Chapter 6 - Aliens? You've got to be kidding.
"Yami, wake up. Yami, come on, wake up. You're having a bad dream. Snap out of it. YAMI!!!"
Yami abruptly woke up, screaming his head off. His sudden madness made Yugi scream as well. They were both screaming away, then realized that there was nothing to scream about.
"Yami, don't ever do that again, okay? What happened? You were mumbling throughout your sleep. Something about aliens," said Yugi.
"Don't tell me Yami's scared of aliens," mocked Malik. Bakura whispered something in his ear, and Malik's smirk disappeared. They walked away, leaving the rest of the group to question Yami.
"Nothing's wrong, got it?" Yami was growing frustrated with all these questions. "I just had a bad dream, that's all. No, really, I'm fine."
He marched out of the bedroom and went to get some breakfast. What was out there last night? It sure wasn't our sculpture. I saw Bakura's face when he looked out the window. He had definitely seen something. Something not quite right. Yami was so caught up in his thoughts that he absent-mindedly put salt in the coffee instead of sugar. He also placed his toast in the toaster, waiting for it to toast. What if there are really aliens out there? What if they're after our Millennium Items? He sipped his coffee, suspected that the aliens had drugged it, and poured it down the drain. He bit into his toast and his mouth tasted like carbon. The aliens must have sabotaged my food as well. Coated it in ant legs, I bet. It's not yummy anymore.... Yummy... yum....
"YAMI!!!" Yugi was screaming at the top of his voice, trying to break Yami's thoughts.
"WHAT?" Yami shouted back.
"I think there's something seriously wrong with you! I mean, you look like you're on another planet! what's wrong?"
Yami sighed. No one was going to believe him. "Bakura and I think there are aliens on the moon. We heard them last night. And I think he saw one."
After a few seconds of disbelief Yugi burst out laughing. "Yeah right, aliens! You've both been watching too many late night movies. There's no such thing as aliens. And if there were, someone - not us - would have discovered them. Say, have you been eating anything strange lately? Maybe you're having hallucinations."
At that moment Yami heard a clunk outside the spaceship. They looked at each other, startled, and then put on their spacesuits and ran outside.
"I told you something was out there," said Yami.
"Are you sure it wasn't our moon rock masterpiece?"
"I'm sure!"
They circled the spaceship, not sure whether they would find anything or not. Then, after the third circle, Yami spotted something out of the corner of his eye.
"Yugi, did you see that? It was small and quick, but I definitely saw something."
"Tiny pink creature, rabbit like, only with fluffy white wings?"
"No. It was more like... a small three legged cat with bat wings and a thin tail."
Yami looked around and this time the thing popped up into full view.
"Yugi! It's there! You see it?"
Yugi looked blank. "I don't see anything. Are you sure you haven't eaten anything strange?"
"Positive! Look!" Yami ran over to the creature and grabbed it. Well, at least he tried to grab it. The thing skipped nimbly out of the way... and crashed into a moon rock pyramid. It suddenly flashed, looked terrified and then started to run away.
"Oh, now I see what you're seeing!" exclaimed Yugi. "But how can there be aliens here? That's just not right! Impossible! I'm going back to tell the others."
Yami decided to chase the alien around, which he had nicknamed the "Devil Fusionist." Unfortunately he was weighed down by the spacesuit and fell further and further behind the creature, who was apparently extremely swift. After running around aimlessly for forever, Yugi finally re-emerged from the ship, along with Kaiba, Ryou, Bakura, Malik, Joey and Téa.
"It's about time," said Yami. "Bakura, how about helping me out here? You saw this alien, didn't you? I've called it the Devil Fusionist. Pretty fitting, don't you think?"
Bakura nodded. "The same."
Téa slowly approached it. "Come here, kitty, I won't hurt you." The "Devil Fusionist" cautiously moved forward. It sniffed her hand.
"How can it smell? There's no air here," said Joey.
"It's an alien, remember?" Kaiba pointed out.
The cat-thing decided that Téa was not a threat and licked her hand.
"Hey, let me pat that thing!" Joey bounded towards it, screaming, "Here, kitty! Come to Joey!" Consequently, it flew away and hissed at him.
"Nice going, mutt," Kaiba sneered. "You just scared the cat. How fitting."
Devil Fusionist looked at her audience. She fluttered down and settled on Kaiba's shoulder. From her height she stared down at Joey, and looked almost smug.
"Well Joey, it appears the little feline doesn't like you," said Ryou. "I guess you're just too full of puppy-love."
In fact, the cat-thing seemed to have an attachment towards Kaiba. It purred a lot - well, at least they thought it purred - but with no air in space they couldn't tell. It glided to the ground and rubbed itself against Kaiba's legs. Kaiba looked uncomfortable. He picked her up, walked some distance before putting her down and running back.
