Here is the second part of my story. I hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh in any way, shape, or form.

Chapter 2: Throw Down the Gauntlet! Tournament of Kings

Jason looked through his cards and tried to find ways to improve his deck. He read the tournament invitation and decided to go since he had nothing better to do.

"All right. Now all I need are some monster destruction cards and I'll be ready."

Jason went downstairs to go for a walk when his mother stopped him.

"Oh, I didn't know that the bar closed this early," he said.

"Real funny. Your principal called here. He said something about a fight, you being expelled, or something like that," his mother said, slurring her words slightly.

Jason rolled his eyes. He remembered that the phone bill was the only bill his mom managed to pay on time.

"It's about damn time. Finally, I have some freedom from that horrible place."

Jason's mom walked up to him and placed her hand on his shoulder. His nose was struck by the overwhelming stench of marijuana in her clothes and beer on her breath.

"Now list...listen son. This ish the third time..." She began counting on her fingers. "Yeah, third time you've been expull...expall...kicked out of school," his mother slurred.

Jason took her hand, which was almost nothing but bone, and removed it from his shoulder.

"Listen, Pam. I don't need a lecture from my drunk, pathetic, pothead slut of a mother!" he said viciously.

Pam's bloodshot eyes went wide.

"Don't look at me like that. You know it's the truth. Look at yourself. You weight 85 pounds for God's sake! You're crusty, raggedy, and bloodshot. And you smell like a horse. Now if you have nothing further to say, I am going out for a walk."

Jason opened the door and walked out, leaving his mother in a daze. He walked down the sidewalk thinking about the tournament.

"If the people at this tourney are as strong as some people make them out to be, then I'm going to need some help with my deck."

Jason stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and leaned against a light pole hiding his face. Two students from his former school walked by. Jason whistled sharply and caught their attention.

"Jason? What are you doing here? We heard that you were expelled," one of the kids said fearfully.

"Yes, I was. But that doesn't mean that I can't see my favorite punching bags. Now, deck check."

One of the boys cringed.

"Please, not today. These are my best cards. I can never get them back," he said.

"Good, then I'll be the only one with them. Now hand them over."

One of the boys pulled out his deck and sadly handed it to Jason, who looked over the cards.

"Crap, crap, crap, crap, a Goblin Attack Force, that's good."

He slipped the card into his pocket. Jason went through the rest of the boy's cards and only found two more rare, or powerful cards. After pocketing the cards he threw the rest of the boy's deck into the street.

"Now, go fetch like the dog that you are."

Jason laughed as the boy ran out into the street to retrieve his cards. He turned to face the other boy, but found him running down the street. Jason turned into an alleyway and ran as fast as he could until he reached the other end. There, he ran the other boy down.

"So you thought you could escape, huh? Apparently you forgot that I know where you live. Now give me your cards!"

He reached into the small boy's pocket and pulled out his deck. The boy tried to grab it from Jason, but he caught a sharp punch to the gut. Jason, satisfied with his work, went through the boy's deck.

"Raigeki, Heavy Storm, Jinzo, Berserk Gorilla. How dare you hold out on me!"

Jason delivered a hard kick to the fallen boy's already aching stomach. He groaned and rolled over. Jason put the boy's deck in his pocket, deciding to go through it later. He bent down.

"Listen kid. You need to learn some respect, badly. So I'll get you again tomorrow. And if you don't have any rare cards by then, you will wish that you were never born."

Jason picked the boy up, placed him in a trashcan, and rolled the can down the street, laughing as he did so.

"Let that be a lesson to you!" Jason called after the rolling can.

He walked back towards his house with a smile on his face.

"First, freedom from school, and now more rare cards. Today's going to be a good day."

Jason started the long walk home.
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The rest of the week went by like a bullet. Jason worked on strategies for the tourney, in-between beating up others and cleaning up his mom's puke. Finally the day of the tournament arrived. Jason went through his things.

"Let's see...I've got my deck, my money, my bus fare, and my invitation. I'm ready to go."

Jason walked out of his room and down the steps. Pam was out with Silky Joe, so Jason didn't need to lie about where he was going. He walked out the door and headed to the bus stop, where he waited for a few minutes until the bus came. Jason got on the bus, paid the fare and sat down.

