Chapter 4

The Secret of the Tunnels

After all that time, after looking all over the western district they still had not found those little buggers. They thought it would have been easier to find them with their enchanted coin but like always nothing was ever simple. By the time they would return Minami and Destra were bound to be the first two back at least that's what they thought as they sat next to the pawn shop so their feet could rest. Where could they have gone though?

"So we checked every stop, ever alleyway, and every hole we could find and yet look where we are now. Got any ideas?" asked Magi.

"I don't know man I thought they would have appeared by now. How hard could it be to find two small beings that look like us?" replied Ryo as he leaned back onto the wall.

Tomorrow he and his friends would be on their way back home and after all the crap that had happened he hadn't even gotten to spend much time with Minami at the festival. Oh well perhaps one day fate would see it his way and instead of throwing a maniac at them instead it would throw some of those heart arrows. As they took their breather though he noticed that their coin had began to flicker on and off as they stood there in the alleyway.

"You don't think..."

"There's only one way to find out." said Magi as he pulled out a card.

Once the piece of cardboard hit the dirt it absorbed a good amount of it until a large circular hole was left in the ground but its what was inside that caught their eyes. It looked like some sort of stone but from what they knew the tunnels under the city never reached that far into the western district, it was usually either east or south where the tunnels normally spanned. Now that they had exposed the structure they only had one last test to perform.

"Hah I knew it, they went underground those little gold digger." said Magi as he reached back into his deck box.

"I take it you got a plan to get inside?"

Of course he did, no matter what the situation the Magister always came prepared for any situation. With his stack of cards he was prepared to conquer any obstacle in his path. Printed on the card was just a hole, a simple black, hollow hole, but how would that help them wondered Ryo. As he knelt down he dusted off his card to make sure nothing went wrong before he let it fall. At the very second the card touched the stone it collapsed and took the form of a large black hole, nothing could be seen inside but if it was their only hope of getting inside he had to trust his friend.

"This thing won't you know, kill me right?"

"Dude you worry way too much. Let's go." replied Magi as he grabbed his friends wrist.

Somehow he felt he was going to regret going with him but even if there was a chance for him to get just a hint of revenge on his counterpart he wanted to take it. With one jump both disappeared into the hole before it closed up above them. Just as always the tunnel was pitch black, the ride was short lived however for just when it began it ended as they both landed gracefully inside the stone hallway.

"That was it? Alright, so let's see where we are." said Ryo as he used his electricity to light up the darkened area.

"Oh yeah I remember this place. Remember when we tried to get out of training and we found this place?" followed Magi as he took a nearby torch and used his friends spark to light it up.

"Yeah and remember what happened afterward?"

"Yeah...I still got that scar too."

Not only was to familiar to them but the passage ways seemed oddly familiar as well. It was connected to the city alright but they while they were searching for their little friends they hadn't even come upon the entrance.

"It looks like this use to be connected to the underground escape tunnel, but it's been sealed off. What do you say, go back and continue forward?" asked Ryo.

Too late his friend had already chosen for them already as he walked down the dark hallway with their torch. From the look of the tunnels along they could tell it must have been built not long after the city had been built all those years ago and before they added onto the escape route but as they continued through the darkness something began to stink.

"Smell that?" he asked as he used the torch to look down each hall.

"Yeah, smell like rotten meat. Hey let's turn down this way." replied his friend as he held the glowing coin.

The coin continued to glow as they walked to the left where it began glowing even brighter than before. They must have been close and once they got their hands on them oh boy were they in for some hell. As they continued on though something began to run across Magi's mind.

"So what are you and Minami going to do once we find them and bring them back?"

"Not sure really, I've never taken anyone out on a real date before so this is all new to me. What about you and Destra?"

"Eh I don't know man if I do I don't want her to see me as a big goofball."

"Just go for it, you never know what could happen."

"Yeah but she's all serious and I'm, well you know the answer to that."

"You know there's a saying "opposites attract", that could apply to you and her, but like I said just be yourself. That's what I did when I met Minami and the others and look what happened, at least I think Naomi is my friend. It's kind of hard to tell after how many times she's beaten me..."

Their conversation was interrupted however by the sounds of what sounded like little high pitched squeals. At first they thought that they could have been just rats or mice but when they listened more closely they realized that they sounded almost like them.

"Hah found them! Their mine!" shouted Ryo as Magi kept up with him as they ran down the straight hallway.

Their footsteps echoed through the many passageways as they followed the path straight to a wide open room and at the other side were their two little friends.

"Wait, something isn't right." said Magi as he opened his deck box.

If things got ugly he was prepared to fight for his life but while they were alone he followed his friend over to the two minis who seemed to had been stuck to the wall by some tough pliant.

"Oh ho now this is just sweet. Trapped like two rats." said Ryo as he raised his hand.

As his friend continued talking Magi scanned the room for any sign of danger before he pulled out his trusty Heaven's Eternal Light card. Oh how he hoped that he was wrong in throwing it down but without it they couldn't see a thing and their torch was starting to fade. He had to do it and with a quick fling the card burst open as a bright orb of light lit up the entire room.

"What in the hell is this?" he whispered.

Along the walls were skeletons chained by cuffs to the stone wall but that wasn't all. From up above he heard a low hiss before he looked up.

"Now let's go unless you want to do this the hard way." Ryo said as he raised his finger up to cut the webbing.

"Hey uh Ryo, you may want to look up." shuddered Magi.

