Nothing new to say, so let's get right to the chapter!
John: That's alright, thanks for reviewing!
Chapter 24: What Has Occurred
"Yo Abby, I'm back!" Matt called, walking into the house.
"So how did it go?" Abby asked, coming to the front.
"It went well. The official's powers are going to be pretty much taken away."
"That's good…" Abby suddenly broke off, coughing furiously.
"Are you alright?" Max asked, alarmed at the sudden change.
She nodded. "Yes… I'm ok…" Then she started coughing again, a very harsh sound.
"No, you aren't. You shouldn't even be up!" Matt shook his head. "You need help. You keep denying it, but this just confirms my worries." He took out his cell phone and quickly dialed 911, hastily giving directions to the doctor.
"What's going on?" Chasity inquired, walking in. Ender was right behind her.
"Your mom just needs to be looked over, that's all," Matt assured. "Chasity, will you do me a favor?"
"Sure, what is it?"
"Call Brandi, and tell her that her mom is sick."
"Leave it to me," Chasity nodded.
"Good." Matt looked out the window, hearing the siren of the ambulance. "Your mom will be fine. Just wait here, ok?"
Abby seemed to have gotten over her coughing spasm for the minute. "Hime?"
"Yes?" Her Soul Monster ran over to her.
"Look after… Chasity and Ender… while I'm gone."
"Of course. I hope you get better soon," Hime told her.
"Me too… thanks."
In a matter of minutes, Abby and Matt were driven off, leaving Chasity, Ender, and Hime staring into the direction that they had left.
-----
The first thing Hope felt was an aching hunger. She took off her Envoyant Machine with a moan.
"Looks like we all made it," Rue stated as he took off his Envoyant Machine as well.
"Of course we made it," Miles answered, wincing. "My stomach's telling me that."
"You're back!"
They turned to the doorway to see that Amy was there.
"Hi sis," Hope grinned. "Where are mom and Claire?"
"Claire's currently panicking, due to the fact that Max was in a coma but had suddenly moved out of bed with no problem, and your mom is preparing to make breakfast. You came just in time."
"That's good to know," Miles said. "We're starved!"
"That's to be expected," Amy laughed. "I'll go tell her to prepare something for all of you. You'd best try to comfort Claire-she's going nuts."
"Don't worry. Max should be back too," Hope reassured.
"Wait… he's ok?"
"Believe me, we were surprised to see him in Teknisk Wereld! But he came just in time to save us from a dinosaur Soul Monster," Hope explained. "So yeah, for the most part he's fine."
"We have to see Claire anyway," Brandi told her. "Mana got injured badly."
"So did Ruecian," Rue said.
"Then you'd best go get her Hope," Amy suggested. "The rest of you can just relax for now. After you eat, I'll want to hear about your adventures. I'm sure Claire will too."
"And Max," Will threw in. "He doesn't remember anything from when he had amnesia."
"Alright then. Hope, go see Claire before she goes insane."
"Sure, I'll be right back."
Hope ran up the stairs and stopped outside the door to her room. She waited outside, listening to the two talking.
"Oh, and Max, ignore my orders to stay in bed if you really must, but please do not take the bandage on your left arm off!"
"Why? What's so bad about… OH MY GOD! WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO ME?!"
Hope couldn't help but burst out laughing. Claire, hearing her, opened the door.
"Hope! Hi! Glad to see you're back, for more reasons than one. I'm totally confused!"
She came out into the hall way, Max following. He had wrapped the bandage back around his arm, but still looked very shocked.
"We're going to be telling about what happened while we were in Teknisk Wereld, but we have a few people and Soul Monsters that need to be looked after Claire," Hope explained.
"Like?"
"Gen was caught in an explosion, but he seems fine now. Fell was blasted with a cannon, but he's doing better too. Mana was hit with a bullet-she needs it to be extracted. Brandi was also injured fighting the officials, and her clothes are bloody-she needs something to change into. And Ruecian was bitten by a dinosaur Soul Monster-he needs serious attention."
"Sound bad," Claire inferred. "Mana has a bullet inside her? The sooner it comes out, the better. Let's bring her up to the guest room. As for Ruecian… I'll take care of him in the guest room too. I'm really glad there are two beds in there. Does Brandi have any grave wounds?"
"Nothing too harsh."
"Then I'll take care of her down there. Let's get downstairs."
They descended downstairs, and went into the living room, where everyone else was. Hope was thankful that it was such a big room-even with all of the Soul Monsters, there was enough room for everyone.
In a few minutes, Amy came to join them. "The food will be ready in a bit. In the meantime, I'd like to know about everything that's happened!"