'I wonder what kind of people will be at the tournament. I hope there aren't a lot of rich snobs,' he thought.

Jason rode the bus all the way to the pier where there was a large crowd of people waiting.

'Wow. All these people are here for the tournament?' Jason thought as he got off the bus.

He began to walk toward the people when someone pulled him into an alley. Jason looked up to see who it was. Standing before him was a tall man wearing a turban on his head and a long robe. Around his neck was a strange object that resembled a key.

"Well, it looks like someone is tired of breathing," Jason said as he cracked his knuckles.

The mysterious man spoke.

"They're after it, and I can't keep fighting. You've got to fight now. You've got to destroy it."

The man grabbed Jason's hand and placed a napkin in it.

"Keep it safe. Don't let it fall into the wrong hands or mankind will suffer."

The man backed away from Jason and disappeared into nothingness. Jason scratched his head, then, looked at the napkin and realized that there was something in it. He was about to unwrap it when a ship's whistle blew.

"Damn! The tourney, I forgot all about it!"

Jason slipped the napkin into his pocket and ran back towards the pier. The people were still there, and the ferry was just arriving.

"Looks like I didn't miss anything."

Jason began walking towards the crowd. He saw a lot of people trading their cards.

"I should get in on this action. Maybe that way, I'll be able to score some powerful cards."

Jason walked around and talked to a lot of the people. Indeed they did have rare, powerful cards, but Jason found it hard to trade for any of them. Finally he resorted to his old ways and picked a few pockets.

'If you can't do things the nice way, do them the dirty way,' he thought as he skillfully lifted a card out of a girl's pocket.

Some microphone feedback caught his attention. Everyone looked towards the ferry, which finished docking. Jason could just barely make out the figure of a man on the boat's deck.

"Welcome, duelist elite, to the greatest tournament ever held," came the mystery man's voice from loudspeakers placed on the pier. "Everyone must make their way to the ferry, where you will be issued your official duel gauntlet and, then, have your decks exchanged on the ferry."

'Have my deck exchanged? What do I need it exchanged for?' Jason thought as he made his way through the crowd of people.

After about a minute of walking, Jason got to the ship where a table was set up. He flashed his invitational card and was given a strange device that he was told to put on his arm. Jason then boarded the ferry and was issued two room tickets and a small, circular disk.

'Well this thing is huge. A whole lot better than anywhere I've ever been,' Jason thought as he continued to eye the competition.

A crewmember went around taking people's decks for inspection and exchange. He got to Jason, who handed him the deck and his extra room ticket. Jason, then, walked towards the stairs into the lower deck, where he found his room. He opened the door and walked in.

"This place is a palace," Jason remarked.

"Tell me about it," came a voice from one of the rooms.

Jason turned to see who it was. A young woman stepped out from the room and walked towards Jason.

"Hi. I'm Amber Jackson. It looks like we'll be roommates on this cruise," the woman said.

"That's nice. I'm Jason Garnet, but my friends call me Crimson."

"Why do they call you that?" Amber asked as she brushed some of her jet-black hair out of her eyes.

"Because I like to make people bleed in fights. It makes it worthwhile."

"Oh, gee. How...charming. I'm headed to the snack bar."

Amber walked out of the room. Jason immediately walked over to the bed and lay down on it. He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. A few minutes later, a loud knock woke him.

"Who is it? Who's trying to disturb my sleep?"

Jason walked to the door and opened it. The same crewmember that took his deck returned with it.

"Here's your deck. Good luck in the tournament," he said.

The man handed Jason his deck, then poked his head in the room and looked around.

"Can I help you with anything else?" Jason asked harshly.

"Is there an Amber Jackson here?"

Jason remembered his roommate. He called her name, but no answer came.

"I guess not," Jason said.

"Well, could you give her this deck? I'd wait for her, but I've got a lot of work to do and little time to do it in."

The man gave Jason Amber's deck, then, walked away. Jason closed the door behind him.

"Wow. That guy is even dumber than he looks," he said as he went through Amber's deck.

Jason scanned the entire deck looking for something good.

"That figures. Her whole deck is full of females and useless cards. Any good cards she does have, I already own. Well, at least I know what to expect."

Jason placed her deck neatly on the end table, then, went through his.

"Hey, these are all the same cards as before. What do they mean 'exchanged decks'?"

