Disclaimer: No I do not own Yugioh GX.
"It was a pain," A voice said as it kicked the lever attached to the safe in front of it open. "But in the end the guy suffering the most because of this will be you, Don Karot."
A pair of hands quickly went to work installing the device given to them. "When it's all done and said, you're going to be very angry."
Song of Temarocia
Chapter 23: Luck of the Gods
"It seems I gotta beat some more sense into ya!" The silver-coated man launched forwards, preparing to strike the real finishing blow.
Flair's eyes suddenly came back into focus. ("I didn't want to have to waste it on a low-level henchman like this, but it seems I have no choice.") He sheathed his sword and prepared to use that move, the one he hadn't wanted to use until his opponent was at least a Warlord level enemy.
Revlis snapped his leg up, preparing to drop his heel down on the back of Flair's head and end him immediately. "This be it!"
"Not quite." Another leg intervened and kicked the Rastafarian right between the legs with a sickening crack.
Flair winced noticeably. "Was that necessary?"
King lowered his leg slowly, slamming it down the last couple of inches and cracking the tile at his feet with the weight of his Iron Cotton Shoes. "Probably not, but considering what would have happened had he successfully hit you with his leg I think you'd prefer this outcome over the other."
Revlis, still stuck with his right leg high above his head, pitched backwards and crashed back-first into the ground like a tree that been cut at the trunk. "That…ain't cool…mon…"
"Yup, sorry about that." Lighting up another cigarette, the fake Frenchman turned on one heel to look in the direction where the other two had gone. "So, what should we do now?"
"We must retrieve Alita and retreat." The samurai glanced in the direction that led to the stairs. "We must hurry after her, come on!"
"Run or fight, huh?" King smiled slightly and fished something out of his pocket. "We either go after my angel or we take out the guys who actually are a threat to her. Those losers in the suits can't hurt the girl who has taken my heart, but their boss and his little minions can."
"What are you talking about? Alita is still mortal, unlike you two freaks of nature! We have to make sure they don't use her as a…" Flair stopped as he realized that King was walking towards a slot machine. "What are you doing?"
"I'm going to do a little bit of gambling." Pulling a card out of his pocket, the fake Frenchman inserted it into the machine. "Cards to store your winnings until you decide to cash them out, huh? That's a pretty smart idea, Don Karot."
"What are you doing?" The samurai drew his katana. "Do you want me to cut you in half?"
"Hush a second; I'm going to see just how lucky we are right now." Brushing back a piece of his hair, King held up the five Tem piece he had originally won with. "It's all riding on you, baby. Are you going to show me heaven or hell?" Then he dropped it into the machine and pulled back the lever.
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"It's in place, finally." The pair of hands reached up and wiped some sweat from a very exasperated-looking brow. "I hate this mechanical stuff, why do I have to be the one to install this machine? Oh well, at least it's in place now and…" A low hum came from the circuitry in front of her. "Lady Luck is about to have a heart attack…"
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"Later." Jason's smile faded as Don Karot's Golden Whip exploded straight through his chest, burning a hole in his heart. His body stumbled slightly, and then collapsed to the ground lifelessly. The only sound coming from it was the sound of the smoldering leather of his tunic around the hole in his back…that and the smell of charred flesh which permeated the air left no doubt in the minds of anyone watching. That attack had ended it.
(1600/900) Jason- 0/0
(Current Wealth: 599,996,200) (599900/700) Karot- 8000/7400
"Ja…" Saika's eyes slowly closed and she bit her lower lip as hard as she could, drawing a line of blood from it.
Don Karot started chuckling at the look on Saika's face. "Even now you still manage to smile? It's fine though," He smirked. "I'll just start chopping down those employees here who have treated you well? How does that sound?"
"I'm sorry, Don Karot-sama…" The rainbow-haired girl whimpered out, still managing to smile despite the breaking of her voice. "I can't tell you where it is…"
"Then I have no choice but to go to the torture room again." The Warlord started to walk away with her neck grasped in his hand. "Are you sure you want to continue this pointless fight against me? It would all end if you just gave up the location of the little feline's Prize Card. I know you know where it is. Why not just tell me and get it over with?"
Saika felt it. She remembered what Jason had once called it. It was the five levels of suffering… ("Jason...I'm sorry. I'm not strong enough alone to fight this. Somewhere deep in my heart I knew you would come and that with your arrival I would find strength...") Where was that strength then? Why did she feel nothing but despair? "If I tell you, then will you let the others involved in this go?"
"But of course. None of your lives are worth 1,000,000,000 Tem to me, so of course I'll be willing to let you and your friends go." Don Karot smiled cheerfully. "Now chin up, Saika-chan, and tell me where it is."
("I'm sorry, Shiny Kitty-san…") Saika's mouth started to open.
"B…Boss…" Bronzo twitched a couple of times and shakily lifted one hand to point away from them. "The Tree Sprite…"
"What are you jabbering about Bronzo?" The Warlord turned…and his eyes grew wide. "What kind of joke is this?"