"Same here," Claire agreed. She looked over at Ruecian, Mana, and Brandi. "Unless you guys want to be looked over now?"
"It can wait," Brandi shrugged. Mana and Ruecian nodded in agreement.
"Then let's hear about what happened!" Amy said.
"Hold on a minute," Max interrupted. "I thought you were dead too?"
"I was brought back to life by God," Amy replied.
"Right. While we're on the subject, did any other dead people suddenly come back to life?"
"Nah, nobody else that we know of," Gaston laughed.
"Good. I'm ready to hear about the events too," Max stated.
"Let's start at the beginning, for Max's benefit," Rue suggested.
"Alright… well, it all started when Brandi found me in Teknisk Wereld," Hope began. "You weren't back after a month had passed, and she and Matt were very worried. We all started searching for you. Three days later, I found you in an alley when Gaston and I were walking home. You were seriously injured, with several cuts, bruises, burns, and-as you saw-a broken wrist and an area where a shard of metal was embedded in the same arm."
"You're damn right that I saw it," Max growled. "I nearly had a heart attack from its condition."
"Well, it came from your Duel Disk, which had exploded. And Olympion was nowhere to be found. I called an ambulance, and you were brought to the hospital. I called the rest of the group, and they began to come to Illinois. The doctor discovered that you had amnesia, and the only thing that you recognized… well, we don't know why, but it was me. You didn't know my name, but you remembered who I was. We still don't know why… anyway, after one night you were brought to my house. That next night, when Gaston and I were on yet another walk, we heard a gunshot. We ran to where we heard it, and found Fell and Larka there. Luckily, Rue and Claire found us there, and with the help of Ruecian and Gaston we were able to transport them to my house. Claire was able to extract the bullets from Fell, and they spent a few days healing," Hope explained.
"In the morning, everyone else arrived." Hope laughed at the memory of how Will had entered. "Will experienced a few difficulties with Neo's bad habits of blowing up kitchens at a bed and breakfast."
"Typical," Max muttered.
"Don't remind me," Will growled.
"Brandi and Matt arrived the same day. Matt was able to teach you how to play Duel Monsters again, and you made a deck out of his spares. We decided to go to Teknisk Wereld tomorrow, to try and find whoever had attacked you."
"In the morning, I went to tell Larka that we would be gone for a while. She asked if she and Fell could come too, since they wanted to see Teknisk Wereld for themselves. I had two extra Envoyant Machines, so I let them borrow them. We spent the day exploring, showing you, Fell, and Larka some of the places in Teknisk Wereld. We found a place to camp in the forest, and fell asleep."
"Unfortunately, in the morning, we discovered our decks were gone! Fell found where the thief was hiding though, and we pursued him. Eventually, we had him surrounded."
"Yep, that thief was me!" Miles admitted. "I had been ordered by one of the top Commanders of Heaven to steal their decks, and then figure out the condition of you, Max. I thought there was no way that I could be forced to hand over the decks again, but a small problem came up."
"Much to our surprise, Fell turned out to have a deck!" Hope continued. "He had asked Matt last night if he could be taught how to play the game and if he and Larka could have a deck each from his spares. Matt agreed, and Fell made himself and Larka a deck each. Since they didn't have Duel Disks yet, Fell borrowed mine and beat Miles in a duel. Pretty impressive, considering it was his first one."
"After he creamed me, I handed over the decks and turned traitor on the Commanders of Heaven," Miles said. "Why? Well, that was something I didn't want to disclose at the moment… but I think I should explain why now."
"About time!" Rue exclaimed.
"Heh, yeah." Miles was still missing his bandana since Brandi's leg wound was covered by it, so everyone could see the scar on his neck. He indicated to it. "See this thing? I have no idea how I acquired it. In fact, I don't remember anything about my past. That's why I abandoned them. I had been told, if I worked with them, that eventually I would get my memory back. But when I saw that others were losing their memories… I just didn't want anyone else to go through what I had to. So I've been trying to help however I can here."
"That's terrible," Hope said softly.
"Yeah, but I've gotten over it," Miles shrugged. "Shall we continue?"
"Right. Well, after that happened, we decided to go back to the real world to get Fell and Larka registered for Teknisk Wereld. Claire and Larka had a free duel, but after that we left. Miles agreed to meet up with us later. I took Fell and Larka to registration, and they got their Envoyant Machines, Duel Disks, and Soul Cards. After that was taken care of, we went back to the house. Claire announced that she would not be coming, as she wanted to take care of you and Fell. The rest of us went to Teknisk Wereld after we were finished getting ready."
