Tori the Hanyou: Hey! This is my first Yu-Gi-Oh fic; I kinda brainstormed
this last night, and I don't know what I'm gonna do after the first
chappie, so bear with me. When you're done with the first two chapters,
please review and tell me if I should keep going.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own YuGiOh...and I NEVER WILL! WAAAAHH!!!!
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Yu-Gi-Oh! Trapped in the Next Dimension Chapter 1: The Meet
One foggy day, a fourteen-year-old girl was walking down the street to school. She had dark-blonde hair with light-blonde highlights, and light brown eyes. Her ears picked up something behind her, someone running. She stared behind her with a stern glance, and saw another girl, about fifteen, running to catch up with her. She had short, brown hair and blue eyes. She calmed down; it was only her best friend, Tea.
"Tori! Hey! Sorry I'm late! I usually get up with the sun, but, seeing as there is no sun, I almost slept in! Isn't that funny?" asked the girl.
"Yeah, um, funny, Tea, ha ha," came Tori's response.
"Oh, come on, Tori, you gotta lighten up. It doesn't have anything to do with 'him', does it?" asked Tea, worried for her friend.
"Who cares? I sure as hell don't, and I would prefer that we don't talk about it," said Tori. They were silent as they walked. After a few blocks, Tea tried to bring up the subject again, but Tori didn't answer. Just then, they heard wheels, loud laughing, and hollering coming from behind them. Tori let out a growl as a car slowed down next to the girls.
"Hey, ladies, you want a ride?" came one of the boys in the front. Tori looked at him with disgust.
"No thanks, like my mom always said, never get in a car with strangers. Besides, you look pretty full already," said Tori.
"Aw, come on, Tori, they're offering us a ride . . ." started Tea.
"Walking's better for your health, thanks, but no thanks," stated Tori, as she continued walking.
"What about you?" asked the guy to Tea.
"Umm, I don't know, you guys do look pretty full," said Tea, looking after her best friend, wondering.
"Nonsense, you can sit on one of our laps," said the guy.
"Eww! I'm not doing that, you perverts! No way!" cried Tea. The guy opened the door and got out.
"What, you think we're not good enough for you? Get in the car!" stated the guy. He reached out and grabbed Tea's wrist.
"Help!" cried Tea as she struggled to get away from the guy. Down the street, Tori heard her friend's cry. Immediately, she flared up into instant fury. She turned around, and as her anger unleashed, so did the thing inside of her, transforming her. At superhuman speed, she shot back down the street to Tea. When she saw the guy trying to drag Tea into the car, she let out a roar like a jaguar and grabbed his wrist, her newly formed claws digging into his skin, wrenching his hand off of Tea.
"I believe she said, no," said Tori slowly, her voice as venomous as a rattlesnake. She curled her mouth into a snarl, and the guy saw her clearly. Her teeth had become fangs, her long, razor sharp claws on the ends of her fingers dug into his wrist. Her eyes had turned yellow, like a cat, and her ears had become pointed. With a mere flick of her wrist, she threw the guy back into the car and slammed the door shut. One of the other guys jumped into the driver's seat, and drove away as fast as he could. Tori turned around to check on Tea. Tea looked up sadly and saw her friend. As Tori's anger had been vented, she transformed back to normal. She helped Tea up. This wasn't the first time Tea had seen Tori like that. She had known about Tori's powers for a while. "You see why I hate guys?" asked Tori, "they're pigs, every last one of them. They think they can take us for granted, well they're wrong. Dead wrong," said Tori angrily. Tea sighed.
"That might be that some guys are pigs, Tori, and I agree, those guys were a good example, but not all of them are like that, Tori," she said.
"Let's go," said Tori, changing the subject yet again.
As they continued their walk, their other best friends, Serenity and Mai, drove up in Mai's car and offered them a ride. Mai wasn't really supposed to be driving, she was only fifteen, too, but not only did she look sixteen; she could get out of trouble easily, using her girl charm. Tea retold the story of what just happened to them while they were driving. They knew about Tori's powers, too. They got to school with fifteen minutes to spare. All of them were in the same classes. During math, Serenity passed a note around to each of her friends. It said:
Hey guys! I'm not doing anything after school, so what d'ya say we go check out that old mansion in the hills? Mai can drive us. Luv ya, Serenity
Everyone's answer was yes.
After school, everyone piled into Mai's sports car and headed for the hills. Tori smiled a little, letting her hair out of its ponytail and let it blow in the wind. Along the way, Serenity was babbling excitedly about the history of the house,
"It's supposed to be one of the oldest buildings in the Dominoe County. A rich family was said to live there, and they had all kinds of stuff happen there . . ."
"Hey, Serenity, no offense, but, don't you think we get enough history in Dr. Rominger's class?" asked Tori. Serenity blushed.
"Yeah, sorry. Got carried away, you know," she said.
They reached the house and parked in between some bushes and trees, just in case someone came along while they were inside. They wandered around the house, stepping on creaking floorboards and squealing when the boards groaned. As they were walking, Mai ran ahead, and stopped in front of a closet.
"Hey, girls, you think there's a skeleton in here?" she asked.
"Mai, maybe you shouldn't open that," said Tori.
