and amuses me the most is why Gui in all his professing to know me, never realized that I was Prince." I said as I look over at Gui. "Or where you purposely acting like you didn't know it was me?"
Gui had a blank look on his face as he murmured, "This… Was it really so easy to recognize you?"
I muffled a laugh as I looked away from Gui. 'It seems that with all his IQ of 200, even a genius like Gui can be oblivious to certain things.' I thought in amusement as I peeked at a still mentally confused Gui. 'At least it's nice that he was keeping his promise to me.'
"I will never meddle with your affairs again." He clarified as he got up onto his knees in front of me. "No matter who you are, I don't care."
"I believe the you right now is the true you. Just like the me right now is who I really am." Gui said as he looked up at me and I could feel myself blushing slightly at how close he was to me. "Nothing else matters, be it gender, appearance, or the fake personality you may have in real life."
"You couldn't even recognize Cloud? Were you really only able to see Prince's 'looks' the entire time?" Zhou ruthlessly attacked.
Gui's face tightened angrily as he glared at Zhou, "That's not true, I don't care what Prince looks like!"
"I think-," I was about to say when I was interrupted when Loli made a shushing gesture at all of us, making me suddenly aware that she had gotten on her phone some time during the change in conversation.
"Second Life is back online? Are you sure?!" Loli asked, talking into her cellphone, causing everyone to go silent as we listened in. "There are already people who have entered inside?"
"Have there been any changes in the game?" Loli asked while frowning. Upon hearing the reply, her jaw dropped open and her eyes bugged out as she hurriedly demanded, "Repeat that!"
Loli quickly pressed the loudspeaker button and gestured everyone closer. The cell phone announced the changes in Second Life in succession.
"The shape of the entire world has had little to no changes. The main changes have been in the NPCs. All of the NPCs have been modified slightly to fit more into their roles and the humanoid NPCs in the cities no longer just stand in one spot. They're so much like real humans it's hard to tell the difference between a player and a NPC."
"What on earth is going on?" Loli asked in confusion and from everyone's confused expressions; they were wondering the same thing.
"And the last change and most damaging in my opinion is that we only got into Second Life programming to see this before we were all kicked out and are as of now are un able to reenter. Something or someone had taken over Second Life and all its programming. We only got one message saying, 'I will only listen to HER.' from the person taking over."
"The Dictator of Life is still alive." Artic Fox suddenly said making a majority of us jump in surprise as we had forgotten she was with us.
So after yet another car racing journey, Loli brought all of us to Second Life's headquarters.
I noticed with surprise and slight disappointment that the glass I had shattered before had already reverted back to its original shape. 'The Second Life Company really did do things very efficiently.' I thought before pouting slightly. 'Phooie! And I wanted to see Loli's reaction to the shattered glass!'
"Miss, the Chairman wanted you to see him when you returned." Upon seeing Loli, a female worker at the reception immediately got to her feet in respect before giving Loli the message.
"Got it." Loli nodded her head, turned to us, and said, "All of you; try going online to see what the game has turned into and check on Kenshin and Sunshine. I'll go see my father first and tell him about the situation and Ying Bin's escape."
After we nodded our heads, Loli told the receptionist, "Bring them up to my office and give them the game helmets to allow them to enter Second Life."
"Yes, miss," The receptionist replied before politely saying to us, "Please follow me."
Loli hurriedly rushed into one of the elevators without even saying goodbye to us.
"She must be very worried." Doll said as we all moved to follow the receptionist.
"I can imagine that a lot is on her mind at the moment." I said gently. "Let's head into Second Life and see what disasters will befall us, huh?"
The receptionist brought us to the elevator and elegantly pressed for the 44th floor. The minute the elevator doors opened, a roomy office, appeared. The decorations on the desk were simple and plain and, behind the desk, was a large glass surface providing a view of the entire city. The only thing out of the ordinary was that the bookshelves weren't filled with books, but were rather filled with brand name bags like Chanel…
'What is it with girls and bags?!' I asked myself as I looked the collection over in horror. 'I'm a girl and I don't even understand it!'
(A/N Ditto...and I'm a female myself.)
The receptionist unhurriedly helped us to set up some ten-odd helmets before saying as she left, "If you need anything, please let me know."
I nodded slightly at the lady before saying to everyone, "Well let's all go and see what has become of Second Life!"
