OOOOOOOOHHH! EXCITEMEEEEENNNNNNNTTTTTTTTT~!

A bit of a warning, chapters from this part MIIIIIGHHHT be a bit slow. By that I mean I might go off schedule in updating this story. Don't worry too much! Hopefully the chapters themselves will make up for the date they're posted.

I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, YGOTAS, Hetalia, Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure, Skylanders: Giants, Skylanders: Swap Force, the fanfiction site, Bakura's hair, the British language, Slenderman (the game or the abridged version), Pokemon, or any of the character/trademarks in those.

R&R

ENJOY~!

The place was an abandoned warehouse, like the ones we see Yami constantly being in and challenging people to Shadow Games in in the manga and Season 0.

"This is the place," Bakura announced when they walked into it. He closed the huge double doors behind them.

Ryou and Marik looked around in wonder at the giant place they had walked into.

Bakura immediately ran up a set of steep and narrow stairs up to a hanging walkway suspended several feet above the ground and spanned across the entire first floor.

"So what are the stakes of this Shadow Game?" Bakura asked when he was up.

The hikaris looked up at him. "Oh there aren't any stakes," Ryou replied with a smile. "We're just doing this for fun."

Marik smirked. "Actually..."

Ryou looked at him, his smile fading only slightly. "I said there wouldn't be any stakes, remember? And you agreed to it."

"Yeah. about that... I lied."

Ryou's smile died and his jaw dropped. "But—"

"I may be partially good but I'm still evil," Marik reminded him.

Bakura smirked. He liked Marik's way of thinking, especially since it involved fooling Ryou.

"Here are the stakes," Marik continued. "The loser suffers a penalty game by having to spend an entire chapter or episode being in the other person's game/show. If you lose, you have to spend time in the most disturbing, awkward, and/or odd episode of Hetalia ever. If I lose, I have to spend time in the hardest chapter of the Skylanders game, but not the boss battle chapter."

"Are you bloody kidding me?!"

"It's fair, Limey Man! Do you accept?!"

Ryou remained silent for a moment, wondering if he should accept such stakes. But then he realized something, he was only being wary because he didn't want to be in an episode of Hetalia. But that would only happen if he lost. Looking at his cards—all 32 Skylanders, several character cards, and even several sheep cards—he realized that he didn't have to worry about the penalty game because he wasn't going to lose.

However, he didn't want Marik to have to be in a difficult chapter of Skylanders. He was just that nice of a person.

So what should he do?

"Ryou!" Bakura called down, "if you don't accept then I'm going to take your place in this battle and I will accept."

Ryou bit his lip. If Bakura took his place, he would most likely lose because he didn't know how to play Skylanders and he didn't want his yami playing the penalty game any more than he wanted Marik to play it.

But...

"I accept," Ryou said. He would deal with the consequences later. Hopefully the game would take his mind off of the penalty.

Bakura moved to a spot that would give him the best view. He leaned on the railing and looked down. "This is going to be amusing."

"Then let the Shadow Game begin!" Marik exclaimed. He brought out the Millenium Rod with his free hand.

Ryou held up the Millenium Ring with his free hand.

The two Items glowed, and the entire space around them grew dark and shadowy and Shadowy. A dark energy filled the entire warehouse.
It made Ryou shudder uneasily.
It made Marik shivered uncomfortably.
It made Bakura's heart race excitedly.

"C-cards out," Ryou ordered, getting over his uneasiness. (Although he had grown used to Bakura's shadow games, especially the ones in which he himself was forced to participate in, he had never created his own Shadow Game before, and the feeling of having done so was unnerving.)

Ryou took his cards out of his pocket. They magically floated into a circle around him and organized by element. There were two rows, one for Skylanders and another for the NPCs and sheep.

Marik did the same with his cards. They also floated into a circle around him and organized by continent. He also had two rows, one for countries and one for non-countries.

"So exactly how is this Shadow Game going to work?" Bakura suddenly asked.

"You don't need to worry about that," Ryou said. "We know what we're doing."

"I meant how is the battle going to play out? How are your cards fighting?

"Good question," Marik said. "I was wondering the same thing."

Ryou's characters were Skylanders, so it was obvious which powers they would have. However, Marik's characters were countries and animals, so what would they do?

"Maybe I should explain the concepts and rules again," Ryou said. "Basically, it'll work somewhat like a combination of Pokemon, Skylanders, and a typical RPG."

"Is it like Duel Monsters?"

"No, not at all. There are no life points Like in Skylanders, you lose when you run out of usable characters. But in this Shadow Game, instead of having to restart you lose the Game itself."

"I assume the characters all have attack and defense points?"

"Well...yes..."

"So like Duel Monsters," Bakura said.

"Well... Okay yes it's a bit like Duel Monsters. But more like an RPG adventure game where you have items, attributes, and supplies. We went over this, Marik. My cards are obvious because they just follow how their powers work in the game. The exception is that I can choose from any hats I want for them, and I can have up to 10 of them on the field at once. The same goes for you, Marik; you can have up to 10 countries on the field at once. Also, we can have up to 5 additional characters on the field. For me, those five are NPCs from the game, such as Flynn. For you, that would mean non-countries, basically pets and companions like Tony and Kumajiro."

"Ah-kay," Marik said.

A menu-looking box suddenly appeared in midair to the right of each hikari.

Ryou pointed to his. "This menu is what will allow you to add items and equipment, activate attributes and effects, and other such things."

"I think this gives you an unfair advantage because you're more used to playing these games than I am!" Marik whined.

"Don't try to play it off, Marik," Bakura said. "You've played just as many video games as Ryou. You're just trying to get him to give you some extra advantage."

"Well frig. At least I tried."

"Similar to Pokémon," Ryou continued, "shout out commands to your characters to make them do things such as attacks and skills. Everything else is controlled by the menu to your right."

Marik nodded.

"Pick out your first ten characters. Not the five other characters They won't be revealed until the game has officially begun. Touch a card to choose that character, touch it again to call it back, swipe across the rows to scroll through the cards."

As the two hikaris picked out their characters, Bakura looked down at Ryou with pride and amusement. "Wow. His own Shadow Game. Clearly, I've taught him well. He'd better win this."

"Items and abilities can be used and activated at any time in any order and even in unison," Ryou said.

"Okay, I get it. Now let's start the game so I can win already."

Ryou grinned. "You wish."

Ryou touched the menu and suddenly a piece appeared in his hand. He tossed it on the Portal in front of him.

They were done.

They stood up straight and still, staring the other person down.

Words and numbers suddenly appeared in midair, one line after the other.

Revealing characters in...

3

2

1

GUESS WHAT GUYS?!

YOU get to decide who wins! Who will it be!? Will it be Ryou and his Skylanders or Marik and his Countries?!

(Voting will be open for this and next chapter. When the chapter of the final standoff is posted, voting is over. I'll let you know when I mean.)

See you next chapter!

BYEEEEEEEEEEEE~!