Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Ryou Bakura: Time Master! ❯ Time Warp No. 3: Ain't nothing gonna hold OUR stride! ( Chapter 6 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, Final Fantasy, or Megaman. Those belong to Kazuki Takahashi, SquareSoft, and Capcom respectively.
An hour had passed before Kaiba managed to get to Ryou's house, and now he was walking up the front steps and ringing the doorbell. He had no idea why Sami would be contacting him, but all he knew was that she was having a problem, and he could fix it. He tapped his foot impatiently, and looked only when the door opened to reveal Ryou.
“Kaiba, thank goodness,” Ryou said, stepping aside to let the annoyed boy inside, “Sami's been waiting, and Malik keeps arguing with her.” Kaiba glanced at Ryou and nodded to acknowledge him, and silently let Ryou lead him towards the dining room, where Basch had moved the machine. Kaiba wrinkled his nose at the sight of it, as he also felt it was a horrible creation. He set his suitcase down, getting Sami's attention, as she had just told Malik to go into the living room.
“Is this the machine you were talking about?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. Sami nodded, though she didn't have a smile on her face like Malik had.
“Unfortunately, yes. It's a wreck, too,” Sami explained, crossing her arms, “Malik's got it wired up with gum and hair clips. He seems to think you can fix it.” Kaiba chuckled, sitting down in one of the seats. Sami, with a bit too much effort, dragged the machine over to him, and Kaiba popped the back compartment open. Like Sami, he was greeted with the sight of countless pieces of garbage holding up what little wiring was actually in there. Sami waited for him to say something, but he continued to just stare at the wiring a little longer.
“Well?” she asked, after a minute of silence passed, “Can you do anything?” Kaiba snorted and slammed the compartment shut. He shook his head.
“It looks like something Mokuba would attempt,” he stated, almost amused, “I'm surprised you got it to work the first time, Sami. There's not much I can do without taking everything apart.”
“That's what I told Malik, and he thinks I'm just being difficult,” Sami mumbled, glancing over her shoulder toward the living room. She beckoned Malik to come over, and when he did, she explained what Kaiba had said. Malik frowned, but caved in when he realized that if they both said it, it was probably true.
“I don't like the thought of anyone ruining my machine,” Malik said, sadly, “But I guess if YOU can't fix it, we have to. Just don't ruin the exterior.” Kaiba opened up his suitcase to reveal many tools that Sami recognized as computer and car tools. Kaiba smirked.
“I wouldn't have to,” he said confidently, “I can easily splice a supercomputer and not damage the outside elements with these. If you don't mind, Sami, I'd like your help. I need someone who can scan things from a distance, and your glasses can do that.” Sami nodded, and Malik watched as they worked. It took little effort, he found, as Kaiba brought out what looked like a lighter and simply melted the gum, tape, and clips away. The wires that were in there, he patched up with electrical tape and then fortified it with some sort of rubber coating. As he worked, he pulled out whatever computer chips Malik had put in and handed them to Sami, who immediately tapped her glasses and started to scan them. Then she'd hand them back and Kaiba would repair them. On and on they worked for what seemed like forever, but Malik knew it took less than half an hour.
“Done,” Kaiba stated, as he put his tools away and closed up the compartment. He turned to Sami and said, “It should work better than ever, and faster, too. But we still need to stabilize it.” Sami nodded.
“Rex… I mean, Ryuuzaki's coming over with that stuff to help us soon,” she replied, just as the front door was being knocked on. She poked her head out just as Ryou answered, but to her dismay, it wasn't Ryuuzaki. It was Joey and Tristan. Or rather, Jou and Honda as of now. They were carrying something, but Sami didn't care what it was then. She returned to Kaiba.
“Hey, Ryou!” Jou shouted, walking in with Honda and whatever they were carrying, “Sorry we're so late. We had to pick Ryuuzaki up. His car broke down in the middle of the highway.” Ryou nodded and bit his lip nervously as they brought what looked like a large ring with spikes into the dining room.
“He's still getting the rest of the equipment,” Honda finished, “Though why he has equipment that can ruin time is still a mystery.” Ryou and Sami glanced at each other, but didn't comment. They didn't know the answer, anyway. Ryuuzaki came in a minute later holding various trinkets and metal objects. He walked in and set them all down, then nodded at Ryou.
