Fan Fiction / Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ The Fourth God ❯ Chapter 9 ( Chapter 9 )

The Fourth "God"

A Yu-Gi-Oh!/X-Men: Evolution crossover fic.

Written by Rogue Moon

"I lie to Batman."

~Robin to Superboy, Teen Tiatains #… oh, wait, wrong comic-verse…

Chapter Nine

The museum had been a great source of information for Kitty. Although some of what she had seen- and taken pictures of- confused her. Especially the tablets depicting Pharoah 'Yami' and his opponent battling it out with Duel Monsters beneath the image of the god cards from Duel Monsters. If the tablets were real… then maybe it was true that Pegasus Crawford got the idea for the game after visting Egypt all those years ago.

The most disturbing bit of the day had, of course, been when Ryu had mentioned the e-mail from Mesmero. She couldn't stop thinking about it and had wanted to ask Ryu about it, but the opprtunity just hadn't come up, what with the white-haired boy wandering off on his own and the tour and all. But the group was meeting up with the boy at a kareoke bar, so maybe she would have a chance to talk with him then.

Kitty and Anzu took the bus back to the Kame Game Shop, dropping off the things they wouldn't need and changing into their clubbin' clothes. She may have had some important things to do that night, but Kitty still had to be in style.

Honda picked the girls up about an hour later, in Jonouchi's limo, no less. It seemed his friend gave him permission to barrow it for a night and he had picked Sunday because he figured they'd be tired after all the walking during the tour. The girls did not complain.

When they arrived at the bar, Ryu was already there, still dressed as he had been that morning. He greeted them with a sad smile, "Sorry about earlier… And I hope you will forgive me for tonight was well…"

Anzu spoke her puzzlement first, "Why? What's going to happen tonight?"

Ryu blushed, "Well, I tried to convince them not to come, but you know how He is. He just walked right over my argument and…"

"Ryu! Oy! Ryu," the boy was interuppeted by a new voice and a head that stuck out from the room the white-hiared boy had been standing in front of. The blond boy who owned the voice grinned, "Khaibit says to get your ass back in here. He wants some entertainment and you've been waiting for your friends long enough." He looked past the shy boy, "And since it looks like they're here you have no excuse not to come back in here. Hello Slave, Honda, it's good to see you again."

Anzu glowered and growled, "I am NOT your slave, so stop calling me that."

"But you were!" the boy cackled and his head dissappeared into the room.

The Japanese girl balled up her fists and marched past Ryu, "I'll show you a slave…"

Hiroto pulled her back, "Calm down, Mazaki! He's just doing that to goad you. You don't have to sink to his level."

"I'm not going to sink to his level… I'm going to slam down to it and crush him in the process! Ryu, why do you put up with him?"

The now embarrased and shame-filled boy nervously shrugged his shoulders, "I really don't… it's just that He does and they seem to get along pretty well and all… and you know, it keeps Him from causing too much trouble…" Ryu winced with pain and let out a small hiss, "We should get inside, they're getting impaient." He quickly turned around and entered the room.

*****

Warren Worthington III, son of a multi-billionaire, sat in the back seat of his limo, pouting. It was all well and good that his father wanted him to come to the airport before he left- his father saying goodbye before a trip was a very rare occuracne and to be cherished when it happened- but he had been in the limo for far too long and his wings were getting cramped. If his normal driver had been there he would have thought nothing of streching his wings; Carson was paid very well not to talk. But Mr. Thompson did not know of Warren's secret pride, so the boy had to sit with the worst mucsle cramp this side of the pacific until they reached his father's private jet.

Almost an hour later, Mr. Thompson finnally pulled the limo onto the runway his father rented. When the car came to a full stop, Warren practically jumped from the vehicle, not waiting for the door to be opened for him. It felt good to be standing, with the breeze blowing through the bottom of his primaries. Pulling his coat tighter around himself, he headed up the steps and into the plane. Knowing his father, he would be behind the wheel. As Warren headed down the length of the cabin, a sharp pain flared through the back of his neck and everything went black.

*****

Kitty's first look into the room was greeted with the sight of Ryu heading over to one of the couches- the one the blond boy was sitting at, flipping through one of the song books- and a very nice veiw of a well-made butt being hugged by tight blue-jeans. The owner of said back-side, was bent over the machine adjusting some dials.

"Hey, Khaibit! Set that to number four-oh-five-three," the blond called over, picking up the mic, and flicking it to see if it was on. A hollow echo from the speakers answered him an afirmitive.

The bent over one, now identified as 'Khaibit' snorted, turned a few more nobs, and replied, "I'm not listening to you wail along to some Cher song."

