Tristan Taylor had done some stupid things in his short time on the planet earth. He was a delinquent for many of his early school years. He had been in a gang, stolen from countless classmates and random people on the streets, bullied one of his future best friends and King of Games and nearly turned him into a wreck of a person, and stupidly bought that 'Hard on Paradise' video for Joey using his parent's credit card. But this? Granted if you took it in retrospect, his current situation was around the 6th or so stupidest thing he got himself into, but it sucked all the same!
The cause of his predicament was simple: Battle City was beginning shortly, and given that Joey's sister was blind, he decided to be a good friend and take a laptop to her so she could hear her big bro Duel, a kind and honest gesture totally wasn't a way to impress her so she'd be his girlfriend. There were a..few problems with this. The first thing was that he forgot to check the weather, so he didn't realize it was going to be 110 degrees today. Secondly, said motorcycle didn't have a way to cool down to prevent overheating since he got it for cheap, and number three, which factored with problem two, was that he wore a form fitting jumpsuit to show off the abs which in retrospect he realized he didn't have. So here he was, on a superhot motorcycle on a superhot highway surrounded by superhot cars that was making this heat even worse than it should. Adding to that was problem that hindsight decided to sucker punch him with: In his romantic fantasies, he imagined telling Serenity the play by play for every duel her big brother was in, and she'd fall in love with his awesome reporting skills and get married.
The problem with that was obvious: He couldn't be there all the time. He would have to go home after visiting hours and KaibaCorp's streaming guidelines stated that depending on the location of recorded Duels, audio may or may not be available. There was a service for the disabled that would nararrate the Duel if you were deaf or print out in Braille what would happen after the Duel if you were blind, but Tristan was thinking with his sword, Tristan Jr. he called it, and there was a slight chance he may have told Joey he did pay for it while he was fantasizing about his sister. So it was thanks to a combination of poor forward thinking, cheapness, and hornines that Tristain Taylor found himself in a hell of his own making, which was going to get worse when the Wheelers found out about his little unintentional lie
"They all told me this was a bad idea..." He said to himself as he was slowly contemplating jumping into one of the hopefully air conditioned cars. "Mom, Dad, even Duke! I should've known this was stupid when Duke was telling me this was stupid!" And that guy did some stupid things to impress chicks! He looked down below , where his boys were suffering under the heat and cramped space. "This is all your fault!" He told Tristan Jr, "Every time I listen to you I get screwed over. I should've taken the train like they said." And if just to mock him, he heard the train in the distance...somehow...over all this noise. "Aughhhhh!" He slammed his fist on the handlebars.
"Ok, I need to calm down." He said to himself, "I've been through worse, I can't let this heat get to me...just take a deep breath and calm down," he did just that before exhaling, "It'll all work out in the end." He chuckled a bit before turning the engine off to prevent it from overheating. "Yeah, I'm sure I'll get there in no time.." He sighed dreamily as he saw himself and Serenity, driving her on his motorcycle on a road as the sun set over a lake. And then, once she was enamored by the beauty of the sunset, he'd move in for the kiss. "It's the perfect plan," He laughed, his face red with a goofy smile on his face as he forgot the many flaws in his 'plan' "And my first kiss, too!" He looked at the congested road, his fantasies lifting his spirits, "All I have to do is wait. Thing's will get moving sooner or later...
1 minute, 2 seconds later...
"Aughhhhhhhhhhhhh!"He took out his phone, which he saw only had 1 bar, and saw that he spent 30 minutes in the exact same spot, and the traffic hadn't moved an inch! He was sweatier than ever before, and his shirt felt like someone poured water down it. "This is all for Serenity, this is all for Serenity, this is all for Serenity..." He chanted to himself, "She's counting on me, and I do not want to get on her bad side." He shuddered a bit as he remembered the visit to Domino..and the ensuing one side argument that ensued between her and Joey when she learned about the 'activities' her brother and him got into during their early high school years. If there was one thing that Serenity had in common with her brother, it was that they had very explosive tempers, and very little patience for people that offend them. But while Joey was like a volcano, an easy to erupt volcano that once could trigger at anytime, and Tristan himself wasn't ashamed to admit he caused some of these eruptions for his amusement. Serenity however… she didn't have to say anything. She wasn't a violent girl, and didn't need to resort to violence to get her point across. She could just stare at you, and the full brunt of her disappointment would weigh down on you like the fear of life after high school graduation: all encompassing, always there even if you don't look at it, and it terrified you to the core. Either that or it It felt like being punched by Joey, only it'd be your conscience hurting instead of your face.
