Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds: The Judgement of the World
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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"Jack... this has to be the stuff Yusei needs."
They both stared down into the box in conflicted wonder; it was packed with dry ice, insulated and obscured by fog, with vials of a soft shade of dark liquid. A needle and syringe was also packed inside, contained in a protective plastic until needed. Everything that was needed to save Yusei's life in a neat package just about the width of Crows' shoulders, and it was all useless.
There was no way they could get back to Neo Domino in time.
Even if the Movement wasn't all around them. The distance between the building and Neo Domino was so great there was no way, even with Crow alone, to return. More over now there was a mystery within the building, because Isao was clearly missing. The security footage showed him keeping the box with him and why else would he unless it 'was' the antidote.
Yet the moment that the portal opened beneath his feet... Well the expression on his face was haunting in its own way. If something could take a Psychic Duelist unawares, what would that say for them? Two regular duelists who lacked the ability to call forth Duel Spirits, or even the magical effects of the spell cards?
The security cameras had resumed their normal surveillance exposing the size of this new mysterious complication. Video recordings showed the other members of the Movement being snatched away in the same manner. Gone one minute, back the next, but there was a change... Something on the primal level touched on the guy's nerves about the Movement members.
They had gone from casually moving about, to a type of near at attention type march through out the building. Any real personality to their step lost the moment they returned from whatever that portal 'was'.
"Think they're waiting for us?" Crow asked as he put the lid back on the box before picking it up.
"No, they could corner us in a heart beat... Something else has them," Jack replied watching the their opposition's movements. "But its not our problem, at least not right now. The only thing we need to concern ourselves with is getting you back to Neo Domino."
"So long as they haven't touched my girl," Crow remarked as he moved to the door with Jack, allowing the taller teen to check the hallway just in case...
Upstairs noise was only a muffled distant sound, reinforcing the thickness of the earth between them and the upper floor. A slow slithering sound began to creep above them, causing dirt to rain down. Sending their senses further straining for any potential summoned Spirits. Jack lead them back to where they had climbed down from, taking point, a position he didn't usually hold due to his height.
But now Crow had the antidote for Yusei and speed was what was needed. So Jack stalked the hallway, with his shoulders thrown proudly back. A warning to anyone that the King was not pleased having to do the work of the guard. But if he was going to have to...
Especially now that the Movement was on, well, the move. They were stationing themselves around the building. When the pair got back to the ground floor, the walls had taken on a veinesque appearance, resulting in multiple cracks of damage. But from where? Neither guy could tell, but if this was the same purple eyed person who took Isao...
The first room they walked into had two such members waiting. The door was open, and the pair were near back to back. Staring down the hallway with an eerily calm expressions on their faces despite the water sprinklers going off over their heads. Guards on watch or statues left behind, it was actually kind of hard to tell. Positioning that had Jack and Crow exchange glances as they were left to ponder the reasoning. Did Movement not realize the pair were underground? But that felt wrong what with Crow's path of destruction...
Fire sprinklers were going off, hissing water raining down into rooms through out the building. The smell of smoke weighed the air down, and between the sound maybe it covered the guys' steps. But it was hard to believe the noise was 'this' effective in silencing them. Why didn't Movement react like normal?
Jack moved forward, left banking on the noise already going on in the hallway to mute out the noise of his approach. While Crow dipped to the side, out of sight of both the Movement members. Both guys carrying duel disks so they could use their powers, while Jack and Crow were limited to just happy little holograms.
But perhaps they didn't need duel disks, because the pair suddenly reacted, looking into the room to see Jack rushing them down. While fire balls suddenly ignited, despite the steady flow of water raining down on them. Jack swore as he dove for the protection of the wall, to avoid the flung hissing fireballs that came barreling into the room.
Above them the lights suddenly began popping as the bulbs shattered in their protective plastic cases. While the pair of duelists turned in response to Jack's 'attempt' giving Jack and Crow a good look at what happened to these duelists. Both guys had a strangely static expression on their faces, as though the life in them had been stripped away. Calm, focused, but there was no one home anymore.
It was an expression that Jack vaguely recognized, similar to the one belonging to Aki back when Divine had his hooks in her. Yet while Aki expressed cruelty and malicious delight, there was a complete lack of emotional engagement in these people. Old tactics would have been to try to make these people mad. Mad enough that they would make mistakes.
