Pegasus’s voice cut through the cheer section. “May the second match of the semi-finals begin~!”
Joey: 4000 Rex: 4000
For all his bluster, good cheer, and joking around with the rest of the guys, Joey had felt his stomach become filled with almost a sort of iron-like feeling the moment he stepped on the island. It wasn’t nerves, though he did feel nervous enough. Nor was it fear, for Joey trusted Yugi to get the job done even if he himself couldn’t make it.
It was purpose. Purpose that was narrowed into a spear’s point flying toward his target, Pegasus the rat. Joey knew it in every bone in his body – it had to be either him or Yuges who got to that sniveling, simpering jerk to stamp him out like a cockroach on the kitchen floor, leaving nothing behind but an ugly brown smear and a sense of lingering disgust.
It had to be him or Yuges who won, so he could get the money for Serenity’s surgery.
Purpose propelled Joey into the seat at the dueling table for a rematch with Rex Raptor. Purpose quieted the cheers in his ears from the balcony, even though their true volume hadn't lowered a bit. Purpose hardened that iron-like feeling in his stomach to a point where he felt it couldn't be broken at all, and then one look at Rex's own steely eyes was enough to remind him that the duel had only just begun.
“I’ll take the first turn, Wheeler!” Rex announced with eyes as sharp and cold as flecks of iron. He drew a card, and in a manner that was completely different than their previous duel only a few days ago, placed a monster in face-down defense position, set a card face-down, and passed his turn.
Joey’s face grew sterner… until an evil smile grew on it like mold grew on the bathroom floor. This was an insanely important duel for him, but he’d be damned if it was spent moping about!
“Cold feet, Dino-boy? Feeling the ice age around the corner to wipe out all your creatures? Fine by me, because I summon my trusty Axe Raider (1700/1150) to chop me off some dirty dino heads!”
“Meteor, meteor!” Rex snarled back as he flipped over his face-down trap, “It was a meteor that brought down the dinosaurs! A meteor from space! And this ain’t a meteor, but it’s gonna help destroy you all the same, moron! Here’s my trap card, Threatening Roar! You can’t attack this turn!”
A large, scaled dinosaur briefly appeared from thin air to let out a tremendous roar that left Joey’s armored, axe-wielding warrior cowering in his boots.
“It is my duty as a man,” Rex declared with passionate eyes, “to spread information about dinosaurs!”
“I don’t care!” Joey announced to the world. His evil smile widened. What he was about to say… was a declaration of war! “It is my duty as a man to spread misinformation about dinosaurs!”
Both boys glared at each other with such force that it felt to the observers that they were trying to light each other on fire.
“Well, I guess since I can’t attack… I’ll slap down a face-down and end my turn.” Joey said with a nonchalant shrug. Ain’t nothing he could do about it since he couldn’t attack.
“My turn. Draw!” Rex growled out. “This one isn’t exactly a dinosaur, but I consider it close enough to count. I flip-summon Gale Lizard (1400/700)! Its flip effect triggers, kicking up a windstorm to sweep your warrior back to your hand!”
“A wizard lizard!” Joey gasped out as the orange, winged reptile launched a tornado from its wings that his Axe Warrior could not withstand. Such a magical effect, one that left his field wide open!
“A lizard wizard!” Rex snarled back, jabbing a finger at Joey for good measure. "But if you think that's magical, you haven't seen anything yet! This guy might not be a true dinosaur, but with a little help from the power of drugs, I can change that in a heartbeat! I activate my spell card, Ultra Evolution Pill! By sacrificing my reptile-type Gale Lizard, I can special summon one dinosaur-type monster from my hand! Coming all the way from the Cretaceous period to kick your stupid butt, stomp onto the field with fire and fury! I call forth the Super-Ancient Dinobeast (2700/1400)!”
A giant grey dinosaur lumbered onto the field, flapping a pair of small bat wings experimentally with every step it took. Atop its head were two long, pointed horns, and its eyes were like red pools of blood.
“Ha!” Joey laughed out loud, “What an accurate dinosaur! I agree that every T. rex had horns, wings, and stupid grey skin!"
