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Mazokusoft(R) Windows 27
(C)Copyright Mazokusoft Corp 2020 - 2027
C:\WINDOWS>cd \slayers
C:\SLAYERS>cd virtual
C:\SLAYERS\VIRTUAL>dir
Volume in drive C is CEE
Volume Serial Number is 186D-18F1
Directory of C:\SLAYERS\VIRTUAL
. 03-24-99 9:52p
.. 03-24-99 9:52p
IMPRO EXE 10,002 05-20-99 6:14p
FANFIC ZIP 584,874 05-20-99 11:17p
PRESENTS TXT 2,591 02-26-98 3:02a
-------- --- 2 02-26-98 3:02a
CHAPTER 1 0064305 05-22-99 1:09a
CHAPTER 10 0014690 03-2?-00 ??:???
CHAPTER 11 0049528 04-1?-00 ??:???
CHAPTER 2 0025542 11-16-99 13:50p
CHAPTER 3 0017961 12-09-99 19:34p
CHAPTER 4 0016227 12-23-99 22:57p
CHAPTER 4B 0018603 01-07-00 19:28p
CHAPTER 5 0018547 01-06-00 23:50p
CHAPTER 6 0015963 01-22-00 00:29a
CHAPTER 7 0038163 02-01-00 01:32a
CHAPTER 8 0032821 02-2?-00 ??:???
CHAPTER 9 0018881 03-0?-00 ??:???
FILE_ID DIZ 411 05-22-99 1:09a
12 file(s) 879,583 bytes +
2 dir(s) 9,191.77 MB free
C:\SLAYERS\VIRTUAL>type file_id
File not found - file_id
C:\SLAYERS\VIRTUAL>type file_id.diz
C:\SLAYERS\VIRTUAL>more chapter.11
(Slayers Virtual, Part 11: Fear and Loathing in Atlass City)
"Atlass City," Lina commented neutrally, as the people-carrier pulled past the last of the suburban dwellings and finally entered the city proper. Atlass City really didn't look like much - at least not to anyone familiar with cities in general. There were the same looming skyscrapers, gleaming and shining at the tops, grungy and dark at street level. Here and there, a tree was planted alongside the city sidewalk in a vain attempt to try to make the city look green and cheerful. It was a pointless gesture, of course. The point of a city is not to look cheerful, but rather to try to cram as much of humanity into as small an area as possible. With that much humanity in one place, the rest of the natural world simply stands no chance.
Atlass City was not the largest city in the world, nor the most prosperous, nor the most dirty. Nevertheless, however typical a city it might have been, it did possess a quality that set it apart from every other city its size. It was the fastest growing city in the entire world. Less than three decades before, it had been a tiny nowhere town in the middle of a sprawling countryside - little more than a poorly named bump on the highway.
Which was exactly why Saudi Arabian billionaire industrialist Schazahl Rugandi organized three moderately-sized corporations and convinced them to move there. There were many speculations regarding the exact reason the former hardware guru decided to do this. Some speculated that he had grown tired of the bustle of the big cities, and decided to move somewhere rural. Other rumors suggested that he had made some kind of wager, insisting that the advances in networking and information technologies had made it possible to build a thriving business far from any of the large population centers that most corporations flocked to without thought.
But whatever his original reasons, the rural location did not stay rural for long. The Atlass City Information Technologies Guild, a loose union of the three original corporations, soon became a hub for the exchange of technology throughout North America, due to Rugandi's skillful management. And, as might be expected for any hub, an enormous city soon grew around them. Which pretty much betrayed the whole uncertain purpose behind building it in the first place. After Atlass City's population reached its first million, Schazahl Rugandi resigned from his position as Guild coordinator in disgust.
The loss of the man who could be considered its founder did nothing to halt the expansion of the city, however, as dozens of budding companies continued in the time-honored tradition of setting up camp in a major city. Most who chose Atlass City also joined the Atlass City Information Technologies Guild. While Atlass City never did become a world leader in software development, or hardware innovation, or network connectivity, it was widely known for its competence in all these fields. Wireheads of the more legitimate variety were more likely to end up working in Atlass City than in any other city in the world.
Which of course meant that to Lina, who was not a very legitimate wirehead by any stretch of the imagination, it was a most boring place, indeed.
Growing quickly bored with the featureless skyscrapers towering on all sides, Lina turned her attention to their guide. "So, where exactly are we going, Zel?"
"Don't call me 'Zel'," he replied. "It's 'Zelgadis'. And we're heading to headquarters of Rubia Interactive Technologies, Incorporated."
Lina whistled. "You sure have connections! Wasn't their president the Coordinator of the Atlass City Information Technologies Guild? Anthony Halshiform?"
"Until his suicide, yes," Zelgadis replied.
"Suicide?" Amelia spoke up. "I read that he had died of natural causes."
"That was the official story," Zelgadis answered. "In actuality, he was found dead at a computer terminal, linked into the system. The terminal uplink had been tampered with in such a way that a severe electric shock was routed directly into his brain."
"Sounds awfully suspicious," Lina suggested, her eyes narrowing.