"What's wrong with Cher? She happens to be a great singer. Besides, Gypsies, Tramps and Theives is a classic!"

Khaibit straightened up as Kitty settled into a couch opposite the blond and Ryu. The white-haired boy glared at his friend, "If I must be subjected to this music tonight, then it will not be Chers'. Ryu! Find me a song by Prince. His, at least, have substance." He paused for a moment, then shrugged to himself, "Well, some of them have substance."

Anzu and Hiroto joined Kitty on her couch just as Ryu called out a series of three numbers. The blond boy glared at Khaibit, "Oh, so you don't have to suffer through Cher, but I have to suffer through Prince? Some friend you are."

Khaibit rolled his eyes and growled in annoyance, "Fine! You can do one Cher song! But only one! Satisfied?"

The blond grinned and nodded, "Yes. Now set it to four-oh-five-three." Khaibit did as he was asked and his crazy friend headed up to the mini-stage that each room sported, bowing to the small crowd. "Welcome! Tonight you will be amazed by the great and most wonderful singer, Malik Ishtar!"

Ryu and Kitty clapped politely while Khaibit rolled his eyes and Anzu glared. Hiroto nervously tapped his fingers together, wanting something to break the tension rolling off his friend.

Malik bowed once more and then the song started. The group was amazed alright. It was quite apparent that he enjoyed his selection, as he didn't even use the word promt to sing it. If what he was doing could be called singing. Some dogs were probably howling along outside somewhere. When the song finished, Kitty, Anzu and Hiroto were doing their best to be polite and not laugh outright, even if their expressions gave them away. Malik bowed again and stepped down to more of Ryu's polite clapping, ignoring the muffled giggles. Khaibit jumped up and snatched the mic from his friend, "That was your one song. Now for some Prince!"

Malik growled and sat down, "Fine! We'll listen to Prince, as long as it isn't Rassberry Beret, alright?'

The evil twin smirked, "Okay, I'll do When Doves Cry." He was answered with a moan of dispair as he punched the start button and started in at almost a whisper. He ended up being a surprisingly good, if harsh-voiced, singer. Hiroto and Anzu seemed amazed that he was even singing, much less that he was acctually good. Ryu looked rather happy as he leaned back and watched his darker half. It was these moments, although few and far between, that convinced him his other half was worth beliving in and giving a chance to. Malik also leaned back, settling into the cloth, a semi-smirk gracing his lips as he listened. The blond only got to hear his friend sing on a few extremely rare occations, and rather enjoyed the sound.

When the song ended, Khaibit set the mic down on top of the machine and trotted over to sit beside his light. "I hope I didn't make you suffer too much," He drawled sarcasticlly, knowing he had done a god job.

"Acctually," Kitty piped up, "that was really good. Where did you learn to sing?"

The dark one looked over at her, as if acknolwedging her presence for the first time and grunted, "Temple. They always had us chanting something or other to some God."

Kitty perked up, "Temple? You're Jewish? No way! I'm Jewish!"

Khaibit scoffed, "No, I'm not Jewish! I'm not some stupid sl-"

He was cut off by Ryu's elbow to the gut and hurried response, "No I'm not Jewish. But I lived in a heavily Jewish neigborhood when I was in England and father often had me go there for daycare and-"

This time Ryu was cut off by an angry Khaibit who backhanded him hard enough to send him realing into Malik, "How dare you hit me! You pathetic, insignifigant worm!" The darker half stood up and pulled Ryu to him by his collar, then threw him violently backward so that he ended up spralled halfway across the stage. "You miserable, good for nothing excuse for a mortal! You know the rules! And you know what happens when you break them!"

Ryu started to push himself up as Khaibit advanced, only to be blocked by three people. Anzu knelt down next to Ryu, "That was uncalled for! Are you okay Ryu?"

Hiroto glared at the spirit as Kitty started chewing Khaibit out and poking him in the chest as she did so, "You stop it right now! Anzu's right: that was so totally uncalled for! I don't care why you act like this but it is completely wrong. If what Ryu said is true, then hurting him will only end up hurting you. All he did was try and keep you from insulting me. I don't know what you were going to call me, but apparently he did and I'm sure it was going to be something mean. You are such a jerk. No wonder Ryu hates having you around. No wonder he says he hates himself! He has to deal with you! But it's not himself he hates, I bet. No, I think he hates you!"

The spirit of the ring was very taken aback, so much so that he acctually stepped backwards about a foot. He blinked in confusion at the girl before turning his shocked gaze to his host.

