Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Legacy of Tarot
Chapter 5: The Escape
As they walked through the beautiful green plains to the west of Muto City, Nick seemed a lot more cheerful. One arm was around Mark's shoulder and the other was around Alyssa's as he hummed a merry tune. He knew that some grim events were most indefinitely ahead of him, but being away from that shady Bertram Philps character certainly took a load off of his mind. Every now and then, he kept thinking about that "shadow" that they found during the examination. He was relieved that it wasn't a tumor or cancer, but they certainly didn't seem thrilled or confident about its composure. Bertram even lied about it when Nick asked what they had discovered. Something was definitely up. That, however, was priority #2: right now, they had to find Rebecca and that blasted snake-man at all costs. There was only one problem with their little plan… they had no idea which direction he had gone in!
"So… where exactly do we start, guys?" Mark asked a bit nervously, chuckling. His voice was uneasy as he looked around, suddenly realizing what a big world this was and how hard it would be to track down two people; or rather, one person and one reptile.
"Well, other than Bertram and his scientists, the only people that would possibly know anything about Xel'Zerpi's whereabouts would be in Tare, right?" Nick pondered, trying to formulate a plan. The fact that Tare was an island made things all the more difficult. It meant that Xel'Zerpi probably left the island, flew over the ocean, and went somewhere else. That would mean they'd need to catch a boat to Tare, then find out which way the snakeman went, and then catch another boat or plane to that location. The odds weren't in their favour.
"Yeah, but getting to Tare again will be damn near impossible." Alyssa noted bluntly, putting her free hand on her hip.
"Well, we can't very well count on Bertram and his private jet to help us, can we?" Mark interjected with a light laugh to brighten up the dark situation.
"I wonder… what do you think he's doing right now?"
* * * *
"Sir! We have a problem!" A professionally dressed man shouted as he burst into the Headmaster's lavishly decorated office. The older gentleman looked up from his work.
"What? What's the matter?"
"The finalist and his friends are gone! We looked everywhere, in the school, on the grounds, they're nowhere to be found!"
"What?" Bertram growled furiously, rising from his chair at a breakneck pace. "Where the hell could they have gotten without us knowing?"
"With all due respect, Mr. Philps, they had a ground-floor room. Chances are they left during the night when you suggested they stay longer than expected." The teacher-like man responded more calmly, closing the door behind him so as not to disturb those outside.
"But where would they have gone? They have no idea where Xel'Zerpi might be! He could be anywhere in the world! I don't even know where he is!" Bertram flustered, his eyes frantically searching the room for an idea, a hint, a plan. Then it dawned on him. "Tare. They've headed west to get back to Tare. That's where they'd find the most information about Xel'Zerpi's whereabouts!"
"They could be miles away by now, sir."
"A car is faster than foot. Ready my limo, Mr. Yates." The headmaster ordered as he moved over to the coat rack, slipping into his top-hat and cloak. A bit outdated a fashion, perhaps, but he liked its elegance and refined nature. Swiftly stepping out the door, Bertram prepared to catch his quarry.
* * * *
"Wait, what's that?" Nick asked in a whisper a half-hour later. He stopped in his tracks and had perked up his ears as best he could, trying to hear more of the whirring sound that was closing in on them.
"Sounds like a car to me." Mark noted swiftly, not even bothering to really examine the sound at all.
"Well what the hell would a car be doing in a damn field? There isn't a bloody road for miles!" Alyssa fumed, crossing her arms as she turned towards the horizon. Within moments, a black speck began to grow larger and larger as it neared them. Incidentally, the sound grew louder and louder, raising the suspicion that the black speck was the car. It screeched to a halt as it pulled up beside them and one of the back windows rolled down.
"If I might ask, what are you all doing out here? It's dangerous!" Bertram inquired, only his head showing in the blackness of the limo. "Did you not hear me? I asked you to stay with us for a while longer!"
"Shut'cho mouth!" Alyssa barked, leaning over to glare directly into his eyes. Oh, that menacing glare. Bertram slid one seat over to get out of her fiery gaze as best as possible. "We don't have time to waste lounging around your boring old university. We have to find Rebecca and that snake, now!"
"And where would you go, hm? Who would you ask? Who would you trust to tell you the truth about where he went?" Bertram chuckled, which only irritated Alyssa even more. A slight growl from her shut him up instantly. "You're asking for a flying snake-man carrying a damsel in distress. Think about it: most people would sooner send you to an Asylum than tell you where to find him."
