Hello all!
This chappie will probably be somewhat short, but I'll try to make it as long as I can! I'm going to post exactly on the anniversery date, just to have fun. ^_^
Anywhos, Thankies to all who gave loverly presents to everybody!
*knock is heard on the door*
Malik: Who could that be? *goes to open the door*
*Yugi, Yami, Bakura, "Roo", and Mr. Gice all come in*
Yugi: Uh, hello!
Malik: *blink* Hi. What're you doing here? *glance at Daricio* Did she make you be her muses too?
Roo: No, thank goodness. We're here as invited "Guests" to watch this chapter...
Daricio: *thoughtfully* Though, I might soon have Roo be a permanent muse, since he hangs around a few of my chatrooms so much anyway... And since Mr. Gice is my character, I might make him a muse too... Which would make for an interesting variety of characters... Roo, Malik, and Mr. Gice... And maybe Bakura, too, to keep Roo in line...
Roo: -_- Please don't...
Malik: Yes, please don't.
Daricio: *shruggies* Anyways, I brought them here because some of you reveiwers were nice enough to give the characters in the story some gifts! I was going to simply "give" the gifts to the characters by incorperating them into the story, but then there'd be a whole heck of a lot of confusion and insanity due to major sugar rushes on the part of all the characters... ^_^U
Bakura: o.O Considering the strangeness level that this fiction already has, I don't think we need any more confusion...
Daricio: Exactly! So, anyways-
Roo: I'm not going to like the chapter after this one...
Daricio: *blink* Why not?
Roo: Because in it, I-*gets mouth covered with duct tape, courtesy of Daricio* -_- mrrph...
Daricio: No giving away the story. ^_^U Now then, here's all the presents that people gave everybody!
Yami: Why do I get the feeling that "presents" in this case isn't exactly going to be a good thing?
Yugi: I dunno. They probably will be good, though, seeing as they came from reviewers that like this story...
Yami: Somehow, that's what I was afraid of...
Daricio: ^_^U Anyways...
Total Presents for Daricio:
~Lotsa Reviews!
~Uncut subtitled Yu-Gi-Oh
Daricio: YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ^________________^
~Something to hack writer's block with.
Daricio: *weilding weapon* This should be useful. *evil grin*
~SUGAR! AND A MALLET!
Daricio: *blink* ok.... ^_^ Yay! I've got a mallet!
~A Book by Aristotle
Daricio: Readingness...
~An Anti Preppie Device!
Daricio: *weilding new weapon* Muehehehehehehe.... ^_^
~Anti-evil-egginator. (it un-evils your egg.)
Daricio: Oooooooohhh, more useful stuffs! ^_^
~A Magic Pillow.
Daricio: This should be interesting... *places it in a special spot where she can use it if her author powers ever fail her*
~Giant 50 foot Chocolate Cake and 10 liters of Soda Pop
Daricio: o.O Uuuh... *passes cake out to everybody* THIS is gunna last me for a while... ^_^U
~a wish; anything you want.
Daricio: ^__________^ More wish funness. *places wish in same special spot as magic pillow*
~Confetti
Daricio: ^_^ Thanks everybody!
Roo: *has finally gotten duct tape off by now* That was all the gifts?
Daricio: Not quite.. ^_^ Now it's time for YOUR guy's gifts!
Malik: *thinking* These author notes are going to end up way longer then the actual ficcie! How embarassing for Daricio...
Total Presents for Malik:
Malik: uh oh...
~A sheild. There are alot of people out to get you...
Malik: *eyes sheild to make sure that there's no explosives or anything on it, then smiles and sits in the corner with it blocking him from view*
Daricio: Malik-kun, you have to get the rest of your gifts!
Malik: *peeps out from his new "hiding place"* oh, fine...
~A Spear. To go with the sheild.
Malik: ^_^ coool....
~MORE SUGAR! AND A FRYING PAN TO HIT YAMO OVER THE HEAD WITH!(Yamo copyright B/k)
Malik: *giving frying pan a weird look* oookay....
~A Book by Plato
Malik: .... Book..... Ok....
~Daricio: And that's all your presents!
Malik: ok.. *retreats to corner with his Spear and Sheild, leaving his other presents in the middle of the room*
Total presents for Yami:
~A CD containing "I know a song that gets on everybodies nerves."
Yami: *listening to it on Daricio's CD player* Hey, I know this song! *hums along with it*
~Whatever he uses to keep that cape up.
Yami: *blink* But why do I need more paper clips? I have the two required to hold it up... Oh well. *clips paper clips to one of the many belt straps, just so they can hang off and look cool.* ^_^
~SUGAR! AND AN UMBRELLA FOR NO REASON AT ALL!!!
Yami: *holding sugar* uh.... Is this not the stuff that's in the halloween candy that gave me a sugar rush last time?
Yugi: *takes sugar away from Yami and hides it* No sugar rushes for you!
Yami: .... Ok....
Malik: *steals umbrella to use as a "roof" to his "shelter"*
Yami: .... Ok....
~A Book By Kant and A Book By Thomas Aquinas
Yami: .......................... Since when do I like to read?
Daricio: Be happy with it, and take a long time to read it. That's all your presents...
Yami: ... Ok.. That wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be... ^_^
Total presents for Yugi:
Yugi: This should be interesting...
~A shirt that says, "I'm not short! I'm vertically challenged!"
Yugi: ..... Gee, thanks.. *puts the shirt on*
~Ear Plugs
Yugi: ... *realizes something* YES! Now I don't have to listen to people when they start to become annoying! ^_^
Daricio: Now then...
Yugi: *puts ear plugs in*
Daricio: Your next present is- Yugi, are you listening to me? ... -_- I am now officially charged as "annoying" by Yugi... *ahem* YUGI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yugi: *hears the loud yell through the ear plugs* *takes them out* Yes?
Daricio: Your next present?
Yugi: Oh, right. ^_^
~SUGAR! AND A LEASH! HE CAN DRAG YAMI AROUND!
Yami: o.O I hope not...
Yugi: ^_^ Fun!
Yami: -_- I thought I was DONE...
Yugi: ^_^
~A Book by Frued
Yugi: Who's giving out all the books?
Daricio: Felix...
Yugi: oh...... ok... That it?
Daricio: Yup...
Yugi: ^_^ Ok! *puts leash on Yami and puts earplugs in to drown out Yami's yells as he drags him out of the room and down the sidewalk*
Daricio: o.O
Roo: And I thought I was mean...
Malik: That's a side of Yugi I hadn't seen before...
Total Presents for Bakura:
~Fencing Equipment
Bakura: .... Interesting.... *picks up a few of the swords and things* Somebody's been reading Negative Chaos....
~A cage to put Eb in whenever he gets out of line
Bakura: ^_^ Fun.
Roo: -_- Not fun.
~SUGAR! AND A GIANT BOOK!
Bakura: *blink* Big book? *lugs it into a corner for reading later (not Malik's corner, a different corner)*
~A Book by Keirkagaard
Roo: *looking at author's name* Who comes up with these people's names, anyways?
Bakura: Those are last names. Nobody "picks" them, Roo...
Roo: Don't call me that. -_-
Bakura: ^_^ whatever you say, Roo.
Roo: -_-
Daricio: Ok, last person's presents!
Roo: Me... And seeing as not too many people are very fond of me, I'm willing to bet that-
Total Presents for Roo:
Roo: -they won't be very nice to me...
Daricio: That's a matter of opinion.
~A knife.
Roo: o.O People are actually GIVING me sharp pointy objects to play with? You people are more nuts than I thought.... Nice, but nuts...
~A File.
Roo: what am I going to use this for?.... Oh yeah! To break out of Bakura's cage! *evil grin* Much nicer than I thought...
~SUGAR! AND STEAK! AND SUNGLASSES FOR NO REASON AT ALL!
Roo: mmmmm... *eats steak the way he does in the Japanese version*
Bakura: o.O You have no table manners.
Roo: *munch munch* *talking with mouth full* Sho? Who needsh table mannersh?
Bakura: *rolls eyes*
Roo: *puts on Sunglasses, too* *ignores sugar*
~A Book on the subject of Torture
Roo: *raises eyebrow* There's gotta be a catch to all this... there's gotta be a catch.. gotta... gotta be a catch...
~A Bomb in a Box
Roo: -_- I knew there was a ca-*boom!* *flys up high*
Daricio: ^_^ Don't worry, he'll come down after a while.
Mr. Gice: ... Did I get any presents?
Daricio: No, but I figured you'd want to see this chapter... you know... because you're in it. ^_^
All Mr. Gice fans: YAY!
Mr. Gice: *eyeing fans* One: How'd they get in here? Two: I have fans?
AMGF: ^_^
Daricio: *shoos fans out of room and closes door* ^_^U Now for Review Responses, and then the loverly ficcie!
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Review Responses:
~Master of Dimentions: Nope, I've decided that you're not. You all cause too much havoc around here for that. I hereby banish you all from my author notes! *banish* Muah!... Not that you can't talk to me on AIM or anything like that, though... just no more intruding on my author notes..
Malik: And by the way.. it's MALIK!!!
~Etheflaed: ^_^ Thankies for all the presents, guys! I'm sure everyone will greatly appreciate your gifts. Also... ^_^ I got this review the day right after the day that I got obsessed with puns, and every time somebody would make a pun, I'd say, "Do the pun dance! Punnie punnie punnie! *jumps around in circles*" ... to which DVD would usually reply with, "Ha, ha, very punnie." to which I'd do the punnie dance... ^_^U I was just a little bit insane that day... Aaand, that was random... But anyways, thanks bunches for reviewing!
~B/k: D/s, I thougth you knew that insults don't work on insane people!
Malik: *randomly* nutty as a fruitcake...
Daricio: ^_^ Thankies! Anyways, thanks for the anti-preppyness! Talk to you later on AIM, ok?
~Perpetually Hyper One: ^_^ Yayz! Thanks for the anti-evil egginator... thingy... *glance at Akaib* Not sure if it worked or not... *kicks computer*
Akaib: *sputter, sputter, dies*
Daricio: -_- *kick*
Akaib: *revives*
Daricio: ^_^U Anyways, talk to you later on AIM as well!
~C.M.Aeris Queen of Insanity: You sound like you need the uncut version, too.. ^_^U Oh, wait, I think you do already... Anyways, Sorry for the short chappie last time.. Malik's this chappie, even if I do use his dub name...
Malik: -_-
Daricio: ^_^U It's not MY fault!
Mr. Gice: It's.. your story, is it not?
Daricio: ^_^UUU Well, yes.. But it's still not my fault.
Mr. Gice: How?
Daricio: *avoids question* ^_^U Anyways, thanks for reviewing...
~dark angel5221: Thanks for the bomb in a box for Roo. ^_^ I think he liked it.
Roo: -_- Riiiiight.... *still blackened*
~Tamera Raymond: Yaaay! Confetti! ^^U Yes, I guess Seeker does sorta sound like Seeky... I got the name from the gameboy game dueling thing... that's what they call him... (better than just calling him "rare hunter" all the time, ne?) *looking at your story* Wow, you have alot of chappies.. How'd you get more chappies than me and yet I've worked on mine longer than you?
Malik: Oh, I dunno, maybe that you.. TAKE A MONTH TO UPDATE EACH TIME???
Daricio: ^_^U That might explain it, yes...
Roo: *rolls eyes*
~Evil Neptune: ^_^U Yesh, it was a short chappie.. My shortest lately... But hey, remember, whenever the days get short, everybody always remembers that Spring's just a little ways off, and then we'll have long days again. *nods wisely*
Mr. Gice: What's that got to do with this?
Daricio: eh... If you wait a few more months, I may start churning out longer chappies?
Mr. Gice:... I see... I think...
Daricio: ^_^U
~MagicPerson14: Erm... ok... Nice to see a new face... ^_^ If you ever have problems coming up with character names, it's really quite easy... (After all, I had to come up with a huge bunch of names for Mr. Gice to use, if you'll recall.) All you have to do is pound on the keyboard, then say the newly formed "word" out loud to see if it's pronunciable. If not, make minor changes by adding/taking away vowels. And, Voila! Name! ^_^ As for teh question of when I'm going to update... It all depends upon how long I want the chapter to be. I like to have long chappies, so I work a long time on them. (Even if they're sometimes not very long...) Also, I don't really type very fast, and when you combine that with writer's block, lots of ficcies to be working on at the same time, and almost zero time to be working on anyhting, you get short chappies that take forever to come out. ^_^U Sorry... Anyways, thanks for reviewing! Tschuss!
~Chikara Takashi: ^___^ Thanks for all the presents! Here's a loverly update for you in exchange! ^_^
~seagirl: Thanks, too for your present! ^_^ I feel so popular. Thanks for saying you know how I feel... It can be hard sometimes, ne? ^_^U Anyways, Yay! I updated! ^__^
~BakaNeko-Chan: Erm, was this update soon enough for you? Guess it didn't help that I got grounded, huh? ^_^U Anyways... *shruggy* I suppose you could say that Chris was trying to be nice... More on that this chappie... Read on!
~The Insane Otaku AKA Caterfree: ^.^ Always glad to update. Just... Slowly, that's all. This chappie be better and longer than last chappie, yah. ^_^ Have fun reading!
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Daricio: All rightie then. Those are done... First another little note, then we'll start this.
Malik: What a novel idea... starting the ficcie!
