Yugioh GX: The Ancient City Tournament
"Welcome to the beginning of the Ancient City Tournament! You all may be thinking that we are a bit harsh to push our competitors out of the helicopters, but I can assure you that we know what we're doing! Our thirty-two duelists have been split into sixteen pairs, each pairing specifically picked to balance the individual strengths and weaknesses of each duelist! Now these duelists have got to work together in order to survive the treacherous island, to pass the mental and physical challenges in order to get Glyph Capsules and duel one another to gather ten of the capsules and advance onto the next round of competition! And the first challenge they have to face is a fifty yard swim to the shore! Let's see how this will end, shall we?"
Jaden crashed into the water below with a large splash and he was vaguely aware of another splash right near him. He focused on kicking and moving his arms to swim back to the surface of the water, sucking in a breath of air. As soon as his breathing was back under control, he looked around trying to spot the blonde he knew had been pushed in just after him. Just as he was about to dive into the water to search, Alexis surfaced a few feet away from him, spitting out water and sucking in air. "Alexis, you okay?" Jaden called out, swimming over to her.
Alexis pushed her hair out of her face and tried to stay afloat. "I'm okay! But what's going on?"
"I guess this is what they meant by 'physical challenge'," Jaden mused before he motioned for Alexis to follow him as he started to swim towards the shore. He saw Alexis swimming just a bit behind him and frowned. "I just hope the others are okay."
Jesse's heart was racing as he looked around in the water. He spotted Yugi quickly surfacing beside him, but it hadn't been the King of Games that had gotten the blunette to panic. It wasn't even the fact that they had just been pushed out of a helicopter and fell twenty feet to the water below them. It was the realization that every one of the competitors had more than likely been subjected to the same treatment. And his mind had automatically gone to his best friend who couldn't swim and was positively terrified of the water.
"Yugi, we gotta find Danni!" Jesse shouted towards the man beside him who was treading water just as he was.
Yugi nodded his head in agreement, looking around at the water closest to them. When he couldn't see anything or anyone—and when he could feel his legs tiring—he looked to Jesse. "We have to get to the shore."
Jesse looked alarmed. "What? We gotta get ta Danni! She can't swim and ya know she hates the water! We gotta get ta 'er!"
"I know, I'm just as concerned as you are, but we can't do anything about it right now. We have to get to shore and pray that whoever she's with can take care of her."
Jesse didn't look at all happy with that situation but nodded reluctantly as he started swimming towards shore with Yugi. "Danni… ya better be alright."
"Ahh! Help!"
Atticus surfaced from the water quickly and shook his head, looking around to the sound of the screaming. He immediately saw Danni just behind him, splashing and freaking out as she kept disappearing underneath the surface of the water. Her arms were flailing around wildly and he could hear her coughing and sputtering. Atticus immediately started to swim over to her. "Danni, calm down, I'm right here!" Atticus assured as he got closer. Before he could reach her, she completely disappeared underneath the surface of the water. "Damn it!" Atticus cursed before he dove under the water, quickly swimming up behind Danni and wrapping an arm around her waist. He swam up to the surface with a practiced ease and the two resurfaced, Danni immediately starting to cough up the water that had filled her mouth. "I've got you, don't worry and don't start freaking out on me, okay?" Atticus advised.
Danni immediately stopped squirming and nodded, continuing to cough. "T-They pushed us out of a h-h-helicopter!" Danni said hysterically as Atticus started the swim towards the shore, with Danni firmly in his grasp.
"I know… what the hell, right?" Atticus commented, listening to Danni's hysterical breathing. "Try not to hyperventilate on me, Danni."
Again Danni took his advice and tried to slow her breathing as Atticus continued to power through the act of swimming the fifty yards to the shore. He swam for around five minutes before he felt sand under his feet. Immediately he stood up and started walking up towards the beach, lifting Danni so she was mainly out of the water. Once they were completely out of the water, Atticus dropped to the sand, letting go of Danni before lying on his back, breathing deeply. Danni fell onto the sand beside him, a relieved expression gracing her face.
"You okay?" Atticus asked in between deep breaths.
Danni nodded enthusiastically before rolling over and pressing three kisses to Atticus's cheek. "Yes, thank you, thank you, thank you!"
Atticus turned his head and gave the girl a wide smile. "Well if that's my reward, I'll save you from drowning more often."
Danni smiled back at him before rolling so she was lying on her back, looking up at the sky and catching her breath. "Where are we?"