"Hate me?" he questioned with utter disbelief. "You hate me? H-how? How can you hate?" The spirit moved to the side so he could get a better veiw of his host. "You… you're all candy and goodness and light, how can you hate?" Panic seeped into Khaibit's voice, "How can you hate me? Where have you been hiding it? What part can't I see into? What else have you been hiding? You swore not to hide anything from me! You swore on your sister's grave!"

Ryu's mouth opened and closed many times in an attempt to speak before he gave up on it and simply burst into tears where he lay. Khaibit became furious and started yelling, "Stop that! Stop crying! You always cry! Can't you just deal with reality! Can't you stop pitying yourself for one moment and-"

"Khaibit!" Malik's voice cut in, interupting his friend and drawing his attention away from Ryu. "This will get you no where. Either of you. Think about it. He doesn't hate you. He isn't capable of it. He may be angry at you, but he can't hate you. And he can't hide anything from you either. His mind is as clear to see as a blank page. Even now, when I no longer hold the Rod, I can read him clearly. Look inside him. He doesn't hate you and he hides nothing from you. He's just scared and embarrassed that you went off on him in front of his friends." Malik ran his hands through his hair and stood up, going for his jacket. "Hurry up and take him over if you're that worried, you stupid hot-headed fool. I swear, I can't take you anywhere."

Khaibit glared at Malik and then huffed, closing his eyes and- with a vissable effort- calmed himself down. Taking a deep breath he opened his eyes again to look down on his sobbing counter-part. He shook his head and sighed loudly, "Stop crying and stand up, already. You're only embarrassing yourself by laying there."

Ryu tried to calm himself with a deep breath as this shadow had, but only ended up giving himself a case of the hiccups. Which he then attemped to talk through, "I'm sorry. I j-hic-just didn't w-hic-want you to, t-hic-to say that to K-hic-Katherine. I swear I w-hic-won't do that ag-hic-gain. I-"

Khaibit cut him off with a glare and then dissapeared from sight. Anzu and Hiroto immedietly backed off of Ryu who stopped crying and Kitty just looked around; confused for the third (maybe it was the fourth) time that day.

Ryu wiped his face off, then calmly went over to the couch and grabbed his coats. Putting one on, he slung the other over his shoulder and turned to the other three, "Ryu regrets to inform you that he won't be able to stay and chat." Khaibit smirked at them, "See you in class."

Malik and the spirit then walked out the door, chatting as though nothing had happened.

After that, Kitty and the others didn't really feel like sticking around. Hiroto had the limo drop the American off first and then took Anzu home before heading back to his place.

The day had been long and full of some strange happenings. Strange happenings that a ceritan X-Woman had to a duty to report back home on. Closing her eyes as she lay down in bed, Katherine Pryde consentrated really, really hard, ~Professor? Can you hear me?~

*****

Three days after the Duel Monsters Convention, Logan finally came up with a plan that Xavier approved of. The rest, the Professor had felt, would have been too harsh and perhaps would have even made the situation worse. Especailly after what Kitty had reported about another boy with a 'tiwn' that happened to know Yugi. Two mutants with similar powers were not unknown, but the similarities between how Yugi and Yami acted and what Shadowcat had told Charles about Ryu were just too close. Two 'good' personalitied boys with 'dark' twins was not a coincidence as far as the Professor was concerned.

Ororo, for her part objected to all the plans as she hated any sort of harm coming to those in her charge.

So here it was, Tuesday, at just about lunch time, and Logan was going to start the first phase with brother #1. The short man had noticed Yami's strange facination with the martial arts. Disscussion of wars and fighting drew his interest as surely as a flame drew a moth. And he had a rather unhealthy facination with weapons of said warfare, so long as Logan was concerned. The boy had a habit of turning discussions of different wars into discussion of the many ways a weapon used in the battle could cause harm without laying a killing blow.

The Canadian found Yami eating lunch with Jamie and Ororo. Rahne wasn't around for some reason. He would have to find out what was up with her later. Sitting down at the table, he popped his right-hand claws and stabbed some bread and meat off the large platter set in the middle of the other plates. Ororo and Jamie went on with their meals without missing a beat. Yami, on the other hand, had never seen Logan's claws before and stopped mid-bite to stare at the man as he retracted his claws and let his food fall onto a plate. Logan pretended to be surprised and raised an eyebrow at the boy, "Got a problem, bub?"

This drew the other two occupants of the table's attention to Logan and then to Yami. The twin swallowed what he had in his mouth and set his sandwich down, "Do that again." After a heartbeat of silence, the boy added, "Please."

