Marik continued to gaze in disbelief at the sight. It wasn't on auto pilot, but still it was operating naturally. It was unheard of!
Ishizu, who was tending to Rishid, looked up and saw Marik's rigid form standing there in the doorway. "What is it, brother?" she asked.
"There isn't anyone out there!!" Marik replied, spooked.
Rishid gazed up at him. "Perhaps they bailed out," he suggested.
Marik shook his head, explaining how it wasn't on auto pilot and yet seemed to be in working order. "I'm going to try taking control of it myself," he growled. Without waiting for a response from his siblings, he entered the cockpit and went to sit down to do exactly that.
Instead he felt an invisible hand grab him around the throat and lift him into the air.
"Unhand me!!!" he screamed, flailing about helplessly.
In an instant Ishizu and Rishid were at his side, struggling to assist him in getting free.
"Release my brother!" Ishizu ordered, her eyes narrowed in anger.
A maniacal laugh was the only reply and then Marik was thrown against poor, weakened Rishid, sending them both to the floor.
Marik coughed, gasping for breath, and then quickly moved off of Rishid's lap, hoping his brother hadn't been hurt.
Rishid hadn't been; he was only stunned by all of this and quickly pulled Marik close to him protectively. "What is the meaning of this?!" he demanded.
"Why must you torment us this way?!" Ishizu added, relieved that at least her brothers were alright. "What have we done to you?! Who are you??!"
"Oh, you don't know me," was the reply. "I'm just known to cause trouble for anyone I please."
Marik didn't look happy. "Then there's not even a reason for this madness?!"
"There may be," the voice said. "But I don't think I'll tell you."
"At least tell us where you plan to take us!" Ishizu retorted.
"Oh, we'll be there soon enough. Just sit back and enjoy the ride!"
Marik glared at the air. "It seems we don't have any choice," he muttered. He had considered trying to have everyone jump out of the plane incase there were plans to crash it, but that idea had been abolished upon not being able to find any parachutes. So he supposed all they could really do was trust that this plane wouldn't crash . . . and keep praying for safety.
****
Bernard stared at Yugi with wild eyes, as if pleading for him or someone to remove the gag in his mouth.
"Man, what the heck's this creep doin' tied up in here?!" Joey said in distaste.
Yugi carefully removed the gag that had been silencing the younger boy but made no move to undo the ropes. "Explain yourself!" he cried.
Bernard's expression turned angry. "What's to explain?!" he snapped. "I'm tied up in here!!! That Joey guy said it all!"
"Yeah? Well, you deserve it after what you did to Rishid!" Mokuba said hotly.
Bernard blinked. "Rishid?! What'd I ever do to him??!"
"Don't play that game with us!" Joey said in irritation. "Man, you know exactly what you did to him! He's still weak after it, and you know how hard it is to weaken that guy!"
"I don't think he does know, Joey," Bakura exclaimed.
"What??!!" Joey glared at the British boy. "That's impossible!"
"Maybe not," Bakura said, shaking his head and causing his silvery hair to fly about. "Perhaps that vampyre disguised himself as Bernard, hoping to fool us!"
"VAMPYRE?!" Bernard gasped, his eyes bugging out.
"We might tell you about it," Tristan said slowly, "if you tell us what you remember!"
Bernard struggled against the ropes, but he could tell they weren't going to untie him unless he cooperated. "Fine!" he grumbled. "Elsa and me were looking for clues to how Bruce could be connected with everything when we got separated. Then I got gassed and woke up here. End of story!"
"I don't know, guys," Tristan said, shaking his head. "Do you believe him?!"
"I know one way to find out!" Joey yelled, suddenly forcing Bernard's mouth open and staring to see if the fangs were there. Téa looked at him with disgust.
After a minute Joey leaned back, annoyance and confusion in his eyes. "No fangs," he reported.
"Of course there's no fangs!" Bernard grumped. "I'm no vampyre!!!"
Yugi sighed. "Well . . ." He shook his head. "We'll take your word for it." With that he began to remove the ropes.