But how did one fight a Psychic duelist? They were calling forth elements of nature and animals, increasing their numbers and force easily.
Crow was resolutely clutching the antidote for whatever they injected into Yusei. Even if they couldn't save Yusei, the hospital would still be able to use the antidote if it was exposed to someone else. But these guys were hurling fireballs! How were the pair of duelists expected to get out of the building without the box being damaged?
A duel disk was nice for dueling people, using stats and scores and the taser that Yusei could install in a duel disk. But these weren't holograms they were facing, the fire burned, the lightning shocked, this stuff was 'real'. Electrical damage to the room had spread to the hallway as well, leaving the room and hallway dark with only the occasional spark from the ceiling.
It wasn't easy to see them, amid the sparking dead light bulbs or the flames and smoke. But the skills from living in Satellite died hard. So while it was hard to 'see', Jack was able to vaguely recall where the Psychics were and track them in the darkness. Sending a punch to the face of the first one he found that should have put the guy down. They could hear the sound of the impact, the jaw that audibly 'broke'. Where was the alarmed cry of pain? "The hell happened to these people?"
From the darkness the sharp claws of a beast Spirit ripped into the back of his riding suit, forcing Jack to back off from the teenager who had tried to fry the pair with a fireball. While the elemental partner in the room could be heard getting to his feet... But this wasn't right either. Akis' appeal was that she was strong enough to summon, that was what made her so unique. If they had another who could summon a Spirit physically into the world, why torment her?
"Jack! You ok?" Crow asked as a pair of growls of beasts rumbled through the room as they started skulking about.
'What happened to not just Isao but the other Psychics?' Crow wondered as he made his way to the door. Despite the importance of what was in the box he held that kept him from blindly rushing off it didn't shut off his thoughts. If the Psychics were starting to summon Spirits, well the all too recent memories of Aki on a rage fit came up. It wouldn't do anyone good if he got bitch slapped by something and the vaccine destroyed.
A mangled beep struggled before it died off in an attempt to make its way across the intercom system. Only for the damage the system had received causing it to cut out. The air started to grow heavy with a strange wetness that started to cling to their bodies. While the walls began to shudder slightly, raising an alarming possibility of a larger more powerful Spirit being called.
Crow looked down at the box he held, and the frustration that burned in his heart. 'Honestly I kinda just want to burn this whole place down now...'
Smoke danced along his sense of smell and sight, but he finally dashed out the door. They needed to get out, for air, for space, for light, but something was going on. 'I wish Aki was here, she could at least tell us what's going on...' But the thought only brought a sad grin to his face. Knowing that if she was there, the building would probably have already been flattened.
But she could get the spirits to tell them if something happened to these duelists. She could have...
Could have...
"Awww shit. Why didn't we think to ask Sis to bring us here herself? She's got money, she probably has a helicopter too!" Crows' gripe reached Jack's ears, causing the taller teen to mentally kick himself. A pilot could have gotten them here and back again and Yusei wouldn't have had to die! Instead they decided they needed to do this as 'men' and completely abandoned the most useful member they had in their group.
"Shut up," Jack growled back, completely pissed that he was once again reminded that strategy wasn't his strength. Hence why he was no longer the Turbo Duel King, and why they were here, getting soaked, looking like shit... instead of riding in style in a helicopter...
But it was enough of a distraction, the cat summons, whatever type of cat it was charged past his ankles. Realizing that the cat must have been maybe the size of a typical house cat, maybe a little larger. Jack put the cat out of his mind while light in the room blossomed red as a fireball ignited from the elemental Psychic duelist blinding Jack some.
'They're too quiet, why don't they say anything? Isao was willing to talk...' Jack thought in irritation.
Once again the beeping began, but this time the system finally began to work. "I see you're still here..." Isao's voice came across the intercom from various rooms in the building. It was ground down by static and something else. "But we have a guest we need to deal with, kill the pair as quickly as possible."
Crow frowned as he looked up at the ceiling once before peering out of the room, checking the hallway. 'So this wasn't some strange Psychic Duelist thing... Which means we'll have to deal with this later...' The hallway was clear on both sides, so he went down the right hallway. As far as he knew from viewing the security cameras, there wasn't another similar room.
'Wait... how can he know we're here... and talk on the phone? The line was cut and I can't imagine he'd go and find another cord just to talk to us...' Isaos' comments were confusing now that Crow was thinking on them. Crow couldn't recall another surveillance room in the building, meaning the guy had to see them and go to another room, swap cords... or his Spirits were now boosted as well.