"Hmmmm..." He suddenly got an idea in his heat addled state. He saw that there weren't any cameras set up on this road, shockingly enough given how (rightfully) paranoid Kaiba was. "I can just put my motorcycle on the other lane and take the train" Before he could enact his plan however, he found that the lane that lead back to Domino was congested as well, even more so than the one he was on! "...Oh great!" How did he not notice that?!
He looked to the sky, resisting the urge to cry and curse as the cruel, unforgiving sun continued to torture him with it's presence. "You're just doing this to screw with me, aren't you? AREN'T YOU?!" Suddenly, a large plane flew past, giving him a brief reprise from the bright sun as it passed over the highway and headed in the direction of Domino. And just as soon as it passed, Tristan felt everything just went wrong in the world, an unnatural urge to run filling his thoughts, a sense of dread far worse than anything he ever felt in Duelist Kingdom. The temperature dropped rapidly as an unnatural chill had enveloped the highway, freezing him in place and leaving him unable to speak or even think. The constant barrage of noise had stopped as well, and now instead of the sweltering painful heat, road rage, and the occasional death threat, there was now silence, save for the motors left running, as every driver and passenger on the road experienced the same unnatural fear. What was going on? What could happen next? If anyone could actually comprehend thought this would be on their minds before promptly giving in to their base instincts and begin their descent into fear induced madness
And then, just as quickly as it appeared, it was gone, all in the span of a couple seconds. The fear, the feeling of something worse on the horizon, the cold, it was like it never happened, as the arguing, anger and heat came back on. Though it definitely didn't stop the panic that was occurring at the moment.
"What was that?!" Tristan looked around frantically to find the source of whatever happened to him. "Another Millennium Item?" Tristan shook his head at the thought. "No. whatever that was, it didn't feel like a Millennium Item..." He then remembered the last time a Millennium item was used on him back in Duelist Kingdom. board game. He remembered how it felt when the magic was used on him, and the things that happened to him during that Duel with the spirit of the ring left a mark on his soul. But this... whatever it was that just happened, it was far worse than anything the Ring ever did!
"I've gotta warn the guys!" He pulled out his phone from the left pocket in his jacket and opened the top. "Yes, 3 bars!" He dialed Yugi's number, and just as the dial tone started up, a change washed over him. What Tristan didn't realize was that the fear and paranoia didn't just hit the highway and was heading to Domino, it already hit Domino, and the whole world! Within minutes, people around the world began to lose themselves to this supernatural sensation. Fear and panic blanketed the planet, emergency crews around the country were getting calls of panic attacks and attempted suicides, it was complete and utter madness, and in such a short time! And then just like that, it was over. Like on the highway, everything around the world went back to normal, as if nothing had happened. The panic attacks, the attempted suicides, it was as though the world itself was reset before whatever happened enveloped it. The highway was once again hot enough to fry eggs on , and the sounds of honking horns and cursing filled the air again. But for Tristan and everyone else, it was as though the past couple minutes didn't even happen, and this time that applied to Tristan.
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"God damn this is taking too long!" What was he thinking, taking his motorcycle in this heat?! He looked down below , where his boys were suffering under the heat and cramped space. "This is all your fault!" He told Tristanaitor, "Every time I listen to you, I get screwed over! I should've taken the train like they said." And if just to mock him, he heard the train in the distance...somehow...over all this noise. "Aughhhhh!" He slammed his fist on the handlebars. "Ok, I need to calm down." He said to himself, "I've been through worse, I can't let this heat get to me..." Right now he had other things to worry about, like not suffering from heat stroke, the fact he should probably turn his bike off to prevent it from overheating, would he suffer jock itch from this heat, and most importantly of all(unfortunately enough for him)...Joey's sister. His beautiful sister whose older brother would probably kick Tristan's ass if he saw what he was thinking of her.