"Thanks," Bernard muttered, rubbing his sore wrists. "What is this place anyway?!"
"An airplane graveyard," Joey declared.
"It looks that way," Yugi agreed, "but there may be some life yet. Let's go to the control tower and see if we can find anything there!"
The others, though wary, all agreed and soon the group headed inside the rickety tower.
"This certainly is deserted," Bakura said uneasily, looking around the lobby.
"Let's climb the stairs to where all the actual controls are," Tristan suggested. "Maybe there'll be something up there!" The others agreed and soon were at the top.
"I don't think anyone's been up here for at least ten years," Téa remarked, narrowing her eyes.
"Merow," Oreo announced from where she was pawing through a desk.
"Find anything?" Joey asked idly.
In response the kitty nudged a paper toward him and meowed again.
"Hey, it's that same list from the station!" Téa cried, staring at it.
"We've gotta be on the right track then!" Mokuba chirped.
"Perhaps you are!" an eerie voice cackled.
Everyone looked around in shock, trying to find the source. It seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
"Don't be a coward!" Yami Bakura snarled. "Come out of the shadows and reveal your identity!!" He, for one, had had quite enough of nonsense for ten thousand lifetimes.
"You would like that, wouldn't you?" the voice came back.
Seto slammed his hand on the desk. "You've been messing with us for long enough!" he growled.
"That's right!" Mokuba said indignantly. "Look at everything you've done to poor Marik and his family!! What is it with you guys?! What are you after??!"
"Oh poor Marik," the voice repeated mockingly. "It's too bad he has something we want."
"Yeah? And what's that?!" Téa demanded. "The Millennium Rod?!"
"Very astute of you, my dear," the voice laughed.
"WHAT SORT OF RACKET HAVE YOU BEEN OPERATING IN MY STUDIO??!!!!" Bruce screamed. "I ORDER YOU TO COME OUT THIS MINUTE!!!"
"I don't think so," was the response. "Where would be the fun in that?"
"At least tell us who you are!" Yugi cried.
"You don't know me," the voice said smoothly. "I believe you do know a friend of mine, though, don't you? Franceska?"
"Then she *is* behind all of this!" Téa fumed.
"Oh yes, very much so!" There was a deadly pause. "And none of you pathetic fools will ever make it back downstairs!"
"What do you mean?!" Yami Yugi said angrily.
"In exactly five minutes, the bottom of this tower is going to collapse," comes the self-satisfied, smirking answer. "And you'll have nowhere to go in this little place up here—since the door has just been locked—so you'll go down. And none of you will survive that plunge!"
****
The plane jerked violently and Ishizu had to steady herself on a stack of crates. Rishid, still weak, was sitting on the floor. Marik, worried about his well-being, was sitting right next to him.
Marik had tried several more times to get into the cockpit, but each time he had been accosted by the unknown force. He had even tried using the Millennium Rod, but it hadn't seemed to have done any good. So with an angry sigh he had resigned himself to the face that there was nothing he could do at the moment. But the instant the plane stopped, he vowed, he would get to the bottom of this.
Ishizu glanced out the window. "We seem to be approaching a deserted airport," she announced with a frown.
"Oh joy," Marik muttered, raising himself up to look out.
"Within five minutes, your friends in the observation tower will all perish," the voice told them.
"WHAT??!" Marik sprang to his feet, fire in his eyes. "What have you done?!"
"Oh, I didn't do that. One of my enemies set it up. Feel free to try rescuing them if you think you can. Now I relinquish control of the plane to you." With that the Ishtars could feel the presence leave.
Instantly Marik dove for the controls to keep the plane on a level course. "We have to do something," he said, focusing his attention on the control tower ahead of them. "If we could just get them all here into the airplane. . . ."
"Perhaps we can!" Ishizu exclaimed, looking around and producing a rope ladder. "They could all climb up with this."
"Try the radio," Rishid suggested. "See if you can make contact with them." Slowly he pulled himself up, ignoring the pain.
Marik nodded and put the headset on. "Hello?" he called. "Domino Heights Airport?"
