Chapter Two: Sweet and Sour

Joey Wheeler groaned as he slowly aroused himself from sleeping. His eyes fluttered open and glanced down his bed. He saw, once again, for some bizarre reason beyond his comprehension, he'd been tightly wrapped up in his bed sheets like a mummy, arms pinned tightly to his sides and legs immovably bound together.

Joey groaned as he rolled onto his side and squirmed to pull one arm out from the iron-like grip of his blanket. He reached out and turned the alarm clock on his nightstand towards him.

His eyes almost bulged out of his head when he saw what time it was. "What de-aw, man!" he cried out.

He turned onto his back and winced his eyes shut, focusing all of his energy onto his shape-shifting powers. He could feel the flesh and blood of his body shift into a completely smooth and hard substance, the strongest in the entirety of the universe.

Joey grunted as he flexed his arms and spread out his legs. The blanket around him snapped at its seams and fluttered down the sides of his bed, revealing a body made entirely out of brightly gleaming diamond.

He shifted himself back to normal before he leapt down from the bed. His feet landed on something rather soft and squishy which let out an 'oomph' in protest.

It was only then that he remembered Tristan had spent the night at his place.

Joey slowly looked down to see his buddy lying on a zapped-up sleeping bag on the floor, groaning in pain from the force of his feet landing directly on his stomach.

"Sorry, bro," Joey said sheepishly as he stepped off of Tristan and onto the floor, "but we're kinda gonna be late if we don't get our butts movin'."

"Moving for what?" Tristan groaned as he sat up, still half asleep from his quick and rude awakening.

"Uh, for school?" Joey replied, snapping his fingers with a tiny burst of green sparks. His PJs subsequently transformed into his school uniform, complete with his backpack slung over his shoulder.

Tristan snapped out of his slight daze. "Say what?!"

He threw the top of the sleeping bag off and jumped up from the floor while Joey dashed out of his bedroom. With his own snap of his fingers, orange sparks came forth which transformed his own PJs into his blue jacket with white T-shirt and blue pants.

Joey, meanwhile, ran down the hall of his apartment, backpack flying out from behind him. He turned into the kitchen doorway and slid on the linoleum tiled floor towards the wooden drawers and cabinets.

Tristan entered a few moments later, guided down the hall by the sound of banging noises. He watched as Joey rapidly moved down the lines of cabinets and drawers, peering inside each one for just a few moments before he angrily slammed them shut.

"Don't tell me you don't have anything around here to eat!" Tristan cried in disbelief.

Joey glared at him over his shoulder and snapped, "'Ey, you're de one who said dat we should have a feedin' frenzy last night!"

"Yeah, you're right," Tristan agreed sarcastically, "I should have known better than to suggest something like that, 'cause of course you'd take it as a go-ahead to stuff your face with everything in sight!"

"'Ey, I'm not de one who ate an entire pizza, a couple boxes a leftover Chinese, an six slices a cake last night!"

"No, but you were the one who ate three burgers, a whole bag of cookies, and a couple dozen or so rice balls!"


The Queen gagged in disgust as she watched the two fire retorts back and forth at one another through her mirror. "Where in the world does a partly-mortal stomach manage to even put all of that food?" she cried aloud in complete disbelief.

She shook her head to clear away the feeling of nausea in her throat. "Well, on the bright side, I know where to put the two gluttons without even looking through the book…"


"Thanks a lot, Joe; now we're gonna be going to school on an empty stomach!"

"Quit actin' like ya didn't take part in de feast, ya dolt!"

"You had way more than I did, jerk!"

The two continued bickering all the way over to the front door. Joey wrenched it open angrily and the two stepped outside, shoving into each other as they made their way through.

They were so involved in their argument that it took them a few seconds to realize they hadn't stepped into the hall of apartments which should have been outside Joey's door; only the sudden feeling of a gentle breeze made them finally snap out of their fighting and look at their surroundings.

The two were standing in the midst of a large, luscious forest. A gentle wind blew through the trees all around the two of them, the quiet whoosh accompanied by the tiny chirps of birds in the distance. Little rays of sunlight just barely shone through the cracks in between the green leaves, filling the forest with occasional bursts of light.

"Uhhh…where de heck are we?" Joey finally spoke when he'd regained his voice from the shock that had overcome him.

"How am I supposed to know?" Tristan asked.

Very slowly, the two started to pick their way through the woods, twigs snapping underneath their feet as they walked.

