Once in the safety of a sitting room, Edric removed his Duel Disk, keeping the Launcher Spider card on it. He removed a can of soda and drank it as he plotted.
Yugi Moto is a much better Duelist than I thought. I'm beginning to see how he was able to defeat experts like Maxamillion Pegasus and Seto Kaiba. Edric cast a side glance at a vault. I might have to use it, but should I? It's really strong... yes, I'll use it! The ultimate tribute to the glorious unstoppable power that are machines. Edric opened the vault. Inside were two Duel Monster cards. He slipped it into his deck.
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In Kaiba's control room, Joey sank into a chair. "Man, I'm exhausted and I'm not even dueling."
"Just imagine how Yugi must be feeling, especially after being shocked all those times." Mai took a seat beside him.
"Wow," Mokuba said looking at his watch. "This duel has been going on for about ten minutes."
"Eight minutes and forty-five seconds to be exact," the computer reported.
"This is why I set the Battle City life points at 4000, so that the duels would go by much quicker."
"Hey, I just realized something," Tristan said. "The duel's technically half-over and Masters hadn't played that Inferno Tempest card yet."
"Maybe he just hadn't drawn it yet," Mokuba said.
"I wish we knew more about this card," Bakura said. That way, we can all prepare a countermeasure if we ever go up against Masters."
"Maybe we can," Mokuba said turning to a side monitor. "Computer, hack into the Industrial Illusions mainframe and search for anything matching 'Inferno Tempest.'"
"I'm searching, I'm searching," the computer said. "Hello, I found something." Everybody except Kaiba huddled around the side monitor. "When Maxamillion Pegasus was designing the Duel Monsters card game, he created one card the experts all agree was too powerful to put into circulation. Originally, this was thought to be Toon World, but further research now reveals that the card they were talking about was the Inferno Tempest card."
"So how does it work?"
"When the controller of the card receives more than 3000 points of damage, the card's effect comes into play removing all the cards in both players' decks and graveyards."
"Geez, no wonder Yugi was so devastated. He considers his cards like his family so removing his cards from the game was like sending a family member to their death."
"Yugi will just have to accept the fact that sometimes, things don't go his way. He may treat those cards like family, but even family will turn on you eventually."
"You know, not all families are like yours, Kaiba," Joey said dryly.
"This must be why the duel's been going on for so long," Mokuba said. "Yugi doesn't want to give him the opportunity to use it."
"You know, if it's tough for us in the stands, just imagine how tough it is for Yugi," Tristan said.
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"Oww, oww, OWW! Yugi, your knuckles are digging into my rib cage!" Yugi let go of the metal bar surrounding Tea's waist and fell to the ground.
"Sorry, Tea, I thought I could get you out but as usual I guess I wasn't strong enough."
"Don't be sorry. I think Masters has a remote control to it. That'll open it up."
"This is always the case, isn't it," Yugi said crossing his legs Indian-style. "Me not being able to do the saving."
"Hey, if it wasn't for that, we wouldn't have met, remember?" Yugi nodded. "You know, I still have it."
"But that was seven years ago!"
Tea smiled. "It never really went away. Besides, I don't really mind. I wanted a memento of when we first met..."
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(7 years ago)
Yugi Moto had just moved in with his Grandpa was now starting school at Domino Elementary. He was nervous because he will not know anyone there. He always had trouble making friends simply because he didn't know how to deal with people. People were so different; it was hard to adjust to each person.
The sidewalk was crowded with people and Yugi was shoved almost to the edge of the street. It was like nobody even noticed him. Suddenly a tall boy with brown hair in a blue jacket and pants ran by, pushing Yugi to the corner. The boy turned and called back, "Yo, Joe, hurry it up, slow poke!"
"All right, keep your shorts on." 'Joe' was another tall boy with shaggy blond hair also in a blue jacket and pants. "Hey, small fry, move it or lose it!" Yugi realized too late that they were talking to him. 'Joe' was running so fast that he couldn't stop. He plowed into Yugi sending him into the street. Without even apologizing, 'Joe' ran to catch up with his friend.
"Oww," Yugi moaned, rubbing his sore bottom. "Some morning," he said to himself sarcastically.
"Hey kid, watch it!" Somebody yelled. Yugi opened his eyes and saw that a car was coming towards him. He screamed.
Somebody tackled him, using the momentum to throw both of them onto the sidewalk. Yugi and his mysterious tackler rolled and rolled. Finally, Yugi felt pavement on his back.
"What's the big idea?" A different voice from the first one called out. "You crazy, just jumping out in front like that?"
"I could ask you the same thing," the voice who told him to 'watch it' asked back telling Yugi that it wasn't him he or she was talking to. "You almost could've hit a kid!"
