And we cut back to Joey's group. It's going to take a while for them to reach Atem and even when they do make it there, they still run into trouble. There're are also other things they run into before they make it to the lab as well. You'll see. This duel is actually one of the first ones not done by a nub. This will be more of a challenge this time.
Another thing I want to point out. I just recently found out that Yu-Gi-Oh R does explained how Tea just disappeared out of nowhere after Yami loses at the beginning of this story. Apparently, the Tea that disappeared was just a live projection of her. Yako had apparently kidnapped her before dueling Yami. So, I apologize for criticizing about how it doesn't make sense... still HOW DID TEA GET KIDNAPPED? WHY DIDN'T ANYONE NOTICE TEA WAS A HOLOGRAM? HOW COME THE HOLOGRAM OF TEA DIDN'T JUST GO THROUGH SOLID OBJECTS? HOW WAS SHE EVEN PROJECTED WHEN THERE WERE NO CAMERAS OR ANYTHING TO PROJECT HER WITH? THIS MAKES NO FREAKIN' SEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENSE! (takes a deep breath) Trust me, if I tried explaining this story, even why Yako chose Tea's body, it'd make even less of sense than the fillers combined and THAT'S SAYING ALOT! Anyways, review please!
Joey had just finished his duel with Oscar and snatched his key card. He knew the entire map in his head, which would lead the gang to the lab where Atem was currently located. Unfortunately, the key card from Oscar wasn't the one that led to the lab. Joey cursed himself for thinking that rescuing Atem would be so easy. This mission proved to be harder than he estimated.
"Now what?" Joey asked, close to being in a complaining mode.
"That key is for the door to this room," Serenity explained, pointing to the door down the hall at the other side of the lab.
"WHY THERE? IT'S FAR FROM THE LAB!"
"Yako is trying to keep us busy."
"So we've noticed. I mean what, do we have to open every single door on this f***ing floor before we finally get the key to the lab?" Tristan asked, throwing his hands in the air.
"Pretty much," Serenity replied.
"At this rate, it'll take forever before we reach Atem and by that time, it'll be too late!" Joey said, seemingly defeated.
"We're not giving up, do you hear?" Uka glared with motivation.
"We hear ya, Ma," Tristan smirked as Uka sighed. She didn't mind Atem calling her 'mother' or 'Mom,' but hearing it from his friends felt really weird to her.
"Anyways, we better get going. The sooner we get the next key the sooner we'll get Atem out of that... whatever that thing is, and save him!" Serenity said as the boys nodded.
Joey slid the key to the next room that Serenity showed was the correct door for that key. He opened the door and found a storage room of some sort filled with dummies of what looked like the monsters from the duel monsters cards. Some of them looked freakier than others and some seemed like some sort of female dummies used in Playboy magazines. Joey seemed really weirded out by the dummies.
"This is the storage room with the dummies of the monsters from the duel monsters cards. This is how Mr. Kaiba is able to make holographic images of the monsters that look so animal, they couldn't be human. Though, he usually uses models to make photo copies of them, but they still have to do stunts and other things. Most of the time, dummies are necessary," Serenity explained.
"Huh, I didn't know that. Though, I thought he'd have a more... I don't know, creepy and scifish way of making holographic images," Joey said with furrowed eyebrows.
"What were you expecting, projector images inside clone containers?" Tristan asked rhetorically.
"Is it just me or did you come up with that idea from your behind?" Joey asked with furrowed eyebrows as Tristan snickered.
"Behind?"
"I'm trying to come up with other words I can use in place of the cursing, so I don't do it as often," Joey admitted as Tristan chuckled while shaking his head. "Besides, I want to makeup with Atem without cussing. I owe him a huge apology."
"You don't know the half of it."
"Hey, you girls finally made it here?" A voice asked, which came from what looked like some sort of goth kid with long black hair that seemed to not have been brushed in days and hazel eyes. He wore a tank top, black tight pants, purple boots, and black arm gloves. "By the way, nice outfit. Never expected the great Joey Wheeler to be caught dead wearing his school uniform outside of school, especially when dueling against me."
"I just came out of school when I found out you A-holes kidnapped my best pal! I'm beyond furious right now!" Joey cried out in rage.
"Since you're already pumped up, how about you duel against me? Besides, you're probably the only duelist here and even that fortuneteller chick will probably use her necklace to cheat against me," the boy smirked in reply.
"Fine, but tell us who you are!"
"Very well. I suppose I might as well introduce myself," the boy replied as he came closer. "the name's Pete Coppermine."
