I owe you all a very big apology. I haven't updated this story in a long time and I'm sorry about that but life gets in the way. Also I have been putting a lot of work into a book series that has been in the works for years and it took over what little free time I got. Anyway I digress here is the very long awaited next chapter.
-o0o-
"What?!" Abasi shouted in shock.
When Abasi had awoken that morning she felt refreshed and ready to face another day in Duelist Kingdom. She could even see out of her right eye again as the swelling had gone down but her good mode had changed when she heard about everything the others had done last night well she was a sleep. "You're telling me that not only did you duel some guy name Panic for Mai's Star Chips but Kaiba's showed up last night?"
"Ya pretty much." Tea said.
"Actually you would have liked Kiaba's new dueling system. It was pretty cool." Yugi told her with a smile but he cringed when Joey groaned. "Well except for the fact that he defeated Joey in a duel."
Abasi looked at Joey and she could see that his confidence had taken a blow but she knew the best way to bring it back up. "You know who cares about Kaiba? It's not like his in the tournament. So how about we head out and get you two the rest of the star chips you need to get into the castle."
"Saying of which, where's Mai, Tea?" Tristan asked turning to the only other girl there.
"She said she had to go and to give you this note Yugi." Tea explained as she handed Yugi a folded piece of paper.
Note: I owe you 8 star chips. See you around, Mai.
"Kiss those chips good bye." Tristan said as Yugi blushed.
"I don't know maybe we really can trust Mai." Yugi said thoughtfully.
After that they started walking around looking for other Duelist in the area. The question was asked as to how many could be left on the island but there was no way of knowing as they knew a lot of them had been shipped off the island in ships yesterday. "And some of them were really good players with powerful cards too. We could be next." Yugi said as they walked.
"Not a chance Yug. Those other guys just wanted the prize, you and Joey have a lot more at stake." Tristan said.
"That's true. I've got to rescue grandpa from Pegasus and Joey needs the prize money to help his sister and the duelist we face today we be even stronger because they survived the first round." Yugi said. Of course this put Joey's already dampening confidence at a new low which Tristan didn't help by making fun of him. Joey got angry and picking a fight with his best friend but Tea and Abasi pushed them apart.
"Hey you just bring on any duelist, then I'll cream them." Joey said.
"Right you got to believe in yourself Joey." Abasi said as she patted him on the back.
"Cause nobody else will." Said one of 3 who were up on a cliff watching them with great interest. A deathly pal kid said as he and his two friends laughed as they looked at their group. "I want that one."
"If you like them tall, skinny and stupide Bones, that geekwad sure fits the bill." The guy next to him said as he watched their group through binoculars.
"Oh ya you'll demolish him. So who are they anyway?" asked the last man asked. He had on round sunglasses and had red spikey hair.
"Will you just keep your shirt on Sid, I'm trying to see if I can get a tighter focus on em." The binocular guy said as he tried to get a better look at them.
"Don't know who the others are but I think that little runt is that Yugi kid and the girl with the blond hair is Abasi Klashi." Sid said.
"Yugi, he's the one who beat Kiaba."
"Really?" Bones asked.
"We better tell the boss about this Sigor." Sid said.
They left the cliff and headed to their boss, a man well known to the Duel Monster community as Bandit Keith. "Alright spit it out." He barked at them when they reached him.
"We found three duelists." Sigor started.
One's just a stupide git." Sid added
"But the other two are good duelists. One of those kids names are Yugi right?" Bones asked Sigor.
"He's the kid who beat Kaiba. Everybody figures him to make it all the way to Pegasus castle."
"Yugi Huh?" Bandit Keith asked as he cracked his knuckles. "Ya I heard of him. He's supposed to be a tough little squirt that is if you believe in his reputation."
'Huh?" Bones asked.
"Hey ya! We never seen him duel, how do we know how good Yugi really is?" Sigor asked as he smiled.
"Right nobody's going to the castle sept us because we're team up with the most brilliant, bloom'en duelist on the whole island." Sid said.
"That's right. So if you bums want to win this tournament you'll keep your traps shut. You'll keep cool and you'll let Bandit Keith do all your thinking for ya." When he said this Bandit Keith's lackeys were confident that their boss had the plan. And soon enough he relayed his plan to them and they obeyed like the foolish lackeys they were.
Back with Yugi and the others, they continued to walk around in the woods. "Did you hear that? I think we're being fallowed." Joey suddenly said nervously.
"I think that you getting a little paranoid Joey." Tea said.