Zelgadis shrugged. "True. It hardly mattered to RPR, of course. In fact, it was something of a relief. Halshiform had been becoming rather... eccentric during his final years, and had been devoting large amounts of company materials and capital towards his personal projects. He kept insisting that he was on the verge of discovering the secrets of immortality." The cyborg shrugged. "We were interested, of course, but all investigations of his work revealed it to be completely fruitless. A complete waste. But he was loyal and usually cooperative, and so we let him dabble." Zelgadis paused a moment. "Now that he's gone, however, the two men who are running the company in his stead have proven to be even more compliant than he had been. Edward Tarim and Alexander Daymia, formerly his vice presidents. They are the men we're to meet today."
"If RPR and RIT are so close, won't Rezo find out about this?" Lina asked.
"Don't worry. I've been solely responsible for all dealings with RIT for the past several years. This isn't the first time that I've arranged... dealings with them that were meant to be kept from Rezo's knowledge." Zelgadis frowned slightly. "Of course, my dealings with Tarim and Daymia have been a bit more limited, but they should be trustworthy."
"Hey, there it is!" Amelia shouted suddenly, practically climbing over the driver's seat and pointing out the windshield, while somehow managing to simultaneously elbow Zelgadis and stick a knee in Lina's face.
As it happened, Amelia was right on the money. The Rubia Interactive Technologies building loomed ahead of them, over sixty stories of concrete and shining, shaded windows. It was cleaner at the bottom than many of the other buildings around it, but that was the only sign that they were approaching the corporation that had led the entire Atlass City Information Technologies Guild for the past fifteen years.
Of course, just because Amelia was right did not mean that Lina was going to let her get away with kneeing her in the face. "Amelia, don't you ever buckle up?" Lina snapped, rapping Amelia on the head and shoving her back into her seat. Amelia sheepishly returned to her seat, self-consciously rubbing the bump Lina had given her.
Trying not to look annoyed, Zelgadis instructed, "Once inside, follow my lead. I called ahead and made the arrangements for our visit while we were filling up at the station a few hours ago. They'll give you access to their computers, but I obviously did not tell them who you are or what you intend to do with them. Let me do the talking, and I should be able to arrange for you to have several hours of privacy to do your thing."
"That thing I do so well," Lina grinned, confidently leaning back, and stretching her arms with interlaced fingers before her. "Don't worry. We'll be subtle."
Inwardly, Lina was slightly less confident, but could not for the life of her figure out why. Zelgadis seemed to be on the level, and this was the best opportunity they had to get the information they needed about Shaburanigdo, Rezo, and... her mother. Sure, she could try to go online without a deck again, but she was reluctant. It was so... spooky, that she could do that. Besides, this way, she'd have Amelia at her side. For all her faults, Amelia was a brilliant hacker, and Lina could not imagine a better protege. 'Maybe I should tell her that more often,' Lina mused briefly, before forgetting about the notion entirely.
Zelgadis flashed some kind of identification to a security guard, and the Slayerz soon found themselves journeying into the bowels of the RIT underground parking complex.
--MORE--
"...and that's what I need from you, Mr. Tarim," Zelgadis finished. "Please understand that this project is... not entirely above board, and no one is to be told. I'm sure that you know the drill by now."
"Of course," the Co-President of Rubia Interactive Technologies, Incorporated simpered. He was short, fat, and bald, and constantly wrung his hands while speaking. "I can assure you, that no one at all will hear of this."
Zelgadis sighed and rubbed his forehead. "You should be aware, however, that we have already met with Mr. Daymia, and he is also fully aware of our little project."
Tarim swelled up, turning red with rage. "That incompetent fool?!?" he snarled. "What did you waste your time with him for? It is clear to anyone with even half a brain that I am on the verge of assuming full control of this company. It is merely a matter of waiting for the votes to be tallied, before I will assume my rightful position both as sole President of RIT, as well as Coordinator for the Guild!"
"Of course it is," Zelgadis soothed patronizingly. Inwardly, he smacked his forehead, wondering not for the first time how a pair of boobs like Daymia and Tarim had managed to become vice presidents in the first place. Even before Halshiform had died, the rivalry and infighting between the two of them was well-known. Now that there was so much more at stake, their petty feuding had only escalated.
Unauthentic though they might have been, Tarim seemed placated by Zelgadis's words, so Zelgadis turned to Lina and beckoned. "Come on. Let's get moving." Lina had insisted on accompanying Zelgadis during his interviews with each president, though she did keep her promise to remain silent. Even under the subtle suggestive influence of his sweat-gland module, Lina still didn't trust him completely. Smart girl. Unfortunately, Zelgadis had made the REAL arrangements with both presidents long before they had even arrived at the building. These meetings were purely for show.
Gourry, Sylphiel, and Amelia were waiting just outside. "So, Zel, where to?" Lina asked, breaking her voluntary silence.
Zelgadis winced almost imperceptibly, before turning away from her and proceeding down the hallway. "I told you, don't call me that." The truth was, he was liking this whole ordeal less and less, and the fact that one of the people he was soon to betray referred to him by nickname, as though he was a friend, did not help. Rezo had dangled the promise of a new body before him for so long, and Zelgadis had done many damning things for its sake. These were not the first people whose deaths he had carefully orchestrated, and yet he found himself reluctant to proceed. The once-shining Holy Grail of becoming human once again suddenly seemed dim and indistinct next to the vibrant and meaningful lives of Lina, Amelia, and the others.
