~High Voltage~
. . .
AN: Hello all! Here's the next exciting installment of High Voltage! ...Well...um...I hope it's exciting, I could be wrong. But ok, about the Egyptian language: I'm not Egyptian, never have been, and never will be. I only know some of the language due to lots 'n' lotsa research. Basically what I'm saying is, I don't claim to be an expert on the language but I do think that for the most part, I'm fairly accurate. I could tell you the story of how I slaved away at my brother's computer, trying to figure everything out, but you don't want to hear that, do you?

So on with the story! ...Should be a funny one. ^^;
. . .
Chapter 8: Off To Egypt
. . .



Yusuke swung the door of Kurama's house wide open. "I have tickets!" He sang. He was stoked about not having school for at least a week, maybe more, and had been on cloud nine all day long. Humming loudly, Yusuke closed the door, kicked off his shoes, and went into the living room to find his friends. "Kurama?"

"In here, Yusuke," came the reply. Yusuke wandered into the next room to find everyone gathered inside. They were all getting ready for their trip. The packed bags were piled up in one corner of the room. Kurama and Kuwabara were seated at the table, having a bite to eat. Hiei was standing by the window and Teilen, looking vey out-of-place, was slouched into a corner far away from the others.

"Hey guys," Yusuke grinned at them and waved the plane tickets. "We're all set for flight 22 to Cairo this afternoon at two o'clock."

"Alright!" Kuwabara was just as excited to be out of school as Yusuke was. "I've never been to Egypt before. What'd you tell your mom, Urameshi?"

"Class trip," Yusuke said with a smirk. "What was your excuse?"

"Same thing," he answered.

"Nice. Is that what you said, too, Kurama?" Yuske asked him.

"Yes," Kurama nodded. "Would you like something to eat, Yusuke?"

"Nah, I just had a burger."

"This is gonna be so cool!" Kuwabara continued. "Too bad Yukina can't be there."

Hiei looked up upon hearing his sister's name, but quickly disregarded it when he realized who had spoken it.

"I can't wait to see those neat pyramids," Kuwabara rattled on. "I want to take lots of pictures, buy lots of neat stuff, and meet the king, and see those houses that dead guys live in."

"They're called 'tombs', you clod," Teilen commented.

"Well...I didn't know, okay?" Kuwabara turned away, muttering something about having to deal with another smart-alecked short person.

Yusuke sat down beside Kurama. "So how's it going?

"We're doing fine, Yusuke," Kurama said.

"I see the new recruit isn't getting any friendlier."

"I heard that." Teilen shot him a glare.

"Jeez, your people skills are as bad as Hiei's," Yusuke commented.

All he got for a reply was a short "Huh." Teilen looked at the ground, as if it were of more interest than the conversation.

Yusuke's gaze traveled from Teilen to Hiei on the other side of the room. "Those two don't seem to get along, do they?"

Kurama shook his head. "No, I'm afraid not." He recalled the argument that had broken out a few hours before. They had been in the same room for less than ten minutes when it started. Kurama wasn't sure how it had begun, but it ended with the two of them agreeing to fight each other once more after the demon Khewew Hem-teh was defeated. Then they went to seperate sides of the room without another word to each other.

"Oh well," Yusuke said. "In two hours we'll be on our way to Egypt."

. . .



Two o'clock came, finding the gang at the airport. They boarded the plane with no problems, and most of them took their seats without any trouble. Botan and Yusuke had taken their seats, and Kurama and Kuwabara had been seated next to each other as stated on their tickets. But there were two very unhappy campers:

"I refuse to sit with him!"

"And I refuse to sit with her!"

Teilen and Hiei glared at each other, and then at the last two free seats on the plane, which were right beside each other.

"I only sit next to worthy opponents," Hiei scowled.

"And I don't sit next to fat-heads," Teilen shot back.

"Children, it's just a plane ride," Yusuke reminded them. "It's not like you're gonna have to marry whoever you sit next to."

"Hn."

"Huh."

"We're not getting anywhere this way," Kurama sighed.

"Right," Botan agreed. "Besides, it says on the ticket where you're supposed to sit, so you really don't have a choice other than to sit next to each other and try to get along for a few hours."

