DUCT TAPE VIII: Do We HAVE To???
by Ebonhawk

Slipping through the second story window had been nothing to him. Making it past the huge, white tiger without it catching him had been a real chore, though. Now, he stood inside the correct room with a gloating smirk. The boy was theirs.

~woobly, woobly, woobly - this is a flashback explaining how he got to Yuli's room.~

Cale had climbed up to the bathroom window, which was cracked slightly open and wandered through the halls to find the child's room. Behind the first door, he'd found Wildfire sprawled spread-eagle, flat on his back, snoring away the night.

He'd closed that door with a quick, wondering shake of his head, and moved on to the next. There he'd come across Torrent snuggled warmly under the covers with a plush, stuffed, purple dolphin hugged tightly against his chest. With a quiet, "Aaaaww, how cute," he'd shut that door and continued on.

Behind the third door, which he could barely open because of the thick layer of assorted crap over the floor, he came across the rumbling lump that was Hardrock. With a wince of repulsion, he'd closed that door much faster than he'd opened it.

When opening the fourth, the large white tiger that belonged to Wildfire came padding down the hall. Cale had jumped into the room and closed the door behind him with a soft click, releasing the breath he'd held in his haste to get out of the animal's way.

Glancing around that room, he'd found it to be elegantly yet sparsely decorated. And, unlike Hardrock's cave, it was incredibly spotless. This was the room of a teenage boy?

Gazing down on the sleeping occupant of the bed, he'd quickly understood. It was Halo's room.

He'd then assured himself that the tiger had moved on and started down the hall again. Behind the next door, he'd found Strata. The poor boy had been twisted horribly in the sheets and he'd kicked off the heavy quilt sometime earlier in the night. His pajama top was rucked up to his neck and the bottoms slipped down to reveal a good deal of white skin and underwear. Feeling unusually parental, Cale had rolled his eyes good-naturedly and moved to the bed.

He'd untangled the sheets and pulled the pajamas back to rights, repositioned the pillow, then snugged the quilt around the boy's soundly slumbering body. With a nod, Cale had then ruffled Strata's blue hair affectionately and left the room to continue his search.

Opening the next door, he'd found the young woman that helped the Ronins. Red-faced and embarrassed at the flash of white lace over lots of bare skin he'd received, Cale had quickly closed the door and gulped down several deep draughts of air. He'd paused and considered opening the door for another peek but decided against it. He was here for a reason - and being a Peeping Tom wasn't it. (He could come back for that later.)

He'd pulled open the last door in the hall and finally stood over the bed of the sleeping, young boy called Yuli.

~woobly, woobly, woobly - the flashback is now over.~

Grinning, he reached into that magical space behind his back that all people should have and pulled out of roll of duct tape. Taking great care to be quiet, Cale took a lot longer than he really should have wrapping the boy and by the time he was ready to leave with his grey-covered bundle, the time the sun was starting to climb over the horizon.

"Did you wake Yuli up, Ryo?" Mia asked the teen that sat at the kitchen table.

"I knocked but didn't get an answer. He's being harder to wake up this morning than Rowen usually is," Ryo replied, ignoring the tongue a sleepy-eyed Strata stuck out at him.

"And you didn't open the door to check on him?" the young woman questioned with a frown.

"Why would I do that?" Ryo asked in return.

"Never mind. I'll be right back," she said in exasperation. Mia walked out of the kitchen, waving for Cye to continue making breakfast (waffles, what else?).

"Yuli?" Mia called into the dark room. She fumbled over the wall for the light switch. Click! Light filled the room, clearly revealing an empty bed. Yuli wasn't in bed? Hmm.

She wandered over to the upstairs bathroom and knocked. "Yuli? Are you in there?" There was no answer. "YULI?!?"

Heading back to the small boy's room, she looked around, paying close attention to everything. What was that?

A small, folded bit of parchment lay on top of the mussed bed.

She picked it up and stared at the writing after unfolding it.

"We have the boy. If you want him back, please contact us at 1-800-GOT-YULI...? Love, Cale," she murmured aloud. Then, at the top of her lungs, "GUYS!!!"

Kento lifted his head from his plate, somewhat puzzled. "Did you hear that?" he asked Ryo, who sat across the table from him.

"Hear what?"

"It sounded like Mia," Kento replied.

"What sounded like Mia?" Ryo asked.

"GUYS, GET UP HERE NOW!!!"

"That."

"Oh," Ryo said, finally understanding what Kento was on about. "Yeah, that did sound like Mia."

"I WILL BEAT YOU ALL LIKE I DID RYO THAT ONCE IF YOU DON'T GET YOUR BUTTS UP HERE *NOW*!!!"

The harsh sound of five teenage boys scraping their chairs across linoleum was defeated only by the sound of five teenage boys pounding their way up the stairs.

Sage stopped short when Mia practically shoved a folded bit of parchment up his nose.

"Read this!" she commanded.