"Now we're definitely gonna be late for school," Joey muttered angrily.

"Hey, for all we know, time back in our place is frozen," Tristan replied. "Or I hope it is, anyway…if we get one more tardy for the semester our teacher's gonna throw a fit…"

"Tristan?" Joey had stopped dead in the middle of the forest, staring in complete shock and awe at the sight that met his eyes.

"Then again, maybe we could zap the clock back…" Tristan paused and stroked his chin in thought. "We'd have to make sure that nobody else is looking at it, though…you think the guys would be willing to distract everyone while we give ourselves five more minutes?"

"Tristan…"

"Téa would probably be against it, but we might be able to convince Yugi and Bakura to-"

"TRISTAN, YA NUMBSKULL, GET OVER HERE AN LOOK AT DIS!" Joey cried, pointing out ahead of the two of them.

The insult made Tristan snap out of his thoughts. He angrily stepped towards Joey, but when his eyes fell onto what his friend saw, he too had to stop and stare.

Sitting in a clearing right in the middle of the woods was a small house made entirely out of desserts. Gingerbread held together with white frosting made up the four walls, roof, and smoking chimney while a giant bar of chocolate with a little rock candy sticking out of one side served as the front door and doorknob. Glittering gumdrops, striped candy canes, twisted strands of licorice and swirling peppermints decorated the home while giant lollipops stuck out of the ground all around it like bizarre, multicolored flowers.

Little streams of drool started to trickle down the corners of the two's mouths. "Tristan…" Joey spoke in a garbled voice, "I tink we just died an went ta heaven…"

The two dashed into the clearing and straight up towards the house. Joey reached down, plucked one of the lollipops out of the ground, and started licking it with fervor while Tristan got onto his tiptoes and took a huge bite out of the edge of the roof. Both of them grunted and smacked their lips in delight as the sweet and slightly spicy tastes of the candies touched their tongues and filled their mouths with savory flavors. The thought that perhaps somebody actually lived in the place never crossed their minds once as they ate their fill of delicious goodies.

Somebody, however, had been watching them through a crystal clear rock candy window. A sickly sweet smile crossed their face as they watched the boys snarf down more and more pieces of their hovel of comestibles.

"That's right, boys, eat as much as you want," they whispered aloud with glee. "I highly prefer to have my children stuffed and meaty…"


Seto Kaiba angrily slid his arms through the holes in his sleeveless white trenchcoat, attempting to restrain himself from accidentally tearing it in some way. He snarled to himself out loud, "How could both the batteries in my alarm clock and Mokuba's run out of power in the middle of the night on us? Now it's going to be impossible for Mokuba to get to school on time…The maid is certainly getting a dock in her paycheck this week for this error…she should be grateful that I'm going to work instead…"

He walked over to his front desk and knelt down to pick up the silver briefcase lying beside it. When he stood up straight once more, he took a glance out his bedroom window. Mokuba was leaning up against the iron-barred front gate, his eyes glued to the front doors as he waited for his brother to step through them. His stuffed green backpack lay by his feet, evidently too heavy to stay on his back for such a long time. The black limousine had pulled up the curb before the gate and now sat there, awaiting its future passengers.

Kaiba placed his silver briefcase down by his side again. With his two free hands, he yanked the window up and open.

He leaned his head out and called down to his brother, "Mokuba!"

Mokuba glanced up in the direction of his brother's voice. "Yes?"

"I'll be down there soon; get in the limo and tell the driver to wait another few minutes," Kaiba snapped at him.

"Okay." Mokuba replied, seemingly oblivious to the sour tone in his older brother's voice.


"Hmm, let's see…" The Queen tapped one finger against her chin in thought as she watched Kaiba take his silver briefcase in hand again. "I can certainly think of plenty of brother and sister combinations in a fairy tale, but two brothers…blast, I've got nearly nothing…"

She continued staring intently into the mirror as Kaiba walked out his bedroom door and down the hall towards the grand staircase. As she took in the interesting appearance of the dark-haired young man in the rather large white jacket carrying a briefcase instead of a backpack, an idea slowly began to form in her mind. "Hmm! Perhaps that would work, in a way…granted, the original story was about a girl and her grandmother…" The Queen shrugged her shoulders. "But I suppose I'll just have to work with what I have."


Mokuba grunted a little as he shoved one of the two heavy iron gates open with all his might. Once a large enough crack had formed between them, he slowly squeezed his way through the opening; thankfully, his large and heavy backpack was helpful for once as it pushed the gate open a little bit more. When he'd gotten through, he pressed his back up against the gate, shoving it closed with far more ease.

