Disclaimer: Once again, we don't own Yugioh. If we did, this is quite
possibly what it'd look like.
--
This is still dedicated to Mr. T, who names all of the chapters, just so you know. (He chose the title of the story, too, so it's not THAT bad...)
--
Chapter Two: [Heavy Metal] Raiders
or Raiders of the Lost Birdseed
or Hades' Frying Pan Is Waiting
or
Don't Get Carried Away
--
Dallas, Texas; Queliyg food production plant
Maximillion Pegasus peered down at the alien structure through a pair of night-vision goggles they had procured off the black market.
"There they all are, nice and quiet, just as scheduled," he said to Cecilia with a grin. She smiled and pecked him on the cheek.
"Winged Horse to Grey Hawk," she murmured into a two-way radio. "Prepare to move into position. Over."
Max giggled softly. "I never get over how silly that feels."
"Just keep your eye on the birds," she whispered. She turned to the ten somewhat grungy looking men crouched behind them. "Are you all ready with that canister?"
The foremost of them nodded. "We just let a trickle off all the way to the primary power source and light it up once everybody's out," he recited, eager to go.
Cecilia tapped Max's shoulder. "Let's go, honey." Max handed her the goggles and gripped the steering wheel, carefully edging the decommissioned M113 just to the edge of visibility.
"Good thing you don't need a driver's license to drive anymore..." he quipped under his breath. Cecilia laughed. "Get ready," he told the man standing behind him, who was peering out the hatch in the roof. "Five, four, three, two..."
The night sky lit up as a rocket tore away from its launcher atop the rigged-up army transport and landed right on the "doorstep" of the production plant.
The quiet night went utterly crazy, as maybe thirty people flooded out of the darkness, wielding rifles, handguns, and more than a few makeshift rocket launchers, not to mention at least one "confiscated" Queliyg plasma blaster.
The men in the M113 piled out the back, and the team unloaded the canister from the side.
Max jumped out. "Keep the seat warm," he told his wife, who rolled her eyes.
"You're too overprotective!" she yelled at his back. The man riding shotgun laughed. "Although I appreciate the sentiment," she admitted to him.
Max ran out into the middle of the fray to "direct" the chaos, something he'd gotten very good at the past couple of years.
With a quick look around, he noted with pleasure and relief the abscence of warsuiters and cannoneers. For some reason the Queliyg had been downscaling their local military, and Max was very glad for that.
"Unit Gamma!" he called. Five or six people seemed to pause for directions without really stopping. "Help the jailbirds fly the coop! All of them! Go!"
Those people began to migrate toward the building where slave workers would be held.
One alien, unfortunately, seemed to hear his shout. Angrily, she began to wade through the fighters, a large table held up as a shield.
"I'm guessing I've found the _leader_ of this coup!" she screeched, furious.
He noticed her, and took a flourishing little bow. "Bonjour, Madamoiselle!"
Rage gleamed in her black eyes. Her pale yellow feathers began to ruffle. "Do not mock me, human!" she cawed, looking like she was ready to peck his eyes out.
"Why not?" he demanded, producing a rare small Queliyg blaster from under his coat. "You invade our planet, take our freedom, kill our families, and we don't even have the right to poke a little fun at you? Here's mocking for you, Turkey Feathers!" He took aim and fired at her.
With a scream, she dodged to the side, dropping her table. Luckily for her, the white-hot plasma only caught the edge of a silk sleeve. Unfortunately for her, the cloth caught fire. Queliyg "hands" weren't very good for beating out flames, being shaped as they were for catching small creatures, like an eagle's talons. She practically howled and ripped off the burning fabric, shearing it away.
Max pulled a small knife from his boot and went for her bare, muscular arm. Briefly, Max wished that he knew the Japanese art of bo shuriken, or blade-throwing. He didn't really want to get too close to the shearing talons.
Still...
Max leaped at her, striking as fast as possible. Her avian scream rent the sounds of battle. Blackish blood spilled to the ground.
_If Queliyg had teeth, she'd definitely be grinding them together right now,_ Max thought with some pride as she gripped her arm.
Hissing at him because she knew going after him wouldn't do any good, the Queliyg ran to shelter and hit an alarm switch. Max cursed.
"All units! Alert!" Once again there was a moving pause. "Hunters activated! I repeat, seekers on their way!"
The action seemed to speed up. Several large trucks were backed up to the food storage units.