"We met up with Miles at the hotel, and then went to the mountains. Once we arrived at the top, we were suddenly teleported away. The cause was soon apparent-a Commander of Heaven has brought us to a building in the sky. Her name was Rika-I believe she called her Soul Monster Rikku? It was a Black Forest Witch, anyhow. We were trapped in an Iron Cage of Nightmares, but Draken came in and dueled Rika. Although there were a few close moments, he managed to beat her Exodia Necross deck. Furious at her loss, she freed us but tried to kill us. Fell slew her first, and then we left."
"And you weren't surprised to see him alive?" Max asked.
"Of course we were!" Rue answered. "But it was a damn good thing he did come back to life, or else we'd be dead now."
"Oh, I have a question for you Draken," Will said. "How were you able to carry a sword in Teknisk Wereld?"
"Apparently, the Commanders of Heaven took down the barrier around Teknisk Wereld," Draken answered. "So I had no problem taking my sword in. Anyway, do you want to continue Hope?"
"Sure. Darche also helped us. When we left the temple, he called over three Blue Eyes White Dragons to assist us. We rode them down from the sky, landing quickly. When we did, we got an announcement that a new booster pack series had come out, and that certain cards were banned."
"Like?"
"Injection Angel Lily, Cyber Pod, Fiber Pod, Yatagarasu, Mischievous Demon Twins, Distressing Choice, Change of Heart, Thunderbolt, Harpy's Feather Sweep, and Imperial Decree."
"…Damn it to hell. So that's why my deck seemed to be missing a few cards."
"Yep. Our reactions were similar to that. We went, got some booster packs, and then went back to the lake." She blushed slightly. "Zack ambushed us. I was nearly killed, but you tackled me, saving me from his switch blade. Brandi and Fell battled him, but it was only when a Blue Eyes came to assist us that we had an edge. Zack used up all of his electricity on the Blue Eyes, and as an alternative method of killing us decided to duel us."
"Hope beat me in a duel," Zack continued. "But she couldn't bring herself to kill me, so I decided to stay with them."
"So you're strong, huh?" Max leaned across and banged his fist against Zack's arm. A metallic echo answered his strike. "Yep. Definitely not human."
"The more help the better though," Hope shrugged. "Zack said that he thought a Commander would be at the volcano. We sailed there, and found one. Her name was Madura, and her Soul Monster was a Lava Golem nicknamed Lavos. She demanded that you were to duel her Max, or else she would have the volcano erupt, killing us all."
"And I accepted?"
"Yes." Hope shivered. "It was awful. She used a Burner deck. You were forced to duel in the cage Lavos carried. Every time she did damage to you, flames burned you… that's why you're so badly burned. Lavos did all of the damage."
Max looked at his right arm, which had been severely burned. "I must have sucked at dueling. How else would I have taken this much damage?"
"Well, you weren't the best player, but you still managed to kick her ass with your Trap deck," Rue threw in. "She was ticked off at losing, and ordered Lavos to kill you."
"I overreacted," Brandi said quietly. "I jumped over to where Madura stood and broke her ribs and arm. She managed to press a button on her Duel Disk that started an eruption. I was so furious that I crushed her skull."
"Brutal but effective," Max commented.
"Lavos was crushed by a part of the volcano collapsing," Hope went on. "You were released from the cage, but fell towards the magma. We had no way to save you… we were forced to run before the eruption caught us too. We made it outside, thinking you were dead."
"But Zack had stayed behind. He has some kind of device that allows him to hover for a short time. So he grabbed you before you fell into the lava, and managed to get out of the volcano before it erupted."
"I had to be saved? Man, I must have been really weak," Max said in disgust.
"It wasn't your fault," Hope assured. "Anyone with amnesia would have needed help. Well, it was evident that we needed you to be healed. I left with you, and Claire agreed to look after you. She's the one who took care of you."
"I see."
"I went off to the card store to get some cards to help us, only to be caught by the officials. They arrested me."
"Arrested you? I remember you mentioning it, but how the hell did they manage to pull that off?"
"The Commanders of Heaven are some high ranking officials. They made it seem as though we were Generals of Hell. Remember that orb and cloak we used to access the lake? My fingerprints were on it, and that was enough evidence for them."
"What a bunch of garbage," Max muttered.
"Too true. Nothing eventful happened to me, except that a woman-we later found out that her name was Malady-came to talk with me. Apparently, she was a high-ranking Commander of Heaven, and was trying to capture the others as well."
"I'll pick it up from here," Rue volunteered. "We went to the hotel, which is where agreed to meet us. We got concerned when we found out that she wasn't there though. Hector didn't know where she was either, and believe me, if he had seen her he would have remembered. We decided to start searching for her, and went to the mountains to begin looking. That's when we met some… old acquaintances," he snickered.
