Guardians Short Part 2: Still in response to the prompt

Jack silently continued through to the hallway and was just turning to try upstairs, having heard the sounds of feet pounding up them when a rather large kid shaped cannonball careened into him, knocking him into the rails. Cupcake looked proud of herself as she stood guard over Jack, allowing Monty, who had been hiding halfway up the stairs, to race past the downed Guardian as he rubbed his head and picked himself up. She didn’t, however, expect zombie Pippa to jump her and beep her on the nose.

“Brains.” Pippa nodded to Jack as Cupcake stared at the girl in shock, before Jack’s first convertee shot off in the direction Monty had gone.

“Brains?” Cupcake asked Jack, confusion obvious for a moment as she tried to reconcile what had happened with what she knew.

“Brains.” Jack agreed, grinning in reply.

“Brains.” Cupcake nodded, getting it and gesturing towards the study.

“Braaaaains.” Jack drawled, thoroughly enjoying himself as he entered the study, listening for signs and becoming amused by the soft squeak of one of the two boys whose names he still couldn’t remember no matter how much he hung around the group of friends. Noting that Cupcake had followed him into the room, he started looking for the source of the squeak.

They were halfway around the room before the boy shot out of his hiding place behind the door and bolted out into the corridor, causing Jack and Cupcake to look at each other before they took off after him, darting down the corridor and out into the backyard where Jamie was leading the resistance against the zombie invasion.

Guardians Short Part 1: In response to a prompt

After everything was said and done, when North's workshop was put rightway up, Pitch appeased, the children returned home and the last of the 'infected' elves rounded up, it was decided that it was all, as per usual, Jack's fault.

The Guardian of Fun had been hanging around his favourite believers waiting for them to be done with their zombie movie so they could go and play in the snow. Jack had seen the film before, being invisible had its perks after all and sneaking into cinemas was one of them but it was a whole different atmosphere with the kids. Especially with the curtains drawn, the lights off and a couple of them hidden behind pillows.

As the film reached its climax, Jack leant forwards, aiming to put his hand on the back of the sofa only to put it on Jamie's shoulder by accident. The boy yelped in shock and bolted off of the sofa, causing all the other children to shriek and scramble away as fast as possible.

"Guys, I'm a spirit, not a..." Jack trailed off as the thought struck him. He had died and come back to life, so was he technically a zombie? Then an idea hit him and he smirked evilly, unnerving the children slightly, "Alright, you caught me." Jack informed them, "Now I'm going to have to eat your brains."

The kids looked at him, confusion on their features. At least until he took a step forward. Then with a delighted but terrified shriek of the variety that normally was only heard from kids on roller coasters, the children darted in every direction, giggling as they dodged around Jack, narrowly missing his attempts at catching them as they passed, darted out of doors and escaped any other way they could manage.

“Well at least that got them outside.” Jack chuckled to himself, “At least some of them.” He turned towards the kitchen door, listening for the sounds that would give the hiding children away.  He stalked into the kitchen silently, not needing to float to be able to move without making a noise and grinned as he saw Pippa’s ever-present white hat hiding behind the bin. “Braaaains.” He groaned, only just refraining from chuckling when he heard the girl squeak. “Braaaaains.”

Pippa exploded out from her hiding place, pushing past the bin and narrowly avoiding knocking it over, though by the time she had ensured the bin wasn’t going to tip and send its contents across the kitchen floor, Jack had tapped her on the nose.  Pippa yelped at the touch of frost on the tip of her nose and rubbed it quickly, before grinning at Jack for a moment before ambling out of the room slowly, groaning “Braaaaains,” as she did so.

Jack blinked after her, still a little surprised when the children joined in with whatever game he wanted to play and changed the rules without him even noticing so they could ensure he had as much fun as they did, then the winter spirit turned pretend zombie carried on looking for the other kids.

Author Note: Well, now that I've gone over the goal for the month...

This fic was not what I was intending to write, or, indeed, how I was intending to write it when I first started 'Light Amongst Shadows'. It appears to have decided it did not like the direction I originally planned for it and that it wanted to go in a completely different way. I must admit to not being happy with it. Before it goes up on fanfiction.net (when I finally get that far with the series) it will likely have a complete rewrite. This was the product of a stressed, overbaked and constantly pissed off mind due to heat, work and moving houses. Next time around it might ressemble something like a decent fic. For now here's the basic story for that particular arc and I hope you enjoyed reading it.

