Cat Eyes
Posted: July 16, 2009
ISF:Ugh, FINALLY. Every time I thought about writing this chapter, my heart wasn't in it. But I bit the bullet and managed to scrape up a few tasty morsels for any of you readers still out there.
I'm kind of wondering, though...it feels like I've outgrown this story. Like I'm another person continuing someone else's fic. It's strange. But hopefully, I'll still be posting chapters, however slowly they'll appear. Eheheh...
I want this story to have twenty-five chapters, give or take a couple. I just wish that I can stick with it to make it happen. I don't want the posts to be so sporadic. I need to start posting more regularly. Encourage me, you guys! Kick my butt into shape!
o o o o o
"Mokuba Kaiba to the front office," a voice on the intercom droned. Mokuba looked to his teacher, who gave him a short nod, and Mokuba packed up his schoolthings into his backpack and left the classroom. He knew why he was being called. He had never been called to the front office, save for the times when his brother came to the school to pick him up early.
And he was glad for it, too. His school had half-days on Saturday. He didn't understand why his brother made him go. He had near perfect grades as it was. Surely missing just a mere half a day of school a week wouldn't put him that far behind.
Sure enough, Mokuba was right. His brother was there and sitting in a chair, his legs crossed in an almost feminine manner that starkly contrasted his rigid demeanor. Mokuba could tell, despite Seto's meticulous attempt at disguising it, that his brother had not yet slept since Mokuba had seen him last night. The two left, side by side, getting into the back of a limousine parked outside the school's door.
"What am I being picked up early for?" Mokuba asked. "Seto, you look awful. Why didn't you sleep last night?"
"Too much work." Seto replied. "I took a nap while coming to pick you up."
"Seto, I know that you're lying," Mokuba said in a serious tone. His brother shrugged and made no further attempt to assuage him. They both knew that Seto could not sleep anywhere except in his room. Mokuba's heart skipped a beat when he thought about it.
He remembered what had happened when Seto had fallen asleep at the dinner table when Gozaburo was still alive.
"You never answered the first question."
Seto sighed. "I know who hacked into the database. I need your help."
Suddenly, the limosine screeched to a stop. Mokuba lurched forward, but Seto managed to catch him. He pounded on the glass window for the driver. "What do you think you're doing?" Seto roared at him.
The divider slid open. "I'm sorry, Mister Kaiba, but we can't go any further." The driver pointed ahead of him. Seto and Mokuba craned their necks to see a huge pile of cars ahead.
"What in the world...?" Mokuba opened the door to get out, despite Seto's warning to stay in the car. The two brothers looked at the pileup. People were being pulled out of their totalled cars by police officers, fireman, and ambulence workers, and a huge crowd had gathered.
Mokuba pulled on one man's shirt. "Excuse me, sir, is everyone okay?"
"Looks so," the man said, not turning his head from the mess. "Nobody seems to be badly hurt. Ain't that amazing? Look at that carnage." He pointed in awe.
"Do you know what caused the accident?" The man shook his head.
"All I know is that no one's getting past this intersection."
"What?" said Mokuba despairingly. "We need to get to Kaiba Corp. Can't we just walk--?"
"Can't walk," the man cut him off.
"But why--?"
The man pointed past the wreckage. The crowd was not gathered by the wreck. They were at the edge of the intersection. People were knocking, patting, and pushing with all their mights at what looked to be...
Nothing.
They were pushing at thin air.
Seto grimaced. He watched the pedestrians throw things at what wasn't there, only to have them bounce back as if hitting an invisible wall. On the other side, everything looked normal. Except nothing was moving over there. The streets looked deserted. Everything on the opposite side of the wall looked shadowy and blue, almost as if it were dusk. "Mokuba." He nodded at his little brother, motioning at him to follow. Seto began walking briskly down the street, his brother struggling to keep up with Seto's long strides.
"Mister Kaiba, what do you--?" The driver tried to say, before both Seto and Mokuba smoothly cut him off as they walked past him.
"We don't care," they said in unison. The driver looked on in astonishment. Evidently, there was more of Seto Kaiba in the young boy than he had once thought.
o o o o o
Yami had accepted the woman's challenge. He had never refused a game before in his life.
The arena was set, dead center in the middle of the street. Tea was crouched on the sidelines, trying to nurse Sarah back to consciousness and console Mary at the same time. Mary was still sniffling and wiping her nose, but a fierce spark seemed to glow in her bright eyes as she looked from one duelist to another. A duelist with spiked hair, a grim mouth, and violet eyes wise beyond their years. A duelist with a twisted black trench coat and beady golden eyes, almost cat like. Mary Caldwell was about to witness a duel. A real, live duel.