A ringing noise caught their attention. Immediately they scrambled up, Atticus opening up one of the pockets of Danni's bag to pull out her CSS before he reached around so they could both see the device blinking with a new message notification. Danni tapped the screen and immediately the new message appeared. "Attention duelists, as you are all aware, this competition is very different than normal tournaments. You will be pushed into severe physical and mental trials. You have the option of leaving your partner or staying with them. You will all need to collect ten Glyph Capsules before you can head to the next phase of the competition. Only the first sixteen duelists who collect ten Glyph Capsules and make their way to the next area before the end of this week will be able to compete. Good luck."
"You have got to be kidding me," Danni muttered, looking to Atticus as if he would tell her this was all a sick joke. But unfortunately he looked just as shocked and confused as Danni did. "What physical and mental trials are they even talking about?"
The CSS beeped again and Atticus took the device from her hands. He tapped a few things and swiped something before a map appeared on the screen with the layout of the island and dozens of red and blue flags scattered across. Atticus pointed to the key at the bottom of the map. "Look, the red flags are physical challenges and the blue ones are mental."
"So we have to start collecting Glyph Capsules by completing one of these challenges so that we can wager them in duels?" Danni guessed. At Atticus's shrug, she sighed and shook her head. "Alright, which is the closest flag?"
"Um…" Atticus muttered as he scrunched his face up, trying to figure out which flag was closest to the black blip that showed where they were. "I think the closest one is a mental challenge. It looks like it should just be a few miles through the forest."
Danni peered over his shoulder and shrugged. "Well that's the best plan we have so far. Let's get going!"
"Well, they can definitely say this tournament is unique," Jaden commented as he pushed leaves and branches out of his face. Not long after he and Alexis had reached the shore, they had received the mass message on their CSS. And the two had quickly taken off heading for the first red flag a mile and a half North of where they were.
Alexis nodded her head. "You can say that again. I think getting pushed out of a helicopter makes this one of the craziest tournaments I've ever competed in."
Jaden laughed and held back a branch so Alexis could pass by easier. "I don't know, we've had some pretty crazy tournaments back at Duel Academy."
"Yeah, but that was dueling for the fate of the world. This one's just for fun," Alexis pointed out as Jaden fell into step beside her again.
"Touché," Jaden laughed. "So what do you think this physical challenge is going to be?"
Alexis shrugged her shoulders and looked down at the CSS to make sure they were still going in the right way. Then she looked back to Jaden and saw that he had been looking to her for her answer. "Maybe it's something that has to do with swimming again? We're on an island after all."
"Hm… maybe!" Jaden grinned excitedly. "I'm gonna be honest, this tournament seems pretty crazy but I like it!"
Alexis laughed and the two continued to talk quietly amongst themselves before they emerged from the row of trees and spotted a red flag mounted on a wooden stake with a sign right underneath it. Alexis crouched down to read it. "Jaden, look at this. 'Buried Treasure: Before you is a twelve by twelve foot dirt pit. Inside of the pit are sixteen Glyph Capsules. You must dig so that you and your partner each get one Glyph Capsule. Only one Capsule is allowed per duelist.' Huh, it doesn't seem hard."
"Yeah, I kind of expected something more for a physical challenge," Jaden agreed before shrugging. He offered a hand to help Alexis up before the two walked a few feet to the large roped up section of dirt in a small clearing of trees. "This shouldn't be too bad," Jaden commented as he removed his backpack and immediately hopped into the pile of dirt. Alexis followed his lead—much less enthusiastically—and the two began to reach into the dirt, moving sections away in order to look for the tiny Glyph Capsules. They had been searching for around a minute before Alexis grinned triumphantly and stood upright, pulling out a tiny capsule, cleaning the dirt off the see the golden markings.
"Jaden, I found one!"
"Already? I haven't even felt anything!" Jaden complained as he continued shifting through the soil. "This isn't what I thought it would be like when they said 'physical challenge'."
"How in the hell is this a mental challenge?!"
Danni rolled her eyes and instead focused on the task at hand. They had been working on the mental challenge that they had decided to go to first and were finding it increasingly difficult. Their task was to figure out a way to unweave a large piece of string from two poles, one resting against the ground and one above it in the air resting in between two pieces of wood on each side. They had to unravel the string—without breaking it—anyway they could in order to stretch the string out and get a key that was in the center. The key would then unlock a box that held two Glyph Capsules, one for each of them. And after Atticus had managed to hit himself seven times when he ducked and climbed over the metal pole, he had started to get frustrated.
"There's got to be an easier way to do this," Atticus said shaking his head as he climbed over the pole for what appeared to be the tenth time without getting any closer to solving the key to the mystery before him.
