V.E.: Ahh, the boat ride. The tranquil journey down the Nile before everything bursts into flames. One of my favorite parts of the movie. And that's not just because it's one of the parts of the movie I actually watched.
Okay maybe that is it a little. I'm currently going through the whole movie again. But I know that this isn't going to be an exact copy of the movie. And this is going to be divided into two chapters, when it's smooth sailing and when everything goes to pieces.
It took some brainstorming, but here we are.
Pegasus laid the cards down on table. Ace high straight.
"I win again!"
His fellow players gasped in disbelief.
"Impossible! That's the fifth time in a row you've won!"
"Hey mister big shot, how are you cheating?"
Pegasus' gleeful expression didn't change as he answered. He unconsciously brushed his hand over the hair that covered one of his eyes. At least, that's what most people would have thought.
"I never cheat. Let's just say I'm gifted at reading people. Anyone want to go double or nothing?"
Atem Muto smirked as he watched the hapless fools gamble what was left of their money with the flamboyant CEO and while smart ones finally caught on and bowed out.
His grandfather would have found the whole exchange amusing, but he was currently checking over their luggage and other things they had brought. Professor Hawkins was currently having a game with Rebecca, leaving Yugi out of her death like hugs for a while to get Ryou up to date on what had been going on. Bakura was at a table a few feet away eating his steak with the younger of the two twins, observing his Millennium Ring with an irritated expression on his face.
It was currently evening and the majority of the expedition were gathered on the deck, enjoying the serene evening on the water. Or gambling and drinking.
Being too young to enjoy the later, Atem was just observing them. He had to admit, these archaeologists were somewhat fools. He remembered how Kaiba had told him how Pegasus defeated the former American Duel Monsters Champion Bandit Keith, without even having to duel him. He was actually kind of glad he never had to duel Pegasus.
Though, Atem did wonder why on earth Pegasus was here. What possessed him to go on this expedition when he must have had a bunch of different things he could doing? He knew for a fact Kaiba would never set foot within a million miles of a place that had no internet connection or electricity like the desert they were about to head through.
Speaking of the dour CEO, Seto Kaiba currently had his arms folded as he leaned back on a crate. Looking as if he would like to be anywhere in the world other than here.
Atem walked over and did exactly as the CEO had done.
"So what are you really doing here?"
Seto's eyes rolled over to the older and more confidant Muto.
"What are you talking about?"
"Don't try and fool me. After all the times you've said the past is not important, I find it hard to believe that you would finance a archaeology dig. So I repeat, what are you doing?"
Seto sighed.
"If you must know, it was Pegasus who brought me into this deal. He came to my office two months ago and wouldn't leave me alone until I helped finance this expedition. Believe me, I can think of a bunch of better things to do with my money."
Atem still looked at his dueling rival skeptically.
"That still doesn't explain what you are doing here."
Kaiba grimaced.
"Well a little after that, Mokuba insisted that I needed a vacation. Away from anything to do with Kaiba Corp, so staying Japan was not an option."
Atem gaffed trying to hold in a laugh.
"So your little brother kicked you out of your own company?!"
Seto's glare went up ten notches.
"VACATION Muto! Anyway, have you noticed something unusual?"
Atem had no idea where Seto was going with this.
"What do you mean?"
Seto's head jerked toward the sides of some of the people onboard. Most if not all carried some firearm of sorts.
"I mean, for an archaeological expedition, there seems to be a lot of guns. What on earth are those doing here? Don't tell me you morons actually believe in those Egyptian curses."
"That has nothing to do with it."
Both duelists turned their attention to find Mahad right next to them, a thoughtful expression on his face.
His face changed to have some slight disgust as he realized who the person he was answering was.
"Although, it would certainly do you some good to listen to those things."
Seto rolled his eyes in response.
"Blah, blah, blah. Unless it's something you can actually prove, I don't want to hear it."
Mahad sighed.
"One of these days, that attitude of yours is going to kick you in your soft spot. And I will be there to laugh maniacally about it and say 'I told you so.'."
Atem tried to diffuse the tension for once(that was Yugi's job, he was the one who usually caused the tension and disaster).
"Calm down. Mahad, you were talking about the guns."
Mahad remembered and stopped his hostilities towards Kaiba(for the moment).
"Right. Well, in any expedition there is always a chance of trouble with desert tribes. Plus, there are people who disagree with Egyptian artifacts housed in places other than Egypt and have resulted to using terrorism. The guns are just protection."
Atem wasn't fooled by the calm air Mahad was projecting.
"Mahad, you're not comfortable with this at all."
Mahad grimaced.
