Futile Resistance
"Let me go, you bastards!" Chazz shouted, pulling against the leather buckles clasped around his wrists, finding himself strapped onto a chair.
Everything was white or some type of light pastel blue around Chazz as he sat in the middle of what could either be described as a lab or a hospital room and still be an accurate description. It looked like it could be either in all honesty, and it smelled heavily of medicine and cleaning supplies. There were counters and cabinets all along the walls, and what honestly looked like an operating table in the middle of the room. Normally a doctors office or whatnot would have a kind of bed inside, but not a single thing about this place seemed normal in the slightest. It felt like days had passed since he had been brought to this place.
He had been taken from the kidnappers by his brothers after the money had been exchanged, and the rest really was a big blur. Chazz wasn't sure where he was exactly. Even though they had untied his ankles so he could walk, Jagger had kept his hand clasped over the his eyes to make sure he wouldn't know where he was on the off chance he managed to find a way to escape somehow, also keeping his other hand tightly gripped on Chazz's shoulder as they led him around, not about to risk giving him any openings for an escape attempt. So Chazz had very little knowledge of his surroundings on the way to where he found himself now. But somewhere down the line after being paraded through probably countless hallways, he had been shoved into the room he was currently residing in.
Falling to the ground, Chazz was taken up by several men in white. Hoisting him up from the ground, they held him against the wall while they removed the bonds tied tightly around his chest and wrists before removing the gag from his mouth, earning a small symphony of coughs and wheezes from the boy. But with his arms freed, Chazz tried to fight against what he assumed were doctors or scientists of some sort, flailing his arms out as he tried to get a good punch or hit of some kind on the men holding him, but sadly, to no avail.
"L-Let me go!" He shouted, his voice hoarse and scratchy, even more so than it sounded on any regular day. It hurt his throat to shout, but if he tried to speak normally, his voice would be too weak for the time being. "W-What the hell's g-going on!?"
"Stop struggling!" One of the doctors holding him back commanded, grabbing his flailing arm and holding it tightly behind his back as Chazz continued to struggle against the unfamiliar adults. "You could damage yourself!"
"L-Like you people aren't d-doing that yourselves!" Chazz retorted, doing his best to push them off of him, but the force of the adults holding him against the wall was too great for the young boy. His heart raced as he struggled, memories of his brothers resurfacing in the panic that was slowly creeping into his heart, flashes of the beatings he had sustained in moments similar to this. Completely helpless as he was heartlessly beaten by one brother or another.
"Hurry up!" The doctor to the right commanded, who Chazz figured to be an aid of some kind behind them as the boy began sinking into a small panic attack. His breath hastening as he began to struggle harder against the oppressive forces restricting him from breaking free. "Subdue him!"
After the aid quickly scrambled around behind them for a moment Chazz felt another hand on his body. Already losing his senses, it took him a quick second to register the aid had clamped a rag over his mouth and nose. Chloroform no doubt, he figured as his movement slowed, his eyesight fading away into black again, like it had before. Feeling his body go limp in the grasp of the doctors, that was the last thing he could remember.
"Dammit…" Chazz whispered to himself as he gave up his struggling. Looking around the room again, he recognized it as the same room he was in before. His memory was still fuzzy but he did his best to collect himself and all he could recall.
At some point during what was probably a period of a few hours, Chazz surmised, he had been tightly strapped into the chair beside a table of monitors and other pieces of equipment, and his clothes had been removed and replaced with a pale pastel blue tinted hospital gown of sorts. Looking around quickly, Chazz located his coat hanging on a hook on the wall while his clothes were folded and set neatly on an empty chair beside the coat hooks, his shoes also placed neatly on top of the neatly folded clothes.
"What the hell is going on here…?" Chazz thought, looking back down at his wrists he tried struggling again, well aware that it would do little good. But there wasn't much else he could do at that point. Shivering for a second, he realized that the room around him was decently chilly without the bulk of his warm clothes on. "What do my brothers want from me…? Why is this happening?"