Daricio: *rolls eyes* ANYWAYS, Somebody recorded over this particular eppie... and... I know the general idea of what happens, obviously, because I've seen it before, but I have no idea what exactly is said... I'm inevitably going to skip a few things, and the conversation between Yami and Marik is cut extremelly short, but you all know what he said, so why should I have to re-do it anyways, right? Right. (I can't for the life of me figure out how to fit that "the end is near, it's my world now" line into the conversation, or even the "remember my name... Marik." line... So I'm shoving in the lines somewhat randomly, and they're not going to make much sense... *sigh* I liked this scene, too... and now I'm basically murdering it...) Anyhows, with that in mind, here's the ficcie!
Malik: *suspiciously* You're not going to cut it short again, are you?
Daricio: I hope not. Like I said, I'm posting this on the Anniversery date whether I like it or not, but I'm attempting to get this chappie to the end of the first day, at least...
Bakura: Uh, Daricio? Battle City takes place all in one day... You saying you're going to have this chappie make up all of Battle City, minus the finals matches?
Daricio: ^_^U No. I've broken Battle City up into two days, that way I can have Daricio be at school on and off through the whole thing. The first day'll end right after Joey's duel with Evil Underpants, I mean Weevil Underwood, which is right after the Arkana duel... meaning... ^_^ It'll end with Mr. Gice!
Roo: Uh huh...
Mr. Gice: Any particular reason why you're ending the day there?
Daricio: *shrugs* I tried to break it into three days, but that made it so that there were only two duels a day for the first two days, and that's basically just stupid, because most of the duels only took from between a half hour to an hour or so... ^_^U That was a very LONG "little note"...How's about I quit blabbing and let us all get on with reading the ficcie, eh?
Malik: *rolls eyes* Good idea...
************************************************************************* {Yami}
Yami grinned as his Magnet Warrior, powered up by his Summoned Skull, raced forward, crashing into the rare hunter, attacking his life points directly, and taking him down.
"I win." He said simply.
"Yeah! I knew you could do it, Yuge!" Joey shouted victoriously, even though he wasn't the one dueling.
Yami nodded, then walked slowly over to the collapsed rare hunter. He picked up his deck and began shuffling through it. when he came to the Red Eyes, he took it out, then looked at the other cards in his ex-opponant's deck.
He looked closely at the Exodia pieces, wishing that Weevil jerk hadn't thrown his and Yugi's own set overboard, and only faintly listening to Joey's continued cheering. The Exodia pieces were really hard to get, in this world at any rate. Sort of like the Blue Eyes cards. Only a certain amount of them had been created.
In fact, with his own set now currently at the bottom of the ocean, getting three totally new sets all in one deck was extremely close to impossible...
Wait..
"Something's coming off on my fingers..." Yami commented aloud, rubbing his index finger and thumb together. "These cards are fake!"
Joey blinked, pausing his cheering for a moment, then grinning once more. "Yeah! I knew this creep was a cheat!"
"Well, no more!" Yami said, ripping the cards in half both ways and flinging the pieces up into the air.
From the doorway, Daricio shook her head. //Was that really necessary?// She asked.
//Well, no.// Yami admitted. //But it was fun.//
//And it looked cool.// Yugi added.
Daricio rolled her eyes. //Boys...// she turned around and was just about to exit the room and return to her soul room so that she didn't become late for her next class, when the rare hunter suddenly decided that he hadn't humiliated himself enough yet and got up on his knees, holding his head in his hands, leaning backwards, and screaming loudly.
Daricio turned back, confusion and slight amusement on her face. "Weirdo..."
Joey looked like he held about the same opinion. "This guy's a nutcase!"
The screams very suddenly transformed themselves into semi-clear words. "No! Master! I'm sorry! Please! I... I tried my best! Please! Master! Noooooo!!!!" He let go of his head, and it dropped down. He stared blankly at the sidewalk.
Daricio blinked. "I'll have to agree with Joey on that one... 'master'?"
Yami shrugged and opened his mouth to respond, and then the rare hunter began to chuckle.
The chuckle grew louder and soon the rare hunter was on his feet, laughing insanely, still looking down at the ground. He looked up at Yami and narrowed his eyes at him. "So, we meet again, Pharaoh."
His voice was deeper than it had been a second ago, sounding almost like two voices talking at the same time, and his eyes were blank, without any pupils. Yugi involentarily shuddered.
Yami blinked at the name. "Who are you?" he asked suspiciously.
The rare hunter laughed again. "Actually, I'm not surprised that you don't know who I am. You were locked inside the puzzle when I dueled little Yugi."
Joey glanced at Yami, not even bothering trying to lower his voice so as not to be rude towards the obviously mentally disturbed person. "Yuuuuuge.... What's with this guy?"
Yami shot Joey a look that told him to shut up for a second and then repeated his question to the rare hunter. "Who are you? And what do you want?"
The rare hunter smirked. "I want what rightfully belongs to me. Your Millennium Puzzle! As for who I am, let me give you a bit of advice. Remember my name... Marik!"
"Marik!" Yami repeated, not sounding very surprised.
The rare hunter nodded. "Yes. This rare hunter has failed me. I have sent his mind to the Shadow Realm as a punishment. Now I control his every move!"
He jerked suddenly, seeming to almost fly through the air, flailing around like a limp rag doll being thrown around by an extremely insane twisted little girl.
Yami growled, his eyes opening wide.
//Of course! Why didn't I think of it before? That's the guy who dueled Yugi at that abandoned warehouse! He's after the Millennium Puzzle!// Daricio remembered. //He's obviously the great evil that Isis spoke of!//
//And he can mind control, too. Remember Bandit Keith? That's what's going on here...// Yugi added.
Yami gave a small mental nod to acknowledge that he had heard them, then returned his attention to the mind controlled Rare Hunter, who had stopped flailing. "I can assure you of one thing, Marik, no matter how hard you try, you'll never get my puzzle."
Marik laughed. "You don't understand, I want more than the puzzle. I want the Pharaoh's power. The key to this infinite power lies not only in your puzzle, but in the three Egyptian God Cards as well. I already have two, and the other will soon be within my grasp... "
//Only because of Isis and Kaiba...// Daricio mumbled to herself.
Marik continued talking. "With the power of the Ancient Pharaoh in my hands, I shall weild total and absolute power. I will reign over all, and the entire world shall tremble at my feet! The end is near for you, Pharaoh... It's my world now!"
Yami frowned. "Not if I can help it." he growled.
Marik smirked. "This shan't be the last time we meet. This rare hunter is only the weakest of the group I control. Soon, another of my minions will find you, and you will duel! Prepare yourself, Yami. And know this: I will win. I will gain what is rightfully mine. I WILL be pharaoh!"
Yami growled again and stepped back as the rare hunter's eyes went blank and he fell forwards onto his face.
"Great way to start..." Joey mumbled to himself. "Knock yourself out..."
The crowd that was gathered around stared from Yami to the Rare Hunter for a while, before quickly becoming bored with the unconscious person lying there on the ground and going back to doing what they had been doing before: looking for a good duel to watch.
Yami looked up at Joey, holding out the Red Eyes card. "Here, Joey. Your Red-Eyes Black Dragon."
Joey blinked, then looked away. "Nah, Yuge. You keep it."
"But Joey-"
"It's yours. You won it fair and square. Besides, if these rare hunters are as great and powerful as I've heard, then they're bound to have tons of really powerful, rare cards in their decks..." He looked down at Yami. "You'll need all the help you can get. And it'll be cool this way, cause it'll be like a part of me is in your deck! It's pretty neat knowing I'm helping you save the world an all..."
Yami smiled. "Thank you, Joey. I'll take good care of your Red-Eyes Black Dragon."
"No problem. Together, you and I are gunna whoop this Marik creep! He'll be sorry he ever decided to mess wit us!"
Yami nodded. "Good luck, Joey." The two shook hands.
Joey also nodded. "You too. I'll see you around."
The two turned around and headed off in opposite directions.
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(A/N: Yay for short stupid summerizations of extremely important scenes... V_V)
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{Daricio} (This ist a little bit later)
Daricio frowned as she walked out of her third period class and headed toward her locker so she could go to class.
//You JUST left him, and now you're going to go back and watch him duel? What, don't you trust him to be able to do this by himself?// She asked Yami mentally.
He had just seen a group of kids run by, talking about Joey Wheeler dueling, and now he was off to go watch as well...
//It's not that I don't trust him...// Yami said defensively. //I just want to see, that's all... It's better than running aimlessly around the city waiting for another one of Marik's Rare hunters to show up, like we've been doing for the past half an hour...//
Daricio shrugged. //Just make sure he doesn't see you, or he'll think what I thought. That you don't think he can hold his own without help from you.//
Yami and Yugi nodded at the same time.
"Right." Yami said to himself. //So where can we go that he won't see us?//
//Well, one thing I've found over the years is that people have a tendancy of never looking up. I've played many a game of hide and seek, hiding up in the top of my closet, and people will open the closet door, look around, and still not find m- What?// Daricio stopped, noticing that Yugi was giving her a strange look.
//Hide and seek, Daricio?// Yugi asked, grinning.
Daricio shrugged. "Hey, I have a younger brother, a younger sister, and an older brother that often acts like a younger brother. What do you expect me to be doing with my time while they play? Sit around reading Shakespearian novels?" she muttered aloud.
Yugi laughed. //True.//
"Shakespeare wrote plays, not novels." Josh said suddenly, coming up beside her. "And who are you talking to?"
Daricio blushed, returning her attention to where she was walking. She now realized that she had walked past her locker, and would now have to turn around to get to it. "Same difference. And I was talking to myself, thanks."
Josh grinned, holding out his hand as if holding a small notebook and a pencil, then putting on a funny accent, said, "And just how long have you been talking to yourself like this, Miss Daricio? Do you also hear voices in your head to go along with this habit?"
Daricio laughed, shoving him slightly and turning around to go to her locker. "Yes, yes I do."
Josh whirled around as well, still smiling at her. "Avoiding me now?"
"No! I just accidently walked past my locker, that's all." Daricio said, grinning.
"Ah, I see."
"Really! See?" She walked up to her locker and began twisting the lock.
"Uh huh... Well, I'll see ya later, Daricio. I'm probably late to class. I've got a different lunch than you, ya know."
Daricio waved to him. "Bye!"
He walked off, and Daricio returned her attention to her locker.
//But my point is, if you want somebody to not see you, then you have to go somewhere high up. So, a roof, or a balcony...// Daricio said, continuing the conversation as if she hadn't stopped it in the first place.
Yugi nodded, still grinning. //All right, most of the businesses around here let you up on the roofs whenever parades and stuff come through, so maybe they'll let us up there now.//
//It's worth a try.// Yami said. He walked off toward a building that he thought had a view of where Joey would be dueling at.
Daricio's locker was being stubborn again, and she banged on it hard, hopping to jar it open. It didn't work, so she sighed and twisted the lock once again. It finally opened after three more attempts, and she swung her backpack off her shoulder, opened it, and began to dump the books in it into her locker.
Once her backpack was rid of it's more mathematical contents, she pulled her lunch and her Yu-Gi-Oh cards out of the locker, and put them inside her backpack. She then slammed the locker shut, stood up, then completed her act by kicking the locker, hard, to shut the botton left corner of the locker that liked to refuse to close, and then finally headed up to the "dueling corner."
Sitting down in an actual corner of the hallway and taking out her lunch, she glanced around to see if anybody was watching her.
Strangely, nobody was. Finally, a day in which she wasn't going to get kicked out of here by the other kids...
She ate quickly, listening as Yugi talked to the store manager, who finally agreed to let them up on the roof. On the way up the stairs, they met a kid, who had obviously snuck up there without permission, coming down.
Yami stopped him briefly, "Hey, can you see the duel down there from up here?"
The kid nodded. "Yup! Didja hear who it was dueling? Some cool guy named Espa Roba just beat the heck out of Rex Raptor, and now he's going against Joey Wheeler. Espa's got ESP, and he uses it to duel!"
Daricio grinned. //Yeah, so what? My CD Player's got ESP, too. Big deal.//
//Wrong kind of ESP, Daricio...// Yugi said, shaking his head. //Somehow, I doubt Espa has Electro-Shock Protection...//
//I knew that.// Daricio told him. //I was joking.//
The kid continued going down the stairs after a called out "See ya!" and Yami went up to the top. He blinked in the sunlight, then walked to the edge, looking down at the duel below.
"Hey, Daricio."
Daricio was suddenly snapped back to her world by the sound of a voice, and she blinked, looking up. It was Chris again.
"Hi." she said. "What do you want?" She could feel the eyes of all in the room carefully trained on her once again.
Chris pulled out his deck box. "Do you want to duel me? You know, a rematch, sort of?"
Daricio frowned. "Ok, I guess..."
There was some random chattering from the people watching this, and then Chris sat down, put his deck on the floor, and the duel began.
"8000 life points. You can go first, Daricio." He said, drawing his hand of five cards.
Daricio nodded. "Fine..." She drew six cards.
//Want help?// Yugi asked.
//No, not really. You go watch Joey.// She replied. //I'm just glad to be dueling with my deck again...//
"I'll play Ookazi and Hinotama to start with. That takes off a total of 1300 life points from your life points. Then I'll play a card face-down and a card in defense." She announced. She grinned, enjoying her burner deck's effect on her opponant.
Chris nodded. "Fine then." He plunked in his lifepoint loss on his calculator, and drew a card for his turn. "I'm just going to put a card face down in defense, and magic/trap card face down. Your move."
