Yugioh Card Maker Forum

Beep, beep, beep, beep, be-

Kristen Reynolds hit her alarm clock until the obnoxious beeping stopped. She must have set it on accident, for it was Sunday, and she loved to sleep in. Ignoring the early time, Kristen slipped from her bed and struggled in the dark to observe herself in her bedroom vanity, as her Dæmon lazily sat at her feet.

Kristen's light blonde hair was a rat's nest, and her eyes had bags beneath them.

"Oh, I look hideous!" she shouted to herself. Quickly, she combed her hair, and studied herself once more. She looked a bit better, her long blonde hair now straight and proper. Her blue eyes could be seen even in the dark of the early morning. After a few more adjustments, Kristen decided she was presentable enough to eat breakfast.

She was a short girl, she was always told. She was the perfect weight, lucky for her. Her skin was of a paler tone than most, but not so pale she looked like a ghost.

Kristen's Dæmon was in the form of a sly red fox. Since she was only sixteen, her Dæmon could still change forms. Kristen was one of the rare people that had the uncommon occurence of a same-gender Dæmon. Her Dæmon's name was Elle.

...

Adam Hampton arrived home from his early swim practice. His medium-length hair was still soaked. Adam had hazel eyes, with a hint of gold somewhere in them.

He was tall, and thin. He was very athletic, and had an exceptional physique. Adam was a popular sixteen year old in his student body.

Following him was Evetallia, his Dæmon, whom was in the form of a pitch black panther. He called her Eve for short.

...

Kari Parker was also up early, for it was a Sunday tradition for her family to go out for breakfast very early. Kari observed her dark skin as she looked in the mirror. She had long, dark black hair, and black beady eyes as well. Kari was also sixteen years of age.

Kari was of African heritage, and two generations ago, her grandparents had immigrated to America. She was proud of the hardships her ancestors had overcome.

Her Dæmon was currently in the form of a cream-colored ferret. His name being Mellonomy, Kari called him Mel. He was more curious than the average human's soul.

...

Kevin Kamine was a friend of Adam's. He had somewhat long blonde hair, and brown eyes. Kevin was also on the swim team, being tall, and with exceptional physique. Unlike Adam, Kevin was a bit less outgoing. He was seventeen, unlike his friend also.

Kevin's Dæmon was in the now permanent form of a white and gold speckled hawk. Its colors were mesmerizing. Her name was Mandifica, and Kevin called her Mandy.

...

Kristen was in her room, talking into her cellphone to Kevin. IT was still pretty early in the morning.

"My life sucks," she complained to him.

"You didn't have to swim a mile in a subzero pool today, did you?" joked Kevin.

"I bet you don't even know what subzero means," muttered Kristen back. Kevin and Kristen were pretty much together now, but it hadn't been announced all that much.

"Doesn't it mean...? Whatever. I'm bored."

"Wanna-" Kristen was interrupted. Suddenly, she dropped limp on her bed, and dropped her phone on the floor. Elle watched Kristen, bewildered, but unharmed herself.

"Kristen?" asked Elle, with no answer. "Kristen?"

She crept up to Kristen, and spoke into her cellphone.

"Hello?" she called into it, until an answer came. It was Kevin's Dæmon, Mandy.

"Elle, did your human pass out too?" asked Mandy, frightened. Elle confirmed this with Mandy. Apparently Adam, Kevin, Kari, and all other human inhabitants of the Earth as well became unconscious for no apparent reason. Surprisingly, the Dæmons weren't affected by the mental absence of their familiar, as they should be unconscious as well.

...

Elle finally decided that it was time to find other lone Dæmons, but she feared leaving Kristen. Elle slowly crept further and further out of Kristen's dark bedroom, but wasn't affected by being away from her. Dæmons and humans were always overcome with pain and grief if their Dæmon was but a few yards away.

Elle scoped the home. Kristen's entire family was unconscious. Most everyone, except her late-working father, was in bed. Kristen's father was hunched over the kitchen table, newspaper flat, and broken coffee mug on the floor. Elle slipped through an open window in the home to leave, and began making her way two houses down to Kevin's house. All around were confused looking Dæmons, roaming the streets, sidewalks, and damp lawns. Soon, Elle found Mandy, fluttering from a window of Kevin's home's second floor.