Mokuba stepped up to the limo and pulled the back door open. He slid his backpack off of his shoulders and, clutching it firmly by its straps, flung it through the door.

He closed his eyes and heaved a sigh of relief from the loss of the load on his back. Happily, he slipped through the limo doorway-

-and fell flat on his bottom onto hard earth.

"Ow!" Mokuba snapped his eyes open upon impact. To his utter surprise, instead of the black, plush limo interior, he was greeted by the sight of a huge forest of cherry blossom trees. The trees were in the rare sight of full bloom, their flowers filling the forest with a spectacular pink and white display. When a gentle breeze blew by, some of the loose petals were plucked off and went flying through the air atop the little gust of wind.

Mokuba brought himself to his feet, never once lowering his gaze away from the beautiful woods. "Where…am I…?" he asked aloud.

The answer that came was neither helpful nor welcome. It was the sound of a low, throaty growl, coming from right behind him.

Mokuba's eyes opened wide with fear at the noise. Very, very slowly, he turned around to face its source.

His eyes linked up directly with a pair of glowing yellow ones. Specifically, the eyes belonged to a large wolf who glared at Mokuba from between the cherry blossom trees. The wolf snarled at him once more, revealing sharp teeth that gleamed brightly against its shaggy grey fur.

To Mokuba's horror, the wolf's back was arched in preparation for an attack. He slowly took a few steps back from the terrible beast, but it wasn't about to let its newfound snack get away that easily.

With a roar, the wolf took a flying leap into the air. Mokuba froze at the sight and sound, remaining right where he stood as the beast headed towards his face, opening its jaws as widely as it could…


Kaiba had just made it to the bottom of the stairs when the faint sound of a scream reached his ears. He looked up in shock when he recognized who the scream belonged to.

"Mokuba..." he whispered.

Kaiba dashed all the way down the entrance hall and shoved one of the oak doors open with his shoulder. He took just a few hurried steps outside before realizing that he'd stepped right into an unfamiliar forest of blooming pink and white cherry blossom trees; the white stairs, perfectly manicured lawn, and wrought iron gates had vanished in entirety.

"What the-" He looked around the forest with wide eyes, blinking quite a bit to make sure that he truly saw what he thought he was seeing.

"Seto!"

Kaiba looked in the voice's direction and heaved a sigh of relief when he saw Mokuba, safe and sound, come towards him from the midst of the trees. "There you are!" he called out. "Why were you screaming just a few seconds ago?"

Mokuba blinked. "Um…I…I…" He stuttered for a few moments as though he needed to seriously consider the question. "I was a little bit freaked out because…because I suddenly found myself standing here…where are we, Seto?"

"I'm not sure myself…" Kaiba murmured in reply. He let out a small sigh of anger and exasperation. "It has something to do with the geek squad, though; that I'm quite certain about...what psychopathic head case is planning on destroying us now?"

"I don't think there can be anything dangerous in this place," Mokuba looked back at the endless stretch of pink-and-white-flowered trees. "It's too beautiful to have something evil in it. The only thing here which potentially looks evil is you."

"What?!"

"No offense," he quickly added. He pointed at Kaiba's trenchcoat and said, "It's just the red and black clothing, that's all."

Kaiba looked down at himself and did a double-take when he saw that his sleeveless white trenchcoat had been dyed in a passing moment to a fierce shade of blood-red. "What the-"

"See what I mean?" Mokuba said matter-of-factly.

Kaiba looked up at his brother, eyes flashing with anger. "So apparently this freak thinks it will be funny to attempt to mess with our heads." He stepped to Mokuba's side and glared angrily into the depths of the forest. "C'mon, Mokuba, let's go find them and show them exactly why nobody should ever dare to do that to us."

"Right!" Mokuba nodded.

As the two approached the pink and white forest, Kaiba protectively reached out and put one arm around his brother's shoulder. Mokuba glanced down at his hand as it touched him with a bit of shock and disgust in his eyes, then up at Kaiba's face. His eyes were narrowed into an absolutely livid glare, and his face had turned as crimson as his trenchcoat with fury.

Wow, he's really angry…

Mokuba's dark eyes flashed for a quick moment with a gold-yellow color, and a small, sinister smile spread across his face. That's all right, though… He licked his lips hungrily. I like it when my food's a little warm…even when it is with madness…