Rex let out a howl of rage, pounding the table with his fist and gnashing his teeth, but he had no comeback, as the dinosaur truly was an inaccurate representation of what it actually should be.
“Death to the heretic!” Rex Raptor yelled, “Super-Ancient Dinobeast, beat Joey to within an inch of his life!”
A vortex of yellow energy built up in the dinosaur's mouth, shooting out a laser beam threatening to take a fat chunk out of Joey's life points. But, before the energy could strike, Joey flipped over a trap card of his own.
“Do you love gambling? I hope you do, because I LOVE GAMBLING!” Joey shouted, standing up in his seat for good measure so that he could more properly shout his devotion to the rafters. “Flip me a coin, because it’s a 50/50 here! Activating the continuous trap card, Fairy Box! Whenever you declare an attack, I call heads or tails, then toss a coin. If I call it right, your monster’s attack gets turned to zero until the end of the battle phase. I call it wrong, nothing happens. Capiche?”
“Capiche.” Rex earnestly nodded, every iota of his attention being focused on a holographic quarter that had formed on the table.
Joey glared at the coin. Coin, coin, what were its thoughts? What did the money whisper into his ears like an alien beaming thoughts into his precious grey matter? First there was nothing. Nothing but silence. Then there were voices, but the voices had nothing to do with coins. It was all…
‘Spread misinformation about dinosaurs spread misinformation about dinosaurs spread misinformation about dinosaurs spread misinformation about dinosaurs spread misinformation about dinosaurs spread misinformation about dinosaurs spread misinformation about dinosaurs spread misinformation about dinosaurs-‘
“Did you know black-and-white TV was invented back in the caveman times, when they were still hunting dinosaurs for meat?” Joey suddenly announced.
“NO!!!!” Rex shuddered and screamed like a witch melting in a pot of water, “Cavemen did not live at the same time as dinosaurs, unless you count very distant relatives like the alligator!”
Joey nodded sagely. “Alligators are dinosaurs.”
“NO! Distant! Relatives! Not dinosaurs, distant relatives!”
“Alligators are dinosaurs!”
“Relatives!”
“Dinosaurs!”
“Relatives!”
They were at an impasse, even as Joey declared ‘Heads’ and the quarter spun through the air. Both boys watched it closely, as if the result of the coin toss would also decide the result of their argument.
“HEADSSSS!!!” Joey screamed, standing and then falling to his knees with his arms held high up in the air above his head, like a man in a desert who had finally seen a distant oasis after countless days spent suffering under the burning sun.
Rex closed his eyes and pounded his fist onto the table. “Damn it! How could you do this to me! How could you!?!”
The yellow energy dissipated into thin air mere moments before it would have struck, leaving Joey’s life points untouched as the dinosaur’s attack points briefly went down to zero.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
“Sir.”
Pegasus glanced away from the duel of fools to the black-suited security guard at his side. The man was holding a serving tray with a nice cup of tea on it, freshly poured and steaming. Pegasus accepted the offered drink and lifted the cup to his lips. Earl Gray, if he had to guess from the fragrance.
A delicious drink to pair with a duel of surprisingly high entertainment value. Now, if only he could read a comic with it! Such a pity, but as the master of the castle and the host of this tournament, it would be perhaps a little bit rude even for his tastes to do so. No, despite his intentions for the tournament, and how little the entire event mattered (other than his fateful duel with Yugi), Pegasus did feel he owed these gathered duelists the honor of at least watching their duels with his mostly full and undivided attention. No matter how ridiculous this little… rematch between Joey Wheeler and Rex Raptor was proving to be.
“Any news on our little ‘situation’?” Pegasus whispered the question out of the corner of his mouth to the guard, who frowned in response.
“No, Mr. Pegasus. No sign of the Sons. No more disappearances either. We did find Mark, though. Some… crazy talking stork used him to access the castle? He’s okay, just a bit shaken. The bird didn’t hurt him.”
“Hm.” Was Pegasus’s only response. Had his message via the death of Purple Fall truly struck that deeply? He couldn’t say for sure, but if it did, Pegasus would take it as a small win. Being able to push off handling pest control on his island until after the tournament would be the most convenient possibility of them all. And the magic bird… that too was filed away in the ‘deal with it later’ folder in Pegasus’s head. Again, as long as it didn’t mess with his plans for Cecelia. That going smoothly was all that mattered.