Max went to check on Unit Gamma. He was a little annoyed to note that one member was only setting free the _human_ slaves. He caught up to the man.
"All the jailbirds, Smith!" he reprimanded, pointing out the destitute elves.
"But they're not human, sir!" Max backhanded him. Shock registered in Smith's eyes.
"They're more human than you," Max said disgustedly. Human enough to save his wife's life shortly after the invasion.
There was an explosion. Max cursed again. "Forgot about those _seekers!_" He opened one of the cages holding elves, and they streamed out.
Except one. This one stared at him with huge eyes, clutching her leg, obviously unable to walk on it. He hurried in and lifted her.
"Get her to safety," he ordered Smith, forcing him to take her in his arms.
"But--"
"_GO!_" Smith went.
Max checked to make sure the rest of Unit Gamma was doing their job, then ran back out into the fray. It was chaos, real chaos now, no longer his.
A hunter-seeker crashed to the earth beside him, colliding with the slave compound's sturdy wall, felled by one of his people's rockets.
He took a quick hunter-count, followed up by a head-count just to be sure. He considered a wheel-count, but it was easy to see only one vehicle had been destroyed by concentrated fire, a modified SUV.
Six hunter-seekers hovered over the scene, three concentrating on the M113 (which was effectively unaffected) and the other three swarming like giant beach-balls of doom around the dump trucks, trying to discourage people from loading food, and doing fairly well.
He pulled a radio from his coat. "Winged Horse to Guardian Angel," he said, and Cecilia responded with a rasberry. "You need to take out the HS swarm around you with direct manuevering."
"Copy," she said, and a second later the seekers were scattered debris.
Max ran to the dump trucks and began firing at the hunter-seekers with his plasma weapon. He noted that the one other person with a plasma blaster was doing the same.
One of the worthwhile things about plasma weapons was that hunter- seekers weren't capable of recognizing plasma as enemy fire. Their programming was too narrow.
One seeker crashed to the ground, thanks to some concentrated fire, but one of the remaining two suddenly swiveled all of its attention on _him._
Max was running out of English curses, so he tried a few in Japanese. It didn't make him feel any better. He ran for the M113, the hunter following, spraying the ground behind him with anti-personnel fire.
"At least I'm drawing it away," he grumbled to himself.
A rocket freed itself from the launcher atop the M113 and tore into the hunter-seeker explosively. The M113 pulled forward slightly and Cecilia looked out the side at him. "Get in!" she yelled.
Max jumped into the passenger side and kissed his wife's cheek. "See what you can do about that last one," he told her.
Cecilia drove forward quickly and a little recklessly. The rocket- man riding shotgun cursed and braced himself against the acceleration. Max grabbed the dashboard. He noticed the Queliyg from before standing off in the sidelines. She looked a little ill.
_I wonder if it's from being hurt or from watching this oversized armor plated egg-carton,_ he thought, feeling a little ill himself.
"Fire at that seeker!" Cecilia shouted to the rocketeer. He complied.
"And the rockets' red glare, bombs bursting in air..." Max sang. Cecilia glanced at him, an amused little smile crossing her features.
The canister team began to move across to the building that housed the power source. The humans weren't sure exactly how the crystals the Queliyg used for power _worked,_ but they _did_ know that the pulsing white gems exploded nicely.
"All teams, how are you coming along with birdseed retrieval?"
A flood of positive responses chattered over the radio.
"Good. Prepare to fly." That primed them for the evacuation code word, "sparks."
They waited nervously, hoping the next few moments would be clear of warsuiters or cannoneers.
"Seed cart Alpha loaded." Max wiped a little sweat from his brow, then the wait resumed.
"Seed cart Delta ready to fly!" Seconds.
"Seed cart Beta itching to go!" Cecilia glanced at Max.
"Interesting way to put it," he commented. "Status, Cart Gamma!"
There was a pause that seemed much longer than it really was. "We're ready, Winged Horse."
"Grey Hawk?"
Arthur chuckled over the radio. "All units out."
"Team Pyro, are you ready?"
Some rather interesting sounding static crackled for a few seconds. "Yeah, we are, Winged Horse, just give the word!"
Max grinned and switched to all units. "Okay then! SPARKS! Repeat, SPARKS!"
Engines roared and revved as the task force took off. Mere seconds later Team Pyro piled into the back of the M113.
Cecilia put it into high gear and all the men yelled as the M113 roared off into the night.
--
Liyeny, the wounded Queliyg, realized suddenly what was happening when she noted a black slickness dotted sporadically over the ground.