The girl was a diamond in the rough, a demure beauty that was kind and sweet, completely demure without a hint of malice, the perfect girlfriend, and far better than that old friend of Yugi's he had a crush on, the freak with the trains. "God damn did she have some big titties though.." He mumbled happily. "Like two big cannonballs oh GOD I'M STILL ON THIS DAMN HIGHWAY!" He let out a groan of frustration. "The guys are never gonna let me hear the end of this..." What he wouldn't give for Yugi's puzzle. Having a bunch of loyal monsters to give you free air conditioning and food, he bet him and the others were lounging in Durbe's sweet pad being waited on by their individual monsters. "I can't wait to grow up..maybe then I wouldn't do stupid things for girls."
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Meanwhile in Domino City, someone remembered the chaos that only happened mere seconds ago, someone far more evil than Marik ever could be.
"This is new.." Yami Bakura muttered in a high pitched, almost girly, watching the people go about their merry day through his apartment window despite them killing each other just a few seconds ago. "But a very welcome reprieve from my current predicament." The chaos that erupted outside just a while ago was like a welcome bottle of wine after a bad day. But sadly, like a bottle of wine, something he sorely needed when acting out this pathetic masquerade his host called a life, it didn't last long. And like a bottle of wine, he woke up feeling a lot of confusion and a lot of questions...mainly why he was in the body of a little Japanese girl! "This is so disgusting.." He remarked as he looked in the mirror, 'her' expression of disgust being reflected back at 'her'. Thank goodness he still had his Millennium Ring around his neck. The fear of being bound permanently to a weak body without the ring was a very real fear for him during the sealing ritual. "I'd rather take the Pharoah's dwarf companion as a host than this...thing!" Speaking of which she looked liked she was related to whatever genetic abomination that gave the Pharaoh his hair all those millennium ago. Her strange green hair and the impossible way it was styled, plus the multitudes shade of putrid green, this was something he had to fix right now! He grabbed a chunk of his new hair and applied a bit of magic to the multicolored monstrosity. Within seconds it shaped itself back to the hairstyle he was so fond of, along with it's white coloration. "Much better." He looked down at the skirt he was wearing...this pathetic pink mini skirt. He didn't know why many criminals today cared so much about getting some underage girls, not like he had a problem with it himself, but he did not want that type of attention ! The skirts at his now former host's high school weren't this short! Did this thing, and he refused to call it a skirt, even reach past his body's crotch area?! "I refuse to wear this." His Millennium Ring glowed again as he wandered around the room. He put his hair into something that didn't remind him of his hated enemy, it was now time to study his new host, and put on something that didn't make him look like an underage girl looking for an older man. Hopefully she was as detail oriented as his last one to make this easier.
1 hour later..
Bakura came out of his new house, practicing his best teenage girl impression and body motions. He wore his blue and white striped shirt under a light blue short sleeved button shirt that was opened, and black pants. The Millennium Ring was hidden on his neck, and around his arm was this large, skull shaped gauntlet that his Deck was housed in for some reason. He had learned many things in his scavenging of the room, from the name of his host, the life she lead, and the way the him of this strange reality moved and operated. "Everything is so different here.." He grumbled. "I have to find the Pharaoh." The chaos and anarchy from an hour ago was replaced with peace and calm as if the world reset itself. But if he remembered all of..whatever just happened, then the other Millennium Item wielders would remember, probably Kaiba with his connection to ancient Egypt, and most importantly, the Pharaoh. But he didn't have to find him right now. The best information would come from the people around here, books, friends of his hosts, etc. 'Now let's see how far I can get impersonating this Tori Meadows.'