Daricio drew her card. //hmm.... My first face down monster was Cyber Jar, so I don't really want to play anything else, because if he gets a monster out and attacks it, it'll destroy the other card, too.//
"Pass. Your move."
Chris grinned. "No good cards to play, huh?"
"Just go."
"Fine." He looked at his hand. "I'll play defense again. Go."
Daricio drew. //Sangan! Perfect! Now if he attacks Cyber Jar, it'll send Sangan to the graveyard, activating his effect!// She played it face down. "Go."
"Once again, I'll play defense. Your move."
Chris now had three defense monsters on the field. Daricio sighed. Besides her burner cards, her deck was also mostly made up of effect and defense, meaning that her strategies usually only worked when she was being attacked.
//He had better start actually attacking me...// She thought, drawing another card. //Or I'm never going to get around to doing anything..//
"I'll pass again. Go."
By now, there was a semi-large crowd watching, and it was making Daricio nervous. Especially with all of Chris' face down cards. There was no way of knowing what he had down there...
"I'll play the magic card, Goblin's Secret Remedy, which increases a selected person's life points by 600. I choose me, of course. Then I'll play another defense monster and end my turn."
Daricio nodded. //Healing cards. Right. He's got a healing/defense deck. Well, if I pass again, nothing will happen, and so I'll go ahead and play a defense monster.//
"I'll play a card in defense mode. Go."
Chris looked down at the now crowded field. "hmm... I'll play one card in defensive mode, and-"
Someone in the crowd, a boy Daricio didn't recognize, scoffed. "This is boring! Somebody DO something already!"
Chris rolled his eyes. "Fine, I will. Flip Guardian of the Throne Room into attack mode! I'll attack your center face down, Daricio!"
Daricio grinned. "That would be my Cyber Jar."
Chris frowned. "Blast it all... Literally..." he murmered, scooping all his cards currently on the field into his graveyard. He picked up five cards and showed them. Daricio did the same, after destroying her own monsters.
Chris glared at his cards before laying down a face down monster and a Dragon Zombie in attack mode. Daricio layed two monsters in defense mode and placed a card from her deck into her hand because of Sangan's effect.
"Just go now." he said furiously.
//Ok, with my face down card, I can destroy his attacking monster, and also skip my draw phase, which'll be good with all these cards in my hand, and then I can summon La Jinn from my hand to destroy his face down. Then next turn, I can activate the two flip effects that I have, and sacrifice them for my Blue Eyes. Then I can attack directly, unless he has something face down that I have to worry about...// Daricio thought to herself.
//Sounds like a good plan to me.//
//I told you to go watch Joey's duel with Mr. CD Player, Yugi.//
Yugi shrugged. //Your duel's more exciting. Besides, Yami says he's doing fine so far.//
Daricio outwardly frowned at Yugi's comment and began to carry out her plan. "I'll activate my facedown card, "Offerings to the Doomed." I get to destroy one face up monster on the field in exchange for-"
"I KNOW what it does, Daricio." Chris grumbled, placing his Dragon Zombie in the graveyard. "I'm not stupid."
//Coulda fooled me.// Daricio thought. "Now I play La Jinn in attack mode. I'll attack your face down."
Chris smirked. "Princess of Tsurugi! You take..." his smirk faded. "Nothing. You have no magic/trap cards on the field... Blast!"
He scowled at the card and tossed it into the graveyard. Daricio smiled. "Your move."
"Three facedown magic/traps. Dark Zebra in attack mode to guard my lifepoints. Go."
//Won't he be in for a surprise when I activate my own Princess of Tsurugi? Hmm.. He thinks he's safe from me, but he won't be when I get my Blue Eyes out!//
"I flip Princess of Tsurugi! You take 2000 damage!" Daricio said, throwing her own smirk at him.
He continued scowling at her. "I'll activate Gift of the Mystical Elf. I gain life points for each monster on the field. Now what?"
"I also flip Penguin Soldier! I'll send your Dark Zebra back to your hand. Now you're wide open for a direct attack! But that's not all!" Daricio said dramatically, trying to act like Yami. "I tribute my Penguin Soldion and my Princess to bring out... The Blue Eyes White Dragon!"
//And you better not have a trap hole down... If you do, I'll kill you...// Daricio thought hopefully at him, knowing that he couldn't hear her.
Chris quickly flipped through all his facedowns, checking to see if he could defend himself. He sighed. "Now you attack with Blue Eyes, right?"
Daricio nodded. "Blue Eyes! Direct attack!"
"Not so fast. Waboku!"
Daricio frowned. "So you did have something down..."
"Yup. This ends battle phase, so you can't attack me directly until your next turn." Chris said.
"Mm-hmm..." Daricio murmured. "Fine, I'll end my turn then."
Chris nodded. "Now I can put a little bit of defense in. One card. Your move."
Daricio grinned. "Blitz time! I summon Hayabusa Knight! He can attack twice per battle phase with 1000 attack. I'll attack your face down card with La Jinn."
Chris discarded it immedietly to the graveyard. It was a wimpy Darkfire Soldier #1.
"Now, Blue Eyes attack directly! Hayabusa attack directly twice! That's a total of 5000 direct damage to you!" Daricio almost shouted.
Chris grimaced. "Thank goodness we started at 8000 life points instead of 4000 like Battle City rules, or I'd be dead..."
//That's what I was about to say.// Yugi commented, smiling as well. //Nice move, Daricio.//
//Thanks. I'll wipe him out next turn.// Daricio said confidently.
"Your move, Chris!"
Chris drew his card for his turn, frowned, and played it in defense mode. "Go." He glared at Daricio, as if daring her to finish him off.
//Wait... Maybe I shouldn't beat him...// Daricio thought suddenly.
//Why not? You've got him down!" Yugi told her.
//But... With all the rumors about me already, maybe it'll just make everything worse if he gets mad at me.// Daricio worried, her hand hesitating over the Wall of Illusion in her hand that she had just been about to summon to the field.
//Hmm... Good point. Save him for a turn, give him a chance for a comeback. If he doesn't make it, then wipe him out. Just so you can say you gave him a chance.// Yugi suggested.
//That may work.// Daricio agreed.
"I'll play Wall of Illusion in attack mode and end my turn." She said.
Chris gave her a funny look. "You too scared to attack me?" he asked her.
"Mercy Move! Mercy Move!! Come on! You can get back at her! Do it!" Somebody in the crowd said.
Chris drew for his turn. "I'll just keep playing defense." he announced, throwing yet another card in defense mode. "Go."
Daricio drew. //Magician of Faith! This'll be good... I can get back the Offerings to the Doomed, in case he actually gets a monster in there.//
She played it face down. "Go."
"She's toying with you again! Go on Chris! Whup her!"
"He can't Whup her, idiot! She's got control of the field!"
"So?"
Daricio tuned out the arguing, and instead focused on Chris's move.
"I flip: Hiro's Shadow scout! You draw three cards, and discard any of them that are magic cards." Chris said. "Hope you weren't waiting for anything..."
Daricio drew her three cards. The only magic card was a Dian Keto the Cure Master. "Sorry Chris. No harm done."
Chris frowned again. "So? Flip: Big Eye! I get to rearange the top five cards on my deck." He did so quickly, then tuned back to what he was doing.
//The only reason he would flip these into attack mode with my Blue Eyes on the field would be if he were about to sacrifice them for something...// Daricio thought. //Too bad I have no trap holes down...//
"Now, I'll place one face down monster in defense mode. I'll attack Dark Energy to my Big Eye and attack the Wall of Illusion!" Chris said. "Your move."
Daricio stared at him, slowly placing her Wall of Illusion into the graveyard. "You're weird, you know that. Your Dark Energy was just destroyed, you lost life points, Big Eye was sent back to your hand, and now you have a Hiro Shadow Scout in attack mode in front of a Blue Eyes, a Hayabusa Knight, and a La Jinn, and you're now about to die."
Chris shrugged. "Or so you think. Just go."
Daricio grinned. "My pleasure. First, I'll play a card in defense mode. Then, I'll attack Hiro's Scout with Hayabusa Knight. It's destroyed. I'll spare you again, Chris, and end my turn."
"Quit with the mercy moves and just finish him off, Daricio!" Somebody called. "You can do it!"
"Naw, he's gunna whup her!"
"No he's not, stupid!"
Chris looked at his hand. "One defense, one magic/trap. Your move."
Daricio grinned. //Think I should finish him off, now?//
//Go for it.// Yugi urged.
"I'll place one magic/trap face down, and then I'll flip Magician of Faith. I get Offerings to the Doomed back. I'll also flip my face-down Spear Cretin. I'll sacrifice both of them for a second Blue Eyes!"
"Trap hole!"
"I'll use Spear Cretin's effect on the Blue Eyes you just destroyed with that trap hole, thanks."
"Hey! Is that even allowed?"
Daricio paused. "I think so." She looked around at the crowd. "What does everybody think?"
"Aw, just let her keep it. She'll blow him away anyways." One kid said. The rest agreed. Daricio grinned and turned back to Chris.
"I'll attach Black Pendant to Hayabusa Knight, raising his attack points to- "
"Fairy's Hand Mirror. I'll equip it to my facedown monster instead.
"What?" Daricio blinked. "That's not-... You can't equip things to face down cards!"
"So? Who cares?"
Daricio gave him an annoyed look. "Me."
Chris glared at her. "Just let me do it this one duel, so you don't totally blitz me."
A few people in the crowd laughed. Daricio wasn't sure whether this was because she was winning, or because Chris was begging for mercy.
Daricio smirked. "All right, I'll let you keep that, then. For two seconds! Now I activate Mystical Space Typhoon on the Black Pendant. Because it's MY card, and it's sent to the graveyard, you lose 500 life points."
Chris frowned. "You suck." he grumbled, subtracting his lifepoints on the calculator so that it read 1200 life points remaining. Daricio still had all 8000 life points in tact.
"Now, my first Blue Eyes will attack your face down card!"
"Princess of Tsurugi, which was brough back by your Spear Cretin! This time, you DO have cards on the field. You take 1500 points of damage."
Daricio shrugged. "Oh well. Now I'll attack your other card with La Jinn!"
//Why not with Blue Eyes?//
//Just in case he's got a destroyer card down.//
"Steel Scorpion! La Jinn will die in two turns!"
//Oh, you mean like that?//
//Yeah, exactly like that.//
"Fine. Now I'll attack another face down with Hayabusa knight."
"Big Eye. Big Eye's defense equals Pigeon Boy's attack, so nothing happens."
//Ok, one more face down, then he's wide open. Here's hopeing there's no more steel scorpions in his deck.// Daricio mumbled. "Blue Eyes, attack the last face down card."
Chris discarded it to the graveyard. "Dancing Fairy."
"Go. Let's see if you can defend yourself now!"
"I can, and I will! Your La Jinn's going to die soon, and I can easily take out your other monsters as well!"
"We'll just see. Move."
Chris glared, and drew his card. "I play Giant Trunade, to get rid of any traps you had been planning to spring on me, then I'll play one magic/trap card, and one card face down. Your move."
Daricio grinned. "That's it? All right, you are now officially a barbaqued marshmallow. First, I'll sacrifice La Jinn for the Summoned Skull! Then-"
"Activate Just Desserts. You take 2500 life point damage."
"Ouch. Oh well. Hayabusa will attack your face down card." Her life points were now down to 4000, but it didn't matter.
Chris sighed and discarded his Dark Zebra to the graveyard. "Then?"
"You know what then, Chris. The Summoned Skull will attack and destroy your Big Eye. Then, you get attacked directly by two Blue Eyes, and my Hayabusa Knight! You better be glad that this isn't Battle City, or you would be very much ouchied right now."
A general cheer went up from the crowd. Daricio grinned, loking around at everybody. Chris silently gathered up his cards, his eyes trained mostly on the floor.
"Good duel." Daricio said, offering a hand to Chris. Chris looked up at her. The determination was gone from his eyes, and fortunatelly, what replaced that determination wasn't anger, but friendship. He took her hand, and they shook.
"No hard feelings? About all the rumors, I mean?" Chris asked. He had apparently heard a few of them.
Daricio's smile was half sad. "Sure. No hard feelings. But don't expect me to exactly be nice to you, either."
"All right." Chris smiled. "I wouldn't expect you to. I got to go. I'll see ya around, ok?"
"Sure. Bye." Daricio turned back to the crowd, which had now begun to disperse. Daricio got the general feeling that they had wanted the two of them to fight again, and that they were disappointed.
//Good duel.// Yugi said.
Daricio shrugged. //Too easy. I need more of a challange.//
Yugi grinned. //That shouldn't be too hard to arrange. Look.//
Daricio looked up. There were at least three people in front of her asking her to duel. Daricio grinned as well. This would be much fun.
********************************************************
{Yami}
(Again, this tis a little bit later...)
Yami was now wandering the streets of downtown Domino once again. Both Joey's duel and Daricio's duels had all ended a long time ago. In fact, Daricio was now walking home from her school.
It was strange, but even with all of Marik's many warnings and other rantings that he had given to them, there hadn't even been mention of the group of Rare Hunters by anybody for the past almost three hours...
It was almost as if Marik couldn't find them... Or maybe he was just simply preparing himself for them. Or... something.
"You look like you're looking for someone." A voice jarred Yami out of his thoughts and he looked up quickly. "Not that I really care who you might be looking for. I'm just a humble messenger here to tell you that there is somebody else who is looking for you."
