Hello! Just quick thank yous to my reviewers Yugi and Mai and Rowena Raven (I'm sorry about the chapter length, I can't make them longer though because I've already written them. I'm just re-posting now until I get to chapter 19. Sorry!)
Episode 15 – My Friends
Joey's hand shook as he drew his hand from the deck, examining each card as it came.#Acid Trap Hole… Giant Soldier of Stone… Firewing Pegasus… Yami… and Skull Red Bird.# Joey looked up. "So…who's going first?"
"Toss the coin."
"Okay…" Joey reached his hand forward and took one of the coins. "Okay, I'll be heads." Kamu-Kaji nodded, so Joey flipped the coin and waited with baited breath as he watched for the result. "It's…heads! Okay, I pick to go first."
"Fine." Joey reached forward and drew a card from his deck. #Hmm… Giant Rat…# Joey put it in his hand before taking Acid Trap Hole and placing it face down on the field. "I place one card face down on the field." Joey announced, before turning back to his hand. "And…" he thought for a moment, before taking out Giant Rat from his hand and placing that on the field, too. "I place one monster in face down defence position (DEF: 1450), and now I end my turn." Kamu-Kaji nodded, before drawing a card from his own deck.
"I place Vorse Raider in attack position (ATK: 1900)! And now I attack your face down monster!" Joey gasped as a miniature Vorse Raider appeared on the mat and swiped it's sickle down on Joey's card. On top of it appeared his Giant Rat; but not for long, as it was soon destroyed and in the Graveyard.
"I activate Giant Rat's effect! It allows me to draw one earth-type monster from my deck with an attack power of fifteen hundred or less and place it on the field in face up attack position! And I choose…" Joey rifled through his deck until he found the one he wanted. "Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts (ATK: 1500)!" Kamu-Kaji nodded as Joey shuffled his deck.
"And now I shall place one card face down and end my turn."
"Right!" Joey drew a card from his deck and smiled. #Ultimate Offering…this'll come in handy.# "I place one card face down!" He said, doing the stated thing with his 'Ultimate Offering' card. "And now I will tribute my Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts to summon my Firewing Pegasus (ATK: 2250)!" He placed his 'Gazelle' in the Graveyard and watched as a miniature Firewing Pegasus appeared in front of him, snorting and panting as it impatiently pawed the ground.
"And because of your summon I am able to activate this card!" Kamu-Kaji flipped his face down card face up, and revealed what it was. "I activate the Trap card Magic Thorn!" Joey cursed.
"Fine…now I will attack your Vorse Raider with My Firewing Pegasus!" Joey watched with a grin as the Vorse Raider made a strangled cry as the Firewing charged into it and knocked it clean off it's feet, shattering it into tiny pieces as Kamu-Kaji placed it in his Graveyard. "And now your Life Points are down to 7650!" Joey laughed at his victory. "Okay, your turn Kamu!"
Kamu drew his card and stared at it for a moment, before placing it in his hand and taking another out.
"I place one monster on the field in face-down defence position." Kamu did this, before continuing with his turn. "And now I activate this magic card, Tribute to the Doomed! It allows me to destroy one monster card on the field in return for discarding one card from my hand!"
"Oh no!" Joey watched in despair as his Firewing Pegasus was pulled down through the board by a giant hand, and soon it was no more. Kamu placed one card in the Graveyard.
"And now I end my turn."
"Great, you better get ready to get your butt kicked…" Joey drew his card, before sighing and placing it on the field. "I place one card face down, and then I summon one monster in face-down defence mode. And-" Joey grinned. "I activate my face down Trap card, Ultimate Offering! At the cost of 500 Life Points per monster, I'm allowed an extra set or summon this turn. And, because it's continuous, I can do it every turn!" He smirked. "And now using this card's effect I'll set an extra monster on the field!" He placed his Skull Red Bird on the field in face down defence position. "Now my Life Points stand at 7500. Your turn!" Kamu drew his card and smiled.
"Okay, Mr Wheeler… I activate this magic card, Card Destruction!" Joey sighed as he placed the only card in his hand in the Graveyard, which was Yami, and drew one card from the deck. #Hmm, Man-Eater Bug…this'll come in handy too!# He watched as Kamu discarded his cards and drew new ones.
