The Problems with Girls
Disclaimer: Don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!, Buffy/Angel stuff.
A week or so had passed since Joey's first transformation into a werewolf, and Brian was still trying to dig up information on Yugi and his little necklace trinket. He sat alone in his apartment, sipping on his soda can while he browsed through the internet at pictures of ancient Egyptian artifacts and hieroglyphics. Not one of them showed anything even remotely close to Yugi's Millenium Puzzle.
"Nada, zip, zilch, nothin'...," he leaned back in his chair, cold soda in his hand, "Maybe I should leave this kind of thing up to Giles and the Scoobies, they always do good with research," he sighed, "If only Wesley was still around. He was also good at this sort of thing,"
Deciding to give up for now, Brian reached for the off button of his laptop when an instant messenger box appeared on screen.
The hell? Brian looked at the screen and looked at the name of the person contacting him.
Millennia Abyss
Who the hell is this? How'd they get my messenger name? Brian looked at the message in the window.
"I know what you seek,"
Okay, this is getting really weird. Guess I should answer, see where this goes... Brian shrugged and began to type back.
"And what is it that I seek?"
"Answers to the questions you have,"
Gee, why didn't I see that coming?
"What questions do I have then?"
Ha, beat that, Mysterio! he thought with a smirk.
"You wonder how a boy's trinket could relate to the attitude of those around your Slayer,"
Brian dropped his soda can, the caffeine filled drink splattering against the floor. Slowly, his fingers moved from key to key.
"Who are you?"
"A friend,"
A friend? Brian frowned, This is too weird...
"Knock, knock, Brian. You have a visitor,"
They know my na-?
Knock knock
Brian nearly fell out of his chair at the sound of someone knocking on his apartment door. Cursing, he reached up under the table and pulled out a small shotgun with it's barrels sawed off and already loaded. He gripped the shotgun and switched off the safety.
What the hell is this? When did this get all Matrix-y and when the hell did I become Neo?
He inched his way to the door, his firearm aimed straight for the door. He looked through the keyhole to see Duke standing outside, "What is it, kid?"
"Open up, man, I gotta tell you something,"
The Watcher was hesitant for a bit, but stepped out of the way, pulling the door open as he did. Before he could utter a word, Duke waltzed in. Brian facefaulted, At least he's not a vampire. He'd need my permission to come in...
He shut the door and walked behind Duke, his shotgun over his shoulder, "What is it, kid?" he repeated.
Duke turned and began to open his mouth, but stopped and a small, strangled cry when he saw the shotgun.
"Oh, lighten up and be glad I didn't shoot you," Brian muttered, tossing the shotgun onto the table. On contact with the furniture, a deafening boom resonated around the apartment as a large hole appeared in the wall nearby.
"Huh...," Brian tilted his head and clicked his tongue, "I should remember to put the safety back on. Anyhoo," he turned to Duke, "Before my neighbors call the cops to come bust my ass for illegal possession of weapons, say what you came to say,"
The dice-earring wearing teen cleared his throat, "Okay, it was the night Joey got bit by that werewolf, by the way, whatever happened to Jon, I haven't seen him at school?"
"He's taken care for now, now keep going," Brian waved him off and before Duke could start again, he walked over and pulled Duke's clothes away a little, peeking at his back.
"The hell man?" Duke pulled away quickly, "What're you doing?"
"Checking for a white-rabbit...,"
"...what?"
"Nevermind,"
"What happened to that lift that was here, before? I was wondering that when I came up,"
"Less talky and more...uh...screw it, just keep going, eh?"
After getting what he needed to talk to the Watcher about off his chest, Duke walked out of the front door of the apartment building and hit the streets. He noticed that the sun had gone down, but luckily, he remembered to bring his anti-vampire protection symbol Brian gave him and his friends not too long ago.
He felt the trinket under his shirt as he approached a crosswalk, glad that he and the others had met the Watcher. As he pressed the button to walk, he noticed something across the street.
It was that woman from the park.
She was walking on the sidewalk on the other side of the street, apparently listening to an iPod as she walked. Being one of the many males of his group, Duke thought of either tailing her alone or going back and telling Brian about it, but given the chances of catching up with her if he did so, Duke did the moron thing to do and began to tail her as soon as he crossed the street.
He kept his distance, but he had to keep his pace as well as not to lose her in the crowd of night-owls.
After awhile, the woman turned and entered Domino Park and Duke followed suit.
I must be out of my freakin' mind, but I can't lose her! If worse comes to worse, I got some protection with me! he thought, fingering his anti-vampire charm around his neck. After a short time, Duke came to a halt and found himself in a clearing of the park, all alone, the woman nowhere in sight.