"Who would they be?"
"Does the name Caleb and Ifrit ring a bell?" Will asked.
"Those two idiots again? Damn it! Why did I have to be sick at that time? I would have loved to have destroyed them again."
"Don't worry; Will, Miles, and Draken creamed them."
"Wait. Why was it three against two? Even if it was Rue against the two of them alone, he would have won."
"What do you mean, even?!" Rue protested.
"They had a new pal who called himself Buster Blader," Will explained. "It's hard to decide which of them is the most moronic."
"Ok, next time you see them, make sure I get to take part in killing them."
"Of course," Rue assured. "After they were dragged off by Ifrit's brother, we continued our search. Soon we came across the cave where Zenith had once dragged Hope into, and decided to look there. Turns out the officials had an ambush planned. Miles activated Gravity Bind so we wouldn't be shot to death, but unfortunately, we were unable to do anything since Gravity Bind affected us too."
"Smart going," Max said sarcastically to Miles.
"Hey, at least we weren't killed," Miles pointed out.
"I dueled the leader of the group, some guy called Carlo," Rue continued. "He used some kind of Revolution deck, but I still won. The officials were slain, since that was our agreement, and we left Teknisk Wereld. You see, Carlo told us that Hope had been arrested, and we weren't about to let them get away with that! We hoped that Claire would have some idea of where she was, since Claire was the last person who had seen her."
"We had gotten a call saying that Hope had left to answer some questions from the officials," Claire explained. "So when I was told by the others that she had been arrested, I was as surprised as anyone!"
"Fortunately, Zack had been to the official's headquarters in the past," Will said. "Although the officials tried to delete the map they had installed into his mind, Zack was able to bring up the location again. It was in Springfield though, so we had to spend four hours on a bus trip to get there. Once we arrived, Zack was able to successfully locate the building."
"There were some guards at the front, but Fell killed them easily," Rue went on. "And we still have no idea how. He moved so damn fast that it was difficult to even see him! But that's beside the point. We went inside, and found an elevator. The Soul Monsters went first, but were ambushed. Gen was shot in the arm, but luckily no other injuries occurred. We wanted to help, but an electric force field blocked us from the fight. But Zack was able to absorb the force field, and then shot it at the officials. They were fried instantly."
"It looks like there are more uses to you than meets the eye," Max stated, looking over at Zack.
"Perhaps. However, absorbing that much electricity took it out of me. I was completely exhausted for the rest of the time we spent there."
"Well, we went on, and found another official who called himself Todd, with a Death Kangaroo called Jack."
"The movie Kangaroo Jack was terrible," Max commented.
"Funny that you should mention that-Mana said something similar. But anyway, I dueled him, and easily won. We went on afterwards," Will continued. "Eventually, we found Hope, and thanks to Miles' ability to pick locks, she was soon free and we were ready to get the heck out."
"But when we got back to the place where the Soul Monsters had been ambushed, we found Malady waiting for us, with her Soul Monster-a Stealth Bird called Streak," Rue said. "Previously, she had locked some kind of iron collar around Hope's neck, which allowed her to control her movements. Hope nearly strangled me to death," he remembered, wincing at the memory. "However, Brandi dueled her and won. Even after we won, Malady wasn't about to play fair. She had a group of ten reinforcements, and we were about to be owned, badly."
"But that was when Fell's Soul Monster finally decided to show up," Larka went on. "Daine slaughtered the ten officials. Malon also came out, and managed to seize the remote control Malady used to control Hope's movements. I pressed a button on it, and the collar fell off. Malady fled when she saw that she stood no chance, and we got out of the building as fast as possible."
"However, when we reached the alleys that we needed to use to get out of here, Zack fell unconscious. Apparently, he had used too much energy and couldn't go on," Miles explained. "Luckily, I had memorized the way instinctively-that's what good thieves do, they remember where their escape routes are. We managed to get back to the bus stop, only to find it closed."
"I had arrived here for a surprise visit," Amy said. "Claire told me of what happened, and I told Hope's mom. Ms. Gales and I drove to Springfield and picked up everyone, and then we went back to the house."
"The next morning, we saw that they had placed a wanted ad for us in the newspaper," Miles reminded them. "Reward for catching us, we were highly dangerous, yata yata yata. In other words, it sucked. But we went to Teknisk Wereld in hopes of finding Malady."
"We got a surprise when we arrived in Teknisk Wereld," Hope recalled. "Sarius, the Child, Raid, and Cyrus ran into us."
"I thought he went after Juno?"
