Chapter 8
Where are they? Thought Seto, for the hundredth time that hour. It had been hours since they had seen the report on the Japanese news saying that there had been some sabotage at the police station in east domino, and that there is a substantial reward for a missing prisoner... prisoner. They dare to call my little brother a prisoner as if he was some kind of vicious thug! The screen continued as the smug reporter shuffled her papers.
"The prisoner who was being retained for questioning about fraud and kidnapping allegations against his adopted guardian, Seto Kaiba... it is rumoured that the kidnapping of the young prisoner, who is known as Mokuba Kaiba, was set up and carried out by associates of Seto Kaiba, so that the evidence is minimal for a forth coming trial. The justice system will be questioning the disturbing disappearance of the entire board of directors at Kaiba corp. More on this and other story's later...."
Seto had to stop listening at this point. He felt the quiet pulse of reassurance from his deck
–Just enemy's master, enemy's that we will defeat when we get the chance, once we have ensured Mokuba's safety we will crush all who appose us-
Seto looked to his deck waiting for his other tree blue eyes to start talking. They'd been awfully quiet lately, but then again his forth blue eyes white dragon card had been making more sense than the other three normally came out with. Suddenly he was snapped out of his trance by Yugi asking,
"Did you feel that??" Seto bit back at the little teen.
"Well how am I supposed to know what you mean, unless you go into a little more detail than that."
Yugi rolled his eyes "obviously not!"
/sheash I was only asking/
/'Sorry aibou... but he his very worried about his brother right now... maybe if we gave him some space to calm down and a big bottle of pills then hell relax/'
/You're probably right it'll take some strong medication/
"I felt something" answered a tired looking Xavier "I've felt it once or twice now. It's familiar but I don't know were from" Yugi looked at Xavier with interest giving a slight nod of understanding before turning back to the pacing teen "Seto... it kind of reminds me of suggestion, you know that kind of suggestion that Pegasus or Marik used." Seto shivered. Not that white haired freak. No one was going to manipulate him like that again, No one. He had his own defences now he wasn't useless he could fight on the realms of his mind now. His mind was never open, always guarded by the dragons, and he had enough of them to make sure that no one enters through the back door, because there kind of persuasion involved mind games and traps, the kind that you don't have a choice to say no to. I'll make sure that he doesn't suffocate me with magic again, no more foreign magic.
"Well no one is getting in my head or my deck. I've got my barriers up again, so there's no need for you to keep it up Yugi. I can always manage on my own..." with that he stormed out of the room.
"Well it's nice to see that he's got back no his normal cheerful self."
The professor looked mildly surprised and said, "Whoever they were he really hates them" Yugi looked at the swinging door
"I know.. He just never knows when to let go..."
/'you're a fine one to talk hikari. How long have you been trying to get him to open up. The next thing you'll be trying to do is to get him to confess his undying love to Joey.../'
/YAMI/
/'Well the amount that they argue...... there's a very fine line between love an hate/' /Well then what does that say about you and Bakura????... Yami?.../ there was a long pause /YAMI?.... fine keep your door locked/ realising that he'd probably been staring into space for too long now he answered the professors question,
"Yes he really dose hate them, but they were trying to take over the world which in their books meant killing me and others... So we fought them and they didn't play by any rules.. Which meant that Seto got a few nasty surprises."
/'But we didn't fail we won/' Yugi looked down to face a curious professor who looked back with a firm gaze.
"Don't let him do any thing that will endanger my students." Yugi shook his head "We wont have to as long as every thing goes to plan, now if you'll excuse me I have to make sure that he doesn't do anything stupid, for one who hides his emotions so well, he really is a slave to them. Good evening." and he strode out the door before the professor could ask any questions...
Yugi, Kaiba, Logan and a few students were gathered around the living space like the last time the professor had been explaining all of this trouble at the beginning. A few of the x-men were clustered around Seto's laptop watching the screen saver, which was bashing on the screen desperately greed hair ruffled with irritation.
