Matarra: Back again. This time with a maimed Misael for a certain comment he made to me last chapter. *glares at Misael*
Misael: *wincing* You still deserved it.
Matarra: *holds up a spiked club* You want to repeat that?
Misael: Not really.
Matarra: That's what I thought. Now do the disclaimer before I forget.
Misael: I did it last chapter.
Matarra: *raises club*
Misael: Shedoesn'townYu-gi-ohZexal.
Matarra: Good.
Misael and Dumon walked out of the portal and ran into Nasch, Merag, Alit, and Vector who were coming out of another overlay network. "Good to see you, Misael. You look ticked." Nasch commented.
"Is it that obvious?" Misael rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, it is. You okay?" Merag asked.
"'His family life was less than desirable." Dumon said sharing a look with Nasch. Nasch nodded to show he understood.
"Very well. Let's find Gilag." Nasch ordered.
"Wait what does less than-" Alit began.
"NOT DISCUSSING IT!" Misael snapped.
"Oh, I don't know, Miza-chan. It seems like an interesting-" Vector started.
"DO NOT DARE CALL ME MIZA-CHAN!" Misael yelled.
"Alright, let's settle down. Why can't we greet each other with a handshake or a hug?" Dumon sighed.
"Oh yeah! Great to see you again Misael! I missed you ever since I remembered who I was!" Alit ran up and hugged Misael tightly.
"Get off me!" Misael snarled. Alit let go quickly.
"Missing you less now..." Alit grumbled.
"Awww. I missed you too, Misa." Vector walked towards Misael, arms wide for a hug.
"Take another step you psycho and I'll blast you through a wall." Misael growled.
"I'm insulted. I almost think you don't like me." Vector made a gesture of mock hurt.
"I don't you f*cking mental ward patient." Misael snapped.
"Less fighting, more searching for our fellow emperor." Nasch called back.
"Nasch... I don't like this place. It has a bad aura." Merag whispered.
"You're right. This place does seem shady." Dumon agreed.
"We can handle it. Just look for Gilag but stick together. Safety in Numbers." Nasch smirked at the pun. The barians walked around the run-down town and met a lot of... interesting people. There were plenty of homeless guys grabbing onto them and holding 'the end is near signs'. As they passed, there were soon a lot of bleeding, dying or screaming homeless people. The others were glaring at Vector who had an insane smile on his face.
"Punching them to make them leave you alone is one thing, stabbing people who are not doing anything with a pencil is another. How do you even cause that much damage with a writing utensil?" Dumon put a hand on his forehead.
"It's Vector. Killing is first nature to him. Do you remember the time he committed bloody murder using only paper?" Misael scoffed.
"How could I forget? There was blood everywhere. It took a week to clean it all up." Dumon sighed.
"And Alit and Gilag went to earth to throw up." Merag reminded them.
"Yeah, I-" Dumon started as they walked down a dark alley before someone grabbed his throat and shoved him against a wall. He stared at his attacker before blinking in surprise and confusion. "Gilag?" he gasped out as his hand went to his throat in an attempt to get free.
"Who? Never mind, just give me your money." Gilag snarled.
"What's your name now? And let him go!" Merag shouted.
"I'm Jorge. And he's not going anywhere until you all fork over all your money." Jorge/Gilag snarled. Dumon grabbed onto Jorge's free arm and flipped him on his back before crumbling to the ground and gasping for air. Merag and Misael fell down next to him and steadied him.
Nasch looked from Jorge to Dumon before turning to Alit. "You know what to do." Alit nodded.
"Here, buddy." Alit handed Jorge the last barian card.
"Buddy? What-" Jorge fell to the ground clutching his head.
Vector looked at the two barians on the ground gasping and laughed. "Oh this is priceless!"
"You are not teasing him about it or you will get a direct pepper spray to the face." Merag pulled out the can of pepper spray from her pocket.
Vector backed away and pouted, "Fine. But it would be fun."
"Nobody except you likes your definition of fun." Misael snapped.
Jorge/Gilag groaned and tried to stand up before falling back down. "Here, let me help." Alit grabbed Gilag's hand and yanked him up. Gilag yelped and grabbed his shoulder. "Oops..." Alit looked sheepish. "Sorry about that."
Gilag blinked and his eyes filled with tears. "I-I should b-be apologizing t-to all of you. I'm so sorry!" Gilag cried and grabbed Alit and Dumon who had just stood up in a hug.
"It's okay buddy. But, uh, could you let go now?" Alit gasped out.
