Chapter Three: My Monstrous Friends
The two remaining heroes had started walking through the darkened woods, with Kaiba lighting up the way with an orb of white lightning on his pointed index finger.
"Excuse me, but why are we walking through these woods if we have no idea where we should be going?" Kaiba asked Pharaoh.
"Perhaps we don't, but it certainly wouldn't be better for us if we just sat where we arrived and waited for something evil to come," the Pharaoh replied.
Suddenly, the two heard what sounded like a wolf howling somewhere further off on the island.
"Of course not, especially when it's doing so all on its own," Kaiba said sarcastically.
Something dashed right by them in the shadows of the trees. Pharaoh quickly shot out a force field around the two and yelled out, "Who's out there?"
There was no response. The two waited for a few more moments, listening closely.
Another something crashed right behind them, this one with slow, heavy footsteps that practically slammed onto the ground. The two turned and waited, but again, nothing came out of the woods.
Finally, the sound of something growling came from the direction of the first crashing thing. The two whipped around again to stare directly into glowing yellow eyes that came from the shadows of the forest.
"Listen, whatever freak you are," Kaiba said to the eyes, "if you're trying to scare us just by growling at us, it's not going to work."
The growling stopped. Then, to both Pharaoh and Kaiba's shock, a very familiar voice from the eyes: "Yeah, I guess you're right-notin' could scare you when ya have ta look at dat face in de mirror 24/7."
The thing stepped out of the shadows into the light of Kaiba's electricity. "Joey?" Pharaoh cried, putting his force field down.
"Yeah, it's me-an Kaiba, if you make any of dose stupid dog jokes, I swear ta God dat I'll bite you," Joey replied. While his blond hair and clothing had remained intact, deep brown fur had grown all over his skin, his ears had become long and pointed, claws and fangs had appeared on his hands and in his teeth, and his eyes had turned a bright, glowing yellow.
"Joey!" another familiar voice cried out. Téa stepped out of the woods behind him. Her skin had turned completely pale and her eyes were a deep red. Her clothing had changed into a dark blue tube top, black mini-shorts, black knee socks, and dark blue strapped shoes, with a black cape fastened with a black bat clip around her neck. When she spoke, she revealed a pair of glistening fangs in her mouth. She looked at the other two and said, "Sorry that we didn't respond to you, but we didn't want to scare you too much."
"Belladonna did this to you, didn't she," Pharaoh said, staring in horror at his transformed friends.
"If you mean dat black-eyed witch wit wavin' dat stupid little stick around, den yes," Joey replied. He looked down angrily at his furry, clawed hands and cried, "Look at me, man! I'm a freak!"
"I dunno, Joey…considering how you looked before, that might be an improvement," another voice said from behind Pharaoh and Kaiba.
The two turned around to see that Tristan had stepped out of the woods. His clothing had been turned into rags covered in many multi-colored patches. Stitches had appeared which held the top of his head to the rest of it, and his hands to his arms. Two silver electrodes stuck out of either side of his neck, giving him the appearance of a Frankenstein monster.
"Yeah, well, the same could be said for you, man," Joey snapped back at him.
Finally, Bakura floated out of the darkness of the forest. His entire body had become transparent and glowed slightly with a white light. Ghostly chains had been wrapped around his neck and hung all the way down to his feet, acting as a strange boa of sorts. "I realize my power brings me quite close to ghosts, but this is a tad bit ridiculous," he said.
"So, uh, how did you two get ta dis place?" Joey asked, scratching behind one of his furry ears.
"Resheph let us into it," the Pharaoh replied. "He's the one who sent Belladonna after us in the first place."
"How come you two avoided getting transformed?" Tristan asked.
"Because I knew better than to go up to mysterious fortune tellers," Kaiba replied.
"Wait-you saw us from your company?!" Joey cried out.
"Yes," Kaiba replied.
Both Téa and Pharaoh quickly held Joey back from attacking Kaiba. "LEMME AT DAT SPOILED BRAT!" he yelled out, snarling and growling like a dog.
"Down, boy, down," Kaiba smiled sweetly at him.
Finally, Joey let out a loud, angry howl. Once he stopped, the sound of another howl was suddenly heard coming from further in the woods.
The others turned and looked in the howl's direction. "Um, what was dat?" Joey asked.
"Maybe that was just an echo," Tristan suggested.
From the darkness of the woods, a dozen yellow and red eyes suddenly gleamed out like large fireflies from all around them. The sounds of snarls, howls, squeaking bats, and rattling chains resounded throughout the entire clearing.
"Then again…" Tristan squeaked out.