Call of the Dark Spirits

Harley too went to speak to Shuho, wanting to thank him for the ride to the hospital, when he went down. "Hey, you alright?!?!" he jogged over, looking over his arm as he did. No burns, not cuts, no fractures he could see from there, the pain made no sense. There was nothing he could do anyway. "What's wrong?!"

"Watch out, kid." That voice again. Harley turned back, the man had returned. Piercing eyes locked to him, causing him to step back without thinking. Seth passed, kneeling down to Shuho. "What are you feeling?"

"EHHHH!?!?!? You don't know?!" Zeiya said, nearly falling over before running to the officer and grabbing his shirt, shaking him back and forth. "What do you mean 'What the heck happened'?!" She stopped at the sound of someone clearing their throats and turns arounds to see a nurse with white, short hair. Her eyes were rather cold and scary looking, just like Seiki and Yuki.

"I would appreciate if you two didn't make so much noise." she said. "Especially you, Officer. Your spinal injury will just get worse."

"N-Nurse! Where's Seiki?!" Zeiya said, letting Trudge go and rushing over to the nurse, who was surprisingly shorter than her. "A friend of mine told me she'd be here with Sludge!!!"

"If you mean the pink haired girl that was with the officer, we moved her to another room." The nurse said as she looked at her clipboard. "She went into cardiac arrest earlier and we moved her not only to keep us from disturbing the officer's sleep, but to keep a closer eye on her. This was the fourth time she went to cardiac arrest, not including the ones from the surgery."

"F-Fourth?! How badly hurt is she?!" Zeiya cried out, grabbing the nurse's shoulders. "She's gonna be ok, right?!"

The nurse glared at the blue haired girl in annoyance as she moved her arms off her shoulders. "I can't say anything with certain...we'll just have to wait and see. Now if you excuse me, I have other business to attend to." with tha said and done, the nurse opened the door and left the room, leaving Zeiya to droop to the floor.

"Hahhhh.....I wanna see Seiki...." She whined.

Trudge was holding his back lightly as he laid on the ground. He looked up and saw the whining Zeiya. He moved his arm out to her and said, "Hey, hey! Don't cry. If you're that concerned, why don't you go see her? There's a nurse right there to tell you where she is."

Shuho was on one knee, panting lightly as he looked around. He saw Seth and Harley, hearing Seth's question. "Something's close... Something... bad." He gripped his hand as he looked around to see what it could be.

"That's not possible..." Someoen said as Kazu comes in the room. "I asked the nurse myself to tell me where Seiki is...but she says that no visitors are allowed to see her yet."

"Hahhh....I knew i shouldn't have gone with that lady..." Zeiya whined even more.

"At any rate, how are you feeling, Officer?" Kazu said as he walked over to his superior.

"What the hell's going on here?" Yuki called out as she saw the males gathering around. She instinctively hissed and glared as she saw Seth. "Oh...great...you're still here, you douchebag?"

"Awww, all this for me? I'm touched." Sinsiter warped words licked the air around the group of Seth, Harley, Yuki and Shuho. Harley, having no clue what was going on, looked back and forth, unable to comprehend the situation. "Who's there?" Seth rose to his feet, trained ears pointing him to the source. As he rose, he was caught off-gaurd by the flashing of his ring. Something evil was indeed here. "Oh come on, Seth, don't tell me ya forgot already?" Boot steps echoed through the streets, air became heavy, colors seemed to dull and darken. Seth wide-eyed "That voice........no, no you're not here. You're-" "Dead?"

A figure stepped from the alley way, black leather boots and pants first to emerge. This was followed by a red shirt, a leather jacket pressed over it with the patterns of a strange sort across it in red. "Well....." A hood covered the top of the stranger's head, but the greatest feature was the face, or lack there of. A black mask held tight, a crimson X crossed over it, two pure white eyes leering to the group. "Not anymore."

"SHANE!" Seth called, taking a step forward "But, but how? You've been dead for years!" The masked man placed his right hand on his side, a strange duel disk hanging from it. "50, give or take, I lost count, and it's X, by the way." He followed this with another amused chuckle. Harley couldn't process the situation. Dead, for 50 years?!?! Shane, Seth?!? These were some of the duelists he had read about from his research on the academy in his Dad's study! How was that possible? "But why?"

