Battle for the millenium chapter three: Track down Pegasus, The toon world Casino.

Dhamon Crane hurriedly packed his suitcase, he knew that he had few scant hours to catch up to Pegasus before he reached his base of operations In Las Vegas. With a little luck, and some assistance from the two mercenary duelists he had hired, he would be able to stop Pegasus from ever reaching Japan. He had just packed up his suitcase when he heard a voice behind him.

"You're leaving brother?"

Dhamon turned to see a young girl standing there. She was dressed in all black, her hair done into a ponytail, she was only about 11 or 12 years old, but the tired world-weary look in her eyes conveyed the idea that she was much older than that. Dhamon sighed as he looked into the child's empty, emotionless face.

"Mina, I'm sorry, but this is important. It's not that I don't want to go, I have to. You've met Mr. Pegasus, you know how dangerous he is."

Mina nodded and walked up to her brother. They looked into each other's eyes, and tears welled up in hers.

"Oh, Dhamon! It's my fault! It's my fault!"

He rushed up to Dhamon and wrapped her arms around him, sobbing into his shoulder, Dhamon patted her on the back gently. He knew exactly what they were talking about…

(Flashback)

"Please don't go!" Mina sobbed as she clung to her mother's leg. Mr. and Mrs. Crane were going to see opera tonight, but ever since Mina had heard of it, she had been trying to stop them; By hiding their tickets, by letting the air out of their tires, but this was the final desperate assault.

"Dhamon, would you please take your sister?" Mr. Crane said to Dhamon, who nodded and gently pulled his sister away as she sobbed and kicked.

"No! Let me go! Please Dhamon we have to stop them! We can't let them go out! I had a vision! They cant go out they just CANT!"

Dhamon hugged her sister and shushed her. "Its all right Mina, nothings going to happen, just because you had a dream doesn't mean it will come true."

"It was more than a dream! It was a vision! Dreams don't happen when you're awake Dhamon."

Mrs. Crane walked over and wiped Mina's eyes, then kissed her on the cheek.

"It's okay my little one, we'll be careful."

Mr. Crane looked to Dhamon, "Now you know the drill, dinner at eight then right to bed with Mina. I don't want you staying up to late either, have a good time."

Dhamon nodded, "You too dad."

As Mr. and Mrs. Crane pulled out of the driveway, Dhamon looked over to her sister, who was still sobbing, curled up on the floor. Dhamon walked over and patted her sister on the side.

"You can stop now, there gone."

Mina looked up to her brother, eyes red from weeping.

"Yes…. And we'll never see them again."

* * *

Three hours later:

"Who wants Macaroni and cheese?"

Dhamon had decided to cook Mina's favorite food. He brought it out to the table, where Mina was sitting. She had stopped crying about an hour after their parents had left. But now Mina just sat there, emotionless and unresponsive. Dhamon placed the dish on the table and sat down to eat, when the phone rang.

"Ill get it." Dhamon said, getting up.

Mina didn't look up from her plate.

"Your better start eating, nothing worse than cold Macaroni."

Dhamon walked over to the phone and picked it up.

"Crane residence, Dhamon Crane speaking."

"Um, yes, this is Officer Kane of the LAPD,"

"Is there a problem officer?"

"Yes I'm afraid so…"

The words that Dhamon heard on the phone next made his blood run ice cold.

"Theirs been an accident…"

(/Flashback)

Mina looked up to her brother.

"I tried Dhamon, I really tried, I did everything to try and stop Mom and Dad from going but I couldn't."

"There was nothing you could do sweetie," Dhamon said, holding her sister close, "If anything, it's my fault for not believing you."

"But you didn't have any reason to believe me!" Mina retorted, "Oh Dhamon, why did this happen to me? Why was I given the power to see things when I can't do anything to prevent them? It's not fair!"

Dhamon looked into his sister's eyes with a glimmer of compassion.

"I don't know, but your right, it isn't fair, It's not fair that our parents are dead, it isn't fair that you have these strange powers that let you see things that haven't happened yet, but that doesn't matter, what matters is that were together and we have each other."

Mina looked into her brother's eyes once more,

"You won't let them separate us will you?"

Dhamon smiled.

"There's no power great enough in this world to do that."

"Oh man, Deliver me from Disney."

Dhamon looked up to see a figure leaning on the archway on his room. The figure was tall and muscular, he wore a leather jacket and an American flag as a bandana, he had a pair of glasses on and a gold cross necklace around his neck. His dirty blonde hair was unkempt and it was evident he hadn't shaved recently due to the whiskers on his face. Dhamon looked up to the figure, placed Mina on the bed, and stood.

"Keith Howard I presume?"

The man bowed sarcastically,

"No need for formalities buddy, just call me Bandit Keith."

Dhamon snorted with contempt, "Common thug is more like it, how did you get in here anyway? The doors are locked."

"Not in any reasonable way at least."

"Heheheh, good one boss."

Dhamon looked down at the second figure behind Keith, he was a small boy with Dark blue hair that stood on end, and he was dressed in a light green jacket with baggy sweat pants. While he had the body of a kid Mina's age, his faced was shriveled and sunken, like a corpse. Dhamon's eye's narrowed.