Whipping his head towards the door, Chazz watched as the doctors from before entered the room, accompanied by Slade, who in this moment was scarier to Chazz than the devil himself. Unable to back away from the obvious threat, Chazz turned his head away, avoiding eye contact with the eldest Princeton as much as possible.
"He's awake, then?" One of the doctors observed, taking long strides towards the teenage prisoner. "Good, this will make things go much quicker."
"What do you want with me...?" Chazz inquired, continuing to keep his gaze turned away from his eldest brother. The last thing he wanted was to see either of the two, but especially not Slade. He was always the worst of them. The amount of abuses he put Chazz through over his short years were somewhat of an astronomical amount.
"What do you think we want, Chazz?" Slade scolded, making his way towards the boy before reaching over and taking Chazz's face into his rough, brutish grip. Squeezing slightly to maintain his hold, Slade forced Chazz's gaze in his direction, staring him square in the eyes with a dark glare. "For you to hold up your end of the deal. And help us take over this world!"
Slade's eyes darkened as Chazz's own black eyes widened in fear as well as shock that they still hadn't let their ridiculous plan to take over the world go by now. He always thought it was ridiculous anyway, but clearly they still had the plan in a proverbial choke hold.
"Don't think we haven't learned about your little ability, Chazz. We know you can communicate with duel monsters!"
"H-How do you know abou-"
"-Did you really think we wouldn't find out!?" Slade interrupted, his voice raising along with his temper with the younger boy. "Don't think we haven't been watching every move you make, Chazz. You could have used it to win! And keep on winning! You could have become the greatest, like we planned! But you didn't. You disobeyed us, and worst of all, you betrayed us! But now, you're going to help us whether you like it or not!"
"What are you talking about!?" Chazz shouted back, genuinely confused as much as he was afraid. "You don't seriously think it works that way do you?"
Chazz was baffled at what his brother was implying about his ability. True, he really didn't understand it himself, but what he did know was that he couldn't use it to tip the scales of a duel the way Slade seemingly believed he could.
"Be quiet!" Slade shouted, taking his hand away from Chazz's face before quickly hitting him. The sound of the smack echoed in the small room as Chazz's head whipped to the side from the force of the blow. "Get to work already!" He commanded the doctors and scientists surrounding them, his anger rising again as they quickly hurried to begin their work. Snarling quietly to himself, Slade turned to the scientist in charge of the group. "Do whatever it takes, break him if you have to. But I want every single detail on that power. I want to know what it is, where it comes from, everything. I want to know exactly how it can be used. Do you understand? And when you're done with him, I want you to ensure that Chazz stays under our control. I don't care what you do, I just want it done! Do you hear me!?"
"Yes, sir." The scientist nodded, turning his gaze to their young subject. "It will be done."
"You're insane…" Chazz muttered under his breath, keeping his head down, listening in to overhear his brother's conversation.
Feeling a wave of relief as he heard his brother exit the room, Chazz still worried about his current situation. He already could have guessed they had something bad planned for him just from the whole being kidnapped thing, but now it was undisputedly confirmed. They weren't just prepared to abuse him again, but to go as far as torturing him if they felt they had to. If they deemed it a necessity in pursuit of achieving their own ridiculous goals. But Chazz already knew that he wouldn't make it easy for them to break him. He wasn't about to submit to his deranged brothers without a fight.
"Now, my boy." The scientist said, pulling over another chair from the other side of the room and taking a seat in front of their captive. "My name is Dr. Drewer. Now, if you cooperate with us, I assure you, you will not be harmed. No more than necessary, at the very least. Of that, you have my word."
Chazz shot a deathly glare at the doctor for a moment, his anger interrupted by the touches of the other scientists as they proceeded to place little sticky pads with wires connecting them to a type of monitor device thing on his arms and temples before one of them reached down and placed a few of the sticky pads onto his chest.
"What the hell is this!?" Chazz demanded to know, pulling against the leather bands buckled in place around his wrists again.