“And…” The guard hesitated until a slight nod from Pegasus’s head pushed him to continue, “Phillip Jenson and Jean Dubois wandered off.”
Really?
Pegasus glanced up at the balcony, his remaining normal eye widening a fraction upon seeing the two boisterous men absent. Pegasus had been focused enough on the duel that the change had escaped him. That was… odd. Not him missing them leaving, but that those two left to begin with. They’d seemed rather intent on cheering Yugi Muto on mere minutes ago.
“No matter.” Pegasus eventually decided. He had already confirmed neither man meant any harm, nor did they intend to interfere with his plans. Considering that, he cared not what they did.
“Sir.” The guard acknowledged with a nod.
Pegasus turned his attention back to the duel. Try as he might, a slight smile crept up on his lips from the sight of the duel. Joey Wheeler and Rex Raptor. They might be opponents, but they sure did look like they were having fun despite it all.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
On the field, the situation had changed rapidly. One more powerful dinosaur had joined Super-Ancient Dinobeast on Rex’s field – the blade-covered Sabersaurus (1900/500)! Meanwhile, Joey was barely staying afloat from the power of his Fairy Box continuous trap. While it did require Joey to pay 500 life points during each of his own standby phases as the cost to stay on the field, the teenage gambling addict had so far managed to successfully call every single coin toss correctly, causing Rex to accumulate a serious amount of battle damage due to the attack dropping effect. Yet, such was the power of Rex Raptor’s face-down cards that Joey was unable to fully press the advantage, allowing for the Dino-duelist’s field to grow in power by the turn despite the losses.
Three of Joey’s turns had passed since the activation of Fairy Box.
“Draw!” Joey shouted as he started his turn, paying another 500 life points upon reaching his standby phase.
Joey: 2000 Rex: 1750
His eyes widened.
“Looks like Lady Luck sure has a crush on me today!” Joey called out. “Here’s a combo Yuge’s helped me figure out yesterday! I activate Polymerization, fusing my Red-Eyes Black Dragon with The Dark – Hex-Sealed Fusion to bring forth the unstoppable skeletal dragon with bones of pure black steel! Fight by my side, Black Skull Dragon (3200/2500)!”
As the giant winged dragon of skull and bone stomped onto the field, Joey began to explain with an expression of pure pride on his face.
“See, I don’t own any copies of Summoned Skull, but last night Yuges told me about this new line of cards called the Hex-Sealed Fusions. As long as the other fusion material is the right one, I can use a Hex-Sealed Fusion as a substitute for the other material! Pretty super cool, right?”
Rex rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Stop bragging about taking my best card.”
“Hehe, you were the one who wanted to ante up! Wake up loser and smell the loser flowers, because it's loser o'clock on the holiday for losers in Loserville!”
“Says the guy at 2000 life points!”
“Yeah, says the guy who just dropped a big dragon on the field! Plus, you’re 250 life points lower than I am! Battle phase! Black Skull Dragon, destroy Super-Ancient Dinobeast! Send it right back to the Stone Age!"
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“Graahhh! Dinosaurs were extinct by then! And you know what, I’ll make your stupid dragon extinct too! Here’s my trap card, Reinforcements!”
While Joey clutched his head while screaming “Again?!?!?!?!?”, Rex quickly explained the trap’s effect.
“By targeting a monster on the field, I can make that target gain 500 attack points until the end of the turn. My choice is Super-Ancient Dinobeast! While it can’t outpower Black Skull Dragon, I can sure as heck make it an even trade!”
Super-Ancient Dinobeast (2700/1400 -> 3200/1400).
Rex spoke the truth. Super-Ancient Dinobeast now possessed equal attack power to Joey’s fusion monster, meaning that once the battle resolved, both creatures crumbled to dust to rot away in the graveyard.
But Joey grimly endured. Setting a face-down card onto the field in one of his spell/trap card zones, he passed his turn to Rex, who drew a card with a pensive stare at Joey’s field.