Zelgadis chided himself for his indecision, and for his mental romanticization of the situation. It was a job, just like any other. Nothing more. Besides, he reminded himself, Rezo needs Lina alive. They won't necessarily have to die. But even as he thought it, he knew it was not true. These people knew too much. Once Rezo was finished with them, he would not make the mistake of allowing them to escape a second time.
"Here we are," he said, stopping before a fancy doorway. There were potted plants to either side. "The best computers in the building are in here."
"The executive lounge?" Lina asked incredulously. "I was expecting you to take us someplace a bit..." she gestured with her hand as she tried to find the right word, "...techier, than this. I mean, what's an exec gonna do with a high-end computer?"
"Nothing," Zelgadis answered shortly, pushing the door open. "It's purely a waste of resources. Of course, that doesn't stop the execs from requisitioning them anyway. It makes them feel important, I suppose. Even worse, though, is that the engineers who might actually USE these computers to their full potential end up with cheap, low- or medium-end equipment." He shrugged. "It's all office politics."
The executive lounge went beyond posh. There was a fountain in the center of the room burbling away, and here and there were arranged sinfully comfortable-looking leather couches and chairs. Various newspapers and magazines were scattered about on the tables in the room, so that anyone who actually managed to remain awake after sitting in one of the sinful chairs would have something to do. Lighting was not a problem - in addition to mellow track-lighting, two of the walls possessed enormous windows, flooding the room with the light of the mid-afternoon sun. There was also a large television in the corner of the room, currently off.
In the back corner of the room, however, was their true goal. Sylphiel inhaled sharply, and rushed over. "Oh! They're desktop models, from the DracoNix 6500 series! Three of them! You were right, these are cutting edge." She inspected one more closely. "This one's been modified, though - by someone who really knows their hardware, if I'm right. It has a Zoanatech Computer Industries Transfer Packet Enhancement System, a Systech On-the-Fly Code Articulation Processor, and-"
"I'm afraid that that terminal is off-limits," Zelgadis interrupted. "The man who modified that terminal was Mr. Halshiform himself - and it's the one that cost him his life. The alterations that are suspected to have killed him have been removed, but it's being kept powered down until we have a chance to run a few more tests on it. The other two should suffice." He glanced sharply at Lina. "I suggest we begin. We are running on a limited amount of time, after all."
Lina nodded. "Ready, Amelia?" she asked.
"Always!" Amelia and Lina sat at the two chairs and reached for the electrodes.
As Lina's fingers brushed them, the door to the lounge slammed open, and fifteen heavily-armed men and women dressed in light armor stomped into the room and spread out. "FREEZE!" the frontmost of them snarled menacingly, as all fifteen pointed their weapons at the intruders.
Zelgadis did his best to look surprised, but inwardly was groaning. 'Idiots!' he thought. 'You were supposed to wait for my signal! Lina and Amelia didn't have a chance to get online first. Well, we should still be able to pull this off...'
"Slowly place your hands on your heads!" the lead soldier demanded. Lina and the others, along with Zelgadis, complied, very conscious of the arsenal of death currently trained on them. The lead soldier nodded in satisfaction, and spoke into a walkie-talkie. "Sir, the area is secured!"
"Excellent!" a voice called from the door. The man was thin, and possessed an angular face framed by long, wavy hair. He seemed very jittery, and spoke in a whiny, high-pitched voice. Zelgadis instantly recognized him as Daymia, president he and Lina had met with first. "At last, the ones Mr. Rezo instructed us to capture have fallen into our hands! Hahahahaha!" He glared at Zelgadis with a look of contempt so artificial, Zelgadis nearly cringed. The man was the worst actor he had ever seen. "And as for you, Mr. Greywords, you will be most severely punished for your betrayal! Take them away!"
As a few of the guards began to move to comply, the windows of the room shattered, as another fifteen armored men crashed through the windows from outside, a few of them colliding with guards already in the room and tumbling to the floor in tangled heaps of limbs, weapons, and grappling ropes. One of the less lucky of the newcomers managed to hastily work his way free of the woman he had collided with long enough to shout "FREEZE!"
'Oh, please not this,' Zelgadis thought, this time unable to completely withhold his disgust. Fortunately, he was covered, as the others were too busy looking at the newcomers with surprise and dawning contempt.
"Slowly put your - oh, they're already there," the new guard muttered. "Secure," he called into his own walkie-talkie.
"Wh-what..." Daymia stuttered. His voice rose to a new and even more annoying pitch. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!?"
"We were instructed to infiltrate the lounge and apprehend the intruders, sir," he said crisply. "Orders from the president."
"I AM THE PRESIDENT!!!" Daymia shrieked.
"The other president," the guard replied.
Before Daymia could respond to that, the door burst open, and an extremely smug-looking Tarim swaggered in. "At last, the ones Mr. Rezo instructed us to capture - what are YOU doing here?" The last was directed in a snarling voice at Daymia.
