The Magicians' Realm Chapter 47: On Alert, a yu-gi-oh fanfic

Chapter 47, everybody, and happy Memorial Day! In which we finally meet Greg's twin brother….Watching Criminal Minds is a mite difficult for me after growing up with Thomas Gibson's work on Dharma and Greg.

Movies of note this week are Max and U-571—former is a relatively feel-good movie about a boy and his marine-trained dog, the second pits Matthew McConaughey and Jon Bon Jovi against a German submarine and destroyer in World War II. Both are quite good and worth a watch. :)

Angiembabe, thanks for the review! Yes indeed! I wish I had a garden like that (at this point, we may have to throw in the towel with ours and start planting rice). No, he shouldn't—and good question….Most definitely—and also a good question; that sneaky bee charmer….

Fromtheashtrees, thanks for the review! Yes—call the sound guys and get them to up the reverb on the word "terrible" (first season of Sabrina the Teenage Witch for the win!). that—was my first college exactly. Sumbinix in the story is based on the main speaker there—every day except Saturday, twice on Sundays and Wednesdays (probably the only time we college students got any sleep...but then again, I couldn't bring myself to fall asleep, considering I thought it was bad form D: ). The Bible classes were much better, though (and then he never revisited the topic! I still don't know what happened!). Oh yes indeedy—already have a scene all written up in the third book (and it makes me smirk just thinking about it, so there's that). Hopefully he'll pop up again before that (he's definitely fun to write for). No, I think we've seen all the jobs she works at (thank goodness—it was beginning to border on ridiculous). Most likely—I still give Jurassic World and ORAS sideways glances (how could they screw that up? How!?). Too late, already looked up all pertinent information months ago—plus oversaturation on DeviantArt kind of made it inevitable….

FicReader, thanks for the review! Yes, do so—and then watch Criminal Minds to see the opposite spectrum of Thomas Gibson's acting abilities. :D Yes, it's a fun movie. Aha, to be fair, I had never heard of culottes until I went to my first college—and then I was trying to remember what they were called and ended up calling them kumquats. '-' Eeek! But what would he want with a tomato?...We should go deeper….

References:

Original characters, + setting © Kineil D. Wicks (myself, not the girl in the story)

Maxwell distinctly did not appreciate being woken up at this hour. And then being forced to travel all the way to Massenborough—ugh.

Thank goodness for shadow travel—otherwise that'd be a whole day wasted.

He had to wonder what kind of hours Administrators Unger and Sumbinix kept to be in Massenborough already. And how they had found it too—it had taken him a couple of tries to actually hit this dinky town.

"What is it?" Maxwell asked, deciding to get it over with.

"What does this look like?" Unger asked, pointing at the crates on the train. Maxwell looked—they were torn open and mostly empty.

"Looks like rats," Maxwell guessed.

"We don't pay you to be funny," Sumbinix snapped.

"That's good to know. Can I go now? My bed misses me."

"We don't pay you to smart either."

"That explains a lot."

He dropped into his shadow after that parting shot.

He had to get something out of the morning.

*/*\*

Greg finally looked around after trying to recover from splitting wood. Rufus Klendaniel had more stamina than he did. Elizabeth Klendaniel had more stamina than he did. Desk work was making him soft.

He blinked—looked around again.

There was a discrepancy in the number of spiky heads in the area.

"Ah, we're here," he heard; he turned to see his mother, Kitty Montgau, mince into the clearing. "And look who we brought."

"Hi, Hotch," Greg said, waving.

Hotchner Aaron Montgau looked like Greg, but more serious—understandable, since he was his twin brother. And head of the Civil Branch, which—he delighted in reminding him—was a tougher job than Head Mage.

"Hi Greg," Hotch said, shaking his hand. "I heard about the mess with the Administrators."

"That about sums it up," Greg agreed. "Hi Dharma."