Yami had already equipped himself with his deck and duel disk. He watched as the strange yellow-eyed woman slowly, almost tenderly, slid her black, misshapened disk onto her arm, and carefully pressed the power button. Almost at once, the Pharaoh was almost not sure whether or not the woman and disk were two separate entities. The disk had molded perfectly into skin, muscles and bone, like a mutated scythe protruding out from her forearm. They both shuffled their decks. The woman drew her cards as if she were unsheathing swords.
"We begin."
o o o o o
"Crap!" Joey managed to dodge a car, flying through the air towards him, while not missing a step as he and Tristan ran. The car smashed into a brick wall and toppled over three times before coming to a stop next to a fire hydrant. "How the heck did all of this happen so quickly?"
"Dunno!" Tristan shot back as he tried to beat flames out of his jacket sleeve and run at the same time. "I just wish that Yugi would pick up his cell phone!" The streets were chaos. Windows were smashed. Everything that was combustible had in fact combusted. It was like a bomb had gone off and yet there were no victims.
The streets were empty.
"Hey...." Tristan slowed to halt, looking around him. "Where do you think everybody went?"
"Eh?" Joey, still running, turned to look back at his friend. He tripped over a detached, blackened car bumper and crashed headfirst into a car. He jumped up immediately, rubbing his bruised nose. "What are you talking about, Tristan, we saw people in the store we were inside, and then...wait a second...that was the last time we saw anyone!"
The two stared in awe as they circled around in the middle of the street. Amidst a burning city, they seemed to be the only two people around for blocks.
"Hello? HELLO!" Tristan called. The crackling of fire was the only reply that he got. Joey swore and kicked at the detached bumper he had tripped over.
"This is stupid!" Joey said. "Why are we the only ones here?"
"Let's see...." Tristan mused. "There was at the store, and then we were running over to Yugi's place. I saw some people back then, too, but...." He raked his fingers through his hair at he thought. "I didn't realize it, but after that, we saw less and less people in the streets."
"You're right!" said Joey. "And after that explosion just now, I didn't see anyone!"
"Explosion?" Tristan frowned. Joey nodded furiously.
"Two explosions, actually. Well, they weren't really explosions like the bomb ones that went off a few minutes ago, but whatever made that car fly at me. There wasn't any shrapnel or nothing in the air, so they weren't bombs that went off--"
"Shrapnel?"
"Come on, Tristan, you know what shrapnel is! It's the pieces of the bomb that fly out. It's not the explosions that kill people, usually, but the shrapnel--"
"Oh, save your one speech about science that you even know anything about!" Tristan said impatiently. "What about the explosions?'"
"Yeah, they weren't like bombs going off, but I know I felt something."
"Felt what?"
"I dunno what it was, I just...felt it. It was like I felt everything around me was being sucked away. Didn't you feel anything?"
Tristan almost began to yell at Joey to stop messing around, but then suddenly realized with a that he was not making it up. He was busy trying to put out the flames on his jacket a few moments ago, and stumbled over something. As he struggled to maintain his balance, he felt like his insides had been jolted out of his body, but he assumed it was from the stumble.
"Did...something just happen that got rid of the people?"
"That's stupid, Joey! Why are we still here?"
"Why are we the only ones here?" Joey snapped back.
Tristan opened his mouth to retort, but then paused and shut it slowly. He made a good point. He carelessly glanced at the sky, then did a double take. "Wha...look!"
The two boys looked wonderstruck at the sky. It was dark. But it was still only mid-day. Tristan checked his watch. One thirty p.m. Hey... He stared for a few seconds at his watch before speaking near-tonelessly to Joey. "My watch has stopped. The seconds aren't moving."
"Cheap piece of junk, then."
"No...check your cell phone." Shrugging, Joey pulled his phone out of his back pocket. Tristan did the same. "Hey, the time's stopped on my phone!"
"And mine." Flipping his phone shut, Tristan glanced around momentarily before beginning to walk in the general direction towards Yugi's house. "I don't even know if we can find Yugi there, but we might as well look, right? Can't hurt."
The two boys made their way through the empty streets, unaware of the two people behind them. The nameless shadows looked at one another and nodded. They pointed their arms at the boys. They had half-melted duel disks attached to them. They both pressed a blue button. Each disk glowed a strange color before shooting a thin beam of light, aimed at Joey and Tristan.
o o o o o
ISF: Aaand, that's all for now. Damn, that took a long time to type up! Normally, when I start a chapter, it only takes a couple of hours to finish, but this one took twice as long. Ugh. Must be out of practice. I remember back when I was posting TOAYGOSF (for you newbies, it's best not to know what that stands for...for you oldbies, good lord, how did you stick with me after that travesty?), I updated Sunday night, the wee hours of the night, technically Monday morning. I should get back into that habit. Keep my fanfiction claws sharpened nicely.
Anyways, please leave a review and let me know how you feel about this chapter, or if you have any questions or complaints.
FIN