"But before you're gonna do anything else, I'll activate my Trap Card, Acid Trap Hole! And I'll use it to destroy your face-down card…" Kamu flipped the card over to reveal none other then the Man-Eater Bug. Joey cursed.
"I think I'll use the Man-Eater Bug's effect to destroy that face down card there…" Joey cursed again as he flipped the card face-up to reveal the Giant Soldier of Stone, which was in no time sitting in his Graveyard. "And now I'll summon my Bistro Butcher (ATK: 1800), and I'll use it to destroy your other face down card!" Joey growled as his Skull Red Bird appeared, then shattered, as it got sliced by the Bistro Butcher's knife.
"Damn you…"
"Your Life Points now stand at 7000. I finish my turn."
"Great…" Joey looked at his drawn card. #Heavy storm…# "Okay Kamu, I'll place down one monster in face down defence position and end my turn."
"So soon?" Kamu said tauntingly, before drawing his own card. "I'll place one monster face down on the field, and now I'll attack /your/ face down monster with my Bistro Butcher!"
"Ha ha ha, you dummy!" Joey laughed, flipping up his card. "You just activated my Man-Eater Bug, and I think I'll use it to destroy your face down card…" Joey watched as Kamu placed the card in the Graveyard, and then did the same with his Man-Eater Bug.
"I end my turn."
"So soon?" Joey said mockingly, drawing a card. "I place this card face down and end my turn." Kamu nodded, before drawing a card from his deck.
"I place one monster face down and attack your life points directly!" Joey yelled as the miniature Bistro Butcher jumped up and slashed at his chest, causing him to gasp with pain.
"Uh…ow…" Joey watched as he saw his life points drop to 5200, and groaned.
"I end my turn." Joey drew a card and suddenly felt a lot happier.
"This card'll win it for me…okay, here we go! First of all I place this monster on the field, Copycat! It allows me to copy the attack and defence of one of my opponent's monsters on the field! And I'll copy your Bistro Butcher." Joey's once very small Copycat suddenly became a lot larger, easily outgrowing the Bistro Butcher in size. "And I'll also activate my Ultimate Offering card to summon my Skull Red Bird, losing 500 Life Points. Now I have 4700 Life Points. And now, I'll activate this magic card, United We Stand!"
"Oh…"
"Yes, oh! It allows me to boost a monster's attack points of my choice by 800 points for every monster on my side of the field! Now my Skull Red Bird's attack power has risen from 1550 to 3150! And now, with this card I'll attack your Bistro Butcher! It has more than enough power to finish it off…" The huge Skull Red Bird launched itself at the Bistro Butcher, and landed rather comically on its head, squashing it into oblivion. "And now I'll attack your face-down monster with my Copycat!" Joey watched as he saw a Morphing Jar, and sighed with annoyance as it got destroyed.
"Now you have to send all of the cards in your hand to the Graveyard."
"Yeah, great, so do you." Joey placed his 'Heavy Storm' card in the Graveyard and drew a new hand, smiling as he saw every new one come into his hand. #Trap Hole… Graceful Charity… Mystical Elf… 7 Colored Fish… and Vorse Raider! Good cards.# "I'll activate this card, Graceful Charity! It allows me to draw three new cards from my deck, and then I have to discard two from my hand to the Graveyard." Joey's new cards were Anti-Raigeki, Battle Ox and Harpie's Feather Duster. He discarded his Mystical Elf and Anti-Raigeki, loosing 500 Life Points for each one because Kamu's 'Magic Thorn' card was still in play. "And I place one card face down." He said placing down Trap Hole. "And I end my turn."
"Good." Kamu drew a new card. "I will place my White Magical Hat in attack mode!"
"And I activate my trap card, Trap Hole!" Joey watched as Kamu's White Magical Hat got shattered into tiny pieces, before he placed the card in the Graveyard.
"Good move."
"Uh-huh, I rule!"
"I'm not finished yet." Joey looked at him apologetically before falling silent. "I'll activate this card, Delinquent Duo! At the cost of 1000 Life Points, that is."
"Not before I use this!" Joey quickly flipped over one of his face down cards. "Magic Jammer! In return for discarding a card from my hand," He said as he placed his Battle Ox in the Graveyard, "I get to negate the activation of your magic card! Ha, beat that!"
"Fine." Joey seemed worried by the fact that Kamu remained unfazed, and took another card from his hand. "Then I activate this card, Premature Burial. I'll use it to bring back my Summoned Skull."
