It was a dark, cloudy day on the Tigeroid airship. It was pretty chilly outside and Rai was keeping watch with Tori. It was in the middle of autumn and Rai could see the orange and yellow trees below him.
"Wow," he sighed to himself, "it's really beautiful. It reminds me of home..."
Suddenly Tori appeared behind Rai, startling him.
"Whatcha thinking about, Rai?" Tori asked, coming up next to him.
"Nothing, Tori," Rai said, catching his breath, "what's up?"
"Sena said that there's a Tai Chi symbol near us," Tori replied, "we need to get to the command room."
Rai and Tori hurried to the command room, Finn and Donha were already there. Sena was sitting in front of the map table, concentrating.
"It looks like the Tai Chi symbol is just to our right," Sena said, "Hak, try to find a place to land."
Hak landed the ship in a clearing in the trees. The Chasers were out in the middle of nowhere, and were miles away from the nearest town. The only thing that was around the group when they stepped out from the ship were trees and more trees. The smell of fall was on the air, and the leaves rustled eerily.
Other than the crunching leaves from the Chasers' feet it was completely silent.
Sena and Finn were walking ahead of the others, Hak was sitting on Finn's shoulders. Rai, Tori and Donha were walking behind them, taking in the scenery.
"It's kinda creepy out here," Rai said, looking at a crow sitting up in a dead, blackened tree.
"Yeah, I was just thinking that," Donha said, "I hope we find that card soon, so we can get out of here."
The group continued crunching down the long, leafy path. The wind rustled the trees and whistled a little bit. Tori shivered.
"I think we're here," Sena said, looking at the screen on the Tai Chi detector.
The team looked up to see a house in a clearing. It wasn't just a normal house, though. It was huge and black, the boards were rotting in someplaces and most of the windows were broken out. Out back, the team could spot a small graveyard.
The Chasers stepped onto the front porch, there were a few broken chairs scattered around but other than that there was nothing. Sena knocked on the door, no one answered. Then Finn went for the rusty old door knob.
"Uh, are we sure about this?" Tori said, nervously, "I-I mean, it doesn't really look safe, and no one's home anyway!"
Sena looked over at Tori, "we have to! There's a card in there somewhere and we need to get it. It's important."
Finn turned the knob and opened the door easily, creaking loudly. He walked in followed by Sena and the others.
The front room was dusty and there were some scattered leaves on the floor. It was obvious that no one had lived here in a long time. There was some dusty old furniture off to the side and there was a large book shelf, filled with dozens of old books. Lastly, there was a wide staircase in front of them, leading up to darkness.
Hak concentrated.
"I can't seem to pinpoint the Tai Chi's location," Hak said, "it feels like there are too many things going on at once, it's overwhelming!"
Sena frowned at the Tai Chi detector, "yeah, the same thing's happening here, too. I guess we'll just have to look around for ourselves."
With Sena leading the way, the Chasers walked through the furniture, checking it for any sign of a Tai Chi. Many coughs and sneezes later, the group moved on.
They came to another door, this one was off its hinges, so they got through easily. Rai walked over to the cabinets and opened one up. Dozens of bats flew out, screeching.
"Gaaahhhh!" Sena crawled under the kichen table.
One of the bats knocked Hak off of Finn's shoulder. Donha was waving his hands in front of his face, and leaned against the wall.
Suddenly, a part of the wall gave way and Donha fell through, the opening sealed back up as if nothing had happened.
"Donha!" Tori ran to the wall after the bats had cleared out. The rest of the Chasers began to search for a way back to the trap door.
"Donha! Can you hear me?!" Rai yelled next to the wall. No answer.
"There's nothing here," Finn said, standing back up, looking at the wall. Hak was recovered and back on his shoulders.
"I think the only way we can figure out what happened to Donha is by looking around some more," Sena said, "we won't be leaving without him, obviously."
Without saying anything else, the team began to search the rest of the kichen. Nothing.
There was another door, this one lead to something that seemed to be the dining room of the house. There was a long table that might have been pretty once, but the only table cloth it had now was a film of dust. There were tall china cabinets with tarnished silver and chipped tea cups.