"Yes, please. You're asphyxiating us." Dumon sighed.
"S-sorry. I'm-I- I'm sorry!" Gilag blubbered. Merag put a hand on his shoulder.
"Don't be. I did similar thing although what I did was emotional harming rather than physical. Nothing we did can be held against us. We didn't know what we were doing." Merag comforted him.
"R-really?" Gilag sniffed.
"Yeah, don't worry." Merag smiled.
"Ooh! Ooh! You need to say goodbye to your adoptive family, unless you don't have one." Vector laughed his crazy laugh. Gilag looked down and Merag pepper sprayed Vector right in his eyes.
"That was really mean!" Merag scolded.
"THAT was mean?! You just pepper sprayed me in the FACE! Ohhhhh... MY EYES!" Vector screamed.
"You deserved it." Merag sniffed.
"He ALWAYS deserves it." Misael added.
"You guys are jerks!" Vector snapped.
"Hello kettle. I'm pot. You're black." Misael retorted.
Gilag kept staring at his feet as he said, "I'm not an orphan, yet."
The other barians stopped their bickering to look at him. "What do you mean?" Nasch asked.
"My dad died when I was six, drive-by shooting. My mom took care of me until I was eleven. Then she got really sick. She couldn't get out of bed and was barely conscious, she still is. I started to mug people to afford medicine and food. I save any extra I get to get enough money to give her an operation that will make her better but I'm not even near the amount I need." Gilag shrugged his shoulders and shuffled his feet.
Nasch walked next to him and looked at the green-haired barian. "We can afford the operation. We just need to go to Barian World and grab a few rocks then sell them like we used to. Although we only used it to pay for our living expenses on earth back then."
Gilag looked up. "Really?"
Misael cuffed Gilag on the back of his head. "Of course you dolt! We went over this about twenty times!"
"That was fourteen years ago! How am I supposed to remember that?" Gilag threw up his hands.
"HUMANS aren't supposed to be able to remember that. BARIANS on the other hand are supposed to. You are a barian." Misael spoke like he was talking to a three-year-old.
"Alright, let's go to Barian World and sort out affairs before coming back here and dealing with financial costs." Dumon said.
Nasch nodded and opened an overlay network. "Everyone, come on. We need to make sure Barian World hasn't fallen into disrepair in our absence." The emperors saluted and followed Nasch through the portal. They arrived in the throne room of the emperors. Merag waved her hand in front of her face to wave away the dust.
"It's really been a long time, hasn't it?" Merag sighed in remembrance.
"It has, time to let everyone know we're back." Nasch activated the signal for the emperors to meet. As the light shone from the tower, a growing cheer was heard as barians all over Barian World saw the signal that the emperors had returned.
"Let's not keep them waiting." Merag said.
"Do we have to make another public appearance?" Vector groaned.
"Yeah, we do. I don't care if you hate it, they deserve an explanation." Merag scolded.
"But you barely ever let me talk during them..." Vector whined.
"That's because the last few times we let you talk for longer than twenty seconds, you started really showing your crazy personality and disturbed almost all the barians there." Nasch snapped.
"Details, details." Vector waved his hand.
"Let's just go and get it over with." Dumon sighed as he pulled on his cloak.
"I don't understand why you don't really like making speeches. You're really good at it and you're one of the favorite emperors aside from Nasch and Merag." Alit said as he too donned his cloak.
"I may be good at it, but that doesn't mean I LIKE going up in front of almost the entire barian population and talking." Dumon replied. The other emperors put on their cloaks and teleported to a platform overlooking an enormous 20 by 20 miles field. The field was crammed with barians as far as the eye could see. Nasch stepped forward, his deep blue cloak flowing behind him. All eyes turned on him as he began to speak.
"My people. Fellow barians. I must apologize to all of you for our absence. We landed on earth and until today had no way of returning. But do not worry, we have returned now and will never abandon our world." Nasch tuned to Dumon who stepped forward.
"You may have many questions about what exactly happened that forced us into that situation, but we must unfortunately inform all of you that we do not know." There was a murmur of confusion among the crowd of barians. "However!" Dumon continued, "If this was an act of sabotage in an attempt to weaken Barian World it will be dealt with accordingly."
Merag stepped forward, red light glinting on the gems in her teal cloak. "There will be an investigation into this matter after we take care of the pressing matters that have accumulated in our absence."
"We must attend to business now. Goodbye for now. Barian Sekai No Tame Ni!" Nasch cried and held his fist in the air.