"He didn't discuss what he did," Rue shrugged. "Isn't that typical? You can never get a straight answer from Sarius, the Child talks in Japanese, Raid only growls and snarls and roars, and Cyrus doesn't speak unless he's required to."
"Sarius was acting stranger than usual though," Hope continued. "He seemed surprised when he looked at Fell and Larka… as though there was something unique about them. It couldn't have been that they were new additions to our group-he seemed interested enough in Miles and Draken, but not as curious about them as about Fell and Larka."
"He requested a tag team duel with us," Larka went on. "We narrowly won. After that, we went on, and ran into some of Hope's friends. I think their names were Julia, Samuel, Toan, and Josh?"
"The girl, the guy who loves her, and the freak obsessed with sheep, cows, and getting bitten by dogs? I know those three, but who's Josh supposed to be?" Max inquired.
"Just another pal of mine from school who uses a Vic Viper deck," Hope explained. "But Draken beat him easily… poor guy. We went into the forest after they assured that they would keep any officials that came nearby busy with a sheep stampede."
"When we arrived in the forest, we ran into someone that I never expected to see in Teknisk Wereld," Brandi said. "Our mother."
"Whoa, wait. What was our mother doing there?"
"She wanted to see me. We had a free duel, which I barely won with Mana's help. Yeah, I guess we forgot to mention a new rule. Apparently, Soul Monsters can be special summoned to the field in a duel now. We don't know the consequences to this though. After that, Chasity and Ender…"
"Hold the phone. How were they in Teknisk Wereld?"
"It was an experiment some officials were doing. They needed to test a barrier of some kind to see if children would be safe in Teknisk Wereld. Matt had come also, in case anything went wrong. Anyway, Chasity destroyed Rue in a duel."
Max couldn't help but laugh at that. "So how did you feel Rue, getting beaten by a six year old girl?"
"Aw shut up," Rue grumbled.
"Ender also beat Hope in one turn," Brandi said. "It was a pretty incredible combo he pulled off."
"We parted ways, Matt and Abby assuring that they would try to help us. We went to the lake to see if Hope's pals were still there," Rue continued. "They were gone, but we had another kind of welcoming party. A group of twenty officials, with an official called Ian as the leader, were there."
"Wait. Isn't Ian…?"
"Hold on, we'll get to that," Hope assured. "Ian used Prohibition Order on us, making it so that we couldn't leave Teknisk Wereld or use support cards."
"They can do that? How cheap is that?" Claire complained.
"Yeah, that's what we were thinking too," Hope laughed. "Especially when Ian had Agro, his Black Tyrano Soul Monster, attack us! Gen managed to steal Ian's Skull Blood Pirate Ship though, and we set sail. Mana, Ruecian, and Neo provided as a distraction for Agro until we were ready, and then we were off!"
"Unfortunately, we were caught in a storm," Miles recalled. "Larka was knocked overboard. Malon, Daine, and Fell leapt after her. The rest of us landed on an island. When the weather cleared up, we started to sail back to mainland. Before boarding the ship, Darche sent three of his Blue Eyes friends to search for Fell, Larka, Malon, and Daine."
"I woke up to find myself on a small rocky island with Malon," Daine said. "Luckily, a Blue Eyes White Dragon found us, and brought us to the ship, where we met up with the others."
"When I was hit by the tidal wave, I was almost instantly knocked unconscious. When I finally came around, I discovered that the officials had found me. Since I was a little tied up at the moment-pun intended-I was finding the situation to be pretty hopeless," Larka stated.
"A little earlier, I had finally awakened," Zack continued. "I went to Teknisk Wereld, and found Larka. Luckily, most of the officials were gone, so I was able to get her away from the area."
"We hid in a cave until my blood circulation was ok again," Larka went on. "After that, we left, avoiding the town since we didn't want to be seen. On our way to the shore, we fell through the ground. When we regained consciousness, we found ourselves on a huge book. There was also a little girl who was about eight years old. She called herself Cally. Well, she was trapped in the Toon World magic card, and apparently so were we."
"Toon World? I've seen that card. It doesn't seem like the best place to fall into," Max pointed out.
"It turned out ok though. Zack defeated Cally in a duel, and although disappointed that her new friends were leaving her home, she let us go. We went to the shore after that, and spent the rest of the day waiting." Larka turned to her brother. "What happened to you, Fell?"
"…I was in the forest. I spent the day around the town, trying to hear of any new information. But there was nothing important spoken."
"Oh my gosh. Did Fell just say something longer than a sentence? I'm hearing things!" Miles joked.
"When we arrived at the shore, we found Zack, who was unconscious," Hope said. "When he came around, he said that Larka had attacked him. Daine explained that on the night of the full moon, Fell and Larka would go insane, attacking and killing every person that they could. We were never told why though."
