Small Note

Sakura: As promised here is the next chapter! Also I would like to thank one of my reviewers for pointing out a grammar error in the last chapter. The mistake was fixed and I also encourage my readers to let me know about simple mistakes and any large ones that you may see. I do read over my chapters before I post them to make sure but some things just slip by.

Chapter 16

Under Siege!

"We meet again Joey…"

Joey turned around to face his opponent and he wasn't sure how he didn't see this coming. 'Weevil Underwood the former all japan duel monsters champion.' That is before Yugi stomped his bug loving butt into the ground during Duelist Kingdom stealing his title. He would have been happy to not have run into someone like him but an opponent was an opponent. Leave it to someone like him to pick on little kids.

Tea got pissed at the site of Weevil, "Joey, don't give this jerk the honor of fighting him! He tried to throw Yugi's cards into the ocean." She reminded Joey of the time on their way to Duelist Kingdom. Joey was luckily there to stop Weevil but she would never trust the dirty cheat.

Weevil just laughed at that, "Well thank you very much I'm just glad such a cute girl remembers me." Those words caused Tea to feel a majorly grossed out. What she wouldn't give to see Duke or any of her guy friends beat the crap out of the bug duelist.

Joey got his duel disk ready for a fight, "Lemme guess. There's only one reason you could be here and it's not to catch flies. Isn't that right you bug freak?" He hadn't forgotten all the crap Weevil put them through and it was payback time.

"You're smarter than you look, let's duel right here right now unless you're scared." Weevil said with a chuckle.

Ryou could tell there was some bad history between those two, but he still had to ask, "Joey, are you going to fight him?"

Joey nodded, "You bet I am! It's karma, he's the same guy who stole that kid's cards. I'll straighten out his attitude with a beat down!" There was no talking Joey out of it now.

However he had no clue of the scam Weevil had been running, 'What an idiot… he actually fell for that sob story. He doesn't now that kid was working for me.' He thought to himself with a smirk on his face, 'He doesn't know I've already put one of my own cards in his deck. He should consider it a gift….'

"He's gotta be up to something!" Tea tried to reason with Joey again and she really wished Yugi was here to talk Joey out of this duel. "Be careful Joey, I don't like that look on his face."

Joey had a look of complete determination on his face as he faced his opponent and said to Tea, "A true duelist doesn't run away from anybody only cowards run away." He was no coward and no matter what he was going to win this duel.

Around the same time in a small town a good drive from Domino, Duke was just picking his jaw up off the floor. He had just met Joey little sister and at the same time got the shock of his life. Never since he had known the gang had he seen Tristan with a girlfriend or ever once mention one that lived in another town. Not to mention that it happened to be Joey's sister unless this town had a strange way of greeting people.

Serenity pulled away from Tristan and looked to Duke then back to Tristan, "I can tell from his face that you never told anyone about us."

Tristan actually blushed as he rubbed the back of his head due to nerves now. "Well we agreed not to tell Joey until you were in Domino so I figured we would tell the others at the same time as well."

Duke finally found his voice to ask, "Mind explaining what just happened here?"

"Sure, but come on inside. My mother's out of the house for a while." Serenity said with a smile as she invited them in. They followed her inside the small two bedroom home to find boxes filling up the living space. "Sorry about the mess…"

"It's no problem," Tristan assured her as he found his way to the couch and took a seat.

While Serenity quickly went to the kitchen to get some drinks, Duke found a random chair to sit in across from Tristan, "Dude isn't Joey going to kill you for dating his sister!"

Tristan shrugged, "Probably give me a good beating but nothing major. Serenity is a big girl and she can make her own decisions."

"How long has this been going on?" Duke wondered. He knew Joey was overprotective of his little sister from the stories he got from the others.

"Only about a year," Serenity told him as she walked in with a few cans of soda. She passed them out before taking a sit beside Tristan. "It was never anything serious because we lived so far apart. We've been emailing and talking to each other much longer than that."

Tristan took a drink of his soda before he thought it was best to give them both a proper introduction, "Serenity this is Duke Tea's boyfriend. Duke this is Serenity as you know Joey's little sister."

"It's nice to finally meet you in person." Serenity said with smile.

"Likewise," Duke said before he got back to what he was saying earlier, "So explain this all to me again."