"Fine." Teilen quickly jumped into the window seat before Hiei could take it. Hiei, looking quite irritated, had to settle with the aisle seat. He greatly disliked sitting in the aisle seat because, as he soon discovered, every time the stewardess went by with the meal cart it banged into his elbow. To make matters worse, he was forced to be surrounded by at least two hundred humans, whom he didn't care for at all. Hiei ignored those who stared at him and averted his gaze elsewhere.

Meanwhile Teilen was cramped against the window, wanting to get as far from these noisy human creatures as possible. She had never seen so many humans at once before, and she knew immediately that she didn't enjoy their company; although for her own reasons, she didn't completely hate them either.

Hiei was becoming more and more annoyed with the humans. They didn't seem to know how to be silent and just ride the plane in peace. Humans were so ignorant and weak. They kept jabbering on to one another, laughing and shouting... Hiei crossed his arms tightly as the meal cart went by again, but it still struck his elbow. Narrowing his eyes and scowling deeply, Hiei could not wait for the plane ride to end.

. . .



Teilen saw the vast deserts first. She had been staring blankly out the window throughout the entire flight, and was the first to notice when they arrived in Egypt. Saying nothing to the others, of course, she gazed down (as much as she could) seeing nothing but the wheat-colored sand and the clouds the plane was passing through.

When they landed, every human on the plane stood up and tried to exit at the same time. 'Foolish humans,' she thought to herself. They were like a herd of cattle; their minds set on one thing, while any common sense that they might have possessed beforehand clearly being neglected at the moment. Not wanting to become comparable to the bovine species herself, Teilen decided to sit in her seat and wait until every human had exited the plane before she got off. She quickly glanced over to Hiei and saw that he was doing the exact same thing. He turned his head and met her gaze, crimson eyes locking onto mid-night blue, and both sets of eyes immediately narrowed at each other.

"Are we ready to get off now?" Yusuke leaned over their seats, interrupting the stare-down.

Without a word, Hiei stood up and followed Yusuke off the plane. Teilen also rose from her seat in silence, and was the last one to exit the plane.

. . .



"First class hotel room, just the way I like 'em!" Yusuke said loudly, after Kurama had opened the door to the guys' room and he somewhat carelessly tossed all his bags into the room.

"I can't believe we're really in Egypt!" Kuwabara said as he entered the room, setting his luggage on the center of one of the two double beds.

Yusuke caught on and was quick to react to Kuwabara's claiming of the bed. "Wait just one minute Kuwabara, who said you could have a double bed all to yourself?"

"I did, Urameshi, I said it right after we got off the plane!" Kuwabara replied defensively. "Besides, would you rather share with me or Kurama?"

"I'm NOT sharing," Yusuke retorted, crossing his arms.

Kurama approached them. "If having a bed to yourself means that much to you, I will sleep on the floor," he said.

"No way!" Kuwabara protested. "We should decide this fairly, like men!"

"Alright," Yusuke sighed. "Rock-Paper-Scissors it is. Let's go, Kurama."

The three of them held out their fists as Hiei watched them from by the window, becoming increasingly bored.

"Rock, Paper, Scissors, SHOOT!" The three duelists thrust forward their final signs; Yusuke and Kurama with paper, and Kuwabara with scissors.

"Yeah! I won!" Kuwabara did a victory dance around the room. "I never lose in that game! In your face, Urameshi!"

"Aw, crap," Yusuke muttered. "Kurama, I'll play you for the other bed."

"Of course," he replied. Thus the game began again, and ended shortly; Yusuke chose rock, and Kurama chose paper.

"Damn!" Yusuke cursed. "Looks like I'll be spending some quality time with the floor tonight... Hey Hiei, what about you?" He looked across the room at the fire demon, who was staring intently out the window.

Hiei looked up for a brief moment. "Hn. I don't care."

"I bet Shorty doesn't even sleep," Kuwabara remarked. He flopped onto his prize (the bed) and reached for the remote on the bedside table. Turning on the television, he began to surf the channels.

"So, tomorrow we start looking for those kids, huh?" Yusuke sat down on Kurama's bed. "Tch. We're never gonna find them."

"The odds are certainly against us," Kurama agreed. "Koenma seems to think that they are somewhere in this city."