“Well, that's all I could muster up, anyway,” Ryuuzaki told both Ryou and Sami, “My department's pretty strict about lending out equipment, but since that's rejected material, you can keep it if you want.” Ryou blinked, but Sami raised a concerned eyebrow. She obviously didn't like the idea of using `rejected' material.
“Rejected material? What's wrong with it?” she asked suspiciously, “Ryuuzaki, you do realize what we're doing is dangerous, right? We can't use defected equipment.” Ryuuzaki, who was setting up the large ring, turned back to her and wiped his forehead.
“There's nothing wrong with it. It's just the bits and pieces we can't use because we don't need them,” Ryuuzaki explained, lifting the ring up, “It should be fine. This is the conductor you'll need to actually form the portal. We've tested time-space fabrication with this, and it's worked enough for me to know how to set it up. You do have a metal sphere, don't you?” Sami, for once, simply blinked, not registering what was being asked. She certainly didn't have a sphere of any kind, nor did she know why she'd need one. She shook her head.
“No. I'd thought you'd be bringing one,” she replied.
“Are you kidding? Titanium alloy is the most expensive metal available,” Ryuuzaki stated, furrowing his brow, “Not to mention rare. Not even my division can afford an ounce of it. I thought your father might have something, though.” Sami shook her head again and looked at Ryou. He knew what she was asking.
“My father wouldn't have anything like that,” Ryou said, and then got an idea, “But I know how to get one. How big does it have to be?” Ryuuzaki looked at the ring, and then shrugged.
“Not big. It just needs to be big enough to hold a small current of energy. A coin made out of the material will do really well,” Ryuuzaki replied, “Even a screw. Just something made out of titanium alloy. For some reason, it can pick up and transfer energy waves better than silver or platinum.” Sami nodded, as she already knew this, but out of the corner of her eye she could see that Ryou's grin had grown. Did he have something that could help them? She turned to looked at him.
“Why're you smiling?” she asked, tilting her head. Ryou shook his head to indicate that she'd see why, and then ran into the living room. He came back out with Forte, who was whining and struggling, not wanting to help Ryou with anything in particular.
“What do you mean you need one of my screws!? I'm not giving you a damn!” Forte shrieked, “Because of you, I'm in enough trouble! Why would I want to help!?” Sami and Ryuuzaki watched in amused curiosity as the Reploid continued to argue. Ryou was having trouble calming him down, and eventually was thrown across the room into a potted plant. He fell over, taking the plant with him and dumping the soil all over himself.
“Ryou, we don't need something that big,” Ryuuzaki commented, obviously referring to Forte, “In fact, that might cause the current to over-exert itself and short-circuit the entire machine.” Forte grinned and nodded, feeling as though now he could do whatever he wanted. Ryou threw the plant off of him and sat up, dirt streaming off his hair and clothes. Sami wrinkled her nose with annoyance.
“We're not using Forte,” Ryou replied grumpily, “But he does have titanium screws. S… um… My father's friend built him for us. She used titanium to keep him together.” Nervously, Ryou glanced over to Sami as he talked, but she remained emotionless. He stood up and dusted his shirt off before turning to Forte, “You must have a spare somewhere, don't you?” Forte scowled, highly disliking the thought of helping anyone, but he eventually handed Ryou a small screw. It was silver, though the top looked almost bronze.
“Fine, you can have that one,” Forte mumbled, “But if I fall apart, it's your fault.” Sami smirked and snickered as the idea of kicking Forte and watching him fell over amused her. Ryou sighed, and handed the screw to Ryuuzaki, who examined it carefully, with Kaiba looking over his shoulder.
“This screw looks over 1000 years old,” Ryuuzaki commented, squinting his eyes as he held a magnifying glass over the tiny object, “It's starting to rust a little bit, but it's one of the best pieces of titanium ore I've seen. Ryou, where did your friend get this?” Sami turned her gaze back to Ryou, whose eyes had widened with shock. He didn't have an answer and he couldn't bring himself to just lie again. Besides, Forte might blurt out the truth, anyway. Ryou glanced at Forte, but he simply sneered, absolutely delighted to see Ryou sweat. Ryou glared back, and tried to answer.