Yami spotted the person who was speaking. There was a man dressed up in a strange clown costume, grinning at him from where he was standing, half shrouded in the shadow of a nearby tree.
"What do you mean?" Yami asked, wondering if this clown meant Marik.
The clown bowed low, waving his hands dramatically as he did so. "Just go that direction, into that tent over there, and you shall see what I mean."
He stepped backwards and faded into the shadows.
Yami blinked. //Tent? What tent?// He looked around. //Oh, that tent. Ok, well, I'll go into the tent, then.//
He began walking forward, his eyes remaining trained on the tent's opening. Something was... odd here... He couldn't quite put his finger on it...
//Yami, you do realize you're probably walking right into a trap? Most likely one that Marik has set up?// Daricio asked him. Her voice, for some reason, sounded faint. Far away. Insignificant. It didn't mean anything.
He continued walking forward. All that really mattered right now was finding out what that clown thought he wanted in that tent...
"Hey, there he is... Yugi!" Yami head Tea call out to him, but her voice seemed as far away as Daricio's had.
//Yami, you ok?// Yugi asked him. Yami didn't answer, instead continuing walking towards the tent.
There was something in there.... He could sense it now, using the powers of the Millennium Puzzle. Something in there... Something that he had to see...
//Yugi, something's wrong...// Daricio said.
//I noticed.// Yugi replied somewhat dryly. //Yami!//
Yami entered the tent and looked around, the puzzle glowing just enough to cast strange shadows here and there. As far as he could tell, the tent was entirely empty, except for a large object in the center.
This object was what the powers he could sense were coming from. This was the something that Yami had to check out. He continued walking inside, not bothering to glance around the room to make absolutely sure that there was nobody there, suddenly deeming this act as being unuseful, for some reason.
All caution that Yami usually took in matters like these was suddenly gone, and he strode confidently towards the box, feeling absolutely sure that he would find what he was looking for.
Bright lights were flicked on, illuminating the stand that the large object, a box, was sitting on. Yami didn't even flinch at these lights, instead continuing forward towards the box.
The door on the box, which looked strangely like that on the card "Mystic Boxes" opened slowly, and Yami went unhesitently inside, waiting to see what would happen next.
"He went in that box!" Tea said to somebody. The door on the Mystic Boxes contraption closed shut with a sudden slam, cutting off whatever else Tea had to say.
The floor underneath Yami suddenly dropped out from underneath him, and he fell, yelling as he did so. The apparently soundproof boxes blocked out what he was yelling to anybody else's ears.
Yami didn't fall very far, however, only about 6 feet, until he landed hard on a carpeted floor below. He heard the floor above him, now the ceiling to him, close back up again, followed by a semi-large whump sound.
The caution that had previously deserted him all came rushing back, and Yami wondered how in the world he got into this stupid mess as he pulled himself to his feet and looked around at where he was.
"I hate falling..." he mumbled to himself.
//I knew this was a trap...// Yugi said to himself.
Yami blinked. "Huh?"
//Trap. T-R-A-P. Traaaaaa-//
Yami rolled his eyes. "I know what he said, Daricio."
//Why, hello Yami! Welcome back to the world of the living! Wish to tell us what just happened back there?// Daricio said somewhat sarcastically.
//Sorry.// Yami said. //I.... I think I was in some sort of a trance...//
//Sure looked that way, Yami. It's all right. Let's just see if we can get out of here...// Yugi said. He turned to Daricio. //Don't be so hard on him.//
//Fine, then. Next time, I'll just simply sit back and let him do whatever he pleases...// Daricio said, starting back into her own soul room.
Yami sighed, and continued checking the small room he was in. It didn't take him long after that to find that there was a door leading out of this room, and he quickly opened it and stepped into the next room.
In this room, one that was, if anything, even smaller than the one he was just previously in, was a computer console.
Daricio looked at the strange screen through Yugi's eyes in slight astonishment from where she was standing at her soul room door.
"Hacking into KaibaCorp mainframe..." it told them almost icily, its staticy screen flickering as it worked. "Done. Accessing Battle City Profile: Yugi Moto. Star level: 5. Rarest card: Dark Magician."
Yami blinked at the screen, unsure whether he was supposed to say something to this computer, who's still flickering screen was now flashing a picture of Yugi at him.
He didn't have to think about it very long, however...
For his thoughts were interupted by a high pitched evil sounding cackle.
**********************************************************************
{Daricio}
Daricio stared in shock at the strange blue disks that the rare hunter Arkana had called Dark Disks.
//They do WHAT???// she yelped. //Send us to the shadow realm???//
She didn't wait for anybody to answer her question, instead turning on her heel and retreating into her soul room. "That does it."
"Daricio, wait!" Yugi called, jogging up next to her. "What are you doing? I thought you were going to stay and help us out here! Cheer us on!"
Daricio shook her head. //I've got a better idea.// She said, opening her physical eyes. "That Arkana guy thinks that by threatening us with those Dark Disks, he'll have an advantage against us."
She stood and began looking for something in her closet. "Well, he's got another thing coming."
//What do you mean?// Yugi asked.
"Who's Arkana?" Shells asked at the same time. She was standing just inside the doorway, looking as though she was just coming into the room.
Daricio blinked and glanced over at Shells. "Oh, Hi Shells. Didn't see you there. I was talking to Yugi. Arkana is one of Marik's rare hunters."
Shells frowned. "They've finally showed up, huh?" she asked.
"Yup." Daricio replied, turning back to her closet.
//What are you looking for?//
"What are you looking for?"
Shells and Yugi spoke at almost exactly the same time, and Daricio stifled a small laugh. "I'm looking for my Yugi tin."
Shells smiled. "It's under the bed."
"It is? Oh. Thanks." Daricio looked, and sure enough, there it was. "I'm going to have to use this soon." she murmured to herself.
//What for?//
//So that if that Dark Disk gets to close to you two, I can warp you out of there before it makes contact.// She replied. She spoke again before Yugi could say anything. //And I don't care if it's cheating or not, Yugi. If Marik can kidnap the world's best duelist and still not be disqualified, then I can do whatever I can to keep you safe.//
Yugi sighed. //All right, fine. I'm still going to see if I can talk him out of all this, though.//
//And that's fine, too.// Daricio watched as Yugi went back through the link to Yami.
"What do you need it for?" Shells asked.
"Tell ya later. What did you come up here for?"
"Huh?" Shells looked temporarily confused, then she smiled. "Oh yeah. Coem downstairs, we're missing Yu-Gi-Oh!"
Daricio blinked. Would she be able to watch an episode of Yu-Gi-Oh and pay attention to Yugi's duel with Arkana both at the same time?
"You go ahead and go watch it, Shells. Make sure Jrj's recording it. I have to concentrate up here, that all right?" She said.
Shells nodded. "Ok." She turned and disapeared out the door and down the stairs.
**********************************************************************
{Mr. Gice}
Mr. Gice sighed and switched off the machinery in front of him, pushing it away slightly. He had been working with the RWC constantly for what seemed like years by now, and it still simply refused to comply with his wish for it to complete the transfer to the freaky world.
Now, he was going to take a break. His frustration with the whole thing was overcoming his need to finish the project, and besides that, he was hungry.
He walked slowly to the lab door and flicked off the light, heading up the stairs to the main living quarters of his house.
Halfway up the stairs, he stopped, looking back over his shoulder at the dimly lit room below.
Mr. Gice's laboratory used to be simply his basement, until he had stopped using it for storage and had cleaned it out and converted it into a science lab. Because it used to be a basement, it had no windows at all, and he had turned off all his machines, so when he had the lights off, it was always pitch black inside.
Except for right now...
Something down there was glowing... Mr. Gice grabbed a pair of thick gloves from off the wall and stepped quickly back into the room, looking around slowly to see if he could find the source of the dim light.
It didn't take him very long to find it, and he flicked the lights back on and jogged over to the counter where he had seen the light.
When he saw exactly what it was that had been glowing, he groaned.
It was his RWC.
It was lying motionless on the table right next to an Electromagnetic Magnesium-Carbohydrate strip, where he had laid it after his escape from the mental institution. Both were covered in what looked like a strange sticky goo, and this goo was what had been putting forth the eerie glow.
Mr. Gice looked over the mess scrutinizingly, trying to figure out what had happened. When he reached a conclusion, he sighed. "Looks like the instability of the compository elements that make up the plastical coverings of the Electromagnetic Magnesium-Carbohydrate strips has combined with the force of constant magnatism radiating within the RWC to cause the leakage of electromagnetic gamma radiation from the strips, and this radiatic goo has penetrated the open shell of the RWC, and has, in all probability, destroyed both mechanisms!"
(A/N: Try saying that five times fast)
Mr Gice grimaced at the mass of glowing goop and peered into the RWC to inspect the damage. "Now we just have to hope that we can fix this..."
He picked up a rag that he was sure he never wanted to use again, and began to clean up the inside of his RWC.
Scraping the already slightly hardened goo away from one of the more minor componants, Mr. Gice suddenly noticed something about it.
The goo had seeped it's way inside the small componant and had... done something to it... Mr. Gice wasn't sure what.
He put the rag down and began simply observing this one piece. There was something about this... Something important... Mr. Gice's already tired mind raced even faster than it had been all day. What was it?
Suddenly he blinked, the pieces in his head clicking into place with an almost audible "thunk."
"Of course!" He shouted to nobody in particular. "Of course! Radiation! Why didn't I think of it before??? With this radiactiveness added to the main compository elements, then that will eventually combine even further with the magnetic pull of the primary electronic boosters and create just the sort of antireactant conditions that I need to maniputlate the threads of space time just enough for the RWC to go crossworlds!"
(A/N: And that, too. ^__^)
Mr. Gice grinned from ear to ear. If his new calculations from this were correct, he could have this thing, which he had been working on for forever and a day, completed by tonight!
With that, he swooped the rag up and finished cleaning the exterior and counters, then put the coverings back on his mechanism. Almost skipping with joy over to the control pad, he lifted the compartment with the special red button within, hardly daring to think that this might actually work this time. He pressed the button.
For the first two seconds, the RWC did nothing but sit there and make soft clicking noises as it contemplated this command.
Suddenly, without warning, it began to whir loudly, and then the RWC, and its veiw from the moniter screen began to shake.
"Uh oh..." Mr. Gice muttered, ducking for cover. "It's gunna blow!!!"
Before he could move very far, though, there was a brilliant flash of light, and when Mr. Gice's sight cleared again, he could see that his RWC was gone.
Glancing at the screen, to figure out where his device was at the moment, he let out a whoop. The transfer was complete.
*******************************************************************
Daricio: ^_____________________________________________________^
Malik: o.O Why are you so happy?? You made me act like an idiot!
Daricio: I finished the chapter!!! AND got it posted on my personally set deadline of November the 19th! ^__^
Malik: .... oh... That's nice.
Mr. Gice: I let out a "whoop" Daricio?
Daricio: What? You're happy! Cause now you get to play "Spy on the inhabitants of the freaky world"!
Mr. Gice: ... ok...
Daricio: ^___________^
Roo: This chapter sucked.
Bakura: *warningly* Roo, I thought you knew better than to be mean to an authoress... You've already had several bad experiences...
Roo: *winces at memory of said experiences* So? I don't care!
Bakura: *rolls eyes* *grins* *locks Roo in his little cage*
Roo: *evil grin* *begins sawing at bars with file*
*two hours later*
Roo: *hasn't even succeeded in making a single dent* o.o What's this cage MADE out of???
Bakura: *shrugs* don't ask me. I didn't make it. ^_^
Malik: *reading over the beginning of the Arkana duel* Hey, Daricio... You kind of cut that duel jsut a tad bit short... Like.. Not including it at all...
Daricio: Yeah, yeah, I know. I was a little hard pressed for time, and besides, it's better this way. You all know what happened in the stupid Arkana duel, and there would have been no changes to the duel anyways, besides Daricio sticking in a few random comments in here and there, so that's just the way I'm doing it.
Malik:.... oh...
Yugi: *drags Yami by the open door, grinning widely*
Yami: *yelling incoherently in alternating languages*
All else: O.oUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
Malik: Uuuhhh......
Random Reviewers: Enough already! Post the chappie! Post the chappie!!! POST POST POST POST POST POST POST POST!!!!
Daricio: O.O Ok, Ok, I'll post already... sheesh... *pushes random reviewers out of author room*
Roo: So, now that this chapter's over, can me and the rest of the people you invited here leave yet?
Daricio: *thinks about this for a moment* Yeah... Yeah, you can go if you want to.... Well... All except Malik, Roo, and Bakura, of course.
Roo: WHAT????? ME???
Daricio: ^_^ Of course, you! You just HAPPEN to be my new muse!
Bakura: Me, too?
Daricio: Yup! To keep Roo in line.
Bakura: ^_^ Fun!
Roo: *groan* Why me?
Daricio: *to rest of the guests* Hope you had fun here! Enjoy your gifts! See ya!!!
All: *Wave goodbye* *leave*
Daricio: ^__^ *to reviewers* REVEIW PLEASE!!! YOUR INPUT IS VERY WELL MUCH APPRECIATED!!!!! VERY VERY VERY MUCH APPRECIATED!!!!
Malik: Daricio?
Daricio: Yes?
Malik: OW...
Daricio: ^_^U Ooops. Sorry, Malik.
Malik: V_VU Sure you are.
Daricio: ^____^ See you all next chappie!!! Byez!!!
--Daricio, and her (unwilling) muses, Malik, Bakura, and Roo.
