The Game

The lift dinged open straight into the vast expanse of living room, the whole of the wall that was opposite the lift entrance was made of glass showing off the beautiful views of the city at night. Everything was stark white and the sofas that faced the expanse of glass didn't look like they were designed to be sat in. To the left hand side was the kitchen area; it was jet black marble tops and black, shiny cupboard fronts with chrome handles. It too faced out to the view that anyone would be proud to own, such a shame she wasn't. Sighing that deep sigh of someone who had spent all day working hard she wandered into the pent house pausing only to let her keys clang noisily in the glass bowl that she had placed on the breakfast bar that hemmed in the kitchen. In a slow trail across the white luscious carpet she shed her clothes so that by the time that she reached the door on the far right hand corner she was completly naked.

She was about five foot four and was built mainly of the muscle that only someone who worked hard for a living could maintain easily. Most of her back was obscured by the thick straight hair that flowed easily behind her and was at the moment a shade of light purple. her journey was stopped when she reached a large multi-buttoned panel right next to the door frame but with a few deft clicks in all the right places she had turned on some low relaxing music and dimmed the lights according to her mood.

She walked onwards again almost in a trance through the master bedroom that held many of the features of the living area; everything was white and there was, once again, the wall of glass. The differences however were the huge four poster king sized bed, wardrobe and the large floor length mirror on one wall. She passed these without even a second glance making her way over to the en suite. The lighting inside was just as dimmed as the rest of the house and it took mere minutes to light all of the candles around the room. With a flick of the taps the stand-alone bath in the centre of the room started to fill with water and as she added the bubble bath the foam started to rise as fast as the water did. While waiting for the bath to fill she dragged a hand down her face to try and rub away the exhaustion that seemed to hang so readily on her. She wanted to revel in a job well done but knew that it was far from over and with suddenly heavy limbs she sat on the side of the bath mindlessly dipping her hand in the water.

Once filled to the depth that she liked she slowly dipped her body beneath the bubble baths letting out a small moan of pleasure as she began to feel the hot water starting to relax her aching muscles. She rested her head back against the tub and closed her eyes in sheer bliss at the moments peace. Letting the days impurities be cleansed from her body whilst at the same time battling down the ever rising tide of exhaustion that threatened to launch her into the land of nod.

She wasn't sure how much time had actaully passed but she fluttered open her eyes and leant forward slightly in the bath just in time to have the barrel of a gun roughly forced to her temple. She didn't even need to look at the person holding the weapon to know just who it was.

"Mal"

"Kitty, so good to see you" his voice was like pure smooth silk and she let out a small growl

"Fuck you"

"Come now, is there any need for such language, you are of course the authority out of the two of us. Shouldn't you be setting a shiny example for us lowly people to follow?" he took the gun away from her and rested it on his knee, making it perfectly clear that he wouldn't hesitate to use it if needed.

Her eyes slid briefly in his direction just to take in what he looked like today; he seemed reluctant to lose the jet black shiny long hair that he usually kept loose and free. Today though he had crystal clear emerald eyes and was wearing jeans and a crisp white shirt with the top buttons undone and a thick black tie loosely slung under the collar. Satisfied with her quick glance of his appearance she stared back ahead as if he wasn't even there.

"Since when did you give a fuck about anyone but yourself" she refused to turn her head to fully acknowledge and give him the pleasure of engaging her in a proper conversation.

She jumped when she heard the gun clatter loudly to the tiled floor, she heard it skitter away and before she knew what to do next was hauled out of the water by her arms. He easily carried her and plonked her down in an un-ladlylike manner on top of her vanity desk pressing her soapy body against the cold mirror and making her gasp. Rage sparked and caught fire within her and suddenly her tired limbs didn't matter anymore, their screaming had been put to the back of her mind and she was prepared to do what she needed to get out of this situation. He still had hold of the tops of her hands in a punishing grip that she knew would leave bruises but at that moment in time she could barely feel. He was stood inbetween her legs and his anger-twisted face was only inches from hers, his eyes burning as strong as hers did in return.

"Listen you little fucking brat" he shook her violently "you think that just because they call you a cop and give you all the toys you want that you are better than me?!"

