"As the Sun sets on our blessed land, we look back on our day and thank the Gods for blessing us with Good health and fortune. As we turn to our beds to sleep, we pray to the Gods to protect our children and souls from the creatures that lurk in the dark. To Ra, who protects us, to Osiris we give our thanks, To Horus who guides us, and to Anubis who we admire. In thee's presence we bow and give thanks....."
-Evening Prayer

"You're not actually planning on going to this tournament, are you?"

"Of course not."

"Good."

"We finished the planning and have already decided to go."

"What!? Has all your brains all gone to mush!?"

Amber giggled loudly at her friend's outburst. She was on the phone to her friend Devon, also Holly's Cousin, who was currently telling Amber how insanely stupid it was to go to a tournament that none of them had entered and to set themselves up for any trap that may be laid out for them. Amber had reminded Devon that they had no enemies and thus wouldn't have to worry about anyone wanting to do any harm to them, but first and foremost she had reminded him that yes she was still insane. This all didn't stop Devon from trying anyways,

"I have to go. It's uber long distance you know. Bye!"

"Don't go!" was the last thing heard over the telephone receiver before Amber hung up the phone turning back to the others, who were sitting on the couch still starring at the box, Which was now sitting in the middle of the living room. Holly still had the duel disk strapped to her arm and was tapping her fingers along it, which only seemed to help aggravate both Chris and Ali, but neither said anything.

"This is boring." Holly moaned standing up and heading out of the living room, everyone else watching with her departure with questions in their eyes.

"Where are you going with that?" Ali asked

"To get my deck. Then to go out and see if this thing actually works. Chris, duel?"

"Four Way!" Amber shouted out happily jumping to her feet, she'd just been looking for a reason to also try out one of the duel disks. Chris and Ali look at each other with a groan.

"You're kidding. Right?" Chris asks slowly standing, already knowing that Amber was serious.

"C'mon! It'll be fun!" Amber said grabbing a duel disk and following Holly out, smiling and giggling back at the other two, daring them to not join in.

With a sigh, Chris got up and retrieved a duel disk of his own, pulling his deck out his pocket, slowly following Holly and Amber out.

"I haven't duelled in ages." Ali laughed to herself as she grabbed the remaining disk and slid her deck into the designated deck slot before walking off to join her friends.

The four stood ready out on the street infront of their house, luckily the street is too narrow for cars and at such a time of night there weren't that many people anyways.

Amber and Holly stood on the actual street, opposite from each other as Chris stood on the curb outside of the house, and Ali on the sidewalk, opposite him. They all raised their arms that had their disks on and grinned,

"Let's duel!" they shouted in unison, pressing the trigger buttons and sending the disks into action. The Holo-projectors shot out, landing and humming quietly and ready. They had just finished rolling a dice to determine who was going first. The order was Amber, Chris, Holly, and attacking first was Ali.

Amber drew her sixth card and giggled placing one card face down in defence position and two cards in the magic/trap zones, and ended her turn.

Chris looked his hand over without much expression, he placed one monster face down and one card in the magic/trap zone, ending his turn.

Holly grinned widely as she looked her hand over, she placed Skilled Dark Magician (1900/1700) in face up attack mode and placed one card in the magic/trap zone shrugging and turning to Ali.

Ali had a dark look on her face that caused everyone to back up a step. "Painful choice."

"Who picks? Whowho?" Amber asked, hopping up and down with glee as she waited hopeful Ali would choose her to pick.

"Holly." Ali replied simply, pulling five cards from her deck and showing them to Holly.

"Damn." Amber sighed looking extremely disappointed, but the moment passed and she was smiling and giggly again almost instantly.

Holly looked like she had just been hit by a truck as she saw the choices that Ali had given her. Sighing she pointed to 'Sangan'.

Ali slipped the rest into the graveyard and summoned Sangan in attack mode, grinning at the others. "Go."

An hour later the last two of the three friends were finishing what was obviously the end of the duel.

Holly had been the first out when she had been hit by three of Ali's massive Fiends, with a grand total of 6800 points of damage when all she had was 6000 life points left.

Ali had been taken out by Chris's Summoning Emperor Dragon, and then paying the thousand life points to use the dragon's special effect, sending the damage right at Ali, who had only 2500lp left after taking Holly down.

Now it stood between Chris and Amber, and Chris's deck was rapidly growing smaller and smaller by each turn, running out of moves and cards he could use while Amber having a higher number of cards in her deck was fine with waiting.

Currently on the field Chris had Spear dragon (1900/0) in attack mode and one trap face down. Amber had Gravity bind, two Servant of Catabolism, and one monster face down in defence mode.