She swore in her native tongue. "Everyone! OUT!" she screamed, following it with a shrill warning cry for good measure.
Like so many songbirds taking chaotic flight, the Queliyg ran ostrich- like away from the food production plant. Liyeny was just far enough away when the power crystals exploded. She fell to the ground.
"That human," she murmured angrily, high voice hissing in her rage, "Will pay for this!"
--
Max jumped out of the M113, then had to grab it to keep from dizzily falling over. There was much cheering and slapping of backs.
"What's wrong, Pegasus?" Arthur asked him. "Instead of looking deliriously happy, you just look-- well, delirious!"
"I'm recovering from Ceci's driving," Max replied in an undertone.
"I heard that!" said woman retorted, hugging him from behind.
Smith wandered over, the young elven woman still in his arms. She was babbling at him, tears running down her cheeks and a joyous grin on her lips.
"She keeps saying the same word over and over," Smith said, "And I can't understand it because it's elvish. What's she trying to tell me, sir?"
Max grinned. "She's thanking you, Smith. Over and over again, she's trying to get you to know how grateful she is."
Smith stared at the elf. "Could you tell her, I don't deserve it?"
Max spoke to her. She replied. "I'd say she thinks you deserve it," Max said.
Cecilia glanced at the human and elf. "Why, what did she say?"
Max shook his head at his wife. "I'll tell you later."
Keith chose this moment to walk over and congratulate Max on his plan. Max could see Cecilia narrow her eyes at the man in his peripheral vision.
"I don't trust him," she hissed in Max's ear once Keith had remerged with the crowd. "Something about him just seems false."
Max shrugged. "Well, I don't see any tailfeathers in his mouth, if that's what you mean."
Cecilia shook her head. "I'm not so sure..."
--
Domino, Japan; Sub-Town
Kel stared around Sub-Town like a little child who'd never been to the fair. Yugi grinned as he saw the awe in the elf's eyes.
"Yugi?" came the voice of Solomon Moto. Yugi and Kel turned to see him shuffling over, flanked by Joey, Tristan, and Seto. "Who is this?"
Seto blinked as he gave Kel a once-over. "Where did you find an elf?"
Téa came out of a modified subway car. "What's this about elves?" she asked.
"This is Kel," Yugi said with a smile, and Kel suddenly looked a little nervous to be around so many humans.
"Welcome, Kel," Solomon said kindly. "How did you come into aquaintance with my grandson here?"
"I was a slave," Kel managed quietly. "Yugi saved me from my human master."
Téa's eyes widened. "You were a slave? How awful!"
Seto crossed his arms. "All elves are slaves, or at least born that way." He contemplated a bare forearm. "You met and freed him all in one night?" he asked Yugi.
Yugi shrugged a little tensely. "I'm not completely sure how everything went," he admitted.
A pair of little arms encircled Seto's waist from behind. "Hello, Big Brother!" Mokuba said cheerfully, but he hung back just a little when he saw Kel.
Yugi studied all of their faces. _Yes,_ he thought, _it'll take getting used to, but I think they're off to a good start._
--
A few days later, as several of the "families" were getting low on food (except for seafood, as they had their own resident fisherman), Seto organized a little party to go to the surface for food.
Joey was going, of course, and Tristan was going because Joey was going. Téa was going, as well as Yugi and Kel (who refused to let Yugi go anywhere by himself excepting the facilities), and also Seto himself.
When they exited the subway the little group branched out into the city.
Téa walked by herself through the desolate streets, only too aware she was a "target."
"Why do I keep insisting to be a part of these things?" she complained to the air. She detoured into a little by-street, on her way to the semi-legal market near the center of the former industrial district.
Someone whistled wolfishly from a doorway. "Hey, pretty girl, where ya goin' at this hour?"
She sped up, but tried very hard to look like she hadn't. A rough, strong hand gripped her arm. She turned to stare into the face of an Enforcer, a man obviously older than she, who grinned down at her dangerously.
"Come on, sweet baby, I'm a guy in uniform," he said, apparantly thinking he was making a funny joke.
"Sorry, but I'm probably a little young for you, sir--" Téa tried to wrench free of his viselike grip. When he didn't let go, _bang!_ He hunched over in pain, knees together.
"Why you little--" he growled, voice cracking, and he fell into a stream of curses which may or may not have been directed at her. He managed to straighten and struck her across the face, causing her to stumble backwards.