Tristan sighed but best thought to get it over with. At least he wouldn't have to worry about this with the others except maybe Ryou and Bakura if they even cared about it. "I met Serenity after Duelist Kingdom, Yugi got a big grand prize for beating Pegasus and he gave all that money to Joey for Serenity's surgery. You remember Joey telling you about her eyes?" He got a nod from Duke and continued, "Well we couldn't visit her as much because she lived so far away and she was moved to a local hospital here to recovery after the surgery. Joey would call and talk to her to see how she was doing trying to reconnect and he wasn't the only one."

Serenity smiled at the memories. "All of Joey's friends would call and keep me company while I was in the hospital. I even got a phone call from Yami one time since I told Joey I wanted to meet the guy who Yugi was crushing on."

Duke did not remember a lot of this but back in their high school days while Yami was trying to get close to Yugi, Duke wasn't as close to the others until they got into college. "So I take it after your eyes got better you and Tristan still stayed in touch."

"Yeah, some of the others didn't call as much which I could understand, but Tristan and Joey always made the effort to call at least once or twice a week." Serenity then nudged Tristan's side, "Although I think Tristan did a lot of that behind my brother's back."

Tristan was getting embarrassed all over again but he tried to hide it. "Moving along, after she got out of the hospital, her mother got her a laptop and she started emailing everyone since it was a lot faster that way."

"We kept in touch and well… I developed a crush on him." Serenity said with a blush remembering all the sweet emails she would get from Tristan. "All the boys around here were never my type no matter how much my mother pushed me to start dating. I would complain to Tristan about it all the time and I don't know what it was but I just kept getting the feeling it was making him jealous."

"I was not jealous…" Tristan argued to which Serenity giggled.

"You were very protective, we will put it like that." Serenity said before she continued explaining, "Anyway we weren't getting anywhere I think Tristan was scared of my big brother, so a year ago I got brave enough to ask him out."

Duke's eyes widen at that, "You got asked out by a girl?"

Tristan growled at Duke, "At least she asked me straight out. You were too scared to even ask Tea, as I recall you used a puzzle…"

"Okay point taken," Duke did not want to remember that, he was just lucky Tea still went for him after something lame like that.

Serenity looked between the two, "Oh I don't remember hearing this you will have to tell me later…"

"No way…"

"Or I can hear it from Tea?" Serenity pointed out to which Duke knew it was a losing battle.

"Fine I'll tell you about it on the way back to Domino…" Duke knew when he had lost. "So you two have been dating for a year?"

Tristan nodded, "I wasn't sure about it being long distance, but we were both willing to give it a try. Then Serenity mentioned after graduating moving to Domino…"

"There were many reasons I wanted to go to Domino though. I had plans to move to Domino after graduating no matter what my mother said not only because I wanted to see Joey again, but also Domino has a small college which I think will be perfect for me. I'm not used to large places and I fear at a much larger college I might get overwhelmed." Serenity explained more showing there was more than one reason, "I would have moved to Domino no matter if I was dating Tristan or not, but we realized now that I would be in Domino we could go on proper dates to see if it was meant to be or if we are better off just friends."

Duke could understand now that he heard the whole story but he still wondered, "What about Joey?"

Tristan was getting nervous all over again and Joey wasn't even there, "No clue what he is going to think about it. For now we just want to surprise him by moving Serenity into Domino without him knowing."

"Thus why I'm here and none of the others," Duke knew since Joey wasn't supposed to know, then Yugi was in the tournament and Yami would not leave his side. Tristan didn't know Ryou and Bakura enough to ask them and Tea he was sure wouldn't want to be trapped in a car for hours with Tristan. That left Duke to help move Serenity's stuff to Domino so it would only take a day.

Tristan stood up, "Yup and we best get a move on if we want to get to Domino before night fall."

While Tristan and Duke were helping Serenity move, Joey was just about to start his duel with Weevil Underwood. Both duelists stood across from each other, their decks shuffled and ready to go.

Before the duel could start, Weevil had a little wager he wanted to put on the table, "Okay let's do a double wager, two puzzle cards and one rare card…"

'Both my puzzle cards if he beats me I'm out of the tournament,' Joey thought but he wasn't about to back down from a challenge. If he beats Weevil he would be even closer to going to the finals, "I'll agree to that."

Joey drew his first card, "I'll go first!" He summoned his panther warrior in attack mode, "A super tough four star monster. I won't lose to no bug!"

Weevil didn't look nervous at all as he started his turn and placed one card face down and then summoned his skull mark ladybug in defense mode.

"You call that a monster? What a wimp!" Joey started up in his trash talk mode. "Always bugs, don't you ever try anything else."