Jason was standing again, the hole in his heart still smoldering.
Gansaku loaded his rifle. "I'll put him down for good, Don Karot."
"Hang on a second, my eager friend. Don't bother wasting your bullets; regardless of whatever willpower is somehow keeping him standing he is already dead." Karot released Saika. "Gansaku, cover her for a moment. I'll end this." His boa started to glow gold. "Jason-kun, fall down and die like a good boy please."
Saika covered her mouth with her hand as she realized that Jason was mouthing something, his shadowed eyes not even needed to be seen to show he was angry. "Jason…" She removed her hand from her mouth and shouted at the top of her lungs. "RUN!"
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"You stupid kid!" A strong laugh echoed across the orange-lit room, the flickering shadows on the wall caused by the burning flames giving the scene an appearance as if it was happening in hell. "I can't believe you actually listened to me! What kind of idiot would so blindly believe what I'd say?"
The smell of the gunpowder…the shine of the revolver's barrel as it reflected the flames which were swallowing up the drapes, the bed covers, and the heart-shaped loveseats…it was so dream-like. And yet the only thing that wasn't dream-like was the one thing that surpassed what it should have been. There were no words to truly describe what it was like.
A slow sneer crossed the shadowed face; the only thing about it discernable was that it was a man's. "This is the reality of the world. Those who follow heroes because they believe them to be infallible are those that suffer this fate more than anyone else. You believed that I was here to help you, didn't you? You stupid little shit…just like that foul-smelling whore you just 'put out of her misery' for me…both of you were so stupid to the very last."
("Is this reality?") He asked himself quietly. ("Is this the world that I live in? I can't trust in anyone…even someone like this guy? If I can't trust him, who can I trust?")
"What will you do now? Are you going to wipe up your tears and take revenge on me? Or maybe you'll kill yourself in some kind of symbolic method of payback? Come on, Jason, why don't you tell me what you intend to do to make the pain go away?"
The blood pooled around his knees, staining his jeans. In it he could see himself, a look on his face that surpassed anything he could understand. "There are five levels of suffering…"
"Eh?"
"Physical pain, Mortal pain, Emotional pain, Dream pain…and the final is the one I intend for you." This was where the memory differed from the reality. This was what he had been thinking in his head when he looked back on those moments, when he had one last chance to say something… "Divine pain, the moment when your world comes crashing down. It lasts only a moment because no one could survive two. Nothing is immune to it, because it is all-powerful. When you have experienced it once, you will never be the same again. For better or worse, you will become a man who has surpassed the limits of suffering. That is what you taught me, and that is what I'll teach you back, you bastard." Had he been a stronger man with a stronger resolve, perhaps it would have gone that way. Unfortunately though, humans are fragile creatures. Even when their worlds are crumbling around them, they will cling to the last vestiges of what they believe to be the sanest reality…
"I'm sorry…dad…"
…even if it is the reality of the devil.
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"Don't worry about me! This isn't a fight you can win! Please…" Saika stopped as Jason suddenly made a very familiar motion to her.
"That's rather rude of you to do to a lady." Don Karot cracked his Golden Whip against the ground a couple of times, burning gashes into the tile. "Perhaps I'll have to beat this last little bit of life out of you, eh Jason-kun?"
Lowering his right hand's middle finger, Jason cracked his knuckles a couple of times and started stretching his legs with his eyes still shadowed. "Saika, what level? What level were you on the verge of feeling?"
"Wha…" The girl was about to ask what he was talking about.
"I'd say it was somewhere in the realm of three or four, wouldn't you say?" Stretching his legs a little more, the Grafter tilted his shadowed gaze in the girl's direction. "Come on, this ain't a freakin' pop quiz question. Just tell me."
"I guess…about four?" Saika didn't know how to react right now, her tears stopped just around the edges of her eyes as she hovered somewhere in between sadness and confusion.
"You big baby, that's a three at most." His eyes were suddenly tilted up enough to be illuminated. The emotion behind them was playful. "If it was a four then this guy would actually be of consequence."
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Wing nearly facefell. "What did he just say?"
Feather started laughing helplessly. "There's no arguing it, that's his son alright…"
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Don Karot's right eyebrow started twitching. "Did you just say I was of no consequence, Jason-kun?"
"Yup, that I did." The young man stood up to his full height. "Wow, I feel really weird…" His head tilted to look down at his chest and his eyes bulged out of his skull. "AHH! I've been pierced through the heart!"
"You're kind of slow, aren't you?" The question was posed by both Bronzo and Gansaku.
"I'm still not sure how you're alive, but it's no matter." Don Karot started to approach. "Though I am still curious why you are going this far for her. Do you want the Mirror Wildcat's Prize Card that much, Jason-kun?"
"…Heh…" Jason turned to look at Saika. "Yo Sai, wasn't your dream to be a great veterinarian? Ain't that why you worked so hard to develop trust with animals?"
"…my dream?" The rainbow-haired girl remembered it now. She remembered what Jason had once said to her. "Jason…" She started tearing up again. "Please help me beat down this guy for trying to kill an animal out of greed…okay?"