"Perfect," Yusuke grumbled. "This is gonna be like looking for a needle in a haystack."

With a sigh of frustration, Kuwabara shut off the television. "I can't understand a single word on the TV," he complained. "It's all in Egyptian."

. . .



"Well," Botan said as she walked into the hotel room she was sharing with Teilen, which was right next door to the guys' room. "Here we are." She set her suitcase down on the floor and went to look out the window. "What a gorgeous view!"

Teilen crossed her arms and felt bored. She didn't care about the view. She just wanted to get the mission over with so that she could get back to doing her own thing. She stared at Botan, who was blabbering on and on about how beautiful Egypt was, not realizing that Teilen wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention to the words that she was speaking. Even Botan could be entertained by the most insignificant of distractions.

Botan turned around, seeing that Teilen was watching her. "Well, at least we won't have to argue over who gets a bed, will we?" She said, trying to be friendly.

"I don't need a bed," Teilen replied. So much for friendliness...

"Oh...well I suppose you're not used to sleeping in one, are you?" Botan tried for conversation this time.

"Huh." So much for conversation.

Botan gave up. It was hopeless. She sat down on one of the beds and turned on the television. Teilen wished she would leave, so that she could be by herself. She hadn't had a moment to herself all day. She watched Botan spend five minutes in front of the television, flipping through all 200 channels and finding nothing with a language that she could understand. As Kuwabara was just discovering in the next room, everything was in Egyptian. Finally, Botan set the remote down on the bed and got up.

"I think I'll just pop over to the boys' room and see how they're doing," she said to Teilen, and then she hurried out the door. Teilen let five more minutes pass before she turned her attention to the television, which was still on. What type of human contraption was this? She scowled at the black box for another minute or so before curiosity got the best of her.

Moving closer to the television, Teilen watched the moving pictures on the screen—a bunch of humans talking to one another, how boring—and listened to the language that was being spoken. Botan couldn't understand it, but she had no trouble. This human contraption was actually quite fascinating. Teilen remembered Botan using the remote control to change the channels, so she picked it up off the bed and examined it closely, turning it over in her hands. Which button was supposed to change the channel?

Teilen noticed two buttons on the remote that each had arrows on them; one pointing up and one pointing down. Figuring that one of them would make a different program appear on the screen, Teilen quickly pressed the button with the 'up' arrow on it. The only thing that happened was, a rectangular blue box with a bunch of lines inside it appeared on the bottom of the screen. Teilen glared at the television. Why wasn't it working? She pressed the button down again, and this time she held it down.

What happened next was very unexpected. The rectangular blue box appeared on the screen again, but this time many more little lines appeared inside it the longer she held the button down. She didn't realize that the button she had been holding down was the volume control until it was too late.

"BEW-NEFER DEWA," bellowed the human man inside the box. Alarmed, Teilen realized what she had done and that she had better correct the problem before somebody came into the room to inspect the noise. In a panic, she hit many different buttons on the remote, causing a bunch of multi-colored boxes to pop up on the screen. The noise level, however, did not change.

"DEWA, I KHERED," roared an elderly human woman in response to the human man. Teilen pounded on the remote, desperately trying to silence the noisy humans inside the box. 'Damned human wexas!' She thought angrily. 'Can't they put an 'off' button on their stupid box-controller?' Suddenly Teilen froze as she saw the doorknob begin to turn.

'Hell with it,' she thought. She threw the remote over her shoulder and held up her right hand, palm facing forward, aiming it at the loathsome box of humans. A thin, blue and white strip of electricity shot out of the center of her palm, zapping the television and frying it on contact. Satisfied that the noise had ceased to exist, Teilen placed her hands on her hips as Botan, Kurama, Yusuke and Kuwabara entered the room.

The four of them stared at the television, which now had a very warped appearance, along with black smoke emanating from the top of it. Teilen glared at them, as if daring them to say something. They didn't. Instead, the three guys turned around and headed back to their room, while Botan disappeared into the bathroom without a word. The sound of running water was heard a few seconds later, but it was useless; Teilen could hear the laughter anyway.

. . .



Yusuke and Kuwabara waited until they had gotten back to their room and closed the door behind them before bursting into fits of hysterical laughter; even Kurama couldn't help but laugh.

