Chapter Four: Uploaded
Disclaimer and A/N: I do not own anything in here except the plot, some of the characters whose names do not belong to friends, so friends of authors, game and film producers world-wide: it all belongs to them, I'll give a list of the games, films and books at the end.
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'Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggghh!' said Harry.
'Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggghh!!' said Stephen.
* * *
'Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggghh' Sirius yelled and put his fist through a table. Arabella remained quiet and instead slapped Sirius solidly across the face.
'That won't bring them back.'
* * *
'Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggghh' said Wesley Weston, Wes to his friends, as his computer crashed for the ninth time that day, he knew what the problem was and picked his coat off the chair. That Stephen kid next door was probably organising another online meeting of extreme proportions, he'd probably crashed his entire system again, sending a surge through to Wes's house.
* * *
'Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggghh' said Harry again as he took another look at his hand, it was…it was a blob of pixels. Turning round he saw Stephen's face and yelled again; 'Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggghh', it was a blobby pixel picture as well.
'You're no picture yourself,' Stephen responded, 'are we…' he left the picture unfinished when he saw the floating writing off to his left: UPLOAD COMPLETE: NEW SYSTEM, BEGIN PROGRAM?
'Are we what?' asked Harry in slightly calmer tones as he waved his hand, watching tiny squares change colour with each fluidic movement.
'Holy hell! We're in my computer!' Stephen was now goggling the forward screen which showed an icon in the shape of Harry's scar. 'That Voldemort person must have put us into the program, what was that box he threw at us?'
'I think it was a Portkey, it's a device that lets wizards move from one spot to another in an instant, they always hurt my stomach.' Stephen watched Harry rub his belly on these last words, oddly enough his own navel felt like a hook had been inserted in it, but he was in his computer!
* * *
'So what do we do now Arabella?' Sirius said rubbing his sore face, I hate to remind you, but Harry and that other boy are inside a compewter.' However before Arabella could reply their agitated thoughts were disturbed by footsteps running up the stairs:
'Stephen, you've crashed my entire bloody system again you twerp!' Wes ran into the room with his face of extreme annoyance in place…it faded swiftly. 'What the hell happened here? And who the hell are you?'
Now it was Sirius's turn to deliver a clip round the head, 'show some respect to your elders boy, and just who the hell are you?' he almost shouted the question but suspected that Arabella had by now put a Calming Charm on him.
'I'm Wesley Weston, I live next door to Steve.' He replied to Sirius's question in a much smaller voice than before, his computers have taken down my system…they didn't crash did they?'
'No dear they didn't,' Arabella replied, 'in fact something worse has happened to Stephen and one of his friends. By the way, my name is Arabella Figg, and this is Stephen's friend's godfather, Mr. Sirius Black.'
'I know that name…'
'Yes, the whole world thinks I'm a mass murderer, you probably heard about me two years ago.'
'That's right, you killed thirteen people by blowing up a gas main…um…are you going to kill me?' Wes was surprised at the calmness in his voice.
'No dear, of course he won't, in fact he never would have clipped you round the head, but he's a bit worried about Harry and Stephen.'
'Harry's his godson?'
'Yes, and its been proved to certain people that I am not a mass murderer.' Sirius added on the end.
'So…um…what's going on?'
'This,' said Arabella, pointing at the blinking message on the screen: UPLOAD COMPLETE: NEW SYSTEM, BEGIN PROGRAM?
* * *
'So what do we do now?' asked Harry.
'Um…' Stephen didn't know, he'd heard of virtual reality, but this was ridiculous, then he noticed a mouse arrow moving over the screen, 'possibly panic…' he muttered as it pressed down on them and the scar.
* * *
Sirius watched as Wes and Arabella hunched over the screen after the boy had clicked on he scar icon, he didn't know what was going on, he just knew that Harry was in trouble. Suddenly while his two companions stared at the now flickering screen, Sirius heard a tapping on the window, and looked up to see Hedwig perched outside. 'You're one damn smart owl,' he said as he lifted her in, 'how'd you know what was going on?' and at this point Hedwig just stuck out her leg, and gave Sirius a withering look, tied to it was a fresh letter. Sirius reached for it and unfurled the curled document, it was from Dumbledore, 'How in God's name did you get this so quickly?' Sirius asked Hedwig as she flapped onto a dormant computer.
Sirius,
I was on the 'web' with Professor Mysis to watch the exchange and saw what happened, fortunately I managed to send a lot of my staff out to the other wizards, they rescued most of our people before Voldemort could send his Death Eaters after them. I was the last on the list of contacts so I like Arabella managed to 'log off' before he could find me, I summoned Hedwig seconds later by a new charm, what has happened to Harry and the Muggle boy, Stephen? Write back immediately after this letter is opened, the charm will automatically summon Hedwig again after five minutes.
Albus
Sirius felt quickly for a quill, 'Dammit, Arabella can you give me a quill?', instead he was lobbed a pen by Wes. Scrawling on the back he wrote about the situation, then he tied the letter back onto Hedwig's leg. 'Now what?' he said looking at her, then with a pop she disappeared from the room, 'okay.' Behind him he heard a beep as the screen finished loading and a picture appeared.
'I know what that is,' Wes breathed, 'it's the backdrop to a Roman coliseum.'
'And I know who they are,' Arabella said, her fingers on two figures in the middle of the screen, 'it's Harry and Stephen.'
* * *
'Stephen are we where I think we are?'