"Mandy! Here!" shouted Elle. It would have been a strange sight for an average human to see several differing kinds of animals roaming the streets, talking to one another.

"Elle, do you know what happened? On the news, the anchor is slumped over his desk!" cried Mandy frantically. Mandy had a deeper voice than most female Dæmons, since she was matured and settled. It wasn't as much deep as it was elegant and musical. Elle shook her furry head. Suddenly, a cream-colored ferret trotted up to the group in panic.

"WHAT HAPPENED?!" he shouted.

"You're Kari's Dæmon, right? Mel," asked Mandy. Mel nodded quickly, then made his eyes huger as if saying "continue!"

"We don't know. We just know that all the humans are out cold!" explained Elle. As she said this, Adam's Dæmon, Eve, trudged up to the group.

"Adam's in the shower! What if he drowns? What should we do?" asked Eve frantically. The other three looked down.

"Your human, your job," said Mel, giggling a bit.

"This isn't funny!" shouted Eve, whom trotted back to Adam's home after saying this.

...

After a minute or so, Eve returned, relieved-looking.

"I turned the shower off," she said proudly.

"Good idea, smart one," joked Elle. Eve glared at Elle, which stopped all smiling in the group. Elle was superior to all Dæmons in the group, including Mandy, whom was settled. Another Dæmon, a rabbit, trotted up and spoke to them.

"Did you hear what happened? They say that some experiment went wrong in the North, and they sent some radio wave that made the humans pass out!" she shouted, then approached a different group, saying the same thing.

"D'you think that's what really happened?" asked Mel. The rest exchanged faces with each other, and tilted their head at Mel as if saying "I don't know."

"Well, what are we supposed to do?" asked Eve. The rest of the group stared into space blankly.

"We have to do something!" shouted Mandy.

"But what?" asked Mel.

"What if we fly a zeppelin over to the North?" asked Elle.

"Where are we going to get a zeppelin? We don't even know if this is happening in the North!" retorted Mel. The group sat in thought as a squirrel Dæmon approached them.

"I know what happened. The enslaved witches are revolting by killing the defenseless humans this way," explained the Dæmon.

"How do you know this?" asked Mandy. The squirrel Dæmon was matured, she could tell, so it belonged to an adult.

"I belong to a witch," replied the squirrel curtly. He then continued speaking with a grim look in his beady, black eyes.

"The witches will succeed. They have always been a peaceful group, and the slavery of witches caused both the enslaved and free witches to unite and come up with this plan. It's an old incantation that only works during a meteor shower. The witches vowed not to use it, but decided amongst themselves that it was for the better. I, myself, agree with releasing all of the witches from the indignant life of slavery."

The group gasped when he finished. Following this, the squirrel bounced down the sidewalk, and began speaking to a rat Dæmon.

"The witches did this? I didn't even know they still 'xisted!" shouted Eve.

"They do. They inhabit the Australian coast now, and some parts of the North. Cold doesn't affect them, so they pretty much take any place that they can peacefully," stated Mel, as if reciting a speech. Elle giggled softly, but stopped after a harsh look from him.

Suddenly, a car came speeding from behind the house they were in front of. At the wheel was an unconscious woman, obviously having one of their feet pressed down. A frightened Dæmon tried steering the wheel, but struggled to move it in his small ermine form. The group split, dodging the car, followed by a whoosh of air. After this, the car drove straight into a lake that was behind the house across the street. The group watched it sink slowly with horror. As it's final pieces sank, a window burst open with fire. This meant that the Dæmon had died, and so had the human.

"Oh my God! What about the others driving, or taking a shower, or cooking, or skydiving, or hot air balloon-ing, or-" Elle started, being interrupted.

"What can we do about it?" questioned Mandy, rhetorically of course. "Nothing."

Next, a swan Dæmon tiptoed up to the group. It was a male, and had bright, pearl-white feathers. The swan also had piercing green eyes.