. . .



Botan pounded on the door of the guys' room. "Hurry up, boys!" She called impatiently. "We have to go now!" She had organized a trip into the city that night, so they could have some fun before the mission began the next day. Kurama, Yusuke and Kuwabara didn't need much convincing; they were anxious to get to know their surroundings anyway. It took a lot of begging and pleading to get Teilen to agree to go, and Hiei was a completely different story. He kept refusing the offer until Kurama pointed out that maybe they would find some clues regarding the demon Khewew Hem-teh; then, very reluctantly of course, he had consented to go along with them.

Now the four of them—Botan, Kurama, Hiei and Teilen—were waiting for Yusuke and Kuwabara to come out of their room so they could leave. Botan beat on the door again.

"Yusuke, it's almost nine o'clock!" She informed him. "Come on, let's go!"

The door swung open. "Okay, okay!" Yusuke stepped out of the room, Kuwabara at his heels. "Lock the door, would you Kuwabara?"

"I got it, Urameshi!" Kuwabara shot back, looking annoyed.

"Are we all ready to leave now?" Botan asked them. All she got for a response was a few nodding heads and a couple grunts. She sighed. "Let's get going."

. . .



"Come on, Urameshi, hurry up!" Kuwabara urged him, leaning over Yusuke's shoulder while the Spirit Detective devoured plate after plate of Egyptian food. Everyone else was ready to go except him.

"Just a frickin' minute, Kuwabara!" Yusuke shouted between enormous bites. "I haven't eaten since we got off plane and I'm starving! Besides, we've got Koenma's credit card, don't you wanna take advantage of that?"

Everyone had decided (or rather, Botan, Kuwabara and Yusuke decided) to make their first stop at a cafe in the city. Most of them had only ordered drinks and a snack and had finished in a matter of minutes. They had been waiting ten minutes for one of two possible outcomes : either Yusuke would become full or the cafe would run out of food.

"It's ten o'clock, Yusuke," Botan informed him. "The museum closes at eleven, and we wanted to have a look around inside!"

"Yeah, so quit stuffing your face and then we can go!" Kuwabara added.

"Fine!" Yusuke managed to cram one last gargantuan forkful of food into his mouth and got up from the table. He took Koenma's credit card out of his pocket and went to pay for his exceptionally large meal.

"He'll be three hundred pounds by the time he's thirty," Kuwabara remarked as they watched him saunter up to the counter.

"Let's wait for him outside," Botan suggested. They all wandered out the doors to the sidewalk outside, gazing about the scenario around them.

Kurama leaned against the side of the building. Egypt certainly was very different from home. Aside from another language being spoken, the weather was much warmer. Not to mention the completely different surroundings. His eyes traveled to each one of his comrades. Kuwabara was pacing back and forth impatiently, Botan kept checking her watch at regular intervals (approximately every five seconds). Hiei stood with his hands in his pockets, doing an excellent job of looking bored out of his mind, although Kurama could tell that something about this mission interested him. Teilen was standing apart from the group, looking to be in deep thought.

A few minutes later, Yusuke rejoined them. "Okay, I'm ready to go to that stupid museum," he muttered, shoving his hands into his jeans pockets.

"Alright!" Kuwabara stopped pacing and brightened up. He was excited over the thought of getting to see real-live (so to speak) mummies.

The museum was just down the road, so the group didn't have far to walk. Once they arrived there, Botan pointed something out to them.

"Look, everyone." She gestured towards a triangular-shaped object far off in the distance--just visible through the swirling dust that filled the air thanks to all the lights in the city—which seemed to be floating amid a vast lake of wheat-colored sand.

"A pyramid!" Kuwabara exclaimed. "Neat! I wish we had time to go get a better look..." His face fell in disappointment as the six of them stopped outside of the museum.

"Go ahead, Kuwabara. While you're at it, why don't you just go inside? Bet you'll find a nice old coffin with a dead guy in it!" Yusuke teased.

Kuwabara grimaced. "Eww... So there are still dead bodies in there?"

"Not just dead bodies," Teilen said, surprising them because they didn't realize she had been listening. "Egyptians buried their most valuable treasures inside the tombs along with their dead—jewelry, chariots, clothing, and artifacts of all kinds. Even their coffins were often made of solid gold. I wouldn't bother trying to get to it, though," she added, seeing the hopeful looks Kuwabara and Yusuke were giving each other. "The tombs were probably emptied out hundreds of years before you were even born."