"Lighten up, even if there isn't a skeleton in here, there might be something cool," said Mai. Tori sighed. Once Mai had an idea, there wasn't any stopping her. Mai opened the door and peered inside. "Hey, this looks like a walk-in closet! Cool! I see something in the back! Let's go look!" cried Mai. Tori followed Mai, and then came Tea, and then Serenity. The closet seemed to go back a few yards. Mai looked in the back. "Awww, it was only a clock. Let's go," said Mai. As the girls turned to leave, they heard something underneath them.
"Tell me that was you, Serenity," said Tea. Serenity shook her head, though it was hard to see in the dark. Tea tried to move, but her foot caught on something, and she threw her hand out, and it hit some sort of a button. Out of nowhere, the floor dropped down into a slant, and the girls screamed as they fell down a sort of slide. Tori looked up, and the floor above them closed, enveloping them in darkness as they slid down, down, down. Tori transformed her claws, and tried to dig them into the wall to stop her sliding, but the walls were made of slippery metal, the kind that they use on vet tables to keep the animals from getting up. They slid down farther, and finally landed on a hard stone floor in a heap. Tori was the first one up, eyes adjusting to the darkness, which didn't take long. There was some sort of machine on the other side of the room. Serenity was the next to see in the dark, and she stood up.
"Let's shed some light on the subject, shall we?" she asked, finding a large switch on the wall.
"Wait, Serenity, don't . . ." started Tori. Too late. Serenity flipped the switch, and Tori heard the sound of gears turning. They all looked at the machine, which was glowing with some purple light. It was pointed at them. The girls screamed again as the machine blasted them with the purple light. Tori was only able to read on the machine: 'Danger: Dimension Machine. Do Not Touch' before she felt herself being sucked into a portal that had appeared out of the purple light.
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Tori opened her eyes wearily, and blinked in the dying sunlight. Sunlight? She sat up, rubbing her head.
"Man, I feel like I got hit by a truck," she said, looking around. She saw mountains and hilly wilderness spread out as far as the eye could see. Forest surrounded them; they had landed in an enormous field right in the middle of it all. Serenity, Mai, and Tea were on the ground, too. Tori crawled over to Tea and shook her best friend. "Tea, wake up." Tea opened her eyes and sat up.
"Where are we?" she asked.
"Not sure," came the reply. They woke up the other two, and looked around.
"Looks like it's sunset," said Mai. Tori looked behind them.
"Hey, it's another mansion!" she said, pointing. They all looked. Sure enough, it was another humongous house, sitting in the middle of the field. The girls walked up to it. Tori stopped and looked behind her. The others did, too. "Is any of this real?" asked Tori.
"Who knows?" came a different voice. The girls spun around to see a boy leaning on the side of the front door. He had black hair that was up in a ponytail except for two bangs on either side of his face, with bright green eyes, and a die was hanging from his left ear. "Hi there, I'm Duke," said the boy, "what are your beautiful names?"
"Hey, Duke! Who's out there?" came another voice with an English accent from inside. Another boy, the same size as Duke, came to the door. He had shoulder-length white hair that he didn't put up, and he had brown eyes. "Who are they?" he asked in a hushed sort of voice.
"I was just asking that," said Duke. He turned to the girls. Tea decided to introduce them.
"Well, I'm Tea, this is Tori, she's Serenity, and that's Mai," she explained.
"What lovely names! Come on in, we're getting dinner ready," he said politely, gesturing them inside. Tori let out a low growl and backed away from both of them. Tea grabbed her arm and held her there.
"We'd love to, thank you," she said, walking into the house, dragging Tori behind her. Duke closed the front door. They were in a reddish-colored, dimly lit living room. Over in the corner Tea spotted another boy. It was hard to see him because of the low lighting. Tori saw him, too. The boy turned his head in her direction and looked straight into her eyes with a piercing gaze. Tori froze, puzzled. She had a strange feeling in her mind, like it was being peered into. She quickly broke the eye contact, angry. How dare he look into her thoughts like that! Suddenly, a tall boy with brown hair styled to make one point in the front came tearing into the room, holding something that looked like a wireless X-Box controller. After him came another boy, slightly shorter with messy blonde hair and brown eyes, who was yelling,
"Tristan! It's my turn to be Player 1!! Gimme that!" They flew around the room twice, over couches and chairs, throwing pillows at each other, and out again. The girls stood, staring and blinking.
"Was that a tornado, or a hurricane?" asked Mai. The 'tornado' soon came back. The boy called Tristan ran to the other side of the room, and was about to head into the kitchen when the blonde haired boy kicked a rolling footrest in his path. Tristan tripped over it and fell to the floor. The blonde pounced on him, wrestling for the controller. Duke cleared his throat loudly.
"Ahem!" The boys didn't hear him. "Hey, you chowder heads! We have guests here!" he yelled. The boys paused, turning their heads to look at the girls, who were looking at them strangely. Flustered, the boys quickly stood up, forgetting the controller automatically. "As I was saying," said Duke, "The tall one is Tristan, and the blonde is . . ."
"J-Joey?" came Serenity's voice. The girls turned to look at Serenity, and them back at the guy whose eyes were now wide open.
"Serenity!" he cried. Serenity ran to Joey and he gave her a big hug. Everyone could see Serenity was in tears.
