Small Note

Sakura: I'm back with another chapter! Enjoy!

Chapter 19

Targets

Yugi played Buster Blader in attack mode with enough confidence that he had even Marik concerned about what he was trying to pull with that move. By the way he declared that he had the perfect move to defeat Slifer, gave the signal that this duel was about to reach its conclusion.

'Attack mode, what is he thinking?' Marik was stressing, 'Does he actually have some way of making Buster Blader stronger than Slifer?'

"Marik I just drew the card I need. Now all the pieces are in place for my unstoppable infinite combo."

Of course Marik wasn't going to let Yugi know he was nervous as he laughed those words off. "Infinite? Beyond the limits of god? Are you out of your mind? There's nothing greater than the god cards. I'll prove that to you right now." He reminded Yugi of the cards he still had on the field, "Remember this card I played? This permanent card? Card of safe return! Its effect reaches across the entire field. That means even when you bring a monster back from the dead I get to draw three new cards."

Yugi appeared unimpressed as he let Marik have his spill but he knew what that card meant. And what Marik didn't know is that the card was going to help him, Yugi just wasn't going to say anything yet.

"That's right; you just brought back Buster Blader that means I can draw three new cards from my deck. And each card…" He had his doll draw three more cards giving Slifer one thousand more points. "Slifer gains more attack points! And that's not all; summoning Buster Blader activates Slifer's automatic attack."

Slifer's second mouth opened as it attacked Buster Blader head on. But thankfully Buster Blader had enough attack points to hang out and losing two thousand points of damage didn't kill him but it still left him with eleven hundred attack points. Not enough to defeat Slifer with, but Yugi still had a plan.

"So he still lives, but now his attack points are reduced to eleven hundred." Marik said sounding smug as ever. "Do you still intend to attack Slifer? I'll let you switch to defense mode if you want…"

"Who do you think I am? Buster Blader attacks." Yugi announced not sounding the least bit nervous about his decision.

'Why Yugi… What are you plotting?' It was frustrating Marik to no end because he couldn't tell if Yugi was just trying to be tough til the end or if he really had a way to defeat Slifer.

Mokuba looked back and forth between the two players. He was remaining quiet while they watched, but even he couldn't tell what was going on. 'I can't figure it out… What's Yugi trying to do?'

"Here goes my battle phase!" Yugi knew they were all going to think he was crazy but this was the only way. "Go Buster Blader fight Slifer!"

'Bring it on Yugi you won't know you're dead until it's too late.' Marik thought finally thinking Yugi had just simply lost it.

Buster Blader went head on against Slifer ready to attack it when Marik's laughter rang out, "How many times can you make the same mistake? That monster can't even touch a god! Permanent trap activate!"

Just before the attack was to hit Revival jam jumped in the way to protect Slifer, thus Buster Blader killed it in one go. Marik was having too much fun watching Yugi fail again, he had been worried that Yugi might have a plan, but it appeared that wasn't the case. "Did you forget Yugi? As long as my revival jam remains, you can't even reach god-not that you could hurt him if you did. And the jam will come back from the dead."

"I didn't forget," Yugi said with a smirk, "I knew you'd 'jam' my attack and I was waiting for this moment." He watched as the jam started to come back on Marik's side. He pulled one card from his hand and played it on the field. "This is my key card! Spell card, Brain control!"

It started out as chuckles before it turned into full blown laughter as Marik watched Yugi's lame move. He had to calm himself down before he could even speak, "I'm sorry Yugi. Brain control wont' work on god. Slifer attack Buster Blader this is the real end!" It was best to end this once and for all before Yugi made an even bigger fool of himself.

People were so quick to come to conclusions in duels and that was sometimes their biggest down fall. Yugi figured it best to shine some light and reveal his true plan. "Who said I played the card on Slifer?" In quick second Marik was silence with nothing to say to that as if he was confused. "The monster I brain controlled was…"

Instead of on Marik's side of the field Revival Jam appeared on Yugi's side as a new shield for him. By Marik's continued silence Yugi figured he helped Marik out a bit, "That's your cue, Marik. A monster came back from the dead. Draw three cards from the deck using your card of safe return."

'Fine, you're only helping me by making Slifer stronger…' Were Marik's thoughts as he made his doll draw the new cards. Now Slifer had sixteen thousand attack points.

"But before Slifer attacks my monster, the revival jam was just summoned as one of my monsters." Yugi reminded him wondering when Marik would catch on to his plan. "And that activates Slifer's special ability of automatic attack."