"Wait... you're joking right? Pete Coppermine? Are you really f***ing serious?" Tristan asked, laughing his guts off as Pete glared at him in annoyance. "I pity you, man! That has to be the lamest name on the f***ing planet. It sounds like a name someone came up with that name right out of their asses." Him and Joey gawked up laughing as Pete's face turned boiling hot red. "So you mine copper for a living, or is that just your name? Really, Pete Coppermine?"
"SHUT UP OR WE WON'T DUEL AT ALL AND YOU CAN JUST BE LOCKED IN HERE FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIVES!" Pete shouted aloud.
"Enough fooling around!" Serenity rebuked Tristan.
"Sorry, I couldn't resist," Tristan apologized, trying not to laugh. "Pete Coppermine."
"Whatever! I'll beat your sorry butt and get your key card!" Joey said with determination.
"That's more like it," Pete smirked as he turned on his duel disk. Joey also turned on his duel disk and they both drew five cards.
"Have you noticed that he looks like Duke?" Uka asked with furrowed eyebrows.
"Not really. Huh," Tristan realized, furrowing his eyebrows. Though, he still couldn't get the thought out of his head about how lame Pete's name was.
"I set one card face-down, then I summon Little Winguard in defense mode!" Joey declared as a little soldier with a helmet and cap appeared on the field holding a shield and sword.
"Cautious type huh?" Pete smirked in reply before drawing his next card. "I summon Para Mutant in attack mode!" A monster that seemed gothic-like with a bald head with veins showing wearing armor and boots appeared on the field in an attack position. "I set one card face-down and end my turn."
"Looks like it's my turn again!" Joey declared while drawing his next card. "I summon my Panther Warrior!" A purple warrior-like panther appeared on the field on its front feet with armor and a sword in its hand. "He attacks your mutated monster!" Panther Warrior ran out for an attack as Pete showed out a slight smirk in response.
"I activate my trap card, Gem of Lycathropy! With this, I can tribute Para Mutant to special summon Lycanthrope!" Pete declared as he activated his face-down card and Para Mutant changed into a mutated wolf with gothic armor and a jewel around its neck. As Panther Warrior attacked Lycanthrope, it took the panther by the wrist, then slashed the animal with its claws. Joey was now left with 3700 life points remaining.
"Why are you attacking without preparing?" Tristan rebuked his friend.
"Unless you've played Duel Monsters before, shut up!" Joey replied with glaring eyes before turning back to his opponent. "Besides, attacking's my style. I'm Joey Wheeler damnit!"
"Okay, okay, sheesh."
"I set one card face-down and that ends it!"
"Very well, I activate a spell card from my hand called All-Seeing Eye! This lets me see your face-down cards," Pete declared, as Joey glared in annoyance and flipped up his two face-down cards Chasm of Spikes and Relentless Attacks. "Nice defenses. I'd raise the question why you didn't activate Chasm of Spikes earlier when Lycanthrope attacked your Panther Warrior, except you could've placed the other card face-down first, expecting your attack to be successful for a direct attack."
"Uh yeah... let's go with that!" Joey said blushing. He had placed Chasm of Spikes during his first turn, to his embarrassment.
"I set one card face-down, then I sacrifice Lycanthrope to summon Mutant Mindmaster!" Pete declared as Lycanthrope disappeared from the field and was replaced with another mutant, whose eyes were glowing yellow, with a long robe and spiked braids on each side of his head. Joey snickered at the sight of the monster.
"Your monster looks like Princess Leah from Star Wars," Joey snickered as Pete sighed deeply while rolling his eyes.
"It's the hairstyle isn't it?" Pete asked grimly as Joey gave a shrug.
"So, what's his abilities. It's obvious that it has zero attack, so it must have a power booster!"
"You're good! Most people can never figure that out!"
"I wouldn't have been able to figure it out either, if this was my first time playing. Seeing that I've been through Duelist Kingdom, watching Pegasus give Yugi a hard time with that Thousand-Eyes Restrict, and dueled against Melvin's Winged Dragon of Ra with 0 attack, which defeated me with one hit, I'd have to be a complete idiot or have a major short-term memory loss to think that a monster with 0 attack doesn't have something up its sleeves. Besides, when has this never been repeated time and time again? Most likely a monster with zero attack will obviously have an effect that gives it a power boost. It's like the very basic rule of playing Duel Monsters!" Joey explained.
"Huh... good point. Very well, I might as well let you know my mage's ability. It can gain control of your monster and make it do direct attack damage on you."
"Come again?"