"You've been acting hyper ever since you woke up this morning. Man what the heck is eating you anyway?" Tristan asked.
"Come on I'm telling ya, somebody's stocking us." Joey said before he ran off up ahead.
"Where are you going?" Abasi asked.
"To stalk them." Was all Joey said before he was out of sight.
"Man what do you think is eating him?" Tristan asked.
"Are you that oblivious? It has to do with his lost to Kaiba, he's lost confidence in himself." Abasi said before smacking him. "And you haven't been helping much by giving him a hard time."
"Ouch, alright already I'll lay off him for a while. I think I liked it better when you were dead on your feet." Tristan told her as he put Yugi and Tea between them so she wouldn't hit him again.
Soon Joey came across a small river and water fall, so he stopped to clean his hands a bit. "Maybe Tea was right. I guess all I heard was the water fall." He said confidently, more at ease then he had been. It was then that Sigor snuck up behind him and knocked him out.
After a while Yugi and the other began to worry about Joey's absence and started to search the area as they wondered about what could have happened to their friend.
"Joey's been gone way long time." Tristan said as they searched.
"You don't suppose he got lost." Tea suggested.
"No way but he could have been challenged to a duel." Yugi said
"I bet that it. I must have gotten on his case a little too hard about being scared. So now he gone to fight off a duel all by himself." Tristan said feeling bad about how he had treated his best friend.
"I told you to lay off." Abasi said as she glared at him well she tried to see if she could connect to Joey through their bond of friendship. Though she hadn't mentioned it to Yugi yet she wasn't completely recovered from yesterday's events and her face had stared to hurt again. So concentrating wasn't too easy.
"OK let's split up and try to find him." Bakura suggested. Which wasn't a bad idea. They split up into groups with Yugi Tea and Abasi going one way, well Bakura and Tristan went in the other. When splitting up didn't result in finding Joy they meet up again and it wasn't too long after they found Joey's wallet with a picture of his sister inside it.
"Joey would never be careless enough to lose that his sister means more than anything to him." Tristan said as Tea gave it to Abasi to put in her pack for safe keeping. "This is starting to smell like foul play."
"Look over there" Tea said as she spotted a cave nearby. Thinking of no other options they went in to find Joey. Not to fare in they came a cross some coffins just propped up against the walls. "What is this place?"
"Be careful it could be some kind of trap." Yugi said.
"What's up with those coffins?" Tea asked nervously.
"Probably some props set up by Pegasus to freak us out." Abasi said as she dug around in her pack for a flashlight so they could see properly. As she did both Bakura and Tea walked up to the coffins to get a better look at them. In doing so they set off a mechanism that caused the coffins to open and a pair of skeletons popped out. Both Tea and Bakura freaked out as they ran around with skeletons snagged on them causing the others to pull them off in a hurry.
"That Pegasus sure got a sick séance of hummer." Tristan said when it was all over.
"You said it Tristan." Yuig said.
"I did warn you." Abasi said as she finally found her flashlight and flicked it on. They took off running down the tunnel hoping that Joey wasn't too far in but after a few moment they had to stop and catch their breath. "Still no sign of Joey. Hey where did Bakura go?" Tristan said as he looked around and notice another one of their friends missing.
"We didn't take any turns, so where could he have gone?" Tea asked.
"I don't know Tea." Yugi said.
Abasi frowned as she looked down the tunnel behind them. She didn't like the way this was headed. Even though last night Yami had sent Evil Bakura's soul to the Shadow Realm she had the sneaking suspicion that it wouldn't be the last time they would run into him. She just hoped that he hadn't come back so soon. Suddenly the silence was broke by a scream the very much sounded like Bakura and soon they saw him running towards them with a skeleton on his back. Well the others freaked out Abasi just sighed and grabbed the skeleton as Bakura ran past her. "From now on don't going picking up any hitchhikers." She told Bakura blandly as she threw it away.
"Is it safe to open my eyes now?" Tea asked around her tough as it stuck out of her moth for some reason. She, Yugi and Bakura were all on the ground in fright. Tristan at least seemed less freaked out.
"You gave us all quit the scare with that skeleton Bakura." Yugi said as and Bakura sat up. Abasi just rolled her eyes at her friend's antics.
"Sorry."
"Never mind that because now we've got another problem." Tristan said as he indicated the two tunnels that branched off in different directions that were light up with candles on t heads of skulls. "Which way do we go now, anybody got any ideas?"
