Here's Chapter 4, Enjoy! (Pretty please review! It makes me happy and I promise for more fluffyness if I get more than 8 reviews! :D)
Disclaimer: See Chapter 1
Keys:
"Talks"
'Thoughts'
Chapter 4: Choices
"A Detour?" Yugi asked while wondering what it was written on the clue.
-Out Of Nowhere-
"A Detour presents the team with a decision between two tasks. In this Detour, teams are given a choice between these two tasks: Dive In or Paddle Out." Nicole spoke calmly in front of the camera.
She was currently stood on a busy street that was near to the Federal Coffee Palace, the largest temperance hotel in Melbourne built in the year of 1888.
"In Dive In, teams have to travel by taxi to the largest coral reef system in the world, the Great Barrier Reef. Teams will be given not just the scuba diving equipment, but also 7 different pictures of corals that were listed on the board. Teams must dive into the ocean and find these corals and once you found all of them, you will be given the next clue. Teams with hawk-eyed and have lots of patience will be able to finish this task quickly."
"In Paddle Out, teams must fly to Sydney and travel by taxi to a place named Sydney Harbor. Once you get there, you will find canoes and some paddle equipment beside the river. Then, teams must paddle for 20 miles long to the ending point that is where you will see a Route Marker flag on the ladder. After that, you will be given the next clue. This requires high demand of physical strength in order to complete the task."
-Back to Yugi and Yami-
"I suggest Dive In." Yami said while Yugi nodded in agreement.
"I think that's a better choice."
"Let's go then."
Yami grabbed Yugi's soft hands and they were off to the cable cars but just then, they saw Joey and Kaiba running towards them.
"Hey, Yug, Yams, nice to see ya!" Joey greeted in a cherry tone while Yugi smiled in return.
"Hi, Joey! Kaiba."
"Good luck to you two." Yami said with a smirk.
"Same to you."
Yami and Joey both held their hands up high and slapped them as a sign of good luck before they went on their own ways.
"You shouldn't be nice to them. They're our enemies." Seto grunted as Joey ran to catch up with him.
"I know but still, I can't change the fact that they're my friends as well."
Seto took the clue out from the box, tore the strip and read it's content.
"Dive In?"
"Sure, it looks much easier than Paddle Out." Joey answered with a shrug.
'And I thought Kaiba will choose Paddle Out, oh well.'
-6 minutes later-
Ryou read the clue with a collected look.
"What do you think, Kura'?"
"Paddle Out?"
"No, I'll say we should take Dive In."
"Then, why would you ask for my opinion?" Bakura crossed his arms and pouted like a 5 year-old.
"Sorry Kura'. I know you love challenges but I don't think I can paddle for as long as 20 miles."
Ryou looked at his mate with pleading eyes and Bakura immediately gave in.
"Fine, do whatever you want!"
"Aww, thank you Kura'!"
Ryou squealed before he gave a sweet peck on his cheek.
"Come on Kura', let's go!"
-8 minutes later-
"Paddle Out?"
"Sounds cool."
Malik and Marik grinned at each other and in a split second; they were gone.
-At Cairns Airport-
"Come on, Tristan. We're late!"
"I know, I know!" Tristan retorted while holding their bags in both hands.
'Why do I have to team up with him? I wish my partner is Serenity…'
He thought dreamily before Duke smacked him on the head.
"Oww! What was that for?" Tristan groaned while rubbing his forehead gently.
"Are you listening to me? I said I go find a taxi while you wait here."
"Okay, I got it!" Tristan nodded and at the same time, sighed inwardly.
'Note to self. Never dream of Serenity in front of Duke.'
Just then, he thought he saw hurt in Duke's gloomy eyes before it quickly turned into a glare.
-Meanwhile, in a random taxi-
"Phew, I'm glad I get the taxi quick enough before anyone does." Tea said while wiping the sweat on her forehead with a pink handkerchief.
"Good job, hun! Although the other four teams are already ahead of us."
"I hope we can catch up with them, they're the toughest teams to beat when it comes to games like this."
"I have agree with you but the only good thing is that this game doesn't involve Duel Monsters so we might have a chance to beat them."
Tea chuckled at hearing that comment.
"You got that right!"
-In another taxi-
"Damn it, we're the second last team to get the taxi!"
"It'll be hard to catch up with them, let alone being the first to arrive in the end."
"I won't be too sure about that."
Rex looked at his partner as if he had grown a second head.
"You have a plan?"
"We'll see about this. For now, all we can do is wait."
-In another taxi-
"We're suppose to be the strongest team among the others and instead, we're the last one to get the taxi!" growled Dartz while Zorc only manage to grunt in response.
"It's all your fault that we're in this state!"
"What?! Now you blame all this on me? How dare you!"
Zorc shouted with a deathly growl and if you can see right through his mask, Zorc's face might have been one of the scariest and fearsome look in history, especially when he gets angry like this.
"You should be glad that I can't use my magic on you because of those stupid games rules and that, I will be forfeited if I lose a partner, so I forgive you for once." Dartz said with a smirk, although he felt disgusted when he said those words out from his mouth.
