Chapter Six: Check Out the Competition
Penelope and her friends waited in the harbor, staring up at the giant riverboat her parents owned.
"Fulton's Crab House," Tristan said reading the sign. "I heard they have the best crab legs in the world."
"You bet they do," Stephanie said. "I went there once for a buffet and I ate so many crab legs…I thought I would be sick. Those Alaskan king crabs are to die for."
"Really? I heard they're an endangered species," Tea said. "Or soon to be endangered."
"Endangered or not, those particular crabs are what keep the place running," Penelope said. "If the Alaskan king crab were to become extinct, I don't think the restaurant would do so well."
"Well, what are we standing around here for?" Joey said loudly. "Let's get on board already!" Yugi followed Joey to the ship, with Penelope, Tristan, Tea and Stephanie following close behind. A few minutes after the other duelists boarded the boat, it took off down the long winding river through the thick boggy woods.
The ship was a large white riverboat, with the words "Fulton's Crab House" written in red writing. There were tons of other duelists and guest on board already, mingling and showing cards to each other, or even having conversations that didn't relate to duel monsters.
Penelope walked through the crowd with Stephanie, both of them sticking out like sore thumbs among all the jeans and t-shirts worn by everyone else. Stephanie had a lavender sweatshirt, orange skinny jeans, orange sneakers, and several black star necklaces and earrings. Her blue-green, black and red hair was disheveled as usual, and she went a bit heavy on the eyeliner today.
Penelope stood out even more with her black outfit. Her leather jacket had studs and spikes on it, her mini-skirt was frayed with safety pins in it, her black and bright red socks went up to her thighs, visible under her black combat boots that were covered in buckles. Her hair was down and today she had her eyebrow ring in, as well as a good healthy dose of her favorite plum lipstick. Being fair with turquoise eyes and orchid hair was not an easy feat, especially in finding lipstick. Reds and browns clashed with her horribly, and her only options were either pink (which she couldn't stand) or plum.
The two girls walked along the deck and saw plenty of amateur duelists, most of them foolishly thinking they could make it to the finals and win. Penelope knew better. She used to be one of them. A couple of them were in awe of her, while others were a bit creeped out by her look.
"Come on," Stephanie said walking towards the set of stairs that led down to the lower decks. "Let's go find our room.""What about the others?" Penelope asked.
"I already told Joey where we would be. Now come on, let's go." Penelope followed Stephanie down the stairs and through a very elegantly decorated dining room. Of course, it was nothing new to her. She had been on this boat dozens of times with her parents on business trips and dealings.
They walked down a huge grand staircase and past all the tables and a parquet dance floor complete with a stage meant for live performances. The walls were done in a golden brocade with an oak border and finish on the floor, with an occasional ivory accent--the same color as the chair cushions and the table cloths.
"Wow, your parents must have done some remodeling," Stephanie said as the girls made their way down the hall to their suite. Tea would be sharing with them, but right now she was probably preoccupied with meeting up with old friends on deck.
They put their suitcases on their beds, and Penelope looked around the room. It was done in a red brocade wallpaper, with the same oak and ivory accents as there were in the dining room. The bathroom was larger than average, with ivory walls and a neatly folded pile of terracotta and white towels next to a set of toiletries.
"Wow. No matter how many times I come here, it always looks amazing," Stephanie said looking around the room.
"I just wonder when the tournament will started," Penelope said. "It's not like Kaiba to keep us waiting.""I'm sure it'll be starting soon," Stephanie said.
Just then a loud, smooth but masculine voice was heard over the intercom.
"Attention passengers, all duelists are asked to meet in the grand ballroom immediately."
"Well, that's our cue," Penelope said leaving the room. Stephanie followed and they went down the hall to where dozens of duelists had already gathered. Penelope immediately went over to Yugi and Joey, while Stephanie hung back with Tristan and Tea to watch.
"So, where's rich boy at?" Joey asked crossing his arms. "Hey! Where the hell are ya!" he shouted.
"I'm right up here, Wheeler." Seto Kaiba jumped (yes, jumped) down from the balcony and did a graceful landing in the center of the room in front of everyone.
"What a showoff," Penelope said. But she couldn't help but secretly admire his entrance. 'For a guy who spends nearly all his time playing duel monsters, he's probably in really good shape too.'
"Welcome to my tournament," he said smirking at the crowd. "Unlike the last tournament I held, this one will be a bit longer."