“How about this?” Rex spoke after a few seconds, revealing a spell card in his hand. “Nobleman of Extermination! By targeting your face-down card, I will destroy it! Then if it’s a trap card, it gets banished, and both of us will have to reveal our decks to banish all cards with that same name!”
A bead of sweat dripped down Joey’s cheek. “Not so fast! Yugi told me about this one! So long as I can activate my trap in response, I can still get its effect, and you won't have a card left over to banish! Activating the trap card, Red-Eyes Spirit! It lets me special summon one Red-Eyes monster from my graveyard! Come on back, buddy, my Red-Eyes Black Dragon (2400/2000)!"
A sleek, black-scaled dragon with eyes of deep ruby red soared onto the field to glare at the two remaining Dinosaurs. It did not seem to recognize its former master, instead merely looking at the dinosaurs with a hint of hunger and fury in its gaze.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Between loud shouts of ‘GET HIM JOEY! YOU CAN DO IT, YOU CAN DO THIS!’, Tea couldn’t help but smile at the ridiculous, but still close duel out on the main floor. Even who the participants were was odd in a somewhat funny way. Who woulda’ thought Joey would be fighting Rex for a second time, all the while they were already acting like old friends?
Of course, if she went down that rabbit hole, then who would have thought Tea would become friends with Joey after how bad a jerk he used to be? But lo and behold! Joey was actually a good guy once he shed the jerkish skin of jerkdom he’d worn for so long in school, back when he’d been bullying Yugi in all sorts of cruel ways.
What a rabbit hole! Because it wasn’t just Joey who her past self would have been surprised about, but Tristan as well! Plus by now Yugi and Joey were technically fighting to not only free Yugi’s gramps, but Seto and Mokuba freaking Kaiba! After all that happened at Death-T! The weirdest part was that even Tea felt concern for the elder Kaiba brother. Worrying about Mokuba was normal. Kiddo was dealt a bad hand in life. But Seto Kaiba?!? Doctor, please send over a doctor, because Tea wasn’t sure if her brain was working alright!
Bakura was the most normal of their friend group, if a girl was apt to ignore the freaky magic ring with a habit of mind controlling the poor guy to do seriously scary stuff. Add onto that the two formerly homeless bums (she considered that title as not one born out of malice, but a fully good-natured one) of Phil and Jean, and things got even weirder!
Added to that were Mai Valentine and Rex Raptor even! Two duelists who’d been jerks at first, but… not so much anymore. It felt like those two had been so wrapped up in the game that once they’d finally been shaken out of the ‘win at all costs’ mindset, they’d chilled out enough to be good company.
Sheesh. If the Tea of a year or so ago could see her now… she probably wouldn’t know whether to laugh or cry…
Tea shook her head. No matter how weird their friends were, it didn’t matter now. She put every ounce of her strength into her lungs to shout out cheers at full force, even as the two dueling dorks continued to trade dinosaur banter like they were born to do it.
“JOEY! BEAT HIS BUTT! SEND HIM BACK TO WHEREVER DINOSAURS CAME FROM!”
By now her lungs ached. Her throat felt cracked, even as she paused to take another long gulp of water from a beautifully ornate glass Phil had produced from under his ratty jacket, one of the many drink glasses that he had handed out to the rest of the gang.
Where he’d gotten them, she didn’t know, and considering the dude refused to elaborate, she also didn’t want to know. Phil, bundled with his odd habit of holding animated back-and-forth conversations with thin air at a moment's notice, also kinda had a proven track record of not giving a hoot about such things as 'laws'.
The ice-cold water rushed into her mouth, cooling the cracked surfaces with such a blessed sensation that Tea felt like she could let out a groan of happiness. That feeling did not stick around, for as soon as she put the glass down, Tea resumed her cheers. She didn’t want to stop for more than a few seconds, nor did she feel that she could. Banter or no banter, friendly-looking duel or no, Tea could see through Joey a heck of a lot easier than the guy thought she could. Behind all the jokes was a boy who was still desperately trying every trick in the book to beat Rex Raptor. It was as clear as day to her eyes. She didn’t need some freaky magic eye to see inside Joey’s skull.
