So, OOC and Jack-torture are pretty much the only warnings for this chapter. I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds, but you should enjoy this all the same!

Chapter 8

I groan for the umpteenth time and shift my weight in the chair. It seems that no matter what position I put myself in, some part of my body decides to ache.

"What's wrong with you?" Kalin asks.

"Parade," I reply. "Two miles non-stop. My shoulders hurt so much, and, and… my right knee died in the parade, came back to life, and wants to murder me." Not to mention the fact that it was below freezing, my right thumb almost fell off, and at least two idiots were smoking next to the parade and activated my asthma.

Jack snorts, "Serves you right."

"Shut it Atlas," Meri says. She looks like she thinks something over, and then turns to me. "Can I throw him under a taxi?"

I roll my eyes. "No. One, you're not Paige. Two, there are no taxis. Three, Jack did not just jaywalk in front of one of the imaginary taxis."

"But there could be a taxi," she retorts.

"He didn't jaywalk."

"But he could have!"

"You aren't Paige."

"But I could… oh, no I couldn't." Meri scowls and crosses her arms. "You suck."

Yusei gives me a quizzical look. "Who's Paige, and what does she have anything to do with throwing somebody under a taxi?"

"Well, when my band was in New York, we had to split into groups," I explain. "Sure, my group jaywalked—a lot—but there was this one boy in our group who wouldn't look, he'd just cross the street. As taxis have a habit of popping out of nowhere, he almost got hit. Several times. Paige, one of the people in my group, got really angry at him and threatened to throw him under a taxi, multiple times."

"Huh, sounds like you had an… interesting trip," Yusei says.

"Oh, it was! I got to watch Newsies, and eat on a dinner cruise that took us right past the Statue of Liberty, and McDonalds gave me free chicken nuggets and a larger fry than I ordered because they took forever to get my order, and I got to go to Nintendo World and, and… Oh! Speaking of Nintendo World… meet Piano the Flabébé, my newest good muse!"

The Pokemon in question, a flower-creature floating atop a larger pink flower, appears in front of me. "Flabébé!" she chimes.

"Aw, she's so cute!" Akiza coos, extending a hand to the flower-creature.

Piano chimes again and floats into the magenta-haired woman's hands. "Fla! Bébé!"

"Good muse, right?" Crow asks. "So no more extreme evil stuff?"

"No, extreme evil is still going to exist," I reply.

"Just wait until I get out Z-ONE's backstory in Blue Sky," Lucy adds, grinning. "It'll put Rewind and Crimson Feathers to shame!"

"Long story short, they're both pretty much evil," I say.

"As in major character death evil," Sky adds, glaring at me.

"We've gone over this before, Angel is the main character of Crimson Feathers, not you!" I retort. "What happened to you was not my fault!"

My OC retains her glare, but doesn't say anything.

I roll my eyes. "ANYWAYS, the evil is definitely going to continue." I pull out my cards. "Joseph and Rudolph should be back anytime now with the new guests."

"Guests? Plural?" Meri asks, excitement flaring in her eyes.

"Yep, two of them," I say. "And you'll love one of them."

"You mean…?"

I nod, knowing who she was going to name.

A grin creeps up on her face, but it vanishes as she starts to swipe at the air like a cat. Then she lets off this really loud noise that makes Crow, Lester, and Luna jump.

"Bless you," I say.

"That was a sneeze?" Crow asks, flustered.

"It was," Meri says. "Stupid allergies."

The door swings open, and Joseph comes in, "…And here's where they all are!" he finishes energetically, pulling a very familiar ex-Dark Signer in behind him.

Kalin grins, "Misty! You're here!"

She storms across the room, grabbing Kalin by the ear. "This is where you've been for the past two months and haven't been returning my calls?"

"OW! OW! It's not my OW fault!" Kalin protests, trying to free his ear. He points at Meri. "It's hers!" Then the icy-blue-haired Dark Signer pulls out his phone… that has a pair of purple scissors planted through the middle of it. "She threw a pair of scissors through my phone!"

