Wow, look at that. 35 pages on Word have been the wonderful previous chapters I've posted for you guys. Cheers!
Mai Valentine waited for Yami Bakura to return in a hotel room. She sat on the ugly floral-patterned bed with Skitty sleeping on her lap. The soft short fur and warm quivering body of the small pink animal was strangely comforting to her. The Skitty – which she had lovingly named Lace – had worn itself out chasing its own fluffy tail. Mai sat with her legs crossed and her foot tapping impatiently as she stroked the kitten.
Finally, the all-too-familiar shadowy portal opened up in the room, and Yami Bakura appeared, tugging a wide-eyed Serenity Wheeler. Mai stood up, still holding Lace. "Well it's about time," she said. "I've been waiting for an hour!"
Bakura shrugged nonchalantly. "Not my problem," he said casually. "Just be happy, you ungrateful wench, I'm paying for the room," he added with a sour face.
"Bakura," Serenity interrupted, her messenger bag slung over one shoulder. "You said you'd take us to Joey." Yami Bakura rolled his eyes in annoyance.
"I can stand Malik," he muttered, "but I never imagined how two females would be…" He spoke a bit louder, "Fine, yes, we can go and see Joey! Geez…" He strode out of the room without waiting for the other two. The girls ran to keep up with him.
The hotel wasn't very expensive at all. It had one floor, it was painted a puke-ish yellow, and the neon sign was flickering and on the verge of going out. Bakura liked watching his pennies, and the room was only temporary, after all. Serenity was probably going to live with Joey for the time she's here, and Mai will have to pay for herself tomorrow.
Instead of taking the girls directly to Joey like they asked, Yami Bakura instead took them to the Game Shop, aka the rendez-vous point. It would be next to impossible to find Joey out in the night, after all, so this was the next best thing. Téa opened the door.
"Serentiy? Mai?" she spoke, bewildered. "You're the other two 'trainers'?"
"Hi Téa!" Serenity said cheerfully. "Where is everyone?"
"Out looking for Kaiba and Mokuba," she replied.
"So Kaiba's missing?" Mai asked. "Figures. He had it coming."
"Why don't you guys stay here?" Bakura offered, looking up into the sky. "I need to go. We should be returning soon. Ta ta." Without waiting for a reply, Bakura disappeared into the darkness. A flash of red light told them that he released one of his pokémon, but it was too dark to see which one.
"He's right," Téa said after a moment. "It's pointless to go out now. Come inside, you can help me take care of the other pokémon."
Yami Yugi leaned against the iron fence, panting heavily. It seemed like all the wild pokémon were swarming him and his lone Phanpy. He wasn't sure how long either of them would hold out at this rate. A Noctowl swooped too close overhead, and Yami took off running again, cursing. Where the hell was Kaiba? This was ridiculous!
Yami quickly climbed the fence into the city park. A load of Zubat and Golbat swarmed out at him, and he ducked. When he looked up, an angry Pokémon that looked like a tortoise blew soot out of its shell and nostrils. "Torkoal!" it screamed before breathing fire at him. He dived to the side to avoid the flame.
A shadowy shape jumped over the face and shouted, "Zuka, use Bonemerang!" A bone came from seemingly nowhere and hit the Torkoal twice. It got angrier and breathed fire at the new figure. The figure laughed. "Okay, if you still want to battle… use Headbutt!" A smaller figure rammed into the Torkoal, which after falling finally scampered away. Yami looked at his savior. It was… Bakura?
"You owe me," Yami Bakura scowled, returning his pokémon to a Pokéball. The monster he had christened "Zuka" was a brown creature with a white skull on its head. A Cubone.
Yami forced himself from rolling his eyes. "Yes, I owe you. So you've retrieved the other two 'trainers,' then?"
Yami Bakura rolled his own eyes and put a hand on his hip. "Of course I did, you idiot."
"Well, then you can help us search for Kaiba and Mokuba," Yami proposed. Something suddenly licked him thickly on the cheek.
Bakura laughed as Yami lurched away, eyes wide with surprise as he stared into the eyes of a ghost. A ghost Pokémon, that is. "That's just Kneph," Bakura said calmly, holding back a snicker. "My Gastly likes to goof off."
"Are you going to help us or not!?" Yami asked loudly, stepping away from the ghost. Bakura rolled his eyes again and pointed up into the sky.
"See that? Yeah, that. That's Malik's Aerodactyl. That thing flying around so high means that Malik has already found what you're looking for. If you give it a minute, it'll come down and show us where it is."
"And how do you know this?"
"… Malik isn't that hard to figure out!"