Deftly removing the parchment from his nostril, Sage surveyed the chicken-scratch scrawled across it, his expression growing thoughtful. He then glared at Rowen, who was trying his hardest to read it over his shoulder. Just to be rude, he handed the note over to Ryo - who read it, then passed it on to Kento. Running his gaze over the note quickly, Kento then passed it to Cye - who also read it and then handed it back to Mia.

"Hey!" Rowen cried out in irritation. "I wanna read it, too!"

Mia shoved the note into a back pocket of her jeans.

Pouting, Rowen started back for the stairs. "If that's the way you're all gonna be, I'm not gonna help!"

"God, you're such a baby sometimes. Here, read it," Mia said, throwing the note at him.

Making a face at her, Rowen glanced at the note. "How can anyone read this? It's worse than a doctor's writing!"

"Have you ever looked real close at your own?" Mia said as she snagged the piece of parchment from him with a huff of annoyance and tromped on downstairs, clearly expecting the boys to follow her.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Rowen cried as the others snickered their way after Mia.

"Yes! They called! We meet at high noon on the playground, by the big slide and the swings!" Sekhmet cheered as he hung up the phone. He turned to grin at his companions as they sat comfortably around the kitchen table. "Let's go early. I wanna see if I can land a backflip off one of those swings."

"Didn't you end up in the hospital the last time you tried that?" Dais asked with an expression of disbelief. He reached over and pushed at their prize duct tape-bundle of little boy that hung from the overhead lighting fixture. Muffled squeals of terror filled the room as Yuli spun in tight circles high above the floor.

"Well...yeah," Sekhmet reluctantly agreed. "But I still wanna try it again."

"It's your life, I guess," Anubis said, glancing at the clock. "We've only got a couple of hours. I suggest we start getting ready."

"I'm not going," Kayura said, in the middle of cleaning up her breakfast mess, "I've got company coming over."

"Yeah," Cale laughed, "and I bet I know who it is, too!"

"We're just friends! Honestly, a person would think you're nothing but a twelve-year-old, Cale."

To prove her point, Cale promptly executed a perfect raspberry - big, sloppy, wet, and loud. A veritable Olympic gold medal winner.

"So attractive," Kayura muttered, sticking a pan in the sink to soak. She made herself a mental note when she glanced over at the smoking, charred remains of the toaster: Never let Sekhmet bet Dais that he can't make flaming marshmallows hit the ceiling using only an electrical kitchen appliance as a catapult after downing way too much sake. It had been a *bad* night while they were waiting for Cale to return with the boy. She was sure the only reason they weren't feeling aftereffects was because they hadn't been to bed yet.

"Ain't I, though?" Cale grinned. "OW!"

Kayura tossed the pieces of the now shattered ceramic plate into the garbage and then shoved the rest of the stack into the dishwasher as the Warlord of Corruption...or Darkness - don't worry, they get confused, too...sat rubbing at the rising goose egg on the back of his head.

Commendably, the other Warlords refrained from laughing in Cale's face. No, instead of that, they excused themselves, ran out of the kitchen, then cackled themselves silly in the hall.

"Idiots," Cale muttered as they slowly filtered back in, Sekhmet obviously in pain from his exertion. "Glad you enjoyed the show."

At this, Dais sputtered and barely got control of himself before he lost it all over again.

"Attention, K-mart shoppers. We currently have a blue-light special on aisle-...Uh, oops..." Talpa's disembodied voice rang through the air. "*cough, cough* Ahem. Anubis," he recovered, "Have you received word from the Ronin brats?"

"K-mart shoppers?" Anubis mouthed to Dais, who shrugged in return, just as uninformed. Then, speaking to his master, "Yes, we have. Sekh just took their call a few minutes ago. We were gettin' our stuff together before taking off."

"Good, good. See that you bring those armors back," Talpa said, "Oh, and could you pick me up a box of doughnuts on your way back? I want the cream-filled kind and some maple bars."

"Yes, Master." Anubis waited a few moments, to be sure that Talpa wasn't listening, then, "Geez, too lazy to get off his butt and get his own doughnuts."

Cale was seeing double. It seemed Kayura had been practicing her backhand and had whacked him a good one with that plate. Before him stood *ten* Ronins and *two* Mias...not that he had anything against *two* Mias. Beside him, Sekhmet was having trouble standing up straight - he'd landed flat on his back after his leap off the swing. He watched as both Wildfires stepped forward.

"We're here," Ryo said needlessly.

"Well, duh!" Dais retorted. Then, he held up his tape wrapped bundle by the rope-like, braided length of grey sticky-strip. "We have the child!"

Gloating, Anubis told them, "If you want him, you must *take* him from us!"

They watched as the Ronins gathered quickly into a huddle, discussed the situation, then spread out again.

"Who says we want him back?" Strata sniffed.

"Yeah, *you* keep him!" Cye added, crossing his arms over the subarmor protectively covering his chest.

Unable to keep his own comment to himself, Ryo said with a smirk, "He's *your* problem now."

"Can we go get something to eat now, guys?" Kento moaned.

