Chapter Two: Hawaiian Goddesses

Later that day, after all of the swimming, surfing, and sunbathing, Yugi sat alone on his room's porch, watching the sun set over the ocean. The sight was almost enchanting, with the sky turning various shades of pink, yellow, and violet, and the wavy image of the sun glistening on the deep blue ocean.

"Yugi?"

Yugi turned around to see Téa standing behind him on the porch. "We're all going to dinner in the hotel restaurant, so maybe you should come before Joey and Tristan order everything on the menu and eat it all up."

He laughed. "Don't worry; I'll be there in a minute."

Téa turned and walked back through the porch door. Yugi looked back out at the sunset and thought, Today was great…no magic, no evil beings chasing after us…just us being teenagers and hanging out on the beach…

Pharaoh told him in his mind, It was rather nice to get away from all of the chaos in our lives.

Almost makes me wish that every day could be like that…just friends, fun, and complete paradise…

Yugi closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, letting the sweet smells of Hawaii fill his nostrils. "Aah…" he breathed out.

He opened his eyes and saw, to his surprise, a young woman had suddenly appeared a little further down on the beach. She was quite beautiful with her flowing, silky black hair and deeply tanned skin which enhanced the darkness of her eyes. Strangely, though, she was dressed like a hula dancer with a pink tank top, flowers around her neck and one in her hair, and a grassy green skirt that went all the way down to her bare feet.

Where'd she come from? Yugi thought.

Suddenly, Pharaoh said to him, Yugi…I'm sensing some sort of great power emanating from that young woman…it's almost as though she's immortal…

Yugi's mind went back to what Spencer had said about the Hawaiian gods. You don't think…

Suddenly, a shower of ice crystals soared down from the sky and landed a behind the young woman. The crystals formed themselves into a beautiful young woman who looked really out of place in the tropical land with her blue hair, creamy skin, and furry white coat and boats over a long white evening gown.

"Oh Pe-le," the woman said in a sing-song voice.

The other girl whipped around and stared at the white, fur-clad one in shock. "Wha…how did you find me here?" she cried out.

The fur-clad woman pulled a shining, rainbow-colored stone out of her pocket. "Funny thing about the Makua Stone-not only does it have control over you Hawaiian gods' powers, but it can also sense them out no matter where you try to run."

Yugi, I sense a great evil coming from that white-clad young woman, Pharaoh said to him in his mind.

Oh no…Yugi thought.

"Stay away from me, Poliahu," Pele snapped. "I've already had enough horrors in my life, what with being sent away by my family to watch over this islandand having almost all of my loves die on me, and the last thing I need is some snowy mountain goddess taking away my volcanic powers."

"Well, you should have thought of that before you became my rival and started competing with me for said loves," Poliahu snapped back. "Now then, sweetheart, say bye-bye to your pow-ers."

The Makua Stone glowed with a bright light which shot out of it and directly towards Pele.

The Millennium Puzzle glowed and Pharaoh took over for Yugi. He quickly held out his hand and conjured up a force field that surrounded Pele and absorbed the light beam from the stone.

"WHAT?!" Poliahu cried out.

Pharaoh soared up into the air and landed down in front of Pele. He glared angrily at Poliahu and snapped, "Stay away from her!"

Stunned, Pele slowly reached out and tapped the force field around her. She stared at the young man in front of her and thought to herself, Strange…I've never encountered any other magical creatures besides Hawaiian gods before…

Poliahu glared angrily at the Pharaoh. "I don't know who you are, mister, but I do know that this is none of your business!"

"I beg to differ," Pharaoh replied. "Attacks on innocent magical creatures have been my business for quite some time now."

Poliahu sneered at him, shoving the Makua Stone back into her pocket. She held her arms up from her sides and sharp ice crystals appeared all around her. "Well then, allow for me to put you out of business," she replied.

She flung her arms out in front of her and sent the ice crystals straight at him. Pharaoh retaliated, however, by creating another field in front of him which the crystals shattered up against.

Angrily, Poliahu retaliated by pointing one hand out at the sandy ground and raising it upwards. A huge, jagged ice crystal suddenly sprung up right next to Pharaoh. He dashed away as Poliahu sent crystal after crystal springing up from the ground behind him, only barely avoiding getting pierced by freezing cold ice.

