Yu-gi-oh
No Limits
Chapter 40- Cat and mice
By
By Kevin Jones
"So where is Maggie?"
"She's taking a nap in my room. Would you like something to drink?"
With that Ernie Cardenas walks into the large apartment and follows Vanessa to the kitchen.
"When Kai told me that you all were able to get Maggie to come here, I didn't believe him. Then he showed me a picture he took of you all last night having dinner and I figured you all must have done something I couldn't."
At this moment, Cardenas is thinking back to orders. "All I have to do is bring the little girl back to the safe house in Brooklyn and the rest is up to the boss. As for the red head…that's all up to me."
"Ok," Vanessa now has the refrigerator door open and is bending down to look at the lower shelf. "I've got Gatorade, and Pepsi."
"Anything's good," is what Cardenas is saying but what's he's thinking is, "She's cute, I think I'll have some fun with her."
"Then Pepsi it is."
"Good, it's been a long time since I've had a good f-I mean Pepsi." He is now walking towards her, with his hands out.
"To bad you're not getting it from me!" Within an instant Vanessa turns jumps around and sprays Cardenas in the eyes with cold pepper spray.
"In coming!" Suddenly Kai runs into the room and smacks Cardenas over the head with a baseball bat.
"Well he's out." Vanessa says this once Cardenas hits the ground.
"Not for long, you said your Step Dad has a truck and trailer downstairs, right?"
"Yup, let me just check to see if we have a phone signal again."
With that, Vanessa pulls out her cell phone and puts it up to her ear and here's nothing in return.
"I can tell by your face that you've got no signal."
"Worth a shot."
"That's what I thought too when I tried calling you before but these guys are smart. They were able to get my cell number as well both your cell and house numbers and block them."
"Where'd they get the technology to do all this?"
"The drug business has given these guys endless resources and there smart."
"Fair enough. I'll go grab Maggie, you get lurch downstairs."
With that, Kai grabs the facedown Cardenas by the shoulders and is now dragging him across the floor while Vanessa heads to the main bathroom. She then opens the door and see's Maggie using a nail file to wear down a tie rap that has her arm attached to a metal towel rack.
"Did you actually think that was going to work?"
"Had to try something, seeing as you're going to get us killed."
"No one's dying today." With that Vanessa pulls out a pair of pliers and begins to cut through the tie wrap. "We are going to bring the guy Kai just knocked out to the FBI building over on the east side and then we'll figure out what makes you so important to these guys."
Maggie is staring at Vanessa in disbelief. "Do you actually believe that?"
Vanessa looks her straight in the eye and says, "Completely."
…
"Man this sucks!" Kai is in the driver's seat of the truck with Vanessa riding shot gun and Maggie in between them.
"Not so easy when you can't just cut in between lanes using your motorcycle now is it?" The van is sitting in bumper to bumper traffic in the middle of Broadway.
"Is this really the conversation you 2 should be having right now?"
"Oh no, I'm going to enjoy every moment of Speedy Gonzales over here actually having to sit in traffic like the rest of us."
"All this while you have a murdering thug in the trailer behind us?"
"Pretty much," Vanessa is choosing to act cool. If one were to look at her shaking left hand, they'd know she's scared.
"That guy back there couldn't hurt a fly unless he gets the jump on it." Kai knows the situation is still dangerous, partially because he knows these people aren't stupid and partially because seeing Vanessa's hand trembling is making him nervous as well.
"Wait," starts Maggie, "you know this guy?"
All of a sudden, both Vanessa and Maggie are giving Kai confused looks.
"Come to think of it," begins the older girl, "you seem to know an awful lot about these guys."
"I've heard of these guys around town."
"So have I," begins Maggie, "But you seem to know exactly what their plans are."
"Listen," Kai is not doing a good job at hiding his growing nervousness. "We need to stay focused. From what I know, these guys are way more than ordinary thugs."
"That's an understatement, llama Poco."
Suddenly, everyone almost jumps out of their skin as they realize that not only did that sentence not come from anyone in the car but that it sounded like it came from the radio.
"Kai, what's going on?"
"Easy red," says the Hispanic voice from the radio. "You llama Poco have something we need and we're going to take it from you."