"That kid wasn't in my view, I couldn't have known."
"Yeah, whatever, just get out of here before I have you arrested for reckless driving."
"Crap, I can't afford to get arrested again. Fine, fine." Yugi heard a door slam and a car zooming off.
"Hey... hey kid, are you all right?" Yugi finally found the strength (or maybe it was the courage) to open his eyes. At first, all he could see was a bright light, and then his eyes came into focus. Somebody was standing over him. It was a girl with shoulder-length brown hair and blue eyes. Yugi pulled himself into a sitting position. The girl was dressed in a school uniform. "Hi," she greeted cheerfully. "Glad to see you're all right."
"Uh... hi," Yugi greeted. "Um... thank you for rescuing me."
"No problem. I saw you get shoved out into the street. I would've hated myself for not trying something. My name's Tea Gardner. What's your name?"
"I'm Yugi Moto, I just moved in with my Grandpa and I'm new here."
"Pleased to meet you, Yugi. Say, would you mind walking to school with me? It really is no fun walking to school alone and if you're with another person, there's less of a chance of you getting knocked into the street again."
"Okay." Tea held out her hand to help Yugi up but suddenly winced and held her shoulder in pain.
"Tea, what's wrong?" Yugi asked.
"My... my shoulder..."
"You must've hurt it when you threw the both of us to the sidewalk. Can I help you to a nurse?"
Tea looked at Yugi and smiled. "Thank you."
"It's the least I can do."
An hour later, Tea was sitting in the Nurse's office as she bandaged Tea's shoulder. "It's not serious, Tea. Don't move it around a lot and you should be better within a week. There might be a little bit of scarring though."
"Thank you," Tea said slipping her arm back into her shirt. As Tea was exiting the Nurse's office, she ran into Yugi.
"Tea, um... I came to see how your shoulder is."
"Its fine, Yugi, thanks."
"I'm sorry, you got that hurt rescuing me."
"It's not your fault, Yugi. Sometimes, things just happen. At least nobody got seriously hurt. Tell you what, how about from now on, you and I walk to school together. That way, we can look out for each other."
"You mean like friends?"
"Yeah, like friends. Just between you and me, I don't have too many friends either so I would welcome the company. So what do you say, Yugi, you want to be my friend?"
"Yeah! Um... do... do you want to be my friend?"
"I was hoping you would ask." Tea's good arm was held out and Yugi shook it. "Then here's to the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
And that was how it started. It seemed like Yugi and Tea were inseparable. They told each other everything, and they were never prejudicial against each other. One time, Yugi took Tea to his locker to retrieve something.
"It's a precious treasure, at least it is for me," Yugi explained. He took out a gold-colored box covered in strange pictographs. He opened up the box to reveal gold-colored metal pieces of different sizes and shapes.
"Wow, it's pretty," Tea said.
"Yeah," Yugi said although he wasn't exactly referring to the pieces. He quickly brought his mind back to the subject. "It's something I got from my Grandpa. He calls it the Millennium Puzzle. He got it during a dig in Egypt."
"So your Grandfather's an archaeologist?"
"No, he's a game store owner. He just dabbles in Egyptology on the side."
"So what's so special about this puzzle?" Tea asked.
"Well, according to my Grandfather, it's said that whoever solves its mystery will get their heart's desire."
"Wow, that would be so cool! So what's your heart's desire, Yugi?"
Yugi's cheeks showed a hint of red. "I... I'd rather not say. You know that you can't tell anybody what you wish for otherwise it won't come true."
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Tea decided not to press him for any more information.
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"You've been nice to me from day one," Yugi said recalling their first meeting. "You've always stuck up for me. I was looking for a way to pay you back for that time."
"I say you paid it in full several times, Yugi. Now being one of them."
"Tea, I'm sorry I wasn't able to stop Edric from kidnapping you."
"That's in the past, Yugi. What matters now is that you're here and you're dueling for my freedom. I wouldn't have it any other way."
"All right, peons," Edric said emerging from his private chambers. "Break time is over. Prepare to say your good-byes."
"The only one we're saying good-bye to is you, Masters," Yugi said as his Millennium Puzzle started to glow.
The Millennium Puzzle flashing was not lost on Edric. What's that thing around his neck? Probably nothing of importance. "Now, let's see, where were we? Oh yes, we both had 4000 life points and I had my Launcher Spider in attack mode." The dueling field was set up just as it was five minutes ago. "And it was my turn." He drew a card.
Yugi, I know you can do it, Tea thought. Just always remember that you're not in this alone. I'm behind you and I'm sure Joey, Tristan, and Bakura are too. You can defeat this techno terror and prove that there is nothing more powerful than the human spirit.