"I am when the person who is being spoken about harbours and assists known fugitives" she refused to back down and met his stare without blinking.

"Do you truly believe that they are criminals?!" his voice was incredulous, shocked that she didn't hold the same views as he did.

"People that don't pay for goods they have used and continue to use are parasitical criminals, yes, and i feel proud to be out there making a goddamn difference"

"Well mybe your bosses shouldn't have administered this addictive program should they?"

He was just at the end of the sentance when she flicked her leg round and brought it up to connect with his soft flesh causing him to let go of her and stumble backwards. As he was bent over in pain she brought her elbow up and smashed it into his face, watching the blood trickle from the cut on his lip. There she sat, legs now crossed at the knee, watching him carefully until he righted himself again.

"So we can either beat the crap out of each other as usual or just to mix it up a little bit you can leave and we can get back to our evening" she folded her arms over her chest to signify that she wasn't in the mood to play with him.

"Don't patronise me" he leapt forward, grabbing her by the throat, pulling her up to his height and forcing her onto her knees on the desk in an attempt to breath "we have these pointless discussions and i'm starting to realise that your not coming round to my way of thinking. I came here to give you a last chance before i get serious" he released his grip slightly to allow her to answer stopping so he could listen to her splutter and gratefully suck in the air.

"Are your threatening me?" her face was starting to go red but he noticed that her arms simply hung loose by her sides instead of desperatly trying to pry his fingers away. She knew that he wasn't going to kill her and in his anger he clenched harder and leant close to her face making her try and flinch away from him.

"I am threatening you" the silken voice was gone and now he spoke through clenched teeth letting his stray spittle fleck over her face "stop chasing my men or i will show you just how powerful i am"

He finally let go and turned to leave taking satisfaction as he left her bent double and noisily trying to get much-needed oxygen into her system. Spots were dancing in front of her eyes and she felt so light headed that she didn't even notice him leave. She just stayed, on all fours on top of the desk hoping that soon her vision would be returned to her properly knowing it would be replaced by a thumping headache. Finally, in a daze, she padded through to the bedroom.

Over the last five years that she had known Mal they had meetings like this, almost all of them involved violence at some stage. He was untouchable almost in the eyes of the law so their relationship was a long and winding one to say the least. She grimaced as she remembered the scar that ran down the side of her ribcage from the time that he threw her in front of a moving vehicle. Then she smiled fondly as she remembered the deep scar that was down his left forearm from when he had caught her cooking one time. Despite all of this managed some kind of comraderie, he wasn't going to stop doing his job and there was no way she could stop doing hers. It worried her slightly that he had threatened her and left on bad terms, there were no doubts in her mind about his influence and power. She was wearily aware that everything was going to get harder for her.

throwing herself on her bed she rolled to stare blankly at the ceiling, trying to get her oxygen starved brain to kick into gear and work out what was going on. She began to let her mind wander through her memories allowing it to find its own path towards the answer that she wanted.

She remembered the hype and excitement that had rippled through a select few people all those years ago. At the time she had been working in a games company that had been offered the chance to test out the new group game. It advertised itself as a game like no other and when the day finally came for her to go and see what it was all about she was shocked to find that people were hooked into a game and were launched into a realistic world. The creators boasted that the player could do what they wanted to do, be what they wanted to be and lock how they wanted. The player had to collect various points throughout the 'game' to able to more of the more exciting things in life without the fear of death hanging over them.

She had instantly taken a great interest and had always on the frontline when levels froze or glitches that appeared every so often. Over time as it became more developed the numbers grew as the graphics and reality of the game got better. Suddenly there was a different problem that needed sorting out, people had started to hook themselves up to The Game to escape crimes in the real world. As with all things that relied on human nature it started spiralling out of control until crime had seeped into The Game itself and all of this needed to be moderated and controlled.

The easiest way to sort out the culprits awas to simply cut off their feed to the game and either turn them out into the real world or hand them over to the police. However the creators had learned quite quickly that to just dis-connect someone from the game would instantly kill them and so had to track down each individual one by one.