"It's better than what you were planning on 'doing'! Standing around and 'caculating' their position! You just wanted to cover your back. You don't plan on doing a damn thing!" Nick snarled, glowering at the british man in the comfy limousine.
"That's not true at all! We are very concerned for Rebecca's well being!" Bertram retorted, sliding back so that he could see Nick more clearly. "But we are also concerned for your well-being! It's dangerous and foolish to be wandering around out here with no idea where to go! And how do you expect to eat, hm? Forage through the bushes for berries and bugs?"
"We have money." Alyssa told him, a bit angered. "How dare you even think we'd be so stupid as to come unprepared."
"And how long will it last you? A few weeks, tops? Unless you plan on winning some tournament with a grossly large sum of money for the grand prize, I suggest you accept my help."
"Maybe we will enter a tournament." Nick replied, crossing his arms and turning away from the vehicle. "Whatever we do, we aren't going back to that damned school! You just want to study me like a lab rat and figure out what's wrong with me."
"What's… wrong with you? But we never found anything wrong with you!" Bertram remarked nervously, shifting his eyes suspiciously. Nick simply sighed, deciding to play along with his game for now.
"Whatever. We're still not going back to the school." Nick's resolve was rock-hard and he was determined not to return there under any circumstances. They probably had a whole team of scientists waiting to launch tranquilizers to high heaven so he wouldn't escape again.
"But you—"
"NO!" The decision was confirmed by all three members of the party. None of them intended to return to Muto City University, if they even returned to Muto City at all. Bertram shifted his weight uncomfortably as he thought, stroking his bald chin generously.
"Alright, fine. We can play it your way. If you want to take a course of action against Xel'Zerpi, do so; I will do everything I can to help. Camp here for a while and await my return. I should only be an hour or two."
"Why should we trust you? You'll probably just bring a bunch of bodyguards to hogtie us and drag us back to the University against our will." Mark uttered in an annoyed tone.
"I assure you I shall do nothing of the sort! I will simply bring us money for a boat to Tare, and then for a plane to wherever we are expected to go. I tell you verily, I do not think this is the correct course of action… but since you are about as stubborn as three drunken mules, I have little choice." With that, Bertram rolled up his window and ordered his chauffeur to double-time it back to Muto City. The wheels screeched against the dewy ground as the car whirled around and darted back east. Alyssa simply sighed and crossed her arms, annoyed.
"…I hate that bastard."
* * * *
Two hours later, just as Bertram had predicted, the group heard a familiar whirring of an engine to the east and saw a black speck on the horizon. Yes, they had set up camp – much to the dismay of Alyssa, who didn't trust "that bastard headmaster weasel" one little bit – and were awaiting his return. They were slightly relieved as the car pulled up beside him and Bertram opened the door, revealing no one but himself, his walking cane, and his elegant if outdated uniform.
"What, no loaded guns? No tranquilizer darts? No swarm of hulkish 300 pound brutes with thick ropes?" Alyssa chuckled sarcastically, not even looking up at the old gentleman.
"I told you, I'm here to help. Now please, get in the car. We'll reach the port much faster that way."
Alyssa was the first to edge towards the car. She was ready to deck someone's halls if they needed it, and certainly not with boughs of holly, as her head peered into the darkness. The girl had half expected to see a squadron of army men sitting right there with blowguns aimed at her forehead, but she found none. A suspicious, untrusting look was cast at Bertram as she slid into the car. Mark and Nick, relieved that Alyssa was so confident with the vehicle, packed up the few things they had set up and also climbed in. Bertram was the last and as he closed the door behind him, he simply knocked on the roof to let the driver know they were ready to continue. The car launched forward in search of a road, as the dewy grass was wreaking havoc on the limo's wheels.
"Alright, what's the catch?" Alyssa raised the question, sliding over beside Bertram and staring him down with a skeptical look that would spear a wild boar and stop a rampaging elephant in its tracks.
"I… beg your pardon?"
"Come on, out with it. Last night you were doing everything possible to keep us at the University. Now you're paying to get us to Tare, and escorting us there in your limo." Her stare remained unwavering as the car leapt and bounced over the rocky road beneath it.
"Well, if you must know, I think it's kind of sad how you feel the need to run away without any sense of direction or food, and very little money, to search out this dangerous creature that you know nothing about." He chortled as he looked out the window at the scenery that was whipping by them at a breakneck pace.