In a day or two I will do an info dump on the ShadowSwords, who are an enemy that I came up with purely because I figured that in the anime there had to be other groups of people who were able to conjure the monsters from the tablets. Otherwise why would Pegasus and his cult be practising under Duellist Kingdom?

I meant to get it in the story, but I don't think 25,000 words was enough room and there really was not much space with everything that happened to get in everything I wanted. The story was spread out over too short a time for anyone to get to sit down and discuss anything... Hmmm, maybe I need a bigger build up... something to think about for later on, I suppose.

Light Amongst Shadows Part 28

The monster stepped towards her and Oneesan ripped out the drips before turning and running down the corridor. The minotaur followed, picking up speed as it ran after her. Luckily for Oneesan it did not corner as well as she did, even injured as she was, allowing her to gain ground as it crashed into the walls and pillars at every junction.

“Damn it.” Oneesan snarled as she had to duck behind a different nurse’s station to catch her breath, her side aching from both the bruising Imoto-chan had gained earlier and the exertion as she took great, heaving breaths. “Can’t... Keep...Running...”

It was a good job she had decided that because the monster had decided that it had had enough of going around things and was just going to go through them. It ripped the nurse’s station in two with its huge axe, leaving Oneesan with little to no time to get to her feet and escape.

Left with no choice but to try and fight for her life against a gigantic foe, the Pharaoh blasted it with magic. It staggered backwards, bellowing in pain, but before Oneesan could move, there were shouts from down the corridor and she had to duck behind the remains of the station as the security arrived and put several rounds in the creature.

They seemed to go through the monster, causing enraged cussing to erupt from the men, even as it turned its focus on them. Its prey was cornered after all, it had time for sport.

Oneesan shut the link between herself and her little sister as the monster charged down the corridor and struck at the men. Imoto-chan did not need to hear or see what was happening and she could not bring herself to inflict it on the lighter half of her soul.

She launched herself out of hiding and drew on the power of the item around her neck, feeling an odd disconnect as the dark and dangerous powers of the Puzzle tried to draw strength from a mind that was not entirely coherent. Without a single command the magic seemed to know what she wanted and the Dark Magician appeared at her side, real enough for the men to see him and realise who she was.

“Move!” Oneesan ordered as her most trusted monster built up for an attack.

The men were not foolish. Those who knew the game, knew that the Dark Magician packed a punch. While those who did not saw a man building up a ball of energy and did not want to see what would happen if they were hit by it. The moment they were out of the way the magician struck, its attack striking the beast directly.

The creature exploded into fragments, or rather an image of it did, leaving behind a man in a robe not unlike the ones she had dealt with earlier.

Before she could get any answers from the barely conscious mook, who was being taken into custody, a sharp, agonising pain struck as something stabbed her from behind and her whole world tumbled into darkness.

When she awoke again, it was after the weirdest dream she had ever had, one which involved time travellers, two other ‘Queens of Games’ and a man named Paradox. It was also to find both Jou and her grandfather were at her bedside, waiting for her to wake up.

“Yuge!” Jou looked relieved, barely restraining himself from hugging her, “Thank Kami.”

“What happened?” Oneesan asked, nudging Imoto-chan and wondering who had put the Puzzle back on them.

“According to security someone stabbed you while you were distracted by the huge monster.” Jou stated matter of factly. “One of the ‘ShadowSword’ lot.”

“That explains a lot.” The spirit of the Puzzle winced as she tried to sit up, the action pulling on her wounds. Sugoroku pushed her back onto the bed, a gentle but worried smile on his face as he ruffled her hair, obviously worried about her, but being careful not to aggravate her injuries.

“I do wish you had warned me you were getting mixed up with that lot.” The elderly man sighed, “I’ve run afoul of them before.”

“You have?” Oneesan and Jou both blinked at him, confusion obvious.

“Is there anyone you haven’t run up against?” Jou asked the man who treated him like a grandson.

