Sorry for the long wait! x__x I know its been awhile but you know, duties call, college and stuff first. Anyways here's issue #28 (Normally I'd have a recap but so much happened last chapter! Over half the group was separated, Mocuba was snatched, and Seto was bitten by one of those Shadow Creatures...and that's just a rough summary of it all!)
Enjoy! :D
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“We have to find them.” I decided rising to my feet. “All of them.”
Yugi nodded in agreement. “It won’t be easy either. I seen Seto jump into that light before I could stop him, that girl had Mocuba. She wasn’t holding Taiya, Tristan or Joey when she turned to leave—”
“So that means we can still find them and Seto—good. Let’s just hope that we get to Seto before he does anything stupid.” Roran said and I growled darkly.
“Watch it, fox. He only does what he’s doing because of his brother—you’d feel just the same if it was your Amy.” I snapped.
“Well she’s not here—is she?” he shot back and waved his left hand and pointed to the woods surrounding us except it was more like an ancient forest. Some of the trees were wider than a house and they were extremely tall and spaced out enough to show the daylight seeping through the trees. Breanna stared at both of us as we stared each other down…either of us just willing to jump at the other and tackle them to the ground.
“So you two don’t get along very well, do you?” She commented about Roran and my relationship.
“Nope,” I said stiffly.
“We have a moderate understanding between us. She doesn’t argue too much with me because she knows that she’d be dead without me—” he stopped as soon as I started to snarl deeply; an amused crooked smile towards me, just knowing that he was getting more on my nerves than he had ever before.
“Both of you knock it off!” Yugi shouted, “Fighting is not going to bring our friends back…we have to work together!” I stared at Yugi for a moment and realized he did have a point. Right now it was just the four of us left. Roran wasn’t the best guy on the world…but I could tolerate him if it meant I could see any of our friends again.
“Fine. Roran—got any idea of how we can pick up a scent on them?” I asked and he shook his head.
“What you’re going to smell them down?” Breanna said with a small laugh.
Roran ignored her, “No, they could be anywhere. Our best solution is to head west—seeing as how they were all that direction from us when we left your place.” He stood up and unfurled his wings farther. Breanna stared at them in pure admiration as his black raven feathers were tinted purple from the sunlight. By watching this I thought I might hurl in disgust.
“I’ll get a high point of view, that way we can get an idea of where here is—maybe if we’re lucky I’ll spot some of the others.”
“Try not to get spotted;” Yugi said, “we don’t want any unexpected visitors.” Roran nodded in response and snapped his wings wide open as he began to flap them to take off towards the sky. Suddenly he gasped in pain and fell to the ground. His shoulder slammed onto the ground as he fell onto his side gritting his teeth in pain. His wings were still unfurled and he was laying on his right wing.
“Roran!” I said anxiously putting my hand on his trembling body. Yugi and Breanna were right behind me staring at him with worry.
He’s still hurt from that Bear hurling him into the tree. I noted as I could feel his muscles shake underneath the light pressure of my hands. Sweat beaded his forehead; he had gotten the worst injuries of the fight.
“Are you okay?” Breanna asked, Roran began to push himself off the ground.
“I’ll survive.” He said calmly pulling himself to his feet. “I just pulled a muscle in my wing; I’ll try to fly again.” He said and started to push his wings against the wind.
His body began to tremble again. “Don’t be an idiot Roran!!” Breanna said jumping in front of him. “Do you want to hurt yourself?” She demanded an answer.
In that same moment, Roran’s eyes rolled and he collapsed, unconscious. Yugi attempted to catch him before he hit the ground, although Roran was taller than Yugi, he managed.
“Hope…he has a fever.” Yugi said staring at the sweat running down Roran’s face. I frowned, staring at Roran’s unconscious form. His wings were wide and large, we would have problems maneuvering with him unconscious. I stared at him sadly, feeling a pain of guilt about him being hurt, even though it wasn’t my fault.
“I’ll go and see if there’s a creek nearby…” I said realizing what kind of pain Roran had to be in. Back home we could easily live with a small fever—but here without medication—Roran could be in serious trouble. “I’ll be back as soon as possible.”
“No I’ll go.” Yugi said calmly. I stared at him, uncertain. “Are you sure? I could be back in a half hour tops—we both know that we don’t want him in that kind of pain for that long.”