At that moment he heard it too as they both jumped away just in time before the two beasts could grab them. From the ceiling they came, two women who were half women, half spider and with faces that looked like that of the ugliest spiders they had ever seen.

"Come now boys don't be shy. Step out of the light." one said as they approached them.

"You, you're the ones who did this! Why, why did you kill them?" scowled Magi as both he and Ryo backed up.

"Oh them, we were just so hungry after being locked down here for weeks and weeks we just had to eat something. Don't worry though they were quite tasty." said the other.

"Locked down here, now I remember. This was used as a prisoner facility once but I heard something went wrong."

"Correct, we were once prisoners but they thought they could keep us chained up. Now them you two it's about dinner time so why don't you just some over here and..."

Ryo wasn't having none of that. In a blink of an eye he pulled out his blade and vanished from sight. In just under a second though one of her arms flew off as he landed behind her.

"Sorry ladies but we've already got two beautiful women waiting for us. Don't worry though this won't take long."

And he was going to make sure of it by using the gift Minami had given him, he wasn't holding anything back. As the beast hissed in pain her sister turned to help her.

"Cloe, stay calm I'll help you." she said before her eyes turned to the young halfbreed.

Now that she was distracted he could finally unleash his hell. Pulling two cards from his deck he tossed them up as two metal gloves formed and attacked themselves to his hands while the element of fire attached itself to the top.

"Damn you boy, who do you think you are?!" Cloe exclaimed as she spat out some webbing at the who cute off her arm.

"Oops, you missed." he teased as he zipped to the right.

While she was distracted though Magi gave her sister a nice clean punch to her face to burned off a bit of her skin. If she wanted to eat them they were going to have to beat them and that was not going to happen.

"Heh not bad, but taking advantage of a woman isn't very polite you know." she said.

It was a close call but just as she turned her head out came a ball of acid which flew right pass his head as he jumped out of the way. Since she was still on the ground however he punched the stone floor as hard as he could as fire began popping up all around her.

"Yeah but you're not exactly the friendly kind are you?"

Victory seemed to had been in hand but using her extra strength webbing she extinguished the flames before they could do any damage. So she did have a trick or two of her sleeve, then he was just going to have to get up close and personal with her. Meanwhile Ryo wasn't having much trouble facing his own opponent, her attacks were fairly fast but thanks to the new blood that flowed through his veins he didn't have to worry too much about her.

"Come back here boy, Cloe just wants a bite." she hissed as she fired off five more acid shots.

"No thank you I would rather stay alive but here you can eat this."

With a few quick dodged to the left, right, and slightly up he used the time to charge up one good spark bast at her and with her slowly movement she didn't stand a chance of avoiding the attack. Once the attack hit he landed safely back onto the ground as the smoke cleared to reveal his defeated opponent.

"Can we get that in an instant replay? No? Ok."

Now that she was taken care of it was time for him to grab their little counterparts and to help Magi finish off his own foe. The look on their faces was priceless as he approached them, it was like fear and sadness mixed into one. Eh, they had gone through enough so as long as they didn't try and run away again.

"Alright let's get you two out of here." he said as he began digging through the webbing with his sword.

It seemed simple enough, just remove the webbing and they would both be set free but that was only the easy part. Suddenly he found himself pinned to the wall against the two minis by who he thought he had defeated. Her body was smoking as her flesh sizzled from his extra strength blast but she was still alive and kicking.

"Damn it don't you realize how much this sting?" she scowled as she opened up her mouth to reveal those fangs of hers.

"Yeah but guess what. Two guns bitch!"

He had her played for a fool. As soon as he said that another blast came from her left before throw her straight across the room. Even if she left a few scratches on his arms it wasn't nothing that he couldn't patch it later. Still his plan had worked, while avoiding her attack earlier he had secretly sent out his own clone that kept watch in the only pitch dark corn of the room and when the time came he would help out.

"So then still was it keep going?" he asked as he approached her.

"But in hell..." she groaned.

"Fair enough, up you go!"

Once he had his hands around all six of her legs he picked her up and began spinning her around and around before finally letting her go right into one of he rafter above where she finally blacked out from all the pain.

"You're a strange boy but can you really defeat me? Once you run out of those cards of yours guess what happens." she said with a grin.

She was right, he was running low on cards but from the corner of his eye he saw a glimmer of hope. He had to be quick but if he pulled it off victory was theirs for sure. With a quick motion he reached for his deck once more only to have her fire off more webbing and acid at him, but with a quick jumped he flipped over her just as he pulled out his trump cards.

"Avoiding the inevitable eh ahhhh gahhh!"

A bright light flash in front of her eyes as she began backing up against the wall. Now was his chance, while she was blind he sealed their victory with the Orb of the Typhoon. Once he threw the card forward it vanished as water began spilling out and encasing their eight legged friend in a orb of water.

"Tastefully done my friend, may we?" asked Ryo as his little mini self sat on his shoulder as Magi's jumped to his.

"The pleasure is all mine."

Alright with double the electro power they formed two little sparks in their hands and with little flick both were let loose. In a bright flash the sparks expanded and engulfed the girl in nothing but pure pain. Her tries were enough to satisfy them both as they turned just as she exploded behind them.

"Wait, I thought you hated him didn't you?" asked Magi.

"Yeah but I figured being trapped like flies and threatened with death was punishment enough. I think they've had enough." he said with a smile as his little partner sat back down.

"Yeah you're probably right there. We should probably get back though, if they've returned before us their probably wondering if we're ok."

"Take us home partner."

And with that he used one of his last remaining cards to teleport them all out of the deadly maze that was the old prison.