“When you get to my age you find you’ve made a great deal of friends but even more enemies.” Sugoroku replied. “Now, both of you settle down and listen. I suppose I had better explain what I know...”

Light Amongst Shadows Part 27

‘Are you alright, Imoto-chan?’ Oneesan sent the moment she was certain the thief had left the corridor and, most likely, the premises.

“Yes, no,” The spirit of the Puzzle felt the mental equivalent of a shrug from her little sister, “I don’t understand her.”

‘No one does.’ The Pharaoh replied with a small, rueful smile, ‘If we did life would be so much easier.’ Though she was still fuming over Bakura’s threat to her little sister, she could not deny that the thief was complicated. And she owed the woman a debt. If it had not been for the thief, Imoto-chan would still be shattered and either the city would have still been in darkness or she would be dead. Either were unfortunately viable options.

“Yen for your thoughts?” Yugi asked once she had calmed a bit, sending the mental equivalent of a smile and a hug over the link to her elder sister.

‘It’s nothing.’ Oneesan replied, feeling the exhaustion that had claimed Yugi earlier beginning to settle in again, trying to drag her off to sleep, ‘It’s not important, not at the moment.’

“If you need to talk, I’m here, okay?” Yugi offered as Oneesan let her slip into control and she started drifting off. “You don’t have to be alone with your troubles.”

‘Thank you.’ Yugi could sense that Oneesan felt a little reassured at that as that helped her feel better as, unable to fight her body’s exhaustion any longer, she slipped into sleep.

When she awoke again, it was dark and she was all alone. The Puzzle was not with her and her friends had either not been allowed in or had been sent home. She was hooked up to a couple of drips, one of which she was pretty sure contained painkillers since she could not manage to bring her train of thoughts to any sort of sensible station. The other one was a deep red, which suggested it was a blood bag.

Confused as to what had happened while she had been ‘lost’ but unsurprised that she required both bags considering what she did remember, she looked around the room, trying to work out where her Puzzle was. The item was out of reach on the table across the room and while she knew she should stay in bed, something was telling her she would need it and soon.

She slipped out of the less than comfortable hospital bed, still confused as to why something was screaming at her to grab the Puzzle and keep it close, and wobbled carefully across the room. The moment she slipped the chain over her head Oneesan took control.

The spirit of the Millennium Puzzle glanced around warily. Having sensed Imoto-chan’s nervousness, she was not about to leave her little sister in control until she understood what had caused it.

It was not an easy thing to work out, not with the drugs pumping through their shared system and dulling their senses and reflexes. Before too long she realised what it was that had set her little sister off. The Shadows curling under the door frame were growing steadily as she heard something stalking the corridors.

“Do you think they sent something to finish the job?” Yugi asked her elder sister, worried as the Pharaoh moved the stands with the bags to a place that allowed her to hide behind the door.

It was not outside the realm of possibility. Between her and Bakura, everyone who had been at the main base of operations had been dealt with on a more or less permanent basis. However the rest of the mooks, and there had been quite a few, had still been at large when the injuries had finally overtaken them.

She was willing to silently wait it out and ambush it when it entered the room. Though she disliked the idea, she was fully aware that in her drugged and weakened state it was highly unlikely that she would survive a frontal assault and she did not want to get her Imoto-chan killed.

However when a nurse screamed and the creature, whatever it was, let out a monstrous bellow and charged towards something, Oneesan could not wait, she exited the room swiftly and threw a blast of Shadow magic at the huge minotaur like creature. It stumbled, causing it to fall and tumble into the nurse’s station.

“Wha...?” The nurse demanded.

“Run!” Oneesan snarled at her, warily watching the creature who was getting to his feet and watching her with a mixture of caution and hunting instinct. As much as she had hoped Imoto-chan was wrong, it was obvious she was the creature’s prey and she had just leapt into the open.

Light Amongst Shadows Part 26

Bakura watched from a distance as the ambulance men loaded the Pharaoh’s host into the back of their vehicle. She had been careful to erase any sign of the Pharaoh’s rampage after she had broken the seal. There should, if she had done her job correctly, be nothing to lead the authorities to the spirit of the Puzzle and her young host. There was nothing she could do about the fact that it looked like a magical ritual had taken place, but at least now it looked like whatever they had been trying to do had backfired and killed them all, freeing the city at the same time.

