Virginia.
"Eddie! Hey Ed!" George said as he entered the boss' office waiving a manila envelope around like it was a winning lotto ticket "Got a file here you'll want to see."
Eddie Mulder looked back from his bookshelf's ladder "I doubt that, I really doubt that. Let me guess it's from Series-X isn't it?"
"Yessir," George admitted, "but this..."
"GODDAMNIT!" yelled Ed, "This has to do with the Haven Incident, doesn't it? Or... or let me guess, the Lot Six debacle with that pyro-girl and the Rolling Stones article. The White House and the House Committees have already replaced most of the staff here because of those incidents so why do they keep raking us over the damn coals for things that happened in the seventies and eighties?"
"Actually sir, different subject... or subjects rather, this one came in from PACSIGINT office. They picked up some chatter in Japan that's sort of interesting."
Ed came down from the bookshelf to look at the file, "Interesting? How?"
"Japanese police and intelligence agencies have been buzzing about several rashes of unusual events centered around two teenage males. The more obvious one is a Ryo Bakura; who, in every school he's been in so far, three or four people fall into comas. He transfers a lot so the hospitals have been filling up with coma victims. Someone in the NPA put two and two together and suspect him of causing them... though there is no way to prove it and the kid is very sickly and frail according to his medical records."
Ed made an interested hrm, "And the second?"
"This one is a little more subtle, and merciless... if he is really to blame, only the PSIA are really talking about this kid, and even then, it's just a pet theory they have." George smirked, "From what the SIGINT guys are saying, this kid can apparently cause insanity, delusions, and is a cold-hearted son of a bitch to boot."
"Oh really, what are the Gooks saying?"
"The Japanese," George tensely spoke, (Ed had fought in Korea and Vietnam as a Marine where he had learned to hate every Asian. Something that George disliked, because he had a Chinese wife.) "Said that this kid allegedly set a escaped prisoner on fire when he took a hostage."
"Jesus."
"Also, allegedly, blew up a classmate with a vial of nitroglycerin, supposedly made a teacher believe her face was made of puzzle pieces, suspected of making another classmate stab his own hand in a delusion, purportedly made a reporter think that he could only see in pixels, allegedly killed most of a street gang using only a yo-yo on top of a roof, supposedly made a bomber think that a bomb was planted inside him, apparently made a doctor think that the ghosts of dead patients were attacking him, and a lot of other things that were supposed to be his doing- all in the file- the latest one had to deal with a Seto Kaiba over a card game. Nothing has been tied to him though."
Eddie took the file, "Sadistic bastard ain't he? What's his name?"
"Yugi Moto," George said, "And he looks like he hasn't even hit puberty yet."
"Napoleon complex," Ed said taking a look at the photos of the two, "explains the hairstyle too, and the bling that would make Mr. T jealous."
"Look at the other one," prodded George.
Ed took out Bakura's photo and compared it with Yugi's, "Both spend more on haircare products in a week than what my granddaughter does in a year, and both are wearing huge medallions that are made to look Egyptian. So? Is that the connection?"
"Ed... They're real, the squints and the archaeologist say so. And yes, that is the connection, the medallions at least, the crazy hairstyles is probably coincidence."
George raised an eyebrow in interest, "has Washington been notified of possible psychic phenomenon in Japan?"
"Yes sir, the White House has given us free reign on this as long as we keep them and the House notified and make every effort to capture these kids... quietly."
Ed snorted in derision, "Want them as weapons; still, better than we could have hoped for, given this administration. Send a few of our MiB teams over there to look but not get involved, see what our options are."
"Yes sir, they'll be on a plane to Japan today. We'll designate this file as files 3102Alpha for Ryo and 3102Bravo for Yugi."
Japan.
Even the best laid plans can be waylaid by the tiniest things that are impossible to plan for; like a sniper's bullet missing its target when a sudden sneeze strikes the intended victim, or a undercover cop gets recognized by a former classmate.
Case in point: while sitting in math class one day, Yugi Moto was struck with the sudden urge to go to the restroom. The route to the closest restroom took him by the office window that visitors were supposed to check in at to get their little badge that marked them as guests to Domino City's fine education facilities.
After concluding his date with the urinal, he walked right past the office again.
"Hey, Yugi."
Or he would have if the office worker hadn't called him over.
Yugi looked up timidly, "uhhh, yes ma'am?"
The worker chuckled giving Yugi a hard stare, "A couple of official looking guys came by asking where your class was, anything you want to tell me?"
"No ma'am," Yugi said with surprise.
"Okay..." the woman said, unconvinced, "I already sent them up."
Yugi walked back to class confused. Neither he or the worker notice the eye on Yugi's puzzle begin to glow.
The spirit of the Millennium puzzle perked up in interest, "official looking"? The woman had seemed odd- like she had suspected Yugi of some foul deed. What did these men want? Were they from Kaiba as some sort of revenge? But he had crushed Kaiba's mind... unless it was the younger one, but the spirit doubted that, Mokuba didn't seem the type.
He came forward, just enough to control the boy's route back to class as being the long way around- the boy did not know of his existence yet, and he meant to keep it that way as long as possible. Whoever these guys were they probably would not expect Yugi to come from the opposite direction from where he went.
