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Yoh conking out was never really something to be worried about before this adventure...but now it's because of pain/mysterious events, and it seems like he's doing it every five seconds! With their unofficial leader knocked out, you might've thought Kaiba and Joey would quickly procede to kill each other...if so, you'd be wrong. - ?
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The medical bay on the BEWGS was usually empty...both because of it's cramped space and the ship's tendancy to jerk when Heartless ships rammed into it. Kaiba was doing his part from the bridge, monitering life readings as endless space in front of him continued to pass. Joey was nervously pacing around the ship, with Amidamaru floating alongside him, pacing without feet.
"Any change yet?" The hundreth question came as he returned to the bridge. Kaiba merely glared in response, and Joey sighed. "Sorry. Guess I'm just nervous...why d'ya think he passed out, anyway?"
"Maybe something in his memory startled him... or maybe he's just tired. I'm leaning to the latter, as, aside from unconscious bouts like this, he hasn't actually slept since he arrived in Traverse Town...that, and his vitals show he's only sleeping."
"I sensed something familiar...for a brief moment...when it happened." Amidamaru commented, frowning. He knew the feeling that had passed all too well. "I believe he recieved a startling vision.. a painful memory coming back."
"Memories?"
The samurai nodded. "I do not fully understand it, myself... the world I was born, raised, killed, and met Yoh in was not the island he remembers... I know that he is the exact same person, but he has no memory of me from before yesterday..."
A sudden bleeping sound from the ship brought them to attention. "Perfect timing... the new world's coming up." Kaiba said. "Try and wake up Yoh; we enter in five minutes."
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Shadows crept alongside them as they walked...literally and figuratively. To keep from bumping into his new ally, the Emperor had turned the infra-red option in his glasses on... if he didn't find a humorous irony in the fact, he would have shivered at seing a complete blank where every Shadow should be. Ahead, the diguised man turned, looking at the former dictator as he started to open a large, cieling-high door.
"The chamber ahead leads to this castle's former throne-room, which you cannot enter." The baboon-cloaked man informed. "However, this is where our council meets. When not overseeing the events in their own worlds, all members have the run of the castle..not including the throne room, yet they somehow feel compelled to spend most of their time here..."
"Let me guess; endless bickering, bragging over petty plots, complaining for the low quality in snacks?"
"Two out of three." The figure chuckled, opening the door. "The snacks recieve no complaint."
Without warning the odd creature suddenly burst into dust, leaving only a small wooden figurine behind. Determined not to show surprise, the Emperor swiftly looked at the new room, which was dimly lighted by a large green sphere in the center of the table.
"Ah, the new kid." A blond-haired man said, noticing the entrance. He was tall and thin, with a moderately attractive face, wearing what appeared to be brown armor over most of his body. "The old ape said someone was joining us. I have to say; it's a relief, not being the youngest member anymore."
"Age and reputation have little to do with the other." The Emperor spat, walking to the table. The older man grinned. "Quite right, forgive me. It's just hard to remember when the others are hundreds of years...or, in some cases, metric pounds, more than you."
"I heard that!" An angry voice came from the room below, accompanying a loud metallic crash.
The only other one at the table was much the same as the first...except his hair was much longer, and unarranged, falling below his neck. Unlike the other, he made no attempt to keep a pleasant expression on his face...or, currently, ANY expression. He wore a form-fitting white suit, which had eight strange slits in the back. His eyes held what seemed to be thousands of years worth of knowledge, and more than a bit of arrogance to go with it. The Emperor liked him already.
"Tell me..." he started, speaking to this new face," aside from the two of you, how many more members are in this 'council?'"
"Before you joined, I knew of six... including myself." His voice was sophisticated, controlled... for some reason, it didn't seem natural. "I was the second person our leader searched out."
"That gives you the lucky number, little man." The first one commented randomly. "Me? Sad to say, I'm the 'sixth' member. Lord Chimpy apparantly decided to offer my membership on a whim.."
"Glyde..." The other said slowly. "Please spare us your humorless, and possibly dangerous, mockery of the leader. Although I admit, he has faults in his...roots-that's not a joke, nimwit- he is still much greater than the rest of the inferior beings in this castle."
"Ah, yes, your anti-human sentiments return..." The one now known as Glyde jeered. "How many Saimyosho crawled down your 'wingholes' today, Yiggy?"
"Yggdrasill." The tone held promises of pain.
"Whatever... so, do we give the guided tour ourselves, or wait for M.K.?"
"Neither. You can show your fellow monkey around the castle. I have things to take care of."
Before Glyde could comment further, a shining, crystal wing erupted from each slit, and Yggdrasill vanished in a pillar of light. "Short-tempered winged shoujo prettyboy.. ah, what can ya' do? Let's get going...whoever you are."
The younger villian smirked. "I am the Digimon Emperor."
"Your name sucks."
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His scans from Gummi Space had shown the world to be infinitely larger than the field he was now in, so Kaiba assumed it was a 'portal' world; a world where transportation between areas all but required some form of teleportation. As for the field itself, it looked to be no more than a vast grassland, with some odd pillars and ruins scattered around. All in all, the team's new looks were more impressive than the new area was.