"Don't you like cats?" teased Joey, watching the embarrassment he was going through. "They must be better than dogs, right? I mean, lowly puppies don't deserve your attention. A cat, however, is independent, like you. They're powerful, dangerous, unpredictable, swift, smart, sneaky.... And they're alone, silent, and deadly. They keep to themselves. That's the one flaw of cats. That's why you should start to like dogs more, Kaiba. They're loyal, will never let you down, friendly-"
"And talk too much, never know when to stop, eat too much, loud-" Kaiba cut in.
"Really, lighten up!" shouted Joey, exasperated. Devil Fusionist flew onto Joey and started to claw at his spacesuit. "Hey, cut that out! No, don't do that, I won't be able to breathe! Kaiba, get this thing off me! Kaiba, help! KAIBA!!!"
Joey rushed back into the spaceship, terrified that Devil Fusionist would scratch a hole through his suit. He watched from the inside as Kaiba picked up the cat and stroked it, calming it down. Don't know how Kaiba does it. Maybe he's just really... cat-like.
As he watched from the safety of the spaceship, everyone, including himself, was amazed when Devil Fusionist suddenly jumped up and duplicated itself. It reminded him of all the times Yugi had combined his Kuriboh with Multiply. Hundreds of cat-things flapped about, shedding feathers everywhere. Yami was waving his arms wildly, for some of the feline terrors were now harassing him. Bakura had managed to somehow managed to keep the creatures at bay. Maybe it had something to do with why he was glowing blue. Yugi and Téa were trying to placate the Devil Fusionists. He noticed that Kaiba and Ryou were using the distraction to talk to each other privately.
Wait a minute... Joey had a flashback of the second night when he accidentally stumbled into Kaiba's room....
.... "Uh, sorry Kaiba," mumbled Joey, eyes half closed. "I was supposed to be going to the bathroom." Through his blurry vision he saw an animation of a purplish creature on the monitor. "Hey, what's that?"
Kaiba had stood up and walked over to Joey. "Shhh. Don't tell anyone else, but it's a surprise for the two Yamis. I'm going to create virtual aliens. It'll make a good laugh, and bring some excitement into this trip."
"Can I tell this to Yugi? He's my best friend, after all. I'm sure he won't tell."
Kaiba wrapped his coat around Joey and drew him close. As he led Joey towards the bathroom, he whispered in Joey's ear, "no, I'd prefer it if you don't." He waited outside as Joey went to do his business. When he came back out he let out a big yawn. Kaiba was feeling tired too. He and Joey walked back to the bedroom, where Joey crawled back in his bed.
"Don't worry Kaiba," he said with his eyes closed. "I won't tell anyone."
"Good night, Joey," said Kaiba, and started to walk away.
"Sweet dreams, Serenity," said Joey sleepily, leaving Kaiba confused and speechless....
He resumed watching the others play with the holographic projection, wondering when Kaiba was going to tell the Yamis that there weren't any aliens. After a while, all the Devil Fusionists began to shimmer. Looks like there was an overload, he thought to himself. I guess Kaiba's not a total genius. The holograms disappeared.
Yami looked around, amazed and suspicious at the sudden disappearance of a few hundred cat-things. "Hey, what happened? I was finally getting used to having them around."
"Well I say good riddance," said Bakura. "But looks like you were in the dark again, Yami. You didn't know that they were all just digital projections."
"You've got to be kidding. Who else knew?"
"Kaiba created the program. Ryou and Yugi knew, of course. The others figured it out soon enough. They realised they were nothing more than ones and zeros when it didn't hurt when the critters bit them."
"How did you know?"
"Malik told me."
"Right." Yami was getting increasingly annoyed. Everyone, it seemed, was trying to make this trip as horrible as possible.
The others giggled. "Come on, Yami," said Yugi. "Cheer up. All we wanted to do was make this holiday a fun one."
"Didn't I tell you from the start that I didn't want to go?"
"But we thought you might change your mind once we were actually in space."
"Except that I don't appreciate the company of half these people for long periods of time," Yami sulked, looking at Bakura and Malik.
"Well, if you feel that strongly about it, we can go home."
"Really?" Yami's face lit up.
"Yeah! Don't worry, the return trip shouldn't be half as bad. We've run out of surprises anyway."
"Then let's go!" Yami started skipping his way back aboard the spaceship. "We're going home! Yippee!"
"Not so fast." Ryou blocked the door. "I think we have some issues to discuss first," he said, looking at Bakura and Yami.
The two Yamis exchanged glances. "What did we do?" asked Bakura innocently.
"I think you know," said Ryou, unrelenting. "And I plan to punish you in the worst way possible...."
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Well... Ryou's onto something. What do you think he could be after? Or maybe he's known all this time what the two have been up to.