Chapter 5: - Cockroach
Joey growled as he came to a halt in Domino Square, back where they'd started. It shouldn't be possible for someone to drop off the face of the planet.
And yet why was he surprised?
If anyone was going to find a way, it would be Yugi.
What worried Joey was that Yuge had vanished, probably to fight bad guys on his own, and there wasn't even a hint of where he'd gone. Everyone was more interested in the Duels he'd fought then where he'd gone afterwards.
"You little roach!" Joey turned his head towards the source of the commotion. Rex Raptor was snarling at Weevil Underwood, who had a lovely black eye developing, probably courtesy of that blonde who was wandering around this city somewhere. "I can't believe you beat me!"
"Your dinosaurs have always been bug bait." Weevil was laughing. Rex stormed off, giving Joey a cursory nod as if he half expected the blonde to be there, and then vanishing into the thinning crowd, probably to go fight someone else, or get out of the snow.
"Wheeler? You out?" Weevil laughed. "You have to be if you're just walking around town."
"Bug off you cockroach." Joey growled, "I'm trying to find Yugi."
"I challenge you to a Duel." Weevil said confidently, "I have some new monsters that can easily beat you."
Joey glared at the bug. If he left now, he'd have to hand over a map card, and he'd promised Yugi he'd see him in the finals. "Fine."
"If you lose you have to give me all your Map Cards." Weevil smirked.
"Wait a minute, how many do you have?" Joey asked, shuffling his deck as he moved into position.
"Two." Weevil held them up.
"Fine, I have two as well." Joey held them up, "But let's make this short, I have a friend to find."
"Fine, you can go first."
Joey drew, played two cards face down and summoned Panther Warrior. "Its your move Weevil."
"What's the matter Wheeler? No quips for me today?" Weevil asked, drawing, "You finally figured that I'm better then you?"
"Please." Joey said sarcastically as Weevil summoned Basic Insect and equipped it with enough spell cards to raise it to 2100. "You've yet to beat me, and I've got more important things to worry about."
Weevil looked put out, "Basic Insect, swat his Panther!"
"I activate Graceful Dice!" Joey called, activating one of his face down cards, "The higher I roll, the more my Monster's attack increases!" The cherub rolled it's blue dice, landing on a two. "Alright!" Joey grinned, "My Panther Warrior's attack doubles!"
The insect launched an assault only to be torn apart by the Warrior and Weevil's life points decreased by 1900.
"A card face down and I end my turn." Weevil glared at Joey as he spoke.
Joey shivered slightly as a snowflake landed on the end of his nose, "I summon the Flame Swordsman to the field in attack mode." Joey called. The warrior monster appeared and Joey smiled slightly at the heat he could swear was coming from the flames around his blade, "And I activate Salamandra to increase his attack!"
Weevil continued to glare as the flames intensified. Joey wasn't sure if it was good thing he felt so warm, but he could swear the heat was from his monster. It would be like Rich-Boy to get that right considering even in the early stages, back when it had been those Frisbee things, he'd been getting the smell right on the monsters, so why not the heat from the fire monsters too?
"Flame Swordsman attack him directly!"
"Bug Net!" Weevil called, activating a face down trap and stopping the Flame Swordsman in its tracks as a huge net rose over it.
"What did you do?" Joey growled.
"Your Swordsman now can't attack for three turns, even his flames can't get him free of that net." Weevil gloated.
"I end my turn."
Weevil drew, a smirk Joey was all too familiar with dawning on the roach's face. "I play Petit Moth and Equip it with this!"
"Oh…" Joey glared at it as purple goo spun around the worm like creature.
"The Cocoon of Evolution!" Weevil crowed.
"I've beaten your oversized Moth before, Weevil, what's to stop me puncturing it like a balloon?"
"That's easy, your Panther isn't strong enough and your Flame Swordsman won't be free in time to pop it."
"Those aren't the only strong monsters I have." Joey growled.
"I will crush you with my moth, just you wait." Weevil was still crowing. "Your move."
Joey growled and drew, the smirked, looking up at the Cocoon, "I think you'll remember this card." Joey said, "I sacrifice Flame Swordsman and Panther Warrior for Insect Queen!" The heat from his Flame Swordsman gone, Joey could help shivering and wondering how deep the snow was going to get by the end of the day. Insect Queen's attack rose by 200 because of the insect on Weevil's side of the field.
"How dare you play my Queen against me?" Weevil was outraged.
"You should've taken better care of her in the first place!" Joey said.
"I'm claiming her back as my Ante when I win." Weevil growled.