Logan shrugged and fisted his hand, setting his elbow on the table as he once again popped his claws. Yami stood up and came around the table, fascination in his eyes. He reached his hand out to touch the metal and stopped short, looking over at the Canadian, "May I?"

Logan shrugged again, eyes intent on catching the twin's reaction, "Your fault if you get hurt. Be warned, kid, they're sharp."

Yami's hand started forward again and hovered over the claws for a second before touching the top of one. He then ran his hand down the length of it, to the tip where the sharp side of the blade started and barely touched the point. Logan watched for the tell-tale drop of blood that should have sprouted on the boy's finger. There was none. Narrowing his eyes, the Canadian accidently-on purpose shifted his hand to give Yami's palm a shallow cut as he retraced his claws. Yami let out a hiss of pain.

"Shit! Sorry, kid! Did I get you?" Logan asked as if he cared and grabbed Yami's hand to take a look. He let out a fake breath of relief at the sight of Yami's un-marred skin, "Looks like I didn't. That's good. Don't want you getting yourself hurt 'cause of me. Chuck would have my head."

Yami gulpped his breath a couple times, "Yes, it is… I think I'll go back to eating now, if you don't mind."

The Canadian nodded and gave Ororo a meaningful stare, "Yeah, you do that. I think I'll take my meal and go find Rahne. See ya later."

Yami sat back down in his chair and rubbed his hand where he had been cut, letting his mind wander to Yugi, //Aibou?//

/Yami! Are you alright? My hand just got cut! Are you okay?! Yugi's paniced voice filled the spirit's head.

Yami cut him off with a flow of assurance, //I'm fine. I just got a little too close to Logan's claws. They are rather sharp. Can you heal that? Is it a deep cut?/

/No and No. It's not that deep and I really can't heal it. I'm not exactly in a place I can stay hidden long enough to get through the ritiual. Besides, it's not bad enough that it'll get in the way. If anyone asks, I'll just say I tripped and skidded a bit on the concrete. Or something. I've got to go. The next bell will ring soon and I've spent enough time in the men's room. See you later./ A wave of love came through their link before Yugi cut Yami off. The darker twin finished his meal and headed back to his class room within the mansion, safe in the belief that no one would think twice about the cut later.

*****

Two periods after Yami got ahold of his light, said boy was getting ready for gym class. He hadn't been at the school for very long, but already he had been targeted by bullies. They didn't do more than tease him during class so Yami hadn't taken care of them. Yugi didn't think that getting teased deserved a shadow game, but the insults they threw were getting worse and harder and harder to ignore. Esspecially the ones from a group jerks that never participated in class. They didn't seem to get in trouble for it and Yugi got the impression that even the teacher was afraid them.

The ringleader was some white-haired jerk that spoke real fast. Jockeying for the position of favorite stooge was a very tall, very fat guy with a mohawk and a rather ugly boy with slightly green skin. The latter almost always dressed in torn and dirt-stained clothes. The last member of the quartet was a kid with shoulder length brown hair and what looked like a permenant scowl. He didn't talk a lot, but laughed along with the rest.

Yugi didn't know any of their names, not really caring to associate with any of them. And as long as they didn't do more than tease, Yugi wouldn't have to worry about them past Gym class each day.

The small boy finished pulling on his gym clothes and headed outside to the track with the rest of the boys in his class. It was a nice day so the teacher was having them run the mile. The Japanese boy was one of the few who weren't complaining about it. Running was something he could do. Granted he only got good at it because he would have otherwise been late for class or pummeled by over aggressive bullies, but at least he was good at it. He would have no problem finishing within ten minutes and then he would have the rest of the class to do whatever with.

When he and the others arrived on the field, the ringleader of the bullies was running in place at the start line grinning at the teacher.

"Come on Coach! Start the clock already! I'm going to set a new school record. Heck, I'm going to set a new speed record for the world! The Universe even! I plan on breaking my own record!" He yelled out, overly eager as far as Yugi was concerned.

The teacher wasn't about to give in, it was his class and he was going to keep in control, "I'll start the clock when the others for the first wave are lined up and ready to go. So just hold your horses, Maximov."

The speed-demon sighed in frustration and glared at all the slow-pokes taking their sweet time getting to the field.