There were numerous "safe zones" planted around The Game that once a persons character was inside could they then be dis-connected from the game. It was way to easy to look and be so different from your real self and so a good safety measure for this was that every player on creation had to pick an item of clothing, piece of jewellry or tattoo that would stay on them always as a form of identification. Most people genuinely didn't know who they orginally were anyway emersing themselves fully in an attempt to forget all about their old selves.

It was Kitty's job to round up these miscreants and get them back to the real world to face what ever it was they were running away from. She had been flattered when they had offered her a permenant job within The Game and had instantly cut all ties with anything that was real in favour for her privaliged life there.

Over the past few months it seemed like her wiork load had trebled and there was far more on their plates at the office than the few officers could handle. Her bones and muscles seemed to constantly ache, another more realistic feature of The Game, and despite her best efforts she felt herself slip off into a deep sleep.

After awhile Kitty awoke and sighed; this was going nowhere fast and she was sure there was something more productive she could be doing with her time. As she got out of bed she allowed clothes to appear on her body, a helpful little perk that she had gained, meaning that she could change and adapt skills, clothing and even appearance at a single thought. Now however she just opted for a pair of low slung jeans and a plain white babydoll tshirt and walked through to her study. She only used this room as a connection her bosses and had never met them. Not that she would ever want to of course. With a few clicks of the mouse she pulled up an empty inbox and slumped back in the large leather chair. It was quite odd that there was no work for her, but she certainly wasn't going to dwell on precious moments of free time and now she jumped up with a new vigour.

She headed out of the door and wondered down to her favourite hangout: Bar Diva. It was like just about every other night club in the world but it was local to her and she was sure that there would be no one in there that she would actaully know. With a flash of her badge they admitted her immediately allowing her to skip the queue. She paused briefly to scan the club in front of her; it was a simple warehouse with a giant dancefloor, seating around the edges and a bar down one long side. It was a nice feeling to know that it was full of normal people, doing normal things. Even if something shady was going down she was very sure that she wouldn't intervene. Sometimes it was nice just being an average joe.

As usual she was completly hypnotised by the writhing mass of bodies on the floor. It was something about everyone moving to the beat of the music with such wanton abandon that had her hooked in. On the way to the club she had changed er clothes again so that she now was just wearing a simple black boob tube dress and a pair of spikey heeled, red tartan pumps. Her long hair was cropped short to just to her shoulders in a stylish layered bob in a shocking pink with deep purple tips.

She pushed herself to the centre of the sweaty bodies and once she felt she was in the right spot she closed her eyes and let go. There was always something so right about letting the music flow through, with the lights flashing, the beat pulsating. Her body seemed to move of its own accord and she was there hour after hour. Nothing mattered to her while she was there, she was herself, not someone they had made her to be. The dress stuck to her sweaty body and her drenched hair whipped around her face, stinging as it hit her eyes. Her chest heaved and her feet were begging her to stop; she ignored both totally lost to the reality she was choosing to live in.

She had no clue how long she had been there or when she could consider leaving when the lights suddenly shut down and the music stopped. It was as if everyone came to a stuttered halt and the entire dancefloor turned together snarling angrily as they looked for someone to blame for the sudden stop in their fun. Kitty had to try hard to shake away the mob mentality so that she could push her way through everyone to see what was going on and what had stopped the music. When she reached the doorway however a broad grin spread across her face.

"Dan!" she happily walked over to the large man that was stood awkwardly among all of the other people that looked around confused. It was something about him that just spelled huge trouble. Not alot of people enjoyed being in his company as he lived up to his look quite well, there was a nasty streak in him and sometimes he almost begged people to start something up with him. He nodded to her and gave a small smile. What really scared other people about him though was that on entry one of the key features of his character was that he was a mute. He lightly grasped her elbow and guided her out onto the street, she noticed that the music started up again as soon as she stepped out of the building. He opened the rear door of a car waiting by the curb, obligingly she got in and gratefully sat in the seat. She leant backwards feeling her bodies thanks that she had finally stopped and let the cold leather sober her back into the real world and what she should be concentrating on. The scenery out of the window was passing at an alarming rate and she had a feeling that whatever she had been pulled out of the bar for was a serious matter. She was alarmed however when she tried to change her clothes into something more suitable that she had been shut off from the main network and was unable to change her clothes.

