The Bitter Truth (Invite Only!)

[danielcityheroes]

Meanwhile, outside of the burning hospital, a large rumble was felt as Megas landed in front of it, with Coop in the driver's seat. After K1 and Yuugi left breakfast, Coop finished up and went back to the hotel room to get his things together when he saw smoke rising from the distance. So he ran out to Megas got in and rode to the burning building.

As Coop sat outside, he didn't know what was going on with Yuugi or K1. He didn't even know they were inside the building.

"This should be easy enough," He said. "Now where's the thing I have to press to put out fires? Is this it?" He pressed a few buttons on the console to produce a giant fan from the robot's chest compartment. It turned on them began blowing large gusts of wind at the burning building.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

K1 looked towards Pyro Jack. "Pyro Jack, go back in, and hurry! That building doesn't look like it's going to hold much longer."

Pyro Jack nodded, and flew back into the building. It found the first piece, the one with the eye, rather quickly, but the other piece must have flown further away.

At that moment, a giant robot showed up.

"...Isn't that the mecha from earlier?" K1 asked. When Megas brought out the fan, he panicked. "W-Wait, is he trying to make the fire larger?!"

[mugenginga]

He thinks I'm stronger... he always has. But once almost broke me... and now again!? Twice my own actions have caused me to lose him. And no amount of dueling will bring him back this time! This isn't a case of a corrupted king! This is a case of my own damn negligence! Atem's mind was racing. The cards in his hand were beginning to bend from his tight grip.

Obelisk could blow away the building. He could prevent it from collapsing with a pre-emptive strike. The force of the blow could put out the fire as if it had never been there and reveal everything inside. But he had no monsters on the field. He had no cards that could special summon the god. He still wasn't quite sure the way the rules of this world worked. And he knew how the Three Phantom Gods reacted when they weren't happy with a situation. Death was a high possibility. He carefully transferred all but one card to his injured hand.

Atem's eyes were now squeezed shut. He felt so damn helpless! He held out the one card remaining his non-dominant hand. If the gods wanted to damn him for this, he'd let them. At this point, after letting this happen twice, he deserved whatever punishment they gave him. The card face was towards Kikuri-hime. The translated kanji on the blue card read "Obelisk the Giant God Soldier".

Megas had begun to wave his fan, but Atem had sunken into his own mind. The card was held out and the Pharoah only had to throw it forward to summon it. The fire could spread. The building could collapse. But the most immenent and worrisome problem was the sheer power what could have been passed off as colored card stock put off. Anyone with more than a drop of spiritual sense would be having red flags pop up at every angle. This wasn't just a card... it was a portal. And one with frighteningly dangerous potential.

(OOC: Good lord somebody stop him. >_> Obelisk will NOT take the lack of tributes well AT ALL. And Atem is WAY too weak to be trying a stunt like this... Rightful master of the cards or no.)

[danielcityheroes]

((It's a mechanical fan, not a handheld fan.))

"Oh, wait a minute." Coop said as he read the label under the button for the mechanical fan that said 'Not effective at putting out fires.' He then looked to its side to see a giant hose button with the label under it that said 'Now THIS is effective at putting out fires.' "Heh heh, my bad."

He pressed the button for the fan, turning it off and putting it up, then the one for the hose which came out a compartment from the robot's back. The only problem was it would need an external water source. He smashed the street in front of the hospital, making a hole straight to the water main. A vacuum hose was released into the water main and began sucking out the water, which was then shot out at the hospital, which by chance, first hit the room that Atem was in.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

K1 stared at the card, and even though he didn't play Duel Monsters, he could tell something was wrong, just by the name of the card. Obelisk the Giant God Soldier. There were three things wrong with that. There was the fact that the monster on the card was giant and menacing looking, then there was the little god part. And then there was the soldier part. Despite his injuries, K1 sat up.

"What are you doing?!" K1 asked. "Pyro Jack can find it, you don't have to bring out that thing, whatever it is!" He turned to Kikuri-Hime. "Kikuri-Hime, get out of the way!" The goddess demon listened to her master, despite her protests.

At that time, a lot water ended up being splashed on K1, and he looked at the hospital, whose fire was being put out by the Megas.

----------------

The Jack 'o' Lantern demon had finally found the other piece of the puzzle, but there was one problem: it was right next to the malfunctioning key.

"Hee-ho... what to do..." Pyro Jack asked himself. Finally, he just used an Agi attack to blow the key away, and grabbed the piece of the puzzle. "Now to return to master!"

[mugenginga]

(OOC: The way you worded it, I'm assuming Pyro won't return until your next post. Go emo Atem! XD)

Atem had paused when K1 began to freak out. He turned his head to the side. Not enough to face K1, but so that the other teen could hear him better. But as he opened his mouth he paused. The first time he had lost his partner, it had been from not listening to him. Atem didn't take advice well, especially in situations involving an imminent loss. Yuugi was a counterbalance to that.

Even now, Atem would have probably pushed the words away and continued... had the burst of water not smacked him in the face. In his condition, it brought him to his knees. All five cards, including the god card, fell to the ground. He was soaked, but on his hands and knees.

"Y-you don't understand. It's my fault!"

Atem eyes were facing the ground, but he wasn't looking at much of anything. It all seemed rather uncharacteristic of the Pharoah. He almost seemed like Yuugi at the moment, what wish his lack of confidence and seeminly shattered self-esteem. If it had been Yuugi, he would have been crying. But Atem looked more like some combination of pissed and distraught. Once again, he blamed himself. If he had just left the puzzle on, like Yuugi would have wanted...

