The Machine takes the damage....

It seemed that while school was out for the summer and all dueling tournaments had come

to a slow stop, the youth of Domino city needed something to entertain themselves until they found something more

worth while. Many of them went out of town to visit family, friends, or to go on vacation over seas-while the rest

were stuck doing minor chores and sitting around all day, bored. That is until one fateful day, when the daily routine

of several fine duelists would be changed forever....

Yugi mutou was sprawled on his bed room floor, looking at all his cards in his deck, he wasn't sure of what he

wanted to keep in and what to take out. A new tournament was coming up at the end of the month and he wanted to

make sure that he was prepared to face whatever new challanges awaited him. He was also slightly worried as Malik

Ishtar had moved to Domino city, living in a large apartment with his family. Also Seto Kaiba had been around more

making threats to finally beat Yugi in a duel, but none of this seemed to really bother Yugi, as much as the fact that he

was alone this summer. Tea had moved to the America's to go to some major dance school, Tristan had gone out of

town to work in the country, and Joey was staying with his mother and sister for the time being, Leaving Yugi without

his usual friends. He tried not to think of what his friends were doing while he was stuck helping his grandfather run

the shop, he knew that looking at cards and talking to his only other friend, Yami would keep his mind off of things

for a while.

'Yugi! Phone's for you!'

shouted Yugi's grandfather from down the hall, surprised that someone would phone him so early in the morning, Yugi

slowly stood to his feet. he knew it was too early for his friends to call, it was all long distance anyways.

'wonder who could be calling me. I hope my friends are alright.'

Yugi worried as he made his way down the hall towards the small kitchen where the phone was located,

'Don't worry about it, Your friends are fine.'

came the voice of Yami, who mentally projected himself to walk beside Yugi, giving him a reassuring smile.

'I hope your right.'.

was all Yugi could say as he picked up the receiver and expected the worst.

'h...hello?'

'Yugi!? Is this Yugi Mutou?'

came the voice, it sounded strange and crackled like the person was far away from the phone.

'this is he...may I ask who this is?'

there was a slight pause, before he heard a loud noise sounding alot like large bugs, then the mysterious caller returned

to the phone.

'You don't reconize my voice?'

'er...sorry, no I don't...'

replied yugi. the person began to laugh almost hysterically on the other end, Yugi furrowed his eyebrows and glanced at

Yami who was giving him a puzzled look in return. the laughing sounded familiar, but the connection was so bad that it

was hard to place.

'Meet me at the arcade in twenty minutes!'

'huh?'

'just meet me there, and hopefully once you'll see me, you'll remember. bye.'

'no....wait...'

but it was too late, the stranger had hung up before yugi could finish his sentence.

'are you going to meet them?'

Yami asked, sounding worried now, watching as Yugi hung up the phone and began to walk back to his room.

'Grandpa! I'm going out for a while!'

'be home for dinner, yugi!'

Yami shook his head, feeling that this was going to be a big mistake and he knew that there was no way to talk yugi out of it

now...

Yugi looked up at the large pink and purple sign of the arcade, before slipping in and being blasted by loud music

and whistles of games. he had brought his deck as usual, just in case he needed it and had tried to make Yami lighten up,

which worked to no avail. He looked around,the arcade wasn't all that crowded, just a few little kids and some older ones

by a large machine in the back corner.

'There he is! YUGI!'

yugi spun around at the sound of the voice behind him, he knew he must have looked foolish as he watched Malik Ishtar

come jogging up to him holding a bag of tokens in one hand.

'your late.'

'malik? you called me here?'

'yep. I figured you were the only person who would come.'

Yugi watched Malik slowly, he wasn't sure how malik had gotten his phone number and he was sure he didn't want to know.

Malik suddenly grabbed Yugi by the wrist and began to drag him towards the corner where the machine blared music.

'what's going on.?'

Yugi asked, not taking any note of the others around him.

'I want you to play this game with me.'

'game?'

'oh, don't worry. it's not one of those games....'

Malik said, making it obvious that he was refurring to a shadow game, slowly yugi nodded and looked up at the machine they

were now standing in front of. he reconized it as one similar to the machine tea always played, what was it called, a 'Dance,

Dance, Revolution game?' Yugi then turned his attention back to a grinning malik, he wondered if malik expected Yugi to

play on that machine. it was dancing and yugi, being the clutz that he was, had never been on one and didn't know how to

follow along.

'You want me to go up there? with you?'

he asked almost frightened.

'well, we could just stand here all day.'

came Malik's reply, not sounding too thrilled to hear that Yugi was getting nervous.

'Don't worry about it, it's fun!'

Yugi couldn't help but worry, he looked around at the small crowd that had gathered, he thought he saw a tall boy he reconized,

but was pulled away by Malik again.