"Who, or what is that?"

Keith looked down at his protégé, "This here is Bonz, My assistant and general lackey."

Dhamon looked at Bonz and snorted again.

"Whatever, lets get down to business shall we?"

Dhamon led Keith and Bonz to the kitchen, where he, Mina, and Bonz sat down, Keith instead leaned against the sink.

"Now, your probably wondering why I called you here Mr. Howard."

Bandit Keith looked up at Dhamon, "I told you to call me Bandit Keith."

Dhamon cleared his throat, "Of course, now back to the subject, I am here to talk about Maximillion Pegasus, you know him?"

Keith placed his fist on his chin, sarcastically pretending to be in deep thought. "Hmm, Pegasus, Pegasus, rings a bell, let me think: Pretty boy, one eye, invented duel monsters, HUMILIATED ME IN FRONT OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE!"

Dhamon cleaned out his ear and looked at Keith, "No need to yell Bandit, I'm right here. Anyways, its because of him I called you."

Keith took off his sunglasses; "I'm listening."

"Well, Ever since the duelist kingdom tournament about a year ago, Maximillion Pegasus has been a guest in the Crane home for the criminally insane, which was directed by Artemis Crane, my father."

Suddenly Bonz piped up, "Oh yeah! I read about that on the way here! He and his wife were hit by a drunk driver on the way to the opera, they were killed almost instantly."

Keith, Mina and Dhamon just stared at Bonz, who just realized what he had said out loud.

"Oh, uh… I read the obituaries in newspapers, it's sort of my hobby."

Dhamon removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes, "Why does that not surprise me?"

Keith laughed, "Well Bonz, just when I think you can't get any freakier, you go ahead and do something like this."

Dhamon put his glasses back on, "Yes, well, back to the subject. As your morbid associate pointed out, my Father passes away earlier this week. His assistant, Dr. Shrike was put in charge in his place. The fool decided that the Asylum was spending to much money, and decided to do make some 'cut backs'"

Keith laughed again, "And let me guess, security was the first thing cut?"

Dhamon nodded, "Yes, the first thing he did was shut off the electricity that powered the security grid for Pegasus's cell. He escaped five seconds later."

Keith whistled, "Not to shabby for a demented psycho. So what does this have to do with me?"

Dhamon looked up to Bandit Keith.

"I need your help to capture him."

Keith replaced his fist on his shoulder and thought for a second, humming as he did.

"What's in it for me?"

"You get revenge on Pegasus for humiliating you."

Keith laughed, he liked a kid that knew the value of revenge, but there was one thing he liked even more…

"So how much does this pay in cash?"

Dhamon sighed, he knew it would probably come to this. He picked up one of the suitcases and slammed it on the table. It opened to reveal…

"1 million dollars, it's all we have left after the funeral."

Keith picked up a stack of bills and ran his finger through it. He then looked up at the Crane siblings, he saw the sadness in their eyes, and he put the money down.

"Keep your money, taking down Pegasus will be enough for me."

Bonz couldn't believe what he just heard.

"B-B-but boss! All that money!"

Bandit Keith shot a withering glance at Bonz, and the zombie duelist fell silent.

Dhamon smiled quietly, "All right, I suggest that we get moving, Pegasus has a full days head start on us, we'll have to move fast to catch him."

Bonz stood up, "You know where he's going?"

Dhamon nodded, "Domino City. He's after someone named Bakura Ryo."

Keith raised an eyebrow. "Bakura? Never heard of him."

Bonz looked at Keith, "Sure you know him boss, he's one of the dweeb's that hang around with Joey. I even dueled Bakura at the battle city tournament, he whooped my but though…"

Keith smiled again, "Oh right, the dweebs, I forgot all about them. So where heading to Japan?"

Dhamon shook his head, "Not unless totally necessary. With any luck we can stop Pegasus without the need to go globe hopping."

Keith grabbed a chair and sat backwards in it, "So what makes you think he isn't on a plane to Japan right now?"

"Because Bandit, he just escaped from an insane asylum, he has no money, no clothes, law enforcement is after him, he needs to go get supplies before going anywhere."

"So where is he going?"

"The same place were going."

Dhamon stood up and headed for the door, briefcase in hand.

"To Las Vegas Nevada; Site of the Industrial Illusion central office, and birthplace of Maximillion Pegasus."

***

(Three hours later.)

"So, why is he after Bakura anyways?"

Bandit Keith said as they drove down the highway to Las Vegas. It was a quarter past midnight, Dhamon had been driving, in the back, Bonz had fallen asleep. Keith was looking at the stars above as they drove in Dhamon's black convertible. Dhamon looked over to him.

"To be perfectly honest? I have no idea. I reviewed each and every session my father had with Pegasus. It's all very disjointed. He kept ranting about how Bakura was a "thief of souls," and how he stole from Pegasus the "Millenium eye." "

Keith looked over, "Millenium eye?"

"Yeah, apparently it was what Pegasus called the eye piece he used before duelist kingdom. He claimed that it gave him the power to read minds and steal souls. Silly huh?"