Joey Wheeler, the tough, stand-up, and all-around goofy guy was, at his heart, a big brother fighting tooth and nail to get his little sister's sight back.
“JOEY! WIN JOEY! YOU CAN DO IT!”
That was Joey in a nutshell. No matter how much he tried to hide it, Tea knew.
“YOU CAN’T STOP HERE JOEY! DON’T MISS OUT ON YOUR REMATCH WITH YUGI!”
That was why Tea couldn’t help but cheer her heart and lungs out, even if her ultimate hope was for Yugi to win the whole thing.
“DON’T GIVE UP! KEEP IT GOING!”
Because Joey was her friend. Because of that, she would never stop rooting for him.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Rex curled his lip in irritation. “My ace monster!” He complained.
“Mine now,” Joey wagged a finger, “See, I can admit it! I’m at a disadvantage here. Don’t have the cards to really make things crazy, not like Kaiba does! But I don’t like fiddling around making super weak monsters work either, like my boy Yuges! So, all I can do is scrimp, scrounge, and gamble my way to victory! This is my dueling strategy!”
“Dueling strategy, smueling strategy!” Rex countered, “My dragon may have betrayed me, but there’s a reason why Red-Eyes is a dragon instead of a dinosaur!”
“Because it survived the ice age?” Joey cheekily spoke up.
“NO! Because dinosaurs are cooler than dragons! A true dinosaur would never turn its back on me! Here’s an example right front and center! By sacrificing my Sabersaurus, I tribute summon the level six Frostosaurus (2600/1700)!”
As a giant ice-covered Brachiosaurus strode onto the field to the sounds of frozen winds blustering through the air, Joey’s mouth hung open.
“Why isn’t that your ace?!?!” He shouted, pointing toward the frozen dinosaur.
“Duh, because Red-Eyes is rarer.”
“But Frostosaurus has 200 more attack points and only needs one tribute, instead of the two tributes Red-Eyes needs!”
Rex Raptor was at a visible loss for words. Never in his life had he even considered that!
“I-“
“More attack! Easier to summon! Do! You! Understand!” Joey shouted once more, gesturing wildly with his hands for good measure, and even making a few caveman noises in case Rex was having problems with his Japanese.
“The moron is right…” Rex muttered in disbelief, speaking just loud enough for Joey to hear and scowl in anger in response. Rex's eyes flashed. A decision was made. "Alright! I’ll activate Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy your Fairy Box! Frostosaurus, you are now my ace monster! Destroy the false prophet Red-Eyes Black Dragon! Strike for all dino-kind!”
“Not so fast!” Joey roared, “Here’s my other face-down card, which you conveniently did not have another anti-face-down card to use on! I activate my quick-play spell card, Graceful Dice! I roll a die, and all my monsters will gain attack and defense equal to the result times 100!”
A holographic die formed onto the field, but this time it was not rolled by itself. Instead, a sharp set of black claws grasped it firmly within a palm, with Red-Eyes Black Dragon staring at the small white cube with a solemn gaze. Then, as quick as a snake, the dragon held up its other arm, which was covered with a small line of white powder. The dragon’s snout buried itself in its arm, sniffing up every grain of the powder before letting out a magnificent roar and throwing the die high into the air.
“Come on, gimme a six! Baby needs a new pair of shoes!” Joey called out, clasping his hands together in a gesture of prayer toward the crippling gambling addiction gods.
Six.
“YEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!” Joey sank to his knees in pure joy, but that was not for long.
“Sucks for you, Wheeler!” Rex cut through Joey’s enthusiasm like a knife through butter by revealing a quick-play spell card of his own. “Blindside me with a stupid dice card once, shame on you! Blindside me with a stupid dice card twice, shame on me! And I ain’t about to feel an ounce of shame! Here’s my quick-play spell card, Rush Recklessly! By targeting my Frostosaurus, it will gain 700 attack points until the end of the turn!”
Red-Eyes Black Dragon (2400/2000 -> 3000/2600). Frostosaurus (2600/1700 -> 3300/1700).