"Let's meet at Flower City's Central Tower." Zhou suggested and everyone nodded their heads before sliding their helmets on.
The last to put on the helmet I look at it for a couple seconds before taking a deep breath. As I thought would happen, I gritted my teeth from screaming out in pain as my head felt like it was going to split right open, but when I slowly opened my eyes again, panting slightly from the pain, I found a sight that was oh so familiar to me.
The Creation Room.
But the GM standing in front of me wasn't Lolidragon or a normal GM...no, it was Eric.
Chapter 65
"Eric!" I gasped as I stared at him. Eric didn't look like the Dictator of Life anymore.
He had short black hair that framed his face perfectly and piercing gold eyes looked back at me. He was wearing completely black leather clothing with gloves to match. He had the 'bad boy' look down perfectly.
The only reason I had recognized him in his new look was the all too familiar tattoo on his face—one that I had placed on him.
"Cloud..." Eric greeted with a small smile before it turned to concern as I grabbed my head as the pain zapped through my shock. "Cloud!"
"I'm good, I'm good..." I told him as I held up a hand and straightened up to look Eric over once again. "That a side, you look great, Eric!"
The steaming teasing look that I got in return, actually made me blush slightly before I cleared my throat.
"Ahem! So how is this going to work?" I asked Eric. "I already had a character; are you able to get it back?"
Eric sighed before shaking his head. "You used the ND programmer to cut the link between Ying Bin and I so, no you're character 'Prince' is destroyed."
"But I can create him again, can't I?" I asked, curiously. "Or am I not allowed to bend the rules again?"
At that Eric chuckled slightly before grinning over at me, "My Creator, here you may do and be whatever you wish! As Second Life's God, I control everything and I bow to no one, but you."
As a mischievous light entered Eric's eyes, I narrowed my eyes him before asking, "But...?"
"Why don't we have some fun, My Creator?" Eric asked with a grin before waving a hand at me and I watched as a swirl of petals appeared in front of me before falling away to reveal a beautiful young elf who could be Prince's identical twin sister.
She had waist length white hair and stunning sapphire blue eyes which twinkled evilly as my new avatar grinning at me. Even though it was Prince's twin, I could also see some features that only I had like some scars.
"Wow...Eric..." I breathed as I looked the young woman over.
"Considering that you ARE Prince and you're companions are expecting 'Prince', I want to see what they'll do when they see you like this." Eric evilly admitted.
"Wait, you know we're meeting in Second Life?" I asked shocked but all I got in response was a sly wink from Eric before I was thrown forward into my new avatar and into Second Life.
~line~
"Stupid Eric..." I grumbled as I got to my feet, dusting myself off as I looked around me.
Eric had, thankfully, placed in the woods somewhere as I knew that the minute, men saw my new look before I got used to it, they're be on me faster than a dog would with raw meat.
"Open System." I commanded, wanting to see if I had been reduced back to Level One and all its issues, much to my extreme surprise, but slightly happiness, Eric had 'cheated' slightly and kept certain things the same, but I was still a low level.
I even noticed a few special things in my inventory that I was happy to see.
"Taste of Death..." I breathed in happiness as I equipped it to me before pulling it out to stroke it. "How I have missed your heavy weight, my friend. Real Life just doesn't match the real thing..."
Once I was done greeting my blade, I strapped it across my back as I had shrunken slightly in my new avatar and the tip of the blade out drag across the ground of it was on my waist.
Eric had also given me some clothing which fit my personality style perfectly; all in all, I was 'Cloud' as I decided to name my new avatar.
(A/N I'm not good at describing certain things so I'll put a picture on my profile of what Cloud looks like now. :) I'm happy that I actually found a pic that was exactly how I imagined Cloud to look as a girl in Second Life.)
So after I killed a few monsters for a warm up, I jogged into town, sold the dropping the monsters left me before buying a black cloak as I didn't want any trouble from idiots going places.
'Alright, on to the Central Tower!' I thought as I relaxed slightly and started following the large crowd of moving people.
"Wow, so many people…" I said as I stared open-mouthed at the crowds of people thronging the Central Tower's grounds.
