Soul of the Dragon

Chapter 63: Falling Walls

"Hey, I think I saw something kinda spiky," Leo said.

"You said the same thing five minutes ago, Leo!" Luna cried, exasperated. "It doesn't make any of us feel any better!"

"You two quiet down," Trudge scolded them. "Fighting isn't helping."

"Well, then what are we supposed to do? We can't wait down here forever and...and..." Leo started tearing up. "Wh-wh-what if we n-n-never see them again?"

"We will. They're coming out. They sure as hell have to cuz I plan to smack Yusei upside the head for not doing his goddamn job," Fish snarled. Her voice changed to slightly less harsh. "And I wanna make sure my friend is okay..."

Crow nearly dragged Fish off the recently made cliff he was so excited. "Look!" he shouted, leaning out over the edge and pointing. "I see something!"

Fish followed the direction he was pointing in and felt a fluttering of excitement. This feeling was quickly dispersed. "Oh, it's just Yusei." Fish rolled her eyes and hung back, keeping Crow from falling into the lake of light himself.

Yusei rose out of the reactor's light slowly. His eyes were closed but he seemed otherwise unhurt. His body slowly drifted upwards and deposited itself at everyone's feet.

Nobody moved for a moment or two. Yusei's brow furrowed and his eyes fluttered open slowly. He mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like "Dad" and sat up.

He was allowed ten seconds to recuperate before Fish's sneaker hit home. Yusei went down on all fours, coughing and clutching at his injured stomach.

Fish took a deep breath to go on a tirade. Crow and Trudge quickly covered the twins' ears. "That was for being a stupid motherfucking piece of shit. Next time do your fuking job! I can't turn my back on you for even a few seconds!"

"I'll...remember...that...next...time..." Yusei wheezed. He coughed again and stood up gingerly. "Are we all here?"

"Um, well, no," Luna said. "Lise is still down there."

"What? But, how? She fell in with me, right?"

"Why you-"

"Don't!" Yusei quickly put his hands up to defend himself from another attack from Fish.

Crow held her back. All three of them started arguing at the same time. Their voices were so loud they couldn't hear much else.

They didn't even notice when Lise stumbled onto the cliff edge. She gripped the railing and shook the fuzziness out of her head. "Uh..." she blinked, unsure of what to do. Leo practically tackled her in a warm hug. She returned it with a minute smile and opened up her arm for Luna to sneak in with them. "So um, what did I miss?" Lise asked quietly, pointing at her arguing friends.

"Oh, Yusei came back, Fish got mad, and... now they're fighting," Luna explained. "Actually, Fish is doing most of the fighting." Leo counted off Luna's points on his fingers and nodded his assurance that his sister had covered everything.

"Kay," Lise turned to the arguers and raised her voice. "Hey!"

"What?" Fish, Crow and Yusei all answered at the same time.

"Hi, what's going on?" Lise waved dramatically.

"Lise..." Yusei said quietly. He started to move towards her.

Fish shoved him by the face out of the way. "My pseudo baby!" Fish yelled, squeezing Lise into a very tight hug. "I'm so glad you're okay!"

"Me too, but uh, Fish, I can't breathe. So could you...?"