“She… well, I'm not sure,” Ryou finally answered, hoping Ryuuzaki would buy it, “She just found it. I didn't ask her.” He was sure Ryuuzaki saw through the lies, but the duelist simply shrugged and handed the screw to Kaiba as he said, “It's good enough. Put it in that compartment in the ring.” Kaiba, though reluctant, did as he was told and placed the screw into a tiny holding cell that, as Ryou looked, was really just big enough for a small sphere. Ryuuzaki directed Jou and Honda to connect various wires to both machines as Kaiba plugged in his laptop to monitor the data transfer. Sami, though unable to help directly, was told her magic would power the machine up, and so she waited with Miho and Anzu.
“Can it really travel through time?” Miho asked, as Ryuuzaki continued to yell orders to everyone. Sami shrugged, giving a weak smile.
“Who knows? I mean, it did earlier, but with it being tinkered around with, we can't really know for sure,” she replied, “We'll need to wait and see. Why?”
“No reason, really,” Miho said, as Anzu ran to help Yugi with a heavy piece of metal, “But you said Forte did something to our friends, so I just want to make sure we can get it fixed.” Sami nodded, taking off her glasses for the while. She smiled confidently.
“Even if we can't travel through time, we can still fix what that little moron did,” Sami reassured, just as someone banged on the front door, “Ugh… hold on.” Sighing, Sami went into the hall and answered the door, only to be pushed back several feet. Everyone stopped what they were doing to turn and see, and saw that someone who resembled Sami just… slightly was standing in the door. And, by slightly, Ryou could see that meant `not at all.' For this woman, though bearing Sami's height and green eyes, had red hair and smaller, greener wings. She looked furious as well as she glared at her sister.
“Where is that idiot of a boyfriend!?” Katt demanded, storming inside, “How dare he leave like that! No note, no nothing! Just up and left me to worry!” Everyone, except Sami herself, was surprised at the outburst. But Sami didn't even seem upset at being blown away. She straightened herself up, and gave Katt a calm, though somewhat stern look.
“Relax, Katt,” Sami replied, “Malik's fine. There's no need for you to get angry.” Katt, however, didn't relax herself. Sami was right, but to hell if Katt Winchester ever admitted to it. She simply glared harder as she threw her arms up.
“Angry!? I'm downright pissed off!” Katt yelled, eye twitching, “This little moron decides to leave his girlfriend and sister in the middle of the day with no note to explain where the hell he is! For all we knew, he could have been abducted!” Sami laughed at this, knowing that no one would want to abduct Malik unless they were either crazy, a fan of some kind, or Ishtar. But that didn't relieve the confusion on everyone's faces. Ryuuzaki let his arm drop.
“Who are you?” he asked, making both women look at him. Sami snorted softly, surprised that Ryuuzaki actually managed to forget Katt.
“Ryuuzaki, you remember my sister, right?” Sami asked, pointing to Katt, “She might look different now, but this is her. You met her at the bar last spring, just before Ryou killed the Mystic Lord, Falnika.” Ryuuzaki blinked, but didn't recall. Malik, however, walked over and hugged Katt upon seeing her.
“Sorry I left like that, Katt,” Malik apologized, “I didn't mean to worry you. I just wanted to test out my machine with Ryou. You know, the one I spent all summer on.” Katt, who before looked ready to kill, calmed down when she saw Malik was all right.
“Oh… well, then I guess there was no need to get the police involved,” she said, making Sami snap around and glare at her, “Um… can I use your phone, sis?” Sami's ears lowered, and Ryou heard a faint, familiar growl issuing from her chest, but she nodded and pointed stiffly to the kitchen, anyway. Katt smiled nervously and ran in. Sami was about to close the door when Yami came in next. He looked pale with either concern or fear as he came in; something must have scared him upon his arrival.
“Sorry I'm late,” he said, closing the door, “I ran into your sister near the square and she demanded that I take her to Malik. Did I miss everything?” Sami, who still hadn't gotten over Katt throwing her into a wall, simply nodded grimly and crossed her arms.
“Most of it. We just need to power it up, then we can see if it works,” Sami replied, “Though I'm still not sure what to do with those two.” She pointed to Basch, who was sipping a root beer and talking to Kaiba, and then to Forte, who was opening the window to zap unsuspecting pedestrians. Yami perked an eyebrow, but decided it best not to ask who they were. Instead, he turned back to Sami.