"Well, it's better to be safe than sorry. In case you hadn't noticed, foreigners aren't looked upon too kindly here."
RING!
Mahad reached into his pocket and checked his phone. A disgusted expression twisted on his face.
Kaiba observed the expression.
"What's wrong Kurozaki? Mix up with the Japanese and Korean antiquities back at your museum?"
"Worse, my uncle. I need to take this. Atem, could you look for Mana for me?"
Atem sighed.
"Sure."
"Thanks."
With that, Mahad pressed a button and briskly walked away. As if sensing he was probably going to be raising his volume and didn't want people to hear.
Seto looked surprised as he watched Mahad leave.
"I heard you talk about it earlier, but I just couldn't believe it. Kurozaki has a sister? What's she doing here?"
Atem shrugged. That was actually a very good question. What was she doing here?
"I wonder that myself."
"Anything like him?"
Atem considered it for a moment.
"To be honest, they don't really resemble each other."
Seto 'hmphed.'
"Well, at least that's in her favor."
Atem's voice almost raised to a dangerous level.
"Kaiba…"
"Yeah, yeah. Just so you know, I want a duel before this miserable vacation is over."
And with that, Kaiba stalked off to do who knows what. Probably to try and get an internet connection and check Kaiba Corp's stocks.
Atem shook his head and sighed. Kaiba never changed, not that he had expected him to.
He'll have to get in line after Bakura. Well, might as well go find Mana. And hope she's not in a smacking mood.
He scanned the ship and then recalled her going over to the side a while ago. He turned the corner and saw the boxes along with the animals away from where everyone else could see or smell them.
Mana was seated at a table near the camels, sketching something down and not paying attention to anything else.
So much, that she didn't hear Atem come near and sit down. At least, that's what he thought.
"Do you have to come and bother me?"
Atem shot her a leveled look.
"It's a boat ride. They encourage us to wander around as long as it's not near the engine stuff. I think I can come and go as I please."
"What are you doing?"
"Your brother wanted me to look for you."
Mana didn't take her eyes of the sketchbook.
"Whatever. If Mahad wants to talk to me, he can find me himself."
Atem felt his mouth get the better of him(AGAIN).
"What's your problem?"
That got her to look up, with an incredibly irritated look on her face.
"Excuse me?"
"Mahad is concerned about you and you just blow him off. He's one of my best friends. I don't know what's going on, but you shouldn't treat your brother like that!"
Mana's eyes narrowed.
"What makes you think you have the right to tell me what to do? You don't know anything about me and my brother. You didn't even know I existed until yesterday."
Atem sighed.
"Alright, then help me understand. You said you're here against your will. Explain that."
Mana sighed.
"That's pretty straightforward. I'm here because Mahad couldn't leave me Japan on my own. Of all the place we had to go…"
Atem felt one of his eyebrows raise.
"You don't like Egypt?"
Mana shot him a leveled look.
"Would you like Ancient Egypt, if that is all your older brother would ever talk about? And he wouldn't stop unless you stopped him? The first time my brother tried to talk about mummification, I had to sneak a snake down his back to make him shut up. I was grounded for a week."
Atem considered her words.
"Point taken, I suppose."
Mana suddenly became unsure.
"And…well.."
Atem's curiosity was aroused by Mana's response.
"Well?"
"It's like…don't you get this feeling? That something bad is going to happen? I mean, I don't like it here, but I just feel like doing this is wrong."
"Wrong?" Atem echoed.
Mana fidgeted, debating with herself to tell or not to tell. Finally, she decided he didn't know her well enough to be trusted the full details.
"Maybe I'm just overreacting."
Her eyes wandered down to his pyramid pendant. For some reason, when she looked him(not that she did it often) she found herself drawn to it. Almost like her eyes going to Bakura's Millennium Ring. Like it was important to her and she was supposed to watch it.
Then she noticed a glint of silver right by it, but that went under Atem's shirt.
Mana felt herself almost redden. She did not want to see that(at least that's what she told herself).
She tried to get back to a conversation. She did feel a little sorry for the smack and he was kind of cute.
"So what do you think about the curses?"
"You believe in that stuff?"
Mana shrugged.
"I don't know, but I have to admit there feels like there's something more than meets the eye that's going on. I mean, some of the people here, talk in hushed tones like they're scared of something."
Atem hmmed.
"Well I haven't noticed that, but I feel like that too. Trust me when I say I've seen too many things I can't explain."
Sarcasm crept into Mana's voice.
"That sounds so reassuring."
"It wasn't supposed to be."
Mana got up with a sigh.