"Ooohhh… lovely…" Joey's eyes widened as the relatively large Summoned Skull rose up in front of him, flinching as it flapped its wings and screeched at him. "Heh… Nice Skull-ey…"
"And I'll use it to destroy your Copycat!" Joey almost banged his head on the table as he watched his Copycat shatter.
"You fought well, brave warrior!" Joey said, straightening up as his resolve tightened. #I've got to win this…for Marik's sake…I can't let him die!#
"I place one more card face down and end my turn."
"Yah-huh…" Joey looked at the card he drew. #Huh, not much use…# He placed in his hand and rifled through it. "Okay, Kamu…first of all I'll activate this Magic card, Harpie's Feather Duster! It destroys all of your magic and Trap cards that you have on the field! And, because you brought back your Summoned Skull using Premature Burial, it gets destroyed too! So now you are completely defenceless!" Kamu gathered all the cards on his field and placed them in the Graveyard. "And now I summon 7 Colored Fish to the field (ATK: 1800)! Now my Skull Red Bird's attack power has gone back up to 3150!" Joey grinned with relief.
"You're dead. First, I attack your life points directly with my 7 Colored Fish!" His fish flopped up and smacked Kamu in the face, before what looked liked it laughed and fell back onto the table again. "And this one's for Marik…I attack your Life Points directly with my Skull Red Bird! Go Skull-ey, show 'em who's boss!" His Skull Red Bird gave a loud shrieking noise before flapping its huge wings and flying upwards. It flew higher and higher, until it was level with Marik on the wall. In shrieked again, before dive-bombing directly at Kamu's heart.
"ARGH!" Kamu screamed, before falling backwards off his seat in slow-mo as the Skull Red Bird went right through him.
"I win! Marik's been saved! Never underestimate the power of the Chihuahua!" He looked up at Marik and grinned as his eyes slowly opened, looking drearily at the room around him. "Marik! You're alright!" Joey ran up to him just as the bondages holding him to the wall disappeared, and so fell, only to land safely in Joey's arms.
"Joey…where am I?" He asked, squinting up at his face.
"Somebody tell /me/. Sorry, I have no idea. You okay to walk?" Marik shook his head.
"It feels like all my joints have been pulled out of their sockets…" Marik whispered, before sighing and closing his eyes.
"Well, at least your safe now… And at least I'm not alone."
When Yugi woke up, he froze as he felt he was no longer lying on the ground. He opened his eyes to find that he was staring up at a white ceiling, almost too bright to look at. He felt around with hands to find that he was lying on a mattress, and upon further inspection found he was lying in a bed.
"What…? How did I get here?" Yugi sat up and looked around, feeling more and more uncomfortable by the minute. "Hello?" Yugi called softly, examining the bare white walls as he looked for a door. He turned to find that it was right behind his bed, also painted white. He looked at himself to find that he had been dressed in white pyjamas, and his normal clothes were nowhere to be seen. "Err…anyone? Hello?" He got out of the bed and flinched as his feet touched the cold white floor, curling his toes as he walked forward to the door.
Just as Yugi reached it, he noticed a pair of white slippers by the head of the bed; so he slipped them on, and marvelled at how warm they were. Moving on from this thought though, he looked back at the door and placed his hand on the knob, turned it and watched as it flew silently open. Yugi stepped through and blinked as he tried to absorb all that he was seeing.
He had just walked into a huge room, more like a hall then anything else, and over the walls were various decorations, from old antique paintings to computers sitting on desks. On the floor there were throws and animal skins (which Yugi immediately turned away from; he hated animal rugs), soft fluffy carpets and bare wooden floor. It was a room that was designed to destroy, or rebel against some sort of system. In a way the room was just too strange to like; but it was nice in the way that it was different to everything else you would see normally.
"Hello?" Yugi called again, venturing further into the room. He stopped when he heard a creaking over by the fireplace, which currently had a brilliantly warm fire burning away in the hearth. He carried on walking, figuring he wouldn't exactly be in trouble for it; after all, they had taken him there in the first place. "Hello?"
"Yugi!"
"You're awake!" Yugi groaned as he heard the familiar voices; ones that he hadn't heard in a very long time.
"Para and Dox…" Yugi said as they jumped up from their chairs, greeting him with glorious grins. They were wearing their traditional clothes; Para was wearing his bright orange coat and trousers, and Dox was wearing green. Yugi backed away slightly before asking, "What am I doing here?"