"What am I doing here? WHAT AM I DOING HERE? I WAS HERE FIRST!" Daymia screamed shrilly.
"This was MY assignment!" Tarim yelled back.
"Mine as well," Daymia shot back. "But I shall be taking the credit for this success! After all, my men captured them first!"
"Only because you attacked before we got the signal!"
"You should talk! You didn't wait for the signal either!" Daymia retorted. He turned to face the room full of guards. "All of you commanded by Mr. Tarim, leave at once!"
"NO! My people stay. Mr. Daymia's men are to leave!" Tarim commanded.
By now, the soldiers were very confused, glancing at each other and at their employers, who by now had resorted to physical blows and were currently trying to strangle the life out of one another. Zelgadis, face planted firmly in his hands, had mentally retreated to a perfect little world where he was human again and didn't have morons working for him. So it came to pass that no one noticed Lina remove one hand from her head and point it at Tarim, Daymia, and the bulk of the guards. "BURST RONDO!" she shouted. Online, it was a spell she rarely used, with the effect of blitzing a target area with hundreds of tiny, varied, and extremely simple viruses and worms - primarily only useful against very lightly defended data constructs. However, in her earlier experimentation, she found that the RL version had an interesting side-effect that she intended to make use of. Several dozen fist-sized balls of light pelted the targets, detonating with small explosions upon impact, and generally kicking up a lot of smoke and dust. "C'mon, let's get out of here!" Lina shouted, dashing through the door under the cover of the debris, followed quickly by the others.
The five of them raced down the long hallway. As they reached the end and were about to turn down another corridor, they stopped dead in their tracks, blocked by a hail of bullets from that direction. From the direction that they had come, a rather blackened Tarim and Daymar appeared, leading several of their own armored soldiers. "FIRE!" Daymar screamed. Their followers took aim and complied.
Zelgadis knew what to expect at this point. The soldiers had been given instructions to shoot to disable, rather than kill - and to make a special effort to ensure that Zelgadis was hit by a bullet or two, to help preserve the illusion that he was on Lina's side, just in case that illusion might be useful later. His artificial body would be easily repaired, of course, so it was a small price to pay. Noticing several of the soldiers drawing a bead on him, he tensed himself for the impact.
What he hadn't counted on was Amelia. "Zelgadis!" she shouted, noticing the same fact that Zelgadis himself had. She slammed into the cyborg, shifting him aside just as the first shots were fired. Several missed, but one connected, one slamming into the upper right side of her chest in a burst of red droplets. Amelia was knocked backwards off her feet, and as she fell, a second shot grazed her cheek, leaving an angry red trail across it.
"Amelia!" Zelgadis shouted at the same time as Lina. "CEASE FIRE!" he then called alone.
Much to the surprise of Lina, Gourry, and Sylphiel, the soldiers obeyed. Lina's eyes narrowed. "I knew it. You DID betray us, didn't you. Tarim and Daymia were following your instructions the whole time."
"Correct," Zelgadis answered shortly. He had dropped to the floor beside Amelia, and was trying to stop the bleeding from the wound in her chest. "I was sent by Rezo to lure you into a trap. Now, there is nowhere you can run." After a brief pause, he added. "I...I'm sorry. I have no choice." Now why did I say that? he wondered to himself.
"There's always a choice," Lina hissed, eyes flashing angrily.
Zelgadis didn't answer, instead scooping Amelia into his arms. "Take them to sub-basement 23b. A holding area has been prepared for them." With that, Zelgadis began to walk off.
"Lightning!" Lina shouted as soon as his back was turned. The hallway was saturated with an intense flash of light, momentarily blinding most of those present. Zelgadis turned just in time to see Gourry's light sword carve its way through an office door.
"Follow them," Zelgadis commanded. "Unless they plan on jumping out of a window sixty stories above ground level, they have no place left to run."
Naturally, as soon as the words left his lips, he heard a crash of shattering glass, along with the twin screams of Sylphiel and Gourry. "Ah, sir?" a guard began.
"They jumped out of a window sixty stories above ground level," Zelgadis said thinly.
"Yes, sir," the man replied uncomfortably.
Zelgadis then continued, "And instead of plummeting to a gristly death, they floated gently off into the distance."
"Yes, sir," the man replied, even less comfortably.
Zelgadis began walking again. "Very well, then. Go and do whatever it is that you people do after badly flubbing a mission. And Tarim, Daymia? Let me assure you that this is not the last you will be hearing about this little fiasco." The two men swallowed. Nervously.
--MORE--
"Dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit," Lina cursed continually as her Ray Wing carried the three of them far away from the RIT building. She could barely breathe, due to the twin handicaps of Sylphiel's arms around her neck and Goury's crushing embrace around her waist, but that was really the last thing on her mind.
She touched down on a building top, and Gourry immediately slumped into a whimpering puddle around her legs. Sylphiel released her, and took a shaky step away. "Lina," Sylphiel began, but then paused to swallow. "Couldn't you have told us you knew how to fly?"
"Wasn't time," Lina answered distractedly. "Anyway, that's not important, now. We have to go back for Amelia."
