Drowning in Blue
"Our subconscious minds have no sense of humor, play no jokes and cannot tell the difference between reality and an imagined thought or image. What we continually think about eventually will manifest in our lives."
-Sidney Madwed
Chapter One: Into the Dream
"Why does this always happen to me?! Help!" Tea screamed in protest of the men that were chasing after her. Her legs were killing her, the backs of her thighs sending needles of pain arching up into her brain as she continued to dash with a strange limp laden gait. "I have to stop soon or my lungs are going to burst!"
Her breath was coming so fast she wasn't sure if it was her gasps for air, her face-paced heartbeat, or her uneven steps as she dashed down the hill that managed to be loudest. Her chest felt like someone had started a fire in it, if she didn't stop soon she was afraid she really would combust.
The wind tore through her cinnamon hair, knocking her short bangs out of her face as she raced, the jacket of her uniform catching and snapping with every other step. Her clothing ruffled from the struggle prior to when she began her mad long distance sprint. Her sapphire eyes wide as she searched for some way out of the back alleys and onto a main road where someone might have a chance of seeing her.
"Why did I ever agree to come over and go fishing with the gang anyway!? I hate fishing!" She thought as she searched fruitfully. "There isn't anywhere for me to run here! I can't even hide! It's all warehouses and back alleys!"
She had just been looking to spend a little time with everyone before the school year began again, they would finally be seniors this year and Tristan's parents had rented a boat for a day for them to all have a little party. It had been fun enough - they hadn't caught any fish, probably been making too much noise with folks arguing.
"Doesn't matter now! At this rate I'll never make it to my first day more or less graduation!? What the hell are people after me for now anyway?" She thought bitterly as she pressed a hand to her side, doing what she could to ignore the stitch that was steadily growing more painful as she moved.
"Find her! She can't have gotten far!" The people behind her were yelling.
"At least that means I got out of sight." She thought as she gritted her teeth, finally widening her eyes as she noticed one of the more secure warehouses with a door that locked on it's own was ajar. "Bingo! Finally a little luck coming my way."
She didn't hesitate, who knew how quickly the mysterious goons might catch up to her. She disappeared into the warehouse and closed the door as softly but quickly as she could. Wincing at the slight slam but leaning on it for good measure as she bent over coughing.
She was fighting to catch her breath after the frightening chase, her gaze of the slate floor had spots of black appearing and disappearing as her body threatened to pass out from the lack of oxygen. The nails of her fingers digging into her knees where they were holding on…letting the pain help her push away the wave of dizziness. Though that only reminded her of the flames that seemed to have consumed her lungs, making her unable to stop the coughing fit even as she continued to try to catch her breath.
"I really have to stop being stalked by random evil people. Does this have to do with Yugi again? But…Marik and Bakura are both gone…who else could want anything from him? Why do people have to take duel monsters so seriously!?" She continued her mental tirade, trying to quit making noise as she complained about her sad circumstances. "I mean yeah there is that whole great earthly power thing…but man…no other bad guys are suppose to know about that!"
She finally slid down the cool metal door of the warehouse, having caught enough of her breath that she was able to stop coughing, it still burned but she would manage. The stitch in her side and the pain still radiating from the backs of her thighs were more than enough reason not to move from where she'd stopped - she wasn't even sure if she could have if she needed to. Then she held her breath as she heard the harsh static of a walkie-talkie, wishing for her heart to stop beating so loudly as she strained to make out what was being said.
"I lost her boss." The voice was definitely one of the goons that had been after her. It was the one she'd kneed in the groin when he'd first grabbed her arm. "Don't worry about it. If we don't talk to her now, we'll catch up to her later. She's a jumpy little witch."
She leaned her head closer to the door but to little avail, she wasn't able to pick up anymore of the conversation as the man walked off. Blinking a couple times as she started to breath again, coughing as softly as possible and holding her throat to try to keep herself quiet - fearing she'd be heard.
"What is that? They didn't act like they just wanted to talk! They grabbed me and told me I was coming with them!? That mindless goon!" She snapped mentally at the guy outside. "I'm not about to ask if it was a misunderstanding after that…I just hope the rest of the guys are okay."
She narrowed her eyes in a squint now that it seemed that the chase for her was off, it'd probably be best if she found a phone somewhere and called the cops before just walking out. "Don't wanna just end up wandering back into those guys again."
"What is this anyway?" She whispered as she looked around. "Doesn't look like any warehouse I've ever been in before. Where are the boxes?"
The place seemed more like some sort of high tech lab than a warehouse, there were a bunch of computers and wiring and other equipment that was hard to make out but seemed immense. She dug into her backpack and found a small pen light, it wasn't the best but it was something…
She fiddled for a moment before she managed to get it turned on. Moving it around the room and then blinking again as she landed on the large objects settled along one of the walls. "It can't be…those things…those were the capsules we were in when we were trapped in Noah's virtual world."
She knew the room seemed familiar when she first entered but this was a bit much to take in. "This must be one of the warehouses owned by the Kaiba corporation…figures I would find one of the ones that has to do with Kaiba. Oh, thank goodness."
She ignored the mental transferring virtual devices to move over to a phone she noticed on one of the various computer laden desks. Smiling at the phone until she lifted it to an ear and it didn't give her a signal. "Damn it, the power must be off."
She pouted a moment at the dead phone and set it back on the receiver to look around again. "Maybe there is some sort of switch to turn the power on. If all this stuff is in here they have to have some sort of way to use it right?"
