Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of its characters. I just want to borrow some of them for a little while. I promise to take good care of them, so please don't sue me!
Chapter 10: JOEY COMES CLEAN
One ring...two rings...three rings...four rings..."Hello?"
"Mai, it's Yugi. Is Tea there?"
"No, Yugi. She called me this morning, but I really didn't talk to her."
"She didn't mention any plans for today, did she?"
"No. You sound worried. Why, Yugi?"
"Well, her father called here. She never showed up for work today"
"Oh. I'll be there as soon as I can, ok?"
"Ok, Mai. Thanks." Yugi hung up the phone. He looked at Joey and Tristan, "She called Mai, but Mai doesn't know anything. Tristan, why don't you and I go search for Tea between here and her home. Joey, you wait for Mai to get here, then you two can look between the diner and Tea's house."
"Yug, I don't think that I-"
"Look!" Yugi cut him off, "I know that something happened last night. Maybe you can straighten things out with Mai while you're busy looking for Tea. C'mon, she's not going rip your head off-"
"Don't be too sure about that, Yug. Believe me, I'm not-."
"We don't have time to argue. Just do this, ok? For Tea?"
"Ok, fine. For Tea."
"Come on, Tristan, let's go!" Yugi and Tristan dashed out the front door, pulling it closed behind them.
The boys were three blocks from Tea's house when Tristan pointed to the alley, saying, "Let's check that one, too." They turned and slowly began moving towards the end, cautiously checking through a dismal assortment of discarded things. "Yugi! I found her, over here!" Tristan was kneeling beside Tea.
Yugi rushed over and carefully placed a hand on Tea's shoulder, shaking her gently. "Tea, can you hear me? Tea? C'mon, Tea! Snap out of it!" Tea moaned, and tried to move. "Tea! Wait, don't move-you might be hurt." He turned to Tristan. "Hurry, go see if you can get someone to call 911!"
Tea opened her eyes. Her vision slowly cleared, and she saw Yugi's worried face. "Yugi?"
"Yeah, Tea, it's me! I'm glad we found you. Do you remember what happened? No, don't move. Tristan's gone for help."
Tea was silent for a while, the said, "Someone attacked me. But I never saw anyone. I heard a voice-Yugi...I think it was Vicki!"
"Vicki?"
The wail of a siren was growing nearer. An ambulance screeched to a halt at the top of the alley, it's red flashing lights creating whirling red patterns on everything in the alley.
"Mmmm-hmmm." Tea closed her eyes, trying to remember. Paramedics had approached with a gurney and a case of medical equipment. Yugi moved out of the way. He and Tristan moved closer to the other wall. One of the paramedics knelt beside Tea, pulled out a flashlight, and began waving it before her eyes. He asked her questions, and ran his hands over her body, checking for broken bones.
The paramedics carefully placed Tea on the gurney, and were lifting her into the back of the ambulance when Joey and Mai came running up. "I don't think there were any serious injuries, but we still have to take your friend to the emergency room and have her spine examined properly."
"Come on, we'll go in my car. Thank goodness, Tea's going be alright!" Mai said hopefully as she turned back to where she had left her car. Everyone piled in and yanked the doors shut. Mai started the engine, and pulled out into traffic. "Does anyone know what happened to her?"
"Someone attacked her, obviously. She told me she heard Vicki, but she never saw anyone. Joey, does that make sense to you? Why would Vicki do that?"
After a moment of shocked silence, Joey let out a deep sigh. "I dunno why she would hurt Tea, but I believe that Vicki coulda done it. Things have been so hectic since she showed up! There's something I never got to tell any a you about her-"
"She's been hypnotized, and now she thinks she's Rambo?" Tristan interrupted.
"No! Tristan, lemme finish! When I first met Vicki, she told me she was-
".the biggest fan of 'The Matrix' on the planet?" Tristan joked.
"NO! Vicki said she was a duel monster from the Shadow Realm."
"Oh, is that all?" Mai asked. "Then that sounds like a job for Yami!"
A flash of light illuminated the Millennium puzzle, and Yami appeared in Yugi's place.
"Tell me everything about Vicki, Joey."
First, Joey told them how he had been mumbling stuff about Mai, when Vicki appeared and tackled him. Then he told them he thought that he was dreaming, even when Vicki appeared in his shower. (Everyone made a note to ask Joey more about that later.) He told them that she called herself "The Elegant Vixen," and why she called him "keeper." And then he explained why he lied about her being one of Serenity's friends. Joey had forgotten that Mai was driving the car, so he told them that Vicki wanted to help him out by making Mai jealous. (As Mai turned the car into a parking space, she made a note to ask Joey more about that later). Finally, Joey told them that he got the chills when Vicki described the duels she fought.
"Why is that, Joey?"
"Cuz she made them duels sound like death matches. No limits, winner-take-all? Even worse than when you and Yugi faced Pegasus in the Shadow Realm."
Everyone got out of the car and walked into the hospital. They asked the woman at the counter about Tea, and learned that X-rays were being taken to check for internal injuries and spinal damage. The woman said that they would be able to see Tea in a little while.
They moved to some chairs in the waiting area and sat down. Yami closed his eyes and filled his mind with every detail about Vicki, 'The Elegant Vixen," searching for memories and answers. Tristan, Joey and Mai sat quietly, guessing that Yami didn't need any distractions right now.
Yami's mind had just grabbed hold of a memory about "The Elegant Vixen," when a nurse told them that Tea had suffered no major injuries, and that she would be discharged after she finished getting dressed.
"That's good news!" Joey exclaimed, and everyone agreed. A heavy burden of guilt had been lifted from his shoulders. When Tea slowly walked through the double doors a few minutes later, everyone rushed to gently hug her. Together, they walked out to Mai's car.
As Mai pulled out of the parking lot, heading for Tea's house, Yami spoke. "I just remembered something about The Elegant Vixen and the Shadow duels."
I miss something guys?" Tea asked.
[end chapter 10
Magicman looks at disclaimer, then looks at Tea in the alley. "#$% author is lying!" Magicman stuffs author into the Millenium Magical Hat and send her to the Shadow Realm until author tells Magicman that Tea is fine.
I hope my readers decide to stay and see the end of the story. I'll tell you how I came up with the idea for this story, and try to give you an idea of where I'm going with all this.
Have you seen the episode where Shadi examines Yugi's mind while he's searching for the thief of the Millennium eye? In that episode, the Dark Magician appears to make Shadi leave Yami's soul room. The Dark Magician obeys Yugi and stops trying to hurt Shadi. Shadi is surprised, and he says something along the lines of, "The Dark Magician only obeyed [Yami / Pharaoh] (implied)."
That line gave me the idea that Duel Monsters were actually servants / warriors back in Ancient Egypt. And that the duel monsters that everyone knows today may have been very different from those of ancient Egypt.
I concluded there were three kinds of duel monsters: 1) Some of the ancient Duel Monsters are shown in the hieroglyphs, and Pegasus copied them [Dark Magician, BEWD, Giant Stone Soldier] 2) Some of the modern Duel Monsters were actually created by Pegasus, so they wouldn't be in the ancient hieroglyphs [machine monsters] 3) Some of the ancient Duel Monsters were never shown in hieroglyphs so Pegasus wouldn't have known anything about them. [The Elegant Vixen is in this group]
Now, going back to the issue of obedience. What if there had been a duel monster who had been banished for disobedience? Is it likely that there would be any record of that duel monster in the hieroglyphs? That is how I came up with the Vicki's character.
I hope that will help you decide. I also hope that wasn't a spoiler for anyone.