Cora


The chrome LED doors leading to the virtual pod chamber opened. Once Mokuba set foot inside, the lights began to turn on. He led M, Madeline, and Jericho to the control booth and showed him what switches to press and the emergency lever should things get too dangerous. While he wrote down the passwords for them, he told Cora, Kasumi, Alexis, and Candy to head for a nearby terminal and create a character and class for the game.

When they were done, they walked up the blue-lit steps to a circular platform that housed the virtual pods. They strapped themselves in, hearts racing, and second thoughts plaguing their minds. They had no idea what they were going to face in there.

Alexis felt like she didn't want to strap herself in and walk out, but Cora was beginning to grow on her. She didn't want to let her down now, and, maybe, things could open politically between her House and House Kaiba. Madeline, being ever so worrisome, strapped Candy into her seat like a concerned mother.

"Please be careful in zere, little one," she said, pulling down the safety harnesses. "If anything happened to you, I would never forgive myself."

"Oh, don't worry about me, Madeline," Candy said with a wink. "Cora and the gang will take care of me. Uh...well, obviously Mr. Gael can't come with me." She handed Madeline the bear. "Will you take care of him? Please."

"Of course, I will," Madeline said. "Cora, she's my best friend. Please look out for her."

"Sheesh, I'll do my best," said Cora. "Although I have confidence Candy can take care of herself. She's a big girl. Don't fret so much."

Once they strapped themselves in, a slot, glowing blue on the inside, opened.

"Insert decks into Drive Recognizer," a cool, synthetic, woman's voice said.

So they did. Mokuba jumped down the control booth and hurried to his virtual pod. He strapped himself in, put in his brother's deck, and then gave M a thumb's up. M nodded and started typing away on the keyboard. The visors lowered over the Duelists' heads.

"Here goes nothing," said M. "Good luck in there, girls. You, too, Mokuba."

"We'll be back before you know it," said Mokuba. "We've got two people with Blue-Eyes in their decks. There's nothing in that game that can stop us."

"Virtual pod systems are a go!" said Jericho.

"May the Goddess of Victory grant you all success," said Nixie.

M flipped up the cubed glass box over a red button. "Launch in three….two….one!"

He pressed the button. Cora soon felt herself going into a deep sleep and was swallowed by darkness. Moments later, she found herself zooming through a long gridded tunnel surrounded by darkness. She didn't know where she was or if she was going the right way. Her terror was extreme at that moment. Oh, how could Seto do this time and time again? But as quickly as it started, the tunnel flashed and revealed a world of mountains, forests, lakes, and deserts below her. Another flash of light and then she found herself standing in a forest.

Though she knew it was virtual, her senses were fooled to make her think it was all real. She could feel the sunlight caressing her cheeks. A gnat buzzed over her ear, causing her to slap it away.

"Whoa!" she said when she saw her hand. It was covered by a gauntlet. Embedded on the gauntlet was a glowing orange watch. What purpose it had, she did not know, but she didn't care to figure it out. She wanted to see herself. Cora stood still and heard water nearby. There was a lake at the edge of the forest with water as clear and reflective as a looking glass. Cora sped to the edge of the lake and gawked at her reflection. She found herself clad in very glossy steel armor. A tailcoat cape, also colored blue and white hung from her neck. She was shielded in steel from the neck down to her hips. Below that was a blue skirt outlined in white and her legs were concealed under thick high-heeled greaves. A sword and shield were snugly fit on her back as well.

"Hmm," she said, looking at her reflection. "Now I know what those people over in the west must feel like."

"Hey, looking good," Mokuba said, walking out from behind a tree.

"So do you, Mr. Epic Level!" Cora said. Mokuba was wearing epic-level armor and gear, glowing, animated, and shiny. He had two weapons, a gold, gem-encrusted sword, and a flamberg made of red steel that could suck the souls out of his defeated foes, granting him extra XP and a 10% recovery in health. His stats appeared beside him in a holographic window.