[Firebreath Fishslap]

K1 finally stood up from where he'd been sitting, despite Kikuri-Hime's protests (or rather, major freakout that mainly consisted of her ordering K1 to lie back down or he'll seriously hurt himself), and walked over to Atem, and stood there, looking over him for a second.

"What do you mean, it's your fault?" K1 finally asked.

"Master!"

Pyro Jack came running out of the building, thoroughly drenched, but still holding onto the puzzle pieces.

"I found them, Master!" Pyro Jack said. He held them out to K1, who shook his head and pointed to Atem.

[danielcityheroes]

As Coop continued to hose down the building, he looked into one of the rooms that had a hole in the wall large enough to see inside. He couldn't tell whether or not someone else was in it, but he could see one person in it.

"Hey, Yuugi!" He spoke into the microphone inside the car, which relayed his voice to speakers on the outside of the robot. "What are you doin' in there? In case you haven't noticed, the place is burnin' up."

[mugenginga]

"I didn't ask him..." Atem asked. He didn't seem capable of much in the way of intelligent conversation right now.

Atem saw Pyro Jack return after this and the glint of gold in his hand. His eyes widened. He grabbed the puzzle and quickly placed the pieces in with the efficiancy of the world record holder for the rubix cube. He had the chain and pendant around his neck before saying anything else.

"The other me!"

"Yuugi... forgive me."

Yuugi smiled. Atem looked to the left when he was in fact turning from his other self. Yuugi held out his hand. The Pharoah felt terrible. He places his hand on Atem's shoulder, "It's okay. I'm confused, not mad..."

"You should be! There was nothing tempting me this time!" shouted Atem. He was fighting back tears.

Atem didn't seem to care that anyone outside his own heart would be seeing nothing but Atem arguing with himself. Yuugi pulled his hand back slightly and looked around. They'd failed, that boy had to be dead. He shook his own head. He could figure it out later. He had never wanted his otherself to go through this pain again. He'd always told himself he'd fight harder to prevent something like this from happening again...

As for the megaphone, the two teens were too absorbed in their own world to notice it. Even with hits volume.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

K1 looked over at the Megas. "This room wasn't on fire, so we took shelter in here while Pyro Jack went to look for the puzzle pieces,"

He looked over at Atem. "We should go. As it is, this place still looks like it's going to collapse at any moment, even without the fire."

He then returned Kikuri-Hime to the COMP, and started walking on out. He didn't want to talk about what happened today. This wasn't the first time he'd failed someone.

The worst part was, it was their fault in the first place.

[mugenginga]

Atem nodded to K1, and leaned down to gather his cards before following. Yuugi was still trying to find the words to use to make his other self feel better. But as he felt just as bad if not worse, he knew that anything he could say would only make it worse.

It had been their fault. If he hadn't been so stubborn, maybe it wouldn't have happened. Yuugi knew his other self blamed himself, but he was the one at fault... And Atem was stubborn enough that trying to argue the point wouldn't end well.

Atem's hand was finally regaining feeling, but it still hurt. It probably needed medical attention. The situation had, overall, created a rather awkward silence.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Once outside of the hotel and quite a few feet from the hotel itself, K1 looked back at the still smoking structure. He sighed, and kept walking until he was back in Void City itself, and sat down on a nearby bench. This wasn't the first time he had failed someone, but every time he did, it left a bad taste in his mouth. Like what happened to Keisuke. They knew he was going to be killed, but they couldn't save him, because Kaido got there first.

And Yuugi/Atem... they looked like they had taken it the worst. That was the trouble with the COMPs. Once you know you can screw destiny, you feel like it's your fault if you don't, especially if someone dies because of it.

((The Keisuke event, incidentally, is one of the first parts in the game where the game starts diverging from one singular plot, and it happens about five days in. Basically, there's about two ways to keep him from being killed; give Kaido, his killer, the bag of another girl who was going to get killed later on (thus saving her too), or kicking Yama, the demon that Keisuke summoned,'s ass.

Guess who didn't know about the first and couldn't do the second? ))

[danielcityheroes]

The giant robot parked near the hotel, close to where Yuugi and K1 were. Coop exited the robot then walked over to them.

"Guys, what's up with you two?" Coop asked. He then thought about why they were in the hospital at that time. "I know that most people won't just go into a burning building for kicks, so you were probably in there to save someone right? They make it out okay?"

[mugenginga]

Atem didn't seem like he wanted to talk. He stopped when K1 sat down. He had been so upset before that he hadn't talked to his partner in his own mind. Probably confused K1. So while he was quiet now, there was a conversation going on. The rest of the world just couldn't see or hear it.

"It was stupid for me to do that." the Pharoah told Yuugi in his mind.

"I'm not mad. Really. But why did you? Was it to protect me? You probably saved my life, you know. But Akira..."

The outside world saw Atem shake his head, "It was inexcusable. Its not like me to consider a situation hopeless. Some fighter..."

Yuugi looked at his feet. Atem was right, in every aspect. And Akira had been killed. Would it have even occured had they not tried to save him? The key was their own fault... "Hey, don't go beating yourself up. You're supposed to be the strong one, remember?"

Atem heard Coop, but he didn't change his expression or turn towards the other person. It would have been impossible to tell that he had heard him. K1 had said they couldn't save everyone, but he'd said nothing about causing deaths...

[Firebreath Fishslap]

K1 looked up at Coop, and then back down at his feet. From his expression, one could infer how it went.

There were so many ways that went wrong. That stupid key had been the main problem. They had no idea that it would do that. But why had it malfunctioned? Had it gotten damaged or something during the battle with the doll?
No... it had to be something else.

The key had shrunk down after the doll let go of it. It stayed in the small size for too long, and was away from its owner for too long and then...

"Dammit..." K1 said.