C.A.: Yeah! I'm back!
Flamed: Ra save me.
Pet: roar[Me too.]
C.A.: Oh shut up, Right no excuses for this being late since I'm sure your don't me wasting your time them so lets get on to thanking the reviewers. ^_^
Death Jester - Thanks for the information on the wingweaver. And you are giving me a big head with all your compliments, not that I'm complaining mind you. ^_~
Penny: Angel of Darkest Dreams. - This is going slowly because I have one HUGE writers block. It's starting to crumble away though so the pace shook pick up soon. As to what Hope is you'll have to wait until the end of the story.
TobyKikami - Thanks. ^_^ I couldn't resist putting that in.
Indigo Tantarian - Thanks, sorry I haven't commented on the Rants for a while, life's been getting in the way. -_- Having fun in summer camp?
ShadowFire - Your not the only one on writers block. _. I'll read DSR soon promise.
Yugifan10290 and Brittany - There are more new characters come soon too. Three guesses as to who they are. I'll be working on the Egg next chapter but hatching? He hasn't even been laid yet! ^_^ Harpy Lady can't wait for that part she gets to be really horrible and no one can say anything because she's in pain. (I'm guessing that laying an egg has to be a bit like having a baby right?)
Disclaimer: I own nothing shoo lawyers shoo!
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"Hold on!" Hope demded crossing her arms across her chest.
"What?" Carl asked.
"I thought if a monsters card was torn the monster died?"
"Usually yes, remember Whitey?"
"Yeah. He survived beacuse Solomon cared so much for him right?"
"Yes." Carl nodded smiling."If there is someone in this world that cares enough about a monster, even the distruction of that card will not kill it."
"But who cared that much about Harpylady's Brother?"
"Can't you guess?" Carl asked "Harpylady herself."
Hope blinked, not understanding."But she's just a monster too."
Carl shook his head. "Doesn't matter, she's in this world and even though she didn't know how much trouble he was in her love for him kept him alive when other monsters would have died."
"Oh."
"That is the least of their worries though."
Hope's blue eyes flashed with curosity."Why?"
"The pharaoh's title is going to be challnaged and no one with ties to the Shadow realm will be left untouched by the war of wills. Balttle lines will have to be drawn."
"Battle lines? A war of wills? What are you talking about?" Hope demanded.
"Battle City is coming."
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CHAPTER 14 - UNITED WE STAND
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Heart walked home the place was empty. Which was lucky for Lady and Itch, Heart was still in a very bad mood. She turned to the TV onto see that new student the girls had been drooling over duelling the Pharaoh, she watched a few moments, apparently Joey had lost an earlier game. Heart turned the TV off, she already knew that the Pharaoh would win. She went to the bathroom to have a shower...
HarpyLady's Brother knelt by the door to pick the lock only to have the door creak open when he lent against it. He walked in still holding his hand to his wound. He looked around, that magic card had walked in here, so where was she? He realised that he could hear water running, she must be bathing, damn it! He wanted to ask her where his sister was!
HarpyLady's Brother gasped when he felt something rough with spikes close around his throat. He felt someone against his back holding what must be a rose whip around his throat.
"Give me one good reason not to kill you." Twin voices whispered in his ear. Tightening the whip slightly "and talk fast."
HarpyLady's Brother opened his mouth but someone else spoke before he could.
"Heart? Ther?" Lady gasped standing in the still open doorway. "What's going on? Heart let him go. Ther How did you get here?"
Heart let go of Ther and backed off a couple of steps. Ther turned to see that she was dressed in a bathrobe, and her hair was wet.
"Ther is my brother Heart, it's okay he won't hurt us." Lady explained.
Heart looked from one to the other.
"I'll call Myst over." Heart said walking over to the phone.
"Why?" Lady asked.
"Because I don't think you want your brother dripping blood on the carpet." Heart said.
Lady looked down at her brother's feet where a few drops of blood had fallen.
"Heart can't you do anything?"
Heart blinked. "Me? I'm not a spellcaster."
"No but your a Change of Heart you must be able to do some kind of magic for him."
Heart sighed. "I can try I guess."
"It won't work, it's not a physical injury." Ther opened his hand to show the scraps of card that remained of his duel monster card. "I'm like this because the Empress Judge ripped my card up for helping you."
Lady gasped.
