Digital Distraction: Part 31

“You know, those guards look horribly out of place.” Tristan commented as he tried to count how many guards were outside the castle. “They’d be better off in suits of armour or something.”

“They obviously gave up on the magic for now. Obviously guns work better. Problem is there’s too many for us to slip past.” Kari frowned, thinking as she beheld the men who were in suits and who were obviously carrying. She agreed with Tristan, the rest of the island had had a projection of a medieval setting laid over it. The modern suits and guns broke the illusion that they had been trying to set. “If we walk up to them, we’ll get grabbed.”

“Only if you’re with me.” Dani corrected her, glancing around thoughtfully before slipping off her DimDisk and handing it and the two cards in her hand to Jamie. “I’ll go in first. Then you guys can walk into the castle without trouble. You claim you found the DimDisk on your way in and keep it safe for me, okay?”

“You sure?” Kari asked, concerned for her safety.

“I’ll be fine.” Dani promised, with a smile she didn’t feel. “Give me twenty minutes.”

“I don’t...” Tristan started.

“I have an...” Dani paused and wheeled around at the sound of the bushes behind them moving. She caught sight of the guards moving towards them, guns pointed in their direction and bolted, leaving Kari and Tristan behind as she darted away.

Before the others could run for the hills the goons were on them, guns pointed at their chests.

“Put your hands up.” One of them demanded, waiting for them to do so before he gestured to one of the other men. Kari let out an indignant squeak as they took her DimDisk and backpack before patting her down thoroughly. Tristan nearly swung for one of the goons when Kari flinched away from an inappropriate touch, only for him to get pinned against a tree.

“I wouldn’t.” Tristan felt the barrel of a gun press against the back of his head, making him let out a low growl as his arms were forced behind his back. He struggled as he heard Kari yelp in pain, only for the butt of the gun to slam into the back of his head hard, causing pain to flare up, his legs to buckle and his world to go dark briefly.

When he came around again he was alone in a small, stone walled, room. It was dark, and dank, the only light entering the cell coming from the tiny, barred window in the thick, heavy looking metal door. He staggered to his feet, pain spiking in his brain as he did so, his world lurching horribly alongside it.

“K...Kari?!” He called, attempting to barge the door open, only to find it didn’t even shudder in its stone frame. “Kari!”

“Tristan!” The voice that answered him wasn’t Kari’s. Tristan let out a frustrated growl when he realised it was Tea speaking.

“Tea?” He demanded, grabbing the bars in his window and trying to pull the door open instead. “Is Yami here too?”

“I don’t know.” Tea replied, sounding a bit desperate, “I don’t think so. They drugged him and were saying something about a first sacrifice when they locked me in here. Where’s Kari?”

Tristan had no answer for her. When the tugging didn’t help, however, he went back to trying to barge the door open, frustration growing when it didn’t seem to help. “Damnit! There has to be a way out of here.” He snarled as he kicked the wall hard with the flat of his foot. To his surprise the stone shifted slightly. When he kicked it again some of the material sticking the stone together fell out of the gaps between blocks, looking like it had crumbled away or possibly just not been mixed correctly.

“Tristan?” Tea asked again.

“I don’t know, but I’m getting us out of here.” He promised, “Just wait a little longer.”

C.N. April 2014: Digital Distraction Part 29

“Hey!” Tea protested as she was shoved into a stone cell hard enough to stumble, preventing her from trying to bolt out before the heavy metal door slammed shut.

“Shut up.” The hooded mook who was locking her cell door growled, his companion limping slightly where she had driven her rather heavy boot into his foot.

“Why should I?” Tea demanded, glaring at him through the small barred window in the huge metal door.

“Because if you want to get out of here, you’ll shut up and do what you’re told.” The hooded creep informed her. “After all, the only people who know you’re here are our men. Your friend’s been drugged so heavily, if he wakes up in time for the ritual he’ll be lucky.”

Tea winced, having been pulled away from Yami, who they had taken to another part of the castle. They needed him. They had only survived the last few hundred ‘End of the World’ scenarios because the Pharaoh had been there to save the day. If Yami wasn’t going to wake up in time, she were in a lot of trouble and so was everyone on the island.

The mook seemed pleased at that reaction and he and his companion stalked off, leaving Tea alone in the dungeons.

