Chapter 53, everybody! In which we find out just who is tapping at the chamber door ("Quoth the raven 'nevermore'").

Angiembabe, thanks for the review! Excellent! And we'll be answering that question in this chapter.

Yuko13, thanks for the review! Yes, it takes some work. I think you might enjoy it, to be honest (I do—it's like reading a comic illustrated by Robert Bateman). And very true….And yay! No more headaches! At least until finals. :)

Blanket disclaimers are in Chapter 1 (I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, I do not own Avatar, I do not own Don't Starve, I do not own "The Raven," I do own Chaos Creatures, etc., et al…).

"I think you're lost, Joey."

"I am not!"

"You are!"

"I agree with Kelsey, Joey," Tristan said, flapping his great gold wings.

Kelsey ground her teeth. For every one flap Joey and Tristan took, she had to take three. Her small narrow wings weren't built for long-distance flights. And she knew from Wilson and Elsie's warnings that the compound was further south than they were heading. But there was no telling Joey anything. Bullheaded Mayhem.

"Hey, look!" Joey exclaimed suddenly, throwing his flight pattern off by pointing ahead. Kelsey dipped a bit—easier than trying to power-flap over them—to see something strange and metal, partially hidden by ivy, sitting on a plateau.

"That's not the compound, Joey," she said, deciding to be the voice of reason.

"But it's not natural!"

"Duh," Tristan muttered.

"So let's check it out!"

And with that, Joey went diving to land on the grassy field in front of the metal thing.

"Come on," Kelsey groused, following at a more leisurely pace. "We have to make sure he doesn't hurt himself."


The pages were shoved away and the cabinet locked before Yugi had time to register the tap.

He'd have been glad for the reprieve, if it weren't for the fact that the tap was caused by something most likely lethal.

Mai had opened a cabinet that Yugi never noticed before (oi, he felt inattentive), revealing a selection of guns that would have made the Corporal jealous. "We don't know what that is, but we'd better prepare for the worst," she whispered, as the tapping travelled up the side of the trailer and onto the roof. Some clunking alerted them to the fact that whatever it was, it wasn't a lightweight.

Yugi remembered the Drum Snake and would have wilfed, if he had the capability available to him. Whatever it was, it was something big….

And then they heard a spat of guttural noise interspersed with sharp consonant sounds. Yugi had the ridiculous mental image of a large cat sneezing.

The noise left the top of the trailer, and a fresh round of snarls and consonants joined the fray.

"I wonder what they're saying," Valon muttered.

Good point—the noises sounded like a conversation, and then there was a tapping again….

Mai was over by the window slats. "Ready?" she asked.

They nodded. She eased the slats open a marginal bit.

Enough for them to see a humanesque shape outside, taller and bulkier, with what looked like horns—

"Joey!?" Yugi squawked, stealth forgotten.

Joey—for that was what it was—put his face to the window, made an excited noise, then turned away—to Kelsey and Tristan, no doubt. Yugi was willing to bet money on it. He said something in that snarling punctuated vocalization, but Yugi was pretty sure it was something along the lines of "Hey guys! Look! Look at this!"

Tristan and Kelsey came into view. Tristan tapped on the glass, prompting Kelsey to say something, flapping her arms at him and scowling.

"I wonder what she's saying," Valon mused.

"Probably 'don't tap the glass—they hate it when you do that,'" Yugi guessed.

"How'd you know?"

These guys tend to think along a certain track."

Vivian, meanwhile, was flapping her hands excitedly. "I need a camera," she announced, running over to one of the other cabinets and rummaging through it.

Yugi glanced at Valon, Valon glanced at Yugi, and then they both looked back to where Joey and Tristan were peering through the slats and waved.

Another round of that snarling that Yugi reasoned must be Chaos-speak—strange, they hadn't sounded like that when Yugi was in the Avatar….

Musings came to a screeching halt when Joey began examining the side of the trailer, then started picking at one of the seams.

You should see the way they work with metals. Kelsey's comment from ages ago came back to him. Joey and Tristan's know-how meant that they could rip through the trailer in no time flat.

"That's not a good thing," Yugi announced.

"Should we stick our heads out and yell 'Hey, you kids, get off our lawn'?" Valon asked.

"If they don't laugh at you outright, they'll go after you for moving and making loud noises," Mai pointed out. "And if you open the door, nothing would stop them from coming in here and making a mess of everything."

"They'd do that?"

"What do you think happened to the other trailers?"

Yugi gave it some thought. What would warrant Joey and Tristan leaving the trailer alone? Wilson or Elsie, he figured—

Or another Chaos they respected.

"I have an idea," Yugi announced. "But I need the Integrator to make it work."