Wish You Were Here

Chapter 16:

The sun picked this particular moment to climb over the horizon. It's colors painting the new sky until it was no longer blue but a crayon box disarrayed on a table. Signaling to all that it was morning on this side of Earth. Under the magnificent colors, was a land of nothing but green as far as the eye could see. A black Mercedes was speeding through the cool forest as fast as it could with no speed limit to obey.

"Are you reading the map right, Yugi?" Malik asked as he shifted into reverse, "Cause I think we missed our turn."

Yugi frowned and flipped the map right side up, "…Oops."

"Oops! What oops?"

"Ah ha ha ha…" He grinned sheepishly, "I had the map upside down. How, uh, funny…"

"Aw, what!" Malik slammed on the breaks and sighed, "Ugh, okay… Wait, I don't know why we're in such a rush anyway. Don't we have that Ranger on the job?"

Ryou scowled at him, "Bleh! What an incompetent idiot! He lost Marik and Bakura by calling them 'Yummy'! Then Yami wasn't even with them. And he's claiming there's a prehistoric animal in this forest. What a bloody imbecile."

"Oh, yeah. Ryou, remember when I was yelling at him and you took the phone away? (Ryou nodded) Well, what'd you say to him?"

"… I told him that if we arrive and they're not in the cabin with him, he will not be heard from again." Ryou lifted his millennium ring, "And I meant it."


Meanwhile, on the dusty trail again, Marik, Bakura, and Yami were almost to the Ranger's Cabin (Never thought I'd say that). Although Marik and Bakura were in high spirits and singing the theme song to Golden Girls, Yami was dragging his feet and crying his eyes out.

"Oh-ho, wwwhhhyyy? WHY? OH RA, WHY!" Yami bawled and called out into the azure sky, "It's not fair! It's not fair! Yugi's gonna… he's gonna… oh, Grandpa!"

"Thank you for bein a friend!" Bakura smiled and sang aloud, "Travel down the road and back again… you're heart is true, you're a pal and a confidant… Dum dum dum… And if you threw a party- invited everyone you knnneeww… you would see, the biggest gift would be from me and the card attached would say-"

Marik joined him, "THANK YOU FOR BEING A FRIEND!"

"AaaAAaaAa…!" Yami sank down to his knees and shouted, "Waaaaahhhhh!"

Bakura kneeled down and patted Yami on the back, "I know, I know. It makes me cry too. That's my favorite song."

"I don't think he means the song, Bakura." Marik rolled his eyes.

"C-Can't take it, I just can't take it anymore!" Yami called out through watery eyes.

"Jeez, my singing wasn't that bad."

"He's not talking about the song!"

"Waahhh…!"

"Yami-"

"Bakura-"

"Grandpa!"

"Hi-oh, hi-oh! It's off to work we go… La la la la la la la la, hi-ho, hi-ho!" Sang a cheerful voice from behind the three yamis. Following the voice was Sweet, dragging Grandpa by the back of his collar through the dirt.

"I'm not an animal!" Grandpa called to him, "Listen to me, darn it! Let me go! See? I'm human! Human, I say!"

Sweet grinned, "That's what they all say, fur-man. That's what they all say."

Marik, Yami and Bakura were hiding in a nearby bush as the Ranger and his prisoner walked by and into the cabin on the side of the trail. The door shut and locked behind them, and the yamis were left watching in awe.

"Ah!" Yami jumped out of the bush, "H-How'd he capture Grandpa?"

Bakura and Marik came out next, "I wonder what happened to Clara," Bakura said, "Maybe he… you know?"

Yami shook his head furiously, "I can't believe this! That man just waltzed right into the cabin and… and… took Grandpa hostage! C-Can you believe this? Where the hell is that Ranger Sweet we've heard about? How's he gonna-"

"Chill, Yami." Marik closed his eyes, "Let's just figure this out the old fashion way."

They tilted their heads, "How's that?"

"By spying, of course!" He pointed to a window on the side of the cabin. Yami and Bakura nodded and they snuck over to check it out.

When the window was reached, each yami had to duck down to keep their faces out of sight. After they were sure they were hidden, they peeked up a little and watched the odd-looking scene unfold.

"Ha ha ha!" Laughed Sweet from inside the room. His arms were folded as he starred down on Grandpa who was tied up, sitting in front of a table, "I've finally caught the missing link! The very bridge between man and ape! I'll go down in history and I might even be head of the S.W.A.T team one day. What do you think about that, big-foot?"

"First of all, I'm human! And second, my feet are only a size nine! They're not big at all." The old man huffed.

