Small Note

Sakura: So sorry this took nearly four weeks to post, but I seriously had a lot going on. I don't want to make some super long note about what had happened in those last few weeks on here, but I did post something on my profile if anyone was curious. I did have very good reasons for not getting on here, but besides that I do have one little piece of info to give all my readers.

Updates will change from once a week to every other week. And the reason for that is also on my profile. Other than that please enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 13

Marik Strikes

The duel between Joey and Esper Roba was looking grim for the blond as Roba had the seemly unstoppable Jinzo on his side. Joey was left with no monsters and his trap cards were now useless. Anyone else might have given up but not Joey. The look in his eyes showed someone who was not defeated until his life points hit zero.

'My future… maybe it'll never happen but when the time comes… When I realize my own strength I know I can get to that place. Somewhere in this city is the place of battle where Yugi is waiting.' Joey knew deep down he could not lose and he told Roba as much. "I have to be there for him. I made a promise and that means I can't lose!"

Roba just laughed at him, "Dream all you like. It'll never happen! I declare here and now that your only future is defeat!" He said smugly, "Think about it with only two hundred life points and not even a single monster on the field. Whereas I have Jinzo one of the strongest monsters in the game. If there's a way for you to win, I'd like to see it! Now hurry up it's your turn, Joey the super loser!"

"Watch me!" Joey shouted as he drew his next card. Turning it over he found it to be baby dragon a card that had not failed him in a duel yet. However he had no chance against Jinzo and the only other card in his hand was Scapegoat. His chances were slim so for now he would have to buy some time until his next turn. "I'll play the spell card scape goat!" He announce before ending his turn.

That threw Roba off his game just a bit because now he would have to wait before he could totally wipe out Joey's life points. Scapegoat gave Joey four little sheep on his side of the field and if attacked Joey would not lose any points. 'That card will only buy a little time…' Roba reminded himself as he drew his next card. An evil smile developed on his face as he liked the card he had just gotten and wasted no time in playing it. "First… The brain amplifier and I'll equip it on Jinzo. Jinzo's attack points go up by five hundred points but this is only the beginning. It'll go up three hundred more on every turn!"

'It gets stronger on every turn! How am I supposed to beat this thing!" were Joey's thoughts but Roba was not done with his turn yet.

"Next I summon Reflect Bounder! He can bounce opponents' attacks back onto them. In other words Joey even if you summon a monster, you'll die if you attack me." Roba explained and with his team he appeared undefeatable. Joey could not play any traps and any monster would not be able to even touch Roba's monsters. Of course he rubbed it in Joey's face by saying, "Just give up. There will be no miracle for you. Your only future is defeat."

With those words he sent his monsters on the attack taking out two of Joey's scape goats. "Now you only have two goats left. If I summon another monster next turn and attack with all three I'll beat you!" He continued to gloat some more, "It's pointless to keep going. Surrender before you embarrass yourself."

Joey had about enough of this little brat as he shouted, "It's still my turn!" Joey Wheeler did not surrender to anyone no matter the situation.

"Why won't you give up?" Roba yelled frustrated that Joey would not just give up when it was certain he would win.

"Because I'm a Duelist!" Joey proudly stated with his head held high as he drew his next card. With a smirk of his own Joey played his next card, "Spell card… Roulette spider!" A robotic spider with an arrow attached to its tail end appeared on the field and made a beeline for Jinzo. It attached itself to Jinzo's face blinding the monster and pulling it to the middle of the field. A web appeared around Jinzo's waist and thus the game began.

Roba had no clue what was happening so Joey figured he would fill him in. "Roulette spider, this spell card is my last big gamble. Playing this card costs half my life points but I only had two hundred left so half of that isn't a big difference."

"Wh-What are you trying to do?!"

"The roulette spider has a simple motivation!" Joey informed him not happy about being interrupted, "It blinds the strongest monster on the field which is your Jinzo and spins it around. After its done spinning it'll attack the target the arrow points to. The possible are all the monsters on the board including mine. Of course if the arrow stops at a player it'll hit one of us with all he's got. The arrow will spin until you call out stop." So unless the odds were in Roba's favor, Joey had a slight chance to win if Jinzo were to hit reflect bounder or Roba himself. What made it better on Joey's part was that Roba who was sweating bullets and looking extremely nervous would be the one to yell stop. So he would be the cause of what ever happened whether it was defeating Joey or himself.

