Title: Our Sanity for a Pickle

Summary: A road trip, an epic quest for a quasi-vegetable, a grotesque Eskimo-eating platypus…Ah, another fanfic challenge.

NOTE: A lot of people are confused by some of the Japanese names, so I'm gonna sort of intermix them…You'll see what I mean. For those unfamiliar with the Japanese version, Miho-chan, or Miho, is a character that doesn't appear in the English version. She and Tristan are sorta together…She's nice, but not annoying like Anzu.

Yugi Motuo anticipated the ringing of the final school bell of the day. It was five minutes to the end of his last day as a freshman at Domino High School. The entire summer off, and nothing planned…

"Hey, Yug," Joey Katsuya's voice broke into Yugi's peaceful reverie, "You wanna get together at my house tomorrow? A sort of Yay-We-Aren't-The-Lowliest-Pond-Scum-In-School-Anymore party?"

"Sure, Joey, I'd l—"

Yugi's response was cut off by mocking laughter from none other than Seto Kaiba.

"You'll always be the lowest pond scum anywhere, Chihuahua," Seto laughed at Joey.

"Urrrrrgggghhh! Don't—call—me—a—chihuahua!" Joey growled through clenched teeth.

Kaiba just laughed.

"So, uh, who's coming, Joey?" Yugi asked, trying to prevent the inevitable Kaiba VS Joey match. The same thing happened every school day.

"Kaiba, you—Eh? Say what, Yug?"

"To your party. Who's coming?"

"Uh…Me…and You. Tristan, Ryou, and maybe Mai…" Here Joey blushed.

"What about Anzu?" Yugi asked, and turning to Anzu, "You're coming, aren't you? To Joey's house?"

"Sure!" Anzu piped up, "I wouldn't miss a day with my friends for the world!"

"You know," Joey muttered to Yugi, "I wasn't planning on inviting her…"

Tristan, who had been half-listening to their conversation, interjected. "Hey, Joe, you're inviting Miho-chan, right?"

"Uh…Of course," Joey said, snickering. "I'll invite your girlfriend."

Seto Kaiba, listening to their conversation, snorted with disdain, and then decided to have a little fun…He wasn't busy tomorrow…Why not crash their little party?

*~*~*~*

Joey's party was going well, except for the fact that Yugi wouldn't let Joey duct-tape Anzu's mouth shut.

"So I told him, I said, 'Johnny Steps, you have to believe in the true power of friendship.' Well, that shut him up--,"

"Pleeeaaaase," Joey begged Yugi.

"No." Yugi insisted, "She's not that bad…"

Joey just rolled his eyes and turned back to the paper he was writing on.

"Hey, Joe, whatch'ya doin'?" Tristan called, his arm around Miho.

"I'm writing a fanfiction for my favorite Saturday morning cartoon, Ho-Ig-Uy."

"A fanfiction? What's that? Ow!" Miho had just slapped Tristan for attempting to slip his hand under her shirt.

"It's when you write a story based on another story or movie or cartoon or something. And in this one, I'm literally torturing the pants off this one character, Coffeé, who thinks that everyone's her friend." Here, Joey laughed evilly.

A sudden yell filled Joey's yard.

"COWABUNGA!" Seto Kaiba burst into Joey's yard, holding a dog mask and what looked like a stick.

"Who invited you?" Joey snarled.

"I did," Seto said smugly, "Here, Doggy, brought you a party favor." He brandished the rubber dog mask.

"RRRGGGHHH…" Joey sounded an awful lot like a dog.

Seto laughed, waving the stick around in the air.

"Hey, Seto, what is that?" Anzu asked, stepping over Miho and Tristan, who were wrestling on the ground, and Yugi and Ryou, who were trading Duel Monsters cards. Mai was in the bathroom, fixing her makeup. Duke Devlon, who had been invited by Yugi, was probably following Mai around. He was—er—quite taken with her.

Seto turned to Anzu. "I dunno. Some old lady gave it to me on the way over here…Said something about the magic word…Ah, well. COWABUNGA!" he repeated, waving it carelessly over his head.

There was a big poof of smoke and when it had cleared, a weird old lady stood in the middle of Joey's backyard.

"Hey!" Kaiba said, "She's the one that gave me this thing." He tossed the wand on the ground, where it broke in half.

The woman laughed. "You said the WRONG magic word!" the lady cackled, "You were supposed to say, "Geronimo!" and everyone in the Domino City would have received good luck for ten years. Instead, you said the OTHER magic word, so you all get bad luck for ten years! Ah ha ha!"

She disappeared in another cloud of smoke.

"Damn," Seto muttered.

The old woman reappeared in a third poof if smoke.

"Ohyeah," she said in a breathless rush, "Youbrokethewandsonowyoucan'treverseit. Bye!"

"Uh-oh…" Ryou muttered.

"Please," Tristan wheedled, "I won't hurt you." But he was talking to Miho.

Suddenly, Malik appeared at the gate to Joey's backyard.

"Hi, What'd I miss?" he asked, looking very sexy indeed.

Anzu began running around in circles.

"Not much," Bakura said sarcastically, popping out of his soul room. "These morons just got us all ten years bad luck, that's all."

"Did you guys fall for the old woman thing?" Malik asked.

"Yep."

"Morons. Anyway…A pickle will get us out of this pickle!"

They all looked at him strangely.

"All we need," he explained, "Is to find the Anti-Old-Lady-Curse Magic Pickle."

"Oh, that clears EVERYTHING up," Joey muttered.

"I thought it would," Malik smirked.

"Well," Seto said, "I'll just be going on my way…"

"Oh, no you won't," Yami Bakura growled, grabbing Seto by his collar, "You got us into this, and you're sure as hell gonna try and help us get out of it!"

"Oh, okay," Seto saidm then suddenly dashed away from everyone else, yelling, "NO ONE CAN CONTAIN ME! I AM SUPER SETO AH HA HA!"

Duke grabbed him as he came out of the house, followed by Mai waving a hairbrush.

"What's he doing here?" Duke wondered.

"Boy, have WE got a story for you," Tristan said, "And by the way: Does anyone own a van? We're in for a road trip, guys…"