"Ah, denial, denial. Well, if you'll excuse me," He picked up his gun, "I've got Yummies to hunt."

As he began to leave, Grandpa stopped him by calling out, "Wait!"

"What?"

"What are these… Yummies you keep talking about?"

"… Oh, those. They're my first mission. Mr. Motou has asked me to capture his Yummies and wait for his return. Later."

He left and shut the door behind him, locking it so no one could go in or out.

Grandpa tilted his head, "Mr… Motou? Yugi! Wait! Those are yamis! Yamis! Come back here! Ranger Sweet, wait for me pleas-" In all his excitement, Grandpa managed to tip himself over and lay rolling on the floor.

Outside the cabin, Yami, Marik, and Bakura were left with their mouths wide open. After a second of gaping silence, they looked at each other and said in unison…

"Did you hear that!"

Marik looked blatantly at Yami, "Yeah, you're hikari ordered that guy to track us down! I can so not believe this."

Yami shook his head, "No, no. T-That's… that's not right. Yugi told me himself, he had a ranger around here to help us out. And unless…."

All three sets of eyes widened at once, "He's Ranger Sweet!"

"Oh my Ra, this can't be happening!" Yami held his head and shouted, "The guy we've been running from the entire weekend is also the one we've been trying to find! This nut is our only way out of here and he's gone crazy and kidnapped Grandpa!"

"Well, I'm certainly not going to run into a man's arms who intends on shooting me." Bakura said with confidence.

The other two looked at him strangely but decided on letting it go.

"We've gotta get Grandpa out of there." Marik turned to Yami, "How? We can't just waltz in there. That Ranger is stalking around here somewhere and the door is locked. It'd take us a second to get it open."

"Yeah, there's gotta be some way…" Yami's voice trailed off as he looked at Bakura. "Bakura!" He and Marik shouted at once.

"What?"

"You could be the distraction," Yami answered, "C'mon, Bakura, please! You're really good at running. All you have to do is make sure Sweet sees you and make him chase you in the other direction. When you've lost him, come back here!"

"Are you mad?" Bakura shouted, horror stricken, "I'm not going to be bait! And what makes you think I could lose him, anyway? You know how fast that psychopath runs!"

"You're one to talk." Marik said, picking his teeth, "And anyway, you're always bragging about how 'smart' you are. Just outwit him, he's dumb."

Bakura nodded and giggled, "Well… I am pretty smart, if I do say so myself…"

"Great, then it's settled!" Yami jumped up and grabbed Bakura's arm, "Get going, Bakura, we can't wait all day. He could be-"

The sound of a gun fired in the distance.

"That must be him."

Bakura peeked around the corner of the cabin and there was Ranger Sweet. He was blowing off steam by shooting squirrels and birds out of their trees. "This is so not good!" He shouted when he was done, "They're not here! I've looked everywhere and if I don't find-"

Ring-Ring-Ring!

Ranger Sweet looked down at his cell phone, with a grimace on his face. He sighed and lifted it to his ear, "Y-Yes? This is Ranger Sw-"

"Listen here, Mr. Sweet." Came a calm, yet menacing voice, "We're going to be there in an hour. All three of us. And we're going to be expecting our other halves. All three of them."

Another voice was heard in the distance, "Yugi, is the map still upside down!"

"No! I flipped it!" Ruffling was heard, "…Oops."

"Oops!"

"Will you two be silent! Being menacing doesn't come naturally and you aren't making it any easier!" He paused, "Sweet… do you remember what we talked about?"

Sweet swallowed hard and muttered, "… Never heard from a-again…"

"There's a good boy." He smiled from the other side of the line, "You now have 55 minutes. Good luck."

Bleep-Bleep-Bleep…

He hung up the phone and sighed, "Great… Ugh! WHERE ARE YOU!" And started shooting at random things again.

Bakura gulped, "Damn." He got up and walked, shakily, in front of the cabin, towards Ranger Sweet.

Sweet looked at him, "Ah… hey! You're one of them, aren't you? Come here!" He lifted his gun and steadied himself.

"Gah!" Bakura jumped up and sprinted into the woods, "Nya nya! You can't catch me!" He taunted while running for his life.

"Come back here, you dirty rotten Yummy!" Sweet called, chasing after him and leaving his station unguarded.

Marik grinned, "Wow, I never realize how fast Bakura runs. He's really making that psychopath sweat!"

"I guess it makes a difference in endurance when you're about to be shot." Yami shrugged and pointed towards the door, "Come on, let's try and open the door. We've gotta go play hero."