"You two know each other?" asked Mai. Serenity nodded.
"He's my big brother. We got separated when our parents divorced, and I thought I'd never see him again," she said. (Serenity doesn't have an eye problem in this) Tea smiled. She loved family reunions. Tori turned her head away, sad for some reason. Joey let go of Serenity after a while, obvious words failing him.
"I suppose I should introduce the rest of us, now," said Duke, "this guy next to me," he gestured to the boy with white hair, "is Bakura. And that guy in the corner," he pointed. The boy gave a low growl, "is Yugi. Forgive him, he's a little on the dark side." Out of nowhere, a footrest flew at Duke, who just barely dodged it. "Let me rephrase that, he's really on the dark side." Yugi stalked out of the room, his eyes on Tori. When he came in the light, the girls could see he had spiked blonde hair with red tips and amethyst-colored eyes. (Okay, here's what's up. Yugi is not gonna be a little kid in this fic. He will be about 5'9, and he will be age 15, and he will look like Yami in the eye area, but he is NOT Yami. I will include Yami a little later.) Tori gave a little shudder after he left. No one noticed. "Anyways, you guys want a grand tour?" asked Duke, "or would you rather have dinner?"
"Tour," came the response. After they left the room, there came two thuds and more yelling as both Joey and Tristan dove for the game controller again. Serenity giggled as two blurs ran past the doorway, and they were gone again. Duke showed them the first floor first; there was a large dining room, the kitchen, a very large front hallway with marble flooring (about the size of a large backyard), and a room designed just for teenagers, with bean bag chairs, a flat-screen TV, the X-Box that was missing one controller, a soda bar, and a bunch of arcade games lined against the wall. Duke then took them upstairs.
"You girls might wanna stick near me. This entire second floor is designed like a maze. The only way to get to your room is to go through it. Me, Joey, Tristan, and Bakura chose rooms that were all in the same hallway so we can visit one another, but for some reason Yugi picked a room that's far into this maze, we couldn't find it unless we wanted to get lost in here for days. Plus, he's told us to stay out even if we do find it. There are two extra rooms in our hallway; you girls can stay in the bigger one," he explained. He led them into the maze, down hallways, and around corners. Tori tried to keep track. Left, right, right, forward, left, right . . .she couldn't do it, there were too many twists and turns. Duke finally led them into the hallway with about six doors, and showed them the last one. The girls looked inside. The room had four beds placed in each corner. "Well, what are you waiting for? Pick a corner," said Duke.
"Why?" asked Tori suspiciously.
"You'll see," came the answer. Tori walked to the bed near the large curtained picture window that looked out over the field behind the house, and the plain white bed magically became tiger-striped, with the velvety comforter Tori had always wanted. A fluffy, super-soft purple carpet appeared, replacing the wooden floor and extending out to the middle of the room, where it ended just at the very center of the room. The wall became bright green and extended out to the middle of the two adjacent walls, and on the ceiling, ending in the center of the room. Animal posters appeared, and a bunch of stuffed cats, lions, wolves, and killer whales appeared all over the corner, with a giant-size of each. The wooden bedside table became pink, with a pink fuzzy phone and a red lava lamp. Tori's eyes nearly popped out. This was her dream room! Tea walked to the corner next to hers, and her bed became blue-bubble patterned, and a blue bedside table, with pink walls and floors, the pink carpet extending out to meet Tori's purple one in the center. Dance posters appeared on her walls, and a teddy bear in a dance outfit appeared on the bed. Serenity walked to her corner on the other side of Tori's, and the whole corner became yellow, with sunflower and kitten posters on her walls. Her bed became sunflower and daisy printed, and stuffed kittens appeared on her bed. Mai went to her corner next to Serenity's and across from Tori's, and the wall became red, with a blue carpet, and an orange bed with pink polka dots, along with a red bedside table. Pictures of sports cars, swimming pools, and beaches appeared on her walls. Duke stood at the door, a smug look on his face. "As you might have found out, each corner goes with the room you've always wanted," he explained, "whenever you want something changed in your room, all you have to do is picture it. Pretty neat, huh?" The girls were lost for words. Duke walked into the middle of the room, right on the spot where the purple, pink, yellow, and blue carpets met. "The rooms also display a little of your personality. Tori, you're obviously an animal person, Tea's a dancer, Mai loves riches, and Serenity's a happy person." He left the girls to check out their new rooms. Tori walked over and sat down, leaning against her giant wolf plushy, which lay on its side. Tori snuggled up against its back.
"Is this stuff really real?" she asked. Serenity cuddled one of the kittens on her bed. Tea was looking at the outfit on her teddy bear, and Mai was staring at one of the beach posters.
"Feels pretty real to me," said Serenity. After exploring each other's corners, they went and found Duke in his room, playing a Gamecube. He paused his game and took them back through the maze and down the stairs.
"How do you girls like your room?" he asked.
"It's awesome," said Serenity.
"I have a question, though," said Tori. Duke looked behind him. "How does this stuff just appear? Where does it come from?" she asked. Duke sighed before answering.
"We really don't know, but we figure it's better not to ask questions. Seems a lot better that way," explained Duke. Tori thought hard. She didn't care if Duke didn't want answers to all of this, she did, and she was gonna find them out.