"Gee both ways look so inviting.' Tea said blandly.
"Ya well if Joey got invited down one of those tunnels then we need to figure out which one." Tristan said.
"Tristan's right we need to find Joey now." Yugi said finally getting to his feet this got the other up and ready to go. That was until Bakura stepped on a trigger of some kind.
"Hey my foot!" he shouted as it sank into the floor a little they then heard an odd sound come from the tunnel behind them and a moment latter a hug bolder came rolling towards them. They immediately freaked out.
"RUN!"
They took off down the left tunnel as fast as their feet could carry them with a giant piece of rock hot on their trail. "Why is the bolder chasing us?" Tea asked.
"Because we're downhill." Tristan shouted.
Poor Bakura was begging for forgiveness as they ran which proved to be a bad thing as he tripped and the next thing they knew the bolder rolled over him.
"It got Bakura."
"Oh no!"
"Don't look back! Keep running or its-" Tristan was cut off as he saw that it was a dead end up a head of them so he changed his plan. "Since there's nowhere to run I'm going to fight."
The other three stared as Tristan skidded to a stop, turned to face the bolder with his fist ready. "Tristan are you nuts?!" Abasi shouted at him. She was trying hard to think of a spell that could save them but she was coming up with blanks.
"Tristan you can't fight a bolder!" the others tried to reason with him.
"I'm gone try." He said as he punched at the bolder with all of his strength- and had it pop the moment it connected right in his fist. They couldn't believe it as they stood there dumbfounded as pieces of the balloon floated to the tunnel floor around them. It seemed that Pegasus had set the entire thing up as a practical joke as the balloon not only looked like a bolder it also had a special speaker inside of it to give it the sound effect that was needed.
"When I see that man I'm going to give him a piece of my mind for scaring us all half to death." Abasi muttered under her breath as they backed tracked the way they had come from to find a trembling Bakura laying on the ground. So after a few moments they finally got Bakura back to his feet and then they headed down the other tunnel and in no time they found Joey at what looked like a graveyard themed playing field.
"Joey!"
Their friend turned and looked at them in surprise. "Yugi your actually here." Joey said looking a bit relieved.
Hearing a growl from one of the guys on the side lines Abasi looked over and glared at the man she knew had been behind this entire duel. Thankfully he hadn't spotted her yet. "Block em." Bandit Keith told the other two on the side lines.
"What kind of arena is this?" Yugi asked.
"Are you crazy why in the world would you accept a duel in a place like this?" Tristan asked him.
"Ya like I had a choice. Those three creeps ganged up on me and forced me into this crazy duel." Joey said.
"Ya that sounds about right from the world's biggest cheater." Abasi said making sure it was loud enough for Bandit Keith to hear her. When he saw who was speaking her glared at her.
"Whoa!" the others said at the two knuckleheads now standing in their way.
"This duel is over." Tristan said.
"That's not up to you chum."
"Well I say it is." Tristan said as he took a step towards them.
"You want to stop them you got to get pass me." Sigo said. Tristan of course charged at him. One of them threw a ball baring at his forehead tacking him by surprise which was all the opening Sigor needed to punch Tristan hard in the gut. They watched as he sank to his knees.
"Tristan!" Joey shouted and went to step off the platform.
"Hold it! Remember if you leave the arena you forfeit the duel and lose. All your star chips belong to me." Bandit Keith said surprising Joey but he didn't pay him any further thought as he turned to Abasi. "Isn't that right Klashi?" there was a challenge in his voice making her glare at him even harder.
"This duel isn't legal anyway." Tea said
"Right Tea." Bakura agreed.
"Wrong Tea. When he threw down his star chips he accepted the duel." Keith said.
"Shut it Bandit Keith. You're nothing but a cheat and a loser." Abasi snapped at him before she turned to Joey. "Kick that guys butt into next week Joey. Show these losers that they can't push you around."
"But-"
"She's right Joey and if you're going to need a little bit of added motivation try this." Tristan said as he sat up and threw Joey his wallet. Joey caught it and saw the picture of his sister. "That's right Joey Your sister. You're dueling for her."
"Thanks man."
"So what's it going to be?" Keith asked having enough of the disgusting. "You going to cut and run dope or are you gona part with your star chips the hard way?"
"Hey I've had it up to here with your smart remarks. Spill who are you anyway?" Joey asked.
"Don't you know? They call me Bandit Keith, which Abasi over there had already said if you had been listening." He said.
Yugi looked at him shocked. "You're Bandit Keith?"