He made Yugi look up into the security mirrors that were installed in the corners of the hallways so that he would be alerted to anybody that was unfamiliar before they could see Yugi. He made the boy stop walking when he spotted one of the men through one of those mirrors; he was a large foreigner, black, bald, dressed in a very expensive suit with one of his hands down the front. No doubt fingering a gun. And standing guard right in front of Yugi's classroom. The spirit came forward completely and listened intently, never taking his eyes off the large man in the mirror.
Shouting. He heard girl shouting, then...
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Screaming.
This did not sound good.
A white man with an eyepatch stepped out of the classroom, holstering a gun in the small of his back.
"What's the body count this time?" the black man asked with an amused tone.
"Five, the teacher and four students, apparently the kid went to the restroom."
"Well, shit."
The spirit decided that he had heard enough, he turned Yugi's body around and started to sneak away.
"Stay here and make sure the survivors don't try to get help. I'll go collect the brat." eyepatch said lighting a cigarette.
"Sure," baldy said, then walked into Yugi's class.
BLAM
"The rest of you twats put the cell phones up!"
"Six," eyepatch muttered, then he stalked off to the restroom with gun drawn.
The spirit needed some confusion, a mass of bodies to hide in to escape from these psychos and also to let the rest of the school know that a class was being slaughtered.
A fire alarm would do the trick.
He pulled the lever and within seconds of the alarm going off a flood of students and faculty shuffled their way out of the school. He let himself be caught in the flow of people until he was outside, then he started running.
The spirit let Yugi regain control of his body. The boy was doing the only thing he knew what to do right now and that was run home to his Grandfather's game shop. Yugi threw open the door and ran inside. A cloying metallic smell permeated the building, the spirit tensed, he knew that smell.
"Grandpa!" Yugi shouted, "Where are you?"
No, don't go upstairs, the spirit thought, you won't like what you see.
Yugi went upstairs, towards the living section of the building, "Grandpa?"
"Grand..." Yugi paused when his foot stuck to the floor. The floor was covered in blood that was starting to coagulate.
"Grandpa!" Yugi yelled running to the kitchen "Are you alright! Grand... Oh my god." The gristly scene of what was his grandfather was too much for his stomach to bear and he kneeled over.
The spirit let him purge the contents of his stomach before mentally urging, Move, the ones who did this might escape from the school and come back here, or there might be more than those two. Grieve later, when your life is not in jeopardy.
Yugi straightened up, he had to leave quickly, he needed clothes and money. He ran to his room and started to furiously stuff a change of clothes into a backpack, then he stripped out of his school uniform and put on a black T-shirt and jacket with blue jeans. He then went to his grandfather's bedroom and pulled a shoebox out from underneath the bed, inside was a large wad of Yen which he pocketed.
Then he ran again.
Virginia.
A knock came at Eddie Mulder's door.
"Come in."
George poked his head in, "Uh Ed, the SIGINT guys are saying the board just lit up about case file 3102."
Ed looked up from paperwork "Yes?"
"3102Bravo's class has been taken hostage..."
"Oh dear."
Eddie took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, "Where are our guys?"
"Their planes are just now arriving at Tokyo, It looks like we're not the only ones interested in these kids though."
"Where is the kid now?"
"Unknown sir."
"Lucky break for us."
electriceel presents:
A Yu-Gi-Oh fanfic:
THEOREM
Silly pharaoh, did you think this era was like yours in Egypt? Did you think you could escape the consequences of your actions now like you could back then? This era is a lot more subtle in its intrigues than yours pharaoh. In this era someone is always watching your every action remotely.
And when they get together... they know everything.
Virginia
The Department of Scientific Intelligence was arguably the absolute pinnacle of mediocrity that prevailed throughout the entire American bureaucratic system of government. Located on an old tobacco plantation that the founder had given the department on his deathbed in 1941 (stroke), the site had been carefully maintained and was the headquarters of this agency.
The plantation was merely a facade however, everything that was visible (including the ten cars in a gravel parking lot with nerdy bumper stickers like; HONK if you understand punctuated equilibria! and; If this bumper sticker is red you are going WAY too fast.) was a ruse designed to make Joe Schmoe overlook the entire area (one of the most devious ways that they did this was holding field trips for the local public schools in order to try to promote kids to try looking at math and science as fun instead of television and video games... rather unsuccessfully.)
The real truth behind the Department of Scientific Intelligence was underneath the entire grounds of the plantation, but even then- the truth is kind of shaky since it was the headquarters of an agency that didn't even have a name.
Those who worked there, and those that had the misfortune of knowing of them, called them the Shop. They were the agency that protected America's interests by studying, engineering, killing, utilizing, and attacking the paranormal; from psychic powers to alien invasion, this agency was the only agency experienced in either disproving to, frighteningly more often than not, proving the existence of extranormal activities. As such, it was well funded for it being one of the smallest government agencies- 839 staff, 350 of which were security personnel culled from the armed forces that had experience in man-to-man combat... MPs, Infantry, SEALs, Rangers... basically, an even mix of self-proclaimed badasses for the running and gunning. 100 of the rest were support personnel, with the remaining 389 being the analysts, scientists, historians, engineers, hackers, and other jobs that the Shop needed to follow through their investigations, even then- most of these were also prior military personnel, in case of a security breach, or served in other government agencies like the CIA or the National Weather Service.
