A Day in the Life of Malik Ishtar
Chapter Six: A Fight, A Threat, and a Kaiba in Need of Pain Killers
Disclaimer: I wish owned Yu-Gi-Oh so I could dub it better. . . But Malik is still Marick, so that is not to be. I grieve!
Author's notes, take one: Wow. It's been a while, huh? I've had a busy summer. . . And now marching band has taken over my life, but hey. I've got an hour and a half before our first competition so I might as well see if I can work on this thing a bit! And just a special (though belated) thanks to all of you reviewers, helping me out with little plot things and grammar issues and whatnot. Being the lazy bum I am, I really do appreciate it. ; Also being the lazy bum that I am, I'm not going to go back and change what I messed up.. so just work with me here, people! Now, for one little thing for this chapter: I think I'm going to start giving the Hunters numbers or something, because it's really getting annoying to see "a Hunter", "the Hunter", and so on. And with that, I give you chapter six!
The author notes again: So, how long has this document been gathering dust on my computer? Quite a while. Almost a year, right? Goodness gracious. So much has happened since I last worked on this. My writing's gone through so many changes in just this school year alone, and my interests have gone haywire and Yu-Gi-Oh is hardly a part of my daily stream of thoughts. However, this fic is something I occasionally come back to and read, not to mention laugh at. This was some good stuff. So, for a third time, I'm going to try and finish this.
The last note, seriously: I have no idea what the plot is anymore. Haha. I'm doing this from memory because I no longer have the Yu-Gi-Oh DVDs. Wish me luck?
Malik was being walked back to the dock with his hands bound behind his back and a Hunter (number Twenty-two, let's say) behind him. He felt like a prisoner of his own subordinates, even though it was just an act to convince the fully conscious Anzu that her new friend, Namu, wasn't a diabolical evil mastermind bent on killing her Pharaoh friend and then proceeding to take over the world. Although, now that Malik thought of it, his prisoner role was extraneous, since his precise orders to the Hunters for this particular job was to knock /i of the victims out. Of course, this error was due to the Hunters' miniscule brain capacity and their lack of following orders directly. It had nothing to do with Malik's inability to properly control his mind slaves. Nothing at all!
They were then lead to a large abandoned warehouse. Anzu was tossed into a room that was filled with empty boxes that were stacked up on the far wall (there was a window on that wall, too, but no one really seemed to care). Jounouchi was sat and tied to a chair in one of the larger rooms.
"You can untie me now," Malik said to number Twenty-three, nettled.
Twenty-three stared down at him with blank, glazy eyes for a moment before responding to the order.
"Thank you, my blundering oaf of a slave," Malik mocked sarcastically, landing a swift backhand on the side of Twenty-three's face. He freed the poor man from the Rod's control. "From now on I trust you will listen carefully to my orders and not botch things up again. Right?" he asked with a glare, raising the Rod's glinting shaft. Twenty-three's eyes widened at its sharp tip and he backed away shakily, nodding his head. Satisfied, Malik overpowered the man's mind again and Twenty-three's eyes regained their blank, distant look.
"Keep an eye on them," Malik told Twenty-two and three as he turned to leave. It was starting to get late and he was hungry, having completely forgotten about lunch. He decided to grab something to eat at the yacht, then go back to the warehouse to wait for the Pharaoh's duel to finish.
"This is taking too long," Malik muttered as he leaned back in his chair, folding his arms behind his head. "Why can't they get through with their stupid duel already?" He closed his eyes and focused on one of his dueling Hunters in order to watch. Now we're down to 7 questions.
In front of him (or the Hunter, rather) was the Pharaoh with a stupid, aghast look on his face as he looked to his left. The Hunter's gaze drifted across the dueling field and fixed on Kaiba, who was in mid-cackle.
"And now," Kaiba shouted after completing his cackle, "feel the true power and wrath of the God Card Obelisk!"
"That was corny, Kaiba," the Pharaoh commented.
"Shut up, Yugi, I don't see you winning the duel here. Besides, you start running out of attack lines after a while."
"You'd better think of some new ones, then, we still have over 77 episodes to go until the end."
"Fine, whatever. Can I finish this now?" Kaiba glared sidelong at the Pharaoh. He completed question 6.
"Why, of course!"
All the while, Obelisk was frozen in a rather awkward position. He was about to take a step toward the unfortunate Hunter with his fist pulled back and ready to attack. However, he was balancing on one foot, and being a big, blue, armor-covered God standing on a tiny rooftop, he was unable to keep his balance. With an erratic windmill of his arms, he toppled over the side of the building.
"Look what you did, Yugi!" Kaiba roared, infuriated.
"That wasn't my fault!"
"Yes it was!"
"No it wasn't!"
"Yes it was!"
"No it wasn't!"
Obelisk's hand reappeared and clutched the side of the building, and with one giant heave he managed to pull himself back onto the rooftop. He went through with his attack, although Kaiba did not reiterate the command.
