Author's Note: Once again, a big thank you to everyone for the nice reviews! This monster has certainly grown beyond what I'd originally planned. It was going to end after five chapters, but boredom at work plus a window kept open to my e-mail for typing purposes helped it grow way beyond that. Enjoy!
Virtually Yours
Hacked and Slashed
Seto peered over the edge of his makeshift flying carpet as they approached the floating city. His mouth gaped open slightly at the sight, but quickly closed again the instant Seto realized he was gawking like a tourist in his own game. Seto had to admit to himself that he was impressed, though he'd never say it aloud. His designers had outdone themselves.
Built upon the clouds, the towers of the floating city shimmered as if all the buildings were covered in nacre – a near impossibility in the real world, but a wondrous sight to behold nonetheless. Thin, delicate arches bridged the gaps between towers. Compared to the gray stone darkness of the vampire castle, this place was truly a paradise.
The vampires lowered Seto's sheet so carefully that he wasn't jarred around as he came into contact with the solid ground. Then they, too, landed. Both were huffing from the exertion. It had been a long flight, especially for creatures who had most likely never left their home before. Seto reached out and rested his hands lightly on the vampires' backs. They had done well. Praise didn't come easy to Seto, but he felt proud to claim that these two creatures were part of the world that his company had created – even if one of them was a little "sensitive."
The thud of padded paws on hard ground told Seto that the rest of his group had arrived. He turned his glance away from the vampires in time to see Joey climbing off of the sphinx's back, lip curled back in disgust. Weevil made no move to leave his seat, seeming to be quite happy to remain with his arms wrapped around the sphinx's human torso. At least everyone seemed to have arrived safe and sound, even if the monsters were exhausted.
A breeze sent the clouds in front of the gate roiling away, revealing a man leaning comfortably against the golden bars. He seemed unconcerned about being trapped in the game as he straightened up and adjusted the feathered cloak settled around his shoulders. Seto snarled and stepped forward, hand on the hilt of his sword. The damn hacker would pay for invading his game! Yet in the face of Seto's rage, the hacker merely smiled and called out, "It certainly took you long enough to catch onto me, Herr Kaiba."
"Pinky the Clown?" Joey gasped. "Oh, fucking hell! I thought we'd seen the last of him!"
"Amen," Seto agreed with a snarl as he drew his sword. He'd had more than enough of Siegfried von Schroeder during his Grand Championship tournament. Now the silly fop had to go and invade his game too! 'I'll just have to beat him again. This might almost be fun.'
"Did you really think it was over between us, Herr Kaiba? That I would really go running home with my tail between my legs? I must admit, my performance at your little tourney was truly superb." Siegfried slid his own sword free of the scabbard at his waist. He allowed his tone to soften as he continued. "Watching my little brother lose honorably in a card game has shown me the error of my ways. From now on, I will live the rest of my life as a good boy. Ha! I believe the proper expression is 'what a load of crap!' And you fools believed it!"
Siegfried raised his sword in a salute. "This should prove mildly entertaining. But first... Activate, Menu, Character Parameters, Skins, Siegfried." The game commands came quick and sharp, as Siegfried showed his knowledge of accessing the game's menus. The NPC form faded, leaving behind the base game mannequin. But that blank form didn't remain for long as Siegfried's own form filled it out. Seto felt the first twinges of worry as he realized that to have a character skin ready for use, Siegfried must have been planning on being found out. And if Siegfried had been planning on getting caught, then that meant he had to have a back-up plan for getting out of trouble.
If that was the case, then Seto would just have to stop him before he could implement his back-up plan. With that thought, Seto was in motion, his sword coming out as he ran for Siegfried. Blades crossed and slid across each other in a hiss of metal and shower of sparks. "Much more satisfying than dueling with pieces of cardboard," Siegfried laughed as he forced Seto's sword down.
Seto allowed his blade to go with the motion of Siegfried's downward block, the sudden lack of resistance throwing the other off-balance briefly. Siegfried stumbled momentarily, planting the blade of his sword into the ground. As Seto brought his own sword around to strike, Siegfried ducked. He used his sword to swing himself around, somehow avoiding the blade as he launched a scissor-kick at Seto's legs.
As Seto went down from the foul kick, Siegfried leapt to his feet and pulled his sword out of the ground. Seto rolled to the left as Siegfried chopped downward far to the right. If Seto had rolled in the other direction, he would have rolled right into the descending blade.
Seto came right out of the roll into a crouch, rising as he swung again. Siegfried barely had time to turn and bring his blade to meet Seto's. Seto continued to press the attack. Slowly, step by agonizing step, he forced Siegfried back until the duelist could retreat no further. He stood at the edge of the floating city, that ridiculous feathered cape blowing in the wind. "It's over," Seto said as he leveled his sword at Siegfried's throat.
"On the contrary, Herr Kaiba," came the confident reply as Siegfried stepped off the edge of the floating city. Seto stared as Siegfried plummeted through the clouds. Before Siegfried was lost from sight, Seto saw the cloak split around him, and he felt his heart sink. The cloak flared out into a pair of feathered wings.
"Of course," Seto muttered to himself. "Floating city... Magic items in this place must deal with flight."
Siegfried fell out of sight and Seto waited. All too soon, his opponent soared back up into sight. "Catch me if you can, Herr Kaiba!" he cackled, winging off among the towers. Seto frowned as he scanned the city, trying to pinpoint Siegfried's destination. It wouldn't be like him to just fly around at random. He had a goal of some sort, of that Seto was certain.