Mutant Mindmage stretched its arms and grabbed a hold of Little Winguard, controlling it to attack Joey directly. He was now left with 2300 as Little Winguard's sword stabbed through Joey's stomach. Joey glared before noticing Little Winguard returning to his field, ending Pete's turn.
"I believe it's your turn!" Pete smirked as Joey drew his next card.
"I set one card face-down, then I sacrifice Little Winguard to summon out Divine Knight Ishzark!" Joey declared as a saintly knight with glowing armor appeared on the field boldly. "Divine Knight attacks your Mindmage!" Divine Knight Ishzark ran up to Mutant Mindmage to attack, but the mage vanished before the warrior could make its attack.
"I activate Telemporate, which removes my Mindmage from play until my next main phase!"
"Oh shoot! And I was so close too!"
"I believe it's my turn! Time to finish you, Wheeler!" Pete smirked with victory in his eyes. He drew his next card. "I use Mindmage's special ability to control your Divine Knight to attack you directly!" Mutant Mindmage's arms stretched and took control of Divine Knight Ishzark to attack Joey directly until...
"I activate my magic card Graverobber!" Joey declared, as he flipped his face-down card.
"Graverobber's a trap card," Pete corrected.
"Yeah, they kept changing the abilities so much that I stopped caring," Joey replied with furrowed eyebrows. "Anyways, with this, I can steal one of your magic card from your graveyard and I can use it against you and I choose that Telemporate!" A little mini man with a shovel carried on its back and a huge smily grin on its face appeared holding the Telemporate card in its hands.
"Oh crap, I end my turn!"
"Then, looks like it's time for me to finish this," Joey smirked as he drew his next card. "Divine Knight returned to my field!" Divine Knight Ishzark appeared back on his field. "Divine Knight attacks Mindmage!" Divine Knight Ishzark ran up to Mutant Mindmage and slashed its sword through it, bursting the monster from the field. Pete was left with 1700 life points remaining. "Now, I play my face-down Relentless Attack, so my Divine Knight attacks a second turn!" Divine Knight Ishzark ran up to Pete and attacked him directly, leaving his life points 0. "Looks like I win!"
"Very well, here's my key card!" Pete said, digging into his pocket and retrieving the key card Joey needed, giving it to him.
"That's it? You just got your ass kicked and you're fine with it? You're not even gonna fight against us for that card?" Tristan asked with a confused look on his face.
"Yeah... I don't actually work here. Mr. Tenma said he needed a good duelist for the job of guarding this key for some stupid project I don't give a shit about. Told him I didn't care as long as I got to meet Joey Wheeler and ask for his autograph," Pete admitted as Tristan stared at him with his jaw dropping.
"Well, of course! I'd be honored to sign my autograph for ya!" Joey replied with a huge smile on his face as Pete gave Joey his Duel Monster card to sign on. After the signing, Pete took the card and left the room, giving Joey the key card.
"Nice guy. I like him!" Joey said, walking out of the room.
"But he said he was gonna trap us!" Tristan cried out.
"He lied!" Joey explained as if he could read minds. "More than likely, he doesn't even know that Yako's project is putting Atem's life in danger. I doubt if Yako's that stupid to tell a local duelist that he's about to murder someone."
A/N: Just some things I want to point out that I was making fun of in this chapter, they were the flaws of Yu-Gi-Oh. The reason I used this chapter to make fun of the major flaws is because 1: it's my birthday 2: the setting doesn't make any sense. Though, that is no surprise, seeing that Yugi's second duel took place in a graveyard inside Kaiba Corp. I'm not kidding. A graveyard... inside Kaiba Corp... kinda creepy. OH! And it just gets better. In this duel, this takes place inside a lab filled with mutated experimentations Seto used for holographic projectors. I'm not kidding about that either. I know Seto can be kinda crazy, but not that crazy. I mean are they making Seto Kaiba Frankinstine or something? Another flaw was Joey dressing in his uniform despite the fact it's not school. Joey NEVER wears his uniform outside of school, even in the anime! The only one that does is Yugi and Yami. Besides, I'd think it'd be harder to draw Joey's unform anyways. Last, but not least, is Joey being insulted and claimed to be an amature by the card professors. This is the guy who won 2nd place in Duelist Kingdom and 4th in Battle City! He wins more duels than even Seto Kaiba has. The only person who calls Joey an amature is Seto Kaiba and that's because he's a jackass. By this time, especially since many of these guys are 10 times worse at playing duel monsters than Rex and Weevil put together, people would know Joey as a legend. I find it redundant that Rex and Weevil have tons of fans, but Joey gets nothing.