It was now Chris' turn and he had only three turns in which to end the duel or risk being decked. He looked at his hand, it didn't seem very promising at the moment. He had 'Graceful Charity', 'Pot of Greed', and 'Creature Swap'. He knew he couldn't use either of his drawing cards as it would bring him that much closer to decking himself. It seemed that his only possibility of winning was from using creature swap. "I play Creature Swap. Giving you my Spear Dragon and you choose which monster I get."

"Hm...you can have, this one!" Amber said giving Chris her face down monster, making him groan as he peeked to see just what she had given him. A wide grin broke out across his face. It was just the card he would need, giving him another chance at winning. He flipped it over to reveal 'Fibre Jar'. Both of them then took their graveyard, hand, and field and shuffled it all back into their own decks. Now that Amber had nothing to defend herself, Chris, if he pulled anything good, would be able to make an immediate come back.

They both drew their five cards and Chris smiled, even though his hand wasn't the greatest, he could still manage to do something. Unsure of what Chris drew, and rather aware of what it could be, Chris's smiling caused Amber to cringe.

"I summon Luster Dragon in attack mode and attack!" he said before ending his turn, making the current life point count: Amber 7600, and Chris 5000.

Amber drew her next card, a wide grin breaking across her face. "I play pot of greed, then Graceful charity." she said drawing and dumping two cards in her discard pile before turning back to Chris. "Then, I play Exchange." She said walking over to him and picking one card from Chris's hand as he scowled at her. Choosing he takes 'spirit reaper' from her hand as she giggled prancing back to her spot. Removing the two cards from her graveyard to special summon her newly acquired card, Chaos Emperor Dragon, in attack mode. "I'll pay the 1000 life points to blow everything up! Everything goes Boom!"

Chris growled as his hand, and field where destroyed and cleared along with Amber's, and his life points dropped by another 3600 points, bringing him down to only 1400 life points, and Amber with 6600.

His turn and he draws, hoping to make the famous top draw move...he closes

his eyes and waits, opening one and growling inwardly. Nothing he could use at the moment.

Back to Amber, if she pulls anything she could end the turn and win the duel. She looked over the card she had just drawn and her entire expression changed, "What the hell?!" she exclaimed holding the card in her hand and drawing everyone's complete attention to her with interest.

"What is it?" Chris asked slightly puzzled, knowing that Amber wouldn't react that way towards her cards, she would more then likely have scolded the card for not coming sooner or coming too early. "What is it!?" he repeated after no answer had come.

"Chris...have you seen this card before?" Amber asked, stepping forward and forfeiting the end of the duel, and handing a confused Chris the card she had drawn.

He looked it over, his eyes going wide with amazement and awe. "Jackal Knight God Anubis?" he looked it over more closely, it didn't look fake, but then again there were some pretty real looking fakes floating around. "Where did you get this?" He asked, eyeing Amber over the top of the card.

She shook her head and pointed to her disk. "I dunno. Never seen it before in my life. It must have been in the duel disk before I put my deck in."

The four were silent for many moments, looking at the card then at to disks they each had around their arms, a slight chill running down their spines.

"Does any one else feel creeped out right now?" Holly asked shivering and looking around the night sky. Suddenly a rain droplet fell onto her nose and she looked at the others. "Hey, it's raining!" she yelped, trying to keep her deck from getting wet, the others also glanced at the sky as the rain went from light drizzle to pouring, pounding down on the streets, causing the four to dash for shelter and warmth.

"What odd weather..." Holly muttered as she was the last one in and locked the door behind her. Running her fingers threw her wet hair she flicked on the hall light.

"I don't know about you, but I'm actually looking forward to this tournament now." Chris said with a grin, as he took his disk off tossing it, complete with his deck, onto a chair and grabbed a towel to dry himself.

"Me too. I want to know what's going on and why someone would do this to us..." Holly replied as the other two nodded in agreement. This tournament would prove to be most interesting, even if they had been sent into it by some unknown person.

Amber stood silently at the window just watching as the lightning and thunder made a loud ruckus.

Ali flopped onto a chair and growled trying to pat the water out of her hair.

"You alright, Amber?" Holly asked sitting on the floor in her usual spot, pulling her disk off and looking her cards over.

"Ya... Just watching the rain." She replied quietly

"Wonder how that card got into your deck...Ali and I where going through our decks while we sat out and neither of us have random cards..." Holly said, looking back at her friend.

"I almost decked, and there was no unknown card in my deck either." Chris said placing his towel aside.

The room was silent and serious for the few minutes as they all thought about what had happened over the course of the day again.