'Wh-What kind of card is this? His deck is a gamble deck… it relies totally on luck!' Roba was not stupid he knew the odds were not good and he had given Jinzo such a power boost. 'I-If… it stops on me I'll take Jinzo's full attack… if that happens…'

"So if you've really got ESP you better stop the arrow in the right place." Joey was nervous too but he knew better how to hide it and he was ready to face defeat. If it was meant to happen it would. "Roulette spider spin!" He called out and then it would all be up to Roba.

The spider started to spin at a fast pace that neither players could tell where he might stop. The pressure did not take long to get to Roba as he watched his Jinzo spin round and round that he finally just had to yell, "STOP!"

It stopped on a dime just like Roba told it to and both players eyes widen as they saw the creature it had stopped in front of. "It's pointing at my monster reflect bounder… b-but that means…" Roba could not even get the words out as the spider disappeared from Jinzo's face and his Jinzo attacked. Due to reflect bounder's ability both monsters ended up killing each other and Roba's life points went down to two hundred and forty.

"All my monsters are gone!"

"Hey… I still got one monster I haven't used yet!" Joey pointed out since it was still his turn and he had only just played a spell card. He bought forth one of his favorite monsters to finish Roba off. "Baby Dragon, attack his life points directly!"

The little dragon once summoned headed straight for Roba using dragon breath. Roba fell to the ground in defeat as his life points dropped to zero. All around whispers of Esper Roba's defeat started to spread like wildfire. Joey paid no mind to any of them as he walked over to Roba.

"So much for your ESP, I win. I know from experience that psychic powers are real and you don't have 'em." Joey hated people who tried to cheat others and he hoped Roba learned a lesson after this duel. "Let's do this by the rules of the tournament. Give me your rare card and puzzle card."

Roba wasn't even listening to Joey as he tried to hold back the tears. He could hear what all the others were saying around them and it was really started to tick him off. "All of you don't look down on me!" He shouted causing some to move back. "Is this fun for all of you? Looking down on the guy who lost? It makes you feel better doesn't it? So you can think 'at least I'm not a loser like him'" He ranted on in his anger, "Well I'm not an ordinary person like you guys! I'm a chosen one with special powers!"

"And that's why you hear voices from space…?" Joey sighed this kid had some self-esteem issues. He was shouting at people in the crowd that he didn't even know. "Look Roba… I'm not looking down on you." He said loud enough to get the other duelists attention. Roba settled down if only to catch his breath as he wiped at his tears. "I just had better luck that's all. Nobody here thinks you're a loser. But if there is someone here who looks down on you isn't that person you?"

"Shut up! Be quiet!"

"I'm just saying don't hate yourself."

"I can't lose! I can't!" Roba shouted as he slammed his fists on the ground, "It doesn't matter how I do it, as long as I win! I need people to respect me! If everyone thinks I'm a good duelist, my little brothers won't be picked on. Being good at card games was the only way I could protect them. Everyone loves to pick on wimps and people who look different. I have to be strong!"

Joey knew how that was from his high school days. He'd seen it enough and he knew of one guy who people saw as the biggest wimp. However his buddy had never let it get to him and in his own way showed how strong he could really be. There were ways to prove yourself but never by cheating which he was still certain of how Roba was able to know his cards until he cornered him with the truth.

"Stop whining man. This is battle city where you just get up and fight again another day," Joey put out his hand to help Roba up. "Get up!"

Roba looked up at the hand before he slapped it away, "Get lost! I don't' need your pity!"

Joey snatched his hand back as it started to sting. "Fine, do what you want!" At this point Joey didn't care about the rare card or puzzle card. There were other duelists out there he could face and work toward getting to the finals. As he turned to walk away he heard something that made him stop.

"Stand up Big brother!"

Joey did a one eighty as he looked around to see who had spoken. It didn't sound like it had come from any of the people in the crowd.

"Don't give up big brother! Come on!"

'Okay I think I'm hearing voices now!' Joey started to freak out until he felt someone come up beside him. Looking down he found four mini versions of Roba standing beside him. His brain seemed to want to shut down at that point clearly unsure what to make of the situation.

"G-Guys…" Roba said as he looked at his brothers.

"Stand up big brother… this is our last radio message…" One of the brothers who was wearing a headset said and it was then Joey notice Roba looking down at his wrist. The same message the kid just spoke came out of the watch Roba wore around his wrist. Due to the microphone being close by was causing the message to come out louder showing Roba's trick to all.

Finally Roba couldn't take it as he stood up and went to his family gathering them all up for a hug. "I'm sorry!" He apologized over and over, "I deserved to lose because I made you guys do that stuff for me!"

'S-So they're his 'psychic powers?' Joey quickly figured out and for some reason he couldn't be mad at them. Seeing them all together and watching Roba apologize, he could see that Roba was just trying to protect his brothers. Hopefully now Roba would stop the tricks and be a true duelist.

