Chapter 2

"The News Spreads"

On yet another side of town, in a much more run-down looking apartment building, two boys have also received an advertisement for this new tournament. Not that Weevil Underwood and Rex Raptor were yet aware of this fact. Rex was asleep on the couch in just his baggy jeans, floppy socks and red hat. Several "root" beer cans lie on the floor next to him. Weevil was dressed, but still looked as if he would fall asleep at any moment.

They had both passed 10th grade at Domino High. Weevil was ahead a grade just like Yugi was, and it was a good thing he was as naturally smart as he was. He and Rex, having had to fend for themselves for about the last ten years, had felt that since they had no supervision they were excused from the laws of compulsory school attendance laws in Japan.

Ever since the government had discovered their situation, their newly assigned social worker had made sure that they attended. This wasn't a problem for the insect master, as he had kept up his studies in his spare time, but Rex had needed some help.

Nevertheless, keeping the landlord from kicking them out was a constant problem, and it was getting close to rent time. Weevil heard the sound of the mail being slipped through the slot of the door, and was of like a shot. There's got to be a welfare check in here! He began to rip through the mail looking for a check. When he got to the advertisement, the child stopped his frantic search and carefully opened it. You could almost here the cashier sounds coming out of his head as he read about the prize money.

"Rex!!! Wake up!" Weevil chucked an empty can (there were plenty of soda and beer cans scattered about the floor) at his sleeping friend, and hit him dead in the face.

"Ow! What??" Rex asked, annoyed, looking up from his spot on the couch. Weevil had better have had a good reason for waking him up. He rubbed his head and sat up, waiting for Weevil's answer.

"Start packing, we're going to Egypt!" Weevil had already begun to scurry around, putting random things in different bags.

"Egypt?? What for??" Rex asked. In response, Weevil tossed a piece of paper at him, which hit him in the face. After sputtering and struggling with it for a few seconds, he pulled it off and got a good look at it. The same cash-register sounds rang in his head as they had in Weevil's. "I see you're point," he said, setting the paper down on the coffee table and jumping up to pack his own things.

After a long moment, Rex poked his head out of his room and called, "Hey, Weevil?"

"What?" Weevil's blue-haired head popped out of his own doorway.

"How're we gonna get to Egypt??"

"I'm working on that now," Weevil said, ducking back into his room.

Curious, Rex ventured into Weevil's room, which was one of his least favorite things to do. Weevil's room was a natural insect habitat, with various different bugs crawling or buzzing around. The head roach himself was sitting on the small bed, tapping furiously away at his laptop. Rex looked on as Weevil's printer began to spew out paper.

Weevil didn't even look up, "Grab that, would you Rex? And watch where you step!"

The dino duelist carefully made his way over to where the printer was, nearly getting bitten, stung, and caught in a giant spider web. By the time he got to the center of the room, he was very shaken, and sweating. He grabbed up the printer paper and looked it over, trying to ignore the buzzing that was all around him. On the paper were printed out plane tickets for a flight to Egypt!

"Do you think these are really gonna fool anybody?" Rex asked Weevil, holding them out.

"Not yet they won't," Weevil said, walking over to him and taking the paper, "But as soon as I get the measurements, I'll re-print them on special paper I bought in case we ever needed to fake something like this. Then we'll be home free!"

"You scare me sometimes…" Rex said, giving Weevil a strange look.

* * *

Across town in the financial district, in a Penthouse apartment suite, Seto Kaiba had his laptop set up on his bed. Surely he had been working all night, as a proper businessman should. But this was not the case. Kaiba was fast asleep, and had been since little past midnight the night before. He had meant to stay up and get work done, but running a company all by himself was really beginning to take its toll.

Kaiba's little brother, Mokuba, however, knew nothing of long hours working hard running a multi-billion dollar company, and therefore was wide awake. He only knew of the short hours that morning cartoons were on, and the phone number of the nearest pizza parlor.

And Mokuba also knew exactly what time the mail came everyday. He came bounding into Seto's room, clutching a piece of paper. "Seto! Seto! Get up! Look at what came in the mail!!" He leapt up onto the bed and Kaiba woke with a start.

"Mokuba?" Kaiba said, looking at his little brother's excited face, nearly hidden by his mop of shaggy black hair, "What is it?"

"You gotta see this, Seto!" Mokuba said, holding up the paper. Kaiba took it in one hand and looked it over with half-opened eyes. "It's a new tournament in Egypt! Can we go? Can we? Please??"

"Mokuba…" Kaiba groaned, "I don't have time for tournaments anymore….have you forgotten the result of Battle City…it's still painful to think about." He turned away, pulling the covers over his head, bad memories flashing through his mind.

"Oh, but Seto…" Mokuba protested, "It wasn't you're fault. If that crazy Marik guy hadn't been trying to take over the world, you could've dueled Yugi when you were thinking clearly. This time I'm sure there's no evil plot going on! It's you're big chance to put the million pieces of your shattered reputation and pride back together."

"Thanks for you're support, Mokuba," came Kaiba's muffled voice from under the blankets.