'Where do you think we are?'
'In a Roman coliseum.'
'I think you're right.'
'It's pretty big.'
'They were large places, what's that noise?' and on saying this the amphitheatre roared into life as a crowd appeared in the stands, 'yes it did sound like a crowd.'
'I have a bad feeling about this said Harry.
* * *
'So do I Harry,' Sirius said after the tiny speech bubble disappeared from the screen. 'What's going on?' he asked the question of Wes.
'I think they've been uploaded into the machine and this program…but it's impossible.'
'Not for a wizard,' muttered Arabella as she watched Harry and Stephen move around their virtual prison, 'especially Voldemort.'
'Wizard?'
'Yes Wesley, wizard, the man, Voldemort, who did this is a wizard, Sirius is a wizard, I myself am a witch.'
'And it's a magic charm that's done this to Steve and Harry?'
'Undoubtedly.'
'I'm gonna need help…that's if you want me to try and get them out?'
'Wesley,' Sirius said, 'you could be the only hope they have left, get all the help you need.' Moving with speed the boy rebooted one of the few dormant machines that Stephen had kept on standby.
'I'm gonna contact some of my friends online, they all know Stephen and me, they'll help.'
'You better hurry,' said Arabella, Sirius and Wes turned to the screen as from gates in the wall of the coliseum, several gladiators emerged.
* * *
'Are they?'
'Hell yes!'
* * *
'Bloody hell!' said Wes and he ran back to the original screen, 'Arabella watch that other PC and tell me when it's up, can you put it into the default webchat area?' he didn't even get a reply as the elderly witch moved to the machine. Sirius looked over Wes's shoulder as his fingers danced over the keyboard, pulling up move windows on another computer while the main screen showed the gladiators circling the boys, Harry had his wand out and was sending small green rays outwards, occasionally stunning a gladiator. 'They don't have any weapons, Steve must have a file on here somewhere, got it!' Sirius watched as Wes selected a file from the list and sent it to the main PC, 'incoming Steve!'
* * *
'What do we do?' Harry asked, 'it's your game after all!'
'I–' but Stephen was cut off as a loud CRACK sounded and the sky above them opened, then as if by miracle, swords and shields fell out of the sky and landed at the boys' feet. 'It looks like we have to fight them.' As Stephen picked up one of the swords he noticed an inscription; from Sir Wesley Weston, 'alright, Harry my friend Wes is are online and helping!'
'Great,' said Harry as he shot another of the gladiators who were edging closer, 'but we have a more immediate problem.' And on that note the gladiators charged.
* * *
'Sirius can you watch what happens, are you ready for me Arabella?' Wes pushed his chair across from the main PC and began typing rapidly into the webchat. 'Yes! I've got Voltora, * beth *, Giesbrecht, Serene, Bandy, Netsurfer77, and Lunar Bard. Okay guys, here we go…'
Sir Wesley Weston Hi guys, we have a problem, Lord of the Net and a friend are in trouble, patching you a feed now…
[Lunar Bard] A problem…has he crashed all your systems again?
{Voltora} Come on Wes, we don't have time for jokes
* beth * Yeah, we kinda have more important things to talk about.
+Giesbrecht+ I've got to go…
(Serene) Grow up Giesy…
+Giesbrecht+ Can't you take a joke
–=Netsurfer77=– Giesbrecht the Geezer strikes again.
^Bandy^ So what's up Wes?
Incoming feed – please wait…
Upload complete
Wes stared hopefully at the screen while all the data from Stephen's main computer was jacked into the chatroom.
{Voltora} That's LOTN. What's he doing in Gladiator?
* beth * Kicking some butt by the looks of it.
* * *
Stephen ducked as a mace hit his shield, he was glad he had watched Gladiator on DVD so much, then with a green flash his attacker slumped forwards as Harry released a spell. Turning round Stephen saw two gladiators charging him, as they neared he did the only sensible thing, he charged them back.
* * *
Sir Wesley Weston Believe me now?
+Giesbrecht+ What the hell is LOTN doing now?
–=Netsurfer77=– And who the hell is the other guy?
Sir Wesley Weston LOTN is playing by the script, the other guy is Harry Potter, he's a wizard…
(Serene) Wizard…a real wizard?
^Bandy^ This is so cool!
Sir Wesley Weston Yes he's a real wizard, no it's not cool, help me get them the hell out of there.
[Lunar Bard] I'm on it…
With this the eight children around the world began rapidly typing machine code into the screen, while Sirius and Arabella watched as Stephen and his assailants collided…
* * *
Stephen knew exactly what to do, and on reaching the two men he immediately leapt onto the shield of the first, swinging his right foot into an arc that clotheslined the second man, somersaulting over the shield he swung his sword behind and felt the blade bite into the back of the second man. Harry watched as the boy turned to face another man, then returned his attention to those attacking him, he had left the shield on the floor and was armed with wand and sword only. He had stunned about three people but there were still several circling, he had managed to drive off two with his sword but now three were charging…then they vanished with a wave of digital particles.
* * *
'Where'd they go?' Sirius asked Wes who had turned round with a triumphant look, on his screen there was a reply:
[Lunar Bard] Mission accomplished.
Then the screen where Harry and Stephen had been flickered again…
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A/N: Obviously the books are all of the Harry Potter series and the films are The Matrix and Gladiator. I hope all my reviewers enjoy seeing their names making an appearance in some way or form.