Ella's Concert

[mokubakaiba]

After hanging out with some of the local kids for a while, Mokuba arrived at the diner to help decorate for Ella’s concert. “Hi everyone,” he greeted, smiling.

Comments

[mokubakaiba]

“Battle City DVDs? I didn’t know there were any from that tournament” Mokuba said, surprised. “My best friend, Marik, is a really good person. He still feels responsible for what his dark side has done.”

[crystalmaster]

"Yeah, the company released them later," Radley said. He wasn't sure if Seto had really wanted it done, since he had seemed to be such a bad sport about losing the tournament. But he wouldn't bring that up.

He was a bit surprised by this. "Marik is your friend?"

[mokubakaiba]

“It’s good he released them. The Finals had plenty of good duels. Especially the one between Seto and Yugi,” Mokuba said. “Yes. Marik is a completely different person from who he was during most of Battle City.

[crystalmaster]

"That duel was out of this world," Radley said. "I've never seen anything like it!"

And he smiled a bit. It was good to hear that someone had found redemption. "That's great. People deserve second chances."

[mokubakaiba]

“It was. I’ll always remember it,” Mokuba said. “I agree.”

[crystalmaster]

Seto would too, Radley imagined, but maybe not for the same reasons. Or maybe he had softened since then. Who knew.

"Is everyone as accepting of him as you are?" Radley wondered. He knew forgiveness and trust could be hard, and so many horrible things had been done.

[mokubakaiba]

“Yes. Everyone is now accepting of Marik,” Mokuka replied. “Has Ella been doing well? It seems like she is too me but I could be wrong.”

[crystalmaster]

"That's good to hear," Radley said.

He sighed. "She's adjusting very well, but I know she misses everyone."

[mokubakaiba]

“I’m glad she is. I miss everyone too. Seto especially,” Mokuba said.

[crystalmaster]

"I understand," Radley said kindly. "Well, more people are always arriving. Some of them might show up too."

[mokubakaiba]

“It would be awesome if some of them did. But I would hate for them to be here until we figure out how to get rid of the barrier,” Mokuba said.

[crystalmaster]

"Yeah." Radley frowned. "There has to be a way to make it go away. If we knew what caused it, we might be able to reverse it...."

Or that was his hope, at least.

[mokubakaiba]

“Has the barrier always been here or did it just appear one day?” Mokuba asked.

[crystalmaster]

"It sure wasn't always here," Radley sighed. "One night a duel got especially intense and kicked up a lot of energy. People were getting blasted back. That was the first time a duel's effects felt real. The next day, the portal was here and so was the barrier. I'm guessing there's a connection, but we still don't know why the duels started acting up."

[mokubakaiba]

“The intense duel must have opened up something that made a barrier. As for the portal, I don’t have a lot of experience with them other than randomly appearing or being made by a magical object we found,” Mokuba said. “Do you happen to remember who was dueling?”

[crystalmaster]

"I do. But they're both in the mines now." Radley sighed tiredly. "This happened weeks ago.

"A magical object, huh? Like what?"

[mokubakaiba]

“Maybe we could talk to them about the duel. If it’s possible,” Mokuba suggested. “It was a candlestick that we found at a funeral home a while back. The funeral director was using it for self-purposes.”

[crystalmaster]

"Well, we can't talk to my guy," Radley sighed. "We could try to talk to Malcolm's. He's been kind of softening a bit since the conditions in my mine are nice."

He pondered. "I haven't seen any weird candlesticks around here. And that's so random. If it could be a candlestick, it could be almost anything!"

[mokubakaiba]

“Let’s talk to him soon. I just hope he can tell us something,” Mokuba said. “We didn’t even expect to find it until an alternate world had a portal opened up to it.”

[crystalmaster]

"Yeah, we can give it a try. He probably won't know anything, though." Radley sighed.

He gave a dry laugh. "You mean the candlestick suddenly activated by accident?"

[mokubakaiba]

“No. I’ll tell you everything that happened,” Mokuba said. He then explained how an alternate version of one of his dear friends, Lector, had become a vigilante that was named The Purple Avenger to find the rest of his Big 5.

[crystalmaster]

Radley listened. It was a wild and sad story, but it had a happy ending.

"The Big Five, huh? You've got interesting friends. It was impressive how they bounced back from the scandals at KaibaCorp and became the owners of a penguin theme park."

[mokubakaiba]

“I certainly do. I’m grateful they’re in my life and have achieved success,” Mokuba said.

[crystalmaster]

"You're a very forgiving person," Radley remarked. If more people were like that, the world would be much better off.

[mokubakaiba]

“Thank you,” Mokuba said. “Is there anything we need to do to prepare for the concert?”