Chapter One: A Request
Once the blue-haired girl had passed out, our heroes quickly worked on moving her into a more comfortable position. A pillow and blankets were zapped up, and Yugi held a cold, wet towel to her forehead.
After a few minutes, the girl stirred and slowly opened her red eyes once more. Yugi moved the towel off and asked, "How are you feeling, miss?"
"Much better, thank you," she replied, slowly moving herself into a sitting position. She looked around at the teens' concerned faces. "I do apologize if I frightened you four, but I used up a ton of my magical strength in transporting myself here." She looked over at Joey and Tristan. "Could you two pretty please help me up?" she asked with an incredibly sweet smile.
Almost immediately, Joey and Tristan knelt down, took one of her hands, and assisted the girl in getting to her feet. "Thank you," she smiled. "I can see why you guys are heroes-you're so strong!"
Joey and Tristan both grinned with delight, and Joey even made a slow, mocking stretch which showed off his biceps. "We're just doin' our job, ma'am," he said.
The girl giggled, then said, "Well then, let's get down to business, shall we? My name is Susie Rose, and I have a request for the four of you which involves something right up your alley."
"Well, we'll see what we could possibly do, Miss Rose," Yugi said.
Susie Rose started pacing back and forth across the warehouse. "Hmm…how can I explain this…" she murmured, stroking her chin. Finally she stopped, an 'ah-ha' look spreading across her face, and asked, "You four are familiar with the story of Aladdin, right?"
"Poor guy finds magic lamp wit genie inside, genie turns him inta a prince, an he an de princess live happily ever after?" Joey said.
"Yes, we've heard of it," Yugi nodded, and Tristan and Téa agreed as well.
"Well, my request is similar to something like that," Susie said. "You probably aren't aware of this, but for nearly 5,500 years, a similar magic lamp has been hidden in a cave within your world."
The four of them stared at her. "Dere has?" Joey said.
"Yep, and since I know you're wondering why you've yet to hear about this, it's because the cave is enchanted- it frequently shifts its location from place to place. And even when some human manages to find it and obtain the lamp, once they've gotten their three wishes, their memory is wiped clean of both the cave and the genie." She paused. A concerned look appeared on her face. "Um, you guys do believe what I'm saying, right? I know you haven't had your powers for all that long…"
"It's okay, we believe you," Yugi assured her.
"Even dough we tink we're crazy for doin' so," Joey added.
The girl laughed. "Ah, don't worry-you'll get over that with time. Now, you see, I come from a world which is completely separate from yours. One which, for 5,492 years, has been in a…" the girl paused, searching for the right words. "…a certain state."
"What kind of state?" Yugi asked.
"A state which…has not been all that pleasant for me." She lowered her head. "I won't go into details…you don't really need to hear them."
"Have things been really that terrible?" Téa asked her sympathetically.
A small tear trickled down Susie Rose's face. "I don't really enjoy talking about it. The point is I was hoping that with the lamp, I could use it to make my world into one which is a far, far more suitable place. The only problem is…like I said, I used up all of my magical strength getting over here, and I'm not used to getting through ordeals such as this one without it, but I need to get that lamp as soon as possible, so…would you four be willing to get it instead?" she asked, smiling very, very sweetly again.
Joey immediately said, "Of course!" and Tristan chimed in, "Anything you want!"
"We'll do everything that we can to help you get that lamp," Téa said, taking Susie's hands within hers.
"We promise, Miss Rose," Yugi smiled, "you won't have to suffer anymore."
"Oh thank you!" Susie exclaimed, her red eyes turning shiny and tears of joy trickling down her face. "You four are so incredibly sweet! And while I can't help you guys obtain the lamp, I can at least help you find the cave; I tracked it down while I was still in my world. Pure magic forms will be required to get there, however, so if one of you would just be willing to carry me…"
"I'll do it!" Joey and Tristan cried at once.
In another world, three teens were kneeling down by a body of water enclosed inside of a round marble pool. One of them, a guy with blond hair, midnight black eyes, and tan-colored skin dressed entirely in black (save for a red cape on his right shoulder), had enchanted the pool so that at the moment, it was watching a blond and brunette teen fight over who would carry a pretty blue-haired girl to a cave while a tri-colored hair teen and a pretty brunette watched them with tired looks on their faces.
The blond guy looked at the other two, who were dark-haired male and female teens that both wore black clothing and dark sunglasses.
"Styx and Nox, Ah believe you two know what teh do," he said to them.
"Yes, master," they both replied. They snapped their fingers, and both transformed into thousands of red sparks of magic. The sparks soared up into the air and out of sight.
The black-clad blond looked back into the pool and said to himself, "Onlee a leetle beet more time…and ze lamp shall finally be ours."