Yugi would never heard the curse words Marik was saying in his head as Slifer attacked Revival jam and because it's points were low it was killed with the hit. Marik knew what would happen next as Revival jam started to come back but still on Yugi's side of the field. And once it did…

"And now you have to draw three more cards!" Yugi was sure Marik was catching on now by how silent he was. His doll was doing all the work and looked unfazed but no doubt that wherever Marik was he was stressing.

Stressing was the right word as Marik finally pieced together Yugi's perfect move. 'Once again the jam will automatically regenerate and when it appears Slifer will automatically attack and it'll regenerate again and I'll draw three cards again… over and over… in an infinite loop!' By then it would be a boring duel, but there was one way Yugi figured out how to beat him without killing Slifer. 'In one turn my deck will be…'

"That's right, when a player can no longer draw a card from their deck they can't keep playing…" It was the only way Yugi was going to be able to win this duel and he was just glad he had the cards he needed.

No matter how many cards Marik had in his hand and no matter how powerful Slifer got once Marik's doll ran out of cards it was game over. And that is what was happening each time Slifer killed the jam and the doll was drawing more cards from the deck.

"No god's power isn't infinite… it's limited by the number of cards in your deck." Yugi said as he watched the doll draw the last cards from the deck some even falling to the ground because there was no way to hold that many. Marik's control slipped for a moment as Slifer was destroyed when the doll couldn't draw anymore causing the doll to fall to its knees lifeless.

Yugi actually let out the breath he was holding there at the end not believing he just won that duel.

"Yugi did it!" Mokuba shouted as he slid down the embankment toward the two. He grinned as he congratulated Yugi on his victory before he hurried over to the other player. They could celebrate later right now he had to do his job. Walking up to the loser he noticed he looked kind of lifeless.

"What's wrong with this guy? He's not moving it's like he's a doll. I-I guess he must be shocked after losing like that." Mokuba guessed as he looked around on the ground and found the card he was looking for. Picking up Slifer and the puzzle card he took one final look at the guy before hurrying back over to Yugi. "As Battle City's steering committee chairman, I give you the winner this Slifer the sky dragon."

Yugi took a look at the new edition honestly still a little in disbelief that it was his now. It was more powerful than Exodia.

"But don't get used to it. Pretty soon they'll both belong to my big brother." Mokuba added on referring to the puzzle and god card.

Yami looked at his other brother who was slowing coming down to join them. "So I take it these were the real reason you started this tournament." He took quick notice of the silence and the way Seto looked ready to duel. "Don't even think about it…"

"Yami…"

"No," Yami interrupted Yugi and stood in front of his partner. "You just got done with a hard duel and Seto is going to back off. Go find some other punk to beat."

Seto of course wasn't one to back down as he said, "Why don't you let Yugi decide? The rules for Battle City are when two duelists meet they must duel."

"Seto…" Yami growled ready to beat his twin down if he didn't back off. His brain dead brother could wait until the finals to fight Yugi which he was sure both would make it to.

Things might have gotten a little ugly if it wasn't for the fact a scream from Mokuba stopped all three in their tracks. They looked just in time to see Mokuba move behind Yugi and the reason for his fright. The doll was back on his feet as if nothing had happened.

Putting his thoughts of Seto aside Yami first had to deal with the freak. "Give it up Marik. Yugi won your god card fair and square."

Marik just chuckled at that. "Don't worry… I didn't get it a second's thought. I know I'll get it back before long. But there's one thing I forgot to tell you…" That had their attention so he continued, "I will arrive in Domino city shortly and when I do my plan will go into motion. I can see three views right now like a three dimensional broadcast. I can see you through the eyes of this 'doll', I can see the city from the freeway and my last view is of downtown domino city through the eyes of one of the rare hunters in town. I can see your friends in the crowd, the duelist called Joey and the rest…"

Not only had that gotten Yugi and Yami's attention, but Seto's attention shift too if only for a moment when he heard Joey's name. Marik wasn't through yet as he added, "Yes… the rare hunters have been keeping an eye on your friends so I can use them whenever I want. You'd better go and join them quickly before something bad happens to them." And if that wasn't enough to get them motived he threw in a little taunt to push them along. "One more thing, the rare hunters know you're coming. By the time you get to your friends they'll be ready. So I hope you enjoy the game."

"Marik!" Yugi shouted but it was too late as the doll fell lifeless to the ground again. The only thing on Yugi's mind was the fact that his friends were in danger and were being dragged into this mess. He turned to run and try and make it to his friends but a voice stopped him.