In the control tower, Joey leaped a mile into the air. "What the heck?!" he yelled. "Another voice comin' outta nowhere??!"
"No, Joey!" Serenity told him. "It's coming from the radio this time—and it's Marik!!" Quickly she ran over and snatched the microphone. "Marik!! What's going on??!" She was immensely terrified about everything that the voice had just said, but she was trying desperately to be strong.
"We're in this plane just outside!" Marik told her. "I think we can get all of you out, but we're going to have to hurry. Is that window unlocked?"
Quickly Bakura, Yami Yugi, and Téa ran over to inspect it. "It's locked!" Bakura said in despair, not that he hadn't expected it.
"Find something to break it with!" Rishid called. "We will come as close as we can and let the rope ladder down."
"Man, what are we gonna find to break it with?!" Joey yelled.
Without answering, Seto calmly smashed it all in with his briefcase.
It wasn't long before everyone was trying to climb up onto the ladder and into the plane. There were quite a few tense moments—including Téa, Serenity, and Mokuba all nearly falling off the ladder—but then they were all safe and sound inside the plane.
"Thank goodness!" Ishizu whispered when the tower crashed to the ground barely ten seconds later.
"Whoa, man, that was too close!!" Joey yelled.
Serenity clung to him, obviously having the same thoughts. "Why are they trying to kill us?!" she said angrily.
"Some people are like that," Tristan sighed, wanting to clobber whoever was responsible.
The radio in the cockpit crackled to life. "Very good," the voice from the tower cackled. "You managed to rescue every one of those fools—even the cat!"
Oreo hissed at being called a fool.
Marik narrowed his eyes. "What sort of twisted game is this?!" he demanded.
"Unfortunately, not a game. You disrupted my plans!! And you will all suffer greatly for that!!!" Before anyone could answer, the connection was broken off.
"What's that up ahead?!" Téa gasped.
"It's some kinda weird funnel," Joey said.
"Not just a funnel!" Marik replied, grabbing at the control frantically. "A tornado!!! And we're being dragged toward it!!!"
Ishizu, who was tending to Rishid, looked up and saw Marik's rigid form standing there in the doorway. "What is it, brother?" she asked.
"There isn't anyone out there!!" Marik replied, spooked.
Rishid gazed up at him. "Perhaps they bailed out," he suggested.
Marik shook his head, explaining how it wasn't on auto pilot and yet seemed to be in working order. "I'm going to try taking control of it myself," he growled. Without waiting for a response from his siblings, he entered the cockpit and went to sit down to do exactly that.
Instead he felt an invisible hand grab him around the throat and lift him into the air.
"Unhand me!!!" he screamed, flailing about helplessly.
In an instant Ishizu and Rishid were at his side, struggling to assist him in getting free.
"Release my brother!" Ishizu ordered, her eyes narrowed in anger.
A maniacal laugh was the only reply and then Marik was thrown against poor, weakened Rishid, sending them both to the floor.
Marik coughed, gasping for breath, and then quickly moved off of Rishid's lap, hoping his brother hadn't been hurt.
Rishid hadn't been; he was only stunned by all of this and quickly pulled Marik close to him protectively. "What is the meaning of this?!" he demanded.
"Why must you torment us this way?!" Ishizu added, relieved that at least her brothers were alright. "What have we done to you?! Who are you??!"
"Oh, you don't know me," was the reply. "I'm just known to cause trouble for anyone I please."
Marik didn't look happy. "Then there's not even a reason for this madness?!"
"There may be," the voice said. "But I don't think I'll tell you."
"At least tell us where you plan to take us!" Ishizu retorted.
"Oh, we'll be there soon enough. Just sit back and enjoy the ride!"
Marik glared at the air. "It seems we don't have any choice," he muttered. He had considered trying to have everyone jump out of the plane incase there were plans to crash it, but that idea had been abolished upon not being able to find any parachutes. So he supposed all they could really do was trust that this plane wouldn't crash . . . and keep praying for safety.