Danni shook her head and sat down at the ground, examining the maze of white string woven between the two poles. "We can't cut it," she spoke aloud, trying to come up with a solution. She stared at it for a few more minutes—with Atticus just staring at her, hoping she'd come up with something—before she looked surprised. "Atticus, hold that string," Danni ordered before she hopped to her feet. Atticus frowned and held the end of the string that he had been trying to unravel for over twenty minutes and nodded. Danni walked over towards one end of the pole resting between the two pieces of wood and lifted it slightly, feeling it move easily. She grinned and started to slide the pole out from in between the wood, watching as the string started to come undone as the thing holding it was taken away.
"You are a genius," Atticus grinned.
Danni smiled back. "Thanks, now let's get those capsules!"
Jesse was pretty proud of the progress he and Yugi made so far. Since they had gotten to the beach they had gone full-steam ahead. They had gone through two flags already—both of them physical challenges in which strength had been called into play—and they each had two Glyph Capsules already. They had stopped after their second challenge once they saw the sun was starting to set and had decided to set up a camp. They had gathered firewood, set out their backpacks to use as pillows and pulled out their jackets so they wouldn't have to worry about keeping warm at night. The two were sitting around the campfire they'd made in silence, each wrapped up in their own thoughts.
"She'll be alright."
Jesse snapped his head up to look at Yugi to see him looking at him with a small smile on his face. Yugi caught the surprised look on Jesse's face and smiled a bit wider. "Danni… she'll be alright. There's no way that the producers would let anything happen to her, and she's smart. She can handle herself out here."
"I know," Jesse responded, with a nod. "I know she can it's jus'… we've been watchin' out for 'er for so long. And now—"
"And now she'll prove to us that she can watch out for herself."
"Atticus, how in the world did you set yourself on fire?!"
"JUST PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!"
"STOP RUNNING!"
Splash!
Danni waved the smoke away from her face and sighed in relief when she saw that Atticus was no longer on fire. She dropped the empty bucket that they had found earlier on in the day and sat down by her bag, looking at the brunette boy in front of her. Atticus had plopped down soon after his pant leg stopped burning, sprawled out on the ground dramatically. "Seriously, how in the hell did you set yourself on fire?"
"The mysteries of life."
"I'm not going to survive this week am I?"
"Nope! But hey, we can both enjoy the afterlife together."
"Well there's always a silver lining."
"Well this has been one crazy day," Jaden commented as he sat down beside Alexis in front of their campfire. After spending nearly half an hour digging in the dirt pit, Jaden had finally found a Glyph Capsule and they had decided to start travelling towards the next physical challenge. They had gotten around halfway there before they decided to set up camp. "Hey I wonder if we can find someone to duel tomorrow."
"I would be okay with just finding someone," Alexis added on, hugging her knees to her chest as she looked over at the two-toned brunette who was sprawled out on the ground in front of the fire, just watching it. "This island is so big, I hope we can find anyone."
"I'm sure we will!" Jaden grinned, rolling over slightly so he was looking at her. He frowned suddenly, catching Alexis off-guard.
"What's wrong?"
"Are you cold?" Jaden asked with a frown still on his face.
Alexis blinked at first before her mind registered the question. In truth she truly was cold. She'd forgotten to pack her jacket—thanks to Atticus singing at her, Zane, and Syrus right as they were packing their bags—and she could feel the island start to get colder and colder. She grinned sheepishly at Jaden and shrugged. "Yeah, but it's no big deal."
Jaden nodded wordlessly and pushed himself to his feet, grabbing his backpack and moving to walk over towards where Alexis was seated. She looked at him curiously and watched as he dumped his bag by hers and plopped down onto the ground beside her. He immediately started to pull off the red leather jacket he had on and handed it towards the blonde with a smile on his face. "Here, you can put this on. It doesn't look too thick, but it's surprisingly warm on the inside."
"Jaden, no," Alexis immediately declined, shaking her head vehemently. "You need that so you don't get cold."
"I'm used to the cold. Trust me Alexis, I'll be fine. You take it."
Alexis pouted for a second before sighing. "Are you sure Jaden?"
"Alexis, take the jacket."
Alexis smiled a bit and rolled her eyes before reaching out to take the jacket from the former Slifer. She slipped it onto her arms and smiled at the fact that it was indeed warm. There was also the little fact that it happened to smell like the boy next to her, which made her appreciate the jacket more. "Thanks Jaden."
Jaden gave her a smile and shrugged. "No problem. Do you think we should get some sleep soon?"
"Yeah probably," Alexis agreed with a nod, looking at the CSS in her lap to see that it was around seven o'clock. "We should get an early start tomorrow so we can get to as many challenges in as possible to get more Glyph Capsules. We just need to get ten before we get to the next round and we only have six more days."
Jaden bowed his head slightly with a grin on his face. "As you wish your highness."
Alexis laughed and shoved Jaden away slightly, causing the boy to laugh as well. "Alright Sir Jaden Yuki, let's get some rest. I'm sure we'll need it."