"Hello mortals. Soon, we will have our revenge!" he shouted maniacally, and left in a harsh sound of the beating of wings.

"We have to convince the witches to stop this!" shouted Mel.

"Or we could stop it ourselves," figured Eve. "Maybe there's some incantation to turn the humans back on." The other three nodded unsurely.

"We'd have to know witch spells. They don't keep any books, so we'd have to get it from a witch herself!" shouted Mel.

"Or we could read their mind," said Elle.

"No, we could take one hostage!" shouted Eve.

"What about a Seer Device?" proposed Mandy. "A Seer Device could get information from a witch without her knowing. I was thinking the Verometer, or the Anteometer. Maybe the Alethiometer?"

The rest of the group stared at her in utter confusion.

"Wha-what?" asked Mel.

"I say the Alethiometer," Mandy continued. "It will give us true answers to all of our questions. But how do we get it?"

"What's the leafometer?" asked Elle dumbly.

"A-LE-THI-O-ME-TER," sounded out Mandy. "A Seer Device." The rest of the group simply nodded, and soon Mandy began formulating a plan.

"Well, we're at Lake Orion, and the guy that has it is in Mount Clemens. He lives in a big mansion and-"

"How do you know all of this?" Eve interrupted in the middle of Mandy's plan.

"Research. Well, we're pretty close. We may be able to go by flying, since all of you can change form, and I'm already in an avian form. It shouldn't take long. Then, we can sneak in-"

"Wait, everyone's unconscious! Who will be guarding it?" interrupted Eve again.

"Dæmons. Servant Dæmons tend to stand guard at their place of work. If we're caught, we may have to fight-"

"I can't-" Eve was interrupted this time.

"SHUT UP!" yelled Mandy, which seemed to make Eve shrink.

"I continue. There's some secret room in there, Kevin found when he looked at this one woman's blog online. This guy has tons of Seer Devices. Maybe we can get the Annuntiometer just in case."

"So how will the Alethiometer and the Annuntiometer help us turn the humans on?" questioned Mel.

"The Alethiometer can tell us the incantation, and the Annuntiometer will warn us when something bad is about to happen," replied Mandy. The group mumbled things simultaneously.

"Well, where is this guy living?" asked Eve.

"Mount Clemens. I'd bet we could figure out which house it is flying overhead," explained Mandy easily.

...

Several hours later, around dusk, the group was gathered in Kevin's home.

"Are we ready to change form?" asked Mandy, peering through a window. Eve and Mel nodded, while Elle just looked at Mandy blankly.

"Let's go then," Mandy said. After she said this, everyone began changing. Eve formed into a crow, Elle into a cardinal, and Mel into a dove. After this, they took off from the roof.

...

It was now about fifteen minutes from taking off. It was quiet. The silence was suddenly broken as each Dæmon was bombarded with screeching, reptilian-looking vultures, followed by a burst of flames.

Flames burst out of nowhere during the attack, and each Dæmon quickly looked around them to see what happened.

To their dismay, one of them was gone. Mel counted a dove being himself, a hawk, a cardinal, but no crow.

"EVE!" Mel screamed.

"Cloud demons!" shouted Mandy, while fighting off the strange screeching vulture-like creatures. "We're too high above ground!" The demons were white, with some feathers. They had unfeathered, leathery wings, and curved beaks. Their head to their neck was leathery, also. Their skin was a pale red.

Mandy was being hit the hardest, while Mel and Elle were able to manage the avian creatures striking them. Soon, the two were able to assist her. None of them were dying, and they were horribly outnumbered.

"CHANGE FORM!" boomed Mandy. Elle and Mel obediently changed quickly into large birds of prey, Mel into a large eagle, and Elle into a large heron. Once this change occured, the three managed to kill the flock of demons attacking them, and continued flight, lowering their altitude.

"Poor Eve!" cried Elle. "Poor Adam! Wait, ha, that's strange." Mandy glared at her.

"I wish we could have seen that coming!" Mel shouted in grief.

"We still need to get to the Alethiometer," Mandy intstructed. "We should be there in about half of an hour if we aren't interrupted by more cloud demons. That shouldn't happen if we stay low enough."

