Chapter 11: Monster issues
Something struck the God cards at that point, and the Tablet started crystallizing. When it was over, the tablet was frozen in ice and the God cards were not reacting to anything, it felt like their power had been drained. What was more, there were more noises outside. Upon investigation, there were groups upon groups of Duel Monsters in the city, be they roaming the streets or occupying the skyline, from fairies to dragons. Gohan soon landed along with a purple dragon.
"Oh great, Gohan's got a monster by him!" Joey shouted.
"Hey, that's mean!" Gohan retaliated. "You're not a monster, are you Icarus?"
"What! Why'd you name him? He's only just appeared now!"
"That's not true; Icarus and I have been friends for years since I was a boy in fact!"
Joey further panicked when Yugi, who had retaken control, walked up and petted the purring dragon. "So, what brings you here Gohan?" he asked.
"Nothing much, just wanted to stop by for a bit. Little break from studying. I have to say though; I wasn't expecting such a huge welcome."
"You mean the monsters. They appeared just now, but we don't know why."
"Well, from the looks of it, they're not really aggressive, so I don't think there's a need for us to fight them. How about we just go to your home?"
"Good idea actually. I was thinking of questioning Kaiba but the press is probably swarming at KaibaCorp like locusts by this point."
"Don't tell me… I know he likes screwing the rules but that's a bit much!"
"I never said Kaiba's responsible for these events; I just said that the place will be blockaded like mad so we won't get in.
"Can't we just fly in through a window? Oh well, guess we can just watch him on TV then."
As soon as they reached the Game Shop, they turned on the television to find Kaiba denying all involvement. Yugi knew that the billionaire was right, but he himself had one other thing on his mind, although it didn't really matter at this stage due to what was happening: the issue of his mother's absence was starting to bug him again. All that he really knew about that was what his grandfather told him: that she needed to leave very early in his life. As much as Yugi searched through what memories of his infancy he could recall, there was nothing. Solomon didn't tell him why she had to leave, so he had no idea what could be so important to her so as to overrule the need to take care of her family.
Yugi was so caught up in this that it took a slap on the back to break him out of it. Apparently, Solomon took his God cards for safekeeping, and was in the shop area of their residence, the group agreed that Kaiba wasn't responsible for the monster sightings and were getting a bit concerned about the silent treatment. Yugi, too, was wondering what caused him to lose focus like that when suddenly Solomon screamed. When Yugi asked if he was alright after finding him, he announced that the Egyptian God cards were stolen.
The thieves hadn't gotten far, in fact, they were right outside the Game Shop, and Yugi demanded the return of the God Cards. There were four men total, three on motorcycles with the fourth one wearing a cloak, and they just laughed. The cloaked man even put his hands to his face, spreading his fingers as far as they could possibly go. Gohan knew what this meant, but before he could warn the rest, the man shouted "Solar Flare!" after which they were all blinded by a bright flash of light. All they could hear was motorcycles speeding into the distance, and as soon as they were able to open their eyes again, they could see the thieves were gone.
Later, Obelisk the Tormentor appeared at one point in the city, followed by the other two gods, and everyone flew there, Yugi carrying Tea while Gohan carried Joey and Tristan. After they arrived, a fifth man challenged Yugi to a Duel, claiming that he would seal away his soul. As the Duel progressed, Gohan saw the Seal of Orichalcos for the first time, and immediately he sensed something foul was up. He was pretty sure he'd sensed something like this before, but where? Eventually, Yugi won the Duel even though he had Obelisk used against him, but the strange man didn't hand back the card. Instead, he threw it to his accomplices. Gohan immediately tried attacking them, but was blinded by yet another Solar Flare from the cloaked figure. Another one of the thieves announced that, for Yugi being such a good sport, the souls of two people they took earlier would be released, but he would have to fight all of them for the God Cards. They left just as Yugi, Gohan, Tea, Joey and Tristan started opening their eyes. After confirming that the Duelist's soul had indeed been taken, and also taking the strange green stone he wore, they all returned home.
The next day was spent questioning the two children Rex Raptor and Weevil Underwood, and Gohan found their threats of trying to fight them quite amusing. They got round to telling the story of how they lost their souls after a while, after which they were told that the three Egyptian God cards were stolen and to look out for four suspicious bikers. As they walked down the street, discussing why weird things always happen to them, a girl appeared, eventually identified as Rebecca Hawkins due to Yugi's gift before Battle City. Rebecca informed him that her grandfather wanted to see him at the museum, and when they got there, they were greeted by Solomon Muto, Professor Arthur Hawkins and Bulma Briefs.
