Her Sweetness: Hey there, people. Well, you know what? We're not done with this fic yet, not by any stretch of the imagination, but I do look forward to the ending, for I will be holding another contest and I will be doing another "special thing"!

That's right, come ending time; I will be giving out awards to you reviewers. By category. Such as Most Interesting Review, Longest Review, and the ever popular Inspiration Award. That specific award will be rewarded!

Tee hee. Anyhoo, I believe I received cookies from a special shadow reviewer that has come out into the light, recently. Thank you.

Now, on with the story!

A Tale of Two Idiots

Chapter 21:

The remains of Terry lay on the floor, a pool of crimson and a leg and a red flower, both scattered and the rest was lost to the bazooka that had burst in from the door then followed by some guards that had looked upon the mess and cringed. Their leader and commanding officer, the fat man, had pushed his way through the privates to behold the blood-splattered foyer of the supposed and obliterated mayor's home.

Happy Chicken Man gasped, "You idiots! You just blasted that damn bazooka without looking first! Do you even know who you killed?"

Number 5 shook his head, "Uh… Well, not really. But, apparently," He looked around at the pieces of white, silk shirt and petals of red roses, "It was someone with a great amount of style."

"Gah! Idiots, that might have been one of the boys we were looking for! Dammit, what are we going to tell the Pharaoh? We bazookaed his prize!"

"…" They whined and sniffed.

Happy Chicken Man was unsympathetic as he growled and stalked forward. He shook the blood from his nice black shoes and looked up at the staircases. Both were sparkly and marbled over with green and gray, but one led to the right and the other, to the left. He scratched his chin before nodding solemnly to himself.

"Okay, men, as of now we have no proof that the boys have been killed by our own hand…" He scowled at Number 5 briefly, "But something tells me there's a chance that they might still be alive."

"… Like what?" A random solider asked.

"That." Happy Chicken Man pointed over by the wayside and there lay a white sheet, carelessly tossed and settled on the staircase leading to the right. Number 3 cautiously ventured over and knelt by the bedcovering. Picking it up, gently, he then sniffed it and gasped.

"This smells like Sassy Girl hair gel!"

"Exactly. And as I remember it, Pharaoh Yami said something about a certain ring holder wearing Sassy Girl…"

"Aw, dammit, my hair is PMSing." Bakura rubbed his scalp whilst walking, keeping up with the group. Since they'd thrown that sheet off of their heads, he'd been complaining that his hair wouldn't stay down and his spikes were beginning to loose their sheen. "I should've put on TWO globs of my Sassy Girl this morning…"

"I told you, 'Kura, but you wouldn't listen to me."

"I've heard enough about Bakura's hair problems!" Marik growled, turning to the albino behind him, who glared back. He then turned back around to the fifty-year-old man leading the way, "Cody, where are we going?"

"Welpers… I'm tryin to find this here secret trapdoor that leads to the outside, but I can't seem to find it! Maybe Terry moved it while I was away?" Cody scratched his head in confusion as he looked around the rather dark hallway that they were now in.

For the past five minutes or so, they had gone down this hallway, watching Cody feel his way around for a trapdoor of some kind and there had been no luck as of yet. Now as they came to a solid wall, Malik blinked, "Cody, this isn't a dead-end, is it?"

"Ah, yup yup. Seems that way!" He smiled back cheerfully, causing all boys to sweatdrop.

"Absolutely fabulous, so now what do we do?" Bakura asked, massaging his split ends.

Ryou looked back at the way they had just come, "Perhaps we went the wrong way, should we turn back?"

Cody grinned, sheepishly, putting his hands behind his back, "Sounds goody-good to me!"

"Aw…!" Malik whined, turning slowly around and trudging foreword, "This sucks, you know. We've been speed walking down here for what seems like miles and now we have to go some other way! Well, I don't think-"

Suddenly footsteps and louder voices were heard other than the ones of Bakura complaining about his hair and Malik complaining about everything. Down the long hallway before them, they saw shadows running on the walls and more voices. Malik stopped his complaining and clamped both hands over his mouth, mumbling through them, "Who is that?"

"Uh-oh…" Cody blinked.