Even as the might of the strange white powder that was definitely not a controlled substance empowered Red-Eyes Black Dragon, a formidable aura wrapped around the glacial skin of Frostosaurus to lend it a fearsome strength of its own, enough to overpower the dice-boosted Red-Eyes in a head-on confrontation.
Joey: 1700 Rex: 1750
“Looks like I have more life points now~.” Rex mocked Joey’s despair with a cheeky tone. “I’ll end my turn with that.”
Joey’s eyes flashed with fighting spirit as he drew a card. “You might’ve got me good there, but never count my dragons out for good until they’re out for good!”
“That doesn’t make any sense!” Rex snapped back.
“Well, does this, then? Here’s my equip spell, Re-Fusion! By paying 800 life points, I can resurrect my fallen Black Skull Dragon from the dead and equip it with this card!
Joey: 900 Rex: 1750
Rex nodded, with Joey mirroring his action quickly enough. “Yes, yes. That does make sense.” Rex sagely commented.
“Of course it does, it makes sense, it does it does.” Joey agreed. Both boys continued to nod, nodding faster and faster and faster until their heads started to feel woozy.
“Now, make this make sense! Black Skull Dragon, destroy Frostosaurus!”
This time there were no tricks up Rex’s sleeves. Black Skull Dragon shot out a burst of burning flames, melting the frozen dinosaur until it was nothing but a pile of steaming bones.
Joey: 900 Rex: 1150
“I’ll slam down a face-down and end my turn.”
Rex drew a card, looked at it, and sneered.
“Hope that face-down can save you, because your monster won’t! A meteor might’ve made the dinosaurs extinct, but it looks like a black hole killed off the dragons! Here’s my spell card, Dark Hole! It destroys all monsters on the field!”
Joey groaned as his fusion monster was destroyed once more, being banished this time due to the drawback in Re-Fusion’s effect.
“But do you have a strong monster?” Joey quickly shot out, recovering from the shock of the rapid black hole faster than Rex could have imagined.
“As it turns out, I do! A familiar monster, at that! Fight by my side once more, oh king of dinosaurs! I summon Two-Headed King Rex (1600/1200)!”
Amid Joey’s shouts of ‘do dinosaurs even have two heads?’, a giant, blue-skinned dinosaur stomped out onto the field, with wings beating and both heads ferociously gnashing their teeth.
“Attack! Destroy the spreader of misinformation!”
But Joey had one last trick at his fingertips. Flipping over his face-down, the boy looked the most serious he’d been since the duel began.
“Not on my watch. One last chance, one last gamble! I activate my quick-play spell card, Roulette Spider!”
“A long shot,” Rex Raptor sneered.
“Yup, but I told you once, so I’ll tell you twice. A guy like me has to take the risky choices to make up for other crap! Well, you look like you know what’s up with this card, but I’ll explain it for the audience. When an enemy attacks, I get to roll a six-sided die. If it’s a one, my life points get halved. Two, the attack becomes a direct one. Three, I change the target to a monster I control. Four, I change the target to a monster you control. Five and six are the fun ones! If it’s a fiver, I can negate the attack, and you take damage equal to your monster’s attack. Six, your monster just freaking dies!”
“As I said, a long shot.” Rex Raptor nodded toward the rubbery-limbed spider slowly dragging itself onto the field. It wasn’t a quick process, as the suction cups it had for feet and the giant red arrow sticking out of its butt seriously impeded its movements.
“Ain’t nothing in life that’s worth a darn that you can’t get without some risk.” Joey agreed. “Spider, throw me a die and make it pretty! Uncle Joey needs a five or higher!”
The cartoonish spider let out a wheeze of effort as it grabbed a holographic die and threw it in the air. Every person in the room held their breath as the white cube tumbled up to the rafters and started its arc back down to the table. What would it be? Was it so unbelievably over, or was Joey about to be so utterly back?
A light clatter broke the silence.
One.
Joey closed his eyes.
For all the banter, all the jokes, teasing, shouting, and laughter. For all of that, deep in his heart he'd never for a single second taken his eyes off the prize. He’d played his best cards. Used his best moves. Fought through the island with all the tenacity he could muster, all so he could reach the finals.
And here he was.
He’d lost. His luck had run dry.