"And how's that?" Kai is trying to sound brave, but he is actually scanning the grid locked street for anything irregular.
"Simple," the voice is giggling, "in a few minutes, two cops will knock on your doors. When they do, just go calmly. They've got guns and there not against shooting women and traders."
"Listen you-"
"Can you see us?" Vanessa's interruption is accompanied by her lowering her head and guarding her face with her left hand.
"Of course, now why don't you stop hiding your pretty face."
"Alright fine," says a reluctant Kai.
…
2 men dressed as cops are walking towards a red van. They've been told to simply go up to each side, open the doors and escort a young man, woman and girl to a new model cop car, currently sitting in front a Barnes & Nobles.
"So, how do you want to do this?" The man on the left says to the man on the right. If anyone could hear them over the sounds of rumbling cars, this would sound like typical speech between coworkers.
"Like we usually do, walk up, give our usual cop bull shit and escort them to the car. Only this time, we then don't shoot them."
"Shame, after what Kai did, I was hoping to get the honor of putting a bullet in him."
"You and I both buddy, you and I both. Maybe if we ask nicely, we'll at least get to watch."
The 2 men laugh as they walk up to the van; one goes to the left, the other to the right. They can see the 3 people in the van hesitantly staring forward, pretending not to notice them. The man on the driver's side is now knocking on the window.
"Is there a problem…officer?" Kai is not even looking at the officer, nor is he speaking with a cooperative tone.
"We'd like to ask the 3 of you some questions. If you'll please exit the vehicle and come with us."
Kai looks over at Vanessa and Maggie, they both nod. With that, Kai opens the door.
"Now!" Yells Vanessa as she quickly bends over and grabs a tire Iron from underneath her seat. She tosses it over to Kai who then leaps from his seat and whacks the man in the head with the tire Iron.
"What the-"Before the other man knows what to think, Vanessa swings open the door, slamming the other man in the face.
Vanessa then grabs Maggie by the hand and pulls her out of the van. They quickly circle around and Join Kai. The 3 then begin running through the street before turning right and joining a crowd of people.
"What just happened?" Maggie is both frightened and confused.
"Simple," starts Vanessa, "that van doesn't have any cameras in it. So even if he hacked the van's phone; there was no way he could see us. That meant he had to be watching us somewhere. I decided to figure out where."
The 3 then begin walking north on Park Avenue and Vanessa keeps talking. "While that voice was yacking and you were staring at the radio; I slipped my hand into my left pocket and pulled out this little antique.
With that Vanessa pulls an old cell phone out of her pocket and waves it in front of Maggie.
"What's that," asks Maggie.
"This is an I-Phone. Apparently it was all the rage like 30 years ago. Today it's so obsolete, modern technology can't even pick up a signal from it. I used to think it was ridiculous that my mom kept this all these years but hey, every blind squirrel finds a nut sooner or later."
"But what happened if they saw you?"
"Well luckily I knew where all the keys on the keyboard were and when it was time to show the message to Kai, all I had to do was move my head down enough so my hair would cover my hand, there for making it too hard for a guy, probably with a telescope, to see the edges of the phone."
"That wasn't my question. What I mean is what if he was looking at us from a different side and saw the phone, then what?"
"Like you said, either way we're doomed."
…
"Vanessa, pick up the phone immediately! This is very important."
"Chase that's the third time you've called her and we're already up to her building."
"If this elevator would move faster than we'd be there already."
"We're going as fast as we can. I mean the minute we got out of that tunnel you took my phone and called Toni, told her what we heard, and then told her to go to the FBI. That's when you started calling Vanessa."
"She should be picking up. Now is not the time for her phone to be off."
"Aww," starts De-Arrow, "this is cute. You're worried about her."
"Of course I'm worried about her."
Suddenly, both Damon and Arrow are staring at me in disbelief.
"Could you repeat that?"
"Damon, I'm being serious. I asked her for help on this, thinking it would be simple. That makes her my responsibility. I thought this would be simple but it's not. We're once again involved in some strange shit and if anyone comes after us, there going after her first and I refuse to let that happen."
"Aww," says Arrow, "so you're going to do whatever it takes to protect her."
"I hate you 2."
"Is that why your face is turning red?" Asks Da-
"We're at her floor. Now can we go figure out what's going on here, without you guys talking?"