"Téa!" came Yugi's voice, and the little teenager bounced out of the darkness and leapt onto her attacker. "You leave her alone!"
The Enforcer snarled and tried to shake Yugi off. Téa ran to her friend's aid and sank her teeth into the Enforcer's arm.
"HEY!" the Enforcer yowled, throwing them both off at once. Téa fell against a closed door and pain flooded her head as it cracked against the hard surface. Sinking to the ground, she whimpered and clutched her head. Yugi thudded to the ground.
The Enforcer began to advance on Téa, apparently savoring every moment.
There was a flash behind him, where Yugi had landed. "Turn, and face me, coward!" a deep tenor commanded.
"Wha?" The Enforcer turned to stare at "Yugi," whose face held a quiet, calm anger. "You want some more, punk?"
"We _could_ settle this with violence," "Yugi" said in a thoughtful way. "Of course, the fact that you always leap to fists says something about your intelligence."
"_What?_ You callin' me stupid, wise guy?"
"Yugi" feigned exasperation. "Was I somehow unclear enough to confuse you? I'm sorry. Perhaps you'd like to prove your intelligence?"
The Enforcer gave him a dark look. "How?"
Darkness surrounded them, "Yugi," the Enforcer, and even Téa, who wasn't really aware of what was going on anyway. "Well, if you can win this little game, then you can do what you will with both of us. If I win, however," and as he spoke something stirred in the darkness, "I will decide your fate."
"But I can do whatever I want with both of you anyway!" the Enforcer protested.
"Yugi" smirked. "Just try it," he replied. Something _slithered._ "Yugi" produced two sticks out of nowhere. They were long and smooth, one green and the other red, meant for bringing down small prey. "Since you seem so proud of your strength, we will use these." He tossed the green one to the Enforcer. "They are throw sticks. Whichever of us can throw the farthest wins. Simple enough, I'd say."
The Enforcer laughed. "Is that all? You ready then, twerp?" "Yugi" nodded. The Enforcer hurled with all his might. "Hahahaha! Beat that!"
"Yugi" shrugged. "If you really want me to," he said, sending the stick gliding through the air with skill and precision. The red stick thudded to the ground about two yards past the green one.
"What? You musta' cheated somehow!" The Enforcer charged at "Yugi," who simply stood there, unafraid.
"I don't cheat," "Yugi" said. "Curse of Dragon!"
Something golden, long, and serpentine slipped from the darkness and encircled the Enforcer with coils thicker than his very chest.
"Yugi" climbed up the side of the dragon, who reared its head to look over his shoulder at the Enforcer. The man realized with some startlement that Curse of Dragon was eyeless. "Yugi" turned and patted it in a frighteningly affectionate manner. "He's very limber for such a great old dragon, isn't he?"
"Wha--wha--?"
"Yugi"and the dragon gave each other what seemed to be amused glances. "Do with this one what you will," "Yugi" said, and dropped into the darkness.
--
Kel entered the scene to find the person who wasn't Yugi bent over Téa, gently asking her if she was sure she didn't have a concussion.
He approached, and the dark figure looked up, then smiled to see him.
"Who are you, really?" Kel asked. "You aren't Yugi."
The other shrugged. "I'm not quite sure anymore, really. Think of me as Yami. Call me Yugi."
Kel noticed the Enforcer, twitching on the ground, staring straight up, making little noises in his throat. "What did you do to him?"
"Nothing he didn't deserve," Yami replied darkly. "Take Téa back to Sub-Town."
"Where are you going?" Kel asked, gathering the girl in his arms.
Yami shrugged. "To get better aquainted with the modern world, I suppose." He began to walk away.
"Don't get lost!" Kel warned the retreating figure. Yami didn't answer.
--
Cecilia watched Max sketching one of his crazy dreams.
"You never did get around to telling me what that elven girl said when Smith said he didn't deserve her thanks," she said in an offhand way.
"Hmmm?" Max looked up a little dreamily. "Oh. Well, Ceci, it's a little akward in direct translations, but she basically said that Smith had pushed aside his own biases to save her, and that was something very hard to do. For her, it made him just as much a hero as saving her life did, maybe more."
"You're not telling everything," Cecilia prodded after a few seconds of silence.
Max grinned. "Were you aware that the elves believe that the saving of a life creates a bond far greater than friendship?"
Cecilia shook her head. "What's she going to do, follow him around for the rest of his life?"
Max actually giggled and started to sketch again. "Quite probably."
