Chapter Three: Fire and Ice

Back in the hotel restaurant, the heroes were sitting near each other at different tables. Joey and Tristan had taken a large table to themselves which they'd covered with various seafood, tropical fruits and drinks, and were gulping all of it down rapidly, much to the shock and disgust of other patrons. Kaiba took a small table to himself and simply continued typing away on his laptop, trying to ignore the large chews and grunts nearby. The others, meanwhile, had chosen to sit at a table right near the window, giving them a great view of the ocean where they could watch the sunset as they drank lemonade and ice tea.

Téa, however, couldn't keep her eyes focused on the outside; she continued gazing all around the restaurant, as if she was looking for someone. Yuri noticed the worried look on her face and asked her, "Is everything all right?"

"Where's Yugi? It shouldn't take him that long to get from our room to here," she replied.

"Maybe he just got lost looking for the place," Spencer shrugged.

"I doubt it," Téa said. A fearful thought suddenly came to her: "What if he's not here because he just met up with the evil that always comes whenever we're on vacation?"

"Téa, hon, calm down," Yuri replied. "Evil can't possibly be following us everywhere we go."

"Excuse me."

The teens looked up to see that a Hawaiian girl dressed like a hula dancer was standing by their table, wringing her hands together and looking at the ground sheepishly. "Are you, by chance, the friends of Yugi Muto?"

"Yep, that's us," Spencer replied, taking another sip of his lemonade.

"Would you all please come down to the beach? He, um, needs to meet you there."

The others at the table turned and stared at her. "Why can't he come here?" Yuri asked.

The Hawaiian girl lowered her voice. "He's…in a bit of a predicament at the moment."

As soon as she said that, Téa knew that her fears were justified. She quickly got up and dashed out of the restaurant. The Hawaiian girl stared after her and said, "I haven't freaked her out, have I?"

"Don't worry, she just cares a lot about her friends," Spencer replied. "C'mon, everyone, let's go."

Yuri and Bakura went with the Hawaiian girl, followed by Kaiba, who'd overheard them talking about a predicament and knew that meant it was time for more insanity. Spencer walked up to Joey and Tristan, grabbed them by their shirt collars, and hoisted them out of their seats.

"EY! WE'RE NOT DONE HERE!" Joey yelled at him with the tail end of a shrimp hanging out of his mouth.

"We've got 'special' trouble on our hands," Spencer replied. "Trust me, you two are done now."

The two sadly followed Spencer out of the restaurant, with Tristan muttering, "So much for a relaxing vacation…"

Téa dashed out her patio door and down to the beach, where she saw Yugi standing within a force field he'd conjured up on a pile of what appeared to be melted sand. To her amazement, his skin had become a deep tan in the couple of minutes that she'd left him, and his entire body was emitting what looked like streams of steam.

"Yugi!" Téa cried out, dashing over to the force field. "Are you all right?"

Yugi smiled wanly at her. "Don't worry, Téa, I'm fine. A little bit hot, but fine."

As the others came running up behind her, Téa asked "But why the force field?"

"It's, um, not a good idea to touch me at the moment," he replied. "I don't want you to get burned."

"Burned?!" Joey cried out. "Yug, what de heck happened ta you?"

Spencer made his way up to Yugi and used his sensing powers on him. He nearly jumped back in shock. "What the-Yug, you're on fire!"

"Literally," Tristan added, staring at the steam coming up from him.

"Hmm…I'm sensing out powers of heat, fire, and…control of lava? That kind of reminds me of…" Realization dawned in his eyes. He turned and asked the Hawaiian girl, "Are you Pele?"

She smiled and nodded. "Yes, that's me."

"Uh, who's Pele?" Tristan asked Spencer.

"Remember when I was telling you about those Hawaiian gods? Well," he indicated the girl, "this young woman is one of the most famous of them all-Pele, goddess of the volcanoes."

She bowed down to them. "Aloha."

"This is strange, though-how did your powers get transferred over to my friend here?" Spencer asked Pele. "I didn't think you had the ability to do that, and even if you did, I doubt you'd ever want to risk using it."

Pele shook her head. "This wasn't something of my own doing. Another goddess attempted to use my family's Makua Stone to take away my powers, but this young man got to them before she did."

"Another goddess? Which one?"

"I don't suppose you've heard of her-Poliahu?"

"Hmm…if memory from my mythology class serves correctly, she's your rival of sorts, right? The goddess of the snow-capped mountains."

Pele rolled her eyes. "Yes, that's her-little witch has been attempting to take me down and steal all of my loves away from me for eons."

"But your family's Makua Stone…how in the world did she get her hands on that?"

Pele looked sheepishly at the ground. "Erm…my oldest sister Na-maka-o-kaha'igave it to her…she, um, still hasn't quite forgiven me for making out with her boyfriend a couple of eons ago…"

"Question," Joey said to the two. "What de heck is a Makua Stone?"

"It's a stone which has control over the powers wielded by every member of a Hawaiian god family," Pele explained. "We have it just in case a god or goddess becomes a bit too reckless with his or her powers and it's determined that he or she must have them removed for the sake of the Hawaiian humanity."

"We need that for every magical being that goes crazy with their powers," Spencer murmured, his thoughts going to the former king Resheph.

"So, if we just find dis Poliahu girl an get dat Mak-whadever stone away from her, den we can get Pele's powers outta Yug an give dem back ta her, right?" Joey concluded.

Pele sighed. "That's by far much easier said than done, young man-even if she is a goddess of ice and snow on a tropical island, she certainly won't make it easy for us to find her. And once we do, I'm quite certain that getting the stone away from her will be even more of a challenge."

"Hey, a challenge has never been able to stop us," Tristan grinned.

"Yeah, 'challenge' is practically our middle name," Joey nodded.

Pele smiled. "Well, then, I suppose you teens can take over the task. For the moment, however…" She turned and looked at the sun, now a mere sliver over the ocean horizon. "It is getting late. I propose that we begin our search tomorrow, when you humans have had a little rest. I understand that by now you humans begin to feel…tired, yes?"

"Yeah, 'tired's' de right word," Joey said. He let out a rather loud yawn. "An after eatin' all a dat food I'm feelin' pretty tired, too."

"Hmm, strange-I've always seen the nature of the mutt in you, but this sloth-like one is new to me," Kaiba said.

Tristan held Joey back from attacking him as he started walking back to his room. Once Joey had finally calmed down, the others followed suit, with Téa allowing for Pele to use her spare bed.

Before she got back into her room, however, Téa looked back to take one more glance at the ocean and saw the still steaming Yugi rolling into it within his force field. Stunned, she dashed back onto the beach and cried, "Yugi, what are you doing?"

He stopped rolling and looked back at her with a wan smile. "I'm going to sleep down here in the ocean tonight-I don't want to risk accidentally burning up the hotel while I'm having a bad dream or something."

"But-how are you even going to breathe down there? The oxygen in that force field can't last forever!"

"I'll just cast a spell on myself. I'll be okay, Téa, don't worry," he reassured her. "Goodnight."

She continued to watch as he rolled himself deeper down into the ocean until he finally vanished into its watery depths. As she turned and walked back to her hotel room, she thought to herself, Téa, stop worrying-nothing bad is going to happen to Yugi overnight. She paused. I hope.