"Do you think it wants something?" asked Kurt.
"Its just a screen saver" stated a blond teen.
"Look its pointing towards the volume button I'm going to put it on" the blue demon started to move to wards the machine.
"Oh no your not what if you brake it."
"It's just a button, the worst thing it will do is nock off that annoying screen savour. I mean what type of person has a boy with green hair as there screen saviour?"
"No" hissed another teen as he shot a nervous look towards Seto who was pacing around the back of one of the large sofas. The professor was watching with great concern, whilst Yugi was obviously trying to remain as clement as normal. This, however, was not working as every now and then he would glance back and direct either a worried or annoyed look towards the pacing teen.
"Kaiba you're going to wear a hole in the carpet if you keep this up." Kaiba lashed around almost growling,
"If it was one of your group you'd be just as worried as me I don't need your sarcastic comments pharaoh."
Yugi stood looking furious, "Believe it or not I am worried about Mokuba's safety, because he is one of us... and what about Ryou, he's the one who's going to get hurt at the end of this... on my orders he's the one going to get shot or worse."
Seto threw his head bake and let out a humourless laugh,
"Ha! He's got the tomb robber who has to look after him, otherwise he's got no were to return to. And incase you've forgotten, the bloody tomb robber isn't the most reliable of people. Last time he sided with Marik. What makes you think that he's not going do it a gain!?"
"Excuse me!?"
"Bakura's pride took a beating, he'd be ready for revenge by now. Ever heard the saying that my enemy's enemy is my friend? He is loyal to us for the moment... any way, Ryou likes Mokuba he won't see him hurt" Yugi turned his head while Seto fumed "He doesn't have a choice. All Bakura's got to do is take over his mind and he's as good as a vessel."
"Excuse me!"
"That's-"
"EXCUSES ME, YOU ARROGANT RE-ENCARNATION!!!!!!!" The now fully vocal screen savour shouted. "What the hell do you want, you cheap piece of plastic!!"
"You've got mail and you left my volume switched off and." The boy glared at the array of mutants gathered around the table. "I AM NOT A SCREEN SAVOUR!"
Seto looked slightly more comfortable. This was obviously a regular argument.
"Two thing's. One, I deliberately turned off the volume after your version of 101 elephant jokes. Internet porn has done nothing for your imagination and two, why the hell do I want to know that I've got mail whoever it is can wait."
"It's from the kidnappers of Mokuba, so I thought that you'd want to know, and I am older than you, I can look at what I like on the net, thank you very much.
Bit of a flash back before continuing with the plot
Mokuba raised his head, curiosity glistening in his eyes "actually I haven't... Bakura took me out of the back, so all I can go by is the bang and something Bakura said about plastic explosives"
"Whoa so that's what he used." said Joey "I didn't think that he knew how to use that type of stuff it's not like it was part of the ancient Egypt demolition case." Black hair raised to look at the TV screen
"He doesn't he said that-"
"Ooh, look it's on..." yelled Serenity. Mokuba turned to the TV screen in morbid fascination as the news showed police cars being tossed in the flying at leased 30 feet before plummeting back to earth as pieces of scorched debris. "What the hell did you do Ryou?!!"
Ryou started to blush furiously "We made sure that no one was going to get hurt before we did it... and as a distraction it was effective."
"Distraction! Distraction!! That was only a distraction!!!" screeched Mokuba.
"Hey calm yourself ya gonna have a hernia at this rate, and it's not like it was Ryou's fault... right, man" said Joey as he tried to make eye contact with the blushing teen. Tristan caught the look in the youth's eyes,
"What did you do?" he asked reluctantly.
"Well as you said Bakura doesn't know how to use plastic explosives and, well, erm"
"What the hell!?" screamed Joey, as Ryou jumped up and dashed towards the door trying to make a hasty retreat. He pulled the door open to reveal a large man with a gun. He took aim at the figure running towards him and shot once, twice, at the stumbling teen watching him fall to the floor before turning his eyes to the rest of the room.