"Will witches be patrolling the air, too?" asked Mel.

"Maybe. If they are, then we need to be extremely careful. If we get caught in a fight with a witch, we'll all have the same fate as Eve," explained Mandy grimly.

The flight continued uninterrupted until Mandy noticed a dark shape in the distance. She determined that it was a witch.

"Guys, move upward!" commanded Mandy. "There's a witch ahead!"

"What about the cloud demons?" asked Elle frantically.

"We can take them, but not a witch," Mandy shouted, and curved upward. Soon, the three pierced a thick layer of clouds, and emerged into a beautiful scene.

"About ten minutes left," said Mandy calmly. As she said this, the witch emerged about four yards ahead of them, and was staring directly at Mandy.

"STOP!" shouted the witch. "LAND THIS INSTANT!"

"We're looking for someone," said Mandy dumbly.

"THIS IS A WITCH-RULED ZONE, I DEMAND YOU LAND NOW!" instructed the witch. Her nostrils were flared.

"Witches don't live here! Why are you really here?" Mandy replied, already breaking her cover. Instead of waiting for the witch to bark a command back, Mandy made a gesture to the others, and swiftly plunged through the clouds.

The Dæmons were zooming, faster than normal. Mount Clemens soon came into view, and there was no sign of the patrol witch.

"Look for a large mansion," instructed Mandy. The three scanned the surface of the planet. So this was a "bird's eye view."

"I think I see it!" shouted Mel, looking at a large home with a roof having several gabled parts.

"Yes, I think you're right," said Mandy, beginning to curve towards the ground. Elle and Mel followed her example, positioning their bodies to point towards the ground. Suddenly, Mel was struck by a white swan Dæmon with piercing green eyes.

"I heard your plan, mortals!" it shouted, zooming to the ground faster. None of the three Dæmons were able to do this, so they flapped their wings in attempt to reach ground faster.

The swan hit the ground, and five seconds later, so did Mandy, Elle, and Mel. The swan was already waddling to the mansion. Elle and Mel changed into fast animals, Elle a rabbit, and Mel a cheetah. Mandy took off again to keep up with the two as they burst through a window on the first floor.

The three were unharmed by the shattered glass, surprisingly. Smartly, Mel formed into a chimpanzee and pushed an armoire in front of the broken window. He then returned to his cheetah form.

"Nice try!" the swan taunted as the wardrobe exploded into pieces of wood, followed by the swan confronting them. "I'm getting the Alethiometer!"

"You don't even know where it is!" yelled Elle, as the three split up, searching for the secret room, and confusing the swan on whom to follow. He chose Elle.

...

Mel zoomed through different hallways, but couldn't find any secret room. Eventually, he caught up with Elle, whom was having a similar outcome. The swan was no longer following her.

...

Mandy flew down different hallways, observing lifeless humans. Then, she remembered something. Dæmons should be on guard! She entered a study. At a blank wall, three dogs stood vigilant: a poodle, a beagle, and a labrador.

"Can I help you?" asked the poodle suspiciously.

"I'm looking for something, and I need to get past you," confessed Mandy, barreling the poodle and beagle over as she zoomed straight through the wall as if it was thin air.

In this small room was a bookcase full of golden devices, one being the Alethiometer, though Mandy didn't know which one it was.

"You can't touch those!" screamed the poodle. She looked vicious.

The poodle, followed by the other dogs, jumped on Mandy. Mandy struggled to shrug them off, but couldn't. To make matters worse, the swan entered the room and zoomed to the shelf.

"No!" muttered Mandy as she tried to fight the dog guards off. The swan scanned the shelf for a second or two, and then grabbed a compass-like device with his beak.

"Ha! Byebye now!" the swan taunted, walking away.

"DON'T LET HIM GET AWAY!" screamed Mandy. The dogs stopped attacking, and looked at the doorway of the secret room.

"Oh..." mumbled the poodle, leaving the room lazily.

Mel and Elle entered the room as the poodle Dæmon left.

"The swan got the Alethiometer," said Mandy grimly.