"Am i under arrest?!" she was angry and found that when she tried to keep his eye contact in the rear view mirror he looked away. Out of nowhere her mind picked up on Mal's comment, anger fired through her and spent the rest of the journey thinking all the things she was going to do to him when she saw him next.

They pulled up outside a huge monolith of a building. Her eyes opened wide as she was taken through the corridors of what was obviously a police station. She had never even seen the building before let alone knew that there was a police station within The Game. She was outraged by the time they had dumped her into an interrogation room in front of two no nonsense looking police officers. Taking one look at them she could tell they were non-player characters and knew why they had disconnected her. As a member of the authority she was able to control game characters to assist her if needed. This building must have been erected so quickly that she would place money on it that there wasn't a real player anywhere. She folded her arms over her chest and slouched in her chair, ready for anything they could throw at her.

"Miss Purple, we were glad you could make it today" one of the officers called her by her surname and threw her off almost instantly.

"We've had reports come in from Real World police officers of a serial killer that they think they have finally found" he paused in his monotone tale and she nodded in response wondering if this was her next catch "this killer was particularly grusome and managed to murder ten women and children before escaping here in The Game"

"The killers only identification being a small twenty four carat gold horse head pendant that hangs around her neck"

The world froze for Kitty Purple. Her heart stopped beating and she stopped breathing. The only movement she made was her hand fluttering up to finger the necklace she always wore. After a coupl of seconds her brain slammed into gear with thought only; escape. She stood up suddenly letting the chair skid backwards and crash into the wall behind her. They seemed ready for her reaction and almost instantly five guards entered the small room. They took hold of her before she could do any damage and half carried half dragged her down to the cells. She had been set up, of that she was sure and there was no way she was going quietly. She bellowed and screamed protesting her innocense while becoming as slippery as an eel. A journey that should of taken a mere five minutes took them half an hour and she was simply dumped in the cell with the door slammed shut.

She started to shiver due to the cold, the only thing she could do was curl in a ball on the thin bunk and wait.

Mal turned the corner expecting a raging bull waiting to charge at him but was quite shocked to see the shaking ball of flesh that was once his fiery partner.

"How the mighty have fallen" he shook his head and tutted . She unfolded herself from the bunk and slowly walked towards the bars, there was a dangerously smooth smile on her face and she stood in front of him with her hand on one hip.

"Mal" she gave him a toothy grin and it was then that he realised that the state he had seen her in before was merely her way of conserving energy. She was no weaker than before, in fact she appeared stronger. "They told me you had been locked up, thought i'd come to visit. Whats with the clothes?"

"I'm touched by your concerns i really am. As for the clothes; i've been cut off from the system and seen as im mostly made from programs im stuck like this"

"You? You're a program? Well i never"

"Don't kid yourself Mal, i'm real, just my body isn't" she snorted at him and began stalking up and down in front of the bars like a caged animal "lets cut the crap shall we? You did this and i want you to undo this. Now!"

"Oh Kitty darling. I wish i had, how perfect it would be. Ever thought it could be true? I've seen you in action, isn't it possible you could actaully be a killer?"

She did't hesitate or pause in her step she simply threw him death glare. She knew, she was confident, there was no way she had killed anyone for real. She had looked inside herself and hadn't found an evil face lurking within she was sure of who she was.

"Well if you didn't do it who the hell did?"

"Who knows? Its not their place to work out if you're innocent or not is it? They're ejecting you tomorrow, lucky for you, you don't have many friends eh?"

She stopped walking and stared at him with her mouth open. They wouldn't? Surely not. After all her years of loyal service they were going to eject her just like that? They had invited her to come to them, not the way around! This was crazy talk

"How dare they!" she snarled hoping to kep herself angry but feeling everything was slipping away from her and wanting to ward away the dispair that was clinging to her like a cloud. The usual rush of questions crowded in around her; what did she really look like? Could she survive now in the real world? Who was she really?