Finally, right when she was about to pull up another one, he sent out a beam of magic at Poliahu which hit her head-on. She went spinning into the air and flew down face-first onto the sandy ground, where she remained still with her eyes shut.

The Pharaoh kept an eye on her for a few minutes. Satisfied that she had been knocked out, he sent out a beam of magic which shattered the jagged ice crystals that she had formed. He waved one hand at Pele and let the force field around her down. "Are you okay, Miss Pele?" he asked.

Pele stared at him in awe. "Who exactly are you?"

"DEAD MEAT!"

Pharaoh whipped around to see that Poliahu had awoken and risen to her feet. Before he could retaliate, she suddenly fired out a beam of ice which struck him in the chest and sent him flying out into the ocean with a splash.

Horrified, Pele glared at Poliahu with red, glowing eyes. She held up one hand and an orb of molten hot lava appeared right above it. With all of her might, she flung the orb at the ice goddess.

Poliahu shrieked and jumped out of the way of the lava, but the end of her hair was still struck by the orb before it smashed into the sand and sent some of it flying up into the air.

She stared in horror at the black, singed hair at the end of the blue. "PE-LEEEEEE!" she screamed out angrily. She yanked the Makua Stone out of her pocket and pointed it at Pele. "SAY GOODBYE!"

Pharaoh burst out of the water at that moment, coughing some of it out of his mouth. He looked towards the beach and saw, to his horror, Poliahu send a ray of light out at Pele from the rainbow-colored stone which struck her and gave her outline a white glow. Pele screamed in horror and dropped to her knees as the white light slowly turned red and fiery.

Poliahu grinned nastily and spread out her arms. "Come to me, power of the volcanoes!"

The red light came up out of Pele and formed itself into a red orb. Somehow, Pharaoh knew that the orb could not get to Poliahu at any cost.

He flew at near lightning-fast speed towards the orb as it started moving towards Poliahu. Only an instant before it could hit her, he swooped down in front of her and let the orb blast him in the chest.

Pharaoh landed on the ground on all fours. He tried to get up, but he quickly collapsed back onto the ground. He breathed heavily as he suddenly felt blazingly hot, almost like he was on the surface of the sun. Sweat started trickling down his forehead. Wha…what's happening to me?

Poliahu glared down at him angrily. "You think you can just come and take away the power that I stole fair and square, huh? Well, take THIS!"

She held a hand down at him and he suddenly became encased in a small, solid orb of ice. "Humph!" she said, "That should teach you to mess with a goddess."

With that, she turned around, transformed into a shower of ice crystals, and soared off into the sky.

Pele groaned and slowly got to her feet. She looked around and was horrified to see the orb of ice before her. "Oh no…" she cried out, dashing up to the orb. She tapped it gently and called inside of the orb, "Are you in there, child?"

There was no response. She held out her hand and attempted to melt the orb away with some lava…but nothing happened.

Pele stared down at her hand in horror. She tried to conjure up an orb of lava, but no matter what she did, she just could not get anything even remotely lava-like to form. "My powers…" she whispered in horror.

As she considered the horrific thought that she'd lost all but her immortality, she suddenly heard a small hiss noise come from the orb before her. She looked down and saw, to her amazement, that hot steam was starting to come out of the ice.

Pele slowly stepped back from the orb, eying it with uncertainty.

Suddenly, the ice completely melted into nothing but water. To Pele's shock, the moment the water touched Pharaoh, it immediately sizzled and sent little streams of steam up into the air.

Pharaoh slowly stood up. Even though he'd just been completely encased in ice, for some reason he felt a warm, toasty feeling flowing throughout his body which he assumed was simply the aftermath of being hit by the red orb. He looked over at Pele, who stared at him with wide eyes.

"Are you all right?" he asked her.

Pele blinked. "Are…you all right?" She gave him a rather strange look.

"I'm still a bit warm from the blast, but other than that, I think I'll be okay." He reached up a hand to wipe away some remaining sweat from his forehead-and suddenly stopped.

His skin had turned from a slight peach to a deep, bronze tan like Pele's, and thick streams of steam were coming out of it. "Wha-"

His shocked emotion made the warmth inside suddenly become a raging inferno. He stared at his hands as the entirety of his outline glowed with red, flaming light. When he looked down, he saw the heat he was emitting had become so intense that the sand under his feet was actually starting to melt.

"Oh no…" Pele murmured. "The human got my powers…"