"And I'm supposed to believe that?" Misty replies.

"He's telling the truth." Meri says. "Target practice!"

"Oh, so that time you nearly took my ear off with the same pair of scissors was also 'target practice'?" Jack interrupts.

Meri frowns. "Yeah, that was also target practice. I was having an off day that time. You shouldn't have that ear."

At this Jack goes to the far side of the room and places himself behind Primo. The Emperor scowls but doesn't move or say anything to argue.

Misty lets go of Kalin's ear. "Hmm. Sorry."

Kalin smiles, "No problem."

"Arf! Arf!" Rudolph announces at the door.

"Not yet, Rudolph!" I call. "Let me get this one dare out of the way, and then you can bring her in!"

"Arf!"

"Who is he bringing?" Sky asks.

"Carly," I reply. "The thing is, I got the motherload of torture Jack dares. I was going to use the Mortal Kombat one this chapter, but it's really long so I'm saving it for chapter 9. However, I still have these two dares that work so well together that I am combining them." I hand two cards to Sky, and I see Jack sweatdrop as I do so.

Request by: IronChainDragon

Receiver: Jack

Dare: Walk on a tightrope across a pit of rabid fangirls while surviving an onslaught of Kuribohs.

Request by: Vine

Receiver: Jack

Dare: Meri gets to throw her scissors at you for twelve minutes.

Combination edit: You must cross the pit of rabid fangirls while under attack from Kuriboh and Meri throwing scissors at you.

Jack groans, and Meri laughs. "I love this Vine person right now! So much!" Meri pauses for a moment, then asks, "Am I allowed to use the scissors I made in the Closet of Doom?"

"The living ones whose main goal is to decapitate people?" I reply.

"What other scissors are there?" she replies.

"No, you have to use normal scissors," I say.

Meanwhile, Kalin is dragging Jack out from behind Primo. "Tough luck man, but you can't duck out again."

"She's going to kill me!" Jack protests.

"Actually, that's not entirely possible," I say. "As long as you guys are part of this, if you die you come back to life. Not Dark Signer crazy back to life. You're just good as new, other than remembering what it felt like to die." I grin wildly. "Time to send you to the arena I prepared!"

I snap my fingers, and Jack disappears before he can object any more. Meri also vanishes. At the same time, the TV comes to life, showing Jack on a platform at the edge of a very wide pit. There is another one across the pit, with a thin rope tied between. Meri is on a separate platform, with a giant pile of purple scissors next to her. In the pit is this mass of girls with signs, posters, plushies, everything Jack Atlas (including several girls in cosplay, which looks really weird).

"Good luck, Jack!" I say into a microphone. "And may the odds be ever in your favor!"

"This isn't the f***ing Hunger Games!" Jack's voice echoes. "Don't I get one of those long poles to help with, uh, balance?"

"Nope," I say into the microphone. "Let everything begin!"

The girls start this really creepy chant, Meri starts chucking scissors, and three different Kuribohs dive bomb Jack's face. Expecting language to get extremely out of hand (and that weird chant out of my head), I mute the TV. Jack swats the brown furballs away and takes one step onto the rope… and then another… and another… Scissor to the leg! He slips because of the pain, and barely manages to grab ahold of the rope before plunging into the pit of fangirls.

Wincing, he pulls the pair of scissors out of his leg, dropping it into the pit below. Then he maneuvers his way to where he isn't standing on the rope, he's underneath it but can inchworm his way up it. It looks very uncomfortable, but it's actually quite effective… until a Kuriboh dive bombs his hand. He slips up, and one hand's grip on the rope falls.

At the same time, Meri's scissor-throw that was previously geared to possibly hit his back now lodges itself in his side. This makes Jack completely lose his grip on the rope, and he falls into the pit.

The screen cuts to black, and I sigh. "Well, looks like he didn't make it across the pit, but… I think that's enough for that dare." I snap my fingers, and Jack, clothes torn, hair a complete mess, and lipstick marks all over his face, reappears in the room. He pulls the pair of scissors out of his side, winces, and the scissors vanish.