"I've heard that name somewhere before." Tea said.
"Ya he's the intercontinental champ, the guy Kaiba told us about. He's only lost one Duel Monster's challenge and that one was to Pegasus himself." Yugi explained.
"They must not televise the Egyptian tournament at all. I also have beaten him, two years ago in the semifinals. Though it was more like a disqualification as I caught him cheating." Abasi said surprising them.
"Oh can it Abasi. I heard about you losing your parents recently and you haven't competed in a tournament since. I could probably beat you easy this time around." Bandit Keith snapped at her with a smirk.
Abasi growled at him and was about to resort to his comment but Joey beat her to it. "Leave her alone Keith. Right now you should be more worried about your little skull faced friend here losing to me."
"You should just give up now. I've given my little pale Bones here the perfect strategy. You couldn't beat him with every card in your deck." Keith said.
"No body's going to get inside Pegasus castle except Bandit Keith and us." Sigor said.
"You've fought your last duel Joey. Your about to join the other zombies in this graveyard field." Bones said confidently.
"A graveyard field." Yugi said realizing for the first time what their friends was up against.
"Yep the perfect place for zombies to hang out." Abasi said bitterly.
"Come on, play your next card or rest in peace." Bones taunted.
Joey was starting to doubt himself but then he looked down at the picture of his sister. "Serenity. For your sake I got to win." He then set a monster face down on the field in defense mode.
"No all your hopes and all your dreams will die right here." Bone said.
"Says you geek. I'll keep my defenses up until I find a way to attack." Joey said.
"You know you shouldn't broadcast your strategies. Especially when it's a losing one. Bones has a special card in his deck that will render all of your defenses useless." Bandit Keith said.
"You got to be kidding! He can't possibly do that with one card." Joey said in disbelieve.
"Oh ya." Said Bones as he drew his next card and it of course was stop defense card. This of course meant that Joey was at a greater disadvantage. But everything changed when he placed his newly won Red-eyes Black Dragon to take out Pumpkin King. This meant that Bones could not raise his zombie's attack points anymore and he could not use his raise from the dead spell card to ring it back as it was already dead. Unfortunately Joey's Red-eyes was taken out soon after which meant that he no longer had any monsters on the field. They could all see that he was in big trouble but then as Tea was asking Yugi if there was anything he could do Yugi remembered that Joey had a card in his deck that could help. And once again the heart of the cards came through for Joey as he drew his Sword and Shield spell card. This special card switches the Attack and Defense points of the monsters on 5the field. This won the duel for Joey.
They were all relived but Abasi could tell that as Bandit Keith was blowing hot air about losing they would have further trouble form him. This proved true for when they tried to leave and saw the hope of day light at the end of the tunnel they watched hopelessly as the end of the tunnels was closed by Keith goons. Abasi wanted to blow the bolder into a million pieces but two things stopped her. One being that Yami stopped her and the second she didn't have the right spell handy to do it.
It turned out that Bakura's Millennium item lead them through the tunnels systems. Finally they came to a chamber that of course had two duelist that worked for Pegasus. Their names were apparently Paradoxes, they were brothers, Kung Fu masters, that were guarding two doors that either lead to the way out or an endless maze. So even if you won the duel you then had to choose the right door. As another interesting turn of events it was a tag team battle which with the amount of stars they won it would get them into the castle.
Out of all the duels that both Yugi/Yami and Joey had faced this was a dozy as they had to work as a team on the dueling failed to win and of course after along battle they came out victorious. Then of course being in Pegasus employ the Paradox brothers tried to pull one more trick on them with the doors. It turns out that with a flip of a switch they could change which door lead out of the tunnels. Thankfully Yami tricked them and they got back outside. They headed to the castle in high spirits thinking that when they get there they would get in and be a step closer to saving Yugi's Grandpa.
But fate had other things in mind as they reached the front gate of the castle were Kiaba was waiting for them. "I can't let you pass Yugi."
This shocked them all. "I've won ten star chips, so stand aside." Yugi said.
"You may have won enough star chips to qualify for the duelist kingdom playoff Yugi, but I can't let you duel Pegasus. He's mine. You and I are going to have one finale duel you will lose and I will win. The winds of change are blowing Yugi Muto." Seto said as he glared down at the one duelist that had beaten him.
A/N: I'm happy with how this turned out and I know I skipped a bit but I didn't see how having Abashi there would change the story enough to warrant writing about it. As always please read and review and hopefully I will have the next chapter up soon.