“Ishtar's not coming,” he stated, “Or at least I'm not sure if he can. Apparently he did something and Isis is making him clean the entire downstairs. I doubt he can break free.” Sami closed her eyes and sighed heavily, though in actuality that wasn't a bad thing. It'd be one less person to transfer, anyway. Still, though, he had tagged along on every adventure they'd had.
“Well, I guess there's nothing we can do about it,” Sami said, leading Yami into the dining room as Ryuuzaki was getting the last of the wires hooked up. He gave the thumbs-up to the woman and spirit as they entered, and shouted an order to Kaiba. Kaiba nodded, flipped a switch, and entered something on his laptop. However, nothing happened. Everyone quieted down and stared at the machine, sometimes whispering and murmuring comments.
“Why won't it work?” Jou asked Honda, when Kaiba stepped back and didn't press anything more. Malik bit his lower lip.
“Did you possibly melt some of the wiring, Kaiba?” he asked, but Kaiba shook his head vigorously.
“No. I made sure not to touch those,” Kaiba replied, “The only thing that it could be are the parts.” Sami rolled her eyes furiously. She had a feeling something would have gone wrong, and the fact that she allowed this to continue was beginning to wear on her.
“I knew they were faulty…” she mumbled, but Kaiba laughed and shook his head again.
“No, they're not faulty. I'm not sure if they're compatible with the machine, though. If Malik…?” Kaiba turned around as a blinding flashing behind him caught his attention. Everyone looked, and stared in complete amazement. In the large ring was a dark, purple portal, swirling with mist. Ryou could feel it pulling at his magic, trying to draw him in. He shivered and turned to Kaiba.
“How accurate is the machine?” he asked, as Sami walked over and put a comforting hand on his arm. He smiled at her, but kept his eyes on Kaiba. Kaiba glanced at his laptop before answering.
“It has a 99.5% accuracy count, and it's stable enough to go eras back into time,” Kaiba replied, reading off the results, “And because the titanium is in such good condition, it can teleport anyone in the house. It has nearly no limits, except that it can't go into the future beyond ten millennia.” Everyone beamed at the answer, and Ryou silently thanked the future Sami for helping him so much. Without her, he'd be right back where he was, with the knowledge of a horrible future… or what would have been. He looked back at Sami.
“Well, dear?” he asked, tilting his head gently and taking her hand, “Are you ready?” Sami nodded, and still holding Ryou's hands, turned back to everyone, most of whom were gathered in the dining room now, dazzled by the new time machine. She whistled, which broke everyone's attention. Only when everyone turned away from the machine did she actually speak.
“All right, it looks like we're ready to go,” she said, firmly, “But once we head into the portal, we're not coming back until we find what we're looking for, all right? We don't know how stable the machine actually is, and now's not the time to test it out by transitioning back and forth. So, if anyone has anything to do, do it now.” Hearing the usual seriousness in Sami's voice, everyone scattered off to finish their business and personal agendas before departing. Jou and Honda left to get something to eat, and Miho went to pack a few things for the trip. Anzu headed out with Yugi and Kaiba to get emergency supplies, and Ryuuzaki had to call his department. Everyone else simply waited.
Within an hour, everyone had come back. Anzu had bought a medical kit, and Kaiba was holding onto a technician's kit in case the machine needed repairs on their journey. Katt, though missing most of the information, decided to go as well, and she brought her own weapon with her in case they ran into trouble.
“So, before we get moving, why are we heading back in time?” Kaiba asked, sitting on a chair casually, “What made Malik build this machine?”
“That's actually two different stories,” Sami answered, “But the short version is that when we were battling the Goddess, she said something that… how can I put this? Well, it bothered me. I started researching, and she was right about everything she said. I'm not who I appear to be. Or at least there's more to me than everyone thinks. I'm going back in time to find out who I was and what happened long ago to bring Katt and I here.” Katt nodded, leaning against Malik's arm, bored. Kaiba looked at Malik quizzically, hoping to have his second question answered. Malik grinned.