"Oh, poor Amelia!" Sylphiel sighed, tears springing into her eyes. "Do you suppose she's -"
"She's alive," Lina said shortly, cutting off any possible further discussion of that particular topic. Then she noticed something. "Uh, Sylphiel, you've been shot."
"I know," Sylphiel replied, with a glance down at her leg, which was bleeding from a small hole, but did not appear to be a terribly threatening injury. "So have you."
"Huh?" Lina glanced at her arm, which she only just realized was throbbing with pain. "Well, I'll be damned. Recovery!" Lina passed her hand over the hole in her arm, and her hand glowed for a moment with a white light. When she removed her hand, the wound was gone.
She moved to apply the same treatment so Sylphiel. As Lina worked, Sylphiel asked. "How will we get to Amelia? They'll be expecting us, now."
Lina considered this for a moment. Then she smiled, nastily. "Then we'll give them what they expect. An all-out attack." She stood up again, and Sylphiel's leg was whole once more. "You need any first aid, Gourry?" Gourry groaned slightly, but said nothing else. "I'll take that as a 'no'." Lina turned back to Sylphiel. "Here's my plan: First, I'll need to get inside their network, to see if I can figure out where they've taken Amelia. On the way out, I'll trip every alarm I can access. Then during the confusion, I'll fly Gourry and I as close as I can manage to Amelia's location..." Gourry gibbered a bit at the thought of flying again, and grasped pleadingly at Lina's leg. Lina ignored him. "...and then the two of us will fight our way in, and carry her out! Simple."
"It won't work," Sylphiel answered glumly. "Even if they didn't take Amelia underground, like they were going to take us, she'll be VERY well-defended. And Zelgadis will be there..."
"I hope so," Lina replied venomously. Then she softened a bit and sighed, "I know. It's a stupid plan. But we've gotta do something. You saw how hurt Amelia was, and we can't be certain that they'll be giving her any sort of treatment. Look, I'll find out where she is, and if she's underground, we'll figure something else out, okay?"
"But our deck is still in the car, and we left that behind!"
"I'll do without," Lina said, looking away.
"Do without?" Sylphiel began. "Oh, right." Sylphiel looked a little unnerved. Not that Lina could blame her. Lina herself was pretty unnerved.
Lina sat cross-legged on the building roof, steeled herself, and closed her eyes.
--MORE--
When she opened them again, they weren't, strictly speaking, her eyes anymore. Immersed in cyberspace, she took quick stock of her surroundings. The building she had chosen for a landing zone was apparently the headquarters for Dynamic Innovations Unlimited, a fairly minor distributor of motherboards and other hardwired computer components. (At least, that was the gist that Lina gleaned from their virtual anteroom - that they were a distributor of computer parts was obvious from the multitudes of advertisements all around her. That the room was ill-kept and gaudy implied that they were minor. No major company would have been caught dead with an anteroom so sub-standard.) None of it concerned Lina, of course, who quickly exited the software construct in order to get her bearings.
It did not take Lina long at all to find Rubia Interactive Technologies. As the current center of the Atlass City Information Technologies Guild, it was the core of the immense web of communications that made up the meat of the Atlass City Internet. RIT was represented on the virtual landscape as an enormous, featureless black monolith. It was more than a little imposing, but Lina had seen much worse. She ignored the looming structure, and looked again at the web of communications siphoning into it. She knew that all the major channels would be very well-monitored and secure. What she needed to find was something a little more... illicit...
There. It was a faint thread, a tiny connection to some distant Scandinavian site. By the title of the picture being downloaded through the thread, Lina guessed that one of the company employees was looking at naughty pictures on company time. Lina tsked to herself, smiling broadly. The poor slob should have known better. When you download from a site like that, you never know what was going to come along for the ride...
After a quick journey on board asian_lesb_11.gif, and after dropping a crippling virus in the guy's account (the pervert deserved it, in Lina's opinion), Lina cracked her virtual knuckles and wondered where to start looking.
"Hello, there," a voice suddenly called. Lina looked up in alarm, to see a thirty-something man standing before her. He was handsome, with long, white hair, and dressed in a white suit and cape. "It would seem that you have gained unauthorized access to the company network. I'm afraid that I'm going to have to ask you to leave."
Lina quickly scanned the figure before her. He did not appear to have any sort of outside connection, which ruled out the possibility that he was another user. An ICE then. Lina grinned. There was one great way to melt ICE... "Fireball!"
The mass of viruses converged on the ICE, ripping into what visually appeared to be his shoulder, and tearing an arm and a good portion of his torso into randomized bitstrings. The image staggered a moment, and then stood tall, a smirk forming on his face. "Very impressive," the man said. The virtual air around him appeared to shimmer a moment, and when it cleared, his arm and torso had been restored. "You interest me. I think I will study you, before I savage your equipment and reduce your mind to that of a drooling invalid."
Lina, already surprised that the ICE had managed to restore itself so quickly, was shocked, and more than a little frightened, to feel some force clamp down on the link she kept with her body. Immediately, Lina attempted to initiate a recall, to exit the 'net and return to her body. Nothing happened.
