Well this only took forever now didn't it? I am very, very, VERY, sorry this took so long. There were several reasons why I haven't updated for so long and they vary in terms of being good and bad reasons. But anyway, I'm going to try my very best to get back into the swing of things!
Chapter One: The DMExpo!
It was summer vacation and the start of the first official Duel Monsters convention season! All over the world there will be various conventions and tournaments being held for young and up and coming duelists', as well as the veterans, to show their stuff! Yugi and his friends, Joey, Triston, and Tea, have found themselves in the middle of all of this when Kaiba Corp CEO Seto Kaiba found it would be beneficial to his company if he started his own convention. With his money, it was hardly a difficult feat, and on top of that, with his company funding it, attendance would hardly be an issue either.
"Man, trust Kaiba to make the biggest Duel Monsters convention in the country…" Joey muttered while stuffing his hands into his jeans pockets, "Is there anything he DOESN'T do?"
"Look at the bright side Joey, at least we'll have something to do this weekend." Triston interjected with a smirk, "You were just saying how boring this summer was going to be without any tournaments or chances to save the world again right?"
There was a sudden hushed silence that passed over the small group, it had only been after the words had left his mouth that Triston picked up on the fact that he'd touched upon a subject that wasn't fully gotten over yet. It had been month since the Pharaoh…Atem…had regained his memories and his spirit finally being laid to rest. While they were all very happy that their dearest friend was finally able to return to where he belonged, it was still difficult losing him.
"Hey guys! Lets not mope around like this!" Joey quickly broke the silence in attempt to cheer everyone up, "I bet there's lots of duelists out there just waiting to get their butts kicked by this dynamic duo!" he quickly hooked his arm around Yugi's neck and pulled him close, "Right Yuge!"
"Heh, yeah…but first we have to register." The smaller boy said with a newly restored smile, "I think I saw a sign that said it's somewhere over there."
The more lively group of friends started walking in the direction Yugi had indicated, it wasn't really that hard to find the registration table seeing as there was a huge crowd gathered around it. The sight of so many people was quite the shock, not an unexpected one…but a shock none the less. It would probably take them a while before they could get to the table.
"Hmm…perhaps we should come back later when things have died down a bit…" Tea suggested, a look of concern on her face. However, both Joey and Triston seemed pretty hell bent on keeping the spot in line they had secured.
"I don't mind hanging around," Yugi tried to reassure his friend, "besides, outside of tournaments, I've never really been to a convention before." While he was doing a good job of hiding it, Yugi really wanted to just go right on in and start looking around. He could remember reading about other sorts of conventions, like those scifi ones or those ones for comics and cartoons. They had sounded like fun just from what he's read and now there was one being held right here!
"Well, alright…" Tea finally sighed, she had noticed the look in Yugi's eyes and really couldn't say no. There was also the fact that she knew that Yugi was feeling the same way she was which meant that he could use something to lighten the spirit a bit.
There was a sudden hush near the back of the large crowd, apparently the people waiting back there had grown board and started a small duel. It looked like a couple of kids, so it probably wouldn't last very long…but Yugi and Tea had migrated towards the back to watch. One of the boys had summoned an Overdrive monster card, while the other only had a Kurama on the field. Yes, not exactly high rollers, but it was still nice to see what sort of competition there was going to be.
"Do you think they're allowed to do that?" Tea asked in a slight whisper, the tri-color haired youth gave an uncertain shrug. He didn't see why not seeing as it was a convention about duel monsters…however, that was the least of their concerns at the moment.
It was then that a rather brutish looking male had stepped forward, "Oi, what's this? You little brats shouldn't be wasting peoples times with your pathetic little duels!"
The two that were dueling had stopped for a moment and glanced over at the larger male with slightly hesitant looks on their faces. There just had to be that one person to go out of their way to ruin it for everybody…however, before much else could be said by either party, someone else spoke up.
"Why don't you cry about it to your mommy ya big ape!"
"Who said that?" the larger male spun around making a few nearby attendees jump, "Show yourself you bastard! I dare you to say that to my face!"
Both Yugi and Tea strained to see who it was that was brave enough to step in, of course Yugi had been planning on stepping in as well as Tea…but as stated, someone beat them to the punch. Though, it was Tea who spotted the defender of justice first.
"Oh, I wonder who that is…he looks American." She muttered, while Yugi was still struggling to see, "Or at least…European…maybe…"
"I can't see!" Yugi pushed his way, if not a bit forcibly, to the front…being short sure had its disadvantages; but, he was able to see the red headed youth that had stepped forward. He was wearing sunglasses and a plain white t-shirt with the logo of some obscure band and slightly faded and torn blue jeans with high top sneakers. His hair sort of reminded the boy of Bakura, only it was a striking red and far less wild, it was also tied back in a low and loose pony tail.
"Hmmm…"
While most of the crowd stood around in slight awe, the brutish male seemed more irritated than before, "You've got some nerve interrupting me like that!"