“I made the machine because Ishtar pissed me off,” Malik replied, “I originally made it to just take me back to Egypt, but I threw on a bit more than I thought.” Kaiba blinked, and nodded slowly, as though that answer didn't make any sense. And to Kaiba, it didn't. He looked back at Sami.
“I think everyone's here. Are we ready yet?” he asked impatiently. Sami looked around, and shook her head.
“No. Basch isn't here,” she said, “Has anyone seen him?” No one knew where Basch was, but they got their answer when Basch came out of the bathroom a minute later. He walked out, wiping his hands on a towel which he threw carelessly on the floor. Sami twitched as she watched, but said nothing as he walked over to the rather large group assembled.
“Are we ready to go?” Basch asked, acting as though throwing towels around was perfectly acceptable, “I see everyone has arrived.” Sami didn't look back, she just gave Basch the same annoyed look she gave everyone else. She didn't nod as she spoke.
“Yeah, we're ready,” she mumbled, “We just need to set the coordinates.” She turned around to press the buttons to do so, but Jou had already beaten her to it. She nearly screamed, except that she was too angry to do so.
“I'll do it!” Jou exclaimed proudly, pressing whatever button he wanted and generally not paying attention to the monitor. Everyone reacted to this, and not in a positive way, either. They all knew how bad most of Jou's ideas went.
“What? No, stop! You don't know what you're doing!” Ryuuzaki cried, but just as he reached Jou, he disappeared in a flash, followed by Yugi, Malik, and a few others.
“Jou, look what you did!” Anzu shrieked, but she also disappeared along with Yami and Bakura. Kaiba went to try and grab Jou, but to no avail as he was whisked away as well.
“WHY DID YOU HAVE TO TRY THIS!?” Kaiba yelled, as he was fading away from view. All that was left was Sami and Jou, as everyone else was disappearing into a new time. Sami snapped.
“Get away from there, you idiot!” Sami yelled. Jou, out of pure fear, accidentally hit another button, and both he and Sami disappeared. The sensation they felt was similar to falling off a large building, but it seemed to go on forever. Sami could hear someone screaming, but she knew it wasn't her. Nor was it Ryou, or anyone she actually cared about. But suddenly, the screaming stopped, as did the sensation of falling. Sami fell onto the floor, and someone fell with her, hugging her for dear life. Coughing, she opened her eyes to see who it was, and to her horror, it wasn't Ryou like she wished.
“Are we alive!?” Jou asked, eyes still tightly shut. Sami's eye twitched again and she pushed Jou off of her.
“Get off of me this instant,” she growled, standing up, “We're fine.” She adjusted her glasses and looked around the room. It was a large club, filled with tables, chairs, and a bar at the side. It was dim, the only lights coming from the disco balls hanging from the ceiling. But no one was around. Sami turned back to Jou as she asked, “Where the hell did you send us?” Jou looked around, and shrugged.
“I don't know, but it looks like a restaurant!” Jou exclaimed, “Which means that we're near food!” Jou got up and immediately ran to the bar, leaving Sami alone, and very annoyed.
“But what about… oh, forget it,” Sami mumbled, “Did Ryou end up here as well?” A bit disheartened by being left to herself, Sami sat at the table nearest her just as Ryou walked out from seemingly nowhere, followed by everyone else.
“Sami, you made it!” he whispered, and Sami jumped out of her seat to greet him, “I was worried you and Jou stayed back.” Smiling warmly, Ryou reached out and hugged Sami tightly, laying his head on her shoulder.
“No, the little nutcase and I fell in,” she replied, and Ryou let go of her, “But where are we? This doesn't look too far from our time.” Ryou shrugged, and Kaiba, who'd been sitting on a table, snorted angrily.
“That's because it isn't,” he said, “We've only gone back 35 years. We're in the 70s!” Everyone's reaction was clear displeasure. Sami's eyes narrowed to slits, and Ryou's eyes widened as his hands shook. He was on the verge of a breakdown at another blow-up with their trip. Miho and Anzu simply looked around at the large club, and everyone else seemed just mildly confused as to how they managed to get sent there.
“Why would he send us here!?” Miho and Anzu both asked in unison. Kaiba smirked, and shrugged.
“I doubt he knew what he was doing,” Kaiba replied, “But the machine needs a few minutes to repair. We might as well grab some food.”