Mokuba

Class: Warrior-Mage

Level: 50 Master Prestige

HP: 500

STR: 100

DEX: 90

CON: 73

INT: 120

WIS: 80

CHA: 75

Weapon: D'El Tannion - Sword of the King of Seven (Sword - Legendary (+10 STR)).

Dragon's Tongue (Sword - Legendary (Soul Stealer)).

Shimmerstrike (Dagger - Epic (Lightning Strike +20 elemental damage)).


"Just how long have you been playing here?" Cora asked.

"Seto and I didn't come into the virtual world, perse," he said. "But we still played from the real world just to test the quests and be on the lookout for bugs and errors, things like that. We leveled up a lot."

"Yeah, no kidding." She noticed the same watch-like device was glowing on his gauntlet. Just as she was about to ask what it was, she realized that she and Mokuba were alone. "Say, where are the others? Did we get separated?"

"I don't know," said Mokuba. "But this is where all the players start off so they shouldn't be too far away. There's a town where the players have to go in order to start their first quest. Come on, maybe they're already there."

"Yeah, lead the way," Cora said. As she followed him, she heard sounds, smelled scents, and saw things that were just so, so real. No matter how much her mind tried to convince her that this was the real thing, she knew everything from the trees to the tiny drops of dew on the grass were nothing but a collection of 1's and 0's.

"Hard to believe all this is virtual," Cora said, examining her surroundings. "Look at all this."

"Yeah, my brother spared no expense to make this as real as possible," Mokuba said.

"Yeah, well, do you think he could have spared to get the programmers some real armor?"

Mokuba laughed. "Hey, you're in a gameworld, Cora. Armor doesn't make any sense. Then again, when I go out west with Seto, I've seen some pretty outrageous-looking armor."

"Yeah, well, don't get mad at me if something goes awry. This skirt is so fucking short! I swear, one bad breeze and I'm going to put on a show for you, Uncle Mokuba."

Again, Mokuba laughed. He stopped and pointed at a small town up ahead, nestled by the river with a waterfall thundering into a pool behind it. The game's NPC's were hard at work, living out their daily lives as programmed by Kaiba. Some were chopping wood. Others were doing their laundry. Cows, goats, geese, chickens, and pigs made their noises from their pens in the backyards of some of the houses. Mokuba and Cora crossed a stone bridge with lanterns to get into the town. When they stepped through the wall, the townsfolk were looking at them strangely.

"This is awkward," Cora said.

"Look over here!" said Mokuba. "Just like Seto programmed." Mokuba ran to a notice board outside the town's tavern. "The mayor of the town is offering a reward for the slaying of a terrible ogre in the forest."

"Ah, adventurers!" said a bald man wearing a dirty medieval outfit and a green coif. "Have you come to save us from the horrible monster running amok in the woods?"

"Sure," said Cora.

"What kind of trouble has the monster been giving you?" Mokuba asked.

"Terrible, terrible things," the man said. "Forgive me. I am Grinwold Savos. The mayor of the town of Fernhold. I'm afraid our town has gone through some economic troubles, brave travelers. That monster walks into our town in the dead of night. He takes our livestock — as many as he can carry — before he storms off back into the darkness. Merchants and other travelers fear coming here out of fright of the beast. Please, I beg of you, friends. Rid this town on that monster, and we will be forever in your debt."

"We'll take the assignment," said Cora.

"Hold on!" said Mokuba. "Have any of you seen any strange folk coming through here? A man in a blue coat perse?"

The mayor tapped his bottom lip as he put on his thinking cap, trying to remember anything about a man in a blue coat. "Now that you mention it, I have seen someone like that. He helped out the nearby town with their own monster problem so I heard. However, when I saw him, he was being dragged by some very suspicious-looking characters. Be wary, friends. I fear those folk mean trouble."

"Thank you," said Mokuba. "We'll take care of this monster problem for you." He turned and looked at Cora. "Hey, do you think he was talking about Seto?"

Cora nodded. "Yeah, I think so. Maybe they have something to do with this monster business."

"If anything, I think these guys put that monster there to try and stop us. Who knows, maybe they're still around here."