This chappie will probably be somewhat short, but I'll try to make it as long as I can! I'm going to post exactly on the anniversery date, just to have fun. ^_^
Anywhos, Thankies to all who gave loverly presents to everybody!
*knock is heard on the door*
Malik: Who could that be? *goes to open the door*
*Yugi, Yami, Bakura, "Roo", and Mr. Gice all come in*
Yugi: Uh, hello!
Malik: *blink* Hi. What're you doing here? *glance at Daricio* Did she make you be her muses too?
Roo: No, thank goodness. We're here as invited "Guests" to watch this chapter...
Daricio: *thoughtfully* Though, I might soon have Roo be a permanent muse, since he hangs around a few of my chatrooms so much anyway... And since Mr. Gice is my character, I might make him a muse too... Which would make for an interesting variety of characters... Roo, Malik, and Mr. Gice... And maybe Bakura, too, to keep Roo in line...
Roo: -_- Please don't...
Malik: Yes, please don't.
Daricio: *shruggies* Anyways, I brought them here because some of you reveiwers were nice enough to give the characters in the story some gifts! I was going to simply "give" the gifts to the characters by incorperating them into the story, but then there'd be a whole heck of a lot of confusion and insanity due to major sugar rushes on the part of all the characters... ^_^U
Bakura: o.O Considering the strangeness level that this fiction already has, I don't think we need any more confusion...
Daricio: Exactly! So, anyways-
Roo: I'm not going to like the chapter after this one...
Daricio: *blink* Why not?
Roo: Because in it, I-*gets mouth covered with duct tape, courtesy of Daricio* -_- mrrph...
Daricio: No giving away the story. ^_^U Now then, here's all the presents that people gave everybody!
Yami: Why do I get the feeling that "presents" in this case isn't exactly going to be a good thing?
Yugi: I dunno. They probably will be good, though, seeing as they came from reviewers that like this story...
Yami: Somehow, that's what I was afraid of...
Daricio: ^_^U Anyways...
Total Presents for Daricio:
~Lotsa Reviews!
~Uncut subtitled Yu-Gi-Oh
Daricio: YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ^________________^
~Something to hack writer's block with.
Daricio: *weilding weapon* This should be useful. *evil grin*
~SUGAR! AND A MALLET!
Daricio: *blink* ok.... ^_^ Yay! I've got a mallet!
~A Book by Aristotle
Daricio: Readingness...
~An Anti Preppie Device!
Daricio: *weilding new weapon* Muehehehehehehe.... ^_^
~Anti-evil-egginator. (it un-evils your egg.)
Daricio: Oooooooohhh, more useful stuffs! ^_^
~A Magic Pillow.
Daricio: This should be interesting... *places it in a special spot where she can use it if her author powers ever fail her*
~Giant 50 foot Chocolate Cake and 10 liters of Soda Pop
Daricio: o.O Uuuh... *passes cake out to everybody* THIS is gunna last me for a while... ^_^U
~a wish; anything you want.
Daricio: ^__________^ More wish funness. *places wish in same special spot as magic pillow*
~Confetti
Daricio: ^_^ Thanks everybody!
Roo: *has finally gotten duct tape off by now* That was all the gifts?
Daricio: Not quite.. ^_^ Now it's time for YOUR guy's gifts!
Malik: *thinking* These author notes are going to end up way longer then the actual ficcie! How embarassing for Daricio...
Total Presents for Malik:
Malik: uh oh...
~A sheild. There are alot of people out to get you...
Malik: *eyes sheild to make sure that there's no explosives or anything on it, then smiles and sits in the corner with it blocking him from view*
Daricio: Malik-kun, you have to get the rest of your gifts!
Malik: *peeps out from his new "hiding place"* oh, fine...
~A Spear. To go with the sheild.
Malik: ^_^ coool....
~MORE SUGAR! AND A FRYING PAN TO HIT YAMO OVER THE HEAD WITH!(Yamo copyright B/k)
Malik: *giving frying pan a weird look* oookay....
~A Book by Plato
Malik: .... Book..... Ok....
~Daricio: And that's all your presents!
Malik: ok.. *retreats to corner with his Spear and Sheild, leaving his other presents in the middle of the room*
Total presents for Yami:
~A CD containing "I know a song that gets on everybodies nerves."
Yami: *listening to it on Daricio's CD player* Hey, I know this song! *hums along with it*
~Whatever he uses to keep that cape up.
Yami: *blink* But why do I need more paper clips? I have the two required to hold it up... Oh well. *clips paper clips to one of the many belt straps, just so they can hang off and look cool.* ^_^
~SUGAR! AND AN UMBRELLA FOR NO REASON AT ALL!!!
Yami: *holding sugar* uh.... Is this not the stuff that's in the halloween candy that gave me a sugar rush last time?
Yugi: *takes sugar away from Yami and hides it* No sugar rushes for you!
Yami: .... Ok....
Malik: *steals umbrella to use as a "roof" to his "shelter"*
Yami: .... Ok....
~A Book By Kant and A Book By Thomas Aquinas
Yami: .......................... Since when do I like to read?
Daricio: Be happy with it, and take a long time to read it. That's all your presents...
Yami: ... Ok.. That wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be... ^_^
Total presents for Yugi:
Yugi: This should be interesting...
~A shirt that says, "I'm not short! I'm vertically challenged!"
Yugi: ..... Gee, thanks.. *puts the shirt on*
~Ear Plugs
Yugi: ... *realizes something* YES! Now I don't have to listen to people when they start to become annoying! ^_^
Daricio: Now then...
Yugi: *puts ear plugs in*
Daricio: Your next present is- Yugi, are you listening to me? ... -_- I am now officially charged as "annoying" by Yugi... *ahem* YUGI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yugi: *hears the loud yell through the ear plugs* *takes them out* Yes?
Daricio: Your next present?
Yugi: Oh, right. ^_^
~SUGAR! AND A LEASH! HE CAN DRAG YAMI AROUND!
Yami: o.O I hope not...
Yugi: ^_^ Fun!
Yami: -_- I thought I was DONE...
Yugi: ^_^
~A Book by Frued
Yugi: Who's giving out all the books?
Daricio: Felix...
Yugi: oh...... ok... That it?
Daricio: Yup...
Yugi: ^_^ Ok! *puts leash on Yami and puts earplugs in to drown out Yami's yells as he drags him out of the room and down the sidewalk*
Daricio: o.O
Roo: And I thought I was mean...
Malik: That's a side of Yugi I hadn't seen before...
Total Presents for Bakura:
~Fencing Equipment
Bakura: .... Interesting.... *picks up a few of the swords and things* Somebody's been reading Negative Chaos....
~A cage to put Eb in whenever he gets out of line
Bakura: ^_^ Fun.
Roo: -_- Not fun.
~SUGAR! AND A GIANT BOOK!
Bakura: *blink* Big book? *lugs it into a corner for reading later (not Malik's corner, a different corner)*
~A Book by Keirkagaard
Roo: *looking at author's name* Who comes up with these people's names, anyways?
Bakura: Those are last names. Nobody "picks" them, Roo...
Roo: Don't call me that. -_-
Bakura: ^_^ whatever you say, Roo.
Roo: -_-
Daricio: Ok, last person's presents!
Roo: Me... And seeing as not too many people are very fond of me, I'm willing to bet that-
Total Presents for Roo:
Roo: -they won't be very nice to me...
Daricio: That's a matter of opinion.
~A knife.
Roo: o.O People are actually GIVING me sharp pointy objects to play with? You people are more nuts than I thought.... Nice, but nuts...
~A File.
Roo: what am I going to use this for?.... Oh yeah! To break out of Bakura's cage! *evil grin* Much nicer than I thought...
~SUGAR! AND STEAK! AND SUNGLASSES FOR NO REASON AT ALL!
Roo: mmmmm... *eats steak the way he does in the Japanese version*
Bakura: o.O You have no table manners.
Roo: *munch munch* *talking with mouth full* Sho? Who needsh table mannersh?
Bakura: *rolls eyes*
Roo: *puts on Sunglasses, too* *ignores sugar*
~A Book on the subject of Torture
Roo: *raises eyebrow* There's gotta be a catch to all this... there's gotta be a catch.. gotta... gotta be a catch...
~A Bomb in a Box
Roo: -_- I knew there was a ca-*boom!* *flys up high*
Daricio: ^_^ Don't worry, he'll come down after a while.
Mr. Gice: ... Did I get any presents?
Daricio: No, but I figured you'd want to see this chapter... you know... because you're in it. ^_^
All Mr. Gice fans: YAY!
Mr. Gice: *eyeing fans* One: How'd they get in here? Two: I have fans?
AMGF: ^_^
Daricio: *shoos fans out of room and closes door* ^_^U Now for Review Responses, and then the loverly ficcie!
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Review Responses:
~Master of Dimentions: Nope, I've decided that you're not. You all cause too much havoc around here for that. I hereby banish you all from my author notes! *banish* Muah!... Not that you can't talk to me on AIM or anything like that, though... just no more intruding on my author notes..
Malik: And by the way.. it's MALIK!!!
~Etheflaed: ^_^ Thankies for all the presents, guys! I'm sure everyone will greatly appreciate your gifts. Also... ^_^ I got this review the day right after the day that I got obsessed with puns, and every time somebody would make a pun, I'd say, "Do the pun dance! Punnie punnie punnie! *jumps around in circles*" ... to which DVD would usually reply with, "Ha, ha, very punnie." to which I'd do the punnie dance... ^_^U I was just a little bit insane that day... Aaand, that was random... But anyways, thanks bunches for reviewing!
~B/k: D/s, I thougth you knew that insults don't work on insane people!
Malik: *randomly* nutty as a fruitcake...
Daricio: ^_^ Thankies! Anyways, thanks for the anti-preppyness! Talk to you later on AIM, ok?
~Perpetually Hyper One: ^_^ Yayz! Thanks for the anti-evil egginator... thingy... *glance at Akaib* Not sure if it worked or not... *kicks computer*
Akaib: *sputter, sputter, dies*
Daricio: -_- *kick*
Akaib: *revives*
Daricio: ^_^U Anyways, talk to you later on AIM as well!
~C.M.Aeris Queen of Insanity: You sound like you need the uncut version, too.. ^_^U Oh, wait, I think you do already... Anyways, Sorry for the short chappie last time.. Malik's this chappie, even if I do use his dub name...
Malik: -_-
Daricio: ^_^U It's not MY fault!
Mr. Gice: It's.. your story, is it not?
Daricio: ^_^UUU Well, yes.. But it's still not my fault.
Mr. Gice: How?
Daricio: *avoids question* ^_^U Anyways, thanks for reviewing...
~dark angel5221: Thanks for the bomb in a box for Roo. ^_^ I think he liked it.
Roo: -_- Riiiiight.... *still blackened*
~Tamera Raymond: Yaaay! Confetti! ^^U Yes, I guess Seeker does sorta sound like Seeky... I got the name from the gameboy game dueling thing... that's what they call him... (better than just calling him "rare hunter" all the time, ne?) *looking at your story* Wow, you have alot of chappies.. How'd you get more chappies than me and yet I've worked on mine longer than you?
Malik: Oh, I dunno, maybe that you.. TAKE A MONTH TO UPDATE EACH TIME???
Daricio: ^_^U That might explain it, yes...
Roo: *rolls eyes*
~Evil Neptune: ^_^U Yesh, it was a short chappie.. My shortest lately... But hey, remember, whenever the days get short, everybody always remembers that Spring's just a little ways off, and then we'll have long days again. *nods wisely*
Mr. Gice: What's that got to do with this?
Daricio: eh... If you wait a few more months, I may start churning out longer chappies?
Mr. Gice:... I see... I think...
Daricio: ^_^U
~MagicPerson14: Erm... ok... Nice to see a new face... ^_^ If you ever have problems coming up with character names, it's really quite easy... (After all, I had to come up with a huge bunch of names for Mr. Gice to use, if you'll recall.) All you have to do is pound on the keyboard, then say the newly formed "word" out loud to see if it's pronunciable. If not, make minor changes by adding/taking away vowels. And, Voila! Name! ^_^ As for teh question of when I'm going to update... It all depends upon how long I want the chapter to be. I like to have long chappies, so I work a long time on them. (Even if they're sometimes not very long...) Also, I don't really type very fast, and when you combine that with writer's block, lots of ficcies to be working on at the same time, and almost zero time to be working on anyhting, you get short chappies that take forever to come out. ^_^U Sorry... Anyways, thanks for reviewing! Tschuss!
~Chikara Takashi: ^___^ Thanks for all the presents! Here's a loverly update for you in exchange! ^_^
~seagirl: Thanks, too for your present! ^_^ I feel so popular. Thanks for saying you know how I feel... It can be hard sometimes, ne? ^_^U Anyways, Yay! I updated! ^__^
~BakaNeko-Chan: Erm, was this update soon enough for you? Guess it didn't help that I got grounded, huh? ^_^U Anyways... *shruggy* I suppose you could say that Chris was trying to be nice... More on that this chappie... Read on!
~The Insane Otaku AKA Caterfree: ^.^ Always glad to update. Just... Slowly, that's all. This chappie be better and longer than last chappie, yah. ^_^ Have fun reading!
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Daricio: All rightie then. Those are done... First another little note, then we'll start this.
Malik: What a novel idea... starting the ficcie!