"I'll go find my brother. Do whatever you want."
Atem watched her leave.
She's interesting to say the least. Did she really put a snake down Mahad's shirt? Still, kind of cute.
However, this train of thought was disturbed by rustling over by the crates near Atem. He was started and listened.
"Keep it down!"
"That's my foot!"
Atem felt his eyes roll. He knew those annoying voices, though he wished he didn't.
He walked right over and grabbed the two out into the open, slamming them against the railing. One false move and they'd go over board.
They were both short, around his brother Yugi's height. The first had aqua blue hair and big yellow glasses with a bug on them wearing a green jacket and black shorts. The second had brown hair with a hint of light purple covered by a red hat, who also had a green jacket on which was darker.
Atem felt his patience dwindle.
"Weevil Underwood and Rex Raptor. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't throw you off this boat."
Weevil answered first.
"You wouldn't dare!"
Atem's glare intensified which left the lesser duelist cringing.
"Considering what you did to my grandfather's Exodia cards on the boat to Duelist Kingdom, I'd say that'd make us even. Joey almost got hypothermia for that!"
Weevil gathered his courage and shot a response.
"I didn't tell Wheeler to go swimming for them. That was his own stupid move!"
Rex Raptor was still a little nervous.
"Why would I do go over? I had nothing to do with that!"
Atem tightened his grip on the fools.
"No, you'd just go over because of proxy. And I really just don't like you."
He left them his choke hold for a minute before releasing them for them to catch their breaths. Which they needed because they were gasping like they had run a marathon. Atem obviously didn't know his own strength.
"So what are you two dweebs doing here? You're the last people I would expect to be interested in Ancient Egypt. You strike more as the Insect and Dinosaur exhibit types."
Weevil shot his duelist competitor a glare after successfully recovering air wise.
"Shows what you know. You're not fooling us."
Atem wasn't impressed with the self importance Weevil assigned himself.
"What are you talking about?"
Rex Raptor burst indignantly.
"Don't play us. We know you're searching for the Egyptian God Cards! Makes sense that you'd go after the cards that are stronger than Exodia."
Atem felt his curiosity increase.
"Stronger than Exodia?"
Rex continued even though his partner was making gestures at him to stop. Weevil had obviously realized that Muto didn't know anything.
"Well, of course! Pegasus himself designed the cards and apparently thought they were too powerful for anyone to handle. Why else is he on this expedition? To check up on the God Cards! When we heard about it, we just had to come here."
Weevil smacked his hand around his somewhat best friend's mouth.
"Don't tell him that you fool!"
Atem considered the information.
Considering that it comes from these two, makes this stuff questionable. However, Weevil is a horrible actor and he didn't want to me to know. Could Pegasus really be here because of that? He doesn't strike me as that serious the way he's acting. Then again, stranger things have happened.
Rex finally got Weevil's mouth off him.
"Why didn't you stop me earlier?"
"I was trying to you dino brain!"
Rex shrugged then got an idea.
"Hey, want to go hide out in that girl Mana's room? That way we'd see her change."
In less than three seconds(as much time as it took to draw a card from a duel deck), the two imbeciles were grabbed and pushed over the railing.
Atem called out to them as he heard them splash, somewhat satisfied of his work.
"Goodbye you poor excuses of duelists."
Atem smacked his hands, as if done with something messy. He turned to find something he hadn't noticed before.
A pair of what seemed to be wet footprints leading inside the boat.
"AND DON'T CALL ME AGAIN!"
Mahad shut off the phone before his uncle could make a response. He sighed, dealing with his uncle always tested his limits of patience.
He picked up his notebook off the bed along with the pen to its side, walking to the mirror as he wrote. He made a couple more notes on the translation on the map's inscriptions. Still, he wanted to make his own notes on the hieroglyphics and he wouldn't until he saw them himself.
The call with his uncle made him even more determined. Hakim had never approved of his nephew's career choice and never failed to make some joke when they met.
The book dropped to the floor and Mahad sighed. This wasn't the first time he had dropped it when he was in a mad writing mood.
He stooped down to pick it up and then returned back standing to almost scream(which he would deny he ever felt to do).
A veiled figure in white was right behind him. Before he could make a sound, it turned him around and held a knife to his throat. The voice low and guttal, disguised.
"Where is the Map?"
"Huh?!"
"Where are the Items?"
V.E.: And that's all for today folks. After this I'm updating BEC or doing a oneshot.
I don't like Weevil and Rex. They teamed up with Dartz, I can see them becoming Aknadin's toadies.
Well, the boat burns down in the next chapter, but until then.
Please review.