Duke led them into the kitchen for dinner, which happened to be macaroni and cheese, pizza, and salad. The girls served themselves, and sat down to eat. Bakura called the others in for dinner. Five minutes later, Joey and Tristan came in, and sat down. Tori glared as they sat down. Even though they seemed nice enough, she wasn't about to trust them. All was quiet for a few moments, until Joey coughed something that sounded like,
"I won." He cleared his throat. Tristan glared at him, and a heated argument ensued about just who had gotten the higher score on Unreal Championships. Tori perked up when they mentioned the name. She hurriedly finished her plate, and got out just before the yelling began.
She hurried into the teenager room, and saw that the X-Box had both of its controllers back again. She walked over and sat down, looking up at the familiar start screen. She picked up the controller, pressed Start, chose her favorite team, and favorite character, and, of course, the hardest level available. 'Man, they haven't even gotten past the fifth level, they sure haven't gotten far,' she noted, pressing the button to begin. She had the red flag in about thirty seconds, and blasted the red team members as fast as possible; happy she'd gotten the team members that would support her. She raced back to the blue base, placing the flag. She repeated this four more times, beating the level easily. When the high score list was shown, she'd beaten every score. Sighing, she was about to get up when she heard a voice.
"H-how, how did you . . ." She spun around to see Joey's stupefied face staring at her over the couch. Tristan's face came up, just as dumbfounded.
"You guys have got to stop competing with each other and try to compete with the actual game," she said, smiling. The boys continued to stare.
"But, you just beat our high score in less than five minutes! How the hell did you . . .you have a brother or something?" asked Joey. At this, Tori went unusually quiet, and she put her head down, her bangs covering her eyes. She got up quietly and left the room, without another word. She walked past Duke and her friends, and Tea could swear she saw tears on Tori's face. She knew it was better to leave Tori alone. Duke was a little miffed.
"What'd you guys say to her? She's crying," he said.
"We have no idea, all we asked was if she had a brother, and she went quiet," said Joey.
"Oh, no . . ." said Tea. Bakura walked in.
"What's the matter? I just saw Tori run out the back door," he said. Tea, Mai, and Serenity looked at each other, eyes full of pain. They didn't want to have to go through this story, especially to people they just met, but the boys seemed nice enough, and they had a right to know. Tea sighed, and sat down. Mai and Serenity sat down on either side of her. Seeing that they were in for a long story, the boys sat down, too.
"Well, it started when she met this guy. Tori used to have one of the happiest and liveliest spirits of anyone we knew. She really liked him a lot, and he liked her, so they started going out. They'd been dating for a few months, when Tori noticed the guy was starting to become sort of possessive of her, as well as a control freak. He wouldn't let her leave him for more than two days, and if she did, he threatened to kill her family. She could have easily prevented this, except for one major problem," she paused. The boys listened, intent on hearing more, "he has, oh, man, you're so not gonna believe me," she said. The boys didn't seem to care.
"Come on, what does he have?" asked Tristan.
"He has super powers," said Tea. The boys looked at each other, confused, and looked from face to face, deciding whether or not the story was true. "I know, it sounds really stupid, but he does, he could read minds, he had shadow powers of some kind, I don't know them, but Tori was in absolute shock after 'it' happened, so she couldn't explain it fully, and we don't want her to have to recall it . . ."
"Wait, wait, what's this 'it' that we're talking about?" asked Joey. Serenity took over.
"She has powers, too," said Serenity, "and she didn't take the threat too lightly. She became angry, furious that he would dare threaten her, and she went on a trip with her family. She knew it would make him angry, but she didn't know about his powers, and thought she could easily take him, mistaking him for a normal person. She was wrong, obviously. She took him on, soon finding out about his powers in the fight. From what we heard, she attacked him with her own powers, and he revealed his, which proved to be too great for her. She told us what he said, "You've defied me, disobeyed me, and tried to attack me, and now I'll fulfill my part," and with that, he blasted Tori with his own powers, and, and . . ." Serenity couldn't finish. She put a hand over her mouth, tears forming in her eyes. Mai finished it.
"He killed them, her family. He killed her mom, dad, and sister, and brought her brother and forced her to watch him kill him. I'll never forget the look on Tori's face when we found her. Her heart and spirit had been ripped out, torn to shreds, along with her family." Mai fell silent, looking down. The boys sat there, looking sad. "That's why she hates guys, all of them. She refuses to go out with anyone else, and she's now a princess of darkness. She's become antisocial, gloomy, and now shows a hatred for the world. She cared for her big brother more than anyone, and her boyfriend knew that, from going out with her for so long. He'd tortured her with the viewing of her brother's death. That was the worst pain that she could ever go through," Mai concluded. Unknown to them, a dark figure stood outside the door, listening. As Mai finished and all went quiet, save for Tea and Serenity's sobs, the figure slunk away with the stealth of a cat.
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Tori the Hanyou: Well, how'd you like that? I dunno if you'd call that a cliffhanger, but it does leave some suspense, don't ya think? Anywho, the second chapter's coming right up! Don't worry; it's not as sad as this one. It gets loads better as the story goes on. I just had to explain why Tori acts the way she does. It gets pretty fun in the next chappie, especially for you soccer lovers! Hang in there!