The teacher started reading off names for the first wave. Yugi heard his name and joined the other nine that were in the first run. Everyone seemed to drift to the other end of the starting line, as far away from the white-haired boy as possible. This gave Yugi plenty of room to stand and wait for the command to start. The speed-demon grinned over at the short boy, "Hey! It's the hair-gel freak! Bet you think you're really fast, right? Well, I'm the fastest guy in the world. The name's Quicksilver, remember that. You'll be able to tell all your friends that you got to eat my dust in Gym class. It's a great privlige, really-"

Thankfully for Yugi, the teacher called the start and everyone set off running. The Japanese boy lost sight of the white-haired boy as an oddly strong wind pushed at him. A minute or so later, Yugi looked back at the start line and saw 'Quicksilver' running in place next to the coach, mouth moving. Yugi shook his head in disbelief and muttered to himself, "All that talk and he doesn't even run the course…"

After Yugi finished, with a time of nine minutes fourty-nine seconds- a personal best, he headed over to the grass others in his class were relaxing on. Plopping himself down, he pulled out his duel deck and started shuffling trough it, enjoying how the warmth from the sun on his back. The warmth left fairly quickly, at about the same time the sound of someone walking towrads him readhed his ears. Taking his attention from his cards, Yugi found himself looking up at 'Ouicksilver' and company.

The white-hiared boy smirked at him, "Hair-gel freak here got the second best score of the first run. Bet you think you're real fast, huh?"

Yugi closed his eyes and replied in as unflatering a voice as he could produce, "Since the question was asked by a guy who did not even run: Yes. I do think I am fast."

Quicksilver frowned, "What do you mean, didn't even run? I ran the mile. It didn't take long, but I ran it."

Yugi didn't bother opening his eyes, his voice gaining confidence, "I looked back at the start line almost a minute into the run. You hadn't even left and you were standing next to the teacher, probably talking his ear off."

Yugi's cards were suddenly gone from his hand and it took a moment for his mind to comprehend their disappearence and a second moment for the signal to stop shuffling to reach is hands. Blinking in confusion, the small boy started looking around for his cards.

"Looking for these?" Quicksilver asked, leaning over and waving the missing deck in front of Yugi's face.

The Japanese boy snatched at his cards and stood up as they were pulled from his reach, "Give those back!"

"Make me, slowpoke!"

"I shouldn't have to! Those are mine! Now return them!"

Quicksilver shrugged and held the deck out to Yugi, "Okay."

"Thank you," the short boy replied, suddenly very wary, and took his cards from the outstreched hand. Ignoring how it would look, Yugi started to quickly shuffle through his deck, checking to make sure all his cards were there. They weren't.

"Hey, Toad, you're into that weird Duel Monsters game, right?" the ringleader asked, holding a single card out to the stooge with really bad hygene. "Is this a good card?"

The boy, now dubbed 'Toad', took a good look at the card and grinned, "Sure is. The Dark Magician is one of the rarest. It's the most powerful of the normal summoned spellcasters. Great card. Worth a lot!"

Yugi jumped at the hand holding his card, even as it was pulled from his reach. The ringleader seemed to be ignoring the short boy's pleas as he continued his conversation with Toad, "Really? That good huh? How much would you say it's worth?"

"Oh a good hundred dollars at least. To the right people, of course. Personally I perfer a good old-fashioned direct damage deck. Little monsters to eat away at your opponents' life points until…"

"Yeah, yeah sure. Whatever. How much would this one be worth?" Quicksilver held up another card and Toad had to hop rather high to look at it, what with it being held so high above Yugi's reach.

The sickly-looking boy scratched his head after landing, "I've never heard of a Winged Dragon of Ra. And I can't read the print on it. It looks like a foreign language card. Won't do us any good."

Yugi got tired of fruitlessly hopping in the air in an attempt to reach his card. Galring at Quicksilver, he took a page from Rebecca's book and kicked the taller boy in the shins. The shock to the boy served its purpose and the ringleader dropped the two cards he had stolen. Yugi calmly snatched his cards from the air and put them back in his deck and then back into his pocket. It just now entered his mind that it might have been a bad idea to bring his cards to class. Hoping the bullies wouldn't beat him up as he walked away, he turned his back on them and wandered to a different part of the field until class was over with.

Quicksilver was left standing there looking stunned while Toad laughed at him. A smirk formed on the ringleaders' lips and he told his underling to shut up, "We need to find out more about him. I hear he's staying at the Institute. Which means he's probably a mutant. And that means we need to try and recruit him to Father's cause. And if we can't, then I want to know the best way to torture him."

*****

And so ends the next chapter of The Fourth 'God'. I hope you enjoyed it and I also hope to get the next part posted by the end of March. I cannot garuntee it because I have to work for a living, but now that I have just a little more free time on my hands, I've been able to find time to work on this. I do enjoy writing this and no, I will not stop working on this until it is finished. However long it takes.