"Why you little…"
"Hey, can you please be quiet!" The driver glared at the two villains before turning back to the steering wheel.
"You two are being too noisy that I can't pay attention to my driving."
The duo sat in silence for the rest of the journey.
-Meanwhile, In Great Barrier Reef-
"Wow, Yami! I have never seen such a huge reef before." Yugi exclaimed while staring at the scenery with awe.
Yami only manage to chuckle after seeing Yugi's stunned expression.
"Shall we go now, Aibou?"
"Of course!"
Yugi took his lover's outstretched hand before they both dived into the ocean, searching for the corals while enjoy looking around the breathtaking underwater surroundings that almost made their hearts stopped beating.
Thousands of colorful corals were hidden beneath the seabeds and beautiful-looking fishes swam around them like dancers in the sea.
Yugi was looking for 3 corals while Yami searched for the other 4. A few minutes later, they heard water splashed above them and two figures that wore the same scuba diving clothes swam towards them. They were Joey and Kaiba.
By the time Ryou and Bakura jumped into the ocean, Yami and Yugi had already found 6 corals while Joey and Kaiba found 4 of them.
Yugi swam towards the seabeds, trying to find the last coral he needed to get in order to complete his task when suddenly, he caught a glimpse of something glowing brightly where he saw a clown fish swam past him. He swam towards that glow and he immediately squealed in delight.
In the bottom of the green seabed, was the coral he had been looking for. He put it into the fishing net and swam towards Yami who had reached the shore and was taking off his gloves.
"I found it, Yami! All 3 of them."
"Good job, Aibou. Let's go back to the ship and get our next clue."
"Okay."
Little did they know that two pair of eyes was watching them inside the ship.
"Hey Josh, will your plan work?"
The man with red spiky hair and teal eyes whose name was Josh smirked in response.
"I think so. Boss told us to get rid of those two so I think that 'thing' will do the trick."
A man with blond hair and midnight blue eyes looked at him doubtfully. His name was Maki.
"I'm not sure though, I have a feeling that it might not work."
"We'll see about that."
The next thing happened was a scream coming below the ship.
Yami was just about to climb on the ladder when Yugi yelled while waving his hands in panic.
"Yami, help! There's something wrapped around my legs and I can't swim forward."
Without a second thought, Yami dived into the sea and swam towards Yugi whose head was going to sink. He gasped in surprise when he realized a baby orange octopus wrapped its tentacles around Yugi's legs.
One of its tentacles was holding Yugi's breathing tube and if Yami didn't get rid of the octopus in time, Yugi will run out of oxygen and that would be the end of his life, Yami would certainly won't let that happen.
The octopus was starting to coil around Yami's arm but fortunately; he was fast enough to grab the octopus and immediately threw it towards a small window at the ship like a snowball.
The baby octopus crashed through the window like a rocket and it landed on Josh's face.
"Arrgghhhh!! My eyes!"
The octopus was spitting black liquid all over him while wrapping its tentacles around Josh's head.
"Uh oh, looks like the plan fails." Maki gasped in horror while watching Josh screaming and running around the dark room in circles.
"Don't just stand there, help me!"
Josh continued to shriek while his partner tried to pull the octopus away from him. At that moment, the door burst opened.
The two young men stood still to see a huge brown octopus with red dots placed around its body glared at them with hatred. Its expression was clearly said,
'How dare you hurt my baby?'
The duo gulped in return and they both screamed in unison when the huge octopus coiled its large long snake-like tentacles around their bodies before they were being dragged into the sea with the baby octopus swam by their side. Then, they were long gone.
"Are you alright, Aibou?"
Yami looked at his partner worriedly as Yugi nodded in reply.
"Yeah, I'm fine Yami. Thank you for saving me."
"It was nothing, Yugi but I'm glad you're fine, you made me worried back then."
"I know, I just didn't realize that an octopus was behind me and by the time I found out, I was going to drown but luckily, you've saved me just in time. Sorry to make you worried."
"It's alright now, Aibou. All that matters to me is that you're safe."
Yami wrapped his arms around Yugi's waist genially and Yugi leaned into his embrace. They were now in a taxi with Joey and Kaiba a mile behind them.
"By the way, Yami. What did the clue say?" Yugi asked abruptly without looking at his lover.
"Oh, it says…"
Yami took the clue out from his pocket and read aloud.
"For those who chose Dive In, fly to Sydney and travel by taxi to a place called Opera House."
"Opera House? Are we going to do something in that kind of place?"
"Maybe, but we'll find out soon."
Yami smiled at his loving fiancé, he knew Yugi was getting tired after that 'incident' happened. He placed a kiss on his forehead before saying,
"Get some rest, Aibou. I'll call you when we reach the airport."
He heard Yugi hummed in return before he drifted into a deep sleep.
-Meanwhile, In Kuranda Hinterland-
Mokuba and Noah were the eighth team to arrive.
Noah tore off the strip and read the clue's content before he spoke aloud.
"I think Dive In will be a better choice."
"Yes, I agree." Mokuba nodded before the two teens scurried off to the cable cars without a second to spare.