Coming up: Chapter 2: The Wild Crazy Power filled Soccer Game
DISCLAIMER: I don't own YuGiOh...and I NEVER WILL! WAAAAHH!!!!
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Yu-Gi-Oh! Trapped in the Next Dimension Chapter 1: The Meet
One foggy day, a fourteen-year-old girl was walking down the street to school. She had dark-blonde hair with light-blonde highlights, and light brown eyes. Her ears picked up something behind her, someone running. She stared behind her with a stern glance, and saw another girl, about fifteen, running to catch up with her. She had short, brown hair and blue eyes. She calmed down; it was only her best friend, Tea.
"Tori! Hey! Sorry I'm late! I usually get up with the sun, but, seeing as there is no sun, I almost slept in! Isn't that funny?" asked the girl.
"Yeah, um, funny, Tea, ha ha," came Tori's response.
"Oh, come on, Tori, you gotta lighten up. It doesn't have anything to do with 'him', does it?" asked Tea, worried for her friend.
"Who cares? I sure as hell don't, and I would prefer that we don't talk about it," said Tori. They were silent as they walked. After a few blocks, Tea tried to bring up the subject again, but Tori didn't answer. Just then, they heard wheels, loud laughing, and hollering coming from behind them. Tori let out a growl as a car slowed down next to the girls.
"Hey, ladies, you want a ride?" came one of the boys in the front. Tori looked at him with disgust.
"No thanks, like my mom always said, never get in a car with strangers. Besides, you look pretty full already," said Tori.
"Aw, come on, Tori, they're offering us a ride . . ." started Tea.
"Walking's better for your health, thanks, but no thanks," stated Tori, as she continued walking.
"What about you?" asked the guy to Tea.
"Umm, I don't know, you guys do look pretty full," said Tea, looking after her best friend, wondering.
"Nonsense, you can sit on one of our laps," said the guy.
"Eww! I'm not doing that, you perverts! No way!" cried Tea. The guy opened the door and got out.
"What, you think we're not good enough for you? Get in the car!" stated the guy. He reached out and grabbed Tea's wrist.
"Help!" cried Tea as she struggled to get away from the guy. Down the street, Tori heard her friend's cry. Immediately, she flared up into instant fury. She turned around, and as her anger unleashed, so did the thing inside of her, transforming her. At superhuman speed, she shot back down the street to Tea. When she saw the guy trying to drag Tea into the car, she let out a roar like a jaguar and grabbed his wrist, her newly formed claws digging into his skin, wrenching his hand off of Tea.
"I believe she said, no," said Tori slowly, her voice as venomous as a rattlesnake. She curled her mouth into a snarl, and the guy saw her clearly. Her teeth had become fangs, her long, razor sharp claws on the ends of her fingers dug into his wrist. Her eyes had turned yellow, like a cat, and her ears had become pointed. With a mere flick of her wrist, she threw the guy back into the car and slammed the door shut. One of the other guys jumped into the driver's seat, and drove away as fast as he could. Tori turned around to check on Tea. Tea looked up sadly and saw her friend. As Tori's anger had been vented, she transformed back to normal. She helped Tea up. This wasn't the first time Tea had seen Tori like that. She had known about Tori's powers for a while. "You see why I hate guys?" asked Tori, "they're pigs, every last one of them. They think they can take us for granted, well they're wrong. Dead wrong," said Tori angrily. Tea sighed.
"That might be that some guys are pigs, Tori, and I agree, those guys were a good example, but not all of them are like that, Tori," she said.
"Let's go," said Tori, changing the subject yet again.
As they continued their walk, their other best friends, Serenity and Mai, drove up in Mai's car and offered them a ride. Mai wasn't really supposed to be driving, she was only fifteen, too, but not only did she look sixteen; she could get out of trouble easily, using her girl charm. Tea retold the story of what just happened to them while they were driving. They knew about Tori's powers, too. They got to school with fifteen minutes to spare. All of them were in the same classes. During math, Serenity passed a note around to each of her friends. It said:
Hey guys! I'm not doing anything after school, so what d'ya say we go check out that old mansion in the hills? Mai can drive us. Luv ya, Serenity
Everyone's answer was yes.
After school, everyone piled into Mai's sports car and headed for the hills. Tori smiled a little, letting her hair out of its ponytail and let it blow in the wind. Along the way, Serenity was babbling excitedly about the history of the house,
"It's supposed to be one of the oldest buildings in the Dominoe County. A rich family was said to live there, and they had all kinds of stuff happen there . . ."
"Hey, Serenity, no offense, but, don't you think we get enough history in Dr. Rominger's class?" asked Tori. Serenity blushed.
"Yeah, sorry. Got carried away, you know," she said.
They reached the house and parked in between some bushes and trees, just in case someone came along while they were inside. They wandered around the house, stepping on creaking floorboards and squealing when the boards groaned. As they were walking, Mai ran ahead, and stopped in front of a closet.
"Hey, girls, you think there's a skeleton in here?" she asked.
"Mai, maybe you shouldn't open that," said Tori.