" Geeze, I'm sorry pal, I didn't realize it was rude to interrupt somebody interrupting somebody else. I'm almost appalled at my rudeness, please forgive me by accepting this rather silly little challenge to a duel." The red head smiled almost too sweetly, for a male, it was shocking just how sweet he could make that smile…it wasn't natural. Of course, there was the added fact that every one of the words he just spoke where dripping with the snidest sarcasm Yugi had ever heard.
"And why should I do that?"
The red head gave a shrug while pulling out his deck from his back pocket and shuffling it lazily, "Well, I want to know what sort of duels you find acceptable to be put on public display. I can only assume that you were referring to your personal standards…am I correct?"
"Tch…cheeky bastard…fine…"
An amused smile formed on the red heads face before he glanced at the two boy's who clearly had stopped their duel. Turning towards them he gave them both a pat on the head, "I'm sorry for cutting in like this…you two don't need me to tell you that you're free to duel wherever you want." He then turned and locked his deck into his duel disk.
Both Yugi and Tea were glancing at one another and then eyeing the red head, "Wow, I wonder if he's any good…" Yugi wondered out loud.
"Hard to say really…he seems confidant." Tea then added to that thought.
"Well, I don't want to drag this out too long, so we'll start with 2000 life points, seeing as we both want to get into this little convention and not miss out right." The red head mused while drawing five cards, "I shall go first…" he drew a card, "I'll start things off by placing one card face down and then summoning my Familiar Knight(atk/1200 def/1400) in attack mode. Which is where I'll leave things."
"Tch…such a weak monster, fine….I'll summon Crawling Dragon (atk/1600, def/1400) in attack mode!" the other smirked while placing the card on the field, "Then I'll attack your weakling knight!"
The two holograms went at it, though the dragon managed to destroy the knight with little effort. The red head didn't seem to bothered by this as he laughed, "Oh did you know, when my Familiar Knight is sent to the grave yard due to battle, we're both allowed to summon one level four monster to the field from our hands," grinning, the red head placed a monster on the field, "So I choose Gearfried the Iron Knight (atk/1800, def/1600) in attack mode."
"Then I'll summon Lesser Dragon (atk/1200, def/1000)."
"My turn!" drawing a card and seeming rather pleased with himself, the red head held out his hand, "I'll start things off by summoning an old friend, Familiar Knight in attack mode! I shall also reveal my face down card as The Banner of Courage, which will increase the attack strength of my monsters by 200 points. On top of that, I shall play The A. Forces, which increases my warrior monsters attack by another 200 for each warrior or spellcaster type monster on the field."
Grinning to himself, the red head gave a shrug, "I do believe I'll attack now…your Crawling Dragon with Gearfried and your Lesser Dragon with my Familiar Knight." ( 1600/1000)
"Tch…I place a card and monster face down on the field."
"What could you have there…I'll attack it with my Gearfried!" the red head announced without hesitation.
"Ha! I got you! I activate the trap card Mirror Force!"
The red head's boasting seemed to stop for a moment when both of his monsters were blow off the field by the trap card. And seeing as his Familiar Knight was not destroyed in battle, he could not special summon a monster to the field. Which in turn left him wide open.
"Ha! Ha! You cocky brat, this is what you get! My Crawling Dragon will attack you directly and end this duel!"
"Oh bother…" the red head muttered when he was attacked directly by the dragon and the last of his life points dropped to zero.
"He…he lost…" Tea blinked in surprise, "All of that and the guy lost…"
"Hmm…it seemed like a really simple mistake, " Yugi commented, though the look on his face said otherwise. In fact, he wasn't entirely sure what to make of this guy. The big guy though seemed rather pleased with his victory and proceeded to verbally belittle the red head about acting like a hero and not following through and how he was a weak duelist and all that sort of stuff. When he was finished and walking away with a smug air about him, the red head simply gave a shrug and stuffed his hands back into his pocket.
A few hours and a few dueling seminars later, Yugi and company were making their way to the food court. Tea had been kind enough to fill Joey and Triston in on the duel they had seen, if one could really call it that.
"So what? The guy lost, I probably could have taken that big oaf!" Joey was the first to comment. Though Triston seemed to think a little more on the matter and shook his head.
"That seems like a mistake only a beginner would make." He added, "I'd probably make that mistake…"
"So you think this guy was a beginner?" Tea asked.
"It's kind of hard to say…" Yugi sighed, "Oh well, we haven't seen him around at any of the panel's. We could ask him directly, but he's nowhere to be found."
The group all let out a collective sigh right before a shorter boy suddenly ran right into Joey's back. The two nearly fell to the floor, but they both somehow managed to catch themselves before hey fell. Joey was the first to recover, he spun around with his fist up,
"Hey buddy, why don't ya watch where yer goin'?"