"You look cold sweetie, take my coat" he thrust out the black suit jacked he had been wearing and jarred her from what she was thinking, she paused, unable to say anything for a moment. He had never shown any care for her well being before and she was desperatly trying to suss out what the plan was. Dubiously she took the jacket from him and slipped it on, instantly grateful for the warmth that it gave her

"Erm, thank you" she awkwardly stumbled over the words not knowing quite what to do next, both of them looked in different directions and shuffled from foot to foot before he finally took the hint. "So i think i better be going. I'm sure i will see you around though, this is not the end" he winked at her and left her standing there totally confused. What did he mean? She was going to be ejected whether she was guilty or not, this was her last night in this...

Her thoughts were interrupted as she put her hands in the jacket pocket. She pulled out a gun and with the other pocket producing a second her grin turned nasty. It was strange when she looked back how she had always looked down on people that chose to be fugitives yet she didn't even think twice about it in that cell. It just seemed the most natural thing for her to do.

She shot out the lock on the door and by the time she had reached the top of the stairs there were quite a few guards sprinting towards her. She opened fire while running towards them, she had no illusions that the ammo would last forever and so as soon as she was surrounded by men she pocketed them again. Hand to hand combat was something that, within the Game, she had always done naturally and so there was a brief moment where she was afraid that she might not be able to do it anymore. This was dispelled the instant she leapt on the first man, twisting his neck until she heard the satisfying snapping noise that indicated a broken spine. She was like a 3rd party watching from above. She could hardly believe that it was her body punching a mans wind pipe while slamming her stiletto heel into someone elses stomach.

She worked her way to the front of the building taking out whoever got inbetween her and freedom. She came out into the reception backwards, firing her guns down into the passageway and easily taking out the guards that were on the main desk. Just as her guns clicked on empty she collided into a figure that had been standing behind her. She paused for a second before flinging herself round fist first with the inention of punching him before he got to her. The figure grasped her fist with his own, capturing it in a punishing grip. She gasped as she felt the bones in her hand crush together painfully. The figure was about six foot four, had short scruffy blue hair and was vaguely good looking, strangely he was wearing some form of armour that covered his legs and stretched out over his right shoulder and down the arm. His torso was covered in chainmail but his left arm was completly bare, a long heavy, navy cape finished the ensemble. He looked like he belonged in the medevil level and not here in the city, and as she wasn't paying full attention to him in the here and now he tightened his grip forcing her to yelp.

"Kitty" his voice was deep and powerful. She was entranced with him and found herself staring at him with her mouth open, he seemed to push out the air around him. Just standing this close to him rendered her breathless and her body numb. She was aware somewhere in the back of her mind a little voice was screaming at ther to wake up and get back to normal.

"My little purple kitten, so good it is to see you at last" his hand snaked around her waist and dragged her close to him. At such a close proximity to him her limbs began to shake and her skin quiver "you are very troublesome my dear. Im not strong enough to be anything more than this shell so forgive me but i had to see what i was up against. I have to admit, you are a fine young woman" he now held her hand aloft and pressed her close to him with just her left hand gently pushing on his chest as her only form of protest to what was going on.

"Why me?" she finally mustered the strength to speak but her voice was quiet and small. His laughter to her comment sent shockwaves through her body.

"Darling of course its you, its always been you. Have you never noticed? Anyway i'm not here to chat with you. I'm suposed to be threatening you. I'm going to let you go on your merry way, if you stop interferring in my affairs and just drop this whole thing. Get on with your life like a normal person"

As quickly as he came, he left again letting go of her, he exited the building leaving her in a void. Now that his power had gone she felt exhausted and yearning more of him. She had to stand and recover for five minutes so that her brain could comprehend what had just happened. Who the hell was that? And more importantly what did he want with her? She pulled herself together and realised that she had to find somewhere to hide out; only one place came to mind.

Mal paced the floor the floor in the large room, he was a hundred per cent original, the way he looked right there was what he would look like in the real world.
At the moment he had his usual jeans and tshirt ensemble with his hair pulled back into a ponytail. After leaving the cells he had returned back to his duties at his warehouse. He wanted to say that there was always work to be done but alas his guys didn't produce paperwork, that was the point. Villians came to him, paid him in points, naturally, so that the skilled programmers he employed could change their
appearance, past records and getting them a new job. He actually received barely a profit but didn't care, the pleasure he derived from pissing people like
Kitty off was enough for him to live a happy life.