Meri reappears on her bean-bag, grinning like a maniac.

I snap my fingers again, and Jack no longer looks like he was attacked by fangirls. His face, however, remains extremely pale as he stares at Meri.

"You know, if you'd fallen maybe an inch more, those scissors would have hit you in the heart," Meri notes, looking off into the distance.

I assume that she's imagining what would have happened. Well, there's not much I can do about that, so I look at the next card. "Oh, Rudolph! You can bring her in now!" I call. I might have another torture Jack dare, but it's nowhere near as bad as the combination dare. Or at least, I hope it won't be as bad.

"Arf!"

Rudolph jumps across the room and lands on Piano. The two of them fall silent, and they just observe everything.

Carly walks in behind him and surveys the room. "So this is where you guys have been?" She stops, and fear crosses her face. "Wait, aren't those two…?" Carly gestures to Lester and Primo.

"Yes, we are," Primo replies.

"Hey, don't worry about them!" Lucy says. "It's us you have to worry about!" she adds while pointing to Shade, Meri, and herself.

Meri glares at Lucy, "Why does she need to fear me?"

"Because you want to kill everyone with scissors and dinosaurs," Lucy replies.

"No I don't, I only want to kill the people that annoy me," Meri retorts. "And Carly is my favorite, so I would never hurt her. You're the one who wants to kill everyone."

The white-haired girl sticks out her tongue and plops back down, reluctantly giving in to Meri's argument. Meri, smiling, sits back down.

"…I don't know whether I should be afraid or happy about that," Carly says.

"I'd say happy," I reply. "That means one less muse that wants to kill you. Trust me, when it comes to my stories, that increases your chances of living by almost a half."

"Okay," she says quietly. "So, uhm, what is it that you're doing here?"

"Truth or dare," I say. "Speaking of which, here, you can hand out the next dare."

She takes the card. "Uh, I just read it off?"

"Yep."

"Okay."

Request by: Flypool

Receiver: Yusei

Dare: You are not allowed to sleep for two chapters.

Yusei blinks. "Wait, so between this chapter and chapter 10, I'm not allowed to sleep?"

"Pretty much," I say.

"That isn't too bad," he says. "As long as I have coffee, or a bucket of ice-cold water."

"You can have both," I say. "Just not now." I look back at the last card and smile. "Alright, with that out of the way, time for the last dare for this chapter!" I pass the card to Lester.

He gives me an 'are you serious' look, but takes the card and reads it anyways.

Request by: mcdinh

Receiver: Akiza

Dare: Summon Rose Tentacles and use it to torture Jack and Crow.

"But I don't… want to hurt them," Akiza says.

Joseph leaps up from his bean-bag and makes Akiza bend down to his height. He whispers something into her ear, which makes her face light up with anger.

"They did what?!" she screeches.

Joseph just grins and sits back down. "There, now she won't chicken out," he says.

"What did you say?" Crow asks. "I can't vouch for Jack, but I certainly haven't done anything to Akiza!"

I smile and snap my fingers. Crow, Jack, and the now-livid Akiza vanish. The TV shows them in a small arena, about half the size of the one Jack had to cross over earlier. Akiza has on her Duel Disk, and the familiar Rose Tentacles is hovering behind her.

Jack and Crow exchange a worried look, and then start running. Akiza points after them and shouts, "Get them!"

XXX

Two hours later, I bring them back from the arena. Jack and Crow are both covered in bruises and have multiple cuts from when Rose Tentacles smacked them against the wall. Both of them mutter death threats before their injuries heal and there clothes aren't torn or dirty anymore.

I clap my hands together. "Well, that's it for this chapter. I have a lot of dares and stuff in the backlog, but… I'd appreciate ones that don't involve Jack, because I have quite a few of them."

~To be continued~

Yeah, I might have a lot sitting around, but I can always use more... Please leave a review and tell me what you thought!