Skraku: Probably call. Or use the Internet. Hmm. I wonder who this reminds me of? *wink*
Wolf: You'll see soon enough what Kaiba has in mind with Monica. As for Zack and Kyle... keep reading and you'll find out what's going on there.
Lumen: Your premonition may yet prove wrong, my friend. Keep a lookout. Meanwhile, with the Oregon thing, you'll see how that works out, I'm sure... Provided you have some stick-to-it-ive-ness in you! And from what I've seen, you do. Kudos for keeping up!
-------
Kyle blinked at the sound of Zack's voice in his ear. Zack didn't have a habit of calling him up; generally they met each other at the game store and then went from there. Otherwise, he just dropped by Kyle's place. So this was a rare occasion, indeed. And the tone of Zack's voice gave him a bad feeling.
Come to think of it, just him calling me isn't always a good thing... "About what?" he asked.
"Not over the phone. I need to come over to your place, just checking to make sure it's okay. No one's there, right?"
Kyle could almost have laughed out loud, were it not for the deadly seriousness in Zack's tone. "Yeah, no one's here. What, is Big Brother watching?"
"Something like that. I'll be over in a few minutes."
Kyle blinked again as the other end clicked. He raised an eyebrow. Not even so much as a "bye"? Jeez. What's up with you today?
--
A single knock alerted Kyle to Zack's presence beyond the door. When he opened it, the older man looked slightly pale... maybe even sick.
Kyle frowned. "What's the matter with you? Need a bucket?"
Zack didn't respond, but instead made his way into the apartment. He moved over to the couch and sat down, then looked at Kyle and patiently waited for him to close the door. Kyle did so, then went to his computer chair and sat down. "Something's wrong. Out with it before I boot you and let you deal with it on your own."
"Gimme a minute, damn it," Zack suddenly snapped, surprising Kyle into silence. He took a deep breath, exhaled, then took another deep breath. "Okay. She's now actively chasing after my Sanga."
"Aha." Kyle knew who Zack was referring to. "From what you told me, she's already been doing that."
"This is different. She used to be following me around everywhere, now she's actually going after me. That's why I didn't want to talk about this over the phone. I know it seems paranoid, but at this point, the apparent paranoia is because of a genuine cause. She dropped by the store today."
"And?"
"She offered me cash and cards as barter. I didn't want either one. Sanga's too important to me to put a price on like that. I don't know if you can understand that yet, since your deck's always fluctuating with its theme. Someday, though, you will."
"Like Chubs with his Tyrant Dragon?"
Zack nodded. "Yeah, I suppose that's a good analogy."
"So what then?"
"She challenged me to a duel. I refused again, because she wanted my ante to be Sanga. She said in not so many words that she'd put her Kazejin up as her ante, although at first she didn't want to put anything up... just duel over Sanga's ownership." Zack scowled.
"Sounds like a good deal to me. Two Labyrinth Brothers in your deck."
"It would be, but I don't like the thought of losing Sanga."
Kyle chewed the inside of his cheek. "Well, she's certainly not going to duel you for nothing. She wants that card from you, that's obvious. I doubt if it's a personal vendetta."
Zack blew out a breath. "She pretty much guaranteed she would make it personal if she felt she had to."
Kyle raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"She implied that if I didn't start cooperating with her, she'd let Kaiba know that one of the Blue-Eyes cards showed up at the store."
That brought a stare from Kyle. "Kaiba's well-known for his temper. He may be a spoiled brat, but he knows how to come down on people. Didn't he bankrupt people to get hold of the Blue-Eyes cards?"
"Yeah, someone even committed suicide after he took theirs. That's what I heard, anyway. So you can imagine how well I took that news."
"Not very well at all, I'd guess, or else you wouldn't be looking as sick as you look right now."
"Got that right." Zack glowered at the floor. "Kaiba's going to hear about it sooner or later. But I'd just as soon not be the one he takes his revenge out on. I hear he's creative."
"You had nothing to do with the presence of a Blue-Eyes in your store."
"I didn't do anything about it. That'll be what the focus is on." He leaned back into the couch. "She's got way too much to hold over me. I'm not going to duel her, and I'm not going to trade away my favorite card just so it can become another collectible."
"Then you've got a problem."
"No. Not really. I don't want her to have Sanga. But that doesn't mean I'm averse to seeing someone else take it."
Kyle raised his eyebrow again. "Even considering it's your favorite card?"
"As long as the person who gets it treats it with the respect it deserves and uses it wisely. It's not just a possession or a tool. It's not expendable. Not when it comes to this game." Zack regarded Kyle with a sincere gaze.
"I'll bet she realizes that," Kyle said.