"What is it?" Ryou and Malik turned to him, worried looks on their faces.

"I guess the Happy Chicken men followed us down here, I can here the boss man's voice…!"

"Aw, what?" Marik shouted, "You've got to be kidding!"

"Shh!" Bakura, Ryou and Malik jumped on him, covering his mouth. Not that Marik meant to, but his voice was loud and it echoed down the beginning of the hallway. The figures and shadows running on the walls stopped in their tracks. Their heads moved slightly from the left to the right and someone was heard saying:

"Did you hear that?"

"Sure did, let's check it out, I think it came from down there…"

"Oh Gods, they're coming!" Ryou gasped.

"Alright, let's think about this for a second," Marik said, taking a deep breath, "We'll just have to try to find that trapdoor, it's gotta be down here. The most important thing is that we don't-"

"Ooohhhhh! We're gonna dieeee….! We're gonna DIEEEE!" Malik was running around in a small circle, flailing his arms and squealing.

"… Panic." Marik finished his sentence, sweatdropping.

"Shh!" Ryou held onto his friend's shoulders, halting his fret circle, "Malik, don't do this, not now!"

"Cody, where are you? We need to be looking for that…" Bakura's sentence stopped in the middle, his eyes settling on the wino that was hopping from place to place with great speed, feeling on the walls, "I'm a'tryin! I'm a'tryin! You think I wanna get caught by Happy Chicken Man? It's yous guys he needs, he'll just shoot me!"

"I hear more voices!" Ryou stated, backing up, behind Bakura, who in turn backed up behind Marik, who in turn told them both to find another hiding spot.

Malik gulped as the shadows moved closer and so did the voices. Now it was apparent by the figures that they were well armed with bazookas and some sort of grenade launcher strapped to their backs.

"H-How's that trapdoor coming, C-Cody?" He asked, shaking.

"I'm going as fast as I can…!" Cody panted, now patting the back of the wall. They had all backed up so much; it left Cody less than two feet left to find the hidden door. And he wasn't having any luck.

Suddenly, about five faces popped up from behind the corner of the hallway about twenty feet in front of them. They were dressed in gray and yellow, the Spike Patrollers colors and they soon stepped out from their peeking spot.

One of them yelled backwards, "Mr. Happy Chicken Man, sir! We've found the fugitives!"

Cody squeaked audibly, "Oh no! They can't find us yet!"

Malik and Ryou were crying in each other's arms, "Oh, this is it! G-Goodbye cruel world…! We'll probably be thrown into a river full of man-eating guppies…!"

From the group of soldiers that had now formed at the entrance, blocking their escape, there emerged a fat man, smirking like madman and tapping his foot on the cold cement. "Ah, Marik and Patty. So we meet again."

"My name is Malik, dammit!" Malik shouted, growling and foaming at the mouth.

Ryou handed him a hanky.

Marik ignored his hikari's obvious pouts and growls, and he shouted back to the fat man, "No way you're killing us, you big pig!"

"Ha ha ha! Oh, how naïve. I'm not going to kill you. That's something Pharaoh Yami would like the pleasure of doing… slowly. But. Cody, on the other hand is mine for the maiming."

At hearing his name, a pathetic whine came from behind the four boys. Soon, white and shaggy hair appeared and then dull blue eyes and the rest of the man's body, "Uh, h-hey there, Chicken Man…"

"That's Happy Chicken Man to you, Cody." He folded his arms, but before doing so, wiggled two of his fingers towards the men standing at attention behind him. They took the signal and stepped foreword, their guns and bazookas cocked and loaded.

Ryou was the first of two (the other being Malik) to call out, saying, "Wait a minute! No! You cannot shoot Cody!"

Bakura turned to his hikari and said, calmly, "You keep up all this protesting and it'll be you who they shoot next."

"Ah…! B-But-"

Happy Chicken Man cleared his voice, "Cody, I see you all are very close. So, if you come out from behind them, quietly, and let us kill you, peacefully, none of these young men need to be hurt."

Cody sighed, and hung his head, his white bangs falling over his face, "Okeydokey…" He began to walk foreword, each step taking him closer to his doom.

Malik squeaked, watching Cody, "N-No! Don't do it! Marik, do something!"