Thanks to his brothers Roba seemed to be in a better mode as he broke away from his brothers for a second to stand in front of Joey. He reached into his deck and pulled out a card along with his puzzle card from his duel disk. "Here's my rare card and puzzle card," Roba told him as he handed them over to Joey. It was hard to part with Jinzo but Joey had won.

"Roba… what you really need to show your little brothers is how to play fair." Joey offered his own friendly advice as he took the cards from him.

Roba nodded, "You're right and the next time I challenge you to a duel I won't use any tricks."

"I'm looking forward to it." Joey admitted it would be interesting to fight Roba again on different terms. "Oh and Roba as long as you have your brothers, you'll always be strong." He reminded the younger duelist as he said his good byes to Roba and his brothers. The day was still young and there were still more duelists to face.

All throughout Battle City, duels were happening everywhere keeping the streets of Domino alive with excitement. But while there were those who played fair and those who did lose took it as a learning experience. There were those who still played dirty and if they were the winner liked to bully others into getting what they want.

"What're you talking about?! That rare card doesn't even compare to mine!"

In an alley just off one of the main streets were two players, one standing over the other who was on the ground leaning against the building behind him. The one standing was Koji Nagumo who despite suffered a grueling defeat by Yami in Monster fighters was back to his same old bullying ways. Some people just could not change. Now he had a new game he could use to get what he wanted and a tournament that would help him stack up on some rare cards.

"B-But you agreed to this ante before we started the duel!" The other argued trying to be brave. He had lost and was handing over his rare card but Koji was not happy with it anymore.

"I changed my mind." Koji told him wanting a better card than that weak one the kid was trying to hand him, "Listen I won the duel and the loser has to do whatever the winner says. I'll give you a choice. You either give me a card equal to my hyozanryu, pay me a hundred thousand yen, or get beaten up so bad you'll never duel again!"

"P-Please… This is the best rare card I have…"

Koji reached out and grabbed the teen by the collar, "I'm gonna break your fingers!"

Before things could get ugly a whistle blew behind them causing Koji to look over his shoulder. Mokuba Kaiba stood behind the brute, whistle in hand and shouted, "Hold it right there."

"Who's this kid?" Koji murmured not recognizing him as one of the Kaiba brothers only a snot faced kid getting in his way.

"I'm Battle City's steering committee chairman! It's my job to settle disputes that come up during the tournament." Without an ounce of fear, Mokuba walked up to them and took both cards from the player's hands. "Ante trouble is the most common problem in tournaments. I'll handle this as a neutral party." He looked at both cards and could not see what the problem was. "It's forbidden to change the ante after a duel. It's also against the rules to bet for money. There's honestly no problem with the comparable rarity of these two cards. It's more than enough as an ante. There's no reason not to accept."

Koji was getting pissed as he made a grab for the kid, "You wanna die, kid? Don't mess with my rules!"

Before he could get his hands on Mokuba, the smaller was faster and moved behind a certain CEO that Koji had no clue was even there until then. The taller Kaiba glared down at Koji as he said, "You poor duelist… When you insult my little brother you insult Kaiba Corporation. I assume you're prepared for the consequences."

Mokuba grinned as he saw a look of fear come to Koji's eyes. His brother had that way with people who did not know him. "Uh-Oh, my brother's rules are scary, this is outta my hands now." He handed over Koji's card to his older brother, "Here's his ante."

"Hyozanryu… I'm shocked you can demand so much for a card like this…" Kaiba said unimpressed as right before the duelist eyes he ripped the card in half.

"Y-You bastard! Wh-Wha-What're you doing?" Despite being slightly terrified of Seto Kaiba, Koji wasn't about to let someone get away with ripping up one of his cards.

"You wouldn't have gotten this card back anyway…" Seto informed him as he then told him, "I'm challenging you to a duel right now." He dropped the briefcase he was holding and allowed Mokuba to open it up for Koji to see, "And I'm willing to ante this entire case full of rare cards."

Koji's eyes nearly bugged out as he dropped to his knees in front of the case. "Whoa…. Th-These are all rare cards… So if I beat you, these are mine?"

"My brother's no stingy," Mokuba stated watching as Koji nearly drooled over the cards like a kid in a candy store.

"It's compensation for Hyozanryu. In fact why don't you take all the rare cards you like, take a few minutes to improve your deck. Of course if you lose I'll take them all back…" Seto watched as the weak duelist before him started to do just that and then as if to add icing to the cake he said, "My deck has something called a god card. This card is so unbelievably rare that I wouldn't sell it for fifty billion yen and I'll even make that card my ante."