"Lighten up, even if there isn't a skeleton in here, there might be something cool," said Mai. Tori sighed. Once Mai had an idea, there wasn't any stopping her. Mai opened the door and peered inside. "Hey, this looks like a walk-in closet! Cool! I see something in the back! Let's go look!" cried Mai. Tori followed Mai, and then came Tea, and then Serenity. The closet seemed to go back a few yards. Mai looked in the back. "Awww, it was only a clock. Let's go," said Mai. As the girls turned to leave, they heard something underneath them.
"Tell me that was you, Serenity," said Tea. Serenity shook her head, though it was hard to see in the dark. Tea tried to move, but her foot caught on something, and she threw her hand out, and it hit some sort of a button. Out of nowhere, the floor dropped down into a slant, and the girls screamed as they fell down a sort of slide. Tori looked up, and the floor above them closed, enveloping them in darkness as they slid down, down, down. Tori transformed her claws, and tried to dig them into the wall to stop her sliding, but the walls were made of slippery metal, the kind that they use on vet tables to keep the animals from getting up. They slid down farther, and finally landed on a hard stone floor in a heap. Tori was the first one up, eyes adjusting to the darkness, which didn't take long. There was some sort of machine on the other side of the room. Serenity was the next to see in the dark, and she stood up.
"Let's shed some light on the subject, shall we?" she asked, finding a large switch on the wall.
"Wait, Serenity, don't . . ." started Tori. Too late. Serenity flipped the switch, and Tori heard the sound of gears turning. They all looked at the machine, which was glowing with some purple light. It was pointed at them. The girls screamed again as the machine blasted them with the purple light. Tori was only able to read on the machine: 'Danger: Dimension Machine. Do Not Touch' before she felt herself being sucked into a portal that had appeared out of the purple light.
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Tori opened her eyes wearily, and blinked in the dying sunlight. Sunlight? She sat up, rubbing her head.
"Man, I feel like I got hit by a truck," she said, looking around. She saw mountains and hilly wilderness spread out as far as the eye could see. Forest surrounded them; they had landed in an enormous field right in the middle of it all. Serenity, Mai, and Tea were on the ground, too. Tori crawled over to Tea and shook her best friend. "Tea, wake up." Tea opened her eyes and sat up.
"Where are we?" she asked.
"Not sure," came the reply. They woke up the other two, and looked around.
"Looks like it's sunset," said Mai. Tori looked behind them.
"Hey, it's another mansion!" she said, pointing. They all looked. Sure enough, it was another humongous house, sitting in the middle of the field. The girls walked up to it. Tori stopped and looked behind her. The others did, too. "Is any of this real?" asked Tori.
"Who knows?" came a different voice. The girls spun around to see a boy leaning on the side of the front door. He had black hair that was up in a ponytail except for two bangs on either side of his face, with bright green eyes, and a die was hanging from his left ear. "Hi there, I'm Duke," said the boy, "what are your beautiful names?"
"Hey, Duke! Who's out there?" came another voice with an English accent from inside. Another boy, the same size as Duke, came to the door. He had shoulder-length white hair that he didn't put up, and he had brown eyes. "Who are they?" he asked in a hushed sort of voice.
"I was just asking that," said Duke. He turned to the girls. Tea decided to introduce them.
"Well, I'm Tea, this is Tori, she's Serenity, and that's Mai," she explained.
"What lovely names! Come on in, we're getting dinner ready," he said politely, gesturing them inside. Tori let out a low growl and backed away from both of them. Tea grabbed her arm and held her there.
"We'd love to, thank you," she said, walking into the house, dragging Tori behind her. Duke closed the front door. They were in a reddish-colored, dimly lit living room. Over in the corner Tea spotted another boy. It was hard to see him because of the low lighting. Tori saw him, too. The boy turned his head in her direction and looked straight into her eyes with a piercing gaze. Tori froze, puzzled. She had a strange feeling in her mind, like it was being peered into. She quickly broke the eye contact, angry. How dare he look into her thoughts like that! Suddenly, a tall boy with brown hair styled to make one point in the front came tearing into the room, holding something that looked like a wireless X-Box controller. After him came another boy, slightly shorter with messy blonde hair and brown eyes, who was yelling,
"Tristan! It's my turn to be Player 1!! Gimme that!" They flew around the room twice, over couches and chairs, throwing pillows at each other, and out again. The girls stood, staring and blinking.
"Was that a tornado, or a hurricane?" asked Mai. The 'tornado' soon came back. The boy called Tristan ran to the other side of the room, and was about to head into the kitchen when the blonde haired boy kicked a rolling footrest in his path. Tristan tripped over it and fell to the floor. The blonde pounced on him, wrestling for the controller. Duke cleared his throat loudly.
"Ahem!" The boys didn't hear him. "Hey, you chowder heads! We have guests here!" he yelled. The boys paused, turning their heads to look at the girls, who were looking at them strangely. Flustered, the boys quickly stood up, forgetting the controller automatically. "As I was saying," said Duke, "The tall one is Tristan, and the blonde is . . ."
"J-Joey?" came Serenity's voice. The girls turned to look at Serenity, and them back at the guy whose eyes were now wide open.
"Serenity!" he cried. Serenity ran to Joey and he gave her a big hug. Everyone could see Serenity was in tears.
"You two know each other?" asked Mai. Serenity nodded.