-On the helicopter-
"Yeah, I just found out only Malik & Marik, Tristan & Duke, and Alister & Valon are going for Paddle Out, now what it's left are Dartz & Zorc…Oh! I see them going towards the box now!"
Celine beamed while holding her cell phone on one hand.
"I'm so excited right now!"
-Back to Kuranda Hinterland-
Dartz read the clue with a growl.
"I say Dive In…"
"No!" Zorc interrupted his speech with a shriek.
"Why not? Don't tell me…"
Dartz narrowed his eyes and looked at him suspiciously even though it was covered with white mask.
"You don't know how to swim?"
"N..N..No! Of course not! It's just…" Zorc quavered nervously while trying to look away from Dartz's gaze. His sweat dripped down his mask like raindrops.
"I think Paddle Out takes less time to complete than Dive In." He spoke almost immediately and Dartz stared at his companion with cogitation before he gave out a deep sigh and said,
"Fine, we'll do Paddle Out." And just then, he heard Zorc sighed in relief.
The truth is Zorc isn't a good swimmer; maybe he lived inside the Shadow Realm for so long that he couldn't remember how to swim, or because he's a creature who has no talent in swimming. Who knows?
However, Dartz was a different story. He lived in Atlantis, which is an island with nothing but ocean around it, that's why he loved to swim so much. (I don't know whether Atlantis is an island or not, it's just my guess.)
He had trained himself into becoming one of the best and quickest swimmers in the whole world.
That's one of the reason why he wanted to choose Dive In so badly but the problem was…his partner.
-In Sydney Harbor-
Malik and Marik who sat on a long orange canoe held a long stick that was used for paddling and continued to paddle throughout the journey. They had paddled for as far as 9 miles.
"This is fun!" Malik beamed with joy.
"Let's see how fast we can paddle until we reach the end point."
"Okay!"
Then, they quickened their pace and started to paddle as fast as a train.
-In the Air Asia plane-
The Hikaries and Yamis as well as Joey and Kaiba were all managed to get the same flight and they had an hour left before they reached their destination.
Yami checked his watch after he had his cup of coffee set onto his table.
"It's 4.30 already." He whispered, trying not to wake his lover up.
"I hope we can make it to the end before other teams do."
He then looked at the window on the right with a calm expression written on his face.
-In Great Barrier Reef-
"What? Everyone has arrived here already!" Vivian yelled in frustration as Rebecca rolled her eyes in response.
"Stop shouting and get dressed, will you?"
"You have no permission to yell at me like that, let alone ordering me!"
"I'm your partner and I have every right to do that!" Rebecca growled before she tossed the clothes and equipments to her so-called comrade.
"The lesser you complain, the quicker we get to finish this task and get ahead of the others."
'And besides.' Rebecca smiled in thought. 'I want to catch up with my darling Yugi as soon as possible.'
-In Sydney Harbor-
"Are we there yet?" asked Tristan in a tired strained voice.
"We're not even close to 5 miles and you have started whining." Duke replied with a disappointed sigh.
"But my arms are getting sore…"
"Haven't you exercised often?"
"Yes, I did but I have never paddle before and 20 miles seems like a long distant."
"Well, you're the one who suggested Paddle Out is a better choice."
"That's because it takes lesser time to complete compare to Dive In."
"So stop whining and paddle quickly before anyone reaches the finish line."
And so, the two friends paddle in silence but little did they know that Alister and Valon were just 2 miles away from them.
-In a random taxi-
"Ahh, what a nice nap!" Yugi smiled while stretching his arms out widely.
They were going to Opera House with the other two teams behind them.
"I'm glad you're awake, do you know you have slept for as long as 3 hours?"
"I did?"
"Yep, and you were still asleep when I carry you to the taxi."
Yugi blushed deep red at hearing that remark.
"Sorry."
"It's okay, no worries. You are as light as a feather after all and I enjoy carrying you around."
Now, Yugi's body must have been heated up to boiling state and Yami chuckled at seeing Yugi's expression.
Teasing Yugi has always been one of his favorite hobbies.
When they reached their destination, the two look-alikes dashed through the wooden door and went inside the hall.
They saw a blue box stood beside the lamp with route marker flag attached on it and Yami immediately took the clue out and tore off the strip. At the same time, they heard the door burst opened with the sound of the footsteps drawing close to them.
"What did it say, Yami?"
Yami snapped out of his thoughts before he turned to Yugi and said in a monotone voice.
"It's a Roadblock."
Yugi nodded while urging him to continue reading the clue.
"Who loves to act?"
To Be Continued…
The end of Chapter 4 has finally arrived! A big thanks to readers who read my story and now it's time for you guys to do something for me, that is hit the review button and voice out…I mean 'type' out your opinion! So, stay tune for Chapter 5: Acting?
P.s: Sorry for changing the chapter titles, I thought I can include the acting part in this chapter but unfortunately, I couldn't. And also, I've done uploading the picture for Chapter 3 so you can go check them out now! :)
Bonus: I need 12 reviews if you want me to draw, so make me happy please!