X shook his head, his voice warped from the mask. "I want the kid..........." he brought his arm up, a glow appearing, forming a purple outline of a Spider "both of them."

Shuho started to stand, holding his arm as it was now starting to give a faint dark and white glow. A voice in his mind called to him. "You must protect them," the voice said. He closed his eyes for a moment and lifted up his duel disk with a glare. "You're not getting anyone! Harley, get outta here while I hold this guy off. I won't see another friend hurt!"

Within Seiki's room, a glowing green snake slowly started to move into the window. It lifted its head and started to look around. It saw a girl, barely alive in the room. The snake started to multiply, becoming many MANY other snakes. They all started to slither underneath the girl, slowly lifting her out of the bed with all her equipment. As it did, a single snake moved from there, under the door and towards Trudge's room.

As the snake arrived, the officer looked down at Kazu's foot and said, "Hey, Kazu... what's that thing near your foot?" The snake started to glow lightly as a voice started to echo into the room. "Hey there everyone... Isn't this one big party. Wonder where the guest of honor is... You might wanna check her room. Seiki has left the building! Haahahahahah!"

"Fuck! Really?!" Yuki hissed as she saw 'Shane' in front of them. "I heard about you dying in that accident...What the hell do you want?! These guys have nothing to do with you, you biking bastard!" Her hand inched to her deck that was attach to her waist in case she needed to back uo Shuho.

"Huh?" Kazu mutterd as he looks down and sees the green snake at his feet. "Gyah!!!! Snake!!!" He cried, falling backwards.

"Huh? Seiki?" Zeiya said as she looked up. She quickly stood up and grabbed the snake, shaking it back and forth. "Y-You jerk! What did you do to Seiki?! Are you why she's hurt this bad?!"

~Both of them?~ Seth thought to himself, his eyes shooting down to the other boy, lost in the moment. It was him. This kid seemed so lost, how could he be the rebirth of a duelist who seemingly knew everything? He questioned it, until the reaction finally came.

"No way!" Harley stepped forward. He had no deck, no cards, no way to defend himself in terms of the game, but he wasn't running anywhere. This was exactly what he had been waiting for his whole life. Seth noticed this, placing his hand on the boy's shoulder.

"He can handle himself. You need to come with me." Harley turned to him, looking Seth in the eye like a mad man. "Are you crazy?! I'm not leaving him here!" "You don't have a choice!" Sethg rabbed his arm, looking up to Yuki "Take care of Shuho." He darted off, Harley being pulled behind while trying to fight back and return to his friend.

"Figures he'd run." X shrugged, looking after the two as the ran down the way. "I'll get them eventually." He turned back to Shuho and Yuki, chuckling again "Ah Yuki, it's been a while. Thing is, these kids have everything to do with me." He tossed his gaze under the mask to the boy returning to his feet "So you're Darren's replacement, huh? Shame, was looking forward to making him suffer too. Guess I'll have to wait." He brought his arm up, his duel disk activating, pulsing in waves of red as it formed together, the Dragon's head piece holding a deck. "Let's rock, kid." The ground shook with a vicious force, small flames of violet dancing up until erupting, forming around them in the form of the mark on X's arm.

Shuho's deck shuffled as he turned back to Yuki. This wasn't his first time seeing her, but it was very strange that they knew each other. "Hey, what happened to Zeiya?" Shuho said, now more concerned about his friend then himself. "I dunno what all this talk is about, but just watch my back, and be ready to talk as soon as I finish this guy off."

The snake's tongue slithered from its mouth as the voice continued. "Maybe I am... maybe I'm not. Just wanna make sure you're all prepared for what's coming next. Don't worry though... I'll give you plenty of time to see your friend. Then again... I can't really be held responsible if the girl croaks because her shitty friends couldn't get the lead out."

"You son of a bitch!" Trudge exclaimed, forgetting he was talking to a snake. "Just tell us where she is right now! Whatever twisted game you're trying to play, she can't have any part in it!"

"Funny thing about that..." the man said in a very uninterested, almost playful tone. "You see, she's very important. Especially to a friend of mine, but ESPECIALLY to me. She and I have a LOT of stuff to talk about, so just see if you can find me. Good luck.... Kehehehehehehehe! Ahhahahahahaha!" With that, the snake disintegrated into green dust and disappeared.