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It said a lot about Kaiba that he didn't immediately grab this blue haired kid with a bobcut standing next to his bed and demand to know where his brother was or where exactly he was at the moment, because this was not his room! This wasn't a room this looked like what that Mutt Wheeler thought his room was like! There were Blue Eyes everywhere! Blue eyes painted on the walls, Blue Eyes shaped windows, and right now he was in a Blue Eyes shaped bed! ''This is like some parody skit!' Thank goodness no one found out about the jet, that was something from his early years he sorely regretted. And then there was the strange little boy in his room. He stared down at the boy, the child's blank yellow eyes staring up back at him as if waiting for an order. "May I help you?" Kaiba managed to ask without yelling, gritting his teeth angrily and searching for the taser or the other weapons he had underneath his pillow, or even a card to attack with. As the child of the late Gozaboro Kaiba, his life necessitated such things, and the threat usually weren't from rivals of his jackass of an adopted father. "You lost?" The child shook his head. "Do you work here?"
"What are you talking about brother?" Kaiba just stared blankly and coldly at the boy? "Of course I work here!"
Kaiba stared for a few more seconds as he found a card, and once again, he surpressed the rage and shock going through his body. 'This soft, plastic feel, the wrinkles, the tape ,t his is one of my first cards!' Before the advent of Holographic Projectors, Duel Monster cards were just that, regular cards, and it was only after Industrial Illusion's partnership with his company that nearly every card in the game was basically turned into what were basically computer chips with really pretty artwork. The fact he had one of his old cards, and he knew it was one of his first cards from the brand of tape he used to stitch it together when Mokuba ripped it, confirmed three things: He was kidnapped, he was robbed, and now Mokuba was probably missing again! 'I don't know what type of farce this is, but I have no choice but to play along.' Judging by the kid's reaction to his typical Kaiba attittude, he wouldn't have to act any differently than he did with other people or Yugi's group of dorks. The fact the boy didn't react when he called him kid and the lack of reaction to his dismissful tone indicated a lack of familial love, which meant thankfully meant he wouldn't have to hug or touch the little freak. "Alright kid, give me my plans for the day...uhh."
"My name's Hart big brother." Well that solved that problem. "And as for your day, you have to plan to deal with those Rare Hunters."
"I see." Kaiba got out of the annoyingly childish bed, ignoring the sleveless black, computer chip themed onesie he was put in. there were other things to worry about now. "So where's my Deck?" It was completely useless given where he was at the moment, but it was something comfortable and familiar.
….Or so he thought, for Hart didn't pull out his Desk, or even his Duel Disk, but the head of a Blue Eyes. Completely confused by why the child bought something like that out that he didn't even feel or see the weird little brat put the dragon head on his right arm, and he was looking straight at him! He stared at the creepy little midget for answers. "That is your Duel Disk." Kaiba looked down, Hart continuing to speak. "It's voice and DNA controlled, just like the design documents stated, and made differently for each Duelist in Battle City."
"Interesting." He attempted such a thing, but renting out most of Domino, including paying off many business and schools to let him use their grounds for Dueling as well as extra security to protect the Duelists made his wallet pretty tight. The blimp, along with installing the holographic generators and computers into Kaibacorp Island's tower, really put him over budget. "So how do I bring out my Deck?"
"You mean 'bring up' your Deck in this case." He pressed the eye on the Blue Eyes, and a large, holographic display of his entire Deck. Once again, Kaiba held his tongue as he inspected his deck. All his main players were there; his three Blue Eyes, the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon in what was the Fusion Deck, a rule he was going get Industrial Illusions to implement after Battle City, The new XYZ Machine monster line, Crush Card Virus, Obelisk, and some Magic Card called 'The Fang of Critias'. Six black cards were in the Fusion Deck, with yellow Stars in place of the red ones. 'XYZ huh?' He thought as he read the card descriptions. "Alright, turn this thing off and bring me up to speed on today's events." Hart nodded his head and began to explain the itinerary for today.
Within twelve minutes, Kaiba got the gist of what happened. 'So my brother's gone-' He clenched his teeth at the thought. 'Domino's been turned int one giant holographic Duel Field, ,my brother's gone, I haven't been kidnapped,Mokuba probably doesn't exist anymore, my company owns Industrial Illusions, and to top it all off, I have a stinking suspicion Yugi and his geek squad knows less than I do.' Kaiba took a deep breath, tucking the fact his brother was gone to the back of his mind. Thinking about Mokuba would only anger him, making him irrational, and that was the last thing he needed right now in this new situation. 'I need to learn about this new world, find out how to get my old world back, and failing that get Mokuba back, and get this blue haired freak out of my hair.' Kaiba was usually dismissive and tolerant of bratty kids his shareholders, business partners, and employees bought around him, but this Hart kid...something about him unnerved Kaiba, setting off the danger alarms his mind had developed under years of Gozaburo's torture. This kid needed to be watched carefully.