"No promises," as Arrow says this, the elevator doors open and we walk into the…oh shit.
"Hey Chase," starts Damon, "Vanessa's door is at the end right?"
"Then why's it open?" I'm now running towards her door. Oh shit what's happening now!?
"Well now, who do we have here?"
"Oh shit," no sign of Vanessa or Maggie, but there's 3 guys, all tattooed, all tan, and all big. I'm assuming there all involved with the 12 Diamonds.
"Don't worry Chase I'm here!"
"Oww," Damon just slammed into me, there for knocking us both to the ground, there for putting us in an incredibly bad position, there for insuring very bad things to us.
"Hey Carlos," says a bald guy to the guy who just talked. "Looks like this girls got to body guards."
"And from the looks of it Hector," says Carlos, "she should trade them in for some better ones. Now you and Pedro, bring them over here."
With that, Hector and Pedro dash over and pick us up. Hector has me by the neck and Pedro's doing the same to Damon. Only difference is Damon is still talking.
"Let us go and tell us what you did with Vanessa and Maggie!"
"You tell us," says Carlos. "Our boss sent 1 of our guys to grab a couple of brats at this address. That was about an hour ago, apparently they escaped and we've been sent here to see if we can find any clues as to where there going or maybe something we can use as leverage against her."
"Take a book, that's mostly what's in this place." From the looks on their faces, my loveable wit isn't winning them over.
"Listen kid," says an irritated Carlos, "from the looks of it, you boys belong with us, not her."
"Vanessa's our friend!" Shouts an angry Damon, "We'd never help you."
Carlos puts a big smile on his face, revealing a gold tooth where his left Incisor should be. He then walks over to me and pets me on the cheek that has my facility mark.
"You boys both have criminal marks."
"I also have a tattoo on my ass, wanna take a look."
"You also have an attitude. Seriously though, look at this place. It's a rich white person's home. You too don't look rich unless you're both fucking that bit- Ahhhhh!"
I just kicked this bastard in the nuts. Now he definitely looks pissed.
"OK, fine, you don't want to be friendly. You don't want a little locker room talk, fine, than I'm not helping you." He is now walking over to the living room table where there's some kind of metal brief case. "You want to play rough. Fine let's play rough."
With that he opens the brief case to reveal a yellow duel disk with black lightning volts painted around it. He then takes out the Duel Disk and places it on his arm. He then pulls a USB Cable out from a compartment underneath the summoning blade and places it in the USB port on my Duel Disk.
"Seeing as you came in here with a Duel Disk on your arm, that makes you a hard core card player. I'll have you aware that I'm not half bad myself."
"That's a shock disk, isn't?" This is not going to be good.
"What's a shock disk?" As Damon says this, the man holding on to me pushes me to the ground.
"Simple," says Carlos, "when dueling with a shock disk, every time one of us loses life points, this little baby will release 50,000 volts into the body of the loser. The shock isn't enough to kill but it lasts as long as it takes for our duel disks to reach the new total."
"But wait," starts Damon, "what happens if you inflict a lot of damage with like 1 attack?"
"Well, let's just hope that doesn't happen." It's been a long time since I've dueled like this. Let's see if I've gotten a little rusty.
Chase
"All right kid, to show you I'm not all bad. You may go first."
"Oh that's good," Yells a frantic Arrow, "he's going to burn you to a crisp but at least you get to go first!"
"I draw"-
"Don't ignore me, there's no magic this time, just electrocution!"
"I summon Elemental HERO Avian (ATK: 1000/DEF: 1000) and with that I end my turn."
Carlos
"That's it," yells Arrow, that's all you're going to do! He could shock you to death and you're going to play 1 of your weakest mon"- a piercing look from Avian shuts up Arrow. "Ok I'll be quiet…go Avian.
"I draw, and next I play the continuous spell Chain Energy, now you must pay 500 life points to in order to declare an attack. Next I play the spell card, Ookazi! Now you take 800 points of damage!"
Ah shit that hurts! (4000-3200)
"Chase are you ok!?"
"I'm fine Damon," it feels like getting poked by a needle, on every inch of my skin.
"I bet you are. I now set 1 card face down and end my turn."