We both stared at each other—unable to decide which one should go. Breanna made the decision for both of us. “Why don’t you both go? I can handle myself fine thank you—I don’t need a baby sitter.” Yugi and I both turned embarrassed by that comment.
“It’s not that—” I began.
“It’s just that we both want to…” Yugi was unable to think of what to say.
“Oh come on!” Breanna whined, “You both can cover more ground than one of you—think about it.”
“She has a point.” He acknowledged, looking at me with his violet eyes. I nodded in agreement, Breanna could defend herself until we got back…at least she had a duel disk. And that polar bear duel monster she had packed quite a punch.
“Okay…but have that polar bear at the ready,” I stated calmly.
“Mmkay…I think I can keep Ice Dweller well in the ready.” Breanna said…telling me the appropriate name—instead of a polar bear. “Just go!” She said with a small wink as we left.
I was worried about her. This whole situation had gotten out of hand in a matter of moments, five people were missing. Seto was bitten by that Shadow Creature, and Roran was out of commission until he regained consciousness. I remembered Seto, the fangs being buried into his neck as the creature infected him somehow.
Seto, where are you? I questioned.
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Tristan, Taiya and Joey woke to the sounds of a bird squawking loudly. They staggered upright each of them leaning on a tree.
“Dude—where are we?” Tristan asked looking around the large forest around them.
“I don’t know, but man I wish I would’ve not hit my head.” Joey said massaging his head and Taiya picked leaves out of her hair while straightening it with her fingers.
“I wish I knew I could remembered what happened—” Taiya said.
“Oh I remember…” Tristan recalled to Taiya. “We had all been outside when we saw Mocuba outside with a back pack on him. Oh yeah…who’s idea was it to follow him?” Tristan said as his eyes narrowed and he punched Joey in the shoulder.
He yelped in pain, “Yeah, I wonder who decided to follow me—” Joey hastily replied and jumped on top of Tristan and threw him in a headlock.
“YOU COULD HAVE DECIDED TO NOT FOLLOW!!!” He snapped and began slapping the top of Tristan’s head with a branch.
“Will you two shut up!?” Taiya said and declared, “I hear something.”
“What the bird?” Tristan said through gritted teeth once Joey was done beating the top of his head and had jumped off.
“Maybe it’s Yugi, or Hope!” Joey suggested, brightening up. He was silent as they listened for the sound again…it was voices—mumbled to where they couldn’t be heard distinctly.
Joey gave a small laugh, “It’s got to be them!” He took off on a dead run, straight into the woods.
“What if it’s a trap!!?” Taiya wailed loudly as Tristan took off after him. “Ugh!!! I’m going to kill you if you two are wrong and we end up almost getting killed….Again!!”
Joey ran hard against the ground, pumping his arms in front of him. He lost the sound and he stopped completely at the edge of the bushes. Where did the voices come from? He thought to himself.
Tristan ran only a few yards behind. He had seen Joey stop right in the middle of running and Tristan couldn’t slow down that fast. He crashed into Joey dead on and they fell through the bushes.
A little boy and little girl were sitting cross-legged on a checkered blanket eating dumplings when they shouted in horror as Joey and Tristan crashed straight onto the blanket, scattering the food everywhere.
Joey and Tristan slid off the blanket where they crashed straight into a tree. They laid there tantalized by the force. Taiya emerged out of the bushes, laughing at the scene.
Tristan and Joey lifted their heads up and stared at all the destruction they had caused.
The little girl stared sadly at all the food scattered into the dirt and tears started to form at her eyes—her efforts to hide them where wasted. “HEY WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA!!!?” The little boy shouted to Joey and Tristan. He had orange hair and brown eyes. The little girl’s hair was brown and short cut to her shoulders where she had large bangs. He wore jeans and a red t-shirt with a white dragon printed onto them. The little girl wore a jean skirt and an orange and pink striped shirt. They both had little duel disks on their arms.
“We’re sorry…we didn’t mean to.” Taiya said, while Joey and Tristan stood up. The little girl sniffed and wiped her bright green eyes, “It’s ok Ian, and we don’t need to worry about it. Let’s go home to Sissy.”
“Not until they pay for what they did, Iris!! It took me forever to sneak into the restaurant for this!”
“So what, you think we should have to pay for something that you stole?” Tristan asked, annoyed.