"Everyone, look! This is the place where the Execution Squad massacred NPCs while outnumbered a thousand to one! Then, Prince bypassed all of the guards and led the charge into Flower City's plaza alone." Someone yelled as he gestured about wildly. "Upon seeing the tens of thousands of NPCs, his expression didn't even change! With a slash of his blade, he turned thousands of NPCs into mincemeat, and arrogantly laughed that he wanted the Dictator of Life to stop sending out trash like them…"
"Long live Prince, Liege Lord of Infinite City! Long live the Blood Elf~" The crowds started cheering.
'This… Is he really talking about me?' I thought in disbelief while trying to not laugh, but according to the corner of my lips, I was failing. 'With a slash of my blade, I turned thousands of NPCs into mincemeat?' Why is it that my memory tells me that it was the NPCs that had almost turned me into mincemeat, not the other way around?'
"Oh my gosh! Look! The Execution Squad is here!" Some sharp-eyed individual gave a loud excited squeal, pointing to the right.
"Execution Squad! Execution Squad…" The tens of thousands of people cramped together in the plaza suddenly turned wild, screaming out the name of the Execution Squad.
I saw them standing before the Central Tower, their faces all sharing stony expressions, but I would see the worry in their eyes as they looked around.
I glanced around me a couple times as the excited crowd before joining the people in their yelling.
"Doll!" I yelled with a large grin, having fun. "Artic Fox! Zui! Fairsky!"
"Doll! Cold Fox~~" The people around me, upon hearing me yell their names, immediately started calling out their names too. The surrounding atmosphere became even more frenzied, almost as if the crowd had gone crazy…
I, of course, just stood in place (near the back of the chaos) laughing and enjoying the chaos I had slightly created.
"Prince! Come this way." I heard before my right wrist was grabbed by someone and tugged me towards the voice.
Upon hearing the very familiar voice, my heart skipped a beat as I turned my head and locked eyes with Gui's slightly seductive demon eyes.
"Gui!" I said blinking a few times; thankful that my cloak covered my small blush as Gui's face was really close when I had turned to look at him.
"Prince, hurry up and come over here, everyone's looking for you." Gui said before he turned and started leading me out of the crowd of people.
As I shoved, elbowed, and pushed crazy fans out of the way, I couldn't help asking him, "Gui, how did you know it was me? I'm even wearing a cloak!"
Outside the madness, Gui came to a complete stop before slowly turning his head around to look at me; his gaze still as gentle as ever.
"I will never mistake you for someone else." Gui admitted softly. "Your light voice; your body posture... When you're about to do something dangerous/mischievous/insane, your main quirk is that your eyes always glitter eagerly before doing it."
"Also, you always unintentionally grin evilly right after/during/before the chaos you're starting." Gui couldn't help laughing as he added, "The minute I saw your grin, I knew you were Prince instantly."
I huffed in embarrassment as I realized that he was right, but before I could retort back, Gui continued, his face become very distant as if he was talking to himself, "But how could I not have recognized you in real life? I really hadn't… Maybe I had already known beforehand, but I had promised you… I promised that I would never try and guess your real identity. My promise to you was so important to me, so important that… I let myself be blinded and could not see your real identity."
Gui's shoulders dropped before he finished with some with some frustration as he said, "...I really have no idea what I'm saying."
Seeing Gui's sad look, I hummed thoughtfully before saying softly, "You know, you're probably the only one in all of Second Life who could recognize upon sight, Gui. I mean, Zhou didn't even know it was me In-Game till I call him by the nick-name I gave him as a kid."
"I guess your Prince's magnet is working just fine, huh?" I asked him teasingly, crossing my arms before looking over at him only to freeze as my eyes locked onto Gui's gaze which had brightened happily as he smiled at me.
I will admit to blushing slightly...
"Ah-hem!" I coughed awkwardly, trying to get rid my blush as I quickly moving past Gui as I said, "You said the others were waiting for us, right? Well, let's go!"
The atmosphere became very awkward (for me) as we walked for a short while side by side before Gui abruptly said, "Prince, no matter how it has turned out… I still like you."
Hearing this, I came to a complete stop and looked over at Gui.
"What do you mean, 'whatever it turns out'? Aren't you mad at me? Even a little?" I asked in confusion before adding, "I did lie to you guys about my real gender and I had people thinking you were gay!"
Gui fell silent for a while, and then finally said, "I am a little angry, yet I don't dare to be angry..."
