Sorry this wasn't put up faster. I've been stuck on something in this story, just a few chapters ahead, and I didn't want to get you guys' hopes too high if I had to abandon my fic.
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Disclaimer: Things made by other people belong to those people, and things made by me belong to me. Obviously.
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Via once again the crazed labyrinth of an interior that Littlerock Manor boasted, Pegasus and Parrot-Terra actually managed to avoid discovery for almost two days.
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And when 'they' were finally caught, it turned out that their 'Boss' was busy with something and wouldn't be able to come out for a long time. As for the intruders themselves, they all seemed to believe that he was trying to hide the Millennium Eye under his eye patch, and thus didn't actually check for it.
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"At least my great-great-grandfather made the dungeons nice enough to live in," Pegasus commented idly a few days later, "I wonder if he knew something like this was going to happen…"
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"Braawc, upholstery and all, very spiffy Peggy-kun, hoo-hoo!" Terra 'parroted' back at him.
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They could talk as much as they wanted to, since none of the guards watching them seemed to notice how un-parrot-ish Terra the Parrot was behaving. As long as her voice sounded like a parrot's ought, they didn't care what she said.
Pegasus thought his guards were actually annoyed with his talking quite a bit, though, which was part of the reason he was talking as much as possible. Whether working on an impossible-yet-obsessive goal or to merely pass the time, Pegasus still enjoyed the effect the right commentary had on people.
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…Then again, who said that the intruders were really 'people' in the human sense?
For starters, they were all identical. Mud-brown skin, pitch-black hair cut short - rather like Kemo's hair, but without that ridiculous unicorn spike up front - and all the same height.
All men as well, dressed in suits like regular security people would be wearing. Couldn't tell about their eyes because they all wore sunglasses.
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But the biggest giveaway was probably that Pegasus couldn't 'hear' a thing from them.
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Having long since realized that this skill was valuable and would probably save his neck in the future, the silver-haired billionaire had been practicing. This was how he knew that the regular staff and the security people - except for Croquet - had been shipped off the island via most of the remaining boats. Once they got a good ways offshore, though, he lost track of them.
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Hopefully, they were okay. Most of them were perfectly decent people. Some of the oldest ones had been originally hired by his parents.
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Otherwise, mentally the whole island seemed deserted. He couldn't sense Terra's thoughts either, but from her he got a light 'buzzing' sensation at the very least.
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"Well, I wasn't going to do this, but this extremely quiet dungeon leaves me with no other choice," Pegasus announced suddenly.
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He cleared his throat.
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"…Ninety-nine hundred bottles of beer on the wall, ninety-nine hundred bottles of beeeer…"
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Thus passed the next couple of days.
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Once Pegasus finished the beer song, he ran through 'I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves', the lyrics to the theme music for the animated version of Funny Bunny - even though he didn't watch the cartoon show so much anymore, since they changed the voices of some of the characters in the fourth season - and then he sang the beer song again, but with only ninety-nine bottles because his voice was getting tired.
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During all of this noise, the strange intruders did not change their routine in the slightest - except for during the 'everybody's nerves' song, during which they removed and withheld all food and water until he stopped - and there was no sign of anyone coming to the rescue.
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"Braawc, sing the nerves song, its funny, hoo-hoo!" Terra chirped at him when he downed a glass of water in an attempt to sooth his parched throat.
"After what happened last time?" he replied.
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"Braawc, the same words over and over, they don't like chanting is why, hoo-hoo!"
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Instead of doing that, though, Pegasus chose to sit back in one of the comfy chairs - it was unfortunately bolted tightly to the floor, his great-great-grandfather hadn't thought that far in advance - and hummed a little tune to himself. He was going to run out of annoying music in a bit, and that would leave him bored AND with laryngitis until the much-anticipated 'Boss' came to deal with him.
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…Maybe the reason the 'Boss' wasn't here yet was because he was going after the other Millennium Items? Hah, that would be entertaining…not for the 'Boss', of course. The Puzzle was useless unless its undefeatable owners were defeated, the Ring was the one going around stealing the other Items, and as for Shaddi…you didn't find him, he found you.
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As soon as those failed to pan out, though, he himself would most likely become shadow monster food: a slightly discouraging prospect.
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"A hundred sticks of dynamite on the wall, a hundred sticks of dynamite," Pegasus half said/half sang to himself - determined as he was not to give up until the bitter end, "If one of those sticks should possibly fall…"
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"There'll be no more sticks and no bloody wall!" Terra finished, using her normal voice.
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She continued, "We can talk normally, Peggy-kun, the goons all just left."
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"Hmm?"
It was true - they were alone now.
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"What brought this on?" Pegasus wondered, standing up to check as far outside the cell as he could.
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"This happened last night too," Terra added, "You were sleeping, though, so that's why you don't know about that Peggy-kun."
"And the reason being for all that is…?" he prompted.
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"People, silly. Someone sent a bunch of people here," Terra replied placidly, "But the goons got to 'em before they got to this big ol' castle of yours. Guess whatever you told Muffin-Man to do worked."
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"Well, if there's one thing Kaiba-boy can't stand, its public humiliation," Pegasus said, smiling to himself, "I knew I'd get to do something fun with…that card…even if this didn't happen."
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Outside, there was a muffled roaring sound. It took Pegasus a couple of seconds to recognize it as the sound of something large - like a helicopter or a small plane - blowing up. So much for that rescue attempt…how depressing.
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…Unless…
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Focusing his attention, Pegasus sent his mental ears sailing outwards. Assuming this was the work of the several people he thought it was…Yes!
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Kaiba-boy's annoyance - not to mention his paranoia of all things even remotely realistic - was coming loud and clear. Then there was Croquet's worrying, and…some sort of insatiable appetite, not to mention what sounded like a extremely personal argument by two people with extremely similar voices…
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Kaiba-boy had actually willingly brought along Jonouchi and Yugi-boy…boys…on this little rescue attempt? What sort of defenses had these strange nonhuman people put up outside to bring this about?
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"Braawc, what do we do now, hoo-hoo?" Terra parroted.
Footsteps of the returning guards echoed in the corridor as she spoke.
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"…Wait, probably," the silver-haired man shrugged, "Although rescuing usually works better when the rescuers know exactly what's blocking them from the rescuee…I know!"
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There was a pen and some paper in the cell - a little stash left behind by an artistic child looking for someplace quiet to draw - and so Pegasus wrote a note.
0It said, 'Dear Kaiba-boy (And of course hello to Jonouchi and the Yugi-boys too): SO glad you were able to make it, and I hope you didn't have too much trouble getting here. How is your little brother Mokuba/little sister Shizuka/dear old Grandfather doing these days? Do come by the second basement cell area so we can chat. Sincerely, Pegasus J. Crawford.'
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"I can assume you'll have no trouble picking them up then?" Pegasus said to Terra as he handed her the folded note.
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"Braawc, oh yeah Peggy-kun, can't wait to meet your big tall buddy, hoo-hoo!" Terra cheerfully replied as she grabbed the paper and fluttered through the bars of the cell.
None of the guards batted an eye as she flapped past them and down the corridor.