"I guess you have a right to know now," Larka sighed. She brushed her hair to the side, revealing her wolf-like ear.
"What the hell happened to you?" Max asked.
"He summed it up pretty well," Draken stated.
"When we were six, we were taken from our home to be experimented on by a cruel scientist called Viken. He wanted to turn us into werewolves, or something similar. It was a harsh life… Hope found us on the night we finally escaped. We have extraordinary hearing, greater strength and stamina than normal humans, and we can run at incredibly fast speeds when necessary," Larka explained.
"So that's why you've never cut your hair," Miles muttered.
"Basically. We also go insane when it is a full moon. Our powers are enhanced, and we try to slay as many people as possible. We are aware of what we are doing… but until the night is over, we don't care…" Larka said quietly.
"And even when the night is over, Fell doesn't seem to care," Draken pointed out.
"Draken!" Hope snapped. "That was uncalled for!"
"Geez, I'm sorry, alright?" Draken rolled his eyes. "But you have to admit that I have a point."
"You are correct," Fell concurred. "I do not concern myself with the deaths of others, even when it was I that killed them."
"You're just saying that," Larka disagreed, shaking her head.
"How about we continue the story?" Claire suggested, changing the subject.
"Alright. Well, we went after them. Luckily, the only people Larka killed were a group of officials," Hope recalled. "Malon was able to bring her under control. Although how they do it is a mystery to us, Malon and Daine have the ability to keep them from getting out of control on the full moon. So when Malon was close by Larka, she returned to normal. We also found one of Darche's Blue Eyes friends, who had been wounded by Fell. It was a good thing that it was night time, or many more deaths would have come from Fell… he slaughtered almost everyone in the town. When we finally found him, he tried to kill Brandi, but Rue saved her. He died though."
"…He died? Then why is he sitting right in front of me, looking as idiotic as ever?" Max questioned.
"Can you even talk about me without insulting me somehow?" Rue muttered.
"Well, after Daine got Fell under control, we were cornered by several officials. But Demon Rue came and saved the day by slaughtering them with some kind of black magic," Hope explained.
"Demon Rue?" Max inquired.
"Remember when Rue went crazy against the official that kidnapped Claire? You were really seeing Demon Rue. It's like… some sort of Demon lives in his body. We don't know much about it though."
"Actually… I do," Claire said softly.
Everyone stared at her.
"What?" Hope asked in disbelief.
"Rue and I… are not technically brother and sister. We found Rue when he was about six, stranded. My mother and father found out that his parents had abandoned him. They found Rue's father, and demanded to know why he had gotten rid of Rue. Apparently…" Claire hesitated.
"Go on," Rue encouraged, looking somewhat desperate.
"…He said that you had killed his wife… your own mother."
Rue stared at her, shocked.
"He didn't give that many details. But some man or another was harassing your mother. You got furious when he injured her, and went insane. You killed the man, but your mom died too… it was a complete accident though. You had been aiming for the man, not your mother. Still, your father was enraged, and scared of you. So he abandoned you. We took care of you, and since you had no memory of the incident, we did not tell you of it."
"…I see," Rue said, looking down at the floor.
"I'm sorry Rue… I knew I would have to tell you eventually. I just wasn't sure when."
"It's fine… thanks for telling me," he sighed. "But why? Why did I kill my mother that time? The other time I became Demon Rue… against that official, Guy… why did I only try to kill him and the other officials?"
"Nobody will know that, except for you," Claire told him. "You are sharing a body with the Demon, so you will be the one who knows him best. Only you can find out his motives, if anyone can that is."
Rue was silent, thinking about that.
Actually, she's correct. Your sister has some intelligence, even if she is a human…
Rue looked around wildly. "Who said that?!"
"And now you're hearing things," Max sighed. "Anyway, who's Guy?"
"Well, as I was saying, Demon Rue killed all of the officials, but the leader. The leader, called Guy, dueled Demon Rue and lost. Even his Soul Monster, a Grizzly Mother called Wanda, couldn't save him. He was killed too, and then Demon Rue turned back into Rue. Demon Rue had healed him, so Rue was still alive, just exhausted. We didn't want to stick around, so we climbed up a mountain. It was tricky without support cards, but we made it alright," Hope said.
Rue shook his head. That's weird… I'm sure I heard someone say something…
"When we arrived at the top, we got ambushed again, by a group of about thirty officials," Larka continued. "Fell was hit with a charged Wave Motion Cannon, and was knocked unconscious. Zack also fell unconscious when the leader of the group used Acid Rain on him. Brandi and Mana stayed behind to defeat the officials, while the rest of us ran towards the top of the mountain."