"Only one way to find out," said Cora. "Let's go look for that monster."

They left the town behind him and proceeded into the forest looking for both the monster and for their friends. But there was no sign of either of them. They walked around for what felt like hours before finding a clump of stones to sit. Before they could rest, a roar disrupted the silence of the forest. The trees fell with a crash as an Ogre of the Black Shadow stomped towards Cora and Mokuba.

"Oh, that's just great!" Cora said. "How do we fight this thing?"

"You can either use your weapons or you can summon something!" Mokuba shouted.

"All right, I know just the card to use," Cora said. She drew and her Blue-Eyes White Dragon was right at the top. "Aw, yeah! I summon Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"

BEEP! BEEP!

"Hey, what gives?" Cora said. A red exclamation mark appeared over her face. She tapped on it. A message appeared that said: Mana Pool Too Low! "Aw, you've got to be kidding me!" Cora shouted. "Can you summon something, Mokuba!"

"Yeah, you bet I can!"

BOOM!

Ogre of the Black Shadow smashed the ground in front of him, preventing Mokuba from summoning his monster. The ugly beast then lumbered towards Cora. He grabbed her and picked her up. Cora squealed and struggled to get free of his grip. It was no use, he was too strong. Ogre of the Black Shadow licked his chops and opened his mouth wide, ready to devour her in one gulp.

"HI-YA!" someone jumped out of the trees and kicked the Ogre with the force of a wrecking ball. The Ogre of the Black Shadow tumbled backward and fell into the lake, creating a splash that rose high above the trees. Cora fell but found herself landing in Kasumi's arms.

"Hands off my girl you ugly bastard!" she said.

Cora's eyes twinkled with awe and lust seeing her hard-boiled sweetheart clad in a black armored cheongsam outlined in red and adorned gold floral patterns. Her fists were concealed in green-gold gauntlets forged to look like the head of Amatsu, Okami of the Divine Peaks. Her wine-red hair was tied into a long ponytail by a ribbon colored orange and yellow, which was a legendary artifact. Her legs were equipped with tall, black, thigh-high boots that were tipped with razor-sharp steel. Over her head was a torn, blue, bandanna. The same tactical-looking glowing orange watch was around her wrist.

"Kasumi!" Cora squealed with delight. She kissed her strongly.

"Ugh, the cringe!" Mokuba said, walking away. "Will you two idiots, hurry!? We've got work to — look out!"

Ogre of the Black Shadow rose out of the lake, arms up in fury as he screamed.

"Uh oh, now he's mad!" Cora said, drawing her sword. "Come on! You wanna fight, we'll fight. Uh...just how do we fight?"

"There are no button combinations or keyboard maps here," said Mokuba. "Here you use your mind and body. Beat him with everything you've got. And just so you know, every player begins the game with a unique artifact to give you a boost. Cora, your sword gives you plus 2 strength. So use it well."

"Right. Kasumi, you go for the head. I'll strike its legs."

"You got it, babe, let's take that thing down!" She kissed Cora on the cheek for good luck, then sprinted toward the beast — fists up, ready for combat. Her boots gave her +3 speed, making her run like the wind. She was like a gold and black blur to the Ogre of the Black Shadow. He raised his fists, hoping to protect himself from his attacks but she was too quick for the beast. She jumped to his left cheek and bashed it with rapid punches. Before he could swat her away, Kasumi zoomed to the other side and rapidly punched his right cheek. As he was distracted from above, Mokuba and Cora ran towards him from below and struck his legs.

A floating health bar displayed over the monster's legs, going down to almost half.

"Awesome!" said Mokuba. "If we deplete the health of his legs to zero, he'll be crippled. Then Kasumi can move in for the kill."

That plan backfired. The Ogre of the Black Shadow then grabbed Kasumi and held her up high.

"HELP!" she shouted. The beast roared in her face to shut her up. Kasumi gagged and looked away. "Ugh, for a virtual monster, that thing's breath reeks!"

