Chapter 1
"Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeel, my little Pharaoh, I've found you at last." The highly evil voice said in a highly evil way. A woman sat in the shadows of the chamber, looking at a mirror in which was displayed the image of Yugi, the Millenium Puzzle hanging from a chain around his neck as usual, sitting at his desk at Domino High School. Typically, he was playing duel monsters, since they don't do work at that school and teachers are nowhere to be found.
The figure had a very good (in her opinion) reason to hate the pharaoh, a grudge she'd kept up for the last five thousand years. A reincarnated spirit locked in a little gold pyramid or no, she was GOING to get back at him, and now that she'd found him, she had the perfect means to do it.
Gathering her power she thought, King of Games, prepare to be dethroned. She began chanting in ancient Egyptian; magic flowed from her outstretched hands into the mirror image of Yugi. The Millenium Puzzle briefly glowed a photo-negative of itself.
"HEEEEHEEEHEEEH ::HACK::!" The figure laughed in a pitiful impersonation of an evil laugh, then began coughing violently. She hadn't laughed evilly in a long time.
***
Yugi sat looking at the Cards in his hand. The Dark Magician and Celtic Guardian were on the field, and he was trying to figure the best way to pound Joey into the dust without making his friend look stupid. Suddenly, the Puzzle glowed, black rather than it's usual gold.
You
okay, Yami?
~I feel a little weird… it's
gone now, probably just something we ate.
How about you let me finish this duel?
It might clear my head. ~
Yugi considered the idea carefully. Joey couldn't possibly consider losing to the King of the Shadow Games a bad thing, and Yugi really didn't want to hurt his friend's fragile ego. Ever since winning Maximillion Pegasus's tournament, Yugi had just been getting better. With access to the cards he had, and Yami's support, a normal duelist like Joey was simply no match for him anymore… something Joey refused to admit. This had been the fifth game they had played today, and Joey had lost every one. Tristan and Tea had lost interest long ago, and gone off to get lunch.
Yugi let his other self come out. He instantly grew three feet, and got a lot more sinister looking.
Ah, hell. Joey thought. Yugi was great, but Yami was a freakin' master. Looks like I'm in for loss number six.
"Well, Joey, let's continue our duel." Yami said in a voice far deeper than Yugi's ever was. "Now, I'll just… HEY! I had two cards out! Where'd the Dark Magician go?"
"Um… I dunno?" Joey said tentatively. The Pharaoh had always intimidated him a little bit.
"… Oh, well. I'll just play something else… WHAT?! These… cards… ~YUGI! What have you been doing out here?! These are the worst cards I've ever seen! ~
Really? They didn't seem all that bad to me. Just pull one from the deck and play that.
~Okaaaaaaay…~ Yami thought a little doubtfully. He drew a card from the deck, looked at it and his jaw dropped in astonishment. "I… play… the 'Unpleasant Gopher'. With an attack power of… 3." He said in shock.
Joey looked like he was in Heaven. "I play the Flame Swordsman… and… win!" He started laughing hysterically and jumping up and down as the Flame Swordsman diced the Unpleasant Gopher and Yami's lifepoints fell to zero.
"… That can't be right. Joey, let's try that again."
They dueled again, and Yami drew the following cards for his hand:
Happy Chipmunk: 50/50
Disgruntled Badger: -23/1
Squirrel that isn't happy now but might be later: 0/0
Exploding Muskrat: -5000/-2000 NOTE: Has the power to make the enemie's lifepoints go up by 500.
Peppershaker that dispenses a little too much pepper: Makes enemy monster's food have a little too much pepper on it.
Yami wanted to crawl under a rock and die.
After Joey won effortlessly, they played three more games with Joey winning each time. Yami continued to draw cards like 'Kitten with Pink Bow' with an attack power of negative 400 and a defense power of zero, or 'Reverse Steroids' which made the attack power of the enemy monsters go up by 2000 points. Yami challenged several dozen random students, each duel lasting ten seconds with Yami losing by a landslide.
~WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?!?!?~
Come on Yami, everyone loses SOMETIMES… Yugi thought calmly.
~SOMETIMES?! SOMETIMES?!?! Yugi, 46 losses in ten minutes isn't SOMETIMES!~
I guess you've got a point there…
Tristan and Tea arrived back from lunch at around that time. "So, Joey, how badly did you lose to Yugi this time?"
Joey looked pretty damn pleased with himself. "Actually I won. FIVE TIMES! And against YAMI!"
Tristan braced himself against a wall, clutching his chest. Tea sat down to avoid fainting.
Yugi nodded. "Yep, Yami seems to be losing pretty badly. I can draw good cards just fine, but he seems to keep drawing completely useless cards that I've never even heard of."
"Well, look on the bright side." Tea pointed out. "You already beat Pegasus, so it doesn't matter! We have all the time we need to get Yami off this losing streak!"
"Oh, yeah, Yugi! A guy on the street asked me to give this letter to you!" Tristan remembered, removing the letter from his jacket pocket.
"Hmmmm, no address… well, let's see what it's about!" Yugi opened the letter and read it aloud:
Dear Yugi:
How have you been? I've decided I want Apocalyptic Revenge, so I challenge you to a duel. If you win, I promise to leave you alone for at least a week. If I win, I'll kill you and all your friends, take your Millenium Puzzle, and tie your Grandpa to a bench and force him to watch as I bulldoze his Game Shop and build a Burger King where it used to be. I'll see you this time next month.
Ciao,
Maximillion Pegasus
CEO Industrial Illusions
"… … … Uh-oh." Joey commented.
"Look on the bright side." Tea said. "We've got a month! I'm sure we can take care of this by then!"
Suddenly, a remarkably similar letter popped out of the air conditioner on the side of the room and landed in front of Yugi. He opened it and read it aloud:
Dear Yugi:
Sorry my last letter got to you a bit late. The time frame was a bit off. By the time you are reading this letter, our duel will be exactly seven days away. See you then for my Apocalyptic Revenge.
Au Revoir,
Maximillion Pegasus
CEO Industrial Illusions
"… We're all gonna die." Tristan proclaimed in a doomed sort of voice.
"Look on-" Tea began.
"Tea, if you say 'Look on the bright side,' I'll strangle you."
Yugi looked from the letter to the vent and back. "How does he DO that?"
!!