"You can claim what you want, I'm not going to lose to you." Joey shrugged, "Besides, I can't pop your Cocoon this turn as I have to tribute a monster to get Insect Queen to attack, so I guess it's your turn."
"I summon Big Insect and activate Insect Barrier, so the Queen can't attack my monsters. Just four more turns, Wheeler and then you're going to lose." Weevil said, irritating Joey no end, "Your move." Insect Queen went up again, to 2600.
Joey drew, "I summon Blue Flame Swordsman!" The black armoured version of the Flame Swordsman with a blue flaming sword stood face to face with Weevil's monsters. "Blue Flame Swordsman! Attack Big Insect!"
Weevil's insect exploded and Joey's Queen dropped to 2400, not that it mattered since she couldn't attack.
"Your move, Weevil!"
"I play Card of Sanctity, so we can both draw until we have six cards in our hands and play a card face down in defence mode!" Weevil growled, "Take your turn, you've only got three more."
"I summon Hayabusa Knight!" Joey growled, the bird like knight in full armour, minus helmet, appeared on the field. "And equip it with Lightening Blade!" The falcon knight's sword warped, crackling with electricity, and the knight's attack increased by 800, "And it can attack twice in one turn!"
"But it's not strong enough to defeat my Cocoon!"
"Not yet." Joey grinned, "But I activate Blue Flame Swordsman's effect, offering 1700 of it's attack points to increase Hayabusa's!" The Falcon Knight increased to 3500, "Hayabusa Knight! Attack the Cocoon of Evolution!"
It exploded in a combination of electricity and blue flames and the knight wiped out the Larvae Moth that had hatched from the Cocoon. "You didn't even get your Great Moth out this time." Joey said with a condescending smile. "A card face down and it's your move, Weevil."
Weevil drew and grinned, "Eradicating Aerosol!"
Joey yelped as his Insect Queen exploded.
"I activate Monster Reborn to bring Insect Queen to her rightful place."
"She's no match for my Hayabusa Knight." Joey growled as the Insect Queen appeared on Weevil's side of the field.
"No, but she's more then a match for your Blue Flame Swordsman! Insect Queen, it's dinner time!"
"I activate Silver Dollar!" Joey's voice could be barely heard over the sound of the attack and Weevil growled as the Knight was left standing afterwards.
"What was that card?"
"Silver Dollar's saved me before." Joey said, thinking back to Noa's Virtual World, "If an attack is called on a monster with less then 1000 attack points, the damage inflicted to me and my monster is zero."
"Fine." Weevil sounded sulky. "Make your move."
Joey drew. "I play Energy Drain, to drain your Insect Queen's attack."
Insect Queen's attack went to zero, "Hayabusa Knight! End this!" The insect exploded and Weevil's points dropped to zero. "Hand over your Map Cards Weevil."
Weevil sank to the snow covered floor and sulked.
"Weevil." Joey growled.
"Fine, take them." Weevil lobbed them at him and stormed off. Joey shook his head and sighed. Weevil would never learn.
"Wheeler." Joey tensed up and wheeled around. "The Boss wants to talk to you."
"He's not my Boss." Joey growled at the goon.
"No, but we have a bargaining chip now." The goon smirked.
"What?" Joey snarled, at his most dangerous.
The goon seeming to realise this, moved back slightly before answering, "We've got Muto."
Joey froze as he tried to comprehend the statement. "You what?" He snarled as it sank in. "What did you do to him?"
The goon took another step back. "He's unharmed, for now. We still need to beat him if we want to get paid."
Joey controlled his temper, barely, he knew how Hirutani and his gang acted and launching an attack on this guy would just get Yugi hurt. "Fine, I'll come and talk to Hirutani, but if Yugi's hurt in anyway, you'll be sorry."
"Follow me." Joey growled but followed him, not seeing much other choice.
Joey frowned and looked over his shoulder as they turned a corner, convinced they were being followed. It wasn't Gang Members, they'd have been a lot more conspicuous. "Hold up." Joey said, bending down on the pretence of tying his shoes.
The next thing he knew the goon was being assaulted by a tall, busty blonde with violet eyes and a great right hook. Joey waited until she was done beating up the goon and then stood, freezing in place as he realised who it was. "Mai?"
"Told you something would happen." Mai smiled at him, "Hi Joey."
"Hey." Joey tried not to grin too obviously but they were both happy to see each other and the other knew it. "I thought you were pulling out."
"Changed my mind." Mai shrugged, "I can't turn down a challenge."