"I'm coming!" someone shouted, hopping from tree branch to tree branch. A little elf clad in leather armor and a green cape jumped out of the canopy and fired two explosive arrows at the Ogre's face. He screeched in agony and dropped Kasumi to slap his palm over his stinging flesh.

BOOM! BOOM!

"Candy!" Cora shouted. "Is that you!"

Candy landed on a tree branch. "Sorry, I'm late. There were some really tasty berries in that grove over there. And I can talk to animals, too!"

"Oh, think you can get one of them to help us?" Kasumi asked. "This thing is not letting up and I think your arrows just pissed him off."

The Ogre channeled the powers of darkness and then transformed into a berserk mode. He was glowing red and his eyes flashed dangerously with a yellow light.

"Oh, yeah, he's definitely pissed!" said Cora.

"My little friend is coming to the rescue then!" said Candy. She took out a silver flute from her bag and played a cheery melody.

"What does she have in store for us?" Kasumi said.

"I don't know," Cora said, rubbing her hands in anticipation. "But I think this is going to be big."

An arcane circle colored neon green formed on the ground and from it jumped out...a little fawn with what looked like a bush with flowers on his back. Valerifawn, Mystical Beast of the Forest, whinnied and kicked its back legs in the air with joy as butterflies flew around him.

"Oh..." Kasumi said in disappointment, her face dropping in frustration. "Of course, she'd summon something like that."

Cora sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Wow...that's...that's unfortunate. Maybe we should have had Nixie come along."

The little fawn monster started to skip along the flowers merrily as though the Ogre of the Black Shadow did not exist. The Ogre of the Black Shadow thought the fawn was easy prey. He raised his foot and started stomping the ground wildly, trying to squish the little fawn like an ant. Valerifawn squeaked with laughter as he spun in circles, thinking the giant monster was playing with him.

Ogre of the Black Shadow cried out in fury, then lost his footing. He fell on the ground, shaking the forest with tremendous impact. He raised his legs instantly and kicked himself up. He roared again and started chasing them, pounding the ground with his fists like a toddler throwing a tantrum. Just then, a knight clad in white-gold armor flew out from the trees with glowing, iridescent, wings coming from the back. The knight flew towards the Ogre and bashed it across the face with her shield, then she slashed out his eye with her long blade.

"ALEXIS!" Kasumi applauded.

"My apologies for coming late," said Alexis. "I got attacked by bandits."

"You okay?" Cora asked.

"Yeah, nothing I can't handle. Check it out! I came equipped with this really cool ring. It gives me wings so I can fly for a few minutes."

The Ogre rose up from behind her and swatted her away like a fly. "WHOA!" Alexis shouted as she zoomed back into the trees. She crashed into one and knocked it down. "Oh…" she groaned. "I'm okay."

Mokuba was done playing around. He activated his special ability, merging his two powerful swords into one big one. He leaped into the air, held up his sword, and slashed the Ogre's head off with one quick swoop.

"We did it!" Candy cheered. "Wee!"

The words LEVEL UP flashed in front of them.

The Ogre's body vanished and left behind a card with gold coins on the front. It read 1000, meaning they scored 1000 gold to spend on in-game items. Candy jumped down to join the party as they gathered around the edge of the lake. "Wow! We're all here!" she said. "Did we kick butt or what?"

"Don't get too excited," said Mokuba. "That was just one of the many things we have to face. And they'll get tougher and tougher as we advance through the game."

"Well, we have you, you big grinder," Cora teased, ruffling Mokuba's hair.

"Think that will be enough?" Kasumi asked. "Mokuba said those creeps from the Church overwrote the game's code. Who's to say they won't cheat to try and stop us."

"Oh, dear!" said Candy. "That's not fair."

"I don't think they care about playing fair," said Alexis. "What if they decided to pull the plug on us or something?"

"Uh, funny you should mention that," M's voice buzzed from their watches.

"Ugh!" said Cora. "Before anything else happens, just what the hell are these?"