"It's settled then." The Grafter licked his lips and pointed at the Warlord. "I'm going to kick your ass for making a member of my gang cry. It'll be a level four pain, so by the end of it expect your dreams to be crushed like dirt too."
"Crush my dreams, you say?" Don Karot started laughing heartily. "Jason-kun, even though I know you are a capable young man I'm sure you must understand that the dreams of one as grand as I are far beyond anything you could comprehend, much less destroy."
"Your money, your casino, and your ass. I'm taking the first, destroying the second and kicking the third, and by the time that's done so will you…permanently." Jason smiled confidently. "You started this, Don Karot, and now I'm going to finish it. Prepare yourself."
"Those are pretty brave words, considering the situation." Gansaku casually rested the barrel of his pistol against Saika's throat. "Do you understand that this girl is our hostage?"
"Hostage?" Jason frowned. "Goldielocks, take your gun away from her throat this instant before you wind up getting messed up…"
"Oh really?" The hunter lifted an eyebrow. "And just who is going to 'mess me up' as you so eloquently put it? You?"
"No." A female voice said from behind the man as the cold metal of a gun barrel pressed against his neck. "That would be me. Drop the gun and step forward."
"So that's where you were." Jason snickered. "Aren't you being a little slow, Kim? Normally you wouldn't have taken this long."
"Shut up," The speaker was a girl wearing a large duster over her head and a long dusty brown cloak around her body. "It's not my fault that I had to do a couple of things before I could come down here and bail you two out of this."
Gansaku lowered his gun and stepped forward, feeling Saika get pulled away from him. "Don Karot?"
"Pursue them the moment you can. And until then…" The Warlord lifted up his right hand slowly. "While it was brave of you to request for help right in front of my eyes, Saika-chan, did you forget what I could so easily do to you? Will the weight you've taken off your shoulders by saying what you said make things better once I've killed you?"
"Oh yes, that's right…" Gansaku snickered. "That little girl has gold in her bloodstream. It's only a small amount, but the Don has the ability to superheat those gold flakes and boil her internally if he so wished. That's why she can never run. It's a shame you forgot about that, eh?"
"I didn't forget." Saika whispered defiantly before lifting her head to glare at the hunter. "I just won't let myself be bullied anymore! With my friends help I'll stop you!"
"Is that so?" Don Karot's right hand started to glow molten. "Then let me reward your bravery with death."
Saika dropped to her knees, gritting her teeth as her skin started to glow red. "I…" She stood back up. "I'm not afraid of you!"
"You don't have to be afraid of me to die, Saika-chan!" The Warlord's glowing hand started to squeeze closed. "Die…"
"Age before beauty," Jason said, a grin on his face. "As for weight…I think you just helped me figure something out." Cracking his knuckles he charged at Don Karot with his fist cocked back to strike.
"Oh no you don't, ya weirdo Tree Sprite!" Bronzo leapt in between the two men, his right hand starting to twist. "Cyclone…"
"Wind Arts; Spinning Cutter!" A twirling crescent of wind energy struck the spot where the bronze-coated man had been standing up until he had just barely threw himself out of the way. "Sorry I'm late Jason! Flair was rather slow in rescuing me!"
"It's not my fault that the stupid fishbowl wanted to gamble all of a sudden!" The samurai landed between Gansaku and the two girls. "The two of you get out of here. We'll…" He was floored as a boot crashed into the back of his head and crushed his face into the floor roughly.
"What kind of a crap is that?" Kim ground her heel into the back of Flair's head angrily. "I'm not running and I doubt that Saika is either!"
The rainbow-haired girl rubbed the back of her head nervously, the pain having disappeared. "Huh, why aren't I hurting anymore?"
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Feather calmly lowered her hand and opened it to reveal the ball of condensed gold sitting there. "A Paladin helps all those in need, correct? And we didn't help the boy except that make sure he could fight fairly, right?"
"I didn't see anything," Wing whistled innocently, looking the other direction while she tossed the golden ball away.
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"Don't worry about it Alita, we're just getting started. I would like to introduce Kimberly Orguss though." The Grafter glanced behind him and grinned at the female magician. "She's a bit gun-crazy, so watch out."
"Who's the blond, Jason?" Tilting up her duster a little bit, Kim smirked slyly. "Is she more your type?"
"Psh, my type wouldn't be as nice as Alita, but that's a different story." The black-haired young man winked. "This is Alita, the sixth member of the Freaks Gang. You got a problem with that?"
"If she lives through this fight then we'll find out if I have any problems with it or not." Twirling her revolver around on one finger, Kim holstered the weapon underneath her cloak and lowered her duster.
"It seems that we're going to be rather busy cleaning some pests out of the casino." Don Karot brought his attention onto Jason. "It's time to kill this annoying cockroach by crushing the head!"
The Grafter was swallowed up in a blast of dirt and emerged from it in his Stonequill Graft. "Watch where you put those feet, Don Karot. It won't be my fault if you wind up losing a leg."
To be continued…