"Why were you following me?"
"I ran into a pair of English girls who said that you were having trouble with some goons and that one of them had tag teamed with you against some. I figured I'd come take a look since they seemed to think you were having trouble with gang members and that's a little too normal for the trouble your group seems to get in." What she didn't tell Joey was that the two in question had looked like they were having trouble with the goons and Mai had helped them out.
"You must have run into Kari, I thought I recognised some of her other language, I'm flunking English." Joey snorted. And Math, and science, and… "The goons are gang members; we don't know who hired them." Joey glared into empty space, "They've got Yugi."
"So, what do we do?" Mai asked as Joey pinned the goon, head locking him before he could get away.
"Well, this guy's taking me to Yugi and their leader. I don't know what you're doing."
"I'm caught up in it, aren't I?" Mai asked, "At least this is reasonably normal."
"Are you sure about this?" Joey asked.
Mai nodded.
"Where's Hirutani?" Joey snarled at the goon, who was trying to get free and not loosening his grip one bit.
Mai was slightly taken aback by the change but waited as Joey got the information from the goon, and didn't start a conversation until they were moving. "Where's Tea and Tristan?"
"Doing the sane thing and staying inside." Joey said, a small smile on his face, "They're gonna join us at the Finals."
"Sane thing?" Mai laughed, "A Duellist should be prepared for any weather."
"Hence why the long skirt?" Joey joked.
"Exactly." Mai nodded, "I don't think anyone was as disorganised as you lot back in Duellist Kingdom though."
"It was our first official Tournament!" Joey said, indignantly, the goon he still had head locked giving directions and listening with interest. "We thought there would be food places on the island."
"You weren't even supposed to be there."
"You wouldn't have had it any other way." Joey joked. "Think how boring life would be without us."
"Think how normal it would be, you mean."
"That as well." Joey sighed, "Mai, I wanted to… Yugi feels really bad about dragging you into his problems last time and I wanted to say sorry for that mean joke, you know the one just before…"
Mai shuddered as the memory came flooding back, "It was Marik's fault, not Yugi's and I forgave you back then didn't I?"
Joey smiled slightly, "Still I…"
"That one." The goon pointed to one of the warehouses. "Hirutani is waiting inside with your friend." The goon, rendered unconscious by Joey, was shoved down an alley and the two worked their way into the warehouse via a different route.
Hang in there Yugi.
And yet why was he surprised?
If anyone was going to find a way, it would be Yugi.
What worried Joey was that Yuge had vanished, probably to fight bad guys on his own, and there wasn't even a hint of where he'd gone. Everyone was more interested in the Duels he'd fought then where he'd gone afterwards.
"You little roach!" Joey turned his head towards the source of the commotion. Rex Raptor was snarling at Weevil Underwood, who had a lovely black eye developing, probably courtesy of that blonde who was wandering around this city somewhere. "I can't believe you beat me!"
"Your dinosaurs have always been bug bait." Weevil was laughing. Rex stormed off, giving Joey a cursory nod as if he half expected the blonde to be there, and then vanishing into the thinning crowd, probably to go fight someone else, or get out of the snow.
"Wheeler? You out?" Weevil laughed. "You have to be if you're just walking around town."
"Bug off you cockroach." Joey growled, "I'm trying to find Yugi."
"I challenge you to a Duel." Weevil said confidently, "I have some new monsters that can easily beat you."
Joey glared at the bug. If he left now, he'd have to hand over a map card, and he'd promised Yugi he'd see him in the finals. "Fine."
"If you lose you have to give me all your Map Cards." Weevil smirked.
"Wait a minute, how many do you have?" Joey asked, shuffling his deck as he moved into position.
"Two." Weevil held them up.
"Fine, I have two as well." Joey held them up, "But let's make this short, I have a friend to find."
"Fine, you can go first."
Joey drew, played two cards face down and summoned Panther Warrior. "Its your move Weevil."
"What's the matter Wheeler? No quips for me today?" Weevil asked, drawing, "You finally figured that I'm better then you?"
"Please." Joey said sarcastically as Weevil summoned Basic Insect and equipped it with enough spell cards to raise it to 2100. "You've yet to beat me, and I've got more important things to worry about."
Weevil looked put out, "Basic Insect, swat his Panther!"
"I activate Graceful Dice!" Joey called, activating one of his face down cards, "The higher I roll, the more my Monster's attack increases!" The cherub rolled it's blue dice, landing on a two. "Alright!" Joey grinned, "My Panther Warrior's attack doubles!"