"These are your Smart Watches," said Mokuba. He shrugged. "You can manage your gear and equip things with them. And they can also communicate with the operators in the real world." He grinned. "Just in case the player decides it's too much and wants out of the game." He tapped on the watch. "M, this is Mokuba. What's up."

"We've got some bad news, man!"

"What's going on, talk to me?"

"Madeline is watching the security cameras. We spotted some Church thugs breaking into the park. They're coming, guys. I don't think they're going to allow you guys to finish the game. They're going to terminate you on the spot."

"Uh oh!" said Mokuba. "Lock the doors! Now!"

"I can't!" Nixie said. "These passwords you gave me are useless. They must have reset them or something."

"Zey're coming!" Madeline said.

"Hey!" someone shouted from down the hall. "Hey! You!"

"If any of you have got a plan, now's ze time to make it happen."

Back in the virtual world, Alexis thought of who might help them. "Wait! Nixie! Can you get a hold of Kara Kestrel?"

"Who in the hell is that?"

"No time to explain! Once I give you her number, you call her immediately, got it!?"

"Right, right, give it to me, Princess."


Kara


Miles away in an old abandoned lighthouse, Kara Kestrel, former partner of Zane Truesdale, opened a can of orange soda, dancing around to hip hop music blasting from her LED stereos. Her tank top was stained with potato chip oil and a residue from the stealth coating she gave her partner: Cyber Dragon Infinity. The mechanical beast was flying in circles above the lighthouse, now repurposed as Kara's secret lab. The monster saw someone was incoming and alerted her. The wrist-mounted computer flashed with activity. Kara looked at the screen, watching the EVIL TWIN sprites holding up an envelope.

Mail! Mail! You got mail bitch! Open it!

"Mmm-hmm," Kara said. "He's late. That's three notes off."

She went to her bed, slipped on a pair of jeans, and went downstairs to greet the pizza man. She walked down the spiral staircase and typed on a terminal to activate mechanical hands, that slithered out of a compartment and took the pizza from the man. Kara then slid the money through the crack under the door.

"Hey, wait a minute!" said the pizza man. "This is ten, the tab was thirteen."

"You're late, dude!" Kara called from behind the door. "You know the rules."

"Aw, come on, give me a break! I had trouble finding this place."

"Were my instructions not sufficient enough? I even sent you a map."

"But the traffic!"

"Sorry, bro, but a wise man once said: 'never pay full price for late pizza.' Have a good day, boy-o."

"Aw, man!" the young man said. "I've had it with this crap. I quit!"

Kara went upstairs, already nibbling on the excess cheese stretching from the tip of her slice of pepperoni pizza. As she reached her room, her computer started beeping again. "Ugh, who is it this time?" She answered. "Hello," she said.

"Hi, is this Kara Kestrel?"

"This is she," Kara said, throwing herself onto her bed. She noisily chomped on her pizza.

"My name is Nixie Marsh I…"

"Wait, wait, hold up! Nixie Marsh? As in the granddaughter of the Domino City Museum's curator?"

"Yeah."

Kara whooped and gave her pizza slice another chomp. "Well, color me surprised," she said with her mouth full. "What can I do for you, honey?"

"It's a bit of a doozy. My friend Alexis needs your help."

Kara swallowed her food at once. "Princess Rhodes? What kind of mess has she gotten into this time?"

Nixie explained the situation, to which Kara started to laugh. "Wow. I've heard some whoppers in my time but that one takes the cake. Is she in there right now?"

"Yeah, she's been in there for half an hour already."

"Oh-ho, please tell me she's got on some skimpy armor. Zane would loooove to see that."

"Look," said Nixie. "I'd love to chat, but we've run into some trouble. The Church of Yeyu is sending their Holy Patrol thugs into the laboratory. If they mess with this system in any way, Alexis and my friends will be trapped in that virtual world forever."

"Holy, shit," Kara said. She got out of bed at once.

"Hey!" Alexis called from the virtual world. "Hey! Kara! Kara! Can you hear me?"

"Lexi? Lexi, is that you? How can you communicate with me from in there?"

