Chapter Five: Obsession
Joey dashed down the streets of Domino, extremely grateful that since it was so late, the chances of meeting up with other young women that'd also go crazy for him were highly unlikely.
He looked back and saw the girls were still in full pursuit of him, screaming out with joy and attempting to push one another out of the crowd so that they couldn't get a chance to steal 'their man'.
"Come here, you gorgeous Adonis!" one girl called out.
"No, be mine, you beautiful blonde god!" another one yelled.
Oh, man, Joey thought to himself, now I get why de guys don't like bein' de ones every girl wants-CAUSE DOSE GIRLS ARE NUTS!
Just as he was about to dash past an alley, an arm suddenly reached out of it and yanked him inside with a yelp.
A few moments later, the girls with gold-glowing eyes skidded to a stop at the end of the alley and gazed down it. Although the alley was a bit long, Joey was not running down it; all there was within in was a couple of silvery trash bins, one of which looked strangely like new, and a homeless man wearing a large fedora and a ratty overcoat pulled all the way up to his eyes searching through the garbage.
"Hey! Did you see someone just run down here?!" one of the girls cried out to the homeless guy.
Without looking up at them, the homeless guy pointed down the alley and replied, "If you're referring to the blonde kid, he just went thataway."
Screaming with delight, the girls dashed past him, down the alley, and around the corner.
Once all of them were gone, the homeless man snapped his fingers and his ragged clothing went away, revealing him to be the Pharaoh. He rapped on the new-looking trash bin and said, "They're gone, Joey."
The can shivered a little and suddenly shifted back into Joey, who'd curled up into a ball on the ground before transforming into a trash can made of actual silver. He stood up as showers of magic sparks flew down to the ground and transformed back into the other heroes, with Spencer still lying unconscious on Tristan's back.
Joey looked over at the Pharaoh and said, "If I ever complain about not gettin' a girl ta notice me again, please slap me."
"I'll remember that for the next time you do so," Tristan grinned.
"Aw, shut up," Joey snapped at him.
Spencer stirred and slowly opened his eyes. "Wha…where are we?" he asked, looking around the dirty, trash-filled alley.
"Somewhere that those magically insane women won't be looking for Joey for quite a while," Tristan replied, letting go so that he could get down to the ground.
Spencer rubbed the part of his head where the tray had hit him and gently used his healing powers to get rid of the oncoming bruise and pain. He glared at Joey in the meantime and said, "Apparently your 'working just fine' ring has gone from giving you 'attraction' to total obsession. Do us all a favor, Joe-next time you get a package filled with magical goods you know nothing about, please just leave them alone!"
"Awright, awright, I will!" Joey cried out. "Just lemme get dis stupid ring off already…" He placed his two fingers on the ring and started yanking at it.
But it held fast onto his finger.
Joey paused for only a few moments. He then winced and started yanking harder on the ring, but it just plain refused to budge.
"Wheeler, this really isn't the time to play a stupid prank," Kaiba snapped at him.
"I'm not playin'!" Joey snapped back. "Dis dumb ting won't come off!"
"Wait a minute…" Spencer said. "Joey, if my memory serves correctly, then you had to recite an incantation in order for that ring to work, right?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Well, then there's another particular incantation you need to recite in order for its effects to go away." Spencer explained, "You looked for it on the same sheet or whatever you got the first incantation on, right?"
Joey paused. "Uhh…" His eyes averted Spencer's.
"You didn't even check?!" Spencer cried out. "You willingly turned yourself into this man without even knowing how you'd turn yourself back?!"
"HOW DE HECK WAS I SUPPOSED TA KNOW DERE WAS A CONDITION TA IT?!" Joey screamed at him.
A girl's voice was suddenly heard back at the other end of the alley: "OMG! He was really just hiding here!"
The teens looked up and were horrified to see one of Joey's admirers standing at the end of the alleyway, apparently watching to make sure he hadn't hidden from them while they were chasing him.
"GET HIM!"
The crowd of girls came dashing down the alley again, forcing the other heroes to jump out of the way as Joey and his girls once again engaged in a chase.
"GUYS, HELLLLP!" Joey screamed out in horror as he turned the corner and the girls followed suit.
The Pharaoh quickly started giving orders: "Spencer, could you please go back to Joey's apartment and find this paper containing the incantation to remove the ring from his finger?"
"Most definitely," Spencer replied, immediately snapping his fingers and transforming into a shower of gold sparks which soared up and away to Joey's place.
"In the meantime, we must make sure that those women don't destroy Joey in their obsession," Pharaoh told the others. "Quickly, after them!"
The teenagers turned and dashed after Joey and his followers once more. None of them noticed as they dashed past another alleyway two of Reginald's bodyguards come out of the place and start chasing after the rest of the people involved in the game of cat and mouse between the girls and Joey.
A shower of gold sparks soared down through the roof of Joey's room and transformed back into Spencer. He gazed around the messy room warily and murmured, "Dear gods, how does one find anything in this place?" He sighed. "Oh well…messy or not, I've gotta find that incantation…"
Joey dashed across a street right as the sign switched over to its 'DON'T WALK' symbol, leaving the girls stranded on the other side. He turned around and, seeing the girls standing in a group across the street, gave a sigh of relief.
However, he was stunned to suddenly see them dash across the intersection and even leap right over the tops of cars passing by in their pursuit for him. After getting over the shock, he quickly turned and started running again, thinking to himself, C'mon, Spencer, get me dat friggin' incantation already!