Tori looked at the cabinets, awestruck.
"The people who used to live here must have been rich!" Tori exclaimed, "why would they leave?"
Rai shrugged, "I don't know. Maybe something came up."
"It seemed like they left in a rush," Sena said, looking at an old plate of food half eaten.
Finn opened up one of the china cabinets, pushing some of the spoons and cups out of the way, searching. Something snapped and Finn winced taking back his hand, this place must've had trouble with mice.
"Oh shoot, that must hurt!" Hak said, "here, put your hand over the table."
Finn did what Hak said. Hak climbed down Finn's arm, pried the mouse trap off his hand.
Moving his fingers around, Finn said, "thanks, Hak."
"No problem," Hak said, climbing back on Finn's shoulder.
Finn turned around, Sena wasn't there.
"Where's Sena?" Finn asked.
Rai and Tori looked up from their search and looked around.
"I don't know," Tori said, "I thought she was looking around, too!"
Panic began to rise up in Rai.
"Yeah, I didn't hear anything," he said, "I wonder if the thing that happened to Donha happened to her, too."
"Well, like Sena said, we need to keep looking," Tori said, "we have to save her and Donha!"
With that said, the four moved on.
Finn was in the lead with Tori and Rai behind him. They slowly walked down a pitch dark hallway. Tori looked at all the weird portraits that were on the walls.
There was one with an old lady holding a small dog. It seemed like her eyes followed Tori as he walked past it.
Finn stopped in front of the door that was by the creepy lady portrait and opened it.
It looked like it used to be a girl's bedroom. There were dolls sitting on shelves and the small bed. Rai walked over and looked out the window.
"Cheery, looks like whoever lived here got a good view of the graveyard," Rai said.
Finn and Tori were searching around, both being wary of more mousetraps. Finding nothing interesting the group left the room.
They continued down the long hallway. As Tori was looking at the passing portraits he heard a noise and Hak's cries. He turned to see Finn and Hak fall through the floor.
Luckily Finn had fast reactions and grabbed the side of the opening. Rai and Tori ran over to him.
"Hak, climb up my arm and get out of here," Finn said, starting to lose his grip. After Hak had climbed up safely Tori grabbed one of Finn's arms. Rai did the same with Finn's other arm. Hak cheered them on.
Just as they were about to lift Finn from the hole, something tugged on the other end. Finn's eyes went wide, it was the first time they saw him get scared the whole time they've been there.
"Hang on, Finn!" Tori cried, but another tug nearly pulled him down into hole with Finn.
"No, we won't let you go, Finn!" Rai said, trying to win the Finn tug of war. Hak peered down, it was all dark so he couldn't see who, or what, had ahold of Finn.
To help matters even more the trapdoor began to close up.
"Let go," Finn said, getting tugged down even more.
"No, Finn!" Rai said, "we'll get you out of this!"
Then Tori lost grip on Finn, and the trapdoor was nearly closed up. Rai could just barely fit his arm in the opening and he couldn't even see Finn anymore.
Finally he felt Finn get pulled from his grasp, he pulled up his hand just in time for the opening to be completely closed up.
"Finn!" Rai yelled to the floor, no answer came back.
"Not Finn!" Tori cried, falling backwards on his back covering his face.
"Uh, there's nothing to be afraid of Tori," Rai said, clearly frightened himself, "we'll find him and the others."
"But something has him!" Tori said, "and I'll bet that thing has Donha and Sena, too!"
"Well we can't do anything about it now!" Rai said, standing up, "we just need to keeping looking around."
The quivering trio started to walk again.
The hall curved around and they came back to the front of the house. Rai led the way up the old stairs. Hak was trembling on Rai's shoulders. They came up to a wide hallway. There was a large door in front of them that must've led to the master bedroom. Rai pushed open the creaky door and walked in.
In front of him was the biggest bed that he'd ever seen. He and Tori cautiously walked in, afraid of being, somehow, sucked into the house.
Tori walked in front of a big wardrobe and opened it. There were fur coats, dresses and suits that were ready to be worn. Hak hopped down from Rai shoulder and onto the bed.