Chase
"I draw and next I summon Elemental HERO Sparkman!" (ATK: 1600/DEF: 1400)
"All right, now a real attacker"- once again, Arrow is cut off by a look from Avian.
"Now, Sparkman attack George Lopez directly!"
"Oh, racism, really mature, either way I play the trap Negate Attack! Now your attack is negated as well as your battle phase but guess what still has to happen."
Ahh, Christ, it didn't last as long as the last one, but it feels worse thanks to my skin feeling like its crawling. (3200-2700)
"Wait a second," starts Damon, "the 500 life points is a cost, not damage."
"Doesn't matter," I'm starting to feel a little woozy. "If I lose life points, I get shocked."
"But that means if Carlos wants to attack you, then he'll also get shocked."
"Then it's a good thing I don't run any monsters."
Damon looks shocked, "how can you run a deck with no monsters!?"
"Because this is what you do, isn't." I've dealt with guys like this before. "Every turn you plan on plan on dealing me just a little bit of damage, until the pain gets so bad that I just tell you everything you want to know."
"Not a bad strategy now is it?"
"Just make your move."
Carlos
"You'll be speaking to me with a better tone in just another minute."
"You'll have to by me dinner first."
"How about I just draw, and next I'll play another Ookazi! Which means another 800 damage for you!"
"Not exactly sparky," As a blast of fire heads straight for me, an orange light comes to protect me. "I discard Hanewata to negate all effect damage for the rest of the turn."
"Well aren't you lucky, I set 1 card face down and end my turn."
Chase
"Let's just see how lucky I really am! I draw," now were talking, "I summon Junk Synchron!" (Level: 3/ATK: 1300/DEF: 500)
"You're in trouble now!" As Damon yells this, a light comes out of Junk Synchron's right hand.
"Now Junk Synchron's effect activates, I get to special summon 1 level 2 or lower monster from my graveyard!"
"How is Hanewata going to help, it's useless unless it's in the hand!?" Arrow knows nothing.
"Now here we go," time for a comeback. "I tune my level 1 Hanewata, level 3 Elemental HERO Avian, and level 4 Elemental HERO Sparkman!" Hanewata is fluttering in a circle. The faster it flies, the more it fades away and is replaced by a green ring. Avian and Sparkman are now jumping up and landing back to back in the circle. As they do this, they also vanish and are replaced by 7 shining stars and in a burst of light, "I synchro summon, Stardust Dragon!" (ATK: 2500/DEF: 2000)
"There's no way, there's just no way. I've been hearing rumors of a white boy duelist who has a Stardust Dragon. I always thought it was bull shit!"
"Show's what you know," yells Damon, "take him down Stardust!"
"You heard him, Stardust Dragon, Cosmic Flare!" Stardust Dragon's mouth opens and a large blast of white cosmic energy begin to launch itself at Carlos.
"Oh no you don't, I play the trap card, explosion Blast! Now you're monster gets destroyed and you take damage equal to its ATK!"
"Only one problem, that's not going to happen, I activate Stardust Dragon's Victim's Sanctuary, by tributeing him, I can negate your trap and destroy it!"
"Not bad but don't forget, you now a get a little juice!" Oh fuck this getting hard! (2700-2200)
"I…set 1 card face down and now that I'm ending my turn Stardust Dragon comes back to the field!"
Carlos
"And with that it's my turn. I draw and…Synchro Barrier."
What the hell? The hologram of my face down just flipped over.
"Chase, how are you activating that card now?" What Damon doesn't realize is that this was probably part of the plan from the beginning.
"That thing is hooked up to more than my life point reader, isn't it?"
"Of course, I can see everything you play but I feel like you already knew that."
"Like I said, I've dealt with guys like you before."
"Oh really, well if that's the case, let's see if I can separate myself from posers. I play the spell card, shatter boom! Now because I have no monsters in my grave, I get to inflict damage equal to double your monsters ATK!"
"You know what that means, I play Synchro Barrier! Now by tributing 1 synchro monster I get to reduce all damage to 0 until the end of the turn!"
I hate to have to do this but I'm forced to watch as Stardust turns into a blast of light that guards me from shards of glass and more electricity.
"Wait a second," starts Damon, "if you didn't have a way to stop Synchro Barrier, then why make a big deal about knowing what it was?"
