A Tale of Two Idiots
Chapter 15:
The sun was shining brightly on the large palace in the middle of the afternoon. All day, since the entire kingdom gained the knowledge of ex-General Heidi's position, they'd been in over their heads with the work load of trying to find the boys and rings. Yami hadn't quit yelling and sending people to the Shadow Realm since yesterday when Heidi's first finger was cut off and her screams echoed throughout the entire city.
Yami took in a deep breath as he sat down once again before another servant bowing before him and his hikari. He had just come running in through the doors without being called upon and immediately bowed for forgiveness because he knew the penalty for entering without permission.
"I-I'm very sorry, Pharaohs, but you must hear what I have to tell you… It is a matter of great importance, and an item I think you'll find very pleasing…" He groveled, kneeling down with something in his arms wrapped in a blue cloth.
Yami cracked his neck and looked down, tiredly, "Fine, go ahead."
"Ah… yes, sir." The boy started taking the cloth from around what he was holding. In a matter of seconds, he revealed a rather large, dark blue book and held it up to the two boys. "Um, it seems that Monkey Love has become a hit all over the world!"
Yugi blinked and smiled, "Hey! That's great!"
"People… have been converting to the Monkeyanisium religion and leaving the other's behind. Their new beliefs lay in this book and we've been asked for another thirty units in the eastern hemisphere alone. Ah, Germany has bought one unit…" He coughed.
"Germany only bought ONE UNIT?" Yami roared, the echo of his voice making the servant fall backwards. "The nerve of those damned Germans! That's pitiful! Do they even know who they're insulting? GAH!"
Yugi looked unfazed at his other half's anger and noticed the servant cowering in the corner of the room. "Hey, Yami, cut that out. It's only Germany, why do you care so much?"
"They're mocking me, I just know it! All of them… Grr, I should just go over there and burn down the entire country! Ha ha ha ha ha! Then what would they do? Dare you to laugh at me now, while you're burning in the embers of my might! HOW DO YA LIKE ME NOW?"
"…" Yugi turned to the boy, "Could we get the therapist in here?"
Just as the servant was scrambling away for the door, Yami sat down once again and took in yet another deep breath. He looked warily at his light, "I'm sorry about that. I have to let all this anger out somehow. Ugh… Let's see, you, boy. Come here. What else have you come to tell me?"
"Oh… Well…" He shook violently. Judging from that display of anger and insanity, Pharaoh Yami was not in any mood for bad news. And that's what he had for him. But if he didn't say what he had to, then there would be even bigger repercussions, "M-My Pharaohs, regiment 3 was sent out yesterday to search for Marik and Malik as were your orders… And they found them."
"… YES! Yeah, baby!"
"But."
"But? But! Why is there a but! I don't want a but! Take that damn but out of there! Now, do it now!" By this time Yami had come sprinting off his throne and was strangling the boy who was screaming and sobbing, calling for his mother.
Yugi blinked and sweatdropped, "Yami, let him finish what he was saying! Damn it, how are we supposed to find out anything if you keep killing our servants!"
The boy only cried harder at hearing this.
Yami sighed and slowly let go of his neck, leaving a few ugly bruises on peach-colored skin. He coughed and hacked a bit of blood but then looked up with watery eyes, "Ph-Pharaoh Yami, they… were all killed… Marik (cough) and Malik got away in a red jeep… W-We did get a good look at the license plate, t-though… (cough) It said, 'Cody4U'…" He collapsed onto the floor.
"Cody?" Yugi thought for a second, "Our Cody? It couldn't be! Cody's… isn't he at Happy Chicken?"
"Grr… FLYSWATTER!"
Before anyone knew it, Yami grabbed a phone and punched star 69. Which was Happy Chicken Man's direct and private line. It only took him two rings to pick up and he said, "Hello?"
"Flyswatter, I let you off once, and yet again you have disappointed me! Where the hell is Cody?"
Happy Chicken Man cringed and started to sweat as he held the receiver in the palm of his hand. They'd been looking for Cody ever since last night when he and the jeep disappeared but couldn't find him. They even asked the inmates in Block 2 where he was because they knew that they were friends. But the men refused to say anything and simply threw their dung in the warden's face.