One of the doctors assisting with the work placed another set of monitors on his temples beside the sticky pads, connecting him to a second monitor. Clearly meant to be used for two different purposes. Walking over to Dr. Drewer, one of the aids handed him an unmistakable object.
"Hey! What are you doing with my deck!?"
"Now, now, settle down." Drewer soothed, holding Chazz's deck in his hands deliberately in plain sight for the teen to see. "We're going to start with a sort of, preliminary test, if you will. To see just how legitimate this ability of yours is." he explained, taking the deck and proceeded to shuffle it, despite the lack of need to do so. "Now, we'll start nice and simple. I'm going to show your cards to you, and you're going to tell me if a spirit appears. Is that clear?"
"Why the hell should I help you?" Chazz pouted, glaring at the doctor again with a small fire beginning to burn in his lovely black eyes.
Frowning back at the boy, Drewer nodded at the aid by the monitors. Nodding back, the aid flipped a switch on the first monitor device. It didn't even take a second before Chazz felt the sticky pads heat up as volts of electricity were shot into his body, causing him to cry out from the pain it caused him. Lasting only a moment, the volts ceased. His glare slightly weaker, Chazz looked back to Drewer even so with anger in his face.
"Because if you don't cooperate, it will only get worse. For now, the voltage is quite safe for human contact. But we can easily change that, boy. You'd do well to remember that from now on." Drewer explained, his own expression darkening as his stark frown remained on his face. "Now, shall we begin?" drawing the first of many cards, he held it up for Chazz to see, a patronizingly quizzical expression replacing his dark frown. "Any spirits?"
"No." Chazz answered plainly, his own expression evolving into frustration quite quickly. Nodding, Drewer placed the card aside on the counter adjacent to him, and proceeded to draw the next card. The cycle seemed to go on forever, repeating the same thing over and over again in a monotonous manner.
Until finally, there was a shift in the trend.
"Do you see anything?" Drewer asked, pulling out the next card.
Taking a second to look at it, Chazz's mood shifted. He was staring at the Ojama Black card. Knowing for a fact there was a spirit present, his heart felt like it had slowed dramatically.
"Boss!" the impish creature exclaimed, appearing before his captured master. "What's goin' on around here?! You okay?"
"No. Nothing. How many times do I have to say this?" Chazz lied, quickly avoiding eye contact with the spirit. He thought that if he could make them think that he couldn't communicate with spirits, maybe they would let him go. But of course, deep down he knew it wasn't that simple.
"He's lying." An aid informed, pointing to the second monitor screen showing his vitals and brain activity. "There was a spike in his brain activity just now. There was some kind of strong reaction to that card."
"Lying, are we?" Drewer asked, frowning starkly at the boy, unamused by his little plan. "There are consequences for things like that, boy. Increase the voltage. One notch." Shooting a glance at the second aid manning the first monitor, the switch was flipped again, sending a stronger shockwave through the teen.
Crying out from the pain, Chazz pulled against his restraints, struggling in his bonds in a vain attempt to liberate himself before any real damage could be done to him. But as he struggled, the scientists shocked him again. The electricity felt like it was growing stronger with each pulse of energy, tearing out increasingly pained cries from Chazz as he recoiled from the blasts, his back arching as he leaned his head back, screaming out as the shocks continued to assail his fragile body.
"It's quite simple really." Drewer began to explain, his tone deceptively calm and melodious as he looked on at the boy's suffering. "It's as I said, Chazz. Stop resisting us, and the pain won't be too severe." Looking back to the aid, he shook his head. "That's quite enough for now."
Nodding back at him, the aid let the machine stop, the electricity ceasing to electrocute the boy. When the shocks stopped, Chazz felt his body start to go limp, slumping down in his seat, he coughed and panting as he tried to recover from the onslaught of pain he had just endured. Unfortunately, he recognized that pain wasn't as much of a foreign concept for him by this point in his life that he wished it was.
"Boss!" Black gasped, horrified by the display he had just seen. Quickly floating over to Chazz's side, the little imp gently shook his master's shoulder, hoping to catch the boy's attention just enough to get even a subtle answer. "Are you okay!?"