She nodded to her own question, continuing to look around at all the details of the room as she walked. "This place is sort of creepy…I didn't really want to think about that little creep Noah right after being chased down by goons. Just another one on the list of weirdo's we've had to defeat over the years."
She still remembered her last poor experience being chased around and nearly made into ogre soup and being frozen solid when she was last in that virtual world. It wasn't something she was too keen on remembering and didn't want to repeat again. "After all the stuff we've been through I'd rather keep my feet on real ground." She frowned as she failed to find any sort of power switches, digging through her bag - no, her cell phone couldn't get a signal in this windowless building. She tossed it back into the backpack in irritation. "Damn, what if those goons are still out there? I can't just hang around in here forever though."
She moved back over to the door and reached for the handle, letting her fingers curl around it and taking a deep breath. "Guess I need to be ready again to run like hell."
She ignored the pain in her legs and took a deep breath to prepare to run again. Then nearly slammed into the door as she pulled at it and it didn't budge an inch. After pausing in shock a moment she tugged at the door with both hands, putting a leg on the wall to help her pull. "Oh no…the door can only open with the keycard even if you are on the inside! I've locked myself in!"
She fought with the stubborn passage a while longer before sighing in defeat and turning around to kick one of the consoles. "Why is it always me?!"
The room's lights flickered after her strike and she jumped away when the panel sparked a little. "Whoa…shouldn't Kaiba keep his machines in a better state of repair?"
"Interactive Virtual Kaiba Recreation System Test Sight C start." The serious female voice that often accompanied Kaiba corporation computers announced. "Scanning room. One Tester Found, opening Virtual Capsule two. Which program would you like to engage?"
The second connection system from the left side of the room hissed and it popped open, ready for someone to lie down in it with Tea's general size and body type.
"Uh oh…That's sort of creepy that it has me sized up…" She thought sheepishly as she listened to the voice and squinted through the suddenly new illuminated room. "Oh, the phone might work now!"
"Hello, hello?!" She tried into the receiver, but the lack of tone was instead now giving her a busy signal. "Figures…it still doesn't work. Why the hell is this here anyway?"
"Input not recognized. Would you like a list of options on the main screen?"
"uh…Yes?" She commented to the computer, for all she'd been through it was still weird to just speak aloud and have objects react to her. "It can't hurt to look I guess. Maybe there will be someway to contact Kaiba in here. I have to get a hold of someone somehow! I don't wanna be trapped in here."
Tea sighed and sat down in the chair, looking at the screen as it lit up with a long list of items.
"Well…these are mostly different levels of dueling and areas for it." She commented as she scrolled through the list… "Wait…vacation spots? The Eiffel Tower, the Great Wall of China? I never knew Kaiba was so traveled. It's not a bad idea though, wonder why this stuff isn't being worked on anymore…of course, he's been busy with us all getting trapped in ancient Egypt for a while and defeating Bakura and all. Some projects probably got pushed back and it's not just defective in some way, right? I hope so anyway if I wanna get out of this warehouse."
She sighed at that, muttering. "Talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire."
"Input not recognized. Please name one of the programs on the displayed list."
"Hold on a second, I'm looking." the high school girl protested irritably.
"Input not recognized. Please name one of the programs on the displayed list."
"That's annoying." She thought bitterly toward the room in general, then paused as she noted numbers next to the list. "Oh wait, look at that…"
And as her gaze traveled up the screen it read that those numbers we're the frequency of how the program was used. She clicked a couple times and managed to get the programs listed by how often they were used instead of by name.
"Well, the three highest ones are what seem to be a difficult dueling simulation, a chess simulation, and a sort of role playing styled game by the look of them and the description." She shook her head with a sigh. "You are such a dork Kaiba."
"Oh…the rpg one was just accessed yesterday! Let's hope he keeps up his geeky habits and accesses again really soon!"
"Okay, I choose Kaiba's Crystalline Tales." She nodded at her decision. "So I'm a dork too, but I sorta liked the last time we had a game…other than the big 5...but without some evil force trying to take over I guess virtual reality shouldn't be so bad."
"Program Crystalline Tales, accessing...program ready. Please prepare for mental connection to the mainframe."
"Eh, I hope so anyway."
Tea considered the machine as she looked around the computer filled room again and frowned. "It doesn't seem like I have much of a choice…"
"Please prepare for mental connection to the mainframe."
"God this thing is impatient isn't it?" She glared at the speakers in the ceiling. "Impatient and rude…just like Kaiba. All right, well…lets see how this goes I suppose."
She took another deep breath and climbed into the machine, at least it was comfortable. The whole thing had slightly tight but comfortable padding. The velvety cloth was a gentle sky blue -no surprise- and a bit cool at first but she knew that it would warm up now that she laid down. A sort of headset came down over her eyes and chilly metal rods touched her temples, making her squirm a little but she forced herself to relax as the hood of the machine slid shut again.
The whole thing vibrated a moment and then the air started to smell sweeter, almost like bubble gum, and she started to feel more tired, letting her eyes blink a few times before closing. "So…is it some sort of sleeping gas? Is that really safe? Guess it's a little late to be worried about that…hope that this doesn't take too long…"
Tea felt herself drifting to sleep as her mind started to enter into the virtual world amidst a field of blue…
End Chapter
So…thoughts, hopes, critics? I'd be happy with some reviews at all really.
-Nera