She hadn’t expected to get thrown in the dungeon when she had been dragged out of the secret tunnels. She didn’t know what she had expected, but being separated from Yami and dragged down to the lower dungeon level hadn’t been on her list.

She had hoped to at least pass Yugi when she had realised where she was being taken but she hadn’t seen any sign of him which really worried her. She didn’t know if her friends had already managed to get him out or whether he was being held in a different part of the castle, and she was worried that, now they had Yami, they had had gotten rid of Yugi.

Yami would never forgive himself if he survived this and Yugi didn’t.

Tea didn’t bother pacing the cell, instead barging the door just once before spending the first ten minutes trying to get her arm through the bars on the door to allow her to either pick the lock or work out some other way of escaping.

When that didn’t work, she moved away from the door for a little bit to work out another way of opening the door.

She had no intention of being the damsel in distress again. She was sick of it. She had been planning on taking self defence lessons for that exact reason. Annoyingly they had been due to start next week.

Still she wasn’t as helpless as the bad guys thought she was. They hadn’t bothered to check her bag, believing her to be less of a threat then the King of Games. That meant she still had everything that she had packed ‘just in case.’ Including the set of lock picks she had been practising with ever since Marik had kidnapped her. She just had to, somehow, manage to reach the lock on the other side of the door.

She would have picked the lock from her side, except she didn’t appear to have a keyhole she could use to do so.

“I have to have something in here I can use.” Tea grouched as she went through her backpack, “I packed everything bar the kitchen si...ah ha!” She grinned as she pulled a small spool of crafting wire from her bag. “Let’s see if this works...”

C.N. April 2014: Digital Distraction Part 24

They had already started disembarking from the boat when Dani finally finished working on her latest updates and setting them to update on a schedule for the next few days just in case something happened.

She wasn’t too worried. She was due to start at the ‘temple point’ starting position along with three others and if she was reading the map in the guide book right, it was the closest starting point to the docks. She had plenty of time to gather up her things and head out.

She could hear the sounds of people moving around in the corridor, rushing to get off the boat and start playing. She could understand why. If SharpShade Inc. wasn’t involved she would have been ecstatic to be testing out the VirtualNet. However, knowing that the ShadowSwords were involved left her wondering why the hell she had agreed to Pegasus’s request for help in the first place.

On an intellectual level she knew why and it wasn’t because of anything as simple as a desire to prevent other people getting sacrificed. It was partly because of that, but mostly it was because Pegasus had promised her backup and a rather large sum of money towards her expenses. She still felt like she was a complete and utter moron for agreeing to do it though.

As the voices outside faded away she packed her laptop away in her shoulder bag and shrugged on her jacket. Finally she attached her DimDIsk to her arm, enjoying the reduced weight. Even though she didn’t generally compete in tournaments, she still had one of Kaiba Corp’s Duel Disks and often used it to play against her university course mates. She had mentioned a couple of time on the blog that the Duel Disk was more than a little bit heavy. She wasn’t sure that the lighter DimDisk was the answer though.

The VirtualNet system looked impressive, she couldn’t deny that, but she had little hope of a city allowing someone to install the projectors all over town. They were an eyesore and they would, most likely be expensive. Still she wanted to see what the new tech could do in a game.

A knock on the door made her jump, causing her to drop her bag. She flinched as the expensive piece of equipment within hit the floor hard. “I’ll be out in a minute.” She called, picking up the bag and checking the contents.

She let out a frustrated huff as she noticed a crack in her laptop’s casing, but she didn’t get a chance to see if the machine was broken or not. The door slammed open and three men entered the room.

“Umm, hi?” Dani asked, backing up rapidly, glancing around for a way out.

“It’s been a while, Green.” One of the men told her, causing her to look at him, startled. Her face paled as she realised she recognised the man in front of her as one of the men who had held her captive the last time she had run into the ShadowSwords. “You honestly thought we wouldn’t be waiting for you when you got here? Especially after you got Pegasus to add you to the rosta specifically?”

“Honestly?” Dani asked, edging around the room and trying to lure the men further in. It worked on two of them, who moved towards her. The one who knew her stayed in the doorway. “I wasn’t planning on coming, I got bribed into it. And I didn’t expect enough of you to have survived the last few years to remember me, considering the way you off each other at your little Gatherings.” She explained, before grabbing the chair and chucking it at the man by the door.