"I see." Drewer observed quietly, raising an eyebrow at the card in hand before glancing back to Chazz's weakened form with a dark intention. Catching the doctor's fell gaze, Ojama Black let out a small growl of anger, narrowing his eyes at the man who had harmed his treasured young master.
"You're gonna pay for this, chump! You hear me!? Keep your grubby paws off the boss!" Black shouted at the scientist in rage, though knowing full well that the man couldn't hear his threat.
Quietly observing the boy for a short moment longer, Drewer resumed his work, Ojama Black fading away as he buried the card in the pocket of his lab coat. The doctor taking a short moment to take note of the card he had held just then.
"So, the Ojama cards is it?" Drewer observed, looking back at Chazz and watched him slump limply in his restraints, doing his best to push himself through the slowly fading pain and tingling sensation that riddled up and down his body. "Well it seems we've made a little progress with you, boy. But of course, not enough to satisfy. You see, there's no way to definitively test if you can truly do what your dear brothers claim you can accurately enough for our taste without being able to do so ourselves. And of course, as you may have guessed, we can't do that." Chuckling quietly to himself, Dr. Drewer shot a sinister glance back at the boy, enjoying his pained state maybe a little too much. "But I do know that you lied when I asked if you saw a spirit. And that proves something indeed."
"J-Just let me go..." Chazz panted, regaining his strength slowly but surely. Looking back up at Drewer, the fire still burned in his weary eyes. "This is stupid…"
"Oh, on the contrary, my boy." Drewer countered, standing up from his seat as he circled behind Chazz. Placing his hands on the boy's slender shoulders, he lowered his head closer to Chazz's own. Lowering closer, Drewer felt his prisoner tense and stiffen at his touch, uncomfortable with all of this. "You've proven enough that there's something special about you. If you couldn't see them, you wouldn't have lied to me."
"Get off of me." Chazz demanded, his tone low with an air of warning to his voice. If he could move, he would have hit the man several times over by then. Heck, if he could move he would have escaped by then. Or at the very least, he would have tried, but he doubted he would get very far on his own.
"I'm supposed to teach you to behave, boy." Drewer countered, tightening his grip on the child, ignoring his words. "As well as discovering the source of your ability. By the time we're done with you, you will be a good, obedient little boy for those brothers of yours."
Chazz's eyes widened as the man spoke, sparking memories of his younger days, when his brothers had all but kept him in their iron grip at all times, forcing him to do anything and everything they wanted him to do. And when he broke free of them at Duel Academy, he had hoped he would be free of them forever. But it seemed that after all these years, they wanted to control him again.
"Do you understand?"
"This is bad…" Chazz thought to himself, his eyes remained wide with fear as his heart began to race and his breathing accelerated for the hundredth time it seemed like in such a short window of time. The panic came creeping back in slowly but it was still there. He couldn't do it again, living trapped by his brother's cycle of cruelty, completely helpless and at their mercy. The pressure, the countless forms of abuse constantly inflicted upon him. That torturous life was no life at all, and it was a life Chazz felt like he wouldn't be able to survive a second time. And that thought had quickly become his greatest fear.
"His heart rate is increasing dramatically, Doctor." An aid informed, observing the stark change on the monitor showing his vital signs. "I think it would be wise to not push him any farther for now, sir."
"I see." Drewer said. Taking his hands off of Chazz, he appeared to loosen up and relax slightly upon the loss of the man's cold grasp. "So he's susceptible to panic attacks, then? The boy is weaker than I thought. Submitting him shouldn't be too difficult then, now should it?"
"L-Leave me alone..." Chazz muttered, doing his best to control his emotions and slow his breathing.