--
End Chapter Two. Man, this one was an ordeal!!
--
This is still dedicated to Mr. T, who names all of the chapters, just so you know. (He chose the title of the story, too, so it's not THAT bad...)
--
Chapter Two: [Heavy Metal] Raiders
or Raiders of the Lost Birdseed
or Hades' Frying Pan Is Waiting
or
Don't Get Carried Away
--
Dallas, Texas; Queliyg food production plant
Maximillion Pegasus peered down at the alien structure through a pair of night-vision goggles they had procured off the black market.
"There they all are, nice and quiet, just as scheduled," he said to Cecilia with a grin. She smiled and pecked him on the cheek.
"Winged Horse to Grey Hawk," she murmured into a two-way radio. "Prepare to move into position. Over."
Max giggled softly. "I never get over how silly that feels."
"Just keep your eye on the birds," she whispered. She turned to the ten somewhat grungy looking men crouched behind them. "Are you all ready with that canister?"
The foremost of them nodded. "We just let a trickle off all the way to the primary power source and light it up once everybody's out," he recited, eager to go.
Cecilia tapped Max's shoulder. "Let's go, honey." Max handed her the goggles and gripped the steering wheel, carefully edging the decommissioned M113 just to the edge of visibility.
"Good thing you don't need a driver's license to drive anymore..." he quipped under his breath. Cecilia laughed. "Get ready," he told the man standing behind him, who was peering out the hatch in the roof. "Five, four, three, two..."
The night sky lit up as a rocket tore away from its launcher atop the rigged-up army transport and landed right on the "doorstep" of the production plant.
The quiet night went utterly crazy, as maybe thirty people flooded out of the darkness, wielding rifles, handguns, and more than a few makeshift rocket launchers, not to mention at least one "confiscated" Queliyg plasma blaster.
The men in the M113 piled out the back, and the team unloaded the canister from the side.
Max jumped out. "Keep the seat warm," he told his wife, who rolled her eyes.
"You're too overprotective!" she yelled at his back. The man riding shotgun laughed. "Although I appreciate the sentiment," she admitted to him.
Max ran out into the middle of the fray to "direct" the chaos, something he'd gotten very good at the past couple of years.
With a quick look around, he noted with pleasure and relief the abscence of warsuiters and cannoneers. For some reason the Queliyg had been downscaling their local military, and Max was very glad for that.
"Unit Gamma!" he called. Five or six people seemed to pause for directions without really stopping. "Help the jailbirds fly the coop! All of them! Go!"
Those people began to migrate toward the building where slave workers would be held.
One alien, unfortunately, seemed to hear his shout. Angrily, she began to wade through the fighters, a large table held up as a shield.
"I'm guessing I've found the _leader_ of this coup!" she screeched, furious.
He noticed her, and took a flourishing little bow. "Bonjour, Madamoiselle!"
Rage gleamed in her black eyes. Her pale yellow feathers began to ruffle. "Do not mock me, human!" she cawed, looking like she was ready to peck his eyes out.
"Why not?" he demanded, producing a rare small Queliyg blaster from under his coat. "You invade our planet, take our freedom, kill our families, and we don't even have the right to poke a little fun at you? Here's mocking for you, Turkey Feathers!" He took aim and fired at her.
With a scream, she dodged to the side, dropping her table. Luckily for her, the white-hot plasma only caught the edge of a silk sleeve. Unfortunately for her, the cloth caught fire. Queliyg "hands" weren't very good for beating out flames, being shaped as they were for catching small creatures, like an eagle's talons. She practically howled and ripped off the burning fabric, shearing it away.
Max pulled a small knife from his boot and went for her bare, muscular arm. Briefly, Max wished that he knew the Japanese art of bo shuriken, or blade-throwing. He didn't really want to get too close to the shearing talons.
Still...
Max leaped at her, striking as fast as possible. Her avian scream rent the sounds of battle. Blackish blood spilled to the ground.
_If Queliyg had teeth, she'd definitely be grinding them together right now,_ Max thought with some pride as she gripped her arm.
Hissing at him because she knew going after him wouldn't do any good, the Queliyg ran to shelter and hit an alarm switch. Max cursed.
"All units! Alert!" Once again there was a moving pause. "Hunters activated! I repeat, seekers on their way!"
The action seemed to speed up. Several large trucks were backed up to the food storage units.
Max went to check on Unit Gamma. He was a little annoyed to note that one member was only setting free the _human_ slaves. He caught up to the man.
