[[chapter seven- it's Judgment Day!]]
Kurama pushed open a door at the end of the corridor.
"Andrea?" he called softly. "You there?"
He looked about the dark, cold room; cobwebs hung from the ceiling and what little furniture there was. To the very back of the expansive room, was a judge's seat, complete with gavel and all. Out of nowhere a light flashed onto the judge's seat, a figure rose up from behind the judge's stand. She held the little hammer in her hand, and a discarded powdered wig in her other hand. She tossed the wig aside, and pointed out into the darkness,
"Bring out the defendant!" she shouted. A light flashed on, revealing Andrea-Kitsune, half way form, hanging up side down from the ceiling. Her eyes opened slowly, and she gazed towards Kurama sadly.
"I'm... sorry." She whispered, before the judge, who happened to be Elli, shouted,
"Bring out the plaintiff!"
A light flashed on the other side of the room, revealing a gerbil, a Youko plushie, a Sessho plushie and a Bakura plushie, who stood atop the table.
Kurama stared, confused. Plushies were accusing Andrea?
"Introduce yourselves," Elli commanded sharply. The gerbil said, in a gruff, yet squeaky voice,
"I am Fred, and my comrades Kawaii-Youko, Sessho, and Bakura-chan. The true plaintiff group, of Nikki, Liz, and Neha, are on surveillance duty and were unable to report. Your honor, may we present our case first?"
"Of course," Elli said amiably. She then appeared to notice Kurama.
"You there!" she snapped. "Kurama! Take a seat, we must begin with the prosecution's case."
Kurama sat down on a dusty bench, utterly baffled. What the heck was going on? What were they going to do to Andrea?
"Andrea, the kitsune-girl, should be found guilty of betraying her comrades in Official Prank Day," Sessho said. "She ruined everyone's plans and is a traitor to them all."
"Betrayal?" Elli asked solemnly. "This is indeed a serious matter."
Andrea spoke up weakly,
"I was only warning Kurama..." but she was cut off by Elli throwing the wig at her.
"Silence kitsune!" she commanded and motioned for Sessho to continue.
Kurama stared at the court session, confused beyond words.
The Bakura plushie was speaking,
"We have come to the conclusion that the traitor should be punished by way of torture." Elli blinked at the phrase, pondering it for a moment. The she turned to the darkness to the right of her,
"Has the jury come to a conclusion?" she yelled into the gloom. A light flashed on revealing a jury stand, where twenty gerbil's six Youko plushies, and ten Bakura plushies, sat solemn looks plastered to their faces.
A Bakura plushie stood, addressing Elli.
"The jury agrees with the plaintiff group." It announced, the took it's seat.
"And so, Andrea-kitsune is found guilty on all charges!" Elli claimed. Kurama gasped.
"As punishment," Elli whispered, "the guilty kitsune must be tortured!
"No!" Kurama shouted, standing up. "You can't do that!" Elli looked down on Kurama icily and said in a low deadly voice,
"Why ever not?"
"B-because," Kurama said stepping forward, towards the judge's stand. "Andrea was just truing to warn us,"
Elli stared at him with boredom in he eyes.
"So?" she asked.
"So, I'm not going to let you hurt her!" Kurama shouted at Elli, positioning himself in front of Andrea. She gazed at him, as if to say 'thank you'.
"Don't worry, Andrea." Kurama said to the suspended kitsune.
"Step down Kurama." Elli said in a venomous voice. Several plushies appeared from the shadows, brandishing a thick rope.
It all happened at once, the plushies threw the rope about Kurama, and the next thing he knew, Kurama was thrown roughly against the wall of the dusty room.
"Now then," Elli said in a sugary voice, "Shall we begin?" Elli stood up from her seat and began what looked to Kurama like a 'spears spell'. A spears spell is a hex that brought extreme pain to whoever it was directed to, by way of energy spears. Elli brought her hands up, so as her palms faced the hapless kitsune. Her hands began to glow with a bright green light, as this happened Andrea began to squirm, and flinch as if being beaten. Elli brought one hand down and turned to face Kurama. She laughed icily at him.
"You case begins next, demon." She said to him, her voice was raspy, and harsh. Making Kurama want to clear his throat. He trembled ever so slightly, now beginning to wonder if he had done the right thing.
Kurama began to stutter in a demonic language that no one could understand, but from what it sounded like, the fox demon was scared out of his wits.
Elli held a hard gaze for a moment more, and finally sank into uncontainable laughter. The glow around her hands began to diminish until it was gone. Kurama looked at her, a look of complete bewilderment on his face.
"You gullible fool." One of the plushies laughed at him.
"You are so easy to trick, you know that?" Elli said to Kurama picking her head up from the table. Kurama could hear Andrea laughing too, as she undid the ropes that bound her upside-down. He stared in silence a moment more, one thought playing and replaying in his mind; I've been pranked.
The plushies lessened their grip on the ropes and dragged them away into the shadows of the room.
Elli slid down from the judge's stand joining Andrea on the ground. The pair of them strode over to Kurama, both trying desperately to stop laughing. Elli extended a hand to the fox demon on the floor and helped him up. She bowed to him as formally as she could while laughing like she was.
"Gomen, Kurama." She said, holding back another fit of giggles. "No hard feelings?"
Kurama, being the good natured demon he was, shook his head and said,
"If that's the last one you're planning to pull on me, then yes."
"Of course." Andrea said. Elli suddenly stopped laughing and put a hand to her ear.
"What?!" she shouted irately. She paused listening to Nikki shouting at her from the other end.
"Okay, okay, we'll be right there. Just don't do anything stupid!" and with that Elli removed her headset and turned to Andrea and Kurama,
"Hiei found the control room." She said somberly. Then she turned to the darkness behind them,
"Neha, get out here." She shouted at the dimness. "This is urgent!"
Neha emerged from behind the jury's booth carrying a bottle of glow in the dark make-up.
After Elli briefly explained the situation, they departed for the staircase, as, Neha explained, the one fault in the prototype of the Dramatic Exit Machine was that it was a one-way system.