Spencer was turning over various piles of dirty laundry on the floor of Joey's room. He shuddered a little when he got a sudden whiff of one of his old socks. "Joey, man, don't you ever wash these things?" he groaned, waving his hand in front of his face. "Holy cow…"
The heroes pursued Joey and the girls as he turned a corner and dashed down another empty alley, with his crazed fans right on his tail. "STAY AWAY FROM ME!" Joey screamed out over his shoulder.
"Only when you tell us which one of us you'll have as your girlfriend!" one of the young women in the crowd replied.
Finally, Pharaoh held out his hands and created a dome-shaped force field around the girls. The ones at the front of the crowd slammed into its wall and slid to the ground while the others stared up at the clear, bubble-like thing around them in shock.
"Uh, should we really be doing that around the-you know-non-magicals?" Tristan asked, pointing at the crowd of star-struck women inside the force field.
"I think we should be all right," Pharaoh replied. "If at this moment they're being purely influenced by the ring's power, then once the spell wears off they shouldn't recall a thing which happened while they were under it."
Suddenly, the girls started coming together and shoving at the force field with all of their might, making Joey recoil from them in horror. Stunned, Pharaoh quickly held out his hands and prevented the field from bursting open. He winced and cried out, "There's too many of them-I cannot hold this for eternity!"
Joey looked up at the sky and cried out, "Spencer, man, come back here wit dat incantation already!"
Finally, after a long and disgusting search underneath old trash, piles of laundry, and messed-up blankets for a bed which were lying on the ground (assumedly from Joey tossing them off during the night), Spencer discovered the ring box lying on top of a pile of clothes, tossed onto it carelessly by Joey during his enthusiasm of transforming into a more handsome form of himself.
He hurriedly opened up the box and pried out the piece of paper stuck in the top. He glanced at the side with the original explanation for how to use the ring, then turned it over, scanned the back, and heaved a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank the gods," he breathed out.
Quickly, he transformed back into a shower of gold sparks and soared out of Joey's room, setting his sensing powers in tune with Joey's magic.
Joey slowly stepped away from the force field as the girls angrily bashed on it with their fists and even lunged towards him with the entirety of their bodies. "Spencer, where are you, man…" he whispered in terror.
Finally, a shower of gold sparks landed beside Joey and transformed back into Spencer. He shoved the paper with the incantation into his hand and yelled out, "READ!"
Joey quickly glanced down at the sheet and screamed,
Aphrodite, akyrono sas goitevo!
The ring glowed with a golden light which once again spread all over Joey's body. He shut his eyes and heaved a sigh of relief as he felt the effects of Aphrodite's magic slowly wear off of him.
Once the glow started to fade and the others saw that Joey had returned to his normal self, Pharaoh held out his hand and quickly made all of them invisible. He then snapped his fingers and the force field went away, sending the girls that were lunging at it flying onto the ground.
The girls looked around in confusion at the alley, the glow in their eyes finally gone. "Hey, where are we?" one of them cried.
"I don't know, but this place is disgusting!" another replied, shrinking away in horror from an open trash bin that flies flew around.
"C'mon, girls, let's get out of here," the first said. The other girls nodded their head in agreement and, with the invisible heroes moving aside to let them pass, walked out of the alley and out of sight.
Once gone, the Pharaoh held out his hand again and returned the others to their visible forms. Joey glanced down at his normal self and sighed with relief. As he handed the ring over to Spencer who placed it back into its box, he said, "I never tought I'd say dis, but I am so happy for once ta just be de ignored underdog."
"How nice that you've finally decided to accept it as your eternal position," Kaiba sneered at him.
"OH, SHUT UP!" Joey yelled at him.
The teenagers started walking back down and out of the alley; however, before they reached it, they suddenly heard a voice around the corner say, "Mr. Reginald, sir?"
"Reginald?" Pharaoh whispered in shock.
The teens slowly peered around the corner of the alley and saw two of Reginald's body guards standing on the sidewalk, one of whom was talking on a black cell phone. Spencer snapped his fingers and cast a spell which allowed them to hear the person talking on the other end of the line in their heads.
Have you found him yet?
"No, sir, he and the young ladies following him have been running all over the town, and they've become nearly impossible to track down."
If it's just 'nearly impossible', then you should be able to find him! Now go and get me that young man! I must have him for luring those young ladies to me to work at my club in the other world!
"Yes, sir."
The man snapped the phone shut and put it into his pocket. The teens quickly ducked down as he and his buddy went running down the sidewalk in pursuit of their target.
"Joey, I believe it was you that those men were referring to," Pharaoh said to him once they'd past.
"Aw, great-first crazy girls an now a crazy evil night club owner? Don't dose people ever give up on deir chases for hot, powerful guys like dat?" Joey groaned.
Pharaoh smiled. "Welcome to my world."
"So now what do we do?" Joey asked.
Spencer grinned with delight. "I know exactly what we can do-if Reginald wants to see that hot guy for his kidnapping purposes, then why don't we give him to him?"
The others turned and stared at him. "DERE'S NO WAY I'M PUTTIN' DAT RING BACK ON!" Joey yelled out.
"No, no, no, that's not what I meant. I've got a different idea in mind-one which will most definitely let us take Reginald down once and for all…"