Chapter 14

Hey guys! Sorry this chapter took a while! School got in the way go updates, and the story had to be pushed back a little. By the way, there is cartoon reference in this chapter. Can you find it and guess?

"Come on, open!"

Yuma grunted in exhaustion as he and Anna attempted to pry the door to Heartland Tower open. The door was not easy to open due to the fact that it required a card key to unlock it. Unfortunately, none of the kids had one in their possession, so they decided to open the door the old-fashioned way: Force.
They pulled and pulled, but that darn door just wouldn't move an inch!

"Rrgh! It won't open!" groaned Yuma. His hands loosened from the door in exhaustion. He fell back onto the ground in defeat. "Damn, that door is too strong to open! There's no way we can open it!" moaned Yuma, flailing his hands in the air. He out his head into his arms, moaning.

Anna huffed, "Aren't you forgetting something?"

"What?" said Yuma muffled.

"My Flying Launcher."

"What about it?"

Anna mentally slapped herself. She walked over to her Flying Launcher (which was in landing position) and picked it up by the side. She flicked open a hatch, revealing a green button. She pressed it. To Yuma's surprise, the cannon transformed.

"Huh? What the heck is going on?" said a confused Yuma.

"Heh, just wait and see!" said Anna. Her Flying Launcher continued to transform as various parts to continue to shift around. Instead of a hovercraft, all Yuma saw was a gigantic cannon.

"Amazing!" he said in awe, admiring the weapon

Anna slung the heavy cannon over her shoulders. She carefully positioned it in front of the door. "Now, stand back, Yuma! If you were to be hit by my cannon…. Let's just say it won't be pretty."

Yuma did as instructed. He ran away from the door and stood behind Anna. He smiled at Anna an gave her a thumbs up. "Let's do it, Anna! Fire away!"

Anna smiled back in response. She readied her cannon. The gun whirred as it started to warm up. Soon enough, the gun was ready to shoot. Anna snickered, "Oh, yeah, just what I wanted to hear! Let's take down this bad boy!"

"FIRE!" commanded Yuma.

Anna pulled on her cannon trigger. Faster than the speed of light, a missile fired itself out of the mouth of the cannon. It flew like a lightning bolt as it made it's path toasted the door.

BOOOOOOMMMM!

The door exploded the instant the nose of the missile. It made the Tower shake slightly, but it still stood. The smoke quickly cleared from the door. All that remained was a circle-shaped gash.

Yuma grinned in victory as he high-fived Anna. "We did it! We're in the tower now!"

"Yeah! Let's go kick Kurai's butt!" said Anna, clenching her fists.

The boy then looked at the very top of Heartland Tower. He then began to think of Kotori and Astral. They flashed through his memories. Their smiling faces molded into Yuma's mind. Yuma clenched his fists in determination, his eyes still staring at the top of Heartland Tower. Yuma then shouted into the sky. "Kotori… Astral… I will definitely save you! I'M GONNA BRING IT TO 'EM! HOW DO I KNOW? 'CAUSE I'M FEELING THE FLOW!"

After climbing what seemed like an endless trail of stairs, Yuma and Anna dropped to the ground in exhaustion. They had finally reached the final floor. Earlier, Anna had suggested flying to the top of the tower on her Flying Launcher, but Yuma said no because he claimed that Kurai could hear the engine. The girl reluctantly agreed to climb the torturous stairs. Now, the kids' arms and legs felt like Jello.

"I feel like gelatin," complained Yuma. "I wish I had some Duel Fuel, and I'm really hungry!"

The boy's stomach growled in response, wanting to be fed. Yuma placed a hand around his stomach, moaning.

Anna reached into her bag to reveal a paper bag. She opened it and pulled out a box of riceballs. She pulled the lid off so Yuma could have a whiff.

"Oh Yuma, can you please get up? Would you do it for a riceball?" said Anna, waving it under Yuma's nose.

"No," moaned Yuma.

Anna huffed. She pulled another riceballs out of the container with her free hand. "Hmmm… How about…. Two riceballs?"

Yuma shook his head.

"Nnnooo! Leave me alone!" he moaned.

Anna smiled even more. "How about…. FIVE riceballs? I can't eat all of these yummy rice-"

Yuma bolted from the ground and swiped all of the riceballs from Anna's hands. He sat in a corner and devoured the riceballs like a hungry wolf. Anna couldn't help but quietly laugh at Yuma's silliness. Yuma is so cute when he eats riceballs! she thought, blushing.

After Yuma finished eating his Duel Lunch, he never felt better than ever. "Mmm! I feel a lot better already! Now that I've got some Duel Fuel, I'm ready to bring it to 'em!"

Yuma turned towards Anna.

"Are you with me?"

"Oh, heck yeah!" replied Anna.

And so, the two teens ventured down the hall, but there were a lot of doors. Kurai could be in any of the doors. The kids decided to inspect every door in the hall. A while later, after searching through at least twenty doors, Anna spotted a unmarked green door.

"Oy, Yuma! Let's check out this room!" she said.

Yuma nodded in agreement, "Yeah!"

When Yuma and Anna opened the green door, they were surprised to find themselves in a jungle-like room. Plenty of vegetation grew all over the room, and the place was bustling with activity. Flowers bloomed, the insects did their usual things, and there were a few animals here and there.

"Who knew Kurai had a thing for wild animals? I always thought he was an animal, since he acts like one," joked Yuma.