The insect launched an assault only to be torn apart by the Warrior and Weevil's life points decreased by 1900.
"A card face down and I end my turn." Weevil glared at Joey as he spoke.
Joey shivered slightly as a snowflake landed on the end of his nose, "I summon the Flame Swordsman to the field in attack mode." Joey called. The warrior monster appeared and Joey smiled slightly at the heat he could swear was coming from the flames around his blade, "And I activate Salamandra to increase his attack!"
Weevil continued to glare as the flames intensified. Joey wasn't sure if it was good thing he felt so warm, but he could swear the heat was from his monster. It would be like Rich-Boy to get that right considering even in the early stages, back when it had been those Frisbee things, he'd been getting the smell right on the monsters, so why not the heat from the fire monsters too?
"Flame Swordsman attack him directly!"
"Bug Net!" Weevil called, activating a face down trap and stopping the Flame Swordsman in its tracks as a huge net rose over it.
"What did you do?" Joey growled.
"Your Swordsman now can't attack for three turns, even his flames can't get him free of that net." Weevil gloated.
"I end my turn."
Weevil drew, a smirk Joey was all too familiar with dawning on the roach's face. "I play Petit Moth and Equip it with this!"
"Oh…" Joey glared at it as purple goo spun around the worm like creature.
"The Cocoon of Evolution!" Weevil crowed.
"I've beaten your oversized Moth before, Weevil, what's to stop me puncturing it like a balloon?"
"That's easy, your Panther isn't strong enough and your Flame Swordsman won't be free in time to pop it."
"Those aren't the only strong monsters I have." Joey growled.
"I will crush you with my moth, just you wait." Weevil was still crowing. "Your move."
Joey growled and drew, the smirked, looking up at the Cocoon, "I think you'll remember this card." Joey said, "I sacrifice Flame Swordsman and Panther Warrior for Insect Queen!" The heat from his Flame Swordsman gone, Joey could help shivering and wondering how deep the snow was going to get by the end of the day. Insect Queen's attack rose by 200 because of the insect on Weevil's side of the field.
"How dare you play my Queen against me?" Weevil was outraged.
"You should've taken better care of her in the first place!" Joey said.
"I'm claiming her back as my Ante when I win." Weevil growled.
"You can claim what you want, I'm not going to lose to you." Joey shrugged, "Besides, I can't pop your Cocoon this turn as I have to tribute a monster to get Insect Queen to attack, so I guess it's your turn."
"I summon Big Insect and activate Insect Barrier, so the Queen can't attack my monsters. Just four more turns, Wheeler and then you're going to lose." Weevil said, irritating Joey no end, "Your move." Insect Queen went up again, to 2600.
Joey drew, "I summon Blue Flame Swordsman!" The black armoured version of the Flame Swordsman with a blue flaming sword stood face to face with Weevil's monsters. "Blue Flame Swordsman! Attack Big Insect!"
Weevil's insect exploded and Joey's Queen dropped to 2400, not that it mattered since she couldn't attack.
"Your move, Weevil!"
"I play Card of Sanctity, so we can both draw until we have six cards in our hands and play a card face down in defence mode!" Weevil growled, "Take your turn, you've only got three more."
"I summon Hayabusa Knight!" Joey growled, the bird like knight in full armour, minus helmet, appeared on the field. "And equip it with Lightening Blade!" The falcon knight's sword warped, crackling with electricity, and the knight's attack increased by 800, "And it can attack twice in one turn!"
"But it's not strong enough to defeat my Cocoon!"
"Not yet." Joey grinned, "But I activate Blue Flame Swordsman's effect, offering 1700 of it's attack points to increase Hayabusa's!" The Falcon Knight increased to 3500, "Hayabusa Knight! Attack the Cocoon of Evolution!"
It exploded in a combination of electricity and blue flames and the knight wiped out the Larvae Moth that had hatched from the Cocoon. "You didn't even get your Great Moth out this time." Joey said with a condescending smile. "A card face down and it's your move, Weevil."
Weevil drew and grinned, "Eradicating Aerosol!"
Joey yelped as his Insect Queen exploded.
"I activate Monster Reborn to bring Insect Queen to her rightful place."
"She's no match for my Hayabusa Knight." Joey growled as the Insect Queen appeared on Weevil's side of the field.
"No, but she's more then a match for your Blue Flame Swordsman! Insect Queen, it's dinner time!"
"I activate Silver Dollar!" Joey's voice could be barely heard over the sound of the attack and Weevil growled as the Knight was left standing afterwards.
"What was that card?"
