Chapter 12- Choosing

Ryou stepped back.

"But I'm not a magician! I don't have any special abilities!"

Nicole shrugged.

"That's what I said. All it really took was a few well placed lessons."

Bakura looked at her funny.

"What DO you do, anyway? I don't sense Shadow magic on your soul, I don't even sense any in that pathetic excuse for a spirit."

Nicole shrugged.

"Just some minor tinkering."

"Like sealing defenseless souls into STUPID FLUFF-FILLED BODIES!"

Nessert gestured wildly, pissed off. Nether Nicole, Tait, or the twin white-haired teens gave her more then a glance.

"That's because I didn't really think you having full control of my body was a good idea. You had your chance. Besides, you aren't exactly sealed in there; you can come back any time you want."

"But it was only one stupid deer! It's not like I killed anyone important…"

"You set Aaron's house on fire!"

"He's a Re-damned fire elemental! Fire can't hurt him!"

"But we didn't KNOW he was a fire elemental!"

"Who cares!"

"I do!"

Tait plucked the doll off the table by the head, despite loud objections and wild flailing on its behalf, and looked it in the eye.

"Calm, Rager, calm. Or I'm feeding you to the shadows again"

The doll stopped flailing to pout, arms crossed. Bakura blinked at the funny little thing before looking back at Nicole.

"So what else can you do?"

The girl shifted her feet.

"Just stuff, nothing major."

"Ah, you never were a good liar."

"What do you- HEY!"

Tait turned around and, in one fluid motion, took the staff from his waist, pointed it at the girl, and fired a blast of light at her. The teen dodged, by rapidly turning into a cat that leapt away. Tait grinned.

"That's what she can do."

The cat hopped up on the table, looking shaken with its fur fluffed, and glared at the Warlock.

"Th-that wasn't fair!"

"Easy! It wouldn't have hurt you any way…"

The cat made a grumbling noise in its throat and turned back to Ryou and Bakura, both staring in amazement.

"If I could do that in Egypt…"

"how did you…?"

The cat's ears pricked forward and it looked calm once more.

"I'm a shape shifter, mostly. I guess it came of being close to animals. That, and Nes' was one."

"And a damned good one at that! There was this one time-"

Bakura was silent for a moment.

"Are there more of you?"

The doll nodded.

"Yeah, well, as close as you can get to us. You've already met two of them-"
"Andro the Arch-demon Necromancer and Laura the false-werewolf. There are a few more in town, but I didn't introduce you to them yet as they are,… eh…"

"One's a Pyro and the other is narcotic to an extreme."

Ryou nodded. That would make sense. Wait, Narcotic…

"What do you mean, narcotic?"

Nicole shrugged.

"Well, during her training she sort of… went insane. She's got two people in her head and I don't mean a spirit, and nether of them are exactly cheerful, harmless people…"

This was getting familiar, the girl sounded sort of like Malik. Bakura had thought the same thing.

"Don't you have… problems with power hungry monsters?"

The trio nodded in unison.

"Well, yeah. But its our job to stop people like that. It's part of the package."

The doll grinned, this time somewhat warmly.

"So are you in? We can teach you all sorts of things."

"Not to mention it'll help you survive in this insane-asylum of a town."

Ryou and Bakura exchanged glances.

"Sure! What could happen?"