'Oh good, he did come.!'

Malik said laughingly as he dragged yugi over to one side.

'who?'

almost as soon as yugi had asked, his question had been answered, there stood Ryou Bakura looking dazed and confused by

all the lights and noises.

'now that we're all here...'

Malik sounded like he was about to make a world declaration, Yugi and Ryou stared at each other, both thinking the same thing.

'c'mon. we're up!'

Malik pulled Yugi onto the platform and plopped in six tokens, three for each person. Ryou slunk against a wall to watch as the

two stood staring at the screen.

'ready? I'm on light. I guess you'll be beginner then? aw, I lose my background.'

malik pouted as he stepped foreward to choose a song, Yugi just stared at malik as he looked like he had been playing this game

longer then he had.

'Ah, this one should do it.'

Malik punched the button and the song ' Butterfly' began to play, Yugi was still silent, watching the screen and trying his best to

follow the arrows.

5 minutes later Yugi and Malik jumped off, yugi looking exhausted and Malik grinning widely and wanting to go on again.

'your turn!'

'hrm...wha....'

Malik pulled Ryou onto the plat form and did the same thing he did for yugi, but this time he chose 'drop the bomb' for the

opening song. Ryou looked even more puzzled and scrambled to hit the buttons at the right time, Yugi tried not to laugh for

he knew he had looked just the same only moments before. Suddenly there was a laughter that yugi reconized coming from

behind him, he turned and if seeing Malik shocked him, then Seeing Seto Kaiba in the arcade would have killed him.

'Seto? what are you doing here?'

Yugi asked, forgetting all about the game and Ryou's cries as he tried not to fall off of the platform while dancing to 'Crash'.

'mer...None of your business.'

glared Seto as he looked down at Yugi, standing behind seto was his little brother Mokuba Kaiba, who looked like he had just

seen the best toy ever.

'Big brother, Big brother! I want to try that game! it looks fun!'

'No, Mokuba...it's for the freaks, not for you.'

Mokuba looked crushed, he didn't say anything as Seto sneered while Ryou stood watching the screen. What no one had noticed,

that between songs Ryou had changed into his darker half, who now growled as malik chose the last song.

'Stupid weak host...'

Bakura growled, while Malik jumped on the spot, he then pushed Bakura who glared at him in return.

'it's captain Jack, dance!'

Demanded Malik as he followed the steps flawlessly. Bakura, not wanting to give himself away yet, decided to half heartedly follow

along. it wasn't soon after that he was stomping on the arrow buttons grinning madly, Yugi was watching him and was slowly

backing away from the machine.

'I could put souls into these and smash them! mwa ha!'

Bakura thought as he stomped his feet on the last two buttons, however, he was exhausted from jumping around and kinda

tumbled off of the machine. Malik, turning pink in the face spun around on the spot, the arcade was empty now, except for

the five that were clustered around the DDR machine. Spotting Seto, Malik got a dark grin on his face, Seto knew exactly

what Malik was thinking, and turned serious.

'there is no way in hell you will see me playing 'that' game.!'

Seto declared.

'oh, really?'

Malik replied with a sly smile, only yugi and Bakura knew what was coming and both groaned at the same time as Malik pulled

something from under his shirt, that had been tucked into his belt.....

'ooooo eeee oooo aaaa aaaa,bing bang walla walla bing bang....'

Yugi was rolling on the floor in tears as he watched Malik hop around his side of the platform, Bakura watched in a strange

trance, on the verge of insanity no doubt. It was not Malik singing loudly along with 'witch doctor' that was causing the two

to act like this, it was the fact that to the left of Malik danced Seto Kaiba, looking like he was having the time of his life.

'Are you having fun yet, Kaiba?'

Malik asked, glancing at Seto as he spun around.

'Yes...'

came Seto's almost mechanically response.

'good.then let's dance to 'cartoon hero's.'

'okay...'

Mokuba watched worried about his brother, but had a slight grin on his face. he turned to yugi, then to bakura.

'shouldn't one of you, help my brother?'

'and miss this? hell no.'

came Bakura's reply, turning only away from the two when he noticed yugi had a video camera in his hands and was recording

malik and Seto dancing.

'black mail?'

Bakura asked.

'no...... proof.'

was all yugi had to say.

The next morning Seto sat on his leather couch typing on his lap top, however he was unable to focuse on what he was

doing, he didn't know why but his legs and feet were soar and he had the strangest songs running through his head. he

growled and slammed his fist into his desk, why couldn't he remember what he had done last night. he had taken Mokuba to

the arcade and seen Yugi there along with Bakura and Malik, they were....Seto's eyes went wide and he sat back in his chair....

'and the witch doctor told me....ooooo eeee oooo aaaaaa aaaaa, bing, bang walla walla bing bang....'

The end.