Daricio: *rolls eyes* ANYWAYS, Somebody recorded over this particular eppie... and... I know the general idea of what happens, obviously, because I've seen it before, but I have no idea what exactly is said... I'm inevitably going to skip a few things, and the conversation between Yami and Marik is cut extremelly short, but you all know what he said, so why should I have to re-do it anyways, right? Right. (I can't for the life of me figure out how to fit that "the end is near, it's my world now" line into the conversation, or even the "remember my name... Marik." line... So I'm shoving in the lines somewhat randomly, and they're not going to make much sense... *sigh* I liked this scene, too... and now I'm basically murdering it...) Anyhows, with that in mind, here's the ficcie!
Malik: *suspiciously* You're not going to cut it short again, are you?
Daricio: I hope not. Like I said, I'm posting this on the Anniversery date whether I like it or not, but I'm attempting to get this chappie to the end of the first day, at least...
Bakura: Uh, Daricio? Battle City takes place all in one day... You saying you're going to have this chappie make up all of Battle City, minus the finals matches?
Daricio: ^_^U No. I've broken Battle City up into two days, that way I can have Daricio be at school on and off through the whole thing. The first day'll end right after Joey's duel with Evil Underpants, I mean Weevil Underwood, which is right after the Arkana duel... meaning... ^_^ It'll end with Mr. Gice!
Roo: Uh huh...
Mr. Gice: Any particular reason why you're ending the day there?
Daricio: *shrugs* I tried to break it into three days, but that made it so that there were only two duels a day for the first two days, and that's basically just stupid, because most of the duels only took from between a half hour to an hour or so... ^_^U That was a very LONG "little note"...How's about I quit blabbing and let us all get on with reading the ficcie, eh?
Malik: *rolls eyes* Good idea...
************************************************************************* {Yami}
Yami grinned as his Magnet Warrior, powered up by his Summoned Skull, raced forward, crashing into the rare hunter, attacking his life points directly, and taking him down.
"I win." He said simply.
"Yeah! I knew you could do it, Yuge!" Joey shouted victoriously, even though he wasn't the one dueling.
Yami nodded, then walked slowly over to the collapsed rare hunter. He picked up his deck and began shuffling through it. when he came to the Red Eyes, he took it out, then looked at the other cards in his ex-opponant's deck.
He looked closely at the Exodia pieces, wishing that Weevil jerk hadn't thrown his and Yugi's own set overboard, and only faintly listening to Joey's continued cheering. The Exodia pieces were really hard to get, in this world at any rate. Sort of like the Blue Eyes cards. Only a certain amount of them had been created.
In fact, with his own set now currently at the bottom of the ocean, getting three totally new sets all in one deck was extremely close to impossible...
Wait..
"Something's coming off on my fingers..." Yami commented aloud, rubbing his index finger and thumb together. "These cards are fake!"
Joey blinked, pausing his cheering for a moment, then grinning once more. "Yeah! I knew this creep was a cheat!"
"Well, no more!" Yami said, ripping the cards in half both ways and flinging the pieces up into the air.
From the doorway, Daricio shook her head. //Was that really necessary?// She asked.
//Well, no.// Yami admitted. //But it was fun.//
//And it looked cool.// Yugi added.
Daricio rolled her eyes. //Boys...// she turned around and was just about to exit the room and return to her soul room so that she didn't become late for her next class, when the rare hunter suddenly decided that he hadn't humiliated himself enough yet and got up on his knees, holding his head in his hands, leaning backwards, and screaming loudly.
Daricio turned back, confusion and slight amusement on her face. "Weirdo..."
Joey looked like he held about the same opinion. "This guy's a nutcase!"
The screams very suddenly transformed themselves into semi-clear words. "No! Master! I'm sorry! Please! I... I tried my best! Please! Master! Noooooo!!!!" He let go of his head, and it dropped down. He stared blankly at the sidewalk.
Daricio blinked. "I'll have to agree with Joey on that one... 'master'?"
Yami shrugged and opened his mouth to respond, and then the rare hunter began to chuckle.
The chuckle grew louder and soon the rare hunter was on his feet, laughing insanely, still looking down at the ground. He looked up at Yami and narrowed his eyes at him. "So, we meet again, Pharaoh."
His voice was deeper than it had been a second ago, sounding almost like two voices talking at the same time, and his eyes were blank, without any pupils. Yugi involentarily shuddered.
Yami blinked at the name. "Who are you?" he asked suspiciously.
The rare hunter laughed again. "Actually, I'm not surprised that you don't know who I am. You were locked inside the puzzle when I dueled little Yugi."
Joey glanced at Yami, not even bothering trying to lower his voice so as not to be rude towards the obviously mentally disturbed person. "Yuuuuuge.... What's with this guy?"
Yami shot Joey a look that told him to shut up for a second and then repeated his question to the rare hunter. "Who are you? And what do you want?"
The rare hunter smirked. "I want what rightfully belongs to me. Your Millennium Puzzle! As for who I am, let me give you a bit of advice. Remember my name... Marik!"
"Marik!" Yami repeated, not sounding very surprised.
The rare hunter nodded. "Yes. This rare hunter has failed me. I have sent his mind to the Shadow Realm as a punishment. Now I control his every move!"
He jerked suddenly, seeming to almost fly through the air, flailing around like a limp rag doll being thrown around by an extremely insane twisted little girl.
Yami growled, his eyes opening wide.
//Of course! Why didn't I think of it before? That's the guy who dueled Yugi at that abandoned warehouse! He's after the Millennium Puzzle!// Daricio remembered. //He's obviously the great evil that Isis spoke of!//
//And he can mind control, too. Remember Bandit Keith? That's what's going on here...// Yugi added.
Yami gave a small mental nod to acknowledge that he had heard them, then returned his attention to the mind controlled Rare Hunter, who had stopped flailing. "I can assure you of one thing, Marik, no matter how hard you try, you'll never get my puzzle."
Marik laughed. "You don't understand, I want more than the puzzle. I want the Pharaoh's power. The key to this infinite power lies not only in your puzzle, but in the three Egyptian God Cards as well. I already have two, and the other will soon be within my grasp... "
//Only because of Isis and Kaiba...// Daricio mumbled to herself.
Marik continued talking. "With the power of the Ancient Pharaoh in my hands, I shall weild total and absolute power. I will reign over all, and the entire world shall tremble at my feet! The end is near for you, Pharaoh... It's my world now!"
Yami frowned. "Not if I can help it." he growled.
Marik smirked. "This shan't be the last time we meet. This rare hunter is only the weakest of the group I control. Soon, another of my minions will find you, and you will duel! Prepare yourself, Yami. And know this: I will win. I will gain what is rightfully mine. I WILL be pharaoh!"
Yami growled again and stepped back as the rare hunter's eyes went blank and he fell forwards onto his face.
"Great way to start..." Joey mumbled to himself. "Knock yourself out..."
The crowd that was gathered around stared from Yami to the Rare Hunter for a while, before quickly becoming bored with the unconscious person lying there on the ground and going back to doing what they had been doing before: looking for a good duel to watch.
Yami looked up at Joey, holding out the Red Eyes card. "Here, Joey. Your Red-Eyes Black Dragon."
Joey blinked, then looked away. "Nah, Yuge. You keep it."
"But Joey-"
"It's yours. You won it fair and square. Besides, if these rare hunters are as great and powerful as I've heard, then they're bound to have tons of really powerful, rare cards in their decks..." He looked down at Yami. "You'll need all the help you can get. And it'll be cool this way, cause it'll be like a part of me is in your deck! It's pretty neat knowing I'm helping you save the world an all..."
Yami smiled. "Thank you, Joey. I'll take good care of your Red-Eyes Black Dragon."
"No problem. Together, you and I are gunna whoop this Marik creep! He'll be sorry he ever decided to mess wit us!"
Yami nodded. "Good luck, Joey." The two shook hands.
Joey also nodded. "You too. I'll see you around."
The two turned around and headed off in opposite directions.
************************************************************************
(A/N: Yay for short stupid summerizations of extremely important scenes... V_V)
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{Daricio} (This ist a little bit later)
Daricio frowned as she walked out of her third period class and headed toward her locker so she could go to class.
//You JUST left him, and now you're going to go back and watch him duel? What, don't you trust him to be able to do this by himself?// She asked Yami mentally.
He had just seen a group of kids run by, talking about Joey Wheeler dueling, and now he was off to go watch as well...
//It's not that I don't trust him...// Yami said defensively. //I just want to see, that's all... It's better than running aimlessly around the city waiting for another one of Marik's Rare hunters to show up, like we've been doing for the past half an hour...//
Daricio shrugged. //Just make sure he doesn't see you, or he'll think what I thought. That you don't think he can hold his own without help from you.//
Yami and Yugi nodded at the same time.
"Right." Yami said to himself. //So where can we go that he won't see us?//
//Well, one thing I've found over the years is that people have a tendancy of never looking up. I've played many a game of hide and seek, hiding up in the top of my closet, and people will open the closet door, look around, and still not find m- What?// Daricio stopped, noticing that Yugi was giving her a strange look.
//Hide and seek, Daricio?// Yugi asked, grinning.
Daricio shrugged. "Hey, I have a younger brother, a younger sister, and an older brother that often acts like a younger brother. What do you expect me to be doing with my time while they play? Sit around reading Shakespearian novels?" she muttered aloud.
Yugi laughed. //True.//
"Shakespeare wrote plays, not novels." Josh said suddenly, coming up beside her. "And who are you talking to?"
Daricio blushed, returning her attention to where she was walking. She now realized that she had walked past her locker, and would now have to turn around to get to it. "Same difference. And I was talking to myself, thanks."
Josh grinned, holding out his hand as if holding a small notebook and a pencil, then putting on a funny accent, said, "And just how long have you been talking to yourself like this, Miss Daricio? Do you also hear voices in your head to go along with this habit?"
Daricio laughed, shoving him slightly and turning around to go to her locker. "Yes, yes I do."
Josh whirled around as well, still smiling at her. "Avoiding me now?"
"No! I just accidently walked past my locker, that's all." Daricio said, grinning.
"Ah, I see."
"Really! See?" She walked up to her locker and began twisting the lock.
"Uh huh... Well, I'll see ya later, Daricio. I'm probably late to class. I've got a different lunch than you, ya know."
Daricio waved to him. "Bye!"
He walked off, and Daricio returned her attention to her locker.
//But my point is, if you want somebody to not see you, then you have to go somewhere high up. So, a roof, or a balcony...// Daricio said, continuing the conversation as if she hadn't stopped it in the first place.
Yugi nodded, still grinning. //All right, most of the businesses around here let you up on the roofs whenever parades and stuff come through, so maybe they'll let us up there now.//
//It's worth a try.// Yami said. He walked off toward a building that he thought had a view of where Joey would be dueling at.
Daricio's locker was being stubborn again, and she banged on it hard, hopping to jar it open. It didn't work, so she sighed and twisted the lock once again. It finally opened after three more attempts, and she swung her backpack off her shoulder, opened it, and began to dump the books in it into her locker.
Once her backpack was rid of it's more mathematical contents, she pulled her lunch and her Yu-Gi-Oh cards out of the locker, and put them inside her backpack. She then slammed the locker shut, stood up, then completed her act by kicking the locker, hard, to shut the botton left corner of the locker that liked to refuse to close, and then finally headed up to the "dueling corner."
Sitting down in an actual corner of the hallway and taking out her lunch, she glanced around to see if anybody was watching her.
Strangely, nobody was. Finally, a day in which she wasn't going to get kicked out of here by the other kids...
She ate quickly, listening as Yugi talked to the store manager, who finally agreed to let them up on the roof. On the way up the stairs, they met a kid, who had obviously snuck up there without permission, coming down.
Yami stopped him briefly, "Hey, can you see the duel down there from up here?"
The kid nodded. "Yup! Didja hear who it was dueling? Some cool guy named Espa Roba just beat the heck out of Rex Raptor, and now he's going against Joey Wheeler. Espa's got ESP, and he uses it to duel!"
Daricio grinned. //Yeah, so what? My CD Player's got ESP, too. Big deal.//
//Wrong kind of ESP, Daricio...// Yugi said, shaking his head. //Somehow, I doubt Espa has Electro-Shock Protection...//
//I knew that.// Daricio told him. //I was joking.//
The kid continued going down the stairs after a called out "See ya!" and Yami went up to the top. He blinked in the sunlight, then walked to the edge, looking down at the duel below.
"Hey, Daricio."
Daricio was suddenly snapped back to her world by the sound of a voice, and she blinked, looking up. It was Chris again.
"Hi." she said. "What do you want?" She could feel the eyes of all in the room carefully trained on her once again.
Chris pulled out his deck box. "Do you want to duel me? You know, a rematch, sort of?"
Daricio frowned. "Ok, I guess..."
There was some random chattering from the people watching this, and then Chris sat down, put his deck on the floor, and the duel began.
"8000 life points. You can go first, Daricio." He said, drawing his hand of five cards.
Daricio nodded. "Fine..." She drew six cards.
//Want help?// Yugi asked.
//No, not really. You go watch Joey.// She replied. //I'm just glad to be dueling with my deck again...//
"I'll play Ookazi and Hinotama to start with. That takes off a total of 1300 life points from your life points. Then I'll play a card face-down and a card in defense." She announced. She grinned, enjoying her burner deck's effect on her opponant.
Chris nodded. "Fine then." He plunked in his lifepoint loss on his calculator, and drew a card for his turn. "I'm just going to put a card face down in defense, and magic/trap card face down. Your move."
