The door to the Slifer dorm burst open like a bullet, waking nearly the entire building as it banged against the side of the wall. "Everybody down to the front lawn. NOW!" A voice bellowed. The owner of the voice, dressed in what at seconds glance appeared to be an ominous astronaut suit, ran by to wake the next room of boys.
"What's going on?!" Syrus wailed, as he fumbled desperately for his glasses that had fallen off sometime during the night. "Don't know," Hassleberry replied groggily, "Is Jay awake?" Snores from the bottom bunk answered his question. "Well we have to wake him up!" Syrus shrieked as his ankle hit against the bed frame in the dark. "HURRY UP!" They heard from somewhere downstairs. "Oh Hassleberry, I'm scared!" Syrus whimpered, "It's three a.m. , somebody must have died or something!" Hassleberry groaned in frustration, "Come on soldier, pull yourself together. There's no use worrying until we find out what's happening." Hassleberry swung himself down from the top bunk sans any grace and began the impossible task of trying to awake Jaden. Syrus meanwhile was sitting on the floor having a mini panic attack.
"Something's wrong with him," Hassleberry mumbled as the sounds of pounding feet began to echo from outside.
"What do you mean?" Syrus frowned, "It's always hard to wake him up." Hassleberry shook his head impatiently, "Uh-uh. Look at him." Syrus cautiously approached the bed, and sure enough Jaden appeared to be having a nightmare. He was sweating and panting, his mouth twisted in an expression of agony.
"You don't think he caught that virus from Jesse, do you?" Syrus asked, referencing their Obelisk friend who was currently in the infirmary. "Maybe." Instinctively both boys' hands shot down to Jaden's forehead; it was clammy and icy. "Aw man, what are we going to do?" Syrus asked hopelessly, as the angry shouts from the unknown man continued.
Hassleberry exhaled, "I guess…" Before he could think about it, he quickly scooped up Jaden and swung him over his back, "Let's go. As soon as we find out what's up, we'll take him to the infirmary." They ran out of the room and down the steps, Syrus standing as close to Hassleberry as possible.
A sea of running duelists awaited their eyes once they were out. They tried to spot their friends among the crowd, but it was impossible. The man who had woken them up came and pushed them against the wall, "What took you so long in there?" He hissed, his breath smelling of smoke. "My friend is sick…" Hassleberry murmured, placing his hand on Jaden's back. "Is that so?" The man growled, "Well I'll be going to search your room anyway." With a final spit in their direction he stalked up the stairs and into their room. Hassleberry and Syrus exchanged a look of terror, before continuing to the field.
"Sy! Jaden! Hassleberry!" A familiar voice called from their right. They turned, and there was Alexis, clinging desperately to Atticus's hand, along with Chazz, Jim and Axel. Right away they could sense that something was wrong, because no one even seemed to register that Jaden was unconscious. "You guys," Alexis said, "They took our decks from us."
"What?!" Hassleberry replied, outraged, "They can't do that!" "Well they did," Chazz replied bitterly, "And they put them in some stupid box so we couldn't talk to our duel spirits," The anger in his voice led the others to believe that perhaps he liked the Ojamas' company more than he let on. "We think that they're going to get rid of them," Atticus said in a hushed voice. Syrus's mind wandered to his, Jaden and Hassleberry's decks that were all lying openly on the table in the room that that man had gone to inspect…
Everyone clung together. The air was cold, and all of the chaos made them feel as if they were in the middle of a war zone. It didn't help when Blaire suddenly appeared before them in tears. "Have you seen Marcel?" They shook their heads, which seemed to reduce her to pure terror. "Don't worry Blaire, he's probably out here somewhere." Jim said. Blaire bit her lip, "I don't think so. You see there are rumors going around that all of the teachers were kidnapped, and well, you know how close he was to Professor Bonaparte," She paused, "I-I'm going to keep looking for him anyway," She said determinedly, "Thanks guys." Blaire disappeared into the crowd once more.
"Kidnapped?" Syrus squeaked in a small voice. From then on it was mostly silence. Hassleberry lay Jaden down on the grass. Someone asked if they should go make sure Jesse was okay, an idea that was quickly shot down by the notion that he was probably safer where he was. One of the men who had pulled them from their dorms lit a fire, which actually comforted everybody because they presumed that it was a gesture of kindness to keep them warm.
After what seemed like ages, and what was literally half an hour or so, the man who seemed to be in charge spoke, "Hello duelists," He said the last word with so much venom that it made everybody cringe. "We," He gestured melodramatically to the twenty people in uniforms, "Are from the International Control Organization. An organization, which is set up to put to rest any practices that are a danger to society." He allowed his words to settle maliciously onto everybody's skin before continuing, "Your teachers, as well as the man known as Maximillion Pegasus, have been imprisoned. They will be kept there until we can be sure that they will be of no harm to our peace." He took a moment to open the box containing the decks, and everybody, knowing what he was about to do, gasped. "We have already destroyed every other deck in the world. These will be the last," He tipped the open box over the bonfire and somehow nobody was able to shut their eyes as the cards fell like rain into the towering flames. Sobs and shouts broke out from all over. The man who had been speaking merely grinned as a girl attempted to throw her duel disk at him. Just as the last of the cards was about to turn to ashes, Jaden's eyes snapped open and he let out an tormented scream.