"Sure. Where do you want to go?" Sage replied, throwing a companionable arm over Hardrock's shoulders. Together, all the Ronins turned and began to walk away from the scene and the flabbergasted Warlords. When they came up to Mia - who was standing with hands on her hips and totally peeved - they all gulped audibly. The last time they'd seen that look... Ryo felt suddenly squeamish.

"Okay, okay! We'll save him... GEEZ!" Ryo mumbled.

As the teens swung back around to face off against their enemies, they were all knocked from their feet as the grey cocoon that was Yuli came flying at them.

"YES! Good shot, Dais, my man!" Anubis whooped, high-fiving his fellow Warlord.

Mia took a quick check of her friends and found them all out for the count. She glared up at the Warlords as they celebrated their apparent victory. Her eyes narrowed to angry slits and she rose to her feet. As far as she was concerned, it was a premature party.

She reached for her bag.

Cale swayed on his feet and, blinking, reported to the others, "I'm feelin' kinda dizzy..." then promptly collapsed in an unconscious heap.

"Ooch. Glad Kay didn't hit me," Dais commented with a grimace.

"She would if she heard you call her that," Anubis grinned.

Sekhmet, hobbling over to the downed Warlord, nudged Cale with an armor toe. "I don't think he's getting up anytime in the near future."

"Neither will you," Mia growled from behind him. The Warlord of Venom tumbled to the ground as Mia's purse slammed into his already out of joint back.

Blinking up at her, Sekhmet was wowwed. "I think you fixed me. Hold on a minute." He climbed to his feet and stood up tall and straight. "You *did*! Thank you!" Grabbing her up in a quick hug, Sekhmet was taken totally by surprise when the woman conked him on top of the head with the purse she'd dropped him with before.

Dais and Anubis watched as their companion's eyes rolled back in his head and he slumped down into the grass and dirt.

"What do you think she's *got* in that thing?" Dais asked Anubis with a wondering frown.

"Wanna find out?!" Mia cried, suddenly flying at them, her long brown locks fluttering behind her.

Anubis ducked as the bag came swinging in at him. This allowed it to keep going and land a heavy blow against Dais, who was thrown from his feet to lay in a dazed heap against one support of the nearest swingset.

"So...do you wanna find out what's in my purse?" Mia asked Anubis sweetly with a flutter of lashes and a coy smile.

Clearing his throat and licking at his suddenly dry lips, Anubis thought about the situation. Cale hadn't been in the game from the start, Sekhmet was out thanks to Mia, as was Dais. "Ahem...nah, not really. I think I'll just get the guys," he gestured at the other Warlords, "and head on back."

"Don' fuhg't da doughnuts..." Dais muttered as he watched the clouds drift through the blue sky.

"Uh, yeah...we, uh, gotta go get Master Talpa some doughnuts...but we'll be back! You hear me?! We *will* be back!" Anubis then wandered over to try and rouse Cale and Sekhmet as Dais pushed slowly to his feet.

"Good! We'll be waiting!" Mia shot back. She spun on her heels and tromped back over to her own 'guys' and commanded, "Get up! We're goin' home." When they didn't move fast enough, her foot shot out and connected with Ryo's side, then Kento's rear. She pulled Sage to his feet by a good grip on his hair and Cye by his ear.

Pausing when she came to Rowen, Mia turned back to Kento and said, "Get Yuli." She looked back on Rowen. He wasn't showing even the least sign of reviving. Mia frowned. "You can just walk back."

Holding her purse at the ready, she herded the others toward the waiting vehicle. Mia swung back around with an angry glare to catch the Warlords reaching down to heft up Rowen onto their shoulders.

Her eyes narrowed again and, this time, seemed to glow with her rage. "Put. Him. Down. Now."

Anubis smirked back at her,"Make us, girly."

"Sage?"

"Yeah, Mia?"

"Where is it?"

With a look of relief that it *wasn't* him about to face her wrath, Sage dug through the Mia's jeep and pulled out the first roll.

Mia easily caught it as it flew toward her and challenged, "Who's brave enough?"

The Warlords dropped Strata (literally) to the ground and Sekhmet stepped forward. "I'll take you down in no time, wo-"

Next thing he knew, he was laying on his back, wrapped in a roll's worth of duct tape.

"Next!" Mia cried out. Sage tossed her the second roll.

Dais took it this time and he was just as quickly waylaid.

"Next!" The third roll was in her hand.

Cale glanced at Anubis once, twice, thrice, and a fourth time. "Hey, 'Nubis?"

"Yeah?"

"Parchment, stone, dagger?"

Anubis rolled his eyes and shoved Cale out to meet his fate. It was over shortly.

"You wanna try *your* luck?" Mia scowled at the final Warlord.

"Uh...nah. I gotta go get those doughnuts." Anubis disappeared so quickly, Mia was left blinking in surprise.

"I-I think w-we should take Rowen with us. It m-may not be a safe thing to leave him here," Ryo stuttered when Mia turned a dark glare on him.

"Fine. You grab him and hurry it up. I'm not waiting."

They left the park, Yuli in hand, leaving the three taped Warlords to the open elements as the suddenly appeared storm clouds let loose a torrential rain.

END