Daricio drew her card. //hmm.... My first face down monster was Cyber Jar, so I don't really want to play anything else, because if he gets a monster out and attacks it, it'll destroy the other card, too.//
"Pass. Your move."
Chris grinned. "No good cards to play, huh?"
"Just go."
"Fine." He looked at his hand. "I'll play defense again. Go."
Daricio drew. //Sangan! Perfect! Now if he attacks Cyber Jar, it'll send Sangan to the graveyard, activating his effect!// She played it face down. "Go."
"Once again, I'll play defense. Your move."
Chris now had three defense monsters on the field. Daricio sighed. Besides her burner cards, her deck was also mostly made up of effect and defense, meaning that her strategies usually only worked when she was being attacked.
//He had better start actually attacking me...// She thought, drawing another card. //Or I'm never going to get around to doing anything..//
"I'll pass again. Go."
By now, there was a semi-large crowd watching, and it was making Daricio nervous. Especially with all of Chris' face down cards. There was no way of knowing what he had down there...
"I'll play the magic card, Goblin's Secret Remedy, which increases a selected person's life points by 600. I choose me, of course. Then I'll play another defense monster and end my turn."
Daricio nodded. //Healing cards. Right. He's got a healing/defense deck. Well, if I pass again, nothing will happen, and so I'll go ahead and play a defense monster.//
"I'll play a card in defense mode. Go."
Chris looked down at the now crowded field. "hmm... I'll play one card in defensive mode, and-"
Someone in the crowd, a boy Daricio didn't recognize, scoffed. "This is boring! Somebody DO something already!"
Chris rolled his eyes. "Fine, I will. Flip Guardian of the Throne Room into attack mode! I'll attack your center face down, Daricio!"
Daricio grinned. "That would be my Cyber Jar."
Chris frowned. "Blast it all... Literally..." he murmered, scooping all his cards currently on the field into his graveyard. He picked up five cards and showed them. Daricio did the same, after destroying her own monsters.
Chris glared at his cards before laying down a face down monster and a Dragon Zombie in attack mode. Daricio layed two monsters in defense mode and placed a card from her deck into her hand because of Sangan's effect.
"Just go now." he said furiously.
//Ok, with my face down card, I can destroy his attacking monster, and also skip my draw phase, which'll be good with all these cards in my hand, and then I can summon La Jinn from my hand to destroy his face down. Then next turn, I can activate the two flip effects that I have, and sacrifice them for my Blue Eyes. Then I can attack directly, unless he has something face down that I have to worry about...// Daricio thought to herself.
//Sounds like a good plan to me.//
//I told you to go watch Joey's duel with Mr. CD Player, Yugi.//
Yugi shrugged. //Your duel's more exciting. Besides, Yami says he's doing fine so far.//
Daricio outwardly frowned at Yugi's comment and began to carry out her plan. "I'll activate my facedown card, "Offerings to the Doomed." I get to destroy one face up monster on the field in exchange for-"
"I KNOW what it does, Daricio." Chris grumbled, placing his Dragon Zombie in the graveyard. "I'm not stupid."
//Coulda fooled me.// Daricio thought. "Now I play La Jinn in attack mode. I'll attack your face down."
Chris smirked. "Princess of Tsurugi! You take..." his smirk faded. "Nothing. You have no magic/trap cards on the field... Blast!"
He scowled at the card and tossed it into the graveyard. Daricio smiled. "Your move."
"Three facedown magic/traps. Dark Zebra in attack mode to guard my lifepoints. Go."
//Won't he be in for a surprise when I activate my own Princess of Tsurugi? Hmm.. He thinks he's safe from me, but he won't be when I get my Blue Eyes out!//
"I flip Princess of Tsurugi! You take 2000 damage!" Daricio said, throwing her own smirk at him.
He continued scowling at her. "I'll activate Gift of the Mystical Elf. I gain life points for each monster on the field. Now what?"
"I also flip Penguin Soldier! I'll send your Dark Zebra back to your hand. Now you're wide open for a direct attack! But that's not all!" Daricio said dramatically, trying to act like Yami. "I tribute my Penguin Soldion and my Princess to bring out... The Blue Eyes White Dragon!"
//And you better not have a trap hole down... If you do, I'll kill you...// Daricio thought hopefully at him, knowing that he couldn't hear her.
Chris quickly flipped through all his facedowns, checking to see if he could defend himself. He sighed. "Now you attack with Blue Eyes, right?"
Daricio nodded. "Blue Eyes! Direct attack!"
"Not so fast. Waboku!"
Daricio frowned. "So you did have something down..."
"Yup. This ends battle phase, so you can't attack me directly until your next turn." Chris said.
"Mm-hmm..." Daricio murmured. "Fine, I'll end my turn then."
Chris nodded. "Now I can put a little bit of defense in. One card. Your move."
Daricio grinned. "Blitz time! I summon Hayabusa Knight! He can attack twice per battle phase with 1000 attack. I'll attack your face down card with La Jinn."
Chris discarded it immedietly to the graveyard. It was a wimpy Darkfire Soldier #1.
"Now, Blue Eyes attack directly! Hayabusa attack directly twice! That's a total of 5000 direct damage to you!" Daricio almost shouted.
Chris grimaced. "Thank goodness we started at 8000 life points instead of 4000 like Battle City rules, or I'd be dead..."
//That's what I was about to say.// Yugi commented, smiling as well. //Nice move, Daricio.//
//Thanks. I'll wipe him out next turn.// Daricio said confidently.
"Your move, Chris!"
Chris drew his card for his turn, frowned, and played it in defense mode. "Go." He glared at Daricio, as if daring her to finish him off.
//Wait... Maybe I shouldn't beat him...// Daricio thought suddenly.
//Why not? You've got him down!" Yugi told her.
//But... With all the rumors about me already, maybe it'll just make everything worse if he gets mad at me.// Daricio worried, her hand hesitating over the Wall of Illusion in her hand that she had just been about to summon to the field.
//Hmm... Good point. Save him for a turn, give him a chance for a comeback. If he doesn't make it, then wipe him out. Just so you can say you gave him a chance.// Yugi suggested.
//That may work.// Daricio agreed.
"I'll play Wall of Illusion in attack mode and end my turn." She said.
Chris gave her a funny look. "You too scared to attack me?" he asked her.
"Mercy Move! Mercy Move!! Come on! You can get back at her! Do it!" Somebody in the crowd said.
Chris drew for his turn. "I'll just keep playing defense." he announced, throwing yet another card in defense mode. "Go."
Daricio drew. //Magician of Faith! This'll be good... I can get back the Offerings to the Doomed, in case he actually gets a monster in there.//
She played it face down. "Go."
"She's toying with you again! Go on Chris! Whup her!"
"He can't Whup her, idiot! She's got control of the field!"
"So?"
Daricio tuned out the arguing, and instead focused on Chris's move.
"I flip: Hiro's Shadow scout! You draw three cards, and discard any of them that are magic cards." Chris said. "Hope you weren't waiting for anything..."
Daricio drew her three cards. The only magic card was a Dian Keto the Cure Master. "Sorry Chris. No harm done."
Chris frowned again. "So? Flip: Big Eye! I get to rearange the top five cards on my deck." He did so quickly, then tuned back to what he was doing.
//The only reason he would flip these into attack mode with my Blue Eyes on the field would be if he were about to sacrifice them for something...// Daricio thought. //Too bad I have no trap holes down...//
"Now, I'll place one face down monster in defense mode. I'll attack Dark Energy to my Big Eye and attack the Wall of Illusion!" Chris said. "Your move."
Daricio stared at him, slowly placing her Wall of Illusion into the graveyard. "You're weird, you know that. Your Dark Energy was just destroyed, you lost life points, Big Eye was sent back to your hand, and now you have a Hiro Shadow Scout in attack mode in front of a Blue Eyes, a Hayabusa Knight, and a La Jinn, and you're now about to die."
Chris shrugged. "Or so you think. Just go."
Daricio grinned. "My pleasure. First, I'll play a card in defense mode. Then, I'll attack Hiro's Scout with Hayabusa Knight. It's destroyed. I'll spare you again, Chris, and end my turn."
"Quit with the mercy moves and just finish him off, Daricio!" Somebody called. "You can do it!"
"Naw, he's gunna whup her!"
"No he's not, stupid!"
Chris looked at his hand. "One defense, one magic/trap. Your move."
Daricio grinned. //Think I should finish him off, now?//
//Go for it.// Yugi urged.
"I'll place one magic/trap face down, and then I'll flip Magician of Faith. I get Offerings to the Doomed back. I'll also flip my face-down Spear Cretin. I'll sacrifice both of them for a second Blue Eyes!"
"Trap hole!"
"I'll use Spear Cretin's effect on the Blue Eyes you just destroyed with that trap hole, thanks."
"Hey! Is that even allowed?"
Daricio paused. "I think so." She looked around at the crowd. "What does everybody think?"
"Aw, just let her keep it. She'll blow him away anyways." One kid said. The rest agreed. Daricio grinned and turned back to Chris.
"I'll attach Black Pendant to Hayabusa Knight, raising his attack points to- "
"Fairy's Hand Mirror. I'll equip it to my facedown monster instead.
"What?" Daricio blinked. "That's not-... You can't equip things to face down cards!"
"So? Who cares?"
Daricio gave him an annoyed look. "Me."
Chris glared at her. "Just let me do it this one duel, so you don't totally blitz me."
A few people in the crowd laughed. Daricio wasn't sure whether this was because she was winning, or because Chris was begging for mercy.
Daricio smirked. "All right, I'll let you keep that, then. For two seconds! Now I activate Mystical Space Typhoon on the Black Pendant. Because it's MY card, and it's sent to the graveyard, you lose 500 life points."
Chris frowned. "You suck." he grumbled, subtracting his lifepoints on the calculator so that it read 1200 life points remaining. Daricio still had all 8000 life points in tact.
"Now, my first Blue Eyes will attack your face down card!"
"Princess of Tsurugi, which was brough back by your Spear Cretin! This time, you DO have cards on the field. You take 1500 points of damage."
Daricio shrugged. "Oh well. Now I'll attack your other card with La Jinn!"
//Why not with Blue Eyes?//
//Just in case he's got a destroyer card down.//
"Steel Scorpion! La Jinn will die in two turns!"
//Oh, you mean like that?//
//Yeah, exactly like that.//
"Fine. Now I'll attack another face down with Hayabusa knight."
"Big Eye. Big Eye's defense equals Pigeon Boy's attack, so nothing happens."
//Ok, one more face down, then he's wide open. Here's hopeing there's no more steel scorpions in his deck.// Daricio mumbled. "Blue Eyes, attack the last face down card."
Chris discarded it to the graveyard. "Dancing Fairy."
"Go. Let's see if you can defend yourself now!"
"I can, and I will! Your La Jinn's going to die soon, and I can easily take out your other monsters as well!"
"We'll just see. Move."
Chris glared, and drew his card. "I play Giant Trunade, to get rid of any traps you had been planning to spring on me, then I'll play one magic/trap card, and one card face down. Your move."
Daricio grinned. "That's it? All right, you are now officially a barbaqued marshmallow. First, I'll sacrifice La Jinn for the Summoned Skull! Then-"
"Activate Just Desserts. You take 2500 life point damage."
"Ouch. Oh well. Hayabusa will attack your face down card." Her life points were now down to 4000, but it didn't matter.
Chris sighed and discarded his Dark Zebra to the graveyard. "Then?"
"You know what then, Chris. The Summoned Skull will attack and destroy your Big Eye. Then, you get attacked directly by two Blue Eyes, and my Hayabusa Knight! You better be glad that this isn't Battle City, or you would be very much ouchied right now."
A general cheer went up from the crowd. Daricio grinned, loking around at everybody. Chris silently gathered up his cards, his eyes trained mostly on the floor.
"Good duel." Daricio said, offering a hand to Chris. Chris looked up at her. The determination was gone from his eyes, and fortunatelly, what replaced that determination wasn't anger, but friendship. He took her hand, and they shook.
"No hard feelings? About all the rumors, I mean?" Chris asked. He had apparently heard a few of them.
Daricio's smile was half sad. "Sure. No hard feelings. But don't expect me to exactly be nice to you, either."
"All right." Chris smiled. "I wouldn't expect you to. I got to go. I'll see ya around, ok?"
"Sure. Bye." Daricio turned back to the crowd, which had now begun to disperse. Daricio got the general feeling that they had wanted the two of them to fight again, and that they were disappointed.
//Good duel.// Yugi said.
Daricio shrugged. //Too easy. I need more of a challange.//
Yugi grinned. //That shouldn't be too hard to arrange. Look.//
Daricio looked up. There were at least three people in front of her asking her to duel. Daricio grinned as well. This would be much fun.
********************************************************
{Yami}
(Again, this tis a little bit later...)
Yami was now wandering the streets of downtown Domino once again. Both Joey's duel and Daricio's duels had all ended a long time ago. In fact, Daricio was now walking home from her school.
It was strange, but even with all of Marik's many warnings and other rantings that he had given to them, there hadn't even been mention of the group of Rare Hunters by anybody for the past almost three hours...
It was almost as if Marik couldn't find them... Or maybe he was just simply preparing himself for them. Or... something.
"You look like you're looking for someone." A voice jarred Yami out of his thoughts and he looked up quickly. "Not that I really care who you might be looking for. I'm just a humble messenger here to tell you that there is somebody else who is looking for you."