Keith frowned. "Maybe not," he muttered under his breath.

Dhamon looked over again, "You know something I don't?"

Keith sat silent for a bit. Then looked to Dhamon.

"You know how Pegasus beat me before, right?"

Dhamon nodded, "Yeah, he wrote something on a piece of paper, called a kid from the audience. The kid followed the instructions Pegasus wrote down, and he beat you."

"Yeah, that always bugged me, how he did that. I figured he could see the cards in my hands somehow. Only thing I could think of."

Dhamon shrugged, "I thought that he just second guessed you, I mean Pegasus is really good at reading people."

"That's just it: He's TO good at reading people. It's like he can read minds ya know?"

Dhamon thought for a second then realized what Keith was saying, "You're not seriously suggesting that this Millenium eye is real, are you?"

Keith shrugged, "I don't know what to think, but ill tell you one thing that you didn't see during that duel; right before Pegasus wrote down my strategy, he looked at me with this weird fake eye he has."

Dhamon looked over to Keith, "What eye?"

"You know, his left eye. It's golden and creepy looking."

"Sorry Keith, but when I met Pegasus, he had no such eye, all that was there was an empty socket."

Keith grunted, then looked up, "Hey! Look's like were almost there."

Dhamon looked at a Billboard, a few miles ahead they could see the lights of the city. The board had a Picture of Pegasus on it and read "Welcome to Las Vegas; Birthplace of Maximillion Pegasus."

Dhamon looked at the picture as they passed by. Same Pegasus he remembered, long silvery hair, arrogant sneer, his left eye concealed from view, Dhamon sighed a bit.

'What if Keith is right?' Dhamon thought, 'What if Pegasus's eye really does have mystic powers?' He thought back to his sister and sighed, 'I week ago I would have said it was impossible, but after what happened with Mom and Dad, How can I afford not to?'

The convertible stopped in a parking lot overlooked by a huge castle that seemed to rise from a storybook. In big neon lettering, it read "Toon World"

Keith looked up at the castle, "this it?"

Dhamon nodded, "The Toon world Casino, Maximillion Pegasus's own private slice of Vegas. But its more then that; for on the sub levels of this casino lay the central office of industrial illusions, We are looking at the nerve center, the heart and soul, or Pegasus's entire global network of operations. And Ill bet my Duel disc that Pegasus is somewhere inside."

Keith looked over to Dhamon and smiled. "So what are we doing sitting around talking, let's go in and find him."

Dhamon nodded, "Yeah, but let us tread with caution, this is Pegasus's home turf remember, and I doubt he'll go down without a fight."

* * *

Deep inside the Toon world Casino, far from the sight of the paying customers, beyond even the general staff's clearance, A ominous figure stood before a mirror, scissors in hand, as he began to cut and clip his long hair.

At the same time, An old man walked by, the chief of security for the casino, his keen senses suddenly picked up the sounds of laughter in an empty room. Instinctively, he drew his gun, and backed up near the door, his every muscle tightening, he opened the door and jumped in.

"Freeze! Who are you? And what makes you think you can come in here like you own the place?"

The guard saw piles of hair on the floor, the man stood before the mirror, his once long hair immaculately cut and shortened, and he laughed insanely as he turned around.

"Simple My dear Croquet, I DO own this place."

Croquet gulped nervously as he dropped his gun.

"Mr. Pegasus, forgive me, I didn't know it was you."

Pegasus laughed, "Quite all right Croquet, Now, I have a little job for you."

Croquet dropped to his knee, "I am at your service sir."

Pegasus couldn't help but smile; he loved it when people did what he wanted him to do. "Now, listen closely, I want you to go get my helicopter ready, get me a new suit," Pegasus looked down at the blue inmate garb he was wearing and snorted, "Call the Kaiba Corp big five and tell them I'm back from my vacation, and get the Paradox Brothers. "

"What are you planning sir? Revenge against Yugi?"

Pegasus laughed again, Croquet had not changed since last they saw each other.

"Eventually, My dear Croquet, but first I have to get back what's mine."

Pegasus stepped forward into the light, Croquet gasped at what he saw.

"What is it? Did I botch the hair?"

Croquet shook his head, "Your hair is fine Mr. Pegasus," Croquet removed his shades and handed them To Pegasus, "But I think you may want to wear these."

Pegasus turned around and saw what Croquet meant, he nodded sagely and put the shades on. "Thank you Croquet, now get to the errands I gave you."

Croquet bowed and left. Pegasus turned to the mirror and smiled.

"Soon the Millenium eye will be mine once again, then Bakura, Kaiba, and Yugi boy, or should I say their souls, shall all be taking up permanent residence in my card collection."

What has been all but a common fact has been confirmed: Maximillion Pegasus has returned. And now he has plans to recapture the Millenium eye. Dhamon Crane has enlisted the aide of Bandit Keith to recapture the demented duelist, but can the pair manage to navigate the treacherous toon world casino in order to find Pegasus before he can execute his insidious agenda? Tune in next week, same duel time, and same duel channel, to find out.