I blinked my eyes as I stared at Gui in confusion. 'Huh?'
"I am angry that you lied to me; angry about the things I didn't know, but that...that guy, Zhou knew so clearly…" Gui's teeth clenched for a second before he relaxed with a light sigh. "But I don't dare to get angry. I'm scared that you won't be happy, scared that you won't care about me anymore, scared…
Here Gui's voice dropped to a whisper that I struggled to hear, "Scared that I will no longer have any chance of getting you to like me..."
"Gui..." I whispered, not really knowing what to say in a moment like this. Having not much experience in the love department, I was very much out of my league.
Suddenly, Gui twirled around to face me, looking very fierce. I blinked in surprise as Gui opened his mouth to say something, but it died as his face became very conflicted before finally, his shoulders slumped and he said dimly, "I don't blame you for lying to me anymore, Prince. Anyway, we should hurry and meet up with the others..."
'What was Gui going to say?' I really wanted to know, so with that in mind, I grabbed a hold of Gui's arm before dragging him in an alleyway away from the main walkway.
"P-Prince? What's wrong?" Gui asked, his face extremely surprised as he looked at me.
"What did you want to say?" I said before narrowing my eyes.
"Tell me." I ordered, my hand tightening on his arm as I stubbornly refused to let go of Gui.
Gui stared at me for a couple seconds before nodding his head as if he made some kind of decision. Seeing this, I slowly released him as Gui said, "I wasn't thinking of saying something. I was thinking of doing something."
"Huh?" I asked confused before taking a step closer. "Then what were you thinking of…"
The rest of my words were lost in Gui's mouth….
I stared wide-eyed at Gui's handsome face, my entire attention focused on Gui's lips and the fact that the person I was in love with was kissing me!
"Gui, you…!" I yelled as I shoved him away from me, greatly embarrassed as Gui's absolutely serious expression made me feel very shy all of a sudden.
But Gui jerked forward to catch my mouth again, grabbing my head to help him kissed me again, and this time he even had the nerve toFrench me!
Panicked, I tried to push him away, but I found myself trapped slightly between the alley wall and Gui with his hands were firmly locked onto the back of my head… Even worse, the character Eric had just created for me didn't have any advantage over him in strength.
I could not push Gui away...or did I not want to leave?
Gui's palms were still strongly latched onto me, not allowing me even half a chance of escape. But his kiss was very soft, his tongue light and caressing in my mouth… I had no idea what description to use, but it felt very soft, very, very soft. It was almost making me feel drunk, drunk on that gentleness.
Slowly, Gui moved back a little to say softly against my mouth, "I wanted to do this since you kissed me that time..."
Before he kissed me again, but this time he stopped holding onto my head tightly, and instead one hand cradled the back of my head while the other slipped down to touch my waist.
Looking at Gui, who had his eyes closed, his expression drunk and soft, I unconsciously closed my own eyes as well and felt myself feel Gui's utter gentleness: inside my mouth, the gentle touches on my hair, the hand hugging my waist tightly, the light heat between our bodies pressed close together...
"Prince! Where-WHOA!"
Gui and I both started; me more than him.
A burning sensation on my face made me feel like meat could be grilled on it instantly as my brain kick-started into gear as I reared back to slam a fist into Gui's stomach before whirling away, a hand pressed to my hot face.
Only for my eyes to lock with Zhou's as I turned away from Gui.
Never before have I ever seen Zhou, who was always so strong and unyielding in my childhood, with such a weak expression on his face. It was as if all his beliefs had been destroyed. His face was stark white and… His eyes were red-rimmed.
I jerked my eyes away from him in slight shame as I really didn't want to do that in front of him.
"Eh? Both Gui-bro and Wicked-bro are here?" Doll asked eyes opened wide as she stared up at me intensely as everyone else jogged up behind her. "Then is this the real Prince-sis?"
"Y-yeah, it's me." I told her, still trying to calm down from Gui's kiss and I could hear Gui behind me recovering from my fist slam.
"Eh..." Doll hummed as she tilted her head towards me before stating, "Prince-sis, your face is all red."
"Yeah, I know!" I said in a hurry before tugging my hood down so that everyone could see my new avatar. "Not exactly how I wanted to show off my new look, but here I am!"
Majority of the males' jaws hit the floor in shock before going red faced.
"P-Prince, is that you?" Zui asked wide eyed and gaping.