And just like that Seto had this sorry excuse for a duelist right where he wanted him. Koji could only see dollar signs now as he finished up his deck and got ready for the duel.

Not even two minutes later, Koji was on the ground looking like he had just seen his worst nightmare and the Kaiba brothers were walking away as if nothing had happened. Mokuba threw his hands behind his hand and sighed in a bored fashion.

"Well that was boring I don't think there is anyone who can stand up to you now." Mokuba commented as he walked alongside his brother. He was supposed to be going around keeping an eye on duelists, but it was more fun to follow Seto around just like he knew Yami was doing with Yugi. Speaking of Yugi and the others he wondered, "I wonder how far the others are in the tournament."

"You could always check…" Seto said just as bored. There were no duelists in this tournament who could stand up to him. He was sure not even Yugi would be able to defeat his god card, but of course Yugi was nowhere to be seen at the time being. Then of course he could always track down Yugi's duel disk, but for now he would settle for the old fashion way and see if he could find him by chance.

Mokuba shook his head, "Nah I'm sure he's fine. There's no way Yugi's been defeated or we probably would have heard from Yami by now, however Joey on the other hand…."

"He might have, he might not have…"

"And I bet you'll know as soon as it happens." Mokuba said with a knowing grin when he saw his brother check his phone. It was so much fun to mess with Seto about his love life. Seto liked to act like it was no big deal, but deep down Mokuba knew Seto hoped Joey would make it to the finals. The two had a complicated relationship that was for sure. "So is he out?"

Seto quickly put his phone away acting like he wasn't just checking up on his boyfriend. "I wouldn't know."

"Sure you wouldn't big brother." Mokuba hurried up in front of his brother and said, "Let's find you another duelist so I can watch you kick ass again."

"Language!"

The only response Seto got was a simply whatever wave of the hand as Mokuba continued on.

"So… you have identified the owner of Obelisk." Demanded the leader of the ghouls as he looked down at one of his subordinates, he knew someone in Domino had the last god card he needed.

"Yes lord Marik," The rare hunter replied with a bow, "The owner of the god of the obelisk is Seto Kaiba."

Marik chuckled at the news. "I should have known…"

"But lord Marik… How did Kaiba get his hands on the card?"

"I can imagine he hosted this tournament because he got his hands on obelisk… His whole purpose is to unify the gods," Marik looked to his left where his partner stood beside him face and body covered by the same cloak all rare hunters wore. "It appears your older sister had the last card all along," He waved it off like it was no big deal. "She must have sensed a possible future, she knew if she gave obelisk to Seto Kaiba he would hold a tournament like this and she knew that by the gods guidance my fate and Yugi's would intersect but in the end the god cards will come together in my hands along with the title of king."

"Kaiba is still in north block. Shall I assemble the rare hunters to attack him?" The one beside Marik asked seemingly uninterested in what Marik had just said to him.

"Seto Kaiba is an extraordinary duel monster player. Even the rare hunters will have a hard time now that he possesses obelisk…" He replied not surprised by the others avoidance of talking about his sister, "To fight a god card you need a god card."

"You wouldn't…!" The rare hunter before them shouted who had relayed the news about obelisk.

Marik just smirked, "I, who wield the Sun Dragon Ra will personally go to domino city."

"But my lord…! Must you dirty your hands…?"

"Eventually I will have to fight Kaiba. But now that we know he has obelisk we can let him be for a while. He may be of use to us." He looked to the one before them, "Put somebody on Seto Kaiba and make sure not to lose him. But before that there is someone in domino city who can entertain me…"

The ghoul looked confused until Marik asked of him, "Where is Yugi at this moment?" This jumped the hunter out of his confusion as he remembered the last place Yugi had been. He was in charge of keeping up with duelists like Kaiba and Yugi for his leader.

"We have information he is heading from east 'b' block towards 'e' block…"

"I see… There's only one place he could be going…" Marik liked how everything seemed to fall in place, "Call rare hunter number two Pandora the Conjurer. Tell him to prepare for a duel. Yugi should soon appear in front of him. It'll take some time for me to get to Domino city… In the meantime let Yugi play around with Pandora. It'll at least keep him occupied for a while."

None of the rare hunters ever needed to be told twice as they did what their leader told them to. Marik stood up from his makeshift throne holding out his hand for the one beside him. As soon as their hands were linked they left the room only to enter another one with a glass table in the middle. In the middle of the table was the Sun Dragon of Ra encased in another piece of glass to keep it protected.