"Dammit!" he kicked the grass and stuffed his hands into his pockets, "Lost her,"
Suddenly, a loud snapping sound was hear behind him, but before he could turn around to see what was behind him, Duke felt a sharp pain in his neck and seconds later, he fell to the ground unconscious.
Kairi giggled as she and Klavier circled the knocked out teen.
"This is one of the Slayer's friends," she clapped happily, "Oh, what to do, what to do, what to do?" she looked at Klavier, "Can I have first bite?"
"No," Klavier knelt down and rolled Duke over onto his back, "I got another idea," he smiled mischievously, "A fun idea...,"
"...breathing?"
Poke
"I...alive?"
Poke poke
Duke groaned and flailed his arms around, irritated that someone was trying to interrupt his wonderful sleep.
"Hey, you okay, kid? You shouldn't be sleeping out in the park alone,"
Park? Alone? Sleeping? Duke's eyes shot open and found a few people looking down at him. A kid, a young woman and an older man, all with worried looks on their faces. He tried to sit up, but stopped and winced because he felt pressure on his chest and it felt sore.
"Wha...what's going on?" he asked.
His hands went to his throat, My voice is different...great, I probably caught a throat virus or something... he moaned and roll over onto his side, hoping to ease the pain on his chest. As he rolled over, he noticed something different about his hands. They were smaller and his fingernails looked cleaner and more manicured. While he was looking at his fingers, Duke noticed something else about him. He looked down and saw something poke outward from inside his shirt, so he looked inside and let out a scream.
"Tea, you have a visitor!"
The Domino City Slayer entered the living room just as her mother was leaving. The brunette saw a young teenage girl, maybe sixteen or so waiting anxiously. She was a bit shorter than her, had a head of shiny black hair with a red bandanna around her brow, a pair of nervous green eyes and familiar looking earrings made of dice.
Great, one of Duke's fangirls... Tea sighed and walked over, "Can I help you?"
"Tea, you gotta help me!"
And she knows my name. Of course, some of Duke's fans are close to the level of stalkers... Tea brushed her hair out of her eyes, "You need my help? Look, as far as I know, Duke's not seeing anyone, so don't ask about being his girlfriend and-,"
"TEA!" the girl grabbed her shoulders firmly and looked into her blue eyes, "I'm Duke!"
The living room became quiet.
Tea laughed nervously and pulled away, "Oookay, listen, I know you girls love Duke, but to actually dress up like him and take his name...you're really getting on the psycho-stalker level,"
"I'm serious!" the girl stomped her foot, making a face shortly after that looked as though she regretted doing that, "It's really me, Duke! I was in the park last night, I passed out and then I got turned into a girl!"
Tea crossed her arms, a disbelieving look on her face.
"Alright, 'Duke', then answer me this. You and another person like this girl. Who are these people?"
"Tristan Taylor and Serenity Wheeler," the girl answered almost instantly, "and during Battle City, we were sucked into a virtual world where Tristan got his mind transferred to a robotic monkey because one of the Big Five stole his body after losing a duel to him!"
Again, the living room became quiet.
Eyes wide and very quiet, Tea walked over to the girl and looked her over before staring into her eyes.
"D...Duke? Is that really you?"
"YES! YES! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, YES!!"
"What uh...," Tea raised a hand to her mouth to hide a growing smile, "What...what happened to you?!"
Duke rolled his eyes, "I don't know! I was in the park this morning, wearing my clothes, but instead of my usual self, I was a chick! You gotta...WHAT THE HELL IS SO FUNNY?!"
Joey, Tristan, Yugi, Ryou, Serenity and Brian stared in silence at the girl that was the dice-loving teen just the day before. Joey folded his arms and tilted his head, "I dunno...Tea, quit yankin' our chains. This girl's too cute to be Duke, so-OW!" the blonde held his forehead after a small dice shot out of nowhere and clonked him good between the eyes.
Duke held up his hand, showing a few more dice, "Believe me now, Wheeler?"
"She...," Tea coughed lightly, "He, sorry Duke, came by my house this morning and when I saw him, I couldn't believe it either until he said stuff that only we would know," she turned to her Watcher, "You know about weird stuff, Brian, do you know anything about this?"
The American Watcher began to circle around Duke, "I've heard of ancient demons taking over the bodies of innocent girls, killing them in the process, I've heard of amulets that can destroy caverns full of vampires, and even a spell that could turn people into their costumes on Halloween," he stopped and scratched his head, "This stumps me,"
"So there's nothing we can do for him?"