"What do we do now?" asked Elle.

"We use the Locometer to find him," replied Mandy surely. She scanned the shelf, and a frown spread across her beak.

"It isn't here," she muttered. "We can lose all hope of getting our humans back." Mel whimpered, and Elle frowned.

"Is there another Seer Device we can use?" Elle suggested.

"I don't see how-what's this?" Mandy said. She examined what looked like a small golden pyramid, with a closed Horus eye on one side.

"Elle, change form into something with thumbs," instructed Mandy. Elle changed into a small brown monkey, and grabbed the device. It was covered in Hieroglyphics, and the eye was surrounded by purple gems. When she grabbed it, the pyramid glowed for a second, and returned to its illuminescent state.

"I know what this is! It's the Annuntiometer!" shouted Mandy. "It tells you when something extremely bad or good has happened in your life!"

"So how does this help us?" asked Mel.

"It will tell us when he hides it, and where," replied Mandy quickly.

"Can we ask it anything?" queried Elle.

"Maybe, try. It's attached to you now, so no one else can make use of it until you die," explained Mandy. Elle rolled her eyes, and thought of a question. The Annuntiometer's eye opened. The eye was made of the same purple gem, and glowed so bright that Elle had to turn away.

"What did you ask it?" questioned Mandy.

"I asked it what the swan was doing, and it told me he was in mid-air, flying north," explained Elle. "I think you can only ask what someone is doing. Let me try again." Elle thought of a different question, and the Annuntiometer remained inert.

"I asked it why the sky is blue," said Elle.

"Okay, well the swan's flying north. D'you think we can catch 'im?" asked Mel curiously.

"Maybe, but it'd be safer if we waited for him to land," said Elle.

Elle changed into a pelican, and put the Annuntiometer in her large beak.

"Elle, you'd better hold on to that," warned Mandy. Elle nodded with her seemingly large head.

"How do we know when 'e lands?" asked Mel.

"The Annuntiometer should tell us when he does so," explained Mandy surely. "Now, we wait. Perhaps we should find a resting place."

"Dæmons are the only things here. Maybe we could sneak into a hotel?" proposed Mel. "Does Mount Clemens have any hotels?"

"Maybe. Let's fly over and see," stated Elle.

...

The group patrolled the skies, weary of guard witches. Suddenly, Mel gasped.

"Oh my! The witches are going to kill all of the humans while they're down! How are they going to do that? Who's to say we'll be alive in five minutes?" he breathed nervously.

"I think we'll know when such a thing happens, Mellonomy," replied Mandy, patronizingly.

The group simply landed atop a tall building, and watched over the city. As the day's sun began to set, the sky was lit up once again through Elle's nostrils, eyes, and partially opened beak. The Annuntiometer had opened!

"Get it out Elle!" shouted Mel. Elle spat it on the concrete floor of the flat roof, and formed into a small monkey again. She grabbed, and appeared to be listening intently. Finally, after what seemed like several minutes, her eyes opened, and she spoke.

"The swan landed. Sadly, he's with a witch. He's in Traverse City, way up north. We're going to have to catch up with him before he takes flight again," Elle explained.

"What about the witch? We can't possibly fight her!" Mel shrieked.

"It's worth it. We'll have to catch the swan off guard and swipe the Alethiometer quickly, then make our way back to Lake Orion," Mandy mused aloud.

"We'd better hurry! Let's go! He's on a beach along Lake Michigan right now!" shouted Elle, forming back into a pelican and slipping the Annuntiometer in her beak as the amethyst-like eye closed. The other two prepared for flight with her, and the group took off in unison.

...

With little trouble, the group came near to Traverse City. This ended with a screech as another flock of cloud demons hurled themselves at the Dæmons. Mel and Mandy could fight efficiently, but Elle was having trouble due to her weak form and the Seer Device in her beak. While she tried fighting off the demonic birds, the Annuntiometer was knocked from her beak.

"The Annuntiometer!" screamed Elle. "GET IT!" Mandy and Mel scrambled through the air, but couldn't catch it. They could only watch the precious pyramid fall through an endless sky.