He yelped and jumped away, allowing Dani a chance to dart out of the room. The men followed, nearly catching her as she raced up the corridor. She managed to gain some ground on them when she grabbed the arm of one of the crew members and used him as a post in order to turn sharply and escape down a corridor.

She was almost to the exit, not that she had anywhere to go after that considering that it led out onto the bad guy’s island, when something heavy came out of nowhere and slammed into her stomach, sending her tumbling to the ground, winded.

As she coughed and gasped, she glanced around, trying to work out what the hell had hit her. It wasn’t hard to work out. One of the other mooks she had seen on the boat was stood by the door with a rather sturdy looking pole.

“Pick her up.” The man from her room gloated as she was dragged to her feet and her laptop and her phone were pulled from her bag.

“No, please!” Dani struggled, watching as her machines were carried over to the edge of the walkway that led out over the ocean and onto the docks below. “No. No. No!” She watched, horrified as the goon holding her stuff dropped the equipment into the water. “You son of a bimph!”

Dani’s cursing was suddenly muffled by the rag that was shoved in her mouth. She tried to spit it out but another cloth, wrapped around her head kept it firmly in place as she was dragged away from the exit, kicking and screaming, fury obvious.

“She’s a feisty one.” The one holding her laughed as she tried to scratch and bite, his amusement fading fast when she elbowed him in the nuts, pulling the cloth way from her head and spitting out the rag as she darted out of the exit and into the nearby forest.

“Should we go after her?” One of the men asked, watching her rather than his colleague who was curled up in a ball on the ground, trying not to throw up.

“No, she’s wearing her DimDisk. It’ll lead us right to her.”

Oddpart2: Y&H and the Broken Chains: Redo

The first thing Yugi was aware of as he drowsily floated back to consciousness, was that whatever he was led on wasn’t very comfortable. This thought was followed by the confused thought that it didn’t feel like his bed, either of his beds. They were much more comfortable than this, as were the various sofas he had slept on over the years.

The next thought confused his potion addled brain even further as he came to the realisation that the pillow he was resting his head on was bony.

His mind drifted hazily along as voices filtered in, only making the befuddlement worse as he slowly realised that he could hear all of his friends were close by, except for Ron. Yami was the closest. In fact it sounded like Yami was his pillow.

Just that fact alone had Yugi believing that he hadn’t actually woken up and this was all just heading towards some dream. He and Yami hadn’t spoken properly in months. He’d wanted to, so desperately, but Yami had been avoiding him like he carried the plague and the one time he had gotten to speak with his darker self, the wizards had reset their memories, so Yami hadn’t remembered it, going back to avoiding him the next day.

Still that didn’t stop him from listening to the conversation, which seemed to involve a weird combination of the notes he had been making over the last couple of months, duel monsters tactics and what they were going to do when they landed.

Yugi could hear the steady hum of jet turbines in the background, low and almost silent under the noise of his friends’ chatter, just increasing the belief that this was a dream, as he could think of no reason why he would be on an airplane unless he was either dreaming or somehow, miraculously, his friends had finally managed to shake free of their mental bonds.

And he didn’t dare hope for that anymore.

He could feel the chain of the Puzzle was around his neck for the first time since long before his fight with Yami back in January, its precious cargo resting on his chest. When he dared to reach mentally down a link that felt strained from months of lack of use, he felt Yami jump a mile, both mentally and physically, the pillow beneath him tensing for a moment, before Yami’s voice called “Shush, he’s waking up” To the rest of the passengers.

Yugi didn’t dare open his eyes. Even in his drugged up state, he didn’t think he could take it if he awoke from this dream to find his friends were at each other’s throats again. He needed the camaraderie he could hear to be real, needed his friends to be friends again, needed the support that they could offer and the ideas they might have to get them out of the mess they had been brainwashed into.

“It’s alright, Yugi.” Yami promised softly, running a hand through his hair, sounding almost sad and making Yugi realise that Yami had heard his train of thought, “It’s real and we’re nearly home. It’s safe to wake up now.”

“Y...Yami?” Yugi’s mouth felt dry, his tongue heavy and he slurred his darker self’s name as he tried to open eyelids that felt like they were glued down.

“I’m here, Yugi. And so are the others.” Yami replied, his tone gentle, “You’re safe now. We’ve got you.”