Yuki hissed and let out a string of curses as the flames rose up, cutting her off from Shane and Shuho. "Fuck, are you shitting me?!" She snapped, backing away from the flames. Normally, she wouldn't be fazed by this...However, there was an unusual dark energy coming from Shane she could sense and knew touching the flames would result in something horrible. "Don't worry about the girl, boy! Just focus your head on the duel!" All she could do was back him up with words.

Zeiya just stared at her empty hands holding the green dust that was once a snake. She bites her lower lip and clenches her hands into fists before standing up and running out of the room.

Kazu stood there, looking at the door with a dumbfounded look. He turned to Trudge, blinking. "O-Officer Trudge...what just happened...?" He asked with a rather shaken and confused voice.

"SEIKI!!!!!" Zeiya cried out as she ran throughout the hospital. For some odd reason, it felt emptier than it was earlier. IT didn't matter to Zeiya, though. All that matter was making sure her friend was all right. "You jerk! Let Seiki go!!!"

"Cocky little bastard, aren't you?" X said as his deck shuffled the same, bringing his disk slowly infront of him. "Good, so am I. Let's make this fun." He drew his starting hand plus an additional card to start.

X: 4000
Shuho: 4000

"Duel! I summon Steelswarm Caller in attack mode!" A screech broke out as sparks flew from before him, from it a large insectoid creature emerged, clenching it's claws and spreading it's legs, screaming at Shuho. (1700 atk) "Two face-downs, end turn. You're up kid."

Shuho drew his cards as he looked at the cards in his hand. He had no idea what he was really up against, so playing defense seemed like the safest bet. "I'll set a monster face down in defense mode... I'll also play two cards face down to end my turn..."

Meanwhile, in a dark, abandoned part of the Satellite Sector, a man with green hair and yellow eyes, seeming wearing a business suit was looking down at Seiki. He started tapping her head lightly and said, "Well now... you know, this isn't gonna be much fun if you don't wake up!" The man had snakes strapped completely around Seiki, holding her down as a single face down card was on her chest.

"My draw" X drew again, a new card added to his hand. As he did, one of his two face-downs flipped face-up "Activate Hand Desctruction! Now we each take two cards and toss them into the Graveyard, and then draw two more." X selected his two cards, placing them in his Graveyard, then drew two more, awaiting his opponent.

"Ohhh...where is she?!" Zeiya said. She checked the entire hospital building and the surrounding area, but there was no sign of her pink haired friend. She speeds through the streets, trying to find some sort of clue. She looks left and right, but nothing. "Seiki!!!!" She looks ahead and gasps, breaking her runner before she veers to the right, barely missing a person in front of her.

"Hah...I almost crashed again..." she managed to say, trying to calm her panicked heart. The person walked up to her and handed her some piece of paper rolled up. "Huh? What's this?" She opens it to see a map of the Satellite. An area was circled with a black marker with a green snake connected to it. "Hey...!" she raised her head to ask what exactly this was, only to see the person walking away. The only thing she could make out was a strange glowing thing on their arm. Zeiya tilts her head in confusion before shaking it and putting the paper away. If what she thinks is true, then that snake guy is at the area circled at Satellite. She widens her eyes and slams the breaks on her Runner before looking at the map again.

"HOW THE HECK DO I GET BACK TO SATELLITE?!?!?!?!?"

"Oi...She's probably not gonna wake up for a few more hours." A voice echoed behind the green haired man as the young man who visited the hospital walked up to him. "She got her body to get really fucked up...It's a miracle she's even alive right now." He glances down at his arm, which was glowing underneath his jacket, before glancing at hte unconscious girl. "The hell are you gonna do...? She's gonna die if we don't get her to a hospital, god damn you."

Shuho looked at his cards in disbelief that he already had to give up two of them. He discarded the cards and drew two more. One of them was Destiny Hero Dasher. The other was Hidden Armory, a card he wasn't intending on using anyway. "This seems kinda were for him to do that... but what's his game?" Shuho said, basically to himself but Yuki could hear it as well.