"Because he wants me to feel hopeless, he knows Stardust Dragon is my strongest card and he thinks that if he can take it away from me, I'll give in and tell you what I want."
"Well, that's the first part."
"What's the second part?" As Damon asks this, Carlos places 4 cards face down on his side of the field.
"Just watch, I end my turn."
Chase
I have a bad feeling about this. "I draw and next-"
"I play my first trap, Secret Barrel, now you take 200 points of damage for every card on your field and in your hand!"
"Oh no that's 5 cards!" which means I take one- aw fuck that hurts! (2200-1200)
"Next I activate another Secret Barrel, so it looks like you'll be staying down!"
Oh lord, dear god, I can't take it, this is insane! I can't breathe, it's like there's weights on my chest. I can feel my stomach actually twisting itself into a not. My eye balls feel like there bleeding. It's as if my very skin is constricting me.
"Chase get up, come on get up." I guess Damon thinks I'm on the ground. I don't really know. I can't feel anything right now. All I can feel is pain. At least it's almost over.
"Now then I activate the quick play spell, Knife made of candy!" Here it comes. "Now your life points go back to 4000!"
Oh dear god, this is never going to end.
"Why would you do that, now it's like the duels back to the beginning?"
"Actually Blondie, it's exactly like that, because now all cards in my graveyard that have inflicted damage to my opponent get shuffled back into my deck."
It'll never end. He can keep shocking me over and over again. I'll keep getting worse and worse, until there's nothing left of me.
"Having said that, there is one way out, all you have to do, is tell us what we want to know."
"Don't listen to him Chase," Damon's talking but he's not saying anything, "You've got a tuner monster on the field, plus 4 cards in your hand! You can still turn this around!"
"But you can't take anymore more voltage, can you Chase? You've lasted longer than most and you're just a boy; no one can blame you if you give in now. Just tell us where Kai and the girls went and the duels over, you'll be free."
Freedom, I can end this, be done with all this.
"Chase, you can't," I think that's Arrow. You can't just abandon Vanessa! She'd never do that to you. If they find her, you know they won't just let her go. You know what horrible things will happen to her. She's counting on you and you can't let her down!"
"Let her down-"
"What was that? Was that I surrender? If that's the case, you're going to need to speak up."
"Let her down."
"I'm sorry what?"
"I refuse to let her down! Not again, I won't let her down ever again!"
"What the hell does that mean!? Wait a minute how are you able to start standing up!?"
"I won't let you get her! I won't let anyone take her away from me, not again!?"
"Kid you're loco! You can barely stand, how do you hope to stop me!?"
"Easy, I play Polymerization! Now by sending Elemental HERO's Burstinatrix and Bubbleman to the graveyard in order to fusion summon Elemental HERO Steam Healer!" (ATK: 1800/DEF: 1000)
"Fine, I'll take a little damage, but so will you."
"I don't care; I won't let you touch her! Now Junk Synchron, attack him directly!" (4000-2700)
"Shit, I'll never get used to that. But you're probably going to go down again!" (4000-3500)
"Steam Healer, take him out!" (2700-900)
"How are you- how are you still standing!?" 3500-3000)
"Finally, I play the quick-spell, Miracle Synchron! Now by 1 banishing 1 Synchron tuner and 1 or more non-tuner monsters I control I can synchro summon from my graveyard!"
"Wait, but that means-"
"I summon Stardust Dragon! Now Stardust Dragon, make him stop talking, Cosmic Flare!" (900-0)
Winner: Chase Loser: Carlos
"Oh god, this pain I've lost these duels before but this feeling, it's like you're monster actually hurt-"
"You did it Chase you took him out!"
"Chase, the energy you're giving off, it's not normal…Chase…Chase…can you hear me?
"K-Ka-Kal-"
…
"We're almost there," says Vanessa as the 3 walk through upper Manhattan.
"This is never going to work." Maggie says this as she scans the area looking for signs of danger.
"Stay focused," says Kai, "we need to-" Suddenly, a large object hits him in the back of the head.
Kai falls to the ground hard. He then hears, "bang, bang."
Next Time: llama Poco
When I walked in through the door, I saw the thing that basically changed the course of my life.