"That won't work, I'm afraid," the man smiled, walking toward his opponent. "I've initiated a lockdown on your withdrawal protocols. Unless someone outside initiates one manually, you remain here." Then he froze. He stared at Lina a moment, a look of wonder crossing his face. "But that can't happen, can it... Miss Inverse? You - you're here by the power of your own mind. Even more interesting!"
"What ARE you?" asked Lina Inverse, just about ready to freak out.
"Where are my manners?" the man replied. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Anthony Halshiform - the first human in history to attain immortality..."
--MORE--
Zelgadis observed Amelia from a chair beside her hospital bed. The girl's right shoulder and chest were swathed in bandages, and a cotton pad was taped to her right cheek, but she was breathing slowly and evenly. She had taken well to the surgery, and would clearly recover, given a little time.
Zelgadis pondered his latest failure, and found himself oddly relieved that he had failed to capture them all. The truth was, he was finding it more and more difficult to stomach his uncle's actions. He was quite glad to know that someone was free who knew of Rezo's evil, and was working to oppose him. Working to oppose him in the way that Zelgadis desperately wished that he, himself, could, but could not afford to.
"Zelgadis?" a voice called weakly. Pulled from his train of thought, Zelgadis looked up at Amelia, who was gazing at him with bleary eyes.
"Hello, Amelia," Zelgadis replied tonelessly.
"...I feel sick."
"You are just recovering from anaesthesia. You were shot while escaping from Tarim and Daymia's men. The sickness will pass, in time."
Amelia considered this. "How badly was I hurt?"
"The shot grazed your lung, and shattered your right shoulder blade," Zelgadis said, clinically. "The bone had to be replaced. We had no donor bones on hand, and so had to make due with synthetics. You were also grazed across your left cheek. It was not serious, but may leave some scarring."
"The others?"
"Escaped."
"Then I forgive you," Amelia said, closing her eyes with a smile.
Zelgadis was caught off-guard by that. "Forgive me?"
"For betraying us," came the reply. Without saying more, Amelia slipped back to sleep.
Zelgadis watched her sleep a few moments, brooding. Obviously, she had witnessed his actions after she had been shot. But how could she possibly forgive him?
A beeping sound inside of his head announced to him that he had an incoming call on Rezo's private channel. He prepared himself to receive the message.
*** Open on #rpri-zlgds
In reality, Zelgadis's body tensed.
*** Rezo has quit #rpri-zlgds
Zelgadis's electronic eyes reactivated and focused. The cyborg remained motionless, in quiet thought, for several minutes. Then he stood, and approached the peacefully slumbering girl.
--MORE--
"You do realize that this little game is pointless, as fun as it might be."
"DRAGON SLAVE!" The RIT accounting department was going to have a fit, as soon as they realized that three quarters of their carefully maintained personnel database had been annihilated. Lina Inverse hardly cared though. At the moment, she was more frightened than she could ever remember being. The sort of helplessness she felt now was something she only expected of Lina Berkowitz. Not the invincible Lina Inverse.
Lina screamed inwardly as Halshiform, who had clearly been disintegrated by the Dragon Slave shimmered into existence once again. She frantically transferred herself to another department, chosen at random, looking for some way out that Halshiform might have missed. Unfortunately, Human Resources was locked up just as tightly as anywhere else.
Halshiform appeared beside her, once again. His arms were crossed, and a smirk was on his face. "WHY WON'T YOU DIE!?" Lina demanded, pressing herself back against a filing cabinet.
"I told you," Halshiform answered calmly. "I am no simple AI. I am a human mind, with all the complexity implied thereby. Viruses mean nothing to me. I cannot be corrupted. Defenses are pointless. I can tear through the tightest security with a thought."
"A human mind? But that's impossible!"
Halshiform glared sharply at her. "I spent the majority of my life working to MAKE it possible. I failed at every turn, but finally made a breakthrough when I discovered MazokuSoft's greatest secret. Now, with their help, I am finally immortal!"
Lina blinked. "The Mazoku did this to you?"
"So you know the secret, as well, hmm?" Halshiform looked impressed. "Not many discover it, and live to tell about it. Now, let's get down to business, shall we?"
Without warning, Halshiform lashed out and grabbed Lina by the throat. "Normally I use this program to extract data from the computers of the intruders I catch. I wonder what sort of effect it will have on you...?"
Lina's breath caught in her throat, as Halshiform's program activated, travelling along Lina's connection and burrowing deep within the formatted portion of her brain. "Stop!" she demanded futilely, feeling her control over her virtual form slipping away.
"Incredible," Halshiform whispered, ignoring Lina entirely. "I've never seen an autoneme of this complexity... This could be the answer I've been searching for! I must investigate this further..."
--MORE--
Xelloss frowned. This was rarely a good sign.
The Mazoku had been performing a routine check-up on his quarry, following the tracer planted in the equipment he had donated to Lina and her friends, only to find it lying in an empty car in the basement of Rubea Interactive Technologies. It did not take much investigating to discover what had happened, and he was now standing nearby, cloaked from detection, and witnessing Halshiform rutting around in Lina's mind. This absolutely would not do. There were things in there that he definitely wished to be kept secret.