At that moment, a man started to walk towards Zeiya. A familiar man with black spiky hair with yellow highlights. It was Yusei Fudo, walking up to them. "Zeiya... its been a while," he said to her. "That's what I wanna say, but now's not the time to chat. I cane to get Aki, but I need you and your friends to come with me to."

The green haired man turned to his 'ally' with a small grin and said, "That's not gonna be a problem kid. See, I need her alive juuuuusssst long enough to give her a little gift. Tell me something, have you ever heard of a LifeLink?"

"Eh?" Zeiya looked up at the familiar voice. She grins really big and jumps off her Runner before giving Yusei a hug. "Yusei!!! I was really worried about you since I haven't seen you after the Fortune Cup!" she said before letting him go and tilting her head in confusion. "Everyone's at the hospital, including Aki...but why do you need us?" She blinks multiple times before shaking her head. "ohhh!!! There's no time for that! Yusei, my friend's been taken by some really weird guy who talks with a green glowing snake and she's in a really bad state! I need your help to get to Satellite!!!"

"No, but I have feeling I know what it is..." he said, glaring at the man. Oh, how he wanted to punch that sadistic grin of his off his face. Suddenly, he heard a cough and turned to the now conscious girl as she coughed out some blood. Seiki slowly started to open her eyes. "Where...?"

Suddenly, her eyes shot wide open and she screamed bloody murder. She tried to move her broken body, only to be stop dead cold by the snakes wrapped around her. Blinded by the horrible pain that attacked her conscious body all at once, she didn't notice the two men before her.

The black haired man sighed, tilting his cap down. "...I'll go get the pain killers..." He said before glancing a glare at his ally. "Seriously...I would appreciate if you didn't torment her BEFORE anything happens...You're worse than 'X', Takuro..." With that said, he walked over to a bag sitting next to some junk and looked for the pain killers, mumbling stuff like 'sadist' and 'asshole' as he was looking for them.

X surveyed the field, a look of satisfaction on his face.....then again, his face was hidden, so the cold stare of the mask was all that could be seen. "I sacrifice my Caller." The words struck so suddenly. A sacrifice so soon? "Using the effect of the card in my hand, I use Caller as my sacrifice to bring out Steelswarm Girastag!" The humanoid moth creature slowly disintigrated as light rose again, this time in a much larger concentration. From it a massive creature emerged, one arm hosting a hand, the other what appeared as a cannon. A massive tail swung behind it, horns rising from it's head and chest (Lv.7 2600 ATK). "First, the effect of Caller activates. Since it was used in a tribute summon for a fellow Steelswarm monster, I can Special summon a Level 4 or lower Steelswarm monster from my deck. Come on out Steelswarm Gatekeeper!" Appearing next to the massive creature, a smaller bug-like fiend, heavily armored took hold. Just as the previous monsters before that, it wore the Steelswarm logo (1900 DEF). "Now for Girastag. Since it was Tribute summoned using a steelswarm monster, I can select one card you control and send it to the graveyard, then gain 1000 Life Points. I choose your right face-down."

"That's why I'm here," Yusei said to her. "I already heard about what's going on. I came here to get you guys so we can go to Satellite and take out the Dark Signers. There's a lot to explain, but I'm not the one who should be doing it. Just take me to the others, please!"

Shuho grunted as his Power Wall card was destroyed. It could have protected him, but now it was in the graveyard. He looked at the two monsters, extremely surprised that two powerful creatures like this could be summoned in one turn. "Damn... this guy's stronger then I thought, and I already thought he was tough..."

The man looked down at Seiki, grinning sadistically as he moved his hand to her shoulder. "Hello there Seiki... Its been a while, but I don't think you'd really remember me like this. Here, I'll give you a hint..." He moved his other hand to his mouth, clearing his throat lightly. "Seiki-chan... I wanna offer you a place where you can use your gifts without worrying about what others think of you." His voice was familiar now. Too familiar. It was the voice of Divine.

"Let's have some fun.......Girastag, attack his face-down." The larger creature let out a roar that was laced with metallic screeches, ear-shattering waves spreading through the air. The hand rose, palms glowing a bright yellow as particals began to absorb into it. The cannon slowly raised at Shuho's face-down monster. "Infestation Cannon!" A beam of pure energy rocketed from the creature's arm, flying faster and faster to the target.