"Yugi!" Yugi actually growled as he turned to look at Seto over his shoulder with a glare.

"I can't fight you now, the ghouls are after Joey and I can't let my friends die. Don't you even care?" He didn't even wait for a response as he hurried off faster than Yami had ever seen him run.

"He does realize I can track down Joey faster than he'll find him on foot right?" Seto mentioned since that was one of the reasons he was trying not to let Yugi run off. No one threaten his puppy and got away with it. It would be a lot faster to track Joey's duel disk.

Yami sighed, "It's the situation, he's not thinking straight. Let me go get him."

"No, I'll go after him."

Yami shook his head, "Honestly right now I don't trust you with that."

"You're going to have to," Seto said as he leveled Yami with a look that said 'don't argue with me'. "Let's face it, it'll be a lot faster if you and Mokuba return to Kaiba Corp and track Joey down. I wouldn't trust those employees of mine to get the job done."

Mokuba nodded, "He has a point Yami and the more time we waste the faster those ghouls get to Joey and the others." He reached out to pull at Yami's arm to get him to come along. He may have not understood all that was going on, but he knew the others were worried about Joey and Yugi's friends. "We already have a car waiting to take us."

At first Yami looked like he might have argued this, but over all he knew Seto had a point. But he wasn't going to leave without an agreement. "You have to promise me that you won't duel Yugi until the finals got it?"

"Whatever I'll agree to it, just get going." Seto pushed as he went off in the direction Yugi had taken. Hopefully it wouldn't take long to catch up with him.

Yugi was actually a lot quicker on his feet then people realized mostly from his high school days of running away from bullies. That all changed when he made friends, but he still could move when he needed to. Of course Yugi wasn't just going to blindly run through Domino looking for his friends, he had already tried calling Joey only to get his voicemail and sadly the others weren't picking up either. So either they were doing something and not checking their phones or the worst had already happened, which he really hoped hadn't happened.

Turning down one of the back alleys to get to the middle of Domino city faster, he ended up not making it far before two guys came out of nowhere blocking his path. At first he wondered if they were just thugs looking to rob someone, but at the last second he noticed the duel disk on their arms and the familiar coats they wore.

"Yugi right?" The short chubby one asked, "If you want to go any further you'll have to beat us first."

The taller skinny one agreed, "In a duel he means…."

"Get out of my way!" Yugi didn't have time for this. He didn't care if they were rare hunters or not, he had to get to his friends before it was too late.

The short one laughed, "You wish, if we let you pass Lord Marik will kill us…"

"Plus if you refuse to duel us… your friend will be eliminated immediately." The other one chimed in. Before he turned to his partner, "So which one of use should go first? How about you?"

"No be my guest."

"Let's roshambo for it."

"Fine…"

Yugi was forced to watch as these two idiots tried to figure out which one would go first in dueling him, but he didn't have time for this. By the third time of them tying at roshambo, his anger was on a new level. "Hurry up!"

The other two didn't seem to care that Yugi was in a hurry as they looked at him and apologized. "Sorry Yugi, we keep tying. We can't decide who goes first…"

"Then come at us as a tag team you pigs," All eyes turned as Seto walked toward them with his duel disk ready, "Yugi and I will pair up."

The other two duelists looked at each other unsure at first, "We have the right number of people…" One of them commented.

While they took their sweet time figuring out if a tag team was the best move, Seto had joined Yugi's side. He could see the look on Yugi's face so he decided to clarify a few things, "Don't get the wrong idea Yugi. One of the reasons why I held battle city was to wipe out these card counterfeiting scum. I'm only leaning you a hand this time, but come the finals we will be rivals once again."

If he was talking about the finals, then Yami must have talked some sense into him. Either way Yugi didn't mind having Seto on his side for now if it meant getting to his friends. As he readied his own duel disk he asked, "Where are those two?" He knew Seto would know who he was talking about and he did as he reply.

"You don't need to worry about them just focus on the duel." Seto commented as he noticed the two ghouls had come to an agreement and were ready to duel.

The ghouls let Kaiba be the first to go and he took his move seriously. First using pot of greed to draw some more cards, he then used Lord of Dragons and two Flute of Summoning Dragons to summon not one but three Blue Eyes White Dragons and one other dragon from his hand. "Now let's see what you wannabe Duelists can dish out."

The shorter ghoul looking overwhelmed by Kaiba's move and having five monsters on the field simply placed a monster in defense mode.