Anna laughed in response. "Hey, maybe he thinks he's the King of the Jungle!"

"You've got a point there."

YAAWWWNNN!

Yuma and Anna jumped at the noise. They looked at a nearby rock to find a panther yawning, licking his chops. He had just finished his dinner, proceeding to lick his paws. A necklace hung from the panther's neck, and it's charm resembled an animal tooth.

"Why does that necklace look so familiar? I feel like I know that panther," said a confused Yuma.

A screech howled across the room. Anna looked into the trees to find a small spider monkey. The monkey wore green glasses and a blue bowler hat. The accessorized simian happily ate a medley of fruit it collected from the trees. It smiled as it tasted the delicious fruit. The monkey then spotted Yuma and Anna approaching him. Curious, the simian hopped down, greeting the humans. He hopped onto Yuma's back and placed his hands in Yuma's hair.

"What's he doing?" said an unsure Yuma.

"I think he's playing with your hair-" Anna stopped when she saw the monkey holding a small bug in his hand. The monkey then proceeded to eat the bug, chewing it like mashed fruit.

Yuma stared at the monkey in confusion.

"Did that monkey just eat a bug from my hair? That's gross," he said.

Anna felt something soft rub against her legs. At first, she didn't know what it was, but she could tell that the it was very soft and fluffy. To her surprise, she found a Mountain Goat happily rubbing his head against Anna's legs.

"Baaahhh," bleated the goat happily.

Yuma and Anna were in awe by the goat's cuteness. How could they not ignore those darling sapphire blue eyes? The goat bleated as he spotted a plastic bag sticking out of Anna's bag. He gently pushed Anna and Yuma out of his way. He trotted upwards the bag and carefully pried the bag with his teeth. Inside the bag were a salty crackers, baked to perfection. The goat dropped the bag into Anna's hand and sat down like a dog in front of her.

"Baaahhh," the goat begged, wanting to be fed a cracker.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt to feed him a cracker," said Yuma. Suddenly, something on the goat's head caught his attention. A hat laid on the goat's head, and it was backwards. A white tuff poked it's way through the hole of the hat.

"Is something bothering you?" said Anna, while she was feeding the goat some crackers.

Yuma raised his eyes in confusion. "I can't put a finger to it, but that goat reminds me so much of Tetsuo!"

"What do you mean?"

"That goat is wearing his hat backwards like Tetsuo, and one of his favorite snacks are salty crackers."

SQUAWK!

A blue-yellow parrot extended his talons, aiming towards the bag of crackers. The kids and the goat shrieked in surprise as the parrot successfully snagged his "prey."

"Squawk! My crackers, stupid! Mine! Mine! Mine!" said the parrot. "You can't have them! Why? 'Cause you're so stupid! Hahaha!"

The parrot perched himself on a tree branch and clawed through the bag to drop a cracker into his mouth. He chewed on it in a content mood. "Yummy cracker!"

Anna scowled at the parrot. She raised her fists. "Oy, you stupid bird! Those were mine! Give them back, you hairball!"

"Not a chance!" retaliated the parrot.

"Grrr! That's it!" snapped Anna.

Yuma grabbed his friend's arm, in hopes of calming her down. "Whoa, Anna, calm do-"

WHACK!

Anna elbowed Yuma in the stomach, the boy tumbled back a little. Yuma held his stomach in pain. "Dang, what was that for?"

"That stupid bird stole my crackers! I swear, when I get my hands on him, I'll pluck EVERY single feather until-" snapped Anna.

"Stop!"

The kids turned around to find the same parrot flying towards them. He sat on top of the goat's head, much to the goat's dismay. He opened his beak to talk.

((A/N:Because a parrot is talking, his speech may be limited. Please excuse my bad grammar for the parrot's speech.))

"If it isn't Yuma! You are here! Save us!" screeched the parrot.

"Who are you?" said Yuma.

The bird laughed, "Come on, you don't recognize your own Class Rep? Hello, look at my uniform!"

Yuma and Anna looked at the burd's shirt. It was white with red markings, and the red tie. The boy gasped in surprise.

"No freaking way….. TAKASHI? What happened to you? You're even more of a blabbering mouth than before!" cried Yuma.

Takashi, the said parrot, scowled.
His eyes became narrow as he scowled at Yuma. "If you must know, black ghost's magic made us like this! I'm a parrot, Shark is panther, Toku became a monkey, and that goat Tetsuo," he chirped.

Yuma stared at the mentioned animals. He could see a part of his friends as those animals. That's it! "Dark Mist…. and Kurai… I should've known! I knew that something was odd about these animals," he growled. "Do you know where Kurai is?"

"Yup. Go outside, then look for a purple door marked with a green D," replied Takashi. "Be careful! He has Kotori!"

Yuma nodded. "Yeah!" He turned to Anna. "I hate to ask you this, but could you look after the guys until I find a way to turn them back to normal?"

Anna shrugged. "I've got nothing better to do. I'll watch the boys. By the way, go show Kurai who the REAL Yuma is!" she said.

Yuma smiled back at Anna. "I will. Thank you, Anna."

With that, Yuma proceeded to exit the room. He looked back at his friends-turned-animals. He looked at them in sorrow. "Shark, Takashi, Toku, Tetsuo…. I will find a way to make you normal again! Believe it!" he said.

Sounds like Yuma is on the move! Let's hope he can turn things around! Stay tuned for "The Shadow of Yuma!"