"Dark...Signer...?" Zeiya repeated, blinking. She opened her mouth, then quickly closed it before nodding. "All right...Come on!" She got on her duel runner and waited for Yusei to get on as well, seeing as how she didn't see his familiar red Runner around.

Seiki's eyes widen even further. Her body thrashed around, tring to force the snake binds off her as she tried reachign towards the man's voice. "D-DIVINE! YOU BASTARD!!!" She shouted, pure malice, anger, and rage in every corse of her being. Blinded by her emotions as well as the horrible pain assault onto her, she could only see a blurred Divine, not a complete stranger. She coughed up more blood and let out a cry of pain. "FUCK! DAMN BASTARD, I KNEW I SHOULD HAVE KILLED YOU OFF MYSELF!!!"

The man stood up, glaring at Takuro with the same eyes Seiki was attempting to glare at him with. He walks over to the pink haired girl, a needle in his hand. "With the way you're moving around, there's no other way for me to inject anything into you other than needle." He uses his left hand to force her body down as it continued to thrash around and stabbed the needle into her arm, emptying the contents into her before quickly removing the needle. Seiki didn't notice anything, not even the second person. Everything, both mentally and physically, was directed on the man whose voice was that of Divine. Soon, her thrashing and cursing slowed down until the painkillers took their effects, leaving Seiki panting heavily. Her eyes were barely opened, her body tired from the pain and her eyelids refusing to open any more than 10%. "F-Fucking bastard...."

Yusei hopped onto the Runner behind her, holding her hips to keep on as he nodded to her. "Trust me... you'll understand what this is about soon. Even I just heard about it, but it sounds like all you guys are needed for this, as well as all the ones with a Crimson Birthmark like mine. Aki's one of those people."

Shuho watched the card get destroyed, only to see a white dog jump up and strike the one that attacked the card. It bit the creature's hand, destroying it. "You attacked my Ryko, and when the Lightsworn Hunter gets flipped I can destroy a card on the field, as long as I send three cards from my deck to the grave first." His deck started to glow as a white man-wolf with a giant claw took to the field. (LV4 Atk:2100) "Looks like one of em was Wulf, Lightsworn Beast. That means he gets special Summoned from the graveyard!"

Takuro started to laugh as he said, "Divine? DIVINE?! What are you, a drooling idiot? There never WAS a Divine. I offed him and took his place years ago. That means everything you went through... that was ALL ME!" He looked at the card on his chest, seeing it glow with a dark green power. "And it looks like my little Reunion Present is almost done as well. Seiki, my girl, this is a LifeLink! That means, you wanna kill me, you gotta die yourself! Oh yeah, and we've gotta die at the SAME TIME! Shouldn't be too hard, what with your friends coming to save you and you being to damned injured to lay a hand on me yourself. Look at it this way though... you won't have to die now from those injuries... Gehaahahahahahaha!"

"I'm just worried...one of my friends was really injured and some guy decided to kidnap her!" Zeiya said, gripping onto the Runner. "I just hope...we'll be able to save her..." with taht said, she revs upt he runner and heads off to the hospital.

Seiki said nothing. She merely panted heavily, her body drained of energy from her thrashing and mental shock. ".....on't care...." she muttered. She bites her lip and tries to raise her voice. "I don't care! I don't care if I die if it means dragging you with me!"

"Fucking asshole!" He had enough. He snapped and rushed to Takuro, grabbing his clothes and lifting up the man over his height of 6'2. Clenching his fist so tight that his knuckles turned white, he glared holes through the smaller man. His quick action caused his cap to fall off his head, revealing black hair tied in a low and small ponytail with crimson red eyes. Seiki lifts her head at the sound of the second man's voice, doing all she can to open her eyes. She blinks and widens her tired eyes.

"Z.....Zeiro....."

"You sadistic son of a bitch!" Zeiro shouted, using all of his energy to not throw out a punch. "Stop it! She's already severely injured as it is! Say anything more and I'll-" His eyes widen before he lets go of the green haired man, crying out and holding onto his right arm as a blue glow can be seen coming out of the sleeve of his jacket. An ominous voice only heard by Zeiro echoes around him as he hold his head with his right hand, trying to drown out the voice. "S-Shit!"