Marik lifted the glass and took the card in his hands. He tossed back his hood to reveal dirty blond hair almost a gray color, darken tan skin and dark violet eyes fueled with hatred. "With this card I will defeat Yugi and extract our revenge…"

Around ten thirty Yugi and Yami could be found wondering the streets of Domino. They were keeping an eye out for duelist but most importantly keeping a watchful eye out for rare hunters. Of course that wasn't the only thing Yugi was worried about.

"I wonder what Joey is doing…?"

"Are you worried?"

Yugi shrugged, "Well Joey doesn't have his trump card red eyes black dragon and this tournament is filled with good players. " He reached into his deck box to pull out the red eyes black dragon. It was Joey's card so he wouldn't even think of adding it to his deck.

"I think giving you his red eyes has given him something to fight for…" Yami commented as he kept an eye on the people around them. "Joey's a good player too so I wouldn't count him out yet."

"Yeah but still I worry about him especially since what happened with that rare hunter. This is not just some tournament anymore…." Yugi stopped pulling Yami with him since they were holding hands.

Yami looked back at him confused, "Something up?"

"Don't you think it's strange that Joey was attacked the night before tournament and yet they challenged him with a duel disk knowing Joey was a tournament participant…"

Yami's eyes widen at the realization too catching on to what Yugi was trying to figure out. "They knew Joey owned the red eyes. But how..?"

Thinking back the only people who knew Joey owned the red eyes were his friends and those he face at Duelist Kingdom. Another than that, the only place it showed up was… "The card shop!" Yugi gasped in realization. He looked to Yami finally putting the pieces together of how the rare hunters target players, "The store we got our duel disk at! The clerk there looked up duelists' cards and levels when he gave out duel disk."

"The store is a front for the rare hunters!" Yami growled out as he took off in the direction of the shop with Yugi following right behind. They weren't far from where it was from their current location. If there were any clues about the rare hunters it had to be there.

Upon arriving at their destination they found the store to be closed yet it was nearing the afternoon. Yami walked forward to try the door and found it to be unlocked. "Closed but not locked, either really stupid…"

"Or they knew we might come here…" Yugi finished for him as he followed Yami inside the darken store. The only light coming from the glass door they stepped through. Walking up to the clerks' counter they found his computer facing their way.

They both nearly jumped out of their skin as the computer turned on by itself and displayed Yugi's picture along with his information and rarest card the Dark Magician. Yugi stepped closer to get a better look, "That's my duelist data…" It was extremely likely now that they knew Yugi would figure it out but they didn't have time to dwell on that as smoke started to come from the computer.

The dark magician on the screen started to shift and change to a different magician. Yugi backed up into Yami as the Magician on the screen rose up from it into a life size version. He was similar to Yugi's dark magician but in color and face he was different.

"I've been waiting Yugi…" The monster laughed with an evil grin on his face, "I knew from the start that you'd come here. My master the great Pandora will duel you." He pointed his staff toward the two below him and stated, "I'll show you that there is only one true user of the ultimate spell-caster card… The might Pandora the Conjurer."

"Stop the petty trick and come out rare hunter…" Yami wasn't fooled by the rare hunters' lame tactics to scare them. Surprise them maybe but not scare them. There was only one duelist who had the right to be the true user of the Dark Magician.

Laughter got their attention as a man dressed in a cheap carnival suit and mask stepped out into the light holding a Dark Magician card in his hand. "Welcome I am the second rare hunter. My name is Pandora also known as the conjurer, the Dark Magician user."

"Dark Magician user, eh…?" Yami placed a hand on his partner's shoulder knowing in just a second he would be dueling another one of these messed up hunters.

"Yugi I know you too play with Dark Magician. You've used it to defeat many foes but I am the true master of magicians. No one can beat my Dark Magician!" Pandora gloated.

"We'll see about that…" Yugi spoke up not liking this guy one bit, "Out of the thousands of cards available. Duelists build their decks by choosing cards they trust. But cards also choose duelists. Card and duelist when the two hearts are bound by trust the card will display its true power." He decided to educate Pandora as he pulled one card from his own deck. "You rare hunters don't have the heart of a duelist." He revealed his own Dark Magician having drawn it without even looking, "I accept your challenge Pandora. I'll fight you… Magician v.s Magician!"

Sakura: Well we all know what will be happening in the next chapter! In case some readers skipped the message at the top, update are changing from once a week to every other week. So next update will be around October 30th... I'll try to post the dates at the end of every chapter from now on to give everyone an idea when there might be a new chapter.

Yumi: Please REVIEW!