"All the jailbirds, Smith!" he reprimanded, pointing out the destitute elves.
"But they're not human, sir!" Max backhanded him. Shock registered in Smith's eyes.
"They're more human than you," Max said disgustedly. Human enough to save his wife's life shortly after the invasion.
There was an explosion. Max cursed again. "Forgot about those _seekers!_" He opened one of the cages holding elves, and they streamed out.
Except one. This one stared at him with huge eyes, clutching her leg, obviously unable to walk on it. He hurried in and lifted her.
"Get her to safety," he ordered Smith, forcing him to take her in his arms.
"But--"
"_GO!_" Smith went.
Max checked to make sure the rest of Unit Gamma was doing their job, then ran back out into the fray. It was chaos, real chaos now, no longer his.
A hunter-seeker crashed to the earth beside him, colliding with the slave compound's sturdy wall, felled by one of his people's rockets.
He took a quick hunter-count, followed up by a head-count just to be sure. He considered a wheel-count, but it was easy to see only one vehicle had been destroyed by concentrated fire, a modified SUV.
Six hunter-seekers hovered over the scene, three concentrating on the M113 (which was effectively unaffected) and the other three swarming like giant beach-balls of doom around the dump trucks, trying to discourage people from loading food, and doing fairly well.
He pulled a radio from his coat. "Winged Horse to Guardian Angel," he said, and Cecilia responded with a rasberry. "You need to take out the HS swarm around you with direct manuevering."
"Copy," she said, and a second later the seekers were scattered debris.
Max ran to the dump trucks and began firing at the hunter-seekers with his plasma weapon. He noted that the one other person with a plasma blaster was doing the same.
One of the worthwhile things about plasma weapons was that hunter- seekers weren't capable of recognizing plasma as enemy fire. Their programming was too narrow.
One seeker crashed to the ground, thanks to some concentrated fire, but one of the remaining two suddenly swiveled all of its attention on _him._
Max was running out of English curses, so he tried a few in Japanese. It didn't make him feel any better. He ran for the M113, the hunter following, spraying the ground behind him with anti-personnel fire.
"At least I'm drawing it away," he grumbled to himself.
A rocket freed itself from the launcher atop the M113 and tore into the hunter-seeker explosively. The M113 pulled forward slightly and Cecilia looked out the side at him. "Get in!" she yelled.
Max jumped into the passenger side and kissed his wife's cheek. "See what you can do about that last one," he told her.
Cecilia drove forward quickly and a little recklessly. The rocket- man riding shotgun cursed and braced himself against the acceleration. Max grabbed the dashboard. He noticed the Queliyg from before standing off in the sidelines. She looked a little ill.
_I wonder if it's from being hurt or from watching this oversized armor plated egg-carton,_ he thought, feeling a little ill himself.
"Fire at that seeker!" Cecilia shouted to the rocketeer. He complied.
"And the rockets' red glare, bombs bursting in air..." Max sang. Cecilia glanced at him, an amused little smile crossing her features.
The canister team began to move across to the building that housed the power source. The humans weren't sure exactly how the crystals the Queliyg used for power _worked,_ but they _did_ know that the pulsing white gems exploded nicely.
"All teams, how are you coming along with birdseed retrieval?"
A flood of positive responses chattered over the radio.
"Good. Prepare to fly." That primed them for the evacuation code word, "sparks."
They waited nervously, hoping the next few moments would be clear of warsuiters or cannoneers.
"Seed cart Alpha loaded." Max wiped a little sweat from his brow, then the wait resumed.
"Seed cart Delta ready to fly!" Seconds.
"Seed cart Beta itching to go!" Cecilia glanced at Max.
"Interesting way to put it," he commented. "Status, Cart Gamma!"
There was a pause that seemed much longer than it really was. "We're ready, Winged Horse."
"Grey Hawk?"
Arthur chuckled over the radio. "All units out."
"Team Pyro, are you ready?"
Some rather interesting sounding static crackled for a few seconds. "Yeah, we are, Winged Horse, just give the word!"
Max grinned and switched to all units. "Okay then! SPARKS! Repeat, SPARKS!"
Engines roared and revved as the task force took off. Mere seconds later Team Pyro piled into the back of the M113.
Cecilia put it into high gear and all the men yelled as the M113 roared off into the night.
--
Liyeny, the wounded Queliyg, realized suddenly what was happening when she noted a black slickness dotted sporadically over the ground.