****
Bernard stared at Yugi with wild eyes, as if pleading for him or someone to remove the gag in his mouth.
"Man, what the heck's this creep doin' tied up in here?!" Joey said in distaste.
Yugi carefully removed the gag that had been silencing the younger boy but made no move to undo the ropes. "Explain yourself!" he cried.
Bernard's expression turned angry. "What's to explain?!" he snapped. "I'm tied up in here!!! That Joey guy said it all!"
"Yeah? Well, you deserve it after what you did to Rishid!" Mokuba said hotly.
Bernard blinked. "Rishid?! What'd I ever do to him??!"
"Don't play that game with us!" Joey said in irritation. "Man, you know exactly what you did to him! He's still weak after it, and you know how hard it is to weaken that guy!"
"I don't think he does know, Joey," Bakura exclaimed.
"What??!!" Joey glared at the British boy. "That's impossible!"
"Maybe not," Bakura said, shaking his head and causing his silvery hair to fly about. "Perhaps that vampyre disguised himself as Bernard, hoping to fool us!"
"VAMPYRE?!" Bernard gasped, his eyes bugging out.
"We might tell you about it," Tristan said slowly, "if you tell us what you remember!"
Bernard struggled against the ropes, but he could tell they weren't going to untie him unless he cooperated. "Fine!" he grumbled. "Elsa and me were looking for clues to how Bruce could be connected with everything when we got separated. Then I got gassed and woke up here. End of story!"
"I don't know, guys," Tristan said, shaking his head. "Do you believe him?!"
"I know one way to find out!" Joey yelled, suddenly forcing Bernard's mouth open and staring to see if the fangs were there. Téa looked at him with disgust.
After a minute Joey leaned back, annoyance and confusion in his eyes. "No fangs," he reported.
"Of course there's no fangs!" Bernard grumped. "I'm no vampyre!!!"
Yugi sighed. "Well . . ." He shook his head. "We'll take your word for it." With that he began to remove the ropes.
"Thanks," Bernard muttered, rubbing his sore wrists. "What is this place anyway?!"
"An airplane graveyard," Joey declared.
"It looks that way," Yugi agreed, "but there may be some life yet. Let's go to the control tower and see if we can find anything there!"
The others, though wary, all agreed and soon the group headed inside the rickety tower.
"This certainly is deserted," Bakura said uneasily, looking around the lobby.
"Let's climb the stairs to where all the actual controls are," Tristan suggested. "Maybe there'll be something up there!" The others agreed and soon were at the top.
"I don't think anyone's been up here for at least ten years," Téa remarked, narrowing her eyes.
"Merow," Oreo announced from where she was pawing through a desk.
"Find anything?" Joey asked idly.
In response the kitty nudged a paper toward him and meowed again.
"Hey, it's that same list from the station!" Téa cried, staring at it.
"We've gotta be on the right track then!" Mokuba chirped.
"Perhaps you are!" an eerie voice cackled.
Everyone looked around in shock, trying to find the source. It seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
"Don't be a coward!" Yami Bakura snarled. "Come out of the shadows and reveal your identity!!" He, for one, had had quite enough of nonsense for ten thousand lifetimes.
"You would like that, wouldn't you?" the voice came back.
Seto slammed his hand on the desk. "You've been messing with us for long enough!" he growled.
"That's right!" Mokuba said indignantly. "Look at everything you've done to poor Marik and his family!! What is it with you guys?! What are you after??!"
"Oh poor Marik," the voice repeated mockingly. "It's too bad he has something we want."
"Yeah? And what's that?!" Téa demanded. "The Millennium Rod?!"
"Very astute of you, my dear," the voice laughed.
"WHAT SORT OF RACKET HAVE YOU BEEN OPERATING IN MY STUDIO??!!!!" Bruce screamed. "I ORDER YOU TO COME OUT THIS MINUTE!!!"
"I don't think so," was the response. "Where would be the fun in that?"
"At least tell us who you are!" Yugi cried.
"You don't know me," the voice said smoothly. "I believe you do know a friend of mine, though, don't you? Franceska?"