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Joey Wheeler stared with a slack jawed expression at the calm peaceful Domino City streets. This was not what he expected on the way home from summer school. It was quite the endeavor on his end, but he finally got into the remedial program, preventing him from being held back which in turn made him eligible for Battle City. So he walked down the streets with a spring in his step and Duel Disk in his backpack, ready to get the biggest burger he had in a month, and when he got the first light, the businessman waiting next to him for the light to change was slugged by a chick with a purse, who then began to beat the cowering man into unconsciousness.
And soon enough everyone else started wailing on each other, not just the people at the light, but people across the street starting attacking each other too! Cars came to a complete stop, the people getting out and attacking each other, people jumping out the windows, it was like that stock market crash back in World War 2...if it was in World War 2, that was. The windowashers above broke through the window they were working on and robbed the place blind before falling to their deaths by going out the way they came. There were a few old ladies beating some kids with their canes, two preschoolers tried to rob him, and a lot of people killed themselves, a lot of people. And just like that, it was over. Yep, just like that. All the murder and violence? Like it never happened.
It took Joey a second to recover from the shock when thought of something befalling a certain young brunette passed through his mind. "SERENITY!" More people stared at him as he yelled and ran to the nearest payphone. "Shitshitshitshit!" He shoved a woman out of the way and began pouring change into the phone and shakily holding the phone to his ear. "Comeoncomeoncomeon!"
"HEY!" The woman he shoved shouted, grabbing Joey's shaky shoulder. "What the hell'd you do that fo-" Joey turned his head and glared at the woman, causing her and some of the other bystanders to back away from the kid.
"Come on, please!" He began hypervenitlating as the memories of what just happened flashed through his mind, and while everything went back to normal like nothing happened, his precious little sister defenseless as everyone in the hospital ganged up on her and killed her. "Come on sis, pick up!"
(Jeez, I picked up the phone, shut up already!) Joey blinked. (What do you want bro, I'm waiting for Battle City to start!)
...Who the hell was this? "Uhh, sorry lady, I got the wrong number." He was sure he got the right room code when he got back from the hopsital. "I'm looking for my sister-"
(I am your sister, Joey. The damn surgery you paid for messed up my throat real bad as a side effect. It hurts to talk for so long, so get to the reason you're calling me.)
"U-uhh." Well he didn't expect this. Serenity was more of the 'I'm disappointed in you' type when she got angry, not this. "I-I was just calling to make sure you were..alright and stuff. Just saw some weird shit just a few seconds ago-" Joey mentally berated himself for letting out a curse in front of her.
(-Joey that was probably a Duel Monster or some Field Spell. You do know what a Field Spell is, right?)
"Course I know what a Field Spell is!" Joey exclaimed. "I kept running into them at Duelist Kingdom!"
(Oh my god...) Serenity groaned. (You'll learn soon enough. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take my bandages off.)
"Wait already?" The payphone beeped, prompting Joey to put more coins into it. "But you weren't supposed to be able to do that until tomorrow!"
(They said I healed early. I'll call you back bro, I'll make sure my eyes work before that perverted friend of yours gets here with the laptop.)
"Wait Serenity-" But he got a dial tone in response. "Well this was a weird day." And he had a feeling it was going to get weirder. And the source of the weirdness probably had something to do with those gold doohickeys that tormented him and his friends for the past couple years. 'Well Serenity's alright.' He thought as he exited the phone booth, still shaky and nervous, not noticing the police officers that had gathered, or the glowing light that was coming from his bookbag. 'Now I can focus on finding Yug, he probably knows something about this.'
But for Joey, that would have to wait. "Excuse me young man, we'd like to ask you a few questions."
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"Yugi, it's over." The Pharoah said listlessly as his partner hid under the blankets. "The chaotic force I felt has left the area."