"Zzz… H-Huh? Huh?" Marik blinked, tiredly, getting off his leaning spot on the wall. It seemed he had dozed off. When he rubbed his eyes, he noticed his hikari looked like he was about to cry, "W-What is it?"

"Marik! Cody's going to die!"

"… He's WHAT? Jeez, Malik, I close my eyes for two seconds and someone's dying! You're awful!"

"It's not my fault!"

"Oh, yes it is! People always die when you're around, unsupervised!"

"You take that back!"

"I won't!"

"Oh, please, Marik! Malik! Don't do this now, couldn't we just…?" Ryou sighed, not being able to interfere with the argument that seemed impenetrable. They soon began to take their disagreement to the physical stage and Ryou panicked as he usually does in these situations. And as he tried to stop this, he ended up being pulled into the fistfight. As this went on and Ryou ended up trying to pull them off each other, Cody stopped for a brief second, to whisper something in a certain white-haired yami's ear, "Bakura… When I get up into range, I want you to jump up and down, really hard, ah yup yup?"

"Uh…" He scratched his head.

"Stop stalling, Cody! Get your drunk butt up here!" Happy Chicken Man called. It seemed his attention was divided for a moment, starring at the two Egyptian boys who were rolling on top of each other and the albino who was sandwiched in the middle of it. That was a real sight, right there.

Cody winked to Bakura as he tried to say something. In less than a second Cody had solemnly jogged within ten feet of the guns and bazookas.

Happy Chicken Man grinned, "Ready."

The guns were cocked.

"Aim."

The bazookas were loaded.

"FIRE…!"

As soon as the word was uttered and then broke out into everyone's ears, the guns went off, lights flashed and smoke of all kinds entered the air. The last audible word from Cody was, "Jump!"

Bakura's thief-like reflexes kicked in and he plunged his full body-weight onto the floor where he stood, twice. As soon as his feet landed the second time, the floor fell through in the shape of a square. He fell through and went down the tunnel, screaming like a girl in surprise. Ryou and Marik and Malik looked up from the clouds of smoke and loud gun firing in the near distance. Ryou noticed his yami had disappeared down the long tunnel.

"This must be the trapdoor Cody talked about…!" Marik whispered, loudly, over the sounds of raining mini-bombs from the bazookas.

"Oh, poor Cody…!" Malik and Ryou looked like they were about to go into another 'Lifetime' scenario, but before they could, Marik rolled his eyes and pushed them both down, their screams following. Before going down himself, he took one more look at the cloud of smoke, not even hearing Cody's drunken laughter or a 'ah, yup yup'. He jumped down without another thought about it, knowing that if he did, he'd be tempted to run in there to try to save his friend.

Under the shiny palace in the center of the Inner City, four teenage boys were watching the youngest of their group with despair and angst. As the day grew later into the afternoon, and the sun moved in slow paces towards the west, Mokuba starred out of the lone barred window and sighed, repeatedly. He, himself, began to pace the floor, looking out again when the sun seemed to move. Over Joey and Kaiba's arguing and over Tristan and Otogi's whispered conversations and giggles, Mokuba continued his plotting.

"I have to get out of here…" He said finally, catching the attention of the other cellmates.

"Mokuba," Kaiba looked up at his younger brother, punching Joey whilst he did so, "We've tried everything. This place is too well guarded, everything Yami has is perfect."

"Our only chance is to wait for Marik and Malik. Wasn't it you who said it wouldn't be more than two weeks before they get here?" Otogi asked.

Mokuba turned around, shouting, "Heidi doesn't have two weeks! She barely has five days!"

"Well, Mokuba-"

"OUCH!" Kaiba's pained cry interrupted Tristan as he backed up into the wall, holding his arm. Joey stood proudly by the bars, wiping his mouth with the back of his sleeve. Kaiba was shouting obscenities, letting his arm go, everyone noticed the blood that stained his skin. "That damned dog bit me!"

"Yeah, well you disserved it! You spoiled rich boy… Sheesh."

"… Wow, Joey." Otogi blinked, starring at Kaiba's wound, "That looks pretty deep, you really have a set of jaws…"

"Yeah, he must be part German Shepard…" Kaiba grumbled, though it went unnoticed.