At the top of the tallest tower, Seto spotted a gleam that didn't match the rest of the mother-of-pearl shininess of the city. It looked more like the portal Weevil had summoned the sphinx from. Pointing, he shouted, "Weevil! Get me up there!" Weevil nodded and cast his levitate spell.
As Seto began to rose, dozens of Gozaburo clones began flooding out of the buildings. Siegfried had certainly been busy before they'd arrived. Seto started to order Weevil to bring him back down to fight, but then realized that this must be part of Siegfried's plan. If they busied themselves with the minions, Siegfried would escape.
Desperate to get to the portal, Seto began looking for something to push off against. Levitate was good for straight up, but proved problematic when steering was needed. With a roar, the sphinx launched herself into the air, heading straight for Seto. She grabbed Seto's legs and hurled him with all her strength. Another set of arms caught onto Seto, and he found himself staring into the smiling face of Dartz. "Going up?" the vampire asked as he launched Seto closer to the tower. This time Pegasus swooped up to direct his flight. Seto felt like a Hot Potato in a game of Monster Leap Frog, but at least he was getting where he needed to be as the monster at the end of the line swooped ahead of the other two to catch him again. It was Pegasus who ended up slinging him through the portal, right on the heels of Siegfried. Once again the monsters had come through for him simply because he needed them.
Seto crashed into a world of gray nothing. Slowly he sat up and looked around, wondering where he was. This didn't look like anyplace in the game. To be honest, it didn't look like anyplace at all. "Clever, Herr Kaiba." Siegfried stood at a point where the gray deepened into ominous shadows. "I thought it would've taken you longer to make it here. Such determination, but now your doom is at hand."
From out of the darkness, came a tall, heavily built older man. A rictus grin filled his mustached face as he glared at Seto with unfeeling eyes. Seto took an unconscious step back, swallowing in fear. "Not you," Seto gasped. "Not again... How many times do you have to die before you stay dead?"
As Seto stared in horror at the revived Gozaburo, Siegfried began to laugh a maniacal villain's laugh more fitting for a cheesy horror movie. "Isn't it fantastic what I've managed to do, Herr Kaiba? There was so little left to work from when I found his files and now just look at him! He will return to the real world in your stead and poof! Kaiba Corp will no longer be a gaming company. Schroeder Corp will reign supreme!"
Gozaburo crossed the nothingness, approaching Seto. Seto wanted desperately to run away, but he was discovering what it meant to be petrified with fear. His legs wouldn't obey his mind's orders to get the hell out of there. Gozaburo reached out and stroked Seto's cheek. "What's the matter, Seto? Aren't you happy to see me again?" The familiar smell of brandy and cigars clung to the man and left Seto trembling. "I look forward to crushing everything you love, boy – your brother, your company, and then I'll destroy you."
Moving more quickly than Seto would have thought he could, Gozaburo whirled and lunged towards Siegfried. The older man disappeared into Siegfried. "No!" Siegfried gasped, dropping to his knees. "No! It was supposed to be Kaiba!"
"He knows how to get past the Logout Override, doesn't he?" Seto whispered in a quavery voice. He knew the answer before Siegfried even nodded an affirmative. If it had been anyone but Gozaburo being turned loose upon the world, Seto would have thought this a fitting double-cross. But Seto would rather have let Siegfried get off unpunished rather than have to deal with Gozaburo again.
Snarling unpleasantly, Seto hauled Siegfried off of the ground and began dragging him back to the network portal to the game. He needed to get back to the others and let them know about this latest development. Gozaburo lived again in the body of Siegfried von Schroeder, and Siegfried was trapped in the virtual world. Seto shook his head, not wanting to think about how complicated everything had begun.
As Seto and Siegfried went back through the portal, the feather cloak flared back out into wings again, and Siegfried took them safely to the ground. Seto had expected the vampires or the sphinx to be there to give him a ride back, but only Joey and Weevil waited upon the ground, expressions grim. Seto released his hold on Siegfried and rushed to his friends. Joey leaned into Seto and started to cry. "They're gone," Weevil explained simply. "To stop the NPCs, the programmers had to do a game-wide restoration of the NPC files." Weevil turned away to hide his own tears as he wiped at his eyes.
"Fools!" Siegfried growled. "There are larger problems to be faced and yet you cry over a few failed AI programs?"
Seto released Joey and lunged, slamming Siegfried into the nearest wall. Cold rage burned inside Seto's chest as his fist impacted into Siegfried's stomach. "They were our friends!" he roared. He hurled Siegfried aside and leaned his head against the wall, shaking as he tried to get his emotions under control. "They were our friends," he repeated softly as he turned back to Joey.
A weight slammed into Seto's back, tackling him to the ground. "Seto Knight likes us!" Seto rolled to find himself face to face with the toothy grin of Dartz. The vampire nuzzled his face against Seto's chest, purring contentedly. "Seto Knight is our friend." Slowly Seto sat up, a smile breaking out on his face as he saw Pegasus and the sphinx standing nearby. Joey and Weevil were already running to greet them.
"Surely you guys didn't think I'd pull a stunt like that without backing up their files," Mokuba announced over the party chat. "So, ready to come back to the real world?"
Seto shook his head, letting his fingers run lightly through Dartz's hair. "Not just yet, Mokuba. We need to arrange a few things here first. Especially in regards to Siegfried. It appears that he is going to be stuck in this world indefinitely, and what kind of hosts would we be if we didn't make certain that our prisoner was comfortable?"