A/N: ASDFGHJKL.
SO THERE.
~Ava
~XxX~
"Who the hell are they?" I partially yelled after lowering my arm from my eyes, my question triggering gasps from my friends.
"Not them!" Teá said, voice that seemed more like she was exasperated than scared.
"I thought we wasted these goons!" Joey added in the same tone. I frowned, so there was a history?
"The Big Five." Kaiba said, his eyes narrowing considerably at the five suited men infront of us as I frowned deeper.
"Gansley, Crump, Johnson, Nesbitt and Lector." Mokuba said, looking at each man with a bitter tang to his words.
"Uhh, explain please?" I half-demanded as Yugi answered me.
"They kidnapped Kaiba and held him hostage-" Joey cut across Yugi's speech.
"-Yeah, and we had to go and rescue him!" I almost laughed at the tone Joey used, as though it had been such an inconvience. The...largest of the five spoke first.
"That's right! And when you destroyed our plans and our monster, our bodies were destroyed too! Only our minds were still trapped in the virtual world!" He said accusingly, slamming his cane on the ground to accentuate his point. The one who's eyebrows took up most of his face spoke next.
"Only Master Noah, after realising that we both had a common interest, downloaded us into his virtual world with the help we needed to get new bodies." I had no doubt that they would have continued pontificating, had Kaiba not sighed in disgust and cut across the thin one as he began to speak.
"Look," Kaiba said, facing them directly, "I've beaten you creeps before and I'll do it again, whether you have bodies or not." At his words the room around us rippled and changed to that of a jungle. I frowned, the Big Five no longer visible.
"What?" Teá asked, looking around at our new scenery, "where are we?" Another sigh from Kaiba before he spoke.
"Weren't you listening? We're in the virtual world." I looked around also, spotting some fairly large animal bones in the undergrowth around the edge of the lush clearing we were in.
"Uhh, guys, my Lara Croft senses are tingling..." I said, finding this situation all too familiar to a game I played back home when I was proved right by a giant russet dinosaur looming over us. Everyone backed away slowly before fleeing to the other side of the clearing as I looked across at Kaiba. "You said this was the virtual world?" I asked as he nodded without the smirk budging or looking away from the dinosaur. I took a deep breath, ignoring every instinct screaming at me to run. "Fine." I balled my hands into fists and glared up at the dinosaur for a second, my inner mantra of; Dinosaurs no longer exist, this is a hologram. Dinsoaurs no longer exist, this is a hologram, on a loop before the claw came down and I closed my eyes. Opening them again when the claw of the dinosaur broke up into binary as it passed through us and re-solidified before it wandered off. I exhaled, shaking my head after my heart stopped racing, I looked across to Kaiba, who was wearing a self-satisifed smirk still.
"Hmpf. I've programmed better when that Noah kid was still in diapers." I rolled my eyes and resisted the urge to shove him in the arm.
"Oh well, hark at you." I snapped back, still a little on edge as I looked over my shoulder, seeing Teá drop to her knees to attempt to smell a horrifyingly large, pink flower. Her hand passed through it and she gasped.
"But it seems so...real." She said, looking upwards and frowning as I turned round to face my friends, who were all staring at whatever Teá had seen. Teá suddenly scrambled backwards quickly, hitting resistance in the form of my legs, I looked down at her.
"Are you oka-" I choked, froze and then laughed honestly for the first time of the day as I helped her to her feet, this time not resisting the urge to shove Kaiba in the arm. He frowned at me as I still laughed. "What the hell are you wearing?" I asked, pointing to the carbon-copy of him in a blue coat and, once again, carrying The Briefcase.
"Why are you, there?" Tristan asked, sounding a tad freaked as Joey agreed.
"I-it's like a...Cyber Kaiba." I snorted again at Joey's rhyme and then frowned.
"He's right though...where did they get a you?" I asked as Kaiba rolled his eyes at me as though I was being slow.
"It's nothing new, I used to duel cyber clones of myself whenever I needed to hone my skills." It was my turn to roll my eyes as I buried my face in one hand.
"Do I even want to know why?" I asked wearily and heard the snort before the answer.
"Who else is better?"
"Oh god I hate you sometimes." Kaiba raised an eyebrow as I remembered the last time I said that and the reaction I got. I sighed in defeat as the 'Cyber Kaiba' disintergrated in the face of the demo, 'Deck Master.' I frowned at this new change to a set of rules that I barely understood in the first place. The jungle fizzled away in favour of the green motherboard room again, the Big Five stretching above us as they spoke.
"You see," The large one began, their proportions stretching wildly as he spoke, "we need new bodies. And you, Seto Kaiba, and your friends happen to have bodies just waiting to be used." He laughed madly.
"Hey!" Joey yelled, raising his fist to the literally Big Five and taking a step forward, away from Serenity, "I won't let anyone control my body again!" He took another step and the floor opened into a hole underneath him, I gasped and took a step towards the hole while Serenity ran to the edge of it, shouting her brother's name when the hole closed again, I spun on my heel as Yugi and I yelled at the same time.
"What did you do with Joey?"
"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU DIS-PROPORTIONATELY LARGE BAS-" I cut myself off from my own rant and pinched the bridge of my nose, feeling my blood-pressure rise.
"Serenity!" I looked up from the duel yell of both Tristan and Duke, standing infront of a hole which I guessed Serenity had fallen through as the hole expanded for them to fall thorugh too. A malvolent laugh from behind us.
"Oh?" The tallest of them said, smirking widely, "I forgot, it'll be easier to gain your bodies when we seperate you." Teá was claimed next, Yugi running forwards to grab her hand and missing before I took a step forwards, just past Kaiba, and felt my patience snap at the disappearance of my closest friend; at least, I would have snapped, had Mokuba not run towards Kaiba and the ground opened up; I registered the loss of ground support for the second time that week.
~XxX~
A/N: Short chapter becuase I like to keep these things...ending on a...not a cliff-hanger, but more of a...scene break? Does that even make sense? X_X Forgive me, it's three in the morning.
~Ava