"Boring," Malik grumbled. He opened his eyes and glared across the room at nothing really in particular, though whatever it was his eyes were focusing on was going to get a hole in it from the glare's intensity. The only reason that duel was "boring" was because Malik knew the outcome - just like when he tried to watch movies and he figured out "who done it" and eliminated the need to watch the story unfold. It was obvious his bumbling idiots of minions were going to lose the duel, and Malik didn't feel like watching.
No, Malik had better things to do. Like taunt the blonde boy with weird hair, then make his presence known to the Pharaoh and Kaiba at the end of their duel. Right. He had this villain thing down to a fine science.
So Malik trekked from the yacht to the warehouse and brushed passed his bouncer-like Hunter guards without so much as a "hello". Which, really, made sense - why greet drooling zombie men who couldn't tell their master from a ripe watermelon unless told otherwise? Up a dark hallway which vaguely wreaked with the smell of damp cardboard, there was a room shrouded in darkness, save the bright light turned on and hovering over the slumped figure of Jounouchi. Hearing footsteps, Jounouchi raised his head and saw Malik approach.
"N-Namu?" Jounouchi managed to croak. His head was throbbing from. . .what was it? He couldn't remember. Maybe he got hit by a semi-truck - that sounded like a reasonable injury to make his head hurt that much. "Look," he continued, not waiting for a response, "I've almost gotten my hands out of these armrest cuff things. Someone didn't close them all the way. And - " Jounouchi stopped short and stared at Malik, who had come over to his chair and forcefully closed the cuffs over his wrists.
Jounouchi squinted, half glaring and half trying to see straight, wondering if this newcomer wasn't Namu after all. "Who are you?" he pried cautiously, unknowingly setting the question countdown to 5.
"I've already told you my name," Malik replied smoothly, taking a seat on one of the armrests. "Why don't you tell me your name?" There were suddenly only 4 questions to go as Malik's violet orbs stared dangerously down at Jounouchi, giving the unvoiced warning that he wasn't afraid to hurt the questioned if answers weren't provided.
"Jounouchi Katsuya," Jounouchi murmured sullenly, a defiant glare aimed at his lap. This wasn't looking good.
Back on the glass tower of doom and blinding shininess...
"Yay, Kaiba! We did it! Let's dance!" Yugi was overjoyed that the two cheating Hunters had been defeated.
"Let's not and say we didn't," Kaiba grumbled, picking up his metal briefcase. Where was Mokuba when he needed him? Carrying that stupid briefcase got tiring after a while.
As if on cue, the sound of a helicopter neared at a surprisingly fast rate, and Yuugi and Kaiba looked up to see it hovering above them. Kaiba sucked in a breath when he saw who was at the open door.
"Lookie, Kaiba!" yelled the Hunter. He held up the hedgehog-looking boy, grinning psychotically. "Isn't he so cute? We're going to have a tea party soon!"
"Niisama!" Mokuba yelled. Tea parties were a fate worst than death.
"Mokuba!" Kaiba yelled in return, his eyes wide and full with genuine concern. Ooo, emotions!
"Niisama!"
"Mokuba!"
"Niisama!"
"Mokuba!"
"COW PIES!"
Everyone stopped and stared at Yugi. He shrugged. "I like yelling, too."
"How touching," came Malik's disembodied voice. The Hunter closed the helicopter door and flew away, leaving a stunned Kaiba to fall to his knees in a brief moment of overwhelming emotion. "A reunion between brothers. If it was any more cute, I might have to throw up." Malik, back at the warehouse, gave Jounouchi a creepy grin as if he'd be the one to get puked on. "Oh. Wait. What was that? Mokuba's gone? How sad." Malik started laughing, because he found it rather entertaining. "And how could I forget? Pharaoh, your friends are here with me... Charming kids, really, but I can only stand them for so long. You'd better come get them before I do away with them myself. I'm at the docks near an old, abandoned warehouse, and I'm sure Kaiba knows the way."
"You know about old, abandoned warehouses?" Yugi asked Kaiba, his mile a minute train of thought completely forgetting that his friends were in danger. Nor did he realize that the fragile balance of question countdown was dwindling to 3.
Kaiba had composed himself and gotten to his feet again, well enough to fix another sharp glare at the annoying Pharaoh. "Business deals, you moron. That's all," he stated shortly. "Now, come on."
Wow. I haven't written chapters in so long that I'm not sure what a good length is! Hope this is all right. Now for the annoying end-of-chapter questions...
Will Yugi and Kaiba save their beloved friends and family? Will Malik realize he forgot to make a sandwich? And what of Bakura, Honda, and other unmentioned characters? Will they ever make another appearance? WHAT WILL HAPPEN AT THE END OF THE QUESTION COUNTDOWN?! Oh, so many questions and so little answers!
The next chapter will feature the ever-scrumptious Bakura, so stay tuned. ;)