Mokuba had rolled his eyes, getting quite tired of this battle between the two. Although his brother seemed hurt, he knew Kaiba's had worse. As his eyes settled on the wound once again, a light bulb flashed over his head.

"That's it!" He called, excitedly.

Everyone looked to him, "What?"

"Joey, Joey…!" Mokuba went running over to him. Upon reaching him, he grabbed his wrist and pulled him over by the window, "Joey, please, you have to use your teeth to break the bars!"

"… What?" Joey raised his eyebrows in horror and wonder, "What's gotten into you, Mokuba! I can't do that!"

"Yes, you can, Joey, please!"

"Yeah, mutt. Do us all a favor and kill yourself by biting fortified metal bars. Then we'll be rid of your stupidity for a lifetime."

"Kaiba…!"

"Seto, don't!" Mokuba turned back to the blonde, his large pleading eyes set at the ready, "Joey, please…! If for no one else, do this for me!"

"Eh… W-Well, I'll give it a shot…"

"Thank you, Joey!"

Otogi whispered behind his hand to Tristan, "I'll bet my earring that Joey dies from blood loss in his gums."

"I'll take that bet."

Joey ignored the betting going on behind his back and turned his attention back to the bars. He sighed and looked briefly at Mokuba, who was cheering him on, faithfully. A deep breath and large chomp later, Joey was grappling with the bar in the middle. His fangs grinding into the metal and leaving prints but after a moment, the bars didn't show any sign of breaking and Joey's gums and teeth were hurting fiercely.

"Mrm!" Joey whined, tears welling in his eyes. Mokuba frowned, knowing that Joey wanted to quit. But he just couldn't let him off the hook, not just yet…

"C'mon, Joey! Don't be a baby, you can do this!"

Joey continued, though his face was going numb. He bit down harder.

A bit of blood ran down his front teeth and kept going down the bar.

Mokuba sighed, inwardly, 'Well, I can't let this continue… Joey could be seriously hurt… Aw, it was a stupid idea anyway, I should just tell him to-'

"Hey, Wheeler! I see you crying over there, you're such a wuss! I knew you'd wimp out and end up shaming yourself yet again. Ha, can't you do anything right?"

"K-Kaiba…!" Joey growled, his eyes turning red at the blue-eyed CEO. This was the very last straw. All he ever did was insult him and this time he wasn't going to get off with just a bite! And the bar snapped in half.

"Gah!" He jumped back, holding his mouth, which was now bleeding rather heavily. He watched the two halves of the bar fall down and hit the ground, an echo following.

"Oh, Joey, you did it!" Mokuba jumped up and down, pumping his fists in the air, "I knew you could do it!"

"Pheh." Kaiba turned the other way, hiding his smirk.

Joey mumbled through his clasped hands, "I did do it! Ha ha!"

Otogi sighed and handed over his dice earring to Tristan, who took it earnestly, heart bubbles floating above his head. Otogi sweatdropped.

"Joey, you're the best," Mokuba began to climb up through the bars. It was a very tight squeeze, seeing as how the previous escape attempts provided him with two bars length, but he made it work by sucking in his stomach. He soon popped out onto the grass and looked around briefly.

Tristan had looked up through the bars, "Mokuba, you know you'll get captured, you always do! What's the point?"

"I'm not going to spy on Yami and Yugi today." Mokuba shook his head, "Nope, desperate times call for desperate measures! MR. DOVE!" He called out and suddenly that same, daffy white bird came fluttering down, flapping its small wings before the young boy.

Kaiba cleared his throat, "Mokuba, we really should wait to see if Marik and Malik have found Ryou and Bakura, yet. They-"

"Those slackers! No way, I'm going to go light a fire under their lazy butts!" Mokuba stretched his arms and nodded to Mr. Dove. He, who took the hint, managed to pick up the boy by the collar of his shirt and they, slowly but surely lifted up into the air. Before going even ten feet away, Mokuba called down, "I'll be back you guys! And I will bring those macadamia nuts back with me!"

As the teens watched Mokuba and the extremely small bird fly off into the distance, only one word was uttered.

"… Wow."