'Talk while you can, once my super insect duck is through with you, you'll have to boast through six feet of earth!' Weevil evilly thought in his head as he ended his turn.

On his next turn, Joey started out by summoning his little winguard in attack mode. Then he moved into his battle phase by sending panther warrior on the attack to take out Weevil's ladybug. One hit and the ladybug went down.

"Good move Joey!" Tea cheered from the side lines.

"No," Ryou and Tea turned as Bakura spoke up his eyes never leaving the duel, "Weevil let Joey defeat the ladybug so he would use its special ability to increase his life points."

The two looked toward the field to see he was right. Weevil gained five hundred life points much to Joey's frustration. Tea turned back to Bakura and said, "I didn't know you played duel monsters."

"I don't I just know the game."

Tea was taken back by the blunt remark while Ryou just sighed his boyfriend was most definitely not a people person.

Back to the duel Weevil had just summoned his pinch hopper in defense mode to protect his life points on his turn, "Be my guest! Attack me Joey!" He urged the other duelist.

'What a pest!' Joey cursed under his breath as he looked at his cards, 'But if I sacrifice my two monsters on this turn, I can summon a high level monster. I have Jinzo in my hand and if I play it I'll be immune to his traps and plus it's got really high attack points.' For now he started his turn by drawing his next card and his eyes widen at what he saw. 'What is this card!'

In Joey's hand was a card called Parasite Paracide and as far as the duelist remembered he never put a card like that in his deck. 'This isn't my card! What's it doing in my deck?'

Weevil could see the look on Joey's face and it just caused him to grin in glee. 'Looks like he drew my card…. The moment you draw parasite paracide you're forced to play it.'

Without even placing it on his duel disk, the card appeared on his side of the field. Once on the field the card came to life and these bug like tentacles came shooting out and attacking Joey's monsters. Joey's monsters started changing as these gross parasites took over their bodies leaving them a mess but still on the field.

Joey couldn't even believe what just happened, "My monsters turned all gross! They've got tentacles and stuff coming out of them!"

Weevil couldn't stop laughing, "As long as I have a parasite card, every monster you play will be infected with a flesh eating worms!"

Ryou was lost as he looked to Tea, "I don't get it, why would Joey put a card like that in his deck…?"

Tea shook her head, "That's not Joey's card."

"Weevil!" Joey shouted pretty pissed off that someone messed with his deck, "You creep! Did you do that to my deck?"

"You realized too late!" Weevil continued to chuckle pleased with himself, "A truly brilliant strategist starts his strategy before the battle. My deck has ultimate power over insects. I can make them do whatever I want. The parasite monsters on your side of the field are considered insects too. There's no way you can win!"

"Weevil you little…." There were so many names Joey wanted to call Weevil but held back due to being in a public place. He couldn't believe he let this happen.

"You can't change your deck now Joey. It's your fault for not double checking your cards before the duel." Weevil reminded him, "You lost before the game even started. Both fields are now filled with insect monsters. Isn't it a great feeling?"

Tea was not as nearly as mad as Joey, but was still pissed off. "That bug-eyed jerk! He always cheats! If this keeps up, every monster Joey plays will be turned into an insect monster."

However Joey was a true duelist he wasn't going to let something like this hold him back. He was going to swash Weevil like the bug he was for pulling a stunt like this. The crazy thing was now he was going to have to figure out a way to get the parasite card out of play. 'Even though they've been turned into parasites their attack and defense points stay the same. I should be able to sacrifice them to summon a high level monster… maybe it's not as bad as I thought.' It was good to know that as he started his turn, "You ready? I'll sacrifice two four star monsters on this turn! Prepared to get killed! Meet …Jinzo!"

Both monsters he had stayed on the field showing that while his monsters didn't lose attack or defense points, they couldn't be sacrifice.

Weevil was having too much fun watching Joey suffer, "Tough luck! You can't sacrifice a monster that's been infected. In other words… as long as my parasite card remains active you can't summon a high level monster." But as an afterthought added, "You can at least do a normal attack you know…"

"You asked for it…!" Joey growled as he got sick of this bug freak and sent his Panther warrior and little winguard on the attack. Not knowing he had just played right into Weevil's trap.

"Tough luck again! Face down card insect barrier!" Weevil revealed his face down card stopping Joey's attack. A web like barrier appeared on Weevil's side of the field protecting his bugs and himself from any attacks by insects. The bug lover wasn't done yet with gloating as he said, "Now do you get it? Parasitic insects constitute more than fifty percent of your monsters body mass… so whatever affects insects affects them. As long as I have the insect barrier, they can't hit me! And oh look… its permanent!"