She swore in her native tongue. "Everyone! OUT!" she screamed, following it with a shrill warning cry for good measure.
Like so many songbirds taking chaotic flight, the Queliyg ran ostrich- like away from the food production plant. Liyeny was just far enough away when the power crystals exploded. She fell to the ground.
"That human," she murmured angrily, high voice hissing in her rage, "Will pay for this!"
--
Max jumped out of the M113, then had to grab it to keep from dizzily falling over. There was much cheering and slapping of backs.
"What's wrong, Pegasus?" Arthur asked him. "Instead of looking deliriously happy, you just look-- well, delirious!"
"I'm recovering from Ceci's driving," Max replied in an undertone.
"I heard that!" said woman retorted, hugging him from behind.
Smith wandered over, the young elven woman still in his arms. She was babbling at him, tears running down her cheeks and a joyous grin on her lips.
"She keeps saying the same word over and over," Smith said, "And I can't understand it because it's elvish. What's she trying to tell me, sir?"
Max grinned. "She's thanking you, Smith. Over and over again, she's trying to get you to know how grateful she is."
Smith stared at the elf. "Could you tell her, I don't deserve it?"
Max spoke to her. She replied. "I'd say she thinks you deserve it," Max said.
Cecilia glanced at the human and elf. "Why, what did she say?"
Max shook his head at his wife. "I'll tell you later."
Keith chose this moment to walk over and congratulate Max on his plan. Max could see Cecilia narrow her eyes at the man in his peripheral vision.
"I don't trust him," she hissed in Max's ear once Keith had remerged with the crowd. "Something about him just seems false."
Max shrugged. "Well, I don't see any tailfeathers in his mouth, if that's what you mean."
Cecilia shook her head. "I'm not so sure..."
--
Domino, Japan; Sub-Town
Kel stared around Sub-Town like a little child who'd never been to the fair. Yugi grinned as he saw the awe in the elf's eyes.
"Yugi?" came the voice of Solomon Moto. Yugi and Kel turned to see him shuffling over, flanked by Joey, Tristan, and Seto. "Who is this?"
Seto blinked as he gave Kel a once-over. "Where did you find an elf?"
Téa came out of a modified subway car. "What's this about elves?" she asked.
"This is Kel," Yugi said with a smile, and Kel suddenly looked a little nervous to be around so many humans.
"Welcome, Kel," Solomon said kindly. "How did you come into aquaintance with my grandson here?"
"I was a slave," Kel managed quietly. "Yugi saved me from my human master."
Téa's eyes widened. "You were a slave? How awful!"
Seto crossed his arms. "All elves are slaves, or at least born that way." He contemplated a bare forearm. "You met and freed him all in one night?" he asked Yugi.
Yugi shrugged a little tensely. "I'm not completely sure how everything went," he admitted.
A pair of little arms encircled Seto's waist from behind. "Hello, Big Brother!" Mokuba said cheerfully, but he hung back just a little when he saw Kel.
Yugi studied all of their faces. _Yes,_ he thought, _it'll take getting used to, but I think they're off to a good start._
--
A few days later, as several of the "families" were getting low on food (except for seafood, as they had their own resident fisherman), Seto organized a little party to go to the surface for food.
Joey was going, of course, and Tristan was going because Joey was going. Téa was going, as well as Yugi and Kel (who refused to let Yugi go anywhere by himself excepting the facilities), and also Seto himself.
When they exited the subway the little group branched out into the city.
Téa walked by herself through the desolate streets, only too aware she was a "target."
"Why do I keep insisting to be a part of these things?" she complained to the air. She detoured into a little by-street, on her way to the semi-legal market near the center of the former industrial district.
Someone whistled wolfishly from a doorway. "Hey, pretty girl, where ya goin' at this hour?"
She sped up, but tried very hard to look like she hadn't. A rough, strong hand gripped her arm. She turned to stare into the face of an Enforcer, a man obviously older than she, who grinned down at her dangerously.
"Come on, sweet baby, I'm a guy in uniform," he said, apparantly thinking he was making a funny joke.
"Sorry, but I'm probably a little young for you, sir--" Téa tried to wrench free of his viselike grip. When he didn't let go, _bang!_ He hunched over in pain, knees together.
"Why you little--" he growled, voice cracking, and he fell into a stream of curses which may or may not have been directed at her. He managed to straighten and struck her across the face, causing her to stumble backwards.
"Téa!" came Yugi's voice, and the little teenager bounced out of the darkness and leapt onto her attacker. "You leave her alone!"