"No problem," Mokuba said, not realizing the damage he'd done, "Can I have left-over pizza for breakfast?"

Kaiba mumbled something that sounded like "Yeah, whatever."

Mokuba hopped off the bed and ran out of the room saying, "Thanks Seto!"

Kaiba rolled over onto his stomach and pulled the pillow over his head. He couldn't risk another humiliating defeat like at Battle City – he just couldn't. But something was tugging at his brain. He lifted up the pillow just enough to look at the paper Mokuba had left behind. The tournament in Egypt was three days away…enough time to prepare…if he didn't have a company to run…

He could use a break, though. This job was threatening to chew him up and spit him out like a piece of gum. He hadn't even looked at his deck since it had failed him at Battle City. Maybe it was time to start over, begin rebuilding his reputation and stitching-up his wounded pride.

Mokuba was sitting on the couch in the living room, with the box of left-over pizza in front of him on the coffee table. He heard footsteps behind him and looked up. Kaiba was standing behind the couch, "Mokuba…" he said softly, "Do you really think we should go to Egypt?"

"Of course I do!" Mokuba said, spinning around and standing up on the couch, so he was only a head shorter than his big brother, "You've gotta get out of this slump, Seto. I can't stand to see you like this anymore." Kaiba was shocked to see tears well in his baby brother's eyes.

"Hey," he said, brushing away the tears, "Don't be like this. I'm not that bad, am I?"

"Yeah, you are," Mokuba nodded, "I want you to be happy, Seto. And I know you won't be happy until you're dueling again. I'm sure you're Blue-Eyes have missed you."

Kaiba sighed. Mokuba was right. He was being childish. It had to end sometime, so why not now? "Okay, squirt," he said, "Let's get ready for Egypt."

Mokuba's eyes welled with tears again.

"Huh? What's wrong?" Kaiba asked.

"Nothing…" Mokuba said, voice shaking, "It's just that…it's good to have you back, Seto!" Then the eleven-year-old flung his arms around his big brother's neck with such force that Kaiba lost his balance and both boys landed on the floor with a 'thud'.

Kaiba patted Mokuba on the head, smiling for the first time in weeks. He was back – and Egypt had better watch out!

* * *

Later that afternoon, a meeting was being held at the Kame Game House. Yugi and Joey had spent the morning rounding up Tristan, Tea and Bakura and now all five teens were seated in the living room of the apartment above the shop. Grandpa was eavesdropping from the bottom of the stairs.

Joey had the difficult task of presenting the current problem to the group. He wasn't looking forward to this; no one ever seemed to respect you as much as they should when you were begging for money. And what was worse, it was doubtful that anyone here had the funds to send them all to Egypt. He sighed as the others continued to make small talk. He may as well get this over with, "Hey guys, I was wond-," Joey cut himself off, as he noticed that no one was paying attention to him.

"Guys…" he tried again. Still, he was ignored. What was so important that they couldn't pay attention to him? He and Yugi had invited them to this meeting; the least they could do is listen to him!

"Guys…" This was getting ridiculous. Joey stood up, took a deep breath, and proceeded to get the attention of every person in the room, "Guys!!!"

The room got quiet very quickly. Tristan gave Joey a funny look, "What's up with you, man? If you wanted to say something, you could've just told us."

Joey fell down in classic anime style, but recovered just as quickly, "Guys, how the heck are we gonna get to Egypt? Do any of you know how much it will cost to send all of us on a plane to Egypt?"

Yugi spoke up timidly, "I… don't think that Grandpa has enough money for plane tickets…"

Tristan gave a small chuckle, "I couldn't pay for the dinner meal on a flight! I'm flat broke!"

"It's been so long since I've had a real shift at Burger World, I probably couldn't even afford to eat there – even with the employee discount!" Tea said, smiling guiltily.

Then, at the same instant, all four of them turned to look at Bakura, who had kept very quiet, and was staring intently at the floor.

* * *

"All right! Five tickets to Egypt!" Yugi said, tickets in hand, as they all left the airport.

"Why didn't you ever tell us you were loaded, Bakura?" Joey asked.

"My poor bank account…" Bakura sobbed, white streams of tears running down his face, "That was supposed to go towards my tuition at Harvard!"

"Don't worry about it," Tristan said, putting an arm around Bakura's shoulders, "You know we're good for it."

"Yeah," Tea nodded, "Once Yugi or Joey wins the five million dollars, we'll pay you back in full!"

"Really?" Bakura asked, eyes still watery.

"Of course!" Yugi said, putting the tickets away in the backpack he'd brought, "What kind of friends would we be if we didn't pay you back?"

"Thank you," Bakura said, wiping his eyes.

"Hey – that's what we're here for," Joey said, punching his British friend lightly on the arm.

"The flight doesn't leave until three days from now," Yugi said, changing the subject unintentionally, "So that means you and I had better get in good dueling shape, Joey."

"That's right!" Joey said, "Gotta be on top of the game!"

"Which should be a big problem for you," Tristan said, "Since I've never seen you on top of anything!"

The friends walked away, with Joey and Tristan still bickering and occasionally taking their verbal feuds to fists.