Chapter 12:
Yami trudged along the flowery trail's edge, looking for any sign of Marik or Bakura. He'd been searching now for almost thirty minutes, worried sick. Calling out their names in both English and Egyptian.
His face was red from crying and shouting out. Even before he was sure that they were gone, his sniffles were audible. The conversation with his hikari over his cell phone did not go so well…
Flashback:
"This isn't funny, you guys! Please, where are you!" Yami was beginning to panic now. His responsibility, as he called them, was missing. What would happen if he didn't find them soon?
And at the worst possible time… Ring-Ring-Ring!
Yami looked down at the cell phone that was starting to blink a bright blue color. He shrieked and held onto the phone, 'Oh no,' he thought, 'Yugi… Marik and Bakura aren't with me! First his Grandpa now them…!'
It continued to ring. He sighed and flipped it open, "Hi, cell phone. Hello, Yugi."
"Yami, we're on the plane. We're going to come and save you three, okay?"
He gasped, "R-Right now? All three of you?" Yami thought of something else. What about Ryou and Malik? They would surely kill him if they discovered their yamis missing! They'd hang him over the Nile and let the alligators jump at him until… until…
"Yami? Yami! Are you there?"
Yugi's voice brought him back to reality, "… Y-Yugi? Eh…"
"Tell me where you are, exactly, and then we'll get you okay? Marik and Bakura are behaving themselves, aren't they?"
"Uh! Well… o-of course, they are. They… th-they are being very good… very, very good! In fact, they're so good, I can't even see them." Yami nodded with confidence. He wasn't lying to his hikari. 'It's true.' He thought, 'I can't see them…'
"Um… well, okay. Have you found Ranger Sweet, yet?"
"Ranger Sweet… Hey, he's the forest ranger here, isn't he? Living atop Cake Mountain, right? Of course." He'd remember the sign.
Yugi took in a deep sigh of relief, "Yes! So, you know about him. Good. I'm so glad you're there, Yami. You really are very responsible."
Yami's heart sank about two inches into his stomach. "Oh… um, gee, Yugi… I don't-"
"Sorry, Yami, gotta go. We're about to land. I'll being seeing you soon!"
Bleep-bleep-bleep…
End Flashback.
Yami was now at the foot of Cake Mountain again. Back on the right trail, he thought that maybe Bakura and Marik were somewhere around the mountain as well. 'Maybe I'll see them…' He thought, but he knew the chances of that were slim to none.
On the other side of the mountain, Marik and Bakura had dried off and were now searching for Yami. They had a hard time at first, due to all of Bakura's incessant itching and scratching. But Marik quickly put a stop to that.
It would sound strange to a mortal to hear this, but… Marik sent Bakura's itches to the Shadow Realm. Yes, it's true. At first, Bakura didn't think it would work, but Marik insisted on trying. And, miraculously, they pulled it off.
But, now there was an entirely new problem that they realized…
"Damn." Marik sighed, walking to the left of Bakura, "I just forgot… The Pharaoh's got the cell phone. We don't have any way to contact anyone!"
"I guess we'll just have to get to that Ranger and hope Yami's there too. If he's not, Yugi's gonna have a fit and a half."
He looked up the mountain and shrugged, "Well, then, we'd better get a move on, if we want to-"
"Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Came a distant voice.
It was followed by… "Oh no! Please don't!"
Both Marik and Bakura tilted their heads and looked down the way that they thought they heard the voices coming from. It was silent for a moment or two, but then they could see a figure running at 85 mph at them.
"No! Please!" Monkey-Man was running past them with his arms waving around. "I just wanna save my grandson's friends!"
He was followed by a young man in a green uniform and a gun in his hand, "Ah ha ha ha! You can run, but you can't hide, fur-man! S.W.A.T, here I come, baby! Ah ha ha ha ha ha!"
They sped past the two yamis on the sidelines and were soon heading up the mountain trail, yelling along the way.
Bakura shifted his eyes, "Well, you don't see that everyday."
"No… you don't, but… Hey!" Marik snapped his fingers, "We'd better follow them. They could know where the ranger's cabin is at!"
"Right. Let's go."
The flight was over and all the passengers were stepping out of the plane, in single-file order. Well, except, three hikaris. They butted ahead of most people and raced out to the nearest bus stop.
"Remind me why we're taking the bus again." Malik sighed when they got on the #23 bus and sat in there seats, "This one doesn't even go past downtown."
"I know, that's why we're taking the bus from the airport to our house. Then we'll use my car to go and pick up our yamis." Yugi said, but then grinned sheepishly, "Ah, but, one of you will have to drive because… I can't see over the steering wheel…"
Ryou and Malik giggled.
"Yeah, yeah, it's soooo funny." Yugi rolled his large eyes.
The bus stalled a bit then rolled down the road to Southern Domino.