The Enforcer snarled and tried to shake Yugi off. Téa ran to her friend's aid and sank her teeth into the Enforcer's arm.
"HEY!" the Enforcer yowled, throwing them both off at once. Téa fell against a closed door and pain flooded her head as it cracked against the hard surface. Sinking to the ground, she whimpered and clutched her head. Yugi thudded to the ground.
The Enforcer began to advance on Téa, apparently savoring every moment.
There was a flash behind him, where Yugi had landed. "Turn, and face me, coward!" a deep tenor commanded.
"Wha?" The Enforcer turned to stare at "Yugi," whose face held a quiet, calm anger. "You want some more, punk?"
"We _could_ settle this with violence," "Yugi" said in a thoughtful way. "Of course, the fact that you always leap to fists says something about your intelligence."
"_What?_ You callin' me stupid, wise guy?"
"Yugi" feigned exasperation. "Was I somehow unclear enough to confuse you? I'm sorry. Perhaps you'd like to prove your intelligence?"
The Enforcer gave him a dark look. "How?"
Darkness surrounded them, "Yugi," the Enforcer, and even Téa, who wasn't really aware of what was going on anyway. "Well, if you can win this little game, then you can do what you will with both of us. If I win, however," and as he spoke something stirred in the darkness, "I will decide your fate."
"But I can do whatever I want with both of you anyway!" the Enforcer protested.
"Yugi" smirked. "Just try it," he replied. Something _slithered._ "Yugi" produced two sticks out of nowhere. They were long and smooth, one green and the other red, meant for bringing down small prey. "Since you seem so proud of your strength, we will use these." He tossed the green one to the Enforcer. "They are throw sticks. Whichever of us can throw the farthest wins. Simple enough, I'd say."
The Enforcer laughed. "Is that all? You ready then, twerp?" "Yugi" nodded. The Enforcer hurled with all his might. "Hahahaha! Beat that!"
"Yugi" shrugged. "If you really want me to," he said, sending the stick gliding through the air with skill and precision. The red stick thudded to the ground about two yards past the green one.
"What? You musta' cheated somehow!" The Enforcer charged at "Yugi," who simply stood there, unafraid.
"I don't cheat," "Yugi" said. "Curse of Dragon!"
Something golden, long, and serpentine slipped from the darkness and encircled the Enforcer with coils thicker than his very chest.
"Yugi" climbed up the side of the dragon, who reared its head to look over his shoulder at the Enforcer. The man realized with some startlement that Curse of Dragon was eyeless. "Yugi" turned and patted it in a frighteningly affectionate manner. "He's very limber for such a great old dragon, isn't he?"
"Wha--wha--?"
"Yugi"and the dragon gave each other what seemed to be amused glances. "Do with this one what you will," "Yugi" said, and dropped into the darkness.
--
Kel entered the scene to find the person who wasn't Yugi bent over Téa, gently asking her if she was sure she didn't have a concussion.
He approached, and the dark figure looked up, then smiled to see him.
"Who are you, really?" Kel asked. "You aren't Yugi."
The other shrugged. "I'm not quite sure anymore, really. Think of me as Yami. Call me Yugi."
Kel noticed the Enforcer, twitching on the ground, staring straight up, making little noises in his throat. "What did you do to him?"
"Nothing he didn't deserve," Yami replied darkly. "Take Téa back to Sub-Town."
"Where are you going?" Kel asked, gathering the girl in his arms.
Yami shrugged. "To get better aquainted with the modern world, I suppose." He began to walk away.
"Don't get lost!" Kel warned the retreating figure. Yami didn't answer.
--
Cecilia watched Max sketching one of his crazy dreams.
"You never did get around to telling me what that elven girl said when Smith said he didn't deserve her thanks," she said in an offhand way.
"Hmmm?" Max looked up a little dreamily. "Oh. Well, Ceci, it's a little akward in direct translations, but she basically said that Smith had pushed aside his own biases to save her, and that was something very hard to do. For her, it made him just as much a hero as saving her life did, maybe more."
"You're not telling everything," Cecilia prodded after a few seconds of silence.
Max grinned. "Were you aware that the elves believe that the saving of a life creates a bond far greater than friendship?"
Cecilia shook her head. "What's she going to do, follow him around for the rest of his life?"
Max actually giggled and started to sketch again. "Quite probably."
--
End Chapter Two. Man, this one was an ordeal!!