"What she realizes, as far as I've seen, is the value of having a card like that in her deck. And when she looks at its owner, I think she sees someone she can get to, given enough time and inspiration. Someone who harbors respect but not courage. That may very well be true. So it's pretty simple, the way I see it. Sanga needs a new owner."
Kyle contemplated this. "Hm. Okay. And have you picked out this prospective owner?"
Zack nodded. "Yeah, I have. It's you."
At this, Kyle's eyes widened in shock. "What?"
The older man nodded once more. "You, Kyle. I want you to have Sanga of the Thunder." He held up a finger. "But. There's a condition."
Kyle tried to calm himself down, but his eyes were still bugging out at the prospects of this revelation. "Name it."
"You have to defeat me in a duel. Only then will I know your true eligibility."
"You want me to duel you?"
Zack nodded. "I'll give you Sanga if you win. But if I win, you don't get another shot, and I'll find someone else I trust to get it."
"What do I have to give you if you win? If you didn't want Jade dueling without her own stakes, what makes you want to duel me without making me put up a stake of my own?"
Zack smirked. "Money for an extended vacation to Tahiti."
"Sounds harsh," Kyle chuckled. "But I guess I'm looking at a pretty sizeable cut from my savings, so yeah, I guess it would be."
"If I were to put a price on Sanga, it'd be much greater than a single vacation to an island paradise, I'll tell you that." There was a glint in Zack's eye as he spoke. "So, what do you say, Kyle? Do you accept my challenge?"
--
"You did what?"
Kyle nodded. "Yeah. I said yes. Stupid of me, wasn't it?"
"Got that right. You can barely beat me." Chubs' expression was one of disbelief. "What chance have you got against him?"
"Slim to none, if I don't charge up my deck really, really soon with some good cards. And even then, there's only a small chance. If he pulls out Sanga during the duel, there's no way I'm going to win. Its effect makes it one of the ultimate cards to have, that's why Jade's after it."
Chubs frowned. "Even if you win, that means Jade will start chasing after you for Sanga. Look at how she's got Zack running scared. What kind of victory is that?"
"He thinks I can handle her." Kyle grinned. "Look at you, all worried about what Jade will threaten to do to me. Weren't you the one thinking I could develop some sort of rapport with her?"
"After hearing about what she's willing to do to nab that card, I'm starting to think she idolizes Kaiba. And that's not a compliment."
Kyle scoffed. "Well, too late to go back now. He challenged me and I accepted. We're dueling Saturday night, over in Decatur they opened up a holographic dueling arena there recently. Zack and I already reserved the arena and chipped in the money needed to occupy it for an hour's time. I've got two days to get my deck and myself ready for this little shindig, and there's Zack, waving around a monster with an attack power of 2600. Most powerful monster I own is Summoned Skull, and that's only got 2500..."
Chubs rolled his eyes. "Man, if you need some help with deck-building, I'm more than willing."
Kyle offered a small smile. "Thanks, but I think this is something I've got to do on my own. I'll buy some booster packs and see what I can come up with. I'm a second tier duelist, that's got to count for something."
"Yeah, it says you're two tiers below Zack's deck level. Get some kick-ass cards if you want to have a shot at that monster. And stop depending on single cards to help you through. Find combos and use them."
Kyle snorted. "Thanks for the support."
"I do my best." Chubs got up from the couch and gave a glance to the clock, then the window. "It's pitch-black out there. I hear a storm's coming, that's probably it out there. Plus it's late. I need to be getting home. I'll talk to you tomorrow, all right?"
"Yeah, sure."
--
Kyle settled himself on the couch and wrapped up in his sleeping bag. He wondered if he'd be able to get to sleep tonight, considering how worried he felt over this sudden opportunity to gain even more experience and prestige in the world of Duel Monsters.
...duel...
He blinked in surprise. You're back!
...duel... contest...
...and with the requisite cryptic and ultimately useless words. Yeah, I've got a duel coming up. Big one. The monsters are supposed to look realistic in this one.
...monsters... real... danger...
Yeah, there could be danger involved. Danger for my wallet, at most, though. And I'm worried about what might happen, either way.
...concern...
Yeah. Major concern. He turned over in his sleeping bag and closed his eyes, trying to get comfortable.
...sleeping...dreaming...
Kyle nodded. Yeah, I hear you, buddy. Definitely time for that.
He rolled over on his side, face to the back of the couch, popped his neck, and closed his eyes.
I need a good dream right about now. What have you got for me, bud? What can you tell me that will put me to sleep?
...darkness...shadows...time gone...nobody...nobody...
A strange sensation washed over Kyle at that moment, as he stood on the horizon that separated the waking world and the dream world. He suddenly felt disconnected from his body, and he knew that his body had lost all sensation. That was normal for the brain when entering sleep stages.
But Kyle was still aware.