Back around Cake Mountain, Yami was wondering up the trail in a sad silence. He'd been somber and devastated ever since he lost contact with his two 'friends'. And since Yugi's phone call, it had been deathly silent all around him.
Yami's head jerked back and his ears perked up, suddenly, "Hmm…?" He thought he'd heard something, but, no… again there was silence and continued back on the trail.
A few more minutes past and then a distant scream caught the Pharaoh's attention. Shrill and yet low, the sound got louder and louder until the source came into full view, charging at Yami from afar.
"What the…!" Yami backed up a few steps. The form of the ever popular Monkey-Man was rushing down the path like a madman, arms failing around his head and shrieking out. Behind him was someone Yami was not familiar with. A young man dressed in green, waving a gun around, shouting, "Hold still, darn it!"
And Monkey-Man, calling back, "Not by the hair of my chiny-chin-chin!"
They zoomed by and, before Yami knew it, Marik and Bakura ran by behind them, bellowing, "Hey, green dude, get back here!"
As the line of screaming and ranting continued up the mountain, Yami stood with a puzzled look on his face. "M-Marik? Bakura? Ah, hey, guys! Wait up!" He trotted up after them, though not nearly at their rate of speed.
Ranger Sweet followed the strange animal up the mountain. Going as fast as his beautifully shaved and finely-toned legs would carry him. Unaware that two slightly younger teens were following him, he shot his tranquilizers, blindly, at the animal.
"You there! Hairy beast, slow down and I wont shot you in the temple!" He called, still shooting, though missing every shot.
The animal was running on empty. He wasn't as young as he used to be and wasn't cut out for all this out-running-the-law nonsense. He was tempted to just give up, but then he thought, 'No! I can't give up! Yugi's counting on me to take care of his friends! I'm just gonna have to out-smart that young fellow…'
Suddenly, as Sweet came closer to his target, it stopped in it's tracks and fell over in the clay and dirt, right in front of a cliff's edge. Laying there, he lay undisturbed by all but the wind.
He tilted his head, "Uh… d-did I do that?"
Panting heavily, Marik and Bakura caught up to him and could barely make out any words. "H-Hey… y-y-you, we… c-can you… hoo, you can run…!"
The young ranger paid no mind to the two yamis and cautiously walked up to the beast and poked him in the side with the nose of his gun. No movement. He poked again. Still nothing.
"Oh, no… I didn't kill it, did I? How am I supposed to get into S.W.A.T now! Oh nooooooooooo!" Sweet's gun made a thud on the ground and he sobbed loudly, "Oh, cruel, cruel fate!"
Bakura now gained enough breath in his lungs to speak, "Hey." He tapped the bawling man on the shoulder, "Cut that out and listen to me! We need to know where the darn ranger is, so we can-"
Sweet ceased his crying for a moment and looked up at the two teens. He stood and looked them up from top to bottom, "…H-Hey! Are you, by any chance… um… darn it, what were they again?" He went off, naming names that Marik and Bakura knew nothing about, "…Yams? Yogis? Yogurts? Darn it!"
Marik raised an eyebrow, "What the hell are you trying to say?"
"Um… that's it! Yes… Are you two, by any chance, Yummies?"
Marik gasped and turned to his friend, "Dude, that guy just asked if we were yummy! This is sick!"
"Uh-huh…" Bakura nodded, mouth agape, "Okay, guy, you need to cool it. We're not 'yummy'."
"Um, wait." He tried to correct himself, "Maybe that's not it… Yuri? Yaoi? Damn it! Why can't I remember?"
As the ranger continued to confuse the teens and himself, the large animal who was lying on the floor, grinned to himself. 'I'm home free!' All at once, he pushed himself from the ground and jumped over the cliff, yelling, "HERE I COME, WORLD!"
"Huh?" Sweet whirled around in just enough time to see the falling animal glide downwards into the jungle below. He rushed over to the edge on all fours, "NO! WAIT! COME BACK!"
Marik folded his arms and tilted his head, "Well. I vote that we get gone before he starts calling us yummy again."
"I second that." Bakura rolled his eyes and they turned around. Unknowingly, heading for the next trail.
Meanwhile, Monkey-Man was doing front and back flips in the air on his way down. It seemed as if the fall was lasting forever and he was going no where very fast. But to the old man in disguise, it was a heaven compared to being chased by that Forrest Ranger.
"I don't know what was his problem was…" Grandpa mused to himself, "I just wanted to know where Yami, Bakura, and Marik are. Wait… Marik and Bakura? Was that them who he was talking to! I couldn't be!"
He looked back up at the ledge that was growing smaller and smaller as every second passed. He couldn't believe it! They'd been right there and yet… 'Good grief,' he thought, 'Now, I'll have to find them again…'
As he sighed, the ground grew larger and he then realized… 'This 300 foot fall might just kill me…'