He knew it was too late to stop them from seeing his emotional weakness, but he couldn't let them see just how bad it could be. And he wasn't about to let the deranged doctor take away what little freedom he still retained, even as a prisoner. But alone, he understood how powerless he was. And Chazz hated himself for that. He would never admit it to anyone, but he wasn't entirely sure he was strong enough to carry on alone any longer. His inner pains and demons were an overwhelming and overpowering force that felt like they were beginning to consume him. If he hadn't had those encounters with Jaden and Atticus, part of Chazz worried he would be finding himself facing a darker path by now. And he equally appreciated and hated how his friends were so hellbent on protecting him all the time now, even in the smallest ways.
But now more than ever, he wished they were there to protect him now.
"You, doctor." Drewer called to another doctor overseeing the testing. "I want a report on the boy's medical history. Such information may prove vital in the future of our testing, a guide in selecting our methods, perhaps."
"Yes, sir." the man nodded, hurrying out of the room to acquire and provide the requested information for the head doctor.
"Get him ready. I want to take a scan of his brain. Perhaps there's something there that will give us a source for this ability. I can imagine if this power exists, there must be a way to pinpoint the cause." Drewer commanded, the aids quickly scrambling to Chazz's side, removing the wires and sticky pads, one of them holding his arms tightly while the other undid the leather bands buckled around his wrists.
Keeping his grip firm, the first aid hoisted Chazz up out of the chair, spinning him around and holding his arms behind his back as they proceeded to escort him into another room adjoining the one they were already in. This one was the same in size and color, all white and pale pastel blues, made almost entirely of tile. But this one filled with less science and more medical equipment, with large machines one would expect to find scattered about in a hospital. Taking him over to one of the large devices, the aids forced him down onto his back, laying him out to prepare him for the scan. In the process, they took the liberty of strapping him down again, locking another set of tough leather buckles around his wrists, keeping him down so they could prepare for the procedure.
"Now, be sure you hold still once it begins." Drewer instructed, looking down at the captive teen. "Remember what I said. Just cooperate and the rest of your time with us will go smoothly. It's that simple."
"Go to hell." Chazz snarled, masking his hurt and fear with anger. Something he knew all too well how to do. Glaring at the man, Drewer's own expression darkened in response.
"I see." He stated plainly. "Well then, it seems submission will have to take a higher priority for you." Turning away from the boy, he turned his attention to his two aids. "Hurry up! I want this done swiftly and smoothly!"
Chazz closed his eyes slowly and lightly as he waited for it all to end. Listening to the aids scramble around getting ready to complete their assigned task, he tried to distract himself with thoughts of the academy, and the friends he had made there, no matter how unwillingly. Those thoughts gave him at least a slight bit of hope in the idea of his rescue. He knew Jaden at least wouldn't stop until they brought him back safe. That was just the type of person Jaden was. Always looking out for the people he cared about, and sometimes even people he didn't. And as much as Chazz hated to admit it, even to himself, right now Jaden was exactly what he needed. Well, Jaden and the rest of the group. As long as Ojama Yellow had been able to deliver the news of his kidnapping to Jaden, Chazz figured there was a chance that he and the others would be able to find him, and liberate him from this prison.
"What makes you think they'll actually come for you?" The voice in his head mocked as he laid on the machine, unable to really do anything else having been strapped down again. "I bet they're glad you're gone. Jaden and the others can focus on their own lives and stop worrying about yours. I mean, it's not like you mean much to anyone anyway. After all, you're here aren't you? I'd say that's proof enough."
"They'll come." Chazz countered the voice in the back of his mind. He knew his friends well enough by now to know it was foolish to think otherwise. But that voice persisted nonetheless. "Atticus... he said he wouldn't let anyone hurt me. He'll come."
"We'll just see about that, won't we?"
If Chazz hadn't the strength to hold them back, tears would have begun to spill from his eyes. The mocking voice wasn't entirely wrong. There was nothing he could do to save himself, to find his own deliverance from this abyss. All he could do was wait for his friends to track him down and rescue him themselves. The only thing he could do was place his faith in the group and wait. It was maddening to think about. But helpless as he was, powerless to change his situation without help, Chazz could do nothing but face the simple truth.
His only real hope lied in the hands of his friends.