He might have been falling asleep, but he was still aware.
If he'd had control of his eyelids, he would have blinked in surprise. He had never felt fully aware while falling asleep before. It was quickly becoming an unpleasant thing for him, too, as one by one, his senses deactivated, leaving him in a silent void.
He tried to wrench himself back to wakefulness, but it was as if something was tugging at him... something that was holding on to him, pulling him further into the depths of sleep.
He tried to kick at it with an ethereal foot. What the...? Let go! Let go of me! Let me go back!
...somebody...?
He gasped as he felt himself fall.
Oh god, someone help me...
...somebody...?
--
Kyle groaned and clenched his eyelids. His back had a slight pain in the middle of it I can feel again! and his limbs felt like jelly.
A bright light was burning against his eyelids. He felt hot, almost unbearably hot. Daytime? No air conditioning? Jeez... how long have I been sleeping?
He shifted his limbs around, expecting to feel couch cushions beneath them. What he got, however, was completely different.
His fingers slipped beneath hot sand.
His eyes snapped open, only to be almost blinded by the glaring sunlight. He quickly rolled to one side and blinked several times, trying to regain his sight.
He found himself facing a dune of sand.
Kyle reached up and rubbed his eyes, wondering if he should really believe what he was seeing. ...still dreaming?
But some of the sand on his hands rubbed off on his face as he wiped at his eyes, leaving the gritty sensation that only sand could leave.
No way. There is no way this is real... I've got to be dreaming. I may be able to see all this, feel all this, and it may seem real, but it just can't be...
Kyle struggled to his feet. He felt off-balance, and he wobbled for several moments, trying to get used to the slight sinking feeling he encountered in the process of finding his footing on the slippery terrain.
That was when he noticed that he was wearing clothing. He had a black T-shirt and a pair of dark shorts on. Curiously, his tattoos were nowhere to be found. He also could see clearly, despite his usual need for glasses or contacts... and his eyelids told him he wasn't wearing the latter.
That clinches it. This must be a dream. My vision isn't that great, I know for a fact I fell asleep wearing nothing but underwear, and I haven't removed any of the tattoos from my left arm yet.
Everywhere he could see, there was nothing but sand. There were rolling hills of it, obscuring his visual access to anything that might be "out there" besides the sand.
"Okay," he said aloud. "This is nuts. And hot. I want out."
So he slapped himself. Hard.
His reward was a sharp sting and a red mark on his cheek.
He looked around.
"I'm still here," he remarked.
He slapped himself again. And again, he got nothing but more stinging in his right cheek... and his right palm was now stinging, as well.
"Ow," he mumbled. "Okay, if that's not gonna work..."
He took a deep breath, relaxed his abdominal muscles...
And punched himself in the stomach.
"Oh!" he gasped, keeling over under the force of his own blow. He dropped to his knees and bent over double, wheezing hard for several seconds.
Kyle clutched at his stomach and fell on his side coughing. "Ohh... that wasn't smart..."
He threw up. And continued to throw up for several seconds, until his stomach couldn't expel anything else.
He clenched his eyes shut and shuffled away from the disgusting pile. "Gross. Note to self: never ever do that again."
He softly groaned for another minute or so, trying to recover and release his pain.
All right... So hurting myself isn't going to wake me up... But you'd think that me puking all over the place would do it where slapping myself wouldn't. Yet I'm still here, in the middle of this blasted desert.
He got back up and looked around. Don't recognize where I am, but the only other place I've ever been where it was this hot and barren was...
Was Egypt.
Kyle blinked. I couldn't actually be in Egypt, could I? What would I even be doing here? Nightmare, maybe?
He took a few steps, not really sure of where he was going. Who am I kidding? I'm hopelessly lost.
...hopeless...
The voice seemed to roll across the sky and the sand. It stretched from one horizon to the other, and Kyle couldn't help but be the least bit unnerved by it. What did you do to me? This is your doing, isn't it?
...hopeless...
Kyle glared at the sky. Why won't you let me out of here? What is it that I did to you?
...somebody...?
Kyle sighed and continued to walk. I guess it's the only way I'm ever going to get anywhere, here. He moved quickly, but not hastily; there was no point in sweating himself out, not even in a dream.
He made his way up a rise in the sand; he was halfway to the top when the sand gave out under him. He tumbled back down to the dune.
He growled aloud. "I'm gonna get up there," he declared, and with that, he pushed his way back up the slope.
This time, he didn't even get half as high as before. He rolled back down the ridge and fell on his face.
Okay, goal-setting. Kyle got back to his feet and gave himself a running start. He charged up the hill with all his strength.
A feeling of exhilaration filled him up as he got higher than halfway. I'm gonna make it, I'm gonna make it!
He fell back down to the plateau again.