The BEWGS's files had listed this as a Class D world with Class C traits... relatively meaning they needed to roughly look like native inhabitants, and it was likely they were the only offworlders present. Therefore, one of the countless features he had deemed 'ingenius' in his Gummi Ship activated; changing their appearance as they warped onto the world. Looking around at his allies, and himself, Kaiba wondered what ELSE was missing in this world's files...
His own outfit was a set of light blue robes, a white sash around his waist tightening them, so they were roughly form-fitting. His Sagii Staff's pole had lengthened so that, parallel to his chest, it would reach the ground easily.
Joey's appearance came close to matching that of his favorite monster's... orange armor over a bright blue bodysuit, the bottom half of a blue robe, and a familiar sword with runic emblems in a sheath tied to his back. The only thing missing was the orange helmet...but, having worn this outfit once before, he could safely say his neck was feeling relieved at its absence.
Yoh, from his snoozing form on the ground, had a less bulky, Yoh-sized version of Amidamaru's attire, complete with the two sword sheaths at his side and the red armor on his shoulders. Amidamaru himself seemed to have vanished... but this was a common occurance, anyway.
"Wheeler... as the resident expert in the field, is it really possible to sleep like that with armor?"
"Yeah...if you don't mind a cramp for the next few days." Joey answered, pulling Yoh to his feet. "Guess we just gotta drag him along until he snaps out of it."
Not ready to lose their sense of innapropriate punctuality, purple flashes encircled them, leaving a small brigade of Soldiers and Shadows behind. This time, however, a small green Heartless, vaguely bell-shaped, floated amongst it's comrades. Kaiba snarled. "A Green Requiem... magic's useless against it, and it heals its allies."
"Guess we 'got problem, then... unless..." Joey grinned, carefully reaching behind his back. Seemingly from out of thin air, he pulled out his shield. "Hey, Kaiba; PULL!"
The mage smirked as the disk-like object swirved in front of him, then blasted a Fire so that it bounced the shield into the floating Heartless, causing it to vanish in another dark flash. He hastily used a Thundara to clean out the other circling beasts.
More flashes came, but before he could move to strike again, two large fists struck him from the side. Kneeling to cover the wound, readiying a Cure, what looked like a blue, monkey-shaped Heartless flipped into view from behind him, then joined with its fellow beasts in the new squadron around them. "And Powerwilds...just great."
Joey staggered back, trying to avoid the pursuing primates. One of them flipped again, moving to attack Yoh... and met the Keyblade facefirst. "Yoh!"
Yawning, the young shaman stepped to the side. "Yeah...lemme guess; I blacked out again."
Joey pulled out his sword, and joined his drowsy friend in slashing through the beasts. "Not for too long... only injury we have so far's on Kaiba's end."
A Fira barely missed the knight as it blew up another Powerwild. "I'll remember that the next time YOU'RE suckerpunched by your family members."
"I thought Joey was a dog."
"Eh, people call me a 'Dueling Monkey' too- HEY!"
Yoh jumped to meet a small series of bell-shaped Heartless that appeared, each a different color, then swirled to slash them all. "How many sets was that?"
"Three...which is usually all." Kaiba replied, brushing some stray ice from a Blue Serenade off his arm. A combination of the last few types of enemies suddenly appeared. "...or not."
Before they could finish the fight, however, a series of green arcs of light blasted around them, each connected with a Heartless. When the beams vanished, the monsters they had caught went with them. Yoh glanced toward their point of origin in time to see an orange and teal blur dash into one of the many ruins around them...albeit a much larger one.
"What d'ya think that was?" Joey asked. "I'm no expert, but that sure as heck wasn't a magic attack..."
"How can you tell?" Yoh asked curiously. Amidamaru appeared behind him, scanning the area from his floating position.
"It's too long to explain right now, but Wheeler and I can tell the difference." Kaiba answered. "The problem now, though, is our next course of action. This field is large, and we're likely to alert several Heartless 'camps' if we move around to much. Added to that is the fact that we're searching for a Keyhole, and we can't be sure if it's even in this field or not..."
"Okay, then... we should follow that orange thing that ran into that place!" He pointed to the descending entrance in front of them. At the others' blank stares he added, "whatever it was, it didn't trigger any Heartless, at least..."
"I agree with Yoh's plan!" A small voice shouted immediately. Blinking, the young shaman pulled something from his right shoulder with his fingers. "Myoga!"
"Where the heck have you been!" Joey demanded of the minute demon. "I searched the ship ten times over since the Digital World, and never saw you!"
"Ah, yes... I've been in Yoh's headphones for a while now..." the flea admitted. "It just seemed like a... safer way to write the events of our adventures!"
Kaiba rolled his eyes as he turned to move. "I'm sure your concern was for the records... fine. Let's see if the Keyhole's anywhere in that dungeon."
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Chapter posted: July 13th, 2005.
Next Chapter: Remnants of Waves