Dharma Montgau, nee Finkelstein, was how the Montgaus knew the Finkelsteins. Knowing their mother, there was no way they would have known the Finkelsteins if Hotch hadn't married Dharma after their first date.

It made it less of a shock when Greg did the same thing a few years later with Jenna.

"Hi Greg!" Dharma said, kissing him briefly before going to greet her parents. "Ooh, your karma's out of whack," she said to him. "Remind me later and we'll get your chi realigned."

Greg tried very hard not to groan at that.

"I don't want my chi realigned," he said to Hotch. "The last time she realigned it, I had to eat bean sprouts and tofu for a week."

"The key is to drown the bean sprouts in dressing and the tofu in soup," Hotch told him before looking around. "So where's Yami?"

"Where's Larry?" Dharma asked before Greg could say anything—one of the peculiarities of the Finkelsteins was the lack of any sort of title, even parental ones.

On the positive side, it took away Greg's worry. "Larry must be showing Yami his oregano," he deduced.

"The oregano we're not allowed to see?" Hotch asked, looking like he was fighting down a grin.

"That's the stuff."

Indeed, Larry was wandering out of the mazelike greenhouse right now. "There's Larry!" Dharma declared, running over to give him a hug.

"Hi, pumpkin!" Larry said, returning the hug. "How's protesting going at the Capitol?"

"Too well," Hotch called over.

Greg waved him off. "Larry, where's Yami?"

Larry looked around, marginally confused. "He's not with you?"

"If he was, would I ask?"

"Maybe…."

"Larry, did you lose him in the greenhouse?"

"I don't have to answer that—I have a—"

"'Fifth-amendment right preventing me from implicating myself,'" everyone within hearing distance chimed.

"We know, Larry," Dharma said, patting her father on the shoulder.

"Back to the issue at hand," Greg said, trying not to feel panic just yet. "Where's Yami, Larry? You didn't lose him, did you?"

"I did not," Larry said staunchly, before looking around. "He's…uh…."

And then Yami came running out of the greenhouse.

"There he is," Larry said happily, pointing.

Greg didn't share the emotion, considering the way Yami wasn't slowing down as he ran for him. "Dad! Dad!" he yelped, skidding to a halt next to him and pointing back at the greenhouse. "In there—by the tomatoes," he gulped, out of breath. "There was someone trying to get through—"

Greg exchanged glances with Hotch, and then the both of them were heading for the greenhouse, Greg with magic sparking in his hands, Hotch with his gun out—such projectile weapons were frowned upon by most Magicians, but there was no denying that a gun was effective, considering bullets could fly faster than a person could think.

"You all stay back there," Greg called over. "We'll be back."

"Eventually," Hotch said as they plunged into the maze.

"That's a given, I would think."

They paused at the first fork in the maze. "I'm sorry," Hotch drawled. "But have you seen the Finkelsteins' greenhouse?"

Greg was forced to admit that was a fair point.

*\*/*

It took quite a bit of self-punishment and coffee-related bribery, but Teana pulled herself out of bed Monday morning. Ugh. She wasn't built for late-night walks.

She sort of sleep-walked through her morning jobs, but by the time she made it through lunch and to the bookkeepers, she was composed enough to consider some lines of higher thinking. Like letter writing.

The pot-bellied stove got quite a bit of tinder via discarded letters, but she finally settled on one that was simple and to the point:

Dear Mr. Skellington:

As I promised, here are my free days this week: Saturday and Sunday. Sunday mornings have prior engagements, I'll have you know, so you have to settle for Sunday afternoons.

I hope you can manage,

Sincerely,

Teana Gardenier

She read it, reread it, decided that it was the best she could do, folded it, and stuffed it into an envelope. After much debate, she wrote out Yami Skellington, Head Mage, Skellington Residence on the front, figuring the post office would know where it was supposed to go, and slid it into the mailbox with the outgoing mail. There, that was done.

Now here was hoping she'd be able to catch up on her sleep at some point during the week.