The boy, who seemed relatively recovered now, just glanced up at Joey with a wide eyed look of uncertainty. Though, after a brief moment, he broke out into a grin, "Ah! Du ist ….um...duelist!" he had a surprisingly thick German accent and didn't seem to know how to speak proper English, much less Japanese. It was only thanks to Yugi and Tea that Joey was even able to figure out what the boy had said.
"Eh, yeah kid, I'm a duelist..." Joey smirked, "Wait, you must be a fan! Let me guess, you've been followin' all the news since Duelist Kingdom right? How I totally rocked and all that..."
"Nein," the boy beamed almost too innocently, he then turned his attention onto Yugi, the smile he wore was unreadable though he seemed to figure out what it was he wanted to say and broke the growingly uncomfortable silence, "Mein friend ist lost."
Joey seemed rather crushed that once again his fame didn't even hold a candle to say, Yugi's...or that jerk Kiba's. Not that it wasn't anything he hadn't heard before, so, rather than mope around about it, he stood next to the strange little foreign kid and put an arm around his shoulders. "Well then! I think this is a job for Joey Wheeler."
"Ah! Das ist wanderbar!" the boy grinned cheerfully. Not wanting to be left out, Triston had joined up with his buddy, both trying to be helpful in searching for this mystery friend. Tea and Yugi followed behind them, chuckling at the two taller male's antics. The lighthearted atmosphere had reminded them that they were supposed to be having fun, this was a convention after all! Though, with fun comes being easily distracted by all the lights, pretty colors, and above anything else, the dealer room. Of course, Joey and Triston insisted that the dealer room was the best place to look for anybody because supposedly, if someone isn't at a panel or showing, then they're in the dealer room.
That theory would have been acceptable, but the little fact that 90% of the attendees were flooded into the dealer room which made looking for anybody next to impossible. If you broke the flow, there was literally a major traffic jam of angry and irritated people trying to get at the latest booster pack from Industrial Illusions or some sort of gaming guide book all at the same time.
"Arg! This is crazy!" Triston finally snapped, "Hey kid, what does this friend of yours look like?"
Ah, finally a reasonable question, the blue haired youth seemed to think about it for a moment before pulling a small note pad out of his back pocket. Seeing as it was loud and he really didn't want to repeat himself, he used the small pencil that was tied to the notepad and doodled out a cute little chibi image of his friend. He was about to show it when a rather loud yet relieved voice broke though the yammering.
"Zekke! Oh my God, there you are! I've been looking for you everywhere!" It was not hard pin pointing where the voice was coming from. A streak of red and some irritated shouts of "watch where you're going!" and "Hey!" had directed the group's attention to a familiar face. "Geez, you can't go wondering off like that, you ok?" the red head from earlier asked once he had made it over to his companion.
"Ja, mein friends helf...helped..." the boy, now known as Zekke, corrected himself. The red head looked up at Joey, Triston, Tea, and Yugi for a moment before cracking a big smile.
"Thanks for helping Zekke, he's such a scatterbrain sometimes..." he then held out his hand for everyone to shake, "The name's Wyle Van Dyke, pleasure to meet all of you."
Everyone took turns shaking his hand, though Yugi had held on a moment longer while saying, "You were that guy from earlier, who dueled against that big bully."
"Bully, well more like idiot, but yeah...you saw that?" Wyle chuckled while letting go of the smaller male's hand.
"Yes, you nearly had him too..." Yugi sighed.
"What do you mean nearly?" the red head blinked, "Oh! Ah, yes, well...when one comes across a cross bear in the woods, it is in ones best interest not to irritate it further, right?" he then chuckled, Zekke seemed to nod in agreement to this though the others seemed a little baffled.
"So, what are you trying to say?" Tea asked for everyone.
"Simple my dear girl, I let him win..." Wyle winked, "Of course, he did get me when he destroyed all my monsters, but I had a card in my hand that would have reduced his attack to zero." he then shrugged, "Besides, it's no fun beating up weaker duelists...he got lucky is all..."
The others seemed a little skeptical about this, but shrugged it off, "Well, perhaps at some time we could play a game." Yugi offered.
"Hey! Yeah!" Joey added in.
"Ah, well, I can't duel both of you at the same time, but I'm sure Zekke here would be more than happy to play against you." the red head chuckled, Joey had looked over at Zekke who was taking a duel monsters deck out of his backpack and grinning cheerfully. "Well! Now that we have all of that settled, did you guys have any plans? Or are you just going to bum around till the next panel? There's this one on ancient Egypt that Zekke and I have a keen interest in, but that's not until one..."
"That sounds pretty cool, we can go with you, right guys?" This time it was Tea that jumped in, ever since that day, she had started reading books and looking up information about ancient Egypt, she wanted read about the Pharaoh.
"Sure, why not, if it's ok with our new friends."
This time both Wyle and Zekke grinned, "Of course!" "Ja!" they said at the same time.
And so! The end of the first chapter, Zekke and Wyle have met up with Yugi and company and now they are going to a panel about ancient Egypt, dun, dun, dun!