"..."
'I don't know what happened, but it is as though the world itself reset. All the chaos and death completely disappeared! I didn't know what was going on, so that's why I didn't tell you when everything went back to normal. You can take over now."
There was silence for a good minute before Yugi took control of his body and got out of bed, his eyes bloodshot red and puffy. "O-ok...I'm getting up.." He told himself, noting that everything was back to normal. The people arguing and fighting each other in his room? Gone. The fires in the street accompanied by screams of agony and fury? Gone. Everything was peaceful again. "W-what happened?"
"Something terrible, something evil." The spirit thought. 'I don't know what that was or what fixed the mess it made, but I'm ready to take over should anything happen.'
Yugi nodded as he slowly stumbled to get down the stairs, the Pharaoh taking over when Yugi tripped. He managed to catch himself before he fell and headed down the stairs, where the two of them saw the game store intact, and their grandfather counting the money in the register. The shock of seeing him alive prompted Yugi to take control back. "G-grandpa?"
"YUGI!" The elderly Muto ran to his grandson to inspect him. "What happened?!"
"I don't know..." Yugi mumbled as he hugged his grandfather tightly, the Pharaoh trying to sense for any trace of the force that ravaged Domino. "I just had a bad dream is all...a really bad dream."
'Where is it?!' The Pharoah couldn't sense a lick of that damnable presence anywhere! There was so many things wrong with what happened an hour ago, the worst of it being what it put his partner through. Even though the Pharoah didn't have his memories of the ancient past, he still remembered the cruelty and...less than civilized mannerisms of his ancient era, so the murder and mayhem didn't bother him too much; at least the people under the thrall of that presence weren't as creative as murderous rioters of the past, thank goodness. But Yugi never saw anything like that in his life. From what the Pharaoh saw on tha strange box with the moving pictures, Domino barely had any crimes past the occasional purse snatcher, and the worst Yugi ever experienced in terms of mental anguish was Pegasus's Shadow Games. The anarchy an hour ago were like those 'movies' Joey and Tristan snuck Yugi into see, Yugi in turn having him take control through the dark bits. Whatever this force was hurt his partner worse than he'd ever been hurt, cleaned up the mess as if it was some half-assed apology, and strangest of all-
'Tell me young _, have you heard of the Seven Emperors to the west?'
-It implanted false memories into the labyrinth that was the Millennium Puzzle. 'Emperors, Barians..Vector..' Yugi's body shook fearfully on instinct from the murderous aura the Pharaoh put out. 'Why does that name fill me with such loathing?!' So was the attack on Domino a distraction just to put these memories in him? If that was the case they did a terrible job. He supposed that was one benefit of being conscious for who knows how many years; he already had to deal with far too many delusions before their grandfather found him and the Puzzle, so something this clear and detailed stuck out like a sore thumb. It was too elaborate, the faces of these 'Emperors', their Anglo-Saxon features and complexions, their accents and personalities along with the kingdoms that they ran, it was all too neat. Whoever or whatever put these memories in him and gave him such intense hatred for the emperor obviously wanted him to confront the group, but the reason why eluded him.
He sat on one of the display cases and watched as Grandpa gave Yugi much needed comfort. Whatever these 'Barians' were were questions for later. 'Another thing worries me..' He thought as he stared down at his spectral copy of the Millennium Puzzle, holding it up to his face. 'If me and Yugi remember what happened, whose to say the holders other Millennium Items didn't reset along with the world? And for that matter, what if this was the result of a Millennium Item itself?' His brain was telling him that there was no way anyone, especially Marik with his Millennium Rod, could have done this. He still had the Puzzle after 'Fair and Square' clause, as Yugi jokingly called the rules of sucession regarding Millennium Items, would have kept the Puzzle safe around his neck unless Yugi gave it up. 'I have a feeling that things have strayed from their intended path.' The Pharaoh looked up, sensing a presence above. 'A draconic spirit?' And it was right where Yugi put his deck for the night. 'Now what could this be? A clue?'