"Then she *is* behind all of this!" Téa fumed.
"Oh yes, very much so!" There was a deadly pause. "And none of you pathetic fools will ever make it back downstairs!"
"What do you mean?!" Yami Yugi said angrily.
"In exactly five minutes, the bottom of this tower is going to collapse," comes the self-satisfied, smirking answer. "And you'll have nowhere to go in this little place up here—since the door has just been locked—so you'll go down. And none of you will survive that plunge!"
****
The plane jerked violently and Ishizu had to steady herself on a stack of crates. Rishid, still weak, was sitting on the floor. Marik, worried about his well-being, was sitting right next to him.
Marik had tried several more times to get into the cockpit, but each time he had been accosted by the unknown force. He had even tried using the Millennium Rod, but it hadn't seemed to have done any good. So with an angry sigh he had resigned himself to the face that there was nothing he could do at the moment. But the instant the plane stopped, he vowed, he would get to the bottom of this.
Ishizu glanced out the window. "We seem to be approaching a deserted airport," she announced with a frown.
"Oh joy," Marik muttered, raising himself up to look out.
"Within five minutes, your friends in the observation tower will all perish," the voice told them.
"WHAT??!" Marik sprang to his feet, fire in his eyes. "What have you done?!"
"Oh, I didn't do that. One of my enemies set it up. Feel free to try rescuing them if you think you can. Now I relinquish control of the plane to you." With that the Ishtars could feel the presence leave.
Instantly Marik dove for the controls to keep the plane on a level course. "We have to do something," he said, focusing his attention on the control tower ahead of them. "If we could just get them all here into the airplane. . . ."
"Perhaps we can!" Ishizu exclaimed, looking around and producing a rope ladder. "They could all climb up with this."
"Try the radio," Rishid suggested. "See if you can make contact with them." Slowly he pulled himself up, ignoring the pain.
Marik nodded and put the headset on. "Hello?" he called. "Domino Heights Airport?"
In the control tower, Joey leaped a mile into the air. "What the heck?!" he yelled. "Another voice comin' outta nowhere??!"
"No, Joey!" Serenity told him. "It's coming from the radio this time—and it's Marik!!" Quickly she ran over and snatched the microphone. "Marik!! What's going on??!" She was immensely terrified about everything that the voice had just said, but she was trying desperately to be strong.
"We're in this plane just outside!" Marik told her. "I think we can get all of you out, but we're going to have to hurry. Is that window unlocked?"
Quickly Bakura, Yami Yugi, and Téa ran over to inspect it. "It's locked!" Bakura said in despair, not that he hadn't expected it.
"Find something to break it with!" Rishid called. "We will come as close as we can and let the rope ladder down."
"Man, what are we gonna find to break it with?!" Joey yelled.
Without answering, Seto calmly smashed it all in with his briefcase.
It wasn't long before everyone was trying to climb up onto the ladder and into the plane. There were quite a few tense moments—including Téa, Serenity, and Mokuba all nearly falling off the ladder—but then they were all safe and sound inside the plane.
"Thank goodness!" Ishizu whispered when the tower crashed to the ground barely ten seconds later.
"Whoa, man, that was too close!!" Joey yelled.
Serenity clung to him, obviously having the same thoughts. "Why are they trying to kill us?!" she said angrily.
"Some people are like that," Tristan sighed, wanting to clobber whoever was responsible.
The radio in the cockpit crackled to life. "Very good," the voice from the tower cackled. "You managed to rescue every one of those fools—even the cat!"
Oreo hissed at being called a fool.
Marik narrowed his eyes. "What sort of twisted game is this?!" he demanded.
"Unfortunately, not a game. You disrupted my plans!! And you will all suffer greatly for that!!!" Before anyone could answer, the connection was broken off.
"What's that up ahead?!" Téa gasped.
"It's some kinda weird funnel," Joey said.
"Not just a funnel!" Marik replied, grabbing at the control frantically. "A tornado!!! And we're being dragged toward it!!!"