"Mana and I managed to kill all of the officials," Brandi went on. "My leg was injured by a bullet grazing it, and Mana was hit in the side by one too. We fell unconscious. I woke up when a Queen Bird landed and pecked me on the shoulder. I punched it twice, one hitting it in the eye, and it flew off. That's all I can remember."
"When we got to the mountain top, we found Malady," Hope said. "I dueled her, and won. She and Streak died by her own Black Snake Sickness. We went back down to get Fell, Zack, Brandi, and Mana. Fell, Zack, and Mana were still unconscious, but Brandi was up and managed to carry Mana down. Larka helped Fell, while Gaston and Darche assisted Zack. Then we went over the other side."
"I rushed down the mountain to find a place that we could stay, Gen following," Miles picked up the story. "Unfortunately, someone was waiting for us. We were knocked out. When we woke up, we were in some kind of cave. A man called Robin apparently had some kind of grudge against me. We dueled, and even though his deck was made specifically to counter mine, I still won. He committed suicide since that was the rules of losing the duel, and his Soul Monster-an Android Psycho Shocker, Android for short-blew himself up. Gen protected me from the blast, so I was ok, but Gen needed some recovery time."
"Malon found a tunnel, and we followed it," Larka explained. "When we got to the end, there was a cave. We found Miles and Gen there, both out of it. Will managed to rouse Miles, and then we left. But after burying Robin and Android, we decided to rest in the cave. Rue seemed better-he had been weary from having Demon Rue possess him, but he was ok after some time. So Rue, Ruecian, Draken, and Darche stayed at the entrance to be sentries. Mana came around, and then Gen. Zack finally woke up too, and went outside to the tunnel to recharge. Then Fell regained consciousness too, saying that he heard someone else out in the tunnel. We went to investigate."
"I had set myself to wake up if anyone approached, just as a safety precaution," Zack stated. "Someone had tunneled from above, and tried to kill me. I was able to fight her off though. I recognized her… she was a woman I had known called Heather. An old friend of mine who wanted revenge for something I did not mean to do. I have a device in my body that makes it so that I cannot commit suicide… so I had no choice but to duel her. I was forced to kill someone that had once been my friend. I couldn't take it; I ran out of the tunnel, not knowing or caring where I was going."
"I followed him, as did Gaston," Hope continued. "When we finally caught up with him, we also found Ian. Agro was too much to handle just by ourselves; I had Gaston run back to get help. Darche called a Blue Eyes White Dragon for help, and Ruecian was able to absorb some of the dragon's power. Agro was nearly killed by Ruecian, but Ian used Emissary of Peace, creating a stalemate. Draken and Ian dueled, and Draken won. But Ian wasn't about to give up just yet. Agro bit Ruecian, and would have slain him if Olympion hadn't killed him first. Then Olympion slew Ian. We were all amazed to see that Max was there, and back to being himself. Brandi fainted in relief and exhaustion. I tore up the Prohibition Order, so we could leave. Ruecian was seriously injured though, so we stayed through the night so that he could recover. Then we came back. That's all there is really to tell."
"It's amazing, what you've done in such a short amount of time," Amy commented. "And that you still wish to continue to battle for what's right. All I can say is good luck on this, and that I hope I can help somehow."
"Same here," Claire agreed. "Now, Brandi, Mana, and Ruecian, let's get upstairs. I want to look over your injuries."
"It's not that bad…" Brandi shrugged, wincing at her shoulder.
"So you say. Come on, I'm not taking no as an answer."
"The rest of you can eat now," Hope's mother called from the dining room.
"At long last!" Miles exclaimed, leaping up.
"Can you make it up there ok, Ruecian?" Rue asked.
Ruecian nodded.
"I hope you feel better soon. I'll see you soon."
"I'm going outside," Amy said. "Maybe I can pick up a newspaper, to show what's going on."
"Good plan," Hope replied. "Come back as soon as possible."
"Don't worry, I will."
-----
"That should take care of things," Claire finally said, when she had finished tying the bandage around Brandi's leg. "You're set. Do you need some new clothes?"
"Yeah, but it's ok-I brought spares."
"That's good. Then go ahead and get something to eat. I'll take care of Mana. Oh, and tell Miles he can have his bandana back soon. Neo can also have his cape back shortly."
"Alright. Thanks."
Rue and Miles had also changed clothes, since theirs were bloody too; Rue had had his heart stabbed after all, and Robin had attacked Miles. Luckily, they too had brought spares. Rue wore an outfit that was identical to his other one; Hope wondered if he ever wore anything different. Miles, on the other hand, now had on a dark blue t-shirt and dark brown shorts. His red bandana was missing, due to the amount of blood on it, but he would have it back on soon. Brandi wore a white sleeveless top, and sky blue shorts.