Kuwabara was confused. "But why would they put all that stuff in there if the guy is dead? It's not like he's gonna use it."

"Yeah," Yusuke added. "And why bury someone in a solid gold coffin? It's just a waste."

Teilen sighed. "Gold meant more to the Egyptians than mere riches. They associated it with the sun and eternity itself. The flesh of the gods was believed to be gold, which would never decay. Think," she told them, a little annoyed.

Kurama glanced back at them. "You seem to know quite a lot about Egypt, Teilen," he remarked.

"I know enough," was all he got for a reply. She turned her head to fix her gaze elsewhere. End of conversation.

"Well, are we ready to go inside now?" Botan asked them, a hint of impatience in her tone. After all, it was after ten and they didn't have much time left.

"Yeah, sure," Yusuke mumbled. He, Botan, Kuwabara, and Kurama all walked up the stairs and entered the building.

Teilen hung back and noticed that Hiei had been frozen in the same spot since they stopped to look at the pyramid, head turned and staring off into the distance. Wondering what he was looking at, she turned her head in the same direction.

"Ne-me?" She said softly, seeing what had caused Hiei to become so intrigued. Off in the distance near the pyramid, just barely noticable, were flashes of light--pink, orange, and gold--along with what appeared to be lightning, although it was red in color. Teilen had never seen anything quite like it, but something told her that it wasn't a good sign. "Neter-nefer," she muttered to herself.

Hiei turned back to face her, forgetting about their grudge for the moment. "We're too late."

Teilen was about to ask him how the hell he knew that for sure when suddenly a shrieking sound was heard from inside the museum. As both demons trained their eyes onto the building, the doors were opened quite forcibly and a middle-aged, balding man wearing flip-flop sandals came running out, looking extremely upset.

"It has begun!" He shouted hysterically. "It has begun!" He swung around to face Teilen and Hiei, eyes popping in fright, face bathed in perspiration. "The curse has been unleashed! We're all doomed!"

Hiei narrowed his eyes at him, and Teilen gave him a queer look.

"Wey?!" She demanded to know.

He was in too much of a deranged state to answer. Instead he shrieked, "God have mercy on our souls!" and took off running down the street. Teilen watched him go, completely bewildered. She could take one good guess at what had happened, but how on Earth would that man have known about the kids?

Minutes later, Botan, Kurama, Kuwabara and Yusuke ran out of the museum.

"Did you see where that guy went?" Yusuke asked them.

"No," Teilen answered. "What does it matter?"

"He just started freaking out," Kuwabara said. "He was taking the tour with us, and all of a sudden he just snapped. It was like he was suddenly another person."

"Yeah, he started yelling about the world coming to an end and then he ran outside," Yusuke added. "We wanted to ask him what was wrong because we thought maybe it was something about that Khewa--whatever guy."

"It doesn't matter," Hiei said. "The demon has already been revived." He turned back toward the flashing lights, and this time Kurama noticed it too.

"Yes, I see now," he said. "It must have happened at that pyramid. It would seem that the children have acted sooner than we thought."

"Yeah!" Yusuke said. "I thought we were gonna have a week to find them!"

"Prophecies aren't always entirely correct," Botan explained.

"This bites," Kuwabara commented.

Botan sighed. "You're right. This is no good. I suppose we'll have to go back to the hotel and contact Koenma, he'll need to know the bad news."

. . .

Translations:

Bew-nefer dewa --"Good morning"

Dewa, i khered --"Morning, my child"

Wexa --"Fool"

Wey!? --"How!?"

Neter-nefer --"Good god"

Ne-me? --"What?"

AN: Um…yeah. Ya know what, I just realized while I was editing this: people in Egypt don't speak ancient Egyptian anymore…they speak mostly Arabic. So…for the sake of this chapter, let's just say that in the show Teilen was watching, the people did speak the ancient language. Guess what I also realized? Since Teilen actually knows a language that died thousands of years ago…that must make her pretty damn old! ^_^;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; Anywayz…

Next Chapter: Hatred