"He's my big brother. We got separated when our parents divorced, and I thought I'd never see him again," she said. (Serenity doesn't have an eye problem in this) Tea smiled. She loved family reunions. Tori turned her head away, sad for some reason. Joey let go of Serenity after a while, obvious words failing him.
"I suppose I should introduce the rest of us, now," said Duke, "this guy next to me," he gestured to the boy with white hair, "is Bakura. And that guy in the corner," he pointed. The boy gave a low growl, "is Yugi. Forgive him, he's a little on the dark side." Out of nowhere, a footrest flew at Duke, who just barely dodged it. "Let me rephrase that, he's really on the dark side." Yugi stalked out of the room, his eyes on Tori. When he came in the light, the girls could see he had spiked blonde hair with red tips and amethyst-colored eyes. (Okay, here's what's up. Yugi is not gonna be a little kid in this fic. He will be about 5'9, and he will be age 15, and he will look like Yami in the eye area, but he is NOT Yami. I will include Yami a little later.) Tori gave a little shudder after he left. No one noticed. "Anyways, you guys want a grand tour?" asked Duke, "or would you rather have dinner?"
"Tour," came the response. After they left the room, there came two thuds and more yelling as both Joey and Tristan dove for the game controller again. Serenity giggled as two blurs ran past the doorway, and they were gone again. Duke showed them the first floor first; there was a large dining room, the kitchen, a very large front hallway with marble flooring (about the size of a large backyard), and a room designed just for teenagers, with bean bag chairs, a flat-screen TV, the X-Box that was missing one controller, a soda bar, and a bunch of arcade games lined against the wall. Duke then took them upstairs.
"You girls might wanna stick near me. This entire second floor is designed like a maze. The only way to get to your room is to go through it. Me, Joey, Tristan, and Bakura chose rooms that were all in the same hallway so we can visit one another, but for some reason Yugi picked a room that's far into this maze, we couldn't find it unless we wanted to get lost in here for days. Plus, he's told us to stay out even if we do find it. There are two extra rooms in our hallway; you girls can stay in the bigger one," he explained. He led them into the maze, down hallways, and around corners. Tori tried to keep track. Left, right, right, forward, left, right . . .she couldn't do it, there were too many twists and turns. Duke finally led them into the hallway with about six doors, and showed them the last one. The girls looked inside. The room had four beds placed in each corner. "Well, what are you waiting for? Pick a corner," said Duke.
"Why?" asked Tori suspiciously.
"You'll see," came the answer. Tori walked to the bed near the large curtained picture window that looked out over the field behind the house, and the plain white bed magically became tiger-striped, with the velvety comforter Tori had always wanted. A fluffy, super-soft purple carpet appeared, replacing the wooden floor and extending out to the middle of the room, where it ended just at the very center of the room. The wall became bright green and extended out to the middle of the two adjacent walls, and on the ceiling, ending in the center of the room. Animal posters appeared, and a bunch of stuffed cats, lions, wolves, and killer whales appeared all over the corner, with a giant-size of each. The wooden bedside table became pink, with a pink fuzzy phone and a red lava lamp. Tori's eyes nearly popped out. This was her dream room! Tea walked to the corner next to hers, and her bed became blue-bubble patterned, and a blue bedside table, with pink walls and floors, the pink carpet extending out to meet Tori's purple one in the center. Dance posters appeared on her walls, and a teddy bear in a dance outfit appeared on the bed. Serenity walked to her corner on the other side of Tori's, and the whole corner became yellow, with sunflower and kitten posters on her walls. Her bed became sunflower and daisy printed, and stuffed kittens appeared on her bed. Mai went to her corner next to Serenity's and across from Tori's, and the wall became red, with a blue carpet, and an orange bed with pink polka dots, along with a red bedside table. Pictures of sports cars, swimming pools, and beaches appeared on her walls. Duke stood at the door, a smug look on his face. "As you might have found out, each corner goes with the room you've always wanted," he explained, "whenever you want something changed in your room, all you have to do is picture it. Pretty neat, huh?" The girls were lost for words. Duke walked into the middle of the room, right on the spot where the purple, pink, yellow, and blue carpets met. "The rooms also display a little of your personality. Tori, you're obviously an animal person, Tea's a dancer, Mai loves riches, and Serenity's a happy person." He left the girls to check out their new rooms. Tori walked over and sat down, leaning against her giant wolf plushy, which lay on its side. Tori snuggled up against its back.
"Is this stuff really real?" she asked. Serenity cuddled one of the kittens on her bed. Tea was looking at the outfit on her teddy bear, and Mai was staring at one of the beach posters.
"Feels pretty real to me," said Serenity. After exploring each other's corners, they went and found Duke in his room, playing a Gamecube. He paused his game and took them back through the maze and down the stairs.
"How do you girls like your room?" he asked.
"It's awesome," said Serenity.
"I have a question, though," said Tori. Duke looked behind him. "How does this stuff just appear? Where does it come from?" she asked. Duke sighed before answering.
"We really don't know, but we figure it's better not to ask questions. Seems a lot better that way," explained Duke. Tori thought hard. She didn't care if Duke didn't want answers to all of this, she did, and she was gonna find them out.