Heart frowned. "I have a really dumb idea. Ther, may I borrow your card?"
Ther shrugged. "It's doing me a fat lot of good in shape it's in."
Heart took the card parts and lay them out on the coffee table. She then walked over to the cabinet where all the junk was kept, she dug in there for a while before she found what she was looking for.
"Your not seriously going to tape my card together are you?" Ther asked.
Heart didn't answer, she sat back down with the tape and started to do just that.
When she had finished the card didn't look pretty. In fact it was barly reconsideable as a duel monster card at all, but Ther had stopped bleeding. However he was still in pain.
"Who would have though that would have worked." Lady smiled.
"I don't think it's a long-term solution." Ther muttered. "But thank you."
"You welcome. I'm pretty surprised that it worked myself. Maybe Myst or...or Chaos can come up with a better solusion."
"I'll call them tomorrow it's getting late now." Lady agreed.
Ther sat down. "So was all the fighting worth it? What's it like living in this world?"
Lady grinned. "Oh it's great, we're making a great little family."
Heart looked out of the window suddenly feeling out of place.
"Our family is getting bigger too." Lady added.
"What do you mean?" Ther asked.
Suddenly Heart stood up. Both Harpy's looked at her.
"Well...I guess I'll finish my shower then. Let you to catch up."
Lady and Ther blinked as how fast she left the room.
"You'd think she didn't like talking about families."
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Heart huffed as she entered the bathroom, the water was still running from when she had left it to see who had snuck into the house.
Lady was almost right. It wasn't that she didn't like talking about families. It was she didn't have a family to talk about in the first place, not really.
Her father had been taken away from her by the Ring and then her mother...she had gone to serve the ring too, not that her mother and her had gotten along anyway. Heart could do, almost anything her mother could do but her mother had always expected more, as if she had expected her to have some mystical power beyond that of other Change of Heart cards.
Heart shook her head and disrobed before stepping in the shower. I was never strong enough or fast enough, the only thing I had going for me was my lack of fear, well you don't grow up in the ring holders deck with out becoming...desensitised to some things, but there were other things I was scared of, she never even noticed how shy I was, how scared I was of getting close to someone only to have them taken away from me too...
Heart was shook out of her depressing musing when she heard a shout.
"WHAT! YOUR GOING TO BE A MOTHER?!"
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Neo had come home in a foul mood. Red and Itch were still playing on Red's new play station 2, when Red asked Neo if Itch could stay over Neo said as long as she stayed out of his way. He then walked of into the kitchen to think. He could hear Itch on the phone, she seem to be taking a long time too simply as lady if she could stay over. The little Dark Witch the walked up to Neo.
"Neo."
He sighed, he was struggling not to take his anger out on the girls. "Yes Itch?"
"Lady said that everyone has to talk tomorrow morning. She's already phoned the others."
"A meeting? Why?"
"She wouldn't say."
Neo opened his mouth again when the phone started ringing. "I'll get it Itch, you go back and play with Red."
Itch nodded and walked off. She looked over her shoulder. "Are you okay? Red wanted me to ask."
Neo felt a small smile grow on his face. "I'll be fine."
Neo picked up the phone was Itch left.
"Took you long enough Mr Archer."
Neo shook his head, it was his supervisor from Kaibacorp, this was all he needed."
"Sorry sir, I..."
"I don't want to hear it, Mr Kaiba had to go to some privet Museum exhibition. So if you want some overtime get her in half an hour."
"Yes sir." Neo replied as his supervisor hung up.
"Red, will you an Itch be okay alone for a couple of hours?" Neo called from the hall.
Red snorted. "Of course we will, we can look after ourselves you know."
Neo chuckled. Confidence was never going to be a problem for Red. "Okay, well there's money on the TV for pizza if you want it and I want you in bed before I get back right?"
"Okay."
Neo left locking the door behind him.
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The next morning all the monsters were at Black and Baby's cave. Those who had to go to school had skipped lessons, and those who had work had ether swapped shifts or had taken the day off, and since it wasn't needed in the privacy of the cave, all of the group were in their true duel monster's form.
Most of the meeting was everyone meeting Ther. Myst used her magic to dull some of the pain he was suffering. After that Ther told them the Empress Judge had followed them.
"How?" Celt asked.
"The same way we all did."