He sighed. "Oy. Up we go."
Again and again, he ran up the ridge; again and again, he had no success, always falling short of the top. He looked around. Wish there were some natives around, to watch and laugh at my expense. Then, at least, there would be someone else here!
For lack of anything better to do, Kyle ran up the ridge again and again. To continue in this direction, crossing the ridge was his only option; it stretched endlessly to either side. Each time he raced up, he fell back down, and he began to count the times he'd done this.
"Five... Ehh... Six... Gr. Seven..."
After his fifteenth attempt landed him in the sand of the plateau, he took to moving more carefully up the slope. He became less of a sprinter and more of a mountain climber; carefully placing his hands, his feet, his weight... focusing every iota of attention and concentration he possessed on the slope.
Here... then here... then here...
At a few points, Kyle stopped to find himself a secure handhold by digging into the side of the slope until he found sand that was the slightest bit moist and packed. He would carefully insert his fingers into the packed sand, never too quickly, until he had what he felt was a secure hold. Then, slowly, ever so slowly, he pulled himself an inch, two inches, higher and higher until his hold had outlived its usefulness. He would scrape away at the sand with his toes in much the same manner.
And at long last, he edged over the top of the ridge.
Exhilaration jolted throughout his body, but he still had yet to get his entire body over the ledge. He kept his mind occupied with this task for several more minutes; that sand was the worst to try to navigate (being the topmost sand, it was the driest and grainiest of the slope), and after all his hard work, he didn't much feel like falling back down.
He didn't throw his legs over the ledge; that would have invited his body to take the tumble. If anything, he crept even more slowly over the ledge in trying to get his legs across.
This isn't a contest, he thought to himself. It's just a dream. Weird one, granted, but a dream, nonetheless. And that means I can do as I choose, and if I choose to climb over a ledge of sand, nothing's gonna stop me. Nope, nothing at all.
When his feet crept across the threshold, exhilaration again burst through him, and he looked up from the dune at the unexplored territory beyond the ledge.
And he gasped.
What lay far below him was a city, a magnificent city that sprawled almost as far as the eye could see. Row after row of modest homes lined row after row of well-trod paths. Off in the distance, a massive structure which could only be conceived of as a palace loomed over the land like some juggernaut over a swarm of ants. Statues, unlit torch bearings, and a regiment of guards lined the palace; there was no doubt that the place was an impregnable fortress.
The palace stood at the edge of a river, undoubtedly the Nile, and lush green foliage lined the river, separating it from the muddy grounds where servants worked.
Kyle found it difficult to breathe upon the sight of something so majestic. He tried to push himself up to get a better view of what was below him
The sand crumbled, and he toppled forward, over the ledge, over the cliffside.
He shouted and flailed, but there was nothing he could do to stop his tumbling. He fell down a steep slope, rolling and wheeling head-over-heels, and he couldn't concentrate, couldn't breathe, couldn't think
He dropped into an endless white expanse, as if he were falling into the afterlife.
And the knowledge flooded into him with the power of a river loosed from a shattered dam.
He saw everything.
A great pharaoh... a general... a soldier... a mage... the court... Millennium items... Millennium Shield...
Everything streaked into him faster than he could process it. It was all he could do to even remain aware as the knowledge continued to flow...
A face loomed in front of him, a tan face with features that could only have come from an Egyptian bloodline...
Kyle tried to open his mouth to shout, but no sound would come out
He bolted upright on his couch and let loose a scream.
He looked around, at first with unseeing eyes. He didn't find this encouraging; he was already panicked, and it didn't do at all to not be able to see where he was. But his body told him that he was back in his sleeping bag, back on his couch, back in his apartment.
He blinked several times, allowing his eyes time to get used to the lack of light. No light... means it's still night... how long was I asleep?
You have not slept long.
Kyle jumped at the sound of the voice. It wasn't a weak, distant whisper in the back of his mind; it was strong and firm and concrete... a definite presence within him, not just a fragment of some sort of mental illness.
"Mental illness"? If, by this, you mean madness, no. You are not mad.
Kyle blinked. The voice was responding to him now?
I have always responded to you. I simply could not do so in the way I wished to.
Kyle's breath was shallow. "Who are you?" he asked aloud.
You know who I am. You have seen me. You have heard my name. You carry my soul about your neck.
He found his left hand clasped around the pendant adorning his necklace. The shield-shaped pendant he'd brought back from Egypt.
Yes, he knew this voice's name. He knew.
"Theoris. Your name is Theoris."
-------
Does the name ring a bell? For those who read Shielded Destiny, it should! If you haven't read it before, I suggest you read it now! You'll just get confused otherwise. Next up, Kyle and Theoris get acquainted, and Kyle prepares for his clash with a titan. Stay tuned!