"Yeah… okay…"
They both stared into the sky until the Aerodactyl spotted them and descended. It screeched before taking off again, this time closer to the ground. It led them to a creepy abandoned carnival ground. The Pokémon landed in front of the carnival rollercoaster, and the two boys forced the door open and stepped inside…
Kaiba's vision swam, and his knees buckled. He couldn't stand anymore, and he fell to the ground. His breathing was shallow, and it felt like his veins were on fire. His pokémon that weren't fainted, and Malik, looked at him worriedly. The poison was taking its toll. All he could think about was how hot he was, and that he was gonna die…
Malik knelt by the brunette. Kaiba was dimly aware of him as the Egyptian put a hand on his forehead. "Help should come soon." Was he really so far away? It sounded like it. He fought to keep consciousness.
"M-mokuba…" he managed to mumble before coughing weakly.
"We'll find him," Malik answered dutifully. The blond glanced up at Mewtwo, who shot an Aura Sphere at his Zubat, effectively knocking it out. That was the last of his pokémon. The only thing that stood between them and Mewtwo was Pikachu, who had so far dodged all the attacks. Pikachu was succeeding in making Mewtwo angrier and angrier by zapping it constantly while evading the other attacks by bouncing off the walls.
Kaiba closed his half-dead eyes and descended into a type of delirium. It seemed that flames erupted around him. A man in a red suit appeared in the darkness behind his lids. "Who're you?" he asked in a voice that was not his.
"I am Giovanni," the man said. "I can help you control your power."
It was Mewtwo's memories again. Kaiba scowled, but he wasn't sure if it was the memory, or if it was actually him.
"Yeah, right," he replied, but the man had faded into the darkness again. An explosion lit up the darkness, and suddenly land was below him. Yes, these were memories of Mewtwo. But… someone was shaking him awake. Had he fallen asleep? He tried to open his eyes, but he was still too weak. He wasn't on the ground anymore. It felt like… a sofa.
What was going on?
Voices dimly reached him. They were muffled, and he could barely hear them. "Are…kay?" "Use…again." "Wake… please!" He twitched a finger as something cool dusted his skin, like a breeze or something. It made him feel slightly better.
The voices became distinguishable. "His pulse is weak but steady. I think he's going to be fine."
"I hope so. He looks so tormented, even now."
"That's just 'cause he's been through a lot in the past few hours."
"Pikachu!"
What the hell? He finally remembered what was happening. Or, had happened, by the sound of it. He tried to open his eyes again, but failed miserably. A weight appeared on his chest, and something warm and fuzzy nuzzled him. "Chu…" it said.
He tried to moan, but only let out a brief dot of sound. He parted his lips weakly and whispered, barely audibly, "Where… Mokuba…?"
"What was that?"
"Did he say something?"
"Kaiba! Speak to us!"
"Mokuba…" he moaned again. He was greeted by silence. Hadn't they rescued him? How could they leave without getting him! Anger flooded his system, making his eyelids flutter. He forced his eyes open and blinked slowly a couple times to clear the blurriness away. "Where's Mokuba?" he asked again. There was a yellow blob on his chest, warm and comfortably heavy. He couldn't focus, he was so weak. It was all he could do to keep his eyes open.
"Kaiba, we looked all over for him. Mewtwo must have taken him somewhere else."
Who was that? Yugi?
He closed his eyes again as a familiar ache settled behind them. He had long ago forgotten how to cry. He wasn't about to start remembering now. Gozaburo had beaten the simple task of crying out of him. Crying was a show of weakness, and he couldn't ever show that in front of anyone. Not even Mokuba. He chose the position he was in, and he had to be strong and stand by it.
"How… could… not find… him?" He couldn't even get a coherent sentence out, but the people surrounding him seemed to understand.
"We scoured the whole place. But when we found you and Malik, Mewtwo teleported out of there immediately. He must've taken Mokuba with him. But you should be thankful. You're lucky to be alive. If we had found you a minute later, you'd be dead."
Bakura, was it?
"You can thank me for that. Luckily, Igglybuff knows the move Wish. It pulled you from the brink, you know."
That annoying brunette girl?
What's all this talk about luck? Luck meant nothing to him. He didn't get to where he was by luck. Luck was child's play. He was too old, too mature, for child's play.
He opened his eyes again, and faces loomed over him. He squeezed them shut again and successfully moaned. A cool hand rested on his forehead for a moment before pulling away.
"His fever's down. I think he just needs to rest."
Rest. That's a good idea. He focused on the warm weight on his chest, and relaxed his mind. It was whirring with angry thoughts on how could they not have found Mokuba… but he managed to calm the hurricane. He slipped blissfully into a deep dark nirvana state known as the sleep stage.
As he was falling asleep, a select few words echoed hollowly in his head. It was the memory of the words Mewtwo had implanted in his head in the warehouse. What he had told him.
If you want your brother back alive, you'll do as I say. You will be my slave, and if you disobey, you won't like the consequences.
Yeah, sorry it's a bit short... kinda...
Kneph is an Egyptian name meaning "spirit." Zuka is an Egyptian name meaning "grave; high tomb."
Review please! Tell me what you think! This chapter was really hard to write. I hope I'm not writing myself into a rut... eh heh heh heh.