"Baby-faced cop!" I immediately fired back, taking the wind out of his sails as well as snapping everyone out of the shock as they covered their laughs.
"Alright, you really are the real Prince." Zui said blankly with a bleak expression.
"Of course!" I said with a large grin before another familiar voice started yelling.
"Prince! Prince!" Fairsky yelled furiously as she came up to the group before coming to a stop in front of me.
"S-Sunshine has disappeared!" Fairsky hiccupped before she started sobbing through her hands.
"What?" I asked, grabbing her forearms as I tried to hurry and make sense of the situation. "Sunshine and Kenshin are not in the Central Tower?"
"There is no one in the Central Tower; even the Dictator of Life is not there." Doll said as everyone nodded in agreement.
"Where can they be?" I asked out loud, trying to think when I was interrupted.
Ding! System notice: Game has experienced a disturbance from the outside world. Please conduct verification.
"Lolidragon is probably looking for us," Artic Fox muttered out loud when everyone looked up in confusion.
"Probably," I said before telling everyone, "Hurry, let's all go offline and see what's happening!"
"Right!" Everyone said before I quickly logged off, trying my best to ignore the growing pain in my skull.
~line~
Upon returning to the real world, I yanked off my helmet and no sooner had I removed it than I found Loli's tear stained face before my own.
"Prince! What are we going to do?" Lolidragon sobbed before she threw herself at me and proceeded to sob loudly and uncontrollably into my chest.
"What's wrong, Lolidragon?" Ming asked in concern. "What happened?"
"Dian, he—he… Bin…" Lolidragon said tried to get out, but she was crying so hard that she couldn't utter a single word.
"You found out that what I have been telling you all along is the true and that you have been chasing after a ghost for 3 years." I said calmly as I stroked Loli's hair.
"Prince?" Wolf-bro asked confused.
"I mean that the real Long Dain, my father, has been dead for three-four years now." I said as I looked to the side.
"HOW CAN YOU BE SO CALM ABOUT THIS?!" Loli demanded as she grabbed my shoulders and started shaking me. "PRINCE! HE WAS YOUR FATHER!"
"Yes, Long Dain was my father." I said as I pushed Loli's hands away from me and got to my feet. "Father wanted his privacy so much he had me take mother's maiden name instead of his own."
I quietly walked over to a nearby window and looked out of it before continuing, "Father...Long Dain, in creating his game also caught the attention of greedy monsters like Ying Bin."
"He has done something horrible, hasn't he, Loli?" I asked as I turned to look at Loli.
"He has." A commanding voice said and we all turned to see Loli's father enter the room as he added, "Ying Bin has threatened the entire world!"
"He threatened the entire world?!" Ming gasped in horror with others not knowing how to respond to that.
Loli's father's imposing aura vanished, and his face, which had originally been full of vigor, seemed to have suddenly aged by ten years.
In an extremely exhausted tone he said, "He used has used this complex and impossible method to fire a nuclear missile. Even though it was launched into the ocean, its effects spread to the small islands nearby, resulting in thousands of casualties."
"…What?" I nearly couldn't respond.
"Moreover, he has also demanded that the entire world send him the things he needs. Otherwise, the next nuclear attack won't be as forgiving." Loli's father said, his voice almost pained.
"How has the government chosen to respond?" Zui immediately inquired, stepping forward a little. "Surely the government won't permit him to do whatever he pleases."
"That's true, but the government has its hands tied," The older man said coldly, gritting his teeth. "This world is entirely dependent on computers, and since the computers are now being controlled, the government is unable to do anything. All of the immigration administration, all of the radar detection systems, and all of the satellites are under Ying Bin's control. The government has no way to track his whereabouts, much less actually capture him."
Loli's father sighed in frustration before adding, "The truth is, even if Bin were to boldly appear before the police in broad daylight, no one would try to arrest him, because according to the government's information, Ying Bin's identity and appearance have already been altered."
"What does Bin want?" Gui asked, his serious face on. "If we know what he wants, we can speculate why he's doing all of this."
"He requested many things, including various instruments and human resources, most of which are related to the area of biotechnology, but he also wants personnel from the medical field, authorities on neurosurgery, and experts on energy," Loli's father said in a frustrated voice.