"It's good to see you're ok, Yugi." Grandpa said softly, petting his hair. "Though I don't think your sister will be happy when she sees the state you're in." Yugi and the Pharaoh's eyes widened at that. "That girl needs to learn to loosen the noose on you my boy!"
"I have a sister?!' 'Yugi has a sister?!'
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There were four golden rules that the Rare Hunters lived by when dealing with their boss, rules that Marik gave the group whenever he was in a bad mood.
1: If he started to scream out of nowhere, restrain him
2: If for any reason Odion's health fails, be ready to take the Millennium Rod from Marik.
3: If Marik began to develop veins around his eyes and his voice sounded like two people were speaking at the same time, then do everything he said and pray for your life.
4: Do not mention the words 'Melvin' or 'Susan' in front of him.
Naturally, even most lunatics wouldn't work for a man, much less someone who should be in school, that was worried about radical personality shifts whose trigger was the physical and mental state of his second in command, but most of the Rare Hunters either had nowhere else to go, were dregs from Egypt's and the surrounding country's criminal network, enthralled and fearful of the power of Marik's Milennium Rod, or a combination of all three above.
So when the Rare Hunters of the EG divisions, the division filled with the fantatical or stupid that Beta Tested fake Egyptian God Cards, watched their leader/master exhibit a mental break, along wit Odion fried to a crisp, they were frozen to the spot in fear as Marik 'got control' of himself.
"This..." 'Marik' began as he looked at his fair skinned arm. "Where is my body?!" He never expected to wake up for a long time, at least until his weaker half messed up in his childish delusions of playing villain and got Odion killed, but he never expected to wake up in the body of a westerner! His voice sounded so high pitched and feminine. "I pray, for your sake-" He turned to the Rare Hunters as he said that. "That I'm not in the body of some female. Fetch me a mirror, NOW!" The force of his anger caused many of the Rare Hunters to topple onto the stone floor, the ones that were still standing rushing to get their crazed master what he wanted. "Something is very wrong.." He could see memories..memories of something called 'Heartland' and some place called the 'Barian World, and a Kingdom. "False memories..implanted into me...WHERE IS THAT MIRROR!" The last word came out as screech, much to his humiliation.
"R-right here sir!" A Rare Hunter yelled, putting a full length mirror in front of Marik. "A-are you satisfied, Master Three?"
"Why did you call-" Marik went silent as he saw his western features, his pale skin, gentle face marred by the veins around his eyes, and rose colored hair along with that strange feminine 'tank top' tht his other half wore. "I'm a woman now.."
"N-no you're not Master Three!" the Rare Hunter frantically yelled as the Eye of Wdjat appeared on Marik's forehead, and a rose colored isignia began glowing on his left hand. "Y-you're just really-" And that was all that he got out before Marik utterly destroyed his mind, not even giving the hapless minion the false hope of hopefully being sent to the Shadow Realm. He'd at least have the hope of being freed if that was the case.
"What has happened to me?" Marik growled, letting out more power as the Millennium Rod materialized in his left hand. "WHAT HAS MY OTHER HALF DONE?!" Did that weakling seriously put him in this feminine body?! How?! "At least one good thing came out of this." He stared at Odion's corpse with a malicious smirk. "So my other half, you weren't smart enough to cut my tether to the Millennium Rod, I see." He looked at his still glowing left hand, the shape of the flower tattooes onto his hand looking nothing like any plant from Egypt's past or present. The power he felt from it was far different too. "Messing with magic that you know nothing about. Some things never change, it seems." The Eye of Wdjat glowed brightly as he put his hand to his head to basically hack his body. The glow became too bright for his eyes to handle, forcing him to close them as memories he never saw in his life came flooding in. "Arclight..Heartland..Kaiba...I see..." So Marik didn't put him in this body..in fact, his weaker half probably never existed at all! It took a good 10 minutes before he tired himself out, stopping his search and crumpling to the floor panting and sweating. "So..many things have changed.." He said, an evil, twisted smile on his face. "So many new toys for me to play with and break!" It seemed Ra would have some extra company in his Deck, that's for sure. "Oh will the Pharaoh and his friends be surprised..." His eyes widened as he came to a realization. "..Wait a minute." If he came out mostly intact from this change, then maybe the other Millennium Item wielders did as well. "Hehehehehe.." The bastardization of the ancient traditions of the past had gotten far more advanced than he or even the spirits could possible imagine. "HEHEHEHEE!" So many summoning methods, stronger holograms, making it far easier to toy with his opponents. "HAHAHAAHAHAAHAHA! Oh Battle City is going to be a treat! And best of all, he could be a self made orphan all over again!