"Mokuba's with us. He knows the ins and outs of this program. He's a guardian angel, that's what he is. Listen, I know how all of this sounds, but you've got to believe me."

Kara slurped some more orange soda and burped. "Well, I've been through crazier stuff with you and Zane." She went to her desk, sat down on her chair, and cracked her knuckles. "All right, tell me what you need."

"Can you access Kaiba Land's main security systems and turn them in our favor?"

Kara laughed and started typing away. "Come on, Alexis, I thought you had a challenge for me."

"Hey!" Mokuba said. "Is this Kara? Don't talk about our mainframe like that. My brother worked in it. It's top-of-the-line security."

"Well, Mokuba, allow me to disagree. Your brother's systems have been hacked so many times, it makes me wonder why he keeps boasting about it. Makes him look like an ass is what it does. You know, I've offered to help him boost his firewalls and stuff with our own security suites, but he always denies my help." She lowered her voice to sound as cold as Kaiba's. "I don't need help from an outsider. Leave these matters to the big leagues, kid."

"Damn, that's my dad alright," said Cora.

Suddenly, M and Madeline closed the door and held it down with all their might as the thugs started banging on the door.


Nixie


WHAM! WHAM!

"OPEN THE DOOR!"

"OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR!"

"Hey, that sounds bad!" said Kara. "What's going on over there?"

M held the door with all his might. "Hurry up! We've got to lock this motherfucker!"

Nixie started getting desperate. "No time to explain. Can you do it or not."

"I can, and I will. One locked door coming right up. Nel-E, please take care of them."

"Yes ma'am," said the artificial intelligence Zane created to help him on his missions with his Cyber Dragons. "Have no fear, everyone. I have locked out the Church's hackers from the entirety of the Kaiba Corp mainframe."

"Just like that?" said M.

Hsss! The door locks activated and then an iron plate slid down, acting as a second barrier.

"Just like that," said Kara. "Nel-E is the best of the best. Zane and I spared no expense to make her what she is."

"I only wish I can do more," Nel-E said, appearing on the screens as a smiling, girl.

"Damn," said M. "Zane made himself one fine-ass AI."

Nixie hated his words, but she had to agree the face flashing on the screens was quite attractive. "Yeah, she's beautiful. Uh, thank you, Nel-E. We greatly appreciate your help. But, what do you mean you wish you could do more?"

"What I mean is, those Holy Patrol thugs are persistent. They are talking about using explosives and getting blowtorches from the toolboxes scattered around the construction site. I fear these doors won't hold them back from long if they get their hands on those tools. However, I will do everything I can to distract them."

"Thanks," said Nixie. "We just need to hold out long enough for our friends to finish the game and rescue Seto Kaiba."

"I make no promises, Miss Marsh," said Nel-E. "But I will work my hardest to keep you and your friends safe."


Tomba


The two boys snuck inside a secret chamber with two virtual pods built just for them were waiting.

"See, I told you!" said Mickey. "Let's hurry. That Kaiba Corp mole bought us little time. We have to link up with the virtual world now before that hacker locks us out."

"I don't know if I want to do this anymore," said Tomba. "This doesn't feel right. I mean, your friend Nixie wanted to help us."

"She's not doing it out of the goodness of her heart," Mickey said, opening his virtual pod. "Believe me, she's doing it because she fears us. We're a threat and she's going to do whatever it takes from destroying her and Cora. Come on, man. The mole unlocked the entire console command code for us. Check this out. I already filled out my character sheet with the best stuff."

Mickey

Class: Dragon Knight Champion

Level: 1000 Grandmaster Prestige

HP: MAX

STR: MAX

DEX: MAX

CON: MAX

INT: MAX

WIS: MAX

CHA: MAX

"Far out, man!" said Tomba. "Those are some neat stuff!"

"So what do you say, man? Ready to take Cora out once and for all?"

Tomba smiled greedily and ran for the nearest terminal. He used the console command code and began to search for the highest-tier weapons, armor, and spells. Then he boosted his stats to the max.

"Yeah, we're going to make them wish they were never born."