Suddenly Rai heard Tori cry out.
He turned around to see the clothes grabbing Tori and pulling him into the wardrobe.
"Tori!" Rai cried, as he grabbed ahold of Tori's hand, trying to pull him out of the fur coat's grasp. From what he could see, there wasn't anyone in the coat.
As Rai was battling for Tori, Hak jumped down from the bed and ran over. He climbed up the fur coat and began to bite and scratch at it, trying in any way he could to help Tori.
Rai pulled at Tori as hard as he could, but the clothes were pulling harder. Then Tori was yanked from his hands, making Rai fall backward. The wardrobe slammed shut, with Hak and Tori in it.
Rai took some deep breaths and began to bang on the wardrobe.
"Hak! Tori! Can you hear me?!" he yelled, there was no reply. Rai stepped back, panic starting to set in.
"Oh man, this is bad, bad, BAD!" he thought, looking around the room, "I'm all alone."
Rai hurried out of the room and down the steps. He stood among the furniture, then he noticed something.
There was a door on the side of the staircase. He walked up to it and opened it up. It opened to a stair case that led down into a dark basement. Rai took another deep breath and began to journey down the steps.
Once Rai had made his way down the stairs he tried to look around, but it was pitch black. Rai felt his hands around and made his way through the basement. He hadn't walked very far when he bumped into someone.
"Wahhhh!" Rai screamed, beginning to pull out his sword Tai Chi.
"Rai! Relax!" Sena yelled, "it's me!"
Rai checked his pulse and took a few moments to calm down.
"You scared me!" Rai exclaimed, "where have you been?"
"I scared you?" Sena cried, "you nearly made me lose my hearing with your screams! And I when I was checking under the dining table there was a hole that I didn't see and I fell through. Where's Finn, Tori and Hak?"
"Finn got pulled through a trapdoor," Rai replied, "and Tori was attacked by...uh...clothes and got trapped in a wardrobe with Hak."
Even though it was dark, Rai could just almost see Sena raise an eyebrow.
"Clothes? Tori was taken by clothes?"
"They were strong clothes!" Rai exclaimed, angrily, "besides that's not the point right now, we need to find them!"
Sena agreed and they began to search through the basement some more. Sena still had the Tai Chi detector and they used that as a light to get through the basement.
There were old boxes and junk everywhere. It was still pretty creepy, but Rai was glad to not be alone anymore. He and Sena searched until they came to a trap door covered by some old crates, it seemed like some sort of cellar. It was really heavy to lift, it took both Sena and Rai to open it. When it was finally opened they came face to face with Donha.
"Ahhh!" Donha cried, nearly falling backward from fright and surprise.
"Oh, good it's only you guys," Donha sighed, climbing out of the cellar, "thank goodness you guys found me! I couldn't lift that door up and was afraid to use my Tai Chi on this old, rickety house."
Rai smiled, "well we're glad we found you, too! Now all we need to find is Finn, Tori and Hak!"
"What happened to them?" Donha asked, concerned.
Rai told him what had happened to Finn, then Tori and Hak.
"Oh, uh is that really what happened to Finn?" Donha asked, sheepishly.
"Yeah, why?" Rai asked.
"Well... after I fell through the wall I crawled through a tunnel," Donha said, "and after I crawled for a really long time I fell forward through an opening, since it was dark and I couldn't see anything. When I fell I grabbed ahold of something, it felt like legs and feet but I didn't know who it was. I heard you guys yelling up through a little square opening, I tried to yell to you but you couldn't hear me. I think Finn must've heard me and that was when he told you to let him go."
"Well, where's Finn now?" Sena asked.
"Well, after Rai had to let go of him, he and I fell a little ways and started to go down some sort of slide," Donha said, "I thought I had ahold of him well enough, but we ended up getting separated somehow, he began to slide in another direction and I haven't seen him since."
"Okay, well we'd better find the rest of us and get out of here," Sena said, "I think it's impossible to find a Tai Chi in this place."
The group of three made their way back up the stairs into the front room. Then they heard something.
"Help! Can anyone hear me?! Heeeellllpppp!"