He could hear the shouting and screaming coming from the main warehouse, knowing that she must have now escaped he sauntered out to meet her with a grin on his face. The scene that greeted him made him pause for a second; Kitty stood in the middle of the warehouse, it had been raining outside and even with the jacket on she was drenched. Her hair was plastered to her head, with tendrils making patterns over her cheeks. There was a wild look in her eyes and she was threatening the entire warehouse with a pair of mean looking hand guns complete with silencers. As Mal looked her over she was pacing slightly so she could take everyone in her scope. Her body movements were calm but her eyes flicked from person to person, taking everything in. He had seen her angry before, obviously, and she just tended to explode but he was fascinated by this control and power. He had always found her easy on the eyes but right now she had a sexual magnatism that was drawing him to her.

"Kitty im over here" he gave her a small hang wave as her eyes snapped up to stare at him "you dont have to come in guns blazing. Your welcome here, come through to my office"

Wordlessly she followed him returning the guns to the holsters that were barely concealed beneath the suit jacket. He closed the door behind her and sat at his desk still in awe by her, not sure whether he wanted to snap out of it or not. She sat opposite him and established eye contact immediatly.

"Have you ever met the creators in Game?" she had neatly crossed her legs and propped her head on her hand while leaning over his desk

"Not possible" feeling fidgety and not enjoying her stare and her need to get closer to him, he got up and going to a small cupboard filled two tumblers with ice and
whiskey. He placed them in front of her and then retook his place. All the while she watched him in his ritual and waited for him to finish

"Surely its not impossible, c'mon your father was the main creator he had a character right?"

"No, none of them could" he shook his head "there was a contract and as back up their DNA was taken down so if ever they plugged in, The Game would flag it and they would be immediatly ejected. Why are you so interested all of a sudden?"

"Just interested thats all" she shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly and changed the subject "so just what was that threat all about? Was it an empty one?"

"I never make empty threats. Why should i tell you what its all about? You think that this little episode has changed anything?" in his pause to drink he clicked on
to the abrupt change of subject "do you think that you have met one of the creators?"

"Well obviously i didn't" she brushed the statement aside and got up to leave. He met her at the door, barring her way.

"Don't you dare think about leaving me half way through this conversation" his voice was low and quiet forcing her to lean closer to him. She was still quite damp and her
hair was drying in large tendrils on her head. Despitebeing wet he could feel the heat coming from her body. She looked him up and down but didn't comment, waiting
insteadfor him to continue "Something has gotten you riled up my dear, just who did you meet?"

Even in her heels she still had to stand on tip toe so that she could be face to face with him. Her hands were planted on the door either side of his face so that she
had him pinned to the door. For a second he was slightly confused as to who was stopping who.

"I never back down from a dare Mal" she whispered the words to him and the way her mouth formed over his name sent a shiver down his spine and a slow smile spread accross her face and he was surprised to find himself being out done by her.

They had never crossed this line before, but right now the only thing that was passing through his mind was that there was no way she was going to beat him at this. He grabbed her bottom with both hands, lifted her and spun her round slamming her into the door. He felt that satisfied feeling when he heard the thud of her back hitting the door. She gasped in shock, she knew that he would want to beat her and she just wanted to tease him to see how far he would go with her. So she bit her lip and looked up at him through her lashes suggestively.

"You can't beat me Kitty" he purred the words into her ear using that silky voice of his to seduce her "not this time" his tongue licked around the shell of her ear

She gasped loudly and felt her head tilt away from him to allow him to lick and nibble his way down her throat all the while his hands were messaging her buttock cheeks. She wasn't aware of her actions but could vaguely feel her hands rove over his chest and up his neck to tangle themselves in his hair. She whimpered softly as he nipped the bottom of her earlobe and slowly made his away across her jawline and to her lips. She knew that this was one sided but afterall it had been him that had decided this was a competition she just wanted to get out of the door. His kiss was tentative to start off with, almost daring her to go forward so that he knew he was beating her. All thoughts of competitions and who had to win against who quickly flew from her mind when she let his tongue into her mouth.