If that was possible, Crow couldn't hang around anymore. He needed to reach his BlackBird and fly. Even if it meant leaving Jack behind, 'I'll contact Kiryu, see if he can make his way here...'
Light at the end of the hallway was reassuring, even as he slowed up his steps as he approached the end of it. At the end of the hallway on his left, was a dead end, but on his right it branched further outward into the building. But there was also another pair of Psychic's also with duel spirits out, but not the elemental/animal combo he had already encountered with Jack. Instead this was a pair of humanoid warrior types, which also cluttered up the space of the hallway.
A mechanized warrior began marching towards Crow, causing the redhead to make a snap decision to rush into the room ahead of him. It was another plain office room, with a pair of doors on either side. While Crow needed to get to the front of the building where the exit was, justifying taking the right door. Behind him he could hear animal growls in the distance, making him hope that Jack would be ok.
The warriors floated through the walls after him, as spirits were undoubtedly capable of doing. So knocking over chairs or tables was going to be ineffectual, meaning all Crow could focus on was his own two legs carrying him out the room. There was another room with another pair of doors one opening to the Movement members walking in.
So he charged forward again through another pair of doors, another set of rooms. Passing through the fourth set of doors to a room of pale beige walls and folding tables and chairs. A twittering bird in the back of his mind forced him to notice how the growling didn't retreat into the distance. So he had to slow down as he tried to mentally map out the building as they had originally entered it.
A loud boom suddenly rocked the room, sending Crow into a half crouch in reaction. The walls shuddered as another roar overtook the one he heard behind him. The walls buckled for a moment, as cracks raced outward from them. Yet as Crow's attention was captured by the very cracks his mind noted the exactness of the room itself. How many rooms had he run through that looked exactly the same?
'Shouldn't I have already reached the door?'
The building was big, yes, but not so big that he should have been still running for the exit. In alarm he opted to turn towards the right, even as one warriors' sword was drawn out of its sheath.
He dove out of the door and found himself facing a hallway where Jack was wrangling with a fairly large wolf.
"Crow?! The hell? I told you to get out of here!" Jack roared in outrage as the wolf continued lifelessly clawing at the duelist. Its jaws snapping dangerously close to Jack's face as the taller duelist kept pushing it back.
"I... I did...shit..." Crow answered as he looked behind him as the two that had been chasing him approach. "This place is a maze now, there's no way I should be back here..." 'Unless this whole building is now part of a Duel Spirit.' A voice in the back of his head whispered as the two more Psychic Duelists and their Spirits caught up to him.
Jack didn't have time to pay much attention to what anyone was saying, the snarling mouth of sharp teeth was taking up most of his attention. While the wolf became framed in fractured cracks as the walls began to buckle. "What? Crow what's going on!?" He demanded as Crow kicked the wolfs' hind legs out from under it so that Jack could do something more constructive.
"Hell if I know! The walls are being beaten down by something. But Jack, I've run around in circles in here... Somehow these guys managed to turn this building into a maze!"
'Or whoever grabbed them...' the possibility was still there, but who had the power to do that?
"Are you still here?"
Out of the deceptively normal hallway, Isao walked out of a side door. His eyes were dull of the light they once held, even when he was lying to their faces about Yusei. Isao's steps were slower, almost distracted as he approached them. As he did the wolf slipped behind the duelist that had summoned it. The other warriors also went into a type of static position behind their duelists..."If you can't deal with them, then forget them, our guest wants an audience..."
Where was the life to them? Every time Aki had Witch out, or the Fairies from Carly's deck, they were so full of life and personality. Were these true Spirits? If so whatever happened to their partners seemed to have sucked them dry of personality as well. Another blow to the walls caused a crash of some sort off towards where the exit was.
"Who else did you piss off Isao?" Crow asked, as the ground shook below them, buckling slightly as a reminder. Reminding the two Signers' that there was an underground passage below them, and somewhere there was explosives lying around.
Meanwhile the walls and ground continued to shudder as some force slammed into them again and again. This pulsing beat that was making the whole left wall tremble as pieces began to break and fall to the ground. Was this force the ones that had taken the whole Movement and stripped them of their own personalities?
Their 'guest' clearly was tired of waiting at the door.