"Longer?" Joey asked. "You mean we have to spend a couple days cooped up on this ship with you?"
"Yes, you do. In fact, the tournament is three days long. Here's how it'll work. Mokuba! Turn on the screen."
"You've got it, big brother!" a higher pitched voice shouted from the balcony above. A huge big screen monitor came down from the ceiling, showing a short film of the contest.
Each duelist must have a duel disk and can duel anywhere on the ship. The international dueling rules will apply to each match. This means that each player will have four thousand life points and can have up to five monsters on the field. At the end of the first day, the boat will dock at the next down and drop off all the loosing contestants.
The second day will follow in the same fashion. Whoever remains on the ship without loosing a match will be a finalist.
On the third day the finalists will participate in a small tournament and the winner will receive a special grand prize.
The screen shut off and went back up and Seto Kaiba stood in the middle of the room with his arms crossed. His expression was stern and everyone instantly quieted down. For a seventeen year-old, he had a very powerful presence.
"So what's the prize?" a random duelist in the back shouted.
"Well then, I'll guess you'll have to win the tournament to find out. So…it's time to duel!" he raised his hand in the air. "Let the tournament begin!"
Penelope, Joey and Yugi immediately decided the best way to start winning the tournament would be to take on the amateurs that dared to challenge them. A young duelist by the name of Leah decided to take him on. Although she was a tough opponent for Yugi, he managed to pull through and win the match. Joey ended up dueling against a young boy who's name he didn't know, and Penelope ended up bumping into Rex Raptor, the accomplice of Weevil Underwood--who lost to her in the regional's.
The match itself proved to be difficult. Rex threw out every dinosaur type monster in his deck, while Penelope struggled to fight back with her dark-themed deck of monsters. She had a good set of trap and spell cards, one of her spell cards being a field spell that sent everything into darkness. But Rex managed to get past her tricks and knocked her down to only 500 life points. Penelope got back on her feet when she took control of one of his monsters and sacrificed it to play Mind on Air, the monster her brother gave her. Rex was in trouble for that turn, but once he drew his best monster, she was out of luck--until she drew her green-eyes silver dragon. Finally she was able to win the duel, with Rex leaving the ship that night--completely humiliated.
Now that the day of dueling was done, the competition had been cut down to 32 duelists. Seto was quite pleased that so many duelists were eliminated the first day. Better yet, Penelope was still on board…his plan was starting to come together, but not quite yet. He needed to see her.
The door to Kaiba's private suite opened, and Mokuba was standing in the doorway.
"Hello Mokuba."
"Hey Seto. I heard you won three matches today, congratulations!" he said smiling.
"Thank you," he said. "How are things going in the dining hall?"
"Everything is going great. The tables are set, and I had Rowland give the invitations to all the duelists on board."
"Thank you, Mokuba. You may go now."
"Okay Seto, I guess I'll see you later then." He nodded to his younger brother and watched the door close behind him.
"Now to get dressed," he said to himself as he made his way to his closet and began to change.
"What is that under the door?" Tea asked.
"I don't know," Stephanie said. "I'll check it out." She took the item from under the door and noticed that it was a white envelope. She tore it open to find a fancy white card that was covered in a gold leaf vine pattern inside.
"It's an invitation," she said showing it to Tea and Penelope.
Dear Duelists,
You are cordially invited to the Riverboat Tournament formal dance tonight at 8 o'clock.
Sincerely,
Seto Kaiba, Kaiba Corp.
The logo appeared on the top of the invitation, as well as on the outside of the card.
"Well girls, it looks like we've been invited to a dance," said Tea glancing at the invitation.
"And its formal," Penelope said sighing.
"What's wrong with that?" Stephanie asked. "You love dances."
"Not ones put on by Kaiba. I bet its going to be boring as hell."
"Well if it isn't…we'll make it fun," Stephanie said with a devious smirk. "Remember those school dances last year? Remember how much fun we made them?"
"Yeah…but I really don't want to deal with him."
"Don't worry," Tea said. "Kaiba is like, the most boring person on earth. He doesn't even dance. I bet you he won't even be there."
"Well, what do you say?" Stephanie asked. "Are you up for it?"
Penelope looked at her two friends and smiled.
"Yeah…let's do this."
That's it for now. Hopefully the dance will go well...but then again, things never go to how Penelope and Seto plan them. Thanks for reading and please review. :)