Every one stared in horror, the air around them seemed to freeze as the white haired boy crumpled slowly to the floor, the large man smiled sadistically as he heavily kicked the boy on to his front.
"Sit down and shudupp unless you wanna end up like your running boy down their." He yelled, as his sadistic grin grew wider.
"Why you mother fu-" screamed Joey slipping into his native tongue for a second before...
"No Joey" yelled Tristan, as he hurled the struggling teen to the floor. "Let me go man. I'm gunna rip the guy a new voice box!"
"Ha! I'd like to see you try." said the still smiling gunman "Now, what shall I do about your little mouth." he stated slowly as he stepped over the fallen Bakura and continued further into the room twitching the gun threateningly as his eyes flickered between the group.
"Esum... remember the orders that were placed upon you." Whispered a long almost gangly man as he stepped casually through the open door way "Go and check the perimeter. I'm sure even you can handle that, I'll set up the spell." As the man sat slowly against the wall by the door he started humming a strange tune.
"Tristain! Get the hell off me."
"Only if you're sure that your not gunna get your self shot."
"How can you stay so calm man" said the struggling heap of Joey who was pinned effectively against the floor by the larger form of Tristan.
"Come on you guys what about Bakura... shouldn't you go and check on him?" asked a shocked serenity.
"ME?!" the two boy stated in unison.
"What if it's Bakura... yu think he's gunna be happy? I mean a bullet won't stop him..."
"I'll do it." All heads turned to a frighteningly pale Mokuba. Then all minds turned to what they'd have to say to Kaiba. Yeah we let your little brother wake up a sleeping monster or worse a dead body "No, no, it's ok Mokuba I'll do it. At least I will if some one will get off me."
Looking around the room suspiciously checking that the weird man was still singing his little song to himself, and that his psycho friend wasn't close Joey creeped close to the limp form, thinking something along the lines of baka baka baka why me!!? He leaned closer to the form and whispered,
"Pssst...hey buddy... Ryou... Bakura..." he brought his hand to touch the body's shoulder. Slowly he rolled the body onto its back steadying himself for the worst... but there was nothing there. He let out a sigh of relief as he scooped the limp warm form into his arms. Warm that means that he's alive doesn't it?? Has to... he thought as he carried him to the back of the room where the others were waiting. The teen was rather light, he'd have to get someone to have words with him about his weight. As he approached the group he noticed that a stoned faced Tristan was waiting, obviously expecting the worst.
"He's alive... I think. Not a scratch on him that I can see, but he's out cold." He whispered hoarsely. He placed the lifeless form on to the sofa, watching sadly. As his eyes travelled over the limp body he noticed a small dart. As he got closer he noticed that it was embedded slightly into the pale skin.
"Hey Tristain waddya make of that?" He whispered, pointing to the dart.
"Well, I'm no expert but I'd say that that looks like some kind of dart, maybe they used tranquillisers rather than bullets."
"A good guess... almost right. It's a sedative, but mixed with a little shadow magic so that it can act instantly. Very effective. Theoretically it should even work on the almighty pharaoh...Oh and the reason he's not dead is because, what if we hit little Kaiba? He'd be no good as a hostage if he's dead, at least not if he's dead before I put up that nice spell that blocks all magic from getting in. We can't have the elder Kaiba ruining all our plans, he's got to think you're alive... for now... " an eerie silence passed over the group. This punk really likes to hear himself talk, thought Joey as a week voice asked,
"How did you find us?"
"Well, it's a secure plan that I came up with. The others they just wanted to follow the shadows but nooooooooo, I said, what if they don't send the item holder to rescue him what will we do, so I had a tracer planted on you at the police station. So much more efficient. Now, if we all behave in a nice orderly manner we can avoid any more, discrepancies, and if you'll excuse me for a moment the spell should be up I'll just double check" he said walking into the kitchen
"What the hell are we gunna do now" Joey hissed angrily at the silenced group.