Yami spotted the person who was speaking. There was a man dressed up in a strange clown costume, grinning at him from where he was standing, half shrouded in the shadow of a nearby tree.
"What do you mean?" Yami asked, wondering if this clown meant Marik.
The clown bowed low, waving his hands dramatically as he did so. "Just go that direction, into that tent over there, and you shall see what I mean."
He stepped backwards and faded into the shadows.
Yami blinked. //Tent? What tent?// He looked around. //Oh, that tent. Ok, well, I'll go into the tent, then.//
He began walking forward, his eyes remaining trained on the tent's opening. Something was... odd here... He couldn't quite put his finger on it...
//Yami, you do realize you're probably walking right into a trap? Most likely one that Marik has set up?// Daricio asked him. Her voice, for some reason, sounded faint. Far away. Insignificant. It didn't mean anything.
He continued walking forward. All that really mattered right now was finding out what that clown thought he wanted in that tent...
"Hey, there he is... Yugi!" Yami head Tea call out to him, but her voice seemed as far away as Daricio's had.
//Yami, you ok?// Yugi asked him. Yami didn't answer, instead continuing walking towards the tent.
There was something in there.... He could sense it now, using the powers of the Millennium Puzzle. Something in there... Something that he had to see...
//Yugi, something's wrong...// Daricio said.
//I noticed.// Yugi replied somewhat dryly. //Yami!//
Yami entered the tent and looked around, the puzzle glowing just enough to cast strange shadows here and there. As far as he could tell, the tent was entirely empty, except for a large object in the center.
This object was what the powers he could sense were coming from. This was the something that Yami had to check out. He continued walking inside, not bothering to glance around the room to make absolutely sure that there was nobody there, suddenly deeming this act as being unuseful, for some reason.
All caution that Yami usually took in matters like these was suddenly gone, and he strode confidently towards the box, feeling absolutely sure that he would find what he was looking for.
Bright lights were flicked on, illuminating the stand that the large object, a box, was sitting on. Yami didn't even flinch at these lights, instead continuing forward towards the box.
The door on the box, which looked strangely like that on the card "Mystic Boxes" opened slowly, and Yami went unhesitently inside, waiting to see what would happen next.
"He went in that box!" Tea said to somebody. The door on the Mystic Boxes contraption closed shut with a sudden slam, cutting off whatever else Tea had to say.
The floor underneath Yami suddenly dropped out from underneath him, and he fell, yelling as he did so. The apparently soundproof boxes blocked out what he was yelling to anybody else's ears.
Yami didn't fall very far, however, only about 6 feet, until he landed hard on a carpeted floor below. He heard the floor above him, now the ceiling to him, close back up again, followed by a semi-large whump sound.
The caution that had previously deserted him all came rushing back, and Yami wondered how in the world he got into this stupid mess as he pulled himself to his feet and looked around at where he was.
"I hate falling..." he mumbled to himself.
//I knew this was a trap...// Yugi said to himself.
Yami blinked. "Huh?"
//Trap. T-R-A-P. Traaaaaa-//
Yami rolled his eyes. "I know what he said, Daricio."
//Why, hello Yami! Welcome back to the world of the living! Wish to tell us what just happened back there?// Daricio said somewhat sarcastically.
//Sorry.// Yami said. //I.... I think I was in some sort of a trance...//
//Sure looked that way, Yami. It's all right. Let's just see if we can get out of here...// Yugi said. He turned to Daricio. //Don't be so hard on him.//
//Fine, then. Next time, I'll just simply sit back and let him do whatever he pleases...// Daricio said, starting back into her own soul room.
Yami sighed, and continued checking the small room he was in. It didn't take him long after that to find that there was a door leading out of this room, and he quickly opened it and stepped into the next room.
In this room, one that was, if anything, even smaller than the one he was just previously in, was a computer console.
Daricio looked at the strange screen through Yugi's eyes in slight astonishment from where she was standing at her soul room door.
"Hacking into KaibaCorp mainframe..." it told them almost icily, its staticy screen flickering as it worked. "Done. Accessing Battle City Profile: Yugi Moto. Star level: 5. Rarest card: Dark Magician."
Yami blinked at the screen, unsure whether he was supposed to say something to this computer, who's still flickering screen was now flashing a picture of Yugi at him.
He didn't have to think about it very long, however...
For his thoughts were interupted by a high pitched evil sounding cackle.
**********************************************************************
{Daricio}
Daricio stared in shock at the strange blue disks that the rare hunter Arkana had called Dark Disks.
//They do WHAT???// she yelped. //Send us to the shadow realm???//
She didn't wait for anybody to answer her question, instead turning on her heel and retreating into her soul room. "That does it."
"Daricio, wait!" Yugi called, jogging up next to her. "What are you doing? I thought you were going to stay and help us out here! Cheer us on!"
Daricio shook her head. //I've got a better idea.// She said, opening her physical eyes. "That Arkana guy thinks that by threatening us with those Dark Disks, he'll have an advantage against us."
She stood and began looking for something in her closet. "Well, he's got another thing coming."
//What do you mean?// Yugi asked.
"Who's Arkana?" Shells asked at the same time. She was standing just inside the doorway, looking as though she was just coming into the room.
Daricio blinked and glanced over at Shells. "Oh, Hi Shells. Didn't see you there. I was talking to Yugi. Arkana is one of Marik's rare hunters."
Shells frowned. "They've finally showed up, huh?" she asked.
"Yup." Daricio replied, turning back to her closet.
//What are you looking for?//
"What are you looking for?"
Shells and Yugi spoke at almost exactly the same time, and Daricio stifled a small laugh. "I'm looking for my Yugi tin."
Shells smiled. "It's under the bed."
"It is? Oh. Thanks." Daricio looked, and sure enough, there it was. "I'm going to have to use this soon." she murmured to herself.
//What for?//
//So that if that Dark Disk gets to close to you two, I can warp you out of there before it makes contact.// She replied. She spoke again before Yugi could say anything. //And I don't care if it's cheating or not, Yugi. If Marik can kidnap the world's best duelist and still not be disqualified, then I can do whatever I can to keep you safe.//
Yugi sighed. //All right, fine. I'm still going to see if I can talk him out of all this, though.//
//And that's fine, too.// Daricio watched as Yugi went back through the link to Yami.
"What do you need it for?" Shells asked.
"Tell ya later. What did you come up here for?"
"Huh?" Shells looked temporarily confused, then she smiled. "Oh yeah. Coem downstairs, we're missing Yu-Gi-Oh!"
Daricio blinked. Would she be able to watch an episode of Yu-Gi-Oh and pay attention to Yugi's duel with Arkana both at the same time?
"You go ahead and go watch it, Shells. Make sure Jrj's recording it. I have to concentrate up here, that all right?" She said.
Shells nodded. "Ok." She turned and disapeared out the door and down the stairs.
**********************************************************************
{Mr. Gice}
Mr. Gice sighed and switched off the machinery in front of him, pushing it away slightly. He had been working with the RWC constantly for what seemed like years by now, and it still simply refused to comply with his wish for it to complete the transfer to the freaky world.
Now, he was going to take a break. His frustration with the whole thing was overcoming his need to finish the project, and besides that, he was hungry.
He walked slowly to the lab door and flicked off the light, heading up the stairs to the main living quarters of his house.
Halfway up the stairs, he stopped, looking back over his shoulder at the dimly lit room below.
Mr. Gice's laboratory used to be simply his basement, until he had stopped using it for storage and had cleaned it out and converted it into a science lab. Because it used to be a basement, it had no windows at all, and he had turned off all his machines, so when he had the lights off, it was always pitch black inside.
Except for right now...
Something down there was glowing... Mr. Gice grabbed a pair of thick gloves from off the wall and stepped quickly back into the room, looking around slowly to see if he could find the source of the dim light.
It didn't take him very long to find it, and he flicked the lights back on and jogged over to the counter where he had seen the light.
When he saw exactly what it was that had been glowing, he groaned.
It was his RWC.
It was lying motionless on the table right next to an Electromagnetic Magnesium-Carbohydrate strip, where he had laid it after his escape from the mental institution. Both were covered in what looked like a strange sticky goo, and this goo was what had been putting forth the eerie glow.
Mr. Gice looked over the mess scrutinizingly, trying to figure out what had happened. When he reached a conclusion, he sighed. "Looks like the instability of the compository elements that make up the plastical coverings of the Electromagnetic Magnesium-Carbohydrate strips has combined with the force of constant magnatism radiating within the RWC to cause the leakage of electromagnetic gamma radiation from the strips, and this radiatic goo has penetrated the open shell of the RWC, and has, in all probability, destroyed both mechanisms!"
(A/N: Try saying that five times fast)
Mr Gice grimaced at the mass of glowing goop and peered into the RWC to inspect the damage. "Now we just have to hope that we can fix this..."
He picked up a rag that he was sure he never wanted to use again, and began to clean up the inside of his RWC.
Scraping the already slightly hardened goo away from one of the more minor componants, Mr. Gice suddenly noticed something about it.
The goo had seeped it's way inside the small componant and had... done something to it... Mr. Gice wasn't sure what.
He put the rag down and began simply observing this one piece. There was something about this... Something important... Mr. Gice's already tired mind raced even faster than it had been all day. What was it?
Suddenly he blinked, the pieces in his head clicking into place with an almost audible "thunk."
"Of course!" He shouted to nobody in particular. "Of course! Radiation! Why didn't I think of it before??? With this radiactiveness added to the main compository elements, then that will eventually combine even further with the magnetic pull of the primary electronic boosters and create just the sort of antireactant conditions that I need to maniputlate the threads of space time just enough for the RWC to go crossworlds!"
(A/N: And that, too. ^__^)
Mr. Gice grinned from ear to ear. If his new calculations from this were correct, he could have this thing, which he had been working on for forever and a day, completed by tonight!
With that, he swooped the rag up and finished cleaning the exterior and counters, then put the coverings back on his mechanism. Almost skipping with joy over to the control pad, he lifted the compartment with the special red button within, hardly daring to think that this might actually work this time. He pressed the button.
For the first two seconds, the RWC did nothing but sit there and make soft clicking noises as it contemplated this command.
Suddenly, without warning, it began to whir loudly, and then the RWC, and its veiw from the moniter screen began to shake.
"Uh oh..." Mr. Gice muttered, ducking for cover. "It's gunna blow!!!"
Before he could move very far, though, there was a brilliant flash of light, and when Mr. Gice's sight cleared again, he could see that his RWC was gone.
Glancing at the screen, to figure out where his device was at the moment, he let out a whoop. The transfer was complete.
*******************************************************************
Daricio: ^_____________________________________________________^
Malik: o.O Why are you so happy?? You made me act like an idiot!
Daricio: I finished the chapter!!! AND got it posted on my personally set deadline of November the 19th! ^__^
Malik: .... oh... That's nice.
Mr. Gice: I let out a "whoop" Daricio?
Daricio: What? You're happy! Cause now you get to play "Spy on the inhabitants of the freaky world"!
Mr. Gice: ... ok...
Daricio: ^___________^
Roo: This chapter sucked.
Bakura: *warningly* Roo, I thought you knew better than to be mean to an authoress... You've already had several bad experiences...
Roo: *winces at memory of said experiences* So? I don't care!
Bakura: *rolls eyes* *grins* *locks Roo in his little cage*
Roo: *evil grin* *begins sawing at bars with file*
*two hours later*
Roo: *hasn't even succeeded in making a single dent* o.o What's this cage MADE out of???
Bakura: *shrugs* don't ask me. I didn't make it. ^_^
Malik: *reading over the beginning of the Arkana duel* Hey, Daricio... You kind of cut that duel jsut a tad bit short... Like.. Not including it at all...
Daricio: Yeah, yeah, I know. I was a little hard pressed for time, and besides, it's better this way. You all know what happened in the stupid Arkana duel, and there would have been no changes to the duel anyways, besides Daricio sticking in a few random comments in here and there, so that's just the way I'm doing it.
Malik:.... oh...
Yugi: *drags Yami by the open door, grinning widely*
Yami: *yelling incoherently in alternating languages*
All else: O.oUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
Malik: Uuuhhh......
Random Reviewers: Enough already! Post the chappie! Post the chappie!!! POST POST POST POST POST POST POST POST!!!!
Daricio: O.O Ok, Ok, I'll post already... sheesh... *pushes random reviewers out of author room*
Roo: So, now that this chapter's over, can me and the rest of the people you invited here leave yet?
Daricio: *thinks about this for a moment* Yeah... Yeah, you can go if you want to.... Well... All except Malik, Roo, and Bakura, of course.
Roo: WHAT????? ME???
Daricio: ^_^ Of course, you! You just HAPPEN to be my new muse!
Bakura: Me, too?
Daricio: Yup! To keep Roo in line.
Bakura: ^_^ Fun!
Roo: *groan* Why me?
Daricio: *to rest of the guests* Hope you had fun here! Enjoy your gifts! See ya!!!
All: *Wave goodbye* *leave*
Daricio: ^__^ *to reviewers* REVEIW PLEASE!!! YOUR INPUT IS VERY WELL MUCH APPRECIATED!!!!! VERY VERY VERY MUCH APPRECIATED!!!!
Malik: Daricio?
Daricio: Yes?
Malik: OW...
Daricio: ^_^U Ooops. Sorry, Malik.
Malik: V_VU Sure you are.
Daricio: ^____^ See you all next chappie!!! Byez!!!
--Daricio, and her (unwilling) muses, Malik, Bakura, and Roo.