“Well—somebody has to—” A growl interrupted Ian. He turned frozen to see a large Shadow Wolf staring at him out of the corner of his eyes. It lowered his head snarling darkly.
“…Um…nice doggy…” He stammered. The wolf snarled and lunged at him Taiya tackled Ian and Isis out of the way. The Shadow Wolf turned and howled pointing his nose up to the sky. Two more Shadow wolves emerged out of the woods, barking as he jumped at them again. Joey made his move throwing Flame Swordsman onto the field, “ATTACK!!!” He ordered and Flame Swordsmen sliced the wolf as it vanished into nothing. The children stared awed as the wolf vanished and Flame Swordsman had the two wolves jump onto him and dived into his shoulders. Joey gasped in pain as he felt his monsters pain. Tristan threw his own monster onto the field—it was Harpies Brother. He cawed loudly and slashed the one into smoke with his talon arm. Taiya placed a card on her duel disk. “I summon Fire Sorcerer!” The witch emerged and with one sweep of her hand the wolf burst into flames as he vanished. They both lowered their duel disks, each breathing heavily, the dueling was affecting them—like it was them that had used their energy instead of their monsters. Joey was on his knees gripping his shoulders tightly…already in pain.
“Are you three okay?” Iris asked and Ian stared wide eyed, his mouth open at the three duel monsters that returned to Joey, Tristan, and Taiya’s deck. They sat on the ground, drenched in sweat from using their monsters.
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We had found the river easily and I covered my nose when I smelt it. “What’s wrong?” Yugi asked me.
“It smell’s off, like city water.” I stated.
“City water—do you think that this leads off from a city?” He asked and I nodded calmly. Then my body stiffened.
“Oh crap.” I said with realization.
“What?”
“I feel like such an idiot!” I wailed, “We need a bucket for the water! Ugh…I can’t believe I forgot!”
“We didn’t have one anyways—it’s no reason to be so harsh on yourself.” Yugi said calmly. “We’ll just have to go into town.”
“And use what money?” I asked calmly. Yugi lowered his eyes.
“I didn’t think of that. Maybe we’ll get lucky or something.”
“It’s worth a shot. Since we are near a town we’ll head there.” I turned to Yugi, “Do you think we’ll be back before his fever gets too bad?”
“I don’t know…” He replied, “We’ll just have to go and find out.”
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Seto stirred—his body moving in constant pain. Where was he? He was sitting on a couch—which was much better than his less frequent situation being on the ground—but how did he get there? His eyes fluttered open and he found someone to stare at him. It was a woman with orange hair that was pixie cut and green eyes. She wore a pink top with a jean shorts and a black bandana over it. She was about twenty or twenty five.
“I was wondering when you’d wake up. Get mugged or something?” She asked calmly.
“What? No—” Seto Kaiba replied and the woman smiled.
“Big surprise there…if you had—all the money you had would have been snatched—” she said motioning to the wallet on the table. “It fell out of your pocket when I brought you in—figured that you’d want it along with your pretty rare monsters cards in there?” She stared admiringly at one of the cards.
“Isn’t that one of the Blue Eyes White Dragons?” She asked with a look of amusement in her eyes. “How’d you get one?”
“Would you stop asking so many questions—I don’t even know where I am.” Seto stated; sitting up. He felt his neck—it was wrapped in a large bandage
“You’re in the small town of Strauss; pretty far from Battle City wouldn’t you say?” The woman stated—glancing at his Kaiba Corp jacket.
They must’ve come back to his world. Seto realized, but why? There were so many different dimensions Kaiba knew about—and the woman bringing Mocuba here was as pointless as keeping Mocuba in Hope’s world.
“I would say so.” Kaiba said calmly grabbing his wallet and his cards off the coffee table—checking to make sure they are all there. The woman watched with interest. “Don’t worry they’re all there. You don’t need to check” She said swiftly.
“You know so much about me—what do I know about you?” Seto said tucking them back into his jacket.
“Hmm…you know my name is Chloe Sanders—I live here with my niece and nephew, Iris and Ian.”
“Now I know that—what else?”
“Well besides the fact that I saved your life from someone else who could easily figure out your identity—nothing much. I live in Strauss—one of the poorest—disastrous towns.”
“I have to get out of here.” Seto said standing up…if it was one of the most dangerous places on the planet—then Mocuba was in danger.