"Joey!" Tea shouted she was really worried about him. He looked about ready to throw in the towel, but that wasn't the Joey she knew. No matter how tough it looked he could always make it through anything. He just needed a push and she knew just want to say to give him that push. "Joey! If you close your eyes then you've really lost!"

Joey's eyes snapped open as he heard those words and remembered his little sister. He had always told her to never be afraid and to keep her eyes open. She had to fight to keep her sight just like Joey was going to fight to win this duel. He would continue to make his sister proud, plus he promised someone he would make it to the finals. Looking back at Tea he asked, "Don't be stupid, do you really think I'd give up? I was just thinking of a way to beat this freak show."

Tea nodded, "Good." That was the Joey she knew.

Looking back toward his opponent, Joey was fighting with a whole new fire, "It's your turn bug boy!"

"Don't you ever give up?" Weevil mumbled under his breath as he drew a card. "I'll play a spell card Insecticide!" He placed it on the field but informed Joey, "This card will kill any insect no matter how powerful but don't worry Joey I won't destroy one of your monsters. When my pinch hopper is placed in the graveyard I get to draw one insect card from my hand…"

A giant hand carrying bug spray appeared from the spell card and attacked Weevil's own monster. With the pinch hopper destroyed Weevil began his next phrase, "Pinch hopper goes to the graveyard and I get to play the highest level insect monster in my hand. And that card is this!"

The card Weevil played on the field produced the best insect card out there in Duel monsters. The Insect Queen appeared on the field as a cross between a spider and a queen bee. She was huge and completely deadly. Weevil was pleased to have summoned her so easily and he couldn't wait to tell Joey the best part, "The queen increases her attack points by the number of insects on the field. And that includes your infested monsters!"

With three monsters on the field that were insects the Queen's attack points went up to thirty four hundred and of course Weevil wasted no time in sending her on the attack taking out Joey's little winguard. This sent Joey's life points down to two thousand.

"In addition the queen lays an egg for every monster she defeats and a new insect monster will be born." Weevil informed him as his Queen did just that so even though Joey's monster was no longer on the field the new insect baby meant her attack points would not go down. The new egg didn't take long to hatch as a new insect lava appeared out of the egg with twelve hundred attack points. "It doesn't have any defense or much offense but it makes a fine solider for the queen. I'll fill up the field with these little cuties!"

'If he gets anymore insects I won't have a chance…'Joey thought as he drew his next card. 'What am I thinking? I can't even attack him. Even if I play a new monster it'll just turn into an insect and make the queen stronger…' There was not much else he could do so he played a face down card and ended his turn.

Bakura felt like slapping himself, "Dude you just make the biggest rookie mistake in his game…"

Joey felt like he was missing something until he noticed his panther warrior was still in attack mode. He was so worried about trying to beat Weevil that he forgot to protect himself from the Insect Queen's next attack.

"Too late, you already said 'turn over'. All your monsters are in attack mode no call backs!" Weevil said with a smirk watching Joey kick himself over just a rookie mistake. "As duelists go you're like one of the just hatched baby worms!"

Joey watched Weevil and could see the gears turning in his head. He had a feeling he knew where this was going as Weevil did just as predicted on his next turn.

"Alright my Queen attack his Panther Warrior!"

"I guessed right!" Joey announced just after Weevil called his attack. "I knew you wouldn't attack Paracide until the end 'cause it used to belong to you. So I set a trap on Panther Warrior."

Weevil looked shocked and both nervous not knowing what Joey had planned. "Y-You left them in attack mode on purpose to lure me into your trap."

"You got it!" Joey said and whether he had meant to do that or not no one would ever know. "Trap card activate! Magic Arm Shield!" The shield that appeared on the field attached to Panther Warrior. Then spring loaded arms came out of the shield to snatch up the little lava and bring it to Joey's side as a shield for Panther Warrior.

"Y-You took my insect lava!" Weevil cried as his queen was forced to attack her young. Since the insect lava was his monster his life points went down to twenty three thousand.

"What's the matter? You're not so tough after all bug face!"

Weevil wasn't going to take that lying down as he shouted, "I still have the queen! The terror has just begun! This is the ultimate insect combo Joey!"

