Celebwen Telcontar: Sorry about the wait. Real life, Midterms, and computer malfunctions got in the way. Not to mention writer's block.
Balrog: Hopefully this chapter will be more interesting than the last one. Nothing but talking and shopping.
Celebwen Telcontar: It was needed to move the story along. Please read and review, people!
"That Warsbane card of yours is powerful, sis!" Joey crowed as they entered the shop. None of the group noticed the shopkeeper look at Serenity, discreetly looking something up on his computer.
"We'll take three dueling disks, please," Yugi said. The shopkeeper handed Yugi and Serenity disks, but denied Joey for a moment before claiming a computer glitch and handing him a disk as well.
"This is quite the tournament," Serenity said. "Father's coming to watch tomorrow."
"Will ya quit callin' 'im 'Father', Seren?" Joey asked.
"He's a much better father than Jacob is!" Serenity snarled.
"Ah can' deny that," Joey grumbled in reply. "But still, it's the princi—princi—princi—whatever of the thing!"
"Do you mean principle, Joey?" she asked. Joey nodded.
"Yeah, that." A strange man in a dark cloak approached them, duel disk ready.
"I challenge you to a duel!" He pointed at Serenity.
"Ya gotta be kiddin'!" Joey yelped. "Ya duel her, an' yer gonna duel me, too!"
"Fine! Two on one!" He scampered off towards an alleyway, and Joey followed, hot on his heels. Serenity rolled her eyes and pelted after her brother.
In a moment, the two siblings found themselves in a dark alley, the Duelist standing waiting for them with his duel disk out and ready. Serenity slid hers on, and Joey followed suit, after looking at it for a moment and figuring out how it operated.
"If you win, I'll give you my two rarest cards," the Duelist called to them.
"Agreed," Joey responded, hitting a button. Four holographic projectors went flying, and the blonde yelped and leaped back.
"That was supposed to happen," Serenity reassured him.
"I knew that." Serenity rolled her eyes. Her brother could be such a dork.
"I lay Ogre of the Black Shadow in Defensive Mode, and three cards facedown," their opponent announced. The ogre appeared, crouched, with arms about its legs.
"Baby Dragon, Defense mode!" Joey called out. The infant drake chirped as it appeared. "And I lay two cards facedown."
"I lay Curse of the Lioness in defense mode, and lay one card facedown." Serenity said clearly. The woman who appeared had fierce golden eyes and her face looked like a lions. A tail came to rest on her feet, and she crossed her clawed hands in front of her chest.
"I lay Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts in attack mode, and put one card facedown." The strange mantis-like creature snarled as it attacked, and as it went for Serenity's lioness-woman, the facedown card flipped up, revealing a rushing torrent of water.
"My Floodwaters drown your Gazelle!" Serenity called triumphantly.
"I play Time Wizard! Go, Time Wizard!" Joey crowed. The thing raised its staff, and as the dial began to spin, Joey looked apprehensive. For good reason, too, as the dial landed on a skull token, and the Time Wizard exploded, taking a full 500 life points. The baby dragon chirped again, sounding almost annoyed. Serenity raised her eyebrow at the infant lizard. Their opponent laughed.
"I lay Giant Soldier of Stone in defense mode, and put two cards facedown."
"I sacrifice Baby Dragon to call forth the Red-Eyes Black Dragon, in attack mode!" The giant black lizard sent a ball of fire at the stone monolith, which was reduced to rubble.
"I play Warsbane in attack mode." A young boy appeared, maybe ten or so, his head shaven aside from a single lock of hair from the side of his head. That lock of hair had a golden ring about it, and his eyes were lined with kohl.
"Sis!" Joey yelped as the young Egyptian boy looked back with a smile and a wave at the siblings. "That's Mokuba Kaiba!"
"What?" Serenity asked, wrinkling her forehead. "That's Mokuba?! No way, Father wouldn't have drawn Mokuba Kaiba on a card. And besides, he had this card created long before he met the Kaiba brothers." Their opponent had a strange look on his face.
"I flip my five facedown cards up, and summon forth Exodia, the Forbidden One!"
"Holy shit!"