“Thank you for taking me in—but staying here isn’t solving my problems.”
“You’re welcome—but if you think going out there is going to solve your problems—then you obviously haven’t been around here long enough.” Chloe said as Kaiba left the door. He got outside long enough to see that the town was in ruins—he had almost not even noticed that there was barely any lights in the home that he had been staying in.
His side started aching again and his throat began to burn terribly. He fell to the ground again his hair falling over his face—hiding most of his pain.
“Come on you’ve been through worse hell than this.” He muttered to himself and pushed himself off the ground… He leaned against the wall breathing in heavily before he took off running and leaving the Chloe’s house behind him.
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It wasn’t very long to realize that we weren’t very welcome to the small town of Strauss—we were outsiders—and that left me and Yugi fending for each other. I walked into the town—and it was awful. The town reeked and it was in ruins—it looked like these people at least had indoor plumbing…but that was it. It looked like someone had trashed the town and decided to live there for fun. There was so much graffiti on the walls it looked like gangs ran the town—which we had found out swiftly by ourselves.
Yugi was looking around, as lost in thought as I had been. He was worried about his friends, I could tell. He was wondering whether they were alive and well, if they were together….
I placed my hand on his shoulder as he blinked in surprise, glancing at me. “Don’t Yugi,” I muttered, “We’ll find them.”
He nodded in agreement a small forced smile appearing on his face, “Yea, we’ll find them, and Kaiba and Mocuba too.”
I frowned, “I’m just so worried about Seto, he had been bitten by one of the Shadow Creatures, and in the dream I had, Entrez warned me about humans getting bitten, she said it wouldn’t end well.”
“He’ll be okay,” Yugi said, as I glanced at him.
“How can you be so sure?”
Yugi looked up at the sky, the sun beaming down on us, causing me to squint to look around, “Well, this is Kaiba we’re talking about, nothing will stop him from looking for his brother.”
“I guess that’s true.” I muttered. “It doesn’t stop me from worrying about him though.” I thought of when I first entered Battle City, the night in the alleyway. “He’s just, never seemed to care about what I am.” I said softly, catching Yugi’s attention, “I’ve never worried about him being afraid of him. What if, despite everything…I lose him?” I confessed, “I wouldn’t have anyone else like him.”
I felt a hand on my back, my eyes widened in surprise, as I glanced at Yugi. “We don’t care about the wolf inside you either, I never had. You’re my friend.”
My eyes softened, “Thanks Yugi, that means a lot coming from you.”
A piece of paper blew, landing on Yugi’s head, in annoyance he went to remove it, but then he paused reading an article.
“Hey take a look at this.” He turned it over to the back, showing the Business Section.
Kaiba Corporation was on it. “We must have jumped back onto this side for some reason.” I said thoughtfully, “I wonder that woman must be from this place too.” As I said this I took off my coat, tying it in a knot around my waist, so no one would see the K.C. initials on the side. I knew I had to keep a low profile here. I frowned troubled, “I wonder why Entrez even bothered to have me go back to my own world if the problem and its source is here.”
“I really don’t know, Hope. Maybe its fate?” Yugi said.
I rolled my eyes, “Yeah, fate, that’s what it is.”
He looked at me, a look of question evident on his face, “You don’t believe in destiny?”
“Not particularly.” I admitted, “I don’t believe that everything happens for a reason.”
Yugi looked at me, “But what about everything that’s happened? You saving Kaiba way back, you think that didn’t happen for a reason?” I sighed. Yugi misunderstood me.
“I think it happened because I decided to make it happen.” I retorted, “I didn’t have to save him, but I did.” Yugi shook his head and before he could protest further I placed my hands up.
I gave a small sigh, running a hand through my hair, “Yugi, I don’t want to argue with you on this, let’s just agree to disagree, kay?”
“I suppose,” He frowned, “I just can’t believe after everything that’s happened you don’t believe in it.”
“I didn’t say I didn’t believe in it, I just said I don’t think everything happens for a reason. I don’t believe the world is just a big line up of dominos waiting to fall into place. I make my own ‘fate,’ I don’t lay around waiting for ‘destiny’ to show up.”
Yugi smiled, “That sounded just like Kaiba,” My face flushed in response. “You two are good for each other.” He concluded.
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