"Where did that come from?" Rai asked, looking around.
The voice sounded again.
"It's Tori!" Sena said, "it sounds like he's outside."
The Chasers ran down the porch and scattered out on the lawn.
"I'm over here!" Tori cried. It sounded like it was coming from the graveyard. Rai, Sena and Donha ran over to the old graveyard and looked around.
"Rai! Sena! Over here!" Donha yelled. Rai and Sena ran over to he was and looked down. Tori and Hak had somehow gotten into an unused grave hole. It was pretty deep, but Tori and Hak seemed to be okay.
"Tori?! How'd you get down there?" Rai asked, kneeling by the hole.
"I don't know," Tori said, "it was all kind of black and I tried to move and then it felt like I was falling. And then I ended up here."
Donha shook his head, amazed.
"I'd move out of the way, little buddy," Donha said, "I'll get you out. Tai Chi Seok! Stone!"
Tori and Hak moved out of the way while Donha made a stone staircase for them the climb out of the grave.
"Thanks, Donha," Hak said, "it was starting to get kind of scary down there."
"Okay, so now all we need to find is Finn," Sena said, "we're going back into the house, but be sure we all hold hands, we don't want to get separated again."
"I think that's just an excuse for you to hold my hand, Sena," Rai said, mischieviously.
"Very funny, Rai!" Sena yelled, "sorry, but we don't have time for your wonderful sense of humor, Mr. Comidian! We need to find Finn!"
"Uh, Sena," Tori said, tugging on her sleeve.
"Not now, Tori! And another thing, Rai-"
"But Sena, look!" Donha said, pointing towards the top of the house.
"What?" Sena squinted towards where Donha was pointing.
The house didn't seem any different, but then Sena saw it. There was a tiny speck crouched up on the highest point of the tallest tower of the house.
"FINN!" Tori yelled, running towards the house.
"Tori, wait!" Rai ran after him, Sena and Donha followed him.
The team gathered by the house, looking up at Finn. He was holding on tight to the point of the tower.
"Finn! Are you alright?!" called Donha.
Finn yelled something back that they couldn't hear.
"We can't hear you!" Rai yelled.
Then they saw Finn manage to take out his activator and his Bing card. He ended up making an ice slide. When Finn finally slid down from the roof Tori gave him a big bear hug.
"I thought we wouldn't see you again!" Tori exclaimed, hugging Finn tighter.
Finn looked pretty uncomfortable.
"Um, thank you," Finn said, looking down at Tori, unsure of what to do.
After Tori had let him go, Finn turned to Sena and handed her something.
"Finn! You got the Tai Chi character!" Sena exclaimed happily.
The Chasers gathered around Sena to see the card. The picture on the card was dark and there were screaming ghosts on it.
"It's a Yun card," Sena said, swiping it in the Tai Chi detector, "it causes chaos and fear in its opponents. That's probably why the house was so insane, and that may be why the family left it and no one's lived here since."
"This will come in handy!" Donha said, looking at the card.
"Yeah, it's just too bad that it had to ruin this nice house," Tori said sadly.
"I know, Tori," Sena said, "but there's nothing we can do now, maybe someone will come by some day and live in it. It will be easier to with this Tai Chi gone."
"That reminds me, what happened to you, Finn?" Donha asked.
Finn shrugged.
"After I separated from you I kept sliding until I tumbled into the bottom of this staircase. It was dark and I figured there was no way back, so I started to climb up the steps and some how I made it to the roof. I found the Tai Chi card up there."
"Wow," Rai said, "it's crazy how things worked out!"
"Yeah, but I'm ready to leave now," Sena said, "let's get this card to the airship."
The team made their way back to the airship, happy to be done with their mission for the day.
Hak lifted the ship in the air and took off. Everyone was exhausted, so Sena let them rest for the rest of the evening.
But Rai was still out on the ship's deck, looking at the autumn trees below him. Thinking of how his mom had loved fall and how they would have so much fun out raking up the orange leaves.
"Will my life ever be normal again?" Rai wondered to himself, "and is my mom really gone forever?"
He thought these things as the airship disappeared into the clouds and up into the sky.