"Hmm… I'm no expert in those areas." Gui said honestly before turning to look toward Zhou. "What do you think, Wicked?"
Zhou slowly turned his face toward Gui, but said nothing; instead, he reared back and violently punched Gui, who was caught completely off guard, was knocked clean off the ground.
"Gui!" I yelled as I quickly rushed forward to check on Gui. A large, red bruise was forming high on his cheek, and trickles of blood were seeping from the corner of his mouth.
"Zhou! What's wrong with you?!" I angrily said as I turned on him, glaring. "This was no time for fighting!"
But Zhou didn't even look at me, but instead but fixed his glare at Gui, who was lying on the ground, and snarled, "...I won't give up Cloud."
My hands twitched...
"That's my line. I definitely won't give up Prince. Even if you break both my arms, I will use my mouth to hang onto her and never let go," Gui replied, smiling an extremely arrogant smile as he wiped the blood off his mouth.
My blood started to boil...
"Will you guys knock it off?" Huan demanded as he got in between the pair. "Now is not the time for this!"
I slowly got to my feet...
"Zhou, Gui—let's go take care of Ying Bin first!" Ming called from behind me, his voice almost sounded reproachful, as if he were suggesting that they weren't aware of the gravity of the situation.
"EEHHH?! Wasn't I with Prince? How did it become you?" Loli screamed as she finally realized that in dashing to check on Gui, I had passed her off to Ming.
Ming's serious expression evaporated in an instant and was replaced with an increasingly lewd-looking one as he chortled, "Hehehe…"
Upon seeing such a lascivious expression, Lolidragon couldn't stop herself from throwing a kick at him, which Ming easily dodged. As his smile became lewder, Loli became even angrier, her face turning completely red.
"Um...guys...?" Wolf-bro said nervously having noticed me standing very dangerously quiet with everything going on.
But when Gui, Zhou, Ming and Loli ignored him, I reared back and slammed my fist into the wall next to me, cracking it good.
The ringing silence that followed was instantaneous as everyone looked at me nervously and worriedly.
"...Alas. As things currently stand, none of you need to help anymore," Loli's father said quietly, sighing heavily as he broke the silence.
"...Excuse me?" I asked slowly, turning towards the old man as Loli loudly protested, "What? I can't do that! Dad, there's no way I can leave this alone."
"It's very obvious now that the situation at hand is no longer what we thought it was." Loli's father immediately reprimanded, "This time you safely away from the danger; do you think you'll be so fortunate next time?"
"But…" Loli argued in determination.
"Enough, Shui Han!" The old man roared, and I saw a flash of my father in his face which made me grit my teeth in pain. "I forbid you from interfering in this matter anymore! I will have the entire company cooperate to assist the government in arresting Ying Bin and bringing him to justice! I will not allow him to harm anyone else!"
Upon hearing this, Loli dropped weakly onto a chair, all the strength seemingly gone from her legs.
Seeing Loli's compliance, Loli's father turned to the rest of us and added, "The same goes for all of you. Do not involve yourselves in this matter anymore."
"Especially you, Prince!" Loli's father's eyes locked on mine. "I don't need you making this situation already worst then it is."
After saying this, he even gave me a severe look and in response, I glared defiantly back at him. Seeing my look, Loli's father gave another quiet sigh, turned, and walked out of the room.
"Well, I guess that's that then." Huan said quietly before turning to me and asking seriously, "Feeling better, Cloud, after that punch?"
"What do you think?!" I snapped before I started pacing about the room like a caged animal.
Huan sighed a little before stepping towards me, "Cloud, give me your hand; you're bleeding."
I stopped in place before looking over at him. Huan, seeing my look, stopped moving, but stared back unflinching.
"You know, Huan, I can't decide whether or not I loathe you and Mei..." I told him bluntly, causing Huan to frown slightly in confusion.
"...Why's that?" Huan asked slowly.
"Because you're the ones who convinced me to play Second Life!" I yelled before jerking away from him.
"...True, Mei and I are the ones who convince you to play, but if you hadn't, you wouldn't have met everyone here." Huan reasoned, logically, but that wasn't enough for me.
I whirled around to glare at Huan through my complex and confusing feelings as I said, "Yes, but I wouldn't find out that I have such horrible, inconsiderate relatives; one of whom who can't seem to focus on the situation at hand! And I wouldn't be fought over like I was a piece of meat!"