"Your Exodia destroys my Warsbane, activating its special ability. I call forth Wrath of the Gods!" Instead of the Mokuba doppelganger, there was a figure in ancient Egyptian priestly robes and a hood, eyes of an insane red the only feature visible of his face. He raised his hands, deadly white energy radiating from them. When he brought them down, all three Duelists felt their duel disks shudder from the impact of the Priests' magic.
"What was that?" the opponent asked.
"That was Wrath of the Gods. He appears whenever Warsbane is destroyed, and destroys all cards on the field, reducing all Lifepoints to equal the lowest players. It also makes the monster's points directly affect each player's lifepoints. Since you used Exodia the Forbidden One, and Wrath of the Gods destroyed it, Exodia's points were removed from your lifepoint counter." All three Duelist's Lifepoints began to plummet. Serenity's stopped at 300. Joeys stopped at 2800. The challenger's lifepoints continued to descend long after the siblings', until he was left with zero. He shouted out loudly, crying for someone to forgive him. After a couple minutes, he was left as nothing more than a human-shaped puddle on the ground.
"I believe we take your two rarest cards," Joey proclaimed, sliding his deck safely into his breast pocket. He hunted through the broken-hearted Duelist's deck, finding the Exodia grouping. He handed Serenity a second grouping. "S' far as I'm concerned, these're one card each," he explained. Serenity considered for a moment then nodded.
"If he had two groups of Exodia in his hand, I hate to think what would have happened had I not been here."
"I prob'ly woulda lost my Dragon an' my Swordsman."
"That's very possible." The two siblings made their way out of the alley.
"What happened?!" Tea asked, racing to meet them. Tristan and Yugi made their way close behind.
"Some looser challenged us to a duel."
"I saw that," Tristan said, rolling his eyes.
"Sis an' I wiped the floor wit'im. Seren' 'as one awesome card, too!"
"Which one?" Yugi asked.
"Th' Warsbane. It destroyed Exodia!"
"That's… that's impossible. Nothing can destroy Exodia."
"When the guy drew Exodia, I had Warsbane out. When Warsbane was destroyed by Exodia, it automatically turned into Wrath of the Gods. Because Wrath of the Gods causes all monsters on the field to directly affect their wielder's Life Points, both mine and Joey's life points fell. The other guy's Life Points went down to zero, and he went into a fit of some kind. Joey got his rare card, and, since the guy fell unconscious after his seizure, Joey decided the guy's three Exodia sets counted as one card each. So now I have two copies of Exodia, and Joey has one. Father already gave me a copy in the deck he gave me." She dug out the five cards, handing them to Yugi. "Take these. Joey told me how Weevil Underwood threw your copies overboard on the way to Duelist Kingdom. I know they won't replace the ones your grandfather gave you, but I want you to have them anyways." The way Yugi's eyes lit up told her it was the right thing to do. She saw him as a little brother most of the time, but sometimes he said something very deep and philosophical, and she caught herself thinking of him like a wise old shaman or grandfather.
"Thanks, Serenity! Grandpa gave me the Exodia cards I had, and I was hurt more that the cards he gave me were gone than that I didn't have the most powerful monsters. But thank you." He smiled at her, and for a moment she could see why Tea had fallen for him. She squashed an impulse to hug him, and turned to Joey as he began to speak.
"Yug, I almost lost my Red Eyes back there. If Sis hadn't been there… But I wan' ye ta take my Red Eyes. Ye can know I'm righ' beside ye as yer duellin' wit' my Dragon."
"Joey, no!"
"Yeah, Yug'. I need ye to." The blonde put the rare card in his best friend's hand. "It ain't safe wit' me. Ye'll get use out'a it, too."
"Joey, this is your best card! Your favorite!"
"Ah, I still got lots o' good cards, Yug! An' b'sides, I know you'll take good care o' it fer me."
"Alright. I'll take it. And whenever I use it, I'll think of you."
"Ye do that!"
"Alright. Let's all plan to meet up here at the end of each day," Serenity said, fixing her duel disk to her arm. Joey, Yugi, Tea and Tristan all nodded, and the group split up, the three Duelers going their own ways.
Celebwen Telcontar: Again, sorry this took so long.
Balrog: And when will this story pick up momentum?
Celebwen Telcontar: This chapter got the ball rolling, so to speak.
Balrog: Alright. Hopefully it won't be too boring.
Celebwen Telcontar: Balrog! Please review, people!