"Seigram," Xelloss said, snapping his fingers.
Another figure appeared, cloaked from anyone's view but Xelloss's. Seigram's image was that of a thickly cloaked man, hands swathed in bandages, and face obscured by a twisted mask. One of the mask's eyes glowed brightly. "Xelloss. Why are you here?"
"You are to instruct your toy to release Lina Inverse."
"And if I should refuse?"
"Then I will release her myself."
Seigram contemplated this. "My master will hear of this."
"As will mine." Xelloss vanished.
Seigram released his cloaking program, and appeared before Halshiform. The man glanced up slightly in annoyance. "What are you doing here, Seigram?" he asked. "I'm very busy, here." By now, Lina had fallen to her knees, her eyes empty and unfocused, and her jaw hanging slack.
"Let her go, Halshiform," Seigram replied.
Halshiform almost dropped her. "What? Are you mad?" Halshiform demanded.
"It is the command of one far more powerful than I," Seigram responded. "If I am destroyed, then you know what will become of you."
"But she is the One, I'm certain of it!" Halshiform protested desperately. "Her mind - the autoneme - I'm certain that she is the key I've been searching for all this time!"
"Irrelevant," Seigram replied. "Your plans will mean nothing, if we both die now."
Halshiform pursed his lips, and then violently threw Lina to the virtual floor, where she lay in a crumpled heap. He released his hold on her recall protocols, and then activated them himself, causing Lina to return to her body.
"I will find her again," Halshiform vowed.
Seigram nodded. "As you wish. But for now, you must remain here, as my master has commanded. Once we have done his bidding, you will be free to pursue her at your leisure."
--MORE--
Lina awoke with a piercing scream. "She's awake," Gourry's said. His voice sounded breathless and ragged.
Lina opened her eyes, and took stock of the situation. She was still feeling a bit muddled from the horror she had endured. The scenery, mostly composed of dirty alley walls, was moving by quite swiftly. "Where? What?" She suddenly realized that she was cradled in Gourry's arms. "Let go of me!" she yelled, blushing, and smacking Gourry across the face.
Gourry stumbled to a halt, and put Lina down. "Sorry, Lina," he apologized.
"Lina, are you all right?" Sylphiel asked worriedly.
"What's going on?" Lina demanded.
Sylphiel paused a moment to catch her breath. "Sorry, we've been running for quite a while." After a moment, she began, "A little while after you went online, Zelgadis's men found us, somehow. They had us cornered on the roof, but Gourry managed to get us out by cutting through into the floor below us."
"They sure didn't seem to know how to corner people who could cut through walls," Gourry added cheerfully.
"We managed to lose them once we got down to ground level, and we've been trying to put some distance between us and them." Sylphiel continued. Then she looked worried. "Unfortunately, we're a long way from RIT headquarters now, and they have both Amelia and our car. What are we going to do?"
"How should I know?" Lina snapped. Then she calmed down. "I'm sorry. I'm just a little out of whack from that last 'net session."
"What had you so spooked, Lina?" Gourry asked in a concerned tone.
"A monster," Lina shuddered. "He said that he was Anthony Halshiform."
"The former head of RIT?" Sylphiel asked, shocked.
Lina nodded. "That's what he said, anyway. Nothing I could do could hurt him. Then he caught me, and..." Lina shuddered. "I don't want to talk about it."
"Oh, Lina..." Sylphiel said sympathetically. Then, a bit cautiously, she asked, "Did you... find Amelia?"
Lina slumped. "No, Halshiform found me right after I got in."
"FREEZE!" a voice suddenly called.
"Oh, crap, not again," Lina muttered. "C'mon, let's get out of here!" Without waiting for an answer, Lina grabbed onto her two companions and prepared to Ray Wing out of there.
"Wait, Lina! Look!" Sylphiel cried out.
Lina did. Up above, circling like hunting sharks just above the buildings were several helicopters, each bearing the RIT logo. "Great. There's no way I could outfly them, especially not while carrying two people. I guess we just have to run."
Run they did, with the RIT guards hot on their heels. When they reached the end of the alleyway, though, they were in for another surprise.
A familiar-looking people-carrier moved to block their way. To their horror, and to Lina's instant fury, Zelgadis gazed impassively at them from the driver's window. "FLARE AR-"
"Wait, Amelia's with me!" Zelgadis interrupted. "Get in, and we can get out of here."
"Are you insane?" Lina asked. "Why on Earth should we trust you now?"
"Let's just say that I finally decided that I hate Rezo more than I want a new body. Hurry, there isn't time to explain more than that! Let Gourry drive, if you can't trust me. I'll see if I can convince the people following you that I have things under control."
"Lina, he's right," Sylphiel urged desperately. "We need his help to get out of here."
"Okay, fine we'll do it," Lina replied, sounding very stressed. "Zelgadis, move over. Gourry, get in. I'll sit behind Zelgadis to make sure he doesn't try anything funny."
Once she was in the car, her seething chain of thought was interrupted by a familiar voice. "Hi, Lina," Amelia said. Lina looked back at her. She looked pale and sickly, but was doing her best to smile.