"Ah ha! I bet you weren't expecting us-"
"Were you?"
"No…I wasn't." Yugi looked down at the floor. "What are you doing here? This isn't the real world, is it?"
"No,"
"It isn't! Only people,"
"Who have crossed Pegasus' path,"
"Get sent here!"
"But then, why are you two here?" Yugi asked, still feeling uncertain.
"Because we failed,"
"In our job!"
"To stop you,"
"From reaching his castle!"
"But that was ages ago…" Yugi whispered, remembering back to when it happened. "But I don't understand. Why are you helping me?"
"Because we don't like Pegasus anymore!"
"Yes, because he betrayed us!"
"Uh-huh…" Yugi felt the depression rising in him again.
"Why the long face, Yugi?"
"Yes, safe you now are!" Yugi sighed and sat down on one of the chairs, sitting back and pulling his knees up to his chest.
"Because…"
"Because…?"
"I miss…I miss Yami…and Ryou…and Bakura…" Yugi broke into tears as he was saying this. "I don't know if I'll ever see them again!"
"Ah, don't worry Yugi!"
"Yes, they are coming for you!"
"They are? How do you know?" Yugi sobbed, lying down on his side on the large chair and curling himself up into a ball.
"Because we've seen them!"
"You have?"
"Yes! We can show them to you!"
"How?" Yugi lifted his head up and saw them pointing to something on the wall. "What's that?"
"It allows us to see everything in this world!"
"Whatever we want to see, we see it!"
"Come, we will show you!" Yugi sat up and slid off the chair, walking over to the thing on the wall they were still pointing at. He took one of the cushions that were on the chair with him, hugging it tightly as he stared up a screen.
"Watch this…" Yugi stared as the screen flickered into life, showing a zoomed out picture of some sort of cave, and Yugi could just about make out some tiny figures moving in the middle of it. "And now, we zoom in!" Yugi gasped as the picture suddenly changed to one of four people walking; one was in front, two were in the middle and one was trailing behind.
"And now we go closer…" Yugi started crying again when he saw it was Yami at the front, making him pine for him even more.
"Yami…" Yugi watched as Yami stopped, apparently having just sensed something.
"He's near…" Yugi was surprised as he heard Yami's voice resound around the room, as if he was standing right behind him.
"Yami…" Yugi reached his hand out towards the screen, touching Yami's face with his finger. Yugi smiled sadly as Yami paused, reaching up his hand to touch his face exactly where Yugi had his finger placed on it. "I love you Yami…"
"I'll always love you, Yugi." Yami was now staring directly at Yugi, as if he could see him. And in his eyes, Yugi could see nothing but love and sadness.
"What…?" Yugi stretched his hand so it was over Yami's, as if he was only so far from touching him.
"I'll always love you…" And then the screen went blank. Yugi fell to his knees and cried into his cushion, missing Yami even more than he did before.
"Yami…please come…come soon." Yugi hugged his cushion tightly as he curled himself up on the floor, making himself comfortable in the extremely fluffy carpet.
"Should we wake him?"
"No! Let's move him onto the chair."
"Good idea, brother!" Para and Dox carefully lifted Yugi up from the floor, first of all making sure that he was asleep, before placing him onto the chair with his pillow. They took a blanket from a hidden cabinet and covered him with it, just leaving part of his face poking cutely out of the top.
"What a fine sight for this 'Yami' to see!"
"Yes, very pleased he will be!"
"Yami is a lucky man!"
"Yes, he is! Luckier than we!" They chuckled as they walked towards a door, taking one look back at their 'masterpiece' before walking out of the room.
Luff: Aww, wasn't that so bless? Sorry, I couldn't resist putting the Paradox Brothers in. They were meant to be in there originally though, so it isn't something that's completely random!
Yugi: Why are you making me cry! No fair!
Luff: #sigh# Just accept it.
Yugi: #cries#
Luff: Anyway, what did you think of the duel? I know it isn't really any of the cards Joey has; I used my own deck that I have on my 'Worldwide Edition' game. It was based on an actual duel I had! It took me about an hour to write it all out! And the deck Kamu was using was Marik's deck from 'Worldwide Edition'. See, that's how lazy I am. But it did take a long time! I thought it was quite good, anyway. Please tell me what you think, and I promise to update soon!