"What brings you here Bulma?" Yugi asked, surprised
"You know this woman Yug?" Joey asked.
"Not very well, but yeah, he's met me. Bulma Briefs, president of Capsule Corp," Bulma introduced herself. "Yugi and I only saw each other once or twice. I've known Gohan for a bit longer though. Speaking of which, aren't you supposed to have hit the books Gohan?"
"Mom allowed me a break from studying," Gohan answered. "How are things with you and Vegeta?"
"He does seem to have taken a bigger interest in his own son, but you know him, still intent on training."
"Oh well, I guess Vegeta will be Vegeta."
"If I may call your attention to something else…" the Professor cut in, "We believe these monster sightings may have something to do with you Yugi."
Professor Hawkins then went on to explain how Yugi shared a common bond with the Pharaoh (to which Gohan added that he had been sensing two power levels inside Yugi since he solved the Millennium Puzzle), and how this Pharaoh saved ancient Egypt from the darkness of the Shadow Games. But what was a revelation was the fact that he, with Bulma's help, managed to find the lost city of Atlantis and that, somehow, there were Duel Monsters carvings there as well, at least twice as old as their Egyptian counterparts.
Gohan slept over at Yugi's place, and he noticed that his friend was having trouble sleeping, probably due to the quantity or nature of the information that day. Later that night though, something weird happened: there was a strange phenomenon of light in the sky. After the two of them woke up and met up with everyone else, Yugi found a large green crystal in the sky.
It soon broke to reveal a sinister yellow eye, and as soon as Yugi saw this, he got into a stance. "Ka… Me… Ha… Me…HA!" he shouted, thrusting his cupped hands forward, shooting a large beam of energy towards the eye, which retaliated by shooting a tornado from its iris. The attacks crashed into each other and continued to struggle for dominance, neither budging an inch. Yugi's deck suddenly started glowing, and as soon as he saw this, he redirected the energy for his blast to emerge from his left hand (a trick that he learned from Gohan, who had apparently used it against Cell) and with his right, drew a card. It was a dragon, the same dragon that Yugi and the Pharaoh released in a dream not too long ago. Yugi immediately called for the dragon's assistance, shouting its name "Timaeus", after which it appeared and shot a breath of fire at the eye in the sky. A second tornado was launched at its attack, but it didn't seem to have much of an effect in stopping it, and Yugi had gone Super Saiyan and boosted the power of his Kamehameha. The two attacks hit the eye and destroyed it, after which the dragon vanished and Yugi powered down.
A Dark Magician Girl then appeared, warning Yugi, the Pharaoh and Gohan (who was close enough to his friend to hear what she was saying) that the battle was only just beginning and the force they were fighting retreated for the moment, but time was running out. Upon Gohan's request, Yugi informed him that they were fighting an evil known only as the Great Beast, which fed on the souls of humans and Duel Monsters alike.
The following morning, they received a package for Yugi from Pegasus. It was a videotape informing them of what more was at stake and telling him to guard the card enclosed with his life. The day afterwards, they packed their bags and went to the airport, where they were given VIP treatment and a private jet to their destination of Industrial Illusions headquarters. Things got a bit unpleasant later as, after they landed, they ended up at an abandoned petrol station in the middle of nowhere.
A large gang of bikers then surrounded them, cutting them off from the car they had used. Yugi and Gohan quickly moved Tea, Joey and Tristan out of the danger zone in a second, after which they proceeded to defeat the whole gang, destroy their motorcycles and escape in the car. Due to panicking when the petrol station exploded as a result of the battle, Tristan, who was driving, overheated the engine, and they were forced to use Tea to flag down a passing vehicle.
The vehicle they did manage to flag down turned out to have interesting contents: it was Krillin and Android 18, the latter of whom only let the former stop to see what would happen. After Yugi and the others emerged and explained themselves, all seven of them sped towards the city and Industrial Illusions headquarters, where they were greeted with a surprise: in the lobby was Mai Valentine.
End note: I will probably give this story two more updates later this month. Like I said in a previous chapter, I have got a lot of ground to cover and there is one point I really want to reach by December. You may have also noticed an increase of Dragonball Z characters in this part of the story. After finishing the Cell Games, it just felt... wrong... to suddenly exclude most of that universe from the story, after all, especially with a huge battle coming up, what reason do I have to exclude the fighters?