YGOYGOYOYGO
"FINALLY!" Tristain yelled happily as he parked his motorcycle in the only place he could find to park it..at the very back of the lot. "I'm HERE AT LAST!" With tear filled eyes he ran up the hill to the hospital, laptop in hand and the promise of air conditioning guiding his soul. "HERE I COME SERENITY!"
2 minutes later.
"Ohh yeeess." AIR CONDITIONG!" He took a minute to cool down, going to the vending machine to get a snack and a drink, before going to the receptionist. "Excuse me, can you tell me where Serenity Wheeler's room is?"
The receptionist froze in terror at the mention of that name. "U-ummm...you don't want to go up there."
"Why not? I'm scheduled to be up there, I have my ID!"
"T-that's not the problem, sir." The receptionist sighed. "But if you're cleared, you can go ahead. Let me see your identification." Tristan handed her his wallet and the receptionst opened it, putting the information into the computer "Alright then, Tristan Timothy Taylor, you're all clear..good luck. Maybe you can calm her down. She's on the 3rd basement level, room 6."
"Thanks?" Tristan took his wallet back and went to the elevator. 'That's strange. I thought she was on the twelth floor in intensive care.'
The elevator floor opened on the 3rd basement floor, a sense of foreboding encompassing Tristan as he began to walk down the hall. "I haven't felt this way since the Death-T." Tristan muttered a he walked down the hallway that looked like any other hallway, passing a doctor or two. Something told him he wasn't going to like what he saw, but that thought made him press forward. He had a deck and some magic; if worst comes to worst, he could dish out good old Cyber Commander!
"Room 6." He stopped in front of his destination, the door opening automatically. "Serenity?" The room was pitch black. "Where's the light switch?" He fiddled around the walls on the sides of the door "There it is!"
"Don't open that!" Tristan jumped at the fear emenating from the voice. He turned to the right of the room to see a pair of glowing red eyes staring at him. "The light...it hurts."
"S-Serenity?"
"Yes, that's me!" She let out a groan of pain. "Hold on a second. The glowing eyes disappeared as Tristan heard the sounds of things being moved. "Ok, you can turn them on. You're Joey's friend right?"
"Yeah it's me, Tristan."
"Thank god. My head's been completely screwed up since they took me out of that tube." Tristan turned on the light, and the second his eyes adjusted to the brightness, he let out a scream of shock, both at Serenity, and the room. "Surprise!" The room was a complete and utter mess. The bed was snapped in two, there were what looked to be scratch marks on the floor tiles, and there were fist shaped holes along the walls. Things like this Tristan was used to seeing, he'd seen worse things after all. What he was not prepared for however, was Serenity. "How do I look?"
"U-uhh.." Serenity Wheeler was the polar opposite of her brother in everything, from personality to looks. Where Joey was blonde and had a californian tan with rough skin, Serenity's was softer and a shade paler and she was a brunette. It didn't look as though she could ever get actually angry like her brother, as if her face was incapable of it. This girl in front of him didn't look like Serenity at all, but she sounded just like her! Her skin was a pale, almost unhealthy, milky white with a pinkish tint, the type you'd normally see when you removed dead skin. Her eyes, from what he could see under the shades she was wearing, were blood red with tears running down her cheeks, and her hair was almost as wild and crazy as Yugi's! If he didn't know any better, he could swear they were related! It was two toned, both tones being a different shade of blue. The lighter toned hair made up two, pincer-like bangs going down her cheeks, the left one being slightly bigger than the right, looking almost like a crab's claw. The darker tone made up the rest of her hair, cascading down her shoulders like a waterfall. "What happened to you?"
"They botched the surgery that's what happened!" Serenity yelled. "I'M A FREAK!"