Working out which hospital the Pharaoh was going to from the look of the ambulance and the crests on the ambulance drivers’ uniforms, Bakura headed after it. She was not stupid enough to assume that all of the morons had all left town, willingly or not. It would be just her luck to go through all of this to ensure the Pharaoh’s name stayed clear, only for one of the mooks to get lucky, find her and finish her off.

Not that part of her did not want to do that herself. The Millennium Puzzle was only up for grabs if Yugi lost a Shadow Game with it as the prize or died. The only thing stopping Bakura’s Zorc merged self from ending the threat that was the Pharaoh, was the fact that she needed the Pharaoh’s name to unseal the Shadows and the demons within.

And the Pharaoh’s name only existed in the memories that were sealed away within the mind of the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle. She had tried sealing a part of herself into the Puzzle and carefully hunting for the hidden memories while the Pharaoh was distracted, but that had not worked. She had been searching for six months and still she had found nothing.

She needed the Pharaoh alive and the Puzzle whole. If she killed the Pharaoh’s little sister, neither of those would be possible until the girl reincarnated. It was one of the myriad of reasons she had healed the girl when she had rescued her from the mooks. She needed Yugi alive. Not only because of the Puzzle, the Pharaoh’s memories and the name she had sought after for over three thousand years. But because she owed Yugi a great debt, both in this life and Yugi’s past one, and she refused to go without repaying it.

The ambulance did not take very long to reach the hospital and it offloaded swiftly before shooting off to collect another patient. Bakura slipped in behind the Accident and Emergency team who took charge of Yugi next, following them swiftly and silently, making sure no one else was following.

Obviously Kaiba’s money and influence only went so far when the entire hospital was working under triage conditions, as the Pharaoh’s runt was left in the corridor between Accident and Emergency and the outside world. Insensate to the world around her, Yugi was oblivious as Bakura approached, still cloaked in Diabound’s power. The Puzzle however, flashed in response to Bakura’s presence, even if its wielder was unable to do anything about it.

The two sides of Bakura fought for control for a moment, before Bakura felt her rage multiply and the sane part of her mind was pushed aside by the hatred that had been festering for over three thousand years and the demon who had become a part of her soul.

The darkness radiating from the demon in Bakura’s body caused the girl to force herself to the surface, even if she really should be sleeping. Yugi looked at her blearily, confusion obvious as she tried to get her bearings.

“Ba...Bakura?” She asked weakly before letting out a surprised squeak that was cut off midway through.

“You dare die now,” The pissed off part of Bakura snarled, hands wrapped around Yugi’s throat tightly enough that the girl’s next breath came out as a painful sounding rasp, but no other sound passed her lips, “You dare die now, when I’m so close to breaking free, and I’ll destroy everything you hold dear.”

“Ba...” Yugi choked as Bakura’s grip tightened further, cutting off her airways completely, fear obvious as she tried to raise weakened limbs to defend herself from the thief only for black chains of Shadow magic to appear and bind them to the bed.

“Only I get to kill you. Got it? Not some mooks from some worthless splinter group.” The demon snarled at the girl, who nodded frantically, unable to do much else but humour the crazed thief before her and pray Bakura let her breathe some time soon. “Good.”

With that she released Yugi. The girl took in deep, heaving breaths, trying to make up for the air Bakura had denied her even as the bonds vanished and she tried to push herself away from the thief. She hit the railings on the side of the bed and stopped, still gasping for air.

Frightened amethyst purple eyes flashed ruby red and Oneesan glowered at the thief as she pushed herself sitting. “Get away from us.” Oneesan snarled, raising her hand, aiming to blast their sometimes ally down the corridor.

“I was just leaving anyway.” Bakura smirked at her, “I’m done here.” She started down the corridor, ignoring the daggers Oneesan was glaring at her back, then paused and looked back over her shoulder, “Oh, if you want to know who those losers were, try researching the ShadowSwords. They’re not as secret as they’d like to believe.” With that Bakura left, leaving Oneesan to lay back and settle her little sister’s mind.