"Nice" X responded, seeing his Girastag perish. It seemed to not even bother him, like a piece of paper fluttering by in the breeze. He looked to the field, nodding. "Turn end."

"Here it is." A door opened, plunging the darkness away with the light from the outside. A figure stepped in, turning to the side. A click initiated the light, the room revealed to be a massive hall of flat, concreate walls, small projectors across them. Seth pressed a second button, oone portion of the wall opening itself, revealing a smaller second room.

"Why'd you bring me in here anyway? We just left Shuho to fight whoever that guy is! We could've taken him!" Harley entered behind him, irritated, wanting to go back into the action and help his friend. "No, you couldn't.....not yet." Seth motioned for the boy to follow. Harley did as instructed, walking into the brightly lit room. He stared in amazement as he looked around, thousands upon thousands of duel Monster cards filed away. "Are these all yours?" "Yeah" Seth responded "but right now they're yours." The blonde's eyes lit up at the words "Seriously?!?!" "You need a deck, we'll make you one. Time is of the essence here, so the less time the better." Harley ran to the first row he could, flipping through each card. He stopped at one, looking at the name. "I've seen this name before. It's the same as....." he reached into his pocket, pulling from it a single card, holding it next to the one he saw. Seth looked over his shoulder "Ah, the Darkworld set. Always thought of using it myself." "Why would you, they're a bunch of monster?"

Harley's eyes trailed away, a hint of seriousness to his voice. "That's not very nice to say with your friend right beside you." Harley wide-eyed, turning to Seth who continued to view his collection as if nothing had happened. "Y-y-you can see it?!?!" "It is a him and yes, I can."

"You're not crazy."

Harley looked up to the voice in the back of his mind, meeting eyes with the horrifying stare of a large shadow, golden eyes glaring at the young man. He immediately looked away "so now another can see the monster haunting me." Seth turned to the boy, a hint of anger on his face "He's not a monster! He's your partner." Harley looked to Seth as if he was crazy "Partner?!?! He's been stalking me for years!" "He's been protecting you!" There was a long pause.

Shuho grinned as he drew a card. He looked at it with slightly wide eyes, knowing what he could do now. "Alright, freak-show! Its time my ace joins the party. I activate the effect of the Destiny Hero Dasher you made me discard. Since I drew a monster just now, I can show it to you and summon it. I summon Mystic Tomato!" The red tomato appeared on the field, staring at the man with an eerie smile. (LV4 Atk:1400) "Now I play my face down card, Birth By Sleep! By destroying two monsters I control, a Light monster and a Dark monster, I can summon a monster from my graveyard as long as it wasn't sent there from the field. I'm bringing out Light and Darkness Dragon!" With a shine of Light and Dark energy, his half black, half white dragon appeared onto the field. (LV8 Atk:2800) "Unfortunately, though, its effect is negated, but its still got enough power to take down your Steelswarm. Go, take him down!"

Takuro looked at the boy, his face grinning as he turned back to Seiki. "Never can find good help these days... Tell ya what, since we're so close now, I'll let you in on a few secrets. First things first, though... Time to call in the troops..." He turned from them both as he placed his mouth to his watch slightly. It was a communicator, but not a normal one. It was made to be able to speak to every Dark Signer in their minds at once so he could issue orders. "Alright, everybody. Fun's over. The final kid's about ready, and I'm all set here too. Time for the dress rehearsals to stop and for you guys to get back here."

As Yusei rode with Zeiya, he noticed everyone gathered in front of the hospital. His eyes looked to see Shuho with duel disk raised as if he were battling. There was one problem though, there were no cards on the field. No images in front of him. Nothing was happening. "Shuho! What are you doing over there!" He called out.

"Huh? Shuho?" Zeiya looked over at the direction Yusei was looking at, seeing the same scenario. "S-Shuho! What's going on?!" She called out, turning her Runner towards him and stopping short of the mass of people. "What are you doing, you idiot?!" She got off her runner and pushed her way through the people.

"..." Zeiro said nothing, shadows covering his expression as he turned his back to them.

Seiki resumed glaring at Takuro, trying to pull against the snake binds. "D-Damn it! Get these things off me so I can kill you!" She hissed, slowly surcumbing to the drowsiness that was the side effect of the pain killer.