"Barian Sekai No Tame Ni!" was the return cry from the crowd as the emperors teleported away.
"That went really well, short though." Merag commented.
"There wasn't much to say and we do have business to deal with." Nasch responded, "Now let's go get some money for Gilag's adoptive mother." Nasch bent over and picked up a few crystals off the ground. He held them out to Dumon. "Go exchange these at a jewelers with Gilag." Dumon nodded and he and Gilag left through a portal to earth. They arrived in an alleyway by a jewelers. The two aliens walked through the jeweler's double doors and up to an attendant who was sitting behind a glass window.
"Hello, we would like to exchange some valuable gems for money." Dumon said while straightening his scarf.
"I'll go get my boss." the clerk said. He left and returned a minute later with a sharply dressed jeweler.
"May I see the jewels to be exchanged?" the jeweler asked. Dumon pulled the barian crystals from his pocket and placed them on the counter. The jeweler's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "T-these gems! They are so rare! A-a jeweler's dream! How much for them?" the man begged.
"One million a piece." Dumon answered.
"A piece? That's a bargain! These have sold for a billion dollars for only one small shard." the jeweler gasped.
"A million a gem is my offer and I stand by it." Dumon responded.
"That's four million then? Clerk! Go get four million dollars stat!" the jeweler yelled. The clerk ran off and returned a few minutes later with four suitcases. "Keep the suitcases as a gift."
"Arigato. It was a pleasure doing business with you." Dumon took two suitcases and Gilag took the other two. They walked out the door and Dumon opened an overlay network. "Take those two suitcases to your mother for living expenses. I'll use these two to pay for medical costs and make sure she has the finest doctors. You go say goodbye to her. Meet you in the BARian." Dumon left through the portal and Gilag opened another one and left through it.
Gilag arrived in the shack that his family had called home. His adoptive mother was lying in her bed. Gilag opened a can of cold soup and poured it into a bowl. He couldn't heat it up because the fireplace was faulty and would send smoke throughout the entire house and they didn't have electricity. He sat by his adoptive mother's bedside and spoon-fed her soup.
"Jorge... you're home." she muttered weakly.
"Yes, I am. Mother, just rest. I need to tell you something important." Gilag fed her another spoonful of soup. "You're getting your operation. You can live your life better than you are now."
"But you said you didn't have even near enough for it." his mother breathed.
"I didn't, but... um... well... I..." Gilag stuttered.
His mother gave him a look. "I know when you're trying to lie, Jorge. You stink at it."
"I'm sorry, Mom. I- I just can't bring myself to tell you everything. I got the money, but I have to leave you." Gilag sobbed.
"What?!" his mother tried to sit up but fell back down.
"Rest, Mom. I'll be fine." he assured her.
"No, Jorge. I don't want you to get into something so deep you can't get back out just for me. You could be destroying your entire life. Please don't." his mother begged.
"It's not what you think. It's not criminal like my other 'fundraising' deals. It won't ruin my life. The opposite, actually." Gilag forced a smile.
"But you have to go away because of it. Probably forever. I can see you don't want to leave. Don't try to deny it." his mother grabbed his sleeve.
Gilag kicked himself. His emotions were way to easy to read by the people close to him. "I don't want to leave you, but I do want to go."
"Are you certain you want this?" his mother asked.
"Yes. But I'm insure about leaving you." Gilag responded.
"That's UNsure. And if you're certain about it, then go. I'm worried that you can't bring yourself to tell me what it is, but if you believe you should then go. But I can't be sure you made the right choice. After all, your judgment is faulty." his mother sighed and closed her eyes.
Gilag sniffed and stood up. "I'll miss you but both of our lives will be better this way. Bye." He turned and left. He walked out the door and closed it before crumbling to the ground and crying. "Bye, Mom. I love you." Gilag sniffed then opened an overlay network to the BARian and walked through.
Gilag: Why did you make me a crybaby in this chapter?
Matarra: Because you are.
Gilag: No I am not!
Matarra: Then what do you call what you do when you're cuddling Ponta when you're sad?
Gilag: I... Well... I sorta... Shut up! *runs away crying*
Matarra: I rest my case. *sighs* Now I feel bad for making him cry. I better go comfort him.
Misael: And you feel no remorse when you hit me about twenty times with a bat?!
Matarra: I gave you a few band-aids, didn't I? And you had it coming.
Dumon: You kinda did, Misael. For future reference, she REALLY doesn't like being called a %# #$.
Misael: Lesson learned. Use other words to insult her.
Matarra: That's right- HEY!