Yugi haven't no clue what Kaiba was planning decided to play it safe for now and lay down two face down cards that could help them along with Kuriboh in defense mode. Not one of his best moves but while Kaiba had the monster power, he had the trap and spell cards to back him up.

Finally it was the taller ghouls turn as he placed a card face down along with a monster in defense mode as well. Thus it was Seto's turn again and he was ready for it, "This'll be fast…" He stated as he then scarified all three of his Blue Eyes White Dragons to summon his own god card Obelisk the Tormentor. But that wasn't all as he used his other two monsters as scarifies to power up Obelisk.

Yugi could only watch in disbelief as Obelisk took out not only the defense monsters on their opponents side but both players life points dropped to zero. In a few short turns, they were the victors not only gaining passage to continue the search for Joey and the others, but they both got a puzzle card bringing them one step closer to the finals.

Somewhere else on the other side of Domino, Bakura quickly looked behind him as if sensing someone was watching him. He surveyed the area but with so many people it was hard to tell. This of course made him feel uncomfortable. But there was no way to check it out and take care of it with the others around.

"Hey Bakura, what's the matter?" He could hear Joey shout to him before he felt Ryou's hand on his arm.

"Hey you okay?"

Bakura shook off the feeling for now and nodded as he and Ryou caught back up with the other two. Later he would find out who was watching him and put an end to it.

"You're going quite well Joey," Tea commented as they continued walking the streets of Domino looking for Joey another opponent.

Joey was proud of his accomplishment as he showed off his four puzzle cards, "Yeah I only need two more to get into the finals."

Tea was glad for Joey, but she also wished she could see Yugi duel as well. "I haven't seen Yugi, but I'm sure he's doing great too."

Speaking of his best bud Joey agreed. "Of course, he's probably already waiting at the finals."

"You know what's funny, Joey," Ryou spoke up getting Joey's attention, "You've won a lot of rare cards, like Jinzo and Insect Queen but they're all weird and scary."

Now that Joey thought about it they were and that was not how he wanted to think of his cards, "Shut up. It's not like I wanted them."

"Actually I like them, I love grotesque cards," Ryou pointed out, "I wish Bakura had them in his deck."

Never mind the fact that Ryou liked those kinds of cards, Joey was just shocked to hear Bakura had a deck, "You play duel monsters?" He asked Bakura not like he was going to get an answer.

Ryou answered for him as he reached into Bakura's back pocket and pulled the deck out. "Yeah, it's an occult-themed deck. Monster world is more of my thing, but Bakura has developed a love for duel monsters."

"O-Occult…" Joey slowly moved away from Bakura. "I'm definitely not dueling you…"

"Don't be so afraid," Ryou teased Joey as he gave Bakura his deck back. He had wished he had been able to talk Bakura into the tournament, but Bakura's excuse was he was still new to it and wasn't going to get his ass handed to him in front of others. No matter hopefully one day he would agree to duel their friends for fun.

Never knowing that someone was watching them the whole time, Joey decided to turn the talk away from the occult and try and find himself a new opponent who could get him one step closer to the finals. "All right where's my next opponent. Let's try out this duelist search sensor."

"Duelist search sensor? What's that?" Tea asked as Joey fiddled with his duel disk which started to make a 'bip' sound.

"It can detect other active duel disks. If there's a duelist within fifty meters this'll find them fast." Joey informed them as his disk picked up one not far from them, "Duelist at twelve o'clock that way!"

There was no stopping Joey when on a mission leaving Ryou and Tea to hurry behind him as he went after his new opponent. Not once did they check to see if Bakura had followed them to which he hadn't. Bakura stood there as the look in his eyes changed, he could sense someone was coming and that someone had a millennium item.

Five minutes later found Joey and crew just outside of Domino City's aquarium.

"There's a duelist in there?" Tea commented not quite sure Joey's duel disk was working right.

Joey shrugged, "That's what the sensor says, let's just go in and look."

Tea wasn't too sure about especially when she noticed that they had lost Bakura in their rush. "You see where Bakura went?" She asked his boyfriend to which Ryou shrugged.

"He does that sometimes when he's bored. I'll just text him our location." Ryou said like it was no big deal as they followed Joey inside.

Due to the tournament the aquarium was offering a free show to the public with their famous killer whale to get people into the aquarium. They hoped it would drum up business and the tourists would pay to see the other exhibits. Judging from the crowds as Tea, Joey, and Ryou found a seat the show was a big hit so far. But just as they were sitting down to enjoy the show forgetting Joey was looking for his opponent, they noticed someone very familiar by the killer whale tank.