The attack landed as if it were in slow motion. His life points being halved by Roulette Spider hardly mattered. Two-Headed King Rex had more than enough attack points to wipe him out with or without it.
Joey: 0 Rex: 1150
He couldn’t muster the strength to speak the words aloud. He wouldn’t tarnish Rex’s victory, not when the opposing duelist had fought so hard in their rematch. But in his head, there was only one thought, one thought that dominated everything else, even the rapidly decreasing life point counter.
Serinity. I’m… sorry. Your big bro couldn’t make it in the end.
Joey shared a firm handshake with Rex Raptor, both teens swearing to duel again so their 1-1 record could be decided once and for all. He turned, walking back to the balcony. Only when he passed Yugi on the way back did he pause.
“Joey…” Yugi hesitantly began.
Joey let out a wild grin.
“Yugi. I’m entrusting it all to you. Win.”
Yugi firmly nodded. His eyes were utterly serious, the way they tended to get when the other Yugi was at the wheel.
“I swear I will.”
Joey fist bumped Yugi.
“Darn right.” He said, and then continued to walk to the balcony. His stomach was still swirling with disappointment over his loss… but he knew in his heart Yugi would win. And that was more than enough to bring a surge of willpower through his bones once more. It wasn’t over yet.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
“Bird, bird? Here, birdie birdie!” Phil called out, blissfully unaware of how Joey’s duel had ended. He hadn’t meant to skip out on cheering Joey on, but halfway through the duel, he saw a flash of white feathers in the corner of his eye. One quick word to Jean was enough to confirm – the Frenchman had seen it too. Phil wasn’t going crazy! Neither of the men could help themselves at that point. They just had to see what that rascal of a talking bird was up to!
Hallway after hallway, they pursued the bird, never seeing anything more than a white feather or two disappearing behind corners as the red-booted stork continued to evade them.
“Faster!” Phil shouted, breaking out into a full-on sprint alongside Jean. That burst of speed finally got them what they needed.
“Yo! Bird! Kounotori!” Phil shouted out to the stork at the end of the hallway. Only then did they realize it wasn’t their burst of speed that had allowed them to catch up, but that the bird had stopped!
Kounotori Tori, the stork, was alone in the hallway, other than for Phil and Jean. Its eyes were deadly serious, and the little red boots at its feet looked… wet. Another glance was enough for Phil to notice a trail of faint red boot prints on the floor.
Blood.
Bloody boots.
The level of wariness in Phil’s mind crept up by a notch, but it wasn’t enough to hold back his curiosity, nor had the stork ever been actively hostile to them in the past. Kinda an asshole, sure, but not hostile. Maybe the blood was just… fish blood or something. Or one of the security guards mouthed off a bit too much and the stork ate them. Kounotori wouldn’t do that… would he?
“Man-creature Phil. Man-creature Jean.” The stork croaked out. Its voice was not as harsh as it had been in the past. It seemed almost… apologetic.
“Wassup!” Phil called as he drew closer. “What’cha doing? Sneak in for some mischief or hoping to get some entertainment from the duels?”
“…vengeance. It will be mine.”
Phil cocked his head slightly. “Okay? On who and why?”
The only reply was croaked out, almost remorseful in tone. It was a rare moment of apology.
“Sorry.”
Phil blinked. Sorry? Sorry for what?
And then the floor of the hallway became awash with a bright blue color. For a second, Phil stared dumbly at it, noting that the floor now looked like a very long and large blue door. No, it was not fully blue. The colors of the door were broken up into four sections, with the top quarter being red, the middle being pink, underneath that being blue, and the bottom being purple. The first three colors were incredibly bright to the point that it felt to Phil like his retinas were being seared, but the bottom purple color was dull and lifeless.
“Wha-?”
The door opened. There was nothing but air underneath their feet. Phil, Jean, and Lumina all fell through screaming out of sheer surprise, with Kounotori Tori the stork spreading his wings to glide down through the air at a much slower speed.
"Krkrk! Vengeance! Vengeance will be mine! Death! Death to this stork's enemies! DEATH TO THE PINK WINTER!"
https://discord.gg/jfRn8j5GaE!