"Yin!" Zhou started to protest, but when he met my hard, cold eyes, he flinched. Gui on the other hand, wasn't even looking in my direction.
"...What's wrong, Zhou?" I asked coldly. "Going to protest? Say that you're not treating me like a piece of meat? If so what was that, behavior right now in punching Gui? Pay back? Revenge?"
I tsked angrily before saying to Huan, "Yes, Huan, I really do think I hate you and Mei. If I hadn't played Second Life then I wouldn't feel the helplessness, restlessness, and fury that I feel right now...At least before Second Life, I knew what I was in life."
I locked eyes with Huan before ending cruelly, "Nothing, but a freak of nature."
With that being said, I turned on my heel and stormed out of the room ignoring Mei's yells after me...
~line~
"...What did she mean, 'freak of nature'?" Wolf-bro asked cautiously, everyone feeling extremely tense.
Huan's response was to sigh tiredly as he plopped heavily onto the couch next to him while mumbling, "I was afraid she'd mention that..."
"Huan...?" It was Mei who broke the tense silence after Huan's comment.
"Yun Yin Min," Huan started softly as he looked at everyone in the room one by one. "Cloud was born with a rare gene called Berserker instinct. The gene is a genetic mutation of the brain where she's constantly in fight or flight mode—though mainly in fight mode."
"Her?!" Wolf-bro asked in astonishment and awe and at Yulian confused expression explained, "Her condition is known all over the world as it's extremely rare, but not unheard of."
Wolf-bro then turned to Huan in confusion, "But the reports said that she was cured of it."
Huan looked at him for a bit before getting to his feet.
"Lolidragon," Huan asked instead. "Why do you think Long Dian decided to create Second Life?
"A-ah," Lolidragon shuddered at the sudden question and everyone's attention on her. "I-I asked him to...
"Heh," Huan chuckled a little before nodding. "I think it might have been part of the reason he decided to do so, but personally I think it was for Cloud."
"Second Life would have become a place where fighting wasn't a horrible thing and Cloud could kill things without it ending up with her getting into trouble." Huan said as he gently picked up one the Second Life helmets and looked at it. "Cloud told me that in her life since she was diagnosed, she has moved probably over 25 times and had to be transferred out of hundreds of different schools almost twice as much because of this genetic mutation."
"Long Dain probably thought that in creating Second Life, Cloud could finally have a normal life. I've always noticed that right before a big test or exam in school, she'd disappear. At first I thought she was just massively studying till I followed her one day after school."
Huan casually dropped the helmet before tilting his head back as his thoughts took him back to that day.
"I found her in a huge gang fight and at the time, losing...badly. I watched in horror as the thugs finished beating down on her before walking away like she was trash, but what really got me was that I watched her painfully get to her feet, covered all over in blood and bruises only to say, 'I think I can concentrate enough to study now'."
"'Concentrate enough to study now'..." Huan slowly repeated that as he smiled bitterly. "Cloud, to even do things normally had to suppress the mutation enough to where she could focus."
"A lot of kids were scared of her in school, I remember vividly. Because she as always covered in bruises and bandages, but she always had this light in her eyes, all the time. A determined light..."
"It was after the day that I decided I wanted to get to know this person who'd get into fights to be normal and I found an amazing person who I'm sure Long Dain would have been proud to raise the best he could."
Silence fell on everyone as they thought about what Huan told them.
"...So what are we going to do?" Huan asked quietly before laughing shortly. "I can bet you that Cloud is thinking of something, anything she can do so that she won't fail Sunshine or Kenshin."
"True companionship was always something special to her as she never really had it much in her childhood," Huan added before gesturing at everyone including himself. "Though some companions we all turned out to be..."
"Letting a bunch of outsiders do all the work? Was this really the people that formed the Invasion Squad?" Huan asked as he grinned at everyone who responded instantly.
"Of course not!"
"Then let's think of something that good enough for Prince that he'll be so impressed with that he won't laugh at us..." Huan said with a nod as everyone moved together to think of something.
A/N Aaaaaannnnddddd that's it! :) What do you think? R&R please!
As for my faithful readers, I am SO sorry for the extremely loooooong wait. I've been busy with other things and I've been having problems which I won't bore you about. :) Just so you know, I WILL be finishing this fanfic so don't worry!