Time seemed to fly by and she wasn't sure how long this kiss had lasted but just that neither of them wanted it to stop and seen as he was using his efforts to crush her against the door they didn't seem to be going any further either. She was well aware the relationship that they shared, just as he was, but she also knew that if it did get down to sex then there would be a hell of a lot of crap to deal with afterwards and at the moment that was the last thing she needed.

Luckily he pulled back suddenly as if hearing something and it only took a couple of seconds more for her to hear it aswell. He slowly lowered her to floor and was horrified that the second her feet touched the floor she had unholstered her weapons and on the balls of the her feet so that her stilletto heels didn't make a noise was turning to the door. He took a quick peek round the door out of the window and seeing that the warehouse was being filled with men in kevlar and holding huge guns, wrapped his arm round her waist and hoisted her to the door. It was obvious that she was fuming that he hadn't allowed her to go out and killed them all but she still had the common sense to keep quiet about it. Instead she simply crossed her arms and made sighing noises as he raced out of a secret back door and down a metal staircase.

At the bottom there was a bright red shiny pick up truck just sat waiting in the garage as if its whole existance had been nothing up until this point. He wrenched open the door and threw her in before he jumped in himself. He turned the engine over and screeched away from the garage not even waiting for her to do up her seatbelt. Mal began to drive at highspeed not quite knowing where he was going but just that he had to go there, and fast. Every so often his eyes flickered over to Kitty but she just sat there staring into space as if trying to calculate what was going on.

"You know theres no point in running right? C'mon i'm like some sort of neon beacon flashing in the network. Even a blind one handed hacker would be able to track my programming" she sighed trying to figure out what to do.

"What if you went back to default?" he had slowed the truck down from the previous wreckless driving but was still doing a fair speed

At his words she looked thoughtfully ahead; he had a very good point, if she died then when she came back she would go back to the original settings she had when she entered The Game true she wouldn't have all of the skills that she had now but she would certainly be more invisible to everyone. A strange feeling had started to come over her since she had met that stranger in the police station, she didn't know who she was but she sure as hell knew that he wasn't good news, she had to survive this and she had to work out what was going on.

"I can't kill myself though can i?" her voice trailed away as though she was really just talking to herself.

"Oh thats easy, i don't mind helping you out" she looked up at the enthusiasm in his voice to find that he had a barrel of a gun pointed at her forehead. She simply raised an eyebrow at him

"Stop the car" her voice was that stern and commanding that he felt his foot falter and go for the breaks before he saw sense again and hit the accelerater harder

"Are you fucking crazy? They will eject you"

"No, i need to talk to Tank, he will understand and he will kill me. I need to see what is going on here and i'm sure he will be able to help me with that. If i get into any trouble then you have my permission to find me and stick a bullet between my eyes okay?"

He turned to stare at her and sighed, there was no way he was going to change her mind and knew that he was going to have to get her out of this mess aswell. If it hadn't been for her mysterious meeting with someone that she wouldn't tell him about he was sure that he would just kill her where she sat right there, or just let her go off to them and never come back again. As it was he slowed the car down and let her get out onto the dusty roadside, he ahd no plans to stick around until the cavalry came and so, in a cloud of dust, screeched away over the horizon and out of sight.

She sat patiently on the armco in the centre of the road. She wasn't surprised to see that no cars passed her at all; they had probably locked off this section of the level. There would be no way for her to escape this short stretch of road even if she did want to. A large black SUV appeared at the horizon and slowly made its way to her. She thought back to all the times she had been inside that vehicle. The levels only got locked for the real big criminals or the crazies, she wasn't sure whether to be flattered or insulted.

As it pulled up in front of her she stood up, dusted herself off and stepped towards the van. As usual at least four game characters stepped out of the vehicle, dressed in the uniform of; all black, pointless kevlar vests and black baseball caps. She had once pointed out to her superiors that they were always male and that perhaps females would work better but each time she had been ignored. Last but not least, Tank lumbered out of the car, his huge form standing in front of her waiting for her to make the first move.

"Tank!" she smiled and moved even closer as if to hug him. His reaction was to raise his gun and point it levelly at her chest.