"It's him, Mako!" Joey shouted as he changed plans of sitting down, instead hurrying to the bottom of the stands. Ryou and Tea were not far behind him seemed there was a duelist there after all.

Mako turned his attention away from the killer whale when he heard his name being called and recognized two of Yugi's fiends coming toward him. "Hey Joey," He called to the other forgetting the girl's name.

"It's been a long time, man. How ya doing..?" Joey asked being polite, "Haven't seen ya since Duelist Kingdom. So you're in battle city too?"

Mako nodded as he showed off his own duel disk, "You bet!"

"Mako what are you doing in the aquarium? The duels are supposed to be in the streets." Tea pointed out curious as to why he would be here of all places.

Mako had a simple explanation for that as he said, "Yeah but I've never been to an aquarium before." He turned back to the whale with a grin, "Boy what a huge fish tank, I just want to pick him out and fry him on the grill."

Now that made more sense but Tea wondered how much Mako really knew about city life. "An aquarium is a place to see fish not eat them."

"Huh? City folks pay money just to see fish. Now that's weird." Turns out Mako had no clue but he just laughed off his cluelessness. "If they come to my sea, I'll show them all the fish they want." Then as if a switch was turned he looked to Joey and asked, "By the way Joey, what are you doing here? You must love fish more than I thought."

"I didn't come here to look at fish," Joey argued as he showed his own duel disk, "I came here to duel."

"With me?" Mako questioned.

"Yeah."

Another round of laughter followed by Mako saying, "You can't compete against my sea deck!"

Every duelist just loved to push Joey's buttons and Mako was no different as Joey growled, "What'd you say you seafood freak?"

Mako then grew serious as he grinned at Joey, "I said fine, I accept your challenge Joey."

"That's more like it." Joey stated as both he and Mako ready for their duel. All around them the audience was trying to figure out what was going on and if this was part of the show.

Mako pulled out two puzzle cards, "Okay Joey, we each own four puzzle cards. Why don't we bet two? That way the winner will advance all the way to the championship tournament."

Joey could agree with that and decided to up the ante as well. "Let's bet two rare cards too."

Thus with the ante in place and both players ready the duel began, Joey began the duel by going first. He placed one card face down and then summoned swordsman of Landstar in defense mode. 'On my next turn I'll sacrifice swordsman of Landstar and summon my trump card Giltia the D. Knight.' Were Joey's thoughts already having the perfect play in hand to defeat Mako quickly.

Mako however was a good duelist and always thought ahead and he saw Joey's face down card. Knowing it would be stupid to rush in, Mako played it safe by simply playing flying fish in defense mode.

"So Mako you think you can fight me with fish? My deck has some super strong warriors." Joey stated as he drew his card, then sacrifice Landstar for Giltia the D. Knight. However all didn't go as planned as soon as Giltia appeared on the field he was attacked by a very familiar Parasite.

'No way…' Joey quickly realized his mistake as soon as that stupid card appeared on the field. 'I forgot to take it out after Weevil's duel…' He felt like curling up and hiding in the tank with the whale at this point.

Mako was confused by Joey's move, "Wh-what the? I didn't know you liked such gross monsters." Either way Joey had made his move and it was his turn now as he active a trap card. "Torrential tribute…." The huge wave of water wiped out the monsters on Joey's side of the field. 'This is the easiest duel I've ever played…'

Meanwhile outside the aquarium Marik and Malik had just pulled up meeting two of Marik's rare hunters that had been tailing Yugi's friends. One of them giving Marik an update on what was happening, "We have been waiting for you lord Marik. The one you seek is inside…" Not that Marik didn't already know that haven't been looking through the eyes of his rare hunters.

It was time to put the plan in motion once those idiots stepped outside, however things were about to change when someone else appeared behind Marik.

"So you're the one with a millennium item…." Bakura stated as he watched the group carefully with a shiny new duel disk on his arm. "Now be a good boy and give it to me." He had been right about someone watching them and now that it was someone with a millennium item made it even better.

An evil grin made its way onto Marik's face as he recognized a familiar face. "Well look at who we have here Malik. Domino is just full of surprises including traitors."

Sakura: So Yugi and Seto have teamed up, Joey is facing Mako, and now Bakura and Marik are face to face. Lots happened this chapter and next time even more is going to happen. Plus some twist I'm curious to find out if anyone saw coming.

Please Review! Next update will be on or around Jan. 29