"Hey Miles, Claire's going to wash your bandana. She said you can have it back soon."
"Thanks."
"What about my cape?" Neo questioned.
"So that's why you looked so unusually stupid," Max commented. "I was wondering what had changed about you."
"Oh shut up," Neo muttered.
"Claire said she'd wash it too, so don't worry too much about it."
-----
Claire looked over Ruecian's wounds, and winced. "Well, at least Rue gave you Red Potions… that should help make you heal faster." She brought out an injection. "I'm going to have to inject you with this liquid. It'll cause you to fall asleep so that you won't feel any pain. That ok?"
He nodded.
"Alright, good. You should wake up in a few hours." She found a vein on his arm and injected the liquid. Ruecian was asleep almost instantly, and Claire was soon working away. She was forced to remove the top portion of his armor to be able to bandage some of the wounds, but luckily there were hardly any injuries on the lower half of his body. After about half an hour, she was done.
"Poor guy…" Claire muttered. "I wonder how his armor will be mended… oh well, we can worry about that later." She drew the covers over Ruecian's unconscious form, and then went outside to where Mana was waiting. "Mana? I'm ready to look over you."
"Alright…" She walked inside and sat on the bed, casting a curious look at Ruecian.
"He's asleep, and won't wake up for a few hours," Claire answered the unspoken question. "So where were you hit?"
Mana indicated to her side. Claire nodded. "I see. Well, I'm going to need for you to take off your armor so I can extract the bullet."
"Um… but what if…?"
"No, Ruecian will not wake up, and I'll make sure nobody enters."
"Alright then."
After another half hour, the bullet was extracted, and Mana's side was bandaged.
"Now all you need is rest," Claire said. "You're really lucky-your armor slowed down the bullet, so it wasn't as hard to get out as most bullets are. Just relax. I'm going to look over you a little bit longer-who knows what other kinds of wounds you could have acquired."
"Thanks."
-----
"Oh, this is impossible!" Chaisty cried out in frustration. "I don't even know Brandi's cell phone number! How am I supposed to contact her?"
She had spent a few aggravating minutes looking at phone books, but had soon realized that they were not about to help. And she couldn't enter Teknisk Wereld without her mother. What other way was there to contact her sister? Whatever it was, she wasn't thinking of it.
"You only needed to ask me," Ender told her, handing over a sheet of paper with the phone number on it.
"How did you find her number?" Chaisty asked.
"It's called the internet, genius."
"Oops. I kinda forgot about that," Chasity replied, blushing slightly.
Ender rolled his eyes. He constantly had to remind her of the simplest of things.
-----
They had finished eating, and were now discussing what to do next.
"Let's take a break from Teknisk Wereld," Miles suggested. "We've spent the past few days there. No need to jump back in so quickly."
"Besides, Ruecian and Mana have to heal up anyway," Hope agreed. "Alright, I guess we're just going to relax until they're better."
"Sounds like a plan," Draken said.
At that moment, a ringing caught their attention.
"My cell phone," Brandi explained as she leapt up. "Hang on, I'm going to see who it is."
Max followed her out into the living room (the others were in the family room), where she picked up the cell phone.
"Hello?"
"Hi. It's me, Chasity."
"Chasity? Hi! How did you come across my number?"
"Ender found it on the internet. Listen, Matt asked me to tell you something. Our mom-she's seriously ill."
"Mom's sick? What's wrong?!" Brandi asked frantically.
Max, overhearing what she said, ripped the phone away from her hand. Ignoring her protests, he listened to what Chasity was saying.
"-started coughing, and Matt said he thinks she might be ok, but he sounded really unsure. I'm sorry, but I don't know what kind of condition she'll be in. I get the feeling it could be serious. So yeah, that's all I know. Matt wants you to come down as soon as possible. Hello? Brandi? Are you there?"
Max pressed the end button on the phone, and tossed it back to Brandi.
"What did she say?"
"It might be serious," Max sighed. "Matt wants us to come down and see her. Well, he wants you to come, but he doesn't know that I'm better."
"Will we?"
"I don't know." Max shook his head. "I just don't know… we're needed here, to deal with the Commanders of Heaven… but what about mom? What if she dies while we're gone? I'd never forgive myself…"
Brandi gave him a look of concern. But before she could say anything, the front door flew open.
"Amy! What's wrong?" Brandi asked when she saw Hope's sister. She looked somewhat pale.
"It's the officials! I don't know how, but they know where you guys are. They're approaching the house as we speak!"
To be continued…