Chapter 6

As the door slowly creaked open, Marshmallon was having second thoughts on agreeing to this adventure. Winged Kuriboh fluttered his wings, also nervous. The house that they were on, 34 Number Avenue, was old and dilapidated. There were barely any roof shingles, and the windows were streaked with must and dust. When the door finally opened, Marshmallon and Kuriboh were startled to see that no one was behind the door to open it. Instead, they heard a cool female voice saying, "Welcome to the GMSHQ, or the Government of Marshmania Secret Headquarters. Please enter and the system will scan you for anything that you might have brought in." Marshmallon hesitated, but boldly floated through the threshold. Kuriboh followed. A green laser began to scan them, passing through their bodies. The walls were pure white and smooth, and the door automatically closed behind them.

"SCAN COMPLETE. DETECTED TWO-OH-SEVEN POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS ORGANISMS." said a new voice. This voice was vaguely human, but mostly robotic. "ELIMINATING ORGANISMS." The instant that the computer finished uttering this sentence, Marshmallon began to feel an unfamiliar tingling sensation. Another laser swept through him, this time a blood-red colour. Then just as quickly as the feeling started, it stopped, but the laser was still finishing its course across his body. "ORGANISMS ERADICATED." beeped the computer.. "ATTEMPTING SECOND SCAN." A moment later, the laser swept through them again, but it was green and the red laser was not used. "SCAN COMPLETE. NO DETECTED ORGANISMS." Immediately after the computer finished scanning, a hole opened in the wall and Marshmallon and Kuriboh noticed that the walls were not smooth as they were before, but had hinges on them, similar to a door. A big blue arrow pointed towards the open door. Marshmallon looked at Kuriboh, and nodded. The duo floated/flew toward the door, and when they went through, the door behind them slammed shut with a loud BANG.

"Uh oh." said Marshmallon.

"Yep." said Kuriboh.

"Hello there, Marshmallon and Winged Kuriboh." said a mysterious, male voice. "I understand that you two are the only Marshmallons and Winged Kuribohs in Marshmania correct?" asked the voice. Kuriboh looked around to try to locate the source of the voice, but with no avail. The voice seemed to come from every wall.

"Yes? Maybe? I have no idea." said Marshmallon. " Are we, Kuriboh?"

Kuriboh frowned. "I don't think so. Actually, I have no idea. I've never seen any other Marshmallons and Winged Kuribohs, but Marshmania is a big place, isn't it? They could be anywhere in the universe."

"Who are you anyway?" demanded Marshmallon.

A big shape rose up from the back of the room. "I am a representative of the Government of Marshmania." the voice said. "My codename is Gopher."

Kuriboh giggled. "Goofer?"

Gopher sniffed disdainfully. "No, Gopher. Although if you cannot say it properly, call me Happy instead."

Now Marshmallon was smiling. "Okay, Happy." then he looked around and frowned. "Wait. Why are we here again?"

"You are here because we need you to save the world." said Happy.

"What's wrong with the world?" asked Marshmallon.

"You two know about Marshozite, the mineral that powers all our systems, right?"

"Obviously! It's used nowadays because Ener-D is way too crazy and it's safer." said Kuriboh, shuddering at the thought at another Zero Reverse, the incident that nearly destroyed New Domino City, the place where Yusei Fudo comes from.

"Basically, yes.." said Gopher. "Unfortunately, an unknown second major Zero Reverse has happened in another dimension-"

"WHAT?!" the duo cried, very unaware of this very important piece of information.

"Now if you would listen and not go "what" to everything I say, I can tell you about what is going on. So yes, a second Zero Reverse has happened in the Arc-V Synchro Dimension. The area was using too much Ener-D and it just so happened that a mechanic was producing negative Ener-D, as he was fiddling with his Duel Runner engine. As a result, the Runner engine made contact with the positive spinning, but at critical point Ener-D reactor and even though the mechanic miraculously survived, much of the city was completely destroyed. The requirement of moving people and spirits resulted in last year's blackout of energy. It also should tell you why there has been an enormous rise in population that week." explained Gopher. "But now we are running low on Marshozite. The government has not released this information to the public, but only Marshmallon and Kuriboh-type spirits are able to make contact with the mineral without instantly vaporizing themselves. We are conducting research, but that is why only you may help us right now."

"Wait a minute." said Marshmallon. "If you said that only we can touch it, then why hasn't the world's supply already fallen into lava or something and melted away? Also, why can't you manufacture it at a molecular level?"

"Yeah." said Kuriboh. "Why doesn't Marshozite just destroy everything in its way and get thrown into space or something?"

"Well, some materials in the earth's core help stabilize it from completely falling, but you're right. Most of the world's supply has fallen into lava." he admitted, scratching the back of his head. "But we have located some deposits of the mineral, and it seems like an opponent has also found them, as they are rapidly disappearing. We hope that you can search out these deposits, while at the same time try to find out who and why the opponent is doing this."

"Should we?" Kuriboh asked Marshmallon.

"Well," began Marshmallon. "We do need a chaperone." then his face lit up. "Of course! Eggy can come!"

"Yeah!" cheered Kuriboh. "Okay, we'll only go if our friend, a Duelist-In-Training, can come with us."

Gopher blinked. "Well, I suppose so . . ." he turned away from Marshmallon and Kuriboh and whispered hurriedly into a walkie-talkie on his belt. After a minute or so, he put the walkie-talkie back on the belt and turned to face them. "Alright, my boss says that that can happen. Remember to take these." he handed them three small boxes. "Inside the box there are items that can help you on your journey. Well, that's all you need to know, good-bye!"

Gopher shooed them out a secret back door and they raced off to find a cab that would take them to the World Cup, where Eggy was waiting for them.

"So, what happened?" he asked them. "And what are those three boxes with you?"

Marshmallon handed Eggy a box and told him the full story.

"What?!" Eggy seemed shocked. "No way!"

"By the way, who won?" asked Kuriboh, who just no ticed that the Duel between Yuma and William was over.

"William did." Eggy said off-handedly. "Yuma tried to counter him, but after a few more turns, William won by the effect of Penguin Soldier Ultimate. Yuma surprising forced him to use that as the last Xyz Material though." he added. "He deflected all the other detaches, and almost won, but when he re-summoned Utopia Ray Victory, it didn't have enough attack."

"We'll wait for the World Cup to blow over before we set off." decided Marshmallon.

"Okay." Kuriboh and Eggy said.

When they headed toward the hotel, the lights flickered for a moment and then came back on. "I really hope that that wasn't because of the lack of Marshozite." Kuriboh said nervously.

"I hope that the World Cup will finish soon." said Marshmallon as they returned to their hotel to sleep and wait for tomorrow to come.