"Are you all right, Amelia?" Lina asked tenderly, as the car began moving.
"Uh, huh. Zelgadis has been taking good care of me," the girl replied.
"Amelia," Lina rolled her eyes in exasperation, "he's the guy who got you shot in the first place. We can't trust him."
Amelia nodded. "I know. Still, I don't mind giving him one more chance..."
Lina felt something pick at her sleeve. "I thought you were going to be keeping an eye on me," Zelgadis said drily, pulling his hand away.
"Shut up!" Lina snarled. "If we didn't need you now, I'd... I'd... I don't know what I'd do, but it would be very unpleasant." She noticed that Zelgadis now had something tiny and metal clasped between his gloved fingers. "What's that?" she asked.
"It's the tracer that I planted on your clothes the last night before we arrived here," he answered, completely ignoring Lina's threat. He rolled down the window and chucked it outside, while Lina sputtered at this newly revealed bit of treachery. Then, completely casually, he continued, "I managed to convince the RIT security guards to back off. I've assured them that I have you all subdued, and will be returning you to RIT shortly. That will only last as long as Rezo doesn't realize that I disobeyed his order to terminate Amelia."
"He wanted you to kill me?" Amelia asked in a tiny voice.
"You should get some sleep, Amelia," Zelgadis said. "If it wasn't for the current circumstances, I would have insisted that you get at least another eighteen hours of bed rest."
Lina suddenly grinned slightly. "Oh, so THAT'S the answer, is it? You've been turned from the dark side 'cause you got a crush on Amelia!"
"Lina!" Amelia protested suddenly. Lina could tell without looking that she was blushing brightly. She was more concerned with Zelgadis's reaction.
"Don't jump to conclusions!" Zelgadis said, sounding mortified. "I've been considering this for a while. The termination order was just the final straw."
Interesting. Lina had been expecting a somewhat colder response. Perhaps she should give Zelgadis a chance...
--MORE--
They drove a while in silence. Gourry was taking them out of Atlass City. They didn't have any particular destination in mind, but all agreed that it would be a good idea to get as far away from RIT as possible before Rezo discovered Zelgadis's alleged resignation.
As they hit the country roads, they finally began to calm down.
"You know, Lina," Zelgadis said suddenly. "You are very different from what our personality profiles led us to believe you'd be."
"What do you mean?" Lina asked suspiciously.
"R.P. Rezo ordered an investigation be made on you to try to help us determine what sort of opponent you'd be. Let me see if I can remember a few phrases our investigators came up with..." Zelgadis replied. "'Quiet, shy, and reclusive,' was one. Oh, yes, and 'Submissive; easily cowed.' Needless to say, the real you is something none of us were expecting."
Lina was suddenly quiet. Actually, the description Zelgadis had given DID seem to fit the bill.
"He's right," Amelia said. "You've changed a lot. You act a lot like you do online in real life, now."
"Well, I'm sure it's an improvement," Lina said with false bravado. Inwardly, she was worried. It was true - she had been behaving nothing like she used to, lately. She couldn't even IMAGINE taking guff from an unruly customer at a fast food dive. She couldn't even picture working at a fast food dive at all.
'What happened to me?' Lina asked herself. 'I always enjoyed being Lina Inverse when I was online. But that was an escape! I never intended to lose myself to her entirely...'
Lina gazed out the window at the passing farmland. 'Does Lina Berkowitz even exist anymore? I was ashamed of who I was, sometimes, but I never intended to... lose who I was? Is that what I did?' Lina suddenly felt cold inside.
--MORE--
Author's notes:
Wow, that was a bit longer than I'd expected it to be. Anyway, I hope that people don't mind that I dipped a bit into Slayers Next for some of the elements of this plot. My main goal here was to set Zelgadis firmly against Rezo, and since our heroes were already on the way to Atlass City, I decided to use some of the denizens there in supporting roles.
A quick note about Seigram and Halshiform. My intention for their bargain would be that Seigram basically carries around a complete and constantly updating backup copy of Halshiform's mind, which he uses to restore Halshiform whenever he is injured or killed. Halshiform's "suicide" was a result of the transfer of Halshiform's mind into Seigram. The assumption here is that no computer construct currently in existence can reliably contain a human mind - hence Halshiform's repeated failures. Mazoku, on the other hand, are not exactly computer constructs...
And that "Who am I?" angst I added at the end? I just noticed that people have been writing Lina in RL just like they do in the virtual world... Lina Berkowitz was originally a very different person than Lina Inverse, and I thought it was about time that some of the other characters noticed the change. Whether anyone decides to make this a running theme for Lina (the worry that she might be losing sight of who she really is), or whether it's something she gets over very quickly, is not up to me!
Have fun, whether you're here to read this, or to write this, or both!
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@X09 | this episode by aaron ziegler |
@X09 | cracked by stefan gagne |
@X09 | indie distro by improfanfic |
@X09 `---------------------------------'
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@X0E[wIN95/98/NT/DOS]컴컴컴컴컴컴컴[Mar 2000]
*** Two users.
*** Jul 15 05:14:11 2027
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