"I didn't say that, Serenity," Brian rubbed his chin, "There are some people at the new Watcher's Council, who know a great deal more about magic than I do. I can drop them a line and see if they can make it down here to help out. If not, I'm sure there are some contacts I can get in touch with...they know some magic. However," he walked over to a nearby drawer and pulled out a camera, "I gotta have some pictures to show them what we're dealing with exactly. I'm also gonna need some pictures of Duke before all this,"
"I can get some for ya," Joey said with a nod.
"Good," Brian looked at Duke, "Dumb question, but are you feeling uncomfortable right now?"
Duke shot him a glare.
"Like, you know...girl things?"
"How the hell would I know?" Duke snapped at him.
"Alright, alright," Brian shook his head and began to take pictures, "Now, gimme a pouting look,"
Everyone stared at him.
"I'm joking! Geez, try to make light of a situation and everyone looks at you like you're a freak," the Watcher shook his head and muttered, "So, how are you guys gonna handle school with this?"
Everyone was quiet.
"You can't keep him a secret, at least not by keeping him in some areas," Brian lowered the camera, "Besides, everyone's gonna notice a popular guy like Duke to be missing. How the hell are you gonna explain it?"
Yugi scratched his head, "He's got a point. Duke's still gotta go to school," he looked his friend over, "Though he's going to have to make some clothing changes,"
"Don't worry about that," Tea waved him off, "I got a spare uniform he can wear and we can go shopping tonight,"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Duke held up his hands and backed away from the group, "I am not going to school like this, and I sure as hell ain't gonna dress like a schoolgirl!"
"You know, you say schoolgirl like that, it makes you sound like a porn star,"
Everyone turned and stared at Joey.
"Oh, shut up,"
Tea rolled her eyes, "We have no choice, Duke. If we don't do something, people are going to get suspicious and something bad could happen. We need to do this, it's the only way to keep tabs on anything that could pop up,"
Duke looked at his friends, sighed and hung his head, "Fine...,"
"Not a perfect fit, but you look pretty cute in that Duke,"
The dice-loving teen blushed profusely as Tea walked around, looking him over. He wore the spare schoolgirl uniform of Domino High, complete with long socks, short blue skirt, pink jacket with big blue bow across the front. His new features made him almost unrecognizable as Duke Devlin, so everyone would think he would be a new student (something that a few hours of hacking into the system would be helpful thanks to Brian), and they had already thought of an excuse for Duke to be absent, so it was pretty much all set.
"Now, you already know this, but I'll tell you anyway. There are some guys, and even some girls at the school who'll want to mess with you. They'll try to hit on you, flirt and mess with your uniform, but you just got to get them to leave you alone and you should be fine. Now, what is your name?"
"It's Du-,"
"No," Tea wagged a finger, "You can't go by that name in that body, people would think weird thoughts. We need a new identity for you. How about...Daisy?"
"No,"
"Peach?"
"What are you, a Mario fan? NO!"
Tea tapped her foot for a bit, then broke out into a smile and snapped her fingers, "I got it! While you are in this body, you are Aya Saotome!"
Duke facefaulted.
"Aya comes from a Parasite Eve game I used to play with Yugi, and Saotome is from Ranma 1/2, a manga about a guy who turns into a girl when cold water is splashed on him,"
"Gee, a name from a weird manga...this day just keeps getting better and better!"
"Be nice or I'll make you wear my old ballet tutu from when I was younger,"
Duke decided to shut up.
That night, Brian had just finished talking and sending the pictures of Duke. The Watcher's Council would be sending back-up in a few days time, but he had orders to keep an eye on Duke and the others. Yawning, Brian checked the time and after seeing how late it was, decided to hit the sack. He rose from the table and stretched when he heard an all too familiar beep. He looked down to see that his mystery person from before was sending messages to him again.
Brian sat down and looked at the new message.
"Even I couldn't see that happening to Duke. He's got a good heart, but maybe he'll learn something in his new body,"
"How do you know about that?"
"I have sight beyond sight,"
"What the hell is this person, one of the Thundercats?" Brian muttered under his breath.
"No, I'm not a Thundercat. What is a Thundercat?" the mystery contact asked seconds later, spooking Brian.
Okay, now I know he's watching me.
"I'm impressed you can use magic to an extent. Is that how you made it so you have a locking door instead of an elevator lift? To keep you safer from vampires?"
Brian stared hard at the computer.
"You just seem to have all the answers, don't you?"
"Not all, but more than you have, and those are the answers you crave, is it not?"
"Yes,"
"When the time is right, I'll give you the answers you seek, but not now. You have too much to deal with. When it is right, I'll contact you again and we'll set up a rendezvous. Until then, sleep well, Brian,"
The user signed off.
Kilnorc: I couldn't resist something funny happening thanks to magic. To those who may read this and enjoy genderbending in it's fanfic or fanart format...then ya go.