She faltered, stumbling backwards in shock. A small lick of fear and dread taking hold of her stomach, this wasn't going to go the way she wanted it to. Her eyes flickered to the characters wondering whether if she made one of them nervous enough they'd shoot her. When she returned her vision back to Tank he began to shake his head as if reading her mind.

"They've been modified so it would be impossible for them to kill you"

She jumped when one of the characters behind him began speaking. She had never heard him even attempt to speak and didn't think it was capable to use one of the game characters in this way. He smiled at her smugly and she wasn't sure whether to address the man or the puppet.

"So i see that you dont want to discuss this like adults?"

"Like adults?!" both faces twisted in a mocking fashion "you want to pump me for information and then get to me kill you"

"Ah, you gathered that did you?" she grinned sheepishly "so the gun?"

"Tranq"

She nodded knowledgably as if expecting nothing less. Her mind was moving a mile a minute trying to go through all of the possibilities, worringly each time she came up with a blank. She had made a fatal mistake in thinking she had a friend in Tank and now she just had to be prepared to take the consequences. She sighed loudly and looked up at him with great disappointment wondering for a moment if he was real or just another character. Either way she was pretty sure it didn't matter so much.

"Well i suggest you shoot me with it. Because we both know that there is no way i am going to go quietly"

A huge crocodile grin stretched wide over his features causing her to roll her eyes skywards, why, when there was only a sniff of an opportunity to shoot her, did everyone suddenly get trigger happy? Did the world secretly want her dead?! She gave him a blank stare that told him to stop enjoying it because she could make this alot harder for him. The smile didn't move from his face and he squeezed the trigger. She yelped as it sunk into her shoulderblade, instant reaction was to yank it out. She giggled at the red fluffy tail on the dart and was just about to tell Tank just how tacky it was when her eyes rolled back into her head and she slumped to the floor in a heap of limbs.

She had no recolection of time or even day of the week anymore. She was vaguely aware that somewhere, someone was violently slapping her round the face to try and wake her up. She was reluctant to come round because she knew what was waiting for her. She didn't even know how long she had been there or even how long a time they allowedher to stay concious. Time didn't matter to her anymore. All she knew was that they filled her life with torture and screaming; it was getting to the point where she knew that had to wake up. The second her eyes fluttered open, the screaming started. She wasn't even aware what they were saying anymore, her brain dulled it out as background noise. They repeatd themselves asking the same question over and over as if she would suddenly remember the answer and spout it off to them.

What made it worse was that she didn't have a clue what the information was. In the beginning she had flirted with the idea of just making something up just to get them to stop, but she knew it wouldn't work. It was as if they knew the answer they wanted, they just wanted to hear her say it. The only thing that was stuck in her head was a name that featured in every sentance: Gabriel. She didn't know who he was, but she hated him, if she ever got out of there her main purpose in life would be to track him down and make him pay. So far the only thing that got her through was imagining exactly what she was going to do to him. She obsessed over it. She just had to be thinking of seomthing else other than what was happening to her.

She awoke this time to find herself sat in front of the huge trough of iced water and sighed in relief. This was something that didn't bother her so much. They certainly weren't going to let her die and so she found the more she relaxed the easier the time went.

There were two guys that seemed to be in charge of her pain, they were both game characters and so had the same generic face and wore the same things. When she had seen them both in the same room for the first time she hadn't been sure if she was seeing things. When there was just one of them in te room she would try and see if there was any differences between them, to see if one was weaker. So far she couldn't tell the difference between the two even when they were in the same room.

As her head was dunked under the water she didn't struggle or move, she just stared into the bottom of the trough, welcoming the silence. It was taking too long for them to pull her back up, her lungs started to sting and her brain started to scream for oxygen. A small glimmer of hope passed through her; they were going to let her die!

Just as her body was starting to really panic she was wrenched free of the water. There was silence and she struggle to focus her eyes while water streamed from her face and she gasped for air. The figure of Mal swam into view and she grinned

"I think i love you" she coughed up more water "you're going to get a reputation for this hero stuff you know"

"Oh no, its nothing to do with that. I just couldn't miss the opportunity to do this" he un-holstered the gun at his hip and as he raised it towards her she gave him a relieved smile closed her eyes and waited for sweet release as he shot her.