"Flyswatter, I ASKED you a QUESTION! Where the hell is Cody?"
"Ah! H-He… disappeared."
"WHAT? WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN HE DISAPPEARED! YOU IGNORAMUS! (BLEEP)! DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS? HE'S OUT WITH MARIK AND MALIK, GALLIVANTING AROUND THE DESERT AND YOU'RE SITTING ON YOUR FAT (BLEEP)! WHERE ARE THEY GOING?"
"I… I don't know, my Pharaoh!" He began to cry and wail, "I'm sorry! All I know is that a few of my men saw Cody studying the basement bathroom yesterday before he left! We should've known something was up, but I-I wasn't thinking…"
"… The basement bathroom? What's that got to do with anything?"
He blinked, "Oh, Pharaoh, you mean you don't know?"
"Don't toy with me, out with it!"
"Every secret ever guarded is on the back of the stall doors down there. I've never taken a look because… Well, I bring my own reading material. … My Pharaoh, do you read People Magazine?"
"To hell with People Magazine! Do you mean to tell me that the location of that cult we've been looking for could be down in that bathroom?"
"… You know, you have a point. That's probably where Cody's heading!"
"Gah! Idiots! You're all idiots! Flyswatter, I want your men down in that bathroom and on Cody's trail in a matter of seconds! SECONDS! Do you hear me?"
"Yes, sir!"
Pharaoh Yami hung up the phone and counted to ten, silently. As he turned back to his hikari to inform him of everything that's just happened, a small and cute face popped up in the window. He had been paying attention to everything that had been happening for the past twenty minutes. By now he was giddy and excited about what he'd just found out and was about to go down the drainpipe and back to his companions.
"Eek! I'm so excited!" Mokuba grinned and struck a pose, but stopped when he realized that he would fall if he kept this up. As he was shimmying down the pipe, he heard a cry. A small and frail shriek that wasn't too far away. He was about a story or two off the ground and he looked around at all the windows, but heard nothing and thought it was just his imagination.
Going down, he once more heard that sound though it was much closer now. He looked up and saw a rather small, barred window right next to him. Mokuba heaved a sigh and stood on his tiptoes to see into the window. At first, he had to adjust his eyes because it was a tad bit dark in there but the light from the afternoon sun helped him out.
The sobs and cries were heard loud and clear now as his face pressed against the bars. "H-Hello…?" He muttered.
A sharp intake of breath was heard accompanied by a choked sob.
"Um…" Mokuba blinked and allowed his voice to be a bit louder, "Is anybody down there…? Are you okay?"
Chains rattled, "Yes…"
"Ah… Who's there?"
"…"
He squinted into the darkness and could make out two long and tight chains shackling someone about two feet in midair. Moving his head to let more light down into the base, he could make out brownish, reddish hair and a few freckles. A torn and battered uniform adorned the figure's body.
"Hey… can you tell me your name? Have you been here long?"
"… No…"
"Why were you crying?"
"I'm tied up in a lone cell, why do you think I'm crying?"
Mokuba twisted his mouth and sighed again. He figured she must've done something really wrong for Yami to lock her up like this and not let her be with everyone else, downstairs, "… What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything. And who are you, anyway? A guard?"
"No… Um, my name's Mokuba. I'm a prisoner here."
A bit more of rattling was heard and Mokuba could see a face look up at him, studying his face through the rays of sunlight. She turned around, "… One of the Kaiba brothers, right? You've gotten out, good for you. I advise you leave now before your caught."
"No, I can't do that. My friends can't fit through the hole I can get out of. I won't leave them here."
"… That's sweet." She turned back to him and cracked a smile, "I'm Heidi."
"Ah… Heidi? You're that woman that Yami's upset with, aren't you? You let Marik and Malik go or something? I know who you are."
"Yeah. And that was probably the stupidest thing I've ever done. I mean, what was I thinking?"
"No, it wasn't stupid." Mokuba shook his head. "You did a good thing. Now they're on their way to get the rings and they'll be back here to free us!"