Yami had never lied to him. Even trapped beneath layers of memory charms and compulsions, the Pharaoh had been nothing but honest with him. If he said it was safe, that it was real, Yugi knew he could trust him.

He felt Yami mentally support him as he tried to pull himself out of the haze and join the world of the living once again, leaning on his darker self’s strong presence in his mind to give him the extra boost he needed to fight his way out of weight holding his mind down and finally open his eyes to find himself on an airplane, surrounded by his friends.

Movement was slow to follow, but Yami helped him sit up, giving him something to lean on in the real world too as his friends watched with various degrees of relief and anxiety on their features.

“You okay, Yuge?” Joey worried at him as Yami helped him get more comfortable.

Yugi nodded, words difficult when still couldn’t quite bring himself to believe that after months of trying to free his friends from the control of the wizards, they were finally heading home, together.

He looked around as best he could, his body refusing to respond to his commands properly, something he attributed to the potion still in his system. Everyone from Japan was there, even Ryou and Bakura. Harry and Hermione seemed to have joined them, but there was no Ron and there was a huge black dog settled at Harry’s feet.

“You gave us a heart attack.” Joey informed Yugi with a rueful smile, “You should have called us.”

“I...” Yugi trailed off, looking away, discovering the airplane’s carpet was a bright white in the process. In all honesty he hadn’t expected them to come, even if he had called for help. His last words to Boh before he had taken the potion hadn’t been a cry for help, but an apology purely because he had fully expected not to wake up again.

“Yuge?”

Ennead: Ancient Bit: Part 4

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

“So...” Ba-Khu-Ra asked as she hovered around the Princess’s bed, unwilling to go too far while everyone was watching her carefully. “Does this mean I won?”

“No.” The girl shook her head, winced and brought a hand to the back of her head where it had hit the marble floor, “We got caught.”

“We were in the treasury.” Ba-Khu-Ra hissed, irritated despite the bag of gold and jewels hidden in her tunic. “I won.”

“No, we were in the doorway so technically neither of us won.” The Princess hissed back, “And I just saved your life, so a little gratitude would be nice.”

“Gratitude?” Ba-Khu-Ra snapped back, keeping her tone low, “When you’re trying to screw me out of my treasure?”

“Look,” The Princess glowered at her, her own voice barely above a whisper, “I’ve just gotten you permission to study magic with MY teacher. And I can see that full bag, the guards might have missed the extra lump in your clothes but I haven’t. You’re not as hard done by as you’re making...”

The thief scowled and moved away as the physician darted into the room and came straight over to their patient. He was closely followed by Mahad, who, though Abasi called him over, first darted over to the Princess’s side where he got into a very quiet but very intense conversation before he was politely shooed away by the healer.

“Outside.” Mahad growled at her, grabbing her by the arm and dragging her out. When Ba-Khu-Ra dug her heels in, he leaned in and whispered, “Unless you want me to tell the guards your secret.”

“I’ll tell them hers if you do.” Ba-Khu-Ra subtly gestured towards the bed.

Realisation settled on Mahad’s face, then anger. “Outside now.” He snapped, one hand reaching for the bronze dagger at his belt, the other still wrapped around her arm.

She was pretty sure she could take him in a fight. He was softer than her, more spoilt from the life inside the palace and while he had obviously been trained to defend himself and his charge, she was pretty sure that he would fight fair while she never had.

She followed him out of the room and down the corridor. Amusingly in the time it took them to find an out of the way corner, she had already worked out six different escape routes, none of which required magic to use.

“I should kill you.” Mahad snapped at her the instant they were alone and could not be overheard, drawing his dagger.

Bakura responded by stamping on his foot, forcing him to let her go. She slipped straight into the darkness, vanishing with practised ease but sticking close enough for him to hear her voice. “If your Princess wanted me dead, she could have had me killed already. But perhaps I’m not the one you should contemplate ending.” She moved around the room, circling him, keeping him off balance, “There’s far worse than me within your walls. But then I’m the only one who knows the evil for what it is.”

“What do you mean?” Mahad demanded, concerned and confused and still angry.

“Look into your priests and your precious golden treasures. And try asking about a village called Kul Elna.” Ba-Khu-Ra taunted, “Perhaps you’ll know what I know by the time I come back for my magic lessons. Or maybe not. Perhaps you’re just as blind as the rest of them.” With that she was gone, slipping into the darkness with practised ease and escaping out of the nearest window.