"But Exodia wouldn't let anyone though would he?" Neo asked. "Even if they were going to bring us back?"
Ther blinked looking at each of the group in turn. "You mean...you don't know?"
"Know what?" Magi asked leaning against Chaos's shoulder.
"Exodia no longer guards the portal to this world. His cards were damaged."
"He's dead?" Red asked.
"No, but only because Exodia is made of five cards not just one, what ever happened to him only three of his five cards were ruined."
"So..." Chaos spoke up. "Anyone can come though the portal, who's here so far?"
"I don't know, Empress Judge for sure, and Witty Phantom, and know there are others but I don't know who."
"That explains how Lord D got here."
Ther looked at Black wide eyed.
"Don't worry." Black bared his teeth in a grin. "I sent him packing."
"Well I wish one of us had good news, but I just have more bad." Neo muttered.
"What do you mean?" Celt asked.
"Kaibacorp is going to announce a duel monsters tournament tonight."
"So?" Magi asked. "It's not like any of us go to Kaiba land anyway?"
"He has a new kind of duel disk, this tournament is going to be called Battle City. The duels are going to be everywhere and anywhere. In the parks, the malls, the middle of the street..."
"Ther you've been in a duel using the holographic projectors haven't you?" Lady asked.
"Yes..." Ther asnswered not really seeing where his sister was heading with this question.
"Is it really you on the field? Can you see what's going on around the duel?"
Ther nodded.
"We can't stay then." Neo muttered. "All the monsters are on the Judges side, if they see us during the 'Battle City' they'll tell them where we are."
Baby Dragon made a scared noise and hid behind Black's tail.
"They already know we live in Domino." Celt pointed out.
"But they don't know what part." Neo argued. "What if there's a duel out side my flat?"
"Well that doesn't effect you." Black said snorting. "You're moving into a new apartment next w eek aren't you?"
"Battle City starts next week." Neo muttered.
"Then we have a week to decide what to do." Chaos remarked
"I think we should go, move to another city." Magi said.
"But...will we be able to find another cave like this? With the area nearby with enough Deer to support two dragons?" Black asked. Baby growled agreement from behind Black's tail. "It's easy enough for you who are able to pass as humans to relocate but we have to find a place we can hide with food we can hunt... Japan is a small island what if we can't find one?"
"As Magi said we have a week, We can look to see if we can find a suitable place to hide." Myst said calmly. "And then after thinking long and hard we can vote about whether to leave our new home or not."
"I don't need a week to decide, I'm staying."
Everyone turned his or her eyes to Heart.
"Heart?" Chaos asked.
"I will not leave Domino City." Heart elaborated. "This is my home, I have friends here. I have people I am not willing to say goodbye too."
"I have friends too, but people move all the time." Magi said. "We could Phone, or write."
"Just how close are you to your friends Magi? If you think phone calls and letters are enough, you can't be very close."
Magi shot a murderous look at Heart.
"We have friends too." Red said.
"Yeah, we made friends in school." Itch said. "I don't want to say goodbye."
"Not to mention your jobs?" Red asked. "You'll have to find knew jobs."
"We'll have to find new schools too." Itch added.
"Myst and Ther don't have jobs, and finding a new school is easy." Magi argued.
"They have a point about finding new jobs." Celt sighed.
"We have a week, I say we vote on it five day's from now, then we will have to days head start." Myst suggested. "We can't afford to argue over this. It's all of us or none to us, agreed?"
Celt didn't say anything, he just covered Myst's hand with his own and nodded.
"Agreed." Neo said looking at Red.
"Agreed." Red and Itch said together.
"Yeah. okay." Magi said, Baby Dragon nodded.
"Agreed."
"Of course." Chaos added.
"Agreed." Lady nodded
"I'll go with my sister."
Everyone looked at Heart.
"What about Dar and De?"
"I can contact them." Myst answered. "I'll inform them of what's going on."
"I see."
Heart stood and started to walk out of Black's cave.
"Heart?" Chaos called.
Heart paused. "I will not argue with your decision, but I will not leave."
Heart flew off the second she was out of the cave.
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POLL!!
That's right I'm holding a poll, as you know I have three new characters coming into this story, well I'm in two minds weather or not to make one of them gay, So I want your opinion, if you don't want him to be gay he won't be. So please review and let me know!