Joey wasn't going to let that rattle him anymore as he took his turn. He still had to deal with Weevil's Insect Queen in order to win the duel. 'Even if I summon another monster it'll just be turned into an insect by parasite paracide and strengthen the queen. Plus my monsters can't even attack as long as Weevil's insect barrier is up. What can I do…?"

While Joey was trying to figure it out, Weevil was trying to throw him off his game, "Joey your deck consists of warriors and beast-warriors doesn't it? My parasites can feed off almost any humanoid or animal. They'll crawl into any card you play!"

There wasn't anything Joey could do on this turn, so he put all his monsters in defense to at least protect his life points before ending his turn.

"That's right there's nothing you can do!" Weevil started his turn and summoned Solider Ari in defense mode to increase his Queen's power. "Now my Queen attack Panther Warrior again!"

With nothing to stop the attack, Panther Warrior fell to the Queen leaving Joey with only the Parasite Paracide card on his side. 'That rotten Weevil… He's not attacking Parasite Paracide. He's going to keep it on the field for the whole game, so my monsters are always insects.' Joey watched as the Queen laid another egg after having beat Panther Warrior. 'The Queen's getting stronger and stronger. What do I do? I can't use magic shield anymore… on Weevil's next turn its game over for sure.'

"Now I've got you Joey. Make your last turn good!" Weevil laughed already knowing there was nothing Joey could do.

Although things looked bleak Joey wasn't going to let his future be blinded. He would find a way like one of his favorite duelist would and drew his next card. Looking at it his eyes widen at what he was able to draw.

"Tough luck! Any monster you summon will become an insect and as long as I have insect barrier you can't do a thing! There's no way you can win Joey!" Weevil yelled at him trying to rattle Joey.

Joey wasn't going to fall for something like that as he kept his poker face on and prepared his turn, "You never know Weevil. Y'see I found a weakness in your insect combo." As if to prove his point he played a face down card on the field and then summon… "I summon Gearfried the Iron Knight!"

"You fool your warrior is just food for worms!" The worm tentacles went to go after the Iron Knight but to Weevil's shock they couldn't attack the Iron Knight to infect him. "What! It didn't work?"

It was Joey's turn to smirk as he found the perfect monster for this duel, "Gearfried is an Iron Knight like a robot. Not even a parasite can live inside a chunk of iron and since Gearfried's not a bug, he can break through your insect barrier!" He sent his monster on the attack taking out the larva that the Queen just laid. It took Weevil's life points down to seventeen hundred and making Weevil even more pissed off.

"Joey! Are you prepared to pay the price for angering the queen?" Weevil shouted looking madder than the Queen did, "I will now show you insect deck's deadliest move the Queen Impact!" He moved his Solider Ari into attack mode then activated the magic card 'multiplication of ants'. "Now I have ten army ants. Do you understand what this means?"

Of course Joey could see what that meant as the Queen attack points rose for every ant that was on the field. He watched as the Queen gained attacks points to the point she had sixty six hundred attack points more than enough to wipe him out.

"Kill him, my Queen!"

As soon as those words left Weevil's mouth Joey was ready for him, "Like you said 'you fool'…" He said using Weevil's own words and causing the bug duelist to look nervous now. "Trap activate! Grave robber!"

A little dwarf like creature appeared on the field with a shovel and pickaxe on his back holding a card in his hand. "I just can't stand bugs…" Joey said as the Grave robber turned the card around to reveal Weevil's own card Insecticide. The Grave robber used the card to attack the insect queen killing her in her tracks before she could attack.

"N-N-NO! N-Not M-My Queen!" Weevil cried but the duel wasn't even over yet as Joey sent his own monster on the attack to take out of the rest of Weevil's life points directly. As soon as his life pints dropped to zero he was on the ground in disbelief that he lost. "Y-You're supposed to be an amateur duelist….!"

"That's just what you think," Joey told him as he walked up to Weevil and held out his hand. The bug duelist wasn't happy about it but he was forced to hand over his puzzle cards and Insect Queen to Joey. Afterwards Joey left Weevil were he sat to mope while he rejoined his friends. Four puzzle cards down with only two to go before he could enter the finals.

Sakura: I think so far only Joey's duels take up only a chapter. Probably not so much when we get to the finals but that's a ways off for now. I hope I explained enough about Serenity in this chapter, I tried to get all the main points across that yes she is dating Tristan now and Joey is about to be surprised in two ways once they get back to Domino. Whether he takes that news good or bad will be a mystery for now.

Yumi: Please Review! Next chapter will be around December 11th...