"It's better than sitting around and doing nothing, like you." Nick muttered under his breath, crossing his arms and huffing impatiently. He seemed more like an annoyed gorilla than an 18-year old, and annoyed gorillas aren't the sort of beast you want to meet up with in a small, cramped limousine.
"Like I've told you, my scientists were doing their best to plot the most likely location of Xel'Zerpi before searching for him. It's a big world out there, and they are just two people."
"Yeah, if you can consider Xel'Zerpi a person." Mark chuckled, shaking his head. He was thrown forward off his seat, as was Nick, as the limo came to a rather abrupt stop. Alyssa began screaming an endless stream of obscenities when Bertram, completely unphased by the event, opened the door and climbed out.
"Here we are!" He announced proudly, leaning on his walking cane and looking forward at the port. The trip clambered out after him and as they made their way towards the docks (Bertram had so graciously found it in him to bring a map with him), the poor headmaster was bombarded with a flurry of questions.
"What do we do with this Xel'Zerpi guy when we find him, eh? I mean, if he's "immortal" like you said he was," Alyssa snorted in disbelief, "then we can't kill him, right?"
"Not while he has the card, no." Bertram advised her as he strolled forward at a brisk pace. "And trust me, you won't pry that card from his hands, cold and dead or not."
"Well, what the hell do we do, then? If we can't take the card from him, and we can't kill him, how do we get Rebecca back?" Alyssa fumed, doubling her speed to keep up with Mr. Philps, who simply laughed heartily. His cane clacked along the cobblestone pathway as they walked.
"You decided to go along on this little three-man voyage. You tell me!"
* * * *
A few hours later, after a somewhat troublesome delay with the attendant loading the baggage (apparently, Alyssa's make-up containers looked much too suspicious to be let on. She wanted to knock them all out for being morons, but Nick suggested she just let them take a look at the stuff), the group was sitting in their cabin on the boat headed for Tare. It was only about a 6 or 7 hour ride, but that was long enough to bore the hell out of Alyssa. So, in keeping with her inquisitive nature, she continued nailing Bertram down with questions. At this point, her goal was only to see just how ticked off she could make the man before he exploded.
"Alright, Philps, tell me something. You said yourself that people would sooner send us to the looney bin than tell us about a flying snake man carrying a damsel in distress. How, then, do you propose we find out information about this Xel'Zerpi freak?"
"That, my dear girl, is easier said than done. I'm sure that our brave leader has some idea of what to do, does he not?"
Nick looked up from his magazine, "Duelists Monthly", trying to play back everything they had just said. When he finally realized what they were asking him, he looked back into the magazine for a moment and flipped back a couple of pages. Sliding the open book onto the table, the boy pointed out an advertisement which Bertram quickly skimmed through.
"Let's see now… 'We invite you to the anniversary of mayor Muto and his wife Jessica at Old City Hall.'" The old gentleman began, shifting his eyes upward to look at Nick suspiciously. The boy motioned for him to continue, and he did. "Hmm… 'There will be gifts for all, and the mayor will even offer a duel to one lucky duelist who may take home a prize of… $1,000?' Aha… I knew there had to be an ulterior motive."
"I figured we could ask a few of the people there if they'd seen what happened – it's probably all over the news, after all – and make a little money on the side." Nick reasoned. His finger trailed over to something else on the page. Alyssa looked at it and nearly choked.
"There's a dress code? You mean I have to wear a dress and everything?" She snarled, not at all pleased with the idea. Alyssa could indeed be classified a tomboy on the outside, and these sorts of formal functions were not exactly her cup of tea. "I won't do it. Besides, we can't afford fancy clothes like that."
"You leave the dress code to me. Nick's idea, dare I utter the words, is a good one. If anyone will know something about Xel'Zerpi, it will be Mayor Muto and the dignitaries at the ball. You won't find them giving you falsified information, and I do believe I might be able to schedule a private talk with the mayor, as well. We are rather well acquainted, if I do say so myself."
"So it's agreed, then?" Mark asked with a slight smile on his face. He was always an up-and-comer, and going to a ball with the intent of meeting the mayor was a grand idea in his mind. Alyssa simply sighed, snatching the advertisement for herself. Shaking her head and closing her eyes, the young maiden simply chuckled. She slapped the magazine back on the table and stood up, moving over to her bed.
"I won't like it, but… we're off to the ball!"