Duke led them into the kitchen for dinner, which happened to be macaroni and cheese, pizza, and salad. The girls served themselves, and sat down to eat. Bakura called the others in for dinner. Five minutes later, Joey and Tristan came in, and sat down. Tori glared as they sat down. Even though they seemed nice enough, she wasn't about to trust them. All was quiet for a few moments, until Joey coughed something that sounded like,
"I won." He cleared his throat. Tristan glared at him, and a heated argument ensued about just who had gotten the higher score on Unreal Championships. Tori perked up when they mentioned the name. She hurriedly finished her plate, and got out just before the yelling began.
She hurried into the teenager room, and saw that the X-Box had both of its controllers back again. She walked over and sat down, looking up at the familiar start screen. She picked up the controller, pressed Start, chose her favorite team, and favorite character, and, of course, the hardest level available. 'Man, they haven't even gotten past the fifth level, they sure haven't gotten far,' she noted, pressing the button to begin. She had the red flag in about thirty seconds, and blasted the red team members as fast as possible; happy she'd gotten the team members that would support her. She raced back to the blue base, placing the flag. She repeated this four more times, beating the level easily. When the high score list was shown, she'd beaten every score. Sighing, she was about to get up when she heard a voice.
"H-how, how did you . . ." She spun around to see Joey's stupefied face staring at her over the couch. Tristan's face came up, just as dumbfounded.
"You guys have got to stop competing with each other and try to compete with the actual game," she said, smiling. The boys continued to stare.
"But, you just beat our high score in less than five minutes! How the hell did you . . .you have a brother or something?" asked Joey. At this, Tori went unusually quiet, and she put her head down, her bangs covering her eyes. She got up quietly and left the room, without another word. She walked past Duke and her friends, and Tea could swear she saw tears on Tori's face. She knew it was better to leave Tori alone. Duke was a little miffed.
"What'd you guys say to her? She's crying," he said.
"We have no idea, all we asked was if she had a brother, and she went quiet," said Joey.
"Oh, no . . ." said Tea. Bakura walked in.
"What's the matter? I just saw Tori run out the back door," he said. Tea, Mai, and Serenity looked at each other, eyes full of pain. They didn't want to have to go through this story, especially to people they just met, but the boys seemed nice enough, and they had a right to know. Tea sighed, and sat down. Mai and Serenity sat down on either side of her. Seeing that they were in for a long story, the boys sat down, too.
"Well, it started when she met this guy. Tori used to have one of the happiest and liveliest spirits of anyone we knew. She really liked him a lot, and he liked her, so they started going out. They'd been dating for a few months, when Tori noticed the guy was starting to become sort of possessive of her, as well as a control freak. He wouldn't let her leave him for more than two days, and if she did, he threatened to kill her family. She could have easily prevented this, except for one major problem," she paused. The boys listened, intent on hearing more, "he has, oh, man, you're so not gonna believe me," she said. The boys didn't seem to care.
"Come on, what does he have?" asked Tristan.
"He has super powers," said Tea. The boys looked at each other, confused, and looked from face to face, deciding whether or not the story was true. "I know, it sounds really stupid, but he does, he could read minds, he had shadow powers of some kind, I don't know them, but Tori was in absolute shock after 'it' happened, so she couldn't explain it fully, and we don't want her to have to recall it . . ."
"Wait, wait, what's this 'it' that we're talking about?" asked Joey. Serenity took over.
"She has powers, too," said Serenity, "and she didn't take the threat too lightly. She became angry, furious that he would dare threaten her, and she went on a trip with her family. She knew it would make him angry, but she didn't know about his powers, and thought she could easily take him, mistaking him for a normal person. She was wrong, obviously. She took him on, soon finding out about his powers in the fight. From what we heard, she attacked him with her own powers, and he revealed his, which proved to be too great for her. She told us what he said, "You've defied me, disobeyed me, and tried to attack me, and now I'll fulfill my part," and with that, he blasted Tori with his own powers, and, and . . ." Serenity couldn't finish. She put a hand over her mouth, tears forming in her eyes. Mai finished it.
"He killed them, her family. He killed her mom, dad, and sister, and brought her brother and forced her to watch him kill him. I'll never forget the look on Tori's face when we found her. Her heart and spirit had been ripped out, torn to shreds, along with her family." Mai fell silent, looking down. The boys sat there, looking sad. "That's why she hates guys, all of them. She refuses to go out with anyone else, and she's now a princess of darkness. She's become antisocial, gloomy, and now shows a hatred for the world. She cared for her big brother more than anyone, and her boyfriend knew that, from going out with her for so long. He'd tortured her with the viewing of her brother's death. That was the worst pain that she could ever go through," Mai concluded. Unknown to them, a dark figure stood outside the door, listening. As Mai finished and all went quiet, save for Tea and Serenity's sobs, the figure slunk away with the stealth of a cat.
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Tori the Hanyou: Well, how'd you like that? I dunno if you'd call that a cliffhanger, but it does leave some suspense, don't ya think? Anywho, the second chapter's coming right up! Don't worry; it's not as sad as this one. It gets loads better as the story goes on. I just had to explain why Tori acts the way she does. It gets pretty fun in the next chappie, especially for you soccer lovers! Hang in there!
Coming up: Chapter 2: The Wild Crazy Power filled Soccer Game