Jason looked at his cards, but noticed something. His Berserk Gorilla used to be bent at one corner, but this one was in mint condition. In fact, all of his cards were in mint condition.

"Well, that's one good thing. Hey, wait a minute, what's this?"

Jason rubbed the cards. He felt something strange about their texture, like it was more than the cardboard-like material. The cards also felt thicker. When he turned the card over, there was a long black stripe that ran from the top to the bottom of the card.

"All duelists please report to the main lobby. I repeat: all duelists please report to the main lobby," came the message over the intercom in Jason's room.

He grabbed Amber's deck and walked out.

"Wait a minute. Where's the main lobby?"

Jason saw someone with a duel gauntlet, so he followed him until they reached the main lobby.

"Wow. This place is incredible. The stuff here is worth more than a hundred times my whole house," Jason remarked.

The lobby was filled with statues, and the floors were made of marble. Intricate artwork lined the walls as the duelists all marveled at the sheer size of the room. A man in a suit walked to the top of the stairs at the far end of the room. He held up a microphone and spoke into it.

"Greetings duelists. You are all here for the National Tournament of Champions. Each of you was selected based on your ranking in your region's tourneys. You are the best of the best."

'Damn straight,' Jason thought.

The man in the suit continued.

"We are headed for Victory Island, a private piece of land owned by the man who runs this tournament. There you will all compete in a giant tournament to gain each others' key puzzle programs."

Jason remembered the disk he had and guess that it had something to do with these programs.

"You each start with two key puzzle programs, and you must collect ten of these cyber cards in order to complete the key. They will automatically download into your duel gauntlet after you win, to prevent cheating. Once you perform this task, you must make your way to the center of the island, where you will find our facility. This is where the final tournament will begin. The losers of the finals will still receive a minimal cash prize of one thousand dollars, but the winner of the final tournament will receive ten million dollars."

Jason's mouth nearly overflowed at the sound of that money.

"There are 180 duelists participating in this tourney, 56 of them are on this boat right now."

"180 duelists?!" one of the duelists remarked.

"I don't know if I could handle that," another duelist said.

Jason began to worry slightly.

"With all those duelists, I don't know whether or not I will get that far. And I can't just duel chumps because everyone here is some kind of super elite and I'm just here because of luck."

"As for the dueling itself, there are two formats: two-on-two, and tag team. Two-on-two is the classic style of dueling, and tag team is a team of two duelists versus another team of two," the guide said.

"That sounds like fun," said one of the duelists.

"As for the tag-team format, there are two styles: elimination and first victory. Elimination is everyone duels until there is one left standing, and first victory is that the winners are the first ones to finish off any opponent's life points. Afterward, the winners gain key card programs from both players on the opposite team."

'That sounds like an easy way to score some points,' Jason thought.

The guide continued.

"And one last thing. These duels will be played much differently from others. Cyber cards that contain computer programs linked to your duel gauntlet have replaced your normal cards. These cyber cards unleash realistic holograms of duel monsters and spell and trap cards."

Some of the duelists looked impressed; others didn't.

"We have another hour before the ship docks at the island, so everyone, have fun and relax."

Everyone began to walk back towards his or her cabins. Jason stuck his hands in his pockets and felt something. He pulled out the strange napkin that was given to him before by the man in the alley. He words still burned within Jason.

'Don't let it fall into the wrong hands or mankind will suffer.'

Jason unwrapped the small package. A duel monsters card stared him in the face; one that he had never seen before. It was of a strange mummified dog-like creature holding a large scythe.

"What in the world is this thing?" Jason asked.

The card was just like any other duel monsters card, except it was completely black with its text embossed in gold and written in some strange hieratic language. Jason counted the stars on it; there were twelve.

"This thing must be powerful. Too bad I can't read it."

Suddenly, the hieratic translated itself into perfect English right before Jason's eyes.

"What the hell is going on here? How did this happen?"

Jason read the name and the card text.

"The Resurrection of Anubis. 'All kneel before this undead controller of life and death. His scythe can destroy souls.' I've never even seen this card before. That guy was a dumbass for letting me have this."

Jason slipped the card back into his pocket and walked back towards his cabin.
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That's it for this chapter. I know, I know. There was no dueling or action. Well there definitely will be in the next chapter, so don't desert me yet.