“No one's hungry,” Sami said instantly, and even though Malik glared at her, no one objected. Kaiba opened his mouth to speak again, but the brightening of lights near a large stage caught everyone's attention.
“Oh, now what!?” Ryuuzaki asked, as everyone turned to the stage. The lights focused on the center, and now they saw that quite a few people were assembled at the club. The bartender grabbed a microphone and cleared his throat.
“And now, disco-lovers, the next contestant is… uh oh,” The bartender's enthusiasm dropped considerably as he read the name on his list, “Yaten… Bakura…” Ryou's eyes widened in fear and Bakura started laughing hysterically as the curtains opened up. There, stood none other than Yaten Bakura, his blue hair in a horrible afro, and in a disco suit, wearing platforms and medallions. Sami's chin would've hit the floor, except that she just wasn't that comical. But no one could believe the sight they were now forced to behold.
“Is that your father!?” Sami asked, unable to believe what she saw. In truth, Ryou couldn't believe it either. He couldn't avert his eyes from sheer shock.
“I don't know,” he replied automatically, hiding his face in his hands, “I don't want to know…” Sami patted his back comfortingly as music, though not necessarily disco, blared through. Yaten began to do the dance known as the Hustle as a song that only Sami herself recognized began to play. And even worse, Yaten was singing to it.
“Don't you want me, baby!? Don't you want me, Ohhhhh!” he sang, as Ryou looked away, ashamed. Sami couldn't hold her laughter in, and neither could anyone else. And yet, that didn't slow Yaten down in any way.
“Let's just leave,” Ryou said, and Sami heard the humiliation in his voice. She bit her lip, and kept rubbing his back. He knew they couldn't leave, but he certainly didn't want to see his father discoing. And the worst was yet to come as one of the bar patrons stood up.
“Boo!” one exclaimed, “You stink! Get off!”
“Get singing lessons, punk!” another patron yelled, throwing a cup at Yaten. He looked at them as he finished a line.
“Don't you want me, baby?” he sang, “Don't you want me…”
“NOOOOO!” everyone else screamed, in tune with the song. More cups and cans were thrown, and Yaten ran off the stage, followed by an angry mob. He didn't even notice Ryou… or anyone else standing there, for that matter… as he ran as fast as his platforms would let him. When the angry mob pursuing him also vanished outside, the bartender sighed and went into the back room. Both Sami and Bakura had stopped snickering and were full out laughing at that point. Even Forte was snickering, intrigued with how stupid humans were compared to his time.
“I think we'd better move before Sami and Bakura die from laughter,” Yugi observed innocently, genuinely worried that they might actually explode. Ryou was still too upset to speak, and Kaiba merely looked at his watch.
“Yeah, the machine should be charged up. Let's get our asses moving, then,” Kaiba said, as he directed everyone back to where the machine stood, in a large closet. He had to carry Sami and throw Bakura in, as neither of them could stop their giggling. When everyone had been assembled, Kaiba turned back to Jou and yelled, “Jou, move it! I'm going to leave without you!” Jou, who was nibbling on a hotdog, immediately dropped it and ran to the machine.
“DON'T LEAVE WITHOUT ME!” he cried, and skidded to a halt in the closet. Kaiba was just inputting a code, and slowly everyone disappeared into yet another time zone. He signaled to Jou to jump in, and when Jou was gone, he jumped in as well. Ryou was the only one left, as he stayed behind to try to clear his head.
“I don't know which is worse,” he said to himself, rubbing his forehead, “Seeing my father at a disco or letting Malik test his machine in the first place.” He looked up, and remembered that everyone had left already. And chances are Sami would know he wasn't with them. And she'd be angry. Ryou closed his eyes and pressed the button that'd send him into the time chambers. He just hoped they'd get to the right era as he jumped in.
“After all, Sami said once that time's too delicate… what if we mess with it for too long?”
-----------------------------(End Chapter)
And another chapter to Ryou's ever-odd adventure! Now, after being united with everyone he knows and seeing a truly disgraceful time for his father, Ryou must traverse time again, and only Kaiba might know where they'll end up! Will it be in Ancient Egypt? Or does even Kaiba not know where they're heading? Where IS Yaten while this is happening? And what about Ishtar, way back in his home cleaning dishes? Find out the answers in the next chapter, so click that Review button!