The facility could withstand a nuclear attack, thanks to the massive reinforced concrete shell and the gargantuan springs underneath the underground structure- each the size of a bus. In fact, during the Nixon administration, the site was chosen as a potential bunker for the chain of succession in the event of a Russian attack.
The only time it had even come close to being destroyed was when a captured pyrokenetic girl had escaped and had burnt down most of the plantation's buildings in the seventies, but all the damage had long been undone since then.
And the man in charge of it all was Eddie Mulder; a gray, balding old man that was a far cry away from his glory days as a Marine officer. There was still a essence in him that kept his back ramrod straight and a fire in his eye... pride maybe, or chronic indegestion. Whatever it was, many of the security personnel saluted him as if he were still in uniform, which he always returned. It was a hard habit to break, and if given the option he might have chosen not to break it.
He made his way from his office down to the stairs to The Hub, the command center. Twenty workstations lined the walls, their operators feeding and sucking data from three Cray supercomputers housed underneath the tiled floor, (someone had dubbed them the Triforce after the Legend of Zelda, and were even named Courage, Power, and Wisdom by the techs that worked on them). Digital maps, slides, and readouts were projected onto the walls, showing the raw data and analysis coming in from Japan in real time. In the center of the room was a holo-projector based off of Kaiba Corp's tech but made by a firm called North Central Positronics... currently turned off.
"Can someone tell me what the hell is going on?" Ed asked of the room at large.
"Bringing satellite KH-20's feed to the holo-port," the IMINT officer, Sarah Deepneau, graduate of Cochise College in Arizona and former staff sergeant for the 2nd Cavalry Division, said to her assistant.
"Roger ma'am."
The center of the room flickered as an aerial, real-time, video of Domino City High school materialized.
"Sir, at roughly 1017 local, the fire alarm at Domino High went off due to a pulled switch. All classes except for target B's class evacuated as per school regulations. The Fire Department arrived at 1032 and moved into the building when they came under hostile fire, sustaining casualties. Police and SWAT forces were mobilized at 1040 and surrounded the building." She turned back to her assistant, "rewind to 1045 local."
"Yes ma'am,"
The hologram flickered again, the only difference when it solidified was people's positions and the shadows were a tad bit longer. A team of armed commandos were pressed up against the wall near the side entrance.
"At 1045 one of the mobilized SWAT teams took up a position along the Northwestern entrance in preparation to storm the classroom when..." she trailed off and gestured to the hologram. A window shattered right above the SWAT team as a body was thrown through it. "The thrown hostage has been identified as Hiroto Honda, one of target 3102Bravo's classmates, he was taken to the hospital and is listed as critical but stable." a photo of his ID popped up in the corner of the hologram, "after throwing Honda, they threatened to throw another hostage every 15 seconds until the SWAT team left."
Ed whistled, "sure know how to play the game, don't they?"
Sarah chuckled, "Yep, they'd be good if not for their stupidity later on." Continuing on, she said, "since then, two hours ago, a negotiator has been speaking the criminals via megaphone."
"Any demands?"
"Only two sir, Yugi Moto and a helicopter."
Mulder winced, "Not subtle about what they're after are they? Retarded sons of bitches."
"No sir, this all but confirmed to the PISA that target 3102Bravo is the real deal, or at least interesting, and they have begun to share their information on the target to other agencies within the Japanese government and has begun to trickle this information down to the police."
Edward rubbed his eyes, "Fuck... Where are our guys?"
This time the operations director spoke up from his terminal, "All seven MiB teams have landed and are making their way to Domino High School."
"No go," Ed said, "Send one team back to the airport in case target 3102Bravo shows up there, send one to his residence, and send three teams to secure 3102Alpha"
"And the remaining two sir?"
Edward thought for a moment, "Have them conduct drill Sierra Tango-332."
The operations director looked back in shock, "Yes sir, commencing drill."
Yugi's legs burned, the hill he was running up seemed to last forever, and the airport was still forever away.
A siren started as a police car pulled up along side him, both driver and passenger were foreigners with glasses, "get in," the driver ordered, the gun pointed at Yugi by the front passenger made escape impossible.
Yugi climbed into the back, the driver pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number on speed dial, "Yes ma'am, collected target peter pyramid."
The passenger still had the gun trained between Yugi's eyes, "So why this kid?"
"Who knows?"
"Excuse me," Yugi spoke up, "but are you with the guys who have taken my classmates hostage and killed grandpa?"
"What the hell are you talking about kid?" the driver asked with wide eyes, he looked to the passenger, "You know what he's talking about?"
"Fuck no, all I know is that the Lady asked us to drive around till we found a kid with crazy hair."
"Who are the guys the kid's talking about then?"
The passenger shrugged, "Who cares? We got lucky, get us out of here."