"… What? How do you know?"
"I… Well, I shouldn't say we're friends. But I can contact them."
Heidi sighed, "Well, don't get your hopes up, Mokuba. It's going to take a lot more than the millennium rings to stop Yami and Yugi. They're insane…"
"Ha! Well, I've got good news for you, because Marik and Malik are the craziest people I've ever seen! Trust me, it might only be ten days or so before they get here! Then we'll be free, okay?"
"You'll be free." She struggled to bring up her right hand. When it was lifted she moved her body so that the boy would be able to see what she was trying to show him.
"…!" Mokuba gasped and stuttered, "Y-Your hand…! It's all… bloody! What happened to you?"
"Ah… I'm missing my thumb. I think I only have nine more days to live… When midnight comes tonight, I'll have another finger chopped off."
"Wait, no, that's… that's not right! They can't-"
"KID! Is that you again?"
Mokuba looked down at the same two guards that he'd grown so familiar with. He looked back into the cell and whispered Heidi's name, but she didn't say anything. The drainpipe was shaken violently and he, along with the pipe, came tumbling down. It happened so fast and the boy wasn't even aware of it, when he was thrown back into the cell by the two guards who didn't just go away like they usually did.
"Alright, kid, now tell us… Just how do you keep getting out?" One of them stood by the closed bars of the cell. He peered inside and overlooked everything. All the boys were in there along with a white bird, but he didn't care about that. Upon looking up towards the window, he saw what the problem was. Two of the four bars were pulled out. And the hole it made looked about Mokuba's size.
"Aha! There we go."
Mokuba looked on in dismay as the men along with a little help, put two bars back in and fortified them by using, not metal, but a new type of steel that was rumored to never have been broken.
They laughed in the boys' face and left, with the exception of one guard who stood in front of the cell to insure that no one got out.
"Damn!" Tristan shouted, "What now?"
"I don't know…" Mokuba looked out the barred window and craned his neck to look upwards at the small window which harbored a prisoner that he wished could be free, "But we have to get her out of there."
"… Her?"
In the desert, there was the same little, red jeep bopping along the sandy grounds and making pretty good time for a vehicle with only three wheels. Immediately after the explosion, they drove off in a haste, worried that more of the Spike Patrol might come after hearing that. And Malik, stationed in the backseat, fell into a peaceful sleep right afterwards.
Though he was quiet mussed up from all the soot and ash that covered his body, Cody saluted him by pouring red wine all over the hikari's sleeping form and thus, he was clean once more. Though he was clearly annoyed that someone had poured liquor on him.
"Jeez… Now, I'm all sticky."
"Ah yup yup! But it's better than bein… DIRTY!" Cody laughed and wailed at a joke that only he got.
Malik sweatdropped, "Yeah, well thanks to you, people can now lick me and get drunk."
"Eh heh heh heh…"
"… What are you- Hey! Stop that! Cut it out!"
Malik tried to shield himself from Cody who was poking his head, repeatedly. He kept doing it until Malik was ducking under the backseat in fear and annoyance, "Marik! M-Marik, make him stop!"
"Oh ho ho ho!" Cody continued into drunken obscurity.
"Oh, Malik, hush up." Marik ordered, turning the wheel. Suddenly, the jeep puttered and made a weird noise that came from the engine. Two more seconds and it stopped altogether. Marik tried to push the gas pedal harder, but it was no use.
Malik looked up over the seat, "… Car stopped."
"What was your first clue?" Marik ran a hand through his hair and turned to Cody, "So, I guess we'll have to go on foot?"
Cody grinned wildly and hopped out of the car, landing on his feet. He raised both arms and said, "No need! We're already here!"
Both Egyptians blinked and looked around. The only thing they saw was a bunch of sand and a palm tree, which Cody was leaning on, presently. Malik tilted his head, "So, like, where is it?"
"Right here!" Cody showcased the palm tree, striking a Vanna White pose and then pulled on one of the low-hanging leaves. The ground began to shake and the boys yelped as a structure began to rise from the sand.