"Silver Dollar's saved me before." Joey said, thinking back to Noa's Virtual World, "If an attack is called on a monster with less then 1000 attack points, the damage inflicted to me and my monster is zero."
"Fine." Weevil sounded sulky. "Make your move."
Joey drew. "I play Energy Drain, to drain your Insect Queen's attack."
Insect Queen's attack went to zero, "Hayabusa Knight! End this!" The insect exploded and Weevil's points dropped to zero. "Hand over your Map Cards Weevil."
Weevil sank to the snow covered floor and sulked.
"Weevil." Joey growled.
"Fine, take them." Weevil lobbed them at him and stormed off. Joey shook his head and sighed. Weevil would never learn.
"Wheeler." Joey tensed up and wheeled around. "The Boss wants to talk to you."
"He's not my Boss." Joey growled at the goon.
"No, but we have a bargaining chip now." The goon smirked.
"What?" Joey snarled, at his most dangerous.
The goon seeming to realise this, moved back slightly before answering, "We've got Muto."
Joey froze as he tried to comprehend the statement. "You what?" He snarled as it sank in. "What did you do to him?"
The goon took another step back. "He's unharmed, for now. We still need to beat him if we want to get paid."
Joey controlled his temper, barely, he knew how Hirutani and his gang acted and launching an attack on this guy would just get Yugi hurt. "Fine, I'll come and talk to Hirutani, but if Yugi's hurt in anyway, you'll be sorry."
"Follow me." Joey growled but followed him, not seeing much other choice.
Joey frowned and looked over his shoulder as they turned a corner, convinced they were being followed. It wasn't Gang Members, they'd have been a lot more conspicuous. "Hold up." Joey said, bending down on the pretence of tying his shoes.
The next thing he knew the goon was being assaulted by a tall, busty blonde with violet eyes and a great right hook. Joey waited until she was done beating up the goon and then stood, freezing in place as he realised who it was. "Mai?"
"Told you something would happen." Mai smiled at him, "Hi Joey."
"Hey." Joey tried not to grin too obviously but they were both happy to see each other and the other knew it. "I thought you were pulling out."
"Changed my mind." Mai shrugged, "I can't turn down a challenge."
"Why were you following me?"
"I ran into a pair of English girls who said that you were having trouble with some goons and that one of them had tag teamed with you against some. I figured I'd come take a look since they seemed to think you were having trouble with gang members and that's a little too normal for the trouble your group seems to get in." What she didn't tell Joey was that the two in question had looked like they were having trouble with the goons and Mai had helped them out.
"You must have run into Kari, I thought I recognised some of her other language, I'm flunking English." Joey snorted. And Math, and science, and… "The goons are gang members; we don't know who hired them." Joey glared into empty space, "They've got Yugi."
"So, what do we do?" Mai asked as Joey pinned the goon, head locking him before he could get away.
"Well, this guy's taking me to Yugi and their leader. I don't know what you're doing."
"I'm caught up in it, aren't I?" Mai asked, "At least this is reasonably normal."
"Are you sure about this?" Joey asked.
Mai nodded.
"Where's Hirutani?" Joey snarled at the goon, who was trying to get free and not loosening his grip one bit.
Mai was slightly taken aback by the change but waited as Joey got the information from the goon, and didn't start a conversation until they were moving. "Where's Tea and Tristan?"
"Doing the sane thing and staying inside." Joey said, a small smile on his face, "They're gonna join us at the Finals."
"Sane thing?" Mai laughed, "A Duellist should be prepared for any weather."
"Hence why the long skirt?" Joey joked.
"Exactly." Mai nodded, "I don't think anyone was as disorganised as you lot back in Duellist Kingdom though."
"It was our first official Tournament!" Joey said, indignantly, the goon he still had head locked giving directions and listening with interest. "We thought there would be food places on the island."
"You weren't even supposed to be there."
"You wouldn't have had it any other way." Joey joked. "Think how boring life would be without us."
"Think how normal it would be, you mean."
"That as well." Joey sighed, "Mai, I wanted to… Yugi feels really bad about dragging you into his problems last time and I wanted to say sorry for that mean joke, you know the one just before…"
Mai shuddered as the memory came flooding back, "It was Marik's fault, not Yugi's and I forgave you back then didn't I?"
Joey smiled slightly, "Still I…"
"That one." The goon pointed to one of the warehouses. "Hirutani is waiting inside with your friend." The goon, rendered unconscious by Joey, was shoved down an alley and the two worked their way into the warehouse via a different route.
Hang in there Yugi.